Jane Scharf
Jane Scharf spoke 93 times across 1 day of testimony.
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Okay. I have a few requests to make at the outset. Brigitte needs more time. She’s been allocated an hour; I think an hour and 15 minutes. She was one of the persons who initiated the convoy; she participated all the way through, and she has a lot of information about the organization element, and it’s insufficient amount of time. So that’s the first request. The second request is she has severe dyslexia and she -- we didn’t get sufficient time to deal with the numbering and documentation. So we have a person here, Rebecca Sheppard, who has her documentation ready, and she can quote the numbers that need to be advised about what to bring up. And, also, I want to request that I ask the questions of my client because other witnesses are having their own counsel ask questions. We find it unfair; unreasonable for her to have to structure her statement according to questions given by somebody that doesn’t know her case. And I also want an opportunity to question -- I would like to question many different witnesses that were up there, but I’m only asking at this time to question Keith Wilson, because he’s submitted a statement from an interview that he did on October 20th, and it discusses James Bauder and Brigitte Beldon, and they need an opportunity to question him about that information, and that’s all the requests. And then I have two objections. The first objection is this counsel -- or, sorry; this Commission was struck under section 63(1), and it requires Order in Council, which is the entire Cabinet, and only -- it was only based on the recommendation of Justin Trudeau. So that is a problem considering he’s the subject of the Inquiry and he’s calling it. As well, I’m understanding that Bill Blair set it up, so he chose yourself and whoever else is -- are significant administrators in this process. We find that that’s unreasonable considering these are the people that are being investigated, so they should not be setting up this process. And the Chair should not have been somebody that was selected from the Liberal camp, so to speak. And the other objection is the Inquiry is focusing on the grounds, whether there was sufficient grounds to call the Emergency Act, and this is, in my view, moot because the Emergency Act was also not invoked legally, according to section 17(1) which required an Order in Council, which would have been the entire Cabinet. The only time the Executive is allowed to make Order in Council without going through Cabinet is in an emergency. So they had to at least initiate the process through the Cabinet; that wasn’t done. So all of this, in my view, seems moot because if it wasn’t legal out of the gate, there’s the main issue. And that’s it.
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Who were you appointed by?
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
By the Liberal Government?
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Well, ---
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Well, I’ve been allotted 10 minutes.
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
I do want more time. I want a lot more time. I would like to question her throughout.
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
And we need more than an hour.
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
So, I mean, that’s -- I mean, I’m just putting it out there, that’s ---
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
One other thing. I did speak to Mr. Mather regarding Keith William’s statement and where it’s problematic, and he said to defer this issue to you.
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
The other counsel are invited to ask questions to these witnesses. I can't.
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
And I'm just asking for one, not all.
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
And that should be fair, okay? Let her have one.
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
So are we going to allow Rebeca to assist?
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Yes.
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
That’s not going to work. She's got to go get set up and organize the paperwork so that she can pass the numbers that need to be given to bring up the documents. They can't just ---
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
--- do that. I can refer to them by the name that I sent them to, but you re-numbered all of them, so ---
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
--- if you can't find them, then ---
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Okay, great.
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Yeah, that seems fine.
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Can I make an objection? This line of questioning wasn’t in your set of issues. You were looking for her background that caused her to make a decision to pursue the convoy. That was one of -- in the list, you weren’t looking for detail, you know, history. That’s taking up a lot of time.
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Well, that’s why I wanted to ask the questions, so we wouldn't waste any of the hour.
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Well, let's get started.
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
I would like to object again. We were told there was several topics that you were going to introduce and leave it open-ended for her to present her information or testimony, and it's not, it's being led, and there's a lot of information here that is not critical for such a short amount of time. She has some very important information that she intends or wants to put out there and it's not coming out, and he's -- and we asked for questions, and they said "Oh, it's not questions, it's a list of topics", and they gave us the topics and said it was going to be open-ended for her to testify under those topics. But that's not what's happening here.
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Excuse me. There's one important element that’s missing that was in her timeline, and it would have been included, had I been asking the questions, and that was the things that she did to try and resolve the issues prior to initiating the convoy with the CBSA and MPs and so on. And I think she has -- or I know she has entered those documents to the Commission.
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Okay.
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
I'm okay with that.
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
I don’t mind if we go first. I think that’s what he's saying. That’s okay.
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Can I object? That question doesn’t go to the mandate that was established for that process so why should she have to answer questions about that.
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
The objection is that the protest was not about masks. It was about truckers, mandates for truckers for travel.
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
No, everything hasn't been covered.
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Okay. First off, the original map, I believe the Commission number is BRB00000217. (VIDEO PLAYBACK)
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
There is a dialogue on it. (VIDEO PLAYBACK)
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Can you start it at the beginning? We missed some of it. It was sort of muted. Okay. Thank you. (VIDEO PLAYBACK) This is the secondary map that we had in Ottawa. The first one is not available to me. This was the other one that the printing came out a little blurry, so we didn't use it as much. We did put some notations on it, but this is the map that we had in our boardroom. And this is the Transportation Master Map plan 7 -- or map 7 from the City of Ottawa website. It was blown up. That was supplied to us by Andrew Peloso. So on January 28th, the southwestern Ontario GTA and Niagara Region arrived in Ottawa. We were led down the Ottawa River Parkway by the police. They told us to take this route even though it was a non-truck route. And the Carling exit onto the Ottawa Parkway was very difficult for trucks to make, bobtail and with trailers. The police had it barricaded and removed the barricades in front of me to allow us to go onto this JAM. We arrived here and were brought over by the war museum. The police had a blockade right here and would not allow trucks to go up onto Wellington. On January 29th, when the western group came in, led by myself, Mike as the second pilot car and Chris Barber as the lead truck, came up onto the Ottawa Parkway. Police then moved their barricades, which were barrels, they were barrel barricades, and allowed Chris to bring his truck up onto Wellington, approximately this area right here, just before the Parliament Hills. He was pretty much across from the parking area, because I remember parking close to there. They did not let the rest of the trucks come. They all remained behind the barricades that were put there in place by the City of Ottawa Police. Trucks were on both sides. A lane was open on both sides. They used the centre medium [sic] for their kitchen, and along the sides of each roadway each direction is where the cars and trucks parked. The full intention with this map was to make sure that we left lanes open and emergency routes available for quick access for police. We knew that there were several hospitals or care homes in the area. It was very important to us to leave those open. There was Élisabeth Bruyère Centre right up here. And we wanted this route straight here, straight down open as well as through to Rideau and down to the 417 open. It was imperative. It was very important for us to leave access for emergency vehicles. I had a friend who was a resident at Élisabeth Bruyère, so that was very important to me. And being a long-term resident of the Ottawa area and a former City employee, safety is definitely top priority for myself and we worked as a team to make that happen. So we were aware that there was a lot of vehicles in the area. We were trying to solve the parking problem and get more trucks off the streets, making almost two lanes open. In some places we succeeded around he Bank Street area. Lower Bank Street area we were able to do that. So we were looking for other parking. The problem was getting them in and out of areas. So we knew there was parking down here. We knew there was parking over here. But to get big trucks in and out was an issue and to make sure that the police didn’t block off the access, so trucks could come and go at their will, should they decide that they wanted to leave. We also had notes on this map. You’ll see over here at the side. These notes are of leaders. And they’re designed roles. The first one we have would be Pat. It states right here that we knew right from the beginning -- because this map was done within the first two days of being in Ottawa, so approximately between the 29th and the 2nd of February, I would say. Approximately the first two days we started working on this. To the best of my knowledge this map was done within the first few days of us being in Ottawa. We were working on a smaller printed map but Andrew, of course, provided these for us which was a great help. As you can see, Pat was on here. This is not my writing. To the best of my knowledge this is Tom Marazzo’s writing but he would have to confirm that. Pat was here for video information and output of social media. That was his primary goal. However, Pat was very very instrumental in helping us solve problems with great suggestions for the truck drivers. As you see, Tamara had -- Tamara Lich -- and that was Pat King, sorry. This is Tamara Lich. She has no dedicated spot to her name. However, when we were on a Zoom call, approximately between January 12th and January 14th, her role was designated as social media and fundraising, crowd funding. Chris -- this is Chris Barber. He and I are talking to the troops. He did a very very good job at talking to a lot of the truckers and getting his picture taken and being there for the issues. These marks represent the amount of people I was giving credit to for bringing trucks here and I have forgotten a lot now that I look at this map. There are far more than eight and then we had four more, of course. Those were the key eight were the four starters. So that would be myself, Chris Barber, Pat King, and James Bauder. Then we had eight more underneath. Those would be ones that we had brought into the organization through social media calls, however we touched base. The B.C. organizer is listed here as Sean. This is not the same writing. I’m not sure who wrote this on the map because the B.C. coordinator that I was dealing with was Colin and his last name escapes me at the moment. We also had it as all of the west as Chris somebody wrote that in there. West was -- there was a lady by the name of Kathy. There was Chris. There was James Bauder. I don’t know Kathy’s other name, her last name. Southwest they have Ben -- that would be myself. Ben, I don’t have his last name. He’s ADD Trucking. We have myself and Tim and Herald Yonker. The GTA was David Steinberg. We also had in Ontario -- we have Mike Benson and Andrew Dichter. Those were also associated with myself. Quebec was Joanie. I'm not sure of her last name. I know it starts with a P. The PC coordinator was Joanay (phonetic). Her last name, to the best of my knowledge is Paquette. I haven't checked my emails to give you that information 100 percent. I apologize. And New Brunswick, PEI -- Leanne, Indi and Ben. I have no idea what these two indications are on the map at this point. (VIDEO ENDS)
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Okay. So I want to also have you indicate what transpired to change the leadership from what you've described there to what it ended up being.
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
You have a number of emails with interactions between various members.
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Yeah, okay. Can you bring those up?
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Can you identify the number?
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
That’s okay with us. Our information is prior to the EA invocation.
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Yeah, that’s fine.
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
I'm not talking about that. Actually, could you give a timeline where you saw difficulties begin and then just -- we have the numbers so when you indicate what document, we have the numbers.
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Yes, okay.
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Well, it’s about -- it’s information about what happened in ---
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
I know, but he didn’t confine us to ---
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Okay. It’s documents that were generated in before the EA. But we can just talk about the meetings, what was happening when there was ---
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Okay. Also, you had mentioned to me a meeting that you went to in which your character was assaulted.
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Oh, it was on a Zoom call ---
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
--- after the emergency?
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Okay, we’ll leave that one, then.
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Yeah, some of it. Okay, so the emails concerning the new leadership, like who became the leader or who directed the convoy, at what point? Can you pinpoint the period of time, like roughly, not, you know, a specific date because it’s a process? But at what point did you recognize that the -- it had been taken over?
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Okay. At any point did you feel that you were specifically undermined and targeted?
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Okay. Who did you -- who do you regard as the -- how do you say, “the new leader”? Like, who was giving direction after you guys were kind of ---
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Okay. Do you have any evidence for that?
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Okay. So can we can be specific. Just I’ve got -- I’ve got the titles ---
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
I’ve got the titles and then there’s the ---
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Okay. And there’s -- I don’t know the number for the -- just a second here.
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Okay.
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Okay, I know what it is. It’s an interview with the Commission and Keith Williams -- Wilson, I’m sorry, Keith Wilson.
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Yes.
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Yes, for the Commission.
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Is there a need for the document?
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Yes.
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Yes.
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Yeah, we’d like it brough up and she’s going to identify. What’s that -- assistance -- these is the kind of thing she needs assistance for. Or do you have it? You have it, okay.
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
It starts on page 2.
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Paragraph -- which paragraph was it, four?
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Oh, yes, okay. That paragraph, if -- do you want me to read it or do you want to read it?
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Okay. "Wilson found the TBOF leader in the Arc Hotel and informed them that the Freedom Convoy organizers would be doing the press conference. Lich told Wilson that she was not in a position to respond to all the questions that may be posed by the press. Wilson agreed to lead the press conference. He decided the event needed to be focused with a clear message. Around this time, Wilson met with Daniel Bulford. Bulford suggested he speak at the press conference about the convoy’s work liaisoning with the police regarding safety and emergency vehicle access. Wilson agreed Bulford should also speak at the press conference." (As read). So we’re -- the position is that that statement indicates that ---
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
--- he’s taken a leadership role with regard to the members of the freedom convoy. That’s - --
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Okay.
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
There was one document there that he distributed to everyone with regard to plane -- people - - persons coming in on plane; what’s the name of that document?
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Okay. What did that letter say? It was addressed to all of the convoy organizers, was it?
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
The one about the planes now.
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
We’re trying to go to another document.
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
(Off mic)
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
(Off mic)
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
...on the plane. When ---
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Yes, that's the one I'm ---
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
I'm sorry I didn't make it clear.
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Yeah. Do we have it?
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Okay. Maybe you can just testify to that if you remember now which one that was.
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Well, who were you told that by?
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Okay. Are there any other emails?
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Yes.
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
I think we'll leave that. She had some other ones, but... There was just one more item. Actually, two more items, but one, the CB -- now, I'm frustrated too. CBSA, the letter that you wrote to the CBSA, and their response.
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Okay. And you wrote a letter of complaint?
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
And ---
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
So after you got the response back from CBSA, you wrote to various MPs and other officials. Do -- can you state the names of those individuals and roughly what you were asking them for or what to do?
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
What was your ---
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
How many of those emails did you send?
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Okay. So I just have one last statement. You indicated to me that your grandfather had given you an explanation of the conditions under totalitarianism or communism. You recounted that to me. Can you recount it here?
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Do you believe that the Canadian Bill of Rights will help maintain our freedom providing ---
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
Yes, I understand.
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Jane Scharf, Counsel (Brigitte Belton)
That's it.