Stephen Armstrong – Interventions

Good afternoon, Commissioner, Counsel, members of the public. My name is Stephen Armstrong, and I am Commission Counsel. I'm here today to present the overview report on early protest activities and legal challenges. This overview report summarises a sample protests and legal challenges relating to public health measures taken in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the timeframe is primarily 2020 and 2021, although we'll also touch on 2019 and 2022. This report is intended to provide some high level context to the very detailed evidence that we will hear in the coming weeks. What this report describes is the development over time of what could fairly be described as a mass protest movement against COVID related public health measures. The intent of this overview report is not to investigate the merits or demerits of any particular measure or of any particular protest. The report also addresses some of the legal challenges brought against these public health measures, and again it's not an investigation into the merits or demerits of any piece of litigation. Let me also say a few words on methodology. This report was compiled based on publicly available news sources that are indexed in the internet. We made a real effort to search for a variety of sources, and we tried to cover all of the regions in Canada. And given that broad scope, this overview report is not an exhaustive catalogue of all protests or all court challenges, and the absence of any event should not be taken as a suggestion by the Commission that it's irrelevant or less relevant. We've also made an effort in this report to just stick to the facts, the raw facts, the places, the dates, and numbers without any extra colour. So without further ado, I'm going to move through the report in chronological order. So I'll start at the beginning. Pages 5 to 6 of the report address a precursor event called the United We Roll convoy. On February 14th, 2014, a convoy of truckers known as United We Roll left Red Deer Alberta bound for Ottawa to protest the Federal Government's energy policies. Around 170 trucks of varying sizes left Red Deer as part of the convoy. Arriving in Ottawa on February 19th, 2019, the convoy participated in two days of demonstrations on or around Parliament Hill before dispersing. A Facebook page remains active. Although focussed on energy policy, the page still makes posts and has made posts in support of the Freedom Convoy in 2022. So turning to pages 6 to 10 of the overview report, this addresses the beginning of the protests movements in March 2020 to December 2020. And my colleague, Mr. Sheppard, already discussed the onset of COVID and the public health measures that were taken, and protests began pretty soon after those public health measures were adopted. There were protests reported in -- from major centres, such as Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, Calgary, Winnipeg, Saskatoon and Ottawa in April of 2020, and eventually we saw the beginnings of what appeared to be sort of loosely coordinated national protests by the summer. And so on, for example, July 19th, 2020, protests were held in cities all across Canada, and it was reported that these were part of a coordinated march to unmask movement opposed to mandatory masking. And momentum seemed to have grown or seems to grow from there as the protests grew in scale. On September 12th, 2020, for example, it was reported that several thousand people turned out to protest mask mandates and other measures in Montreal. As another example, in October of 2020, protestors rallied against lockdowns and other public health measures in Downtown Toronto, and it was reported that around 1,500 people were in attendance. And these protests were by no means limited to the big centres in Canada. For example, on November 7th, 2020, as many as 2,000 people marched through Aylmer, Ontario to protest public health measures, and it was reported that the protestors included many people from the town's large religious communities. And moving towards the end of the year, just another example, on December 19th, 2020, hundreds of people marched through Calgary, and as well through Montreal, and CTV News reported from Montreal that the protestors were marching in opposition to public health measures introduced by the Quebec Government. So turning to pages 10 to 28 of the overview report, this addresses events as they continue through 2021. And at the beginning of the year, Quebec had introduced a curfew, and it was reported that protests were held that same day, January 9th, 2021, in Montreal, Sherbrooke, and Quebec City. Protests were also reported in January and February in Moncton and Halifax, and as well, across the country. And these protests really seemed to pick up speed and reach a crescendo in the fall of 2021, overlapping with the federal election of that year. As well, in 2021, of course as my colleague mentioned, was around the time that mass vaccinations became available. So new measures were introduced, and protests continued in response to those new measures surrounding vaccination. And so going to the fall. From August 30th to September 5th, 2021, protestors demonstrated against vaccine mandates outside hospitals in major urban centres all across Canada, including St. John's, Newfoundland, Montreal, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Victoria, and Vancouver. Thousands of people were reported to come out and attend these protests right across the country. And the next weekend as well, on September 13th, 2021, protestors demonstrated across the country, including at Toronto General Hospital, and in Barrie, and London, Ontario, and various places across the country. And this was part of the protests organised by the Canadian Frontline Nurses. And then moving into the later part of the year is when the border measures for truckers and for other persons were announced in November, as my colleague discussed. As well, in November, Canadian Border Service Agency officers stopped a truck driver by the name of Brigitte Belton at the Windsor/Detroit crossing for failing to wear her mask, and she posted a video discussing the event on TikTok, and in the event she voiced frustration and emotion with the public health measures. She would later connect with Chris Farber on social media, and these people played a role in organising the convoy to Ottawa. So further protests continued into December 2021 and the New Year, and in the report, from pages 29 to 32, we provide a very basic skeleton of certain events leading up to the arrival of the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa in January of 2022. And so -- and it's in January of 2022, that we see the development of the Freedom Convoy idea and its launch. On January 13th, 2022, Chris Barber, Brigitte Belton, James Bauder, and others attend the Facebook Live event hosted by Pat King. The group discussed routes and logistics with the Freedom Convoy before an audience that reportedly reached 3,000 viewers at one point. On January 14th, 2022, Tamara Lich created a Facebook page and GoFundMe campaign for the Freedom Convoy. On January 22nd and 23rd, 2022, contingents of the Freedom Convoy departed from various points in British Columbia for Ottawa, and two other convoy contingents were planned to depart from Enfield, Nova Scotia, and Windsor later on in January, on the 27th. As of January 5th, 2022, the GoFundMe campaign had raised more than $4.5 million. News reports covered the progress of the convoy on a daily or near-daily basis as it crossed the country. Thousands of trucks and thousands of participants were reportedly participating in the convoy as it made its way to Ottawa. Freedom Convoy participants arrived in Ottawa on or around January 28th and 29th, 2022, and that takes us up to the subject matter of this hearing, and we anticipate that further evidence on the origins, development of the Freedom Convoy, the protest, and blockades will be adduced during these hearings. So Mr. Commissioner, that’s the Overview Report.