The Appeal Court of Ontario says a class action lawsuit against Freedom Convoy organizers, participants, and donors for “public nuisance causing pain” should be heard.
Organizers of the Freedom Convoy appealed the class action lawsuit, which is seeking $290 million in damages against protesters, organizers, and donors.
Justices David Brown, Peter Lauwers, and Steve Coroza dismissed an appeal by the defendants, including Chris Barber, Pat King, and Tamara Lich, allowing the lawsuit to move forward, as first reported by Blacklock’s Reporter.
The lawsuit was originally filed on Feb. 4, 2022, by Zexi Li who lived in the area where truckers were parked in Ottawa.
Li was seeking $4.8 million in damages for those living within a six-block radius of the Convoy protest.
The lawsuit was expanded in 2023 to include businesses and employees of businesses in the area as plaintiffs, and anyone who donated money to the Freedom Convoy as defendants.
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They are seeking $60 million in general damages for “private nuisance and public nuisance causing pain, suffering and psychological distress,” as well as $70 million for business losses, $150 million for loss of wages, as well as $10 million in punitive damages.
Justice Brown wrote in the decision for the court that the “interplay between public political protest and its impact on the community in which the protest takes place raises two fundamental questions: How do we live together in a community? How do we share common space?”
He said individuals need to display humility when dealing with fellow citizens.
“We are not unconstrained free actors but must all live subject to some rules,” he wrote. “The Charter reminds us that individual action must always be alive to its effect on other members of the community since limits can be placed on individual action as long as they are ’reasonable limits prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.’”
The Freedom Convoy was held in downtown Ottawa in January and February 2022 in protest of government COVID-19 measures. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act to bring the protesting encampments to an end.
The appeal court decision comes about two weeks after Freedom Convoy organizer Pat King was sentenced to three months of house arrest.
King’s sentence was handed down on Feb. 19 in an Ottawa courtroom.
He was also sentenced to 100 hours of community service. King spent nine months in custody before and during his trial.
King was also ordered to stay away from other organizers, including Barber and Lich.
Barber and Lich were expected to be sentenced on March 12, but the date has been postponed.
