鈥淔reedom Convoy鈥� organizer Pat King boasted about his role in gridlocking downtown Ottawa and directed protesters to honk their horns in contravention of a court order in a series of videos published on social media during the events.
Those videos were tendered as evidence in his criminal trial Thursday.
King pleaded not guilty to nine charges related to his role in the protest, including a number of allegations that he counselled others to break the law by breaking a court order, with those individuals then committing mischief and intimidation.
The Crown alleges King was a leader with influence in the protest movement, which called for an end to COVID-19 mandates and 鈥� in some cases 鈥� a change of government from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau鈥檚 Liberal minority.
The demonstration saw hundreds of big rigs and other vehicles drive into Ottawa and entrench themselves on the streets, jamming the downtown core for nearly three weeks.
The Crown highlighted King鈥檚 leadership role by playing a series of videos and livestreams pulled directly from his social media pages.
In one video, King describes his role in co-ordinating the placement of trucks under the cover of darkness and laughs about clogging a major street near the parliamentary precinct.
鈥淲e just moved them all鈥way from the police,鈥� King said in a video dated Jan. 31, where he describes stealthily moving 80 trucks into the core of the city.
鈥淲e jammed up Kent Street.鈥�
鈥淚鈥檓 having so much fun. I鈥檓 not kidding, I鈥檓 having the time of my life.鈥�
In an earlier video, he instructed trucks to honk their horns every thirty minutes. Almost on cue, horns began to sound.
In most of the videos, King said the protest was a peaceful demonstration of the demonstrators鈥� rights. He often expressed himself with expletives and other crass language.
The videos demonstrated that he was a well-known figure in the crowd, with many passersby calling out to him, thanking him, offering hugs and even requesting his autograph.
In one video, a woman shouted to King that she drove five hours to Ottawa to join the protest because of him.
At the time of the convoy protest, King鈥檚 Facebook page had 354,000 followers, Ottawa criminal intelligence analyst Alyson Yaraskovitch testified Thursday.
A video recorded on the third weekend of the protest had 26,000 reactions on Facebook. In that video, King instructed truckers not to move their big rigs out of residential neighbourhoods.
King kept a neutral expression as he watched video after video play over a large television screen in the courtroom.
On Feb. 7, more than a week after the protest began, a judge issued an injunction against excessive horn honking in Ottawa in response to the near-constant noise that Ottawa residents said robbed them of sleep for days.
In a livestream, King told all the truckers to stop honking immediately so they wouldn鈥檛 get arrested and to 鈥渁ppease鈥� Ottawa residents, but added that the court injunction meant the protest was making a difference.
鈥淩emember, these people haven鈥檛 slept for ten days,鈥� he said, laughing and calling the situation 鈥渉ilarious.鈥�
鈥淚t鈥檚 working beautiful.鈥�
The very next day, King put out a new video rescinding his advice to cease the horn honking, and told followers he was 鈥減issed off.鈥�
鈥淗onk those horns. Let the heavens hear you,鈥� he said.
The Crown is expected to play dozens more videos in court Friday before King鈥檚 defence lawyer, Natasha Calvinho, has a chance to cross-examine the witness.
The Canadian Press
