Having sat in jail since his arrest at the end of February, Pat King is now facing additional charges while supporters report that he continues to struggle with medical issues in detention.
Peter Smith
Canadian Anti-Hate Network
Source: Facebook
After a two-day hearing, convoy leader Patrick King is expected to find out next week if he will remain in custody until his trial for mischief, perjury and a number of other charges.
The details and evidence presented during the bail proceedings cannot be revealed due to a publication ban. He was previously denied bail after his initial arrest when the court noted a “substantial likelihood” that he would re-offend.
King has now spent nearly five months in prison since his arrest on February 18.
After his previous bail review, perjury and obstruction of justice were added to his charges, allegedly related to statements he made during the hearing. Those statements are also covered under a publication ban.
The last set of bail hearings ended after the computer of King’s previous lawyer, David Goodman, played an audio message indicating it had been hacked. Goodman would later state no files were compromised.
Artur Pawlowski, an anti-2SLGBTQ and Islamophobic pastor running the “Street Church” in Calgary, recently published online a recording of a phone call between himself and King. Over the course of the talk, King said most of his money is currently going towards his legal representation, spoke of the poor sanitary conditions he faces while incarcerated, and the struggles of being placed in isolation.
“As you know I have a prosthetic leg. My prosthetic leg got infected. So I’ve had three separate occasions when I’ve been infected and I’m infected again,“ he told Pawlowski. “I don’t have appropriate cleanliness.”
King mentioned his upcoming bail hearing, but did not divulge any details, citing the publication ban.
At various points throughout the February protests in Ottawa, organizers made attempts to distance themselves from the 44-year-old King. A number of his previous inflammatory and racist statements, as well as a history of stoking conflicts with others in the movement, brought negative attention in the leadup to the mass of protesters arriving in Canada’s capital.
On the ground, King regularly was seen offering aid and claimed to be helping with coordination throughout the three-week occupation.
On the Canada Unity website, King was listed as a regional road captain and appeared in streams with Canada Unity founder and originator of the convoy concept, James Bauder to promote the protest before it gained significant attention. Bauder also acted as the east coast organizer of the 2019 Yellow Vests Canada convoy to Ottawa, United We Roll.
A portion of his arrest was live streamed by King just before being taken into custody.
His previous attorney argued that, “Every minute he spends in jail, I submit, is in excess of what he would if he was actually guilty instead of presumptively innocent.”
Another convoy member, 44-year-old, Tyson George Billings of High Prairie, Alberta initially faced his own charges of mischief, counselling to mischief, counselling to disobey a court order, obstructing police, and counselling to obstruct police.
He pleaded guilty to one count of counselling mischief in June. The other charges against him were withdrawn.
Screencapture of Tyson George Billings (left) and Pat King (right) together during a live stream.
Like King, Billings – often referred to as “Freedom George” – was also arrested while live streaming. The footage shows Billings boasting about sneaking back into the downtown Ottawa protest area, and shouting “Freedom” at passersby while being taken into custody.
Convoy organizer and public face Tamara Lich was previously released on bail, but recently returned to custody after allegedly breaking her bail conditions by appearing at an award show with fellow convoy organizer Tom Marazzo. The pair were photographed together at a gala organized by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) where Lich was awarded the “George Jones Freedom Award.”
Lich was first arrested on the evening of February 17 in Ottawa. According to the Ottawa Police Service, she was charged with counselling to commit the offence of mischief. Shortly after her arrest, pictures and video of the incident began circulating on a variety of social media platforms, including groups for a similar upcoming convoy in the United States.
Born in Saskatchewan, Lich now hails from Medicine Hat, Alberta, where she served as an organizer for Yellow Vests Canada, a regional coordinator for the separatist Western Exit or “Wexit” movement in Alberta, and until the convoy began, was the secretary for the Maverick Party – another separatist movement and fringe political party. Throughout the course of the "Freedom Convoy," Lich has appeared alongside Benjamin "B.J." Dichter, Chris Barber, and other organizers at press conferences.
How venues and community members can identify and avoid booking far-right performers looking for a platform, and what to do if you already have.
Organizers say the protests will continue indefinitely until the tax is repealed.
The question references an attack on one of the first institutes studying gender and sexuality in the earliest days of Hitler’s rise to power.