Summary
Pat King, a key figure in Canada’s 2022 “Freedom Convoy” protests, was found guilty on five charges, including mischief and counseling others to obstruct police, and faces up to 10 years in prison.
The protests, which blocked downtown Ottawa and key US-Canada border crossings for weeks, opposed COVID-19 mandates imposed by Prime Minister Trudeau’s government.
King was accused of inciting the blockade, coordinating disruptive actions like constant honking, and defying court orders.
He is the first protest leader convicted, while trials for other organizers are ongoing.
Holy crap that’s wild. I can’t believe the right-wing disinformation campaign in the US is so extreme that it’s leaking beyond our borders.
Kinda reminds me of when the “sovereign citizens” claim that they are a “vessel” and therefore fall under maritime law.
“Whoa, you sure do know some words that are tangentially related to the matter at hand.”
It’s been bonkers. We had one qanon grifter declare herself Queen of Canada and she has irl cultists follow her from town to town. During the worst of the pandemic, she had them sending death threats to healthcare workers (because Freedom). But even the main followers of the border shutdown and capitol occupation were frothy screwballs.
Like, they really shouldn’t have turned her facebook off!
From my point of view, the right-wing disinfo campaign is global. Copy-paste. Conservatives up north are even using a lot of the exact same media relations people as yours down south.
Man that just sucks. I’ve seen a lot of reporting about the more “conservative” ideologies growing in several EU countries as well. It’s so disheartening. The whole movement is just convincing average people to vote/protest/etc against their own best interests, and oh by the way, education is bad too so don’t get educated or you might see through the charade!