SAULT STE. MARIE — A member of the Sault Ste. Marie Freedom Alliance who is currently facing Re-Opening Ontario Act charges related to his own part in a local welcome event for Pat King and his convoy at the former Sister Mary Clare school, says he still sees the just-released convoy leader's charges as an "over the top" response to the three-week Ottawa blockade.
Tim Coderre says that while there could be legitimacy to some of King’s charges, the bail conditions handed down to him in the court’s decision to release King on bail Monday were excessive.
Conditions of King's bail include a ban on social media use and to refrain from taking part in activities related to the convoy. He is also forbidden from contacting other convoy organizers, including Chris Barber, Benjamin Dichter, Tamara Lich and Tom Marazzo, unless in the presence of counsel. King is also expected to adhere to a curfew of 10 p.m. until 6 a.m.
“It seems to be a lot of restrictions put on him, and I don’t know, for what it’s worth in a general sense, what that means to the public at large, because this guy was basically defending his right for free speech, our freedoms, our liberties, our mobility laws,” said Coderre, when reached by telephone Monday. “According to the Bill of Rights, we have a right to assemble, we have a right to freedom of speech and we have a right to opinion.”
Coderre adds that he views both King and Lich as “basically political prisoners,” and that provisions in the Bill of Rights — the right to assembly, the right to freedom of speech, the right of opinions, the right of religion — “seem to be under attack.”
"I just think it’s kind of off the rails that the government went so hard after these people, and I just feel it’s way over the top on every conceivable level," said Coderre.
Although Coderre has had contact with King in the past as a member of the Sault Ste. Marie Freedom Alliance, he says that he’s “95 per cent” unaware of the criticisms levelled against the convoy organizer, which include the former Sault Ste. Marie resident being a purveyor of racist conspiracy theories who has described COVID-19 a “man-made bioweapon that was put out to make people sick," and warned of an “endgame” to “depopulate the Anglo-Saxon race.”
“I stand for freedom, the Bill of Rights, the Charter and Constitution. I in no way condone criminality or unproven public evaluations,” Coderre said.
The member of the Sault Ste. Marie Freedom Alliance is currently facing his own legal battle after both he and Steven Hunter were charged under the Re-Opening Ontario Act for their part in a gathering that saw locals greet the ‘Freedom Convoy’ at the former Sister Mary Clare Catholic School — known as the Soo Justice Center — in the Sault Jan. 27 as the convoy made its way to Ottawa.
The pair was charged with failing to comply with a continued order to not host or organize an indoor public event, which carries a minimum fine of $10,000 and a maximum fine of $100,000 if convicted.
“We used APH’s own guidelines, their own mathematical equation, to determine the square footage and how many people were permitted to go there with the limitations that were set,” Coderre argued.
Coderre says that roughly 1,000 passed through the doors of the former east-end school that night, but there were only about 300 people in the building at any given time.
“I was doing my duty as a civilian. I believe in loving my brother, and even loving my enemies,” he said. “There was a case where these guys, they’ve done everything in our lifetime to supply for my need. Well I thought, you know what, I’ll go out of my way to supply for their need.”
He met with King briefly during that night.
“Above and beyond that, I didn’t really have any engagement with him per se — we had a couple of conversations on the phone, a few exchanges via email, but nothing really in depth other than what we did with respect to the convoy and whatnot,” Coderre said.
Coderre believes the charges are unwarranted, adding that disclosure from the court won’t be provided for review until Aug. 10 after the court pushed the matter to a later date during a Jun. 29 court date.
“We had no disclosure whatsoever,” he said, adding that the court is “purposely trying to drag things out” so the court system can make money. “I got to take a day off work, but they get paid.”
Although Coderre says he hasn’t been engaged with the former Sister Mary Clare property since April, he believes what’s coming down this fall has “put the alarm bells on,” and “there’s a convergence among various groups here locally to reconvene and re-establish ourselves” at the Soo Justice Center in the near future.
He says there are rumours flying around that the NDP may not be in full support of what’s playing out with the Trudeau government and could put a no-confidence motion in play which could trigger an election.
“We anticipate that there’s going to be another lockdown,” said Coderre. “We anticipate there’s going to be another fear-mongering thing that the government is going to roll out, and they’re going to do everything in their power to try to strap the middle class and make it as difficult as possible.”
