The Freedom Convoy organizers are on trial for the events of February 2022, but it was the Liberal government under the microscope Wednesday in court. .Tamara Lich and Chris Barber face charges surrounding the events of the Freedom Convoy in January and February 2022, including mischief, intimidation, obstruction, and counselling to commit the same. .In footage shown to the court by Crown witness Sgt. Joanne Pilotte, convoy organizers were asked how the government could be kept “accountable” post-COVID-19. .Benjamin Dichter, fellow convoy organizer, said, “not one Ottawa politician has been down.”.“[They go] on Zoom instead and insult the protesters.”.Someone in the room asks the organizers about “politicians talking about going back to normalcy.”.“Does this have anything to do with this movement?” they asked. “The government said it has nothing to do with truckers.”.Dichter responded that this was the initial convoy, but “now all these other convoys were inspired.”.“We don't have anything to do with it,” he said. “A wave of the general population that wants life to go back to normal. The government will have no choice but to go back to normalcy.”.“I think they'll do that. It's just a matter of time.”.He was also asked if he thought the government would renege on the cancelling of mandates and if the truckers would return to Ottawa if that happened. .“Of course,” Dichter said. “[The] truckers don't trust their words. They will take their time going back home to see if the government follows their word.”.“Backtracking would destroy government reputation and trust, even in their base.”.“[The] Liberals abandoned their liberal philosophy to oppose [the} Freedom Convoy,” he said later in the press conference and said they are “protecting a cult of personality for Trudeau.”.Former intelligence officer Tom Quiggin, an ally of the convoy, said he’s not sure what can be done to keep the government accountable. .“What we're seeing here in Canada, I hope, is the start of a movement which is going to go national, where the politicians are going to have to start looking over their shoulders and say, 'Well, if we do this, what are those guys going to do?’” Quiggin said. .The organizers were asked what would happen in the event police tried to forcibly remove the protestors from the downtown sector, to which Quiggins said if there were a “physical attack,” it wouldn’t be long before thousands more came to join in “peaceful non-compliance.”.“That would be such an egregious overstep, in my mind,” he said, “that it would be a mistake on their part.”.Quiggen also acknowledged the government may use military assets but the convoy organizers are “not concerned.”.“Trudeau has dictator tendencies, however,” he said. “He's a big globalist. There’s no need for the military.”.“[The] War Measures Act could do it. But there's no need for it,” he continued, citing “a guy named Pierre Trudeau” as the only other prime minister to invoke such an act — “but in response to actual terrorism.”.Quiggin also commented on Trudeau calling the protestors “a fringe minority” and points out in the 2021 election, “Trudeau got 20% of all registered voters to vote for him.”.“The other 80% didn't vote for Trudeau,” he said. “The fringe minority is the Liberal party of Canada that speaks for its 20% minority. He is the fringe minority. The rest of us are the majority.”.“[The Liberal Government] will be resistant [because of the] Ottawa bubble,” Quiggen commented later in the video. “Canada to them is only 20 kilometres wide."
