Constitutional lawyers have filed a legal challenge on behalf of a municipal councillor censured for attending the Freedom Convoy protest. Harold Jonker, an Ontario trucking company manager, said he was proud to be among the first truckers to join the January 28 protest outside Parliament Hill..“Mr. Jonker has been punished for his political position,” the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms of Calgary said in a statement yesterday. “In Canada we must tolerate strong differences of political opinion. Elected politicians should not be permitted to weaponize codes of conduct to silence and intimidate their political opponents.”.According to Blacklock's Reporter, Jonker of St. Ann’s, Ont. last July 18 was docked 30 days’ pay as a Township of West Lincoln councillor, the equivalent of $1700, for joining the Freedom Convoy. Fellow councillors voted 5 to 1 to cite Jonker for breach of a municipal Code Of Conduct that states: “Members shall be cognizant that they are at all times representatives of the Township.”.“I didn’t go there as a councillor of West Lincoln,” Jonker told a July 18 council meeting. “I went there as a truck driver and as a company owner to support what I believed was a peaceful, lawful demonstration.”.“Me going to Ottawa was not me in any way, shape or form as a Township of West Lincoln councillor but as a truck driver and a business owner and as a father who has a lot of concerns of where we are going in society today,” said Jonker, a Church elder and father of 13. “I hope and pray we as council can see through this confusion.”.“From the bottom of my heart I am thankful and I am humbled that I was able to participate in a protest that brought immense joy and hope to so many Canadians across the country,” said Jonker. “It’s still heart-wrenching and very tough for me when people come up to me still to this day and thank me as a truck driver.”.Justice Centre lawyers in an application to Ontario Divisional Court asked that a judge quash Jonker’s censure as a breach of his Charter rights. “Truck drivers from across Canada began a convoy toward Ottawa as a demonstration of political protest,” wrote lawyers. Councillor Jonker “parked his truck outside of downtown Ottawa and engaged in lawful and peaceful protest,” they said..Cabinet on February 14 invoked the Emergencies Act to freeze the accounts of convoy sympathizers. Jonker left the city February 21, two days before the Act was suspended. “My wife and I made history being the first truck in,” Jonker earlier told a reporter..The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms yesterday said it also filed an Ontario Divisional Court application on behalf of a Mississippi Mills, Ont. councillor suspended August 9 on allegations she attended meetings without showing proof of vaccination. The sanction was irregular and violated Charter rights, lawyers said.
