Thread by @aballinga

Ok here we go on Day 14 of the #EmergenciesActInquiry. Starting with Chris Barber, Saskatchewan trucker and convoy organizer. He gets scattered applause as he takes the stand.
Rouleau acknowledges "emotional investment" but asks for everyone to keep it chill.

Convoy lawyer Brendan Miller makes statement to start. Doesn’t want Barber to give answers that could incriminate Barber in a civil or criminal proceeding. He’s being sued and is facing charges.

Lived in Swift current for 47 years, all his life. He’s a long haul trucker, for agriculture equipment across Prairies and into the States. Been in trucking business since he was 18. His company is CB Trucking.

How did he get involved in the convoy? He was contacted by Brigitte Belton via TikTok. They spoke about slow rolls to protest mandates for truckers crossing the border. This was beginning of Jan., 8th or 7th. He didn’t know her before.

The cross border travel mandate was particularly concerning, Barber says. This was the rule coming into effect Jan. 15th that meant unvaccinated truckers would have to quarantine like most other people if they crossed the border.

Barber says he had around 30,000 TikTok followers in January, even before the convoy arrived in Ottawa. Eventually grew to 170k.

Says he posted a lot of “angry” videos on TikTok about government vaccine mandates. “They went too far on a regular basis and it was very frustrating,” he said. He says his company “lost a lot of drivers” and freight was backed up. “It caused some significant trouble.”

They were lost because they didn’t get the vaccines, Barber says. Barber clarifies this was his concern going forward, and he hadn’t lost any drivers before the trucking mandate came into effect.

Barber says he ate in his truck, made coffee in his truck, when restaurants were closed during the pandemic.
Barber says he got vaccinated himself because he didn’t want to lose his trucking contracts to big competitors.

Barber says he also used Facebook and Snapchat and a little Instagram, on top of TikTok, in planning the convoy. He also considered himself an “Internet troll,” which to Barber means an “online troublemaker.” He would argue with critics online, he says.

What was he hoping to achieve with the convoy? “I primarily wanted the government to listen to our concerns.” Anything else? “No.”

He says he had multiple tiktok accounts because he kept getting banned. He would open another account so he could continue posting if he was suspended.

Early discussions were with Belton, and she introduced Barber to James Bauder and Pat King and others, he says.

“It was completely organic, everything just literally fell right into place.” He says it took two weeks to start talking and then leave for Ottawa. “It was very fast.” Helpers in every province were taking part.

Main organizers were Barber, Belton, Lich, Bauder, King, he says.

Lich started a facebook and twitter account for Freedom Convoy 2022. They all did Facebook lives and promoted it on social media, he says.

Jan. 13 Facebook live. Lawyer says it involved Barber, Belton, Bauder and King, and others. Lich was busy that night, Barber believes.

King and Bauder were actively involved in planning routes and promoting the convoy, Barber agrees. He says Canada Unity was involved and actually already planning some sort of convoy to Ottawa already. “they had a website ready, everyone was all in place,” he says.

Barber believes Bauder got involved through Belton.

In the Facebook live, Bauder brings up the notorious MOU from Canada Unity (the one where they wanted to unseat the government). Barber says he believes Bauder just explained “how the document worked” and that it was sent to the gov’t.

“I believe I just ignored it. I wasn’t into that sort of thing,” Barber says.

Barber says he never read the MOU and he will never read it.

King had a large following on social media, especially Facebook, Barber says. He didn’t know King until January. He says he’d never had calls or meetings with Bauder or King before their Jan. 13 facebook live.

Barber says he didn’t know anything about King’s background until around 2 days into the convoy.

Barber says he understands King had unvaccinated children and Belton was concerned she would lose her trucking job. “I think I was just so excited and so overwhelmed” he didn’t have time to look into their backgrounds or motivations.

Barber says he’s not aware of any early organizers having a different goal that ending the COVID-19 mandates. But later, some participants wanted different goals, Barber says.

Barber says he’s not aware of any early organizers having a different goal that ending the COVID-19 mandates. But later, some participants wanted different goals, Barber says.
“It was a power struggle a lot of the time,” Barber says. There was conflict later with Canada Unity.

He says conflict with Canada Unity was about “power and control” and he also didn’t like their MOU, although Barber claims he didn’t read it. He thought the MOU was “improperly written” and it wasn’t something they were pushing for. He says Lich felt the same.

Was Barber concerned MOU provided for “undemocratic change of power?” Barber says he heard “rumours” it could or could not be interpreted that way.

Barber recalls Lich called Bauder and got him to renounce the MOU partway through the occupation. He did and they removed it, Barber says.

Another group they were having a power struggle with was Taking Back Our Freedoms. Barber says “Roy and James” were with them, and had tried to create structure in meetings and plan day to day. He doesn’t know their goals exactly.

Barber says he was walking the streets and skipped a lot of “inner meetings” with protest organizers.

Lich called Barber on his cell before the 10th of Jan., told him she had experience with protest and was part of 2019 United We Roll tour. “It was just a phone call out of the blue,” and the “friendship continued,” Barber says.

Barber says the United We Roll convoy was about oil and gas and protesting either pipeline shutdowns or building. He later learned that King was involved in that convoy.

He knows about Lich: mother, grandmother, “regular Albertan,” “good-hearted, strong person.”

Lich later told him she was involved in Wexit and Maverick party in Alberta. Barber says he never got the impression Lich was pursuing other political goals outside ending vaccine mandates.

Barber says he never had concerns about that. “I would have fought that. That wasn’t the reason why we came to Ottawa. We came to Ottawa for border mandates.”

Barber says the convoy was in the range of 500 to 2500 trucks in the convoy. Didn’t expect the numbers “in my wildest dreams.” He says “there were a lot of tears” and “emotions” about the “overwhelming support” they received.

They had ethics and rules on speed, constant communication via radios, cell phone interactions. “Constant communication” and safety was the top priority as they travelled, Barber says.

King was in a motorhome halfway back in the convoy, Barber was at the front. They kept adjusting their speeds to stay together. “Everything was well-orchestrated,” Barber says.

They were in contact with local police all the way along, and called for escorts when they cross intersections, Barber says.

OPP escort was at Ontario border to meet them, Barber says. He can’t remember the cops full name, other than “Marty.” He accompanied them to Kenora.

They made contact with Isabel from Ottawa police, Barber says. Things were planned on their arrival, he says. Barber spoke with her, met her once on the ground in Ottawa.

Barber told police their plan, to protest border mandates, and they wanted to be safe and work with law enforcement. He says discussions on how long they would stay started only after the first weekend.

Barber says he doesn’t think he ever really thought much about how long they would stay in Ottawa. Personally, he knew his business would suffer the longer he was away. But he didn’t know how long he would stay himself.

All the way to Ottawa, Barber understood there was a staging area in Confederation Park and Major’s Hill Park. That was not where they parked.

Barber says they had a police escort down the SJAM, and they led pilot trucks to around the Supreme Court on Wellington. Other vehicles had already arrived directly in front of Parliament. He was surprised to see there were already trucks there.

“Apparently we caught them offguard” and overwhelmed the cops right away, Barber says. He says he knew a couple semi operators who had already arrived.

He says from arrival to around Feb. 14, police never indicated to him he couldn’t stay parked on Wellington. He says he didn’t have time to be surprised about that, “it was so fast paced.”

“I don’t know how things went so wrong when we first arrived,” Barber says. He thinks the cops did the best they could. Most trucks in his convoy were out on the SJAM and they didn’t know where to go.

Barber says he feels things would have been better if they could have parked in staging areas. “Parking all over the city was never part of why we came,” he says.

-Lawyer now asking about Pat King. Lich and Barber started to have concerns about King. Barber says he believes first concern was from a CBC article about King’s past social media posts.

They met with him and discussed concerns, and “I believe we smoothed the waters over and we carried on.”

Barber says the article was made to sound like King was saying “bullets would be flying,” and King said the comments were taken out of context.

Asked if this was about King’s comment that Trudeau would “catch a bullet,” Barber says he thinks that was after this meeting.

Others in the organization had concerns about King, Barber says. He doesn’t know if anyone else spoke to King about not being involved in Ottawa.

“Whatever happened, it worked itself out to the point where Pat stayed with the convoy,” Barber says. He says he wasn’t concerned after King’s explanation that it was torqued to make him sound bad. “I took him on his word on it.” He says he still believes King has a “good heart.”

“Pat and I had a power struggle… That was evident from day one.” It was over control, Barber says, but “it wasn’t anything that couldn’t have been managed.”

Barber says he was concerned about “bad media” around King. “They attacked him on a regular basis, I believe.”

Barber says he told Lich he had skeletons in the closet too. But he used to post “nasty, distasteful memes” and posted online “in a negative way,” Barber says.

Barber agrees the posts showed “Racist and anti-Muslim comments.” Barber: He learned and grew during the convoy, and is now a different person. “Seeing the amount of love and the people of all different colours, all different races… It changed me.”

It made him realize his past comments were “distasteful,” and “there’s a better way to do it.”

Asked about the Confederate Flag in his shop in Swift Current. Barber says he purchased it in the US, and told people it’s just a “piece of cloth.”

He says it was everywhere when he grew up and believes it was more accepted, and he bought it and called it the “Dixie Flag” and didn’t think anything of it.

Context of his affinity for it was being a fan of the "Dukes of Hazard" he says.

Barber says Belton played a similar role to him during the convoy… He was walking streets making sure trucks were looked after, working with cops, making sure emergency lanes were open.

Barber confirms he has had a falling out with Belton. “Just difference of opinion… My criminal charges have left me to be a lot more silent,” he says. “Instead of fight with anybody there, I’ve said my piece and went by different ways.”

Inquiry pulls up one of Barber’s TikToks. It shows Barber stressing convoy rules, peaceful protest, respect for cops, respect for emergency lanes. Says when they start “acting like assholes” they lose public support.

Says we want to “hit the government where it hurts” and they would stay until they end the mandates.

Barber says they were told by their lawyers they were a legitimate protest, and the last thing he wanted was to “wreck that for the people that we were trying to represent.”

Barber says truck drivers are like herding cats. “You’ve got every different style of driver… You put 200 truck drivers in a room and somebody is going to get a black eye and a broken nose.”

But from what he saw during convoy travel is that they listened and there were no incidents.

Barber says the protest was loud but not violent, and he didn’t see violence. Barber recalls having concern that this would turn into a Jan. 6 style event, and he didn’t want that. He felt the government would demonize them to say “insurrection, when that wasn’t the case.”

Barber says he took it upon himself to make sure drivers were notified if things weren’t right, but he’s not sure it was his responsibility to make sure they followed the rules.

“Kids wanted to be truck drivers again, and I hadn’t seen that since I was a child,” Barber says. He didn't want negative actions to burst the positive vibe they were trying to maintain.

Barber says he thought it would be disrespectful if protesters were “being disruptive.” He says he lost 20 pounds by walking around during the occupation.

“I won’t ask you if you put the weight back on,” inquiry lawyer jokes.

Barber says he didn’t see anything he considered disruptive or disrespectful during the protests. “I never seen anything that really concerned me,” he says.

At the same time, he acknowledges sometimes he couldn’t talk his way to unblocking emergency lanes.

On the media: “It was a negative light right from day one.” He says people told him they needed to come down and see if for themselves, because they felt the media portrayal was inaccurate.

“I never encountered a single episode” of harassment or homophobia or anything like that. He says obviously there were fires and propane, but he thinks it was safe.

“We left things up to the road captains,” Barber says when asked about safety. They had a couple captains per block. They’d hold daily meetings.

Horn honking: Barber says he considered it a form of excitement. He adds that they annoyed him and he did “everything” he could to get them to stop, especially after the injunction.

He says he spoke to drivers about the horns. “It was unorganized chaos… The only thing I could do was put my videos out,” he says. “The federal government was why we came,” not to bother Ottawa residents.

Inquiry lawyer shows Facebook post from Convoy, showing Buffalo Bill from Silence of the Lambs.

There's also this one from Facebook:

Barber says “I found it humorous at the time I guess.” He understands why people wouldn’t believe him when he says he tried hard to stop the horns.

“Seeing it now, I’d say it’s distasteful,” he says.