Thread by @aballinga

We're back with Benjamin Dichter, who says he's writing a book with the former Toronto Star journalist.

Dichter says the "convoy" never wanted to overthrow the government, but he admits there are "always fringe elements" that say stuff.

Dichter says they needed to keep making statements condemning violence because the "legacy media" kept talking about "phantom violence" that he never saw.

Dichter confirms convoy wanted to stay until all mandates would be lifted. Government lawyer suggests some protesters misunderstood jurisdiction about what the federal government could or couldn't do.
Dichter says leaders understood target was federal trucker mandate.

"The federal mandates would lead to all mandates, that was our optimistic assumption," Dichter says.

"I was reflecting the sentiment of the truckers that were coming here," he says. Truckers agreed to stay until demands were met, he says.

"What this protest was, this was a cry for help," he says. "This was an act of desperation."

Dichter says he never saw letters between Lich and Watson outlining The Deal.
He confirms he was not involved in trying to get trucks to move under the Deal, and never approved communications from Freedom Corp. about it.

Brendan Miller for the convoy organizers is questioning Dichter now.

Miller asking Dichter about his car accident on Feb. 3, and how he broke his leg on Feb. 4.

Now they're talking about the deal, and how Dichter claims not to have known about it.
Miller suggests Dichter posted something on Lich's account -- denying the deal on Feb. 13 -- that he knew "was a lie."

"I was using her account from the very beginning," Dichter says.

Miller confirms with Dichter that he got the email showing the communications letter outlining the deal.
Dichter claims he was later told there was no deal.
"I needed to communicate... there's no deal, there's nothing."

"I was uncomfortable with Keith Wilson and Eva" because they were "dictating to the truckers what we have to do."

"You went to a Russian propaganda outfit in order to portray the message?" Miller asks, referring to how Dichter did an interview with Russia Today.
Dichter says he wanted to "bait" the CBC to build "narrative" that convoy had Russian ties (or something)

David Migicovsky from OPS questioning him now.

Dichter says his intention was never to disrupt Ottawa residents. "I didn't see any harassment or anti-social behaviour myself," Dichter says.

Dichter says Migicovsky's question is "silly" because he "doesn't know what anti-social behaviour means."

Dichter agrees he didn't anticipate there would be problems, and expected a "very large" peaceful protest.

Dichter agrees there was honking "for the first day and a half" and says many businesses thought the protest "was amazing"

Dichter says the convoy organizers were "tight" and could resolve differences, until Feb. 4 when JCCF lawyers showed up. There wasn't cohesion on "certain issues" after that, he says.

Little preview of James Bauder's upcoming testimony, from a statement tabled with the inquiry just now.

Dichter claiming there actually wasn't loud honking at all hours of the day. "I don't know where this narrative is coming from."
(It's coming from actual observed empirical reality)

Dichter asked about how he has the word "Honk" in his twitter name. He says it's about "humour," and says "the little bit of honking that you saw" was not to be aggressive, it was because people were desperate.

Dichter insisting again that the honking occurred only in the first couple days. This is categorically not true.

Lawyer asks Dichter why his upcoming book is called "Honking for Freedom" if there wasn't a lot of honking.
"Honk was just a natural title for it," he says.

Lawyer pulls up joke from one of Quiggin's briefings. It shows a cartoon about some labelled the "Hoonker." Basically a joke about disruption through honking.

"It's a joke, right? It may not lend itself to legal proceedings," Dichter says. Compares the humour to something Elon Musk would do. He is claiming honking talk doesn't mean people were actually honking. (But they were actually honking)

"It's not literally honking in your truck," Dichter says. (They were literally honking in their trucks)

Dichter also being challenged now on claim without evidence in the convoy briefings that the city forced businesses to shut down.
He says he wishes he would have had event like this when his business existed in Toronto.

On the deal again, Dichter says he doesn't think "just capitulating and leaving" is a deal. He says if he told that to truckers they would have lost their minds.

Dichter claims #honking on social media replaced actual honking after the no-honk injunction

Dichter takes another shot at Keith Wilson, saying he's unprofessional and "Pat King in a suit."

That's it for Dichter. See you after lunch.
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