Thread by @Matt_HorwoodET

Gm, it's day seven of the trial of Freedom Convoy leaders Chris Barber and Tamara Lich.

Ottawa Police Service Sergeant Joanne Pilotte is on the stand again. We are watching two 75 minute long videos this morning.

The first is a press conference with Convoy leaders from the middle of the protest.

Benjamin Dichter is asked by a reporter why politicians are sounding like "tin-pot dictators" when they talk about the Convoy.

Dichter says the truckers have been giving out free food, cleaning up the streets and helping the homeless, while politicians "go on their little Zoom calls and call everybody names."

The organizers are asked about how the government can be kept "accountable" post-COVID.

Dichter tells the story of a single mother who told him for the past two years, she had been depressed and suicidal.

"She saw this, and she said, 'you've given me hope in my life, and I came to Ottawa,' she brought her children, and [the child said], 'mommy, the truckers are going to free us and we're going to have our lives back.'"

Tom Quiggin, a former intelligence officer who helped to protect the Freedom Convoy, responds to the original question by saying he's not sure exactly what can be done to keep 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 do you what are those guys going to do?'"

The organizers are asked what they think would happen if the police tried to forcibly remove the protestors from Ottawa.

Quiggins responds that if there were a "physical attack" there would be thousands more showing up in peaceful non-compliance.

"That would be such a egregious overstep, in my mind, that it would be a mistake on their part."

The second video is being shown in court. It's another press conference with the convoy leaders.

Dichter starts out by telling the independent media in the room that there is no "fake media" allowed, and the CBC was thrown out for "pushing you around."

(I see some head-shaking from the reporters sitting at the front of the courtroom.)

Dichter says the morale of the protestors on the ground has not changed. He saw two protestors who spoke different languages, but we still able to develop a friendship at a Tim Hortons over their shared cause.

"This is what Canada is supposed to be about."

Dichter expresses anger towards GoFundMe for freezing the protest's funds, calling it "GoFraudMe." He says Bitcoin embodies the principle of freedom and decentralization, as it can't be frozen in the same way as fiat money.

(The convoy received over $1 million in crypto donations.)

He also pushes back against accusations that the Convoy is a white supremacist movement. "I'm Jewish. I have family members that are buried in mass graves in Europe, but I am a white supremacist? This garbage stops," Dichter says.

He also claims the mainstream media will learn "very harsh lessons" for their coverage of the protest.

Quiggins says there has been a 10 day injunction against truckers honking, which is "fine." But he points out that a senior judge from the Superior Court of Canada said the truckers had a lawful right to free expression, both under Common Law and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Quiggins also says the idea that the convoy wants to overthrow the government is "fantasy." He says some groups with different agendas have talked about creating a new government alongside the governor general, but this has "no basis in reality."

(He is likely talking about organizer James Bauder's "memorandum of understanding." Bauder withdrew the MOU halfway through the protest, saying the document was merely meant to raise awareness around mandates.)

Quiggins says the "spin by some of the mainstream media" about the convoy wanting to overthrow the government is "completely inaccurate."

IT'S OVER: We're breaking for lunch. Back at 2:15.