Mack Truck Driver in Court

Guy's mischief trial continues tomorrow.

The three weeks originally scheduled for the Tamara Lich/Chris Barber trial have now expired. The prosecution hasn’t finished calling its witnesses, and the defence hasn’t yet presented its side of the story. So the trial is expected to resume October 11th.

But there’s another trial currently underway in the same courthouse. It began on Thursday and is scheduled to continue Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. I’ve told you about Guy, who drove his vintage Mack truck with no heat all the way from Nova Scotia. I’ve mentioned his friend, Mike, in the yellow Freightliner.

Guy spent a lot of time in Mike’s truck, including sleeping there at night. These two men were the first Freedom Convoy truckers to be arrested during the police crackdown. Around noon on Friday, February 18th, they could see the police line advancing toward them from the east, along Rideau Street.

CORRECTION: The first group of truckers to be arrested were parked on Nicholas Street. Arrests began around 7:30 am on Friday, 18 Feb. 2022. Mike and Guy were arrested a few hours later. Click here for more info (see bottom of that post).

“We were eating Big Macs,” remembers Guy. “Mike held his horn on for half an hour” (the truckers had been advised to sound their horn in an emergency). “He looked at me and said, ‘This ain't working. Nobody's coming.’ Guy laughs heartily. “Because everybody was running, right. It was funny.”

Swiftly, the tone changed. Riot police approached the yellow Freightliner.

We were the first people they come to. They said, ‘Get outta your truck.’ Mike went to pull the handle, but before his hand got there, they beat the window out. There was broken glass all over him. Then they unlocked it and drug him out.

The other ones were walking around the front. And I thought, ‘Well, it's stupid to sit here, cuz they're gonna beat this window out, too.’ I just got out and stood there and an officer arrested me.

Guy believes they were being made examples of. “They just arrested us and away we went. Then they started letting people drive away. We never had that option.”

A period of waiting around in the cold ensued. He was handcuffed with a plastic zip-tie for half an hour, he says, then put into steel cuffs, his arms behind his back, for over two hours. By the time he was fingerprinted, his hands were so swollen and numb he required assistance. “And they were blue. Because they had the cuffs on so tight. When they undid 'em, the policeman had to lift my arm up. Because I couldn't.”

A document filed by his lawyer indicates Guy was detained for an hour at the Rideau/Sussex intersection followed by nearly three hours in a transport vehicle (paddy wagon) “without access to food, water, washrooms, medical care or legal counsel, in temperatures of minus 13 Celsius” (see page 3, paragraph 2) [bold added by me].

Guy was charged with public mischief. Four additional charges were added later. Three have since been withdrawn, leaving him currently accused of mischief to property and obstructing police. He has been to court for pre-trial matters repeatedly, including in February, May, June, and July of this year - driving back and forth between Nova Scotia and Ottawa each time.

In court documents, Guy’s lawyer describes the involvement of eight officers, from three different police forces during his time in custody:

• OPP officer Jenn Stevenson (badge #T5078)

• OPP officer Brock Vessie (badge #T5107)

• Hamilton police badge #916

• Ottawa Police constable Dieu (badge #1894)

• Ottawa Police constable Paul Laforest (badge #2066)

• Ottawa Police constable Munier (badge #2613)

• Ottawa Police booking staff sergeant Stephen Plummer (badge #1788)

• Ottawa Police constable Zackrias (badge #2616)

How many of these officers will be required to testify? How many will be pulled away more pressing matters?

This, ladies and gentlemen, is your government at work. More than 18 months after the Freedom Convoy passed into history, scarce resources are being squandered prosecuting non-violent truckers such as Guy.

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MsCannabisCourt - who live tweeted the Tamara Lich/Chris Barber trial last week - will be in Guy’s courtroom this week keeping us apprised of what’s going on.

This is fabulous news. Follow her here and please consider buying her a coffee to say thanks.