Rideau & Sussex: The Balloon Deflates
Francophone group accused of blocking an Ottawa intersection was actually stationed across the river.
Part 1: Who is Steeve Charland? Part 2: Who are Les Farfadaas? Part 3: Rideau & Sussex: The Balloon Deflates Part 4: O Canada, What Kind of Hellhole are We Turning Into?
Many people have told the Emergencies Act hearings that the intersection of Rideau and Sussex streets was a problem. Elsewhere, the protesting truckers conscientiously kept at least one lane open to facilitate local traffic and emergency vehicles.
But while pedestrians moved freely at Rideau and Sussex - located a few blocks east of Parliament - automobiles did not. The protesters had settled in. They’d fully blocked the intersection, and refused to budge.
On October 18th Jim Watson, the former mayor of Ottawa, testified he’d heard there were “criminal elements” associated with “the biker gang community in Quebec” at Rideau and Sussex (see pages 57, 59 and 184 of the official transcript here).
The next day, a lawyer asked whether Les Farfadaas were extremists. The head of intelligence for the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), Patrick Morris, said no. In his words:
Everybody was asking about extremism. We weren't seeing much evidence of it…FAARFADA is a group that until this event I was not familiar with, and I was informed by [Quebec police] that they were not a violent group, although they were opposed to the pandemic mandates, et cetera, et cetera…FAARFADA was geographically situated in a specific area. I believe Rideau and Sussex.
[Page 283, bold added. The name of the group is misspelled in the official transcript on that occasion - see pages 282 and 283). ]
It’s unclear why this knot of protesters was more militant than everyone else. Many were reportedly French-speaking residents of la belle province who had endured five months of curfews (beginning as early as 8 pm). Whatever the reasons, there’s still no evidence of criminals and biker gangs.
Here’s the key point: There seems to have been no organized Farfadaas presence there, either. It was a bit like watching a balloon deflate last week as Les Farfadaas spokesperson Steeve Charland explained that his group had rented a large parking lot for $1000 a day on the Quebec side of the river so that members of the public could park, walk across the Portage Bridge into Ottawa (on the western edge of the protest), and join in.
In that parking lot, he says, “we had a popular kitchen where people who wanted to do volunteer work went to cook. Everyone was welcome to eat.” Word quickly spread that this was a pay-what-you-can scenario, and that no one would be turned away. “So there were a lot of people in need in Gatineau who went to eat there,” says Steeve (page 179).
He told a string of lawyers, one after another, that while some individuals connected to Les Farfadaas might have been among the Rideau & Sussex protesters, he personally wasn’t aware of this fact. Yes, he himself had probably walked by that intersection while visiting the protest, he said. But since he isn’t familiar with the city, he isn’t even sure where the Rideau & Sussex intersection is.
A few fun facts:
In 2016, this same intersection turned into a giant sinkhole and was closed for three weeks.
During the Freedom Convoy’s stay in Ottawa, police barricaded dozens of downtown intersections, as can be seen on the map above.
To this day, nine months later, a multi-block length of Wellington Street remains closed.
Quebec residents lived under a nightly curfew from January 9th 2021 until May 28th 2021 - 138 days. In some parts of the province, including Montreal, the curfew took effect at 8:00 pm. Elsewhere it was 9:30 pm.
A second, 10 pm curfew, was imposed on New Years Eve 2021. It was lifted 17 days later, on January 17th 2022.
Police officers enforced these curfews. People received fines as high as $6,000.
Part 1: Who is Steeve Charland? Part 2: Who are Les Farfadaas? Part 3: Rideau & Sussex: The Balloon Deflates Part 4: O Canada, What Kind of Hellhole are We Turning Into?
