Stop This Lawfare Now!
Ontario Premier needs to halt the abusive, nonsensical, wasteful persecution of Harold Jonker, whose 10-day trial begins today.
A couple of days ago, Harold Jonker told me he’d be getting into his vehicle extraordinarily early this morning. It’s a six-hour drive from his home in the Niagara region and he’s due in an Ottawa courtroom at 10 am.
Fourteen months after the Freedom Convoy ended, Ottawa Police issued a warrant for Harold’s arrest. So mild was his purported wrongdoing it took them more than a year to get around to charging him. None of his alleged crimes involve violence of any kind:
Mischief
Intimidation involving the obstruction of a highway
Two counts of counselling others to commit offences (that were not actually committed)
These are all nonsense charges - what a lawyer friend of mine calls chicken shit charges. It beggars belief that resources are being wasted on them. Ontario courts are notoriously backlogged. Judges, prosecutors, and courtrooms are all in short supply. Six months ago, CBC ran a news story headlined: Most criminal cases in Ontario now ending before charges are tested at trial. Vast numbers of charges - including those involving alleged sexual assault - are being “withdrawn, stayed, dismissed or discharged before a decision at trial” due to this crisis in our court system.
In no sane world does it make sense to devote two full weeks to prosecuting Harold. This is a family man, the father of thirteen. This is a Christian man, an elder in his church. This is a responsible and respected member of the community who protested government policies entirely peacefully.
When he arrived in Ottawa late in January 2022 - at the head of the Niagara arm of the Convoy - Harold followed police instructions about where to go and where to park. A few weeks later, after a bargain was struck to move trucks away from residential streets and up onto Wellington Street, Jonker Trucking’s big rigs did precisely that. Let me repeat: Harold worked with the police throughout the protest. As my book reveals, he also cooperated with them well before reaching Ottawa (Chapter 21 - Jonker Brotherhood: A Voice for the Voiceless).
I urge you to call the Premier’s office today at 416-325-1941 (you can also send him email here). Doug Ford needs to tell his attack-dog prosecutors to stand down.
This is lawfare. This is abuse. This is absurd.
Harold shares his thoughts with Toronto Sun reporter Joe Warmington during the Convoy protest in Ottawa here and here
in this video, Harold reports to a police station near where he lives in May 2023, after learning of the arrest warrant
listen to Harold’s hour-long interview with podcaster Gord Magill (January 2024)
Harold was interviewed by Derek Sloan in April 2024 and December 2024
