Who is Steeve Charland?
23 days in jail, 10 in solitary. Called a Freedom Convoy leader yet has never spoken to core organizers.
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?
According to the government - and the government mouthpiece known as the CBC - Steeve Charland is a leader of the Freedom Convoy. This 48-year-old francophone resident of Quebec testified at the Emergencies Act hearings last week. He describes himself as a “writer, speaker, and blogger.” Self-employed in the firewood business, he’s also the official spokesperson of Les Farfadets, a group founded in 2020.
Cue the official smear machine. Dripping with derision, the CBC tells us that “Another leader of the so-called Freedom Convoy” has been arrested:
Charland is known as a spokesman for Les Farfadaas, a Quebec group formed to protest against public health measures. That group was formed from La Meute, regarded by experts to be a far right, anti-Islam and anti-immigration group.
Charland previously held a senior position within La Meute, a group that maintains an active social media presence, promoting itself online to be campaigning for the defence of freedom of expression and democracy, as well as promoting secularism.
You see how this works, right? A group allegedly opposed to COVID overreach is portrayed as against public health.
A group allegedly “formed from” a different entity is, with the stroke of a pen, de-legitimized since that second entity is regarded by experts to be far right. No experts are identified. No evidence is proffered.
In the next paragraph the CBC acknowledges that this allegedly far right second entity actually campaigns in defence of freedom and democracy. How horrifying. But the damage has already been done. In the minds of many readers, steel doors have already descended. The code phrase far right has short-circuited their ability to think clearly.
Steeve’s story is going to take a few days to recount, and is important for several reasons. A full week after the Freedom Convoy was dispersed, he was arrested and charged with mischief and counselling to commit mischief. He says he then spent “23 days in prison, 10 days in solitary confinement.”
He told the Emergencies Act hearing it subsequently took him a month to recover from that experience: “I'm not a criminal, I'm not used to the justice system.”
(Because he testified in French, his answers appear in that language in the official transcript. The above remarks can be found on page 190 and were auto-translated by Google translate.)
Steeve went on to explain that he was granted bail in advance of his trial only because:
I accepted heavy conditions, which took away my fundamental rights. I no longer have the right to express myself on social [media], I no longer have the right to be in the presence of certain people, I did not even have the right to be on Wellington [Street in Ottawa], you had to change my conditions so that I can return to Wellington [to testify].
If Steeve is a convoy leader, he’s in a different category from organizers Brigitte Belton, Chris Barber, Tamara Lich, and Benjamin Dichter. As he told the hearing, he doesn’t know any of these core people. He has never even spoken to them.
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?
Wow poor guy. I too hope he gets justice.
"The code phrase far right has short-circuited their ability to think clearly." It is always the case. It is the typical smear tactic. The moment you have a different opinion, you're far right.
Wow! I hope this guy gets justice. Glad to learn about Steeve Charland and also more about the corruption of Canadian courts..I guess they make their judgments based on CBC reports for evidence.