Proposed convoy protest class action lawsuit clears hurdle

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A proposed class action lawsuit against those who allegedly organized and funded the convoy protests in Ottawa cleared another hurdle on Thursday, when the Ontario Court of Appeal refused to dismiss the case.

Some downtown Ottawa residents and businesses are suing for $290 million, alleging personal suffering and business losses from the 2022 protest.

The lawsuit has not yet been certified as a class action.

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The defendants tried to get the case thrown out of court by arguing that their protest was in the public interest, but the Court of Appeal upheld a lower court’s ruling allowing the lawsuit to proceed.

In court documents, the defendants say they plan to argue they were following police direction when they parked their trucks in Ottawa’s downtown core.

The Court of Appeal panel said it saw no evidence to suggest that “police directed the truckers to remain parked on public streets” for as long as they did, or to “honk their horns with the frequency and intensity they did.”

“(The motion judge) understood the political motivation and goals of the convoy protest, and he understood the harm the residents and businesses in the protest zone contended they had suffered as a result of how the protest was conducted,” Justice David Brown wrote on behalf of the three-judge panel.

Brown said he saw no error in how the lower court weighed the harm to the residents and businesses against the public interest element of the protest.

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