OTTAWA (LifeSiteNews) — Freedom Convoy protester Evan Blackman is back in court to defend his presence at the 2022 protest and challenge the freezing of his bank accounts.
According to the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF), the Ontario Court of Justice will hold a retrial for Blackman, who was charged with mischief and obstruction for his participation in the 2022 Freedom Convoy protests and subsequently had his bank accounts frozen.
“The freezing of Mr. Blackman’s bank accounts was an extreme overreach on the part of the police and the federal government,” constitutional lawyer Chris Fleury declared.
“These records will hopefully reveal exactly how and why Mr. Blackman’s accounts were frozen,” Fleury continued.
Blackman was arrested in 2022 during the Freedom Convoy that protested COVID mandates and vaccine passports. In October, his charges of mischief and obstructing police were dismissed due to lack of evidence.
However, the crown has since appealed the dismissal, and Blackman will stand trial beginning August 14.
In addition to his 2022 arrest, TD Bank froze Blackman’s three bank accounts for his participation in the Freedom Convoy in accordance with the direction of former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who froze the bank accounts of those who donated to the Freedom Convoy.
In July, an Ontario judge ordered that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and TD Bank must produce records related to freezing Blackman’s accounts.
Blackman’s lawyers plan to use his bank records at the upcoming trial to expose the government overreach that took place in 2022.
At the time, the move was legal under the Emergencies Act (EA), which Trudeau enforced to give Liberal increased powers to disperse the protesters under the claim that the protest was violent.
However, far from being violent, videos of the protest against COVID regulations and vaccine mandates show Canadians from across the country gathering outside Parliament engaged in dancing, street hockey, and other family-friendly activities.
In fact, the only acts of violence caught on video were carried out against the protesters after the Trudeau government directed police to end the protest. One such video showed an elderly women being trampled by a police horse.
Additionally, according to the JCCF, video footage from protest shows Blackman attempting to maintain peace. He is seen restraining fellow protesters to avoid clashes with police, kneeling before officers for several minutes, taking off his hat, placing his hands on his chest, and singing “O Canada” just before his arrest.
The measures under the EA included freezing the bank accounts of Canadians who donated to the protest and use of police horses to force protesters out of Ottawa. Trudeau revoked the EA on February 23 after the protesters had been cleared out. At the time, seven of Canada’s 10 provinces opposed Trudeau’s use of the EA.
In 2024, Federal Court Justice Richard Mosley ruled that Trudeau was “not justified” in invoking the Emergencies Act.
