A Sussex-area businessman who was one of the biggest financial donors to the Freedom Convoy is asking an Ontario court to throw out an attempt to sue him for damages.
Brad Howland, who gave $75,000 to the convoy that paralyzed downtown Ottawa last winter, is named in a motion to designate him as the representative of all those who gave money to support the protest.
It’s part of a broader class-action lawsuit filed on behalf of downtown Ottawa residents, businesses and employees who say the convoy has disrupted their lives.
The suit asks the Ontario Superior Court to add Howland on behalf of a “donor class” of defendants.
Those who donated money online did so “with the intent to encourage and facilitate these actions,” attorney Paul Champ argued in his motion. The request will be heard in court in Ottawa on January 24-25. (Jacques Poitras/CBC)
The motion said Howland and other donors “knew or should have known” that Freedom Convoy protesters were breaking the law and disrupting the lives of downtown residents and workers by honking their truck horns and spewing diesel fumes.
Those who donated money online did so “with the intent to encourage and facilitate these actions,” attorney Paul Champ argued in his motion.
The request will be heard in court in Ottawa on January 24-25.
The claims have not been proven in court, and James Manson, an attorney for Howland and other potential defendants, argued that the case and the attempt to add Howland was not supported by any evidence of specific defendants.
“In effect, the plaintiffs wrongfully sued a crowd of people without identifying who was in the crowd or which people did what things,” his motion said.
Manson argued that it was unreasonable to try to sue “thousands of random people around the world who just donated money to a political cause.”
Each individual donor’s personal reasons for donating to the Freedom Convoy should be considered, he said.
“That would be impossible.”
The convoy began parking trucks in downtown Ottawa last January 28 and the protest continued until police broke it up on February 19-20.
Most participants wanted the federal government to end vaccine mandates for truck drivers, although some also called for the Trudeau government to be removed from power.
Brad Howland, who lives in Kars, owns Easy Kleen Pressure Systems Ltd., based in Sussex Corner. The businessman was identified as the convoy’s second-biggest donor in leaked data from online fundraising site GiveSendGo. (Roger Kosman/CBC)
Howland, who lives in Kars and owns Easy Kleen Pressure Systems Ltd. based in Sussex Corner, was identified as the convoy’s second-biggest donor in leaked data from online fundraising site GiveSendGo.
He traveled to Ottawa to “participate” in the convoy on Feb. 11-12, according to the plaintiffs’ motion.
Howland confirmed in a statement to CBC News last year that he was at the protest and called it a “beautiful, legal, peaceful protest that overwhelmed us with emotion.”
The business owner said his company relies on truck drivers and it’s important to support them.
“Our company and my family are proud to stand with these men and women as they uphold the Charter of Rights and Freedoms of our great nation,” he said.
An assistant to Howland said in an email Thursday that he was not available to comment on the court documents.
Champ argued in his motion that financial donations such as Howland’s “encouraged and incited” the convoy participants as they made “as much noise as possible to cause discomfort and distress” to local residents “in order to force political leaders’.
But Manson called the claim “both ridiculous and unprovable.
“There is simply no way the plaintiffs could ever prove that all the people who donated funds to the Freedom Convoy protest ‘knew or should have known’ that those funds” would be used to fund wrongdoing, he argued.
Champ is seeking a total of $290 million in general, special and punitive damages from all defendants, which include several high-ranking leaders of the movement.
Champ says in his motion that Howland’s company, Easy Kleen, has a 7,400-square-foot manufacturing facility and 165 employees. It operates seven offices in Canada and supplies equipment worldwide.
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