Police officers patrol on foot along Albert Street as a protest against COVID-19 restrictions marked by gridlock and the sound of truck horns reached its 14th day, in Ottawa on Thursday, Feb. 10, 2022. The court is expected to hear from Ottawa locals who lived in the midst of the "Freedom Convoy" trial as part of the criminal trial of two of the protest organizers. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Justin Tang
OTTAWA – Local Ottawa resident Sarah Gawman told an Ottawa courtroom today that the sound of horn honking during the “Freedom Convoy” was incessant and intolerable.
Gawman is the first civilian witness to testify in the criminal trial of protest organizers Tamara Lich and Chris Barber.
She says she lived in a high-rise condo building downtown Ottawa when the protest began last year, and trucks and other vehicles lined up in her neighbourhood as far as the eye could see.
The Crown intends to call five local residents as part of its case, as well as an employee for the National Arts Centre and an employee for OC Transpo, the local public-transit operator.
The Crown says it plans to ask the witnesses about the turmoil they observed during the protest, in an effort to tie disruptions to Lich and Barber.
Justice Heather Perkins-McVey says she will make sure the witnesses stick to the things they observed first-hand, and won’t allow them to stray into the ways the protest affected them personally.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 12, 2023.
