Blockade briefly stops Pride Parade in downtown Winnipeg
A group of protesters briefly blocked the Winnipeg Pride Parade on Sunday.
A pickup truck decorated with a Confederate flag at the “Freedom Convoy” in Ottawa early last year was driven by a local roofer who supported the protests, not by Liberal government “provocateurs” as convoy organizers alleged at the public inquiry into the invoking of the Emergencies Act.
Maurice Landriault told CTV National News that it was his Dodge Ram 2500 seen on Elgin Street and at a protest site at Confederation Square, but he denies the flag he mounted on the tailgate next to a Canadian flag was offensive.
“It’s a sign of independence,” he said. “I look at it as a rebel sign. In the biker community, a lot of people have the Confederate flag because we’re rebels.”
But to many, the flag is a racist symbol and a disturbing reminder of the U.S. Confederacy’s fight to preserve slavery. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau denounced their display at the Ottawa protest, saying his government wouldn’t give in to “racist flags.”
Landriault says some protesters asked him to take it off his truck.
“They’re telling me it’s racist. It’s not racist. You guys are making it racist.”
At the Public Order Emergency Commission in November, convoy organizers brought a motion to compel evidence about Nazi and Confederate flags seen at the protest, claiming the Liberal government attempted to use them to wrongly portray protesters as racists and extremists.
Their lawyer, Brendan Miller, argued they had “evidence and grounds to suspect that the flags, and purported protesters using them, were not protesters with the convoy at all, but provocateurs.”
He asked Commissioner Paul Rouleau to order the Ottawa Police Service or the Ontario Provincial Police to trace the pickup truck’s licence plate to uncover the owner’s identity.
Rouleau declined the request, saying there is “no proper foundation in the evidence to believe that the registration information for this vehicle would disclose the existence of an agent provocateur.”
Miller also alleged that a man photographed holding a flag with a swastika near Parliament Hill was Toronto communications consultant Brian Fox, in an attempt to discredit the convoy movement, possibly at the direction of the Prime Minister’s Office.
Fox and his firm, Enterprise Canada, called the claim absurd and despicable, and are suing Miller for defamation.
Still, convoy supporters continued to promote theories that offensive symbols seen on Ottawa streets in January and February were the work of “antifa” – short for anti-fascists – or other saboteurs working in league with the federal government.
CTV National News obtained Landriault’s name from the registration of the licence plate filed with the Ontario Ministry of Transportation.
He says he bought the Confederate flag in 2019 to take to a concert by rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd.
He says he eventually traded the flag to another protester for a flag with a NSFW (not safe for work) slogan from a Frank Zappa song.
On the day Trudeau testified at the commission, Landriault attended the hearings dressed in a “Beetlejuice” costume and wearing a Harley Davidson baseball cap adorned with a Confederate flag motif.
During a break in the proceedings, he says he approached Miller.
"I told him I'm the one who had the truck, and I didn't work for no government," he said.
Landriault, who is unvaccinated, is a motorcycle rider and helped organize fellow bikers to participate in a 2021 protest against COVID-19 measures.
He says he attended the convoy protest last year to send a message to the government about vaccination mandates.
“We’re fed up,” he said. “You’ve taken too much control of people’s lives. You’re forcing a person to take a vaccine to go to a restaurant, to go to a movie, to travel, to go to school.”
He says he used his truck and trailer to help bring fresh supplies of diesel fuel to keep the big rigs running.
The pickup truck he drove to the protest was totalled in a collision last year, he says.
A group of protesters briefly blocked the Winnipeg Pride Parade on Sunday.
Research shows that art experiences, whether as a maker or a beholder, transform our biology by rewiring our brains and triggering the release of neurochemicals, hormones and endorphins.
Ryan Reynolds this week unveiled arguably the most anticipated and sure-to-be coveted merchandise tied to his upcoming 'Deadpool' sequel: the movie’s novelty popcorn bucket.
Former U.S. president Donald Trump said he is 'OK' with serving potential jail time or being under house arrest following his historic conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
A brief break during Wednesday's city council meeting in Saskatoon nearly cost the city dearly.
During the pandemic, the Ontario government started to hand out cash to parents to help offset the cost of at-home learning while schools were shuttered.
Eight people, including four children, have second- or third-degree burns as a result of an incident at a home in Saint-Constant, Que. south of Montreal, the Coopérative des techniciens ambulanciers de la Montérégie (CETAM) reported on Saturday.
Media magnate Rupert Murdoch, 93, has married for the fifth time, his corporation, News Corp, confirmed Sunday.
South Korea said Sunday it’ll soon take retaliatory steps against North Korea over its launch of trash-carrying balloons across the border and other provocations.
Car 14 is a luxury passenger car that once made regular runs from London to Port Stanley starting in 1917.
A hefty donation by a renowned local activist to the University of Winnipeg has created what is believed to be the most comprehensive two-spirit archives in all of Canada.
Leanne Van Bergen discovered a skulk of 10 baby foxes, and two mothers, had made themselves at home on her property in Beausejour.
An 81-year-old Waterloo, Ont. woman thought she’d never ride a horse again after a brain bleed led to severe physical complications.
A CP24 camera caught the moment a driver frantically got out of her car as it was being dragged by a truck on Avenue Road Wednesday afternoon.
Prince Edward Island is celebrating its first-ever International Day of Potato on Thursday.
The president of Covered Bridge Chips in New Brunswick is hoping to have his factory rebuilt for late 2025 following a devastating fire last year.
Students and staff at Winnipeg’s Westwood Collegiate had a unique problem to solve this month; how do you lead ducks to water from the school’s courtyard when 12 of them can’t fly yet?
Debby Lorinczy remembers her father as an amazing person and as a man who also made an amazing discovery.