A group of members of the Conservative Party of Canada met with some of the people planning protests in Ottawa this summer, including organizers of the Freedom Convoy that took to the streets of downtown earlier this year.
James Topp, a veteran marching across Canada to protest the remaining vaccine warrants, will end his trip on June 30, but went to Ottawa on Wednesday to attend the meetings.
He was joined by Paul Alexander, a former administration official of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, and Tom Marazzo, who served 25 years in the Canadian Forces and had a failed candidacy as an MPP candidate. of Ontario.
Marazzo was invited by James Bauder to come and help lead the Freedom Convoy during the protests in Ottawa earlier this year.
Bauder, who faces charges in Ottawa and continued to protest in British Columbia after leaving the city in February, is responsible for creating the Unity Canada group and the website that helped develop the initial plan. of the convoy to reach Ottawa.
James Topp began walking to Ottawa in February, inspired by the Freedom Convoy and disturbed, he says, by over-government. (CBC)
Daniel Bulford, another organizer who helped coordinate the Freedom Convoy, was also at the meetings Wednesday.
Bulford is a former RCMP officer who was in the prime minister’s security briefing before resigning after refusing to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. He was the security chief of the convoy, and was presumed to have strong relations with the police agencies.
Taking place in a government building near Parliament Hill, just days after Ottawa suspended vaccination warrants for federal employees and passengers traveling to Canada, Alexander told lawmakers that “the COVID-19 pandemic has “criticized the blockades for the May 24 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, which left 19 children and two teachers dead.”
Topp told lawmakers that several groups formed after the Freedom Convoy had been under the same umbrella to continue protesting.
“His problem is not so much with the mandates, but his satisfaction with the federal government,” Topp said. “There is a division in this country that I have never seen or experienced before; I have only ever seen it in a war zone.”
Topp has received support from communities as he travels across the country, and many are expected to gather in Ottawa on June 30 to be there when his march officially ends. About 20 deputies greeted him in what he described as a “well-received” meeting.
“I understand they have busy schedules, I’m sure there are things deep down that I’m not aware of, this is their business not mine,” he said. “The fact is that those who showed up here extended their courtesy to us and recognized what it took to get them into the room.”
Cypress Hills-Grasslands MP Jeremy Patzer offered his support to Topp and his group, saying it is a message he has also endeavored to try to convey.
A handful of CPC MPs were meeting with James Topp, Danny Bulford and Tom Marazzo in a Parliament building: posing for photos, shaking hands before paperwork began. Topp is a key figure in the ongoing Freedom Movement pic.twitter.com/EcaB7dMJFO
– @ DCFraser
“These are just average citizens who have concerns. As members of Parliament, if we are not willing to listen to the concerns of the average person, then we are not doing our job,” he said in an interview with CBC.
“I would encourage all members of Parliament, regardless of their political background, to be willing to listen and to hear the voices of people like this, because they have a message they want to hear and we need to be willing to listen to them.”
He added that “he would meet with anyone who wants to meet with me who has a concern” and said the group has no extremist views.
“I am not willing to demonize or accept this narrative that people who have opinions that other people disagree with should be demonized to maintain those opinions,” he said.
During the convoy earlier this year, some CCP MPs met with protesters stationed near Parliament Hill, but others, including the Prime Minister, did not.
In all, about 20 deputies, all from the CPC caucus, attended on Wednesday, including leadership hopeful Leslyn Lewis, Warren Steinley, John Barlow, Ryan Williams, Dean Allison and Arnold Viersen.
Topp said he invited all MPs to attend.