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Jason LeFaci of Sudbury, Ontario, has been named in a lawsuit filed by Ottawa residents and companies affected by the protest
Author of the article:
Mary Katherine Keown, Sudbury Star, Postmedia News
Date Posted:
May 27, 2022 • 2 hours ago • 4 minutes of reading • 305 comments Jason LaFaci, running in the Ontario party in the provincial election, is one of 20 defendants in a $ 300 million class action lawsuit against Freedom Convoy participants. Photo by Jason LeFace / HANDOUT
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A Sudbury organizer of the Freedom Convoy, which took place earlier this year and closed parts of downtown Ottawa, has been named in a $ 300 million class action lawsuit.
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Jason LeFaci, who is running for the Ontario party in Sudbury under the name Jason LaFace, said this week that he has little respect for the lawsuit and has no plans to compensate the plaintiffs.
“For me, this lawsuit is a joke,” he told The Sudbury Star. “The people who put it together really have to shake their heads.”
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LeFaci said “all the things they say are lies.”
None of the allegations in the lawsuit have been substantiated in court.
He said the protests with which he participated were peaceful. He said that once his crew arrived in Ottawa, “the city was already closed and businesses were closed.”
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A Freedom Convoy platform is towed on Sunday as city workers return to normalcy around the Parliament Hill. Photo by ASHLEY FRASER, POSTMEDIA
LeFaci is one of 20 people in a class action lawsuit recently filed by Ottawa-based Champ and Associates. LeFaci is the only person in northern Ontario who has been named as a defendant.
The lawsuit was filed to rectify “the serious damages and losses experienced by residents, businesses and workers in downtown Ottawa due to the occupation of the Freedom Convoy,” the website explains.
Four plaintiffs are named, but they represent thousands of affected individuals, including about 12,000 residents, a couple of hundred companies and up to 800 employees working in the city center. They are seeking $ 306 million in damages, in addition to legal costs and HST.
Defendants deliberately planned and coordinated tactics to block all streets and highways around Parliament Hill and surrounding neighborhoods, and to produce as much noise and air pollution as possible to cause nuisance and distress to residents, businesses and Ottawa workers to coerce governments to meet their demands, “the lawsuit’s website said. “Non – stop horns, diesel fumes, unexpected fireworks and loud sound systems with music have caused residents unbearable torment in the sanctity of their own homes.
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“Defendants are aware or should be aware that these tactics can cause permanent physical harm and psychological harm. Defendants have acted with direct disregard for Ottawa residents, businesses and workers. Canada is a free and democratic society with a “Long-standing tradition of protest and peaceful assemblies. Defendants have abused these freedoms to cause serious harm to others, innocent spectators of the defendants’ pursuit of their wrong political goals.”
A class action lawsuit seeks to recover damages from people who “live, work or do business” in the so-called Freedom Convoy occupation zone. Photo of Champ & Associates
LeFaci has no sympathy for the complainants, however.
“You don’t take a dime from me, but go ahead, you can try,” he joked. “I think it’s a joke. It’s funny. They’re left-wing radicals who’ve lost their minds. They need serious mental health help.”
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LeFaci said the convoy participants were not trying to overthrow the government and did not take part in an illegal protest.
“We were trying to force the governor general to say, ‘Look, we have a prime minister and a caucus in power right now who are breaking the law,'” he said.
Paul Champ, the plaintiffs’ attorney, said there were more than 400 tractors-trailers “parked and idling non-stop during that three-week period, and also sounding horns for extended periods, from the first hour. in the morning until late at night. ”
The horns were a special nuisance, Champ said. They were used to “make life miserable” for downtown Ottawa residents “in the hope that it would pressure political leaders to surrender to protesters’ demands.”
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Parking a tractor-trailer in front of a private house, stopping it all day and night, and blowing a “horn” for 10 minutes straight every half hour from 7 a.m. to midnight, that’s not it. peaceful or lawful, “Champ said.
Some residents are still struggling with tinnitus and hearing problems, he added.
As Ontario dropped many of its indoor food restrictions on Monday, many downtown Ottawa restaurants were still forced to remain closed due to the continued presence of Freedom Convoy 2022 detainees that blocked the core. . Photo of REUTERS / Blair Gable
As the national capital, Champ said residents and businesses are accustomed to protests and mass rallies, but the convoy’s protest was “far above the line. It was aimed at hurting people in the center.” of Ottawa using trucks as a form of intimidation. “
The tactics used by the protesters were not appreciated by the residents. Once the dust had settled on the convoy of freedom, Champ said these tactics essentially undermined the cause by attacking residents against the movement.
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The defendants named were the organizers of the Freedom Convoy. LeFaci is accused of being a road captain, meaning he was responsible for “organizing a large group of truckers in northern Ontario, driving them through the streets of downtown Ottawa, and then playing a role in logistics, making sure truckers in Ottawa were receiving supplies of diesel fuel and food so they could stay in place, blocking the streets of Ottawa, leaving their trucks idling with diesel fumes non-stop for three weeks and sounding the horns “.
Champ said his team is in the process of naming all the truckers who were on the ground during the protest. He said they have identified all the leaders and about 75 percent of the others.
“Once we have identified them all, we will modify the claim to add them to the claim and seek to have this class action certified, ideally in early 2023,” Champ said.
mkkeown@postmedia.com
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