N.B. convoy donor fighting motion to name him in lawsuit
CBC
A Sussex-area businessperson who was one of the largest financial donors to the Freedom Convoy is asking a court in Ontario 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 everyone 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 disrupted their lives.
The suit wants the Ontario Superior Court of Justice to add Howland on behalf of a "donor class" of defendants.
The motion says Howland and other donors "knew or ought to have known" that the Freedom Convoy protesters were breaking the law and disrupting the lives of residents and workers in the downtown by blasting their truck horns and spewing diesel fumes.
Those who donated money online did so "with the intention of encouraging and facilitating those acts," lawyer Paul Champ argues in his motion.
The motion will be heard in court in Ottawa Jan. 24-25.
The allegations have not been proven in court, and James Manson, a lawyer for Howland and other potential defendants, argues that the lawsuit and the attempt to add Howland are not backed up by any evidence about specific defendants.
"The plaintiffs have, in fact, improperly sued a crowd of people without identifying who was in the crowd, or which people did what things," his motion says.
Manson argues it's unreasonable to try to sue "thousands of random people around the world who merely donated money to a political cause."
Each individual donor's personal reasons for donating to the Freedom Convoy would have to be examined, he said.
"That would be impossible."
The convoy began parking trucks in downtown Ottawa last Jan. 28, and the protest continued until police broke it up on Feb. 19-20.
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