‘All of us suffered’: Ottawa lawsuit going ahead against protesters

The demonstration may be over but the lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit against the “Freedom Convoy” in downtown Ottawa says she still is planning to hold participants to account.

The lawsuit on behalf of residents and businesses is looking for more than $300 million in damages from truckers and donors.

Zexi Li, the face of the lawsuit, says she is still planning to take protestors to court, arguing the damage has been done.

“We were tortured by sound for days, we were harassed in our streets, we were honked at in the streets. They even honked at animals and when I say honk, people have to really remember that this isn’t just like a car beep. This is a well over 100 decibels of blaring horns that are blasting your ears at levels that can cause deafness and hearing damage instantly,” she told CityNews.

“The end of the day, these participants are all adults. They knowingly made these decisions, we gave them ample opportunity to leave and mitigate these consequences and they chose not to take those offers. And at the end of the day, they don’t deserve to get off scot-free.”

While some convoy participants have been arrested and face charges, Li believes they should be held to account not just criminally but through civil litigation as well.

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“This is far from over, not only from a litigation perspective, not only from an accountability perspective, but from the perspective of this movement as a whole is very clear and misunderstood. Like, there’s a lot of misinformation spreading around out there,” she said.

Li adds, “It’s just unbelievable, because they these people are going to stop at nothing and based on the actions that we have seen and the words that continue to spread, they have no plans on stopping anytime soon.”

She says she has received threats and online harassment since she came forward to speak out against the protesters.

Li would also like to see an inquiry, arguing politicians and police departments failed because things never would have gotten as bad as they did — if the law was upheld.

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“Not only into the actions of the police department, but in addition to that, the lack of action taken by the municipal, provincial and federal governments it’s lasted far longer than it ever should have,” she said.

“The response from all levels was incredibly disappointing and complete. I keep saying this, but it was a complete dereliction of duty from all of those that are supposed to protect us. They decided to play political games, and they decided to be wishy washy on the matter. Well, all of us suffered for it.”

The lawyer representing residents and businesses in the class-action lawsuit says he’s hired private investigators to identify individual truckers and has collected lists of license plates.

He says damages will be sought from donors to the convoy, demonstrators, a Bitcoin expert who has helped the demonstrators, as well as protest organizers.

With files from The Canadian Press