Swift Current’s Barber testifies at Emergencies Act inquiry

Swift Current’s Chris Barber, who was one of the freedom convoy organizers that descended on Ottawa, was testifying as part of the Emergencies Act inquiry Tuesday.

Barber owns a trucking company and said he decided to get involved because he was tired of how COVID-19 restrictions at the Canada-U.S. border were impacting his company.

Early in 2021, the federal government took away the exemption for truck drivers to be unvaccinated against COVID-19 and cross the border. Prior to the vaccination rules, truck drivers were given an exemption as they were considered to be an essential service.

Barber maintained he went to Ottawa to support other people who were suffering because of the mandates.

“There’s so many different stories that I’ve heard throughout this ordeal that contributes to why we went there,” Barber explained. “You hear stories about people dying there alone because mandates wouldn’t allow their kids (to be) with their parents when they took their last breath.

“My daughter was 16 at the time in high school and unvaxxed. (She) was bullied and because she wasn’t vaccinated, she had to play a clarinet in music class in a separate room.”

As the convoy made its way across Canada, drivers had places to stop so they could rest up and eat during the cross-country trip.

As they closed in on Ottawa, Barber said he and others were told there would be a place for them to park and protest in order to convey their message.

“To this day I’ve never been to these parks, but my understanding coming across Canada was (that) there was two staging areas (in Ottawa) — Major Hills Park (sic) and Confederate Park (sic),” Barber said, referring to Major’s Hill Park and Confederation Park. “That is what I was told and what I understood.

“We had staging areas in these two parks, we had porta-potties ready to go and they were prepared for us when we got there and that turned out to be not true.”

During the protest, Barber said his main job was keeping emergency lanes open for vehicles that needed them and keeping the protest safe.

“That was my primary job the entire time I was here. I tried to make sure the emergency lanes were open,” he said.

During the protest, other groups got involved and pushed things to a new level.

Barber was asked whether he believed there were people who joined the convoy with a purpose other than wanting to end COVID mandates.

He said yes. While the core group of truckers stayed together, other groups tried to latch on, which he says created some difficulties.

“We found a way to keep it under control, (but) it was a power struggle a lot of the time,” he said.

The hearing was to continue throughout the day.