One of the most polarizing figures to gain notoriety during what became known as the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa more than two years ago will stand trial Monday.Freedom Convoy organizer Pat King appears as a witness at the Public Order Emergency Commission in Ottawa on Nov. 2, 2022.
Without financial backing from any major advocacy group, King has had to raise money mostly on his own, hosting events both in Alberta and Ontario. Like the much bigger lockdown of Ottawa in 2022, they included calls to arrest Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, as well as racist sentiments. One such effort, known as "Adopt-A-Trucker," was launched on Jan. 18, 2022. It was described as being "endorsed" by King, a testament to the weight his name carried among sympathizers.King's sizeable online audience, his experience organizing protests and his bombastic live feeds as he travelled to Ottawa quickly turned him into a key figure of the protests.