A legal advocacy group says the City of Ottawa’s move to prevent Rolling Thunder biker convoy participants from accessing a designated downtown area with their vehicles this weekend is unconstitutional.
“We write to caution the City that its intention to enforce a ‘motor vehicle exclusion zone’ would be a gravely unjustified and unlawful restriction on Canadians’ freedoms of expression, association, and peaceful assembly guaranteed under the Charter,” writes lawyer Hatim Kheir of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms in an open letter to Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson on April 29.
The exclusion zone is designed to prevent a vehicle-based protest from getting close to Parliament Hill or blocking parts of the downtown core. Vehicles not affiliated with the event will be allowed access by driving past police barricades.
…