David Lindsay, organizer of the anti-COVID-19 restriction rallies in Kelowna, has responding to the city's application for an injunction that is trying to stop his protests.

(CARLI BERRY / iNFOnews.ca)

It has been months since the City of Kelowna filed for an injunction to stop weekly protests in Jim Stuart Park by so-called freedom protests against COVID restrictions and vaccines.

The only protester named in the filing was David Lindsay. Normally, in such court proceedings, a person has 21 days to respond.

After numerous delays, Lindsay finally filed his long and rambling response on Aug. 1 and, just this week, the courts were still trying to figure out where to go from here.

“The petition is an attempt to deny the Respondents their common law and s.2 Charter freedoms for no valid reason or grounds, nor express wording to permit this, for improper purposes and to give injustice the colour of justice,” is one of his opening sentences.

He goes on 160 pages, many out of place, pointing to what he sees as flaws in the city’s position and citing numerous legal cases.

The reason for some of those references are not always clear.

At one point, for example, he wrote about a case in the Capital Regional District where a building permit was denied after a cabin burned down on a non-conforming piece of land. In another case, he refers to an issue about a dog kennel in Hamilton, Ontario.

The City of Kelowna is seeking an injunction to stop the protests in the downtown park across from City Hall because, for one thing, the protesters don’t have a permit.

READ MORE: Kelowna ‘freedom rally’ racked up 200 unpaid tickets before being taken to court

The city also objects to the disruptive use of loudspeakers, tents being set up to sell merchandise illegally and because protesters were “standing and loitering on public roadways.”

Lindsay responded by saying the loudspeakers, for example, are “necessarily incidental to, and/or part of and/or mode of the Respondents’ common law, s. 2 Charter freedoms and manner of communication.”

He also said the city would not grant a permit even if he did apply for one.

The core of his response seems to be that the city’s bylaws and the RCMP Act violate the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and that his constitutional challenge needs to be heard in court before the injunction is considered.

“The effects of the Petition would be a catastrophic infringement and complete denial of effective common law and Charter freedoms,” he wrote.

Lindsay argued that communities must provide space for protests, whether they agree with the protesters or not.

“Communities must provide public space for the Respondents to use for their freedom of expression or there would be nowhere to exercise their freedoms, and without the fiat of the very Governments they are protesting against,” he wrote, latter arguing that denying such spaces would, essentially, transform such protests into private meetings.

“The Petitioner would be a judge in its own cause and biased in its decision making,” he wrote. “The right to freedom of expression must not be relegated to times and places where it is of the least possible relevance or effectiveness or upon the fiat of the State being opposed.

“Having city property open for municipal purposes are not restricted to only those that the City approves of with respect to date, time, location and/or content. Nor that the City imposes so many restrictions and/or conditions upon, as to render the Respondent’s freedoms ineffective, or of no use.”

Lindsay also wrote that the city issued more than 200 tickets and $50,000 in fines which he wants overturned as well.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Rob Munro or call 250-808-0143 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above. SUBSCRIBE to our awesome newsletter here.

News from © iNFOnews, 2023