Former Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall has been in contact with a key organizer of the protest against the Freedom Escort mandate, providing strategic advice before and after the occupation began in Ottawa. “Your team will probably be challenged by counter-protesters and it’s so important that they don’t take the bait,” Wall said in a text message he sent to truck driver Chris Barber in Saskatchewan on Feb. 2, according to court records. “Also, it is very important that any of those who try to hitch their wagon to this procession with ulterior motives and messages – especially racist stuff, are openly and unequivocally condemned by the organisers.” Wall cited as an example another protest organizer who was later criminally charged, Pat King, who commented on the Anglo-Saxon replacement theory in a Facebook video. Barber’s communication with Wall is captured in phone records obtained by Ottawa police as part of their investigation into criminal charges against the trucker, who was arrested on Feb. 17. Barber is currently charged, along with protest organizer Tamara Lich, with intimidation, obstructing a peace officer and disorderly conduct, among other charges in connection with the three-week occupation. He is currently on bail in Saskatchewan awaiting trial. Reached by CTV News on Monday, Wall declined to comment on his contact with Barber, saying, “I know him from Swift Current. He is connected to relatives and I would like to keep it confidential and private.’ A document described as a draft version of a data analysis of a Universal Forensic Extraction Device scan of Barber’s mobile phone was entered into evidence by the Crown ahead of tomorrow’s bail review hearing for Lich, on a fresh charge of breaching previous bail conditions . The data logs include 26 text messages between Wall and Barber and four phone calls between their numbers, totaling more than 29 minutes. In one text, Wall suggested the convoy was declaring “some kind of victory” after some provinces began to relax measures against COVID-19. “I think the convoy creates some elbow room for the provinces to start moving away from orders etc,” he wrote on 2 February. Wall also suggested the entourage use money raised through GoFundMe donations as a “final statement of success” and donate to veterans groups, the Salvation Army and food banks. On the same date, he asked Barber, “Do you feel it might be time to claim victory and end the occupation?” He also told Barber his daughter lives in Ottawa and provided the cell phone number for her boyfriend, who he said was willing to help deliver the supplies. In one exchange, they discuss what Barber believes is unfair coverage of the protest by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. “I do not watch or watch CBC,” Wall wrote. “It’s bad for my health.” Their communication appeared to end on February 7, a week before the federal government invoked Emergency Law to end the protest that locked down the city and closed several key border crossings. Wall served as Premier of Saskatchewan from 2007 to 2018. He is currently listed as special counsel in the Calgary office of the law firm Osler, Hoskin and Harcourt.
