Convoy leader in town

One of the faces of the 2022 Freedom Convoy in Ottawa will be in the Okanagan this weekend, attending a fundraiser for his legal bills.

Pat King will be appearing at Kelowna's Sweet Cherry Stables on Sept. 28 for the fundraiser hosted by Alexandra Wright, former BC Conservative candidate

King was one of the main figures in the 2022 Ottawa protests against the government's response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

He's been charged with 10 separate criminal charges, including mischief, intimidation, counselling to commit mischief and counselling to obstruct police, among others. He stood trial earlier this year, and a decision is expected in Ottawa next week.

On Saturday, King is expected to attend the fundraiser at Wright's farm on Old Vernon Road. Wright says a friend asked her to host the event to raise money for King's legal defence and she “thought it would be a nice gesture.”

“I wasn't super involved (in the Freedom Convoy) but I do, obviously, think it's very important for everybody to defend freedom of speech and the right to peacefully protest in this country. And I think what happened to him and a few others from the Freedom Convoy, obviously the government decided to make examples of them and I don't want to live in a society that does that,” Wright told Castanet.

“He's got quite a lot of legal expenses as everybody knows and he's got a couple court appearances coming up in the next few months.”

While King was granted bail in July 2022, he was briefly taken back into custody in July for allegedly breaching his bail conditions through his use of social media. He was released again after spending a week behind bars and forfeiting $25,000 to the court.

Wright says she expects several hundred people to attend Saturday's event, which will include live music, a silent auction and food trucks. The event kicks off at 11 a.m. and runs through to the early evening.

Early this year, Wright was named as the BC Conservative candidate for the Kelowna-Mission riding, but in August, the party replaced her with candidate Gavin Dew. She's since sued the party for defamation, seeking more than $800,000 in damages and to be reinstated as the BC Conservative candidate.

Wright is expecting to be reinstated as the candidate, especially after hosting the Pat King fundraiser.

“Eight months ago I would have said they would have been on board with this but now that they've become the (BC) Liberals, maybe not,” Wright says. “I think they've definitely headed more towards the centre in order to pick up those stray votes.”