Legal group takes action on behalf of Freedom Convoy leaders to halt $290 million lawsuit

(LifeSiteNews) — A motion for a “permanent stay of proceedings” was filed by a Canadian legal group to try and stop a $290 million class-action lawsuit filed by disgruntled Ottawa residents against the Freedom Convoy leaders.

The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) said in a press release that its lawyers have filed a motion for a permanent stay of proceedings in the case and hope the suit will be dropped.

“The integrity of the justice system depends on transparency between all parties,” constitutional lawyer James Manson said about the case.

“When one side secretly enters into an agreement with a defendant that requires cooperation against others, and then does not disclose that agreement immediately, as required by law, the basic fairness of the process is fundamentally undermined. Courts cannot permit litigation to proceed on a foundation that has been compromised in this way.”

As reported by LifeSiteNews, the JCCF had recently announced it has a “significant procedural development” that could put the case “on hold.”

In February 2022, Freedom Convoy leaders Tamara Lich, Chris Barber, and others were hit with the lawsuit, which originally started at $9.8 million but ballooned to $290 million.

The class-action lawsuit was filed by Ottawa civil servant Zexi Li on February 4, 2022, along with Geoffrey Delaney, Happy Goat Coffee Company, and a local union. It names plaintiffs who have businesses or were working in the city’s downtown core during the Freedom Convoy.

As reported by LifeSiteNews, a court said last year that the lawsuit could proceed.

According to the JCCF, the motion to put the case on hold comes from “the plaintiffs’ failure to immediately disclose a settlement agreement reached in April 2024 with one of the defendants.”

The JCCF noted in April 2024 that Chad Eros, one of its defendants, signed a settlement agreement with the plaintiffs. The JCCF said that at the time that “Mr. Eros did not have a lawyer formally on the court record.”

The JCCF said that the defendant “was self-represented at the time. The agreement required him to provide documents to the plaintiffs for use against other defendants, participate in a private interview of up to five hours, provide an affidavit in support of the plaintiffs, make himself available for cross-examination, and pay $60,000 in exchange for his release from the action.”

“Although Ontario law requires such types of partial settlement agreements to be disclosed immediately to the other parties in the litigation, in this case the agreement was not disclosed to other defence counsel until January 27, 2026, nearly 22 months after it was executed,” the JCCF noted.

On March 6, 2025, Ontario Court of Appeals Justices David Brown, Peter Lauwers, and Steve Coroza ruled that a $290 million class-action lawsuit against some of those who organized and participated in the Freedom Convoy for creating a “public nuisance causing pain” will be allowed to proceed.

In early 2022, the Freedom Convoy saw thousands of Canadians from coast to coast come to Ottawa to demand an end to COVID mandates in all forms. Despite the peaceful nature of the protest, former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government enacted the Emergencies Act (EA) on February 14, 2022.

During the clear-out of protesters after the EA was put in place, one protester, an elderly lady, was trampled by a police horse and one conservative female reporter was beaten by police and shot with a tear gas canister.

As reported by LifeSiteNews, the Canadian Federal Court of Appeal affirmed several weeks ago a ruling that Trudeau’s use of the EA in 2022 to clear the Freedom Convoy protesters against COVID mandates was illegal.