After spending five months in jail, Pat King, a key figure of the Freedom Convoy protest, has been granted bail in a decision by an Ottawa court on Monday.
This pronouncement on King’s bail status was delivered after a two-day review hearing last week. No further details on the rationale behind this decision nor on the evidence leading to it are available as per a publication ban.
King, having waited months to learn if he would be released on bail, had his bail review in April halted due to new charges as well as an alleged hacking of his lawyer’s computer during the proceedings. At the time, King’s then-defence lawyer had requested a review of the decision to keep him imprisoned until his trial would begin.
In the time that has passed, King has engaged a new lawyer to fight for his release and defend him against a mounting number of charges.
A leading figure in the weeks-long convoy protest against COVID-19 restrictions, King was arrested on Feb. 18 on four charges: mischief, counselling to commit mischief, counselling to commit the offence of disobeying a court order and counselling to obstruct police. Since that time, additional charges of obstructing justice and perjury have been added.
It has recently been indicated by a pastor who tries to visit King regularly in jail at the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Centre that King was “pretty beat down.”
–with files from CBC and the Canadian Press
