OTTAWA—A lawyer for organizers of the so-called “Freedom Convoy” ran to confront a man outside of the Emergencies Act inquiry on Thursday whom he mistook for the person he has repeatedly accused — despite ardent denials and without providing evidence — of carrying a Nazi flag to last winter’s protests.
The lawyer was also served a libel notice for the claims that have been dismissed as “absurd and despicable” by the company the accused man works for.
The bizarre episode comes as the convoy lawyer, Brendan Miller, continues to push a baseless conspiracy theory in the final days of the inquiry. The theory—which involves unproven accusations that the government colluded with the media and a public relations firm called Enterprise Canada to discredit the convoy protesters as extremists—was described in a written decision by the judge leading the inquiry as having “little foundation in evidence.” ”
During testimony Thursday evening at the inquiry, Miller ran into the hall outside of the hearing room and yelled after a man he mistakenly thought was Brian Fox, the Enterprise Canada employee accused of carrying the Nazi flag to the protest occupation in Ottawa.
“Would you agree to testify?” Miller asks, jogging towards the man.
The man, who is actually former Liberal staffer and government relations worker Greg MacEachern, had been watching the hearings in the public gallery.
Cameras filmed Miller laughing after realizing his mistake, then trying to apologize to MacEachern, who responds to him, “You’re an idiot.” Laughing again, Miller says to some gathering reporters: “Apparently there’s a hole in my case.”
Moments later, Miller confirmed to reporters he had recently served with a libel notice from Enterprise, which has vociferously denied the allegation against Fox. The firm added Fox has received death threats since Miller first made the accusation this week.
Asked to explain his allegations, Miller cited the affidavit the judge has already ruled provides little evidence for his theory, as well as unspecified “data analytics” of online photos. He also accused journalists at the inquiry of unspecified “political connections,” arguing the media isn’t covering his arguments and that too many government documents provided to the process are blacked out.
Challenged by reporters suggesting Miller doesn’t know Fox is the person carrying the Nazi flag, he said: “If we don’t know, what’s the easiest thing to do? Put him on the stand.”
Miller also said he welcomed the lawsuit from Enterprise, saying he wants to get access to the firm’s client list and other information as a defendant in a legal proceeding.
MacEachern declined an interview when contacted by the Star on Thursday night.
JOIN THE CONVERSATION
Anyone can read Conversations, but to contribute, you should be a registered Torstar account holder. If you do not yet have a Torstar account, you can create one now (it is free)
.