STAY CONNECTED: Have the stories that matter most delivered every night to your email inbox. Subscribe to our daily local news wrap.
By Justin Dionne

Speaking event by participants of United We Roll convoy being held in Grande Prairie

Mar 11, 2019 | 5:30 AM

A public speaking event, held by people who were involved with the United We Roll convoy, is taking place in Grande Prairie.

On March 14, the driver who led the convoy in Ontario, Patrick King, will be speaking at the Hampton Inn along with Jay Reidel, another worker in the oil and gas industry, and a guest speaker.

King says they’ll be in the Swan City to talk about a variety of topics surrounding the oil and gas industry. King and Reidel are in Drayton Valley today, and make their way to Edson on March 13 for similar speaking events.

“We come in and we tell people what our experience is. Basically, we touch on every topic as well. We try to educate Canadians. A lot of people do not understand how their Charter of Rights is being violated, and how they are able to exercise their Charter of Rights,” says King.

The meeting will also touch on the positive experiences throughout the United We Roll Convoy, which King notes wasn’t portrayed accurately by the media.

“We united a whole country, and we broke barriers with people that we had always been told in the west that ‘Ontario hates us, Quebec hates us, the east doesn’t want the oil,’ well it’s the contraire, they want it, and they want it bad,” says King. “They were screaming and yelling it, they had big billboard signs on the side of the road saying ‘Ontario wants Alberta’s oil.’”

King and Reidel have been receiving support online after taking their stories and messages to social media.

The free event begins at 7 p.m. and King adds people of all ages are welcome to attend.

by Justin Dionne