From progressive to patriot: The very strange story of TUPOC Lawyer Saron Gebresellassi
The United People of Canada (TUPOC), a “controversial group” (to use the media euphemism) of antivaxxers formed at the Freedom Convoy occupation of Ottawa, made headlines over their occupation of a deconsecrated church where they dressed up like clowns, attempted to perform citizens’ arrests of ‘trespassers’ and sprayed passers-by with water pistols.
But even weirder is the background story of their “General Counsel” Saron Gebresellassi, a once-progressive lawyer best known for her run for mayor of Toronto in 2018 and involvement with Black Lives Matter Toronto. How does this long-time progressive activist “suddenly” embrace the Freedom Convoy, abandon all of her progressive views and end up involved with TUPOC?
Having known her well for three years, I witnessed a shocking and unfortunate turn in real time. In about four weeks, she was no longer recognizable.
A long-time progressive activist and daughter of Eritrean refugees, Saron grew up in the working class, largely African Canadian York-Weston area of Toronto. Saron seemed to have a bright future ahead of her in law and politics. The winner of the YWCA Toronto’s Young Women of Distinction Award in 2008 and the Harry Jerome Award for community leadership in 2010, Saron did graduate studies at OISE and York University (where she was an active participant in the CUPE 3903 strike of 2009), and later went to law school in Ottawa where she graduated in 2015. She immediately started her own law firm in the priority neighborhood where she grew up, with a focus on workers’ rights, fatalities and anti-discrimination. She was also involved with Black Lives Matter Toronto and became their lawyer.
Inspired by the historic election of Jagmeet Singh to the leadership of the NDP (Canada’s progressive/social democratic party), she decided to run for office herself. She took part in WomenWinTO, a training program for women created by then-City Councillor (and now Ontario MPP) Kristyn Wong-Tam who wanted to run for office; two alums were elected for the NDP in the 2018 provincial election in Ontario.
In 2018, Saron became known to Torontonians through her run for mayor. She ran on a left-wing platform of reallocating the police budget to fund social services and opportunities for youth in low income neighborhoods, free transit, and housing for all. She performed well in the debates, came in fourth place out of 35 candidates, and made a positive impression.
I joined Saron’s mayoral campaign in the fall of 2018, and we soon became close friends. We shared a common workspace in Toronto. By 2021, we were seriously discussing a second run for mayor of Toronto. I was helping her prepare and was serving as a de facto campaign manager until the election.
The Saron I knew was someone who seemed to really live her values. She was an egalitarian, socially conscious person. She was a fan of Bernie Sanders, the Squad, Cornel West, and Angela Davis, as well as Palestinian American legal academic Noura Erakat and Indigenous children’s advocate Dr. Cindy Blackstock. She was the furthest thing from an anti-government ideologue or don’t tread on me conservative.
What I perhaps appreciated about Saron was her critique of exploitation and the capitalist game, and fervent support for the working class. She would often remark that a life where people made subpar wages to pay ever-higher rents was no freedom at all.
Through 2021, Saron advocated for greater worker protections, CERB, and rent moratoriums. Her publicly expressed position was to give working people the means to stay home during a dangerous pandemic. She was critical of some state over-reach and protecting civil liberties, but certainly not something out of line of what the CCLA was saying, for example. She also wondered why the rules seem to be harder on small businesses than the big box stores. Many did see an unfairness there.
On January 1, 2022, Saron and I have a meeting about the year ahead, and I felt confident about the year going forward. At this meeting, Saron uses the term “comrades” to refer to mutual friends and allies (a term very commonly used in left-wing activist circles). She also expressed that this time she did not want Canadian flags in the campaign but she gave in last time because the Eritrean community wanted it. So there was little reason to believe this wasn’t a left-wing or progressive person.
We begin researching campaign managers, fundraising, electoral organization, venues for a launch. But soon things go badly off the rails.
Saron is increasingly riled up by the issue of vaccine mandates and passports, expressing concerns about civil liberties. But healthy skepticism soon starts veering into conspiratorial territory.
At some point before— I’m not sure when — Saron had begun giving legal counsel to workers fired by the City of Toronto for not getting vaccinated. She is sympathetic to these workers. She doesn’t believe the employer should have such power over the life of a worker. But she’s soon picking up the antivax talking points. “Bodily autonomy.” “Forced vaccination.”
Saron had the first two vaccines herself, and had even volunteered at a vaccine clinic in Toronto’s St. James Town in October 2021 (albeit at my suggestion). But she now regrets having been vaccinated. “I’ve been lied to,” she says. She thinks people have already done their part, and having people come back for this “invasive medical procedure” is “abusive.” “Then it’s the third vaccine, and then it’s the fourth vaccine, and then it’s the fifth vaccine, and then it’s the tenth vaccine…”
Saron now sees “the unvaccinated” as a group being denied their human rights. She is seemingly unaware that the Ontario Human Rights Commission had already made it clear that a singular belief against vaccination does not constitute discrimination under the Human Rights Code. “Our base,” she tells me, was bullying the unvaccinated and she wouldn’t stand by while the unvaccinated are being fired, segregated, and excluded from society.
Around this time, Saron is also familiarizing herself with Tiktok, which is where the mobilization of the convoy began. I had suggested she learn to use it as a modern campaign tool.
But on the evening of January 24, I get a very strange phone call from Saron:
“Why doesn’t the NDP support the truckers?,” she asks me.
“What do you mean? Why would they?”
She goes on to say there that 500,000 people were going to be in Ottawa to call for the restoration of civil liberties. And she was going to support it. When I tell her about the backgrounds of the organizers, she tells me that’s “fake news” and that I needed to be more informed on the issue. It’s working class organizing and the left should support it. I am stunned, but figure that once she learns more about this, more sound judgment would prevail.
Saron does not attend the big protest in Ottawa over the first weekend where 11,000 attended and then went home. I am relieved. Maybe this will blow over.
I call Saron about something else but she soon starts talking about what’s happening in Ottawa. At this point she basically has a cartoonish and conspiratorial view of how government works, and seemingly believes that public health officials are evildoers hellbent on locking us down forever. “The truckers must win or else there will be permanent lockdowns,” she asserts. I’m losing my patience. “Even if takes a swastika flag to do it,” I retort back (the swastika flag was displayed in Ottawa). “I’m offended,” she says and ends the call.
We don’t talk for a few days and I feel terrible about it. I call Saron and apologize for my outburst. We sort of patch things up after that, but things are never the same. We seem to have little in common anymore.
We were supposed to meet on the morning of February 17. But she calls me to cancel. She’s flying to Ottawa to “monitor civil liberties.” I never see her again. This is the time after the occupation is being cleared out and only a few hundred die-hards are still around.
I stop initiating contact at this point, but I still take the occasional phone call. I still have a faint hope that maybe she’d not really feel at home with this group once she actually went to Ottawa. But I was wrong.
Saron has embraced her new cause with the zeal of a convert. On Twitter, Saron is suggesting that the invocation of the Emergencies Act constitutes martial law. This is QAnon-type talk, not a serious legal analysis. It is reckless and irresponsible of a lawyer to give credence to disinformation. I’ve just about had enough.
Shortly after that, I get another strange phone call. Saron tells me she has big news. “Big Bear” is going to endorse the campaign. She genuinely seems to think I will be pleased with this. I had never heard of this man.
It turns out it’s Colin “Big Bear” Ross, an anti-government conspiracy theorist and self-proclaimed leader of the Arnprior holdouts. He also has a faith healing cult called the Big Bear Movement.
He’s essentially a Canadian QAnoner who promotes the WEF conspiracy theory and believes that “criminals and pedophiles” run the government and the Liberal Party.
He’s also written a manifesto calling for the overthrow of the government:
At some point, Saron moves to British Columbia where she decides to be a convoy candidate.
I get another strange phone call on March 17. A very, very strange phone call.
“You know how hospitals often recruit outside talent in order to get the best doctor,” she says. “Why can’t they also do that with mayors?” She tells me that many mayor’s offices go unclaimed and asks me to “find me a city” to run in. “Maybe Campbell River, Nelson, Nanaimo.” She goes on to say that if “we” take enough cities, “we” can force the provinces to end the mandates.
This is so delusional I don’t even know how to respond. I can no longer recognize my old friend.
We have one more phone call on April 1, 2022, about an unrelated matter. We talk about old times, and my upcoming book. The old personality is still there, but rapidly fading.
Then three weeks later, I see an absolutely deranged announcement on Big Bear’s social media. Saron has dropped into Big Bear’s hometown of Lethbridge to make an announcement. Ross has his arm around her and Saron is practically gushing over this man. Her eyes, her smile…it’s chilling. Ross introduces her and says she’s running for mayor of Campbell River.
“Hello patriots,” she says and goes on to praise Big Bear as a “thought leader” and “knowledge keeper.”
From “no flags” in January to “hello patriots” in April — quite the change in three months!
I can bear it no longer. I refuse three phone calls after that — and then she gets the message.
Saron obviously hasn’t done her vetting — or doesn’t care. Ross posted this “thought leadership” on his Facebook page a few weeks after she announced her campaign on his platform:
I decide to leak the news of the intention to run to the Campbell River Mirror. The community has a right to know. When she was interviewed in the Campbell River Mirror about her candidacy, the editor is aware of her ties to the Freedom Convoy and Colin “Big Bear” Ross. Saron is poorly prepared and has almost nothing to say about her plans for the city. She confirms the Big Bear endorsement but states she is “independent” and that Ross is not involved in the campaign.
It turns out that conspiracy theorist Lori Woodruff, who organized protests against vaccine mandates in town and is involved with the nutty Christian fundamentalist group Action4Canada, helped put Saron on the ballot (Woodruff also endorsed Christian fundamentalist and transphobe Alaina Kelly for school trustee who campaigned against the Sexual Orientation and Gender Ideology curriculum in BC schools). In addition to issuing pseudo-legal notices of liability against vaccine mandates, Action4Canada also opposes the “LGBT agenda”, “political Islam”, abortion and 5G. How can a socially progressive woman, a feminist, who grew up among Somali Muslims and had significant support from the LGBT community in Toronto, work with someone from an organization that wants to turn Canada into a Christian theocracy? She has truly lost her mind.
I only learned about The United People of Canada (TUPOC) and its director and main spokesperson William Komer when I read about it in the Toronto Star. Saron is their counsel. I just about die. Saron shuts down her old law firm website a few days later.
TUPOC was attempting to set up an “embassy” in the national capital at St. Brigid’s Centre, a deconsecrated church that had become an artist and community space in the Lowertown district of Ottawa. TUPOC had been a nuisance in the Lowertown community. The owner of St. Brigid’s, Patrick McDonald, had agreed to sell St. Brigid’s to TUPOC. The group would rent from McDonald until closing in the fall. But the group failed to pay rent, and McDonald terminated the deal. TUPOC maintained that the eviction was illegitimate, and threatened to perform a citizens’ arrest of the bailiff for “trespassing.” Diane Nolan, a fundamentalist Christian and one of the TUPOC directors, vowed that she would die in the church (Nolan later had issues with Komer and left the group).
Komer is a London, Ontario businessman who has been accused of ripping off customers. In November 2021, he filed a complaint against the London Police for gender discrimination after his ex-wife threw him out of their apartment. He subscribes to some sort of sovereign citizen philosophy and sees himself as a self-taught legal genius. He boasts about his “100%” success rate with private prosecutions. He is obsessed with building some sort of “private security force.” He uses loaded language and thought-terminating cliches such as #RuleofLaw to justify TUPOC’s actions.
Saron represents TUPOC in court at their eviction hearing on September 19. The trial was initially set for September 2, but Saron was a no-show, claiming she had a conflict due to the Campbell River election. Justice Sally Gomery allows a two week delay. The performance is a disaster:
Justice Gomery rules in favor of McDonald, and he was awarded $53,000.
(I also later learned from the court transcript that Saron had toured the site with Komer on March 3 — so she was still in Ontario on that date. But she never mentioned Komer or TUPOC in our post-convoy communications).
After the TUPOC trial, Saron takes part in the all-candidates’ debate in Campbell River. In her opening statement, she claims to be a high-profile, well-connected lawyer who has done high-stakes negotiations with the Prime Minister’s Office and Premier Ford’s team and can bring $20 million to the city through her connections (and she had “done it before in Ontario” — there is not a shred of evidence for this outlandish claim). She is completely uninformed about local issues and nobody bothers to scrutinize her promises since she’s not a serious contender. On a question about food security, she mentions she knows how to get the attention of the New York Times and BBC. She says how she’s already recruited doctors to come to Campbell River. She also knows a tech genius (presumably Komer?) who can bring jobs to Campbell River.
Hilariously, after the debate, Lori Woodruff withdraws her support for Saron. She is horrified that Saron expressed a willingness to work with ‘corrupt’ prime ministers and premiers.
TUPOC director Kimberley Ward comes from Ontario to Campbell River to campaign for Saron. Saron and Ward host a “press conference” where Saron launches an unhinged attack on then-mayor Toronto John Tory for causing an “exodus” to the west coast (presumably over the City of Toronto’s vaccine mandates).
On election day, Saron releases a cringeworthy GOTV video on Tiktok. It stars a drunk Ward dancing around with a bottle of champagne chanting “vote for Saron, vote for freedom!” On the screen, the fundamentalist Christian message “Babylon can’t stop us” appears. The video is soon deleted.
Needless to say, Saron does very poorly in the election. She receives just 418 votes, fewer than any person running for city council or school board in Campbell River.
After the election, TUPOC appeals the ruling of Justice Gomery, ludicrously arguing that the judge was biased.
Saron also represents an antivax client in Prince George, BC, nightclub owner Linda Allen who flagrantly violated public health orders. Allen ludicrously believes that vaccines alter DNA and vaccine mandates are genetic discrimination. Saron argues that “human rights” (of antivaxxers) take precedence over public health regulations. The nightclub displays TUPOC flags.
Saron is now based in London, Ontario where she is General Counsel for TUPOC.
On May 29, TUPOC appears before three judges. Writing on TUPOC letterhead, Saron boldly predicts a “decisive victory” for TUPOC and invites the public to watch her win in court:
To the surprise of nobody except for TUPOC, the three judges rule in favor of McDonald, upping the costs to $65,000. The divisional court judges noted that there were “a number of problems” with TUPOC’s submissions and they “misread” the Commercial Tenancies Act — a stunning rebuke.
This did not stop Saron/TUPOC from issuing this statement within hours of the ruling:
There is not even a pretense of separation of lawyer and client anymore. It is “we” and “us” and “our.” The old personality has been replaced by the TUPOC personality. My old friend is no longer recognizable.
To this day, I am at a loss to explain what happened here. I cannot deny that watching a very good friend succumb to antivax extremism and conspiratorial thinking, and feeling powerless to stop it, was extremely painful and distressing. But given the direction things were headed, I felt little choice but to inform the community of Campbell River of what was happening. The Saron I knew was, sadly, no more.
EPILOGUE: In January 2022, Saron met with a respected lawyer, legal academic and author who has written extensively on freedom of expression, legal ethics and municipal politics. He had voted for her in 2018. I e-mailed him after the election to tell him about the very strange turn. His response: “Some spectacular lapses in judgment here!” Like many of her former peers and colleagues in Toronto, he is baffled by the whole situation: “A smart, energetic personality who has gone badly off the rails. Why?”
Another lawyer, who has known Saron since childhood, laments: “I don’t think anyone in their right mind will take her seriously anymore.”
Such a sad and inexplicable loss of a very good friend and someone who seemed to have such great potential.
ADDENDUM: At a November 2022 YWCA Toronto board meeting, the following statement was put on file:
YWCA Toronto has celebrated the achievements of women for more than 40 years through the Woman of Distinction Awards. Saron Gebresellassi received a Young Woman of Distinction Award in 2007 for her achievements at that time. Currently, we do not have a mechanism in place to review the activities of former award recipients, nor do we have a process for revoking an award. We will take the concerns raised in this matter under serious advisement. It is our hope to improve our award process in the future and ensure we have a policy in place should a similar issue arise.
UPDATE (April 4, 2024): On December 18, 2023, TUPOC was denied an appeal by the Ontario Court of Appeal.
UPDATE (May 18, 2024): In spite of her run for office in BC, Saron Gebresellassi is not a member of the Law Society in that province. According to the Prince George Citizen, the Law Society of BC has filed a court order to ban Saron Gebresellassi from practicing law in BC until she becomes a member of the Law Society or obtains an inter-jurisdictional practice permit.