Ottawa Police Deny Inviting Convoy Figure to Help Them With Anti-LGBTQ+ Protest at Elementary School

Community groups are calling for an external investigation into the Ottawa Police Service after a pastor at a church controversially associated with the Freedom Convoy told city councillors that police repeatedly “invited” him to local far-right protests over the last few years, including to an anti-LGBTQ+ rally outside an elementary school in the city’s west end.

Rob McKee, the pastor at the Capital City Bikers’ Church, shared the surprising claim while addressing an Ottawa City Council meeting Thursday on a proposed “bubble zone” by-law that would prohibit protests outside schools, hospitals and places of worship.

“I’ve had the opportunity to be at some of the protests, usually not by choice, we’ve been invited by police liaisons to try to make cooler heads prevail at times,” McKee told city councillors, speaking in support of the by-law.

After one councillor asked him for more details, McKee told city councillors an Ottawa Police liaison officer named “Derek” specifically invited him to “ones at the National Arts Centre” and “the one down at Broadview Public School.”

In recent years, far-right activists have staged multiple protests at drag storytime events at the NAC. There have also been three separate anti-trans rallies outside schools in a residential west-end neighbourhood of Ottawa led by a far-right influencer known as “Billboard Chris,” the most recent occurring last month.

In a statement to PressProgress, the Ottawa Police Service disputed McKee’s statements.

“Pastor Rob McKee of the Capital City Bikers’ Church stated that he had been invited by a member of the OPS Police Liaison Team, to attend ‘numerous’ protests in Ottawa,” an OPS spokesperson said. “We can confirm that this statement is inaccurate.”

“No member of the Police Liaison Team has ever invited individuals or groups to attend protests or demonstrations.”

In an interview with PressProgress, McKee elaborated on his relationship with Ottawa Police and what he understood to be his role at these protests. McKee had no response to the Ottawa Police’s contention that his statements were false, other than to reiterate that he “appreciates all the work they do.”

“When (Derek) would say, ‘You’re going to be there, right? You’re going to be there?’ I took that saying, ‘Yeah, I’m going to be there. I’m going to be there, and we’re going to do our part to keep our people in check and to make sure that none of this goes sideways’,” McKee told PressProgress.

“Our sole purpose when we went to events was to be that hand for our people saying, ‘Hey, listen, if you’re here and you say you go to Bikers’ Church, you better behave’,” McKee explained. “You better behave, you’re not going to do anything out of line, you’re going to carry yourself with dignity and respect.”

“Derek said, ‘When you’re there, it’s like you bring a calmness to your people’,” McKee added. “He actually liked it when we were there, because from the people that we had influence with, he knew that they would be in control, that they’re not going to step out of line.”

McKee speculated that the reason the police liaison officer took a special interest in him was “because our church was associated with all things ‘freedom’” and “we carried a lot of weight in that circle.”

Capital City Bikers’ Church Pastor Rob McKee (Photo: Rebel Media, YouTube)

Local community groups say the public deserves answers rather than duelling narratives from McKee and Ottawa Police about the nature of what critics say sounds like a “special relationship.”

Sam Hersh, a representative of the community group Horizon Ottawa, said the allegations set out in McKee’s delegation should at the very least “merit an investigation” by Ottawa’s Police Service Board.

“If what Mr. McKee says is true, this would be a very shocking admission regarding the Ottawa Police,” Hersh told PressProgress. “How many more members of the far-right have they ‘encouraged’ to attend anti-trans protests like the one we saw at Broadview school? They need to answer for this.”

Experts on far-right extremism, meanwhile, say the church’s close associations with the Freedom Convoy and role as a kind of hub for far-right activists make that relationship even more concerning.

“It’s very concerning if an OPS liaison invited a far-right activist with connections to the so-called Freedom Convoy to protests,” Canadian Anti-Hate Network Executive Director Evan Balgord told PressProgress.

“I just can’t imagine that level of trust being extended to anybody who would be demonstrating on behalf of 2SLGBTQ+ protests, or against the far-right,” Balgord added. “I think it speaks to a bias that on-the-ground activists feel is very obvious. If the OPS are evenhanded in this practice, they need to speak up.”

“This alleged behaviour of the OPS needs to be investigated.”

Pastor Rob McKee speaking at Freedom Convoy documentary screening at Bikers’ Church (Photo: Melissa McKee, Facebook)

McKee is frustrated his church, which is rooted in the Pentecostal tradition, is often misrepresented and maligned by the media and critics as a “big bad convoy church.”

In McKee’s view, the Bikers’ Church’s roles in both the Freedom Convoy and later convoy-adjacent protests have been an extension of his church’s community-focused orientation, proudly noting this also includes initiatives to feed the homeless and resettle refugee families.

However, McKee and his co-pastor spouse Melissa do have lengthy histories of associating with far-right activists and attending far-right events. The McKees appear in numerous photos with Freedom Convoy leaders like Tamara Lich, Chris Barber and Pat King and have hosted far-right groups at their church.

The McKees have also made appearances at events headlined by Christine Anderson, a German Member of the European Parliament with the far-right Alternative für Deutschland and the Dutch far-right influencer Eva Vlaardingerbroek.

Melissa McKee, who has previously posted content promoting “Diagolon,” was also a member of a secret Signal group chat featuring convoy leaders and lawyers along with dozens of far-right influencers and media personalities, including newly-elected Conservative MP Andrew Lawton.

Lich and Barber, who were both convicted of criminal charges earlier this year in connection with their roles in the 2022 Freedom Convoy, were named Bikers’ Church “ambassadors” last year, helping to host their “vax injured support group.”

Bikers’ Church co-pastors Rob and Melissa McKee with Chris Barber, Pat King, Chris Dacey, Josh Alexander, Tamara Lich and Bethan Nodwell (Melissa McKee, Facebook)

The McKees also attended the chaotic 2023 anti-trans rally outside Ottawa’s Notre Dame High School. Despite this, Rob McKee says he does not support protests outside schools.

“I thought it was crazy to protest at a school,” McKee told PressProgress. “I think there’s a time and a place, and I don’t think in front of a school is a place to protest.”

McKee said he didn’t want to attend the protest at the school but after speaking to Derek, the Ottawa Police liaison officer, he concluded he “needed to be there to help our people through.”

“I think he understood the influence that we had and, like a good officer, he leveraged that,” McKee said. “He leveraged our influence to begin to help create a safe place for people who are going to be there.”

“He leveraged us very well. And we happily went along with it.”

McKee said he had no knowledge of who else Ottawa Police have asked to attend protests, but assumed they had similar relationships with counterprotesters: “I don’t know if they were connecting with the counterprotest or who they were connecting with on the other side, but I’m sure they were connecting with them as well.”

Emily Quail, an organizer with Community Solidarity Ottawa, said counterprotesters at these events do interact with Ottawa Police liaison teams, but said the kind of relationship McKee described to city councillors is unlike anything anyone in her circles had ever heard of before.

“I don’t cooperate with police in that friendly manner that Rob has described,” Quail told PressProgress. “They need to listen to event organizers’ march routes and keep us safe from angry motorists, anything beyond that is suspicious to me.”

“Police never invite people to attend a Palestinian demonstration or trans-rights defences,” Quail noted.

“Quite frankly, I have no choice but to believe what Rob McKee says, because all of the actions of the cops I’ve ever seen in my own neighbourhood back it up.”

Billboard Chris on Broadview Ave. in 2023, Counterprotesters on Broadview Ave. in 2025 (PatriotSmoothie, YouTube); Ariel Troster, BlueSky)

All things considered, McKee is emphatic that he’s “had a great relationship with Derek” since first meeting him at the 2021 Billboard Chris protest outside Broadview Public School, adding he’s “disappointed” Derek was recently reassigned to regular patrol duties.

“He’d call just to say hi every now and then,” McKee recalled. “‘Hey, I was thinking about you, how are things? How’s life at the church?’ It was almost like a friendship that we were starting to form.”

“It was just, ‘Hey, you hear anything, give me a call, and if I hear anything I’ll give you a call,’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah Derek, I’ll keep you informed if I hear anything’.”

“I trusted Derek, and Derek trusted me.”