I’ve started calling it the Freedom Trial. Yes, it’s the much-anticipated trial of Freedom Convoy leaders Tamara Lich and Chris Barber. Both are on trial for a myriad of absurd charges: mischief, counselling others to commit mischief, intimidation, and obstructing police. These are the sort of legal entanglement usually reserved for people who get drunk and begin acting up in a most uncivil manner.
Pro-medical freedom Alberta lawyer Eva Chipiuk has contended that the trial against Freedom Convoy leaders Tamara Lich and Chris Barber is really motivated by a desire to have Canadians who opposed COVID mandates be “vilified” in the public sphere.
The lawyers defending two of the most prominent organizers of the “Freedom Convoy” protests are expected to make their case today to block nine Ottawa residents and business representatives from taking the stand.
Tamara Lich and Chris Barber are on trial for criminal charges related to their role in the demonstration, which blockaded Ottawa city streets for weeks last year as protestors railed against COVID-19 public health measures.
Will Tamara Lich receive a fair trial for the charges she faces in relation to organizing the Freedom Convoy? It would be nice to think that in a country such as Canada the question is a ridiculous one because justice here will always be fair.
Yet both the intense politicization of the events surrounding the convoy and Lich’s own experience the past year with the justice system indicate that the question of fairness is now basically a coin toss.
Frustrations boiled over at the criminal trial of Tamara Lich and Chris Barber on Friday after defence counsel raised concerns with the presiding judge about timing of disclosures from the Crown.
Justice Heather Perkins-McKey called a recess on Friday morning after she told the Crown she was “very unhappy” about the timing of the release of text messages to the defence.
The judge’s decision came after Mr. Barber’s lawyer, Diane Magas, said the prosecution disclosed this week which text messages it intended to focus on in court from an original stack of 4,000 pages.
This week, the trial of Canada’s two main leaders of the trucker protests began. The lead prosecutor has argued that Tamara Lich and Chris Barber “crossed the line” and “committed multiple crimes” while insisting that this trial will not be about the truckers’ political views. The pair face charges including mischief, counselling others to commit mischief, intimidation, and obstructing the police. They face a maximum of 10 years in prison should they be convicted.
A senior Ottawa police officer who helped oversee operational plans in the early days of what became known as the “Freedom Convoy” says the number of people and vehicles in the downtown core “exceeded expectations.”
Insp. Russell Lucas, the incident commander managing the convoy’s impacts, made those remarks while testifying on the second day of the criminal trial for two of the main convoy organizers.
The charges against Tamara Lich and Chris Barber include mischief, counselling others to commit mischief, intimidation and obstructing police.
Tamara Lich, the Freedom Convoy leader whose trial begins this week, is no hero. She led a protest movement that illegally occupied downtown Ottawa for three weeks, blocking access to roads and local businesses. Though largely nonviolent, the convoy was an extreme nuisance that went beyond the mere inconvenience expected of a large demonstration. But, if Lich is no hero, neither is she a terrorist, insurrectionist leader or fascist plotter, as so many of her critics in the media and the Liberal party desperately want her to be.
OTTAWA – “Freedom Convoy” organizers Tamara Lich and Chris Barber are not on trial for their political beliefs, a Crown prosecutor told an Ottawa courtroom Tuesday.
Rather, they must answer to charges related to the means they used to achieve their goal.
Tim Radcliffe told the court the two organizers didn’t just “hold the line” during their illegal occupation of downtown Ottawa last year, they “crossed the line, and in so doing they committed multiple crimes.”
When the highly anticipated trial of Tamara Lich and Chris Barber finally gets underway this week, there likely won’t be much arguing about what happened or what roles the two infamous figures played during the 2022 “Freedom Convoy” protests in Ottawa.
That winter, the two led thousands of trucks and other vehicles to the capital. They rallied the protesters, and told them to “hold the line” when police tried to break up the honking crowds. They also raised millions of dollars for the movement.
The Sun has live updates but this is just preliminary stuff – LIVE UPDATES: Trial of convoy protest organizers Tamara Lich, Chris Barber begins today
As Tamara Lich was led away from supporters in handcuffs on the snowy streets of Ottawa in 2022, she threw a single phrase over her shoulder.
“Hold the line,” said the petite figurehead of the “Freedom Convoy” movement as the officers at each of her elbows walked her to the waiting cruiser.
OTTAWA – It’s a sunny July day at an outdoor hockey rink outside North Bay, Ont. An acoustic guitar player belts out a ballad about freedom. An adoring crowd sings along.
Tamara Lich, mounted on the back of a brown and white horse and waving a large Canadian flag, enters the arena.
“Love a grand entrance,” the 50-year-old says enthusiastically with a wide smile and a laugh, getting hoots and whistles from supporters gathered to hear her speak, as seen in a video posted on social media.
This Canadian province wants to pick immigrants based on their nation. Is that fair, or a ‘slippery slope’?
In a first-of-its-kind pilot project, Saskatchewan is picking skilled immigrants based on their country of residence, raising eyebrows for deviating from Canada’s selection system that has otherwise been open to all regardless of race and nationality.
In August, the Saskatchewan Immigrant Nominee Program created six draws with the goal of inviting 542 skilled immigrants in dozens of occupational backgrounds to settle in the province as permanent residents.
The catch is only those who are living in one of these eight countries can qualify: Czechia, Germany, India, Ireland, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Ukraine.
Because Canada’s current policy inviting incompatible cultures who have little to no desire to integrate has worked out so well.
Just think of the ethno-religious conflicts we’d miss out on if we screened for suitability! Assassinations, riots, honor killings!
Such vibrant diversity makes us stronger.
Canadians love being treated like 2nd class citizens in their own nation and understand that immigration policy must always conform to the needs of the corporate and political class.
You gotta break a few eggs to depress wages, create housing shortages and foment a fearful balkanized society I always say.
But here’s the rub, Trudeau has turned Canada into such a shithole state that the majority of “permanent residents” no longer desire to become citizens:
In 2021, nearly 45.7 per cent of permanent residents who’d been in Canada for less than 10 years became citizens.
That’s down from 60 per cent in 2016, and 75.1 per cent in 2001.
But of course the Star finds an “expert” who argues the old system is working just fine. Fine in the sense that today’s immigrants are not the old immigrants and are more likely to use Canada only as a safe place to park their money before moving on to greener pastures.
Fine in the sense the government is so inept they lost track of a million migrants thus grossly understating the housing and infrastucture crisis.
That’s a great return on investment.
OTTAWA — The leaders of the “Freedom Convoy” are preparing to answer to criminal charges next week for their part in the massive demonstration that gridlocked Ottawa last year — but the stakes go beyond the actions of two protest organizers.
Tamara Lich and Chris Barber were among the most prominent organizers of the protest movement that rolled into Ottawa early in 2022, and they’re scheduled to be the first members of the organizing committee to stand trial on Sept. 5.
It is designed to denigrate & defame Detective Grus.
Hearing to continue for Ottawa police officer accused of looking for vaccine links to child death cases
The first week of misconduct hearings for an Ottawa police officer facing Police Service Act charges for allegedly inserting herself into children’s death investigations wrapped up on Friday.
The latest @OttawaCitizen article about @OttawaPolice Detective Helen Grus is a hit piece. It is designed to denigrate & defame Detective Grus.
The story makes it appear that there was, and still is, a criminal investigation against Detective Grus.
That's a lie, and the Citizen… pic.twitter.com/bGmUkbjTUe
— DonaldBest.CA * DO NOT COMPLY (@DonaldBestCA) August 27, 2023
