Tamara Lich and Chris Barber

 

Tamara Lich and Chris Barber

Given what I know, I have an opinion.   The prosecutor said on Wednesday that she is seeking stiff sentences for "Freedom Convoy" leaders Tamara Lich and Chris Barber due to the broad community harm caused by the three-week 2022 protest in Ottawa's downtown core.  Oh really?

Lich and Barber were both convicted of mischief in April for their role in the convoy protest, which occupied downtown Ottawa for three weeks beginning in late January 2022.  The protest arose in reaction to the vaccine mandates.  The mandates were later deemed very unwise and counterproductive.  Other related government scandals emerged.

The Crown prosecutor is seeking a prison sentence of seven years for Lich and eight years for Barber, who was also convicted of counselling others to disobey a court order.  The Crown’s statement is disproportional and outrageous.

The Ottawa convoy protest ended after the government invoked the Emergencies Act, and the convoy left Ottawa's downtown core.  A later examination of the facts clarified that the use of the Emergencies Act was an abuse of process and unnecessary to achieve reasonable objectives.

In this case, the Crown is asking for a longer sentence for Barber because he was also convicted of counselling others to disobey a court order related to an injunction against protesters honking truck horns.

Ontario Court Justice Heather Perkins-McVey said in her April decision that she found Lich and Barber guilty of mischief because they routinely encouraged people to join or remain at the protest, despite knowing the adverse effects it was having on downtown residents and businesses.  However, that is the purpose of the Charter Right to protest.  She did not comment on the extreme government provocations that created the community reaction, or the ongoing government behaviour that exacerbated tensions in the street.

Crown prosecutor Siobhan Wetscher said she is seeking these sentences because of what Lich and Barber did, not because of their political beliefs.  That is false.  The two are the specific objects of political government focus.  There should never have been charges in the first place.  The public knows.  The whole show-trial farce is evident to anyone who gives this drama some attention.

Wetscher said that while Lich and Barber may have come to Ottawa with noble intentions, they continued to encourage people to take part in the protests even when it became impossible for them to ignore the effect it was having on downtown residents and businesses.  However, that is the point of a Union Strike or other type of protest.  The dynamic is to create inconvenience to magnify the point of the argument.  Protests are constitutionally protected if they do not break the law.  No comment was made about government behaviour, which deliberately lengthened the protest, and how the government's strategy was calculated to provoke and enflame, to give an excuse for the imposition of force.

Both Lich and Barber were found not guilty on charges of intimidation, counselling to commit intimidation, obstructing police, and counselling others to obstruct police.

In January and February 2022, thousands of Canadians travelled from all corners of the country to the nation's capital to protest mandatory vaccination policies, which turned millions of Canadians into second-class citizens if they did not get injected with the COVID-19 vaccine.  Consequently, families became divided and conflicted.

In British Columbia, dissenting healthcare workers and firefighters were fired.  In Nova Scotia, judges were pressured into getting injected and threatened with consequences for choosing not to do so.  In Quebec, government officials threatened a tax on the unvaccinated.  Across Canada, conscientious objectors were fired from their jobs, suspended from their university programs, and prevented from travelling.  Cross-border COVID-19 vaccine mandates particularly affected Canadian truckers. 

Canadian truckers were particularly provoked by the government.  The pressures being applied by governments across Canada to get citizens to bend to their will, resulted in what became nationally known as the Freedom Convoy protest.  Truckers across the country drove to Ottawa to try to meet with federal politicians and air their grievance.  

In the bazar turning of this particular case, Lich spent many weeks in jail.  The financial cost of the legal defense of the two accused is in the many thousands, which in effect is a monstrous fine.

The bottom line is clear to the public.  The government is embarrassed at many levels, for the unwise COVID mandates, the provocations to Canadians across the country, their manipulation of news, and the blunder of the Emergencies Act.  Instead of accepting responsibility and negotiating reconciliation, the government wants a scapegoat, just like dictatorships from history.

The practical effect has brought the whole Justice System into disrepute.  Throughout the Court proceedings, which should never have happened, the Crown has behaved unprofessionally and with malice.

Public confidence in our Justice System is at the bottom.  It is obvious that system operations have completely gone political, and have nothing to do with community peace, order, and good government.

To minimize the possibility of another even deeper reactive protest, the Judge needs to “read the room” (Canada itself). An absolute discharge sentence has to be the course to save Canada.