Tamara Lich, Chris Barber convoy trial to resume for 1 day only
Pair will return to the Ottawa Courthouse hoping to sketch out rest of schedule
UPDATE: In a brief appearance, Barber and Lich's lawyers made arguments concerning two court injunctions that ordered protesters to restrain honking air horns during the convoy. Court is expected to resume next Friday to set more court dates.
As the two-year anniversary of what became the Freedom Convoy approaches, two of the protest's key organizers are back in court and still in legal limbo as their criminal trial drags on.
Tamara Lich and Chris Barber will return to the Ottawa Courthouse Thursday for their trial that has stretched far beyond the original 16-day schedule. The court has only set aside one more trial day.
Arrested Feb. 17, 2022 — a day before police started clearing streets of people camped out to protest COVID-19 rules and air grievances against governments — Lich and Barber are charged with mischief, obstructing police, counselling others to commit mischief and intimidation.
The trial that started Sept. 5 is meant to decide whether — and if so, how — the two should be punished for their role in the weeks-long protest that clogged the city's core and shook residents.
Legal wrangling, technical delays, unprepared witnesses and issues over how police evidence was disclosed have all slowed the proceedings.
Beyond the one day in January, no other court dates have been confirmed despite prosecutors closing their case and the trial now being closer to its finish line than its start.
At issue now is the availability of limited court dates.
Lich arrives for her trial at the Ottawa Courthouse on Sept. 11, 2023. (Justin Tang/The Canadian Press)
Accused not expected to testify
When proceedings do get going, it's expected Lich and Barber's defence will continue to argue prosecutors haven't shown enough evidence to prove the two acted in a conspiracy or committed the crimes they're accused of.
Defence lawyers Lawrence Greenspon and Eric Granger, representing Lich, alongside Diane Magas and Marwa Younes for Barber have told the court they need about five more days.
It's not clear what, if any, evidence they will call. The two accused are not currently expecting to testify.
Defence lawyers have argued throughout the trial Lich and Barber worked with police, city officials and stayed peaceful during their time in Ottawa.
Barber, from Swift Current, Sask., was released a day after entering custody.
Lich, from Medicine Hat, Alta., spent 49 days in jail spread across two stints. The first stint was when she was initially arrested, then again after she was picked up on a Canada-wide warrant for violating her bail conditions.
The proceedings on Thursday are expected to begin with arguments over the admissibility of court transcripts from two court injunctions that ordered protesters to restrain honking air horns during the convoy.
Barber is facing an additional charge of disobeying that court order.
In a video taken from Barber's TikTok account days after the injunction was granted and presented as evidence in court, he told truckers to "grab that horn switch" and "let it roll as long as possible" if police tried to dislodge them.
Barber, one of the organizers of the Freedom Convoy, being arrested by police officers in downtown Ottawa on Feb. 17, 2022. (Kirk Hill/Facebook)
Crown argues case is not about political views
Justice Heather Perkins-McVey, overseeing the proceedings, is also expected to rule on whether the two accused acted in a conspiracy.
Crown prosecutors Tim Radcliffe and Siobhain Wetscher argued the case is not about Lich and Barber's political views, but instead how they "crossed the line" in committing the crimes they're accused of.
They used police and resident testimony, hours of video evidence, mountains of social media content and text messages to argue the two accused had control and influence over the protests.
They also sought to establish that Lich and Barber worked together in a conspiracy to commit the crimes they are accused of, and because of this they say evidence against one should apply to both.
The defence argued this should be quashed because the Crown hadn't adequately proven they had an "unlawful purpose" in planning the protest.
Once the trial ends, the judge has up to six months to make her decision. A guilty finding for a mischief charge can carry a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison.
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Lich calls Ottawa police 'corrupt' in return to social media, convoy leaders' trial delayed until March
Already beset with lengthy court delays, the trial of accused convoy organizers Tamara Lich and Chris Barber will now extend into March — and likely beyond — before reaching its much-anticipated conclusion.
Lawyers for Lich and Barber met earlier in January with Crown prosecutors Tim Radcliffe and Siobhain Wetscher, along with the trial’s presiding judge, Ontario Court Justice Heather Perkins-McVey, to schedule dates in March for the trial to continue.
Lich and Barber were among the first convoy participants to face charges after they were arrested by Ottawa police on Feb. 17, 2022, on the eve of a massive two-day operation to clear the protest from downtown streets. Barber and Lich were jointly charged with mischief, obstruction, intimidation and counselling others to commit similar offences.
The prosecution closed its case against the two convoy leaders in November after calling evidence from 16 Crown witnesses across 27 trial days — extending far beyond the initial 16-day estimate outlined on the trial’s opening day in early September.
The trial will reconvene March 7 to hear the judge’s decision on a motion alleging that Lich and Barber acted together in a “conspiracy or common design” to gridlock downtown streets during the three-week convoy demonstration and that evidence against one accused organizer should apply to both.
The defence is seeking to dismiss the motion, arguing the Crown had not demonstrated any “unlawful purpose” in planning the protest. The defence is then expected to file a separate motion with the court once the trial resumes for three days on March 13.
The defence has said it will require five trial days to mount its case, call evidence and make closing arguments. Those trial days have yet to be confirmed.
In the meantime, Lich’s lawyer, Lawrence Greenspon, is downplaying any concerns over the outspoken convoy leader’s return to social media after her bail conditions were relaxed in December, allowing Lich to reactivate her dormant Twitter account.
“It has been 22 long months since I have been allowed to log in to my Twitter account,” Lich wrote in December, tagging Twitter/X owner Elon Musk and asking, jokingly, “Did anything interesting happen while I’ve been away???!!?!”
Lich said her former account was “deactivated as per my former (bail) conditions and deleted after inactivity.”
In a statement to True North Media in December, Lich said she and her legal team believed it was an appropriate time to lift the social media ban, which had been imposed as part of her initial bail conditions.
“I have been hoping for quite some time to have my conditions varied and with the lack of evidence we have seen so far (and) the unexpected length of time the trial is taking, we felt it was a good time to have this specific condition reviewed,” Lich said in a statement to True North.
Greenspon endorsed that statement in an interview this past week, saying the bail variation allowing Lich to return to social media was prompted primarily by the “time the trial has taken” and Lich’s desire to resume contact with her family via Facebook.
Greenspon defended a recent Twitter post by his client criticizing Ottawa police.
“The Ottawa Police Service is one of the most inept, corrupt and incapable organizations I have ever encountered,” Lich wrote in a Jan. 12 Twitter post, published in reply to another Twitter post written by Eva Chipiuk, a lawyer formerly with the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms.
“I would have preferred any comments about police would have been directed to the upper echelon (of the OPS executive), because the problem was not with the police officers on the ground, that’s for sure,” Greenspon said in a phone interview Friday.
“The fact that the Ottawa police directed the demonstrators into the downtown core and onto Wellington Street… that was clearly something that should not have happened and that’s at the feet of the Ottawa police,” Greenspon said.
“The willingness of the demonstrators to work with the Ottawa police that was stopped as a result of (the OPS executive’s) instruction that police should give them ‘Not one inch.’
“That’s come out in the evidence, so in terms of the efforts of the demonstrators to work with police liaison … There was a surprisingly good relationship between the demonstrators and the liaison officers.”
Greenspon said he “may or may not” call witnesses when the trial turns to the defence to mount its case.
Lich is represented by Greenspon and Eric Granger; Barber is represented by Diane Magas and Marwa Younes.
The dates for that phase of trial are “still undetermined,” Greenspon said.
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