Lich-Barber Trial Resumes Briefly… Lawfare at its Finest
Lich and Barber are the most high-profile case of this but hundreds arrested and charged during convoy, are being harassed and financially drained by lawfare
Tamara Lich and Chris Barber, two of the most prominent faces of the Freedom Convoy that rolled into Ottawa in the winter of 2022 to protest the government imposed COVID 19 mandates and restrictions, were back in court in mid-March after taking a break last December. Their trial, which was supposed to take a little more than two weeks, has morphed into one that will likely span a year. It resumed for only three short days March 13-15 as the defence began presenting its case. Lich and Barber are facing charges of mischief, obstructing police, counselling others to commit mischief and intimidation, as a result of what has been viewed as their leadership roles with the convoy. Their long drawn out prosecution is a prime example of lawfare*, a weapon the government is using to persecute those who participated in the Freedom Convoy — of which Lich and Barber, are the most prominent examples.
*The strategic use of legal proceedings by the powerful to intimidate, punish or weaken those it views as an opponent or adversary by draining them financially, mentally and physically.
Much of the focus of the three days in court involved a dispute between the Crown and the defence over statements Barber and Lich had made in videos they had produced during the protest that the Crown had introduced as evidentiary exhibits. In Lich’s case it was a video posted on Facebook and in Barber’s case in involved a series of selfies he had posted on Tiktok. In both cases the defence teams argued that the Crown was ‘cherry picking’ and that the videos introduced by the Crown did not fully communicate the context of their client’s statements and that additional videos made in the same time frame should be included to add the continuity needed to fully comprehend those statements.
Justice Heather Perkins-McVey, at the end of the arguments, made a split decision on the matter. In Lich’s case the judge felt that the video that Crown had introduced could stand on its own in understanding the full context of Lich’s statement. In the case of Barber’s videos the judge agreed that other videos did indeed need to be introduced in order to understand the complete context of his statements. The videos in question were among some of the hundreds and hundreds of videos and messages that Lich and Barber had posted throughout the convoy to provide updates and news on various activities, events and situations that were occurring to its participants and supporters.
The other issue that the court addressed was the status of the Carter application which was made by the Crown at the outset of the trial seeking to have all statements made by Chris Barber during the convoy attributed to Tamara Lich as though Lich made them as well, and vice versa. The purpose was to infer that they were conspiring to ‘commit crimes’ or that a ‘common unlawful design’ existed between the two. The defence and Crown were disputing when the arguments on the application should be made. In the end the judge sided with the Crown determining the arguments would be made at the end of the trial.
Between this legal discourse many, including myself, were wondering why the judge hasn’t moved to dismiss the entire case on the grounds that the Crown, who spent 33 days presenting evidence, still has a very weak case. Justice Perkins-McVey did, at times, seem to express frustration with the Crown’s case and its lack of preparedness related such key elements as providing timely disclosure of evidence to the defence and the proper preparation of its witnesses. There was some anticipation that the defence would perhaps introduce a ‘motion to dismiss’ when the trial resumed for these three days in March. However, the judge seems to have made it clear that she plans to see this trial through to the very bitter end, given her decision on the Carter application. Regardless of her motivation, one can’t help to think that ‘the process is the punishment,’ which is actually an example of lawfare in of itself. And every single person who participated in the convoy and managed to get caught up in the legal dragnet of mischief charges that police determined was the ‘catch-all’ to arrest and charge them, is feeling the brunt of this type of punishment.
The Freedom Convoy came to an abrupt end when the Trudeau government invoked the Emergencies Act on February 14, 2020. Shortly thereafter the Trudeau government ordered riot and crowd control police into downtown Ottawa to clear out peaceful protesters by using tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets and just plain brute force. They even had snipers positioned on buildings for heaven's sake. All to end what had been an entirely peaceful, albeit long, protest. The action of invoking the Act and the method in which protesters were removed from the downtown core, along with the freezing of nearly 300 bank accounts of some of the convoy participants has since been ruled illegal and constitutional by a Federal Court judge. However, because all of the charges laid against the convoy participants were made under the Criminal Code the Federal Court’s ruling has changed nothing for them, other than some vindication in seeing the government rebuked for invoking the Act.
Chris Barber and Tamara Lich were arrested as part of the police action. Barber spent one night in jail before he was released, but Lich spent almost four weeks in jail before she was granted bail, with little explanation as to why, except that the judge was a Liberal appointee. Lich was not a hardened criminal, whom these days do get bail, thanks to the Trudeau government’s softening of bail laws – in favour of the criminals.
Their trial began on September 6, 2023, some 18 months after their arrests! Does this mean the Crown required a year and a half to prepare its case – for mischief charges? The trial went on hiatus in December of 2023 as the defence, Crown and judge coordinated additional court dates to continue the trial – which finally resulted in the March 2024 dates. But the case has been adjourned again, with more dates now set for the third and fourth weeks of August of this year when all concerned hope it will wrap up leaving the judge to make her decision. This, of course, could take some time given the mountain of evidence she will have to review. So, by the time Lich and Barber hear the verdict from Justice Perkins-McVey, it will likely have be over a year from when their trial began.
So, Lich and Barber, for doing nothing more than participating in a peaceful demonstration, which is their constitutional right, have had this threat of possibly spending ten years in prison – if found guilty – hanging over their heads for two and a half years! For two and a half years, their lives have been put on hold. Chris Barber who runs a farm and a trucking business has had to hand over much of the running of that business over to his 21 year-old son so he can attend to his legal affairs. They also face monumental legal bills– estimated to be close to a half a million dollars each. Fortunately, given that their cases have been so high profile some of those fees are being covered through crowdfunding via the Democracy Fund for Tamara Lich, and the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, for Barber. What would they have done if they had not gotten financial support? They would be financially ruined, another key goal of lawfare.
Pat King, who also became a public figure during the convoy due to the many videos he posted, was arrested during the Ottawa police action. He too was charged with mischief, counselling to commit mischief, plus counselling to disobey a court order and counselling to obstruct police in connection to his actions during the protest. King was also refused bail and spent some three months in jail before he was released. His court date is in May 2024. Then there are the three men who the RCMP allege were ‘key participants’ in the border blockade protests in Coutts, Alberta. Marco Van Huigenbos, Alex Van Herk and George Janzen all face charges of mischief over $5000, and have also faced delays in getting their case to trial. Their trial dates have now been set and their trial, by jury, will now proceed in May of this year. Now dubbed the ‘Coutts Three, The Democracy Fund is also crowdfunding to cover some of their legal bills. There are countless other convoy participants who were arrested in Ottawa or in Coutts that still have court dates and could face possible jail time.
Alex Van Herk, George Janzen and Marco Van Huigenbos.
James Sowery is one of them. He inadvertently missed a police checkpoint in Coutts, during the protest there, and accidently hit a traffic pylon as he passed through it. He was charged with assault with a weapon and dangerous driving. The police officer at the checkpoint said he was waving for Sowery to stop, and when claimed Sowery swerved at him with his truck. Sowery, on the other hand, says he believed the cop was waving him through and accidentally hit the checkpoint pylon. He was, however, found guilty of the charges against him in March of 2024 — a trial that took place more than a year after he was charged. He was later sentenced to ten months in jail. He spent a couple of weeks in remand before being released pending his appeal. A GiveSendGo crowdfunding site has been established to help him in his appeal.
One of the factors the judge noted in his sentencing was Sowery’s opposition to COVID-19 mandates saying that a message of deterrence was needed to be sent to like-minded individuals. So in other words a judge thinks someone protesting a government policy, should be deterred from doing so?
And then, of course, there are the Coutts Four, four men who were arrested at Coutts, Alberta and charged with conspiracy to commit murder just hours before the Emergencies Act was invoked. The four men, Chris Carbert, Chris Lysak, Jerry Morin and Tony Olienick, were never granted bail and spent two years in remand custody under, in some cases, terrible conditions. In February two of the men, Lysak and Morin, were suddenly released after reaching plea bargains on much lesser charges, that were not even in the original indictment, and for which neither would have likely spent any time in jail at all, let alone two years. The conspiracy charges along with the usual mischief charges against them were also dropped.
The two other men, Carbert and Olienick, remain in jail, yet to be convicted of any crime, with a trial date, now set for June of this year – well over two years after their arrests. They could still face up to life in prison if found guilty. This whole case should be ring alarms bells about the state of the Canadian justice system. How could it allow four men, with no criminal records, to spend two years behind bars when they had yet to be convicted of any crime—there only ‘crime’ it would seem was opposing the Trudeau government’s COVID mandates. Then, suddenly, two of them are released two after dropping the very serious conspiracy charges. But the key to this whole judicial atrocity is that is was the arrest these four men and the charges of conspiracy to commit murder of police is what conveniently served as the lynch pin for Trudeau to invoke the Emergencies Act. Trudeau wanted his January 6th moment and this was how he got it. And these men, not to mention their families, have paid a very heavy price for his vanity project. This is lawfare in its most vile form.
None of these people facing criminal charges are hardened criminals. For many, it is likely the first time they have seen the inside of a courtroom, and certainly the first time they have spent any time in jail or in handcuffs. Meanwhile the crime rate in this country is going through the roof. Car thefts in Toronto are so high that police are telling people to leave the keys in their cars to avoid their homes being broken into.
Drug crime is skyrocketing and many people in cities large and small don’t feel safe in their streets anymore. Meanwhile, Trudeau’s catch and release bail systems lets repeat offenders back out on the streets often only hours after their arrests to commit more crimes. The courts are already jam packed with criminal cases, and what are our they spending precious court time on? Prosecuting people who participated in peaceful protests. Somehow, it’s the truckers that are the problem? There is something very wrong with this picture.
These people are being punished, for what? Because they dared to challenge the Liberal government’s draconian, unreasonable and from what we know in hindsight were absolutely useless COVID restrictions and mandates.
Liberal propaganda ad ‘justifying’ their vaccine travel mandate.
The most egregious and ridiculous of these was, of course, its highly authoritarian travel mandate denying those, who made the very personal choice of not taking an untested COVID vaccine, the right to travel on trains or planes, and truckers who made that same choice, from crossing the Canada-US border to do their jobs. A mandate we have since learned from court documents, was never based on any type of science.
It is also clear that government imposed lock downs did next to nothing to stop the spread of the virus, and in fact did more harm than good. They destroyed businesses and destroyed lives driving the most vulnerable in our society further into poverty and many back into drug and alcohol addictions and even suicides. We know now that children and healthy young adults and even older adults were at a very low risk of dying of COVID, yet our governments health officials and the mainstream media stoked fear about the disease as if it was the bubonic plague on steroids.
The Freedom Convoy made up of truckers, farmers and just ordinary citizens who had had enough, called their bluff on all this nonsense. They made them blink and they made Trudeau scurry for cover feigning another case of COVID when the trucks first arrived in Ottawa. He eventually re-surfaced, angry and vengeful — falsely accusing the entire convoy of being racists, extremists, white supremacists and yes, Nazis and eventually invoking the Emergencies Act to punish them. And now, that they are in the court system his next act of vengeance and punishment is in the legal intimidation tactics of lawfare.
These cases are illustrative of just how corrupt the Trudeau government is, along with the courts over which it has acquired considerable control since it took office with appointment of many Liberal friendly judges. One Federal Court judged has had the intestinal fortitude to tell the Liberal government that their invocation of the Emergencies Act was illegal, unconstitutional, infringed on citizen’s charter and privacy rights and was unreasonable and unnecessary. But there are too many other judges sitting on the Bench and Crown’s sitting in their offices, only too happy to do this government’s bidding.
I think it's about damn time Canadians got pissed off, got off their apathetic asses and did something about it, anything would be better than politely smiling while their government slowly taxes and starves them to death or poisons them, destroys their children's future etc etc. It's going to be ugly no matter what. BTW I do include myself in the apathetic ass comment. A good start would be to attend church! Faith and family is the foundation for a much brighter future.
Another good article. Here's hoping the multitudes show up April 1st as a reminder of the support the Convoy had and as a show of unity to send Trudeau a message about how Canadians really feel.