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Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
From killings to rape, the heinous crimes that could get you less jail time than a Freedom Convoy organizer
First Reading is a Canadian politics newsletter curated by the National Post's own Tristin Hopper. To get an early version sent directly to your inbox, sign up here. TOP STORY Last week, Crown prosecutors announced they were seeking jail sentences of up to eight years for Tamara Lich and Chris Barber, two organizers of the Freedom Convoy protest. Both were convicted of mischief, but the Crown is seeking a minimum sentence of seven years in jail for Lich, and eight for Barber, who was also found guilty of counselling others to disobey a court order. The Crown has argued that the disruptiveness of the Freedom Convoy blockades warrants the harsh sentence, but in a statement this week, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said courts are throwing the book at Barber and Lich while simultaneously giving free reign to 'rampant violent offenders' and 'antisemitic rioters.' It's certainly the case that you can do an awful lot of heinous things in Canada before a prosecutor would ever think of asking for seven years. Below, a not-at-all comprehensive list of things you can do in Canada, and have the Crown seek a lighter sentence than the one they're seeking for the organizers of the Freedom Convoy. Sexually assaulting a baby The accused can't be named due to a publication ban, but he's a B.C. man convicted of sexually assaulting his one-year-old daughter. Specifically, he rubbed his penis against the child's exposed genitals while filming it on his cell phone. In March, Crown prosecutors sought five to six years for the man's conviction for sexual assault, possession of child pornography and sexual interference with a minor. Using a car filled with guns to ram into Justin Trudeau's house Defence lawyers for Barber and Lich have argued that the pair were active in keeping Freedom Convoy peaceful, and urging supporters away from violence. Ironically, there is another case also from the Ottawa area in which an anti-mandate demonstrator was much more violent in his demands — and yet still faced a lighter proposed sentence. Months before Freedom Convoy ever got underway, an army reservist angry about COVID lockdowns filled up a car with guns, smashed through the gates of the official prime ministerial residence and was stopped as he attempted to approach the residence to 'arrest' then prime minister Justin Trudeau. The reservist's crimes were much more serious than mischief; he was convicted of seven weapons charges and one charge of destruction of property. But the Crown in his case sought a sentence of six years. Killing multiple innocent people via drunk driving When it comes to crimes that kill people, vehicular manslaughter is routinely among the most lightly punished. There exist any number of examples of a Canadian driver killing someone through inattention or recklessness, and getting off with nothing more than a fine and a brief driving ban. Even in cases where a drunk driver wipes out a whole generation of a family, a seven-year sentence would be considered on the tougher side. Edmonton man Taylor Yaremchuk killed a senior couple while driving drunk in 2022. The Crown in his case sought, and received, a five-year jail sentence, with the sentencing judge declaring it sent a 'strong message.' Five years was also the sentence sought by the Crown in the case of a Newfoundland man who took to the wheel after drinking all day at a 2019 music festival, causing a crash that killed couple John and Sandra Lush, and seriously injured their daughter and her boyfriend, who were in the back seat. Stabbing a man to death because he told you to stop abusing your girlfriend Under Canadian law, a convicted murderer has to spend at least 10 years in jail; that's the mandatory minimum sentence for second-degree murder. Nevertheless, it's common to see cases in which a killer receives only a few years in jail simply because the homicide they committed is prosecuted as manslaughter. In 2018, 26-year-old Abeal Negussie Abera received fatal stab wounds in Downtown Vancouver after he attempted to intervene between a man yelling at his common-law spouse. 'Yo, bro, she's just a girl. You don't have to treat her like that, calm down,' Abera reportedly said just before Benny Rae Armstrong plunged a blade into his chest. At a hearing last month, Crown prosecutors sought a five-year jail term for Armstrong. Being a police officer who stalks and sexually harasses crime victims Edmonton Police constable Hunter Robinz was convicted earlier this year not just for sex crimes, but for sex crimes against vulnerable women he would track down using his status as a police officer — sometimes forcing himself on the women while in uniform. In one instance, Robinz returned a distressed and intoxicated woman to her apartment, only to spend two hours attempting to kiss her while ignoring calls from his police radio. The Crown sought two to three years for Robinz, but in May a sentencing judge opted instead for six months. Amassing enough child pornography to fill a video store Joshua Stairs's child pornography collection was tallied up by police as containing 7,170 videos and 1,148 images. At trial, Judge Johanne Lafrance-Cardinal said the images were so graphic, violent and disturbing that she occasionally urged lawyers not to detail their contents so as to spare court staff members. The ages of the victims depicted in the images ranged from four to 12. The Crown sought three to three-and-a-half years for Stairs, and he was sentenced to two. Torturing a toddler to death It's not unusual that the killing of a baby or toddler will yield a sentence of only a few years, particularly if the killer is the child's parents. But there were some aggravating factors in the death of Gabriel Sinclair-Pasqua, an 18-month-old who died in 2021. Sinclair-Pasqua's last days were spent in extreme pain after a scalding caused him to suffer burns across a third of his body. His parents not only refused to seek medical care, but in text exchanges they referred to the emaciated and screaming child as 'a paycheque.' The Crown would end up seeking the exact same sentence for the parents as that being sought for Barber: eight years in jail. Shooting at police In the summer of 2023 Siavash Ahmadi was pulled over by West Vancouver Police for suspected impaired driving. When instructed to retrieve his licence, Ahmadi instead reached into a bag of loaded guns, retrieved a pistol and fired at two officers from a distance of just two metres. Admadi didn't hit anyone, and neither did the officers when they returned fire. At trial last November, the Crown sought a sentence of seven years. Ahmadi ultimately received just four years, in addition to a $1,000 fine for impaired driving. Intentionally ramming a car loaded with children and pregnant women Michael Augustine, 60, pled guilty to a 2022 incident in which he used his truck to intentionally ram a minivan carrying his step-daughter, whom he had just threatened to kill. The minivan, which was carrying a total of four children and two pregnant women, rolled multiple times before coming to a stop in the woods, 83 metres from the road. Miraculously, nobody was killed, despite one of the children being ejected from the crash. Despite Augustine's long history of violent criminal convictions, the Crown sought eight years, and Augustine was ultimately sentenced to five. Beating a fellow homeless shelter resident to death While staying at an Edmonton homeless shelter, Stanley Jago attacked a confused fellow resident who had been returning from the bathroom, beating the man so badly that he suffered a fatal seizure. In the court proceedings that followed, Jago gained a reputation for unstable behaviour, such as threatening court participants or attempting to attack sheriffs. Jago was convicted of manslaughter, and sentenced to five years — just slightly less than the five-and-a-half years the Crown had been seeking. Raping a minor and bragging about it online In arguing that 56-year-old Prakash Lekhraj didn't feel any remorse for raping a teenaged girl, the Crown would only have needed to point to Lehkraj's testimony that 'he never needs to seek the consent of a female to have sexual relations with her.' Lehkraj was convicted of both sexual assault and the production of child pornography for an August 2020 assault in which he photographed himself raping a minor before uploading the images to an online group chat. The victim 'took it like a champ,' wrote Lekhraj. The Crown sought a sentence of four to five years, but a judge went with three years and three months. IN OTHER NEWSAmidst Canada's bid to fortify its economy against U.S. trade aggression, easily the most low-lying fruit has been the spectre of interprovincial trade barriers. The various regulatory issues that make it hard for provinces to trade with one another cost the Canadian economy an estimated $160 billion per year. Nevertheless, despite some early successes in knocking down the barriers, a major setback occurred this week when Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew bowed out of a trade deal with Alberta, Saskatchewan and Ontario that would commit all four provinces to collaborate on new pipelines, rail links and other infrastructure. Kinew didn't sign on the grounds that no such projects should proceed without Indigenous 'consensus.' That also happens to be the high standard that Prime Minister Mark Carney has suggested for any new federally administered infrastructure; that nothing gets built unless it has 'a consensus of all the provinces and the Indigenous people.'Get all of these insights and more into your inbox by signing up for the First Reading newsletter. Michael Higgins: Musician and pastor Sean Feucht raises Indigenous ire by cancelling himself 'This was a very violent attack': Nova Scotia man gets 6.5-year sentence for raping transgender woman
New York Post
4 days ago
- Politics
- New York Post
Leaders of Canada's ‘Freedom Convoy' facing up to eight years in prison: ‘political vengeance'
The leaders of Canada's 'Freedom Convoy' are facing up to eight years in prison, an 'abusive' sentencing recommendation critics are ripping as 'political vengeance.' Tamara Lich and Chris Barber sat in an Ottawa courtroom for their sentencing hearings this week after being found guilty in April of mischief for organizing the trucker protest against then Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's ultra-strict vaccine mandate. 4 At the height of the protest, thousands of trucks joined in to push back against COVID mandates. REUTERS The protest paralyzed the Great White North's capital for three weeks in 2022. The Crown is seeking seven years for Lich, 51, of Alberta, and eight for Barber, of Saskatchewan — who was also found guilty of counseling others to disobey a court order. 'It seems like a considerable overreach,' Lich told The Post Friday, during a stop on her three-day drive back to Alberta. 'They're trying to deter others, I believe, from ever protesting something like this again.' Prosecutors are also pushing to seize Barber's truck, 'Big Red,' which was used in the protest — through a forfeiture order they filed three years after the fact. 4 Prosecutors want to seize Barber's truck. Chris Barber "Big Red" official /Facebook 'I've owned this truck for 21 years,' said Barber, 50, who runs a family trucking business and co-owns 'Big Red' with his son. 'This is how I make a living. And the Crown wants to remove that from me and destroy it, which is absolutely disheartening to see that they will go to such a level of vileness.' 'It's just this vindictive vendetta of pettiness,' Lich added. 4 Lich was one of the organizers of the 'Freedom Convoy.' REUTERS Barber's lawyer slammed the Crown's sentencing recommendation as 'excessive, abusive and unconstitutional.' Both Lich and Barber have been under bail conditions for the past three and a half years. 'This is political vengeance, not actual justice, and it's why trust in our institutions is dwindling,' fumed Conservative Party Deputy Leader Melissa Lantsman. 4 The protest lasted close to a month during the winter of 2022. Getty Images The convoy started in revolt of Trudeau's vaccine mandate for US-Canada cross-border truckers — but quickly grew into a mass demonstration against the government's excessive COVID-19 restrictions. 'The Freedom convoy is peacefully protesting the harsh policies of far-left lunatic Justin Trudeau who has destroyed Canada with insane COVID mandates,' President Trump said at the time. Lich and Barber are set to be sentenced on Oct. 7, with their lawyers pushing for absolute discharges, which would absolve them of any criminal record.
National Observer
5 days ago
- Politics
- National Observer
Convoy sentencing part of a fraught judicial history around protest
Tamara Lich emerged from the Ontario Court of Justice in downtown Ottawa on Thursday afternoon, walking past throngs of journalists, right wing media personalities and dedicated supporters brandishing signs. The two-day sentencing hearing for Lich and Chris Barber — two of the 'Freedom Convoy's' main organizers — saw their supporters from the Ottawa Valley and even as far as Alberta gather both outside and inside the courthouse to sing the praises of these controversial figures. Inside the courtroom, with roughly 60 observers and journalists on day one, the mood was mellow and restrained, save for a smattering of snickers when the Crown attorney said this case is not about political views. The spectacle provided an opportunity for Pierre Poilievre and the Conservative Party of Canada to reaffirm their loyalty to the far-right segment of their base. 'The Crown wants 7 years prison time for the charge of mischief for Lich & Barber,' Poilievre posted on X, two days before the sentencing hearing began. 'How is this justice?' 'This is political vengeance, not actual justice,' wrote deputy Conservative Leader Melissa Lantsman. As Lich and Barber await their sentences, expected to be announced on Oct. 7, these statements and many more like them continue to ricochet through the conservative media ecosystem. Ezra Levant, founder of Rebel News, showed up at the Ottawa court to cover the two-day hearing; so did right-wing influencers like Right Blend and Dacey Media. Those who couldn't make it in person posted from afar. 'Canada is turning into a banana republic,' the Pleb Reporter posted from Montreal. 'The left are cheering for dictator style punishments for light dissent. A protest where no violence occurred. Please wake up Canada.' Canada's National Observer obtained an internal report by the CSIS spy agency on 'Climate Change and Terrorism.' The majority of the document — some 90 per cent of the text — focuses on threats posed by environmentalists. Transport Canada has estimated that the Convoy movement cost Canadians $3.9 billion in lost trade due to the convoy-affiliated border blockades that spread across the country in February 2022. The protests cost the city of Ottawa over $36 million, mostly on policing. That figure doesn't include the cost to businesses forced to close for weeks, or the harm done to some 12,000 residents of Ottawa's Centretown whose homes were bombarded by the noise of semi-trucks honking their horns in synchronized 10-minute blasts, loud and long enough to cause permanent hearing damage. 'It's really hard to describe how fucked up those horns were,' Paul Champ, the lawyer who filed the injunction that ultimately forced an end to the honking — but not the occupation — told Canada's National Observer. 'They had a schedule. Four hundred semi-trucks pulling down all together. It was dystopian.' Champ was initially reluctant to get involved. 'I believe really deeply in protest, and it doesn't matter what issue you're protesting. You should have the right to be out there. There's lots of reasonable reasons to disagree with certain COVID measures and given how significant the impact was on people's life, people should protest,' he said. He also felt protest leaders shouldn't be held responsible for the actions of a few bad actors, like those who defecated on residents' lawns or sent fireworks bouncing off apartment walls. But the damage done by the horns, along with the serial harassment of businesses and residents alike for wearing masks (at a time when mask-wearing was mandated for public indoor spaces to prevent COVID's spread), changed his mind. 'It's important to distinguish between the issues that the people were protesting and the manner in which they were protesting,' Champ said. 'They were honking those horns because they were trying to make living downtown extremely difficult. And they were doing that to put pressure on the government … they were kind of holding the people of downtown Ottawa hostage.' For the Conservative Party to become the movement's champion without acknowledging any of those harms spoke volumes, Champ added. Poilievre famously brought donuts to members of the Convoy during the blockades, and described them as 'bright, joyful, and peaceful Canadians championing freedom over fear.' 'Poilievre never spoke out about how miserable it was for the people who have young kids, for the elderly, people with disabilities, the shelters that are downtown, all the business people — he just didn't give a crap because he's exploiting it for political gain.' That strategy created an enormous new base for Poilievre in 2022, almost overnight. 'Pierre took a principled stance which hurt him politically when it mattered the most. This is how he earned my loyalty,' the Pleb Reporter posted on Monday. Courting the Convoy vote brought Poilievre within a hair of becoming prime minister, but ultimately backfired spectacularly. It cost him not only the election but also the parliamentary seat (Carleton, which abuts downtown Ottawa) he had held for 21 years. Judging by their engagement with this week's sentencing of Lich and Barber, however, Poilievre and the Conservatives still view their Convoy following as crucial to the party's future. In return, right-wing influencers such as The Pleb Reporter, Right Blend and others were quick to thank Poilievre for speaking up about the sentencing this week, marking the first time many of them have mentioned the Conservative leader since he lost the election. If any doubts remained about whether the two groups still feel they need each other, this week should put them to rest. Who does the state fear more? This chapter of the Freedom Convoy's legal travails also revives deeper questions about which protest groups are seen as threats by Canadian authorities, and which are not. Canada's National Observer obtained an internal report by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) spy agency entitled ' Climate Change and Terrorism: From Threat Multiplication to Radicalization.' The report was produced in July 2024, two years after the Freedom Convoy. It includes a brief mention of 'the Freedom Movement' under a one-paragraph sidebar labeled 'Climate denialists and the Culture Wars.' Here, the report briefly acknowledges that climate denial is merging with other conspiracy theories to 'drive acts of serious violence or terrorism.' Among the hybrids identified are 'conspiracy theories about government attempts to restrict individual freedoms (e.g. 'climate lockdown').' But the majority of the document — some 90 per cent of the text — focuses on threats posed by environmentalists. 'In Canada, a significant increase in the frequency or severity of extreme weather is likely to drive radicalization to violence and increase the threat from environmentally focused terrorists in the medium to long term,' the report states. It further predicts the 'increased use of extreme weather events in propaganda by violent extremists to radicalize and recruit new supporters, notably by assigning blame for climate-driven disasters on specific groups (migrants, politicians, industries, etc.).' Headings that follow include 'Eco-terrorism,' 'Violent fringes of the environmental movement,' and 'Eco-Fascists.' CSIS did not reply to queries about this report from Canada's National Observer. Asked whether the organization views eco-radicals as a greater threat to national security than right-wing groups like the Freedom Convoy, a spokesperson wrote by email: 'CSIS's 2024 Public report — available online — provides a detailed overview of how CSIS views the current global threat environment.' That report, however, only mentions 'climate change' once in passing, without naming any specific related threats. It says nothing about eco-terrorism, climate denialism or the Freedom Convoy. James Turk, director for the Centre for Free Expression, reviewed the document. The CSIS Integrated Threat Assessment Centre is a specialized organization whose job is to look at the rise in terrorism and other threats, so it makes sense the report doesn't dwell on the 'culture wars' and climate denial, he said in an interview with Canada's National Observer. But viewing the environmental movement through the lens of terrorism creates an environment where the discussion shifts from how to limit radicalization rather than how to limit the damages of climate change, he said. 'Let's prevent the problem rather than figure out how we're going to police the outcome if we don't remedy the problem,' Turk said. Who's scarier, eco-terrorists or right-wing radicals? It's common for protesters from all ideological backgrounds to feel unjustly persecuted by police. But for all the complaints from Conservatives and Freedom Convoy members over their rough treatment at the end of their blockade, the Convoy's start was marked by an unusual level of police cooperation. 'The big question was why the police did not enforce any laws for that particular group,' said Joao Velloso, a professor of criminology at the University of Ottawa. When truckers started pulling into downtown Ottawa, he noted, police didn't even hand out tickets for illegal parking. 'It's quite scary that police can decide to not enforce any laws. That's quite dangerous for democracy.' Images of police officers shaking hands and taking selfies with protesters emerged not just from Ottawa, but also from other convoy blockades throughout the country, like the one in Coutts, Alberta, where some of the protesters were later found to have been stockpiling assault weapons. Each of these groups was blocking critical infrastructure, collectively inflicting billions of dollars of damage on the national economy. This paints a stark contrast to the treatment given to environmental and Indigenous protesters who target infrastructure. During the Fairy Creek protests against old growth logging on Vancouver Island in 2021, RCMP officers were filmed tearing the masks off protesters before spraying them point blank in the face with pepper spray — tactics a judge later declared illegal — for blocking a logging road. Two years before that, during the Wet'suwet'en protests against BC's Coastal GasLink pipeline, RCMP dispatched snipers ahead of a militarized arrest of Indigenous protesters and journalists, generating international headlines. It is hard to compare how various protest groups are treated because with all the different factions and protest methods it's rarely an apples to apples comparison. For example, the 'Freedom Convoy' protests were exceptional because the protesters utilized huge hard-to-remove trucks, which he says may have thrown a spanner in the police response in Ottawa. While Turk emphasized it's 'hard to generalize' which groups are perceived and treated as a bigger threat by the state, overall, 'people who see themselves as defenders of the environment have been treated more harshly than people who are promoting the exploitation of the environment,' Turk said. In Canada, property rights and trespass law 'are used to justify harsh treatment of many progressive protests' including ones that interfere with logging, pipelines and energy infrastructure or advocate for Palestinian solidarity, he said. Many environmental, climate and land defender movements go against the status quo — anchored by the political, economic, legal and corporate landscape in Canada — and are therefore likely to be perceived as a threat, Turk added, nodding to the immense power and influence of fossil fuel lobby groups both in Canada and the US. Powerful lobby groups influence the political agenda and seek to shape views on national threats, whether it pertains to war or climate change — and right now, it appears fossil fuel interests are shaping the narrative, Turk said. 'When we talk about who we're afraid of, we're afraid of the left,' said Meaghan Daniel, a Montreal lawyer who has defended activists and Indigenous protest movements across the country. Daniel has roots in activism herself, and was deeply involved in the left-wing G20 protests in Toronto in 2010, where 1,100 people were arrested in the largest mass arrest in Canadian history. The police chief in charge of that operation, Bill Blair, was later put in charge of CSIS and the RCMP as public safety minister. 'For a long time we've seen extensive surveillance and infiltration of far-left groups, but we didn't see that [with the Freedom Convoy],' Daniel said. ''We didn't even see the acknowledgement of far-right groups until about a decade after the G20.' That helps explain why authorities were caught 'flat-footed' by Convoy groups in 2022, when they seized critical infrastructure all across the nation with almost no effort to prevent them until it was too late. 'I think they were really surprised at the existence of far-right extremist organizing.' Even after all levels of government awoke to the scale of the threat, the way police finally ended the Convoy protests was far more peaceful than similar actions against major left-wing acts of civil disobedience. Almost no arrests were made, and in the end only three people were criminally charged. During the Wet'suwet'en protests, RCMP arrested 74 people in four separate raids. At Fairy Creek, the number of arrests once again surpassed 1,100 and many were prosecuted. 'If you look at all the mass incarceration events, they're almost entirely left-wing,' Daniel said. At the same time, Daniel agrees that the Crown's recommendation of 7 and 8 year jail terms for Lich and Barber, respectively, is far longer than typical for protest organizers. 'I don't want to see a huge, long jail sentence happening,' she said. 'Aggressive policing only ends up radicalizing people. Whenever forceful removal of a protester happens, usually that protester in turn doesn't become more compliant and trusting of the state. The opposite happens.'
CTV News
6 days ago
- Politics
- CTV News
Sentencing for ‘Freedom Convoy' leaders Lich, Barber scheduled for Oct. 7
Freedom Convoy organizer Tamara Lich is seen outside the courthouse in Ottawa on Wednesday, July 23, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld OTTAWA — Tamara Lich and Chris Barber, two leaders of the 'Freedom Convoy' protest, are scheduled to be sentenced for mischief on Oct. 7 in an Ottawa courtroom. In addition to lengthy prison sentences, the Crown wants to seize Barber's truck, which was used in the protest. A forfeiture hearing on that matter is scheduled for Sept. 12. Ontario Court Justice Heather Perkins-McVey said Thursday she wants to rule on the mischief sentence and truck forfeiture at the same time so that she does not deliver 'piecemeal' decisions. Lich and Barber were both found guilty of mischief in April for their roles in the convoy protest, which saw activists fill much of downtown Ottawa for three weeks beginning in late January 2022 to protest vaccine mandates and other pandemic measures. The Crown is seeking a prison sentence of seven years for Lich and eight years for Barber, who was also found guilty of counselling others to disobey a court order. The lawyers for both Lich and Barber are seeking absolute discharges for their clients, which would mean neither receives a criminal record. On Thursday, Lich's lawyer Lawrence Greenspon told the court that Lich has already spent 49 days in jail and has been under strict bail conditions for the last three-and-a-half years. Greenspon argued that his client and Barber took 'unprecedented' steps by working with police and city officials throughout the protest to limit the protest's impact. 'This is an individual who came to this city with the best of intentions, as recognized by the judge. She has been under strict bail conditions for three-and-a-half years. She spent 49 days in jail for the offence of mischief,' Greenspon said during the hearing's lunch break. 'And if one looks at the positive impact that she's had on the lives of many Canadians and the community service that she has continued to do, there's absolutely no reason for her to not receive an absolute discharge.' Greenspon read a brief statement on Lich's behalf that simply said 'freedom is not free.' Accused are given a chance to address the court during sentencing submissions. Barber's lawyer Diane Magas said Wednesday that she is seeking an absolute discharge for her client because he has been on bail for the last three-and-a-half years without incident. Greenspon became emotional at times while reading from dozens of support letters submitted on behalf of his client. He read out messages from people who said the convoy protest gave them hope after two years of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated public health measures they saw as government overreach. 'Tamara Lich, Chris Barber stood up for what they believed in and what many, many people -- thousands of people across the country were not capable of standing up (for). And those people were inspired,' he said. Crown prosecutor Siobhain Wetscher said during her sentencing submissions Wednesday that she is seeking stiff sentences for Lich and Barber because of the broad community harm caused by the three-week 2022 protest in Ottawa's downtown core. She said that she is seeking long sentences not because of Lich and Barber's political beliefs but because of their actions during the protest. 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. Greenspon said Thursday that it's 'facile and inaccurate' to say the Crown's sentencing proposal sentence is not motivated by his client's politics. He said Lich continually called for protesters to remain peaceful and can't be held responsible for the actions of individuals at the demonstration. Wetscher replied that while some people are fans of the convoy protest, it does not change the fact that it caused harm to people living and working in downtown Ottawa. The defence raised issues with victim and community impact statements submitted by Wetscher. One of the statements came from fellow 'Freedom Convoy' organizer Pat King's case and others were sworn affidavits derived from a separate $300 million class action lawsuit filed against convoy organizers by downtown Ottawa residents. Wetscher said that the statements are meant to capture the broad scope of the convoy's impact. David Baxter, the Canadian Press This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 24, 2025.
Hamilton Spectator
6 days ago
- Politics
- Hamilton Spectator
Sentencing for ‘Freedom Convoy' leaders Lich, Barber scheduled for Oct. 7
OTTAWA - Tamara Lich and Chris Barber, two leaders of the 'Freedom Convoy' protest, are scheduled to be sentenced for mischief on Oct. 7 in an Ottawa courtroom. In addition to lengthy prison sentences, the Crown wants to seize Barber's truck, which was used in the protest. A forfeiture hearing on that matter is scheduled for Sept. 12. Ontario Court Justice Heather Perkins-McVey said Thursday she wants to rule on the mischief sentence and truck forfeiture at the same time so that she does not deliver 'piecemeal' decisions. Lich and Barber were both found guilty of mischief in April for their roles in the convoy protest, which saw activists fill much of downtown Ottawa for three weeks beginning in late January 2022 to protest vaccine mandates and other pandemic measures. The Crown is seeking a prison sentence of seven years for Lich and eight years for Barber, who was also found guilty of counselling others to disobey a court order. The lawyers for both Lich and Barber are seeking absolute discharges for their clients, which would mean neither receives a criminal record. On Thursday, Lich's lawyer Lawrence Greenspon told the court that Lich has already spent 49 days in jail and has been under strict bail conditions for the last three-and-a-half years. Greenspon argued that his client and Barber took 'unprecedented' steps by working with police and city officials throughout the protest to limit the protest's impact. 'This is an individual who came to this city with the best of intentions, as recognized by the judge. She has been under strict bail conditions for three-and-a-half years. She spent 49 days in jail for the offence of mischief,' Greenspon said during the hearing's lunch break. 'And if one looks at the positive impact that she's had on the lives of many Canadians and the community service that she has continued to do, there's absolutely no reason for her to not receive an absolute discharge.' Greenspon read a brief statement on Lich's behalf that simply said 'freedom is not free.' Accused are given a chance to address the court during sentencing submissions. Barber's lawyer Diane Magas said Wednesday that she is seeking an absolute discharge for her client because he has been on bail for the last three-and-a-half years without incident. Greenspon became emotional at times while reading from dozens of support letters submitted on behalf of his client. He read out messages from people who said the convoy protest gave them hope after two years of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated public health measures they saw as government overreach. 'Tamara Lich, Chris Barber stood up for what they believed in and what many, many people — thousands of people across the country were not capable of standing up (for). And those people were inspired,' he said. Crown prosecutor Siobhain Wetscher said during her sentencing submissions Wednesday that she is seeking stiff sentences for Lich and Barber because of the broad community harm caused by the three-week 2022 protest in Ottawa's downtown core. She said that she is seeking long sentences not because of Lich and Barber's political beliefs but because of their actions during the protest. 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. Greenspon said Thursday that it's 'facile and inaccurate' to say the Crown's sentencing proposal sentence is not motivated by his client's politics. He said Lich continually called for protesters to remain peaceful and can't be held responsible for the actions of individuals at the demonstration. Wetscher replied that while some people are fans of the convoy protest, it does not change the fact that it caused harm to people living and working in downtown Ottawa. The defence raised issues with victim and community impact statements submitted by Wetscher. One of the statements came from fellow 'Freedom Convoy' organizer Pat King's case and others were sworn affidavits derived from a separate $300 million class action lawsuit filed against convoy organizers by downtown Ottawa residents. Wetscher said that the statements are meant to capture the broad scope of the convoy's impact. This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 24, 2025. Error! Sorry, there was an error processing your request. There was a problem with the recaptcha. Please try again. You may unsubscribe at any time. By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google privacy policy and terms of service apply. Want more of the latest from us? Sign up for more at our newsletter page .
