Tamara Lich, one of the organizers of the “freedom convoy”, says she was never specifically asked to leave Ottawa last winter, when hundreds of trucks blocked the streets around Parliament Hill to demand the end of mandatory sanitary measures.
In cross-examination at the State of Emergency Commission on Friday, Ms Lich said that when police told protesters to leave, during a meeting on February 16, she took it as a suggestion.
She and other convoy organizers told the commission on Thursday that police never specifically asked them to leave town.
The commission is charged with investigating the federal government’s decision to invoke the Emergency Measures Act on February 14, in particular to dislodge protesters from the capital.
Ottawa police attorney David Migicovsky showed Ms. Lich on Friday excerpts from the police transcript of that Feb. 16 meeting. The police then wrote that they told him to “go and tell the others”. They later noted that “everyone was upset and Ms. Lich was crying.”
Ms. Lich replied that she remembered becoming emotional that day. “I think I said something like, ‘I can’t believe you’re about to do this to your own population,'” she said Friday.
She repeated to the commission that she still believed that these directives from the authorities were only suggestions.
Multiple clues?
Paul Champ, the lawyer who represents Ottawa residents and businesses before the commission, recalled Friday morning that the “GoFundMe” platform had ended Ms. Lich’s crowdfunding campaign precisely because the protest was considered a illegal occupancy.
He added that the City of Ottawa and the Ontario government had then declared a state of emergency. Meanwhile, he argued, Ottawa residents had filed a lawsuit against the organizers, and the court granted them an injunction to stop protesters honking their horns at night.
“Didn’t you see any signs that it might be time to leave?” asked Me Champ on Friday.
“We had a message too,” replied Ms. Lich. She explained that after hearing “heartbreaking” stories during the pandemic, she felt the protesters’ message was more important.
Ms Lich maintained that she would have left if the court had ordered her to. “According to my understanding at the time, we could stay as long as we were peaceful and kept order,” she answered a question from her own lawyer, Brendan Miller.