The lawyer for Freedom March organizer Chris Barber told a judge Monday that a court order banning horn honking in downtown Ottawa during the protest was not clear enough.
Mr. Barber and his co-defendant, Tamara Lich, are facing charges of mischief, intimidation and counseling others to break the law. Mr. Barber faces the additional charge of counseling others to disobey a court order by encouraging protesters to honk their horns.
In a video posted to the social media site TikTok during the protest, Mr Barber asked other protesters to lower their horns due to the court order, but added that if a large mass of police showed up, they should honk their horns and not stop.
“Hit that horn, don’t let go, when you see this massive force of police coming toward you,” Barber repeated in the video, which was played in court several times throughout the trial.
Her lawyer, Diane Magas, recalled in her closing arguments that there were exceptions to the order, including emergencies.
“There is ambiguity about the scope of the exception,” she noted, suggesting that her client was trying to explain the limits of the court order “in his own words.”
That exception was unclear, she argued, saying the threat of unlawful arrest by riot police may have constituted an emergency in Mr Barber’s mind.
“That’s a bit of an exaggeration,” Judge Heather Perkins-McVey replied when Me Magas made the argument on Monday.
In the days leading up to the TikTok video, Mr. Barber’s social media posts suggested that he was increasingly fearful that riot police would show up and surround protesters — a controversial law enforcement practice of gathering and containing large crowds in a limited area, his lawyer argued.
She noted that it is acceptable to resist arrest if it is “unlawful.”
Me Magas also cast doubt on whether everything Mr. Barber had to say on the matter was admitted into evidence. Not all of his TikTok videos were introduced as evidence, and Mr.e Magas argued that those not revealed in court could contain crucial, exonerating messages.
The protest itself lasted six weeks, as massive crowds of demonstrators and thousands of large trucks blocked intersections in downtown Ottawa near Parliament Hill and nearby residential neighbourhoods.
Incessant honking at all hours of the day was a prominent feature throughout the rally, although the court heard the noise abated somewhat after the court order banned honking.
Fourth day of final arguments
Monday marks the fourth day of closing arguments in the criminal trial of the two organizers, a legally complicated trial marked by dozens of interruptions and restarts since it began last September.
The courtroom remained packed with supporters, some of whom attended the protest themselves.
Me Magas told the court last week that his client was not responsible for the individual actions of protest participants.
On Monday, she cited several examples of Mr. Barber’s attempts to help police move trucks and other vehicles off residential side roads and unblock streets.
“Every demonstration blocks streets,” recalled Mr.e Magas at the end of her closing argument. She added that Mr. Barber had done everything he could to “participate in a lawful protest, [qu’il] tried to help ensure that it remained legal… He had no positive duty to leave or tell people to stop protesting if they were protesting legally.”
The protests, she said later, have no time limit.
The Crown has already told the court that Mr.me Lich and Mr. Barber had knowingly “crossed the line” between lawful protest and unlawful mischief. The Crown will have an opportunity to respond to the defence’s arguments before the end of the trial.
The trial is expected to continue on Tuesday, when Mr.me Lich will present their closing arguments.