(OTTAWA) One of the organizers of the ‘freedom convoy’ says police never asked her to leave downtown Ottawa, despite evidence to the contrary. Tamara Lich continued her testimony to the State of Emergency Commission on Friday.
Posted at 1:50 p.m.
After the federal government resorted to Emergency Measures Act, officers had however distributed in person notices to the truckers who paralyzed downtown Ottawa telling them that he had to leave or they would be arrested. A federal state of emergency was declared on February 14, four days before the launch of a major police operation to dislodge the demonstrators.
“I was never told to leave,” she said in cross-examination with Ottawa police attorney David Migicovsky.
The latter then presented him with an account of the work of the liaison officers of the police service. They report a meeting with Tamara Lich and other organizers in a hotel to tell them that the message had been given to them. According to this account, she was crying because she felt it was unfair.
“I was upset and I think I told them I couldn’t believe you’re doing this to your own people,” she said. We were there to demonstrate peacefully. »
She said she does not remember that the police then asked them to leave the city center and pass this message on to the other participants of the “freedom convoy”. “It was suggested,” she said.
Me Migicovsky then told her that she had a selective memory.
The day before, Mr.me Lich delivered a sometimes emotional testimony in which she recounted having decided to organize the “freedom convoy” in Ottawa in response to the health measures imposed to limit the spread of COVID-19. She and her husband then lost their jobs because of these restrictions.
“I was growing increasingly alarmed at the harm these measures were inflicting on Canadians,” she said. And I felt I had to exercise my democratic rights. »
She said the last thing she wanted was for the citizens of Ottawa to feel harassed by the hundreds of trucks blocking downtown streets and honking their horns at all hours of the day or night. She had also admitted that the sound of car horns was “a little too much for her” after two days, but that they didn’t hear them much from her hotel room.
Mme Lich was arrested Feb. 17, the day before the police operation to shut down the truck convoy, and faces various charges, including mischief and incitement to mischief. In a video of her arrest presented in evidence, she tells other protesters to “hold their ground”. The demonstrators intended to stay as long as the vaccination requirement for truckers who made cross-border trips was not lifted by the federal government.
She said on Friday that she was unaware that Ottawa Mayor Jim Waston, former Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly, Premier Justin Trudaeu and Minister Chrystia Freeland had received death threats during the protest. “I also received death threats,” she said.