(Ottawa) After 45 days of evidence and legal arguments, the trial of two organizers of the “freedom convoy”, Tamara Lich and Chris Barber, is finally over.
But the verdict may not be known for six months.
Judge Heather Perkins-McVey acknowledged Friday morning that she could not say at this point when she might deliver her verdict, given the unusually large volume of evidence and legal issues involved in the entire case.
Tamara Lich and Chris Barber are both charged with mischief, intimidation and incitement to break the law for their roles in the protest that drew thousands of people to downtown Ottawa for three weeks in early 2022.
PHOTO JUSTIN TANG, CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES
One of the co-defendants, Chris Barber
Although the charges appear relatively simple, the trial itself was anything but simple.
The case, originally scheduled to last only 16 days, quickly became bogged down with complex legal arguments, a massive body of evidence and disclosure delays that dragged the proceedings out for more than a year.
Tamara Lich, who had become something of a figurehead of the protest by 2022, and Chris Barber, one of the convoy’s original organizers, traveled together to Ottawa as part of a massive rally of heavy-duty trucks that parked outside Parliament Hill and on nearby residential streets and refused to leave until their demands were met.
The Crown and defence largely agree on what happened when the convoy travelled to Ottawa to demand that the federal government drop mandatory COVID-19 health measures.
The Crown called 16 witnesses who painted a picture of daily life in Ottawa during those tumultuous weeks in the federal capital. Ottawa residents, business owners, police officers and city officials described major thoroughfares blocked by large trucks, the overwhelming smell of diesel engines and open fires, shuttered stores and, most of all, the incessant sound of horns and air horns blaring from the trucks.
The co-defendants’ lawyers filed signed confessions that were to the same effect.
But the question that Justice Perkins-McVey must now answer is essentially whether Mme Lich and Mr. Barber, organizers of the convoy, can also be held responsible for what happened on the streets of Ottawa.
Individual rights and collective rights
The defense argued that the two co-accused were exercising their fundamental rights in the context of a lawful protest and had not themselves broken the law.
In his closing arguments, Tamara Lich’s lawyer, Lawrence Greenspon, said that when it comes to freedom of expression protected by the Charter and the right of Ottawa residents to enjoy their property, there is no opposition.
The Crown argued Friday that was not entirely accurate. “No right is without limits, including the right to defend one’s beliefs,” Crown prosecutor Siobhain Wetscher said Friday.
The prosecution claims the two organizers were in cahoots to pressure Ottawa residents and the federal government to achieve their political goals. By calling on protesters to “stand their ground,” the two co-accused “crossed the line” between peaceful protest and criminal activity, the Crown argued.
To further complicate the case, the Crown also alleges that the two co-accused worked so closely together that evidence against one should apply to the other as well.
If the judge upholds the conspiracy charge, it would be particularly damaging to Mr.me Lich, whose social media statements during the protest were somewhat less bombastic and potentially problematic for the defense than Mr. Barber’s.
Me Greenspon called the Crown’s strategy unprecedented in a case where the co-defendants’ common goal is perfectly legal: to protest for a change in public policy.
Although both accused travelled to Ottawa to attend the hearings, they attended the final day by videoconference on Friday from their respective homes in Alberta and Saskatchewan.
The co-defendants’ legal fees for the lengthy trial were largely covered by the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms, although both defendants also raised funds throughout the proceedings.
Mme Lich has already spent a total of 49 days in jail, first after his initial arrest during the 2022 protests and then again following an alleged bail violation last summer.