LIVE TWEETS: Judge to Issue Verdict in Tamara Lich Trial

LIVE UPDATES: Judge to issue verdict in Tamara Lich trial

Ezra Levant is in the courthouse, live-tweeting as the judge in Tamara Lich's criminal trial issues her verdict.

| April 03, 2025 | 2 Comments

The Canadian Press / Sean Kilpatrick

Rebel News publisher Ezra Levant is on the scene in Ottawa as Freedom Convoy organizer Tamara Lich is set to receive a verdict in the longest-running mischief trial in Canadian history.

Lich was one of the most prominent faces of the peaceful anti-mandate protests that took Ottawa by storm during early 2022. The Freedom Convoy organizer has pleaded not guilty to mischief, intimidation, obstruction and other charges.

"I know what I was advocating for. And I know the message that I was trying to get across, which was peace and love and unity and respecting the rule of law. Follow the rules. And don't be jerks, basically," Lich told the CBC.

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The judge concludes:

If I've got it right, the defendants are both guilty of the one count of mischief; but not guilty for everything else; Chris Barber is guilty of violating a court order against him.

Still: a disaster for civil liberties.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) April 3, 2025

🚨BAD NEWS: Trucker convoy leader Tamara Lich is convicted of mischief. Help me crowdfund her appeal. pic.twitter.com/chSLGEYDWl
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) April 3, 2025

🚨TAMARA LICH AND CHRIS BARBER FOUND GUILTY OF MISCHIEF FOR LEADING THE PEACEFUL TRUCKER CONVOY.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) April 3, 2025

Judge now reading one of Lich's Facebook posts that is all about peace and love and prayers.

"Please try not to be angry. Keep love in your hearts... Keep fighting the good fight... and we're going to hold the line.

Tamara was arrested the next day.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) April 3, 2025

Judge emphasizes Tamara Lich saying, "hold the line". The prosecution has claimed that's an illegal statement as it's inducing mischief.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) April 3, 2025

Judge: Barber was not a mere bystander in the protest, his very presence was a positive act.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) April 3, 2025

Judge: there is overwhelming evidence that Lich and Barber were leaders of a substantial group of the truckers. I accept the testimony that the Freedom Convoy was the broad moderate group.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) April 3, 2025

Judge lists other cases she has considered, including a case where "strength in numbers" could transform modest participation into encouragement.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) April 3, 2025

The judge is describing the harms caused to residents in Ottawa by the convoy, in another mischief case. A case that led to a conviction.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) April 3, 2025

Judge quotes the R. v. Artur Pawlowski case of his mischief conviction for giving a sermon near the Coutts blockade. That's another case that @TDF_Can helped defend.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) April 3, 2025

Judge cites U of T Hamas case: "the law is clear. The protesters do not have the right to camp on property... chaos."
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) April 3, 2025

Judge refers to case of the pro-Hamas encampment at the University of Toronto.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) April 3, 2025

Judge says "Charter rights are not absolute."
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) April 3, 2025

The judge is reciting some of the conversations between the police and city on the one hand, and the truckers on the other. There was a "bargain" on how things would go, but a political decision by the government broke that (and the police, apparently, apologized to Barber).
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) April 3, 2025

The judge rehearses some of the therapy sessions of different people "witnessing" the trucks.

"Dear Diary".

Nothing connected to Tamara Lich. Just whiny bureaucrats who were mad that some people were fed up with the lockdowns.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) April 3, 2025

Judge: Mr. Ayotte admitted "the truckers were living up to their end of the bargain" in terms of moving when asked.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) April 3, 2025

Here are my live-tweets from when Kim Ayotte was on the stand. He's like that "energy vampire" on the TV show What We Do in the Shadows.https://t.co/pbZeo5HXyl

It was hearing his testimony that made me realize, this isn't a real trial. It's:
* therapy for woke bureaucrats;
* a…
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) April 3, 2025

Oh my God. She's talking about Kim Ayotte now. He was a City of Ottawa emergency response bureaucrats. He testified for hours on one of the days I was at the trial. What a loser he is -- he would go "for walks" around the city and make "observations". But he didn't keep any…
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) April 3, 2025

So this was a massive police operation -- Ottawa Police, Ontario Provincial Police, and the Quebec Sûreté.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) April 3, 2025

Judge moves on: Sergeant Pilotte was in charge of viewing the truckers Facebook pages. The crown admitted that much of that was "hearsay" and unreliable in other ways.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) April 3, 2025

Inspector Lucas: "there was no physical violence".
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) April 3, 2025

Inspector Lucas "admitted" that people started coming in from all places -- it wasn't particularly organized. And police had no clue what to do with hundreds of trucks coming in.

Lucas said the truckers were "cooperative" with police. "We want to balance the right to free speech…
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) April 3, 2025

Various individual citizens were also witnesses. (I should say, none of them witnesses Tamara Lich doing anything. That's what's so gross about this "criminal trial". Tamara Lich was the accused; but there was no evidence she did anything; none of the witnesses saw or interacted…
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) April 3, 2025

The judge is now listing the various witnesses who testified. Various police and government officials.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) April 3, 2025

Judge: residents testified that people "suffered significant interference" with their lives.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) April 3, 2025

Judge: witnesses said this disrupted transportation; that the noise of horn-honking made it difficult to sleep or work.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) April 3, 2025

Judge: trucks came from across Canada; police directed trucks where to park. (This is very important -- the police were intimately involved with the decisions of where the trucks could go.)
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) April 3, 2025

Judge: some people and their vehicles were part of the convoy, some were curious onlookers; some were in Ottawa to protest but were unaffiliated.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) April 3, 2025

Judge: this was a grassroots movement.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) April 3, 2025

Judge: crown says the accused transformed their conduct into a criminal act, and that violated the rights of others.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) April 3, 2025

Judge: prosecutors concedes political demonstrations are valid.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) April 3, 2025

Judge: the crown conceded that Lich and Barber came to Ottawa with the best of intentions; the crown acknowledged that politics and free speech are not on trial (but that the defendants crossed the line).
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) April 3, 2025

The judge takes a 15-minute recess in which to set up the Zoom call. I'll be back then.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) April 3, 2025

The judge says the ruling is 105 pages long. She says she'll read an "abbreviated version" of the ruling. She asks, in jest, "who wants to hear the long version"? And one hand in the gallery goes up.

She says she'll release the complete version later.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) April 3, 2025

The judge says she's going to go through the case and she doesn't want "emotional outbursts" from the gallery.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) April 3, 2025

The judge warns that cell phone have to be turned off or they'll be seized if they ring.

The judge also says any t-shirts that show support for Tamara Lich have those shirts be turned inside-out. (I haven't seen those, but I've seen some pro-trucker merch.)
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) April 3, 2025

The judge is back, with the lawyers. The judge says there are three people who want to join the proceedings by video link (Zoom) including one family member, and one member of the legal team who just had a baby -- those requests were granted.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) April 3, 2025

Correction: there are more than six lawyers -- I forgot to count the lawyers for Chris Barber, Tamara's co-accused. I'll try to count again, and I think I may have undercounted the prosecution's lawyers, too. There may be ten lawyers here. And a judge. And clerks. And a ton of…
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) April 3, 2025

There is another matter that was just dealt with in a different case. That's over now. Perkins-McVey has said she wants to see all lawyers in her chambers.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) April 3, 2025

The courtroom is packed. Six lawyers. A huge contingent of journalists, especially from the mainstream media. And lots of Tamara Lichs supporters.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) April 3, 2025

The judge is Justice Heather E. Perkins-McVey. She is a fairly senior judge and, in my observation, has been quite attentive throughout this marathon trial. My one criticism is that she has allowed the prosecution to abuse the court's time, by bringing in countless irrelevant…
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) April 3, 2025

I'm in Ottawa for judgement day in the case of R. v. Tamara Lich, the longest-running mischief trial in Canadian history.

Tamara was the "spiritual leader" of the trucker convoy in 2022, and the regime has been tormenting her ever since -- including 49 days in prison. Last week…
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) April 3, 2025