LIVE UPDATES: Freedom Convoy organizer Tamara Lich faces sentencing in Ottawa
The Crown is seeking a seven-year prison sentence for Lich over her actions during the 2022 protests against COVID-19 mandates.
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Rebel News publisher Ezra Levant is at the courthouse in Ottawa this morning as Tamara Lich is scheduled to be sentenced for her role as an organizer of the 2022 Freedom Convoy.
Lich was one of the most prominent faces of the anti-mandate Freedom Convoy demonstrations that descended upon Ottawa in early 2022.
I'm at the Ottawa courthouse for the sentencing of Tamara Lich and Chris Barber for "mischief" at the trucker convoy in 2022.
β Ezra Levant ππ (@ezralevant) October 7, 2025
I'll be live-tweeting the sentencing starting at 10 a.m. ET.
Please help crowdfund Tamara's legal fees at https://t.co/j0CG3ktc4Y -- thanks. pic.twitter.com/vt0dUsK3zq
She was originally charged with mischief, intimidation, obstructing police, and counselling others to commit those acts. However in April 2025, Lich was found not guilty on most of these charges, but convicted of mischief.
The Crown is seeking an unprecedented seven-year prison sentence for Lich due the 'profound impact' she had on the protests in Ottawa.
Follow along below for live updates:
Good news: no additional jail time for Tamara Lich or Chris Barber.
β Ezra Levant ππ (@ezralevant) October 7, 2025
Bad news: onerous house arrest provisions.
The real punishment was the longest mischief trial in Canadian history.
Total political vendetta by Doug Fordβs prosecutors. https://t.co/j0CG3ktc4Y. pic.twitter.com/7Rdqh3aluH
π¨BREAKING: Justice Heather Perkins-McVey issue brutal sentence to trucker convoy organizer Tamara Lich.
β Ezra Levant ππ (@ezralevant) October 7, 2025
* conditional sentence of 18 months less time already spent in custody, therefore 15.5 months
* first 12 months: house arrest, except
** to and from court
** medicalβ¦
Court's on a short break. When court resumes, Tamara Lich's sentence will be announced.
β Ezra Levant ππ (@ezralevant) October 7, 2025
π¨BREAKING: Justice Heather Perkins-McVey sentences trucker organizer Chris Barber.
β Ezra Levant ππ (@ezralevant) October 7, 2025
18 months conditional sentence, concurrent 3 month sentence for counselling disobedience of a court order. To be served in the community. Keep the peace, etc.
Judge: is a conditional sentence appropriate? (That typically means: they don't actually go to prison. They "serve the sentence in the community."
β Ezra Levant ππ (@ezralevant) October 7, 2025
Perkins-McVey: Tamara Lich has had a tough go -- loss of employment, hate mail, threats, etc.
β Ezra Levant ππ (@ezralevant) October 7, 2025
Judge calls for a morning break. It's 11:46 p.m. "I assure you we will still aim to finish by 1 p.m. at the absolute latest."
β Ezra Levant ππ (@ezralevant) October 7, 2025
Judge breaks to 12 noon.
Perkins-McVey is citing a number of similar protest-mischief cases from across Canada. Some of them have zero jail time, some have very modest jail time.
β Ezra Levant ππ (@ezralevant) October 7, 2025
Reminder: Tamara Lich has already served 49 days in jail, before this trial even began.
Perkins-McVey now refers to the case of Artur Pawlowski, who was convicted of giving a sermon to protesters at the Coutts border crossing.
β Ezra Levant ππ (@ezralevant) October 7, 2025
I sat through hours of sentencing in Lethbridge, for the Coutts truckers and farmers. I heard all the case law. It's a simple fact: in Canada, if you have no prior criminal record and if you were not violent, you simply won't get jail time for political mischief.
β Ezra Levant ππ (@ezralevant) October 7, 2025
Perkins-McVey: Tamara has received hate mail and threats.
β Ezra Levant ππ (@ezralevant) October 7, 2025
Both Tamara Lich and Chris Barber had never committed a crime before, were pillars of the community, etc. Judge notes that Barber is a professional trucker -- makes it extra gross that Doug Ford is trying to seize that truck.
β Ezra Levant ππ (@ezralevant) October 7, 2025
Perkins-McVey: prosecutors said the offences were "unprecedented in scale and impact".
β Ezra Levant ππ (@ezralevant) October 7, 2025
"Sustained and organized disruption of public order with significant consequences for residents, businesses, etc."
Perkins-McVey: "politics has no place" in this courtroom.
β Ezra Levant ππ (@ezralevant) October 7, 2025
Sorry, too late for that, sister.
Tamara's lawyers: the real problem here is that any of the convoy's sins are being put on her as an individual, even though she didn't do them.
β Ezra Levant ππ (@ezralevant) October 7, 2025
Defence lawyers say conviction should yield an absolute discharge.
β Ezra Levant ππ (@ezralevant) October 7, 2025
Another clerk comes in. The lawyers are summoned out of the courtroom, presumably to meet the judge. Not sure what that's all about.
β Ezra Levant ππ (@ezralevant) October 7, 2025
10:25
β Ezra Levant ππ (@ezralevant) October 7, 2025
Vladimir Putin is famous for making guests wait -- he once made Angela Merkel, the chancellor of Germany, wait 4 hours before he came to the meeting.
It's an assertion of dominance, of who's the boss. It's a quiet way of saying, F--- you.
Arrogant.
It's 10:11. The public has been waiting for more than an hour -- first, outside the court, and now, inside the court.
β Ezra Levant ππ (@ezralevant) October 7, 2025
The judge will come out when she's good and ready. I mean, her salary is the same whether she's punctual or sloppy.
She chooses sloppy.
Looks like there are three prosecutors here.
β Ezra Levant ππ (@ezralevant) October 7, 2025
And two clerks. And a judge (who hasn't graced us with her presence yet.)
You're paying for all of that. And the longest mischief trial in history.
Sloppy.
But she has let in a greyhound dog as a service animal -- a GREYHOUND.
β Ezra Levant ππ (@ezralevant) October 7, 2025
So there's that.
In fact, the dog is going for a walk through the courtroom now.
What a joke.
(P.S. I love dogs. But this trial has been a shitshow.) pic.twitter.com/w7r783NpUq
It's 10:03. Obviously the court is not in session. Justice Perkins-McVey does not run a tight ship. No wonder it's the longest trial in history.
β Ezra Levant ππ (@ezralevant) October 7, 2025
Sloppy and unjust.
It's not just the judge who is to blame. Doug Ford has made prosecuting Tamara Lich his highest priority. The amount of police and prosecution resources put towards "getting" her -- for the most minor crime in the Criminal Code -- speaks to the political vendetta here. Gross.
β Ezra Levant ππ (@ezralevant) October 7, 2025
Only the lawyers and the accused have been allowed in so far β the court staff are being a bit chippy with everyone else.
β Ezra Levant ππ (@ezralevant) October 7, 2025
Iβm inside the courthouse but it is against the rules to take photos or videos here. But thereβs a very large line outside courtroom 5. I donβt think everyone will fit in.
β Ezra Levant ππ (@ezralevant) October 7, 2025
Tamara Lich and Chris Barber arrive. pic.twitter.com/dNbuYg1Ljn
β Ezra Levant ππ (@ezralevant) October 7, 2025