LIVE UPDATES: Freedom Convoy organizer Tamara Lich's trial continues in Ottawa
The trial of Tamara Lich continues today in Ottawa as one of the most prominent faces of the Freedom Convoy returns to court to face charges of mischief, obstructing police, counselling others to commit mischief and intimidation.
Closing arguments are set to begin this morning in a legal saga that began approximately two-and-a-half years ago.
Lich previously spent almost 50 days behind bars on non-violent offences in relation to her role as an organizer of the anti-mandate demonstrations.
Rebel News CEO Ezra Levant and reporter Sarah Stock are at the Ottawa courthouse and will be covering today's proceedings.
Just landed in Ottawa with @sarahcstock. We’ll be live-tweeting the ongoing trial of @LichTamara, already the longest-running mischief trial in Canadian history.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) August 13, 2024
We’re also crowdfunding Tamara’s legal bills which are huge. Please help with that at https://t.co/j0CG3ksEfq. pic.twitter.com/oZm9OcBK26
Levant notes that Lich and her legal team are facing up against "the unlimited resources of the state."
Tamara Lich’s legal team arrives at the court, led by Lawrence Greenspon.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) August 13, 2024
They stand with Tamara against the unlimited resources of the state — police, prosecutors, politicians and most of the press.
Help even the odds by crowdfunding her lawyers at https://t.co/j0CG3ktc4Y. pic.twitter.com/GqkrLrML29
Lich has arrived at the courthouse in Ottawa.
Tamara Lich arrives at the court in Ottawa. A journalist stumbles and she helps him up. I’ll be live-tweeting the proceedings today along with Sarah Stock who will be here all week. To help crowdfund the Airbnb for Sarah, please go to https://t.co/dkU7Ez2w9y. (Thanks.) pic.twitter.com/q9DiFI0STf
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) August 13, 2024
Follow along below for live updates from the trial:
I'm heading back to Toronto tonight. But my colleague @sarahcstock will be here all week continuing our coverage!
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) August 13, 2024
And so will @TDF_Can.
To help crowdfund Tamara Lich's lawyers, please go to https://t.co/j0CG3ksEfq -- thanks!
That's it for today. Honestly, I'm in a daze. I don't know how the judge can stay attentive for months on end. Especially when the prosecutors are so obviously trying to stretch things out, as a form of punishment in itself.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) August 13, 2024
The process has become the punishment.
Prosecutor has a new slide, claiming that there were 5,000 trucks in Ottawa at its peak. The judge suggests that many people just wanted to see what it was all about, other than joining the mission (or committing a crime).
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) August 13, 2024
The prosecutor and judge are debating the testimony of Insp. Lucas, the cop who negotiated with the truckers. Insp. Lucas positively invited truckers to come into the city and in fact go to particular streets and staging areas.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) August 13, 2024
Sounds like important evidence of legality.
The prosecutor says it's illegal to "swamp downtown".
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) August 13, 2024
Is that a new crime? Swamping a downtown?
Weak.
‘They’re all committing the same mischief, they’re all committing the same intimidation, they’re all committing the same obstruction, because they were acting as a group,’ the prosecutor says, referring to EVERY single freedom convoy protester!
— Sarah Stock✝️ (@sarahcstock) August 13, 2024
Doug Ford's prosecutor Tim Radcliffe "there was a singular purpose".
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) August 13, 2024
Judge: others were there to protest other things.
Radcliffe: "we are disagreeing".
This is a political prosecution. I'm quoting from a slide presented by Doug Ford's prosecutor Radcliffe.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) August 13, 2024
"Our movement has grown in Canada and across the world."
He says this is evidence of a crime because Lich uses the world "our", and thus is guilty of everything by anyone.
‘Language is important,’ the judge tells the prosecution, after she is forced to correct them for one of many times today. This is a seasoned judge of 15 years, former defense, and she seems fed up with the prosecutor’s incompetence.
— Sarah Stock✝️ (@sarahcstock) August 13, 2024
It's not so much that Doug Ford's bumbling lawyer Siobhan Wetschler is lying; I don't think she is.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) August 13, 2024
She's just a dull knife; she misunderstands things; she expresses things poorly; she exaggerates some things and ignores other things. And it's clear that the judge is on to her.
Wetschler makes a particular point about a Charter challenge (e.g. that this prosecution violates freedom of expression).
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) August 13, 2024
The judge pipes up again, saying that the prosecutors make the opposite point earlier in the trial!
This judge is sharp; this prosecutor is dull.
Lol. The prosecutor referenced another case where a man yelling ‘hold the line’ was arrested on mischief charges.
— Sarah Stock✝️ (@sarahcstock) August 13, 2024
The judge is like yeah, but what’s that evidence of? Even police yelled ‘hold the line.’
I think the judge has now interrupted and corrected Doug Ford's prosecutor Siobhan Wetschler half a dozen times. I think she's doing it for sport, now. In that sense, the judge is more pitiless than me. That said, the judge must be pretty exasperated after 40 days of this B.S.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) August 13, 2024
After a lunch break, we’re back in the courtroom for the Tamara Lich trial.
— Sarah Stock✝️ (@sarahcstock) August 13, 2024
Not only is this trial spanning almost a year a stressful time suck, but Tamara’s legal fees will be enormous. To help her fight back, donate at https://t.co/5xqn96MdPT
Again, the judge is speaking at some length about the case the prosecutor is trying to compare, and correcting her. It's like watching Mike Tyson versus a baby lamb. Again, I despise the politics of this prosecutor, but I can't help feeling embarrassed for her.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) August 13, 2024
The judge knows these cases better than the prosecutor, Siobhan Wetschler. Not for the first time today, the judge interrupts Wetschler to correct her inaccurate comments.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) August 13, 2024
Embarrassing, but more importantly, Wetschler's repeated sloppiness has put the judge on alert for B.S.
Doug Ford's junior prosecutor, Siobhan Wetschler, is continuing to show case law to the judge she thinks helps convict Lich. It must have been a tough assignment, given how "distinguishable" all of her examples are. As in, they have no similarity to the trucker convoy facts.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) August 13, 2024
The judge is distinguishing the U of T Hamas case from the present case against the truckers. Again, it feels like a professor (somewhat) patiently indulging a flailing student.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) August 13, 2024
Imagine trying to compare the peaceful truckers with a two-months Hamas protest (with no charges.)
.@sarahcstock points out to me that the U of T injunction order comparison is even more insane.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) August 13, 2024
1. Hamas protesters permitted to trespass and commit real crimes for months
2. No Hamas protesters were ever charged
How on earth does this ruling help convict peaceful truckers?
Prosecutor cites a previous case where someone was convicted of mischief for yelling ‘hold the line.’
— Sarah Stock✝️ (@sarahcstock) August 13, 2024
This is the state of the Canadian justice system 👎
Doug Ford's prosecutor cites a case I hadn't heard of: R. v. Blanchfield, just last month, where someone in a different protest (Rolling Thunder) was convicted simply for shouting "hold the line" and waving at a protest.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) August 13, 2024
But weekly marches for Hamas are just fine in Ottawa.
OMG.
— Sarah Stock✝️ (@sarahcstock) August 13, 2024
Prosecutor says that although Canadians have a right to peaceful protest, and the convoy remained non-violent, ‘peaceful doesn’t mean non-violent’
Literally what else does it mean?
Doug Ford's prosecutor Wetscher: truckers "completely overwhelmed the city".
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) August 13, 2024
But that's not true. They parked along a few downtown streets, always leaving a clear lane.
This is the feelings-based prosecution I mentioned earlier.
Absolutely disgraceful that Ford funded this.
I like how engaged this judge is; I just hope her constant clapping back against Doug Ford's prosecutor Siobhain Wetscher doesn't give grounds for an appeal.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) August 13, 2024
The judge is like an impatient professor listening to a C-student make an annoying presentation.
How many real criminal cases have been delayed, or abandoned, because this joke of a prosecution has taken up 40 days of court, thousands of hours of prosecutorial and police time, and between $5 million and $10 million taxpayers dollars (estimated by one of the lawyers).
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) August 13, 2024
This junior prosecutor is Siobhain Wetscher. I can't help but think her job is to be so irritating that the judge says or does something that can later by used by an appeal court to overturn things.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) August 13, 2024
So, two theories:
1. She's really this bad.
2. She's actually really good.
The judge calls the Lich truckers "a group of people trying to work with the city to have a staging area to alleviate the issues."
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) August 13, 2024
Doug Ford's prosecutor acknowledges the Lich/Barber trucker group were the only ones to have negotiations with the City of Ottawa. The judge interjects that those negotiations had some success, for example, moving truckers away from residential areas.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) August 13, 2024
I swear to God, the prosecutor just said that "individuals reacted to [Barber's] jokes on social media."
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) August 13, 2024
The judge interjected saying, that jokes don't really determine if someone is a leader.
The prosecutor, I swear to God, doubles down and argues back.
I'm not making it up.
Prosecutor says the evidence shows that Lich's convoy was the prominent, dominant one. The judge pushes back, saying that the evidence was that the Lich convoy was the "moderate one", which is why the City of Ottawa chose to deal with it (e.g. negotiate terms and details.)
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) August 13, 2024
Doug Ford's prosecutors are on their feet. They arguing that the prosecution is not political, it's criminal. (Hold your laughter, I know.)
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) August 13, 2024
They have on a TV screen a quote from another case that claims the convoy was unlawful. The judge says that case is not binding on her.
I asked one of the lawyers here to estimate the amount of taxpayers' money that has been spent prosecuting Tamara Lich.
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) August 13, 2024
The cost of the courtroom alone -- for 40 full sitting days -- is enormous. (The judge, three clerks, security, etc.)
Then there's the cost of the…
We're going to start live-tweeting soon -- but it's after 11 a.m. already and the judge has not arrived!
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) August 13, 2024
All the lawyers are in their places; the public gallery has dozens of observers. We're just all waiting. https://t.co/iTk61NO3e2
I’m in Ottawa today covering day 39 of Freedom Convoy organizer Tamara Lich’s trial.
— Sarah Stock✝️ (@sarahcstock) August 13, 2024
First, Tamara was jailed for 49 days, and now, the trial has been drawn out for almost year, all over pending mischief charges. In this case, the process really is the punishment– the Canadian…
Grassroots Canadians have brought their freedom signs to the Ottawa courthouse where the trial of Tamara Lich is set to resume today. Please help us crowdfund Tamara’s legal fees at https://t.co/j0CG3ksEfq. pic.twitter.com/e4FWHYHkkD
— Ezra Levant 🍁🚛 (@ezralevant) August 13, 2024
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