Tag Archives: Lawrence Greenspon

Report on the First Day of Political Prisoner Tamara Lich’s Trial

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As the morning wore on yesterday in Courtroom Five at the Ottawa Court Building, anticipation and excitement about what might transpire was tamped down by hours of legal housekeeping, most of it brought forward by Crown Tim Radcliffe. He seemed to be struggling with his video evidence and as he did, I spent time studying the mini-community that was taking shape in the gallery.

Behind the Crown on one side, most of legacy media plus professional types focussed on various electronic devices, including phones and laptops. Across the aisle, behind the defense tables many casually attired folks who seemed to have come a long way to support Tamara Lich and Chris Barber. During breaks, everyone was cordial but there wasn’t much mixing. Indy media stuck to themselves and the legacy media types stayed in their own lane. It was clear to see we would be covering the case in different ways. Imagine this happening even five years ago. Unthinkable.

Media, including our documentary crew waiting outside the courthouse.

I couldn’t help feeling it was a microcosm of the country. Like good Canadians, everyone was well behaved but I detected suspicion and the gap between the two sides created and reinforced by our prime minister’s rhetoric was on full display. To be honest, the convoy has exposed a class struggle in this country exacerbated by pols and media who tarnish working people with the usual epithets.

Like the Rodney King case — one of the first where video evidence was paramount, this trial will likely revolve around the thousands of hours shot by citizens and police. The convoy protest was one of the most widely photographed ever given the rise of the cell-phone camera and the growing cadres of citizen journalists who got fed up with legacy media’s bias. But if yesterday is any indication, the Crown is unlikely to produce any gotcha video moments. Constable Craig Barlow presented an 11 minute compilation of videos, some of it police body cam that the Crown must have believed contained inculpatory moments. I didn’t see any and it got worse. From the Ottawa Citizen.

The court was introduced to life in Ottawa during the protests with a 12-minute video of scenes recorded by police from the protest compiled by the first witness in the case, Const. Craig Barlow with the Ottawa police cyber crimes unit.

The sound of revving engines, air horns, chants of “freedom” and “we’re not leaving” filled the Ottawa courtroom as scenes of blocked intersections, large crowds, open fires and Canadian flags played on a large TV screen.

The video also showed a sea of protesters pushing back against police during a massive operation to put an end to the protest.

In her cross-examination, Diane Magas, who is representing Barber, asked Barlow whether he reviewed video of people hugging, games of pickup street hockey, a bouncy castle, and other scenes from the convoy that weren’t included in the compilation video.

When Magus argued to see more than edited snippets and the longer original versions, the video flooded the courtroom with trucker chants of Love not Fear, hardly a scary rallying cry. Justice Heather Perkins-McVey even referred to the phrase in a later discussion. In cross, Magus also asked Barlow if he included any of the video of police hitting protestors in the head. He did not. So she showed it to the court.

As a condition of Tamara’s bail, she is ordered to stay out of the Red Zone in Ottawa unless accompanied by her lawyer, Lawrence Greenspon. That was lifted for lunch yesterday and there will be more talks on-going. I heard from a source there was concern from the Crown Law Office when the bail conditions were originally set, that her presence on the street might trigger locals.

Tamara Lich with her husband Dwayne, yesterday.

And there is some hysteria here. In our hotel, a kindly restaurant worker let loose with a torrent of convoy critiques, including a false tale of a car full of explosives belonging to the protestors. When we mentioned that were this true, there would be criminal charges connected to it and it would have been litigated at the POEC — he defaulted to it’s a secret. And so it goes.

Regardless of what evidence is presented by the Crown at trial, there are a lot of folktales about the protest on a repeat-loop here that perhaps one day an anthropologist can explain.

There was talk last night at dinner that legacy media are doing an OK job covering this case so far. As I said yesterday — perhaps there is a break in our national storm.

I think many people understand what is at stake here, including the judge who is thoughtful and no-nonsense so far. Barber’s lawyer, is going for it. Interesting to watch.

Note: I will be posting Tweets from the courtroom here when I can.

Also – I am quoting from daily news reports for detailed spoken evidence because they are permitted to record the proceedings as they unfold. As an unaccredited journalist, I am not.

Stay critical.

Please consider supporting our documentary team on the ground here.

https://www.givesendgo.com/GB14C

A Vindictive Crown Thwarted in Attempt to Revoke Tamara Lich’s Bail for Accepting Free Speech Award

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A Vindictive Crown Thwarted in Attempt to Revoke Tamara Lich’s Bail for Accepting Free Speech Award

Chalk up a small but important victory for free speech. Bail is supposed to help ensure that the accused will appear for trial and will not commit the alleged offence prior to trial. All too often in Canada, it is used as a way to gag a dissident prior to trial, which might be many months away. After initially being denied bail for a non-violent offence (counselling  mischief), Lich was granted bail in March, but on condition that she leave Ontario (be out of Dodge by sunset) and not access social media. When the Crown learned she was to receive the George Jonas Freedom Award from the Justice Centre for Constitutional  Freedom, it was outraged. Canada’s increasingly politicized justice system was furious that a person they\d condemned to be a pariah and non-person was to receive a public honour and award. They sought to have her thrown back in prison — but we support democracy in the Ukraine, right? Her lawyers sought to amend her bail conditions. Today, Tamara Lich escaped prison and has some of her freedoms back. Nevertheless, she still is gagged and banned from the social media.

Paul Fromm

Director,

Canadian Association for Free Expression

‘The courts are not a thought police,’ judge says in Tamara Lich bail review decision

The ‘Freedom Convoy’ organizer is again allowed to enter Ontario, but remains restricted from using social media. Author of the article: Aedan Helmer Publishing date:

A judge's ruling has kept in place a ban on Tamara Lich using social media while she awaits trial.
A judge’s ruling has kept in place a ban on Tamara Lich using social media while she awaits trial. Photo by Errol McGihon /Postmedia

Tamara Lich will not be sent back to jail as a judge lifted her ban from entering Ontario, but ruled to reinforce her ban from social media in a bail review decision Wednesday.

“The courts are not a thought police,” Superior Court Justice Kevin Phillips said as he rejected the Crown’s arguments that Lich should have her bail revoked over alleged breaches of her release conditions.

“We seek only to control conduct to the extent that certain behaviour will violate, or likely lead to violation of the law,” the judge continued. “Here, the objective was to keep a highly problematic street protest from reviving or reoccurring … No court would ever seek to control the possession or manifestation of political views.”

The Crown had argued that Lich breached the condition that bars her from supporting “anything related” to the “Freedom Convoy” when she accepted the 2022 “George Jonas Freedom Award,” which she is set to receive in a June 16 gala in Toronto hosted by the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms.

Lawrence Greenspon, Lich’s lawyer, said the judge’s ruling would allow his client to travel to Toronto to accept the award in person, and he confirmed she also intended to attend similar gala events in Calgary and Vancouver, where VIP tickets cost $500.

In a phone interview following the decision, Greenspon applauded the judge for “soundly rejecting” the Crown’s efforts to send Lich back to jail.

“From our perspective, this was a clear rejection of the Crown’s attempt to reincarcerate Ms. Lich for agreeing to accept a ‘freedom award,’ and, in light of this decision, she’s going to be able to go to Toronto and accept that award without fear of being reincarcerated.

“That’s a great relief to her,” Greenspon said. “This effort to reincarcerate her … the battle of freedom of expression and freedom of assembly … that battle will be fought at trial.”

The JCCF, a vocal supporter of the demonstration, issued a statement following the decision saying the revised bail conditions “still excessively restrict” Lich’s Charter rights, while saying the Crown went to “troubling” lengths to revoke her bail.

Phillips also lifted Lich’s ban from entering Ontario in his revised bail plan and lifted her ban on entering the city of Ottawa, except for the geographical boundaries of the city’s downtown core.

A publication ban protects the reason Lich is seeking permission to return to Ottawa, and Phillips said he saw no issue with Lich attending a gala in Toronto months after the convoy had ended.

“The right between attendance at that function and problematic support for a demonstration that will, by then, have been long over, is so indirect as to be barely perceptible,” Phillips said.

He decided to uphold Lich’s ban from social media, however, ruling the original March 7 court order was “warranted and appropriate.”

“In a very real way, social media undoubtedly contributed to, and even drove the now-impugned conduct, and Ms. Lich staying away from it is necessary to lower the risk of reoffence to an acceptable level,” Phillips ruled.

“Social media can be a problematic feedback loop where people get egged-on and caught up by group activity they would never perform on their own,” Phillips intoned.

He warned Lich to avoid the temptation posed by social media and cited her “susceptibility to getting caught up in the sort of toxic groupthink that animated the crowd back in February.”

Lich was arrested Feb. 17 and is jointly charged with fellow protest organizer Chris Barber with mischief, obstructing police, counselling others to commit mischief and intimidation.

She was initially denied bail on Feb. 22, though that decision was overturned by Superior Court Justice John Johnston on March 7 and Lich was released from jail with a list of conditions. She was ordered to return home to Medicine Hat, Alta., where she must live under the supervision of a court-approved surety, and she is barred from contacting a list of fellow protest organizers. She remains banned from social media and cannot allow anyone to post on her behalf.

Assistant Crown Attorney Moiz Karimjee presented arguments during last week’s two-day bail review alleging Lich had broken two of her release conditions, first by accepting the “freedom award” and again by accepting a convoy-themed pendant as a gift from a supporter, who then posted a photo of Lich proudly wearing the necklace. The social media post identified Lich as the “brand ambassador” for the pendant.

Phillips on Wednesday said the Crown failed to prove those breaches.

The judge accepted Lich’s testimony that she saw no “live connection” between accepting the pendant — or accepting the award — and her support for the “Freedom Convoy.”

“I believe Ms. Lich when she says she does not see her acceptance of this award to be any sort of support for the ‘Freedom Convoy,’ because that initiative is over with,” the judge said. “I specifically reject the idea that she is responsible for what someone else did with a photo of her wearing a pendant.”

Lich has lived in her community for a “meaningful stretch” and demonstrated she can follow bail conditions, the judge said.