{"id":10801,"date":"2025-10-09T02:54:07","date_gmt":"2025-10-09T06:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=10801"},"modified":"2025-10-09T02:54:07","modified_gmt":"2025-10-09T06:54:07","slug":"serious-loss-of-civil-rights-for-freedom-convoy-leaders-no-prison-for-tamara-lich-chris-barber-as-judge-hands-conditional-sentence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/?p=10801","title":{"rendered":"Serious Loss of Civil Rights For Freedom Convoy Leaders: No prison for Tamara Lich, Chris Barber as judge hands conditional sentence"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

: No prison for Tamara Lich, Chris Barber as judge hands conditional sentence<\/a><\/h1>\n\n\n\n

Freedom Convoy leaders Chris Barber and Tamara Lich will largely remain free after being handed a conditional sentence in the Ontario Court of Justice for their involvement in the Freedom Convoy.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Alex Zoltan, True North<\/a> and Walid Tamtam, True North<\/a>Oct 7<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Trial<\/a>
Source: True North<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Share<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With files from Walid Tamtam<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Freedom Convoy leaders Chris Barber and Tamara Lich will largely remain free after being handed a conditional sentence in the Ontario Court of Justice for their involvement in the Freedom Convoy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A judge on Tuesday handed Barber an 18-month conditional sentence and Lich a 15.5-month conditional sentence (i.e. house arrest).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Importantly, neither sentence will require time in prison.<\/strong> Instead the punishments will be served at home under certain conditions, including curfews – contrary to the Ontario Crown Prosecutor demanding 8 and 7 years in prison for Barber and Lich, respectively.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The decision was delivered in a packed courtroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The judge outsourced Barber\u2019s sentence to the Saskatchewan Court of Justice for conditioning and monitoring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lich\u2019s conditional sentence was also transferred to Medicine Hat, Alb., for administration and monitoring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trial of Freedom Convoy organizers Tamara Lich and Chris Barber, which some commentators have referred to as \u201cthe longest mischief trial in world history,\u201d stems from their leadership of the peaceful anti-vaccine mandate Freedom Convoy movement in 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The protest \u201cbear-hugged\u201d the nation\u2019s capital for several weeks, creating a gridlock near Parliament, the sentencing judge said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For their involvement in the February 2022 Freedom Convoy protest, Barber and Lich were each found guilty of one count of mischief. Barber was also found guilty of counselling others to disobey a court order.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The protests, initially sparked by opposition to COVID-19 vaccine mandates, grew into a broader movement against the federal government, drawing thousands of demonstrators and extensive law enforcement scrutiny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Crown had argued their \u201cleadership\u201d in the protest helped sustain an unlawful occupation, disrupting residents, businesses and government operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Tuesday, Perkins-McVey called that \u201cleadership\u201d \u201clargely symbolic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nonetheless, Crown prosecutor Siobhain Wetscher had earlier asked the judge to impose extraordinary sentences\u2014eight years\u2019 imprisonment for Barber and seven for Lich\u2014arguing that such heavy penalties would deter similar protests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During sentencing, the Ontario Court Justice said R v. King and the Coutts border blockade were the two most informative cases in determining an appropriate sentence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Curiously, Perkins-McVey did not give similar attention to Supreme Court Justice Richard Mosley\u2019s decision that the Trudeau government\u2019s imposition of the Emergencies Act, which was the basis for the arrests of Lich and Barber, was unconstitutional.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That judgment remains subject to numerous federal government appeal<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

: No prison for Tamara Lich, Chris Barber as judge hands conditional sentence Freedom Convoy leaders Chris Barber and Tamara Lich will largely remain free after being handed a conditional sentence in the Ontario Court of Justice for their involvement … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4352,3964],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10801"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10801"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10803,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10801\/revisions\/10803"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cafe.nfshost.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}