Judge decides 'Freedom Convoy' organizer Tamara Lich stays out on bail
Judge decides 'Freedom Convoy' organizer Tamara Lich stays out on bail
Judge decides 'Freedom Convoy' organizer Tamara Lich stays out on bail
OTTAWA -- Tamara Lich, a key organizer of the "Freedom Convoy" protest that gridlocked Ottawa for weeks, will remain released on bail while awaiting trial, a judge ruled Wednesday.
Ontario Superior Court Justice Kevin Phillips said he made his decision because she has followed her bail conditions, her surety has supervised her well and she's already had a "taste of jail," which he said lowered her risk to reoffend.
The judge said he does not accept that Lich breached her release conditions by agreeing to receive an award, and added Lich can be trusted to respect the conditions of her release.
She was released in March with a long list of conditions, including a ban from all social media and an order not to "support anything related to the Freedom Convoy."
The terms of Lich's release were intended to prevent a similar protest from happening in the national capital, the judge said, adding the court does not seek to control people's political views.
"The courts are not a thought police. We seek only to control conduct to the extent that certain behaviour will violate or likely lead to violation of the law," he said.
The protest is over and has left Ottawa, he said, adding it would be "practically impossible" to mount a similar protest in the city again.
Moiz Karimjee, a Crown prosecutor, said last week that Lich violated one of her bail conditions by agreeing to accept an award for her leadership during the Ottawa protest, and should be sent back behind bars to wait for her trial.
Lich's lawyer, Lawrence Greenspon, argued last week her bail conditions should be loosened to allow her to come to Ontario and use social media.
Greenspon told the court that the social media ban imposed on Lich was unnecessarily broad and has had a huge impact on her life while she's been out of custody.
However, Phillips said Wednesday the ban on Lich's access to social media is warranted.
"Social media can be a problematic feedback loop where people get egged on and caught up in group activity they would never perform on their own," he said.
Social media "undoubtedly contributed to and even drove" Lich's conduct related to the protest, and her separation from it is necessary to lower her risk of reoffending, said Phillips.
Noting that Lich is in her late 40s, Phillips said she should be able to remember "how to use the social skills she surely built up before the advent of the internet."
Lich is able to communicate by many other means, including email, phone or meeting in person, he said.
The judge did amend her release conditions to allow her to visit Ottawa.
Lich's motivation for coming to the city cannot be disclosed because it is under a court-ordered publication ban.
Phillips reiterated the high unlikelihood that Lich could organize an event resembling the convoy protest.
While she's permitted to come to Ottawa, Lich is not allowed to visit the downtown core so as not "to walk around the very neighbourhoods she is alleged to have traumatized," he said, except to attend court or meet with legal counsel.
Lich and fellow protest organizer Chris Barber are jointly accused of mischief, obstructing police, counselling others to commit mischief and intimidation.
The "Freedom Convoy" protest evolved into a weeks-long demonstration that congested the streets of Ottawa in February.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 25, 2022.
Several people have been shot, two suspects have been arrested and police are searching for a possible third suspect after an attempted bank robbery in Saanich, B.C.
Cassidy Hutchinson, a key aide in Donald Trump's White House, told the House committee investigating the violent Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection on Tuesday that Trump was informed that people rallying on the mall that morning had weapons but he told officials to 'let my people in' and march to the Capitol.
The top aide to former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows who is testifying before the House select committee investigating the January 6, 2021, Capitol riot was a young, fast-rising star in the Trump administration.
Ghislaine Maxwell, the jet-setting socialite who once consorted with royals, presidents and billionaires, was sentenced to 20 years in prison Tuesday for helping the wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse underage girls.
A scathing letter from an RCMP communications manager released today says RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki referred to direct pressure from the federal public safety minister to release firearm details in the days after the Nova Scotia mass shooting.
The federal Liberal government has agreed to provide sensitive cabinet documents to the inquiry examining its use of the Emergencies Act during the "Freedom Convoy" protest.
A jury at a coroner's inquest into the deaths of three women murdered by their former partner is recommending that Ontario formally declare intimate partner violence an epidemic and establish an independent commission dedicated to eradicating it.
A scathing letter from an RCMP communications manager released today says RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki referred to direct pressure from the federal public safety minister to release firearm details in the days after the Nova Scotia mass shooting.
A high-profile sex scandal involving Prince Andrew is prompting a school in Dartmouth, N.S., to change its name. As of Aug. 1, Prince Andrew High School will be renamed Woodlawn High School, to reflect the name of the street and subdivision where the school is located.
Ontario's police watchdog is investigating after Ottawa police officers shot and killed a man and injured a woman while responding to the stabbing deaths of two women.
A coroner's report released Tuesday is calling on Quebec to teach new drivers to open their car doors with their right hand in order to prevent dooring incidents with cyclists.
A 65-year-old suspect in Timmins has been arrested for disturbing the peace for repeatedly using an "air cannon," or a device that makes extremely loud, air raid-like noises.
Ontario's new natural resources minister, former Bracebridge mayor Graydon Smith, is facing a hearing to determine whether he harmed a threatened turtle species when he was the mayor of the small town.
Witnesses said a man used a jack to free a female cyclist trapped underneath a vehicle at the corner of Glengarry Avenue and Fanshawe Park Road East early Tuesday afternoon.
Through the use of MRI technology and spearheaded by researchers at Western University, the cause of long COVID symptoms have identified for the first time.
Pembina Valley RCMP charged a 29-year-old woman earlier this month after her 13-year-old daughter and six of her friends were involved in an off-road vehicle (ORV) crash.
A new estimate by Doctors Manitoba shows the backlog of diagnostic tests and surgeries that built up during the pandemic has fallen since last month, but there are still more than 100,000 procedures on the wait list.
Cassidy Hutchinson, a key aide in Donald Trump's White House, told the House committee investigating the violent Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection on Tuesday that Trump was informed that people rallying on the mall that morning had weapons but he told officials to 'let my people in' and march to the Capitol.
The proposed development at 97 Victoria Street would feature a “campus-style” cluster of common areas, service spaces and housing for people experiencing homelessness.
Being in recovery from a spinal fracture suffered in a car accident one month earlier didn’t stop Katelynn Saengdala, a then 32-year-old manufacturing worker of Kitchener, from saving two people struggling to stay afloat in Lake Erie.
Ghislaine Maxwell, the jet-setting socialite who once consorted with royals, presidents and billionaires, was sentenced to 20 years in prison Tuesday for helping the wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse underage girls.
The Supreme Court of Canada struck down a law passed by the former Stephen Harper Conservatives that allows a judge to increase parole ineligibility periods for offenders who commit multiple murders. Now there’s fear it could mean sentence “discounts” for other mass murderers.
The premier of British Columbia has announced he won't seek a third term, but will remain on the job until the provincial NDP can hold a leadership convention.
Several people have been shot, two suspects have been arrested and police are searching for a possible third suspect after an attempted bank robbery in Saanich, B.C.
The body of a 19-year-old man who went missing while swimming at the public beach in Buena Vista, Sask. on Last Mountain Lake has been recovered, according to RCMP.
