OTTAWA (LifeSiteNews) – During the sixth day of the Freedom Convoy leaders’ trial, the court viewed multiple social media posts showing how Tamara Lich called for protesters to be “peaceful” and even to “pray for the Prime Minister.”
The court continued with the voir dire, or trial within a trial, on Tuesday, seeing additional testimony from Sgt. Joanne Pilotte of the Ottawa Police Service. The day centered around determining the admissibility of social media posts showing Lich and Chris Barber as evidence. The Crown is looking to have social media “evidence” of Lich and Barber allowed to be entered into the court.
Some of the social media posts, as noted by The Democracy Fund (TDF), which is crowdfunding Lich’s legal costs in a day six trial update, show Lich giving heartfelt speeches, telling people not to “give in,” and to “keep love in your heart.”
Videos show Lich saying to protesters to “remain peaceful,” with one even showing her calling for people to “pray for the Prime Minister (Justin Trudeau).”
Other videos showed Lich and Barber making general statements about the protests. In one video, the TDF noted that Barber “was seen touring Ottawa during the protest, greeting people warmly.”
The TDF said that so far there has been “little evidence to support the Crown’s contention that the protest was ‘anything but peaceful.’”
In some of the videos, the phrase “hold the line” can be heard, which many detractors of the Freedom Convoy have previously claimed was a line amounting to calling for some kind of insurrection. The TDF noted that it has not been “told by the Crown how that phrase relates to the elements of any of the offences with which Ms. Lich has been charged.”
“Presumably, this will become clear as the Crown develops its case — provided the Crown convinces the Court that these videos should be admitted as evidence,” the TDF said.
Justice Heather Perkins-McVey is expected to make a ruling soon on whether to allow social media postings to be admissible as evidence in the general trial.
On the fifth day of the trial, Lich’s lawyer, Lawrence Greenspon, argued against allowing the Crown to be allowed to submit evidence to the court from local civilians who claimed the truckers’ horn-honking affected their well-being.
Lich and Barber are facing multiple charges from the 2022 protests, including mischief, counseling mischief, counseling intimidation and obstructing police for taking part in and organizing the anti-mandate Freedom Convoy. As reported by LifeSiteNews at the time, despite the non-violent nature of the protest and the charges, Lich was jailed for weeks before granted bail.
In early 2022, the Freedom Convoy saw thousands of Canadians from coast to coast come to Ottawa to demand an end to COVID mandates in all forms. Despite the peaceful nature of the protest, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s federal government enacted the Emergencies Act in mid-February, leading to Lich’s arrest two days later, on February 17.
Late last week during the third and fourth days of the trial for Freedom Convoy leaders Chris Barber and Lich, Justice Perkins-McVey reportedly noted her unhappiness with the Crown after it submitted thousands of pages of evidence against the protest organizers all at once.
On day one of the trial held last Tuesday, TDF observed that the judge overseeing the court case was clearly “not being led by the Crown.”
On day two of the trial last Wednesday, a police officer testified that he was under direct orders to not give protesters an “inch” and allow them to protest closer to Canada’s Parliament building, which he said would have mitigated disruptions to the city.
While TDF is crowdfunding Lich’s legal costs, her co-defendant, Barber, is relying on local fundraisers to help pay for his defense and is also receiving help from the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms.