In January and February 2022, thousands of Canadians travelled from coasts and mountains and prairies to the nation’s capital to protest mandatory vaccination policies, which turned millions of Canadians into second-class citizens if they did not get injected with the Covid vaccine.

In British Columbia, dissenting healthcare workers and firefighters were fired. In Nova Scotia, judges were pressured into getting injected and threatened with consequences for choosing not to do so. In Quebec, government officials threatened a tax on the unvaccinated. Across Canada, conscientious objectors were fired from their jobs, suspended from their university programs, and prevented from travelling. Cross-border Covid vaccine mandates particularly affected Canadian truckers.

The pressures being applied by governments across Canada to get citizens to bend to their will resulted in what became known as the Freedom Convoy protest. Truckers across the country drove to Ottawa to try to meet with federal politicians and air their grievances. The Justice Centre sent lawyers to the protest to advise protestors of their rights.

Chris Barber and Tamara Lich were arrested at in Ottawa on February 17, 2022–one day before the brutal police crackdown on Freedom Convoy protestors and after the federal government illegally invoked the Emergencies Act, for the first time ever, on February 14, 2022, to clear the protest. They were criminally charged with mischief, intimidation, obstructing a highway, obstructing a police officer, and counselling others to commit the same offences. They have asserted they were peacefully exercising their Charter freedoms of expression, association, and peaceful assembly during the Freedom Convoy protest in Ottawa.

The Justice Centre has been supporting the defence of Chris Barber. Mr. Barber, a trucker and trucking company owner from Swift Current, Saskatchewan, pleaded not guilty to all charges on April 23, 2023. Diane Magas, his defence counsel, has consistently argued that he acted peacefully and lawfully throughout his time in Ottawa. Note: the Justice Centre is also providing legal support in a separate action for Mr. Barber, Ms. Lich and Freedom Convoy members who are being sued by Ottawa residents for $290 million.

The criminal trial began on September 5, 2023, and was originally scheduled to last 16 days. Nearly one year later, the trial of Mr. Barber and Ms. Lich is nearing 40 days of court time.

“Crown prosecutors in Ontario claim that they do not have enough resources to prosecute people accused of sexual assault and other serious crimes. People accused of serious crimes are walking away without facing trial because of extreme delays, supposedly caused by the Crown lacking adequate resources. Yet the Crown has devoted massive amounts of its limited time and energy to prosecuting peaceful protesters who exercised their fundamental Charter freedoms,” stated John Carpay, President of the Justice Centre. 

UPDATE, September 12, 2024:

Lawyer Diane Magas says that she will be back in court with Mr. Barber the morning of Friday, September 13, 2024, to hear the Crown’s closing submissions. You can read the Crown’s final arguments here. The Final Submissions for Chris Barber are here. Ms. Magas says she will also address the court referencing the R. v. DeCaire Appeal decision. She successfully defended Christine DeCaire when the Crown appealed Ms. DeCaire’s dismissal on charges of mischief for being at the Freedom Convoy protest. Ms. Magas will ask that the court use that decision as guidance when considering the current case. She will draw attention to paragraphs 30-31, where the Appeal Court noted the Crown still needed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that a person actually engaged in mischief, and that merely being in the vicinity of where someone else might be causing mischief was not enough to convict.

This should be the final day of the Barber/Lich trial. The parties will then await a decision.