Defence seeks to ban residents’ testimony
• The lawyers defending two of the most prominent organizers of the Freedom Convoy protests are attempting to block nine Ottawa residents and business representatives from taking the stand.
Tamara Lich and Chris Barber are on trial for criminal charges related to their role in the demonstration, which blockaded Ottawa city streets for weeks last year as protesters railed against COVID-19 public health measures.
The Crown plans to call five Ottawa residents as witnesses in the case, to describe what they saw and experienced during the convoy. That includes Zexi Li, who filed a class-action lawsuit against the organizers on behalf of people who live and work in downtown Ottawa.
The Crown also intends to call the owner of a women’s clothing boutique and employees from the National Arts Centre, the Fairmont Chateau Laurier hotel and the public transit operator.
Lich’s lawyer Lawrence Greenspon argued against hearing from the witnesses when court resumed Monday.
Lich and Barber have already signed admissions that the “actions of certain individuals” who participated in the protest interfered with public transit and the lawful use and enjoyment of property and businesses.
“There’s is absolutely no need to call these nine witnesses,” Greenspon said, arguing their testimony would be irrelevant in a strictly legal sense.
The witnesses didn’t have any direct interactions with Lich or Barber, and the organizers have not admitted to playing any role in the disruptions.
The admission did not go far enough to justify blocking the testimony of people directly impacted by the protest, Crown attorney Siobhain Wetscher argued.
“I don’t think that Mr. Greenspon is in a position to admit that the protest is not peaceful,” Wetscher said. The Crown has already alleged that the protest was “anything but.”
The Crown wants to show exactly how disruption, intimidation and obstructions manifested after thousands of big rigs rolled into Ottawa in early 2022, blocking roads in what the city’s mayor at the time called a “siege” and an “illegal occupation.”
Justice Heather Perkins-mcvey said the question about whether the protest was peaceful doesn’t affect the charges Barber and Lich are facing, but could be an aggravating factor.
The two organizers face charges of mischief and counselling others to commit mischief, intimidation and obstructing police.
Barber is also charged with encouraging others to break a court order that banned horn-honking during the protest, which was part of an injunction issued in response to Li’s lawsuit.
Wetscher argued that the Crown is entitled to call the evidence it sees fit to connect Lich’s and Barber’s words and actions to the residents and workers.