The sentencing listening to for “Freedom Convoy” leaders Tamara Lich and Chris Barber is ready to start Wednesday morning, months after the 2 have been discovered responsible of mischief.
Two days have been put aside for the events to current their sentencing submissions.
The Crown is looking for a jail sentence of seven years for Lich and eight years for Barber, who was additionally convicted of counselling others to disobey a courtroom order.
Lich and Barber have been key figures behind the convoy protest that occupied downtown Ottawa for 3 weeks starting in late January 2022 to protest vaccine mandates and different pandemic measures.
The protest ended after the federal authorities invoked the Emergencies Act for the primary time ever. The convoy was cleared out of Ottawa’s downtown core in a three-day police operation that started on Feb. 18.
Ontario Courtroom Justice Heather Perkins-McVey stated she discovered Lich and Barber responsible of mischief as a result of they routinely inspired individuals to hitch or stay on the protest, regardless of figuring out the opposed results it was having on downtown residents and companies.
Barber additionally was discovered responsible of counselling others to disobey a courtroom order for telling individuals to disregard a choose’s injunction directing convoy individuals to cease honking their truck horns. Lich was not charged with that offence.
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In a separate Ottawa-based trial for Pat King, one other convoy chief, the Crown sought a sentence of 10 years in jail for mischief and disobeying a courtroom order.
King was sentenced in February to 3 months of home arrest, 100 hours of group service at a meals financial institution or males’s shelter and a yr of probation.
He acquired 9 months credit score for time served earlier than his conviction.
Conservative Chief Pierre Poilievre criticized the Crown’s sentencing proposals for Lich and Barber. In a social media submit Monday, Poilievre in contrast the sentencing vary to sentences for different crimes and requested, “How is that this justice?”
Whereas it’s fairly uncommon for elected officers to remark immediately on a sentencing listening to, Poilievre’s message was echoed by a number of different Conservative MPs.
Deputy Conservative chief Melissa Lantsman known as the Crown’s proposed sentence “political vengeance not precise justice.”
Some Conservatives, together with Poilievre, have been brazenly supportive of the “Freedom Convoy” as vans and different autos clogged roads round Parliament Hill.
Each Lich and Barber thanked Poilievre for his assist in separate social media posts.
“There’s a nice line between politics and the judiciary, as there needs to be, and I’ve lengthy understood the uncomfortable place elected officers discover themselves in in relation to commenting on circumstances which can be earlier than the courtroom,” Lich stated on X Tuesday.
“In our case, the double normal and the vindictive nature from the prosecution workplace has grow to be too apparent to disregard and can set a precedent going ahead that may have an effect on all Canadians who select to peacefully protest or deter them from exercising their Constitution Proper to peacefully assemble.”
“Thanks, Pierre, we’ve been ready so lengthy for elected officers to talk up,” Barber wrote in his personal submit.
Poilievre misplaced his Ottawa-area seat within the April election and is operating in an Alberta byelection.
Each Lich and Barber have been discovered not responsible on expenses of intimidation, counselling to commit intimidation, obstructing police and counselling others to hinder police.
Justice Perkins-McVey stated intimidation carries a way of menace or violence. She stated that each Lich and Barber repeatedly known as for protesters to stay peaceable all through the protest.
As for obstructing police, Perkins-McVey stated each have been arrested with out incident and have been in custody earlier than the principle police operation started to clear downtown Ottawa.
Costs for counselling others to commit mischief have been stayed on the request of the Crown.
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