R. v Lich/Barber

Not a trial of the Freedom Convoy, but what will success look like?

For those readers who wish to follow the criminal trial of two of the Freedom Convoy protest leaders, Tamara Lich and Chris Barber, the Ottawa Citizen newspaper is posting a live daily blog.

You can find it at:

https://ottawacitizen.com/news/live-blog-follow-day-two-of-the-criminal-trial-of-convoy-protest-organizers-tamara-lich-and-chris-barber

The trial proceedings, before a judge only, at Ontario Superior Court in Ottawa, commenced on September 5. The rough schedule provides for 10 sitting court days for the Crown’s submissions, followed by 3 days for the defence. One of the defence counsel has already said they will need more than 3 days. No surprise there.

There will be a break in the proceedings in late September and a scheduled resumption from October 11-13. Sometime in October we should hear closing submissions from both the crown and defence. The judge’s decision will follow at some undetermined time.

This is day two of the trial and the Crown is leading. Some of the testimony, for example that of Inspector Russell Lucas, who is being examined today, will be a repeat of evidence given before the Rouleau Commission.

One piece of news is that one of the crown prosecutors, Moiz Karimjee, has recused himself (withdrawn from the case) after reading Tamara Lich’s book and identifying some 60 references to him personally, some of them allegedly defamatory.

Expect more fire works as we go.

Defence attorneys have already argued that describing the Freedom Convoy presence in Ottawa as an “occupation” is defamatory.

I may pop down to Courtoom 5 at some point in the proceedings. This is the same courtroom, if memory serves, where the trial of Momin Khawaja was held—Canada’s first major terrorism prosecution after 9/11. I attended some of it, complete with a press card provided by a friendly media organization—security, as you can imagine, was tight. The accused sat behind a reinforced glass box. His unsmiling family looked on.

Khawaja was convicted on seven counts for his efforts to facilitate a terrorist bomb plot in London in 2004; his sentence was even extended by an appeals court. His lawyer, Lawrence Greenspon, tried to call the verdict a ”success” for his client.

Mr. Greenspon is now serving as Ms. Lich’s counsel. I suppose she hopes for a better definition of “success” this time around.