MONTREAL — The Canadian federal government is continuing its vindictive drive to railroad to prison Tamara Lich and trucker Chris Barber, spokespersons for the trucker-led 2022 Freedom Convoy outside Parliament. This was part of a fight to end government job-threatening COVID testing mandates.
Federal prosecutors announced Nov. 6 they’re appealing the sentences handed down by Judge Heather Perkins-McVey Oct. 7. Both Lich and Barber were sentenced to 12 months house arrest, to be followed by several months of a 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. stay-at-home curfew.
Under Canada`s criminal code, mischief is a serious charge, and federal prosecutors had demanded a seven-year jail term for Lich and eight years for Barber. The house arrest sentences reflect the broad support among working people for the Freedom Convoy and their disgust and outrage with the yearslong frame-up and witch hunt Ottawa has carried out against them.
There are considerable stakes for working people in the fight by Lich and Barber. Their convictions are an attack on free speech, based on what they said on video and social media, not on any illegal actions they took.
They are defending key rights working people need to defend ourselves against the growing attacks by the ruling capitalist families and their governments today.
The goal of Canada’s capitalist rulers is to jail Lich and Barber as a warning to others, particularly workers who are trying to use union power to fight for adequate wages and safer working conditions. It goes hand in hand with the Liberal government’s use of anti-labor back-to-work orders to halt strikes by port, rail, postal and other workers.
Back Lich and Barber!
Lich and Barber were tried together in an unprecedented yearlong court case that ran from Sept. 5, 2023, to Sept. 13, 2024. The prosecution is still pressing to seize and auction off Barber`s tractor-trailer, a motion the judge will rule on by the end of November.
Lich spent 49 days behind bars without having been convicted of anything before the trial. Both faced draconian bail conditions.
The arrests of Lich and Barber, and those of many other participants in the protest, came after then Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the notorious Emergencies Act, fraudulently claiming the protest constituted a “national security” and “public order” emergency.
Under the act, Ottawa unleashed 3,000 cops with military-style weapons against the truckers and their supporters, brutally breaking up the protest.
Civil liberties organizations challenged the government’s use of the Emergencies Act. In January 2024 federal court Justice Richard Mosley ruled that the use of the act against the Freedom Convoy was unconstitutional and illegal. He said Ottawa’s action violated the rights of the Freedom Convoy participants, protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The government is appealing Mosley’s ruling.
Lich and Barber continue to fight back. They have both said they will appeal their convictions.
“This new move by Ottawa against Tamara Lich and Chris Barber is a wake-up call to every union member and fighter for democratic freedoms,” Katy LeRougetel, who was the Communist League candidate for mayor of Montreal, told the Militant Nov. 8.
“They need the support of the labor movement, which should campaign to support their demand their sentences and convictions be overturned, and that the draconian anti-worker, anti-democratic Emergencies Act be repealed.”