Freedom Convoy organizer Tamara Lich is seen outside the courthouse in Ottawa on Wednesday.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press
Two central characters of the 2022 Ottawa convoy, Tamara Lich and Chris Barber, told demonstrators in the nation’s capital to hold the line even as law enforcement and levels of government urged de-escalation, a Crown prosecutor said Wednesday at the outset of a sentencing hearing.
The hearing in Ottawa follows an April conviction of mischief for both Ms. Lich and Mr. Barber for their role in organizing the demonstrations that sparked one of the biggest police operations in Canadian history.
The Crown is seeking seven years for Ms. Lich and eight for Mr. Barber, who was also convicted of counselling others to disobey a court order.
Assistant prosecutor Siobhain Wetscher said Wednesday the Crown wants the court to remain cognizant that Ms. Lich and Mr. Barber are not being sentenced for participating in a lawful demonstration.
Ms. Wetscher said while the convoy was not a violent demonstration, it was not peaceful and went well beyond a legitimate protest.
“Their actions were organized, deliberate and sustained,” she said.
Ms. Lich and Mr. Barber were quite well-known, she added.
In her April decision, Ontario Court Justice Heather Perkins-McVey found Ms. Lich and Mr. Barber guilty of this offence because they encouraged people to join or stay at the protest knowing the adverse affects on downtown Ottawa businesses and residents.
What remains of the convoy protest one year later
The Ottawa convoy protests saw frustration over public health measures during the COVID-19 pandemic come to a crescendo in the winter of 2022. The demonstrations drew in supporters who took issue with vaccine mandates, as well as those who carried anti-government sentiments. They were highly criticized by many business owners, downtown Ottawa residents, the mayor of the City of Ottawa and other politicians.
The demonstrations spurred the resignation of the capital’s police chief and criticism by civil liberties groups over then-prime-minister Justin Trudeau’s decision to invoke the Emergencies Act for the first time, affording the government sweeping powers.
Two days have been allotted for the sentencing proceedings although it is unclear how long it will take for both the prosecution and defence lawyers to get through respective material.
Ahead of Wednesday’s proceedings, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre took issue with Crown attorneys seeking a multiyear sentence for the pair. Other Conservative MPs did as well.
Mr. Poilievre decried how offenders, including some who are violent, are released from prison but the Crown is seeking a seven-year sentence for Ms. Lich and eight for Mr. Barber, according to a post by Ms. Lich. “How is this justice?” he wrote on X on Monday.
Let’s get this straight: while rampant violent offenders are released hours after their most recent charges & antisemitic rioters vandalize businesses, terrorize daycares & block traffic without consequences, the Crown wants 7 years prison time for the charge of mischief for Lich…
— Pierre Poilievre (@PierrePoilievre) July 21, 2025
After Mr. Poilievre waded in, Ms. Lich posted on social media there is a “fine line between politics and the judiciary, as there should be and she has long understood the “uncomfortable position elected officials find themselves in” when commenting on cases before the court.
“In our case, the double standard and the vindictive nature from the prosecution office has become too obvious to ignore and will set a precedent going forward that will affect all Canadians who choose to peacefully protest or deter them from exercising their Charter Right to peacefully assemble,” she wrote on X.
Ms. Lich and Mr. Barber have maintained that their involvement in the Ottawa demonstrations was in opposition to the federal government’s approach during the pandemic, including vaccine mandates, and that they were exercising their freedom to do so.
A major police operation took down the protest in February, 2022, after Mr. Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act.
Ms. Lich and Mr. Barber’s supporters and the federal Conservatives criticized Mr. Trudeau’s decision to invoke the act, calling it a major overreach.
In June, 2022, former Ottawa Police chief Peter Sloly told a parliamentary committee that the convoy protest represented an unprecedented national-security crisis and that police were not adequately prepared to respond.
Mr. Sloly, the subject of public criticism for perceived inaction on the part of police, announced he was leaving his job while the protest was continuing (one day after the Emergencies Act was invoked by the federal government).
In February, 2023, an Ontario Court of Appeal judge who served as commissioner of a public inquiry into the use of the act found its invocation was appropriate. Justice Paul Rouleau said he did not come to this conclusion easily because he did not “consider the factual basis for it to be overwhelming.”
In January, 2024, the Federal Court ruled the federal government acted unreasonably and was not legally justified in its decision to invoke the act.
A month later, the government said in a statement that while it respects the independent judiciary, it did not agree with the court’s decision and would appeal the ruling.