Gratitude for Tamara Lich
Persecuted convoy organizer receives fresh wave of support.
This blog is about ordinary people. Its focus is on individual truckers who joined the Freedom Convoy - and on everyday Canadians who supported this protest.
Most participants knew little about the organizers. They drove to Ottawa because the convoy’s big picture message resonated: Enough is enough. Two years of socially harmful, economy-destroying COVID policies have pushed people to the brink. Vaccines are OK. Forcing anyone to take them is not. Shame, coercion, segregation, and job loss do not promote public health.
Andrew Lawton’s book, The Freedom Convoy, and Tom Quiggan’s Eyewitness to Deceit discuss the origins and leadership of the convoy. They agree Alberta resident Tamara Lich - a Medicine Hat activist of Métis heritage - wasn’t one of the earliest organizers. Not a trucker herself, her involvement began when she offered/was asked to assist by setting up a GoFundMe campaign to help defer the costs of fuel, food, and lodging. She also started the ‘Freedom Convoy 2022’ Facebook page, which served as an official information hub.
The overwhelming response to that fundraiser catapulted Tamara onto center stage. (Andrew says $1 million was donated via GoFundMe before the truckers even hit the road.) She became a face of the Freedom Convoy, a spokesperson at press conferences.
In February, Tamara was arrested and denied bail for weeks - despite having no criminal record and despite being accused of non-violent offences. Compare and contrast to the way the person who allegedly drove into a crowd of freedom protesters was treated by the justice system. He fled the scene and scuffled with police, yet made bail in less than 72 hours.
After receiving the George Jonas Freedom Award at a gala dinner in June, Tamara was arrested a second time, reportedly at her workplace. Two homicide detectives employed by the Ottawa Police Service flew 3,000 km (1,860 miles) to Alberta (three provinces away) to drag her back to an Ottawa jail. Why? For allegedly violating her bail conditions at the award dinner - an event a judge had explicitly granted her permission to attend.
Tamara has now lost her job. Two days ago, a GiveSendGo crowdfunding appeal was launched to financially assist her and her family. Those who respect and admire her have quickly come to her aid, donating more than $56,000.
Many of these people have left messages addressed to Tamara. The same gratitude that was showered on the truckers is once again on display. Here are a few examples:
