Mischief Charge Dismissed
After a 2-day trial, Freedom Convoy participant Steven Vardy can now carry on with his life.
On Tuesday and Wednesday of this week, a trial was held in downtown Ottawa. The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) says Steven Vardy of St. Catharines, Ontario was charged while attempting to leave Ottawa on Saturday, Feb. 19, 2022 - the second day in which police used violence against peaceful truckers.
The JCCF says Mr Vardy was in his car when he
was stopped by a police officer. After allegedly failing to produce his identification documents, Mr. Vardy was arrested and charged with obstructing a public officer in the execution of his duties. Later, authorities conducted a search of Mr. Vardy’s social media activities and discovered video footage of events occurring at the Freedom Convoy, whereupon an additional charge of mischief was filed against him. Mr. Vardy asserted his innocence of all charges.
Prior to the trial, the first charge was withdrawn by the Crown prosecutor. Which means two court days were consumed - in our woefully sclerotic legal system - by an after-the-fact mischief charge. The JCCF says:
the judge determined that the Crown could not establish beyond a reasonable doubt that the person speaking in the social media videos was Mr. Vardy himself. Further, the judge determined that, even if Mr. Vardy was the person speaking in the videos, narrating the events occurring in Ottawa did not amount to criminal mischief.
According to his Facebook page, Mr Vardy is a carpenter. His car was impounded by police upon his arrest. The license plate was suspended pursuant to “section 6 of Schedule 1 of Ontario regulation 71/22.” You can read section 6 at the bottom of this page (click).
Please bear in mind that when the government so advised him - in a letter dated three days after his arrest - Mr Vardy had not yet had a trial and had therefore been convicted of precisely nothing.
This is how it works in Canada, now. Protest, if you please. Peacefully and cheerfully, if you please. And the system will do its level best to crush you long before you ever get to trial. The lesson you are supposed to learn is to never to step out of line. Innocent or guilty, you’ll be put through the wringer:
You will be arrested.
You will be charged.
Your car and everything in it will be impounded for seven days.
Your license plate will be suspended and you will be required to jump through hoops in order to have it reinstated.
You will be required to find a lawyer.
You will be charged with something else entirely after the police go poking around your social media.
The first charge will be dropped, but the afterthought charge will remain.
You will endure 558 days (1 year, 6 months, and 12 days) of stress and uncertainty.
You will be subjected to the indignity of a two-day trial over that afterthought of a charge.
So much foolishness. So much wasted time and energy. St. Catharines to Ottawa is, by the way, a five-hour drive.
Thank heavens the judge was sane and reasonable. Thank you. Sanity must prevail.
Reporting on this story yesterday, Blacklock’s Reporter assigned it the headline “Facebook posts not a crime.”
On February 2, 2022 - during the first week of the Ottawa protest - Mr Vardy posted the following comment on Facebook along with this photo of Guy’s vintage Mack, nose to nose with his friend’s Freightliner. It’s a great shot. (I’ve enhanced it a bit with photo software).
It took over an hour to walk from one end to the other…on one street!! Dancing in the rain and meeting amazing people from coast to coast.. lots of fist pumps, hugs, high fives and great chats with people from all over. Crazy it took a pandemic and war on our rights to bring us together like this.
I had a conversation with a lawyer yesterday telling me about how many cases in Alberta are being dismissed - and how CPSO is trying to negotiate with doctors they have been so hard on. He felt there is a growing trend towards justice and lawsuits against the institutions who have acted unlawfully. Very encouraging.. although as this post points out, so many have suffered greatly due to those injustices.
Harbour Diner, a restaurant in Hamilton who refused to participate in mandates, got $50,000 in fines. They had a meeting and were told we will drop all charges if you’ll plead guilty to one and pay $400. They said NO - we are going to trial! This courageous couple are representing themselves and standing up against this tyranny. They said one of the bylaw officers regularly assigned to give them tickets has become a regular customer!
Thank god you are still documenting the voices of the convoy. There is no real news these days and I am grateful for your work.