Tamara's Lawyer Speaks

'We’re going to have the Freedom Convoy trial lasting longer than the Freedom Convoy itself.'

Freedom Convoy organizers Tamara Lich and Chris Barber will spend Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday of this week in an Ottawa courtroom. Their mischief trial keeps dragging on and on. Lawrence Greenspon, the highpowered lawyer defending Tamara, recently gave a 21-minute video interview to Jan Jekielek of the Epoch Times.

Clicking the image above will take you to a condensed, 10-minute version of that interview. To watch the full thing click here. Mr Greenspon emphasizes that the truckers followed police instructions about which exits to take and where to park in the nation’s capital. In his words:

They were essentially told where to go, how to get there, and where to park…What happened, of course, is that there were a lot more protesters than what the police had anticipated.

When a judge ordered a halt to honking on February 7th, points out Mr Greenspon, he simultaneously “ordered that the protest - as long as it was peaceful and lawful - could continue.” This is a crucial point, given the degree to which the public has been misled. Here’s an example, published a week after that court order, in which the CBC incorrectly declared that the protest “violates several laws.” Without a shred of evidence proffered. Without a single law identified.

(It’s also worth remembering the testimony of Michael Sabia, a senior government official, who said repeatedly that the protest became illegal only after the Emergencies Act was declared. With the stroke of a pen, a cheerful, bouncy castle demonstration became illegal. Because the government said so.)

Getting back to Mr Greenspon’s remarks, he tells us the evidence introduced so far in Tamara and Chris’ trial - entirely by the prosecution - “doesn’t fit in at all” with the fact that the Emergencies Act was invoked. “It’s really a mystery to me, as someone who’s seeing this evidence unfold,” he says, how last year’s public inquiry could have concluded that emergency measures were necessary. In his words, “we were light years” from the circumstances under which a similar measure was historically employed.

When asked about the fervour with which these minor charges continue to be pursued, Mr Greenspon says:

I’ve done murder trials, done other far more serious criminal cases. The amount of energy and resources that’s being put into this is, I mean, we’re going to have the Freedom Convoy trial lasting longer than the Freedom Convoy itself. That, I think, in and of itself says something.

With regard to the frequent use of the term “occupation” by critics of the Convoy, Greenspon explains that as difficult as some people might have found it to get around in Ottawa’s downtown core during the protest, the evidence heard in court so far shows that emergency lanes “were maintained for the most part.” He adds:

To try to refer to that as an occupation is, at least in my view, an insult to the people in the world who are genuinely suffering under an occupation.

• That Greenspon Photo (23 Sept. 2023)

• There’s No Time Limit on Freedom (22 Sept. 2023)