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Already beset with prolonged courtroom delays, the trial of accused convoy organizers Tamara Lich and Chris Barber will now lengthen into March — and sure past — earlier than reaching its much-anticipated conclusion.
Attorneys for Lich and Barber met earlier in January with Crown prosecutors Tim Radcliffe and Siobhain Wetscher, together with the trial’s presiding decide, Ontario Courtroom Justice Heather Perkins-McVey, to schedule dates in March for the trial to proceed.
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Lich and Barber had been among the many first convoy individuals to face costs after they had been arrested by Ottawa police on Feb. 17, 2022, on the eve of an enormous two-day operation to clear the protest from downtown streets. Barber and Lich had been collectively charged with mischief, obstruction, intimidation and counselling others to commit related offences.
The prosecution closed its case towards the 2 convoy leaders in November after calling proof from 16 Crown witnesses throughout 27 trial days — extending far past the preliminary 16-day estimate outlined on the trial’s opening day in early September.
The trial will reconvene March 7 to listen to the decide’s determination on a movement alleging that Lich and Barber acted collectively in a “conspiracy or widespread design” to gridlock downtown streets through the three-week convoy demonstration and that proof towards one accused organizer ought to apply to each.
The defence is searching for to dismiss the movement, arguing the Crown had not demonstrated any “illegal function” in planning the protest. The defence is then anticipated to file a separate movement with the courtroom as soon as the trial resumes for 3 days on March 13.
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The defence has mentioned it’ll require 5 trial days to mount its case, name proof and make closing arguments. These trial days have but to be confirmed.
Within the meantime, Lich’s lawyer, Lawrence Greenspon, is downplaying any considerations over the outspoken convoy chief’s return to social media after her bail circumstances had been relaxed in December, permitting Lich to reactivate her dormant Twitter account.
“It has been 22 lengthy months since I’ve been allowed to log in to my Twitter account,” Lich wrote in December, tagging Twitter/X proprietor Elon Musk and asking, jokingly, “Did something attention-grabbing occur whereas I’ve been away???!!?!”
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Lich mentioned her former account was “deactivated as per my former (bail) circumstances and deleted after inactivity.”
In an announcement to True North Media in December, Lich mentioned she and her authorized staff believed it was an acceptable time to elevate the social media ban, which had been imposed as a part of her preliminary bail circumstances.
“I’ve been hoping for fairly a while to have my circumstances diverse and with the shortage of proof we have now seen thus far (and) the surprising size of time the trial is taking, we felt it was a superb time to have this particular situation reviewed,” Lich mentioned in an announcement to True North.
Greenspon endorsed that assertion in an interview this previous week, saying the bail variation permitting Lich to return to social media was prompted primarily by the “time the trial has taken” and Lich’s need to renew contact along with her household by way of Fb.
Greenspon defended a current Twitter publish by his shopper criticizing Ottawa police.
“The Ottawa Police Service is likely one of the most inept, corrupt and incapable organizations I’ve ever encountered,” Lich wrote in a Jan. 12 Twitter publish, revealed in reply to a different Twitter publish written by Eva Chipiuk, a lawyer previously with the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms.
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“I might have most popular any feedback about police would have been directed to the higher echelon (of the OPS government), as a result of the issue was not with the law enforcement officials on the bottom, that’s for positive,” Greenspon mentioned in a telephone interview Friday.
“The truth that the Ottawa police directed the demonstrators into the downtown core and onto Wellington Avenue… that was clearly one thing that ought to not have occurred and that’s on the toes of the Ottawa police,” Greenspon mentioned.
“The willingness of the demonstrators to work with the Ottawa police that was stopped on account of (the OPS government’s) instruction that police ought to give them ‘Not one inch.’
“That’s come out within the proof, so by way of the efforts of the demonstrators to work with police liaison … There was a surprisingly good relationship between the demonstrators and the liaison officers.”
Greenspon mentioned he “might or might not” name witnesses when the trial turns to the defence to mount its case.
Lich is represented by Greenspon and Eric Granger; Barber is represented by Diane Magas and Marwa Younes.
The dates for that section of trial are “nonetheless undetermined,” Greenspon mentioned.
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