The Persecution of Tamara Lich
Part 1: The Arrest
Today marks the end of week 8 in Tamara Lich’s trial. More twists and turns are expected as the judge pushed the conclusion of the trial further down the road, stayed Tamara’s charge for ‘breach of bail’, and listened to the crown’s argument to keep the evidence from her defense.
Find daily updates on Tamara Lich and Chris Barber’s trial here: Trial Updates
It has been a year and a half since Tamara Lich was arrested on the streets of Ottawa for participation in the Trucker Freedom Convoy.
At her arraignment in February of 2022 she was hit with a string of charges, from the orwellian ‘counseling others to commit mischief’ to ‘mischief’, ‘obstructing police’, and ‘intimidation’.
The first charge left us in disbelief. The convoy was recognized around the world as a liberation. Hundreds of thousands poured into Ottawa to celebrate. Our Truckers and working class Canadians tossed lifelines in every direction. They gathered everyone: the politicians, the doctors, the teachers, the lawyers, men, women, children, the priests and pastors, elders, granthis, and imams - all were drawn to our capitol bound together by our shared humanity and the hope of redemption for our Canada.
By every participant’s account, it was the most enthralling eruption of love, generosity and kindness they had ever experienced. As the streets swelled with Canadians from every walk of life it was evident there was a chasm of lies between the narrative on TV and the reality on the ground. Canadians did not hate each other, they did not despise each other for their sex or race or vaccine status. There was no super-spreading virus that ‘required’ a suspension of human rights. It was the end of ‘covid’. Canadians broke bread together, sang together, danced together, played hockey in the streets. Canadians embraced each other for the first time in years.
How could this be a crime?
How could a Canadian be jailed for bringing us together to peacefully protest the most spectacular human rights abuses of the 21st century?
If it did not protect those who defend it, what was the Bill of Rights?
Charged with Freedom
Not only were the alleged offenses transparently flimsy, Tamara was treated as a political prisoner. She was denied bail and spent 30 days in jail. For those who cared about our country, civility and the good faith necesesary to undergird a democratic system of governance it was a miscarriage of justice of the highest order and a new chapter in the Liberal government’s descent into tyranny.
Eventually Tamara was released with conditions that gave us some insight into the real motive for her arrest - they feared her voice. She was exiled from the capital and forbidden to speak with Canadians on social media.
Despite the hyperventilating by her prosecutor on the ‘serious nature’ of her charges, anyone following the convoy with an open mind understood Tamara was arrested for her role in embarrassing the Liberal government and waking up the country from it’s terminal hypnosis.
The Trucker Freedom Convoy was a spectacular success in ending mandates, but more significantly it instantly deflated covid hysteria everywhere. To the newly self-appointed ruling class, this was unacceptable.
The Liberal government had lost support for their mandates and the success of the convoy signaled they were quickly losing the ‘consent of the governed’. In the throws of a global lock down, the world was taking notice. It created an unprecedented grassroots political pressure on Trudeau, his cabinet and the globalist lockdown fanatics.
In order to maintain perception of control, the Liberal government would need to single out and pick off Tamara and all other ‘high value’ symbols of resistance; it would have to clear the streets, marginalize the protesters then deny their unmitigated success.
Libel, innuendo and an insidious propaganda campaign, would be used to instill just enough disgust among fellow citizens to justify laying charges, making arrests and violently crushing the most successful human rights protest in Canada’s history.
After weeks of jubilant celebration downtown Ottawa, Trudeau’s ‘Minister of Public Safety’ Marco Mendicino and Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson started ratcheting up the hostile language towards the truckers. Their description of the convoy was exactly the inverse of reality and it betrayed their intent to initiate a violent crackdown.
Mendicino made the incendiary claim that the protest was ‘deadly’. Trudeau called the Truckers ‘disgusting’. They privately debated using tanks to crush the protest. In an unhinged rant in parliament that would not age well, Trudeau smeared the protestor as ‘nazis’. The state funded media outlet, CBC, claimed “there is concern that Russian actors could be continuing to fuel things as this protest grows, but perhaps even instigating it from the outset”.
The Ottawa Police Services had officially requested support of the military to remove the ‘occupation’ of trucks and bouncy castles, food tents and music stages.
The writing was on the wall. The Liberal government would ignore the request to meet with the Truckers. With the aid of the OPS and the RCMP, they would ‘take out’ the influential members of the convoy to ease the job of shutting down the protest.
Freedom’s Just Another Word for Nothing Left to Lose
Nearly three weeks into February an un-seasonable warm spell descended across Ontario. It turned the streets of Ottawa to slush. A leeching humidity hung in the air. Although the streets were flowing with revelers and truckers, protestors and onlookers, a palpable unease was growing. Tamara shared Danny Bulford’s intel on a forthcoming crackdown in a Facebook live. Arrests were coming.
On February 17 Chris Barber, founder of the Freedom Convoy, was picked up by police. The word spread and Tamara and Danny Bulford decided they would turn themselves in. Before their departure they finished drafting their open letter to Canada’s Premiers to end the vaccine mandates and passports. Tamara and Danny left their hotel and walked down to Wellington St.
They took photos with families. They accepted letters from children - always adorned with hand drawn trucks and Canadian flags. But most importantly they did the one thing our leaders wouldn’t do. They listened. For months going on years Canadians were denied their humanity. There was no chance to be heard, no shoulder to lean on. This night and nearly every day of the convoy nothing was as important as connection. Tamara talked and walked and hugged strangers, just as she would with family. For the 20th consecutive day, she waited peacefully and patiently for the government to meet.
But that evening they would not be met by the Prime Minister nor his representatives. They were met by the Ottawa Police. After a few hours and a rebuffed attempt at surrender, white Chevy Tahoes pulled up to the sidewalk. A younger officer, in a green and black reflective uniform drooped across sunken shoulders walked up to Tamara. He quietly asked her to step aside. With a drifting gaze that couldn’t quite fix on hers, he told her she was going to be arrested. But she knew that, she had been waiting for this moment to arrive. With a disarming poise that captured the spirit of the Freedom Trucker Convoy, she turned around and with her hands behind her back offered herself up to the police.
Her arrest was caught on cell phone camera and uploaded to Facebook. It blew up social media as it was shared to pages and groups around the world.
My heart panged. I felt a jumbled mix of anxiety and seething indignation. We all knew this moment was coming. But Tamara had embraced it, just as she had embraced every other role that was straddled to her back. As a friend and confidant to strangers. As an engaged citizen and the people’s diplomat. As a spokesman for our Bill of Rights. But perhaps the most important role she had assumed was as a symbol of hope for a country on the brink. And for that she had struck the perfect balance between grace and grit.
Tamara came prepared that day to trade in her freedom for the promise of our own. The last words we would hear from her for several months would be that sacred shibboleth shared by citizens of a nation under fire, ‘Hold the Line.’
She was loaded into the cruiser, bound and wet, her face was resolute and her head held high. She now faced a greater sacrifice than most Canadians could give.
To many that might appear like the end of freedom. But to countless more Canadians it had never been so clear that sacrifice was exactly the price of freedom. This was providence and we knew instinctively that a prison could not extinguish what Tamara had burning in her heart for our Canada.
Her trial would be the trial of a nation.
Coming soon - The Persecution of Tamara Lich - Part II
Tamara’s Book: Hold The Line
Tamara Lich & Trucker Freedom Convoy News
To keep up with Tamara’s trial follow these outlets:
Rebel News - Freedom Convoy
True North News - Tamara Lich Trial
Donna Frambois - Thank You Truckers!
Rupa Subramanya The Free Press, National Post & True North Centre
The Freedom Trucker Convoy changed the course of history. The greatest victory for the Canadian Truckers was to destroy the cudgel of covid hysteria. As much as the Liberal and international governments have tried to bring it back again and again, they have failed.
Since the convoy Tamara Lich, Chris Barber, Harold Jonker, Jay, Dana-Lee Melfi, Kimberly Neudorf and scores of other Canadians have been targeted with frivolous and unconstitutional charges that contravene our Bill of Rights and our Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
The intention of these charges is to set a precendent for when the government can suspend our constitution and nullify our civil rights. In these court cases the crown is arguing that treshhold is very low.
Civil Rights have always been challenged everywhere across history. Canada is no different. In the end they are only granted to those who demand them without compromise.
Today in Canada this means standing behind the citizens who have challenged this breach of our civil rights.
When we remember and commend their sacrifices, when we share their story and when we support their fight for freedom, we are doing the work to preserve our civil rights.
You can support their legal defense here:
Tamara Lich Support
Harold Jonker Support
Dana Lee-Melfi Support
Kimberly Neudorf Support