1/ Tamara Lich and Chris Barber SENTENCING 🧵
The MOST comprehensive coverage ANYWHERE. Follow along for my courtroom reporting live from Ottawa.
It's finally here. Today Tamara and Chris will learn their fate.
The government has turned them into boogeymen and blamed them for the "ills" of the Freedom Convoy. I have sat through the bulk of this trial and the extraordinary unimpressive evidence the crown has presented.
Social media posts saying hold the line. Social media posts saying be peaceful and Ioving. Social media posts BEGGING for communication with the government stepping on us all falling in deaf ears. And a couple posts expressing frustration with the government's boot.
The trucker protest saved lives. That's a fact.
And for that the government has said Chris and Tamara should spend 8 and 7 years in prison respectively.
Tamara beat all of her charges except 1 - mischief.
Chris Barber beat almost all of his charges except mischief and counselling disobey a court order.
So they should go to jail for the better part of a decade? While other, often violent protesters on the left walk free or have their charges dropped?
It's wrong. It's unfair. It's unjust.
The administration of justice requires a fair and fitting sentence for the crime. Even 6 months in jail would be unfit to the crime and the facts of the case. Parity. Impact. Circumstances.
These are non-violent offences and first time offenders with impeccable family and professional lives. They are extraordinarily pro social and probably have some of the greatest public support for any convicted person in Canada in many, many years.
Distinguished defence attorney Lawrence Greenspon said it himself. It's very, very rare for him to be able to talk about the POSITIVE IMPACT of a client's crime. Yet alone so extensively. The letters of support flooded in telling him just how much positive change the trucker protest made in their lives. Some said it saved them.
And it's all true. In my humble opinion, the life-saving impact of the trucker protest vastly outweighs any negative impact of horns.
Horns which Tamara never honked. Horns which they're not responsible for. Other people's actions.
But the crown said no, they stood SHOULDER TO SHOULDER with them. They're a principal and a party, and an aider and abettor to... Trucks parked on the street and horns.
So 7+ years in jail?
This is a dark day for our country. Pray for our country. Pray for Chris and Tamara.
Follow this thread for my live tweets.
@WeAreCanProud I don’t know how people can consider
Voting for this Definitely will be worse than Trudeau ever was. And that is bad.
Wake up people, this man cannot become Prime Minister
@hashirsher_ca @JustinTrudeau If we got Trudeau to hell out of office.
I mean gone gone gone
It would definitely improve things
He cannot stand idiots Don’t blame him neither can I
Trudeau is the biggest idiot I ever knew
@MikeBarrettON All politicians are liars
Problem is Trudeau’s band of thieves .
Has taken it to a level we have never ever seen before in this country
I am afraid if he isn’t held responsible.
What is to stop? Future politicians from doing the same.