As Tamara Lich was led away from supporters in handcuffs on the snowy streets of Ottawa in 2022, she threw a single phrase over her shoulder.
“Hold the line,” said the petite figurehead of the “Freedom Convoy” movement as the officers at each of her elbows walked her to the waiting cruiser.
She was echoing the words shouted by of one of her supporters in a scene that was captured on video and circulated online the eve before hundreds of police moved in.
Officers spent the next two days dislodging protesters from the streets around Parliament Hill.
But that parting phrase, which would go on to become the title of Lich’s recently published book, is likely to be at the heart of her criminal trial.
Lich and follow convoy organizer Chris Barber are scheduled to stand trial in Ottawa starting Tuesday for their role in the three-week protest that overtook the streets around downtown and sparked a national emergency declaration.
In the final days of the demonstration, as police began to order people to leave, organizers and supporters used “hold the line” as a rallying cry, as words of encouragement and as a salutation.
Lich and Barber stand co-accused of mischief, obstructing police, counselling others to commit mischief and intimidation.
Several of the charges hinge on whether Lich and Barber encouraged protesters to defy police orders by remaining in Ottawa after authorities ordered everyone to clear the streets and, if they did, whether that was a criminal act.
“We do not expect this to be the trial of the ‘Freedom Convoy,”‘ Lich and Barber’s lawyers said in a joint statement Friday.
“The central issue will be whether the actions of two of the organizers of a peaceful protest should warrant criminal sanction.”
Lich told a federal inquiry last year that when she told supporters to “hold the line,” she wasn’t encouraging them to stay in the capital, but rather to “stay true to your values in the face of adversity.”
The trial is expected to last at least 16 days, and is likely to include hundreds of social media posts by Lich, Barber and others, including videos that were livestreamed throughout the protest. Organizers used the live videos to document their experience and share thoughts and updates to supporters.
The court will likely also consider Barber’s private text messages with Lich, which were obtained by Ottawa police and entered as evidence by the Crown during one of Lich’s bail hearings last year. There is a publication ban on any messages regarding anyone other than Lich and Barber.
The “Freedom Convoy” was born out of a conversation between Barber, who owns a Saskatchewan trucking business, and fellow trucker Brigitte Belton on the social media platform TikTok, who had both been venting online about COVID-19 public health measures in early 2022.
They specifically wanted to find a way to protest vaccine mandates that were coming into effect for truckers who crossed the U.S. border and would be forced to quarantine for 14 days if they were unvaccinated.
The idea quickly gained traction and attracted support from Lich, who lives in Alberta and served as founding board member of the fledgling Maverick Party. She was also a previous supporter of the “Yellow Vest” movement that protested federal oil-and-gas policies, but which the Canadian Anti-Hate Network says was co-opted by far-right and extreme anti-Muslim groups.
As the number of organizers and supporters grew, so did the aims of the protest. By the time they arrived in Ottawa, stated goals included opposing all pandemic public-health orders and, for some, overthrowing the elected government.
Lich and Baber rode in the same truck as they travelled to Ottawa.
Since their arrests, they have not been allowed to speak to each other without a lawyer present. Their communications have been facilitated through Keith Wilson, who served as counsel to organizers during the protest.
“Chris and I kinda started off this together as a team and we feel like we have to finish it as a team,” Lich told a crowd earlier this month at an event in Vernon, B.C., to promote her book.
The Crown hopes to establish that Barber and Lich worked together in lockstep, so that evidence against one of them will apply to both.
The demonstration in Ottawa gained international attention when demonstrators arrived in the thousands and refused to leave. Spinoff protests also blockaded several international border crossings between Canada and the U.S.
Big-rig trucks parked on downtown and residential roads, blocking traffic and blaring airhorns at all hours in what became a weeks-long winter block party, complete with fireworks, a live stage, bouncy castles and, famously, an outdoor hot tub.
Some local residents and politicians, meanwhile, described the protest as an “occupation” that left their community in a state of lawlessness. They lived with a constant chorus of airhorns, and some said they were afraid or unable to leave their homes.
Several businesses, including the nearby CF Rideau Centre mall, also shuttered their doors as a precaution.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 4, 2023.
Nova Scotia RCMP say their investigation into two suspicious deaths earlier this month has concluded that one man died by homicide and the other by suicide.
The bodies of two men, aged 40 and 73, were found in a home in Windsor, N.S., on Sept. 3.
Police say the province’s medical examiner determined the 40-year-old man was killed and the 73-year-old man killed himself.
They say the two men were members of the same family.
No arrests or charges are anticipated, and the names of the deceased will not be released.
RCMP say they will not be releasing any further details out of respect for the family.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
For the first time in their history, members of the Cree community of Nemaska received a visit from a sitting Quebec premier on Sunday and were able to share first-hand the story of how they were displaced by a hydroelectric project in the 1970s.
François Legault was greeted in Nemaska by men and women who arrived by canoe to re-enact the founding of their new village in the Eeyou Istchee James Bay region, in northern Quebec, 47 years ago. The community was forced in the early 1970s to move from its original location because members were told it would be flooded as part of the Nottaway-Broadback-Rupert hydro project.
The reservoir was ultimately constructed elsewhere, but by then the members of the village had already left for other places, abandoning their homes and many of their belongings in the process.
George Wapachee, co-author of the book “Going Home,” said community members were “relocated for nothing.”
“We didn’t know what the rights were, or who to turn to,” he said in an interview. “That turned us into refugees and we were forced to abandon the life we knew.”
Nemaska’s story illustrates the challenges Legault’s government faces as it looks to build new dams to meet the province’s power needs, which are anticipated to double by 2050. Legault has promised that any new projects will be developed in partnership with Indigenous people and have “social acceptability,” but experts say that’s easier said than done.
François Bouffard, an associate professor of electrical engineering at McGill University, said the earlier era of hydro projects were developed without any consideration for the Indigenous inhabitants living nearby.
“We live in a much different world now,” he said. “Any kind of hydro development, no matter where in Quebec, will require true consent and partnership from Indigenous communities.” Those groups likely want to be treated as stakeholders, he added.
Securing wider social acceptability for projects that significantly change the landscape — as hydro dams often do — is also “a big ask,” he said. The government, Bouchard added, will likely focus on boosting capacity in its existing dams, or building installations that run off river flow and don’t require flooding large swaths of land to create reservoirs.
Louis Beaumier, executive director of the Trottier Energy Institute at Polytechnique Montreal, said Legault’s visit to Nemaska represents a desire for reconciliation with Indigenous people who were traumatized by the way earlier projects were carried about.
Any new projects will need the consent of local First Nations, Beaumier said, adding that its easier to get their blessing for wind power projects compared to dams, because they’re less destructive to the environment and easier around which to structure a partnership agreement.
Beaumier added that he believes it will be nearly impossible to get the public — Indigenous or not — to agree to “the destruction of a river” for a new dam, noting that in recent decades people have come to recognize rivers as the “unique, irreplaceable riches” that they are.
Legault’s visit to northern Quebec came on Sept. 15, when the community gathers every year to remember the founding of the “New Nemaska,” on the shores of Lake Champion in the heart of the boreal forest, some 1,500 kilometres from Montreal. Nemaska Chief Clarence Jolly said the community invited Legault to a traditional feast on Sunday, and planned to present him with Wapachee’s book and tell him their stories.
The book, published in 2022 along with Susan Marshall, is filled with stories of Nemaska community members. Leaving behind sewing machines and hunting dogs, they were initially sent to two different villages, Wapachee said.
In their new homes, several of them were forced to live in “deplorable conditions,” and some were physically and verbally abused, he said. The new village of Nemaska was only built a few years later, in 1977.
“At this time, families were losing their children to prison-schools,” he said, in reference to the residential school system. “Imagine the burden of losing your community as well.”
Thomas Jolly, a former chief, said he was 15 years old when he was forced to leave his village with all his belongings in a single bag.
Meeting Legault was important “because have to recognize what happened and we have to talk about the repercussions that the relocation had on people,” he said, adding that those effects are still felt today.
Earlier Sunday, Legault was in the Cree community of Eastmain, where he participated in the official renaming of a hydro complex in honour of former premier Bernard Landry. At the event, Legault said he would follow the example of his late predecessor, who oversaw the signing of the historic “Paix des Braves” agreement between the Quebec government and the Cree in 2002.
He said there is “significant potential” in Eeyou Istchee James Bay, both in increasing the capacity of its large dams and in developing wind power projects.
“Obviously, we will do that with the Cree,” he said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
NEMASKA – For the first time in their history, members of the Cree community of Nemaska received a visit from a sitting Quebec premier on Sunday and were able to share first-hand the story of how they were displaced by a hydroelectric project in the 1970s.
François Legault was greeted in Nemaska by men and women who arrived by canoe to re-enact the founding of their new village in the Eeyou Istchee James Bay region, in northern Quebec, 47 years ago. The community was forced in the early 1970s to move from their original location because they were told it would be flooded as part of the Nottaway-Broadback-Rupert hydro project.
The reservoir was ultimately constructed elsewhere, but by then the members of the village had already left for other places, abandoning their homes and many of their belongings in the process.
George Wapachee, co-author of the book “Going Home,” said community members were “relocated for nothing.”
“We didn’t know what the rights were, or who to turn to,” he said in an interview. “That turned us into refugees and we were forced to abandon the life we knew.”
The book, published in 2022 by Wapachee and Susan Marshall, is filled with stories of Cree community members. Leaving behind sewing machines and hunting dogs, they were initially sent to two different villages, 100 and 300 kilometres away, Wapachee said.
In their new homes, several of them were forced to live in “deplorable conditions,” and some were physically and verbally abused, he said. The new village of Nemaska was only built a few years later, in 1977.
“At this time, families were losing their children to prison-schools,” he said, in reference to the residential school system. “Imagine the burden of losing your community as well.”
Legault’s visit came on Sept. 15, when the community gathers every year to remember the founding of the “New Nemaska,” on the shores of Lake Champion in the heart of the boreal forest, some 1,500 kilometres from Montreal. Nemaska Chief Clarence Jolly said the community invited Legault to a traditional feast on Sunday, and planned to present him with Wapachee’s book and tell him their stories.
Thomas Jolly, a former chief, said he was 15 years old when he was forced to leave his village with all his belongings in a single bag.
Meeting Legault was important “because have to recognize what happened and we have to talk about the repercussions that the relocation had on people,” he said, adding that those effects are still felt today.
Earlier Sunday, Legault had been in the Cree community of Eastmain, where he participated in the official renaming of a hydro dam in honour of former premier Bernard Landry.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 16, 2024.
