“Everyone,” says the Charter of Rights, has the fundamental freedom “of thought, belief, opinion and expression, including freedom of the press and other media of communication.” Everyone, that is, except Tamara Lich, one of the organizers of the truckers’ Freedom Convoy protest in Ottawa in January and February.
Most egregiously, under her bail conditions Lich must remain publicly silent pending the result of her court hearing in September 2023—including no social media use whatsoever—all for exercising her right to protest in a free country.
From February to July, we witnessed a shocking game of cat and mouse between the Crown prosecutor and Lich. Normally, 24 hours of incarceration upon arrest is the maximum amount of time a person is in custody until bail is set. Once the accused has bail, he or she is allowed back into the public until their trial, subject to their promises to keep the peace as the police or judge directs.
This bears repeating to emphasize the outrageous treatment Lich faced: Normally, bail conditions are set within 24 hours of an arrest.
However, Lich was held for almost 50 days in jail. She was released and then re-arrested multiple times, and when appearing in court, she was in shackles. She faced five separate bail hearings. That is not only abnormal, it is outrageous.
All of this happened for charges that are considered minor offences. In fact, it may well be that the time she has already spent in jail will be more than ample for any sentencing, if she is convicted, when her trial ends next September. But it is already much worse.
She is also required, as a bail condition, to have her mind incarcerated (my term) until September 2023.
- contact or communicate in any way either directly or indirectly, by any physical, electronic, or other means, with a list of 10 prominent leaders of the Freedom Convoy including Tom Marazzo, except through legal counsel or in the presence of legal counsel;
- log on to social media or post any messages on social media, or allow anyone else to post messages on social media on her behalf or indicate her approval for any future protests;
- engage in organizing or promoting anti-COVID mandate activities or Freedom Convoy activities;
- verbally, or in writing, financially, or by any other means, support anything related to the Freedom Convoy.
Consider also that the prohibition on her social media use is absolute. It is not solely connected to the Freedom Convoy or organizing new protests. It is much broader. She cannot comment on her grandchildren’s Facebook posts, send a tweet announcing a family event, comment on friends’ milestones in life. Nothing. Radio silence is demanded.
Any sentient being knows that radio silence in our minds on any given minute does not exist. And, living in an age when freedom of speech is celebrated on social media, we can understand the immense struggle this condition is having on her life.
John Milton, the famous British author of the 17th century, observed that the person who kills a man “kills a reasonable creature, God’s image,” but the one who destroys a “good booke, kills reason it selfe, kills the image of God, as it were in the eye.” The expression found in a book goes beyond life.
I suggest that as the book was to Milton, so social media is to Lich. It is the medium through which modern individuals are empowered to share their soul—their expression of reason through words, through pictures.
Milton’s point is that freedom to think and express thought is a divine gift. Expression is not mere words but constitutes the universal realities of the person. Destroying one’s ability to express one’s views, dreams, and ideas is to destroy the inner voice of the soul, that which makes us human.
Justice Phillips of the Ontario Superior Court ruled that the restriction of Lich’s free speech must continue. In his words, “[S]ocial media can be a problematic feedback loop where people get egged on and caught up in group activity they would never perform on their own. In a very real way, social media undoubtedly contributed to and even drove the now impugned conduct and Ms. Lich staying away from it is necessary to lower the risk of re-offence to an acceptable level.”
How can it be that Lich would re-offend by causing another Freedom Convoy protest in Ottawa if she had access to social media? The 2022 trucker protest was the result of circumstances that no longer exist. The travel mandates are removed (albeit the United States still requires the vaccine to enter), and the societal pressures are relaxed with many employers re-hiring the unvaccinated workers they fired.
That protest was a one-off in response to the very dark, intransigent government overreach into the personal lives of its citizens to which it had no right.
It is my view that the Freedom Convoy protest opened the eyes of Canadians to see that the federal government went too far. Both the federal and provincial governments have since pulled back.
In recognition of the changed reality on the ground, basic humanity demands justice for one who has more than paid her dues for the cause of free speech which she is now denied. It is far past time to end the tyranny of Tamara.
