OTTAWA—As the trial of trucker convoy organizers Tamara Lich and Chris Barber moved to its eighth day, lawyers continued to show videos of the protest that took place in downtown Ottawa in January and February 2022. Defence lawyers on Sept. 14 showed footage of Mr. Barber condemning the leader of a group that tried to burn a Canadian flag during the protest.
“You don’t belong to our group, Ms. Romana,” Mr. Barber said in a Feb. 3 TikTok video in reaction to news that Romana Didulo and her followers had attempted to destroy a Canadian flag.
Mr. Barber told Ms. Romana, who refers to herself as the “Queen of Canada,” to go home, saying, “We’re not here to burn flags.”
“You are not welcome here. This is our movement, not yours. This is Canada’s movement. And if you’re burning a Canadian flag, obviously you don’t have a place in Canada,” he added.
Ms. Didulo, a Filipino immigrant, had encouraged her followers to burn the flag on Parliament Hill on Feb. 3.
Number 56, dated March 2, 2022, says “$50 Billion Dollars #Unemployment/LOA Funds - for Canadians, Landed Immigrants and Permanent Residents Unlawfully/Illegally Placed on Involuntary Leave of Absence (LOA) Due to Refusal to Take DNA Therapy (Also Known As Covid19 Vaccination) or Those Without Income or Insufficient Income.”
Mr. Barber and Ms. Lich, two of the most prominent organizers of the Freedom Convoy protest against COVID-19 vaccine mandates and restrictions, are being charged with mischief, counselling to commit mischief, intimidation, and obstructing police. Mr. Barber faces an additional charge of counselling others to disobey a court order.
‘Ask How You Can Comply’
In a video Mr. Barber posted on Feb. 7, he noted that “riot police” were being brought into the city and there were “snipers on rooftops.” He says that “under no circumstances” should the truckers engage violently with the police.“If they have a gun against your forehead, you ask how you can comply,” he said.
In another video posted to TikTok on Feb. 17, the same day Mr. Barber was arrested, he said the fencing being erected around Parliament Hill indicated that police action was imminent.
“They are saying something is coming. When that happens, put your hands behind your back, take it like a man,” Mr. Barber told the demonstrators
“It’s a peaceful protest. I’ve been told this by our lawyers. They have no right to arrest us, no right at all, as long as we aren’t breaking the boundaries of the Emergencies Act.”
The protest came to an end after the federal government invoked the Emergencies Act, for the first time, on Feb. 14, 2022, giving Ottawa greater powers to end the protest, including the ability to ban travel to specified zones and to freeze protesters’ bank accounts. Four days later, a sophisticated police operation brought the protest to an end.
