Stolen Lives and Stealing Trucks

Some considerations on the Eve of the Canadian Election

The bulk of this piece, specifically regarding Chris Barber and his truck, Big Red, was written with a couple of different outlets in the United States in mind. Due to various circumstances and me having no time as of late, it remains mine and is being published here. Forgive the tone and crafting, it was originally written with those who don’t know much about these cases in mind.




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The largest and most effective populist uprising in recent history, Canada’s Freedom Convoy, led by truckers from all corners of the country, has faced three years of vicious lawfare from the Canadian government. On Thursday, April 3rd, a ruling came down in an Ottawa Court Room against two of the most well-known faces of the Convoy, Chris Barber, a trucker from Saskatchewan, and Tamara Lich, a grandmother and musician from Alberta.

Ontario Court Justice Heather Perkins-McVey gave her final judgements on a number of charges stemming from the three-week long protest in February 2022, where Barber, Lich, and thousands of others exercised their once cherished rights to freedom of expression, hurting no one and causing no property damage as they demanded to meet Prime Minister Justin Trudeau or his underlings and negotiate an end to Trudeau’s punishing Covid regime. Perkins-McVey acknowledged the peaceful nature of the protest in her ruling, despite presiding over 45 days of government testimony spread across 20 months in a Kafka-esque show trial where the government argued over the minutia of TikTok videos and the meaning of slogans such as “Hold The Line!” This entire situation has been one for the record books: the Convoy was the largest peaceful protest in Canadian history, and these proceedings now hold the title of longest mischief trial in the history of the nation.

The Crown failed to convince Perkins-McVey of most of their cases against Lich and Barber, who were found not guilty of intimidation along with other fraudulent and spurious charges. Lich and Barber were, however, found guilty of mischief, and Barber additionally found guilty of disobeying a court order regarding the honking of truckers’ air horns, which became a rallying cry of the protest and an instant online meme. Barber had made a video telling his followers to honk their horns in defiance of the order if, and only if, their trucks were approached by a large group of police officers. This context didn’t move Perkins-McVey.

The problem with mischief, as a criminal charge in Canada, is that it is a “property” crime, and a conviction can land you in prison for a maximum of ten years. What was the property here? The public property of the streets of Ottawa. In a very peculiar part of the ruling, McVey asserts that the public’s enjoyment of the use of city streets took precedence over the Convoy’s right to protest. It ought be noted that since the tragic events in Israel in October 2023, supporters of Hamas have protested every single week, unencumbered by the government, nor have they been accused of interrupting the enjoyment of those streets. At the conclusion of the ruling, Justice Perkins-McVey sought to issue sentencing the following day, but on the objection of the Crown, a later date was set to …. set another date. The Crown wanted time to assemble more victim impact statements, as if three years of hearing from Ottawa’s bureaucrats about the delusions of Phantom Honking wasn’t enough to assemble them all. Maybe they needed to hear about the honking, again, just one more time. In case anyone forgot.

On April 16, we found out the punishment that the Crown seeks against Lich and Barber is two years in a federal clink, and, in a request that is clearly vindictive and requires an essay of its own to unpack, the Crown is seeking to seize Chris Barber’s 2003 W900L Kenworth, the famous “‘Big Red.” Barber’s rig had become a symbol of the Freedom Convoy, featured in thousands of pictures, videos, and memes, as it led the western Canadian Convoy to Ottawa. Barber has owned and operated that truck since 2003 and put 3.4 million kilometers (roughly 2.1 million miles) on it, mostly hauling heavy agricultural equipment across his home province of Saskatchewan and picking up new equipment from factories in America for his customers. In the twenty-two years Barber has owned and operated that truck, he has raised his children in it over trips too many to count, and when his dog Buddy was approaching the end of his life, the poor old dog was put down while lying on the passenger seat: Buddy's favorite place to be.

With the mischief conviction, Barber may not be allowed back into the United States to serve his customers, a pretty major blow to his business--and punishment enough, in a way.

What justice is served in this move by the Canadian government? In all the hundreds of prosecutions of other Convoy protesters, many which remain ongoing, never has the government sought to seize anyone’s property. Perhaps they had done enough of that during the protest itself, when they froze hundreds of people’s bank accounts and locked them out of economic life altogether, something that likewise happened to Barber. The actions of the banks were so comprehensive that drivers working for Barber’s small company were calling him when the bank freezings started, to tell him the fuel cards for their trucks no longer worked.

It seems like the government is trying to send a message to every Canadian that dissent will not be tolerated at all, and that if you defy their diktat, they will crush you, your family, and your very own business. Barack Obama famously dismissed the efforts of American business owners with his comment, “You didn’t build that,” and it seems the Canadian government, under the Liberal Party of the very recently departed Justin Trudeau, is building on Obama’s attitude. Even if you did build it, like Chris Barber built a successful small trucking company, with time and blood and sweat and sacrifice, they will just come and take it away from you.

Truly and terribly evil, and unbecoming a once supposedly free country.

Lawyers for Chris Barber have filed for a stay of proceedings. It’s a pretty long shot, but if granted, this gross abuse of state power and capricious message-sending will be stopped.


Here is a message from Barber himself -

I had the distinct pleasure to host Chris on my podcast, and if you missed it, check it out and hear more about what really went on with The Freedom Convoy directly from one of its most high profile participants.

Chris and Tamara are back in court on May 21, 22, and 23 - with any luck this truly vindictive and capricious attempt to steal the man’s truck fails, and Justice Perkins-McVey rules against the Crown’s desire to put the two of them in prison simply for exercising their rights.




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Standby for news later today regards Canada’s most infamous political prisoners - parole hearings will be taking place not long after I send this missive, and perhaps the long nightmare experienced by Chris Carbert and Tony Olienick will begin its likewise long path to closure. They have been in custody since February 13, 2022, denied bail, and didn’t get to trial til June 2024. Those who have been following this substack for a few years now know the score - their trial was a sham featuring malicious prosecution and judicial misconduct which was clearly directed from above.
They shouldn’t even be in there, and the sooner they rejoin their families, permanently, the better.

The Canadian Federal election is on Monday, April 28, and to my fellow Canadians, I want you to ask yourselves, after all that has happened to Canada in the past decade of Justin Trudeau’s rule - do you want more of this? A government so vindictive that it wants to steal Chris Barber’s truck, and to steal the lives of innocent men? Is this what Canada is about? Crushing peaceful protest, and pursuing to the ends of the earth the working class men who keep our society functioning?


The Liberal Party of Canada has driven Canada to the brink, and brought our once proud nation into disrepute. I have no idea if my daughters will ever consider their birthright and move home to Canada, or if I will ever return there to live, but it seems more likely that I will give my homeland another chance if you throw these cretins out of office. I’d prefer they were thrown out of a helicopter; alas.

It is the least we can do, and the only accountability we will ever see.

Questions, comments, suggestion, corrections, and Hate Mail, are welcomed and Strongly Encouraged - gordilocks@protonmail.com