The Lawfare Continues

Updates on a number of Freedom Convoy and related persecutions in The Maple Gulag.

Tamara Lich with some highly relevant reading while in Ottawa, with Chris Barber in background. Photo care of Ms Lich.

I don’t get back to Canada as often as I like but last week I made the five hour drive from my place to Ottawa to take in the ruling on what is probably the most significant court case in Canada, of a piece with a number of others where it concerns our once cherished rights privileges to freedom of expression and protest, including the trial of the Coutts Four, which I have covered here extensively.

Thursday, April 3rd saw the conclusion to the longest mischief in trial in Canadian history against Tamara Lich and Chris Barber, the most well known faces of the Ottawa portion of the Freedom Convoy. It’s been three years since the Convoy, and September 2023 since Lich and Barber’s trial finally got rolling in Ottawa. The Crown has dragged this case out in painfully slow fashion; perhaps the house of cards on which all of the charges lay being continually blown over in winds of hot air.

There was no shortage of that hot air in the bowels of the Ontario Court of Justice Court Room number five; though proceedings began at 10am, much of the assembled gallery appeared to have difficulty staying awake for the first few hours of Justice Heather Perkins-McVey’s ruling, as she weighed in on the arcana of law and torturous testimony from various government and police officials, heard at trial so many times before.

While there were much more professional media live tweeting the proceedings than me, I took the ‘gonzo’ route in this thread, which if you appreciate that sort of thing, leans towards the humorous at the expense of the Justice and the entire situation.
*I was incorrect here about being the only ‘American’ media - turns out that amongst the camera crews of the media scrum was a documentary team from the Wall Street Journal. We shall see how that turns out.

In the end, Tamara Lich was found guilty of Mischief, likewise Chris Barber, though he was also found guilty of disobeying a court order because of a context specific suggestion he made in a TikTok video. Society, writ large, has come to accept the Satanic Rectangle as an integral part of our modern lives; we ought note, however, that what we say into it, no matter how benign, can and will be used against you in a court of law.

Friends and fellow Substackers

Trish Wood

and

Roxanne Halverson

have discussed the ruling proceedings here, and you would be well advised to have a read.

Mischief Conviction for Lich and Barber Sends an Unsettling Message to Canadians

Some may believe the pair got off easy, given the number of charges they faced. Yet, at the heart of this trial and all other Freedom Convoy trials – and in this I include the trials related to the protest in Coutts, Alberta – is the question of whether the right to peacefully protest and freedom of speech and expression in Canada truly still exists.

This basic and fundamental right was the primary focus of Lawrence Greenspon’s closing argument in defense of his client Lich, as well as Barber. In that argument, he asserted that, in a contest between the constitutionally and charter protected rights of Canadians to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, versus the right to enjoyment of property, there is no contest – freedom of expression must take precedence every time. To reinforce this point, Greenspon underscored the fact that the ‘enjoyment of property’ is not even mentioned in the Constitution or the Charter.

He also referenced the two court orders issued by Ontario Superior Court Justice Hugh MacLean during the convoy’s stay in Ottawa related to halting the honking of horns. MacLean had clearly stated in both orders that as long as the protesters complied with the terms of the orders: “They remain at liberty to engage in a peaceful, lawful and safe protest.” “Any court,” said Greenspon, “would be hard-pressed to find another case where a higher court has expressed the reason why freedom of expression should prevail over enjoyment of property.” He also cited a decision from an Ontario Court of Appeal case, wherein an appellant’s conviction was overturned and an acquittal granted on the basis of freedom of speech, superseding ‘enjoyment or use’ of property (R. v. Tremblay).

Yet, it appears Judge Perkins-McVey did not agree with this defense. Instead she to challenged Greenspon’s contention that freedom of expression trumps the enjoyment of property every time – seeming to set aside his assertion that property rights are not at all mentioned in the Constitution or the Charter. She essentially said that the Charter’s right to freedom of expression does not remove the need for ‘common sense’ when it comes to the matter of competing rights — that being the right to freedom of expression versus the right to the enjoyment of property. She also pointed to the portion of the Charter that states: “Charter rights are not absolute.” In leading her to the verdict she said she read the book, ‘The Right to Protest: an Uneasy Balance’ and pondered, “When does the right to protest protect those from criminal liability or allow them to infringe on the right of other citizens to enjoy their property?”

Well, there you have it. Parking trucks in the street, as an infringement of the enjoyment of those streets, is a much more pressing problem than freedom of expression. Glad we cleared that up; perhaps the Hamas Enthusiasts who continually march up and down Wellington Street in front of Parliament ought likewise face the same charges, or maybe the guys who block the streets of Toronto for prayers? How about the ‘enjoyment of property’ implied in all of the businesses shut down during Covid? Hard to enjoy property in a system of state medical apartheid.

Carl Schmitt would like a word.

“The specific political distinction to which political actions and motives can be reduced is that between friend and enemy.”

Back to our Intrepid Viking -

Despite the fact that Lich and Barber were acquitted of most of the charges against them, Justice Perkins-McVey’s finding them guilty of the mischief and her reasoning for doing so, should raised concerns even among the most complacent of Canadians. Because when a court determines that ‘enjoyment’ of property rights, and here I am not referring to private property, but rather public property — somehow supplants freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, it casts a long dark shadow over just where and how individuals can protest their government in this country. Where does one protest, and draw attention to their message, if it is determined that such actions might impede someone else’s ‘enjoyment’ of property and result in an arrest or prosecution?

It also seems that Perkins-McVey relied much more on what Lich and Barber said, rather than what they did — i.e. their actions — most of which were to keep communications lines open with police to reduce the ‘footprint’ of the Convoy downtown. This gives one pause as to whether Canadians can now be legally punished simply for what they say, beyond the scope of what constitutes “hate speech”.

Well, at least there’s evidence for what Lich and Barber said. Tony Olienick was convicted of ‘mischief’ in part because of things he is alleged to have said, with no evidence to back those words alleged by undercover officers. Perhaps Perkins-McVey is trying to steer the ship away from an Iceberg; or not.

THE END OF WORKING CLASS PROTEST?

The civilian witness/victim impact statements will be brought in during the sentencing in a week and it will happen on Zoom so Lich and Barber aren’t travelling yet again. Of course there will be no victim impact statements from the people Lich and Barber had come to the rescue of. The sad, depressed, lonely, suicidal and vaccine injured and others whose lives were trashed, some permanently by the mandates the Convoy was protesting.

———

None of that will be put before Judge Perkins prior to sentencing. It should be. But the injuries to the Convoy’s supporters, the side that saw the truth, the side that suffered through mountains of lies, the side who welcomed the Convoy as if it were the cavalry coming over the mountain — that pain, that grief, that loss doesn’t matter. All that matters is that the gentility of Ottawa’s elites was set upon by scary-looking, working class men making noise. The pols who perpetrated the COVID-19 horror will skate away and the Liberals under Mark Carney who loathed the Convoy may well rule over us again.

As a long-time journalist I can attest to the fact that protest itself is under attack in this globalist new normal.

On April 16, a date is to be set for sentencing; Justice Perkins-McVey, to her credit, wanted to accomplish that the next day, and get it over with. Once again the Crown, delirious and ravenous for its pound of flesh, wants to make sure that the ‘gentility’ of downtown Ottawa, these pampered bureaucrats who will never show up for work in November and keep working until April in the muskeg and bone chilling cold of Northern Alberta or Ontario, and will never install a set of tire chains on a logging truck to navigate that muskeg, must have yet more time to testify to the Phantom Honking which haunts their delusions.

Having been convicted of Mischief, Chris Barber, in his capacity as the owner operator of a small trucking company in Saskatchewan, is looking at being barred entry from the United States, where he travels to retrieve agricultural equipment for his clients. Which is to say they’re trying to crush him, economically, for standing up for those whose lives had already been crushed by the vindictive and utterly useless strictures of the Covid Regime.

Whether Lich and Barber cop any jail time remains to be seen, however, there is also the matter of another ‘gentility’ vendetta, pursued this time in civil court by the fraudulent Pied Piper of Ottawa, a Mr. Paul Champ Chump, who is the lawyer behind a class action civil suit seeking damages out of the Freedom Convoy to the tune of $290 million. I’m often told that Canada is threatened by the import of “Trumpian Right Wing Politics” but at every turn all we actually get from America are pathologies of the Democratic Party - Lawfare, Judicial Activism, and in the case of this class action from Chump, the time honored tradition of noxious and frivolous lawsuits.

Another pathology we find in this lawsuit is the lead plaintiff, a poster child for the GirlBoss/Diversity Hire meme if there ever was one. Zexi Li is a very young civil servant who lives in downtown Ottawa, and she rose to fame in another legal challenge to the Convoy, a court order to have the Honking tamped down on. One could argue that asking the Convoy to limit the HONKLITUDE to daytime hours was a very reasonable request. Most truckers weren’t doing that anyways, however, for her efforts in codifying this request through a court order, Li was issued a symbolic award by the City of Ottawa.

I’ve recently come across a video originally released two years ago, a compilation featuring Ms Li as she expresses the warm and welcoming hospitality a city full of bureaucrats and other human detritus is so well known for.

Her honors appear to have been well deserved.

Video care of an outfit called Super Spreaders.


When I left Ottawa on Friday morning, I made my way to Peterborough, Ontario, to catch up with former guest of my podcast, lawyer and author Mr Barry Bussey, whose book “210 Degrees Celsius - 16 Ways the Truckers Ignited Canada for the Long Haul” is a must read examination of how the Freedom Convoy, even beyond protesting the Covid Regime, was an example of a necessary corrective to the sclerotic and anemic state of Canada’s ‘democracy’. Barry and I were to discuss a business matter for some friends of mine here in the US seeking to expand their operations to Canada (what, business coming TO Canada? EH?) but as I was fresh from witnessing the ruling, Barry asked me to appear on a video stream for his First Freedoms Foundation, and I was happy to oblige.


If you would like to read the full 105 page ruling from Justice Perkins-McVey you can read it here - and thanks to Barry for requesting the file and forwarding it to me.

Lichbarberdecision

511KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Download

I have also been the guest of the great

Meghan Murphy

on her Same Drugs program, and gave her a download of what went on in Ottawa. Listen here, and likewise, you should follow Meghan’s candidacy in the election representing her old home riding of Vancouver East, a campaign she has described as ‘Adult Human Female’ in direct opposition to the misogynist trans activists who have a lock on politics in BC.

Tamara Lich and Chris Barber found guilty of mischief for role in Freedom Convoy

Other Ongoing Cases -

Most people paying attention to the slow and steady war against normal people in Canada are aware of Tamara and Chris’s case, as the media has expended very little energy in covering any others. Market opportunity for me, I guess, but still scandalous for an industry that claims to be the Fourth Estate and falsely claims to be engaged in the very important task of holding power to account.

The hand that feeds will not be bitten when hundreds of millions are at stake.

(That article is from 2021; we’ve probably breeched north of a billion in handouts now)

Two truckers whose cases have mostly flown under the radar of Freedom Convoy related news are Guy Meister and Harold Jonker, both of whom are still fighting off the capricious lawfare of the Canadian government.

I use the term capricious with some conviction; Guy has now been to Ottawa 17 times, making the 2000 mile round trip from his home in Nova Scotia to the dark seat of the federal government to make court dates stemming from parking his truck at the corner of Rideau and Sussex in downtown Ottawa. If Guy is guilty of nothing more than what would amount to a parking ticket, than the Crown Prosecutors office is pursuing something other than justice in Guy’s treatment.

Guy was on my podcast recently, and you can hear his story directly from him -

I spoke with Guy’s legal counsel, Brian Doody, recently and Brian tells me that his application to have Guy’s case dismissed, based on all of this time and abuse of process, amongst other reasons, was turned down. However, a ruling will be coming down on the bogus charges against Guy on May 16.


Harold Jonker has likewise been pulled into Canada’s highly politicized and mostly dysfunctional ‘Justice System’ under a likewise capricious circumstance. Harold and his crew came to Ottawa for the Convoy and returned to their homes in the Niagara Region of Ontario without incident; he was not summoned before the authorities to answer to charges until many months after their time in Ottawa. Surely a cosmic coincidence and totally unrelated that this summons appeared a week or so after the release of a documentary about the Convoy. where Harold was featured prominently?

Surely a coincidence, right?

Harold returns to Ottawa for ten days of court proceedings, and like Tamara Lich and Chris Barber, he faces charges of mischief, counseling mischief, and intimidation.

All from standing in the street with a cup of Tim Horton’s and having conversations with his fellow countrymen who likewise had had enough of Justin Trudeau and the punishing Covid Regime of his government.




Long time readers of this Substack may recall the story of Helen Grus, an Ottawa City Police Service detective who was smeared by the CBC and faced an internal tribunal for daring to do her job. I featured Detective Grus story in this piece from December 2023 -

In early 2022, after the rollout of new and experimental mRNA gene therapy shots had spread throughout most of the western world, a spike in sudden infant deaths in the Ottawa area had caught the attention of 20 year veteran of the Ottawa Police Service, Detective Helen Grus. Working within the Sexual Assault and Child Abuse unit, it was in the purview of Detective Grus to investigate this ‘cluster’ of 9 sudden infant deaths, 2 of whom had died in their mother’s arms.

Detective Grus, unfortunately, made the grave mistake, in 2022, of asking the right questions, like any good investigator should; which then instigated yet another in a long line of Kafka-esque nightmare trials that continues to this day.

Perhaps you haven’t heard of this ongoing travesty of injustice, which shouldn’t be a surprise. Like what we have seen with the Coutts 4 situation, the media make the most damnable and outrageous claims and fabrications when the story first breaks, but as the slow moving train wreck of our justice system exposes the corruption involved, we are left in the dark by our estimable Fourth Estate.

I have not been able to keep up with this story in near the detail it deserves, though

Christopher Brunet

gives a very good run down here -

Trudeau regime puts Canadian detective on trial for investigating link between infant deaths and mRNA vaccines

This past March 25, 2025, the tribunal which was investigating Helen Grus for the crime of doing her job found her ‘guilty’ of ‘discreditable conduct’ for asking the right questions about the wrong deaths. When you match up this railroading of their own officer with the pathetic displays of incompetence by both the Mayor of Ottawa and Chief of Police Peter Sloly during the Freedom Convoy, who was thrown under the bus by his own during the POEC, and the fact that Ottawa Police have numerous unsolved crimes, including the murder of two people in a drive by shooting of a wedding, referring to Ottawa Police Service as Political Hatchetmen or Keystone Cops doesn’t even begin to adequately describe them.

More on Helen Grus’ verdict from friend of this Substack, Jonathan, aka Right Blend

https://x.com/rightblend/status/1904546227112345713

The decision called her investigation UNAUTHORIZED and said that if an investigation of this nature [that follows ALL possible avenues (as any proper investigation does!) including the role of Covid 19 vaccines, if any] was warranted, it would have to be APPROVED due to the POLITICAL and social implications of such an investigation!

Our police do not have the autonomy to use their professional judgement to do their jobs in Ontario according to this decision. Never mind the fact that Detective Grus is a highly experienced detective who was in the Sexual Assault And Child Abuse (SACA) unit dealing with the most heinous crimes in society for years with admirable success.

It remains to be seen what punishment the Ottawa Police Service will seek here. For a comparison, an Ottawa Police officer recently pleaded guilty to Discreditable Conduct and other charges, including criminal charges, for drunk driving their police issued vehicle and crashing into a civilian off duty. They left little details with the victim and left the scene before police arrived. Their internal punishment? A one rank demotion for a year or two and some fines totaling a couple thousand dollars. Any punishment for Detective Grus is reprehensible but a punishment in excess of what a drunk driving cop got would be eminently unacceptable.

A very good short audio explainer on the Helen Grus story, and the media smear job that the CBC engaged in against her when it first came to light, is available here -

The man captured sitting in this image, analogous to the infamous photo of the man standing in front of a column of Tanks on Tienanmen Square in China, has died.

David Romlewski, 26, passed on March 18, and went to his grave fighting off charges related to his simple act of peaceful non-violent resistance to the wicked and capricious government of Justin Trudeau.

I am told that the defense of those charges will be carried on despite his passing.

Again from Right Blend -

https://x.com/rightblend/status/1903586792575545655

I am devastated to learn of the passing of my dear friend and unwavering warrior for truth and justice, David Romlewski. David embodied integrity, honor, and tenacity. He stood his ground with incredible courage during the unlawful clearing of the Freedom Convoy in 2022, refusing to waver in the face of adversity.

We spent countless hours together fighting on the legal front, and he never lost hope or strayed from his goal. In fact, it was only on March 11th that David filed his notice for leave to appeal with the Supreme Court of Canada, a moment we were both excited about. He knew how important his case was and the impact it could have on all 40 million Canadians, which fueled his determination to see it through.

David passed on abroad, and if you are of means and can spare the donation, a GiveSendGo has been set up to cover medical costs and the flight home for his remains - https://www.givesendgo.com/laying-David-to-rest

Pat King, a figure whom the media used as a very convenient whipping boy for attacking the Convoy due to Mr King’s loud and prolific use of social media, was recently thought to be done with his being targeted as an enemy of the state. When sentencing came down in February, Mr King was given a 3 month stint of house arrest along with time served for various periods of incarceration he has dealt with over three years of this fiasco, for a total of one year.

Now, you might not like Pat, or his messaging, or his attitude, but when you look into what the government had on him (nothing but TikTok videos of him being a loudmouth) and the fact that they were originally seeking FOURTEEN YEARS, which they later reduced to ten, you have to ask what justice is being served by a one year sentence, nevermind ‘copping a tenner’, as was SOP for a trip to one of Stalin’s Gulag Camps.

Well, once again, the vile Canadian Government, even under the new and hopefully temporary ‘leadership’ of Mark Carney, is not happy with the one year conditional sentence, and are appealing -

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/crown-to-appeal-3-month-sentence-for-freedom-convoy-organizer-pat-king-1.7488357

In November, King was convicted in Ontario Superior Court on five criminal charges: mischief, counselling to commit mischief, counselling to obstruct a public or peace officer, and two counts of disobeying a court order. He was found not guilty on three counts of intimidation and one count of obstructing police.

The Crown is appealing those findings, as well as the sentence. Crown prosecutors had originally sought a 10-year sentence, the maximum penalty for mischief

I put it to the reader - every week certain parts of Ottawa, like many other cities in Canada, are paralyzed with the demonstrations of Hamas Enthusiasts, and serious crimes, such as the drive by shooting alluded to above, along with car thefts, drug dealing, and many, many examples of violence, are left unresolved or we see legitimately dangerous criminals walk free so that the Court System can expend valuable resources to convict a man for making TikTok videos. What justice is served, what victims are made ‘whole’, and what principle is upheld in pursuing Pat King and everyone else to the ends of the Earth?

Phantom Honking?

More like an Opera of The Phantoms, except we all lose in the end.

Updates from Alberta

I’ve recently been made aware of the case of Don Laird, a Canadian Forces Veteran and a trucker, who appears to have likewise been the victim of political persecution, though in his case, mostly unrelated to the Freedom Convoy.

Mr Laird ran afoul of authorities in two instances where he used his once protected rights to Freedom of Expression, one to criticize an Alberta Provincial MLA, who had made jokes about the death of former UK Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher during official business in the Alberta Legislature in Edmonton, and another in raising concerns about an alleged grooming gang operating in Lethbridge.

Mr Laird served out a nine month sentence stemming from convictions related to those expressions, and will be appealing them, as well as coming on my podcast at some point to tell his story. In the meantime, he is recovering from having nearly died while in custody; part of his sentence was served at the infamous Calgary Remand, where both Tony Olienick and Jerry Morin of the Coutts Four had spent time in pre-trial custody. While at Calgary and in its filthy conditions, Mr. Laird contracted MSRA Flesh Eating disease, and the lack of care and proper treatment he received after being transferred to another jail facility in Fort Saskatchewan nearly killed him.

I have seen a photo of Mr Laird’s arm, which he described in the initial operation to deal with his flesh being eaten as “the surgeons opened my right forearm like you would fillet a trout”, and I am going to save you the repulsion from seeing it yourselves.

There are mainstream media articles around discussing Mr Laird’s case, and as always, they lie by omission and leave out a lot in the way of context; I look forward to hearing his side of the story and presenting it for you.


If his treatment while a guest of Alberta Corrections sounds familiar, that is because it is. In addition to hearing about the state of Calgary Remand directly from Tony Olienick and Jerry Morin myself, the entire system has come into question downstream of the treatment of all Coutts Four men, as well as others they came into contact with while in custody.

For more information on that, please read this highly detailed letter from the men’s advocate, Nikki Thom, that I published here almost a year ago, on April 15 of 2024.

And you guessed it - nothing, not a change, not a firing, not a policy, nothing, no accountability or improvement has come about since. There are many in the zeitgeist today discussing Alberta as some beacon of Freedom in Canada, and that they ought to break off and join the United States. Perhaps before they do that they ought deal with their own homegrown corruption first.

Tony Olienick and Chris Carbert remain guests of the Federal Government at the Drumheller Institution, but the good news is that they will both have parole hearings later this month, April 25th if my notes are correct. It ought be noted that Tony, once again, has new legal representation, this time Mr Brendan Miller, who you will remember from representing the Ottawa portion of The Freedom Convoy at the Public Order Emergency Commission.



My GiveSendGo for Tony and Chris remains open for your generous donations - their story is not yet over, nor the costs associated with having become Canada’s most infamous yet undiscussed Political Prisoners.

https://www.givesendgo.com/trudeauspoliticalprisoners

Donations in Canada can be made via Interac Email Transfer to -

helptony@protonmail.com

helpchriscarbert@gmail.com

If you want to write Chris or Tony letters, please write them here -

Inmate “Chris Carbert” or for Tony, Inmate “Anthony Olienick”

Drumheller Institution

PO Box 3000, Highway 9

Drumheller, Alberta

T0J 0Y0

In another Coutts related matter, one of my Aunts, by grace of providence, found herself sat next to James Sowery at a Pierre Poilivre rally in Alberta last week. Mr Sowery, in another trial rife with absurdities more befitting a novel by Albert Camus, was sentenced to ten months in prison for running over a traffic cone, which was argued by the Crown to be akin to attempted assault on a police officer, who happened to be standing nearby. Thankfully, Mr Sowery was let out of prison early, and from what I understand, has appealed his conviction?

I was unable to contact him in time for publishing this, but will hopefully find out more in time, and perhaps have James on the podcast.

In one last bit of good news, another politically persecuted Canadian, still having his life impaired by the Saskatchewan Provincial Government,

RB Ham

, who was also on my podcast recently to describe his story, is now running for the People’s Party of Canada in his home riding of Saskatoon South.

https://www.peoplespartyofcanada.ca/candidate/r-b-wintringham

Many of my American friends, both online and close at hand IRL have asked me about the airdrop of Mark Carney into Justin Trudeau’s former position as Prime Minister, having neither a seat in Parliament, never holding political office anywhere, and being decided on by a small minority within the Liberal Party of Canada.

I don’t know what to say to them except that a legacy of Justin Trudeau and his Liberal Party has been the gross abuse of the Westminster Parliamentary system as it is constructed in Canada, which has run in parallel with the gross abuses of the justice system as outlined in this article. Though we may rid ourselves of Carney and The Liberals later this month, that outcome is not guaranteed, and to be quite honest, I am not convinced that we will see any meaningful change should Pierre Poilievre and The Conservatives win the election.

I’ve been planning to write more on that question, but I am beyond busy with research and writing for my upcoming book on trucking, and others have made better analyses.

In that regard, I highly recommend the following two pieces by the pseudonymous Canadian dissident author

John Carter

of the

Postcards From Barsoom

Substack. I would also ask my American friends to have Trump get serious, and instead of this nonsense about the 51st state, engage in a regime change operation in Ottawa.
God knows that every one of those scumbags deserve a trip to Gitmo and that the average Canadian will continue to suffer greatly until they are removed; if not forever, at least until we can re-organize the structure of government while they enjoy a very long and well deserved Cuban holiday.

Maple Maidan

Ukrainada

Thanks for reading, and now you know.


Gord

Questions, comments, suggestions, corrections and Hate Mail are both welcomed and strongly encouraged - gordilocks@protonmail.com