Freedom Convoy leader Tamara Lich will remain in custody over Canada Day weekend after being arrested this week for allegedly breaching her bail conditions.
Lich was arrested Monday in Medicine Hat, Alta., After Ottawa police issued an arrest warrant across Canada. She was taken back to the country’s capital and made a brief appearance in court on Thursday.
Crown prosecutor Moiz Karimjee requested a full day for a bail hearing, which is scheduled for July 5.
Lich remains in custody, as several groups, most of which formed from the Freedom Convoy, are planning protests in Ottawa starting July 1 and continuing throughout the summer.
He appeared in a video from an Ottawa police cell, wearing a gray sweatshirt with the words “Freedom Over Fear” stamped on it.
Eric Granger, Lich’s defense attorney, said July 5 was the earliest date available.
“The only new charge for which she has been arrested is a single charge of breach of a single bail condition. [she] he will be in detention on his ninth day since his arrest before he has a chance to regain his freedom, “he wrote in an email to CBC.
Lich faces charges of misdemeanors, misdemeanor counseling, obstruction of police, counseling to obstruct police, counseling of intimidation and intimidation to block and obstruct one or more roads in connection with the protest.
The protest against the anti-COVID-19 warrant closed some areas of Ottawa for three weeks, as participants parked trucks and other vehicles on city streets, blocking access to neighborhoods and major arteries around the city. Parliament Hill.
Contact with court documents, communication with other organizers
Lich was arrested Feb. 17 and spent about 18 days in the Ottawa-Carleton Detention Center before being released on bail in March with conditions that include staying out of social media.
She was subjected to a bail review last month, but prosecutors were unsuccessful in returning her to jail for allegedly violating her bail condition which did not support anything related to the Freedom Convoy. .
Lich also cannot organize any kind of protest and is not allowed to contact or communicate with 10 other leaders of the convoy, except in the presence of a lawyer.
Court documents indicate that Lich did not meet that condition on June 16. This is the same date he accepted an award during a ceremony in Toronto hosted by the Center for Justice for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF), a legal organization and a registered charity based in Calgary.
The next day, Stacey Kauder, who describes Lich as a friend, posted a photo on her Facebook page showing Lich with her husband and four other attendees at the JCCF gala.
To Lich’s left is a man identified as Tom Marazzo, a fellow organizer of the convoy, one of the people he was ordered not to have contact with unless his lawyer was present.
Tamara Lich, fourth from the left, was ordered by a judge not to have contact with fellow convoy organizer Tom Marazzo, second from the right. This photo shows the group in Toronto after Lich accepted his JCCF Freedom Award. (Facebook / Stacey Kauder)
Documents filed after his arrest mention photos of Lich and Marazzo “hands in arms” and add that the images “were not for legal reasons and without a lawyer.” [was] present “.
They also refer to a video of Marazzo giving a speech with a slide presentation of the occupation in Ottawa before Lich took to the stage and spoke to the crowd about the “revocation of rights.”
The documents add that after her speech, Lich makes “physical contact” with Marazzo as she sits at the same table with him and she “seems to whisper” something in her ear, which is described as “communication.”
Friends of the two organizers of the convoy had speculated on social media that Lich was allowed to have contact with Marazzo at the event because JCCF lawyers, who also represent Lich in his civil affairs, were present.
In the criminal presentations of the case, Lawrence Greenspon, who has an Ottawa-based company, is listed as Lich’s attorney.