OTTAWA –
Ottawa protest organizer Tamara Lich has been released on bail for a second time after a judge overturned an earlier decision that remanded her in custody.
“I’m so happy to be free and out,” Lich said as she was mobbed by supporters as she left an Ottawa courthouse on Tuesday. She had been in custody since June 27, accused of breaching her bail conditions.
Superior Court Judge Andrew Goodman said the justice of the peace who presided over Lich’s June 27 show cause hearing made several errors of law and misunderstood some facts when ordering his detention.
Lich was charged with breaching a bail condition barring her from communicating with 10 other protest organizers, including former Freedom Convoy spokesman Tom Marazzo. They sat at the same table at a Freedom Awards gala in Toronto in June and were photographed together.
Goodman found the breach claim to be “tenuous” and not “rationally connected” to the idea behind the non-communication order: to prevent the organization of another Freedom Convoy protest.
He disagreed with the justice of the peace on the seriousness of the charges, a key factor in bail decisions, saying she is unlikely to be sentenced to a long prison term if convicted.
The Crown had argued that Lich could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison because of the effect of the protest on the city and its citizens.
“Ma’am. Lich is presumed innocent,” Goodman said in his ruling, noting there is “uncertainty as to the degree to which he will be found guilty” of the protest.
“Nothing in these pleas,” Goodman said, “is intended to minimize the harm done to the citizens of Ottawa” or the costs to the various levels of government.
Goodman noted that Lich had obeyed all other bail conditions imposed on him for nearly four months and took the step of returning to court to ask that the conditions be changed to allow him to attend the gala.
Lich’s defense attorneys said they were pleased with the sentence.
“Obviously we are disappointed that it has taken almost a month in prison to get to this point, but we are pleased with today’s conclusion – that the arrest warrant was clearly inappropriate and that she has now been corrected and released ” said the lawyer. Eric Granger off the court.
Before the decision, Lich appeared on the stand to face cross-examination by Crown prosecutor Moiz Karimjee, who asked him about his personal financial situation. Lich said he had received about $69,000 in donations for his defense.
Karijmee played a TikTok video in court in which another protest organizer claimed that Lich had once expressed support for a plan to buy property in Ottawa to use as a base for protests.
But Lich denied he had any involvement in a plan by a group called The United People of Canada to acquire a former church in the ByWard Market for use as an “embassy.”
Lich also told the court that her husband Dwayne Lich had traveled to Ottawa during the protest aboard a chartered plane paid for by the Adopt-a-Trucker fundraiser, not a private jet funded by a “good Christian.” as Dwayne Lich stated in February.
Lich, 49, still faces a list of criminal charges including mischief, intimidation of counsel and obstruction of counsel of a police officer in connection with the three-week occupation of downtown Ottawa.
A pretrial hearing is scheduled for August.