Barber, Lich discuss their ‘Freedom Convoy’ sentences on Evan Bray Show

The two leaders of the “Freedom Convoy” protest that tied up downtown Ottawa for several weeks in 2022 say they have nothing to apologize for after receiving their criminal sentences this week.

Chris Barber and Tamara Lich were given conditional sentences in an Ottawa courtroom on Tuesday after they were found guilty in April of mischief. Barber was also convicted of counselling others to disobey a court order.

Read more:

• Convoy leaders Lich, Barber given conditional sentences
• Convoy leaders Lich, Barber to be sentenced for mischief from 2022 trucker protest
• Conservative MPs publicly support ‘Freedom Convoy’ organizers ahead of sentencing

Barber, a resident of Swift Current, and Lich, who was born in Saskatoon, were each sentenced to 12 months of house arrest, followed by a strict curfew for six months. The sentences imposed on Tuesday were significantly lighter than those initially sought by the Crown, which had argued for a seven-year prison sentence for Lich and an eight-year sentence for Barber.

The protest began in January of 2022 as opposition to the public health measures imposed by the federal government during the COVID-19 pandemic and drew thousands to the Canadian capital. Ultimately, the Trudeau government invoked the Emergencies Act – formerly known as the War Measures Act – to grant special powers to police, and the protesters were cleared from the streets in a multi-day police operation roughly a month after they first arrived.

Ottawa also froze bank accounts connected to the protesters, in a move that drew significant criticism. Ottawa Police Chief Peter Sloly resigned after facing heavy criticism over his handling of the protest, though his contract, which ended in 2024, was fully paid.

Both Lich and Barber joined the Evan Bray Show on Wednesday to discuss their sentences and look back at the effects of the major protest.

Listen to the full interview here, or read the transcript below:

This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

EVAN BRAY: Maybe I could just start with how you’re both feeling this morning. Chris, I’ll start with you.

CHRIS BARBER: I think it’s settled in now. I guess after the verdict, when you know were sentenced, you begin to start thinking about the terms and the conditions and your life going forward after this. My mother said it best: “I would rather have you safe at home for 18 months than in a jail cell for six months.” So I can completely agree with her, and I’m still able to work. I’m still able to truck. We have special provisions in the sentencing where I’m able to clear snow at my parents’ yard through the winter, and we’ll start the process home today and meet with a probation officer Tuesday morning in my hometown of Swift Current and get a lot more clarification on things.

TAMARA LICH: I think we need to just take a couple days. And there’s obviously a lot of emotions, and it’s a lot to process, really, as we consider 18 months basically living under the same restrictions that we drove to Ottawa to stand up against. Really, that’s the irony of the situation. But everything that’s come at us, we take it as it comes, and we’ll decide what our next steps are going to be – if there will be any – and we’ll go from there. But in the meantime, like Chris said, we just have to kind of let this settle in and then figure out where we’re going to go from here.

We do know that there were some exemptions to the 18-month conditional sentences that were handed down. Chris, you just talked about your ability to work. People are asking “What’s going on with the truck?” because at one time they were looking to seize and possess your truck. Where’s that at?

CHRIS BARBER: Oh, that’s going to be moved up for the next hearing. Date of November 26. We introduced an epic lawyer from our public emergency order commission, Brendan Miller from Alberta, into the forfeiture hearing to represent my company that I co-own with my son, as well as my interest that my parents have in the truck. And Brendan’s brought a lot more to the plate. He’s opened up a lot of different avenues and exposed a lot more of just just how far these people will go in their their viciousness. So November 26 is another hearing for that. He’s definitely raising a lot of awareness and bringing a lot of things to the judge, and we’ll just keep fighting that out in court. We were hoping for a decision yesterday on the truck, but I think this is the avenue to go and actually try and hold the Crown accountable in this situation.

If you think back to early 2022, I’m sure you both could have never imagined how this was going to play out. But as you were making your trek to Ottawa, you both would have had in your mind a vision of what success would have looked like with the convoy. Would you define the truckers’ convoy as a success?

BARBER: I definitely would. I think one of the biggest messages that we received from Canadians as we crossed the route to Ottawa was that people wanted us not to give up. We wanted to be heard after two years of lockdowns of people dying in care homes and hospitals, not being able to say “goodbye” to their loved ones, ridiculous mandates that just seem to be continuing to cripple Canadians. We waited for somebody to stand up and say “Enough,” and it just didn’t seem like it was happening. And it took the blue-collar class of the truckers to do that.

Tamara, any any thoughts on the definition of this whole movement? Would you define it as a success?

LICH: I would define it as a success. I mean, we saw thousands, tens of thousands of Canadians come to the capital city. There was no violence. There was no threats of violence. I call it the most peaceful and polite protest of all time, which is truly the Canadian way. And we were up against a lot. There was constant provocation from here on the ground, which is why we kept our message “We need to keep this peaceful. You need to respect the law, rule of law, be kind to our law and law enforcement people.” Throughout all the provocation – they were going to take our food, then they were going to take our fuel, then they were going to take the pets and they were going to come for the kids – and Canadians still didn’t retaliate. They didn’t react in the way that they were hoping. So I think it was a success. I think it opened a lot of eyes, and it exposed a lot of what was going on. So yeah, it was a success.

Would you do anything differently, Tamara? With the benefit of hindsight, would anything change for you?

LICH: There is the benefit of hindsight, but we worked really hard to keep everybody safe, the truck drivers safe, all the protesters safe, bystanders safe. When I left the Public Order Emergency Commission, which was in the fall of 2022, I left that listening to all the evidence that was presented from all these different organizations, and my thoughts were “The Ontario Provincial Police and the Freedom Convoy were the most organized and professional organizations out of them all,” and we worked really hard and very diligently to ensure that that’s what happened.

Some look at you two as leaders that were standing up for Canadians. Others look at you as people that have been charged and convicted with a criminal offense, because ultimately that is what happened, Chris, do you feel you have anything to apologize for?

BARBER: I think Tamara said it best yesterday in our conversation. Who do you apologize to? The people that lost their jobs? The people that lost their loved ones? The Canadians that wanted answers from from their federal officials or provincial officials? And still, to this day, a lot of those have never been held accountable for their actions through the harsh mandates. And I think that’s what it comes down to. When you have half a million people show up on Parliament Hill to ask questions of their government, or demand some sort of accountability, and they name-call you, belittle you and turn legacy media against you, it leaves a little bit of a sore spot to find out that there’s still no ramifications for these leaders.

What is your what would be your takeaway from this situation?

LICH: Freedom isn’t free.

Meaning?

LICH: We have to be vigilant. We have to be vigilant and stand up for our Charter of Rights and Freedoms. And I believe that’s exactly what we were trying to do. And, like Chris was just saying, I had that conversation with my lawyer. Do we feel bad for people of Ottawa? Of course we do. We wish no ill will upon anyone, and we recognize the disruption. And Chris and the truckers and the road captains worked very hard from day one to always ensure there was emergency lanes open and to keep the noise down. And we tried very, very, very, very hard. Who do we apologize to? I still hear from people every single day that tell me that they were planning to take their own lives until we started. So for me to apologize would be dishonest and disingenuous.

Justice Perkins McVeigh was quite complimentary to both of you with your co-operation through this. She talked about the fact that you made attempts to mitigate protests and the footprint by negotiating with police. And I felt as if she was critical of the political involvement in this. She went as far as to say her courtroom was no place for politics to play out. Do you think that this case has shaped, in some way, boundaries for protest in Canada going forward?

BARBER: I think it definitely has created a lot of case law. When you look at the evidence presented, the evidence used against us in our trials, we were found basically guilty of social media sarcasticness. And some of the case law through the Coutts protests, which ultimately had nothing to do with with protests in Ottawa. I’ll take people back to 2022, especially January. Police led us into downtown, parked us on Wellington, and a week later asked us to remove the truck, and I did. So we worked with law enforcement the entire time. We tried our best to work with the city at all avenues to make sure emergency lanes were open and people quelled the horns and people tried to respect people in the downtown core, and in the end they used a lot of that against us and tried to gaslight a lot. It seemed like a lot of gaslighting from the Crown’s office.

Maybe this is a big question to ask you the morning after sentencing, but is this the last the public will see of Chris and Tamara? Some people are speculating maybe you’ll explore politics in the future, given the fact that you see the need for some change. Any future plans for either of you?

BARBER: I don’t think I’m a politician. I think I’m a better critic. I will continue to do my social media posts, and you will continue to see Big Red hauling farm equipment around around the prairies and across the border. I am definitely not a politician, I’m not an activist and I’m not a protester. I’ve said that many times before. I’m just a blue-collar worker that yelled at the steering wheel enough throughout the COVID mandates to the point where I finally found an avenue to vent, and this is what it was. So I’ll continue to live as normal. Continue to follow me on my social media. That’s where I seem to do my thing.

LICH: I don’t know what the future holds. And this is sort of a weird moment for me, because I’ve been waiting for this day so that I can figure out what my next steps are going to be. I’ve never been particularly interested in becoming a politician, but who knows? You know there is we need some change. We need some positive change in this country. We need some hope in this country, and we’ll see where we end up trying.

–with files from The Canadian Press