Freedom Convoy leader, Tamara Lich who hails from Medicine Hat Alberta, Canada has been awarded The George Jonas Freedom Award by the Calgary-based Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCFF) and will be awarded the honor at a ceremony in Toronto on June 16 this year.
JCCF President John Carpay in a statement released to the Toronto Sun said, “Ms. Lich inspired Canadians to exercise their Charter rights and freedoms by participating actively in the democratic process, and took the initiative to help organize a peaceful protest and serve as one of its leaders.”
“The resulting peaceful protest in Ottawa awakened many Canadians to the injustice of Charter-violating lockdowns and mandatory vaccination policies. Ms. Lich has suffered for the cause of freedom by spending 18 days unjustly jailed and exemplifies courage, determination and perseverance,” Carpay wrote.
The day before a large police operation removed protestors who had gathered and entrenched themselves on Canada’s Parliament Hill for some three weeks, Lich was arrested without incident on charges of mischief, counselling mischief, intimidation, counselling intimidation, counselling obstruction of police and obstructing police. None of the allegations have been proven in court.
After being arrested on Feb. 17 Lich was denied bail on Feb. 22 a decision that was overturned on March 7 on the conditions that she stay off social media, leave the Ottawa region within 24 hours and the province of Ontario within 72 hours, only to return to the province for court-related reasons. It is unclear whether her trip to Toronto in June to receive her award will be in violation of her bail conditions.
Emergencies Act inquiry
Success
You are now signed up for our newsletter
Success
Check your email to complete sign up
In the face of the peaceful protests the liberal Trudeau government enacted the never-before-invoked Emergencies Act (EA), a replacement for the country’s War Time Measures Act, to quell the dissent, a move that has been widely characterized as an authoritarian act.
Subsequently, on April 25, the Trudeau government announced an inquiry into the use of the EA.
“In a news release, Trudeau said an independent public inquiry called the Public Order Emergency Commission would be created to examine the circumstances leading to the declaration being issued,” the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) a state-funded media organization reported.
Judge Paul Rouleau has been appointed to lead the inquiry. He was first appointed as an Ontario Superior Court justice in 2002 and joined the Ontario Court of Appeal in 2005.
In the news release the aims of the inquiry were laid out and include discovering the “evolution of the convoy, the impact of funding and disinformation, the economic impact, and efforts of police and other responders prior to and after the declaration.”
On Tuesday, April 26, Canada’s Public Safety Minister, Marco Mendicino, said the act was invoked “because law enforcement advised that existing authorities were ineffective to restore public safety during the blockades at ports of entry,” the Globe and Mail reported.
Simultaneous protests had erupted across the country alongside the main protest in Ottawa. Several border crossings located in Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario were blockaded by truckers and their supporters for days and in some cases, like the blockade at the Coutts border crossing, weeks.
