Barber, Lich Trial: Court Views Footage of Convoy Organizer Barber Calling for Peace, Encouraging Honking

Chris Barber arrives for his trial at the courthouse in Ottawa on Sept. 5, 2023. (The Canadian Press/Justin Tang)

On the third day of the trial of Freedom Convoy organizers Chris Barber and Tamara Lich, the court witnessed social media footage of Mr. Barber calling for the protesters to be peaceful while also encouraging them to honk their horns if police attempted to remove them.

“We’re representing so many Canadians, the ones that are here physically, the ones that can’t be here physically, the ones that have passed on. So we have to win this. There’s no option for going home without answers,” Mr. Barber said in a video posted to his TikTok account on Feb. 7, 2022, that was shown to the court.

“Be strong, people. No matter what gets thrown at you, remember, like Gandhi, we remember, peace is the only option.”

Mr. Barber and Ms. Lich are being charged with counselling to commit mischief, counselling to disobey a court order, counselling to obstruct police, and mischief that interferes with the use and enjoyment of property for the role they played in organizing the trucker protest against COVID-19 vaccine mandates and passports.

Emergencies Act

On Feb. 14, 2022, the federal government invoked the Emergencies Act for the first time since the act’s creation in 1988, giving Ottawa greater powers to end the protest, including the ability to ban travel to specified zones and to freeze protesters’ bank accounts.

At the Ottawa Courthouse on Sept. 7, the Crown prosecutors presented videos taken from Mr. Barber’s TikTok account during the Freedom Convoy protest in January and February 2022. The videos had been collected by Ottawa Police Sergeant Joanne Pilotte, who was asked about the content.

In one TikTok video shown to the court, Mr. Barber told protesters on Feb. 7 that he believed police were on their way to Ottawa and that if protest organizers’ phones went “dark,” people should use whatever means you can to come to peacefully protest.”

“You come here and you flood the city,” Mr. Barber said in the video.

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In another video, from Feb. 5, Mr. Barber called for “five million people” to come protest in Ottawa, and also said: “Peaceful, please. Peace, peace, peace. Can’t stress that enough.”

On Sept. 5, the first day of the trial, Crown prosecutor Tim Radcliffe had said that the trucker protest was “anything but peaceful” and that Mr. Barber and Ms. Lich “crossed the line” when they encouraged protesters to “occupy” and remain in downtown Ottawa.

In response, defence lawyers disputed the “occupy” label, with Lawrence Greenspon saying, “The true sense of the word has far more serious implications and consequences for the people who have been historically—and for the people who are right now— victims of it.”

‘Grab That Horn Switch’

In several videos shown to the court, Mr. Barber also addresses the incessant honking that took place during the protest.

In one video recorded on Feb. 5 during the daytime, Mr. Barber is seen walking through downtown Ottawa while truck horns are blaring. He yells toward the trucks about a $9.8 million class-action lawsuit that had been brought forward by some Ottawa residents seeking to stop the honking. “Am I doing my part?” Mr. Barber joked before laughing.

On Feb. 7, an Ontario Superior Court judge granted a 10-day injunction to stop those participating in the Freedom Convoy in downtown Ottawa from honking their horns. Those who violated the injunction could have been found in contempt, which carried harsher legal penalties than regular bylaw offences.

Following the inquiry conducted by the Public Order Emergency Commission—which was established to determine whether the federal government was justified in invoking the Emergencies Act—Justice Paul Rouleau wrote in his final report that the constant honking and idling of vehicles “took a considerable toll on residents.”

“Throughout the first week of the protests, the honking was almost constant, continuing throughout the day and, at times, into the night,” the report said.

On Feb. 7, Mr. Barber posted another video in which he is heard saying: “There’s a few people in the high-rises that don’t like the horns, and I apologize for that. I don’t know what else we can do to fix that.”

On Feb. 9, two days after the injunction was granted, Mr. Barber posted a video in which he is seen warning that there were rumours of police action taking place within the coming days. He told the protesters that if they saw police coming toward them, they should “lock that door, climb in that bunk, but before you do that, grab that horn switch, and don’t let go.”

He told them not to let go of their horn “no matter what time it is, and let it go as long as possible.” “We want everybody to know when the time comes, and that’s the best way to do it,” he said.

On April 24, 2023, Mr. Barber pleaded not guilty to a new criminal charge of counselling others to disobey a court order in February 2022. The charge came in response to him allegedly encouraging protesters to defy the court injunction banning the use of vehicle horns in downtown Ottawa.

While the trial of Mr. Barber and Ms. Lich is scheduled to take some 16 days, it is several days behind schedule due to technological issues and disputes between the Crown and the defence.