Clock ticking on convoy trial

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 22/09/2023 (830 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A convoy of horn-honking truckers and their supporters blocked the streets of downtown Ottawa for a month in the winter of 2022, but it requires Canada’s legal system to bring the nation’s capital to a real standstill.

Two leaders of the convoy, Tamara Lich and Chris Barber, were arrested and charged with mischief, obstructing police, intimidation and counselling others to commit mischief after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act on Feb. 14, 2022 to break up the protest and have the vehicles towed away.

Ms. Lich and Mr. Barber remain innocent of the charges but they face up to 10 years in prison should they be found guilty by Ontario Justice Heather Perkins-McVey in the judge-alone trial, which began Sept. 5.

When they will find out their verdict is a mystery. That’s because the trial is idling in the same way the semi-trailer trucks did in Ottawa during the protest against COVID-19 vaccine mandates that transformed into obscenity-laden objections of Trudeau and his Liberal government.

The trial was expected to last 16 days, but the Crown’s case has crawled along at such a snail’s pace that the judge and her staff have begun searching the calendar for courtroom dates in October and November to finish the proceedings.

The latest legal lurch happened Tuesday, when Kim Ayotte, the City of Ottawa’s manager of emergency and protective services, took the stand.

He was head of the city’s bylaw enforcement during the protest, and had taken notes during the truckers’ protest but failed to bring them when he arrived at the courthouse to testify.

Lawrence Greenspon, Lich’s lawyer, said Ayotte would need his notes for his cross-examination, and Justice Perkins-McVey ordered another recess.

Unprepared witnesses do little to counter the dim view of federal officials, and bureaucracy in general, held by Lich, Barber and their supporters, some of whom have protested peacefully outside the Ottawa courthouse and have attended the proceedings.

The judicial delays also threaten the Crown’s case.

After the incident with Ayotte, Diane Magas, Barber’s lawyer, raised the issue of timely justice for her client, threatening that further postponements could lead to her apply for the charges to be withdrawn.

While Ayotte eventually did take the stand Tuesday, his questioning showed how painstakingly slow the wheels of justice can turn.

He had to leave the courtroom five times after defence lawyers objected to questions by the Crown and the lawyers debated the legal propriety of the questioning in front of the judge.

Crown prosecutors should always bring their A-game to the courtroom — people’s lives have been shattered by sloppy preparation and litigation — but that basic judicial directive should have been made crystal-clear to them prior to this trial.

The charges against Lich and Barber, while minor when compared with murder or assault cases, hold major political weight.

The eyes of Canada are keeping a close watch on this courtroom, whether it’s people who support Lich, Barber and the convoy’s aims or those who support Trudeau’s use of the Emergencies Act to end the protest and the incessant noise that disrupted the lives of those living in Ottawa.

Lich and Barber, like all Canadians who face criminal charges, have the right to a vigorous defence.

The prosecution must be equally robust, but done promptly as well.

It would be a travesty of justice if these charges were dismissed because it took too long to present a case seen so widely across the country.