Parents of infant who died in wrong-way crash on Ontario's Hwy. 401 were in same vehicle
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
“Freedom Convoy” organizer Tamara Lich has been denied bail and will remain in custody to await trial on criminal charges related to the Ottawa protest.
Justice of the Peace Paul Harris said on Friday Lich’s defence had failed to prove she could be trusted not to re-offend after she was charged last week for breaching her bail conditions.
By not abiding by her bail conditions, Harris said in his ruling that “Ms. Lich has chosen to exercise her freedom.”
Her lawyer, Lawrence Greenspon, said Lich was “disappointed” by the decision and he promised to file an application with the Superiour Court of Ontario for a bail review in the hopes of appealing Harris’ decision.
Lich was arrested last month and charged with breaking the condition that prohibits her from communicating with ten people -- except in the presence of their legal counsel -- associated with the “Freedom Convoy.”
In addition, Lich still faces a single charge of breach of recognizance, as well as other criminal charges related to her participation in the protest that gridlock Ottawa earlier this year.
In June, Lich attended a gala in Toronto where she accepted a “Freedom Award” and was photographed with Tom Marazzo, a spokesman for the protest.
At her bail hearing on Tuesday, the Crown played a video appearing to show Lich speaking briefly to Marazzo after her acceptance speech.
Ottawa police detective Chris Benson also testified that Lich sat at the same table as Marazzo at the gala.
Greenspon argued that if there was any contact between Lich and Marazzo, it was brief, and he suggested Lich wasn’t in breach of her bail conditions as lawyers who represent her in a civil lawsuit were at the event.
Harris said in his ruling the defence presented no evidence that Lich’s legal counsel were present at the table or in the video. He said it was “absolutely ridiculous” to think the condition could be excepted only by having lawyers at the same event.
“To add even more fuel to fire, Ms. Lich choose to pose arm-in-arm with Mr. Marazzo,” Harris said in his decision. “One would find this puzzling.”
Harris also cited new evidence presented by the Crown extracted from text message between her and convoy organizer Chris Barber, with whom she is co-accused of intimidation and obstruction of a peace officer, among other offences. Harris called the text messages “inculpatory” of Lich’s role as a convoy organizer.
Lich was first charged in February when police moved to end the protest after nearly three weeks.
She was released on bail in March and returned to Medicine Hat, Alta., after promising to abide by her bail conditions. A surety agreed to supervise her release and put up a $20,000 bond.
The Crown said during the bail hearing that it will require the surety to pay the money to the court.
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
A spike in impaired driving-related collisions has caused Ontario’s provincial police to begin enforcing mandatory alcohol screening (MAS) at all traffic stops in the Greater Toronto Area -- a move one civil rights group says is ‘not acceptable.’
William Nylander scored twice and Joseph Woll made 22 saves as the Toronto Maple Leafs downed the Boston Bruins 2-1 on Thursday to force Game 7 in their first-round series.
Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.
Staff at a small southern Alberta office supply store were shocked to find someone had broken into the business last week, but they were even more confused when they discovered the culprit was a bear.
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a scuba dive boat captain to four years in custody and three years supervised release for criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel.
Fake text message and email campaigns trying to get money and information out of unsuspecting Canadian taxpayers have started circulating, just months after the federal government rebranded the carbon tax rebate the Canada Carbon Rebate.
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
A group of SaskPower workers recently received special recognition at the legislature – for their efforts in repairing one of Saskatchewan's largest power plants after it was knocked offline for months following a serious flood last summer.
A police officer on Montreal's South Shore anonymously donated a kidney that wound up drastically changing the life of a schoolteacher living on dialysis.
Since 1932, Montreal's Henri Henri has been filled to the brim with every possible kind of hat, from newsboy caps to feathered fedoras.
Police in Oak Bay, B.C., had to close a stretch of road Sunday to help an elephant seal named Emerson get safely back into the water.
Out of more than 9,000 entries from over 2,000 breweries in 50 countries, a handful of B.C. brews landed on the podium at the World Beer Cup this week.
Raneem, 10, lives with a neurological condition and liver disease and needs Cholbam, a medication, for a longer and healthier life.
The lawyer for a residential school survivor leading a proposed class-action defamation lawsuit against the Catholic Church over residential schools says the court action is a last resort.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.