OTTAWA -- Ottawa protest organizer Tamara Lich has been freed on bail for the second time after a judge overturned a previous decision that sent her back into custody.
“I’m very happy to be free and out,” Lich said as she was mobbed by supporters while leaving the Ottawa courthouse Tuesday. She had been in custody since June 27, accused of breaching her bail conditions.
Superior Court judge Andrew Goodman said the justice of peace who presided over Lich’s June 27 show-cause hearing made several errors of law and misapprehended some facts when he ordered her continuing detention.
Lich was accused of breaching the bail condition that prohibited her from communicating with 10 other protest organizers, including former Freedom Convoy spokesman Tom Marazzo. They sat at the same table at a Freedom Award gala in Toronto in June and were photographed together.
Goodman found the breach claim to be “tenuous” and not “rationally connected” to the idea behind the non-communication order – to prevent the organization of another Freedom Convoy protest.
He disagreed with the justice of the peace about the gravity of the charges – a key factor in bail decisions – saying it’s unlikely she would be sentenced to a lengthy term of imprisonment if convicted.
The Crown had argued that Lich could be sentenced to a prison term of up to 10 years, because of the effect of the protest on the city and its citizens.
“Ms. Lich is presumed to be innocent,” Goodman said in his decision, noting that there is “uncertainty about the degree to which she will be held culpable” for the protest.
“Nothing in these reasons,” Goodman said, “is intended to minimize the harm done to the citizens of Ottawa” or the costs to various levels of government.
Goodman noted that Lich had obeyed all the other bail conditions imposed on her for nearly four months and took the step of going back to court to ask that the conditions be varied to allow her to attend the gala.
Lich’s defence lawyers said they were pleased with the ruling.
“Obviously, we’re disappointed it took nearly a month in custody to get to this point but we’re pleased at the conclusion today – that the order detaining her was clearly inappropriate and that’s now been corrected and she’s been released,” said lawyer Eric Granger outside the court.
Before the decision, Lich appeared on the stand to face cross-examination by Crown prosecutor Moiz Karimjee, who asked about her personal financial situation. Lich said she had received about $69,000 in donations to her defence.
Karijmee played a TikTok video in court in which another protest organizer claimed Lich had once expressed support for a plan to buy a property in Ottawa to use as a base for the protests.
But Lich denied she had any involvement in a plan by a group called The United People of Canada to acquire a former church in the ByWard Market to use as an “embassy.”
Lich also told the court that her husband Dwayne Lich had travelled to Ottawa during the protest aboard a chartered aircraft paid for by the Adopt-a-Trucker fundraiser, not a private jet funded by a “good Christian” as Dwayne Lich testified in February.
Lich, 49, still faces a list of criminal charges, including mischief, counselling intimidation and counselling obstruction of a police officer related to the three-week occupation of Ottawa’s downtown core.
A pre-trial hearing is scheduled for August.
