Freedom Convoy organizer Tamara Lich, a mother and grandmother from Medicine Hat, Alta., explained why she got involved in the protest movement during her Nov. 3 testimony at the public inquiry into the use of the Emergencies Act to end convoy protests earlier this year.
“I was growing increasingly alarmed with the mandates and the harm that I was seeing the mandates inflict,” said Lich, who got emotional several times during her testimony. “I heard from families that were living in their vehicles because they’d lost their jobs. I heard from people that had lost their jobs and lost everything. I have the tears of thousands of Canadians on my shoulder, who everyday told me that we were bringing them hope.”
Lich said she saw families torn apart due to COVID-19 policies.
“The suicides in my hometown were so numerous that they stopped reporting them,” she said. “Elderly people were dying by themselves in long-term care facilities and saying goodbye over iPads.”
Lich explained how the policies impacted both herself and her family members. She said she and her husband lost their jobs due to COVID-19 policies, and her parents, who run a trucking business, could no longer cross the border.
She added that vaccine passports restricted many Canadians who chose not to get vaccinated for COVID-19 from entering any non-essential business, which meant they “didn’t go out.”
She said her 94-year-old grandmother was “locked” in her apartment by herself for two years, and by the time lockdowns were lifted her grandmother “wasn’t healthy enough” to do things. Her father, who lives in a small town in Saskatchewan, used to go to a local restaurant for coffee every day to see his friends, she said, but “was asked to leave,” presumably referring to vaccine mandates that barred unvaccinated Canadians from non-essential businesses.
Lich said she didn’t want her children and grandchildren to live in that kind of world.
“I listened to my prime minister call me a racist, and say that [people like me] shouldn’t be tolerated. I found his rhetoric to be incredibly divisive,” she said. “I’m a believer that if you’re a leader of a country, you have to lead all of your people, even if you don’t agree with them.”
Freedom Convoy
The Freedom Convoy protest began as a demonstration against COVID-19 vaccine mandates for truckers travelling across the Canada-U.S. border. But it grew to a larger movement as people against COVID-19 mandates and restrictions joined the cause.
Lich said in her testimony that as the convoy travelled across Canada, many people offered them support.
“They said don’t stop until we are free. Don’t stop until the mandates are lifted,” she said.
When the convoy’s GoFundMe campaign raised the first $1 million, Lich said she was “exhilarated.” She said she never expected that level of support, but with it came responsibility that caused her overwhelming anxiety.
She told the commission—to some chuckles from the room—that her previous fundraising experience consisted of “selling chocolate-covered almonds.”
The convoy’s fundraising campaign on GoFundMe gathered over $10 million before it was shut down by the platform. The group raised the same amount on GiveSendGo, but the funds were frozen by a court order.
Lich, who was formerly part of the Maverick Party which calls for Western autonomy, said she didn’t want to be part of the movement anymore after bonding with people from different parts of Canada during the protest in Ottawa.
She said one day while in Ottawa, as she was talking with some protest organizers from Quebec through Google Translate, she realized “that they’re the same as us.”
“This division has all been a lie,” she said. “I knew that I didn’t want to see Canada divided at that point.”
Arrest
The Public Order Emergency Commission has been set up as required by law to evaluate whether the use of the Emergencies Act to clear convoy protests was justified.
The act was invoked by the federal government on Feb. 14, and revoked on Feb. 23 after the protest in Ottawa was cleared.
Lich was arrested in Ottawa on Feb. 17 on charges of mischief, and was initially denied bail. She was kept in jail until March 7, when the Ontario Superior Court overturned the initial decision to deny her bail, and set her free on bail.
She was arrested again on June 27 for an alleged breach of bail conditions, related to a brief exchange she’d had with fellow convoy organizer Tom Marazzo at an award ceremony in Toronto on June 16. She was released on bail on July 26, with Ontario Superior Court Judge Andrew Goodman saying that the previous decision by another court to detain her was “clearly inappropriate.”
Lich’s court hearing for her mischief charges is scheduled for September 2023. Her bail conditions include not talking with other convoy organizers, not using social media, and not organizing further protests.
Lich took a few minutes to contain her emotions before answering the commission about how her arrest and bail conditions have impacted her life.
“I’ve lost my job. I’ve lost my freedom of speech. I’ve lost my freedom to communicate with my friends, which was quite traumatizing because we just experienced something huge,” she said.
“I have to be very careful about every move that I make. As you know, I was arrested on an alleged breach charge for attending a dinner in Toronto. I have a daughter, and I don’t want her to be seen with me, because I’m worried.”
Lich’s testimony at the inquiry will continue on Nov. 4.
Marnie Cathcart is a reporter based in Edmonton.