Two leaders of the anti-COVID lockdown “Freedom Convoy” in Canada were convicted on “mischief” charges Friday, according to multiple sources.
Tamara Lich and Chris Barber were cleared of most charges against them after they led massive groups of truckers to block road ways across the nation in February 2022 protests of a federal COVID-19 vaccination mandate, according to the BBC and The New York Times. The protests lasted nearly four weeks and included a blockade around Parliament hill in Ottawa, Canada, the nation’s capital.
The defense argued that Barber and Lich never encouraged any illegal activity and regularly cooperated with authorities, according to the BBC.
Mischief charges in Canada apply to anyone who willfully “obstructs, interrupts or interferes with the lawful use, enjoyment or operation of property,” carrying a maximum sentence of ten years in prison if damages exceed $5,000.
In response to the protests, Former Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act in February 2022 during the protest, which allowed the government to crack down on protesters, but retracted the order just weeks later.
A federal court in Canada later ruled that Justin Trudeau’s use of the Emergencies Act was unconstitutional.
“The decision to issue the Proclamation does not bear the hallmarks of reasonableness – justification, transparency and intelligibility – and was not justified in relation to the relevant factual and legal constraints that were required to be taken into consideration,” Federal Court Justice Richard Mosley wrote in the decision.
The Canadian protest spurred U.S.-based truckers to start their own convoy, taking to the D.C. “beltway” to protest former President Joe Biden COVID policy.
The Canadian Prime Minister’s office did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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