Carson Jerema: Tamara Lich exposed the incompetence of the Canadian state

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A G7 nation that can’t handle anything more serious than a speeding ticket without collapsing into chaos is the real crime here

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Published Sep 05, 2023  •  Last updated 20 hours ago  •  4 minute read

Tamara Lich’s mischief trial begins Sept. 5. Photo by ERROL MCGIHON /Postmedia Article content

Tamara Lich, the Freedom Convoy leader whose trial begins this week, is no hero. She led a protest movement that illegally occupied downtown Ottawa for three weeks, blocking access to roads and local businesses. Though largely nonviolent, the convoy was an extreme nuisance that went beyond the mere inconvenience expected of a large demonstration. But, if Lich is no hero, neither is she a terrorist, insurrectionist leader or fascist plotter, as so many of her critics in the media and the Liberal party desperately want her to be.

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Had a group of protesters calling itself the “freedom convoy” descended on the capital but instead of standing against pandemic restrictions, they stood for abortion rights, or were supporting Black Lives Matter, or were demanding the right for solar panels to be declared sentient beings, the narrative surrounding the protest would be much different.

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Instead of the unfounded epithets of “racists” and “misogynists” being hurled from people with degrees in journalism or sociology, the protesters would have been heralded as “very brave.” And if the government had dared to invoke the Emergencies Act to quell the uprising, the move would have been condemned (correctly, I might add) as an unnecessary, illiberal and authoritarian over-reaction.

Of course, while many of the actual convoy protesters simply opposed health restrictions and vaccine mandates, many others held an assortment of largely unpopular and unappealing views: they promoted vaccine conspiracy theories and accused politicians, doctors and journalists of the equivalent of war crimes, and pushed a range of other pandemic-era nonsense, all of which was inflected with bowlfuls of sovereign citizen ideology.

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Their views made the convoy less likeable, but they were no more prone to an actual insurrection, despite whatever fantasies some of the convoy leaders held, than any garden-variety protest. In fact, despite the size and unusual methods of the convoy, it was less prone to violence than your typical student or anti-capitalist protest. Just ask Montreal.

That the convoy was so widely and viciously condemned had much more to do with the views being expressed than with what actually happened. For some reason, the sensible position — that while the protest needed to be contained and controlled, it didn’t pose an inherent threat — was dismissed as naive or as an apologia for fascism.

Even when, during the public inquiry last year, it was revealed that intelligence officers for both the Ontario Provincial Police and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service did not believe there was a direct threat to national security, journalists and commentators largely remained committed to the notion that Canada really was on the verge of anarchy.

The convoy, as an organization, it turns out, was, much like protest movements of the left, beset by internal squabbling and incoherent messaging. There was no credible plot to “overthrow the government,” unless making hundreds of phone calls to the Governor General’s office pleading with her to dismiss Prime Minister Justin Trudeau counts as credible.

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Carson Jerema: David Lametti couldn’t care less about your Emergencies Act questions

Carson Jerema: Canada, where traffic violations bring the country to the brink of collapse

The decision to invoke the Emergencies Act, according to Trudeau, rested not on an actual threat of violence, but on the possibility that such a threat could emerge. Setting aside the point that this reasoning is an inversion of the standards set for invoking the act, it wasn’t the convoy itself that increased the possibility of violence breaking out, but the utter failure of police to maintain any semblance of order.

That Lich’s case, and that of fellow convoy leader Chris Barber, has gone to trial at all is less an indictment of the actual crimes they are alleged to have committed — mischief, obstructing police and intimidation — than of the sheer incompetence of the Canadian state. The fact that the capital of a G7 nation can’t handle anything more serious than a speeding ticket without collapsing into chaos is the real crime here.

If violence had erupted in Ottawa, the perpetrators would have obviously been culpable, but the blame would belong to all three levels of government.

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In more serious places — Berlin, Paris, Washington, D.C. — thousands of protesters, even tens of thousands, don’t cause city life to seize up, even if those demonstrations contain large factions determined to riot, factions that were largely absent in Ottawa, thank God.

For days leading up to the convoy’s arrival in the capital, the leadership was announcing its plans on social media and in the news: gridlock Ottawa until pandemic restrictions are lifted. Despite this goal being very public, city police allowed hundreds of semi-trucks to park downtown. And if city police were incapable of handling the emerging crisis, which became immediately clear, there was no pre-existing plan for more capable forces such as the OPP or RCMP to assist. Formal requests must be made, which can lead to disputes over resources, who is responsible for paying for overtime, etc. Nor is there a clear protocol for who is in charge.

At the political level, both Ontario Premier Doug Ford and Trudeau tried to deflect blame onto the other. Ford mostly succeeded, almost hilariously ducking any responsibility for the mess.

If a police officer witnesses a shoplifter pilfering a store, and then nods and waves him on, it would be ludicrous to track the thief down a week later and arrest him. The prosecutor in Lich’s case has suggested she could face 10 years in prison, which prompts the question: whatever for?

National Postcjerema@postmedia.comTwitter.com/CarsonJerema

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