Tamara Lich and Chris Barber face mischief charges related to the 2022 truck protests in Ottawa.

The trial for the leaders of the so-called Freedom Convoy protest that gridlocked Canada’s capital for weeks in 2022 began on Tuesday.

Tamara Lich and Chris Barber each face counts of mischief and obstructing police.

The two were part of a group that led a convoy of lorries to Ottawa to protest against Covid-19 measures and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government.

Experts say the outcome of the trial could reverberate beyond the courts.

  • ratz30 @lemmy.worldEnglish
    798·
    1 year ago

    I hope they throw the book at them. This shit was so awful for the people in downtown Ottawa.

    • DoctorTYVM@lemmy.worldEnglish
      674·
      1 year ago

      Ottawans are used to protests. It’s a capital city, there’s serveral protests going in any given day.

      What they weren’t used to was the neverending train horns, the constant street blocking, the assaults, the destruction of property, and the constant threats. They lasted way longer than I would have.

      Fuck the convoy and fuck the people like Poilievre who supported them.

      • ratz30 @lemmy.worldEnglish
        272·
        1 year ago

        Here here! I was safe and sound in the suburbs, but they even made it out my way now and then. Can’t imagine how awful it was for my friends downtown.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldMEnglish
      496·
      1 year ago

      So many people posted on Reddit that they weren’t getting any sleep. It’s a form of terrorism, frankly. Not all terrorism is deadly.

      • enkers@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        302·
        1 year ago

        I don’t want to detract from the severity of other forms of terrorism, but sleep deprivation can absolutely cost human lives as well, especially when it’s on the scale of a whole city section.

        • Rilichu@lemmy.worldEnglish
          111·
          1 year ago

          Definitely don’t ever underestimate how quickly lack of sleep can mess you up mentally and physically.

          Inflicting sleep deprivation on a person is widely recognized as a form of torture by human rights organizations as well as the UN.

          • Lemmington Bunnie@aussie.zoneEnglish
            41·
            1 year ago

            Just one night of my partner disrupting my sleep with his own sleep issues, and I start to have delirious thoughts that he is a CIA torture agent.

            I can’t even begin to imagine what these poor Ottawans must have been going through at the time.