The trial of Tamara Lich and Chris Barber has completed its 20th day in court, and Judge Heather Perkins-McVey is still having trouble getting a complete story from two Crown police witnesses. Ottawa Police Services (OPS) Police Liaison Team (PLT) Const.. Isabelle Cyr and OPS PLT Const. Nicole Bach told the judge Wednesday and Thursday respectively they have “missing texts” from their police-issued work phones due to so-called routine “upgrade.” The Freedom Convoy organizers were scheduled for 16 days in court originally, but it has been extended indefinitely, as Lich and Barber face charges of mischief, intimidation, obstruction, and counselling others to commit the same crimes not committed. The Crown has made it clear it will pursue the Carter application, which is a conspiracy charge that means to pit Lich and Barber against each other. In this case, Barber would be guilty of the crimes of Lich, and vice versa.In court Thursday, while discussing relevant text and signal messages between Bach and Barber, defence counsel Diane Magas pointed out the messages in question “come from my client's phone and not the officer’s.”“I would assume you have copies,” Perkins-McVey said to the witness, according to a thread tweeted by MsCannabisCourt from the courtroom. “No, my phone was wiped due to upgrade system,” Bach said. “Your cellphone was wiped clean?” Magas asked. “Not sure wiped clean is the terminology,” Back said, “…the upgrade.”Magas asked if she agreed “this evidence in your phone would be required” and “what steps did you take to preserve it?”“None,” Bach said. “It was suggested I do the upgrade.”“Did you get any direction to save the phone information?” Magas asked. “I tried but the steps didn’t work for me, so I just did the upgrade,” Bach said. “Did you reach out to IT? So they said follow the steps?” Magas asked. “I did that again and I didn’t get the backup so I did the upgrade,” Bach answered. Magas asked if Bach had any contact with protestors other than Barber. She replied “yes” and confirmed they are “all gone.”Magas hopes to obtain a copy of the IT email to defer the dates Bach lost all her phone records. Bach said she sometimes used her personal phone, so she would have some communications saved from that period. “So you knew before the trial the PLT logs and your signal chats from your personal phone did not match?” Magas clarified. “Correct,” Bach said. .“Perkins-McVey asks the witness to confirm on her phone that these are the same screenshots in her records,” The Democracy Fund (TDF) tweeted from the courtroom. “She further asks Bach if her phone records have been produced in disclosure. Bach states that these logs have not been produced -- her phone, apparently, was also 'wiped’.”.“Note, this is the second PLT officer (in a row) who has testified that their phone was 'wiped' of information/logs created during the protests,” TDF added. .On Thursday, Cyr also had issues testifying due to missing records from her work phone. Defence counsel Lawrence Greenspon took it up with the officer. “Up to January 27, as I understand it, the date when your texts with the various organizers are no longer available because you switched phones,” he said, according to tweets from PatriotSmoothie, who was inside the courtroom. “Missing texts January 27 to February 9,” Greenspon said. Cyr protested she actually did have text messages printed out from an exchange with Freedom Convoy organizer Chris Garrah, which she printed out prior to when the “phone was wiped.”She said she has texts from January 27 to March 1. “I had texts printed before the phone was wiped,” she said. “Phone (was) wiped at some point, everything lost. No one (was) able to recover” records.“I understood missing texts,” Greenspon said. “Benson (of the OPS) tried to recover (them),” she said, to which Greenspon asked if he has any of those “other texts now?”“I have some of them,” she said. Crown: They've been disclosed. “Greenspon and Magas approach to see these texts,” PatriotSmoothie said. “Greenspon says they jump from Jan. 27 to Feb. 9 and that period (is) missing.”
