Tamara Lich has been awarded the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedom’s 2022 George Jonas Freedom Award..“The Justice Centre is pleased to present the 2022 George Jonas Freedom Award to Tamara Lich, one of the organizers of the Ottawa convoy who united thousands of Canadians across the country in protest of lockdowns and mandatory vaccine policies,” the JCCF said in a press release..George Jonas was a Hungarian Holocaust survivor, whose family settled in Canada. He went on to become a celebrated National Post columnist and an outspoken advocate for freedom and civil rights..“A renowned Canadian author, poet and columnist, George Jonas made freedom a consistent and important theme in all of his writings. The annual George Jonas Freedom Award recognizes and honours one individual each year who has contributed significantly to advancing and preserving freedom in Canada,” said the JCCF..“Freedom is a foundational Canadian principle, which George Jonas (1935–2016) promoted throughout his life, both before and after coming to Canada from communist Hungary,” the JCCF said..When asked why the JCCF chose Lich as this year’s award recipient, JCCF President John Carpay, told the Western Standard: “Tamara Lich led by example, by taking action to exercise [her] Charter freedoms of expression, of association, peaceful assembly, and encouraging other Canadians to exercise the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, peacefully..Carpay said that exercising your freedoms is even more important while those freedoms are undergoing existential threat..“I think it’s important in dark and desperate times when freedom is under siege — when governments are blockading our Charter rights and freedoms — it’s important to act. And so the freedom convoy was a great movement of people. And I think it showed Canadians that they were not alone in opposing these very irrational, arbitrary, and unscientific measures. [It’s] what Tamara did, obviously she’s not the only leader of the truckers, there are a lot of other people that were also involved.”.“But what Tamara did was help to energize and mobilize Canadians to exercise those freedoms and the results were the lifting of vaccine passports in pretty much every province in Canada. Without the Freedom Convoy, we may have been locked down with a passport system for for a lot longer.”.Lich gained hero-status among many freedom-loving Canadians during the three weeks of the Canadian truckers’ Freedom Convoy protest in February. She was instrumental in raising more than $10 million for the truckers between two fundraising platforms — GoFundMe and GiveSendGo..Some of the monies were distributed to truckers, however, the majority of the funds were refunded to donors after GoFundMe made a unilateral decision initially to freeze donations and hold funds and shortly thereafter to return the payments to convoy supporters who had contributed to the fund. GiveSendGo also refunded donors’ cash gifts..Carpay, had some choice words for the federal government in a Western Standard column piece in March regarding Lich’s arrest and bail conditions..“Tamara Lich called on Canadians to exercise their Charter freedoms of expression, association and assembly, and to do so peacefully and respectfully. In return, she was criminally charged with counselling to commit a criminal offence. She was arrested February 17, 2022, and spent 18 nights in jail. A mother and grandmother, Tamara Lich has no criminal record and poses no danger to anyone. There is simply no justification for stripping her of the basic rights and freedoms that every Canadian citizen enjoys,” Carpay said..“Ottawa’s police chief, Ontario’s premier and Canada’s prime minister took turns denouncing the truckers as dangerous, racist, violent, Nazis, white supremacists, and criminals. In response to this vilification, the peaceful protesters — of many different faiths and ethnicities — shovelled snow, picked up garbage, fed the homeless, waved Canada and Quebec flags, danced in the streets, sang our national anthem, and set up bouncy castles for children,” said Carpay..News of the award on social media has been welcomed by Lich’s supporters. The Convoy To Ottawa 2022 Restart Facebook page posted the announcement..“Tamara is an awesome women [sic] who helped show the light to me and many others. Well deserved honor!! We love you Tamara!!,” said page member, Blorry Naj..Jure Bozanic said, “Yes, that is hope for all of us.”.The JCCF announced Lich’s award is scheduled for presentation in Toronto on June 16, however, Lich’s bail conditions prohibit her from returning in person to Ontario for any reason other than those relating to her court matters. Carpay said he hopes a successful appeal against her bail conditions means she will be allowed to enter Ontario to receive her award in person in Toronto..“Hopefully [the bail conditions] will be altered, or set aside prior to the June 16 dinner, and if not, then then we’ll have her appear by by Zoom,” said Carpay..Last year’s award recipient was the Society for Academic Freedom and Scholarship. It was the first time the George Jonas Freedom Award has been given to academics, or to a group. Previous recipients of the award include authors Mark Steyn and Christie Blatchford..The Western Standard reached out to Lich for comment, Lich responded by saying she had passed the request to her lawyers for authorization to comment..Amanda Brown is a reporter with the Western Standard.abrown@westernstandard.news.Twitter: @WS_JournoAmanda
