The plight of Tamara Lich is seen by most Western Canadians as a symbol of much that is wrong with this country. Lich might also be an omen for what Albertans should expect from Ottawa in the upcoming sovereignty referendum.Lich went to Ottawa to protest what she, and most Western Canadians, saw as the egregious overuse of government power during the COVID years. She was treated brutally by Ottawa, and is now threatened with a seven-year penitentiary term. All this for taking part in a protest that would not have been necessary if Ottawa had acted with even a modicum of common sense in their response to the COVID virus. And, by the way, for “Ottawa” read the Liberals.Lich (and trucker Chris Barber) spoke out in defence of basic freedoms. Now, after bank account seizures, incarceration, and the torture of being forced through the longest mischief trial in Canadian history, Lich is being threatened with a penitentiary term..Incredibly, the Crown is asking that the law-abiding grandmother spend seven years in a penitentiary. As National Post’s Michael Higgins rightly argues — this would be shameful.And Pierre Poilievre agrees.To put that demand for a seven-year penitentiary term in context, some people convicted of crimes involving extreme violence don’t get sentences nearly that long. An example is this man, who received a short jail sentence for stabbing his girlfriend three times, and then hitting her friend over the head with a pipe. Surely disrupting traffic and honking horns in Ottawa for a while, while engaged in a lawful protest isn’t as serious as stabbing them, and whacking them over the head with a metal pipe?But more to the point, people who participated in other protests, such as the Wet’suwet'in, and BLM protests, caused serious property damage, and committed acts of extreme vandalism, and dangerous behaviour, like burning railroad tracks that had trains running on them, and toppling ten ton statues, weren’t even charged. And the mobs who have participated in recent Hamas protests — not only seriously disrupting traffic, and causing major property damage, but openly threatening Canada’s Jews, and even calling for another “final solution” — either escaped prosecution entirely, or walked away with minimal sentences..So, exactly what crime did Lich commit?During the lockdown years Lich and other Canadians watched, while increasingly harsh — and frankly, ridiculous — measures were hastily and arbitrarily put in place by a clearly incompetent Ottawa. Provincial premiers were told that they would not get federal money unless they cooperated with Ottawa’s nonsensical plans. Playgrounds were closed, people were told to avoid going out into the fresh air, and such.The final straw came when truckers were advised very late in the pandemic that they had to be vaccinated. The truckers knew that there was no difference between a virus on the American side of the border, and a virus on the Canadian side. They knew — as did Ottawa — that the vaccine did not stop transmission of the virus. In short, the truckers knew that the Trudeau government’s vaccine mandate for them had nothing to do with science, and everything to do with politics. So, they started their trucks, and headed east, and demanded a meeting with the prime minister.But they didn’t get one, just as Canadians will never get an apology for the government’s unnecessary, draconian lockdown. Instead, these Canadians, and every citizen who supported their legitimate objectives, were publicly insulted and humiliated by the man elected to lead all Canadians — called “racists and misogynists” — while the PM scuttled back into his cottage, claiming to have yet another case of COVID. This set the tone for the way the rest of the Ottawa establishment treated the truckers. The mainstream media treated them like criminals. The Ottawa police acted like goons. Even the chief justice of Canada saw fit to jump into the fray and condemn them..So, instead of meeting with the protesters and listening to their grievances, Trudeau and his cronies demonized and persecuted them.You know the rest of the story. Lich was locked up, the Emergencies Act (the renamed War Measures Act) was proclaimed, protestors had their bank accounts attached, and there was even a move to auction off and crush Chris Barber’s semi truck. And by the way, what was the purpose of that scientifically pointless vaccine mandate in the first place? After the election we found out. The point was to artificially divide Canadians — to stoke hatred of “anti-vaxxers” in order to win an election by dividing Canadians into two camps.The secret was revealed by Quebec Liberal MP Joel Lightbound after the election. He found it repugnant that Liberals would do such a thing. Trudeau didn’t agree. Lightbound was demoted as head of the Quebec caucus, and we haven’t heard from him since.(How Trudeau stoked division to win an election is discussed in this Globe and Mail article).And the Liberals (Ottawa) used the same trick in the recent election. Using fear to stoke division. But this time they used Trump as the bogeyman, instead of the virus. Their game was to accuse anyone who advocated a common sense, conservative idea as “being like Trump”.And — again — the strategy worked..But, I digress. Back to the convoy. The Lich-led truckers protest could not be allowed for similar reasons. It was an existential threat to central Canada’s (read Liberals’) hold on power.There is an old Chinese saying that applies here. When a rebellion threatened, the emperor would send his guards out to randomly shoot some people. The expression was that he would “kill a few chickens to scare the monkeys”.That’s exactly what the Trudeau Liberals did to Lich. The way Lich is being treated — brutally and without mercy — is meant to be a warning to any other “chickens” who might be tempted to protest against an overreaching government intent on stripping them of their basic freedoms.So, Lich will be sentenced by the same judge who forced her to go through the longest mischief trial in Canadian history. This is a charge that should never have been laid — and once laid should quickly been dismissed — or resolved with an acquittal. The judge will “show leniency” by not sending Lich to the penitentiary. This trial is, and has always been, a farce, and a travesty of justice.Tamara Lich will enter Western Canadian history books as a heroine — in Eastern Canada as a troublemaker. This is not the sign of a healthy country.This is also not a good omen for Western Canadians. In the upcoming Alberta referendum, it is clear how Ottawa is prepared to treat dissenters, like Lich. Let’s not fool ourselves. If Ottawa is quite willing to treat “anti-vaxxer troublemakers” like Lich the way they did, just imagine how those who support Western independence will be treated. Expect all of Ottawa’s money and might to be used to crush dissent. They are perfectly prepared to divide families and communities to stay in power.It will be ugly.Brian Giesbrecht is a retired judge and a senior fellow with the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.
