WARMINGTON: Longest mischief trial any one has heard of is going to get even longer with delay

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Cruel and unusual punishment.

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That is what Justin Trudeau’s Canada has already meted out to Tamara Lich and Chris Barber.

They are, in my view, political prisoners. The case against them has dragged out now over four calendar years — 2022, 2023, 2024, 2025. It has been 1,110 days, more than three years, since that famous picture of the Metis, Alberta grandmother being placed in handcuffs in the nation’s capital on  Feb. 17, 2022 first appeared in the Toronto Sun.

She and Barber were charged with mischief, counselling to commit, obstruction and intimidation at the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa. Lich spent almost 50 days in jail before getting bail. Barber, the proud trucker from Saskatchewan, also spent a night in jail but like Lich has had these criminal charges hanging over him since back in the time when Ottawa had a different mayor, there was a different American president, four British prime ministers, and soon to be a different Canadian prime minister.

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While it is an inconvenience for her and Barber, who already had travel plans organized and hotel rooms booked, Lich was taking the latest delay in stride.

“This is the sad state of the justice system in Canada,” she wrote on Facebook. “While we are disappointed in yet another delay in our case, we know the importance of the upcoming decision, not just for us but for all Canadians.”

Saying “at the end of our criminal, longest, mischief trial last August, when Her Honour set the verdict date, she let us know the court system assigned her a full trial schedule to clear the backlog from the COVID years.” Lich told the Toronto Sun “hopefully we will get another date this week.”

The way things are going, and if Prime Minister Justin Trudeau does leave on March 9 as promised, perhaps his shadow won’t cast as much over this courthouse as it seems to have during these more than three years of proceedings, which really amount to only 50 days in actual court proceedings and many months of adjournments and delays.

In a perfect world, since Trudeau should no longer be in charge, it seems dropping this whole case like all of his scandals have been would be the fitting ending to this long-running madness.

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But grace, compassion and leniency don’t apply to those who dare to stand up to this era’s authoritarianism.

Whenever they do set their verdict date, it is technically possible that Lich and Barber may never see their loved ones as free people ever again. If convicted, according to the Criminal Code of Canada, “everyone who commits mischief that causes actual danger to life is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for life.”

While doubtful the system would go that far, it must be noted in the case of Pat King’s conviction for similar offences that the Crown was asking for ten years of prison – though the judge ended up giving him three months of house arrest after serving more than 150 days in jail pre-trial.

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Whether or not you agree with their anti-lockdown ideology that spurred them to drive to Ottawa to protest for three weeks, one thing for sure is their cases got more law enforcement and prosecutorial attention than SNC Lavalin, the Greenbelt, We Charity, or China spy gate.

In Lich and Barber’s cases, things remain unresolved.

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Meanwhile, no one has ever heard of more than three years of being before the courts for mischief counts. For Lich and Barber, the process has been the punishment. They were not charged with weapons, violence, assaulting police, carjacking, rape or murder. Things may have moved along quicker if they had been.

Still, everybody who has sat in on some of this case agrees this is an outstanding judge who knows the law, knows what’s right, and will weigh all aspects of this case in a reasonable way. That said, it can’t be ignored that there are many media stories from just last year where people charged with violent crimes including sexual assault had their cases dismissed because of the length of time it took the government to get their cases to trial.

On the Ontario court website it states, “RULE 1 — GENERAL: Fundamental objective 1.1  (1)  The fundamental objective of these rules is to ensure that proceedings in the Ontario Court of Justice are dealt with justly and efficiently.”

This applies to everybody — except for Lich and Barber, whose show trial is still on.

jwarmington@postmedia.com

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