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Editor’s note: This file will be updated throughout the day Thursday as the criminal trial of convoy protest organizers Tamara Lich and Chris Barber continues. For coverage of today’s hearing, follow along with our live blog below.
The trial of convoy protest organizers Tamara Lich and Chris Barber moves on to its third day today. Const. Isabelle Cyr, who served as a liaison between police and protesters during the convoy, is expected to continue her testimony.
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Court briefly heard from Cyr at the end of Wednesday’s hearing. Cyr said she first reached out to Barber before the convoy arrived in Ottawa to try to get “concrete information” about how the protest would unfold, and was passed on to another organizer, Chris Garrah. She had nearly daily contact with Garrah thereafter.
She told the court the amount of information that was coming in about the protest before it arrived in Ottawa was overwhelming.
Trial catch up: Read our Day 2 trial live blog here
Lich and Barber stand co-accused of mischief, obstructing police, counselling others to commit mischief and intimidation for their roles in the weeks-long protest that gridlocked streets in downtown Ottawa and left residents dismayed by its presence through much of January and February 2022. Barber faces an additional charge of counselling others to disobey a court order.
At the heart of the Crown’s case is whether Lich and Barber encouraged people to come to Ottawa and stay there, even as police ordered protesters to leave. The other question is whether doing so is considered illegal.