‘Freedom Convoy’ organizer defends charge of encouraging honking during protest

The lawyer for “Freedom Convoy” organizer Chris Barber told a judge Monday that a court order banning honking in downtown Ottawa during the protest wasn’t clear enough.

Barber and his co-accused, Tamara Lich, are defending themselves against charges of mischief, intimidation and counselling others to break the law.

Barber faces the additional charge of counselling others to disobey a court order by encouraging protesters to honk their horns.

In a TikTok video posted during the protest, Barber let other protesters know to keep the horns down because of the court order, but said if a large mass of police officers show up that they should let their horns go and not stop.

His lawyer, Diane Magas, said in her closing arguments that there were exceptions to the order, including emergencies.

That exception wasn’t clear, she argued, saying the threat of an unlawful arrest by riot police may have constituted an emergency in Barber’s mind.

“That’s a stretch,” Justice Heather Perkins-McVey said when Magas introduced the argument Monday.

In the days before the TikTok video, Magas said Barber’s social media posts suggested he had growing fears about riot police showing up and kettling protesters — a controversial law-enforcement practice that involves corralling and containing large crowds in a limited area.

She noted that it’s OK to resist arrest if “it’s an unlawful arrest.”

Monday marks day four of closing arguments in the criminal trial of the two organizers, which has been legally complicated and marked with dozens of starts and stops since it began last September.

Magas told the court last week that her client is not responsible for the individual actions of protest participants.

The Crown has already told the court that Lich and Barber knowingly “crossed the line” between legal protest and illegal mischief-making. The Crown will get a chance to reply to the defence arguments before the end of the trial.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 19, 2024.