Juno News - No jail for Tamara Lich and Chris Barber

00:00:00.000 Conservative leader Pierre Paliyev slammed Prime Minister Mark Carney, calling his, quote,

00:00:09.080 trillion-dollar concession to U.S. President Donald Trump a move that cost Canada jobs and

00:00:14.600 investment. Alberta Premier Daniel Smith called B.C. Premier David Eby's pipeline opposition

00:00:20.220 both unconstitutional and contrary to Supreme Court judgments on provincial jurisdiction.

00:00:25.740 Freedom Convoy leaders Chris Barber and Tamara Leach were granted a conditional sentence in the

00:00:31.360 Ontario Court of Justice for their involvement in the Freedom Convoy. The decision means the

00:00:36.320 convoy leaders will avoid further jail time. Hello, Canada. It's Wednesday, October 8th,

00:00:41.640 and this is the True North Daily Brief. I'm Isaac Lamoureux. And I'm Al O'Sultan.

00:00:45.880 We've got you covered with all the news you need to know. Let's discuss the top stories of the day

00:00:50.200 and the True North exclusives you won't hear anywhere else. Conservative leader Pierre Paliyev

00:00:56.880 slammed Prime Minister Mark Carney today for what he called a trillion-dollar concession to U.S.

00:01:02.000 President Donald Trump, accusing Carney of selling out Canadian jobs and investment at a meeting in

00:01:06.980 the White House. On Wednesday, the Conservative leader accused Carney of making a, quote,

00:01:11.560 massive trillion-dollar concession before the deal was even signed, without getting anything in return.

00:01:17.460 Paliyev said, quote, the Prime Minister casually said in the Oval Office today, he bragged that

00:01:23.360 half a trillion Canadian investment dollars have left here for the United States in the last five

00:01:27.740 years and then promised that a trillion more will leave in the next five years. The Conservative

00:01:32.380 leader continued by saying, quote, that will mean mines closing in Quebec and opening in Pennsylvania,

00:01:38.000 it'll mean mills closing in B.C. and opening in Washington State, factories closing in Ontario and

00:01:43.120 going to Michigan. Why is it that the Prime Minister sells out Canadian workers, Canadian jobs and

00:01:48.860 Canadian investment in the White House? During a press conference in the Oval Office on Tuesday,

00:01:53.740 Carney boasted that Canada was the, quote, largest foreign investor in the United States. Amid simmering

00:01:59.860 trade tensions, U.S. President Donald Trump cited, quote, natural conflict between Canada and the U.S.

00:02:05.880 ahead of his second meeting with Prime Minister Mark Carney. Few details were presented during the Oval Office

00:02:10.920 press conference ahead of their meeting. Still, Trump said supply management would be included in

00:02:17.320 the negotiations because the New Deal would, quote, include everything. And when asked about the

00:02:22.140 upcoming Kuzma renegotiation scheduled for next summer, Trump said separate deals could be

00:02:27.700 renegotiated with each country but had no preference on how it would unfold. So, Alex, the Conservative leader

00:02:33.660 says we've lost a significant amount of investment to the U.S., but what exactly did we get for our

00:02:39.480 investment from meeting with the President, especially with all the trade problems and now

00:02:43.680 the new Kuzma talks coming up? Well, Isaac, we got back basically nothing, which is what we should

00:02:48.400 come to expect from the Carney government, especially when it comes to the issue of negotiating with the

00:02:52.920 United States. That being said, I think that there's a little bit of an underrated facet to Canada when

00:02:58.360 it comes to the Kuzma negotiations. We all know, of course, that the United States is a much larger

00:03:03.080 economy and that they have more leverage with regards to scale and size. But what often goes,

00:03:08.160 I think, understated from the Canadian side is that we have a significant trade surplus with the

00:03:12.600 United States. So any proposed additional tariffs outside of Kuzma from Donald Trump will mostly impact

00:03:18.920 U.S. consumers rather than Canadians. And in that sense, I think that if Trump wants to negotiate this

00:03:25.020 intelligently and smartly, given the fact that we have a significant reciprocal trading agreement,

00:03:30.440 he should, I think, lay low personally on the tariff threats because I think that they will

00:03:36.640 ultimately only impact Americans and not Canadians. And I think that that's something that doesn't

00:03:41.000 often go spoken about when it comes to these negotiations, much like the fact that the tariffs

00:03:46.080 that are currently in place by the U.S. president, which are the Kuzma exempt tariffs, are a very small

00:03:53.300 portion of the entire economy. So I think that this conversation, generally speaking, receives far more

00:03:58.420 attention than it necessarily deserves. Alberta Premier Daniel Smith intensified her criticism of

00:04:06.820 B.C. Premier David Eby's pipeline stance, but remained tight-lipped about any concrete support from Prime Minister

00:04:11.800 Mark Carney following their Ottawa meeting. Speaking at a press conference in Ottawa, Smith dismissed Eby's

00:04:16.780 claim that Alberta's proposed bitumen pipeline is fictional, calling his comments, quote,

00:04:21.420 un-Canadian and unconstitutional. Smith said, quote, the Supreme Court has determined that the reason we

00:04:27.520 have a country and have given trade and commerce power and control of reports and interprovincial

00:04:31.920 infrastructure to the federal government is for exactly this reason, so that a parochial premier

00:04:36.460 isn't able to block nation-building projects. She issued a similar rebuke to Eby in a post to X on

00:04:42.240 Tuesday morning, just before the press conference. Her provincial partner on the other side,

00:04:46.380 Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe, voiced his opinion as well. Moe said, quote,

00:04:50.120 The Premier of Alberta is right. The NDP Premier of British Columbia is wrong. Smith argued the project

00:04:56.400 could add $20 billion annually to the Canadian economy if it moved 1 million barrels a day,

00:05:01.320 with roughly 40% flowing to government coffers. Smith confirmed she met with Carney in Ottawa,

00:05:05.980 but stayed cagey on whether he responded positively to her push for a deal. She repeated her demand for

00:05:11.040 an agreement by Grey Cup in mid-November that would repeal or substantially revise nine federal laws she claims

00:05:17.100 are stifling investment. Pressed on whether Carney showed willingness to move, Smith pointed instead

00:05:21.780 to his past decisions to repeal the federal carbon tax and delay the net zero vehicle mandate

00:05:26.440 as evidence that he was open-minded to policy reversals. So Isaac, you're an Alberta expert.

00:05:33.460 Given this rising interprovincial pipeline tension between Alberta and British Columbia,

00:05:39.260 along with Saskatchewan, I suppose, what are the implications for Canadian unity,

00:05:42.940 the economy, and how can the federal government achieve Carney's purported national energy goals?

00:05:48.420 Yeah, Alex, Canada's interprovincial tensions over this pipeline are testing and going to test

00:05:55.060 further national unity and the country's energy ambitions. Right now, at the core of this dispute,

00:06:01.220 of course, lies Alberta's decision to champion this First Nations-led pipeline towards the Pacific

00:06:07.620 Coast, a project it calls essential to securing new markets and reducing dependence on the United

00:06:14.520 States. Alberta Energy Minister Brian Jean said that expanding this access to Tidewater would,

00:06:20.280 quote, support the federal government's new goal of turning Canada into an energy superpower,

00:06:25.640 which Jean reiterated was certainly a possibility and would be accomplished partially through this

00:06:31.380 pipeline. But B.C. Premier David Eby has framed the plan as a political maneuver, arguing that there is

00:06:37.340 no private proponent for the project, and he further warned that it could endanger coastal ecosystems

00:06:43.060 and jeopardize billions in B.C. First Nations projects. Alberta, however, insists that its $14

00:06:49.740 million early investment is only to advance planning and indigenous engagement until the industry

00:06:55.520 takes over. Essentially, Alberta wants to just get this to the starting line, that being the federal

00:07:01.180 major projects list, and then Alberta officials have repeatedly said on the record that private proponents

00:07:07.020 will take over when that occurs. But they have stressed that federal regulatory barriers,

00:07:12.740 like the West Coast tanker ban, is the only reason they're actually involved in the first place.

00:07:18.160 And as you mentioned there, Alex, Saskatchewan has sided with Alberta, not B.C., arguing that blocking

00:07:26.720 resources undermines the economic foundation of the Confederation to begin with.

00:07:31.440 As you said earlier on Tuesday, Premier Scott Moe said, quote, the Premier of Alberta is right,

00:07:37.420 and the NDP Premier of British Columbia is wrong. And Eby made some remarks as well

00:07:42.340 at a press conference, which were quite emotional and centered on warnings about the project that he

00:07:49.400 repeatedly claimed. He, for example, kept repeating, and he has been repeating over the last few days,

00:07:54.600 that the pipeline will be taxpayer funded, which I don't know where he's getting this information,

00:08:00.100 because from day one, Alberta officials, energy officials, the government, everyone has said that

00:08:06.960 it will not be taxpayer funded. This is just the $14 million to get it to the start line, at which

00:08:12.100 point the Alberta government expects private investors to take over. And they have said time and

00:08:16.260 again that taxpayers will not be on the hook for this pipeline. In fact, Smith has even been critical

00:08:21.720 of other taxpayer funded pipelines that essentially only had to be taxpayer funded because of federal

00:08:27.680 regulations. And she said, if government needs to invest in these projects, they're already a 0.90

00:08:34.360 failure to begin with, because private industry is willing to do so if you just stand out of the way.

00:08:39.620 One other thing I'll mention about Eby's press conference is he, of course, spent a lot of it

00:08:44.680 focusing on anti-Trump and anti-America messaging. But as I alluded to earlier, Smith has said that this

00:08:52.380 project will make Canada less reliant on the United States. So Eby's claims and his actions seem to be

00:08:59.800 contradicting one another. And Eby stood by the tanker ban that, of course, is stopping this and other energy

00:09:07.480 projects from proceeding. But on the flip side, Smith has shown enthusiasm that Carney will repeal it

00:09:15.220 along with the nine bad laws that she's been calling for him to repeal on essentially since

00:09:20.240 he took office. But it seems that we'll have to wait until the Grey Cup to see, because that's when

00:09:25.680 Smith expects this to be added to the projects list. So we may have more answers by then.

00:09:31.140 The Grey Cup is a hilarious deadline. And on behalf of all people in British Columbia, I just want to

00:09:35.460 apologize. The Grey Cup will have more viewers than ever thinking that this list is involved.

00:09:42.480 Absolutely. It's the first time the Grey Cup will have been relevant in a while.

00:09:49.500 Freedom Convoy leaders Chris Barber and Tamara Leach will largely remain free after being handed a

00:09:54.620 conditional sentence in the Ontario Court of Justice for their involvement in the Freedom Convoy.

00:09:59.200 A judge on Tuesday handed Barber an 18-month conditional sentence and Leach a 15.5-month

00:10:05.260 conditional sentence, essentially house arrest. But importantly, neither sentence will require

00:10:12.060 time in prison. Instead, the punishments will be served at home under certain conditions,

00:10:17.300 including curfews, contrary to the Ontario Crown prosecutor demanding eight and seven years in

00:10:22.860 prison for Barber and Leach, respectively. And the decision was, of course, delivered in a packed

00:10:27.420 courtroom. The judge outsourced Barber's sentence to the Saskatchewan Court of Justice for conditioning

00:10:33.400 and monitoring. Leach's conditional sentence was also transferred to Medicine Hat, Alberta for

00:10:38.500 administration and monitoring. The trial of Freedom Convoy organizers Tamara Leach and Chris Barber,

00:10:43.360 which some commentators have referred to as the longest mischief trial in world history,

00:10:48.380 stems from their leadership of the peaceful anti-vaccine mandate Freedom Convoy movement in 2022.

00:10:53.780 The protest bear-hugged the nation's capital for several weeks, creating a gridlock near Parliament,

00:11:00.660 the sentencing judge said. For their involvement in the February 2022 Freedom Convoy protest,

00:11:06.100 Barber and Leach were each found guilty of one count of mischief, and Barber was also found guilty

00:11:11.100 of counselling others to disobey a court order. The protests, initially sparked by opposition to the

00:11:17.540 COVID-19 vaccine mandates, grew into a broader movement against the federal government, drawing

00:11:22.020 thousands of demonstrators and extensive law enforcement scrutiny. The Crown had argued their

00:11:27.980 quote, leadership in the protest helped sustain an unlawful occupation, disrupting residents,

00:11:33.200 businesses and government operations. On Tuesday, Perkins McVeigh called that leadership largely symbolic.

00:11:40.840 So Alex, happy to chat with you about this, obviously being our crime expert, but does this sentencing

00:11:45.680 conflict with how the federal government and legacy media painted the convoy as a critical threat to the

00:11:51.020 nation and the government itself?

00:11:53.360 Oh, what an interesting question, Isaac. I was lucky enough to attend the sentencing hearing today,

00:11:59.660 remotely from British Columbia, and I was one of the few reporters allowed to do that. I was very

00:12:06.260 thankful to the judge for giving me permission. And I think that, obviously, I think you would have to,

00:12:13.680 you know, have been living under a rock in Canada for the last three years to not realize that 0.82

00:12:19.320 the media portrayal of the Freedom Convoy was completely ridiculous. And even further than 0.86

00:12:27.160 that, this entire lawfare exercise has been completely ridiculous. These people have been 0.96

00:12:31.760 dragged through the mud for the better part of three years. Neither of them had any previous criminal

00:12:37.200 history. There was no physical or there was no physical harm to any individuals in Ottawa, and there was

00:12:43.640 no violence. So I understand completely why people, many people are upset with the ruling, the fact that

00:12:52.360 they would get anything at all. At the same time, I think we have to acknowledge that the law must be

00:12:58.800 upheld. And mischief did occur here. I mean, it's a kind of a funny word, mischief, right? It kind of

00:13:09.460 hearkens back to like, you know, Dennis the menace, right? And, and, and causing relatively minor

00:13:16.380 disruption. When you compare their sentencing to the sentencing that we've seen of

00:13:22.440 really, really sick criminals, I, I, again, see why people would be upset. But at the same time,

00:13:30.460 I think this judge was caught between a rock and a hard place because she had to satisfy 1.00

00:13:34.040 the scales of justice. And the scales of justice are such that you are allowed to protest, but you're

00:13:40.140 not allowed to gridlock the Capitol for three weeks. Am I holding Tamara Leach and Chris Barber

00:13:44.300 individually responsible for that? Well, no, I'm not. But they could not have been better torchbearers

00:13:50.860 for their movement. And the judge mentioned this in her ruling. She said that one of the reasons that

00:13:55.560 I'm giving you an 18 month conditional sentence, which is often higher than a jail sentence in order to

00:14:01.600 off in order to satisfy the element of deterrence. Right? So Isaac, if you were to commit a serious

00:14:07.800 indictable crime, and not that this was a serious indictable crime, and I were to give you a

00:14:11.860 conditional sentence of 24 months, that would be the equivalent to a jail sentence of, let's say,

00:14:17.500 six months. And so the length seems extraordinary. But the actual elements of the sentence itself are

00:14:23.340 actually quite benign and quite lenient. And I believe that they should be. And I think that the

00:14:28.660 judge did a fairly decent job, ultimately, of again, balancing the scales of justice, even though

00:14:34.740 I understand that, like in any aspect of life, it's very difficult to satisfy everyone.

00:14:43.560 That's it for today, folks. Thanks for tuning in. You can stay on top of new episodes every weekday by

00:14:48.440 subscribing to the Daily Brief on iTunes and Spotify. Also, while you're at it, make sure to hit

00:14:53.500 a five-star rating and please leave a review.

Juno News - October 08, 2025

No jail for Tamara Lich and Chris Barber

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