EZRA LEVANT ｜ Tamara Lich's sentence is revenge disguised as justice
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Summary
Tamara Leach and Chris Barber get no jail time for their part in the trucker convoy attack on a Canadian trucking company. It was a frustrating day for me, but at least they did get a sentence. I'll explain it to you in today's show.
Transcript
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Hello, my friends. I was in Ottawa today for Tamara Leach's sentencing for her role in the
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trucker convoy. It was a very frustrating day for me, but at least there's no jail time. But
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they did get a sentence. I'll explain it to you in today's show. But first, let me invite you to
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become a subscriber to Rebel News Plus. That's the video version of today's podcast. And there's
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a certain thing I want you to see, just how crazy the crush of people was outside the courthouse.
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It was sort of regime journalists versus citizen journalists pushing each other around. It was
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quite something. I was standing right in the middle of it. So if you don't have the Rebel News Plus,
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you'll only hear it. I would really encourage you to get Rebel News Plus to see it. Today's
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is a visual show for that part. Just go to rebelnewsplus.com and click subscribe.
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Tamara Leach is sentenced, but not to jail. It's October 7th, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.
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You're fighting for freedom. Shame on you, you censorious bug.
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Hi, everybody. I'm back at our world headquarters in Toronto. I spent the day in Ottawa where Tamara
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Leach and Chris Barber were finally given their sentence. You know, it's been a three and a half
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year legal process for them both, the longest mischief trial in Canadian history. I'm very
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frustrated with the judge who, it seemed to me over the course of time, sort of loved the attention,
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loved having a full courtroom, loved the banter, and was certainly in no rush for anything. She
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took two and a half months to come up with her ruling today for her sentencing hearing. I won't
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tell you the result right now. I will show you what I recorded on the scene. It was very interesting.
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A huge crowd was there of both mainstream media and more citizen journalists than I've ever seen
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in Canada before. I think you've heard me remark that citizen journalism has reached a real critical
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mass in the United Kingdom, especially with Tommy Robinson's big rally on September 13th.
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What I saw in front of the courthouse today felt like the same critical mass in Canada. There were
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so many citizen journalists, some with just a simple cell phone, some with a little bit more gear.
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It was really exciting. In fact, there's a little bit of jostling with the regime media,
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the mainstream media, when basically citizen journalists decided, why should we wait for
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the fancy journalists to go first? We have our own questions. And of course, the legacy
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media don't like being dethroned. There were some, a little bit of tussling. I won't lie.
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Let me show you what it was like today. I did a lot of live tweeting from the court, but I don't know that if you want the minutia,
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the minute by minute, you can go to my X account. But here's my report from the scene.
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I'm standing outside the Ottawa court. I'm going to turn around here.
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A huge crowd outside. A lot of journalists. Look at the wall of TV cameras. It's tough these days to
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understand who is with the mainstream media and who is the alternative media. One thing for sure,
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I don't know if you can see it, but you can't really see it through the windows there. There are at least
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seven police right inside the vestibule and another seven police downstairs outside the courtroom,
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plus two police in the courtroom. My math tells me that's 16 different cops.
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What are they expecting will happen? One of the things the judge said repeatedly in her sentencing
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was that Tamara Leach and Chris Barber were completely non-violent and encouraged others to be non-violent
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in tune. And yeah, let me catch you up. What's happening now? We're right outside the court house
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minutes after Justice Heather Perkins McVeigh issued her sentences in the cases of trucker leaders
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Tamara Leach and Chris Barber. The prosecution had asked for astonishing sentences, the kind of sentences
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that murderers would get. Eight years for Barber and seven years for Leach. The judge did not do that.
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She said that there was no basis for that. And she gently chided Doug Ford's prosecutors. And remember
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that the prosecutors who have hounded Tamara and Leach and Chris Barber for three and a half years,
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they weren't for Doug Ford. They don't work for Mark Carney or Justin Trudeau. They'll let the court
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off the hook. Anyways, today in the sentencing, neither of the two accused were given a custodial sentence
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in plain English. What do you make of these sentences? Well, for my point's comment, he respects
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that there is not appealable in terms of the sentence. They are conditional sentences. He gets
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house grits. Yes, he does. And in terms of his reaction to Ford, does he feel any regret in terms of
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what has happened in terms of his role in the height of power? I'll let him speak to that when he's due and
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ready to do that. Are you surprised by the verdict of the sentence today, Ms. Nagas?
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No, I'm not. It was expected to be in the realm of sentences, the sentences that were provided to
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Madame Nagas, is-ce que vous êtes satisfaite de ces 18 mois d'empiliement avec ceci?
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C'est une sentance qui est raisonnable selon nous et puis qui, mon client, respecte la
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Don't question me, wherever you are. Don't question me.
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Can you tell me what kind of message this may send to other individuals who may want to protest,
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given if it's another protest against government overreach? We see something going on in the
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ostrich farm right now. What message does the court send in terms of other mass protests?
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I think the message from the judge was really clear that my client and Ms. Leach had the best
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intention when they came to Ottawa. It was a lawful protest and she found that it turned into unlawful
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because of the blockage of the streets and that's what the message is. Like, protest but don't block
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street. Don't interfere with other people's enjoyment of their property is the clear message.
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I think the judge wanted to make sure in her decision today and even in her decision on
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conviction that protest is allowed. That's not the issue. It's the manner of the protest.
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Do you think there's a double standard with how Hamas protesters are really unmolested by police?
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None of them are being jailed. There's no three-year prosecutions like this for mischief,
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whereas trucker protesters have been jailed and the enormous amount of resources thrown at them.
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It's hard for me to comment on another protest that I don't know the facts of each of the protests.
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So it's, I can't comment on that unfortunately. I can tell you that this trial took very long to
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succeed or complete but I can't comment on the other ones.
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Do you think the judge has a lot of attention to the fact that he has collaborated with the police?
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There you go. That's against the lawyer, Chris Harbour, having a bit of a scrum.
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Um, one of the questions, I think it was CTV who asked it, was, um, is there any lesson here for
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the ostrich farm? Isn't that interesting? That's what's on their mind. I'm just keeping my eye peeled
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about, uh, what's going on. It's a little bit of madness here. I didn't realize that scrum was happening,
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but I tried to jump in front of it. I'm going to keep my eyes peeled for when Lawrence Greenspan
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comes out. A little bit of hollering between the citizen journalists and the regime journalists.
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Let me get back to the story at hand. The headline news, the big news right now,
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is that Chris Barber and Tamara Leach have been sentenced for their role at Trucker Thonsway.
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Neither of them has been sent to jail, but both of them have received enormously long
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house arrest. Um, in both cases, 18 months of house arrest, uh, or 18 months conditional sentence,
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excuse me, of which 12 months is house arrest, reduced somewhat in the case of Tamara Leach because
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he's already spared the legal equivalent of 74 days in jail. So 15 and a half months of house arrest,
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during which time they are not allowed to leave other than for medical emergency, five hours a week for
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shopping, um, legal medical and dental appointments and other things that they negotiate with their
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supervisors. Um, in the case of Chris Barber, he's a trucker, a long-distance trucker. So obviously
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his employment would count as an exception to that, but I have not heard of such a strict house arrest.
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I'm trying to think of, of, uh, of a peaceful political protest that yielded such a brutal sentence.
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And you can compare it to Omar Khadr, the Al Qaeda terrorist, who didn't have any of these
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conditions. In fact, he was given 10 and a half million dollars of taxpayer money. Um, he was given
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the red carpet. He had a, you know, he was the golden boy of Justin Trudeau. I asked, uh, Ms. Magus,
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that's the lawyer for Chris Barber. If there's an evident double standard in between how these
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truckers are being treated and how the Hamas protesters are being treated, I don't know of
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any Hamas protesters who've been jailed for months. I don't know any of them who have been prosecuted
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with the obsession that Doug Ford has prosecuted to Merrill Leach or the Alberta government has
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prosecuted the Coutts protesters. Her answer was fair enough, but I think it was a tiny bit of a
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Catholic symbol that has gotten familiar with those other protests. I don't know the facts.
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I suppose that's a proper lawyer's answer, but it's pretty easy to say. There's a two-tier
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standard for protests in Canada. All right, I'm going to extend. I'm sort of in the thick of it.
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I hope you don't mind. I tried to film the scrum. It's a little bit hard when I'm using a selfie stick.
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As you can see, there's a ton of folks here. Watch this video. And there's so many cameras.
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Some of them are more official-looking sources. Many of them are citizen journalists like myself.
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I'm going to keep my camera rolling because I do expect Lawrence Greenspaw, the lawyer,
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for Tamer Leach to come out, and I'll try and put some questions to him. He's very knowledgeable.
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He's a very senior lawyer. And I know that even the regime media deferred to him because he's very
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progressorial. He teaches when he answers questions. And I'm pleased to say that we have crowdfunded
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his legal fees. Him and he has had two junior lawyers. He's been working on this case for two years.
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And I know from my previous conversations with him and Tamer Leach that Tamer Leach intends to
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appeal her convictions. So I don't know if they're going to appeal the sentence as well. When you
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appeal the conviction, and if you were successful, then there would be no need for any sense at all,
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of course, if you found he's on his video. Anyways, I'm just going to turn the camera around a little
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bit so you can see there are some protest sides here. And you can see inside there are a lot of cops,
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which is a bit rich. I think the Ottawa Police Service has some psychological trauma from the
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truckers. If they're literally sending 16s off, and those are just the ones that I counted.
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I think they haven't got over it. I think the Ottawa Police were just raising the country. And that's
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not just my opinion. According to the Federal Court of Canada, the invocation of the Emergencies Act
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and the conduct of police in its aftermath, including the arbitrary search and seizure
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and shutting down of bank accounts of anyone who was there, including the spouses. A lot of people,
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of course, share a bank account with their spouse. And imagine you're a mom who had a grocery
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store and suddenly none of your credit cards worked because your husband was at a protest
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and some liberal politician said, hey, shut down this guy's bank account. He's a trucker.
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Absolutely abusive. The Federal Court of Canada itself found that to be illegal
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and unconstitutional. I think the Ottawa Police Service has some explaining to do, but
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they don't really ever explain now, do they? So anyways, I'm out here with this huge crowd.
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I would say it's fair to say that in addition to the regime media, there's dozens of independent
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media, got a lot of people who are just plain old Tamara Leach and Chris Barber supporters.
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I think that if you were to ask me where are Tamara Leach and Chris Barber right now,
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I think they're actually doing paperwork with what they call the supervisor. I think that may be a
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newfangled way of saying parole or probation officer. So they're doing the paperwork. And one of the
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things the judge said is that the responsibility for enforcing this house arrest will be shifted to
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their respective homes. Oh, I see Lawrence is on his way out. He's the lawyer
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for Tamara Leach. Okay. Then we'll do our best to let him move now.
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You guys gonna back it up. That means all in the door.
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Lawrence Greenspun here. Mr. Greenspun, how many people do you think the Freedom Convoy positively impacted?
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Well, in our submissions, I said thousands, if not tens of thousands. But we received letters of
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support from hundreds of people. We've received messages. Tamara has received messages. So
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this was one of those rare cases where I was able to say to the judge, there was some very positive
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things that happened as a result of this, what was found to be an offense. And the positive is that
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there are a lot of people who were inspired by Tamara's example. A lot of people who were lifted up
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and given oath by what she did. Are you satisfied with the verdict or the set scene today, sir?
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Yes. The main objective was to make sure she didn't spend one more day in jail. And that was achieved.
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So yes, in that sense, we are still very seriously considering it a meal of the conviction.
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Yeah, okay. We need a little bit of an agent as far as the safety goes.
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We're pleased that she is not going to be spending any more time in jail.
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Do you think there's been a double standard with how the truckers have been treated
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with jailing, prosecution, enormous resources, compared to the pro-Hamas protests
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that blocked streets in Ottawa, Toronto, Montreal and elsewhere? Is there a double standard on the streets?
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I think that this case, on its own, demonstrates the conflict between freedom of expression and
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peaceful assembly. And as contrasted with some of the other protests that you're referring to,
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the pro-Palestinian protests, there's definitely a different way that those are being treated as opposed
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to the way that this peaceful assembly and freedom of expression was treated in this moment.
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Lawrence, was there a balance struck by the judge in this case, in terms of freedom of expression,
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No. No. There was none. And in Canada, constitutionally protected freedom of speech,
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which encourages peaceful assembly, must prevail over the rights of property owners,
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the enjoyment of property. That's not an equal balance. And that's the primary basis that we're
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considering for an appeal of conviction. What do you think the post effects will be? I mean,
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even if you might be happy with the results, or as of now, what do you think just takes the feeling
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of free speech very forward? The process, of course, the pre-trial custody? I'm concerned that going
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forward individuals who advocate peaceful assembly, and that's all that Tamara did was talk about
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peaceful assembly and encourage people to come to Ottawa to assemble peacefully and lawfully.
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That's all she did. And if that becomes, and at this point, it remains criminal. It's been found to
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be the offense of mischief. If that's allowed to stand, then I'm very concerned about the future of
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freedom of expression in this country. Lois for appealing Ms. Luigi's conviction. We're, we're
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seriously considering an appeal of the conviction for mischief. What about the impact on the
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piece of awareness that Jake also knows that he didn't get impressed here on his diversity? There was,
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there is definitely, and that was something that we were prepared to admit right at the beginning
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of the trial, that there was an impact on the people and businesses in the core of the city of
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Ottawa. Uh, freedom of freedom of expression and peaceful assembly do not come without some price.
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And in a, in a contest between the two, peaceful assembly, freedom of expression that encourages
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that, should win every time. Mr. Greenspan? Nowhere in the constitution are the property rights or the
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enjoyment of property to be found. Freedom of expression, peaceful assembly are fundamental freedoms
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that are supposed to be protected by the charter. Mr. Greenspan, were you surprised by the sentence today?
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Uh, the federation? Given, given the reign, uh, absolute discharge to seven years,
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uh, there was really, there's really nothing that could surprise me. What, what surprised me was that
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in 45 years of doing this work, I've never been this far apart from the Crown in terms of a sentencing
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position. The judge, the judge made comments about the Crown Sentencing Commission, and I'll, I'll leave you to that.
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Has Ms. Leach ever expressed any type of remorse for her role in this, even though she did not
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advocate for violence, but it resulted in 65 million dollars of belief costs.
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You heard the portion of the, uh, of the letter that she wrote, and she recognized,
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as did Mr. Barber, that there were many people in the downtown Goran businesses that were affected by
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the Freedom Harbour. She doesn't deny that. Uh, that the question, the question of it then,
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was there remorse for what she did? No. She pled not guilty. She's been found guilty of mischief.
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And we're seriously looking at a feeling that. Do you think Camara actually saved her?
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She may have saved her life by her advocate. Thank you.
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She may have. One, one thing we know, uh, is that there were men and lies, many people that were
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inspired by her example, but it said in the union how she did it. There were lies that were changed as a
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result of her standing up on the path with many thousands of people, perhaps even tens of
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parents. So her life saved, I don't know, but, uh, may well have been. May well have been.
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I mean, some could stay, but you said something else.
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Did you say, uh, so live on Philip's, the bigs,
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I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean, I mean,
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I mean, I mean, it's really big, what do I make?
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Do you have anything more to do with James Bowders or is that facields?
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No, I think she canvassed all of the, as many of the protest cases that were familiar with the Antifa protests generally involved violence and damage to property.
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So, there would have been no point in her, you know, mentioning those and then saying, but they don't apply in this case.
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He mentioned something I would impeach in a remorse. What did you say to her?
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What I said is, no, she has not indicated to the court that she's remorseful for what she did.
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Well, I'm going to take a few steps away from this drum.
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Lawrence Skritt, sponsor, and the man of the hour outside the courthouse here.
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What I learned from his remarks is something he said before, is that in our Canadian constitution, property rights do not trump freedom of speech.
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Now, we love both property rights and freedom of speech, but he does have a point.
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The Charter of Rights mentions freedom of speech. It does not mention property rights.
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And in a protest situation like the Tracker Convoy, don't be surprised if some dainty people are put out by some noisy grotesque.
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The second thing, which he said clearly, is that they have not yet officially decided whether to appeal the conviction, but they're seriously considering it.
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I had understood previously that they were going to appeal.
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If that's the case, we'll certainly crowd fund it through the Democracy Fund.
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It's a little bit crowded there, and I managed to sort of get beyond hearing range, but it shows you the tremendous interest in this case.
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So, I'm going to try and film just a little bit more.
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It also fleshed out there that things happen in the first place.
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If that's the case, it happens in the first year, and, uh, the...
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Where they were directed as a goal, it should have been an issue.
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And it very quickly clarified that this use of the mating of trucks to reduce the footprint was something that was stopped, not by the, uh, convoy organizers, but rather stopped by the chief.
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What's the decision to convict Tamara Leach for a mischief for what she did?
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In the name of peace or Assembling and Freedom of Expression is something that we're looking to energy as they're challenging further on.
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Mr. Greenspan, there's been a lot of misunderstandings and message information about this entire process.
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If there's one thing that communicates with the people of Canada that may have not been properly communicated, maybe lost in the weeds, what would that be?
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It's this message. It's that freedom of expression has to mean something when it is encouraging peaceful assembly.
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And those two things are both constitutionally protected fundamental freedoms.
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That has to mean something. And it has to mean, unfortunately for some, that it prevails over the right to enjoyment of property, which is nowhere to be found in our charter of rights and freedoms.
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Good job, Larry. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Greenspan.
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Hi, everybody. Ezra Levant here. I'm in a cab headed from the Ottawa courthouse to the airport.
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I just want to give you a quick update super quickly on the case of Tamara Leach and Chris Barber, the two co-accused who were charged with mischief and other offenses in relation to the trucker convoy in early 2022.
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They were found guilty a few months ago. And today, finally, the judge, Justice Heather Perkins McVeigh, issued her sentencing.
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Now, the Doug Ford's prosecutors, remember, it's not Justin Trudeau or Mark Carney who's prosecuting, it's Doug Ford.
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Doug Ford's prosecutors wanted seven years in prison for Tamara Leach and eight for Chris Barber.
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The defense wanted what's called an absolute discharge, which is basically we all walk away as if, you know, you know, we just walk away.
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I mean, of course, Tamara Leach has already spent 49 days in prison.
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The judge rejected both of those, but came much closer to the defense proposal.
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Neither Chris Barber nor Tamara Leach will spend another minute in jail.
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Unfortunately, though, they'll have a conditional sentence for 18 months, of which a year will be under house arrest.
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They have to stay on their property unless they're working, going for legal, medical, or dental appointments, five hours a week allowed for shopping, and a handful of other exceptions.
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Now, I suppose it's possible to get a job that permits them to travel widely.
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And I think by comparison to the terrorist Omar Khadr, who didn't have any conditions when he came back to Canada.
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In fact, he got a ten and a half million dollar check from the government.
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And in fact, one of my questions that I put to Lawrence Greenspan in the scrum afterwards, actually I put it to both defense lawyers, was,
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can you comment on the double standard between how these peaceful trucker protesters are being abused by police and prosecutors versus how the pro-Hamas protesters take great liberties every day?
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And I think both realized I was right, but they didn't want to dive into that pesky issue.
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Anyways, I'll have full reports later on rebelnews.com.
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And if you want to help be part of the solution, go to helptamara.com and you can chip in to help cover her legal fees for defense.
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I'm in the back of a car on the way to the airport, but I promise you my report in the main will be a lot more steady.
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Just in the cab on the way to the airport, it's a bit bumpy and a bit rainy.
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I had two more thoughts that I don't think I expressed in my little commentary outside the courthouse.
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The first is the judge repeatedly talked about how much the city of Ottawa spent, including on policing.
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I think she said $55 million, as if that were all attributable to two truckers, Tamara Leach and Chris Barber.
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And had they not been there, the city wouldn't have had to incur those expenses.
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Well, the first response to that is it's a city.
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And when you're the capital city, expect to have protests from time to time in your capital.
00:27:18.740
Part of the price of a capital city is that is a place where people are allowed to come protest.
00:27:22.880
But if that's the argument, oh, my God, that cost enforced and foisted on taxpayers, what was the cost of the lockdowns?
00:27:32.820
What was the cost of the you're not allowed to work orders?
00:27:36.580
You're not allowed to go to school orders in the billions, maybe in the hundreds of billions, maybe even in the trillions.
00:27:43.560
But the idea that this trucker convoy harmed the economy is a laugh.
00:27:49.060
I was here, as you remember, for a few days at the beginning of the convoy.
00:27:52.680
And it was the first time that many convenience stores and restaurants had any customers because the truckers were not afraid to go out for a bite.
00:28:00.020
And the second thing, and I don't know if I emphasized it, but I think it was Judy Trim from CTV, she asked a question if the sentences here would deter other protesters, like at the ostrich farm in B.C.
00:28:15.080
And I thought, look at how the regime connects the dots.
00:28:18.140
Look at how they're thinking already, as if the ostrich protesters are evil people who need to be prosecuted, jailed.
00:28:27.080
In fact, the only people who have done anything wrong and who have engaged in any violence, to be quite literal, is the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, which has killed at least one, maybe two ostriches without legal right.
00:28:40.920
But imagine being a regime journalist based in Ottawa thinking, how can I blame the ostrich people?
00:28:48.880
Can we perhaps get the idea of police brutality and prosecutorial vendettas against them, too?
00:28:57.380
Anyways, I'm on my way to the airport, got to get back to Toronto.
00:29:03.180
I'm delighted to have the privilege to report it to you, and in some cases, to be part of the solution.
00:29:08.840
As you know, we have helped Tamara Leach in a number of ways.
00:29:11.300
We published her excellent autobiography called Hold the Line.
00:29:15.240
And if you believe in crowdfunding her legal fees like I do, you can do that at helptamara.com.
00:29:55.240
It was so crazy, and you could see the maliciousness, the malice of the regime media in that moment.
00:30:01.880
Now, speaking of ostriches, our friend Drea Humphrey, who I call the queen of the ostriches,
00:30:07.180
she is still on location along with other rebels, including Sheila Gunn-Reed,
00:30:11.340
who has just arrived on the scene in Edgewood, British Columbia.
00:30:15.080
I tell you, I really enjoyed my brief visit there.
00:30:20.140
But if I had more time, and let me say this, if you are in British Columbia or Alberta or even more adventurous from further afield,
00:30:27.780
and you want to get an interesting feeling of populist, activist, grassroots, Canadian freedom lovers,
00:30:37.720
I was there fairly briefly, but even in my brief time there, I loved the feeling, and it did indeed remind me of the festival feeling,
00:30:46.320
the unity feeling that I encountered when I was at the trucker convoy in early 2022.
00:30:52.380
So, I know it sounds sort of unusual, but if you have time, and if you are political,
00:30:58.720
and if you've got like a camper van, or I mean, some people are even sleeping in their cars,
00:31:02.840
there are porta-potties, there's a sort of a group kitchen, like there are some amenities, they're not much.
00:31:08.200
It's pretty, I mean, you want to bring your own stuff.
00:31:10.460
But it's something that I would encourage you to consider doing.
00:31:14.340
I certainly enjoyed my time there, and I think Drea is too.
00:31:16.660
Anyways, Drea was out there at the ostrich farm, and she did streeters asking people there what they thought of Tamera Leach.
00:31:24.360
I should say Tamera was recently at the ostrich farm.
00:31:34.260
Drea Humphrey here with Rebel News at Universal Ostrich Farms.
00:31:37.660
I want to speak with some of the supporters of the farm's plight against the Canadian Food Inspection Agency
00:31:43.560
who remains on their property over there trying to call their healthy flock.
00:31:50.320
I want to get the supporters' opinions on the news that's come out on the Freedom Convoy.
00:31:57.480
Leaders, Tamera Leach, Chris Barber, receiving no jail time, but very, very stiff conditions.
00:32:07.500
There is an overlap to the Freedom Convoy, so I'm told.
00:32:11.040
When it comes to the food, the donations that are coming in and the hard-working people that make sure everybody here is fed.
00:32:18.960
Now, the farmers don't know when donations are coming in, so if you come to camp,
00:32:23.200
they, of course, still ask you to be prepared to feed yourself, but so far it's been good.
00:32:35.660
What were your thoughts, both Chris Barber and Tamera Leach not having to go to jail again?
00:32:48.340
I can't be more happy for them, and now we're on this one.
00:32:53.040
What do you make of the stiff sentences, though?
00:32:55.340
They're still getting a lot of conditions to Tamera Leach on house arrest for a complete year.
00:33:02.020
Chris Barber has his conditional 18-month sentence.
00:33:05.820
What do you make of that, and how long this whole mischief of trial has gone on?
00:33:20.640
And I don't think they should have got nothing.
00:33:27.040
Do you think there's any overlap between your stand here at the Freedom, see, I'm calling
00:33:32.580
it the Freedom Farm, the ostrich farm, and the Freedom Convoy?
00:33:44.320
They're people standing up for what they believe in.
00:33:52.940
Both of them are, and they're both being unjustly punished by the government's own ideas of the
00:34:08.960
It's horrible that people, both sides, Freedom Convoy and these guys, have to go through so much pain and
00:34:19.560
everything to bring to light how corrupt our government is.
00:34:29.320
I mean, we thought, thank you very much, we thought during COVID we had constitutional rights.
00:34:34.360
One of those was the right to peacefully gather.
00:34:37.000
And in many ways we saw that wasn't true during COVID, but it was the ultimate, you know, test
00:34:42.420
when we saw the brutal force and impact that the officers did.
00:34:47.400
But the injustice of the overlap I'm seeing here between the ostrich farm and the convoy
00:34:52.500
is the injustice of the tax dollars being sent to go after peaceful people.
00:34:57.680
Again, if you haven't been following this, there is a standoff that's been going on for two weeks
00:35:02.560
as the Canadian Food Inspection Agency sits and seizes the herd of nearly 400 ostriches
00:35:10.020
that they want to call who are not sick based on an illness that swept through the farm 10 months ago.
00:35:18.260
They've got tons of cops here every day, shift chains, all of that.
00:35:22.980
And that reminds me of this mischief trial in a way.
00:35:30.440
Now, of course, our founder, Ezra Levant, has been on the scene reporting every second of the way.
00:35:37.380
I'm going to read his exact reporting of the conditions.
00:35:41.100
First, the decision which was made by Justice Heather Perkins.
00:35:53.980
And Ezra says this, there are terrorists out on bail with fewer conditions than what he received.
00:36:01.200
Also, Tamara Leach, what a gross, sloppy, whiny judge carrying out errands for the political establishment.
00:36:10.140
So he says Chris Barber must remain on his own property during the first 12 months except for employment of traveling to and from any legal, medical or dental appointments or religious services.
00:36:26.140
Once a week for up to five hours, he can go shopping.
00:36:45.440
Conditional sentence of 18 months, less time already spent in custody.
00:36:53.460
And remember, they spent a lot of time already.
00:36:57.720
So conditional sentence, as we said, first 12 months, house arrest.
00:37:03.540
So we saw Barbara had some exceptions for working, it looks like.
00:37:20.460
Five hours a week for shopping can go to her grandchild's birth.
00:37:25.640
So she's a grandma, that's right, who took a stand for Canada and has been paying the price ever since.
00:37:32.940
Remaining 3.5 months of curfew will be 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., except for medical emergencies.
00:37:41.020
And, of course, Chris Barber also has, you know, a curfew for his remaining sentence, too.
00:37:48.340
They're getting some wood together here, over here.
00:37:51.000
Can I ask you about the news with Barber and Leach?
00:37:54.960
Very happy that Chris is not being sentenced and most likely will be free.
00:38:20.260
That's the second part I want to ask you about.
00:38:27.180
They actually can't come here because they have really stiff conditions.
00:38:32.920
So Tamara Leach is on house arrest for an entire year.
00:38:36.760
Well, it's just, to me, it's not an offence that he deserves a sentencing of that length.
00:38:52.440
There's bigger criminals out there, like the polling, for example, community stuff.
00:38:58.400
So he's done, obviously, worse things than protest and convoys.
00:39:02.120
So we need to get our justice system sorted out.
00:39:06.900
And even the funding here, I think it's $500,000 a day for the cops and all that.
00:39:11.580
But that could be used for fentanyl, for real criminals.
00:39:17.780
Tell us a little bit about what you guys are doing here.
00:39:23.180
They just donated us a couple cords of wood for free.
00:39:30.600
We're just working in the kitchen and getting hemp sorted out.
00:39:33.400
We'll be watching the gate one more day and keep the fight up.
00:39:50.220
You see everybody working together to keep people warm.
00:40:01.400
I should point out that with Chris Barber, the prosecutor was asking for eight years.
00:40:10.900
Let me see if I can bug these guys who are working hard, too.
00:40:20.240
I was really concerned that if they got jail time, it would be really bad.
00:40:26.960
But the fact that these people who didn't do anything got charged for what they did,
00:40:30.780
and now they're going to spend 12 months under house arrest and six months probation, three months.
00:40:36.920
I'm glad and I'm happy that they're not going to spend time in jail.
00:40:48.020
I thought, you know, maybe they're going to throw them in jail just to prove a point.
00:40:51.300
But the point has already proven what they're saying.
00:40:57.360
I know you were involved with the Trucker Convoy in some ways supporting that.
00:41:03.920
Do you see any overlap, connection between these two?
00:41:13.640
Do you know, when you were at the Trucker Convoy, the thing that you couldn't kind of tell on the news
00:41:17.380
was how everybody was just so happy and generous and loving.
00:41:22.280
It's kind of like a Woodstock-y feel, like a winter Woodstock-y feel.
00:41:37.400
As much as I saw people praying at the Trucker Convoy, it's prominent here now.
00:41:44.700
And the vibe wasn't always what it is right now.
00:41:49.760
Like, it's like we're not, at first we were shocked and angry and crying and all that.
00:42:03.480
One is to save the ostriches and the other is to support the family.
00:42:07.060
And any time the camp or anybody else gets off track, it's because they forget one of those
00:42:12.000
And as long as we remember it, like people are remembering without having to be told.
00:42:17.340
It feels like the Trucker Convoy in so many ways.
00:42:19.900
And I've said this right from many, many months ago, that this has the potential to impact
00:42:25.400
more than the Trucker Convoy just because it crosses boundaries.
00:42:33.300
It's busting through the echo chamber because you can't vilify ostriches.
00:42:43.740
But even she's like, no, why are they testing these birds?
00:42:49.420
And also it still has the same elements of going after big pharma and saying, hey, there's
00:42:57.300
And it's incorporated trade issue into all of this, which of course has been the biggest
00:43:05.620
So it is quite remarkable how much is at stake with that flock where the farmers and supporters
00:43:15.920
Now this is, I want to get you to say your name.
00:43:25.880
That's just my name that I got in the ceremony years ago.
00:43:33.400
What do you make of the big news so far today about Tamara Leach and Chris Barber?
00:43:45.020
No, we were talking and I told Nate everything's going to be okay.
00:43:55.140
And they're going to be free and stuff like that.
00:44:02.160
Any words about seeing it, you know, come official?
00:44:13.440
And it's amazing that, you know, they even looked at it.
00:44:27.020
So first, tell us about the news of the day, what you think about it.
00:44:29.640
Okay, so everybody, Tamara Leach and Chris Barber are not going to prison,
00:44:35.300
but there's still conditions, 12 months health rest, I think, for Tamara.
00:44:43.380
And she's not even allowed to leave Saskatchewan.
00:44:51.380
I was a big part of the freedom convoy right along with them.
00:44:56.120
You know, I've touched base with him here and there throughout the whole thing.
00:44:59.180
I didn't meet Tamara, actually, until not that long ago.
00:45:03.480
And, yeah, I think the politicians would have been committing political suicide
00:45:09.180
if they honestly would have thrown them in jail.
00:45:13.020
You know, looking at our economy, the drug addictions, the overdose,
00:45:16.300
the mental health, people going broke all over the country,
00:45:19.660
going homeless, you know, encampments everywhere.
00:45:24.840
And I think if they would have thrown them in jail,
00:45:26.980
they probably would have tipped people over the deep end to an extreme level.
00:45:31.040
So they probably made that choice to, you know,
00:45:34.640
let them not go to prison, you know, out of their best interest.
00:45:39.500
And what reason would they have to give the eight-year sentence
00:45:48.220
why you've been coming back and forth at the farm,
00:45:50.520
and what it, how it connects to the Freedom Convoy.
00:45:57.580
just like what was happening in COVID with the masks
00:46:04.400
And then you have a government body coming to this family farm
00:46:18.440
And obviously, they don't need to be killed, you know.
00:46:22.220
And there's something not right about this picture,
00:46:24.580
just like there was something not right about COVID.
00:46:28.560
Government overreach, that's what we're seeing.
00:46:36.960
And I'm just, I'm happy you're not going to prison.
00:46:47.900
The narrative was that they were actual terrorists.
00:46:55.860
Can I ask you guys what you think about today's big news today?
00:47:06.960
Yeah, I mean, I think any sentence is preposterous, honestly.
00:47:12.280
However, it's a lot less than I think what was threatened
00:47:19.340
And I think big picture, I'm sure if you asked them,
00:47:26.620
And so I think, like, I know several people that through COVID
00:47:33.860
And every single person that I know who did that personally
00:47:36.580
was greatly rewarded for taking a stand for themselves
00:47:47.160
that it's always worth following your conscience.
00:47:50.460
I mean, it really sucks that they're not technically free right now.
00:47:57.700
and gotten the consequences and everybody else,
00:48:09.920
I'm here to help fight the fight for the ostriches.
00:48:15.860
Definitely should be other ways to help fight the virus.
00:48:19.160
So, and if the healthy birds get killed today or tomorrow
00:48:29.600
They can come after your farm animals at any other point.
00:48:36.340
And you've been here for a while, coming and going.
00:48:49.160
Even though there's a stay order, they're still here.
00:49:11.140
They're not just here acting as a natural agency
00:49:24.700
and treat them as though they possibly have a life to live
00:49:39.660
is the theatrical nature of a lot of our federal agencies.
00:49:54.640
of what we were just talking a few minutes ago,
00:49:57.980
listening to that inner knowing of right and wrong.
00:50:02.420
is someone who will override that system themselves.
00:50:20.700
I know I've spoken to Tamara Leach and Chris Barber.
00:50:47.140
not only representing the hundreds of thousands of people
00:50:54.640
And so we're seeing the longest mischief trial unfold.
00:50:58.100
And we are definitely seeing the longest CFIA standoff unfold
00:51:36.460
We're going to let them take this to Supreme Court.
00:51:44.740
have to take this big, super safe blue fence down
00:51:49.480
and have to file out of here the way they came in.
00:51:54.160
that's what Rebel News is going to be bringing you.
00:53:26.420
Anyways, let me read some of your letters to me