Western Standard - Tamara Lich & Chris Barber Trial： Justice or Politics？｜ The Pipeline

00:00:00.000 Let's get on with personal agendas, vendettas. The longest mischief trial in Canadian history

00:00:06.640 has reached its final phase now with sentencing. I think nobody was shocked that they found Tamera

00:00:13.040 Leach and Chris Barber guilty, but now we're at what would be the conclusion of this, I guess,

00:00:18.320 with a sentence. Well, you know, this is sort of over tight with what we were speaking about

00:00:22.480 just a moment ago about how the government is trying to manage people rather than govern.

00:00:28.480 Yeah, the sentencing hearing for Tamera Leach and Chris Barber got started earlier today,

00:00:32.720 and I'm going to say that how their case turns out is going to be one of those situations where,

00:00:38.560 in the rearview mirror, everything you need to know about who runs Canada and how it is run,

00:00:45.200 we'll be there to see. So a quick rundown. Let's just look back. A few months ago, Leach and Barber

00:00:51.280 were found guilty of mischief on charges arising from their activities at the time of the Conway

00:00:56.160 in 2022. And the Crown is seeking a prison sentence of seven years for Leach and eight

00:01:02.640 years for Barber. Now, this is for mischief. You know, mischief is kicking over outhouses and

00:01:08.160 causing a ruckus in the back alley at midnight. But they charged them for mischief, and I guess the

00:01:14.720 law permits sentences of this size. And Barber was also convicted of counseling others to disobey a

00:01:22.640 court order, which is why they're looking for a higher sentence from him. This, of course,

00:01:27.600 is a little outrageous when you actually know and feel the issue. When people get half,

00:01:34.320 people don't get seven years for killing each other. You know, we had a story just in the last

00:01:39.200 week about somebody who attacked his girlfriend, stabbed her three times, hit her over the head with

00:01:44.560 a lead pipe in three years, you know. I mean, if the government likes your point of view,

00:01:50.480 you can cause all the mischief you like and you won't get charged. So really what happened here

00:01:56.640 was that the Convoy and all those activities exposed the intellectual nudity of the Trudeau regime.

00:02:03.600 And governments hate to be exposed like that. So they cracked down hard. And you'll remember how the

00:02:10.320 bank accounts were attached and how they were listening in on the cell phones and some fairly

00:02:17.120 vigorous suppression of public gatherings there. People getting charged with horses and so forth and

00:02:23.360 so on. But, you know, the provincial premiers were... This was all about control. The provincial

00:02:32.240 premiers were told that they wouldn't get federal money unless they cooperated with what was often a

00:02:38.320 nonsensical plan. I mean, we're seeing now that the vaccines were not universally safe and not

00:02:45.520 universally effective. But we were told at the time, we've got to do this. And this, of course, was where

00:02:51.200 this started. It came when truckers... Very solitary occupation, being a trucker. You're in the cab,

00:02:58.080 you don't have too much company. And they were advised, cross-border truckers, very late in the pandemic,

00:03:03.200 that suddenly they had to be vaccinated. Well, they knew that there was no difference between a virus

00:03:10.240 on the American side of the border and on the virus on the Canadian side.

00:03:15.120 And they knew what we all suspected, that the vaccine didn't do anything for you. So,

00:03:22.640 in short, the truckers knew that the Trudeau government's vaccine mandate for them had nothing

00:03:27.120 to do with science and everything to do with politics. And so they said enough. And we all know

00:03:33.120 what happened. And there won't be any apologies coming from the government either. So, look, that's the...

00:03:39.600 These two people are in a very awkward spot. My guess is, if you want to guess, is that they'll be...

00:03:47.920 They're already found guilty. They'll be given a stiff sentence. And then, as a generous act of

00:03:53.360 condescension, they will be suspended or not... They won't actually go to jail. But the messages

00:03:59.680 out there don't mess with us. We're in charge. Yeah, I hope you're correct in that sense. And

00:04:04.720 I suspect the sentence will be similar in that. I mean, they've been found guilty. That portion's done.

00:04:09.040 The hearings were held. Maybe there'll be an appeal. Who knows? But now it's what will be

00:04:13.760 the appropriate punishment. Both of them did, again, an excessive amount of time pre-court, you know,

00:04:19.680 without bail for a mischief charge. And that tends to be considered triple time served. I think a

00:04:27.840 judge could come in and say, you know, don't do it again. There's your time. This is your suspended

00:04:31.360 sentence. But it's what the Crown is asking for is still outrageous. Just as I was driving in this

00:04:36.960 morning, I was listening about a horrific case just today in Calgary. The Crown has submitted on a case

00:04:43.040 where two parents tortured their 18-month-old to death and they've been convicted. The Crown is

00:04:49.280 asking for eight years. So the Crown considers that sort of crime to be on par with what Leach and

00:04:56.160 Barber did. I mean, I understand the Crown can ask for whatever they like. It's up to the judge in the

00:05:00.160 end. But that says a lot about how they're viewing this particular offense versus, you know, some of the

00:05:07.840 stuff I think that is almost universally people could say is horrible and deserves the full extent

00:05:13.920 of the law. The other part is, they want to make an example, but would a harsher sentence be

00:05:21.520 preventative? Does it look like Barber or Leach are going to start another convoy? Does it look like

00:05:25.440 they're at risk of putting the public at risk any longer? I haven't seen any indication of that.

00:05:30.640 Erica, I would think the judge would take those things into account. Again, I mean, he's found them

00:05:35.280 guilty, but I don't think you'll be inspired to give them an excessive incarceration or anything.

00:05:41.440 Well, I would hope not. I think the challenge we're facing right now is that this is political

00:05:47.200 and this is, you know, I haven't been tracking, unfortunately, but the appointment of the judges

00:05:53.520 is federal. And so we've seen a big surgence of the judicial being influenced by appointments by

00:06:00.720 the federal government over the last decade, even the Supreme Court, because Harper hadn't filled

00:06:05.120 many of those vacancies. And so we're in a situation where the judicial system, I think,

00:06:09.360 is trying to set an example by these individuals. But I mean, if you're comparing and contrasting

00:06:14.720 their crime, which they've already been found guilty of, especially on the mischief file, it's

00:06:20.320 like, well, what happened to all those people that ruined statues and violated public property and

00:06:26.800 decided to light churches on fire, like things like that? What is their punishment? And if it's not

00:06:33.040 equal to what we're seeing from Barbara and Lynch, like, why is that the case? And how are the values

00:06:40.160 and beliefs being penetrated to our judicial system? So that's my first concern. The second part is kind

00:06:46.800 of coming back to what I was talking about with Parks Canada. It's like, does the judicial system not

00:06:52.000 realize the huge impact we have on human trafficking right now or domestic abuse? I mean, every day, even on

00:06:59.280 LinkedIn, I'm seeing stories of women across Canada being killed because of the fact that we don't 1.00

00:07:06.480 have harsh punishment for those dealing with domestic violence. And we don't have the right services to

00:07:12.800 protect those women and children and men in some cases, or even elder abuse, right? Like, I think

00:07:18.080 that this is one where it's just so political that my jaw will not drop if this sentence is higher than we

00:07:25.200 think it should be. But that is completely inappropriate and completely, you know, unfounded

00:07:32.000 that it's comparing these two cases that are far like the one you use, that are far more

00:07:39.440 consequential to society. Like, I don't think they're going to get out and be the first thing they're

00:07:44.160 going to do is go start another protester convoy. Like, I think they've learned their lesson. They've

00:07:49.040 served copious amounts of time. And hopefully that gets taken into consideration. But I wouldn't be

00:07:54.480 surprised if this was to politicize and make an example out of these individuals. So we'll see

00:08:02.320 what happens. I unfortunately don't have confidence in the judicial process given the penetration by the

00:08:10.320 government and political values being jammed down their throats. So hopefully this judge has a better

00:08:15.920 conscience than the Liberal government.

00:08:17.760 You know, you've brought that to the right point in the discussion, Erica. You're talking

00:08:26.080 about the politicization of the judiciary. I had the papers put in my hands a few years ago about people

00:08:33.600 who wanted to be judges. I always thought that, you know, to be a judge, somebody tapped you on the

00:08:38.160 shoulder and said, you know, you fit. But no, you just put an application in if you're qualified at all.

00:08:46.160 And so what's on the qualification form? It's very interesting. It's a very woke agenda that they are

00:08:55.920 so they're looking for a certain type of person who thinks a certain type of way.

00:09:00.320 And neither Corey nor I would qualify. And it wouldn't purely be on our lack of

00:09:04.800 legal training. I might from the gender I check, but then you do a background check on me and they

00:09:10.640 probably I don't fit onto their inclusive narrative. Erica, that's your next stop on your regimen.

00:09:17.840 Point being, but that's the- It's probably similar to the Senate application.

00:09:22.000 You just stayed a different prime minister, I think.

00:09:25.120 But anyway, so that's, so the system is stacked, but it harks back to what we were talking about a

00:09:30.480 little earlier about the way that the government is trying to influence Canadians, who they are,

00:09:36.240 what they think, what they can do. And the convoy was a challenge to that whole way of thinking.

00:09:44.720 So they are absolutely going to focus their hatred. Let's not beat around the bush. They don't like

00:09:55.680 Leach and Barber. They're going to focus that on those two individuals as a warning to everybody

00:10:03.040 else. And you know what the proof of this is going to be? One of our columnists pointed this out

00:10:07.200 yesterday. He said, in the West, Leach and Barber will be heroes. In the East, they will be widely

00:10:14.880 and universally disparaged. Well, and I mean- And that our democracy might not be a democracy,

00:10:20.880 but a dictatorship. Maybe that might be an undertone. Well, and just to look from, you know,

00:10:26.000 to close it off, like from political motive, if that's indeed the thing, I would think politically,

00:10:30.160 the liberals, especially with the new prime minister, just want to put this one to bed.

00:10:33.440 It's been years, you know, give them a suspended sentence, get it out of off the docket and stop

00:10:38.720 people from hearing about it. But if they give them time in federal prison, they're going to reignite

00:10:44.000 this and they're going to martyr them. And it's not going to have the effect of calming the protests.

00:10:48.720 It might spawn a whole new one. And I just think if the judge is looking from that perspective too,

00:10:55.360 everybody's just kind of better off by getting this thing finished and into the history books

00:10:58.880 rather than a current problem. But we'll see. Nothing surprises in this country anymore.

Western Standard - July 24, 2025

Tamara Lich & Chris Barber Trial： Justice or Politics？｜ The Pipeline

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript

Western Standard - July 24, 2025

Tamara Lich & Chris Barber Trial： Justice or Politics？ ｜ The Pipeline

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript

Tamara Lich & Chris Barber Trial： Justice or Politics？｜ The Pipeline