You may remember Tamara Lich from my articles on the Finklethink Convoy. My opinion of her then was that she was a somewhat well-meaning alt-lite grifter type.
Well she got arrested back in February, and now they’re fucking with her for violating the incredibly bullshit bail conditions they gave her.
CBC:
Tamara Lich admitted in court Thursday that accepting an award for organizing the Freedom Convoy “is related” to the convoy, but testified she doesn’t believe she violated a bail condition not to support anything related to the protest that occupied some downtown Ottawa streets for weeks.
She has been out on bail since March 7, bound by another Superior Court justice’s order not to “verbally, in writing, financially, or by any other means, support anything related to the Freedom Convoy,” and to stay out of Ontario, among other conditions.
My opinion of the legal system in Canada only ever goes down. I’m surprised that the judges even have the authority to ban people from speaking in favour of some non-criminal activity as a condition of bail. They may or may not actually have this power, but I’m quite sure they put that in purely so they could find Lich violating these incredibly broad bail rules, where if she talks about the Finklethink Convoy in any way that can be construed as somewhat positive, she gets to go to jail and be punished on top of that.
She also testified she would “love to attend” an event in Toronto in June to accept a freedom award, “however I won’t be breaching my bail conditions in order to do so.”
On March 28, a charity called the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms emailed Lich to notify her she’d been selected for its 2022 George Jonas Freedom Award, she told court.
The email, which she read aloud, said the honour was being given “in recognition of your leadership role in the Freedom Convoy.”
The award announcement on the centre’s website states Lich “took the initiative to help organize a peaceful protest and serve as one of its leaders. The resulting peaceful protest in Ottawa awakened many Canadians to the injustice of Charter-violating lockdowns and mandatory vaccination policies.”
It also states she “suffered for the cause of freedom by spending 18 days unjustly jailed, and exemplifies courage, determination and perseverance.”
The day after receiving the email, Lich emailed back to say she was “honoured” to accept. She didn’t inquire about whether it would be OK, she testified under cross examination by Karimjee.
Asked whether by accepting the award she was supporting something related to the convoy, Lich said, “I guess, yeah. I guess so.
This is so ridiculous. There is no compelling legal reason why she could be denied bail because she accepted an award for her work in the Finklethink Convoy. Absolutely no reason at all.
“I don’t feel that this is a breach. I don’t feel that that’s what the recognition is for. … I feel that the recognition is for inspiring Canadians to hold the government to account to the rule of law and to uphold their Charter rights,” she continued.
“I guess it is related, because of what happened,” she added.
This is one of the ways that the legal system is designed to humiliate the peasants. They force you to accept the premise. In this case, said premise is that preventing Tamara from publicly accepting an award is good and just. This is absurd.
Now get a load of how entitled the prosecution lawyer is.
Just before a 15-minute late afternoon break, Phillips told court Karimjee’s decorum surprised him, and asked Karimjee to “contemplate that.”
When court reconvened Karimjee said he was just “doing my job” and began to list some of his problems with the justice’s remarks and rulings, including that Phillips had earlier refused to allow the email notifying Lich about her award to be submitted to court.
Phillips interrupted. “I’m not interested in an argument,” the justice told the Crown. “Proceed with your cross examination.”
“No, I’m not arguing with you —” Karimjee began.
“I don’t want to engage in this,” Phillips interrupted again. “Proceed with your cross examination. I don’t want to hear from you. I want you to cross examine the witness. Proceed, please.”
“Your honour, I frankly need to consider whether I need to bring a mistrial application given your honour’s comments,” Karimjee replied.
“I’m asking you to cross examine the witness, Mr. Karimjee,” Phillips said.
“No your honour, it’s more than that,” Karimjee replied. “… This is a significant case. … When confronted with things that I believe to be improper, I’m not going to remain silent.”
“Have you got a question for the witness?” Phillips asked after a long pause.
“I am asking your honour to recuse yourself,” Karimjee replied.
“That request is denied. Go ahead with your cross examination,” Phillips said, and Karimjee promptly continued questioning Lich.
Let’s take a look at this Moiz Karimjee fag.
Lead Summary Appeals Crown in the Ottawa Crown Attorney’s Office. Supervisory role in Bail Review matters. Part of Ottawa Hate Crime Prosecution Team. Experience includes prosecuting cases ranging from Major Frauds to Dangerous Offender Applications. Worked in Whitby and Newmarket Crown Offices before moving to Ottawa Crown’s Office in October of 2003. Acknowledged for excellence in prosecution (in the role of an adversary as well as Minister of Justice) by senior counsel in the Ministry of Attorney General, the York Regional Police, the Ontario Provincial Police, Victim Assistance Program, Judges and Colleagues in the Defence bar.
The sheer entitlement of these people never fails to amaze me. Getting combative with the judge, and demanding he recuse himself would be one thing if you were dealing with a Judge Warren Moon. Instead he’s assblasted over something so trivial that most people wouldn’t have even noticed.
Proceedings had gotten off to a rocky start hours earlier.
The Crown had been expected to argue that Lich should be put back in jail for allegedly continuing to support the Freedom Convoy, and Lich’s defence team was expected to fight a bail condition that she stay off social media entirely.
But instead the Crown asked the judge to rule on whether a Superior Court justice has the authority to respond to alleged errors of law by other Superior Court justices.
In other words, at the last minute Karimjee switched up the entire point of the trial. Now he’s assblasted that the judge wasn’t having any of it.
Karimjee argued that Phillips could deal only with arguments about material changes in circumstances. Ruling on a fellow justice’s errors of law could result in counsel seeking bail review after bail review until a justice gave them a favourable ruling, Karimjee told court.
To explain this, the defense for Tamara is arguing that the bail conditions were bullshit, in addition to other things. Karimjee is arguing that the defense should never under any circumstances be allowed to argue that the bail rules were set incorrectly. This has nothing to do with this trial specifically, and is essentially him trying to rewrite Canadian law.
After a 20-minute recess Phillips rejected the Crown’s argument, opening up submissions to alleged errors of law as well as material changes in circumstance. By then it was “regrettably” 12:30 p.m. and hearing evidence had still not yet begun, Phillips told court.
I don’t have a picture of Justice Kevin Phillips, but he certainly ruled appropriately here. And he appears to have gotten quickly tired of this Moiz Karimjee cunt.
The Crown’s first and only witness was Ottawa police Sgt. Mahad Hassan, the file co-ordinator in the case. (Det. Chris Benson is the lead investigator, but was busy testifying in a homicide case, court heard.)
Hassan testified he believed the more expensive VIP tickets to the Toronto freedom award event would give those ticketholders “a chance to meet the VIPs that are featured on the pamphlets” — in this case Lich and columnist Rex Murphy.
During cross examination by Greenspon, Hassan admitted there was no mention that Lich would be in attendance.
Let me fill you in on Mr. Greenspon.
Wikipedia:
Greenspon is heavily involved in fund raising campaigns for the Jewish National Fund of Ottawa. He is also involved with Reach Canada, and is on the boards of the Snowsuit Fund and Youth Services Bureau Foundation, chairing Child and Youth Friendly Ottawa, and volunteering with the Ottawa Children’s Treatment Centre, according to the Ottawa Business Journal.[10] He was the cabinet chair for the Montfort Hospital successful fund raising campaign to purchase a $2.5-million CT Scanner.[11]
He is a past chair of the Ottawa Jewish Community Centre.
I don’t know what Greenspon’s angle is here. The guy is pretty active in some extremely pro-Israel organizations, but it’s entirely possible he’s simply highly professional, and will give Ms. Lich the best defense possible. Having said that, from another article we see the following.
CBC:
Lawyer Lawrence Greenspon has previously represented Mohammad Momin Khawaja, the first Canadian charged under Canada’s Anti-terrorism Act, as well as former senator Mike Duffy. (Alistair Steele/CBC)
Mohammed Momin Khawaja
What happened in that case?
Mohammad Momin Khawaja (born April 14, 1979 in Ottawa, Ontario) is a Canadian found guilty of involvement in a plot to plant fertilizer bombs in the United Kingdom; while working as a software engineer under contract to the Foreign Affairs department in 2004 became the first person charged and found guilty under the Canadian Anti-Terrorism Act following the proof that he communicated with British Islamists plotting a bomb attack.[1] On March 12, 2009, Khawaja was sentenced to 10.5 years in prison and was eligible for parole five years into the prison term.[2] On December 17, 2010, Khawaja’s sentence was increased to life imprisonment by the Ontario Court of Appeals.[3]
Hotshot politically active semi-zionist lawyer Lawrence Greenspon certainly didn’t get his client off without charges. That doesn’t necessarily mean anything, because no lawyer is magical, but it’s certainly not a mark in his favour. And it gets more worrying when you see the following.
CBC:
A key figure in the Freedom Convoy is changing her legal representation to a well-known criminal lawyer.
Tamara Lich, who was behind fundraising efforts that raised more than $10 million to support the protests in Ottawa, has hired Ottawa-based criminal lawyer Lawrence Greenspon.
And from another piece.
CBC:
The lawyer representing convoy leader Tamara Lich says his latest high-profile client deserves to be well-represented, but Lawrence Greenspon won’t disclose whether he is being paid or took the case for free.
She joins a handful of high-profile Greenspon clients. He has previously represented Mohammad Momin Khawaja, the first Canadian charged under Canada’s Anti-terrorism Act, as well as former senator Mike Duffy.
Mike Duffy also lost his case.
None of that means anything conclusively, but I have a bad feeling about this. Having a jew lawyer would be a bit concerning, having one heavily involved in quasi-zionist organizations is extremely concerning. Having one that appears to only ever lose the high profile cases they are in, is more concerning. Having said zionist possibly doing this important political case for free is more concerning still. None of that means anything definitively, but I’d never let Greenspon represent me.
This was my main complaint with Tamara Lich and the Finklethink Convoy organizers, they weren’t very smart. Sure, that’s harsh, but you need people with balls and brains or you aren’t going to get anywhere.
Back to the original article.
While Karimjee was leading Hassan’s evidence in chief, Phillips bristled at the idea that he might be asked to decide whether Lich violated her bail condition, instead of police.
“That’s a task I’m unfamiliar with. I’m not usually a police officer of release conditions. … Are you trying to put me in a position to find a breach here, to declare that she’s broken the law?” Phillips asked.
Karimjee responded that he’s entitled to lead evidence proving Lich violated the terms of her release, citing the Criminal Code.
I honestly did not know that the police were the governing body for who did and did not violate their bail agreements. In any case it’s simply another example of Moiz Karimjee being an annoying cunt.
[Lich] was initially denied bail by Ontario Court Justice Julie Bourgeois, who told court she found Lich to be guarded and “almost obstructive” at times, and who wasn’t convinced Lich would go home, stay home and stop her alleged counselling.
Lich and her then lawyer Diane Magas appealed Bourgeois’ decision, leading to her first bail review in the higher court in early March.
Superior Court Justice John Johnston ruled in Lich’s favour after the one-day proceeding, saying she had been a “valued employee” in Alberta and had lived a “crime free” life, and that the risk in Ottawa had been minimized after police cleared streets.
“Justice” Julie Bourgeois
It’s nearly impossible to find pictures of judges in this country. Julie Bourgeois is an exception, since she ran for office in the Liberal Party in 2011, and lost. And adding to the concern with Greenspon, Lich’s first lawyer won her first bail hearing case, so all of this looks a little bit suspect. Then again, that was the hearing where “justice,” John Johnston ordered her to never talk about the Finklethink Convoy, which is why we’re here now. So who knows?
