A key player in the Freedom Convoy protest has shared her story on the world stage.
Freedom Convoy organizer and fundraiser Tamara Lich spoke this week in the European parliament in Strasbourg, France to discuss the treatment of Canadians during the pandemic.
Lich was invited to speak by the Europe of Sovereign Nations group, a right-wing political faction in the European parliament, to share her experiences at the tip of the spear pushing back against COVID-19 mandates and restrictions in Canada.
“It was a privilege and an honour to speak to the Europe of Sovereign Nations Group this evening about the treatment of hard working, blue collar Canadians and the brave truckers who stood up for all of us,” said Lich in a social media post.
Lich was among several people who faced trial for their role protest, initially being
arrested in Ottawa, on Feb. 17, 2022. She was behind bars for 18 days before she was granted bail, although she was re-arrested on accusations of violating her bail months later and served another 28 days.
“We never could have imagined the support that we were going to receive,” Lich said in her speech on Tuesday. “We honestly thought we would just drive there, you know a small group of us. But what we saw, as you guys obviously did too, on the sides of the roads and on the overpasses, was an overwhelming number of Canadians out there to support us who finally felt hope for the first time in years. Who finally felt proud to be Canadian for the first time in years.”
Lich was charged with counselling to commit mischief and while her trial has since concluded, her verdict isn’t expected until March.
“Our Group was out in full force on the sidelines of the plenary session in #Strasbourg to hear Tamara Lich’s testimony regarding the #Canadian government’s handling of Covid, which showed no regard for individual freedoms,” wrote the Europe of Sovereign Nations group in a social media post.
Lich went on to discuss the government’s takedown of the convoy as something she’d only previously seen occurring in third-world countries, describing the raids of their food and gas, and the sniper-laden rooftops that surrounded peaceful protesters.
“We have politicians calling us terrorists, domestic terrorists, racists, even accusing us of trying to burn down an apartment building,” she said. “This is not the Canada I grew up in.”
Lich talked about her shock when the government refused to speak to any of the protesters despite the city being flooded with hundreds of thousands of people and their GoFundMe receiving $24 million in donations in three weeks.
“The first GoFundMe campaign that we started was taking in $1 million a day as we travelled across the country. (It) was frozen after the politicians contacted GoFundMe and told them that we were ‘domestic terrorists’ and that they were ‘fighting terrorism,’” recalled Lich.
The additional funding campaigns they launched were subsequently frozen as well, a response that Lich referred to is how authorities would “treat a drug cartel.”
“Our prime minister ran away and hid and refused to even send anyone out to talk to us,” she said. “As a matter of fact, he even said that he’s attended protests before but only those that he supports. In my opinion, the leader of a country leads all of their people, not just the ones who believe in the same ideology. That is his job and he failed us, they all failed us.”
Lich also talked about Canada’s controversial catch-and-release-style bail system, noting that while it’s often made available to criminals who commit sexual and violent assault, the same treatment wasn’t applied to them.
In discussing the current climate of politics, Lich said that Canadians are facing a “mainstream media that has been completely bought and paid for,” while having to deal with increasing online censorship under the guise of “keeping children safe.”
Additionally, Lich and others are facing a $300 million proposed class action lawsuit from Ottawa residents regarding the protest’s horn honking and diesel fumes.
However, she said that these problems are not unique to Canada and that it’s happening all over the world.
“This is what they are trying to do,” she said. “I see it everywhere, it’s to demoralize and bankrupt you, but I’m here to tell you that they picked on the wrong woman, and we’ll keep fighting.”