A key organizer of the trucker protest that besieged Canada’s capital city was denied bail Tuesday as police kept a strict checkpoint system in place to prevent demonstrators from retaking the downtown streets.
Tamara Lich, who was the public face of the convoy and helped it crowdfund millions in donations, was rebuffed by an Ontario Superior Court judge who concluded she was evasive during her testimony and was likely to re-offend if released, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. and other news outlets. She was arrested Thursday and remains in detention on a charge of counseling to commit mischief.
Though Ottawa has now been cleared of the semis and other trucks that blockaded the city for three weeks in protest against COVID-related public health measures, dozens of the vehicles used in the protest are still in the area, parked at private farms outside the city. One demonstrator told the Globe and Mail he and others left the city to “regroup,” not to give up.
The emergency powers invoked last week by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau are still in place, having been approved by a majority of elected lawmakers in a vote Monday night. Trudeau and his cabinet ministers have said they still need the emergency powers in case the truckers attempt any more blockades, which not only disrupted daily life in Ottawa for weeks but shocked the Canadian economy and supply chains by bringing important U.S. border crossings to a standstill.
