The two lead organizers of the Freedom Convoy protests have been arrested by Canadian police, according to reports.
On Thursday, police in Canada’s capital Ottawa arrested Tamara Lich and Chris Barber.
https://twitter.com/rFreedomConvoy/status/1494494256978972674
According to the CBC, Barber’s arrest comes after he was named in a “class action lawsuit filed with the Ontario Superior Court of Justice by lawyer Paul Champ on behalf of his client, 21-year-old public servant Zexi Li.”
Lich and fellow convoy organizer Benjamin Dichter were also named in the lawsuit.
Prior to the arrests, during the day on Thursday, Lich, 47, who has worked as a fitness instructor and in the energy sector, predicted that she would be arrested on a video she released in which she stated:
There’s a pretty good chance — well, I think it’s inevitable at this point — but I’ll probably be going somewhere tomorrow where I’ll be getting three square meals a day.
And that’s okay. I’m okay with that. And I want you to know that I’m not afraid.
I’ll probably get some sleep, finally. Just please stay peaceful and please take care of each other and know that this too shall pass.
And I’m not sure if you remember but I posted a video a few weeks ago — it feels like forever ago — about “tomorrow.”
And there will be a tomorrow.
And we will get through this.
You have to understand that there’s a lot of things at work here that need to prevent this from being a success.
And the only way that this is gonna succeed is if we always come from a place of love.
I’ve always said as human beings we make choices from one of two places; we make choices from love or we make choices from fear.
That’s it. That’s the bottom line.
And I pray and I hope that you will make your choices from love.
You have to know that they are trying to provoke us.
I mean, you hear their language; you hear the language and the verbiage that they’re using and that is not coming from us.
And I know you guys all know that.
The head of the Freedom Convoy, @Tamara_MVC, is preparing to be arrested. "I think it is inevitable. I want you to know that I am not afraid. Stay peaceful, and please take care of each other."
If Canada is ever governed by a non-tyrant, Tamara deserves the Order of Canada. pic.twitter.com/5Dzoe0gwcg— Keean Bexte (@TheRealKeean) February 17, 2022
On Thursday afternoon, Steve Bell, interim chief of the Ottawa Police Service, warned that arrests would be coming.
Bell said “the action is imminent” for police to crack down on the protest while asserting that the police would end the “unlawful occupation.”
Dagny Pawlak, a spokeswoman for the protest, called arrest the organizers “absolutely baseless and a disgrace to any liberal democracy, although not a surprise,” The New York Times reported.
The Times acknowledges that the protests have been peaceful, noting that “Physical violence has been rare.”
On February 10, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office released a statement saying, “The Prime Minister and ministers will continue to work closely with all orders of government and local authorities to respond with whatever it takes to help provinces and municipalities end the blockades and bring the situation under control.”
At the end of January, during a press conference with the Freedom Convoy organizers, a reporter commented, “I know a lot of people have kind of given up on humanity in general over the course of all this, but for myself personally, on the convoy out here, at the stop, seeing people going around giving out boxes and boxes of hearty sandwiches, bags made up, it had us in tears.
“Bags with kids drawing notes for the truckers, writing them letters on cookies …”
Lich, tearing up, replied, “It was so moving.
“That’s going to make me emotional.
“We had so many people that would come up and hug us and just say, tell their stories of how they lost everything, or their mother died alone.
“This lady, she was from Ontario; she had a 12-year-old boy who has muscular dystrophy, and he was rapidly losing the mobility in his hips because he couldn’t go to a swimming pool for his swimming therapy.”
“But underneath all those stories that are so heartbreaking is just this determination and this resilience of the Canadian people,” she then asserted.
“I mean, we’ve already won, because look at all those people out there yesterday.
“I’ve never seen so many smiles, right?
“Everyone’s got hope again.
“Everyone’s feeling pride to be Canadian, which is something that we haven’t felt for so long, which is really important.
“So in that sense, we’ve already won.”
