Canadian Court Denies Bail To Leading Freedom Convoy Protest Organizer - Judge

TORONTO (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 23rd February, 2022) Bail has been denied bail to Tamara Lich, a leading organizer of the protests in Ottawa against the COVID-19 vaccine mandates, Ontario Court of Justice judge Julie Bourgeois said on Tuesday.

"You have had plenty of opportunity to remove yourself and even others from this criminal activity but obstinately chose not to and persistently counselled others not to either," the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation quoted Bourgeois as saying as she addressed Lich's request for bail.

Buregeois explained she reached the decision to deny bail because she was not convinced that Lich would return home in the province of Alberta nor cease protest-related activities.

The wave of protests across Canada began in mid-January, with tens of thousands of truckers and other Canadians converged peacefully on Ottawa to seek the government to scrap the COVID-19 vaccine mandates. The protest eventually united large swaths of Canadian society and evolved into a demonstration against the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The Ottawa leg of the protests were routed by law enforcement over the weekend after the Trudeau government granted itself sweeping new powers through invocation of the previously unused Emergencies Act.