After nearly two years of social media silence, Freedom Convoy organizer Tamara Lich has reemerged online.
Lich reactivated her account on X, formerly Twitter, 22 months after she was barred from social media as part of a host of bail conditions.
“It has been 22 long months since I have been allowed to log in to my Twitter account,” Lich wrote Thursday. “@elonmusk did anything interesting happen while I’ve been away???!!?!”
Lich’s post obliquely referenced tech CEO Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter in 2022 – after Lich suspended her activities on the platform. This year, he renamed and rebranded the company X.
Lich was arrested in Ottawa February 17, 2022 and charged with counselling to commit mischief. While fellow organizer Chris Barber, who faced similar charges, was released on bail, Lich was denied bail and held in custody in Ottawa for 18 days before she was granted bail with conditions including a ban on social media and expressing any support for the Freedom Convoy, as well as a requirement to not communicate with several other protest participants unless supervised by a lawyer.
Lich was later rearrested after a photo of her emerged at an awards dinner alongside Freedom Convoy organizer Tom Marazzo, though the Crown eventually withdrew the bail violation charge against her.
Several of Lich’s bail conditions have been eased since her arrest. She released a book about her experience with the Freedom Convoy in April of this year.
In a statement to True North, Lich said she and her lawyers thought it was an appropriate time for the court to revisit the social media ban.
“I have been hoping for quite some time to have my conditions varied and with the lack of evidence we have seen so far (and) the unexpected length of time the trial is taking, we felt it was a good time to have this specific condition reviewed,” Lich said.
Lich and Barber have been on trial in Ottawa since September. It was supposed to conclude Oct. 13, but has stretched on for weeks and is set to resume in January 2024.
Lich is being represented by lawyer Lawrence Greenspon and the Democracy Fund. Barber is being represented by Diane Magas and the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms.
