While Americans rightfully resent the lockdowns, mask mandates, and other intrusions into their liberty that accompanied the COVID-19 pandemic (not to mention politicians' flouting of their own rules), most of us had it pretty easy compared to people elsewhere. In Canada, for example, pandemic restrictions were tighter and lasted longer than in the United States. That prompted public pushback culminating in the protest known as the Freedom Convoy and draconian retaliation against demonstrators by the Canadian government. While the government's actions have since been ruled unconstitutional, two of the Freedom Convoy's leaders have been convicted for their efforts and potentially face prison sentences longer than those handed out to killers and rapists.
Extraordinary Sentences for 'Unprecedented Crime' of Protest
"The Crown says it's seeking an extraordinary sentence for an unprecedented crime, as court began hearing sentencing submissions Wednesday in the mischief case of Ottawa truck convoy leaders Tamara Lich and Chris Barber," the CBC's Arthur White-Crummey reported last week. "Crown prosecutor Siobhain Wetscher asked Justice Heather Perkins-McVey to impose a prison sentence of seven years for Lich and eight years for Barber."
