Lost police messages slow convoy protest organizers’ trial

Published Oct 20, 2023 • Last updated 2 hours ago • 2 minute read

Tamara Lich, far right, and her lawyer, Lawrence Greenspon, are seen outside the Ottawa courthouse earlier this week. Photo by Justin Tang /THE CANADIAN PRESS

The trial of two convoy protest organizers was stalled on Friday after the defence demanded more information about a software upgrade that wiped the data from the phones of at least two Ottawa police officers after the protest.

Const. Nicole Bach was set to take the stand for a second day in the criminal trial of Tamara Lich and Chris Barber, but the defence has questions for Ottawa police about why her text messages from that period were deleted.

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Her testimony has been put off until the lawyers get those answers.

She told the court Thursday that she received an email that she was due to upgrade the software on her phone after the protest in early 2022 and didn’t know it would delete all her messages.

She had direct contact with Barber throughout the protest.

The Crown said the defence learned about the potential lost evidence as a result of phone upgrade about a year ago, but the defence said it thought that was only in relation to one officer, Const. Isabelle Cyr.

Cyr, who testified earlier this week, also potentially lost messages due to the software upgrade on her phone.

The defence asked police to disclose the communication instructing Bach and other police officers about the upgrade, but were given a completely redacted five-page document.

The lawyers will need to make a formal request for the unredacted version.

Outside court on Friday, Barber’s lawyer, Diane Magas, said it was too early to tell how important the potential loss could be because “we don’t know exactly everything that’s been lost.”

The lawyers also asked Bach to dig up any emails she sent or received related to the disclosure of evidence in the case.

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Magas told the court they received four batches of highly redacted emails. Some portions were blacked out by the Crown because they were deemed irrelevant, while others were redacted by Ottawa police lawyers because they fell under solicitor-client privilege.

Lich and Barber are both charged with mischief and counselling others to commit mischief and intimidation, among other charges, in relation to demonstrations against COVID-19 public-health measures and the Liberal government that gridlocked downtown Ottawa for three weeks in early 2022.

The Crown, defence and Ottawa police lawyers are expected to ague about the redactions when court resumes on Oct. 26.