Tamara Lich, a Medicine Hat organizer of the February 2022 Freedom Convoy, was re-arrested after Ottawa police—led by detective Chris Benson—failed to identify key figures in a bail-violation photo despite her lawyers’ confirmation. Crown prosecutor Moyes Karimji, who donated $17K to the Liberals and attended a 2017 Trudeau event, pushed charges while police targeted conservative journalists and Democracy Fund lawyers for peaceful protests. Lich’s case highlights systemic bias: left-wing radicals face no consequences for violence, yet convoy organizers are demonized as "terrorists," with evidence ignored—exposing a double standard where dissent is criminalized while ideological intimidation goes unchecked. [Automatically generated summary]
Convoy organizer and part-time political prisoner Tamara Leach was in court for a bail hearing on Tuesday and Rebel News was both inside the courtroom and outside bringing you the details you will not see anywhere else.
I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed, and you're watching The Gunn Show.
You know the horrible story of Tamara Leach?
She...
She's the kindly medicine hat woman who was one of many organizers of the convoy to Ottawa, which was a movement against vaccine mandates for cross-border truckers that grew into this incredible avatar of rebellion against COVID measures in general worldwide.
Thousands of truckers and their supporters descended on our nation's capital, Ottawa, and stayed there for approximately three weeks until Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked a never before used terrorism law called the Emergencies Act to euthanize the protest, seized assets and bank accounts, and incarcerate the organizers of the peaceful protest, Tamara included.
She spent weeks in jail after she was arrested on an Ottawa street.
Now, after she was able to achieve bail, the Crown Prosecutor tried to rearrest her on a breach of her conditions for simply accepting a freedom award from her own lawyers at the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms.
Now, that attempt to re-incarcerate Tamara failed, so the Crown tried again.
According to the terms of her release, Leach was allowed to be in the presence of other convoy organizers if she was also in the presence of her lawyers.
She took a photo with another convoy organizer at the Justice Center's George Jonas Freedom Awards in a room buzzing with her lawyers from the Justice Center.
Yet she was picked up for a breach anyway.
She's been held for 10 days on a nationwide warrant, like a murderer.
She's only charged with mischief and mischief-related offenses stemming from her participation in the February Freedom Convoy.
And these are crimes of basically being annoying in public when the police really don't know what to do with you.
So now on Tuesday, yesterday, I started in Zoom court at 6.45 in the morning.
I was covering a new bail hearing for Tamara, listening to or suffering through the most bumbling Crown attorney I've ever had the misfortune of reporting on.
The Crown incarcerated Tamara this time for a three-second interaction and a photo taken in front of her lawyers.
There are 20 unsolved murderers in Ottawa, but that's no surprise.
You see the homicide detective Chris Benson assigned to the case of the cute little Métis grandma who's public enemy number one.
Well, he couldn't even ID one of Tamara's lawyers.
Who's John Carpe?
No idea, he said.
So to clarify, Officer Gomer Pyle Benson has no idea who Leach's lawyers are, but he's also totally sure she was not in their presence when she took a photo at an event hosted by her lawyers.
Really?
Tamara is going to remain in jail until at least Friday when the judge will rule on whether she should stay behind bars until her trial.
So joining me tonight to discuss what we saw in court and the events in Ottawa over the Canada Day long weekend is one of our newest rebels, William Diaz.
And he joins me in an interview we recorded on a break from court yesterday afternoon.
Joining me now from his home in Ottawa is my colleague, William Diaz.
William, you were in, we're filming this on Tuesday, just so everybody knows, Tuesday afternoon.
We're on a break from court.
We're covering the bail hearing for Tamara Leach.
Is this the first court case you've ever covered?
Yeah, it actually is.
Before entering court, I texted my mom, hey, mom, I'm going to court today as a journalist.
Used to, when she was a journalist before, she used to go to court.
I think she went to court for her university course.
No, it's a great experience today going to the Ottawa courthouse.
You know, I'm always curious when people who are sort of new to this are, you know, what their experience is, because covering a court case can be overwhelming when you are a layperson, when you're not a lawyer.
It feels like you have to learn a new language.
But this court case is really quite easy to follow along.
Tamara Leach is being accused of breaching her bail conditions to not communicate, that's an important word here, communicate with other convoy organizers.
And those conditions stem from her arrest in February, where she was held for up to three weeks for basically mischief, being annoying in a public place and inspiring other people to commit mischief and obstructing police and inspiring other people to obstruct police, which I think has to do with blocking the roads and obstructing the roads there.
So she was held for three weeks prior before she could get bail for this time.
She was allowed bail.
She had her bail conditions actually lowered a little while ago.
And she was released on the condition to not communicate with other convoy organizers, including Tom Morazzo, who is the communications guy for the convoy.
Now, they were both photographed together at a Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms event a little while ago.
And then Tamara, now, as we're recording this, has been in jail for nine days on that breach.
They actually issued a Canada-wide warrant, and four cops, including a homicide detective, who, again, I've said this all day.
I can't believe any murders get solved in Ottawa, but they flew to Medicine Hat, Alberta to get her to bring her back.
But she had permission to attend the Justice Center event, and she has permission to talk to other convoy organizers if she's in the presence of her lawyers.
Guess who her lawyers are?
The Justice Center.
So, what do you think is going on here?
Well, exactly.
I was waiting for you to mention that because, yes, technically, she's not allowed to have any physical contact or communication of whatever nature it is with Tom Morazo or any other freedom organizers and all of that, unless she is in the presence of counsel.
And I think his name, what's his name?
John Benson?
What's his name?
No, the head of the Justice Center is John Carpe.
I was talking about the guy that was Detective Benson of the Ottawa Police Service.
Exactly.
So Detective Benson was brought today at the courthouse to testify on the issue, on the matter.
And he was asked, so did she break her bail condition?
Of course, he said yes.
But then he wasn't able to identify any single person that was in the picture.
He was asked, do you know who that person is?
No.
Do you know who that person is?
I'm not sure.
Do you know who that person is?
I have absolutely no idea.
He has no idea who was in the picture.
And the people that were in the picture were Tamara's lawyers and they were counsel.
And she had probably three second interaction that was filmed, that was recorded with Tom Razzo.
So I don't know if she's able to, you know, speak as fast as Ben Shapiro.
I don't know if she's able to speak faster than him.
But if they were able to organize a second convoy by speaking for three seconds, that would be impressive.
And I would ask her to go in the book of Guinness World Record because it's just ridiculous.
They are trying to make her once again a political prisoner, which she is right now, because she spoke to Tom Morazo for three seconds and she has a picture taken with him in the presence of her lawyers and in the presence of counsel, but the things that they have absolutely no clue who her lawyers are.
Yeah, I thought that was odd.
You know, like if the breach of her condition surrounds being in the presence of certain people, you might want to know who certain people in the room were.
You know, there's this picture, the picture that they say constitutes the breach.
I think it's Tamara, Tom Morazzo, and they've identified two other people of six people.
But the detective said, I don't know who those other two people are.
When he was asked who John Carpe was, who is the head lawyer at the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms, he said, I don't know.
Then when Tamara's lawyer said, who is the man who introduced Tamara at the event?
He said, I don't know.
I don't know.
That's John Carpe.
He's the head lawyer at the Justice Center.
And if you are alleging that she cannot be in the room with certain people, you might want to know who everybody in the room is.
But he never bothered to get that far because he got the thing he wanted.
And that was a photo of Tamara near Tom Morazzo.
And again, they spoke for a split second.
Tom tells me on his Twitter account that that was him congratulating her, just saying thank you.
I'm not sure if that was enough in three seconds.
And I don't even think it was three seconds to plot some sort of seditious scheme to overthrow the government, but that's what's being alleged here.
Hill of Controversy00:07:48
Exactly.
They spoke for three seconds.
It is a politically motivated arrest.
The detective Benson has absolutely no clue what he's talking about.
He's supposed to be a homicide or murder detective in the city of Ottawa.
Sorry, but if you're in the state of Ottawa right now, you walk around in Byworn Market.
You cannot walk more than 10 meters without seeing a homeless person on the ground.
You have trouble walking near Parliament Hill without seeing someone that seems aggressive, that seems weird in his head walking next to you.
There are some more important matters than to arrest a small woman from Alberta and bring her back to Ottawa because Justin Trudeau wants you to do that.
It's just unbelievable what's happening right now.
Yeah, it seems like a lot of police resources and taxpayer expenses directed at crushing this woman.
Now, I have to tell you, I've sit in on a lot of court cases and Tamara's lawyer is one of the best I've ever seen.
It's Lawrence Green spawn.
He's one of the best lawyers in the country, if not the best lawyer in the country, although I'm a little bit biased because we've got some great ones working for us through the Democracy Fund.
But he in the past has represented a terrorist.
And I think that, you know, it speaks to his commitment that he believes everybody should get a fair shake before the law.
But also, it makes him the right guy to be defending Tamara because that's exactly how she's being treated.
They invoked the Emergencies Act, they, the liberals, which is basically an anti-terrorism law.
It's an anti-terrorism financier law.
It's the same sort of thing that they would invoke to deal with a 9-11 style attack or a Pearl Harbor level attack.
They did that to bouncy castles and street parties.
But, you know, if that's how they're treating her before the law, then he's exactly the right lawyer for her.
Of course, and we're not implying here that she's a terrorist at all, but she is being really treated as a terrorist.
She is being vilified by the true government, the leftists on Twitter.
You see on Twitter every time they're all calling her the biggest terrorist.
They're comparing her to Adolf Hitler.
This is a woman that is trying to fight for the freedom of everyone, regardless of your skin color, regardless your ethnicity, regardless your political belief, the beliefs.
Everyone should have the same treatment.
Everyone should have the same chance in life.
And everyone should be able to speak freely, regardless of who you are.
That's what she's fighting for.
She couldn't care less about skin color and all of that.
She is fighting for freedom.
But the left and Justin Trudeau, the liberals, cannot see that.
They are the same people that call James Top a terrorist, James Topp a traitor, James Topp a fascist.
James Tuft is one of the most respectable men I've ever had the chance to meet.
He served the country we are all living in right now.
He served in Afghanistan.
He served to defend the country.
And right now, he was marching to once again fight for the freedom of everyone and make sure that we can all progress as a nation.
The left likes to vilify those people because they know that their words have power.
And that's what they're doing with Tamara Leech right now.
You know, it was interesting to see, and I can't believe it was allowed in, but Crown Prosecutor asked Detective Chris Benson, I guess, what, if any, effect the Freedom Convoy in February had on Canada Day celebrations.
And I thought, what a bizarre question to ask, considering Tamara was in jail since June 27th.
She had no part in organizing it.
And it sort of disregarded the entire government's role in making the Canada Day celebrations, frankly, so terrible and sort of sullen.
He said that, you know, there were fewer families and the events were less festive.
Well, you were there, so you tell me, but I think that has a lot to do with the fact that there was a political prisoner in jail.
And so people wanted to come and protest that.
But also the fact that they moved events away from Parliament Hill and the fact that the Ottawa police and bylaw have been fear-mongering or had been fear-mongering for up to a week before Canada Day, basically scaring people away and saying it's going to be terrible and there are more terrorist invaders coming.
Exactly.
There's a bunch of things to what you said right now that I want to address.
First of all, I think we both wrote at the same time on Twitter, Tamara Leash was kept captive during Canada.
Why the hell is the crown trying to equate her involvement in the Freedom Convoy to Canada?
She was in prison.
She was nowhere.
She has absolutely nothing to do with anything good or bad that occurred on Canada.
So that's the first thing.
They're just trying to associate her with anything that can make her look bad.
And by the way, Benson, I think he'd like to get his record straight because Toronto Star, they all wrote, the newspaper Toronto Star wrote that there were thousands of families that came to attend Canada Day events, that they all had so much fun.
So a newspaper like that is saying that so many families came, but he's saying that less families came.
That's just ridiculous.
Another thing too, exactly what she said here, the police is always fear-mongering everyone.
They fear-mongered for the convoy day.
They made everyone afraid of the people that were in front of Parliament Hill during the month of February.
They said that they were terrorists, they were racist, they were fascist and everything.
So of course, everyone is afraid.
Of course, a lot of people are going to be scared to come in front of Proment Hill because they think, oh my God, I'm going to get attacked just because I have a mask.
There's a lady that I was able to have an exchange with who was holding a poster and which was basically implying that the Freedom Convoy and the Freedom Protests that were hearing in front of Promont Hill were a white nationalist convention.
She had a mask.
She was hostile to the people that were around her and she was never once attacked.
People did come up to her.
People did speak with her, but she was never ever attacked.
I was actually able to have a semi-conversation with this Z right there.
And as any other predictable Z, she couldn't articulate her points in any coherent manner.
So the Freedom Convoy is not a violent movement at all.
The police is making it seem like a violent movement.
Therefore, families are going to be scared of coming in front of Proment Hill.
You know, it's interesting because you bring up the person that you ran into during your coverage on Canada Day, which I think was excellent.
But, you know, it was pretty clear that that person had never had any real first person exposure to anything related to the Freedom Convoy.
They had been on a steady diet of a little bit too much CBC and liberal press conferences.
And so they had this idea in their mind about who and what the Freedom Convoy was, but they didn't really actually know.
And I'm experiencing the same thing right now as I go through my Twitter mentions.
You and I are sitting in the courtroom.
We're watching it.
We're reporting it verbatim.
We're listening to the lawyers.
We're looking at the videos.
We're seeing the evidence.
We're hearing the arguments, listening to testimony.
And I've got a lot of people who graduated from Twitter law school telling me that I don't understand what's going on.
And they are not even watching.
They just know that TV said Tamara is bad.
Listening to Testimony00:05:03
Justin Trudeau said Tamara is mean.
And so she's bad.
So anybody who's there experiencing firsthand, you don't count because Justin Trudeau said something completely different.
Exactly.
They cannot look by themselves at what the evidence are of their claims.
They cannot back their claims.
And the reason why they cannot back their claims is because they're not looking at what's happening.
I mean, when I know I'm going to be criticizing a leftist event or a leftist protest or whatever, whatever it is, I'm going to make sure to at least look at what I'm criticizing.
But those people aren't even taking a time to look into, okay, who is Tamara Leash?
What has she actually done?
What has she said?
You know, she gave a speech.
What was her speech?
Was it truly a fascist speech?
Please take a look at what her speech was.
And afterwards, I think that's something I would recommend to a lot of lessons.
A little tip from myself.
Open a dictionary and look at what the word fascism is.
Antifa is the biggest fascist group ever in North America.
Fascism means trying to impose your political ideology on someone by relying on force, physical strength, physical threats, or verbal threats.
That's what fascism is.
And I'm sorry, but when David and I went to confront the Antifa types that were near the War Memorial when James Tubb was arriving, they were the ones shoving their signs up to our faces.
They were the ones grabbing David's phone.
They were the ones putting this stupid LGBT LMOP pride progress flag up to my face.
That is literally what fascism is.
So whenever I see someone saying that if you are against Antifa, you are for fascism.
This is just a complete lie, a complete misunderstanding of what a history is.
And it comes from someone that is uneducated and politically biased and motivated.
Now, I'm not against political bias.
I just want people to be honest about it.
I'm conservative.
I come from a mostly social conservative viewpoint.
But I don't think our viewers, I don't think it would be right to not divulge that to our viewers.
And I don't want the taxpayer to pay for it, which is what the CBC does, right?
What I mean by a political bias that if you're saying you're going to be saying that NTFA is not fascist just because you're left-wing and you're not going to be defending any of that.
I mean, I do have political biases, but I'm never going to say something without backing that thing that I'm saying.
But they are just saying that NTFI is anti-fascist.
Therefore, if you are against Antifa, you are for fascism, which is an utter lie and a complete misunderstanding of what the movement is and what these vile, evil people are trying to do to conservatives.
Now, I want to ask you, because you're a new journalist to us, but I think you're very brave.
You're not scared of taking on liberal politicians and asking them tough questions wherever you might find them.
You're not scared of left-wing protesters who do have a tendency to get violent, particularly with conservative journalists.
When you're out there in the world, first of all, why don't you tell me one of the most shocking things that you encountered over the Canada Day Long weekend?
And then I'll ask you a question.
I know there's a lot.
There's a lot.
You were up to a lot over the weekend.
Yeah, there's a bunch of shocking stuff that happened over the Canada weekend.
I'd say seeing the police abusing their power.
Say that's one of the biggest, you know, I'm a conservative.
I bag the blue.
Those police officers put their lives on the line to defend the people.
When they're not corrupt, when they're not crooked or politically motivated, they put their lives on the line to defend the population.
They serve our communities.
They serve our people.
When the police is doing its job, it is extremely honorable.
And I totally commend them and respect them for their work.
But when you see a police officer that is abusing his power to serve his master, Justin Trudeau, because Justin Trudeau doesn't like rebel news or doesn't like what's happening, it's just ridiculous.
You saw the police apprehending TDF lawyers because they were in the street trying to advocate and letting people know what their constitutional rights are.
They were having a little flag and they were told that they had to move with it within five minutes or they would be given a flag.
So what did they do?
They started walking with the sign that they have the TDF, the Democracy Fund sign that they had, which just caused more people to look at them and actually understand what they were doing.
So I thank the police for that.
But it just shows how political the Ottawa police has become when it comes to them apprehending lawyers because the lawyers are trying to tell people about what their constitutional rights are.
Crybullying In Global News00:02:40
It's just ridiculous.
So I'd say that's the most shocking thing I have seen just over the Canada weekend because there's a bunch of stuff as you as you and I know that happened later in the days afterwards.
I'd say that's the thing that shocked me the most.
And by the way, the SPVM, the Peel Regional Police were there too.
You know, I think that says a lot about you, that it wasn't the things that happened to you that you found shocking or the things that were said to you that you found shocking, but rather what you saw the police doing to other innocent, peaceful people.
I think that says a lot about the kind of journalists you are.
But my question for you is, what do you think would happen if CBC journalists or mainstream media journalists were treated the way that you and David Menzies and the rest of our team were treated by the weaponized left-wing radicals over the weekend?
What would be the meltdown happening at CBC?
I'm answering your question by asking myself another question.
How much is Justin Trudeau willing to pay for CBC security guards?
I'm wondering, will he?
What new law would he invoke to protect them?
Yeah, exactly.
He's going to put a new law that you cannot protest against journalists.
No, I mean, that they would be crying on Twitter.
You saw, I think it's a global news journalist on Twitter has just been, you know, insulting Ezra, saying that Ezra, you know, is a bad person and everything.
And she started crying because some people confronted her and wrote mean things in her Twitter, on her Twitter account or on Instagram to one of her pictures.
And she said, you know, that's what it's like being a journalist in 2022.
I'm sorry, but you have absolutely no clue what it's like being a journalist in 2022.
You're a mainstream media journalist.
You haven't had a guy, you know, sending dogs to bite your leg as a reporter, as it happens, David Menzies.
You haven't had a guy hitting a rebel news reporter who's a woman at an event like it has happened to you.
And you don't have people taking pictures of you on the street and calling their NCIFA buddies to come and circle you and intimidate you like it has happened to me.
That's what being a reporter, a conservative reporter in 2022 is like.
That's not what being a global news, CTV, CBC, MSNBC, and CNN, all of those mainstream media things.
It's like you have an extremely, extremely nice life.
You're being told something a little bit confrontational on Twitter and you're going off crying to your buddy and crying out to Justin Trudeau.
It's disgraceful.
It's disgraceful to see those people doing the same work as we do.
And yeah, it's just hypocritical and a disgrace.
It's crybullying is what it is.
Viewer Feedback Segment00:04:51
Yeah.
They're crybullies.
William, I know that you and I both have to get back into court.
Again, I say this.
We'll go to air on Wednesday, but we're recording it on Tuesday on a break from court.
William, I know you have to physically get back to the courthouse.
So I'll let you get back there.
I am going to refill my coffee, do a little bit of work, and then get back into the courtroom too.
Thanks so much for the great work that you did over the Canada Day long weekend.
And thanks for helping me cover this very important court case with Tamara Leach.
Yeah, thank you.
Thank you, Sheila.
Okay, we'll talk soon.
This is the portion of the show where we invite viewer feedback.
Unlike the mainstream media who just takes your money and then hopes they never have to hear any criticism from you about how your money is being spent, we actually welcome your questions and comments to us.
In fact, I leave my personal comment section wide open.
If you want to send me an email with a question or a comment that you'd like me to read on air, it's really easy.
Send me an email to Sheila at rebelnews.com.
Put gunshow letters in the subject line because I get so many emails and it just makes it easier for me to find and search and select your comment at random.
But I also go looking on some of the other platforms where we post our videos too.
I look on Rumble, I look on YouTube, I even look on our website.
So if you want me to potentially find your comment and read it on air, you have to leave a comment first, right?
So today, today's comment comes from Rumble on a video titled TDF Lawyer.
So that's Democracy Fund Lawyers, threatened with arrest by the Ottawa police, but wouldn't be stopped.
So some of you may not know, but on Canada Day, the Democracy Fund sent lawyers to the Canada Day celebrations in Ottawa from the Democracy Fund head office in Toronto to help people if they got a ticket, got in trouble, and to just all around educate people on their rights when they are peacefully demonstrating or taking to the streets.
but they were hassled by the police.
The police told them that they couldn't put their sign down.
They had to walk around with their sign.
Very odd.
Anyway, Row Canada One writes, what is the name of the prosecutor who charged Tamara Leach with breaking her bail conditions?
This is a great comment because news just broke Wednesday morning from our friends at True North.
And I'll get to that in a second.
Let me just finish the comment.
What is the name of the judge who issued the Canada-wide arrest warrant in that case?
What are both their political affiliations?
Well, I won't get into the judge quite yet.
We're looking into it.
And it's not a judge.
It's a Justice of the Peace, which is a little bit different.
But our friends at True North, specifically Cosman Jerja, who is probably the most underrated investigative journalist in this entire country.
And I say this as a bit of an investigative journalist myself, and I'm kind of proud of my work.
He's the best.
He's incredible.
He has an exclusive report that reads, Elections Canada data shows that Moyes Karimji, the crown prosecutor on Tamara Lych's bail hearing,
donated over $17,000 to the Liberals and it gets better, attended a 2017 donor appreciation event featuring Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other high-profile party members.
Isn't that interesting?
Now he's tasked with incarcerating peaceful protesters who, I guess, embarrass his favorite politicians.
Isn't that interesting?
I look forward to more reporting from Cosman on this issue.
And I think we're going to do a deep dive into the Justice of the Peace who is overseeing this latest bail hearing.
The previous bail hearing went well.
That judge was reasonable.
This one, I'm skeptical of based on some of the things that I heard in the courtroom.
Well, everybody, that's the show for tonight.
Thank you so much for tuning in.
As always, if you want to send me a question or comment, that's sheila at rebelnews.com.
Put gun show letters in the subject line so I can find it.
Thanks to everybody in the Toronto office and well around the country who works to put this show together.
Thank you all for tuning in.
We'll see everybody back here in the same time in the same place next week.