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Ontario policeman fights conviction, penalty for donating to the Freedom Convoy

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From LifeSiteNews

By Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms

Constable Michael Brisco, a Windsor police officer, has appealed a conviction and penalty for donating $50 to the Ottawa Freedom Convoy in 2022 on freedom of expression grounds

The Ontario Civilian Police Commission heard the appeal of Constable Michael Brisco on Tuesday, who is challenging his conviction and penalty for donating to the Ottawa Freedom Convoy in early 2022. This case raises questions about the Charter’s protection for freedom of expression, the right of police officers to support political causes while off duty, and the privacy rights of all Canadians.

Constable Michael Brisco of the Windsor Police Service is a highly trained and respected police officer with no prior disciplinary record. He made a $50 donation to the peaceful Freedom Convoy protest through the GiveSendGo fundraising platform on February 8, 2022 – one day after an Ontario Superior Court Judge held that people could continue to engage in “peaceful, lawful and safe protest” in Ottawa so long as honking ceased. When making his donation, Brisco did not identify himself as a police officer and did not contribute to the protest in his capacity as a police officer.

Days later, the GiveSendGo donor list was hacked. The Ontario Provincial Police Service acquired the list and forwarded a set of names to the Windsor Police Service, who discovered that Brisco had donated to the protest.

The Windsor Police Service then chose to charge Brisco for “discreditable conduct.”

After a six-day hearing before an Ontario Provincial Police Adjudicator, Brisco was found guilty of discreditable conduct by a Tribunal on March 24, 2023. Two months later, on May 18, 2023, the Tribunal ordered that Brisco should forfeit pay for 80 hours of work as a penalty.

With the support of the Justice Centre, on June 14, 2023, Brisco filed a Notice of Appeal with Ontario Civilian Police Commission, challenging his conviction and the imposed penalty.

Counsel for Brisco argued that the prosecution against him lacks sufficient evidence. The claim that the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa was an unlawful protest rested entirely on claims made in newspaper articles by various officials, including the prime minister and the premier of Ontario. No credible video, photographic, or other evidence on this point was filed against Brisco. Further, counsel for Brisco argued that the evidence against him – a hacked list that ought to have remained private and confidential – was obtained illegally. Counting the donor list as evidence against Brisco amounts to an abuse of process, counsel argue.

Brisco’s legal counsel further argue that his conviction and penalty rested on a claim that Brisco’s donation was a demonstration of support for the Ambassador Bridge blockade in Windsor, Ontario; Brisco argues that there is no evidence of a link between the Ottawa protest and the Windsor blockade, and he denied any support for the blockade during his hearing.

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Tamara Lich laments after Freedom Convoy trial the devastating effects of COVID mandates on society

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From LifeSiteNews

By Anthony Murdoch

The Freedom Convoy leader reflected on how the mandates ripped families apart after ‘people were forced to take a ‘med’ to keep their jobs, homes, family, and social circles.’

Freedom Convoy leader Tamara Lich reflected at the end of her months-long court trial on how she was “targeted” by the federal government because she and others stood up for Canadians’ freedoms in protest of COVID shots that she said “people were forced to take” to keep their jobs.

In a X post last Friday, Lich observed that COVID mandates and rules tore families “apart,” adding that the rules led to “kids on outdoor rinks (were threatened with tasers). Playgrounds were taped off with caution tape. Kids were ostracized in school and sports.”

“People were forced to take a ‘med’ to keep their jobs, homes, family, and social circles. They arrested pastors!” she wrote.

Lich said she was not happy with the Freedom Convoy being referred to as a “weekend party” by the Crown’s legal team.

The trial for Lich and Freedom Convoy leader Chris Barber, which was supposed to have been only 16 days, concluded last Friday after more than a year, with the presiding judge observing that determining a verdict, which could take up to six months, will be “daunting” task.

The trial had been ongoing for more than one year after beginning on September 3, 2023. As reported by LifeSiteNews, Lich and Barber face a possible 10-year prison sentence for their role in the 2022 Freedom Convoy.

Lich and Barber face multiple charges from the 2022 protests, including mischief, counseling mischief, counseling intimidation, and obstructing police. In Canada, anyone charged with mischief faces a potential jail sentence of up to 10 years.

Lich, in another X post last Friday, said that when it came to the those who stood up to COVID mandates, they indeed were the “target” of the federal government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

“We were the targeted and traumatized by our own government and, shockingly, our own military who saw the pandemic as an excellent way to test out psychological operations on Canadians,” she wrote.

Despite her plight, Lich took the time to thank her supporters for standing with her during her trial.

“As the trial portion of our criminal trial comes to a close, I can’t help but reflect on how lucky and grateful I am for the love and support I’ve received from Canadians and from around the world,” she wrote in a Facebook post.

In concluding statements last Friday in an Ottawa courthouse, presiding judge Heather Perkins-McVey said that she does “not know” when she will “be in a position to give my decision,” adding that producing a verdict will be “a little daunting.”

The judge has promised that on November 26 she will provide an update on to expect a decision.

The Crown prosecution has held steadfast to the notion that Lich and Barber somehow influenced the protesters’ actions through their words as part of a co-conspiracy. This claim has been rejected by the defense as weak.

It has also been asserted “that the absence of violence or peaceful nature of the protest didn’t make it lawful, emphasizing that the onus was on the Crown to prove the protest’s unlawfulness.”

The reality is that Lich and Barber collaborated with police on many occasions so that the protesters remained law abiding.

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Former NYC COVID czar held secret sex parties, flouted his own rules during COVID ‘pandemic’

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From LifeSiteNews

By  Emily Mangiaracina

Dr. Jay Varma admitted that ‘it would have been a big deal’ and ‘a real embarrassment’ if it was publicly known he had sex parties during COVID.

New York City’s former COVID response “architect” held secret sex parties during the pandemic even as he publicly insisted that fellow city dwellers remain isolated, undercover footage shows.

The only way I could do this job for the city is if I found a way to blow off steam every now and then,” Dr. Jay Varma, who served as the “principal scientific spokesperson and architect” for NYC’s COVID pandemic response from April 2020 to May 2021, divulged to an undercover journalist in video footage posted by Steven Crowder on Thursday.

“It’s funny because I did all this deviant sexual stuff while I was on TV,” said Varma, referring to the fact that he had sex parties during the same period he was giving daily televised COVID briefings along with NYC’s mayor. “People are like, aren’t you afraid? Aren’t you embarrassed? And I was like, no, actually, I love being my authentic self.”

However, asked whether he would have “gotten a hard time” if it was publicly known that he held sex parties during COVID, Varma admitted, “It would have been a big deal. It would have been a real embarrassment.”

He told how he and his wife rented out a hotel to have a sex party with eight to 10 people in August 2020 after he had already begun recommending social distancing measures.

“We had to be sneaky about it because hotels didn’t want people gathering there, because I was like running the entire COVID response in the city,” said Varma, going on to share that they took “molly” (MDMA) together.

Then there was the time in 2021 that he joined a dance party of about 200 people underneath a bank on Wall Street — the only time he was nervous, he said.

“I was looking around being like, f***, if anybody sees me here, they’re gonna be pissed. Because this was not COVID-friendly.”

The stunning revelations of the undercover footage are not limited to Varma’s hypocrisy about gatherings and social distancing; his guidelines drove record numbers of adults and children to depression and suicidal ideation.

When the undercover journalist mentioned there were people who would not have sex with the unvaccinated, Varma laughed, telling her that the vaccination status of a person with whom one comes into contact “doesn’t make any difference at all.”

“Everybody’s been exposed to the virus … whether you’re exposed to the virus because someone breathed on you, whether someone injected it in you, it’s the same immune response.”

Yet, he admitted not only to convincing former NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio to implement COVID vaccine mandates but to essentially forcing people to get the dangerous shots. Thus far, 37,910 deaths and 1,645,999 adverse events after COVID shots in the U.S. alone have been reported to the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, which traditionally reports only a small fraction of total vaccine-induced death and injury.

Without acknowledging the health risk of the shots, Varma explained, “So the way we do it in public health is we make it very uncomfortable to be unvaccinated. It’s like you can’t get a job, you can’t go to a restaurant, your kid can’t go to school.”

“But was it technically kind of like forcing people?” the undercover journalist asked.

“Yeah. That’s what you do. You force people by making it really uncomfortable,” Varma said. “The whole idea is that you build barriers so that people are just like, f*** it, I’m just going to do it because I’m tired of being harassed.”

Retired New York City Fire Department Battalion Chief Tom Lapolla, whose job was terminated during the COVID outbreak due to NYC jab mandates, remarked to LifeSiteNews that the video footage makes clear Varma abused his power.

“He’s having orgies. We’re working the plandemic. He gets a good job after he leaves the city. We lose our jobs. This is tyranny. This is an abuse of power,” said Lapolla, who is running for the New York State Assembly.

“I’m hoping that the state AG, or even the federal government, investigates this,” Lapolla continued. “The mandates weren’t legislatively implemented. This isn’t the will of the people. This is the will of a select few, select elites … and people’s lives were destroyed.”

“I know it firsthand,” said Lapolla, citing the 1,500 or so city workers who lost their jobs for refusing the COVID shots, many of whom are still out of work. He mentioned a young woman he knew who, having lost her job, lost her medical coverage as well and was later diagnosed with lymphoma.

“This is atrocious. The mandate was capricious and arbitrary,” Lapolla noted. He is calling on NYC’s current mayor to “rectify” his predecessor’s administration by “hiring back immediately every single member of the NYC workforce who was terminated because of that unjust mandate.”

“He can do it with the stroke of the pen,” Lapolla added. “We want Mayor (Eric) Adams, in light of this revelation, to make those folks whole again.”

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