The opening ceremony for the Masters Indigenous Games will take place Thursday evening at TD Place, kicking off a three-day event featuring popular team games, like basketball and volleyball, as well traditional Arctic sports, like the one foot high kick and Inuit stick pull.

This year’s event is hosted by the Algonquins of Pikwakanagan First Nation. The Masters Indigenous Games were first held in Toronto in 2018, and were originally intended to take place every two years, but postponements caused by the COVID-19 pandemic mean this year’s event is only the third iteration of the games. 

Ottawa also previously hosted the 2023 games, which were founded by Indigenous Sport and Wellness Ontario. 

Following Thursday’s opening ceremony, competitions will be held Friday through Sunday across the city. Track and field events will be held at the Terry Fox Athletic Facility, while the Arctic sports will take place at Algonquin College.

Basketball will take place at Carleton University, volleyball games will be held at TD Place, while the golf tournament will be hosted at Loch March Golf and Country Club.

The event will also include a 3D archery competition, which involves shooting at foam animal targets, as opposed to a circular bullseye. 

The games will conclude with a closing ceremony at Lansdowne, which will include speakers, additional awards and a Pow Wow. During the games, Lansdowne will also host a cultural village featuring Indigenous vendors, artists, and storytellers that is free for spectators to check out.

More information is available at www.mastersindigenousgames.com.

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The Master Plan (TMP) is the city’s long-range strategy that is meant to guide Ottawa’s transportation system up until 2046, and council has officially approved Part 2 of the plan, which focuses on capital infrastructure.

While Part 1 was approved in April 2023 and outlines policies and priorities for transportation in Ottawa, Part 2 is based on travel demand forecasting and includes approximately $3.4 billion in city-led transportation projects.

The plan outlines $2.3 billion in transit projects and $1.6 billion in road projects, with active transportation projects like pedestrian and cycling networks accounting for $350 million.

According to the city’s Official Plan, Ottawa is projected to increase by over 400,000 residents over the next 20 years, with 47 per cent of new dwellings built with intensification, mostly inside the city’s Greenbelt. According to the staff report, the TMP identifies the transportation policies and investments that will be required to support the projected growth.

The forecasts for transportation in Ottawa also take into account post-pandemic shifts to working from home, leading to “evolving and diverse transportation needs”, the report says.

The plan allocates $8 million annually to implement “the most critical isolated measures”.

During the mayoral election, Mayor Mark Sutcliffe campaigned largely on road-centred infrastructure and shared priorities among drivers, especially those living in suburban neighbourhoods. But according to the TMP, road investments were only considered “where transit would not be sufficient to meet demand.”

Some of the projects among “highest-priority” are the Baseline-Heron, Cumberland and Kanata North Transitways and bus lanes on Carling Avenue, Blair Road, St-Laurent Boulevard and Montreal Road, as are the O-Train extensions.

The rapid bus projects will be injected with $2.3 billion from the city, city staff said, and the rest will be funded by other levels of government.

The O-Train Line 1 extension from Algonquin Station to Barrhaven Town Centre and the Line 3 extension from Moodie Station to Hazeldean Station are also included among the highest of the priorities, accounting for an additional $8.3 billion in investment.

The report notes that the implementation of these extensions “remains fully reliant on funding from other levels of government.”

“However, even with 100 per cent capital funding, the operating costs of these projects are very significant,” the report continues, “and are not expected to be substantially offset by increased fare revenue from these extensions.

These projects are all part of the “Priority Transit Network” and are meant to be implemented in the next 20 years.

City administration recommended the entire network be submitted for funding from the Canada Public Transit Fund.

The plan also includes committed road projects, like the Bank Street widening project and Robert Grant Avenue extension.

Notably, the TMP refers to the Official Plan’s target of having the majority of trips in Ottawa made by walking, cycling transit or carpooling. The latest data from the a 2022 city survey said sustainable moves currently account for 43.4 per cent of trips.

Once implemented, the TMP will add approximately 43 kilometres of O-Train tracks, 111 kilometres of Transitway and continuous bus lanes, 68 kilometres of road widenings and new roads, 48 kilometres of sidewalks, 18 kilometres of pathways and 151 kilometres of cycling facilities.

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With two regular season games remaining, the Ottawa BlackJacks are tied for second-place in the CEBL’s eastern conference. The top four teams in each conference qualify for the playoffs.

After dropping six of the season’s first eight games left them outside the initial playoff picture, the BlackJacks have been one of the league’s hottest teams over the last two weeks, having won three of their last four games.

On Wednesday, the BlackJacks won on the road against the Montreal Alliance by a score of 87-83, clinching a top-three seed in the conference. 

Led by forward Justin Jackson (Toronto, Ont.) and his team-high 21 points, the BlackJacks jumped out to a six-point lead in the first quarter, which they were able to maintain in spite of a late Montreal rally.

“Every time we play Montreal it’s a tough game like this,” said BlackJacks head coach Dave DeAveiro in a statement posted to the team’s website. “And to come here and beat them in this environment … it’s a really good win for us.”

Ottawa is set to host a rematch against the Alliance on Friday night at TD Place, and the BlackJacks will conclude the regular season by welcoming the western conference-leading Vancouver Bandits to Lansdowne on Sunday afternoon. 

Tickets for both games are still available at www.theblackjacks.ca. 

While Ottawa has already clinched a postseason berth, there is still a lot to play for over the final two games, as the CEBL’s playoff format features a play-in round between the conference’s third- and fourth-place teams.

Essentially, this means the top two seeds get an automatic spot in the conference semifinals. The winner of the conference semifinal series earns the right to participate in the CEBL championship weekend in Winnipeg later this month, which is where the conference finals and league finals will be held.

It’s mathematically impossible for Ottawa to catch the top-seeded Niagara River Lions, but they remain tied with the Scarborough Shooting Stars for that highly-coveted second spot.

Depending on where Ottawa finishes, the team’s first playoff game could take place either at home or on the road. However, the team recently announced that any potential home playoff games will take place at the Slush Puppie Centre in Gatineau because of scheduling conflicts caused by the Masters Indigenous Games, which will be held at TD Place next week.

“We recognize that, and hosting a game at a state-of-the-art venue like Centre Slush Puppie offers a unique opportunity to share our exciting brand of basketball with our fans in Gatineau and the Outaouais region,” read a statement from BlackJacks president Mark Wacyk. 

“We will look for this opportunity that has been presented to us as a gateway of development beyond the borders of Ottawa.”

Initially founded in 2019, the BlackJacks have never won a CEBL championship. 

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The Ottawa-based purveyor of e-commerce software reported a profit Wednesday of US$906 million in its latest quarter as its revenue grew by 31 per cent.

The numbers belie the ongoing trade dispute, which poses a threat to businesses Shopify counts on for cash and stands to inflict much more damage if U.S. President Donald Trump continues to ramp up his levies or Canada retaliates.

But for now, chief financial officer Jeff Hoffmeister says Shopify’s merchants have “remained resilient” and thus, so has his company.

“The business remains in very good shape,” he said on a Wednesday call with analysts.

Amid the discussion, Shopify’s shares jumped 22 per cent to $213.11 in mid-morning trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange.

The rise suggested the market was pleased with Shopify’s second-quarter profit, which compared with US$171 million a year ago.

The firm, which keeps its books in U.S. dollars, said the profit amounted to 69 cents US per diluted share attributable to shareholders compared with 13 cents US per diluted share a year earlier.

Its net income excluding the impact of its equity investments for the quarter ended June 30 amounted to US$338 million, up from US$291 million a year ago.

Revenue totalled US$2.68 billion for the quarter, up from US$2.05 billion in the same quarter last year.

The figures cover a period when trade relations between the U.S. and many of its allies, including Canada, continued to suffer as Trump threatened and often, imposed new tariffs.

The tariffs increased operating costs for many businesses that produce and ship products across global borders.

Yet Hoffmeister said Shopify hadn’t seen “any meaningful changes” in cross-border activity or buyer behaviour. Customers didn’t even move up purchases to take advantage of lower pricing before tariff increases.

Merchants, however, decided to prepare for trouble ahead anyway and many raised prices, he said.

The hikes could help combat the end of the de minimis exemption, which allows global businesses to ship packages valued at less than $800 to the U.S. without having to pay duties.

The U.S. previously removed the exemption for China but recently expanded it to every other country.

Hoffmeister said only four per cent of Shopify’s global gross merchandise volume — the value of all products sold through its software — is currently shipped under de minimis exemptions.

“We’ve not seen any significant changes in our GMV levels related to merchants that shipped products under the de minimis exemptions for China, since those rules were changed back in May,” he said. “We’ll continue monitoring these trends closely, staying focused on supporting our merchants in an evolving environment.”

Shopify has added some high-profile merchants even in the face of tariffs.

It added key customers like café chain Starbucks, snowboard retailer Burton and luxury parka maker Canada Goose in the last quarter.

“I’ve been in talks with the CEO Dani (Reiss) for a long time,” Shopify president Harley Finkelstein said on the same call as Hoffmeister about his discussions with Canada Goose.

“Incredibly, the deal actually closed on Canada Day this year, which made it feel extra special.”

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As part of its plan to identify and track violence against women and intimate partner violence (IPV), OPS has committed to releasing both annual and semi-annual statistics. This month, the semi-annual statistics were released for the first time, and they showed a nine per cent increase in reports of intimate partner violence in the first six months of 2025 compared to the same period of time in 2024.

According to the data, just above 80 per cent of victims identified as female, while 18.6 per cent identified as male. The majority — 50 per cent — were between the ages of 30 and 45. Nearly 30 per cent were between 18 and 29 and 12.4 per cent were between 46 and 60. Victims under the age of 18 were represented in 4.8 per cent of reports, and 3.4 per cent were over the age of 60.

Melanie Winwood is the senior advisor for violence against women at OPS, and she said the increase is “significant” and could be due to a variety of factors.

In January of this year, OPS began a pilot project to offer more options for reporting IPV. If accessibility has increased, that could contribute to the increase, said Winwood.

Until recently, the main form of reporting involved calling emergency dispatchers, then waiting for a patrol officer to arrive. 

“Now, they don’t necessarily have to wait for a physical police like patrol response to wherever they’re calling from, which would take hours, and we would lose women by the time the officers got there,” she said. “They either weren’t there, depending on where they had called from, or they didn’t want to provide a report anymore.

“Their abuser could show up and threaten them, or they could just change their mind and think they’re being silly or that it isn’t a big deal,” Winwood continued. 

But there’s also evidence that social norms could be resulting in a rise in reports, Winwood said, especially when it comes to younger age groups.

“That age group is under 18, but we usually will see them starting at 16. But you’re looking at 14-18 year olds in 4.8 per cent of reports. That’s not insignificant, and that’s something that needs to be focused on,” she said. “We’re working on reaching out and addressing that with the youth, either in the schools or youth programming.

“We’re working on education about healthy relationships and signs of an abusive relationship,” Winwood continued. 

When it comes to addressing and even preventing IPV on a more substantial level, though, Winwood said it goes “beyond policing”.

“Police can respond to the calls when people reach out and seek help or things like that,” she said. “But a lot of this is more on a community or societal level.

“We haven’t had a really big shift in gender norms or society, like social views on women versus men. And I think that’s a big conversation,” she said. “That is often missed because a lot of things kind of age out with generations, but this remains consistent throughout history. I don’t know that there’s been a huge shift.”

Dr. Katie Bausch is a feminist historian and instructor at Carleton University’s Feminist Institute for Social Transformation. Bausch will be teaching a course focused on gender-based violence in the winter, and she said she’s “unfortunately not surprised” to see that rates of intimate partner violence are increasing, largely due to this “particular moment” in society.

“Right now, there’s a kind of masculinity that’s being celebrated that I don’t think necessarily leads directly to violent behavior, but is a culture that permits violence against women and gender-queer people,” she told Ottawa Compass. “The things that people make jokes about and think are funny, and the way sort of women and gender queer people are still ‘other’… It doesn’t actually surprise me.”

While law enforcement has a role in education and spreading awareness, Bausch agreed with Winwood that addressed the problem in a substantial way “goes deeper.”

Part of the issue is that IPC is often framed as a “women’s issue”, Bausch said, which places blame and responsibility on women — excluding the cases where men are victims. But since the vast majority of reports come from women, Bausch said there needs to be more discussion about addressing the issue with young men and boys.

“I do think it should be part of the curriculum where we talk openly about how this is a problem of men, and it’s been structured as a problem for women,” she explained. “We’re taught to protect ourselves, and those resources can be great, but there are very few, if any, resources for boys and men. 

“If you make it a problem for women, you don’t have to have a frank conversation about masculinity and manhood, which a lot of people feel like if you do, it’s like a blame game,” she continued. “People get very defensive.”

However, by going to schools and speaking to boys about healthy relationships and behaviour, Bausch said educators could get ahead of the curve.

“Little boys don’t dream of growing up to be that person, and there are ways in which they’re being oppressed by masculinity…” she said. “So I think you can deliver it in a way that’s not about blame.

“[Gender-based violence] has never not been present in the patriarchal system. And I think where we could really put resources and effort is in stopping teaching boys that when you feel scared and insecure about your position in the world, that anger and violence is the way to feel better,” explained Bausch. “It’s like we create these men and then we punish them for being what we created.”

Bausch also said funding and streamlining processes for schools or organizations seeking government support and funding in these areas.

“I think that there has been so much grace given to try to work this out in traditional ways that we should now be able to admit as a community they don’t work, because nothing’s changing,” she said. “I do appreciate the [OPS], I do believe that people who take on those roles take it seriously and care. I just think that the police can only do so much.”

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The team was greeted by Mayor Mark Sutcliffe to the National Art Gallery on Tuesday on the road to the World Cup, which will be held in England in August. The Canadian team currently holds second place in the international ranking.

On Friday, the team will also be playing against the United States at TD Place.

“Fans here in Ottawa are going to get to see this incredible team in action before you get overseas,” Sutcliffe said in his remarks. “I’m really looking forward to the game on Friday… to face off against the United States of America. I don’t know whether you’re allowed to have your elbows up in rugby, but anyway, it’s going to be a very interesting match.”

Sutcliffe went on to say that he’s dedicated to supporting women’s sports and hoping to host “more and more” rugby events in the city.

“Thank you for everything you do to inspire women and girls in sports. Congratulations on making Team Canada,” he said. “Thank you for representing our country, and good luck at the World Cup.”

The event was more than a little nostalgic for Claire Gallagher, the team’s fly-half who is a University of Ottawa Health Sciences alum from the class of 2023.

Gallagher, who was born in Caledon, Ont., plays for the Leicester Tigers. She was previously with the Aurora Barbarians. 

She came to Ottawa a few days early, she told Ottawa Compass, to revisit some of her old haunts.

“I was able to go to an Ottawa Rapids soccer game, so that was really cool. I went to the University and was able to come back and see my friends, hit all the spots around campus,” she said. “I’ve been showing some of the girls on the team my favorite spots in Ottawa, like the coffee shops and secret swimming spots.”

It was a full-circle moment to return, she added, after playing rugby for the Geegees during her studies.

“Two years ago, we played here and I got my first cap in Ottawa. So that was super special,” she said, referencing her debut for the Canadian national team. “Coming back, I’m seeing all the university girls that I played with who were younger when I was on the team, and now they’re hopefully seeing they can be here one day, too.

“I looked up to girls on the team, when I wasn’t here quite yet. So that’s really special to be that person for them.”

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Dr. Tim Aubry is a professor in the university’s school of psychology and senior researcher at the ​​Centre for Research on Educational and Community Services. He’s been studying homelessness, its causes and the possible solutions for decades, and he says transitional housing facilities that provide long-term housing options on a temporary basis could be perpetuating the problems, despite receiving support from the community and City.

Aubry was part of the research group that studied the Housing First (HF) approach over a decade ago and conducted a report based on engagement with 2,000 people. According to this research, Aubry says the most effective approach is to house people — permanently — and follow up with support and resources. Unlike transitional housing, which has been advertised across the country as a necessary in-between step, HF does not have a time limit for how long people can stay.

To address the ongoing homelessness crisis, the City of Ottawa has opened a new transitional housing facility that will provide temporary housing for up to 140 people. The city has leased the building at 230 Queen St. for a 10-year term to establish a transitional housing facility that will provide “temporary” accommodation for people experiencing homelessness and connect them with employment and housing resources.

“This is technically considered a shelter. It’s not permanent housing, so it sits within the shelter system,” said Kale Brown, director of housing with the city. “The way our system works in terms of who ends up going to this building is you’re assessed by your needs and then we determine a placement, working with our various shelter partners.”

The Queen Street facility will focus on newcomers to Canada but can serve anyone who meets the criteria, Brown said, and will offer supportive temporary accommodations, the building includes kitchens, dining areas, washrooms, showers, laundry facilities, lounge areas, and dedicated rooms for meetings and workshops.

Clients will also have access to settlement and employment support, housing search case management, short-term mental health crisis workers, and weekly life skills workshops

This is the second transitional housing facility for single adults in Ottawa — the other, St-Joseph Transitional Housing Program in the east end, exclusively serves newcomers seeking asylum in Canada who are experiencing homelessness.

While emergency shelters like the Ottawa Mission and Shepherds of Good Hope aim to shelter people for only 30 days, they can stay in transitional housing for up to a year until they “get on their feet”, said Brown.

The “Housing First” program and research followed 2,000 individuals as well as hundreds of service providers across Canada over two years. Across all cities, HF participants obtained housing and retained their housing at a much higher rate than the treatment as usual (TAU) group.

In the last six months of the study, 62 per cent of HF participants were housed all of the time, 22 per cent some of the time, and 16 per cent none of the time. In comparison, 31 per cent of TAU participants were housed all of the time, 23 per cent some of the time, and 46 per cent none of the time.

“The idea is to rehouse people without condition, so they don’t have to go through any kind of transitional process,” Aubry told Ottawa Compass. “This approach targets people with histories of chronic homelessness, particularly histories of mental health problems and often with addiction.”

Transitional models have been useful in the past, he said, and have been used for decades to help people transition from living in psychiatric hospitals, for example, to living independently. 

The Queen Street housing consists of sleeping “pods” with shared living spaces, allowing some independence with plenty of support and resources. But there isn’t a lot of privacy — due to the layout of the building, the pods don’t have floor-to-ceiling walls.

“What we’re seeing here in the city, I think it’s really just more emergency shelter space, just with sort of a different model,” Aubry said.

The Queen Street facility is geared towards newcomers to Canada, as is a facility on St. Joseph Boulevard, and in these cases, Aubry said transitional housing could help as people get on their feet.

But in the context of chronic homelessness, it might be a different conversation.

“Housing First involved housing and support in line with people’s needs. So it can be quite intensive, but the actual rental housing is a big problem,” said Aubry. “Many people who are homeless are on social benefits here in Ontario, and they don’t have enough money to pay the rent in the private market.”

Through Housing First programs, people can receive a housing supplement that Aubry said would “ideally” pay more than 30 per cent of rent. The problem is exacerbated by the lack of affordable housing in Ontario and extremely low vacancy rates.

The report found that HF approaches resulted in savings over time, with the most significant for the participants with highest costs at entry.

For this group, the intervention cost was $19,582 per person per year on average, and over the two-year period following study entry, every $10 invested in HF services resulted in an average savings of $21.72, the report stated.

When the report was first released, the federal government mandated communities across the country to invest in Housing First initiatives. However, in 2017, the Liberals released a new national housing strategy that placed the focus on social housing.

“There was nothing about Housing First in the strategy, so things have stalled,” said Aubry.

“If you look at the last six or seven years, we’ve grown some of the HF programs, but we really haven’t seen any kind of scaling up of them, despite the fact that we know that chronic homelessness has increased significantly,” he continued.

“We have a lot more visible homelessness, a lot more people unsheltered — they’re living in encampments, and they’re really not tied to any kind of system. And this is the kind of approach that could address that.”

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In addition to lengthy prison sentences, the Crown wants to seize Barber’s truck, which was used in the protest.

A forfeiture hearing on that matter is scheduled for Sept. 12.

Ontario Court Justice Heather Perkins-McVey said Thursday she wants to rule on the mischief sentence and truck forfeiture at the same time so that she does not deliver “piecemeal” decisions.

Lich and Barber were both found guilty of mischief in April for their roles in the convoy protest, which saw activists fill much of downtown Ottawa for three weeks beginning in late January 2022 to protest vaccine mandates and other pandemic measures.

The Crown is seeking a prison sentence of seven years for Lich and eight years for Barber, who was also found guilty of counselling others to disobey a court order.

The lawyers for both Lich and Barber are seeking absolute discharges for their clients, which would mean neither receives a criminal record.

On Thursday, Lich’s lawyer Lawrence Greenspon told the court that Lich has already spent 49 days in jail and has been under strict bail conditions for the last three-and-a-half years.

Greenspon argued that his client and Barber took “unprecedented” steps by working with police and city officials throughout the protest to limit the protest’s impact.

“This is an individual who came to this city with the best of intentions, as recognized by the judge. She has been under strict bail conditions for three-and-a-half years. She spent 49 days in jail for the offence of mischief,” Greenspon said during the hearing’s lunch break.

“And if one looks at the positive impact that she’s had on the lives of many Canadians and the community service that she has continued to do, there’s absolutely no reason for her to not receive an absolute discharge.”

Greenspon read a brief statement on Lich’s behalf that simply said “freedom is not free.” Accused are given a chance to address the court during sentencing submissions.

Barber’s lawyer Diane Magas said Wednesday that she is seeking an absolute discharge for her client because he has been on bail for the last three-and-a-half years without incident.

Greenspon became emotional at times while reading from dozens of support letters submitted on behalf of his client. He read out messages from people who said the convoy protest gave them hope after two years of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated public health measures they saw as government overreach.

“Tamara Lich, Chris Barber stood up for what they believed in and what many, many people — thousands of people across the country were not capable of standing up (for). And those people were inspired,” he said.

Crown prosecutor Siobhain Wetscher said during her sentencing submissions Wednesday that she is seeking stiff sentences for Lich and Barber because of the broad community harm caused by the three-week 2022 protest in Ottawa’s downtown core.

She said that she is seeking long sentences not because of Lich and Barber’s political beliefs but because of their actions during the protest.

Wetscher said that while Lich and Barber may have come to Ottawa with noble intentions, they continued to encourage people to take part in the protests even when it became impossible for them to ignore the effect it was having on downtown residents and businesses.

Greenspon said Thursday that it’s “facile and inaccurate” to say the Crown’s sentencing proposal sentence is not motivated by his client’s politics. He said Lich continually called for protesters to remain peaceful and can’t be held responsible for the actions of individuals at the demonstration.

Wetscher replied that while some people are fans of the convoy protest, it does not change the fact that it caused harm to people living and working in downtown Ottawa.

The defence raised issues with victim and community impact statements submitted by Wetscher. One of the statements came from fellow “Freedom Convoy” organizer Pat King’s case and others were sworn affidavits derived from a separate $300 million class action lawsuit filed against convoy organizers by downtown Ottawa residents.

Wetscher said that the statements are meant to capture the broad scope of the convoy’s impact.

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A lawyer for one of two leaders of the “Freedom Convoy” facing sentencing told an Ottawa court Wednesday her client should not be left with a criminal record.

Crown prosecutor Siobhain Wetscher said Wednesday she is seeking stiff sentences for convoy leaders Tamara Lich and Chris Barber because of the broad community harm caused by the three-week 2022 protest in Ottawa’s downtown core.

Outside the courthouse, a few demonstrators gathered with signs that protested vaccine mandates, called COVID-19 a “hoax”, and advocated, “free Tamara”. Among them was a billboard truck owned by far-right media website Rebel News touting an LED sign of Lich, accompanied by the words, “Tamara Lich stood up for democracy. Trudeau threw her in jail.”

The focus on Wednesday was on Barber, with Lich’s attorney set to present Thursday. Inside, the large courtroom was nearly full. Some of the observers gathered carried paper Canadian flags.

Diane Magas, Barber’s lawyer, told the court she wants an absolute discharge for her client because he’s been out on bail without incident for the last 3 1/2 years. That decision would mean Barber would not receive a criminal record.

While Barber did not address the court himself, Magas said “his intention was not to harm the people of Ottawa. It was an unfortunate consequence of what occurred in the protest.”

Magas said that if Ontario Court Justice Heather Perkins-McVey decides a criminal record is necessary, she wants to see Barber receive a suspended or conditional sentence to be served in his home community.

Lich and Barber were both found guilty of mischief in April for their key roles in the convoy protest, which filled downtown Ottawa for three weeks beginning in late January 2022 to protest vaccine mandates and other pandemic measures.

The Crown is seeking a prison sentence of seven years for Lich and eight years for Barber, who was also found guilty of counselling others to disobey a court order.

Lich’s lawyer Lawrence Greenspon is set to present his submissions Thursday.

Magas called the Crown’s sentencing proposal “cruel and unusual,” adding that Barber has no criminal record and is a respected member of his community.

“Considering all of the circumstances of the offence, given the fact there was no violence, the fact my client was advocating no violence whatsoever,” Magas said outside the courthouse Wednesday.

During her submissions, Magas referred the judge to several mischief sentences emerging from the massive protests that attended the 2010 Toronto G20 Summit — including one six-month sentence for a person who pleaded guilty to smashing windows in two police vehicles.

Perkins-McVey said it’s hard to draw comparisons between the G20 protests and the convoy protest because the crimes in Toronto were “old-fashioned mischief.”

She said that if someone smashes a $400 window, the damage has a tangible cost, while the damage from the convoy protest is less tangible. She said this makes for a difficult sentencing decision, one that she does not take lightly.

The convoy protest ended after the federal government invoked the Emergencies Act for the first time ever. The convoy was cleared out of Ottawa’s downtown core in a three-day police operation that began on Feb. 18, 2022.

The Crown is calling for a longer sentence for Barber because he was also found guilty of counselling others to disobey a court order related to an injunction against protesters honking truck horns. Lich was not charged with that offence.

Perkins-McVey said in her April decision that she found Lich and Barber guilty of mischief because they routinely encouraged people to join or remain at the protest, despite knowing the adverse effects it was having on downtown residents and businesses.

Wetscher said she is seeking these sentences because of what Lich and Barber did, not because of their political beliefs.

Wetscher said that while Lich and Barber may have come to Ottawa with noble intentions, they continued to encourage people to take part in the protests even when it became impossible for them to ignore the effect it was having on downtown residents and businesses.

The prosecutor said that while there are mitigating sentencing factors for both Barber and Lich, the overall effect of the protest outweighs them.

Magas also referred to the sentencing of fellow “Freedom Convoy” organizer Pat King for mischief and disobeying a court order in February.

The Crown sought a sentence of 10 years in prison for King but he was sentenced to three months of house arrest, 100 hours of community service at a food bank or men’s shelter and a year of probation.

He received nine months’ credit for time served before his conviction.

Wetscher said that while the protest was not violent, it was not peaceful. She read a summary of victim impact statements that include one from an employee of a downtown Ottawa church who talked about still feeling ill at the sight of large trucks with Canadian flags.

That drew some chuckles from the gallery.

The Crown also emphasized that although Lich and Barber may have had “innocent intentions” when coming to Ottawa, that was not how the demonstration ended.

Wetscher added that the Ottawa Police Service has reported policing the protest cost $55 million, while the City of Ottawa pegged its own convoy-related costs at over $7 million.

The prosecutor said that while Lich and Barber aren’t responsible for every dollar spent because of the protest, those cost figures give the judge a sense of the protest’s impact.

Barber attended court virtually Wednesday, while Lich attended in person.

Both Lich and Barber were found not guilty on charges of intimidation, counselling to commit intimidation, obstructing police and counselling others to obstruct police.

Perkins-McVey said intimidation carries a sense of menace or violence. She said that both Lich and Barber repeatedly called for protesters to remain peaceful throughout the protest.

As for obstructing police, Perkins-McVey said both were arrested without incident and were in custody before the main police operation began to clear downtown Ottawa.

Charges for counselling others to commit mischief were stayed at the request of the Crown.

with files from The Canadian Press

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