YOU SAID IT: Justice system weaponized

JUSTICE SYSTEM WEAPONIZED

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Re: Convoy protest leaders Tamara Lich and Chris Barber given conditional sentences, online, Oct. 7

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Having spent nearly 40 years working in the justice system as a law enforcement officer, I hope that using it as a political weapon will never happen in this country again.

The trumped-up charges against Tamara Lich and Chris Barber never warranted the extreme hardship they have endured, this while the same soft-on-crime Trudeau government was mollycoddling serious criminals, quickly returning them to society.

Lich was even shackled in leg irons for a bail appearance, something that is usually reserved for only the most dangerous offenders. To further punish Barber, there has also been efforts to have his transport truck, known as Big Red, seized.

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The justice system became a political tool, using the treatment of Lich and Barber as a direct warning to others.

What was given extremely scant coverage was the fact that, in his January 2024 ruling, Federal Court Justice Richard Mosley declared it was unreasonable for the Trudeau government to use the Emergencies Act to quell the trucker convoy. In order to punish those opposed to his policies, Trudeau ran roughshod over the guaranteed right to peacefully protest set out in his father’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

LARRY COMEAU

OTTAWA

NEVER SHOULD HAVE BEEN CHARGED

I believe Tamara Lich and Chris Barber should never have been charged in the first place. Many criminals with more serious charges have received little or no repercussions.  They were only charged at the outset because Justin Trudeau didn’t like them.

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Our judicial system needs a complete overhaul.

DORIS REED

OTTAWA

CIVIL DISCOURSE

Re: AGAR: The need for debating minus all the hating, online, Sept. 22

A terrific column by Jerry Agar. People who conclude that a belief is wrong because of the person who holds that belief are ignorant.

Civil discourse is the fundamental basis of a democracy. The parliamentary process itself provides for questioning of the party in power by the opposition and allows the government to defend its policies so that citizens may judge. Yelling at a particular party because they are your political opponents advances nothing. It is the discussion of ideas, the debate, the dialogue that advance a society.

A wise boss of mine once said, “It’s not who’s right, but what’s right that counts.” Otherwise, we are no better than barbarians.

LARRY SYLVESTER

ACTON, ONT.

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