Tyson “Freedom George” Billings will remain in an Ottawa jail after he was denied bail Monday, the third accused organizer of the so-called “Freedom Convoy” to be denied bail since large-scale arrests the weekend of Feb. 19 brought an end to the three-week “occupation” of downtown streets.
Billings, 44, of High Prairie, Alta., sat with his arms crossed in the prisoner’s box Monday as Ontario Court Justice Donna Hackett read through her lengthy decision, finally arriving at her order to keep Billings in custody with a condition barring him from communicating with other convoy leaders.
Tamara Lich, 49, was denied bail in a Feb. 22 decision from Ontario Court Justice Julie Bourgeois, who said she believed there was a substantial likelihood Lich would re-offend if released.
The same judge had earlier granted bail to Chris Barber, who was released on conditions, including a promise that he give up his organizing days and return home to Swift Current, Sask.
Lich’s Ottawa-based defence lawyer Diane Magas is preparing to mount another court challenge for Lich’s release in a bail-review hearing scheduled for Wednesday.
Pat King, 44, another prominent convoy leader who has been named as a close associate of Billings, was denied bail on Friday with Justice of the Peace Andrew Seymour expressing similar concerns that King, if released, may continue offending.
The justice also expressed doubt in the reliability of King’s proposed surety, a woman named Kerry Komix (also known as Kerry Comix) who acknowledged she had only met King four weeks earlier while travelling to Ottawa to participate in the convoy. She had put up a $50,000 bond in a bid for King’s release.
Unlike the bail hearings last week, however, the details and reasons behind the decision involving Billings are shielded by a publication ban imposed at the outset of Monday’s hearing.
A publication ban is customarily issued by the judge at bail hearings at the request of the accused person or their defence counsel, though no such orders were issued in the earlier hearings for Barber, Lich or King.
Defence lawyer Oleksiy Bykov, who represents Billings, did not apply for a publication ban at the commencement of Billings’s hearing on Friday, but agreed with the judge on Monday, saying an order “would be wise in these circumstances.”
The recent bail hearings have featured frequent warnings from the judges directed at observers who appeared to be live-streaming the hearings on various social media platforms — in contravention of longstanding court orders and criminal code statutes that prohibit the broadcast of court proceedings.
Billings was swept up in the mass arrests by Ottawa police on Feb. 19 — he live-streamed his own arrest on his Facebook page — and has remained in custody since then.
He was charged with mischief, counselling to commit the offence of mischief, counselling to commit the offence of disobeying a court order, obstructing police and counselling to commit the offence of obstructing police.
Assistant Crown Attorney Tara Dobec said last week that Billings is facing additional charges of breaching a court order and counselling others to breach a court order. He is scheduled to make his next court appearance March 14.
Another accused convoy leader, Steeve Charland, 48, of Grenville, Que. is scheduled to make a court appearance Tuesday. Charland was arrested Saturday evening by OPP in the Vankleek Hill area and was charged with mischief and counselling others to commit mischief.
Charland is a poet and former actor with a large social media following.
He was one of the leaders of La Meute, a Quebec identitarian group established in 2015 in opposition to Canada’s decision to open its borders to Syrian refugees.
During the “Freedom Convoy” protests in Ottawa, Charland acted as the leader and spokesperson for the Farfadaas, a group that opposes COVID-19 health measures and whose members are recognizable by their leather vests marked with an expletive hand gesture.
The group led a protest near the intersection of Laurier and Laval streets in Gatineau on an undeveloped part of the massive Zibi project in support of the “Freedom Convoy” before they were ordered to leave following a court order.
-With files from Matthew Lapierre
The listed charges are bullshit, none of these people are ‘leaders’. They are everyday Canadians that want the same things as everyone else who participated in the peaceful protest! FREEDOM! All of these charges should be dropped. Since when is it a crime to have freedom of expression, freedom to protest, speak your opinion on social media? What a joke our gov’t is, what a joke our ‘justice’ system is. Criminals working on the police force in Ottawa still employed, peaceful protesters who disagree with gov’t locked up?! Makes no damn sense! What a joke!