Lawrence Greenspon won't say if he is being paid to represent Lich

The lawyer representing convoy leader Tamara Lich says his latest high-profile client deserves to be well-represented, but Lawrence Greenspon won't disclose whether he is being paid or took the case for free. 

Lich, who was behind fundraising efforts that raised more than $10 million to support the Freedom Convoy protests in Ottawa, is charged jointly with Chris Barber with mischief, counselling mischief, obstructing police, counselling to obstruct police, counselling intimidation, and intimidation by blocking and obstructing one or more highways. 

She joins a handful of high-profile Greenspon clients. He has previously represented Mohammad Momin Khawaja, the first Canadian charged under Canada's Anti-terrorism Act, as well as former senator Mike Duffy.

"Some of the people that have contacted me are well aware of the fact that in the past I've represented alleged terrorists and murderers and people charged with sexual assault. That, I guess, in their minds is OK," Greenspon said.

"But representing Tamara Lich who has no criminal record, is not charged with any violent offence, there's no weapons involved, there's no sexual assault — they seem to have a problem with that."

He said he swore an oath to zealously defend a person whose liberty is at stake.

"I don't have any difficulty at all in representing Tamara Lich. It doesn't mean that I agree with anything she did or didn't do. But it does mean that she's entitled to representation when her liberty's at stake," he said.

Lich was arrested Feb. 17, denied bail, but then released on March 7 on the condition she leave Ottawa within 24 hours, refrain from using social media and have no contact with certain co-organizers.

Everybody has a right to be represented under the law.— Lawrence Greenspon

Diane Magas had been representing Barber and Lich, but is now just representing Barber. 

Greenspon is expected to challenge the conditions of Lich's bail, particularly as it applies to her use of social media.

"The reaction from friends has been, 'I'm not surprised, she's going to be well represented.' The reaction from strangers has been, 'I'm disappointed because you were this, that and the other in our community and I don't put that together with you representing Tamara Lich,'" he said.

"It's those individuals that really need to understand what the role of defence counsel is and how important it is that everybody has a right to be represented under the law."

Worked in oil and gas

Lich worked in the oil and gas sector in Alberta from 2017 until she was laid off in March 2020 "due to closures related to COVID-19," according to a sworn affidavit made by her March 2.

She and her husband moved to Harrison Park, Man., for work after he was laid off, but by November 2021 they were back in Alberta and working again.

She used five weeks of vacation time to come to Ottawa, where she was considered a key figure in the protests against COVID-19 health measures, according to the affidavit.

 In her affidavit, she said she would return to work following her release on bail.

Raised millions for convoy

In a separate affidavit filed in court related to a proposed class action suit against her and others, Lich said she was involved in the creation of the crowdfunding campaign for the Freedom Convoy on the GoFundMe platform.

She said she used a personal TD bank account, which had no balance, as the designated account to hold donated funds. 

An email address was set up to accept donations, which also went into a personal account belonging to her. At the time, she was the only person with access to the donations. 

When GoFundMe released $1 million of donated funds on Feb. 2, it did so into Lich's personal account she designated for the protest. 

Two days after sending her $1 million, GoFundMe said it closed the campaign, citing violations of its rules on violence and harassment, with all remaining donations being returned directly to individual donors. 

Lich said that the same day she received the GoFundMe money, a "hold" was placed on her account associated with the Freedom Convoy. She said the bank didn't prevent money from being deposited into the account, but funds could not be withdrawn. 

While she had access to the money provided by GoFundMe, Lich said she completed approximately $26,000 in transactions. 

She spent $13,000 on bulk fuel purchases and another $13,000 was "withdrawn in cash and utilized for various purposes," she said in her affidavit.