SWIFT CURRENT, Sask. — Chris Barber isn’t done fighting.
The Swift Current trucker and independent businessman, who was convicted for his role in the 2022 Freedom Convoy, is appealing his conviction, the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) said on Sept. 24. In April 2025, Barber was found guilty of mischief and counselling others to disobey a court order. He was acquitted on several other charges, including intimidation.
“They still want Tamara Lich and [me] in jail for, I would assume they’re going to ask for five years this time,” said Barber in a video posted by JCCF.
The Crown has appealed Barber's sentence, asking the court for a harsher penalty and a conviction on the intimidation charge, or to order a new trial on that count, according to JCCF. In October 2025, Justice Heather Perkins-McVey handed Barber an 18-month conditional sentence, which includes 12 months of house arrest followed by six months under a curfew, plus 100 hours of community service.
The Crown originally sought eight years in prison. Barber’s defence lawyer, Diane Magas, called that request “abusive.” JCCF said its lawyers will file written arguments by Sept. 30 that argue Barber’s conviction should be overturned because the trial judge misapplied the law on mischief and failed to account for Barber’s cooperation with police.
From Swift Current to the national stage
Barber, who owns and operates CB Trucking in Swift Current, testified at the Public Order Emergency Commission in November 2022 that he was never politically active before the pandemic. He told the inquiry the federal cross-border vaccine mandate that took effect Jan. 15, 2022, threatened the livelihoods of unvaccinated independent truckers.
“That was the last straw,” Barber testified. “The federal overreach had gone too far. It was very frustrating.”
He described families separated during hospital restrictions, mental-health crises, and his own 16-year-old unvaccinated daughter being bullied at school, forced to play her clarinet in a separate room. He said the mandates forced 35 to 40 per cent of Canadian truckers off the road, far more than the government estimated.
Barber led approximately 2,500 vehicles in the West convoy into Ottawa. He testified that people stood in temperatures of –30 C along the route to watch the convoy pass.
Once in Ottawa, he said he parked on Wellington Street after being directed by police and was never asked to move.
“It was loud, but it was peaceful,” he testified. “It was all peace, love, and unity.”
Saskatchewan roots shaped Lich's convoy involvement
Barber’s co-organizer, Tamara Lich, was born in Saskatoon and raised in Saskatchewan. She testified at the inquiry that she joined the convoy after seeing families torn apart by restrictions, rising suicides, and elderly people dying alone in long-term care.
Lich described her father being asked to leave his usual Saskatchewan restaurant and her 94-year-old grandmother isolated alone in her apartment during the pandemic.
Lich was arrested in February 2022 and charged with mischief and counselling others to commit mischief. In April 2025, she was found guilty of mischief and sentenced to a conditional sentence of about 15.5 months, including house arrest, plus community service.
Saskatchewan opposed the Emergencies Act
Saskatchewan was one of the strongest provincial opponents of the federal government’s invocation of the Emergencies Act on Feb. 14, 2022 — the first time the legislation had been used.
Premier Scott argued police already had sufficient tools to clear blockades and said the Act should only be used in a province that requested it.
At the inquiry, Saskatchewan government lawyer Mike Morris told the commission in October 2022 that the federal government didn't consult with the provinces.
That position was later supported when Federal Court Justice Richard Mosley ruled in January 2024 that invoking the Act was unreasonable and violated Charter rights. The Federal Court of Appeal upheld that ruling in January 2026. The federal government has sought leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada, and the matter is pending as of late September 2026.
At the inquiry, Ottawa Police Service (OPS) Superintendent Robert Bernier testified that the Emergencies Act wasn’t required for police to clear Ottawa’s streets during the convoy protests. He agreed the emergency powers may have been helpful but weren’t necessary, saying the OPS already had the legal authority to carry out its operational plan between Feb. 10 and Feb. 13, 2022.
The inquiry also heard that the City of Ottawa had reached an agreement with convoy organizers to move trucks out of residential areas on Feb. 12, and a text message from City Manager Steve Kanellakos to convoy lawyer Keith Wilson indicated the deal didn’t collapse because of the truckers. Kanellakos testified that police stepped back after the Emergencies Act was invoked.
Big Red stays in Saskatchewan
One battle has already been won for Barber.
In December 2025, an Ontario Court of Justice judge dismissed the Crown’s bid to permanently seize “Big Red,” Barber’s 2004 Kenworth truck and the symbol of the convoy. The judge ruled a that a forfeiture would be disproportionate because the truck is Barber’s livelihood and there was no evidence it would be used in future offences.
Big Red returned to Saskatchewan soil in September 2025.
During the Public Order Emergency Commission inquiry in 2022, lawyer Paul Champ, representing the Ottawa Coalition of Residents and Businesses, described the convoy’s impact on the city as “three weeks of harassment,” with street blockages, ear-splitting air and train horns, and general lawlessness. He said many Ottawa residents felt like prisoners in their own homes, describing them as “traumatized.”
The group, led by Zexi Li, has filed a $290-million class-action lawsuit against Barber and Lich. The case is still before the courts.
ljoy@sasktoday.ca
