The convoy — from dangerous to ridiculous

Opinion

‘The wheels of justice move slowly, but grind exceedingly fine.”

It’s a proverb about justice in general, and about the way that it arrives for those who break the law: it doesn’t happen quickly, but instead, carefully. The proverb has been credited to both Greek and Chinese sources, and has been around for centuries.

It seems particularly apt for criminal charges. After all, years after the fact, the leaders of the 2022 Ottawa convoy and occupation are still wending their way through the just system: Pat King, one of the loudest organizers, was given a 12-month conditional sentence in February — reduced by nine months for his time spent in jail before his trial — for five charges, including mischief, counselling to commit mischief, counselling to obstruct a public or peace officer, and two counts of disobeying a court order.

Two other central figures in the convoy, Tamara Lich and Chris Barber, are still awaiting their sentences after being convicted of mischief in April. They will be sentenced Oct. 7. Prosecutors have asked for a seven-year sentence for Lich and eight years for Barbour.

But the wheels of justice aren’t moving for all — at least, not now. In some ways, the reason justice has slowed for one convoy organizer is enough to make any sensible person roll their eyes.

The Ottawa Citizen reported this weekend that a countrywide warrant had been issued for James Bauder, after he failed to appear for a court date in late August. Bauder is the founder of Canada Unity, which at one point in the convoy issued a memorandum of understanding calling for Canada’s Governor General to essentially oust the federal government.

Bauder has been charged with mischief to obstruct property, disobeying a lawful court order and obstructing/restricting a police officer.

But he wasn’t even in Canada. Instead, he was in the United States, where, believe it or not, he’s asking the American government to grant him political asylum.

On the one hand, you can understand Bauder’s actions: he has to stay in the United States to keep his attempt at an asylum status in process, and a trip to court would mean leaving the U.S. On the other, he’s arguing essentially that he can’t get a fair trial in Canada, and that he shouldn’t have to face the consequences of his own actions in a court of law and would end up a political prisoner.

Really? He’s actually claiming that he faces a kind of judicial persecution for his actions? In Canada?

Bauder has posted on social media asking supporters to contact U.S. President Donald Trump to ask for help with his asylum application.

Years after the Ottawa occupation, one thing is for certain: the exceedingly slow wheels of justice have helped to show that the convoy and its leadership have trundled from pathos to bathos: pathos makes you feel pity or sadness for someone. But bathos is when things that looked serious move suddenly to the trivial or the downright ridiculous.

The convoy, for a while, looked like a serious threat to Canadians, despite their hot tubs, bouncy castles and repeated claims that it was all a giant love-in of freedom-loving citizens. While it’s years in the past now, the blockades in Ottawa, Windsor and other parts of the country — and the way many of those blockades had to be broken up by large-scale police force — left a mark on Canada.

Now, despite the clear damage to the Canadian economy in 2022, the whole thing is starting to look a tragic joke that the rest of Canadians have had to put up with for far too long.