Lost police messages slow ‘Freedom Convoy’ organizers’ trial

OTTAWA –

The trial of two ‘Freedom Convoy’ organizers was stalled after the defence demanded more information about a software upgrade that wiped the data from the phones of at least two police officers after the protest.

Const. Nicole Bach was set to take the stand for a second day in the criminal trial of Tamara Lich and Chris Barber, but the defence has questions for the Ottawa police about why her text messages from that period were deleted.

She told the court Thursday that she got an email that she was due to upgrade the software on her phone after the protest in early 2022 and didn’t know it would delete all her messages.

She had direct contact with Barber throughout the protest.

The Crown says the defence learned about the potential lost evidence as a result of a phone upgrade about a year ago, but the defence says they didn’t know the full extent.

The defence asked police to disclose the communication instructing Bach and other police officers about the upgrade, but the Ottawa police say they need to make a formal legal request — which will likely be argued in court next week.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 20, 2023.