Tamara Lich and Chris Barber, key organizers of the 2022 trucker convoy demonstrations in Ottawa, have both received 18-month conditional sentences on mischief charges, bringing an end to a legal saga stemming from the federal government’s pandemic restrictions.

Ontario Court Justice Heather Perkins-McVey effectively reduced Ms. Lich’s sentence to 15.5 months with previous jail time accommodated.

Meanwhile, Mr. Barber was sentenced to 18 months, of which 12 months will be house arrest and six months a curfew of 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. He must also perform 100 hours of community service.

In a ruling read over several hours, Justice Perkins-McVey acknowledged the harm that the protest imposed on Ottawa, but added that the conditional sentences were longer than jail sentences she might have imposed.

She noted the pair were first-time offenders who did not intentionally engineer violence in Ottawa and co-operated with the court process.

The justice also said she had carefully reviewed other sentences linked to pandemic-era protest.