Freedom Convoy organizer Tamara Lich delivered a powerful testimony to the Emergencies Act inquiry on Thursday, as she recalled how she got involved after seeing families torn apart by suicide.

Lich said suicides in her hometown were so numerous during pandemic restrictions that the media stopped reporting them. Elderly people were dying alone, Lich continued.

“My grandma is 94 years old, and she was locked in her little apartment by herself for two years. And now that she can go out and do things, she’s not healthy enough,” Lich said.

“She lost two years of her life.”

Lich also recalled that her father was asked to leave a restaurant where he ate every day in a small town where everyone knew each other. She also heard of families living out of their vehicles after losing their job over the vaccine mandate.

“I didn’t want my children and my grandchildren to live in a world like that,” she said.

The convoy organizer teared up as she was speaking. The testimony marks one of the few times the public has heard from Lich.

She was arrested for involvement with the convoy in February, as police drove out demonstrators, and bail conditions barred her from speaking.

Lich also said she became increasingly alarmed about the divisive tone of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who called the unvaccinated extremists and said they’re often racist. Trudeau and his government refused to meet with convoy organizers while they were in Ottawa, choosing instead to invoke the Emergencies Act to forcefully remove them.

The inquiry is now seeking to determine whether that invocation was justified.

Lich also recalled seeing old ladies praying on their knees on the side of the road as the convoy passed them by on its way to Ottawa and little children holding signs saying “thank you for giving me back my future.”

“I have the tears of thousands of Canadians on my shoulder, who have every day told me that we were bringing them hope,” she said.

Lich also said she didn’t like the honking after a couple of days, thinking it “was a bit much.” 

She was met with cheers from the public as she left the inquiry.