KAMLOOPS, B.C. – Reciting slogans of the Freeman-on-the-Land movement, a B.C. man cast off his clothes to protest a bank’s effort to repossess his home.
The effort failed, and landed Lance Thatcher behind bars.
In provincial court Friday facing a charge of obstructing a peace officer, Thatcher refused to confirm his identity for the judge, just as he did with RCMP when he was arrested at his Merritt, B.C., home on Wednesday and with sheriffs while in custody.
“Are you Lance Edward Thatcher?” asked judge Hermann Rohrmoser.
“I’m here in the matter of that name,” Thatcher replied.
Asked again, Thatcher replied: “All I can do is give you hearsay information.”
Crown prosecutor Chris Balison told the court that RCMP accompanied a bailiff on Wednesday as part of a repossession of Thatcher’s home by mortgage-holder CIBC.
Thatcher is known to police for his Freeman beliefs. He has been convicted previously for obstruction-type offences and breaching court orders, and he has had conflicts in the past with local tax officials and police.
The Freeman-on-the-Land movement rejects the authority of government institutions, and espouses the rights of “sovereign citizens.”
Freemen have shown up in Kamloops court, both in civil and criminal matters, refusing to recognize jurisdiction of authorities. The most infamous is former Kamloops mayoral candidate Brian Alexander.
When bailiffs came to remove Thatcher from his home, he “presented himself naked,” Balison told the court. He resisted all entreaties to dress himself and co-operate with authorities.
“He responded by espousing his Freeman doctrine. He refused to co-operate and had nonsensical questions,” Balison said.
Balison said at one point the naked 49-year-old man lowered a shoulder and ran at one RCMP member. He was eventually arrested after police managed to dress him in underwear only.
Thatcher was originally charged with obstructing a peace officer.
Thatcher and his wife, Christine, have owned the home for 13 years. She was not home at the time of the arrest.
His brother, Paul, told the Kamloops Daily News previously that Thatcher “has not been the same” since waking up from a six-month coma following pancreatic cancer surgery in 2005.
His wife Christine said in earlier interviews that he turned to the internet after getting out of hospital in 2006. With little else to do, he became fascinated by the Freeman movement, what his former wife called “a cult.”
Thatcher eventually agreed to speak with defence counsel, requesting lawyer Matt Ford. After speaking with Ford, Thatcher agreed to plead guilty to obstruction of a court order.
He was sentenced to 18 days in jail along with a year of probation, including a condition that he not go to his former home.
Asked if he wished to say anything before he was sentenced, Thatcher asked for forgiveness if he’s offended anyone.
“I believe forgiveness is the only way relief can be granted,” he told the court. (Kamloops Daily News)
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