Coutts Blockade | Convicts were prepared to fight police, judge says

(Lethbridge) An Alberta judge says evidence shows two men convicted for their roles in the 2022 border blockade near Coutts, Alta., were prepared for a possible shootout with police.

Judge David Labrenz said Tuesday that while a jury found Anthony Olienick and Chris Carbert not guilty of conspiracy to murder police officers during the blockade, it did find both men guilty of criminal mischief and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose.

Olienick was also convicted of possession of a pipe bomb.

The judge told the court he accepted the verdicts as evidence that the jury believed the two men brought guns, ammunition and body armour to the two-week standoff not just to show off or hunt animals, but for a more sinister purpose.

“It was to support the blockade and engage in a war with the police if that eventuality arose,” Mr. Labrenz maintained.

The men were arrested in February 2022 at the sit-in that blocked traffic at the Canada-U.S. border crossing to protest COVID-19 rules and vaccine mandates.

The jury returned its verdicts on August 2, after a two-month trial. Because the reasons for the jury’s verdicts are secret, the judge must determine the facts he believes underlie the decisions.

The sentencing hearing is scheduled to continue Thursday. On Monday, Crown and defence lawyers presented arguments on how the judge should interpret the verdicts.

Labrenz’s decision echoes the Crown’s argument that the gun convictions indicate jurors believed the men were prepared to fight police.

The men offered more benign explanations at trial. Carbert told the court he brought his new rifles to hunt coyotes and to show off. He also downplayed text messages to his mother about a coming war he might not survive.

Judge Labrenz argued that those statements were implausible, adding that Carbert lied on the stand during preliminary hearings. “Mr. Carbert demonstrated then, as he does now, that he is willing to lie under oath when it suits him,” Labrenz said.

“I conclude that Mr. Carbert, like Mr. Olienick, was prepared to engage in a shootout with the police […] It was an extremely dangerous situation.”

The judge said he also accepted as true Olienick’s comments to undercover female police officers, in which he said he viewed the blockade as a war, that weapons were necessary for credibility and that he would like to slit the officers’ throats.

Olienick’s attorney, Marilyn Burns, suggested the evidence was tainted because the undercover agents flirted with Olienick to get information.

M^e Burns pointed out the heart emojis in some text messages between Olienick and an agent.

Judge Labrenz said heart emojis are often used to approve of something someone has written.

“I find no basis to conclude that the operators used romance or any other tasteless connection to provoke conversations.”

“I also don’t see how it could possibly induce someone to say what he said,” the judge said. “I just find the suggestion offensive.”