Protesters not guilty of conspiring to kill Mounties at Coutts blockade

A jury returned a verdict of not guilty late Friday for two men accused of conspiring to kill RCMP officers at the border blockade at Coutts, Alta.

But Anthony Olienick and Chris Carbert were both convicted on other charges of mischief and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose. Olienick was also convicted of possessing a pipe bomb.

The two were arrested after police found a cache of weapons, ammunition and body armour near the blockade at the Canada-U.S. border crossing in 2022. The blockade was one of several held across the country to protest COVID-19 rules and vaccine mandates.

The trial heard statements and text messages from the accused warning that the blockade was a last stand against a tyrannical federal government.

There was a loud gasp in the packed courtroom in Lethbridge, Alta., as the jury announced the acquittal of the most serious charge: Conspiracy to commit murder. The men showed little emotion, and the case was put over to Aug. 12 to deal with the convictions on the lesser charges.

Supporters celebrate outside of court

"Freedom!" a supporter later said outside the courthouse, and others hugged and cried.

The jury had been deliberating since Wednesday night.

The verdicts capped two months of testimony in a case that involved accusations of undercover femmes fatales, government conspiracies and text message bravado.

The trial heard that Carbert called police "losers" and "the enemy." In texts to his mother, he equated the blockade to a war, telling her if police came in and they lost the fight at Coutts, he would likely die in a wider conflict.

Olienick told undercover officers posing as protest volunteers that if the blockade was lost, the next step might be an invasion from United Nations troops or Chinese communists.

He said if police tried to storm the barricade, he would "slit their throats."

Pipe bombs for industrial use, claims lawyer

His lawyer accused one of the undercover female officers of flirting to get information, which the officer denied. The officer testified heart emojis on texts between her and Olienick indicated she liked the messages, not the messenger.

Olienick dismissed police as compliant toadies of "devil" Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. He also messaged a friend to feed his cat if he didn't make it out alive.

After his arrest, when he learned the blockade failed and everyone had left, Olienick was seen on video distraught in an empty police interrogation room, saying aloud, "I'm sorry, God."

The defence didn't contest the epithets and warnings but argued they didn't equate to a conspiracy to kill.

Police found the guns, ammunition and body armour in trailers near the blockade and more guns, ammunition and two pipe bombs at Olienick's home in Claresholm, Alta.

Olienick's lawyer argued the bombs were for industrial use.

Emotional public debate

The trial proved a challenge for jurors and reflected the tense, emotional public debate over pandemic rules and freedoms.

Four days into the trial in early June, jurors parking their cars in front of the courthouse were greeted with a message scrawled in chalk on a sidewalk: 840 Days Plus Already, Let the Coutts Boys Out of Jail Now.

Two similar messages had been left on the other side of the courthouse the day before a British Columbia man was charged with obstruction of justice and banned from the courthouse.

The judge rejected a defence request for a mistrial.

Carbert's lawyer, Katherin Beyak, said outside the courthouse after the verdicts that her client was relieved but still in shock. The jury was right to acquit on the murder conspiracy charge, she said.

"It was an overcharge to begin with," Beyak said.

Marilyn Burns, Olienick's lawyer, said she wasn't surprised the men were found not guilty of conspiring to kill police.

"I've never believed since taking this file on that there was evidence that would support a finding of guilt in that," she said, adding her client has been in custody for more than two years.

Two other protesters were also charged with conspiracy to commit murder at Coutts. In February, Christopher Lysak and Jerry Morin pleaded guilty to lesser charges.

Lysak was sentenced to three years for possession of a restricted firearm in an unauthorized place, and Morin was sentenced to 3.5 years for conspiracy to traffic firearms. Both sentences amounted to time the men had already served in pretrial custody.