Anti-mandate demonstrators gather as a truck convoy blocks the highway the busy U.S. border crossing in Coutts, Alta., on January 31, 2022.Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press
Jurors in Lethbridge, Alta., will be asked on Wednesday to decide whether two men conspired to kill police officers during the 2022 border blockade in Coutts or if they were swept up in what one defence lawyer called a “disastrous police investigation.”
The two conflicting theories were relayed during closing statements on Tuesday, drawing to a conclusion the two-month long trial that centred on the actions of Anthony Olienick and Chris Carbert during the protest against COVID-19 restrictions, such as vaccine mandates, that seized the Canada-U.S. border for two weeks.
Both men are facing murder-conspiracy, weapons and mischief charges, with Mr. Olienick facing an additional charge related to possession of an explosive substance. Mr. Carbert and Mr. Olienick pleaded not guilty at the start of the trial in June. Their alleged co-conspirators, Jerry Morin and Christopher Lysak, pleaded guilty to lesser charges in February and were released with time served.
Jury deliberations are expected to begin on Wednesday.
Lawyers representing the accused argued, in their closing remarks, that the Crown had failed to prove their clients had an actionable plan to kill officers. Meanwhile, the Crown asserted that the two men actively planned for an inevitable, violent event.
Marilyn Burns, who represents Mr. Olienick, said undercover officers, three of whom testified during the trial, overstated her client’s role in the border protest based on his “self-described importance.”
Katherin Beyak, counsel for Mr. Carbert, said her client is a “bit of a wingnut” who fell down a “rabbit hole” during the height of the pandemic, but he did not have violent motives during the protest. She did say, however, that her client is guilty of mischief.
Crown prosecutor Matt Dalidowicz, in his closing remarks, pieced together evidence brought forward during the trial, including witness testimony, wiretaps and electronic messages, to argue that the pair planned and were prepared to meet police with force.
He pointed to group messages, phone calls, text messages and meetings where the two men were either present or aware of the situation to allegedly move weapons and accessories into Coutts. Mr. Dalidowicz also centred his remarks on supposed code words used by the accused and other protesters to get supplies – such as “guitar and amplifiers.”
“This was their Alamo. As a result, they couldn’t let the Coutts blockade fail. They would be the sheepdogs protecting the flock,” he said. “They brought weapons, ammunition and body armour into the very heart of the blockade and they actively sought to bring in more. They planned and they prepared. They plotted to kill police officers if the police enforced the law to end the blockade.”
Ms. Beyak said Mr. Carbert believed prolonged government control could lead to a civil war and that he was prepared to fight back, believing it could amount to forced vaccinations. But the weapons he had in Coutts were for hunting, she said, not self-defence.
“The prospect of unrest resulting ultimately in some sort of conflict was considered by Chris to be a possibility and even perhaps an eventuality if circumstances didn’t change,” she told jurors, but added that he did not believe this would happen immediately.
Mr. Carbert testified in his own defence during the trial, saying he met Mr. Olienick as part of a group of “preppers” who shared information on how to prepare for emergencies and natural disasters. His lawyer on Tuesday urged jurors to consider whether the Crown’s evidence on the conspiracy charge “amounts to more than theory, speculation or conjecture.”
Mr. Olienick did not testify.
During the trial, the undercover officers, all women who posed as volunteers to gain intelligence during the border demonstration, testified that Mr. Olienick spoke extensively about having a cache of weapons and ammunition, as well as his hatred for the police.
His lawyer, Ms. Burns, said on Tuesday: “The undercover officers freely admitted that they are trained to lie, and I submit that was painfully obvious during the course of the trial.” She said her client repeatedly urged officers to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with protesters to bring the protest to a peaceful conclusion.
She said he did express fear that RCMP officers would be replaced by United Nations or Chinese troops and that he would “respond in kind” if any law enforcement hurt civilians. But Ms. Burns said that concept in Mr. Olienick’s mind is “not a plan or a furtherance of a plan to murder RCMP officers,” not to mention it would be “a certain suicide mission” to go against heavily armed police.
Mr. Dalidowicz countered that argument by pointing to testimony by one of the undercover officers who said Mr. Olienick told her that he was willing to die for the cause.