Protesters not guilty of conspiring to kill Mounties at Coutts blockade
CBC
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.
"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."
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."
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