The Coutts 13: New details on the men and women arrested at border blockade
CBC
Previous criminal convictions, a willingness to die for the cause and connections to a violent insurrectionist movement.
CBC News has learned new details about some of the men and women arrested in connection with the Coutts, Alta., border blockades on Monday.
Thirteen people were charged following incidents involving physical threats to RCMP officers' safety and raids on trailers near the protest area, which resulted in the seizure of a cache of weapons and body armour.
The on-and-off blockade of the normally busy border crossing by people opposed to COVID-19 health restrictions, lasted more than two weeks before protesters pulled out on Tuesday following the arrests.
Of the four southern Alberta men accused of conspiring to murder RCMP officers, two have ties to a man who founded a neo-fascist, white supremacist group that aims to accomplish its goals through violence.
Chris Carbert, 44, of Lethbridge, Anthony Olienick, 39, of Claresholm, Jerry Morin, 40, of Olds and Christopher Lysak, 48, of Lethbridge each face charges of conspiracy to murder, a weapons offence and mischief over $5,000.
Carbert and Lysak both have ties to Jeremy MacKenzie, the Nova Scotia founder of Diagolon, a group described by University of New Brunswick professor David Hofmann as an American-style militia movement.
Last month, RCMP raided MacKenzie's home and seized several firearms after a video was posted to social media showing MacKenzie pointing a gun at a man's head.
According to the search warrant application filed in support of that raid, RCMP reported MacKenzie twice referred to Diagolon in the video.
The goal of the group, says Hofmann who studies far right movements, is to establish a "diagonal" white nationalist state.
Those who believe in the Diagolon movement feel a civil war is needed to create a new state that would run diagonally from Alaska, through western Canada's provinces, all the way south to Florida.
"And they want to accomplish this through violence," says Hofmann. "Their motto quite simply states gun or rope."
Two Diagolon patches were found on body armour seized by police during the execution of the Coutts search warrants.
MacKenzie is currently in Ottawa and has posted at least one video in support of the arrested Coutts protesters in the last couple of days.
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