Front Burner - Preparing for ‘war’: the Alberta blockade trial so far

Episode Date: July 11, 2024

In 2022, a convoy of truckers angry with COVID-19 measures staged an 18-day blockade, shutting down a busy border crossing with the U.S. in Coutts, Alberta. It ended with the RCMP arresting 13 protesters and finding a stockpile of guns, ammunition and pipe bombs.Now, two men are standing trial for possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose and conspiracy to commit murder in connection with their involvement with the blockade. The prosecution says the two men believed they were preparing for “war”.Bill Graveland with the Canadian Press has been covering it from the beginning and takes us through the details of the trial so far, and the lasting impact that the blockade has had on a tiny southern Albertan community.For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Hey there, I'm Kathleen Goltar and I have a confession to make. I am a true crime fanatic. I devour books and films and most of all true crime podcasts. But sometimes I just want to know more. I want to go deeper. And that's where my podcast Crime Story comes in. Every week I go behind the scenes with the creators of the best in true crime. I chat with the host of Scamanda, Teacher's Pet, Bone Valley, the list goes on. For the insider scoop, find Crime Story in your podcast app. This is a CBC Podcast. Hi, I'm Jamie Poisson. So you might remember that in 2022, a convoy of truckers staged an 18-day blockade,

shutting down a busy border crossing with the U.S. in Cootes, Alberta. They were, like the protesters that had taken over downtown Ottawa at the time, protesting against what they saw as draconian COVID-19 measures. There was a lot going on around the country then, but the big headline coming out of Coutts that really pierced through was when the RCMP announced that they had seized a stockpile of weapons and ammunition. They released this photo of a table covered in guns, ammo, high-capacity magazines, and body armor. And the RCMP said that there was this small group of people involved in the larger protest

who were prepared to use force against the police if there were attempts to dismantle the blockade. Now, two of the men arrested are standing trial for mischief, possession of weapons, and conspiracy to commit murder. They have both pleaded not guilty to all charges. And today, journalist Bill Graveland is here. He's a reporter with the Canadian Press who covered the blockade and now the trial. And we're going to discuss what's been aired in court so far. What do prosecutors say was motivating these men? What were they willing to do? And I also want to talk to him about what's happened in the town and surrounding areas since and where at least some of the people protesting at the Coutts border are now. So let's get into it.

Bill, thanks so much for coming on to the show. So let's start back in 2022 at the blockade and remind me what it was like. How big was the group? How disruptive was the blockade itself? Well, it was interesting because they originally were just going to do sort of a drive-through in support of the Ottawa people. And it grew and grew and grew. So they got down there and decided to stay and parked along the highway on both lanes. It's a four lane, four lanes going in and out of the United States and blocked all traffic. We don't want to take the jab. The fact that Canadians don't want mandates on any of us. It's the freedom to choose our body, our choice. Anybody who feels sympathetic to those engaged in this blockade,

please stay away from the area. Please do not further intensify an already difficult situation. I just want everyone to understand that we're fighting out here, fighting for our freedom and get rid of the mandates and the vaccine. It initially, everyone thought that it was going to be over in a very short time, but they stayed and stayed and stayed. And at some point it became its own protest, even though the views and the desires were the same as what was happening in Ottawa. And this is a small community that it was happening in. And just talk to me a bit about the kind of support the blockade had at the time or lack of support. Well, first of all, Coutts is a very teeny tiny little village right on the U.S. border. Strangely, I grew up not far from

Cootes. A lot of the people, there's basically nothing there except a few businesses, a cafe, and Airbnb, not even a gas station. So people in the town, or village I should say, are completely dependent on going out of the community. And when that happened, it was a concern. There was concerns about ambulances getting in and out. People couldn't get out to get groceries, other than going through a gauntlet of trucks and pickup trucks and even farm equipment. This is what we're trying to get through. Oh my God. Cell phone video captures the moment of impact.

Coutts resident Tara Schamber had just left town to get groceries when she was hit. It was terrifying. And you're trying to say that this is a peaceful protest? It's not very peaceful to me. And then what about the sentiment sort of around, maybe even around the village? Because I remember at the time there were police officers who were part of the protest. Just tell me a little bit about, you know, maybe what kind of support they had. That's interesting because the mayor at the time, Jim Willett, was very anti-protest. What I want to see happen is for all of those vehicles to get out of the way so the traffic can resume. If you want to drive up and down and protest, that's one of the freedoms that we enjoy

in our country. Go ahead and protest. I've told everybody I had no gripe with the protest until it became a blockade and an occupation. And at that point, there's no way I can approve that. A lot of people in the village didn't agree with him. The blockade is bad for business here. Still, there is support for its goals, an end to COVID restrictions and a return to the way things were. We've done what we've been asked and we just don't want to do it anymore.

I used to be able to walk down the street and wave at everybody and they wave back. Now I don't get all the waves we used to get. There were people that weren't speaking to each other in a very small town. People in Charlie who lived up on the corner. You went to his barbecue in the summer and now you're not talking to him. And you mentioned you're from that area. And why do you think that the blockade did have any kind of support? Why do you think that people did support them? Well, the situation is that everywhere seems to have a Bible Belt.

They're in Ontario, they're in Manitoba, they're in Saskatchewan, and the Bible Belt down in deep southern Alberta is alive and well. Many of the people in southern Alberta were Mormon immigrants, Mormon settlers. Southern Alberta, with the exception of one riding in Lethbridge, has always been conservative. And I think it was just like a fertile ground for this kind of protest. But then, of course, within this larger protest, there was what the RCMP called a smaller group, right? A more militant group, according to them, who were prepared to use violence. And there were initially 13 people arrested, right? And just tell me a bit more about all of those arrests and how they initially happened and then what has happened to many of those people arrested since? several people at Smuggler's Saloon, which was a former saloon that had been sort of available for rent and became sort of the epicenter for the protesters down there. All the meals were there,

all the food was prepared there. It was just a gathering part. And many of them had their charges eventually dropped. They were minor things. Some of them pled guilty and just went back to their lives. There was the three organizers, Marco Van Hugenbos. We all left. The reasons why we left, I've spoken on many, many times. And that message is still crystal clear. And that is we were there as peaceful protesters to hold our government to account. Alex Van Hugenbos. The border was closed when we got there as peaceful protesters to hold our government to account. Alex Van Heer. The border was closed when we got there. We were protesting that it was illegally closed.

We wanted that border open. And George Jansen. This is a fight between good and evil, and we're on the winning side. Who were charged with mischief over $5,000. They were all three, by a jury, found guilty. The act of mischief, I guess mischief was caused in Coutts. And if the jury deems us as the participants of that and the leaders of that, then I guess I'll stand for that.

But based on the charge, based on the interpretation of the law, we're guilty. based on the interpretation of the law, we're guilty. We're guilty of that interpretation and how it falls between those narrow guardrails. Two of the four that had been also charged with a conspiracy to commit murder entered a plea to lesser charges back in, I believe, February. Chris Lysak pleaded guilty to possession of a weapon in a Lethbridge courtroom, and Jerry Morin admitted a charge of conspiracy to traffic firearms.

So that leaves us two who are on trial right now. And just for clarity, before we get to these two on trial, the ones that have pled guilty or been convicted so far of mischief or weapons charges, as you mentioned, like what is it kind of in layman's terms that they did? They were part of the original group that was stockpiling weapons. They had brought in restricted weapons and stockpiled them in coots in one of the trailers. And the four of them were, in theory, working together. They were all part of this sort of inner circle. There was a lot of discussion about the basement of the smuggler's saloon where only the inner circle ever got to go into. And so far, other than an undercover officer getting just sort of a glance down there, nobody that we've heard speak has been there or talked about it.

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and they're facing charges of possession of weapons, conspiracy to commit murder. And just tell me a bit about what we know about these guys. Like, for example, how would community members have described them at the time? I think that community members would have just considered them, you know, like great, great guys that they were their neighbors. I mean, Anthony Olenek had a landscaping company and he had a dump truck, you know, and these people have a lot of support. The courtroom in Lethbridge has been packed with probably 50 to 60 people who are all there, you know, and watching every minute of it. I want to come back to what some of their supporters are telling you in a couple minutes, but what are prosecutors

saying that they essentially did here and maybe how they worked with some of the other members of this small group, some of whom have already pled guilty or been convicted of charges? I'll be upfront. Most of the evidence has been regarding Anthony Olenek. There has been some stuff with Chris Carbert, but they were all part of a group. From the testimony we're hearing, that this was almost like a holy war for them. Anthony Olenek had even sold most of his belongings so that he could be down for the duration of the protest. He had made plans for his death. They had a lot of support, too, from people who came in from outside. And these people thought that this was basically like a war between government and communists and the United Nations trying to impose sort of like a totalitarian state

on Canada. Has it come up in the trial yet, you know, where they were consuming information? You know, like I saw in an interview with Olenek with the police, you know, he talks about how he was expecting either a force from the UN or the Chinese Communist Party to come in, right? And so, like, where was that coming from? There was, I believe that there's a lot of conspiracy stuff that you see coming out of the United States. I believe that that's where they got a lot of their information and they believe it. You know, I know part of this trial is some of the key witnesses are undercover Mounties, right? That infiltrated the convoy. You mentioned one of them got a kind of glance at the basement of that saloon. What have we heard from those officers at trial? One of the officers, which we never did get to see because they are obviously being protected,

their identities, and they showed up, walked in, said that they were supporters, they were put to work helping in the kitchen, preparing the meals. And it didn't take long before one of them became acquainted with, especially Anthony Olenek and, to a lesser degree, Chris Carbert. But they were immediately embraced by these people. Anthony seemed to really take to these young women and started telling them that this could end, this was a war, this could end badly, that the police were probably going to invade,

that he was willing to die for his cause, but to stick with him because they had a stockpile of weapons, dozens of weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition. And he said that if things went bad, he was going to be running and gunning. Both men have pled not guilty to the charges. So what kind of arguments have we been hearing from the defense so far? You know, with the caveat that it's not over, right? Of course. Anthony Olenek's lawyer has been pushing the point that she believes that the

female officers had sort of become honey badgers and were using their feminine wiles to basically entice him. All three of them were asked right off the top if that was allowed, and they said it absolutely was not allowed in undercover. They were to tell if something came up, they were to explain that they were either in a same-sex relationship or had a boyfriend or a husband at home. So she's sort of, she seems to be arguing that they were basically set up and sort of enticed by this. You talked earlier about the support that these guys have. And just tell me more about that.

Who are their supporters? What are they saying? What are they saying to you? I'm the only mainstream media person there. So, you know, I've been accused of telling lies, of working for the government. But some of them, they try to sort of engage us in conversation. But when they start asking, are you for us or against us, it gets a little awkward.

And when they say to you, you're either for us or against us, what are they for? Oh, they're for that the two men should be released. Yeah, why? Because they don't think that they did anything wrong. There was the first day of the trial when it finally got going, someone had done a number of chalk messages outside the courthouse. And it was like, you know, free the coots boys. And these people seem to think that from what I can tell, that they shouldn't have been arrested in the first place. And they've been in jail over two years and they probably should be released. I believe it took too long to come to trial.

842, 843 days to the beginning of the trial with these men in remand, which is almost like prison, is too long for them to be locked up. And just sorry, I'm so curious about this. Do they think it's because do they think that they should be released because they never did any of what they're accused of? Or do they feel like they were justified in doing what they're accused of? That, you know, stockpiling these weapons and getting ready for this potential civil war was the part that was justified. Do you know what I mean? Yes, I believe that they believe it was justified that these gentlemen did nothing wrong and that they should never have been charged in the first place. talking to the people who are there supporting these guys now, you know, of course, the focus of the original protest was so much on COVID restrictions, right, and vaccines. And, you know,

that issue is dissipated, obviously. And so, you know, in addition to talking about how they think that these guys were justified in what they did or that they should be released. I'm just curious if the people that you're talking to are seized with new issues like that, that they take umbrage with. Carbon tax is probably the new one. And and people are angry about that. And but it's mostly focused on on Justin Trudeau. I mean, at one point, Anthony Olenek referred to the RCMP as being the devil's hands.

And the devil is Justin Trudeau and hands would be doing his work. I just want to end this conversation by kind of going back to the community. So we talked earlier about how there were divisions at the time between the mayor and counselors or between were, you know, really upset that ambulances couldn't get through, et cetera, and then also support for the people who were protesting. And, you know, what about now? Like, do you get a sense from the people who live and work in Coutts and around Coutts that there is a worry that there is a propensity for any kind of violence to happen in the future? You know, perhaps as we just talked about coalescing around another issue. No, you know what, I think that it's going to take time for the, you know, the mood in Coutts to cool down, although it has been

two years. The former mayor, Mr. Willett, has told me that probably a half dozen people that he knew moved out, moved back to Lethbridge or some other community because they just didn't want to have the potential of running into that kind of a thing again. I mean, I remember him saying that I always wanted coots put on the map, but not this way. Bill, this was so interesting. I learned a lot. Thank you so much for this. My pleasure. All right. That is all for today. I'm Jamie Poisson. Thanks so much for listening. Talk to you tomorrow. For more CBC Podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.