13 Charged With Weapons Possession During Coutts Border Blockade Appear in Court

A police vehicle is parked by an empty highway after protesters opposing federal COVID-19 mandates left following their blockade of the highway at the busy U.S. border crossing in Coutts, Alberta, on Feb. 15, 2022. (The Canadian Press)

Thirteen individuals accused of possession of a weapon during the Coutts border blockade in Alberta in February appeared in court on March 15.

They made a brief appearance virtually in a Lethbridge court. All of them face charges of possession of a weapon and mischief to property over $5,000.

Four among the accused also face charges of conspiracy to commit murder: Christopher Lysak, Chris Carbert, Jerry Morin, and Anthony Olienick.

Lysak, who is also charged with uttering threats, had already been denied bail. Carbert, Morin, and Olienick remain in custody as bail hearings for them have yet to take place.

The court adjourned the hearings until March 28. Defence lawyers requested the two-week adjournment, which met no objections from the prosecution.

“The Crown wants them all kept together,” prosecutor Steve Johnston said.

The others—Ursula Allred, Luke Berk, Johnson Chichow Law, Joanne Person, Justin Martin, Eastin Oler, Evan Colenutt, Jaclyne Martin, and Janx Zaremba—were all released on bail with conditions last month.

They were arrested following a raid during the early hours of Feb. 14 on three trailers, where the police seized 13 long guns, handguns, sets of body armour, large amounts of ammunition, and high-capacity magazines, the Alberta RCMP said in a statement issued later that day.

The police said they became aware of the presence of this small group of individuals among the demonstrators who were blockading the Coutts border crossing in protest of the federal government’s COVID-19 mandates.

The blockade ended on Feb. 15, with organizers saying they wanted to maintain a peaceful protest, and that they had nothing to do with the individuals arrested in relation to the cache of firearms and ammunition.

The protest at the Coutts border crossing started on Jan. 29, which was one of several demonstrations inspired by the “Freedom Convoy” that encamped in the downtown core of Ottawa for over three weeks in opposition to the federal government’s vaccine mandate for cross-border truck drivers. The movement rapidly expanded to a national scale with many joining to call for an end to all COVID-19 restrictions.

Tony Hall, the founder of We the People, takes part in a protest in front of the Lethbridge courthouse where four men charged with conspiracy to commit murder at the Coutts blockade were appearing in court, in Alberta on March 15, 2022. (Bill Graveland/The Canadian Press)

Roughly 20 people holding signs and Canadian flags gathered outside the Lethbridge court on Tuesday in support of the accused. Some signs read “Drop the charges,” “Scapegoat tactics are an abuse of the law,” and “Truckers exposed Ottawa’s tyranny.”

Tony Hall, a former professor at the University of Lethbridge and cofounder of the group We the People, criticized the effort to “criminalize the Coutts 13 and treat them as terrorists and people who are so reprehensible.'’

“It’s really ruthless the way the effort is to build up this image.”

Isaac Teo and the Canadian Press contributed to this article.