Men convicted in Coutts border blockade want convictions overturned, Crown wants new trials

Meghan Grant · CBC News

· Posted: Nov 12, 2024 5:35 PM EST | Last Updated: November 12

The two men found guilty of mischief and firearms offences for their roles in the 2022 Coutts border blockade want the Alberta Court of Appeal to overturn their convictions, while prosecutors are seeking new trials on the more serious charge of conspiring to murder RCMP officers, for which they were acquitted.

Four appeals — two Crown and two defence — have now been filed in the cases of Anthony Olienick and Chris Carbert, who were convicted in August of mischief over $5,000 and possession of a weapon dangerous to the public peace.

Olienick was also convicted of possessing a pipe bomb. 

Court of King’s Bench Justice David Labrenz handed the men six-and-a-half year sentences.

Both men were acquitted of the more serious charge of conspiring to murder RCMP officers.

• Two men get 6½-year sentences for roles in border blockade at Coutts, Alta.

The Crown wants the province’s top court to order new trials on the conspiracy charges. 

The defence wants the court of appeal to acquit the pair of their weapons and mischief charges or to reduce their sentences. 

• Judge says men convicted in Coutts blockade were ready for shootout with police

Carbert and Olienick were arrested in 2022 after RCMP found guns, ammunition and body armour in trailers near the Coutts border blockade which involved protests against government-imposed pandemic health restrictions and vaccine mandates. 

Jurors heard evidence that both men believed they were taking a necessary stand against political tyranny and injustice but in sentencing the pair, the judge said they cannot be allowed to take the law into their own hands. 

Jury verdicts ‘inconsistent’ 

The Crown listed two grounds for its appeals, indicating a plan to argue that the trial judge erred in excluding relevant and admissible evidence and that he erred in his instructions to the jury.

Olienick listed the same grounds in his request for an acquittal, or alternatively, a new trial. 

Carbert’s lawyer Katherin Beyak listed eight grounds of appeal in her notice, including that the jury’s verdicts were “inconsistent.”

Beyak also gave notice of a plan to argue that the trial judge erred in “failing to exclude evidence obtained from improperly issued search warrant.”

Sentences ‘unfit’

In regards to the sentence appeal, Beyak gave notice that she plans to argue that the trial judge “made findings of fact that were unreasonable, unsupported by the evidence and contrary to the jury’s verdict that Carbert was not guilty of conspiring to murder police.”

The sentence imposed was “unfit,” wrote the defence lawyer. 

Both men received about four years’ credit for the time they had spent in custody since their February 2022 arrests. 

Dates for appeal arguments have not yet been set.

Earlier this year, two other protesters — Christopher Lysak and Jerry Morin — who had faced similar charges, including conspiracy to murder police, pleaded guilty to lesser firearms offences and were handed sentences that amounted to the time they had already served.