Anti-mandate demonstrators gather as a truck convoy blocks the highway the busy U.S. border crossing in Coutts, Alta., on January 31, 2022. (Photo: Canadian Press)

By Canadian Press

Accused in murder-conspiracy trial at Coutts blockade to continue testimony

Jul 23, 2024 | 5:32 AM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – The trial of two men charged with conspiring to murder Mounties at the Coutts border blockade in Alberta is expected to hear more testimony today from one of the accused.

Chris Carbert has told court he brought guns and body armour to the blockade, but says there was no plan for violence unless he had to perhaps flee to the mountains and fend off someone trying to give him a COVID-19 vaccine shot.

Carbert and Anthony Olienick are being tried together in front of a jury in Court of King’s Bench in Lethbridge.

The two were charged after police made arrests and seized weapons at the blockade in early 2022.

The protest against COVID-19 rules and vaccine mandates tied up traffic for two weeks at the Alberta-U.S. border crossing at Coutts.

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Court has heard Olienick considered the blockade the fight of a lifetime against a government bent on ending individual freedoms.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 23, 2024.