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Wednesday, June 19, 2024

Coutts conspiracy trial gets underway in Alberta

After being held in custody without bail for more than two years, Canada's Coutts 4 – now the Coutts 2, after charges were dropped against two of the alleged conspirators – are finally getting their day in court in Alberta. 

Lawfare Comes to Canada as the Coutts Four Get Their Day in Court | Newsweek | Gord Magill: 

June 18, 2024 - "A trial is currently underway in Canada, and the rights of every Canadian citizen are at stake. Tony Olienick and Chris Carbert are facing farcical charges stemming from their participation in a peaceful protest against Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's COVID-19 response.... Olienick and Carbert are the remaining two of a group of political prisoners arrested in Canada and held without bail since the Freedom Convoy in 2022

"The Freedom Convoy was a populist revolt against Trudeau's authoritarian approach to COVID-19 in the form of a mass act of civil protest led by truck drivers. To combat this peaceful protest, the largest of its kind in Canadian history, Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act to suspend civil liberties across Canada, freezing bank accounts and laying numerous spurious charges against hundreds of peaceful protesters. Olienick and Carbert were arrested February 13, 2022 in Coutts, Alberta, at a Freedom Convoy protest site the day before Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act, along with two other men. 

"The group came to be known as the Coutts Four, and they stand accused of some damning charges — conspiracy to murder police officers among them. The charges are completely bogus, yet throughout Canada, early reporting about the men painted them in such a negative light that that many people have presumed them guilty. Their assumed guilt is tied up with Trudeau's larger effort to legitimize the use of the Emergencies Act against peaceful protestors; an inquest into Trudeau's suspension of civil rights surrounding the Freedom Convoy hinges on a conviction in the case of the Coutts Four.... Complicating this effort is the fact that two of the four men were released from prison and had all the original charges against them dropped....

"Olienick and Carbert have been kept in a form of carceral purgatory called 'remand' since being arrested for exercising their once-protected rights to protest. In this purgatory, where they do not have the normal rights afforded convicted felons, they have been denied access to necessary medical care, among other indignities, and Olienick had spent over 90 days in solitary confinement, which is considered torture in most civilized societies.

"Olienick and Carbert's trial finally got underway earlier this month. What little coverage there has been of the trial proceedings has focused on testimony from the undercover officers who were casing the protesters. There is nothing by way of corroborating evidence or recordings of what the accused are alleged to have said, and the Crown's case relies entirely on a negative interpretation of their words based entirely on claims made by the undercover officers.

"The story comes apart under the lightest scrutiny: A group of young female undercover officers were ostensibly sent in to investigate protesters tarred as extremists, who their superior officers suspected of having weapons and an intent to kill them. Yet these officers were sent in with no wires or recording devices of any kind, and no weapons to defend themselves. Does this not raise some pertinent questions? Who authorized this undercover operation? Was it not convenient to make these allegations, given that the day after these men were arrested, the Emergencies Act was invoked? Why has it taken 28 months for such an important case to get under way? Why did two of the co-accused, Jerry Morin and Chris Lysak, have all of the original charges against them dropped?...

"Media coverage of this case has done a great disservice to the Canadian public in not asking these questions. Instead, the media has been cheerleading for a conviction before all the evidence is in by repeating the unsubstantiated claims of the officers and failing to report any countervailing evidence or context crucial to understanding the story....

"If the Canadian government can level ridiculous and baseless charges at people, throw them in jail for over two years while denying them bail for trumped up political reasons, and then have their friends in the media smear the accused, what right to protest does anyone have? What right to free speech, or to any other civil liberties? The trial of these men in Alberta, like the trial of Donald Trump, raises serious questions about our democracy. It is clear that those in our ruling class would rather control the narrative so that you don't ask them."

Read more: https://www.newsweek.com/lawfare-comes-canada-coutts-four-get-their-day-court-opinion-1913946

Witness testimony day 3 at Coutts 2 trial | Thursday, June 13, 24 | Landon Hickok | Bridge City News | June 13, 2024:

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