'No plan': Accused in Coutts murder-conspiracy trial denies plot to kill police

A truck convoy of anti-COVID-19 vaccine mandate demonstrators continue to block the highway at the busy U.S. border crossing in Coutts, Alta., Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2022. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jeff McIntosh)

Chris Carbert brought guns and body armour to the Coutts 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.

"There was no plan,” Carbert told court Friday under questioning from his lawyer at his trial in Lethbridge.

"Were you involved in any sort of plan or agreement to attack police officers in Coutts?" Carbert was asked by lawyer Katherin Beyak.

"Absolutely not,” he said.

Carbert and Anthony Olienick are on trial together in Court of King’s Bench accused of conspiring to murder police officers at the Coutts blockade.

The blockade at the U.S.-Alberta border point tied up traffic for two weeks in early 2022 to protest COVID restrictions, including vaccine mandates for truckers.

Carbert said he saw Coutts as an opportunity to get rid of the trucker vaccine mandates and then perhaps expand that ban to the general population.

He said if that didn't happen, things were not going to turn out good.

"And what do you mean by not good?" Beyak asked.

"Likely in violence,” he said.

He admitted to bringing weapons with him to Coutts as well as modified body armour.

"It's got multiple functions, obviously for hunting or heaven forbid for protection if it ever got to that," he said.

"The truth of the matter is it's in there for the reason it's in there, (such as) if I was heading to the mountains and they came all the way out there to give me a vaccination or something. Then perhaps."

Carbert was asked about a series of text messages he exchanged with his mother during the standoff.

One text message read, “Mom, I am fine. If they start the violence, I am just telling you there will be war and casualties of war."

The text added, "I don't think you truly understand what this is for and about. If we lose here, I will likely die in war."

Beyak asked about the exchange.

"We had our differences and out in Coutts (Mom) kept asking me to go home,” he said.

“I kept telling her, ‘No, we're not. I'm not leaving until the mandates are dropped.'"

All protesters left quickly and peacefully after police seized weapons near the blockade and made arrests.

Carbert and Olienick are also charged with mischief and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose. Olienick faces a further charge of possessing a pipe bomb.

The Crown has presented witness and physical evidence to argue that Olienick and Carbert were conspiring to kill police.

Officers seized weapons, body armour and ammunition in trailers near the blockade, along with a firearms licence in Carbert’s name.

They later located more weapons, buckets of ammunition and two pipe bombs at Olienick’s home.

Undercover officers have quoted Olienick telling them he considered Coutts the mission of a lifetime and if police tried to shut down the barricade he would “slit their throats.”

In a police interrogation video shown to the jury, Olienick is seen denying he targeted police but saying he feared an invasion by United Nations troops or Chinese communists.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 19, 2024.

— By Bill Graveland in Calgary