Anti-mandate demonstrators gather as a truck convoy blocks the highway the busy U.S. border crossing in Coutts, Alta., in late January in 2022. Two men charged after the 2022 blockade were found not guilty on charges of conspiracy to commit murder by a jury on Aug. 2, 2024.
Anthony Olienick and Chris Carbert were convicted earlier this month of public mischief over $5,000 and possessing a firearm dangerous to the public peace. Olienick was also convicted of possessing a pipe bomb.Anti-mandate demonstrators gather as a truck convoy blocks the highway near the busy U.S. border crossing in Coutts, Alta., in late January in 2022. Two men charged after the blockade were found not guilty on charges of conspiracy to commit murder by a jury on Aug. 2, 2024.
Crown prosecutor Steven Johnston told a sentencing hearing Thursday that the case isn't about the right to protest government policy and that believing in a cause doesn't excuse committing a crime. Carbert's lawyer, Katherin Beyak, said she's not suggesting that what her client did wasn't a dangerous situation but said there's no guarantee there would have been a shootout with police."We can't presume for the purpose of sentencing that the worst-case scenario would have occurred."
An RCMP helicopter flies over as a truck convoy of anti-COVID-19 vaccine mandate demonstrators continued to block the highway at the U.S. border crossing in Coutts, on Feb. 2, 2022.
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