Daryl Yorgason, a southern Albertan who attended the 2022 Coutts protest and blockade, testified during Tuesday’s proceedings in the trial of Chris Carbert and Anthony Olienick in Lethbridge AB, that he was “terrified” of the police presence at the demonstration.
Yorgason was invited to testify as a witness by Marilyn Burns, who is representing Anthony Olienick. His testimony resembled fears expressed by Anthony Olienick — regarding the use of violence by law enforcement against peaceful demonstrators in Coutts – in an interview with the RCMP shortly after his arrest on February 14, 2022.
Brian Lambert, one of Anthony Olienick’s former business partners who ran a sandstone business involving mining, may have blown up the charge against Olienick of unlawful possession of an explosive device for a dangerous purpose during his testimony. https://t.co/cYRWVbU1xv pic.twitter.com/EeFVcKh1nG
— Robert Kraychik (@rkraychik) July 16, 2024
Carbert and Olienick are accused of conspiring to murder police officers during their time at the 2022 Coutts protest and blockade, a peaceful and civilly disobedient demonstration against the decrees, edicts, and orders issued by different levels of government and marketed as “public health” measures to reduce COVID-19 transmission.
The two defendants are also charged with unlawful possession of a firearm for a dangerous purpose. Both have pled not guilty to all charges against them. Both have been held in remand at the Lethbridge Correctional Centre since shortly after their arrests on February 14, 2022.
The police presence in Coutts was militaristic, Yorgason stated. “They’re coming in full riot gear,” he said of law enforcement’s presentation. He characterized it as a “military presence” with a helicopter and drone. “It looked like a movie,” he stated.
Police officers searched his vehicle while it was unattended without a search warrant or request for permission, Yorgason recalled. He noted that law enforcement would systematically search unattended vehicles they perceived as owned by protesters in Coutts.
Coutts defendant’s lawyer to jury: trial is ‘political’, ‘un-Canadian’
The lawyer added that ‘the conduct of Alberta’s provincial government and Canada’s federal government [are] entwined with the RCMP.’
MORE by @RKraychik: https://t.co/xmkg82mJIa pic.twitter.com/1pVd2WgxOe
— Rebel News Canada (@RebelNews_CA) July 18, 2024
“I was worried about being ambushed at night by cops,” Yorgason testified, noting that he and adult family members he travelled to Coutts with “kept [our] trucks close together” for safety reasons.
Yorgason said 2021 was a “horrible” year when invited by Burns to describe the impacts of governmentally-imposed lockdowns and other restrictions of constitutional rights framed as “public health” policies.
“[I] lost everything I owned,” he said. “[The government] shut the border down, [my] trucking company of twenty years was done,” he added.
Yorgason testified that the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa, ON, gave him “hope that maybe we could get our lives back, my job back, my livelihood back”.
The trial has court dates scheduled until Friday July 19. More dates will be set if the trial does not conclude by then.
