Newly released records show police believed the Alberta men now accused of plotting to kill RCMP officers discussed two women smuggling a hockey bag full of weapons in a protest against restrictions related to the pandemic, suggesting that they would go unnoticed by the police because they were “girls”. “
However, these two women were actually undercover cops.
The next day, the RCMP launched a rare “imminent harm” wiretapping, which can be run without a judge’s authorization when there is an immediate threat to safety.
Blockades and protests at the Coutts border crossing in southern Alberta began on Jan. 29 and ended after the pre-dawn Feb. 14 execution of tow and property warrants , which resulted in the RCMP seizing more than a dozen firearms, as well as ammunition. and body armor.
After the searches, 14 people were criminally charged, with four men: Jerry Morin, 41; Chris Lysak, 48; Chris Carbert, 45; and Anthony Olienick, 40, who face the most serious charge: conspiracy to murder RCMP officers.
All four men also face weapons and mischief charges.
Olienick also faces a charge related to an allegation that he had a pipe bomb that police say they seized from his rural property in Willow Creek Township, outside of Claresholm, south of Calgary.
These new details are revealed in search warrant applications, also known as ITOs, which outline the two key investigative tactics – undercover operation and wiretapping – used to justify charges, raids and searches later
Four ITOs were unsealed and filed in Lethbridge Provincial Court on Tuesday following a legal challenge from a group of news organizations, including CBC, Global, CTV, the Globe and Mail, Postmedia and the New York Times.
Although the documents were open, redactions and a temporary publication ban prevented many of the details from being released, notably wiretapping information, statements made by the four defendants to police and inflammatory statements made to undercover agents
The media consortium will hold a full hearing on September 29 to determine whether to lift the publication ban for the remaining newsrooms.
Police allege the weapons are shipped in the hockey bag
The unsealed documents show that when they came forward, RCMP believed Olienick, Carbert and Morin were part of a subgroup of protesters who “were arming themselves for a standoff against the police.”
Police believed three of the four men facing conspiracy-to-murder charges knew each other and made plans before the Coutts border blockade, according to the documents.
On February 11, two female undercover officers, referred to in the document under the pseudonyms “UC Britt” and “UC Tiff,” posed as protesters and befriended Olienick and Carbert at a bar Coutts called Smuggler’s Saloon. The two agents reported witnessing the planning of an alleged shipment of weapons in a hockey bag that night, according to the undercover agents’ notes.
The documents say Carbert asked Olienick if he “preferred to use guitar cases like they usually did,” but “Olienick said the package was too big and they needed a hockey bag.”
The plan was to meet Morin at a checkpoint along the train tracks near the protest site, where he would deliver a “heavy” delivery.
The documents detail a conflict over whether undercover agents would help. Carbert thought the hockey bag would be too heavy for women to lift, but Olienick thought it was a perfect cover.
“Olienick believed the police wouldn’t think much of it if UC Tiff and UC Britt carried the bag because they were ‘girls,'” says one of the ITOs.
Officers ordered to abandon alleged ‘weapons exchange’
When undercover officers told the men they were “okay with the guns,” the document states that neither Carbert nor Olienick denied the bag contained firearms.
Although the undercover officers arrived at the checkpoint with Olienick, Carbert and Morin, their supervisor told them to leave and not engage in what they believed to be an “exchange of weapons,” records say , so they didn’t see the hockey puck.
According to the undercover officers’ observations, the RCMP “[believed] Morin provided firearms to Olienick and Carbert for the purpose of using those firearms to shoot and kill police officers.”
From left to right: Chris Carbert, 44; Anthony Olienick, 39; Jerry Morin, 40; and Christopher Lysak, 48. They are all accused of conspiring to kill RCMP officers near Coutts, Alta., during the border blockade and protests earlier this year. (Carbert/Facebook, Coutts Convoy Restart/Facebook, Morin/Facebook, Instagram)
The situation in Coutts was escalating leading up to the Valentine’s Day police raids.
The day after the hockey bag was handed over, the RCMP launched an imminent harm intercept, meaning they could wiretap suspects without the normally required court authorization, because they believed their officers were In danger.
But under the heading “Interception of Imminent Harm to Private Communication” in one of the ITOs, 54 paragraphs and sub-paragraphs are blacked out with redactions.
“Arming for a Showdown”
The four ITOs released contain very little information about the fourth man, Lysak. There is a fifth ITO, which prosecutors successfully argued should remain sealed because it relates to an ongoing investigation.
Social media posts have connected two of the men to a network called Diagolon, an American-style militia movement born in Nova Scotia with white supremacist beliefs.
Members of the network want to establish a white nationalist state through violence, extremism experts say.
Social media accounts belonging to Carbert and Lysak connect the pair to Diagolon, including a photo of Lysak posing with group founder Jeremy MacKenzie.
Two Diagolon patches were found on body armor seized during the execution of RCMP search warrants on Coutts on February 14.
That cache of firearms, body armor and ammunition was found in three trailers near the Canada-US border roadblock, police said. (Submitted by Alberta RCMP)
The main searches were carried out in trailers on Joanne Person’s property, halfway between Coutts’ Smuggler’s Saloon and the protest site.
The individual, who faces less serious charges related to the blockade, had hosted several of the protesters, including Olienick, Carbert and two other men who were not identified in the documents. A handgun registered to Lysak was seized from the individual’s property during the search.
Men involved in a sophisticated security team
By the second week of February, the RCMP had identified a sophisticated security team that allegedly included Olienick, Morin and Carbert.
Olienick monitored several live surveillance feeds showing the movements of RCMP officers inside the protest area and at various checkpoints, the undercover officers said.
Those officers spotted body armor, a laminated map and the live video in Olienick’s truck, prompting police to comment on “the sophistication of the security role,” according to the ITOs.
RCMP are seen monitoring border protests in Coutts, Alta. (Nassima Way/CBC)
Olienick, who communicated with protest leadership through an intermediary, told undercover officers that protesters had “access to hundreds of firearms and ammunition inside Coutts,” court records allege .
“I believe Olienick’s involvement as security within the Coutts lockup implies structure, hierarchy and organization,” the document says.
Police also believed they would find “documents and data relating to the planning, organization and security operations of the Coutts blockade protest group” at one of Olienick’s properties.
The search warrant application also alleges Olienick revealed that protesters had brought more semi-tractors and farm equipment to “barricade themselves from the RCMP because they were breaking the city limits.”
‘Night Quest’ Raids
On February 13, police arrested Lysak outside the Smuggler’s Saloon and charged him with threatening a police officer.
At this time, the police had requested to search the person’s property and stated in their request that they wanted to do so at night, when there would be fewer protesters present.
“I believe there will be a significant risk to the safety of police, the public and protesters when this search warrant is executed, including protesters attempting to swarm, obstruct and attack police,” the document says.
Protesters at the border crossing near Coutts, Alta., walk past the Milk River roadblock site on Highway 4 on Feb. 15, as police officers look on. (CBC)
In the early hours of February 14, officers raided trailers on the person’s property and seized a cache of weapons, including a handgun registered to Lysak. Olienick and Carbert were arrested during the raids on the property.
‘This is war’
The morning after the raids, police staked out Morin’s home and discreetly followed him for nearly an hour and a half before pulling over his truck in Calgary at 12:23 p.m.
Police found two guns in his truck, but also sought a search warrant for Morin’s home because, the documents allege, he had disclosed in earlier days that he had more firearms than the police recovered during his arrest. Another weapon was seized from Morin’s home, according to the ITOs.
The ITOs also referred to social media posts made by some of the defendants, including Morin, who posted a video on Facebook during the protests.
In a video titled “Call to Action” released the day before his arrest, Morin encouraged others to join the protest.
“This is war,” Morin said.
Investigators believed the group had more members, weapons
The RCMP investigation into the alleged planned attack continued after the four men were arrested. Police also requested to search a rural property belonging to Olienick near Claresholm. Officers said they believed he had weapons there and was “part of a group that was talking about using firearms against police.”
“Police have not yet identified all…