Alberta Justice Crown prosecutors are appealing the court’s decision to acquit conspiracy to murder a police officer charges against Chris Carbert and Tony Olienick.
The pair was found not guilty two weeks ago.
Carbert and Olienick are two of the four “Coutts 4.” The other two, Christopher Lysak and Jerry Morin, were released earlier this year after pleading guilty to lesser charges. All of them were held in remand since the Coutts border blockade in February 2022, the same time as the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa.
Carbert and Olienick, despite the most serious charge against them being dropped, continue to be held in remand without bail. They have been held well over 900 days so far. They still face lesser mischief-related charges. The two men have not yet been sentenced for those charges, but a hearing is scheduled for August 26.
Marco Van Huigenbos, who along with Alex Van Herk and George Janzen are known as the “Coutts 3,” another group charged with mischief in connection with the border protest, said “the rate this appeal has been filed is unheard of.”
“The courts have been weaponized,” he wrote on social media Thursday evening, targeting Crown Prosecutor Steven Johnson.
“Murderers, rapists and dangerous repeat offenders get bail daily while political dissidents are jailed and dragged through the courts.”
“Even a jury of our peers is no longer credible enough to stop the warfare being executed by Stephen Johnson and his cronies.”
Independent journalist Jason Lavigne, who has been covering the court proceedings in Lethbridge, AB, said the appeal “is insane.”
“With over a million spent on the defence and counting, the process is certainly the punishment,” he wrote on social media.
“Also, the Crown saying that 12 members of the Lethbridge public that made up the Jury were wrong, is another big attack on innocent Albertans and our legal system.”