Bosses of Alberta men accused in plot to murder Mounties still under investigation, court docs suggest | 24CA News
Alberta RCMP are nonetheless investigating a number of folks they consider had been issuing orders to the boys now accused of plotting to homicide Mounties at an anti-pandemic restriction border blockade final winter, newly launched court docket paperwork present.
Police have recognized a suspected management workforce exterior of the Coutts border protest web site that wished to see not solely vaccine mandates lifted however the “elimination … of the professional political class,” based on the paperwork.
Police finally foiled the alleged plan with an early morning Valentine’s Day raid that resulted within the seizures of a number of firearms and the arrests of 13 folks, together with 4 males now charged with conspiracy to homicide.
Altering political, judicial and medical methods
In the times main as much as that raid, the paperwork allege the bosses exterior of Coutts repeatedly known as and texted the boys with orders.
One textual content message, cited by police, exhibits the bosses advised the boys to unfold the message that the actual purpose for the protest included altering Canada’s political, judicial and medical methods.
The names of these main the 4 males proceed to be redacted as a result of they’re the topic of an energetic investigation.
Men educated for months
On Wednesday, a Lethbridge provincial court docket decide lifted a sealing order on components of 4 search warrant functions after a authorized problem from a bunch of news organizations, together with CBC, Global, CTV, the Globe and Mail, Postmedia and the New York Times.
These new particulars are revealed within the functions to acquire telephone recordings of the calls made by Anthony Olienick, 40, Jerry Morin, 41, Chris Lysak, 48, and Chris Carbert, 45, from the remand centres the place they’re being held pending trial. A decide granted these search warrants in May.
Olienick, Morin, Lysak and Carbert are all charged with conspiracy to homicide, together with weapons and mischief fees. The particulars alleged within the court docket paperwork haven’t been examined in court docket.
Additionally, Olienick has been charged with making or possessing an explosive gadget, and Lysak has been charged with uttering threats.
The paperwork element how police got here to consider the 4 males educated for months, stockpiled weapons and ammunition, and had been taking orders from the unidentified bosses.
During the RCMP investigation, Olienick advised undercover officers that he believed “all police should die” and stated protesters had been ready to “slit [officers’] throats,” the court docket paperwork allege.
3 males met in gun store
In the months earlier than the Coutts protest, Olienick allegedly advised police he met Lysak and Carbert at a gun store in Lethbridge, based on the abstract of his police interview.
He then invited the 2 males and Morin to his rural property within the Municipality of Willow Creek, exterior Claresholm, south of Calgary, the place he ran his trucking business.
The group allegedly gathered on Sundays to “hang out, BBQ and shoot” as they ready for the “collapse of society.”
They thought-about themselves “preppers,” Olienick advised police, and stated they anticipated they’d finally “have to defend each other.”
By the time police raided Olienick’s properties in February, officers allege the person had stockpiled firearms, greater than 36,000 rounds of ammunition and two pipe bombs with fuses that had been sturdy sufficient to explode automobiles.
Officers say additionally they seized 4 fuel masks, camouflage and tactical gear.
‘Sheepdogs … to guard the flock’
Police have stated they consider the 4 males had been a part of a subgroup of protesters who considered themselves as a safety workforce.
Olienick described his workforce as “sheepdogs … there to protect the flock,” based on the paperwork.
As CBC and The Fifth Estate beforehand reported, RCMP had a number of undercover officers in Coutts who had been posing as protesters who befriended Olienick and Carbert.
On Feb. 12, Olienick advised one of many undercover officers he believed he was fulfilling “his destiny” and stated he wasn’t certain he’d survive “this war.”
“Olienick believed the police should all die,” based on the officer’s notes. “He also believed that if the police brought the war to Coutts, [the protesters] will slit their throats.”
Lysak known as a ‘hitman’
As Olienick and the undercover officer had been chatting, Lysak walked out of Smuggler’s Saloon, a bar in Coutts the place protesters gathered.
According to the officer’s notes, Olienick pointed at Lysak and described his pal as “a hitman, a gunfighter and a long-range sniper.”
That undercover officer and her colleagues got here to consider Olienick and the others had been plotting to convey weapons to the protest web site utilizing hockey baggage.
On high of that, the officer recorded Olienick’s need to combat police.
According to the officer, Olienick stated he feared police would come at evening “when everyone was sleeping” and he would miss the possibility to rally his troops “to fight.”
A ‘feud’ over management
Olienick additionally stated he had a satellite tv for pc telephone and former navy members on the outskirts of the protest web site who would “rush in and smash through police vehicles.”
The newly unsealed data additionally element quite a few intercepted telephone calls from the 4 males’s cellphones and present police had been involved the 4 males had been co-ordinating to convey weapons from a second stockpile close to Nanton.
Police stated they intercepted a telephone name between Olienick and an unnamed man through which the 2 mentioned a “detailed list” of things to be dropped at the protest web site.
The data recommend pressure between these on the bottom and the folks directing them who had not but proven as much as the protest web site.
Carbert advised the undercover officers there was a “feud” over management and coaching, and that he had known as one of many bosses “a coward” who couldn’t be bothered to come back to the protest when he, Lysak and Olienick had been “getting ready to f–king go.”
The arrests
Late within the afternoon on Feb. 13, police intercepted textual content messages to Olienick requesting a gathering between the bosses, Olienick, Lysak and Carbert. The boss, whose title is redacted, advised Olienick to not convey cellphones and as a substitute use their radios.
When they acquired again to Coutts, officers arrested Lysak and charged him with uttering threats towards a police officer.
Later that evening, police raided a property close to the protest web site, seizing weapons and arresting 13 folks, together with Carbert and Olienick.
Meanwhile, Morin had returned to his house close to Olds, north of Calgary. On the morning of Feb. 14, police intercepted telephone calls to Morin’s telephone from one of many bosses.
Morin advised the caller he was planning to return to Coutts.
“Morin said he was not going to go down there and shoot people” earlier than the caller “interrupted to say sarcastically ‘Oh, let’s talk about that over the phone, you f–king idiot.'”
Olienick’s Telegram conspiracy concept
Police adopted Morin from his house as he drove south, arresting him close to Calgary.
Once the 4 males had been arrested, they gave interviews to police.
In his interview with police, Olienick advised officers he believed the blockade would finish solely when police sided with protesters and the navy stood down.
“When asked about the conspiracy to commit murder, Olienick said nothing happened but the firearms were in case RCMP pulled the trigger first,” the court docket paperwork stated.
Olienick additionally advised police he believed that when that occurred, Canada can be invaded by a United Nations-directed military of Chinese troops to put in a “totalitarian communist regime” with “executions and gas chambers.”
Olienick stated he realized this conspiracy concept from Telegram.
Men made calls from jail
Once the three males had been incarcerated in remand centres, their telephone data confirmed they known as the bosses straight or allegedly made contact with them by relations, police stated.
The functions for the search warrants sought recordings of these telephone calls partially as a result of police believed the boys could have mentioned allegations circulating in media studies that that they had been linked with an extremist community known as Diagolon.
The court docket paperwork don’t define whether or not police have any particular proof connecting Diagolon to the boys or the alleged conspiracy.
Olienick, Lysak, Carbert and Morin are scheduled for trial in June 2023.
