Chris Carbert Testifies in Coutts Trial: Rejects RCMP Firearms Allegations

Robert Kraychik
  |   July 19, 2024   |   Be the first to comment

Chris Carbert testified at his trial during proceedings Thursday at the Lethbridge, Alberta courthouse. Katherin Beyak, Carbert’s attorney, waived her option to offer opening arguments and proceeded to examine her client.

Marilyn Burns, the counsel for his co-accused, Anthony Olienick, concluded her arguments the day prior.

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 public health mandates said to reduce COVID-19 transmission.

The two defendants are also charged with unlawful possession of a firearm for a dangerous purpose. Olienick is additionally charged with unlawful possession of an explosive device for a dangerous purpose. Both have pled not guilty to all charges against them.

Beyak asked Carbert about his life in 2021, the year prior to his participation in the Coutts demonstration. Carbert said the government orders marketed as measures did not significantly affect his landscaping business. He described its as a “build your backyard” operation, given the nature of the work being outdoors.

“Eventually things got weird,” Carbert said on the evolving restrictions encroaching on his constitutional rights. “I began to lose trust in ‘the science’ and the government,” he notes.

Carbert said he did “a lot of research … an excessive amount of research” related to content produced by “virologists, doctors, [and] scientists” and “watching podcasts” in relation to COVID-19 and the mRNA injections marketed as “COVID-19 vaccines.”

“I wasn't exactly trusting the vaccine all that much,” he recalled, sharing some examples of false claims related to the COVID-19 vaccine campaigns by the government. Examples include descriptions of the jabs as “100-percent safe and effective,” and claims that “you can't get COVID [and] you can't give COVID” after receiving the shots.

Carbert added that “changing doctor narratives” and “censorship of [dissident] doctors” further deepened his skepticism of claims pushed by the government and ancillary institutions.

Carbert also testified that he was offered $1,500 from the government -- he did not specify what level of government -- to compel his employees to "get vaccinated." He said: "There was no way I was taking it, because I didn't trust it."

When asked if he owned firearms, Carbert replied: “Lots of 'em.” Carbert denied having certain conversations about firearms or explosives with Olienick, as was claimed in testimony by a female RCMP undercover operator (UCO) in earlier proceedings.

The defendant also denied Crown allegations he had firearms brought to him by Jerry Morin, a former co-accused, on February 10. He further rejected a female UCO’s claim that “a bomb” had been brought to the Coutts protest.

“I did not know that it was going to work,” Carbert said of the Coutts demonstrators’ goal of ending the government’s “mandating vaccines or vaccine passports”. He added, “Just like Ottawa, I thought Ottawa was a good statement, as well, telling the government we had enough.”

He emphasized his view of the Coutts demonstration, “I felt that it was important [and] a good statement.”

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