Coutts Trial: RCMP's use of undercover female officer raises question of 'honey pot' targeting

Wednesday's preliminary proceedings for the trial of Chris Carbert and Anthony Olienick – the two remaining defendants of the Coutts 4 – in Lethbridge, AB, remains under a publication ban set to expire when the jury is selected.

Carbert and Olienick are being charged with conspiring to murder, specifically targeting RCMP officers. They are also charged with weapons offences and mischief.

The charges against the two relate to their involvement with the Coutts protest and blockade of 2022, a demonstration linked to the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa, ON, via shared opposition to government edicts, orders, and mandates marketed as "public health" measures in response to COVID-19.

The Coutts protest slowed traffic across the Canada-U.S. border at the Coutts-Sweetgrass border crossing linking Alberta and Montana. It preceded Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's invocation of the Emergencies Act, to broaden powers of law enforcement to suppress the two demonstrations.

Chris Lysak and Jerry Morin, the two other men of the Coutts 4, accepted plea deals to lesser charges in February after initially being charged with involvement in the alleged conspiracy to commit murder alongside Carbert and Olienick.

Rebel News spoke with two of Olienick's friends and supporters, who have known the defendant for years. The two friends, Nikki and Danielle, highlighted the RCMP's use of female undercover officers in the context of the federal law enforcement agency's ostensible investigation of the Coutts protesters, specifically of Carbert and Olienick.

"Why did they use female officers?", Danielle asked, wondering why females were deployed by the RCMP instead of males into a scenario described by the RCMP as dangerous and volatile. She considered a "honey pot" scenario in which female officers induce behaviors from male targets through sexual innuendo and behaviour.

Nicky, who visits Olienick in Lethbridge Correctional Centre (LCC), the prison where the two defendants are being held in custody, said the jail's conditions are inhumane.

James Sowery, a Coutts protester supportive of the defendants, told Rebel News about the conditions in the Lethbridge Correctional Centre (LCC), where Carbert and Olienick are currently being held in custody.https://t.co/8xYr782628

— Rebel News (@RebelNewsOnline) March 20, 2024

Carbert, Olienick, and other inmates are made to sleep on poor quality mattresses stained with bodily fluids, Danielle stated. She echoed information previously shared with Rebel News by James Sowery, a Coutts protest demonstrator who spent 45 days in LCC as part of a sentence for crimes he was convicted of in relation to his protesting.

At one point during Wednesday's proceedings, an observer in the courtroom - a man opposed to the charges against the defendants - was essentially ejected from the courtroom for disruptive behavior. The Crown prosecutor told the judge that the man was disruptive within the courtroom and making antagonizing remarks to him and other prosecutors during court recesses.

Carbert and Olienick have been held in LCC for nearly 800 days. The LCC holds prisoners convicted of murder, assault, armed robbery, and other violent crimes.

Dozens of Carbert's and Olienick's supporters have been visiting the Lethbridge Court House and attending proceedings. Several of them told Rebel News that part of their affinity for the defendants lies in shared opposition to coercive government mandates built upon a pretext of "public health".