Unraveling the Coutts blockade trials: Ezra Levant sets the scene in Lethbridge

Well as you can see I’m back in Lethbridge at the courthouse I think I visited this place more often than any other location in the country besides my home or my office you know Starbucks talks about being the third place you go to the office you go home where’s that

Third place you go that’s Starbucks’s internal strategy this is my third place if I’m not at home or at work odds are I’m here and that’s because this is the closest Courthouse to the Alberta Montana border Coots on Alber aside sweet grass on the Montana side where

Two years and a month ago a bunch of truckers and farmers and other ordinary albertans had a blockade in sympathy with the main trucker Convoy in Ottawa and a secondary one in Winder now police sort of blocked access to CS which is a very small village it’s not even a town

They blocked it off at a at a larger town called milk River it’s like they built a giant Siege wall around cooch couldn’t get past Milk River you couldn’t um bring supplies to people you couldn’t bring food to people it really was um a showdown of sorts whereas

Ottawa and Windsor are large cities with huge police with lots of resources Co is far away so the police couldn’t go in and pull out the protesters easily in fact they had one sort of attempted show a force the men just simply outnumbered them and by the way those huge

Agricultural Vehicles there even harder to move than the trucks here’s a scene from one of our documentaries on CPS showing that tense moment where all the troops sort of marched out and the the men just prot deser just sort of said hey there we’re not going anywhere I don’t know if you remember This [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] Fre fre Well of course the law gets the last laugh they charged a lot of people there now again what are they going to charge them with some parking offense well in the case of Pastor Arthur pavlovski they charged him for giving a sermon to the man which they said incited their

Mischief and Incredibly he was convicted of that crime Rebel news is crowdfunding along with the Democracy fund the legal funds not only for his trial but for his appeal again that was in this building because of course this is the closest Courthouse to cots a lot of men there

Were charged with Mischief which normally is the really the most minor offense in the criminal code something reserved for like um I don’t know someone who kicks over a garbage can or something or I don’t know spray paints graffiti really there’s not a lot more you can charge the trucker protesters

With um the worst they did in Ottawa was some parking offenses and horn honking that’s why they’re coming against to with I think it’s incitement to commit Mischief that’s so minor I I really think it’s the longest trial hers is the longest trial of any Canadian ever

Charged with Mischief it’s been going on for months and it’s not done yet well here is in um Lethbridge there’s several trials for people who were involved in coochs in fact the Democracy fund and rebel news have crowdfunded for 55 people 55 truckers um who were arrested

Or ticketed or charged with one thing or another that’s on top of other pandemic issues so there’s a lot going on the Coots three case I don’t mean to confuse you but just to be clear the Coots 3 are the so-called leadership group they’ve been charged with Mischief much like

Tamar leech and Chris barara in Ottawa but what I was here for is the so-called Coots four and I and I know it’s very confusing but those are the four men who were charged one day with very serious crime of conspiracy to commit murder and

The the police made such a shock and awe show of it they had a carefully staged press conference where they showed weapons which are just regular hunting weapons but they you know to aotta Toronto Montreal journalists they’re terrifying because it’s a gun in camouflage colors because that’s how

Hunters are hou snippet of that police press conference that was on the eve of the emergencies act and that’s why I think it’s evident in retrospect it was a pretext for Trudeau to put the country under martial law here’s how the police described it back then our members uh

Have been up here and in general uh we haven’t had many incidents involving violence but unfortunately an investigation started uh uh after a period of time when the initial protesters arrived shortly thereafter we began to receive IM imminent information of potential threats it took some time to investigate that and to uh determine

Facts which have led us to uh several arrests during the night last night these arrests and this investigation is continuing we have since made another arrest involving this uh the escalation of violence towards the members including having having someone break one of our checkpoints this afternoon

And uh just about hit one of our members on the road so we certainly have concerns about how this has uh developed and our investigation into what could be a number of different charges and a number of different acts has created a situation where we’re investigating conspiracy to attempt to commit murder

And then we have other investigations involving uh the Firearms clearly so a search warrant was conducted last night in the like it was a approximately midnight 12:30 where three trailers Associated to a group that had arrived separate to the original protesters but in ended up being a part of this whole

Situation and this group we conducted a search warrant into three trailers Associated to them resulting in the seizure of weapons Firearms ammunition as well as uh body warn armor that would normally be a police issue and these people were taken into custody we have determined that the investigation is

Ongoing and we will continue to investigate this uh for the safety of the public and for the safety of the police you know today while I was sitting in the court I re read some old CBC articles about the coou for and these charges and reading it again with

What I know now it’s so clear that so much of it just hearsay or speculation or the sort of fever dream of the uh police media industrial complex they always had this fantasy that the truckers were violent that it was going to be a January 6 Insurrection which by

The way itself was not particularly violent there were some broken windows for sure but the only person who was murdered that day was one of the protesters Ashley babit if I recall her name uh but still January 6 uh in uh us liberal circles was this terrifying

Event where we almost lost our democracy Trudeau and the media industrial complex wanted that narrative for these truckers it never came so they were desperate to find that and they thought they found it in the Cs for and frankly it was so shocking this talk of conspiracy to

Murder a policeman that not only did they arrest the four men but the rest of the peaceful protesters said yikes we’re out of here we didn’t sign up for this and the men voluntarily shut the Coots blockade down which by the way is an important point the Windsor bridge was

Cleared before the martial law was invoked peacefully local police could handle it the CO’s blockade was cleared voluntarily by the men saying we’re out of here if there were guns and but the but TR almost hated that in fact you might recall we’ve heard this many times

Including at the public inquiry into the emergencies act that the city of Ottawa had negotiated a deal with the truckers that they would move a number of trucks away and they would move them out of residential areas when Trudeau heard that he pulled the trigger on the emergencies act because he didn’t want

The temperature to be reduced he didn’t want a negotiated solution he wanted to be able to claim uhhuh we have our January 6 moment so between uh arresting jar leech in Ottawa and arresting the four men here in in Southern Alberta they thought they had it I read the

Information to obtain that’s the police document and you can see the the words information to obtain a search warrant so that’s the list of accusations that police bring to a judge exp parte which means without the other side there because you need the sneak attack you need the element of surprise when you’re

Executing a search for him and so they showed this document to to the judge and say judge give us the search warrant and the judge did and this document it’s subject to a publication man with certain exceptions you can get the entire document for yourself from the

Court and I’ve done that but you cannot publish it so I cannot show you most of what’s in it certain parts have been given uh the judge has unsealed them and allowed them to be published but I I don’t want to muck around there but some

Of the some some of the allegations and accusations in the information to obame really are dramatic and I thought to myself there’s really no way that this many cops would be Liars for Trudeau but then a few as you know a few months ago two of the Cs four were released on the

Most modest the most minor charges that if they had been the charges from the outset these men would never have spent a day in jail they would have had their wrist SLP maybe their gun license taken away for a few years and that’s it so

They have two men left and those two men were on trial today the formal trial itself has not yet begun they’re still doing preliminary matters and allas they are by a publication ban too so I can’t really get into it very frustrating to hear very dramatic things being said but

Without the ability to report on them or even to characterize them as good for the prosecution or good for the defense the reason for this publication ban when you think about it it’s to preserve the trial itself so that any potential jurors don’t have uh little shreds or

Shards of evidence in their minds oh I know all about this they’re Bad Dudes or I know all about this they’re good dudes if you if they heard a police report if they heard a lawyer on the other side like if they had some information in advance of the trial they would probably

Go in with their mind partly made up and they might just have an outof context fact or something like that my point is it’s important that the evidence that is being heard today while very interesting has to be withheld from prospective jurors until it’s properly

Put to them so they hear all of it not just a j journalist summary so they can hear if a lawyer challenges its credibility so they can make up their mind it’s frustrating that we can’t publicize what is being said today but understand the reason is actually to protect the jury

So it’s one of the few cases uh where a a ban on freedom of expression it’s temporary and it’s for the higher purpose of justice so I hate to say it it’s actually a good idea to have that publication B even though it makes it frustrating for many people one of the

Things people do to get around that is they come and watch the trial and alas we’re all jammed into a small courtroom never enough room they say the larger courtroom is under Renovations I don’t know if that’s true or not but it’s frustrating the people anyways there’s

Only two of the cooch four remaining because like I said the other two CED a plea bargain a few months ago and they were for minor offenses and I don’t know if those men would have signed literally anything to get out of jail for two

Years if two of the best years of your life are stolen for in jail you probably would sign just about anything to get back to your life and your family even if it was false but I I don’t know if they if it was a forced jail house

Confession as they call it but even if we take it at face value those two men are out in the world so obviously the government doesn’t think they’re a menace to society anymore so why are the other two still in jail if there so-called co-conspirators have been let

Off to go back into the public like what is the danger in March 2024 of these two remaining members of the Cs 4 if the other two CS 4 are out and about like that alone doesn’t make sense um as you know the other day I sat

Down with Betty carbert the mother of one of the two remaining accused she was a a short exerpt from that interview take a look I do not believe now what I believe then I do not believe your son did what the police said he did and I actually think he’s been falsely

Accused and I think you’re right it was a shock to to me because everybody might say that I’m his mom and so I’m a little biased but I also because I’m his mom I feel that I know him best because of that I I know that Chris couldn’t

Possibly participate in what he’s being accused of for for many reasons I want to talk about those reasons because it’s true every mother loves their son every mother remembers her son as a baby yeah and it’s a little boy and even the mothers of actual criminals feel that

Way but I want to talk a little bit let’s start with Chris and who he is and how he wound up at the blockade because he was one of the peaceful protesters there yeah he just also was one of the four who were swept up in this RCMP raid

Tell me about how it started why did he go to the blockade why did he go to this protest and what did he tell you about it was he in touch with you during the protest what do you know about that yeah he he um he would text me probably every

Day just to keep me up to date on what was happening uh he was there because of the truckers like he he felt that um the covid mandates it was affecting everybody anybody with a business where they were depending on products going and coming from the US and the truckers

Having to find well probably new jobs because the ones that wouldn’t uh take the shot could no longer go across the border so he was there to support them what we were talking about there was the difference between the two remaining accused Tony olenek and Chris carbert

And I know that there’s a general solidarity with all of these men that we don’t like the prosecution of them that it’s all politically revved up and I think that’s true but there is an enormous difference between what Chris carber said and did and what Tony ol

Said and did and I I don’t know if in the name of political unity and Harmony we should discount some of the crazy things that Tony enck said to undercover officers that you know were obviously are probably just BS just puffery just a a guy showing off like remember in that

Saloon in CS CS is such a small place all the men sort of hung out in this one Saloon it’s where they met it’s where they talked it’s where they ate and drank and people could come and go and there were uniform police officers in there but there were also plenty of

Undercover officers including attractive enough young women and so you’ve got these men who have just been cramped up with other men for a week or two and these attractive young women are hanging on their every word and there’s a male Instinct I might have even had it once in my life myself when

You’re meeting a young woman you want to show off a little bit you want to be a little tougher than you are a little braver than you are you want to embellish your story a wee bit I don’t know I think it’s a a male Instinct even

More than a female Instinct and so one of the defendants Tony olenic told big stories and again I’m not referring to anything I’ve heard in court but rather to things that have been published due to the court revising the publication B Tony olc wouldn’t stop running his mouth

About what they were planning and what they were doing and what how they would fight back and he used language that I think sees police commanders would say oh that’s just BS that’s just a guy showing off for girls but remember what the times were like in mid-February 2022

There was enormous pressure by Trudeau on the police to find him something anything remember they had that hoax of oh and the truckers lit an arson attack in a condo in Auto I don’t know if you remember about that complete hoax they had the hoax of the swastica flag by the

Way it’s clear that the media doesn’t care about anti-semitic Flags we’ve had anti-semitic flags at Hamas hate marches for 6 months CBC hasn’t done an expose on that yet but like I say the police were hunting hunting hunting for anything and here’s this guy in a saloon bragging to a couple of undercover

Female officers about his plans for a revolution yeah you bet they’re going to say go with it even though he’s a bser even though there’s no evidence of it we got to give something to the boss the boss of course being Justin Trudeau and his crooked RCMP commissioner at the

Um Bend lucky and I think that that Old World War II saying loose lips sink ships I think that’s what happened here now perhaps I’m not showing the solidarity with Tony Olen that uh one would want me to do but I listen if he did commit the crime of conspiracy to

Commit murder then he should do the time I just don’t believe he did that um I was thinking about the elements necessary to convict someone of uh conspiracy Comm and this is beyond a reasonable doubt first of all you need another person that’s why I think theyve

Trapped Chris carpet there but second of all not only do you have to have the intention to commit this murder you have to agree to do it not just hey it’s an idle plan or wouldn’t be it be NE if or maybe we’ll do you have to okay are we

Agreed are we going to do this yes go I just don’t believe that the cops have that and I think that they’ve been stretching this out to punish everyone Trudeau is extremely vengeful he has vendettas like that if you cross him he will take it out of your hide he did to

Tamara leech he did to Pastor Arthur pavlovski and I think that may be what’s going on in here we’re going to cover this we’re GNA one of our motos of Rebel news is follow the facts wherever they lead and there are some troubling facts here I do not believe that um two years

In prison uh is appropriate for a guy just being a blo hard and a brager and based on what’s emerged in recent months including the plea deal I don’t think toling olenek had a conspiracy to commit murder I think he had just a big mouth and that was enough for the

Government to go to war against these truckers we’ll find out unfortunately I can’t tell you more of what’s going on inside there because it’s covered by a publication M I’m delighted to say that Robert kek our reporter who covered the Tamaro Elite stles is going to be here

For the duration of the coou 4 and the Coots 3 and and he’s he you you’ve seen his work with Tamar Lee and I think he’s really the right fit for this so that’s my report from here by the way if you want to ship into the legal defense fund

For Chris carbert we set up a special fund for him at help chris.com

| Amid the unfolding legal drama surrounding the Coutts blockade trials, Ezra Levant reports from the courthouse in Lethbridge, Alberta, reflecting on the turbulent journey of justice.

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