Jury selection underway for three alleged ‘key participants’ of Coutts blockade

Can tell I’m at my home away from home Le Alberta I’ve been here a dozen times because I come here for this Courthouse this is the nearest Court to the coups border protest that happened two years ago all the criminal charges that were laid at the KE border protest are being

Heard in this Courthouse here and as you can tell by the large Gathering behind me today is a big day it’s day one in the trial of the so-called CP three or as the prosecutor calls them the leadership group I think they were the leaders although it was a very

Grassroots organic um protest very populist very Grassroots very different from the kind of left-wing professional protest that Canada is used to seeing I I find uh the one key difference between protesters who are Freedom oriented protesters on the right is they’re more individualistic of course but they actually know why they’re protesting if

You would have gone to the protest at C Alberto or in Ottawa two years ago or the Ambassador Bridge wi Detroit where there was another protest and asked anyone there why are you here they would have talked your ear off about freedom and the illegitimacy of the various

Lockdowns and mandates contrast that to the kind of rent to protest you see on any given leftwing issue and I know this from personal experience you go to a leftwing protest and say why are you here they don’t know why they’re there they’re honestly there either because they’re actually being paid or they’re

Just called up come on we’re having another protest today won’t give you the sign and they always direct you to the official folks I think is very different as you can see the group behind me very severely normal people these are farmers and business owners and families and

There’s actually a lot of kids here today everyone here is here because they believe in the freedom fight that they saw expressed in that boorder protest two years ago you might recall the rebel Lings sent lawyers to be embedded with the protest from almost the beginning we

Knew that things were going to be difficult because the police were trying all sorts of in my opinion unethical tricks but also we wanted to make sure that these unsophisticated protesters let me put it that way as in it’s through their first protest that they didn’t fall into

Any traps that they weren’t provoked that they weren’t because of course the the protest uh it was extremely cold out there and a lot of the protesters were gathered for warmth in the saloon which uh is sort of like the bar I guess in the Star Wars movie any manner of

Wretched folks who were there including police and undercover police trying to tempt trick or trap the men and indeed that did happen in the case of the so-called pet four today’s the trial are the c three George Janson Marco van hugan boss and and Alex ranard these are

The three men who often reased with the police who gave advice to the others at least that’s how it looks like on the inside it’ll be interesting to see what position these men’s lawyers take in courts today is jury selection which is a very exciting and important thing most

Trials in Canada do not have Jes or judge alone but by selecting a jury these men have made this strategic calculation that they think they’re more like to get a sympathetic hearing by 12 of their neighbors than they are by a Handa appointed judge most likely appointed by

A liberal prime minister but even if it was appointed by a conservative judges come from a certain socioeconomic strata they are by definition men and women of the establishment we’ve seen in other uh lockdown or pandemic trials that the judges tend to believe for example the uh health industri complex they would

Never be skeptical of a Teresa Tam or another Public Health officer by making the deliberate choice to entrust their safety future and Liberty with their neighbors they’re saying I trust the common sense and common people more than I trust the the wisdom of an elite judge

I think that’s wise I it makes me think if I’m if you permit me a tangent couple of years ago when a judge in Adam Adam Germaine was his name he was a liberal appointee when he heard a case involving Arthur pavlovski and Chris Scott he said outrageous things like we all know

Someone who died from covid and anytime you speak contrary to the public health officials you must read this self- denunciation that what you’re saying is wrong it was a a compelled speech rule he was overturned 3 Z by the court of appeal but you take light point you had a 70-year-old liberal appointee

Who just wouldn’t even accept that that the establishment couldn’t could be wrong uh accepted that we all know that this pandemic is devastating and we must obey it but just the mindset of a cited cocooned judge high on Mount Olympus that’s one end of the spectrum but

Ordinary men and women in Lethbridge is the other end of the spectrum and these defendants of my view are very wise for choosing that so jury selection remember remembering from my law school days I’ve never participated in the jury trial even when I was a lawyer um they sort

For certain things for example you can’t be a lawyer on a jury and thinking why wouldn’t you want a lawyer on a jury no because other jurors would defer to that person too much though he’s an expert you wouldn’t want someone who is blazingly partisan who says I know

They’re guilty or I’ll never convi you wouldn’t want someone with a hard heart like that so there are questions that the prosecutors and the defense lawyers will have agreed on to vet jurors but then again going from every V with them 30 years ago you have what’s called

Peremptory objections you could say I don’t really like the C of that person’s J but I can’t quite put my finger on it but I get to play a certain number of these cards I don’t want that person on the jury so it’s a fairly high stakes business jury selection and it’s going

To be fascinating to see who each side objects to Etc and once that jury is impanel well then the business gets underway you might know that I me coming down here literally for two years to this Courthouse but most of what I’ve been covering over the last two years

Has been blanketed by a publication ban we’ve heard fascinating things troubling things amazing things in this court but we couldn’t tell you about it and the reason for that is they didn’t want to taint the jury pool they didn’t want someone who’s going to be impanel on

That 12-man jury to hear Snips and shards and fragments of evidence before they get in that room because the evidence they might hear might be out of context it might be hear say it there might be legal flaws with it so the idea was any preliminary discussions would be

Only for the courtroom to know not for the wider public but once the jury is impanel and once the trial gets underway whatever happens in that courtroom well the jurors will see it and so then we can report on the details now most of the dramatic stuff was in the other

Trial I mentioned briefly the Cs for the men who have been in custody these two years but I think this trial the greatest analogy for the trial that’s starting today is that of Tara Lee namely Tara Lee was held out as her and Chris Barber as the leadership team for

The protest in Ottawa now again these protests are organic they’re Grassroots they were not directed by any political party attempts to organize them were frustrated by the government for example the Ottawa Convoy raised $10 million on GoFundMe G fundme rescinded the donations they raised another 12 million

Million on give send go the government issued freezing War my point is the trucker Convoy was as Grassroots as it gets sure there were people who actually emerged as moral leaders and made certain decisions that acted as spokesmen but this was not a corporation this was not a well-oiled political

Machine these were ordinary Canadians coming together in the crisis in a like-minded thing and it’s going to be interesting to see what they can hang around the neck of these cots three and if that even amounts to a crime is these three men let have the chance to meet

Them each and of course Rebel news’s crowd f their legal defense along with the Democracy fund um they’re just peaceful protesters they engaged in some Civil Disobedience perhaps but did they actually commit a crime and it’ll be interesting to see if the prosecutors can make the case that they had I

Think that had there not been a political basis for the prosecution here these three men would have had a half day trial a year and a half ago at most a slap on the wrist what we call a conditional discharge or an absolute discharge and the judge would say now

Don’t you do that again I don’t want to see you in court again yeah out of here mief of course is the the lowest level of crime in the criminal code it’s typically for vandalism or or even even well I mean shoplifting has its own offense but it is the lowest order of

Crime on the books and I think that the reason they’ve been turning into Grand Productions with a 12 man jury and years of ution is because these are actually politicals Tamara leech has been put through a many months long criminal trial for Mischief which I learned from

One of her lawyers Keith Wilson it is the longest Mischief Tri trial not just in Canadian history but in the history of the entire Commonwealth the UK Australia New Zealand Etc there is been never been in the recorded history anyone who has has been on trial longer

For the petty charge of Mischief than has Tamar Lee and why is that well obviously because they want to make the process the punishment they want to get her in the process itself even if they can’t can Rich her and I wonder if we’ll see the same thing here in Alberta will

This prosecutor his name is Steven Johnston and he is animated by a vendetta as far as I can tell he was the same prosecutor who went after as Arthur pavlovski he’s the same prosecutor if I’m I’m just thinking that went after Chris Scott at the Whistle Stop diamond

In redar this guy is not a prosecutor in the main he is a crusador on a political mission to punish The Men Who dared stand up to the establishment and it’s going to be fascinating to see of 12 men and women are ner greet I don’t know if

You can see but there’s a couple of cops on bicycle patrolling over there I see police driving around the neighborhood there’s a police Patty wagon over there 1 2 3 4 5 six cops over there another half dozen over there what do they think it’s going to happen these cops do they

Think these School aged children and these grandmas are going to storm the building I mean it it’s it’s a political expression of policing itself one of the things that’s driven me crazy about left I love W Bridge it’s at small town values and they’re nice to the cops here

And I don’t propose that anyone being mean to someone else is with no reason but the Embrace that the the Cs protesters and the Left Bridge Community has had for police who came to bury them it is all I can say is I presume it’s the Christian idea of turn the other

Cheek these police not particularly these NE not necessarily these individual officers but the trudos RCMP was given a mandate crush the political protesters who are embarrassing Treo that’s what caused the invocation of the emergency act there was no crime emergency there was no Public Safety emergency there was no war there was no

Insruction there was only a political emergency and shame on the RCMP and any other cop who participated in a show prosecution and God forbid what becomes a show trial I hope that the jury will put this prosecution in its place the same way a federal court judge msle did

When he ruled that the invocation of the emergencies Act was illegal and unconstitutional so let me close with my remarks now I will come back and have more to say it’s exciting to be here after two years of waiting it’s a delight to see the community out in

Force Rebel news is not only going to be covering the story daily my colleague Robert kek who’s done a great job covering to maror Le me his trial he has moved to Lethbridge for the duration of this Tri by the way if you want to help chip in to his modest economy class

Expenses you can do that on a website we set up called trucker trials.com I don’t know I’m excited that we’re finally going to have our moment of justice and I’m sure the three men who have had the stigma of these charges against them for years are looking forward to this

Process getting underway uh that’s it for now I’m going to go into the courtroom where I will be live tweeting the proceedings today sitting next my colleague Robert PR and he will be here for the duration I’ll come back to lethridge when I can make the time but

You’re in good hands with Robert that’s my morning report I’ll have more to say later

| MORE:
The trial for three alleged organizers of the 2022 Coutts border blockade began Tuesday in Lethbridge, Alberta.

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