A judge has sentenced two Alberta men to 6½ years in prison for their roles in the 2022 border blockade at Coutts, Alta.
Anthony Olienick and Chris Carbert were convicted last month of public mischief over $5,000 and possessing a firearm dangerous to the public peace. Olienick was also convicted of possessing a pipe bomb.
A jury found them not guilty of the most serious charge they faced: conspiracy to murder police officers.
The men were charged after RCMP found guns, ammunition and body armour in trailers near the blockade at the key Canada-U.S. border crossing.
The blockade was one of several held across the country to protest COVID-19 rules and vaccine mandates.
The Crown argued the two men should serve nine-year prison sentences. Their lawyers recommended they be sentenced to time already served.
Olienick and Carbert have been in custody since they were arrested in February 2022.
Two other protesters charged with conspiracy to commit murder at the blockade pleaded guilty earlier this year to lesser charges.
Christopher Lysak was sentenced to three years for possession of a restricted firearm in an unauthorized place. Jerry Morin was sentenced to 3½ years for conspiracy to traffic firearms.
Those sentences amounted to time the men had already served.