A protester arrested at the border blockade at Coutts, Alta., appeared surprised when police told him he was being charged with conspiracy to commit murder.
A video statement from Anthony Olienick after his arrest on Feb. 14, 2022, was played at a jury trial Monday.
The officer informed him that he was being charged with mischief over $5,000, possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose, the obstruction of critical infrastructure and conspiracy to commit murder.
“Conspiracy to commit murder … that’s a new one, OK?” the officer said.
“It just means that you, along with at least one other person, had planned murders of the RCMP.”
“No way,” Olienick replied.
“Tell me what that means to you,” the officer said.
“I don’t know. It seems really bizarre. Just protesting for freedom to parking trucks,” Olienick said.
Olienick and co-accused Chris Carbert are charged with conspiring to kill Mounties at the blockade, which paralyzed traffic for two weeks at the busy Canada-U.S. border crossing.
The blockade was one of several protests held across the country over COVID-19 rules and vaccine mandates.
The men were arrested after Mounties found a cache of guns, body armour and ammunition in trailers in Coutts.
In the video, Olienick is sitting in an interview room alone for a long period of time.
His lawyer refused to allow the prosecution to skip ahead to when the interview would restart.
“I think that it’s important it be played so the jury can experience it like Mr. Olienick did,” said Marilyn Burns.
Justice David Labrenz instructed the five-man, nine-woman jury before the video was played that they must not read too much into the belief systems or world views expressed by the two men when considering the video as evidence.
“You should never, in the course of this matter, infer from evidence of character or disposition that either accused is more likely to have committed the offences charged as against them,” he said.
“Neither accused is on trial for their belief systems or their ideas about the world or their views with respect to world order. They’re only on trial with respect to the charges on the indictment.”
Undercover officers previously testified that Olienick considered the blockade a war, and he expressed a hatred of police and a desire to kill officers.
Olienick and Carbert are also charged with mischief and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose. Olienick faces a further charge of being in possession of a pipe bomb.