Coutts 4 Conspiracy of Silence Continues After the Release of 2

Media mum on asking questions about the terrible injustice done to these two men

On Tuesday, February 5th, 2024, the men known as the Coutts Four made headlines for the first time in two years. For the first time since they were arrested at the border blockade protest in Coutts, Alberta in 2022 and charged with mischief, possession of a weapon for dangerous purposes, and the very serious offence of conspiracy to murder police. They made headlines then because they were accused of being part of a ‘terrorist’ group who were planning to kill cops. They’ve made headlines now because two of the men, Jerry Morin and Chris Lysak, who have been in custody since the day they were arrested –723 days in jail – without a trial or a conviction – took a plea deal on lesser charges and are free men. That’s how most headlines read.

But the real headline should have been — Crown Prosecutor Steven Johnston Dismisses Charges of Conspiring to Kill Cops Against Two of the Coutts Four. Charges of mischief were also dropped, and the charge against Lysak of uttering threats, also gone. All gone and forgotten – like they never happened – as though the charges had never been laid. But they were, and these two men spent two years behind bars, for something the Crown now admits they didn’t do, or at the very least, doesn’t have the evidence to prove they did what they were accused of.

You can make a one time donation to my newsletter via Ko-fi or

Jerry Morin also spent 74 days in solitary confinement due to the lack of adequate holding facilities at remand centres.

Yes, they pleaded guilty to lesser charges – Morin for apparently conspiring to traffic a firearm – there’s that word again ‘conspiring’, but he never did actually traffic it. Lysak plead to a charge of improper storage of a firearm which was licensed, registered under his name and legally purchased, and was not on his person. These charges, which are thin at best, were never part of the original indictment that led to their arrests in the first place, and are peanuts compared to the conspiracy to kill cops charge that kept them behind bars for two years–because they were a ‘danger’ to the public. The idea that they were given ‘time served’ on these charges is also outrageous, because in most cases, as first offenders, they would have received a fine or probation – no jail time, let alone two years of hard time in a remand centre — which is the equates to three years in an actual prison due to hardships experienced in remand centres.

The plea deal was the result of Lysak’s new lawyer, Daniel Song, bringing a Section 8 charter application to examine the Crown’s case against the men. Section 8–which deals with search and seizure and a right to privacy–compels the Crown to open up its case and provide full evidentiary discovery to the defence–evidence it may have acquired via what may be deemed illegal search and seizure, in this case by the RCMP.

Just a few days ago Lysak and Morin were considered terrorists. They were believed to be part of a right wing militia-like group called Diagolon that the Canadian Anti-Hate Network (CAHN) had produced unsubstantiated intelligence on that has since been debunked – and too dangerous to be released on bail under any circumstances. Now they are free men and no danger to society at all. Quite an amazing turn of events! When these men were initially charged and the ‘evidence’ against them was made public, the media went wild reporting on this ‘murder plot’ and this so called ‘right wing extremist group known as Diagolon. They were tried and convicted in the public square.

The media did not feel compelled to follow up on their case or to report on the terrible conditions they often endured in remand custody, or the delays in setting a trial date for men that were being held in custody for months and months. Nor were they concerned with the ongoing delays in their trial, which was held up by a series of pre-trial hearings that were marred with accusations of late disclosure of evidence and, in some cases, refusal to disclose evidence to the defence, on the part of the Crown, and later accusations of prosecutorial misconduct. The media was silent – crickets, except for reporting on the occasions when the men had been denied bail, yet again.

And it appears that media silence is back. Because other than reporting on the release of Morin and Lysak, as I scan the national news media there is again, no follow up, no curiosity, no comment, no editorial opinion of this rather surprising turn of events. Not in the National Post, the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Sun or the Toronto Star, nor on the websites of CBC, CTV, and Global News, Even alternative or ‘conservative’ media like True North, the Epoch Times or the Western Standard don’t seem to have an opinion on these rather surprising developments. An independent publication called Troy carried an article, with some editorial comment, written by Canadian author Ray McGinnis who has been following the Coutts case—Justice system under scrutiny after the Crown drops conspiracy charges against two of the Coutts Four. But other than that there has been no follow up, by any Canadian media, on this rather shocking turn of events. 

And shocking it is. After two years in custody, and a trial that never really began, the Crown prosecutor, Johnston, in dropping the conspiracy to murder cops charge, has admitted, and the presiding judge agreed, that the Crown did not have enough evidence against these two men to prosecute them. How is it that in country like Canada, people only accused of a crime — not convicted — can be locked up for two years, in some of the worst prison conditions possible. Where they are denied proper medical care, denied the right to see their families, shackled in court, subjected to routine strip searches, and spend days in solitary confinement and the media aren’t asking questions? Then suddenly those charges are dropped, in a case where the Crown had expressed such confidence in winning he made it clear be would be seeking the maximum sentence - life in prison. Yet, no one in the Canadian media seems curious as to how this came about.

The Crown has essentially admitted that these two men are innocent of the serious charges of conspiring to kill cops, and only guilty of much lesser charges, which never should have amounted to the time they spent in remand, and the media isn’t interested in delving into this debacle of justice? They aren’t asking questions, of the Crown, the judiciary, the RCMP or the government? One would think this is a story that any reporter worth their salt would be salivating to get their hands on. Something the CBC’s The Fifth Estate would have been delighted to sink their teeth into once upon a time, before CBC lost its way.

The dropping of the charges against these men may have serious political ramifications as well, but again, the media don’t seem interested in that either. The Trudeau government used the ‘discovery’ of this plot to kill police as the lynch pin for invoking the Emergencies Act to crush the Freedom Convoy demonstration in Ottawa. Former Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino testified to that at the Public Order Emergencies Commission (POEC). He said RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki had told him there was ‘a hardened cell of individuals ready to go down for the cause’ in Coutts, and he feared that if the arrests of those individuals didn’t go well, it might cause a ‘chain reaction’ at the Ottawa protest.

The POEC Commissioner, Justice Paul Rouleau, (appointed by the Liberal government) agreed. In his Executive Summary of the POEC he stated the following: “The situation in (Coutts was) a concrete manifestation of the very risk that had been identified to Cabinet: a highly disruptive, but mainly peaceful protest that included a smaller group of actors who allegedly intended to effect serious violence a political purpose.”

So why isn’t anyone asking about just how much the Trudeau government was involved in the arrests of these men and their imprisonment, as it was what Trudeau used to justify invoking the Emergencies Act. And what about former RCMP Commissioner Lucki? What role did she play? She told Mendicino about the ‘plot’ that triggered Cabinet’s decision to invoke the Act.

Lucki has already earned reputation of bending to this government’s will, as she did when she pressured the Nova Scotia RCMP investigating the Portapique mass shootings to release details of the guns used in the killings to help the Liberals get their gun legislation passed. Why aren’t reporters asking just how heavily the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) was involved in directing this investigation. Why aren’t they asking what communications, if any, occurred between the PMO and the RCMP and the Crown Attorneys prosecuting this case before and after the charges were laid?

What specifically was the evidence the Crown had that they were so certain they could get a conviction, and what, if anything, changed to compel a plea deal? And what about those accusations of prosecutorial misconduct that resulted in the Crown prosecutor, Steven Johnston, recused from the case albeit briefly. This arose when the defence received disclosure information the Crown had inadvertently neglected to redact and alleged, from that information, that the Crown had given false and illegal instructions to the police leading up to their arrests. Would these allegations against the Crown have anything to do with the plea deal made with these two men? Well, we don’t know, because that information never came to light, because of a publication ban on all pretrial proceedings in Canada, due to a Supreme Court ruling issued in October of 2023. And speaking of Court rulings, does this plea deal have anything to do with the Federal Court ruling that the Trudeau government’s invocation of the Emergencies Act was illegal. Could a trial and any information that comes out at it, embarrass the Liberal government even more, or impact their appeal of the Federal Court’s ruling?

There is so much to unpack here, yet the Canadian media isn’t even interested in opening the suitcase. Why aren’t reporters making Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy (FOIPOP) requests to get answers to these questions if the government, the Crown and the RCMP won’t answer them. Why isn’t media going after the Canadian Anti-Hate Network (CAHN) now that it is clear that allegations they made about Diagolon which contributed to the arrest and vilification of these men were utter rubbish. Why isn’t the Conservative Party grilling the government on this debacle?

Given the mainstream media’s penchant for protecting Trudeau and company it may not be that surprising that they are steering clear of this story, just as they have for the past two years. But why are the established alternative media not doing some investigative reporting? True North Media, and the Western Standard have published little more than the mainstream media on the release of Morin and Lysak. Rebel News, has done some reporting, but it has been sparse, and still seems to assume their guilt. It was rumoured that the reason these media outlets, which had strongly supported the Freedom Convoy, chose to steer clear of the Coutts matter was due to the seriousness of the charges and feeling it might reflect badly on the convoy as a whole. A pretty weak excuse, if that’s the case, but what is stopping them now?

Chris Carbert Tony Olienick

Of course there are the other two men that are still in custody, Chris Carbert and Tony Olienick. What evidence does the Crown have against these men that they didn’t have against Morin and Lysak? There are rumours afoot that Carbert may also be taking a plea deal. However that rumour has since been dispelled and Carbert, along with Olienick is anxious to prove his innocence, for as long as it may take. Olienick is the only one of the four who does not have children, which may have been a huge incentive for Morin and Lysak to take a deal after having already a missed two years of the children’s lives. Tony and Chris C. are both men of deep faith, which has helped them endure their incarceration with a certain type of serenity.

Maxine Bernier, leader of the People’s Party of Canada, likely the only political figure in Canada who has spoken to any of these men and believes in their innocence, posted on X that he had spoken to Olienick since the release of Morin and Lysak. In his post he said, “Tony told me he’s willing to stay in jail for as long as it takes until the trial happens and the truth is revealed.” Tony has expressed this sentiment on other occasions as well. Whether he remains committed to that, again, remains to be seen. As the only politician to comment on this affair, Bernier also posted on X'; “I am now convinced the whole thing (Coutts arrests) was a false flag operation set up by the RCMP to give Trudeau another pretext to unconstitutionally invoke the Emergencies Act. The level of corruption in this affair is mind-boggling. The Trudeau regime will go down in history as one of the most corrupt and tyrannical in Canadian history.” 

Whether Bernier is right about this, we don’t know, and unfortunately we may never know unless the media in this country, gets backbone and ends this conspiracy of silence of the Coutts Four and starts asking some hard questions of the Trudeau government, the judiciary, the Crown and the RCMP. Because the current media conspiracy of silence is speaking louder than words.

You can make a one time donation to my newsletter via Ko-fi or