Taking Down CBC Fifth Estate's Documentary 'Conspiracy in Coutts' - Part 1

CBC's in-depth look into the Coutts arrests and the men arrested is anything but....

I have wanted to do a review of the CBC Fifth Estate’s ‘documentary’ on the Coutts Four since it first aired in November of last year. It has, however, been difficult to watch without having my head explode. So, I allowed myself some time to try to be a bit more detached as I write my piece – but given the road the CBC took, I do say, it isn’t easy. As this review is quite lengthy, I have decided to present it in two parts. Part 1 focuses on the monumental omission by the Fifth Estate of what these men endured while awaiting their trial or their dispensation of their charges.

In February of 2022 the border town of Coutts, Alberta became the site of a Canada-US border blockade as hundreds and hundreds of Albertans gathered to protest government imposed COVID mandates and restrictions. The protest sprang from the Freedom Convoy that had travelled to Ottawa in that same month to protest those same mandates and restrictions.

At the Coutts protest four male protesters were arrested* following a series of raids conducted by the RCMP in that town on February 13-14, 2022. The four, who were initially charged with mischief over $5000 and possessing weapons for a dangerous purpose, were eventually charged with the serious crime of ‘conspiracy to murder police’. And just by happenstance, that charge, and the so-called ‘conspiracy plot’ that arose from it, became the catalyst for the Trudeau government to invoke the Emergencies Act to crush the Freedom Convoy demonstration in Ottawa in mid February of 2022. The Fifth Estate’s documentary titled: “Conspiracy in Coutts” that aired on CBC in November of 2024, was was supposed to be an ‘in-depth’ look into the situation leading up to the arrests of these four men – who came to be known as the ‘Coutts Four’ — unfortunately it was anything but.

*Nine others were arrested as part of the RCMP operation and charged with mischief and possession of a weapon for dangerous purpose — but not the conspiracy charge. It was, however implied, in media reports that these nine others were connected to the ‘conspiracy’.

But before we get into the documentary, a history of the Coutts Four is necessary. Something the Fifth Estate didn’t seem to think was relevant to their report.

The Coutts Four - Chris Carbert, Tony Olienick, Jerry Morin, and Chris Lysak.

Following their arrests the men were repeatedly denied bail for what could be described as questionable reasons, other than the supposed ‘seriousness’ of the ‘conspiracy to murder police’ charge. Thus, they spent some two years in remand custody, awaiting their court date, before they were ever tried or convicted on any of the charges they faced During their incarceration they were denied visitation rights, even with their immediate families — including their children. As they awaited a trial date, that was months away, they remained in Alberta remand centres* — poorly equipped facilities where, due to overcrowding, the men were often forced to share quarters with violent repeat offenders and mentally deranged and drug addicted inmates who were often going through withdrawal symptoms or having hallucinations.

*Remand centres in Calgary, Lethbridge and Medicine Hat

With lights in the cells remaining on day and night, and bed shortages that found inmates crashing or passing out on the floor, sleep for the men, was difficult to say the least. These were traumatic experiences for men with no criminal records and who had never so much as seen the inside of a jail cell. Given that remand centres are meant to hold prisoners for a short time until they are released on bail, the medical or mental health services available to the men were minimal to the point of being non-existent. In fact, they often suffered in pain or discomfort for long periods awaiting medical attention and were regularly denied needed medical treatments and medications that had been prescribed for them. With no recreational or exercise programs or facilities available to them, most of their time was spent locked in windowless cells. They rarely got a chance to see outside, let alone get outside for fresh air. Even the food was substandard as meals were stale, served cold or were simply unpalatable — health related dietary requirements were also ignored. As their mental and physical health deteriorated due to the conditions of their incarceration, the men also suffered the additional stress of facing financial ruin given the astronomical legal fees required to fund their defence in court proceedings that needlessly dragged for over two years.

Additionally two of the men — Morin and Olienick — were subjected to extended periods of solitary confinement – or what the remand centres like to call — administrative segregation. This generally means that prisoners are sometimes isolated for their own protection or simply due to the physical limitations of the facilities — in other words, through no fault of the prisoner. Morin spent 74 days in solitary and Olienick spent over 80.

Then, suddenly, after enduring all of these mental and physical hardships for two long years – all the original charges were suddenly dropped against two of the men in February of 2024. Jerry Morin and Chris Lysak were released from custody after pleading guilty to far lesser charges. They were free men, after spending two years behind bars for crimes on which they were never convicted. Instead a plea deal had been struck wherein both men pleaded guilty to much lesser charges. Lysak pleaded guilty to a charge of improper storage of a firearm and Morin pleaded to a very questionable charge of trafficking a firearm. Both were ‘sentenced’ to ‘time served’ which amounted to the two years they’d spent in custody, which is a travesty of justice in itself, because the normal penalty for both of the crimes they pleaded guilty to would have likely been a fine or probation.

Additionally, Morin, after having spent two years in the guns and gangs unit of the Calgary Remand Centre was suffering extreme mental duress and may have been coerced to sign his plea deal — admitting to something he had not done. This factor was given further credence during the trial of the other two men, when the Crown attempted to enter Morin’s plea deal as evidence to support his case and the judge denied it.

The other two men - Carbert and Olienick remained in custody and eventually went to trial and in the fall of 2024, a jury found them not guilty of conspiracy to murder police, but guilty of the mischief and weapons possession charges.They are currently serving prison terms of six and half years at the Drumheller Medium Security correctional facility.

One would think that given the injustices these men suffered – doing some two years of very hard time for a crime they had yet to be convicted of – the Fifth Estate might have investigated how this could have happened to them. How could four men, with no criminal records, be so severely punished for a crime on which they were all ultimately exonerated — “conspiracy to kill police”. A crime the justice system deemed they had not committed.

As CBC’s epitome of investigative journalism, the Fifth Estate might have wanted to expose the terrible hardships and treatment they endured while in custody in ill equipped and, some might say, remand centres that were remiss in their duty of care. It might have questioned why they were denied bail, or why they were not given proper medical care and medications, or why they were denied such basic rights as being able to see their families, and why two of them were subjected to prolonged periods of solitary confinement. Something that is considered a form of torture in many parts of the world.

Many of the men’s supporters, a group which grew considerably over the two years of their incarceration, considered them political prisoners, given that their arrests were connected to the government’s invocation of the Emergencies Act, which has since been declared unconstitutional by a federal court. Yet, the Fifth Estate had no interest in delving into this or any of these other issues or injustices. Instead, it would seem, it was far more interested in convincing its viewers that all four men should have actually been convicted of the conspiracy to murder charge.

Even the title of the report — ‘Conspiracy at Coutts’ — clearly reveals the Fifth Estate’s bias. It is a false and misleading premise, because that was no ‘conspiracy at Coutts’. How could there have been any such ‘conspiracy’ to kill police when all four of the men were ultimately cleared of the conspiracy charge?

The Fifth Estate’s claim that it had been ‘investigating’ the story for ‘almost three years' is dubious at best. Because, in those three years, outside of the men’s early remand hearings, where yet to be proven ‘evidence’ of their guilt was presented, and on which CBC did report — CBC was pretty much AWOL. There was no CBC presence at the men’s pre-trials or their bail hearings, where they were repeatedly denied release. Thus, there were no questions raised as to why men, who had no criminal records, had good standing in their communities, and held down jobs or owned businesses, were being held in custody. It was a question worth asking given that accused murderers and dangerous repeat offenders are regularly get bail under the Trudeau government’s catch and release bail laws. Neither did the Fifth Estate look into reports of the harsh conditions the men endured in the remand centres when complaints on their behalf were registered with the Alberta Health Service — despite apparently investigating the matter for three years!

The Fifth Estate never questioned why pre-trial hearings for these men dragged on for over two years – particularly given that this was often due to late disclosures of evidence or refusals to disclose evidence to the defence — by the Crown. It never attempted to interview the men’s lawyers to get any perspective on the case – something that happens quite regularly in high profile trials. For example, CBC has been a regular presence at the trial of the Freedom Convoy ‘leaders’ Tamara Lich and Chris Barber in Ottawa, and interviewed their lawyers quite regularly.

CBC relied on reports from a lone Canadian Press reporter, Bill Graveland during the trial of Carbert and Olienick. It cited publication bans on court proceedings as its reason for not ‘reporting’ on the case earlier. Yet, those initial publication bans only pertained to questionable evidence the RCMP had provided to obtain search warrants. It was not until the Supreme Court issued a ruling pertaining to another case that resulted in a total publication ban on all pre-trial proceedings in Canadian courts in October of 2023. So, prior to October of 2023 what exactly were they investigating?

The Fifth Estate’s focus in the documentary is, as I said, attempting to imply the men should have been found guilty of the conspiracy charge — which will be outlined in Part 2 of my report. Stay tuned, as they say.