(Lethbridge) A protester at the Coutts, Alta., border blockade described in court Tuesday a police presence so overwhelming and intimidating that he ultimately decided to return home.
“I was watching the helicopter (and) the drones. It looked like a scene from a movie […] “On the ground there were probably 30 or 40 RCMP members in full riot gear,” Daryl Yorgason testified.
“We just decided it was time to leave, because we didn’t want to be ambushed while we were sleeping at night. I was terrified for my father, my sister […] everyone, my own well-being. It was just absolute chaos.”
Mr. Yorgason, a truck driver, mechanic and farmer from Stavely, Alta., testified for the defence at the trial of Anthony Olienick and Chris Carbert in Lethbridge. The two men are accused of conspiring to murder police officers during the 2022 blockade of trucks and other vehicles.
The two-week protest blocked traffic at the Alberta-U.S. border crossing and was aimed at protesting COVID-19 restrictions and mandatory vaccinations for some Canadians, including truckers.
Mr. Olienick’s lawyer, Marilyn Burns, called protesters to the stand to portray her client and others at the blockade. The defense wants to present them to jurors as serious citizens who believed they had a duty to act against a “totalitarian” government that had lost its way and sought to end basic individual freedoms.
The blockade ended peacefully after police made arrests and seized weapons, ammunition and bulletproof vests near the protest site.
Victim of the pandemic
Mr. Yorgason told the court he arrived on the first day of the protest. He explained that the pandemic had forced him to close his trucking business and that he, his father, brother-in-law, girlfriend and sister decided to join the protest.
“Maybe we could get our lives back. Maybe I could get my job back,” Yorgason said.
He reported that initially there was no plan or organization on the ground. But a few days later, he said, everything changed.
“The police came. And then, shortly after that, in the afternoon, I was sitting in the truck when everything really started to go crazy,” he told jurors. His sister and girlfriend had gone to a hotel for safety.
“The helicopters started flying over a truck, then the police started coming in like crazy,” he said.
Mr. Yorgason took a photo of nine police officers approaching his truck. He said the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were threatening to arrest anyone who was at the scene. “All their faces were covered. There were accents I’d never heard before — maybe Eastern European, I don’t know.”
Under cross-examination, Mr. Yorgason admitted that he did not see police officers assault a protester or forcefully remove him from his vehicle.
The Crown presented police testimony and weapons evidence at trial to support its theory that the accused intended to kill RCMP members to maintain the blockade in place.
Undercover officers testified that Mr. Olienick told them he believed the police were government puppets and that if any officers showed up at the blockade, he would “slit their throats.”