A text chain between Coutts Mayor Jim Willett and Alberta’s transportation minister at the time, Rajan Sawhney, was entered into evidence as part of the Public Order Emergency Committee. The commission is investigating the federal government’s decision last winter to invoke the Emergency Act to end protests in Coutts, Alta. and in Ottawa – where protesters blocked the city center for weeks. “If you get a chance, could you find out why the Prime Minister is ignoring the province being held hostage by homegrown terrorists? And why hasn’t he labeled it as such? My rant for the day,” Willett emailed Sawhney on February 12, referring to Kenney. According to the text chain, Sawhney did not respond for two days. Coutts Mayor Jim Willett exchanged messages with an Alberta provincial minister in which he accused then-premier Jason Kenney of “ignoring the province being held hostage by homegrown terrorists.” (Jeff McIntosh/The Canadian Press) Before February 12, Kenney had publicly denounced the blockade near Coutts, Alta. — where large trucks and other vehicles blocked commercial traffic to and from the United States between January 29 and February 14. On February 11, Kenney said it was up to the RCMP to enforce the law on the blockade. On February 14, the federal government invoked the Emergency Act, allowing temporary powers to manage ongoing blockades and protests against pandemic restrictions. Earlier that day, RCMP executed search warrants in Coutts, arresting more than a dozen protesters and seizing a cache of weapons, armor and ammunition.
“I messed up and I learned”
“The local lady that was arrested was very vocal at the council meeting Tuesday night telling everyone how they are all good people and can handle their own problems,” Willett wrote in a Feb. 14 text to Shawney. “I’ve been poking around and found, I believe the phrase is…!” Willett, who told Sawhney in a text that he moved to Coutts to retire, was a staunch opponent of the blockades during the protests and argued it was the wrong way to protest vaccine mandates. Protesters from the blockade at the border crossing near Coutts, Alta., walk past the Milk River blockade site on Highway 4 on February 15, 2022, as police watch. (CBC) “People in the village want their freedom back,” he told CBC’s Power & Politics. When the federal government invoked the Emergency Act on February 14, it cited the threat posed by the blockades at Coutts and elsewhere. In their submissions to the Public Order Emergency Commission, lawyers for the Alberta government argued that the situation at Coutts was under control by the time Ottawa deployed the Emergency Act.
Gun seized at Coutts Pass
Four men were arrested in the Coutts raid — Jerry Morin, 41. Chris Lysak, 48; Chris Carbert, 45; and Anthony Olienick, 40 — are charged with the most serious charge stemming from the protests: conspiracy to kill RCMP officers. The four men also face weapons and mischief charges. Unsealed court documents show that when the charges were filedthe RCMP believed that Olienick, Carbert and Morin were part of a sub-group of protesters who were “gearing up for a standoff against the police.” Two Diagolon patches were found in body armor seized during the execution of RCMP search warrants in Coutts on February 14. Some believe that the Diagolon online community is an American-style white supremacist militia movement. Diagolon founder Jeremy MacKenzie, who testified before the committee last week, pushed back against those claims, arguing that the movement is an internet joke created to troll the media. A collection of weapons the RCMP said they seized in the Coutts raid. (RCMP) Marco Van Huygenbos, a city councilor in Fort McLeod, Alta., was charged with misdemeanors for his role in the Alberta blockade. He told the committee on Tuesday that he believed the discovery of weapons marked the movement. “For me, it became very clear that every goal we were trying to achieve was no longer possible and our message had been lost,” he said. Van Huigenbos, who called Lysak “the biggest, friendliest giant,” said he felt the rest of the protesters should distance themselves and leave the area. He also said he testified that he believed the blockades could have been resolved if the Kenney administration met with them. “We were willing to sacrifice our lives and not just to get in touch with our ruling body,” he said.
