Convoy supporters demand justice for ‘political prisoners’

By Lethbridge Herald on January 30, 2023.

Herald Photo by Justin Seward The anniversary convoy to Coutts and fundraiser event saw a packed bay at B & D Walter Trucking on Saturday.

Justin Seward
LETHBRIDGE HERALD

The anniversary truck convoy to Coutts and a fundraiser event were held on Saturday in support of four men who remain in custody accused of conspiring to kill RCMP officers during the protest at the Coutts border last year.

A truck convoy left Lethbridge at 9:30 a.m. on Saturday morning for the Coutts border, and upon returning in the afternoon this was followed by a silent auction and barbecue at B&D Walter Trucking.

The funds from the event are going to the four men – Christopher Lysak, Anthony Olienick, Jerry Morin and Chris Carbert – and their families.

Granny-Margaret Mackay was a voice for the four men and is a supporter through creating the “Alberta Political Prisoners” social media group.

“So as you know I started a bumper sticker campaign,” said MacKay during the Saturday event in Lethbridge. “We may not be able to be on mainstream media, but…we can be on every vehicle across this country. So please support the men and if you’ve got valuable real estate on your vehicle, use it. Let people ask you why those four men are in jail, and if they say anything to you or argue with you, you say ‘innocent until proven guilty’. End of story.”

Mackay estimated it might take $2 million to grubstake their legal defence and support their families for the duration.

“Now if you don’t have the money and can’t afford it, get on Facebook and start sharing,” she said.

“Get the message out there. You can go to Alberta Political Prisoners and just share, share the information, share their stories — but get it out there. I can’t do this by myself and with all of us, we can do this together, and always remember we are stronger together and it’s quite obvious right here. The day is going to come and you need to pay attention.”

Mackay added, “It is time these men were out with their families and their loved ones and they deserve to be with us. These are our four Alberta men; they are not the federal government’s Alberta men. They are ours.”

Christopher Scott related his experience of being arrested in 2021 for keeping his Whistle Stop Café in Mirror open in violation of COVID-19 restrictions, and compared what the four arrested men are going through right now to the novel Animal Farm by George Orwell.

“We found that some animals are more equal than others,” said Scott. “So we have criminals walking the streets, we have people out on bail all the time, they commit crimes against other people in society and they’re afforded the luxury of bail and this and that. But when people speak out against the government, it’s a totally different story. I spoke out against the government and the government put me in jail because I was protesting what the government was doing.”

Scott said these men were standing up and speaking out against what the federal government was imposing.

“They were not only advocating for, but condoning discrimination against members of one class over another, and in this case, it was the unjabbed,” he said. “They were saying ‘yeah we should discriminate against this class because their choices are different than ours’. These men stood up against the government and they protested. And now the government had dropped the hammer of God on them and they’re using the systems that are supposed to protect us as a way to punish people before they’ve even been found guilty in a court of law.”

Convoy anniversary organizer Chelle Landry said it’s been amazing.

“Like the emotion that comes with this kind of crowd — the unity, the love, the generosity and all of that — it really affirms for me that I’m doing the right thing and I’m helping people that need it,” said Landry.

There were about 235 automobiles in the convoy on Saturday.