EZRA LEVANT ｜ Rebel reports live from Lethbridge to cover the 'Coutts Three' trial
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Summary
The leaders of the so-called "Coutts III" leadership group are in court today, facing charges related to the protest at the Canadian-American border in 2010. They have been charged with various mischief-like offenses, and Rebel News is doing two things: We are covering their trial, and we are also crowdfunding their legal defense.
Transcript
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Hello, my friends. I'm in Lethbridge, Alberta, covering the trial of the so-called Coutts III.
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That's the leadership group, according to the prosecutors, behind the blockade in Coutts,
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Alberta, two years ago. But before we get to that, let me invite you to become a subscriber
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to Rebel News Plus. That's the video version of this podcast. Just go to rebelnewsplus.com,
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click subscribe. It's eight bucks a month. Good value for all the content, but more importantly,
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you help us stay independent. We don't take a dime from Trudeau, and it shows. All right,
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Tonight, the leaders of the Coutts border blockade are in court. I'll have all the
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details. It's February 26th, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.
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You fighting for freedom! Shame on you, you censorious bug!
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Good morning, everybody. Ezra LeVant here for Rebel News. As you can see, I am back
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in Lethbridge, my home away from home. I think I've been to this town maybe 20 times since the
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pandemic, all for the same reason. This is the courthouse that is handling all the charges
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emanating from protests, including the very momentous blockade at the border between Coutts,
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Alberta and Sweetgrass, Montana. Dozens of charges emanated from that. Most of them were
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minor offenses, but some were more serious. We're here today because there's a pre-trial hearing
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in a case that really reminds me of that of Tamara Leach in Ottawa. It's the so-called leadership group
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of the blockade at the Coutts border almost two years ago exactly, and it's really snowy and cold
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today, which is how it was at the blockade two years ago. The three men who were being prosecuted
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are Marco van Heugenbos, who actually at the time was a local town counselor, and two other men, Alex
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van Heurk and George Jansen. They were part of the Truckers Council that was sort of like a ad hoc
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democratic governance of these truckers in the blockade. They've been charged by police with
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various mischief-like offenses, and Rebel News is doing two things. We are covering their trial,
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and I'll introduce to you the gentleman next to me in a second, and importantly, we're also
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crowdfunding their legal defense. Each of the men has their own lawyers, so there are three lawyers
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that we are crowdfunding. I'm delighted to say that because this is a civil liberties case,
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our crowdfunding funds go through the Democracy Fund, which issues a charitable tax receipt,
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so if you want to make a donation, you can do so at coots3.com. At that same website, you can help us
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cover our journalistic costs, which are completely separate, and which brings me to the two journalists
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standing next to me, Robert Krejcik, who's come in from Ottawa, and Sidney Fizard, who has come down
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from Calgary. Let's start with Sid. Nice to see you. Sid, you were there embedded in the blockade
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pretty much the whole time. Why don't you recap for our viewers what you saw and heard and experienced
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in real time at the blockade? Well, absolutely. I was there for 16 days in total. It was 18.
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We arrived on the third day, roughly, and from there, obviously, it was a peaceful protest,
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as many people know much, like the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa. That persisted, and there was quite
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literally nothing the RCMP could do to end demonstrations. Likewise, political messaging,
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especially from the former premier, to end all vaccine mandates was expected to be a big win for
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them, but that didn't work either. So political avenue failed, the enforcement avenue failed,
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and then eventually the blockade did end peacefully to prove that message loud and clear. And in September,
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months after the blockade, there were three individuals who Alex, Marco, and George alleged
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to be key participants of the blockade, facing mischief charges over 5,000 now.
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Well, I'm so glad you went down there, and I remember when you and Kian Simone went down,
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we thought it would be like a day trip or two, but you guys wound up staying, as you said,
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for more than two weeks. It was bitter cold. Tell us a little bit more about what it was like on the
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ground. Coots is a tiny town. It's not even a town. I think it's a village. There's a saloon.
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There's some border, you know, crossing buildings. It really is a small place, and I think that's one
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reason the men were able to hold out for so long. In Windsor, Ontario, in Ottawa, Ontario,
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there's massive police presence very close by. There's a lot of tow trucks. There's a lot of
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machinery. Coots is miles away from really anything, and I don't think the police or other
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officials could muster the sheer physical power to push the guys out. What was it like when you
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were there at the saloon? Well, that's absolutely it. It was a barren wasteland. Not to say it was a
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wasteland. I respect the town of Coots. It's a very lovely place, but it was absolutely empty,
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and one of the key things I think here is that what a lot of people don't realize is the RCMP
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barrier that was set up around the Coots blockade nearer to the town of Milk River,
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where we saw thousands of people come to show their support, they were being stopped there from
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going into the blockade. But likewise, those people who were there since day one, who were the, you
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know, blockade as it were, and their supporters, if they were to leave with their vehicles, there would
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be no going back to the Coots blockade. So after 16 days, these guys had been there the whole time
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because they weren't allowed to leave and come back. And likewise to the conditions today, it was
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negative 35 worse with horrible winter conditions and wind that was coming across. And one of the big
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requests early on was simply to get food and fuel and other such essentials to the blockaders because
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police were blocking everything off. And now after 16 days, we see that these alleged key participants may
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have just been the most vocal in the bunch that were trapped there, as opposed to being, you know, the
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supreme underlord organizers of such a gang. Very interesting. So it's almost like the police
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had a siege wall around the whole place. Not very close to it, but I remember Milk River.
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I remember the efforts that some of the protesters made to bring food down there because you have
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all these men. It's not a custom. Now, I want to switch gears for a second. Robert, you've just
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arrived in Lethbridge last night. I think your greatest contribution to Rebel News so far has been
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your daily intensive coverage of the trial of Tamara Leach and Chris Barber. Tamara Leach,
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very famous for being, I call her sort of the spiritual leader of the Ottawa convoy. Very
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mild-mannered, soft-spoken. She was thrown in prison for 49 days before her hearing. She was treated
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very abusively, in my mind, by the government. Very political trial. The trial has been stretched on,
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the process and the punishment. My theory, Robert, is that what you see here in Lethbridge will draw
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upon the lessons you've learned in your coverage of Tamara Leach. That's my theory.
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What do you think? Well, to be determined, as I observe events as they unfold beginning today and
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across this week and several weeks in April, we'll see whether or not that commonality, that
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common thread is accurate. I suspect that it will be. And given what Sid was just saying about the
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role of the defendants that will be appearing today, they were the sort of leaders, the most vocal,
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I think, is the way you describe them, relative to those who were attending this blockade and
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coots. And that applies, of course, in a parallel sense to what we saw from Tamara Leach and Chris
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Barber, in that they were both, to use your term for Tamara Leach, spiritual leaders. They were
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organizational heads of this freedom convoy, which, of course, could not be tolerated by the
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authorities, given their political investment in what I call the COVID-19 enterprise. So if that's true,
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then we'll see that these men are being targeted with these charges, including mischief and some other
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lower-level charges, because of their prominent roles and in order to send a message. But that
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Now, tell me a little bit about the routine you got into in Ottawa, covering the trial. I attended for
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one day and my eyes glazed over because they were bringing witnesses that didn't know anything
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about Tamara Leach, never met her, never talked to her. It was clear they were just to talk out the
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clock and just a fog machine. I'm not sure how it'll go here. Like you say, to be determined. I mean,
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one of our mottos at Rebel News is follow the facts wherever they lead. Are there any things that really
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left an imprint on you from covering the Tamara Leach trial about prosecutorial zeal, about political
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motivations of prosecutions? Because I have to say, I think that if there wasn't politics behind the Tamara
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Leach case, I think it, I don't know if that case would have ever gone to court at all. And if it
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did, it would have been a half-day trial and would have been over. I really think we're seeing the
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politicization of prosecutions. That's something we normally associate with the banana republic.
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Okay, I agree with your assessment. I wasn't paying close attention at the time that the previous
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prosecutor for the Tamara Leach and Chris Barber trial was there. His name was what, Karimji?
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Remind me. Moise Karimji. And he was, he was a senior Liberal Party donor. He was so vengeful and
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emotional. Thankfully, the government replaced him as a prosecutor just a few months before trial,
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which is such a rare thing, I got to tell you. They worked on that Tamara Leach investigation and
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prosecution for more than a year. And then they dropped the lead prosecutor before trial because he
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was obviously out of control. I think there's something similar going on here. There's a prosecutor
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named Stephen Johnston who's going after pretty much anyone who did anything in Coots. He was the
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prosecutor who went after Pastor Arthur Pawlowski. I get the same vibes from him. He's angry. He's
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thin-skinned. This has become, you know, it's like he's searching for Moby Dick or something. This is a
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quest for him. I don't think that's how prosecutors ought to be. And I don't think Danielle Smith wants to
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meddle in prosecutions and she probably shouldn't. But boy, it feels like it's a personal mission rather
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than a public mission. So I'll share a broad observation and then I'll go into some specifics
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about your original question on the day-to-day. I think in general, there's a lot of politicization
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of these so-called justice systems, not just in Canada, but the United States and the broader
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Anglosphere. And as you were describing the previous prosecutor in the Tamara Leach and Chris Barber
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trial, it's not just a vendetta in my view. Again, I'm engaging in some mind reading here,
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but they view it as a political opportunity to develop themselves, to create brands for themselves
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that can then sort of monetize for greater political gain. And you see, you see this in
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the U.S. with respect to Donald Trump and a bunch of other cases. Now, in terms of the day-to-day
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occurrences and what I observed in terms of political aspects or the nature of the process
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that you found unbearable. By the way, I've got a thick skin so I can endure that sort of tediousness.
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The prosecutors that replaced the previous prosecutor themselves were much more measured. So
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if the government's intent was to diminish the likelihood of them appearing overzealous and
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overaggressive and personality-driven and political, then they did that in terms of demeanor and style.
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Because Siobhan Westshire and Tim Radcliffe, the two prosecutors in the Tim
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Erleach and Chris Barber trial, again, are very well put together and professional in their demeanor.
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Now, but what about the specifics? The nature of the evidence was very much absurd. You had a bunch of
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witnesses, okay, Ottawa residents, who were invited to testify about the harms they claimed to have
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suffered as a function of the Freedom Convoy demonstration in Ottawa. And none of these people
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had even encountered Chris Barber, Tim Erleach. That's quite crazy. They cannot provide specific
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evidence or observations or anecdotes about the very two people as defendants. They were going through
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a therapy session, not a prosecution of two individuals whose liberty was hanging on the line.
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Yeah, absolutely. And even one of the protesters, sorry, not the protesters, one of the
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witnesses, what was her name again, Zenshi Li, she was like a sort of professional protester.
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She had gained notoriety among us, those of us, let's say in the freedom movement, if I can use
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that term, but she had developed a reputation for herself on the left, if I'll call them that,
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as being this professional victim and whining about supposedly being threatened and harmed,
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no evidence provided. And then she was elevated in some other ways, uh, as far as her initiation of
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this lawsuit, which brought upon this, what was the term? It was like a sort of a judgment,
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sort of a prohibition against honking in Ottawa. I think they call that an...
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An injunction. Now, I got to say, and I was, I was in Ottawa for a few days for the trucker convoy,
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the honking was loud. And I actually think that the judge who said, look, no honking in the residential
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areas. I, I can't, I can't say I'm mad at him. I mean, honking is a way of expressing yourself,
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but I think it did lower the temperature. And, and there were some people who couldn't sleep. I
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think that that was exaggerated. That was the worst thing the truckers did. They got some parking
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tickets and they honked their horns. And then they had a bouncy castle and the hot tubs. I sort of love
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the fact that the horn honking was the worst they did. In fact, they, they really didn't get out
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of their trucks. They didn't go into any building like the January Sixers did. And the fact that
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horn honking was the worst they could say about him shows how peaceful it was. And one, uh, and,
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and I think that was the trait of the blockade at Coutts. It was peaceful. And Rebel News sent down a
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tag team of lawyers, Chad Williamson and his colleagues. They sort of rotated through the blockade at
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Coutts talking to the men one-on-one telling them their rights, uh, giving them suggestions and
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warnings. Don't bring firearms was something they said every day. And, and I think that the lawyers
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we sent helped lower the temperature there and, um, we'll see what happens in court. Now, Sid,
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since you knew the men, even before these charges were contemplated, you went down there, you were
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embedded in, um, the protesters. We've already published one documentary that people can see
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at rebelnewsplus.com about the Coutts blockade. We published several documentaries about, um, the
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convoy movement. You're working on a biographical piece. Just give us a little bit of a heads up of,
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uh, I mean, these three men, Marco, Alex, and George, I don't know them very well. I've met them
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a couple of times. You spent some time with them. What story are you going to tell in your biographical
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piece that you're working on? Uh, well, in preparations for their trial, uh, I had sat down
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and done a long form interview with Alex, uh, Van Herc, Marco van Hugenbos, and George Jansen,
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the three accused of, uh, mischief here. Uh, so this is to give people a bit of perspective on who they
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are. It'll be three reports, you know, to individualize them, uh, because oftentimes in these
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stories people get clustered together. Uh, but George was a person. He's a real estate agent. He, he lives in
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small town, Alberta. He's got a bunch of kids. He loves his family and that's what he does every
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day. He, he works for his family and he, he got caught up in the coots blockade demonstrations,
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like thousands of people across Alberta to say the least. Uh, and he was one of the individuals
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who was quite literally stuck there. If he were to have left, then it was game over for him and
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protesting. So he stayed and now he's being punished because perhaps as he mentioned, 75% of the people
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that went down there roughly were truckers, at least in the beginning. Um, he's a real estate agent.
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He talks to people every day. He, he sells houses. I'm sure he's going to be a much better communicator
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than a bunch of truckers who not, not to disrespectfully, but they'll spend most of
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their time isolated. Whereas you've got a real estate agent, you've got a, a Fort McLeod town
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councillor, another person who's going to be a good, good at communicating. Um, and then Alex Van Herc,
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uh, he just seems like a great, uh, Southern Alberta entrepreneur. And it seems largely like they are
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being targeted because of just simply being upright people. Um, and that's hopefully what we'll dispel here is
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that they weren't some violent criminal organization. It was simply a bunch of guys
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who showed up at the border, uh, uh, save organization. It was very grassroots.
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Yeah. And the very fact that the prosecutor, I heard him last week describe these three men as
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the leadership group suggests that the leadership is what they did wrong, not a crime. Their crime was
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leading a political protest, the most effective peaceful political protest. We should remember
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that these two protests, the Ottawa convoy and the, the Cooch blockade, I think were the most
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effective political protests in modern Canadian times. In the case of the Cooch blockade, I think
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it is directly responsible for Jason Kenney dropping his mandates and frankly, a few months later being
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booted out of his party. And in Ottawa, if you look at the polling, that's when Justin Trudeau started
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to trend down because when he brought in the emergencies act in an unforced error, it showed his authoritarian
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nature. It showed that his happy days, sunny ways was just a facade. And by the way, it also got rid
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of Aaron O'Toole as the leader of the conservative party and installed through a democratic process,
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a more conservative conservative leader. I think those are two enormous changes. And that last one,
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we have yet to see the fruits of it. I think it might have actually spelled the doom for Justin Trudeau.
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So I think that when, when the prosecutor calls them the leadership group, it's their leadership he hates,
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not the crime of hanging out in the saloon. And maybe if I can just add one point to that,
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is it really was probably the most democratic thing I've ever seen at the Cooch blockade because
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out of the 50, 60 or so truckers, they all came in to have a meeting about every decision.
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And it wasn't necessarily that Alex, Marco and George were deciding what's on the roster.
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No, everyone was deciding what's going to happen here. They were simply the guys who understood what
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everyone was agreeing to. Yeah. And you know, it's interesting because we've learned from the other
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cases that there were undercover cops in there. There were uniformed cops in there. There was all
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sorts of, you know, it was all sorts of, uh, people, some of whom knew each other in advance,
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some of whom didn't, some were interlopers, just looking for some excitement somewhere rooted in
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the community. We're going to learn a lot more about it. Well, listen, I'm so glad you guys are
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here. Sid, you were there literally before it, you know, right when it started and you
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and Kian actually signaled to us at rebel world headquarters, we need some help here.
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And that's when we crowdfunded the lawyers to go embed in the blockade. And to this day,
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the lawyers have been defending the men. Robert, this is your first trip to Lethbridge. Am I right?
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Yeah. First time here. And I haven't been to Alberta since I was a kid with my parents on a road
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trip to like Banff and Jasper. So yeah, I'm sorry. It's so cold to welcome you out here,
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but I think you'll find the people warm. Um, all right. So that's our sort of our scene
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setter. We've got a few days of pretrial hearings. We have to be very careful that we follow the
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publication bans and there's good reasons for publication bans is because you don't want
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untested evidence to be circulating in the community. If there's going to be a jury,
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you don't want them to be tainted by that. So we want to follow those rules. Uh, all three of us,
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I know Sydney and I are accredited with the Alberta court of Kings bench. And, and I know that you're
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registering as official media. Also, one of the things you have to do is promise to keep, uh,
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publication bans. And we absolutely will because we want to follow the rules and we don't want to
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jeopardize the trial. So that may limit some of the things you can report. Um, because we're friends
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with the lawyers and friends with the men, we can talk to them about the case. But again, we want to be
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careful. We don't want to interview the three men in a manner that would get them to say anything
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that would be harmful to their case. And I think they're big boys and they know that also.
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So I think we would keep our conversations with them fairly general. And, um, you know,
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there's going to be the three lawyers for the men that we can talk to. I know that in Ottawa,
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you really got into a good rapport with Lawrence Greenspan, the lead lawyer for Tamara Leach. And I
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thought that was very helpful for your journalism. So there you have it. That's our scene center.
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It is so cold. I'm losing a feeling in my fingers. We're going to go in the hearing starts at 10.
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We'll be in there a little bit early to make sure we get seats because they're having this
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tiny courtroom. Alex Van Herk told me the other day, his, his family alone would fill up that
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courtroom. So I don't know why they're having it in such a tiny courtroom. A conspiracy theorist
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might say they don't, they don't want a large public presence. Guys, I'm counting on you to
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do great journalism here. This is a story that rebel news has owned from the beginning,
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not just as observers, but as people who stepped in to fix the problem. I truly believe in my bones
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that had we not sent lawyers into the blockade, bad things would have happened.
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I believe our lawyers helped lower the temperature, let the men know their rights and act as sort of a
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lubricant between them and the cops. I also think that our, uh, journalism here is going to be very
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factual. We're sympathetic to the men. Obviously we're helping them, but we also going to follow the
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facts. We're over the lead and we're going to recall it like we see it. And finally, I'd like to say to our
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viewers, if you want to help pay for the defense of these three men, you can do so at coots3.com.
00:20:13.480
There's two different buttons on that page. One is to chip in to the lawyers who are defending the
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three men. The other is to chip in to our economy class accommodation here in Lethbridge. Robert flew
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in all the way from Ottawa. He's staying in the economy Wyndham Suites. Is that right? It's like
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Some way either way. The point is it's not free. It's not free, but, but it is modest. I mean,
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listen, it's Lethbridge. There's no five-star hotels here. It's not a luxury town. We're here
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to work. If you can help us cover the costs of our excellent journalistic team, please do.
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If you want to help cover the costs of the lawyers, please do. You can do all of that
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at coots3.com. Thanks for your support. We're going to go in now.
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Well, that's the video we recorded this morning. Here's a video that my colleague Robert Krejcik
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did with two of the defendants, Alex van Herc and Marco van Heugenbos.
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So I'm here with Alex. I'm also here with Marco, two of the defendants whose
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proceedings began today. Just want to let you guys know out the gate that there is a publication ban
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issued by the judge. So we cannot discuss the proceedings of today. And that publication ban
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is put in place in order to prevent any tainting of the jury. In other words, if we were to speak
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about proceedings today publicly and people who would end up on the jury ended up seeing it,
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it may prejudice their thoughts going in. So gentlemen, you've been waiting two years for this day.
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Why don't you tell me what's going on? What's on your mind, difficulties, the families,
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these sorts of things, and what it feels like to be here today? Well, I'm definitely thankful that
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we're here and that we're finally moving forward with this prosecution. These charges have been
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laid since September of 2022. And it's been a long time coming. And even though, you know,
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the future is uncertainty with a charge this serious and the possible ramifications of that charge. And
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to some degree, life has been put on hold for myself, for my family. And you get used to the
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constant overbearing pressure of this all. But I'm really thankful that finally we're here in court to
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address some of these pretrial applications. Without speaking to what happened in court,
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I feel that my defence did a phenomenal job in presenting themselves. And I, for the first time,
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I was able to experience the justice that has been appointed to our prosecution. And so far,
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I think things have gone very fair, very orderly. And that's a good start. That is ultimately what
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we're looking for here, is that justice be done. And that it's not us having to remove our guilt,
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but that we are here able to, for them, that they have to challenge our guilt and not that we have
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to prove our innocence. So Alex, same question for you. Yeah, like I say, I'm thankful for the
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supporters that came in this morning to support us. We really appreciate that. Like I say, we got both,
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all got big families. Yeah, there again, our defence did a great job of articulating what we're after
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here. And without, like say, getting into the detail, I felt they did a good fight of trying to
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articulate what we want and what we'd like the jury to be able to do, to get a fair and honest jury,
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and what their abilities could be. So yes, no, I appreciate, you know, Rebel News supporting us and
00:23:48.440
and being here for us. And like I say, I hope that people keep remembering why we stood there,
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why we stood on that line for 18 days, and, you know, stand by us with being here in court.
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Okay, you're getting ahead of me with my last question, because I know it's freezing outside,
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we all want to go for lunch. So Alex, on that point, in terms of why you were here, why you were
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demonstrating over at that Coutts border crossing between Alberta and Montana, the US and Canada,
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tell us, what was that about? What was the motivation behind that? What was the purpose
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of that? What incited you guys to go and do that protest? Well, it was the mandates that were
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being imposed upon the truckers and all Canadians. It was, it was, they were illegal. There was,
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you can see now, as after this happened, of all these mandates that were being imposed,
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that if we went to stood up, do you think how many lives would have been lost more?
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So thankfully, you know what, the mandates were lifted and changed and how many people weren't,
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you know, got to see and we're, had to stop of getting the jab and being able to go across the
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line and drive truck again. So I feel we saved a lot of people's lives and, and we changed,
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I think, history from what was happening in our tyrannical government. We were living in a tyranny at
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that time. Marco, you want to add to that? Yeah, I'm not, not to repeat anything my friend here
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mentioned. And when I say friend, he actually is my friend and not the way they use the word friend in
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the courts. This kind of makes my stomach turn at times. But to be honest, the convictions we had
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while we were there are, are still there. And if anything, they, those convictions have been,
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they've been, become mainstream in the public. You know, we see the Ingram decision. We see that in
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Alberta, the mandates and the health measures that were passed down and approved by the politicians
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are now deemed to be illegal. They did not have the authority to do that. So while we are here,
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in front of the courts where they're looking to prosecute us for those 18 days on the border,
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I say to, I say to the public and I say to them, what about the prosecution of those who forced
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blue collar and white collar law abiding individuals to, to behave in such drastic measures?
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Where is the accountability for those who were elected to represent us? And that to me is, is,
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is the big fight. And unfortunately, um, that is a, that is a focus that mainstream media, uh,
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doesn't want to, or legacy media doesn't want to focus on. But that has to be the question moving
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forward. That while we can prosecute all of those who, who may have behaved in, in, in, in a manner that
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isn't, um, approved by society during an event that was tyrannical, like my friend mentioned.
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In a preamble of our charter of rights and our human rights is actually, it says, whereas it is
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essential, if man is not to be compelled to have recourse as a last resort to rebellion against
00:26:42.200
tyranny and oppression, that human rights should be protected by the rule of law. Yeah. Um, where is
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the accountability and where is, when will those in, in positions of responsibility hold those who were
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in positions of responsibility to account? Well, that's a bit of the flavor of today, but I'm frustrated
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that I can't give you more details. That's because it's under a strict publication ban.
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The reason for that is they don't want to compromise the jury and fair enough. But Robert
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will be here covering the totality of the trial of the Coutts three. Unlike the Coutts four or the
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Coutts five, there's a bunch of different, similar trials, but the Coutts three are what the
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prosecutors called the leadership group. Not only will we be doing our journalism, but in fact,
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through the democracy fund, we are crowdfunding the lawyers for these three men to learn more,
00:27:27.240
go to Coutts three.com. Well, that's our show for today from frosty Lethbridge. I'm going to head
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on back to our world headquarters tonight. So I'll see you next from our studio there until next time
00:27:39.080
on behalf of all of us here at rebel news to you at home. Good night and keep fighting for freedom.