Juno News - July 02, 2025


Coutts protester granted bail pending appeal of conviction

Mentioned
Roman Baber Anthony Olenek Kitimat Chris Lysak Glasgow Coutts Wilson Joanne Stratkaff Phil Gurmuth Donald Trump Terry Moran Olivia Chow Cosmin Keele
Carney CAVES to Trump + new EXCLUSIVE poll shows tight federal race Feds approved over 17K foreign nationals with criminal convictions

Episode Stats


Length

12 minutes

Words per minute

143.9

Word count

1,747

Sentence count

92

Harmful content

Hate speech

2

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Chris Carbert, jailed for the Coutts-Alberta border blockade, has been granted bail pending an appeal of his prior conviction and prison sentence. According to the Canadian press, Canada s first ever LNG shipment has left Kitimat for Asia. Toronto revealed it plans on opening 20 new shelters to accommodate the city s growing homeless population.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 Chris Carbert, jailed for the 2022 Coutts blockade, has been granted bail pending an appeal of his prior conviction and prison sentence.
00:00:15.220 According to the Canadian press, Canada's first ever LNG shipment has left Kitimat for Asia.
00:00:20.720 Toronto revealed it plans on opening 20 new shelters to accommodate the city's growing homeless population.
00:00:27.700 Hello Canada, it's Wednesday, July 2nd, and this is the True North Daily Brief. I'm Cosman Jirja.
00:00:34.440 And I'm Alex Soltan.
00:00:35.820 We've got you covered with all the news you need to know.
00:00:38.720 Let's discuss the top stories of the day and the True North exclusives you won't hear anywhere else.
00:00:47.240 Chris Carbert, one of two men still serving time for his role in the 2022 Coutts-Alberta border blockade, has been granted bail.
00:00:56.560 Carbert, 48, and Anthony Olyanek, 42, were sentenced in September 2024 to six and a half years after being convicted in August 2024 of mischief and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose.
00:01:13.720 Olyanek was also convicted of possessing an explosive weapon.
00:01:17.300 Both men were found not guilty by a jury on charges of conspiring to kill RCMP officers.
00:01:24.660 Calgary judge ruled on Monday that Carbert can be released pending his appeal arguments, which will be heard in September.
00:01:32.660 With time served, Carbert is eligible for statutory release in June 2026, and his prison sentence will expire in April 2027.
00:01:42.900 Justice Joanne Strakaff added in her decision that if Carbert and the Crown agree on a release plan and draft order,
00:01:51.320 should be submitted by July 14th.
00:01:53.660 If they cannot agree, both parties are to submit their proposed plans and orders by that date.
00:01:59.800 During an April hearing, Carbert and Olyanek were denied day parole and full parole.
00:02:04.640 However, the parole board noted Carbert's dedication to personal growth and education while incarcerated.
00:02:12.080 So, if you recall back to the invocation of the Emergencies Act, the Coutts border blockade was kind of the linchpin behind the federal government's whole argument that they needed to take these extraordinary powers.
00:02:27.720 And here we are several years later.
00:02:30.380 How much of the federal government's original narrative about Coutts and the Freedom Convoy at large, Alex, has held up after these few years of litigation and court proceedings?
00:02:44.500 Well, Cosmin, I attended the trial in person in Lethbridge, the criminal trial for Olyanek and Carbert.
00:02:51.480 As many listeners will recall, there were originally four co-accused in the conspiracy to commit murder of RCMP officer's charge.
00:03:00.540 I would say that on that charge, absolutely nothing has stood up to scrutiny, court proceedings, or the several years of litigation that you referred to.
00:03:09.360 Two of the men, Jerry Morin and Chris Lysak, had those charges dropped entirely.
00:03:14.500 They pled guilty to different charges.
00:03:16.420 Because Morin had charged, or had pled guilty, I should say, to conspiracy to traffic a firearm, even though he never trafficked a firearm.
00:03:24.960 He merely spoke about potentially trafficking a firearm, according to court documents.
00:03:29.500 Chris Lysak was the only person charged with what I would consider to be, even mildly, a serious indictable offense, which was possession of an illegal weapon.
00:03:38.460 And Olyanek and Carbert were found guilty by a jury of mischief and possession of weapons for a dangerous purpose.
00:03:47.200 However, they were both also declared not guilty on the more serious charge of conspiracy to commit murder by a jury of their peers.
00:03:55.560 Which brings rise to the question, what is the dangerous purpose?
00:03:58.380 And even the judge, Justice David LeBrens in the case, had difficulty squaring that circle.
00:04:04.420 So I would say, to answer your question, the charges have not stood up well to scrutiny whatsoever.
00:04:12.540 The gas log Glasgow, a tanker carrying Canada's inaugural liquefied natural gas shipments, has departed from LNG Canada's Kitimat, BC birth destined for Asian market.
00:04:22.440 The vessel was loaded with BC-produced LNG, a project spokesperson confirmed Monday.
00:04:27.260 Kitimat Mayor Phil Gurmuth noted the decade-long journey to see the project start up, anticipating a significant long-term economic boost for the region.
00:04:35.600 Gurmuth praised LNG Canada's extensive efforts to minimize negative community impacts, particularly given the influx of over 7,000 rotating workers into a town of fewer than 9,000 residents.
00:04:46.760 British Columbia coast pilots played a crucial role in the tanker's voyage.
00:04:50.380 Two pilots boarded the gas log Glasgow near Triple Island on the northern BC coast, navigating the nearly 300-kilometer journey to Kitimat over 15 hours.
00:04:59.600 LNG Canada is a joint venture involving Shell, Malaysia's Petronas, PetroChina, Japan's Mitsubishi Corporation, and South Korea's COGAS.
00:05:09.700 Its first phase is projected to produce 14 million tons of gas annually, with a potential second phase doubling this output.
00:05:16.920 The federal government has hailed this as Canada's largest private sector investment, totaling $40 billion across port operations, the supplying North BC gas fields, and the connecting pipeline.
00:05:27.980 Advocates suggest that selling Western Canadian gas in Asia would yield higher prices compared to its landlocked value, thereby reducing Canada's reliance on the United States as its sole export market.
00:05:37.680 A relationship previously strained by evolving U.S. tariffs and discussions of annexation by the U.S. President Donald Trump.
00:05:45.680 Cosman, are there any other LNG projects underway in Canada?
00:05:49.000 Yeah, there's a couple.
00:05:50.100 There's actually a state-of-the-art floating LNG project, also near Kitimat, and that's jointly owned by Pembina Pipeline and the Highland Nation.
00:06:00.740 The project aims to produce 3 million tons annually of LNG, and it's an Indigenous-majority-owned project.
00:06:09.600 In fact, most of the projects currently underway in Canada have some component of Indigenous ownership or involvement with First Nations.
00:06:19.920 There's also the wood-fiber LNG, which has been pitched as a low-emission LNG facility, and it's currently under construction near Squamish.
00:06:29.760 Now, that project is backed by Pacific Energy, and the low-emission part of it is because it's powered by hydroelectricity in order to reduce its carbon footprint.
00:06:41.400 And then there's also another one called the Xilismus LNG, which is a 12-million-ton, also-floating LNG terminal near the Alaska border, and that also has First Nations involvement.
00:06:56.400 The City of Toronto announced it would be opening 20 new homeless shelters over the next eight years to deal with the growing problem of people living on the streets.
00:07:09.160 However, its selection of some suburban location has been met with strong resistance from locals.
00:07:15.260 Conservative MP Roman Babber wrote an open letter to Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow, stating his, quote,
00:07:22.000 objection to a homeless shelter proposed for 1220 Wilson Avenue, saying that residents of the area will, quote, suffer immensely.
00:07:30.560 The city announced in April that 20 new homeless shelters would be opened, and several of them will be located outside of Toronto's downtown core.
00:07:39.940 In suburb, the city announced it would be on sharp criticism from locals who believe it will lead to homeless people from elsewhere in the city being brought into their neighborhood,
00:07:50.080 sparking fears over increased drug use and illegal activity.
00:07:54.280 The shelter Babber is objecting to is slated for completion between 2028 and 2030, and when completed, it will offer 80 beds.
00:08:04.220 Babber's letter argued that the shelter will bring, quote, crime, drug use, public intoxication and disturbance to local residents,
00:08:13.800 as well as strain resources from Humber River Hospital's emergency services.
00:08:19.280 The letter reads, quote, city zoning fails to consider the shelter's proximity to many schools,
00:08:25.220 most notably a middle school next door and high schools whose students frequent Keele and Wilson during lunch and after school.
00:08:32.020 Babber continued by writing, quote,
00:08:33.940 There is already a 387-bed shelter, an intersection away at Wilson Avenue west of Jane Street, known as the Toronto Plaza Shelter.
00:08:43.400 There was a murder at the Plaza Shelter on Sunday, June 22, 2025.
00:08:48.860 We do not want this at Keele and Wilson.
00:08:51.620 Babber went on to say that much of Toronto's homeless problem could be attributed to the federal government's, quote,
00:08:57.140 reckless immigration policies, but that the area's residents should not have their lives and livelihoods ruined as a result. 1.00
00:09:05.140 The City Council plans to have all 20 shelters operational by 2033 to catch up with Toronto's homeless population,
00:09:12.760 which has skyrocketed in recent years.
00:09:15.160 This has led to the city overhauling its process for selecting shelter locations,
00:09:20.580 removing the decision-making authority from elected officials, and instead assigning it to unelected bureaucrats.
00:09:27.440 Additionally, this means a process of selecting shelter sites without public consultation beforehand,
00:09:33.680 leading many Torontonians to accuse City Hall of acting in secrecy.
00:09:37.680 One of the issues that Roman Babber brings up in his letter is immigration.
00:09:43.060 And we know in places like Montreal that at least up to a third of the homeless shelter population
00:09:49.880 was taken up by refugees and asylum seekers.
00:09:53.640 Now, I believe that figure was from 2021, and I'm sure it's much larger now.
00:09:59.660 But how much, Alex, has immigration, which is controlled by the federal government,
00:10:08.000 the targets are set by Ottawa, how much has it had an effect on homelessness in Toronto in particular?
00:10:17.540 So it's an interesting and important question, Cosmin.
00:10:21.180 Immigration has had certainly a significant and you could say complex impact on housing in Canada in recent years.
00:10:29.660 And that's especially true in major urban centers like Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal.
00:10:34.420 In 2023, for example, Canada added over 1.2 million people.
00:10:39.300 It was the fastest population growth rate in one year since 1957.
00:10:44.440 A staggering 96% of that growth was from immigration, which includes permanent residents and temporary residents,
00:10:53.160 which include international students, foreign workers, and refugees or asylum seekers.
00:10:58.080 That just hasn't kept up with housing starts.
00:11:02.500 Most immigrants, when they come to a new country, they typically rent as well. 1.00
00:11:06.740 So their inclusion into the Canadian population has resulted in record low vacancy rates in Canada,
00:11:13.780 which has led to increased rents.
00:11:15.940 Also, they haven't kept up with housing starts.
00:11:18.320 So CMHC estimates that they would have to build an extra 3.5 million homes by 2030 just to restore affordability.
00:11:26.740 But under the current immigration plan, we are bringing in roughly four to five people into Canada per new housing start.
00:11:34.920 And when we say new housing starts, we're referring sometimes as well to single dwelling units.
00:11:41.080 So it's no mystery, in my opinion, why Canada has such a housing shortage and subsequently has this explosion in homeless population.
00:11:50.220 That's it for today, folks.
00:11:54.800 Thanks for tuning in.
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