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00:00:38.720Let's discuss the top stories of the day and the True North exclusives you won't hear anywhere else.
00:00:47.240Chris Carbert, one of two men still serving time for his role in the 2022 Coutts-Alberta border blockade, has been granted bail.
00:00:56.560Carbert, 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.
00:01:13.720Olyanek was also convicted of possessing an explosive weapon.
00:01:17.300Both men were found not guilty by a jury on charges of conspiring to kill RCMP officers.
00:01:24.660Calgary judge ruled on Monday that Carbert can be released pending his appeal arguments, which will be heard in September.
00:01:32.660With time served, Carbert is eligible for statutory release in June 2026, and his prison sentence will expire in April 2027.
00:01:42.900Justice Joanne Strakaff added in her decision that if Carbert and the Crown agree on a release plan and draft order,
00:01:53.660If they cannot agree, both parties are to submit their proposed plans and orders by that date.
00:01:59.800During an April hearing, Carbert and Olyanek were denied day parole and full parole.
00:02:04.640However, the parole board noted Carbert's dedication to personal growth and education while incarcerated.
00:02:12.080So, 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.
00:02:30.380How 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?
00:02:44.500Well, Cosmin, I attended the trial in person in Lethbridge, the criminal trial for Olyanek and Carbert.
00:02:51.480As many listeners will recall, there were originally four co-accused in the conspiracy to commit murder of RCMP officer's charge.
00:03:00.540I 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.
00:03:09.360Two of the men, Jerry Morin and Chris Lysak, had those charges dropped entirely.
00:03:14.500They pled guilty to different charges.
00:03:16.420Because Morin had charged, or had pled guilty, I should say, to conspiracy to traffic a firearm, even though he never trafficked a firearm.
00:03:24.960He merely spoke about potentially trafficking a firearm, according to court documents.
00:03:29.500Chris 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.
00:03:38.460And Olyanek and Carbert were found guilty by a jury of mischief and possession of weapons for a dangerous purpose.
00:03:47.200However, they were both also declared not guilty on the more serious charge of conspiracy to commit murder by a jury of their peers.
00:03:55.560Which brings rise to the question, what is the dangerous purpose?
00:03:58.380And even the judge, Justice David LeBrens in the case, had difficulty squaring that circle.
00:04:04.420So I would say, to answer your question, the charges have not stood up well to scrutiny whatsoever.
00:04:12.540The 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.
00:04:22.440The vessel was loaded with BC-produced LNG, a project spokesperson confirmed Monday.
00:04:27.260Kitimat Mayor Phil Gurmuth noted the decade-long journey to see the project start up, anticipating a significant long-term economic boost for the region.
00:04:35.600Gurmuth 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.
00:04:46.760British Columbia coast pilots played a crucial role in the tanker's voyage.
00:04:50.380Two 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.
00:04:59.600LNG Canada is a joint venture involving Shell, Malaysia's Petronas, PetroChina, Japan's Mitsubishi Corporation, and South Korea's COGAS.
00:05:09.700Its first phase is projected to produce 14 million tons of gas annually, with a potential second phase doubling this output.
00:05:16.920The 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.
00:05:27.980Advocates 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.
00:05:37.680A relationship previously strained by evolving U.S. tariffs and discussions of annexation by the U.S. President Donald Trump.
00:05:45.680Cosman, are there any other LNG projects underway in Canada?
00:05:50.100There'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.
00:06:00.740The project aims to produce 3 million tons annually of LNG, and it's an Indigenous-majority-owned project.
00:06:09.600In fact, most of the projects currently underway in Canada have some component of Indigenous ownership or involvement with First Nations.
00:06:19.920There's also the wood-fiber LNG, which has been pitched as a low-emission LNG facility, and it's currently under construction near Squamish.
00:06:29.760Now, 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.
00:06:41.400And 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.
00:06:56.400The 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.
00:07:09.160However, its selection of some suburban location has been met with strong resistance from locals.
00:07:15.260Conservative MP Roman Babber wrote an open letter to Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow, stating his, quote,
00:07:22.000objection to a homeless shelter proposed for 1220 Wilson Avenue, saying that residents of the area will, quote, suffer immensely.
00:07:30.560The 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.
00:07:39.940In 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,
00:07:50.080sparking fears over increased drug use and illegal activity.
00:07:54.280The shelter Babber is objecting to is slated for completion between 2028 and 2030, and when completed, it will offer 80 beds.
00:08:04.220Babber's letter argued that the shelter will bring, quote, crime, drug use, public intoxication and disturbance to local residents,
00:08:13.800as well as strain resources from Humber River Hospital's emergency services.
00:08:19.280The letter reads, quote, city zoning fails to consider the shelter's proximity to many schools,
00:08:25.220most notably a middle school next door and high schools whose students frequent Keele and Wilson during lunch and after school.