COVID-19 'Pandemic'

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Fauci adviser deleted emails. Congress demanded to know why
Author of the article:Washington Post
Washington Post
Dan Diamond, McKenzie Beard
Published May 23, 2024 • 3 minute read

At the peak of the coronavirus pandemic, the longtime National Institutes of Health official encouraged colleagues to evade federal records requirements, claiming that shifting sensitive covid conversations to personal email and deleting messages would protect his high-profile former boss Anthony S. Fauci and others from unwanted scrutiny.


It was spectacularly bad – and wrong – advice. And it brought the wrath of Congress down on NIH adviser David Morens Wednesday.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) on Wednesday morning said he’d asked the Justice Department to look into Morens’s decision to delete emails about NIH-related covid matters, which could be a federal crime. Three hours later, the GOP-led House covid panel released a report filled with private messages where Morens bragged about evading Freedom of Information Act requirements and dismissed lab-leak proponents as conspiracy theorists. By Wednesday afternoon, Republicans were calling Morens a liar to his face and suggesting he could face perjury charges.

“You wrote in an email that you have never said anything that you ‘would not be happy to defend before a congressional committee,'” said Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), who chairs the House covid panel and led yesterday’s hearing with Morens. “Today, sir, is that day.”


If Morens hoped for cover from Democrats, he didn’t get it. Lawmakers like Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) blistered him, saying while there was no proof he and Fauci were trying to cover up a laboratory leak, he had diminished trust in his agency and broader public health.

“It is not anti-science to hold you accountable,” Rep. Raul Ruiz (D-Calif.), the panel’s top Democrat, said.

Morens said he was embarrassed, particularly by the shame he’d brought on NIH. “I can’t put the toothpaste back in the tube,” he said. But his flailing defense – as he stumbled over how email works and struggled to articulate his fears about the very real threats to Fauci and others – only frustrated and confused lawmakers in both parties.

“Sir, I think you will be haunted by your testimony today,” said Rep. Kweisi Mfume (D-Md.), comparing it to a bad movie plot. “It doesn’t make a lot of sense to many of us, certainly not to me.”


What made Congress so angry: trying to hide his messages on sensitive issues, such as the possible lab origins of the coronavirus, which raised only more questions about what he was trying to hide.

“i learned from our foia lady here how to make emails disappear after i am foi’d but before the search starts, so i think we are all safe,” Morens wrote in a February 2021 email that was widely mocked Wednesday.

“Dr. Morens, who’s your FOIA lady? Is it Hillary Clinton?” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) asked.

Even Morens laughed at that.

The emails also included his strategizing with longtime friend Peter Daszak, the embattled head of EcoHealth Alliance, who had a bad day of his own. (Health and Human Services officially suspended Daszak from federal contracts Wednesday, one week after halting funding to EcoHealth, a research organization tied to the Wuhan Institute of Virology.)


Morens’s troubles went beyond covid emails. In one private message, he appeared to mock then-CDC Director Rochelle Walensky for wearing “a skirt” and saying he’d tried to diminish her to Fauci.

That angered Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa), a physician and former state health director, who said Morens was channeling a chauvinistic attitude that should be gone from medicine.

“I disagree with her policies. And it had nothing to do with whether or not she wore a skirt,” Miller-Meeks told me after the hearing.

Rather than shield his former boss, Morens’s emails have instead created a new problem for Fauci, who’s set to testify in front of the House in early June.

When a Washington Post reporter struck up a hallway conversation with Morens, his lawyer Timothy D. Belevetz interrupted and told The Post to “scram.” (The Post reminded Belevetz that the Capitol’s hallways are a public space.)

Asked questions by the same reporter after the hearing, Morens said, “My lawyer says I shouldn’t be talking to you, so I’m not,” he said.
 

spaminator

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Feds sold ventilators as scrap to 'further understand' recycling biz: Report
Author of the article:postmedia News
Published May 29, 2024 • Last updated 1 day ago • 1 minute read

Access-to-information documents show that new COVID ventilators bought by Ottawa at $22,000 apiece were sold as scrap to “further understand” the recycling business, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.


“There was one negotiated sale of four ventilator samples with conditions to recycling organizations for the purposes of industry engagement in efforts to further understand constraints and considerations of recycling,” said the Department of Public Works in a statement.

The ventilators, which were sold for $21.39 each as scrap, were bought under a sole-sourced, $169.5-million contract with StarFish Medical.

Other ventilators were sold for as little as $6.



Access-to-information records show StarFish devices were scrapped as early as Aug. 24, 2022, and “sold for parts” in Langley, B.C., according to an auction notice that day.


The World Health Organization declared an end to the pandemic on May 5, 2023.

Neither StarFish Medical nor the Public Health Agency of Canada, which bought the devices, has commented on the scrap sales.

The Commons ethics committee in 2020 was told StarFish was awarded a $169.5-million contract for 7,500 devices, which amounted to $22,600 apiece.

The Department of Public Works said on April 5 that only $15.8 million was paid for delivery of an unspecified number of ventilators.

“To protect commercial confidentiality, we do not disclose the unit price,” a spokesperson said.
 

spaminator

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Largest vaccine production plant in Canada opens in Toronto
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Published May 30, 2024 • Last updated 2 days ago • 1 minute read

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is announcing the opening of a major vaccine production plant in Toronto today — part of Canada’s efforts to build up the domestic biomanufacturing sector in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic.


The new Sanofi facility is the largest in Canada and is expected to significantly increase Canada’s domestic production of pediatric and adult vaccines for whooping cough, diphtheria and tetanus.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, it became clear that Canada’s domestic production capacity was insufficient to respond to the pandemic emergency, leaving Canada to rely on imported vaccines.

Sanofi, a global biopharmaceutical company, received $415 million from Canada and another $55 million from the Ontario government, to build a flu vaccine and pandemic preparedness plant at its Toronto campus by 2026.

The company says that facility will be ready in 2027.

Between May 2020 and April 2022, Canada promised more than $1.3 billion for 12 new or expanded biomanufacturing plants to make vaccines and antibody treatments.
 

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Fauci testifies publicly before House panel on COVID origins, controversies
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Lauran Neergaard
Published Jun 03, 2024 • Last updated 1 day ago • 3 minute read

WASHINGTON (AP) — Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert until leaving the government in 2022, faced heated questioning Monday from Republican lawmakers about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.


A Republican-led subcommittee has spent over a year probing the nation’s response to the pandemic and whether U.S.-funded research in China may have played any role in how it started. Democrats opened the hearing saying the investigation so far has found no evidence that Fauci did anything wrong while missing an important opportunity to prepare for the next scary outbreak.

Fauci — alternately a trusted voice during the pandemic and the target of partisan attacks, even death threats — spent 14 hours over two days in January being grilled by the House panel behind closed doors. On Monday, they questioned him again, in public and on camera for the first time since he ended more than five decades of government service.


This time around he faced a new set of questions about the credibility of his former agency, the National Institutes of Health. Last month, the House panel revealed emails from an NIH colleague about ways to evade public records laws, including by not discussing controversial issues on government email.

The main issue: Many scientists believe the virus most likely emerged in nature and jumped from animals to people, probably at a wildlife market in Wuhan, the city where the outbreak began. There’s no new scientific information supporting that the virus might instead have leaked from a laboratory. A U.S. intelligence analysis says there’s insufficient evidence to prove either way — and a recent Associated Press investigation found the Chinese government froze critical efforts to trace the source of the virus in the first weeks of the outbreak.


Fauci has long said publicly that he was open to both theories but that there’s more evidence supporting COVID-19’s natural origins, the way other deadly viruses including coronavirus cousins SARS and MERS jumped into people.

“I have repeatedly stated that I have a completely open mind to either possibility and that if definitive evidence becomes available to validate or refute either theory, I will ready accept it,” he said in an opening statement for Monday’s hearing.

Republicans also have accused Fauci of lying to Congress when he denied in May 2022 that his agency funded “gain of function” research — the practicing of enhancing a virus in a lab to study its potential real-world impact — at a lab in Wuhan.


NIH for years gave grants to a New York nonprofit called EcoHealth Alliance that used some of the funds to work with a Chinese lab studying coronaviruses commonly carried by bats. Last month, the government suspended federal funding to EcoHealth Alliance — and proposed barring it from future funding — citing its failure to properly monitor some of those experiments.

The definition of “gain of function” covers both general research and especially risky experiments to “enhance” the ability of potentially pandemic pathogens to spread or cause severe disease in humans. In transcripts of Fauci’s January interviews with the House panel, he stressed he was using the risky experiment definition.

“It would be molecularly impossible” for the bat viruses studied with EcoHealth’s funds to be turned into the virus that caused the pandemic, he reiterated in Monday’s opening statement.


As for hiding public records, Fauci said in the opening remarks that “to the best of my knowledge I have never conducted official business via my personal email.”

Fauci became a household name in the pandemic — first under President Donald Trump and later as a chief adviser to President Joe Biden — trying to explain the latest public health advice to a frightened public even as scientists were struggling to learn about the new virus. Research from the agency he led for 38 years, NIH’s National Institute on Allergy and Infectious Diseases, led to vaccines that allowed a return to normalcy.

The House panel also questioned him about the science behind some controversial advice, including social distancing.
 

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Dr. Anthony Fauci admits he made up COVID’s social-distancing measures, masking rules
Author of the article:Denette Wilford
Published Jun 03, 2024 • 2 minute read

Testimony from Dr. Anthony Fauci has revealed that his six-foot social-distancing rules and masking protocols were made up and “sort of just appeared.”


Fauci, the former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was on the hot seat Monday as he faced questioning from Republican lawmakers about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He was forced to defend himself against claims that he orchestrated a cover-up of the coronavirus pandemic’s origins, calling the allegations “simply preposterous,” and that Republicans have distorted emails between himself and other scientists as they discussed whether a lab leak of the coronavirus was possible.

But prior to Monday’s sit-down with the House Select Subcommittee, where they asked about the restrictions he put in place, Republicans released the full transcript from their interview with Fauci in January.


At the time, he told the counsel that he believed the theory that COVID began with a leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), according to committee transcripts when pressed on how the rule came about, the Daily Mail reported.

“I think people have made conspiracy aspects from it,” he said, adding, “it could be a lab leak.”

He continued: “So I think that in and of itself isn’t inherently a conspiracy theory, but some people spin off things from that that are kind of crazy.”

However, in 2020, Fauci supported a report called the “Proximal Origin” that slammed the lab leak theory.

Also shocking was that he admitted to counsel that he didn’t remember how the six-foot social-distancing rules came from.

“You know, I don’t recall. It sort of just appeared,” he said.


Fauci added he “was not aware of studies” that supported the social distancing, conceding that such studies “would be very difficult” to do.

He also told the committee’s counsel that he didn’t remember reading anything to support that masking kids would prevent COVID.

“Do you recall reviewing any studies or data supporting masking for children?” he was asked, to which he responded, “I might have, but I don’t recall specifically that I did.”



Fauci also testified that he had not followed any studies after the fact regarding the impacts that forced mask wearing had on children, of which there have been many — but said he was unconvinced that children’s education suffered during the pandemic.

As far as whether masking children was the right way to prevent transmission, he answered, “I still think that’s up in the air.”

The impact on children’s loss of learning and social behaviours and deterioration was a big issue during the pandemic.

One National Institute of Health (NIH) study called the mask use on students’ literacy and learning “very negative.”

Another NIH study found social distancing caused “depression, generalized anxiety, acute stress, and intrusive thoughts.”
 

Ron in Regina

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Dr. Anthony Fauci admits he made up COVID’s social-distancing measures, masking rules
Really…wow…
Author of the article:Denette Wilford
Published Jun 03, 2024 • 2 minute read

Testimony from Dr. Anthony Fauci has revealed that his six-foot social-distancing rules and masking protocols were made up and “sort of just appeared.”
Beyond wow…that cluster-f*cked everything from courtrooms to grocery stores to schools for a couple of years….
Fauci, the former Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was on the hot seat Monday as he faced questioning from Republican lawmakers about the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He was forced to defend himself against claims that he orchestrated a cover-up of the coronavirus pandemic’s origins, calling the allegations “simply preposterous,” and that Republicans have distorted emails between himself and other scientists as they discussed whether a lab leak of the coronavirus was possible.

But prior to Monday’s sit-down with the House Select Subcommittee, where they asked about the restrictions he put in place, Republicans released the full transcript from their interview with Fauci in January.


At the time, he told the counsel that he believed the theory that COVID began with a leak at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), according to committee transcripts when pressed on how the rule came about, the Daily Mail reported.

“I think people have made conspiracy aspects from it,” he said, adding, “it could be a lab leak.”

He continued: “So I think that in and of itself isn’t inherently a conspiracy theory, but some people spin off things from that that are kind of crazy.”

However, in 2020, Fauci supported a report called the “Proximal Origin” that slammed the lab leak theory.

Also shocking was that he admitted to counsel that he didn’t remember how the six-foot social-distancing rules came from.

“You know, I don’t recall. It sort of just appeared,” he said.


Fauci added he “was not aware of studies” that supported the social distancing, conceding that such studies “would be very difficult” to do.

He also told the committee’s counsel that he didn’t remember reading anything to support that masking kids would prevent COVID.

“Do you recall reviewing any studies or data supporting masking for children?” he was asked, to which he responded, “I might have, but I don’t recall specifically that I did.”



Fauci also testified that he had not followed any studies after the fact regarding the impacts that forced mask wearing had on children, of which there have been many — but said he was unconvinced that children’s education suffered during the pandemic.

As far as whether masking children was the right way to prevent transmission, he answered, “I still think that’s up in the air.”

The impact on children’s loss of learning and social behaviours and deterioration was a big issue during the pandemic.

One National Institute of Health (NIH) study called the mask use on students’ literacy and learning “very negative.”

Another NIH study found social distancing caused “depression, generalized anxiety, acute stress, and intrusive thoughts.”
…& to this day they’re still wearing these medical masks at pro-Hamas anti-Israel protests & encampments. What a legacy.
 
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spaminator

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Dr. Anthony Fauci pocketed $2M during pandemic, bringing his and wife's net worth to $11M
Author of the article:Denette Wilford
Published Jun 04, 2024 • 2 minute read

Dr. Anthony Fauci was paid quite well during the COVID-19 pandemic.


The former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and former White House top doctor was the highest-paid public servant in the U.S., making even more than President Joe Biden.

Fauci brought home about $480,000 US as Biden’s chief medical officer — which is $80,000 more than the president’s annual salary — and netted a total of $2 million in earnings during the coronavirus pandemic, according to records obtained by Fox News.

A Freedom of Information Act request filed at the end of his tenure in 2022 revealed Fauci and his wife Dr. Christine Grady had a net worth that exceeded $11 million — up from $7.6 million in 2019, the outlet reported.

The 82-year-old reportedly earned extra cash during the pandemic through royalties, speaking engagements, awards, investment gains and royalties from his academic publishing.


Meanwhile, as chief of the Department of Bioethics at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center, Grady’s 2021 earnings were about $239,000 in 2021. The figures for the following year were not made available.

By the end of 2022, the Faucis’ net worth was $11.45 million, though the year before, it was even higher at $12.6 million, according to the outlet.

At the end of last year, Fauci’s account balance totalled $9.25 million, while Grady’s was around $2.2 million.


OpenTheBooks CEO Adam Andrzejewski analyzed the Faucis’ past disclosures to form a fuller picture of their wealth and found the couple’s lucrative assets were held in a mix of trusts, retirement, and college education accounts.

Fauci, now retired, will collect a federal pension estimated to come to about $375,000 this year, but could reach as much as $530,000 in subsequent years.


“In retirement, we estimate that Fauci is collecting a federal pension, which rivals a presidential salary,” Andrzejewski told Fox. “It’s the largest federal retirement package in history.”

Fauci’s role during the pandemic was sharply criticized after he told then-President during his run as the head of the White House’s COVID response team to “shut the country down” — including schools and businesses.


He was also ripped for his masking policies and his social-distancing protocols, which he has since admitted he made up.

“You know, I don’t recall. It sort of just appeared,” he admitted to Republicans earlier this year about the six-foot social-distancing guidelines.

He also told the committee’s counsel that he didn’t remember reading anything to support that masking kids would prevent COVID.

“Do you recall reviewing any studies or data supporting masking for children?” he was asked, to which he responded, “I might have, but I don’t recall specifically that I did.”
 

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Past COVID infections may help protect against certain colds. Could it lead to better vaccines?
Author of the article:Associated Press
Associated Press
Laura Ungar
Published Jun 12, 2024 • 2 minute read

If you’ve been sick with COVID-19, you may have some protection against certain versions of the common cold.


A new study suggests previous COVID-19 infections lower the risk of getting colds caused by milder coronavirus cousins, which could provide a key to broader COVID-19 vaccines.

“We think there’s going to be a future outbreak of a coronavirus,” said Dr. Manish Sagar, senior author of the study published Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine. “Vaccines potentially could be improved if we could replicate some of the immune responses that are provided by natural infection.”

The study looked at COVID-19 PCR tests from more than 4,900 people who sought medical care between November 2020 and October 2021. After controlling for things like age, gender and preexisting conditions, Sagar said he and his colleagues found people previously infected with COVID-19 had about a 50% lower chance of having a symptomatic coronavirus-caused common cold compared with people were were, at the time, fully vaccinated and hadn’t yet gotten COVID-19.


Several viruses cause colds; coronaviruses are thought to be responsible for about 1 in 5 colds.

Researchers linked the protection against coronavirus-caused colds to virus-killing cell responses for two specific viral proteins. These proteins aren’t used in most vaccines now, but researchers propose adding them in the future.

“Our studies would suggest that these may be novel strategies for better vaccines that not only tackle the current coronaviruses, but any potential future one that may emerge,” said Sagar of Boston Medical Center.

Dr. Wesley Long, a pathologist at Houston Methodist in Texas who was not involved in the study, said the findings shouldn’t be seen as a knock against current vaccines, which target the “spike” protein studding the surface of the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19.

These vaccines, he said, are “still your best defence against severe COVID-19 infection, hospitalization and death.”

But he added: “If we can find targets that cross-protect among multiple viruses, we can either add those to specific vaccines or start to use those as vaccine targets that would give us broader-based immunity from a single vaccination. And that would be really cool.”
 
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Undercover officer tells Coutts murder-conspiracy trial protester willing to die
Author of the article:Canadian Press
Canadian Press
Published Jun 12, 2024 • Last updated 1 day ago • 3 minute read

LETHBRIDGE, Alta. — An undercover police officer who infiltrated the Coutts, Alta., border blockade in 2022 says Anthony Olienick told her he was committed to the cause and vowed if police interfered, force would be met with force.


“He said this is war and why he is willing to give his life. This is ground zero,” the officer testified in court Tuesday at the trial of Olienick and Chris Carbert.

“(He said) if the RCMP comes into Coutts with force, they will be met with greater force. It was really intense.”

Olienick and Carbert are on trial charged with conspiring to murder police officers at the blockade.

The blockade of trucks and other vehicles was one of several protests across the country against COVID-19 rules, restrictions and vaccine mandates. It paralyzed traffic at the Canada-U.S. border in southern Alberta for two weeks and became a symbol of the polarized national debate on public health and the handling of the pandemic.

The undercover officer can’t be publicly named and was referred to in court as HQ1298. Extraordinary steps were taken Tuesday to protect her safety. Media and the public were not allowed to watch her testify before the jury, but were allowed to listen in from a different room.


The officer told the trial she has worked undercover for two decades in projects across the country but mainly in Saskatchewan and Alberta.

At the Coutts blockade, she said, she and a male undercover colleague posed as a couple, handing out food and helping with kitchen duties.

She said she met Olienick at Smuggler’s Saloon, a local bar that became an unofficial headquarters for protesters.

Olienick introduced himself as part of the security team and the head of social media, said the officer.

“He said he had been there since Day 1 and he had sold his house and his vehicles so he could be part of the revolution,” the officer testified.

“He also said that if the RCMP would come into Coutts to try and overrun them, they would be met with resistance.


“He also told me that they had stockpiled hundreds of guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition and had the ability to outfit every man in Smuggler’s.”

The officer said she didn’t outwardly react.

“In terms of obviously talking about individuals that are my colleagues, it’s quite alarming.”

Earlier in her testimony, the officer detailed the rules and training for undercover officers.

She said the job is surveillance and interdiction, and seduction is not a tool of the trade.

“You’re not allowed to use your sexuality or have anyone else use their sexuality at all during the course of the investigation. It’s a non-issue,” she said.

“We shut them down right away.

“We’ll quite often use (stories that we have) boyfriends or will be same-sex oriented — something that will take that off the table, so that it never really enters into the equation.”


Olienick and Carbert were arrested in 2022 after Mounties found a cache of guns, body armour and ammunition in trailers in the area.

They are also charged with mischief and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose. Olienick faces a further charge of being in possession of a pipe bomb.

It was the second day the jury heard evidence. After opening statements Thursday, the trial was bogged down in legal arguments that can’t be immediately reported because of a publication ban.

“Don’t speculate about the reasons for the delay,” Justice David Labrenz told the jury. “There’s good reason for it.”
 
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Undercover officer says accused at Coutts spoke of killing police
Anthony Olienick and Chris Carbert are on trial in Lethbridge, charged with conspiring to murder police officers at the Coutts border blockade in 2022

Author of the article:CP, The Canadian Press
CP, The Canadian Press
Bill Graveland
Published Jun 12, 2024 • 3 minute read
A female undercover officer is set to continue her testimony Wednesday at a trial for two men charged with conspiracy to commit murder during the blockade.
A female undercover officer is set to continue her testimony Wednesday at a trial for two men charged with conspiracy to commit murder during the blockade.
LETHBRIDGE, Alta. — An undercover police officer told court Anthony Olienick characterized Mounties as the “arms” of Canada’s “devil” prime minister and said if police tried to break up the border blockade at Coutts, Alta., he would kill them.


“If (police) come into Coutts, he said that he will slit their throats,” the officer testified Wednesday.

“(He said) this was his destiny and the war he was supposed to fight in.

“He once again said that he knows he’s going to die for this fight.

“Then he said he wants to kill them all.”

Olienick and Chris Carbert are on trial in Lethbridge, Alta., charged with conspiring to murder police officers at the blockade.

The blockade ran for two weeks in early 2022, tying up traffic at the busy Canada-United States border crossing for two weeks to protest COVID-19 restrictions and pandemic vaccine mandates.

The two men were arrested after Mounties found a cache of guns, body armour and ammunition in trailers in the area.

The undercover officer can be identified only as HQ1298 to protect her safety. Members of the public and media were cleared from the courtroom during her testimony but were allowed to listen in from a separate room.


The officer testified about how she infiltrated the Coutts protest, posing as a volunteer, and talked with Olienick.

Olienick, she said, expected the “devil’s arms” would make sure he didn’t survive the blockade.

He said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was the devil and the RCMP were his limbs, the officer told the trial.

She became emotional during her testimony, prompting Crown prosecutor Steven Johnston to intervene.

“You’re upset? Why?” he asked.

“Because you don’t want anyone to get hurt,” the officer replied.

“How did you steel yourself when you heard (the threats)?” Johnston asked.

“At that point, you’re just doing a job. So you have to stay composed,” the officer said.

“Afterwards, it’s a little bit harder. In hindsight, it was upsetting.”


She said the conversation with Olienick moved to what would happen if police descended on Coutts.

“He said he’s got some things. He can teach us how to shoot, and then he said sort of to stick with him because, ‘I’m just going to run and gun.'”



The officer last saw Olienick on Feb. 13, 2022. He was angry and upset, saying RCMP had sabotaged some heavy equipment near the highway, said the officer.

After informing her superior about the movements of Olienick and Carbert, she said she was told to leave the area.

Hours later, police carried out an early morning raid.


During cross-examination, Olienick’s lawyer Marilyn Burns questioned the lack of actual quotes in the officer’s notes.

The officer acknowledged that as true, but said, “It doesn’t mean the context of my notes are not contextual or accurate.”

Burns also suggested that the officer may have misinterpreted what Olienick said about slitting throats.

Perhaps, said Burns, Olienick was using throat-slitting as a figure of speech and that police would in effect be figuratively slitting their own throats if they took action against the blockade.

“We’re dealing with an interpretation of language,” said Burns.

Prosecutor Johnston objected.

“That’s not what it says in the (officer’s) notes,” he said.

“I didn’t say it did,” replied Burns.

“I’m suggesting there is another interpretation than simply the people at Coutts slitting the police throats.”

Olienick and Carbert are also charged with mischief and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose. Olienick faces a further charge of being in possession of a pipe bomb.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 12, 2024.
 

Taxslave2

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Aha! This PROVES Covid is a hoax!
Mostly it proves that the experts have no clue what happened, or why. Or how best to deal with it. And the media printed whatever they were told to feed the terminally gullible.
This is what happens when the politicians feed the voters bullshit, instead of just admitting they don't have a clue. If they are spewing bulshit, then obviously they must be hiding something. The question is what. Are they hiding the truth? Or hiding the fact that they don't know what the facts is?
 

Taxslave2

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Undercover officer says accused at Coutts spoke of killing police
Anthony Olienick and Chris Carbert are on trial in Lethbridge, charged with conspiring to murder police officers at the Coutts border blockade in 2022

Author of the article:CP, The Canadian Press
CP, The Canadian Press
Bill Graveland
Published Jun 12, 2024 • 3 minute read
A female undercover officer is set to continue her testimony Wednesday at a trial for two men charged with conspiracy to commit murder during the blockade.
A female undercover officer is set to continue her testimony Wednesday at a trial for two men charged with conspiracy to commit murder during the blockade.
LETHBRIDGE, Alta. — An undercover police officer told court Anthony Olienick characterized Mounties as the “arms” of Canada’s “devil” prime minister and said if police tried to break up the border blockade at Coutts, Alta., he would kill them.


“If (police) come into Coutts, he said that he will slit their throats,” the officer testified Wednesday.

“(He said) this was his destiny and the war he was supposed to fight in.

“He once again said that he knows he’s going to die for this fight.

“Then he said he wants to kill them all.”

Olienick and Chris Carbert are on trial in Lethbridge, Alta., charged with conspiring to murder police officers at the blockade.

The blockade ran for two weeks in early 2022, tying up traffic at the busy Canada-United States border crossing for two weeks to protest COVID-19 restrictions and pandemic vaccine mandates.

The two men were arrested after Mounties found a cache of guns, body armour and ammunition in trailers in the area.

The undercover officer can be identified only as HQ1298 to protect her safety. Members of the public and media were cleared from the courtroom during her testimony but were allowed to listen in from a separate room.


The officer testified about how she infiltrated the Coutts protest, posing as a volunteer, and talked with Olienick.

Olienick, she said, expected the “devil’s arms” would make sure he didn’t survive the blockade.

He said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was the devil and the RCMP were his limbs, the officer told the trial.

She became emotional during her testimony, prompting Crown prosecutor Steven Johnston to intervene.

“You’re upset? Why?” he asked.

“Because you don’t want anyone to get hurt,” the officer replied.

“How did you steel yourself when you heard (the threats)?” Johnston asked.

“At that point, you’re just doing a job. So you have to stay composed,” the officer said.

“Afterwards, it’s a little bit harder. In hindsight, it was upsetting.”


She said the conversation with Olienick moved to what would happen if police descended on Coutts.

“He said he’s got some things. He can teach us how to shoot, and then he said sort of to stick with him because, ‘I’m just going to run and gun.'”



The officer last saw Olienick on Feb. 13, 2022. He was angry and upset, saying RCMP had sabotaged some heavy equipment near the highway, said the officer.

After informing her superior about the movements of Olienick and Carbert, she said she was told to leave the area.

Hours later, police carried out an early morning raid.


During cross-examination, Olienick’s lawyer Marilyn Burns questioned the lack of actual quotes in the officer’s notes.

The officer acknowledged that as true, but said, “It doesn’t mean the context of my notes are not contextual or accurate.”

Burns also suggested that the officer may have misinterpreted what Olienick said about slitting throats.

Perhaps, said Burns, Olienick was using throat-slitting as a figure of speech and that police would in effect be figuratively slitting their own throats if they took action against the blockade.

“We’re dealing with an interpretation of language,” said Burns.

Prosecutor Johnston objected.

“That’s not what it says in the (officer’s) notes,” he said.

“I didn’t say it did,” replied Burns.

“I’m suggesting there is another interpretation than simply the people at Coutts slitting the police throats.”

Olienick and Carbert are also charged with mischief and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose. Olienick faces a further charge of being in possession of a pipe bomb.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 12, 2024.
turdOWE's flunkies sure went to extreme lengths to make legitimate taxpayers protesting bad law look like terrorists.
 

Serryah

Executive Branch Member
Dec 3, 2008
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New Brunswick
So this is much more serious than kids that have say diabetes, or cancer?

Why does it have to be 'more serious' to be considered a bad thing, or be concerned about it?

Tell you what, in my experience, it could be more serious, or it may not be. Depends on the kid, the type of diabetes they have, the type of cancer, the treatments and on and on.

But I have a feeling you don't give a damn, regardless.