A recent Facebook post by a member of the Coutts Four gave the public a view of what life is like in their indefinite prison confinement.Chris Carbert, Chris Lysak, Anthony Olienick and Jerry Morin remain in custody after being charged of conspiracy to murder RCMP officers in connection with Courts border protests in February 2022. Lysak posted a “good morning” to friends and especially to his children as he described day 658 of his prison “purgatory.”They are incarcerated at the Lethbridge Remand Centre.“I was up at 6, I lay in bed wondering if I should try to go back to sleep. But some inmate decided that it would be an awesome idea to bang on the shelves and the top bunk…to let everyone here know he is here. I guess its better than when I was on unit three when you could hear them screaming and yelling. It tends to keep you up,” he said.Lysak alleged that guards who had to work the night shift didn’t want inmates to sleep either.“They slam doors repeatedly, basically make any noise loud enough to wake you up, on unit 7 the elevators are just to the west in the hallway. Some lazy guards take the elevators throughout the night and that wakes me up like an alarm clock,” he said.“I have the radio on just loud enough to drown out the noise and having it on all the time you get used to it and can sleep through it.”Lysak said he did pushups and read between sets. He let his daughters know he heard the song “Simple Man” on the radio.“That song brought back memories of our trips driving through the mountains listening to Dad’s music,” he said.“A friend read me your comments and thank you for being so kind, it gets hard for me, I choke up (sorry for being a wuss).”Weekend meals were reduced to brunch and dinner.“For brunch we got carton scrambled eggs and two pieces of bacon, which add up to equaling one normal piece because they are so thin they cook them stuck together so they don't disappear. Some cornflakes and three pieces of toast,” he said.“Canteen is every week and without it we would go hungry all the time.”After brunch, he talked to friends on the phone, read and went to the gym where he rode a stationary bike for a half hour. “Its hobbies day, I had 185$ in my trust fund account then canteen happened (-121) then I needed to buy minutes on the tablet so I can write you nice people (-50) leaving me with 14.01 to buy a note pad (-3.75) three packages for needles to work on my flag (-3.60) and another blue pen (-1.50). Leaving a little over 4$ left,” he explained.“At 3:00 I try to call my youngest but no answer…So I call Terri, we chat again and she reads more comments…After a few tears I remind her to take her granddaughter out tonight after dark to see the northern lights if its not cloudy. She sends me a picture of a sunset and finally a picture of my daughter with her deer. I wait for a bit but it takes hours for stuff to come thru.”For dinner lock-up, he had a “factory produced square piece of meat loaf,” adding “I am scared to think of what's in it” that was served with white rice, vegetables, canned oranges, a granola bar and two pieces of bread. After the meal, the pictures come in.“The two pictures show up, the sunset is beautiful. Then as I look at the next pride wells up in me, seeing my daughter's smile after harvesting her first mule deer buck. Then my heart drops and the tears coming when I notice she is wearing dads hunting pullover and my silver chain that she hasn't taken off since I had someone give it to her, it came from my property that they took off of me when I was arrested.“I am sorry my little one for not being there, for you having to do what you do just to be close to me. I'm sorry so sorry. The tears come but won't stop for you. I am sorry that you have to be strong out there with out me.”With that, Lysak discovers the dinner lock-up was due to a prison fight as someone was being checked off the unit.“I am sorry I won't be able to call you princesses tonight. Terri can you text the girls and tell them dads can't talk to them tonight but daddy loves them and misses them so. And hopefully you get to look at the northern lights before bed and sweet dreams tonight.“Dad loves you to the moon and back.”Lysak and the other Coutts members were supposed to have a trial in June. However, pre-trial applications by their lawyers delayed their trial until December 11.
A recent Facebook post by a member of the Coutts Four gave the public a view of what life is like in their indefinite prison confinement.Chris Carbert, Chris Lysak, Anthony Olienick and Jerry Morin remain in custody after being charged of conspiracy to murder RCMP officers in connection with Courts border protests in February 2022. Lysak posted a “good morning” to friends and especially to his children as he described day 658 of his prison “purgatory.”They are incarcerated at the Lethbridge Remand Centre.“I was up at 6, I lay in bed wondering if I should try to go back to sleep. But some inmate decided that it would be an awesome idea to bang on the shelves and the top bunk…to let everyone here know he is here. I guess its better than when I was on unit three when you could hear them screaming and yelling. It tends to keep you up,” he said.Lysak alleged that guards who had to work the night shift didn’t want inmates to sleep either.“They slam doors repeatedly, basically make any noise loud enough to wake you up, on unit 7 the elevators are just to the west in the hallway. Some lazy guards take the elevators throughout the night and that wakes me up like an alarm clock,” he said.“I have the radio on just loud enough to drown out the noise and having it on all the time you get used to it and can sleep through it.”Lysak said he did pushups and read between sets. He let his daughters know he heard the song “Simple Man” on the radio.“That song brought back memories of our trips driving through the mountains listening to Dad’s music,” he said.“A friend read me your comments and thank you for being so kind, it gets hard for me, I choke up (sorry for being a wuss).”Weekend meals were reduced to brunch and dinner.“For brunch we got carton scrambled eggs and two pieces of bacon, which add up to equaling one normal piece because they are so thin they cook them stuck together so they don't disappear. Some cornflakes and three pieces of toast,” he said.“Canteen is every week and without it we would go hungry all the time.”After brunch, he talked to friends on the phone, read and went to the gym where he rode a stationary bike for a half hour. “Its hobbies day, I had 185$ in my trust fund account then canteen happened (-121) then I needed to buy minutes on the tablet so I can write you nice people (-50) leaving me with 14.01 to buy a note pad (-3.75) three packages for needles to work on my flag (-3.60) and another blue pen (-1.50). Leaving a little over 4$ left,” he explained.“At 3:00 I try to call my youngest but no answer…So I call Terri, we chat again and she reads more comments…After a few tears I remind her to take her granddaughter out tonight after dark to see the northern lights if its not cloudy. She sends me a picture of a sunset and finally a picture of my daughter with her deer. I wait for a bit but it takes hours for stuff to come thru.”For dinner lock-up, he had a “factory produced square piece of meat loaf,” adding “I am scared to think of what's in it” that was served with white rice, vegetables, canned oranges, a granola bar and two pieces of bread. After the meal, the pictures come in.“The two pictures show up, the sunset is beautiful. Then as I look at the next pride wells up in me, seeing my daughter's smile after harvesting her first mule deer buck. Then my heart drops and the tears coming when I notice she is wearing dads hunting pullover and my silver chain that she hasn't taken off since I had someone give it to her, it came from my property that they took off of me when I was arrested.“I am sorry my little one for not being there, for you having to do what you do just to be close to me. I'm sorry so sorry. The tears come but won't stop for you. I am sorry that you have to be strong out there with out me.”With that, Lysak discovers the dinner lock-up was due to a prison fight as someone was being checked off the unit.“I am sorry I won't be able to call you princesses tonight. Terri can you text the girls and tell them dads can't talk to them tonight but daddy loves them and misses them so. And hopefully you get to look at the northern lights before bed and sweet dreams tonight.“Dad loves you to the moon and back.”Lysak and the other Coutts members were supposed to have a trial in June. However, pre-trial applications by their lawyers delayed their trial until December 11.
