While trucks filled downtown Ottawa, protesters also blocked three border crossings. One was cleared by a court order, one by an armed RCMP raid that found a weapons cache, and one walked away on its own. Here is what each was — and how they came to anchor the case for the Emergencies Act.
Ambassador Bridge, Coutts and Emerson. Border alerts hit four ports.
A weapons cache was seized; four men charged with conspiracy to murder.
Two pleaded to lesser charges; two were acquitted by a jury — but firearms/explosives convictions and 6.5-year sentences followed.
Cleared peacefully by negotiation — no arrests, no tickets.
The Ottawa occupation was the most visible part of the 2022 protests, but it was not the only one. As the trucks settled into downtown Ottawa, protesters also began blocking international border crossings — first at Coutts, Alberta (Jan 29), then the Ambassador Bridge at Windsor–Detroit (Feb 7), and then Emerson, Manitoba (Feb 10). Canada Border Services issued alerts at four ports of entry in all.
The Ambassador Bridge mattered most economically: it normally carries about a quarter of all Canada–US surface trade, and its closure idled auto plants and choked supply chains. It was cleared not by any emergency power but by an Ontario court injunction (Feb 11) and ordinary police work; the bridge reopened late on Feb 13 after roughly 25–30 arrests for mischief.
Coutts is where the genuine violence evidence was. In a pre-dawn raid on February 14, the RCMP arrested 13 people and seized a weapons cache — guns, body armour, ammunition and (per the later trial record) two pipe bombs. Four men were charged with conspiracy to murder RCMP officers. That cache became the single hardest piece of evidence that the protests had a violent fringe.
Emerson was the opposite story. After the RCMP negotiated with the protesters, the blockade simply left around midday on February 16 — no arrests, no tickets.
On February 14, the same day as the Coutts raid, the federal government invoked the Emergencies Act for the first time ever. Its proclamation pointed directly at the blockades. So the central question this page sets out is: did the border blockades justify that emergency — or had ordinary law already dealt with them?
The bodies that looked at it split. The Rouleau Commission (2023) found the legal threshold was met. The Federal Court (2024) and Federal Court of Appeal (2026) found it was not. And the conspiracy-to-murder counts — the most serious Coutts charges — did not survive in court, though the same defendants were convicted of mischief and firearms/explosives offences and given multi-year sentences. Below, each blockade is laid out with its sources, then the justification and the criticism side by side.
A note on certainty. The blockade dates and the RCMP/court outcomes are facts or official findings. The original conspiracy-to-murder counts were allegations that did not result in any conviction. The Coutts weapons cache is reported at two different scales by two different sources — we keep them separate and attribute each. We mark which is which throughout.
Three blockades, three different endings. Each card sets out what the crossing was, how long it lasted, how it ended, and what is documented — with FACT / ALLEGATION / OFFICIAL OUTCOME marked.
The Coutts weapons cache is the most-cited and most-contested fact on this page. It is reported at two scales. They come from different sources at different stages, and we present them separately rather than merging them.
The RCMP’s first public account of what was seized in the raid:
Additional items attributed specifically to the trial / court record (not the initial RCMP release):
Both are facts — but of different things. The first is what the RCMP said on day one; the second is what was tendered through the prosecution. Reporting that quotes only one figure is not wrong, but the two should not be added together or presented as a single seizure.
Protesters begin blocking Highway 4 at the Coutts, Alberta border crossing into Montana — the start of what the federal government would later describe as roughly a 17-day disruption.
Global News ↗Protesters begin blocking the Ambassador Bridge, the Windsor–Detroit crossing that normally carries about a quarter of all Canada–US surface trade. The crossing would be obstructed for roughly a week.
Detroit News ↗Vehicles begin blocking Highway 75 at the Emerson, Manitoba crossing. At its peak the RCMP estimated about 75 vehicles on the highway.
RCMP news release ↗Ontario Chief Justice Geoffrey Morawetz grants an injunction — sought by the auto-industry associations (the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association, Global Automakers of Canada and the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association, in APMA v. Jim Boak et al.) — ordering the bridge blockade to end, effective 7 p.m. ET. Police clear the bridge over the following two days.
CBC — bridge injunction ruling ↗Windsor police finish clearing the bridge and it reopens late Sunday night. Police cited roughly 25–30 arrests for mischief and about a dozen vehicles seized over the two days of the operation.
CBC News ↗In a pre-dawn enforcement action the RCMP arrest 13 people and seize a weapons cache. The RCMP’s initial account described 13 long guns plus handguns, multiple sets of body armour, a machete, a large quantity of ammunition and high-capacity magazines. The blockade ended that day.
Globe and Mail ↗For the first time since the Act replaced the War Measures Act in 1988, the government declares a public order emergency. The proclamation cites continuing blockades, threats to oppose their removal by force, and threats or use of serious violence against persons and critical infrastructure for a political or ideological objective.
Justice Canada · s.58 declaration ↗After the RCMP negotiate a voluntary departure, the Emerson blockade clears around midday with no arrests made and no tickets issued.
RCMP news release ↗Chris Carbert, Anthony Olienick, Jerry Morin and Chris Lysak are charged with conspiracy to murder RCMP officers over Coutts. These were allegations at the time of charging; the RCMP described an armed group within the protest said to be willing to use force.
Global News ↗Jerry Morin (conspiracy to traffic firearms) and Chris Lysak (possession of a weapon in an unauthorized place) plead guilty to lesser charges. The conspiracy-to-murder charges against them are withdrawn; their sentences (Morin 3.25 years; Lysak 3 years) are satisfied by remand time already served.
CBC News ↗A jury acquits Chris Carbert and Anthony Olienick of conspiracy to murder RCMP officers, but convicts both of mischief over $5,000 and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose. Olienick is additionally convicted of possessing an explosive (two pipe bombs).
CBC News ↗Justice David Labrenz sentences Chris Carbert to 6.5 years (6.5 years for the firearms offence, with 6 months concurrent for mischief) and Anthony Olienick to 6.5 years (6 years for the firearms offence plus 6 months consecutive for possessing the pipe bomb, with mischief concurrent). With credit for time served, each was expected to serve roughly two more years. Both received lifetime firearms bans and DNA orders.
Global News ↗In 2024 FC 42, Justice Mosley finds the invocation of the Emergencies Act unreasonable and in breach of Charter ss. 2(b) and 8. The ruling concerns the federal declaration, not the lawfulness of any individual blockade clearance.
2024 FC 42 (Federal Court decision) ↗The Crown abandons its appeals of the Carbert and Olienick conspiracy-to-murder acquittals — making those acquittals final. The only Coutts appeals still live are the two men’s own appeals of their mischief/weapons convictions and sentences (argued Sept 2025, on reserve). Carbert’s defence counsel said the decision did not affect his client’s intention to continue his own appeal.
CBC News ↗In 2026 FCA 6, the Federal Court of Appeal dismisses the government’s appeal, holding the invocation unreasonable and ultra vires. It found "very little hard evidence of any actual serious violence" — the main exception being the Coutts cache — yet held the Coutts situation had been "effectively dealt with" before the Act was invoked.
Canadian Lawyer ↗With his conviction appeal argued and on reserve, Anthony Olienick is granted bail pending the Alberta Court of Appeal’s decision. Chris Carbert had been granted bail pending appeal earlier, on June 30, 2025, by Alberta Court of Appeal Justice Jo’Anne Strekaf, and was released from custody in January 2026.
CP24 ↗The federal government seeks leave to appeal 2026 FCA 6 to the Supreme Court of Canada, meeting the March 17 deadline. The leave application was pending as of June 19, 2026.
CBC News ↗The blockades and the Ottawa occupation were invoked together as a single emergency. Whether the border situations strengthened or undercut that case is the heart of the dispute. We set out the government/police justification and the protester/critic perspective side by side, each with its sources.
The blockades caused acute economic and public-safety harm and were a core reason for invoking the Act on Feb 14, 2022.
Most blockades ended through ordinary tools, before or without the Act — so critics argue it was unnecessary, and the outcomes bear that out.
What the courts made of it. The Federal Court of Appeal (2026 FCA 6) found "very little hard evidence of any actual serious violence or threats of it" — the chief exception being the Coutts cache — yet held the Coutts situation had been "effectively dealt with" before the Act was invoked, that what was lacking was policing resources rather than legal tools, and declined to treat disabling critical infrastructure as "serious violence." On that reasoning, the very blockade that supplied most of the genuine violence evidence was also the one already resolved under ordinary law — which the courts used to find that the emergency did not meet the statutory threshold, even though Rouleau found it did. Canadian Lawyer ↗
The Public Order Emergency Commission concluded the government met the "very high threshold" to invoke the Act, treating the Ambassador Bridge and Coutts blockades as central to the harm, while criticizing policing and federalism failures upstream.
Rouleau Report, Vol. 1 ↗The Federal Court (2024 FC 42) and the Federal Court of Appeal (2026 FCA 6) reached the opposite legal conclusion: the invocation was unreasonable, ultra vires, and in breach of Charter ss. 2(b) and 8. The government’s leave application to the Supreme Court was pending as of June 19, 2026.
2026 FCA 6 summary ↗These are not contradictory facts but different legal questions answered by different bodies: a commission of inquiry assessing the decision in context, and courts applying the standard of reasonableness on judicial review. Both are official findings; the Supreme Court has not yet had the last word.
This page is one section of The Record. The border blockades connect directly to the federal emergency declaration and to the clearing of Ottawa — both covered in their own sections.
The inquiry and the courts: the Rouleau finding that the threshold was met, the Federal Court and Court of Appeal rulings that the invocation was unlawful, and the pending Supreme Court appeal.
Open this record →How downtown Ottawa was cleared, Feb 17–20, 2022 — the arrests, the use of force, and the two completed SIU investigations, with both the police justification and the documented criticism.
Open this record →Don’t take anyone’s word for it — including ours. Every factual claim above traces to one of these: the primary records first (the RCMP release, the Emergencies Act order, the CBSA rationale, the Rouleau report and the court decision), then the contemporaneous reporting, then the labelled partisan framing.
The s.58 proclamation text: cites continuing blockades, threats to oppose their removal by force, and threats or use of serious violence against persons and critical infrastructure for political or ideological objectives.
Open source ↗Carries the RCMP’s own Update #5 statement: the Emerson, Manitoba blockade on Highway 75 (peak ~75 vehicles) cleared peacefully Feb 16 via a negotiated departure. (The RCMP’s original release URL went dead when the force migrated domains; no arrests/no tickets is separately confirmed by CBC.)
Open source ↗Government rationale: border alerts at four ports (Ambassador Bridge, Coutts, Emerson, Pacific Highway); disruption durations (~8 days bridge, ~17 days Coutts); supply-chain and economic impacts cited to justify the Act.
Open source ↗The Rouleau Commission finds the government met the "very high threshold" to invoke the Act, treating the Ambassador Bridge and Coutts blockades as central to the harm, while criticizing policing and federalism failures.
Open source ↗The Federal Court of Appeal dismisses the government’s appeal: invocation unreasonable and ultra vires; no reasonable grounds to believe a national emergency existed; existing laws not shown to be inadequate. Upholds 2024 FC 42.
Open source ↗Reports the bridge reopening after roughly a week, the arrests during clearing, and the daily trade value (about a third of Canada–US surface trade; hundreds of millions per day).
Open source ↗Reports Chief Justice Morawetz’s Feb 11 injunction ordering the bridge blockade to end, effective 7 p.m. ET, sought by the auto-industry associations (APMA, Global Automakers of Canada and the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association) in APMA v. Jim Boak et al. (The APMA’s own press release on the order is no longer online.)
Open source ↗Confirms the reopening, the ~25–30 arrests for mischief, vehicles seized, and that the crossing normally carries about 25% of Canada–US trade.
Open source ↗Crown withdrawal of the mischief charge against accused bridge organizer William Laframboise on March 6, 2024 (Dicredico’s was dropped Nov 2023) — how several bridge prosecutions resolved without conviction.
Open source ↗RCMP Supt. Roberta McKale describes 13 arrests, the weapons cache, an armed group within the protest said to be "willing to use force," and that conspiracy-to-murder charges were under investigation.
Open source ↗Recaps the RCMP’s stated seizure from the Coutts raid: 13 long guns plus several handguns, body armour, a machete, ammunition and high-capacity magazines. Any larger overall firearm/round totals are attributed to the trial / court record rather than the RCMP release.
Open source ↗Primary RCMP account of the Feb 14 raid: arrests and the seized cache (long guns, handguns, body armour, machete, ammunition, high-capacity magazines).
Open source ↗Morin and Lysak plead guilty to lesser firearms charges; conspiracy-to-murder charges withdrawn; sentences satisfied by time served.
Open source ↗A jury acquits Carbert and Olienick of conspiracy to murder but convicts both of mischief over $5,000 and possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose (Olienick also of an explosive).
Open source ↗Justice Labrenz sentences Carbert and Olienick to 6.5 years, with credit for time served, lifetime firearms bans and DNA orders.
Open source ↗Detail of the sentences: Carbert 6.5 years (6.5 for the firearms offence, 6 months concurrent for mischief); Olienick 6 years for the firearms offence plus 6 months consecutive for the pipe bomb (mischief concurrent), for 6.5 years total — with credit for time served, each was expected to serve roughly two more years.
Open source ↗The Crown abandons its appeals of the Carbert/Olienick conspiracy-to-murder acquittals, making the acquittals final; only the two men’s own conviction/sentence appeals continue.
Open source ↗As of early 2026, Olienick’s conviction appeal had been argued and was on reserve; he was granted bail pending the Alberta Court of Appeal’s decision.
Open source ↗Reporting on the Rouleau finding that the threshold was met, framed around the border blockades and the Coutts weapons cache.
Open source ↗Reports the FCA’s key reasoning: "very little hard evidence of any actual serious violence" except the Coutts cache; the Coutts situation had been "effectively dealt with"; what was lacking was policing resources, not legal tools.
Open source ↗The federal government seeks leave to appeal 2026 FCA 6 to the Supreme Court of Canada (deadline March 17, 2026); the CCLA notes two courts have ruled the use unlawful.
Open source ↗The border blockades are where the 2022 protests came closest to genuine danger — the Coutts cache and the conspiracy charges — and also where ordinary law most plainly did its job: an injunction at the bridge, a raid at Coutts, a negotiated exit at Emerson. Both of those things are true at once.
That tension is exactly what the inquiry and the courts divided over, and what the Supreme Court may yet resolve. The conspiracy-to-murder charges, the most serious of all, did not survive in court — while the convictions that did, for mischief and weapons offences, stand.
The point of this page is to keep the record straight: what each blockade was, how each ended, what was seized and charged, and what was ultimately found — each tied to a source, so that what happened at the borders is neither inflated nor erased.