This was posted on f/b today...

The following letter was published today in Newsweek. I have copied and pasted here so some will maybe understand what is really happening in Canada.

By Tony Olienick

prisoner, Canada

It's been two years since Canada's Freedom Convoy protests. I have spent them in a Canadian jail. My name is Tony Olienick and I am a political prisoner.

I'm from a small town in southern Alberta called Claresholm. I'm the only son to my late father George and my mom Tessie, who is approaching her 81st birthday. Before I participated in the Freedom Convoy and was arrested, I helped my mom at our small hobby farm, among other things. After high school I became a journeyman plumber and gas fitter, but I eventually pursued what every little boy loves the most—playing with Tonka Toys in the sandbox. Starting with one backhoe, I grew a gravel quarrying and trucking business into an operation that employed two dozen people at times. I had multiple pieces of heavy equipment, trucks, and trailers.

We have since had to sell all that equipment to pay my legal bills.

How did I end up here?

During the COVID-19 pandemic, I started to see the world I knew and loved crumble. The mandates under Canada's Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, and the provincial premiers were destroying businesses, rupturing families, and harming the mental health of everyone I encountered.

People became desperate and wanted answers as to why the government was imposing such harsh restrictions on us, but our government was unresponsive.

In these dark days, I began attending freedom protest rallies and met like-minded people who shared my sentiments about getting our lives back.

As the mandates and crushing restrictions against society wore on, I saw the trucker's Freedom Convoy birthed from the ashes of the remnants of Canada. Like so many others, I was filled with hope that someone was standing up for us.

I couldn't make it all the way to Ottawa, where the main gathering was, but I heard about another rally not far from me in the border town of Coutts. I headed there at 4 a.m. the next day with a group of friends.

It was a true freedom-loving experience. During the day, kids played street hockey and bands played music for the crowd. I met so many awesome people, even many Americans who we hung out with right on the border with Sweetgrass, Montana. Many of our American brothers and sisters came to Sweetgrass in support of us, and I met people who had traveled from as far away as Texas.

The love and affection and common humanity we shared in Coutts was one of the greatest experiences of my life.

That all came to an end on the night of February 13, 2022, when a heavily militarized police force entered the village and a number of us were arrested.

I was very surprised to be arrested; I've never been in trouble with the law in my entire life, and I was simply exercising my right to protest. But I complied peacefully.

This was only the beginning of my troubles.

Along with three other men, I was denied bail and kept in jail for two years without trial. The four of us were charged with conspiracy to commit murder—an absolutely astonishing charge against four guys who went to a peaceful protest and hung out with a bunch of kids and fellow Canadians (these charges were dropped against two of my co-accused a couple of weeks ago).

Throughout this carceral purgatory, I have been witness to the overcrowding of jail facilities in Alberta. We are often three men to a cell with only one bunk bed, and I've spent many nights sleeping on the floor. I've spent long weeks in tiny cells with people going through extreme withdrawal from drug problems, and all of the bodily and mental excesses this entails. At least that was better than when I was kept in solitary confinement—a recognized form of torture—for at least 80 of the 730 days I have been in here.

I am told that one of my co-defendants, Jerry Morin, has also spent many periods in solitary confinement, though when not in solitary, he was mostly kept at a gang unit in Calgary with some truly unsavory convicted criminals and repeat offenders.

This is how Canada treats those who have yet to face trial and are guilty of nothing but peaceful protest.

Alberta Health Services bears some responsibility for our mistreatment as well; I suffer from SIBO, or small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. I have been denied access to basic probiotics that are available at many health food stores. Meanwhile, the processed food prepared for us by outside contractors is often uncooked or rotten, which exacerbates many health issues. My advocates on the outside have had to fight provincial prison and health bureaucrats for months to make sure our concerns are heard, and they have only had limited success.

What has kept me strong is my faith in God, and the supporters who line the streets when I am moved from jail to court for pre-trial hearings.

I stand firm in asserting my innocence and look forward to challenging the very dubious case against us and exposing the corrupt nature of the government when I am finally set free.

Tony Olienick is awaiting trial without bail in Canada on charges of conspiracy to murder Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers following his participation in the trucker's Freedom Convoy. He denies the charge.