Lorrie

August 4, 2024 To Whom It May Concern, I have been asked to write a character reference for Anthony Olienick. Full disclosure: I didn’t know Mr. Olienick before his arrest in 2022. I have subsequently gotten to know him through a few telephone chats, through his friends and mother, and most interestingly, through my experience while helping his defence lawyer, Marilyn Burns. I am an IT support specialist. As such, Ms. Burns hired me to help her with Anthony’s iPhone extraction. I have spent the past 20 years working in the IT field, and one of the more unusual aspects of this career is that it often exposes me to people’s private data (documents, photos, email, etc.). So, it wasn’t that unusual for me to take on the responsibility of managing the extraction and sifting through Anthony’s data. However, over time, the tasks that were requested of me took on a rather atypical level of granularity. I have not only looked through all of the photos that Tony personally captured over the past few years, but I have also looked through the various caches on his device (caches for his web browser, his Instagram account, etc.). Doing so feels strange. It is akin to retroactively looking over his shoulder and seeing everything he saw as he browsed the internet, flipped through Instagram, etc. I have also personally read through months of his personal and business email accounts. I have also read months of his instant messaging communications spread over various apps, including SMS text messages and even apps such as Zello and Signal, which are notable for their “end-to-end encryption.” I mention these encrypted apps because it is clear that Anthony believed that his communications on such apps were utterly private. As such, I have come to see myself as an expert–so much as anyone can be–on Anthony’s inner world. I know his struggles and frustrations, and I also know the people and things that bring him joy. Anthony loves kittens, puppies, guns, beautiful women, and freedom fighters (but not necessarily in that order). There is no denying that Anthony has an interest in guns. As such, his friends often send him questions, seeking his advice on what parts they should buy (scopes, accessories, etc.), relying on his almost encyclopedic knowledge. Speaking for myself, I don’t own any guns… I don’t even have a PAL. Like many Canadians, guns make me a bit uncomfortable. As I scoured through his phone, it was always in the back of my mind: if I should encounter something incriminating, something that indicated he intended to cause harm to the police or to any person (as he was accused of at the time), what would I do? If that happened, I decided to flag it to Ms. Burns and resign immediately. Thankfully, my experience was quite the opposite. At every turn, Anthony advocated for peace. Other than talking in metaphors (e.g., “This is war!”), everything I encountered showed his character as a peaceful soul, albeit with an unfortunate proclivity for bluster. However, when attending the Coutts border blockade, the RCMP vandalized an excavator sitting on private property. This offended Antony, who sent text messages relating this information to several contacts. When asked, “What are you going to do about it?” he replied, “We are going to remain peaceful as always because that is what we are good at!” Another notable moment was the evening of February 13th, 2022. Everyone who remained at the Coutts protest knew that arrests were imminent. In fact, Anthony had heard a rumor that his friend and campmate, Chris Lysak, had already been arrested. Far from confronting the RCMP verbally, let alone physically, Antony recorded a live video, the last upload to his Instagram account. In the video, he calmly says (of the police), “I wish they would unload their guns and come and have coffee with us.” It is also clear to me that, before Coutts, Anthony has always been a very hard worker. His iPhone is full of emails and texts from clients with various requests. Some of these jobs were huge in scope, leading to contracts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. Anthony has dozens—if not hundreds—of “selfies” of himself, sitting in various pieces of heavy machinery, working on one job site or another. I’ve seen many customer messages thanking him for his work, but not a single negative one. From everything I’ve seen, Anthony is also willing to help anyone. It is almost his defining quality. My strong impression is that he will enthusiastically help anyone, anytime, with anything. In short, I haven’t yet had the pleasure of spending time with Anthony, but I feel I have been granted a unique insight into his character and inner life. He is a kind-hearted, gentle person, loved by many in his community. The world is a much better place with Anthony in it. It is my sincere pleasure to provide this character reference. Stevland Ambrose IT Support Specialist Red e Technology rede.ca