Anti-COVID-Mandate Protester Found Not Guilty of Assault with a Weapon at Retrial 4 Years Later

A judge in Lethbridge has found trucker James Sowery not guilty of assault with a weapon, more than four and a half years after an RCMP checkstop during the 2022 Coutts border blockade.

"It was all hearsay from multiple different officers," he told Media Bezirgan after Friday's verdict. "There was no actual evidence, no proof."

At Sowery's 2024 sentencing, the officer's victim impact statement was read in court by a Crown prosecutor: "I was in shock and reduced to tears on the side of the highway. I was unable to control my emotions in front of numerous police officers and members of the public. … I am extremely thankful that I escaped physical harm, but the mental and emotional scars from that incident remain."

RCMP accused him of using his vehicle against an officer. Sowery says he accidentally hit a pylon as he was leaving.

Today, after being found not guilty of the assault with a weapon charge, Sowery said, "There was no assault that happened. I never attempted to hit an officer and never attempted to obstruct anything. I just went down to protest my rights and freedoms." The judge found him guilty of dangerous driving.

In March 2023, a Lethbridge jury convicted him on both counts, and in January 2024 he was sentenced to 10 months in jail. He appealed, won and was granted a new trial. Sowery turned down a plea deal to go to that second trial.

"I stood up in 2022 for a reason, to protect our children from the COVID-19 mandates. I'm not one that's going to back down for something I didn't do," he said. He still disputes the dangerous driving conviction.

"I still believe that I should have been vindicated on it, but I'm going to accept the win at this point. It's been almost five years and I'm tired."

The case has cost him about $120,000, he said. His supporters, many of them seniors and blue-collar workers, helped cover it through fundraisers.

The charges also cost him his trade. Commercial carriers won't insure him, so he can no longer haul the heavy equipment and oversize loads he once moved across Canada. "So financially it has been a burden on a family," he said.

Sowery is due back in court Dec. 14 to set a sentencing date on the dangerous driving conviction.

More on James Sowery

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Jailed Canadian Trucker James Sowery Speaks Out After Release on Pending Bail Appeal