Rebel News Podcast - November 23, 2022


BREAKDOWN: Trucker Commission Day 29 | Justice, Defence, Transport ministers testify


Episode Stats

Length

1 hour and 19 minutes

Words per Minute

168.55585

Word Count

13,408

Sentence Count

816

Misogynist Sentences

7

Hate Speech Sentences

10


Summary

The Public Order Emergency Inquiry is taking place in Ottawa right now, where our team is at the Airbnb satellite studio just up the road from the hearings taking place at the Public Safety Building in the nation's capital. We're here to break down the day's proceedings, including the testimony of Justice Minister David Lamedi, the Attorney General, and the Prime Minister's Office's Chief of Staff, Omar Al-Amin.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Oh, good evening, everybody, and welcome to Breakdown, the Rebel News daily show wherein
00:00:21.100 we analyze the day's proceedings at the Public Order Emergency Inquiry.
00:00:25.360 I'll get to exactly what that is in a second, but I want to say hello to my friend Selene,
00:00:29.360 who looks great in orange, by the way, and Selene has been in the Public Order Inquiry Commission
00:00:35.560 hearing room since very nearly the beginning. What was it like in there today? We had some more
00:00:41.300 high-profile cabinet ministers doing their best to cover their butts.
00:00:46.180 It was interesting because it was a different tone in the room per the minister actually giving
00:00:52.520 their testimony. So there was actually a lot of people left during Lamedi's testimony because he
00:00:58.640 was just so darn rude and blatant in the fact that he knew that he could say anything that
00:01:04.740 he wanted or withhold anything that he wanted. And then the rest of it was pretty neutral and
00:01:09.660 then there was almost no one there for Omar's testimony. Omar Algebra. Yeah, that's how you
00:01:17.200 say it. Algebra, Algebra, depends on who you are and whether or not you care if you're saying his name
00:01:23.160 properly because I don't. But I show everybody what we're doing here. So as I said, this is Breakdown.
00:01:30.100 It's the Rebel News daily analysis of the comings and goings of the Public Order Emergency Inquiry.
00:01:35.120 The Public Order Emergency Inquiry is taking place in Ottawa right now where our team is at the Airbnb
00:01:40.580 satellite studio just up the road from the commission hearings. You can see and support all of their work
00:01:46.080 at truckercommission.com. The commission is the fail safe built into the Emergencies Act law to prevent,
00:01:54.120 let's say, an egomaniacal yet fragile buffoon from invoking the Emergencies Act to dissipate peaceful
00:02:02.800 anti-regime protests happening on the streets of their nation's capital, which is exactly what Justin Trudeau did.
00:02:10.140 A convoy of truckers and their allies. Truckers were the catalyst and the cross-border vaccine mandate
00:02:20.340 imposed upon them by the aforementioned Omar Algebra, who looks particularly like a goblin
00:02:26.600 on the thumbnail for this video. And I don't know if that's on purpose or if it's just his natural state.
00:02:32.540 But that was the catalyst for the protests. And then it was just people from all walks of life who
00:02:41.700 are really just sick of two years of nonsensical, unscientific, unfair intrusions upon their lives
00:02:50.520 and their behaviors and their jobs and their families by every single level of government from
00:02:56.180 municipal upwards. And I would say even lower school board to federal. It was everything. And it was the thing
00:03:05.360 where people said, you know what, me too. I've had enough. We went to the nation's capital for almost four weeks
00:03:13.560 and about two and a half weeks in, Justin Trudeau dropped the hammer on them. However, as we heard today,
00:03:20.700 they wanted to do it after about 30 hours, maybe. We saw David Lamedi, our justice minister, as you mentioned.
00:03:30.300 He's the justice minister and the attorney general, which means that he's the government's lawyer,
00:03:36.520 which means when he doesn't want to answer something, he can claim attorney-client privilege,
00:03:40.460 which he did multiple times today. He can also claim cabinet privilege because talks between cabinet ministers
00:03:47.900 are protected by secrecy. They get cabinet confidentiality. So basically, he could answer whatever he felt like
00:03:54.240 today or not. And we saw text messages between David Lamedi and I think it was a senior bureaucrat,
00:04:01.440 maybe his ADM, maybe his chief of staff. I forget. Doesn't matter. Because the point is, David Lamedi on January 30th,
00:04:08.420 the truckers really arrived like 28th, 29th. And by the 30th, he's like, we're going to invoke the EA.
00:04:15.060 Yeah. It was predetermined. I mean, it's, I've been screaming it from the beginning. It's a setup.
00:04:21.220 This is, you know, again, we saw all through all the testimonies from all the people. We started with
00:04:25.840 police officials. We even had citizens testifying, citizens of Ottawa who, you know, tried to feel
00:04:31.780 righteous and throwing eggs, pelting trucks with eggs, like their children, they're 12 years old. Then they
00:04:36.940 want to complain about micro, um, microaggressions. That one's funny, but we've seen that it's just
00:04:43.160 been one big finger pointing in one direction. And now we've arrived. It's all the liberal ministers
00:04:49.240 in Trudeau's cabinet. And they're the ones that, uh, that invoke this, that made this happen,
00:04:55.380 that have been trying to cover it up by pointing fingers back at everybody else. And, uh, Marco
00:05:01.520 Mendicino is a really good example of that because he publicly declared how many times
00:05:05.760 that it was the OPS and the OPP and other officers or, um, just police in general that actually called
00:05:13.680 for the invocation of the emergencies act. And, um, that was never the case. And that's come out
00:05:19.120 since. And it's, it's been the truth and he testified so hard. Um, still he's going down with
00:05:25.560 a lie. Um, just kind of watching that shit burn as it, as it passes by. It's great. It's really
00:05:30.480 great. Yeah. Yeah. They said, you know, the police asked them to, but nobody ever needed to ask them
00:05:35.520 to, because this is a predetermined outcome that they were willing to do from the very beginning.
00:05:40.280 Now we have a big lineup of guests today. I think we've got Alan Hohner from the democracy fund who is
00:05:47.340 sitting, I think, directly adjacent to you in the Airbnb studio. Hey, Alan, good to see you.
00:05:53.600 You were questioning the, uh, cabinet ministers today. Why don't we go to Alan's clip and then
00:06:02.100 let's talk to Alan.
00:06:07.560 Celine's not, or sorry, she's not ready. Um, you know what, let's, Alan, you had some text messages.
00:06:15.820 No, are we good? Okay. Alan, you had some text messages that, um, came out in your examination.
00:06:22.500 Uh, why don't you tell us what those were all about?
00:06:28.440 Right. So, so Sheila, in, in my examination of David Lamedi, what I wanted to explore
00:06:33.860 was when, uh, when cabinet and the prime minister, uh, decided to invoke the emergencies act.
00:06:42.940 And we, we know under the emergencies act that they have to consult with the provinces.
00:06:49.040 And, and so what we did is we took them through a timeline. We saw an email and that email was from
00:06:56.200 the, um, the prime minister's office. And it was suggesting that, um, there was going to be a press,
00:07:01.680 a press conference on February the 14th, and that it was to be kept quiet until after the first
00:07:07.200 minister's meeting. So we just wanted to explore that and see why it was, uh, supposed to be quiet
00:07:13.100 and whether or not the prime minister and cabinet had made up their minds beforehand.
00:07:17.400 And one of the text messages that we brought, uh, the minister of justice to was a text message from
00:07:23.160 the 13th in which he was having a conversation with an MP, I believe, um, uh,
00:07:30.200 in, in, in, in the sort of Ottawa area. And they, and, and that text message concluded
00:07:36.960 with a summary of a conversation in which they said that there's a consensus to invoke the emergencies
00:07:43.960 act. Now, in fairness, it didn't matter what the first minister said.
00:07:50.640 Well, it was theater. Well, you know, I, I, I can't say for sure. Right. But we, we just wanted
00:07:58.460 to put it to him and explore it. And so, you know, there's, there's been evidence both ways,
00:08:03.320 but part of the process or part of the purpose of the inquiry is to test this evidence.
00:08:10.040 And we also have, I think, a second clip of you, Alan, um, questioning minister justice
00:08:17.400 about text messages and the lengths at which the government of Canada would go to keep the
00:08:23.120 emergencies act in effect. And it seemed as though they were willing to keep it in effect
00:08:27.920 insofar as the NDP and the senators would support them. And they would, you know, sort of repeal
00:08:38.440 the use of the emergencies act when they felt as though they were losing the support of the NDP.
00:08:44.980 So it really wasn't about public safety at all. It was about how much they could do and how long
00:08:49.720 they could do it for until it became, uh, a political hot potato for them.
00:08:54.440 Right. So Sheila, so what we saw was that there was a text message between, uh, MP Greg Fergus and
00:09:01.260 the minister of justice on February 23rd. That was the date that the emergencies act was revoked.
00:09:08.240 And it was that, and, and the message suggested that perhaps, um, the federal government wanted to
00:09:15.080 stay ahead of the NDP and they wanted to revoke the act before, um, uh, before the Senate could vote on
00:09:22.900 it. There was, of course, there was some contrary evidence later on in the proceeding, but the
00:09:29.140 question still remains, if the NDP, uh, withdrawing their support wasn't a concern, then why bring
00:09:34.920 it up? And if the Senate voting against the emergencies act wasn't a concern, then why talk
00:09:41.600 about that in a text message? Uh, Olivia, did you find that clip?
00:09:56.680 This is another email exchange between you and Greg Fergus. And he says on February 23rd,
00:10:02.840 I'm glad we ended the EA, but it would have been more appropriate if we waited until Friday,
00:10:08.460 44 hours after the vote seems unseemly. And your response is, no, we needed to stay ahead of the NDP
00:10:17.040 and the senators were saying that they would vote against based on their view that there was no
00:10:22.680 longer an emergency. That is your text message with Mr. Fergus. It is indeed. And I, and although we did
00:10:30.220 have the votes and although the vast majority of senators understood that they were being asked to
00:10:36.380 vote on the emergencies act at the time at which it was invoked, there were a number that didn't
00:10:44.720 understand that. We had said from the beginning, sir, that we would not keep the act a minute longer
00:10:50.680 than, than, than we needed to. It's something we said to the NDP and it's something that we said
00:10:56.080 to senators. And I'm being completely consistent here to say that we needed to be ahead of that
00:11:02.620 in terms of keeping our promise in order to, uh, in order to not keep the act in place a minute longer
00:11:10.100 than necessary. And that's precisely what we did. And this is my last question. I put it to you that
00:11:14.640 this text message shows that in fact, you would have kept the emergencies act in place for
00:11:20.540 longer, had it not been for the fact that you were concerned that the NDP would withdraw their
00:11:25.120 risk, their support and that the senators would vote against. I reject that premise. There are
00:11:30.820 other, there are other text messages that you will see where we have predicted that we had sufficient
00:11:35.440 votes. We'll leave that to submissions. Thank you very much, minister. Thank you.
00:11:41.140 Sure sounds to me like he would only keep the emergencies act in place
00:11:44.560 as long as he could get away with it politically.
00:11:50.120 Well, we'll never know what, what would have happened with that Senate vote. Will we?
00:11:55.440 No, we won't, but I think he does. I think David Lometty does. Um, now, uh, I want to talk to you a
00:12:02.820 little bit about some of the other questions, I guess, from the freedom side. Um, Olivia, you want to
00:12:08.720 queue up clip for David Lometty refuses to answer freedom convoy layer, Brandon Miller's question
00:12:15.280 about the broader scope of section two of the emergencies act. Lometty kept citing hiding behind
00:12:21.460 solicitor client privilege, but this is one thing that's really come out in the final days of the
00:12:27.660 commission. I think it was probably universally understood at the beginning of this, that to invoke
00:12:35.880 the emergencies act, the convoy had to reach the bar of section two of the CSIS act, one of those
00:12:43.780 four provisions there. But then all of a sudden when police forces kept saying, no, it didn't meet
00:12:48.940 that. It didn't meet that. Um, then we've said, okay, well not we, but the liberals, it is their
00:12:55.320 contention that it's actually much broader under the emergencies act. And really this is in the only
00:13:03.940 the final weeks of this thing. Have we even ever heard that before it was yes, definitely police
00:13:09.960 forces act us asked us repeatedly that they needed these extra tools. And only when police forces
00:13:16.480 started testifying that they didn't, they sort of changed whatever the argument would be. And they
00:13:21.600 said, well, actually it's, that's not even the requirement under the emergencies act. Am I reading
00:13:26.520 that right? I'm not a lawyer, but you are. Well, you know, Sheila, I think you've, you sort of zeroed
00:13:32.960 in on what has been a major frustration for many people who are watching the emergencies, um, the
00:13:40.680 commission, as well as some of the lawyers, because what we really want to get to is, is this, this
00:13:46.720 question of, well, why did you invoke the act? And to, to know that we have to know a little bit more
00:13:53.280 about what was discussed in cabinet. And we, we really need to know what advice David Lamedi gave
00:14:00.580 to the other cabinet members. But as you saw that information, that information is privileged.
00:14:06.640 So there's solicitor client privilege that's in play and there's cabinet privilege and that's in
00:14:12.840 play as well. So there's, there's a double layer of privilege here. And in some ways at sometimes there
00:14:18.040 might also be a third level of privilege, national security confidentiality. So there could be
00:14:23.380 potentially three levels of privilege, uh, but, but it is frustrating. And, you know, when I think of
00:14:30.080 it, I think it makes perfect sense that the government would not want to waive national security
00:14:36.580 privilege. There's a very good reason why that exists. And generally there's also a very good reason
00:14:42.140 why cabinet privilege exists. Um, and also for solicitor client privilege, but solicitor client
00:14:49.100 privilege can be waived. Right. And we saw at the beginning of this, uh, uh, of this inquiry that the
00:14:57.200 government was, uh, congratulating itself on its historical waiver of, uh, privilege, but when it
00:15:05.140 really gets, uh, to the meat of things, we don't know what happened.
00:15:11.680 No. And, and we can piece together the timeline of some of the conversations, but, and you can infer
00:15:18.020 certain things from the timeline and the things that happened after certain conversations. For example,
00:15:24.640 we had the director of CSIS, David Vigneault say repeatedly, his convoy did not rise to meet section
00:15:31.280 two of the CSIS act. He it's in briefing notes, I believe to cabinet on February 10th, where he's
00:15:38.200 saying no plots of sedition. Nope, nope, nothing. This is not a national security threat. It's a
00:15:43.620 little inconvenient, but, but that's about it. And then between the 10th and the 13th, he meets with
00:15:49.780 David Lametti's, uh, justice ministry and for outside legal advice, but that hardly seems outside to
00:15:57.380 me when you're meeting with the justice ministry that wants to invoke the emergencies act.
00:16:01.280 And, and we've seen the government say that from as early as I think January 30th, David Lametti
00:16:06.260 did, but, you know, so he meets with the justice ministry and then by the 13th, his opinion on
00:16:15.700 what is the scope and scale of the emergencies act and what constitutes a security threat there
00:16:22.840 has changed from what everybody knew was in the act before. And then he advises Justin Trudeau.
00:16:30.480 Yeah. You know what? Go ahead and invoke the act. So, uh, again, I'm curious, what advice
00:16:36.640 is the justice ministry giving out? And, and they're, they, they won't really reveal any of that.
00:16:44.100 They're saying it's, you know, as you say, solicitor client privilege, but that's the crux of all of
00:16:49.360 this is what advice did you give to these people that led them to believe that they didn't need to
00:16:56.160 meet section two. And, you know, you're, you're absolutely right, uh, Sheila. And we, we're just
00:17:05.220 going to have to resolve this inquiry without knowing that advice. We've heard some evidence,
00:17:10.840 you know, from, from different people. We've heard evidence from the clerk of the Privy Council. We've
00:17:15.180 heard evidence from the, uh, national security intelligence advisor, and we know what their
00:17:19.540 interpretation of the test was. And, you know, I think a lot of us were quite puzzled when we heard
00:17:25.700 that because it, it, it doesn't seem, uh, it doesn't seem to accord with the obvious reading
00:17:32.640 of the legislation. And this might have to come down, uh, to legal submissions. And in, in some way,
00:17:40.580 I think, you know, no, I'm just, in a way I'm thinking out loud here. Um,
00:17:45.840 if the government is not going to say what advice, uh, was given, then they will have to live with that
00:17:53.200 in their legal submission, in, in their final submissions as well. Yeah. Yeah. And so it'll,
00:17:59.860 it'll come down to, to a legal argument. And that, you know, that's hardly the point of all of this,
00:18:09.420 because this is a, this is a public inquiry. So the public has an interest in finding out these
00:18:15.780 things for themselves. Um, let's go to clip four. So we can see this invoking of solicitor client
00:18:21.580 privilege in the face of prickly questions in real time. Narrow it down. Um, was there any such
00:18:28.060 document that you reviewed in preparing for your testimony here today that existed prior to the
00:18:34.780 invocation of the emergencies act, that it was discussed that isn't subject solicitor client
00:18:40.740 privilege, that it was discussed that, uh, there was a broader scope of section two as it applied in
00:18:48.080 the evidence act. Once again, that's, that's a question that's asking me, uh, to effectively divulge
00:18:53.800 legal arguments. Um, I, I remind my, my learned friend that it is very odd to put a lawyer on the
00:19:01.340 stand. I'm really here as a cabinet minister in order to speak to facts. Uh, and it is, it is, uh,
00:19:08.880 to some extent, uh, an obligation for me to try to answer questions as best I can, but you're asking
00:19:16.600 me to answer questions as a lawyer and it is, it would be remarkable to put a lawyer up on the stand
00:19:22.100 in the middle. Well, I understand, sir. And so again, I just, I would like the question to answer.
00:19:27.280 Did you see any documents that talked about this interpretation that you're discussing,
00:19:34.160 uh, that existed prior to the invocation of the emergencies act? Again, I'm going to rely on,
00:19:40.620 on solicitor client privilege there. I don't know. Keith Wilson testified. He's a lawyer.
00:19:49.460 That's right. So, so Sheila, you know, I think, uh, you know, we, we do have to be a little bit
00:19:53.860 fair to the minister of justice here. If something is really privileged, then he can't talk about it
00:20:01.320 and it's not up to him to waive it, but I'd like to return to something you said earlier,
00:20:05.600 because he said, well, the, the point of this commission is to get to the truth of what happened.
00:20:10.620 And, you know, this, this just goes back to the nature of privilege and privilege always exists
00:20:17.640 in intention with finding the truth, right? And it's usually because there's some type of
00:20:24.180 relationship that you want to protect. That relationship might be the relationship between
00:20:29.300 a lawyer and a client, or it might be the relationship between say, um, uh, uh, a church member
00:20:39.420 and a priest, right. Or it might be the relationship between a husband and wife and there, there are all
00:20:45.460 sorts of privileges, but they, they, they, they sort of, in some way they, they frustrate the truth
00:20:51.920 or the search for the truth, but that's part of our legal system. Now, you know, I think we mentioned
00:20:57.320 this before. Oftentimes privilege can be waived. And in this case, a solicitor client privilege
00:21:04.420 was not waived. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. It's very frustrating. It's very frustrating as a member
00:21:14.820 of the public. I understand why it exists. Um, but Justin Trudeau assured me way back in 2015,
00:21:20.500 this is the most open and transparent government that I would ever be exposed to in my entire lifetime.
00:21:25.740 And I'm still waiting to see it. I think we'll all have to make up our minds about that one.
00:21:32.540 Um, what I want to ask you while I have you in before I let you go, cause I know we've got another
00:21:36.620 lawyer standing there waiting to come on the show. What do you expect from the rest of the week?
00:21:44.060 Well, we have three more witnesses, uh, tomorrow we'll hear from, uh, Christia Freeland. Um,
00:21:50.060 we'll hear from a panel, uh, from the prime minister's office, and then we'll finally hear,
00:21:55.740 uh, from the prime minister. I don't think we're going to hear anything new. I think we're going to
00:22:01.520 hear, um, you know, more of the same testimony, uh, but there might be as few surprises here and
00:22:08.840 there, there'll be some contesting of their evidence. Um, you know, to some extent I'm a little
00:22:14.000 constrained here, Sheila, cause, um, I know we, we, we, we see things before the public sees them,
00:22:19.980 but we can't talk about them. And of course we have questions that we plan to ask. Um, but we
00:22:25.000 won't put those on, uh, we won't put those on live television or on live stream, uh, the day before,
00:22:31.160 uh, we're asking those questions. Yeah. You don't want to give the bad guys any heads up, but also I'm
00:22:37.860 not convinced that you're getting those, getting to see things well in advance of the public based on how
00:22:42.760 the federal government is releasing documents to you guys as the witnesses are testifying.
00:22:49.200 Some of that has come out in the public order, uh, emergency inquiry. You're right. So there,
00:22:54.100 there's been some, uh, some discussion already about how documents are released late in this
00:22:59.320 is part of the, um, it can be difficult to keep up when that happens. Absolutely.
00:23:05.360 Oh, you're so diplomatic, Alan. Alan, thanks so much for coming on the show. And thanks so much
00:23:12.120 for your hard work at the commission. Um, let's cut to an ad Olivia so that we can let Alan leave the
00:23:19.560 set without a tangle of headphones and, and, and disarray. Thanks Alan. Freedom in 2022 is not
00:23:30.080 sitting idly by while health diktats with no skin in the game make up all the rules. If you're like me,
00:23:38.020 and want to play an active role in upholding civil liberties and freedoms for all Canadians,
00:23:43.360 for our children, and eventually our grandchildren, then come out to our rebel live event and get to
00:23:50.100 know us in person. We'll hearing from some of the most influential leaders in the freedom movement.
00:23:57.460 We have events in Toronto on November the 19th and in Calgary on Saturday, November 26th.
00:24:04.980 Tickets are on sale now at rebel news live.com. Come out, have lunch, get some rebel swag,
00:24:12.420 meet the rebels and more. You don't want to miss this event. Check it out. Rebel news live.com.
00:24:34.980 So joining me now is Hatim Kerr. I hope I said that right, Hatim from the Justice Center for
00:24:41.840 Constitution. Okay, perfect. From the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms. I'm a big fan. I sat
00:24:46.520 behind you for two days. Um, I never actually got a chance to talk to you, but I'm a fan of some of
00:24:51.920 your other work on freedom causes here in Alberta. And you are doing what I would describe as a bit of the
00:24:59.120 Lord's work there because these tow truck drivers who were compelled against their will to be tools
00:25:06.340 of the state. Um, that really irks me. I, I just despise it. I loathe so much the idea of the state
00:25:15.140 commandeering anybody's personal property in their business, but especially when it violates their
00:25:21.000 conscience. And as we know out here in Alberta, they, they couldn't get a tow truck or energy company
00:25:26.700 to come help them within, I think the entire Northwestern part of the continent. And, and so,
00:25:32.440 uh, the, the Alberta government had to buy their own towing equipment, which they never really had
00:25:37.000 to ultimately lose use, but you were really hammering the government today on, um, the use of
00:25:46.040 the emergencies act to force tow truck operators to violate their conscience. Why don't you tell us a
00:25:51.200 little bit about that? And I know we've got a couple of clips that we'll go to after.
00:25:54.020 Yeah. So, uh, I mean, there's so many, you know, rights violations and freedom issues surrounding
00:25:59.660 this whole thing, but one of the ones that are probably most centrally affected are the tow truck
00:26:04.660 drivers. They were forced to physically do something and assist, uh, with perhaps something
00:26:09.580 that they didn't want to do. Well, I mean, if they had to be forced, they didn't want to do it,
00:26:12.800 but then the specifically why certainly some of them supported the, uh, the freedom convoy protest
00:26:19.760 minister Al-Gabra admitted as much. So the government had to use emergency powers in order
00:26:25.920 to compel them to do that. So the purpose of my cross-examination was to put that to minister
00:26:29.720 Al-Gabra, uh, though when asked, he, uh, he resisted the question, let's say he, uh, he, he,
00:26:38.520 he kind of resorted to the idea that, well, I don't know how the police use the power. Hopefully
00:26:42.420 they used it on people who wanted to help anyways. If that's the case, you don't need a power to make
00:26:47.100 them do it. Right. That was the part that I thought was, that was, um, kind of ridiculous
00:26:53.000 was he said, I don't really know how the selection process works, but I sort of kind of hope they
00:26:57.260 selected the ones that wanted to do it. Well, then why did you invoke the act to compel tow truck
00:27:01.340 drivers? If you just knew that there were ones that wanted to do it, he, he just sort of painted
00:27:05.720 himself into this circular logic. Um, and also if you don't know how police are going to use that
00:27:12.460 power appropriately, maybe you shouldn't be giving it to them. That's exactly right. And we saw a
00:27:18.040 similar dynamic with the use of the, uh, the economic measures to freeze bank accounts where
00:27:22.920 the finance Canada creates the power, at least as responsible for the discussions that led to its
00:27:28.640 creation. Then the power gets handed out to the police. And then when they get pressed on the
00:27:32.880 decision that they made to, to create the powers in the first place, they say, Hey, we weren't
00:27:36.900 responsible for how it was used. We hope that they just used it responsibly and that they didn't use the
00:27:41.440 powers that we gave them. If it was, uh, if it was going to result in rights violations.
00:27:47.180 Yeah. Yeah. We hope they didn't use the power to do whatever they want to do whatever they wanted.
00:27:53.420 Yeah. So in the example of the, the finance, uh, uh, Canada, we gave them the power to freeze
00:28:00.160 donors bank accounts, but we hope that they didn't do it. Why, why did you do that?
00:28:04.320 Yeah, exactly. Uh, let's, uh, Olivia in studio, we've got, I think two clips of you pressing
00:28:10.800 on, uh, some of my favorite people on the planet, tow truck drivers. Um, let's go to the first one.
00:28:19.260 Just gonna, just gonna push back on that one answer you gave me because I asked you if tow
00:28:23.120 truck drivers, uh, who would have refused out of sympathy with the protest, as you highlighted in
00:28:28.840 your interview statement would have been compelled by the emergency measure regulations to serve a
00:28:34.040 cause that they did not agree with. And you, you responded by talking about the necessity of it,
00:28:38.320 but I'm asking you, were those people compelled to serve a cause that they felt went against their
00:28:44.000 conscience and their choice of association?
00:28:46.780 So I answered the question by saying I was not involved in how tow truck drivers or tow truck
00:28:53.360 companies were selected. Uh, I would like to think that there were options to select tow truck drivers
00:29:00.320 who were willing to participate.
00:29:02.140 You'd like to think that, but certainly the power created that opportunity, right?
00:29:07.420 Uh, I was not involved in the selection of tow truck drivers.
00:29:10.940 I have no further questions. Thank you.
00:29:16.780 What on earth is he talking about there? You know, I, I hope that they would select the ones
00:29:21.820 that wanted to do it, but the point is that you couldn't find ones that wanted to do it.
00:29:25.980 Which also we've seen from other evidence isn't the case. There were, there were tow truck drivers
00:29:31.980 lined up, uh, either in Coutts or on the other side of the continent in, uh, Windsor and in Ottawa
00:29:38.060 before the emergencies act was invoked. And we heard that from witnesses from the Ottawa police service,
00:29:43.020 from the OPP and from, uh, Minister DeGran from Alberta.
00:29:46.860 Yeah, we did hear that. I think there was some 30 tow trucks with, I think seven or nine
00:29:54.060 that were heavy haul tow trucks with the capabilities to pull, um, some of these, uh, larger trucks and
00:30:01.820 tractor trailers out of location. They had those lined up and ready to go. And I think the OPP
00:30:07.740 testified to that. And I think the OPS also testified to that. And so, I don't know how much
00:30:14.140 prep these ministers do before they get here. I would like to think that with an army of government
00:30:19.100 lawyers, they would have been a little bit more prepared. And I don't know if they,
00:30:23.180 they just think that they can rewrite history in real time, but it is true that there were tow
00:30:28.300 trucks lined up, ready to go. They did not need the emergencies act for tow trucks in the nation's
00:30:34.380 capital. And they definitely didn't need them in Alberta because Alberta circumvented the whole
00:30:38.620 process, realizing on and around the 10th that they weren't going to get any help whatsoever from
00:30:45.500 the federal government with regard to getting, uh, Canadian forces equipment out of the base in
00:30:52.140 Edmonton, which I have been informed, uh, by several people, uh, both past and present CAF members.
00:30:59.100 There's a lot of that equipment just sitting there, even though we heard testimony that there was just
00:31:03.660 none to spare. Yeah. And I, uh, so we, uh, one of the big things we learned today was actually that
00:31:13.500 the provinces other than Alberta were offered assistance by the federal government to buy
00:31:18.060 their own tow trucks if they wanted to do that. And they refused in Windsor. The police turned back
00:31:23.100 tow trucks from this, from coming from the United States, because they didn't need it. Uh,
00:31:27.420 superintendent Bernier testified that he was able to look out the window and see tow trucks and that
00:31:31.420 he was satisfied that they were good. So although this may have been a concern at one point, it was
00:31:37.020 resolved before the declaration of emergency. And that's, that's kind of a running theme that we've
00:31:42.300 been seeing in the evidence. Uh, if you look at Windsor, Windsor was cleared right before
00:31:46.780 the, uh, the emergency act was invoked, uh, in Ottawa, they prepared a plan that was just about ready
00:31:52.940 to go right as the emergency act was invoked. And, uh, in Coutts, the police operation that led to
00:31:59.020 arrests, which then convinced the other protesters to leave happened right before the emergency act
00:32:03.500 was invoked. And yesterday we learned that the, uh, at the first minister's meeting that was being
00:32:09.020 relayed to the, the federal government. They're required to consult with the premiers of the
00:32:14.380 provinces before a declaration of emergency, presumably for this, such a purpose that they
00:32:18.940 can get information about whether it's actually necessary. And, uh, across the board, multiple
00:32:23.980 premiers said our low, uh, our local law enforcement has got it. Uh, the situation is under control.
00:32:30.060 We're getting the tow trucks we need, but the federal government went ahead and invoke the
00:32:33.900 declaration, uh, invoke the emergencies act anyways. You also pushed back on, uh, Omar Al-Gabra or Al-Jabra.
00:32:43.020 I'm not sure how to say it. Um, he said that he was unaware, I think to you, he said he was unaware
00:32:51.260 of the reluctance of tow truck operators to help the convoy yet were compelled to assist in removing of
00:32:58.620 the blockades. And then he was questioned on whether or not this would violate their charter
00:33:02.700 rights. And we saw the second half of that, but he sort of the first half of him, like not answering
00:33:07.580 the question I think is really important because you ask him, did you, did you take any steps or did
00:33:12.620 you, were these people even a consideration in all of this? And I think his lack of answer really
00:33:20.060 speaks to the fact that he didn't even see these tow truck operators as individual Canadians with
00:33:26.620 individual rights and individual wills. They were not tools of the state never once,
00:33:31.500 even though he used a law to make them that way. Why don't we throw to that one, Efron and Olivia,
00:33:36.540 if you can find it. And its intention was to protect the charter rights of Canadians.
00:33:43.420 Uh, that is, um, that's our constitution and we're all sworn to uphold our constitution.
00:33:50.460 Did, uh, do you believe cabinet protected the charter rights of tow truck drivers?
00:34:00.220 We protected, we kept in mind the charter rights of all Canadians, including truck drivers.
00:34:06.940 You'd agree that tow truck drivers weren't protesters themselves aside from perhaps individual cases.
00:34:12.460 I don't understand the question.
00:34:17.740 Well, so you said in your interview summary that some tow truck drivers refuse to tow trucks out of
00:34:22.140 sympathy with the protest, right? Um, I said that yes, there was a reluctance for a variety of reasons.
00:34:30.620 One of the reasons may be because they might be sympathetic, but the bigger reasons that we
00:34:35.020 heard is that they were fear, uh, afraid for their livelihood and their safety.
00:34:42.860 Okay. So even if they were afraid, why did you make them do it?
00:34:47.180 Yeah, exactly. Uh, you know, there's a lot of reasons.
00:34:49.580 Tow truck drivers may have refused to do something, but presumably that's a choice that they can make.
00:34:54.540 Um, and our charter protects the right to freedom of association, which one would hope would include
00:35:01.100 the right to choose who you work for and what work you want to undertake.
00:35:06.860 Yeah, your questions there's, it was like a big bear snare.
00:35:11.660 He just sat there and he just put his leg right in it, didn't he? Yes, yes, we care about charter
00:35:17.820 rights. Look at us. We're good guys. And then, oh yeah, what about the tow truck drivers? And he had
00:35:24.460 no idea what to say. There was like three solid seconds of awkward silence there. And I'm so glad you
00:35:30.700 didn't say anything because the silence says more than the words ever could. Um, we've got one more
00:35:35.900 clip from you. Uh, Omar Aljabra thanked the truckers during the public order commission. He stated that
00:35:43.740 the policies developed over the pandemic were cohesive with the guidance received from public
00:35:48.620 health and from observing the situation on the ground. Uh, Efron, I tagged you in that. Would you mind
00:35:54.540 if you can find that? He needs five seconds. Um, let's see what else, what else did Omar Aljabra do
00:36:11.260 today? He also said he's not making any apology for doing what he believed to be the best thing
00:36:15.420 for protecting lives. He said, our policies were based on the advice and facts and the science
00:36:20.140 that we received, not based on polls or number of protesters. But we know that's not true because
00:36:26.540 they invoked the emergencies act because, or they revoked the emergencies act because they knew they
00:36:32.380 were going to lose in the Senate and they were going to lose the favor of the NDP. So it's interesting
00:36:36.540 to see text messages saying, oh, I think the NDP are going to vote against us. We have to, we have to
00:36:44.140 invoking the emergencies act and then him Aljabra testifying that policies were completely based on
00:36:50.460 following the science, um, and, uh, their advice. Did you find that clip Efron? Well,
00:36:57.580 given the motivation of the protesters, did the government consider resuming the exemption for
00:37:02.460 truckers? We don't make public policy based on the number of protesters or emails that we get.
00:37:13.820 We make public policy, particularly during the pandemic. And let me be the first to acknowledge
00:37:19.820 governments around the world, including the federal government did extraordinary measures
00:37:25.660 in what we believed was the right thing to protect the health and safety of Canadians.
00:37:30.540 I never imagined provinces shutting down businesses. I never imagined provinces invoking curfews.
00:37:37.660 I never imagined the federal government putting limitation on travel, but we all did that. Governments
00:37:46.060 across Canada did these measures because we believed we are saving lives. And yes, they were extraordinary,
00:37:54.860 but I could tell you no one, at least us, I am not, I'm not making any apology for doing what we believed
00:38:03.980 the best thing for protecting lives. Now, of course it caused inconvenience. Of course
00:38:11.260 it caused disruption and our government did whatever we can to mitigate those disruptions. Uh, and Canadians
00:38:19.100 understood that Canadians understood that. So back to your question, our policies were based on the advice
00:38:27.660 and facts and the science that we receive, not based on polls or number of protesters, or even the illegal
00:38:37.180 political, uh, activities that should never, should never drive public policy.
00:38:46.780 So you get in different science than the other places in the world. Did you have an opportunity
00:38:51.500 to travel outside of the country recently, or at least when the mask mandates were still on just
00:38:57.820 Canadian airlines? I went to Geneva with Sarah Miller. Um, and I came back like in 18 hours,
00:39:05.580 but I knew exactly where my gate was in the Geneva airport, because those were the only
00:39:09.900 people wearing masks to get onto a Canadian airplane. And that was because of Omar al-Jabra.
00:39:15.660 And he says he follows the science, but the science seems to change from jurisdiction to
00:39:19.580 jurisdiction. I mean, only Quebec had a curfew. I'd like to know how many lives that saved. I want
00:39:24.860 to know how many lives masks on airplanes saved. Um, it feels like he was just making it up as he went
00:39:31.420 along to see what he could get away with for as long as he could. Yeah. So that, uh, his answer
00:39:36.460 there was part of a, uh, a line of questions I was asking him about the role, the actions of other
00:39:42.700 provinces in lifting their restrictions. Now there's a pattern where we we've seen at least four
00:39:48.700 provinces that took dramatic moves during the protest. And you know, like, for example,
00:39:54.540 we see in Ontario, uh, premier Ford didn't want to say that that was, uh, uh, yeah,
00:39:59.020 they don't want to say that that's in response to the protests, but we also saw a, uh, a read,
00:40:04.140 uh, a summary of a phone call by premier Ford yesterday, where he was saying the public is
00:40:09.180 at a breaking point. This is, I think it's obvious that the, the premiers were responding to the protests.
00:40:16.620 And so then the question is why couldn't the federal government do the same, especially if,
00:40:20.460 uh, you know, if provinces are going to start allowing a stadium of up to like 500 people to,
00:40:26.300 to, to operate, we can't let truckers who sit alone in their cabs can cross the border without
00:40:31.740 a vaccine. And, uh, uh, at the end of the day, minister Al Gabbard didn't want to acknowledge that
00:40:38.940 the, the, the provinces were responding to the protests and he, he maintained that, uh, they would,
00:40:44.060 they wouldn't listen to the protesters. It's based on the science. And he, there was a comment,
00:40:49.420 and he said, I think it was shortly after that clip that you played, but he said that sometimes
00:40:52.940 the sentiments of Canadians and their interests are different, uh, which, uh, I think basically
00:40:58.780 just amounts to saying we know better than they do. Exactly. That's exactly how I would interpret
00:41:04.620 that. And it's, uh, it is true that the provinces were reacting in Alberta. Once they started blockading
00:41:11.260 coots, we went from, we're going to drop the vaccine passport at the end of the month to two weeks
00:41:15.660 from now to the end of the week to tonight at midnight, like in the course of one day, that's
00:41:21.900 how quickly it moved up. As the convoy rolled through Saskatchewan, Scott Moe was like, don't
00:41:27.740 convoy me, bro. We're done with the vaccine mandate here too. It was happening that fast.
00:41:34.940 And ultimately, whether or not you think the science is different or unreliable or whatever,
00:41:41.100 these are Canadians telling you, I'm willing to accept the risk. And isn't that what it comes
00:41:48.060 down to is Canadians who are saying, look, you, you've told me everything I need to know about
00:41:53.020 COVID. You won't shut up about COVID, but I'm over it and I'm willing to accept the risk. It's like the
00:41:57.660 same thing why people still smoke, even though you put the scary face on the cigarette package.
00:42:02.540 It's people were deciding I'm willing to accept whatever risk here to go about living my lives
00:42:08.300 again. And certain provinces were making those concessions. And Omar al-Jabr, just as you say,
00:42:14.460 thought he knew better. Yeah. And this is kind of an issue that's been floating in the background
00:42:21.260 of this whole inquiry because the commission is tasked with investigating the circumstances that led
00:42:27.580 to the declaration of emergency. So there's obviously, and rightly so, been a lot of focus on
00:42:31.260 the protest and the way police handled it and the way the government responded to it and what they
00:42:35.340 knew. But behind all that is the reason the protest happened in the first place. And so
00:42:42.780 Antoine Dailly for Citizens for Freedom took Minister Mendicino to that the other day.
00:42:47.420 And, you know, I tried to take Minister Al-Gabr there now because it's an important part of the story
00:42:52.460 that happened here, that this protest happened two years after, two years of lockdowns, two years of
00:42:59.260 vaccine mandates. And actually we did hear so before all the witnesses today, there was a summary of
00:43:04.220 all the evidence that the commission had received from the public about what they had to say about
00:43:09.420 their experience with the protest. And it was it was very divided. It was there was two complete
00:43:13.980 opposite sides. But one of those sides was saying that it was a relief to have this protest because we
00:43:19.740 had we had felt alienated. We had felt isolated. And suddenly there were people standing side by
00:43:24.780 side, singing the Canadian anthem, waving flags. And that's that's an important part of understanding
00:43:31.340 why all this happened in the first place. You know, it's a great way to leave this interview with
00:43:37.740 you. We're going to go to an ad so that we can let you leave a little bit more gracefully than you
00:43:43.980 would if we didn't. Hadim, thanks so much for the great work that you're doing in there. We I know we at
00:43:49.580 Rebel News pay very close attention to the work that you're doing for the Justice Centre and for
00:43:53.500 the rights and freedoms of Canadians. So thanks for working so hard. Thanks for having me on.
00:43:59.500 Great. Roll the ad, please.
00:44:04.700 Freedom in 2022 is certainly about being able to make free choices for ourselves and for our family,
00:44:12.060 who we believe are the best. We have seen so much suffering over the last two years. People who die
00:44:18.940 alone in terrible condition, people losing dream jobs, polarized families and a society that insult
00:44:26.860 and yell at each other for making a different medical choice. But people have risen and it will be
00:44:34.060 true then that the future will have an important meaning for all of you, but especially for the next
00:44:40.860 generation. Rebel News has been present at every step of this great challenge. But so many other
00:44:49.100 pioneers whom you could meet and hear at our great conference about freedom for our beautiful country,
00:44:57.100 which is Canada. This conference, which will be held in Calgary and Toronto, will show you the faces
00:45:05.820 of the influence of freedom that you have seen over the past two years. You don't want to miss this. So get your
00:45:13.740 ticket now at ribbonnewslive.com and it will be a pleasure to see you there and meet you in large numbers.
00:45:24.060 It's time to drop these masks and let the truth shine.
00:45:37.180 This week is the most important week from the Public Order Emergency Commission and Trudeau and his ministers
00:45:41.580 responsible for invoking the Never Before Seen Emergency Act are testifying. Every night, as soon as all the
00:45:47.500 testimonies end, hang tight and watch our breakdown show where we go through all the highlights of the
00:45:52.140 day with your favorite rebels and special guests, such as convoy protesters like Tom Morazzo and their
00:45:56.940 lawyers, Keith Wilson and Eva Chipiak. Go to trafficcommission.com with all of our previous reports are,
00:46:02.700 and please go and chip in. Even five bucks is great so that I can get myself an amazing morning coffee.
00:46:08.540 We'll see you there.
00:46:09.420 Well, joining us now is good friend of the rebel, Tom Morazzo. Tom, how's it going?
00:46:17.740 It's good. It's good. I had another steak tonight for dinner.
00:46:21.820 Yes, I saved another one.
00:46:23.180 The second time in five years. Yes, yes.
00:46:25.260 Go easy, Tom. Go easy. But I'm very happy to see that you're filling yourself up with
00:46:30.620 healthy, reliable animal protein. I wanted to ask you...
00:46:34.660 It's Alberta beef.
00:46:36.780 Yes, even better. Even better.
00:46:39.420 Tom, I think you're described, and I think you described yourself as a convoy participant.
00:46:44.540 I don't think you've ever described yourself as an organizer. You were more of a logistics
00:46:49.020 guy on the ground. I know that I've been asked, and I think you've been asked too,
00:46:54.940 so this is a great opportunity to clear this up. You've been asked why no charges have been brought
00:47:00.220 against you, even though you were prominent in the convoy. So I don't think anybody can really
00:47:06.860 ever know why they weren't charged, except maybe they weren't breaking the law. But there could be
00:47:11.580 other reasons. So I'm going to ask you to speculate. Why haven't you been charged?
00:47:18.140 Well, it is a great question. And I do get this question quite often. And I know Danny Bulford also
00:47:25.100 gets this question quite often. And I think the truth of the matter comes down to this.
00:47:29.820 Yes. You know, people like myself and Danny Bulford and then some of the other veterans that
00:47:35.980 went to Ottawa to assist the convoy, we went there because, you know, within our communities,
00:47:43.020 whether you're currently serving or you're retired or whatever the deal, you're trained to be somebody
00:47:50.620 who does things, to organize, to just be doers for your community. And, you know, veterans and
00:47:57.340 retired police or active police, active military, they get involved in their communities, in their
00:48:03.420 churches, they do fundraising, they do sports with children, they volunteer. And so we play an active
00:48:10.220 role. So I think, you know, I tried really hard, and I know Danny Bulford as well, tried really hard
00:48:17.660 to develop a strong relationship with the local law enforcement in Ottawa during the time of the
00:48:22.780 convoy. And we were always consistently trying to work with them to make sure that what we were
00:48:29.500 doing was safe and as responsible as could be. And I think that was something that was recognized
00:48:37.180 by the local law enforcement. They said, Hey, how can we, how could we probably target these guys?
00:48:42.940 When the entire time they've been working with this to try to make sure like I was,
00:48:47.260 you know, it was very important to me. I mean, I, and I've said this before
00:48:51.740 during the convoy, my own son, where he lives in his hometown went to the hospital in the middle of the
00:48:57.340 night in an ambulance. This is a normal thing in my family. Okay. So it's a very important
00:49:03.420 thing for me personally. And I wanted to make sure that nobody in the city of Ottawa was ever
00:49:09.740 prevented from going to a hospital or emergency services were ever prevented from getting through.
00:49:15.980 We achieved that. And we heard testimony even during this, this inquiry that we actually did
00:49:22.460 do that. And for anyone to say otherwise is it's categorically false. And we know this,
00:49:29.180 and we've talked to the police, there was testimony about it. This never happened.
00:49:33.260 So when we get attacked, for example, where people say, Oh, you couldn't get to your hospital
00:49:37.260 or you couldn't get to your appointment, that's a, that's an outright lie. And to be clear,
00:49:43.100 there's no hospitals anywhere near where the convoy was actively participating or going on.
00:49:49.900 But to get back to the other question, you know, we, we just military and police,
00:49:56.620 we naturally work together. And so when they knew that we were trying to reciprocate a good,
00:50:03.420 strong relationship to be safe and responsible, I think the police recognized that and said,
00:50:07.980 you know what, there's, there's nothing good that can come of making an example of
00:50:12.140 these specific people. Right. And, and what's really frustrating for me is I've
00:50:17.420 been listening to the testimony of the last couple of days where they keep saying,
00:50:21.340 you know, military were involved, military involved. And in what you can tell,
00:50:26.060 it's very clear to me is there's a narrative. There's a, there's a subplot that's being laid out
00:50:33.900 right now. And that's why they keep bringing out former military, former police. They're,
00:50:38.220 they're angling for this really bizarre narrative that they've been trying to push forward.
00:50:45.180 You know, they were talking about military being at Coventry. It's not true.
00:50:49.260 Yeah. I know the composition of the people that were, were there. I mean,
00:50:53.100 you had electricians, millwrights, carpenters, or construction company wasn't being run by military.
00:50:59.340 And, and here's another thing that I want to say about the military people. Um,
00:51:06.540 there, there's a lot I want to say about it, but, uh, to this kind of does get to
00:51:10.620 the root of the matter. I think I did staff college as an army officer,
00:51:17.020 which means that's brigade level stuff. Like that's a lot of, that's a lot of soldiers in a,
00:51:21.020 in a battle space space, in a military, uh, context, you know, anybody who had done staff college,
00:51:27.820 even maybe a second, third year captain could have easily frustrated the law enforcement agencies
00:51:36.620 in this, in the city of Ottawa beyond belief. Like we could have frustrated them at every turn,
00:51:41.340 but you want to know the honest truth. We knew we could, I knew we could, I knew it would be easy,
00:51:46.780 but I purposely did not. I purposely did not take steps to actively frustrate law enforcement
00:51:54.060 because I didn't want them to get to the point where they thought, you know, if you're going to put
00:51:58.140 me in checkmate every, every chance you get, that's going to frustrate me. And I'm going to invoke
00:52:03.740 something awful, you know, it bought us three and a half weeks, you know, but really it would
00:52:09.420 have been extremely easy for us to do that. And we all knew it, but we just chose not to do it.
00:52:14.860 We chose a nonviolent path that every, every opportunity we had, that's not what we were there
00:52:21.500 to do. You know, and if you, if you look at the military that started to congregate there,
00:52:27.420 we're talking about, you know, people that later on have gone and joined an organization.
00:52:33.740 Some of us started called veterans for freedom. And this came out after the convoy veterans for
00:52:39.580 freedom was after the convoy, but we all met at the convoy and we've grown over a thousand people
00:52:45.500 in this organization and it grows every day. And we've got some very talented, very skilled
00:52:50.860 people that understand military operations, intelligence, you know, how to gather it,
00:52:56.700 how to consume it, how to, you know, take steps to protect themselves in case there's other people
00:53:03.180 out there that, that don't like the fact that you're active or that you have information.
00:53:07.900 You know, they, they, they're kind of framing this narrative, right? We understand how that game
00:53:13.180 is played and, and we're not fools. I mean, obviously we, we prepare for those kinds of
00:53:19.100 stupid eventualities. Right. Um, but the fact of the matter is veterans for freedom and everybody
00:53:25.820 that went to Ottawa, we have so many veterans involved that were given methiquine that trusted
00:53:31.340 the government, trusted the military. And now there's lawsuits going on. Even Romeo Dallaire
00:53:36.140 is part of the class. And then we gave them, by the way, by the way, then we gave them Moderna.
00:53:41.180 So we gave the, we gave them all like the entire military. If, if they received a vaccine,
00:53:47.420 they were inoculated with Moderna and then it's revealed that Moderna is going to give
00:53:53.500 exactly that demographic of people myocarditis. Yes. And then, you know, to, to top it all off,
00:54:00.380 like we, you know, we, we have all these, these amazing soldiers. And even during the time, uh,
00:54:07.100 when they, the height of the mandates, you know, we found out, uh, through veterans for freedom,
00:54:12.060 like the community was talking, we found out that in places like Petawawa and Edmonton,
00:54:17.100 if you were not vaccinated, you were being put in the pipeline for a five F, uh, release from the
00:54:24.780 military, you're being kicked out. And these are combat veterans being kicked out. And they made
00:54:30.380 those soldiers in the wintertime last year, stand out modular tents. And in Edmonton, they were making
00:54:36.620 them wear their DEUs, their dress uniforms, and then they took away the heaters. It's blatant
00:54:41.580 harassment. And I think anybody who was involved in those decisions or in that chain of command that
00:54:46.300 was forcing their unvaccinated soldiers to stand out in the, in the cold winter in a tent and not
00:54:52.380 allow them inside the building with vaccinated soldiers. That is disgusting. That is absolutely
00:54:58.620 disloyal, disgusting, unbecoming behavior of any commanding officer of a unit that would do that to
00:55:04.060 their, to their soldiers. And as far as I'm concerned, that to me is, is something that
00:55:09.340 they should be brought up on charges and relieved of command. But you know, the organization has grown,
00:55:16.060 uh, exponentially and we're, we, we work with lawyers all the time. We're trying to assist,
00:55:21.580 uh, Canadian forces members in their fight to be kicked out of the military. So we work with lawyers,
00:55:28.220 we talk to lawyers all the time, not just the ones here for the commission, but there's a phenomenal
00:55:32.940 lawyer out in, um, Alberta, uh, that we've been working with. She's been suing the government for,
00:55:39.820 for all these COVID restrictions for quite some time on behalf of soldiers. Right. And so when I
00:55:46.460 listened today to the minister of national defense, uh, get up on there in, in, in talk today, a lot of
00:55:52.780 this, these memories had been coming back. Like, you know, one of the reasons why, um, you know,
00:55:58.380 veterans got involved. It was because of the deliberate steps of the federal government
00:56:03.420 who mandated a forced medical experiment against their own people again, again. And a lot of people
00:56:13.020 pushed back, a lot of people pushed back and said, no. And so their, their reaction was to take a
00:56:19.740 punitive step. So now you're looking at soldiers that I, for example, one highly trained, a helicopter
00:56:26.620 pilot who's a member of a V for F to get her a pension. You got to have 25 years. He had over
00:56:33.020 21 years and now he's being forced out forfeiture of a, of a pension, no more benefits for the rest of
00:56:39.820 his life. Why? Why? Because the Canadian military failed to respect informed consent or bodily autonomy
00:56:47.740 on something that has not yet passed phase three clinical trials and is under an interim order. So,
00:56:54.620 you know, we, I just listening to the minister of national defense today, it, it, it sickens me.
00:57:00.940 It absolutely sickens me to, to listen to the, the demeanor, the attitude, but I will say, I give
00:57:07.980 her a couple of points on some of the things that I believe were in alignment with, with, you know,
00:57:13.180 what happened during the convoy, which kind of goes back to the original point of your question.
00:57:17.900 And maybe is why didn't you get charged, which was because there was, you know, and I'm trying to
00:57:24.780 complete the circle here and I might've, I may have turned it into a, a Pentagon. I'm sorry.
00:57:29.420 You took the long way. You took the long way around.
00:57:33.260 60% chance of getting there. Uh, if you ask the OPP. Um, so, so the, the issue really is, um,
00:57:40.540 um, now I lost my train of thought. That's okay. Uh, maybe I'll come back to it. I'll let,
00:57:45.420 I'll let my co-host say something. Well, speaking of Anita Anand, speaking of the, uh,
00:57:49.660 defense minister, I'd like to throw to clip seven, if we can get that going. And that was when, um,
00:57:55.660 she comments on minister Lamedi and minister Mendicino's, those text messages where they're
00:58:00.460 joking about bringing in a tank into Ottawa. Okay. Let's stop here. Maybe we can find my tweet.
00:58:06.540 It might even be my twin, my pin tweet. Uh, and I do, I have quit using the word snake
00:58:14.540 in my tweets. I've used the shorthand of just the snake emoji because it's snake week down at the
00:58:21.220 public order emergency commission. These two snakes, the justice minister and the public safety minister,
00:58:27.140 they say it's a joke, but even if it were a joke, there's the snake emojis. Uh, we've got David Lamedi.
00:58:35.060 And Marco Mendicino, the public safety minister, these two snakes, maniacs, wouldn't give Alberta
00:58:45.620 CAF heavy haul equipment, which you, we know is stationed at CFB Edmonton. Anand said, oh,
00:58:52.060 maybe there wasn't enough equipment to give them what they just needed it for an afternoon. But
00:58:58.700 that we know that's not true. You can go to the base and look at it right now. You could just go
00:59:03.060 look at the equipment. It's there. I'm from the area. We see it driving around all the time. It
00:59:08.140 goes between Wainwright and Edmonton constantly. But anyways, these two snakes, um, they won't give
00:59:14.480 Alberta heavy haul equipment from the CAF, but they were going to deploy tanks or joked about it,
00:59:19.980 whatever you, however you read this, but I think it's atrocious to joke about doing the old maple
00:59:25.000 syrup Tiananmen Square treatment in Ottawa. Um, they were going to deploy tanks as early as February
00:59:32.600 2nd to deal with the traffic snarl in Ottawa. Um, one of them says you need to get the police to move.
00:59:38.060 I don't think that they can do that. You're not supposed to direct the police government
00:59:41.620 and the CAF if necessary. Too many people are being seriously adversely impacted by what is an
00:59:47.280 occupation. I'm getting out as soon as I can. So he's not even sticking around to put up with it.
00:59:52.400 He's like, the traffic's bad. I'm going to Montreal. Um, and then he continues to say,
00:59:57.940 people are looking to us, you for leadership and not stupid people. Now I'm not sure. Um,
01:00:04.800 I think he's calling Mark Carney stupid and possibly Catherine McKenna. I think
01:00:08.960 Cath is Catherine McKenna, who's an Ottawa resident, but I, I'm not sure. I mean, naturally when somebody
01:00:15.820 says there's a, I'm not a very smart Catherine around, I'm just going to assume it's her.
01:00:19.540 And then he says my team and then, um, to wit, the other, um, Google responds, how many tanks are
01:00:26.600 you asking for? I just want to ask Anita, how many we've got on hand? And he says, I reckon one
01:00:31.080 will do now. Maybe they're serious. Maybe they're not after, I mean, they invoked the emergencies
01:00:36.980 act, which would allow them to do these things. So to say, chalk this up as a joke. I mean, you
01:00:43.040 literally just invoke the emergencies act. So I'm not sure you were joking, but even if you were,
01:00:47.120 I'm not sure I want two ministers of the crown joking about having their own little Tiananmen
01:00:52.440 square in Ottawa because they don't like the bouncy castles. Yeah. I never took that, uh,
01:00:59.060 that text to be a joke at all. Uh, there's just, there's no tone of a, of a joke within that. I think
01:01:05.540 that they were doing actually serious staff checks with each other. Like, is this something possible
01:01:11.340 as early as February 2nd? Right. Yeah. That is, that's a little bit, um, that's like three,
01:01:18.380 four days into the convoy. They're like, you know, we should probably tank man these people.
01:01:23.080 Yeah. And, and I, I, I read that and I'm sorry, but I, I, I see where their mind automatically went
01:01:31.300 and Celine and I were sitting in the audience and I think, um, around four o'clock ish, I couldn't
01:01:38.080 take it anymore. I could not take, uh, the, the, uh, extreme arrogance, uh, that just evaporates off
01:01:47.540 of the attorney general. And, uh, to, to see some of the comments was unbelievably frustrating and
01:01:56.180 disturbing to, to, to hear him again, again, just like we talked about with Mendocino yesterday,
01:02:01.780 like, is he talking about Canadians or is he talking about the Taliban? I can't tell.
01:02:08.140 I think he talked more politely about the Taliban.
01:02:11.400 Yeah. There are brothers. If you ask, uh, that not very bright lady who used to be the MP in
01:02:17.300 Peterborough, whose name escapes me right now, thank God she's no longer an MP. She called them
01:02:21.440 her brothers. Um, but you know, it is true. That has been one of the reoccurring themes here
01:02:28.160 that our fellow Canadians who took to our nation's Capitol to protest because no one would listen to
01:02:35.300 them for two years. They left their lives behind and drove all the way to the nation's Capitol to
01:02:40.840 protest in the middle of winter. And they are treated like foreign invaders instead of just
01:02:48.460 Canadians who have a right to be there. Like everybody else who might be a little rough around
01:02:53.560 the edges, but that's how I am too. So I don't care, but that's how they're treated. Like they're
01:02:57.980 just treated like they're, they may, they're like the Mongolian hordes coming into China and we need
01:03:04.960 to build a wall to keep them out in perpetuity. That's how they're being treated. And I find it
01:03:09.640 just so offensive and I don't like to be offended by anything. Cause that means you can't keep control
01:03:14.260 of your emotions, but that really, really bothers me. Um, sorry, Celine, I took this over from you and
01:03:19.400 you were throwing to clip seven, I think. Sorry. I'll shut up. I'll shut up. No, you're good. You're
01:03:25.200 good. That was made in jest. Second, I have already provided my comments relating to the fact that the
01:03:38.180 Canadian Armed Forces is the force of last resort. Therefore, we were not considering deploying tanks
01:03:45.560 in any number. And, uh, minister Lamedi earlier on in testimony to this commission wrote the exchange
01:03:51.220 off as a joke between friends. Do you think this is a joke? I take no part of my role as minister of
01:04:01.760 national defense, uh, as something in jest. Obviously I am very concerned and was very concerned
01:04:11.100 not only about the situation in Canada, but about the global strategic situation that we all find
01:04:16.440 ourselves in. And so I am very concerned to make sure that we are making decisions, uh, with full
01:04:24.820 information. And I know that's the case with minister Lamedi, as well as, uh, the other colleagues around
01:04:30.520 the table. This was a very difficult time and we were all doing our very best in our respective
01:04:36.720 portfolios. Right. Um, but at the same time on February 2nd, just a few days after the arrival of the
01:04:43.300 protesters in Ottawa, this was the sort of joke that was considered funny among your cabinet
01:04:48.020 colleagues, wasn't it? I was actually not in Canada at the time. I was in Europe as previously,
01:04:56.280 uh, indicated trying to launch Canada's response, uh, to a potential further invasion of Ukraine by
01:05:04.660 Russia. I will say that I know that my colleagues take their work extremely seriously. Does cabinet, uh,
01:05:13.160 solidarity require you to find this joke funny?
01:05:18.380 I'm sorry. That was a little frivolous.
01:05:22.500 I loved it.
01:05:23.220 There was one other part. There was one other part of that exchange where Kittredge says,
01:05:27.960 that's Kittredge with the JCCF for those of you at home.
01:05:30.300 Rob Kittredge.
01:05:31.040 Um, Rob Kittredge. And he says, do you agree with Lamedi that just one tank would have been enough
01:05:37.380 to deal with the Canadians gathered in their nation's capital to express their discontent
01:05:41.140 with the government? And she says, Oh, it wasn't just, and then he asked, was this the kind of
01:05:47.820 joke that your cabinet colleagues found funny? And then she says, well, we take our job seriously.
01:05:52.160 So she's saying like literally in the same breath, it was a joke, but this is no joke.
01:05:57.880 So which one is it lady? Are you joking about running over Canadians? Are you serious about
01:06:02.780 running over Canadians? Both are bad. Both are bad. Just pick one, please.
01:06:07.980 Well, I mean, in truth, she, she hasn't, she hasn't necessarily been operationally focused,
01:06:14.860 especially if, uh, she has allowed the prime minister and, you know, the rest of the cabinet
01:06:20.120 to systematically eject Canadian forces members who are fully trained and will not partake in,
01:06:31.860 uh, the violation of informed consent. And yet now they're critically short in the middle of a
01:06:38.980 situation that they're facing overseas. Right. So that's an interesting thing, but you know,
01:06:44.340 a lot, I listened to her testimony quite closely today and, uh, she had rehearsed, she had rehearsed
01:06:51.920 quite a lot of, um, a lot of talking points. So when Rob asked those questions, she was actually
01:06:58.140 regurgitating a talking point, uh, almost verbatim of what she had previously stated early on.
01:07:05.260 Yeah. I just want to actually include something in there because I wasn't even the only person that
01:07:09.820 openly exclaimed this in the audience. It's like, I'm explaining this, like I'm watching a circus and
01:07:14.900 it feels like that at this point, but she literally had her phone in one hand and she was just scrolling
01:07:19.400 and you could just see her eyes darting back and forth. And, and, um, there was only a couple of times
01:07:24.500 where you could tell that her answers actually weren't that put together. And that's actually
01:07:27.680 the only times that she didn't have her phone in her hand. She was very scripted in her response.
01:07:32.760 And, um, I don't know, that's, that's tough to watch because it just shows me like, there's no
01:07:37.260 fairness. I would assume that phones usually wouldn't be allowed in court proceedings. If you're
01:07:41.220 up on the stand, giving a testimony, you know, it's like taking a test and you have notes, I get it,
01:07:46.240 but you're not allowed to bring your phone with you. So I don't care if you have notes or
01:07:50.640 who needs a phone when you can just say, I don't think that question's relevant. So I'm not answering
01:07:55.700 it. She did to the government of Alberta lawyer, like what the hell is going on here? Can you do
01:08:00.500 that? I guess so. Cause she did. Yeah, it was, it was really difficult to watch that exchange. And I
01:08:06.600 have to say, I think that's the best cross that I've seen, uh, from Rob Kittredge. Like he was right
01:08:11.740 on the money with that cross exam, uh, and the way he was making the eye contact, uh, in a very assertive
01:08:19.440 way, you could tell she was highly uncomfortable with, uh, the, the question itself. And she couldn't
01:08:26.700 answer the question from her own words. She had to revert to talking points because she was very
01:08:32.420 nervous about the answer she was about to get. Cause they knew that they got caught. They tried
01:08:37.520 to brush it off like a joke, but everybody in the room knew that it wasn't the joke. It was a staff
01:08:42.760 check to see if they could actually pull off what, what was being suggested. Well, you know,
01:08:47.060 it's speaking of a really good cross from Rob Kittredge. I don't think that we have the clip
01:08:50.820 actually lined up, but when he asked her, uh, more or less to agree or disagree with the fact
01:08:56.020 that if she didn't support the invocation, uh, the, the invocation of the emergencies act,
01:09:01.560 then she more or less would have to voluntarily step down from her position as minister.
01:09:06.320 Cabinet solidarity. So that concept is called cabinet solidarity. So not only have they not waived
01:09:13.440 cabinet confidence, which means the communications, which ministers are privileged and no one will
01:09:18.620 hear about them, but cabinet solidarity has not been waived either, which means that you
01:09:23.880 can't break ranks with cabinet. And if you do, you sort of have to voluntarily step down from
01:09:30.200 your role. And I think Anita Anand likes being a female defense leader. It makes her, you know,
01:09:37.640 he's checking a lot of, um, social justice boxes by being there.
01:09:42.100 Certainly is like, I I'd like to know how she's qualified to do that job. And I'll give you an
01:09:47.020 example. Why, um, the last minister of national defense, uh, was actually a reserve Lieutenant
01:09:53.740 Colonel and, you know, infantry reserve, uh, soldier who had multiple overseas deployments.
01:09:59.460 And he was also a police officer in, in his, his former career, but inside the Justin Trudeau's,
01:10:06.140 uh, own party, you've got a member of parliament. His name is Andrew Leslie. He was the commander of
01:10:12.840 the Canadian army. So how is it that Andrew Leslie is just basically this guy with, with hardly any
01:10:20.020 portfolio at all. And she is now running the military when her focus is to put pronouns on
01:10:25.640 people's signature blocks, uh, in their emails, as opposed to making sure that Canada has a fighting
01:10:32.080 force that is ready to meet, you know, international challenges in terms of defense. She's not,
01:10:38.920 she can't even talk her way through a public inquiry without talking points.
01:10:43.580 Well, it goes without saying that this is Justin, Justin Trudeau's Canada. And, um, even if she did
01:10:48.620 or didn't disagree, I kind of, I, I have the suspicion. I have intuition. If, if I may just say,
01:10:54.960 um, that not all the ministers obviously fully agreed, actually, it was revealed that during
01:11:00.240 her statement, she didn't even specify if she agreed with the invocation of the emergency act.
01:11:04.380 Of course that changed today, but yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, go ahead. Sorry, go ahead. I was,
01:11:12.380 I was just going to touch on Leslie for a second there. In fairness, Andrew Leslie was unelected in
01:11:18.040 2019. Um, after he announced that he would support, uh, vice Admiral Normans, he would testify for the
01:11:25.820 defense in that breach of trust trial. So he was, uh, turfed. I thought I saw him sitting in the
01:11:33.420 audience. I could have swore. I saw him sitting in the audience recently when that one, uh, liberal
01:11:38.020 MP passed out. Remember two weeks ago, she passed out in, uh, the comments. Oh, he could have been,
01:11:43.100 he could have been sitting there right in front of her. Yeah. I don't know. Hey, you know, the Admiral
01:11:50.660 was actually vindicated. Uh, he beat those, uh, those allegations, uh, and was offered a full
01:11:57.360 reinstatement, but I think he took his retirement. And by the way, many, many members of the Canadian
01:12:02.980 military, uh, helped the Admiral, uh, crowdfund for his legal defense, which he won and then turn
01:12:11.100 around and reimbursed or offered reimbursement to all the soldiers, airmen, and sailors that
01:12:16.540 supported his legal defense. He asked them if they would like to be reimbursed or where their money
01:12:21.160 would he'd like to donate it. Right. But this is somebody who Justin Trudeau took off the chessboard
01:12:27.380 in the Canadian military. Why? Because of another ethics deal involving ships and Justin Trudeau's
01:12:34.480 friends and he won. Yeah. But you know, to, um, to, to kind of, uh, circle back to my, the original
01:12:43.380 question, I'm, I'm really sorry. I thought I, I take the long way around. I took the long way around.
01:12:51.260 Uh, and this is the important point. If the emergencies, if the commission comes back and says,
01:12:57.880 hey, uh, the emergency act was, was necessary. It was, if, if the commission comes back and says,
01:13:05.800 yeah, it's valid, it should have been invoked. Uh, there's a good chance I could still be charged
01:13:10.820 and I'm not the only one. There's a possibility, right? Uh, and, and this is a, this is a,
01:13:17.960 I think a valid concern of mine and some of the others like Danny, I would assume I haven't talked
01:13:23.500 to Danny, but if they come back and say, yeah, the emergency act was warranted next thing, you know,
01:13:29.480 Tom and Danny and other people are going to get paraded around this country, like public enemy
01:13:34.020 number one. Why? Because they've got to put a cherry on top of their big heap of cake. And so,
01:13:41.640 you know, obviously we're not stupid. We've been preparing for this for quite some time. We're not
01:13:46.400 going to go down without a fight. We're, we're aware of the play. Um, so I I'm, I'm not overly worried.
01:13:52.820 I mean, it's a, it's a long shot, but you know, we know what we're doing. Um, we played the long
01:13:58.780 game just as much as other, other opponents, right? This is what the government has trained us
01:14:03.960 to do. So I'm not really worried about it overall. I'll cover your trial. Like it's the OJ trial.
01:14:11.540 Perfect. Yeah. Yeah. We'll take turns. Exactly. Uh, but I mean, is it going to happen? No,
01:14:19.300 it's, I don't think it's going to happen, but it's inside the realm of, uh, possibility with this
01:14:24.680 current government that nobody even recognizes as, as left, right, center, anything. It's just
01:14:30.500 its own government beast on its own. It doesn't fit into a political spectrum. They're just doing
01:14:35.040 their own thing. In this century, in this century, maybe, you know, uh, 80 years past, it might fit
01:14:40.540 into a government model of the past. Uh, but you know, nothing would surprise me with these guys.
01:14:47.380 The only ideology, the only ideology is power at all costs, whatever that looks like.
01:14:54.620 They don't care. Well, it's, it's done through, it's done through talking points in media and
01:14:58.360 narrative. Um, that's the most effective tool, you know, and during, during the, um, during the
01:15:04.900 convoy, I had made mention actually on a, I think the final live stream event that I had done
01:15:10.460 on the 19th. And I mentioned, you know, Justin Trudeau, you just got your, your Tiananmen square
01:15:15.620 moment. That's what you wanted. You just got the moment. Uh, and, and now there, we find out that
01:15:22.520 they were actually joking about it, making reference to it. Joking. If they were joking.
01:15:27.400 If, yeah, if it was actually, yeah, they weren't joking. They weren't joking. Now, uh, I think it is,
01:15:34.860 it's 917 where you guys are at. It's been a very long day for you. And I know that there's a case
01:15:39.780 of beer that I bought sitting in the fridge for you guys to drink after a very long day. Um, so I
01:15:46.820 want to thank you guys for the hard work that you're putting in, in, uh, the commission, Tom,
01:15:50.880 I know this is probably difficult for you to relive at some points. Yeah, I imagine. So, yeah. Uh,
01:15:57.440 what frustrates me, sorry. What frustrates me is that six weeks ago, we heard all these,
01:16:02.240 this testimony from Lamenti and Mendocino that was proven false six weeks ago, but they're still
01:16:08.200 talking about it. Like it's fact. Surprise. It's very government. They're gaslighting us. They
01:16:15.080 think we're all hard of remembering. Anyway, I was trying to wrap up the stream so that you guys
01:16:19.760 could go and have a beer. Um, so I will let you go, Celine. Thank you. You've got a very busy day
01:16:26.000 tomorrow. We've got PMO staffers and, and, uh, Krista Freeland. So very busy, uh, day full of
01:16:34.580 lies. I imagine a lot of turd polishing, I bet going on tomorrow. Um, and Tom, I'm sure you're
01:16:41.600 going to be sitting there. Sorry. I didn't mean to make you cough. Um, and I know you're fighting,
01:16:44.960 uh, a bit of a bug this whole time and you're in the, you know, you're in the audience just as
01:16:50.240 much as our team is. And you're, I mean, I think at this point, we just consider you part of the
01:16:55.220 crew. Um, you come to the live stream probably four nights out of five. So thanks for doing that.
01:17:00.840 Um, I, I look forward to seeing what is going on tomorrow. I may or may not be the lead journalist.
01:17:07.480 I bet I'm going to get roped into it. So that's okay too. Cause I get to talk to you guys. Uh,
01:17:11.800 thanks to everybody behind the board there in the Airbnb. Thanks to everybody in the studio in Toronto,
01:17:18.660 who's also working hard. Efron, Olivia, I know you're there. Um, thanks to everybody who tunes
01:17:24.080 in every week. Um, and every night, by the way, to, uh, watch the breakdown. We know that you're
01:17:30.700 looking to us to give you truthful analysis because we are not politically contaminated by
01:17:36.300 Justin Trudeau's money. So I appreciate the trust that you put in us. And as David Menzies always says,
01:17:42.140 stay sane.
01:17:48.660 Freedom in the year 2022 for me, folks, it means the return of Rebel Live. Now Rebel Live is an
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