BREAKDOWN: Trucker Commission Day 29 | Justice, Defence, Transport ministers testify
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 19 minutes
Words per Minute
168.55585
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
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Oh, good evening, everybody, and welcome to Breakdown, the Rebel News daily show wherein
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we analyze the day's proceedings at the Public Order Emergency Inquiry.
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I'll get to exactly what that is in a second, but I want to say hello to my friend Selene,
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who looks great in orange, by the way, and Selene has been in the Public Order Inquiry Commission
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hearing room since very nearly the beginning. What was it like in there today? We had some more
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high-profile cabinet ministers doing their best to cover their butts.
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It was interesting because it was a different tone in the room per the minister actually giving
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their testimony. So there was actually a lot of people left during Lamedi's testimony because he
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was just so darn rude and blatant in the fact that he knew that he could say anything that
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he wanted or withhold anything that he wanted. And then the rest of it was pretty neutral and
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then there was almost no one there for Omar's testimony. Omar Algebra. Yeah, that's how you
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say it. Algebra, Algebra, depends on who you are and whether or not you care if you're saying his name
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properly because I don't. But I show everybody what we're doing here. So as I said, this is Breakdown.
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It's the Rebel News daily analysis of the comings and goings of the Public Order Emergency Inquiry.
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The Public Order Emergency Inquiry is taking place in Ottawa right now where our team is at the Airbnb
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satellite studio just up the road from the commission hearings. You can see and support all of their work
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at truckercommission.com. The commission is the fail safe built into the Emergencies Act law to prevent,
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let's say, an egomaniacal yet fragile buffoon from invoking the Emergencies Act to dissipate peaceful
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anti-regime protests happening on the streets of their nation's capital, which is exactly what Justin Trudeau did.
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A convoy of truckers and their allies. Truckers were the catalyst and the cross-border vaccine mandate
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imposed upon them by the aforementioned Omar Algebra, who looks particularly like a goblin
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on the thumbnail for this video. And I don't know if that's on purpose or if it's just his natural state.
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But that was the catalyst for the protests. And then it was just people from all walks of life who
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are really just sick of two years of nonsensical, unscientific, unfair intrusions upon their lives
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and their behaviors and their jobs and their families by every single level of government from
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municipal upwards. And I would say even lower school board to federal. It was everything. And it was the thing
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where people said, you know what, me too. I've had enough. We went to the nation's capital for almost four weeks
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and about two and a half weeks in, Justin Trudeau dropped the hammer on them. However, as we heard today,
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they wanted to do it after about 30 hours, maybe. We saw David Lamedi, our justice minister, as you mentioned.
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He's the justice minister and the attorney general, which means that he's the government's lawyer,
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which means when he doesn't want to answer something, he can claim attorney-client privilege,
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which he did multiple times today. He can also claim cabinet privilege because talks between cabinet ministers
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are protected by secrecy. They get cabinet confidentiality. So basically, he could answer whatever he felt like
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today or not. And we saw text messages between David Lamedi and I think it was a senior bureaucrat,
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maybe his ADM, maybe his chief of staff. I forget. Doesn't matter. Because the point is, David Lamedi on January 30th,
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the truckers really arrived like 28th, 29th. And by the 30th, he's like, we're going to invoke the EA.
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Yeah. It was predetermined. I mean, it's, I've been screaming it from the beginning. It's a setup.
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This is, you know, again, we saw all through all the testimonies from all the people. We started with
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police officials. We even had citizens testifying, citizens of Ottawa who, you know, tried to feel
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righteous and throwing eggs, pelting trucks with eggs, like their children, they're 12 years old. Then they
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want to complain about micro, um, microaggressions. That one's funny, but we've seen that it's just
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been one big finger pointing in one direction. And now we've arrived. It's all the liberal ministers
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in Trudeau's cabinet. And they're the ones that, uh, that invoke this, that made this happen,
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that have been trying to cover it up by pointing fingers back at everybody else. And, uh, Marco
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Mendicino is a really good example of that because he publicly declared how many times
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that it was the OPS and the OPP and other officers or, um, just police in general that actually called
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for the invocation of the emergencies act. And, um, that was never the case. And that's come out
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since. And it's, it's been the truth and he testified so hard. Um, still he's going down with
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a lie. Um, just kind of watching that shit burn as it, as it passes by. It's great. It's really
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great. Yeah. Yeah. They said, you know, the police asked them to, but nobody ever needed to ask them
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to, because this is a predetermined outcome that they were willing to do from the very beginning.
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Now we have a big lineup of guests today. I think we've got Alan Hohner from the democracy fund who is
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sitting, I think, directly adjacent to you in the Airbnb studio. Hey, Alan, good to see you.
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You were questioning the, uh, cabinet ministers today. Why don't we go to Alan's clip and then
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Celine's not, or sorry, she's not ready. Um, you know what, let's, Alan, you had some text messages.
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No, are we good? Okay. Alan, you had some text messages that, um, came out in your examination.
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Uh, why don't you tell us what those were all about?
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Right. So, so Sheila, in, in my examination of David Lamedi, what I wanted to explore
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was when, uh, when cabinet and the prime minister, uh, decided to invoke the emergencies act.
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And we, we know under the emergencies act that they have to consult with the provinces.
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And, and so what we did is we took them through a timeline. We saw an email and that email was from
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the, um, the prime minister's office. And it was suggesting that, um, there was going to be a press,
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a press conference on February the 14th, and that it was to be kept quiet until after the first
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minister's meeting. So we just wanted to explore that and see why it was, uh, supposed to be quiet
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and whether or not the prime minister and cabinet had made up their minds beforehand.
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And one of the text messages that we brought, uh, the minister of justice to was a text message from
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the 13th in which he was having a conversation with an MP, I believe, um, uh,
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in, in, in, in the sort of Ottawa area. And they, and, and that text message concluded
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with a summary of a conversation in which they said that there's a consensus to invoke the emergencies
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act. Now, in fairness, it didn't matter what the first minister said.
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Well, it was theater. Well, you know, I, I, I can't say for sure. Right. But we, we just wanted
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to put it to him and explore it. And so, you know, there's, there's been evidence both ways,
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but part of the process or part of the purpose of the inquiry is to test this evidence.
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And we also have, I think, a second clip of you, Alan, um, questioning minister justice
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about text messages and the lengths at which the government of Canada would go to keep the
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emergencies act in effect. And it seemed as though they were willing to keep it in effect
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insofar as the NDP and the senators would support them. And they would, you know, sort of repeal
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the use of the emergencies act when they felt as though they were losing the support of the NDP.
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So it really wasn't about public safety at all. It was about how much they could do and how long
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they could do it for until it became, uh, a political hot potato for them.
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Right. So Sheila, so what we saw was that there was a text message between, uh, MP Greg Fergus and
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the minister of justice on February 23rd. That was the date that the emergencies act was revoked.
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And it was that, and, and the message suggested that perhaps, um, the federal government wanted to
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stay ahead of the NDP and they wanted to revoke the act before, um, uh, before the Senate could vote on
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it. There was, of course, there was some contrary evidence later on in the proceeding, but the
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question still remains, if the NDP, uh, withdrawing their support wasn't a concern, then why bring
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it up? And if the Senate voting against the emergencies act wasn't a concern, then why talk
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about that in a text message? Uh, Olivia, did you find that clip?
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This is another email exchange between you and Greg Fergus. And he says on February 23rd,
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I'm glad we ended the EA, but it would have been more appropriate if we waited until Friday,
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44 hours after the vote seems unseemly. And your response is, no, we needed to stay ahead of the NDP
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and the senators were saying that they would vote against based on their view that there was no
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longer an emergency. That is your text message with Mr. Fergus. It is indeed. And I, and although we did
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have the votes and although the vast majority of senators understood that they were being asked to
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vote on the emergencies act at the time at which it was invoked, there were a number that didn't
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understand that. We had said from the beginning, sir, that we would not keep the act a minute longer
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than, than, than we needed to. It's something we said to the NDP and it's something that we said
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to senators. And I'm being completely consistent here to say that we needed to be ahead of that
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in terms of keeping our promise in order to, uh, in order to not keep the act in place a minute longer
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than necessary. And that's precisely what we did. And this is my last question. I put it to you that
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this text message shows that in fact, you would have kept the emergencies act in place for
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longer, had it not been for the fact that you were concerned that the NDP would withdraw their
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risk, their support and that the senators would vote against. I reject that premise. There are
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other, there are other text messages that you will see where we have predicted that we had sufficient
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votes. We'll leave that to submissions. Thank you very much, minister. Thank you.
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Sure sounds to me like he would only keep the emergencies act in place
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as long as he could get away with it politically.
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Well, we'll never know what, what would have happened with that Senate vote. Will we?
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No, we won't, but I think he does. I think David Lometty does. Um, now, uh, I want to talk to you a
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little bit about some of the other questions, I guess, from the freedom side. Um, Olivia, you want to
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queue up clip for David Lometty refuses to answer freedom convoy layer, Brandon Miller's question
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about the broader scope of section two of the emergencies act. Lometty kept citing hiding behind
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solicitor client privilege, but this is one thing that's really come out in the final days of the
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commission. I think it was probably universally understood at the beginning of this, that to invoke
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the emergencies act, the convoy had to reach the bar of section two of the CSIS act, one of those
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four provisions there. But then all of a sudden when police forces kept saying, no, it didn't meet
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that. It didn't meet that. Um, then we've said, okay, well not we, but the liberals, it is their
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contention that it's actually much broader under the emergencies act. And really this is in the only
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the final weeks of this thing. Have we even ever heard that before it was yes, definitely police
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forces act us asked us repeatedly that they needed these extra tools. And only when police forces
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started testifying that they didn't, they sort of changed whatever the argument would be. And they
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said, well, actually it's, that's not even the requirement under the emergencies act. Am I reading
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that right? I'm not a lawyer, but you are. Well, you know, Sheila, I think you've, you sort of zeroed
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in on what has been a major frustration for many people who are watching the emergencies, um, the
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commission, as well as some of the lawyers, because what we really want to get to is, is this, this
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question of, well, why did you invoke the act? And to, to know that we have to know a little bit more
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about what was discussed in cabinet. And we, we really need to know what advice David Lamedi gave
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to the other cabinet members. But as you saw that information, that information is privileged.
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So there's solicitor client privilege that's in play and there's cabinet privilege and that's in
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play as well. So there's, there's a double layer of privilege here. And in some ways at sometimes there
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might also be a third level of privilege, national security confidentiality. So there could be
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potentially three levels of privilege, uh, but, but it is frustrating. And, you know, when I think of
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it, I think it makes perfect sense that the government would not want to waive national security
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privilege. There's a very good reason why that exists. And generally there's also a very good reason
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why cabinet privilege exists. Um, and also for solicitor client privilege, but solicitor client
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privilege can be waived. Right. And we saw at the beginning of this, uh, uh, of this inquiry that the
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government was, uh, congratulating itself on its historical waiver of, uh, privilege, but when it
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really gets, uh, to the meat of things, we don't know what happened.
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No. And, and we can piece together the timeline of some of the conversations, but, and you can infer
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certain things from the timeline and the things that happened after certain conversations. For example,
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we had the director of CSIS, David Vigneault say repeatedly, his convoy did not rise to meet section
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two of the CSIS act. He it's in briefing notes, I believe to cabinet on February 10th, where he's
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saying no plots of sedition. Nope, nope, nothing. This is not a national security threat. It's a
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little inconvenient, but, but that's about it. And then between the 10th and the 13th, he meets with
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David Lametti's, uh, justice ministry and for outside legal advice, but that hardly seems outside to
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me when you're meeting with the justice ministry that wants to invoke the emergencies act.
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And, and we've seen the government say that from as early as I think January 30th, David Lametti
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did, but, you know, so he meets with the justice ministry and then by the 13th, his opinion on
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what is the scope and scale of the emergencies act and what constitutes a security threat there
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has changed from what everybody knew was in the act before. And then he advises Justin Trudeau.
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Yeah. You know what? Go ahead and invoke the act. So, uh, again, I'm curious, what advice
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is the justice ministry giving out? And, and they're, they, they won't really reveal any of that.
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They're saying it's, you know, as you say, solicitor client privilege, but that's the crux of all of
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this is what advice did you give to these people that led them to believe that they didn't need to
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meet section two. And, you know, you're, you're absolutely right, uh, Sheila. And we, we're just
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going to have to resolve this inquiry without knowing that advice. We've heard some evidence,
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you know, from, from different people. We've heard evidence from the clerk of the Privy Council. We've
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heard evidence from the, uh, national security intelligence advisor, and we know what their
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interpretation of the test was. And, you know, I think a lot of us were quite puzzled when we heard
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that because it, it, it doesn't seem, uh, it doesn't seem to accord with the obvious reading
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of the legislation. And this might have to come down, uh, to legal submissions. And in, in some way,
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I think, you know, no, I'm just, in a way I'm thinking out loud here. Um,
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if the government is not going to say what advice, uh, was given, then they will have to live with that
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in their legal submission, in, in their final submissions as well. Yeah. Yeah. And so it'll,
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it'll come down to, to a legal argument. And that, you know, that's hardly the point of all of this,
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because this is a, this is a public inquiry. So the public has an interest in finding out these
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things for themselves. Um, let's go to clip four. So we can see this invoking of solicitor client
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privilege in the face of prickly questions in real time. Narrow it down. Um, was there any such
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document that you reviewed in preparing for your testimony here today that existed prior to the
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invocation of the emergencies act, that it was discussed that isn't subject solicitor client
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privilege, that it was discussed that, uh, there was a broader scope of section two as it applied in
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the evidence act. Once again, that's, that's a question that's asking me, uh, to effectively divulge
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legal arguments. Um, I, I remind my, my learned friend that it is very odd to put a lawyer on the
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stand. I'm really here as a cabinet minister in order to speak to facts. Uh, and it is, it is, uh,
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to some extent, uh, an obligation for me to try to answer questions as best I can, but you're asking
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me to answer questions as a lawyer and it is, it would be remarkable to put a lawyer up on the stand
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in the middle. Well, I understand, sir. And so again, I just, I would like the question to answer.
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Did you see any documents that talked about this interpretation that you're discussing,
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uh, that existed prior to the invocation of the emergencies act? Again, I'm going to rely on,
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on solicitor client privilege there. I don't know. Keith Wilson testified. He's a lawyer.
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That's right. So, so Sheila, you know, I think, uh, you know, we, we do have to be a little bit
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fair to the minister of justice here. If something is really privileged, then he can't talk about it
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and it's not up to him to waive it, but I'd like to return to something you said earlier,
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because he said, well, the, the point of this commission is to get to the truth of what happened.
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And, you know, this, this just goes back to the nature of privilege and privilege always exists
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in intention with finding the truth, right? And it's usually because there's some type of
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relationship that you want to protect. That relationship might be the relationship between
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a lawyer and a client, or it might be the relationship between say, um, uh, uh, a church member
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and a priest, right. Or it might be the relationship between a husband and wife and there, there are all
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sorts of privileges, but they, they, they, they sort of, in some way they, they frustrate the truth
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or the search for the truth, but that's part of our legal system. Now, you know, I think we mentioned
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this before. Oftentimes privilege can be waived. And in this case, a solicitor client privilege
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was not waived. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. It's very frustrating. It's very frustrating as a member
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of the public. I understand why it exists. Um, but Justin Trudeau assured me way back in 2015,
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this is the most open and transparent government that I would ever be exposed to in my entire lifetime.
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And I'm still waiting to see it. I think we'll all have to make up our minds about that one.
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Um, what I want to ask you while I have you in before I let you go, cause I know we've got another
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lawyer standing there waiting to come on the show. What do you expect from the rest of the week?
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Well, we have three more witnesses, uh, tomorrow we'll hear from, uh, Christia Freeland. Um,
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we'll hear from a panel, uh, from the prime minister's office, and then we'll finally hear,
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uh, from the prime minister. I don't think we're going to hear anything new. I think we're going to
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hear, um, you know, more of the same testimony, uh, but there might be as few surprises here and
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there, there'll be some contesting of their evidence. Um, you know, to some extent I'm a little
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constrained here, Sheila, cause, um, I know we, we, we, we see things before the public sees them,
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but we can't talk about them. And of course we have questions that we plan to ask. Um, but we
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won't put those on, uh, we won't put those on live television or on live stream, uh, the day before,
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uh, we're asking those questions. Yeah. You don't want to give the bad guys any heads up, but also I'm
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not convinced that you're getting those, getting to see things well in advance of the public based on how
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the federal government is releasing documents to you guys as the witnesses are testifying.
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Some of that has come out in the public order, uh, emergency inquiry. You're right. So there,
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there's been some, uh, some discussion already about how documents are released late in this
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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,
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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
00:28:46.780
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
00:29:02.140
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.
00:29:16.780
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.
00:34:17.740
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.
00:44:04.700
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.
00:46:09.420
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.
00:46:25.260
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...
00:46:39.420
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?
01:05:23.220
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.
01:05:31.040
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,
01:17:48.660
Freedom in the year 2022 for me, folks, it means the return of Rebel Live. Now Rebel Live is an
01:17:59.040
annual event we used to put on before the man, or was it the COVID Karen made us shut it down during
01:18:06.460
the pandemic years. It is a freedom fun fest, if you will. All the freedom fighters you've grown to
01:18:13.000
know and love over the years, they're going to be speaking at the Toronto and Calgary events.
01:18:18.140
The Toronto event is on November 19th. That's a Saturday. And it will feature the likes of Dr.
01:18:24.220
Julie Panessi, Archer Pawlowski, Tamara Leach, and all your favorite Rebels, including yours truly,
01:18:32.460
I'll be the MC that day, Sheila Gunn-Reed, and of course, the big boss man himself, Ezra Levent.
01:18:38.220
Now Saturday, November the 26th, we're bringing Rebel Live to Calgary, and those aforementioned
01:18:45.300
speakers will be there, and Sheila will be the MC for that event. You don't want to miss it. It's an
01:18:51.500
all-day freedom fest. I know there are certain would-be conservative leaders that think freedom
01:18:58.340
is overrated. You know we don't think that way. I don't think you think that way. So if you want
01:19:05.140
to get a ticket, please go to the website. They are going fast. Go to rebelnewslive.com.
01:19:13.440
That's rebelnewslive.com. Get your orders in, and as Billy Red Lions used to say, folks,
01:19:20.780
don't you dare miss it. Don't you dare miss this one.