Rebel News Podcast - October 18, 2022


EZRA LEVANT ｜ The UN rolls out an ad campaign telling you who you should or should not believe


Episode Stats

Length

54 minutes

Words per Minute

168.72833

Word Count

9,248

Sentence Count

679

Misogynist Sentences

3

Hate Speech Sentences

5


Summary

Rebel News Plus is an independent, non-profit organization dedicated to exposing government corruption, waste, abuse, and corruption in every facet of our society. In this episode, Ezra talks to reporter Andrew Lawton about the Trudeau Commission of inquiry, and reveals a bizarre ad campaign from the United Nation telling you who you should or should not believe.


Transcript

00:00:00.480 Hello, my rebels. Lots to talk about. I'm going to interview my friend Andrew Lawton about the
00:00:05.220 Trucker Commission of Inquiry, but first I'm going to show you something really weird that
00:00:10.900 was sent to us in our tips email hotline. Ads posted in the subway tram, paid for by the United
00:00:19.900 Nations, telling you not to trust anyone or anything without verifying them. I dig into it,
00:00:24.900 I go to the website, and I try to make heads and tails of this. It's just creepy and weird,
00:00:29.620 and I don't like it one bit. I'll take you through it, and I'll show you the photos in
00:00:33.840 that subway car. That's why I want you to get to the video version of this podcast. Go to
00:00:37.360 rebelnewsplus.com, click subscribe. You get the video version of the podcast so you can
00:00:43.840 see what I'm talking about. Eight bucks a month. You get my show every weeknight, plus we have
00:00:49.000 four weekly shows. That's 36 episodes a month just for eight smackers. And by the way, we
00:00:55.160 need the money because we don't take any money from Trudeau. We're completely independent.
00:00:58.640 And we depend on you, which is how we can be free. All right, here's today's show.
00:01:17.060 Tonight, the United Nations rolls out an ad campaign telling you who you should or should
00:01:22.700 not believe. It's October 18th, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.
00:01:26.780 You're ready for freedom. Shame on you, you censorious bug.
00:01:42.560 There's a lot of news in Canada, and we're covering it. I think the most important story
00:01:47.000 is the Trucker Commission of Inquiry in Ottawa. We're covering that intensively. We're live tweeting
00:01:52.460 it, by which I mean we're commenting on it in real time, and we're live streaming it,
00:01:57.700 by which I mean we're just literally streaming the real-time video of the full proceedings.
00:02:02.660 We're also doing special reports. And each night, we have our own live stream broadcast where
00:02:08.500 we go over the day's highlights. That's all at the website, truckercommission.com.
00:02:12.440 I think we're covering this more intensively than anyone else in the country.
00:02:17.840 Now, in a moment, I'll interview my friend Andrew Lawton from True North, who has been covering it too.
00:02:23.080 And of course, our friends from the Democracy Fund were there. Here's Alan Hohner, a TDF lawyer in action today.
00:02:29.460 You told us earlier today, where evidence came out, that these protesters, they were nasty,
00:02:38.440 they were hateful, and they were vaulter. Is that right?
00:02:42.640 Yes.
00:02:44.240 And you said that you saw, or you said that they had ripped masks off of people?
00:02:50.740 Yes.
00:02:51.920 Did you actually see that?
00:02:53.980 No, I saw it reported in the media.
00:02:55.780 There is still other news in other places, and we're covering other news too, of course.
00:03:01.040 And some of our top talent has just been in Berlin, Germany, for the World Health Organization
00:03:05.480 conference out there. Just great work. Here's some new clips from them.
00:03:10.060 Mr. Tedros, how are you? How are you, Mr. Tedros?
00:03:13.360 If you could do lockdowns again, would you do them?
00:03:17.360 If you could do lockdowns again, would you support them?
00:03:19.840 I'm sorry, please.
00:03:21.140 Mr. Tedros, if you could do lockdowns again, would you support them?
00:03:25.780 That's what you got for unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats heading in there to the WHO conference,
00:03:33.920 the World Health Summit.
00:03:34.800 There wasn't anything about sort of the other side to lockdowns, like losing jobs and businesses.
00:03:40.400 Do you think that that should be represented in this event?
00:03:43.660 No, you've got to focus on one thing.
00:03:45.620 I think they're more focusing on solutions.
00:03:47.640 They're not on the victims and on the disadvantages that we've brought.
00:03:51.560 And so what solutions do you think are most important to focus on?
00:03:54.380 Vaccination and developing of new products.
00:03:57.600 I can tell you the best is yet to come from them.
00:03:59.520 We have some explosive footage that we will share with you probably next week.
00:04:03.880 But I want to show you something odd that I saw in my email box today.
00:04:08.360 It was a tip from an Australian viewer.
00:04:12.760 I've hidden his last name. I'm not sure if he wants privacy.
00:04:15.340 He says, hi there.
00:04:15.940 I'm a frequent watcher of Rebel News as well as other outlets.
00:04:19.680 I found this hilarious and disturbing on the Canberra light rail system today.
00:04:24.540 Seems recent, but not sure if it has been sent to you and if it exists elsewhere in Australia.
00:04:30.400 These bizarre ad posters about misinformation and funnily enough, a global symbol in the corner.
00:04:36.280 I didn't scan the QR code on the ad, but feel free to do so from the pictures should work.
00:04:40.300 Maybe it's worthy of attention, maybe not, but I think it's dangerous to believe.
00:04:44.300 A group that says, trust us, we tell you the truth.
00:04:46.800 Anyways, keep up the great work. Continue to work with integrity and peace.
00:04:50.680 Kind regards, Luke.
00:04:52.460 And he sent these photos.
00:04:53.700 Now, the first one's weird, don't you think?
00:04:57.500 Fake news.
00:04:58.720 Spoiled houseplants become allergic to tap water.
00:05:01.820 Misinformation isn't always as easy to spot.
00:05:04.580 And then you can see some symbols there.
00:05:06.320 That one on the left is the United Nations symbol.
00:05:09.080 And then this weird double checkmark symbol.
00:05:11.380 And then the website shareverify.au and a scannable QR code.
00:05:16.000 And I checked it. It goes to the same place.
00:05:19.160 That's weird.
00:05:20.280 That's a pretty dumb ad, I think.
00:05:21.720 What even is the meaning of it?
00:05:23.980 What are you trying to learn?
00:05:25.440 What do they want you to learn from that?
00:05:26.740 I don't know.
00:05:27.900 There's a couple more photos that Luke sent.
00:05:29.820 That UN symbol and that double checkmark symbol.
00:05:32.760 And then another ad that says,
00:05:34.180 Every day is April Fool's Day when it comes to information online.
00:05:37.320 Always verify what you read online because not everything is true.
00:05:42.020 Now, of course, that's a truest.
00:05:43.480 That's trite, of course.
00:05:44.460 It's pretty banal.
00:05:45.320 Some things aren't true.
00:05:46.620 We know that.
00:05:47.120 Some things online aren't true, of course.
00:05:50.040 Always verify what you read online.
00:05:52.240 Now, I'm not sure if that's possible, is it?
00:05:53.980 How can you verify everything always?
00:05:56.740 You can't.
00:05:57.620 You have to trust some people.
00:05:59.720 And we learn over time.
00:06:01.040 We remember things through good experiences and bad experiences.
00:06:04.340 We see patterns.
00:06:05.860 This guy's a liar I've come to know.
00:06:07.820 This guy's pretty honest I've come to know.
00:06:09.920 This gal admits to making mistakes and tries to correct them.
00:06:12.600 I like that.
00:06:13.120 This guy takes government money and seems to parrot their line.
00:06:16.640 I mean, we literally cannot verify always what we see online.
00:06:21.020 The entire world comes to us through the online.
00:06:23.920 Everything we do or see or read is online.
00:06:25.680 It's as absurd to say verify everything online as it would be to say verify everything in your entire life.
00:06:32.280 You can't verify the whole world.
00:06:33.980 Sorry, that's just absurd.
00:06:34.900 You cannot.
00:06:35.600 You don't have the time or the resources or the skills or the interests.
00:06:38.940 So we develop shortcuts.
00:06:40.520 We come up with patterns.
00:06:41.780 That's part of being intelligent people.
00:06:44.640 Based on what you know, do you trust, say, the United Nations?
00:06:51.520 I can't even spit the question out without laughing.
00:06:54.540 Because that's who paid for these ads, bizarrely.
00:06:57.820 The United Nations is paying for ads in Australian subway cars about not trusting things online.
00:07:03.260 Okay, but what if I don't trust the UN?
00:07:05.760 Because I know better.
00:07:06.880 I mean, the UN itself is not trustworthy.
00:07:10.040 It's full of dictatorships, for example.
00:07:12.260 They take away civil liberties from their people and they lie about it.
00:07:14.740 Even their Human Rights Council of the UN is stacked with human rights violators.
00:07:18.720 Does the trust no one motto apply to the UN too?
00:07:22.800 But I actually clicked on that link they advertised.
00:07:25.180 I scanned the QR code and it took me to a number of pages.
00:07:28.220 I was poking around.
00:07:29.320 This is the main one.
00:07:30.980 And naturally, it's about vaccines.
00:07:32.780 They're obsessed with vaccines, aren't they?
00:07:34.880 I mean, just Google Bill Gates gift to UN.
00:07:39.560 I just typed that in and Googled it and you'll get a sense of why the UN is obsessed with vaccines.
00:07:47.480 Bill Gates gives them billions of dollars to promote his interests and causes and foundations and his businesses.
00:07:52.800 And he is obsessed with vaccines.
00:07:54.600 So, you have to be too because the UN says so and you can trust them, right?
00:08:00.160 Or can we verify what they have to say before we trust them?
00:08:04.800 You can pretty quickly see that this isn't just about a selfless pursuit of the truth.
00:08:09.760 It's about an information war, a battle on for your mind, as Alex Jones might say.
00:08:14.380 Here's a page on that website the UN is promoting.
00:08:20.460 Using evidence-based insights to create behavior change.
00:08:25.200 Oh, okay.
00:08:26.340 So, they just want to change your behavior.
00:08:28.020 They want to manipulate you.
00:08:29.540 That's what they're saying.
00:08:30.460 That's what this is about.
00:08:32.560 It's not about the pursuit of truth.
00:08:33.860 It's about manipulating you.
00:08:35.420 It's about allies and enemies.
00:08:36.700 Are you with them?
00:08:37.680 Are you pro-UN?
00:08:38.900 Are you pro-Bill Gates?
00:08:40.760 Then you're a friend.
00:08:41.640 But if you're an enemy, watch out.
00:08:43.960 Watch out.
00:08:44.500 If you get offside, then you're in for a fight.
00:08:48.240 Fighting misinformation where it happens.
00:08:50.640 Striking first and often.
00:08:52.720 That's so butch.
00:08:53.760 Strike the enemy.
00:08:54.620 Except if the misinformation is from the UN, and their World Health Organization, and the
00:09:00.740 vaccine companies don't strike them.
00:09:03.640 The thing that the citizens of the United States right now should be worried about.
00:09:07.600 There's no doubt that we knew that we would get cases here.
00:09:11.980 There is no need to change anything that you're doing on a day-by-day basis.
00:09:16.260 You do those things.
00:09:17.900 Masks, no crowds, physical distance, personal hygiene.
00:09:21.940 No doubt you're going to be able to turn these things around.
00:09:25.740 When you're in the middle of an outbreak, wearing a mask might make people feel a little
00:09:31.520 bit better, and it might even block a droplet.
00:09:35.380 But it's not providing the perfect protection that people think that it is.
00:09:40.000 Make sure you wear a mask.
00:09:41.880 So you wear a mask.
00:09:43.260 Then you put a cloth mask over, which actually is much better.
00:09:47.480 Another coronavirus that obviously jumped from an animal species.
00:09:52.600 We don't know exactly how that happened.
00:09:55.400 We have not ruled out the possibility that there could have been a leak from the lab.
00:10:01.420 Should we have any worries about walking by someone on the street who may be unvaccinated?
00:10:06.220 Not at all.
00:10:07.060 I would have no concern walking down the street past a person who's not been vaccinated, and
00:10:12.600 even a person who's been infected, because the protection is really quite substantial.
00:10:17.780 We do know that the science shows now that even people who are vaccinated and get a breakthrough
00:10:25.980 infection can transmit.
00:10:28.200 Yeah, funny thing about misinformation, it's always the other guy that's guilty of it,
00:10:32.360 says the UN.
00:10:33.200 The UN wants you to take a pledge to fight their information enemies.
00:10:39.620 Did you know you have to pledge to support the UN?
00:10:42.240 They want you to.
00:10:43.500 They had these videos that they're promoting on this website.
00:10:46.680 Now, here's a video that's been up for a year.
00:10:49.640 You can see it has had a grand total of 337 views.
00:10:53.660 That makes me deeply happy.
00:10:56.220 I'm serious.
00:10:57.380 Now, the video says you're an emotional train wreck who believes everything you see,
00:11:01.320 so you should be scared.
00:11:03.720 Take a look.
00:11:27.520 What even is their advice or takeaway there?
00:11:30.140 That feels like a child's video, but it doesn't even make sense.
00:11:32.740 Here's another video that's a little bit more grown up.
00:11:35.800 It has, I'm delighted to tell you, in a year, 340 views.
00:11:41.040 Take a look.
00:11:46.540 Desinformação é o maior monstro que a gente tem que combater hoje em dia.
00:11:51.120 Desinformação é aquela peça que foi criada pra tentar te enganar.
00:11:54.840 If it's too good to be true, it is very likely that it is false.
00:11:59.780 Lo que sabemos sobre la desinformação é que uma das razões de su éxito é que apela
00:12:05.360 a nossas emociones.
00:12:06.440 Isso é perigoso, sobretudo quando tem que ver com falsas curas ou tratamentos.
00:12:11.540 A lot of the time, misinformation is shared by people who are sharing it in good faith.
00:12:16.920 So, a lot of people share these pieces of misinformation out of genuine concern.
00:12:22.960 It can be anybody, it can come from anyone, even people like us can fall from misinformation.
00:12:27.020 Check in with yourself and think, who shared this?
00:12:30.860 And is this, do I think this is real?
00:12:32.600 The more that we can do this, me, you, all of us, the more that we can stop harmful information
00:12:38.440 impacting lives in ways that make them worse.
00:12:41.280 Nós precisamos pausar antes de compartilhar a informação online.
00:12:45.600 Pause.
00:12:46.660 Pausar.
00:12:47.720 Pause and take care before we shift.
00:12:53.400 Too good to be true?
00:12:55.600 Don't believe things that are too good to be true, people.
00:12:58.040 Like the claim that vaccines have a 90% effectiveness rate.
00:13:00.940 Like the claim that vaccines stop you from transmitting the virus.
00:13:04.300 That kind of good too, too good to be true?
00:13:06.480 But how can we verify false statements like that if social media companies,
00:13:11.760 including the ones that help sponsor this site, ban us from having full debates about them?
00:13:16.820 How can you discuss if something's true or not?
00:13:19.700 Pause and take care before you share.
00:13:22.980 What on earth does that mean?
00:13:24.180 That really, they really think you're a foolish child.
00:13:27.200 This is the website promoted with ads in an Australian site.
00:13:31.240 Take care before you share.
00:13:33.000 They talk about emotional manipulation.
00:13:35.080 Beware of that.
00:13:36.840 But that's what they trade in.
00:13:40.080 That one irritating guy from their video, Tommy Shane, who is he?
00:13:43.500 I Googled him, Tommy Shane.
00:13:44.780 He's with First Draft, a self-righteous fact-checking truth soldier from the UN.
00:13:49.560 I skimmed their website.
00:13:50.880 It was too boring to read much more.
00:13:52.260 I read their impact report.
00:13:54.740 Here's what they said in a recent report.
00:13:57.060 They said, the year opened with a distressing confirmation of how lies, conspiracy theories,
00:14:02.580 and radicalization can lead to democracy-shaking violence.
00:14:06.800 The January 6th siege of the U.S. Capitol.
00:14:09.620 Then the onslaught of vaccine disinformation showed how vulnerable critical health care systems are
00:14:14.540 to bad information.
00:14:16.280 Sorry, you're the crazy one, babe.
00:14:17.880 You're the emotionally manipulative one, babe.
00:14:20.140 You should pause and take care before you share.
00:14:23.320 I saw this weird line in his report.
00:14:26.640 Pro-Russia networks are driving anti-Pfizer vaccine disinformation.
00:14:30.640 What?
00:14:31.340 Is that true?
00:14:32.880 Is that the reason people are skeptical of mRNA vaccines by Pfizer because Russia did it?
00:14:39.860 Is that really fact-checking?
00:14:42.520 Is that really why people are mad at Pfizer?
00:14:44.740 So it's got nothing to do with say, oh, I don't know,
00:14:46.580 Pfizer paying the largest health care fine, their largest fraud settlement in U.S. history,
00:14:52.920 $2.3 billion for lying about their drugs.
00:14:55.600 It's not bad.
00:14:56.680 It's Russia, Russia, Russia.
00:14:58.380 So I clicked on their truth link.
00:15:00.640 This is the guy the U.N. says we should believe because he's verified.
00:15:03.760 And I got this page.
00:15:04.960 So I'm following the U.N.'s advice.
00:15:06.320 When I came to this page, banned sites and pro-Russian networks are driving anti-Pfizer vaccine disinformation.
00:15:15.200 Highly misleading articles framing Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine as an unsafe experiment for guinea pigs were spread across both fringe and mainstream social media platforms.
00:15:24.900 I'll read some more.
00:15:25.620 Two, de-platform disinformation websites and key players within Russia's disinformation and propaganda ecosystem are largely behind the false narrative on fringe platforms that the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine is experimental and its recipients are guinea pigs.
00:15:40.820 Collectively, they facilitated the spread of the experimental narrative across multiple languages and larger social networks.
00:15:46.400 The narrative now exists alongside and feeds into other misinformation narratives surrounding the mRNA-based vaccine.
00:15:52.440 Well, I should tell you that Pfizer's drug is experimental.
00:15:58.500 That is not up for debate.
00:16:00.160 That's a fact.
00:16:00.860 That's why it needs the emergency use authorization.
00:16:05.360 It hasn't finished its clinical trials.
00:16:08.380 Normally, drugs don't get to the market for years.
00:16:10.980 They have to be tested.
00:16:12.420 Now, people aren't really becoming guinea pigs.
00:16:14.600 That's an animal.
00:16:15.800 But it's a metaphor because guinea pigs are often used to test drugs on before they're tested on humans.
00:16:21.720 And so, of course, we're not actually guinea pigs.
00:16:24.760 But it's a turn of a phrase.
00:16:26.780 To be a guinea pig means to have something tested on you.
00:16:29.280 It's obviously a fair comment because these drugs have not finished their clinical trials.
00:16:33.840 Now, I have no idea if Russia doesn't like Pfizer.
00:16:36.680 I don't know what angle they would have in all that.
00:16:39.560 But I've never read a single word from a Russian website about Pfizer.
00:16:43.580 I don't care what Russia has to say about Pfizer.
00:16:46.260 And the story starts off by saying that the Russian sites have been deplatformed, as in hidden or canceled.
00:16:52.340 So what are they banging on about?
00:16:54.300 Talk about weird.
00:16:55.220 Frankly, this feels like misinformation.
00:16:58.380 Whether or not Pfizer vaccines are good or bad is a debate that we should have, though these folks don't want us to have a debate.
00:17:03.780 They're trying to win that debate by saying anyone who criticizes Pfizer is a Russian agent.
00:17:11.140 That's just trying to cut off debate before it begins by saying, if you dealt this vaccine by an American company, ordered by American and Canadian politicians, into the arms of American and Canadian citizens, using a new technology that has not been tried before.
00:17:25.120 If you have concerns about this, well, you're just a Russian agent.
00:17:29.560 Yeah, no, that's actually disinformation.
00:17:31.880 And this first draft fact checker, come to think of it, I've never heard of him before.
00:17:37.880 Maybe I should follow the UN's advice after all and verify their lies before I believe them.
00:17:43.800 What a bunch of weirdness this anti-disinformation scam is.
00:17:48.200 It's free government money, sloshing around, globalist agendas, and obsession with promoting vaccines.
00:17:56.980 What a bunch of kooks they are.
00:17:59.380 Yet they're the ones telling you to doubt yourself and what you think you shouldn't doubt yourself.
00:18:04.560 Or at least you shouldn't doubt everything in the world, which is what these people literally told you to do.
00:18:10.460 They want you to distrust your own eyes.
00:18:13.400 They want you to ignore everyone else except them.
00:18:16.180 It's like Jacinda Ardern, the globalist socialist from New Zealand, said.
00:18:20.960 The most up-to-date information daily.
00:18:24.720 You can trust us as a source of that information.
00:18:27.840 You can also trust the Director General of Health and the Ministry of Health.
00:18:32.500 For that information, do feel free to visit at any time to clarify any rumor you may hear,
00:18:38.580 covid19.govt.nz.
00:18:41.920 Otherwise, dismiss anything else.
00:18:44.460 We will continue to be your single source of truth.
00:18:47.620 We will provide information frequently.
00:18:50.440 We will share everything we can.
00:18:52.680 Everything you are, else you see, a grain of salt.
00:18:56.920 And so I really ask people to focus on that.
00:18:58.520 Well, there's a great example of that.
00:18:59.960 It appears to be this text which originated in Malaysia and has become a viral hope in Australia and in New Zealand.
00:19:05.700 How irresponsible is it for the people that are sharing that news of a lockdown imminent in New Zealand?
00:19:10.340 Yeah.
00:19:10.700 And look, that's the kind of thing that adds to the anxiety that people feel.
00:19:15.360 So I continue to share the message.
00:19:17.280 New Zealanders must prepare.
00:19:19.280 But do not panic.
00:19:20.720 Prepare.
00:19:21.140 And when you see those messages, remember that unless you hear it from us, it is not the truth.
00:19:28.880 And I really ask people, just visit covid19.govt.nz.
00:19:34.440 It has all of the up-to-date information.
00:19:36.980 And we will continue to provide everything you need to know.
00:19:39.780 Yeah, sister, I think I'm going to pause and verify that lie.
00:19:44.500 Thank you very little.
00:19:46.280 Stay with us for more.
00:19:51.340 People started to realize this was turning into a very volatile situation.
00:19:56.900 When we started seeing fireworks going off and hot tubs brought in and the behavior I told you about those four or five incidents.
00:20:04.700 And, you know, the public who were living here understood fully that this was a horrific situation.
00:20:11.660 And the sooner it got resolved, the better it was for everyone.
00:20:16.040 That's a clip from the Trucker Commission.
00:20:19.680 As you know, Justin Trudeau is required to submit to a judicial inquiry about his use of the Emergencies Act,
00:20:28.120 the former martial law that he invoked in February,
00:20:30.260 when he panicked because the truckers and their hot tubs and bouncy castles.
00:20:36.660 Well, suspending civil liberties is a grave thing.
00:20:38.660 And the law had built into it the requirement for hearings.
00:20:42.140 What troubles me is that Trudeau issued terms to the judicial inquiry that demanded that they focus on the truckers, not on him.
00:20:53.220 Although he's the one who invoked the Emergencies Act,
00:20:55.240 the commission has been directed by Trudeau, as you can see in their mandate letter,
00:21:00.820 to examine the motives and the communications and the funding of the truckers.
00:21:05.840 What's that got to do with Trudeau suspending our civil liberties?
00:21:09.100 And, of course, disinformation and foreign meddling, which we both know are hoaxes.
00:21:14.800 Well, despite that, I have a flicker of hope that this judicial inquiry will do the right thing.
00:21:21.020 I was there in Ottawa for a day.
00:21:23.420 We have a team there permanently.
00:21:26.240 For six weeks, we've rented an Airbnb, just a stone's throw from the commission,
00:21:30.860 where we'll have people around the clock covering the story and live streaming it.
00:21:34.100 But we're not the only game in town.
00:21:36.380 I'm delighted to see other skeptics, critics, independent-minded people covering this story.
00:21:41.840 And you know that our friend Andrew Lawton would be all over this.
00:21:46.480 This is his thing.
00:21:47.280 He's got the best-selling book in Canada right now about the truckers.
00:21:51.080 Without further ado, let me bring on air our friend Andrew Lawton from True North.
00:21:55.340 Andrew, it's great to see you.
00:21:57.100 Hey, always good to be here, Ezra.
00:21:58.820 You know, you were such an important journalist during the trucker convoy itself.
00:22:04.140 You've written a best-selling book on the subject.
00:22:06.120 And now I am so glad that you are live-tweeting the commissions.
00:22:12.140 And our Sheila Gunn-Reed is, too, between the two of yous, I feel like I'm right there covering it.
00:22:18.040 Tell me a little bit about today.
00:22:21.080 And then once we get some of today's news out, I'd like to back the camera out a little bit
00:22:25.800 and get your feelings about the commission itself.
00:22:28.820 I want to be a little bit hopeful about it.
00:22:30.800 And I want to know if you think I'm being naive to think that this is an open-minded commission.
00:22:35.720 But first, what happened today in the commission?
00:22:37.660 So the focus today was actually on Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson, who was, of the three levels of government,
00:22:46.000 the one that was probably the most directly affected by this protest, given that it was happening in his city.
00:22:51.340 But he took the stand, spoke a lot about insurrection and the horrors of dance parties and raves.
00:22:57.760 And interestingly enough, and I have a clip of it if you're interested in it,
00:23:01.780 the fact that Ottawa never asked for the Emergencies Act.
00:23:05.420 They didn't ask the government on it.
00:23:06.920 They didn't offer any advice.
00:23:08.980 And they weren't even advised on, let alone consulted on, the federal government invoking it in the first place.
00:23:15.360 Yeah, let's play that clip right now.
00:23:16.720 Take a look.
00:23:17.640 Now, on February 14th, we know that the Emergencies Act was invoked.
00:23:21.280 Were you consulted on the invocation of the Emergencies Act before it was invoked?
00:23:26.860 No, it wasn't.
00:23:28.100 Did the city request that it be invoked?
00:23:30.820 No.
00:23:31.760 Did the city weigh in on whether it was required, necessary, or needed?
00:23:35.540 Well, when it was released, I think, like most people, very few people knew exactly what the Emergencies Act was, to be perfectly honest.
00:23:43.980 I remember growing up in Quebec, what the War Measures Act was, and the implications that had for the province of Quebec and the rest of the country.
00:23:51.800 But no one had raised the Emergencies Act with us.
00:23:57.940 But when it was invoked, and I was briefed on what its powers were, I thought this is a very positive step to getting this situation resolved once and for all because of the provisions in the Act.
00:24:13.680 So I very much supported it, and I was, as you may recall, the current chair of the Police Service Board, Eli Al Shantir, and I sent a letter to the Prime Minister thanking him for invoking the Act because it actually acted as the catalyst for us to move forward and get that whole situation in the downtown core resolved once and for all and give people their street and their homes back.
00:24:38.560 You know, Andrew, it is not surprising to me that Jim Watson, I mean, he's a liberal mayor, he's not to my taste, but he's a fairly normal guy.
00:24:46.880 I disagree with some of the things he says, but the idea that he would reach for martial law to handle some noisy but lawful truckers.
00:24:56.560 By the way, by the time they brought in the Emergencies Act, the honking had long since stopped.
00:25:02.500 They, you know, local residents went to court, got a judge to issue injunctions saying no more honking, and it ended.
00:25:08.460 That was long gone by the time the Emergencies Act was in place.
00:25:11.680 I think that's why Jim Watson, like the rest of the country, was stunned when Trudeau invoked it, because there literally was no need for it, was there?
00:25:20.800 No, and Jim Watson's a bit interesting, because he's not popular to a lot of the convoy people.
00:25:25.860 His rhetoric about the Freedom Convoy and a lot of the fake stories and fake narratives that have been purveyed, he himself has talked about.
00:25:34.280 But at the same time, he also did something Justin Trudeau didn't do and the provincial government didn't do, which is allow his office to actually have a conversation with them.
00:25:43.400 And near the end of the protest, there was that deal that was reached between the city of Ottawa and convoy organizers to move trucks onto Wellington Street.
00:25:52.360 So the city of Ottawa and Jim Watson, whatever their shortfalls are in other areas, did something that the federal government wouldn't do, which is actually have a conversation with these people.
00:26:03.560 And that's such a critical point, because the whole point of the Emergencies Act is that it is meant to be there when all other means have been exhausted, when existing laws are incapable of achieving the desired outcome.
00:26:16.620 In this case, the federal government wouldn't even engage. They wouldn't even have that discussion.
00:26:22.320 But Ottawa did, and it was bearing fruit just before the Emergencies Act came into play.
00:26:26.920 And I think that that is no coincidence. One of the things we learned today is that Jim Watson's office, the mayor's office, who was engaging productively, they say.
00:26:36.420 They acknowledge that the truckers were negotiating in good faith, that they were moving trucks around, moving out of the residential areas, keeping lanes free.
00:26:44.480 They were moving trucks when requested. Jim Watson was actually getting his hands dirty and making things happen.
00:26:50.860 And he had the honesty to acknowledge the truckers were working in good faith.
00:26:55.880 I think that was precisely the problem, Andrew. I think that Justin Trudeau wanted an insurrection.
00:27:02.920 He wanted a dramatic moment. Like in the U.S., they had their January 6th insurrection, according to the Democrats.
00:27:09.880 Trudeau wanted that up here. He didn't want peaceful cooperation and a managed protest.
00:27:15.920 He wanted something shocking. And isn't it true that we saw today testimony and documents showing that there really was an agreement to manage things?
00:27:28.740 And it was precisely when that agreement started to be implemented that Trudeau pulled the trigger on the martial law.
00:27:37.040 It was almost like Trudeau didn't want this thing to end peacefully, right?
00:27:41.740 No, because the whole point of the deal was to get the trucks that had been on residential streets onto Wellington Street, where there are no residences.
00:27:49.920 It's just government offices, most of which were empty because of COVID.
00:27:53.860 And that was so key because that would have made it the federal government's problem.
00:27:58.760 And it was interesting that the breakdown in this deal happened after the Emergencies Act was invoked.
00:28:05.320 And more importantly, one thing we learned from the testimony is that it broke down because of police and parliamentary security, not because of protesters.
00:28:14.640 You know, Andrew, you've really covered this well.
00:28:16.660 I want to give a shout out to your book, The Freedom Convoy, the inside story of three weeks that shook the world.
00:28:21.360 Isn't that the truth? Number one, Amazon bestseller.
00:28:24.180 We're so proud of you. Thank you for that.
00:28:28.020 Here's my theory on the whole thing.
00:28:30.860 I think you and I are in general agreement about what happened in February.
00:28:34.100 Peaceful protest. Crime actually fell in Ottawa.
00:28:37.460 There was such a demand for crime that they made up hoaxes like they're burning down an apartment.
00:28:42.800 There was an attempted arson.
00:28:44.340 Any crime, any natural crime in the city was attributed falsely to the truckers.
00:28:48.960 They were so desperate to find acts of violence.
00:28:51.660 There wasn't. I was there.
00:28:52.860 I listened to Zexy Lee talk about violence, violence, violence.
00:28:56.080 When she was pressed, did you actually observe any?
00:28:58.600 She said, no, other than her friends throwing eggs at the truckers.
00:29:02.620 So I think that the truckers were enormously successful in breaking the narrative that Trudeau wanted.
00:29:08.080 But that's what the media party wants to do with this trucker commission of inquiry.
00:29:15.000 They want to use it as a do-over, as a chance to revise history, because I think they lost that first round.
00:29:23.860 I mean, let me put it this way.
00:29:24.980 That trucker convoy broke the spell of unanimity in this country.
00:29:29.720 We soon saw the federal mandates leaving.
00:29:32.840 Jason Kenney was deposed.
00:29:34.900 Aaron O'Toole was deposed.
00:29:36.020 These truckers did more than anything.
00:29:37.960 I think Trudeau and his bought-and-paid-for media are trying to use this commission of inquiry to rewrite history.
00:29:46.780 What do you think?
00:29:47.340 I would agree, and I think that it's interesting as we go through this process.
00:29:53.320 And remember, it's going to be a couple of weeks before we hear from anyone that was actually involved in the convoy.
00:29:58.580 So the first things people are hearing are about the government's fears of violence, the government's fears of insurrection,
00:30:04.560 this idea that it was an insurrection, this idea that there was organized crime embedded at one intersection they were talking about today.
00:30:12.480 These things are really their attempt to make it seem like things were a lot worse than they are.
00:30:19.140 And everyone can talk about the theoretical risk of violence.
00:30:22.360 No one can point to any actual violence.
00:30:25.300 You know, one thing that I reminded my viewers about yesterday, and I know you emphasize this,
00:30:31.220 is the whole question that the country has gathered in this commission to answer is not,
00:30:38.160 did anything bad happen?
00:30:40.460 I'm sure there were some bad things.
00:30:41.660 Life is tough.
00:30:43.480 It's not even, did any crime happen?
00:30:45.620 I think the answer is generally no, just a lot of parking infractions and horn honking.
00:30:49.800 The question is, was the invocation of martial law justified?
00:30:56.240 And let me put on the screen the very clear test in the law.
00:31:01.760 Is there a danger to Canadian citizens, or is there a risk of violating the sovereignty of this country?
00:31:11.660 And, and look at that keyword, and, and these cannot be resolved by current law.
00:31:19.760 So it, not only does it have to be extremely dangerous or an extreme violation of national sovereignty,
00:31:26.180 but whatever the terror is, cannot be resolved by existing laws.
00:31:32.480 And that, to me, makes this, or should make this a slam dunk.
00:31:38.320 There was no reason for martial law.
00:31:42.200 You could have dealt with this with local police force.
00:31:45.080 The OPP testified that they were able to clear the Windsor Ambassador Bridge with Detroit in two days, without violence, without the Emergencies Act.
00:31:56.820 And all the complaints we're hearing from these Ottawa witnesses about how it hurt their feelings.
00:32:01.380 I don't even know if those are dangers or crimes, but there was nothing that martial law could do for them that regular police couldn't.
00:32:11.320 Yeah, and I would, I think you're, you're very right to point that out.
00:32:14.580 And I, and I want to reemphasize that point, if I may here, because when it comes to constitutional challenges, there's a murkiness to it.
00:32:21.660 We know that courts have oftentimes been very deferential to governments.
00:32:25.300 When it comes to the criminal cases, again, there's a murkiness of that.
00:32:29.000 We don't yet know how the criminal charges against Tamara Leach or Chris Barber or any of the others will unfold.
00:32:34.980 This is a very simple issue, and it's noteworthy that governments and Ottawa representatives and Canadian government representatives are really muddying the waters here.
00:32:44.440 We're not talking about whether the convoy was a group of upstanding citizens or not.
00:32:48.620 We're not talking about whether the convoy was disruptive or not.
00:32:51.960 We're not talking about whether people's lives were in some ways affected on either side of that thing.
00:32:57.500 We're talking about that very key question.
00:33:00.360 Was this a national emergency as defined by the Emergencies Act?
00:33:05.280 And I mean, forgetting for a second all the definitions about sabotage and espionage and threats to sovereignty,
00:33:11.380 which I think are laughable to apply to this Bouncy Castle rebellion.
00:33:15.660 We're talking about something that cannot be effectively dealt with under any other law of Canada.
00:33:22.520 And it is inconceivable to me that that case can be made by the government because they didn't even try to use other laws and other means,
00:33:30.500 and even things that don't involve the law, like having a conversation.
00:33:34.640 Yeah.
00:33:35.060 You know what?
00:33:35.620 Let me just check.
00:33:37.080 I did a tweet today referencing a particular section of the criminal code.
00:33:42.760 Let me find it here.
00:33:43.700 I should tell you that the idea of commandeering tow trucks, which was one of the things that was referred to,
00:33:54.580 we needed the Emergencies Act because tow truck drivers simply wouldn't give their tow trucks.
00:34:00.680 That is allowed under the criminal code.
00:34:04.880 You know, in TV movies where you see a policeman pull over a civilian vehicle and say, I need this car.
00:34:13.260 Get out.
00:34:13.960 That actually has the force of law.
00:34:16.020 I know it sounds crazy, but police can commandeer a private vehicle and they can commandeer any service,
00:34:23.620 including tow trucks, under the criminal code.
00:34:26.960 Now, we don't like it to happen a lot.
00:34:28.460 It's an abuse of people's liberty or their private property or their business.
00:34:32.960 But the criminal code of Canada gives police the right to let them commandeer your stuff.
00:34:40.420 And, you know, if we don't like that, we should change the criminal code.
00:34:43.820 The only justification I have ever heard, and I heard it again today in the commission,
00:34:48.020 was we couldn't get the tow trucks to help.
00:34:50.480 Well, the criminal code lets police do that anyways.
00:34:55.440 They didn't need martial law for that, Andrew.
00:34:58.920 I think when you strip away all of these things,
00:35:01.900 what we're left with that the government couldn't do was financial penalties,
00:35:07.340 freezing bank accounts, taking away business licenses, taking away insurance policies.
00:35:12.420 That's the elephant in the room here.
00:35:14.640 That's what the government wanted, that it needed the Emergencies Act to do.
00:35:17.780 You know, but none of those things remedied the problem.
00:35:22.980 None of those, like, seizing bank accounts of 200 families,
00:35:26.820 the names chosen from CBC's malicious coverage, how does that move a truck?
00:35:32.600 You know, seizing bank accounts.
00:35:33.660 It absolutely doesn't, but they wanted to do it.
00:35:35.760 They wanted to punish these people.
00:35:37.780 And that was why, to go back to that earlier point,
00:35:40.300 that window closing by the trucks voluntarily moving to Wellington
00:35:43.780 was so dangerous to the liberals.
00:35:45.260 Yeah. It is obvious that's what Trudeau wanted.
00:35:49.060 He wanted to demonize, marginalize, scare, traumatize his enemies.
00:35:53.680 And by his enemies, he means everyone who opposed him.
00:35:56.640 The 200 bank accounts that were seized, they were not all truckers.
00:36:00.000 Some of them were just donors.
00:36:01.640 And, of course, the out-of-control acting police chief in Ottawa was saying,
00:36:05.400 if you donated to these truckers, I'm coming for you.
00:36:07.880 You know, one of the things I learned is that the reason why the older,
00:36:13.680 the former police chief was sacked is that he was so obviously in the way of the prime minister.
00:36:20.780 Here's a clip testifying to that.
00:36:23.180 They fired a police chief.
00:36:25.060 And by the way, the first black police chief in Ottawa history,
00:36:28.240 they fired a police chief because he would not be as abusive and authoritarian as Justin Trudeau's taste.
00:36:36.280 Take a look at this clip.
00:36:37.840 You had no plan in that period, 8 to 13th.
00:36:41.940 No plan was possible, in your view, without collaboration.
00:36:46.900 And collaboration was late in coming.
00:36:48.940 Is that a fair summary?
00:36:49.960 It's a very, very, very summary.
00:36:52.460 And may I respectfully add that I believe that, you know,
00:36:56.540 there's a lot of armchair quarterbacking.
00:36:58.760 And in hindsight, I'll give one example.
00:37:00.840 A member of council was tweeting, no mass arrests.
00:37:04.180 That was at the start.
00:37:06.460 The chief of police was telling us, the charter writes, he told the mayor,
00:37:13.600 the mayor has no authority to overrule the chief of police on police operations.
00:37:17.880 He told the mayor, the charter dictates that we allow this demonstration.
00:37:23.880 Clearly, we have learned all, everyone, the city, OPS, our partners have learned that
00:37:28.940 the world of policing has changed.
00:37:30.980 And this ended up being almost an immovable armada.
00:37:35.820 It wasn't just individual trucks coming to Ottawa.
00:37:38.120 It was the collective potential impact of all of those trucks, you know,
00:37:43.240 in the parliamentary precinct, bleeding into the residential district.
00:37:47.880 That, you know, made it so complex and unprecedented.
00:37:52.100 You know, we talk about authoritarian regimes in Iran and in Russia and in China.
00:37:58.140 And that's good because those are authoritarian places.
00:38:02.560 But the idea that a prime minister could express impatience with a police chief and have him
00:38:09.020 turfed is truly un-Canadian.
00:38:12.660 But I promise you, tonight, Global News, Toronto Star won't even mention that, Andrew.
00:38:19.400 No, it's been really fascinating to see just how eager everyone is to point the finger at someone else.
00:38:27.320 And you can start to see who the convenient scapegoats are.
00:38:30.580 Ottawa police, Peter Slowly, these people are having fingers pointed to them by the government of Canada,
00:38:36.840 by the city of Ottawa.
00:38:38.060 And ultimately, even if you accept that the government dropped the ball and should have moved in more quickly,
00:38:44.580 incompetence is not in the criteria justifying the Emergencies Act.
00:38:49.020 It's not about what a bunch of people were unable or incapable of doing.
00:38:53.280 It's about whether the laws available to them could have been used.
00:38:57.140 And the laws could, even if no one knew what to do.
00:39:00.100 You know, there's this one moment I want to close with this.
00:39:02.200 Here's a clip of Mayor Jim Watson.
00:39:03.580 He was saying that the city of Ottawa was starting to look ridiculous, that people were losing confidence in them.
00:39:12.020 And by the way, I think he's right, certainly in the eyes of the thin-skinned, microaggression-oriented political class.
00:39:22.220 But losing face, being embarrassed, being shown to be incompetent,
00:39:27.340 those are not national emergencies that require martial law.
00:39:32.900 Those are political prices to be paid or not.
00:39:36.940 That's not a reason to lift our civil liberties.
00:39:40.900 Here's a quick clip of that.
00:39:41.780 I want to say these acts in the occupation are having damaging and long-term impacts on the well-being of our residents.
00:39:47.580 People are living in fear and are terrified,
00:39:49.620 and they're now being subjected to the non-stop honking of large trucks for nine days,
00:39:54.020 which is tantamount to psychological warfare.
00:39:57.360 Then you say, given the scope and scale of the armada of large trucks that are now occupying our downtown core,
00:40:02.140 and this is now on the second page,
00:40:03.800 we are writing to you to ask today for your help to secure 1,800 officers to quell the insurrection
00:40:10.200 that the Ottawa Police Service is not able to contain.
00:40:14.500 And then further down, you say,
00:40:16.400 we must do everything in our power to take back the streets of Ottawa and our parliamentary precinct
00:40:21.240 from the criminal activity and hooliganism that has transpired over the last nine days.
00:40:26.820 We need your help to end this siege at the heart of our nation's capital
00:40:29.800 and in our residential neighbourhoods and to regain control of our city.
00:40:33.880 So was that description of the situation accurate as to what was happening on the ground as of February 7th?
00:40:44.320 Absolutely.
00:40:45.140 You know, I think if you just go back and look at the media coverage,
00:40:48.260 the media themselves were being harassed during this whole period of time.
00:40:52.000 We now know that a number of children had to miss chemo and radiation appointments at CHEO.
00:40:59.740 The residents living on those streets having these horns honked literally 24 hours a day, seven days a week,
00:41:06.000 plus the diesel fumes, plus roasting a pig on one street, bonfires, lighting off fireworks, having a dance party.
00:41:13.740 It was showing complete disrespect for the people who lived in the city of Ottawa.
00:41:17.800 The two other orders of government know that we needed their help.
00:41:21.140 Our city's back was against the wall.
00:41:23.600 We had this outrageous behaviour by people who seemed to have no respect for private property,
00:41:29.300 public property, or the wellbeing of the citizens of Ottawa.
00:41:33.520 And my job as mayor was to speak out and say, we have to end this.
00:41:37.140 The only way we're going to end it is with a significant increase and boost in the number of police officers.
00:41:43.040 Andrew, it's very interesting.
00:41:44.320 I hope you continue to cover this.
00:41:45.660 We certainly will.
00:41:47.580 I have one last question for you.
00:41:49.180 How do you think the judge is handling this?
00:41:52.980 I, uh, people point out that he's a liberal.
00:41:57.640 They point out the choice of witnesses here seems unusual.
00:42:00.900 But I don't want to, I don't want to hop to an early conclusion.
00:42:06.360 I want to hold out hope that this judge is going to do his job.
00:42:10.780 And even if he has some liberal instincts, and a lot of judges do, that he will look at this plain, plain test and say,
00:42:17.860 was there truly a national danger so acute that we had to lift civil liberties?
00:42:24.900 And I hope, I don't want to be proven to be a fool, Andrew.
00:42:31.980 But in my bones, I think he's going to say there was no justification.
00:42:35.580 In my bones.
00:42:36.200 One thing that I'm very grateful for is that this commissioner has really made an effort to ensure that these proceedings are public.
00:42:45.300 They're live streamed.
00:42:46.500 The documents and exhibits are public.
00:42:48.800 It's available with sign language, English, French.
00:42:51.880 And one of the dangers of court proceedings is that so much of it happens behind closed doors and things that are technically public,
00:42:59.140 but the public really doesn't functionally have access to.
00:43:02.840 In this case, the public is seeing what he's seeing, and the public is hearing what he's hearing.
00:43:07.200 And I think there's an accountability in that.
00:43:09.440 And I, like you, am holding out hope.
00:43:11.520 But more importantly here, I think it's incumbent on Canadians to watch.
00:43:14.940 Because even if, for whatever reason, he makes a finding that it was justified, Canadians who saw this can make their own determination at the next election.
00:43:23.880 Yeah.
00:43:24.540 Well, listen, keep up the great work.
00:43:26.140 Congrats again on your book.
00:43:27.300 I'm so glad that there is a contingent of independent media here.
00:43:32.240 And I tell you, I went home the first day I was at that commission, and then I read the global news version, and I saw the official media, and I thought, was I at the same place as them?
00:43:43.880 Well, that was what happened at the convoy itself.
00:43:47.340 Yeah.
00:43:47.820 I would look on Twitter and be like, well, hang on, was I at the wrong protest?
00:43:51.320 This isn't what happened.
00:43:52.560 Yeah.
00:43:53.000 And I've never seen a greater need for independent media.
00:43:55.780 So you're there, and I think Western Standard Online is there, and I think Epoch Times is there.
00:44:02.440 Anyway, I'm not 100% sure, but I know there are independent voices there, and I'm very glad of it.
00:44:07.920 Great to see you, Andrew.
00:44:08.700 Thanks for coming on the show.
00:44:10.260 Hey, thank you.
00:44:10.960 Keep up the great work.
00:44:11.660 All right, there you have it, Andrew Lawton from TrueNorth, TNC.news.
00:44:17.320 Stay with us.
00:44:18.400 More ahead.
00:44:26.020 Hey, welcome back.
00:44:27.140 You know, it's interesting talking to Andrew Lawton.
00:44:29.360 I've been really focused on that trucker commission.
00:44:32.080 We've got such a great team covering it.
00:44:34.080 It's just very, very bizarre to me.
00:44:37.120 They're inviting such a strange list of witnesses.
00:44:40.600 I don't even understand it.
00:44:42.180 The first day, it was two people who witnessed nothing directly.
00:44:46.020 They just had a lot of personal complaints.
00:44:48.020 They were hypochondriacs or woke people talking about microaggressions.
00:44:51.820 They talked to a number of low-ranking politicians who really were not decision-makers.
00:44:58.240 Again, they were just complaining.
00:44:59.720 It was feeling like the airing of the grievances.
00:45:02.640 It felt more like an Oprah Winfrey show than a hearing.
00:45:07.020 Today, they started to get down to brass tacks and talking to the mayor at some length.
00:45:10.660 That was interesting because although he hated the truckers, he did acknowledge that they
00:45:16.540 were working collaboratively and in good faith with the government.
00:45:20.040 Hardly the insurrection, riot, revolution narrative that the mainstream media has been
00:45:25.640 talking about for a year, but much more importantly, as regards to the purpose of the commission
00:45:29.400 of inquiry, absolutely a million miles away from the level needed to invoke the emergencies
00:45:36.620 act.
00:45:36.880 Now, that same mayor, Jim Watson, said he liked the invocation of the emergencies act,
00:45:41.100 but he said, why?
00:45:42.440 Because the truckers were embarrassing him as a weak mayor and, of course, smashing them
00:45:46.640 with the sledgehammer of riot police was helpful to him, but he said, he specifically
00:45:52.560 said he did not ask for the emergencies act, and he was surprised to learn about it after
00:45:57.000 the fact.
00:45:58.560 The only legal purpose of this commission of inquiry is to assess whether or not there is
00:46:04.740 evidence that Trudeau had a legal rationale for pulling the martial law, pushing the martial
00:46:11.860 law of panic button.
00:46:13.600 And so far, he has not.
00:46:14.720 In fact, so far, every single person in authority, whether it was the government of Alberta or
00:46:19.380 Saskatchewan, whether it was the Ontario Provincial Police, or today the mayor of Ottawa, every
00:46:24.360 single one of them made it clear that the truckers were peaceful, acting in good faith, no violence
00:46:30.880 was detected, and they were actually cooperating.
00:46:34.040 If this judge is honest, and I sure hope he is, he's got to conclude that Trudeau put
00:46:39.640 this country into martial law for political reasons, not legal reasons, and that is against
00:46:45.080 the law.
00:46:46.940 That's our show for today.
00:46:48.680 Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home,
00:46:52.020 good night.
00:46:53.200 And keep fighting for freedom.
00:46:54.260 What's your understanding of why they were refusing to tow?
00:46:57.700 Well, there are several reasons.
00:46:58.880 The first was their own safety.
00:47:01.120 I think they felt that trying to tow a vehicle without the site being secured in amongst protesters,
00:47:09.160 you could imagine, you know, it could be quite conflictual when you're trying to take someone's
00:47:13.280 truck and people are still around the truck.
00:47:15.080 So they were concerned about that.
00:47:16.760 I think we've heard some incredibly important evidence.
00:47:18.980 What the evidence is today is about how the truckers were working with the city officials
00:47:26.400 to de-escalate the situation.
00:47:29.060 I don't think they're building the case here.
00:47:30.780 There were other tools available that I think could have de-escalated a situation much better.
00:47:35.160 A lot of things the Prime Minister could have done in the first place, but the fact we
00:47:38.260 were here and the fact that he even thought that needed to be evoked was frustrating in
00:47:42.020 itself.
00:47:45.260 Hello everyone, William Jess here with Rebel News.
00:47:47.340 Let me walk you through what you need to know about day three of the Emergencies Act inquiry
00:47:51.820 here in Ottawa.
00:47:52.900 The inquiry is taking place since during the peaceful freedom convoy that occurred back
00:47:56.480 in February.
00:47:57.740 Justin Trudeau used a never-seen-before-emergencies act.
00:48:00.640 This served to override all the civil liberties of the protesters that were there.
00:48:05.700 The inquiry's role is to determine whether or not the use of the act was necessary and
00:48:09.580 justified.
00:48:10.480 First of all, the two people testifying were Steve Kanellakos from the city of Ottawa and
00:48:14.780 Chief of Staff Serge Arpin.
00:48:16.480 What's your understanding of why they were refusing to tow?
00:48:19.500 Well, there are several reasons.
00:48:20.660 The first was their own safety.
00:48:22.900 I think they felt that trying to tow a vehicle without the site being secured in amongst protesters,
00:48:30.940 you could imagine, you know, it could be quite conflictual when you're trying to take someone's
00:48:35.060 truck and people are still around the truck.
00:48:36.880 So they were concerned about that.
00:48:38.820 They were concerned about the damage potentially of their own vehicle should things get out of
00:48:42.620 hand and it's a cost to their business.
00:48:45.240 Some were concerned that they do business with truckers and trucking companies and that this
00:48:50.640 would damage them reputationally and they would lose business.
00:48:54.300 Some were sympathizers or supported the protests and didn't feel that they were going to offer
00:49:01.120 their services to do it.
00:49:02.340 But those were generally the reasons.
00:49:04.500 Finally, my last question relates to a proposition that Council for the Government of Canada put to you in terms of enforcing the City of Ottawa's injunction.
00:49:14.680 And the suggestion was that enforcement of the injunction came in the days after the invocation of the Emergencies Act.
00:49:20.100 And my question to you is, was the City's injunction ever used as a measure?
00:49:26.600 Are you aware?
00:49:27.660 No, it wasn't used as a measure.
00:49:29.820 Okay, thank you.
00:49:30.520 Those are all my questions.
00:49:31.400 I wanted to convey to the Prime Minister's office that we needed their help.
00:49:37.400 The numbers were inconsistent.
00:49:39.600 We wanted them to know that.
00:49:40.920 That what we were being told about the numbers wasn't consistent.
00:49:50.220 And I conveyed that.
00:49:52.500 And I believe that there was a change in tone roughly the next day.
00:49:57.800 I think maybe someone realized this will have to be a team effort.
00:50:02.200 We need them.
00:50:03.040 It's clear that we need them to help in the insurgency and the demonstration.
00:50:08.260 And I guess everyone came around to the conclusion that it would be better to try to take a collaborative approach
00:50:14.620 and maybe try to reduce some of the finger-pointing you have.
00:50:19.720 I interviewed Freedom Convoy lawyer Keith Wilson's response to the claims made by Canalacos.
00:50:24.780 Take a look.
00:50:25.340 So far, I think we've heard some incredibly important evidence.
00:50:28.140 What the evidence is today is about how the truckers were working with the city officials
00:50:35.560 to de-escalate the situation and to reach an agreement to move the trucks out of the downtown core but for Wellington.
00:50:44.800 So the reason that's so important is that the implementation of that agreement between the truckers and the city
00:50:53.160 occurred on the same weekend, the weekend of the 12th and 13th of February,
00:51:00.080 which is the same weekend that the international borders opened at Windsor and Cootes.
00:51:04.780 So the only thing happening in terms of a protest that was impacting Canada
00:51:10.140 was the Ottawa protests at the time on the Sunday.
00:51:14.520 And on the Monday, the truckers were successful in working with the police and the city officials
00:51:20.040 to move 102 vehicles out of the downtown core, including 42 semi-trucks, 23 of which went up to Wellington.
00:51:28.660 All the other vehicles left the downtown and went to remote locations outside the city.
00:51:33.400 Two city blocks were cleared.
00:51:35.580 That was the deal being implemented.
00:51:38.380 However, the federal government and the new police chief intervened on the subsequent days
00:51:43.860 and blocked any further movements of trucks, which prevented the deal from being completed.
00:51:49.040 So it really begs the question of why did the Prime Minister invoke the Emergencies Act at all?
00:51:56.120 The public order emergency inquiry isn't the only thing that's happening in Ottawa.
00:51:59.900 Members of Parliament are back at work after a week off.
00:52:02.860 I was able to speak with seven Conservative MPs to get their thoughts on the Emergencies Act inquiry.
00:52:07.940 Take a look at what Michael Barrett, the Shadow Minister for Ethics and Government Accountability
00:52:12.880 for the CPC, Eric Duncan and Ziad Aboul Taif stated.
00:52:16.720 What do you hope the findings, the outcome of the Emergencies Act inquiry will be?
00:52:20.620 I think what a lot of people are concluding that it was absolutely unnecessary to invoke that.
00:52:26.100 I think it further stoked an already divided situation.
00:52:28.900 And we talk about the polarization in this country and people's frustration and confidence in the federal government.
00:52:34.160 I think I've seen limited clips of it so far, but I don't think they're building the case here.
00:52:39.340 There were other tools available that I think could have de-escalated a situation much better.
00:52:43.460 A lot of things the Prime Minister could have done in the first place, but the fact we were here
00:52:47.120 and the fact that he even thought that needed to be evoked was frustrating in itself.
00:52:51.160 What do you hope the outcome of the Emergencies Act inquiry will be?
00:52:53.880 What do you hope the findings will be?
00:52:55.600 Well, we have to get transparency for Canadians.
00:52:58.680 The government has been trying to obstruct the truth, obstruct this process.
00:53:05.340 And so that's really the bottom line.
00:53:08.420 We've heard from Ontario's police force that the use of the Act was not necessary for them to be able to do their job,
00:53:18.200 which is a criteria for it to have been invoked.
00:53:21.600 So that tells the tale right there that what we've been saying all along,
00:53:26.760 that the government did not properly invoke this Act.
00:53:30.580 And so we're hoping for transparency.
00:53:32.860 It's unfortunate, but very consistent with what this government's done in the past,
00:53:36.340 that it took the commissioner to have some cabinet conferences waived
00:53:41.400 instead of the government being transparent and providing that to the commission,
00:53:45.580 which is the basic thing that Canadians would expect when we have a situation
00:53:49.240 where Canadians' bank accounts were frozen and so many civil liberties
00:53:54.740 and basic freedoms that we expect as Canadians were violated by the government.
00:53:59.660 It's too harsh of a measure that doesn't...
00:54:03.720 I mean, the action doesn't deserve the Emergency Act.
00:54:07.040 The government could have done it in a different way, more peaceful way,
00:54:10.760 instead of bringing the whole...
00:54:12.720 And that tells you about only 48 hours they lost before they just remove it.
00:54:17.940 So that tells you that they were on immediately after they introduced it.
00:54:22.820 Jim Watson, the mayor of Ottawa, is testifying today on October 18th,
00:54:25.880 and this will definitely be interesting to watch.
00:54:28.380 Stay tuned with everything that's going on.
00:54:29.960 You can head on to truckercommission.com.
00:54:32.320 Thank you for watching.
00:54:33.160 This was William Diaz here with Rebel News.
00:54:37.820 If you want to help us fund our trip here in Ottawa,
00:54:39.740 you can always head on to truckercommission.com
00:54:42.180 and chip in as much as you can to help us pay for food, travel, expenses,
00:54:46.200 and our RBNB that we use as a studio here in Ottawa.