You're fighting for freedom, you censorious bug. On this episode of The Ezra LeVant Show, host Ezra Levenkamp pays tribute to the fallen soldiers of the Canadian Armed Forces, including those who died in the First World War, the Korean War, and the Korean war in Korea.
00:15:13.220I had the pleasure of meeting him last weekend in Lethbridge when he briefly appeared in court with two other truckers who are being prosecuted for inciting mischief.
00:24:10.280But out of the, you know, it was a pretty, the weather was pretty crappy.
00:24:15.320Out of the, out of the blue, I would say blue, but out of the white came these truckers and these, these farmers who had seen on the social media platforms that the RCMP was enforcing in coots.
00:24:26.040And they could not watch that happen to their, to their friends, to their families, to, to their fellow Albertans.
00:24:41.140And when they showed up, we ended up taking that equipment and forming a, a fence to fence, um, metal barrier with equipment, trucks and trailers and farm implements.
00:24:53.780I remember this one tractor coming in with a big double disc and it just parked on the highway and it folded its wings down.
00:25:34.780Um, that was our goal and we were successful with that.
00:25:39.160The numbers and, and, and, and the, the force that was presented with, with, with, with equipment and, and the people on, on that highway, um, turned the enforcement effort into a failure.
00:25:51.540And the RCMP took an approach that led to more of a, uh, uh, that essentially led to negotiations, um, going forward.
00:26:00.280Now we're gathered here today because we're talking about the trucker commissioner inquiry and whether or not the use of the emergencies act was legally, morally, constitutionally, politically justified.
00:26:09.500It's pretty clear that the answer to that is no.
00:26:11.760And the way I know that is that your blockade, which was by far the most effective in the country was resolved before the emergencies act was deployed.
00:26:28.600So that's, I got to P note, um, a couple of months ago and, uh, obviously leading up to it.
00:26:34.280Um, not sure, um, you know, what, what, how it would transpire.
00:26:38.960So I, I, I watched a lot of it from Alberta and this is not something that has ever happened.
00:26:44.000Essentially the, the emergencies act has never been enacted.
00:26:46.340So the inquiry has never been necessary.
00:26:49.200Um, so becoming familiar with the proceedings, et cetera, I remember showing up a couple of days early and just getting my feel of the room, but going in, um, prepared.
00:26:58.360I sat down with, um, with, uh, Martin, my legal counsel, uh, who was, um, uh, who was sponsored by a TDF.
00:27:07.280And, uh, my criminal lawyer, you know, who, who works, um, with Chad, uh, from Williamson law, we did a lot of preliminary prep.
00:27:15.380And I came in and, um, I was able to articulate well and speak to what, you know, there I was subpoena, but there was also a willingness on my part to, to get in front of the commission, to get in front of the country.
00:27:27.580And to, to, to, to share the truth of, of what happened in Coutts, um, that the truth of what happened has never been fully shared.
00:27:35.860And, and a lot of the truth cannot be shared yet as there's legal prosecution, but the, the narrative in, in the mainstream media has changed from an event, a peaceful event where there were unfortunately, uh, situations outside of the main blockade that, that cast a bad light on us.
00:27:55.320But it was separate, but over the last 10 months, that separation has been, has diminished.
00:28:01.700And now all of Coutts, you know, it's essentially goes back to the way the media paints us now is that every trucker was on that highway holding a gun.
00:28:11.320And that's ridiculous. So that was part of my, my goal was to come to the commission and to share the truth of that.
00:28:17.340And to also share that, um, it was not necessary. We, who, you know, we're in Alberta, we're in Coutts, like no disrespect to, to the, to the, to the people in this great city, but who's Ottawa to us?
00:28:29.140You know, Ottawa is this, this far away place for us. And, and we understand the role of Ottawa, but the emergencies act, I might've heard about it, but that was not something that, that, that, that made me shake in my boots that we, we, we, we had gone there with, uh, with, with the goal to, to, to communicate with our, or to demand accountability of our provincial government.
00:28:49.540But when things turned to the situation on hand, we were prepared, we were prepared to, to make that stand. So there was nothing in the emergencies act that was going to change that situation. So in, in leaving our decision and the timing of it, uh, which is public has nothing to do with, with the invocation of the emergencies act. And that had to be shared, um, from my part.
00:29:12.840And unfortunately, uh, and this is probably, you probably lead to this in your questioning, but unfortunately the government, government of Alberta in their cross-examination of me, and even the testimony of the deputy justice minister, um, a day or two later was very vague in this.
00:29:29.320It was the, you know, if their goal as the province of Alberta, which they also believe that the emergencies act was not necessary. And that's why they requested standing at the commission.
00:29:39.160But I'm, I'm, I'm surprised as to how they represented, you know, the, the, the government of Alberta is their count. The council essentially put me on the stand. It was a prosecution of Marko Van Uygambas in Ottawa.
00:29:52.420Well, that's a, that's obviously a holdover from Jason Kenney's regime. The new premier of Alberta, Danielle Smith is more sympathetic to freedom and more critical of lockdownism. But obviously, uh, she's only been in the office for a few weeks and you have all these, in fact, your prosecution, the prosecution of you and George and Marco, sorry, your Marco, excuse me. And Alex, um,
00:30:16.240the prosecution of you three peaceful protesters was started under Kenny in his last month as premier. Correct. And now it's like a zombie that's operating under its own energy. And I think the premier has to call it off. And I think it's absurd. The demand for 10 years in prison. I think your lawyer is right. When he said last weekend at the rally outside the courthouse,
00:30:43.740that there's no jury in Lethbridge to convict. Like if 70, 70% of the people of Coutts were in support and their town was being blockaded, but still 70% of them supported it. You're not going to find a jury to convict in Lethbridge. This is pure vendetta. But you know what, Marco? And, and I appreciate your time today. We got your back. And when I mean that, I don't just mean we have your back morally and journalistically, but we're, as you know, we're crowdfunding the legal offense. You mentioned the lawyers, Chad Williamson. He's got a couple of colleagues.
00:31:13.720You all have, Neve is one of them. We even put up a billboard, put up some digital billboards around Lethbridge. I saw one with my own eyes. And the website we set up is truckerdefensefund.com. Truckerdefensefund.com.
00:31:30.960Cause I think one of the, those are the three men there. There's Marco. That's you on the right. And then that's George in the middle. And then that's Alex on the left. I had the pleasure of meeting all three of you at the courthouse last weekend for the, for the first time. And I was very glad I came down there. There's me early in the morning. My face is blue. Cause there's a police light flashing.
00:31:50.920I got there very early and police in Lethbridge, they were police with their flashers on every single street corner. Um, I don't know what they were expecting. If they were expecting Lethbridge to be locked down by the convoys, I don't know. But, um, this is all about intimidating you, overwhelming you, stressing you out, bankrupting you, taking up all your time and money.
00:32:13.840And we can help with some of that, namely the money side. And so we have committed. And this is, I made this commitment to the truckers when you were in the saloon. I remember that our reporters were in the saloon with you and they called me and I was at home. It was dinner time. It was after dinner in Toronto. That's where I live. And I got the call from the lads and he put me on speakerphone and we chatted back and forth. And I said, fellas, we'll crowdfund a lawyer to help.
00:32:43.340And if any of you get charged, we'll crowdfund the lawyer to defend. And that has come to pass. And so I went down there to Lethbridge to see you guys look in the eye and say, we're going to help you. Now, I myself, I'm not independently wealthy, but if we have enough ordinary people chipping in 10 bucks, 50 bucks, a hundred bucks, we can pay for a whole trial. It's going to be an expensive trial. Yeah. You can see that. That's, that's me speaking with my face, reflecting the flashers. It was crazy.
00:33:11.820Like every street corner in downtown Lethbridge had a police car with flashers on. You can see I was standing right. Like they're still crazy. The cops down there are still mad at the courthouse. They had 20 cops. I said to one of them, is there some trial of a drug kingpin? Is El Chapo inside or something? And I made a joke to one of them. All you need is a police helicopter. He said, yeah, I wish we had one. Yeah, brother. I think, I think you're going after the wrong bad guys here.
00:33:36.560So folks, if you can help out at truckerdefensefund.com, Rebel News is paying for Chad Williamson and the rest of his firm to defend Marco, George and Alex. Listen, you'd be generous with your time. It's nice to see you. I'm glad you're in the nation's capital. I'm glad you had a chance to put your side of the story on the record.
00:33:51.880I'm disappointed, but not surprised that the Alberta government thought they'd try and put you on trial. That's the same government that imploded on itself because of its abusive lockdowns. I mean, it's quite something that Jason Kenney, once the leading politician on the right in Canada, didn't even finish his term. And it's because of this abusiveness.
00:34:10.780I'll give you the last word, Marco, before you head back west. Are you hopeful? Do you think the Trucker Commission of Inquiry will do a good job? Just give me your reflections. As you said, this is a whole new thing for you. You've never been subpoenaed before. You've never participated in a hearing like this before. You've never been charged with a crime like this before. Give me your thoughts.
00:34:40.780Well, we're definitely hopeful. We always have to remain hopeful. Otherwise, what is the fight for? But as to any real consequences, I'm concerned we're not going to see a lot. We may see some minister take the fall, but to see anything actually change, I don't believe that will happen.
00:35:04.200And that's very unfortunate because the goals of Coutts, Emerson, Sarnia, Windsor, Ottawa specifically, it was a demand for accountability.
00:35:19.420You know, our representatives have forgotten who they represent.
00:35:23.000And like I keep on saying, if for trust to be rebuilt, we need to see accountability.
00:35:32.360And this is just one part of that process.
00:35:35.600Well, stay there for one more second. I want to play clip number two, which is Trudeau when he was asked, would he resign if there was no justification for his invocation of the Emergencies Act?
00:35:47.700And here's how that exchange went. Take a look.
00:35:49.440The inquiry that starts today, 65 witnesses over 30 days, you know, when it's all wrapped up and the commissioner, if he finds that there was no justification for the federal government to invoke the Emergencies Act, should there be consequences for the federal government, including your resignation?
00:36:05.620But we knew from the very beginning that invoking the Emergencies Act is a big step.
00:39:34.300And ultimately, I, I, my, my goal to come down to the commission was to, to share a truth and to, to fight that.
00:39:42.080But it was, it was a, it was a fact gathering journey.
00:39:46.200And I just hope that Tyler Shandro and his ministry do what they plan to do and hold Trudeau accountable instead of fighting Albertans like they have for the last two and a half years.