SHEILA GUNN REID | Today marks 10 days of an ongoing carbon tax protest west of Calgary
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Summary
In this episode of Rebel News, I'm joined by journalist and social media poster poster poster Angelica Toy to talk about what she's seen happening down at the "Keep Canada Green" protest in Alberta. She talks about what's going on down there, who's making up the protest, and what it's like to be a part of the movement.
Transcript
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so joining me now is sometime journalist but also heavy duty behind the scenes social media
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poster for us here at rebel news my friend angelica toy and she's here to talk about what
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she has seen happening down at the well i think it's one of two or three remaining carbon tax
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protests across the country these people uh it feels like the convoy band is getting back together
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tell us uh what's going on and where the protest is so the main rally um i'd say just around calgary
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is on highway 1 and 22 interchange um that's just west of the city uh the picture of canada there
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and uh yeah people have been rallying i think today is day eight they started on april 1st which is the
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day the carbon tax came into effect so they've been going strong so familiar faces are these you know
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like there are people who are um the i don't know i i was gonna say professional but they definitely
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don't get paid they're not on the left those people get paid but who's in the protest who's making up
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the protest are we seeing familiar faces down there is it all new people so it was to my surprise that
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there actually weren't that many people that you'd see in the regular like calgary rallies yeah it
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definitely is but uh i've been speaking to all the people there and a lot of people convoyed either
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from edmonton from bc there are actually a lot of people from bc from the small towns so there are a
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lot of new faces yeah that's weird because you know like there are especially since the onset of
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covid and with the onset of covid came the anti-lockdown protests you got to know a lot of
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the people who were the local freedom fighters and they would turn up at you know to protest trudeau
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if he were in town at the weekly covid lockdown protests in calgary a lot of the same faces so this
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uh surprised me but also makes me very happy to see that there are new people energized in the anti
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trudeau tyranny movement uh did were you did you have an opportunity to talk to some of the people
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who are from out of town like i wonder why bcers are coming to alberta to protest trudeau's carbon tax
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when they have one of their own and they've had their own for a very long time they were the first
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people to have them so did they tell you why they came to alberta what was your general sense there
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yeah so i did speak to one person on that specifically and he just said there wasn't
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much going on in bc and it looks like alberta uh the people here are the ones taking the charge for
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freedom and he felt really inspired by that so he drove uh from a very far from a town pretty far up
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north just to be here in this location in alberta that makes me happy but also sad at the same time
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right like it makes me happy that people know if you're going to stand up to tyranny the best place to
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do it is in alberta um and it makes me sad that bc a province that is being absolutely crushed
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by green policies and the cost of living that there isn't much of a resistance there that makes me
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very very sad yeah i agree with you i know in colonna in that area the okanagan there it definitely is
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a bit of a uprising to the resistance but it's still not enough i think alberta has really become
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the central zone for the fight for freedom yeah i think uh not just from the people but finally from
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the government too now tell me what it's like down there how many people are there are there rvs like
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how are people staying there for so long are there people coming and going tell me all about it
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yeah so typically the people from calendar just coming and going but the people who have come from
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out of town uh they have brought their trailers and they're there for the long haul they've got tons
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of firewood campfires going they've got pantries of food there's a barbecue they did a pig roast
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just two days ago so uh yeah the people are there and they're there to stay so what kind of support
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are they getting i mean if they're there to stay who's bringing in the supplies who's bringing in the
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firewood what's the reception i i think that's right you said it's right around the petro canada
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um that like on your way out to banff uh what's the reception from the people coming by
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uh so i think they've got a chat going because i just speak a lady to the other day and she said
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that people were asking for plates and stuff so it looks like they're uh they've got a whole chat and
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people are just putting requests out there and the people are being really supportive and bringing
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in what they need um so it's just been a really supportive community um for the whole entire time
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now traffic wise people going by uh are they disruptive to traffic i i know that people can
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get a little testy about that i actually think my son was stuck in the protest uh on the weekend um
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what are they being accommodating to you know the the traffic that goes in between um calgary and
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banff an area uh so on the first day they did block a lane they blocked one lane uh lane big deal
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exactly so the traffic was backed up around three kilometers uh back into the city uh and then that
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lasted for a few hours the next day as you guys probably saw a whole team a whole swat team of rcmp
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officers with heavy duty weapons came in and they blocked them from getting onto the highway
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and after that the protesters understood that if they even got near the highway they would face
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consequences so for days they stayed away uh and then actually yesterday they studied through a bunch
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of traffic laws and they ended up talking to the rcmp so now they're slowly kind of getting their way
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on the highway the plan is or the idea is that they're allowed to walk against traffic and they're
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also allowed to cross the highway now because there are two sides of protesters on station on both sides
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of the highway uh now they're allowed to walk as long as there isn't any traffic uh because the
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nearest overpass is pretty far i think you have to be within a certain distance so they found their
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way around it oh i love that now yeah i don't want anybody run over on the highway so i i understand
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if there's traffic safety reasons for the cops to show up but to have shown up with their riot control
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gear uh the other day was really something else when people are just basically having a barbecue
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exactly and like i uh told some others it was such an overreaction because when the swat team came in
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i felt the energy of the whole place just became very dark and and rough and when those officers left
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the people just became so much uh even more peaceful because they didn't have that force to fight with
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anymore so the cops being there made it worse well and it's so unnecessary i mean i think the uh
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relationship between so many people and so many communities and the police was so severely damaged
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during covid they wouldn't come if your car was stolen or if your machine shop was broken into and your
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quads were taken they wouldn't come then but if you had christmas they would show up and arrest you or if
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you had a protest they would show up and arrest you and i think things had been starting to heal
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themselves this last little bit and then this happens and you're like come on you guys so uh what
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what's the uh reaction of the protesters to the police are they kind of like are you guys are just
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doing your job we'll behave you guys behave or what's the attitude down there so when the whole
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SWAT team did come in on day two it was very intense the protesters were not happy with it at
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all i bet not uh no but there are two liaison officers that have been coming around and the
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protesters have been working with them very well actually they speak highly of them so i think the
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communication there has been very positive because obviously the protesters they do not want to cause
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any real disruptions for example on the first day when uh they did block the lane there was an
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ambulance emergency vehicle to have to get through and they very very quickly just pulled all their
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cones back got off the highway and made way for this vehicle vehicle to come through so they're not
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there to cause any uh any real problems well that's good like i'm i'm happy to hear that uh neither side
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is confrontational with the other despite showing up with riot control cops and riot control devices
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a riot did not break out but it's going to be frightening for peaceful protesters because the
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memory of what happened in ottawa is it's fresh right like we all know how the feds overreact to peaceful
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protesters now that really didn't happen in alberta thank goodness but it has happened and it is it's
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scary for people yeah definitely i know some of the protesters there did go to coots as well so
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they're not new in the game they know how to behave i guess um so you were there you've been
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there off and on quite a bit really since it began tell me about the people why are they there i'm sure
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you're hearing uh specific stories um that are beyond just like we you know the carbon tax is
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costing us too much money well it's been costing us too much money here in alberta since 2015 um but
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what is what are the personal stories bringing these people out to the streets so the main one is people
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are struggling they're really struggling to make ends meet there is one woman i spoke to and she said
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that she has lost 15 pounds just since january because she cannot afford food there are but tons
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of business owners that are also just unable to keep their businesses going and there are also just
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people who are overall fed up with the government and just want them gone um going back from covid
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there um there's just so many different stories and everybody together collectively just want the federal
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government gone because from all angles all sides they have been causing society problems and they're
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desperate and some of these people they've got nothing more to lose so that's why they're still
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there and they're not planning on going anywhere yeah i mean we that's why i said it feels like the
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convoys back together because that was really what was going on during the convoy they said we're going
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to ottawa what else can we do the government won't listen to us we're going to lose our business
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we're going to lose our house we can't travel we can't see our friends and family what else have
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we got to lose and i heard that when i was in lloydminster covering the carbon tax protests
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out on the highway there at the exact same time there are a lot of people who said like look
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uh i've got nothing left the government is not just picking my pocket but it's controlling every
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aspect of my life and the government is so corrupt and facing no consequences for anything so
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they can arrest me i guess they can take my bank account but you can't get blood from a stone
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exactly and there are tons of people who have that exact same mindset they're willing to lose
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everything because they think you know like i said they've got nothing left so the government
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has driven them to such a point where it's all or nothing now you were there uh catching some
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very albertan sights and sounds uh you know it's not uh i think in the other provinces we see people
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out with their signs and their flags but now in alberta we bring our trucks our trailers
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our tractors and our livestock tell us about some of that so there are actually three horses on site
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they've been there pretty much since uh day one and the people are loving it uh tons and tons of
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animals and just it's been super super family friendly uh and there are actually there's one
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specific big um big truck and they got it wrapped to say axe attack so that's kind of been the highlight
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of the entire place there's also a crane that says axe attack so the people sure brought in the the big
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heavy stuff you know it's funny um i don't know if you're familiar with bill six but bill six was
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this attempt by rachel notley and the ndp to put bankers hours and union rules on your family farm
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like you couldn't have your kids working on the farm uh which i think my kids probably would have
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enjoyed but i was like no i'll break the law you're throwing hay bales um and uh you know like
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specific wcb rules like you couldn't put up a ladder without having it secured to something like
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fall arrest like i'm gonna put a harness on my kid before i boss her up a ladder come on um and there
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was a turkey that came to all the protests and it had like kill bill six and it was everywhere you went
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we had a protest turkey it was the funnest thing and i'm so glad to hear that we're carrying on with
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that and you know we one of the strongest visuals i think from coots um were the images of the horseback
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riders uh with you know the flags behind them it was so al burton and it makes me so happy to see
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heavy equipment because we are a place of heavy industry and the horses out on the the streets
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are people honking as they go by are they supporting these people i have time i'd say between
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80 to 90 percent of people are honking it's actually i come home and i know they were joking
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about it or not joking about it but talking about it on the cbc before a phantom honking but i actually
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experienced it myself um i can see i can hear honking when i come home so there's tons of support
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yeah it was the like that during the uh original convoy in edmonton you would like you get in the car
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afterwards and you would try to listen to the radio but it would feel like it just honks
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i mean it's not enough to invoke the emergencies act on camera but um now have you been paying
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attention to what the politicians are saying about what's happening uh west of calgary or are they
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saying anything at all i haven't noticed one thing to be honest and i'm sorry now thinking about i'm
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actually a little bit surprised i think the protesters being on the side of the highway
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and not blocking a lane isn't causing enough uh for a politician to say anything but that being said
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um who knows how long they're going to be there um and what plans they've got um so what i know is
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that these protesters like i said they're not going to give up so if they're not getting a response they
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might change their tactics yeah i think i saw one thing from danielle smith just basically telling
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everybody to behave and it sounds like they are on both sides i have a question first about the
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protests that are still going on on highway one um according to cochran rcmp disruptions are expected
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to continue today is the province at all considering using the critical infrastructure defense act and is
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there any direction being given to the protesters to move where they don't constrict some of these
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economic corridors well look let me give that direction i don't support it when extinction
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rebellion glues themselves to the street and stops traffic and i don't support anyone stopping traffic
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as well you can protest do it at the side of the road don't interfere with the movement of goods
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don't interfere with the movement of of your neighbors it's the reason why we have the critical
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infrastructure act and i would just ask people to be compliant with the law
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so uh that's good but i think that that's really it it's not being uh we got to get tow trucks out
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there as was jason kenney's plan we have to you know we have to go through the protest encampment and
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start kicking in doors as was justin trudeau's plan uh in ottawa kicking in camper doors and busting
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windows we haven't seen anything like that and i think that has really uh been a testament to the
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change in government here in alberta i definitely hear you a lot so what's next for these people
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you said they're in it for the long haul i hope so because i'm headed down there this week
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to check it out for myself you know i love a good uh protest um so what's next for them what are
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they doing are they really setting up shop there so i don't know their full plans uh but probably
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they probably shouldn't announce it to be honest yes exactly exactly they gotta be careful because
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the rcmp are watching like hawks they've got a drone flying all the time and it's they're just
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trying to be very very careful but i do know that the point is to get a response the point is to get
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somewhere uh so right now obviously them being on the side of the highway isn't doing too too much
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as in the honking people honking and showing us a poor driving by
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so yeah i think things might start changing in the next few days i know on saturday they're planning
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for a big day big protest because they're supposed to be uh sort of they're still unsure about a rally
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happening in calgary they might do a bit of a convoy but that's unconfirmed information
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okay uh i want to ask you because i and i addressed this on last week's show but i just want to ask your
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opinion uh because you are a frequent protest attender um i think that's kind of how you
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came into the rebel universe and then you started covering them journalistically
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um there are people who say why protest protests do nothing the politicians don't listen to you
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i would have to disagree because the protests didn't cause anything then what happened in coots
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wouldn't have changed the trajectory of canada and of alberta specifically because we did see
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a result kenny did give in to a certain degree so i think protests do make a difference very much so
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and it's unfortunate when i hear people say you know protests aren't going to do anything it's a waste of
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time but if everybody actually put in the effort if everybody actually showed up things would change
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so the apathy needs to stop in my opinion you know that's a great point um that the protest at coots
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not only changed the trajectory of alberta but in changing the trajectory of alberta we're changing
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the trajectory of the country because look at the successes of daniel smith striking down the new
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pipelines ban striking down the plastics ban so uh there are and uh you know the
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provincial autonomy that we're seeing here in alberta fighting with the feds on just about every
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issue um and it's empowering the other provinces to do the same you know like we stand up to the gun
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ban and then yukon's like yep us too and saskatchewan says hey sign us up so it has this fun
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knock-on effect that uh i think started kind of at coots because that really showed jason kenny's
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weakness he went from oh we're removing the restrictions exemption program at the end of
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the month and then like eight hours later he's like oh actually it's going to be at the end of
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the week and then it was like okay at midnight tonight it's gone and it was like directly had to do
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with the border obstruction happening at coots and then we saw in saskatchewan as the convoy was rolling
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west to east and rolled through alberta and got to the saskatchewan border and scott mo was like okay
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the uh vaccine passport's gone like don't convoy me bro so the um the protests do change something and
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you are right if more people stand up things change faster and it's hard to ignore a bunch of people
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if all the restaurants had agreed not to close instead of just a handful including chris scott at the
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whistle stop the restrictions on businesses would have ended a lot quicker uh with a lot less carnage in
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the uh private business aspect of our economy so i think you are right um protests do work they do change
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something and if more people got involved instead of exhibiting just that winnie the pooh eeyore level
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of apathy uh i think canada would be in a better place courage is contagious and unite our compliance
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is what makes things change right uh angelica you are headed back out to the protest saturday yes i'm
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headed out there today and then i might check in over the next few days but then saturday
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um i'll definitely be back for the whole day because we are expecting a potential convoy that
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day very exciting and i'll be out there thursday we're recording this on tuesday it'll air on
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wednesday so if people are trying to pay attention to like when we're saying today tomorrow whatever
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today is tuesday um angelica thanks so much for the hard work that you do here at rebel news and also i
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want to thank you for your uh ability to jump outside of your job description and do things that
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we need you to do not only as a company but because it is important for canadians and albertans to get
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the other side of this story so thanks for your that's not my job uh not having that it's not my job
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attitude i really appreciate that and i think that's one of the things that makes our company so great is
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that we all just pitch in when needed whereas needed and you've really been a great example of
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that for us thanks so much sheila yeah i think the passion that all of us have is what drives us to
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just do the best job that we can great thanks angelica uh best of luck out there i can't wait
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to see what you do next thank you sheila have a good day
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as always to the portion of the show that's yours it's where i invite your viewer feedback
00:22:53.380
you can send me your viewer feedback in a few different ways you can send it to sheila
00:22:58.200
at rebelnews.com put gun show letters in the subject line so i know why you're emailing me or
00:23:04.660
maybe you're watching the free version of the show over on youtube or on rumble and you're sitting
00:23:09.900
through a couple of ads which i appreciate leave your comments there sometimes i go looking for
00:23:15.800
what you're saying over there but the point of this exercise is that without you there is no rebel news
00:23:23.640
so why wouldn't i let you have your say about the work that we do here at rebel news i actually
00:23:28.280
care about what you think about the work that we do here at rebel news it's the reason we leave the
00:23:34.000
comment section open it's the reason i give out my email address and it's the reason we are fiercely
00:23:38.560
independent because we don't care what justin trudeau thinks we leave that to the rest of the
00:23:43.540
media to worry about what their sugar daddy thinks about their work we only care about you guys
00:23:48.700
because as i said without you there's no rebel news if you don't like us we cease to exist that's
00:23:54.440
the free market so you send me your emails from time to time and that's exactly where today's
00:24:00.740
viewer feedback comes from sometimes it's from youtube sometimes it's from rumble
00:24:04.200
this is from the email inbox and it is from mark who writes i love rebel news for being honest and
00:24:13.440
informative about the events happening daily with this current train wreck liberal government that
00:24:18.840
is dismantling our beautiful country of canada it's worse than you think i've been sitting through
00:24:25.300
the foreign interference commission for the last week and a half it's probably why i look so tired
00:24:32.860
right now because my day starts on eastern time and finishes on western time so somehow these people
00:24:41.060
are ringing an extra two hours of work out of me every single day and just the amount of lies that
00:24:47.920
the government has told us about what they knew about foreign interference and when they knew it
00:24:53.800
it's all coming out in the wash right now you can't hide these documents even though they're trying
00:24:59.100
that's another thing that's happening happening in the foreign interference commission is the
00:25:03.520
government is dumping documents at 1 a.m the night before the witnesses are set to testify and in some
00:25:13.740
instances they're dumping documents about the witnesses after the witnesses have testified they did
00:25:20.300
this during the public order emergency commission all the time trying to kneecap the lawyers from the
00:25:25.520
other side they're doing it again um and it's just a real mess and the worst part of it all is the government
00:25:34.020
has infinite resources to produce these documents they've known for months that they've had to produce these
00:25:39.360
documents then they're just doing it at the last minute they have an infinite number of bureaucrats to go
00:25:45.460
around rounding up these documents and each ministry has their own access to information department
00:25:50.520
bureaucrats who deal specifically with document management and yet they're turning over these
00:25:56.540
documents in the middle of the night before 9 a.m testimony give me a break anyways so the corruption
00:26:04.400
in this country is worse than we have any sort of remote grasp on and I think we won't even understand
00:26:12.700
the depths of it until Justin Trudeau is unelected and living on a billionaire's island somewhere as a
00:26:20.020
professional cabana boy and I think we'll probably have two good years of inquiries and commissions
00:26:27.280
after that wherein I think some people will probably go to jail but definitely not a future cabana boy
00:26:33.760
Justin Trudeau anyway let's keep going my email is regarding your April Fool's podcast in which you discuss
00:26:43.860
the pay raises the MPs and Mr. Trudeau gave themselves on the same day they raised taxes on the rest of us
00:26:48.940
yes they gave themselves an $8,500 a year raise for doing less work than ever I mean these are not
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performance raises right on the day that the carbon tax jumped from $65 a ton up to $80
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so you know where your carbon tax money went literally right into the pockets of an MP
00:27:10.120
please forgive me if I have the number of MPs wrong but a quick search told me there are 650
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multiply that by the lowest yearly increase of $8,500 for a grand total of $5,525,000 a year and
00:27:28.180
that's low-balling it democracy is a wonderful thing but apparently it comes at a high cost we keep
00:27:33.980
slaving away to pay for this extravagant lifestyle shame on all of us keep up the great work and let
00:27:38.380
liberty and freedom reign mark in Nova Scotia wow I don't get a lot of emails from the east coast but
00:27:46.540
I am a fan of Nova Scotia I just want to correct you there we have 338 MPs in this country not 650
00:27:55.660
although it feels like 650 because they're so expensive and generally useless there could be a
00:28:02.960
million MPs and we still wouldn't get very much done we still wouldn't get any bang for our buck
00:28:09.820
now would we but yeah just to slap in the face um at Canadians you know I know some conservative MPs
00:28:17.760
are foregoing their raise and donating it to stand in solidarity with Canadians who are just getting
00:28:22.460
slapped with taxes upon taxes um but you know the liberals aren't whatsoever well everybody that's the
00:28:29.940
show for tonight thank you so much for tuning in I'll see everybody back here in the same time in
00:28:33.600
the same place next week and as always don't let the government tell you that you've had too much to