00:03:00.580This was a Government of Canada-run event, the official election leaders debate.
00:03:04.740We won, but it shows the lengths through which Trudeau and his minions do not want any independent journalists questioning them.
00:03:11.420We were trying to get Rachel Emanuel on the show yesterday, but I think she was actually in a dead sprint to get away from the RCMP when the show was on.
00:03:21.140rachel good to talk to you i i was exaggerating a little bit there but but you actually did have
00:03:25.940quite a serious encounter that started with the college's security and ended up with i think
00:03:30.980calgary police and rcmp did you not yeah i mean it actually started even before that initially
00:03:36.020earlier in the day we had gotten word that trudeau was at a hotel in calgary eventually we narrowed
00:03:41.220it down to the sheraton you know you can kind of drive by the hotels keep a lookout for additional
00:03:45.300security unmarked you know big black vehicles outside of them things like that a lot of times
00:03:49.700these vehicles also have ontario license plates so we knew a little bit what to look for so we
00:03:54.020figured that he was meeting alberta premier daniel smith at the sheraton and you know we headed on
00:03:58.740into the hotel there into the lobby we're very quickly asked to leave you know maybe we should
00:04:03.140have worn some security uniforms or something to look like we belong you know fair enough we waited
00:04:07.060outside uh we caught danielle smith on her way out of a side exit there and she was happy to give us
00:04:11.860a couple questions quickly of course alberta premier danielle smith often speaks with media
00:04:16.580she's very fair about that and she also speaks to all types of media not just independent reporters
00:04:21.620or conservative reporters those that would tend to be a little bit more supportive of her policies
00:04:26.420then you know we were waiting in a vehicle so we could follow trudeau's motorcade so we could get
00:04:30.420the location of his press conference and even while we were simply sitting in our vehicle
00:04:34.260waiting for the motorcade to leave police was already giving us a hard time oh you can't wait
00:04:37.700here oh you can't park you have to move over there you have to move over here once the motorcade left
00:04:41.940you know police vehicles driving in front of us very slowly so we couldn't you know get around
00:04:46.580them get closer to the motorcade of course then we were listening to the press conference once the
00:04:51.300question period of the press conference started the moderator said the first question is going
00:04:56.420to go to the state reporter and that's when keen put it together oh they're at state so he went to
00:05:00.100say sure enough there we see his motorcade so we're just kind of waiting waiting in the building
00:05:04.420there for him to come down we were going to just try to ask him some questions as he walked over
00:05:07.780over to his motorcade. And then, you know, RCMP, Calgary police, they're all there. They're all
00:05:12.920giving us a very hard time. As soon as we walked out of that building, we were listening to the
00:05:16.380press conference and we figured, eh, once it comes close to an end, we'll walk out. We'll wait near
00:05:20.720the motorcade so that we can get our questions in as he, you know, it's a mere 30 seconds,
00:05:25.02010 seconds, maybe even he's walking from the building to his motorcade. We've all seen the
00:05:28.560clips of reporters following him from buildings to vehicles. And even that, you know, they take
00:05:32.640issue with, they start moving the vehicles so that we can't even get a view of him. And then
00:05:37.080the police starts being like you got to move further back you got to move back you know they're
00:05:40.060trying to push us back at us as far as way as you can you can see a little gap between the vehicles
00:05:43.900and the clip that you're playing and that was basically as close as we were going to get and
00:05:46.780even that they were you know frustrated with they kept trying to push us back make things difficult
00:05:50.660for us it was one of the most pathetic displays i've ever seen and you can only think to yourself
00:05:54.420imagine if they use this kind of energy to actually fix some of the actual countries
00:05:59.180some of the issues that we have going on in our country things would look a whole lot better and
00:06:02.720then of course just I think it was probably three minutes before he finally finished that press
00:06:07.500conference and came out uh state security came up to us and said nope you know we don't want you to
00:06:12.840be here you're not accredited media you have to leave and once they say it's a trespassing issue
00:06:17.760you do have to leave very quickly or you will be charged with trespassing that's about a $300 fine
00:06:22.280I know that Kian has run into that issue with the past during the general election
00:06:25.620when independent media had these same issues with you know trying to go to NDP press conferences
00:06:31.620so then it gets a little more dodgy and you know trespassing charge isn't the most serious of
00:06:36.180things but i think best to avoid it if you can yeah i mean some journalists i guess probably
00:06:41.040collect them as as a badge of honor but at a certain point if the prime minister rents out
00:06:45.480a hotel ballroom uh for all intents and purposes that's private property and the hotel ballroom
00:06:50.160could uh trespass you so i i get why uh you you moved outside there same thing happened when i was
00:06:56.100kicked out of uh what was it laurentian university in thunder bay uh trying to attend a trudeau
00:07:01.180event. Once they say it's private property and you can't be here, it doesn't matter that Trudeau's
00:07:04.340there or not. But I would actually say it goes beyond, it goes earlier than the Sheridan,
00:07:08.820because you had done the thing that you're supposed to do the night before, you requested
00:07:12.200accreditation. But they do this thing now where they, on Trudeau's itinerary, they don't even
00:07:16.460announce where the event is going to be. You have to request accreditation. And they try to basically
00:07:22.540make it so that no one can do what you did by just not responding. So they made a concerted
00:07:27.400effort early on that you were not going to be permitted absolutely and just to give your
00:07:32.780audience a full picture of what's going on behind the scenes there is they've really started to lock
00:07:37.640these events down that trudeau is at they do not want people to know where he is they do not want
00:07:42.760protesters showing up trudeau is hated in canada right now and especially in the west and people
00:07:48.180tend to find out where these events are happening they tend to find out where he's staying and they
00:07:51.680go and protest and so we've seen them really up the ante and trying to keep these things secret
00:07:55.480I sent out a lot of requests a lot of people in the province who are always in the know
00:07:59.400did not know where either of these events were happening they didn't know where the meeting with
00:08:02.700the premier was happening and they didn't know where that dental care announcement was happening
00:08:06.680so things were really under wraps this time and we just saw the police go to that extra effort
00:08:11.180just to make sure that two little journalists wouldn't be able to even so much as ask the
00:08:15.740prime minister a question because that would be too much of a nuisance for our beloved prime
00:08:19.460minister and we couldn't offend his ears with you know some some conservative journalists asking him
00:08:24.000some questions. We saw something similar with the Alberta NDP. They really tried hard to keep their
00:08:30.340press conferences and their announcements under wraps, but in that case, they were also trying
00:08:36.020to get the word out to have other people come, so they didn't do so very effectively, and we
00:08:39.440typically found them in advance. But it's going to be interesting to see what future visits from
00:08:43.300the Prime Minister to Calgary look like, because I think they've decided this is the new model that
00:08:47.200they're going to use, where they're just going to be super secretive. We couldn't even get
00:08:50.580information from the premier's office. The premier's office said, no, we can't share this.
00:08:55.180That would be a breach of security contract with the prime minister's office. So they were taking
00:08:59.420this very seriously as well. And I was a little bit like, well, what's the prime minister ever
00:09:02.720done for Alberta? Yeah. Has he earned that? Has he earned that from them? Just to go to the policy
00:09:08.460aspect here, we've seen this week and I'll be talking about it in a moment, this carbon tax
00:09:12.920revolt being waged by seven of 10 provincial premiers so far. Ground zero for that has really
00:09:19.200been Alberta. So to some extent, I mean, Trudeau yesterday was in the belly of the beast here,
00:09:24.060but absolutely unrepentant when he asked. He went on, I think it was like some eight minute long
00:09:28.240rant defending the carbon tax yesterday at that presser, didn't he?
00:09:32.300Pretty remarkable. I mean, Justin Trudeau is someone who doesn't learn his lessons. He's
00:09:36.080someone who doesn't care what the Canadian people think. We understand that because he chooses to
00:09:40.220stay at the most expensive hotels wherever he travels. This has been a controversy for the
00:09:45.600prime minister time and time again. He simply does not care about the cost of his luxury lifestyle
00:09:52.280that he's passing on to taxpayers. That's one thing that's been incredibly obvious for us.
00:09:56.700Another thing is even the simple fact that he won't allow a regular person like myself into
00:10:01.240his press conferences to ask questions because I'm not considered an elite accredited media.
00:10:05.300I'm honestly just a mom. I've got a very successful podcast, one of the most listened to shows in
00:10:09.880Alberta, if not the most popular political podcast in the province. And he isn't even willing to give
00:10:14.560me so much as a question or to allow me to enter a room that he's in or probably even look in the
00:10:19.600same direction as him if we're being honest so this is a prime minister who generally hates
00:10:24.360canadians and so i'm not surprised that he's not budging on the carbon tax something i will say
00:10:28.260that is interesting is that i had cheryl out on my show the alberta roundup yesterday she used to be
00:10:33.180the director of communications for former alberta premier rachel notley who as we know is resigning
00:10:37.920once a new leader is selected and she said that the carbon tax is poison in alberta right now
00:10:43.640It's an extremely unpopular policy. She said that while she agrees with what the policy is trying to accomplish, it's just not going to be very feasible for politicians in Alberta right now. So here we even have someone who worked for the Alberta NDP signaling the fact that this is a policy that's really a no-go right now. So even she can kind of understand this is something we need to change direction on, but not Trudeau because this is a man who is unwilling to admit when he's wrong.
00:15:10.380So he won't even say whether he's had a conversation with the federal government asking them for relief on the carbon tax.
00:15:17.280Now, this is perhaps the NDP in Manitoba getting a little bit of pressure from its federal NDP friends, maybe not wanting to make them look bad.
00:15:25.300Alberta NDP leadership candidates right now are completely against the carbon tax.
00:15:30.220It's been fascinating to see that even the left wing NDP in Alberta knows it cannot sell a carbon tax to people in that province.
00:15:39.280So none of those people vying for the leadership of the NDP, which is already a bit of a thankless job.
00:15:44.140You've got folks like Sarah Hoffman there and now Nahid Nenshi entering the race.
00:15:48.520They're all saying, yeah, most of them, not all, are saying, well, we think the carbon tax is toxic, so we are not going to run on that.
00:15:55.620Now, in spite of this, when seven of ten first ministers in the federation are saying to the prime minister, you've got to stop this,
00:16:03.060this is, in my view, verging on a crisis in federalism for a piece of legislation whose constitutionality is already a little bit dubious.
00:16:12.260I mean, yes, the Supreme Court has upheld the carbon tax, but it was on very narrow grounds that they ultimately sided with the government's argument that this was a matter of federal jurisdiction.
00:16:22.420So politically, morally, Justin Trudeau should be making a much greater appeal to his provincial counterparts who are not meant to be subordinates.
00:16:31.440They're meant to be, it's meant to be where the Justin Trudeau prime minister role right now is the first among equals.
00:16:37.920He has his domain. The provincial premiers has their domain.
00:16:41.580But instead, he looks at them as minions that have to do his bidding when he orders a carbon tax on the beleaguered residents of those governments that were not putting forward policies of that nature.
00:16:53.020Now, Scott Moe in Saskatchewan, they've, I think, been the most aggressive because they've actually just stopped paying the government.
00:26:28.720we did an episode on heat pumps recently
00:26:30.460and people keep talking about heat pumps.
00:26:32.080Very fascinating technology. Maybe it gets better in the future, but you're not surviving in Manitoba all winter on a heat pump. It just won't work. You need to have that natural gas component. Maybe a heat pump can help a bit, but we're not there. I mean, we need these things like natural gas to heat our homes. We need things like gasoline to power our vehicles and so forth.
00:26:55.080I mean, the idea that we're all switching to electric cars anytime soon, that's fantasy.
00:27:01.000They cost a fortune and, you know, a lot of households are struggling right now to get
00:27:06.460by and never mind having to drop $50,000 or whatever on an electric car, right?
00:35:58.300Well, I hope you're healing up and I appreciate you not letting you get in the way of our interview, the schedule today.
00:36:03.800But so you've delved into this incredibly important issue here in the politicization of the political process.
00:36:09.700And I'm always clear to say that, you know, we have to see in some of these cases which are still ongoing, what the courts are going to find and what the facts are.
00:36:17.900But why was this bothering you so much looking at this from the sidelines?
00:36:22.040Well, when you look at this whole situation, when you talk about the truckers convoy, the prosecution of them,
00:36:28.800There's been eight persons associated with the convoys, both at Coutts and in Ottawa, who have served nine years in jail without parole, with which what now a judge has ruled is not even a crime.
00:36:46.500And yet, you know, we open the papers every few days and we see a violent, somebody killed by someone released on the catch and release system, committing a murder, a horrible murder.
00:36:57.860And so the only explanation for this, Andrew, is political interference in the justice system.
00:37:09.420Let's unpack that for a moment, because do you think the issue is that there is a case of judges taking their marching orders, perhaps not explicitly, but implicitly from political leaders?
00:37:20.340Or do you think it's just in who's getting appointed to the bench?
00:37:22.840Do you think it's just that leaders are appointing judges of a certain political persuasion and this is just their bias on display?
00:37:30.500Well, there's no doubt about the first part, about the last part of that.
00:37:33.180I mean, the Supreme Court, the head of the Supreme Court, just a recent, he's been appointed by Trudeau.
00:37:43.940And so the court is, there's no question the Supreme Court is now politicized to an extent that probably never before.
00:37:52.840yeah and and you had mentioned in your piece the story that i just shared on the show a moment ago
00:37:58.980of him doing an interview and i mean the idea of supreme court justice is doing interviews
00:38:02.960i think is problematic for a number of reasons this is one of them but he gives his opinion
00:38:07.820about this issue that like anyone knows is going to end up before him as a case in some form whether
00:38:14.300it's someone appealing their criminal charge or whether it's the emergencies act going before the
00:38:19.000Supreme Court, but he's already now put on record that he believes the Freedom Convoy was holding
00:38:23.140people hostage. So how is he expected to set that aside when he makes an adjudication on the convoy
00:38:29.920or a case related to it? He can't be expected and he won't. That's the problem. I mean,
00:38:35.340we've had, what we've had is eight persons arrested for participation in Freedom Convoys
00:38:42.180and they have served nine years nine years in jail without parole
00:38:49.500for something that now has been ruled not even it's not even it's been ruled by a recent judge
00:38:56.560it's not even a crime so where do you think this issue started or when do you think it started
00:39:03.320because i i would say that there have probably been i i think that the issues are a lot more
00:39:07.560explicit and in your face now but i i don't think this is a new phenomenon i i wouldn't even argue
00:39:11.960and you may disagree gwen that i wouldn't even argue it started with justin trudeau
00:39:17.080well i don't know it seems like that's such a long time ago my friend stephen harper would
00:39:23.000would have wouldn't have had anything like this so i think that the whole deterioration of the
00:39:27.480systems is is consistent with their trudeau uh reign and his actions on the freedom con on the on
00:39:35.240and the Emergencies Act itself were now seen to be unnecessary and possibly illegal.
00:39:44.440Yeah, and you had mentioned, just to go back to that point we were discussing a few moments ago
00:39:48.880about, you know, whether this is, you know, whether they're picking up implicit signals,
00:39:52.900these judges, or getting direct interference.