Juno News - Alberta says no to Justin Trudeau's gun grab

00:00:00.000 Welcome to Canada's Most Irreverent Talk Show.

00:00:05.200 This is the Andrew Lawton Show, brought to you by True North.

00:00:14.500 Hello and welcome to you all.

00:00:17.100 This is another edition of Canada's Most Irreverent Talk Show,

00:00:20.500 the Andrew Lawton Show, here on True North.

00:00:23.160 It is Wednesday, March 8, 2023.

00:00:25.840 I was a little distracted at first because on my little screen that shows me the image of myself doing the show

00:00:32.640 which is actually a terrible thing for me to have to see

00:00:35.060 I was like looking in a mirror for just an hour straight

00:00:37.340 there's like a weird like white orb beside me

00:00:40.660 and I'm assuming I've like either done something wrong on the camera

00:00:43.480 or maybe my lights are

00:00:45.560 no my everything seems to be pointed in the right direction

00:00:47.700 I don't know

00:00:48.300 the light is shining upon us

00:00:50.600 the aura of truth

00:00:51.680 we're gonna just lean into it

00:00:53.100 and if the aura is gone tomorrow

00:00:55.160 then we will just ignore the poetry altogether but thank you so much to all of you for tuning

00:01:00.660 in whether you are watching this live on YouTube or Facebook or Rumble or you know the 19 other

00:01:07.500 video platforms that get like four viewers but they all insist and demand that we upload it to

00:01:12.020 that platform and if you're listening or watching in post post-production in the recorded version

00:01:19.080 on podcasts anywhere else we welcome you all the same and let me just say on that note if you are

00:01:23.500 not subscribed to the Andrew Lawton Show podcast you should be because the numbers make me feel

00:01:28.380 better about myself so I appreciate that very much. We are going to talk about guns today and

00:01:34.340 it's not even just a gun related story though Alberta is saying no to Justin Trudeau's gun

00:01:40.360 grab and they're passing provincial legislation that really enshrines in Alberta law what the

00:01:45.880 Danielle Smith government has been talking about now which is sovereignty so it is actually I

00:01:50.700 believe a provincial rights issue and we'll be talking about that with the chief firearms

00:01:55.040 officer of Alberta in just a few minutes time that is Terry Bryan who I've never actually

00:01:59.140 spoken to before so I am looking forward to this interview I also want to talk about China which

00:02:04.880 is continuing to unravel the liberal government and today a lovely clip wherein even the mainstream

00:02:13.440 media reporters that so often carry water for Justin Trudeau have had enough of him take a look

00:02:19.380 at this exchange from question or from outside question period earlier it is so important

00:02:29.820 that authorities parliamentarians and experts with the proper clearances can look into everything

00:02:40.840 that was done in a responsible way in a way that doesn't put at risk

00:02:44.920 But Mr. Trudeau, the question is, Mr. Handong, have you made a verification?

00:02:51.920 But did you compromise the election?

00:02:57.920 Did you compromise the election?

00:03:02.920 I think, as we know, this is an issue that needs to be taken extremely seriously.

00:03:14.920 it's international women's day so he can't tell the women to just like quiet down and stop talking

00:03:22.760 over him but he certainly didn't want to give them the courtesy of an answer to that and again

00:03:27.800 the media i've said this in the past but i think it bears repeating because i i believe every you

00:03:32.780 know once every two years i come up with something really wise and this was one of them i think this

00:03:36.800 was my wise thought of 2020 or something like that i i said the you know the media will go after

00:03:42.040 liberals so it's not fair to say that they're they're all just dyed in the wool liberal supporters

00:03:46.540 but when they accuse liberals of something it's because the liberal has not lived up to their

00:03:52.220 goal of what a liberal should be when they criticize conservatives it's for being conservatives

00:03:57.420 it's actually for living up to what a conservative is supposed to be so liberals get criticized by

00:04:02.780 the media for their conduct conservatives get criticized for their beliefs and in this particular

00:04:07.900 case, it is Justin Trudeau's conduct that has attracted the ire of the media and of a large

00:04:14.320 cross-section of Canadians beyond just the Conservatives that are supposed to be in that

00:04:19.640 category of opposition, of opposing the government. Before we get into the real meat of the show today,

00:04:27.660 let me issue a correction. I don't often get things wrong, but when I do, I like to own up

00:04:33.700 to them. And, you know, I've said a number of things of a very large and significant note in

00:04:39.380 the last few shows, and it was brought to my attention that I made what some would argue is

00:04:45.220 a fatal error that I would like to clear up right now. On my program on Monday, I said that the city

00:04:52.520 of Cornwall was west of the city of Ottawa. I know, very, very terrible stuff. I didn't even

00:05:00.240 to remember saying it because I don't believe it because I've been to Cornwall and I've been to

00:05:03.740 Ottawa and I've driven through Cornwall and past Cornwall and I know where Cornwall is but as Andrew

00:05:08.240 Baldwin says in a very polite and courteous email Cornwall is not west of Ottawa but 88 kilometers

00:05:15.260 southeast of Ottawa facts matter the truth matters and you should get out more Ontario is yours to

00:05:22.340 discover and you're going to love her well I'm glad that we've decided to recognize Ontario as

00:05:27.640 a woman uh in the context of international women's day i don't know if ontario is a trans woman as

00:05:33.500 justin trudeau said uh is no different from a regular woman but i'm not going to judge yes

00:05:38.340 andrew baldwin you are correct i do get out plenty far more than i would like to a lot of

00:05:42.540 the times and i can assure you that i do in fact know where cornwall is in relation to ottawa but

00:05:48.100 i for reasons unclear and i do may take full responsibility for this was mixing up ottawa

00:05:53.700 with Montreal in terms of what I wanted to say and what I actually said. And I don't know if

00:05:59.160 that's more offensive to the people of Montreal or to Ottawa. I know they're not the same place,

00:06:03.320 but the people of Cornwall, I don't even think Andrew Baldwin's from Cornwall. So he was offended

00:06:08.980 on behalf of the Ontario Cornish population. I don't think they call themselves that, but

00:06:14.940 now I'm going to have to issue another correction. Andrew, I awaited if you want to tell me what the

00:06:19.040 people of Cornwall call themselves. But in all honesty, I have a laugh about this and I thank

00:06:23.940 you very much. You can fact check me all you'd like. Anyone, I welcome it. I may regret saying

00:06:29.980 that. Let's talk a little bit about, actually let's talk a lot about Alberta's stand against

00:06:35.240 the federal government's gun confiscation plans here. So I want to just condense a couple of years

00:06:41.920 of firearms policy history into a few moments here because in 2020, the Liberals signed an

00:06:48.480 order in council banning 1500 variants of firearm including notably the ar-15 they put a two-year

00:06:55.580 amnesty in place and that of course has passed so it's been extended and i own an ar-15 which i've

00:07:03.880 never been able to do anything with because it's been effectively prohibited since not long after

00:07:08.900 i purchased it and it's still in limbo the government says you have to sell it to the

00:07:14.140 government but they have not provided a mechanism or vehicle to do it and at a certain point that

00:07:18.860 will become a criminal act on my part as i understand it to just have that in my gun cabinet

00:07:23.860 despite being licensed and it being registered then you fast forward and the liberals ban

00:07:28.760 handguns as well now they didn't go as far with the handgun ban because they they went with more

00:07:34.540 of a grandfathered approach here where they put a freeze and then ultimately ended transfers of

00:07:40.440 handguns, but they made it so that if you have one, you're still allowed to legally use it. So

00:07:45.840 of course, there was this giant run on handguns. I bought one in, I believe, July, and it just

00:07:53.120 showed up at my house yesterday because it took that long for the chief firearms officer in Ontario

00:07:59.800 to run the transfer of it. Now, I understand things are a lot more efficient in Alberta,

00:08:04.640 which brings me to this segment here. I'd like to welcome to the program Alberta's chief firearms

00:08:09.780 officer terry bryant terry good to talk to you thanks so much for coming on the show today

00:08:14.080 it's my pleasure love to talk to you so let's explain first and foremost here what the alberta

00:08:21.840 firearms act which was tabled this week does okay well really it does two things so the first thing

00:08:28.820 that it does is that our office the alberta chief firearms office um transitioned from being

00:08:35.380 federally run to provincially run on september 1st 2021 and uh at that time i became the chief

00:08:44.340 firearms officer and i received a mandate letter that specified what i was supposed to do and that

00:08:50.160 mandate letter was a key thing because my duties are broader than a normal chief firearms officer

00:08:56.520 in most of the country with the exception of saskatchewan which is pretty much the same

00:09:01.320 And my duties include running the system as it is now, and also advocating for change to make the system make more sense.

00:09:11.600 So what the first thing that this legislation does is entrench the expanded responsibilities of our office in legislation.

00:09:21.780 So instead of it just being based on a mandate letter from a minister, it is now or will be when the act passes entrenched in legislation.

00:09:32.180 The second thing it does is set out mechanisms for us to protect Albertans against some risks that will arise if, despite all of the evidence that it's a bad idea, the federal government proceeds with the firearms confiscation scheme that you proposed, that you referred to, rather.

00:09:54.120 so this is something that is by and large a federal matter we've always been told and

00:10:01.260 certainly it's the federal government that has under the constitution authority over criminal

00:10:05.380 law so well i i support what alberta is doing is this in a legally murky territory as far as

00:10:13.280 where the province's authorities lie or is this something that has been tested and

00:10:17.400 is constitutional and we know it's not going to come up against a challenge

00:10:20.780 uh well i think that it's a little bit of both it's not uh it is i think fairly clear but that

00:10:28.920 doesn't mean that it won't be challenged you're correct that the federal government does have the

00:10:33.340 power to uh to prohibit things if that's in fact what they uh choose to do and uh you know that's

00:10:44.060 why we have had to take action to first of all do everything we can to convince them not to do

00:10:52.360 what they are proposing to do and that's why I'm in Ottawa right now but second to if they do manage

00:11:01.880 to or persist in doing what we think is very ill-advised and they proceed with this program

00:11:08.880 have a means of protecting Albertans against two of the major risks that this proposed scheme

00:11:17.980 would likely present so functionally speaking here it's policing the police departments that

00:11:27.160 are responsible for as the federal government has described actually going out and doing the

00:11:32.620 confiscation or facilitating these so-called buyback programs and even when the rcmp which

00:11:38.580 is a federal agency is operating in alberta as a municipal police force it's under the province's

00:11:43.600 authority correct well uh there's a couple of things there first of all it is not clear who

00:11:50.220 would go out and gather these firearms or what mechanism they would use so far even though the

00:11:57.560 amnesty as you pointed out expires uh on october 30th of this year they have not even presented a

00:12:04.940 concept for how they intend to do this let alone a plan a concept would be you mail them in or the

00:12:11.800 police come to your home or you take them to a collection point or something they have not even

00:12:16.580 got that far yet let alone having a plan so it's not clear who would do this and that's one of the

00:12:25.320 reasons why we felt our act was necessary because since they this is a bit of a gong show on the

00:12:30.760 federal part because they don't have they have no idea they haven't found anybody who wants to help

00:12:36.540 them with this everybody doesn't want to touch it with a 10-foot pole and so we're afraid that

00:12:42.500 they're going to end up with some kind of i'm looking for a word that's not not that i can say

00:12:49.720 over the air uh that i'm looking for by the crtc go wild terry so you know uh they're likely to come

00:12:59.520 up with some kind of half-baked there we go baked rather than the word i was thinking of

00:13:04.520 they're kind of like to come up with some kind of a half-baked idea and that could expose the

00:13:10.700 public to all kinds of risks so for example if there are if they hire a bunch of people

00:13:15.860 to go out and gather up these guns there's nothing to prevent uh fraudsters from posing as these

00:13:22.700 people or thieves from possibly uh stealing you know a truckload of firearms that are sitting

00:13:31.120 there in a truck that's idling while the guy goes in driver goes into to use the washroom or

00:13:36.820 or uh you know someone from breaking into an ill-secured warehouse or something of that nature

00:13:42.820 Nothing of this scale has ever been attempted by a government, fortunately, and we hope this will not be the first time. But if it is, so far, the actions of the federal government in everything related to this cockamamie idea do not inspire confidence.

00:14:04.700 So we have to be able to license that whole system so that if the federal government does persist with this idea, that we can make sure that Albertans are not defrauded or that the public security isn't threatened by having truckloads of firearms hijacked or things like that.

00:14:27.460 So that's one of the important things that the act will do is, through the regulatory powers, enable us to protect Albertans in that way.

00:14:35.100 Now, there are obviously situations in which even, and I'd say especially law-abiding gun owners, would support the removal of someone's firearms, and that is when they are used in crime.

00:14:46.500 So is there going to be a challenge here if police need to be empowered to remove firearms in some circumstances but not in others, which is what we're talking about here as far as the reclassifications and prohibitions?

00:14:59.800 Nothing in this act and nothing in our intentions or ever even in our wildest dreams would have impeded in any way the lawful exercise of police discretion to go out and seize firearms from dangerous situations.

00:15:18.080 That is a completely different situation from going out and gathering the firearms that were legally acquired by law-abiding people who have done nothing whatsoever wrong.

00:15:33.520 And so, you know, that's really apples and oranges.

00:15:37.720 But are they different on paper? Is the authority stemming from the same place?

00:15:41.280 No, I mean, there are clear provisions in the Criminal Code and Firearms Act that determine when police can go out and seize firearms for public safety purposes.

00:15:53.740 This would be quite a different animal because essentially they would, at least initially, they would be collecting firearms from people who were being coerced into surrendering them for compensation.

00:16:13.460 And that's a whole different thing from someone who has committed a crime and has a firearm that they shouldn't have. 0.96

00:16:20.780 I don't know if you have an answer to this yet, but I have to put it out there because I suspect Alberta will be a home to some firearms refugees, given the approach it's taking on these issues. 1.00

00:16:30.720 And I realize it may be followed in places like Saskatchewan and elsewhere. 0.97

00:16:34.280 But is there a legal mechanism if someone in another province who has these firearms that right now the government doesn't want people to have and is preventing the issuing of ATTs on to even move to Alberta and bring those firearms with them?

00:16:48.820 uh well people can move uh there's no no law preventing even but can guns move with them if

00:16:57.680 if the atts are being throttled by other provinces even even the feds haven't uh gone so far as to

00:17:05.060 prevent firearms owners from moving and uh if you move your firearms including the order in council

00:17:12.420 firearms can come with you uh but you should consult your chief firearms office regarding

00:17:18.320 the movement of those firearms but actually you can't get an authorization to transport for those

00:17:26.380 firearms because an authorization to transport is only for registered firearms and the federal

00:17:34.560 government did not revoke but administratively expired the registration certificates for those

00:17:42.540 ordering council firearms so technically they're not registered anymore what's your sense of where

00:17:49.160 law enforcement officials are on this because every now and then we get a comment from the

00:17:53.420 canadian association of chiefs of police or a chief of police somewhere that basically says

00:17:58.100 you know none of these restrictions are going to do anything in reducing crime would you say that

00:18:04.580 is fairly universal with the law enforcement partners you speak to yes uh for a couple of

00:18:10.080 reasons first of all so most chiefs of police and and other senior police officials they've got a

00:18:19.320 lot on their plate already this is the last thing they need and they know that firearms owners law

00:18:25.740 abiding pal holding carefully vetted and screened firearms owners are the people that they have the

00:18:33.740 least concerned about so from that standpoint generally senior officials don't want to have

00:18:41.080 anything to do with it and the rank and file actually many of them are firearms owners and

00:18:47.220 they have often acquired firearms that are similar to the ones that they are issued because they

00:18:55.160 don't get enough official practice and they've wanted to you know attain a high level of

00:19:00.520 proficiency so that if they ever have to use their firearms they can do it safely and these

00:19:07.060 laws have prevented them from gaining the practice that they feel they need in order to be safe in

00:19:14.920 the use of the firearms that they are issued officially so it's very seldom do you encounter

00:19:22.660 anyone who is in law enforcement who's actually in favor of this you've obviously been one of the

00:19:29.660 most tremendous advocates for law-abiding gun owners in Canada, and I know there was a deliberate

00:19:35.080 decision on the part of the previous Jason Kenney government to appoint a provincial representative

00:19:40.240 that was going to take the approach you have. Do you think that more provinces are going to start

00:19:46.300 doing exactly what Alberta is doing? And I know your interest is in Alberta, but I know you've

00:19:50.280 got a background in academia, you know the landscape. What would your sense be about

00:19:54.280 where other provinces will go on this well uh so there are first of all of the 10 provinces

00:20:00.180 there are only now three that are still federally appointed and so um of the other of the others

00:20:08.940 uh two of them are police officers so they're not allowed to take the police the uh advocacy type

00:20:14.960 role that i have and it's simply not a part of the mandate of several of the others so it's only cfo

00:20:21.220 Freeberg in Saskatchewan and myself who have that expansive role of the other three I know that at

00:20:29.240 least in at least two there is pressure either politically or from the police forces to move

00:20:39.840 towards a more Alberta style approach because you know it's not that I am so much a an advocate for

00:20:50.060 the firearms community. I'm an advocate for public safety, and it's a very serious detriment to public

00:20:58.500 safety when you propose to spend billions of dollars doing something that has absolutely no

00:21:05.780 impact on public safety and will alienate all of the people in the law-abiding firearms community

00:21:12.660 who should be your allies because they are the ones who socialize new firearms owners

00:21:18.100 is the proper, safe, responsible use of firearms.

00:21:22.260 You're so right about that, Terry.

00:21:24.040 I mean, the most, I'd say, I mean, to the point of just neurotic safety advocates

00:21:28.880 are firearms owners, and I don't say that as a negative thing.

00:21:32.060 I mean, the diligence they have on where they hold their finger on a gun

00:21:35.880 they know is unloaded because of what trigger discipline is

00:21:38.980 and how they've had the safety precautions and protocols drilled into them

00:21:44.140 and the way that they take such care when they're bringing out new people to the range.

00:21:49.400 And I have often said that anyone who doesn't understand this file

00:21:53.400 or anyone who is legislating on it should just take a day at the range,

00:21:58.380 take half a day at the range with law-abiding gun owners.

00:22:00.460 And I think they would just realize in the span of like 30 minutes there

00:22:04.300 that these people are not the problem.

00:22:07.360 Well, I think there have been a number of initiatives on the part of firearms organizations

00:22:11.540 to encourage firearms owners to get people to come out to ranges and i think sometimes there's

00:22:19.840 not as much success as there could be there because people are a little afraid to to suggest

00:22:24.700 it but you know i think if someone is interested in learning about the firearms community then they

00:22:34.800 will not at all find it difficult to find someone who is willing to uh help them to understand i

00:22:42.820 mean just if you know if nothing else go to a gun show gun shows are publicly advertised go to a gun

00:22:49.100 show and just start talking to people it won't take long before you find somebody who will

00:22:54.300 volunteer to take you to a range and take you out shooting because probably the only thing that

00:23:00.120 firearms owners like more than going to the range is going to the range to acquaint someone new

00:23:05.560 with the pleasures of going to a range. I don't know if Marco Medellino is one of my viewers but

00:23:12.360 if he is I know there are lots of people that would love to show you around a gun range and

00:23:16.480 perhaps push your government a little bit in a different direction here. Terry Bryant chief

00:23:21.080 firearms officer for the province of Alberta thank you for your work on this and for your time today

00:23:26.180 really appreciate it terry i appreciate the opportunity to speak to you thank you so much

00:23:30.240 thank you and go uh go talk some sense into them in ottawa while you're there appreciate that very

00:23:34.980 much look terry bryant has been a godsend on this file i think the alberta government in general has

00:23:40.740 been incredibly useful on this and for me i am a big believer in firearms rights i'm also a big

00:23:47.780 believer in provincial rights and i i don't even think you need to be a gun owner or a gun advocate

00:23:52.360 to appreciate what Alberta is doing here

00:23:55.480 and I think understand

00:23:56.300 why it should be a model for other provinces

00:23:59.260 and this like weird sort of kinship

00:24:01.460 you see between Premier Danielle Smith

00:24:03.660 and Premier Francois Legault on this

00:24:05.680 is I think is amusing

00:24:06.440 because Alberta is doing

00:24:07.760 what Quebec has often gotten a pass for doing

00:24:10.320 from the federal government

00:24:11.280 but when the Alberta government does it

00:24:13.140 the federal government gets

00:24:14.380 pardon the pun, up in arms

00:24:16.340 because they don't want Alberta to have rights

00:24:19.400 they want Quebec to have rights 0.92

00:24:20.660 they don't want gun owners to have rights

00:24:22.160 they want other people to have rights but anyone who says there is a public safety thrust behind

00:24:28.560 this knows nothing about law-abiding guns and or law-abiding gun owners and the firearms they use

00:24:35.020 so thanks again to terry bryant for coming on we will surely follow this in the future but i want

00:24:39.920 to go back to what's becoming the pervasive theme throughout canadian politics in the last few weeks

00:24:45.640 and i don't think it is lightening up at all and that is the china scandal we need a name for the

00:24:51.540 china scandal i don't like gating everything china gate and you know lack what was it lav

00:24:56.400 scam i like lav scam but i don't know what we're going to call the china scandal so maybe we need

00:25:00.020 to put out an all call if you have a good name for it in the comment section please do leave it

00:25:04.980 uh but this tweet came up across my radar by a man named doug eolfson iolfson uh he was a member

00:25:12.960 of parliament for a term and blissfully i forgot he existed until this morning uh but doug e

00:25:19.340 Lofson, I've already forgotten the name, but he tweeted this about Pierre Polyev raising issues

00:25:26.540 about China. His tweet talks about how it is going to get someone killed to delegitimize our

00:25:35.580 elections and accusing the Prime Minister of treason, which, by the way, Pierre Polyev has

00:25:39.860 never actually done. He hasn't accused Justin Trudeau of treason. He's talked about foreign

00:25:44.900 interference in our elections which even Justin Trudeau has come around to caring about now this

00:25:49.660 guy is a liberal candidate as well as being a former liberal member of parliament so I don't

00:25:54.620 know if this is an official liberal party position but now it's not only undermining democracy like

00:26:01.040 they said to talk about Chinese interference in our elections it's not only racist to talk about

00:26:05.700 Chinese interference in our elections it's now murderous how dare you think of the children

00:26:10.040 Someone's going to die because you're talking about safeguarding our democracy. 0.99

00:26:14.460 Cry me a friggin' river.

00:26:16.460 It's odd when Justin Trudeau can't even answer the most fundamentally simple questions

00:26:21.040 about his Liberal caucus in the wake of these allegations.

00:26:24.280 This was Pierre Polyev putting the gears to him in question period today.

00:26:30.940 Honourable Leader of the Opposition.

00:26:32.900 Has thesis warned the Prime Minister, his staff, members of his party,

00:26:36.420 that members of his caucus or cabinet are part of a foreign interference network.

00:26:41.660 Yes or no?

00:26:42.580 The Right Honourable Prime Minister.

00:26:45.380 Canadians well know that issues of national security and foreign interference

00:26:52.380 can often be highly sensitive, which is why we have created bodies

00:26:57.540 like NSICOP and NCERA and other mechanisms

00:27:01.340 to oversee the important and top-secret work that our intelligence agencies do.

00:27:06.420 to make sure that they're doing everything necessary to protect Canadians,

00:27:11.160 to make sure that governments are held accountable for acting on information

00:27:15.760 they could have received from our intelligence agencies.

00:27:18.140 These are processes that we have put in place since 2015 that we will continue to work with.

00:27:23.740 The Chair of the Opposition.

00:27:26.000 Yes or no.

00:27:29.240 The Right Honourable Prime Minister.

00:27:31.400 Mr. Speaker, we well know that issues of national security can be highly challenging to discuss as parliamentarians in the open floor of the House of Commons,

00:27:45.340 which is why, over the objections of the former minister in the Harper government that objected to the creation of a National Security Intelligence Oversight Committee,

00:27:56.020 uh who's now the leader of the opposition uh we went ahead and created a body that allows

00:28:02.060 members of parliament to get cleared to top secret levels so they can look into

00:28:07.220 this question and all questions in a way that doesn't compromise national security

00:28:12.420 leader of the opposition so it kept keeps going for three and a half minutes i i don't want to

00:28:19.820 subject you to the full three and a half minutes of it but uh pierre paliev is asking a fundamentally

00:28:24.460 simple yes or no question are any members of your caucus part of a chinese foreign interference

00:28:29.800 network and justin trudeau says well you know these are serious issues we i mean i don't want

00:28:36.280 to read too much into it because part of it is that justin trudeau is incapable of giving a yes

00:28:41.260 and no answer and part of that is because i believe he's incapable of spelling either yes or

00:28:45.480 no in either official language but justin trudeau could not and would not answer an easy easy easy

00:28:53.880 question. This is when the scripted QP question period, that's question period answer, is worse

00:29:00.140 than the, or is far worse than just being honest and saying no, if that is in fact the truth. Maybe

00:29:06.900 it's not the truth. Who knows? We know that China wanted Justin Trudeau to win. We know China had

00:29:11.240 its eyes on several liberal candidates and a couple of conservatives, which I pushed Pierre

00:29:16.700 Polyev on. He claims he had no idea who they are, but would like them to be exposed and be named

00:29:22.280 and have them if necessary defend themselves but all of this is to say that trudeau is not

00:29:29.240 giving any answers and he's changed he's moved the goalpost considerably take a look at a couple of

00:29:35.940 weeks ago well a few weeks ago it was a big old nothing burger and there's nothing to see here

00:29:39.820 there's no story it never happened and then it became an issue of criticism being racist

00:29:46.140 once again one of the things we've seen unfortunately over the past years is a rise

00:29:56.540 in anti-asian racism linked to the pandemic and concerns being arisen around people's loyalties

00:30:07.680 i want to make everyone understand fully that hondong is an outstanding member of our team

00:30:16.000 and suggestions that he is somehow not loyal to Canada

00:30:22.660 should not be entertained.

00:30:29.200 So now if you raise these questions,

00:30:32.820 it is basically terribly racist,

00:30:35.960 just like anti-Asian racism

00:30:38.120 at the height of the COVID pandemic or something.

00:30:40.680 So we've gone from it's racist to talk about this

00:30:43.920 to now Justin Trudeau announcing yesterday that we need a so-called special rapporteur on this issue.

00:30:53.840 In the last couple of weeks, Canadians have been hearing and reading a lot

00:30:58.780 about the issue of attempted foreign interference, particularly from China, in our elections.

00:31:05.440 There have been questions raised about our democracy, our national security agencies,

00:31:10.280 our parliament, and even our sovereignty.

00:31:13.920 These questions strike us to the very core as Canadians, but today I'm announcing that I will be appointing an independent special rapporteur who will have a wide mandate and make expert recommendations on combating interference and strengthening our democracy.

00:31:34.200 so i i don't want to jump into the whole special rapporteur thing that everyone's joking about

00:31:43.960 today of oh well you know the special rapporteur what's so special look it's a name it's a word

00:31:48.700 it's a silly word but that there's a real role for them in the system but the whole point of

00:31:52.680 a special rapporteur uh or even an unspecial rapporteur even just a reporter is that they

00:31:58.960 will only have a mandate to do what the government gives them a mandate to do and we've seen in the

00:32:05.040 course of the public order emergency commission how the government likes to set the parameters

00:32:10.140 in such a way that it does not become the focal point of the inquiry and the public order emergency

00:32:16.400 commission they said yeah i know you need to look into us but let's also look into the convoy

00:32:20.280 right now we know that china tried to interfere in canada's elections we know that china did

00:32:25.660 interfere in canada's elections the bigger question to me is yes to what extent but also

00:32:32.540 what the liberal government knew when they knew it how much they knew about it and why they have

00:32:37.560 not wanted to talk about it and we can of course guess and speculate and do all that but quite

00:32:44.060 frankly this is now a bigger scandal for the canadian government than it is for the chinese

00:32:50.100 government such as it is and justin trudeau wants to just keep all of the attention over at beijing

00:32:55.500 All of the attention over at the Chinese Communist Party and none of the attention where it desperately needs to be, which is on his government.

00:33:02.340 So this committee of parliamentarians that will have access to top secret documents, none of those will be able to be shared.

00:33:10.180 And I'm not saying that the top secret documents that are relevant here need to all be made public because there is a reason that many documents that are top secret cannot be made public.

00:33:20.160 I fully concede that, but when you start seeing government collectively lump everything into a

00:33:26.940 certain category, it serves only to obfuscate, and government also is trying to use privilege

00:33:33.660 and reclassification, security clearance as a way to, I think, shield things from public scrutiny.

00:33:40.340 This is what they did with cabinet confidence, with solicitor-client privilege through the course

00:33:45.120 of the Emergencies Act Commission.

00:33:47.660 This is arguably much more significant

00:33:50.200 because it has global implications

00:33:52.020 and the government is still going to do

00:33:54.420 the exact same thing.

00:33:55.740 So these two probes, I think,

00:33:57.660 are Trudeau realizing

00:33:59.740 that he couldn't get away anymore

00:34:01.460 with doing nothing.

00:34:03.620 So he had to do the bare minimum

00:34:05.100 and this is what we have.

00:34:06.980 And you know it's just going to be

00:34:07.820 like Beverly McLaughlin or something 0.75

00:34:09.320 is going to be the special rapporteur.

00:34:10.820 I just, not that it's being crowdsourced,

00:34:12.560 but I put out on Twitter today

00:34:13.660 that I think Ezra Levant should be the special rapporteur

00:34:16.800 on Chinese interference in Canada's elections.

00:34:19.360 Make him our Robert Mueller or something.

00:34:22.420 But maybe that's a bad metaphor.

00:34:24.200 Ezra's better than Bob Mueller is.

00:34:26.100 We've got to end things there.

00:34:28.120 My thanks to all of you for tuning into the program.

00:34:30.720 We'll have more of Canada's most irreverent talk show next week.

00:34:33.980 But Big News Friday returns on Friday, believe it or not,

00:34:37.280 with Sue Ann Levy and yours truly.

00:34:39.420 So that's coming up in just under 48 hours.

00:34:42.380 Thank you, God bless, and good day to you all.

Juno News - March 08, 2023

Alberta says no to Justin Trudeau's gun grab

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