00:03:02.920I think, as we know, this is an issue that needs to be taken extremely seriously.
00:03:14.920it's international women's day so he can't tell the women to just like quiet down and stop talking
00:03:22.760over him but he certainly didn't want to give them the courtesy of an answer to that and again
00:03:27.800the media i've said this in the past but i think it bears repeating because i i believe every you
00:03:32.780know once every two years i come up with something really wise and this was one of them i think this
00:03:36.800was my wise thought of 2020 or something like that i i said the you know the media will go after
00:03:42.040liberals so it's not fair to say that they're they're all just dyed in the wool liberal supporters
00:03:46.540but when they accuse liberals of something it's because the liberal has not lived up to their
00:03:52.220goal of what a liberal should be when they criticize conservatives it's for being conservatives
00:03:57.420it's actually for living up to what a conservative is supposed to be so liberals get criticized by
00:04:02.780the media for their conduct conservatives get criticized for their beliefs and in this particular
00:04:07.900case, it is Justin Trudeau's conduct that has attracted the ire of the media and of a large
00:04:14.320cross-section of Canadians beyond just the Conservatives that are supposed to be in that
00:04:19.640category of opposition, of opposing the government. Before we get into the real meat of the show today,
00:04:27.660let me issue a correction. I don't often get things wrong, but when I do, I like to own up
00:04:33.700to them. And, you know, I've said a number of things of a very large and significant note in
00:04:39.380the last few shows, and it was brought to my attention that I made what some would argue is
00:04:45.220a fatal error that I would like to clear up right now. On my program on Monday, I said that the city
00:04:52.520of Cornwall was west of the city of Ottawa. I know, very, very terrible stuff. I didn't even
00:05:00.240to remember saying it because I don't believe it because I've been to Cornwall and I've been to
00:05:03.740Ottawa and I've driven through Cornwall and past Cornwall and I know where Cornwall is but as Andrew
00:05:08.240Baldwin says in a very polite and courteous email Cornwall is not west of Ottawa but 88 kilometers
00:05:15.260southeast of Ottawa facts matter the truth matters and you should get out more Ontario is yours to
00:05:22.340discover and you're going to love her well I'm glad that we've decided to recognize Ontario as
00:05:27.640a woman uh in the context of international women's day i don't know if ontario is a trans woman as
00:05:33.500justin trudeau said uh is no different from a regular woman but i'm not going to judge yes
00:05:38.340andrew baldwin you are correct i do get out plenty far more than i would like to a lot of
00:05:42.540the times and i can assure you that i do in fact know where cornwall is in relation to ottawa but
00:05:48.100i for reasons unclear and i do may take full responsibility for this was mixing up ottawa
00:05:53.700with Montreal in terms of what I wanted to say and what I actually said. And I don't know if
00:05:59.160that's more offensive to the people of Montreal or to Ottawa. I know they're not the same place,
00:06:03.320but the people of Cornwall, I don't even think Andrew Baldwin's from Cornwall. So he was offended
00:06:08.980on behalf of the Ontario Cornish population. I don't think they call themselves that, but
00:06:14.940now I'm going to have to issue another correction. Andrew, I awaited if you want to tell me what the
00:06:19.040people of Cornwall call themselves. But in all honesty, I have a laugh about this and I thank
00:06:23.940you very much. You can fact check me all you'd like. Anyone, I welcome it. I may regret saying
00:06:29.980that. Let's talk a little bit about, actually let's talk a lot about Alberta's stand against
00:06:35.240the federal government's gun confiscation plans here. So I want to just condense a couple of years
00:06:41.920of firearms policy history into a few moments here because in 2020, the Liberals signed an
00:06:48.480order in council banning 1500 variants of firearm including notably the ar-15 they put a two-year
00:06:55.580amnesty in place and that of course has passed so it's been extended and i own an ar-15 which i've
00:07:03.880never been able to do anything with because it's been effectively prohibited since not long after
00:07:08.900i purchased it and it's still in limbo the government says you have to sell it to the
00:07:14.140government but they have not provided a mechanism or vehicle to do it and at a certain point that
00:07:18.860will become a criminal act on my part as i understand it to just have that in my gun cabinet
00:07:23.860despite being licensed and it being registered then you fast forward and the liberals ban
00:07:28.760handguns as well now they didn't go as far with the handgun ban because they they went with more
00:07:34.540of a grandfathered approach here where they put a freeze and then ultimately ended transfers of
00:07:40.440handguns, but they made it so that if you have one, you're still allowed to legally use it. So
00:07:45.840of course, there was this giant run on handguns. I bought one in, I believe, July, and it just
00:07:53.120showed up at my house yesterday because it took that long for the chief firearms officer in Ontario
00:07:59.800to run the transfer of it. Now, I understand things are a lot more efficient in Alberta,
00:08:04.640which brings me to this segment here. I'd like to welcome to the program Alberta's chief firearms
00:08:09.780officer terry bryant terry good to talk to you thanks so much for coming on the show today
00:08:14.080it's my pleasure love to talk to you so let's explain first and foremost here what the alberta
00:08:21.840firearms act which was tabled this week does okay well really it does two things so the first thing
00:08:28.820that it does is that our office the alberta chief firearms office um transitioned from being
00:08:35.380federally run to provincially run on september 1st 2021 and uh at that time i became the chief
00:08:44.340firearms officer and i received a mandate letter that specified what i was supposed to do and that
00:08:50.160mandate letter was a key thing because my duties are broader than a normal chief firearms officer
00:08:56.520in most of the country with the exception of saskatchewan which is pretty much the same
00:09:01.320And my duties include running the system as it is now, and also advocating for change to make the system make more sense.
00:09:11.600So what the first thing that this legislation does is entrench the expanded responsibilities of our office in legislation.
00:09:21.780So 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.
00:09:32.180The 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.
00:09:54.120so this is something that is by and large a federal matter we've always been told and
00:10:01.260certainly it's the federal government that has under the constitution authority over criminal
00:10:05.380law so well i i support what alberta is doing is this in a legally murky territory as far as
00:10:13.280where the province's authorities lie or is this something that has been tested and
00:10:17.400is constitutional and we know it's not going to come up against a challenge
00:10:20.780uh well i think that it's a little bit of both it's not uh it is i think fairly clear but that
00:10:28.920doesn't mean that it won't be challenged you're correct that the federal government does have the
00:10:33.340power to uh to prohibit things if that's in fact what they uh choose to do and uh you know that's
00:10:44.060why we have had to take action to first of all do everything we can to convince them not to do
00:10:52.360what they are proposing to do and that's why I'm in Ottawa right now but second to if they do manage
00:11:01.880to or persist in doing what we think is very ill-advised and they proceed with this program
00:11:08.880have a means of protecting Albertans against two of the major risks that this proposed scheme
00:11:17.980would likely present so functionally speaking here it's policing the police departments that
00:11:27.160are responsible for as the federal government has described actually going out and doing the
00:11:32.620confiscation or facilitating these so-called buyback programs and even when the rcmp which
00:11:38.580is a federal agency is operating in alberta as a municipal police force it's under the province's
00:11:43.600authority correct well uh there's a couple of things there first of all it is not clear who
00:11:50.220would go out and gather these firearms or what mechanism they would use so far even though the
00:11:57.560amnesty as you pointed out expires uh on october 30th of this year they have not even presented a
00:12:04.940concept for how they intend to do this let alone a plan a concept would be you mail them in or the
00:12:11.800police come to your home or you take them to a collection point or something they have not even
00:12:16.580got that far yet let alone having a plan so it's not clear who would do this and that's one of the
00:12:25.320reasons why we felt our act was necessary because since they this is a bit of a gong show on the
00:12:30.760federal part because they don't have they have no idea they haven't found anybody who wants to help
00:12:36.540them with this everybody doesn't want to touch it with a 10-foot pole and so we're afraid that
00:12:42.500they're going to end up with some kind of i'm looking for a word that's not not that i can say
00:12:49.720over the air uh that i'm looking for by the crtc go wild terry so you know uh they're likely to come
00:12:59.520up with some kind of half-baked there we go baked rather than the word i was thinking of
00:13:04.520they're kind of like to come up with some kind of a half-baked idea and that could expose the
00:13:10.700public to all kinds of risks so for example if there are if they hire a bunch of people
00:13:15.860to go out and gather up these guns there's nothing to prevent uh fraudsters from posing as these
00:13:22.700people or thieves from possibly uh stealing you know a truckload of firearms that are sitting
00:13:31.120there in a truck that's idling while the guy goes in driver goes into to use the washroom or
00:13:36.820or uh you know someone from breaking into an ill-secured warehouse or something of that nature
00:13:42.820Nothing 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.
00:14:04.700So 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.
00:14:27.460So 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.
00:14:35.100Now, 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.
00:14:46.500So 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?
00:14:59.800Nothing 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.
00:15:18.080That 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.
00:15:33.520And so, you know, that's really apples and oranges.
00:15:37.720But are they different on paper? Is the authority stemming from the same place?
00:15:41.280No, 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.
00:15:53.740This 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.
00:16:13.460And that's a whole different thing from someone who has committed a crime and has a firearm that they shouldn't have.
00:16:20.780I 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.
00:16:30.720And I realize it may be followed in places like Saskatchewan and elsewhere.
00:16:34.280But 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?
00:16:48.820uh well people can move uh there's no no law preventing even but can guns move with them if
00:16:57.680if the atts are being throttled by other provinces even even the feds haven't uh gone so far as to
00:17:05.060prevent firearms owners from moving and uh if you move your firearms including the order in council
00:17:12.420firearms can come with you uh but you should consult your chief firearms office regarding
00:17:18.320the movement of those firearms but actually you can't get an authorization to transport for those
00:17:26.380firearms because an authorization to transport is only for registered firearms and the federal
00:17:34.560government did not revoke but administratively expired the registration certificates for those
00:17:42.540ordering council firearms so technically they're not registered anymore what's your sense of where
00:17:49.160law enforcement officials are on this because every now and then we get a comment from the
00:17:53.420canadian association of chiefs of police or a chief of police somewhere that basically says
00:17:58.100you know none of these restrictions are going to do anything in reducing crime would you say that
00:18:04.580is fairly universal with the law enforcement partners you speak to yes uh for a couple of
00:18:10.080reasons first of all so most chiefs of police and and other senior police officials they've got a
00:18:19.320lot on their plate already this is the last thing they need and they know that firearms owners law
00:18:25.740abiding pal holding carefully vetted and screened firearms owners are the people that they have the
00:18:33.740least concerned about so from that standpoint generally senior officials don't want to have
00:18:41.080anything to do with it and the rank and file actually many of them are firearms owners and
00:18:47.220they have often acquired firearms that are similar to the ones that they are issued because they
00:18:55.160don't get enough official practice and they've wanted to you know attain a high level of
00:19:00.520proficiency so that if they ever have to use their firearms they can do it safely and these
00:19:07.060laws have prevented them from gaining the practice that they feel they need in order to be safe in
00:19:14.920the use of the firearms that they are issued officially so it's very seldom do you encounter
00:19:22.660anyone who is in law enforcement who's actually in favor of this you've obviously been one of the
00:19:29.660most tremendous advocates for law-abiding gun owners in Canada, and I know there was a deliberate
00:19:35.080decision on the part of the previous Jason Kenney government to appoint a provincial representative
00:19:40.240that was going to take the approach you have. Do you think that more provinces are going to start
00:19:46.300doing exactly what Alberta is doing? And I know your interest is in Alberta, but I know you've
00:19:50.280got a background in academia, you know the landscape. What would your sense be about
00:19:54.280where other provinces will go on this well uh so there are first of all of the 10 provinces
00:20:00.180there are only now three that are still federally appointed and so um of the other of the others
00:20:08.940uh two of them are police officers so they're not allowed to take the police the uh advocacy type
00:20:14.960role that i have and it's simply not a part of the mandate of several of the others so it's only cfo
00:20:21.220Freeberg in Saskatchewan and myself who have that expansive role of the other three I know that at
00:20:29.240least in at least two there is pressure either politically or from the police forces to move
00:20:39.840towards a more Alberta style approach because you know it's not that I am so much a an advocate for
00:20:50.060the firearms community. I'm an advocate for public safety, and it's a very serious detriment to public
00:20:58.500safety when you propose to spend billions of dollars doing something that has absolutely no
00:21:05.780impact on public safety and will alienate all of the people in the law-abiding firearms community
00:21:12.660who should be your allies because they are the ones who socialize new firearms owners
00:21:18.100is the proper, safe, responsible use of firearms.
00:27:31.400Mr. 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,
00:27:45.340which 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,
00:27:56.020uh who's now the leader of the opposition uh we went ahead and created a body that allows
00:28:02.060members of parliament to get cleared to top secret levels so they can look into
00:28:07.220this question and all questions in a way that doesn't compromise national security
00:28:12.420leader of the opposition so it kept keeps going for three and a half minutes i i don't want to
00:28:19.820subject you to the full three and a half minutes of it but uh pierre paliev is asking a fundamentally
00:28:24.460simple yes or no question are any members of your caucus part of a chinese foreign interference
00:28:29.800network and justin trudeau says well you know these are serious issues we i mean i don't want
00:28:36.280to read too much into it because part of it is that justin trudeau is incapable of giving a yes
00:28:41.260and no answer and part of that is because i believe he's incapable of spelling either yes or
00:28:45.480no in either official language but justin trudeau could not and would not answer an easy easy easy
00:28:53.880question. This is when the scripted QP question period, that's question period answer, is worse
00:29:00.140than the, or is far worse than just being honest and saying no, if that is in fact the truth. Maybe
00:29:06.900it's not the truth. Who knows? We know that China wanted Justin Trudeau to win. We know China had
00:29:11.240its eyes on several liberal candidates and a couple of conservatives, which I pushed Pierre
00:29:16.700Polyev on. He claims he had no idea who they are, but would like them to be exposed and be named
00:29:22.280and have them if necessary defend themselves but all of this is to say that trudeau is not
00:29:29.240giving any answers and he's changed he's moved the goalpost considerably take a look at a couple of
00:29:35.940weeks ago well a few weeks ago it was a big old nothing burger and there's nothing to see here
00:29:39.820there's no story it never happened and then it became an issue of criticism being racist
00:29:46.140once again one of the things we've seen unfortunately over the past years is a rise
00:29:56.540in anti-asian racism linked to the pandemic and concerns being arisen around people's loyalties
00:30:07.680i want to make everyone understand fully that hondong is an outstanding member of our team
00:30:16.000and suggestions that he is somehow not loyal to Canada
00:30:38.120at the height of the COVID pandemic or something.
00:30:40.680So we've gone from it's racist to talk about this
00:30:43.920to now Justin Trudeau announcing yesterday that we need a so-called special rapporteur on this issue.
00:30:53.840In the last couple of weeks, Canadians have been hearing and reading a lot
00:30:58.780about the issue of attempted foreign interference, particularly from China, in our elections.
00:31:05.440There have been questions raised about our democracy, our national security agencies,
00:31:10.280our parliament, and even our sovereignty.
00:31:13.920These 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.
00:31:34.200so i i don't want to jump into the whole special rapporteur thing that everyone's joking about
00:31:43.960today of oh well you know the special rapporteur what's so special look it's a name it's a word
00:31:48.700it's a silly word but that there's a real role for them in the system but the whole point of
00:31:52.680a special rapporteur uh or even an unspecial rapporteur even just a reporter is that they
00:31:58.960will only have a mandate to do what the government gives them a mandate to do and we've seen in the
00:32:05.040course of the public order emergency commission how the government likes to set the parameters
00:32:10.140in such a way that it does not become the focal point of the inquiry and the public order emergency
00:32:16.400commission they said yeah i know you need to look into us but let's also look into the convoy
00:32:20.280right now we know that china tried to interfere in canada's elections we know that china did
00:32:25.660interfere in canada's elections the bigger question to me is yes to what extent but also
00:32:32.540what the liberal government knew when they knew it how much they knew about it and why they have
00:32:37.560not wanted to talk about it and we can of course guess and speculate and do all that but quite
00:32:44.060frankly this is now a bigger scandal for the canadian government than it is for the chinese
00:32:50.100government such as it is and justin trudeau wants to just keep all of the attention over at beijing
00:32:55.500All 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.
00:33:02.340So this committee of parliamentarians that will have access to top secret documents, none of those will be able to be shared.
00:33:10.180And 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.
00:33:20.160I fully concede that, but when you start seeing government collectively lump everything into a
00:33:26.940certain category, it serves only to obfuscate, and government also is trying to use privilege
00:33:33.660and reclassification, security clearance as a way to, I think, shield things from public scrutiny.
00:33:40.340This is what they did with cabinet confidence, with solicitor-client privilege through the course