00:00:00.000Ili Katennatel here for True North at the Public Order Emergency Commission in downtown Ottawa.
00:00:08.020The Commission is looking into Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's unprecedented decision to invoke
00:00:13.860the Emergencies Act in response to the Freedom Convoy demonstrations that took place here earlier
00:00:19.940this year. A long list of people have been called to testify, or have already testified,
00:00:25.320including politicians, police, and the convoy leaders. But one group that has not been called
00:00:31.660to testify is the legacy media, who infamously ran multiple negative, inflammatory, and even false
00:00:39.040stories on the truckers and their convoy. Lawyers have written a letter to Commissioner Paul Rouleau
00:00:46.080asking for the CBC president to appear for testimony before the committee. And I spoke about the matter
00:00:52.900with civil liberties lawyer Ava Ciprook.
00:00:55.820Do you think the legacy media should come and testify before this commission?
00:00:59.660I definitely think that they should. One of the mandates that the commission has been asked
00:01:05.320to provide a report on is the information and disinformation that occurred in February in the
00:01:15.300media. And what we're definitely seeing now is the real truth coming out and what the legacy media
00:01:22.560was saying we now know is lots of falsehoods. The top intelligence agent for all of Ontario found that
00:01:33.740what the media was putting out was very difficult in their actions that was causing problems for the
00:01:42.220police to implement what they needed to do and to keep working around the disinformation that
00:01:48.580legacy media and the politicians were putting out.
00:01:52.420The letter was calling for Catherine Tate, the CBC president, to come and testify. But do you think also some of the journalists that were on the ground spreading misinformation should also be coming to testify?
00:02:02.520You know, that would be incredible. Unfortunately, we're under incredibly tight timelines. It's not the media that is in the spotlight here. This is really about the federal governments enacting the Emergencies Act.
00:02:17.760So the spotlight should be on them definitely at one point. And I hope maybe one of the recommendations that comes out of it is a further investigation into legacy media.
00:02:27.940Right. And do you think that the legacy media's coverage of the convoy contributed to a narrative that enabled Justin Trudeau to invoke the act?
00:02:40.820I still have no idea what led him to invoke the act. It could be media. It could be ego as just that much. You know, if he was here, which he was in Ottawa, crime rate went down.
00:02:55.600So on what basis do you invoke? Basically, the war measures act against peaceful protesters in your in your front steps in the nationals capital?
00:03:05.700Everything we have seen to date does not indicate one iota of a reason to invoke the Emergencies Act.
00:03:13.200And lastly, have you seen some of the coverage of the commission? And do you think their coverage has been fair? Do you think it's more of the same?
00:03:20.760No, definitely. We've seen a bit of a change in the legacy media slowly, very slowly, but surely you can't hide the evidence. You cannot hide the truth.
00:03:31.660There's only so much spinning you can do until you get dizzy. So the truth is really coming out here.
00:03:37.580I'm very pleased to see what the commission is uncovering. Unfortunately, it's at the expense of Canadians and the protesters.
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