00:00:16.960This is another edition of Canada's Most Irreverent Talk Show,
00:00:20.500the Andrew Lawton Show, here on True North, Wednesday, October 5th,
00:00:24.180just after 5 p.m. Eastern Time, if you are watching this live.
00:00:28.480If you're catching it on a prerecord, it is whatever time your clock says.
00:00:31.520So I don't want to overcomplicate things for you too, too much.
00:00:34.800We have a busy six weeks ahead of us, starting in just, I think, like 10 days or so.
00:00:40.960We've got the hearings into the Emergencies Act Commission,
00:00:45.020the commission that's been set up to investigate the government's use of the Emergencies Act,
00:00:49.740the Public Order Emergency Commission.
00:00:51.980And those hearings are going to be very, I think, revealing for a lot of reasons.
00:00:57.380And what's happening now is a former justice, Paul Rouleau, has been appointed, and they're going to be hearing testimony from government officials, from law enforcement officials, from people who were connected to, in very integral ways, the convoy itself, people like Tamara Leach and Tom Marazzo.
00:01:16.240And I think there's going to be a lot that we learn,
00:15:34.400I mean, remember this, that the border at that Coutts and and Windsor were open.
00:15:40.980There was no border closures on the Saturday.
00:15:43.020They opened up on the Saturday and the Sunday.
00:15:44.780So that would be the 12th and the 13th of February.
00:15:46.760And then we secured the agreement after a number of days of negotiations with the mayor on behalf of the truckers to leave the downtown to consolidate the trucks up onto Wellington and the Sir John A with the balance of the trucks and the protest vehicles going out to Armpar and another base camp called 88 outside of the city.
00:16:06.940There was shuttle bus service already running. The mayor's vision was that the shuttle buses
00:16:10.860could be expanded and then the protesters could come and go during the day and bring their signs
00:16:16.300and their flags and so on and help bring some normalcy back to the downtown core.
00:16:22.620And the truckers agreed to that. And we were on the process. We'd announced the deal
00:16:26.940on the Sunday. We signed it on the Saturday. And then on the Monday morning,
00:16:32.220we started uh sunday night there was a logistics meeting at city hall with the superintendent of
00:16:37.260police the city manager the head of emergency services and a delegation of logistics specialists
00:16:43.300and and my colleague eva chipiak attended that meeting as well uh plans were put in place for
00:16:48.620the morning move and uh the next day the monday same day prior just prior to him announcing the
00:16:55.640prime minister announcing the invocation of the emergencies act we um uh there was 102 protest
00:17:01.540vehicles moved from the downtown uh 42 trucks in total 23 went up to wellington the rest left and
00:17:09.140went to these other locations or home and two city blocks were cleared so if you think about it had
00:17:15.940the government not intervened and stopped that deal from being completed the whole downtown would have
00:17:20.980been cleared but for wellington by wednesday and it turns out it wasn't until friday that they sent
00:17:27.060in the goons you know the riot police to beat up canadians and veterans and then it wasn't until
00:17:33.460the sunday that they actually cleared everything out so had the prime minister it's important to
00:17:37.220know wellington street not a residential street not a business street it is a government street
00:17:41.860so it would have been as far as protests are concerned focused squarely on the government
00:17:46.500if it were confined to wellington street well that was the mayor's message he was when when
00:17:51.540we were having the the negotiations leading up to the Saturday deal was he said I understand why the
00:17:58.100protests are here your grievances with the federal government so consolidate there's lots of space up
00:18:03.780on Wellington still move your trucks up onto Wellington and your protest vehicles there
00:18:09.540and and and and part of the Sir John A and but otherwise open up and remove well the streets
00:18:18.180were open but remove your presence from all other streets and that's what the what the the the
00:18:22.660truckers agreed to um interestingly i was just in ottawa two weeks ago to argue uh okay the the
00:18:30.100mootness defend the mootness application for premier peckford's case and so went for a little
00:18:35.380walk wellington street still blocked by barricades you know big concrete barricades so um you know
00:18:44.180would it have made a difference uh functionally to the city had wellington been blocked for another
00:18:49.860month or two because there were still trucks there obviously not because it's blocked by
00:18:53.860the government right now but symbolically i think the idea of the mayor resolving this
00:19:02.900this situation that was being watched internationally as you know uh in the face of
00:19:09.460the prime minister flatly refusing to have any discussions with the truckers about their concerns
00:19:15.380despite the prime minister meeting with blm and other protest groups regularly uh would have made
00:19:22.740exposed him for who he is and made him look very weak and i think that's why he kiboshed the deal
00:19:27.780and yeah and uh sent in the police yeah and i also believe and one thing that i'm going to be
00:19:34.340listening for and watching for in the hearings that they were hell-bent on wanting the financial
00:19:39.900powers of the Emergencies Act, which were really, as we saw from Windsor and Coots, the one thing
00:19:45.160that they couldn't do without the Emergencies Act, really, as far as normal policing powers,
00:19:50.500it seemed. I don't want you, Keith, to have to give away anything. Not that you would. You're
00:19:55.140a better lawyer than that. But what, in general, are the questions that you still have, the questions
00:20:00.180that are unanswered as far as things that you think the government needs to really account for
00:20:05.060one what made you think you were going to get away with this
00:20:12.340that's it that is a very good question and one that we will be watching out for in the weeks
00:20:23.340ahead here keith wilson uh what in particular i mean who are you what part are you most looking
00:20:27.640forward to? I know it's a bit of a marathon, but what are you looking forward to about this set of
00:20:32.420hearings? Them being over and getting back home to my family and my dog. All right. Just before
00:20:40.760we started, I got to see your dog. So I know you're a great deal when you're in Ottawa, but
00:20:45.420I know you're going to be great. That's a very sincere answer, but you can appreciate that.
00:20:50.520And I know your viewers will too. But I think I am looking forward to these very important witnesses from all sides coming forward and illuminating their role in this.
00:21:04.520this is historic um the outcome of this potentially redefines what canada is about
00:21:10.760in terms of you know i've always thought it was true nor strong and free and respect for diversity
00:21:16.700and inclusion and respect for human rights and freedoms um that's sort of what we've kind of
00:21:23.660wore as our badge of honor and uh so this is going to be an interesting test to see
00:21:29.760how many other government officials and key police officials and other leaders
00:21:34.240believe those things to be true. Yeah, and you know, this isn't a press conference. So my hope
00:21:40.960is that they cannot hide behind their talking points and soundbites, which is particularly
00:21:46.100acute in the case of Marco Mendicino. But in general, with Christian Freeland and Justin
00:21:50.780Trudeau, that's my sincere hope about this. I literally wrote a book about this thing,
00:21:55.760And I'm still learning about so much of it as the weeks go on.