00:05:23.540So that's how I ended up getting there.
00:05:25.900We joke and say that I was here to hand out soup.
00:05:28.340From my perspective as a journalist covering it, there were three real phases. There was the actual convoy phase of all these trucks on their way to Ottawa. And I know a lot of that was focused on the group that was coming from out west. But as you noted, we had multiple different convoys. There was a group coming from southwestern Ontario. There was a group coming from the east, from Quebec. And there were just people who showed up on their own that weren't part of these convoys that just said, yeah, I'm a supporter.
00:05:55.640Some of the first people on the scene didn't arrive with the big group here.
00:05:59.620Then there was the block party phase, which was for the first couple of weeks when you just had people there playing music, dancing, worship services, all of this.
00:06:08.580And then I'd say last weekend was the third phase where it took a very different turn.
00:06:13.540You had police that started to get in there, move very aggressively.
00:06:16.900I mentioned just in the introduction of the show some of the instances that occurred to independent journalists, but there were many others of people being, I want to be careful with my language, but people having what looks on video to be very unwarranted physical assaults on them from police.
00:06:34.620again you can only get a snapshot of this on film but this is what i've seen here when did it turn
00:06:41.020from that second phase to the third phase in your view was it with the invocation of the federal
00:06:46.460emergency or was there another turning point there where this became a very different situation in
00:06:51.580ottawa well it's very interesting because um the mayor of ottawa in in the city of ottawa had a
00:06:59.580had a role to play in this and um you know there was there was a member of the police services
00:07:06.620board um she's an ottawa politician um she we had watched a a live stream video of the police
00:07:16.860services board with the the first chief of police while we were there and the rhetoric that she was
00:07:22.780using was incredibly dangerous her name is diane deans i believe um the mayor has since
00:07:30.780tried to remove her from the uh the police services board and that was a real big deal
00:07:37.340because in that week um things really started to change because we had worked extremely hard
00:07:45.260as an organization to relieve some of the pressure on the city of ottawa but as a result
00:07:51.180what they did is they removed their chief of police for not acting aggressively enough or
00:07:58.220quickly enough and so that was a really big turning point and in what we so you know you
00:08:04.300mentioned those three phases and we affectionately called them our weekend warriors because those
00:08:09.660were the people that really honestly on weekends came out and supported and it was we were also
00:08:15.660refer to it as you know canada day one canada day two canada day three and by the time the fourth
00:08:21.260one came around we said they're not going to let us have a fourth canada day right and so when you
00:08:27.740when you look at the fact that the weekend warriors that showed up we used that as a
00:08:32.940protection and we knew that by sunday afternoon they would they would start taking steps towards
00:08:37.740us and as we saw out at the uh the coventry site um the the weekend warriors had left
00:08:45.180and sunday night they they did the raid on coventry and then you could just see that they
00:08:50.300were angling constantly to build up um the really dialed up the rhetoric and and started talking
00:08:59.260about putting all the places in in into play to get violent so we could see it we we could see it
00:09:06.380coming for for quite some time uh and i remember telling this police superintendent that i had a
00:09:12.460meeting with uh i think his name is uh superintendent rob drummond and i said you
00:09:19.340know we did a video asking people to consider coming to ottawa don't come yet but consider
00:09:24.300it start thinking about it um because we believe the police are going to make a move on us but
00:09:29.740justice mclean said we could be here so there was a lot of mixed messaging there but really towards
00:09:35.500the end uh we we worked really really hard um but we felt i i personally felt that the mayor of
00:09:44.380ottawa was was talking at both sides of his face and um you know the the police chief resigned but
00:09:53.260we all believe that he got pushed out it was either resign or we're gonna fire you and then
00:09:57.900they got a new chief and then he after two days said i don't want no part of that and then the
00:10:02.380deputy chief stepped in and he was perfectly comfortable with all the uh the violent uh
00:10:07.580rhetoric so there was a definite turning point on the note of your discussions with this or with
00:10:14.380police i want to delve into this if i may because we learned that the city of ottawa had tapped a
00:10:20.140former provincial government chief of staff to doug ford dean french to negotiate with the truckers
00:10:25.340and as i've understood it looking back this was in that period where the truckers and i believe
00:10:30.780tamara leach was the one who had signed the letter had agreed to move the trucks
00:10:34.780into the downtown core and i think you spoke about this at your press conference on sunday
00:10:38.460this ended up being thrown into the lurch when the emergencies act was invoked but
00:10:42.780who was it on the trucker side or on the convoy side that was negotiating or engaging in discussions
00:10:49.900with police of the city and what were those discussions really doing what was the scope of
00:10:54.140them so so those discussions um the intent of those like the reason we participated in those
00:11:02.380discussions is because we constantly tried to work with the ottawa uh police in the city of ottawa
00:11:09.180to remove as much pressure on the city of ottawa and the residents as we possibly could that to
00:11:16.140make it basically parliament hill and politicians yes absolutely so so the goal was always to have
00:11:22.460the vehicles up onto wellington and then out of any any possible way to interfere with the residents
00:11:30.060of ottawa themselves and we worked really hard and we tried to get that message across with
00:11:34.700uh with the city and so you know there was a there was a frustrating part in there because
00:11:40.620um you know i received a phone call from from randy hillier um saying look tom i think you
00:11:48.540guys need to start dealing with the city to try to get the city off your off your back a little
00:11:53.740bit so you can put the pressure where it belongs and in the uh put it on to the parliament and and
00:12:00.060i agreed and i had spoken to several people but the first call i got about that was was randy um
00:12:06.380so we agreed that that was probably a smart move to try to get the police in the city kind of off
00:12:13.740our back so that we could just keep the pressure on Parliament and stay on the front page of the
00:12:19.380newspaper to try to get our message across. And we almost got there. We almost got there. We were
00:12:25.400really, I would say, on like the five-yard line with the police. And then last second, the police
00:12:31.380pulled out. And then after that moment was when we got another conversation with the city. And I
00:12:40.560met with the city manager this inspector uh rob drummond and excuse me there was a third person
00:12:46.720there i can't remember his name it was kim something when was this just for this chronological
00:12:52.000um sorry about an hour after the two letters from the mayor of ottawa and the the letter from tamara
00:13:02.640had been made public by the city okay so about a week ago yeah we were walking into the meeting
00:13:08.640uh with sorry i just i developed this little annoying cough while i was there it's not a big
00:13:16.080deal the ottawa weather and a few weeks ago i think a lot of dryness in those hotels and
00:13:22.160and out on the street and everything it was really weird but anyway um so we we were walking into
00:13:28.880the meeting with the uh the city manager and uh we learned that this had been released but
00:13:34.080my battery died on my phone as i was trying to read the article and then there was a lot of
00:13:38.400people saying that we sold out and this that and the other thing it's like no this was part of the
00:13:43.360strategy to try to put the pressure onto the government where it belonged and take it off of
00:13:48.080the city of ottawa so this was all part of the the thing and then you know i was disappointed because
00:13:54.160immediately after uh randy hillier had tweeted that that the leadership of the convoy had made
00:13:59.840to deal with the city and abandon the truckers and it's like you know what you were the first
00:14:04.560person that actually called me and said i should be talking to the city so that was pretty um that
00:14:10.880was pretty frustrating um you know but we think that the the the strategy was very sound to be up
00:14:22.320on parliament but we recognized we recognized from the start that let's say from a tactical point of
00:14:27.440view and i want to be careful about using words like that um we knew that we were if we had moved
00:14:33.840up onto parliament up onto wellington we'd be in a more physically vulnerable uh position for the
00:14:39.920police to move in and we discussed that with the police we said like we recognize that but we're
00:14:45.040not going to leave the perimeter of ottawa so we had trucks the entire time on the outskirts of
00:14:50.640town and we said if if you make a move at that point then then you know we're still here and
00:14:56.880we're not going to go anywhere but i think in that original meeting there was a lot of cool heads
00:15:02.640that were really trying to prevail but then as soon as that emergency act came out uh the opp
00:15:08.640had said to me listen whatever deals you think you had with the city they're off the table
00:15:13.200this is now under the emergency act and uh so the chips will fall where they may
00:15:19.840so let's talk about that home stretch here the final few days and i must admit police moved a
00:15:25.760lot more quickly than i thought they were going to and i think a big part of that was because the
00:15:30.560government was able to conscript tow truck drivers who we had seen in the preceding weeks were not
00:15:35.360as interested in playing balls with the government but even when the emergencies act was declared
00:15:40.880hold the line was the rallying cry as tamara leach was arrested she shouted out on video hold the line
00:15:47.120when did that change from hold the line to you coming out on sunday and saying we're calling
00:15:53.440for a peaceful withdrawal well we we had a lot of discussion and i can see there was a lot of the
00:16:00.480truckers um that didn't didn't want to go like they wanted to hold the line uh but but we had
00:16:08.880discussed we said look and i and i watched an interview um a few months ago from an australian
00:16:15.280uh person uh it was just a video i watched online and he had a guest speaker with uh ricardo rossi
00:16:21.440I think, a former SAS commander. And he had said, you know, the people have the power,
00:16:29.360but the government has the force. And they ultimately had physical force in violence that
00:16:37.900they could bring upon us. We were unarmed. We had no defensive weapons. And every day we said that
00:16:44.540we were a peaceful protest. And I think what you'll see upon reflection of that is that we
00:16:51.860were absolutely a peaceful protest and we proved that. Because despite the violence that the police
00:16:58.780brought to that city, we never reciprocated the violence. I watched myself a veteran with his
00:17:07.220beret on and his medals being violently taken to the ground by a group of cops. They swarmed like
00:17:12.840hyenas. So, you know, it's an important question for people to understand, but we had a meeting
00:17:21.380on, on, um, with a lot of the, the leadership of the trucks themselves. And we said two things
00:17:27.800that we are not the government. We're not going to tell people what to do. We are going to let
00:17:33.420the truckers make a decision for themselves, whether to stay or to go. And if they chose to
00:17:39.160go you know chin up shoulders back head up high you've done your duty uh if you choose to stay
00:17:46.640it's a personal decision that you and your family should make together but ultimately what we
00:17:52.480realized was the government had the force we we have some power but we're no match for um
00:18:02.860you know the the the physical violence that the police could bring to us we were just no match
00:18:08.620and there was no value whatsoever in being used as a as a human punching bag for the police and
00:18:17.500you've seen the videos you've seen it live and you were there and you know what it was like
00:18:22.700um we were no match for them and all we could do was have our assets frozen and be beaten and
00:18:29.900arrested um like my bank accounts have all been frozen um i'm not really sure how i'm going to
00:18:37.180pay my bills i i think we're okay for now um but i haven't there's no warrants out for my arrest i
00:18:43.580haven't been charged with a crime yet um but the you know the banks have sorry acted on behalf of
00:18:52.380of law enforcement because there's no laws that they can touch us until now now that the emergencies
00:18:57.900Act is out. And we'll see what the Senate does. But ultimately, we've been punished without due
00:19:07.140process. And if even the hardest supporters of the COVID mandates didn't wake up to that fact,
00:19:16.060then they really need to wake up to the fact that the government now has every intention,
00:19:19.860because Chrystia Freeland had said, we have every intention of keeping this power
00:19:24.280to start going after your assets if you have wrong think right if you don't agree with us
00:19:31.740we are going to destroy your life financially they've gone after me they've gone after my
00:19:37.180spouse they even sent warning letters to my my ex-wife um who was i'm presumed by you bringing
00:19:43.900her up was not involved nothing to do with it we've been legally separated we have a great
00:19:48.120relationship we co-parent our our child together um and and her financial institution got a warning
00:19:55.440letter about her for money that had nothing to do with me at all so you know they've gone after my
00:20:02.420my spouse's credit rating you know like it's ridiculous to see that without any due process
00:20:09.960the government of canada goes on air and literally brags about the fact that uh despite the emergencies
00:20:16.840Act. They have every intention of keeping this power. If you don't agree with them, if you have
00:20:22.040wrong think, they're going to come for you. The fact that they're going after you, who has not
00:20:29.600been charged, you've avoided what fate awaited Chris Barber and Tamara Leach thus far. And I
00:20:35.220remember you said on Sunday that you even asked police specifically, and they said there were
00:20:38.380no warrants. So it's not even like you can beat the rap because there is no rap to beat at this
00:20:43.200point your accounts are frozen and the government has given no measure to really concretely get
00:20:49.680those things unfrozen publicly have they privately the bank or the government told you do xyz and you
00:20:56.240can get your money back no i i have no idea so so my spouse has contacted the bank and said okay what
00:21:02.240do we do we can't even get an appointment until the 3rd of march yeah there's no you know press
00:21:08.560one for small business press two for personal press three if the rcmp has had us freeze your
00:21:13.520ass it's not on the bank menu so far as i can tell yeah and and from our understanding the banks had
00:21:18.400a choice whether or not to participate in this and they chose to participate in this um but
00:21:24.880interestingly enough the banks actually have immunity if they go along with what the government's
00:21:31.280allowing them to do yeah even if they wrongfully target you if you if you know some tom morazzo
00:21:37.280in sydney nova scotia who's never met you gets his account frozen he can't too
00:21:41.440yeah absolutely and and it's it's just so incredibly bizarre um now even the mayor of
00:21:48.000ottawa is saying yeah all those trucks that we confiscated we're now going to auction them auction
00:21:53.360them off like don't you have to be convicted of a crime in this country anymore to have your assets
00:22:01.520stolen from from the government so you know because because the the freedom convoy does not
00:22:10.640exist in in ottawa currently at this moment um and i've been asked several times by media about uh
00:22:18.480you know some earlier comments that maybe i made that i believe were taken right out of context
00:22:24.080um you know as a as a as a citizen now in my own home i from my perspective i really honestly think
00:22:32.920that that the um there needs to be an election today i really think there needs to be an election
00:22:39.340and i know um trudeau had alluded to the fact that sorry if parliament had failed in its bid to
00:22:48.800get the Emergencies Act passed, it could potentially trigger a vote of non-confidence
00:22:54.840and maybe an election. And then there you see, he again, again, through his love and support from
00:23:04.320the NDP, he has a quasi-majority government, let's just call it what it is, the NDP bailed him out
00:23:12.460again. And he got what he wanted, but the Senate still hasn't finished their vote. So hopefully,
00:23:19.960hopefully the Senate will strike this down and maybe it does trigger an election. I went there
00:23:25.240with the Freedom Convoy fully prepared to talk to the government of Canada and the elected
00:23:29.880government of Canada. But now that I'm home and this is being done to me, I'm seeing the
00:23:35.340conservatives are fighting to stop this. And they were so disrespected, even from the Speaker of
00:23:40.980house yesterday who cut uh cut them off like even cancelled their mic in the middle of uh
00:23:45.780the conservative you're speaking so from from my point of view i would love nothing more than to
00:23:52.580see a legitimate legal election in this country and i know who i'm going to vote for i know who
00:23:59.860i'm going to vote for i voted for them in the last election um not a single one of them got elected
00:24:07.060which is amazing because every single person i know that is awake all voted for the ppc every
00:24:13.300single one of them i i'm i'm not even part of that party at all um but they spoke to my values
00:24:20.020and that's why i voted for them the the conservatives under aaron o'toole just
00:24:25.300sounded like liberal lights the ndp are basically liberals uh currently under this leader
00:24:31.940um and the liberals are the liberals like the liberals say one thing on monday and on tuesday
00:24:39.800they're they're acting in the opposite manner that they said they would on monday so from my
00:24:46.900point of view um you know i i will i i will vote if there was an election today i would vote for
00:24:54.740the ppc and that's just tom i'm not telling anyone what to do you decide for yourself who speaks to
00:25:00.620your values. Forget about vote splitting. That's like one person can't make a difference on vote
00:25:07.900splitting. Vote for who speaks to your values. That's all. It's simple. My prediction is that
00:25:14.060Pierre Polyev is going to be the next prime minister of Canada. I think he's a very good
00:25:19.040politician. He's great with the finances. But let's wait and see, honestly, what really happens
00:25:26.120with the conservatives they've done nothing in the last two years to stop any of this stuff um
00:25:32.280the other day i i was so disgusted when all they wanted to do was talk about one lgbtq uh federal
00:25:41.000mp and her feelings that got hurt well we had truckers up minus 20 sleeping in cars trucks vans
00:25:47.400and they were debating in circles because the prime minister wouldn't apologize because someone's
00:25:52.680feelings got hurt yeah this was the the melissa lanceman uh standing was lost a good episode
00:25:57.960which again i i still think this is offside on the prime minister's part but i i take your point
00:26:02.920there that uh there there were other issues i mean it's politics is uh sometimes uh net uh
00:26:08.920it's a zero-sum game you know you talk at one talk about one thing and don't about another at the
00:26:13.320same time but i want to bring it back to those truckers you mentioned tom because when the
00:26:17.880trucker convoy started and that go fund me campaign started the very first one and ended up
00:26:23.980just wildly wildly outperforming anyone's expectations it was originally we're going to
00:26:28.900cover the cost of diesel and fuel to get these truckers to toronto and then of course the
00:26:33.020campaign grew and that shifted to all of a sudden having to fight legal challenges with go fund me
00:26:38.460and then the government tries to freeze the money with the give send go and all of this is basically
00:26:43.080at the point where not a single donated dollar to either GoFundMe or Gibson Go has made it to
00:26:48.680the truckers. The donations that did make it to truckers were people bringing cash. A lot of
00:26:53.420truckers and some organizers digging into their personal savings. But these truckers right now,
00:26:58.920a lot of them are going to be dealing with suspensions of their insurance, suspensions
00:27:02.740of their license, freezing of their account. What's being done to support these people now
00:27:07.860that that initial protest in Ottawa is dissipated and these challenges for a lot of people that I
00:27:13.280don't think anticipated these challenges are still being heaped upon them. Well, it's a, it's a,
00:27:18.840if you find an answer, let me know too, because all of my accounts are frozen as, as we've talked
00:27:24.080about. Um, you know, I, before I had any involvement whatsoever, I also donated a hundred
00:27:31.720dollars to the, uh, GoFundMe and I had no participation at all, no involvement in the
00:27:37.060convoy and then then they froze the account the ottawa police chief went on and bragged about how
00:27:42.100they they went in and disrupted the uh the supply of of money to the truckers then my money was
00:27:49.200returned to me but i didn't i didn't give to uh give send go after that because we knew that that
00:27:57.100was going to happen again like it worked the first time so there's no point the second time but
00:28:01.320what we were doing is there was various organizations on the ground that were
00:28:07.720literally collecting cash from people. I had this wonderful woman that I met in the street. She just
00:28:12.640happened to recognize me, handed me a $10 bill and said, can you give this to a trucker? Which I did.
00:28:18.200And so right now, and I got a message this morning saying, listen, we have a whole bunch
00:28:23.320of trucks in this certain location. We're looking for money for fuel to get home because truck
00:28:28.640drivers have had their accounts frozen what do i tell them like i can't dip into my own account
00:28:34.120right and a lot of people there was like i think 200 people at least that were reported to get
00:28:38.920their accounts frozen so so far so far so far because the the new chief the new sheriff in town
00:28:46.560has uh gone on there and bragged about the fact that they're going to follow up with video evidence
00:28:51.780and charges will be forthcoming and fines right fine let's have some due process let's get into
00:28:58.560a courtroom and let's see what a judge says okay and what's going to happen what is going to happen
00:29:05.040if the senate votes this down or they're just going to turn around and say oh well oops but
00:29:11.860the damage will have been done to people's lives right so as far as what the what can the truckers
00:29:18.200do i i don't really know i'm getting a ton of support from from just the international community
00:29:24.460are saying, how can I send you money? And I'm saying, you can't. You can't. The moment it
00:29:28.800comes into Canada, it will be frozen. So, you know, this is like banana republic kind of
00:29:36.840behavior. Like they can't get you on a legal mechanism. So they give themselves extraordinary0.59
00:29:41.920powers that haven't been passed through our legal mechanisms. You can punish people now
00:29:48.220without any due process. I don't know what to tell the truckers other than hopefully you can
00:29:53.660find people that will uh donate some money just enough for you to get home and then reevaluate
00:30:01.180because all the all the donations have been frozen there's no access to that money well
00:30:05.740and even true north i mean we are a donor supported outlet we rely on people that value
00:30:10.860our work to donate we've had so many emails i personally have had emails saying i love what
00:30:15.420you did in ottawa i love your reporting i'm scared to donate to you because i don't want to get my
00:30:20.060account frozen. Now, again, I can tell people, listen, we're not anticipating being caught up
00:30:26.880in that. We're journalists. But I mean, given how the government's acted, no one can make that
00:30:30.480guarantee now. And that's the problem here. There's a fear. People that would love to help
00:30:34.400a trucker out that don't want some street camera that catches them giving the trucker a $20 bill
00:30:40.080at a gas station because they don't want their life thrown into the lurch. And that's why these
00:30:43.980measures cannot be separated from being intended to chill free speech and support for a lawful
00:30:50.320protest movement. And I don't know how you combat that because you're right. The state has all the
00:30:54.000force. Yes, they do. And I've got I've got I've been told that various family members of mine
00:31:00.140that are very upset that they currently share the same last name with me right now are terrified
00:31:05.880that just just through our, you know, association through the last name, no real substantial
00:31:11.880relationship at all but we share the same last name they're terrified their accounts are going
00:31:15.780to be frozen just because they have the same last name so as we move forward here let me just ask
00:31:26.400you and i asked you this on sunday at the press conference but i want to ask you again because the
00:31:30.480passage of a couple of days time might have given you a different answer at least made you want to
00:31:34.320restate the initial one, but do you feel the convoy won or lost? I absolutely, without a
00:31:42.040shadow of a doubt, feel that the convoy won. We didn't go there and get the federal mandates
00:31:49.240you know, struck down. That didn't happen. What we did do is we woke
00:31:58.100a sleeping bear, not just in Ontario or in Canada, but we woke up a lot of people in the world.
00:32:09.140And this movement inspired me to get involved, you know, as a volunteer. And then from there,
00:32:17.200it inspired movements all around Canada, all around the world. People have had enough of their
00:32:23.000governments that stopped serving them and started acting like kings and queens in their little
00:32:28.480kingdoms. And so from that point of view, did we get the mandates lifted? No, we didn't. Did we
00:32:36.160submit a plan that was palatable to the government that maybe might be palatable for the conservatives
00:32:41.660is if they come into power to start using some of the plan that we created. So I'm hopeful long
00:32:48.320term that there is. But what's most important, I think, is that people are starting to wake up.
00:32:55.800And what I'm hearing is people are taking their masks off. They're saying, what can I do? I say,
00:33:00.100well, take that stupid mask off your face, for starters. Don't wear it in public. I haven't
00:33:03.960worn a mask in public since last spring. I absolutely refuse because a virus is three
00:33:09.860microns and the masks are 60. So just find your moral courage. And it's going to be uncomfortable
00:33:18.240for the first dozen times you go into a business without a mask like it is for me. But at this
00:33:23.660point, there's no way I'm ever going to put a muzzle on my face and signal to other people in
00:33:28.120the store that I'm going to comply with tyranny. Because now we're dealing medical tyranny, we're
00:33:32.680dealing with financial tyranny, we're dealing with freedom tyranny. So there's tyranny on every level
00:33:37.880here so do i think we we won um i maybe we lost a little bit of a battle or let's say it was a draw
00:33:46.840at the very least it was a draw but every time justin trudeau and his cronies stepped up to
00:33:52.120microphone every time he opened his mouth we got more support every time he hurt somebody
00:33:59.240we got more support as you know the majority of canadians every time he did something stupid
00:34:07.000we won a little bit more ground back and so one of i i i'm there's a ton of um uh chats on the
00:34:15.320side i can't read them because they're so fast and i'm trying to look at the camera but i read
00:34:18.760well yeah never look though i read one right in the beginning and somebody said you know um you
00:34:24.840know that we were winning because they had to go to the emergencies act it was one of the very first
00:34:29.560ones i read before i was on the camera and and that person's right um we went from this fringe
00:34:36.600minority of misogynists and wrong thinkers very quickly to being um the reason they justified the
00:34:44.760the emergency act or the war measures act let's not pretty it up it's the war measures act and
00:34:49.720even with the trucks gone the government still insists that you are creating an emergency which
00:34:55.560i mean any moral high ground that the government regained or thought it regained when the protest
00:35:00.920lasted as long as it did has been completely obliterated even to a lot of people that were
00:35:05.560not for the convoy yeah yeah and and you know what like it's it's ironic right they're beating
00:35:10.760people in the streets and shooting journalists in the leg with um with projectiles but it's for your
00:35:17.080safety right you can't make this crap up like it's it's just ludicrous like it's a it's a b movie
00:35:26.080of of of stupidity um you know i it just stuns me um anybody who supports this because i do get a
00:35:38.020lot of hate mail right i i get threats now and stuff like that and i'm uh which is fine uh nobody0.58
00:35:44.160knows where i live i hope um i just recently moved so so where i am is you know not a big deal but
00:35:53.500like i said this week we're still gonna fight for the freedoms of the people that actually hate us
00:35:59.240and and i hope someday they wake up to that and say man i was wrong but like that guy that was
00:36:04.640sitting beside you on sunday who was tweeting uh somebody sent me his stuff and he was a very uh
00:36:10.460a disturbed individual who was live tweeting my words. And I, like, it's hard to believe
00:36:19.080that there are people that are so bought into the narrative. Like, I just wish people would
00:36:25.540stop watching mainstream media and start looking for an alternate truth. You shouldn't be in an
00:36:32.940echo chamber. You should listen to both sides. But unfortunately, in this world,
00:36:37.300um the taxpayers are forced to pay for propaganda and that propaganda comes right from the prime
00:36:46.940minister's office and i want to make this point really clear um we're in a party system so it
00:36:53.520means that in a party system if you don't agree with your party leader and we've seen it with
00:36:59.180with uh doug ford and trudeau and the conservatives if you don't agree with your party leader that
00:37:06.760party leader just removes you they fire you from the party instantly and so your constituents just
00:37:12.300get screwed because that person didn't like your opinion because they're the leader of the party
00:37:17.080so it's important to understand that the NDP and the liberals both voted really what their0.81
00:37:24.720their party leaders wanted so two people two people made a vote last night that screwed 38
00:37:33.400million Canadians. Jagmeet Singh and Justin Trudeau. One Liberal MP in particular who had been
00:37:41.900talking earlier in the day about how he thought the Emergencies Act was bad and he didn't like
00:37:46.540it and he thought it was an overreach, but I'm still going to vote for it. And he was a Liberal
00:37:50.260MP in Toronto, Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, because the reason you just mentioned, he didn't want to
00:37:56.200vote against his own party's government. So we have this system. The Conservatives, I think you
00:38:03.060made a completely valid criticism earlier about not being present on the battle lines of the
00:38:08.340COVID restrictions for the last two years. They've deposed that leader. They've replaced him with a
00:38:12.600leader who has been talking about the convoy and talking about these issues. So ideally there will
00:38:17.680be some political opposition to this. But what would your message be about how to keep up the
00:38:25.340protest without the protest? Well, like I said, first and foremost, take off the mask. There's
00:38:31.920no there's no scientific justification and i've read it and i've talked to the scientists uh i've
00:38:37.400a very dear friend in the area uh where i live who was an aneseologist who's no longer uh working
00:38:44.120um you know and and i know several doctors uh that are no longer working and they're saying
00:38:50.680masks don't work they never did they should have never been put on um so that's the first thing
00:38:56.760you can do. I also think put the pressure on the politicians. And I also agree with
00:39:02.620these organic grassroots protests that pop up all over the country and all over the world.
00:39:10.200And I think they should continue. However, what I also believe is you should never interrupt
00:39:17.540emergency services lanes. So don't do anything that's going to stop ambulances or fire or police
00:39:23.820from getting to to helping citizens. That's just irresponsible of any protest. We worked really,
00:39:30.300really hard to make sure we never impacted any emergency services while we were in Ottawa.
00:39:34.940We worked very hard. But I think that, you know, there should never be one leader of this entire
00:39:44.060movement. Every Canadian citizen is a leader of this movement. You just have to get off your butt
00:39:51.260and go out to a protest and you know people have been protesting for two years in toronto and all
00:39:58.060these other places and nobody listened nobody has yet to listen has there been a referendum in this
00:40:03.560country since the 95 when when quebec was did a referendum to leave no we haven't so why don't
00:40:11.440they start asking the people what they actually want let the people choose their destiny for
00:40:15.460themselves on maybe a referendum. But no, they're too arrogant. They're too uneducated, ill-equipped,
00:40:23.760and yet believe in their own self-importance that they somehow were anointed to make decisions
00:40:29.660as opposed to representing people to make decisions. So I think the protests must continue.
00:40:37.420I think they must grow. And I think people should take the masks off. I really do like just start
00:40:47.220that's that's something subtle that every person can do. It's uncomfortable. I get anxiety when I
00:40:53.060do it, except for when I was in Ottawa. Just on that note, I have to say something. Because I was
00:40:59.860there at the very beginning, the very first weekend when the trucks rolled in. And the first
00:41:04.180thing i noticed walking into my hotel on i think it was the friday night of that first uh convoy
00:41:11.000arrival was that the mask mandate in ottawa had just died it was just gone and there was at the
00:41:17.040time there was this front desk woman at the hotel that was like trying to hand people masks and i
00:41:21.520think within about two hours she just gave up and by the end of it i even saw one of the staff
00:41:25.600members at the hotel the same hotel that i was at this weekend as well not wearing their mask so
00:41:29.780you are right and the mask is is fascinating because it's in some ways one of the least
00:41:34.720intrusive restrictions yes but in a lot of ways it's one of the worst because of the symbol
00:41:39.380of it that even something as simple as showing your face in public is illegal yes and and and
00:41:45.880my spouse has um got a a psychology background and so she reads a lot of scientific uh papers
00:41:53.500right now. And she's saying, like, right from the beginning, psychologists from around the world
00:42:00.140were talking about the long-term damage that we were going to do to our children in their
00:42:04.600developmental years. Wearing a mask actually reduces a developing mind's ability to learn
00:42:12.340and express empathy, right? So this is the kind of stuff we're doing to our children. And I was
00:42:19.780I was ecstatic when I saw that school, I think out in Alberta, all the students took off their masks
00:42:27.080and said, we've had enough. That was one of the happiest days of the entire time for me or moments
00:42:32.680while I was in Ottawa. Seeing those students say, we're not going to let you tell us what to do
00:42:38.700anymore. We're not wearing the mask. And if you want to suspend the entire school, be my guest.
00:42:42.800We don't care. But that was a big, big moment. And that was our children doing it, not the adults.
00:42:48.580the children took the lead on that not the adults and to go back to your fringe to go back to your
00:42:53.860fringe minority point well justin trudeau's fringe minority point but the point you made
00:42:57.960about it that was far more accurate people are less likely to take a stand when they feel they're
00:43:02.660alone and the one thing over the last month i feel has changed dramatically is a lot of canadians
00:43:08.360that may be fed up as well that are not all politically conservative this is not a left
00:43:12.660right thing are looking around and saying wow there are other people like me and there was
00:43:17.320some group of activists that published a Google map with the addresses of all the give send go
00:43:23.160don't that up and well I think that's horrible and doxing I zoomed in on it and I'm like oh wow
00:43:29.500I've got some cool neighbors yeah it works against it because you realize in something like that like
00:43:34.700you're not alone and I'm not going to share it because I don't want to endorse that sort of
00:43:38.260behavior but it can work against these people's stated purpose when you realize wow there are
00:43:42.940others like me. So I'm glad you were able to, even if you started just as a supporter and ended up
00:43:48.280being in a position to speak for some parts of the convoy, I'm glad you did on the weekend and
00:43:53.040I'm glad you've done so today. Tom Morazzo, thank you so much for your time, sir.
00:43:56.180Thank you for having me and take off your masks and don't be afraid. Don't be afraid.
00:44:02.300All right. Well, that's the enduring message of the convoy. Don't be afraid. My thanks again to
00:44:07.940Tom Morazzo here. This is the Andrew Lawton Show. I'm going to take just a couple of moments here
00:44:11.960because I want to read a couple of your comments and offer some closing thoughts of my own here
00:44:16.300because the convoy has been a pivotal moment, not just in Canadian media and in Canadian politics,
00:44:23.720I would say in Canadian history as well. And what it is going to bring in the course of debating
00:44:30.220this in the next few days, I don't know. But what I do know is that it's not going away.
00:44:35.420And even if the trucks are going away, the fact that Justin Trudeau still calls this an emergency,
00:44:40.640a state of emergency, with the effective suspension of your civil liberties, tells us
00:44:45.400why people were protesting in the first place. And it shows that the protest has itself morphed.
00:44:52.240I have two messages here that are very similar, super chats on YouTube from Steve, who says,
00:44:57.200the Senate needs to stop this, and if they don't, the courts do. Alison, who writes,
00:45:01.460call or email the Senate members, vote maybe tomorrow. No masks, please. Love your reporting,
00:45:06.780Andrew. Great guest pick. Well, thank you very much for that, Alison and Steve. Yeah, this is
00:45:12.500in the Senate now. So senators are people that are interesting. Well, in many cases, they aren't
00:45:17.060interesting, but the role is interesting here. And what I mean by that is that for senators,
00:45:23.160they don't have constituents. They aren't elected. They don't have democratic accountability in the
00:45:30.500way that members of parliament do. So I don't know if many of them are used to hearing from
00:45:36.160constituents, but you can make your voice heard. Senators are by province. They're not by riding.
00:45:42.240So you can look. And if you're in Alberta, you can call up your Alberta senators. You can call
00:45:46.160up your Ontario senators. You can call up your Nova Scotia senators and you can say, hey, are
00:45:51.200you going to vote no on this? Are you going to vote yes on this? And even though most of the
00:45:55.300senators are liberal, loyal and Trudeau appointed, there is still a hope that some independents could
00:46:01.460prevail. And if not, as Steve says, it falls on the courts. And while I have a great deal of
00:46:07.300pessimism about the state of the judiciary in Canada, this is quite a significant battle.
00:46:11.660If you've got a state of emergency that was declared to stop blockades, and you look in
00:46:16.580Ottawa, there is no blockade except for the one that police have set up. How on earth can you say
00:46:22.000that this is justifiable? This measure that was not necessary after 9-11, that was not necessary
00:46:29.840during the Oka crisis that was not necessary at any other point in the pandemic, but is now still
00:46:36.840necessary, not just to deal with truckers, but to deal with the absence of truckers, because the
00:46:43.220government wants the power to continue going after their money. The government wants the power to
00:46:48.360continue going after individual people's bank accounts, like Tom, like Tom's wife, his ex-wife,
00:46:54.020who had nothing to do with the convoys, you heard him say, even got a warning letter from her
00:46:58.540financial institution as if to say, we're watching you. That's what it is. It was like that when that
00:47:03.800woman got a visit from the OPP a week before she went to Ottawa to support the convoy. It's them
00:47:09.400saying, we're not charging you. We're not doing anything. We're just warning you. We're letting
00:47:13.540you know that we know who you are. We know that you're up to, and we think you might be thinking
00:47:18.320some dirty thoughts. Those dirty thoughts are, I support freedom. As I said on Twitter and one of
00:47:24.180my most viral tweets ever. Freedom isn't fringe and it shouldn't be treated as such.
00:47:29.680So I mentioned in an email that we sent to True North supporters the other day, the convoy
00:47:33.840may be over at least in this one particular sense, but the convoy movement has been birthed
00:47:39.340from the convoy itself. And I don't think that part of the convoy is over. I also, by extension,
00:47:44.720can say that our coverage is not over. There are going to be legal challenges. There are going to
00:47:48.800be political debates about this. There may be other spinoff protests that arise. So we're going
00:47:55.300to keep on this. I'm personally going to keep on this. I was in Ottawa. I should have gotten the
00:48:00.640picture up. If you want to see it, you can go on my Twitter. I got pepper sprayed and I took one
00:48:05.820for the team there and I'm happy I did. Not because I'm happy I got pepper sprayed, but I'm
00:48:09.640happy I was on the ground dealing with this and covering this. So we're going to end things there.
00:48:44.380And I've got some first-time viewers, people that weren't familiar with True North that saw me covering it and said, where are you at? I want to look up your stuff. So to all of you, thank you. We will talk to you in a couple days' time with more of Canada's Most Irreverent Talk Show. This is the Andrew Lawton Show on True North. Thank you, God bless, and good day to you all.