Juno News - June 30, 2022


James Topp on his monumental march across Canada


Episode Stats

Length

14 minutes

Words per Minute

161.50906

Word Count

2,366

Sentence Count

8


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.160 I realized that I wasn't the only one suffering in my position as a federal government worker.
00:00:04.960 I wanted to protest the implementation of these mandates for federal government workers
00:00:13.040 and I just found like it's not necessarily new or unique but
00:00:18.000 you know something like this hasn't been done for a while.
00:00:20.000 Canadian Armed Forces veteran James Tup began marching by foot to Ottawa from British Columbia
00:00:37.840 back in February to protest the federal government's vaccine mandates and COVID-19 restrictions.
00:00:45.760 Over a hundred days and four thousand kilometers later he is nearing the end of his monumental
00:00:51.280 cross-country march. We here at True North have been covering James Tup since the very beginning
00:00:57.680 and I had the opportunity to interview him as he walked into the city of Ottawa.
00:01:04.400 You have marched four thousand kilometers to Ottawa you are in Ottawa now I can tell that by just the
00:01:11.120 the street signs they're from the Ottawa street signs the Ottawa traffic lights how does it feel
00:01:15.440 to be at near the end of this incredible journey?
00:01:19.360 Yeah I have mixed feelings about it I mean at this on one hand I'm intentionally
00:01:25.200 happy to to have gotten here and made it successfully and and I think
00:01:34.880 you know I'm pretty happy with the way things turned out
00:01:37.920 and on the other hand um you know I'm a bit anxious about uh I'm not really a public people person
00:01:46.720 and uh I got to you know to to get into Ottawa tomorrow they might be a couple people watching or
00:01:54.400 there might be a thousand like I don't know it's it's kind of unknown I'm not necessarily
00:01:58.320 a professional public speaker either but I'll be expected to say a few words uh when I when I
00:02:06.800 touch out at the war memorial right so I mean there's you know everything I'm a human being uh I
00:02:11.920 have uh uh these kind of uh feelings just like anybody else but uh at the end of the day I'm
00:02:18.560 I just you know we're gonna go to the war memorial and celebrate the completion of this
00:02:23.200 of this journey and I want to give special thanks to the guys and ladies of course who helped me
00:02:29.920 uh get here because uh I certainly would have gotten I would not have gotten this far this fast
00:02:35.200 without their help what was the best part of your march so far what what stuck out to you in a positive
00:02:42.560 way you know just meeting meeting people and reactions uh but there was there was a few times
00:02:50.800 you know at the beginning marching uh you know through the mountains on the highway three in
00:02:54.880 British Columbia and uh looking around at the scenery and going you know whatever happens with all this
00:03:00.480 you know I was fairly early on I have some amazing uh amazing scenery around me but ultimately as you
00:03:09.520 know we come to a close uh um you know I reflect on uh the people that I've met and the things that
00:03:18.960 I've seen along the way with regards to uh you know the landscape that we inhabit here I've you
00:03:24.800 know we cross through the mountains over the prairies on the Canadian shield it's been uh pretty amazing
00:03:30.720 absolutely and I guess since nothing ever goes to plan there's always you know imperfections in life
00:03:37.120 what what is one thing uh in your march that maybe didn't go as expected or that maybe stood out to you as
00:03:44.000 being kind of more on the negative side yeah I would say there was definitely some you know there
00:03:49.200 was a lot of physical hardship uh at the beginning I've been I've been able to you know I you do this
00:03:54.720 for six eight weeks three months you get conditioned to your body adapts but there was physical hardship at
00:04:00.720 the beginning uh the stress and strain of it on all of us you know we've been doing this continuously
00:04:07.280 you know for 130 days and uh you know with so with a rest day every with one rest day every five to six
00:04:18.080 days so it has been um you know nothing but this and uh you know the physical challenges of doing this
00:04:27.600 for 10 or 11 hours a day fortunately we're coming into this unable to uh you know take our foot off the
00:04:37.680 gas so to speak so yeah um but uh I wouldn't say well I wasn't surprised at it but it has been
00:04:52.400 you know uh there was times when it was a a crime let's put it that way uh the city is preparing for
00:04:58.480 both your arrival and Canada day because there's gonna they're expecting to have a good amount of
00:05:03.600 people and so they've uh created a vehicle uh control zone where they won't be letting in any protest
00:05:10.160 vehicles into downtown and they've also put up fencing around the lawn of the supreme court and on
00:05:15.120 parliament hill uh what do you make of that I I think it's a uh a fear-based reaction unfortunately it's
00:05:24.320 unfortunate um and uh you know I I don't think that uh the reporting on issues like what I'm doing is
00:05:36.000 is helping at all so it's kind of like um it's it's kind of it's saddening I think in a way
00:05:46.080 uh however uh we can still celebrate Canada day there's nothing stopping us from doing that
00:05:51.280 and celebrate uh what this country is and its symbols and how they draw us together
00:05:58.880 what do you have to say to those living in Ottawa that maybe watch a lot of the legacy media and that
00:06:04.320 are fearful of freedom rallies and freedom events coming from for Canada day they don't want to see
00:06:10.080 another uh convoy whatever whatever they think the uh you know the freedom thing or freedom
00:06:16.000 protests or freedom movement is and isn't um you know uh I don't think they have anything to fear from
00:06:22.720 me or the the people marching with me I've made it very clear uh that I am coming there to a visit
00:06:31.200 uh the tomb of the unknown soldier on the war memorial is uh part of my legacy and um you know my
00:06:36.240 heritage I am a veteran I'm actually still serving the armed forces so uh you know I'm uh going there
00:06:44.160 to pay respect to the veterans that uh decided to stand up with protesters in January and February
00:06:53.280 I'm going to pay respects to the veterans that came before me uh since this Canada since this country
00:07:00.800 of Canada was created and um and I'm going to celebrate the completion of this journey that's
00:07:08.400 that's what I'm there to do
00:07:09.440 let's talk about your meeting uh I attended this that meeting there was a good amount of member
00:07:13.920 parliaments but there was still it wasn't hundreds and there was only conservative members of parliament
00:07:20.480 are you still satisfied with the amount of people that showed up to your meeting
00:07:24.880 yeah absolutely I mean look this is how it's supposed to work okay uh they have constituencies
00:07:31.360 I reached out to everybody that I passed by on my march here and because we're only marching at six
00:07:37.600 kilometers an hour there's plenty of people who felt the same way I did they thought it would be uh
00:07:48.160 a good thing if uh their members of parliament their representatives came to talk to me so from you know
00:07:55.760 Vancouver to Ottawa and points in between and I'm sure uh there was a number of folks out east too
00:08:01.680 who are monitoring this and also reached out to their members of parliament
00:08:04.640 government so their members of parliament are listening to what their constituents are saying
00:08:10.160 their constituents are saying go talk to this gentleman um I've listened to him speak he has
00:08:15.520 some good points uh he's you know and uh their members of parliament did their jobs and you know quite
00:08:21.920 frankly I commend them for their courage because I know in this media landscape that we're in right now
00:08:29.200 they're under a lot of uh pressure because they had the audacity to speak uh with a Canadian citizen who
00:08:37.360 has a problem with uh you know with these with these mandates and uh and the direction that the federal
00:08:43.760 government is going with them the legacy media was at your meeting there was both ctv cbc do you think
00:08:48.960 the legacy media has given you a fair coverage or do you find that they tend to have a bias against you
00:08:54.880 um I'm not paying a lot of attention to it I do this most of the day and then we manage um you know
00:09:03.760 everything that's involved with including logistics and movement and safety with uh with this marching
00:09:09.520 so it's uh not something I pay a lot of attention to but from what I've seen no it's not really fair um
00:09:16.960 um and uh you know I've yet to have a like a sit down interview uh with somebody who um was not
00:09:27.920 going to try to paint me as a freedom convoy organizer because that's not what I am I mean
00:09:35.200 it's completely inaccurate to say that because I was in British Columbia uh when the convoy and uh and the
00:09:41.440 protests in Ottawa were going on so you know I'm James Topp I have my own uh things to say about these
00:09:48.800 uh things that are happening and um I don't think that's actually covered you know and I know there's
00:09:56.720 a lot of criticism but I don't actually you know have in a way that you and I are talking um you know
00:10:04.480 you're asking questions I'm giving you my answers uh this has not really happened with members of uh
00:10:11.600 of the legacy media and then when it does happen this happened twice with the CBC and a CTV interview
00:10:17.840 uh there's no uh there's more interest in who I spoke to at the meeting and what their names were
00:10:26.320 as opposed to um you know what what were some of the trials travails victories that you had on this uh
00:10:35.600 four thousand kilometer march right you clearly had to sleep at lots of different places because
00:10:42.480 you've been doing this for over 100 days how has that been set up have you been camping if you've
00:10:46.960 been sleeping in a trailer have you been going to hotels how is that you know it's fortunate it's
00:10:52.400 unfortunate that's not being reported on because it's an amazing story when uh like I said I made the
00:10:58.320 announcement I was going to do this thing and um almost immediately everybody everybody uh
00:11:12.480 a number of people came forward
00:11:16.000 to to to assist me they wanted to be a part of this and I started to realize that this this mental
00:11:21.920 this meant something to people so to answer your question you know we pretty much uh we were able
00:11:27.680 to sleep you know people open their homes to us total strangers invited us to stay at their homes
00:11:34.000 we slept in the basements we slept you know where they arranged for us to stay at a church
00:11:38.560 basement or in a town hall like in a small town like yak bc we stayed in town hall there
00:11:44.880 so um in that way it was uh you know this has been an amazing experience but we've uh yeah like
00:11:52.480 accommodations have been buried in the last little while uh we stayed in hotels um and honestly
00:12:01.120 the hotels or motels I should say um and and I used to be I used to be posted I used to work at CFP
00:12:10.960 petawawa so I have friends in the area that let us stay at the houses and if I hadn't been able to
00:12:17.200 you know get a good sleep at night I don't you know that would have been uh that's been a factor in in
00:12:24.240 my being able to get this far on foot you know being able to sleep at night and uh rest my rest my body
00:12:32.640 right uh and what's the plan to get back home are you going to be walking back to bc are going to be
00:12:39.680 driving or do you plan to fly in an airplane now that the mandates have been lifted hold up on that
00:12:45.200 mandates have been lifted thing they've been suspended temporarily which is one of the reasons
00:12:50.560 and I'm not sure if this is a question of yours or not but I get it um periodically so if uh we'll see
00:12:58.000 I don't know yeah I haven't really I've got some family in the area I would like to visit for a couple
00:13:01.920 days potentially and if I do go home and I'm able I I do I probably will drive and um
00:13:12.560 let's not forget sorry with with regards to the the suspension quote unquote of uh travel restrictions
00:13:20.480 um you know they are there they still exist they're be they're hanging over our heads
00:13:26.640 and uh I think that needs to be recognized that's one of the reasons why you know when I heard that
00:13:34.960 uh it wasn't like I was just going to stop and turn around and go home right like this is uh
00:13:39.280 either the mandates I believe should be fully repealed and removed because I think that
00:13:47.200 uh they've done more harm than good at this point right for sure well James Todd thank you so much for
00:13:53.600 for speaking with me today uh god bless you and I wish you the the best of luck and energy for the
00:13:58.960 remaining days of your walk across Canada have a good one and thank you for uh interviewing me and
00:14:05.840 giving me a chance to tell my side of the story be sure to check out true north for the latest fair
00:14:11.280 and objective coverage of freedom events rallies and protests across Canada as well as the latest civil
00:14:18.960 liberties issues and please consider making a donation by visiting donate.tnc.news for true north I'm Ili Kantai Nadell