00:00:00.000Hello and welcome to another live True North special.
00:00:08.440My name is Andrew Lawton, senior journalist here at True North,
00:00:11.960joined by my friend, colleague, and boss Candice Malcolm,
00:00:15.840as well as our tremendous editor and investigative reporter Harley Sims
00:00:19.860as we talk about the historic invocation of the Emergencies Act in Canada by Justin Trudeau.
00:00:26.400And I don't use historic in the positive celebratory sense here.
00:00:31.220As you're going to hear over the next few moments, this is a very significant and not for the better development in Canada.
00:00:38.820Before we get the discussion going, I just want to play the clip of Justin Trudeau from less than an hour ago announcing the measures he's taken in Canada.
00:00:47.760this is act is not something that's been used ever but it exists for a reason
00:00:57.860invoking the emergencies act is never the first thing a government should do
00:01:03.820nor even the second the act is to be used sparingly and as a last resort
00:01:11.400right now the situation requires additional tools not held by any other federal provincial
00:01:21.660or territorial law today in these circumstances it is now clear that responsible leadership
00:01:30.920requires us to do this these measures must be and will be compliant with our charter of rights
00:01:40.780and freedoms indeed the emergencies act was created in the late 80s to flow from and uphold
00:01:48.460the charter we'll always defend the rights of canadians to peaceful assembly and to freedom
00:01:55.260of expression but these blockades are illegal and if you're still participating the time to go home
00:02:40.500That's the emergency right now, truckers.
00:02:42.880As mentioned, Candice Malcolm and Harley Sims are here.
00:02:45.640Candice Harley, thanks so much for joining me for this discussion here.
00:02:49.980I want to start with you on this, Harley, because I know you've been covering the civil
00:02:54.460liberties beat for True North quite well, and I'm so grateful, and I think Canada is
00:02:59.920grateful for the work you're doing on this.
00:03:01.480But explain to me what this means to you, as someone who is focused on that, to hear Justin Trudeau say the issue is that the government doesn't have enough power.
00:03:16.020Well, we've already heard that four provinces have come out and said they're not with Trudeau on this because they believe he already does have all the powers he needs to do what he wants.
00:03:25.780As far as people on the ground, we're talking about protesters who have been flying flags, setting up hot tubs, playing music, having sermons on Sundays, laying on their horns a bit, although they haven't been doing that.
00:03:45.220we're not talking about terrorists, we're not talking about murders, we're not talking about
00:03:50.880the things in 1970 that caused Pierre Trudeau to bring in the War Measures Act.
00:03:58.140I don't understand why this would be necessary other than this is the Trudeau equivalent of
00:04:05.000beating his chest. Enforcement is the issue, and enforcement is the issue because the police who
00:04:11.200on the ground see who these people are they see that they're peaceful they see that they have
00:04:16.880legitimate concerns with government overreach and do canadians or the rest of the world really want
00:04:22.880to see police go in and bust the heads of people waving flags and shouting for freedom i don't
00:04:27.840think so but honestly because trudeau is completely unwilling to go meet with these people like a
00:04:32.880decent person this is all he's got it's all he's got is to run to the courts and try to get another
00:04:37.840piece of paper and wave it around and hope somebody out there will go and enforce it for them
00:04:43.760yeah that is a significant point here and and i won't play the entire clip because it is quite
00:04:48.560long and i want to be sensitive to our audience and not wanting to hear that many minutes of
00:04:51.920justin trudeau more than is necessary but he he says this is a last resort for governments
00:04:58.080i don't know how you position this as a last resort when what should be the first and most
00:05:03.520obvious resort let's talk to the people that have these grievances has not been even considered by
00:05:09.600the government so far as we can tell candace explain where you approach this issue from
00:05:14.480as far as what it means for for canada bigger than the convoy bigger than covid and justin
00:05:19.360trudeau but what it means for the country that this is now what the government views as an emergency
00:05:25.600well andrew i am in complete disbelief at as to what is going on in our country right now
00:05:31.040the country is in a state of emergency and it is not because a group of freedom-loving
00:05:37.680truckers started a movement ignited a movement that has spread to every corner of the planet
00:05:42.480where people now refer to convoys uh freedom convoys as canadian inspired or canadian protests
00:05:50.240because canada represents freedom that is what our country represents to people all over the world
00:05:55.520here in canada we have a prime minister that doesn't respect the rule of law the very basics
00:06:00.480of the rule of law the police were refusing to uphold his unjust laws they weren't doing what
00:06:06.320he wanted and now he is doubling down having a temper tantrum and saying do it now i'm going
00:06:13.440to give even more powers to a police and a military that have been at this point unwilling
00:06:18.080to enforce his unjust laws so the fact that he would even do this is an assault on our country
00:06:26.080he didn't need to he could have met with them he could have agreed to the conservatives
00:06:29.760who put forth a motion today to say let's have a timeline to remove these mandates and get back to
00:06:34.560normal he refused he refused to compromise on anything to do with mandates and freedom and
00:06:39.600instead he's doubling down on a military state which is something i would have never believed
00:06:45.040a liberal government would be the one marching us down this path justin trudeau used to wrap
00:06:50.240himself in the flag in the chart of rights and freedoms and now he's spitting on it and it is
00:06:54.640repulsive to see people going along with this reports we're seeing that they're talking about
00:06:59.360how you can how this will give powers to seize bank accounts to suspend licenses to put people's
00:07:06.080livelihood in further jeopardy just for peacefully protesting i mean what is the emergency that he's
00:07:11.680talking about they they were blocking the ambassador bridge and the police the court
00:07:18.480issued an order to break that up it took about a day but they broke it up so what is the pressing
00:07:23.440issue at this point in our country what is the pressing issues that justin trudeau can't deal
00:07:27.200with a couple of hundred people in ottawa holding off and saying no we're going to stay here until
00:07:32.320we get our freedoms back i mean trudeau just absolutely poured gasoline on this fire he
00:07:37.760escalated the situation to an incredible degree he's dividing the country even more i think
00:07:44.080february 14 2022 will go down in infamy i hope it's the day that justin trudeau loses control
00:07:49.920of this of the country and that canadians say enough is enough but i i think it'll go down
00:07:54.640history as something perhaps the end of canada being a western liberal democracy but i'm in a
00:07:59.920state of disbelief right now yeah this is like a valentine valentine's day massacre on due process
00:08:05.120and civil liberty you mentioned the financial aspect here and i think that's where the real
00:08:09.600dangers are because a lot of people their mind immediately goes to 1970 flq crisis soldiers in
00:08:15.920the streets and i think that at this point it's important to know the military has not been called
00:08:21.040in. The military hasn't seemed to want to be called in. But I want to draw attention to what's
00:08:26.200happening here outside of the, you know, the streets of Canada, what's happening in sort of
00:08:32.220the financial dimension, because that's where I think that the due process and civil liberties
00:08:37.200aspects are particularly acute here. So Chrystia Freeland said just, I don't know, half an hour ago,
00:08:43.10025 minutes ago, that the government is going to expand under the Emergencies Act, its anti-money
00:08:48.980laundering rules so that anything falls under its purview that's connected to crowdfunding
00:08:55.480including crypto so bitcoin was where the convoy organizers went after they had their funds frozen
00:09:02.100by court order gofundme cancelled their account the banks cancelled and froze their accounts they
00:09:06.780went to crypto and now the government is saying that they're going to put all of that under their
00:09:11.340anti-money laundering rules so they're trying to go after these crypto exchanges but here's where
00:09:16.740gets really dark, Chrystia Freeland said banks will have to determine if people are working with
00:09:21.800the convoy and report them to the RCMP if they are, and then can shut down their accounts without
00:09:28.480a court order. And then she went on to say that if your truck is at the protest, so if they find
00:09:34.960your truck, they run your license plate, they can freeze your bank accounts and take away your
00:09:40.340insurance. You've not been charged. You've not been convicted. You might not even be there.
00:09:45.940But if your truck is there, the government can freeze your assets without a corridor.
00:10:08.220I mean, the charter has not really been of much protection or use to Canadians in the COVID era.
00:10:13.400So are you optimistic it's going to be now?
00:10:20.440Sometimes a laugh can be worth a thousand words.
00:10:23.280I think it's funny to hear Justin Trudeau even say the words Charter of Rights and Freedoms at this point, saying, you know, we're going to abide by it and answers to it.
00:10:32.060And it's, again, it's just the difference between the way someone like him operates and the way people like the truckers think.
00:10:44.900Rather than go talk to your neighbor who set up a fence, you go straight to the courts.
00:10:49.920That's the kind of person that Trudeau is.
00:14:31.080I like football, but I don't like anything else about it.
00:14:33.380I didn't watch it. What I did see this morning was a montage of about 100 celebrities just doing their thing, no masks, no worries at all. No one's even worried about COVID. You know, Maxine Bernier tweeted this. It's like, does anyone know about the virus? Is anyone talking about the virus? I was waiting for the media to break into like, oh, these events are going to be super spreader events. It's like, no one's saying that anymore because COVID isn't really a threat anymore. So sooner or later, Dustin Trudeau will have to face the facts that most Canadians want these measures gone.
00:15:01.380however at this point it is spite because he's just angry to harley's point he dismissed these
00:15:07.120people he predicted violence he said that he was worried about violence worried about extremism
00:15:10.920he pounced as soon as he saw one hateful flag and pretended that that characterized the mood of the
00:15:16.660entire convoy and basically he sat around waiting for someone else to do his dirty work right he
00:15:22.860he smeared the protesters he the media the media jumped onto that and did and did what the good
00:15:28.520liberal shills will do and repeated his talking points and made the Canadian public who at least
00:15:33.360pay attention to the media, the legacy media, made them believe that these people were,
00:15:38.520as Andrew Coyne said, antisocial yobbs, you know, dismissed them as being the lowest of the low and
00:15:44.840the worst of the worst. And then Trudeau just kind of disappeared, right? We don't know where
00:15:48.840he went. He was gone. He was cross-country skiing or whatever. He had COVID and he was hiding from
00:15:54.120supposed threats you know he was waiting for the police to do it waiting for the mayor to do it
00:15:58.520waiting for the premier to do it waiting for everyone else to enforce his his rules they
00:16:03.480wouldn't and now he's kind of like having a temper tantrum again doubling down on the rules saying
00:16:08.520i'm going to give you even more power someone else deal with this someone else get rid of this
00:16:12.440protest uh there's a point that that i should raise david lametti who's the attorney general
00:16:17.320he says that one thing the emergency act will allow is for the government to force tow truck
00:16:22.280drivers to tow vehicles. If the government says they have to, they will be paid for their work
00:16:26.320as if that matters. Look, the tow truck drivers are on the same side as the truckers. They're
00:16:30.720from the same cultural sphere and they have the same views. They're probably friends with each
00:16:35.480other. The tow trucks quickly came out and said, no, we're not doing this. That was the beginning
00:16:40.360of this whole mess, right? So now what? The government is going to compel these people
00:16:44.700against their will or they're going to seize their trucks and tow the trucks for them? I mean,
00:16:48.540is an absolute farce of the rule of law. Trudeau is acting like a tyrant. And the fact that many
00:16:56.420police officers were unwilling to enforce his rules before, I don't know how escalating a
00:17:01.400situation to this degree and invoking yet again, you know, we've lived through two years, Andrew,
00:17:06.260of emergency measures and temporary measures and, you know, doubling down with even more
00:17:12.980emergency measures and even more temporary measures. Give me a break. I mean, I hope that
00:17:17.420there's more civil disobedience. I hope that more police and tow truck drivers and military who are
00:17:21.980asked to do this really dirty, despicable work the Trudeau government is asking to do, I hope
00:17:26.840they say no. I fear that more will start complying and listening to them. But I think, if anything,
00:17:32.320this sends a message to Canadians that, no, we're not being hyperbolic. Our freedoms are at stake
00:17:38.300here. And all Canadians, regardless of whether they support the convoy or the ending mandates,
00:17:44.620All Canadians should be alarmed by a prime minister who would escalate the situation
00:17:48.260this much, refusing to talk to them, refusing to give them an inch in terms of what they
00:17:52.780want, and then jumping right to, you know, we're going to seize your bank accounts, suspend
00:20:53.640And I think it's encouraging to hear, but it's also upsetting not only to hear that someone
00:20:58.720like that is actually still in the Liberal caucus despite Trudeau's leadership, but it's
00:21:03.940also upsetting to hear somebody that mature and intelligent talking about it.
00:21:08.780When you, part of the, part of what's driving people crazy is Justin Trudeau's language,
00:21:14.340his his inability to actually speak with any nuance or any honesty when it comes to the
00:21:18.580complexities and different sides of this thing he gets up there and he just he speaks like a
00:21:23.940tyrannical robot like hal from 2001 a space odyssey or something he just delivers these lines and he
00:21:30.020sticks to them regardless of contrary evidence and you start thinking am i going crazy like is
00:21:34.900this person for real like he's not actually engaging anybody so we've got all these kind
00:21:40.580of like a social instincts that are being fried by even trying to understand what this guy's even
00:21:45.700doing anymore um and so i think that's part of it it's not just the government overreach but it's
00:21:50.260just a a leader that seems to be acting in a sociopathic way you know i i don't see this
00:21:56.180ending soon i don't think he's going to blink at this point like i said he just needs you know
00:22:01.060people with balls to do his dirty work and go out there and drag them out of the trucks like he wants
00:22:05.140to see done and right now law enforcement thank god
00:22:08.980we're being being a cop and member of the military in canada
00:22:12.260it's a lot of pride that comes along with it because of what canada is as a
00:22:15.620country and he's decided to say canada is not
00:22:19.220that it's what i say it is now and they don't believe it a lot of these guys
00:22:22.820can't handle that and so they'll talk they'll you know
00:22:25.860they'll hold lines but they will not do what he clearly wants them to do
00:22:30.660so it'll just be a question of what happens from here
00:22:34.260you know no no powers nothing's changed he could have all the laws were in place that that could
00:22:39.540have led to what he wants to see done this is just a kind of his own way of trying to wrap
00:22:44.340them and try to get them you know a little closer to doing it yeah that that's very well said harley
00:22:50.180and let me just point out here uh because we are going to talk about this and the implications of
00:22:54.580it more we also are seeing that the government does not want people to be able to put money
00:23:00.100behind causes they value that's exactly what they're doing it's what they've been doing trying
00:23:04.500to freeze the convoys money trying to allow even so much as anyone who has a truck in ottawa right
00:23:10.180now that they say without evidence without conviction without charges as part of the
00:23:14.260convoy to freeze their bank accounts it's never been more important for people to take a stand
00:23:18.740and say government cannot control our decisions now we at true north are not uh parking our trucks
00:23:24.900on parliament hill but what we are doing is sending reporters to parliament hill to tell
00:23:29.140the story of what's happening there in a way that simply is not being done in the mainstream media
00:23:35.780and i see a few people have donated through youtube already we thank you so much for that
00:23:40.740literally we have no idea how aggressive government is going to get and going after people that it
00:23:46.820deems to be its political foes here and i'm not speaking in in any way about conspiracy theory
00:23:52.500i'm just saying that we're already talking about unprecedented actions that governments are taking
00:23:57.300right now. If you value independent journalism, telling these stories, please do support the work
00:24:04.000that True North is doing, not just by reading and sharing our content, but if you can, contributing
00:24:08.300financially as well. If you're watching on YouTube, you can do a super chat. If you are on, well,
00:24:14.620anyone can, regardless of where you're watching, head on over to our website, donate.tnc.news,
00:24:20.260donate.tnc.news. And members of our insider clubs actually had the opportunity to submit some
00:24:26.340questions, which we're going to get to right now, a few of them here. Jim asks, we kind of addressed
00:24:32.580this already, but Jim says, given that Justin Trudeau has already described the convoy as a
00:24:36.760small fringe minority with unacceptable views, don't you think invoking this act will just pour
00:24:42.000gasoline on the fire, prolonging it rather than shortening it? I think Candace made that point
00:24:47.340very well a few moments ago, that all he's doing is escalating so that he can, I think, point to
00:24:52.480the convoy and say they're the problem. Well, Canadians are seeing and hearing what he's saying
00:24:57.120himself. I think we know that Justin Trudeau is the one escalating it here. And another one here
00:25:02.960that I want to get everyone's thoughts on, Jagmeet Singh has said we have failed leadership
00:25:07.840regarding Trudeau. In what sane world do you then grant unprecedented emergency powers
00:25:12.940to said failed leader? Shouldn't Singh be voting no confidence instead? I want to go to you on this
00:25:19.240one in a moment, Candace, but I have to say first off about the NDP. Jagmeet Singh has supported
00:25:24.320Trudeau using the Emergencies Act. His criticism has been that Justin Trudeau has not done enough.
00:25:30.780This is the same NDP that opposed increasing anti-terrorism measures after 9-11. This is the
00:25:39.260same NDP that, as Terry Glavin, who's a great columnist, especially on this issue, pointed out,
00:25:45.300the same NDP who opposed the War Measures Act in 1970. So he thinks that car bombs, kidnapping,
00:25:52.140and hijacked airplanes are less scary than truckers with bouncy castles in Ottawa. But Candace,
00:25:58.980the NDP on this, this used to be the party against government overreach. Now they're cheering it on.
00:26:03.960The NDP is so lost. I mean, expecting any kind of logical or ideological consistency from that
00:26:09.800party is just too much to ask. Jagmeet Singh has completely lost the plot. He's a hardcore
00:26:15.780socialist who hates workers. And two days ago, he was talking about how Trudeau did need to
00:26:21.260reevaluate the mandates. So this guy is all over the place. He's de facto giving Prime Minister
00:26:28.340Trudeau a majority government, which Canadians did not want. Canadians did not want Trudeau to
00:26:32.940have a majority government. He got the slimmest minority government in Canadian history. So
00:26:38.080So Jagmeet Singh is a disgrace and a failure. And I hope he resigns. I hope the NDP do exactly what the conservatives do and get rid of that guy because he's hopeless. I want to pick up on a point that Harley made earlier about how Trudeau wants to do just wants these police to do his dirty work. He wants them to pull truck truckers out of their trucks and arrest them. He wants he wants force to break apart, you know, the soup kitchens and the stage that have been erected.
00:27:06.040when i look at the images of of what's going on in ottawa and i think for for i think you two feel
00:27:12.040the same way harley and andrew and i hope and i think that many of the people watching you know
00:27:16.120what do i see i'm inspired i see a beautiful display of patriotism and and protests civil
00:27:22.040disobedience and canadians saying we want our country back we want our liberty back canada
00:27:26.280stands for something when justin trudeau and the liberals when when journalists the legacy
00:27:32.680media journalists who live in ottawa when they see the protests they they see something totally
00:27:36.680different and you can see their stream of consciousness and their thoughts when they
00:27:40.600post on twitter uh you can see althea raj of the toronto star yelling arrest them arrest them she
00:27:46.440wants them arrested you can see bob fife of the globe and mail saying this is anarchy right when
00:27:53.080when he sees evening parties and people celebrating when i see that i get excited and i get joy and i
00:27:57.960get hope for my country when he sees that he sees he sees an insurrection you know we've seen the
00:28:04.280escalation of the terms used to describe this protest this movement the media started off by
00:28:11.000saying that it was extreme echoing trudeau's talking points so this is a fringe minority
00:28:17.000that these people are extreme they hold unacceptable views then we started hearing that they were
00:28:21.560far-right or right-wing that they were white nationalists they were racist they were misogynistic
00:28:26.600that then we started hearing the escalation right that this was a siege that this was an
00:28:30.840insurrection that this was an occupation this was a war and it's like the people on the left the
00:28:36.200political establishment i don't even know if they're on the political left anymore because
00:28:40.360i think those terms are losing meaning the establishment the politicians the bureaucracy
00:28:45.640the press in ottawa they they see this as something totally different and they've convinced
00:28:50.760themselves that they're in real danger that this that this is really an insurrection i mean they
00:28:56.200would have to believe that in order to be cheering on the prime minister today which they are i i
00:29:00.680pointed this out on my twitter page that steve maher who's who's a journalist and you know part
00:29:05.640of the very much part of the establishment he's out there declaring that he that he his favorite
00:29:10.680thing about justin trudeau is that he's a democratically elected legitimate prime minister
00:29:15.080which when i read that i just see that he is in support of the prime minister using the most
00:29:19.880extreme powers available to anyone in canada to any leader in canada to crush these protests
00:29:28.040to me that is a terrible sign of our democracy i think that these journalists have drank their
00:29:32.680own kool-aid they believe the worst of their own rhetoric and now if you know if you follow
00:29:38.120their plot if you follow along with what they've been doing for three weeks saying this is an
00:29:42.520insurrection these are terrorists well then then of course if you believe that then using the war
00:29:48.600measure act to stop a terrorist insurrection which apparently they believe this was going on
00:29:54.360that that's the only way that this makes sense is justifiable i just believe that most canadians
00:29:59.000have not followed that plot have not followed along with them i hope and i think i pray that
00:30:03.640most canadians reject that nonsense and they can see with their own eyes that this is a gross abuse
00:30:09.320of power and this is nowhere in line with proportionality this is not an insurgency this
00:38:02.800So I, I look, I think that the conservatives are doing what they have to do. They're being
00:38:09.760reconciliatory. They're trying to come up with a compromise. Frankly, they're doing what the
00:38:14.080prime minister should be doing, which is saying, look, you have a right to peaceful protest.
00:38:18.000Don't blow, don't break the law. Okay. No, no more civil disobedience,
00:38:21.360especially when it comes to our economy, the rule of law. Those are things that the conservatives
00:38:25.440stand for. And I totally understand why the conservatives have to come out and take this
00:38:30.320approach and interesting to your point earlier harley that joel joel lightburn lightbound the
00:38:36.080liberal npu has been speaking out against trudeau he voted in favor of this motion while the
00:38:40.160government and the ndp defeated it so i'm not sure how long how much longer he's going to be on the
00:38:45.040side with the liberals given that he is speaking out against trudeau and voting uh in favor of a
00:38:49.760conservative motion look i i think that these truckers are incredibly courageous they've had
00:38:55.760enough they're at their wits end and they're saying we want our country back we are opposing
00:39:00.240unjust laws that have had tremendous impact on the people of this country it's so much of an
00:39:06.720impact it's hard to even get into the the scope of of the pain and the misery that these lockdowns
00:39:12.240have have caused so these truckers are taking a righteous stand and i think that many conservatives
00:39:16.880in principle agree with that ezra levant had a tweet uh he he showed the surrey british columbia
00:39:23.200border crossing. And he said, this is like a game of whack-a-mole, right? The Trudeau government
00:39:28.700shuts down the protest in one part of the country. You know, these guys are completely mobile. They
00:39:32.640can move. They can go somewhere else. There's a lot of places where they can go to prove their
00:39:36.520point. So they're just going to keep popping up all over the country. And, you know, Trudeau
00:39:41.640doesn't have control of the situation. And it's not something as easy as, okay, we're going to
00:39:46.500introduce a new war measures act and try to get the police or the military to do our dirty work
00:39:51.260because the truckers are serious. And I think that they have a lot more power than most people
00:39:57.780give them credit for. You know, Trudeau dismisses them. The media dismisses them. A lot of elites
00:40:02.040and journalists, sorry, bureaucrats, people dismissing them. But they don't realize how
00:40:07.460vital these truckers are to our entire lifeline, our entire economy and the supply chain. And,
00:40:13.820you know, when they say we've had enough, Canadians better listen. And I think that
00:40:19.300What they're showing right now, I mean, the next few days we'll be telling because we'll see whether the police will actually enforce these, whether the military is willing to do the violence necessary to end this convoy or crush this convoy as crush this movement.
00:49:36.980And you pointed out, look, usually people would like to see their flag being used as
00:49:41.180a symbol of a worldwide movement for hope and freedom.
00:49:44.900But this angered the Ottawa establishment and the Ottawa elite.
00:49:48.740It's funny because, you know, when there were protests happening in Hong Kong and people
00:49:53.220standing up to a very real tyrannical government in the communist China who were overbearing
00:49:58.600and bringing their communist tyrannical role into the formerly free Hong Kong.
00:50:03.540What did we see? We saw people out there waving American flags because to them, the American flag represents freedom. I've seen the American flag being waved at freedom and dissident rallies all over the world. You see them at Iranian protests. People wave the American flag because to them that means liberty.
00:50:20.760And the fact that now perhaps Canada is inspiring that, that people are seeing the Canadian flag and what they're reading into that is a grassroots working class uprising of dissidents demanding an end to overzealous restrictions, that should invoke pride.
00:50:39.520I mean, even if you don't agree with the truckers and you don't like them and you think that
00:50:42.780they are whatever these media think, I mean, we know what they think.
00:50:47.180I think, again, I'll go to Andrew Coyne's remark, his jeer at these truckers calling
00:50:54.040So I think that's what secretly most of these journalists think of the truckers, to see
00:50:59.400the flag, to think that that's what it represents.
00:51:02.400It just shows how completely removed and abandoned these people are of their country, of the
00:51:08.320people who make Canada work of the backbone of our economy. Again, I think that journalists,
00:51:13.080politicians, bureaucrats, it would do them some good to go out and meet the working people of
00:51:18.740this country, to go around and try to understand what it's like to be a trucker or to be a working
00:51:23.680person who doesn't have the luxury to work from home, doesn't have the luxury to, you know, stay
00:51:28.600at home, work in front of their laptop, work in their pajamas in their warm house, who has to
00:51:33.780actually go out there and face the world, face the COVID virus, which, again, I'll reiterate a
00:51:38.500point I made earlier. Nobody's worried about COVID anymore. Nobody's worried about catching COVID.
00:51:43.240Nobody's worried about a spike. The whole justification, the whole underlying purpose of
00:51:49.060all of this is that we still have these overzealous emergency powers that were enforced onto us two
00:51:55.500years ago. We're still living under that regime. That's what we want overturned, right? It's like
00:51:59.900throwing more emergency measures more temporary emergency measures on top of terrible uh temporary
00:52:06.060emergency measures from two years ago won't solve the problem letting us get back to normal letting
00:52:10.860us get our lives back is what will get us back to normal and it's like these these elites as
00:52:16.380establishments just so wrapped up in this whole thing that they can't even they can't even take
00:52:20.780a step back and acknowledge that basic fact yeah and you mentioned something there candace that
00:52:26.300was important about you know whether or not you support the truckers because there is a huge gulf
00:52:31.900between rah rah rah honk honk honk and this is a national emergency that calls for the suspension
00:52:38.780of many civil liberties and i i don't know if that nuance is going to be visible in the next couple
00:52:45.100of days i i don't know if it will become if you oppose the truckers ergo you support the emergencies
00:52:50.860act and vice versa i i fear it is going to uh distill itself into those two very distinct camps
00:52:58.220but it shouldn't just as you can be pro-vaccination and anti-vaccine mandate i i think you could be
00:53:04.860anti the truckers or the least more skeptical of the truckers while also being very much opposed
00:53:10.780to the the place that justin trudeau went with this and and i go back to what i said earlier
00:53:14.940about how he is calling this a last resort but at the same time hasn't had any dialogue whatsoever
00:53:20.860And just to be clear, to talk about the importance of dialogue, after a lot of antagonism between Ottawa City Council and the convoy, there were some letters exchanged between one of the convoy organizers, Tamara Leach, and Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson yesterday and the day before, in which Tamara Leach agreed that she would get the truckers to move to an area that was more central downtown in exchange.
00:53:45.800well, not really in exchange for anything. It was just a good faith gesture that will do this
00:53:50.200to ease some of the burden on residential streets. Now, I don't know if the Emergencies Act has
00:53:55.580thrown that concession into a lurch, but this came from a letter from Jim Watson to her that,
00:54:01.200again, was not doing what Jim Watson and Justin Trudeau have been doing up until now,
00:54:04.920but was trying to engage. And I pointed out that it's amazing what you can do when you don't just
00:54:10.340look at your adversaries on an issue as racist, misogynist, homophobe, transphobe, bigot,
00:54:16.880white supremacist, whatever the labels are that are being used. It's amazing what you can achieve.
00:54:21.980And the fact that Justin Trudeau is not doing that, I don't want to say is surprising,
00:54:26.880but it's very telling. It's very revealing. We had a question from a woman here, Eileen,
00:54:32.680who says, I'd like one of you. Well, we'll do one better, Eileen. We'll get all of us to do it.
00:54:37.360She says, I'd like one of you to gaze into a crystal ball and tell us how you see this
00:54:50.980I can't really do any better than Ezra Levant did on Candice's show last week.
00:54:56.820Basically, Trudeau can't back down now.
00:54:59.620He's already called these guys every name in the book.
00:55:01.800He's not going to be able to meet with them now.
00:55:03.740He's not going to lose face over that.
00:55:05.400he's got to be told it's over. And there's hope now that it will be Biden that will contact him
00:55:12.280and say, get your house in order, what's going on over there. And that will give Trudeau an out to
00:55:17.060back off. Just going back to your point, Andrew, about people not needing to like the truckers to
00:55:24.440believe that the freedoms that they're calling for are important. Polls are increasingly showing
00:55:29.220that even though people don't like what the truckers are doing, they want this COVID stuff
00:55:33.120to end. They want it all dropped. And they disapprove increasingly, like severely of the
00:55:39.320way Prime Minister Trudeau has approached this, like basically not at all or through these
00:55:45.460measures. And it's silly. We've gotten to the point where we need to assess each other from
00:55:50.920the ankles up before we can agree with a very simple sentiment. I've got three English degrees
00:55:57.200at a Canadian university. I know what it's like to be around people I disagree with politically
00:56:01.700all day, every day for years, but that you can still agree on some things. And I think that's
00:56:07.760what we should do. Just focus on the prize, agree on this one major thing and quit trying to size
00:56:14.340each other up and think that there's something beneath it all, something we need to constantly
00:56:18.840assess and approve of. Yeah, I'll jump in.
00:56:24.880sorry after two years i still haven't figured out the mute button
00:56:31.180candace i'll go to you on this next where do you think in your uh metaphorical crystal ball
00:56:36.140things are headed here well i was going to mention what ezra said on my show uh which he had also
00:56:41.140said on twitter basically that you know trudeau's not going to budge but biden will because biden
00:56:47.100sees the truckers he doesn't want to deal with that the democrats in the u.s actually rely on
00:56:52.620blue collar workers and actually respect them, especially Joe Biden, that was the reason why he
00:56:56.660was selected by the DNC instead of one of the other woke candidates. Biden's not woke. Biden's
00:57:02.740has a very working class background and that's where he came from. And that's who he still1.00
00:57:07.760believes that he is to the point where he actually has consciousness and believes in anything. But
00:57:13.580Biden will take the threat seriously. He doesn't want to see anything like this happening in his
00:57:18.500country. So he would be the one to lift the mandate, then it would make sense for it to only
00:57:22.680be one side. I think there's something to that. But I'll go even further. I think Trudeau is
00:57:28.260really doubling down on this idea that someone else needs to do his dirty work, that the police,
00:57:34.460the military, someone else has to go in, bust this thing up, crush the protesters and get them
00:57:40.720all to go home. That won't make the movement go away. These truckers are dedicated. And again,
00:57:45.840they are serious. This is not a bluff. This isn't something that they're just going to say,
00:57:52.180okay, good enough. We accomplished some of our goals. Let's go home. These people are dedicated
00:57:57.700to their cause. And when it comes to Trudeau, he is just so badly misstep. He completely
00:58:03.420underestimated these truckers. He thought that he could just dismiss them, that he could play
00:58:08.400a partisan game, that he could just say, look, they're waving Nazi flags and it would be over.
00:58:12.720He was so wrong. He miscalculated this to a tremendous extent, to the point where a poll
00:58:18.440that came out one week ago today showed that both sides, those who support the convoy and those who
00:58:23.380oppose the convoy, both blame Trudeau. They blame Trudeau the most. Only 16% of Canadians say that
00:58:28.940they would vote for Trudeau today. Look, I've seen a lot of different, I've seen that there
00:58:33.160was a National Post story today saying that three quarters of Canadians want all mandates to end.
00:58:37.780There was a abacus poll that came out today saying three quarters of Canadians want the mandates to stay for at least two more years.
00:58:45.620So I don't know which one to read into. The point that is clear is that Canadians are deeply divided.
00:58:52.300They're deeply divided on this issue of vaccine mandates, of the direction this country is going, and there's no easy solution.
00:58:58.860And rather than trying to be reconciliatory and show leadership and try to understand both sides, Trudeau has just completely escalated this.
00:59:08.320I think that he has made a huge mess of things for the Liberal Party, for his own government.
00:59:13.240I think you'll see more and more people stepping up and walking away from him.
00:59:16.400I think Trudeau's days are numbered. I really do.
00:59:18.080I think that he has just misplayed this so badly that even if somehow he manages to get out of this week without something horrible happening in terms of the overuse of force, people with video cameras capturing something horrific happening, violence breaking out on the street, even if that doesn't happen, which there still is a chance, I mean, the next few days are where it all is going to happen.
00:59:41.420like this is the time to be paying attention to politics in Canada. Even if Trudeau escapes this
00:59:46.280week, I think the damage is done to his personal brand, to his party. And I think that more and
00:59:50.980more liberals are starting to sort of move away from this cult of personality around Trudeau.
00:59:55.460And I can't see him lasting as leader of that party or of this country for much longer.
01:00:02.400Well, I think that's an important point. And I'll add one thing to this. I agree with what
01:00:07.820Harley and Candace said. And the great thing about going last is that I can just say, yeah,
01:00:11.460they were, they were all right. And I don't need to come up with anything original, but
01:00:14.140I will add something here because one thing that Justin Trudeau has always done fairly well is put
01:00:20.580a wedge in the conservatives where he forces the conservatives to divide themselves either
01:00:27.000internally or externally to put a wedge between conservatives in the country, whether it's on
01:00:32.320social issues or other stuff like that. And then the liberals have always done that very well.
01:00:36.720Justin Trudeau is wedging himself right now.
01:00:39.620There are cracks forming, some Liberal MPs, especially in Quebec.
01:00:43.680If you look at some of these polls and see Quebec's support for the convoy,
01:00:48.320it's insane, even larger than in Alberta in one poll that I saw,
01:00:58.820He's gambling that this is a move that's going to go the way he wants it to.
01:01:03.460But if someone can find an escalation that can be linked back to his invocation in the Emergencies Act, a trucker who loses their livelihood and loses their money and gets their account frozen and loses the ability to work even further just because they're partaking in the protest.
01:01:20.920This is Justin Trudeau's government going after its political opponents when they're saying we're freezing the bank accounts of people who are partaking in a peaceful protest.
01:01:30.280I didn't word it like that earlier, but I'm wording it like that now.
01:01:33.100This is the federal government freezing the assets and shutting down the bank accounts of its political opponents who are peacefully protesting.
01:01:43.500If you take nothing else from what I've said, take that away because that's exactly what's happening here.
01:01:49.160And I don't think a government can do that with impunity.
01:01:51.980The whole point is we need to be able to tell Canadians what's happening here.
01:01:55.600So before we close things out, I want to give you the last word on this, Candace, outside of the Emergencies Act.
01:02:00.980How do you see True North fitting in to this story? I mentioned earlier that I'm headed to
01:02:06.140Ottawa to continue our coverage there. We also have a reporter in Ottawa, but how do you see
01:02:11.440us moving forward with this? Well, I think you should head to Ottawa now, Andrew. I think you
01:02:17.340should end the broadcast and go there because True North needs to have people on the ground
01:02:21.980to document and to bear witness to what is happening in this country. And like I just
01:02:26.940alluded to, I think that the next few days will be incredibly important for Canadians to film
01:02:32.360and get the message out there, get the other side of the story. I think that one of the tremendous
01:02:37.100things about True North, and I'm just so pleased and grateful to be in this position that we're in
01:02:41.100with so much support, so much growth over the last several months and years, that we're in the
01:02:46.820position where we have reporters on the ground. We have the ability to communicate the other side
01:02:51.880the story and we try to be fair we try to be on it we're honest we're fact-based we we want to
01:02:57.240report the facts to canadians we don't want to spend we want to remove the spin that the legacy
01:03:01.800media pushes out there and i think that having neutral honest journalists on the ground is the
01:03:07.800best defense that we have i mean i think look i think the truckers are the best defense they've
01:03:11.880shown a willingness and a bravery that that so many others uh have failed to show but i think
01:03:17.000that having journalists on the ground to document this because you're right andrew the the government
01:03:22.360is seizing bank accounts of the people that they of their political opponents who are peaceful
01:03:27.240i i don't think that we should let them walk away from this i think that they're going to have to
01:03:30.360wear this i think that young canadians 20 years ago 20 years from now uh will be weary of voting
01:03:37.320for a liberal party because of what they're doing today and tomorrow and right now and we need to
01:03:42.120document it so i think i think independent journalism is so important i think that it's
01:03:47.560it's more obvious now than ever to so many canadians that the legacy media is is not
01:03:52.520trustworthy and they're not telling you the truth i i posted this on twitter a couple minutes ago but
01:03:57.240it's it's kind of telling that the canadian association of journalists is hosting an event
01:04:00.760on twitter right now or in in less than an hour called the freedom convoy versus the mainstream
01:04:06.440media like they're pitting themselves as the opponents of the freedom convoy how are they
01:04:10.440can we place bets on which side we want to be uh on board with there it's like yeah it's like
01:04:15.640they're making it seem like it's a political battle between two sides and they're on the
01:04:19.640opposing side so how would anybody take away from that that we're supposed to respect the
01:04:24.360word of the journalists um in this in in this coverage i don't call them the mainstream media
01:04:29.080some people criticize me for calling them the legacy media because they think it gives them
01:04:32.760too much respect uh to me there's nothing mainstream about the legacy media i think that
01:04:37.400that their views are outside the mainstream of what Canadians believe. So I stopped using that
01:04:41.820term. I call them legacy media, because that's what they are. The only reason that they exist
01:04:47.120is because they've been there for so long. And they have these outdated institutions that they
01:04:52.860think still they still wield the power of, but they're losing that power. And I think that's
01:04:56.820part of the reason why they're so angry. And they're so hateful towards independent journalists
01:05:02.000like you, Andrew Lawton, because you're exposing how corrupted they are and how inaccurate they
01:05:08.920are and how political they are and how agenda driven they are. And I think that's why you see
01:05:13.340them lashing out against us. And you can see some of the comments that they put to us. They never
01:05:19.720defend us when we're locked out of things. And yet they make a huge fit about the inability of
01:05:26.540them to report on the trucker convoy because the leaders of that didn't invite them to the press
01:05:30.960conference. I mean, it's such a farce, but just to re-hammer this point, you just simply can't
01:05:38.880trust the legacy media. They've proven that over and over again, every minute, every day of this
01:05:43.540Freedom Convoy and movement, that they're just driving people to true north. And I'm grateful
01:05:48.840for that. I'm grateful for all of our new audience, all of the people watching right now.
01:05:52.680I thank you for putting your trust in us, for getting your news from true north, for sharing
01:05:57.900our stories and watching our videos and and for those who are able to donate to to our cause
01:06:03.240because i think again having an independent press is so vital in a democracy especially at times
01:06:08.920like this yeah i i have to say and i i know it sounds i i'm trying to like hold you up by your
01:06:14.740ankles and shake out your pockets but you know the twitter likes and retweets and the follows are
01:06:19.280great we love them we need them to get the message out the facebook likes and shares and youtube
01:06:23.420comments are great. But ultimately, if we want to compete with those legacy media journalists to
01:06:28.760get our story out in front of people that aren't already on side, we need the people like you that
01:06:33.020are already in this club to help us do that. And we're hiring, we're growing, we're expanding,
01:06:38.220we're putting boots on the ground. And like I said, I don't even know how easy it's going to be,
01:06:42.840but we're certainly going to be there and not give up. But if you can lend a hand to that effort,
01:06:46.700please do. The website is donate.tnc.news. With that, I want to give a big thank you to
01:06:53.020our editor and Civil Liberties journalist and investigative journalist Harley Sims for coming
01:06:58.960and Candace Malcolm as well, not just for sharing her insights today, but also letting me have fun
01:07:03.820doing these things as well. I am Andrew Lawton. I'll have the Andrew Lawton show tomorrow and
01:07:08.820Candace will have the Candace Malcolm show tomorrow. And I suspect some of these things
01:07:12.880that we're talking about today will feature prominently in both of those. But do come back.
01:07:18.080We will talk to you soon. Thank you. God bless and good day to you all.