00:00:00.000Over the last seven weeks, we've heard scores of witnesses, hours and hours of testimony before the Public Order Emergency Commission investigating Justin Trudeau's use of the Emergencies Act.
00:00:11.820Now, I know that the Conservatives and you were against that act, but looking back on this, we're now coming up on 10 months, almost a year since the convoy protests and since the Emergencies Act.
00:00:23.440Where is your perspective on this now after the commission hearings have commenced?
00:00:27.340It's the same place that it was before the protesters even arrived in Ottawa.
00:00:33.500I was out there, actually out that way.
00:00:37.020I was on the steps of the John A. Macdonald building across from the Parliament buildings and they asked me,
00:00:43.520what do you think about all the terrible people that are coming for this protest?
00:00:47.460And I said, well, you know, you're talking about, you know, they pick one or two examples of bad actors.
00:00:54.860And I said, look, there are in any protest going to be good people and bad people.
00:01:01.560You have thousands of people attending a protest.
00:01:04.060You can pick a group that are not behaving properly.
00:01:08.980But on the whole, I supported the peaceful and law abiding protesters who wanted their liberty and livelihoods back while simultaneously condemning anyone who broke laws, behaved badly or blockaded critical infrastructure.
00:01:27.640I also think Justin Trudeau provoked this entire crisis with an entirely unnecessary and unscientific vaccine mandate on truckers.
00:01:36.700It was imposed as the rest of the world was beginning to lift mandates.
00:01:41.240And it was imposed on the very people least likely to spread a virus because they're in a truck by themselves all day long.
00:01:50.900And so I said, I thought this is unfair and unjust.
00:01:55.160And if he had not done that, there would have been no trucker protest on Parliament Hill.
00:02:00.400We wouldn't even be having this conversation.
00:02:01.300And he has, to this date, not provided any scientific evidence that there was a medical reason for doing it.
00:02:09.140So I think it was part of a deliberate strategy to divide and conquer.
00:02:14.040One that his own Liberal MP, Joel Lightbound, called out during the convoy protests.
00:02:20.920And we're dealing with all of these costs, all of this division, all of this distraction because he deliberately provoked it at the outset.
00:02:28.080Let me return to that comment you gave, which I've heard you say before about condemning lawbreakers and supporting law-abiding peaceful protesters.
00:02:36.860Because one of the big questions about this protest is at what point did it become in the government's eyes unlawful?
00:02:43.120So when you talk about someone like Tamara Leach, for example, is she an example of the one you support who is peaceful and law-abiding?
00:02:48.780Or is she an example of one of the law-breaking ones you condemn?
00:02:51.580Well, I'm not going to talk about any particular individual because I think she has a case for the courts and I'll let the courts just determine.
00:02:59.920Because I haven't studied every single person's conduct over that two or three week period.
00:03:04.300I wasn't on the ground surveilling people.
00:03:08.200So I can't say what people did and what they didn't do.
00:03:10.400But I can say that from the vast majority of people that I witnessed who participated in it seemed to be just doing the normal Canadian peaceful protest.
00:03:22.940Now, again, there were people who behaved badly or blockaded critical infrastructure.
00:03:28.280I don't support blocking borders or shutting down highways.
00:03:48.640But that said, I think overall the reason we had these protests and all of this disruption was because of an unnecessary and very disruptive vaccine mandate that deprived all of these truckers of their livelihoods.
00:04:06.720And that's why they felt like they had nowhere to go.
00:04:09.340You know, it was the middle of February, I think, and cold.
00:04:14.320And I don't think it was a luxury for them to be sleeping in their trucks.
00:04:18.180They did it because they had nowhere to go.
00:04:20.200They had no job to return to because their job required them to seamlessly pass through the border with their goods.
00:04:27.860And the Prime Minister took away that livelihood from them.
00:04:31.840And that's why this thing went on for so long.
00:04:33.600If he had not done that, we wouldn't be having this conversation today.
00:04:37.080If the Commissioner finds that the Emergencies Act was not justified, one of the concerns that's been raised is that Parliament can take it, review it, perhaps propose amendments.
00:04:46.720But there really isn't a sanction or a penalty attached to the government on that.
00:04:51.200And Jagmeet Singh, as I understand it, has said that even if that happens, he's going to continue supporting the Liberals.
00:04:56.200So how are you in a position, if you are at all, to really demand accountability if this was an overreach?
00:05:05.200I've consulted with some legal scholars on ideas to protect Canadians against abuses of power under the Emergencies Act.
00:05:13.800And I think we need to do, we need to have some review of that because obviously the Prime Minister used it when it was unnecessary.
00:05:23.660You know, the border blockades were already lifted, as you know, when the Emergency Act came.
00:05:30.720And it's hard for the Prime Minister to explain what the emergency was.
00:05:34.320There's obviously some disruption in downtown Ottawa on several blocks, but, you know, that doesn't constitute a national emergency, like a, you know, catastrophic earthquake or a foreign invasion or some sort of terrorist attack that takes down a large building.
00:05:56.680That's what you think of when you say national emergency.
00:05:59.940And we didn't have a national emergency.
00:06:02.700Obviously what we had was, you know, a large protest and some roads blocked in a downtown setting, while the borders were completely open to commerce.
00:06:14.480So I think we need to have another look at the Emergency Act powers to make sure that no Prime Minister is able to abuse the power in the Act like that again.
00:06:25.040And there may be some more checks and balances required to do it.