Juno News - Poilievre CRUSHES byelection with 80% win

00:00:00.000 Welcome to the Candice Malcolm Show. My name is Chris Sims. I'm the Alberta Director for the

00:00:08.240 Canadian Taxpayers Federation. Candice is being ever so kind in letting me sit in her chair a

00:00:13.740 little bit this summer. So thank you for making us a part of your day with the show. Lots to talk

00:00:18.540 about. Let's jump in right off the top. So there was a big by-election just to the north of where

00:00:24.640 I am here in Lethbridge, Alberta. It was in Battle River, Crowfoot. And yes, the Conservative Party

00:00:30.560 leader Pierre Polyev is now officially a Member of Parliament once again. He was elected with just

00:00:37.100 over 80% support. If we can pull that up, I think we have a screenshot from Elections Canada showing

00:00:43.860 what is more or less the final vote tally from last night. So it was just over 80% in total that

00:00:51.680 Pierre Polyev captured last night for his riding. For folks who aren't familiar with the riding,

00:00:57.420 this is a huge geographic area, basically just to the east of Calgary, and it runs up against

00:01:03.640 the line and the border of Saskatchewan. Towards the south of the riding, there is Drumheller,

00:01:09.460 which is of course the famous place with the big International Dinosaur Museum. They also have a

00:01:14.540 prison there, so there's lots of law enforcement jobs. And up towards the north of the riding,

00:01:19.420 there's Canadian Forces Base CFB Wainwright, which is one of the busiest army bases in Canada,

00:01:25.000 actually. And in between, there's Stettler, so a lot of rodeo folks there. So you kind of get this

00:01:30.720 mix of like Alberta culture all pooling in Battle River, Crowfoot. It's been considered a safe seat

00:01:37.700 since time immemorial for whatever happens to be the Conservative brand of party going on. So Pierre

00:01:43.580 Polyev won with more than 80% of the vote last night. We do have a brief clip for you. If we are

00:01:49.340 your news starting the day, here's Pierre Polyev, a portion of it from last night.

00:01:54.340 To anyone who has been knocked down, but has got back up and kept on going, you haven't given up,

00:02:00.160 so I won't give up. Together, we will work together. We will fight together. We will sacrifice

00:02:05.840 together to restore the opportunity that our grandparents left for us so that we can leave it,

00:02:11.940 leave it for our grandchildren, so that we can once again restore a country that is strong,

00:02:18.360 self-reliant, and sovereign. That is the country we're in this for. That is why we stay united.

00:02:24.360 That is why we go forward. May God keep our land glorious and free.

00:02:28.320 So really happy to hear Pierre Polyev commit to fighting the looming ban on the sale of normal

00:02:36.860 gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles. Mark Carney and his government would refer to it as the EV

00:02:42.940 mandate. I'm worried by just calling it the EV mandate. It kind of slips under the door and people

00:02:48.060 don't realize how important this is. It's actually a ban. The federal government is going to make it

00:02:54.180 illegal for you to be able to go to a car dealership and purchase a gasoline or diesel-powered

00:02:59.460 vehicle. Those restrictions start in like four months, okay? As we spoke at length with Dan

00:03:07.620 McTague yesterday on the Candace Malcolm show, this is going to start skewing the vehicle market,

00:03:13.560 which people depend upon for everything, really, when it comes to getting to work and driving to

00:03:18.480 school, etc., okay? This is going to start skewing the market in about four months' time.

00:03:22.800 And by 2035, it's going to be a flat-out ban. So it's really important, and we're happy to hear 0.53

00:03:29.280 that Polyev is committing to making it a campaign of his. He even called it that once he gets back

00:03:34.680 into the House of Commons. He's also committed to fighting the industrial carbon tax. So as of right

00:03:41.100 now, we're kind of in a lull when it comes to the federal carbon tax because the consumer carbon tax

00:03:46.840 is gone. It's not actually just reduced to zero. They went in and they excised the actual

00:03:51.760 functionality of the carbon tax. So it is gone. So that is why typically gasoline and diesel is

00:03:57.820 around 20-ish cents cheaper this summer than it was last summer. So that's because tax fighters like

00:04:04.160 you, normal people, actually got somebody like Mark Carney to blink on the consumer carbon tax. But

00:04:10.060 we all know that it's not over. Carney is cooking up a big new industrial carbon tax. They don't have it

00:04:16.660 in place yet. It's going to hit things like fuel refineries. So it's going to make things like

00:04:22.040 gasoline and diesel suddenly cost more. It's going to hit things like utility companies. So if you use

00:04:27.660 natural gas for your home heating or even your electricity, it's going to affect that. It's going

00:04:33.520 to hit things like fertilizer plants. What else do farmers need right now but an enormous cost increase

00:04:40.020 in pain in the neck like a big industrial carbon tax, which in turn will make food cost more again.

00:04:45.800 Also for folks who are watching in Ontario, send an email to Ontario Premier Doug Ford, okay? Because

00:04:52.620 Mark Carney's industrial carbon tax is, in their words, going to decimate the steel industry there,

00:04:59.380 okay? So it's very good to hear Polyev commit to fighting things like the looming ban on gasoline and

00:05:06.280 diesel-powered cars, the industrial carbon tax, and to keep promising to fight the censorship laws,

00:05:13.500 okay? We've got big censorship laws. They're already in place here in Canada. More of them are on the way.

00:05:19.840 And there's a ton of mainstream media that are on government payroll, which is an enormous conflict

00:05:25.380 of interests because journalists should never be paid by the government. So interesting to see. I'm

00:05:32.100 looking forward to seeing this next season of the House of Commons now that things are getting a

00:05:36.700 little bit more back to normal in the fall. Another thing we're keeping an eye on, especially here in

00:05:41.640 Alberta, is that Alberta Premier Daniel Smith is going to be holding a cabinet meeting today.

00:05:48.080 And usually that would be kind of a nothing burger because we're in the middle of summer and who cares,

00:05:52.700 but taxpayers care. Anybody who cares about government transparency cares because, of course,

00:05:58.640 a really strange thing happened a little while ago. August 1st, the Friday before a long weekend,

00:06:05.800 a change was quietly made to the transparency rules when it comes to spending taxpayers' money.

00:06:11.340 A rule that required politicians and bureaucrats, senior government officials, whenever they spend

00:06:17.340 more than a hundred bucks of taxpayers' money, up until recently, they had to post that receipt on the

00:06:22.720 internet for everybody to see. You didn't have to go through a paywall. You didn't have to wait for

00:06:27.720 your FOI documents to come through, possibly waiting months for that. Okay, everybody could see. And

00:06:33.520 it's important to be able to see an itemized receipt because you probably care if somebody is spending

00:06:39.120 your money renting a Corolla or a Corvette, if somebody's spending your money buying a Subway sandwich

00:06:45.580 or a lobster dinner. Those itemized detailed receipts matter. Strangely, that requirement just

00:06:52.380 disappeared on a Friday. So, Premier Daniel Smith was away at the time and she just got back recently

00:06:59.460 from a trade trip to Mexico. When she was asked about it at her Alberta Next panel, she said she

00:07:05.040 was confused by this too, that they were going to be figuring out what happened and, quote, reversing it

00:07:11.180 at their next cabinet meeting. That's today. So, we're definitely keeping an eye on that here

00:07:16.960 because taxpayers demand that level of transparency. Speaking of transparency and accountability,

00:07:23.460 you know how we're able to do that? You know how everybody in Canada is able to speak truth to

00:07:30.060 power, as the kids on the left say? You know how everybody is able to keep tabs on their politician,

00:07:35.840 their member of parliament, and speak up when they're screwing up? It's because we have something

00:07:39.920 called free expression and freedom of assembly and association. These are fundamentally important

00:07:46.420 because without them, a chill goes through everybody and then they start getting scared of people who

00:07:52.720 are in power and who are taking their money. Keep in mind that the taxes we're paying here in Canada

00:07:59.880 are costing the average worker more than the cost of homes, food, and clothing combined.

00:08:08.280 For that amount of money, we better be getting gold-plated services and a very transparent

00:08:14.000 government. How do we hold government to account? Well, Christine Van Gein is an excellent

00:08:19.860 constitutional lawyer. She knows all about this. Let's find out. Joining me now is the Litigation

00:08:26.280 Director for the Canadian Constitution Foundation, the CCF, Christine Van Gein. Christine,

00:08:32.340 thank you so much for joining us today. Yeah, my pleasure, Chris.

00:08:35.220 So, so much to talk about on the freedom angle of things. I usually like to introduce you to the

00:08:41.780 audience as one of the people who helped get that wonderful ruling coming from the federal court level

00:08:48.800 against the invocation of the Emergencies Act. Was that including, in particular, the freezing of the

00:08:56.240 bank accounts? I think that it was, right? Yeah, yeah. We had a legal challenge to Justin Trudeau's

00:09:04.200 invocation of the Emergencies Act in response to the Freedom Convoy in 2022. And we said that that

00:09:11.040 invocation was unjustified, that the threshold to invoke that piece of legislation, which is very high,

00:09:18.000 had not been met. And the judge agreed with us. And the judge also agreed with us that the freezing

00:09:23.360 of bank accounts was a unconstitutional search and seizure, and that the prohibitions on gatherings

00:09:31.400 across the country was also an unconstitutional violation of the right to freedom of expression.

00:09:37.020 So a big win in that case, although I'll remind everyone that it is under appeal. So we are still

00:09:43.400 awaiting the outcome of that appeal, which was heard in February. Wonderful. That was a huge win.

00:09:49.920 I remember feeling kind of a collective shift in what is often referred to loosely as the freedom

00:09:56.160 movement, those who want smaller, more accountable government in this country and not big bossy ones

00:10:00.880 who get to take all of our money and freeze our bank accounts. Because it comes down to this,

00:10:04.720 if you can't gather, and if you can't protest and express yourself, you can't hold government to

00:10:10.460 account, which is why the Taxpayers Federation was also opposed to the invocation of the Emergencies Act.

00:10:15.460 And I must say, anecdotally, I've heard from plenty of people who are still scared. They're

00:10:20.460 not even joking. They're still scared of, oh, the government might freeze my bank account if I speak

00:10:24.800 up. Like, yeah, we heard a lot of that. We heard so much of that. It was really a really difficult

00:10:31.260 time to be a charity operating in Canada. And some people still feel this way. I understand it.

00:10:36.940 Although I don't think that there is a risk of that at this point. But that's why we need to push back

00:10:42.320 on that kind of government overreach. Big time, which is why I wanted to get you on today. Because

00:10:47.620 I know that you guys are really following particularly what is happening out in Atlantic

00:10:53.000 Canada. If I'm singling out a place, it's going to be Nova Scotia, where they've got a huge ban

00:10:58.300 on what people often refer to as walking in the woods. So not just a campfire ban. I'm from British

00:11:03.760 Columbia. I grew up around wildfires. I know that they're super frightening. But there, they'll have

00:11:09.140 certain regions which are closed down at certain times. Or they will say things like, you can't

00:11:14.060 bring a hot ATV in there with a hot exhaust, which can start fires. And obviously, you can't have a

00:11:19.620 campfire. But you can still go walking your dog, or you can go hiking, or you can go fishing. Where I

00:11:26.020 think a lot of people were kind of taken aback by the change in Nova Scotia, of all of a sudden, it's

00:11:31.560 nobody's allowed in the forest, we think. And it's a $25,000 ban?

00:11:36.480 Yeah, it's a $25,000 fine, or $25,000 fine. Although with taxes and victims fees, there's

00:11:45.680 individuals who have received this fine. I think it amounts to closer to $28,000. So yeah, we think

00:11:52.580 that this is disproportionate. It is going too far. It is banning activities that don't pose risk,

00:11:59.920 because the government is kind of playing on this fear and control narrative. It is a lockdown of

00:12:08.160 the forest. And we're really opposed to this kind of thing. Of course, ban fires, ban campfires, ban,

00:12:17.020 I appreciate your comment about ATVs, because those do start fires. But the number one cause of

00:12:23.240 wildfires in Nova Scotia, it's actually different from British Columbia, the number one cause is arson.

00:12:29.640 And the most recent fire in Nova Scotia, which I understand is under control, was caused by human 0.99

00:12:38.300 activity. That is the main cause of most fires is arson. So punish arsonists. I mean, lay down the

00:12:46.300 law, put people who intentionally start fires that risk human lives, and which destroy property, put those

00:12:54.740 people in jail and give them big penalties, but don't punish someone because they took their dog for a walk in

00:13:00.700 the woods. That's bizarre. And it's completely irrational.

00:13:04.940 We actually have a clip about that in that particular fire. It's Tim Houston, the premier of Nova Scotia and a fire

00:13:12.160 official talking about the fire, which is for folks who are in Nova Scotia, or who have lived there before. It's an area

00:13:19.180 called Bears Lake. It's typically kind of a big box shopping area just to the south of Halifax. So folks

00:13:26.020 who want to go out and get their Costco fix, etc, will drive down there and do some shopping around it

00:13:31.640 and kind of on this low hill is a big forested area. So let's take a listen to that.

00:13:37.180 I understand that you're not able to say the cause of the Susie Lake fire under investigation. Are there

00:13:42.920 early indications that this would be human cause? I know that that is largely what causes forest fires in

00:13:48.340 this part of the country.

00:13:51.080 Yeah, so that the cause of the cause of the fire was related to human activity. It was an open fire.

00:13:57.340 Can you share the specific location of where that open fire was found?

00:14:03.020 I don't have that to share today. No, just we can share that it was human activity, but it's an ongoing

00:14:09.080 investigation. So some of those details I don't have to provide.

00:14:11.980 Was there a homeless encampment in this area where the fire, where your crews responded to?

00:14:16.400 I think, again, sorry, but I think like the investigation in time will look at, you know,

00:14:24.660 the what, the why, the how, all those types of things. But for right now, the focus is just on

00:14:30.020 containing the fire, fighting the fires, and just kind of reiterating to Nova Scotia is that it's a,

00:14:36.540 it's a risky situation and just obey the, obey the laws that are in place right now.

00:14:41.140 So the scuttlebutt slash rumor going around the area is that there was a homeless encampment in the

00:14:48.500 area and that that is where the fire got started. Speaking from personal experience, I grew up in

00:14:54.360 the Fraser Canyon, Fraser Valley, and especially the last few years before I left British Columbia,

00:14:59.480 homelessness was a major problem because housing was absolutely outrageous and it was really starting

00:15:04.820 to hurt the working poor. And then you'd wind up with these kinds of encampments up logging roads

00:15:09.400 and there's people who are trying to cook or stay warm, et cetera. And that's where some fires were

00:15:14.320 starting. We're hearing Christine that apparently the government is reluctant to move folks out of

00:15:20.700 the woods, even if they're living there, even if they think it's going to cause a risk of a fire

00:15:25.820 starting. Is this where we're going, where we wind up, is this called uneven application of the law,

00:15:31.040 or am I using lawyer talk incorrectly there? Look, so I think that the idea of giving a $25,000

00:15:38.460 fine to a homeless person is obviously silly. They do not have a home. They do not have resources to

00:15:46.920 pay a fine like that. Although I would say few people do, few people can afford to pay a fine like

00:15:52.500 this. There has been reporting on CBC that people who work with the homeless community have been going

00:16:01.660 in. They have a permit to enter the woods and trying to explain to people at the encampments why they

00:16:07.640 should leave, why they shouldn't be in the woods. But my understanding is that the proclamation is not

00:16:14.480 being enforced against them. And I don't think it should be because I don't think it should be

00:16:20.100 enforced against anyone. But I do think that it should, there should, they should not be, you know,

00:16:25.780 lighting fires. I think that part of it should be enforced and there should be penalties associated

00:16:30.600 with that. But I do not think that merely being in the woods should be enforced against either against

00:16:37.800 the people who are living without a home in the woods or people who are walking their dogs or

00:16:43.780 foraging for wildflowers or birdwatching or picnicking. Or any of the other activities that

00:16:52.340 aren't typically known to cause fires. Punish people who start fires. Completely reasonable.

00:16:57.820 Now that's a lot of crazy talk. Actually punish people who are committing arson and deliberately

00:17:03.020 starting fire. And look, there's like, there's all kinds of bizarre hysteria around the idea that

00:17:09.200 people walking in the woods pose some risk, even if they are not doing anything that starts a fire.

00:17:15.140 And so many people I have seen make these claims that, oh, if you're walking in the woods, you might

00:17:20.420 do something else that causes a fire, like dropping a cigarette or going on an ATV or burning something.

00:17:29.260 Or I've even heard the claim multiple times that someone might drop a plastic wrapper or water bottle

00:17:35.560 and the light magnifies through this and sparks a fire. I mean, this is really paranoid, hysterical

00:17:43.580 thinking. And it's also this mindset where every person out of their home is a potential criminal and

00:17:49.480 needs to be treated as such by the government. And that is not an appropriate way to govern.

00:17:55.060 That's governing through fear of your own citizens. And it's really wrong and contrary to our most

00:18:00.800 fundamental values. And it will start quickly down that slippery slope of really restricting

00:18:06.420 people's free expression. I'm not even kidding. Like, you know, at the Taxpayers Federation,

00:18:10.220 you were with the Taxpayers Federation. You know that we will do some stunts. And so I remember

00:18:16.140 distinctly, I've got like a 30 foot tall balloon man. OK, he's still in my garage. And like I set him

00:18:23.140 up at different places in order to get attention and the insurance that you had to get and the

00:18:27.940 permissions that you had to get. Because it was all around this, OK, what if somebody is really

00:18:32.980 distracted by what you're doing? Or what if somebody is really frightened by what you're

00:18:36.800 doing? Like there was all sorts of like safetyism, to use your language, that was rolling into this.

00:18:43.240 Before we move on to your excellent report on safetyism and how it could be eroding our freedoms

00:18:48.440 in Canada, exactly to what I just said, where do we stand on the Nova Scotia slash Atlantic Canada issue?

00:18:55.140 Like, is your group fighting it directly? Are you challenging it in court? Do you guys have dates?

00:18:59.860 How can people help? Yeah, thanks for asking. So we have filed for a judicial review of the

00:19:06.040 proclamation under the Forest Act that bans people from entering the woods. If you want to support our

00:19:13.520 legal fund, you can visit the ccf.ca slash donate. And we will be bringing this as a public interest

00:19:19.780 litigant, which means as an organization, because this is the kind of work that we do at the CCF.

00:19:25.460 We have standing generally to sue on behalf of all people in Nova Scotia. Excellent. All right. And

00:19:31.400 one other thing I wanted to touch on here, it's much closer to home here in Alberta. There was the

00:19:35.860 Christian singer person from the United States. I listened to an interview with him on a podcast

00:19:40.780 the other day. I was surprised to hear he said he's been coming up to Canada for like 20 years

00:19:46.420 and doing concerts and doing outreach with his with his congregation, I would describe it.

00:19:52.080 And so they're going to be having a concert. They're actually holding it on the lawn of the

00:19:56.140 legislature in Alberta, which I found really interesting. Are you following this from kind

00:20:00.900 of a free expression angle and like a safetyism angle as well?

00:20:04.420 Yeah, actually both as well as freedom of religion. So Sean Foyt, who's this Christian

00:20:10.060 American worship singer, who has sometimes uses language that I would not use. And he says things

00:20:17.980 that I don't agree with. But he also performs worship music, which is a constitutionally protected

00:20:24.540 form of expression and expression of religion. And those are his rights, even in Canada as an American.

00:20:32.100 And it's also the right of people to attend his worship services and listen to his music.

00:20:38.940 And the fact that a lot of municipalities across Canada, mostly in Eastern Canada,

00:20:45.920 either denied or pulled his park permits to perform in parks is really, really unreasonable.

00:20:53.280 I think it was an unjustified use of their discretion, sort of similar to this famous old case

00:20:59.300 called Ron Corellian Du Plessis. I've written about this for the hub. But essentially, that was a case

00:21:05.540 where the premier of Nova Scotia didn't like the Jehovah's Witnesses at the time. So he pulled the

00:21:10.900 liquor license of a famous restaurant owner in Montreal, who was a Jehovah's Witness, essentially to punish 1.00

00:21:19.660 him for having a religion that the premier disagreed with. And that's sort of the same scenario playing

00:21:27.340 out here. There are not really legitimate reasons to pull his permits. A lot of cities have justified

00:21:36.620 it sort of saying, Oh, well, it's a safety issue that we, we shouldn't have many too many people in

00:21:43.980 parks. It's just ridiculous. There are concerts in parks all the time. Quebec City said he was too 0.96

00:21:50.140 controversial and artists, which is content based restrictions on speech and religion, which is

00:21:55.340 inappropriate. Montreal claims that he needed a permit to perform a worship service inside a church,

00:22:01.580 which of course you don't, it's ordinary use of the church. So it really is targeting on the basis of

00:22:07.980 his content, which you don't need to agree with to think that he has the right to express it, you just

00:22:14.060 we have a right to freedom of religion. However, it expresses itself in this country.

00:22:20.300 Isn't that the whole point of freedom of expression? I mean, really, if I agree with everything you're

00:22:25.020 saying, I don't need it written down in some big building.

00:22:28.140 Absolutely. Well, your right to freedom of expression only has meaning if you're allowed

00:22:33.100 to express things that other people disagree with. If you're only allowed to express things everyone

00:22:39.340 says or unobjectionable and agree with, the right just is just to be a boring, ordinary person who

00:22:50.300 never causes any controversy whatsoever. The civil rights movement in the United States was possible

00:22:58.380 because of freedom of expression. This is a right for all people, the right to freedom of expression.

00:23:03.900 And it's actually how we define the contours of every other right that we have, whether it's

00:23:08.460 freedom of religion or equality rights or freedom of the press.

00:23:12.220 I must say it kind of reminds me of I forget when it was, but it was recent when the commentator,

00:23:18.860 American commentator Tucker Carlson was coming up to Canada and he was holding a couple of like big

00:23:24.060 speaking events and there were actual like, I don't remember if it was an MP or an MLA or both.

00:23:30.380 There were actual like lawmakers who were saying we should arrest him at the border and not let him

00:23:36.060 in. Like it was embarrassing as if, you know, Rachel Maddow were coming up here from MSNBC and that any

00:23:43.100 reasonable person would say we should arrest her and not let her talk about her radical left wing 1.00

00:23:48.060 ideas. Like who cares? Isn't that the point of free expression? And if your arguments are awesome,

00:23:53.980 it should be able to withstand some free expression and criticism. It reminded me of that.

00:23:58.780 Yeah. I mean, the idea that Rachel Maddow would anyone would say she should be arrested if she came

00:24:04.540 into Canada is that would, that would never happen. And, and look, there's plenty I disagree

00:24:09.260 with about with Tucker. There's plenty I disagree with about Rachel Maddow. And I think that it's,

00:24:15.100 it's, it's useful to have their speech scrutinized, analyzed and taken apart when it's wrong.

00:24:22.940 That's actually how we counter bad ideas by allowing them to be considered and rejected.

00:24:28.460 Otherwise you drive things underground and make murders out of, uh, out of people. So that's

00:24:33.820 actually what ha what the CBC did with Sean Foy. I think the fact that he's been coming here for 20

00:24:38.940 years and most people had never heard about it. Uh, they sure have heard of it now because of

00:24:44.860 CBC trying to have it shut down. That's a perfect example and test of exactly what we're talking

00:24:50.380 about here. Briefly, I will point out that this even affects the Canadian taxpayers federation from

00:24:54.940 time to time, because I remember distinctly a few years ago when Stefan Guibo was still the environment

00:25:00.460 minister, we found a government report, a federal government report, which was recommending a special

00:25:06.940 tax on pickup trucks and SUVs. It was right there in their language. It was right there in the

00:25:12.060 the appendices of their report. We had it in black and white. We talked about it. We reported on it,

00:25:17.340 as we would say with the taxpayers federation, and he called it disinformation and misinformation

00:25:22.940 as a sitting minister of the crown. So that's when you're just like, Whoa, how, how long are we going

00:25:28.140 to have to wait until he starts saying that you shouldn't be allowed to say disinformation and

00:25:33.100 misinformation. We get into that kind of online harms language realm. And that's why we have to be able to

00:25:38.540 protect our right for free expression. I wanted to dovetail this, your excellent coverage of this

00:25:44.140 with you guys have a special report that has been put out on what you refer to as safetyism and how

00:25:51.180 the state slash government is now using safetyism and it could start trampling our rights. Can you

00:25:57.660 expand on that a little bit? Yeah. So safetyism refers to a cultural or even institution or government

00:26:05.020 tendency to prioritize physical and even emotional safety above all other values, you know, at the

00:26:13.260 expense of those other values, including freedom, personal development, open debate and discourse.

00:26:19.580 And look, safety is of course important, but Canadian governments have exploited emergencies or the sense of

00:26:27.980 danger historically in the most grotesque ways. They've used it, the rationale of safety to shut

00:26:36.620 down Sean Foyt, to lock down the forests in Nova Scotia. They've used it to justify censorship,

00:26:43.100 surveillance, or restrictions on basic freedoms, all in the name of protecting people from discomfort

00:26:49.740 or offense or some type of perceived risk or harm. And it's this culture where no risk is tolerable

00:26:56.940 whatsoever. That cellophane wrapper in the woods is apparently so dangerous that you're not allowed

00:27:01.980 to walk your dog in the forest. So in this report, safety above all, which you can download

00:27:08.540 for free at the ccf.ca slash safetyism, we go through the historic instances where governments have

00:27:18.140 overreached and eroded and violated civil liberties in the name of safety. And they're really

00:27:25.660 disturbing examples from the invocation of the War Measures Act in response to the October crisis

00:27:32.300 in 1970, where habeas corpus was suspended, where homes were searched without warrants, where people

00:27:39.500 were arrested and detained incommunicado for weeks. There was the detainment of an internment of Japanese

00:27:51.020 Canadians in 1942 following Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. And Japanese Canadians were rounded up across

00:27:59.180 the country and put into shacks in interior BC without adequate heating. Their property was seized by the

00:28:06.940 government and sold. And then that money was used to finance their own internment because the government

00:28:13.260 internment told people that Japanese Canadians were too dangerous because of this, you know, inaccurate risk view that they

00:28:23.260 would be spying on Canadians. So they all had to be proactively put into these internment camps. There was the G20 mass

00:28:33.260 arrests. There is the practice of random vehicle stops where police in the name of public safety have the power to pull over any

00:28:41.260 or any driver on the road there, which is often administered in a way that is racially biased. There was the long gun registry, which was justified in the name

00:28:53.260 of safety and essentially created the risk of paper based criminalization of lawful gun owners. It is used to, it was used to justify to go full circle in this conversation, the Justin Trudeau invocation of the

00:29:03.260 emergencies act. So when government says, this is for your own good, you need to be very, very wary of those types of claims, because their goal is often to going to operate in a way that really erodes our basic freedoms.

00:29:25.260 Just to wrap up here, Christine, excellent points. If I can go out on a limb here, as somebody was born and raised here and who has two kids who have gone through the school systems, we've also alternatively homeschooled from time to time.

00:29:39.260 I find that quite often, this idea of big daddy government, taking care of everything, everything the government says is fine, and it's in order to be safe. Okay. That kind of thinking really gets baked in here. And it's different, like here in Alberta, it's a bit different, but it's really baked in, I found from experience of living in places like Ontario and living in places like Nova Scotia, not to generalize and know everybody is different, but just generally speaking as a culture.

00:30:07.260 But just generally speaking as a culture. And I think that that does start in the schools. And it starts in kids books, which is why I'm bringing this up. You wrote a kids book, I think it's called Maple's Garden. And it's all about the fundamental need for free expression. Up in the United States, they'd call it free speech. But free expression, free speech. Why did you think it was important to help little kids start a

00:30:37.260 appreciating a fundamental freedom like this?

00:31:07.240 And what we're trying to do is educate our children and create a culture where civil liberties is valued. And so that's why I wrote this book, Maple's Garden, beautifully illustrated by a Canadian artist who I actually grew up with, who has had her own issues with freedom of expression.

00:31:28.220 As an artist, as an artist, she drew pictures of the convoy, and she had other artists attack her. And if you can't have free expression as an artist, if you can't explore controversial as an artist, I mean, what is even the point of art if you can't do that? So I was so proud to collaborate with Lisa on this project, Maple's Garden, it's going to be available as of September 2, and it's available for pre order right now.

00:31:56.240 It's available September 2?

00:31:58.240 Yeah, that's the launch date.

00:32:00.240 Did you pick Atlas Shrugged Day on purpose? Or was that just a coincidence?

00:32:04.240 Of course, you would know that, Chris. No, that's a coincidence. But yeah, I should say it's on purpose, but it was a coincidence.

00:32:14.320 So I love that. For folks who aren't Ayn Rand nuts, Atlas Shrugged Day is typically referred to as September 2, because that's one of the opening sentences of her book, Atlas Shrugged, which is all about human spirit, individuality and freedom.

00:32:27.320 Christine, this has just been wonderful. I will tell a tale out of school, when I'm in a long form interview, and somebody starts asking me a really complicated legal question about something like free expression.

00:32:38.320 I'll be like, you know, who's really smart about that Christine Van Gein go watch her show. So where can people watch your show?

00:32:46.320 So I have a few shows. I am a very busy lady. So I have a YouTube channel, which you can find on YouTube by searching the Canadian Constitution Foundation.

00:32:56.320 I have a podcast called not reserving judgment, which you can find wherever you get your podcasts, Apple, Spotify, as well as on YouTube.

00:33:05.320 And then I host a national broadcast television program called Canadian Justice, which is available on the news forum, which is a basic cable channel that if you have cable, you will have in your house.

00:33:17.320 Wonderful. Christine Van Gein, litigation director for the Canadian Constitution Foundation. Thank you so much for joining us on the Candace Malcolm show.

00:33:25.320 Yeah, my pleasure.

00:33:28.320 Folks, you heard it directly from her. If we don't all band together. So all these alternative news outlets, all of these independent outlets, these advocacy groups like the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, like the Canadian Constitution Foundation, government is just going to get bigger.

00:33:44.320 And government is just going to make you pay for them getting bigger and bigger and telling you to shut up more and more and more.

00:33:51.320 So we got to build this side of the movement. So if you have somebody in your circle who is open to the idea of maybe even just a kid's book, encouraging kids to be able to stand up for themselves, to speak their minds, to talk back to their teachers, perhaps, and to stand up for themselves.

00:34:10.320 Make sure you share this episode. Make sure you go to the Canadian Constitution Foundation, sign up for free for their emails.

00:34:17.320 I happen to know for a fact you can even watch like a mini course on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and how it affects us and our Constitution for free on their website.

00:34:28.320 These are from like trained lawyers who wear gowns and robes and stuff. They're really smart. So this is how we grow the movement. Okay. And the best way right now to grow the movement is to head on over to Juno News. Make sure you subscribe and make sure you share this episode.

00:34:45.320 We'll see you next time.

Juno News - August 19, 2025

Poilievre CRUSHES byelection with 80% win

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