Juno News - Randy Hillier on the Politics of Lockdown

00:00:00.000 you're tuned in to the andrew lawton show

00:00:05.600 so the new projections from the ontario government are that the second wave

00:00:12.400 is going to be peaking in october and this is of course timing well with the government telling us

00:00:18.640 that further lockdown measures are potentially coming down the pipeline we had over the weekend

00:00:24.060 restriction in place on when bars conserve alcohol and some other businesses and it seems like we're

00:00:30.900 right back to not necessarily square one but where we were months ago which we know was really much

00:00:37.000 really the death knell for a lot of businesses and very few people in the provincial legislature

00:00:42.080 have been speaking out against this one of the only ones and certainly the loudest has been

00:00:46.660 randy hillier a former pc mpp now an independent member of the provincial parliament who joins me

00:00:52.920 on the line now randy good to talk to you thanks very much for coming on today great to be with

00:00:57.940 you andrew i think the one thing we learned early on in this is that all of the projections that we

00:01:03.620 were told were really the basis of government actions were wrong and i think we can be very

00:01:08.260 grateful they are because these were predicting thousands of deaths icu capacity overwhelmed it

00:01:13.760 hasn't happened so when you hear that now these same projections are looking at an october second wave

00:01:20.240 what's your reaction well since march um you know we we certainly had all these dire predictions uh

00:01:29.100 these catastrophic models uh and thankfully they didn't come to um come to bear um and it's not

00:01:37.920 uncommon for predictions and models to be found to be an error like that's normal uh it actually

00:01:45.620 it's very seldom a prediction or a model is factual at the end of the day and the same thing has

00:01:52.240 happened with covid um so but what we've got ourselves into now is a not so much of a health

00:02:01.160 care problem or a medical uh problem and we've got the in all western governments find this they've

00:02:08.480 got themselves a political problem a huge political problem and they're not knowing how to deal with it

00:02:15.080 and without admitting some errors and um so now we're finding ourselves being told we're in a second

00:02:24.780 wave but when you look at the evidence that is revealed the hospitalization rates are flat

00:02:32.080 um the deaths are flat uh hardly measurable um but an increasing number of people who are testing

00:02:43.700 positive for some form of coronavirus in their system um and those rates are going up significantly

00:02:52.820 but the severity and the lethality of uh of the virus has is flatlined but we're still we're still

00:03:01.200 acting politically on the models and the projections that have been dispelled and known to be false

00:03:09.120 what drives that because politicians don't want to be the ones responsible for shutting down

00:03:15.280 their constituents businesses and for wreaking economic havoc on their citizens so how is there

00:03:21.100 a political advantage to what's being proposed well i don't know if your statement is true andrew

00:03:27.560 um the the greatest singular uh priority and importance for a political party and elected people is re-election

00:03:39.160 and whatever it takes to be re-elected and part of what it takes to be re-elected re-elected is

00:03:47.560 to have public opinion on your side um and we know that there's a great great number of people who are living

00:03:55.080 in fear and i would say even a great number of people who are terrorized over the seven months of of headlines

00:04:06.280 and consistent and constant reminders of uh of the potential severity of covid that um that there has become

00:04:18.360 a very disturbed element in our society of uh that we have to act only on our fears and act on those uh

00:04:28.360 projections um so i i don't think doug ford or anybody in the pc caucus wants to wreak havoc on our economy

00:04:38.040 i don't think any of them want to deny access to health care like we've been doing to uh people who need

00:04:45.080 the medical attention um i don't think they want to prevent our kids from going to school but they

00:04:53.080 but more importantly is they don't want to have their brand and their reputation tarnished or diminished

00:05:02.280 by admitting that they made mistakes and errors and and they don't know how to diminish or alleviate

00:05:11.560 um the the level of fear in society or to communicate what is the appropriate level of risk what is the

00:05:22.840 the risk to people and as we know if you're under 80 if you don't have underlying illnesses or in chronic

00:05:32.680 uh illnesses this um the likelihood of you experiencing a of contacting and experiencing severe illness

00:05:43.240 or death is negligible and they just don't know how to how to get themselves out of the political

00:05:50.600 problem that they've created you are right about that that in a lot of ways they've boxed themselves

00:05:56.440 into a corner by how dire their predictions and projections were in march and april and we're

00:06:03.160 seeing them have to commit to the bit so to speak now whereas instead of just celebrating hey you know

00:06:09.080 what we had to take this extreme action because we didn't know now we do know that's a win for everyone

00:06:14.680 let's try to get back to normal but that's not what's happening and that's not what you know the this

00:06:20.120 is the nature and the characteristics these are the the attributes of political parties and governments

00:06:25.880 throughout the western world um so we see them all behaving in a very similar fashion um because

00:06:33.320 no government no government ever wants to admit an error unless it was for some other government's uh

00:06:43.640 faulty policies you know decades and decades ago i'll give you the example like um the internment of

00:06:49.960 japanese in canada that that recognition of the error happened uh 50 years later the recognition of

00:06:59.720 of wrongdoing with the residential schools happened many many decades after governments um you know

00:07:07.240 they know that if they admit errors and um and failings that tarnishes their brand it tarnishes

00:07:16.600 their narrative and it limits their potential for re-election and that's really um we've got

00:07:23.480 ourselves a huge political problem that some people think is a health care problem you were out of the

00:07:33.560 pc caucus a year and a half ago i think it was march 2019 had that not happened and had you still been in

00:07:40.760 do you think you would have been out now over the course of the pc government's conduct in the last few

00:07:45.800 months without a doubt yeah there was no way like it became evident to most people um you know late

00:07:55.160 april um by by late april uh but certainly early part of may um it was clear the projections the apocalypse

00:08:06.120 and the uh and these catastrophic uh outcomes weren't going to happen um and um and i did speak out in

00:08:17.080 the house in may i challenged him and vote uh and spoke strongly against the the continuation of the

00:08:24.920 state of emergency um and there's another good example andrew with the state of emergency was finally

00:08:33.160 ended in um what was at the end of july however the government has retained all the extreme and

00:08:44.360 extraordinary measures uh as if it was still in a state of emergency with yeah as though the issue

00:08:51.640 was with the term state of emergency and not all of the powers that came along with that

00:08:56.120 so we still so we have an unelected unaccountable covet command table who the premier will not identify

00:09:05.400 who's all involved in that he will not reveal the agenda the minutes the communications uh it's all

00:09:13.160 hidden from our view and they are allowed to come out with these uh outrageous uh edicts like what

00:09:21.400 happened last saturday you know yeah a week ago thursday the premier said we're going to a regional

00:09:28.600 approach on new restrictions and he announced on thursday restrictions for toronto ottawa and mississauga

00:09:36.280 well saturday morning he came out and said no we're we're going province-wide and we're these new

00:09:44.440 restrictions are province-wide and they take effect now and i had people just calling me in tears andrew

00:09:53.400 you know they had weddings planned that afternoon they had guests in from from around the province and

00:09:59.160 elsewhere um and and the government just said now what you're planning is unlawful if you have more than

00:10:07.400 25 people in your backyard um and and we've seen this uh and i'll say to you and like that is the first time

00:10:16.920 in my life uh that i have seen any government in canada yeah announce an arbitrary decision that takes

00:10:29.400 effect effect now um no no lead time no day or two days grace or or anything it's now and and remember

00:10:38.120 there was no debate there was discussion there was no vote like that that is not how a representative

00:10:49.080 democracy functions we we don't have um emperor like authorities without checks and balances

00:10:59.880 um provided to our premium but now we do i want to ask you about your sort of role as in in many

00:11:07.800 cases that you know the one-man opposition to this because even the official opposition the ndp and

00:11:13.320 and what's left of the liberals in the ontario legislature they're criticizing the government's

00:11:17.960 specific decisions but typically those criticisms are along the lines of you're not you're not doing

00:11:23.400 enough not you know where you're going which is you're you're doing too much i know belinda carahalios

00:11:28.360 who is a pc mpp and we had her on the show a few weeks back she's been kicked out for criticizing 1.00

00:11:34.040 some of the emergency powers but are you finding any quiet support from people in the legislature

00:11:39.720 perhaps your own former colleagues that are saying privately yeah i don't have a lot of issues with this

00:11:44.520 but aren't speaking out publicly or are you one of the only people that's seeing the issues that

00:11:49.240 you're describing right now oh you know this is the great falsehood that we're being um that we're

00:11:55.160 being led to believe is a fact when it's a falsehood um i will say to you andrew not just

00:12:02.920 colleagues in the legislature but the the public um you know although i stated there's a great number of

00:12:12.200 people who are living in fear and terror um a great many people i don't know if it's a if it's a majority

00:12:22.200 i but it's pretty close if it isn't um i understand and see the um um the falsehood that's being played

00:12:32.280 out right but due to public pressure due to political correctness due to the fear of public

00:12:39.720 public backlash from um this irrational um uh conventional wisdom that we've embraced um they're

00:12:49.800 hesitant to speak out and that goes certainly with a lot of my former colleagues um other members of the

00:12:57.320 legislature um and and the public at large uh you know the uh you may have seen one of my videos

00:13:04.840 uh i've spoken with lots of physicians um most or a great many of them believe our covid policies are

00:13:14.280 causing more harm than good they're they're causing greater injury and greater fatality

00:13:22.280 than any good that they're doing however there is such a reluctance and such a hesitation that's

00:13:29.400 going to speak truthfully about covid for fear of retribution by their public sector employer the

00:13:36.680 hospitals or by their regulatory body the college of physicians and surgeons and we see this permeating

00:13:44.440 throughout our society there that nobody wants to say the emperor has no clothes or in this case

00:13:53.080 the premier has no clothes but we all but a great number of people know that it's true so what's the

00:14:00.040 randy hillier plan here because you're not saying that this is a sham and we shouldn't do anything you

00:14:05.320 mentioned earlier that we need to protect the vulnerable and look out for the population that

00:14:10.840 really needs the help and needs the protection what would you like to see go into effect today

00:14:15.960 well just what we need to come into effect today is the same thing that we need to come into effect

00:14:24.600 every day and that's our ability to be able to speak truthfully and honestly and that's really the

00:14:32.440 crux of the problem um our media uh the mainstream media thankfully there's yourself there were a few other

00:14:41.080 uh media outlets who are allowing people to speak truthfully but most of our mainstream media uh have

00:14:50.040 jumped on this bandwagon this scare wagon this wagon of fear um and it's um and it's good for headlines

00:14:58.520 and it's good for um that audience um but and i don't think they understand how complicit they are

00:15:08.200 uh in preventing an honest truthful discussion but i think um if we did um and when when that day when

00:15:17.720 that day comes when we can speak truthfully about covet we should look at this like it what it actually is

00:15:26.280 a virus um a virus that is that doesn't have uh apocalyptic um characteristics um a virus that doesn't

00:15:37.160 have catastrophic outcomes um it's a virus like so many other viruses there are some differences

00:15:46.120 certainly for the elderly and the chronically ill it is much more likely to cause severe harm

00:15:55.320 but we should be treating this as a medical problem not as a political problem

00:16:00.360 um and that's um that's the hardest thing that i have ever found in politics andrew is to get

00:16:08.840 politicians to speak truthfully well thankfully you are one of the few that is without hesitation

00:16:15.080 randy hillier ontario mpp for lanark frontenac kingston good to talk to you again randy thanks

00:16:20.360 very much for coming on today great talking with you andrew bye bye well that does it my thanks again

00:16:26.840 to randy hillier and all of you for tuning in to today's show if you want to send me a note please

00:16:31.720 do my email address is andrew at andrew lawton.ca we'll talk to you soon a new show in a couple of

00:16:37.320 days on canada's most irreverent talk show thank you god bless and good day canada thanks for

00:16:42.120 listening to the andrew lawton show support the program by donating to true north at www.tnc.news

Juno News - September 29, 2020

Randy Hillier on the Politics of Lockdown

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