00:00:00.000canada's most irreverent talk show this is the andrew lawton show brought to you by true north
00:00:10.400hello and welcome to you all it is tuesday september 6 2022 you are tuned in to canada's
00:00:18.480most irreverent talk show the andrew lawton show here on true north watch your auto correct sometimes
00:00:24.720it will sneak in canada's most irrelevant talk show which you know what may be the case to some
00:00:30.480of the critics but i'd like to think we strive for irreverence and profound relevance but that's
00:00:35.760just me hope you had a great and safe labor day weekend whatever you were doing wherever you were
00:00:42.080it is the unofficial end of summer which i i realize can be depressing for some people so
00:00:46.800hopefully we'll lift up your spirits which when i think of the topics i have in mind i might not
00:00:52.400actually do. But we'll give you some hope and give you some purpose about it all. I will say
00:00:57.440that I'm going to be speaking a little bit later on with Sia Hassan and Ava Chipiak. They are
00:01:02.880lawyers with the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms who are right now fighting a charter
00:01:08.440challenge against the Arrive Can app. So that's going to be coming up in a little bit of time.
00:01:13.680But I first want to talk about this comment made by Justin Trudeau this week, which I feel I could
00:01:20.600probably do a whole show on but at the very least i want you to hear it if you haven't already this
00:01:26.280is when justin trudeau is once again dangling a carrot of normalcy in front of you and i telling
00:01:33.960us what we need to do because the onus is on us of course what we need to do to prevent governments
00:01:39.480like his from putting in place restrictions take a look if it's not done with us yet we might want
00:01:48.200to be done with it, but it's still around. And yes, we have a lot more tools, a lot more
00:01:53.480understanding, a lot more knowledge on how to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe that have
00:01:57.720allowed us to get back to regular life in a lot of ways for a whole bunch of people.
00:02:02.920But we also know that as winter comes and as people get pushed back indoors, there is a real
00:02:09.240risk of another serious wave of COVID. One of the best things we can do to prevent
00:02:17.080that way, prevent the pressure on our healthcare systems, prevent provinces from having to take
00:02:23.000decisions around restrictions and mandates, is to ensure that everyone is up to date in their
00:02:29.400vaccinations. The recommendation is, you know, you should be up to date in your vaccinations
00:02:35.720if you have had a dose within six months. Everyone who has been a while since their vaccination,
00:02:42.040today's vaccination, should look at the fact that we have new vaccines coming out this
00:02:47.380month that are tailored against Omicron that will provide better protection and everyone
00:02:54.580should get out and get vaccinated. If we are able to hit that 80, 85, 90 percent of Canadians
00:03:00.980up to date in their vaccinations, we'll have a much better winter with much less need for
00:03:07.460the kinds of restrictions and rules that were so problematic for everyone over the past years but
00:03:12.900every step of the way government's responsibility is to keep people safe to prevent our health care
00:03:19.460systems from getting overwhelmed and that's where individuals choosing to make sure they're up to
00:03:24.100date in their vaccinations with these new vaccines he's sorry that was cut off at the end there but
00:03:31.220actually we're doing a public service and never you don't even get like a millisecond more of
00:03:34.980of Justin Trudeau than you need on the Andrew Lawton show. I wanted you to hear that whole clip
00:03:40.840because every cliche is in the book there. This idea that we all need to have up-to-date
00:03:46.360vaccinations. So you'll notice that fully vaccinated has gone the way of the dodo bird.
00:03:50.200I was speaking back last week, last Saturday, so nine days ago or so, at the rally at Western
00:03:57.700University in London, Ontario. And I did a little survey at the beginning of my remarks. I asked
00:04:02.580everyone to put up their hand if they were fully vaccinated, noting that there are lots of people
00:04:06.780who are fully vaccinated and against mandates. And a bunch of people put their hands up. And I said,
00:04:11.100no, no, no, it's a trick question. No one's fully vaccinated. You're never fully vaccinated anymore.
00:04:15.880You know that song that was from Annie, You're Never Fully Dressed Without a Smile?
00:04:19.680Well, you're just never fully vaccinated with or without a smile does not matter.
00:04:24.160The idea that you have to be up to date, vaccinated every six months, Justin Trudeau said,
00:04:30.880Which means that if you got boosted back in January, February or March of this year, which is when the governments, I think for the most part, were first rolling out boosters to the general population, you are now unvaccinated in the government size.
00:04:45.240So you should be on your fourth dose right now by the federal government standards.
00:04:50.120And if you get your fourth dose in September, like right now, you've got to get another one in March.
00:04:56.280Otherwise, you go back to being four dosed and unvaccinated.
00:14:29.320and and the voluntary becomes the involuntary and this is what a lot of people are wising up to when
00:14:36.180when they start to do what they're doing now which is oh everyone has to get vaccinated we just have
00:14:39.920to get to 80 85 90 percent well what happens when we're at 85 percent and we're just coming up to
00:14:45.980the winter flu season we see a surge in cases and that's causing people to get a little bit nervous
00:14:50.480and all of a sudden you need a vaccine mandate to coerce vaccination because the whole dangling
00:14:57.540the carrot thing at a certain point doesn't do enough and they have to just start beating you
00:15:02.700with the stick. And this is what people are expecting. This is what people I think are
00:15:07.740fully aware of now. There are lots of folks who haven't gotten vaccinated with the booster shot
00:15:12.040because they don't feel they need it medically, but we'll probably go along with it if they need
00:15:15.360it for work. And there are other people that genuinely feel lied to. They genuinely feel
00:15:20.220deceived. And you know what? They absolutely were. They were lied to. They were deceived.
00:15:24.740The government told us all, maybe they didn't even know it was a lie at the time, that we could buy our normalcy with two doses of a COVID vaccine.
00:15:34.120And then it's three, and now it's four.
00:15:36.580And now the transition from fully vaccinated to up-to-date is a very insidious one because it means that all of these restrictions that they've suspended now, like the vaccination requirement for avoiding quarantine when you come into the country, they're all going to come back.
00:15:51.760And when they come back, they're going to have a new definition.
00:15:53.860And all of a sudden, the realm of the unvaccinated will just balloon to a size it hasn't been since 2019.
00:16:01.080And I want to, just along that vein, turn to ArriveCan here, which has become, as people travel, as more people leave the country and for some reason come back into it, has become something that more and more Canadians and foreigners are facing.
00:16:14.160And it's this app that the government originally thought would be a pandemic management app.
00:16:19.240It felt like it was an easy way for them to get people to give their vaccination certificate when they come in and it saves time at the border and saves time with the public health officials and all of that.
00:16:29.260And now they're making it a permanent fixture in entry.
00:16:33.300So I'm glad to see it's being challenged, not just by Canadians that are not complying and are taking huge fines as a result, but even in the courts.
00:16:41.260The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms has filed a legal challenge, a charter challenge against ARRIVECAN.
00:16:47.940And JCCF lawyers Saya Hassan and Eva Chepiak join me on the program live.
00:16:54.200Saya, Eva, it's great to talk to you both.
00:16:56.720I'll ask, I don't know which one of you wants to take it first, but what is this case about?
00:17:01.040Because it's one thing to not like ARRIVECAN, it's one thing to find it annoying.
00:17:04.360But fundamentally, what is it that this challenge is going after?
00:17:09.000Thank you, Andrew, for having us on your show. And I guess I'll go first. And I want to talk
00:17:14.380about what this case is not about, because we have seen so much division in our society,
00:17:20.100vaccinated versus unvaccinated. This case is not about whether you're vaccinated or you're not
00:17:25.680vaccinated, because the RIF can applies to everyone. And even if you're fully vaccinated,
00:17:31.680but you choose not to use RIF can because of privacy concerns, you're still going to be
00:17:36.660compelled to quarantine for 14 days, you're still going to be given a fine of $5,000 or more.
00:17:42.900So it's really important, I think, to point that out that this is not a case of whether you're
00:17:47.840vaccinated or not. This impacts all Canadians. And one of the major things, major concerns of a lot
00:17:54.300of our applicants and Canadians is the privacy aspect. And we have applicants in our case that
00:18:01.540are fully vaccinated who simply don't want to use arrive can because they're concerned about privacy
00:18:07.380we don't know what's going to happen to this data we don't know who has access to it we don't know
00:18:11.860who's storing it where is it getting stored this is a major concern for canadians and that's the
00:18:17.940kinds of questions that we're going to be asking the court to answer i think the privacy aspect
00:18:24.420is key and i'll ask you about this eva because i i know that when i have come into the country
00:18:28.420and i've used arrive can basically it's tied to my passport or my nexus card so when i scan that
00:18:35.380at the point of entry they already have my arrive can so it's in a database and it looks like the
00:18:40.820government has done a fair bit of integration on the back end which is not the kind of thing you
00:18:45.060do with just this temporary public health measure yeah so we've heard a lot of concerns of course
00:18:51.460about the arrive can and you know the utility of it um i think in your intro you mentioned that it
00:18:58.020was meant to speed up the process and everything we've heard about it is it's delaying travel into
00:19:03.860canada and in a significant way too um so what is it actually achieving is a really good and
00:19:10.740important question that we're going to be asking the government to answer on our end
00:19:16.500is this uh being fought i mean i know it's a charter challenge but but what's really the key
00:19:21.140sections of the charter that you think are impugned by this i'll take that so i think that
00:19:27.380one of the most important one is section eight which deals with privacy that's a major concern
00:19:33.540another charter section is section seven and the 14-day quarantine and one of our arguments is that
00:19:41.860people are arbitrary being being detained arbitrarily for 14 days we've had applicants
00:19:48.660who are fully vaccinated there is no scientific reason and we can't see any legal reasons why
00:19:53.860they have to quarantine and yet they've been asked to quarantine so it's very arbitrary
00:19:58.980and we know about the glitch in the rif can in july where 10 000 people who were fully vaccinated
00:20:05.220who had no issues were told by the app that they have to quarantine for 14 days and then it took
00:20:10.820the government 12 days to contact these people to say oh this was a glitch it was a mistake so
00:20:16.340section seven section eight and another important section which is dear to my heart because i was a
00:20:21.540former criminal defense lawyer is the right to counsel because we have law-abiding citizens
00:20:27.620some of our applicants included who are being stopped they're being detained by police officers
00:20:33.780not by border service agents not by a fac agents police officers they're being detained they're
00:20:40.100not being allowed to leave and yet they're not being told that they have a right to speak to
00:20:43.940council at that moment that's really scary really intimidating and it's an issue that's been coming
00:20:49.220up with the quarantine cases constantly so that's another very important issue that we're raising
00:20:55.620one of the challenges too with arrive can as i see it is that the government has offloaded
00:21:00.980some of the enforcement to airlines so if you are wanting to get on a plane and go from you
00:21:07.060know heathrow airport to toronto or from geneva switzerland to montreal air canada or west jet or
00:21:13.380whatever will not let you board the plane unless you show that you've done the arrive can so even
00:21:18.740for people that are willing to fight this that would protest it at a point of entry you're
00:21:23.220actually denied the right to even get to canada unless you go along with this well there we you
00:21:30.180know we've get we're getting a lot of conflicting information and what we've seen too is just a lot
00:21:35.540of very differing cases and facts scenarios and that's been incredibly uh telling as to what is
00:21:44.100going on the fact that people are being denied uh entry onto an airplane outside of canada
00:21:50.180doesn't seem to fit what the law says um my read of it it says that the airlines are asked to notify
00:21:57.540people there's nothing about not allowing people to board so i have heard a couple of those stories
00:22:04.180not as many. Certainly the issue that we're facing in this legal challenge is once they've arrived
00:22:10.000here, what's happening. And something I just want to add to what Saya was saying is a lot of these
00:22:16.760people are really good law-abiding Canadian citizens that, you know, are surrounded by these
00:22:24.360security customs agents, then public health officials. You know, it's intimidating. Then
00:22:31.260they're being told mandated to go quarantine then they're being given these hefty fines and they're
00:22:37.800trying to do the right thing in many cases they're showing proof of vaccination in some cases um
00:22:44.420they're you know they're just trying to go about their daily lives and come into the country that
00:22:50.120they are citizens of and really getting a hard time with that so it's the stories are incredibly
00:22:56.760compelling. And unfortunately, that's what we're facing right now. I know there's a bit of a pilot
00:23:03.260project. I don't know how widespread it is that your customs declaration that you'd give to,
00:23:08.660you know, I'm not bringing anything from a farm or I'm not bringing anything over $10,000,
00:23:13.020that sort of thing has been integrated to in some cases with arrived again. And this is where we
00:23:17.940could see it becoming more permanent. Is that something that you believe is part of the challenge
00:23:24.060or is it just the COVID vaccination aspect that you find particularly problematic?
00:23:29.780I think the problem is we don't really know what data is being collected
00:23:34.240and how it's being stored and who has access to it.
00:23:38.100Because if it was simply about the vaccine,
00:23:40.240then people who are vaccinated could simply show their proof of vaccination
00:23:44.660and they could come in, there would be no issue.
00:23:46.820But this doesn't seem to be about the vaccine.
00:24:43.560because I've experienced similar things
00:24:45.560with some of the cases I've been dealing with.
00:24:47.600And, you know, we do understand that at the early phase of the pandemic, there certainly should be deference given. Where I have a hard time with the connection here is the longer we're into this pandemic, the more we should know.
00:25:03.860And I actually feel like we're understanding and we know less. And I don't think that we can continue where the courts can continue to give deference when the information, the evidence just isn't there.
00:25:19.880At some point, courts are going to have to take a stand and say, you know, you need to it's been now three years or now four years.
00:25:29.540Where is the information that is backing the mandates that you are enforcing?
00:25:35.880Now, I know that some people have been fined thousands and thousands of dollars for not completing the arrive can when they enter Canada.
00:25:44.200Is your case proactive, or are you also dealing with some of the people that have had tickets that are challenging them?
00:25:50.920All of our applicants have received tickets for either refusing to use RIFCAN,
00:25:56.460or some of them have actually made best efforts to use RIFCAN,
00:26:00.920and there was a glitch, there was a problem, and they were fined anyway.
00:26:04.940There was at least one applicant who felt really compelled to use the app
00:33:29.880I had a weak moment a little bit before the show.
00:33:32.300And I was talking about, actually, how it started.
00:33:36.140I played an ad that I'll share with you just before we wrap things up.
00:33:39.460A Ron DeSantis campaign ad in Florida.
00:33:43.020And he was talking about the importance, or other people actually were talking in the ad about the importance of Florida resisting lockdown.
00:33:49.700And I said, I would love to see a Canadian premier put this ad out, but they couldn't because it would be a lie.
00:33:55.220And someone responded to me on Twitter, and I don't want to dox them.
00:35:06.000If you are told that you cannot have your best friend over for Christmas dinner
00:35:13.440without breaking the law, I'm going to say we can call that a lockdown.
00:35:20.140If you're told that you can't go to church, I'm going to call that a lockdown.0.95
00:35:23.960If the sheriff will come and lock the doors of your church so that no renegade Christians assemble there, I'm going to say that's a lockdown.0.87
00:35:34.200So don't give me this garbage of pretending that Canada didn't lock down just because we didn't have things as bad as they might have had them in China,0.92
00:35:41.240where the drones are flying around outside your apartment yelling at you in Mandarin to not dare leave.
00:35:46.640since when do we make what happens in China the benchmark for deciding if we are free or not free
00:35:52.240we don't because we are supposed to be a free country and in a free country you shouldn't
00:35:58.320have to download the government's app to get back into your own country in a free country you
00:36:02.760shouldn't have to haggle over whether the word lockdown really applies because well in Italy
00:36:07.920it was a little bit worse and no when you are having your mobility restricted your rights
00:36:14.020restricted you are living in lockdown so anyone who says that this lockdown didn't exist is just
00:36:20.740completely out to lunch and they are lying to you or they're believing their own lies
00:36:25.040and this is why this ad from ron desantis was so powerful
00:36:31.340ladies and gentlemen governor ron desantis today we deliver for the people of florida
00:36:43.900yet again you saved our jobs and kept us going they tried to shut us down but you saved our
00:36:52.240business thousand dollar bonuses you had our backs and honored our service you led by facts
00:36:59.000not fear and you let us decide you let me go to school you gave me a voice you put us first
00:37:05.400and didn't let them keep us apart you let us learn you let us compete all of us
00:37:13.900you protected our right to worship together in person and you raised our
00:37:19.420pay you protected our waters and kept Florida beautiful when they attacked you
00:37:23.980you didn't pay you stood strong for Florida thank you thank you thank you
00:37:28.540governor thank you thank you thank you thank you
00:37:32.780governor DeSantis Ron DeSantis for Prime Minister of Canada I meant what I said
00:37:42.040earlier, I would absolutely love it if an Ontario politician had run an ad like this, except none of
00:37:47.660them have earned the right to do it. The most conservative provinces, supposedly, with, you
00:37:52.000know, Doug Ford, the PC populist leader, Jason Kenney, the stalwart conservative, locked down
00:37:57.360their citizens. They'd locked down their places of worship. They locked down their businesses.
00:38:02.820So don't you dare tell me it didn't happen. And absolutely, I mean, maybe we aren't going to get
00:38:08.260100% Ron DeSantis in Canada, but certainly would have been great to have one political leader
00:38:13.520in a position of power, not in an opposition. I know Maxime Bernier did a lot, and I know there
00:38:18.480were some conservative backbenchers who did a lot, but someone in a position of power that stood up
00:38:23.480and said no, but it didn't happen. And that's a tremendous shame. And all we can do now with
00:38:28.960citizens is stand up and make sure that they don't continue to keep us on this never-ending
00:38:33.840roller coaster that does it for us we'll be back with more of canada's most irreverent talk show
00:38:38.900later this week here on true north thank you god bless and good day to you all
00:38:43.060thanks for listening to the andrew lawton show
00:38:47.460support the program by donating to true north at www.tnc.news