Juno News - March 02, 2024


Veteran suing the government over the Emergencies Act speaks out


Episode Stats


Length

6 minutes

Words per minute

204.32465

Word count

1,367

Sentence count

83


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Eddie Cornell and Blair Ector are taking the federal government and the banks to court to try and get damages in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling allowing a judge to strike down an emergency order that had frozen bank accounts for Freedom Convoy supporters.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
00:00:00.600 All right, so look who we found. We're here with Eddie Cornell and Blair Ector, the lawyer and the man behind the lawsuit that was able, or the judicial review, that was able to get a judge to rule the invocation of the Emergencies Act unconstitutional.
00:00:14.220 You guys are now taking the federal government to court and the banks as well to try and get damages.
00:00:19.520 So take us through the whole process, beginning with the judicial review, Eddie, and why you wanted to do that, why you wanted to be involved in the leading of that, and now what you're looking forward to in the civil trial.
00:00:31.140 Okay. It began while we were still at the convoy. We got involved with launching this lawsuit, JCCF and others, and Blair Ector and Bathsheba Vandenberg stepped up and became the attorneys for the lawsuit.
00:00:46.780 And he'll be able to explain it a little better, but, you know, we scrambled really hard to get that lawsuit in before the government removed the emergency order.
00:00:57.260 And I think something like eight minutes, about eight minutes. Otherwise, we would have had no shot.
00:01:03.380 So with that win in mind, most Canadians didn't hear about it. It was really flying under the radar.
00:01:08.460 Blair, Blair, and Bathsheba, they won that lawsuit, and that allowed us to pursue another lawsuit civilly, holding them accountable for what they did.
00:01:19.840 And, Blair, why don't you explain sort of the legal aspect behind what you're now doing, which is this civil suit?
00:01:25.300 Certainly, yeah. So with the Justice Mosley decision that came out on January 23rd,
00:01:28.940 he declared that the Liberal government's usage of the Emergencies Act was unreasonable,
00:01:33.900 and the economic order and the regulations that followed, which enabled them to freeze bank accounts for individuals such as Eddie Cornell,
00:01:41.500 were found to be unconstitutional as well.
00:01:43.640 So on the heels of that, and on the two-year anniversary of the invocation of the Emergencies Act,
00:01:48.260 we filed a notice of action in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice,
00:01:51.540 where we are seeking damages against the members of Cabinet personally.
00:01:55.860 So we have sued Trudeau, Lamedi, who was the Attorney Justice Minister at the time,
00:02:01.140 and other members of Cabinet, in addition to the banks, and other individuals such as the police.
00:02:08.160 We've sued as well the police, the Ottawa Police Service, and various other people who were responsible for this.
00:02:12.900 I think all told, there's 28 defendants on there.
00:02:16.000 And what we were trying to do here is to hold those who were involved in these unlawful orders
00:02:20.760 and what we would consider tyrannical actions of government accountable for that,
00:02:24.720 and that Canadians are going to stand up to this, and that we will oppose tyranny wherever we see it.
00:02:29.420 And to make a point here, it's not even particularly about the Liberal government or who it was.
00:02:34.220 It's the government of the day that did this.
00:02:35.500 And if any government does this to its citizens, we will fight and we will oppose it.
00:02:39.280 And we will oppose it vigorously, because that is not what Canada is,
00:02:42.540 and that is not what we stand for as Canadians.
00:02:44.300 And I think that the tide has shifted in this, and I think that, to my mind,
00:02:50.420 there is no justification for what took place.
00:02:52.560 To go extrajudicially with no oversight and have the police and bank basically act as the judge, jury,
00:02:58.980 and executioner in freezing bank accounts, that's not how Canada works.
00:03:02.220 And we are going to hold those who did that accountable.
00:03:04.100 Now, you guys were telling me earlier about somebody involved in the lawsuit who had their bank account frozen,
00:03:11.060 but wasn't actually a supporter of the Freedom Convoy, yet he still had his bank account frozen
00:03:15.920 because he was a joint account holder with his father who was there.
00:03:19.020 I mean, that just, I think, speaks to the unconstitutionality of the entire order.
00:03:23.520 And the reality is that you guys aren't just doing it for the Freedom Convoy,
00:03:27.420 but people who were collateral damage in a way, right?
00:03:30.340 That's correct, yeah. A player can speak to that.
00:03:32.220 Exactly. And I think this is an important story to get out to your viewers.
00:03:34.580 So one of our clients, one of the plaintiffs, 17-year-old kid, not only did he not support the Freedom Convoy,
00:03:41.420 he actually opposed the Freedom Convoy, was against the Freedom Convoy.
00:03:45.000 But his dad went down to Ottawa, participated in the Freedom Convoy, and he was a joint account holder.
00:03:49.500 His dad's bank account got frozen, and by proxy, our client got his account frozen, a 17-year-old.
00:03:54.740 He went to go deposit his check back where he was working.
00:03:57.300 Again, not in Ottawa, not supportive of it, in a completely different province at the time.
00:04:02.220 And he couldn't even deposit his check. Couldn't even deposit his check.
00:04:04.600 He was a 17-year-old kid at the time working in a kitchen just to make a living.
00:04:07.640 And that's how far this reached.
00:04:09.340 And that is what makes this extremely unconstitutional when you think of how far this reached.
00:04:14.480 And just the chilling effect of that, to have your bank account frozen out by your government for something you didn't even do.
00:04:19.700 And not only that, not only did he do it, he opposed the very movement, the Freedom Convoy, that led to his account being frozen.
00:04:26.340 And that is who this impacted.
00:04:27.940 That's how far-reaching this was.
00:04:29.480 And that is complete government overreach.
00:04:31.820 And Canadians of all different backgrounds should be outraged at that and should be supporting our lawsuit to hold the federal government.
00:04:37.400 And those who were actively participating in enabling this unconstitutional action, they need to pay for this.
00:04:44.040 They need to be held accountable so that future governments know that you cannot do this to Canadian citizens.
00:04:47.440 Absolutely. And, Eddie, you gave quite the speech inside of the ICS.
00:04:51.680 Can you tell our True North audience the message you were trying to get across to people at the conference today?
00:04:56.520 Basically, you know, I'm trying to warn them that this government is completely drunk on power.
00:05:02.060 I mean, if you don't have to agree with something that we did during the convoy,
00:05:07.300 but to see your constitutional rights and freedoms trampled in that way, first it's me, then it's you.
00:05:14.240 And it'll happen to everyone eventually.
00:05:17.820 And you need to stand up for that.
00:05:20.320 We can't let our government take over and become tyrannical and slide us into tyranny.
00:05:24.840 It's just, it's not going to happen.
00:05:26.520 And that's why we're standing.
00:05:27.900 Absolutely.
00:05:28.700 We can see your medals here.
00:05:30.420 You're a veteran of the Canadian Armed Forces,
00:05:32.000 and you were subject to brutal treatment at the Freedom Convoy.
00:05:36.400 What do you think it says, what do you think this says, the message it sends to veterans and service members in Canada
00:05:42.780 when they see how the government is willing to treat veterans,
00:05:46.500 the people that have served this country and put the country on their back?
00:05:49.200 I can't speak for all veterans.
00:05:51.080 I can speak for myself and the others that I do know.
00:05:54.460 Yeah, they weren't happy.
00:05:55.360 A lot of the guys that came, you know, came to support the convoy in Ottawa,
00:05:59.120 you know, had already been betrayed by their government with malefoquine.
00:06:02.840 And, you know, they knew something was wrong.
00:06:05.180 They used them as guinea pigs once before.
00:06:07.580 And here they are putting in mandates and other things, you know, locking people down again.
00:06:12.740 So they came to voice their concerns and stand up as a shield for Canadians
00:06:16.840 who are experiencing for the first time, you know, being forced to things that they don't want.
00:06:23.180 So that's why we were there.
00:06:24.300 And they came in by the hundreds.
00:06:26.520 Absolutely.
00:06:26.920 Well, Eddie, Blair, I know a lot of Canadians are very happy to see the work that you guys have been able to do
00:06:32.600 and to get what you've been able to get through and into the courts.
00:06:35.680 So thank you guys for that.
00:06:36.840 Really appreciate it.
00:06:37.400 Thank you.
00:06:37.720 Thank you very much.
00:06:38.640 Really appreciate it.
00:06:39.500 We do really appreciate it.
00:06:40.400 Thank you guys.
00:06:40.880 Yeah, thanks.