Juno News - October 29, 2022


What have we learned from the Emergencies Act Inquiry？


Episode Stats

Length

6 minutes

Words per Minute

153.06291

Word Count

927

Sentence Count

56

Hate Speech Sentences

2


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 So Ari, so we're going to talk about the public inquiry into the use of the Emergencies Act.
00:00:05.460 We're now into the second full week of witness testimony and cross-examinations at the inquiry.
00:00:12.760 I found it very striking that so far, at least in my opinion, there seems to be very little support for the government's case,
00:00:21.560 especially from public officials and not the politicians.
00:00:25.340 But I want to get your view. What do you think we've learned and not yet learned so far in these first couple of weeks?
00:00:33.460 What's your general impression?
00:00:35.260 So I have a bit of a different number of takeaways to me that jump out from the first week or two of this.
00:00:41.820 I don't think the things I think are things most Canadians turn their mind to or even talking about.
00:00:46.660 It basically comes from my life as a criminal defense lawyer, which I sometimes separate from the politics.
00:00:52.880 I mean, anybody should hear me go off about crime.
00:00:55.860 You know, you'd be hard pressed to think, oh, he defends people.
00:00:59.380 So my takeaways, and I'll give you the number one, one Rupa, and then we'll get into some other ones.
00:01:05.140 The number one takeaway for me of the last two weeks is that for Canadians who are paying attention to this inquiry,
00:01:12.500 and I think a lot are, I think most aren't.
00:01:14.580 We're worried about inflation, another stupid interest rate hike that's going to take apart the middle class.
00:01:19.260 We're in the middle of a real problem in the Western world right now.
00:01:22.480 So I appreciate people are not distracted by the newest, shiniest object.
00:01:27.480 There's a lesson to be learned here that I don't think Canadians are learning.
00:01:32.100 And that lesson is the importance of cross-examination.
00:01:36.200 And I know that sounds a little bit boring or legal easy, but let me try and explain why.
00:01:41.180 To me, that's what this Emergencies Act inquiry should be demonstrating to the Canadian people.
00:01:46.960 We don't have cameras in the criminal courtrooms.
00:01:49.720 Canadian people didn't watch Gomeshi's trial and watch how people that were complete liars were decimated.
00:01:57.800 We're not watching the Kevin Spacey trial where his accuser was decimated and the jury came back in an hour.
00:02:04.480 This is a man whose career was destroyed.
00:02:06.820 We don't have cameras in the courtroom.
00:02:08.820 Now, what's the link with my answer to you on that versus what Canadians should be taking away here?
00:02:14.640 And this does tie into Doug Ford refusing to testify.
00:02:19.880 I'm sure you're going to ask me about that later.
00:02:22.320 There is a connection here.
00:02:23.760 And much to your audience's chagrin, and I'm going to link this all together, I have to give Justin Trudeau credit for being willing to do what Doug Ford isn't willing to do.
00:02:35.660 We'll get to that because it ties into the theme here of why this inquiry is important.
00:02:40.660 I don't think the result of it will be important.
00:02:42.900 You certainly saw Jagmeet Singh basically act in the most ideologically dishonest way and say, even if it comes back, that this should never have been invoked.
00:02:52.320 The government usurped its power.
00:02:54.820 This was completely undemocratic.
00:02:56.720 Freezing Canadians' bank accounts was horse manure.
00:03:00.000 Rounding people up and pretending they were violent was disgusting and Kafkaesque.
00:03:04.660 You see Jagmeet Singh go, no, no, I want to stay in the halls of power.
00:03:08.580 There's all connections here.
00:03:09.920 The reason I say I give Justin Trudeau some credit here is because he's willing to be on the hot seat.
00:03:16.940 And my takeaway from the first two weeks is look at how we've come to all of the answers where Canadians are actually seeing that the Emergencies Act was a bit of a cluster.
00:03:29.260 You can fill in the rest of it.
00:03:31.060 You have an officer from the OPP.
00:03:34.180 I think his name is Pat Morris.
00:03:35.780 I'm having a brain cramp.
00:03:37.160 Any Canadian interested in this who's ideologically honest, not tribalistic, not partisan, should watch Pat Morris' testimony where he basically in one fell swoop decimated the rationale for the invocation of the act.
00:03:55.620 And the point that I'm making to this, and then I'm going to take it to a little detail, which I don't know how many of your viewers have seen.
00:04:02.480 They should watch it.
00:04:03.300 The clips are out there.
00:04:04.200 Where some disingenuous, full of crap witness was testifying in English.
00:04:10.560 He had a bit of a French accent, but he's testifying in English.
00:04:14.220 He's more well-spoken than me, and I'm a pretty well-spoken guy.
00:04:18.100 But then he gets caught by one of the lawyers for the convoy people, and he gets cross-examined.
00:04:23.280 And the person running for mayor who lost the other day whispers to him, answer in French, answer in French.
00:04:30.500 And the reason I mention cross-examination again, just for people who don't understand why I'm saying this, is because we live in a country where there's a movement to do away with cross-examination, holding people to account, not believing all women, not believing all politicians.
00:04:49.160 Cross-examination is not RUPA.
00:04:52.240 It is not standing at Queen's Park Press Gallery and deciding who you're going to take questions from, or saying the minister only has five minutes to answer two softballs.
00:05:03.400 Every moment of this inquiry has come because well-prepared, well-skilled, intellectually curious lawyers are putting people on the hot seat, and they don't get to get out of the chair like politicians do where their assistant, their young parliamentary assistant, comes yank them and say, oh, the minister has a two o'clock.
00:05:33.400 Thank you.