Juno News - March 03, 2023


What’s next for Tamara Lich？ ｜ Tamara Lich


Episode Stats

Length

38 minutes

Words per Minute

170.53014

Word Count

6,589

Sentence Count

27

Misogynist Sentences

2

Hate Speech Sentences

3


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Hello everybody and welcome to the Rupa Subramanya show. I am Rupa Subramanya. Today I have a very
00:00:24.480 special guest with me. I've been wanting to get her on the show for a very long time and finally
00:00:30.620 the stars aligned. Today we have Tamara Leach. She needs no introduction of course. I will just say
00:00:37.960 that I first met Tamara in the very early days of the Freedom Convoy protests last winter here in
00:00:44.200 Ottawa and I was struck by her sincerity, warmth, honesty and her commitment to the cause of
00:00:51.700 individual freedom and liberty. We'll be talking about all of this and much more with Tamara today
00:00:57.080 on the show. It's my privilege to welcome Tamara to the show. Tamara, it's great to finally have you
00:01:03.820 on the show. I've been dying to get you on the show as you know and you know there's just so much to
00:01:09.500 talk about so why don't we just jump right in. I'm going to start with this first question. I'm
00:01:15.460 you know I'm thinking back to this very first weekend of the protests, the Freedom Convoy protests
00:01:22.420 that took place here in Ottawa and I walked around for hours speaking to the truckers and the
00:01:28.140 protesters and I immediately realized my first impression was that our establishment politicians
00:01:33.580 and people in the legacy media establishment had completely missed the significance of this event.
00:01:40.180 We now know it was a pivotal cultural moment in our peacetime history. Tell me Tamara that first
00:01:47.020 weekend did you realize just how big this was going to be or were you surprised how big it became in
00:01:53.500 Canada and worldwide? Well first of all thank you for having me on your show. It's a real honor to be
00:01:59.280 here. I'm a huge fan. Yeah we we didn't when we first started organizing this we had no idea the
00:02:07.280 magnitude and the reach that and the support that we were going to receive. I believe I alluded to it
00:02:13.420 in my testimony. I mean when I started to GoFundMe I just assumed you know I had about $20,000 kind of
00:02:21.300 in my head as you know what I thought we could raise which would give you know Chris and Bridget and
00:02:26.600 some truckers enough gas to get to Parliament stand there with their signs and get in their trucks and
00:02:31.640 come home. So very rapidly as the donations started pouring in and the activity that we were getting
00:02:40.560 on our social media is when I became aware that this was turning into a big deal but we were not
00:02:48.320 expecting that at all. So you were initially expecting that this would be a you know a small
00:02:56.460 number of people gathered on Parliament Hill a few trucks would drive by and then leave like by the
00:03:03.600 end of the day basically and make their point and just leave. Was that was that what you were expecting
00:03:08.880 initially? Initially yeah yeah that's very much what I had what I had thought so you know we did not see
00:03:15.380 that coming. Yeah so I mean what what what happened like what what changed why why did why did why did it
00:03:23.660 become as big as it did? Well I believe that of a large part of that had to do with the mandates
00:03:29.900 um two years of having carrots dangled in front of us and then uh for example here in my home province
00:03:37.220 Jason Kenney who was the Premier at the time was going to let us open up for summer you know and then
00:03:44.320 and then they imposed the mandates again so I think I'll tell you what my experience has been from the
00:03:52.020 very beginning of the pandemic I spoke to a lot of people across the entire spectrum like from whether
00:03:59.900 you were on the side where you thought COVID was going to kill us all to where they thought that
00:04:04.680 COVID didn't even exist I mean there was a whole spectrum there but everybody said the same thing to me
00:04:11.440 and that was that something doesn't feel right and so I think it was a culmination of a lot of the
00:04:20.020 restrictions a lot of weird policies that didn't make sense to a lot of people um you know being
00:04:27.320 locked up in their homes told that your parents can't come and visit you it was honestly a perfect
00:04:33.740 storm and it just culminated into this one big moment. Yeah what was your first day in Ottawa like
00:04:43.460 your first day of the protests what were your initial impressions? Uh well when we first pulled
00:04:50.020 up on the hill I was astonished at the number of people that were there already I mean there was
00:04:54.700 thousands of people there when we pulled up on the hill um and I didn't know what to expect I was
00:05:01.560 really busy in those first few days because we were dealing a lot with GoFundMe at that point
00:05:06.160 so I found myself in a lot of meetings um with the legal team and um our accountant and uh GoFundMe
00:05:14.240 and my finance committee at the time because if you recall as the donation started pouring in I struck
00:05:19.720 a finance committee to help you know manage that money to make sure that everything was going to be
00:05:24.900 transparent and that we were going to be accountable because for me it was a big deal that
00:05:31.680 my name was on the GoFundMe and it was important to me that people got a sense of who I was and and
00:05:39.000 trusted that we would make sure that their donations ended up where they intended it to go
00:05:43.540 so the first few days was was I was in a lot of meetings I did get up to the hill on the first Sunday
00:05:50.340 that we were there and I did a little speech with the clan mothers but the first few days I was in a lot
00:05:55.840 of meetings yeah yeah uh I mean and so you know I mean obviously I you know I've written about the
00:06:02.000 protests uh quite a bit and uh you know my initial expectation was that you know it would be done by
00:06:09.060 the end of the weekend but uh but you know but as the week rolled in you know I it was very clear that
00:06:14.660 you know they were not going anywhere till uh their demands had been met which is basically you know
00:06:19.500 get rid of the vaccine mandates and uh and and and and get rid of lockdowns and uh and that sort
00:06:26.420 and other restrictions um what what did the protests tell you about Canada uh for a lot of us it took us
00:06:33.120 by surprise I mean well Canadians are seen as mild-mannered and generally compliant and uh and so on but uh
00:06:41.640 but this the pro these protests um you know said something different about the country uh what are your
00:06:48.040 thoughts on that well I've thought a lot about this honestly and what I've came away with is that
00:06:56.120 the Canadian spirit is alive and well I've never experienced anything like that in my lifetime as far
00:07:06.020 as a show of unity and you nailed it at the beginning you know it didn't matter what color you were
00:07:12.860 it didn't matter what god you worship it didn't matter where you lived in Canada it didn't matter
00:07:17.940 what your income bracket was it was people coming together taking care of each other hugging strangers
00:07:25.840 on overpasses and in the streets of Ottawa and and healing and it really proved to me that the
00:07:33.620 Canadian spirit is alive and well and it's one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen
00:07:37.940 yeah no that was uh that was pretty striking to me as well um and uh for a lot of people who
00:07:44.660 uh experienced the protests uh from you know either by being here in Ottawa or uh or you know viewing it
00:07:51.400 from a distance um looking back at the the terrible way that things ended up last winter with the
00:07:57.560 prime minister uh prime minister Justin Trudeau invoking the emergencies act uh looking back do you think
00:08:03.680 there might have been any other way that things could have worked out differently uh for a while it
00:08:08.660 looked as if uh you know it would end without the government invoking these invoking these draconian
00:08:14.380 powers uh but we now know that's not what happened could things have ended differently
00:08:19.120 well this is another thing I've thought of um obviously quite a bit I don't know I mean we got the sense
00:08:27.300 there that we were constantly being provoked and we had a real feeling that he was pushing for
00:08:34.660 for violence or for us to fight back or just a reason for him to justify his actions you know it
00:08:42.360 started um with the raid at Coventry when they started taking people's fuel and food and firewood
00:08:49.200 and then it went to we're gonna come and take your animals away and then it went to we're gonna come
00:08:54.680 and get your children and it just really felt like they were constantly trying to provoke a fight
00:09:01.100 and again going back to the Canadian spirit I mean I came home and sat on my couch and bawled
00:09:07.300 for two days when I watched the footage of what happened after they invoked the act
00:09:10.980 and after I was arrested because even in the face of that I mean you have all these different
00:09:17.760 police forces from all over the country dressed in full tactical gear with assault rifles and these
00:09:24.280 great big armored vehicles um total overkill and I didn't hear so much as one protester use a swear
00:09:34.120 word when they were confronted with that you know they were still asking them to resolve this peacefully
00:09:40.220 um so to go back to your question I had a lot of hope when we started negotiations with the city
00:09:46.880 we had a lot of forward momentum and we were we were committed to seeing that plan through we we
00:09:53.780 agreed as a board to go out and and discuss the plan with all the truckers and the supporters because
00:09:59.060 you know this wasn't our movement this wasn't Tamara Leach's movement or Chris Barber's movement or even
00:10:05.340 the board of directors movement I mean it was always important to us to have input and uh so I felt like
00:10:11.280 that was a really great first step and that maybe that there was hope but looking back I mean Trudeau
00:10:18.420 was never going to talk to us he backed himself into a corner because he came out of the gate
00:10:23.900 calling us racists and misogynists and white supremacists and a fringe minority um so I don't know how
00:10:34.060 it it's a shame that it ended the way that it did and a lot of people will say to me that it's too bad
00:10:41.260 that it ended the way that it did and my response is always it is too bad but unfortunately that is
00:10:49.700 the reality of the country that we're living in it isn't unicorns and rainbows like we're told
00:10:56.280 there's there's serious problems here hypothetically speaking if the prime minister had reached out to
00:11:05.280 the protesters had reached out to um the the core um um organizing group so that would have been you
00:11:13.860 and uh Benjamin Dictor Chris Barber uh what would what would that conversation have gone like
00:11:21.240 well I honestly none of us were too interested in speaking with the prime minister um we would
00:11:29.140 have gladly spoken to any anybody else I guess and if that was the option then we would have taken it
00:11:34.720 I I feel that if they would have shown any type of good faith to open up a dialogue with us
00:11:43.040 that we would have seriously discussed leaving and the reason I say that is because we'd already been
00:11:49.800 there for three weeks we were tired people were away from their families they were away from their jobs
00:11:56.440 so I think if we could have just had some kind of um dialogue or even you know an expression of
00:12:05.480 interest in hearing what we had to say that that could have changed the outcome drastically
00:12:10.600 yeah uh yeah no I I think I mean one of the one of the one of the things that I kept pointing out is
00:12:18.160 that why is there no meaningful dialogue taking place and as far as I was concerned I know the uh the
00:12:24.480 protesters many of the protesters wanted the prime minister to address them and and and you know
00:12:29.820 and reach out to them and you know they and think and they felt that it would have been it would have
00:12:35.300 definitely made things um uh you know easier I I think um uh but but that of course never ended up
00:12:45.060 happening instead the prime minister uh just uh kept smearing the protesters and uh made uh yeah
00:12:52.480 which is really ironic because um if you recall in early 2020 there was a group or a bunch of groups
00:12:59.500 of people that were that were blockading railways and um and they were predominantly first nations
00:13:06.260 and this went on for two months you know uh the economy was impacted I think cp rail laid off about
00:13:12.700 a thousand workers the ferries um in bc were affected grocery stores were empty shelves were empty
00:13:19.300 and he kept saying at that time that it was important to have dialogue so what this really
00:13:25.540 showed us right off the bat is it really had nothing to do with maybe how Canadians felt but
00:13:31.240 it was political right from the start yeah no absolutely I mean there was definitely this was
00:13:36.780 definitely political and I don't think uh there was uh any uh good faith uh effort made to uh really
00:13:45.160 reach out to the protesters and there is um a certain amount element of hypocrisy here obviously
00:13:50.480 because the prime minister supports protests elsewhere in the world and he encourages other
00:13:56.680 world leaders to uh to dialogue with protesters in those countries but he failed to do so uh when it
00:14:03.420 came to the freedom convoy protest that much is uh very very clear um just moving on tomorrow
00:14:09.620 uh it became very clear after the emergency that you were specifically being targeted as one of the
00:14:16.160 organizers uh and and one of the most visible faces of the protest uh you you were arrested of course
00:14:22.580 uh and you were waiting in jail until bail could be arranged and this happened more than once
00:14:27.580 um you know it was uh striking that hardened criminals in this country who've committed anus crimes
00:14:33.260 uh are treated in some ways better than you were uh i have many well-known lawyers um uh including
00:14:40.780 those that have come on my show uh called out how you were treated by the authorities um how did you
00:14:46.820 muster the courage and inner strength to see yourself through this very difficult time do you uh did you
00:14:53.300 feel a sense of anger about how you were treated um you know has it shaken your faith in the justice system
00:14:59.280 uh it certainly did shake mine and a bunch of other people who uh commented on what was happening to
00:15:04.660 you while you were in jail well i mean i've been paying attention um for a while now and so i didn't
00:15:12.160 have any faith in the justice system i don't believe canada actually has a justice system we have a legal
00:15:17.520 system and there's a big difference um no i that's one of the reasons why i wanted to do that video the
00:15:24.540 night before that i was arrested you know i was emotional it was a very emotional day
00:15:28.840 um people were leaving and we were encouraging you know them to go because they were scared and
00:15:35.140 um but we there was some tough goodbyes said that day and um i just wanted people to know that i wasn't
00:15:42.180 afraid i i didn't want them to feel like this was something i couldn't handle and i've said it a million
00:15:49.220 times and i'll say it again i've felt right from the beginning that this whole thing was was guided
00:15:54.780 and protected by some kind of higher power whatever you choose to believe in and you know along the
00:16:02.480 way so many things were exposed i mean look at what happened with gofundme look at what happened
00:16:07.700 with the banks look at what happened with the ottawa city and the ottawa city police and the prime
00:16:12.500 minister's office themselves i mean all this stuff got exposed and so when i was arrested and i was in
00:16:19.640 jail um i just did a lot of praying and i did a lot of meditation and i just i just thought it's thy
00:16:26.000 will not my will you obviously have more work for me to do and i was okay with that i knew that i was
00:16:32.620 going to be okay i knew that i was strong enough to handle it and i don't know if they thought i was
00:16:38.680 going to be some meek little granny that was going to run away and hide and and be afraid but but i'm not
00:16:45.780 that person and if it has to be me then i'm okay with that yeah no you're definitely not that person
00:16:52.240 you've shown a great amount of resilience and courage and uh and anyone who's met you uh knows
00:16:58.200 that uh right away um you know you're still charged with these offenses and you're uh out on bail how do
00:17:05.360 you see this playing out uh do you do you have the do you have hope that there will be justice
00:17:10.160 well i think there's always hope that that there will be justice um at this point i don't really
00:17:20.160 know anymore what to expect i mean i don't have any anxiety about my trial i don't know what they're
00:17:28.020 going to find at the end of the day you know if they find me guilty i don't i can't see them giving
00:17:33.440 me any more jail time and the crazy thing is that they're asking for 10 years and if you look at
00:17:40.460 karla homolka's case i believe she was sentenced to 12. so i mean it's not even in the realm of reality
00:17:48.680 yeah um but you know i'm i'm willing to take whatever whatever i'm not going to go down without
00:17:55.420 a fight that's for sure and um after the release of the relo report i don't know i don't know what
00:18:03.140 they're going to do rupa why are they so afraid of you tomorrow that's a really good question
00:18:09.060 it might have something to do with the fact that we were able to raise 10 million dollars twice in
00:18:14.280 less than a month you know i don't know i think um i i believe we had a message of love and unity
00:18:25.380 and respect and respect and i believe after so many years of being told that we should be ashamed
00:18:33.880 um all this divisive politics and divisive rhetoric uh that's what i witnessed in the last few years was
00:18:42.360 just being pulled apart in every direction and i think fundamentally canadians aren't like that
00:18:48.420 we do believe in unity and we do believe in each other and we care about each other and so i think
00:18:55.760 that message that trudeau was putting out there was not resonating with people
00:19:01.140 and our message was and it's actually quite funny now as i watch him um in his little interviews
00:19:07.440 that he's actually taken a lot of our talking points and he's using them now um if i hear him say
00:19:13.840 that he's doing everything he can to keep canadians safe or have their backs one more time my head's
00:19:18.400 gonna explode i ran into a lady at uh at a premiere of a documentary last weekend who literally sobbed on
00:19:26.540 my shoulder like heaving sobs because she was about to kill herself and we heard those stories as i'm sure
00:19:36.680 you did every single day was he keeping them safe the families that i met that were living in
00:19:43.820 their cars after they lost their jobs because they refused to get a vaccination was he keeping them
00:19:49.260 safe who was he keeping safe and so i believe that people are seeing through his insincerity
00:19:56.380 and then you have us coming and i mean we had a great group of people that that really wanted to help
00:20:03.500 other people and make a difference and our message resonated with them because i think that's
00:20:08.380 fundamentally what canada is all about um yeah i mean i think uh that's that's a great uh point you
00:20:16.300 you you know you make when the prime minister says that he was keeping people safe but what about
00:20:20.620 all these other people you know you know what about them and i think that's a fair fair observation um
00:20:28.140 and i said it in my testimony i believe if you're going to be the leader of a country
00:20:33.660 you don't get to pick and choose who you who you lead you have to be able to listen to everybody
00:20:40.220 and all sides and that's what's happening is he's turning a completely deaf ear on anyone that has any
00:20:46.460 kind of concerns that that don't align with his personal views and that's not right yeah i mean you're
00:20:53.100 a prime minister of all all all people not just the people who voted for you exactly yes yeah
00:20:59.660 um so let's uh jump to the next thing which was the public inquiry into the emergencies act you of
00:21:06.700 course testified i watched your testimony and i followed the hearings quite closely do you do you
00:21:12.780 think the inquiry in the end was fair or was it more or less a rubber stamp to justify uh trudeau's use
00:21:18.940 of emergency powers oh i'm so glad you asked at the beginning of that process i was so optimistic
00:21:29.500 i felt like relo was going to be very fair i felt like he was really trying to take in um all the
00:21:40.060 testimony that he heard uh which was incredible i mean that was six weeks of of testimony but towards
00:21:48.060 the end as we started getting into more higher ups within the government it started to become clear to
00:21:55.580 me that there was some shenanigans going on um for example they would dump documents at you know
00:22:02.700 hundreds of pages of documents at 10 11 o'clock at night that the legal teams needed to review to
00:22:10.700 prepare for the witnesses the next day uh the redactions i mean they were claiming parliamentary
00:22:17.260 privilege and cabinet confidentiality on on documents that had nothing to do with either
00:22:24.140 so there there seemed to be a lot of shenanigans going on and i know that our uh our counsel brendan
00:22:30.460 miller had had filed motions to have these ruled on to get these redactions lifted and it was like he
00:22:37.180 was dragging his feet and refusing to and you saw the culmination of that when brendan was escorted out
00:22:43.740 of the courtroom because he had just had enough you know um it was frustrating it was frustrating to watch
00:22:51.420 um the other thing is why on earth was former chief slowly on the stand for two full days and the prime minister
00:23:01.660 had two hours christopher freeland responsible for freezing the bank accounts of canadians
00:23:07.180 was on the stand for two hours i mean a lot of things that happened didn't really make any sense
00:23:12.540 there either so by the time it was over i was left feeling a little bit dejected and and incredibly
00:23:18.860 disappointed and so when he released his report i was not surprised and i mean that that report is
00:23:25.820 tenuous at best he contradicted himself so many times i feel like he was given a mandate by the prime
00:23:33.260 minister to make sure that it was justified and that's what he did i mean as far as i'm concerned in
00:23:40.620 order to invoke the emergencies act there was four specific criteria that needed to be met one of
00:23:45.500 those four criteria and none of them were met so if they can just go ahead and invoke it anyways then
00:23:50.700 that legislation isn't worth the paper that it's written on yeah well um yeah i mean it uh i you know
00:23:59.340 i've written about the ruleau report um i wrote it for my national post column recently and i feel like um
00:24:06.860 in my view at least i think it's been damaging to canada's democracy um you know and i've written
00:24:13.180 quite extensively about the you know that canada is probably one of the least democratic western
00:24:18.860 liberal democracies we don't have anything like the checks and balances that we have in the u.s
00:24:23.900 uh we have a prime minister who's very powerful he appoints everybody he appoints the senators he
00:24:29.340 appoints the supreme court and and and you know with the largely compliant court system uh there's
00:24:35.740 almost no accountability and as the public inquiry showed us uh even if ruleau uh had found a fault with
00:24:44.060 the trudeau government invoking the emergencies act there would have there would have been no legal
00:24:49.660 repercussions um and so my question to you is have the events of the uh have the events of the last
00:24:57.420 year shaken your faith in in in the strength of canada's uh democratic institutions no they've
00:25:05.180 justified them i've been concerned with the way that this country has been going for quite a long time
00:25:11.420 um especially under especially under uh justin trudeau i mean he came right out of the gate after
00:25:18.860 the 2015 elections and started calling people racists and i remember thinking oh okay so this
00:25:24.060 is how this is gonna go and he hasn't disappointed anytime i mean here's a prime example during the
00:25:32.300 convoy his paid media state media was trying to allude to the fact that they felt that we were probably
00:25:40.860 receiving foreign interference okay whether it be by what they call it russian actors or whoever
00:25:48.380 so we're being accused of foreign interference and being manipulated the whole time this china thing
00:25:56.460 has been going on yes there was foreign interference but it had nothing to do with us absolutely nothing
00:26:03.740 and now if you question what's going on with this chinese interference you're a racist
00:26:09.340 i mean at what point does this ridiculousness stop and and hard questions start getting answered
00:26:18.700 it's deflection so i didn't have a lot of faith in the system before um again i've said to some people
00:26:26.460 since i've got back from the inquiry that you know we sit out here in the west and there's a lot of
00:26:31.340 disgruntled people with how with the way the liberals have governed and you know they feel like it's a
00:26:36.140 corrupt system and when you're there and watching it firsthand in real time like we did at the inquiry
00:26:45.420 it's almost overwhelming to have that kind of validation and actually know what you are dealing with
00:26:53.740 but there's hope there's i believe there's always hope and you know as silly as it sounds i still
00:27:03.100 hold out hope that this man is going to come out one day and just admit that he's made some mistakes
00:27:09.100 and you know beg for forgiveness for those mistakes and move on but he but he doesn't i mean even in
00:27:16.620 relo's report where he was criticizing trudeau on his how what he was calling us that his behavior and
00:27:22.460 his rhetoric wasn't helpful trudeau comes out with a statement and just stopped short of apologizing he
00:27:28.460 didn't apologize he just wished he would have chosen different words the fact of the matter is we were
00:27:34.700 not a fringe minority we raised over 10 million dollars two times which tells me that there
00:27:40.140 was a lot of support out there i saw the people on the highways and on the overpasses in every town
00:27:46.620 even little back roads in the middle of nowhere there was people parked and you know blowing off
00:27:52.460 fireworks and waving flags i mean we weren't a fringe minority maybe we weren't the majority but i mean
00:27:59.900 there was enough voices there that he should have stopped and listened and he chose not to
00:28:07.500 yeah um he def that definitely is something that he didn't do and uh you know since you brought up
00:28:14.940 western canada um let's talk about western canada uh it's pretty obvious that uh western alienation has
00:28:22.460 probably been stronger uh now than it's ever been um and uh you know and you are someone who is
00:28:29.740 involved with the maverick party uh what is your sense of the state of play right now what what is
00:28:35.100 happening as far as western alienation is concerned well i think there's still quite a strong sentiment out
00:28:41.980 here um to separate um it's going to be really interesting to see that in the coming months as you
00:28:48.860 probably are aware we have a provincial election coming up in 90 days and so we'll be watching
00:28:54.140 that very closely um to see what happens i know that um premier smith has been getting some support
00:29:00.940 for her albera sovereignty act uh in some circles obviously so it's going to be interesting but i do
00:29:08.060 think that a lot of people just like me i mean i was all for it i i i just thought let's get away from
00:29:14.860 these clowns we you know they're destroying my province they're hurting families with the
00:29:20.700 ridiculous legislation i mean we have the most ethical and environmentally friendly um oil and
00:29:29.420 gas industries in the entire world it should be celebrated but again it comes back to him trying to
00:29:37.260 make us feel ashamed you know and that that's i think what people are sick and tired of is being
00:29:43.100 talked down to and spoken down to um when it is one of the best industries in all of the world
00:29:50.540 um so it's going to be really interesting what the next few months are going to bring i know very early
00:29:56.620 on into the just the organization of the convoy was when i had my epiphany and i believe i've spoken
00:30:02.940 to you about this i was sitting right at this table and we'd been sent home because of the omicron
00:30:09.100 variant so i was working from home so i had both of my monitors here on my table and i was talking
00:30:14.620 with the quebec team and i was blown away by the support that we had and it i i just had this epiphany
00:30:23.340 like this has all been a lie you know they're just they're the same fundamentally we're all the same
00:30:29.260 and my desire to separate this country vanished and i realized it's worth saving i mean maybe we
00:30:38.860 should just separate from ottawa right because the rest of the country and and for that matter a lot
00:30:44.860 of ottawa residents that i met beautiful beautiful people i mean we had so much support on the ground
00:30:49.820 there too um so maybe we just need to separate from parliament um so so yeah that was going to be
00:30:57.740 one uh my next question actually when when did it occur to you that um um you know that uh that you
00:31:04.700 know you didn't you didn't want to um you didn't want to be a separatist anymore um uh you know i was
00:31:10.860 struck by how the canadian flag was a unifying force throughout the freedom convoy and remains so to this
00:31:17.820 day and uh and the words that came out of your mouth and the and the organizers you know the the
00:31:24.460 and everybody who showed up uh to ottawa to protest uh whether they were from quebec or from alberta or
00:31:29.980 from wherever um they all carried the canadian flag with them they all stood for the country
00:31:35.980 and um and and so did so i'm assuming the the organizing for the freedom convoy um uh helped change
00:31:44.380 your mind about uh about about uh about separation it absolutely did absolutely did i have never been
00:31:52.940 after years of not feeling proud i've never been more proud to be a canadian than i was during that
00:31:58.700 whole experience and i still am i mean when i see a canadian flag now on a vehicle or a semi truck going
00:32:04.700 by it almost moves me to tears because i just feel like to my people you know yeah yeah i mean that was
00:32:14.060 that was one of the great uh things about the uh protest right i mean it brought together people
00:32:19.420 um of all stripes of all color of all you know from all walks of life and they were united as one and uh
00:32:28.220 and i'd never seen that show of unity um at least not as long as i've been here in canada which has been
00:32:35.340 you know for a very very long time and uh and that uh that that was one of the most beautiful moments of
00:32:41.980 the protest uh for me at least and i'm sure it was for a lot of people um so what's what's next for
00:32:48.860 you tomorrow are you uh since you you know you've already um kind of entered the political fray
00:32:54.700 through the maverick party are you considering running for office is this something you're
00:32:59.340 considering doing down the road once again well you know i'm not going to rule it out um i've never
00:33:06.220 really wanted to be a politician and i do feel like um getting involved in politics tends to hobble
00:33:13.660 you a little bit more you know i i witness it every day you know a a a mla or an mp gets elected and
00:33:20.860 very quickly forgets what their constituents wants and then they have to tow the party line and i you know
00:33:26.220 i i was um introduced at the legislature in alberta yesterday and i was watching um some of the
00:33:34.700 opposition members behavior during question period and i was appalled i mean they're sitting there
00:33:41.500 talking and laughing and giggling and i'm thinking every one of your constituents should be sitting in
00:33:47.500 this room and watching you you are here to represent those people in your writing and you're just
00:33:54.780 sitting here texting and laughing and flipping your hair back and giggling like it was it was incredibly
00:34:00.860 immature and i i i don't know if i could live in that world rupa because i tend to be a little blunt
00:34:09.180 um in how i feel and i don't have time for ridiculousness you know one thing i took away too
00:34:16.140 you know from the reload report or from the from the poec and watching question period yesterday and
00:34:21.740 um on a federal level i turn it on and i just see people acting in theater just hurling insults and
00:34:30.940 it's nonsense no question i've ever seen i've never seen one question get answered in question period
00:34:36.860 wouldn't you rather turn on your tv and see two sides of the house sitting at a table working together
00:34:46.220 to fix the problems in this country you know our the homelessness problem is is deplorable the the
00:34:54.620 the drug problem is terrible you know i fly into ottawa for the inquiry and and they're in the middle
00:35:01.020 of a municipal election and it's all over the front page um funding to put tampons in the men's
00:35:06.780 bathroom well that's great millions and millions of dollars to put tampons in the men's bathroom have
00:35:13.100 they even taken a walk on their own streets do they even see what's going on out there because
00:35:17.820 i was in jail with some of those people they need help they need help they don't need tampons in the
00:35:25.180 men's bathroom and so they're just so out of touch and i i just can't see myself lasting in that kind of
00:35:33.420 an environment for any length of time before i would just have enough and walk away so i'm not sure
00:35:39.980 um what's next for me i am obviously thinking that through very carefully uh i definitely need to
00:35:49.900 deal with all these criminal charges that are against me before i can really do too much um
00:35:55.020 you know by way of um some things that i'd like to do but you know um i do have a book coming out um
00:36:02.140 we we've got that wrapped up so that'll be coming out hopefully in the next few weeks and we'll see
00:36:08.140 what happens from there um i'm gonna be watching the provincial election very closely now um it's it's
00:36:14.620 it's go time so now is the time when you're gonna see the politicians that are actually gonna stand up
00:36:19.660 and stick by their principles or if they're gonna cave because they don't want to upset anyone on any
00:36:25.340 side of the spectrum so we'll see it's gonna get interesting for sure and now that the cat is out
00:36:32.220 of the back uh bag you mentioned that you're you have a book coming out can you tell us a little bit
00:36:37.500 about your book uh i'm assuming it's about the freedom convoy yes it just details it details you
00:36:45.420 know my experience from the convoy um it was really hard to write because there's so much to this story
00:36:53.020 you know i i i'm thinking to try and squeeze it into you know 200 pages or less when really it's
00:36:59.660 like a lord of the rings style story you know there's so many components from the early stages
00:37:05.740 and the organization to the actual convoy out there to what happened when we got there and
00:37:10.220 the interpersonal relationships and how these people work with that so uh it's a massive massive
00:37:16.380 story to tell and um uh it's called hold the line um my story from the heart of the freedom convoy
00:37:22.940 and it's it's it's it's um my experiences from there and how i saw things and i'm really excited for it
00:37:30.860 to get out because i think it's a really great story and you know those of us that were there at the
00:37:36.780 beginning um um we all have a story to tell you know so and we were kind of in the heart of it all
00:37:45.660 so i think the title is is quite fitting yeah no absolutely uh you know i'm really looking forward
00:37:51.820 to reading the book when it's out and i'm sure um um you know our our listeners and viewers uh are also
00:37:59.980 very eager to get their hands on the book and um and and tomorrow i mean i'm i'm afraid i have to leave
00:38:05.660 it there but but there's so much more to talk about but i hope that means you'll be back on the show
00:38:10.700 again soon we'll do this again anytime it's been a real privilege to have you uh on my show and uh
00:38:17.900 and uh yeah and i wish you all the best and uh and i hope you'll be back again soon i hope so too
00:38:24.300 thanks thanks so much thanks so much rupa have a great day