BREAKDOWN： Trucker Commission Day 1 ｜ Ft. Ezra Levant & Sheila Gunn Reid
Summary
Rebel News is on location in Ottawa covering the Truckers' Commission of inquiry. Ezra Levant and Sheila Gunn-Reed join me to talk about the Commission's first day of hearings and what we will be doing for the next six weeks.
Transcript
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Well, hello. It is Ezra Levant out here in Ottawa, almost on location. I'm not quite
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in the Library of Archives, but I'm awfully close. Sitting next to me is William Diaz Berthe-Oma,
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our Ottawa-based correspondent. And across this giant country of ours is my good friend Sheila
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Gunn-Reed, our chief reporter. She is headquartered in northern Alberta. Sheila,
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how are you doing out west there? I'm doing great. I tuned into the live stream of the
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trucker commission proceedings all day today, or at least as long as they went today. And there
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were some things that really stuck out for me, even though they were just presenting reports
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and making formal introductions today. There were some things I don't think anybody in the
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mainstream media picked up upon because it referenced them directly and their bad reporting
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and their fake news. Isn't that interesting? We will talk about that. Let me just tell you what
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we're going to do for the course of the next hour and what we hope to do every day for the next
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month and a half. Like I said, I am in Ottawa with William and we have a team. In fact, we have set up
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like a pop-up TV studio. We've rented a large Airbnb, just a stone's throw from the Library and Archives.
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It's got four bedrooms in which we will rotate through our Rebel News reporters. It is my plan to
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have 15 Rebel News journalists cover this over the course of the next six weeks. And some people
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will be here for a few days. Some people will be here for almost the whole duration. We are going to
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be in the room. I want to reach into my pocket and show you something, Sheila. This is my official
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accreditation. And William has it and you have it, Sheila. And 13 Rebel News journalists have it. Now,
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normally that would be a very strange thing to boast about, saying like, look, Dad, I've got a
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driver's license. Unless you're 16 years old, that's not much of a boast. But it goes to show
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that this Commission of Inquiry maybe, just maybe, is less toxically partisan than the rest of this
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city. For example, the Debates Commission that bans Rebel News or the Parliamentary Press Gallery that
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bans Rebel News. Maybe, just maybe, maybe just for show. But the fact that 13 Rebel News journalists
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have been accredited and we will be covering this thing like green on broccoli, we will be there to
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scrum politicians, to ask lawyers and witnesses questions. We'll be there to ask questions of
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Justin Trudeau, you know, the media party won't. Sheila, I'm pretty excited about what's coming.
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And by the way, we're going to talk about the exciting first day that William has had too.
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So Rebel News is on location. I'd have to check, but it wouldn't surprise me if our 13 journalists
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make us one of the largest media outlets accredited to be here. Well, and I think we need to be,
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because if you look at the media list, there aren't all that many skeptics. However, you know,
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they did accredit the Epoch Times their video arm, Western Standard is there, True North is there.
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There are some skeptics, but it's the usual suspects, the bailout media, who are happy to sit idly by
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while the Liberals sort of stack the deck to rig the outcome of this thing. Because we've already seen
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the mandate of the Commission focuses on the actions of the truckers when they should be focusing on the
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actions of the government. The courts will sort out the actions of the truckers there. Some of them
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are charged with mischief and other very, very minor related offenses, despite what the internet
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hysterics would have you believe. There are no sedition charges here. And that's another thing
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that came up in the reports today. But, you know, they're really trying to have another bite at the
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apple with regard to holding the truckers to account instead of the government to account
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for their actions. Well, yeah, I think that's something very interesting, Sheila, because
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the point of the Commission, as some people don't fully understand, is not to see if the actions of
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the Freedom Convoy were illegal, they were peaceful action, they were the things that should have
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happened. The point of the Commission is to see if Justin Trudeau's authoritarian response
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to the peaceful Freedom Convoy is something that was appropriate for situations. That's
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something really important that you just said right there.
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You know, let me jump in, Sheila. Go ahead, Sheila. You finished that thought and I'll jump in.
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Yeah, I was just going to say, part of this, and of course we'll have lawyers weigh in on this,
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but the whole point of this is to show, did the government react to a situation that met the very
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specific benchmarks of invoking the Emergencies Act. I would say it doesn't. Based on what the
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Commission lawyers said today, I would definitely say it doesn't, but that's what this is all about.
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It is, it's got nothing to do with mischief charges against truckers.
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You know what, that's the whole point about this Emergencies Act, which was never invoked
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before in Canadian history. It was the successor to the War Measures Act. The War Measures Act was
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deployed during the October crisis some 52 years ago, when there was a terrorist group called the
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FLQ that were blowing up mailboxes. They kidnapped people. They assassinated people. It truly was a
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terrorist insurrection in league with Cuba. I know this sounds hard to believe, but it really was as close
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to Canada came in a hundred years to an insurrection. Trudeau Sr. brought in the War Measures Act.
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It was just in Quebec, and it was just limited for a few weeks until they stamped out the terrorism.
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This Emergencies Act was brought in. Why? Because there was some horn honking that irritated some...
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The bouncy castle. Those were the ones that did it.
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So the Emergencies Act has built into a kind of retrospective, was it justified? And as William
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pointed out, it's up to Trudeau to justify why he suspended our civil liberties. There are truckers
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and protesters who are facing charges of their own, and that's for other courts to deal with. But the
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purpose of this inquiry is whether or not Trudeau had a bonfire of our civil liberties that was
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justified. But look at this. I'm now quoting from the Commission's own mandate. If you go to the
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publicorderoemergencycommission.ca, that's the official website for this inquiry. And if you click
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on mandate, you'll see the instructions given to this judge by Trudeau. Oh, hang on. Is that how it
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works? If I'm charged with a crime, do I get to tell the judge what to think about? And there's five
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points written down here. Let me read the first three. So again, just remember, this is the
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commission of inquiry into Trudeau's conduct and suspending our civil liberties. What were the
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instructions that Trudeau gave to the judge to look at five things, including A, the evolution and
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goals of the convoy and blockades, their leadership, organization, and participants? Huh? What? What's
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that got to do with the fact that you torched our civil liberties? You want to put the truckers on
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trial? B, the impact of domestic and foreign funding, including crowdsourcing platforms. Well,
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I'll tell you right now, there was no impact because none of the money got through. GoFundMe
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canceled it and give, send, go, had their money seized. But again, what does that have to do?
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And to address that point, both crowdfunding platforms testified at Senate hearings,
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or sorry, House of Commons hearings, and they said the majority of their funding was domestic. It was
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not in any substantial way foreign. Yeah, another pack of lies from Trudeau. And then the third point
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is that this judge was instructed to examine, quote, the impact, role, and sources of misinformation and
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disinformation, including the use of social media. Yeah, or the CBC say Vladimir Putin's behind it. Like,
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none of the three things I just left had anything to do with Justin Trudeau suspending our civil
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liberties. And that's what they're trying to do. Now, listen, we've cleared our throat here for 12
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minutes. We have a one-hour live stream today. You know me, Sheila. I could talk, I could talk for
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an hour in one big deep breath. But we can't do that because we've got a lineup of great people.
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And I want to say that every night during this commission, and we've got a special website for
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truckercommission.com. Let me tell you what we got at truckercommission.com. Number one,
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that's where all our videos are going to be. Number two, that's where we have our crowdfunding,
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if you want to help us pay for our Airbnb and the cost of bringing our journalists in. And I
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want us to stop Trudeau from trying to flip the script. He's trying to use this commission of
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inquiry to have a do-over because he lost the PR battle for the truckers. He's trying to have a
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do-over. So truckercommission.com. Okay. I want to be mindful of the time we have here, Sheila. It's
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great to see you at West. And I'm going to be here from time to time. You know, we've got people,
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like I said, we've got four bedrooms here at our homemade Ottawa office, our studio. We're
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going to have people here the whole time. We're going to cycle through about 15 stout. It's sort
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of fun. And, you know, our team's pretty young. It's sort of like a frat house, but instead of
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dedicated to drinking and getting in trouble, it's dedicated to holding the government to account.
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Yeah. And I think there's an importance there as well. And we saw the importance of having
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Rebel News journalists instead of having mainstream media journalists today in the
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building, in the library building. Because earlier, we saw Keith Wilson, the lawyer of Tamera Leach,
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was walking around in the building. And the moment that I started asking him questions,
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you saw 10, 15 mainstream media reporter gathering around us and then starting to put their microphone
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in his face to ask him questions. And questions that were also in a different angle than the question
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that we ask here at Rebel News. We ask questions from a freedom-oriented perspective. We ask
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questions from a conservative, small-seat perspective as well. That's not what the
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mainstream media does when they ask questions to both politicians and lawyers and just public
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personas as well. So that's the importance, I think, Ezra, of having Rebel News people here.
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Well, listen, I think we have a clip of that. Do we have a clip of that handy, Efron, of the scrum with
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Keith Wilson? I don't want to play the whole interview, but if we can, we'll show that. Tell me a little bit more
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about what you did. And then what we're going to do is we're going to throw to a short ad and we're
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going to bring in Keith Wilson, King's counsel. The lawyer of Tamera Leach. The lawyer of Tamera Leach.
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So give us a word about that and then we'll call in our first case. Yeah. So basically today,
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what we saw in the building, what were the proceedings stated? We saw some preliminary
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matters being discussed and some background reports as well. So no witness testify. I know
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Catherine McKinney is testifying the next two days of proceedings. So that'll be definitely
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interesting. The trans admiral candidate for the city of Ottawa. But today, we just saw basically
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some preliminary matters being discussed. We saw an Alberta solicitor talk about the invocation of
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the Emergencies Act and talk about what was her view of the Emergencies Act. And I think that was
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very interesting to see her testifying to that because she was opposed to the Emergencies Act,
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the way she was talking about. She was talking negatively about it. So that was interesting to see. But yeah,
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with Keith Wilson, we spoke about what he hopes to
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to see as the outcome of the of the inquiries. He gave us a little rundown of what was going to
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happen. Some of the questions will take a look to the clip when we have it.
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All right. Do we have that clip or should we call in Keith Wilson live? Okay, we're going to do that.
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We're going to throw the commercial. Nobody go away. We'll be back in a minute and a half. And
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joining me here in the living room studio will be Keith Wilson, KC himself.
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Go go away. It's it's the values. You all right. Western values in Western society. And these are
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values we could all relate to. But they're old world values of grit and community and perseverance.
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It's a place where you can make a living with your back and your hands and a little bit of hard work.
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And it's a place of opportunity. And I think as Albertans, we're fiercely protective of that.
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The world's energy crisis has been grabbing newspaper headlines. In a nutshell,
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we're running short of petroleum resources and the prices are zooming upwards. My colleagues
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in the government and I have come reluctantly to believe that the price of oil in Canada must go
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up. This was Alberta. The origin of the Alberta separatist movement begins with the election of
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Pierre Trudeau as prime minister. It was it was a deliberate and malicious targeting in the West,
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which suited Pierre Trudeau just fine, just like it suits Justin Trudeau just fine. Sunny ways,
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my friends. Blackface. There is an actual hostile government towards Alberta. Why did your dad give
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everyone in Western Canada the middle finger? Really, in politics, you do have to make big decisions.
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And whenever you make big decisions, there's going to be people who agree with it and people who don't
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disagree with it. Plenty of people want to leave this country. It's not the kind of idea you'd expect
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to hear from someone who wants to win power and hold power. It's a it is a radical idea. And you would
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normalize the discussion. And so maybe Alberta wouldn't have to go because maybe the rest of the
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country and the rest of the world would say, whoa, don't go. Will you accept these changes instead? That's
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what happened to Quebec. There's no Maple Leafs west of the Manitoba borders. Why do we why do we have a
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maple leaf by unilateral decision on the Canadian flag? Think of how the American colonists were in 1775.
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Well, there's a bit of a lag here in the studio. This is the first night. We're going to be doing
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this every night for six weeks. So it's a great time to test out our systems. Like I say, we're in
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an Airbnb that we are turning into a studio. Today's just the first day. And how appropriate it is
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that joining us in our little homemade studio here in the Airbnb at Stone's Throw from the
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Library and Archives is Keith Wilson, King's Counsel, who has been a lawyer for Tamara Leach and other
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truckers. Great to see you, Keith. Thanks for joining us here tonight.
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So tell me what happened today. It sounds like from Sheila's report, there wasn't the actual action of
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the inquiry. It was sort of backgrounders, reports that the commission itself had done,
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sort of setting the stage. Why don't you explain it in layman's terms? What happened today? First of
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all, tell us who who's presiding? What's the room like? How many people are in there? How many lawyers?
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Where were you? Before we get into the substance, tell us, what was it like?
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Well, it was there was a tension in the room for sure. I think everybody in that room
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understands the gravity of what's happening here. This is a historic legal and political event of
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our lifetime. Justice Rouleau, he's a sitting justice of the Ontario Court of Appeal. He was
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appointed by the prime minister in the Privy Council to be the commissioner in this matter.
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He kind of laid down the ground rules and allowed the various parties to, you know, the who's who in the
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zoo. To give you a sense of scale, when we had an all-council call last week.
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So all lawyers. All lawyers, thank you. All lawyers were on this call that are involved,
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and there were 78 lawyers on that call. When I look at how the deck's stacked, we calculate that
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there's approximately 50 lawyers against us. But we're ready for it. We've got a phenomenal team.
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There's four of us. And yeah, so Justice Rouleau's task is to receive the evidence from a wide
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variety of parties and documents and oral evidence and cross-examination to determine whether or not
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the invocation was justified. Now, you say 50 lawyers are against us. I'm assuming that means
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they're lawyers for the state. They're lawyers for Trudeau. They're lawyers for the city of Ottawa and the
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police. So on the other side, you mentioned there's four of us. Are you referring to your
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legal team? Yeah. And are you affiliated with the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedom?
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That's right. So the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedom's legal charity has been
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helping cover a large portion of the legal costs of the legal team and very important work. And they
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could use more help at all times. The Justice Center itself is also participating, dealing more at a
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policy level and a charter and rights and freedoms alongside of the Democracy Fund.
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Alan Hawner, the lawyer for the Democracy Fund, was there today, and he made some remarks.
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So are there any other good guys there? The Democracy Fund and JCCF, who else is there?
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Well, there's another group that's representing the protesters at Windsor. There's some academics
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that are very concerned about the Constitution, Ryan Elford.
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Well, I'm pleased to hear that. I'm shocked to hear that. I didn't know any
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Yeah, I hear you. But no, he's been very engaged. There's going to be some really complex issues
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where they've already signaled the federal government that they're going to want to go in camera.
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That means turn off. It actually means turn off the camera, right?
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It means sort of it's a secret hearing that no transcripts, no videos will be allowed.
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Like I said, how do you have a public hearing that's a secret hearing?
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Well, absolutely. And what are they going to talk about? Cease's assessment of the puncturability of
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jumpy castles? I mean, come on. So anyway, it's going to be interesting. But the cross-examination
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start tomorrow. And if things go as we expect, there'll be some very interesting developments
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I want to bring Sheila Gunn-Reed in just one minute, but I want to ask you to clarify that
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last thing you said, cross-examination. So typically, a witness says something, and then they're asked
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tough questions based on their testimony. Do we have a list of witnesses? Do we know the order
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of witnesses? Do we know the name of all the witnesses? Who's up tomorrow?
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So let me first zoom out a little bit. The list is long. There's a publicly released list that has 65
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approximately witnesses on it. The prime minister's on that list. The commissioner for the RCMP,
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Brenda Luckey's on that list. Mendocino's on that list. Blair's on that list. One-fifth of the cabinet.
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Richard Freeland, Omar, all of these people. The head of the OPP, the mayor of Ottawa,
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Including the police chief who, it looks like he was fired for not being taken off.
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I'll be interested to hear from him if he's allowed to speak.
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Right. And it's a living document. It's not a final list. We've submitted a list of 25 witnesses
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that we'd like to see, including Dean French, the former chief of staff, to Premier Doug Ford,
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who helped negotiate the deal with the mayor just before the Invocation and Emergencies Act,
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former Premier Peckford, a number of Danny Bulford and so on, a number of important people involved
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in the freedom movement. We think they should testify. So we're still working that through.
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And what's going to happen is you're going to see each day, the witness list is going to get
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filled out a little bit more for the coming days. So right now we know the witnesses for tomorrow,
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So tomorrow we're actually going to have Lexi Lee, who is the plaintiff with Paul Champ,
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the personal injury lawyer that brought the $300 million class action lawsuit.
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Yeah, because Horton Hawking is so, you know, she's disturbed for a lot.
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But you know, it's a big deal. Tom Marazzo is one of the persons listed, Tamara Leach.
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Chris Barber and others have been listed in this class action. No one wants to get sued
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for $300 million. So this is a serious matter. So she's going to testify.
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Interestingly, Ms. Dean, who was on the police board chair,
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I believe is going to be up tomorrow if we get through the schedule,
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as well as some other local officials and residents.
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Interesting next week, we're going to have Steve Kanalakis, who is the city manager.
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I was involved in direct negotiations with him, as was Tom Marazzo, with respect to the deal and
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other matters. So it's going to be interesting to see how his testimony unfolds. And we have
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Well, that sounds very exciting. We're going to talk to Alan Harner a little bit later. He is
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your counterpart at the Democracy Fund. And I know he made some remarks today to the commission.
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Very exciting. But I want to invite our dear friend Sheila Gunn-Reed, our chief reporter,
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and who has been live tweeting all day. Sheila, I'd like you to weigh in either with questions for
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Keith, or you said you saw some tantalizing things in the opening briefings from this commission that you
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say were curious and that maybe were ignored by the mainstream media. So what are the things,
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because you were covering this thing all day, tell us something that our viewers wouldn't know,
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or put a question that Keith Wilson would love to get you involved in the conversation.
00:21:51.940
Sure. You know, what I found most curious, Keith, and I don't know how much of it that you saw or
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stuck around to watch, the explanation from the government for why they used Section 58. Now,
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Section 58 is the justification for invoking the Emergencies Act. It's like a restraining order
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against the government, really. And it says that to declare a public order emergency, there has to be
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an emergency arising from threats to the security of Canada that are so serious as to be a national
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emergency. Apparently, bouncy castles, hot tubs and honking does that. Threats to the security of
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Canada, including threats or acts of serious violence against persons or property to achieve
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political or ideological objectives. There was no real violence against the truckers. There was violence
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committed against truckers. And a national emergency so emergent that the local police forces do not have
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the tools to deal with the emergency. And Keith, your client is charged with mischief, being annoying in
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a public place, really. So I guess my question to you is, well, and I guess because you're there on the
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other side of this, prediction wise, are they even going to be remotely successful in proving that the police
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did not have the tools they needed to address bouncy castles, hot tubs and open air soup kitchens?
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Well, I don't think so. And one of the things that's going to be surprising
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is the extent to which they're infighting, the infighting within the police, the infighting between
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the city officials or the elected officials, the fighting between the police, infighting between the
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The level of dysfunction I think that's going to get revealed here is going to cause people to
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question the competency of some of our government agencies. In the opening statement for our group and
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lawyer Brendan Miller is our lead counsel in the barrister's role. So you may have saw Sheila his
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opening statement where he basically put the pop cans on the fence posts and knocked each one of them off
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and said there's five things you have to prove and there will be no evidence to support any one of the
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five. So this is going to be, I knew it was going to be interesting and I think it's actually going to be riveting.
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I do too. And you know, just again from the government's explanation here, they're already
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starting to use social justice nonsense to change the meaning of words. Under continuing blockades and
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activities tied to serious acts of violence, they say these activities are tied to serious acts of
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violence. Slow rolls, slowing down traffic, creating traffic jams, and tow truck drivers refusing to
00:24:50.180
work with governments to remove vehicles from blockades. According to the government, those are
00:24:55.460
activities that are tied to or result in serious acts of violence. It's outrageous that they think that
00:25:01.540
they can get away with this. Keith, I know you just lost your phone for a second. Sheila was saying that
00:25:07.700
the stretching of those words to include slow rolling trucks as an act of violence is absurd and
00:25:15.700
it marks a lurch from real law to touchy-feely woke politics. Well, what Professor Alford said in his
00:25:23.860
statement today is that that's not the test. The test isn't whether something's associated or close to
00:25:31.060
or related to or nearby. It has to be actual evidence of it, actual evidence of violence towards the state,
00:25:42.020
actual evidence of each one of those criteria or any combination of them. So that's the jockeying for
00:25:48.900
positioning is occurring. I don't envy the federal government lawyer's position. They're in a tough
00:25:54.820
spot. I got one more question for you, Keith, and then we're going to have another short commercial
00:25:59.780
break and we're going to call on your colleague at the Democracy Fund, Alan Harner. Tamara Leach has become
00:26:07.700
a tremendous symbol of this movement. Peaceful, patriotic, positive, and yet
00:26:18.180
the vendetta against her, not just by Trudeau and the police, but by the prosecutor. And I've never
00:26:24.980
heard in my entire life anywhere in Canada, let alone in any other Commonwealth country, of someone
00:26:30.980
being jailed even for a day for a mischief charge. Actually, that's not true. One guy who shut down,
00:26:37.860
who blew up the power grid in Quebec, got a little bit of jail time. But I've never heard of a pre-trial
00:26:48.260
custody of 49 days for someone who has no violence, no threat to the community. I've just
00:26:57.300
never seen such a thing. Tell me a little bit without giving away any confidences. What do you
00:27:03.300
expect Tamara Leach to say as a witness? And what do you think the impact will be of what she has to say
00:27:10.740
on this inquiry? And finally, these are a lot of questions. What's she going to say? What's the
00:27:16.340
impact going to be on the inquiry? And what are the bad guys going to try to do or do to her in cross
00:27:21.940
examination? Well, let me try and tackle those. I first say that she's going to tell the truth.
00:27:28.100
And the impact is going to be to confirm that this was an extreme example of the federal government and
00:27:35.380
Prime Minister Trudeau overreaching and using this nuclear weapon of statutory powers against Canadian
00:27:43.380
citizens. I'm not going to go into cross examination, but I'm going to say this, Ezra,
00:27:49.060
because it's really important. It goes to an underlying theme in your question. Today,
00:27:54.180
Tamara was mobbed by the legacy media and they all said, Tamara, they're asking her for comment
00:28:01.220
on this, comment on that, comment on this. And she just smiled and declined to comment.
00:28:07.540
So when I was scrum, they're like, well, why won't Tamara talk to us? And I thought to myself,
00:28:12.580
are you guys kidding me? Are you not paying attention here? So I explained to them
00:28:16.180
that under these draconian bail conditions, she's not allowed to criticize the federal government's
00:28:23.060
COVID mandates, and she's not allowed to speak in support of the freedom convoy. And I pointed out
00:28:29.300
to them that right now in Putin's Russia, they could interview Volani, his critic, but in Trudeau's
00:28:37.460
Canada, Tamara Leach can't speak. Incredible. Well, it'll be interesting because of course,
00:28:44.980
my understanding is if you speak before a judicial commission, it's like being in a court and you
00:28:50.020
have absolute privilege, immunity to answer truthfully before a judge. Now, that's my
00:28:56.500
understanding. Let me correct me if I nail that for you. And that's what I explained to the reporters as
00:29:01.060
well, the gaggle of the legacy media, was that they need to understand that the way this works
00:29:08.100
is because it's a public inquiry, and these are pretty rare, that under the rules in the law that
00:29:13.220
applies, it means that when Tamara is subpoenaed, and as with Tom Marazzo and Chris Barber and others,
00:29:21.060
when they're speaking under oath in the commission, they have protections under the charter and the
00:29:25.940
Canada Evidence Act, which means nothing they say can be used against them in other proceedings. So
00:29:30.580
the only place she can speak right now because of these bizarre punitive and politically motivated,
00:29:39.220
in my view, bail conditions is in that room. So I think it was an eye-opener for the reporters
00:29:46.980
because they really wanted to ask her questions and then suddenly realized, wow, so she goes back
00:29:51.060
to jail if she talks to us here? And the answer is yeah. Yeah, well, it'd be interesting to see.
00:29:55.460
But wouldn't they love that? Yeah. But wouldn't they love that?
00:29:59.700
Isn't that the truth? Sheila's saying they would love that. Some of them would. Some of the reporters
00:30:03.300
would love it if she was back in jail. Some of the more partisan reporters. Others, the fact that they
00:30:07.220
don't know that this is the fact just is stunning to me. Yes. A Canadian citizen who's a public person
00:30:14.100
has spent nearly two months in prison and they don't know that. And they don't know about these bail
00:30:19.140
conditions. They're not particularly troubled by it. And oh, OK, that's interesting. To me,
00:30:23.780
that's just as appalling. Well, Keith, it's great to see you. And I understand you're going to be here
00:30:27.860
for the duration as well. Yes. Our Rebel News homemade studio. Today's day one. Thanks for helping us
00:30:33.860
iron out the wrinkles in it. I think we're doing OK. And it's very important to me that this story of
00:30:40.740
this commissioning inquiry be told, not just by the regime media, because as Sheila pointed out,
00:30:47.060
and as the questions are put to you pointed out, if we relied on the regime media, we would not know
00:30:51.620
what's really going on. In fact, if it were only up to the CDC, CTV, Global News,
00:30:57.460
the truckers would have been called violent insurrectionists. Well, you saw Trudeau called
00:31:03.700
racist, misogynist, sedition. It was only because of citizen journalists that those lies were rebutted.
00:31:11.780
So I think that having independent journalists here, and I heard that Western Standard has a
00:31:16.260
reporter accredited. I hope True North does. OK, that's good to hear. And we're going full tilt here.
00:31:22.180
I really think we have a special duty, as our motto says, to tell the other side of the story. So thanks
00:31:26.820
very much for coming in. I'm sure we'll talk to you in the weeks ahead. Thanks for having me.
00:31:30.340
All right. There you have it. Keith Wilson, King's Council. I have to get used to saying that after so
00:31:36.340
long of calling it QC, Queen's Council. If you don't know what that means, it means he's a
00:31:41.140
top dog lawyer. Stay with us. We're going to run a quick commercial. And when we return,
00:31:45.220
another Top Gun lawyer, our dear friend Alan Haunter will join us. That's moments away.
00:31:53.700
Yeah. So just for the viewers at home, you know, that don't really know what's happening for the next
00:31:56.740
six weeks. Can you just outline quickly what's happening here in Ottawa?
00:32:00.180
Well, my name is Keith Wilson. I'm one of the lawyers representing the Freedom Convoy.
00:32:05.060
And because the federal government took the unprecedented step of invoking the Emergencies
00:32:10.180
Act, under that law, there's a requirement for a public inquiry to be held. And that public inquiry
00:32:17.060
was started here in Ottawa. And it's going to last at least six weeks. There's going to be a wide
00:32:21.380
range of evidence presented. Witnesses from the municipality, residents, the protesters, the police
00:32:29.300
and the federal government, including the prime minister, are going to be testifying.
00:32:33.700
I think it's going to be a very engaging process. You can tell from the opening day that
00:32:39.860
the different stakeholders have staked out some very different territory in terms of
00:32:44.500
what their positions are and what they think needs to be addressed here.
00:32:48.740
And what would be the best possible outcome that you see from this inquiry?
00:32:54.420
Well, the truth, that the truth comes out and with some accuracy as to what happened here in Ottawa
00:32:59.940
and what was happening in other locations in the country at the time that the prime minister and
00:33:04.980
his cabinet made the decision to invoke the Emergencies Act, because they made the decision in a cabinet
00:33:10.020
meeting on the Sunday evening of February 13th. And on the Saturday and the Sunday of that weekend,
00:33:16.740
the borders had opened at Coutts and Windsor. There was no border closures. And over that same weekend,
00:33:22.100
myself and other people involved with the Freedom Convoy had negotiated a deal at the initiation of
00:33:28.340
Mayor Watson of the City of Ottawa to move the trucks and the protest vehicles out of downtown, consolidate
00:33:34.740
on Wellington and bring the downtown back to normal. And so in my view, and I think the evidence is going to
00:33:43.380
show that it wasn't justified. There was no need for it. And the Emergencies Act is a pretty dramatic
00:33:48.740
tool to say the least. What the Emergencies Act does is it allows the government to interfere in your
00:33:55.540
life without going through the normal due process. So many of my clients, many of those people involved
00:34:00.180
in the Freedom Convoy had their bank accounts frozen. They were unable to buy groceries. They were
00:34:04.820
unable to put gas in their vehicles. Their credit cards stopped working. They were unable to take money out of
00:34:08.820
their bank accounts. Their mortgage payments bounced and so on. The order issued by the Federal Government
00:34:14.180
by the Deputy Prime Minister Freeland also ordered insurance companies to cancel all of the insurance
00:34:19.860
policies, including life insurance, mortgage insurance, vehicle insurance, and ordered the
00:34:25.540
securities companies to liquidate any investments that Canadians had who are on this list. So these are
00:34:31.060
dramatic powers to isolate Canadians from normal living and put them in a virtual jail cell financially.
00:34:38.660
And in addition, what a lot of people don't understand is that under the Emergencies Act, it also gives
00:34:44.820
the Federal Government powers to intrude into areas of provincial jurisdiction. It gets to override provincial
00:34:52.580
Well, there you have it, Keith Wilson scrumming with our friend William Diaz Bertiom on the premises
00:35:04.740
of the National Library and Archives. What a pleasure to have Rebel News in the house, and by that I mean
00:35:10.420
actually in the house as opposed to on the outside. I should tell you we do better journalism on the
00:35:15.620
outside than most mainstream media do from the inside, but now we're leading the way. As Chris Wilson pointed out,
00:35:21.780
it was William who put the microphone to Tamara and then the others caught up. It was William who put the
00:35:26.500
microphone to Keith and the others caught up. You know what, the most interesting thing that Keith said to me
00:35:33.220
was not that journalists are hostile to Tamara Leach or the truckers. I mean, we know that. At least the edgy
00:35:42.980
Trudeau quoting journalists like David Aitken or, you know, Glenn McGregor. The most
00:35:50.820
alarming, depressing thing Keith Wilson said to me was that most journalists just simply don't know.
00:35:58.820
They're unaware that in our country in 2022, while we criticize Vladimir Putin for being authoritarian,
00:36:04.980
while we criticize China and Iran, in our own country we have a truly a political prisoner who served
00:36:10.740
49 days in prison without a trial for the alleged crime of mischief. And she has to this day a
00:36:19.860
speech ban. She cannot criticize the government. She cannot support the truckers,
00:36:24.660
neither of which have anything to do with mischief. That to me was the most incredible thing. Well,
00:36:30.820
that was Keith Wilson. And now joining us in the fancy chair in our extremely fancy Airbnb studio is
00:36:38.900
my friend Alan Harner, who is the head of litigation at the Democracy Fund. And he,
00:36:45.060
along with the JCCF, has standing and he's actually on the commission. And Olivia, in a moment, I'm going to
00:36:50.500
call for the clip of Alan's opening remarks. So please get that ready. Alan, great to see you. Welcome to our
00:36:58.100
very humble studio. Well, thank you very much, Ezra. It's a pleasure to be here.
00:37:02.420
I'm going to invite you to come a little closer to the microphone just to make sure we hear them
00:37:05.460
clearly. So today, Keith told us a little bit about how it went. It was sort of throat clearing,
00:37:14.340
scene setting, backgrounders, the real action starts tomorrow. Tell me what you thought was
00:37:19.940
interesting. What are the most important things to know from your point of view that happened today?
00:37:24.900
Yeah. Well, so as for today, I think the most important thing we've seen and the most
00:37:29.620
interesting thing we've seen is that counsel for the different parties gave their opening statements.
00:37:37.060
And opening statements are not evidence, but they show you where the parties are heading and what type
00:37:42.980
of evidence they intend to lead. And I think there were some surprises there. I think the biggest surprise
00:37:50.020
for me or one of them actually came from the OPP lawyer. Now, there are a lot of police who are
00:37:57.060
involved in this commission as parties. There are police associations. And I think that some of them
00:38:04.260
have been a bit embarrassed about the way this protest unfolded. And they're trying to save face
00:38:09.220
because of perceptions about them. I don't, I'm not saying those perceptions are true or not,
00:38:15.220
but that's something that's, that's very much alive. So the lawyer from the OPP said today,
00:38:21.620
and I'm going to quote, I have the exact quote here. He said, Windsor was very much a success story.
00:38:30.340
So why would he say that? And I think the reason he's saying that is because in Windsor,
00:38:37.860
the police managed to stop the protests. They managed to, there goes my earpiece. They managed to
00:38:46.420
clear the protests before the invocation of the emergency act. They managed to do it with the
00:38:52.740
laws that were available. Isn't that interesting? So when he said, by the way, from a policing point
00:38:58.900
of view, it was a success. There was no violence. They, there was no insane insurrection or things did not
00:39:08.100
get out of hand. They went in, they moved the vehicles after a couple of days. I know that because
00:39:14.020
our own David Menzies and I think it was Isabel Reboche were there. And it was quite a dramatic
00:39:18.580
moment, but it was handled. And in terms of, you know, can we get a tow truck driver to tow a truck?
00:39:25.620
Our existing criminal code gives police the power under the criminal code to commandeer the use of
00:39:31.220
tow trucks or frankly, any vehicle for their purposes. You don't need the whole country in martial law,
00:39:38.020
seize bank accounts, quash insurance policies, deploy ride horses to get a tow truck. You actually,
00:39:46.340
in the criminal code, have the power to take any tow truck you please at any time. It's quite an astounding
00:39:52.500
power that the police have. That's very interesting that the OPP sort of, like I'm sure they wouldn't
00:39:59.220
characterize it as attacking the emergencies act, but by implication if they had a successful clearing of
00:40:06.100
the bridge. And by the way, there was no strategic problem with having trucker protesters in Ottawa.
00:40:12.020
Okay, so there's some horn honking that stopped immediately after a local judge said stop the horn
00:40:16.820
honking. But there was no strategic shutdown. There is no strategic value to those lanes of traffic
00:40:24.820
a couple of blocks away from Parliament Hill. There was a lane kept clear for ambulances and firetrucks
00:40:29.060
the whole time. Whereas blocking the Ambassador Bridge between Windsor and Detroit is extremely
00:40:35.060
important. That is one of the most economically important bridges in all of North America in terms
00:40:40.740
of trade. So that was very important, and yet that was cleared in a couple of days with no violence,
00:40:47.860
with no shock and awe, and certainly no emergency act. That is a very interesting comment by the OPP.
00:40:53.940
I think you're absolutely right, Ezra. And what surprises me is that I thought TDF was going to
00:40:59.620
need to make this argument. I thought the JCCF would have to make it, but now it looks like the OPP is
00:41:05.060
going to be helping us out with that. I wonder if that's on purpose, or if that's just speaking the
00:41:09.620
truth, the whole good and nothing but the truth. Well, as I say, I think they're probably trying to
00:41:14.340
save face here a bit. That's my theory. I don't know. Let me raise another point again, Ezra,
00:41:20.740
sort of along the same lines, the government of Alberta. I thought they had a very interesting
00:41:27.620
opening statement, because they had coots. And this is what they say, and I'm going to read it
00:41:34.260
again, because this is an exact quote. They say that the law enforcement mechanisms were, quote,
00:41:44.820
Huh. You know what? And it's funny, because, of course, Jason Kenney hated the coots truckers.
00:41:52.740
He lied about them. He smeared them. He defamed them. He said they were violent. They were not.
00:41:57.140
The RCMP actually made a public statement saying that Jason Kenney lied about it. It was quite
00:42:01.460
astounding. The coots truckers caused the downfall of Jason Kenney, just the same way the Ottawa
00:42:08.180
truckers caused the downfall of Aaron O'Toole. So the Alberta government is no fan of the truckers
00:42:13.300
by any stretch, certainly not the Justice Department, which has been persecuting them. But again,
00:42:17.460
same thing. They did not need the emergencies act. They did not need martial law. They didn't need to
00:42:24.580
seize bank accounts of families to move some trucks out of the way. In fact, they managed to pretty much
00:42:30.980
negotiate it away. That is very interesting, too. Sheila, what do you think of these things that Alan
00:42:36.180
Holler is pointing out? Well, you know, it's interesting because I noticed some things
00:42:43.060
similar to that, too. Again, going back to the government making the case for why they
00:42:48.500
invoked the emergencies act. And I don't think Alan can hear me anymore because I think his earpiece
00:42:52.900
fell out. So you might have to play telephone. Oh, he's got it back. Yeah, we'll get more earphones.
00:42:58.660
We'll get bigger, better earphones in the days ahead. This is day one of our homemade studio,
00:43:03.060
Sheila. We'll get there. It's a DIY operation. But I noticed that the government is relying on
00:43:10.980
media reports. They said that one of the reasons they invoked the emergencies act because it was a
00:43:16.580
threat to Canadian sovereignty was media reporting about give, send, go, indicating that the
00:43:22.580
majority of donations to the protests were made by donors outside of Canada. Well, give, send, go,
00:43:26.980
and go fund me testified at a House of Commons committee that that was not the case. And the
00:43:34.100
two stories CBC published about Russian interference, those were both retracted. But that's never indicated
00:43:41.540
in the government's reasoning here that they relied on largely debunked media reporting.
00:43:47.460
Yeah. Yeah. What do you think of that, Alan? Well, you know, I think that is a very interesting
00:43:54.420
point, Sheila, and we haven't heard any evidence from the government yet. I believe we're going to
00:44:00.180
hear from them starting next week. I think Keith is right. I think the government is in a pretty tough
00:44:06.020
spot and they're going to be asked questions about those media reports on these other issues that you
00:44:11.940
raise. You know, there's a lot of collusion between the media and the government. The media would come
00:44:20.180
up with a hoax. The government would use it as proof to go to the courts to get some power or whatever.
00:44:25.940
I mean, it was a closed loop. They were re-breathing each other's air. They were,
00:44:31.540
I'll scratch your back, you scratch my back. I mean, nothing makes me laugh more than the CBC
00:44:36.740
talking head who said to Marco Mendocino, maybe Vladimir Putin's behind the truckers. And he just
00:44:42.660
sat there. He didn't say, you're crazy. You're a crazy lady. He just sort of said,
00:44:49.140
and I don't know. I mentioned that because the ombudsman of the CBC made a statement on that in
00:44:55.460
the last few days saying how embarrassed he was. Well, and you know what? This is going to be very
00:44:59.860
interesting. What I'm hearing from both Keith Wilson of the Justice Center and yourself of TDF,
00:45:05.140
and Sheila's reports also, is that this trucker commission has a lot of interesting things to
00:45:11.060
say that may actually contradict the official regime narrative. And it, whether it's the
00:45:17.460
government of Alberta or the Ontario Provincial Police, the OPP, it's not just freedom fighters
00:45:23.060
saying it. I mean, if the OPP, which I happen to think is an abusive police force, I say that from some
00:45:28.180
experience, if the OPP is saying we didn't need the sledgehammer guys, there are some interesting
00:45:37.060
things being said here. Now, the question is, will the regime media report that in the way that we've
00:45:43.060
just heard here? And I'd say that the media is more compromised in Canada than it ever has been.
00:45:48.900
You don't just have the CBC state broadcaster. You now have 99.9% of journalists in some way on Trudeau's
00:46:00.420
payroll. We've listed the independent journalists in this country. Rebel News, True Northwestern,
00:46:06.740
Standard, Epoch Times, and I think I've done my list. And so I think it's extremely important that we
00:46:11.700
have our little homemade studio here. And I'm really grateful for the Democracy Fund and Justice Center.
00:46:15.860
I think you're doing good stuff. So you're going to be going every day, eh? You or your colleagues?
00:46:22.900
Okay. Well, we'll keep an eye on that. We're going to report on it. We're going to report on the JCCF
00:46:27.300
and the Democracy Fund because we're going to report on everything. You know, our motto,
00:46:31.540
what's our motto? Telling the other side of the story. So Alan, thanks for popping by
00:46:36.980
our homemade studio. It's 6.51 and we do have one more very special guest. So we're going to have a short
00:46:43.020
commercial break and we'll be right back. My name is Alan Hohner and I am the Litigation
00:46:49.980
Director for the Democracy Fund. The Democracy Fund is a registered charity and a civil liberties
00:46:56.940
organization. As you've heard, we're sharing standing with the JCCF and with Citizens for Freedom.
00:47:02.860
Our interest in this inquiry arises from our legal work. In February of 2022, we sent lawyers to Ottawa
00:47:12.700
and to Windsor to provide demonstrators with legal information about their rights when protesting,
00:47:20.940
as well as the limitations of those rights. Around the same time, we were granted intervener status
00:47:28.060
as a friend of the court at the Superior Court of Justice in Windsor over the Ambassador Bridge
00:47:36.460
injunction proceeding. Currently, we represent dozens of persons who have been criminally charged
00:47:44.060
in relation to the protests at Ottawa, Windsor, and Coutts. And we represent thousands of others
00:47:51.820
who have been charged under the Quarantine Act or provincial offenses related to the pandemic.
00:47:58.860
We've also brought applications before Superior Courts.
00:48:07.100
Well, we are back. You know, there's a bit of a time lag in our homemade studio, so forgive me that I
00:48:12.540
have that little pregnant pause there. It's great to be here on day one of our studio, just for those who are
00:48:18.460
joining us at our special website, truckercommission.com. We will have nightly live streams, updates
00:48:25.500
throughout the day in video, in tweet form. My point to you is if you want the antidote,
00:48:32.300
the other side of the story, you have to bookmark truckercommission.com. And it is my hope that you
00:48:38.780
find this useful enough to maybe even check in to help us cover the cost of the Airbnb, which I think
00:48:44.060
is about $15,000. I know that's a shocking amount of money, but we are so close to the library and
00:48:48.780
archives, you wouldn't believe it. And it's a big place. There's four bedrooms, and it's cheaper,
00:48:53.980
I think, than getting a hotel room and a studio. We're in one of the rooms of the Airbnb. We're going
00:48:59.740
to make it even better. So please do support us at truckercommission.com. Now, sitting next to me
00:49:06.140
is Tom Morazzo, who is a witness here. Now, Tom, I just want to ask you a question before we get started,
00:49:11.340
because I'm nervous now, because Tamara Leach has bail conditions on her that are extremely
00:49:18.060
onerous. And there is an insane, out of control prosecutor in this town. And I want to make sure
00:49:25.500
that I know any restrictions on you so I don't inadvertently get you or me in a pickle. Do you
00:49:32.700
have any bail conditions that I need to know about? I do not have any bail conditions. Okay,
00:49:36.540
good. Now, I relax a bit. I don't want to go to the clink. So what are you charged with,
00:49:42.380
if you don't mind? I actually haven't been charged that I'm aware of. There's no charges pending.
00:49:49.980
Okay, thank you. Forgive me for being overly cautious here. I just don't want, I mean,
00:49:54.940
remember what happened when Tamara Leach was thrown in jail a second time. Absolutely outrageous,
00:50:00.140
but the other side is not dealing with us in good faith. Right. Sorry. Okay,
00:50:04.060
thanks for letting me clear that up. Tell me a little bit about your plans to testify. How were
00:50:08.860
you called as a witness? Did the commission call you? Were you suggested by council? How did you
00:50:13.980
come to be one of the, like, I'm sure hundreds of people would like to testify. How did you get on the
00:50:18.700
list? I believe that Keith Wilson and Eva had put together the application in the early days when the
00:50:27.900
commission was looking for witnesses to come forward. And my name was one of the ones that
00:50:33.820
was put forward and it was accepted by Justice Rouleau and I guess the government team. And that's how I
00:50:43.260
got on the list. And it's interesting to me that there are so few of us that are actually participating
00:50:51.260
in this. I'm quite surprised by how small the people that I worked with during the convoy,
00:50:58.060
how small that list actually is. So that's your standing as you were helping to organize the
00:51:03.500
convoy or to interlocute between the convoy and the police. That was one of the things you were doing,
00:51:09.500
right? You were a go-between, like a human ambassador bridge, if I may, between the truck and the police,
00:51:16.140
right? Yeah, there was, um, my role did actually evolve over time. Uh, when I first got there,
00:51:21.980
it was, I was more focused on the logistical aspects and making sure that it was, uh, safe
00:51:26.860
and responsible. We had safety lanes open to the public and emergency service. That's the point
00:51:31.500
that most people don't know. They call it a lockdown, they call it an occupation. There were lanes open.
00:51:35.980
The police were shutting down more lanes to the truckers. Yes, in fact, they were. And there was, uh,
00:51:40.860
there's one, one incident I was asked by the police to go confirm that we were not locking in an,
00:51:45.820
an intersection. And when I arrived, there was heavy equipment, two concrete barriers,
00:51:50.940
and five police officers standing there blocking the intersection, not us. I believe it. I believe
00:51:56.460
it. So, um, do you, you, you've got to prepare, let me guess, you have a prepared statement.
00:52:02.940
You're going to read it and then your lawyer will ask you questions and then you'll be open to
00:52:06.940
cross-examination. Is that how it goes? Is it like a trial that way? Like, have you prepared a commentary?
00:52:12.540
I've had many discussions with the legal team. Yeah. Uh, but how the actual steps will unfold once,
00:52:19.100
once I do get called to testify, I'm not entirely sure of how that's going to go,
00:52:23.900
uh, because none of the witnesses have actually testified yet. So I don't really know what that
00:52:27.900
is. It's not really a trial, but it's like, you know, there's witnesses before a parliamentary
00:52:32.460
committee. That's what I was thinking. Those are often, you make a statement and you take questions,
00:52:36.540
but there's so many lawyers. I mean, we heard there's, there's almost 80 lawyers there,
00:52:39.820
each one wanting to take a shot at you. Yeah. And I, so I don't even know if there
00:52:43.020
would be time for me to do an opening statement of any kind. I think it's, there's just, I'm going
00:52:47.260
to be too open to too many, too many lawyers from too, too many different groups to consume that much
00:52:54.620
time, I suppose. Now, are you there representing a group of people? Like, are you, do you have any
00:53:01.420
official status? Are you there in your personal capacity? Well, I was summonsed, uh, to appear,
00:53:07.340
uh, and to make myself available in Ottawa in person for the entire duration of the
00:53:12.940
inquiry. Is this going to be in person or some of them appearing by remote, like by Zoom or something?
00:53:17.580
Uh, that is yet to be determined. Sure. Because I don't, I'm just so curious.
00:53:22.460
Because I don't believe that the witness list has actually been finalized.
00:53:25.340
That's what he's still saying. Yeah. A draft, uh, a working draft.
00:53:28.860
Yeah. Yes. All right. Well, very interesting. I'm going to bring my friend Sheila Gunn-Reed in.
00:53:32.860
She's our chief reporter and the big boss in Northern Alberta. Sheila, what questions do you
00:53:37.180
have for Tom Marazzo? Who's, are you a witness tomorrow? No, I don't believe I'm not tomorrow.
00:53:41.980
Okay. I was getting excited there for a second. Sheila, go ahead.
00:53:45.740
That, well, Ezra, you just stole my question. Are you a witness tomorrow? But are you, thanks.
00:53:51.660
But also, Tom, are you, are you able to sit in the room when other people are testifying?
00:53:56.380
Or are they keeping you outside like they do at the normal courtroom?
00:54:01.100
I sat in on the first day today inside the hearing room because it was open to the public.
00:54:05.820
So I was sitting there in the audience. In fact, the, the back four rows were completely empty.
00:54:11.500
Um, so I, yeah, I, I originally believed that I would need to get credentials to get into the room,
00:54:17.660
but it turns out there was no need for me to get credentials. Keith arranged for me to, uh,
00:54:23.260
to come to the room and, uh, I didn't have to go in with credentials, but I think Keith worked his
00:54:28.460
magic as usual. Anything else, Sheila, for Tom Marazzo? You know, Tom, was there anything today
00:54:37.180
that you heard in the opening statements in the presentation of reports, anything that stuck
00:54:42.620
out to you that surprised you or shocked you, or maybe you were just sort of blindsided by the
00:54:48.540
honesty as, as, uh, Alan Hohner was by the OPP? You know, that's a great question because there
00:54:54.780
were a couple of things that really, uh, did surprise me. And, uh, the, the, the biggest
00:55:00.940
surprise to me was, you know, it was my understanding that this inquiry was about examining the actions
00:55:07.820
of the federal government and the decisions that, uh, Justin Trudeau had made to invoke the emergency
00:55:13.340
act. But what I found particularly interesting was all of the law enforcement agencies actually
00:55:20.380
were taking ownership of the, the invocation of the emergency act, which I found really kind
00:55:28.860
of also strange when the, the, in previous commissions, they testified saying they never
00:55:33.580
asked for it, but it would appear to me that their demeanor was that they were almost in defense
00:55:39.260
of the government and are taking some sort of a position of ownership over the invocation of
00:55:45.340
the emergency act, even though they say they never asked for it. And so I found that to be a little
00:55:50.540
bit, um, I don't know, disturbing because I thought it was the government that was there to be examined
00:55:57.660
for their decisions in invoking the emergency act, not law enforcement agencies across this country.
00:56:02.780
Well, this, we're just at the very beginning of what's going to be an interesting and an intensive
00:56:09.740
six weeks. I understand that they might even do a very non Ottawa, non government thing and even meet
00:56:16.220
on, on Saturdays, like to go six days a week. That's astonishing to me. Um, that's just, I mean,
00:56:23.820
we're in a place that thinks, uh, passport offices, uh, can work from home and have a six month delay.
00:56:29.260
Like that's, that's normal in Ottawa to find someone who's willing to work six days a week
00:56:33.740
is so upside. It's like, it's like Costanza. Find someone to work after three, find someone to work
00:56:39.180
after 30, you know, this judge lives up to the public interest in the public duty. I know people
00:56:47.420
point out that he's a liberal donor and a liberal appointee and things like that. And I, and I want
00:56:51.580
to brush that aside. Part of me wants to think, okay, you know what, it's not shocking that a judge
00:56:57.180
in Ottawa as a liberal, given how judges are appointed. It's just not shocking to me because
00:57:01.980
a lot of judges are liberal. A lot of lawyers are liberal. And I don't want to, I really want
00:57:06.140
to give this guy the benefit of the doubt and say, you know, he's not a liberal anymore. He's not an
00:57:11.660
activist anymore. He's on the bench. This is a serious matter. He's taking it seriously. He's
00:57:16.380
being rigorous. He seems to be even handed in terms of the witnesses and, and, you know, even granting
00:57:22.620
intervener status to the JCCF and the Democracy Fund. So I really want to hope, I really need to
00:57:28.460
hope because the courts have been such a shocking disappointment over the last two years. I went to
00:57:34.380
law school and the charter of rights was this holy grail. It's so important part of our identity.
00:57:40.620
And yet the charter, other than the case of Arthur Pawlowski in Alberta, the charter has not
00:57:46.140
shut down any lockdown elements in the last two years. Our Supreme Court hasn't even weighed in on the
00:57:51.500
subject. It's like the judges just didn't give a damn. And so I really need my faith in the legal
00:58:01.100
system revived. And I hope that this judge does it, but you know, don't put your trust in princes,
00:58:08.620
as the good book says. Last word to you, Tom, are you excited about being here? Are you looking forward
00:58:13.660
to this or are you dreading it? No, I've actually been looking forward to this every day since I left
00:58:17.980
Ottawa last February. Yeah. And you know, I too am looking for that hope as well. But the one thing
00:58:25.020
that I can say is regardless of what the government says, what the judge himself says, or the commissioner,
00:58:33.660
my faith is actually in the legal team that is representing the convoy itself. And when I, you know, I'm
00:58:41.580
involved in the conversations with Keith and Eva and Bathsheba and Brendan Miller, you know,
00:58:49.980
Olivia, can I get you to call up Brendan's remarks? We'll play that in a minute. So I know we clipped
00:58:55.740
it earlier. Sorry to interrupt. Keep going. But they're, they're, you know, brilliant minds that
00:58:59.500
are here doing the work of Canadians that supported the convoy. And there's a lot of talk online where
00:59:06.140
people are saying, you know, this commission is a big farce. It's, it's irrelevant. It's,
00:59:10.860
it's not important, but I disagree. I disagree because this is where the first time since the,
00:59:16.940
the, you know, COVID restrictions that the public is going to get to examine for the first time,
00:59:23.660
I believe the government's actions against the people of Canada, you know, in the 6 million that
00:59:30.460
chose not to get vaccinated, that have a very good grievance. They're going to get to hear
00:59:35.580
their grievances are going to be heard, I think throughout this entire process.
00:59:40.780
And so I think it is important. And I think this is very much a, a court of public opinion,
00:59:47.260
if nothing else, there's no punishments. There's no, I think this is really what it's important
00:59:52.380
for about everyone hearing the facts. Yeah. And if we, if we want this, this country to move forward
00:59:57.580
and start to heal from the experiences of COVID, I think this is the starting point.
01:00:01.580
Well, Tom, those are some very thoughtful and philosophical comments. I'm so glad you're here.
01:00:05.420
I'm so glad you're a witness. Stay put for one second. We're going to run. Olivia,
01:00:09.900
do we have the clip? Oh yeah, we do. So you were referring to the legal dream team
01:00:15.420
who was representing and one of your lawyers, um, made some thoughtful remarks and we'll play that
01:00:21.660
and we'll call it a commercial. And that'll let you chance to gracefully
01:00:26.060
we're still setting up our, uh, our living room studio here. So give us a break, but I'm kidding
01:00:32.860
around. It's nice to have you on our first day. I'm very pleased with how the live stream is going
01:00:37.420
more than 2000, um, contemporaneous viewers, and we're just getting started and we're going to be
01:00:44.220
here for six weeks. We've got 15 different journalists who are going to rotate through.
01:00:49.340
We're bringing journalists, not just from our Toronto office and our Ottawa team,
01:00:53.260
but he and Simone came all the way from Calgary. Uh, Alexa Lavoie is going to come. Of course,
01:00:58.940
she's based in Montreal, Lincoln J. We have so many people who were part of the trucker convoy coverage
01:01:06.940
who know this is important. Second part of it. So thanks for joining us. Let's play that video
01:01:12.540
by your lawyer, Brandon Miller, right? That's the name of the lawyer. Let's play it right now. Take a look.
01:01:15.980
Good morning. Um, my name is Brendan Miller of Foster LLP and I am counsel to Freedom Corp,
01:01:23.660
which is a organization that represents the protesters of which attended Ottawa in January
01:01:31.180
and February of 2022. Uh, my colleague, Ms. Beth Sheba Vandenberg of Foster LLP is my co-counsel on this
01:01:38.540
matter, as well as the solicitors of record, uh, both Mr. Keith Wilson, King's counsel, as well as Ms.
01:01:45.180
Eva Chipiuk, uh, who is counsel to the convoy. Uh, with respect to, uh, sort of everyone's given an
01:01:52.540
overview of the theory of their case, uh, it is our view that there was no justification
01:01:58.860
whatsoever to invoke the Emergencies Act. The Emergencies Act requires several things. One,
01:02:07.340
it could be invoked due to espionage and sabotage. Are you going to hear any evidence
01:02:13.900
about espionage and sabotage? The answer to that is no. Two, it could be invoked on the basis of
01:02:20.780
clandestine or deceptive foreign influence or foreign influence that involves the threat to a person.
01:02:27.020
Are you going to hear evidence about that? The answer to that is no. It also could be invoked on
01:02:32.620
the basis of threats or use of acts of serious violence against persons or property. Are you going
01:02:39.260
to hear evidence of violence against persons or property? The answer is no. Lastly, it can also be
01:02:46.620
invoked if there is a group or persons trying to destroy or overthrow by violence the system of
01:02:55.260
government of Canada. Are you going to hear evidence about individuals trying to do that?
01:03:02.220
The answer is no. And the answer is, is that there was no reasonable and probable grounds to invoke
01:03:08.060
the Emergencies Act and that the government exceeded their jurisdiction, both constitutionally and
01:03:14.380
legislatively and legislatively in doing so. Thank you.
01:03:19.820
Well, that's a very interesting comment, isn't it, Sheila? What do you think of that?
01:03:24.140
I thought he was great. He laid it bare. All the, all the things that restrains the government
01:03:30.380
in the Emergencies Act from just whipping out this piece of legislation willy nilly and stomping all
01:03:36.860
over the civil liberties of Albertans, but Canadians writ large, there's no proof of any of it. There's no
01:03:43.580
proof of any of it. And yet in the government's response, they say the measures that were taken were
01:03:49.340
tailored such that any effects on charter rights were reasonable and proportionate.
01:03:55.740
Yeah. Well, there's going to be some strong lawyers and strong witnesses in the weeks ahead.
01:04:02.620
We're going to be here to cover it journalistically during the day and each night. It is my ambition
01:04:08.300
that we have a live stream. We've got a great team of citizen journalists and frankly, a lot of our team
01:04:13.340
fused together. We became a team during the crisis of covering the trucker convoy. When I think to the
01:04:20.380
people we hired on the fly, people who joined us in an emergency state, this company, Rebel News,
01:04:29.180
has the size that it has. When we started the pandemic, we had 30 people. Now we have about
01:04:34.540
double that. Covering the pandemic was important. Covering the lockdowns was important, but covering
01:04:39.740
the truckers was our time to shine because our motto telling the other side of the story, because
01:04:44.140
of our style, citizen journalism, because of our promise, no government money. And it was the
01:04:48.700
confluence of those factors that allowed us to cover the trucker convoy in a way no one else could.
01:04:53.900
And it is my hope that we tap into the same values and the same spirit and rely on the same Rebel News
01:05:00.780
citizen journalism team to give you outstanding coverage in the next six weeks. So Sheila,
01:05:06.540
I know you're going to hold the fort from out west there. I'll be in Toronto or Ottawa or flying
01:05:11.580
around. I'm going to do my best to come by the Airbnb here. We've got to give this place a nickname.
01:05:16.860
And we've got to make sure we keep it tidy when you've got a bunch of young guys all staying under
01:05:22.380
one roof for weeks at a time. We've got to make sure that it remains tidy and hospitable to our guests.
01:05:29.340
I'm joking around. But it's going to be a lot of fun. But it's actually deadly serious,
01:05:35.820
because the matter we are convened to describe, fun is not an acceptable word. When our reporter
01:05:43.660
Alexa Lavoie was shot in the leg by a riot gun, when RCMP horses stomped on peaceful protesters and
01:05:50.220
the RCMP joked about it, when 200 people had their bank accounts seized, when people were arrested for
01:05:55.820
essentially political crimes in jail. There's nothing fun about that. We're going to have,
01:06:00.860
we're going to be happy warriors, I guess, is a phrase I ought to say. We like our craft,
01:06:07.100
and we like living up to our mission of telling the other side of the story. But we are not here for fun.
01:06:12.060
We are here because a terrible thing happened in our country, and we need to hold our powerful
01:06:16.860
political leaders to account, even if the rest of the media is just sucking up trying to get their
01:06:22.700
next media bailout. Last word to you, Sheila. Our presence in Ottawa at this commission is so
01:06:29.420
important. It is day one, and we've already seen how important to enforcing the government narrative
01:06:36.700
the mainstream media was. Their inaccurate reporting closed the circuit that allowed the liberals to do
01:06:45.580
what they did to so many Canadians. Fake news, the government reacted to fake news, to things that they
01:06:52.140
knew were fake, and then the mainstream media quietly retracts and washes their hands of the mess.
01:06:58.700
This is why we are so important in this story. We have to be the counterbalance to this mess.
01:07:05.980
Yeah. Well, it's really great to see you. Thanks for holding the fork and joining me on the live stream.
01:07:11.340
Thanks to our team here in Ottawa, Efrain Oswaldo Flores Lonsanto, William Diaz Bertiom,
01:07:19.020
Kean Simone, our team in Toronto, who I think is Olivia Bruyne. There might be other people there as well,
01:07:24.620
and I thank them. Sheila Out West, and all of you at home who make this possible because we are 100%
01:07:30.380
crowdfunded. We take no money from mega corporations, no oligarchs, and most importantly, no government
01:07:37.820
funding. So until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at our rebel pop-up studio in Ottawa,
01:07:44.860
to you at home, good night, and keep fighting for freedom.