BREAKDOWN： Trucker Commission Day 22 ｜ Ft. Tom Marazzo & Keith Wilson
Summary
In this episode of the Rebel News Live Stream, host Celine Gallas and co-host Tom Rato discuss the LRB, the CSIS, and the Freedom Convoy with special guest Tom Morazzo.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
At Rebel News, we're not afraid to have dangerous discussions,
00:00:17.580
and we want to have them with you at our upcoming Rebel Live events,
00:00:21.320
first in Toronto, November 19th, and again in Calgary,
00:00:26.120
Just go to rebelnewslive.com to get your tickets today.
00:00:30.000
All right. Hello, everyone. Good evening, everyone.
00:00:32.240
This is Monday, November 14th here at the Ottawa Rebel News headquarters.
00:00:40.320
I am joined by right here by Celine Gallas, a fellow Rebel News colleague.
00:00:44.820
That's her when we meet the co-host of the live stream.
00:00:53.940
Yeah, definitely an exciting day. It was so, so great to follow.
00:00:56.920
We heard from the LRB, the CSIS, LRB, which is Liberal Research Bureau.
00:01:01.280
Anyway, such a great day. Definitely stay tuned for that to see everything that went on today.
00:01:11.340
It's like Freedom Convoy intern slash key figure.
00:01:21.460
So just for people that haven't followed us in the past few weeks, if you haven't, make sure to go back and check all of our episodes.
00:01:31.200
I'm not going to answer that question because I've done about 50 or 60 interviews in the last few months, and I think I answered that.
00:01:39.240
And I guess at the end of the day, if your viewers don't know who I am by now, I probably shouldn't be on your show.
00:01:44.400
Because you've been my opening act for like three weeks now.
00:01:50.040
Let's try to do our best presentation of Tom Morazzo.
00:01:52.560
I told him I have to present the people that come on the live stream.
00:01:55.220
So Tom Morazzo, if you go on LinkedIn, it's written that he's an intern with Freedom Convoy 2022.
00:02:01.760
He was one of the spokesperson of Freedom Convoy.
00:02:03.920
He had some talks with the Ottawa police, with some people, some officials in the police.
00:02:08.820
He was there basically with Tamara Leash, Chris Barber, Danny Bulford, and other key figures of the Freedom Convoy throughout his duration when he was here in Ottawa.
00:02:20.160
And also, as you can see, Tom is dressed pretty well.
00:02:24.100
So if you want to comment down below in the chat, who is dressed better between me and Tom Morazzo?
00:02:28.800
That's the reason why we're both wearing a full suit and a tie.
00:02:32.360
So if you want to make this, you know, if you want to let us know who is dressed better between me and Tom Morazzo, you can always put it on in the chat down below.
00:02:40.160
Before we get to what went on today, a couple of announcements.
00:02:43.720
If you want to help us fund our work here in Ottawa, if you find value in our content, you can go ahead and visit truckercommission.com.
00:02:53.500
And there you can donate as much as you can, $5, $10, as much as you're able to.
00:02:59.880
You've heard me talk about it a lot in the past few weeks.
00:03:02.680
It is happening this Saturday in Toronto and on the 25th, well, right when the commission ends.
00:03:15.680
I believe it's on the 25th, but it is in Calgary.
00:03:17.980
And you can still go get a ticket to listen to some of your favorite speakers.
00:03:22.460
We're going to have Derek Fildebrandt, Andrew Lawton.
00:03:25.260
We have huge people from Rebel like Ezra Levant, Sheila Gunn-Reed.
00:03:34.440
So yeah, either 25th or 26th, you can see it at rebelnewslive.com, as we just mentioned,
00:03:40.480
rebelnewslive.com if you want to meet all these great people.
00:03:51.220
They were both giving their testimonies at the same time.
00:03:53.760
So we had Rob Stewart, appointed deputy minister for public safety in Canada.
00:04:04.520
Anyways, he's the senior assistant deputy minister for the National Cybersecurity Branch
00:04:09.800
of the Public Safety, for Public Safety in Canada.
00:04:13.360
So their testimonies were very, very interesting.
00:04:17.220
Again, just like to point out right at the back, they did all, both of them agreed that
00:04:21.640
the Emergencies Act was helpful in some ways, but not necessary as we've heard.
00:04:26.360
So now that that's out of the way, what we can, yeah, here we go.
00:04:31.320
Yeah, I'll take a look at some of what they had said.
00:04:37.180
Well, just to begin the live stream, take a look at clip number one, where an official
00:04:41.020
from Public Safety Canada testified to commission that the intel that he had led him to believe
00:04:46.880
that the film convoy would be a peaceful protest straight from the get-go.
00:04:51.660
The expectation that I had was that the convoy would park and stay for the weekend and leave
00:05:06.320
And we were also watching to see whether other protests that were bubbling across the country
00:05:11.820
would also, but the expectation was they would all be peaceful and they would last for that
00:05:15.700
And, you know, transport obviously had some concerns with regard to various protests happening
00:05:23.660
and how it might affect the flow of traffic, how it might affect supply chain issues from
00:05:31.380
Canada Border Services Agency, I think, started to ask questions about particular ports of entry.
00:05:39.880
And so from a critical infrastructure perspective, and this is really why Gawk was involved, is
00:05:46.740
to make sure that we were mindful that there could be impacts to critical infrastructure.
00:05:56.840
You know, we heard a lot from these two people throughout the day.
00:05:59.320
I think, you know, as much as we get credit to the testimony, I think we should give as much
00:06:07.120
Brendan Miller from Foster LLP, who's representing Freedom Corp, and Rob Kitteridge from the Justice
00:06:15.140
Center for Constitutional Freedom for their excellent cross-examination.
00:06:20.240
So what was your main takeaway from those two's testimony?
00:06:27.980
I mean, it confirms what we already knew, but now 100% since this week has started and,
00:06:33.320
you know, we've had so many testimonies that we've seen over the course of, it's been
00:06:36.800
like, what, about three weeks that this has been going on?
00:06:40.880
Like, that's a lot of people that have testified.
00:06:42.920
So we're kind of, we're moving over closer towards like the very, very end.
00:06:47.420
So for sure, I mean, we can still speculate on it, but I think 100% now.
00:06:52.220
This points to that it was the Liberal ministers and it was Justin Trudeau that invoked the
00:06:58.680
Emergencies Act, despite the fact that they had pretty much every single intelligence source
00:07:03.840
and agency in Canada telling them that they should be doing the exact opposite, showing
00:07:08.380
them different ways, negotiation methods, anything that would not actually cause panic,
00:07:19.380
I think it was, it's common sense, but they chose to do it anyway.
00:07:22.260
So I'd like to know why, you know, that, that, that hot potato has now been thrown in that
00:07:28.660
So it's just this process of elimination was so tedious at first.
00:07:32.920
And now I'm looking so forward to hearing the ministers testify.
00:07:37.280
And I think, you know, I always find it interesting how the lawyer for Peter slowly, counsel for
00:07:41.740
Peter slowly brought up the fact that as a police officer, as a police service, your first
00:07:47.280
method to handle a protest is negotiation and de-escalation.
00:07:52.380
And we keep hearing that all levels of government were refusing to meet with the protester, were
00:07:59.060
refusing to literally even negotiate here, their concerns, here are the concerns of thousands
00:08:03.820
of Canadians who were fed up with the COVID-19 mandates and that travel to Ottawa to make
00:08:11.740
So when I watch Brendan's cross-examination for Miller time, of course, that's always
00:08:17.980
the best part of the, the entire event, but I have to say maybe, I don't know, cause I
00:08:24.820
think Brendan's family was in town this weekend.
00:08:27.400
So we got to see a much better, brighter, pumped up version of Brendan, but I have to say
00:08:33.280
of all of the, the cross-examinations that he's done today, I think was a new level of
00:08:39.940
Brendan Miller, uh, the way he had framed his questions.
00:08:44.700
Like he started to, uh, question the two officials on what they believed was suspicion.
00:08:51.140
Uh, and there was another legal term that he used it and they were very unclear about what
00:08:56.560
that, that actual, those definitions were, uh, you know, suspicion where you can take actual
00:09:03.300
And, and they said they, they were kind of confused by it, but then as he, he went on
00:09:09.440
more, he was talking about, um, you know, he was leading them down this path and he, you
00:09:18.400
Cause I've noticed that Brendan likes to set these traps and he sent it, setting these
00:09:23.760
And just when you thought he was going to do it, he's like, you, you agree with this.
00:09:29.240
And then he said, okay, so you agree that it wasn't, you know, necessary.
00:09:35.040
It's like, you want your cake, but you're not, you know, like, what's the saying you want
00:09:40.940
Um, it was really frustrating to listen to that witness towards the end, because basically what
00:09:45.680
he was saying is like, okay, CSIS didn't want it.
00:09:48.760
We've known that the RCMP didn't, didn't want it.
00:09:51.540
Even under section 12 of the CSIS act, it didn't fit the parameters, didn't fit the parameters
00:10:00.320
But then at the end, he says, well, didn't, don't you agree that, um, the government never
00:10:10.640
So then Brendan says, to your knowledge is Justin Trudeau trained in law enforcement.
00:10:19.020
And Brendan said, I can tell you, he's not, he was a drama teacher, right?
00:10:23.540
Well, you know, when you look at, uh, at the CSIS act, you know, a threat to the security
00:10:30.880
It means foreign influence activities within or relating to Canada that are detrimental
00:10:35.300
to the interests of Canada and are clandestine or deceptive or involve a threat to any person
00:10:40.840
see activities within or related to Canada direct directed towards or in support of the
00:10:46.400
threat or use of acts of serious violence against persons or property for the purpose
00:10:51.300
of achieving a political, religious, or ideological objective within Canada or a foreign state.
00:10:55.800
And finally, activities directed towards undermining by coverage, unlawful acts or directed towards
00:11:02.220
or intended ultimately to lead to destruction of property and such.
00:11:07.060
So I don't think that the Freedom Convoy met that threshold.
00:11:10.680
And I think that that is what we're seeing through evidence that is brought up by, uh,
00:11:15.980
by Brendan Miller, that is brought up by counsel for the GCCF, counsel for the Democracy Fund,
00:11:24.580
We're not seeing that this, that these threshold were met.
00:11:28.060
Well, you know, when we, we heard very early when the two witnesses got there, there was
00:11:32.060
the difference between groups in the government that consume intelligence and then the other
00:11:39.700
And, and you have to be careful of who is producing and who is consuming it.
00:11:44.480
And my impression was that there was a group that was producing intelligence, but the group
00:11:50.600
that was actually consuming it was ignoring it.
00:11:53.320
And I think that's just clearly because they didn't like the answer.
00:11:56.400
They didn't like that the, uh, um, the leader of the CSIS, uh, I can't remember his title
00:12:07.700
Uh, basically recommended, we, we heard this testimony last week and then we got a review
00:12:12.340
of it again, that he was saying, if you go ahead and do this, what you're going to end
00:12:17.600
up doing is getting the negative or the opposite reaction of what you want, which is now you're
00:12:22.620
going to inspire an IMVE, uh, an ideologically motivated, violent extremism, right?
00:12:32.620
And then you're going to possibly make the lone wolf scenario, something to, to start to
00:12:39.480
And so when you heard that, that recommendation and then you're, he, Brendan brought it back
00:12:47.580
And it's like, they, they're agreeing, they're agreeing and they're agreeing.
00:12:50.580
And then you get to the one yard line and they're kind of like, no, I don't agree.
00:12:55.160
So you just contradicted everything that you just walked through with Brendan.
00:13:00.420
Well, thanks for that deep analysis, lawyer, lawyer, Muratso, King's counsel, Tom Muratso.
00:13:05.660
So, all right, let's take a look at clip, clip number seven, where, well, we've been talking
00:13:09.900
about Miller time, Brendan Miller cross-examining, um, Rob Stewart.
00:13:23.080
Bureau or agency or law enforcement agency told the government, here's the evidence of reasonable
00:13:31.960
and probable grounds or reasonable grounds of a section two CSIS act threat.
00:13:39.140
And you know, I take it now because it's advised to you that that's required to invoke the emergencies
00:13:48.600
So what agency gave you the evidence and the intelligence that said, Hey, we have reasonable
00:14:04.680
So let me, um, explain, uh, nobody, uh, bringing advice to the table other than CSIS is, uh,
00:14:18.600
The cabinet is making that decision and their interpretation of the law is what governs here
00:14:26.480
And their, their decision was evidently that the threshold was met.
00:14:35.000
Well, I interpreted that I'm allowed to kill you.
00:14:39.700
That's, that's really what makes something legal or illegal.
00:14:42.860
What did you think of his cross-examination, Brendan Miller?
00:14:45.940
I think it's painful to watch them squirm like that silence was, it was so loud in my ears.
00:14:54.720
But again, that's what you get when Brendan Miller walks up to the stand.
00:14:58.380
You just know, like, that's why it's, it's literally a huge topic on Twitter.
00:15:01.860
Every time it's Miller time, people are like zoned in, honed in because they know that he's
00:15:07.020
about to drop a huge truth bomb and that something crazy is going to be unveiled.
00:15:11.000
It's nothing that we didn't maybe already, you know, interpret, uh, because of what information
00:15:24.660
Um, it had a little bit, it was still a super interesting week and we heard some great testimony
00:15:32.140
For instance, the coups border blockade were, the coups, the coups border blockades were dealt
00:15:42.780
So, you know, we saw that last week, um, but it was still a calmer week, but I can say
00:15:47.840
that I have under good authority that this week's going to be a lot more interesting.
00:15:51.520
It's going to be, it's going to be very great to, to, to follow.
00:15:54.360
Uh, Tom, what did you make of his testimony in this response?
00:15:57.360
Basically saying that they, they didn't receive any intel from any actual authority saying
00:16:03.240
And, and you're right about the, um, that silent, that silent moment.
00:16:07.740
I remember that silent moment and I wasn't looking and I'm, and I had to look up and I'm
00:16:16.960
And, um, you know, it's, it's remarkable because there's, they're, they're talking about the
00:16:24.380
intelligence and the law enforcement agencies with this kind of within the country, but somehow
00:16:32.700
They, they blatantly disregarded the advice and the access, their, their ability to be
00:16:39.640
the consumers of that intelligence, but because they didn't like the answer, they went a different
00:16:46.420
And I think we're going to find out when they testify that it's going to be really probably,
00:16:50.800
they're going to be hard pressed to justify it.
00:16:54.060
Like you have two deputy ministers that are serving two ministers, right?
00:16:58.060
A hundred percent from the liberal cabinet who have just said today, a hundred percent
00:17:02.600
that they advised against invoking the emergency act.
00:17:06.020
These two people, it was a steward and wrote, wrote, I cannot pronounce his name, but when
00:17:11.920
you have that, and it's so in front of you, it just, I can, I can't wait to see what it's
00:17:17.780
Like it's, I'm not sure what sort of excuses they're going to have.
00:17:20.460
Again, this has just been a process of elimination and as I suspected, but now I can confirm that
00:17:26.300
like these, even their own deputy ministers were like, Hey, we don't have to hit the panic
00:17:34.480
We have X, Y, Z in our arsenal, in our toolbox, et cetera, to use instead of just hitting the
00:17:41.940
And, uh, they still chose to go forward with it.
00:17:43.820
So again, I'm not sure what sort of excuses they're going to have.
00:17:47.520
It'll be almost impossible for the liberal cabinet to testify next week to actually find
00:17:53.540
a proper justification for the use of the emergency act, especially when Brendan Miller
00:18:02.360
And we even saw some of it later today too, when some evidence was presented by Rob Kitteridge,
00:18:07.300
um, about the LRB, the liberal research bureau.
00:18:12.640
I want to wait until he comes on to go into that a little bit deeper because he's actually
00:18:17.360
a King's counsel, like Tom, even though I just look like one, exactly.
00:18:21.480
Even though I said that Tom is a King's counsel earlier, but we saw some great evidence presented
00:18:25.820
today by, uh, the GCCF in relation to the, uh, the, the, the, the, I LRB.
00:18:31.840
Um, all right, let's look a little bit deeper into, um, Stewart's testimony.
00:18:36.180
Once again, let's take a look at clip number five, uh, where it's, um, yeah, where, where,
00:18:42.780
where the deputy, I mean, the, the public safety deputy minister was concerned that
00:18:47.300
invoking DEA could potentially, uh, provoke the freedom convoy protesters to be even more
00:18:52.400
Well, not even more violent to actually become violent because they weren't violent, uh,
00:18:59.040
Around the pros and cons of using the emergencies act.
00:19:02.520
And one of the concerns that I had at the time was of the potential for serious violence.
00:19:08.820
So in fact, one of the reasons to invoke the act was also a concern in terms of what happens
00:19:14.440
Um, and, and if it were, uh, to, um, lead people to become, uh, violent, then that would
00:19:24.260
be, you know, an, uh, an, uh, an undesirable outcome.
00:19:27.380
So we were, that was just one of the many considerations we were discussing.
00:19:32.200
So essentially it might do more harm than good by, by inciting rather than calming.
00:19:42.920
Every time I hear it, I'm like, it's that much more real.
00:19:46.280
Like I joke about it, but you know, we literally hear this from every single testimony.
00:19:50.880
It doesn't matter what they say that, um, even in cross-examination, it doesn't matter
00:19:55.080
what they say to try it and make that entire statement seem less than it is.
00:19:59.560
Every single person has agreed that it could have been helpful or was helpful in some way,
00:20:03.880
but absolutely not necessary to invoke a counter-terrorist act.
00:20:13.520
These were peaceful protesters that came to protest lawfully, peacefully in Canada's capital.
00:20:25.900
It's not even the first time that we, that we hear it, that it could incite violence within
00:20:30.880
Or it's not, it's not the first time we were warned by the RCMP.
00:20:34.760
Like these are huge, huge, like intelligence ops that provided this information weeks, even
00:20:42.680
weeks leading up towards the invocation of the emergencies act.
00:20:45.940
So I'm not, again, it's just, uh, it's incredible to me.
00:20:51.180
It just reaffirms once again, that it was not necessary that it could actually provoke violence
00:20:57.560
You mentioned the War Measures Act, the only times in history where these, these legislatures
00:21:02.440
have been used is during World War I, World War II, the FLQ crisis.
00:21:08.360
Not, the Freedom Convoy doesn't even match any of those.
00:21:13.000
But they're going to make them out to be similar.
00:21:14.860
Yeah, it's unbelievable to think that Justin Trudeau actually thought he could equate the,
00:21:23.160
Well, you know, we, if, if we look at right across the board, all of the different socioeconomic
00:21:30.300
differences amongst the people that attended the convoy.
00:21:34.080
We had doctors, we had lawyers, we had veterinarians, we had carpenters, we had electricians.
00:21:44.980
We had the, the most phenomenal sample of Canadians that all, you know, came to Ottawa
00:21:52.860
And so for, for the general public out there that is against the convoy, it's very neat
00:21:59.680
If you can put them all into a box as a certain small percentage or fringe minority sector
00:22:13.080
It was the truckers that inspired or gave everybody like me, a former military guy, the opportunity
00:22:21.460
So the truckers were the ones that were, you know, they, they lit the spark, but it was
00:22:29.000
And so what you're seeing is this kind of narrative where it's better to put them all into one little
00:22:35.360
So it's easier to frame them as being this fringe minority of bad people.
00:22:40.840
But we know this when we hear the testimony that they, they can't make that argument, right?
00:22:48.600
And so it's really nice to see that they're admitting certain things.
00:22:53.240
But again, this is a lot of, this is also a court of public opinion.
00:22:56.720
You know, the public gets to watch this and see the evidence for themselves, hear the
00:23:01.740
testimony and make a decision about the convoy.
00:23:13.680
Even, even he testified to it today, Rob Stewart, when, when Rob Kittrich asked him, do you agree
00:23:20.140
with me that it was helpful, but not necessary as many witnesses had testified prior to today?
00:23:36.080
And you talked about the court of public opinion.
00:23:39.380
Even today, we saw the NDP put out a press release saying that they would like to see
00:23:45.200
an independent inquiry into the federal COVID-19 measures that have been taken throughout
00:23:50.240
You know, I think it's a little bit odd to hear that, considering that Jack Meade has
00:23:53.320
been following Trudeau in every single move he made.
00:23:56.680
But I think it still shows that while the NDP continues to support Trudeau, they might see
00:24:06.360
I think they might see a political opportunity to go against Trudeau, seeing how the inquiry
00:24:12.380
And now they're asking for an independent inquiry into the federal COVID-19 response by the
00:24:20.200
And after we'll let you go and we'll bring in Keith Wilson.
00:24:24.020
Yeah, I think what you're seeing is another example of buyer's remorse with the NDP sort
00:24:33.680
But, you know, Mr. Singh recently said, no matter what the outcome of this is, he's still
00:24:38.540
going to maintain his relationship with the federal liberals and keep the coalition going
00:24:46.580
So he's going to be perfectly happy to trample on civil liberties for dental care.
00:24:57.120
But I think he's he's playing both sides of the fence here.
00:25:02.260
Obviously, like he's hedging his bets is what he's doing.
00:25:08.520
Once again, great, great tie that you wore today.
00:25:18.840
When we come back, we'll have Freedom Convoy lawyer Keith Wilson, King's Council, join
00:25:34.220
For me, folks, it means the return of Rebel Live.
00:25:38.460
Now, Rebel Live is an annual event we used to put on before the man or was it the COVID
00:25:44.960
Karen made us shut it down during the pandemic years.
00:25:51.900
All the freedom fighters you've grown to know and love over the years, they're going
00:25:56.060
to be speaking at the Toronto and Calgary events.
00:26:03.320
And it will feature the likes of Dr. Julie Panessi, Arthur Pawlowski, Tamara Leach, and
00:26:10.200
all your favorite Rebels, including yours truly, I'll be the emcee that day, Sheila
00:26:15.340
Gunn-Reed, and of course, the big boss man himself, Ezra Levant.
00:26:19.180
Now, Saturday, November the 26th, we're bringing Rebel Live to Calgary, and those aforementioned
00:26:26.140
speakers will be there, and Sheila will be the emcee for that event.
00:26:34.420
I know there are certain would-be conservative leaders that think freedom is overrated.
00:26:45.400
So if you want to get a ticket, please go to the website.
00:26:59.000
And as Billy Red Lions used to say, folks, don't you dare miss it.
00:27:17.220
Great ad from our very own David, the Menzo, and Menzies.
00:27:20.360
And I am here with someone who doesn't need a reminder to wear a suit when he comes on
00:27:31.560
All right, your general thoughts from today, what we've seen so far, and then we'll move
00:27:35.260
on to the examination of Global Affairs Canada.
00:27:38.920
Well, I mean, it's been a repeat of what we've seen over and over again, which is each official
00:27:44.540
that is brought forward is asked what they know about the factual evidentiary circumstances
00:27:51.440
that would justify the invocation of the Emergencies Act, the stripping of Canadians' rights, the
00:27:58.040
allowing the federal government, as the Emergencies Act does, to intrude into provincial jurisdiction.
00:28:10.340
They give it with precision, as you've talked about with Tom Razzo.
00:28:14.940
But they confirmed that there was no national security threat.
00:28:19.440
They agree that the sources with best information that would know if there was a national security
00:28:24.940
threat was the OPP and other police organizations.
00:28:29.060
And they acknowledge that their testimony is that the criteria to invoke the Act wasn't
00:28:36.840
And it's going to be interesting when the politicians get up, because they've really got
00:28:44.860
I know we talked about it at the beginning of the live stream.
00:28:48.660
What threshold needs to be met for the Emergencies Act to be justifiably invoked?
00:28:55.120
Well, there has to be a serious threat to the national security.
00:29:05.540
There has to be a credible plan for some overthrow of the government, an illegal overthrow.
00:29:12.140
Um, and there's Section 2 of the CESIS Act that refers to this new term that the government's
00:29:20.980
come up with in recent years of ideologically motivated violent extremist.
00:29:26.280
And the only ideologically motivated violent extremist that I've met in the last year has
00:29:32.980
And they've demonstrated their violence on Canadians by beating them and trampling them
00:29:37.200
with horses in support of their ideology that the state knows best and Canadians' rights
00:29:46.780
And I think that even today at the commission, the lady who was trampled by RCMP horses during
00:29:54.340
Um, so while we were doing the live stream at the beginning, uh, Global Affairs Canada
00:29:58.400
testified in front of the Public Order Emergency Commission and Brendan Miller, Brendan Miller
00:30:04.400
even got the chance to cross-examine the two witnesses who were on stand.
00:30:08.120
So I think that she was still at the commission.
00:30:09.480
Can you tell us, um, a little bit more about that?
00:30:12.500
Um, it was still going on while you guys went live and, um, the senior official with Global
00:30:21.400
So this is like, they used to be called foreign affairs, right?
00:30:24.640
So they're dealing with embassies in relations with other nation states.
00:30:30.460
And I was very glad that I wasn't sipping my coffee at the time because I probably would
00:30:35.540
Um, one of the things she said was that they were extremely concerned about the economic
00:30:41.480
impacts of the Windsor and Coutts, uh, border blockades.
00:30:45.560
But what she failed to note is that Stats Canada found that even despite the border being temporarily
00:30:56.080
blocked at Windsor, the Ambassador Bridge, all the trucks went to the other bridges.
00:31:01.980
So trade was in fact, according to Stats Canada, when they studied it some months later, and
00:31:06.800
you can Google this and see it, trade was actually, the crossing trade was up by 16%.
00:31:11.120
So this whole idea, it was purely a model they came up with that if no trucks could cross
00:31:19.360
The fact of the matter is the trucks went to the other two bridges that are there.
00:31:23.280
Uh, similarly at Coutts, they rerouted to, uh, Delmeda and then the other crossing.
00:31:28.860
So there was a temporary impact, no greater than a day.
00:31:31.900
Um, but the reason I almost spit out my coffee was every day I get emails from people who've
00:31:40.360
lost their businesses, who've lost their homes, who've lost their families because of the
00:31:49.300
Look at the economic costs to the tourism sector alone from the prolonged government
00:31:56.360
travel mandates that prevented foreigners from coming to Quebec to see the beautiful
00:32:01.560
sites, going to Alberta and British Columbia and all those tourism dollars.
00:32:09.420
So they're being a little selective here, right?
00:32:12.380
They're, they're first of all, jacking up the numbers about the economic impact.
00:32:16.300
And they're completely, uh, willfully blind, I would suggest to the economic impact that
00:32:27.200
A lot of people don't understand this when they brought in the vaccine requirement to,
00:32:30.980
uh, to travel by air in Canada, which no other G7 country did.
00:32:39.680
Um, it also required the baggage handlers, the security clearance people, the people who
00:32:45.700
work at booster juice and Starbucks to all be vaccinated as well.
00:32:49.780
So the disruption and the delays, if, if you traveled at all, even recently, you're still
00:32:54.700
feeling the effects where you pull up and you can't get up to the, the bridgeway because
00:32:58.740
there's no baggage handlers or you're waiting for two hours.
00:33:01.280
So the economic impacts of that, they're willfully blind to.
00:33:05.280
So this is, it was remarkable that she was trying to vilify freedom protesters for their
00:33:13.860
alleged economic impact, which Stats Canada said wasn't real, um, and completely ignoring
00:33:20.520
the incredibly, um, dreadful economic impact that this government policy of overreach had
00:33:29.260
You know, the, the, the border communities, the border cities through the pandemic have
00:33:32.980
suffered tremendously because of all of those, uh, those mandates.
00:33:37.660
You know, we saw some MPs are talking about it in the house of commons and I even have a
00:33:43.700
If we can put that, pull that up shortly, Canada had some of the strictest COVID-19 restrictions
00:33:53.460
You know, I compare it to Germany, Italy, Croatia, Iceland right here and Canada from
00:33:58.780
April 1st, April 1st, 2021 to April 1st, 2022 is above all of the other ones.
00:34:05.340
If we could put it up on the, on the screen, that would be great.
00:34:08.080
But what, what do you think of, uh, of this, of this testimony that Keith just talked to
00:34:12.520
Well, my goodness, I'm sad to not have been able to see that myself or to hear it, but
00:34:16.580
I think I just would have been very, very angered as I honestly am right now, because
00:34:21.640
you know, it's like a bunch of bullies, um, literally just picking and choosing which,
00:34:25.780
uh, which places get to stay open and which ones get to close.
00:34:28.920
And because for less than a day, they had some impacts, they're throwing a huge fit and
00:34:36.540
And again, like you said, vilify the convoy when, again, it was how many local businesses
00:34:43.140
closed, but Walmart was allowed to stay open, but Costco was allowed to stay open.
00:34:48.020
Liquor stores, um, uh, um, uh, weed, what are they?
00:35:00.940
So I'm not, I'm not familiar with the terms, but all these places that the government,
00:35:05.160
uh, runs or has some sort of hand in were allowed and able to stay open.
00:35:11.240
Um, like you said, people lost their houses, people lost their lives to this.
00:35:15.120
And now I like, they're just throwing a huge fit and I, I, there's no reason why it's,
00:35:22.660
Um, and the fact that they have to make up false statistics to try and, and make this narrative.
00:35:29.560
I mean, it's just, they're digging their own grave here.
00:35:32.000
And the closer we get towards the end of this, the worse it looks on them.
00:35:37.480
It was already very, very, very bad, but what do you think is going to be like the impacts?
00:35:43.660
Well, there's one more that I have to share with you that she said today, because I know
00:35:48.980
The second thing she said that would have caused me to, what's that?
00:35:56.080
But, um, she said that the other concern that global affairs or foreign affairs Canada
00:36:04.180
She was very, and the government and the prime minister were very concerned about how Canadian
00:36:11.680
flags were appearing in Australia and in the United States and protests in Europe and Central
00:36:22.160
Then she said, because it was desecrating the Canadian flag that these other freedom protesters
00:36:31.600
were flying the flag of Canada in, in, in Europe and in the United States and Australia,
00:36:38.720
because it was being used to promote illegality.
00:36:43.940
And that's why you'll see when you, if we, when you get a chance to see Mr. Miller's cross,
00:36:50.280
but people were flying the Canadian flag in pride of true North, strong and free.
00:36:58.940
We believe in governments following the law, the rule of law and respecting the charter that
00:37:04.860
puts limits on the government's ability to arbitrarily take away Canadians, fundamental
00:37:10.420
rights and freedoms, such as the right of mobility.
00:37:13.320
So people weren't flying those flags in support in other countries in support of some kind
00:37:20.780
of, you know, criminal enterprise or organized crime or something silly.
00:37:25.380
They were flying that flag in, in support and being proud of Canadians who had come forward
00:37:31.200
to say to government, you've gone too far, you need to stop and you need to follow the
00:37:37.220
And they use this info, this disinformation thing.
00:37:40.020
There's a perfect example of a senior government official at the highest level under oath, engaging
00:37:48.380
They, they, they seem to be thinking they have this monopoly on who can characterize the truth.
00:37:54.580
So, and I guess we'll be dealing with more of that next week.
00:37:57.540
No, of course it's, yeah, it's, it's ridiculous.
00:38:00.220
And, you know, you mentioned mobility rights and in Quebec, there were people in high school
00:38:05.540
that will literally run at the end of the day after hanging out with their friends, even
00:38:09.520
people in university, they would take their bike and they will run back to their home
00:38:13.880
because they knew the curfew was about to arrive at 8 PM or 9 PM.
00:38:18.020
And they, they're not allowed to be outside after this hour.
00:38:21.460
It's pathetic to think that the government was actually able to do that during the pandemic.
00:38:26.540
Never would I thought that this was something that would happen in, in our, in our lifetime.
00:38:31.540
And then you mentioned the Canadian flag being flown overseas and people not being proud of
00:38:38.960
Aren't you supposed to be proud of your country?
00:38:41.540
Aren't you supposed to, shouldn't the prime minister like to see Canadian flags everywhere because
00:38:46.060
that's value in Canada, you know, in the United States, Americans are proud to see the American
00:38:54.380
No, it's because of what the flag stood for because, because people that were flying that
00:38:58.900
flag stood in, stood in solidarity with people in the convoy that stood in solidarity with
00:39:04.460
putting up a protest against these unjust mandates and vaccine, um, the passports, all the
00:39:12.440
It served as a, as a big source of inspiration.
00:39:15.520
Um, and it happened all over the, all over the world.
00:39:19.380
That's exactly what inspired the convoys in the U S and Australia.
00:39:24.620
Um, they were in the Netherlands and there was a mini convoy that came up from Calgary,
00:39:30.280
Alberta and went up to, um, to Edmonton to the legislature building there.
00:39:34.360
Um, just to stand, just to show that the, the Canadians here stood in solidarity with, uh,
00:39:39.320
the Dutch farmers that are protesting the insane, uh, I can't say that word of, uh, the W E F
00:39:47.060
and their, uh, their crazy cutbacks on, uh, on emissions.
00:39:50.460
It's just literally, I mean, you're going to, you're going to eat the bugs.
00:39:59.880
Uh, we'll go back to Brendan Miller's and we'll talk about Rob Kidders.
00:40:03.040
But right before we go to another Miller clip, I want to show a picture that I was sent,
00:40:08.720
Rob Primo made that great, that great picture, that great little graphic about Brendan Miller.
00:40:15.460
You know, when Brendan goes like this, Oh, they're in for it.
00:40:22.620
You just, you know, you know, something's happening.
00:40:24.760
You know, when the shoulder pads go to the side and when you see him getting ready to
00:40:28.940
continue his cross-examination, you know, something's coming in this graphic.
00:40:32.620
As a litigator, I can tell you when he does that, he's got you right where he needs you
00:40:41.940
You are coming out of the cage on his terms and that's it.
00:40:54.300
Brendan Miller, a little, a little quick honor to you.
00:41:00.600
He's got, he's got his whole cross-examination today was great.
00:41:05.740
And I look so, I look forward to seeing what comes up for the rest of the week and what
00:41:11.520
comes up next week when he testify a little transport minister.
00:41:15.880
Omar al-Jabra when he appears in front of the commission.
00:41:20.820
He stated that at no point of the service, being CSIS, assessed the protests in Ottawa
00:41:27.140
Those referred to as the Freedom Con, foreign related protests and blockades in January
00:41:30.880
and February 2022 constituted a threat to the security of Canada as defined in section
00:41:35.800
to the CSIS Act and that CSIS cannot investigate activities constituting lawful protests.
00:41:41.520
CSIS assessed there was no indication of foreign state interference occurring in the course
00:41:48.320
CSIS did not assess that any foreign state supported the protest through funding, that
00:41:53.860
foreign states deployed covert or overt disinformation techniques, or that any foreign state actors attempted
00:42:03.560
There, Director Venu states that he learned that the EA referenced the threat definition
00:42:09.420
set out in section two of the CSIS Act once the federal government began to seriously consider
00:42:15.260
invoking the EA between February 10th and 13th.
00:42:19.000
He requested that the service prepare a threat assessment on the risks associated with the
00:42:25.060
He felt an obligation to clearly convey the service's position that there did not exist
00:42:29.900
a threat to the security of Canada as defined by the service's legal mandate.
00:42:35.100
The threat assessment prepared by the service was that the invocation of the emergency's
00:42:39.920
legislation risked further inflaming IMV rhetoric and individuals holding accelerationist or
00:42:51.900
And that basically just goes back to what we were saying earlier, that that's the evidence,
00:43:01.440
I think you can only hear something so many times, and that's pretty much it.
00:43:07.460
Like, can you imagine saying it point blank and then just, you know, for the people in
00:43:11.940
the back, like literally screaming, like, do anything except this, do anything except,
00:43:22.000
Well, and I think you might've touched on this a little bit earlier with, with your lawyer
00:43:33.660
He's definitely, he's definitely, well, yeah, actually I think he was an extra in suits.
00:43:37.460
Yeah, well, you know, you might say that he, I thought he looked familiar.
00:43:40.720
Yeah, he could say that he played one on television.
00:43:43.300
So he's not a real lawyer, but he played one on television, but you know, he, he was
00:43:47.180
pretty accurate, but I'll, I'll give it a little bit more King's counsel precision.
00:43:52.840
It's this, the question in law, when a decision maker invokes these kinds of powers
00:43:59.500
is what information did they have in front of them to justify their decision and was
00:44:07.880
And all of the experts, as we've talked about, have testified that the trigger thresholds
00:44:17.100
So today was the first time we heard what the new narrative is.
00:44:21.660
And from the deputy minister of public safety, uh, he said that it was for the prime minister
00:44:29.760
and his cabinet to adjudicate and make a decision as to whether they thought that the legal test
00:44:37.120
was met, despite all of the experts, all of the intelligence agencies, all of the police
00:44:45.500
And then of course that opened up for Brendan Miller to say, and what training does the prime
00:44:51.380
minister have in law enforcement, you know, beyond drama teacher, beyond playing a police
00:45:00.500
Um, and of course it didn't matter what the answer is because we all know none.
00:45:06.160
So, um, it's not looking good for the government and, um, it's,
00:45:12.480
it's really good for Canadians that we're getting to see how corrupt the Trudeau government
00:45:20.840
Well, I think that he had an, uh, as much training, uh, training as Tom Muratso had when
00:45:25.360
he played a lawyer, when he played an FBI agent in the series, in the series, but it
00:45:32.160
If you guys haven't watched, it's a great series.
00:45:35.940
Anyone who watched shoot, basically the whole plot is a lawyer who's never went to law school,
00:45:41.100
And I think, I think that could be Tom Muratso.
00:45:46.840
Um, so yeah, so just to go back, I'm not sure if we had a clip ready.
00:45:49.920
I just sent it at Brendan Miller and his first statement at the commission, you know, his
00:45:58.660
It was two minutes long, but it was super concise and precise and brief.
00:46:02.180
And it was, it was a great opening statement, um, a great testimony, a great statement.
00:46:06.720
He said that we will see no evidence whatsoever that the Freedom Convoy met the threshold for
00:46:17.280
Let's take a look at exactly what Brendan Miller said back then.
00:46:21.800
My name's Brendan Miller of Foster LLP and I am counsel to Freedom Corp, which is a organization
00:46:28.640
that represents the protesters of which attended Ottawa in January and February of 2022.
00:46:35.820
Uh, my colleague, Ms. Beth Sheba Vandenberg of Foster LLP is my co-counsel on this matter,
00:46:41.900
as well as the solicitors of record, uh, both Mr. Keith Wilson, King's counsel, as well as
00:46:47.920
Ms. Eva Chipiuk, uh, who is counsel to the convoy.
00:46:51.420
Uh, with respect to, uh, sort of everyone's given an overview of the theory of their case,
00:46:58.460
it is our view that there was no justification whatsoever to invoke the emergency.
00:47:09.960
One, it could be invoked due to espionage and sabotage.
00:47:14.640
Are you going to hear any evidence about espionage and sabotage?
00:47:21.140
Two, it could be invoked on the basis of clandestine or deceptive foreign influence,
00:47:27.020
or foreign influence that involves the threat to a person.
00:47:32.820
It also could be invoked on the basis of threats or use of acts of serious violence against persons or property.
00:47:41.700
Are you going to hear evidence of violence against persons or property?
00:47:48.100
Lastly, it can also be invoked if there is a group or persons trying to destroy or overthrow.
00:48:05.180
Do you think thatamat environmental action is never to punish-
00:48:21.400
Do you know what about those tools are used to Professors specialized feedback,
00:48:25.900
Have you noticed that if you drive the treatment from Fantasy England in prison,
00:48:28.520
that χoses that have shrugged when you when you're at the start-up.