In this episode, Celine Gallus and Eva Cipic talk about the long day of testimony and cross-examination in the Supreme Court of Canada's Federal Court of Justice. They discuss the lack of evidence from the witnesses, and the fact that the government had no idea what they were doing.
00:21:05.820Is there another thing that we haven't touched on regarding Brenda Luckey's testimony that you think would be relevant for our viewers to know about what she had to say?
00:21:40.700All right, from today's testimony, Brendan's cross-examination, we saw at some point, so he was supposed to cross-examine the witness first, the two witnesses first.
00:21:49.000But then, as he was coming on the stand, the government of Canada objected to him cross-examining the witness.
00:21:55.320I don't think that we have the clip, but I know that's what happened the first time, which is why then he cross-examined afterwards.
00:22:04.040Okay, so the rules that the commission has set up is that two days before you're cross-examining a witness, you're asked to put the documents.
00:22:13.820You have to email the documents that you're going to put to the witness, possibly.
00:22:17.980So two days before any witness, we're doing that by five o'clock.
00:22:21.320The commission has given a bit of leeway on that.
00:22:26.240But what is incredibly frustrating here is that the government of Canada has been dumping, they've been doing a data dump on all parties, and there's been thousands of documents in the last few days being uploaded.
00:22:47.120So, yeah, so basically there were a lot of documents that the government of Canada, sorry, sent to all the parties extremely late in the commission from, I think what was seen, it was close to 3,000 documents that were sent pretty late.
00:23:02.300And then Brendan Miller, from what was said by the government of Canada today, while the initial examination was taking place, he sent three documents to the other councils, and then the government of Canada complained basically that they did not have time to review the documents with the witnesses, and that they needed time during the break to review the document.
00:23:25.940So Brendan Miller had to refrain himself from cross-examining Michael Keenan and Christopher Dea at first, and had to do it.
00:23:37.000I think he was the third one to do it.
00:23:40.600To be entirely honest, I had to step away momentarily, so I'm very sad to have missed Miller time today, the second time around at least, because, I mean, for the most part we've seen, really, Rillo has been very impartial.
00:23:53.300But what I've noticed lately, and let me know if you agree with me on this or not, but it seems like recently there's been a lot of, like, cutting back time.
00:24:02.040We're not being as lenient, I've noticed, with providing Convoy Corp lawyer Brendan Miller with a little bit of additional time, where he's been very lenient in a lot of other situations with the other lawyers, and granting them five, sometimes ten minutes or more, I've noticed.
00:24:19.500Well, you know, what I found surprising is that the government of Canada has no issue, once again, sending 3,000 documents to the other council on Remembrance Day.
00:24:28.460But they have a lot of trouble receiving three documents that, from my understanding, were already made to the public.
00:24:38.920They had trouble with these three documents.
00:24:40.740They were totally fine with sending 3,000 of them.
00:24:43.620And they claimed that this was breaching the rules, that this was breaking the rules, what Brendan Miller said.
00:24:49.240So I thought it was a little bit hypocritical, and I thought it was a little bit funny.
00:24:52.600All right, let's go to a quick ad break.
00:24:54.320When we come back, we'll go further into today's testimony, and we'll continue to discuss, well, this joke that is the emergency act inquiry.
00:25:03.100Freedom in the year 2022, for me, folks, it means the return of Rebel Live.
00:25:16.780Now, Rebel Live is an annual event we used to put on before the man, or was it the COVID Karen, made us shut it down during the pandemic years.
00:25:26.740It is a freedom fun fest, if you will.
00:25:29.760All the freedom fighters you've grown to know and love over the years, they're going to be speaking at the Toronto and Calgary events.
00:25:37.320The Toronto event is on November 19th.
00:25:53.400Sheila Gunn-Reed, and of course, the big boss man himself, Ezra Levent.
00:25:57.400Now, Saturday, November the 26th, we're bringing Rebel Live to Calgary, and those aforementioned speakers will be there, and Sheila will be the emcee for that event.
00:27:00.860Well, I was just talking about how DOJ is dumping documents on us, and then I couldn't talk anymore because they're keeping us up late at night, all day, all the time.
00:27:09.060And then, like we were saying, even one of the documents that Brendan wanted to cross-examine on today was delivered to us today.
00:27:17.600And then they're saying, you're breaching the rules by doing this late, and it's a lose-lose situation for us here.
00:27:24.420But yeah, this is a tactic that organizations, unfortunately, like the DOJ does.
00:27:30.160Wait, so one of the documents that they were complaining about having received too late from you guys, they sent it today.
00:27:37.120And then they complained about you not sending it in advance.
00:27:40.180Well, maybe that wasn't the one specific they were talking about because that would be a little bit silly.
00:27:46.580But there were a couple other ones at the same time that just were put together.
00:27:50.680So I don't think that they were arguing specifically about that one, but the other ones that – and they were just a bit more resource-based.
00:28:02.760It was a public document to help contextualize the questions.
00:28:07.380So the fact that they take offense on this, it's just a bit silly.
00:28:12.360Again, I'm just going to use that word so it's a bit more professional.
00:28:15.740I think it's a nicer word than others would use.
00:28:18.920Just before we let you go, I feel like from Michael Kean's testimony, apart from a cross-examination by Brendan Miller, it's my opinion that we didn't hear a lot of things in relation to the invocation of the Emergency Act in terms of why it was necessary to invoke it or why it was unnecessary to invoke it.
00:28:39.020But can you give us a quick rundown of your general impression of Michael Kean's and Christopher J.S. testimony?
00:28:44.120Yeah, well, like I was saying, there was just a lot of fear talked about and fiction and not fact is where I'm going with it.
00:28:56.360So there was a lot of discussions about how investors may have worried about it.
00:29:03.680And in the end, like I think they were there because of the economic impacts.
00:29:07.700But again, under cross-examination, it was clear that and, you know, using a little bit of common sense, you would think that a protest of a few days with a few trucks are not going to cause massive disruption.
00:29:21.380How about closing down the country for two years?
00:29:23.780How about an Arrive Can app that the U.S. doesn't use?
00:29:27.980How about look at what's actually causing the problem rather than throwing and pointing fingers at a few people that are just frustrated with the government?
00:29:41.020Really, I mean, Arrive Can is huge, huge.
00:29:45.280And to only be talking about it at this point in regards to the borders and it's really, really, it's a miracle, like I said, that this is going on still.
00:29:54.720It's a big blame game and I'm tired of hearing these bullies.
00:29:59.740Like honestly, though, like it seems like in a way, it's my opinion, like some of the people that have testified were, let's say it was purposeful to invoke the Emergencies Act without any necessary evidence that would actually provide a reasonable reason to use that invocation of the Emergencies Act.
00:30:22.880But let's say it was purposeful, right?
00:30:26.060So it looks like to me, in my opinion, that we have some people that were probably in on it and some people that were bullied and maybe did or didn't consent to being a part of it.
00:30:37.980And some people that, like today, I was like, why are you telling me about your job description?
00:30:45.300I cared what part you played in the invocation of the Emergencies Act at the public inquiry that we are here to understand of whether or not this was necessary for literally hours.
00:30:55.760I mean, there was just a few times I just sit back in my chair and I was like, whoa, this is crazy.
00:31:03.420Yeah, I think it happened to all of us.
00:31:04.840And as we said, if none of them had any clues about threshold of Section 2 of the CSIS Act.
00:31:12.260Wasn't that provided in their initial statement?
00:31:14.220And the commission's like, yeah, let's hear you for hours, actually, though, and give cross-examination lawyers three seconds to counter your five hours of speaking.
00:31:24.640And not only that, if it's only CSIS again, talk to it.
00:31:27.840Why isn't it only CSIS that's satisfying?
00:31:29.960I think it's pretty funny to think about it that way.
00:32:02.380So in the email that we showed you earlier, which we don't need to pull up again, but it's the email where you advise Minister Mendicino in regards to the CUDS port of entry.
00:32:14.800And you also advised him that at 11.05 p.m. local time on February 14th, the RCMP had successfully cleared and opened the north and southbound roads at the Pacific Highway for the resumption of traffic.
00:32:49.900Honestly, his testimony, we didn't hear a lot.
00:32:58.260We didn't hear a lot of things in relation to the emergency act directly that would justify or prove that the emergency act was necessary to be used from neither of their testimony.
00:33:09.900No, you know, and I remember saying that a lot to you today.
00:33:13.240I was like, there's so many points, you guys, where I was like, both of us, it was like, we know this already.
00:33:20.240Why are we asking questions when we've already, we've either confirmed these people's statements.
00:33:26.180I mean, prior to, obviously, everyone got to see them.
00:33:29.220So why are we still asking these questions that we know the answers to?
00:33:32.720Why are we going over details we've already confirmed that we already know about?
00:33:37.260Why aren't we talking to people that will actually provide us some answers?
00:33:40.080And again, just like we were talking about with Eva, if CSIS is the only intelligence body in Canada that can determine whether or not the invocation of the Emergencies Act is okay, this whole thing should have been CSIS from the beginning.
00:33:53.880Yeah, it's pretty funny when you actually think about that, like if they're the only ones that can actually say whether or not it was justified.
00:33:59.480I mean, I don't believe, well, as Eva said, it is just them.
00:34:03.440But if you look at Section 2 of CSIS, it has to be a threat to national security.
00:34:06.880That can include espionage or sabotage.
00:34:08.880That can include, as we saw earlier, intent of committing violence or, you know, plotting to commit violence, inciting someone to have the intent of committing violence.
00:34:22.880It's all things that we're able to find in a public record.
00:34:25.300But yeah, it's pretty funny when you think about it.
00:34:26.820If CSIS is the only one that can actually tell you about the Emergencies Act, why aren't they the only ones testifying?
00:34:32.280And there's another thing that Eva touched on, that she touched on as well, the Arrive Can app, a disastrous app.
00:34:38.020I think the consumers are now calling it the Arrive Scam app.
00:34:43.120Yeah, it is a disastrous app that was installed by Justin Schultz's liberal government.
00:34:48.460And we saw earlier, I'm not sure if you were there, but we saw earlier during Brandon Miller's cross-examination, there were American officials that were saying that they were worried about the impact the Arrive Can app would have on cross-border, on cross-country trades.
00:35:07.480The U.S. officials did not want the Arrive Can't app.
00:35:10.040And the Arrive Can't app caused a lot of traffic, a lot of, you know, difficulties when it came to trading between Canada and the United States.
00:35:30.840We have officials there trying to figure out what's going on.
00:35:32.940And our government can't seem to get it together.
00:35:35.680We won't even talk to the people that are literally proclaiming their discomfort, their distaste, and all the horrendous things that we really, we all went through them.
00:35:50.660And so to pretend like there's nothing wrong and you have no idea why there's a massive public outcry going on in your country is the most ignorant thing that I've ever witnessed.
00:36:00.340And this, this inquiry is a direct reflection of that.
00:36:23.460Honestly, the documents that he, that he put out were extremely interesting documents.
00:36:27.960And when we talk about the borders and Brendan Miller, it brings us to clip number four, Miller Time, where the former president of the Canadian Border Service Agency told the commission that the CBSA, this, this agency, did not receive any info about threats to Canada from the U.S. intel agency during the Freedom Convoy protest.
00:36:49.120Let's take a look at clip number four.
00:36:50.660It's fair to say that throughout the protest, and at least based on the disclosure, the agencies in the United States, such as the FBI, et cetera, they did not provide the CBSA or the Five Eyes any form of information with respect to any threat to Canada.
00:37:08.080I think you'd probably better talk to those like Communication Security Establishment and or CSIS to find that out.
00:37:16.020Right, but nothing to, was brought to your attention as the president of the CBSA with respect to any sort of threat to Canada coming from the United States during the protests.
00:37:48.680Even if it shows that he had no clue whether he had no authority to determine whether or not it was actually met, special, it was actually met.
00:38:18.080I bet none of you guys are surprised either.
00:38:20.560I mean, you can even hear it in his voice.
00:38:22.920He's like, really, I feel like if I can analyze his tonality as well as his micro expressions and his body language, the way he's answering the question so point blank without even needing to think about what comes out of his mouth.
00:38:37.940He seriously is like, I was left out of this.
00:38:40.680I have no idea why I'm here, why I'm providing this testimony.
00:38:51.980Yeah, all the relevant questions relating to, all the relevant questions actually related to the Emergencies Act that were asked by Brendan Miller.
00:39:00.120They all seem to have trouble answering them strictly today.
00:39:04.980You know, Brendan often asked, what's the name of the second witness, a deputy minister.
00:39:41.740Brendan Miller would ask her questions specifically about the RCMP, and she had no clue how to answer them.
00:39:48.080But she was able to answer a virtue-signaling woke question about how they are inclusive to BIPOC people, how they are inclusive to minority people.
00:39:59.420Yeah, and she was able, it was her lengthiest answer.
00:40:14.280She was being asked a question, and you could tell she didn't like the direction it was going into, but it wasn't her job to say, where are we going with this?
00:40:23.400That's usually something that the lawyers will impose, her counsel would impose if they believed that the line of questioning from the lawyer cross-examining her was out of line.