Rebel News Podcast - BREAKDOWN： Trucker Commission Day 3 ｜ Ft. Convoy Volunteer Tom Marazzo

00:00:00.000 Oh, hey, everybody. Welcome to the Rebel News daily live stream. I'm your host, Sheila Gunreed,

00:00:18.540 and I'm joined today by my co-host, William Diaz, and trucker Tom Marazzo. We've sort

00:00:25.920 of shuffled our noon live stream or 10 a.m. Alberta time live stream to later on in the

00:00:30.620 day because we are feverishly covering the Public Order Emergency Commission as it takes

00:00:35.920 place in Ottawa for at least the next six weeks. We've transitioned a team of journalists

00:00:41.780 to working in the nation's capital to bring you the other side of the story much the same

00:00:47.820 way we did during the convoy itself because you just can't trust the mainstream media.

00:00:53.420 That is more evident than ever. They repeat the nonsense of some of these more hysterical 0.53

00:01:01.200 witnesses verbatim, even though video evidence shows so much otherwise. Guys, I'll shut up 0.96

00:01:09.760 right away and I'll throw to you. But I want to let everybody know, if you want to get involved

00:01:16.380 in the stream today, if you'd like to support the work that we do completely willingly, unlike

00:01:20.880 what Justin Trudeau forces you to do with the mainstream media, might I suggest heading

00:01:24.800 on over to Rumble or Odyssey and you can leave us a paid chat. Paid chats at five bucks or

00:01:29.220 more. We'll do our best to address them on the stream if we have time. William and Tom,

00:01:35.200 you guys were watching today. I was watching the thing from beginning to end. I think I started

00:01:40.060 watching at 7 a.m. my time. It's still ongoing if I am understanding correctly. Yeah, well,

00:01:46.420 we all are. We have to. It's all hands on deck right now. What's the most incredible thing that

00:01:51.680 you heard today? William, you, then Tom, because I'm full of incredible things I heard today.

00:01:57.080 Honestly, today, Sheila, was such an interesting day with the commission. We saw that, I think,

00:02:00.960 for the first time at the beginning, the people that were suspicious and that weren't sure if the

00:02:05.340 commission was actually going to be independent got their answers today. We saw the commission

00:02:09.340 actually going after the government, seeing, did the government do everything, the power to resolve the

00:02:15.180 situation without using the, you know, never seen before emergencies act. To me, that's what struck

00:02:21.740 me the most is that we saw the commission actually seeking answers as to whether or not the city did

00:02:27.320 everything they could to not have to use the emergencies act. Yeah, it was weird. It felt like

00:02:33.800 the grownups were around today. Last week, it didn't feel like there were any grownups there. It felt like

00:02:39.780 a bunch of fragile people who are not emotionally resilient whatsoever, who, you know, would die if

00:02:47.800 you misgendered them. That's what last week felt like. Now it feels like we have the grownups and

00:02:53.180 people who are. Today, we had the city manager, Steve Kanellakos and Serge Arpen, grownups. They,

00:03:02.520 you know, they talked about the effect on the city. They were quite honest about their

00:03:07.340 communications with the convoy and the convoy lawyers, but also with the feds. But anyways,

00:03:12.300 I will ask Tom, you the same question. Did anything really stick out for you today or surprise you?

00:03:18.400 Well, I certainly think that the biggest thing that did stick out for me is just like you said,

00:03:23.080 Sheila, that it's, it was the grownups that were in the room. And I have to admit, I was

00:03:29.980 incredibly encouraged and pleased with the testimony that I saw coming from the two witnesses today.

00:03:37.340 Because it certainly is exactly in line with everything that we've been saying the entire

00:03:42.860 time. And, you know, from, from my point of view, it was really spectacular to me that the city of

00:03:50.560 Ottawa and people say that this is the biggest protest in Ottawa history ever. And yet nobody

00:03:57.440 wanted to talk to us. Nobody wanted to talk to us. And if you listen to the testimony, it was all of

00:04:03.440 these conversations going back and forth amongst the government, the various, you know, levels of

00:04:09.500 government. But you didn't hear many people wanting to talk to us until you heard this morning where the,

00:04:16.580 the Ottawa police services, the liaison team contacted the, the city manager and said, he wants to

00:04:25.820 have a, you know, they want to have a meeting with you. And you know, it's incredible to me that

00:04:31.600 you've got all these Canadians, these taxpaying voter Canadians with charter rights in your city.

00:04:38.660 And after two years, nobody wanted to hear from us. Nobody wanted to listen. They show up on your

00:04:44.420 doorstep and you still don't want to talk to them. That to me is remarkable.

00:04:50.660 Yeah. And I think, I think just to add to that, you know, we saw Justin Trudeau throughout the

00:04:54.920 protest. He would never speak with you. When James stopped, held his press conference that I

00:04:58.800 attended here in Ottawa, not a single liberal member of parliament went to his press conference. No,

00:05:05.600 not a single one yet. The city manager and the city of Ottawa was open to talking to you. So I,

00:05:11.780 I think it shows the, the level of respect, Justin Trudeau versus Jim Watson, regardless what we think of

00:05:18.820 him, regardless of the city of Ottawa, I had for a convoy. Yeah. Yeah. I don't, I don't have a ton

00:05:24.400 of respect for Jim Watson, but it sounds like he has some level-headed people around him. Um, and it

00:05:29.960 is, I mean, isn't that the symptom of the whole convoy is that you had to go all the way to Ottawa

00:05:36.920 because you didn't think anyone was listening to. And when you finally get there, they still won't

00:05:42.240 listen to you. And the ones that do listen to you get it all wrong and they lie about you. Um,

00:05:47.820 it was interesting to hear the timeline of events unfold. And I think the timeline of events is

00:05:55.240 going to be severely damaging for the liberals because to invoke the emergencies act, uh, there

00:06:00.880 has to be, you know, a very, uh, strict set of circumstances and it has to fit into a box this

00:06:06.140 big. And the convoy is all out here. It's not even remotely in the box. Um, and one of the things,

00:06:14.000 uh, that came out today was really the things that the city of Ottawa were finding difficult to deal

00:06:22.220 with. Those were basically resolving themselves by the 13th and, and the liberals knew that they were

00:06:32.620 resolving themselves on the 13th because as the kids say, receipts or it didn't happen. And they had

00:06:38.920 receipts, uh, from Steve Kenilakos. His name is so Greek. It's so hard to say. And Serge Arben,

00:06:46.200 um, they both communicated with the federal government, Bill Blair and old lion, Marco Mendicino.

00:06:53.480 They communicated to them that a deal had been struck with the truckers to move the trucks out

00:06:59.340 of the residential areas. That was on the 13th. They, you know, they had receipt of those emails.

00:07:05.300 They, uh, both men testified that they sent people in those offices, in the minister's offices,

00:07:12.160 copies of the communication. So they were well aware and yet still the next day, the feds dropped

00:07:19.500 the hammer. Yeah. I think, I think one of the things that we saw Sheila today was the self-willingness of

00:07:24.560 the truckers to try to resolve the situation by themselves. You know, they, they, they were willing

00:07:28.860 to move the trucks. That's what they wanted to do. But one of the reasons why they couldn't is because

00:07:32.440 the police was blocking both sides of one country, both sides of what was blocking them

00:07:38.140 from moving. And we also saw the, the truckers lawyer, Keith Wilson, who's an incredible lawyer,

00:07:43.700 I must say, um, that had extremely courteous exchanges with, uh, the city of Ottawa, you know,

00:07:50.320 and everyone thought about the, the, the, the truckers were domestic terrorists. They were aggressive

00:07:55.320 people. They were violent people. We saw them first of all, being willing to help the residents

00:08:00.340 of Ottawa and move their trucks from Rideau to Wellington. And we saw their lawyer being

00:08:05.440 extremely polite and nice in his exchanges, in his text message exchanges with, uh, the

00:08:11.280 city of Ottawa. I don't know if we have some of the screenshots for that. We signed the commission

00:08:14.480 would be great if we could put them on the screen, but that was something interesting to see.

00:08:19.480 Yeah. Tom, I just want to ask you that is, uh, I'm sure. Well, you'll correct me if I'm wrong.

00:08:24.080 That must be reflective of your experience on the ground. We had, uh, Steve Kenilakos saying that

00:08:31.000 it was clear the truckers didn't want to cause any disruption in the residential streets, but they

00:08:36.260 just ended up being where they were kettled. And then they started to move the trucks out. And then

00:08:42.400 all of a sudden we see a change in leadership with the Ottawa police and then the police helping move

00:08:50.140 that stop. So basically the truckers were kettled in these residential areas through no fault of their

00:08:55.720 own. Yes. And this was a repetitive, uh, issue that we were facing with the city, uh, really with

00:09:03.260 the Ottawa police quite consistently. Um, we would at various levels, uh, different groups within the

00:09:11.480 convoy, different sections or streets would, would try to have this dialogue or negotiate, um, safety

00:09:18.760 issues or safety concerns with the police. And, you know, for example, uh, a really important thing

00:09:23.900 that came up today that I heard, they were talking about these emergency safety lanes and we worked

00:09:30.100 really hard to make sure that there was always access to emergency services vehicles. And I remember

00:09:37.100 getting to the, uh, to the corner there right near the, um, the Byward market in that, that one

00:09:42.440 difficult intersection. Uh, and, um, I was talking to one of the truckers and I said, listen, you know,

00:09:49.820 you, you've got your, like your, your trucks are on three different lanes abreast. We need to move

00:09:56.420 one of those and open up a guaranteed safety lane. And he said, no, what they've done. And they did it

00:10:01.460 two times is they sat in their trucks and they listened for emergency sirens. And if they hear a

00:10:08.440 siren, they basically moved the vehicle out of the way so that the emergency vehicles can get

00:10:13.280 through. And he reassured me that twice on two separate occasions, they actually had to do this

00:10:18.800 to allow emergency services vehicles to get through. So this, this talk about, you know, safety and all

00:10:25.220 that stuff, this was a, a fundamental goal of, of all of us that were trying to coordinate the, the public

00:10:33.100 safety aspect of this. We had also routinely communicated this very important point to the

00:10:40.520 Ottawa police services. So they knew that the city knew through the police that we were constantly

00:10:47.460 trying to be safe and responsible for the city residents of Ottawa. We also had a lot of occasions

00:10:53.460 where, um, there was, you know, slips and falls on the ice and the truckers were there to actually

00:10:59.560 provide first aid, call the ambulance and make sure that that resident was attended to. So we've got

00:11:05.480 lots of examples of that, where that actually took place. And in fact, um, you know, a lot of the stuff

00:11:11.720 that we heard today about interruptions to, you know, uh, garbage collection, the fire, the fire

00:11:17.540 trucks, that that's all completely false. Cause you know, at one point we, we created garbage collection

00:11:23.200 points to make it easier for the truck, uh, the garbage trucks to come and collect the trash.

00:11:29.000 Like we went out of our way to try to relieve a lot of the pressure on the city. And it became very,

00:11:34.920 very clear to us. Um, the, the evening or the day after we watched the, the first police services

00:11:42.300 board meeting where they were talking with Diane Dean was still the, um, police services board chair.

00:11:48.020 And we watched the things that she was saying to then chief, uh, Peter slowly. And we were kind of

00:11:55.660 horrified with what we were hearing. And that's the night that we fundamentally realized we need to

00:12:00.120 take the pressure off of the city. And if the city doesn't feel the pressure, they can't put it back

00:12:07.060 on the politicians, uh, who are then going to put that pressure onto the police. So we were trying to

00:12:14.100 avoid this. And this is kind of an original sort of Genesis of how we ended up getting the meeting

00:12:18.560 with, uh, Steve K was towards those efforts. We were trying our best to work with the city,

00:12:25.000 but they were very reluctant to, to talk to us, except Steve recognizing the opportunity that he had.

00:12:32.580 Uh, and like you said, he was the grownup. He recognized the opportunity he had and he,

00:12:36.540 and he took advantage of it. And I think we were getting the ball rolling.

00:12:39.920 Uh, I think you were. And you know, there's some testimony here that in hindsight, you hear it.

00:12:47.560 And then afterwards you sort of digest it and put it all together. At the beginning of the day,

00:12:51.900 we heard from Steve K as you call him, Steve Kenilakos. It's fun to say it once you figure out

00:12:57.240 how to say it, by the way, it's, uh, you know, he testified in his communications with Peter slowly

00:13:04.960 that he slowly was saying, we need more cops because we can't get the truckers out without

00:13:15.180 more cops. We need help directing traffic. And it's a big major police operation to remove all

00:13:20.800 these trucks from downtown. We don't have enough cops. And so later on in the testimony, when we

00:13:27.400 start hearing from Serge Arpin and his communications with the feds on trying to get more RCMP police

00:13:33.560 resources into town, they only sent 60 additional RCMP officers when the city was begging for more

00:13:44.520 cops so that they could get the trucks out. It wasn't just to in for enforcement purposes,

00:13:49.060 to write tickets, to shoot people with beanbags. That's really not what they were asking for. At

00:13:53.480 least maybe 50%. I don't know about Steve Bell, but you know, they needed additional cops to get

00:13:59.840 everybody out of town and the feds weren't sending them. So it was Marco Mendicino and Bill Blair who

00:14:06.300 were in effect inhibiting the removal of these trucks. And then still on the 14th, they cracked

00:14:12.500 down on everybody because the trucks aren't out. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I think, I think Sheila,

00:14:16.380 if there's one argument, our arguments to be made for the use of the emergencies, I can, I don't think

00:14:21.480 there is any, but if there was one to be made, it's the fact that the city and not, not the city to

00:14:27.320 prevent the federal government did not provide enough resources to the city to help deal with

00:14:33.280 the protests. I think if there's one argument to be made, I think that's it. You don't get to invoke

00:14:38.700 the emergencies act because Bill Blair and Marco Mendicino are bad at their jobs. Yeah, 100%. I don't think

00:14:44.000 it's a good argument, but I'm saying if there is one argument, I don't think it's a good one at all.

00:14:47.380 I don't think there's any good argument, but I think if there was one good argument that I would see a

00:14:51.340 lawyer make is that they needed to emergencies. A lawyer like Paul Champ, you know, we know him,

00:14:56.720 a lawyer like Paul Champ, I think that's one good argument that he could make to, to, well, I'd like

00:15:01.900 to raise one important issue regarding Bill Blair. Let's remember that he was the chief of police in

00:15:07.720 2010 during the GHE 20 summit when that city got ripped apart and he was the police chief of

00:15:15.520 jurisdiction over that entire operation. And let's, you know, we're still seeing court cases

00:15:21.900 dealing with that from 12 years ago. So, you know, clearly he didn't really learn many new lessons from

00:15:30.200 his experience 12 years ago. And now he's even in a higher position authority. Yeah. Was he not

00:15:35.900 kettling peaceful protesters back then? Yes, he was. Yes. He just, so he just did it now with trucks

00:15:43.200 instead. Well, he brings the violence, right? That's what he's accustomed to. Yeah. That's what

00:15:48.120 he does. Olivia, do we have an ad break? And then we'll go into some of these clips and we'll

00:15:54.240 take a look at some of these clips of the day. Instead of us just talking about what happened,

00:15:58.660 let's show everybody what happened. And we've got the guys to help me analyze.

00:16:01.940 It's the values. You look at Western values in Western society, and these are values we could

00:16:14.060 all relate to, but they're old world values of grit and community and perseverance.

00:16:24.240 It's a place where you can make a living with your back and your hands and a little bit of hard work.

00:16:29.720 And it's a place of opportunity. And I think as Albertans, we're fiercely protective of that.

00:16:35.660 The world's energy crisis has been grabbing newspaper headlines. In a nutshell, we're running

00:16:41.500 short of petroleum resources and the prices are zooming upwards. My colleagues in the government

00:16:47.020 and I have come reluctantly to believe that the price of oil in Canada must go up. This was Alberta.

00:16:53.760 Origin of the Alberta separatist movement begins with the election of Pierre Trudeau as prime minister.

00:16:58.300 It was, it was a deliberate and malicious targeting in the West, which suited Pierre Trudeau just fine,

00:17:04.240 just like it suits Justin Trudeau just fine.

00:17:06.240 Sunny ways, my friends.

00:17:08.240 Blackface. 0.94

00:17:09.240 There is an actual hostile government towards Alberta.

00:17:14.180 Why did your dad give everyone in Western Canada the middle finger?

00:17:18.180 Really, in politics, you do have to make big decisions. And whenever you make big decisions,

00:17:23.180 there's going to be people who agree with it and people who don't disagree with it.

00:17:27.180 Plenty of people want to leave this country.

00:17:31.120 It's not the kind of idea you'd expect to hear from someone who wants to win power and hold power.

00:17:37.120 It's a, it is a radical idea.

00:17:40.120 And you would normalize the discussion.

00:17:43.120 And so maybe Alberta wouldn't have to go because maybe the rest of the country and the rest of the world would say,

00:17:49.120 whoa, don't go. Will you accept these changes instead? That's what happened to Quebec.

00:17:56.060 There's no Maple Leafs west of the Manitoba borders. Why do we want, why do we have a Maple Leaf by unilateral decision on Canadian flags?

00:18:04.060 Think of how the American colonists were in 1775. That's how a lot of Albertans are today.

00:18:13.120 Such a, it will be such a great movie, Sheila. That's going to be really great.

00:18:24.060 It is. And we have 20 tickets left for our most recent Edmonton showing.

00:18:30.060 So you can, if you're interested, and I think you should be, because I'll be there at K2.

00:18:34.060 Our filmmaker will be there. Ezra will be there to answer questions.

00:18:37.060 The tickets are available at albertadocumentary.com.

00:18:43.760 So no, that's all tidied up. Let's get into some of the clips from today.

00:18:48.320 This one was fascinating, and it's not actually from the Trucker Commission.

00:18:52.480 It's Doug Ford saying that he is standing shoulder to shoulder, I think the phrase he said, with Trudeau over the invocation of the Emergencies Act.

00:19:03.740 I'm not sure I'd want to hitch my horse to that wagon at this point in testimony, but Doug Ford did it.

00:19:09.280 Let's roll that clip. 0.89

00:19:10.720 If you can think back to February, do you think that the federal government was justified in using the Emergencies Act to lift the occupation of downtown Ottawa?

00:19:18.820 Well, we have some of the top officials with the OPP testifying.

00:19:22.020 And, yes, I stood shoulder to shoulder with the Prime Minister.

00:19:27.820 These folks were, you know, camping out, everything from whirlpools, disrupting downtown, disrupting the lives of the people of Ottawa.

00:19:37.920 We've worked collaboratively with the Mayor and the Prime Minister over at the borders.

00:19:43.740 They were holding up a billion dollars of trade every single day, getting across our borders.

00:19:49.140 We were getting phone calls from governors.

00:19:51.460 It's unacceptable.

00:19:53.140 Myself and I know the Prime Minister believe in free speech.

00:19:57.260 And if you want to protest, protest.

00:19:59.220 If you want to come down to Queen's Park and do cartwheels.

00:20:02.000 But if you disrupt the lives of the people of Ottawa every single day, disrupt the lives of economic flow across our borders,

00:20:08.860 I have zero tolerance for it.

00:20:10.840 Thank you.

00:20:11.240 Doug Ford, it fascinates me so much that this man calls himself a conservative but sides with Trudeau on every possible single issue.

00:20:23.520 He sides with Trudeau here in terms of the use in the emergencies.

00:20:26.060 Like, he doesn't push back against it.

00:20:28.120 Justin Trudeau basically campaigned with Doug Ford while Doug Ford was campaigning recently.

00:20:33.260 And also, he talked about the coups, the coups blockade.

00:20:36.500 The coups blockade was sorted out before the Emergencies Act were involved.

00:20:40.420 Yep.

00:20:41.240 Yep.

00:20:42.680 I just think, I'm not sure, like, that happened this morning sort of as testimony was kicking off.

00:20:50.060 I wonder if Doug Ford feels that way now after today's disastrous testimony.

00:20:56.420 Yeah, he shouldn't.

00:20:57.120 Go ahead, Tom.

00:20:58.080 Yeah.

00:20:58.680 Well, you know, I take exception to a lot of the things that he had said in there, but that's typical Doug Ford.

00:21:04.860 He always has seemed to have campaigned as a conservative, but he's always governed as a liberal anyway.

00:21:11.340 But what's concerning to me is the statement, you know, they bring up the bridge in Windsor.

00:21:15.460 And the reality is I've got a very good friend who was there and was arrested in Windsor, and he assured me, he's a fellow veteran, he assured me they had one of the lanes open.

00:21:25.980 So to say that the bridge was completely shut down and interrupting billions of dollars, well, what is the ride camp interrupted in the lives?

00:21:35.240 And what is the federal policies of this government in their failure to open up the borders and then compound that by what they've done to the truckers in this country in order to further interrupt international trade?

00:21:49.640 So, you know, these people in their hypocrisy, they just have no boundaries whatsoever.

00:21:56.160 Don't expect Doug Ford to go against the narrative the Arrive can add, though.

00:22:00.560 It's Justin Trudeau's favorite tool ever created since he was in power.

00:22:04.420 Doug Ford's never going to speak badly against that.

00:22:06.480 No.

00:22:06.580 You know, there was at one point where when I think it was the lawyer for Peter Slowly, who did a great job of sort of defending his client from any, you know, criticism that he was too hard on the protesters, because slowly said at one point in I think it was an email or text message exchange that, you know, like he didn't have the right to stop people from heading downtown, that they had charter rights and they can go downtown, they could go into the downtown core.

00:22:35.000 And it wasn't, you know, he didn't or shouldn't use that authority as police chief to stop people.

00:22:42.700 But it's interesting because Doug Ford's government is guilty of quite a bit of misinformation regarding the protests and not just the nature of the protests, but also how much help they said they sent.

00:22:59.420 I think Minister Sylvia Jones in Doug Ford's government told the media at one point there were 1,500 OPP officers deployed to Ottawa.

00:23:11.300 Could you imagine saying 1,500?

00:23:13.360 That's like a small Alberta town of cops just deployed there.

00:23:16.800 And Steve Kay, he said, yeah, no, that was inaccurate.

00:23:19.980 And so it looked like they, like this, Ottawa city officials, the good ones, were dealing with misinformation coming from both the feds, but also from Doug Ford, Trudeau's dancing partner.

00:23:33.940 No, 100% sure I agree with you.

00:23:35.880 Well, you know, from my point of view, too, listening to the testimony and I listened to all that, you know, their integrated emergency center that they kept talking about and the different police of jurisdiction, the different capabilities that they had to handle this particular situation.

00:23:54.620 The level of intelligence that they were able to gather that we could not.

00:24:01.020 So, for example, they owned the CCTV cameras.

00:24:03.880 They had UAVs up in the air.

00:24:05.580 That's true.

00:24:06.020 So they had a much better opportunity to get a full account of where everyone was located with trucks and what they were doing.

00:24:13.680 And yet, a simple conversation with any one of us probably would have yielded an incredibly different dynamic to that entire situation.

00:24:25.780 And yet, they had no interest in actually talking.

00:24:29.880 Especially since the truckers were so open to talk with city officials and federal government.

00:24:34.960 They were there to talk.

00:24:36.740 They drove across the country to talk to somebody.

00:24:39.000 That was a bold point, yeah.

00:24:41.320 Yeah.

00:24:41.980 And so this is, you know, when you look at it, you know, Twitter was lighting up today.

00:24:47.880 And I think a few people came after me and said a bunch of, you know, unkind things, which I'm pretty used to.

00:24:54.020 Happens all the time.

00:24:55.240 But, you know, the question you have to ask is after two years, like Doug Ford said it today in that clip that you showed.

00:25:02.540 Welcome to Queen's Park and do cartwheels.

00:25:04.320 Well, guess what?

00:25:05.480 Thousands of people went to the worldwide rallies in Toronto.

00:25:08.840 And every weekend, people went.

00:25:10.620 And you know what Doug Ford did?

00:25:12.240 Nothing.

00:25:13.100 He didn't want to talk.

00:25:14.360 He never engaged.

00:25:15.520 He called them maids.

00:25:16.860 Yeah.

00:25:17.860 Yahoo's and stuff like that, right?

00:25:19.500 So, you know, when you're talking about the adults, let's be clear.

00:25:24.620 We're not talking about, you know, the leadership at the executive levels of government in this country.

00:25:28.960 And I would also, I'd say federal, provincial, and I hate to say it, but local government, because I'm not a big fan of Jim Watson either, because he has acted in bad faith several times.

00:25:41.920 And again, he got caught during Rolling Thunder in acting in bad faith.

00:25:46.300 And, you know, we published all the evidence through V4F on our Twitter.

00:25:52.800 So, you know, these people that are elected officials, they're not elected to be kings and queens or lords and dukes.

00:26:00.100 Right.

00:26:00.300 They're elected to represent the wishes of the people and to have a dialogue when we have a grievance.

00:26:06.100 And they don't seem to get that.

00:26:07.820 And this is the point of why the convoy finally said enough is enough.

00:26:11.960 You called us heroes in the past.

00:26:13.880 Then you sanctioned us with these unreasonable mandates.

00:26:17.360 So, guess what?

00:26:18.280 We're going to go to Protest Central.

00:26:20.220 And I say Protest Central because we heard on Friday that they have approximately, on average, 99 protests per year in the city of Ottawa.

00:26:30.840 And that one, the Councillor Flurry there, has been a councillor for 12 years.

00:26:35.420 So, he's lived through 1,200 protests.

00:26:38.860 And I find it really disingenuous to hear that they were not prepared for any level of protest that could handle this in terms of their integrated operations center.

00:26:51.500 And so, it's just, it's amusing and terrifying at the same time to watch the level of infighting that we're witnessing in the actual, in the room between government officials.

00:27:05.780 And if you see our lawyer, Brendan Miller, he didn't really spend a lot of time crossing this afternoon because.

00:27:13.420 But he was precisely what you did.

00:27:15.040 Yeah, it didn't have to.

00:27:16.040 It's like, I just sat here with the popcorn and I enjoyed you guys rip each other apart.

00:27:19.720 Thank you very much for doing our job, which is what we've been saying the entire time.

00:27:24.740 So, Brendan's job, I think, today was pretty easy.

00:27:29.960 And I want to, I'd like to credit the two witnesses today.

00:27:34.220 They, they seemed like very thoughtful, very responsible people that were doing their job, which is to serve their communities.

00:27:44.660 But the challenge here is that it wasn't just a community issue.

00:27:48.000 This is a Canada-wide issue.

00:27:50.020 This is not a left or a right.

00:27:52.240 This isn't vax on vax.

00:27:53.640 This is a Canada issue.

00:27:54.860 And the question really becomes, Justice McLean, and, you know, in line with what the police chief, Peter Slawley, was saying is that he didn't have a charter right to stop us from doing it, which was further reinforced by Justice McLean during the Horn injunction when he said, we have a right to be here.

00:28:12.600 Which stopped the local government and the police from confiscating our vehicles and going after people.

00:28:19.920 So, you know, we're seeing at that mid-level within the city, the law enforcement, the city manager, and the chief of staff to the mayor, they got it.

00:28:29.360 They understood the situation we're in.

00:28:31.160 The only criticism that I would have is that they failed to reach out and ever talk to us in a meaningful way until we pushed the issue.

00:28:41.140 You know, we pushed the issue, and finally we started to get the ball rolling.

00:28:46.420 And it was, I believe, through our own efforts that we got the dialogue started with the city and started to get a deal which was later then spoken about in the testimony today.

00:28:58.800 Yeah, the police liaison team, you know, if you were truly the terrorist they say that you are, I'm sort of sure that the police wouldn't be negotiating with terrorists.

00:29:12.020 I think that's a hard-fasened rule.

00:29:14.300 But, you know, they said for the first time ever we were negotiating with protesters, demonstrators, something they'd never done before.

00:29:24.000 And I think that was a testament to the behavior and the conduct of the protesters to show, like, look, you need us to move trucks, we're going to move trucks, now let's talk a little bit more.

00:29:33.820 And so when he said, never before have we done anything like this, I think that that's on the truckers that you guys were acting well, not necessarily.

00:29:42.600 And I want to reinforce that that was very productive.

00:29:46.480 Like, those discussions were very productive from our perspective.

00:29:51.340 We were willing to do everything we could to continue to be safe, responsible, and to relieve the pressure on the citizens of Ottawa and the council and the police themselves.

00:30:04.580 But at every turn, we were seeing that the, you know, leadership starting at the very top was putting pressure downwards to derail the efforts of the city themselves.

00:30:17.300 And honestly, I looked at, you know, Chief Slally, and there was a lot of times we recognized very early that he had hardly any room to maneuver whatsoever, and that the pressure, he was getting hit on every side.

00:30:30.080 And, you know, there's no doubt in my mind that he didn't resign, he fell on his sword on behalf of other incompetents, unfortunately.

00:30:40.940 And, you know, Chief, I just want to say, you know, you say that the government won't negotiate with terrorists.

00:30:47.940 I think you forget Omar Khadr, who received $10 million from the federal government.

00:30:51.380 It wasn't a negotiation, they just gave him the money.

00:30:54.440 There was no negotiation there.

00:30:55.820 Like, what do you want?

00:30:56.540 Okay, let's give it to you.

00:30:58.120 I think it's doing worse.

00:30:59.260 Just staying on Doug Ford before we move ahead to some of the other stuff, because we're quickly running out of time.

00:31:05.560 Doug Ford actually praised the police for doing an incredible job during the Emergencies Act.

00:31:11.440 I'm not sure I would praise the actions of individual officers who were particularly aggressive with protesters, but there were some good cops involved in all of this, particularly, I think, Peter Slally.

00:31:24.080 Let's show that clip, and then we'll have a talk about it.

00:31:26.700 How come, Premier Ford, you're not testifying at this inquiry?

00:31:32.440 Were you asked?

00:31:33.380 Did you decline?

00:31:35.240 Good question.

00:31:36.540 I have not been asked again.

00:31:39.460 I want to repeat what I said earlier.

00:31:41.100 We have top officials from the OPP that were running the operation with conjunction with municipal police agencies and the RCMP.

00:31:49.960 You know, our police did an incredible job.

00:31:52.840 They were very peaceful.

00:31:54.160 They moved forward.

00:31:55.080 And I am so proud to stand here and back our police right across this country and right across this province.

00:32:00.400 I'll always support our police.

00:32:02.120 They're professional.

00:32:03.180 They're polite.

00:32:03.660 And they ended up getting the job done.

00:32:06.760 Thank you.

00:32:10.680 Now, I think that's your standard politician's response about police.

00:32:14.180 If you're from the right, you usually are supportive of the police.

00:32:18.020 And if you're from the left, you want to defund them, although I'm becoming more open to hearing those arguments these days.

00:32:23.980 But I thought it was weird that the Emergencies Act is invoked because of actions that are happening in Ontario.

00:32:32.680 And the premier of the province isn't called to testify.

00:32:35.440 I just think that's frankly bizarre and stinks of a bit of a cover-up.

00:32:39.860 Yeah, you know, I also had the same thought until I spoke to Keith Wilson, the lawyer for the Convoy.

00:32:45.980 And he told me basically that he doesn't think it's such a big deal that Doug Ford isn't testifying because his government can say what they believe through their lawyer.

00:32:53.960 And there is a government lawyer who, there is an Ontario government lawyer who did speak in the preliminary matters on the first day of the commission to talk about the Ontario's view of the convoy and the Emergencies Act.

00:33:10.520 I don't think he would have much to add, to be perfectly honest.

00:33:13.640 Yeah.

00:33:14.120 Yeah.

00:33:14.300 He wasn't there.

00:33:16.000 He was, he was armchair quarterbacking the entire thing from back in Toronto, had very little input from what I saw.

00:33:23.740 And if you look at the testimony today, from what I heard, they didn't seem to be overly interested initially in even getting involved.

00:33:32.320 You know, so I don't know.

00:33:35.340 I don't know that he would personally add any value.

00:33:37.580 What I'm hoping to eventually hear, and I don't know if I will or not, but there are other members of his government I'd like to hear from.

00:33:45.820 But I'll hold off on that comment so I don't get my hands slapped by Keith Wilson for talking about strategy of any kind.

00:33:53.740 But, you know, I do, I do have objections to what he just said in that statement today, again, about the professionalism of the police.

00:34:04.800 You know, I would agree, I have several friends of mine that are police officers.

00:34:11.380 And they are on the side of the Canadians.

00:34:16.780 They are on the side.

00:34:17.440 These are police officers that were also forced into making economically coercive decisions where they weren't, you know, they didn't take the inoculation for the virus.

00:34:29.620 They took it for unemployment, but yet they've never given out COVID tickets or they've never targeted people like some of the other officers have.

00:34:37.240 So we have to be very, very careful that we're able to distinguish between a police officer that will be sanctioned if he speaks out in support of anything.

00:34:47.020 And you're seeing, I think, Helen Brute is one of the police officers who is, they're targeting.

00:34:53.040 And Peterborough went after, or sorry, Durham, Ontario went after some of their police officers, right?

00:34:57.840 People are being charged in Ottawa for donating 50 bucks on the OPS.

00:35:04.220 There's a police officer, I think she donated 50 bucks to the convoy.

00:35:08.080 She's being charged under the Police Services Act.

00:35:10.320 So, you know, the message is, if you support this in any way, shape or form, you risk your employment.

00:35:18.000 So, you know, naturally the police are afraid to come forward.

00:35:21.800 But, you know, the willingness to see some of those police officers do the things that they did.

00:35:27.840 And for me, I think it's reprehensible what they did to the public at large.

00:35:33.260 But I really do get quite frustrated when I hear about what they did to the veterans standing on the steps of the National War Memorial.

00:35:41.040 You know, when they beat veterans wearing their medals, their berets, you know, they're clearly veterans, clearly identifiable as veterans.

00:35:50.020 And you're seeing police get kneed in the ribs, or veterans getting kneed in the ribs, butt stroked on the ground.

00:35:56.120 Hit with the guns as well. 0.73

00:35:57.260 Yeah.

00:35:57.560 Zap strapped, put in lineups, even though they have injuries from the war. 1.00

00:36:01.000 And then they take those veterans and they drive them out into the country and drop them off on the side of the road in the wintertime, you know, minus 25.

00:36:09.440 That, you know, what does, what do they mean when they say thank you for your service?

00:36:13.520 When it's convenient?

00:36:14.740 Yeah.

00:36:15.660 You know, and I will be here in Ottawa on November 11th.

00:36:20.300 And I will be at the National War Memorial, unless I'm testifying.

00:36:25.140 And I'm going to look a lot of these people right in the eye when I'm standing there.

00:36:28.340 And we have rolling thunder, and I think we've made our peace with what happened.

00:36:33.480 But I think this is going to be an interesting time this year on November 11th.

00:36:37.000 And I encourage the public to, you know, participate in Remembrance Day ceremonies across this country and to really question what do we mean as Canadians anymore?

00:36:49.480 What do we mean when we say thank you for your service?

00:36:52.000 You know, if you, if you saw the, the CBC article that came out today, the, the, the CDS, the chief of defense staff for the military is asking for the, the, the people of Canada to start enrolling in the military.

00:37:06.560 It's like, are you out of your mind?

00:37:08.880 Have you lost your mind?

00:37:10.880 You're, you're, you've kicked out thousands of soldiers who honorably served because they would not allow the government to violate the Nuremberg codes, which says you don't experiment on soldiers.

00:37:23.260 And, you know, informed consent or bodily autonomy.

00:37:27.640 And yet, you know, we learned nothing in the military about, uh, methoquin, you know, the malaria drug and other things we've done.

00:37:35.440 And yet they're making a plea for you to sacrifice your sons and daughters to join the military.

00:37:40.660 So what they could go and risk their lives in the Ukraine.

00:37:43.120 I'm sorry, but I fundamentally find that to be absolutely stunningly bizarre.

00:37:49.160 No, 100%.

00:37:49.920 Um, that you would kick, you know, a thousand soldiers is approximately $800 million worth of training, taxpayer funded training.

00:37:58.060 You know, I know of a helicopter pilot who flew for a can soft calm, who was 21 years into his service and had four more years to go was kicked out five F, uh, from the military for not taking a vaccination.

00:38:13.080 He didn't want to take because the clinical trials are not over and he forfeited a long-term or a lifelong pension and medical benefits for life because he's four years short of it.

00:38:23.100 I've heard a story of a woman who was seven months short of getting her 25 year pension being kicked out of the military.

00:38:30.380 And now you, you're, your government has shown a willingness to beat veterans on the steps who are exercising their peaceful right to protest, which is what the soldiers are there to do to defend the charter, the constitution of this country and the people of Canada, our way of life.

00:38:47.740 And now you're asking for them to join the military to serve.

00:38:51.220 But if you ask me, that's just a little bit more than I think veterans are willing to, uh, um, to, you know, you know, where I'm going with this, Sheila, I can see it on your face.

00:39:01.880 Yeah.

00:39:02.140 You know, you're, you're asking more than they're willing to give.

00:39:04.880 Right.

00:39:05.540 So enough is enough.

00:39:07.460 Enough is enough.

00:39:08.320 I think.

00:39:09.540 You know, I think there's a real crisis in policing in the military that is going to be on our door very, very quickly.

00:39:14.920 When not only have you kicked out the conscientious objectors, yes, but you've also discouraged everybody else who remained behind, who begrudgingly, as you say, inoculated themselves against unemployment, but not a disease.

00:39:29.440 And so they look at this thing that they signed up to do as not, not what it was presented to them as, you know, they joined the military to defend freedom.

00:39:40.320 They joined the police to make sure that people's Canadian rights are protected and they can live safely, free of coercion, maybe.

00:39:49.020 And those guys are going to take early retirement and they're just going to say, you know what, I'm just going to time out.

00:39:55.120 I'm tapping out.

00:39:55.860 I'm done.

00:39:56.680 And you know who that leaves behind?

00:39:58.520 The worst people.

00:39:59.900 Yes.

00:40:00.380 The go along to get along people.

00:40:01.780 Instead of promoting the people who are conscientious objectors, those are the people you want in management, right?

00:40:07.360 They're the people who are not subject to peer pressure.

00:40:09.820 They have a good moral compass.

00:40:11.540 They they'll do the right thing, even if it's unpopular.

00:40:14.300 Normally, those are the people you want in the upper echelons of management.

00:40:17.100 Usually.

00:40:17.180 They've all been tossed.

00:40:18.780 They've all been tossed out.

00:40:20.160 And so upon us in our institutions.

00:40:22.740 Yeah.

00:40:23.300 Bad things are coming.

00:40:25.020 In my 25 years in the military, though, that was kind of typical the entire time.

00:40:28.920 Anyway, it was, you know, you had the great ones that would leave, get out of the way.

00:40:33.340 And the not so great ones that never made tough decisions always kind of percolated to the top of their senior leadership positions.

00:40:42.100 Obviously, there's exceptions.

00:40:43.280 I mean, there's some phenomenal leaders out there, both senior NCOs and officers, but by and large.

00:40:49.340 But the argument you make about the bad ones percolating to the top, this is what I've been saying all this time.

00:40:55.100 The good police that have been internally advocating for all of us.

00:41:00.260 I don't want them to quit.

00:41:02.040 I want them to stay.

00:41:03.240 I want them to fight for promotions.

00:41:04.720 I want them to percolate to the top and make the real change to inside, you know, what's happening in the internal politics of policing.

00:41:13.680 And maybe if the good ones, I mean, in this country, it would have, in my estimation, would have taken two chiefs of police in this entire country to stand up and push back and fight against these mandates that the politicians were pushing.

00:41:27.740 Because they had the law on their side the entire time, they just refused to exercise it.

00:41:33.020 And they chose their careers in their own internal politics over their police.

00:41:38.660 And the police, the rank and file police know it.

00:41:41.820 They all know it.

00:41:43.380 And they don't respect the leadership of the police departments.

00:41:47.940 They just don't respect their leaders in the policing departments.

00:41:50.440 That's the feedback I'm constantly getting.

00:41:52.000 So if you want to change the culture, then you have to, you know, you're going to have to show your moral courage and your resilience.

00:42:00.940 And you're going to have to stay and be a police and affect the change from the inside and fight tooth and nail.

00:42:06.140 And we're seeing the unions have been completely inert in terms of supporting everybody in this country, not only the police.

00:42:13.240 But I think the police should start, you know, really pushing back and unifying and start climbing the ranks.

00:42:23.120 Let's bump ahead, because I could talk about the failures of policing and our public institutions all day.

00:42:34.040 But we're supposed to be talking about the testimony today.

00:42:37.560 Let's talk about the Ottawa City Manager, Steve Kenilakos.

00:42:41.020 Speaking of conscientious objectors, Freedom Convoy trucks were not towed by contract tow truck drivers who were contracted with the city for a bunch of different reasons.

00:42:53.740 So let's hear those reasons, because one of them is conscience.

00:42:57.540 You mentioned that some of the tow trucks companies refused to tow vehicles that were associated with the convoy or they were not willing to tow.

00:43:06.660 What's your understanding of why they were refusing to tow?

00:43:09.520 Well, there are several reasons.

00:43:10.520 The first was their own safety.

00:43:13.200 I think they felt that trying to tow a vehicle without the site being secured in amongst protesters, you could imagine, you know, it could be quite conflictual when you're trying to take someone's truck and people are still around the truck.

00:43:26.880 So they were concerned about that.

00:43:28.880 They were concerned about the damage potentially of their own vehicle should things get out of hand and it's a cost to their business.

00:43:35.240 Some were concerned that they do business with truckers and trucking companies and that this would damage them reputationally and they would lose business.

00:43:44.300 Some were sympathizers or supported the protests and didn't feel that they were going to offer their services to do it.

00:43:52.360 Those were generally the reasons.

00:43:54.380 You mentioned that some of the tow trucks companies refused to tow vehicles.

00:43:59.900 So is this hoodie I got on and you could have it on too if you check out our special website at rebelnewsstore.com.

00:44:07.360 That's where you can see Freedom Focus hoodies that we have for you, beanies, cell phone cases, you name it.

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00:44:25.200 The truth is, without you and your generosity, there is no Rebel News.

00:44:30.920 So again, if you like the reports that we bring you and that we also fight for freedoms in Canada, please consider doing some shopping, picking up some swag at rebelnewsstore.com.

00:44:42.200 We appreciate your support.

00:44:45.740 What do you hope the findings, the outcome of the Emergency Act Inquiry will be?

00:44:50.220 I think what a lot of people are concluding that it was absolutely unnecessary to invoke that.

00:44:55.020 I think it further stoked an already divided situation.

00:44:58.220 And we talk about the polarization in this country and people's frustration and confidence in the federal government.

00:45:03.480 I think I've seen limited clips of it so far, but I don't think they're building the case here.

00:45:08.580 There were other tools available that I think could have de-escalated the situation much better.

00:45:13.020 A lot of things the Prime Minister could have done in the first place.

00:45:15.380 But the fact we were here and the fact that he even thought that needed to be evoked was frustrating in itself.

00:45:20.460 What did you hope the outcome of the Emergency Act Inquiry will be?

00:45:23.200 What did you hope the findings will be?

00:45:24.940 Well, we have to get transparency for Canadians.

00:45:27.480 The government has been trying to obstruct the truth, obstruct this process.

00:45:34.600 And so that's, you know, that's really the bottom line.

00:45:38.020 We've heard from, you know, Ontario's police force that the use of the Act was not necessary for them to be able to do their job,

00:45:47.520 which is a criteria for it to have been invoked.

00:45:50.720 So that tells the tale right there that, you know, what we've been saying all along,

00:45:56.100 that the government did not, you know, properly invoke this act.

00:45:59.900 And so we're hoping for transparency.

00:46:02.120 You know, it's unfortunate, but very consistent with what this government's done in the past,

00:46:05.780 that it took the commissioner to have some cabinet conferences waived

00:46:10.720 instead of the government being transparent and providing that to the commission,

00:46:14.880 which is, you know, the basic thing that Canadians would expect

00:46:17.380 when we have a situation where Canadians' bank accounts were frozen

00:46:20.160 and, you know, and so many, you know, civil liberties and basic freedoms

00:46:25.680 that we expect as Canadians were violated by the government.

00:46:47.380 Our goal from the get-go was to get a sense of their willingness

00:47:03.540 to recognize through Mr. French that they were hurting local communities.

00:47:09.360 And if there was no agreement on that notion, then there was nothing to discuss.

00:47:13.600 We wanted to, you know, get to a point very, very quickly of understanding

00:47:20.360 of whether or not he could get the key organizers to recognize

00:47:24.060 that they never intended to hurt, you know, ordinary people in residential districts.

00:47:30.080 And that became apparent quite quickly in our first few discussions.

00:47:34.240 And so we, you know, we sought to establish some perimeters,

00:47:37.180 and they included, you know, a sense from them of their willingness

00:47:41.760 to remove a large number of trucks from the residential district.

00:47:47.340 And we set out a number, 75%, below which we felt we would not be providing any relief

00:47:54.320 to the residents who were under essentially, you know, what they viewed as siege

00:48:01.220 and what we concurred with as being a siege of their day-to-day life.

00:48:06.060 So it had to be a big number.

00:48:08.220 We wanted to see rapid progress on the removal of trucks

00:48:12.500 because we would find out very, very quickly if this was a stunt

00:48:17.420 or if it was a bluff to try to, you know, gain more time.

00:48:21.420 And we found out that it wasn't a stunt.

00:48:23.380 Well, isn't that interesting?

00:48:28.420 The, that's this chief of staff for Jim Watson, Serge Arpan,

00:48:33.900 saying that the truckers were not bluffing.

00:48:36.500 It wasn't a stunt.

00:48:37.720 They wanted to get those trucks out of the residential streets,

00:48:40.820 and the truckers agreed.

00:48:42.320 And it was actually the Ottawa police,

00:48:46.280 after the change in leadership from Peter Slowly to Steve Bell,

00:48:50.860 that stopped the truckers from moving out.

00:48:54.040 That and the lack of staff provided by the federal government.

00:48:58.080 So, look, that was happening on the 13th

00:49:01.640 in the lead-up to the invocation of the Emergencies Act.

00:49:04.260 So if one of the criteria is that this could not be dealt with any other way,

00:49:09.060 it was already being dealt with.

00:49:10.720 And Justin Trudeau just wanted to teach everybody

00:49:12.940 a big, ugly lesson about who's boss.

00:49:16.980 And I think, at the end of the day,

00:49:20.160 it's probably going to blow up in Justin Trudeau's face

00:49:22.960 after we hear all the testimony

00:49:25.160 at the Public Order Emergencies Commission.

00:49:29.440 Well, everybody, that's the show for tonight.

00:49:31.580 It was a very long day watching testimony.

00:49:33.920 It'll be a very long day tomorrow.

00:49:35.420 But I think Canadians are being informed by what's happening here.

00:49:38.840 It's all laid bare.

00:49:40.820 And sunlight is the best disinfectant.

00:49:42.520 And we'll be back again tomorrow at the same time,

00:49:46.400 4 o'clock Mountain, 6 p.m. Eastern,

00:49:49.700 wherein we will digest the day's events.

00:49:52.640 Thanks, everybody.

00:49:53.460 And as David Menzies always says, stay sane.

00:49:56.700 And you agree, and from your statement,

00:49:59.640 that it was the police that prevented the deal

00:50:03.900 from being executed in the end, correct?

00:50:06.260 My opinion is that it is a broader context of circumstances

00:50:12.360 and that the invocation of the Act created new, you know,

00:50:17.240 a new legal framework around Parliament Hill in that red zone

00:50:22.860 and that the authorities decided to take a step back

00:50:25.940 and see what was the impact of the invocation of the Act.

00:50:29.460 Right.

00:50:30.420 But it's fair to say that Mr. Wilson, in your dealings with him,

00:50:34.860 he never indicated to you that the protesters and truckers

00:50:38.160 ever intended to renege on the deal.

00:50:40.660 That is correct.

00:50:41.780 Thank you.

00:50:42.500 Those are my only questions.

00:50:43.660 And have a good evening, sir.

00:50:44.680 Thank you.

00:50:45.100 And you agree, and from your statement,

00:50:47.980 that it was the police that prevented the deal

00:50:52.240 from being executed in the end, correct?

00:50:54.600 My opinion is that it is a broader context of circumstances

00:51:00.720 and that the invocation of the Act created new, you know,

00:51:05.600 a new legal framework around Parliament Hill.

Rebel News Podcast - October 18, 2022

BREAKDOWN： Trucker Commission Day 3 ｜ Ft. Convoy Volunteer Tom Marazzo

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