Rebel News Podcast - SHEILA GUNN REID ｜ The crackdown on the convoy to Ottawa will solidify a new Western independence movement

00:00:00.000 Oh, hey, Rebels, it's me, your favorite Rebel, I'm guessing, Sheila Gunn-Reed, and you're

00:00:05.980 listening to a free audio-only recording of my weekly Wednesday night show, The Gun Show.

00:00:10.440 However, I say this every week, this is the internet, and the beauty of the internet is

00:00:15.840 that you can listen or, for that matter, watch the show whenever you feel like.

00:00:20.880 Now, tonight my guest is Tariq El Naga.

00:00:24.320 And he might be somebody you know from Rebel News.

00:00:30.060 He was a Maverick Party candidate during the last federal election, and he was part of

00:00:35.300 the second wave of convoyers to Ottawa.

00:00:39.360 And now he lives with the constant anxiety of his assets being seized because his actions,

00:00:47.360 his protest actions, were ostensibly criminalized retroactively.

00:00:55.100 In a temper tantrum by Justin Trudeau when he invoked the Emergencies Act.

00:00:59.920 So we're talking to Tariq tonight about why he went and what all of this means for Western

00:01:07.400 autonomy going forward.

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00:02:12.800 What's it like to have been on the convoy for freedom to Ottawa now that you're deemed

00:02:33.680 an enemy of the state by your own government?

00:02:35.540 I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed, and you're watching The Gunn Show.

00:02:56.040 Approximately 10 days ago, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergency Act, which

00:03:00.660 gives his government extraordinary powers of search, arrest, and seizure.

00:03:04.780 Bank accounts are being frozen, assets are being confiscated, and peaceful protesters

00:03:09.700 against COVID lockdowns are being arrested and hunted for being part of an illegal protest,

00:03:14.840 albeit completely peacefully.

00:03:16.540 Just listen.

00:03:17.500 If you are involved in this protest, we will actively look to identify you and follow up

00:03:22.340 with financial sanctions and criminal charges.

00:03:25.420 Absolutely.

00:03:26.520 This investigation will go on for months to come.

00:03:29.720 It has many, many different streams, both from a federal financial level, from a provincial

00:03:37.180 licensing level, from a criminal code level, from a municipal breach of court order, breach

00:03:43.940 of court injunction level.

00:03:45.440 It will be a complicated and time-consuming investigation that will go on for a period of time.

00:03:52.040 You have my commitment that that investigation will continue, and we will hold people accountable

00:03:58.160 for taking our streets over.

00:03:59.760 And for what?

00:04:00.780 Embarrassing Justin Trudeau internationally?

00:04:02.760 Vocalizing your displeasure with a government that is controlling your life in the most unreasonable

00:04:08.500 ways and has done so for two years?

00:04:10.600 For wanting to go back to your life of 2019 with two years of coronavirus data under our belts?

00:04:17.060 For refusing to live in fear a moment longer?

00:04:19.480 For refusing to participate in biomedical segregation?

00:04:22.920 The Emergency Act is reserved for the most catastrophic of situations, a Pearl Harbor or a 9-11.

00:04:28.580 Not a street party with bouncy castles and hockey scrimmages, which inconvenienced a bunch

00:04:34.160 of fancy people and locals?

00:04:36.780 And the people who organize the convoy?

00:04:38.720 Well, they're being treated like terrorists or women who ran off to join ISIS. 0.60

00:04:42.440 They're detained without bail because, I don't know, they might honk their horns when they

00:04:46.960 get out.

00:04:47.900 And what are these charges that we had to suspend civil liberties to issue?

00:04:52.640 Counseling someone to commit mischief.

00:04:55.300 The crime of telling someone to do annoying things in public.

00:04:58.540 That's it.

00:04:59.600 Now, good friend of the show, Tarek El Naga, felt so compelled by what he saw the truckers

00:05:04.480 doing that he knew he had to be a part of it too.

00:05:07.500 Peacefully and self-funded.

00:05:09.460 And now he lives with the constant anxiety that his opposition to the government has been

00:05:13.860 criminalized retroactively by Justin Trudeau's little temper tantrum.

00:05:18.040 Joining me tonight to talk about what he saw on the convoy is Tarek El Naga.

00:05:23.560 So joining me now from, I guess, this hotel in Sault Ste.

00:05:40.880 Marie is my friend, Tarek El Naga. 0.98

00:05:43.620 Tarek, before we get started, why don't you tell everybody a little bit about yourself?

00:05:48.760 Because I know a lot about you.

00:05:51.160 I'd like to know a little more.

00:05:52.160 That's one of the reasons I have you on the show tonight.

00:05:53.860 But you are a former Maverick Party candidate and an adopted Albertan.

00:06:00.020 We adopted you.

00:06:00.920 You adopted us.

00:06:01.860 And it's been a love affair ever since.

00:06:03.880 Absolutely.

00:06:04.620 The best family I've ever had.

00:06:06.740 So I was born, raised in Dubai and moved to Alberta just a shade under 10 years ago to

00:06:14.880 rodeo.

00:06:15.540 I'd become a Canadian citizen in 2016.

00:06:17.400 And it was very apparent, you know, the first five minutes of living in Alberta, how Alberta

00:06:22.660 was treated by the rest of Canada.

00:06:24.580 And I couldn't wait to do something about it.

00:06:27.260 So that's why I ran for the Maverick Party.

00:06:30.400 I still rodeo.

00:06:31.600 I still have a pile of horses, which you still have to come and visit with.

00:06:36.540 But yes, that's what I do.

00:06:37.880 And I live just about an hour north of Calgary.

00:06:41.820 Very, very Albertan story.

00:06:43.420 It's the story of so many people who come to Alberta and just come for opportunity and

00:06:49.160 come for the culture and then just fall in love with it and want to fight for it.

00:06:52.340 So I just really admire how that became so apparent to you so quickly.

00:06:58.920 Now, I want to talk to you a little bit about the convoy to Ottawa.

00:07:06.780 You were part of the second wave of convoyers.

00:07:10.120 But even before that, you helped organize all those horses to Coutts, Alberta.

00:07:17.100 Why?

00:07:17.760 Why did you do that?

00:07:18.640 Why did you feel like you needed to get involved?

00:07:20.620 So I wasn't lead by any means in terms of organization, but that helps.

00:07:25.180 And I followed in the footsteps of some amazing pioneers, like let's call it Western pioneers

00:07:29.480 that set this up.

00:07:30.820 But I had to get involved.

00:07:32.180 So I'll tell you really where it is.

00:07:33.820 So you and I and everybody else has been living this journey over the last two years.

00:07:39.160 And I told myself, what else can I do?

00:07:42.280 We've marched.

00:07:43.160 We've talked.

00:07:43.740 I ran in a federal election.

00:07:45.400 What else can I do?

00:07:46.300 Because I just couldn't sit on my hands.

00:07:48.120 And I remember being on the side of the QA2, seeing the first set of trucks called the

00:07:54.020 first wave of trucks go through.

00:07:55.800 And just you're immediately filled with Western pride and filled with a lot of national pricing.

00:08:00.420 Man, this is amazing.

00:08:01.620 And a tiny bit of FOMO, too, saying, I should be on that.

00:08:05.580 You know, so so I told myself, what can I do?

00:08:09.220 And then I found out about the, you know, a young lady that was actually organizing the

00:08:14.840 ride out to the Coots blockade.

00:08:16.780 And I said, OK, how can I help?

00:08:18.780 And I got on and said, I told him, started telling my friends, started telling a group

00:08:22.860 of riders.

00:08:23.320 I really think that this young lady probably thought 20, 30 of her friends are going to

00:08:27.680 show up with with some horses and they'll ride in, you know, by the blockade and call

00:08:34.100 it a day.

00:08:35.300 Sheila, at least 350, if not 400 riders showed up.

00:08:41.060 It was the most beautiful thing you will ever see.

00:08:43.940 And how quickly things fell into place, because two things.

00:08:48.200 One, as the first convoy rolled into Ottawa, Justin Trudeau conveniently had to isolate.

00:08:55.120 And and I said, no, what?

00:08:56.760 You're not going to sit this one out because he's set out every previous scandal and just,

00:09:02.680 you know, memories are short.

00:09:03.720 People forget.

00:09:04.540 And I said, I can't I can't let that happen.

00:09:06.580 So I'm going to go, whether it's five vehicles, 20 or 200, we're going to go and show the first

00:09:13.040 set of vehicles that were ready.

00:09:14.280 So we were due to leave the Sunday right after the ride.

00:09:17.740 I got to Lethbridge on Friday nights.

00:09:20.820 Just amazing how things fell into place.

00:09:23.140 There's a lady out in Lethbridge that opened up her ranch and said, your horses can stay 1.00

00:09:28.780 with me.

00:09:29.340 And I even asked her, I'm like, can I can I help, you know, with their board or so on?

00:09:34.080 She says, this is my contribution to the freedom movement.

00:09:37.220 It's been enough.

00:09:38.140 This is what I can do.

00:09:39.040 And just the way the community got together.

00:09:41.260 And I'll tell you, when we parked and we're saddling up, getting ready to ride, you couldn't

00:09:46.340 see the end of horse trailers either way.

00:09:48.700 You really couldn't.

00:09:49.700 And I had posted a video of it.

00:09:51.420 And you look left and right.

00:09:52.980 And it was just endless.

00:09:54.640 Three people came down from Grand Prairie, from BC, from Saskatchewan to ride.

00:10:00.480 And it was the most Western thing you'll ever see.

00:10:03.420 That memory will stay with me forever.

00:10:05.400 Absolutely forever.

00:10:06.540 So I helped to get as many people as I could out that way, especially within my area.

00:10:12.280 But again, full credit goes to the young lady that put this together.

00:10:16.140 Uh, and then, uh, and then I went home, put the horses back and packed the bag and Sunday

00:10:22.020 morning, uh, we were off and Mocha was there and, and, and, uh, Celine and we, we were off

00:10:27.980 making the 4,000 kilometer trek to Ottawa.

00:10:31.100 Now, what was that journey like?

00:10:32.900 I mean, you just dropped everything to head all the way to Ottawa again.

00:10:37.740 Was this just like FOMO, a feeling like you had to do something?

00:10:41.640 Was it two years of just, I gotta, I gotta do something.

00:10:45.860 Nobody's listening.

00:10:47.160 Like, why did you decide to go?

00:10:49.540 The collection of everything.

00:10:50.620 So you, you seen the way this, this, this built up and I told myself, if I sit and just

00:10:58.020 make social media posts, that's not enough.

00:11:00.700 Um, I I'm fortunate enough in a position where I could put my life on hold.

00:11:05.680 Um, and it's important enough to put my life on hold, um, and support the first wave of

00:11:11.840 truckers, especially those, the fact that it started from the West and then just kept

00:11:15.900 piling on from, from the rest of the country.

00:11:18.800 And, and, uh, was I missing out?

00:11:21.800 Absolutely.

00:11:22.240 That was just my personal take, but my longer return take was this is enough.

00:11:26.400 Like it's enough.

00:11:27.440 It's been two years with no end date to, uh, the mandates, to the restrictions, to the

00:11:34.100 walkdowns.

00:11:34.900 And here we are living in a country where citizens can't fly within their own country

00:11:40.240 or in or out depending on their medical skills.

00:11:43.700 So I told myself, no, I need to get a group together and go any heck, if it was just going

00:11:48.780 to be myself, I was going to go still.

00:11:50.860 Uh, now what was heartwarming to see as well was there were families that showed up, um,

00:11:56.500 on that convoy with kids.

00:11:58.200 And they said, we want our kids to know that they were there because this is the biggest

00:12:03.860 historical event in Canadian history, modern history.

00:12:08.120 I think if you look at the last 20 or 30 years, there's been no movement.

00:12:12.140 It's this big and, and this international ever in the last 30 years, perhaps in the past

00:12:18.840 there has been, but I think perhaps maybe in the Quebec referendum in the nineties was

00:12:24.080 the biggest national events that we had that was pretty significant.

00:12:27.200 Um, so, so yeah.

00:12:29.180 And, and the journey itself to answer your question, you know, I I've never driven across

00:12:34.920 the country.

00:12:35.360 I've never been to Ottawa.

00:12:36.840 I didn't know what to expect, but I felt the weight of the people I was with, the responsibility

00:12:42.040 and also the need to show the first group of truckers and the first group of protesters

00:12:46.960 that we're there for you.

00:12:48.620 You're not on your own.

00:12:49.380 Um, and despite that anxiety, we, we made it across the country with mostly no incidents,

00:12:55.800 just one or two mechanical issues here or there, but mostly no incidents.

00:12:59.440 Um, and then we were joined by trucks from other parts of the country, like Manitoba,

00:13:04.600 Saskatchewan, Lloyd, um, that just joined us that found out that we were going and we just

00:13:09.820 picked up friends along the way and made sure that we rolled into Ottawa all at the same

00:13:15.320 time, give or take.

00:13:16.240 Um, and then, you know, it's a completely different experience, what it was like rolling

00:13:20.920 into Ottawa.

00:13:21.720 I will never forget that as well, but that site of rolling into downtown Ottawa and realizing

00:13:27.740 the sheer size organization, real estate footprint, uh, of this protest.

00:13:34.260 And you just look and you're like, oh my God, um, this is huge and impressive and clean

00:13:42.100 and safe.

00:13:43.080 Uh, and the other reason why Sheila, I wanted to go, sorry, super long answer.

00:13:47.140 So no, it's great.

00:13:47.940 No, no, go.

00:13:49.680 Um, but the other reason I wanted to go as, as I just described kind of in my intro here,

00:13:55.200 uh, I wasn't born and raised in Canada and, and this is a movement around freedom.

00:14:01.200 And I've, I've lived on the periphery of every modern war, um, that you see Afghanistan, Iraq,

00:14:08.080 Iran, Israel, uh, Yemen, Somalia.

00:14:11.620 I've lived on the periphery of all of those.

00:14:14.440 And you see the slip of government overreach in Canada.

00:14:18.880 And I say, we can't get to that point.

00:14:21.620 Um, we really can't.

00:14:23.200 And the, and the other thing is here I am, I'm an immigrant.

00:14:26.120 I'm not, um, of white or Caucasian background.

00:14:29.480 And this is a movement for everybody.

00:14:32.180 And it was like the, the legacy media just jumped onto, oh, this is some white supremacist,

00:14:38.260 racist movement, blah, blah, blah.

00:14:39.800 And I, enough of that narrative when it doesn't fit your narrative, the first reaction they

00:14:44.520 have is always this racist.

00:14:45.740 Well, I not once for the time that I spent in Ottawa felt a shred of not being included

00:14:53.720 or not being safe, um, or not among my brothers.

00:14:56.720 And when, um, the truckers found out I was from Alberta, the high fives, the pictures we

00:15:01.680 took together, uh, I didn't make, make it a point to walk around with my Alberta flag.

00:15:05.740 So yeah, it was, I, I wanted publicly, very publicly to dispel that myth that this is not

00:15:14.360 an inclusive pro and you walk around and there were families and people with their dogs and

00:15:18.620 people from every age group and race and across the country, they're in one unified message.

00:15:24.560 And even from every political strike, Sheila, like there were people there that I'm sure

00:15:28.560 voted for everybody.

00:15:30.220 Um, but they all had the unified message of choice and freedom.

00:15:33.920 And it was, it was beautiful to see.

00:15:36.280 You know, I think that's the real, I don't know, the epiphany that I've had the last,

00:15:42.000 well, two years, but in particular, probably the last six months that none of this falls

00:15:48.900 down political lines anymore.

00:15:51.040 Like the old political lines, it is people who want to be left alone and the people who

00:15:57.340 won't leave you alone.

00:15:58.200 And that's what it's about these days.

00:16:00.900 And, um, it's funny to see the criticisms, you know, they tried the old stuff, like that's

00:16:06.040 racist, which is just how the elites tell the working class to shut up. 0.83

00:16:09.380 Um, and you know, then you hear, um, well, it's violent, but the only people being violent

00:16:15.760 in this instance are the police because the state has monopoly on the force on force.

00:16:21.000 Um, you know, you hear that it is, um, divisive, but the only people being, being divisive is

00:16:27.760 the government by saying, you know, this group of people can't do this.

00:16:31.020 And there's inside people and there's outside people, people who literally have to eat outside,

00:16:35.340 but we're being told that the movement for freedom is the divisive thing.

00:16:40.400 And I found when you were tweeting your images, which was through a very particular Western

00:16:47.360 lens that really appealed to me, um, you were, you really were with pictures, just dispelling

00:16:54.440 all the lies of the mainstream media one by one by one.

00:16:58.140 I thought it was incredible.

00:16:59.120 Thank you.

00:17:00.260 And, and you know what?

00:17:01.320 I told myself, I have to tell this story because I had 50 friends message me on my personal

00:17:07.580 accounts every day or text saying, what's it like?

00:17:10.680 Is it like, because they see what, what it's like on the mainstream media.

00:17:13.960 And I started reading the mainstream media every morning and then walking the streets of

00:17:18.200 Ottawa.

00:17:18.480 And it was like two different worlds.

00:17:19.620 It was like two completely different worlds.

00:17:22.660 And, and I'm, I'm no professional photographer.

00:17:25.340 I used my already outdated iPhone to, but I wanted to really show, um, what it was like

00:17:32.800 on the ground wife, um, and really show a perspective of the size of the organization,

00:17:38.000 the cleanliness.

00:17:38.540 I mean, uh, the, the, there wasn't a speck of dirt, a napkin, a coffee cup on the streets.

00:17:45.180 It was so incredibly clean.

00:17:48.040 Um, I, I, I found this out.

00:17:49.880 There were 200 shovels that were bought and distributed among the drivers.

00:17:54.480 And whenever there was snow, they took care of it before the city ever showed up.

00:17:58.820 Um, and there was garbage collection and there were supply stations and there were safety

00:18:03.360 meetings, but I made it a point to crash as many of those meetings as I could as many

00:18:07.760 of those, you know, because I really wanted to showcase through my camera phone, uh, what

00:18:16.700 it was like on the ground and, and try to show the, the other side of the story and the

00:18:21.700 real side of the story, which is why they were there.

00:18:24.880 I bet you, if you asked any of those truckers, none of them wanted to park their rigs for

00:18:28.980 three weeks in downtown auto.

00:18:30.860 Absolutely not.

00:18:31.620 I mean, it's not what they wanted, but you talk to them and you hear their stories about

00:18:35.500 them and their families, um, the hardships they've seen over the last two years, uh, and

00:18:40.320 their true love and care for their country.

00:18:42.420 Um, and if, if anything, and I know we'll, we'll get into this, but the protests, especially

00:18:49.500 on the weekends were packed with folks from across the river, essentially in Quebec coming

00:18:56.480 in because they've seen it pretty hard to, um, you know, they, they've seen the curfews

00:19:00.820 and, you know, they were a hair away from, from a vac stacks.

00:19:04.460 Um, and then they were there too, saying, you know what, um, this, this, this is a movement

00:19:10.980 that's important for, and I bet you that's the current government's voting base.

00:19:15.360 Um, like I, I, I would put money on it, but it, yeah, it became, it didn't be, it was not

00:19:20.260 a political movement.

00:19:21.740 Um, and I got asked, are you there?

00:19:24.300 Like, you know, as a candidate, I was there as a Canadian citizen and I was there as a

00:19:28.640 Westerner who cared about choice and cared about freedom and cared about stopping government

00:19:34.040 overreach.

00:19:34.760 And that's why I was there.

00:19:36.320 Yeah.

00:19:36.440 And it's funny because in your pictures, you really did capture what I think it, like

00:19:42.380 you confirmed my biases about leftist protests versus conservative protests, um, where, you

00:19:48.600 know, when useless people, um, have long scale, like long lasting protests, you get Chaz, you 0.53

00:19:56.420 get Chop, you get Occupy Wall Street, and then come the rapes and then come the drug abuse 0.97

00:20:01.940 and the filth and stuff like that. 0.92

00:20:03.340 So when useless people do it, it turns into some sort of a purge style anarchy, but when

00:20:09.200 useful people with actual skills go and protest, you get a community, a community forms without

00:20:16.040 the government telling you to be kind to one another.

00:20:18.760 Oh, it was, it was beautiful to see.

00:20:20.960 And I love the way you put in one of your tweets, the makers, right.

00:20:23.740 And, and, um, here were people that, you know, immediately formed a community around them.

00:20:30.980 And I even made it a point to go to, um, there were two or three locations that were out of

00:20:36.800 downtown because these were, um, uh, these were truckers that couldn't make it in time.

00:20:42.680 Um, so as downtown started locking and it's really funny, I mean, if you actually walk the,

00:20:48.200 the, the protest in downtown, it's almost like a geographic map of Canada because the Ontario and

00:20:53.840 Quebec truckers got first, um, there and then you see the Manitoba truckers parked next.

00:20:58.540 So it's literally Manitoba streets, Saskatchewan street, Alberta streets.

00:21:01.680 Um, and a lot of the BC trucks couldn't get in because by then they started kind of locking

00:21:06.220 it out.

00:21:06.520 So it literally was a geographic story of our lives.

00:21:10.900 Beautiful.

00:21:11.780 Exactly.

00:21:12.680 Exactly.

00:21:13.200 Ontario and Quebec got, got to the parliament hill first.

00:21:16.420 Again, exactly.

00:21:18.800 Election night all over again.

00:21:21.820 Um, but, but what was amazing was just, um, and, and quite frankly, there was heavy police

00:21:28.120 presence, but the truckers made, um, the police's job incredibly easy.

00:21:32.940 And if I may dare say boring, um, in the sense that they waved at them, they thanked them for

00:21:38.620 their service.

00:21:39.280 They gave them no excuse to spring into action.

00:21:43.760 They made sure that they kept things safe.

00:21:45.960 And I talked to quite a few truckers and they said, we have no beef with the Ottawa residents,

00:21:49.660 uh, or, or, you know, civic authorities.

00:21:52.880 Um, we're here, um, to talk to the federal government, which ironically in three weeks,

00:21:58.960 never talked back to them, uh, and, and never talked with them, um, and said, let's, let's

00:22:05.140 engage in some sort of a conversation.

00:22:06.660 They never did.

00:22:07.820 Um, and they continued with their rhetoric of being a fringe minority.

00:22:12.520 Um, I'll tell you the last Saturday night, I'd say there was probably a hundred, 150,000

00:22:19.520 people, um, on the streets at minus 20 with no facilities, um, hardly any restaurants open.

00:22:26.120 Funny part is I'm sure you've been seeing the reports of all the restaurants and stuff,

00:22:29.640 and I won't name them just because I, I, I think it'd be very unfair to those owners to

00:22:35.400 single them out, which is pretty unfortunate, but most of the restaurants open in downtown

00:22:39.960 Ottawa were owned by, uh, folks from ethnic minorities that came from really oppressive 1.00

00:22:45.260 governments.

00:22:45.760 Um, and they, they knew what it was like, and I remember talking to a few of them and

00:22:50.020 they're like, you know what, um, this is important.

00:22:53.120 We understand, we know what this feels like, and we see where the country's slipping into

00:22:58.260 in terms of government overreach.

00:23:00.420 Uh, so I had a lot of respect for them.

00:23:02.240 They'll always have my business, but I'll, I would just won't name them, but, but, uh,

00:23:05.920 but that's, that's the thing she was, you're absolutely right.

00:23:10.020 The makers made a community right away, looked out for each other.

00:23:14.500 If someone needed mechanical help, they got it.

00:23:17.000 If someone needed accommodations, they got it.

00:23:19.060 Showers, they got it.

00:23:20.180 Food, they got it.

00:23:21.540 Supplies, they got it.

00:23:22.980 Um, I don't know if, if there's a story that came across your desk of the freedom puppies.

00:23:27.200 So, um, there were puppies born on, uh, I know the exact intersection where they were

00:23:32.700 born in a Saskatchewan plated truck.

00:23:34.680 So these folks brought their dog and didn't expect to last out, like to stay that long

00:23:38.780 and had a litter of puppies, um, born in the cab of their truck.

00:23:43.580 And immediately someone delivered dog food and a crate, um, and supplies, uh, for, for

00:23:50.480 them, uh, and I think now that their, their name's diesel international convoy, like the

00:23:55.420 little puppies, but, but it's really cute.

00:23:57.700 Um, but, but at the same time, the community got together and there was never an incident

00:24:03.420 of violence.

00:24:04.480 There was never an incident of, um, of, of feeling unsafe.

00:24:08.400 And I toured sometimes at 2am and I never felt unsafe.

00:24:12.560 One, I think Ottawa was the safest city in North America because there's such a heavy

00:24:15.640 police presence and the truckers looked out for each other and looked out for the community.

00:24:19.740 Yeah.

00:24:20.620 Um, the homeless were fed.

00:24:21.940 Like, I think, you know, like the folks, um, of Ottawa, they were looked after there

00:24:26.520 was free food stations everywhere.

00:24:28.320 Sorry, long answer again, but no, it's, it's great.

00:24:31.240 Uh, you're the best kind of guest because even though this is my job, you're doing it.

00:24:35.380 So it's fine by me.

00:24:37.440 Um, I, I wanted to ask you though, because we were sort of talking off camera before we

00:24:42.400 started recording you now we're experiencing that same anxiety that thousands of Canadians

00:24:48.600 all across the country are experiencing where, because of the emergency measures act, um, and

00:24:54.180 the extraordinary and draconian, uh, measures that the liberals have put into that as part

00:25:02.880 of the regulations they've added to it.

00:25:05.380 Um, you are concerned that your bank account could be frozen at any minute.

00:25:09.720 What's it like living as an enemy of the state for your political opinions?

00:25:13.960 But my bank account getting frozen, I'm waiting for the knock at my door, whether home or hotel

00:25:20.300 room, um, saying, here's, here's, and, and yeah, I check every couple of hours, you know,

00:25:27.200 am I, am I frozen?

00:25:28.200 Am I not?

00:25:28.740 Um, and, and I look at, and I say, I drove to Ottawa in my own vehicle legally, uh, and I

00:25:39.120 had every right to be on a public sidewalk, um, in the nation's capital that the way I look

00:25:44.840 at it, we all collectively pay for, um, we all collectively pay for the nation's capital

00:25:50.800 services, um, and every Canadian citizen has a right to be there.

00:25:55.040 Not once did anybody, um, uh, you know, get into an area that they shouldn't have been in

00:26:01.960 or cause any damage or cause any vandalism or any of that sort of stuff.

00:26:06.700 So we all legally should have been.

00:26:08.500 Um, and for this level of government's overreach, what I think this is, is one, it's government

00:26:15.620 overreach.

00:26:16.280 It's draconian.

00:26:17.440 It's next level dystopian.

00:26:20.280 Yeah.

00:26:20.460 And it's also a really disappointing scare tactic by the current government to say, you

00:26:26.420 know, those have done it.

00:26:27.780 They've done it.

00:26:28.580 There's what 92,000 people that donated on that hack list.

00:26:32.380 I think.

00:26:33.000 Yep.

00:26:33.940 Um, those that have, and, and, and we were seeing now legacy media publicly.

00:26:38.500 It publicly dox people, um, for, for donating.

00:26:41.940 It is absolutely.

00:26:43.120 And it's, and it's now state sponsored doxing.

00:26:46.280 It's unbelievable.

00:26:47.600 Um, I can't believe that I live in the free West and then G seven nation, or I have to 1.00

00:26:55.480 check my bank account to see if it's frozen or not.

00:26:58.480 I really can't.

00:26:59.700 Um, as a citizen of Canada, I, I absolutely cannot believe it, but I think it's also a

00:27:06.080 scare tactic of future movements, uh, uh, to say, uh, don't or else we will.

00:27:13.460 Um, and I think the overreach that we've seen it, and, and I'm sure down the line many years

00:27:18.700 from now between constitutional lawyers and the courts and so on, there will be a lot of

00:27:22.800 case studies that are written about this.

00:27:24.260 But in today's world, what that does is it tells anybody that's thinking of peacefully engaging

00:27:30.260 in the democratic process in a way that it truly expresses their voice.

00:27:34.560 It crushes that voice.

00:27:36.260 And that's a pretty dangerous, dangerous, uh, move to make.

00:27:40.260 Um, so it's, it's disappointing.

00:27:43.940 It's, it's worrying.

00:27:45.880 I was there.

00:27:46.940 You've seen my Twitter feed.

00:27:48.260 I, I, I'm, I'm not going to hide it.

00:27:50.300 I was there, um, and, and I was really proud of being there.

00:27:57.200 I think, you know, like it is truly a historic moment.

00:28:00.860 I'll look at the upside, uh, is if it wasn't for this movement, both at a provincial level

00:28:07.260 and a federal level, but more so at a provincial level, I don't think the six jurisdictions

00:28:12.100 in Canada that have now moved, including Alberta, Manitoba, and Sask, like I think of

00:28:16.820 the prairies, I don't think they would have moved without this, without this moment.

00:28:20.920 I don't think they would have started opening up restrictions.

00:28:24.040 Was it what the truckers wanted?

00:28:26.480 Cause all the truckers wanted was 2019 life.

00:28:29.280 Yeah.

00:28:29.720 And, and nobody, nobody in that was against the needle per se.

00:28:35.660 They said, that's a conversation between you and your doctor.

00:28:39.000 I'm not going to talk about the science of it or, or so on.

00:28:41.760 That is a private conversation between you and your doctor.

00:28:45.080 Uh, but it shouldn't be a conversation between you and your server at the restaurant, your

00:28:48.620 airline, your employer, um, and watching your kids play hockey or any of that sort of stuff.

00:28:54.400 And that's what they were talking about.

00:28:56.640 Um, so, uh, again, I look at it and I say, it's scary.

00:29:01.540 Um, it's unfortunate.

00:29:03.860 Will I think for us in the West, will I think it will stop us?

00:29:07.960 I don't think so.

00:29:09.580 Um, the, the West is fierce and the West was built on guts.

00:29:13.860 Um, and, and I, I, if anything, the, the day Doug Ford declared his state of emergency,

00:29:21.180 um, I think that was the most packed night.

00:29:25.520 Um, so the provincial state of emergency, um, that was the most packed night in all.

00:29:31.200 Uh, it was, I think every time they did it, people just kept showing up.

00:29:35.060 Sorry, I've been talking so much.

00:29:36.760 So you cut me off.

00:29:37.700 No, no, I think it's great.

00:29:39.380 I just, I, it's hard to believe that in a free Western society that people are not only,

00:29:46.820 uh, punished for donating to a political cause, but today it's Monday as we're recording this

00:29:53.060 because you're traveling tomorrow and I have to prerecord.

00:29:55.240 Um, and today the Ottawa police said they will retroactively hunt people down.

00:30:01.740 And there's a whole other layer of crazy and all of this, the RCMP issued a statement and

00:30:07.960 they said they did not provide the list of donors to the banks, which means the government

00:30:15.480 must have, which means the government was relying on hacked data and took that hacked data, illegally

00:30:23.440 obtained data and gave it to the bank.

00:30:27.320 No due process for anybody.

00:30:29.540 Right.

00:30:29.980 And started suspending people's bank accounts.

00:30:32.380 Grandmothers can't send their grandkids 20 bucks anymore for their birthday because 1.00

00:30:37.940 Chrystia Freeland took a hacked list and the bank said, sure.

00:30:41.140 Yep.

00:30:41.380 No problem.

00:30:42.740 This is not how it's supposed to happen in a free Western society.

00:30:46.420 This is the kind of stuff that happens in Russia, Venezuela.

00:30:49.260 This is Hugo Chavez stuff.

00:30:50.580 The destruction of trust in the institutions of a free and modern society, like law enforcement,

00:31:00.380 like, um, the banking system and the financial system and truly privacy and government acts.

00:31:06.600 But is it like, I questioned sadly, Sheila, is it a surprise when the first sliver of this

00:31:13.720 was a complete destruction of your medical privacy?

00:31:16.220 Yeah.

00:31:16.900 Uh, where your medical privacy became normalized to know at your last Christmas party, um,

00:31:23.240 whether your family members or their spouses or so on.

00:31:26.780 And so if, if we went down that slope, where does it stop?

00:31:30.280 Yeah.

00:31:30.900 You know, so it's sad.

00:31:34.000 It's really sad.

00:31:35.280 That's a great point.

00:31:35.980 Now, I don't want to keep you too long because it's nine o'clock where you are and, um, you've

00:31:41.200 been probably traveling all day.

00:31:42.820 You have been traveling all day.

00:31:44.160 So I want to ask you, uh, one last question and it is a question I think you're an expert

00:31:49.860 on.

00:31:50.800 What does Justin Trudeau invoking the emergencies act mean for Western sovereignty or Western

00:31:59.780 separation sentiments?

00:32:01.880 What does it mean?

00:32:02.540 Is it going to drive the country further apart?

00:32:04.640 I think so, but I'll let you, uh, I want to know your opinion.

00:32:08.540 Thank you for that question, Sheila.

00:32:09.800 And, and I think rather than drive the country apart, it's going to bring the West together.

00:32:14.660 Um, and, and I look at this as the unifying movement, uh, for the West, regardless of your

00:32:21.400 political strike, um, because the West is fiercely independent and we love our freedom and we love

00:32:26.860 our independence.

00:32:27.460 And I think what, what we've done or what we've seen with Western independence movements is

00:32:33.840 they flare up right after Justin Trudeau gets elected again, and then they go quiet.

00:32:38.440 I think this is the first time that at least that I could remember that in a non-election event,

00:32:46.220 Western independence has now flared up and people realize that, and one of the most difficult things

00:32:53.320 of telling a Westerner is that your vote doesn't determine government.

00:32:56.840 Your vote doesn't count.

00:32:58.860 Um, sadly.

00:33:00.540 And, and, and that's how you, sorry to interrupt, but that's how you get blockades.

00:33:04.680 That's how you get blockades because you feel helpless.

00:33:07.220 There's nothing else that you can do.

00:33:09.120 Albertans blockaded the federal government, but also their own premier who they felt wasn't

00:33:14.520 doing enough to advocate on behalf of them.

00:33:16.920 So that's how you get blockades is when you are completely voiceless and you don't know

00:33:21.660 what else to do.

00:33:22.840 Absolutely.

00:33:23.320 And us in the West, you know, a true kind of cowboy, if you will, um, traits is patients

00:33:30.420 and our fuse is pretty long, but it's run out.

00:33:33.360 Uh, and when that fuse runs out, it's, it's done.

00:33:36.900 And it's, it's, and the folks on the prairie look out for each other.

00:33:40.760 I remember the first three or four months of restrictions, everybody looked out for each

00:33:45.460 other and they felt like they were doing the right thing.

00:33:48.260 But as data showed up a year in, they still stuck with it.

00:33:52.080 24 months in, they're going to start asking questions of when does this ever end?

00:33:56.540 Um, so I think the Western independence movement is going to explode for likely the first time

00:34:04.800 in a non-election cycle or non-election events.

00:34:09.040 And I think the West is going to take a pretty critical look at itself and the prairie specifically,

00:34:14.320 potentially interior and Northern BC as well, and say, do we really want to be attached to

00:34:18.860 a 22 acre plot in Ottawa?

00:34:22.500 This was the first time it became apparent to me, a 22 acre plot in Ottawa makes those

00:34:27.500 decisions for us.

00:34:29.120 And we have no say, um, in how those decisions are made.

00:34:33.260 Uh, so I, I think there's an opportunity and I think rather than divide the country, I think

00:34:39.040 it's going to bring the West together.

00:34:40.180 I think it's going to unify the West's voice.

00:34:42.120 Um, I, you know, me, Sheila, I'm, I'm the eternal optimist and I want to be positive about

00:34:46.660 this.

00:34:47.060 So I really think that there's an opportunity where, um, Western independence really starts

00:34:52.100 to grow here over the next little while.

00:34:54.880 Yeah.

00:34:55.440 I think if anything, people are going to realize that conceding our decision-making powers to

00:35:01.560 someone, someone, and some people who are just so far away from us.

00:35:08.200 Maybe that became apparent to you as you made that enormous drive across the country where

00:35:12.860 you're like, how the heck are these people in charge of us?

00:35:15.980 We're so different and so far away.

00:35:18.360 And I mean, just, it's just the way the works, Sheila is the GTA determines, um, who forms

00:35:24.580 government typically.

00:35:25.720 It's one city, not even one problem.

00:35:28.280 Uh, one city typically will, I mean, the GTA has more seats than Alberta and Saskatchewan

00:35:32.480 put together, uh, and it's done by the time Manitoba starts to vote, not, not Alberta.

00:35:39.880 Um, so let's, let's take charge of our own affairs.

00:35:42.660 And I'm, you know, me, I mean, I'm publicly a big supporter of the Western independence

00:35:47.440 movement.

00:35:48.660 Um, and at the very bare minimum, Western autonomy is let us make our own decisions.

00:35:55.160 Um, because I know that some people feel strongly about being citizens of Canada.

00:35:58.280 And I think the movement, the freedom movements unified and brought a lot of national pride

00:36:02.660 I've never seen on a Canada day.

00:36:05.000 Um, so, so, so I think, but at least have autonomy on our own decisions is the bare minimum.

00:36:12.680 Jarek, I would love to have you back on the show again, very, very soon.

00:36:17.920 Um, here's to you maintaining access to your own bank account and the earning of your own

00:36:25.540 business.

00:36:26.100 It's, uh, it's outrageous that I even have to wish you the best of luck accessing your

00:36:31.620 own money.

00:36:32.760 So we'll see, but it's all good.

00:36:34.900 No, thank you, Sheila.

00:36:35.840 Thank you.

00:36:36.260 I appreciate it.

00:36:37.020 Yeah.

00:36:37.200 Thanks for taking the time.

00:36:38.180 We'll talk to you very, very soon.

00:36:39.680 You betcha.

00:36:40.320 Thanks, Sheila.

00:36:40.920 Bye.

00:36:41.160 Imagine living with the constant threat and fear that something that when you did it,

00:36:56.640 it was perfectly legal could now be the reason you're held in jail indefinitely.

00:37:01.380 Well, you've just imagined Justin Trudeau's Canada for at least the next 30 days of the

00:37:06.600 emergency act, we should really be on some sort of human rights watch list somewhere.

00:37:12.600 Well, everybody, that's the show for tonight.

00:37:14.480 Thank you so much for tuning in.

00:37:16.040 I'll see everybody back here in the same time in the same place next week.

00:37:19.740 And remember, don't let the government tell you that you've had too much to think.

00:37:24.120 We'll see you next week.

Rebel News Podcast - February 24, 2022

SHEILA GUNN REID ｜ The crackdown on the convoy to Ottawa will solidify a new Western independence movement

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