Stand on Guard with David Krayden - October 18, 2025


Is the CFIA Off the Rails？ Former Ag Minister Gerry Ritz Speaks Out ｜ Stand on Guard


Episode Stats

Length

43 minutes

Words per Minute

168.1736

Word Count

7,347

Sentence Count

499

Misogynist Sentences

9

Hate Speech Sentences

6


Summary

Jerry Ritz served as Canada's Agriculture Minister from 2007 to 2015. He served as Minister of Agriculture for eight years under Prime Minister Stephen Harper. In this episode, Jerry talks about the current Ag Minister crisis with the Universal Ostrich Farms in Edgewood, BC.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 We are in a very precarious position in this country.
00:00:03.840 We need a political change, but we also need to resolve to resist.
00:00:30.000 We must win this war.
00:00:32.240 But freedom is something you earn every day.
00:00:35.160 I don't know that the government currently has fiscal anchors.
00:00:40.400 Your home is your castle.
00:00:43.440 We're calling on the government to introduce and immediately pass the Stand On Guard Law.
00:00:50.880 We also need to resolve to resist.
00:01:20.880 Sorry, we were having some mic problems there.
00:01:33.500 We'll be back in a minute to introduce the Honorable Jerry Ritz, former Minister of Agriculture.
00:01:39.060 And I think, you know, Jerry had his issues during the time he was Ag Minister for eight years under Prime Minister Stephen Harper.
00:01:47.820 And I think a lot of people think it couldn't get any better than in terms of what Jerry did.
00:01:54.480 But we'll be back in a minute to examine exactly how Jerry feels about the current Ag Health Minister crisis with the Ostrich Farm, Universal Ostrich Farms, actually plural, in Edgewood, B.C.
00:02:10.680 So thanks for watching.
00:02:12.480 We'll be right back.
00:02:17.820 Your home is your castle.
00:02:22.820 We're calling on the government to introduce and immediately pass the Stand On Guard Law.
00:02:31.820 But we also need to resolve to resist.
00:02:40.820 We'll do it live.
00:02:41.820 Okay.
00:02:42.820 No.
00:02:43.820 We'll do it live!
00:02:44.820 I'll write it and we'll do it live!
00:02:47.820 Yes, we're going to do it live.
00:02:52.820 And it's my pleasure to introduce the Honorable Jerry Ritz, who served as Canada's Agriculture Minister from 2007 to 2015.
00:03:04.820 And it's funny, Jerry, I was thinking, but before we get into the guts of the program here, I was thinking, you served for eight years under Stephen Harper.
00:03:12.820 And, of course, your predecessor in the Gretchen years was basically there for the whole term of John Gretchen's administration.
00:03:21.820 And I used to say at the time, because you remember, I worked for Art Hanger for a couple of those years, the Gretchen years, and we used to always go to the ag meetings.
00:03:33.820 And I'd say, hasn't this guy always been the ag minister?
00:03:38.820 It's like, he's always been there.
00:03:40.820 But I don't think it's because John Gretchen necessarily placed much faith in him, but because he just thought, well, we'll put somebody in agriculture and we'll see what happens.
00:03:52.820 And when you became ag minister in 2007, I think a lot of people thought, finally, we've got an ag minister who understands not only agriculture, but Western Canada, because you were from Saskatchewan, you represented Battleford.
00:04:09.620 And, of course, we, you know, we go back a long way because I was working on the Hill from 1999 onwards.
00:04:18.920 I can't remember when I left, but I was reminded the other day that you were an ostrich farmer at one time in your life.
00:04:28.820 And, and I think you're the perfect person to talk to, not just in terms of what's going on in Edgewood, BC right now with the universal ostrich farms and how you think the current carny government is dealing with that.
00:04:44.040 But, but you've had personal experience dealing with raising and caring for ostriches.
00:04:50.320 So before we get into the guts of it all, but what do you think of what's going on in Edgewood, BC right now with universal ostrich farms?
00:05:00.460 Well, I think it's become a debacle.
00:05:02.000 The world is watching and there's no accountability for anything that's being done out there.
00:05:07.400 There's a stay before the Supreme Court, but while that stay is in place, CFIA has moved ahead with, with, with impunity to do whatever they think they're going to need to do in the end.
00:05:18.840 And I think that's just morally and ethically wrong.
00:05:22.940 They can only operate with the sanction of the minister of the day.
00:05:26.760 That's Heath MacDonald.
00:05:27.760 Now their mandate, their budget are all signed off by him on a case by case basis.
00:05:33.620 And in this case, they've gone way beyond any kind of budget capacity.
00:05:37.000 They're outspending anything I've ever seen them try to do.
00:05:40.760 They do move at a snail's pace generally.
00:05:43.000 And that led to my comment about death by a thousand cuts when we were trying to round up the cold cuts that were tainted way back when.
00:05:51.260 And, you know, chasing them, they didn't move any faster, but they did start to take it seriously that we needed to get on top of these issues.
00:05:58.860 This one, they've gone sideways again, and no one is, is calling them to task.
00:06:04.480 There's a number of people on social media, no one in the, in the mainstream other than, you know, this hour is 22 minutes did a skit the other day, which I found was completely tasteless and offside.
00:06:15.940 Well, that's what they do.
00:06:17.580 But at the end of the day, you know, they're a science-based organization, and I don't see any science here.
00:06:23.640 They have an opportunity to test the birds, and they refuse to do that.
00:06:27.860 It's a $100,000 bill, which has been covered by guys like Brett Wilson saying he'll pay it, just get it done.
00:06:34.480 And I don't understand why they would not take the opportunity to further the science behind if this is avian flu, and I doubt it very much because ostrich are not a poultry species by any stretch.
00:06:47.400 They're a separate entity completely.
00:06:49.020 So this is an opportunity that they're completely blowing by simply focusing on destruction of this herd.
00:06:58.400 Wow.
00:06:59.300 I didn't quite expect that amount of truth in your first day, but not that you're not always truthful, but you didn't even hesitate to point out the mendacity of the CFIA here.
00:07:15.620 And do you think the Canadian Food Inspection Agency is off the rails, I mean, entirely?
00:07:22.000 Are they a rogue government agency, or are they just following orders from the Kearney government here?
00:07:27.900 Well, I think a little bit of both.
00:07:29.200 Human nature tends to let you run wild if no one's looking over your shoulder.
00:07:33.700 You know, my mother and father disciplined me along those lines for years to turn me into the person I am today.
00:07:39.720 But in this case, I don't see anybody looking over their shoulder.
00:07:42.400 If Heath MacDonald had any kind of comprehension about what's happening out here, he'd be asking for briefings.
00:07:48.900 I know John Barlow and I have discussed these issues.
00:07:51.960 Scott Anderson has done a great job on the ground out there.
00:07:54.820 And they're constantly asking for briefings as to why, what, how, who, what, you know, where are we going?
00:08:01.820 And cannot get any kind of answers.
00:08:04.500 You know, they tried for some committee hearings and are rebuffed by that.
00:08:07.800 So there's bigger things at stake here than, than just the renegades in the CFIA.
00:08:13.300 I also look at the RCMP being involved as part of this.
00:08:17.560 And we're not into a cover up yet, but they're certainly trying to do that with the bail wall around.
00:08:22.500 They've even pushed the neighbors back off of their property so that they couldn't put up these, you know, genies, we call them in the construction trade.
00:08:30.300 But, you know, to get up on these platforms and look in to see, they're, they're saying that there's already a couple of hundred ostriches that seem to have gone missing.
00:08:38.160 Where are they?
00:08:39.180 You know, it's, ostriches are a very, a type of animal that is, you know, reacts to every situation.
00:08:47.120 And they're a fight or a flight bird and predominantly they fly, not, they don't fly, literally fly, but the flight is, is their first recourse.
00:08:55.940 And, you know, that first hand that ran into a wall broke her leg.
00:08:59.780 And I could tell that right away, the way she was on the ground with her neck stretched out, she'd given up.
00:09:04.180 And I know the owners tried to get the vets, the CFIA people.
00:09:08.140 I don't think these guys are vets.
00:09:09.420 I think they're just clowns that are doing the job.
00:09:11.420 But they gave him the, the intubation tube and so on.
00:09:15.840 And to do that in an ostrich is, is very precise.
00:09:19.220 The two tubes, the esophagus, if you will, and the, and the breathing tube are side by side, just below in their throat.
00:09:25.440 You've got to get that tube in the right one off the hop because that bird's jumping and moving.
00:09:29.740 And these birds can weigh, you know, we had, we had roosters that were north of 400 pounds.
00:09:35.200 You're not going to hold them down.
00:09:36.500 So you've got to get the tube in the right spot or you drown the bird.
00:09:39.040 And apparently they did nothing and that bird did pass away on her own.
00:09:43.660 And that's just tragic to see that type of thing happening.
00:09:46.440 I cannot for the life of me understand why SPCA aren't screaming, you know, a lot more pushback than we're seeing.
00:09:53.940 Certainly they're continuing to move ahead full steam, even while the Supreme Court decides whether, they have decided to hear it, I understand.
00:10:01.500 But at the end of the day, there'll be nothing left to hear by the time they get there.
00:10:04.760 Well, that's exactly my concern, Jerry.
00:10:09.660 And Katie Pasitne, the spokeswoman for the farm, who I've been liaising with now for five months on this story,
00:10:17.380 she went down to the RCMP headquarters yesterday, I think in Kelowna, to talk about this and say,
00:10:22.840 you know, we want to bring a charge against the RCMP for not, we want to bring a charge against the CFIA for willful neglect, for animal cruelty.
00:10:34.440 They have documented this.
00:10:36.280 And I, you know, I just want to show you to know what these bids are doing.
00:10:39.120 Why are there so many?
00:10:40.820 They come in and out repeatedly.
00:10:42.440 Why are six bids coming every single day?
00:10:47.160 That's the question.
00:10:48.620 Yeah, yeah, exactly.
00:10:49.560 Why are the numbers dropping every single day?
00:10:52.720 Coincidence?
00:10:53.680 Yeah, and I'm hoping it's something we don't think it is, but there seems to be a drastic short count of birds.
00:11:01.380 And, you know, here's another example of what's going on here, is that there is fewer, and these are people,
00:11:15.900 and I'm in contact with them every day, who are going to the mountain behind the farm and getting a zoom lens
00:11:24.080 and trying to get a count of what's going on.
00:11:27.520 And everybody is telling them, it's a hundred fewer birds there than were there in the beginning.
00:11:37.580 And, you know, what is frightening to me, Jerry, is that this is a government agency.
00:11:44.800 It's almost like the ATF was under Bill Clinton in the United States.
00:11:49.900 They just think they can act with impunity.
00:11:52.500 You use that word.
00:11:54.080 They think they can act with impunity.
00:11:56.400 They're not going to be charged.
00:11:58.420 They're telling the RCMP what to do.
00:12:01.260 I mean, Katie has told me several times that they tried to work with the RCMP to get an account on the birds.
00:12:07.780 CFI has said, forget it.
00:12:09.160 We're not going to give you that.
00:12:10.740 CFI keeps saying, we're not going to test the birds.
00:12:14.180 And if you, the farmer, test the birds, we're going to put you in jail for six months and find you up to $200,000.
00:12:22.740 I mean, how ridiculous is that?
00:12:24.720 And clearly, somebody in this liberal government doesn't want the truth known about these birds having herd immunity and this having something to do with big farming.
00:12:36.380 What do you think about that?
00:12:37.640 Well, I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but I mean, when the chips start to fall on one side of the table, you really have to be conscious of where they're piling up.
00:12:45.800 In this case, there's a lot of unanswered questions.
00:12:48.860 I just don't understand how this has gotten as far as it has without some of those things being addressed.
00:12:54.140 Why are they refusing to test these birds?
00:12:57.020 I can't for the life of me understand where $100,000 cost at that time was 400 birds.
00:13:02.440 Now there's less.
00:13:03.660 Why that would be an impediment when there's probably spending that per day with everything they're doing.
00:13:08.600 Would that not be the get out of jail free card for the CFI and the RCMP to back away and say, hey, we've tested them now.
00:13:14.100 Everything's fine.
00:13:14.840 We're good.
00:13:15.720 We have no trade internationally with ostrich.
00:13:19.020 That was the first line of defense saying, oh, it's going to affect our poultry trade.
00:13:22.580 No, these aren't poultry.
00:13:23.920 And we don't export, as far as I understand, we don't export any live ostrich anymore.
00:13:29.920 So it's going out as hides and meat and eggs possibly and so on.
00:13:34.040 But there's no crossover with any of that product.
00:13:36.840 And they've admitted that.
00:13:38.040 So why they won't test baffles the crap out of me.
00:13:41.600 And that's where as minister, Heath McDonald should step in and say, just get it done.
00:13:46.180 It takes, you know, a few minutes per bird.
00:13:48.600 They've already got the system to line them up and run them through.
00:13:51.920 So why aren't they doing that?
00:13:53.640 I just can't.
00:13:54.720 I can't believe that they're passing up this opportunity to build the science unless there's
00:14:00.560 someone calling the shots behind them that doesn't want the science revealed.
00:14:04.280 Well, you know, I would have to say the same thing because, I mean, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,
00:14:09.780 the Health and Human Services Secretary under the Trump administration, has said, why aren't
00:14:17.160 you testing these birds?
00:14:18.300 This could be a boon to humanity to find out what's going on here.
00:14:24.420 But clearly, they're dead set against that.
00:14:27.540 They want to kill these birds.
00:14:29.380 And you mentioned the finances.
00:14:31.500 And we shared these slides with you the other day.
00:14:33.740 And this is becoming, I believe, you remember a lot of boondoggles from the Khrushchev years
00:14:42.020 where they spent billions, millions of dollars advancing absolutely nothing.
00:14:48.600 So we're looking at this.
00:14:50.420 And I looked at these files.
00:14:53.360 I put an access and information request in to find out exactly how much money this is
00:14:58.980 consuming from the Canadian taxpayer to keep the RCMP on site.
00:15:03.980 They started with 120 RCMP officers.
00:15:07.260 For what?
00:15:08.700 To guard the ostriches or to terrorize the family?
00:15:13.420 120 cops would terrorize me.
00:15:15.780 I'll tell you that.
00:15:17.080 But then they kept, there's at least 40 officers on the scene every day, plus an unknown number
00:15:24.540 of CFIA agents, I call them goons, who are there every day chasing the ostriches.
00:15:31.100 Now they're trying to lead them into the slaughter pen because they're anticipating they're going
00:15:37.580 to get the go-ahead every day, even as they continue, I believe, and I'm not putting words
00:15:43.300 in your mouth, but I believe they're continuing to kill these ostriches every day through neglect
00:15:49.200 and through cruelty and through whatever means they can find.
00:15:53.300 And, but here's the kicker, you know, for me is that what does this add up to?
00:15:59.860 At least at this point today, after day 26 of a federal government occupying a private
00:16:09.840 farm, 1.83 million to 1.614 million to date, because they're paying these people to stay
00:16:21.500 there and terrorize the farm.
00:16:23.920 And I believe in the absence of a Supreme Court, and I have to show you, I have to show people
00:16:29.720 this again.
00:16:30.660 Supreme Court said, this is over two weeks ago now, stay the execution, stop any plans
00:16:40.180 to do this.
00:16:40.700 The ostriches are in your custody, which to me, custody means like, you know, if you're
00:16:47.620 given custody of your children, it means you'd look after them.
00:16:51.000 You care and feed them.
00:16:53.060 See if I is not caring and feeding for these children, for these ostriches.
00:16:57.620 They're doing nothing except maltreating them.
00:17:00.500 And I just find this absolutely outrageous.
00:17:04.100 Well, custody also imbibes the situation where you're liable if they're not healthy and happy
00:17:10.620 and so on.
00:17:11.400 So they're not.
00:17:12.880 These birds are under stress.
00:17:14.180 You can tell that just by watching them, having raised them and so on.
00:17:18.540 What I find more than passing strange is how they push the neighbors back as well to try
00:17:22.880 and get those sight lines completely covered off.
00:17:25.260 They've got a no-fly zone, so no drones can go up and check on it.
00:17:29.220 And that goes way beyond securing any sight that I've ever seen other than a war zone to
00:17:36.560 this.
00:17:36.980 The other thing that I can't understand is when CFIA do come in and take charge of, and
00:17:42.020 we did this with BSE and CWD, you have to put a value on the animals that you're going
00:17:48.140 to be working with or putting down, possibly putting down.
00:17:50.660 And we did.
00:17:51.100 And it was an agreement between the farmer themselves and the CFIA and, of course, the
00:17:56.300 minister, because I had to sign off on spending that money.
00:18:00.100 There has to be a value put on these birds.
00:18:02.720 And I've never seen anything along that line.
00:18:05.480 And that needs to have been done before any of this started.
00:18:09.180 If they were thinking of putting these birds down, there has to be a value set on them that
00:18:13.300 is agreed to by the farmer.
00:18:16.260 And that's fundamental in these types of things.
00:18:19.280 So there's an agreement that in the best interest of, you do get paid, you can start
00:18:23.340 over again.
00:18:23.820 But you don't just start over an ostrich herd.
00:18:26.220 It's like any cattle herd or whatever.
00:18:28.660 The genetics are built up over multiple years.
00:18:31.780 And they've done that with this farm.
00:18:33.800 We had maybe 100 ostrich.
00:18:35.560 These guys are talking 400.
00:18:37.420 I haven't seen any young running around.
00:18:39.480 I know they did have some deaths on the farm way back.
00:18:43.000 There were two birds that CFIA tested, as I understand it, back in January.
00:18:47.340 But they were days dead when they finally tested them.
00:18:50.600 And of course, those tests are notoriously false positives and so on.
00:18:54.420 So I'm not sure how this led to this juncture.
00:18:58.240 There's got to be, as I said, I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but there's got to have been
00:19:03.800 levers pulled a lot higher up than just our government.
00:19:07.780 This is abuse by our government.
00:19:09.200 But somebody has actually put them up to it.
00:19:12.260 I know in the case of CWD and elk and so on, like the farm that we had here, CFIA got carried
00:19:18.700 away with putting animals down.
00:19:20.260 That was their first and only recourse to the point where we finally got back to 20 animals
00:19:25.260 held on an isolated quarter by one of the original elk breeders in this part of the world.
00:19:31.660 So I insisted that CFIA use that as a science-based test zone.
00:19:37.560 The farmers continue to feed and care for the elk, but CFIA could go in and test them anytime
00:19:41.880 they wanted and make sure that the numbers were there, the fences weren't breached.
00:19:47.160 And that ended the CWD, the decade of chasing down animals that had started with BSE and so on.
00:19:54.740 And we do, as a trading nation, have to be cautious and careful that, you know, there
00:19:58.900 are global regulations, but I have never, ever seen a global regulation on ostrich.
00:20:06.180 Well, it's interesting you should say that, because, of course, the CFIA is justifying
00:20:10.220 all of this on the fact they're following a United Nations World Health Organization.
00:20:16.360 We all know the efficacy of the United Nations.
00:20:19.500 I mean, it's just debacle after cluster.
00:20:21.960 So I would not put a lot of strength in that.
00:20:26.360 But it's interesting, Jerry, because the Trump administration is saying the stamping out
00:20:31.500 policy is stupid.
00:20:33.240 And they've withdrawn from the World Health Organization.
00:20:36.240 And they're saying, well, maybe let's have a quarantine before we start killing all these
00:20:41.220 birds.
00:20:41.740 Because, I mean, literally, before Joe Biden left office, he killed over 100, I think 100
00:20:47.760 million chickens were killed.
00:20:51.200 Because it was his policy to continue with the United Nations World Health Organization.
00:20:58.400 Craziness.
00:20:59.200 And this is clearly, as far as I'm concerned, this is clearly what's going on here.
00:21:03.880 This is ideology gone berserk.
00:21:06.740 It's not common sense.
00:21:08.880 Everybody who's responding to me every day saying, I don't understand it.
00:21:14.100 These birds are healthy.
00:21:15.060 Why are they killing them?
00:21:15.860 And I think maybe they've got something to hide.
00:21:21.060 Maybe they're trying to say.
00:21:22.760 But the fact is, you know, even if every nation in the world was against this, and they're
00:21:30.860 not, this is what scares me with this, Jerry, is that it's not only the United Nations saying,
00:21:37.560 no, we don't accept that stamping out policy anymore.
00:21:40.080 We're not going to do that because we're not part of that globalist agenda.
00:21:43.660 Even the United Nations is saying what the CFIA wants to do here is completely out of control.
00:21:53.040 And people have sent me that.
00:21:54.760 I had no idea about that.
00:21:56.180 But people have sent me that information saying, hey, David, wake up.
00:22:00.780 It's not even the UN.
00:22:02.400 Again, it's crazy.
00:22:05.300 They want to destroy this, obviously, because they've got an agenda here.
00:22:10.360 And I think if we don't stand up now against this, we're going to, your farm is a danger.
00:22:20.740 Your backyard could be a danger.
00:22:23.200 Your cat or your dog could be a danger because the government might say, well, we suspect they
00:22:30.680 might have avian flu or they might have some kind of disease that we can't vaccinate them for.
00:22:38.340 We see those headlines every once in a while, too, David, from, you know, the MSM that are
00:22:43.400 bought and paid for in that, you know, we have to look after, we have to take care of your pets
00:22:47.200 because they could be a carrier.
00:22:48.820 There's no science that shows any kind of crossover like that at this point.
00:22:52.280 There was one child that succumbed to asthma more than anything, but she had multiple complications
00:22:59.120 before this.
00:23:00.360 They tried to say it was avian influenza.
00:23:02.260 We saw the same thing with COVID.
00:23:03.860 Anybody that had a sneeze, it was COVID.
00:23:05.960 We've all survived that, whether you're vaccinated or not.
00:23:08.520 It seems like the vaccinated are under more duress now than the non-vaccinated when it comes
00:23:13.120 to secondary health concerns.
00:23:15.840 But this goes beyond the pale in that they have an opportunity as a science-based organization
00:23:21.160 to actually build the science for containment of avian flu.
00:23:25.560 And they're not even just ignoring it.
00:23:28.080 They're trampling it, which I don't understand for a minute.
00:23:31.400 No, I don't either.
00:23:36.180 If you were agriculture minister today, would you charge the CFIA or see that the CFIA was
00:23:43.460 charged with animal cruelty, given the evidence that's out there?
00:23:47.280 Well, I'll tell you what, the first thing you get their attention is cut their budget.
00:23:50.460 You pull the president in and read them the riot act and say, if this isn't fixed by tomorrow,
00:23:54.540 you're down the road.
00:23:55.680 And then you wait two days.
00:23:56.720 And if it isn't done yet, he's down the road along with everybody else who's been involved.
00:23:59.800 You cannot tolerate this as a government, the cost, the social deficit that we're building
00:24:07.360 up because people are starting to question everything a government does.
00:24:10.860 And rightly so.
00:24:11.780 I mean, democracy is under attack on many levels.
00:24:14.320 But this is just the poster child for it at this point.
00:24:16.580 Yeah, it seems to be a poster child for globalist intervention.
00:24:23.980 And that's, you know, the more I look into this, the more I see that this is nothing to
00:24:29.840 do with Canadian law.
00:24:31.080 This is nothing to do even at times with United Nations law.
00:24:35.580 And our largest trading partner says we're doing this all wrong.
00:24:38.820 That should send you a fairly good signal.
00:24:40.220 Exactly, exactly.
00:24:42.840 And I was so impressed with official opposition leader Peter Pauly yesterday when he talked
00:24:51.140 about the RCMP.
00:24:53.180 And I was very surprised.
00:24:54.700 I have to tell you that because, you know, over the years, I've been, well, I have been
00:24:59.360 a stalwart conservative in terms of ideology.
00:25:03.500 Sometimes I criticize the party for things they do.
00:25:07.060 And I don't think I ever, I don't think I ever criticized you because one time we were
00:25:14.100 sitting at a committee meeting, Jerry, and you said, you can, you can accuse David Crayton
00:25:20.540 of being many things, but never a liberal.
00:25:23.940 True.
00:25:25.380 But did you get the tattoo?
00:25:28.760 No, I never got the tattoo.
00:25:30.220 I was very impressed with Peter Pauly of calling out the RCMP finally.
00:25:36.220 Finally, because, you know, I got a, I'll tell you this and, you know, I got an email,
00:25:42.820 a text message yesterday from somebody on the site and there's virtually nobody left at
00:25:48.520 that site right now from the media.
00:25:50.720 And this is why I'm wondering, maybe I should go out myself because there's nobody left from
00:25:56.440 the media.
00:25:57.760 There might be because everybody's just sort of waiting.
00:26:00.720 You can't wait for weeks and weeks and weeks for this to happen.
00:26:04.340 And while, but of course, while you're waiting, well, the media folks that were there were
00:26:09.200 on their own dime.
00:26:10.560 There was no media at all.
00:26:12.280 Nobody sponsored by, they're all ignoring it other than the CBC with their crazy sketch
00:26:16.940 on, on, uh, whatever they call that.
00:26:19.640 I wanted to mention that as well.
00:26:21.460 I thought that was the most disgusting depiction of farmers I've ever seen from the CBC.
00:26:29.660 And by the way, I tried to show that on my station yesterday and the CBC has it copywritten.
00:26:38.480 The CBC, a government agency, a government corporation is getting copywritten over that.
00:26:45.340 I can't believe that because I said, this is the most outrageous I've seen.
00:26:50.560 This is like Stalinist Russia.
00:26:53.060 And I've seen the videos that the Soviet union put out about the kulaks and who had to be
00:27:00.800 eradicated because they were making money.
00:27:03.320 They were farmers who were making money.
00:27:05.280 This video looks exactly like something out of Stalinist Russia.
00:27:10.900 This, this boils down to personal property, uh, and, and the provinces have that right
00:27:15.580 to step in and do it.
00:27:16.900 And they're not, uh, at the end of the day, there's a lot of questions that need to be asked
00:27:20.880 on so many levels.
00:27:22.080 We'll, we'll do all sort of, of post-mortems, but by then the birds are gone.
00:27:26.300 And, and, you know, they are all stressed beyond belief at this point.
00:27:30.200 I mean, seeing strangers around, um, anything like that, that detracts them from their normal
00:27:34.820 routine, puts them into a tizzy and they either run into a fence or they, you know, duck down
00:27:40.780 and hide or they do whatever.
00:27:42.380 Roosters can get quite aggressive, but at the end of the day, I'm not seeing that these,
00:27:46.640 these birds are, are really under stress.
00:27:48.660 So, so in your, your, your opinion, as somebody who has, what are you doing?
00:27:59.740 As, as somebody who has worked on this file in the past, do you think these birds are under
00:28:06.280 stress for preexisting conditions?
00:28:09.200 No.
00:28:09.400 Or because they're being stressed out by the CFIA?
00:28:13.060 The stress is growing by the day as they continue to see what's the changes that are happening
00:28:17.720 around them.
00:28:18.720 Uh, and, and that's growing.
00:28:20.120 So they weren't under stress before this.
00:28:22.560 Uh, certainly some of them did succumb to whatever put them down, but it was not avian
00:28:27.240 flu.
00:28:27.800 Uh, I'm, I'm convinced of that.
00:28:29.920 Uh, at the end of the day, this is something else that, that caused some of them to pass.
00:28:34.140 Uh, they're, they're, you know, they get impacted, they call it.
00:28:37.800 And, uh, once, once they're down, they're done.
00:28:40.460 And, uh, you know, I've, I've seen a couple of, of my birds that, that did that.
00:28:43.840 So the biggest thing you can do is, is take away the stress, uh, make sure they've got
00:28:48.120 lots of water and good feed in front of them and leave them alone.
00:28:51.960 Uh, you know, don't even gather the eggs for a few days.
00:28:54.460 Just give them time to kind of quiet down and calm down.
00:28:57.100 Um, I had, uh, a panther, uh, cougar that, uh, showed up around my sight at one point
00:29:03.840 and, and, uh, chased a couple of them and they, none of them were killed, but, uh, I
00:29:08.920 was able to chase, chase it away.
00:29:10.420 It was an uncommon sighting, but at the end of the day, it took, it took days for the whole
00:29:14.600 flock to, to calm down.
00:29:20.080 Jerry, if you were ag, ag minister today, and I sure as hell wish you were, how would you
00:29:25.200 respond to this crisis right now?
00:29:27.500 What, what is the solution you would, you would offer?
00:29:31.440 Well, you got to go back the 27 days to, you know, when they showed up on the site, there
00:29:35.720 should have been a lot more homework done.
00:29:37.480 Uh, I mean, there was all kinds of talk about what was going to happen and how it was going
00:29:40.740 to happen.
00:29:41.260 It should have been, uh, squelched at that point.
00:29:44.380 Uh, the minister should have stepped in and just said, Hey, you don't got to show me, you
00:29:48.240 got to convince me as to why we're doing this.
00:29:49.940 You meet with the actual farmers.
00:29:51.480 When we pulled onto a site and we did have avian flu in barns in Southern BC, predominantly
00:29:57.620 because you can spit from one to the other to that tight.
00:30:00.300 So we had a control, um, office that went on site and there was members of the poultry
00:30:06.560 association of BC in that office, making decisions with us as to how soon, when, what happened
00:30:12.380 and so on.
00:30:12.960 And I don't see that happening here.
00:30:14.340 They've cut the family out.
00:30:15.700 And these are the ones that know the birds by name.
00:30:17.880 Um, and that's not the way you eradicate a problem.
00:30:21.660 You, you don't cut the people out that understand the birds.
00:30:24.880 Um, and as I said, they're missing a tremendous opportunity to further the science.
00:30:30.140 If this is avian flu and these birds have, have, you know, been the cure, why aren't we,
00:30:35.880 why aren't we taking advantage of that?
00:30:37.680 Uh, I just don't understand it.
00:30:39.640 I think it was a couple of weeks ago.
00:30:43.120 I saw you quoted and you might've been misquoted.
00:30:46.220 Somebody asked you, should Pierre Pauly be speaking about this?
00:30:49.480 You know, conservative leader, official opposition leader, should he be talking about this?
00:30:54.520 And you said he's got bigger fish to fry.
00:30:57.420 Uh, do you think it's maybe at the point where he doesn't have bigger fish to fry?
00:31:02.600 This is about property rights.
00:31:04.560 Yeah, that wasn't exactly what I said or how he said it.
00:31:07.260 They took it out of context.
00:31:08.360 I said, you know, this is an issue.
00:31:10.240 He's got a team and that's the one thing Carney doesn't have there.
00:31:12.980 You know, it's just a tribe of clowns, but Carney or Oliver actually has a great team around
00:31:17.980 him.
00:31:18.240 Like I said, Scott Anderson, the member of parliament from that area has been working
00:31:21.580 with these folks since last January.
00:31:23.420 I understand I've seen some of the emails that have gone back and forth.
00:31:26.160 He's, his staffers up there on a weekly basis, finding what's going on.
00:31:30.140 Scott's been back and forth a number of times.
00:31:32.300 Uh, a lot of other, uh, Leslie Lewis did a whole background on it as the health critic.
00:31:37.780 Um, you know, different things like that.
00:31:39.760 So he's, they're on it.
00:31:41.540 Um, and Carney hasn't said shit about it either.
00:31:43.560 So why would they single out Oliver other than they're trying to deflect?
00:31:46.940 And that was my point was you guys are just deflecting this away from the liberals.
00:31:51.500 You haven't said anything about what, what Heath McDonald should do as the minister.
00:31:55.000 And you're going after Oliver saying he should be the one correcting this.
00:31:58.600 He doesn't have the levers to pull that Heath McDonald has.
00:32:01.340 He could shut this down today if he wanted to.
00:32:06.120 I think that's an interesting point, Jerry, because the government is, has argued at times
00:32:11.500 that it's before the courts, which is bullshit because of course they can shut this down anytime.
00:32:18.440 It doesn't have to be before the courts.
00:32:20.820 The federal government can shut this down at any time.
00:32:23.940 Heath McDonald can say, okay, enough.
00:32:26.980 We let's, let's test the birds.
00:32:29.680 Let's do something.
00:32:30.440 And it's not the government to put it before the courts.
00:32:33.060 It's the farmers.
00:32:35.680 So the government could say, Hey, we can fix this.
00:32:37.660 We don't need to take the court's time to resolve this.
00:32:39.820 We can fix this today.
00:32:41.660 Sit down and have a round table, figure out what you're going to do going forward.
00:32:44.760 You could isolate these animals.
00:32:46.160 You could use this as a quarantine site as we did with that last grouping of elk and, and learn from it.
00:32:51.020 But they refuse to entertain any of that.
00:32:53.500 The same as they refuse to entertain the testing.
00:32:57.080 Well, that's, that's, that's exactly it.
00:32:59.160 I want to show you this, this brief clip here.
00:33:01.920 I think this is wonderful.
00:33:04.140 And we'll, we'll talk about it after.
00:33:05.440 The leader of your party made some comments in a podcast that I want to get your take on, because it's actually about policing.
00:33:10.700 The podcast, I believe, was taped October 3rd, posted yesterday.
00:33:13.660 He was referencing the RCMP's decision not to pursue criminal charges against Justin Trudeau or other people in the government over their involvement in the SNC scandal.
00:33:21.600 Mr. Polyev characterized the leadership of the RCMP as, quote, despicable when it comes to enforcing laws against the Liberal government and accused them of covering up for Trudeau.
00:33:30.260 Do you have proof of that?
00:33:32.500 Did you hear the taped audio between the Liberal Prime Minister's Clerk of the Privy Council and former Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould?
00:33:42.300 I'm surprised that you and I are having this conversation.
00:33:44.920 But I'm just saying that I really feel uncomfortable and about the appropriateness of this conversation.
00:33:53.820 Okay, I understand that.
00:33:55.680 But I mean, I think his view is, he's not asking you to do anything appropriate or to interfere.
00:34:02.620 He's asking you to use all of the tools that you lawfully have at your disposal.
00:34:06.760 So I find this fascinating, Jerry, because here we go.
00:34:13.880 We've got Pierre Polyev, who's very restrained, and sometimes it angers me.
00:34:23.220 Sometimes I understand why he has to be restrained as the official opposition leader.
00:34:29.380 This was very out of character for him to go after the RCMP.
00:34:33.560 And I've been saying this for years.
00:34:37.260 Our institutions, our Canadian military, our Canadian police forces have been serving the Liberal government.
00:34:48.220 And I have to say, thank God, he said it.
00:34:51.480 He said it.
00:34:52.500 I don't disagree on the upper echelons.
00:34:54.380 I had a tremendous number of fantastic inspector level RCMP that traveled with me internationally.
00:35:00.600 They had some great stories to tell, which they would never say in public.
00:35:04.560 I know a tremendous amount of former RCMPs that are disgusted with their leadership and how it's been politicized.
00:35:11.420 And they will speak out.
00:35:12.760 I have a good friend in the former Sergeant at Arms in Kevin Vickers.
00:35:18.180 And I mean, he ran for leadership of the Liberals in New Brunswick.
00:35:21.220 He's not ashamed to say that's on my sleeve.
00:35:23.620 But at the end of the day, we've had some fairly heated discussions about where the RCMP have gone.
00:35:28.320 They're not the force they used to be.
00:35:31.180 They've been watered down to the point where the folks on the ground do not reflect the folks that are in the last generation of RCMP.
00:35:39.780 There's a huge disconnect there.
00:35:42.480 And we've seen the leadership at the RCMP.
00:35:44.840 We've seen it in the military.
00:35:46.260 We've seen it in the judiciary.
00:35:47.720 They've all been politicized to the point where the Liberals are on Mount Olympus and are untouchable.
00:35:52.320 And that is a real problem in a democracy when the officers of your parliament and the private sector and so on are captive, including the media, are captive to the government of the day.
00:36:05.580 You've got a real problem.
00:36:06.720 There's going to be some malfeasance that isn't going to be reported and isn't going to be pressed.
00:36:11.680 Jody Wilson-Riebold in her book outlined a lot of how it was done, why it was done, whatever.
00:36:17.140 They tend to ignore that.
00:36:18.920 And at the end of the day, they point out a couple of things where she didn't name them in committee.
00:36:22.180 Well, she was still a minister.
00:36:24.260 You've got, you know, almost an NDA in being sworn into Privy Council that a lot of this stuff stays buried.
00:36:31.680 You can't talk about it.
00:36:33.100 But, I mean, she alluded to as much as she could in her book.
00:36:36.260 And at some point, there's a lot more is going to ooze out from under that liberal door.
00:36:40.040 Yeah, I just have to applaud Pierre Pollard for saying that because, you know, I have been tough on Pierre at times.
00:36:50.100 I've known Pierre since he was a member of Pollard.
00:36:53.840 And before, and when he says something courageous.
00:36:57.260 Stafford to begin with, too.
00:36:58.920 Yeah, and I applaud him for that because not an easy thing to say.
00:37:04.060 And I'm sure his communications people were saying, don't say it, Pierre, don't say it because it's going to get you into trouble.
00:37:12.740 But he had the courage to say it, and I thank him for that because the RCMP is basically a disqualified organization.
00:37:21.660 And I think so many government agencies are now.
00:37:24.320 Again, I would debate you on that, David, in that, yeah, at the upper echelons, absolutely, they've been captive to the Liberal Party.
00:37:32.320 But the folks out on the ground are just as disgusted by a lot of this as we are, you know, the gun grab and all of that.
00:37:38.100 They don't want to take part in any of that.
00:37:40.020 They're members of a community as well.
00:37:41.640 They know these people, you know, on a personal basis.
00:37:44.160 Their kids play hockey with our kids, you know, all of that type of thing.
00:37:47.160 They're regular members of society, and they're disgusted by what's happening at the top.
00:37:52.940 Well, actually, I wouldn't disagree with you there either.
00:37:56.500 It's a lot like union, you know, rank and file in their leadership.
00:38:00.200 You know, nobody agrees on and look where he is now.
00:38:03.880 I would say, yeah, 100%, Jerry.
00:38:07.640 Yeah, I'm not suggesting every RCMP officer is part of this.
00:38:12.640 But clearly, at the upper echelons, there is something going on here with politicizing the force.
00:38:21.240 And I spent 13 years in the military.
00:38:25.520 It's not the military I used to know.
00:38:27.500 Basically, people are walking around looking like they're not in the military.
00:38:33.880 I'll put it that way.
00:38:35.240 And this has all come from the top down.
00:38:41.100 And the people who talk to me who say, you know, I'm ex-military like you, Dave.
00:38:46.080 You know, I was there too.
00:38:48.060 I can't stand this anymore.
00:38:49.420 I'm saying, well, we need a new government to clean house.
00:38:53.260 And I think that's what's coming.
00:38:56.420 You know, it's a big job.
00:38:57.540 You got to, you know, it's that elephant.
00:38:58.820 You got to eat it one bite at a time.
00:39:00.380 The problem is, in order to make the changes, it's going to get a little bit worse before it gets better.
00:39:04.560 And that's when you start to lose Canadians.
00:39:06.120 You know, and the media is going to play up the fact that, oh, my God, this happened and that happened, rather than saying this is the means to an end.
00:39:13.980 And, you know, Polliver's got to be honest with Canadians saying it's going to hurt a little more before it gets better.
00:39:19.120 But in order to get better, we can't keep doing what we're doing.
00:39:22.540 Preston Manning's famous quote, if you're going to fill in a hole, you've got to stop digging.
00:39:26.520 That is absolutely fascinating, because Preston Manning, you know, who I met and knew when I worked in Parliament Hill, I used to always say, the only politician I ever met who spoke in paragraphs, not sentences.
00:39:45.800 I have nothing but respect for Preston Manning.
00:39:48.680 I thought he was a great political leader.
00:39:50.620 But I'll leave it with this, Jerry, and thank you so much for joining me today.
00:39:54.460 And the story is not done.
00:39:56.940 I'll be talking to Katie at the farm later.
00:40:00.820 And, you know, I tell people this every day.
00:40:03.000 I'm not objective about this story at all, any more than I was objective about the Freedom Convoy.
00:40:08.680 I think this is about whether you love freedom or hate freedom.
00:40:12.700 I think this is about whether you love private property or reject it.
00:40:16.880 I think this is about whether you think we're a free country or a country under dictatorship.
00:40:23.100 Well, I ask it, how do you think this is going to end with everything going on right now?
00:40:30.320 How is this going to end for these poor farmers in Edgewood, B.C.?
00:40:35.380 Oh, I think the ostriches will be put down and then they'll leave the site in a mess and walk away because their budget's spent.
00:40:43.880 The unfortunate part is, in a true democracy, once you lose the right to speak freely, as the convoy did, you can argue their methods.
00:40:52.580 But at the end of the day, they made a point and got punished strongly for that.
00:40:56.940 But once you lose that and your right to protect your own personal property, you no longer have a democracy.
00:41:02.120 And we're on that slippery slope.
00:41:04.080 And the longer Carney and his clowns are in charge, that slope's going to get steeper and faster.
00:41:11.020 Well, you know, I couldn't have said that any better.
00:41:15.940 Thank you so much.
00:41:17.320 And I think that is exactly where we are.
00:41:19.480 But I'm going to continue to hope and pray and work for some rational solution to this.
00:41:26.760 Well, I think the biggest solution, David, is more power to the provinces.
00:41:31.900 You know, rebuild confederation from the province, provincial level up.
00:41:35.340 The feds go back to the mandates that they originally had.
00:41:38.440 Trade, military, you know, those things.
00:41:40.420 Streamline it down.
00:41:41.400 Get them out of health care.
00:41:42.280 Get them out of education.
00:41:43.260 Get them out of housing.
00:41:44.340 My God, that new catalog is a joke.
00:41:46.220 You know, at the end of the day, get the federal government to pull back to the basics that they need to do
00:41:52.060 and let the provinces carry the bulk of the day-to-day operations.
00:41:56.920 You know, Jerry, you should be back in politics.
00:41:59.400 And I know you're getting a little elder in years for that.
00:42:03.420 God, we need you.
00:42:05.140 We need you back.
00:42:06.520 Well, just because there's snow on the roof doesn't mean the fire's out, right?
00:42:10.000 Yeah.
00:42:11.120 That's pretty true.
00:42:12.260 Anyway, you know, I'll say this in conclusion.
00:42:16.700 I was not always supportive of everything the Stephen Harper government did,
00:42:22.020 but I always came at it from the right, not the left.
00:42:25.400 But I always said, you know, one of my favorite ministers was Jerry Ritz,
00:42:29.840 because I think he not only understood his ministry, he administered it excellently.
00:42:36.960 And thank you for coming on the show today, Jerry.
00:42:39.640 We love you.
00:42:40.160 Always a pleasure, David.
00:42:41.040 All the best.
00:42:41.500 Keep up the fight.
00:42:43.240 We will.
00:42:44.060 Thank you so much.
00:42:45.300 You bet, buddy.
00:42:45.820 Bye for now.
00:42:46.860 All right.
00:42:51.200 That, of course, is Jerry Ritz, former minister of agriculture, a good friend,
00:42:55.660 and I think one of the most principled conservatives who ever served in the Stephen Harper cabinet.
00:43:02.740 And it was such a pleasure to have him on today.
00:43:05.120 And I'll tell you, I was surprised how angry Jerry is at what's going on in Edgewood.
00:43:13.760 Not a sign, not a sign of approval for what's going on from the Mark Carney government.
00:43:19.960 Not that Jerry ever had a sign of approval for liberal government.
00:43:24.600 But this is a guy who used to control the CFIA, and he's disgusted with it.
00:43:31.560 Please get this broadcast out to your friends and family, because this is really incredible news.
00:43:39.760 Thank you for watching today.