In the first episode of Stand On Guard, David Creighton talks about the arrest of former President Donald Trump and the charges against him, and interviews Heva Chibiuk, the lead Freedom Convoy lawyer. He also talks about Canada's "Drag Camp" and why it's a terrible idea.
00:00:34.840We've got a great show for you today, including an interview at the end here with Heva Chibiuk, the lead Freedom Convoy lawyer.
00:00:42.600And of course, that's been a story all week here again.
00:00:44.640Although you wouldn't know it to read the mainstream media, there is a Judge Mosley is right now looking at the constitutionality, legality of invoking the Emergencies Act last February 14th,
00:00:58.180which is something Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did in response to the Freedom Convoy protests in Ottawa.
00:01:03.560Now, a lot of us thought that was completely unnecessary, completely unjustified, and a complete overreach of government power.
00:01:09.360And that's what Judge Mosley is looking at this week.
00:01:11.780He's had three days of testimony from those affected by the Freedom Convoy and by the invocation of the Emergencies Act.
00:01:19.600And it's going to be interesting to see how he rules on this.
00:01:23.700But the story of the week, I think, whether you're in Canada or the United States, has got to be the arrest, the formal arrest of former President Donald Trump,
00:01:34.660who had to go all the way from Mar-a-Lago, Florida, to New York City to surrender himself to authorities, where he was arraigned.
00:01:44.040And he was formally charged 34 counts of what?
00:01:49.880Apparently it's, and they won't even reveal what the real felony is.
00:01:54.640This is all based on a misdemeanor of an alleged hush fund money.
00:02:05.440And the whole thing is so ridiculous, as if this doesn't happen every day, as if former presidents hadn't paid off people because they didn't want to be embarrassed by their testimony.
00:02:16.800But this really is a turning point, I think, in American politics, because it's not just optically very bad.
00:02:25.540It is catastrophic in terms of the effect on the justice system.
00:02:31.260The justice system has become completely politicized in the United States.
00:02:36.080And this is beyond dispute, beyond doubt, because I haven't heard yet a single credible legal authority proclaim that there was any justification in arresting and charging former President Donald Trump with these 34 counts of one count.
00:02:54.860It's one thing, which happened seven years ago.
00:02:59.780And so why are they going after Donald Trump?
00:03:02.880Because they're afraid he's going to win the nomination of the Republican Party and run for president again in 2024.
00:03:11.660And this is why this whole thing is going on.
00:03:14.520And, of course, they're going to meet again, reconvene for the beginning of the trial, or at least reconvene to see what comes next in December.
00:03:28.580Just about the time that the Republican Party will be deciding who their next nominee for president is.
00:03:36.240So it clearly has nothing to do with justice as having to do with politics.
00:03:42.020And it's quite chilling because this is the sort of thing that was routinely done in totalitarian countries where former political foes were punished by the judicial system.
00:03:55.740And extremists in extremists in those countries, they're sometimes executed or spent the rest of their life in a concentration camp or a gulag.
00:04:04.200But in this country, well, actually, there have been reports that Trump could, if convicted, Trump could spend over 100 years in jail for, you know, be sentenced to 100 years in jail.
00:04:16.980But we are dealing with this kind of mentality, and it's really, really got to stop.
00:04:23.740So I want to move on to some idiocy in this country before we get to the interview.
00:04:32.020But the idiocy in this country is basically this.
00:04:36.660So we have the federal government, and in this case, the B.C. provincial government and the city of Vancouver municipal government all funding something called a drag camp.
00:04:46.440And this is the sort of thing you would never would have imagined possible in another age, like maybe 10 years ago.
00:04:54.480But we have a drag camp from kids as young as seven, seven to 11, and then a teen drag camp for those, I believe, 13 to 17.
00:05:05.440And it's so outrageous that this sort of event even exists in the first place, that we would have children exposed to this sort of nonsense.
00:05:18.480And as most people would say, absolute filth.
00:05:22.160But this is being not just allowed and tolerated, it's being encouraged by the federal government and other levels of government.
00:05:28.780And just as these drag queen story hours are being encouraged and foisted upon, forced upon children, kids.
00:05:38.080And it's the sort of thing we would never have imagined.
00:05:40.940Why would we want to put together children and drag queens in the same room?
00:05:47.060I mean, can we not find people of a great reputation, heroic Canadians, and in the case of the U.S., heroic Americans,
00:05:56.760who were with the fire force, local firefighters, police force, in the military.
00:06:02.520Maybe they earned a medal of valor while serving overseas, or by rescuing lives here in Canada or the United States.
00:06:10.040Why are these people not being presented to kids and to tell their stories and to read stories to them?
00:06:16.140Why are we allowing kids to share the same room with drag queens?
00:06:20.680Because it's absolutely crazy, unless there is something behind all of this.
00:06:27.480And I don't remember going on a field trip to a strip club when I was in elementary school.
00:06:32.840And that would have been absolutely outrageous.
00:06:36.520And why aren't they doing this as well today, you might ask, because it's just as outrageous.
00:06:42.380But of course, it probably hasn't occurred to them yet.
00:06:44.200But the people who are coming up with this nonsense are devoted to an ideology, a transgender ideology.
00:06:51.560And they deny that there's two biological sexes.
00:06:55.120And they can deny that all they want, but they cannot deny the facts.
00:07:58.100His party is the only one that has voiced any opposition to these drag camps and these drag queen story hours.
00:08:07.460And to the federal government's subsidization of these projects, why are there nobody else?
00:08:16.680Why is there nobody else in the House of Commons, no other MP, no other political party leader willing to stand up and say this is just dead wrong?
00:08:38.800And this is the sort of thing we have to ask ourselves, what is going on in the minds of these people if, in fact, their minds are functioning?
00:08:51.840And the other outrage of the week is that there was very little media attention to the court, a very important court case going on in Ottawa this week.
00:09:02.780And that was a judge assessing the validity, legality, constitutionality of Justin Trudeau invoking the war, I just said war mentioned, the Emergencies Act last February, February 14th, 2022.
00:09:18.060He invoked the Emergencies Act to shut down, to clamp down, to snuff out the Freedom Convoy protests that were going on.
00:09:26.540Largely at that point, only in Ottawa.
00:09:28.980And they were completely, completely peaceful.
00:09:32.100And we said at the time, this was just plain political overreach.
00:09:36.340It was the federal government silencing opponents it didn't like.
00:09:41.040And, of course, I just spoke to Eva Chippiot, who is the lead Freedom Convoy lawyer.
00:09:47.380She always tells me she's just one of the people representing.
00:09:50.940But she's been so tremendous in terms of her comments she's made, the feedback she's given me, that I really think she has been a leading force in articulating exactly why the invocation of the Emergencies Act was a horrible mistake.
00:10:08.380It has put Canada on a road of authoritarian rule.
00:10:11.920And if Judge Mosley, who's looking at it this week, decides that there was nothing wrong with this, I fear that we are going to be giving any government extra power to shut down any protest it doesn't agree with.
00:10:27.420Because ultimately, this isn't just about the Freedom Convoy protests.
00:10:30.820It's about governments using the law to silence political protests, peaceful political protests.
00:10:37.180If it doesn't like what those people are saying, it can silence them.
00:10:39.640And that's contrary to good government and contrary to all democratic values.
00:10:44.860And this is something that has got to stop.
00:10:47.340And if it doesn't stop, we are in grave trouble as a nation.
00:10:51.260So I want that to be really clearly understood.
00:10:56.120And I hope you'll enjoy the interview that's coming up after this with Eva Chippiot.
00:11:03.800Yes, we're back again with my guest, Eva Chippiot, one of the lawyers for the Freedom Convoy.
00:11:11.980And, of course, that the constitutionality of the invocation of the Emergencies Act has been under scrutiny and challenged all week in Ottawa court.
00:11:21.260So I just want to ask you, Eva, are you optimistic that this judge is going to rule in the favor of not invoking the Emergencies Act?
00:11:34.380So as an individual, I tend to try to be optimistic.
00:11:37.540So I'm going to remain optimistic in this case as well.
00:11:40.300And I have to say, as a lawyer, I'm going to remain optimism as well, because the evidence just isn't there for the federal government to justify invoking the Emergencies Act.
00:11:51.840And I really hope that justice, mostly in this case, sees it as well.
00:11:57.120There was no evidence to show that there was a threat to national security, except for what could have been, maybe was, or in imaginary land.
00:12:08.320But there wasn't actually any physical, concrete evidence, affidavits, showing and swearing that there was an issue.
00:12:17.380And in fact, as we know from the Public Order Emergencies Inquiry, the evidence showed the opposite.
00:12:25.900And CSIS, the day before the Emergencies Act was invoked, told the federal government, do not invoke the Emergencies Act.
00:12:33.000This is about government overreach, and the people here don't believe the system, believe the system is broken.
00:12:40.740And if you invoke such a power like the Emergencies Act, it will cause more extreme views, and it will cause people to be more disillusioned with the government.
00:13:46.200And one thing I'd like to note about what has happened at the start of Monday's hearing is the government of Canada had the gall to suggest to the court that this action should be struck, that the court shouldn't even listen to the arguments of civil rights of Canadians being just dismissed at the whim of the government because it's too late.
00:14:46.780It's not about propping up the government in power.
00:14:49.740It's about having a day in court and letting a judge hear the evidence.
00:14:54.300Yeah, the judge seemed to be going against the government when it was trying to justify the freezing of bank accounts.
00:15:05.220Do you think that this remains one of the most terrifying aspects of the Emergency Act, that the government can put its hand on all the money you own, except that which you may have under your mattress at home, but can just literally seize your assets?
00:15:27.320Because you support a project or politician or a priority that they don't necessarily agree with.
00:15:37.020Yeah, well, it should be terrifying for the judge and Canadians and investors and potential people that want to come to Canada.
00:15:47.400What the federal government did was unconscionable is to take away people's ability to sustain themselves with purchasing food or shelter.
00:15:58.600Like you're suggesting or you're assuming that they were at home to grab the money under their mattress.
00:16:05.120What if they can't get home because all of a sudden they don't have access to any finances?
00:16:11.240So the overreach that the government did was incredibly chilling and the government needs to own up to what it did because it is certainly very concerning, not only to Canadians, but to people outside of Canada, for sure.
00:16:27.540I'm sure you worry about the politicization of the courts in this country, the justice system.
00:16:37.360I don't necessarily, if you care to comment on what's happening to former President Donald Trump right now in the United States, I would love that.
00:16:46.540However, are you concerned that, like what's happening in the United States, the justice system has become or could become so politicized that we end up going after political opponents?
00:16:58.700And this clearly is what Trudeau has done.
00:17:02.220But are we coming to a point where he could routinely use the justice system to attack political opponents?
00:17:07.700Well, I'm going to turn it a little bit differently in that I've been quite disappointed with the amount of opposition that we've had in this country.
00:17:19.400Because if the court system is turning political, it's because I believe that our elected officials aren't stepping up the way they should be stepping up.
00:17:30.480None of these cases should be heard and there shouldn't be political opponents like this.
00:17:35.260But if our elected officials were, you know, a little bit pushing back more, but what I feel is they want to feel, they want to stay in their safe zone.
00:17:46.440They want to go where the polling is going and they don't want to go outside of the box.
00:17:50.720And that is where over this last year, I feel there's been quite a disconnect that regular Canadians are doing the job that politicians should be doing.
00:18:15.520And politicians, I think, on all stripes, instead of having, you know, serious and strong debates, we're having don't be that mean to another MP.
00:18:29.680And that needs to be exposed and addressed.
00:18:32.720We need serious debates in the House of Commons.
00:18:35.800We need serious dialogue with our elected officials together with constituents.
00:18:40.480So we're not running to the court about these political issues.
00:18:44.160If the judge does happen to rule against the government invoking the Emergencies Act, is this going to have, A, any immediate benefits for those who are punished under the Emergencies Act?
00:18:58.120And, B, will it have long-term benefits in terms of the government being less than willing to invoke this act in the future?
00:19:05.660So, in response to your first question, it likely will not have any effect on anybody affected by the Emergencies Act, except for those few people that filed a lawsuit.
00:19:26.960The reason was to have the court decide whether or not the government enacted what it did was legal or not, whether or not it was justified or not.
00:19:36.620And that's what the court needs to understand and decide on.
00:19:40.080Where I do, where I am a little pessimistic is, yes, if the judge decides, which I believe is correct, that the Emergencies Act was not justified, then what?
00:19:49.940That's the big question I think any justice, and Justice Mosley in particular, is going to have to wrap his head around.
00:19:58.380Okay, there was no evidence to invoke the Emergencies Act.
00:20:01.820The Prime Minister made a big mistake here.
00:20:07.520And I do understand that's a big task he has.
00:20:10.580But for Canada, for the benefit of Canada, for moving forward and healing, we need to close that gap at some point.
00:20:20.140Whether Trudeau is removed via confidence vote, if that's what the justice decides that it wasn't justified, or whether he's a little bit kinder in his words, and then Trudeau is voted out via an election, fine.
00:20:37.680But we need to address that there were wrongs that occurred.
00:20:43.200And I really, I empathize with Justice Mosley, because this is a big task he has ahead of him.
00:20:49.740And for that reason, I am a little bit pessimistic.
00:20:54.960I don't know exactly how he's going to manage that.
00:20:58.380So in the event that he does rule in the government's favor, does this not bode well for future protests of any sort against any government that might just disagree with what those people are saying?
00:22:03.440The one thing, though, that I am getting a lot of feedback is thank you for informing me.
00:22:07.680It seems that not too many people are talking about this.
00:22:11.080And, you know, when the Freedom Convoy was in Ottawa, it was on the daily news, nightly news about how terrible these people are.
00:22:18.980So where are the news outlets right now reporting on the evidence in court, reporting on this huge issue that for three weeks they dedicated most of their time to?
00:22:43.000Looking at the media response this week, it's been very disappointing that there has been virtually nobody talking about it.
00:22:49.940It was a couple of articles announcing it was going to happen, but very few people on scene this week doing daily reports.
00:22:56.720And very, very few people yesterday announcing it was even over.
00:23:01.260So I think that's a very bad thing for our democracy, and I think it's a very, very bad thing for our judicial system, because this is something that's going to affect everybody.
00:23:13.940And if people think this is just about the Freedom Convoy, I think that's a terrible mistake, because this is about our freedom in this country to protest policies we disagree with in a peaceful way.
00:23:26.060And to not be smeared as racist, misogynist, homophobes, and all the rest just for voicing an opinion has nothing to do with those other things.
00:24:08.660Thanks for having me, and let's keep hoping.
00:24:11.220Just wanted to introduce my guest today, a longtime friend and political associate from the Hill in the old days of the Harper government, Mr. Maxime Bernier, the Honorable Maxime Bernier, who was a former industry and foreign affairs minister in the government of Stephen Harper, and is now the leader of the People's Party of Canada.
00:24:35.640And as we were just discussing, and I'll get into the guts of our conversation shortly, but I just wanted to let our guests know that you are continuing to work to build the People's Party of Canada right now.
00:24:50.600As you know, I'm the leader of the People's Party of Canada.
00:24:53.180We started that party five years ago with 0%.
00:24:57.760Our first election in 2019, 1.6% of the vote, and the last election in 2021, 5% of the vote.
00:25:07.640And I'm traveling across the country, meeting our people, and actually, we are in the process right now to find some candidates.
00:25:16.960We have up to now 100 candidates approved and ready to fight if there's an election, and our goal is to have another maybe 150 more candidates before the end of this year.
00:25:32.840So like that, when the election will come, we will be ready and we'll have a candidate in every riding, and every Canadian will be able to vote in line with their values.
00:25:42.540So yes, we are building the party, and that's very encouraging.
00:25:46.960Will you be running again in your old seat in Quebec?
00:25:53.320For the general election, I'm looking right now at two ridings, one in Northern Ontario, in Timmons, Ontario, the other one in Southern Alberta.
00:26:10.280And actually, I may run before the general election, because we will have a by-election in five ridings across the country, because we didn't have a general election.
00:26:25.280And actually, the riding of Portage-Lisgore will be in a by-election before the end of October, and I may run there, and we'll see.
00:26:38.160I still have to meet some people over there, and that would be, for me, an opportunity maybe to be back in Parliament before the general election.
00:26:47.220So I'm looking at that, and I'll be able to decide early July.
00:26:53.580Well, we certainly need you back in the House, but I think you're doing more work for Canadians right now than, say, Jagmeet Singh of the NDP is coordinating Justin Trudeau's government.
00:27:08.820So I do think you're doing a lot of work, and as much as we want you back in the House, because I believe you keep the Conservative Party of Canada more honest than it would be.
00:27:21.120I think you keep them from drifting too far to the left, which they have a tendency to do, even with its current leader, who I think is an improvement over the last.
00:27:31.060But I don't trust the Conservative Party of Canada any more than you do, to stay honest.
00:27:36.740So I look forward to seeing you back in the House in that capacity.
00:27:42.400But talking about the work you're doing, I've been reading the material you've submitted to Twitter on what is going on in this country with drag queen story times.
00:27:57.820But I was especially outraged, as I saw you were, with this drag summer camp that's being offered in British Columbia.
00:28:05.300So, yeah, actually, we must understand that the drag queen story hour is a political ideology, and we must understand that.
00:28:19.300It may be fun and comic to see people dress, a man dress like a girl.
00:28:27.300And so it can be maybe family friend, they try to sell it like family friend, but the real goal, if you look at it, the real goal, it's a political ideology that is going against
00:28:43.960the two sexes, and they try to sexualize young children, and that's why me and the People's Party of Canada is against that to children.
00:29:00.200You know, it must be something for adults.
00:29:03.060But when they are doing that, they try to put some confusion in a child's mind, saying that maybe, you know, the reality that we know that there's only two sexes,
00:29:21.060men and male and female, may not be, may not be the reality that may be, you know, different.
00:29:32.820And so when you are young kids, you try to look at the behavior of your parents, and you want to imitate that.
00:29:41.960And so when they are doing their performance in front of kids, it is the sexualization of kids, and it is telling them that, you know, you may not be a young boy, you may be a young girl, and vice versa.
00:29:57.720So I understand why some parents are very upset with that.
00:30:03.260And they are, you know, that's, you know, the drag queens and their radical trans activists are promoting their ideology to kids, and we must not tolerate that.
00:30:17.940It's disgusting, and all that must end.
00:30:22.820And that's why, you know, I tweeted about that, and we are against that.
00:30:27.520But it is not politically correct to speak against the drag queen story hour.
00:30:33.900We are the only national political party that is speaking against that, because it's against our Western civilizations.
00:30:45.100It's against also, you know, biology and nature and science, that there's only two sexes, and a girl won't be able to be a boy, you know, and a boy won't be able to be a girl.
00:32:28.020And, you know, the federal government gave the last two years to that organization about $280,000 to promote gender dysphoria.
00:32:41.460And so, for me, I don't understand why you don't have more politicians in Canada at the provincial or federal level that are saying, you know, enough is enough.
00:32:55.920I know that the drag queen story hour in the U.S., you have more and more opponents against that for the reason that I said.
00:33:08.460But here in Canada, you know, if you speak against that, you'll be seen as anti-trans.
00:33:30.720And we are creating a kind of a confusion, sexual confusion among them when we are bringing kids to camps like that or to a drag queen story hour.
00:33:45.180And it amazes me that you say there is no other opposition to this.
00:33:54.000Where is the Conservative Party of Canada?
00:34:02.160You know, Pierre Polyev, people must understand that.
00:34:06.080Pierre Polyev and the Conservative Party of Canada and the NDP and the Bloc Québécois and the Liberals and the Greens, everybody in the House voted in favor of Bill C-4.
00:34:20.140And they were so happy that they did that.
00:34:23.160That's the bill that is for the, how do you call that, the conversion therapy.
00:34:33.860Oh, that's the, so they've, and Pierre Polyev voted for that.
00:34:39.040So what that means is if you are a parent and your kids has a gender dysphoria, you cannot, you cannot give to your kids and ask your kid to go to see a health professional to, for your kids to be able to accept his or her body.
00:35:08.560So if your kid is a boy and your boy is saying, your little boy is saying, oh, I may be a girl today.
00:35:16.160And the teacher or one of the parent or parents is saying, oh, it's okay.
00:35:25.640They, that kids will have hormones and they will have a therapy to transition to another sex.
00:35:34.080So, but the opposite to try to, you know, have that discussion with, with children about gender and trying to have them to accept their, their, their sex.
00:37:22.380So if they received a lot of calls against that, they won't say, they won't tell us that.
00:37:30.360So, but, you know, there's more and more protest in Canada.
00:37:34.980So I believe that more and more people understand what is happening there.
00:37:39.920You know, it's, you, you also mentioned the fact these drag story hours or story hours.
00:37:47.800How many other worthy people could be put there to talk to children?
00:37:53.480You say firefighters, police officers, military personnel, heroes who, who have won medals, but yet we're subjecting kids as young as, as, as seven or eight to cross-dressers, to drag queens.
00:38:10.160And yet we wouldn't take kids to a strip club.
00:38:12.640And yet, so we seem to think this is almost normal now.
00:38:16.700But why aren't we reaching out to those people?
00:38:20.140Well, we used to reach out to true Canadian heroes and let them share their stories with, with children.