The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - Freedom activist released after peaceful protest

00:00:00.000 Hey everyone, welcome back to the Alberta Roundup. I'm your host, Rachel Emanuel. We

00:00:15.400 have a lot of really great material for you guys today. So let's jump right into today's

00:00:19.240 topics. An Alberta freedom fighter says he was released from RCMP detainment after hundreds

00:00:24.020 of protesters showed up to the detachment where he was being held to protest for his

00:00:27.580 release. The head of Alberta's RCMP says plans for provincial policing is harming its members.

00:00:33.600 Two United Conservative Party leadership candidates dropped out of a recent leaders

00:00:37.380 forum at the last minute. You'll find out why today. We'll have, of course, our usual UCP

00:00:41.920 leadership update. And the Alberta Prosperity Project has absolutely eviscerated candidate

00:00:46.880 Leela Ahir after she accused them of being racist homophobes. All that and more in today's

00:00:52.040 episode. Let's jump into today's topics. Coutts border protester Alex Van Herc says the Alberta

00:00:56.960 RCMP dropped a condition which would force him to end contact with his best friend and

00:01:02.080 fellow Coutts border protester after 200 people showed up to an RCMP detachment to protest his

00:01:07.880 detainment. On Thursday evening, True North reported that 30 to 40 protesters gathered outside the RCMP

00:01:13.140 detachment in Fort McLeod, Alberta to demand Van Herc's release. As the night went on, that

00:01:17.900 crowd swelled to about 200 people who protested until Van Herc was released around 9pm. Van Herc told

00:01:23.660 me he was being detained for obstruction of a peace officer during demonstrations at Grace Life

00:01:28.100 Church. You guys probably remember the protest at Grace Life Church where James Coates was the

00:01:32.860 pastor. The RCMP went and erected barricades around the building to keep the community from

00:01:37.620 continuing to meet in breach of the COVID-19 restrictions. Van Herc went the day those

00:01:42.520 barricades were being erected and he's been photographed holding one end of a barricade while

00:01:46.880 the RCMP are holding another end. The RCMP told Van Herc's family on Thursday he would be

00:01:51.740 released within a matter of hours, but complications began after Van Herc turned himself in. At this

00:01:56.420 point, the RCMP added an additional charge of mischief over $5,000 stemming from the Coutts

00:02:01.460 border blockade. Van Herc said he knew the charge was coming and was still willing to sign the

00:02:05.440 documents until he saw a condition on the last page demanding he cease all contact with Marco

00:02:10.280 Van Hugenbos. I probably butchered that last name. I'm sorry, Marco. Marco is his best friend of 13

00:02:15.820 years who, as I mentioned, was also in attendance at the Coutts border protest. Van Herc told me he

00:02:20.460 wouldn't sign the documents, but the RCMP were eventually forced to release him as the crowd

00:02:24.960 swelled and he told them the crowd would continue to grow and the situation would escalate until he

00:02:28.960 was released. When I chatted with Van Herc on Friday morning, he was feeling very encouraged

00:02:33.620 and he told Canadians it's time to rise up against tyranny. Quote, the power is in the people, but the

00:02:39.560 people have to be there to do it. The head of Alberta's RCMP says a proposal for provincial policing

00:02:44.920 is harming its members. Last week, I told you guys about Justice Minister Tyler Shandoff's blueprint

00:02:50.200 for provincial policing. The proposal has not yet been confirmed. It's just an idea at this point

00:02:55.060 from the province, but they said they want to have a transition ready in case it's needed.

00:02:59.980 Now, Deputy Commissioner Curtis Zablocki said the province's proposal is impacting morale

00:03:05.040 and causing staff concern for their future. Quote, quite frankly, it's been very disruptive and

00:03:10.680 distracting for all our employees. Our staff are concerned about their futures and the futures of

00:03:15.560 their partners and their families, he told the Canadian press. Let's move into the controversy

00:03:20.480 of the week. I'm sure you guys have heard about the Alberta Prosperity Project by now. It's a group

00:03:25.020 which advocates for Alberta independence. They hosted a debate on Thursday evening with Rebel News

00:03:29.900 in Edmonton, but only three candidates attended. Just Brian Jean, Todd Lowen, and Daniel Smith bothered

00:03:35.260 to show up. Rebecca Schultz and Travis Taves dropped out late last week saying they did not know the

00:03:40.340 event was going to be a fundraiser for the APP, which supports Alberta independence. Travis Taves,

00:03:45.400 campaign chair, also told CBC News his team didn't realize what the APP advocates for,

00:03:50.280 which is interesting because on the first page of the APP's website, it states,

00:03:54.480 the road to freedom and prosperity is through independence. Huh, interesting. Guys, let's talk a

00:04:00.120 little bit about what we're going to be watching in the weeks ahead. At the APP debate on Thursday night,

00:04:04.380 Danielle Smith said she supports biological men participating in biological women's sports

00:04:09.000 in some instances. Candidates were asked about how they feel about gender transitions for minors,

00:04:14.120 as well as transgenders competing in sports. Danielle Smith said she thinks there should

00:04:19.360 be testosterone testing to determine who can compete in biological women's sports. 1.00

00:04:23.640 I think there should be, maybe it's a testosterone level testing, so that if you're above a certain

00:04:28.380 level, that perhaps, and there are some women as well who have a very high level of testosterone too.

00:04:33.640 She also said she has a non-binary family member. The other candidate said men should compete with men

00:04:38.940 and women should compete with women. I'm interested to hear what the other candidates have to say about

00:04:43.720 this issue. As well, what do you guys think? What is the solution to biological men who want to 0.76

00:04:48.640 compete in biological women's sports? Is there a place for them or not? All right, let's move into 1.00

00:04:52.960 our UCP leadership race update. We've already talked a lot about the candidates today. Of course,

00:04:57.280 they are dominating the headlines in Alberta these days. No surprise there, as someone will be

00:05:01.300 replacing Premier Jason Kenney as Premier on October 6th. But UCP leadership candidate and frontrunner,

00:05:07.560 Danielle Smith started off the week by responding to a voicemail, a rude voicemail, someone left

00:05:12.360 claiming to be from the Smith campaign. Smith said the voicemail is fake. In the voicemail,

00:05:18.000 the caller makes fun of the user for being vaccinated and uninvites them to a Smith campaign

00:05:23.400 event for their apparent communist political views. In the days since this controversy has emerged,

00:05:28.720 the Twitter user who posted the clip has protected their tweets, so I actually wasn't able to pull the

00:05:32.600 clip for you guys today. Smith responded by saying the voicemail is clearly a prank.

00:05:36.980 And she told people to avoid jumping to conclusions. This isn't the only incident we've had this week.

00:05:43.080 Candidate Lila Ahir says her personal and public Facebook accounts have been hacked and are being

00:05:47.700 used for sexual exploitation. Ahir's accounts were first hacked last week. And it seemed like a bit

00:05:53.060 of a joke at first. She had a photo of a green Lamborghini being updated on her public Facebook

00:05:57.520 page. A lot of people got a bit of a laugh about it. But in the days following, that breach grew much

00:06:02.920 more sinister as hackers began using her personal account to, quote, purchase nefarious and disgusting

00:06:08.340 content under my name, end quote. That's what Ahir said. What this means is that the hackers were

00:06:12.760 posting child porn to Ahir's private Facebook page, and she was getting notifications in the middle of

00:06:17.820 the night from Facebook that her account was abusing Facebook's policies. The leadership candidate held a

00:06:23.220 tearful press conference about the incident this week. Take a listen. To whomever perpetrated

00:06:27.920 this attack on myself and my family, you will not win. I will not back down.

00:06:39.860 Danielle Smith also responded to the hack saying, quote, there has been an uptick in underhanded attacks

00:06:45.260 on conservative women in the last week. However, I note that not everyone thinks Ahir is sincere.

00:06:50.320 Some people have reached out to me to say this is all a ploy for attention because she's polling

00:06:55.240 solo in the UCP leadership race right now. She's polling at the very bottom along with candidate

00:07:00.180 Raj Nsani, who, as I've told you guys in previous episodes, has positioned herself as the antidote to

00:07:06.180 Danielle Smith, the frontrunner, Danielle Smith. Let's move into the Alberta politics funny moment of

00:07:11.100 the week. The Alberta Prosperity Project has absolutely eviscerated Leela Ahir after she accused him

00:07:16.880 for being responsible for racism, white supremacy, and homophobia. Ahir declined to attend their

00:07:22.960 debate on Thursday night with Rebel News in Edmonton, but she said candidates that did

00:07:27.080 participate are responsible for, quote, white supremacy, homophobia, and racism, end quote.

00:07:31.940 The APP clapped back in a statement. Dennis Moji president said Ahir is following in the

00:07:36.600 footsteps of Premier Jason Kenney, who has similarly mischaracterized dissidents of his leadership.

00:07:41.260 He also said Ahir is likely to lose her seat in the next election. In a statement to True North,

00:07:47.240 Moji wrote, quote, both Miss Ahir and Mr. Kenney have failed to understand that their poor performance,

00:07:52.680 lack of integrity, lying, and spineless failure to stand up for Albertans have been at the root of

00:07:57.280 the APP movement. He also said, quote, should we be surprised that Miss Ahir has such appalling 0.94

00:08:02.180 cognitive dissonance and lack of decorum? Of course not. She's at the highest echelon of cancel culture, 0.71

00:08:08.400 an isolated socialist ideology from which she refuses to be educated, end quote. Ouch. I would

00:08:14.580 not want to be on the receiving end of that statement, though I will say some of you are

00:08:17.940 equally as ruthless online. Okay, everyone, that's it. Thank you so much for tuning into the Alberta

00:08:23.140 Roundup today. If you like what I have to do or what my colleagues have to do, please support True

00:08:27.480 North and this podcast by visiting donate.tnc.news. Thanks so much, and we'll talk next week.

00:08:38.400 We'll see you next week.

00:08:47.940 We'll see you next week.

00:08:48.000 We'll see you next week.

00:08:48.040 Bye.

The Alberta Roundup with Isaac Lamoureux - August 27, 2022

Freedom activist released after peaceful protest

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