The Candice Malcolm Show - Poilievre CRUSHES byelection with 80% win

00:00:00.000 Welcome to the Candace Malcolm Show. My name is Chris Sims. I'm the Alberta Director for the

00:00:08.320 Canadian Taxpayers Federation. Candace is being ever so kind in letting me sit in her chair a

00:00:13.800 little bit this summer. So thank you for making us a part of your day with the show. Lots to talk

00:00:18.600 about. Let's jump in right off the top. So there was a big by-election just to the north of where

00:00:24.700 I am here in Lethbridge, Alberta. It was in Battle River, Crowfoot. And yes, the Conservative Party

00:00:30.620 leader Pierre Polyev is now officially a Member of Parliament once again. He was elected with just

00:00:37.160 over 80% support. If we can pull that up, I think we have a screenshot from Elections Canada showing

00:00:43.920 what is more or less the final vote tally from last night. So it was just over 80% in total that

00:00:51.740 Pierre Polyev captured last night for his riding. For folks who aren't familiar with the riding,

00:00:57.480 this is a huge geographic area, basically just to the east of Calgary, and it runs up against

00:01:03.700 the line and the border of Saskatchewan. Towards the south of the riding, there is Drumheller,

00:01:09.520 which is of course the famous place with the big International Dinosaur Museum. They also have a

00:01:14.600 prison there, so there's lots of law enforcement jobs. And up towards the north of the riding,

00:01:19.480 there is Canadian Forces Base CFB Wainwright, which is one of the busiest army bases in Canada,

00:01:25.060 actually. And in between, there's Stettler, so a lot of rodeo folks there. So you kind of get this

00:01:30.780 mix of like Alberta culture all pooling in Battle River, Crowfoot. It's been considered a safe seat

00:01:37.760 since time immemorial for whatever happens to be the Conservative brand of party going on. So Pierre

00:01:43.640 Polyev won with more than 80% of the vote last night. We do have a brief clip for you. If we are

00:01:49.420 your news starting the day, here's Pierre Polyev, a portion of it from last night.

00:01:54.380 To anyone who has been knocked down, but has got back up and kept on going, you haven't given up,

00:02:00.220 so I won't give up. Together, we will work together. We will fight together. We will sacrifice

00:02:05.900 together to restore the opportunity that our grandparents left for us so that we can leave it

00:02:12.000 leave it for our grandchildren, so that we can once again restore a country that is strong,

00:02:18.420 self-reliant, and sovereign. That is the country we're in this for. That is why we stay united.

00:02:24.400 That is why we go forward. May God keep our land glorious and free.

00:02:28.380 So really happy to hear Pierre Polyev commit to fighting the looming ban on the sale of normal

00:02:36.920 gasoline and diesel-powered vehicles. Mark Carney and his government would refer to it as the EV

00:02:43.000 mandate. I'm worried by just calling it the EV mandate. It kind of slips under the door and people

00:02:48.120 don't realize how important this is. It's actually a ban. The federal government is going to make it

00:02:54.240 illegal for you to be able to go to a car dealership and purchase a gasoline or diesel-powered

00:02:59.520 vehicle. Those restrictions start in like four months, okay? As we spoke at length with Dan

00:03:07.680 McTague yesterday on the Candace Malcolm show, this is going to start skewing the vehicle market,

00:03:13.620 which people depend upon for everything, really, when it comes to getting to work and driving to

00:03:18.540 school, etc., okay? This is going to start skewing the market in about four months' time.

00:03:22.860 And by 2035, it's going to be a flat-out ban. So it's really important, and we're happy to hear 0.53

00:03:29.340 that Polyev is committing to making it a campaign of his. He even called it that once he gets back

00:03:34.740 into the House of Commons. He's also committed to fighting the industrial carbon tax. So as of right

00:03:41.160 now, we're kind of in a lull when it comes to the federal carbon tax because the consumer carbon tax

00:03:46.900 is gone. It's not actually just reduced to zero. They went in and they excised the actual

00:03:51.820 functionality of the carbon tax. So it is gone. So that is why typically gasoline and diesel is

00:03:57.880 around 20-ish cents cheaper this summer than it was last summer. So that's because tax fighters like

00:04:04.220 you, normal people, actually got somebody like Mark Carney to blink on the consumer carbon tax. But

00:04:10.120 we all know that it's not over. Carney is cooking up a big new industrial carbon tax. They don't have it

00:04:16.720 in place yet. It's going to hit things like fuel refineries. So it's going to make things like

00:04:22.100 gasoline and diesel suddenly cost more. It's going to hit things like utility companies. So if you use

00:04:27.720 natural gas for your home heating or even your electricity, it's going to affect that. It's going

00:04:33.580 to hit things like fertilizer plants. What else do farmers need right now but an enormous cost increase

00:04:40.080 in pain in the neck like a big industrial carbon tax, which in turn will make food cost more again.

00:04:45.860 Also, for folks who are watching in Ontario, send an email to Ontario Premier Doug Ford, okay? Because

00:04:52.680 Mark Carney's industrial carbon tax is, in their words, going to decimate the steel industry there,

00:04:59.460 okay? So it's very good to hear Polyev commit to fighting things like the looming ban on gasoline and

00:05:06.340 diesel-powered cars, the industrial carbon tax, and to keep promising to fight the censorship laws,

00:05:13.580 okay? We've got big censorship laws. They're already in place here in Canada. More of them are on the way.

00:05:19.900 And there's a ton of mainstream media that are on government payroll, which is an enormous conflict

00:05:25.440 of interests because journalists should never be paid by the government. So interesting to see. I'm

00:05:32.160 looking forward to seeing this next season of the House of Commons now that things are getting a

00:05:36.760 little bit more back to normal in the fall. Another thing we're keeping an eye on, especially here in

00:05:41.700 Alberta, is that Alberta Premier Daniel Smith is going to be holding a cabinet meeting today.

00:05:48.140 And usually that would be kind of a nothing burger because we're in the middle of summer and who cares,

00:05:52.780 but taxpayers care. Anybody who cares about government transparency cares because, of course,

00:05:58.700 a really strange thing happened a little while ago. August 1st, the Friday before a long weekend,

00:06:05.860 a change was quietly made to the transparency rules when it comes to spending taxpayers' money.

00:06:11.400 A rule that required politicians and bureaucrats, senior government officials, whenever they spend

00:06:17.400 more than a hundred bucks of taxpayers' money, up until recently, they had to post that receipt on the

00:06:22.780 internet for everybody to see. You didn't have to go through a paywall. You didn't have to wait for

00:06:27.780 your FOI documents to come through, possibly waiting months for that. Okay, everybody could see. And

00:06:33.580 it's important to be able to see an itemized receipt because you probably care if somebody is spending

00:06:39.180 your money renting a Corolla or a Corvette, if somebody's spending your money buying a Subway sandwich

00:06:45.640 or a lobster dinner. Those itemized detailed receipts matter. Strangely, that requirement just

00:06:52.440 disappeared on a Friday. So, Premier Daniel Smith was away at the time and she just got back recently

00:06:59.520 from a trade trip to Mexico. When she was asked about it at her Alberta Next panel, she said she

00:07:05.100 was confused by this too, that they were going to be figuring out what happened and, quote, reversing it

00:07:11.240 at their next cabinet meeting. That's today. So, we're definitely keeping an eye on that here because

00:07:17.360 taxpayers demand that level of transparency. Speaking of transparency and accountability,

00:07:23.500 you know how we're able to do that? You know how everybody in Canada is able to speak truth to power

00:07:30.420 as the kids on the left say? You know how everybody is able to keep tabs on their politician, their

00:07:36.000 member of parliament and speak up when they're screwing up? It's because we have something called

00:07:40.280 free expression and freedom of assembly and association. These are fundamentally important because

00:07:47.000 without them, a chill goes through everybody, and then they start getting scared of people who are

00:07:52.940 in power and who are taking their money. Keep in mind that the taxes we're paying here in Canada

00:07:59.940 are costing the average worker more than the cost of homes, food, and clothing combined.

00:08:08.860 For that amount of money, we better be getting gold-plated services and a very transparent government.

00:08:14.500 How do we hold government to account? Well, Christine Van Gein is an excellent constitutional

00:08:20.700 lawyer. She knows all about this. Let's find out. Joining me now is the litigation director for the

00:08:27.440 Canadian Constitution Foundation, the CCF, Christine Van Gein. Christine, thank you so much for joining us

00:08:33.580 today. Yeah, my pleasure, Chris. So, so much to talk about on the freedom angle of things, and I usually like

00:08:40.620 to introduce you to the audience as one of the people who helped get that wonderful ruling coming from the

00:08:47.620 federal court level against the invocation of the Emergencies Act. And was that including, in particular, the

00:08:55.500 freezing of the bank accounts? I think that it was, right? Yeah, yeah. So, we had a legal challenge to Justin Trudeau's

00:09:04.240 invocation of the Emergencies Act in response to the Freedom Convoy in 2022. And we said that that invocation

00:09:11.740 was unjustified, that the threshold to invoke that piece of legislation, which is very high, had not been met.

00:09:19.720 And the judge agreed with us. And the judge also agreed with us that the freezing of bank accounts was a

00:09:26.120 unconstitutional search and seizure, and that the prohibitions on gatherings across the country was

00:09:33.320 also an unconstitutional violation of the right to freedom of expression. So, a big win in that case,

00:09:39.520 although I'll remind everyone that it is under appeal. So, we are still awaiting the outcome of that

00:09:45.100 appeal, which was heard in February. Wonderful. That was a huge win. I remember feeling kind of a

00:09:52.020 collective shift in what is often referred to loosely as the freedom movement, those who want

00:09:57.400 smaller, more accountable government in this country, and not big bossy ones who get to take

00:10:01.440 all of our money and freeze our bank accounts. Because it comes down to this. If you can't gather,

00:10:06.560 and if you can't protest and express yourself, you can't hold government to account, which is why the

00:10:11.740 Taxpayers Federation was also opposed to the invocation of the Emergencies Act. And I must say, anecdotally,

00:10:17.140 I've heard from plenty of people who are still scared. They're not even joking. They're still

00:10:21.660 scared of, oh, the government might freeze my bank account if I speak up. Like, I can't.

00:10:26.820 We heard a lot of that. We heard so much of that. It was really a really difficult time to be a

00:10:32.240 charity operating in Canada. And some people still feel this way. I understand it, although I don't

00:10:38.740 think that there is a risk of that at this point. But that's why we need to push back on that kind of

00:10:43.480 government overreach. Big time, which is why I wanted to get you on today, because I know that you guys

00:10:49.000 are really following particularly what is happening out in Atlantic Canada. If I'm singling out a place,

00:10:55.360 it's going to be Nova Scotia, where they've got a huge ban on what people often refer to as walking

00:11:00.580 in the woods. So not just a campfire ban. I'm from British Columbia. I grew up around wildfires. I know

00:11:06.360 that they're super frightening. But there, they'll have certain regions which are closed down at certain

00:11:11.700 times. Or they will say things like you can't bring a hot ATV in there with a hot exhaust, which can start

00:11:17.740 fires. And obviously, you can't have a campfire. But you can still go walking your dog, or you can

00:11:23.120 go hiking, or you can go fishing. Where I think a lot of people were kind of taken aback by the change

00:11:28.880 in Nova Scotia, of all of a sudden, it's nobody's allowed in the forest, we think. And it's a $25,000

00:11:36.000 ban? Yeah, it's a $25,000 fine or $25,000 fine. Although with taxes and victims fees, there's individuals who

00:11:46.740 have received this fine. I think it amounts to closer to $28,000. So yeah, we think that this

00:11:53.120 is disproportionate, it is going too far. It is banning activities that don't pose risk, because

00:12:00.520 the government is kind of playing on this fear and control narrative. It is a lockdown of the forest.

00:12:08.880 And we're really opposed to this kind of thing. Of course, ban fires, ban campfires, ban, I appreciate

00:12:18.480 your comment about ATVs, because those do start fires. But the number one cause of wildfires in

00:12:24.500 Nova Scotia, it's actually different from British Columbia, the number one cause is arson. And the

00:12:30.540 most recent fire in Nova Scotia, which I understand is under control, was caused by human activity.

00:12:39.260 That is the main cause of most fires is arson. So punish arsonists, I mean, lay down the law,

00:12:46.620 put people who intentionally start fires that risk human lives, and which destroy property, put those

00:12:54.700 people in jail and give them big penalties. But don't punish someone because they took their dog

00:12:59.900 for a walk in the woods. That's bizarre. And it's completely irrational.

00:13:04.380 We actually have a clip about that in that particular fire. It's Tim Houston, the Premier of

00:13:10.540 Nova Scotia and a fire official talking about the fire, which is for folks who are in Nova Scotia,

00:13:16.780 or who have lived there before. It's an area called Bears Lake. It's typically kind of a big box

00:13:22.860 shopping area just to the south of Halifax. So folks who want to go out and get their Costco fix,

00:13:27.820 etc. will drive down there and do some shopping around it and kind of on this low hill is a big

00:13:34.380 forested area. So let's take a listen to that. I understand that you're not able to say the cause

00:13:39.980 of the Susie Lake fire under investigation. Are there early indications that this would be human

00:13:45.500 cause? I know that that is largely what causes forest fires in this part of the country.

00:13:49.100 Yeah, so the cause of the cause of the fire was related to human activity. It was an open fire.

00:13:57.340 Can you share the specific location of where that open fire was found?

00:14:01.580 I don't have that to share today. No, just we can share that it was human activity,

00:14:07.820 but it's an ongoing investigation. So some of those details I don't have to provide.

00:14:11.580 Was there a homeless encampment in this area where the fire, where your crews responded to?

00:14:16.380 I think again, sorry, but I think like the investigation in time will look at, you know,

00:14:24.540 the what, the why, the how, all those types of things. But for right now, the focus is just on

00:14:30.780 containing the fire, fighting the fires, and just kind of reiterating to Nova Scotia is that it's a,

00:14:36.460 it's a risky situation and just obey the, obey the laws that are in place right now.

00:14:41.100 So the scuttlebutt slash rumor going around the area is that there was a homeless encampment in the

00:14:48.540 area and that that is where the fire got started. Speaking from personal experience, I grew up in

00:14:54.300 the Fraser Canyon, Fraser Valley, and especially the last few years before I left British Columbia,

00:14:59.340 homelessness was a major problem because housing was absolutely outrageous and it was really starting

00:15:04.860 to hurt the working poor. And then you'd wind up with these kind of encampments up logging roads,

00:15:09.420 and there's people who are trying to cook or stay warm, etc. And that's where some fires were

00:15:14.380 starting. We're hearing, Christine, that apparently the government is reluctant to move folks out of

00:15:20.620 the woods, even if they're living there, even if they think it's going to cause a risk of a fire

00:15:25.900 starting. Is this where we're going, where we wind up, is this called uneven application of the law,

00:15:31.100 or am I using lawyer talk incorrectly there? Look, so I think that the idea of giving a $25,000

00:15:38.860 fine to a homeless person is obviously silly. They do not have a home. They do not have resources to

00:15:46.860 pay a fine like that. Although I would say few people do. Few people can afford to pay a fine like

00:15:52.460 this. There has been reporting on CBC that people who work with the homeless community have been going

00:16:01.740 in. They have a permit to enter the woods and trying to explain to people at the encampments

00:16:06.940 why they should leave, why they shouldn't be in the woods. But my understanding is that the

00:16:13.260 proclamation is not being enforced against them. And I don't think it should be, because I don't think

00:16:19.580 it should be enforced against anyone. But I do think that it should, there should, they should not

00:16:24.860 be lighting fires. I think that part of it should be enforced. And there should be penalties associated

00:16:30.700 with that. But I do not think that merely being in the woods should be enforced against either

00:16:37.420 against the people who are living without a home in the woods, or people who are walking their dogs,

00:16:43.580 or foraging for wildflowers, or birdwatching, or picnicking.

00:16:50.460 Or any of the other activities that aren't typically known to cause fires.

00:16:54.220 Punish people who start fires. Completely reasonable.

00:16:58.060 Now that's a lot of crazy talk. Actually punish people who are committing arson and deliberately

00:17:03.100 starting fire. And look, there's like, there's all kinds of bizarre hysteria around.

00:17:06.780 Some say the bubbles in an arrow truffle piece can take 34 seconds to melt in your mouth.

00:17:12.220 Sometimes the very amount you're stuck at the same red light.

00:17:15.900 Rich, creamy, chocolatey arrow truffle. Feel the arrow bubbles melt. It's mind bubbling.

00:17:23.260 The idea that people walking in the woods pose some risk, even if they are not doing anything that

00:17:29.340 starts a fire. And so many people I have seen make these claims that, oh, if you're walking in the

00:17:35.020 woods, you might do something else that causes a fire, like dropping a cigarette, or going on an ATV,

00:17:41.820 or burning something. Or I've even heard the claim multiple times that someone might drop a plastic

00:17:49.260 wrapper or water bottle and the light magnifies through this and cause sparks a fire. I mean,

00:17:56.060 this is really paranoid, hysterical thinking. And it's also this mindset where every person out of

00:18:02.860 their home is a potential criminal and needs to be treated as such by the government. And that is not

00:18:07.820 an appropriate way to govern. That's governing through fear of your own citizens. And it's

00:18:13.660 really wrong and contrary to our most fundamental values.

00:18:16.940 And it will start quickly down that slippery slope of really restricting people's free expression.

00:18:22.780 I'm not even kidding. Like, you know, at the Taxpayers Federation, you were with the Taxpayers

00:18:26.780 Federation. You know that we will do some stunts. And so I remember distinctly, I've got like a

00:18:32.860 30 foot tall balloon man, okay, he's still in my garage. And like, I set him up at different

00:18:38.780 places in order to get attention and the insurance that you had to get and the permissions that you

00:18:43.900 had to get. Because it was all around this, okay, what if somebody is really distracted by what you're

00:18:49.100 doing? Or what if somebody is really frightened by what you're doing? Like, there was all sorts of like,

00:18:54.460 safety ism to use your language that was rolling into this. Before we move on to your excellent

00:19:00.300 report on safety ism and how it could be brooding our freedoms in Canada exactly to what I just said.

00:19:06.380 Where do we stand on the Nova Scotia slash Atlantic Canada issue? Like, is your group fighting it

00:19:11.900 directly? Are you challenging it in court? Do you guys have dates? How can people help?

00:19:16.220 Yeah, thanks for asking. So we have filed for a judicial review of the proclamation under the

00:19:22.620 Forest Act that bans people from entering the woods. If you want to support our legal fund,

00:19:29.180 you can visit the ccf.ca slash donate. And we will be bringing this as a public interest litigant,

00:19:35.580 which means as an organization, because this is the kind of work that we do at the CCF. We have

00:19:40.940 standing generally to sue on behalf of all people in Nova Scotia. Excellent. All right. And one other

00:19:46.940 thing I wanted to touch on here, it's much closer to home here in Alberta. There was the Christian

00:19:52.060 singer person from the United States. I listened to an interview with him on a podcast

00:19:55.900 the other day. I was surprised to hear he said he's been coming up to Canada for like 20 years

00:20:02.220 and doing concerts and doing outreach with his congregation, I would describe it.

00:20:07.420 And so they're going to be having a concert. They're actually holding it on the lawn of the

00:20:11.180 legislature in Alberta, which I found really interesting. Are you following this from kind

00:20:15.980 of a free expression angle and like a safetyism angle as well?

00:20:19.500 Yeah, actually, both as well as freedom of religion. So Sean Foyt, who's this Christian

00:20:25.260 American worship singer, who has sometimes uses language that I would not use. And he says things

00:20:33.020 that I don't agree with. But he also performs worship music, which is a constitutionally protected

00:20:40.220 form of expression and expression of religion. And those are his rights, even in Canada as an American.

00:20:47.820 And it's also the right of people to attend his worship services and listen to his music.

00:20:54.460 And the fact that a lot of municipalities across Canada, mostly in Eastern Canada,

00:21:01.020 either denied or pulled his park permits to perform in parks is really, really unreasonable.

00:21:08.540 I think it was an unjustified use of their discretion, sort of similar to this famous old case

00:21:14.300 case called Ron Corelli and Du Plessis. I've written about this for the hub. But essentially,

00:21:19.980 that was a case where the premier of Nova Scotia didn't like the Jehovah's Witnesses at the time.

00:21:24.940 So he pulled the liquor license of a famous restaurant owner in Montreal, who was a Jehovah's Witness, 1.00

00:21:33.740 essentially to punish him for having a religion that the premier disagreed with. And that's sort of

00:21:40.780 the same scenario playing out here, there are not really legitimate reasons to pull his permits.

00:21:50.300 A lot of cities have justified it sort of saying, Oh, well, it's a safety issue that we, we shouldn't

00:21:57.660 have many too many people in parks, it's just ridiculous or concerts in parks all the time.

00:22:03.740 Quebec City said he was too controversial and artists, which is content based restrictions on speech

00:22:09.580 and religion, which is inappropriate. Montreal claimed that he needed a permit to perform a worship

00:22:15.260 service inside a church, which of course you don't, it's ordinary use of the church. So it really is

00:22:21.340 targeting on the basis of his content, which you don't need to agree with to think that he has a

00:22:27.340 right to express it, you just, we have a right to freedom of religion. However, it expresses itself in

00:22:34.060 this country. Isn't that the whole point of freedom of expression? I mean, really, if I agree with

00:22:39.740 everything you're saying, I don't need it written down in some big building. Absolutely. Well, your

00:22:45.020 right to freedom of expression only has meaning if you're allowed to express things that other people

00:22:49.740 disagree with. If you're only allowed to express things everyone says are unobjectionable and agree with,

00:22:57.180 that the right just is, is just to be a boring, ordinary person who never causes any controversy

00:23:08.060 whatsoever. You know, the civil rights movement in the United States was possible because of freedom

00:23:14.540 of expression. This is a right for all people, the right to freedom of expression. And it's actually how

00:23:20.060 we define the contours of every other right that we have, whether it's freedom of religion or equality

00:23:25.980 rights or freedom of the press. I must say it kind of reminds me of, I forget when it was,

00:23:31.660 but it was recent when the commentator, American commentator Tucker Carlson was coming up to Canada

00:23:37.340 and he was holding a couple of like big speaking events. And there were actual, like, I don't

00:23:42.940 remember if it was an MP or an MLA or both. There were actual like lawmakers who were saying we should

00:23:49.260 arrest him at the border and not let him in. Like it was embarrassing as if, you know, Rachel Maddow were

00:23:55.580 coming up here from MSNBC and that any reasonable person would say we should arrest her and not let 0.99

00:24:01.260 her talk about her radical left-wing ideas. Like, who cares? Isn't that the point of free expression? 0.98

00:24:06.940 And if your arguments are awesome, it should be able to withstand some free expression and criticism.

00:24:12.520 It reminded me of that.

00:24:14.120 Yeah. I mean, the idea that Rachel Maddow would, anyone would say she should be arrested if she came

00:24:19.820 into Canada, that would, that would never happen. And, and look, there's plenty I disagree with about,

00:24:24.900 with Tucker. There's plenty I disagree with about Rachel Maddow. And I think that it's, it's, it's

00:24:31.100 useful to have their speech scrutinized, analyzed and taken apart when it's wrong. That's actually how

00:24:39.140 we counter bad ideas by allowing them to be considered and rejected. Otherwise you drive

00:24:44.820 things underground and make murders out of, uh, out of people. So that's actually what, what the CBC did

00:24:51.180 with Sean Foy. I think the fact that he's been coming here for 20 years and most people had never

00:24:55.480 heard about it, uh, they sure have heard of it now because of CBC trying to have it shut down.

00:25:02.780 That's a perfect example and test of exactly what we're talking about here. Briefly, I will point

00:25:07.340 out that this even affects the Canadian Taxpayers Federation from time to time, because I remember

00:25:11.780 distinctly a few years ago when Stéphane Guibault was still the environment minister, we found a

00:25:17.840 government report, a federal government report, which was recommending a special tax on pickup

00:25:23.360 trucks and SUVs. It was right there in their language. It was right there in the appendices

00:25:27.840 of their report. We had it in black and white. We talked about it. We reported on it, as we would

00:25:33.060 say with the Taxpayers Federation, and he called it disinformation and misinformation as a sitting

00:25:38.800 minister of the crown. So that's when you're just like, whoa, how, how long are we going to have

00:25:43.600 to wait until he starts saying that you shouldn't be allowed to say disinformation and misinformation?

00:25:49.280 We get into that kind of online harms language realm, and that's why we have to be able to protect

00:25:54.160 our right for free expression. I wanted to dovetail this, uh, your excellent coverage of this with,

00:25:59.600 you guys have a special report that has been put out on what you refer to as safetyism and how the

00:26:06.560 state slash government is now using safetyism and it could start trampling our rights. Can you expand on

00:26:13.280 that a little bit? Yeah. So safetyism refers to a cultural or even institution or government

00:26:20.240 tendency to prioritize physical and even emotional safety above all other values, you know, at the

00:26:28.480 expense of those other values, including freedom, personal development, open debate and discourse.

00:26:34.800 And look, safety is of course important, but Canadian governments have exploited emergencies or the sense

00:26:42.880 of danger historically in the most grotesque ways. Um, they've used it, the, the rationale of safety

00:26:51.440 to shut down Sean Foyt, to lock down the forests in Nova Scotia. They've used it to justify censorship,

00:26:58.240 surveillance, or restrictions on basic freedoms, all in the name of protecting people from discomfort

00:27:04.960 or offense or some type of perceived risk or harm. And it's this culture where no risk is tolerable

00:27:12.160 whatsoever. That cellophane wrapper in the woods is apparently so dangerous that you're not allowed

00:27:17.200 to walk your dog in the forest. So in this report, safety above all, which you can download for free

00:27:25.040 at the ccf.ca slash safetyism. We go through the historic instances where governments have overreached and

00:27:34.720 eroded and violated civil liberties in the name of safety. And they're really disturbing examples from

00:27:42.800 the invocation of the war measures act in response to the October crisis in 1970, where habeas corpus

00:27:49.680 was suspended, where homes were searched without warrants, where people were arrested and detained

00:27:56.800 incommunicado for weeks. There was the detainment of an internment of Japanese Canadians in 1942,

00:28:08.160 following Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. And Japanese Canadians were rounded up across the country

00:28:14.880 and put into shacks in interior BC without adequate heating. Their property was seized by the government

00:28:22.480 and sold. And then that money was used to finance their own internment because the government told

00:28:29.600 people that Japanese Canadians were too dangerous because of this, you know, inaccurate risk view that

00:28:37.920 they would be spying on Canadians. So they all had to be proactively put into these internment camps.

00:28:44.880 There was the G20 mass arrests. There's the practice of random vehicle stops where police in the name of

00:28:53.840 public safety have the power to pull over any driver on the road there, which is often administered in a

00:29:01.200 way that is racially biased. There was the long gun registry, which was justified in the name of safety and

00:29:09.200 essentially created the risk of paper based criminalization of lawful gun owners. It was used to

00:29:18.080 justify to go full circle in this conversation, the Justin Trudeau invocation of the Emergencies Act.

00:29:24.640 So when government says, this is for your own good, you need to be very, very wary of those types of

00:29:32.160 claims because their goal is often going to operate in a way that really erodes our basic freedoms.

00:29:42.080 Just to wrap up here, Christine, excellent points. If I can go out on a limb here as somebody who was

00:29:49.280 born and raised here and who has two kids who have gone through the school systems, we've also

00:29:53.040 alternatively homeschooled from time to time. I find that quite often this idea of big daddy government

00:30:00.000 taking care of everything, everything the government says is fine and it's in order to be safe.

00:30:05.600 OK, that kind of thinking really gets baked in here and it's different. Like here in Alberta,

00:30:12.960 it's a bit different, but it's really baked in. I found from experience of living in places like

00:30:17.760 Ontario and living in places like Nova Scotia, not to generalize and know everybody is different,

00:30:22.240 but just generally speaking as a culture. And I think that that does start in the schools and it starts in

00:30:29.200 kids' books, which is why I'm bringing this up. You wrote a kids' book. I think it's called

00:30:34.400 Maple's Garden and it's all about the fundamental need for free expression. Up in the United States,

00:30:41.520 they'd call it free speech, but free expression, free speech. Why did you think it was important to

00:30:50.000 help little kids start appreciating a fundamental freedom like this?

00:30:54.720 So it is so important that children understand the right to freedom of expression at an early age

00:31:01.440 because it's going to be our children who are the guardians of our civil liberties for the next

00:31:06.400 generation. And I, as a civil liberties lawyer, I watch every day these freedoms get eroded. And I think

00:31:14.080 the courts are not the bulwark against the government overreach that we would like them to be. What we

00:31:22.080 need to do is educate our children and create a culture where civil liberties is valued. And so that's

00:31:30.240 why I wrote this book, Maple's Garden, beautifully illustrated by a Canadian artist who I actually

00:31:37.280 grew up with, who has had her own issues with freedom of expression. As an artist, she drew pictures

00:31:46.000 of the convoy and she had other artists attack her. And if you can't have free expression as an artist,

00:31:54.080 if you can't explore controversial as an artist, I mean, what is even the point of art if you can't

00:32:00.080 do that? So I was so proud to collaborate with Lisa on this project. Maple's Garden is going to be

00:32:06.320 available as of September 2nd and it's available for pre-order right now. It's available September 2nd?

00:32:14.320 Yeah, that's the launch date. Did you pick Atlas Shrug Day on purpose or was that just a coincidence?

00:32:19.520 Of course you would know that, Chris. No, that's a coincidence, but yeah. I should say it's on

00:32:28.240 purpose, but it was a coincidence. So I love that. For folks who aren't Ayn Rand nuts,

00:32:32.800 Atlas Shrugged Day is typically referred to as September 2nd because that's one of the opening

00:32:36.720 sentences of her book, Atlas Shrugged, which is all about human spirit, individuality, and freedom.

00:32:42.720 Christine, this has just been wonderful. I will tell a tale out of school. When I'm in a long-form

00:32:48.160 interview and somebody starts asking me a really complicated legal question about something like

00:32:52.800 free expression, I'll be like, you know who's really smart about that? Christine Van Gein.

00:32:57.520 Go watch her show. So where can people watch your show?

00:33:02.560 So I have a few shows. I am a very busy lady. So I have a YouTube channel, which you can find on

00:33:08.880 YouTube by searching the Canadian Constitution Foundation. I have a podcast called Not Reserving

00:33:15.520 Judgment, which you can find wherever you get your podcasts, Apple, Spotify, as well as on YouTube.

00:33:21.360 And then I host a national broadcast television program called Canadian Justice, which is available

00:33:27.760 on the news forum, which is a basic cable channel that if you have cable, you will have in your house.

00:33:33.680 Wonderful. Christine Van Gein, litigation director for the Canadian Constitution Foundation.

00:33:38.160 Thank you so much for joining us on the Candace Malcolm Show.

00:33:41.760 Yeah, my pleasure.

00:33:44.240 Folks, you heard it directly from her. If we don't all band together, so all these alternative news

00:33:50.160 outlets, all of these independent outlets, these advocacy groups like the Canadian Taxpayers

00:33:55.360 Federation, like the Canadian Constitution Foundation, government is just going to get bigger.

00:34:00.240 And government is just going to make you pay for them getting bigger and bigger

00:34:04.160 and telling you to shut up more and more and more. So we got to build this side of the movement.

00:34:10.080 So if you have somebody in your circle who is open to the idea of maybe even just a kid's book,

00:34:16.960 encouraging kids to be able to stand up for themselves, to speak their minds,

00:34:21.680 to talk back to their teachers, perhaps, and to stand up for themselves.

00:34:26.000 Make sure you share this episode. Make sure you go to the Canadian Constitution Foundation,

00:34:31.840 sign up for free for their emails. I happen to know for a fact you can even watch like a mini course

00:34:38.240 on the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and how it affects us and our Constitution for free

00:34:43.600 on their website. These are from like trained lawyers who wear gowns and robes and stuff.

00:34:48.000 They're really smart. So this is how we grow the movement, okay? And the best way right now to grow

00:34:53.760 the movement is to head on over to Juno News. Make sure you subscribe and make sure you share this episode.

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The Candice Malcolm Show - August 19, 2025

Poilievre CRUSHES byelection with 80% win

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