The Critical Compass Podcast - How Chris Scott Became an Alberta Independence Advocate

00:00:00.960 So, as it says on the screen behind me, my name is Christopher Scott and I'm the owner

00:00:07.800 of the Whistlestop Cafe in Muir, Alberta.

00:00:10.060 How many of you have been to the Whistlestop Cafe in Muir, Alberta?

00:00:13.800 Awesome.

00:00:14.720 Right on.

00:00:15.220 Well, for the rest of you, you have something to aspire to.

00:00:19.680 My journey that led me here is completely uninteresting.

00:00:25.600 It doesn't involve police or rallies or...

00:00:28.100 Wait a minute.

00:00:28.740 Hold on a second.

00:00:30.000 My journey that got me here is actually pretty interesting.

00:00:33.920 It involves police, arrests, seizure of my business and my building.

00:00:39.980 I don't even know how many times I've been to court.

00:00:43.420 It involves politicians talking to me and some running away from me, which is really interesting.

00:00:49.220 but the biggest thing was experiencing those things from the perspective of someone who

00:00:59.500 didn't understand what was going on i was witnessing things going on around me without

00:01:05.360 even realizing how they could happen or why they could happen and i think a lot of people are in

00:01:10.560 that same position right like i was i was 40 years old before i ever bothered to really read the

00:01:17.960 Constitution and the Chartered Rights of Freedoms. I was 42 years old before I bothered to try and

00:01:25.260 understand how politics works, how civics works, any of those things. I remained ignorant in these 0.78

00:01:31.200 things most of my adult life. And looking back now, I actually feel a little bit ashamed because

00:01:39.700 I spent all that time complaining about the things that I was witness to, the things that

00:01:43.600 were going on around me and i hadn't bothered to find out why they were happening or what i could

00:01:48.540 do and it actually wasn't until it wasn't until i was i was sleeping on a concrete slab

00:01:58.360 in the drunk tank of all places even though i was 100 sober and i was in there for the crime

00:02:07.160 of protesting government policy on my own property that i owned lock stock and barrel peacefully

00:02:15.080 i was in jail and and when you're in that type of a situation your perspective shifts a little

00:02:23.080 bit some of the things that you believed to be true before all of the sudden you question

00:02:28.040 you know that age old phrase that we all have heard on the on the schoolyard well it's a free

00:02:33.400 country, isn't it? Do you remember that? Someone would ask if they could play with something,

00:02:37.340 you're going to say, well, it's a free country, isn't it? We start to wonder about that. I start

00:02:41.260 to wonder about, yeah, I love that. I start to wonder about the look on my grade four teacher's

00:02:48.840 face. His name was Mr. Ruda. He was a great teacher. We gave him a heart attack because we

00:02:52.900 were really crazy kids. I think he survived. The look on his face talking about Canada,

00:02:59.480 what it meant to be Canadian, talking about the charter rights and freedoms and the Constitution

00:03:03.380 and i'll remind you this was fairly fresh it had just been repatriated in 1982 and when i was in

00:03:08.740 mr ruta's class i guess it would have been 1986 1987 maybe something like that i can't quite

00:03:13.700 remember but it was fresh right within a within a half a decade anyway he was so excited and so

00:03:20.420 proud to talk about these things he was so happy to be able to tell his class that they lived in

00:03:26.500 the most free and prosperous country ever and everybody wanted to be here and it was great

00:03:32.580 because the government gave us some rights and they gave us this document and it made

00:03:38.300 sure that we'd be free forever. And I believed that. I believed that we had attained some

00:03:48.420 measure or some sort of freedom and that it would just always be there. Then I'm lying

00:03:54.300 in a jail cell for the crime of protesting that Mr. Ruta told me was a right of mine.

00:04:00.760 I had the right to protest as a Canadian.

00:04:04.480 And so I started seeing it a little bit differently.

00:04:07.140 Well, that forced me to dig into what it means to be Canadian, what it means to be an Albertan,

00:04:12.620 who I am, what my place is here.

00:04:15.160 And I came to some very startling conclusions, the biggest of which was that nothing was what I thought.

00:04:22.940 You know, Canada wasn't what I believed it was.

00:04:25.080 and not only that as an albertan i started to realize that some of the things that make

00:04:36.620 canada canada were specifically keeping not just alberta but the west

00:04:41.920 back they were holding us back and so i'm digging into these things trying to fight

00:04:47.700 fight for my survival trying to win against the government in the government's court by the way

00:04:53.040 and that doesn't go so well many people in this room know that

00:04:58.080 and i started i started realizing that it wasn't enough just to know what was going on and watch

00:05:09.540 what was happening it wasn't enough to bear witness to the injustices going on around me

00:05:13.900 and talk about them if you see those things and you don't do anything about it what's the point

00:05:20.900 bearing witness to me that implies that you're shouldering a burden you're holding that

00:05:27.640 you're holding that you're carrying that with you and when you carry something heavy like that

00:05:33.280 it should motivate you to act and to change things

00:05:37.900 one of the one of the the first things that i was witness to

00:05:44.140 that really affected my life that changed me it actually changed me it took me off a path

00:05:50.880 of political apathy civil civil ignorance that kind of thing i heard somebody tell me about

00:06:02.320 their the passing of their mother and during that time nobody was allowed to be with their loved

00:06:09.280 ones as they passed so our compassionate benevolent government allowed them to have an ipad to say

00:06:16.400 goodbye to their mother now i've told this story before and i'll tell it i will keep telling this

00:06:21.280 story because this was like a knife to my heart could you imagine could you imagine some of you

00:06:26.960 in this room have gone through this but could you imagine your mother's final breath you can't

00:06:37.680 put your arms around her you can't hold her hand you're watching it digitally in the digital age

00:06:44.000 because the government took something from you that could never ever be replaced that was my

00:06:51.600 motivation for continuing you know this was kind of mid 2021 i guess the whistle stop cafe had

00:06:58.480 become infamous i've made national news things were really shook up things were happening you

00:07:03.520 know changes were being made kenny was running with his tail between his legs

00:07:07.080 and i could have stopped then and gone back to my life and and just did my thing but after i was

00:07:15.260 witness to that and many other things like it i could no longer be that person i had to do

00:07:21.240 something different and i haven't always done the best job i i can you know i'm not perfect

00:07:32.520 but I'm telling you this to point out that as we see these things going on around us it's important

00:07:38.760 that it motivates us to do something about it we've all heard the phrase be the change you

00:07:45.020 want to see in the world that is a that's a real thing it really is and none of that none of those

00:07:51.200 things that happened to me would have would have mattered at all in my life had I chosen to just

00:07:56.700 forget about it and go on my merry way. So anyway, I entered a phase of my life of, I guess you would

00:08:04.140 say, advocacy. Advocating for myself, first and foremost, because I was affected, and then that's

00:08:10.200 what got me into this fight. And then as the stories came in, as people approached me and

00:08:15.060 shared their stories with me, now my motivation wasn't so much about myself. As a matter of fact,

00:08:20.020 I thought to myself many times, you know, after listening to what these people have gone through,

00:08:24.860 It doesn't matter what happens to me because somebody has to do something about it.

00:08:30.120 And then it became advocating for the future, advocating for a change, advocating for a solution to the problems that we've faced.

00:08:39.520 That brought me full circle back to our Constitution, back to what it means to be Canadian, back to the Charter Rights and Freedoms, back to the very foundation of what Canada is.

00:08:49.120 and interestingly enough as an Albertan subject to the what I would say inequities that we face

00:08:56.200 within confederation I came to the inevitable conclusion that Alberta needs to stand up not

00:09:02.220 just me not just us collectively but Alberta needs to stand up

00:09:06.720 and why Alberta why why a dusty prairie province not not really Alberta is beautiful but in the

00:09:17.520 middle of Canada, why is it us? Well, we have the tenacity. We have the resources. We have the

00:09:23.780 willpower. We have the experience. We have the motivation that comes from a place in our hearts

00:09:32.220 where we're sympathetic to what other people are going through. We have all those things.

00:09:38.300 We have the opportunity granted to us by this country. You know, if confederation is unfair

00:09:44.720 to the west it is fair in one regards and that is that it is supposed to respect the will of the

00:09:49.840 people even to the point if a group of people their will is to no longer be governed under

00:09:55.760 that confederation that is a huge opportunity and i want to remind i want to remind everybody here

00:10:03.200 and everybody watching that opportunity that we have as albertans that we have as canadians

00:10:09.920 to do something that's never been done before to take control of our futures to be sovereign

00:10:16.000 that's not always free to this year is the 250th anniversary of the greatest experiment in freedom

00:10:25.680 in world history and that is the united states 250 years ago after a multi-year six year i guess

00:10:35.360 bloody war where thousands of people died they were granted or they they were they took the

00:10:42.000 opportunity to self-govern to do things themselves and now alberta

00:10:52.560 we have the opportunity to do that with the stroke of a pen there's countries in this

00:10:58.000 world who have spent hundreds of years fighting lost entire families hundreds of years for the

00:11:04.640 opportunity to be to master their to chart their own course forward and now

00:11:11.960 you folks you get that in October very likely so this opportunity that we have

00:11:19.820 this opportunity that Alberta has to make the will of the people known known

00:11:25.520 to government and known to the world is nothing to take lightly there are some

00:11:31.400 people in this room that don't agree with me that Alberta needs to stand up

00:11:34.420 and be sovereign and and chart their own course for it i understand that there are people in this

00:11:39.060 room that agree with me i can tell because you're wearing my merchandise thank you very much

00:11:45.380 but regardless of what side of this conversation you're on you need to i i suggest i suggest

00:11:52.820 that you consider all of the things you have witnessed in your lifetime as a canadian as

00:11:57.540 and as an albertan and you let those things influence your actions in the future what

00:12:02.340 are you going to do about it some people like my friend jason kenny he thinks that alberta

00:12:09.780 should just continue incremental steps just continue begging for crumbs asking confederation

00:12:18.340 to allow us to chart our own course he believes that i watched him debate bruce party on that

00:12:26.180 and i wish i had debated him because i would have done better

00:12:28.420 i disagree i don't want incremental change i don't want crumbs what i've seen happen in the

00:12:37.220 direction i've watched this country go in my lifetime suggests to me that we do not have time

00:12:43.740 for incremental change when the when when the government lays the foundation through bill c9 i

00:12:56.520 guess or c8 whichever one when they lay the foundation to find jail or otherwise punish you

00:13:03.200 for your thoughts and expression you have a serious problem when the government tells you

00:13:09.320 you may not defend yourself you have a serious problem when the government starts encouraging

00:13:15.100 you to sacrifice children to protect adults whether it's injecting them with things during

00:13:20.920 the pandemic or whether it's sacrificing their futures financially so that you can maintain some

00:13:28.280 ridiculous pension plan that's the worst investment you'll ever make and you're compelled by law to

00:13:33.580 contribute to it you know we watch people putting their elbows up and elbowing kids right in the head 0.84

00:13:39.840 taking their futures away so that they can be comfortable so that they can protect what they've

00:13:44.880 built. That's backwards. This country is backwards. And this isn't Alberta. This isn't what our

00:13:50.720 values are. We sacrifice for our kids. We do things for our kids. And as I watch Canada drift

00:14:02.320 further and further from the values of what the majority of Western Canada have in their hearts

00:14:08.740 and how quickly it's happening we don't have time for incremental change i wish we did

00:14:16.760 because i was always that guy i was always that guy when my friend dr dennis modry would ask how

00:14:23.640 many people in this room want a referendum in alberta so that we can have leverage and negotiate

00:14:30.900 a better position within confederation and stay i would be like yes i want that because i love

00:14:35.080 this country. I want to fix everything. Well, since then, I watched the carnage, no pun

00:14:46.080 intended, of the liberal regime continue even after it was, you know, even after most of

00:14:53.900 Canada agreed that we couldn't keep going down that path. I watched it flip out of fear

00:14:59.560 of another country's president and we we elected somebody who wrote a book called Values in which

00:15:08.680 he describes capitalism and energy as like two of the worst things in the world where he describes

00:15:15.460 how people are going to have to have their rights and freedoms limited for the greater good and I

00:15:23.760 ask myself, do I really want to try and negotiate anything different with a government that has a

00:15:31.660 majority now, and we all knew that was going to happen, didn't we? With a prime minister who muses 0.98

00:15:39.380 about preventing provinces from using the notwithstanding clause when they don't agree

00:15:46.760 with what the federal government is doing. You know, do we really want to try and fix things or

00:15:52.980 negotiate with a government that's that far gone from what we believe in what

00:15:59.700 kind of a risk would that be could you imagine could you imagine if I got my

00:16:03.300 way and we negotiate we entered negotiations with the federal government

00:16:07.380 they said fine all the provinces agree or seven out of ten provinces agree

00:16:10.920 we're gonna open the Constitution you know the House of Commons agrees the

00:16:14.040 Senate agrees the Supreme Court agrees we're gonna open and amend the

00:16:17.100 Constitution do you really want Mark Carney's fingers that penned that book

00:16:22.740 value anywhere near that document. I don't either. That put me on another path and it

00:16:33.940 got me thinking more about what this country is. When I was a child I believed that we

00:16:41.160 got together in a room like this and we decided how we're going to govern, we decided how

00:16:46.280 our government would look and what laws we're going to live under and we agreed and then

00:16:50.440 we formed a country. Well, that didn't happen, folks. That's never happened in Canada. Our

00:16:56.460 documents, our supreme law was not something that we decided on. We did not consent to being

00:17:01.320 governed in that way. The western provinces sure didn't consent to being governed in the way we

00:17:07.360 are. You ask anybody right now, except for the most stringent liberals, if they would agree to

00:17:13.580 the terms that Alberta would have within Confederation if we were independent already

00:17:17.780 and asked to join nobody in their right mind would right we wouldn't that wasn't done by us

00:17:25.680 that was done by somebody else and imposed on us you have this idea that canada is a sovereign

00:17:31.660 independent nation for the people it isn't it was a system of governance imposed on us by the

00:17:37.400 british crown and some elite in canada at the time who were rewarded handsomely for imposing that on

00:17:45.720 us. And now Alberta has an opportunity to do something different. And all we have to do is

00:17:51.400 sacrifice a little bit of our time, none of our blood, hopefully not our lives. I mean, people

00:17:55.960 threaten me all the time, but usually the people that say things don't do anything, thank God.

00:18:01.500 We have an opportunity to actually be the first people in Canada that decide how we're going to

00:18:09.740 be governed that's that is what freedom is freedom is when the people decide how they're going to be

00:18:22.000 governed when the people decide you know if there's a if the government is is against what

00:18:29.420 somebody wants to do you know the people are going to have somebody to advocate for them

00:18:33.820 we don't have that right now i can tell you that because it costs almost 350 000 for me

00:18:39.300 to defend myself against what the government was doing when I was right.

00:18:45.700 This is the opportunity we have.

00:18:47.340 We have an opportunity to look back across history at all of the different countries

00:18:52.400 that had semblance of freedom.

00:18:55.440 We have an opportunity to pick the best parts of all of that and set the stage so that Alberta

00:19:01.280 can be the most free and most prosperous, beautiful country the world has ever seen.

00:19:08.720 And in doing so, we become a beacon of hope to every other Canadian who feels the same

00:19:14.780 way.

00:19:15.780 Every Canadian that no longer wants incremental change.

00:19:19.240 Every Canadian who realizes it's time that we did it ourselves.

00:19:24.700 By the people, for the people.

00:19:27.720 Starting in Alberta.

00:19:28.720 Thank you.

00:19:38.720 Thank you.

The Critical Compass Podcast - April 21, 2026

How Chris Scott Became an Alberta Independence Advocate

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