The John-Henry Westen Show - June 05, 2026


Soldier Arrested for No Mask – Then They Transitioned His Daughter Against His Will


Episode Stats


Length

35 minutes

Words per minute

169.94466

Word count

5,988

Sentence count

340


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
00:00:00.000 My daughter turned 16, so the Children's Hospital of East Ontario started calling her phone directly
00:00:05.780 and letting her know that she didn't need my permission anymore. She could just
00:00:09.340 come on in to continue the path.
00:00:11.800 Wait, so you're telling me they reached out to her?
00:00:15.020 Yes.
00:00:17.760 Imagine a guy who served the country as a soldier. Imagine that same guy
00:00:27.020 comes out and says the COVID insanity is nuts in this country and fights it and gets arrested
00:00:36.760 several times for wearing a mask. Imagine this guy also sees that the country puts a ban on
00:00:46.500 entering forests because they're afraid of forest fires, but they let companies go in,
00:00:51.360 but they ban all individuals from entering forests.
00:00:55.680 He goes ahead and does that anyway, fights it,
00:00:59.220 and wins a charter challenge, a rights challenge, on that basis.
00:01:05.560 Imagine that same guy is now challenging the whole transgender insanity
00:01:13.880 because his own daughter is transitioned against his will.
00:01:18.820 that's the story of jeff evilly and we've got him here for you today jeff welcome to the program
00:01:26.060 thanks for having me it's great to be here let's begin as we always do with the sign of the cross
00:01:29.600 in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy ghost amen so jeff uh we're going to
00:01:38.780 start if you don't mind with the story of your daughter because i think for what we've been
00:01:45.020 covering at LifeSite for many years now has been this progressive insanity that just keeps going.
00:01:53.280 And it's almost incredible that this hasn't yet been stopped. Even parts of Europe have already
00:02:00.220 said, whoa, we've gone too far, but not yet in Canada. So your daughter had just turned 16,
00:02:07.020 which is legal age for consent in Ontario for this kind of thing.
00:02:15.380 At the time, what were you up to at the time?
00:02:18.180 Were you already, did you have indications of this?
00:02:20.920 What was going on with you?
00:02:21.980 Yes, we had indications of it.
00:02:23.700 The first time they saw her at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa was,
00:02:29.520 oh, and by the way, the protest that you just mentioned that we did on the 5th of May was in Ottawa.
00:02:37.020 was not Toronto. I also helped lead the One Million March for Children in Toronto. So I was
00:02:44.840 a little unclear as to which one you're referencing there, but the most recent one was in Ottawa.
00:02:51.080 So she had, what happened was I took her to the mental health clinic at the Children's Hospital
00:02:56.720 of Eastern Ontario in Ottawa when she was 14 to be seen for depression. And I thought, you know,
00:03:02.900 she was having some, you know, sort of normal teenage stuff going on. I was a single dad for
00:03:10.600 the last 10 years of my career. So perhaps she had some issues still residual from her mother
00:03:17.880 and I's separation. There was some of this trans identity coming in, but it was like a trans
00:03:22.840 trender thing where one of her friends had come out first and she followed on later. And, you know,
00:03:31.360 it wasn't exactly consuming our lives at that point, but, um, I took her to the mental health
00:03:37.640 clinic and I went for the initial, um, consultations and what, while they were in during the intake.
00:03:44.640 And then she started saying that, um, she wanted to attend her appointments on her own and to have
00:03:50.740 her privacy. And I was like, yeah, that's okay. I mean, I'll just go get a coffee. I'll drop you
00:03:54.780 off and I'll take a coffee. And, um, I understand that she's, you know, starting to, uh, assert
00:03:59.780 some autonomy at that age and so I tried to respect that and after three appointments I said
00:04:06.280 I'm coming inside now to uh you know get a little bit of a follow-up and she was a little alarmed
00:04:12.120 and said no they're not going to tell you uh anything that we talked about I said yeah I know
00:04:15.940 they'll keep your privacy but I just want to show my face in there in case there are any red flags
00:04:19.760 that they want to raise um so she took me inside and led me to a completely different part of the
00:04:25.480 hospital. It was the adolescent gender clinic. Um, and, uh, yeah. And this is at 14 still?
00:04:32.280 Yeah. It's at 14. And I'm sitting outside in the lobby, like what is going on? They've been
00:04:38.400 giving her hormones. My stomach was, was sick. Like I felt sick. Um, it hadn't, it wasn't at
00:04:44.720 that stage initially. Uh, first she talks to a social worker. I went in and talked to him. His
00:04:49.560 name was Sebastian. And, um, you know, he, uh, he was contemptuous of me. He really didn't like
00:04:57.020 that. I might have any questions that, uh, I might want to ask about, um, you know,
00:05:02.060 the course of treatment and justification for medical intervention for, for something like
00:05:08.140 this. Um, so, uh, I would describe our interactions as somewhat adversarial and eventually we stopped
00:05:16.320 going. We went to, I think, those three appointments with Sebastian, and then we stopped going. And
00:05:21.780 then over the course of the next year and a half, she showed some pretty strong signs of
00:05:27.220 desistance, namely that she grew her hair back long, and she was taking care of her skin and
00:05:33.440 wearing gloss and lots of jewelry and spending a lot of time in the mirror, as teenage girls often
00:05:40.120 to. So I felt like things were going in the right direction and she needed braces. So I took a
00:05:47.320 deployment to Iraq and my mother, who was retired, came to stay with the kids for the rest of the
00:05:54.400 school year. And while I was in Iraq, my daughter turned 16. So the Children's Hospitalities for
00:06:00.580 Ontario started calling her phone directly and letting her know that she didn't need my
00:06:05.140 permission anymore. She could just come on in to continue the path of position.
00:06:09.020 Wait, wait, wait. So you're telling me they reached out to her?
00:06:14.020 Yes. They absolutely reached out to her directly via her phone number. Well, it is my position
00:06:20.220 that she would have desisted and none of this would be happening now if they just had left
00:06:24.720 her alone in the first place. So I was in Iraq and I took early leave from my tour to attend
00:06:34.240 and the first appointment with the psychiatrist. So they have a process where they start off with
00:06:40.100 this intake with a social worker, and then that gets escalated to the psychiatrist.
00:06:44.100 His name is Dr. Stephen Fetter. And on the very first appointment, he offered the puberty blockers.
00:06:51.840 And naturally, I had some questions about that. He was rather aghast at the idea that I might
00:06:57.920 have any questions about that. And he told me the puberty blockers were completely reversible.
00:07:04.240 and, um, he, uh, he essentially took the position that this is, you know, like, uh, gay 2.0. Um,
00:07:13.360 and, uh, you know, I, I did not take that position because, um, you know, being gay is a matter of
00:07:18.720 preference, which, and he scolded me for that, um, said that it wasn't a choice. And I was like,
00:07:23.040 well, I didn't say it was a choice. I said that it was a preference. I didn't choose to prefer
00:07:26.980 pizza over Brussels sprouts. In fact, I might be better off if I preferred Brussels sprouts over
00:07:32.020 pizza, but I just happened to be wired in such a way that I prefer pizza over Brussels sprouts.
00:07:36.720 So again, it was quite adversarial and there seemed to be a lot of shaming tactics and stuff
00:07:43.340 like that deployed against me. And I asked for a second opinion. And when you ask the Children's
00:07:49.040 Hospital of Eastern Ontario for a second opinion as to your child's trans identity, you get referred
00:07:55.320 to another psychiatrist at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario. And so naturally, the second
00:08:00.100 guy affirmed the first guy's, um, assessment. And I recorded that appointment. That's when I
00:08:07.040 started recording. So, and he said himself in, in that recording that, um, you know, he can't
00:08:13.580 be sure he can't be, he can't be certain. And, um, you know, he, uh, recognized that there was
00:08:20.480 this concern on my part that even if they're not able to, um, provide me with sufficient evidence
00:08:26.820 to convince me of their position that I might get muscled into it anyway.
00:08:32.040 He said, I think there's some validity to that.
00:08:34.780 And at that appointment, he asked about next steps and I said, well, I'd like her to get
00:08:41.040 some counseling to help her feel comfortable in her natural body.
00:08:44.620 I would like to attempt that first.
00:08:46.380 I would like to maybe consider the possibility that this is related to depression or perhaps
00:08:52.800 some other psychiatric condition.
00:08:54.460 He said he wasn't getting a hint of that in his assessment. He asked about, you know, I said, while I'm away, I would prefer that you not see her, like wait at least until I come back from Iraq. And I guess small mercies, they were willing to do that at least.
00:09:11.360 And then I attended, I think, two more appointments with Dr. Steven Fetter. I recorded those appointments as well. In one of them, he openly said that his professional assessment was that my daughter's soul was male. He said he looked into her heart and soul and determined that she was male.
00:09:32.520 Oh my gosh.
00:09:33.800 Yeah, that's the level.
00:09:35.700 So it's voodoo now or some new religion of their choosing.
00:09:40.720 Yes.
00:09:40.960 It is 100% a cult, a new religion. And I asked him, how do you know that the soul exists? And he said, I don't have to answer that question. And then it got escalated to the endocrinologist. Her name was Dr. Maria Keeley. And she was an absolute beast the entire time.
00:10:06.320 I mean, like just psychological torture, I would say is, uh, is what she was engaged in.
00:10:12.560 And she got off on it.
00:10:13.680 Like she was having fun toying with me.
00:10:16.300 And, uh, you know, I kept asking for evidence and, um, she said, we're not going to be able
00:10:21.360 to give you that evidence.
00:10:22.380 She said, the thing is that I don't think that, uh, we're going to be able to satisfy
00:10:26.780 you.
00:10:27.280 And I said, well, you're wrong about that.
00:10:28.740 If you show me evidence, I will change my mind.
00:10:30.640 um and uh several times you know she she played the suicide card like uh saying that my daughter
00:10:37.040 was going to commit suicide if they didn't transition her um and i said well that's not
00:10:41.120 what i've been reading what i've been reading is that the suicide rate does not go down and in some
00:10:45.440 cases it actually goes up um and she was like well i'd like to see what you've been reading and i
00:10:50.420 said sure thing you got an email i'll send it to you and she said i'll bring them into clinic and
00:10:54.200 you know i'll show you my studies and you can show me yours and i said okay i'll do that
00:10:59.680 And I went in for the next appointment, and this was our final appointment at the Children's
00:11:04.720 Hospital of Eastern Ontario.
00:11:06.240 And I went in there and just flipped in my notes, and I said, okay, so last time we spoke,
00:11:12.840 you said you were going to get the rates of reversion for adolescent onset dysphoria.
00:11:18.420 I said, you know, do you have them?
00:11:20.240 And she said, oh, I didn't realize her appointment was today after she had called my daughter
00:11:26.060 him the entire time I'd been engaging with her. And I said, so you didn't get any of the things
00:11:31.820 that you said you were going to get? And she said, oh, well, look, is this going to help for us to
00:11:36.040 talk today? And I said, well, that all depends on you because I brought all of the studies that you
00:11:40.280 asked for. And I brought a stack of scientific papers about this thick, put them down on the
00:11:45.940 table. They were all tabbed, highlighted, ready to go. And here I was. Rates of reversion for
00:11:51.860 adolescent onset dysphoria, 88% by age 23. Right there. That's my concern. Suicide. You said that
00:11:59.720 if you don't transition, she's going to commit suicide. Well, here's a long-term follow-up of
00:12:06.240 transsexuals undergoing sex reassignment surgery cohort study in Sweden. Followed them over 30
00:12:10.660 years. Surgery is not sufficient to alleviate morbidity or mortality. That was the conclusion
00:12:18.320 that they came to.
00:12:19.900 And as I was reading this,
00:12:22.060 she and her staff ran out of the room
00:12:24.900 and left me standing there alone.
00:12:28.080 Yep.
00:12:29.760 And that was February of 2020.
00:12:32.880 So our saving grace at that time was COVID.
00:12:37.280 It was kind of like the best thing
00:12:38.960 that ever happened to us
00:12:40.080 when we had lockdowns.
00:12:41.580 And of course, falsified this claim
00:12:45.260 that this is life-saving surgery
00:12:48.080 that they're engaged in here because she didn't have any more appointments during COVID. So
00:12:52.880 was, um, never what it was really about, but post COVID or while during COVID, um, she always
00:13:01.000 comes back to Nova Scotia here to visit her mother in the summer. And that was what she did.
00:13:05.980 And she ended up taking a job in Halifax where she was staying with my sister. And I mean,
00:13:12.040 I wanted her to go back to school and stuff, but she said, uh, no, I want to work. And I said,
00:13:16.160 okay, you know, it takes some time to figure it out, I guess. And I, uh, was getting out of the
00:13:20.960 military at the same time I was being medically released. So, um, I actually had that process
00:13:26.000 accelerated a little bit so I could, uh, come back to Nova Scotia, um, and take up residence here
00:13:32.160 in the, um, in my hometown from where I was recruited. And, um, and, uh, I've been here ever
00:13:39.380 since, but, uh, she eventually, um, ended up at her mother's where she is now and, uh, started
00:13:48.300 taking testosterone after she moved in. And when she did that, she, uh, she cut off contact with
00:13:53.840 me and, uh, I haven't, well, uh, engaged with her at all, except for like one brief period last
00:14:02.420 September when, um, her mother was contacting me beside herself that they were on their way to
00:14:08.560 montreal to have my daughter's healthy breasts removed um at the tender age of 22 and uh i mean
00:14:16.040 she supported it the whole time so it was actually a shock to me that um she she had any um concern
00:14:22.040 over doing this i thought she'd be holding her hand and telling her how brave she was the entire
00:14:25.640 time um but i guess she did have something like a come to jesus moment at some point um and um
00:14:32.700 Anyway, I tried and I went to the house, even though they were kind of threatening to call the cops off and on, you know, and my daughter just stayed locked in the room and, um, my, my ex wouldn't let me in the house.
00:14:46.320 So, um, you know, I, uh, I, I didn't know what else to do.
00:14:50.760 Um, they just went inside and locked the doors and, uh, you know, as, as far as I know, um, my daughter had her breast removed last September.
00:15:00.080 So, um, but, uh, you know, there's been no follow-up.
00:15:03.460 I tried to reach out to them, but they seemed to have me blocked again.
00:15:06.160 So I, I really don't know, you know, how she's doing.
00:15:09.680 So it's a most painful experience of my lifetime.
00:15:12.460 That's for sure.
00:15:14.060 Friends on September 24th in St. Louis, Missouri,
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00:15:33.440 Terry Barber, and Peter Howard. Enjoy a formal dinner, powerful keynote addresses,
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00:15:50.820 the ages. Unbelievable to hear what happened, but you've now worked with a lot of people in Canada
00:15:59.480 who have experienced similar things. What's your assessment? Have you seen something? Is your case
00:16:05.780 the worst you've ever seen or what have you seen? What do you make of it? Where do you think Canada
00:16:10.340 is at right now? I don't know if mine is the worst. I think I am perhaps a little bit more
00:16:18.300 open about my experience so others may have had it worse than me but i do know some other fathers
00:16:24.940 who are just as alienated from their daughters um as i am and there is kind of a common theme there
00:16:31.720 um also there was a gentleman out in bc who um you know spent some time in jail for refusing to
00:16:40.240 use his uh daughter's uh preferred pronoun and trans name um he i guess he was under a court
00:16:46.920 order to not say anything about it publicly, but he did. So I think that was why he went to jail.
00:16:51.520 But the judge also said that his refusal to use the trans identity was a form of domestic abuse.
00:17:01.540 So the institutions are wholly captured with this ideology. And I know that we just had another
00:17:09.260 case here, uh, in Calgary, this is, uh, this is at least the second case, um, of somebody calling
00:17:17.660 like the, um, the, the drag queen story hour folks groomers, um, and, um, and losing a defamation
00:17:27.600 suit, um, for, for doing so. Um, so, uh, you know, they're, they're making it really hard,
00:17:34.100 the institutions, the courts, the, the political establishment, they're making it really hard to
00:17:38.760 fight back. And on that note, on the political establishment, it was also in January of 2020,
00:17:47.280 so this would have been around the time that we were referred to the endocrinologist,
00:17:52.020 that I contacted my member of parliament and told him all about my experience,
00:17:58.120 offered to let him listen to the recordings that I made to support my claims. His name is Pierre
00:18:04.600 Paliav, and he not only refused to listen to the recordings and refused to read a letter that I
00:18:12.780 could have written for him on the floor of the House of Commons, but went on to vote in favor
00:18:18.280 of the conversion therapy ban that imposes a five-year jail sentence on any parent who tries to
00:18:25.260 get talk therapy for their child to alleviate gender dysphoria and help them feel comfortable
00:18:30.360 in their natural bodies. That's a five-year jail sentence in Canada. So yeah, we have a real mess
00:18:37.120 on our hands here in Canada. We do. And just so that all of our viewers understand, Pierre Polyave
00:18:45.340 is the head of the Conservative Party in Canada. So I think most of our listeners are American.
00:18:53.780 And so to explain that our conservative leader, the only, the conservative party.
00:19:01.920 So it's like in the U.S., you know, they have the Democrats and the Republicans.
00:19:06.820 Imagine the Republican leader is the one who signed to criminalize parents with jail for up to five years of trying to get help for their kids.
00:19:19.680 That's what people have got to understand.
00:19:22.620 So sorry, I just need to interject there to make people get the gravity of what you just
00:19:28.040 said.
00:19:28.620 Continue from there.
00:19:29.820 You've actually forayed into politics yourself.
00:19:32.900 Obviously, you're very well spoken.
00:19:34.400 You know the issues very well.
00:19:36.200 You not only serve the country, you've come and faced probably the most insane thing about
00:19:41.760 the country because we've seemingly lost our collective minds over this thing.
00:19:47.760 But please continue.
00:19:48.920 Well, back to me retiring to my hometown. Yeah, I did run for member of parliament in the last election. So, well, first on the vote on the conversion therapy bill, there were several iterations of that bill. And on the last one, the House of Commons voted unanimously in favor of it.
00:20:11.700 every single MP voted unanimously to jail parents for five years if they don't want to give their
00:20:15.900 kid a sex change. When I retired, I think that would have been royally assented in 2022, January
00:20:26.780 2022. The vote was in December of 2021. I retired in September of 2021 and moved back to my hometown
00:20:36.460 in November. And in the election of 2025, I ran with the People's Party, which is a fringe party,
00:20:44.780 but the only party that opposes childhood transition. So naturally, and a great platform,
00:20:52.460 they have a great platform. And I'm saying all of these things, I'm kind of hedging because I have
00:20:57.000 since resigned from the People's Party. I decided that I want to go forward unaffiliated so I can
00:21:04.800 um, advocate on, on this issue. And I want to try to, um, eliminate any perceptions of
00:21:11.020 partisanship. I'm not doing it for the People's Party. I'm just doing it because, uh, it's the
00:21:15.760 right thing to do. Um, and, uh, yeah, I, I went through the 2025 election though. It was a heck
00:21:22.180 of a ride. Uh, I had a very small but mighty campaign team. Um, I, uh, donated a lot of my
00:21:30.400 own money to, uh, to, to get this thing off the ground. We had ads on the radio. We had signs up
00:21:37.360 all over town. Um, we obviously did not get the votes that we were looking for. I never expected
00:21:43.380 to win, of course, just, um, first time out and with such a new party. Um, but, uh, I, we definitely
00:21:50.800 made some waves, um, especially the debate performance. I, even, even the guys at the
00:21:56.780 sign shops that I, I kind of walked all over them. There were seven candidates on the stage
00:22:00.700 and it seemed to be that, um, I, I was the most memorable. So, um, you know, good job, me. Um,
00:22:06.980 uh, uh, it was, it was a great experience, I think. And, um, really kind of set me up for,
00:22:13.400 well, what I need to do next, um, dipping my toes into the political waters. Um, so it was,
00:22:18.920 it was good. It was really great. I got a lot of good experience out of it.
00:22:21.120 Right. Now, let's back up for a second. You served this country as a soldier and then you basically fought another part of insanity when Canada lost it, as did much of the world, mind you, with regard to COVID. Tell us about that.
00:22:41.220 So the day I took possession of my retirement house was the day that vaccine passports came into effect here in Nova Scotia.
00:22:50.880 So just in time for me to be barred from polite society.
00:22:56.360 And, well, quite frankly, I was here in my house drinking alone with my firearms.
00:23:04.220 And I said, you know, this is wrong.
00:23:07.020 Like, I shouldn't be doing this right now.
00:23:09.480 I should be down the street at the Legion from whence I bought my house.
00:23:14.440 Like my house has been crawling distance of the local Legion.
00:23:18.060 So, and I was going to be that guy.
00:23:20.340 I was going to be the best hammered heart veteran you'd ever seen.
00:23:22.480 And I said, I should be down there getting the support that I need,
00:23:26.320 the social support that I need right now.
00:23:28.460 So I went down and I showed them my veteran's ID cards
00:23:34.400 and my cell phone for the vaccine passport.
00:23:37.880 And it was just a website.
00:23:39.480 you know, it was, it was nothing. And the guy looked at it and he was like, well, what's that?
00:23:42.680 And I just kind of shrugged at him and he was like, yes, get out of here. We'll get a big fine
00:23:47.080 and stuff like that. And I tore a strip off them. I let them, I let them have it right there. I was
00:23:52.620 like, where'd you serve at? And he was like, oh, geez, you know, I never served. And I was like,
00:23:56.320 what about this guy? Where did he serve at? I said, oh, that guy has never served before.
00:24:00.980 And I was like, yeah, waving that veteran cred around to get the cheap drinks, you know,
00:24:04.760 bunch of frauds, stuff like this. So anyway, I, uh, I'd had a few drinks and a big part of me
00:24:09.980 wanted them, wanted them to try to throw me out, but I did, you know, I, I didn't go all the way
00:24:16.660 to that. I ended up walking out of my own steam. Um, and, uh, I, I ordered a Legion hat online
00:24:23.400 that said, less we forget. And I crossed out the less because we forget, we, uh, we forget that
00:24:29.400 many paid the ultimate sacrifice for these freedoms that these people have been trouncing
00:24:35.020 for several years now. And I just refused to wear a mask. I did my own little private
00:24:42.080 protests. I had been off social media for a couple of years, so I wasn't really aware
00:24:48.080 of any freedom movement that was taking shape. And as far as I knew, it was just me against
00:24:55.460 the world. I went out getting arrested for not wearing my mask. I got arrested twice,
00:25:02.980 refused service in multiple locations. I submitted human rights complaints for every time I was
00:25:08.240 refused service and took the Nova Scotia Human Rights Commission to court. I didn't win trying
00:25:15.780 to get them to do their jobs because they just kind of made stuff up and said that this is what
00:25:22.760 the law says when it absolutely does not say that, um, things like that. But I, anyway, I didn't win.
00:25:28.420 And, uh, in, uh, February of 2022, I was at the trucker convoy and I got arrested there, um,
00:25:38.220 walking to the war monument with my war medals on for my 4 a.m. century duty at the war monument
00:25:46.320 as agreed upon with, uh, Ottawa police services, but, uh, they told me not to go. And, uh, they
00:25:52.960 said, you can't go up there. And I said, yes, I can. And, uh, I kept going and anyway, they took
00:25:57.760 me down and threw me in jail. And my intent was to get into court and stand on my rights. But,
00:26:02.980 you know, that didn't go so well either. Even after the emergency measures act was declared
00:26:08.180 ultra vires, the judge said, well, police still have powers to cordon off areas and things like
00:26:13.240 this. Well, yes, they do. It's called ancillary powers doctrine, but I mean, they still need
00:26:19.120 justification to do it. And she just referenced a bunch of headlines, basically. So I basically
00:26:24.660 got tried by the CBC and convicted. Part of my conditions of release were that I was not to
00:26:32.880 return to the Red Zone, which was the downtown core of Ottawa. But one of my fellow veterans,
00:26:39.800 Neil Sheard called for Rolling Thunder, which was a bike rally and demonstration in Ottawa.
00:26:47.340 And we had a wreath-laying ceremony at the monument to give dignity back to the monument
00:26:52.480 after it had been fenced off at the trucker convoy and to the veterans who were beaten
00:26:57.720 up by the police at the trucker convoy.
00:27:00.860 I witnessed a lot of that.
00:27:03.080 And I just kind of said, well, I'll be damned if I'm not there for it.
00:27:06.720 So I went to the bike rally.
00:27:09.400 I was the sergeant major on parade and I gave a speech and then the police came out, uh, eight
00:27:15.480 cops and three squad cars to arrest me for breaching the conditions of my release. Um, and, uh, they,
00:27:23.840 um, yeah, they kept me for a weekend and I had to pay $5,000 bail. And then the territory to which
00:27:30.080 I could not return was expanded to the greater Ottawa area. So when I was doing the march with
00:27:35.660 James Topp, when he was on his way to the War Monument, I had to stop that march short
00:27:41.220 at the civic boundary for the greater Ottawa area, which was 50 kilometers away from the
00:27:47.840 War Monument itself.
00:27:50.400 After that, I was a co-organizer nationally for the One Million March for Children.
00:27:55.980 I helped lead the march in Toronto proper.
00:28:00.760 Um, and we, uh, when I finally got to trial for, uh, for my convoy charges, I was, uh, allowed back into Ottawa two and a half years later. So I'm probably the only Canadian war veteran to have ever been banned from the national war monument for two and a half years. Um, and I ended up with 50 hours community service and a year's probation and that's all been satisfied. So I won't have a, uh, a criminal record, but I don't think I ever got that bail back. I should probably.
00:28:29.740 And yeah, after that, that brings us up to 2024.
00:28:34.740 So 2025, I ran in the federal election and also I violated the Nova Scotia woods ban.
00:28:42.320 Tell us about that.
00:28:43.020 What was that?
00:28:44.060 Why was that?
00:28:44.940 And when was that?
00:28:46.640 So it was a ban on entering the woods.
00:28:51.220 That includes hiking and fishing and very...
00:28:55.660 So, okay, so the reasoning was that it's wildfire season and more people in the woods means more wildfires.
00:29:08.240 So they banned people from entering the woods and allowed industry to continue as long as they had permits for doing so.
00:29:16.760 And, you know, I saw it as a charter violation.
00:29:20.080 And, well, let me back this up for one second because they did the same thing in 2023.
00:29:23.840 three. And at that time, I thought it was an overreach. And so I tried to take them to court,
00:29:28.300 just self-representing on charter grounds at that time. And what the judge said was that I didn't
00:29:35.800 have standing because I had not been harmed. But you can't stand on your rights alone, there has
00:29:42.400 to be money involved. So he said, had I gotten a fine, then I would have had standing. So when
00:29:47.900 they came in with the Woods ban again in 2025, I was like, well, I guess I got to go get a fine now.
00:29:53.840 Um, so I, uh, I called the department of natural resources nearest to my house and, uh, made an
00:30:02.040 appointment with the supervisor for me to come in and get my fine. And he told me, well, we're
00:30:06.980 doing shift change at four o'clock. So that'd be a good time. Everybody will be here. And I said,
00:30:11.000 okay, I'll, I'll see you at four o'clock. And then, uh, I went in and talked to him and told
00:30:15.960 him what I was going to do. You know, I'm going to go out in the woods behind this building here.
00:30:20.860 And, you know, I want you guys to watch me and issue the fine.
00:30:24.300 And I even explained to him, I said, I tried to take them to court in 2023, but the judge
00:30:28.900 said I had to get a fine in order to have standing.
00:30:31.060 So I'm just here for a little bit of paperwork.
00:30:33.340 It's, you know, nothing personal, guys.
00:30:35.620 You know, I don't want to give you guys a hard time or anything, just whatever I can
00:30:38.420 do to make this as painless as possible for you guys.
00:30:41.300 And then we went out behind the building and I walked through, I went on about a 90 second
00:30:46.440 walk through a dense patch of brush.
00:30:48.380 and I came out the other side
00:30:50.280 and I remember them issuing me the fine
00:30:52.040 and I was like I thought it was $25,000
00:30:55.020 it's $28,872.50
00:30:58.660 and they were like
00:31:00.220 taxes, court fees
00:31:01.780 and victim surcharge
00:31:03.240 and I was like oh the victim charge
00:31:04.480 yes of course
00:31:05.360 because I'm the victim here
00:31:08.100 but anyway
00:31:09.340 and we got a charter win
00:31:12.140 on that one
00:31:13.300 in March of this year
00:31:16.020 the judge
00:31:17.760 was pretty succinct in his ruling. Just by comparison, there was the Mosley ruling for
00:31:23.880 the Emergency Measures Act invocation that the applicant in that case, by the way, was one of
00:31:29.420 my fellow Veterans for Freedom. We founded an organization at the convoy called Veterans for
00:31:34.660 Freedom. And one of my fellow Veterans for Freedom, Eddie Cornell, was the guy who was the applicant
00:31:40.720 in that charter win and so we got another charter win um with the uh the woods band but i i bring
00:31:49.040 up the mosley decision because that was 120 pages long the uh the decision in the woods band case
00:31:54.380 was 17 so it was uh pretty open and shut cut and dry very succinct decision i was surprised at how
00:32:02.100 fast it came down and how heavily it was in our favor um so uh you know that's positive there's uh
00:32:08.820 There is room for optimism on that basis.
00:32:12.280 Did you get the money for your fine back?
00:32:14.660 Oh, I never paid it because I was issued the tickets,
00:32:20.320 but the court date wasn't until July of this year.
00:32:26.580 So we had the charter case well before the case for the ticket.
00:32:32.220 And we expect that it'll be rescinded basically any day now.
00:32:36.020 They're dragging their feet on it, I guess.
00:32:37.860 But I think it's because there were a couple of other people that got fined for simply walking in the woods.
00:32:44.660 They just weren't high-profile cases like mine was.
00:32:47.400 But I did that on purpose.
00:32:48.660 I wanted it to be high-profile, and I wanted to humiliate the senior bureaucrats and the premier here in Nova Scotia because that's what it takes with tyrants, I think, is that they need to be humbled.
00:33:03.640 So that was my aim with that, with the media campaign and whatnot,
00:33:07.760 which was an overwhelming success.
00:33:10.100 I mean, the Hindustan Times wrote a piece about me.
00:33:12.280 I couldn't believe how viral that really went.
00:33:15.620 I wasn't expecting that.
00:33:17.840 But it was pretty great.
00:33:20.600 And a lot of support for what I was doing.
00:33:24.020 There were the trolls initially, but they seemed to fade away pretty quickly.
00:33:28.620 And it's been overwhelmingly positive.
00:33:30.900 I want to, on behalf of LifeSite, especially our Canadians, I want to thank you for your service to the country in so many ways, because you serve the country as a soldier for the country.
00:33:42.460 You serve the country in challenging its insanity, both during COVID and for the craziness of locking us out of forests, but particularly with regard to saving children.
00:33:58.240 um this is a nightmare um and it really does attack parents most people don't even know most
00:34:05.060 canadians don't even know what's going on um you've been willing to not only fight it but
00:34:10.040 share your story as well god bless you thank you and um i know in all in all of this it's really
00:34:16.380 something to me you're you're not even a believer in god you're a what you call it a stoic uh
00:34:23.760 basically i want to tell you there'll be a lot of people praying for you i hope you don't mind
00:34:28.220 that, but I really pray for you, for your situation, for your daughter, for, um, for healing
00:34:34.260 for all this and for Canada, because boy, oh boy, do we need it. Um, thank you. Thank you for being
00:34:41.340 a soldier for the country. God bless you. Yeah. My pleasure, John Rennie. Thanks for having me.
00:34:47.000 And God bless all of you. And we'll see you next time.
00:34:49.840 Hi, I'm Liz Yor.
00:34:55.080 I'm really urging all the audience to continue to follow LifeSite News for all information,
00:35:02.480 news about life, for a great perspective on all the breaking news in the world.
00:35:09.200 Thank you for watching and continue to watch and follow LifeSite News.