00:03:11.940We only launched this thing a couple of weeks ago.
00:03:13.960And he was in Brandon today doing an ATM escort where he saw a couple of people sitting on their car, their station wagon, their minivan, whatever it was.
00:03:23.300And they were waving Canadian flags and they had the big signage on the vehicle.
00:08:12.140Because you didn't want the Dr. Seuss estate coming after you.
00:08:14.640Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of loopholes when it comes to fair use and parity when it comes to these properties.
00:08:23.300And I just took the time to make sure I did my homework, that we didn't cross any lines, we didn't step on anyone's toes.
00:08:29.700The last thing we want to do at the end of the day is cause any kind of legal problems or put ourselves in a position where the product had to be pulled.
00:08:37.400So it was an interesting experience to learn how some of those laws work.
00:08:42.260But I think we got ourselves covered in the end.
00:08:43.960Do you know how many units of this book that you have moved yet?
00:08:48.580It's kind of up in the air because Amazon, the way they work things right now is when they give us our numbers because it's a self-published book, we don't actually see those numbers for several days because they print the books, ship them out.
00:09:01.040And once they've been received and accounted for, Amazon counts that as a sale and as a number.
00:09:06.060So we earlier in the week kind of ventured around the 5,000 copy mark.
00:09:11.180And then this week, I know a lot of people have been posting, I got mine, I got mine, or I placed my order.
00:09:18.120So I really don't know beyond that as of right now where we're sitting at, but I'm willing to bet it's up there.
00:09:23.240There's a lot of people, because I posted a teaser on the page earlier today telling people you were going to be on the show tonight.
00:09:29.240And people were posting already, oh, I've got two copies, I've got mine.
00:09:32.900So people are buying more than one copy.
00:09:34.500I think maybe they're buying it just to say, I've got this.
00:09:38.600I don't know if they necessarily really care about the story inside.
00:09:41.480And I don't want you to give the thing away because I know you spend a lot of time working on that.
00:09:46.920But can you give us the gist of what happens?
00:09:48.700And you never do use Trudeau by name, do you?
00:09:52.800No. And again, that kind of wavered on the lines of anything defamatory.
00:09:57.280The problem is, is this is a person who is a public figure.
00:10:02.420so again when you balance the lines of fair use you have to be very careful when it comes to using
00:10:07.580people's names without permission um so i mean like we did a lot of things in the book where
00:10:12.340we mentioned blackface we mentioned uh the the paper drink box water bottle sort of things we
00:10:17.500we mentioned um a number of stuff that he's done uh my my illustrator has a picture of him
00:10:24.160looking at a picture of winnie the pooh um with a chinese flag next to it so i mean the connection
00:10:29.840is there everybody knows who we're talking about uh the prime minister looks a very lot like a
00:10:35.820caricature of of uh good old jt and and um yeah the book is basically just surrounded around the
00:10:42.500trucker convoy the covid rules the mandates and the hypocrisy that went on during the lockdowns
00:10:47.980we we didn't want to downplay covid or or offend people to think that we saw covid as a joke because
00:10:55.300it affected so many people we we certainly don't want to take a stab at covid this was a stab at
00:11:01.300hypocritical government mandates i'll call them guys our guest and if you're just getting here
00:11:08.980now derrick smith he's the author of how the prime minister stole freedom this is not the first book
00:11:14.080that you have been a part of publishing correct correct this is my third i guess you could call
00:11:19.040it so what were the first two uh were they along these lines so my very first book was a novel um
00:11:25.060I put that together actually with a editor friend of mine in Winnipeg.
00:15:44.080What I find, like I grew up in Winnipeg and I've come back to visit family and friends and whatnot.
00:15:48.160And I find Winnipeg is a very traditional, I don't want to say a liberal city, but it's liberal values.
00:15:55.220Not the left's values, but more like a classical liberal, I'll say.
00:15:59.900Um, whereas Alberta has always been associated with the, the oil people, the, the, the redneck
00:16:07.160persona, which I've never understood because I've lived here since 1995 and the people here are
00:16:15.140very similar to Manitoba. Um, and, and I find that when it comes to COVID, when it comes to the
00:16:20.600lockdowns, when it comes to people's opinions, they waver just as much as they would anywhere
00:16:24.460else. Um, you have the people who are anti-lockdown that say, you know, we shouldn't be inside.
00:16:29.380But you've also got a very large group of people who are saying, you know, we need to keep people safe and we need to follow the mandate.
00:16:36.140So it's it's there's a shift going on in Calgary, I'd say, where it's kind of split down the middle.
00:16:41.560So when it comes to discussing points of views about lockdowns or COVID or anything like that, I find it's very split and it all depends on who you're talking to.
00:16:52.320Have you been to any rallies in Calgary?
00:16:54.200I know that I think, was it provincially or maybe municipally, they tried to shut these rallies down before they could even begin?
00:17:02.140Yeah, I know that I know the mayor in Calgary has been putting a lot of regulations on the protest, which I had a huge problem with only because, you know, if this was a movement that was more agreed upon, something that's that's more followed, like something like a BLM or a pride rally or things like that, I don't see the mayor shutting those down because it's bad public image.
00:17:22.620I think that not because I'm pro mandate protesting.
00:17:28.640I think that if you're going to shut one down, you have to shut them all down.
00:17:34.480I believe that, you know, we live in a country that gives us the right to protest.
00:17:38.580So if you're going to start putting rules on one group, they have to apply to all.
00:17:42.100And hopefully that's the way it stays, if that's the case.
00:17:45.140But I personally have not been to a rally yet.
00:17:47.820Mostly, again, I just haven't had the time.
00:17:50.580I have my children with me and I try not to talk politics in front of my kids.
00:17:55.220So I haven't taken them to a rally or anything like that.
00:17:57.860I know there's some parents who do and kudos to them because I leave that decision to the parents of those households to decide what's best for their children.
00:18:05.840I just know with my children being as young as they are, I just don't want to expose them to that.
00:23:21.100So I didn't really want to touch on anything that wasn't too controversial.
00:23:24.540Again, the theme of the book was to make it so that it wasn't negative and it
00:23:30.980wasn't aggressive because that would, whenever you see a protest and,
00:23:34.980and I've, I said this to my artist, when we started the book,
00:23:37.540you've got one side that believes they're right.
00:23:39.900And another side that believes they're right.
00:23:41.660And no matter who is right and who's wrong or seen as right or wrong, because really there is no right or wrong when it comes to opinions, everybody's got one.
00:23:53.100You have pushback on both sides and you have aggression.
00:23:56.960And while this is calling out a specific person, we wanted to focus on that person's follies and their follies as a quote unquote leader.
00:24:05.580I don't know how you can really say it any other way. That's nice. But we wanted to focus on his
00:24:12.020follies and not the follies of a party, not the follies of people's points of views, because we
00:24:16.820really just wanted people to be able to have a laugh and to be able to kick back and relax for
00:24:22.460five minutes, because over the last two and a half years, I think people have forgotten how to do
00:24:26.260that. Oh, yeah. No kidding. How long does it take to put together a book like this? I mean,
00:24:31.180you're self-published so you've got to do everything yourself right yeah the the writing
00:24:36.120aspect i mean give or take 10 hours or so because i mean you write the rough and then you go back
00:24:42.460and you want to make sure everything's in line the way you want it and that everything rhymes
00:24:46.440the way you do then it's spell checking um the artwork takes some time because before this
00:24:51.880project launched not only myself but my artist we're not being paid to construct a book so
00:24:57.420it's kind of on our own free time so it took us a few months um a little bit of back and forth
00:25:02.380and then again suggestions on her end hey can we change these words can we can we maybe add this
00:25:07.660thing instead so i mean i i'd say it took us about three three three-ish months two and a half maybe
00:25:13.960to put it together but what do you have to do though like do you you have to go and get it made
00:25:19.280like produced so amazon's got a really great service and the reason we use it i know a lot
00:25:24.480of people complain because they say oh i don't want to give my money to jeff but i mean it's it's
00:25:28.940the thing about amazon that's so great is that this service they have this this kindle direct
00:25:33.300publishing um you pretty much format your book which you hire somebody to do uh and they format
00:25:39.440the book to fit a certain size based on their printing requirements with with amazon and you
00:25:45.540simply upload your file and hit publish and and it's out there at that point um and they handle
00:25:51.120the distribution they handle the orders and they just pay you your royalties and away you go so
00:25:56.220they make it a very seamless process so the actual form of putting the book together once the work
00:26:02.660is done is quite simple um you know a lot of people have had their work canceled off amazon
00:26:07.880because people complain have you heard anything like that about now i know you've tried to be as
00:26:13.240benign as possible when attacking uh the prime minister and not make this a really contentious
00:26:18.880book is more of a, you know, that picture just looks so evil. We tried. I mean, we, again,
00:26:29.100we wanted to fit a theme, right? Right, right. But has anybody complained at all? Have you had
00:26:33.480any pushback? We had it within the first couple of days, I believe it was, we had, I think it was
00:26:38.960around the 30th of May, the book was suspended temporarily. Amazon, because of the title,
00:26:46.160Amazon was concerned about again defamation and they were worried about any kind of legal course
00:26:52.440because if I'm sued for defamation and they publish the book technically they could be
00:26:56.400liable so they put it on hold and they said can we check your sources can we check all I had to
00:27:02.620do was point out the disclaimer we have at the beginning of the book because we've been very
00:27:05.720careful with that to say first off the book isn't affiliated or promoted by Dr. Seuss
00:27:10.380or it's a state we also had to state that the opinions in the books are those of the characters
00:27:15.260and not the people they may or may not represent.
00:27:18.620And as soon as they seen that disclaimer,
00:27:20.420they said, I can make everything's kosher.
00:33:48.660And so we're here on the issue that extends, I think, a global consciousness, and that's the issue of climate change.
00:33:53.780And you're in a state where we're experiencing the extremes.
00:33:57.380And so we're on the leading cutting edge of not only dealing with the realities of it, but also the opportunities.
00:34:01.700And that's why it's so wonderful to have you down here, Prime Minister, to focus on those partnerships and the opportunity of dance together.
00:34:07.900We only build a better world if we're doing it together, and gathering like-minded partners like California and Governor Newsom is the way that we make this better future a reality for everyone.
00:34:22.340I'm sorry, I can't take it anymore. I can't take it.
00:34:26.460I don't believe anywhere in the election last year did he run on building a better world.
00:34:58.180we have some positive news finally it's a small step but it's still positive news from the hill
00:35:09.180times and guys this story came out yesterday massive majority of the liberal caucus wants
00:35:14.820trudeau to drop the federal covid mandates this from liberal mps themselves of course they're
00:35:20.020speaking on the condition of anonymity because they're not authorized to speak publicly about
00:35:23.940this. With provincial and international jurisdictions easing COVID restrictions,
00:35:28.040some Liberal MPs say the vast majority of their caucus want the federal government to drop travel
00:35:33.840vaccination requirements, allowing unvaccinated Canadians to board domestic flights.
00:35:40.260Several Liberal MPs interviewed for this article said that most caucus members want all federal
00:35:47.040pandemic restrictions dropped as soon as possible. The massive majority of Liberal MPs want the
00:35:53.400mandates to end said one liberal mp who spoke on not for attribution basis to offer his or her
00:35:59.400candid opinion people are saying what the hell why are unvaccinated people not allowed to fly
00:36:07.060domestic you know like at least let them now i don't like this quote
00:36:11.320what you're going to hear in the rest of this story i'm not going to read the whole thing but
00:36:18.760What you're going to hear is a lot of liberal MPs who still believe, in my opinion, that the unvaccinated are some kind of disease-ridden, small sect of a society that don't deserve to exist.
00:36:34.800But they are echoing, to their credit, the popular opinion of their constituents.
00:36:57.140You can go into a movie theater with them.
00:37:01.880Three-term liberal MP Marcus Pawlowski of Thunder Bay, a medical doctor and a member of the health committee, said the vaccine mandate for air travel should be removed.
00:50:09.580There's a government agency in Ottawa that makes decisions for you to protect you from watching things that might make you un-Canadian all of a sudden.
00:50:18.380It took the children 40 minutes to locate Canada on the map.
00:51:19.820Freedom of speech used to be a unifying principle that both the left and the right would agree on.
00:51:24.860But as the radical left gets increasingly angry and intolerant,
00:51:28.700they're no longer interested in promoting their ideas or debating yours.
00:51:34.040They just try to stifle anyone who disagrees with them.
00:51:38.100...spurred on by the views of psychology professor Jordan Peterson.
00:51:44.740They drowned out his talk at McMaster University in March.
00:51:49.820And that's a hallmark of big government, isn't it?
00:51:53.600A telltale sign that a government is getting too big and too intrusive into our lives is always that it attacks free speech.
00:52:01.300When you go back and look at authoritarian regimes, they always start with attacking freedom of expression.
00:52:07.580And it's always done in the name of protecting you.
00:52:10.260You go back to the French Revolution where people were sent to the guillotine for speaking out against the atrocities committed during the revolution.
00:52:17.960Look at the Soviet Union, East Germany.
00:52:21.780Even the Berlin Wall was originally called the anti-fascist wall.
00:52:25.760It wasn't sold to the citizens of East Berlin as a symbol of oppression designed to keep them inside a broken communist system.
00:52:33.680It was sold to them as protection against an external threat.
00:52:38.380When big governments take away rights and liberties, they never tell their citizens that it's to make their life miserable.
00:52:43.600They always say it's to protect them or that it's for their own good.
00:52:47.960And that's exactly what the Liberals are doing as well,
00:52:50.920creating a phantom bogus threat that they need to protect us from.
00:52:55.660And so they're going to give themselves massive power to regulate the Internet.
00:53:00.460There is no question that the world is changing rapidly and getting more dangerous.
00:53:06.040We need new tools. That's why we invest in a new way to keep people in security in a world.
00:53:13.040Freedom of expression and freedom of speech are so important
00:53:15.760because that's what gives you the right to argue for your point of view.
00:53:19.900And when you go back and look at the course of human history,
00:53:21.940it's always societies and governments that stifle free speech
00:53:25.920where innovation and human rights are also stifled.
00:53:29.540The only way we can discover truth is if we have our ideas tested and debated.
00:53:34.940And only when our ideas or our beliefs are put through that rigorous scrutiny
00:53:39.940and come out unscathed on the other side, can we be sure that something is true.
00:53:45.260We must make sure we live in a society where even if we don't like what's being said, we protect people's right to say it.
00:53:53.640That healthy debate of ideas, that clash of perspectives, that's what produces better results.
00:54:01.180Now, Justin Trudeau tells us to just trust him that this isn't about limiting fundamental rights and liberties.
00:54:08.460Just trust him that he won't abuse this new power that he's giving his government.
00:54:11.960This is the same guy who froze the bank accounts of grassroots donors who are supporting protests for freedom.
00:54:19.080This is the same guy who interfered in a criminal court case and fired his attorney general when she wouldn't go along with his corruption.
00:54:26.600This is the same guy who used the COVID pandemic as an excuse to give a massive contracts to his friends at the WE organization.
00:54:33.700And this is the same guy who has increased funding to his friends at the CBC, sending them more of your tax dollars and creating a media subsidy program.
00:54:43.580Now he wants to be trusted with this new power.
00:54:46.460But the point is, it's not even just about Justin Trudeau.
00:54:48.660No government should have the power to control what you can see and post online.
00:54:53.860That's why we need to protect free speech.