Western Standard - Exclusive update with Ex-Calgary officer Brian Denison

00:00:00.000 Good afternoon. I'm Melanie Rizdin with the Western Standard and we're just doing a check-in

00:00:10.920 with Constable Brian Dennison who is now no longer with the CPS. He's tendered his resignation and

00:00:19.880 Brian we wanted to check in with you and just see how things are going. I know we've seen that you

00:00:25.600 have been speaking at some of the rallies and the get-togethers. Yeah just tell me tell me where

00:00:34.240 things are at right now. Well it's been kind of a whirlwind of the last few weeks since all this

00:00:40.780 has come out and the video kind of went wild. I just wanted to just say that I'm really enthused

00:00:49.720 with the people's ability to come around and support me because it was a difficult time going

00:00:56.920 through that. Where I stand now is I had been speaking out about that video and I've been

00:01:03.880 speaking out about the way I see things with regards to the mandates and the testing especially at CPS

00:01:11.380 and what has happened is that CPS decided that no longer Brian will speak and they sent me a direct

00:01:21.400 order which was basically a cease and desist letter which was a direct order and that was one order that

00:01:28.940 I kind of looked at and I went you know what that really doesn't have anything to do with my stance on

00:01:36.000 the mandates and it was a direct order to me so I really sat and thought about what my options were

00:01:42.340 and one of my options was to disobey that direct order and in the police service that's something

00:01:49.740 that I could not do as an officer. I couldn't disobey my superintendent's direct order to me even

00:01:57.540 though it was kind of about what I was doing and speaking up but again it was a direct order so I

00:02:05.420 decided that it's best for me now to speak from outside of the police service so as of Saturday

00:02:12.720 morning I resigned from the police service. Okay so Brian has been a police officer with the CPS for

00:02:21.160 24 years you were just for people who maybe haven't heard your story you were about a year away from

00:02:28.000 from retiring from CPS and let's just do a kind of a quick timeline here just just of you know how

00:02:38.920 all of this played out you when you did the video you you produced a video where you were sitting in

00:02:45.400 your cruiser in full uniform and we're talking about these mandates just yeah let's talk about a

00:02:51.580 quick timeline how that all played out. Okay so I'll go way back to when this whole pandemic started

00:03:00.760 and things were really crazy we were wearing biohazard suits and masks and we had goggles and stuff we

00:03:09.180 had to have to wear and to run into any type of emergency situation they wanted you to put this

00:03:15.480 stuff on and it just seemed very difficult to adhere to those type of policies that they were bringing in

00:03:22.260 so I worked that whole time doing those things wearing my mask when appropriate and all that stuff was

00:03:34.080 very cumbersome for my job trying to be able to do my job correctly and I worked throughout that whole

00:03:38.940 pandemic up to getting let go basically or or suspended and I did my job I showed up for work

00:03:48.620 I performed my duties and I never let the pandemic keep me from doing that so during that time I

00:03:57.620 couldn't I couldn't believe where this country was going with the mandates and with forcing people to

00:04:08.100 get this vaccine I felt that there was a lot of coercion going on there was a lot of bullying within my

00:04:14.820 workplace just by the some of the stances they were taking on on how they were trying to get people to

00:04:21.120 start taking the vaccine so now we're up to this year and the chief was when I made the video the chief was

00:04:28.920 actually considering bringing in a mandate and I heard rumors of what they're going to be putting in

00:04:34.400 it and how they were going to go about that and that it was going to be you get the mandate you put

00:04:41.120 or they will put you on an unpaid leave if you don't and that they were thinking about testing so

00:04:46.940 when I actually did that video I was at the point in my life where I going I can't keep not saying

00:04:53.700 something so the audience of that video was fellow police officers that we had a group of and I was trying

00:05:02.020 to get them to I try to get them rallied up to we need to stand up for this you need to stand up for

00:05:07.920 what is lawful and my target audience was 174 people so the chief has gone on that the CBC and said

00:05:18.880 recently that I was forwarding my own agenda or it was a power grab that's not it at all I was actually

00:05:26.820 speaking to other police officers uh and trying to get them to stand up where it has gone from now is

00:05:32.540 I I'm speaking to everybody and I'm glad it did go out um so that's kind of where the video came from

00:05:40.160 and since then I couldn't be quiet I can't um I can't stop letting people know that what is happening

00:05:47.180 is wrong and I just wanted to touch on one thing um there is a competency within the Calgary Police

00:05:55.140 Service there are seven core values and one of them is courage and in there they state that it

00:06:01.640 it's standing up uh for what is wrong like you're standing your ground and that's what I'm doing

00:06:08.900 I'm standing my ground I have lived up to um all of those attributes of a police officer and I continue to

00:06:16.780 though some people try to demonize me now and say that I'm I was on the street for 24 years so you

00:06:24.660 can't be a good cop well I can tell you that that is policing policing is working the street um so

00:06:32.140 that is the essence of policing so I find myself now not a police officer um technically with them

00:06:40.760 but I'll always refer to myself as a police officer and I'll continue to act the same way that I've acted

00:06:45.840 throughout my 24-year career now what has come because I know when you did that video and it

00:06:52.220 started to spread um I know that you were charged internally with insubordination and um I believe

00:07:01.700 another charge internally yes discreditable conduct what has what's come of that do those just go away

00:07:09.060 now do they how does that affect the outcome for you in the end here so those are internal charges

00:07:16.980 they're under the police act that the chief can see seek remedy for um breaches of their policy

00:07:23.440 um so those are um are done away with as soon as I'm no longer a policeman they don't have jurisdiction

00:07:31.080 over me uh they can't tell me not to speak they can't tell me what to say um and those things

00:07:37.020 they never were anything criminal in nature it was a breach of their COVID-19 policy right now what

00:07:44.200 about other consequences from from all of this Brian any kind of uh consequence to you know receiving

00:07:50.700 any you know days that you had banked or um any pension anything there no uh again we're I have a

00:08:01.640 contract which well right now we're without a contract we're still trying to negotiate with the city so

00:08:06.840 it reverts back to the old one but uh the contract they can't nullify anything uh like my holiday

00:08:13.900 hours um any of my banked hours from overtime uh anything that they owe me uh I will be receiving

00:08:21.620 uh so that that is not an issue and and uh the people that I have been dealing with since my

00:08:27.680 resignation have been very very helpful how do you plan to continue to stand for this how do you plan to

00:08:35.000 uh further your message to people well I'll continue to speak with with you I'll continue to speak with

00:08:43.960 any news or organization that will actually um tell the truth and uh get both sides of a story

00:08:50.740 and to uh not just go out and try to vilify someone for what they're saying I'll do that I've also been

00:08:58.380 approached by um a great group uh it's unbelievable I don't know if I can drop everyone's name here um I

00:09:06.400 did have them but um it's a group of um people it's called uh taking back our freedoms and what they

00:09:14.440 did I'm just going to bring it up here quickly what they did is they um asked me to um be on a board of

00:09:20.240 advisors after my resignation had come up and they've got some powerful people uh on this like

00:09:27.660 for instance the the chair of it is uh Brian Petford he was a premier uh and he's heading up

00:09:34.720 this whole thing they've got Dr Roger Hopkinson they got Dr Paul Alexander these are big names that

00:09:41.300 are talking about what's going on uh Dr Jessica Rose Dr Eric Payne who we all know uh from Calgary

00:09:48.100 uh they got Corporal Daniel Bulford he was the security detail for Redford I think yeah

00:09:55.040 so they've got a lot of good people on there and I'm thinking about uh starting to uh help them out

00:10:01.600 with with what they're doing and they're going uh through their MLAs up into the government so

00:10:06.380 I will continue on in that front I'm happy to go uh and start putting my my um talent to use with

00:10:15.360 with them and um I'll continue to talk to anybody at rallies um and I won't um I won't be going away

00:10:23.520 I'll still be here I'll still be doing whatever I can are you pursuing any legal action any legal advice

00:10:30.780 anything there uh at this point I I don't know I haven't spoken to a lawyer outside of uh I had I

00:10:38.660 had a lawyer through my union uh great guy very very helpful uh but I haven't seeked anything outside

00:10:45.200 of that at this point okay now for the record Brian I wouldn't mind just touching on I know uh I know

00:10:52.520 some of the media uh chose to really zone in on that comment you made about um this being some you know

00:11:00.740 something towards the holocaust and being a Nazi um action and uh you were vilified for that um

00:11:08.700 I just wanted to give you the the chance to to speak to that I know um uh your intention was not to be

00:11:15.680 disrespectful but uh do you want to say something on the record for that yeah yeah sure um so as

00:11:23.580 everyone should know as well as uh I didn't put it in my video but I was a hate crimes coordinator for

00:11:29.540 three years in this city and um during that time that I was there was a great uh problem with neo-Nazis

00:11:37.480 and hate groups in our city and they did all kinds of protests and violent ones at that um so that's who

00:11:44.740 I had dealt with I received a lot of training through conferences and stuff that I went through

00:11:49.180 and of course I'm going to know about uh the holocaust of course I'm going to know about what 0.89

00:11:54.460 happened in Germany in the 1930s and the rights were slowly stripped away from from the Jewish people

00:12:01.440 and of course I'm going to know about that so when I'm making that video the first thing I think of

00:12:07.500 what do I know the most about well that's what I know the most about um throughout history it's happened

00:12:13.480 uh many times that's not the only time in history that I could have picked but it's one that

00:12:19.060 really stood out to me and it should stand out to everybody because we got to make sure that that

00:12:25.160 type of history does not repeat and I wasn't um I wasn't uh demeaning uh the Jewish people

00:12:33.500 whatsoever I've worked with them during hate crimes uh when I was in the hate crimes uh portfolio there

00:12:39.560 and um that's not what I was saying the news media the mainstream guys decided to slant it that way

00:12:50.020 they took 10 seconds out of my 10 minute video and decided that that's how they'll they'll get rid of

00:12:56.720 me they'll cancel Brian uh due to that and they found somebody to make a comment well I can tell you

00:13:03.980 since then I've probably got 500 people that made the exact opposite statement to what he had said

00:13:11.220 about me in the media uh and they're saying you know what you are right the correlations are there

00:13:16.080 people's rights are being taken away segregation is happening and that can't be repeated segregation 0.77

00:13:22.340 has never worked in this world and to think that it's going to work now is ridiculous so just to

00:13:29.980 sum all that up there was no intention to demean uh the Jewish people I love them I I've worked with

00:13:36.880 them um I've supported them uh that was not the intention that was twisted well thanks for clearing

00:13:44.000 that up uh Brian now you mentioned um your thoughts around the active cases that are sort of springing up

00:13:52.660 right now with this new variant and uh you know moving into a a flu season of course we're going to see

00:13:58.440 um more people getting sick what were your thoughts there well I I looked at the chart yesterday and I

00:14:05.100 have it in front of me here put out by the Alberta government and uh 80.94 percent of the new active cases

00:14:14.400 are with the vaccinated like totally vaccinated the two shots um like partial vaccinated is 0.72

00:14:24.080 and the unvaccinated is 18.33 percent of the new cases um just I'll touch on two other ones here

00:14:32.980 so the uh total vaccinated hospitalizations is 35 percent the unvaccinated is 30 percent for active

00:14:44.520 like there's there's no sorry the active cases are 68 percent and the active cases for the unvaccinated

00:14:53.080 are 30 percent so the there's a huge difference than what they've been telling us uh that was going

00:14:58.440 to happen and it's starting to rise every single day the numbers are going up so um we're not listening

00:15:06.400 to the science if this was about science then things would have changed by now so what they're doing is

00:15:13.560 they're dividing they're dividing um our nation they're dividing our cities our our our people they 0.76

00:15:19.660 are putting us into two different categories and they're demonizing the unvaccinated still but yeah

00:15:25.980 it shows that that is not it well and I I did go over that data with a medical professional um that

00:15:34.700 was posted on the Alberta government website and I I basically have been told that obviously what it's

00:15:42.620 showing and what what everyone has agreed to is that the the efficacy of the the vaccines don't last

00:15:49.980 forever right this is why we're moving into boosters um the other the other point is is the fact that

00:15:56.780 that there's such a high percentage of people vaccinated but yet such a high percentage of cases so

00:16:02.780 really at the end of the day um the narrative has to change based on this information that it is not

00:16:10.860 just the unvaccinated that are catching carrying and transmitting covid and um you know that's not

00:16:19.500 to say that there is some protection uh from the vaccines that's not to to dispute that um you know a lot

00:16:27.180 would argue that with the vaccine you are going to have better protection for severe outcomes in some

00:16:34.460 cases some cases maybe not but um but that seems to be the argument but but you're right I think that the

00:16:40.300 segregation and the idea that you know these are the spreaders and these are not and then looking at 0.90

00:16:47.180 it like um certain people need to be tested and certain people don't when it seems there is an equal

00:16:54.460 opportunity between the vaccinated and unvaccinated to carry it and to pass it along and to catch it

00:17:01.100 so I agree with you the the narrative needs to change it does and um it's not just the unvaccinated

00:17:07.900 freedoms that are gone it's the vaccinated freedoms are gone uh you can't eat popcorn at the movie

00:17:13.740 theaters like there's a lot of things and so though they may seem little to people but um you know if

00:17:19.820 they start getting into boosters where do we go from there um are all of a sudden the fully vaccinated

00:17:26.060 people now in my camp and now they have to keep up with boosters every six months um something has to

00:17:32.380 change and the narrative that they're that they're continuing uh to tote is the same narrative that

00:17:39.820 has been throughout um if if they really want us to believe in the science they'd be changing that

00:17:45.420 narrative they'd be talking about these things and revamping uh their stance on what they really uh

00:17:51.100 need to do here yes I think I think we are seeing a breakdown um slowly but surely there is there's been a

00:17:58.220 breakdown and an understanding you know this is why um health officials are are encouraging the boosters

00:18:04.780 uh to bring about added protection uh but regardless um agreed and uh so what's next for you brian

00:18:13.180 where do you where do you go from here um I'm gonna keep speaking up I'm gonna continue to uh be the

00:18:19.900 policeman uh and I'm gonna stick up for other people's rights as well and uh I'm gonna continue to

00:18:25.260 show courage to so that others can can speak up as well and uh that they're not uh scared by uh all

00:18:33.260 the scare tactics and the fear mongering that's out there uh so you'll see me uh around I won't be going

00:18:39.820 anywhere and uh I look forward to speaking with you again I look forward to it too and for those

00:18:46.060 watching that are interested in seeing the statistics that we're talking about from the alberta government

00:18:51.740 website I will have a link on uh on the story uh that is that this video is included with so just

00:18:58.780 wanted to say thank you brian uh personally for your 24 years of service as a police officer in

00:19:04.700 calgary and thank you for your service and uh just wishing you a very merry christmas as we go through

00:19:10.700 the break well it's been my honor for 24 years to serve calgarians and a very merry christmas to you

00:19:15.900 thank you thanks brian

Western Standard - December 23, 2021

Exclusive update with Ex-Calgary officer Brian Denison

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