Exclusive update with Ex-Calgary officer Brian Denison
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Summary
Constable Brian Dennison, who is now no longer with the CPS, talks about his decision to step down from the force. He also talks about the challenges he faced in responding to the pandemic and how he dealt with them.
Transcript
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Good afternoon. I'm Melanie Rizdin with the Western Standard and we're just doing a check-in
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with Constable Brian Dennison who is now no longer with the CPS. He's tendered his resignation and
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Brian we wanted to check in with you and just see how things are going. I know we've seen that you
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have been speaking at some of the rallies and the get-togethers. Yeah just tell me tell me where
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things are at right now. Well it's been kind of a whirlwind of the last few weeks since all this
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has come out and the video kind of went wild. I just wanted to just say that I'm really enthused
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with the people's ability to come around and support me because it was a difficult time going
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through that. Where I stand now is I had been speaking out about that video and I've been
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speaking out about the way I see things with regards to the mandates and the testing especially at CPS
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and what has happened is that CPS decided that no longer Brian will speak and they sent me a direct
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order which was basically a cease and desist letter which was a direct order and that was one order that
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I kind of looked at and I went you know what that really doesn't have anything to do with my stance on
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the mandates and it was a direct order to me so I really sat and thought about what my options were
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and one of my options was to disobey that direct order and in the police service that's something
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that I could not do as an officer. I couldn't disobey my superintendent's direct order to me even
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though it was kind of about what I was doing and speaking up but again it was a direct order so I
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decided that it's best for me now to speak from outside of the police service so as of Saturday
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morning I resigned from the police service. Okay so Brian has been a police officer with the CPS for
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24 years you were just for people who maybe haven't heard your story you were about a year away from
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from retiring from CPS and let's just do a kind of a quick timeline here just just of you know how
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all of this played out you when you did the video you you produced a video where you were sitting in
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your cruiser in full uniform and we're talking about these mandates just yeah let's talk about a
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quick timeline how that all played out. Okay so I'll go way back to when this whole pandemic started
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and things were really crazy we were wearing biohazard suits and masks and we had goggles and stuff we
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had to have to wear and to run into any type of emergency situation they wanted you to put this
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stuff on and it just seemed very difficult to adhere to those type of policies that they were bringing in
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so I worked that whole time doing those things wearing my mask when appropriate and all that stuff was
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very cumbersome for my job trying to be able to do my job correctly and I worked throughout that whole
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pandemic up to getting let go basically or or suspended and I did my job I showed up for work
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I performed my duties and I never let the pandemic keep me from doing that so during that time I
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couldn't I couldn't believe where this country was going with the mandates and with forcing people to
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get this vaccine I felt that there was a lot of coercion going on there was a lot of bullying within my
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workplace just by the some of the stances they were taking on on how they were trying to get people to
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start taking the vaccine so now we're up to this year and the chief was when I made the video the chief was
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actually considering bringing in a mandate and I heard rumors of what they're going to be putting in
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it and how they were going to go about that and that it was going to be you get the mandate you put
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or they will put you on an unpaid leave if you don't and that they were thinking about testing so
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when I actually did that video I was at the point in my life where I going I can't keep not saying
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something so the audience of that video was fellow police officers that we had a group of and I was trying
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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
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what is lawful and my target audience was 174 people so the chief has gone on that the CBC and said
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recently that I was forwarding my own agenda or it was a power grab that's not it at all I was actually
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speaking to other police officers uh and trying to get them to stand up where it has gone from now is
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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
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and since then I couldn't be quiet I can't um I can't stop letting people know that what is happening
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is wrong and I just wanted to touch on one thing um there is a competency within the Calgary Police
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Service there are seven core values and one of them is courage and in there they state that it
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it's standing up uh for what is wrong like you're standing your ground and that's what I'm doing
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I'm standing my ground I have lived up to um all of those attributes of a police officer and I continue to
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though some people try to demonize me now and say that I'm I was on the street for 24 years so you
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can't be a good cop well I can tell you that that is policing policing is working the street um so
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that is the essence of policing so I find myself now not a police officer um technically with them
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but I'll always refer to myself as a police officer and I'll continue to act the same way that I've acted
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throughout my 24-year career now what has come because I know when you did that video and it
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started to spread um I know that you were charged internally with insubordination and um I believe
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another charge internally yes discreditable conduct what has what's come of that do those just go away
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now do they how does that affect the outcome for you in the end here so those are internal charges
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they're under the police act that the chief can see seek remedy for um breaches of their policy
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um so those are um are done away with as soon as I'm no longer a policeman they don't have jurisdiction
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over me uh they can't tell me not to speak they can't tell me what to say um and those things
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they never were anything criminal in nature it was a breach of their COVID-19 policy right now what
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about other consequences from from all of this Brian any kind of uh consequence to you know receiving
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any you know days that you had banked or um any pension anything there no uh again we're I have a
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contract which well right now we're without a contract we're still trying to negotiate with the city so
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it reverts back to the old one but uh the contract they can't nullify anything uh like my holiday
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hours um any of my banked hours from overtime uh anything that they owe me uh I will be receiving
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uh so that that is not an issue and and uh the people that I have been dealing with since my
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resignation have been very very helpful how do you plan to continue to stand for this how do you plan to
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uh further your message to people well I'll continue to speak with with you I'll continue to speak with
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any news or organization that will actually um tell the truth and uh get both sides of a story
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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
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approached by um a great group uh it's unbelievable I don't know if I can drop everyone's name here um I
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did have them but um it's a group of um people it's called uh taking back our freedoms and what they
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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
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advisors after my resignation had come up and they've got some powerful people uh on this like
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for instance the the chair of it is uh Brian Petford he was a premier uh and he's heading up
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this whole thing they've got Dr Roger Hopkinson they got Dr Paul Alexander these are big names that
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are talking about what's going on uh Dr Jessica Rose Dr Eric Payne who we all know uh from Calgary
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uh they got Corporal Daniel Bulford he was the security detail for Redford I think yeah
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so they've got a lot of good people on there and I'm thinking about uh starting to uh help them out
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with with what they're doing and they're going uh through their MLAs up into the government so
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I will continue on in that front I'm happy to go uh and start putting my my um talent to use with
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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
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I'll still be here I'll still be doing whatever I can are you pursuing any legal action any legal advice
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anything there uh at this point I I don't know I haven't spoken to a lawyer outside of uh I had I
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had a lawyer through my union uh great guy very very helpful uh but I haven't seeked anything outside
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of that at this point okay now for the record Brian I wouldn't mind just touching on I know uh I know
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some of the media uh chose to really zone in on that comment you made about um this being some you know
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something towards the holocaust and being a Nazi um action and uh you were vilified for that um
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I just wanted to give you the the chance to to speak to that I know um uh your intention was not to be
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disrespectful but uh do you want to say something on the record for that yeah yeah sure um so as
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everyone should know as well as uh I didn't put it in my video but I was a hate crimes coordinator for
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three years in this city and um during that time that I was there was a great uh problem with neo-Nazis
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and hate groups in our city and they did all kinds of protests and violent ones at that um so that's who
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I had dealt with I received a lot of training through conferences and stuff that I went through
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and of course I'm going to know about uh the holocaust of course I'm going to know about what
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happened in Germany in the 1930s and the rights were slowly stripped away from from the Jewish people
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and of course I'm going to know about that so when I'm making that video the first thing I think of
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what do I know the most about well that's what I know the most about um throughout history it's happened
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uh many times that's not the only time in history that I could have picked but it's one that
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really stood out to me and it should stand out to everybody because we got to make sure that that
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type of history does not repeat and I wasn't um I wasn't uh demeaning uh the Jewish people
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whatsoever I've worked with them during hate crimes uh when I was in the hate crimes uh portfolio there
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and um that's not what I was saying the news media the mainstream guys decided to slant it that way
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they took 10 seconds out of my 10 minute video and decided that that's how they'll they'll get rid of
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me they'll cancel Brian uh due to that and they found somebody to make a comment well I can tell you
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since then I've probably got 500 people that made the exact opposite statement to what he had said
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about me in the media uh and they're saying you know what you are right the correlations are there
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people's rights are being taken away segregation is happening and that can't be repeated segregation
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has never worked in this world and to think that it's going to work now is ridiculous so just to
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sum all that up there was no intention to demean uh the Jewish people I love them I I've worked with
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them um I've supported them uh that was not the intention that was twisted well thanks for clearing
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that up uh Brian now you mentioned um your thoughts around the active cases that are sort of springing up
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right now with this new variant and uh you know moving into a a flu season of course we're going to see
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um more people getting sick what were your thoughts there well I I looked at the chart yesterday and I
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have it in front of me here put out by the Alberta government and uh 80.94 percent of the new active cases
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are with the vaccinated like totally vaccinated the two shots um like partial vaccinated is 0.72
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and the unvaccinated is 18.33 percent of the new cases um just I'll touch on two other ones here
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so the uh total vaccinated hospitalizations is 35 percent the unvaccinated is 30 percent for active
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like there's there's no sorry the active cases are 68 percent and the active cases for the unvaccinated
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are 30 percent so the there's a huge difference than what they've been telling us uh that was going
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to happen and it's starting to rise every single day the numbers are going up so um we're not listening
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to the science if this was about science then things would have changed by now so what they're doing is
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they're dividing they're dividing um our nation they're dividing our cities our our our people they
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are putting us into two different categories and they're demonizing the unvaccinated still but yeah
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it shows that that is not it well and I I did go over that data with a medical professional um that
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was posted on the Alberta government website and I I basically have been told that obviously what it's
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showing and what what everyone has agreed to is that the the efficacy of the the vaccines don't last
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forever right this is why we're moving into boosters um the other the other point is is the fact that
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that there's such a high percentage of people vaccinated but yet such a high percentage of cases so
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really at the end of the day um the narrative has to change based on this information that it is not
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just the unvaccinated that are catching carrying and transmitting covid and um you know that's not
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to say that there is some protection uh from the vaccines that's not to to dispute that um you know a lot
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would argue that with the vaccine you are going to have better protection for severe outcomes in some
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cases some cases maybe not but um but that seems to be the argument but but you're right I think that the
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segregation and the idea that you know these are the spreaders and these are not and then looking at
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it like um certain people need to be tested and certain people don't when it seems there is an equal
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opportunity between the vaccinated and unvaccinated to carry it and to pass it along and to catch it
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so I agree with you the the narrative needs to change it does and um it's not just the unvaccinated
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freedoms that are gone it's the vaccinated freedoms are gone uh you can't eat popcorn at the movie
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theaters like there's a lot of things and so though they may seem little to people but um you know if
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they start getting into boosters where do we go from there um are all of a sudden the fully vaccinated
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people now in my camp and now they have to keep up with boosters every six months um something has to
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change and the narrative that they're that they're continuing uh to tote is the same narrative that
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has been throughout um if if they really want us to believe in the science they'd be changing that
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narrative they'd be talking about these things and revamping uh their stance on what they really uh
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need to do here yes I think I think we are seeing a breakdown um slowly but surely there is there's been a
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breakdown and an understanding you know this is why um health officials are are encouraging the boosters
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uh to bring about added protection uh but regardless um agreed and uh so what's next for you brian
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where do you where do you go from here um I'm gonna keep speaking up I'm gonna continue to uh be the
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policeman uh and I'm gonna stick up for other people's rights as well and uh I'm gonna continue to
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show courage to so that others can can speak up as well and uh that they're not uh scared by uh all
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the scare tactics and the fear mongering that's out there uh so you'll see me uh around I won't be going
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anywhere and uh I look forward to speaking with you again I look forward to it too and for those
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watching that are interested in seeing the statistics that we're talking about from the alberta government
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website I will have a link on uh on the story uh that is that this video is included with so just
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wanted to say thank you brian uh personally for your 24 years of service as a police officer in
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calgary and thank you for your service and uh just wishing you a very merry christmas as we go through
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the break well it's been my honor for 24 years to serve calgarians and a very merry christmas to you