In this episode of The Pipeline, Western Standard's National Affairs Program, we discuss the mass murder of a police officer in Nova Scotia, Canada's worst mass murder in recent memory, and the latest on gun control in Canada.
00:03:19.360We got them illegally from the United States and Canada.
00:03:23.360Okay. So we did not have a, RCMP called it a firearms acquisition certificate. That's now the
00:03:31.360PAL certificate. He did not have any of those. So all his weapons were illegal. But that didn't stop
00:03:39.360Prime Minister Trudeau or the Security Minister Blair the very next day, saying that they would be
00:03:46.360rushing in a weapons ban quickly, even though they admitted they didn't know what type of guns
00:03:52.360were involved. The RCMP revealed Tuesday that one of the weapons, quote, could be described as a military
00:04:01.360assault rifle, unquote. And as Derek will explain, those have been banned in Canada for a very,
00:04:08.360very long time. So it's, stay tuned in the next couple of days. Keep a close eye on our website,
00:04:16.360because it looks like it's going to be breaking news.
00:04:18.360Well, obviously, a terrible story out of Nova Scotia. My family member of mine, through marriage, had a cousin that actually died in the, in that
00:04:30.360terrible incident. And so strikes, I think all of us pretty harshly, and a little close to home for me as well.
00:04:38.360But Derek, this guy got a bunch of illegal weapons, did a bunch of terrible stuff with his weapons he wasn't supposed to have.
00:04:47.360Now the government's going to ban a bunch of legal weapons. Is this just political opportunism at a, using a crisis to your advantage?
00:05:01.360Well, the Liberals have already said they were going to do these things, but obviously they've, they are using the timing of this mass murder to, to really give some impetus to it.
00:05:14.360To use the political opportunity that it presents to try and push this forward, because they know it'll be controversial in rural parts of Canada and across the West.
00:05:24.360But you know, there is, the media have been reticent to criticize the police during this, because the police are also victims in what's happened.
00:05:34.360You know, a police officer was, was killed and murdered in cold blood in this. But the police appear to have really dropped the ball, if nothing else in their communications.
00:05:46.360I don't know how you can have a mass murderer on the loose for 11 or 12. How many hours was this? Can you tell me, Dave? It was a very long time.
00:05:56.360It started about 10, 20 PM and the gunman was killed about 1130. So more than 12 hours.
00:06:05.360Yeah. That's a, I mean, I don't think he would have lasted more than about 30 minutes at most, if this had happened in Texas, say, but even in Canada, this is a very long time for a gunman to be on the loose.
00:06:18.360Even if the citizens around are not armed and able to do anything about it, the police should have done something about this.
00:06:23.360But the police have been extremely, uh, shown an extreme lack of transparency in providing any information about this.
00:06:31.360They've not really been answering questions. They've been releasing information, sometimes very misleading information.
00:06:37.360And so far, both the police and the politicians overseeing them have not released a very key information.
00:06:44.360Like, did this guy have a gun license? They have not told us. That's a pretty important piece of information.
00:06:51.360Um, what were the guns used? They're only beginning now, uh, more than a week later to, uh, to, to tell us what kind of weapons are being used.
00:07:01.360So even under Canada's current gun regime, which is still very tight, um, this guy had no access to any of the guns that he used.
00:07:10.360He did not have a single gun used legally. These were stolen guns from people that he killed, like the police, or they were guns brought illegally from the United States, we believe.
00:07:21.360Um, but the police have not, uh, the police and the politicians have done a remarkably poor job in reporting on this.
00:07:26.360And now the liberals, uh, they're not just pulling this out of their back pocket.
00:07:30.360They've been planning on doing this, but they are now using the opportunity afforded by, by a tragedy like this to push it forward and, uh, showing a remarkable lack of understanding of fundamental rights.
00:07:42.360Uh, in, in the story that Dave Naylor did on this, uh, just, uh, a few hours ago, uh, he quoted Bill Blair, uh, liberal cabinet, uh, minister, I think, uh, charge of public safety saying the gun ownership is not a, uh, right.
00:07:57.360Right. It's, it is a, um, a privilege. And so in this country, uh, you know, getting free things paid for by other people as a right, but keeping your own private property that you've purchased yourself and you're not hurting anybody else with that's a privilege.
00:08:13.360Well, that's the modern Canada we're living in.
00:08:15.360Well, definitely a huge tragedy. Um, but I don't, uh, I think I concur with you, Derek. I don't know that you and I are the same level of gun enthusiast, but, uh, I don't think that, um, a tragedy should be used as a backdrop, uh, really ever, but especially because in this case, these weren't legally acquired guns and we see, and I, there's such a disconnect.
00:08:42.360There's such a disconnect there. Like if they happen to be legally acquired guns, you could make a good case to say, well, you know, maybe certain guns shouldn't be available, or maybe there should be different rules. Some guys like this don't get guns, but it doesn't sound like either of those apply in this case. And so, you know, it shouldn't stand on its, this on its own merits here. Right.
00:09:06.360And so, uh, the RCMP have said they're, they're looking to see whether he had help. Right. So somehow these, some of these weapons at least got, got from the United States into Canada.
00:09:17.360Now they're investigating how that happened. You would think that somehow they were smuggled in, uh, the RCMP started out as a complete train wreck in this, in this whole thing. The first press conference they had, uh, was perhaps the worst press conference I've ever seen a police official have in almost four decades of journalism. It was truly awful and cringe worthy. They've gotten better during the, you know, the five or six days afterwards.
00:09:46.360But they instilled no trust, uh, that first day. Um, and yeah, it's, it's sad that the government is having to come, come in on the heels of, of such a massive tragedy. Uh, you know, and now there's a huge, uh, huge, uh, population of gun owners that are just waiting on tenterhooks to see what is going to be banned.
00:10:12.360Yeah. And, uh, and, uh, and so many questions around the incident as well. Like what was the motivation of the guy? Of course, how did he get all the weapons? Um, his, he had, he, he had some crime, some criminal history expunged that involved an accomplice. Is that accomplice somebody still connected to, you know, is there, is there more people connected to this?
00:10:34.360Don't forget all the fake police cars. Well, and, and uniforms and yeah, like there's definitely.
00:10:42.360Well, and the police knew about these fake police cars. This was well established. He was, he had a reputation. He had several of these things, different models, different years. This was known.
00:10:51.360So he gets a hold of guns that are already illegal, but we now need to ban other guns that weren't used. Uh, but it's completely okay that this guy has got, like, I get pissed off when I'm driving down the highway and I'm doing, you know, five over and I see a car behind me.
00:11:07.360And I think it's a cop and I'm slow for about half an hour. And eventually, you know, the guy, I see the guy up close and it's just a decommissioned cop car that someone bought at an auction.
00:11:17.200That really pisses me off when someone's driving those. And they're not intentionally marked to look like a cop car. They're just decommissioned ones. You know, they got the special hub caps and stuff that bothers me because I have to drive.
00:11:28.460I have to drive like an old lady for, for quite a while. But, uh,
00:11:32.500he had actually purchased four police cars, old police cars at auction. One of them, which he had, uh, put decals on, real RCMP decals and a light bar, the red and, uh, red and blue, red and white lights that they've got on the top.
00:11:49.500It seemed to be well known about the time, well known around town that he had these. On the press conference yesterday, Tuesday by the RCMP, RCMP said they had absolutely no knowledge of
00:12:04.060Yeah. Well, and, and the other thing that I saw that was interesting was, and I don't know how authentic it was, maybe David, you know, but, um, the, uh, high school, um, yearbook that talked about in his graduation that he was, he's most likely, he was voted most likely to become a police officer, was it most likely to join the RCMP or something like that.
00:12:27.380Uh, and so this guy obviously had some love or affinity for the police force. So what did he just decide to collect a bunch of their memorabilia because he was such a big fan, even though he was a dental hygienist or whatever?
00:12:40.940Oh, he was, he was a denturist, denturist. Yeah.
00:12:43.940They make a lot more money than an RCMP officer, but throughout, throughout his life, he seems to have been fascinated by police and, and specifically the RCMP, uh, collecting uniforms.
00:12:56.600Uh, the RCMP said that, you know, they can be bought at auction or in surplus stores and, and stuff like that. But yeah, he was a one man walking and driving fake RCMP officer.
00:13:07.940So, you know, all of that is, you know, hundreds of kilometers in Nova Scotia, because he looked like an RCMP officer.
00:13:15.880You know, he pulled, uh, Western standard sources said he, he was using his vehicle to pull over people or have them stop and he would shoot them.
00:13:24.320Because is there anything worse as a Canadian or actually anywhere, I guess, that you trust the police, right?
00:13:30.640And when you see the police behind you and they pull you over, you trust them.
00:13:35.500Dave, I just watched, uh, the Waco miniseries, so I really don't trust the police right now.
00:13:42.260So you've, you've moved on from Tiger King, have you?
00:14:25.740Uh, the, you know, there, it seems like there's dozens of little separatist parties around Alberta.
00:14:32.460The two biggest ones are Wexit and the Freedom Conservative Party, the FCP.
00:14:37.300And for the last nine months, they seem to have got it figured out that the only way that they're going to achieve their goal of independence, or in fact, even just become relevant, uh, is to join forces.
00:14:50.240So after nine months of negotiations, uh, they, they are setting the groundwork.
00:14:58.600Uh, they've set a, uh, I think it's June 29th.
00:15:02.700They're going to have a teleconference or a internet vote and by all accounts, it's, uh, they're going to be, uh, joining forces to become the Wild Rose Independence Party or WIP for short.
00:15:53.040Well, uh, you know, as Dave said a bit there, there, there's a whole constellation of the, uh, Western independence movement across the whole West.
00:16:01.540And, uh, particularly in Alberta, several official parties, several unofficial parties.
00:16:07.700And, um, you know, it was just pretty clear.
00:16:11.380Nothing's going anywhere unless they, uh, they get their act together.
00:16:15.540And, uh, you know, libertarians, conservatives, and separatists tend to be a rather individualistic lot.
00:16:22.080So it's very difficult for them to come together and do anything.
00:16:25.600Uh, they, they tend to splinter apart.
00:17:56.040Uh, the right has been trying to see if he comes around.
00:17:59.340That's not been happening and he's not had any wins.
00:18:02.320A guy elected on a platform of getting big wins against Ottawa for Alberta hasn't had a single significant win against Ottawa.
00:18:10.220None of the things he's talked about in Fair Deal has happened.
00:18:12.360So, you know, if, uh, if Kenny fails to deliver and this party can demonstrate some political maturity that they don't want to be just a little tiny social club, uh, and attract a credible leader and do the hard work that's necessary.
00:18:25.120There is a possibility that, uh, they'll be able to upset, as I put it, upset the, uh, the federalist duopoly in Alberta, the two-party state in which both, uh, agree that Alberta needs to be under Ottawa.
00:18:39.840You know, it's funny, Alberta loves to, like, burn their politicians at the stake and from an aside perspective here in British Columbia, I, I don't have any opinion on, on Jason Kenney beyond, uh, seems like a pretty nice guy.
00:18:59.980Um, he, uh, he, uh, was a federal, um, cabinet minister, but, uh, um, um, you know, he sent British Columbia a bunch of, uh, personal protective equipment, which was super nice, as well as sending that to, uh, Quebec and Ontario.
00:19:17.260I don't know what you guys have a problem with this guy for, so, anyway, that's my, that's my BC opinion for today for whatever it's worth.
00:19:27.980You're just hoping we don't send a rat patrol to invade.
00:19:32.080It's, uh, I don't see what the problem is.
00:19:34.380Anyway, I, uh, I do, though, however, um, agree that, um, Alberta has lots of reasons to be, um, unhappy about, uh, their place in confederation.
00:19:45.240Paul, I think, Paul, it was you, maybe it was David, I think it was you, started talking about something old, something new, and that actually started making me think how relevant that is.
00:19:53.720Something old, you know, the wild rose, something new, independence, something borrowed, again, the wild rose, and something blue.
00:20:02.720It's, um, there's a lot that makes sense in that old saying, uh, and it, and it is a marriage of, uh, of two parties that are lesser by themselves.
00:20:58.620And then they went into the wild roses, the next best thing.
00:21:01.040Um, but I can tell you behind the scenes, we all said, you know, none of us wanted independence, but we all thought it might somehow, it might, we might be forced to come to grips with it someday.
00:21:11.440And if that party hadn't have disappeared, there's a very good chance it would be actively leading an independence movement today.
00:22:58.880Uh, then, uh, that thing that we're not allowed to talk about tonight, uh, hit and has, uh, decimated the newspaper, uh, industry, uh, in Canada.
00:23:10.020Uh, Post Media announced this week, uh, they were closing, uh, uh, weekly or community papers, excuse me, in, uh, Ontario and Manitoba.
00:23:21.24015 of them, uh, they, uh, all their staff took, uh, pay cuts, 30% for the CEO down to, uh, 5% for the lowly paid reporter and, uh, Quebec Corps are thinking about chopping 10% of their staff.
00:23:36.220So the media has, uh, has had a, has a really hard time during this pandemic.
00:23:41.880Um, advertising rates are down 50% across the board and, uh, you know, they're hurting.
00:23:47.700Uh, you know, for me, this is just a continued part of their slide.