Western Standard - LIVE： RCMP move into Coutts border blockade

00:00:00.000 Good afternoon. I'm Melanie Rizdin with the Western Standard. We are just going live to the

00:00:10.380 Coutts border where a police take down has started to happen. We've got James down on scene. James,

00:00:18.780 can you tell us exactly what's happening here? Right now it looks like we've got a line of about

00:00:24.860 26 police officers and i don't know if you can see them behind there but there's a whole lot more

00:00:31.260 just down just past the blockade they uh have been making their way truck by truck so far i've seen

00:00:38.220 about five trucks leave the the area and uh head uh head north towards milk river uh back further

00:00:46.460 here now where the where the police are we are uh just north of the scales just north of the border

00:00:52.620 about two kilometers and uh they they're going truck to truck and talking to the truck drivers

00:00:58.500 uh they are taking video and um and i haven't seen them make any arrests yet it looked like

00:01:06.180 the first truck that they approached they were going to arrest the driver that didn't happen

00:01:11.260 the driver left and is now headed north towards milk river but it looks like he stopped a little

00:01:17.100 bit further down uh we're just watching now as the rcmp makes their way uh down down towards the

00:01:25.080 blockade um i don't know if you guys can see this a little bit further i apologize i'm in my vehicle

00:01:30.700 because the protest site is a little over two kilometers long and the truck drivers and the

00:01:36.380 different protesters further down have started to reinforce the blockade and there's about three or

00:01:42.800 four uh complete blockades now of the highway going all the way across all the way up into

00:01:49.840 uh the ditch and up to the fence line to try to prevent the rcmp from getting past the blockade

00:01:55.840 uh i i would imagine that we're we're going to be in here in this all afternoon so james these first

00:02:01.920 few trucks that we're looking at here uh where the police are all lined up um are those trucks

00:02:07.760 they are part of the blockade as well um are they sort of the front of the blockade or what are we

00:02:13.280 looking at there these trucks here are the uh the front of the blockade they are um sorry i'm just

00:02:21.840 i'm just moving out of here it looks like there's some service vehicles here uh let me just quickly

00:02:26.240 make a circle here uh these trucks here are the very front of the blockade the the actual blockade

00:02:32.640 it's about two kilometers to the south from here uh these are the the first line uh there's been

00:02:39.840 one lane open on one side of these trucks this is in the the northbound lane they've left one

00:02:46.720 lane open these guys are are currently in the uh the left the left lane of the right lane is open

00:02:53.360 the rcmp is going truck by truck working their way back towards the uh the main blockade

00:02:59.120 Now, we just received very shortly here, we just received a press release from the RCMP,

00:03:11.680 just getting to that here now. So a statement from the RCMP has said that what began as a peaceful

00:03:22.400 Assembly quickly has turned into an unlawful blockade. While Alberta RCMP has been in a

00:03:29.280 position to conduct enforcement, we have been engaged with protesters at the Coutts border

00:03:35.200 crossing in an effort to find a peaceful and safe resolution for all involved. Now,

00:03:40.160 having read that, I know that earlier lawyers that have been brought in to support the people

00:03:51.920 involved in the blockade, the protesters, they were going to be engaged in negotiations with

00:03:59.000 the RCMP. Has that happened? Has any negotiations happened yet? So the last I heard, the lawyers

00:04:06.660 met with the truckers. They had a good meeting this morning. It was productive. After that

00:04:12.300 meeting, the lawyers went to go talk to the RCMP. Now, I haven't been able to follow up

00:04:18.220 with uh with the lawyers since then um i was i was just uh i was updating cory morgan for uh

00:04:25.580 triggered this afternoon and uh this all uh just as soon as triggered was over this uh this all

00:04:32.060 started to happen uh now some locals had gone down to the blockade to try to get a fuel truck through

00:04:37.340 earlier uh some local businesses uh were trying to get fuel through um they were they were concerned

00:04:44.780 that the the coots county uh snow plow was running low on fuel and needed fuel uh some locals went

00:04:51.740 down to get some fuel trucks through i don't know if you guys can see this i'm sorry to sorry to cut

00:04:56.540 that thought off but there is now currently farm equipment and uh personal vehicles that are going

00:05:02.620 around the original police barricade and coming in here there's tractors going through the ditch

00:05:08.220 there's big rigs coming around the highway and going through a secondary police blockade now

00:05:13.180 There's more vehicles coming in here. It looks like the original police checkpoint, it looks like the citizens have just said that's enough and have started going around it. There's a full tractor coming down the ditch now towards the RCMP. They're coming from everywhere. There's another 50 vehicles coming in here now.

00:05:33.540 Now, James, where is the original checkpoint for the RCMP that have been stopping people from joining the protesters?

00:05:41.820 Where is that? I believe you said that was just south of Milk River.

00:05:47.000 It's south of Kootz. It's north of Milk River, about two kilometers.

00:05:50.480 It's south of Kootz by about 15 kilometers.

00:05:53.660 But it looks like their efforts to try to hold the traffic back and hold back people that were trying to join this protest over the last two days has failed.

00:06:01.540 and there is just an onslaught of vehicles coming in here now.

00:06:05.100 There's big rigs, grain haulers, personal vehicles with Canadian flags.

00:06:11.440 There's farm equipment coming through here now, and they are not slowing down.

00:06:16.460 It looks like for at least another kilometre, there's more vehicles coming in here,

00:06:21.980 and the RCMP have just decided to just let them through,

00:06:25.320 and they're getting past me here now, and they're actually taking up position.

00:06:29.820 I'm going to move just to the south here.

00:06:32.940 I don't know if you can see this out my window.

00:06:35.280 It looks like now they are setting up secondary blockade lines.

00:06:40.180 There's actually three blockades here now from the scale back to the actual main blockade itself at the entrance to the village of Goots.

00:06:51.680 I just saw a helicopter go by there as well.

00:06:54.520 Are you noticing that they are sort of monitoring the area from above?

00:06:59.460 has that been happening most of the day have you noticed the helicopter's actually been here since

00:07:04.660 the start of the protest on uh saturday and uh the hell the helicopter uh that that's been one

00:07:10.980 of the sticking points for the protesters they uh they haven't been happy about the helicopter uh

00:07:16.260 area residents haven't been happy about the helicopter and the noise uh the helicopter

00:07:20.900 actually took off probably at about 12 10. i heard it take off over uh over the office where uh where

00:07:27.940 where i've been stationed here for the weekend and uh there there was a couple of loud noises

00:07:33.940 we heard a couple of bangs and then we heard the helicopter take off uh it looks like now there's

00:07:39.140 there's more farm equipment coming in here and i don't know if you can see this these two rcmp

00:07:43.700 vehicles here have actually blocked the entrance to the scale and the rcmp are actually withdrawing

00:07:49.240 now from uh the first couple of trucks at the uh at the beginning of the protest line um i i'm

00:07:56.720 venturing to guess here there's been another 50 to 75 vehicles uh the farm equipment discurs

00:08:03.040 tractors grain haulers they've all come through i can see those uh in the distance there now

00:08:10.080 here's my question um one of this one of the comments in the um in the statement from the rcmp

00:08:16.640 says that the blockade continues to impede the ability for emergency agencies to provide

00:08:23.200 full services to area residents now having read that i i know i have also spoken at length with

00:08:30.000 the organizers who have said they have uh continually left a full lane and and actually

00:08:37.920 widened it i believe as of sunday but they have left a full lane available for any kind of

00:08:44.480 emergency vehicles to get through can you comment on whether that has been impeded and that there

00:08:50.720 would be an interference or you know anything that would be impeding the ability for emergency

00:08:58.900 vehicles to respond?

00:09:01.640 You know what I tell you what the office that I've been working out of is it's about

00:09:06.360 a hundred meters away from the saloon that the majority of the truckers and protesters

00:09:10.280 have been meeting in where they've been eating where they've been getting coffee where they've

00:09:14.040 been getting warm and I left there and that is at the very front of the blockade that

00:09:19.080 That is where the highway is closed across completely.

00:09:23.260 And you know what?

00:09:24.520 The entire right-hand lane of the northbound lane was entirely open.

00:09:29.860 I drove all the way down here.

00:09:31.680 There is no restricted access to the village of Coutts they can get through.

00:09:35.760 The volunteer firefighters have been able to cross into Sweetgrass if they want to.

00:09:41.440 Everything has been left open.

00:09:44.740 From what I seen earlier this morning when we drove back into the protest area,

00:09:48.740 the entire right lane all the way from the RCMP blockade all the way up to the main blockade

00:09:53.840 has been completely open so I mean um impeded definitely uh maybe slowed down but I they're

00:10:02.340 not cut off they can get in here I I'm watching farmer I'm watching tractors hauling bailers

00:10:07.060 drive all the way up to the front of the line right now they're coming down secondary gravel

00:10:11.320 roads they're coming down uh other highways there's absolutely no way that people are having

00:10:17.060 an issue getting up here to the front of the line. Now, of course, they're also mentioning the fact

00:10:22.080 that this is negatively impacting the flow of goods and services, obviously, meaning across

00:10:28.480 the border, either direction. Is that still the case, James? Yes, absolutely. There is no way

00:10:35.180 commercial traffic can get through here at all. It's been closed off. It's been closed off since

00:10:39.780 Saturday. There's no way that anybody can use the Coutts border crossing right now.

00:10:45.980 well they are they're going through these guys are going through sorry there's uh there's uh

00:10:52.220 sorry are you a local resident or where are you from yeah transports have been going through

00:10:59.580 you've seen them since uh since saturday well this morning they were this morning so there you have

00:11:05.020 it mel this is this is a local resident right here he's coming and and identified himself to me and

00:11:10.460 And he's saying, no, some of the commercial traffic can get through.

00:11:15.020 It's slow.

00:11:17.700 Yeah.

00:11:18.840 So, yeah, you know, that's the situation here, Mel.

00:11:23.440 One side's got one side of the story.

00:11:25.460 One side's got the other side of the story.

00:11:27.100 But from what I can see, I mean, these tractors now, there's more and more just coming through here.

00:11:34.360 And, like, that's a whole disker right there.

00:11:37.200 Like, this is unbelievable.

00:11:39.520 It looks like now that several of the RCMP vehicles have been loaded back up, and it looks like they're starting to head back south.

00:11:48.180 I'm going to try to reposition myself here again one more time.

00:11:52.500 So are you saying that it looks like the RCMP are retreating?

00:11:59.020 I do notice that they have left those few front trucks there.

00:12:04.100 Are you saying that it looks like they're pulling away?

00:12:06.320 yeah it does look now now that uh that line of uh of protesters that's been held back uh

00:12:14.800 about 15 kilometers from here now that they've broken that line and uh it looks like to me that

00:12:22.000 the rcmp have uh have started to retreat there's no more officers out on the highway uh this truck

00:12:28.320 here was the last uh the last truck that they were at and um they uh they've withdrawn from

00:12:35.840 this truck the driver is still in his truck he's not moving um just about i believe it's about

00:12:42.640 another two kilometers here down to a rail crossing it looks like the rcmp have actually

00:12:47.120 retreated about two kilometers back now and they're just at a cp rail crossing now and it

00:12:52.960 looks like that's where they've stopped it looks like they're spreading out across the highway

00:12:58.000 and uh the service roads there now uh down into the ditch um right here is a secondary blockade

00:13:05.920 this is this is the blockade that came in and this is where they were starting to make the arrest

00:13:09.920 from um now i i don't want to drive down and uh back down to that far blockade and just antagonize

00:13:16.720 anyone but uh i i do want to stay here and just kind of keep an eye on uh what's happening and

00:13:22.240 what the RCMP plans to do next. Okay. I'm just looking at some of the comments from people who

00:13:30.640 are sort of following along on the coverage. A lot of people saying, stay strong. It's what

00:13:37.280 freedom looks like. Stand strong. Somebody says here, it sounds like you're directionally challenged.

00:13:43.600 James? Because even me listening to some of the directions you're giving, I feel like

00:13:50.640 your north and your south might be mixed up let me just clarify um this is south of milk river

00:13:57.840 correct yes this is south of milk river okay and the rcmp um were were stopping uh travel

00:14:06.400 or stopping um people from joining the uh from joining the the protest just south of milk river

00:14:15.120 yes okay they were about two kilometers south of milk river and 15 kilometers north of coots

00:14:22.620 yeah so i think i think in in there somewhere um we got a few north and south mixed up yes this is

00:14:29.100 south of milk river uh but my understanding is this is um sort of just it's not it it's it's

00:14:37.220 right where uh coots it the town of coots or the village of coots is just um just north of it is

00:14:43.800 that is that correct where the blockade is yeah the blockade is uh at the scale just north of

00:14:49.780 okay uh all right sarah says love and sorry say that again the area comes in north and south but

00:14:58.700 the border crossing actually turns and goes east and west before it starts going south again on the

00:15:03.740 american side so it's kind of one of those situations where north is east and east is south

00:15:08.860 kind of situation here but okay okay so so yes we're uh we're

00:15:17.820 so uh uh james are you able to move a little bit closer to the blockade

00:15:23.340 uh from where you are right now are you able to to where the truck drivers are blockading or the

00:15:28.300 rcmp blockade no i think more so closer to the um truck blockade yeah let's uh i'll make my way

00:15:37.740 back up that way and uh we'll we'll show everybody what this uh what this looks like here actually

00:15:42.940 i'm uh i'm gonna go straight down here through the ditch and just show you guys that this uh

00:15:47.500 this one lane's been open the entire time uh sorry i'm i'm holding the phone out the window as i

00:15:52.940 drive here so just in the last little bit the uh rcmp or the the the protesters have obviously

00:15:59.420 started to plug the holes and close the lanes that they left open uh to start with

00:16:04.620 so okay so this is so this is the so this is the the the blockade and you are driving uh right

00:16:13.840 through so if you take a look right here these these trucks right here were not here about five

00:16:19.680 minutes ago these trucks have only recently moved in here uh up until uh about 15 minutes ago or

00:16:26.300 however long it's been now uh this lane was completely open there was access all the way

00:16:31.640 through here i drove right from the main blockade all the way up to the front i can still get around

00:16:36.760 this uh no problem uh it takes a little bit of some creative driving but uh you can you can

00:16:42.360 definitely get through it okay uh now we've got uh comments from people somebody saying uh barbara

00:16:48.280 is suggesting maybe we call the rcmp and express our support for the truckers um uh another another

00:16:57.320 person here says uh just because i'm against um blockading critical infrastructure doesn't mean

00:17:02.840 i'm against freedom i just think this will hurt the movement it's bad publicity so somebody is

00:17:10.360 sort of speaking out against the fact that this blockade is is in their opinion not not the right

00:17:17.400 way to go um let's see here uh yeah peaceful protesting is legal stand strong truckers now

00:17:26.680 having said that i i want to mention this in the um in the rcmp release that we received

00:17:33.320 just moments ago they referenced this as no longer a peaceful assembly um so

00:17:42.120 So I have tried to reach out to the RCMP to get clarity on that, what has turned unpeaceful.

00:17:52.920 I understand that this is blocking infrastructure and this, according to the RCMP, is the Critical

00:18:01.840 Infrastructure Defence Act of Alberta along with the Highway and Traffic, the Traffic

00:18:09.120 safety act highway and rules of road regulations i grasp that the blockade is is affecting that but

00:18:16.800 but what i would like clarity on is is the word peaceful how this has now not been peaceful have

00:18:23.280 you seen anything james that would be um characterized as unpeaceful no absolutely

00:18:31.440 not these guys have been peaceful uh there's random outbreaks of people singing o canada

00:18:36.480 i've seen truck drivers bring loud speakers out and play air canada over over their sound system

00:18:42.000 uh there's been plenty of praying uh lots of thinking lots of community support lots of

00:18:48.000 lots of hugs lots of uh lots of positive attitudes i i wouldn't i haven't seen anything that would

00:18:54.080 say that this has become violent or or anything but a peaceful peaceful demonstration uh now

00:19:01.440 James, would you be in a position or comfortable being able to head the other direction and go towards where the RCMP might, you know, where they might be set up or where they might be sort of gathering at this point?

00:19:14.700 Are you are you able to go that direction or I'm I'm just right where it looks like they've taken this was where their their position was when when they started to go truck to truck and begin to make arrests.

00:19:29.940 they have another position just beyond it about two kilometers to the north at a at a cp train

00:19:36.320 crossing uh i i don't know that i should get any closer i uh i don't want to impede them if uh they

00:19:42.980 decide to come in here i uh i i don't want uh i don't want to be arrested i've uh i've got my

00:19:50.020 press identification here so i'm hoping that i can just uh keep my camera on events and bring the

00:19:55.080 story and uh and and not get in anybody's way um i i obviously don't know what the the rcmp

00:20:03.080 are planning to do and if they plan to uh to come forward or uh move to the uh the beginning of the

00:20:10.440 trucks i'm actually um i'm past uh where where the the the trucks start now so i i don't want to go

00:20:17.320 any further and get into anybody's way. Okay. Looks like there's a comment here from RCMP.

00:20:27.560 They are going to begin to take enforcement action. Obviously, we've seen that happening.

00:20:32.280 Anyone who actively blocks a highway or aids councils or directs a highway to be blocked

00:20:38.200 may be subject to arrest and charged under the critical infrastructure defense act.

00:20:43.640 Just trying to follow, you know, if there's been any statements from politicians, perhaps

00:20:52.040 Kenny. We're just trying to figure out if there has been any kind of statements there.

00:21:00.240 Haven't heard anything yet. James, as far as the presence there, I have heard from a number of

00:21:06.580 people that there is a heavy presence of RCMP and law enforcement officers. Do you have a number?

00:21:16.780 Do you have an idea of what we're talking about here? No. I tried counting them earlier. I think

00:21:23.520 there was about 50 officers that were walking at one point in time. They've all gone back now into

00:21:29.540 their vehicle so it would be hard to get a count but uh you know just looking here there's uh

00:21:35.700 there's five nine you know there's got to be about 15 or 25 vehicles just here and then probably

00:21:45.980 another 25 a little bit further back uh at the uh at the train crossing there um you know it's hard

00:21:53.600 to estimate i can't really see into the vehicles how many members are actually in those vehicles

00:21:58.300 there um no i i can't get get a clear idea but i mean this is definitely a lot more police presence

00:22:05.900 than what we've seen earlier um you know there there's been sporadic uh units here and there

00:22:12.260 throughout the the uh the protest site they've been uh moving through talking to protesters uh

00:22:20.360 they've been talking to the families that have shown up and the supporters that have shown up

00:22:24.300 There's been, you know, five or six vehicles circling around through town on a regular basis, but nothing like this.

00:22:31.900 No, no show of force like this.

00:22:34.640 Carla has a comment here.

00:22:38.380 There's been no blocking of traffic that want to pass.

00:22:42.320 Stop spreading hatred.

00:22:46.720 Someone else comments that it's amazing how you can only find one live stream to watch.

00:22:53.040 Let's see here.

00:22:54.300 Tammy Lee says god I love Alberta. Okay so Dale says nice RCMP they pulled a fake to see what

00:23:11.100 the protesters will do I'm thinking they now know what's who's who's committed so yeah and as you

00:23:19.240 said, James, just as the, for anyone who just joined us, just as the officers came in force

00:23:27.260 to the beginning or the front trucks of the blockade, there was a massive convergence of

00:23:37.980 farm trucks, farm equipment tractors, things like that. That sounds like they got past

00:23:45.780 a blockade that the RCMP have set up just north of the blockade. And it sounds like James that

00:23:54.320 there have been a number of groups coming to join the blockade that the RCMP have been restricting

00:24:01.040 from being able to get to them. And there's a number of areas where I hear those barriers have

00:24:08.500 been set up by RCMP one just south of Milk River and again on highway 500 or the 500 as as we refer

00:24:16.220 to it do you know anything about those those blockades the the Milk River blockade has been

00:24:23.960 there for well basically since Friday it started out as an information thing they were just telling

00:24:29.820 people that there's a protest ahead and that the roads were closed and they were letting people go

00:24:34.740 by who wanted that was the rcmp yeah yeah now that changed on monday on monday they uh basically

00:24:42.280 restricted access into the village of coots for the village of coots residents only and uh basically

00:24:49.080 uh what what i was told when i crossed through there it was uh for local local residents and

00:24:54.040 press only uh that they were letting through at that blockade at that particular point uh now the

00:24:59.800 We only really knew about the first blockade on Highway 501 or 500, and that blockade only had about eight trucks at it last night, and the RCMP did negotiate with the truckers and let those vehicles in here.

00:25:18.240 now uh they didn't there was a secondary group of trucks that uh the truckers did not know that

00:25:25.160 there was a secondary blockade on highway 501 and uh those those trucks were not allowed in last

00:25:31.620 night and that did cause a bit of tension between the rcmp and the protesters last night as there

00:25:37.020 was some food and some medication in those vehicles last night that they thought were going

00:25:41.940 to be delivered and that ended up not happening. Now, I was with the drivers when they talked to

00:25:48.500 the RCMP last night. They all chalked it up to a miscommunication and they said that they would

00:25:54.520 readdress things again in the morning. Now, they originally did have a scheduled meeting

00:25:59.180 with the RCMP at eight o'clock this morning and the RCMP did not make that meeting. I would

00:26:05.600 suspect that that was due to um the uh protesters retaining council and i i believe the rcmp was

00:26:13.120 waiting for their council to arrive to begin a dialogue with their with their council

00:26:21.440 is there any way uh james that you can get back into uh head towards the the blockade and uh

00:26:28.800 perhaps there might be some people we can talk to uh if if you can uh get a little bit closer we can

00:26:36.480 uh perhaps hear from somebody who who's made it in who recently got sort of past those rcmp

00:26:43.680 checkpoints and and have joined um you know if there's any chance that you can get up closer

00:26:49.440 and speak with somebody i'm uh yeah let me uh i let's go down in through here there's uh

00:26:56.480 It looks like there's a line of protesters just over here.

00:27:01.300 I'll make my way over there and see what we can hear from them.

00:27:09.000 Just going to make my way back here.

00:27:11.880 Looks like all of these trucks, for the most part, the entire time, have had a driver in it.

00:27:22.220 now they have been going back to the saloon for for warmth for food for coffee but it looks like

00:27:30.700 now just about everybody has taken back to their vehicles and it looks like now the the farm

00:27:36.380 equipment that was stopped at milk river has now taken up kind of a first line of defense here and

00:27:44.800 and they are they're they're setting up a barricade here I don't know if you can see these

00:27:51.260 guys are waving to us now and uh let's see what's going on you guys want to give us an update on

00:27:59.020 your way by just live with the western standard right now well the update is that there was a

00:28:06.080 convoy that was held up and they managed to get through and they have they showed up with great

00:28:11.840 all right all right sounds good thank you very much for that

00:28:29.120 just uh just talking to some of the protesters that were here

00:28:32.800 and uh it looks like the uh the the group that has come through

00:28:38.320 said that that was enough waiting and uh they've come through and now they've they've set up uh

00:28:43.360 farm equipment here uh they've set up uh that looks like a primary line a primary blockade

00:28:50.560 um just a little bit further back there's uh it looks like they've reinforced it with pickup trucks

00:28:56.400 um there's pickup trucks here and uh working my way back

00:29:04.660 there's uh another another line just a little bit further back and uh another line further

00:29:12.260 back beyond that but i i don't know if you can see this mel but i'm quite easily negotiating

00:29:17.720 my way through here uh i'll just show you guys like they've they've uh they've created this

00:29:23.180 blockade over here James we may are you there oh I can see your you're there now I was just

00:29:36.780 going to mention too we we had a story earlier about tow truck drivers and companies throughout

00:29:45.940 Southern Alberta tow truck companies that were being contacted to supply tow trucks to come and

00:29:56.120 it sounds like support the RCMP in an effort to eventually haul vehicles out of the blockade.

00:30:06.680 And I spoke with a number of tow truck companies in Southern Alberta, including Calgary,

00:30:12.560 Medicine Hat and Lethbridge and it sounds like a lot of those tow truck

00:30:20.540 companies don't want to get involved I mean they're they're speaking about the

00:30:25.320 fact that you know they service this community they service a lot of these

00:30:29.780 truckers they service people in the community that are supportive of the

00:30:34.200 truckers and the blockade so so there they feel like they're sort of between a

00:30:38.660 rock and a hard place, you know, having to decide between the call from the RCMP to participate

00:30:46.840 versus the fact that they are going to be sort of, you know, hauling off people within their

00:30:53.580 communities. So there's been a lot of pushback from some of these companies. I know I spoke with

00:31:01.640 one, one worker from a tow truck company in southern Alberta, who didn't want to be named,

00:31:08.600 was afraid of the negative sort of feedback that that would bring on to their company,

00:31:14.520 because they have contracts, they have contracts with a lot of these, you know, a lot of these

00:31:18.920 community trucking companies and whatnot, and, you know, feel they would be losing copious amounts

00:31:27.080 of business if they were to go in and start hauling off some of the vehicles from the blockade.

00:31:35.640 So it sounds like there isn't a huge amount of tow trucks down there. I know yesterday we saw

00:31:43.000 more tow trucks, but I know some of them were from citywide towing in Calgary. And in speaking

00:31:50.120 with them this morning, they had no intention of sending trucks. They didn't comment either way,

00:31:56.280 but just said they were busy enough within the city of calgary that they didn't have any trucks

00:32:00.600 to spare to go uh down south so uh are you seeing much for for that kind of uh activity there james

00:32:08.680 do we have you back yeah sorry i uh i just lost a cell phone signal there for a bit i've got signal

00:32:15.080 again here i am uh talking to some of the protesters who came through that milk river blockade and

00:32:20.440 And they're telling me that they were held back there for a bit.

00:32:23.800 And then they said that's enough and they broke through and they joined here.

00:32:29.080 And they're just taking up defensive lines.

00:32:32.200 The overwhelming attitude here is that they've got counsel and they want the communication to go through the counsel.

00:32:39.200 So not too many people want to do any video interviews right now.

00:32:44.080 uh just they uh they want to make sure that their their lawyers are the ones that are involved so

00:32:50.740 we are we're making our way through here and just kind of getting some pictures here it looks like

00:32:56.680 there's more equipment uh i can't be sure but it looks like they're going to plug up the scale here

00:33:03.560 now as well uh i don't know if you can see this but there's more equipment moving in here so

00:33:08.240 they've got uh equipment all the way across the highway and all the way across the scale now

00:33:12.460 uh just just about uh this has to be about a kilometer from the uh the main the main blockade

00:33:21.580 there at uh at the village of boots now let's talk about the legal counsel that has been secured for

00:33:28.620 the protesters that are engaged in the blockade uh it sounds like there are two calgary lawyers

00:33:35.340 that have been brought in and are being crowdfunded by Independent Media, Rebel News, as well as

00:33:43.820 the Rebel News owner, Ezra Levant, and they are going to be doing the crowdfunding for this.

00:33:50.460 There is also a GoFundMe page set up for the blockade and for the protesters to help with

00:33:59.100 supplies food uh uh where are we at right now james with um with the uh protesters getting food

00:34:08.540 and i know those deliveries were were being uh stopped earlier in the day uh how is that now

00:34:14.780 delivery of food i know you had mentioned gas uh for the trucks to continue to run and keep the

00:34:21.020 the truckers warm where are we at with that uh well to tell you the honest truth the the food

00:34:27.260 that's come through today has come through uh from the locals and uh i i'd almost describe it

00:34:33.100 as smuggling food in the uh the locals have had to stop show id at the rcmp checkpoints and uh

00:34:41.900 they've they've had to uh to prove that they either work or live in the village of coots

00:34:47.260 and uh you know there's a lot of people here they're old farmers for justice people they've

00:34:52.220 been politically active in the past uh you know they they aren't scared to uh to cause to cause

00:34:58.860 a ruffle and uh they they've been bringing in food for these guys all day today now there has been

00:35:04.940 uh different vehicles uh yesterday uh we were receiving reports that there was a truck that

00:35:10.220 had over 100 bags of groceries that was being held up at the uh at the milk river one of the

00:35:16.380 checkpoint checkpoint and uh they wouldn't let the groceries through i know earlier i had spoken to

00:35:22.540 some of the protesters who were on the road and they said that their gen sets were running low

00:35:26.620 and they were worried about heat and fuel uh i know some local residents of coots tried getting

00:35:31.580 tried getting a fuel truck through here earlier and uh the the rcmp basically said you guys are

00:35:37.740 about 15 minutes too late uh that truck's not going to go through here now uh sorry i'm just

00:35:44.300 trying to hear uh what kind of instructions the rcmp are just giving to the this first truck here

00:35:49.460 again uh there's just two vehicles of them talking to that first driver um but yeah it has been hard

00:35:56.400 i know that with discussions with the lawyers this morning uh that was one of the things that

00:36:00.600 they were going to go discuss is hopefully getting an area that protesters could get the uh their

00:36:06.260 their medicine at a very at the very least get their medicines in from um i i don't know how

00:36:12.920 those conversations went i haven't spoken uh to the lawyers uh since the meeting earlier this morning

00:36:20.120 um it does now look like there's two uh rcmp command centers are moving forward here now

00:36:28.840 uh but there's no more rcmp on the highway now when i spoke with organizers this morning

00:36:37.880 uh you know we we had mentioned that there seems to be sort of this this uh disagreement from from

00:36:45.000 one side to the other so so according to the organizers that i spoke with this morning it

00:36:49.720 was the rcmp uh through some negotiations that happened last night it was the rcmp that did not

00:36:55.720 follow through with things they had promised uh within those negotiations um but hearing from the

00:37:02.680 RCMP when I checked in with them this morning they said that was false and that the the on on

00:37:09.640 their side of the story um it was the protesters who had not followed through with some of the

00:37:15.720 requests that they had promised so you know and I couldn't get any I couldn't get any other

00:37:21.800 clarification as to what demands were not met um not sure I I I don't know Mel like I I honestly

00:37:30.840 can't say what the protesters didn't do that the RCMP asked them for. I know that they wanted a

00:37:37.240 clear lane of access in and out of here or in and out of the village of Kootz and I can tell you

00:37:42.640 that there was a the right-hand lanes were open going into Kootz and leaving Kootz up until the

00:37:49.560 RCMP started moving in here. I know that that the clearing of the trucks and the open lanes happened

00:37:55.400 last night uh because when i when i left the protest site uh to go sleep last night we were

00:38:01.080 able to drive out the right lane was clear all the way through um and that happened after the the

00:38:07.800 protesters called the rcmp back and said well you didn't let everybody through the blockade

00:38:12.680 and what what we were understanding from the rcmp was that uh they misunderstood uh they didn't

00:38:18.760 realize that uh they wanted the protesters wanted both blockades through but it sounds like the

00:38:23.400 protesters didn't realize that there was two groups um two separate blockades on highway 501

00:38:29.400 last night now james again you're you're mentioning that uh nobody seems to be willing to chat with

00:38:38.280 you or update you is there there you can't get any closer and uh and speak to anyone right now

00:38:44.440 no so uh part of what happened during the meeting this morning with uh the lawyers

00:38:49.400 the lawyers just told them you know um the media is here the media can be your friend the media can

00:38:55.640 be your enemy and any any video any pictures anything will be used against you it's not can

00:39:02.520 and may be used against you it will be used against you it'll be used to identify you it'll

00:39:08.120 be used to identify your businesses it'll be uh used against you in court so a lot of the a lot

00:39:14.600 of the protesters just aren't willing to do video or pictures anymore uh they they will still talk

00:39:20.120 to me uh anonymously they will talk uh off the record um they they want their message to get out

00:39:26.920 uh but they they they don't they don't want to make anything worse for themselves at this

00:39:32.520 particular point and uh they're they're obviously following the advice of their council i don't know

00:39:38.120 if you can see this now but the rcmp are starting to uh to work their way back here again they're

00:39:44.360 back at this first truck uh and the driver of this truck it looked like he did vacate earlier

00:39:50.040 uh the the rcmp or the police were talking to him and uh he he began walking backwards

00:39:56.280 uh he he's actually walking back towards i i guess uh the first the first now uh blockade that's there

00:40:05.720 and uh now they're they're just approaching the second truck here i don't know how many

00:40:09.880 police are there that it looks like there's there's quite a few perhaps close to 10 or a dozen

00:40:19.240 how many officers are there it looks like there's about 22 or 23 officers here now that are making

00:40:25.560 their way back uh they're walking back and uh checking the trucks i i don't i don't think

00:40:33.240 there's anybody in this truck here but they are uh they're they're stopping at this truck i i

00:40:42.440 believe they're they're checking to see if anybody is in this truck right now before they make their

00:40:47.160 next moves uh now now james how far from i don't know if you can see this up here but yeah

00:40:55.320 uh just the the first uh the the officer that's approaching this uh blue green truck here they

00:41:00.760 just have an absolute mass of plastic handcuffs here so it appears that their intentions are to

00:41:06.920 start making arrests um they just checked uh this first truck here again to see if there was anyone

00:41:13.960 in there and uh they've stopped here at the second truck okay now how far from the actual blockade

00:41:21.240 are these these two trucks parked here uh there's there seems to be a bit of distance right yeah from

00:41:29.400 from the actual entrance to the village of coots where the main blockade is uh i i would have to

00:41:34.680 say it's about uh about a kilometer i think it's about 800 meters actually okay

00:41:46.600 uh now in in listening to some of the conversation with the lawyers this morning uh you were you were

00:41:52.600 part of those meetings what what are they what are they instructing i mean i get it they're they're

00:41:56.600 telling the the um protesters not just to talk to media to be careful what they say um because it

00:42:03.880 can be held against them um but what what other what other things are they suggesting to the

00:42:10.520 protesters as far as getting to the end of this um well you know they told them do not resist arrest

00:42:19.640 identify yourself uh comply with uh with the police demands uh don't don't dig yourself into

00:42:27.000 a deep hole um you know they were uh you know the conversations this morning seemed positive it

00:42:33.160 seemed like there was going to be some negotiating uh i felt that the the protesters were willing

00:42:38.680 uh willing to give a little and uh and not remain a complete and total blockade i i think they

00:42:44.920 understand that, you know, public opinion isn't going to stay on their side as long as they're

00:42:50.340 just dug in and they don't move. But they've also been firm that they want the vaccine mandates

00:42:56.340 lifted, and they want the vaccine passports gone. They're not comfortable with this intrusion into

00:43:03.900 their lives anymore. They don't want to have to present their personal medical information

00:43:08.100 to a restaurateur or a bar to sit down and have a drink. You know, truckers have had it hard

00:43:14.660 over uh over the course of this the original lockdowns uh you know we we heard reports that

00:43:20.060 truckers were having to go in the washroom and ditch and completely unable to shower for days

00:43:24.200 because they couldn't get access to truck stops they couldn't get access to restaurants they

00:43:28.500 couldn't get access to bathrooms and and these vaccine mandates have essentially brought that

00:43:32.860 back again and i think that they feel dehumanized well we've got a comment here from linda uh on

00:43:39.500 facebook facebook she says glad to see the farmers joining in maybe kenny should go and

00:43:44.940 meet with his constituents and start to listen to the people of alberta's concerns uh so uh you know

00:43:52.380 uh shalane says hold the line guys you have thousands of people behind you in alberta

00:43:58.380 um the world is watching truckers and supporters uh from jennifer close all borders is another

00:44:05.500 comment from Roweth. Looks like much love to the truckers. You know, a lot of just a lot of

00:44:14.100 outpouring of support here on social media. Keep it up. That comes from Quebec Sucks. That is the

00:44:22.680 poster's name. Stand strong. Stand long. Stay free from Gord. All the best. Support from Hungary.

00:44:30.500 We've got somebody posting from Hungary right now, shared on holding MLAs accountable.

00:44:37.780 That is a Facebook group that basically has a lot of members that are reaching out to

00:44:44.040 their MLAs and communicating on a regular basis, trying to communicate the concerns

00:44:49.960 of Albertans.

00:44:53.140 Another person asking, why doesn't Jason Kenny call them or meet with them?

00:44:57.820 So, yeah, we haven't heard yet whether there's any comments as of yet from any of the political leaders in Alberta.

00:45:10.620 Hoping we're hearing from, hopefully we will hear a statement or hear from them at some point here.

00:45:17.680 James, you're still there and the police are still, they're still in the same spot there with those two front trucks.

00:45:24.920 Yeah, I can't be sure, but it looks like they just grabbed some caution tape or some police line tape.

00:45:32.160 And it looks like they're just going to tape off vehicles that they've already cleared, perhaps.

00:45:36.740 I mean, I'm just speculating at this point, but they've cleared these first two trucks here now and they've stopped moving.

00:45:44.980 um i don't know if you can see there's uh another reporter here just approaching the uh

00:45:52.840 the police i think they're just asking what's going on um i don't know if you guys can see

00:46:00.200 this far back i'm just uh trying i'm trying real hard not to block any roads here for anybody

00:46:05.580 and uh just to show you guys that there's a bunch a bunch more police vehicles back here now uh but

00:46:13.560 uh the bulk of the vehicles that were here now have have moved back to that train crossing

00:46:18.520 about uh two kilometers to the north of here now uh there's there's another another group of uh

00:46:25.320 police vehicles uh just just a little over here and uh there there's there's a few more just a

00:46:32.600 different road crossings uh last night uh they basically it looked like they had set up a

00:46:38.760 containment area on all of the back rural roads uh they were monitoring the traffic going in

00:46:45.080 and out of the area um making sure that it was locals nico can we just um we'll just zoom in on

00:46:53.000 on uh on james's footage there if we could thank you uh yeah just uh easier to easier to see what's

00:47:01.480 going on there now um i have somebody on facebook asking if there is a donation site or a gofundme

00:47:11.080 started uh we do i know for the for the lawyers there is a crowd fund that has been started by

00:47:19.560 rebel news and ezra levant and uh james i know you had um told me uh the name of that was uh

00:47:28.600 truckerlawyer.ca truckerlawyer.ca is the link that will um that will get you access to the crowd fund

00:47:39.080 for um the for the the crowd fund for the lawyers that are being provided for the protesters down

00:47:46.760 at uh the coots blockade however i do know that there is also a gofundme um uh perhaps

00:47:55.160 Nico, if you have a chance to just have a look or I can, we'll just know that they

00:48:02.680 had a GoFundMe. I'm not 100% sure, but I'm going to look it up here and see if I can find it.

00:48:13.720 I believe they said just go to GoFundMe and search for trucker or

00:48:19.080 let's see here i think there was one started yeah there was one started called border freedom rally

00:48:31.560 uh i believe is is one of them um that uh yeah i believe that is the gofundme that the driver

00:48:38.360 showed me on does that sound right yes freedom rally that's on the gofundme page and uh right

00:48:46.840 now that is sitting just a little bit over $31,000. Now that I've been told by the organizers

00:48:54.440 that the GoFundMe is again to help support the truckers with food, supplies, gas, any of the

00:49:03.160 supplies that they're going to need while they are on scene here. And having spoken with the

00:49:09.160 organizers over the last few days, Nick Friesen, one of the organizers that I've been speaking with

00:49:16.440 quite regularly has has basically informed us that they have made sort of a plan to be there

00:49:23.640 for up to two weeks but will stay longer if they feel it's necessary if if they feel that uh you

00:49:32.520 know they are their their request for the vaccine mandates is not being heard um they they plan to

00:49:39.560 stay so i know now that they have lawyers that have gotten involved uh the lawyers are going to

00:49:45.560 be helping them negotiate with the RCMP and the authorities. Chad Williamson with Williamson Law

00:49:53.960 out of Calgary. And we have Yoelv Niv, who is a criminal lawyer also out of Calgary, have

00:50:04.840 sort of stepped in to support the protesters at the blockage. So they do have legal counsel now

00:50:10.840 that is um advising them and is going to be aiding them in the negotiations we're just not sure where

00:50:18.280 uh where things are at with those negotiations again uh from earlier reports the uh from earlier

00:50:25.640 reports the negotiations were uh sort of at a a dead stop where the the um the protesters were

00:50:34.040 saying some of their requests were not being met but the rcmp were also arguing that some of their

00:50:39.320 requests were not being met so sort of sitting seeing a bit of a um sort of a stalemate there

00:50:45.080 right now um i see you've gotten a little bit closer here to some of those front trucks

00:50:51.880 yeah so the uh the highway here connects a little bit closer to the uh the scale and uh i'm parked

00:50:58.920 over on the scale i don't want to be in the way of the uh the police officers i want to i want to

00:51:04.360 stay back uh they they're going uh from truck to truck and clearing all the trucks uh it looks like

00:51:10.600 they are collecting video evidence here as they go filming the license plates and uh the business

00:51:17.160 names on the side of the trucks as they go uh it looks like these trucks some of these trucks are

00:51:22.440 still running now i don't know uh if any of them are still occupied as uh it looks like some of the

00:51:31.800 protesters have exited their vehicles and began making their way south towards the main blockade

00:51:38.360 so uh the rcmp are just now going uh truck by truck making sure that they're empty uh they they

00:51:46.280 move they stop they collect video evidence and then they continue looks like nobody is in these

00:51:53.320 trucks that the the rcmp are currently walking past right now from what you can see no so shortly

00:52:01.720 after the uh the line of protesters broke through uh the milk river checkpoint uh these they they

00:52:09.480 started setting up uh like a secondary uh and and a third line of uh of vehicles and and the trucks

00:52:18.920 here in front of those or the drivers here in front of those lines have now begun uh exiting

00:52:25.080 their vehicles and moving back towards the group uh just as the rcmp clear each truck i don't know

00:52:31.800 if you can see here uh as they clear each truck protesters behind them are exiting their vehicles

00:52:38.680 and moving back uh to to the main protest area uh yeah just um

00:52:51.800 just having a look here okay what have you heard from so so my understanding James from a lot of

00:53:06.980 the people participating and in speaking with some people who are just general locals what's

00:53:13.940 the sentiment around there it seems as though a lot of the locals are in favor of of what's

00:53:20.960 happening uh in milk river in coots um what have you seen what have you what have you heard you

00:53:27.600 know just like canada they they're not they're not all in agreement with everything uh you know i've

00:53:33.280 talked to quite a few locals uh you've seen that one local came here and approached me uh they've

00:53:39.040 been in the large majority of them i would say have been in in support of what's going on here

00:53:45.680 now there are a few that have had some concerns and i know that the protesters have done their

00:53:50.400 best to address the concerns um i know that uh the mayor has made uh a couple of uh of remarks

00:53:58.160 and uh i i know that some of the residents have said that they don't necessarily agree with that

00:54:03.280 but you know they are concerned about their own businesses um i know some local business

00:54:08.080 owners have been helping out uh as best as they can um uh they're the ones that have been

00:54:15.520 coordinating bringing in supplies uh since since the rcmp have basically locked down their ability

00:54:21.120 to bring stuff in so i i mean uh you know not everybody's on the same page but i would say the

00:54:26.800 majority definitely supports the protest i i think after two years of uh the lockdowns the restrictions

00:54:34.400 uh the the intrusion into our rights uh the government telling us uh what we're allowed to

00:54:39.520 do and who we're allowed to have in our homes have just uh you know i i think the mandates

00:54:45.040 uh the the jab or the job was just a line too far and i i think i think canadians are recognizing

00:54:51.520 that yeah it would seem that um polls are showing that more and more canadians are are actually in

00:55:02.240 support of the mandates. It sounds like just 54%, I believe, was the amount of Canadians that are

00:55:10.080 hoping for the mandates to come to an end. So it sounds like the majority of people who voted in

00:55:16.560 that poll at the very least would like to see an end to the mandates. And a lot of people argue

00:55:22.800 that we're seeing more and more COVID, we're seeing more and more cases in the vaccinated

00:55:31.760 population. So, you know, are we at a point now where we sort of have to read the writing on the

00:55:38.260 wall? We have to acknowledge that these vaccines were not the only way out of this. You know,

00:55:45.140 it's been noted that they can prevent severe illness when you contract COVID. So, you know,

00:55:52.500 not speaking against that. But certainly, I think the sentiment that I'm hearing from more and more

00:55:59.960 Canadians now is that this can't be our only way out anymore, especially considering a lot of the

00:56:06.120 cases now are very mild to, in fact, no symptoms at all. So, you know, just want to mention too,

00:56:15.120 if you are just watching us and just tuning in and you've never heard of the Western Standard

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00:57:25.960 we're doing. So we are just doing live coverage from the Coutts border right now. It was about

00:57:33.620 an hour ago that the police started, or the RCMP started to move into the blockade, and we're

00:57:41.800 coming in with quite a few, quite a large number, and they are still at some of the vehicles in the

00:57:48.580 head at the front of the blockade. So this is what James is showing us now. We're just checking

00:57:55.280 it out. It sounds like there are no drivers in these vehicles at the moment. They are just

00:58:00.280 parked there. RCMP are there filming the trucks, you know, getting identifying information from

00:58:07.840 them, perhaps recording their license plates. And what else can you tell us, James? It seems like

00:58:15.240 they sort of keep moving a little bit forward. How many trucks are in a row here that they are

00:58:20.900 investigating that are, they're sort of set apart from the blockade? You said about a kilometer away

00:58:27.640 from the blockade? Yeah, these trucks here are about a kilometer away from the main blockade.

00:58:32.640 There is a couple of secondary lines here now that have formed just in the last hour.

00:58:40.940 Essentially, the truck drivers are exiting their vehicles and moving back as the RCMP advance.

00:58:49.080 I don't know if you've seen it here, but just in the last minute or so, I would say about another 25 to 50 RCMP members have come from the back of the line.

00:58:58.740 And they're moving forwards.

00:59:00.760 They're clearing one truck at a time.

00:59:02.760 One truck at a time.

00:59:03.920 They are taking video.

00:59:06.500 they are checking in the trucks to see if there's any protesters in there and and then moving

00:59:13.060 backwards okay so uh in your discussions uh you've been there throughout the weekend and uh and have

00:59:26.260 been there since again last night in your discussions with the with the organizers and those

00:59:32.020 participating in the blockade uh how long are they there for what are what uh what do they need to

00:59:38.820 see before this comes to an end you know since day one they said uh that they are here until the

00:59:44.900 mandates are gone uh they plan on staying uh they have said that they are ready and prepared to stay

00:59:51.780 for weeks they are prepared to stay for months uh they are prepared to stay until uh all of the

00:59:58.100 mandates were lifted and uh society returned to normal are the truckers uh expecting to get the

01:00:07.140 supplies that they need uh in order to keep their trucks running and stay warm through the night

01:00:13.140 uh the food that they need uh i i i don't know anymore mel i know that earlier in the day there

01:00:20.820 was some hope that supplies were going to be let through uh that uh now that uh the lawyers had

01:00:27.060 arrived on the on site that there would be some give and take both from the protesters and from

01:00:33.460 the rcmp and and some good dialogue with the government uh it doesn't look like that's

01:00:38.980 happening um obviously i can't uh i don't have a crystal ball i'm not i'm not sure what's going

01:00:44.040 to happen as uh as this line of rcmp moves back to the main protest area um just uh just a little

01:00:52.420 bit further down here i'm sorry it is snowing it is cold uh there are some truck drivers

01:00:58.900 they're exiting their vehicles there and they are moving moving backwards down the protest line

01:01:05.380 um that it looks like they're all moving back to uh to the main protest area i guess uh i guess we

01:01:12.660 can call it but uh no for for now i i don't know uh i don't know what happens when uh when the rcmp

01:01:20.820 and uh the protesters uh converge um you know it's uh one truck at a time it looks like here

01:01:29.940 uh any chance that you can get a little bit closer again to those that are still sort of

01:01:36.420 occupying their trucks i know you mentioned that they are reluctant to speak at this time

01:01:42.980 and actually have been advised by their legal counsel to be very careful about what they share

01:01:49.700 with whom uh as as all of it can be recorded and held against them and used against them in in uh

01:01:55.860 you know if they get charged um can we can we maybe even just find out about their concerns um

01:02:02.900 you know uh anything that you think uh we might be able to to just uh get from them just to see

01:02:12.100 how they're feeling you know even just how they're feeling right now yeah i uh i i'll move back here

01:02:18.900 i will i'll uh ask some of the protesters here um i i'm like there's uh there's quite a substantial

01:02:27.620 pile of uh protesters here now uh let let me see what uh i i guess that pretty much sums it up for

01:02:48.900 yeah there is there is an overwhelming amount of support uh coming on our facebook comments here

01:03:05.220 right now um uh yeah there's um yeah if there's any chance we can ask um how they're feeling if

01:03:19.220 if anyone's willing to share what they're what they're feeling right now let's uh let's see here

01:03:25.620 i uh i'm far enough back here now let me let me hop out uh you know you're gonna have to excuse

01:03:32.980 me i'm going to uh i'm going to uh if you can just go back to mel directly just so i can ask

01:03:39.060 some questions here and possibly um just give these guys like a little bit of privacy as well

01:03:44.180 i don't want to go up and stick a camera in their face and uh start asking them questions so uh i'm

01:03:50.020 i'll go ask some questions and see if somebody's willing to talk to us here mel okay sounds good

01:03:55.220 yeah it looks like again lots of people are are chiming in on the facebook feed uh every trucker

01:04:00.900 and trades worker needs to turn off the keys until all mandates and government corruption

01:04:07.060 is dealt with there is no law to be broken if you just say no let's see here that was from

01:04:14.900 dan uh we've got uh mary saying uh praise jesus let's go uh let's see here uh

01:04:25.940 Somebody else mentioning a story that we just put out recently about over 200,000 ballots

01:04:34.200 that went missing from the last election.

01:04:39.840 Michelle wants that to sort of some attention around that.

01:04:44.640 We do have that on the website.

01:04:47.320 We have that story up right now if you wanted to get more details on that.

01:04:52.720 else is posting Jason Kenny's email premier at gov.ca make him stand now it looks like a lot

01:05:01.040 of people are are calling Jason Kenny out saying he should be driving down he should be coming and

01:05:07.440 meeting with these the protesters he should be speaking with them he should be engaged in

01:05:13.200 negotiating with them um let's see here uh rcmp uh let's see lots of okay so we've got james back

01:05:24.800 yeah yeah i'm just i'm just talking to a couple of guys you guys want to tell us how you guys feel

01:05:29.440 how do you guys feel about everything right now we feel energized

01:05:35.920 for the first time in a long time

01:05:37.520 i don't know if you can hear that mel but uh everybody here is feeling pretty positive

01:05:49.520 uh you know they feel proud they feel proud of canada right now uh you know they they uh

01:05:55.920 they're standing up for what they believe in and uh you know they're they think they're right and

01:06:01.360 they think that they have a right to protest here and uh you know that's what they're doing right

01:06:05.840 now they are uh they're peaceful they are they're they're not destroying anything i have watched

01:06:12.640 people pick up garbage for days uh they've been keeping things clean they've complied with the

01:06:18.400 requests from the town they have uh supported each other they've brought in food they've brought in

01:06:24.320 medical supplies uh there was reports of one person with the uh diabetic emergency and the

01:06:31.120 protesters drove that individual back into Mount River to make sure that that person could get the

01:06:38.160 medication that they need. You know, it's been a pretty supportive feeling around here since

01:06:44.960 Friday, since Saturday, sorry. And, you know, they're good people. They're hardworking blue

01:06:54.800 color people and uh they they just don't want uh they just don't want to be mandated to uh to take

01:07:02.740 a medication uh has anyone indicated that you know they're there for the long haul they're not moving

01:07:10.460 until uh until their demands are met you know that's pretty much the sentiment i've i've spoken

01:07:19.240 to several protesters uh specifically the ones uh that uh that that that started the original

01:07:25.660 blockade that pulled across the highway that shut everything down that blocked uh the transport

01:07:31.640 trucks that had come north across the border in between the border and uh the village of coots

01:07:37.200 um you know they said they're they're in it for the long haul they they said that they're here

01:07:42.280 They're staying. They said that they would be taken out in handcuffs this morning. Many of the protesters said that if you're charging one person, you're charging us all. They want their day in court.

01:07:57.040 It looks like the police are, or sorry, the RCMP are still sort of slowly making their way up truck to truck to truck, getting a little bit closer each time to the actual blockade and where, how far are they now from the sort of gathering of protesters?

01:08:19.360 so that uh that gathering of protesters that i uh i i just uh went and talked to there uh

01:08:25.680 they are not far now uh but uh the the protesters are on the uh the scale uh the scale site here

01:08:33.840 and uh the the rcmp are still making their way down the highway so i don't know if you can see

01:08:39.840 here but here's where the rcmp line is here and if you go straight across just across this uh the

01:08:47.040 area where the truck parking here at the scale that's uh where a large this is actually uh a

01:08:53.520 lot of these guys that are here these are the the farm equipment that broke through at uh the milk

01:08:58.960 river checkpoint uh that's this group here that we were just talking to uh there's uh the drivers

01:09:06.080 here have been hopping out of their vehicle as the rcmp work their way back down this line as they

01:09:12.960 work their way back down this line the drivers are exiting their vehicles and going to join the

01:09:17.520 other protesters in other spots there's been protesters here that have started to uh plug

01:09:22.880 up areas in the ditch uh this is mostly so the rtmp and tow trucks can't get vehicles through here um

01:09:30.320 the the majority of these trucks there's trucks here from saskatchewan uh there's different uh

01:09:36.480 uh construction equipment uh these these guys have all started hopping out of their trucks they have

01:09:42.400 left their trucks running as they move backwards i haven't seen anybody uh get uh removed from a

01:09:49.520 truck yet but uh they are making their way back down this line here so far uh this this truck

01:09:56.960 here looks empty as well so it's uh you know it's one one truck at a time i i can't speculate what

01:10:04.160 will happen when the rcmp reaches the bulk of the protesters uh it looks like behind uh this this

01:10:11.760 primary line here there are still protesters uh back that have set up a couple more positions

01:10:19.520 uh at least uh two more full kids and i i don't know if you can see this very well

01:10:26.080 uh but uh if you take a look through here there's uh there's even uh it looks like there's protesters

01:10:32.320 and other media that are lining the road uh in the ditches but uh the like this this tractor

01:10:38.160 here has just uh dropped the disk all the way across the highway it's completely impassable

01:10:44.080 uh so i i don't know what happens as these guys continue to move uh the rcmp are still moving

01:10:50.160 backwards now james having having said what you just said um is there going to with with what you

01:10:56.720 said was just dropped across the the highway is there going to be an issue then for uh for

01:11:05.120 emergency vehicles to get through which is one of the main concerns and requests of the rcmp

01:11:13.840 uh you know what uh i am not entirely sure because there is a another entrance to town

01:11:20.560 there is a gravel road that goes into town uh it does cross some private property that has

01:11:27.200 been causing a sticking point uh with community members and uh and with the rcmp there has been

01:11:33.840 some conflict there. I tried to talk to that property owner earlier. She was not interested

01:11:40.000 in giving an interview. She just gave me a couple of statements. And I don't see that that road has

01:11:48.980 had its access blocked, but I can't confirm that from this position. And I'm not sure that I can

01:11:57.700 get back that far as the RCMP have kind of, they're moving up behind the protest or as

01:12:05.740 they're clearing vehicles, it looks like they're moving forward here as well.

01:12:10.140 Okay. More comments coming. Jade says, this is about freedom. Bill says, thank you truckers.

01:12:18.700 Kathy says, stay strong. Let's see here. The government has waged war against its own people

01:12:27.680 what else do we do says laura yeah go ahead well there has just been a development here the

01:12:33.120 protesters that were just in front of the farm equipment over uh where we were just interviewing

01:12:38.080 them they are now moving and uh they are blocking the highway uh just behind these trucks here

01:12:44.800 uh physically like they're with their bodies or are you talking like are they what are they right

01:12:49.120 right now they have just moved into this area here so uh actually the rcmp it appears have withdrawn

01:12:55.360 a bit so let me uh let me just move out here the uh the the uh the protesters are now moving across

01:13:02.480 the highway and uh the rcmp they were just up here at this vehicle and the rcmp uh it looks

01:13:10.160 like they're withdrawing back the rcmp are backing up yeah they've withdrawn from the original

01:13:16.560 direction that they were coming from and uh the protesters have now started to spread across the

01:13:22.240 highway any chance you can ask somebody what their what their goal is right now uh any chance you can

01:13:29.760 try to get a a comment from somebody what they're what they're hoping right now why they're moving

01:13:35.600 forward why they're coming to this area uh let's see looks like the rcmp might be going to go steal

01:13:42.720 my vehicle maybe uh no they're actually just two rcmp are now approaching the crowd that's moving

01:13:49.840 across the highway so as the protesters took to the highway the uh the rcmp actually withdrew

01:13:56.880 and moved back and now it looks like just two regular members are walking out protest area

01:14:02.880 uh just over here let me see so those those are the officers there you just walked past correct

01:14:15.520 these are the those are the uh officers yeah just these two now the uh the other groups withdrawn

01:14:22.000 and just these two have walked over why the uh why the move over to here guys

01:14:28.240 just to hold the line so that's uh that's it they're they're saying that the rcmp is here

01:14:33.920 to intimidate them and they're gonna hold the line they're uh they're moving over uh in front

01:14:39.120 of the line that the rcmp was taken and uh they're now stretching out across the highway um

01:14:48.000 okay and yeah it looks like they're here across the highway and the rcmp is completely withdrawn

01:14:53.920 uh well back to the first uh the first trucks that they cleared they're they're now back past that

01:15:00.480 area. James you're breaking up just a little bit but we can still hear you. Are you seeing other

01:15:10.720 media there covering this right now? I don't know if you've seen them but there's two rebel reporters

01:15:18.560 that are right up here with me. They arrived here on Monday. They've been fairly close

01:15:26.480 uh to the situation and obviously uh they've had uh they they they were part of uh of getting these

01:15:36.120 guys lawyers yesterday i uh i have seen uh ctv here uh they were here yesterday i believe some

01:15:44.980 of the protesters actually blocked them in yesterday um obviously so protesters blocked

01:15:51.940 the media in yeah yesterday they they they did block in the ctv vehicles yesterday um

01:16:00.500 that that was uh a point of tension yesterday afternoon uh i do see some cvc vehicles here but

01:16:08.660 i uh i haven't seen any any uh journalists that i recognize um other than uh the rebel reporters

01:16:16.180 uh there's there is just a ton of citizen journalists around here everybody's got a cell

01:16:21.460 phone out everybody's got a cell phone camera they're taking pictures they're taking video

01:16:26.980 uh they're live streaming to different uh social media groups um i don't know if you can see this

01:16:33.620 here now but uh the protesters have just uh kind of crowded around the rcmp and they're just they're

01:16:38.740 having a civil conversation are you are you able to get a little closer and we can we can hear a

01:16:44.340 little bit or do you have uh phone capacity i know it's very cold how cold is it right now there

01:16:51.300 james it is it is minus 19 uh without the wind chill i'm not uh entirely sure uh the biggest

01:16:59.380 problem that we're having right now is actually cell phone service yeah there is uh there there

01:17:05.780 is one cell phone tower in this area and there are a lot more people than this cell phone tower was

01:17:11.460 ever designed to uh to handle so we've just had some service issues dropping out that's why the

01:17:17.220 phone was cutting out there uh you can see that they're they're still moving in more farm equipment

01:17:22.340 here uh to to block the line to uh to stop from more equipment getting in here um i'll uh i'll

01:17:30.100 make my way over and see if we can get some of this conversation between the protesters and the rcmp

01:17:34.660 um you know these guys are these guys are stinging these guys are are saying we're not

01:17:42.200 going to be intimidated you know nobody's yelling nobody's screaming they're not fighting

01:17:46.480 with the rcmp uh you know for the most part these people really respect the rcmp and the

01:17:51.500 job that they have to do uh you know they're they're they're they're problems with the

01:17:56.100 government not with the with the police so i don't like i don't know if you can see this

01:18:00.680 But, you know, the RCMP and the protesters, they're shaking hands, you know, they're having

01:18:05.160 a good, positive conversation.

01:18:08.600 It's it's.

01:18:13.540 Yeah, I definitely think the the optics of this is the optics of this is is that it is

01:18:23.600 peaceful and um and you know it there doesn't seem to be a real uh you know um kind of

01:18:37.520 conflict outside of the fact that uh really the rcmp are calling on the blockade to be lifted at

01:18:44.640 the border i'm you know they're they're fine uh they seem to be fine with protesters staying in

01:18:49.760 the area even the mayor of coots has said they are fine with protesters staying in the area um but

01:18:57.520 um yeah but there the the point is that that blockade is is uh as far as the rcmp are concerned

01:19:07.280 um is impeding you know critical infrastructure and the the transportation of goods and services

01:19:14.640 across the border yeah and you know mel that was one of the conversations that was held earlier

01:19:21.200 this morning uh you know the drivers have been talking together as a group uh you know they're

01:19:26.400 making decisions as a committee uh there's no one leader here this this whole this whole group has

01:19:32.400 been put together by like three or four different groups that all converged into one area and when

01:19:38.080 they got here they shared a common goal and decided to move forward and you know one of the first

01:19:42.480 things that they talked about this morning was that they know that they can't keep an international

01:19:47.340 border crossing the only 24-hour border crossing into Alberta closed indefinitely so they they

01:19:54.500 discussed that and they knew that they were going to have to give and they knew that they were going

01:19:58.380 to have to have to move off of a solid no mandates or nothing position but they were expecting some

01:20:06.420 communication back and they also knew that if they moved off of their hardline stance um that uh

01:20:12.740 that they would lose negotiating power and that if they began to give before uh the rcmp and before

01:20:18.880 the government opened uh discussions with them that uh they they would lose their uh they would

01:20:25.540 lose their bargaining ability and uh it looks like i i mean i don't know i i was confident this

01:20:32.240 morning that negotiations would start. And there was talks of a rolling blockade, where northbound

01:20:39.060 lanes would be closed for an extended period of time while southbound lanes were open, and then

01:20:43.900 they would switch. And I got the feeling that they intended to move to hindering cross-border

01:20:52.100 traffic and slowing down the highway and would release a complete blockage. Now, I don't know

01:20:56.920 what happened in uh in those those hours after those discussions happened earlier this morning

01:21:03.280 um i had gone around to try to catch up with some of the residents and uh and prepared for uh

01:21:09.960 prepared for trigger triggered and uh you know just uh right before one o'clock we heard the

01:21:15.280 helicopter take off uh it's uh it's a very small community that helicopter taking off pretty much

01:21:21.560 rattles rattles every wall inside of uh inside of the offices around here and uh and shortly after

01:21:30.200 the rcmp began uh making a line and and heading towards the trucks uh i'm gonna start moving back

01:21:38.040 here a little bit now mel there's uh they've uh the the protesters now have talked to the two rcmp

01:21:43.800 officers who came over to talk to them and uh they're now moving back the they've actually

01:21:50.040 moved back further than their original uh original position here but uh they they do tell me that

01:21:55.480 they they're not scared they don't want to be intimidated and they are here for their freedoms

01:22:02.680 yeah it's uh you know good that you say that i've got uh i've got a lot of comments from people uh

01:22:08.600 forcing jabs is illegal uh this is tough love stand strong says patsy but i've got uh uh angel here

01:22:18.120 who says they need to move so truckers can do their job. So again, you know, in speaking with

01:22:27.480 one of the organizers, Nick Friesen, who is a 20-year long hauler or, sorry, cross-border trucker,

01:22:35.640 he explained to me before all of this happened on Saturday, he explained to me that they understood

01:22:43.400 that this was going to cause inconvenience for people. This was going to cause

01:22:49.480 an issue for receiving supplies in Alberta. And they understood this. They understood that this

01:22:57.800 was going to be a challenge for truckers who are not participating in the blockade,

01:23:04.520 but felt that they had reached a point where they could no longer not act. They felt that,

01:23:11.480 he explained to me that they felt their hands were being, you know, they were being forced

01:23:17.580 into having to make this stand. This is people's livelihoods. This is people who are no longer able

01:23:24.240 to, you know, he made a good point that Nick has been this cross-border trucker and for two years

01:23:31.700 he was going back and forth during the pandemic with no problem, with no question. A lot of these

01:23:37.180 truckers are in their vehicles by themselves. They're not, you know, where is the risk is

01:23:41.860 their question. So the mandates that were put in place mid-January on cross-border truckers,

01:23:49.100 you know, leaving Canada, coming into Canada, into the States, the States also implemented the

01:23:55.860 restriction as well, and the mandate for showing vaccine, a vaccine passport to enter the U.S.

01:24:04.960 has really impacted a lot of people, thousands and thousands of truckers across Canada and the

01:24:12.940 U.S. And I know that, you know, some media or even some of our politicians try to minimize it

01:24:19.880 and say, well, it's only 10% of our truckers. But, you know, we should also point out, too,

01:24:25.280 that there are a lot of truckers that are participating in this blockade and that have

01:24:28.740 done the cross Canada trek to Ottawa in the Freedom Convoy who are fully vaccinated, but do

01:24:37.460 not believe in the mandates, do not believe that people should not have the right to choose

01:24:43.060 what they put into their body and then have that be a consequence to their gainful employment and

01:24:50.980 being able to provide for their families. So, you know, as much as we want to minimize and say,

01:24:57.280 it was only 10% that aren't vaccinated.

01:25:00.060 I think that there are a lot more people

01:25:03.060 who are vaccinated and agree with these truckers

01:25:08.640 and with these protestors that these mandates

01:25:11.880 are just, you know, they're just not lawful.

01:25:16.320 In fact, I've got a lot of comments here

01:25:18.280 from viewers right now saying that these are not lawful

01:25:24.440 and that these mandates need to go.

01:25:26.140 So this isn't a small, as they say, fringe minority.

01:25:31.740 No, and what I've heard is, you know, a lot of these drivers are vaccinated.

01:25:39.300 A lot of them have been for quite some time.

01:25:42.420 Their problem comes with the mandated vaccination for employment, the jab for your job.

01:25:49.380 That is what they are protesting.

01:25:51.240 They are telling me repeatedly where there is risk, there needs to be choice.

01:25:56.140 And let's be honest, there is risk to any medication, to any medical procedure, to any vaccination.

01:26:04.100 And they are just simply saying is that if there is a risk, there must be choice.

01:26:10.080 You should not have to have a job or a jab to have a job.

01:26:14.340 And that is what we've heard consistently with these kind of protests or the people that are losing their jobs,

01:26:21.340 is that they do not want to be forced to take something that they do not want to take they want

01:26:27.660 body autonomy yeah and and i think one of the other arguments that i've heard quite a bit too

01:26:33.580 is is the idea that uh even the exemptions are being ignored uh whether this is you know a

01:26:40.620 religious stand uh and and a religious belief uh you know deeply held that you do not uh

01:26:49.180 put something like this into your body. Or even a lot of the medical exemptions have also been

01:26:55.900 ignored for, you know, there's lawsuits happening right now as we speak,

01:27:01.340 excuse me, for, for people who had medical exemption. And this is, this is kind of the

01:27:07.340 argument is that most medicine is never a sort of a one size fits all approach. You know,

01:27:14.380 everybody responds differently to things um you know and so so to again approach the mandates as

01:27:22.220 this is the blanket solution for everybody everybody needs it everybody must have it

01:27:27.180 whether uh you know i know of people who whose doctors have said you could die from having

01:27:34.220 this injection based on some of the ingredients that we know of and we don't know all of the

01:27:39.020 ingredients so that's also a bit of an issue when we're talking about something that is still in

01:27:43.740 uh in an experimental phase but but you could die and then the the response is well let's

01:27:50.220 see how you do with the first dose um i think for a lot of people not willing to to take on

01:27:57.660 that risk and like you said james this is uh that's where if there's risk involved

01:28:02.860 uh a mandate should never be in place yeah exactly and and that's just that that's uh

01:28:10.540 That's the whole point, is that we've reached this point where people have stood up and said, no, no, I'm sorry.

01:28:21.480 That is not within the acceptable level of risk that I'm willing to tolerate.

01:28:26.580 And to lose your job, to lose your career, to not be able to pay your bills, to not be able to put food on your table and take care of your family.

01:28:36.460 That's where the line gets drawn for these people.

01:28:39.440 um they they're not anti-government they're not anti-police they don't want to live in a world

01:28:45.620 of anarchy they aren't racist they aren't white supremacists they aren't these these these

01:28:51.540 secondary narratives that we've heard they are honest hard-working blue-collar truck drivers

01:28:58.120 farmers you know the general heroes of our society that have just said we want choice and and i have

01:29:06.480 tell you talking to a lot of these people over the last three four days they they a lot of them

01:29:11.920 are vaccinated they are vaccinated they've already made the choice they're simply just standing up

01:29:18.320 for the right to choose for the the right to make your own medical decisions for your own body

01:29:24.240 autonomy uh now james i've got a comment here from audrey she says somebody break this down

01:29:30.880 for me uh you know perhaps audrey isn't uh fully aware of exactly when this started how long this

01:29:36.960 has been going on where this is exactly taking place so so for for some who maybe have just

01:29:44.960 jumped on and they're and they're they want a little update so let's uh let's maybe break a

01:29:49.680 few things down here so so where we are right now is we're at the coots border there is a blockade

01:29:55.680 that has been set up by a number of truckers.

01:29:59.240 There has been a number of farmers, locals,

01:30:05.320 people who have come together.

01:30:07.960 And they started the blockade back on Saturday.

01:30:12.760 Saturday afternoon, they came through,

01:30:15.320 were kind of looping around in there

01:30:17.420 and then sort of stopped down.

01:30:19.180 Now, the blockade is not blocking access in and out of Kootz.

01:30:23.420 The village of Coutts, it's not impeding any kind of emergency vehicles from getting through.

01:30:32.100 I know the Coutts Fire Department services Sweetgrass across the border in Montana, they are still able to get through there.

01:30:41.100 What the blockade is doing is the blockade is actually on the north side of the border, the actual U.S.-Canadian border.

01:30:51.820 It is on the north side of that border. The blockade is set up in such a way that it is stopping, for the most part, large haul trucks from going to and from the U.S., you know, truckers coming up from the U.S. with supplies for Canada.

01:31:10.080 And so that's where things are set up. That started Saturday. It has remained peaceful. There has been no there has been no violence. There has been no, you know, no reason for any kind of, you know, RCMP or any any law officers to to come in and break anything up.

01:31:37.060 It's been it's been handled very peacefully at this point.

01:31:40.060 However, RCMP are now calling this a not a peaceful protest in the sense that this is blocking

01:31:47.660 critical infrastructure in, you know, in the Traffic Safety Act.

01:31:53.260 And so what's happening now is RCMP have have been on site since Saturday, since this all started.

01:32:03.660 More and more officers have been arriving. Sounds like tactical units have come out and they have now put out, let's see here, they put out a statement today basically saying that, you know, this is no longer considered a peaceful assembly.

01:32:23.460 this has turned into an unlawful blockade. Alberta RCMP are in a position to conduct

01:32:31.140 enforcement. They have been trying to work with protesters, they say, and keep the peace

01:32:39.120 and make sure that the surroundings have remained safe for emergency vehicles to get through.

01:32:48.340 But at this point, they are saying that this is impeding, again, critical infrastructure and this is the Critical Infrastructure Defence Act of Alberta, which is what they are referencing as well as the Traffic Safety Act and of highway and rules of the road regulation.

01:33:11.800 So basically, this is a blockade that is infringing on Canadian law.

01:33:18.340 And so they are saying they are going to use necessary measures to protect the fundamental freedom of peaceful assembly and freedom of expression to promote the safety of all citizens.

01:33:28.420 But they also have to enforce laws and to maintain peace and order.

01:33:32.620 So in turn, it must be recognized that while everyone has a right to peaceful freedom of expression, the general public, local residents and businesses also have the right to a safe environment and freedom of movement.

01:33:45.880 So they have deemed this event not a peaceful assembly anymore.

01:33:50.480 So there's a bit of the Coles notes.

01:33:52.860 Just about an hour and a half ago, maybe a little over an hour and a half, the police,

01:34:00.040 sorry, RCMP were starting to move in on the blockade.

01:34:03.580 And that's when we went live.

01:34:05.720 So that's where we're at now.

01:34:07.340 James, what are you seeing right now?

01:34:09.300 I know RCMP were getting sort of moving a little bit closer and closer to where most of the protesters were, but have now sort of backed off because protesters were coming forward a bit.

01:34:23.700 Where were we at?

01:34:24.640 Yeah.

01:34:25.380 When the protesters started to go back across the highway and got in front of the RCMP, the RCMP completely withdrew.

01:34:35.420 They backed up.

01:34:36.460 they they've all returned uh it looks like into their vehicles now um it is cold out here it's

01:34:42.220 minus 19 i'm not sure what it is with the wind chill the wind is blowing it is snowing uh but

01:34:48.460 it looks like they they're they're pulling back to de-escalate um that there's some movement

01:34:55.020 around here uh there's not very many officers out on the highway anymore uh when the rcmp began to

01:35:01.740 withdraw withdraw some of the truckers from the committee came out and the protesters withdrew as

01:35:10.140 well they have now backed up behind the last or the the farm equipment that broke through

01:35:18.300 the mouth river checkpoint they've moved back behind that now it looks like everybody's just

01:35:24.300 taking a minute here to breathe it looks like there's some de-escalation i did see one of the

01:35:31.020 lawyers from this morning. He was making his way across the scale here. I'm not sure if there's a

01:35:45.220 meeting going on. I'm not sure what the situation is here. But the protesters have moved back. The

01:35:52.840 RCMP have withdrawn again. I'll just take you for a quick drive here and just show you. The RCMP

01:35:59.840 have cleared up to about this first yellow truck here. That tractor that's pulled across

01:36:05.520 just behind it, that was pulled across just right in front of the RCMP as the RCMP began to withdraw

01:36:13.960 and the protesters have moved well back here now. I'm just going to see where they have withdrawn

01:36:22.840 to um obviously there's lots of moving equipment around here uh that's a lot larger than my my

01:36:30.280 small truck i don't want to get run over myself uh so i'm just gonna sneak through here i i also

01:36:37.720 don't want to get pinned back here and not be able to make my way forward again in uh in the event

01:36:44.440 the rcmp begins to move forward um but yeah as you can see every everybody's friendly everybody's

01:36:50.360 you can you uh can you see if you can talk to somebody again again just uh see how they're

01:36:55.640 feeling um if they if they are you know willing to share anything with us yeah let's uh let me

01:37:02.680 hop out here let's see how uh how are you guys feeling about everything now what uh what's the

01:37:12.440 plan i've seen everybody just kind of withdrew back here i guess we're all just trying to get

01:37:17.400 Time to warm up a little bit and then just, I don't know, come back again after again and see if we can just get back down, I guess.

01:37:25.280 Okay.

01:37:25.980 So, yeah, that's the situation, Mel.

01:37:28.820 The protesters have moved back.

01:37:30.940 They're moving back to get warm.

01:37:33.100 The RCMP have moved back.

01:37:36.200 It looks like everybody is trying to de-escalate the situation.

01:37:39.780 It was pretty tense there for a minute when the protesters walked out directly in front of the line of the RCMP that was moving forward.

01:37:47.400 um you know the this really puts a lot of people in a really hard spot these uh the protesters are

01:37:54.920 not anti-police they're very pro-police and uh they don't want to get into a situation with the

01:38:02.040 police and uh the police have been uh as far as i'm concerned they've they've been uh understanding

01:38:09.800 they have been um you know they they they have taken every opportunity to try to de-escalate

01:38:17.800 the situation and the tensions around here but uh the rcmp they have a job to do too they uh

01:38:24.840 they don't get to choose what laws they enforce they they're told what to do and how to do their

01:38:30.440 job and uh you know that's uh that's that's just how society works they're not bad people uh you

01:38:37.960 you know, there hasn't been any kind of false flag operations. There's not been any kind of

01:38:45.660 situation where you suspect the RCMP are provoking anything. I have seen nothing but constant

01:38:54.140 attempts to de-escalate every day since this started. Yeah. And, you know, still seeing a

01:39:01.080 lot of comments from people saying Kenny needs to be there. He needs to be coming down. He needs

01:39:05.800 to be speaking with these people he needs to be part of these negotiations benny says it's simple

01:39:10.860 kenny lifts his mandate and so does trudeau and it's over so you know a lot of people uh also

01:39:17.580 mentioning that if you know it it becomes very simple uh kenny needs to come down here he needs

01:39:25.440 to be the people's leader, says Justin. Yeah, like it's the government. Yeah, it says it's

01:39:36.320 a lot of people making comments saying this is peaceful, even though some of the statements that

01:39:42.580 have come out have called this no longer a peaceful, a peaceful gathering. So yeah, I think

01:39:50.780 there's a lot of people who are supporting this, but there are people too. I know I spoke with

01:39:57.340 one of the truck drivers yesterday who ended up getting caught up in the northbound lanes. So he

01:40:04.260 was a trucker that was coming up from the U.S. with his load. And he was upset that he got stuck

01:40:11.900 in the blockade and was unable to get out of the blockade. Now, when I spoke with organizers,

01:40:19.640 a couple of days ago, they said they had been shifting trucks around and moving things to help

01:40:27.380 get some of these truckers who did not want to stay and participate out. They said, but for the

01:40:34.100 most part, the majority of the truckers that they spoke to who had come up and sort of got stuck in

01:40:40.140 the blockade actually chose to stay, chose to stay and participate and were not sort

01:40:49.960 of angered by being held up in that.

01:40:55.380 It sounds like there was a group of people yesterday who, again, one of them contacting

01:41:01.300 us, a group of them yesterday who were protesting to the RCMP saying they wanted to get out

01:41:09.120 of the out of the blockade and get on with their with their travels get home to their

01:41:14.880 families their children get their their cargo delivered and and so quite a few of them it

01:41:22.080 sounds like were things were shifted yesterday and quite a few of them were able to to get

01:41:26.880 on their way so you know and and my understanding too is that that travelers are being warned

01:41:35.520 that the blockade is happening down in the states as they come up. So a lot of them have

01:41:40.480 been detouring to the other border in Alberta to make their way up, which I think is also an

01:41:48.000 inconvenience. It does take longer. It does add kilometres to their travel. Again, the organisers

01:41:54.160 have said they understand and have told me that they understand this is going to be inconvenient

01:41:59.680 for many people but they believe that this is a stand that they must take at this point

01:42:09.680 and you know it sounds like they are digging in and I've heard from many that they don't plan to

01:42:17.520 move any of the blockade until the mandates are lifted the vaccine mandates

01:42:23.360 yeah you know um the uh saturday so saturday before uh before i left i was uh getting a tour

01:42:34.200 around town with a local resident that's uh that's been helping me out here and uh we uh we drove

01:42:40.580 down the northbound lanes um basically from where you cross into canada up to the blockade itself

01:42:50.720 and uh there was a couple of drivers there and uh and the local resident said hey do you guys

01:42:57.380 want to be here like do you want to be here right now and the one guy's like no i'm trying to get

01:43:01.580 out of here man and uh and the the local resident said hey just follow me so uh we we actually led

01:43:09.160 that truck right through town uh and uh and and around the blockade and got that that person out

01:43:15.280 of here now there was other drivers that were stuck behind protesters and some of the protesters

01:43:21.960 at first were refusing to move to let people who didn't want to be here out uh i have heard stories

01:43:28.800 where uh some fresh produce uh it was on a limited time uh there was risk that it was going to spoil

01:43:35.840 and uh you know on uh on sunday monday uh the rcmp and uh and the protesters uh negotiated

01:43:43.860 They let those vehicles go. They shifted vehicles around. But yes, without a doubt, there was people or there were people trapped here that did not want to be a part of the protest.

01:43:54.680 And Monday, they they let let those people move out of the protest. They let them move out of the blockade and get safely out of the area.

01:44:02.700 Mm-hmm. Sabine is asking here, what would the charge be if the RCMP arrests someone? Again,

01:44:11.980 the RCMP have been clear about this, as have others, including the mayor of the village of

01:44:20.140 Coutts. They have said the protesters are not what we are taking exception to. In fact, the mayor

01:44:25.980 said the protesters could stay as long as they wanted to. It's really just the blocking of

01:44:31.740 infrastructure it's um which falls uh under the infrastructure defense act of alberta

01:44:39.180 sorry the critical infrastructure defense act of alberta anyone who actively blocks a highway or

01:44:44.780 aids councils or directs a highway to be blocked may be subject to arrest and charged under this

01:44:51.340 act so uh so there is a provision in our criminal code in canada that allows for the enforcement of

01:45:00.300 of this law. And of course, our RCMP and authorities would need to uphold that as a law.

01:45:12.780 So that, Sabine, would answer your question. That's what they would be arrested for is the

01:45:19.260 actual blockade the actual um uh impeding the the the highway there uh and allowing uh for the you

01:45:30.540 know the truckers to bring loads up and supplies and um and whatnot into and out of the country

01:45:36.620 so that is the main uh the main issue um what what remains to be uh what what i think remains to be

01:45:46.220 the most confusing part of this is the fact that it is now being referred to as

01:45:51.980 no longer a peaceful assembly. I think that has raised a lot of questions. What is not peaceful

01:45:59.340 about this? Is it referencing the blocking of infrastructure? That is what becomes unpeaceful.

01:46:07.980 So that's where a lot of confusion lies with some people.

01:46:12.700 Yeah, there is no doubt that they are in contravention of the Critical Infrastructure

01:46:19.360 Defense Act. And we know that that came from the anti-pipeline protests that happened in 2019

01:46:27.360 with the rail blockades and everything that happened around that. The Alberta government

01:46:34.240 was swift in enacting that law, mostly from a rail crossing around the Edmonton area.

01:46:42.700 And, you know, without a doubt, they're in contravention of that.

01:46:47.080 The highway is impeded.

01:46:49.380 It is critical infrastructure.

01:46:51.120 It is critical infrastructure for the province.

01:46:54.080 But to say it's not peaceful, I don't know if I agree with that characterization.

01:47:00.860 There's been nothing but peace.

01:47:03.540 There's been a lot of praying.

01:47:05.380 There's been a lot of singing, a lot of O Canada.

01:47:09.360 There's families here.

01:47:10.760 there's grandparents and grandchildren here uh it's uh it you know it's tough because they they

01:47:19.980 are they they are breaking the law and that is clear uh but you know they they constantly said

01:47:25.440 well you know the government's breaking the law they are taking our rights away they're taking

01:47:29.760 our freedoms away they're forcing us to choose between a jab and a job uh they're they're crippling

01:47:35.720 us and taking away our our free will and and they they say that we are just simply meeting

01:47:43.960 the laws that the government has broken itself with breaking laws uh civil disobedience of their

01:47:49.880 own and and and that's how i would describe it i would i would describe this as a peaceful civil

01:47:55.960 disobedience yeah uh daniel says we stand 100 with all canadians truckers farmers doctors nurses

01:48:04.680 etc we stand united as one and we are not going anywhere stop all mandates etc for all canadians

01:48:11.640 um a lot of people with the with the comment hold your ground stand your ground al says uh

01:48:19.000 stand your ground uh you know again more calls for kenny to to come come down come meet with the

01:48:28.280 with the protesters meet with the organizers of the blockade speak to them negotiate with them

01:48:34.920 participate in in this a lot of people calling that that this is something that they think

01:48:41.240 should happen drop the mandates and the truckers move is another thing that i have seen quite a

01:48:48.040 few people brad has posted this quite a few other people have said the same thing simple solution

01:48:53.480 drop the mandates um this gets the borders open this gets the trucks out of uh ottawa uh you know

01:48:59.720 this is where where people are making their stand you know mel uh i i've never seen a government

01:49:07.880 move with a gun to its head before so you know i i i uh i would love to see all of the mandates

01:49:14.680 dropped i would love to see us get back to normal but uh when when has uh has the government ever

01:49:20.440 negotiated in in a protest like situation but I mean they are right there is an absolute vacuum

01:49:29.720 for for political leadership you know we haven't seen we've seen one MLA make his way down to the

01:49:37.800 protest on the first day on Saturday that MLA is shown as support but you know there's no

01:49:44.040 politicians here that are negotiating there's no politicians here that are talking to their

01:49:49.640 electorate um there's uh there there's one mayor of the village of coots who uh who's been uh who's

01:49:58.040 been you know trying to to bridge things between the community and the protesters and the rcmp but

01:50:05.000 uh we we just haven't seen anybody say we're listening to you and i think that's uh one of

01:50:11.480 the things that we've seen consistently uh especially across alberta is that um albertans

01:50:18.280 just don't feel listened to by their government and they don't feel represented and i think that

01:50:26.200 this this type of situation could be de-escalated through through simple conversation i'm just just

01:50:33.320 moving back here down the line just just showing you um the the protesters now uh the farmers uh

01:50:41.800 and and the ranchers and the farm equipment they've actually cleared it and they've started

01:50:46.280 moving back now so i'm i'm leaving the scale now and driving back to the original blockade point

01:50:53.640 and uh from what i can see it looks like they are now opening up the uh the original blockade area

01:51:02.520 so i'm uh i'm just gonna go back here and take a look so i'm just moving back to the entrance here

01:51:09.400 in into coots into the community uh i'm just trying to see where i can make my way around

01:51:16.280 this truck here but uh the original blockade part now uh sorry he's actually moving out of my way

01:51:23.480 uh the the the pinch point here that has been uh the the the conflict area now appears to be clear

01:51:31.960 the original vehicles that were pulled across the lanes uh and the drivers that were dug in

01:51:37.080 and said they were not leaving uh it looks like now that they have opened up this intersection

01:51:42.440 and the trucks are no longer across here so just like two hours so what does that mean though james

01:51:49.000 help me out though what does that mean that they've cleared that intersection it does that mean

01:51:53.640 that that they are allowing the cross-border uh trucks coming through at this point or what does

01:52:02.040 that mean no uh it looks like they they were pulled directly across the highway here it now

01:52:09.240 looks like they've lined up uh three trucks wide and it's still stopped uh the rcmp helicopters

01:52:15.880 back up in the sky here now you can see and just beyond them are more rcmp vehicles and uh if you

01:52:22.280 take a look here here's uh kind of what's left of uh the initial blockade so it actually looks like

01:52:29.320 they're putting fuel and charging some batteries on some of these trucks these trucks have been

01:52:33.800 here uh since uh since saturday afternoon these trucks uh the the convoy was making its way in

01:52:41.240 a circle they were uh traveling from uh this intersection right here where i'm at uh back

01:52:48.040 down uh to the other side of the scale and and they were traveling in a circle and close and

01:52:53.400 just slowing things down and at a certain point they uh they uh pulled across this intersection

01:52:59.560 and locked things down it looks like the bulk of the vehicles that were here earlier have now

01:53:04.680 vacated the area and uh if you take a look they're uh boosting batteries uh this was one of the

01:53:10.440 concerns with the cold temperature and the lack of fuel that some of these trucks would die and

01:53:14.440 become immobilized it looks like they're now boosting each other and uh and moving moving

01:53:20.520 the uh the trucks out of the area i'm uh i'm just gonna check the uh the southbound lanes here

01:53:27.000 and uh and take a look and see what's happened here now these these uh this area here there's

01:53:33.880 been different spots where they have kept uh kept the lane open uh at uh at the start of uh

01:53:42.920 of the rcmp um advancing advancing towards the blockade uh they pulled into these areas

01:53:49.640 and started blocking things off it looks like now that these these uh protesters have now moved

01:53:55.480 their trucks and and opened up the area uh and and you can get through here no problem as you can

01:54:01.800 see i'm driving through here now this has basically been open like this uh for the last or it's the

01:54:09.160 entire time i've been able to drive in and out of the protest area the protest site without any

01:54:14.440 problems uh for for the entire uh four days now and uh just taking a look here everything's

01:54:22.840 completely open uh the farm equipment has withdrawn it looks like they're moving back to uh

01:54:28.520 to the saloon in in coots uh it looks like everybody's getting warm um there's there's

01:54:35.120 still a few pickups and and whatever else here but the situation looks like it's it's de-escalating

01:54:40.760 significantly now um uh you had mentioned that a lot of those boost vehicles yeah and and and as

01:54:47.960 you mentioned that the boosting of the trucks and vehicles and whatnot um is that a result of the

01:54:53.640 fact that it's been blocked off um at the at the checkpoints from the rcmp for uh deliveries of the

01:55:01.560 diesel and the propane and the things that the the truckers were in need of is that still the case

01:55:07.640 and that's why we're we're running into this now you know i i'm not entirely sure i know that uh

01:55:14.360 this morning that uh when i was talking to the the truckers uh when they were having a meeting

01:55:19.640 there this morning uh they they did have some concerns that some of the trucks wouldn't be

01:55:24.360 able to move because the battery had died and that they couldn't get fuel in uh it does look

01:55:29.320 like they are pumping fuel into some of the vehicles now and boosting the vehicles and moving

01:55:34.600 them out of here uh they they've opened up the area significantly and you can drive the entire

01:55:40.520 protest site now uh completely impeded um so that that's changed quite significantly um

01:55:48.920 there there's obviously still uh like this this piece of equipment right here

01:55:53.880 it's uh completely across the highway um so there's no no real access there around it but

01:56:02.360 But, of course, you can drive up the other side without any vehicles being in the way.

01:56:09.760 A couple of things I was going to just note here.

01:56:12.480 First of all, a comment from Heidi.

01:56:14.640 This is not at all hurting the movement.

01:56:17.060 It's absolutely necessary.

01:56:18.760 She says, tough times call for tough measures.

01:56:21.160 There comes a time that we have to do hard things.

01:56:23.960 The federal government felt that instead of respecting the precious Charter of Rights of Canadians,

01:56:30.640 They should unpeacefully force job loss and force medical procedures.

01:56:36.100 We now need to push back and use forceful but peaceful measures to make the government

01:56:40.900 listen and act.

01:56:42.580 So regardless of how this looks, there comes a time when we have to do these kinds of things.

01:56:48.260 Now, someone else, Adela says MSM Media is spinning this to turn people against the Freedom

01:56:54.380 Convoy.

01:56:56.380 And speaking of that spin, we came across some footage earlier of one of the mainstream

01:57:04.240 media outlets reporting on some of the truckers that were upset with being stuck in the convoy.

01:57:12.740 And those truckers were saying they didn't agree with what was happening and also had

01:57:19.160 said they didn't feel safe.

01:57:21.260 When they were questioned, they said they didn't feel safe.

01:57:23.820 However, we also have footage of the same truckers participating in dancing.

01:57:32.440 They were playing music and dancing, and it looked like they were perhaps having some beverages.

01:57:38.400 They were partaking in the food that was set out for them.

01:57:42.280 And in one video, one of the truckers who had said they didn't feel safe was seen making a donation of what looked like perhaps a few 20s in a pile to the organizers to contribute to some of the food that they had been supplied and whatnot and were contributing to what they said was the cause.

01:58:07.280 So, you know, I find that kind of interesting that in, you know, one video they are being interviewed by mainstream media and sort of expressing their concern for their safety.

01:58:22.720 but other video we have and we will have that up for you here shortly on the website we have video

01:58:29.960 of those exact same people involved with with you know enjoying themselves and and dancing with some

01:58:39.080 of the other protesters and having what looked like a very fun time so it didn't look like they

01:58:45.640 felt their their safety was was at all an issue so uh it looks like we are going to just stand

01:58:53.460 by here for um a small uh mention from a sponsor uh and then our uh our columnist corey is going

01:59:02.460 to take over and just uh work with you for for the next while here james okay

01:59:07.500 that uh that sounds good mel i'm uh i'm just driving driving the route here so uh we'll

01:59:17.580 we'll hear from our sponsor and uh i'll stand by thanks james

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02:00:01.820 basis.

02:00:28.220 Okay.

02:00:30.080 Again, welcome back.

02:00:31.820 We're giving Mel a break. She's been on for quite some time covering this a couple of hours now since it broke. So here we are. I just want to review things then with James, perhaps. And there's a lot of viewers who have joined us just recently on this.

02:00:47.580 uh what what has happened i mean for those who just got in james uh there's there's been a move

02:00:53.420 uh the rcmp moved in some people have left their trucks abandoned them the rcmp backed off and and

02:00:58.980 now they're sort of categorizing trucks and and everything's at a standstill yeah so there there

02:01:05.460 hasn't been uh much change around here you can still see a lot of the drivers are are uh they're

02:01:13.540 they're positive they're honking their horns uh but uh yeah the rcmp started moving in at about

02:01:20.120 two hours ago uh they started clearing the vehicles uh checking to see if there was occupants in them

02:01:26.180 as the rcmp approached the front of uh as they started approaching the vehicles uh the drivers

02:01:32.680 started leaving their vehicles and moving back towards the blockade point uh uh shortly after

02:01:40.360 that, there was a secondary convoy that was being held back about 15 kilometers from Coutts,

02:01:52.260 north of Coutts, back towards Milk River. And that convoy broke through that police checkpoint

02:01:58.600 and came up to join the main protest. As they joined the main protest, the RCMP withdrew,

02:02:05.420 they moved back um and as they withdrew um the protesters came out and uh formed a line just uh

02:02:15.400 just in front of me here where you see those pickup trucks uh forming that line uh all of

02:02:20.660 the protesters came out and formed the line they said they wanted to show the rcmp that they weren't

02:02:25.540 scared that they weren't intimidated uh that they were being peaceful uh when they formed that line

02:02:31.720 the RCMP continued forward and they kept kept checking vehicles and clearing vehicles at that

02:02:38.960 time the protesters actually moved out across the highway in the the northbound lanes and at that

02:02:47.280 time the RCMP completely withdrew they withdrew all the way back to their main starting point

02:02:53.600 and shortly after that the protesters also withdrew and it looks like they began clearing

02:03:01.080 vehicles out of certain areas now as you can see here there is a blockade line now that goes all

02:03:08.080 the way across it goes across the scale it goes across the ditch it is open in the middle and one

02:03:14.840 northbound lane uh just over here is open and i've been driving around here i i can get through

02:03:22.100 um i've been driving around getting as much video as i can uh but most of the protesters have now

02:03:28.400 headed inside uh and uh i don't i don't know if they're getting a bite to eat but uh one did tell

02:03:34.440 me that they uh were were going into warm-up and uh i think uh i think there's been a big de-escalation

02:03:42.080 here uh the main the main blockade that uh took place on saturday that group of trucks has now

02:03:49.960 pulled out of that area uh they're they're no longer there uh they're boosting vehicles over

02:03:56.260 in that area and um yeah it looks like they're starting to move things out of here cory

02:04:04.740 interesting um you know we'd heard a lot of rumors going back and forth i mean as the rcmp were

02:04:08.820 preparing for this and of whether some towing companies and such like we saw some trucks

02:04:13.940 uh that had been left by the truckers as they moved away and the rcmp were sort of surrounding

02:04:18.100 it and videoing it and you know taking down plates and such is there any indication of

02:04:22.180 equipment coming in to move those like moving a semi of course isn't as easy as just grabbing a

02:04:25.700 a car and taking it it's a specialized task have you seen anything coming out to to do that sort of

02:04:30.800 thing no i i haven't seen any tow trucks here cory uh i'm just trying to move back to the rcmp's uh

02:04:37.960 their position here uh just uh just north of the village of coots i i don't see any tow trucks i

02:04:45.220 haven't seen any tow trucks here um there was some tow trucks that were here before that were

02:04:50.780 participating in the actual blockade uh but i i haven't seen them uh at all today so i i believe

02:04:58.820 they've left the area but uh if you can see just in front of me here this is the rcmp's uh uh

02:05:05.880 their their primary staging area i guess we can call it and uh there's no trucks tow trucks here

02:05:11.680 there's no tow trucks behind them um there is a secondary area about two kilometers to the north

02:05:20.220 of here at the CP train tracks. I see that there's still officers there, but I don't see

02:05:27.580 any tow trucks or any equipment behind them. Yeah, everything's fairly quiet here. Everything's

02:05:37.720 been quiet for about the last 30 minutes or so now, Corey.

02:05:41.040 Okay, just I'll take a pause quickly just to remind everybody, you know, this is an exclusive.

02:05:46.240 James is down there. He's been watching this for a while and we've got Melanie Rizdin who's been

02:05:50.880 reporting on this for days. So please, you know, help support us. Keep doing this live coverage.

02:05:55.780 I've swapped out with Mel, but poor James is down there all alone. So he's stuck on this coverage

02:05:59.220 for a while yet. Head to the westernstandardonline.com. This is where the full stories

02:06:03.420 are. Dave and Mel and Eva and others are writing on this furiously as we go. The stories are popping

02:06:08.680 up with news as we get it. And as it's breaking, as you can see, we're a full news organization.

02:06:14.200 we are independent, you know, we're not getting tax funding. It's so essential to get that so we

02:06:20.140 can keep covering this because you're not getting this from the mainstream, of course, they're just

02:06:23.200 going to give you a little clips. And well, often clips from quite an angle. Plus, all you viewers

02:06:28.700 there, and there's a lot of you out there watching this live, you know, we're going to keep breaking

02:06:32.140 in and updating as this happens. If something comes up tonight, if something comes up later,

02:06:35.860 make sure you subscribe to our channels on Facebook, YouTube, Rumble, we're broadcasting

02:06:40.580 to all of them and you'll get an alert the second these things come up you'll know when these live

02:06:45.880 broadcasts come because we don't know when it's going to happen we've got people on the ground

02:06:49.560 and we want to get to you as fast as we can so james i you know as you're circling most of those

02:06:55.060 vehicles i see then and i even see a fifth wheel left behind um they're unoccupied at this time

02:07:00.300 then i take it yeah all of these vehicles now are they're completely unoccupied uh as the rcmp

02:07:08.060 These are the first vehicles the RCMP started checking and clearing about two hours ago now.

02:07:15.120 And all of them, as the police started to approach the vehicles, the protesters exited the vehicles and moved back towards the blockade at the village of Coutts, just north of the border crossing into Canada.

02:07:29.120 And, yeah, everybody's been leaving their trucks and moving backwards away from the RCMP as the RCMP advanced forward.

02:07:38.060 When the protesters, just in front of these yellow trucks, just right here, when the RCMP started to approach that area, the protesters actually came out in front of those trucks and created a line across the highway.

02:07:54.140 And at that time, the RCMP began to immediately withdraw back to the north, back behind where their vehicles were.

02:08:00.720 great well i mean at least as far as all this is gone i mean it obviously got a little bit tense

02:08:06.500 there as things were happening and that everybody's been peaceful nobody's been uh aggressive or

02:08:11.400 violent towards the police and likewise otherwise you haven't seen any sign of any arrests yet or

02:08:15.500 anything i have not seen a single arrest yet cory i have not seen any violence uh the protesters

02:08:22.360 said that they will absolutely not become violent uh that's not what they're here for uh they said

02:08:28.660 that if arrests are made they will not resist arrest uh they they will simply be arrested be

02:08:35.800 processed and uh are are looking forward to their day in court uh when when they can address address

02:08:42.200 that um no i mean as soon as the protesters went across the road in those yellow trucks back there

02:08:49.280 uh as soon as that happened uh the rcmp began to withdraw almost immediately and as they withdrew

02:08:56.600 So two uniforms that are not in tactical gear, just your average RCMP officers, two of them came out.

02:09:05.440 They approached the protesters on the highway.

02:09:08.180 Some of the protesters came and talked to them.

02:09:10.360 I don't know what they talked about.

02:09:11.780 They had a couple of short discussions, and the protesters began moving back towards where the saloon is, where the bulk of the protesters are.

02:09:22.480 Yeah, I still see some people driving and moving around.

02:09:25.300 do you think there's any chance i know that they've been reticent to talk but it'd be really

02:09:28.260 good to corner a couple and just get a bit more view on the ground of what some folks are saying

02:09:32.840 and thinking if you if you can find them out there i know and it's cold nobody wants to step

02:09:36.880 out of their truck but uh it's it's been quite something to behold and uh you know seeing them

02:09:41.380 all parked there it's kind of something of a standoff at this point though yeah i'll uh i'll

02:09:46.080 make my way back uh we'll see if we can get over uh over to the saloon over here and see if we can

02:09:51.240 talk to a few people outside. I know that they've been instructed by their council not to talk too

02:09:59.200 much to the media, but we'll go see if they want to talk about how they're feeling and about what's

02:10:07.240 taking place here now. There's not very many people, like you can see, there's only a couple

02:10:16.420 of people in these trucks a lot of them um have exited their trucks and headed headed in uh

02:10:24.260 probably to get something eat eat and warm up it is minus 19 here right now uh i don't know about

02:10:30.820 the the wind chill uh what the wind chill is like right now uh but uh it looks like there's somebody

02:10:36.340 here right now uh let's take a look just wondering if you might be able to tell us how you're feeling

02:10:42.500 about everything right now so uh what what's the next moves here it looks like the blockade's been

02:10:50.500 cleared up here now uh they're moving trucks from across the highway but there's uh another blockade

02:10:55.940 just a little bit ahead of us here so uh i guess what's what's the plan moving forward here

02:11:04.740 no all right well uh actually just so you know i don't hear it when you talk to those guys so

02:11:12.260 I understand your microphone is limited, but if you could just kind of repeat what he said.

02:11:16.980 Yeah, so he just said he's feeling excited. I asked him what the plan was moving forward,

02:11:22.820 and he said, I don't know. I'm not in charge. I don't have a plan. They're starting their trucks

02:11:28.100 up. I know that there was about three different protest groups or groups of protesters.

02:11:36.740 They all kind of got themselves together over social media, and they all just kind of converged into this one spot.

02:11:45.340 And when they got here, they didn't really have a plan.

02:11:47.800 They didn't plan to blockade the highway, but as the day went on on Saturday, they felt that their point wasn't getting across.

02:11:58.460 And at that time, a group of truckers pulled across this intersection just right here in front of me.

02:12:05.300 uh when they pulled across this intersection uh they shut the trucks off they parked them and

02:12:10.260 they said they weren't moving until the mandates were lifted uh that uh obviously kicked off uh

02:12:16.540 four four uh four fairly long days here and uh i mean the the weekend it was uh it was um

02:12:23.820 it was 10 degrees there was a chinook rolling through here there was a wind a wind coming

02:12:29.940 through um but uh there there was positive attitude and positive spirits on the last couple

02:12:36.980 of days it's changed it's uh minus 19 now i don't know what it is with the wind chill but it was minus

02:12:42.900 28 earlier uh it was it was real cold it's been blowing snow for the last couple of days um

02:12:50.980 the drivers have been running low on DEF and fuel, and they needed gasoline for their gen sets.

02:13:00.000 I know some of the locals were attempting to get fuel in here for their gen sets earlier,

02:13:07.240 and that happened shortly after that is when we began having the RCMP started advancing

02:13:16.960 and checking the vehicles let me just see here I'm just pulling up to the saloon so this this

02:13:24.520 saloon the saloon's actually closed for business it hasn't been open for business the whole time

02:13:29.300 one one of the people in the community began getting concerned that it was too cold outside

02:13:35.720 so they opened it up for the protesters and yeah so this has been kind of a

02:13:46.880 meeting place for the protesters and everybody else I'll I'll just see see if

02:13:51.920 maybe one of these guys is willing to talk to us now so yeah we'll see so it

02:13:59.780 looks like looks like you guys have moved back and this is all opened up

02:14:03.440 here so i was just wondering if you guys could tell me everybody's kind of withdrawn now what's

02:14:07.600 uh what's the plan moving forward there's the guys inside western standard uh yeah

02:14:16.480 yeah so i don't know if you can hear that cory but uh yeah they've uh they've been speaking

02:14:21.520 with their attorneys their attorneys are inside talking with them now uh they basically said no

02:14:26.720 more comment they're going to be talking directly with their their attorneys uh i'm gonna i'm gonna

02:14:32.240 to try to get an interview with them just a little bit later today I don't

02:14:38.240 think many more of the protesters are gonna speak to us at least at least

02:14:43.100 until things start to de-escalate a little bit more around here yeah no

02:14:48.380 things are obviously fluid oh just just hold on a second here Cory I I'm just

02:14:56.060 gonna I'm gonna mute you guys for a bit I'm gonna run inside and see if I can

02:14:59.720 get somebody to come talk to us it sounds like they have somebody that's willing to talk to me

02:15:03.680 so uh okay just uh just sad life great so yeah james is going inside as you can hear to see if

02:15:11.240 he can speak directly to some of the organizers of this and uh that's been one of the things that's

02:15:15.640 been interesting with these protests i mean there is no distinctive single leader or individual we

02:15:20.400 can go to or speak to uh these are truly organic you know this is coming from the ground there's

02:15:25.240 obviously a number of people sort of in charge and uh hopefully James can can get some quotes

02:15:30.280 because it you know it'd be interesting to hear what their plans are I mean we're going into the

02:15:33.560 evening now when clearly uh the RCMP are on the move they want to close this down they want this

02:15:39.520 this protest to end though it's it's quite uh I mean look at all the trucks out there it's as I

02:15:45.000 was asking James about I mean for people who are not familiar with moving heavy equipment and things

02:15:49.380 like that it's not as easy as just I mean look at that one that's a b-train there as multiple

02:15:53.860 trailers you can't just and they're parked bumper to bumper it is a monumental task to just pick up

02:16:01.700 and grab one of these vehicles and move it out of the way so it's quite an effective blockade of

02:16:06.020 vehicles staying out there even without the drivers in it and uh if the RCMP really wanted

02:16:11.060 to clear that roadway they would have to have a whole bunch of very heavy equipment

02:16:16.820 at the same time that's when you need safety so i i'm guessing that's where they want to

02:16:22.100 to stabilize the scene you've got to make sure you can't have heavy equipment moving in cold

02:16:26.340 dark conditions windy conditions around people and moving those trucks safely uh if protesters

02:16:32.200 got upset which is so far they've been you know again remarkably controlled uh it could have gone

02:16:37.280 difficultly so i see james has got somebody there um they will pull him into the feed here shortly

02:16:41.800 and uh see what we got going on there james so i i am here with one of the protesters now so uh

02:16:48.100 I'm going to ask some questions and I'm going to repeating it back to us.

02:16:51.340 Obviously, the temperature out here has absolutely killed the microphone.

02:16:55.240 I'm having to use an earpiece, otherwise I can't hear you guys at all.

02:16:58.420 So it's going to be a little awkward.

02:17:00.760 But so I've noticed now that you guys have moved the trucks off of the original blockade point.

02:17:06.780 So what happened with that?

02:17:08.980 Well, the original blockade point right here is still the same.

02:17:12.580 The other end there, we just reinforced that it made it a little bit stronger.

02:17:18.580 We're keeping a lane wide open.

02:17:21.580 We don't want to block it 100% for the locals here, for emergency vehicles.

02:17:26.580 We don't want someone to get hurt and be stuck in here.

02:17:29.580 We're not trying to hurt anybody.

02:17:31.580 So that's why we're keeping one lane open straight through.

02:17:35.580 So they've moved off at the original blockade point now, Corey.

02:17:39.580 They're leaving lanes open.

02:17:41.580 is that other blockade just a little bit further that i've seen you but it is quite porous you can

02:17:45.340 get through it absolutely no problem they want to ensure that emergency vehicles and emergency

02:17:50.460 access is available for the residents of coots and uh you know they they want to make sure that

02:17:55.420 everybody's staying peaceful and uh everything else so uh we did see the rcmp start to advance

02:18:01.660 and start uh checking on trucks and uh shortly after a line of protesters uh they they came out

02:18:07.980 and they crossed the highway in front of the RCMP. So what was happening there?

02:18:12.860 Well, we want to show them that we're here to stand up for our freedom. We really mean that.

02:18:18.140 We want the future generation of kids for everyone, right? We want it to be free of choice

02:18:23.900 of what we do with our bodies, etc. So the reason why we went down there was to show the cops,

02:18:30.540 We're not here to start any violence, but we are here to stand strong.

02:18:35.800 We're single Canada, and we can't the freedom, and we're talking about that.

02:18:41.220 So just the answer there, Corey, they moved out.

02:18:45.800 They wanted to show the RCMP that they're not violent, that they're here to peacefully protest,

02:18:51.340 that they're not backing down.

02:18:52.600 They're just here for their freedoms, and that they're willing to have a conversation with them.

02:18:57.980 So what's the next move here?

02:18:59.640 what what's up next that i don't know as of right now we're hoping that the highly elected officials

02:19:08.680 can lift the mandates and stuff like that because we would all love to go home and

02:19:13.400 fill out our nice warm beds and have a meal with our family um so we'll wait to see what the

02:19:18.760 government does and we'll be having discussions here with the team to see what next move is

02:19:24.280 awesome all right well thank you very much for this so uh the answer there corey was just uh

02:19:28.920 you know we're hoping to have a conversation with the elected officials we're all cold we

02:19:33.160 all want to move home we all want progress we all just want what's right we all just want our

02:19:37.800 freedom here so uh yeah that's uh that's the situation here that's that's what they have to

02:19:44.040 say uh you know these guys these guys have been peaceful corey these guys these guys are willing

02:19:50.200 to have a conversation and i think that's that's the main point uh is that uh everybody's been

02:19:56.600 looking to have a conversation and nobody's been willing to have it and the only way to uh to to

02:20:02.200 get that conversation to actually happen is uh is to block a highway and you know that's uh that's

02:20:09.160 been the overwhelming sentiment sentiment that i've been getting now this is such a a remarkable

02:20:15.320 thing and i mean it should be noted we're probably gonna close off in a little bit here but of course

02:20:19.560 we will pop up the second anything breaks or changes uh but you know before we get to that

02:20:24.280 i mean just to summarize so there's been uh some rcmp action the trucks are left but the

02:20:29.560 demonstrators are still there um they're they're talking they're talking with their lawyers

02:20:34.680 uh but as with ottawa you know it's again been great it's been peaceful people have been

02:20:40.280 reasonable we don't see that with demonstrations that often and uh this uh you know again whether

02:20:44.920 you agree or disagree with their cause they're doing it in a very good respectful manner you

02:20:49.800 you know, they're not getting in the face of the police. The police so far are not getting

02:20:54.380 aggressive with them. I mean, you know, they're talking, they're working towards resolution.

02:20:58.620 But I mean, things are still at quite an impasse. And as the others have said in the interviews,

02:21:03.360 we don't quite know what's going to happen yet. So James has gone off a bit there. We're probably

02:21:09.960 going to move towards closing this up for the moment. I mean, we got so many viewers, but I

02:21:14.340 want to remind everybody that this is still ongoing. It's still breaking. James is still

02:21:18.520 down there he's going to be reporting on things uh yeah with the sound is difficult where you know

02:21:22.620 hey if you want to help us along subscribe at westernstandardonline.com membership our members

02:21:29.320 have been fantastic this is how we can get direct news you know some of the media has been portraying

02:21:32.940 these guys as violent or out of control they've got their own agenda we're just going to report

02:21:37.080 the news we get there in person we're an independent outlet and uh yeah as we get uh

02:21:42.100 more members we get more funds i know we've had some site problems today well we can fix those

02:21:46.420 things up. So we really appreciate that. And we'll get James a better microphone and definitely

02:21:51.060 some more woolly underwear to cover these cold events like that. So by all means, please

02:21:56.580 share the site, take out a membership for $10 a month. It's some of the best independent

02:22:01.020 news you're going to get. We don't take government funding, they aren't offering it.

02:22:07.260 Help us out. And we've got some great sponsors as well. So James, in closing, I'm going to wrap

02:22:11.380 it up. And I'm just reminding everybody to subscribe to all our social media channels,

02:22:16.020 because we don't know if anything is going to break james is going to jump in with the live feed

02:22:19.700 if you're subscribed on youtube or facebook or any of those or if you're watching our website

02:22:23.780 you'll see it pop up right when it pops up and we will cover it so make sure you do that if you

02:22:28.020 haven't already and uh james uh anything else you want to add before we uh close uh off this segment

02:22:33.060 to the coverage yeah sorry about that cory i uh popped back into my vehicle and obviously we're

02:22:39.620 working with cell phones and we're in an area with uh without excellent cell phone service

02:22:44.660 we don't have big expensive satellite trucks we don't have all of that fancy equipment

02:22:49.220 we got cell phones we got air pods and uh we're gonna do the best that we can with what we have

02:22:55.540 and uh and uh yeah i'm sorry that that that was uh that i connected there and you guys got that

02:23:00.900 bad echo but uh yeah no i i'm gonna be here uh i'm gonna stay here until the trucks leave

02:23:06.580 and uh we're gonna keep everybody updated uh they can follow me on twitter they can follow

02:23:11.780 the western standard on twitter uh subscribe to our facebook subscribe to the western standard

02:23:17.380 online uh mel and dave and the rest of the news team and uh corey and everybody back at the office

02:23:23.700 uh they're just a great support and uh yeah we'll uh we'll keep bringing bringing this story and

02:23:30.020 and we'll make sure that uh that we cover this great thanks james it's been fantastic work on

02:23:36.580 your part to let you recharge your phone and warm up and get ready for the next breaking news when it

02:23:40.580 happens. So as James said, you know, we're going to be on this as it comes out. So keep an eye on

02:23:46.460 us here, guys. It's obviously not finished and it's developing. Premier Kenny, it sounds like

02:23:51.080 he's put off his normal 3.30 conference to 4.30, probably because he needs to know what to say to

02:23:55.460 this because there's going to be questions coming about it. We'll see what he's got to say about it.

02:24:00.140 And thank all of you guys for tuning in. Keep an eye on things. We will break in as soon as

02:24:05.220 anything changes. James is staying down there for us and for you guys.

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Western Standard - February 01, 2022

LIVE： RCMP move into Coutts border blockade

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