00:01:28.880My first guest today is going to be Marco Navarro-Gini. He's a political scientist and we are going to talk about the mess in Ottawa, the political situation, the emergency act.
00:01:38.140It's on again. It's off again. It's going to make it through the Senate. Jagmeet's an ally. Jagmeet's a putt. It's not looking good for him.
00:01:44.820So we're going to have some good discussion going on there. Western Standard columnist David Makachuk is going to come on.
00:01:50.480He talks and writes about our international issues in depth quite a bit.
00:01:54.180He's a very experienced journalist, and he's been talking to some of his colleagues or former colleagues in ABC and other broadcasters about, of course, the situation with Russia invading Ukraine right now.
00:07:12.680We need politicians standing and demanding action on these terrorists as vociferously as they did with the Ottawa protesters in their bouncy castles.
00:07:19.680So far, all we've heard were the usual short statements condemning violence and nothing more.
00:19:01.080Great. And, you know, just as I was talking to the guests about how you, or the viewers on how, you know, you've been an outspoken active political scientist on political circumstances for quite some years in Canada, and you've had a lot to say, and something we really need to break down is what the hell happened?
00:19:17.420What had gone on in this last five days where we went from suddenly having to turn the whole country upside down to ram this Emergencies Act through Parliament, only to find out that apparently we don't need it 48 hours later?
00:19:29.700It's the most bizarre thing that I've witnessed in a long time.
00:19:34.100I mean, if you backtrack a little more, you might remember that for the first few days,
00:19:38.140the prime minister seemed to have been hiding under his bed somewhere and invoking, since
00:19:44.200we're going to use that word a lot, that he had COVID and whatnot.
00:19:49.000And then so he went from totally hiding to then full on, there is an emergency, the world
00:19:55.320is coming to an end, we have to do this.
00:19:58.820And then, of course, finally getting some measure of approval on the floor of the House of Commons, which, by the way, in no way signifies that Parliament approved the Emergencies Act.
00:20:11.500It needs to go through the Senate to be fully approved.
00:20:16.520And then two days later, bang, we switch it off and everything should be back to normal, they claim.
00:20:23.980and they're making the claim that the opposition was making before,
00:20:27.660which was there is no need for the Emergencies Act.
00:20:30.640We can deal with all of this under existing legislation.
00:20:34.720Indeed, that's what happened in Coutts.
00:20:36.300That's what happened on the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor.
00:20:42.340So there really was no need for the Emergencies Act at all.
00:20:47.400Yeah, well, a couple of hours before Prime Minister Trudeau came out
00:20:52.280announced that they're going to get rid of the emergencies act uh one of the uh appointed uh
00:20:56.840liberal appointed i guess they're supposedly independent senators uh came out and said he was
00:21:00.680going to vote against the imposition of that act and the invocation of it i wonder if i mean we
00:21:05.640can only guess but maybe they're getting rumblings that this might not pass the senate and if that
00:21:09.400got shut down in the senate it would be quite an embarrassment for the prime minister yeah i i've
00:21:14.120heard about that of course our our brilliant uh senator uh from edmonton has already dismissed that
00:21:20.920Paula Simms and saying that there's there's no evidence. Of course there is no evidence,
00:21:26.520but the reality is this. The debate was going on in the Senate when the announcement was made.
00:21:35.720If the Prime Minister was fully confident that the debate in the Senate was going to go his way,
00:21:44.200he would have waited a few more hours, maybe an extra day to make the announcement,
00:21:50.360and that would have given him essentially more robust support for the for the move of the
00:21:56.760Emergencies Act. But the fact that they did not wait and could not wait, and you know as soon as
00:22:03.000the senator from Newfoundland was done, yeah an independent senator speaking on behalf of the
00:22:09.880government, that is so bizarre as well, got up and said that they were withdrawing the motion.
00:22:14.200So there may be some truth to the rumor that the prime minister was afraid of losing the vote in the Senate,
00:22:23.200which essentially means that a lot of these decisions that were made out of the PMO during this crisis were made out of fear and not necessarily out of a reasoned analysis.
00:22:34.200Yeah, they're always reactionary rather than planned, and this was clearly not planned.
00:22:38.200planned. I mean, as you said, liberal appointed senators, at least, were in the midst of preparing
00:22:43.960their speeches. They were getting ready to talk, and this rug got pulled out from them. They did
00:22:47.200not see this coming. I can't believe that the prime minister's office thought that morning that
00:22:50.880that's what they were going to do. Another thing that somebody, people speculated on, Bonnie Dermott,
00:22:55.660one of our commenters, it says, what about the bank run? And we've heard that perhaps there's
00:22:59.020a lot of pressure from banks and so on, because they're saying, you know, this is putting us a lot
00:23:03.500of instability into the economy and mistrust, because we don't know how long this is going to
00:23:07.040go on and this act empowers you to seize accounts. And they took him aside and had some solid
00:23:12.220discussions with him. I mean, it's only speculation, but that would have put pressure on him indeed.
00:23:17.400There is some truth to it. I mean, you know, sort of informally, we all have friends who were saying,
00:23:23.000I'm going to go to the bank and get my money out. I don't think that my friends are that peculiar
00:23:29.960that have no connection to the average Canadian. So there is some truth to that. The other part,1.00
00:23:36.620of course is, and I think I tweeted about this a few days earlier, that this whole thing brought
00:23:43.180together four institutions, private and public, who keep losing legitimacy and the trust of
00:23:51.000Canadians. You think about that. The government, the police, the banks, and the media all wrapped
00:24:00.360up into this into this Emergencies Act and the peddling of it and so you know it's a perfect
00:24:08.040recipe almost for for skepticism but also for the absence of legitimacy that essentially
00:24:15.480we also accompanying the the invocation of the of the act so a perfect stupid storm if you ask me
00:24:24.760yeah well and unfortunately stupidity is not in short supply in Ottawa quite often which
00:24:29.480I guess it adds to mistrust when people realize that those people, the amount of influence they
00:24:33.160have upon our lives. And somebody who also was a big loser in this was Jagmeet Singh. He was,
00:24:39.820as they were speaking, doing a media tour across the country. He was on a local radio station here
00:24:44.380and he was all over explaining why it was so important that he, you know, go against the
00:24:49.040Civil Liberties Association and other progressive organizations and support Trudeau in this
00:24:53.360emergencies act. And then all of a sudden he's hanging out there on his own because Justin just
00:24:57.880He said, no, we actually don't need that.
00:25:00.180There are so many wrong things that intersect here with Jagmeet Singh that we could talk about it.
00:25:09.460For starters, he's been accused of having some ties with terror groups abroad.
00:25:17.400So pointing the finger at a bunch of people because they were having parties, they were making noise.
00:25:24.400apparently the hot tubs seem to have offended the media so much, as well as the bouncy councils.
00:25:32.280It seems incongruent. But also, this is the NDP leader, the leader of the Labour Party of the
00:25:38.420country. If somebody should take the side of the average Canadian worker, should have been
00:25:45.100the NDP. And of course, there is a connection here, back to the last time we had war measures,
00:25:50.940because the man who literally strangled Pierre Laporte with his own hands
00:25:58.320was an FLQ terrorist, eventually went on to become an NDP car-carrying member
00:26:03.000and was nominated to run as a candidate in Quebec.
00:26:08.820So Singh and his connection to this goes sideways in so many ways.
00:26:16.220In the end, as you point out, he's kind of the patsy in all this.
00:26:20.540The prime minister roped him in to help him pass the legislation and then dropped him like a potato.
00:26:29.280And, I mean, the prime minister should be embarrassed about this, but Singh is probably one of the biggest losers.
00:26:35.740Yeah, I mean, as an individual, his own base, I'm sure many of them, you know, his own members of parliament held their nose and voted for that legislation on the guidance of Singh.
00:26:44.520And his own members, I'm sure, were squeamish and uncomfortable.
00:26:47.040And now to have sacrificed that much principle for a less than 48-hour imposition of that policy, they just look the fools.
00:26:55.760That has to hurt their entire caucus at this point.
00:26:58.620I mean, he's been sort of weak in leading the NDP anyways.
00:27:02.020I wonder if his leadership might not be at risk at this point.
00:27:05.020Well, there hasn't been a weaker NDP leader since probably Audrey McLaughlin.
00:27:12.020And that's going back ways when you and I were in high school probably.
00:27:16.040So, you know, we have to trek back that far.
00:27:21.060I think, you know, his leadership has been precarious for a long time.
00:27:26.320He was a pretty effective member of the Ontario legislature.
00:27:31.460But I think we have a case of a small fish in a big pond here.
00:27:38.060And over there, he was a big fish in a small pond.
00:27:41.000He has been completely, completely ineffective.
00:27:43.440And let's not forget that the NDP is an integrated party, provincial and federal.
00:27:50.820So what he does at the federal level also hurts the brand at the provincial level in places where the NDP is either a contender or in office.
00:28:04.640Yeah, I mean, by extension, this actually hurts Rachel Notley.
00:28:07.800You know, as the Emergencies Act in general in Alberta wasn't popular.
00:28:11.880And a lot of people don't realize it, but you can't buy a membership with the provincial NDP and not be a member of the federal.
00:28:16.860It is all one party, and you can't avoid that association.
00:28:20.200So that makes it very direct with the actions of the federal arm of it on the provincial leadership.
00:28:27.780So I suspect that Madam Notley is not going to want to talk about this.
00:28:33.440And if somebody brings it up, I would expect her to run in the opposite direction.
00:28:37.320you know something i was kind of confused with uh i gotta admit and i'm a political weenie but
00:28:42.260uh parliamentary procedure when it comes to a confidence vote i mean the government
00:28:45.940pointedly kept refusing to say whether it was going to be a confidence vote or not a confidence
00:28:51.320vote uh even when asked just before the vote though the i mean liberal members implied that
00:28:56.060they were told it was going to be a confidence vote i mean how does that work does the prime
00:28:59.560minister have to declare it at that time or can he retroactively say oh that was a confidence vote
00:29:04.720I don't quite understand how that worked.
00:29:07.160I think in the established tradition, all matters related to taxation are automatically confidence.
00:29:14.840But the prime minister in certain circumstances can declare certain votes so crucial to be matters of confidence.
00:29:21.940It's a way of threatening people, basically.
00:29:25.040And Jean Chrétien was probably, in recent memory, the most effective prime minister at doing this.
00:29:31.360He'd come up and say, do you want to go and face another election?
00:29:34.100and he'd line them up and right behind them and vote the way he wanted them.
00:29:39.080But to answer your question more directly, no, it cannot be done retroactively.
00:29:43.500It needs to be stated right before the vote.
00:29:49.220The fact that they left it until nearly minutes before the vote was taken
00:29:54.620tells you that there are some serious tensions inside that party.
00:30:00.500And the prime minister did not at all look comfortable or good, as good as he normally looks, making the announcement that he was rescinding the Emergencies Act.
00:30:14.420Well, there's definitely some cracks from within.
00:30:16.360I mean, we were seeing some outspoken members of parliament coming up and speaking about the prime minister's actions and policies even before the Emergencies Act thing came around.
00:30:23.880And, you know, the liberals usually run a pretty tight political ship.
00:30:50.040And it's not just once, but now twice or three times.
00:30:54.460And, you know, some people have said all kinds of things that she's on drugs or whatever, because, I mean, people who are on coke are kind of behave that way.
00:31:03.380I'm not saying that she is, by the way, and I'm not trying to start the rumor.
00:31:06.260But it's clearly a sign of some discomfort in what the prime minister is saying.
00:31:13.040right um and i'm no psychologist uh but uh but but there is evidence of you know that sort of
00:31:19.460behavior when people are struggling uh with the facts and inside their own conscience and and i
00:31:25.460suspect that that is perhaps a vestige uh of that yeah i mean it really was for those who uh you
00:31:31.080know the viewers who didn't see that with the press conferences two of them and and both times
00:31:34.520you put freeland right behind turdokas you're showing your senior members but she was fidgeting
00:31:38.940brushing with her hair and scratching. As an oilfield guy from the 90s, I did encounter
00:31:48.940cocaine once or twice. Thankfully, that's not something I ever got into
00:31:54.220in the long run or anything like that, but I've seen that behavior. Again, I wouldn't accuse her
00:31:58.060of that, but that's what the look was. That's somebody strung right up, whether it's nervous
00:32:02.380tension or too much coffee for all we know. Boy, that was bizarre to watch her in such a serious
00:32:08.140conference to be like that. And the pressure is that she must be under, right? I mean, let's face
00:32:12.440it, that there was a crisis in the national capital, a crisis which they were having
00:32:18.840significant trouble, and the potential for violence. And I mean, the media, the regular
00:32:25.760media always talked about the potential for violence as though it was going to come from
00:32:29.400the truckers. But the reality is the potential of violence was greater, as we essentially saw
00:32:35.040on camera on the side of the police. Those are weighty issues. Let's not forget that
00:32:41.280the Deputy Prime Minister also has Ukrainian roots and given what is going on in Ukraine,
00:32:48.160she must also be under significant pressures at the personal and also at the government level there.
00:32:53.840Yeah, to be fair to Freeland, there very much could have been concerns about other things,
00:32:57.840so we don't know what inspired her to be so wound up, but it is something.
00:33:02.320thing. And another aspect you kind of touched upon was their narrative was kind of falling apart
00:33:06.720with the big fight they had with the New York Times because the Times had reported that people
00:33:10.600were arrested at gunpoint and the establishment media came out and Gerald Butts came out and they
00:33:15.200were calling the Times reporters liars and getting in their face. And then it came out
00:33:19.860showing pictures. Well, here we are. People were arrested at gunpoint. So not only did it show that
00:33:24.920gross relationship between the legacy media and the prime minister's office because they were
00:33:30.460practically parroting his talking points for him. But they were wrong. And, you know, this is just
00:33:36.160the beginning of the crumbling of the whole thing. They're starting to look bad in hindsight on this.
00:33:39.820Yeah, well, I mean, you know, when you're a Canadian liberal and the New York Times picks a
00:33:44.900as well, was that the New York Times said that civil liberties were no longer guaranteed.
00:34:00.160And the liberals jumped up and down and said, you know, according to the legislation of the
00:34:04.620Emergencies Act is supposed to respect the Char of Rights. Supposed to, but no matter how much
00:34:10.420they say it, the reality is different. Seizing people's bank accounts without due process
00:34:16.260is not contemplating or respecting people's rights. Not to mention that, by the way, in the
00:34:23.920last two years since the COVID regime began, the chart of rights went out the window without much
00:34:30.160ado. No government or very few governments, if any, in Canada have been respecting the chart of
00:34:37.520rights in the last two years. And so to say that the Emergencies Act provides for the respect of
00:34:44.080the chart of rights, to me, that didn't give me any comfort whatsoever. So, and as you point out,
00:34:49.980turns out the New York Times was right. Yes. And I mean, the whole point of imposing the
00:34:55.060Emergencies Act is so you can suspend civil rights, if only for a temporary period in an
00:34:59.560emergency. So there's no getting around that definition of that's what they were going after.
00:35:03.840Well, thank you very much for joining me today to, you know, just discuss and shed a little more light on what's just such a bizarre event going on in Parliament during such crazy times.
00:36:12.700Yes, I know it's kind of a sad, I told you so that some people are able to say at this point as things fell apart, but it's worth reviewing because it'll still predict what may happen if we don't change our course.
00:36:22.800So thank you very much for joining me, Marco, and I hope we get the chance to talk again soon.
00:36:30.800So yes, HaltainResearch.org, guys, to find out more on what Marco is up to and his columns and everything are always fantastic.
00:36:38.560I'm going to get right to our next guest, speaking of fantastic columns, and that's Dave Makachuk, because we just have so much to cover, and Dave watches those international issues so closely, and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, of course, has got the whole world on edge.
00:36:52.120So let's bring Dave in and see what's going on.
00:37:01.020Right. Yeah. Well, and as Marco was kind of saying towards the end, you know, he wrote and predicted a lot of what was coming. We talked a few weeks ago and basically it was as much as the Russians even then were still saying, oh, it's just a training exercise. Everybody knew they're going to invade sometime probably shortly after the Olympics. And here we are.
00:37:18.020Exactly. I think with all the leaks from the CIA and the MI6, which kept us informed of what the Russians were doing all the way, I think they were totally right on.1.00
00:37:36.320They nailed it. They told us what was going to happen, and exactly what they said happened.0.98
00:37:41.540And they told us about the red flag, a method that Putin was going to use, and they told us about the build-ups on the border, about bringing in aircraft, about bringing troops into Belarus, about bringing ships into the Black Sea, which could land troops, and it was a fait accompli.
00:38:40.300And the only person who knows that is Putin.
00:38:44.520Yeah, well, they've now really passed a giant point of no return.
00:38:48.300Some people are still speculating, oh, he's just going to go into those areas
00:38:51.160where there were some secessionists that declared independence,
00:38:53.800but they've already been shelling, I believe, Kiev and moving out that way.
00:38:58.820I mean, some of it's strategic, but at the same time,
00:39:00.700I got a feeling he's not going to stop with just part of the country.
00:39:03.420Well, if you've, I mean, probably everybody, yourself, everybody's watching CNN, apparently 16 different regions or cities or bases, facilities, military facilities have been attacked.
00:39:20.380They started out with aircraft, airstrikes with helicopters and jet fighters.
00:39:28.300And they have advanced jet fighters. And then they brought in the tanks and the troop movements.
00:39:35.880And then they brought in their artillery. And then they brought in these really lethal, lethal weapons, these incendiary missiles.
00:39:49.500and these hyperbaric tipped missiles which uh cause tremendous collateral damage if they're
00:39:59.180you know the fact they're using these alone is a war crime on an innocent nation it just is beyond
00:40:07.740belief and there are those the the theory that i'm getting is that putin was around when the
00:40:15.660wall came down and that destroyed the old soviet union and the theory is he wants to revive it
00:40:25.500and bring it back and as zelensky the president of ukraine said what's next who's next
00:40:33.740will it be if i was if i was on the border of russia i'd be very worried
00:40:38.540But again, the U.S., the United Kingdom, other nations, including Canada, are all reacting to it, the whole world.
00:40:52.000Biden was just on TV saying that Putin will be a pariah.
00:40:56.400But we shall see if sanctions, if these sanctions are tough enough.
00:41:04.200And that's what is key here, because basically Biden is playing every card he's got. He's not a wartime president. He's not a Ronald Reagan. And as much as I love General Milley, who's a great chairman of the Joint Chiefs, I think he's a good man.
00:41:27.620and I think he has our backs on this, he's not a Curtis LeMay. And also times have changed.
00:41:39.720The West could very well be in decline. Yeah, well, and now getting back to our
00:41:45.960domestic response, and I mean, Trudeau is in a difficult position altogether. I mean,
00:41:51.460we're not a military power. We have some influence, but limited trade with Russia and
00:41:56.600the ukraine uh there's not too much pressure we can exert but still we we've got a large uh
00:42:02.920particularly in the west you know a population of ukrainian immigrants and descendants uh
00:42:07.720he wants to speak up on their behalf but what what can canada do or what should they do in
00:42:12.600in this circumstance well i'm glad you asked that that's a very good question i just did a piece on
00:42:17.640that uh a few days ago and i was a bit harsh on trudeau um i thought they could have done
00:42:23.960much, they could have been much, much tougher. As far as I'm concerned, some of those things
00:42:30.020that he announced should have been done already. And sending artillery troops in 30 days. In 30
00:42:37.420days, this thing will all be over. What's the point? And saying we support our NATO allies,
00:42:43.560that should have been done a month ago. And also, and I bring this up in my column,
00:42:49.220the Magnitsky laws, which we passed in 2017, could be easily enacted against Russians who
00:43:00.460have a connection to either war crimes or human rights abuses. We could have gone after these0.95
00:43:07.480guys a hundred times, and not a single thing was done. The foreign affairs people did nothing,
00:43:17.580And Trudeau did nothing. And we not a single person has been targeted by those Magnitsky laws, which are on the books. We can actually hurt them. But and there was a veiled reference to, well, we'll go after some of their people and some of their banks.
00:43:35.720nothing was named absolutely nothing was named which you know when you compare that with speeches
00:43:42.160from biden and especially boris johnson if you get a chance to watch the 10 minute speech given by
00:43:48.420boris johnson in the house in london it was absolutely churchillian it was amazing and he
00:43:55.560hit them so damn hard really hard and that's the way you deal with putin you hit him hard at the
00:44:03.120first go. And I think, I was really impressed by that. I think Trudeau could do a hell of a lot
00:44:10.780more. A hell of a lot more. And again, with our foreign affairs policy, it's been like this for
00:44:21.120years. We're soft on China. We're soft on Russia. We're soft on everybody. We talk a big game.
00:44:28.540but what do we do about it? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Those strong words from Trudeau meant
00:44:37.200zip. So I hope, okay, the second round of sanctions are much tougher.
00:44:44.280Yeah. And then beyond sanctions, we get into containment, I guess you could say. I mean,
00:44:49.900as you said, weeks from now, even if we send arms, it's going to be over as far as, I mean,0.76
00:44:54.280just such an overwhelming force coming into there with Russia. There's concerns, of course, is this
00:44:59.880expansionism going to keep going? So I imagine we're going to see a NATO build up in neighboring
00:45:04.200nations. I mean, that's some of the stuff that Canada contributes a degree to. And then we put
00:45:08.040some good feet on the ground in those exercises. But that just brings me back to the old days of
00:45:13.640building up a Cold War and having a border with people massed on each side. And wow,
00:45:18.040what a terrible time to go back to. Absolutely. And one of my good friends,
00:45:21.560his son is in Latvia and serving with Canada and serving valiantly, I might add. And, you know,
00:45:31.140we're all proud of them, absolutely, of those troops who are over there. They're doing their
00:45:35.200best and they're supporting NATO. But your question is actually very good. What do we do now
00:45:40.320looking down the road, okay? Because we all know Putin is going to sue for peace as soon as this
00:45:46.980is over. And he's going to sue for diplomacy. And he's going to try and calm everything down
00:45:53.540and get away with this. And we have to not let him do that. But to get back to your question,
00:46:01.980what do we do next? Well, there was a recent study by the RAND Corporation. I think it was just
00:46:10.320announced recently. And the RAND Corporation, the RAND organization, I should say,
00:46:14.800is actually helping the United States government through this current situation.
00:46:22.560And they said that, how do you contain Putin?
00:46:28.240But also, how do you not get the Russians upset?
00:46:41.680is move a whole bunch of NATO troops right to his border.
00:46:44.800Wrong, wrong, wrong, because that will just fuel the fire and give him reason to retaliate against those countries.
00:46:54.300So what they suggested, the RAND Corporation study, is that we place small batches of troop concentrations in these countries close enough to Russia, but not on their doorstep.
00:47:09.980Because that is just going to anger them and feed into Putin's future plans, which we don't really know what they are.
00:55:33.080And it seems like they just look to use these emergency powers to install this new monitoring system and penalty system.
00:55:42.300Well, yeah, it's pretty interesting. Yeah, a lot of fear.
00:55:46.180And there was a post from the the Ottawa police as well, saying that the majority of the response that they were looking for was actually through public relations and through communications in terms of altering behavior.
00:55:59.240And I would say that's a direct sort of link, causal link there between looking to incite fear among anyone who is considering protesting or supporting the protesters financially.
00:56:09.700And that seems to have been the major tactic there.
00:56:12.200So there will probably be some serious considerations legally as well to that.
00:56:16.980Yeah, and we have a commenter, as we see, we've got people who want to support, but they're not sure what to do.
00:56:21.020I see Elaine saying, you know, how do we support people charged who are in jail?
00:56:24.660Plus, they've had their finances and property seized.
00:56:26.620you know now they were fighting she says they were fighting for all of us and now they face
00:56:30.340consequences how do we help them and I mean I can't give really clear advice on it though as
00:56:35.000you mentioned the JCCF I mean that's John Carpe and the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms
00:56:39.760they're a registered charity your money can go there and help on the legal aspect of things
00:56:43.960they're working for free for those people who've been incarcerated and they got challenges out
00:56:47.640the Civil Liberties Association a very progressive organization but they understand the need for
00:56:53.660again, civil liberties, as is in their name, you can support them. So I mean, right now,
00:56:58.760yeah, avoid those fundraising sites, I'm afraid it looks like you're just gonna could end up
00:57:02.540getting in some personal difficulties if you try. But getting to those legal groups,
00:57:06.960if you really want to reach out and help that that could be ways that you may be able to do
00:57:10.060it. Or maybe they could counsel you on how you can help. Yeah, getting counsel from some of
00:57:15.260these legal organizations and lawyers who are involved, even just in terms of helping people
00:57:19.660understand what their rights are has been something that we've been trying to do if people are looking
00:57:24.380to support there are definitely some people who are still incarcerated and are looking for some
00:57:29.180financial support there was a black buffalo who was an east coast an east coast person of color
00:57:35.960who was arrested and it was kind of uh sort of obscured as to why he was arrested and is still
00:57:42.560in detention so there is um fun that's uh tommy uh you might be able to find um some help there
00:57:48.200if you'd like to contact us, we can get you in contact with the team who's looking to support
00:57:52.680the legal front for him there. And there's a number of other people as well. Again, support
00:57:59.640too, supporting all of these independent journalists who have taken it upon themselves
00:58:04.040to do these live streams, to put out commentary. They need support as well because, you know,
00:58:09.180our tax dollars currently are going towards what is pretty obviously corrupt and deceptive media,
00:58:13.960and people are craving these sort of unbiased
00:59:19.260One of the things that we have been working on the past couple of days here, and we're looking to get it out, hopefully tonight or tomorrow,
00:59:25.260is sort of a counter to the general argument that was put forward by the politicians and then supported through media and also propaganda
00:59:33.980And in terms of the main arguments for why this convoy was a bad thing and a dangerous thing, they were saying, of course, it's racist and misogynist.
00:59:42.540We've got dozens of reports from people and accounts from people saying, no, of course not.
00:59:48.560There are plenty of people from all sorts of backgrounds there who say, no, this is not the case.
00:59:53.140In terms of the violence and harassment, most of it has been hearsay.
00:59:56.540And we've got a number of accounts from people saying, no, this is actually the safest I've been.
01:00:00.040i'm a woman who's five feet tall and this is literally the safest i've ever felt at these
01:00:05.140protests here the the siege occupation sort of rhetoric um it it definitely looks and we've got
01:00:11.800a whole lot of footage that makes it look a lot more like a festival and say if you had have
01:00:15.900booked off wellington street for a festival it would have looked exactly like what this protest
01:00:22.300was they say it was inaccessible for people and business owners however the truckers made sure
01:00:27.480to coordinate with police to make sure all of the routes of access were there for emergency vehicles
01:00:32.120and also so that everyone could get into the businesses. They said the businesses were
01:00:36.440unaccessible. However, they sent out propagandized messages through unions, through the school board,
01:00:42.340through various other entities to fearmonger the people of Ottawa and make them think that it was
01:00:46.660unsafe to go downtown, which was obviously not true. And we've got footage of some of the businesses
01:00:52.160that were open and they were jam-packed with people who were ready to be purchasing for them.
01:00:57.480And one of the other big things was the desecration. They kept talking about this desecration. And we've got all sorts of footage, and you may have seen it as well, of the veterans coming together, taking down this fence and saying, no, there's no desecration. There are people here protecting these monuments and people looking to maintain their capacity to go and show their respect.
01:01:18.240and um and then um of course they they kept saying oh the kids they're using kids as human
01:01:24.220shields and we return back to this concept of no it's a festival people want their kids to be
01:01:29.320present in what was a very loving and compassionate setting wherein there was a lot of fun activities
01:01:36.440for them to participate in and you could see joy on all their faces and definitely no fear
01:01:40.980even up and up to the actual police activity remember in the middle right in front of capitol
01:01:47.420hill uh wellington and metcalf that was um still going on as a dance party and a party of course
01:01:53.900at that time the kids had been leaving but it was still very high spirits in that in that place as
01:01:59.660the police were coming in with the tear gas and the the automatic weapons and things like that
01:02:04.380and breaking into vehicles to arrest people so that video we hopefully will have out within today
01:02:09.900or tomorrow just as a pure refutation of this propagandized rhetoric to de-legitimize and you
01:02:18.380know maybe even arguably dehumanize these protesters and the um the techniques that were
01:02:23.900used are similar to some of the other un nations when they had protests as well so it's pretty
01:02:28.780interesting yeah well and citizens on the ground have been more important than ever like i i watched
01:02:33.740you know i think one of the most important clips we saw through this whole thing was a short clip
01:02:38.220that somebody with their camera phone took back when that one clown on the very first day of
01:02:42.620protest was walking around with a confederate flag amongst them and he was all masked up and
01:02:46.860he was waving it and the fellow protesters said hey get out of here i don't know who you are i
01:02:51.820don't know what you think you're representing this flag is is inappropriate for what we're doing it's
01:02:55.980a distraction leave our midst right now and and he did because of course they made him feel very
01:03:01.020unwelcome i don't even want to go into speculation on why he was there with that flag but the bottom
01:03:05.900line was if we never saw that clip those who were opposing it and trying to keep that narrative going
01:03:10.780would have said oh look at that this guy was waving that flag and he was a part of the crowd
01:03:14.780he was welcomed by him and uh that was anything but the case and it's just very important to get
01:03:19.660that different perspective out there and if it wasn't for one person with a camera while that
01:03:23.260guy was chased off we never would have seen that perspective even myself i wouldn't know well maybe
01:03:27.340they did let that idiot wave that thing around there and it didn't happen the other uh interesting
01:03:33.020thing is um i mean the the other big incident that was being toted just consistently and i would say
01:03:39.180belligerently by the politicians in the media was oh there was a nazi flag there and we have an
01:03:43.980account a direct account that we're going to include in this video as well of a person of
01:03:48.460color saying no this this guy was there and it was a satirical waving of the flag saying is this what
01:03:53.180you want now whether that was in poor taste or not um and of course yeah you see the don't you see the
01:03:59.100the uh anti-trudeau the canadian flag and the don't tread on me um he the this man was saying
01:04:04.700yes we went up to him and he was saying no this is a this is a tyracle representation of the
01:04:08.940direction that canada is going in uh we were also doing a live stream wherein we showed black
01:04:15.020buffalo's vehicle in the middle uh right at metcalf in wellington where he had the don't tread on me
01:04:19.660flag direct directly on his car and um the people in the live stream started going oh look there's
01:04:25.660the white supremacist there's the white supremacist and we just went over to black buffalo and said
01:04:29.340um there's some people in the live stream who are saying that this is a white supremacist symbol and
01:04:33.020he went on to explain no this is not this is a general symbol of the you know the sovereignty
01:04:38.060and the rights of everyone to be able to defend and protect themselves yeah it's a it's a libertarian
01:04:43.020call but we saw how ridiculous and idiotic some of the messaging was you know when they're starting
01:04:47.020to say hong kong is actually code for hill hitler come on you guys that was the most ridiculous yeah
01:04:51.980Boy, I mean, if you're really modeling your policy based on 4chan, you're in a sad place.
01:04:56.600And that was a member of parliament was one of them even did that, which, again, I mean, I keep circling back to that.
01:05:02.280Getting there in person, cutting through it is critical.0.97
01:05:06.660And I mean, I think there's no circumstance where a swastika is welcome in the modern world.0.62
01:05:11.820If you're going to do it as a parody, you've got to make that very, very clear in advance because it's offensive and it's a repugnant symbol of a time of one of the worst periods.
01:05:21.980of human history we've ever seen so I mean whoever and whatever the motivation was again the main
01:05:26.940thing was it didn't reflect the people in the protest as much as Trudeau tried to make it out
01:05:31.820to be and some of the complicit you know complicit media. Yeah one of the most disappointing aspects
01:05:38.700of uh because we were following the house of commons in the senate one of the most disappointing
01:05:42.540aspects in the house of commons is of course how an emergency act and this is sort of a testament
01:05:47.340to the place that we are in as a country in an ideological front, the Emergencies Act was voted
01:05:52.780on ideological and party lines, which is just a very disturbing concept. And then even in the
01:05:59.180Senate, there was a lot of the partisan ideological rhetoric that was being toted there. Some people
01:06:04.920were trying veiled responses to show restriction in terms of the independent senators group and
01:06:11.140things like that. But there were a number of them who got right back into this mainstream political
01:06:16.500rhetoric that is saying, no, these guys are bad and we should never accept them. And, you know,
01:06:20.880there are definitely rights for people to be protesting, but this was not a peaceful protest.
01:06:26.260And you can hear that exact line reiterated by about 50 different people in the House saying,
01:06:32.880no, this is not a peaceful protest. So that level of deception and proper propagandized
01:06:38.980weaponization of public messaging is certainly, certainly a major, major concern for Canadians.
01:06:45.900And we're seeing a big shift away from the mainstream media.
01:06:50.740Even in the past few months, I've noticed that the, you know, CBC and Global, maybe the majority of their viewers are actually hate viewers watching it going, what are you doing?
01:07:01.480So we can probably hope that people start to see the lies through that as well.
01:07:07.100And, you know, there's a number of actions that the government could take that I assume they did not because it would inherently red pill anyone associated with it.
01:07:17.040Imagine if they did go through with all these financial penalties in all sorts of ridiculous ways.
01:07:21.280And then they go and mention to someone who's still, you know, going with the narrative and they say, look, I donated a little bit of money because I wanted to support.
01:07:28.360Now my finances are frozen. You know, that's basically going to be red pilling people.
01:07:32.180So that's where it was more of a fear tactic. And I think that we should not drop the fact that our government used a fear tactic and violence to try to quell what was a peaceful protest. And that's very much unprecedented.
01:07:46.380Yeah, and a lot of people lost faith in a lot of things, media and our government system.
01:07:50.820I mean, one of the things that disappointed me, though, I wasn't surprised by it.
01:07:53.580I was just as disappointed to see every Conservative member of Parliament vote exactly the same way as I was to see every Liberal member of Parliament vote exactly the same way.
01:08:01.120If the system is supposed to work the way it's supposed to work, we should have seen some crossing their own party lines because they would say,
01:08:07.540I'm here to speak for my constituents and my constituents support the Emergencies Act or my constituents oppose the Emergencies Act.
01:08:14.760I can respect them standing on that. And not a one of them, NDP, Conservative, or Liberal did that. They all voted as they were told by their leadership. And that is not a functional form of party representative democracy. And, you know, it's an indication that Canada's system is broken.
01:08:30.860yeah definitely the other thing that was extremely concerning as we were watching
01:08:36.460the house of commons is that there were three significant places wherein um who was speaking
01:08:41.980and there was a two separate conservatives and one liberal actually who were shut off as they
01:08:47.580were beginning to ask the question one of them was the world economic forum question which has got i
01:08:52.700think 600 700 000 views on on youtube at this point in time where someone was asking the world
01:08:58.540economic forum question who in our parliament is in support of this and they said oh no this is
01:09:03.100misinformation there was a liberal mp turnbull who was asking about the representation in the
01:09:09.260media saying this you know i'm kind of concerned because what i'm seeing on the ground and what
01:09:13.360i'm seeing in the media is not the same and he was shut down as well and then at the end right after
01:09:19.280they voted in the emergencies act there was of course where candace bergen came out and wanted
01:09:23.560to revoke it and had the signatures ready. And they just, it was one of the most disgraceful
01:09:28.680things I've ever seen in the House of Commons where they shut her down and laughed and made
01:09:32.380fun of her. And of course, Antony Rhoda went along with it the whole time as he did with some
01:09:36.860of the other censorship as well. I know it was a terrible and ugly display. So before I let you go
01:09:43.240then, what are you going to be doing in the next coming days and covering? And of course, where
01:09:46.900can people, I see in the comment scroll, somebody posted from your channel there and where else
01:09:54.940So we will be having, we have a big TikTok following at this point.
01:09:59.320So we're going to continue live streaming there.
01:10:01.740We also have, like I said, a network of independent journalists.
01:10:04.880And we were considering staying in Ottawa to consider what the protests were going to be looking like.
01:10:10.020However, we have someone who will be here doing the live stream.
01:10:12.860And we were considering going back to Toronto.
01:10:15.260One of our other correspondents is in Calgary, perhaps even in Winnipeg for covering those.
01:10:21.080And on our YouTube channel, which is Indie News Now, we are looking to have a multi-stream of all of the protests that are happening at the same time.
01:10:28.840Because even last weekend, Toronto had 30,000 people.