Western Standard - Suspended Calgary cop breaks silence

00:00:00.000 Thank you.

00:00:30.000 Thank you.

00:01:00.000 Hi, my name is Brian Dennison.

00:01:21.580 I'm a Calgary police officer for the last 24 years.

00:01:24.720 and I am finding myself in a position now where I have to choose

00:01:32.420 between getting this miracle jab that the government is toting

00:01:38.960 or possibly lose my job.

00:01:44.340 Good afternoon. I'm Melanie Risden with the Western Standard.

00:01:47.860 That's Constable Brian Dennison from the Calgary Police Service,

00:01:51.560 a 24-year veteran who's now been put on leave because of his feelings around the policies

00:01:58.360 for the vaccine mandates that are coming down through CPS. Because he recorded that video,

00:02:03.240 he's also been charged with discreditable conduct. And this is the first time Constable Denison has

00:02:09.640 agreed to speak with media. And we're thankful he is joining us this afternoon to fill us in

00:02:14.680 on how things have been going and give us an idea of really his story.

00:02:19.480 thanks for joining us today constable denison and uh just fill us in how things have been going for

00:02:26.840 you for the last uh week or two uh things have been going good i've uh been overwhelmed with the

00:02:34.440 support that people have shown me from across calgary canada and actually the world so um

00:02:40.760 it's really good um i'm not uh here to um get people's support i'm here more to support people

00:02:48.120 and i want to be able to support people to be able to come out and to really be able to stand

00:02:53.880 up for their their freedoms and their rights in this world yeah interestingly uh it is

00:03:00.680 international human rights day so a good day to to have this conversation i would say um

00:03:08.600 what you've been dealing with over the last couple of weeks uh with your work with um being a a

00:03:15.480 police officer and you know opposing the mandated vaccines it's got to be quite difficult when

00:03:25.160 you're sort of you know a person of the law and working hard to to uphold the law but yet

00:03:32.920 feeling like this mandate is somehow you know against rights and against freedoms for Canadians

00:03:39.560 yeah it has been difficult for sure um you're kind of stuck in this um different world where

00:03:47.560 you're having to uphold the laws that um that the government has put into place well they're not

00:03:53.640 laws they're mandates and um even though you don't um feel that it's the the right thing to do

00:04:01.000 you're bound by uh being a police officer and the oath that you took however uh that oath that you

00:04:07.080 took is to uphold the law and if they're giving out unlawful orders those aren't things that

00:04:12.920 police officers should be upholding so i find myself in that position where i had to choose

00:04:19.320 between what i thought was right and i think that my stance is what is right in this world

00:04:25.880 were there many amongst you uh that you knew of on the force that felt the same and perhaps

00:04:31.880 you know gave gave in because they needed to keep their job or what was your what was the sense

00:04:38.580 around around those you worked with? There are many people that do not want to get the jab if

00:04:47.360 you want to call it that they don't want to have to have that to be part of their employment to

00:04:54.080 keep their job and I know of a lot of them within CPS that did not want to partake in that and

00:05:01.780 unfortunately, there's been so much push to get people to do it. And with that stuff held above

00:05:09.700 their heads about keeping a job, a lot of people did go out and get it and did comply with that.

00:05:16.840 And that's unfortunate that people did that. And it was not what their free will was telling them

00:05:22.320 to do. They did not want to do that. But they did it simply to keep their job.

00:05:26.360 Now you've been a police officer for 24 years.

00:05:30.800 I believe you were what, one year from, from retirement, right?

00:05:35.040 It's almost exactly one year.

00:05:37.400 It will be next year that I could retire with 25 years of service.

00:05:40.880 And tell me about your service.

00:05:43.240 What kinds of departments did you work in?

00:05:45.800 I know that you were in the hate crimes unit for, for some time.

00:05:49.640 Yes.

00:05:50.480 So I started out in a district three.

00:05:53.200 I worked there for approximately seven and a half years.

00:05:56.360 And then I went to District 4, and I worked there for a number of years as well.

00:06:01.840 Then I took on the hate crimes role, which I worked in for three years before returning back to the street again.

00:06:09.220 So my years of service on the street alone, just answering calls, is 21 years.

00:06:15.660 And then I worked for three years within hate crimes.

00:06:18.820 And so those 24 years, sum them up.

00:06:21.380 I'm assuming that this was a very rewarding job for you.

00:06:24.800 I wanted to be a police officer ever since I was in grade three and it took me until I was 34 years old to realize that dream.

00:06:32.580 So this is something that I have always wanted to do. And I've been passionate about doing this job.

00:06:39.120 I started when I was 34. I'm 58 now. So I've done most of my life being a police officer.

00:06:46.600 So it becomes part of who you are. And being a police officer has always been something that I took great pride in.

00:06:54.800 And it's always been something that I'm the person who wants to help somebody.

00:07:00.420 And when I can be of help, that's where I found a lot of my worth is being a police officer and being able to be there in those situations where people didn't know how to handle them or they needed someone to come and rescue them.

00:07:14.900 And that was very rewarding for me. I'm not a limelight kind of guy.

00:07:19.220 i would just i would go in and i would do my job and then i would change out of my job basically

00:07:25.700 hang up my job in my locker and then i'd go back to being just brian again

00:07:31.460 now i understand uh the latest i've heard is that internally you have been um charged with

00:07:38.740 discreditable conduct um how are things with that um yeah it's been insubordination and

00:07:47.060 discreditable conduct under the police act um and that is still ongoing um so there's not a whole

00:07:55.700 lot i can say about that i don't know what uh cps is actually um planning to do i'm just waiting to

00:08:02.340 hear what their next steps are and then i'll just move forward with that as it comes up explain to

00:08:09.940 me why you're making this stand why is it so important to you brian it's important because

00:08:18.660 uh it's the right thing to do seeing people and their rights and their freedoms taken away from

00:08:24.260 them over um a virus that has been proven to be well the evidence out there is great on on both

00:08:34.180 sides however if you take a look at it like a police officer does and you're looking at both

00:08:39.620 sides and you you take both sides of that information and you put it together and you

00:08:45.060 come up with that decision of exactly what's happening um there is a lot of talk out there

00:08:52.660 that um this is so survivable and to be able to take away people's freedoms over this and their

00:09:00.500 rights and then it is um a travesty to justice really it really is not what we should be doing

00:09:08.420 as a people uh we should be supporting each other we should not be dividing

00:09:14.580 what do you what do you foresee coming do you see it getting worse do you see it getting better

00:09:18.740 what what are your thoughts ah well i i see when i made that video it was back in september

00:09:27.460 and i saw it getting worse and um and and that's why i said come come christmas the world will be

00:09:33.780 ugly is kind of what i said i think and i i'm just seeing things that are happening in other

00:09:39.380 provinces around the world and it is getting worse um i know there's hope out there and i

00:09:45.300 know the more people that get together stand up and and actually um take back their freedoms

00:09:51.860 because they have been taken away from us they have been lessened those freedoms that we have

00:09:58.420 as canadians as citizens of the world other countries have all been taken back from us

00:10:04.420 we need to take those back from those that have done that right now this is the first time you

00:10:12.420 have spoken with media i'm i'm curious if you're willing to share what kind of a toll this has been

00:10:18.500 on you um you know uh again i'll i i'm not a limelight guy i i don't do many stand up in front

00:10:30.740 of people talking that's not who i really am um it has taken a toll on um my family um just by

00:10:39.140 having my name out there and uh that video that went viral which it was never intended to be but

00:10:45.140 but I'm glad it has because what it has done is it has provided support to other people

00:10:49.940 and helped people to come out and start speaking up for themselves.

00:10:55.680 Believe it or not, I've had more people reach out to me in support

00:11:01.120 than anybody reach out to me that I'm doing something that they don't believe is right.

00:11:06.840 So it has taken a toll just by it's kind of thrust me into the bit of the limelight

00:11:12.320 and I'm having to figure out where I land

00:11:15.780 and the lay of the land and exactly how I move forward.

00:11:20.100 But that's not going to deter me from continuing on with this.

00:11:25.360 Now, you know that we, as coverage,

00:11:29.060 we told your story and we shared your video

00:11:31.720 and I did indicate to you that we ended up getting banned

00:11:37.400 from YouTube for airing the video.

00:11:39.980 however they have reversed that decision and uh our video of your um your you talking from your

00:11:48.220 your cruiser uh is back up on our website and we have our full channel back again but that was

00:11:55.740 kind of an interesting turn of events uh you you know even just trying to cover um the story the

00:12:01.580 censorship is uh is incredible these days it is um i think that's part of the problem is that

00:12:09.340 things are so censored and the media is so filtered in what they're putting out to the

00:12:15.580 general public that they don't get the full picture and and that is the problem is that

00:12:22.620 regular people are only seeing one side of the equation they're not able to to see both sides

00:12:28.540 and if you were it would be as clear as day if the news media would actually report on everything

00:12:34.780 like yourselves uh then it's out there people can make up a properly informed decision yeah i've

00:12:42.140 i've actually followed some of the coverage from some of the mainstream media of your story and

00:12:48.380 it's unfortunate it's unfortunate that it feels as though you didn't get a fair shake to tell

00:12:54.540 your story so that's why we wanted to speak with you and uh you know hear from you and hear hear

00:13:00.380 your reasonings uh everybody's everybody has a why and we think that's an important that's

00:13:06.300 an important thing behind our decisions so um thank you for for sharing your story with us and

00:13:13.500 for um talking about this a bit further um what's next for you brian um well i'll wait and see what

00:13:21.180 cps has to um say about me um on sunday uh i'm gonna be speaking not a big speech just a little

00:13:29.820 speech at a place called uh okotoks it's called foothills freedom protest and i'll be one of the

00:13:37.420 speakers i guess and it'll be my not only with with you but it'll be my first appearance um of

00:13:43.580 helping others to um stand up for their freedoms right and you said that's this sunday in okotoks

00:13:50.140 at uh was it 1 pm okay now i just have a question too if if the cps comes back and and you know

00:14:00.860 allows you to continue to work do you do you have an interest in doing that or um i i do i i am a

00:14:08.460 police officer and i would do that job again um on the other hand uh i'm also i have a new role

00:14:18.380 it's almost like i've been put into a new role and i would also uh welcome that as well as a

00:14:23.580 challenge in my life and i would i would take that on as well and um so yeah maybe but we'll see um

00:14:31.900 which role has the biggest capture on my life and and how i want to proceed i think it's for

00:14:38.060 people's freedoms as far as i'm concerned well brian we hope you will stay in touch with us and

00:14:43.740 keep us abreast of what comes from the CPS and the decisions that are being made at this stage

00:14:49.660 for you. And again, thank you so much for taking the time and trusting that we would allow for

00:14:57.740 you to tell your story with us. Thank you, Melanie. I appreciate it.

Western Standard - December 11, 2021

Suspended Calgary cop breaks silence

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript