369. Truckers on the Frontlines of Freedom | Tamara Lich and Tammy Peterson

[0] Hello everyone watching and listening.

[1] I'm co -hosting this podcast today with my wife, Tammy Peterson.

[2] We had Tamara Leach, our guest over for dinner last night, and that went very well.

[3] We thought it would be useful to have both of us talk to her today.

[4] Tamara Leach explains her roles in the yellow vest -like rallies that occurred in Canada, in the trucker convoy, her role in Wex at a Western Canadian Independence Party, and, as I said, recently, her leadership in the internationally recognized trucker freedom convoy.

[5] We discussed the current state of Canada, the current dismal state under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

[6] The tyranny he unleashed during the COVID pandemic, why so many patriotic Canadians are fed up and the unprecedented punishment that's been unleashed upon those who, like tomorrow, were daring enough to criticize their own leaders.

[7] Yeah.

[8] Oh, Canada, indeed.

[9] Looking forward to talking to her.

[10] Tomorrow, maybe we'll start, maybe you can let people know a little bit about you.

[11] You said last night that you're from Saskatchewan.

[12] She should probably explain what the hell Saskatchewan is to everybody listening to begin with.

[13] And then you move to Alberta.

[14] Why don't you just walk through where you came from?

[15] You worked for the oil in the oil gas field, too, which is, or not.

[16] no oil and gas industry, which is relevant, so you want to fill people in?

[17] I was born and raised in Saskatchewan, and I lived in Saskatchewan until about 1998, and then we moved to Medicine Hat because of the Alberta advantage at that time.

[18] We had really low energy prices there, and a lot of people, a lot of Saskatchewan people ended up in Alberta.

[19] And predominantly, I worked in the energy sector there, in logistics and organization and administration, which is basically how I got involved in this because that was my skill set.

[20] So I offered my services.

[21] So what exactly were you doing?

[22] You worked in logistics and administration.

[23] So what were you doing in the oil patch?

[24] And you said also you were mostly working with men.

[25] What skill set did you develop?

[26] I discovered I was really good at organizing.

[27] I looked after frat crews.

[28] I organized the frat crews and our fracturing jobs.

[29] And so I was responsible for, for finding the equipment, organizing the chemicals, the sand.

[30] I dealt with the salespeople in Calgary and, of course, our managers and stuff.

[31] And I discovered that I was really good at putting all these pieces together in very tight timelines.

[32] Helping the patriarch who destroyed the planet.

[33] Yes, that's right.

[34] And really, really, you know, tight deadlines and such.

[35] So, and I reveled in it, and I was really good at it.

[36] So I was, you know, growing up and not really knowing what my place was, of course, you know, trying to find your spot in the world.

[37] And when I started doing that, I just found it so fulfilling and I really loved it.

[38] What did you like about it?

[39] The challenge.

[40] Yeah, it was a challenge.

[41] At that time, you know, we didn't always have, we were just a small base in Medicine Hat, so we had to always find equipment from our larger bases in Red Deer and Grand Prairie and stuff like that.

[42] So it was just fun.

[43] It was like putting the pieces of a puzzle together, but it had to be done.

[44] And then, of course, dealing with a lot of, well, even at that time, you're talking the late 90s and the early 2000s, there was still a lot of consultants in the oil patch that didn't like dealing with women.

[45] And so that was also quite fun.

[46] But, yeah, it was something I discovered I was really good at, and I enjoyed it, and yeah.

[47] When did you start taking an interest in political matters and why?

[48] that actually started with my former husband so when I met this the him he always had his nose in a newspaper and at that time i mean i was in my early 20s i wasn't really interested in in politics for sure and then i started reading the newspaper the national post was the one that we subscribed to and i started really loosely following uh reporters like uh don martin christie blatchford of course rex murphy and I just started really paying attention to what was going on and it was when the sponsorship scandal hit that I thought what is going on here?

[49] Like there was no accountability they were just spending taxpayers' money and then I started checking into question period and that baffled me also because I thought these people are just, it's theatrics it's like watching a soap opera and for me I would rather turn on question period and see two sides the house sitting at a table working together to try and fix our problems than just this soap opera theatrics that I was witnessing.

[50] And so that's kind of what led into my interest in politics.

[51] And that was when?

[52] That would have been in the late 90s, early 2000s.

[53] Yeah.

[54] So it's about 20 years ago.

[55] Yeah.

[56] So I really just kind of started following it around then.

[57] And I just couldn't understand why none of these politicians were being held accountable for their actions.

[58] And I mean, And that was already 20 years ago, and it's gotten much, much worse.

[59] Back when they were accountable.

[60] That's right, when they were supposed to be.

[61] I mean, I remember, you know, somebody losing their job over a $12 glass of orange juice, and now we have a prime minister that can just do whatever he wants, and there's no account.

[62] Like, there used to be some integrity, a little bit of integrity.

[63] Well, he's figured out this interesting trick where if you have one scandal, the way you deal with it is just to produce another and overlay it on top of the previous scandal, he seems to be able to confuse people constantly with a never -ending stream.

[64] string of increasingly dire scandals.

[65] And, well, I don't understand it, that's for sure, but here we are.

[66] Now, you said, when we were talking last night, you said, too, that you also started to detect, and I don't know when this was, a certain amount of desperation on the political front in the oil patch because of increasingly draconian federal policy.

[67] So in Canada, for those of you who are watching and listening, the provinces in the west of Canada are pretty heavily resource -based, and Canada's a resource -based.

[68] based economy still in many ways.

[69] And our federal government seems to have adopted a globalist agenda, I think that's fair to say, and believe that human beings, especially those in Western Canada, are doing nothing but raping poor Mother Earth constantly.

[70] And so they produce legislation in a never -ending string to do nothing but devastate the economies of the West.

[71] And of course, well, they're saving the planet.

[72] And Tamara started to see some of that, or not saving the planet, which is really the truth.

[73] And tomorrow started it to see the manifestations of that directly in the people that you were working with.

[74] So you want to explain that a little bit?

[75] Yes, I did.

[76] So they brought in the legislation, and I want to say it was around 2018 -19.

[77] They passed the bill C -69 and C -48.

[78] So Bill C -69 is been nicknamed the No More Pipelines Bill.

[79] And basically what they've done is they've made it virtually impossible and definitely not feasible for anyone to lay a pipeline with all their environmental, this and And of course, then they added the gender thing.

[80] It had to, you know, fit into their, whatever, it was nonsense.

[81] And, of course, Bill C -48, which was the No More Tank.

[82] Well, basically, it was a ban on Alberta oil tankers leaving the B .C. coast.

[83] Right.

[84] All the other tankers, ferries, cruise ships are okay, just not if it's carrying any oil from Alberta.

[85] And what that did was it hurt a lot of families, people that I knew.

[86] that I cared about were losing their jobs and couldn't find jobs.

[87] And the situation I specifically referred to last night, because I'll never forget it, was a grown man, and this happened frequently, but he's the one that broke down, but, you know, a grown man coming into my office two weeks before Christmas because he just lost his job and begging me for a job with tears in his eyes, you know, please take my resume.

[88] And it was heartbreaking and devastating.

[89] And for what?

[90] I mean, I worked in that industry.

[91] I understand the process.

[92] I mean, Canadian energy is the most environmentally friendly and efficient way to extract our resources than anywhere on the planet.

[93] And we should be screaming that from the rooftops.

[94] But again, you know, we're made to feel ashamed and like our oil is dirty.

[95] And I was dumbfounded.

[96] Yeah, well, the question is, dirty compared to what?

[97] Dirty compared to Middle Eastern tyrant oil?

[98] Or dirty compared to Russian?

[99] oil, for example, in oil and gas.

[100] It's like, and the same thing applies on the pipeline front and the tanker front too.

[101] So Alberta still moves its oil and gas around, oil in particular, it does that on rail cars, which is a very inefficient way of doing.

[102] It's also very dangerous because it passes through cities, and we've had the odd catastrophe in Canada as a consequence of that.

[103] And so, yeah, and what the Trudeau government has done has made pipeline development so prohibitively expensive that no corporation, it's right mind would take a risk on it.

[104] And I don't know how long that will propagate out into the future because the corporations have learned that the Canadian government is an unreliable partner.

[105] And these are long -term projects.

[106] And so that's a catastrophe.

[107] And this is a big deal for the rest of the world.

[108] You know, the German chancellor came to Canada last year.

[109] And so did the Japanese prime minister, basically cap in hand.

[110] And the German chancellor was a socialist, by the way, which is sort of relevant in this context.

[111] Desperate enough, nonetheless, to go come and talk to his socialist buddy Trudeau and ask, and really ask and really beg in some ways for Canada to open up its vast natural gas resources to the European Union and aid our great allies, you know, and our partners in freedom, let's say.

[112] And Trudeau said, I can't make a business case for that, which basically meant we've produced legislation in Canada that's crippled our industry so badly that no one could possibly make a business case for anything because of the red tape an idiocy that was put in there purposefully, although also ineptly, just so the feds could virtue signal about destroying the economy to save the planet.

[113] And then the Japanese prime minister showed up a couple of months later and asked for the same thing and got exactly the same response.

[114] And so instead of Canada benefiting from the billions of dollars that the Europeans and the Japanese could spend while we were supporting our allies, Japan who's threatened by China and obviously the European Union who's threatened by Russia, we left them to the tender mercies of our apparent enemies, because Canada, as opposed to what Russia is doing in Ukraine, for example, and we forfeited that immense economic benefit that Canadians could have accrued.

[115] It could hardly be stupider.

[116] And so you were seeing this play out in real time in Alberta.

[117] Yes, I was.

[118] And at that time, I started joining, I found a local group in town that was doing rallies every weekend, and so I joined that group.

[119] and I started going to these rallies and we would basically stand outside of a Tim Hortons and hold signs and wave at people as they drove by.

[120] And then I became an organizer for those two, so I set up their social media, which would later come into play in a bigger context and organizing these rallies.

[121] And we did that for quite a while, but nothing was changing.

[122] What was the group?

[123] Well, we actually started off mimicking the Yellow Vest movement in France.

[124] which was really my first experience dealing with the mainstream media calling us a bunch of racists and white supremacists and this and that.

[125] You know, white supremacy, that's a big thing in Alberta.

[126] I mean, I know I lived there and they're just white supremacists everywhere.

[127] I know, it's terrible.

[128] It's absolutely terrible.

[129] Bingo balls in their windows.

[130] Yeah, yeah.

[131] Those you've got to watch for them.

[132] All those rednecks and their white supremacy.

[133] Yes.

[134] So I became active in that way.

[135] And through that process, I met Peter Downing, who at that point was starting the Wexit movement, which was a play on the whole Brexit U .K. movement.

[136] And then in 2019, when Trudeau won that election, I contacted Peter and I said, I'm yours.

[137] I will organize events or whatever you need in southeastern Alberta.

[138] And that was Peter.

[139] Downing was his name.

[140] He had started a – he had actually started a big billboard campaign in Edmonton.

[141] is about these bills that they were passing.

[142] Well, because Alberta is largely an energy resource -dependent province.

[143] And so when you start crippling that, I mean, you're not just talking about the guys that are drilling wells, you're talking about all the service industries or the communities that depended on all those toxic masculine males coming into their communities to spend their money, you know?

[144] Well, in Canada, people need to know this too.

[145] So Alberta is a landlocked province, so it's hard for Alberta to get its resources out into the world unless the rest of Canada cooperates.

[146] And on the west, Alberta is bordered by British Columbia, and the British Columbians often like to style themselves environmental socialists.

[147] And so they like to block Alberta oil, and that's a big problem.

[148] And then, but also rather perversely, because of the way Canada is set up, the provinces to equalize economic opportunities across Canada, hypothetically, we have this system called equalization payment and that means the richer areas of the country essentially send excess tax money to poorer areas and so as a consequence Alberta, which has a very small population, about two million people, has heavily subsidized Quebec for decades, billions and billions of dollars and the Quebec government in particular, although many of the Quebecois themselves, also style themselves, saviors of the planet and are opposed to Alberta energy and its development, despite the fact that their economy is dependent in no small part on these transfer payments.

[149] So they get to have all the money and also all the moral virtue, which is a hell of a good deal.

[150] And they have all the coastline heading over to Europe, right?

[151] Yeah, well, that's right.

[152] So they're rich in that way.

[153] They have coastline.

[154] Yeah, well, they also, Quebec also has no shortage of natural gas itself, although they put a moratorium on its development.

[155] There's enough natural gas in Quebec to service Quebec.

[156] which, by the way, imports natural gas from the United States to service Quebec for 200 years and the European Union for 50 years.

[157] And the Quebec government has put a moratorium on its development for reasons completely unknown and crippled the people who bought land in Quebec with the intent purpose of developing the natural gas resources there when the government told them that that's what they wanted to do.

[158] And so, and that's a story that hasn't broken in the Canadian legacy media because the people who had their property essentially confiscated.

[159] this is like one of the biggest scandals I've ever heard of in Canadian history and no one knows about it, had their property confiscated, can't even get the legacy media interested enough to do a story on it.

[160] It's just beyond comprehension.

[161] So we have a very adled adult country at the moment.

[162] All right, so you started getting involved politically with Wexit, for example, and working on the idea that Alberta and the West at least had to put pressure on Central Canada, letting them know that we're dead serious about not having the federal government for the second time demolish Alberta's economy, because for all of you who are watching, listening, when Justin Trudeau, Trudeau's father was Prime Minister back in the 1980s, he rammed through a policy called the National Energy Policy, which devastated the Alberta economy for about 15 years.

[163] Broke our banks.

[164] Yeah, broke our banks.

[165] My parents lost their pension funds, and the whole Teachers Union lost its pension funds.

[166] I think 13 Canadian banks went bankrupt at that time, which was the first time in Canadian history that anything like that had happened.

[167] who'd saved money, they lost it.

[168] Yeah, yeah.

[169] So the West has been screwed by Trudeau's before, and now we're living through that again.

[170] And so there is agitation in the West to put pressure on the central government, and some of that pressure involves the threat of potential secession, although I think that's very unlikely.

[171] I know that Daniel Smith in Alberta and Scott Moe in Saskatchewan and the Premier of Manitoba have now put together a consortium to try to develop a port in James Bay, which is pretty damn awkward because you have to go through the Arctic ice in a desperate bid to try to get Western resources out to the rest of the world.

[172] So we're basically at economic war in our own damn country, you know, while we fiddle around not saving the planet instead of cooperating together to make everybody in Canada as rich as Norwegians, which is exactly what we should be aiming at and could have done decades ago if we weren't so damn stupid.

[173] But so stupid, blind, what would you say, moral, moral, falsely moral, virtue signaling, right?

[174] Yeah, pretty damn pathetic.

[175] Yes.

[176] So, all right.

[177] So you were working with Wexit, and that was in 2000.

[178] That was after the 2019 election.

[179] And so I joined the board of directors for two.

[180] We had Wex at Alberta.

[181] So what happened was there was a Wexit, B .C., Wexit, Alberta, Wexit, Saskatchewan, and Wexit, Manitoba.

[182] and those were the provincial arms, and then Wex at Canada, which we turned into the Maverick Party, which was a federal Western Independence Party so that we could start fighting for more rights, right, and for more control over the West.

[183] Yeah, more to be just left to hell alone.

[184] In Canada, people need to know this too.

[185] Resource development is a provincial matter, not a federal matter.

[186] The federal government actually has no constitutional rights, to be interfering in this regard whatsoever.

[187] And so it's a real encroachment on, because Canada was set up as a true subsidiary organization with each level of government having its requisite responsibility.

[188] And the responsibility of the federal government's government was actually quite limited, and it didn't extend to resource development.

[189] And so there is no excuse for the feds to continually encroach on resource development territory.

[190] And there's another aspect of Canada, that people might find interesting insofar as Canada is the least bit interesting, and that is that the West in Canada was only settled about 120 years ago, and it's always suffered from, I suppose, what would you say, a quasi -colonial relationship with the powers that be in Eastern Canada, and there are no shortage of Eastern Canadians who still think of the country that way, that everybody in the West is a bunch rednecks, which is probably true, but rednecks have their advantages, and that they should really be told how to live properly by those who know better.

[191] It's certainly the case that there's a coterie of Eastern Canadians and there has been for a long time who truly do believe, like the bloody W .E .F, that they know how to live better and are perfectly willing to impose that viewpoint on the rest of the country and the world.

[192] So you're part of the battle against that, and that's going on fairly intently in Western Canada for a long period of time.

[193] It's thrown up all sorts of rebellious political parties over the last 100 -year period, some successful and some not.

[194] Yes.

[195] All right, so you cut your teeth on the political front with the exit movement.

[196] What do you learn from that?

[197] I learned a ton of that from that.

[198] I learned, of course, being on that board, we created a federal party from nothing.

[199] So I learned about, you know, creating the EDAs and the importance of having committees and delegating and being organized.

[200] I mean, that was a massive, massive, Jeff.

[201] Yeah, electoral districts.

[202] Yeah, writings, basically, setting up candidates and writings and stuff like that.

[203] And I met a lot of really good people.

[204] I mean, there's so many great people in Western Canada that are very concerned about what's happening to them, you know.

[205] So that was a massive experience for me. And I got to work with Jay Hill, who was a whip for the Conservative Party four times.

[206] And he was our leader.

[207] And I learned a lot from both him and his wife also.

[208] I mean, we just had such an amazing team.

[209] And again, that would come in handy later.

[210] Right.

[211] So you're expanding your logistics ability as you're doing this.

[212] Yes.

[213] So it's interesting.

[214] You know, you did what people should do in their life as far as I'm concerned, which is you established a local base of competence.

[215] So, well, partly within your family and then within the industry you were working at, you learned how to organize.

[216] And then you noticed that maybe you had a political responsibility, which everyone does because otherwise the tyrants have it, and that's bloody well worth knowing.

[217] And so you decided to step forward into the political realm and started, well, you learn by doing.

[218] Yes.

[219] And you started working, you know, you're tilting at windmills fundamentally if you're trying to produce a Western separatist party because the probability that's going to fly is pretty low, which doesn't mean it isn't necessary.

[220] Right.

[221] But you learn a lot as you go along, being a fool and stumbling forward.

[222] And so you're doing that and expanding your logistics capability as well.

[223] Yes, in a different realm.

[224] And that was one of the first speeches.

[225] asked to give a speech at one of the first rallies that I attended back when we were doing the yellow vest rallies.

[226] And I didn't really know what I was going to speak about.

[227] I'm not an orator.

[228] I'm not a public speaker.

[229] But what struck me the most was I thought, like, I'm sorry.

[230] And that's what I wrote about.

[231] I'm sorry.

[232] Like, I thought somebody else was going to come and fix the problem.

[233] So I didn't worry about it.

[234] I thought a politician, a businessman, somebody with some level of, you know, clout would step up and solve the problem and say something and it wasn't happening and it wasn't happening.

[235] So the first speech that I gave was like that and I ended it was like, I am somebody else and you are somebody else and you are somebody else.

[236] You know, we can't sit around here and wait for...

[237] It's up to me too.

[238] It's up to all of us.

[239] And you're doing your part and we're listening to your story.

[240] People got to listen and know they have it in them.

[241] Yeah, well, what have you learned on that front.

[242] I mean, you, you were very skeptical about any sort of political organization.

[243] I got jaded young.

[244] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[245] So, but...

[246] I gave up young.

[247] I thought, oh, you know, I can, I don't need to be a part of this.

[248] Something happened when I was young, like a political sword when I was like 17, local politics made me jaded.

[249] And I thought, okay, that's enough of that.

[250] Well, you tell that story a little bit.

[251] Oh, I was the supervisor for a swimming pool in our little town in northern Alberta.

[252] And it had been built in 67 because they built pools all over Canada in 67.

[253] And it was a bit deep.

[254] So when the kids came from school, they were six.

[255] They weren't quite tall enough to be in that water.

[256] And I'd roped it off so there were three sections.

[257] But when the kids got in, I could see, even though there were teachers in the water, I'd say, that one's underwater, pull that one out.

[258] That one's underwater, pull that one out.

[259] So after it was over, I said to the board, the town board, I'm going to ask for a parent to come in for every 10 kids from now on because it's not safe.

[260] And I can't, well, we don't want to do this.

[261] So the next week, the school showed up, and they had no extra people, so I didn't let them in.

[262] So then the town council called me, and they told me that I had made a mistake, and I said, well, I think that a mistake might have made, but the mistake that was going to be made was there was going to be a death of a little kid, and I couldn't do that.

[263] And they said, I said, you can write me a letter and tell me how you want me to run this place.

[264] I'll run it the way you want it.

[265] But I want you to sign that letter.

[266] and they said if we do that you'd let a kid die despite us yeah that's what they said that was 17 and I was like you know and I could have I could have said I could have taken their bluff but I was a 17 year old girl I didn't have that kind of chutzpah so I quit the job you probably had the hutzpah you didn't have the knowledge strategic knowledge I had the hutzpah I didn't have the knowledge so I quit the job and then there was a local paper controversy between the mayor and their story and my story and then I left and the local college hired me to pick weeds and that was good at the local college.

[267] Yeah, well what Tam learned I did want to be part of it.

[268] You know, she saw a certain degree of narcissism and corruption at the local level and then concluded that that was the case at all levels of the political...

[269] Which is true.

[270] Yeah.

[271] But that's still not an excuse.

[272] That's not to do your part.

[273] And I learned that over the years.

[274] And so...

[275] When did you learn that?

[276] Not that long ago.

[277] Yeah.

[278] Yeah.

[279] Not that long ago.

[280] But I know it now.

[281] And that's all you can do is know it now and move forward.

[282] Yeah.

[283] Well, one of the rules that I've been formulating as we tour is that any political responsibility you abdicate will be taken up by tyrants and used against you.

[284] Yeah.

[285] And everyone has a political responsibility, right?

[286] So, well, you obviously learned that.

[287] Now you're working with the exit party and you're expanding your logistical knowledge.

[288] What happens next?

[289] COVID.

[290] Right away.

[291] Yeah.

[292] So during my time in Alberta, about 2013, I took a personal training course when I started working in fitness.

[293] And then I actually started teaching and certifying personal trainers and teaching CPR and nutrition.

[294] And so that was one of the very first things.

[295] When this all started, I was like, what is going on here?

[296] because they started closing all the gyms.

[297] And, like, I'm not a doctor or a scientist, but I know that if you're healthy and you're exercising, your immune system is going to be stronger.

[298] And then right away it came out that one of the comorbidities that was causing, you know, the terrible reaction to the COVID virus was obesity.

[299] I think the people who died had a mean, the mean number of comorbidities was four.

[300] Yep.

[301] Right.

[302] And in Alberta, the average age of death due to COVID, they said, was 84, but in Alberta, the average age of death from anything, old age is 82.

[303] So then I couldn't understand why they were locking us all in our homes and telling me that my family wasn't allowed in my home.

[304] That did not work for me. That did not work for me. So my husband and I ended up after we both lost our jobs on the same day.

[305] We decided to drive out to Manitoba to visit my daughter.

[306] Okay, why do you lose your job?

[307] We were laid off.

[308] We were laid off because we'd been sent home already.

[309] Well, I'd been sent home for two weeks because of COVID.

[310] And then, of course, there was the economic impact that came down with that.

[311] And we were a satellite base, basically, in Medicine Hat.

[312] So we ran two crews out of there, as opposed to Red Deer where they had five or six crews or whatever.

[313] So they ended up shutting down our base and laying everybody off, save a couple of gentlemen that were transferred.

[314] And we decided to drive out to Manitoba to visit one of my two.

[315] daughters who was out there on the farm because our choices were we can sit here in our house and do nothing and watch the cars go by or we can go be productive and speak out and have a life and have a life and you know be outside and doing stuff so and then when we arrived there i found out that i was going to be a grandmother again so we drove back to minutes and packed up a bunch of stuff and we spent 19 months during the pandemic out in out in manitoba and i ended up getting a job there with the local municipality, which was good.

[316] That summer, I got a job there.

[317] And that's why I called it the pandemic of the Cairns, because I had, especially at Christmas, this one lady called me just freaking out and angry because there's four cars parked across the street at the Airbnb.

[318] I think it's an illegal gathering.

[319] She has the same voice I do for Cairns.

[320] I have a Cairn voice, too.

[321] There are four cars across the street.

[322] Yeah, and I think they're having an illegal gathering, and we should really do something about that because there are children at risk.

[323] That's right.

[324] Yeah, Pat, Pat, Pat.

[325] I know.

[326] Just thinking that she was, I don't know what she was thinking.

[327] Anyways.

[328] Here's what she was thinking.

[329] I saw people in Toronto think this way a lot.

[330] So I figured that 70 % of Torontoans would wear a bloody mask for the rest of their life, you know, without complaining.

[331] And half of them would enjoy it.

[332] And the reason for that is because it gave them an opportunity to tattle on their neighbors, to inform, right?

[333] And you know, in East Germany, one third of the people there under the Soviets, were direct Soviet informers, right?

[334] So if you had a family of six, two people were informing on you to the government.

[335] You think, well, that could never happen here.

[336] It's like, yeah, it could.

[337] And you'd be one of the people that would be doing it.

[338] And you'd be happy about it.

[339] And you'd pat yourself on the back for doing such a moral job.

[340] It's like that proclivity for tyranny and the delight in informing, you know, that's, you know, yeah, it's awful.

[341] It was sad.

[342] And I'm just thinking, I did my job, I took all their information, I passed it on to my CAO, and I thought, it's Christmas.

[343] Like, this family probably hasn't even got to see each other in the last year.

[344] You don't have to go over there.

[345] You don't have to go on their property.

[346] You can just stay in your home and shut your mouth.

[347] And your windows and your curtains and quit peering out.

[348] Like, I just didn't, I just don't understand that mentality.

[349] I didn't understand it.

[350] And they weaponized, they weaponized people doing the right thing.

[351] Duty, they weaponized duty.

[352] Yeah, they used fear to weaponize duty.

[353] Yeah.

[354] Yeah, well, that's typical tyrant.

[355] That's a typical tyrant approach.

[356] No. They take that.

[357] Fear, compulsion, power, you have to do this.

[358] Why do you have to do it?

[359] Well, it's an emergency.

[360] Who says it's an emergency?

[361] We say it's an emergency.

[362] We know what to do about it.

[363] Give up all your autonomy.

[364] Grant us all the power.

[365] It's like, oh, I see.

[366] That's why there's an emergency.

[367] so you can have all the power.

[368] It's not an emergency at all.

[369] That's right.

[370] And if it is, it's like, well, was it an emergency?

[371] There's always a bloody emergency of one form or another, because life is just an endless catastrophe of emergencies.

[372] And if you remember at the beginning of the pandemic, Justin Trudeau already wanted to invoke the Emergencies Act so that he could just spend, spend, spend, spend, and do whatever he wanted and not be accountable.

[373] I remember he wanted free reign until the end of 2021.

[374] Well, he basically suspended Parliament anyways and ruled by feet.

[375] at the whole time, Parliament in Canada has just become, it's like a side show.

[376] That's not where the government actually operates.

[377] It operates out of the prime minister's office, him and his bloody cronies, his wedding party crew.

[378] Yes.

[379] You know, and so we've lost, well, we've, I don't know if we have parliamentary supremacy in Canada at all now.

[380] And of course, the way that we've rearranged our judiciary, we have activist judiciary in Canada, and increasingly the Supreme Court justices are.

[381] nominated by the federal government.

[382] And so they've captured the court system as well.

[383] And so here we are.

[384] All right.

[385] So now you're, you have a bee in your bonnet about COVID too.

[386] And you're not very happy about what's happening in Western Canada.

[387] So you're starting to become an irritated person.

[388] I was very irritated.

[389] And then I found Trishwood's podcast.

[390] I was following the Dr. Brian Bridal case and then the Dr. Francis Christian case.

[391] And what were those cases?

[392] Dr. Brian Bridal.

[393] is an immunologist and a virologist, I believe.

[394] And he's got a long list of letters after his name.

[395] And he started speaking out...

[396] Ontario University?

[397] Guelph.

[398] Guelph.

[399] Yes.

[400] Guelph.

[401] That's right.

[402] And Dr. Christian was a doctor in Saskatchewan, at the University of Saskatchewan, actually.

[403] And he started speaking out about vaccinating children.

[404] Well, they both were, and they both lost their jobs.

[405] And as a matter of fact, the faculty at the University of Saskatoon were trying to talk to him like that maybe he was crazy.

[406] Yeah, yeah.

[407] That phone call was disturbing.

[408] Well, there's no cowards like faculty cowards.

[409] Right, yeah.

[410] You would probably know.

[411] And so then I started following, you know, I started listening to her podcast, and she was just a light in the dark because I was somebody that was finally talking common sense, in my opinion.

[412] And then I started following Dr. Zev Zelenko.

[413] I started following Dr. Robert Malone, Dr. Peter McCullough, Dr. David Martin, you know, all these doctors.

[414] Dr. J. Baddicherry was starting to talk on the Stanford Front, too.

[415] they really went after him.

[416] He lost 35 pounds in three months after he got pilloried by his peers and compatriots at Stanford for being correct and careful, yeah.

[417] And that also didn't make sense because science is supposed to be questioned.

[418] So when they say we're following the science, I always think of the S with the money sign S. That's all I ever heard them say was we're following the science.

[419] I never saw any of their science.

[420] I did see science from these other doctors.

[421] And science, by the way, isn't something you follow.

[422] Science is not a set of moral prescriptions.

[423] When it's a set of moral prescriptions, it's ideology, not science.

[424] You know, at its best, science is, well, it attempts to be a value -free and dispassionate portrayal of the facts.

[425] Now, that's tricky because...

[426] It's an investigation, that's what science is.

[427] Yeah, it's an investigation, yeah.

[428] And the idea that, well, then what happened to is the politicians who were cowards devolved their authority to public health experts and said, well, we don't actually have to any decisions the public health experts can and they couldn't because they weren't economists they had no idea how to calculate relative risk they didn't take anything into account except keeping the public safe from a virus which was their job not to calculate the what would you call it the multiplicity of costs that would be associated with a peer public health approach to policy so the politicians abdicated their responsibility and the narcissistic politicians enjoy doing that anyways because what you want is the glory not the responsibility And what I noticed, too, is that the fear mongering, like the propaganda campaign was heavy.

[429] And, of course, at the beginning, everyone was talking about, well, we don't have enough hospital beds and blah, blah, blah, blah.

[430] And I'm looking, like, it's 24 -7.

[431] My radio station became the 24 -7 COVID information station.

[432] And I'm thinking, with all the money that you're putting into marketing and ads and on posters and all the stuff.

[433] Build some beds?

[434] If we put that into our health care system.

[435] Which they didn't ever?

[436] No, problem.

[437] No. No, no, no increase in ICU capacity.

[438] No, nothing that would have actually, in principle, addressed, well, the problem that didn't exist to begin with, but certainly that no development of ICU.

[439] What did Canada spend some hundreds of millions of dollars on portable ICU beds that were never even implemented, right?

[440] They just sit in a warehouse with warehouse storage costs.

[441] I can't remember how many hundreds of millions of dollars is spent on that, some appalling amount.

[442] Right, so all the money was poorly targeted.

[443] They never went to.

[444] after the actual problem.

[445] No. Yeah.

[446] It just didn't make sense.

[447] And everybody that I talked to, excuse me, whether they were on the side where they thought COVID was going to be the end of all humanity or whether they thought COVID didn't even exist, everyone said to me, something doesn't feel right.

[448] And that was their intuition.

[449] And that stuck with me. And it, because it didn't feel right to me either.

[450] And, yeah, so I just started following these doctors and, looking things up for myself instead of just listening to what the...

[451] I mean, I stopped believing in...

[452] The 2016 American election, I quit basically watching the news.

[453] So, and...

[454] Well, that's about when the legacy media got finally corrupted, right?

[455] And, I mean, part of that's because they're facing such an onslaught of competition from the online...

[456] Well, from the online media, essentially.

[457] They're going to die.

[458] As you can see that happening, Canada, and CTV and Bell Media laid off all sorts of journalists yesterday, including top journalists, right?

[459] And they certainly deserve their demise, like nobody's business.

[460] But it's part of the inevitable triumph of the distributed media because there's no way the old legacy media outlets can compete with them.

[461] And they started losing their best people and then competing on the clickbait front.

[462] And, you know, it's just a degenerative spiral.

[463] And we're seeing that play out.

[464] Yes, we are.

[465] Yes, we are.

[466] It's a travesty.

[467] So now you're still in Manitoba while this is happening?

[468] Yes, I was.

[469] Actually, my husband and I just moved back to, we both got offered our jobs back in October of 2021.

[470] And we moved back to Alberta and both went back to work at the end of November.

[471] And then we moved into our new house on a week before Christmas.

[472] And then two weeks later, the convoy started.

[473] So it was kind of funny.

[474] Even when I got back, it looked like two college kids had just moved into this house and dropped everything.

[475] Because I was obviously gone for a while.

[476] And yeah, so we went back to work, and then middle of January, my friend Cindy sent me a TikTok video that Chris Barber had done.

[477] This is January what year?

[478] January 2020.

[479] 22.

[480] Yes.

[481] Where Chris was advocating for, he had a massive TikTok following.

[482] I guess that's a trucker thing, TikTok.

[483] And he was calling for a Canada -wide shutdown.

[484] Just wherever you are, shut off your trucks.

[485] don't move.

[486] And Bridget Belton, who is a trucker from Wallisburg, I think it's Wallaceburg, Ontario, had reached out to him too because she was having issues crossing the border already.

[487] So why were the truckers upset specifically?

[488] There was border crossing issues, but why the truckers in particular?

[489] Because after two years of our Prime Minister calling them heroes and liking them to soldiers going off to war, he decided to implement the cross -border trucker mandate.

[490] So unless they had a vaccine passport, they would have to quarantine for 14 days.

[491] So, especially in Ontario, where they're always, like some people are doing this every day.

[492] How do you feed your family if you have to take 14 days off every time you cross the border?

[493] It's impossible.

[494] So these people, these blue -collar heroes, I call them, that he had propped up and complimented and saying their praises from the rooftops that all of a sudden become public enemy number one.

[495] And that was it for them.

[496] And that's telling, because I'm telling you, they went for the health care workers and the doctors.

[497] And I thought for sure, just like my speech, somebody was going to say something.

[498] They came after the RCMP and I was like, somebody's got to say something.

[499] And then the military and then the education system.

[500] And all of a sudden there's all these mandates and nobody was saying anything.

[501] And finally, when they came for the truckers, they're like, no. No, this is not acceptable.

[502] So I got that TikTok from Cindy about Chris, and I actually messaged her because there had been a convoy that came out here in 2019 that was advocating for our energy industry.

[503] And I said, well, what do you think about another convoy?

[504] And she's like, well, it didn't really accomplish much the first time.

[505] And I said, yeah, you're right.

[506] And then I messaged a friend of mine in Manitoba, and I said, what do you think about a convoy to Ottawa?

[507] And he said the same thing.

[508] So in the meantime...

[509] So what was it about the convoy idea you think that was attracting you?

[510] I mean, you're pursuing it with some degree of fervor, even though, by your own admission, the last time it occurred, it wasn't that helpful.

[511] Why do you think that idea...

[512] Because we needed to bring it to Parliament.

[513] I've seen rallies at the ledge in Alberta, Regina, all the provinces.

[514] I've seen rallies, massive protests everywhere.

[515] The mainstream media was not reporting them.

[516] And nothing was changing.

[517] So we needed to get to Ottawa.

[518] And in the meantime, you know, Chris and Bridget and another group had been talking should they do slow rolls or a shutdown.

[519] And then kind of collectively, basically what it was was a very small group of people that had a lot of similar ideas that knew something had to happen.

[520] And so I called up Chris and we discussed the convoy to Ottawa and I said my background is logistics organization and the administration.

[521] You're going to need social media, and you're going to need money.

[522] I'll start you a Facebook page, a Twitter account, and I'll set up a GoFundMe account.

[523] At that time, I didn't know that GoFundMe was as left leaning as they were.

[524] Oh, I should let everybody know, too.

[525] Tomorrow, under constraint by the Canadian government, is no longer allowed to engage in social media.

[526] Do you want to talk about the restrictions that have been placed on you?

[527] That's one of my conditions.

[528] One of my very broad conditions.

[529] I am not allowed to log into my accounts.

[530] post to my accounts or ask anybody to post on my behalf.

[531] If I do, I go directly back to jail.

[532] Right.

[533] So you're essentially muzzled on the electronic communication.

[534] Yes, that's right.

[535] Now, why can you do a podcast like this?

[536] Well, after the POEC report came down and I just could not stand to listen to Justin Trudeau tell people how he had their backs and he was keeping them safe anymore because my head was going to explode, Keith and I went through my conditions very carefully, very carefully.

[537] We, like, I was taking, it sounds stupid, but I was, like, taking words out, and I was rearranging the sentences to see if there was any possible way that I could be arrested for speaking.

[538] And what we concluded was that so long as I am not organizing a protest or advocating for a protest, exercising my freedom of assembly, basically.

[539] it's okay.

[540] Now, how is it that it's possible for your right to freely assemble and your right to freely speak, obviously, how is it possible even that that's been abrogated?

[541] What have you been charged with?

[542] Let's start with that.

[543] I've been charged with mischief, counseling to commit mischief, intimidation, counseling intimidation.

[544] And I believe the other one is obstruct a police officer and disobey a court order, I think, which would be the Emergencies Act, I'm assuming.

[545] And which of those was the core charge?

[546] The mischief.

[547] But there was counseling to commit mischief to begin with, right?

[548] That's right.

[549] I was charged.

[550] So think about that, everyone.

[551] That was the initial charge.

[552] It's not mischief, which is, you know, not one of the world's most serious charges, even though that can be relevant at some time, but counseling to commit mischief, which is like the derivative of a crime, right?

[553] So I don't even know what that means, but I guess you're going to find out because they're going to drag you through court.

[554] How much time have you spent in jail?

[555] 48 days.

[556] Well, 49 days, 48 nights.

[557] Right, right.

[558] And on what grounds, precisely?

[559] Why, why did they hold you?

[560] Well, originally I was denied bail because the judge, Judge Bourgeois, who we found out later was a former liberal candidate.

[561] French, French, yeah.

[562] It's just funny that that's the name.

[563] Julie Bourgeois, yeah, it is kind of funny.

[564] Those bourgeois, they hate the proletariat.

[565] So, okay, so he was a. former liberal.

[566] She was.

[567] She was.

[568] Yes, she.

[569] She was a former liberal candidate.

[570] Yes, yes.

[571] This is Canada, folks, right?

[572] She was, and she didn't recuse herself from the case, because it wasn't a political case, obviously.

[573] That's right.

[574] Yeah, yeah.

[575] And so, and oddly enough, like, Chris Barber was arrested just before me, and he had his bail hearing and was just sent home.

[576] And then, of course, it was a long weekend.

[577] It was family weekend.

[578] And so we didn't have my decision heard until Tuesday morning, but by then she'd watched this entire violent, horrific takedown of the convoy protest on TV.

[579] And so when I came in, she went upside, went up one side of me and down the other.

[580] And basically said I was a menace to society and a danger to her community.

[581] She said, my community 12 times.

[582] Where is she located?

[583] Oh, I see.

[584] So you were honking her into his house.

[585] Oh, I see.

[586] Yes.

[587] Yeah, I know there were a lot of the Hote Bourgeois in Ottawa who didn't take kindly to being honked at.

[588] It's traumatizing, you know.

[589] Yes.

[590] You have people whose lives have been destroyed come and, you know, peacefully complain about it after being oppressed by dim -wit, dim -witted moralizers for two years.

[591] Which was frustrating because, you know, we didn't want to go, we definitely didn't want to upset the Ottawa residents.

[592] That was never our intention.

[593] But you have to have some level of disruption.

[594] But for me to hear people talking about honking horns when we just drove across Canada and I had people every single day, and still to this day, telling me they were planning to take their own lives or that they had family members that had already taken their own lives or that they were living in their car.

[595] They lost their business.

[596] They couldn't go kiss their mom good business.

[597] by before she died and you're going to complain to me about honking horns.

[598] Are you kidding me?

[599] And so for me, that was a real eye -opener because, you know, of course we always know that there's the laptop class is what we call them now.

[600] But it was really the sense, in some cases, not all of them, because there's some beautiful, lovely people in Ottawa.

[601] We had a lot of support from Ottawa residents and a lot of federal government employees.

[602] But it was almost a sense of like, How dare you, blue -collar workers with your dirty hands come and set up and find it?

[603] And your ability to do things.

[604] That's the most annoying part of blue -collar people.

[605] They're good at doing things.

[606] That's really hard on people who can only think abstractly, because they like to think they live in some sort of, what would you say, privileged moral universe where their ability to deal with abstractions is what constitutes real.

[607] And then they always end up depending on those bloody blue -collar people whenever anything needs to be done.

[608] It's very, very annoying.

[609] Yes.

[610] So shortly after we got there, there was an injunction order, so we did have to stop honking horns.

[611] And honestly, the majority of us at the core organizers, were relieved because it was getting to be a bit much.

[612] And, you know, when you've got speakers up on stage and people are still honking their horn, you can't hear them, right?

[613] So that was good.

[614] I mean, we're glad that it stopped for the most part.

[615] But again, not all of them stopped because you're talking, this was not, there was no bosses.

[616] This was a completely organic movement.

[617] These truckers just showed up.

[618] They're very strong people.

[619] They're independent thinkers.

[620] You know, they have a lot of responsibility on their shoulders.

[621] Lots of them are business owners.

[622] So they're going to do what they're going to do.

[623] I mean, Tamara Leach wasn't going to tell them what to do.

[624] If they were the sort of people who could be told what to do, they wouldn't have been in Ottawa with trucks.

[625] That's right.

[626] Exactly.

[627] So let's go back to when you were envisioning this.

[628] So you were starting to think about a convoy.

[629] How did it actually start to come about?

[630] Miraculously.

[631] So we started, I got the Facebook page going, got the GoFundMe going, and then we had road captains from every province.

[632] So what those were were truckers normally in like northern Saskatchewan, southern Saskatchewan, northern Alberta, southern Alberta.

[633] And they organized their friends and truckers to come.

[634] And then we would just all meet along the highway.

[635] So one of my...

[636] Over what period of time was this organized?

[637] How long did it take?

[638] Ten days.

[639] Ten days.

[640] Wow, that's fast.

[641] Right.

[642] Well, so that obviously shows that, like, it was time.

[643] It was time.

[644] Yeah, yeah, because everybody clambered on board right away.

[645] That's right.

[646] Which shocked us.

[647] I mean, and we recognized within 24 hours.

[648] In my head, my vision, I thought we'd maybe raise $20 ,000.

[649] A few truckers would drive across Canada.

[650] stand there with some signs, hop back in their trucks, and come home.

[651] So within 24 hours, we had over $100 ,000 in donations already.

[652] And so with my experience with the Maverick Party, I was like, I need a finance committee.

[653] Boom.

[654] So I got some volunteers.

[655] We created a finance committee.

[656] And then I was also monitoring our social media.

[657] Why did you do that?

[658] Because the fundraiser was set up with my name on it.

[659] And it was important to me that Canadians that were donating, A, had a sense of who I was, because that's a lot of money.

[660] They were trusting me, essentially, with their money.

[661] And I wanted to explain the whole process, like how we were going to be accountable and transparent.

[662] I had two bookkeepers on the committee, and we had an accounting advisor, an accountant from Medicine Hat.

[663] And it was their money, so it was their decision.

[664] Like, you know, I wanted to let everybody feel like they had a say in this.

[665] Basically, I was running a government type or running this organization, I guess, how I thought the government should be run.

[666] You know, open and transparent.

[667] And I just wanted everyone to be at ease that we were going to follow through and we were going to keep them informed every step of the way.

[668] So tell us what happened on the GoFundMe front.

[669] Yeah, so I didn't know a lot about GoFundMe when I started the campaign.

[670] I just knew it was a big crowdfunding source.

[671] And so I set up a GoFundMe to start collecting donations, and as we were, well, obviously, I mean, the money just started pouring in, and it became very clear to me right away that they were kind of dragging their feet.

[672] Who was dragging me?

[673] GoFund me in releasing the money.

[674] Okay.

[675] So, because they'd send an email with, you know, three questions on it, we'd answer those questions, then we'd get an email with five questions on it, and we'd answer those questions.

[676] And it just was this constant back and forth for about two weeks.

[677] Finally, when we got to Ottawa, the Thursday, right after the lawyers all arrived, we had a meeting with all of our lawyers, GoFundMe, their lawyers, and our accountant.

[678] And it was great.

[679] They were going to release everything.

[680] They were happy with all of our answers, and we woke up the next morning, and they had frozen our campaign.

[681] How much money was in at that point?

[682] $10 million.

[683] Who froze it?

[684] Go fund me. What had happened was, because the, the, the, the, The city of Ottawa and the Ottawa City Police had contacted them and said that we were terrorists, basically.

[685] I see.

[686] I see.

[687] Oh, yes.

[688] Well, yes.

[689] Of course.

[690] Right.

[691] So, so who's the blame on then?

[692] Is the blame on GoFundMe?

[693] Or is the blame on the people who called you terrorists?

[694] I would say both.

[695] I would say both.

[696] Why both?

[697] Because...

[698] GoFund me should have told them to go to hell like Gives and Godin?

[699] That's right.

[700] Yeah.

[701] Yeah.

[702] And what happened was...

[703] Oh, go fund me for goodness sake.

[704] Right, right.

[705] Yeah, right.

[706] It's really their job.

[707] The ironic thing is, is that we've watched the Black Lives Matter protests.

[708] I watched the Chaz Chap, Autonomous Zone that they had set up in Seattle.

[709] And at some of these protests, like, people got raped.

[710] They murdered.

[711] Businesses were looted and burnt to the ground.

[712] Yeah, but that was in a good cause tomorrow.

[713] That's right.

[714] That was for a good cause, right?

[715] That wasn't like Confederate flag flying Canadian Nazis.

[716] By the way, for everyone watching and listening, there are no Confederate flag -waving Canadian Nazis.

[717] That's not a thing.

[718] Nobody waives the Confederate flag in Canada.

[719] Most Canadians don't even know what the hell the Confederate flag is.

[720] And Nazis, that's just not a Canadian thing.

[721] So that's all complete bloody lies from top to bottom in every possible way.

[722] So GoFundMe stop $10 million.

[723] And then, if I remember correctly, they then announced that they were going to distribute it to charity unless people wrote in specifically and requested a refund and that they were going to pick the charity.

[724] Correct.

[725] Right.

[726] That Black Lives Matters, though.

[727] They got their money.

[728] They did.

[729] Even though there was raping, murder, all kinds of things.

[730] They got their money.

[731] Of course, that was in the States, wasn't it?

[732] Yeah, but that shouldn't make a difference.

[733] It shouldn't make a difference.

[734] And then give send go didn't abide by the dictates of the Canadian state, right?

[735] So they had a bit of a spine.

[736] And so you flipped from GoFundMe to GiveSengo, and then you raised another $10 million.

[737] What happened to it?

[738] Well, the government of Ontario wanted to seize it immediately.

[739] Those were conservatives, by the way, right?

[740] Yes, this is right.

[741] This is true.

[742] And so the writing was on the wall.

[743] We were never going to get those donations across into Canada.

[744] So Jacob Wells, one of the founders, him and his sister founded Givesengo, decided that he was just going to refund everything.

[745] And I know that the lawyers got up and said, no, you're not going to.

[746] We're going to file whatever they needed to file to stop that from happening.

[747] And he said, by the time you have your paperwork done, it's going to be back in their accounts.

[748] You have no jurisdiction here.

[749] So kudos to him.

[750] Yes.

[751] So what had happened was, GoFundMe had released $1 million into my account.

[752] And so I'm actually quite happy that it did cost them a million dollars because they ended up refunding everything.

[753] After that statement where they were just going to donate it to whomever they wanted to, Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, stood up and said, no, you're not.

[754] I am going to have you investigated for fraud.

[755] And then all of a sudden, it was no problem to refund everybody.

[756] And then, yeah, with the give -send goes.

[757] So, and then what happened?

[758] So that was like a precursor to the bank account seizures fundamentally, right?

[759] So basically what we had in Canada was a situation where people were voluntarily donating money to a political cause, a protest, and that the government interfered with the receipt of that money by interfering with the operations of a private company that wasn't even a Canadian company, right?

[760] At the same time, the Canadian government was claiming this was a complete, bloody, 100 % absolutely reprehensible lie that almost all the money that was going into the trucker convoy was American, make America great again, Republican types who wanted to overthrow the Canadian government because, of course, everyone knows that's what Republican Americans want because they don't like democracy in Canada, whereas the truth of the matter is, most Americans don't even know where the hell Canada is, and the ones that do know really don't care, and they're certainly not agitating, especially on the Republican side, to overthrow Canadian democracy.

[761] And the government also intimated that it was being funded by Russians.

[762] Yes.

[763] Right, Russians.

[764] So if it wasn't Russians, it was mega -Americans, because, you know, the Russians and the mega -Americans, they're obviously exactly the same people.

[765] and they're all profoundly interested in producing a January 6th type insurrection in Ottawa.

[766] So that was $20 million that was essentially seized in one way or another by various branches of the Canadian government right now.

[767] You said there's some of that money that's still around, I think.

[768] Yes, there is.

[769] So when Jacob and Gives and Goe refunded the Gives and Go money, there was about $3 million that was stuck in the payment processor, Stripe.

[770] So that was seized, and that's now in an escrow.

[771] We had just over $400 ,000 in e -transfers, because right away, when I set up to go -fund me, people were messaging me saying, Don't trust them.

[772] That's right.

[773] So that was kind of my first concern.

[774] I was like, oh, geez, I probably should have looked into this a little bit more, but what do you do?

[775] Live and learn.

[776] Well, we're accustomed to operating on trust, hey?

[777] That's why our societies are rich.

[778] It's because you can generally operate on trust.

[779] or you could.

[780] So far, yes.

[781] Yeah, so far.

[782] So that money also went into the escrow account.

[783] And then a gentleman by the name of Chris Gera had started an organization.

[784] We had a ground zero team, we called it, in Ottawa that was getting everything, all the infrastructure in place for when we arrived, like food, showers, hotel rooms.

[785] How many people did come to the convoy?

[786] How many truckers were there?

[787] Do you know, approximately?

[788] I have no idea.

[789] Where did they come from?

[790] They came from all over.

[791] Did they come from the east to?

[792] They came from the coast of Newfoundland.

[793] Oh, wow.

[794] They came from the Northwest Territories.

[795] We had Americans that came up and joined us.

[796] And that was funny because, you know, we had a finance committee in place.

[797] So we put procedures and processes in place so that this would all be accountable.

[798] And we had all the – and so one of my jobs was going to be to stand at the gas pumps and record every trucker that came through with their truck number and their name and their receipts, which in the first day was not even possible.

[799] And one of my other jobs was to get to – truck counts every day.

[800] But that was impossible because the situation was that a lot of people couldn't go all the way to Ottawa.

[801] So they would join us for like a hundred kilometers or a province or, you know, they'd get to the Manitoba border.

[802] So we always had people coming and going.

[803] What did you see when you came across?

[804] Please tell me. The most beautiful show of humanity in the unity I've ever seen.

[805] I've never seen anything like it.

[806] After all these years of, you know, especially living under this prime minister, who has tried to constantly divide people by race, religion, culture, income bracket, geographical location.

[807] Gender, sex, gender, gender identity.

[808] Yes, yes.

[809] So we were coming through Manitoba.

[810] We were coming through Heddingley.

[811] And it was the most massive crowd I've ever seen.

[812] And there was native drummers on the side of the road, dressed in their full, regalia and standing beside them were like foreseek gentlemen and standing beside them were hutterite women with their children holding signs thank you for giving us back our future and beside them was nuns in full habits and to me you know when the nuns are protesting that things aren't good right exactly yeah and the hutter rights right right absolutely they're not known for their political we had them all the way from medicine hat um all the way you, Manitoba, and I found out after it, because my dad's great friends with a lot of the colonies down there, that they would go to one intersection on the side, like back road, watch us go by, hop in their vans or trucks, drive two miles down the road, and they did this to just watch us, you know.

[813] Thank you, yes, and support, and it was just incredible, because it didn't matter.

[814] None of your background even mattered.

[815] Right.

[816] It was, we were just Canadians.

[817] Right, right.

[818] That's it.

[819] For once.

[820] For once.

[821] Come on, you know.

[822] And what sort of distances were people driving?

[823] Like, because lots of people watching and listening don't know how big Canada is.

[824] So you said from Medicine Hat to Ottawa is 36 hours.

[825] 36 hours.

[826] I think that's about 3 ,500 kilometers.

[827] And so, which is quite a long ways.

[828] But we had people, the clan mothers that joined us came from the Northwest Territories.

[829] And there was truckers that had come from the Northwest Territories.

[830] And the East Coast, Newfoundland.

[831] New Brunswick, Nova Scotia.

[832] This was truly a Canadian movement.

[833] Like, we had people from everywhere.

[834] Northwest Territories, I didn't know that.

[835] Yes, yes, yes.

[836] Which shows you that people, like you said earlier, were ready.

[837] Well, and desperate.

[838] I mean, the thing is that for the, so first of all, this was in the middle of the winter.

[839] Right, right, and that's winter.

[840] It's not easy.

[841] It was minus 20 in Ottawa for most of that protest day.

[842] Yeah.

[843] Yeah, and then those truckers were taking their rigs out of service for, what, two weeks, something like that.

[844] Some of them are longer, three weeks, right?

[845] Which is a major economic hit.

[846] You have to be driven to some degree of desperation.

[847] And it's not like Canadian truckers, like Dutch farmers, are known for their political activism.

[848] I mean, they've never been a politically active class in Canada.

[849] There's no history of even labor agitation on the trucker side in Canada.

[850] So the fact that it was them that finally had enough is really telling, well, just like it is telling on the Dutch farmer's scene, right?

[851] And the yellow jackets to some degree.

[852] I mean, the French are a lot more volatile.

[853] there are political demonstrations, but Canada doesn't have a history of this.

[854] This isn't something that ever happens here, just like it never happens in the Netherlands.

[855] And so, all right, so you're driving down the road and you're seeing all these people, and this thing is, like, ballooned, like mad, way beyond what you had initially envisioned.

[856] Yes.

[857] And you're on your way to Ottawa.

[858] What happens when you get to Ottawa?

[859] We pulled up onto the hill.

[860] Well, we got into Arn Prior on the Friday night, and Saturday we drove up around noon.

[861] We met at noon and drove into Ottawa.

[862] and the crowds all the way from Arm Pryor right into Ottawa were amazing.

[863] The overpasses were filled with people.

[864] And it was just so beautiful.

[865] And we got up there and there was massive crowds up on Parliament Hill too.

[866] And so when we got out, I mean, it was just, by now, people knew who Chris and I were.

[867] So there was lots of people coming up and asking for photos and talking to us and stuff.

[868] And it was so surreal.

[869] Support them.

[870] Yes, yeah.

[871] Yeah, and, you know, Chris and I talked on the way out, and we didn't have a plan for when we got there.

[872] I mean, just getting there was such a massive undertaking.

[873] And we, I mean, kudos to Chris.

[874] He led that convoy out.

[875] Chris is in jail?

[876] Barber.

[877] Nope, he's not.

[878] He's back home in Saskatchez.

[879] Okay, so let's walk through that briefly.

[880] Who ended up jailed?

[881] Chris was arrested in prison for one evening.

[882] I was arrested in jail for 18 days.

[883] Pat King was arrested and he was in jail for five months.

[884] He was the leader of the convoy.

[885] Yeah, he was involved in it.

[886] Yeah, he wasn't the leader of it.

[887] Okay.

[888] And, yeah, I was actually in jail last summer when he was finally released.

[889] Finally released.

[890] But there's still people in jail this year.

[891] There were still people in jail.

[892] Yes.

[893] Of all the Coots Boys are going through their pretrial right now.

[894] I mean, they weren't affiliated with us.

[895] That was all, you know, separate groups and stuff.

[896] But, I mean, what's happening there is just unbelievable to those guys.

[897] And Aaron Aldrich was another one.

[898] I don't know if you've ever seen the photos, but there's a gentleman in lots of pictures with a took and a big belly.

[899] He never wore a shirt, always smoking cigarettes.

[900] And that was Aaron.

[901] And he just had, he's finally back in Alberta.

[902] I think he went back last week.

[903] He got out of jail when I was on my way out for the inquiry in the fall.

[904] And he had to stay there with his surety until last week.

[905] He hasn't seen his mom since 2022.

[906] Oh, yeah.

[907] Okay, so what's happened?

[908] So now in Ottawa you have all these trucks gathered.

[909] There's hundreds of them, or are there thousands of them by this point?

[910] Thousands of trucks by this point, right?

[911] So everybody's shocked at the magnitude of this, including the Ottawa bourgeoisie who aren't very happy with all the honking.

[912] There's a lawsuit about that, eh, that you're also facing $400 million class action suit?

[913] Yes.

[914] Right?

[915] because of the economic harm caused by the trucker convoy?

[916] Yes.

[917] Not the two years of business closures and shutdowns and locked in your home.

[918] And do you think that there was a deleterious impact of the trucker convoy on businesses in Ottawa?

[919] Absolutely not.

[920] We never told them to shut down.

[921] It was the city that advised them to shut down because they had to painted us as hooligans and thugs before we even arrived.

[922] Yeah, yeah.

[923] I mean, it just came out.

[924] Racists, spigots, misogynists.

[925] Right.

[926] Terrorists.

[927] Infiltrated by the Russians.

[928] Yeah, yeah.

[929] And the megat types.

[930] That's right.

[931] Forget about them.

[932] There was a Black Rock's report that just came out, I think it was the week before last.

[933] It was a public safety health, safety Canada memo that was sent out internally to all these businesses saying, saying that we were entering federal buildings and causing damage and disruption, which was a bold -faced lie.

[934] Just nasty lie.

[935] nasty, nasty lies, and why?

[936] Because we don't have...

[937] And I said this in my testimony.

[938] When you lead a country, you do not get to pick and choose who you lead.

[939] You are responsible for every single person in that country, whether you believe in what they believe or not.

[940] You don't get to call them names.

[941] I mean, now our prime minister is calling parents alt -right because they want to say over the...

[942] No, no, far right.

[943] Even worse, that's right.

[944] You think that you should be able to have the last say in relationship to what your children are being taught in school.

[945] And now you're essentially a Nazi.

[946] Because, of course, that's what far right means.

[947] That's right.

[948] So that means our prime minister now believes that if you believe that you should put your child's interests as the paramount concern of your life, that you're essentially far right.

[949] And so if Canadians had any sense, which I'm afraid generally they don't, they would listen to that because he's actually serious about what he's claiming.

[950] So we know that what the New Brunswick Premier came out and made it illegal.

[951] for schools to use gender transforming pronouns without parental, without informing the parents, which seems like the minimal thing they could do, and Trudeau -Pelloried him, but the vast majority of Canadians agree with the New Brunswick Premier's statement.

[952] And if they were informed, a lot more of them would agree, because Canadians, as a general rule, don't pay much attention to politics and don't know what's going on.

[953] If they actually knew what was going on, a hell of a lot more, Canadians would have agreed with the New Brunswick Premier.

[954] I know, kudos to him.

[955] Like, who saw that coming out of New Brunswick?

[956] I know, I know.

[957] He grew a spine.

[958] He did.

[959] I'm so impressed.

[960] They're starting to rediscover their spines.

[961] That gives me hope.

[962] Yeah, well, you have Daniel Smith and Scott Mowl who looked like they've got some spines, and Pierre Pollyev might have one as well.

[963] And the Premier of New Brunswick, right?

[964] That came out of right field, you might say.

[965] Yeah, that's right.

[966] Yeah, that's really encouraging to me. All right, so you're in Ottawa, and we're all watching this from the outside.

[967] I was on tour and with Tammy at that time.

[968] we would have liked to have come to Ottawa.

[969] I did speak at one of the events electronically.

[970] And so what we're watching from the outside and what we see from the outside is that despite the fact that you're being painted as misogynist, racist, bigot, mega, Confederate flag -wearing fascists, there's like no violence.

[971] There's children there.

[972] The bloody government conspired to threaten the truckers with the removal of their children, which that was one of the most reprehensible acts I'd ever seen a Canadian government commit.

[973] It might be number one.

[974] Freezing your bank accounts.

[975] that'd be the contender for top place.

[976] But the idea that the government would threaten those protesters with the removal of their children by social services, that was like they were crossing the line in a big way there, boy.

[977] But that's what they did the whole time.

[978] It was all constant provocation.

[979] And what did the OPP have to do with?

[980] The OPP were absolutely amazing.

[981] The Ontario Police Department.

[982] Yeah, the Ontario Provincial Police.

[983] Yes, yes.

[984] So obviously right away, when we recognized before we left, how much support we were getting.

[985] You know, I said, we need to let our local police departments know when we're coming through so that they can make arrangements and everything.

[986] And so that's what we did.

[987] And the OPP were just the most amazing organization to deal with.

[988] They were very organized.

[989] They were professional.

[990] They were polite.

[991] They were supportive.

[992] And I firmly believe if we could have dealt with the OPP for the whole duration of this thing, it would not have ended the way that it did.

[993] And out of the inquiry, what I learned was besides the OPP, OPP, we were the most organized and professional organization out of the mall.

[994] Well, you were a right wing.

[995] Those left wingers, they have a hard time organizing.

[996] These right wingers were pretty good at keeping things straight.

[997] Yeah, that's right.

[998] And they were just, they were wonderful.

[999] And we had a phone call from a gentleman called Officer Pierre.

[1000] He was, I think he was French, but he was OPP.

[1001] The night after the raids, because the first thing they did was they raided Coventry.

[1002] which was where we had a lot of supplies and donations and a lot of trucks parked, and they went in there.

[1003] And they is who?

[1004] The Ottawa City Police.

[1005] They had snipers on the roof, and they stole food, they stole fuel, they stole firewood, whatever they could take, basically.

[1006] Now remember, this is minus 30 in Ottawa.

[1007] Right.

[1008] Yeah, I lived there.

[1009] It's cold in February.

[1010] It is cold.

[1011] It is colder than it is in Alberta, really.

[1012] It's cold.

[1013] Minus 30 is cold.

[1014] You don't blast out.

[1015] very long, like 30.

[1016] About half an hour.

[1017] And then they started taking the jerry cans, which is when, I mean, this is the beautiful thing, like I was saying last night, about Canadians.

[1018] He calls us a fringe minority.

[1019] What to Canadians do?

[1020] Everyone's got a t -shirt or a tattoo or a hat or a bumper sticker.

[1021] Like, they owned it.

[1022] Like, now we're proudly the fringe minority.

[1023] Right.

[1024] And they said they were going to, they were going to confiscate jerry cans.

[1025] And so Canadians came out in hordes with empty jerry cans.

[1026] Yes.

[1027] And was that spontaneous?

[1028] Totally spontaneous.

[1029] Nobody organized that.

[1030] They just started showing up.

[1031] Some of them were empty.

[1032] Some of them were full of water.

[1033] Some of them had fuel in them.

[1034] Because they were threatening to start charging people that were bringing it in with mischief.

[1035] Yeah.

[1036] And again, Canadians just took that and ran with it.

[1037] You know, that's, it was just a bit.

[1038] They even had a jerry can fashion show on the stage, you know.

[1039] So it was brilliant.

[1040] So now what's happening as the protest progresses, what's the mood in downtown Ottawa and what's actually going on?

[1041] You have a center stage or a couple of center stages set up and there's people speaking.

[1042] Tell us a little bit about what you would have experienced being there.

[1043] It was like Canada Day on steroids.

[1044] It was the most beautiful, loving, healing atmosphere ever.

[1045] I mean, strangers were hugging and crying on each other's shoulders, and people were singing, oh, Canada, and, you know, flying our flags so proudly, finally.

[1046] It was a beautiful, beautiful atmosphere, which was not what the mainstream media, of course, was reporting.

[1047] But it was very jubilant, very happy.

[1048] The thing that struck me the most, though, was, you know, people would come up to me and hug me and cry on my shoulder and tell me their story and, you know, thank us for what we were doing.

[1049] but it was the immigrants who, when they came up to me, had this look of desperation in their eyes, like nothing I have ever seen before.

[1050] It was gut -wrenching, you know, because they've lived through this.

[1051] They've watched all these signs.

[1052] Now are they from?

[1053] They escaped Poland, Russia, Iran, Romania, Eastern Europe, China, you know.

[1054] People under despotism.

[1055] That's right.

[1056] People that have escaped communists.

[1057] countries.

[1058] And I'm telling you, the look in their eyes was...

[1059] And we've seen that look in Eastern Europe plenty.

[1060] Yes.

[1061] Yeah, because the Eastern Europeans, they're not very happy with all the woke nonsense they see enveloping the West.

[1062] Yes.

[1063] You know, when we've gone through Eastern Europe, they tell us consistently.

[1064] It's like, what the hell are you people doing?

[1065] Don't you know what that did for us for 70 years?

[1066] You're walking down exactly the same pathway.

[1067] How can you possibly be so blind?

[1068] It's like...

[1069] Yeah.

[1070] Yeah, well, they remember, man. Communism.

[1071] Yeah.

[1072] Let's do it again.

[1073] Yeah, let's do it again.

[1074] That was particularly Germain in Albania, because that was the worst of the communist countries.

[1075] They were under lockdown until 1992.

[1076] That's only 30 years ago.

[1077] Yeah, they found a, they found a hundred room bunker, like a hundred yards, an underground hundred room bunker, 100 yards away from their parliament building.

[1078] Five years ago.

[1079] Under the main square.

[1080] Under the main square.

[1081] That no one even knew that was there that the department, that the defense minister had had built in secret at the height of the, of the, of the, of the, of the, of the, in Albania, that Albania was the center country of the world and that everyone was just waiting to invade because everyone wanted what the Albanians had.

[1082] We went out on a boat into the ocean along the Albanian coast, and we could see these little things that looked like small adobe houses up in the hills.

[1083] And I asked what those were, yeah, well, you couldn't see them because they were.

[1084] Three -quarters the way up the mountains.

[1085] They were tunnels into the mountain.

[1086] So they spent all their nation's money on underground tunnels and tunnels into the mountain because they had to be careful because the world was after them.

[1087] And then the people of the country had nothing, nothing.

[1088] That's communism.

[1089] Yeah, yeah, Albania.

[1090] Well, they remember fear, fear and tyranny, boy.

[1091] That's for sure, all under the guise of compassion and morality, yeah, which is the epidemic we're facing in the West.

[1092] Well, it is.

[1093] I mean, we're basically crafting legislation and policy on hurt feelings.

[1094] Yeah, yeah, yeah, for false moral reasons.

[1095] All right, so you're having a big celebration.

[1096] Ottawa, and the legacy media are trying to paint you as misogynists and fascists and bigots, and so is the putative leader of Canada.

[1097] And the, and you actually manage, God only knows how you did this, to keep that entire enterprise both peaceful and positive, right?

[1098] And I know I've talked to B .J. Dichter about this a fair bit, too, that that was actually a conscious aim, that, that you did everything you could.

[1099] The organizers did everything could.

[1100] They could.

[1101] And I believe the truckers themselves did this spontaneously to ensure that they were going to remain respectful to people in authority and to the general public and to the businesses that they frequented.

[1102] I know that the crime rate in Ottawa fell during the trucker convoy.

[1103] There were no overdose deaths in downtown Ottawa.

[1104] Yeah.

[1105] People had hope again just for a while.

[1106] Well, and they were sharing food too.

[1107] The streets were clean.

[1108] There was no garbage on the streets.

[1109] It was my dad, I didn't meet this gentleman myself, but my dad told me the story of this homeless man that had gone up to one of the food tents.

[1110] And they were feeding him every day.

[1111] And he asked if he could stay in there because it was warm.

[1112] They had heaters.

[1113] And they said, you are welcome to stay here as long as we're here, provided you do not drink.

[1114] No drugs in here.

[1115] No drugs, period.

[1116] And you have to help out.

[1117] And when they left, he said that that was the first time that he felt like he belonged somewhere.

[1118] Yeah, I bet.

[1119] He had a purpose.

[1120] Yeah.

[1121] Right.

[1122] Yeah, well, you can't live without a purpose.

[1123] Yes.

[1124] All right, so what happens now?

[1125] What happens?

[1126] Walk us through the crackdown.

[1127] Now, I was talking to Dichter, in particular, around the time when the convoy was starting to, when a lot of pressure was starting to be put on the convoy.

[1128] I know you guys were really trying to figure out, should you stay, should you go, had you accomplished your goals.

[1129] So what's the atmosphere?

[1130] Now, the government's starting to crack down.

[1131] Walk us through that and then walk us through the decision -making process.

[1132] that you engaged in when you decided to, well, to what, to bring it to an end, I suppose?

[1133] Yes.

[1134] We didn't decide to bring it to an end.

[1135] That was the government.

[1136] Okay.

[1137] So very quickly right away, well, I recognized even on the way there that we were going to need lawyers.

[1138] Every time the finance committee would say, it's almost at another million, you've got to bump it up another million.

[1139] And so I would bump it up on the thing.

[1140] But, I mean, it was bittersweet because I would be so excited.

[1141] excited.

[1142] Like we were taking in a million dollars a day at that point, but at the same time I would just get sicker and sicker to my stomach.

[1143] Because I knew when you're talking about millions of dollars, the lawyers are coming.

[1144] And boy, was I right.

[1145] And so very quickly after we got to Ottawa, we contacted the JCCF and they flew in five lawyers, two of them which stayed with us on the ground.

[1146] My husband was on that flight as well.

[1147] And the JCCF is?

[1148] The Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms, a charitable organization, civil and that's the organization that gave you an award two years ago yes yes that's right the george Jonas Freedom Award last summer yeah right last summer yeah there was legal trouble around you accepting that too wasn't there i had to go to court to ask well that's pretty funny that you had to go to court in Canada to go accept a freedom award that makes perfect sense yeah because i was banned from Ontario like banned from Ontario I'm going to do a cover of that yeah you should You should do that, definitely.

[1149] Which is hilarious.

[1150] I know a lot of people that are trying to get out of Ontario.

[1151] I don't know a lot of people that are trying to get into Ontario.

[1152] But anyways, yeah, so we had to go to court and have a hearing so that we could have those amended so that I could attend.

[1153] And also, my youngest daughter was going to go to university in Ottawa.

[1154] So, I mean, I was having a bit of a tough time being banned from Ottawa also.

[1155] So we had that all changed.

[1156] All right.

[1157] we're talking about what's happening as the government starts to crack down on the convoy.

[1158] So we got the lawyers there right away.

[1159] How does the pressure start to mouth?

[1160] Yes.

[1161] Well, there was always pressure because there was always rumors.

[1162] I mean, this is the great thing about having people like Danny Bullford there and Tom Quaghan and Thomas O 'Connor because they were able to disseminate like what was factual and what was just wild rumors.

[1163] I mean, right from day one, we were hearing they were coming to arrest us.

[1164] We were going to be raided.

[1165] It was every day.

[1166] So what led to that was we get there in the city of Ottawa, it puts on a state of emergency.

[1167] Right, right.

[1168] And we're like, okay, what does that mean?

[1169] And really all I saw was little groups of cops standing around doing nothing, turn into slightly bigger groups of cops standing around doing nothing.

[1170] Then Doug Ford invoked the state of emergency for the province of Ontario.

[1171] Same thing.

[1172] I just saw this group of cops standing around doing nothing, turn into a bigger group of cops standing around doing nothing.

[1173] So when he invoked the emergency act.

[1174] Well, that could be worse.

[1175] Yes.

[1176] That could be worse.

[1177] Yeah.

[1178] So when he invoked the Emergencies Act, I personally didn't even know it to expect.

[1179] Federally.

[1180] I mean, I thought it was ridiculous.

[1181] There was definitely no threat to the security of Canada.

[1182] We were in Ottawa.

[1183] Right, and that's supposed to be a last ditch move by the federal government in the case of, like, serious civil war -like violent insurrection, right?

[1184] This is...

[1185] Sabotage or espionage.

[1186] When you step outside the constitutional limits, right?

[1187] This is to be used extraordinarily sparingly, right?

[1188] under the only the most dire of circumstances, and yet he announced it because Ottawa residents were being traumatized by honking, which had already been brought to a halt, right?

[1189] Many, many days previously.

[1190] And Chris Barber said, well, we embarrassed him.

[1191] And I said, no, we didn't.

[1192] We just handed him a platform, and he embarrassed himself.

[1193] But he backed himself into a corner.

[1194] And he ran out of the city when you guys showed up, too, didn't he?

[1195] Yes.

[1196] They skirted him out of the city for his safety.

[1197] We found out he was...

[1198] Didn't he say.

[1199] He had COVID?

[1200] If I remember correctly?

[1201] He was exposed to COVID.

[1202] He was exposed to COVID.

[1203] First of all he came out and called us racists.

[1204] Then he came out with his big fringe minority with unacceptable views.

[1205] Then all of a sudden, he had been exposed to somebody that had COVID, even though he was three times vaccinated.

[1206] Then all of a sudden, he's skirted out of Ottawa for his safety.

[1207] And like I was just saying, we found out after he was skiing in the Laurentians.

[1208] Just ludicrous.

[1209] Like, who does that?

[1210] It was obviously time to go skiing.

[1211] Yes, that's very important.

[1212] In the state of emergency.

[1213] Yes, yes.

[1214] Doug Ford was also snowmobiling during that time, too.

[1215] So they were obviously very concerned, very concerned.

[1216] And, I mean, the pressure just started getting more and more intense.

[1217] And the irony of the invocation of the Emergencies Act was that Keith Wilson, myself, and my husband were on our way to go meet with the Honorable Mr. Brian Peckford.

[1218] And on the way over, we heard on the radio that.

[1219] Justin Trudeau was going to be invoking the Emergencies Act.

[1220] So imagine that moment.

[1221] We walked in and Keith told Mr. Peckford about that and he just sort of like sat in his chair.

[1222] Right, and Peckford was one of the creators of the act that actually put the potential for the powers for the Emergency Act in place and has stated very publicly that the Trudeau government by no means or by no stretch of the imagination had encountered a situation that necessitated what the original framers of that documented document would have considered a genuine emergency yeah so i mean just he just went full on nuclear and that's when the bank accounts were yes that's right 200 canadians right 280 canadian citizens had their money stolen mothers were stuck at the grocery store till unable to pay for their groceries families were unable to buy medicine for their children They couldn't pay mortgages.

[1223] People couldn't pay or receive their child support.

[1224] There was no parliamentary oversight.

[1225] There was no court order from a judge.

[1226] Christopher Freeland couldn't do it fast enough.

[1227] I mean, she was giggling like a schoolgirl when she announced it, which was appalling.

[1228] The evidence that came out at the inquiry was that she wanted to label us as terrorists so she could seize our assets.

[1229] It was disgusting.

[1230] And so I'm doing a lot of American media right now to promote my book, and that's one of the things I always say, is that this isn't just a story for Canada.

[1231] This is important.

[1232] Because if they can do it in Canada, the most peaceful, passive, and polite country on the planet, it can happen anywhere.

[1233] And it will happen.

[1234] Yeah, well, I know one of the things we did learn traveling around, I think Tammy and I have been in like 250 cities, something like that in the last two years.

[1235] And Canadians have no idea what the bank account thefts in particular did to Canada's international reputation.

[1236] Yes.

[1237] I mean, first of all, I think Trudeau is regarded around the world as the worst leader of the G7 by a large margin.

[1238] And I would say, especially in Eastern Europe, that's true among those on the left as well as those in the center and on the right.

[1239] And the most egregious error he made was taking bank accounts.

[1240] Like, people cannot believe that happened and certainly not that it happened in Canada.

[1241] Right?

[1242] That was just an absolute shock of an absolute 100 % violation of trust in the government, but also trust in Canada's banking industry and in the separation of the banking industry from the government, which is something we want to keep separate.

[1243] Like, we really want to keep that separate.

[1244] Well, they're not.

[1245] So, no, no, that's for sure.

[1246] Well, wait until the digital currencies hit.

[1247] Not one single president of any bank stood up and said no. Yeah, I think, was it one of the banks apologized later?

[1248] Yes, you're right.

[1249] I think it was the Bank of Nova Scotia.

[1250] Yeah, I think it was the Bank of Nova Scotia.

[1251] I apologize.

[1252] Well, I'm sorry, an apology doesn't cut it.

[1253] No, that's for sure.

[1254] Where were you guys when they should have been standing up and saying, no, we need, like, a court order from a judge or anything?

[1255] No, we need, like, ten court orders for judges.

[1256] Right, this isn't something we do overnight because we kowtow to the tyrants in Ottawa.

[1257] Exactly.

[1258] That's for sure.

[1259] But it was intimidation.

[1260] Yeah, what was the rush to close the bank accounts?

[1261] Yeah, well, everything's an emergency.

[1262] Yeah.

[1263] Yeah, yeah.

[1264] All right, so things start to get tense in Ottawa.

[1265] And how does that play out on the ground?

[1266] Well, a lot of people started leaving because they were threatening to take insurance and seize vehicles, like...

[1267] And children.

[1268] And take the children.

[1269] Pets.

[1270] Again, back to the provocation.

[1271] Yeah, they were going to come take pets.

[1272] Take those pets.

[1273] They tried really everything that they could.

[1274] And so a lot of people started leaving, which we were encouraging, because we didn't want...

[1275] We didn't know it was coming.

[1276] I mean, I never in my wildest dreams imagined that was coming, but we didn't want anyone to get arrested or lose their jobs.

[1277] I mean, these people have suffered enough.

[1278] Right.

[1279] And I remember the Wednesday, the Wednesday before I was arrested, I was at the Sherrod and a group of our core people started leaving.

[1280] And a Quebec mother, one of the road captains, was taking off.

[1281] And we said a very tearful goodbye.

[1282] And I went up to my room and I was upset crying because we were saying goodbye to, these people became our family.

[1283] And I reached into my pocket.

[1284] And of course, every time I was on the hill, like people were literally stuffing money into my freedom pants.

[1285] I called them my freedom pants.

[1286] And I was like, oh my God, so I ran back downstairs and I just gave her everything I had.

[1287] And we said another tearful goodbye.

[1288] My dad had come into town with my sister.

[1289] They'd brought some supplies, and they were also picking up my other sister.

[1290] And we were at the Swiss Hotel, and I remember dad said, well, we're going to...

[1291] My sister wanted to go to Gattano because she'd never been to Quebec.

[1292] and I said, no. Dad was like, well, we'll get a room and then we'll leave in the morning.

[1293] And I said, you guys need to get as far away from here as you can now.

[1294] And I started walking upstairs, and I remember I turned around, and I just said, I love you, dad.

[1295] That's when the rumors were flying that you evil truckers were going to regroup somewhere outside of Ottawa in preparation to retake the city.

[1296] Yes, that's right.

[1297] Which is something, you know, that I find a little bit odd that they don't give us credit for.

[1298] especially after what came out of the inquiry.

[1299] I mean, we outnumbered and overpowered them.

[1300] If we had been there with an agenda to take over Ottawa and overthrow the government, we could have done it.

[1301] They were not prepared.

[1302] The Ottawa City Police was in a shambles, an absolute shambles.

[1303] I mean, one hand didn't know what the other one was doing.

[1304] And would that happen to us in real time?

[1305] A liaison officer comes to the Swiss to deliver a message and halfway through his message, we're like, what?

[1306] Because we had a different message.

[1307] he gets on his phone and finds out it was the wrong message.

[1308] Like, this is happening right in front of us.

[1309] Oh, wow.

[1310] The ineptitude of that organization was stunning.

[1311] Right, and you're saying that in contrast to the Ontario.

[1312] Yes, they were amazing.

[1313] What do you think the difference was?

[1314] Like, why do you think it was so inept in Ottawa but working at the Ontario level?

[1315] I don't know.

[1316] Bureaucracy.

[1317] Yeah, but they're both bureaucratic, right?

[1318] One woke bureaucracy.

[1319] When maybe not so woke?

[1320] Maybe, maybe.

[1321] Yeah, maybe.

[1322] Sounds like it to me because the, the, the, the, the, the, the, Clowniness, the clowniness of that, sounds woke.

[1323] Yeah, right, right, right.

[1324] Yes, I think that's a large part of it.

[1325] And, I mean, Chief Slowly, who was the police chief at that time, was having a lot of problems internally with his people not listening to him.

[1326] Yeah, well, no wonder.

[1327] When you listen to him publicly, you thought, well, there's someone that no one should listen to.

[1328] Yeah, you're right.

[1329] But you know what?

[1330] I did get to go up to him at the inquiry, and I shook his hand, and I said, thank you for your service.

[1331] and I'm sorry for the fallout that's happened to you because I believe he did the best he could.

[1332] He was under a lot of pressure.

[1333] Did he do and say a lot of the right things?

[1334] Absolutely not.

[1335] But this is very telling.

[1336] There's six weeks of testimony at the inquiry.

[1337] Justin Trudeau, Christopher, and Marka Mendocino, David Lemini, all these clowns, sorry, all these members of parliament, were on the stand and examined for about two hours.

[1338] Peter slowly was on the stand for two days.

[1339] Two days.

[1340] So he was being scapegoated.

[1341] Yeah, yeah.

[1342] He was being scapegoated.

[1343] And I remember the day that he announced his resignation.

[1344] Everybody in the room was just cheering and celebrating, and they thought this was excellent that this chief, and I was, peace and I are like, this is not good.

[1345] Number one, a man just lost his entire career today.

[1346] And number two, what's coming next is going to be worse.

[1347] And we were right.

[1348] so it was very intense lots of people were leaving we were saying a lot of goodbyes and um i went and did the video the night before because i was we were pretty sure we were going to be arrested and i wasn't going to leave like how could i leave i wasn't going to leave all those people there you know that's my perspective i mean i don't mean to sound cliche but i mean the captain goes down with a ship.

[1349] So we made plans.

[1350] We got some people out of the Swiss hotel because we thought if we're going down, we need someone to keep the ship afloat.

[1351] So I sent Keith and Eva to a different hotel.

[1352] We sent the accountant somewhere else and some other people somewhere else.

[1353] And I'd been walking around the last few days there seeing these F. Trudeau flags and people yelling at reporters.

[1354] And while I do believe that, we were all justifiably angry, my perspective is we can't win, we can't meet hate with hate.

[1355] And that was my message from the start.

[1356] We can only do this peacefully.

[1357] We can only do this coming from a place of love in our hearts, no matter what you think.

[1358] And it was upsetting me. So I went up and I did that last video and discussed that.

[1359] You know, I just said, please remember that Justin Trudeau has three kids that have that same last name.

[1360] And just like I have three kids.

[1361] And my kids are waking up to see me called horrible names.

[1362] One of them woke up to read that I was dead in jail.

[1363] Yeah, really.

[1364] Not at that point, obviously.

[1365] But, you know, this is the stuff that they were seeing.

[1366] And I was, and I'm just thinking, like, think of them.

[1367] Even if you hate him, think of them.

[1368] Think of those reporters that are out there.

[1369] I mean, doing a terrible job.

[1370] I mean, they're probably just trying to feed their families, is what I said.

[1371] And I don't think that's an excuse.

[1372] They can.

[1373] They can.

[1374] They can.

[1375] I agree.

[1376] I agree.

[1377] But I get your point.

[1378] Yes.

[1379] And yeah, and then I was pretty sure that I was going to be arrested.

[1380] And sure enough, the next day.

[1381] The next day, yeah.

[1382] And what was that like to be arrested?

[1383] Well, for somebody that's never even been in Facebook jail before, it was quite an eye -opening experience.

[1384] I spent the evening at the police station in the cells there, which was awful.

[1385] I'd spent the day walking around with a veteran.

[1386] talking to people and signing flags or whatever, just talking with people, listening to their stories.

[1387] And so by the time we got back to the Swiss, I was quite damp and cold.

[1388] And then Danny and I made the decision to go out and turn ourselves in after Chris had been arrested.

[1389] Number one, the lady that owns that hotel.

[1390] And had you been charged at that point?

[1391] So why did you turn yourselves in?

[1392] Because they arrested Chris.

[1393] We knew that they were looking for organizers.

[1394] We turned ourselves in because we didn't want them coming to the Swiss hotel because she's such a sweet woman.

[1395] We saved her from bankruptcy.

[1396] She was two weeks away from bankruptcy when we showed up.

[1397] We saved her business.

[1398] My husband and Danny's wife were both at the Swiss hotel and I can't even imagine the trauma of having to witness something like that.

[1399] I mean, I had it easy.

[1400] I was in jail.

[1401] It's the people around me that really suffered, the people that cared about me that really suffered.

[1402] I'm fine.

[1403] I was fine.

[1404] I mean, was it great?

[1405] No, it sucked.

[1406] But I, you know, I prayed.

[1407] I just said, okay, God, we've exposed so much.

[1408] You're obviously not done with me yet.

[1409] And if this is my job, it's thy will, not my will.

[1410] And one foot in front of the other, you just keep on keeping on.

[1411] I knew it wasn't going to last ever.

[1412] You guys, maybe we should, because we're starting to encroach on the end of our time, maybe we should talk about what the trucker convo.

[1413] accomplished.

[1414] So let me lay out some of the things I saw and then please, please, you know, elaborate.

[1415] So, well, first of all, it was a model for a peaceful demonstration of great magnitude, well -organized under a tremendous amount of duress, right?

[1416] And in an inhospitable climate, literally speaking, and an inhospitable political climate, right, under assault by the lying legacy media and by the top leaders of the country, right?

[1417] So that's all quite something.

[1418] And yet it was extremely peaceful.

[1419] not so peaceful that it was impossible for the people who were trying to pillory you to even find single events that weren't entirely fabricated that indicated that anyone there at all was causing any untoward trouble.

[1420] And that was always what I was looking for, because I thought you guys would be infiltrated by, like, that the wingnuts would show up sooner or later.

[1421] But we mitigated that.

[1422] That's what I was saying.

[1423] It was like C &E, fill and Eid, you know.

[1424] Antifa came in right away, so we set up block captains and they would do patrols to make sure that the people were safe in their trucks, so they'd walk the streets.

[1425] Right, so you had jobs for them?

[1426] I mean, that's what I'm saying.

[1427] And that worked with Antifa.

[1428] Pardon me?

[1429] That worked with Antifa.

[1430] Yep, yep.

[1431] So they just need something to do.

[1432] Yeah.

[1433] That's really not that surprising.

[1434] Yeah, exactly.

[1435] But the superintendent of intelligence for the OPP testified at the inquiry that the lack of violence was shocking.

[1436] His words.

[1437] He also testified.

[1438] that what he was hearing coming from the media and from our politicians did not match with the intelligence that they were getting off the ground.

[1439] So again, Lion Mendocino is up there every day talking about how violent we were and on and on and on.

[1440] Like we're rapists and arsonists and insurrectionists.

[1441] And it was all a lie.

[1442] The night they arrested those two guys in that apartment, they knew.

[1443] They knew the night they were arrested and they weren't with the convoy.

[1444] The arsonists.

[1445] Yeah, yeah.

[1446] And that's never been properly investigated.

[1447] and described in the Canadian media.

[1448] Well, it's going to be.

[1449] It's going to be.

[1450] Where were they arrested?

[1451] I'm going to make sure these guys are held accountable.

[1452] Where were they arrested?

[1453] In Ottawa.

[1454] So there's those two guys that were trying to burn the apartment building down.

[1455] To lock the doors and to build you.

[1456] And a lady walks by, apparently, sees these guys.

[1457] I mean, it's all documented on Twitter.

[1458] I've got all of them.

[1459] So a lady comes into the apartment building, sees these guys trying to light a fire, and then goes up to her apartment.

[1460] Yeah.

[1461] Right.

[1462] Glenn McGregor was first on the scene.

[1463] He was there before the police were called.

[1464] Yeah, that was quite the state of affairs.

[1465] Just an absolute bloody, what, lie from beginning to end.

[1466] Really, really quite stunning.

[1467] All right, so you managed this extremely peaceful demonstration that was broadcast intently around the world despite all of the legacy media lies, and that's all they did pretty much was lie about it.

[1468] Yes.

[1469] And that was a model for people around the world.

[1470] I think I know for a fact, because I've talked to the Dutch farmer organizers that the Canadian protests were, what would you say?

[1471] Inspiring, inspirational, yeah, and that's happened in many countries.

[1472] And I think it's also given the Dutch farmer's heart, and that's produced somewhat of a political transformation in Holland, or in the Netherlands, which is a really big deal.

[1473] And then there were radical changes in Canadian policy after the trucker convoy ended.

[1474] And so, well, let's talk about what you've faced right at the end.

[1475] I mean, we saw a footage of the police come riding in with horses, and we saw, you said, we talked last night about the woman who was trampled by the police.

[1476] You want to talk about her for a moment?

[1477] Yes, I was just fortunate enough to spend the weekend with her and Chaba Vizi too.

[1478] Candy was a carnival worker here in Ontario, and she was there protesting peacefully.

[1479] She's, I can't remember the reserve she's from, she's Mohawk.

[1480] And she was there with her walker, and they trampled her.

[1481] And she's got a broken clavicle, which has not been addressed yet.

[1482] Well, she needs help, right?

[1483] So she's unable to work right now, clearly traumatized.

[1484] You know, it was devastating what they did.

[1485] And also Chaba, who is just one of many, was surrendered peacefully, came out of his truck, and was badly, badly beaten.

[1486] He had broken.

[1487] He had broken.

[1488] He had broken bones in his neck.

[1489] He had a broken wrist, internal bleeding.

[1490] Didn't you say they were kneeing him?

[1491] Yes.

[1492] There's footage.

[1493] I've sent it to you guys.

[1494] There's footage.

[1495] Yeah, he surrendered peacefully, and you can see these cops, like literally, with all their might, kneeing this guy in the back.

[1496] It was atrocious.

[1497] And he surrendered peacefully.

[1498] It's not like he was resisting arrest.

[1499] I mean, we had all talked with Danny.

[1500] We all knew what to expect if they are going to arrest you.

[1501] Don't resist.

[1502] Tell them who you are, like, identify yourself, and then that's all you have to do.

[1503] Just go.

[1504] So, and then a lot of these people were arrested, handcuffed, left in cold transport units, or paddy wagons for hours, driven out to the outskirts of Ottawa, and dropped off in a snowstorm.

[1505] No way.

[1506] Way.

[1507] Way.

[1508] Wow.

[1509] Really.

[1510] Thankfully, Melissa McKee from Biker's Church and her husband, who were just the most beautiful.

[1511] beautiful people.

[1512] They were very involved in, like, their church was like a sanctuary.

[1513] And so what she'd been doing was a lot of the people that she knew, she would have them write her number on their arm and their lawyer's number on their arm.

[1514] So when that happened, or if that happened, they could call.

[1515] Because, I mean, a lot of these people, they don't know anybody there.

[1516] You know, if I got dropped off on the outskirts of Ottawa, I would have no idea where to go.

[1517] If I had no cell phone or, you know.

[1518] So in the aftermath of the truck or convoy, now the, the conservative party essentially shattered itself, which wasn't the goal of the convoy, right?

[1519] But we became the official, the unofficial, official opposition.

[1520] Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[1521] What else do you think the convoy accomplished?

[1522] It restored, oh, this makes me cry.

[1523] I don't know why this always makes me cry.

[1524] People were proud to be Canadian again.

[1525] The two words that I heard the most, the first one was hope coming all across Canada.

[1526] was the number one word I heard and the second one was pride.

[1527] Yeah, hope that's a hard thing to give people.

[1528] I mean, I myself, Canada Day was always one of my most favorite holidays until the last few years and I just quit going.

[1529] But I mean, I was the one that would always take my kids to the fireworks.

[1530] Like, this is important, you know?

[1531] I grew up being fascinated watching the Americans and their passion for their country and their flag and I was always fascinated by that.

[1532] Yeah, Americans are very good at that sort of thing.

[1533] Yes, but there was never that sense here.

[1534] And so that was my first experience, imagining what that must be like.

[1535] So, and I think we opened a lot of eyes.

[1536] Like, I do believe...

[1537] Well, and a lot of the COVID tyranny started to fall apart in the aftermath of the truck or convoy, and it was certainly might.

[1538] Well, it should have been a super spreader event.

[1539] We should have all been dead of COVID.

[1540] Right, right.

[1541] I couldn't tell you one person I know there that got COVID or had COVID.

[1542] Yeah, well, it was more like a super spreader event that took down the COVID tyranny, right?

[1543] Because things really did start to open up after that.

[1544] And I know the politicians denied that there was any connection, but it was pretty bloody obvious that there was a connection.

[1545] So that was really heartening to see.

[1546] You know, because, you know, one of the things to remember is that, well...

[1547] That might have been the thing.

[1548] Who knows, right?

[1549] Because we toyed with totalitarianism for two years.

[1550] Like, we seriously toyed with it.

[1551] And then we walked back from the brink.

[1552] That's what it looks like.

[1553] To me, if you want to read it optimistically, I mean, a pessimist would say, well, maybe we didn't have to toy with totalitarianism to begin with.

[1554] And fair enough, but sometimes people have to be hit pretty hard in the back of the head before they wake up.

[1555] And it is possible that we woke up and we'll decide not to go down that road.

[1556] And I think that if that's the case, then the trucker convoy played a signal role in that.

[1557] And that's not nothing.

[1558] You know, that's extraordinarily important.

[1559] You know, and that's pretty funny if that's, at least, in part of consequence of your decision that, you know, maybe you had some responsibility too, despite the fact, you know, like, what the hell do you know and you're just another person?

[1560] There might be more to be in just another person than people think.

[1561] Yes.

[1562] Well, I think Chris Barber said it best, and we were still traveling to Ottawa in the convoy at this time, and he was on the radio, and we were just talking, or he was talking with other truckers about, I don't even know what was waiting for us or what we were going to accomplish, and he said, we've already won guys.

[1563] And he was right.

[1564] Like, people came out and came together, and, you know, there's a gentleman that did a blog out of North Bay, and he, in his blog, he said, it was so dark, like it was, everyone had the sense before we started that they couldn't last one more week.

[1565] So this gentleman in North Bay had done a blog, and in this blog, he said, he said, there was a sense that people could not go on even one more week.

[1566] Like, this was dark times, really dark times.

[1567] And nobody called anybody.

[1568] Nobody organized any groups of people to go out.

[1569] People just got up and got their families up off their couch, and they went out to the side of the road.

[1570] and then when they got to the road, there was all these other people there are thousands of people there.

[1571] And I can imagine the darkness.

[1572] That's right.

[1573] Yeah, it's cold, man. Cold, yeah.

[1574] This is quite when it's cold, yeah.

[1575] But all of a sudden there's all these people there and they're like, they didn't feel alone anymore and they didn't feel like they were going crazy because that's how I felt sometimes.

[1576] I was like how.

[1577] What the hell is going on?

[1578] How can you guys not see what is going on here?

[1579] Like, am I the only person seeing this?

[1580] And so it was.

[1581] just so, it was just so beautiful.

[1582] It was honestly the most beautiful show of humanity I've ever seen, and Canadians did what they do.

[1583] We had more donations than we knew what to do with.

[1584] We were taking food to as far away as Sudbury to the food banks, because there were so much.

[1585] You know, out at the farms, we had the little outposts.

[1586] I mean, there was dog food, lip chap, gloves, tampons, everything.

[1587] There was everything under the sun that Canadians just donated in droves.

[1588] You know, and that's the Canada that I grew up in.

[1589] Yeah, well, maybe we'll hang on to our freedom.

[1590] You never know.

[1591] It's possible.

[1592] We're going to find out over the next decade, that's for sure, because we're really toying with things on both ends at the moment.

[1593] But, yeah, well, it was heartening to see this happen.

[1594] And while it was heartening to see its effect, for example, in the Netherlands, that's a big deal, right?

[1595] That's what the Dutch farmers are doing there.

[1596] That's everybody in the world should have their attention focused on that because that's battlefield central.

[1597] These local battles aren't local at all.

[1598] And that's why so much international attention was focused on the Canadian trucker convoy at that point too, you know, because everyone had the sense that this is about more than, well, it's about more than Canada, that's for sure.

[1599] And it's about more than the, you know, local concerns of a handful of misogynists, bigots, and Confederate flag -waving fascists, that's for sure.

[1600] Well, I mean, never before did we quarantine the healthy to protect the vulnerable.

[1601] Yeah.

[1602] never before yeah yeah well and and and and and and as a consequence we've produced a tremendous amount of damage and it'll take decades really to sort out exactly the cost of all that yeah well I deal with that I have a I have a daughter that has developed a drinking problem she suffers she can't drive from Manitoba to Medicine Hat without having two panic attacks.

[1603] She's depressed.

[1604] I mean, her graduation consisted of her putting on a gown and a mask and having a photo taken.

[1605] Her graduation for a girl.

[1606] Yeah, we took a log from those kids, boy.

[1607] Yes, that's for sure.

[1608] Do you know, that's your whole school life is getting ready for that one moment.

[1609] Yeah.

[1610] And then she went and did a semester at the university in Calgary locked in her right.

[1611] I mean, she should have been going to pubs.

[1612] At full tuition.

[1613] At full tuition.

[1614] Let's not forget that.

[1615] Yes.

[1616] Yeah, that was the university's contribution to the totalitarian catastrophe.

[1617] It's like, well, we won't actually offer you any services, but we'll take your money.

[1618] Yes.

[1619] Cute.

[1620] Well, look, we can end this with some hope.

[1621] You know, the trucker convoy did accomplish a lot, and we didn't get a chance to talk to you about what you're facing now in the future.

[1622] Maybe we'll do that on the Daily Wire Plus side.

[1623] For those of you who are watching and listening, thank you very much for your time and attention.

[1624] And to the Daily Wire Plus people for arranging this on very short notice, because Tamara just came over for dinner last night.

[1625] We decided to do this then.

[1626] That's very helpful.

[1627] I'm going to talk to Tamara for another half an hour on the DailyWare Plus side, and you guys who are watching and listening, you might consider heading over there and providing them with some support, you know, that YouTube has been on our case, because I'm allied with the Daily Wire folks for better or worse at the moment, and they've really launched, you know, somewhat of a full frontal attack on us in the last couple of weeks, and that's not good.

[1628] And so if you're concerned about that, Well, one thing you can do or think about doing is to provide the DailyWire Plus folks with some support.

[1629] They've been very good partners for me, for whatever that's worth.

[1630] And Tamara, thank you very much for agreeing to talk to us today.

[1631] And Tam, thank you for participating today.

[1632] Thank you.

[1633] Thank you.

[1634] Thank you.

[1635] Yeah, for sure.

[1636] I appreciate it.

[1637] All right, everyone.

[1638] Good.

[1639] Thanks, Lord.

[1640] I don't know.

[1641] And...