Morning Wire XX
[0] Pro -life supporters are outraged after five abortion clinic protesters were convicted under the Face Act and could be sentenced to over a decade in prison.
[1] I think in the end, this case is far from over.
[2] Wire pro -life groups claiming the scales of justice have been weighted against them.
[3] I'm Georgia Howe with Daily Wire editor -in -chief John Bickley.
[4] It's September 2nd, and this is a Saturday edition of Morning Wire.
[5] Reports of hundreds of alleged unmarked mass graves of Native Americans.
[6] children at schools in Canada rocked the country and prompted a flood of headlines.
[7] But a new excavation project casts serious doubt on some of the alarming claims.
[8] We are now concluding the excavation of the 14 locations under the church.
[9] And London residents are rebelling against a newly imposed ultra -low emission zone that's forcing people to pay a stiff fee to drive in the city.
[10] Thanks for waking up with Morning Wire.
[11] Stay tuned.
[12] We have the news you need to know.
[13] That's the sound of a vigil taking place in D .C. for five pro -life activists found guilty on Tuesday of conspiracy and violating the FACE Act.
[14] They face 11 years in prison for protesting at a late -term abortion clinic.
[15] Pro -life groups are calling it a blatant abuse of political power.
[16] Daily Wire culture reporter Megan Basham is here with further details.
[17] So, Megan, we know that the freedom of access to clinic entrances or the Face Act, as it's known, as a Clinton -era law, It criminalizes the use of force or threats of force to prevent someone from accessing an abortion clinic.
[18] What exactly is the basis for these recent charges?
[19] So in 2020, members of two different pro -life groups work together in what they called a rescue action at a Washington, D .C. clinic that offers some late -term abortions.
[20] Pro -lifers typically define that as the second trimester or once a baby can feel pain.
[21] Well, Lauren Handy, the leader of one of those groups, made an appointment under a fake name.
[22] And prosecutors say that when the clinic staff admitted her, other activists entered the building's emergency stairwell, and they then blocked the clinic entrance for over three hours until police were able to arrive and remove them.
[23] Prosecutors also claim that this group caused an ankle injury that required a clinic staffer to be hospitalized.
[24] Well, the Thomas Moore Society, which is representing Handy and the other defendants, disputes this.
[25] They say the activists knelt, they prayed, they passed out pro -life pamphlets, and basically try to persuade women entering the clinic for abortions to leave.
[26] But they do concede that some of the protesters chain themselves together inside that facility.
[27] What they deny is that this prevented anyone from entering.
[28] And one interesting element of this is that this group is actually on the political left, though they are pro -life.
[29] This was handy at a press conference a couple of weeks ago addressing the charges.
[30] I stand today in solidarity with my fellow rescuers.
[31] and in solidarity with Cesari Santagelo's infanticide victims.
[32] I help those babies in my hands when the world tried to shame and belittle me. Extreme acts of violence must be met with bold acts of love.
[33] Ultimately, after a day and a half of deliberation, a D .C. jury found Handy and her other four co -defendants guilty on all counts.
[34] So as John said, they are now facing up to 11 years in prison.
[35] So that sounds like a significant amount of prison time.
[36] Is that comparable to the amount of time that crisis pregnancy center bombers are getting?
[37] Well, there have been more than 60 attacks on pregnancy centers, including, as you said, quite a few fire bombings after that Dobbs ruling.
[38] But we haven't seen that many arrests and certainly no penalties like that.
[39] And that's part of why pro -life groups have been so outraged by these long prison sentence.
[40] Republicans on a House judiciary subcommittee say that the Face Act is being applied unequally.
[41] It is also supposed to protect crisis pregnancy centers, and they say the DOJ is not pursuing charges against groups that have vandalized and threatened those facilities with that same sense of urgency.
[42] Lila Rose, president of live action, minced no words.
[43] She said this sets a horrific precedent for jailing Americans for exercising their First Amendment rights.
[44] Now, my understanding is that the defendant said they were inspired, at least in part, by a video that live action released in 2013.
[45] Is that correct?
[46] Yes, that is correct.
[47] And it showed the head of this clinic saying that if a baby were to survive his abortion attempt, he would not provide it with care.
[48] Now, the judge would not allow that video to be played.
[49] And Rose and some other pro -life activists have accused her of showing bias during the trial in refusing to admit key evidence that the defense wanted.
[50] wanted to have.
[51] In the meantime, Handy and others who were found guilty on these charges are promising to appeal.
[52] They say they'll take their case all the way to the Supreme Court if they need to.
[53] So a second group of defendants is also facing charges from the same incident, and that trial is scheduled to begin next week.
[54] Well, this could be a precedent -setting case.
[55] Megan, thanks for reporting.
[56] Anytime.
[57] Two years ago, reports of hundreds of alleged unmarked mass graves of Native American children at residential schools rocked Canada.
[58] But a recent four -week excavation project at a Catholic church casts serious doubt on some of the allegations.
[59] Here to discuss the latest in the Canadian Mass Graves saga is Daily Wire reporter Amanda Presta Giacomo.
[60] So Amanda, long -time listeners may remember we previously reported on this alleged scandal in Canada involving Catholic churches.
[61] First, remind us of the claims.
[62] Yeah, sure thing.
[63] So the so -called residential schools were a government project to assimilate native children to Western religion and values.
[64] And there was also allegedly some abuse going on at these schools up to and including allegations of murder.
[65] Activists claim the proof of these allegations was buried on the church grounds.
[66] There was also a wave of vandalism against Catholic churches in Canada as a result of these allegations.
[67] Right, backlash against the church.
[68] Now, over the past year or so, there have been multiple investigations, including a recent excavation trying to find these mass graves, what did they find?
[69] So there were recent reports indicating that 14 anomalies were detected by ground -penetrating radar in the basement of Our Lady of Seven Sorrows Church, which sits beside the former Pine Creek Residential School.
[70] Like other reports before this one, the media suggested these anomaly detections were likely the bodies of children who were apparently killed or neglected to death and then secretly buried in these unmarked graves to cover up.
[71] those alleged crimes.
[72] However, the recent excavation at Our Lady of Seven Sorrows thankfully found no evidence at all of human remains.
[73] Here's Native American chief Derek Neepanak of Pine Creek First Nation announcing these findings on social media.
[74] The archaeological team we hired from the University of Brandon, which is the same archaeological team that is relied upon by regional police agencies when doing archaeological excavations, found no conclusive evidence of human remains in their excavation of the ground under the church basement.
[75] All right, so no evidence at all of human remains.
[76] What about earlier investigations that claim to find hundreds of anomalies?
[77] One of the first reports of unmarked graves came out of Kamloops, Canada, by an archaeologist named Dr. Sarah Bolliou.
[78] Her estimate was at first 215 bodies, but that was later downgraded to 200.
[79] And then, and this is really a big deal, it was later clarified that, that anomalies just meant disruptions in the soil, not necessarily bodies.
[80] Critiques of Bolu suggest the archaeologists confuse these alleged shallow graves around the school with 2 ,000 feet of trenches that were dug for the school's septic system.
[81] Bulliou also cited an alleged child's tooth in a ribbone from a juvenile when she was presenting her findings, but that tooth was reportedly found to be non -human, and there are no records of this supposed ribbone.
[82] There were other reports of supposed mass unmarked graves and child remains at other residential schools, but so far, there have been no human remains found at any of these alleged unmarked mass graves.
[83] When these reports first started popping up two years ago, this was a huge global story and certainly the biggest story in Canada.
[84] Why are we seeing so little coverage on this follow -up research?
[85] Well, to a certain extent, it may be embarrassment, but there's also a contingent of true believers who have called these recent revelations, denialism.
[86] We know from our observations of the public at large that our work will feed into a denialist narrative of what happened to our families in residential school.
[87] Now, there have been reports that some government officials have actually wanted to charge people for denialism.
[88] What is the official government stance on this issue?
[89] Actually, most legacy media outlets and public officials took the allegations at face value.
[90] As a result, dozens of Catholic churches were vandalized.
[91] or burned down in the wake of those accusations.
[92] Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, for example, has consistently expressed sympathy for the activist's cause.
[93] Well, we'll watch for more findings to come to light.
[94] Amanda, thanks for reporting.
[95] Thanks for having me. In London this week, Mayor Sadik Khan launched the latest restriction on gas vehicles requiring drivers to pay to drive in their capital city.
[96] But a political rebellion is underway.
[97] Radimir Tile Coat, Research Director of London's Legatum Institute, joins us now.
[98] Hey, Rado, thanks for coming on.
[99] So how is the mayor charging people for gas vehicles?
[100] So the ultra -low emission zone, or Ulaz, was rolled out over the whole of London from midnight on Tuesday.
[101] This zone previously only covered the very center of London, but it will now virtually bar many people from driving in all 32 boroughs, and that will be enforced by what are effectively daily fines via surveillance cameras.
[102] Because cars and vans that don't meet stringent emission standards are going to face a daily charge of £12 .50, that's about $16 American dollars, and failure to pay that is going to mean $230 fines.
[103] We're obviously being pushed by the bureaucracy and by the Green Lobby to use hybrids and use electric vehicles, and they'll be immune from the charge, but the fact is they're still too expensive for most people, especially the less well -off in our city.
[104] So that's a pretty steep charge to roll out overnight.
[105] Is this measure actually popular with people?
[106] No, it's not.
[107] It's an interesting story of establishment acquiescence on the one hand and growing popular rebellion on the other.
[108] Here's an example for you.
[109] Small business people have warned that the impact will be disastrous, but on the other hand, establishment lobbyists like the federation of small business, the FSB, that are meant to represent them, often seem too enthralled to the Green Lobby to fight back.
[110] So the FSB have meekly asked for the ULES rollout to happen sympathetically, in their words.
[111] So now Londoners get up to $2 ,500 for scrapping their car and becoming dependent on public transport, something of a questionable victory.
[112] So how are regular people responding?
[113] Well, bluntly, we're seeing the beginnings of vigilantism as people start rebelling against ULES.
[114] On one major road in Orpington, more than 17, miles from the center of London, 14 cameras seem to have been smashed on launch day.
[115] On Tuesday, pictures showed cables severed, lenses daubs in red paint, devices even mangled by angle grinders.
[116] Vandals have been sharing tips on TikTok as well, like how to use $10 spray foam, as the authorities install metal armor on the cameras.
[117] So this is all becoming increasingly surreal.
[118] Obviously, we don't condone vigilantism, but we can observe that this fits a public mood that is turning suddenly against the green agenda in this statist form.
[119] Now, how much is this expected to actually cut emissions?
[120] City Hall has paid Imperial College over a million dollars to research the results of ULES.
[121] And even though Kahn claimed that ULES in that central London phase cut emissions by 50%, the answer is that the inconvenient truth of that imperial study found that 3 % was more accurate.
[122] In other words, when it comes to cutting emissions, ULES is useless.
[123] So it seems the initiative is both unpopular and ineffective.
[124] Is this going to sink Mayor Khan's career?
[125] Actually, it's already cost the Labour Party that Sadiq Khan the mayor represents.
[126] So in a special election in July for former Prime Minister Boris Johnson's old seat, which was expected to go to the Labour Party, Labour actually lost by 495 votes due in large part to ULES.
[127] So it's certainly forcing Kahn onto the back foot.
[128] Karn's quietly dropping his even more extreme plan to make central London a zero emissions zone, however you would do that.
[129] And he's dumped plans for a pay per mile road charging scheme.
[130] So things seem to be starting to change.
[131] All right.
[132] Well, Raddo, thank you so much for coming on today.
[133] Thank you very much.
[134] That was Radamir Tile Coat, Research Director at London's Logatum Institute.
[135] That's all the time we've got this morning.
[136] Thanks for waking up with us.
[137] We'll be back this afternoon with an extra edition of Morning Wire.