James Topp, Canadian Infantry Warrant Officer and 28 year Veteran checks in on his 4200km+ Ruck march to Ottawa from Vancouver in protest of Government madness.Ultimate respect to this madman whom I suspect very much is a product of Cyberdyne systems. He may not be human. We agree that Elon Musk may not be either, army shenanigans and other things. Follow James' journey on social media @CanadaMarches and https://canadamarches.ca https://ragingdissident.comSocial Media links, contact information
If you're carrying a flag, conduct yourselves accordingly.
You carry it with pride.
What that flag is about, what Terry Fox was about, is about determination, dedication, and perseverance.
It's about inner strength.
It's not about beating your chest.
We understand each other?
Give me a hoo-wah.
You're in it for the long haul?
I hope you act accordingly.
Get careful cross-the street, books.
Why we're doing what we're doing is to rise, stand tall, to extend a hand to our fellow Canadians, including all my brothers and sisters in uniform.
Because this is a time of national crisis, and the time to overcome our differences is now.
He is us done, folks.
We're doing it.
Hard to believe this is happening.
That's it.
The topinator is here.
I just got to change the screen.
Change his backdrop here a little bit.
James, can you still hear me?
Thank you.
Mr. Top.
Hey, I got your picture there.
Hey, how are you doing?
Oh, hello, Ragecasters.
Welcome.
It's an infamous place.
Good to be here.
Thank you, man.
Thanks for being here.
It's incredible what you're doing.
I can't even wrap my head around it.
I mean, I can kind of wrap my head around it, but I wouldn't want to wrap my feet around that.
How are yours holding up?
No, they're not too bad.
They're not as bad as you might have thought.
I mean, I had maintained a certain level of fitness, but when I decided to jump into this thing, it was a couple of weeks of preparation while I was running around, not really working out.
Started doing the business in them coming out of Vancouver back in February 20th.
Went really fast, really, really hard.
And my feet kind of got bigger.
But my shoes didn't.
So I think what happened was I caused some complications with swelling.
I've run into that.
Until I got around to getting some new boots.
And so basically they swole up, went back to normal, swole up again.
My right ankle's a little bit bigger than another one now, but it's all good.
Well, my world record, my all-time record, I think might be 30 or 31 kilometers.
So pathetic compared to what you're doing.
Nah.
This is outrageous.
When I first saw that you were doing this, I remarked to Morgan earlier that everything that we've done and everything that's happened since you've just been walking this entire time.
It's incredible.
Marching.
Exactly.
How heavy is that rucksack?
Well, we changed over.
So I'm hoping that most of your folks are going to know the lingo.
But we changed over from summer or from fall, winter marching order to spring, summer marching order.
So it's a little bit lighter than it was.
Perfect.
When we're moving through the mountains, because I wanted all the guys to have, you know, a sleeping bag, shelter, socks, toques, gloves, windproof clothing, all that crap.
And so it was a bit heavier actually going through the mountains, which was kind of slowing us down.
Mountains will do that.
They typically do slow people down.
You are aware that cars break down trying to travel through those roads.
Yeah, absolutely.
You didn't.
Well, we did.
We did.
There was a section where, I don't know if you've ever been out this way.
And if you haven't, I mean, damn, come on out here.
Because driving through the mountains is something to see.
Yeah, no.
There was one section between a place called Manning Park and on Highway 3, Cross Dest Highway, and a town called Princeton, BC, where it was just, it was too treacherous.
Like the switchbacks were right up there.
Like you would have thought you were back overseas again.
Oh, no.
And with snow on the shoulders, there was just no way.
So we had to cut that section out.
So I owe you 66 kilometers.
That was another thing.
I was talking about you on the last episode of the yesterday, Wednesday evening.
I've decided, I've been calling you the Toppinator now because this is a very, I was a great, I love those films.
And this is, if anyone's a human Terminator, it's you.
What inspired you to do it this way?
I mean, you'd have to leave it to the infantry NCO to just go, I'm just going to rock this entire problem to death.
I'm just going to put a rucksack on and march until it's all.
What was the thought process?
I'm not sure if you're familiar with my particular story, so I'll fill you in real quick.
Like I had been in the armed forces since 1990.
I got out in 94, got back in again in 94. And, you know, I transitioned to the reserves in 2019.
And when doing so, that enabled me to get a position as a civilian with RCMP working in Chilliwack, British Columbia.
So as of March 2021, I was a reservist at a unit in Chilliwack, British Columbia.
And now I have my civilian job working for the RCMP as a range manager.
And this is an indoor range that the RCMP uses to run all of their RCMP members through their equivalent of PWT, right?
So they're called their annual firearms qualifications.
So it was the most amazing job.
Like, I know if you've ever watched The Simpsons.
Yes.
Yeah.
Okay.
Well, there's an episode when Homer quits his job at the power plant to go work at the polling alley.
And it was exactly the same.
I'll refrain from making any RCMP comments to it.
Even when I was changing your box.
It was exactly the same.
I'm going back to the plan.
I mean, you know, to go from full-time army crop to doing something like that, you know, 7:30, 3.30.
Yeah.
Or, you know, doing a 3.30 to 11. Yeah.
And just, you know, because you got to do a little bit of shooting, take care of cop guns and stuff, work with some really switched on firearms instructors.
I learned a ton of stuff from.
So anyway, really awesome job.
And then we have the announcement of the mandates in August for federal government workers.
And then come November, they're like, well, you know, I have an objection to this to these mandates for a number of different reasons.
And I'm, you know, I'm not going to play ball.
So I get placed on leave without pay.
Okay.
So that was the first soccer punch right there.
A couple weeks later, I get told by the chain of command of my reserve unit that I'm going to be released now on item 5F for not following chief of defense staff direction.
I have a feeling that's not going to go over too well with a lot of people here in the near future.
Well, I don't, the thing is, I don't think a lot of people realize what is actually going on and what getting released on an item 5F, it means.
I'll just say this, all right?
After 28 years, Reg Force, I got out as a one officer.
You know, it wasn't because I was a total, you know, excuse my language here, but I wasn't a total shit pump.
I swear constantly.
I did.
It's fine.
You can go full barracks mode here.
It's fine.
They love it.
Yeah, okay.
But I did, I did, you know, I did, I got in a bit of trouble back in the day.
Okay.
I'm not.
Haven't we all?
I'm not a saint.
Yeah.
But after, you know, keeping my nose clean and doing the business to the best of my abilities for, you know, 20 or so years to have my own, I'm getting released on a 5F.
It was devastating.
Yeah.
Absolutely devastating.
And then, you know, having those two things happen, it really, it really, I was laid out, honestly.
I didn't, I wasn't in a good place.
So, and I think I have to say, like, one of the things that kind of kept me hanging off was to see in like shows like yours, you know, at least there was other dudes out there that kind of had the same idea that was like, okay, all this, all this stuff is messed up.
Yeah.
Well, that means a lot to me.
I can't tell you how.
I mean, that's the hunt of, that was, that was the beginning.
The reason why I started doing this in the first place is because there's a lot of us that you kind of lose your way, especially when you get out of the military.
But like for me, I don't imagine it's much different for you.
I know you've mentioned it in some of your videos that you kind of, it starts kind of a psychological spiral every time you see something like somebody's rights being stripped away or something, you know, anything like this that the government's doing.
And then you can't help but think like the guys we left overseas and all the things people had to do and go through.
And it's like, you don't get to make these decisions.
How dare you?
And, you know, I was, I don't know if you followed that when I was in Ottawa.
I was, I was there with the, you know, air quote protesters or, well, they all, they're all veterans.
They're all wearing their medals in CBC neglect.
They called them protesters and said that we attacked the memorial.
You know, I was like, how dare you even think that this belongs to you, that you even get to make this decision, that you get to preclude, you know, me and these guys and the rest of the country from visiting, you know, our National War Memorial.
It's insane.
Oh, it automatically.
So to go back to your original question, seeing that happen, but also I'll just back up a little bit.
After I was placed on leave without pay, like I am getting a pension, right?
And just paying my mortgage.
Yeah.
I have a home in Hope, which is, you know, like that.
So I got my mortgage being paid for, but that's it.
Like I still need other income.
So I got a job as a tow truck driver.
And I just started to realize, and I'm sure you're seeing this too.
And, you know, we spent our lives in the warm embrace of the government giving our paychecks and, you know, health benefits and all the other stuff.
And to see what, you know, folks in the public have to do to make a living these days in this country.
I was kind of shocked, to be honest.
And I just realized that they were the ones paying us for our careers and everything we did.
Yeah.
I mean, we got to, we got put our lives on the line, but I know, man, I thought we were paid pretty good for what we did.
It wasn't bad, but I know what you mean.
I know you feel.
Like, I see these people being.
A bunch of people assemble.
Well, like, I feel like a lot of the people in the country are hurting and suffering, and no one's really, you know, that was our job.
Like you said, like, it's our job to defend these people.
That's what we asked to do.
It's what we wanted to do.
That's what a lot of these guys are made for.
That's who they are.
And now, like, as you said, and I agree, this is a national crisis.
The country's coming apart at the seams here.
Who is expected to step up and say something?
Is it the nurses union or is it Uber drivers?
And it's like, you know, people are doing what they're doing.
But I mean, at the end of the day, the veterans, I mean, guys, I tell all of them, especially the ones that are at home deployed to Ford Operating Base Living Room Couch and working on the bottom of a whiskey bottle or something.
The country needs you and could really use your voice and your credibility and your support and your leadership.
And to see what you're doing is mine.
I remember when I first saw this, somebody sent this to me right before I started whatever episode that was.
And I watched it, and I was like, Is this man insane?
He's going to walk, he's going to march to Ottawa.
He's not even going to walk there, he's going to carry a rock, he's going to run all the way to Ottawa.
That does, uh, yeah, that's quite something.
Did anyone try to stop you?
Like, did your family say, You'll die?
Like, stop.
What are you doing?
Yeah, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Um, I mean, and that's, but that's the point of it, right?
Like, it's inspired to inspire those guys.
It's inspired the hell out of me.
I'm concerned.
Like, I'm actually still serving, right?
Like, I'm, yes.
I'm still, I'm still, uh, I'm, I still haven't been released yet because the file is still sitting in Ottawa.
And also, probably, I'm going to be getting court-martialed for because I made that announcement in full uniform at a rally, right?
Right.
I don't know if all your folks have seen that one.
I'm going to play it again towards the end here after you're done.
I'm going to play that on the way out because it's a little bit longer and I wanted to get into it.
And that's another huge brick to your credibility wall is that people say and do things all the time, but not often at their own personal expense.
I like to tell a story all the time about a warrant officer I had when I did basic or my infantry course, and they do the obstacle crossing section with the razor wire, and he demonstrated on his own body how a man lays across the razor wire and the whole platoon walked across his back, and he just got up and was like, that was it?
Off to your neck.
I caught up with him years later.
He's like, dude, I needed like 20 stitches.
It was all cut up, you know, but I respected him for the rest of my life for that because I knew this guy will literally bleed just to help me.
That's incredible.
So to see what you're doing and putting yourself on the line like that.
And I mean, of course, yeah, they're going to court marshal.
They're going to do all the things they're going to do, but that's because it's, you know, I mean, how can you see this?
And there's so many other people in the CF that I'm sure are aware of what you're doing.
That's got to be giving them something to think about, or at least I hope so.
Well, I hope so too.
That's the point of all of this as well.
I mean, this is nothing, what I see happening within the CAF and with, you know, within the RCMP to the same extent as a civilian employee.
It was just, you know, this unquestioning, you know, unquestioning adherence to this policy that didn't really make any sense.
Yeah.
And it's.
Well, that's how I was always brought up or trained.
It's like, that's not what we do.
That's where, you know, in the Canadian Army, you don't just do something for no reason.
Like, you're not robots.
We're not automatons.
You know, we're supposed to know what we're doing and have a clear understanding of what the mission is and the objectives.
And if it's ethical and morally correct, like we don't, we don't do unethical immoral things in the Canadian forces, or at least not when I was trained anyway.
Apparently things have changed dramatically since then.
Yeah.
Well, I think what's happened is that we've just had this new belief system imposed on us, right?
And that belief system is the foundation is health.
And you need to be afraid of everything in order to maintain your health.
Right.
This is the same army, by the way, if you've been listening, that refused to adopt stricter PT standards or health screening.
This is the same army now that's really concerned about health all of a sudden.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Why don't you just, can you get out of bed in the morning?
All right, you pass.
We're good.
Thank you.
Like, well, so what compelled me to do this was that, like, I mean, it's a demonstration of leadership too, right?
Like of leading from the front and leading by example and stuff, right?
So that's kind of what I'm hoping that the dude's like still in.
They're afraid to get in trouble.
They're afraid to say anything.
You're sacrificing probably, you know, your job, your body, your time.
You're doing this all in your own money.
Like, I, I mean, what can you say?
And the really crazy part, and I talked with this yesterday or whenever that was that a couple of days ago, that there were sections of the highway that you, you know, it's just too dangerous, the switchbacks and stuff, you know, we talked about.
But so you're, you're planning to, you're going to redo those kilometers.
You're not going to skip them.
You're going to go back and like circle a building however many times you have to make up for the loss.
What we'll do is I anticipate, you know, we'll have to do in order to maintain a forward momentum.
So I just, we'll do some victory laps in the national capital region.
And that's what we'll pick up.
Oh, that's incredible.
I want to touch on a couple of things here for a sec, just so everybody's in.
This is another, I wanted to be perfectly clear to everybody that we started this as this was the idea of one dude just doing this on his own.
And now there's like nine of us.
Wow.
So there's been a bit of investment on all the folks that got into this.
And we are now kind of realizing that in order for this to go forward, okay, well, yeah, we do kind of need funds in some ways.
Yeah, of course.
But it's something I'm very, very, I am open and transparent about any monies that we receive and anybody who wants to inquire about it.
What, like we are getting, for example, this barn, this barn dads, you know, there'll be a donation bucket.
And we're going to account for that.
It gets put into a pot and then we're going to do the same way, in the same way that the ranks used to collect funds, right?
The junior ranks and the messes will have a similar type of accounting system, right?
So everybody is going to be able, anybody who wants to, anybody who is wanting to inquire about how we're using those funds, they'll be able to, you know, they can get a hold of us directly.
Sure.
Because I was pretty conflicted about that.
I still am.
Well, in this climate, too, right?
Everybody's wanting to follow the money and try to find something wrong with what you're doing so they can shut you down and stuff.
Yeah.
Oh, sorry.
I was just curious if anyone's ever marched from Vancouver to Calgary for a barn dance before.
So are you going to be going to be dancing at this barn dance?
Yeah, we're actually going to Monarch.
So we're going to a town called Monarch, Alberta.
And then we're going to meet some organizers.
They have been also been in Ottawa.
There's a group there called Taking Back Our Freedoms.
And they've arranged for us to be a part of this.
This countryside bond thing was already in the works in order to raise funds for Taking Back Our Freedoms.
And they invited us to come to it.
So we're going to meet them in Monarch, Alberta.
And then we're going to meet up with the Freedom Riders.
And then there's also a bunch of other folks who want to march with us and do a slow roll.
So Calgary is about two and a half hours north of Lethbridge.
So we're not actually going to Calgary until the next day because we've invited up to a rally there.
And then we'll go, we're going to drive up to Calgary because the point of this is that we're going to stay east on Highway 3, go through Lethbridge, hit Medicine Hat, then hit Highway 1 and maintain the movement eastwards.
Calgary will just kind of be, we'll drive up there, do the business, and then drive back down to our end point and then start marching from where we stopped.
It's an admin day.
Exactly.
Yeah, exactly.
Oh, man.
I just got a couple of messages here from some people.
Some weekends and Tuesday says, kicking ass, one package of mole skin at a time.
Dan, the Raging Canadian, says, infinite respect for you, sir.
The blue taco says, James, you're an absolute monster.
Been following you since you left.
Much respect, sir.
It's amazing that the lamestream media isn't saying a word about this.
So inspiring.
Yeah, no kidding, right?
St. Maurice Barris said, God bless the infantryman.
And Taco again says, Ruck, you make me.
That's funny.
Have you, that was one of the questions I had.
Has anyone tried to talk to you or reached out for comment at all from, you know, CBC, Global, CTV, anything like that?
I have to say that after I made my announcement back in February at that rally and did the TikTok video, there was a lady did approach me from CBC, but knowing the treatment that all y'all got back in January, February, right?
Wasn't Jillian Findlay, was it?
No, the woman from the 50 state, Jillian Findlay.
I was just joking.
No, this woman's name was Judy Trin.
Okay.
Actually, and I've been actually been advised by, I have a lawyer now.
Oh, good.
That's a good thing to have.
I also have one.
Yeah, it's good to have those.
He's like, you know, you should make more effort to talk to them.
And I'm like, all right.
But initially, that one lady did reach out to me way back when, just full disclosure.
And I declined because I just, I wasn't at that particular point, didn't really have.
I have to say there was a part part of this that was really instinctual.
You know what I mean?
It was just like, okay, I have to do something.
This is what I'm going to do.
I can't fully explain it.
So I declined to talk to her at that particular point because it was just, I don't think I would have been able to explain it as I can explain it to you now, right?
Right.
Yeah.
Well, that makes sense.
Are you when you get when you get into Ontario, I mean, you seem to have picked up, you've got like a section plus there.
It looks like, are you going to have a brigade amount of people by the time you get into the city or what?
What do you mean?
Well, you seem to be adding on.
Like you left by yourself and now there's how many people you say there's about a dozen of you now.
Well, there's nine of us, but they like the dudes rotate through different jobs.
So yeah, okay.
We bought, I put some money down on an RV and I got into like a private installment payment plan for it.
So it doesn't actually belong to me.
Right.
But we're kind of paying it off as we go.
Yeah.
And if we hadn't had that, we wouldn't have got it as far as it's fat.
And I had to have it going through the mountains.
Like there was just no question.
So, yeah.
How, how much, I mean, I think I learned, I know a little bit about your history.
Apparently we were in 3rd Battalion together at the same time, which is ironic.
It's funny.
Because all the other guys were, you know, they're chirping me because, you know, half course, yeah, no, Patricia had to step up and fix everything.
And I was like, well, and hey, now, wait, we're going to, we get to share them.
We've got dual scissorship.
Were you a, did you have an RCR half badge then or were you did we loan you?
Yeah, no, dude.
I was there.
I was, they, I was in, uh, I was the UMS.
Oh, nice.
Oh, wow.
You probably don't recognize me because I have a beard and I'm not miserable.
Oh, right.
I have a beard and I'm always miserable.
So maybe we've somehow shifted.
I don't know what's going on.
But yeah, I wasn't, I didn't know too many of the recon guys there.
Did you know Matt Oakley?
We definitely passed each other in the hall.
Yeah, yeah, totally.
Yeah, he's a roommate of mine.
I was good friends with him for a long time.
Sorry?
Pathfinder.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
I think he might be in the mic company warrant there now.
I'm not sure, but or OPSO or Opso.
I remember that.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
I think he was JM.
He went JM.
Yeah, he does everything.
That guy's a maniac.
I remember, do you remember this?
I think I messaged you on the phone, and I've talked about the story on the podcast before.
I was in the canteen there at 3rd Battalion, and it was Remembrance Day, and it was the guys made the Sergeant Frank Gervais Award as kind of a joke for the worst soldier of the year because you're so bad you're pretending to be a soldier.
The guy that did the stolen valor thing on Remembrance Day.
That guy in Ottawa.
Is that the guy in Ottawa with the outrageous epaulettes?
Yes, I think so.
Well, we were there, and nobody noticed right away because they're doing the Remembrance Day stuff and we're just talking.
And then somebody, but he had the maroon beret on and the RCR had him.
So we're like, wait a minute.
And then you look closer and he's a sergeant and you're like, wait a minute.
And then he's got a Pathfinder badge on.
And the other guys at the table, there was a couple of sergeants at the table that were Pathfinders.
And they were like, if you're here and I'm here, who the hell is that guy?
He's pretending to be one of like five people in the whole army.
It was hysterical.
Guys, if you're going to pretend to be a soldier, pick something much more obscure, you know, just private machine gunner number two, no one would ever know.
Don't impersonate a Sergeant Pathfinder.
Full hog and become a full lieutenant commander of the Space Marines or something.
Oh, man.
Did you do any, like how, I mean, mentally, this has got to be quite a stress.
I mean, are you just used to it now?
Like, I've also found that in my career and things I've done, where it's like, things can start really hard and then you just kind of adapt to it and you become this soulless.
Yeah.
Well, I got to say that it's been an amazing experience in a couple of different ways in that.
Like, dude, I was the guy that was going to go live in the forest.
Okay.
Like, I wouldn't, you know, I didn't want to have anything to do with anybody.
And now here I am.
Like, we got a lot of those.
Yeah.
Absolutely.
You know, folks coming up to me and greeting me and stuff.
But I turned out to actually be more of a people person than I thought it was.
So that aspect of it is totally new.
Right.
And, you know, like the support, like when I did that thing in uniform, like almost immediately folks were like, hey, I want to help you.
And I'm like, I was overwhelmed.
Yeah.
And that's the thing I can tell you guys, like there's, there's people, they don't know what to do.
And, you know, we're kind of in a unique position as veterans and, you know, representatives of an idea or something, right, that represents the national identity of Canada or what it was or what it should be or what we believe it to be.
And there's a lot of people that identify with that, but they don't really know.
They want to get behind somebody and then they see somebody like you show up and with your sash on and your medals and everything.
And they just, you know, they're ready to go, man.
It's very inspiring.
And, you know, to me as well, I remember used to think this when I was a lot younger, before I visited in the military, that these guys are set apart from, say, the police or definitely politicians or whatever.
It's a class of its own.
These are the warriors of the nation that are ready to go fight and die for the people that live here and for everybody that lives here.
Not a political party or a specific anything.
If you're with me, then get behind.
If you're with us, get behind me and we'll take care of it.
And that's just who we are.
That's what we're supposed to do.
And I mean, God, I can't say enough about how this is crazy what you're doing.
And I suspect that was where the joke came from.
I was like, do you think they're in parliament right now, like worried about it?
Like, he's not going to be here tomorrow or anytime soon, but every day he's getting closer.
Like the Terminator.
He's just coming back.
If I was them, I would be concerned because here's the thing.
I'm not sure if all your folks are realizing this, but I actually, I am going to pay my respects at the War Memorial, at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
That's part of my mission to take that back for us.
And we have a plan.
Like I, you know, had a lot of conversations with the dudes that are with me and with myself, not, you know, usually not out loud.
But having a plan when we get there, because it was like, okay, what I had to ask myself, like, what am I doing?
Why am I doing this?
Because we have to remind those folks, okay, in the government who they actually work for.
Because I think they've forgotten that.
And we're going to do it because that's what we're doing by doing this march.
And that's what I did is I posted a letter on the casinomarches.ca website.
So that letter is getting sent out by email and regular mail to every single member of parliament.
And if we get enough interest and we will, we're not just going to have, you know, request an audience.
We're going to demand it because that's not right.
Yeah.
I just had your website pulled up there for a minute.
There's even a live tracker on there.
If you want to go to Canadamarches.ca, you can keep up with James there, and you can find exactly where he is.
There's a live tracker you can click on and pinpoint exactly where you're at.
Where are you at now?
Let's see.
Just outside Fort McLeod, you're coming up.
What's your next monarch?
Yeah.
Monarch, yeah.
Monarch.
And then you're going through Coalhurst and Lethbridge.
Wow.
This is wild.
I can't believe it.
It's so insane.
Oh, man.
And what's your anticipated date of, you know, completely, like, do you have a goal in mind?
You must have like a scene for so many hours.
Yeah.
Well, I had initially planned to get there.
You know, I wanted to get there like by June 20th, just because that's my mom's birthday.
But I'm realizing now I'm going to have to be a little bit more flexible because there's things like, okay, my foot was acting up.
I have to take breaks.
Like as much as I would like to be an unstoppable robot, I do need to fuel up and take a break every once in a while.
And then there's the aspect of like, you know, the Calgary thing.
Like there's folks that wanted us to really, they really wanted us to come up and be a part of that.
So we'll do that.
And I'm thinking end of June, right?
That's when I want to get there.
What an insane, like, they should make a statue of you when this is over.
Oh, this is incredible i know you would never accept it and neither would i but i'm just saying i'm just i'm just some guy well and that's that's why that's why they love you and that's why i love you it's all this it's that it's that typical um classic infantryman nco attitude man it's uh perfect i love everything about this it's it's it's just uh wow and i can't i mean i'm probably in a better position to appreciate it more than more than most i suppose and there is a there is a lot of veterans that watch this americans and you know british as well that uh i don't know if
people understand exactly how like just a 10 i remember when i first joined the military i think the first like five or 10 kilometer rucksack march i did was like uh i contemplated suicide for much of it i i was not doing well i was a little guy too when i got in and to this is uh this is crazy and you went up through these mountains and the whole thing and it's what's the total distance 4 200 kilometers yeah 40 4293 but that's that's that's just you know that's
a google map racky this so take it for what it is is this uh is this any kind of world record or something there's got to be some kind of uh insane i mean david goggins hold my beer you know this is a crazy uh feat of endurance and mental endurance as well no but you know what um one of the one of the reasons what inspired me to do this too because i had spent a lot of time after i got posted out of 3rcr i went to
work at uh the advanced warfare center in trenton and i spent a bunch of time working with norwegians doing winter warfare stuff and uh i met this guy and if you ever want to look him up his first name is rune r-u-n-e galviz g e l d s i believe that's how you spell it um so i didn't use a phonetic spelling there but um rune uh is a norwegian
who actually crossed um the width of antarctica on foot why by himself yes why so do a google search i because he's norwegian i mean i had a lot of respect for those damn i mean i get it i don't know i i get why you know what i mean there's i've done i've never done anything remotely that difficult but there is a satisfaction in doing something uh very challenging to your to your spirit and your soul and then and
then and then a con doing like why do people climb mountains why do they do anything yeah um people like and you know goggins a guy i just mentioned that they do these extremely doubt challenging difficult mental tests where it's much more difficult on your brain your mind than your body even uh and it's just the guts it takes to even attempt something like this is uh something else so i mean i guess but uh too most people yeah you've never it's it's that it's that first you know like i don't know if you ever uh got your your uh your wings or
not but or anything you know you ever did repelling or or anything that we did in the military you know even going out like i i'm sure you probably remember the first time you ever threw a grenade yeah you're probably like holy yeah you know what am i doing here if i drop this will i die that yes you will don't drop it you will both die yeah don't do that yeah you know what i mean so it was kind of like um that was one of the scariest jobs ever had was being the grenade pencil
some 17 year old kids doing this i'm like don't please don't yeah and i mean you know what i mean it was just but once you once you got out the door right like once you overcame that that first initial it becomes normal it well i it i wouldn't say it's that because there's mornings when i'm like i'm just like oh man and this just be over another 2000 kilometers to go well three
thousand two hours you're a quarter of the way there already i mean i say already because i i uh had i'd read it i'd heard about it and i played the thing here and and we talked about it and then i had so much stuff going on and we all didn't know and i just kind of and then it popped back up again i was like oh my god that guy's still he's just been marching this whole time and and you were already through the mountains which is like gotta be that's gotta be the most difficult stretch but uh yeah we were saying before when before you came on here this is kind of like uh the endless march to nowhere you know you can't even see it there's no landmarks it's just it's gonna be like that for
a while i don't know if you've walked through saskatchewan and manitoba before but yeah it's well the thing is too even when we were marching through the mountains there was times when it just got to be like you're moving at you know four to six kilometers an hour and uh you're looking around going damn it's a really nice view yeah i imagine it's got to be satisfying and
how how old are you right now if you don't mind my asking uh can we not go there i'm 36 going on well in army years i'm almost 90 so i you know i don't yeah yeah i was like i don't even know i mean i'm not i mean you probably have a lot of injuries as well you know what i mean you get banged up and you get problems and stuff so no but it's all it's all up here right you got uh that's true you know you that's that's what kind of what i want to do with this you know it's like get folks to think about what
what is like realistically possible what what can you do and not because i think a lot of the times we got folks that just like i can't do this i can't do that you know what i mean and i'm honestly like i'm sure i've slacked off my training probably the last year or so because it hasn't been uh but i i was i was doing some pull-ups and stuff earlier and i was like whenever i don't want to do anything like i don't really feel like i don't want to do pt today james top is still marching the toffinator has not stopped so i have to i'm like well i have no excuse
whatsoever so i mean yeah it's it's it's quite a thing yeah well that's that's what i mean right like it's just changing changing the way we think about things sometimes and like yeah i was like i was thinking like, you know, going back to the initial question, like, how did I get inspired?
Why am I doing this?
It's kind of like, okay, well, I feel very strongly about what's happening with the truckers and what's going on with the Freedom Convoy.
Okay, what can I do?
I could go to Ottawa.
I can't fly there.
How could I get there?
And, you know, add my boy to this.
And I was just like, I know exactly what I can do.
Wow.
I mean, and there's something inspired.
And it's like, I learned that from a younger age because I had one of my first section commanders.
You don't know who Teddy Stoneham is by any chance, do you?
Say again?
Ted Stoneham.
Heard that name by chance.
I have to see his name.
I have to see his face.
He was kind of a 2RCR legend for a long time.
He was in the British military for a long time.
And then he came over here.
So he's a British guy, but he'll say he's Canadian.
He is.
And he did 20-some years.
I don't know how.
I think they had to kick him out because he was in for so long.
They're like, that's enough, Teddy.
You can't stay anymore.
And he was 50 or 51 when I came to his section.
I think I was 19. And he was running around me and was in better shape than I was.
And he was just crushing people.
And I was like, from, I was like, oh, okay.
So as long as you just keep working, you can be an animal well into your 50s at least.
Yeah, that's stagnation.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So, and, you know, the other guys, there's always, I had lots of those guys too when I was a young corporal and stuff.
And they'd be like, oh, we'll see what you're seeing what you're saying when you're my age.
When you're 37, we'll just say.
I'm like, yeah, we will see.
Well, that was the kind of mindset that I tried to avoid because I found that, you know, was like.
Self-defeating.
Something that was hitting me was like, you know, okay.
Guys are telling themselves how they're falling apart and they're in their mid to late 30s.
And I'm just like, well, you're in the prime of your life.
Like, why, why are you falling apart?
Like, you should, you know, I think Muhammad is a world champion at that age.
I think so.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Like, you're just telling yourself you're falling apart.
I don't think you're actually falling apart.
So I don't imagine you're the type of warrant officer to give out like MIR chips too easily.
I'm not getting that vibe from you.
Well, I didn't give them out.
I just had to look at them and, you know, shake my head.
So you just sensed, I could sense it.
I could smell like, I can smell your fear and weakness.
I mean, I'll be honest with you.
It was at a point where I was like, okay, I'm going to do what I'm going to do.
And then if that's your thing, I'm not you.
Right.
I can't, I don't have to look at myself in the mirror.
You do.
Yeah.
If that makes any sense.
And then you'd walk away and then that guy would sit there quietly.
And then he'd stand up and put his rucksack back on.
That's what I thought.
I shamed him into continuing.
Yeah.
I like that strategy.
I've used that one myself.
Windsor 519.
He says three shots for James Top.
Immense respect for you, sir.
Thank you for your service.
Buy seeds.
That's probably good advice.
Says deepest thanks, James, for this heroic effort.
Seeing the drawings and gifts received from so many children is absolutely heartwarming.
You're giving so many Canadians hope and renewal of national pride.
Best of luck on your journey and deepest respect and thanks to our veterans who served so honorably.
God bless.
Thank you very much.
Yeah, it's good to hear from dudes.
And I always look forward to hearing from the guys I served with too.
I've heard from a couple of them since all this started.
I was going to ask about that, what the reception has been like from, because I get messages from guys that are still in and out all the time, but they don't want to, they can't say much publicly or anything because they'll be, you know, exactly.
How has that been on your end?
Yeah.
There's been a couple of dudes who have, who are still serving who have reached out and said, fuck yeah, better done.
Yeah.
And there's, there's a lot of guys who I, who I did know, like I knew a good buddy of mine from back in the day in Afghanistan, actually, he was in my section in Recce.
He contacted me.
And Kieran, if you're watching, hope you're doing all right, buddy.
And, you know, I was like, that's, you can curse me or you can, you can hate on me, but I really, once I heard from guys like that, I was like, I don't care what anybody says.
Same thing.
For me, I don't.
I did a kind of a one-man protest sort of thing against Omar Cotter a couple of years ago, and I didn't know how it was going to be received or what was going to happen.
I've put my medals on.
I went down there.
They're giving this guy money and he's doing a speaking tour about how much of a victim he is and all this kind of thing.
In the city of, you know, where my roommate was killed, Chris Danix, he's from, you know, the Halifax area.
So I was just disgusted by the whole thing.
And I went out and did it.
And then I was like, I don't know how that's going to be received.
And I kind of felt weird about it.
And I had so much overwhelming, like the only people I really want the, you know, I don't know if it's approval or is your peers, you know, the other guys.
And if they're, if they're behind me, I'm like, I don't care what the fuck anybody else says about anything.
I'm, you know, I'll never stop.
So, yeah, I know what you mean there.
It's, it's quite a, because you're going to, you're going to have enemies, you know, it's going to, as soon as you take a side on anything, it's just part of the game.
And, you know, a lot of people can do all that.
I just don't understand it.
Like, I just don't.
I do get, you know, it has been not happening as frequently.
But there's occasionally, you know, you get a car will come up pretty close or something like that.
And you'll get, or if there's, if it's, if we're going into oncoming traffic, like sometimes I do on two-lane highways, you know, you'll get the middle finger and that.
And I just, it weighs on me a little bit because I can't imagine why this would bother you.
Yeah, I know.
People are just, and, and that's, um, I've been blame, I blame the media for this, you know, because they lie so much.
And, you know, these, these politicians and these governmental organizations, bureaucracies, these people, they would never get away with any of the things they're doing if it wasn't for the media cheerleading for them and covering for them and lying for them and telling lies about, you know, what they've done, you know, the people in Ottawa and so on.
And who knows what they think something about you.
I've had people say things to me That are so off base and so incorrect, and they're so sure of themselves because they read it on CBC.
And it's, you know, it's like I blame them entirely.
So it's like these people are being lied to.
I feel bad for them in a lot of ways.
Where it's like, I know what it's like to live in a kind of a false reality where you believe one thing is true and it turns out to be, nope, that's actually not even, it's not true.
And it's terrible.
So it is.
It's terrible thing.
It's the harm that has been done is incalculable.
I just, I can't.
It's like we have been divided to such an extent now.
I'm not even sure at this point if it's bridgeable.
Yeah.
I'm going to try.
Exactly.
Well, you got to try.
And, you know, that's absolutely got to try.
But I agree with you there.
I don't know how.
I mean, they've done irreparable damage to society.
I mean, families have been torn apart, longtime friendships, divorces, like all over this, you know, theater and craziness that they've been peddling and the nonsense and the lies.
And not even any, but one subject in particular.
It's everything.
They've divided everybody along any kind of talking point or cultural point or, you know, age even.
Like, boomers and zoomers have to fight each other.
It's like there's not one thing.
I mean, I was joking with this yesterday.
You could put a picture of a toaster on Twitter.
I'll just put up a picture of a toaster and someone will say, I like toast.
I like waffles.
And fuck waffles.
Fuck you.
And then now we're fighting.
You can't have anything anymore.
People will fight over anything.
Twitter is the Jerry Springer of social media apps, I guess.
Yeah.
Oh, there you go.
It's crazy.
I know.
I know.
And I'm just, at this point, what I would ask is, what do you think the solution is?
What do you think would repair all this?
That's a tough one.
I mean, I don't know at this point.
Ideally, we need transparency.
We need accountability.
That's number one.
People are getting away with things that they shouldn't be getting away with.
And there's not two sides of the conversation.
There is no conversation anymore.
We're being dictated to by the television, via these officials.
So that needs to be broken.
People need to know what's going on.
There needs to be open, transparent dialogue.
And then, you know, and the facts need to be presented without bias.
The police need to act without bias, without political affiliation.
I mean, in a lot of cases, they're acting as political activists, ignoring certain things and enforcing certain other things.
And that's not, people need to do their jobs.
And we wouldn't have these problems if that was the case.
I mean, the institutions and everything we have set up, if they were functioning correctly, none of this would have happened.
If people did their jobs, if the media told the truth, if the, you know, the police didn't act with bias and, you know, this kind of thing, we would be fine.
But that's not what we have now.
So I don't know.
I think probably the solution is you just, you know, we got to talk to more people and get more of this messaging out because that's, for me, that's what kind of snapped me out of it was finding new information that had been hidden from me and seeing different viewpoints.
Well, I think you just hit on something there because I think that's what we can do is try to get people to do more self-reflection because that's what you that's what that's what I kind of got to.
How do I know my particular set of truths is more valid than those folks who believe on other things?
Right.
Well, I made sure that what I believed in was like actually true, you know, by thinking about it and, you know, looking at different sources of information and, you know, getting a variety of opinions and then, you know, coming to my own conclusion.
So I think if we can encourage other people to do that, then maybe we could start that.
And I know what do you think?
Well, yeah.
And that's like you said in one of your videos that people need to have the right, they do, they should, but it's not being protected, the right to have their own opinion, the right to think and believe and feel what they want and say what they want and express themselves the way they want.
I mean, as long as you're not hurting anybody, you know, you're not going out and attack.
I have the right to hit people on the head with the pipe wrench.
Well, no, you don't.
But you know what I mean?
Say what you want.
And if you don't like it, I mean, I, you know, we're not, you know, I mean, I wasn't born yesterday.
I remember the 90s.
I remember the days before Facebook and social media.
It's like, you didn't like something.
You just turned it off.
You know, I don't like it.
It's been turn it off and don't listen to it.
And that's it.
And then it's gone.
But now there's this urge to this authoritarian desire to control absolutely everything.
And if people don't conform to whatever, you know, the current thing is, then they're attacked and punished.
And Morgan and some other people are actually in the middle of trying to get some lawsuits and stuff off the ground in one of the provinces because it's extortion.
It is extortion.
When you say that, you know, you need to do this or you lose your job.
That's protected under the Bill of Rights and the Canadian Constitution.
You can't do that to people.
You can't pull a Harvey Weinstein and say, I'm putting this in you or you're fired.
No.
And that's, I mean, I thought we, you know, that's what I said about the war memorial that they fenced off.
I said the rights and everything that we're supposed to be enjoying right now and they were paid for already.
That's what the monument's for.
That's where all those names, all the blood that we've shed, the price has been paid.
So for you to take something away that we already paid for is theft.
So, you know, to say I'm angry about it is not even scratching the surface about how I feel.
You're angry enough to walk across a continent with a with a bruck sack on.
So, I mean, I, you know, kind of predicted that a while ago, too.
Some people get angry right away and they yell and scream, this kind of thing.
And I said, if this keeps continuing, you're going to start seeing some real serious guys get off the couch and they're not going to do little things.
They're going to really get involved in a big way here.
And I think that's sounds like what happened to you.
You don't seem like you seem like quite a serious fella to me.
Absolutely.
Yeah, no, it's a serious business.
And that's what it's, you know, it's not just me either.
It's guys like you.
It's guys like I'm in touch with now the folks who set up Veterans for Freedom, who are some of the organizers of.
I was going to ask you about that.
Yeah, they're, you know, police on guard, Veterans for Freedom, taking back our freedoms.
Okay, so I'm just a part of that group of people.
And now we're going to, you know, coordinate our efforts, right?
Right.
And it's like this shit is starting up, like, for real.
Like, I feel like we're at a real tipping point here.
I agree.
I think it's, it's getting there.
Things are starting to pop up.
Like this, this, these things didn't exist a couple of years ago.
And now some, like I said, some serious guys that are, they're not going to get bored.
I mean, these guys did, you know, some of these guys did seven rotos and stuff, right?
Like these are serious guys that don't, they're not screwing around.
They want to do something.
They're going to, they're going to do it until it's done or they're dead, one or the other.
100%.
And we're, you know, and our adversaries are people that, you know, hide behind desks and think that, you know, words are assault and, you know, these guys things.
So I'm like, I don't know.
I don't know if you have the will and the resolve to go toe-to-toe with these guys and win, but good luck to you.
Yeah.
Yeah.
We'll see.
I think with this crew I got here and working with guys, you know, you're going to get folks together.
Other people are going to get folks together.
And it's going to be like, have you ever seen that movie, The Bad News Bears?
Maybe.
It's an old one.
It's an underdog story.
It's about baseball.
Everybody loves those ones.
Check it out.
Yeah.
And the other thing, too, is once people like yourself or anybody that's getting involved in your story and any of the stuff that happened in Ottawa, people don't get involved and then get bored and do something else, I've noticed, over the past couple of years.
Like once they're in, they're in.
And that becomes a big part of their life.
So it's just spreading and becoming more, more prevalent around the country.
And I mean, the government's response so far has just been to squeeze harder as if that's going to fix things somehow by, well, just punish people even more to prove how we're not tyrannical.
We're going to imprison protesters and freeze bank accounts and hit people with, you know, carbines and trample them with horses and so on to prove how benevolent and, you know, wonderful we are.
It's, it's like, yeah.
Yeah, it's, it, it really is upside down, Land.
Like, it's astonishing.
And I haven't, I haven't used that word very often until, you know, in around 2020.
Now I use it.
Yeah.
Because every second sentence seems like it's, I can't, you know, something like that crazy, something crazy like this will happen every 10 years.
And now it seems like I'm daily on a daily basis.
I, I, uh, I did like a funny, just a stupid, you know, kind of an advertiser for my channel once.
It was just, I was just waking up out of bed and I just, I spend probably a good five minutes every morning.
I just look at my phone.
I'm like, I don't even, I'm not ready.
I don't want to know.
I don't want to know what night, what fresh hell is awaiting me on that, on that screen now.
What's happening?
Yeah, I mean, oh, we've sold Alberta to China, have we?
Excellent.
Oh, God.
That's, yeah, that's why this is in one way, this is a good thing because I can just, you know, I don't have the, I have, this is my mission.
I can focus on my mission.
And like, you're making good that part of it.
That part of it, I don't have to pay too much attention to.
Well, you can only, you can only control what's in front of you and what you have in your hands.
And I think you're doing a pretty damn good job.
Yeah, everybody's a lot of people watching this having a good time.
I appreciate you guys showing up here.
Chelsea says, may the road rise to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face.
Well, they're probably going to sunburn here soon, you know, walking across the prairies.
Oh, yeah.
And you left in the wintertime, which is equally like, what was the date you left Vancouver?
I'm going to walk through the February 20th.
Yeah, well, there was a bit of, excuse me, there was a bit of method to the madness there because we did like, I mean, the weather in the lower mainland is typically mild, right?
And then I figured, okay, we're going to get a bit of dicey weather going through the passes and stuff.
But I mean, dude, I'm not particularly religious, but there's a lot of stuff that came together in a really weird way that, you know, sometimes I'm just like, damn.
Yeah.
Like, I mean, we managed to get under, like ahead of or just underneath the couple of weather systems.
Like there was a, there was a winter storm in the Kootenays.
You know, I was like, you know, just kind of just ran out in front of it, you know, just and then it came in behind us.
Yeah, that's a common thread for a lot of people these last couple of years.
I'm not really religious, but some weird things have happened to me.
Yeah, it's everything seems to be, you know, it really does feel as though a lot of things are seem to be on a track, like some kind of collision track to a climax or something here.
Like people are being drawn together, networks are being formed.
Like things are happening all over the place that, you know, had to happen that way for this to happen and for that to happen.
And it's just, it's beyond my, I just, I'm just riding the roller coaster now at this point.
Shambo says, see you in Calgary, James.
Keep on trucking, buddy.
What was that at the point?
Yeah, yeah.
Well, be there.
We got the whole crew's going to go out back.
David just decided that this morning.
Okay.
We'll drive up in our mobile support unit.
Yeah.
And I also laughed at you.
You don't even take the rucksack off to take pictures with people.
Is it just part of your body now?
Like, do you just sleep, you know, just never comes off?
I got to tell you, though.
There they go.
This, this, this, I, I don't know if I should plug them or not, this particular ruck sock, because I left all my army crap at home because I figured, okay, well, they might go seize that or something.
Nobody uses the issued stuff anyway.
It's all crap.
But I got this here just before I left.
Is that a mystery ranch bag?
Sorry, is that a mystery ranch bag?
Mystery ranch, mystery ranch.
Yeah, I knew it, and it's it's the bomb, as we like to say, right?
Yeah, they're uh, it's the shit, they're priced accordingly for a reason.
They're deadly, and um, but I mean, yeah, after, you know, which is day 41, so you're gonna if you're gonna march across the country, across the continent, you should probably invest in a decent bag.
I mean, you know, yeah, I assume you're not wearing flip-flops as well either.
I can't believe you don't have sponsors.
You don't have like 511 sponsors by now, or I did, I did have some 511s.
Yeah.
And I think, I don't know, I switched over.
Like, I feel kind of like a wuska.
I switched over to some Hoka 1-1s.
Okay.
And, but I had to do it.
I mean, it was like the, I don't know if you ever done Iron Man or a Mountain Man.
Yeah.
But the Mountain Man, they just do, they just, they do the Pickleys with one brigade.
They do a, instead of using combat boots like we did in Petawawa, they do it with running shoes and shorts.
Yeah, I've done a couple of those, those crazy.
One, we just showed up.
Me and my partner had no training because they demanded another team from the battalion.
And it was me and another master corporal.
They're like, well, you guys are like, well, when are we going to do this?
Like, it's Monday.
This is Friday.
You want me to do this?
So we did it.
And we showed up and we were the first.
We were like in sixth place when we got to the canoes and we were drinking the night before.
Like we were like, no one expected us to even finish anything.
So we were like, whatever.
And then we were like in sixth place.
We were killing it, but neither of us could work a canoe.
We went up going in circles.
The Patricia guys rammed our boat and they tried to sink us.
One guy threw a donut at my head.
You know, anyway, we ended up doing all right, but we was like, we're going to win.
You know, no, we came like 27th or something.
Well, that's still pretty good.
It wasn't bad.
It was one of the Bushman.
It was like the RCR one.
It wasn't quite the Iron Man.
It was like two-thirds of an Iron Man or half an Iron Man or something.
But yeah, I wouldn't try an Iron Man on no training and no sleep and no.
Yeah, it was just stupid.
Rob McCallum, if he's out there, if he's listening, I hope you're still alive, buddy.
That was crazy.
Like, you have no change.
Nope, I'm just going to do it.
Oh, the shit we put ourselves there.
Yeah.
And that's, I don't anticipate, there was no workup training for you for this.
I don't think you did any kind of, you just kind of, I've done rucksack marches before.
I'll just march on a while.
You know how many time zones that is, James?
It's quite a while.
Yeah.
Wow.
And the weather's been pretty good.
I guess you've missed a lot of these storms and stuff.
Well, I mean, there have been days when it's been raining and stuff.
Absolutely, especially going through DC.
I mean, my God, there was a couple of days there where I was, you know, three days in a row going up between Hope and Sunshine Valley.
It's a 27 kilometer stretch there where it was just, you know, pissing down rain every day.
So, you know, awful.
Kind of like being on fall exercise.
Yeah, back on three Bravo again.
Fall exercise, Wayne, right?
Yeah.
Oh, no.
Yeah.
Horrible.
Oh, man.
But I mean, like, today is picture perfect.
And yesterday was a little bit of sun and cloud mix.
But I mean, I anticipate there's going to be some weather events and we'll work through it.
Just like we have with all this.
That's why we got all the gear because people carrying all that stuff.
That was something else I wondered because there's always been speculation and no one really knows who controls the weather machine.
This has been a, you know, an infantry lore thing going back generations, probably.
We believe it may be in the hands of the CDS.
Do you think they'll deploy the weather machine on you, especially as you get through the Thunder Bay area, maybe to try and slow you down?
No, I think he's going to deploy.
He's going to send out the black flies.
The black flies.
Oh, the shad flies.
Yeah, the insects could be also deployed.
If people don't know, it's just what happens.
You know, it'll be beautiful weather for a month, you know, and then we'll go to the field in end of May for a weekend or a week.
And then there's a snowstorm and there's locusts and alligator eats a guy.
You're just like, what in the hell?
And it's like, oh, the weather machine was turned on.
And, you know, it happens.
I remember, yeah, I remember being in Gajetown one year in August.
And it was.
I was the only man that returned.
No, I remember it was bone dry and I had my entire rain suit on, including leather combat gloves.
Oh, no.
Because I was eaten alive by mosquitoes.
They're bad at their.
Yeah.
I had a couple of guys.
They were doing PLQ at the time and they were in, I don't know, if you're familiar with the training area, they're in Sharps Woods.
And I had been there once briefly, but when they came out of there, they were looking like different men.
And I was like, what happened?
And he just grabbed me by the shirt.
He says, Mackenzie, for the rest of my life, I don't care what happens.
Never again ask me what happened in Sharps Woods.
I was like, okay, man.
He still never told me.
I think someone was killed.
Yeah, exactly.
Yeah, the old training area.
Those bugs are bad in Gajetown.
Panawana, they're not great either.
And they got that sand hill.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
So I think that'll be the biggest challenge.
I had an interview yesterday and they were talking about, you know, the black flies going through Ontario.
And I think that'll be that'll be interesting.
Yeah.
Just get one of those nets.
One of those would help at all.
those giant nets.
Yeah.
Maybe you could get a guy to go ahead of you with a flamethrower.
Maybe Elon Musk could send one of those out and just clear the keep.
I don't think Elon Musk is a real person.
He, you know, is he a robot?
That's another thing.
We've, we've, we're not sure.
He could be a cyborg.
You're, I mean, you, you're a Skynet product yourself.
Are you have any insight in this?
I should probably be careful what I say.
He's a CPU.
He thinks Elon Musk is a robot.
He's a prototype.
We don't.
Everything you say is true, is taken as fact immediately.
Yeah, the left has no sense of humor whatsoever.
He's saying anything.
Yeah.
James Topp rambled insensibly for hours about Elon Musk being a robot.
Well, we know how this guy thinks.
Every radio guy ever, every TV person.
My God.
So what kind of pace are you doing 50, 60, 70 kilometers a day?
Well, no, I mean, typically I have between 38 and 43 kilometers a day to achieve in order to meet the target date of, you know, around end of June, right?
Right.
So what's been happening is that like going through the mountains, we had to shorten stuff up, pick up the pace in parts where the terrain was a little bit more favorable.
So some days we would go like, you know, 27, 32, and then the next day, you know, go 40 or 45 because it's an average I'm trying to do.
Right, right.
And I think what's going to happen after we hit Lethbridge and do the Calvary thing.
Those are going to stop lying for real.
Especially for new guys in the military, if they're around there listening, that's those are some of the scariest words you're ever going to hear is when the rec-warrant says we're going to pick up the pace.
Your life is about to suck really bad.
I can tell you, I can feel the fear when I say that.
I only got a little taste of it.
I only ever got to be a section commander.
I can only imagine the fear stick you could wield as the reckey warrant or a CSM or an RSM or something must be quite satisfying, I imagine.
But yeah, I don't like, you know, the thing is, this is a target we have to achieve.
So we'll probably make best use of the terrain.
It's nice and flat.
We got our spring-summer marching order on.
We'll pick up the pace because today we're only going, you know, 25 in the monarch.
Oh, is that all?
Yeah, yesterday we only did 32. Only.
So we got to get up that.
We got to get those miles up.
There's people in this country that refuse to park any further than three or four spaces from the entry doors to Walmart because it's too far to walk.
And you're like, it's only 32 kilometers.
I'll just walk.
Yeah.
It's so short.
I mean, wow, it's incredible, man.
I just, I can't even, I'm going to check this live tracker thing all the time.
I'm just going to maybe get it on my phone and be like, wonder where he's at now.
I think it has your pace on there as well.
Yeah, I'm not sure.
I mean, we're going a little bit slower now because we're doing this.
But, you know, I'm trying to keep it up to, you know, between like five and a half, six and a half kilometers an hour.
It has your altitude, has your time.
It doesn't have your speed, but, you know, we could probably guess that.
Where are we going?
We're on the Crown Set Highway.
No, Crow's Nest Highway.
Crow's Nest.
I've never been.
The only place I've heard I've ever been was Edmonton in Lloydminster, I suppose.
Yeah.
Lethbridge and then Tabor is coming up on the docket.
That's my friend of mine, Brendan Black, your Danger Cats, Uncle Hack is from there.
So I wonder if he'll be home.
Tabor, Alberta.
Oh, man.
What do you do to stay entertained?
Like, do you listen to music?
Or I guess maybe you're doing this.
You're just talking to people every day?
Yeah, well, folks drive up occasionally, like if we're going to more of a built-up area, you'll meet some people on the side.
But I mean, I'm focused, right?
I'm focused on the mission.
I keep my head up, maintain situational awareness, look to the left and right and maintain 360.
It's good exercise for the mind.
It's good exercise.
I would imagine.
It's like escape from Siberia.
You're just going to march all the way to Poland or something from the Soviet gulag in northern Siberia.
My God.
So yeah, I mean, you know, I got, we do that eight to ten hours a day.
We maintain a mark discipline of about 45 or 50 and 10, right?
So.
And what are you doing for food?
Well, this is where, you know, we got we got the RV and we prepare food for ourselves because we have to eat good.
Like we eat guys.
I assumed you were just like eating souls, like just consuming the souls of your enemies along the way as they become demoralized.
And like it just strengthens you.
I'm crushing donuts too.
Carbs.
You can burn them right off.
It doesn't matter.
It was like, yeah.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah.
Probably the hardest thing.
Some of the hardest things I've ever done.
I did the selections and stuff in the military and they were, you just eat everything because you're burning it all off anyway.
It doesn't eat it all.
Actually, once I overdid it, and they had these little cases of, not, not Joe Lewis's, but something like that.
Like passion flakes.
You know, the little passion flaky bottles?
I fucking ate them all.
I fucking ate all of them.
And in Seesaw, and then I was like, I almost went into a diabetic coma walking somewhere as a pot.
I probably ate 5,000 grams of sugar.
I was like, fucking have a heart attack.
I hurt my pancreas.
My insulin levels are damaged.
Oh, man.
Some Weekends and Tuesday says, I quit drinking years ago, but I'll gladly buy this legend of all, a legend, all of the beers for what he's doing.
Mad Respect.
Yeah, I'm seeing a lot of that.
A lot of people are pretty pumped of what you're doing, and I am too.
I mean, I just, ah, my God.
I mean, I think I did 30, 31K once, and that was like, that was, that was rough.
And then you're just, this is your, this is Tuesday for you.
I'm just going to do it every day.
You could do it.
I know you could do it.
If you were, oh, don't, don't, don't challenge me.
Well, why isn't he doing it?
I'm going to get shamed into it now.
you could do it.
You could leave New Brunswick and meet me in Ottawa.
I'm in Nova Scotia.
I mean, I don't know.
I've maybe.
Oh, my God.
Yeah.
And actually, I got a chit right now, Warren.
Sorry, I can't.
It says no uneven ground.
You know, I can't go to the field.
I can't, you know, I have to stay home to play video games.
It says right there on my channel.
I would like to come down that way when you get close, though.
I think that's going to be quite the thing.
I think a lot of guys should.
And this goes gain steam, I would imagine, as you get closer.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's going to be something special, I think.
I don't think anything like this has ever been done.
And, you know, you made the Terry Fox references and what Terry Fox is about.
This is a very similar thing.
Yeah, but I don't like, I can't make that comparison.
I know you're not.
I'm making the comparison.
I don't know how to ask you to, but you left the memorial, I think, right in Vancouver.
And in comparison in the way that a man is willing to put his body on the line, and Terry Fox wore the Canadian flag on his shirt as he, you know, he did his marathon there.
And you have embarked upon quite, a marathon isn't even the right word.
You've embarked on quite a mission yourself.
And your body, your mind, your career, your employment and all of this stuff for the sake and the betterment and the hopes of the Canadian people.
And I can't even, I mean, this is, I mean, find me something more impressive and compelling than this.
I don't know what CBC is busy talking about right now.
Something else.
The Will Smith fiasco, I suppose, is much more engaging.
Hang in there with me.
We'll go say hi to these folks over here.
Sure.
The governor, he's a friend of mine.
He's in Ottawa.
He's an RCR guy, and he says, respect James, see you in Ottawa.
Another two RCR guy.
Thank you.
We're going to have a.
Good.
How are you?
We're live streaming.
Are you okay?
How are you doing?
Damien, really nice to meet you, man.
What's your name?
Damien.
Nice to meet you, Damien.
Mind if I join up or what?
Sure.
Well, I'm at.
Yeah, I'm getting pretty close.
So we're going to.
Do you know where the RV is at?
Where are you from?
Calgary, okay.
What are you doing down here?
just came down to give you a little scare.
Well, I appreciate it.
Thank you.
I got...
Still with me?
Thank you.
Hey, how are you doing?
Good, good.
What's your name?
Trevor, nice name, Trevor.
Great to talk.
Taco says, how far did he walk during just this interview?
Probably a few kilometers.
We're at an hour and a half, an hour and 15 minutes.
Yeah, so far since we left this morning, we got 15 kilometers on the clock.
When did you leave this morning?
Do you just get up and eat and go right at 7 a.m.?
Yeah, we usually get up at around 6. Of course.
And then we get going around 8. Like, I mean, I'm working.
Most of the fellas are like they're not as familiar with military as I am and you are.
So, you know, I try not to make it really hard timings, right?
So we leave at eight or so.
There's no inspections or anything.
There's no, you know, you're not doing.
Well, I what kind of fucking sideburns are those, Mackenzie?
I don't know.
I thought I could get away with it.
Well, you didn't.
And you're doing extras all weekend.
Yep.
Probably.
Yeah, we're going to.
Yeah, no, so, you know, I got to respect that, you know, folks are not indoctrinated like we are, right?
So they're not dead inside.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So we just keep, I keep it kind of, okay, we're going to leave at eight.
And then if we leave at eight, it's that bonus.
And if we leave it 10 after, hope it out.
Yeah, it's going to, we're going to have a fast, we're going to have to pick up the pace and you don't want that.
Yeah.
Through the swamp, you know.
Oh, man.
Oh, geez.
I don't know if there's anything else.
What a, what a crazy.
I mean, I just still can't.
I mean, this is wild.
Like, this has never been done before, I don't think.
You're doing interviews, like, there's no time to stop at all.
It's like, you can interview me while I'm marching if I can squeeze it in.
It's amazing.
Yeah, people are getting flashbacks to the Forrest Gump movie where he just ran across the country forever.
But Forrest Gump was just doing it purposelessly for no reason.
This guy is on a pretty serious mission here.
And, you know, I just, I'm speechless.
I mean, what you're doing to me is astonishing.
But at the same time, I understand why you're doing it and I get where it's coming from.
I mean, I've been, I'm just, this is what I've been doing because I felt the same way.
I had to do something.
What can I do?
How do I, you know, I hate this feeling of sitting around and seeing everything that's happening and feeling helpless.
Like I have no, I mean, I'm not going to save anything or do it, but if I can help, you know, push the ball up the field an inch or two in whatever way I can contribute, then I would rather, much rather do that than not.
Well, yeah, and it's about, it's about, you know, going to bed with a con, with a clear conscience.
Like at least you tried, right?
Right.
I didn't sit here and do nothing as everything was, you know, burned down and destroyed.
And I kept my mouth shut and I kept my head down and said, you know, well, maybe they'll eat me last.
You know, if I, if I just do nothing, I'll be the last one to get eaten by the alligator or whatever the Churchill quote is about appeasement is thinking the alligator will eat you last.
Yeah.
So it's right.
I mean, I agree.
You said it's a national crisis.
I think it is too.
A lot of people are hurting and suffering and they're pretty teary-eyed seeing you doing what you're doing and it's bringing a lot of hope and inspiration to people.
And I, for one, I think it's heroic and This is a legendary thing.
This is never going to happen again.
This is outrageous in a good way.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, that was one thing I found out too.
Like, I mean, I had to, for a lot of years, you know, especially if we're asked in the infantry what we did as a soldier, you know, you kind of put your put a put compassion in the back seat a lot of the times, right?
Yeah.
And, you know, we know the definition of the word, but we don't really practice it, I think.
And I don't know.
I just got to that point, I think, where I realized I was suffering and I realized there was a lot of other folks who were in the same boat.
Yeah.
There sure is, especially in the military as well.
It's sick.
It's sad to see what they're doing.
And there was a time, maybe in the fall, at, I don't even want to say it, one of the units in Petawawa, I think it might have been 3rd Battalion.
I can't remember, but they had the unjabbed guys sitting out in a mod tent, separated away, segregated away from everybody.
And that's where they would go because they wouldn't let them work and wouldn't let them do anything.
They would just put them in there all day.
Oh, my God.
I didn't know that.
Had them cleaning up cigarette butts and putting them on GD and this kind of stuff.
It's like, oh, so you're like POW, like you guys had done something wrong, like you're being punished.
And CTV tried to get down there and investigate, and they wrapped it up quick and shuffled them back inside.
And I think the engineer RSM on the base had to come down and chew out the RCR RSM.
I don't know what happened, but I was like, oh, did the engineers have to come save us?
We'll never live this down, guys.
Like, we can't have this.
But, you know, it's sad that they won't.
What's really disappointing and frustrating to me is there's so many, how many officers do we have?
You know, we've got more generals and senior staff officers now than we ever did in World War II when we had a million troops or something.
And I'm still waiting for any of them to find some kind of, you know, moral fiber or backbone or character to stand up and say anything on behalf of these people that they're supposed to be.
These guys trust them to look after them and take care of them and lead them.
And they're just leaving, hanging them out to dry and letting them burn.
It's horrible.
I don't get it.
I just, I don't understand it.
And, but I don't know, you know, like I'm, I'm thinking if I'm inspiring anybody, then if I can inspire one dude in uniform, you know, to be that, you know, that stormtrooper that kind of like, you know, takes his helmet off and is like, hey, I'm not a clone.
Yeah, I'm not a zombie.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Some of them did.
Some don't have.
And I'm sure there'll be more in the future, but it's, you know, there's just not enough.
And it's crazy that it's going to take something like this.
And I guarantee this is going to have, especially as this continues, as the legends continues.
I mean, I don't know how you ignore something this crazy.
And I mean, I'm personally, I'm going to do everything I can to support this and keep keeping this in the public consciousness.
I'd like to check in with you every little once in a while and see how you're making out.
Yeah, absolutely.
Let's do that.
I'm sure the veterans.
It's important for me.
Like, I know you got good contact with guys still serving and guys recently retired and stuff, right?
Like, and those are, that's, that's my people, right?
I mean, I want to let them guys know what I'm doing.
Absolutely.
Yeah, we're going to cool.
We're going to come up on a break here.
So.
Yep.
Well, that wraps up nicely.
Why don't we?
It's a really good conversation, Jeremy, and let's do another one.
Absolutely.
Thank you so much, James, for sorry, Warren.
I mean, don't, you know, I don't know.
It's not deprogrammed yet.
It's only been a few years.
I don't remember how to do this.
Yeah.
I appreciate you so much for coming on and taking the time to talk to me and everybody else.
And for what you're doing is absolutely impressive and inspiring.
And I'm going to go do some more pull-ups right now.
And I'm probably going to complain.
I'm going to quit after 20 or so, but then I'm going to feel bad about myself.
Like, he's still out there walking.
And it's going to be throughout the day.
So hopefully you'll have inspired me to be slightly less lazy, I suppose.
I appreciate it so much, what you're doing.
And cheers to you and your crew and everybody.
Absolutely.
So I can let you go here.
If you have anything else you want to say before I let you go.
Yeah, I just want to say, like, if, you know, we knew each other back in the day, you know, like I said in a couple of videos, I wasn't always.
Me either.
I could have been, I could have been, I could have done a little bit better job.
Me too.
As a supervisor and a leader.
Yeah.
I hope that doesn't stop you from, you know, reaching out to me if you want.
Tomorrow's.
I know that there's dudes hurting out there and sometimes they need somebody to talk to.
Absolutely.
I feel the same way.
That's a great message.
Thanks a lot, James.
Best of luck.
Good weather.
I mean, you know what you're doing.
I don't have to tell you anything.
Actually, could you help me with something?
I'm just kidding.
Have a good rest of your day.
If you need anything, you let me know too.
Well, I would be out of my mind to ask you for anything right now.
I think you're a little busy crushing the continent.
But I'll keep that in mind.
Thanks.
And enjoy your barn.
You're going to go dancing later tonight.
Is that the plan?
Because your feet just are.
Yeah, I'm going to probably have to utilize my escape and evasion skills at some point before the statue cuts.
You brought smoke grenades, I'm assuming.
You just slam one of those down, go right at the nearest one.
Yeah.
Throw some Artie Sims around.
It'll be, you know, the confusion, you'll be able to escape.
That'd be a hell of a way to leave a party, too.
I mean, I imagine so.
Yeah, totally.
All right.
Pops right for real.
Thanks very much.
At Canada Marches, I think on Twitter, Instagram, all the other relevant, you know, social media poisonous things we do.
Canadamarches.ca is the website.
And I think that's it.
If you want to follow James' support, what he's doing, go there and find those.
I miss anything?
Is that all of them?
Oh, that's good.
And yeah, we'll set something up in the future.
Now we got contact.
Awesome.
Thanks a lot, man.
Appreciate it.
Have a good day.
Okay, Jeremy.
Take care.
There we go.
Well, that was cool.
I was looking forward to talking to that guy.
What a crazy thing that he's doing.
I mean, wow.
I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna, and what a what a poetic thing.
Because these are the guys I looked up to my whole career.
Like, I didn't want to be an officer for a reason.
I wasn't really an officer type guy.
Maybe I should have, I don't know.
But there's something about the hardcore NCO, you know, the Sergeant Major Plumleys.
You remember the movie We Were Soldiers and these kinds of guys where it's just like, that's the guy that's going to get it done.
That's the guy that's going to win the war for you and get things done.
The NCOs are the backbone of the army.
And it's such a classic, you know, how is this going to happen?
I'm just going to throw on my rucksack and I'm going to walk all the fuck.
I'm just like, but then maybe they didn't answer his phone calls.
He's like, fine, I'm going to fucking go down there.
And he's walking to auto from Vancouver.
It's incredible.
It's amazing.
It is.
He's a legend.
I don't know what else to say about that.
You can go to follow him on his website, Canadamarches.ca.
There's a live tracker here you can go to right now and you can follow where he is and what he's doing.
There's a home about blog, how you can join and support.
You can buy some stuff, how to contact all of us here.
Canadamarches.ca.
He's on Twitter as well and Instagram and all of that kind of stuff.
I think I got the rest of these.
No, I missed a couple.
Somebody because Dues says, pretty sure we have more generals than Leopard 2's.
That's probably correct.
Blonde Libertarians say, thanks for lining up and giving us a chance to hear his story.
Typical good guy, infantry guy.
It's always more worried about the things.
You can do 900 things right, you do one thing wrong, and that's the one you always, that's just what you think about for the rest of your career.
The one day you fucked something up or did something wrong.
I'm the same way.
I mean, I just ruminate over things like that, and he seems to be that kind of guy, too, and that's how I know.
He seems like a pretty fucking good guy to me.
So unless you guys, unless, I'm sorry, CBC, unless there's someone else just torturing their body and mind on a daily basis and sacrificing their work and career and everything else for the sake of the people of this country.
If you have somebody better, I would love to hear from them, but I don't think that's the case right now.
And shame on you for not giving this man the proper attention and respect that he deserves, that he's earned.
So with that being said, I'm going to play this.
If you don't know, now you know.
And if you missed it, this is a great little intro video.
This is the video he posted shortly before he stepped off.
And I'll play this, and then we're going to get out of here.
And I got to get some stuff ready for later this evening for whatever number.
What are we on now?
222.
Episode 222, something like that.
So check this out.
I'll be right back.
Thank you.
My name is James Todd.
I'm a warrant officer.
I served in the regular Army for over 25 years.
I transferred to the reserves.
I got a job with the public service working for the RCMP.
I was placed on leave without pay, and I am in the process of being released from the Armed Forces.
I am not authorized to wear this uniform right now.
I accept full responsibility for what I am doing and what I am saying, and I am willing to suffer the consequences.
This is hard for me.
I may suffer repercussions for what I am doing right now by wearing this uniform.
But something needs to be said, and I think I speak on behalf of a lot of people when I say enough is enough.
I do not speak on behalf of the Canadian Armed Forces or the regiment that I have served with.
But I want to honor them, and I need to wake them up.
I do not like the direction that this country is going.
I disagree with the government imposing mandates on it.
I am not here to speak on behalf of any political organization.
I am here for me.
I am here for the people of this country.
It's the people of this country who work for a living that make this country run.
I work for them.
I also am here to pay my respect to the veterans of this country that have given their lives and their limbs and their minds to the service of this country.
I am doing this for them as well.
So this is my message.
We as Canadians, all Canadians, need to stand up for what we believe in.
First Nations, immigrants, and the people that were born here.
This country is ours.
It is not the property of the moneyed few.
There are people out there who risk their lives every day.
They're truck drivers, they're construction workers, they put the power lines up, they lay the telephone lines that enable us to communicate with each other.
I'm here for them.
I put this uniform on for them to defend this country.
So I want everybody to know what I intend to do as a form of protest against overbearing government mandates is to march from Vancouver to Ottawa on foot, under my own power, and on my own die.
This is peaceful.
This is constructive.
This is setting an example for anyone that they have the power to stand on their own two feet and make their voices heard if they have a problem.
They have the right to do that.
Am I afraid?
Yes, absolutely I am.
But I'm going to work through it.
I am not encouraging, lashing out with violence, with coarse language, with profanity.
I am not making inflammatory statements to any person or group.
I want us all to come together everyone to recognize what we have in this country.
And that's the freedom to speak out and disagree and make our voices heard.
I disagree with what the government is doing.
Right now, citizens of this country who have chosen to go to Ottawa and make their voices heard.
It's time to reach out with an open hand and not a raised fist.
So on the 20th of February, I am leaving from Vancouver and I am marching to Ottawa.
I've not always got along with the people that I worked with and I've said the wrong things and not acted in ways that were professional.
I just want them to know that.
And if they want to reach out to me, I would love to hear from them.
If what I am doing is offending you, then I apologize.
But something needs to be done.
I have spent the last two years sitting back, saying nothing, and time is done.
It's time for me to do something.
In support of Canadians, support of soldiers.
Being a soldier isn't just about taking up arms.
It's about mobilizing your inner resources to do something and make a stand.
And not just that, to march forward.
And that's what I'm going to do.
I serve this country by putting the uniform on.
I've retained the pride in this uniform and what it means and that flag right there.
But any of my brothers and sisters in uniform, why I am here is I want you to understand that you have a right to make yourself heard as well.
I'm proud of everybody that came down here.
I am proud of everybody who is holding a flag.
And if you want to support me, I welcome it.
But if you want to insult me, twist my words and my message, that's your right.
If you want to hate me, that's your right too.
You have the right to your own opinion.
So say what you're going to say, and I'm going to say what I'm going to say.
I'm going to say what you're going to say.
Thank you.
I did it again.
It wouldn't be a proper production of mine if I didn't mute myself at some point in time.
How do you not find that guy inspiring?
And how do you not, I mean, how do you not?
It's incredible.
It's a wonderful thing that he's doing.
And what a guy, you know.
Thank you guys for being here, and thank you so much for that.
And thanks to James for everything he's doing, but more importantly for being the guy, being the kind of warrior and example of this country that, you know, I'd always hoped that we'd had.
And he's exemplifying it right now.
so yeah God damn.
Incredible, incredible stuff.
I have got to go get ready.
I've got to get some things done, and I'm going to be back this evening for whatever we're doing.
Whatever we're doing.
Clown World.
It's a nightmare.
Canadamarches.ca at Canada Marches on all the social media platforms and places and things.
You can go and find and support the man and what he's doing.
All the relevant places.
Try to that.
Thanks guys for being here.
Raising this.com.
As always, the links on my stuff are there.
And if it's not really your kind of thing, then let's take a fucking care.
