Ezra Levant argues Trudeau’s February 23rd retreat from the Emergencies Act—while proposing permanent FinTrack powers and insurance suspensions—exposes a pattern of civil liberties violations by Liberals and NDPs to avoid electoral backlash, with Ottawa police shutting down 39 trucking firms without charges. He mocks MP Yaara Sachs’ Nazi convoy comparisons as absurd, citing a 4chan joke, while criticizing Tamara Lich’s detention for "inciting mischief" despite no violence, paralleling it with Pastor Arthur Pavlovsky’s imprisonment under emergency rules. Rebel News’s rapid growth to 1M subscribers and 400M views in 30 days highlights public distrust after exposing police brutality, like Alexa Lavoie’s point-blank tear gas assault, which Ottawa Chief dismissed despite global coverage. Crime data showing drops during protests contradicts claims of terror, revealing a government overreach that normalizes dissent suppression as a permanent strategy. [Automatically generated summary]
But it has shown us who the tyrants were, didn't it?
It's February 23rd, and this is the Ashley Levant show.
Why should others go to jail when you're the biggest carbon consumer I know?
There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.
The only thing I have to say is government.
It's because it's my bloody right to do so.
The House of Commons debated the Emergencies Act, and it passed with the grotesque support of the NDP to their everlasting shame.
The NDP then in 1970 voted against Pierre Trudeau's War Measures Act.
This time they were shamefully united with Trudeau because they're moral cowards and they would rather avoid an election in which they would surely lose seats.
They'd rather have their own personal comfort than stand for civil liberties.
And think of every liberal MP who violated civil liberties themselves.
Liberal liberties, the root word, is the same in Latin.
It comes from the word for freedom.
But we now know that liberals do not believe in freedom.
They believe in power.
We also know that so many of the people in society who call themselves the keepers of liberty, the keepers of our society, they're liars.
The biggest advocates for the Emergencies Act, other than the thuggish police chief, many of them, and the violent police rank and file who were let loose.
The biggest advocates were journalists, and they raged and raged at anyone who dared to disagree with them.
I showed you yesterday how many journalists were raging against the New York Times for daring to report that Trudeau deployed men with guns.
They just couldn't handle the contradiction being shoved in their face that these liberal journalists were shilling for a police state.
When we documented it at Rebel News, they could discount it, oh, that's rebel news.
But when the New York Times said it, they couldn't make it go away, so they shrieked.
Imagine being someone who decided to burn up their personal political capital to support such a tyrant.
Literally today, as Trudeau was writing his short speech announcing that he was blinking and abandoning the Emergencies Act, his shills in the Senate were standing up and torching their reputations by speaking in favor of it.
Imagine burning up a lifetime of political capital, only to have Trudeau walk away from it a moment later.
Oh, well, it was a useful exercise to see who went along with it, to see who would cheer and follow orders, which politicians, including those in the Conservative Party, who condemned the truckers in the same language.
The cowards in the Liberal Party who announced that they were very much against it, but that they were going to vote for it against their conscience because Trudeau was forcing them to.
That's not a thing, by the way.
Each MP controls their own vote.
But they said that.
Liberals said they were voting against their conscience and against the charter because Trudeau told them to.
They really do, they really will do anything to follow orders.
The carnage here, the carnage, the smashed reputation of Canada's banks who went along with the seizure of private accounts, the smashed reputations of the MPs of the Liberals and the NDP, the parties of the left, the smashed reputations of the police.
I'll never forgive them.
The Carnage Caused By Financial Tools00:03:11
And all for what?
Trudeau is a disgrace, but he has disgraced Canada too.
There is no Canadian reputation around the world like there once was.
We are a laughing stock now.
We are like Belarus, a small European country that defiled its reputation with Stalinist cruelty.
Do you really think they're done though?
I don't.
Trudeau and Christia Freeland both warned us that they want the financial powers forever.
In terms of the financial instruments which our government is using right now to act against these illegal blockades and illegal occupation, we reviewed very, very carefully the tools at the disposal of the federal government.
And we used all the tools that we had prior to the invocation of the Emergencies Act, and we determined that we needed some additional tools.
Now, some of those tools we will be putting forward measures to put those tools permanently in place.
The authorities of FinTrack, I believe, do need to be expanded to cover crowdsourcing platforms and payment platforms and their payment providers.
So that is something that we need to do and we will do, and that needs to be in place permanently.
Some of these other tools, like the sharing of information between law enforcement and financial services, and the requirement of financial services to be reviewing their accounts proactively, and the immunity from prosecution that we have provided to them in doing this.
These are extraordinary measures, measures that we absolutely believe are necessary in the current circumstances that are having an impact.
And let me also point out, having a peaceful impact.
And the other aspect of the financial tools that I would point to as being really effective and important is being clear that insurance on trucks that participate in these illegal occupations and blockades will be suspended.
So we didn't have those tools.
I don't believe that those tools should be part of the toolbox of a government in ordinary times, but they are necessary in these extraordinary circumstances, and they are having a very clear impact.
Do you suddenly trust Trudeau and Freeland now?
Why would you?
It is relevant that Christia Freeland's grandfather was a Nazi.
It is relevant that she helped him cover that up.
I'm curious what political lessons he taught her that she's applying now.
But I should tell you, the emergencies are not over.
Look At This Truck News Story00:05:09
There is an official state of emergency in Ontario that the fool Doug Ford invoked, and it is being used brutally, being used by Trudeau, actually.
Let me show you how.
Look at this story that I just saw today in the truck news.
MTO, that's the Ministry of Transportation of Ontario, grounds trucking businesses involved in Freedom Convoy protests.
It's from Today's Trucking, a Trudeau publication, by which I mean they take Trudeau's media bailout.
The Ontario Ministry of Transportation has effectively shut down 39 trucking businesses in the wake of a crackdown on so-called Freedom Convoy protesters.
Oh, just that.
So they're protesters who, as far as we know, have not been charged with any crime, but they've just had their businesses shut down.
What does that mean to have your business shut down?
A business they've built up their whole lives, maybe a truck, a company, license, insurance, all the parts of it.
Just ended.
No trial, no judge, no hearing, no appeal, no ruling, just happened, just done.
And of course, it was done by Doug Ford, but at Ottawa's direction.
So there still is an emergency act in effect in the city of Ottawa and the province of Ontario.
Doug Ford is just stupid enough to let it be on him.
Stupidity, for sure.
Let me show you the stupidest thing I've seen all day.
You really have to see this to know the moral and intellectual character of the people who rule over you.
So this is from Yaara Sachs.
As I said yesterday, she's in a battle to the death with Seamus O'Regan for the title of stupidest MP in the country.
And I'm rooting for her because she's my MP in North Toronto here.
She is inconsequential in every other way.
For all I know, she has never set foot on Parliament Hill, never done anything for all I can detect.
I literally wouldn't know the difference until this spectacular speech in favor of martial law.
How many guns need to be seized?
How much vitriol do we have to see of Hong Kong, which is an acronym for Hail Hitler?
Do we need to see by these protesters on social media?
Imagine saying that and then having Trudeau throw it out.
She thinks Honk Honk stands for Heil Hitler, but she can't really believe that, can she?
I mean, she was just told to say that, right?
Because it's so ridiculous.
But she's Jewish, so she only has one use to Trudeau, which is to convince Jews to vote liberal and to smear non-liberals as Nazis.
So of course they gave her that ridiculous speech to read.
I mean, Seamus O'Regan wouldn't work with him.
So she read it.
She's like Ron Burgundy, the fictional newscaster who would literally read anything put in his teleprompter.
Hey, you're making me look stupid.
Get out here, panda jerk.
Great story.
Compelling and rich.
Well, that's going to do it for all of us here at Channel 4 News.
You stay classy, San Diego.
I'm Ron Burgundy.
Yeah, I'm so proud of my local MP, Ara Sachs.
She really was world famous for stupidity, and so I feel special.
But she obviously felt stung by the worldwide reaction to that speech that went viral internationally.
So she doubled down.
She tried to prove she was right.
I swear, here's what she said.
She went on Twitter and said, for those who think that Hong Kong is some innocuous joke, I'll just leave this here.
So she tweeted this as proof.
This is a threat outlining a crazy conspiracy theory.
Let's skip straight to this image.
Just take a look at that there.
This looks like it's from a humorous troll website called 4chan.
It's where teenagers cook up schemes and share jokes and tricks on the normies, normal people.
You might be able to detect a little bit of that from the frog dressed up as a clown and the fact that the message is written by anonymous.
Do you see that?
You can also see that it's dated February 19th, so long after the honking had been ordered stopped by the judge.
So this is just someone who cooked up a joke on the weekend.
And look what he says.
He says, why Hong Kong is the next okay sign?
Hong Kong equals HH.
If you honk, you're a honky.
And HH presumably is Hitler.
That's what ERSX said.
So let me repeat, this is a joke website by anonymous jokesters.
Maybe the clown gave it away.
I don't know.
Maybe the reference to the next okay sign.
These are the people who made the hoax that the okay hand symbol is a hate symbol and the idiots in the mainstream media ate it up.
It was a joke to trick them.
Everyone makes that hand symbol from time to time.
You might detect that this is a joke, but Yaara Sachs literally cites this anonymous frog clown who makes reference to the last hoax that liberals bought and comes up with the craziest theory yet.
I mean, seriously, he even says the word honk is related to honky, which is a derogatory word for white people.
And Yaara Sachs cites this as her authority.
Inspired Hoax Theory00:03:05
This is why she said Canada had to be under martial law.
For those who think that Hong Kong is some innocuous joke, yeah, you are the joke.
You literally link to a clown referring to a past joke, making to a new joke.
You're that stupid.
Congratulations to everyone involved.
So that's the funny part.
My MP is the dumbest in Canada.
Take that, Seamus O'Regan.
We're not done, though.
There are emergency powers across the country.
I mentioned Ontario's.
Of course, there are emergency-style powers being used to justify forced vaccine mandates, being used to justify no-fly lists against unvaccinated people as if they're terrorists, being used to justify every sort of cruelty that was once unthinkable.
I think the truckers have a win today, but the cruelty of the state remains with us.
I think Justin Trudeau's next move will be to do it right.
He'll make sure there's no pesky independent journalists before he goes to implement martial law.
That's what I predict.
Stay with us more ahead.
Well, as you know, the leader of the convoy is a mysterious question, I suppose, because I don't think there really was a leader.
I think so much of it was organic.
It was sort of spontaneous.
There were different threads of the convoy.
There were different convoys.
There were convoys heading from different parts of the country.
There were blockades in different parts.
There was Coots.
There was Emerson.
There was the Ambassador Bridge.
There was Ottawa.
There was Surrey.
There may have been some chatter back and forth, but I really think they were locally inspired.
You know, they say think globally, act locally.
I think that's really what happened.
I think the Ottawa movement may have had some more official people.
But again, what does that even mean if it's just a trucker deciding to go along with them?
I think the woman who can be called the leader, if there was a leader, is a young Métis woman from the West named Tamara Lich, who herself is not a trucker, but was inspired by them and inspired them.
And she was the one who put up the GoFundMe page that caught fire, raised $10 million before it was shut down at Trudeau's bidding.
She then set up a new account at Give Send Go, and that was hacked and seized by a bank.
So I don't know how much of that money has actually flowed to truckers.
I don't think the answer is much at all.
And I'm not sure if Tamara Lich was like a commander giving orders.
I just don't think that was her style.
Her Facebook videos were very much more emotional and heartfelt.
But if there was the leader of the truckers, I say it would be her.
Although, again, I say I don't think the men in Coutz or Emerson or Surrey even know her.
Bail Hearing for Mischief00:16:09
That said, she was arrested the other night on the street in Ottawa, taken into custody.
And yesterday was her bail hearing for what?
For riot, for sedition, for insurrection, for some serious crime like that?
No.
For inciting mischief.
Incredibly, she was not granted bail.
Murderers in this country are granted bail.
Terrorists are granted bail, but not a trucker accused of mischief.
Joining us now via Escape from Ottawa is a lawyer who watched the proceedings, Matt Wolfson.
He is with David Amber Law, a firm that works with Rebel News and the Democracy Funge.
Matt joins us now via Skype.
Matt, thanks very much for taking the time.
You're a lawyer in Ottawa.
You practice criminal law from time to time, I take it.
Actually, we practice exclusively criminal law and quasi-criminal, such as regulatory offenses like Highway Traffic Act.
Well, that would be right on point because, of course, I don't think there's been any crimes that have been charged in the city of Ottawa.
I don't think there were any violence committed.
I think they would have been parking type offenses, tickets, really, or mischief, which is really the lowest species of any criminal charge I can imagine.
By the way, you guys are taking cases for the Democracy Fund, which I think is great.
Refresh my memory because it's been ages since I was in criminal court.
I used to be a lawyer way back in the day.
The two tests for keeping someone in jail while they await trial are: number one, are they a flight risk?
As in, will they run away and not come back to court on their hearing?
And number two, are they a danger if they're out?
So, Jeffrey Epstein, for example, who had multiple passports and private jets, obviously he was a flight risk.
And then there's the danger, would you commit more crimes?
Neither of these things I can imagine would normally be applied to a trucker accused of mischief.
But there you have it.
She wasn't granted bail, was she?
No, she was not.
Ezra, a few things in response to that is I think there are going to be a wide array.
I think there have been a wide array of charges coming down the pike in relation to this demonstration.
As you've identified, the most common one does seem to be mischief through interference with lawful use or enjoyment of property.
We've also seen a lot of breach of court order under Section 127.
That's the injunction.
And you can imagine a lot of protest-related resist peace officer type charges would be coming down the pike.
What you say about the two tests for bail, historically, that was accurate.
But in 2002, the Supreme Court decided a case called Hull, which has been codified into the criminal code.
And that third prong really is the public repute of the administration of justice.
In other words, the confidence in the administration of justice should a person be released.
Ms. Lich was detained on the second ground as you identified the substantial likelihood of committing new offenses and of the third criterion as well, the repute of the administration of justice.
Okay, so thank you for correcting me on that.
It's been a while since I was in a criminal court.
So they say that the reputation of the law requires she be held behind bars.
Omar Cotter, convicted terrorist, war criminal, murderer.
I guess that didn't bring the justice system into disrepute.
I was just going through different cases of accused murderers who have been let out on bail.
I just don't understand how Tamara Lich, who is a harmless political organizer, the worst thing she ever did was say the phrase, hold the line, which I don't know quite what that even means if all the truckers have left Ottawa.
I don't know how that's what mischief she could get up to if the truckers are gone, but that was used to keep her behind bars.
Yeah, well, I mean, I won't get into different cases for comparison because each case is going to turn on its facts.
What I will state is you've correctly identified, Ezra, that quite often when looking at that third criterion, we're often going to be looking at the severity of the offense and the harms that come with it.
And granted, this was by no means a means offense.
This was, it's generally unusual for a person to be detained on mischief alone, although Ms. Lich was charged with another offense as well.
But nothing about this has been usual.
This has been quite unprecedented and unprecedented.
And what Justice Bourgeois really, for lack of better terminology, hung her hat on, was that this was a protest or a demonstration that contributed to, in her words, the financial, physical, and mental harm to the people of Ottawa.
Her view was that Ms. Lich was counseling and continued to counsel at the time for rest when the truckers were still there.
It was for that reason that Her Honor believed that there'd be a substantial likelihood that she would continue to counsel more mischief.
Well, she better stay in prison then, I guess.
You know, I didn't see it till afterwards, but this judge, bourgeois is her name, is a liberal.
Now, normally I don't think I would heavily remark on that because most judges have a political hue, which is how they suck up to the justice minister of the day.
And typically, liberal justice ministers appoint liberal lawyers and conservative justices appoint liberal lawyers.
But what's different about this judge is she wasn't just a liberal, she was a liberal candidate for whom Justin Trudeau campaigned.
There's a video circulating of Trudeau stumping for this judge when she was a lawyer.
She failed as a political candidate, was given the appointment to the bench, and of all the judges in Ottawa, she was the one assigned this case, and her ruling was very political.
How would this judge have been chosen for this case?
Could the government have shopped around and chosen their judge?
Would it have been assigned by the chief judge?
Of all the judges in the country to hear the case of Trudeau's most unrepentant political critic, for it to go to this judge seems highly unusual to me.
Yeah, I don't know, Ezra.
I really don't have too much comment about that.
I don't have any reason to think or comment about this being a politically motivated appointment to the case.
All I can state is in Canada, we are very, very lucky to have a to have a very well-appointed judiciary with a lot of integrity and wit.
And I just have nothing but confidence in the members of our bench.
They serve with a lot of integrity, and they're some of the top legal minds in the country.
Well, I think you are saying what you have to say as an officer of the court.
And of course, you don't want the law society to come after you.
So fair deal.
I'll leave that alone.
Now, I was surprised to learn because I was following along.
I wasn't watching the video online.
I was watching other journalists live tweet it.
It didn't feel to me like Tamara Lynch had legal counsel.
The things she was saying, the things that her guarantor were saying felt like they were unpracticed or felt like they were just providing too easy a way for the government to hold her in jail.
But you're saying that there was a lawyer, and I think I confirmed that, that the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms actually did hire senior legal counsel for her.
Is that true?
She was represented by counsel, yes.
And in response to what you just said, Ezra, this was a bail hearing with probably some of the most unusual evidence that you could expect.
Nothing was, well, very little was usual about this bail hearing.
It was quite entertaining.
I think what you might be alluding to, really, is the way in which her proposed surety testified.
It wasn't great.
So the proposed surety, that's basically if someone says, look, I'll take responsibility for this woman.
I'll make sure that she doesn't get into trouble.
I'll keep an eye peeled on her.
That's what you mean by a surety.
The person who is basically going to say, I'll be a human checker-upper, Your Honor.
Is that right?
Yeah, basically your jailer in the community, a responsible person to ensure that the accused is abiding by the conditions of his or her release.
And you think that maybe some of the things that the proposed guarantor or surety said may have given, you say was entertaining or unusual.
Is there anything in particular you can tell us about it?
Like, what was weird about it?
Well, the top thing that came to my mind was the Crown Prosecutor questioned her husband, the proposed surety, as to how he had come to Ottawa.
And this is in the context of him stating that he didn't really have finances or he wasn't eating very much when he came to Ottawa.
And yet, he noted that he came to Ottawa by plane, and it came out later in evidence that he came by private plane.
Now, when pressed on who paid for his ticket, he said he didn't know the person who paid for his ticket.
He then changed his answer and stated that he didn't want to give his name, and then he gave his first name.
So that was a bit of evasive testimony that I really think disqualified him as a person the court could count on to be a surety.
Well, that is too bad if that's the case.
I can understand why someone would not want to disclose who helped a fella fly out there given the witch hunt.
I'm guessing that he was afraid that if he named whoever sent the plane, that he would cause that person to have their bank account frozen.
I mean, it sounds goofy from one point of view, but another point of view is I'm pretty sure that if that person were identified, they would find themselves with their plane seized, their bank account seized, and their business licenser and their insurance canceled.
I mean, I don't think it's quite as goofy as it looks.
I think it's because we live under suspended civil liberties right now.
That's my explanation of what you just said.
Yeah, well, it's, I mean, we still don't know who that person is, and people have their loyalties, no doubt.
I think one thing that you're alluding to, Ezra, is a lot of what's going on down there is, I think, has been symptomatic of the divided country.
And there are people who are going to take one position or the other and are going to be looked on with a lot of suspicion by those on the other side.
When is the hearing?
So how long is she going to be in jail now?
Is there a date set or is she going to be in jail indefinitely?
Does it make sense to try and appeal this bail ruling or is she going to be out in a week or so anyways?
So what can happen, what normally would happen is after 90 days, there would be a detention review.
If there hasn't been a review already, the superior, a judge of the superior court would look to see whether or not the detention should have been ordered and whether or not that person should still be detained.
And the purpose of that is to ensure that people don't need to languish in custody unnecessarily.
What can happen in the interim and before that is under section 520 of the criminal code, the accused can review.
The accused can request the court to review the order to see whether or not it should have been made in the first place.
And whether or not that's going to happen soon, I'm not sure.
Well, I think it's notable that the, again, I'm not sure if I would call her the leader of the truckers.
I think the truckers were in many ways leaderless.
But I think if anyone could be called the leader of the truckers, it would be her.
And it's remarkable to me that the most effective political organizer or political critic of Justin Trudeau in years is thrown in prison for mischief reasons.
And we just think that's fine as a society.
Not serious crimes, one of the most minor crimes in the criminal code, because her husband didn't want to say who sent him on a plane out there.
So she languishes in prison for up to 90 days or longer.
I think that's deeply disgraceful on the same legal system that claimed to put her in jail to keep up the reputation of the legal system, throwing Trudeau's political opponent in prison for 90 days.
I don't think that has the effect that Judge Bourgeois wants.
Well, listen, I appreciate you speaking as an officer of the court.
I know you're limited in what you can say, and that's smart.
No use having your law license prosecuted because you say the wrong things, and we're in dangerous days.
I think lawyers for truckers and lawyers for anyone who's charged are in a dangerous position these days.
So I'm glad that you and your firm are taking some of the cases for the truckers.
And the Democracy Fund, I know, is covering the bills for at least some of them.
So I thank you for that work.
Do you yourself have any of the cases that your firm has taken from people charged in the convoy in Ottawa?
Yeah, we're, on my end, pertaining some cases.
And what I just would like to say in response to what you have just said, Ezra, if I can weigh in, pre-sentence and pre-trial custody is supposed to be rare.
It is a very rare thing to be ordered.
And it's important that I note that because people who are detained in custody have enormous pressure to bring the matter to a close sooner.
And I think it's just worth noting that.
Yeah, well, of course.
I mean, we see that in Alberta, too.
Sorry, Pastor Arthur Pavlovsky is thrown in prison.
He languishes in prison right now.
Completely nonviolent man.
Tamara Lich, wouldn't her to flee, languishes in prison right now, completely nonviolent woman.
Both of them prosecuted under emergency rules.
I think it's a disgrace.
I'm glad you're representing some of these folks.
And thanks for giving us an update on things, Matt.
Appreciate it.
Thank you, Ezra.
All right, there you have it.
Matt Wolfson, he's a lawyer with David Anber Law Office.
They are representing some of the truckers who were arrested in Ottawa.
Stay with us, Mourad.
Hey, welcome back.
Your letters.
Complaint Mechanisms Engaged00:10:16
Someone with the nickname Truth Seeker says that criteria for a state of emergency was not met.
This is a criminal operation and these cops are criminals.
Canadians are getting the exact amount of tyranny they are prepared to tolerate.
Freedom is not free.
If you won't put your life on the line to protect your freedom, some tyrant is going to come along and take it from you and your children.
I don't think I would say police who were just out on the street were criminals, but the police who attacked Alexa, the police who attacked Guillaume, our cameraman, the police who stormed into a crowd on horseback, injuring that elderly lady, I would say that those are crimes.
Police can commit crimes.
And when they do, they must be charged with those crimes to maintain the reputation of the rest of the police.
I think it may go to the top.
I think that the police chief obviously was a rogue police chief.
The previous chief in Ottawa was fired, I think, because he wouldn't do these terrible things.
So, yeah, I think that there have been some atrocious acts of policing.
And even if other police didn't engage in the conduct, they approved it.
Someone with the nickname Deborah Starr says, you sure are scrambling because truth is getting out there, reaching more places and people.
Well, you know, today I checked and we had a milestone last night, I think.
We now have more than 1 million people who have signed up for Rebel News emails, 1 million.
And my estimate is that we have, based on analytics on Twitter and YouTube and Rumble and other measurements, is that in the last 30 days, we have had 400 million views and impressions.
400 million.
I think it took us like three years to get our first 400 million, and we had 400 million in the last month.
I really think the Rebel News had a big role to play in shining a light of scrutiny on things.
And I don't want to take more credit than it's due.
And of course, by credit, I give it to our reporters.
But I think that the enormous amount of coverage that Rebel News achieved helped turn the tables, helped show people the evil that was afoot.
I think so.
DT Hunter Production says it is sobering when we see so many people so willing to lie to others about what is happening with irrefutable video proof.
They still try to spin things in a disinformational narrative.
I have come to think that liberals and their supporters are basically more interested in supporting the left of narrative than to report accurate information that in the end could save lives of their fellow countrymen.
Oh, there is no other excuse.
And I think that you're going to see misinformation and censorship as the next move.
I think you're already seeing it.
Let me leave you with our video of the day.
Ottawa police assaulting rebel reporters, but investigating protesters for merely heckling mainstream media.
It's a video by our friend David Mansey's.
Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters to you at home, good night.
Keep fighting for freedom.
David Menzies for Rebel News here at Ottawa Police Headquarters.
Well, folks, there's going to be a press conference here soon.
And we're going to go in if they let us in.
I think they will.
And I've got a couple of questions to ask.
One, why is it that my colleague Alexa Lavois was shot point blank yesterday for simply practicing journalism in public?
Secondly, was the Emergency Services Act really needed to shut down this peaceful demonstration?
I mean, I don't think it met the benchmarks, i.e. the safety of Canadians are at stake.
The sovereignty of Canada is threatened.
So I want to see what the Chief of the Ottawa Police Service has to say about that.
I still can't say when we will ultimately be completing this operation because we now need to enter into a maintenance portion of it to make sure that what occurred three weeks ago can never occur again.
So we will continue to posture, protect our streets of our city, protect our community members from unlawful accusations like occurred now moving forward for as long as it takes.
We are here to respect the laws of emergency measures, and we are going to continue with the forefathers.
There is no date for this month, we are able to bring it to that, and everything will come in addition to what will be presented by us.
Good afternoon, Chief.
David Menzies with Rebel News.
Chief, can you kindly explain how it was that my colleague to my right here, Alexa Lavoie, was shot point-blank with a tear gas canister doing some very painful damage to her?
What was the reason for that, given that she was simply practicing journalism in the public square?
So I'm unfamiliar with the incident you're speaking of.
What I can tell you is that there is complaint mechanisms, there is review mechanisms that will be engaged following this for any use of force incident that occurred.
I'll also say that it's been my observations and experience through the amazing extensive journalism coverage that's occurred through this, that the vast majority of our members have been extremely professional.
They have executed an extremely methodical plan that has been focused on the safety of the residents, the safety of our officers, and the safety of the people engaged in the protest.
Given that the Emergencies Act requires certain benchmarks to be met, such as the safety of Canadians must be at peril, the sovereignty of the nation must be at peril, do you think those benchmarks were met given this was, for what I could tell, a largely peaceful demonstration and protest?
So I guess I'm asking, did you really need to have this act invoked in terms of what were minor unlawful acts and basically bylaw infractions?
So the federal government, the provincial government both enacted legislation that was absolutely supportive to helping us to end the illegal occupation of our streets.
What could be described as bylaw infractions were actually terrorizing moments for the city, for the city, the residents and the communities that came around those areas.
The powers that were provided to us through the Emergencies Act, through the Provincial Emergency Act, through the injunction and through any of the other legislative means that we got to end this protest were extremely beneficial in us being able to be where we are today, see clear streets and have residents that can again walk through their downtown core that they own.
Thank you.
Well folks, I think that was fascinating.
First of all, in terms of the Emergency Services Act, the Chief said it was essentially a good tool for them to carry out the, I guess, deconstruction of the protest site.
The federal government, the provincial government both enacted legislation that was absolutely supportive to helping us to end the illegal occupation of our streets.
But really, did they need it?
I mean, there were already laws and bylaws on the books that would allow police to move in and do this in the first place.
I don't think there was any threat to the sovereignty of Canada or any threat to individual Canadians.
In fact, the crime rate during the so-called occupation went down in Ottawa.
What does that tell you?
And then, of course, he was unfamiliar with the assault to my colleague Alexa Lavois.
So I'm unfamiliar with the incident you're speaking of.
Maybe the chief is telling the truth, but given that it's received international coverage, I'm kind of taking his answer with a shovel full of salt.
And finally, did you catch what the chief said at the end?
He was lauding the media coverage of the demonstration and of the takedown of this weekend.
That would be the mainstream media coverage, of course.
I'd just like to make one, just to make a couple more last comments, if you don't mind, please.
So first of all, what I'd like to say is the media coverage, the participation from the media throughout this has been quite incredible.
The documentation of the activities that are going on has given people the real-life experience of what's occurring out there.
So for that, I thank you.
And then he said, and this really stuck with me, that he was, I guess, disturbed, perturbed by the fact that some of the members of the mainstream media were subjected to verbal abuse.
I also know the media has been subjected to slurs, to abuse, to illegal activities to themselves.
So we have one active investigation ongoing right now, and I would ask that if there are any more activities that need to be reported, please report them to the Ottawa Police Service because we will take them seriously and conduct an investigation around those activities.
Verbal abuse.
Oh, really?
They were called nasty names.
They were, maybe an F-bomb was dropped.
Evan Solomon's feelings and sensibilities got hurt.
And again, I go back to my colleague Alexa.
She gets shot point blank, gets pepper spray in her face, and it's, oh, well, nothing to see here.
I guess this confirms the police state we're in.
We have the government-enabled police services.
We have the government-funded media.
And if you have a contrarian opinion, it doesn't matter.