Ezra Levant details Canada’s April 1st 23% carbon tax hike under Trudeau and Singh, with plans to double it yearly, framing it as a punitive measure against breathing, driving, and industry—like steel production. Premiers Scott Moe and Danielle Smith back protests for provincial autonomy, while convoy-style rallies in Nanaimo, Calgary, Lloydminster, and Ottawa feature "axe the tax" signs, upside-down flags, and even a "Rebel Copter" helicopter disrupting highways. Farmers and businesses oppose the tax as economic sabotage amid inflation and housing crises, contrasting grassroots unity with "professional shit disturbers." The movement signals a broader revolt against federal overreach, not climate policy. [Automatically generated summary]
We were in the field all across Canada reporting on the grassroots protests against the carbon tax.
We had reporters on the streets, in the air, even.
Very exciting, and lots of memories of the same uprising, peaceful uprising against Trudeau's lockdowns.
So please make sure you have the video version of this podcast.
It's so important.
I want you to see all the things I saw during the live stream, which is where I took these images from.
Please go to RebelNewsPlus.com, click subscribe.
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All right, here's today's show.
Tonight, Canadians from coast to coast have a rally against the carbon tax.
Echoes of the Freedom Convoy.
It's April 1st, and this is the Ezra Levant show.
Shame on you, you censorious bug.
I was very excited today.
There was a grassroots protest across the country against the looming carbon tax hike.
Guess it's not looming.
Today is the day Justin Trudeau and his co-conspirator, Jagmeet Singh, and their coalition raised the carbon tax by 23%.
By the way, they're going to continue to raise it.
And the purpose for that is, well, obviously they like money, but the theory is that they want to make everything using energy so expensive that you use less of it.
If you remember, Stefan Dion first called this the green shift to punish your behavior.
Trudeau uses the same language, but he's a better communicator.
He basically says, we want to punish polluters, by which he means anyone who emits carbon dioxide.
Of course, that includes you and me.
Our breath is carbon dioxide when we exhale.
Anytime you use energy to drive, to keep yourself warm, to do practically anything in our modern world, that's carbon.
The whole purpose of the carbon tax is to make you reduce, reuse, and recycle your own life.
Anyways, last time I can recall, national grassroots anti-tax protests were seriously, well, 30 years ago, I don't know if you remember, but the Liberals campaigned on killing, scrapping, and abolishing Brian Mulroney's GST.
Of course, when they took office, they did not do so.
There were street protests against high taxes targeting Paul Martin with mixed success, but they're back.
And it's an incredible thing to see.
And we had reporters across the country today, just like we did during the trucker convoys.
It wasn't as large in any one location as the trucker convoy was because that was a focus.
Everyone's going to Ottawa together.
There were sort of echo sympathy protests on the Windsor-Detroit Bridge and at the Coutts Sweetgrass border crossing.
But here there were protests everywhere across the country.
We had Drea Humphrey in Nanaimo, B.C.
We had Angelica Angelica Toy and Adam Sos in Calgary.
Sheila Gunread at the Saskatchewan-Alberta border in Lloyd Minster.
Alexa Lavoie in Ottawa.
Our friend Efron Monsanto in Hamilton.
We had videos from the Atlantic, from St. Catharines.
And all this was pouring in in real time.
I was doing a live stream and it went so well, so much fun that I said, you know, we've got to show the highlights of the live stream as our Ezra Levant show for tonight.
So please enjoy the best of today's live stream.
And I hope you feel as an enthused and optimistic and community-minded as I did when I was hosting this show.
I see that same spirit, the spirit that was out there during the Trucker Convoy.
I see the spirit again today.
And back then it was about personal freedom.
Today it's about economic freedom.
But it's all the same thing about Justin Trudeau's authoritarian impulses.
And what a pleasure to see the country rise up again peacefully and gently.
So without further ado, for the rest of today's show, please enjoy the highlights from a National Day of Populist Peaceful Uprising against Justin Trudeau's carbon tax.
I loved it.
Take a look.
Across the country, Rebel News reporters are live on location for a nationwide series of protests against Justin Trudeau's plans to hike the carbon tax today by a whopping 23%.
Insane Times for Carbon Tax Increases00:02:11
And I should let you know, that's not it.
The Liberals have passed a law that the carbon tax will go up every year.
In fact, by the time they're done, it'll be more than doubled, maybe about double what it is right now.
Now, you might be thinking this is an insane time to raise a tax on, well, everything that uses energy from farmers, tractors, to the trucks that ship our things to the, you know, heating our house, whether it's heating oil or natural gas or anything that is taxed for its carbon dioxide.
You might be thinking that and you would be right, but you fail to understand the point of the carbon tax.
And this is what its promoters themselves say.
The carbon tax, they say, is not about a cash grab.
No, no, no, they say.
It's about nudging you to change your behavior.
They say that when you drive, when you heat your home, when you put your kids on a school bus, when you do anything with energy, they call that pollution, even though carbon dioxide is a harmless, colorless, odorless gas that is actually plant food.
All life on earth needs carbon dioxide.
It's a trace element, only 400 parts per million in the atmosphere, but essential for all plant life.
They want you to use less, to emit less carbon.
They want to make certain activities so expensive that you do less of it.
So the fact that using carbon is 23% more painful today, that's not a negative side effect to them.
That's the whole point.
That's why they're doing it.
They're doing it because they want to change your behavior.
They want to socially engineer your life.
Now, Justin Trudeau is probably the largest user of private jets in Canada.
But of course, the rules are different for him.
Anti-Tax Protesters Mustering00:04:00
We're going to, in the course of the next hour, visit our reporter, Alexa Lavoie, on the streets of Ottawa, where I see a large protest is gathering, and so too are the police response to it.
We're going to go to Nanaimo, BC, where there's a small crowd.
I understand that later today, Pierre Polyev, the leader of the Conservatives, will have a large rally there, but that won't start for several hours.
To Calgary, where our reporter Angelika Toy is on the scene.
And our chief reporter, Sheila Gunn-Reed, is at the border between Alberta and Saskatchewan in that interesting city of Lloyd Minster.
But first, I want to show you some little video clips that our team has posted so far this morning.
And there are other citizen journalists from other outlets on location.
But let's start with this one from Alexa Le Dois, a pro-carbon tax protester and some counter-protesters.
Let's take a look at her video that she tweeted earlier this morning.
The price of gas goes up.
The price of heating goes up.
The price of groceries goes up.
They don't give you back.
Why are the price of groceries not up?
There's not a single tax.
Listen, buddy.
You're not going to convince me.
I've already had this conversation many times, but I thought I got beat up for having this conversation.
So I don't feel safe talking about it with you.
I don't feel safe talking.
I'm being nice.
That's an honest question.
You guys know what happened last time I had this conversation, right?
It really upset them.
When you try to have an adult conversation with children that haven't grown up, that's the problem.
I don't know this loser.
I know that think I actually know who that lady is.
I think that's Deanna Sharif.
Correct me if I'm wrong.
I think she's a professional protester.
You can sort of tell she's got a body cam.
She got her gear.
And she says she knows people there.
She's sort of ready to protest.
I think that she's a little bit wackadoodle, as my friend Sheila would say.
And if you're protesting for higher energy taxes, you're probably a little bit wackadoodle from the beginning.
But I don't think that that was a grassroots citizen.
I think I recognize who that person is.
I want to show you some anti-tax protesters arriving at Crow's Nest Lake.
Now, that's near the Alberta-BC border.
Let's take a look there and see how the traffic is mustering at that location.
Just take a look.
A little windy.
Looks like some campers.
It's a little bit reminiscent of the trucker convoy, wouldn't you say?
If I understand where Crows Nest Lake is, it's near the Crows Nest Pass.
I'm going to guess.
So that is high in the mountains there.
Not a lot of use for electric cars in the mountains where distances are long and the temperature in the winter is often cold, which makes it very taxing on electric vehicles.
If you don't have carbon, you're not moving.
And if you don't have carbon, you're freezing to death.
It's springtime there, but you can still see it's a little bit frosty.
Speaking of which, here is scenes from Calgary, Highway 1 and the Highway 22 interchange in Alberta.
Absolutely gorgeous footage.
You can see the snow-capped Rocky Mountains in the background, excuse me.
Looks like, again, I'm getting vibes of the trucker convoy from two years ago.
Vibes of the Convoy00:15:42
They're flying the Canadian flag.
Look at that.
I think I know exactly where that is.
That's sort of a parking mustering area just outside the city.
Frankly, I think that's on the way to Banff, if I understand where this was taken.
Doesn't that look like fun?
I bet you some of these folks participated in the freedom convoy two years ago.
And really, it's another form of freedom.
Back then, it was our freedom of association, our freedom of our bodily autonomy, freedom to not have our lives dictated to because we were or weren't jabbed.
The lockdowns, the rules that you couldn't attend a funeral or a wedding, you couldn't have more than a half dozen people over for Christmas dinner, those insane rules.
That and in the end, the vaccine mandate for truckers, which launched the Freedom Convoy.
The fact that so many Canadians are on the edge of financial disaster now with interest rates skyrocketing.
You know, I was reminded that every month, how many people in Canada are run out of their, let's say, fixed five-year mortgage?
If you took a mortgage out five years ago and locked in a great rate for five years, let's say your mortgage rate was 2% or even lower, if you recall, mortgages were very cheap a few years ago.
So you've been paying a mortgage payment, which is, let's say, half principal and half interest.
But now your fixed rate is now going to jump and you have to renew.
Well, interest rates are double what they were when you bought your house.
And so every single month when I don't know how many hundreds of thousands of Canadian families finish their fixed term for their mortgage, now their mortgage payment is $1,000, $1,500, $2,000 more, especially in cities where housing is so expensive to begin with, like Vancouver and Toronto.
And yet Justin Trudeau insists on jacking up carbon taxes by 23%.
There's already tremendous inflation and a phenomenon called shrinkflation.
That's a made-up word, of course, but what it means is to try and fake it, that they're not raising prices.
Companies are selling smaller amounts of food, for example, for the same price.
So they'll still sell you a steak for 15 bucks, but now it'll be this small instead of this big.
So between inflation and shrinkflation and mortgage rates going up and the price of housing because of Trudeau's out-of-control immigration, for him to raise taxes 23% today on carbon is absolutely insane.
Our friend Sheila Gunreed has footage from the Alberta-Saskatchewan border.
Here, a tax protest convoy is rolling from Saskatchewan to Alberta at the border.
Let's take a look at what our friend Sheila Gunreed caught earlier today on camera.
Look at that.
Are you not getting those trucker convoy vibes again?
What does that one say?
Rip-wrap top soil.
Okay, that's just a company's rig.
I wonder what kind of a vehicle that is that doesn't look like a police vehicle.
There's a Trump flag.
You got to love it.
Oh, no, that's an anti-Trudeau flag.
Excuse me.
I thought it said Trump.
It said F. Trudeau.
Those are pretty popular flags.
These are good people.
What does that say?
CO2 is the gas of life.
Exactly right.
It's called plant food.
What does that one say?
You cannot tax people into poverty to change the weather and the upside-down flag and the carbon tax.
Isn't that true?
There's a, you know, we hear a lot about misinformation and conspiracy theories.
Have you ever heard anything so insane as thinking that if we all just pay 23% more in this particular tax in Canada, that's going to change the weather?
What?
That is not science.
That is disinformation, but how many mainstream journalists say it?
Hey, let's go to our next clip.
It's our friend Efrain Oswaldo Flores Monsanto.
He is in Hamilton, Ontario.
He published this footage of, he calls it protesters against the liberal NDP carbon tax.
He's very wise to call it that, because without the support of Jagmeet Singh, Justin Trudeau could not govern the way he is.
Hamilton is a working-class city, the steel mills there.
But if you know anything about steel mills, you know how carbon-intensive they are.
You cannot make steel without coal.
I don't know if you know that.
You can't make it with solar power.
You can't make it with wind power.
You need the extreme heat that only coal can provide.
You cannot make steel without coal.
And by the way, if you've ever driven through Hamilton, maybe you're driving on your way down to Niagara Falls.
You pass this mighty industrial heartland.
And if you were a critic, you might say it looks like the land of Mordor in Lord of the Rings.
Like it's there's smoke and there's fire and there's steel.
Imagine being an NDP for the working classes, i.e. for the for the steel makers, and being against carbon and wanting to tax carbon.
By the way, I saw a poll the other day that the majority of union workers in public sector, in private sector unions support Pier Polyev.
So obviously they're not buying into it.
Here's video from Efron earlier today.
Let's take a look.
Axe the tax.
F. Trudeau, I tell you, whoever came up with that flag concept, F. Trudeau has made a mint.
Axe the tax.
There we go.
You know, I love the fact that they've got the Canadian flags, and I say that because if you're as old as I am, you remember 1995 when there was a referendum in Quebec to separate.
And the Liberal Party pretty much co-opted the Canadian flag and said, if you're for Canada, you're a liberal, vote for us, etc.
It's a very close-run thing, that referendum, by the way.
But the freedom movement, the truckers, and now the anti-carbon taxes, they fly the Canadian flag.
Sometimes they fly it upside down, which, as you know, is a pretty much universal signal of distress.
There's another video footage from Efron showing the crowd is gathering on that overpass.
So those are some video clips.
Here's one more we have.
I think of a helicopter.
Where's this from?
This is Adam Sauss.
So I presume this is in Calgary.
Oh, it's a helicopter with a carbon tax message printed on the side.
Axe the tax on a helicopter.
That's very exciting.
Spike the hike.
Well, those are, as you may know, the two mottos that Pierre Polyev has used.
Look at how much fun is that?
I wonder if those are some of the lads who flew their helicopters up to the Whistle-Stop diner to show support for the restaurant in Mirror, Alberta that wouldn't shut down.
I know a couple guys came in by helicopter to patronize that restaurant a couple of years ago.
I bet it's the same guys because they're freedom lovers.
Here's another clip from Sheila Gonrie.
Let's take a look at it.
This is also from the Alberta-Saskatchewan border.
Let's take a look.
It looks like it's turning into kind of a festival situation.
Looks cool out there, but it's obviously warmer than the minus 20 that was at Coots during the border protests there or Ottawa.
That looks fun.
People brought snacks and drinks, probably serving the Midwest.
And okay, that's just a corporate sign.
Looks like a barbecue's kicking off.
Would you, how much fun is that?
And how real and grassrootsy is that?
We showed you earlier one pro-carbon tax protester who I think was Deanna Sharif, professional shit disturber, to be candid.
Compare that to the real life community spirit style.
Even if it's sort of a crappy hot dog, they always taste better because there's that community spirit, that friendly neighbors, you know, almost like potluck.
Hey, looks like we've got some more video from Alexa Lavois from Parliament Hill.
Yeah, let's show that.
Now, you're going to have a few professional protesters for the carbon tax, but I don't know a single human, like normal person who's for that, unless you have some angle, unless you're paid to say that.
What normal person says, yeah, I want to pay more taxes.
Brother, if you want to pay more taxes, go ahead and do it.
Don't make the rest of us.
You know what?
This is the vibe.
I was there for, I think, two and a half days during the original.
Oh, look at that.
Go!
You give it.
How much fun is that?
That's what it was like during the trucker convoy, except for you don't need gloves and a hat now because it's not minus 20.
They're having some fun.
They're singing some songs.
They got some placards.
I see a little cooler there in the background, I think.
I don't quite see any bouncy castles or hot tubs, but the day is still young.
Isn't that fun?
Coast to coast to coast.
I don't know about the northern coast, but I tell you one thing.
I have been to Inavik.
I have been to Tukta Yuktuk.
It's all fossil fuels up there.
Their electricity does not come from wind or solar.
It comes from diesel generators.
And without fossil fuels, it simply would not be habitable.
Now, I understand that Pierre Polyev is holding a rally in Nanaimo BC tonight.
Nanaimo is a city on Vancouver Island.
And I think Vancouver Island is in play.
There's some parts of it that are very green.
Remember, that's where Elizabeth May is from.
She's about an hour and a half south of there.
But our friend Drea Humphrey is on the ground in Nanaimo right now.
Let's connect to her by Zoom or Skype if we can.
Drea, can you hear me?
I can hear you.
Can you hear me, Bob?
I sure can.
Crystal Clear, great to see you.
Thanks for joining us live.
Tell me where you are and what you see.
Well, I'm in Nanaimo right now.
There's a group that's just started to gather for the carbon tax protest.
We're in front of federal MP Lisa Marie Barron's office up there.
And two door down, you have another MVP, this time provincial Sheila Melchinson, the MLA.
So that's where they're gathering right now.
It's just started.
So this is just one of the legs in BC.
I think our big meeting in BC is probably a convoy that is headed out to Pope.
There are people going from Kelowna, Langley, BC, all the way up to there.
So I've got some eyes over there.
We'll get some footage of that as well.
That's great.
Thank you for that.
Now, if I got my time zones right, it's still only 10.30 a.m. in BC out there in Nanaimo.
So these folks are gathering now.
I understand that tonight, though, Pierre Polyev is having a large rally there.
Is that accurate?
That's absolutely correct.
So, there is a press conference happening in the afternoon, which I'll be covering.
And then also, I will be covering the rally.
Now, it's important to note that there is another rally happening at the legislator in Victoria, too.
So, some people are there right now.
But I'm in Nanaimo covering all the stuff that's happening, carbon tax-related today.
Well, I love Nanaimo.
I used to visit there every year.
Tell me what some of the signs say.
I can see some of them.
Taxed enough already.
Isn't that the truth?
I saw a flacker there, I think, remarking on the fact that while taxes for you and me go up today, salaries for MPs are being raised today, too.
Isn't that crazy?
That's right.
There was a sign here about the salaries.
I think the lady, it was a young lady, and I think she's walking away over there.
I don't remember exactly what it said, but she's calling that out.
I think if I had to recap it, it was something like MP salary means poverty for us, or something like that.
So she's down there.
And I think there's one lady who wants to say something.
Did you want to say why you're here?
Oh, I'd love to say you hear her.
Yeah, go ahead.
Hi, it's Ezra Levant in Toronto.
Why are you at that rally, ma'am?
Hey, just hang on.
I got to get an earbud in.
He says, Why are you at the rally?
Why am I at the rally?
I'm at the rally for redemption of what Trudeau's father started in this country back in the 80s.
And I watched it decline back then.
I watched my father have to line up at the welfare office back then.
And I'm witnessing it again today.
And I cannot believe it's taken this many years to keep the Trudeau family out of this country and out of politics.
It has to stop.
We, as Canadians, have got to raise up a backbone and start to fight.
We can still be a nice country.
We can still be a peaceful people, but we've got to raise up a backbone.
Wow.
Very powerful.
Thank you for sharing that thought with us.
I appreciate that.
Yeah, you're welcome.
Dre, that's incredible.
I remember, I mean, I was very young when Pierre Trudeau was prime minister, but the devastation of his policies, especially in the West, and it sounds like that woman has those memories at the top of her mind as Trudeau Jr. destroys the economy, cost of living, making it impossible for people to buy homes.
Very moving.
And frankly, I got the chills there because I was not expecting that answer.
Hey, there's a sign behind you right now.
What does that say?
I'm just curious because I love the homemade signs.
Taxed enough already.
Okay, we see that one.
Are there any perfect?
Are there other signs we can take a peek at?
Yeah, we've got some acts, the tax signs.
It looks like they walked to a different location on the end.
Some people waving.
Okay.
Yeah, there's an actual act, which is quite interesting here.
That's right, Phil.
That's right.
Acts the tax.
Look at that creativity.
Look at, I mean, that must have taken an hour to make.
How long did that take you to do?
Oh, it was probably a couple hours.
A couple of hours.
So lots of dedication.
People are done with this tax.
Pancakes and Protests00:07:09
And as you know, British Columbia has a bit of a unique situation.
We have the highest amount of taxes that we pay for gas, and we have our own carbon tax, which has to match the federal carbon tax.
But also, you know, it has no hold on it.
It could exceed if they wanted to in this government.
So, in some ways, British Columbians have extra reason to be out here today.
Last question, Dre.
And by the way, thanks so much for going there.
And the connection is crystal clear.
It's perfect.
Thank you very much.
You're outside the offices of a federal MP and a provincial MLA.
Have either of them, I take it neither is in their office at this hour.
Has any staff, has there been any interaction or have people been going into the offices?
Have they said anything?
Or is it all closed up?
It is all closed up.
It doesn't look like anyone's in there.
I don't know if you can see.
I'm trying the door right now.
It's locked.
In fact, every time I've covered a protest, doesn't matter what day it is.
I mean, it is Easter Monday, but even on a normal day, I have not seen them be open in British Columbia.
So I don't know what type of work they're actually doing.
But our friend Lincoln Jay looks like he's got some imagery from Uxbridge, Ontario.
Let's just take a look at this.
I haven't even seen this yet.
Looks like a big rig.
Go ahead and win the play.
Extra dash.
Nice.
Oh, and there's a farm rig.
Carbon taxes, higher grocery prices.
Exactly right.
I love this spear.
Look at that.
Another no carbon tax.
Look at that, John Gere.
You can tell by those flash of colors, yellow and green.
No carbon tax.
Look at that.
I love seeing the agricultural support.
That reminds me a little bit of the Coots, Alberta protest.
You had the truckers, but the farmers were actually the backbone of that protest.
Look at those.
Yeah, there's that big rig again.
Well, I think that's courtesy of our friend Lincoln J. Isn't that interesting?
All right, Olivia, you'll let me know if we make a connection with our other reporters on the ground.
And I'm just looking through our live stream Slack channel to see if there are other clips.
Was there an extra one there from Alexa Lavoie that I see 32 minutes ago in Slack?
Did we see that one yet?
I'm looking at Slack.
Maybe she's gone ahead and tweeted it.
I think we've seen some of those.
It's in Slack.
I'm not sure if we played the one in Slack.
Yeah, that's the one right there.
Let's just take a look at what that one is.
I'm curious about Ottawa because, of course, that was the most dramatic location for the trucker convoy.
And also the police there were the most abusive, shooting people, guns, beating people.
That's really where the Emergencies Act was deployed for Trudeau's vanity.
I'm not sure if we have any reports of police abuse yet today, but it wouldn't shock me because, again, these anti-tax rallies embarrass Trudeau.
And that's really what he hates the most.
Go ahead and play that clip if you can.
You know what you need to do?
So that's outside the Chateau Laurier.
Look, it's quite a group.
Spike the hype acts the carbon tax.
Looks sort of fun.
That looks like a good group.
Let's go to our friend Sheila Gonrida, our chief reporter, who is live on location at the Saskatchewan, Alberta town of Woidminster.
It's a very interesting city.
It actually straddles a border.
Sheila, great to see you.
How you doing out there?
I don't know if you can hear me for the horn honking and the wind.
It's cold.
We've been here since 745, but there are a few hundred people here.
There's trucks.
It looks like Canada Day behind me with all the flags.
So we're just on the Saskatchewan side where people are getting a little bit more money in their pocket because of the Scott Lowe government's efforts to shelter the people here from the carbon tax by not collecting the carbon tax on their home heating and electricity because they're able to do that thanks to a Crown Corporation that acts as the energy distributor here.
But I mean, lots of Albertans, lots of people from Saskatchewan.
The entire parking lot across the way is full of trucks, semi-trailers, RVs, tractors.
It feels like the convoy again.
It looks like it.
It looks like a lot of fun.
It looks cool, but not deep freezing, although you look warm in your hat.
And I saw your footage earlier of the snacks.
It looks like there was a grill.
And, you know, I guess it's that was breakfast out there.
I'm very interested in what the snacks were.
I hear some honking.
It looks like a bit of a party.
I mean, I'm from Calgary.
And, you know, one of the fun things about Calgary is the Stampede breakfast for one week a year.
Everywhere you go, there's people cooking up pancakes and sausages and serving coffee for free to walkers by.
And it just has a team spirit.
That's the vibe I was getting from your footage.
It looks like that's how it is.
That's completely it.
So there was a slow roll of the trucks through town.
They went to the Alberta side and then they came back a couple of times.
But yeah, when everybody got back, they came back to a full pancake breakfast, sausage, bacon, pancakes, beans, coffee, juice.
We did take part, that's for sure, because we were here really early and we needed some warm food in our belly.
But yeah, free pancake breakfast, very family friendly, despite all the F Trudeau flags.
Lots of little kids here.
And there's people walking up and down the side of the highway, giving out donuts and treats.
And it's nothing but honks of support.
Yeah, that's us enjoying the pancake breakfast.
That's our favorite volunteer, Lise.
She's from Saskatchewan, and then Kian and his beautiful fiancé were taking a quick break from working so hard.
Well, that's great.
And I'm glad you gave me the whole menu breakdown.
Now I'm even more jealous that I wasn't there.
Now, I see some flags behind you.
Flags Of Distress00:02:51
Again, I mentioned earlier that the truckers and the freedom movement has appropriated the symbols of Canada, which I find delicious because I remember 20 years ago, the Liberal Party tried to own the flag and own the symbols of patriotism.
And they did so to fight the separatists in Quebec and their referendum.
And it's amazing to me now when regime media and liberal politicians say anyone who says words like freedom or flies the Canadian flag are suspect.
They have actually conceded that the patriotic symbols belong to the freedom fighting grassroots.
It's really quite a change from 30 years ago.
Well, and I think a lot of these people in another time would probably have considered themselves to be soft Western separatists.
But I think a lot of the people here have that same sentiment that Tamara Leach had, that she went into the Freedom Convoy being sort of finished with Canada.
And now she feels it's something important and something to fight for.
And that's what we're seeing here.
I'm old enough to remember when this would be behind me, the majority of the flags would be Alberta or Saskatchewan flags and not Canadian flags.
That's just the way it is out here.
But, you know, we're seeing the inverse where people are realizing that Canada is ours and it doesn't belong to the Laurentian elite.
Yeah.
And you know, I remember when Preston Manning debuted the Reform Party, his motto was the West wants in.
And he basically said, hey, separatists, we can reform things.
Now, it didn't quite work out that way, but he gave people some constructive hope.
And I'm going to say that Pierre Polyev is doing the same thing.
Aaron O'Toole, the last conservative leader, was disgraceful.
He wouldn't be seen with the truckers.
He was a carbon tax aficionado.
He said, oh, I'll just call it a carbon levy.
That's how different I am.
I mean, just an absolute sellout.
And that demoralized conservatives, demoralized Westerners.
And I think people felt, well, what's the point?
Every party in Ottawa is against me.
But the truckers actually were the ones who managed to throw overboard Aaron O'Toole and Jason Kenney.
The truckers are responsible for the two greatest acts of political hygiene in Canada of 2022.
And Pierre Polyev, in his own way, has embraced the freedom movement.
He's certainly leading the charge on the anti-carbon tax stuff.
He's cautiously talking about transgenderism, cautiously talking about immigration, as opposed to being absolutely a cheerleader for the liberal point of view, like Aaron O'Toole was.
Pierre Polyev's Hope00:04:03
I think, well, there's some honking.
I think that Pierre Polyev is giving Westerners in Saskatchewan, Alberta, and even BC some hope that maybe things can be fixed in Ottawa.
I note that some of those flags are upside down, which is a signal of distress, which is true, but they are still Canadian flags that are upside down.
Yeah, well, and let's not forget that it's not just Pierre Polyev that is giving Westerners hope.
It's also our own premiers, Scott Moe, Danielle Smith, and, you know, their constant fight for provincial autonomy against the federal government.
They're showing these people that there is a way forward within Confederation where the provinces have more control of their fate.
Oh, it looks like we've got some drone footage.
Oh, yeah, let's show this for sure.
Okay, some snow on the ground.
Well, there's a lot of vehicles.
This looks like it's that highway one.
Oh, maybe this is from the helicopter.
It's from that.
I can hear the chopper.
You know what?
I bet those are the good guys who flew up to the Mirror Alberta whistle-stop diner in helicopters.
Okay, so you can see that's sort of the looks like there's a lot of vehicles parked in that little turnoff.
And you can see all the people on the side of the road.
Makes me slightly nervous that they're standing near traffic, but it looks like the vehicles are slowing down.
You know what?
I'm not going to be a safety Karen, but it makes me slightly nervous that they're standing on the side of the highway one like that.
Here's some footage of the city itself.
And I don't suppose that that's the convoy there in the center.
I don't think it is.
That just looks like a beautiful shot of Calgary.
I grew up in Calgary, and one of my favorite things was the cold, sunny days in the winter.
Oh, here.
Looks like Adam is ready in front of the helicopter.
I want to know more about this helicopter.
Let's see if we can go live.
Adam, great to see you.
Thanks very much for being on location.
I was looking at that helicopter.
Are those the good guys who went up to the Whistle Stop Cafe by helicopter to patronize Chris Scott when he was attacked by the government?
That's right.
In fact, when they posted these pictures on social media, Chris Scott immediately said, are you coming up for a burger?
This is also the helicopter that we went down.
We did some coverage of the Freedom Convoy as well as the Coots sort of border protest.
So we've been very fortunate in a friend who has this helicopter, the Rebel Copter, as we lovingly call it.
But as you can see, emblazoned axe the tax on the other side of the helicopter.
You have Hike the Spike.
They're working all weekend to get these tackles like done.
And it looks incredible.
People have been like waving from the ground.
It's been pretty great.
Did you actually go up in the Rebel Copter?
I remember we gave it that name when we had that special mission.
I knew it.
I thought these guys have got to be the guy.
I met them.
They're great.
They're real, you know, they're frisky, fun-loving, troublemaking Albertans, which is the kind you got to love.
Did you go up with them today?
Every time, yeah.
Are you up there?
Oh, that's my footage.
Yeah, the tweets you're showing there.
That's me filming.
We actually flew over in Angelika on the ground in Calgary.
They were filming us from the ground.
So we'll get that shot as well.
So we're going to have multiple angles of it.
Incredible.
And there was a big crowd there.
I'll tell you.
If people look close on that footage where the traffic is starting to back up, the little shadows you can see is probably about 100 people along the side of the highway.
But yeah, we'll do a couple more laps around.
I don't know if we'll quite get out to the borders.
It's a bit of a haul to get there and back.
We'll stop in at a couple of the other sort of planned protests around the city, certainly before we head back.
And yeah, I'll be airborne.
We stopped to fuel up the pilot for a quick bite of lunch.
That's why I can join you without the choppers deafening us.
Protest Shadows00:02:50
But yeah.
Well, that's great.
And of course, you know, helicopters don't fly on, you know, pixie dust or solar.
They fly on fuel.
Everything that moves relies on carbon.
Everything that keeps us warm relies on carbon.
So, but I know those guys from their support for the Whistle Stop Diner.
And I am delighted to know.
You know, I sort of, I forgot that we called it the Rebel Copter when you were in it.
It was sort of a mission down to Coots.
That's amazing.
Well, please pass on my personal regards to those guys.
I haven't had the pleasure of meeting them.
And it's wonderful to have an Air Force like that.
And as I was saying earlier, we did have a clip of one professional protester pro-carbon tax, but I just don't think any severely normal person would say, yeah, I don't think I'm paying enough for fuel.
I mean, like, there's no one, there's no one in favor of this, is there?
No.
Well, and the reason that this helicopter is out today is because he is a business owner.
He has a major construction company, and he even commented in an interview that we'll be sharing at stopthecarbontax.com that the reason he's doing this is because the slur charge, the surcharge on the fuel today is nothing compared to all the construction vehicles that he's fueling.
Furthermore, maybe not everyone owns a business, but normal people just trying to heat their homes, just trying to get by.
Well, those folks are struggling.
And that's ultimately, it's the same thing as the pandemic protest.
Severely normal people simply trying to live their lives in the government, making that impossible.
That's again what this protest is all about.
Yeah.
And of course, in some ways, we are able to detect the carbon tax directly in our own lives.
If we get a fuel bill, if we get an energy bill, but of course, embedded within everything we buy at a store is the cost of getting it to the store.
And if it's food, the cost of the farm equipment to grow it.
So this really is an everything tax.
And I'm delighted to see this national uprising.
I haven't seen a good national anti-tax protest in more than 20 years.
And it is a pleasure to see it again.
Last word to you, Adam.
You know, I think the thing that I would just like to comment here, and if it's a little bit boring and political, I apologize.
Lots of people are commenting on the fuel tax going up and saying, why aren't you criticizing that?
Well, frankly, I would criticize that.
But the difference here is, is that is a sort of market-linked oil price-based thing that isn't being added to our costs.
So, when oil prices change, that sort of price changes.
It goes up and down.
That is a different thing altogether.
And that's based on a plan, planned sort of economy, a planned budget for the province, adding to that this carbon tax that nobody wants, nobody needs, nobody voted for.
And now it's not just the people standing alone, it's seven provinces saying enough is enough.
It's a different conversation altogether.
So, for folks making that comparison, let's just cut it out.
Ambulance Clears Blocked Lane00:05:00
Let's focus on the real new tax, this hiked carbon tax.
Oh boy, here's something I mentioned before about how I saw those people on the road, and it made me nervous because I know this highway.
This is highway, this is the highway to Banff from Calgary to Banff.
It's Highway 1, as it's called, the Trans-Canada Highway.
And cars go down there.
I think the speed limit's 110, and a lot of cars go 120, 130.
Let me tell you from personal experience.
So, they're putting out pylons, they're reducing it by, it looks like they're reducing it by two lanes.
Would you agree with me?
That's what it looks like.
Angelika says, breaking access to tax protesters have blocked a lane.
So, maybe one of those is, maybe there's only one lane being blocked, and the other is sort of an easement there.
But I was wondering when I saw those people on the road, it made me a little nervous, but traffic was slowing down.
I see we have Angelika on standby now, wearing her rebel hat and a nice warm coat.
Angelica, great to see you.
What's the temperature like there?
I hear the honking horns.
Um, so it looks like it's warm in spirit.
Is it chilly out there?
Hi, Azara.
Supposed to be 11 degrees.
Um, I'd say it's just a bit under, but it's definitely brought the crowd out, considering it's not minus 20.
So, yeah, that's been great.
Well, it's very exciting.
I see someone behind you in a costume with a flag, and I saw some of the aerial shots of people on the road that made me sort of nervous because I know that road, but it looks like they've got pylons and everyone's slowing down.
And it looks like most of the drivers are honking their support because they're not being blocked, they're just temporarily being slowed down.
And it sounds like they're supportive.
Every other truck is honking its agreement.
Yes, definitely.
Uh, they actually originally negotiated with the RCMP to just block off a certain uh portion.
Um, and it looks like they are moving the lanes right now.
They're moving, they're moving them back, actually.
Looks like the uh RCMP are have turned on their sirens.
All right, so they so you're saying they negotiated with the RCMP to close a lane, and now the RCMP are turning on their sirens.
So, the protesters are moving back.
Is that right?
Uh, yes, that's what I've heard from some protesters that they were negotiating, but the protesters did themselves then move the pylons up to fully block the lane.
Um, but yes, it looks like right now the RCMP are trying to interfere with what's happening here.
So, is that uh, are those RCMP vehicles on the left there, or help me figure out what we're looking at?
So, uh, we have the RCMP that is the white vehicle with this.
Uh, I'm not sure if you guys can actually see the uh, okay, so they're making room for an ambulance.
Oh, I see, okay, well, that makes a lot of sense.
Well, look at that, getting her done, safety first, nice, okay.
Well, that's the right thing to do, and there's the RCMP.
So, maybe if they negotiated that one lane, maybe they'll take the lane back now.
Let's see if that happens.
Yeah, let's see, here we go.
Yeah, that's exactly what happened.
Isn't that neat?
There was an ambulance, so they cleared it.
Ambulance went through and then they closed it off again.
Very interesting.
How many folks would you say are there?
We saw an aerial shot.
It looked like, I don't know, I'm not going to guess.
You're right in the heart of it.
How many folks would you say are there?
I would approximate around 200.
Yeah.
There's people who keep trickling now, I guess, since it's warmed up and it's later in the day.
So people are more people are starting to come in.
Yeah, it's only 12 noon out there in Alberta right now.
Now, tell me what kind of people are there.
I see Alberta flags, Canadian flags, some homemade placards about Trudeau with the odd F bomb, which I can completely understand.
So who are these folks?
Are they locals?
Did they come in mainly from Calgary?
What are they like?
There is definitely a variety of people.
I know some people did convoy down from Edmonton and Red Deer.
There's definitely quite a variety of people here.
And I see some guys.
Are there any families there?
Or probably being by the side of the highway is not the best place for a kid to be.
I don't see any kids.
There were some kids, I think, up in Lloyd Minster where Sheila was.
What's it like there?
Is it just sort of adults?
The majority are adults, but I have seen some kids and some families.
There was actually a kid earlier.
They set up an axe attacks place where kids can like throw axes and they have like a target done.
So some kids have been playing with that.
Quebec Side vs. Ottawa00:05:46
That's great.
So basically, the police are watching over things, but they're not making any moves.
They're not arresting.
Have you seen any tickets being handed out or even parking tickets?
I haven't seen any of that taking place, but I did stumble upon two RSCMP officers speaking to a woman earlier.
And as I approached them with my camera, they asked me to step away.
So I did get that on camera.
Hopefully we can add that to the reports.
That's about it so far.
We have footage from the St. Catherine's Overpass.
So back to Ontario.
Now let's take a quick look at this.
Trudeau must go with the Maple Leaf in Distress.
Looks like people on both sides of the Overpass.
Lots of homemade signs.
On that side, it looks like dozens of people.
And it's tough to tell on this side.
I think it's safe to say there's 100 protesters on this bridge.
JL Bird, I love the homemade art.
That's the thing about conservative or freedom-oriented protesters.
They typically don't have a pre-fab placard printed for them by some professional organizer.
They make their own.
You know what?
I've attended dozens of protests in our time.
And you go to a left-wing protest, you ask people, what are you here for?
What do you stand for?
They often clam up.
They're afraid they don't know what to say.
And they say, talk to her.
She's the spokesman.
Talk to him.
He's a spokesman.
They don't know because they're just a rent-a-mob.
That's the left-wing professional protester side.
Whereas conservative or populist or freedom-oriented people, like you, you go to any of the COVID lockdown protests, you ask people, what are you here for?
They'll talk your ear off for an hour.
They know exactly why they're there because they thought about it because they're not professional protesters.
I'd say the same thing here.
Every single person at these protests knows exactly why they're there.
And they made their own signs because it's from the heart.
All right.
I see out of the corner of my eye that our friend Alexa Lavoie is now joining us via Skype.
And I see behind her one of the buildings of Parliament.
It looks like she's on Wellington right now.
Alexa, how are you?
Can you hear me?
Yes, I can hear you, Israel.
Well, it's great to see you.
And I see that you're walking with a group of people.
It looks like you're walking east on Wellington and behind you is the West Block and the Wellington block, if I'm getting the names right.
And you're moving east towards the center block.
How many people are there?
And have they shut off the road?
It looks like you're on the road.
Have they closed the road?
So they've closed one side of the street for now, but it seems that now they have closed both sides.
But the protester went to the Quebec side.
So they took the bridge, they marched the other side to Quebec, and now they are on their way back to Parliament Hill.
Wow.
So how many protests?
It's a little bit difficult to tell.
How many protesters are still on the Ontario side with you?
And how many, just rough estimate, cross the bridge over into Quebec?
So there was some protesters actually stayed at the Parliament Hill.
And so I would say about maybe a little bit less than 100 have marched to the Quebec side and back, I would say, roughly.
A lot of people say that they were expecting more people to protest today, but because the fact is there is multiple protests across Canada.
And so that divide a little bit like the people in small spots.
But right now, everything is very peaceful.
Police are really peaceful also with the protester.
We had one incident where we had a counter-protester who came and tried to disturb the people.
She was actually a pro-Cambon tax.
She was saying that this is actually good for people and is profitable for Canadians.
So far, now we are coming back.
We just arrived at Parliament Hill.
Right.
And people are slowly arriving.
Now, let me ask you this.
Are police allowing you onto Parliament Hill?
I can see center block and the peace tower behind you.
Are you allowed up there?
Yes, so because I think it's Chris Darcy, he did the demand for being on Parliament Hill starting at 11 a.m., having the rights to use speakers and also flags.
So right now there is no interdiction of anything.
And so it's why the police is not bothering nobody with either like speaker or you see like there is megaphone and loud noise.
I see some police, I think, behind your shoulder wearing those police liaison vests.
Are those police officers?
I can't quite tell from where I am.
They are police liaison.
So we have on the ground RCMP, Ottawa Police.
There is also the Parliament Hill officer, and they are a liaison police.