Ezra Levant critiques Mark Carney’s first 102 days as Canada’s PM, highlighting no major trade deals or policy wins despite $1.3T in U.S. trade and promises to challenge Trump’s tariffs. Meanwhile, Jeff Evelyn—veteran, Trucker Convoy participant, and People’s Party candidate—faced a $28,870.50 fine for defying Nova Scotia’s hiking ban, testing its constitutionality via deliberate lawbreaking. Callers question overbroad fines ($50K threatened) and systemic hypocrisy, comparing it to pandemic-era enforcement failures, suggesting Carney’s leadership mirrors past elites’ empty rhetoric while activists risk legal battles for civil liberties. [Automatically generated summary]
He is the hiker in Nova Scotia who has decided to fight the $25,000 fine and ban on hiking.
And guess what?
He went and turned himself in.
We'll talk to him about it.
But also, you know, it's been 100 days since Mark Carney became, well, since he won the last election.
In fact, it was 102 days ago.
Can I ask you a question?
What exactly has Mark Carney done in the last 102 days?
or the 147 days since he became prime minister through some internal process.
Can you name one thing?
I'll take you through it and I'll compare it to Donald Trump.
That's ahead.
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Tonight, he won the election 100 days ago.
So what exactly has Mark Carney done?
It's August 8th, and this is the Ezra Levant show.
Mark Carney was appointed prime minister 147 days ago.
It was a gross inside job.
He didn't have a seat as an MP.
No one in Canada knew who he was.
He hadn't lived in Canada for over a decade.
Gross Appointee00:07:16
He had three passports.
He hadn't filed his taxes here in Canada, as far as we know, in years.
Gross, gross, gross.
I suppose it was democratically validated retroactively when he won his election with a minority, but a win nonetheless.
And that was 102 days ago.
But really, it's been almost half a year since Carney took over.
And of course, much of his inner circle is from Justin Trudeau's inner circle.
So it's not like, say, when Donald Trump took over from Joe Biden and there was a total need to clean house of political appointees.
I mean, half the cabinet is still the same as it was before.
So here's the obvious question.
What exactly has Mark Carney done in 147 days?
Part of the answer might be, well, he was campaigning in an election for 30 or 40 those days.
Okay, fine.
So tell me what he's done with the 100 days since he was elected, since he actually won the election.
100 days, what has he done?
Compare that with the incredible burst of energy and activity with which Donald Trump launched his presidency in his first day.
No, his first hours.
He signed a series of hugely important executive orders.
Here is the Federal Register of the United States.
It's the official list.
It's in reverse order.
So I want to start at the bottom and scroll up.
182 executive orders.
Look at how momentous each of them is.
I'm just going to name some of them.
Restoring freedom of speech and ending federal censorship.
Ending radical and wasteful government DEI programs and preferencing.
That's affirmative action.
Unleashing American energy.
Wouldn't you love to have that in Canada?
Withdrawing the United States from the World Health Organization.
That's momentous.
Designating cartels and other organizations as foreign terrorist organizations and specially designated global terrorists.
That's to deal with the drug cartels in Mexico.
Establishing and implementing the president's Department of Government Efficiency.
That's the Doge thing that Elon Musk led for a while.
Putting America first in international environmental agreements.
Wouldn't that be nice if we could do that?
Defending women from gender ideology extremism and restoring biological truth to the federal government.
That was about trans in sports.
Re-evaluating and realigning United States foreign aid.
Oh, I'm so jealous, aren't you?
And I'm going to stop there.
But by the way, did you notice that that list I just read out?
I don't know if you saw on the screen.
Every single one of those was signed literally on the first day of his presidency, January 20th.
Each one of which was momentous.
Of course, that's just what he's done himself, 182 of these.
But he's worked with Congress, including with the Democrats.
He's worked with other countries.
He's brought in a massive law that he calls the Big Beautiful Bill that's a form of a budget.
It's an immigration enforcement law.
And by the way, along with doing all that, he's negotiating a trade deal almost every other day.
He's brokering peace between Russia and Ukraine.
I hear that he has a meeting with Putin next week, according to the New York Times.
He has other peace deals that don't seem as large, including in Africa.
And shortly, I think he's going to do the Middle East again, another Abraham Accords.
He just managed, I mean, just one thing he did.
He managed to pressure Apple to invest $100 billion more in America to make the iPhone there.
This guy is busy.
He's living like it's his last moment.
And in a way, it is.
I mean, when he's done this term, he's done.
I should tell you, it would take a full hour just to list what he has done since he became president 200 days ago, to be precise.
So what has Mark Carney done?
147 days since he was PM, 102 days since he was elected in the general election.
Can you name one thing?
Just tell me one law he's passed, one foreign treaty, one important policy decision, one trade deal.
Just give me one.
In 147 days, how many projects of national importance has he commissioned?
He said it would be a priority given the trade war with America.
He said we should become our own best client.
Okay, good idea.
We still import an enormous amount of oil every day, including from America.
Isn't that weird?
So where's the oil pipeline?
He said it was time for a team Canada approach on things like pipelines and big industrial projects.
Show me one.
One that has been approved, let alone started.
Show me the internal free trade amongst provinces.
Show me.
Show me a trade deal anywhere other than the absurd idea that we would join the European Union as some sort of substitute for being able to get a deal with the United States.
Carney loves Europe.
I'm sure he does.
He has two European passports.
He has a house in London, but that's just not how it works.
You can't just say, oh, we're going to forget about the world's largest market right next to us.
Here's a story.
Today, Canadian steel has no practical foreign markets beyond the United States, says Algoma CEO.
But remember, Mark Carney told us who really needs steel anyways, not us.
Then, secondly, what we're going to do is make sure not that the government pays, not that we as taxpayers pay, but the large polluters pay.
And so what happens.
Does that not ultimately trickle down?
No, because what the big companies are producing, by and large, are not products that we are consuming.
There's some element of that, but by and large, you know, a steel company, how much steel are you using these days, Todd?
I mean, not as much, not as much.
Sorry, so that's core.
I guess no one needs wood either, even though Canada has probably more than any other country in the world, with maybe the exception of Russia.
Let me read this story.
Tariffs force shutdown, layoffs at New Brunswick plant, trigger Holt Relief Fund, Arabec Forest Products to shut down Miramashi plant for six weeks, affecting 113 employees, permanently eliminating 29 jobs.
And that's just one small story in one small newspaper in one town.
I don't know if you saw the other day, but Trump is not even picking up the phone for Canadians.
I don't think he's talked to Kearney in weeks.
They're just not even bothering talking to Canada.
Do you see this embarrassing clip?
Well, we're going to see.
You know, I didn't like what they said, but, you know, that's their opinion.
I didn't like that.
Not a deal breaker, but we haven't spoken to Canada today.
He's called, and we'll see.
I remember that Canada and the U.S. were in pretty heavy-duty negotiations a few weeks ago.
And then Mark Carney decided that was the time to announce a massive retroactive tax on U.S. social media platforms operating in Canada.
Trump was ambushed by it.
It was so weird, the timing of it, and Trump cut off negotiations.
Trump's Anti-Canadian Parade00:12:27
Remember that?
August 1st is going to come, and we will have most of our deals finished, if not all.
We haven't really had a lot of luck with Canada.
I think Canada could be one where they'll just pay tariffs.
It's not really a negotiation.
We're working very diligently with Europe, the EU, which covers a lot of terrorist, you know, a lot of territory, a lot of countries.
And that's the big one right now.
We have the confines of a deal with China.
We haven't really, we don't have a deal with Canada.
We haven't been focused on it.
When user letters go out, they're a page and a half.
That means they have a deal.
It's done.
They pay that tariff.
And that is a contract, essentially.
And they can come into the country.
They're going to pay a tariff.
I'm going to keep it minimal.
I'm going to keep it.
You know, I'm not looking to hurt countries.
I could do that too, but I'm not looking to do that.
And then Kearney decided to do a little bit of freestyle diplomacy in the Middle East.
We have no skin in the game.
We have no military that can project force over there.
We have no diplomatic or commercial sway.
Nobody cares what we say over there except Hamas, which loves any Western power supporting them.
And indeed, that's what Kearney did.
He announced his support for Hamas by saying he will recognize Palestine as a country next month.
For the reasons I cited earlier, Canada intends to recognize the state of Palestine at the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly in September 2025.
This intention is predicated on the Palestinian Authorities' commitment to much needed reforms, including commitments by the Palestinian Authorities, President Abbas, to fundamentally reform its governance, to hold general elections in 2026, in which Hamas can play no part, and to demilitarize the Palestinian state.
Canada will increase its efforts in supporting strong democratic governance in Palestine and the contributions of its people to a more peaceful and hopeful future.
I spoke today with President Abbas at length to reaffirm his commitment.
Canada reiterates that Hamas must immediately release all hostages taken in their horrific terrorist attack of October 7th, that Hamas must disarm, and that Hamas must play no role in the future governance of Palestine.
Canada will always steadfastly support Israel's existence as an independent state in the Middle East, living in peace and security.
Any path to lasting peace for Israel also requires a viable and stable Palestinian state and one that recognizes Israel's inalienable right to security and peace.
Oh, so Donald Trump is trying to pressure Hamas into releasing the hostages and laying down arms.
Trump is working with Lebanon at the same time to get rid of Hezbollah.
He's working with the Saudis and half a dozen others, including Egypt and Syria.
You can imagine how complex it is, and only America has the ability to do that.
No one else.
And Carney just comes out and without consultation, without notice, just gives a gift, a reward to Hamas.
At the same time as Francis Emmanuel Macron and UK's Kier Starmer do, they have no skin in the game either.
No one cares what they say.
They're really just doing it for domestic purposes, which is what Mark Carney's doing.
But it gives Hamas a huge diplomatic win.
And it was that next day that Hamas decided they didn't have to do anything at all.
They were going to stop their negotiations completely.
They were getting their victories diplomatically.
Carney was just looking to distract Canadians from his failures and to pander to the growing Islamist vote in Canada.
But Trump was ambushed yet again.
So yeah, are you surprised that Trump has slapped a 35% tariff on Canada and is making Canada wait to re-engage?
And can you blame him?
I mean, they're only 24 hours in a day, and Trump doesn't seem to take a lot of vacations.
By the way, like I say, today is Trump's 200th day in office.
And look at all the things he's doing.
Like this very week, he's trying to resolve Ukraine-Russia, something I believe he can do, something that genuinely would improve the world, that should earn a Nobel Peace Prize, but it won't, since that's decided by left-wing Nordic politicians who hate Trump.
Who cares about them?
Imagine ending a war in Europe, saving hundreds of thousands of lives on both sides.
And imagine if Trump can also get the Abraham Accords round two done.
So yeah, why on earth would Trump, who is living like he's got just hours to get his life's work done, he's not wasting a minute.
Why would he engage with Carney's negotiators again?
Is it that important to him?
Does he care about Canada that much?
Enough to get Net Carney, embarrass him and ambush him again and again?
Or this diplomatic genius, Doug Ford?
What's the general impression of Trump in Canada?
He's probably the most disliked politician in the world in Canada because he's attacked his closest family member, and that's the way we look upon it.
And when I talk to the governors and senators and Congress people, even Republicans totally disagree, but they're too scared to come out and say anything because the president will go after them outside of a few senators.
And I want to thank them for coming out and standing with not just American people, but their closest friends and allies, which is Canada.
And again, we love the Americans.
It's unfortunate President Trump decided to go down this road.
You know, I try to ignore Doug Ford most of the time.
He's awful.
I'm embarrassed for him as a conservative, but I know the NDP and the liberals are worse.
But actually here, I don't think they would be worse.
This is just weird spite and a total lack of emotional control.
Whose interests is Doug Ford serving here and how?
How does insulting Trump help anyone?
Is that going to make Trump pick up the phone to Kearney faster?
Does insulting Trump typically get him to give you what you want?
You know, this reminds me of how Doug Ford continuously condemned and insulted Pierre Polyev in the last federal election.
Now, I don't actually think any real conservatives would change their vote because of what Doug Ford said.
I don't think they respect him that much.
And I don't think any liberal would change their vote based on Doug Ford either.
But it showed how Ford puts his petty personal vendettas and insults above the public interest.
What a loser.
But back to Mark Carney.
It's just weird.
I mean, America is more important to Canada's economy than the rest of the world combined.
Carney's trying all these weird things, like talking about China and giving a ferry deal to China.
And I don't understand his Mexican gambit as if a Canada-Mexico trade deal would be important to either country.
Canada-Mexico trade is about $50 billion a year, which is not nothing.
I mean, that's something, of course, but Canada-U.S. trade is $1.3 trillion.
It is 25 times more.
What a joke.
But look at these headlines, anyways.
I mean, okay, maybe it could work.
Really?
Look at this.
Canada courts Mexico as Trump escalates tariff fight.
Canadian ministers push energy ties with Mexico ahead of thorny USMCA review.
Okay.
And here's Mexico's response.
Mexico's Shinebaum, that's the president, says no need for a bilateral trade deal with Canada.
I say again, what has Carney done in 102 days or 147 days, whenever you want to start measuring?
He's done nothing of importance internally.
No laws passed, no important policies announced, nothing about expanding our markets as if that were possible without America.
Nothing about dealing with Trump, which was his essential campaign promise.
Elbows up.
What exactly did elbows up mean?
To be a tough negotiator?
I think that's what it meant.
To be the guy who could handle Trump?
We don't have a tough negotiator.
We don't have a weak negotiator because we have no negotiator because the Americans won't even meet with us or take our phone calls.
Maybe because we announced that internet tax, maybe because Carney endorsed Palestine and Hamas, or maybe because Trump just really wants to do harm to us.
I don't know.
I hope not.
Maybe Trump just wants to swallow up our steel industry and our car industry, and he doesn't mind having 35% tariffs in place.
Maybe he prefers Carney because Kearney is someone who is anti-American.
So it makes it easier for him to be anti-Canadian, to take advantage of us, to move our core industries down to the U.S.
I don't know if you've been watching these past 200 days, but Trump has had a parade of foreign leaders and foreign businessmen come to the White House to announce how many tens or hundreds of billions of dollars they are going to invest in America.
Japan, Korea, Arabian countries.
Here's just a sample.
But I just signed the largest trade deal in history.
I think maybe the largest deal in history with Japan.
And that was done with Japan.
They had their top people here, and we worked on it long and hard.
And it's a great deal for everybody.
I always say it has to be great for everybody.
It's a great deal.
A lot different from the deals in the past, I can tell you that.
But we're doing really well as a country.
We're strong.
We have a lot of money flowing in.
The tariffs are kicked in better than anybody other than me and a few of the people in the room.
Those things are $750 billion, $600 billion, opening up the country.
We are agreeing that the tariff straight across for automobiles and everything else will be a straight across tariff of 15 percent.
So we have a tariff of 15 percent.
We have the opening up of all of the European countries, which I think I could say were essentially closed.
I mean, you weren't exactly taking our orders, you weren't exactly taking our agriculture, and then you would have smaller things, but for the most part, it was closed.
And now it's open.
It's open for our companies to go in and do a good job with it.
I think you'll like them.
I think you'll like it.
And we will, very importantly, they'll be investing a lot of money, but the military is a big number, but that's one number we're not determining.
It's going to be whatever it is, but they're going to be purchasing hundreds of billions of dollars worth of military equipment.
Very important that they're going to purchase $750 billion worth of energy.
So that's going to be great.
And $600 billion worth of investments into the United States over and above what they have.
And I think that basically concludes the deal.
I mean, those are the main factors.
I don't think there are too many other factors.
It is unthinkable that Carney would do that or that any big Canadian companies would say that.
I mean, I don't even know if it's possible what big Canadian companies are left.
The automakers in Canada are all branch plants for Chrysler GM, Honda, Toyota.
I don't even know what factories are left, but they're not Canadian car companies.
They're Canadian subsidiaries of U.S. or global car companies.
They're not actually Canadian.
The steel companies, I guess, are Canadian, but you really couldn't imagine Canadians saying they're going to invest tens of billions in the U.S., although a thousand smaller Canadian companies are just sort of doing it, just sort of moving there to be out of the tariffs.
Oh, you might have heard one big company called Brookfield that moved from Canada to the U.S. That's the company that Mark Carney used to lead.
So yeah, can you tell me what Mark Carney has done, what he's achieved in 147 days is PM?
Area Woods Taped Off00:03:23
No budget, no laws passed, no trade deal, just a pledge to support Hamas and Palestine.
Hey, elbows up, everyone.
Stay with us for more.
Well, they call it a climate lockdown.
I know that sounds impossible.
That sounds too far-fetched, too paranoid, but it has happened.
In Nova Scotia, of all places, a place nominally led by a conservative government of Tim Houston.
I'm quite surprised, but I'm also completely unsurprised.
It's fire season.
Indeed, it is across the country here in Toronto.
There's so much smoky haze in the skies.
You might remember about a month ago, we spoke to a U.S. congressman complaining about Canadian forest management practices as encouraging these kind of fires.
Of course, arson is also to blame.
But only Nova Scotia has announced a ban on any human beings going into the forest, even on your own land.
And if you do so, it's a $25,000 penalty.
Remember yesterday we talked a little bit about this and we showed you a video of one man showing the absurdity of what is considered a forest and what is not.
Here's a little flashback of that really cheeky video that we showed you yesterday.
Take a look.
Hey everybody, Jeff Evely here.
I'm in Petersfield Provincial Park in the most tyrannical province of Canada, which is Nova Scotia, with my fuzzy friend Axel, where we walk pretty much every single morning.
And here you can see that this area is taped off because that trail is the woods.
But this area is not taped off because that's not the woods.
This area is taped off because that's the woods.
And there is a sign here that says, trail closed due to extreme fire hazards.
So that is the woods.
This area is not the woods.
This area is the woods.
This area is not the woods.
This area is the woods.
This area is not the woods.
This area is the woods.
Well, I thought that was really well done.
There's a great sense of humor there.
And of course, there's no way to fight a political battle better than with mockery and humor and ridicule, which this law so richly deserves.
We spoke to Marty Moore, who works with the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms, who says he's standing by to help the man in that video.
But we thought we would bring the man on himself directly.
His name is Jeff Evelyn, and he joins us now live from Nova Scotia via Zoom.
Jeff, great to meet you.
And I want to compliment you on a very compelling video.
Your use of humor to show the absurdity of it all, I think has been winning hundreds of thousands of hearts.
That really has gone viral, hasn't it?
Defying Orders in the Woods00:13:57
You know, I haven't checked in a few hours, but the last time I did, it was at about 759,000, I think.
And 1 million is technically viral, but that's kind of an American standard too.
So it's more like Canadian mega viral, I think, approaching American viral.
You know, it's fun to have things go viral on Twitter because so many people give their replies.
And I always learn things from sort of the crowd.
People chip in this information or they come up with a funny one-liner.
Has there been any reaction to it that surprised you?
Or have other people in the public square responded?
Amongst those three-quarters of a million people, has any response stood out?
I think just the overall response is really what stands out.
I was not expecting anything like that kind of trending to take place.
I was just kind of blowing off steam.
I knew when they imposed these proclamations this time that I was going to defy the ban and take the fine.
But I was, you know, I'm just a man, so I was pretty irritated when they first did this.
And I took a couple of days to kind of collect myself before I went out and dealt with that confrontation.
But I'm happy to report that it went well.
Now, I sense that you're someone, and I think if I know a little bit about you, you were also someone who took a civil liberties stand against the pandemic lockdowns.
Is that correct?
What can you, I mean, and I think it shows the fact that you have the courage to call this out, the fact that you're willing to stand up to authority.
It doesn't surprise me that someone who stood up against pandemic lockdowns would stand up against climate lockdowns.
Tell our viewers a little bit about what you did during the pandemic.
Actually, I was released from the military medically in 2021 and took possession of my house here in Nova Scotia on 1 November 2021, which was the same day the vaccine passports came into effect.
I was denied service by the Legion, from which I bought my house within crawling distance.
And I bought a Legion hat that said, lest we forget, and I crossed out the last because these freedoms are the legacy of the fallen.
And I started defying mask mandates.
I got arrested a couple of times, fined, charged.
I beat all those charges in court self-representing.
I went to, when I saw the trucker convoy, I said, that's where I need to be.
So I headed for Ottawa.
I was one of the veterans who was standing on guard for thee after we took the fence down around Canada's war monument.
In fact, I ran the shift schedule for it.
And I've also been involved.
I was a speaker at Rolling Thunder where I was rearrested for breaching my conditions from the convoy.
I was the sergeant major on that parade.
I marched with James Topp.
I was a co-organizer nationally for the 1 Million March for Children.
And I'm still fighting two court cases right now.
And apparently, I've just taken on a third.
So I've been very busy in the last few years.
Oh, yeah.
And I ran in the last election as a federal candidate for the People's Party.
Well, you really sound like our kind of guy.
And you're someone who put your life on the line for our freedoms in the Canadian forces that showed the degree of dedication to these ideas that you would put yourself in a position to risk at all.
I'm therefore not so surprised that you have been a constant thorn in the side of tyrannical authority.
And I use that term on purpose because I think, well, we know for a fact that the invocation of the Emergencies Act was unconstitutional and illegal.
But it took some guts to say it.
I detect a commonality.
So many pundits and so many ordinary people are saying, just get with the program.
You don't know how bad it is.
Just do what the premier says, even though there may be no rational connection between hikers and fires or fishing and fires.
I mean, just do it.
Are you not part of the team?
Like there's that same appeal to authority, that same appeal to conformity.
I feel like I'm watching a rerun.
Yeah, and when I went to basic training in 2001, I was trained that I have a duty to defy illegal orders.
And how am I going to know if that order is legal?
Well, I use my own judgment.
And am I going to be protected when they come after me for defying it?
No, I'm going to go in front of a judge and they're going to rule on the legality of that order.
And if I'm wrong, then I end up charged under the National Defense Act.
And we expect our young Canadians to take on that burden because that is what separates us from Nazis.
So I'm quite happy to take these risks.
It's kind of something that I've been doing for a while.
And here in the West, you know, thus always to tyrants.
So we stand up to tyrants.
That's what our soldiers do.
That's been the way since Alexander the Great.
And it's not going to stop on my watch.
Well, I'm so glad.
I find the way you're talking so encouraging because for every freedom fighter, there are 100 people who are conflict averse and would rather just go with the flow.
But it only takes a small number of men to stand and be counted.
We saw that during the Trucker Convoy.
So I congratulate you for your thoughtfulness and your thoughtful resistance.
Now, you mentioned that earlier today, if I understood you right, you actually turned yourself in.
You brought yourself to the attention of authority and you received a fine not for 25 grand, but I think you said $28,872.50, which sounds like a very precise number.
And I have never heard of a fine so large in my life other than for like a financial crime or something to be fined almost 29 grand for going in the forest.
It's almost absurd.
It's almost unbelievable.
Tell us what happened.
I understand you have a video clip that you can show us too.
So I actually called the Department of Natural Resources where the offices are for the conservation officers who would issue this fine.
And I let the supervisor know that I was coming to their office on Mountain Road, which is not in the woods, but out behind that office, that is the woods.
So I let them know what I was going to do ahead of time.
I went down without putting my camera in their face right away or anything like that.
And I let the guys stay off camera when they wanted to be.
And I let them know.
I said, look, Tim Houston is the target here.
I have a beef with him, not you guys.
You're just caught in the middle.
And I recognize that.
So I'm going to try to make this as easy as I can for you.
I even came down to your office.
And they were pretty good.
They were pretty courteous and professional.
I had a nice chat with them.
You know, we may not agree, I guess, but here in Canada, that's what makes us a civilized nation is that we can disagree civilly.
And that seems to be what's lost in the last several years is we've lost our civility.
So what did you do?
Did you like set foot?
And did you say, hey guys, watch me.
I'm going to set foot in the forest now.
And you stepped in and sort of did a tap dance or something?
Like, how did they, did they personally observe you breaking the rule?
And they yielded to your wish to be ticketed.
Is that how it went down?
That is exactly how it went down.
We all went out back and there's a grassy area before you come to the woods.
So I walked to the edge of that grassy area while three of the conservation officers watched me and recorded me and I recorded on my phone as well.
And then I stepped into the wooded area and I just kind of did a short circuit around the corner of the wooded area and came back out.
It was probably a grand total of about 90 seconds inside the woods.
And then I went back into the office with them while they wrote up my summons.
So no handcuffs or anything like that.
It was all more gentlemanly.
Yes, and that is something that we value in the West.
Of course, yeah.
And Nova Scotia is a pretty friendly province.
Now, you did take some footage.
Let's show a little bit to our people now.
Hey, everybody, Jeff Evelyn here out in Nova Scotia on Mountain Road in Cox Heath.
And as you can see behind me, this is the woods.
But over here, this is not the woods.
This is the Department of Natural Resources, where the conservation officers work, who issue $25,000 fines for going in the woods.
So, not bad.
I'm Jeff Evelyn.
I called earlier.
Evelyn?
Yeah, Evelyn.
I spoke to somebody earlier about the woods ban.
And I understand that you guys issue $25,000 fines right now for anybody who goes in.
I'm going to go in the woods over here.
I don't want to make any trouble for you guys.
I took this to court the last time they did it.
They said I didn't have standing because I wasn't fine.
So there was no money involved.
So I want to challenge this order in court.
And the only way for me to do that is to get the fine.
So I'm not trying to make trouble for you guys.
I just want a piece of Tim Houston.
And I want to be as accommodating and nice as I can be.
I'm just going to.
Okay, so I'm ordering you to not.
Okay.
Yeah, I understand.
Roger that.
I'm doubling fines right now.
Okay, that sounds good.
All right.
So, yeah.
He has to be in the woods.
Yeah.
I haven't seen a violation yet.
Well, they're very nearby.
I thought instead of crossing the road, I would just go in the back here just for safety purposes.
You know, we can do it like that.
Does somebody want to follow me out there?
And, you know, yeah, it would be good to do a witness.
And if it's okay with you, I would like to record a video.
If you don't want to be on camera, I can keep you off it.
But I think that it's in the interest of justice that we provide a fulsome record for the court because of the precedent-centered nature of this case.
So I can keep you off camera, keep your name out of it, all that stuff, whatever works for you.
But we'll be in court.
Yep, we'll be in court, so we might as well have a fulsome record, right?
We have to go in the woods.
Yes.
You want to show me where the woods is out back here?
Or wherever you want.
We still have to suggest that you don't.
I understand.
He just ordered me.
He said he's going to double my fine.
I'm going to defy that order.
Nothing personal.
Okay.
So whatever happens after you leave here.
Yeah.
Nothing personal.
We got that.
Okay.
So one more time.
This is the DNR office on Mountain Road in Cox Heath, Nova Scotia.
And this is not the woods.
But back here, this is the woods.
So I have a couple of conservation officers with me right now who are not on camera, but have advised me that if I go into the woods, if I defy their orders to go into the woods, then I will be fined.
And they also said that they would double my fine to $50,000.
So I'm going to walk down here and go into these woods.
i don't know that there's a good spot to do this but i'm just gonna make this as painless as i can for those guys and go in here and they have me on camera As well.
Walking in the woods.
All right.
Isn't this great?
And maybe there's an easier way out of here than I came in.
Let's try this we good Okay.
Okay.
And I didn't ask, but did you write the ticket already?
Nope, we'll meet you back out front.
Back out front at the reception desk there.
Okay, if I bring my camera, keep you guys off it.
Yep.
Okay.
I'll see you in there, guys.
Thank you.
This is not the woods.
Hi.
I was just out back with the three gentlemen there.
said they would meet me back in here so
So the order would have to be long form and that would put us off months in advance for court times.
So we can just do a sought for entering the woods without forest travel permit when proclamation is effect.
You have a court plea date.
Yeah, your due date is the 12th of September.
Dramatic Legal Steps00:06:12
So it's a lot quicker, just a ticket.
So, okay, yeah, that makes sense.
So, this is quicker.
Okay, so this is an SOT, and that is for summons to accuse.
What is this?
Summary offense ticket for today's date.
Your information, Forest Act 25 sub 1.
Fine is 28,872 50.
Okay.
I thought it was 25,000.
It's 28,850.
Oh, victim fees.
Yeah.
Okay.
Sounds good.
All right.
Thanks very much, gentlemen.
I appreciate your courteous approach.
Nice chatting with you.
All right.
Take care.
Oh, this is still not the woods.
So here we go.
Well, I have a ticket here for, let me see if we can see that.
$28,870.50 for victimizing somebody.
Okay.
So more to follow.
Well, listen, it is unusual to find someone who will walk towards the pain and to walk towards a possible fine of $28,872.
I mean, that's what the piece of paper says.
And unless you win, that's an enormous hole in the bottom of your boat.
I presume you're the first one in the province who has been charged.
Unless you know of anyone else, that's quite a dramatic step you've taken.
You are now at the front line of this battle for possibly a year or more to come.
And it's not the only fright, the only front on which I'm fighting a battle either.
But I think part of the strategy that we're seeing coming from our elites is to wear us down.
It's to just kind of, you know, people will give up after so much time.
And there needs to be somebody to keep up the fight.
It's a battle of resiliency at this point.
So I think if we can just outlast them, it's probably going to be a few more years, but if we can just outlast them, then this agenda is going to fall apart on its own.
Well, Jeff, one of the things I learned from the pandemic, and we crowdfunded for a number of people who got in trouble for not doing the Arrive Can app or not having this six feet of separation.
And we made a decision to take every single case that came our way within reason.
So in the end, we had 3,000 cases.
And I think one of the strengths of that strategy was it overwhelmed the system.
The system is based on 90% of people pleading guilty and the government just prosecuting the hard cases.
But I think that if 100 different people in Nova Scotia did what you did, it would break it.
And people would say, this is absurd.
We have to come up with something that makes more sense.
I mean, I think of the restaurants.
In every city, there was like one or two restaurants that refused to shut down during the lockdown.
But if 100 had made that decision, they couldn't have gone after it all.
Wherever there was strength in numbers, there was legal success.
Have you heard of anyone else who was willing to potentially be sacrificed on this fight that would join you?
Because I think that would be the quickest way to end this battle is having 99 allies.
You know, I haven't really heard from anyone, and I didn't really solicit for any support.
I decided to just do it as an individual because wildfire starts with a spark.
So that's what I aim to be in this.
And hopefully, I set a good example in terms of how you should deal with the authorities under these circumstances.
Well, it sounds like you were very professional.
Yesterday, we spoke with Marty Moore, who let us know that if you needed legal assistance, he and the Justice Center would be there.
Otherwise, I would normally offer you our support for crowdfunding.
And by the way, if for some reason the Justice Center can't help you, do give us a call.
This is the kind of thing we like to do.
If there's any other help we can provide you, even journalistically, let us know.
But it sounds like you have a good, it sounds like you're a bit of a citizen journalist yourself.
In fact, at least your viral videos look that way.
I don't know.
If I had to guess, I mean, I haven't reviewed the law deeply, but it seems to me that it is overheated.
It's overdone.
And I don't know if you remember this, Jeff, but when the federal courts struck down the Emergencies Act as illegal, one of the reasons they said is: remember in the Emergencies Act that let the government seize family bank accounts willy-nilly, no process at all.
If a dad was protesting, the mom on a joint account got hit too, and there she is in Safeway, and her credit card doesn't work.
One of the specific things that judge said is it was not narrowly tailored, and it was an overbroad application of the law.
There's something in law called the Oaks test, where the government is allowed to violate your rights, but only if it is rationally connected to the purpose, if it minimally impairs our rights.
Like it has to be the least abusive law possible.
That's what the courts say.
And the way this law sounds like it goes, it's maximum punishment, no reasonableness at all.
There are better ways to achieve this aim.
It sounds like it is just the worst of the worst lessons from the lockdown.
If I had to predict, and it's always dangerous to try, I would predict that this will be struck down as unconstitutional.
And if it is, then let me be the first to thank you for being the human crash test dummy, willing to sacrifice himself to free the rest of us.
I have to tell you, I admire the fact that you would take this risk personally.
Praise from Caesar.
Willing Crash Test Dummy00:02:52
Thank you, Ezra.
And I guess what I would say to that is that I mean, it has to be somebody.
It's like I'll say it again: like one spark is what starts a wildfire.
And, you know, I've spent my whole life standing on guard for the, and I'm not sure I know how to do anything else.
So there I am.
Well, it sure is nice to meet you.
If there are any other steps, let us know.
We'll cover it journalistically.
If there's a hearing, I think we'll send a journalist to cover it.
I might go myself.
I'd love to get back out there to Nova Scotia.
If there are any other public demonstrations of any sort, we'd like to cover it.
And of course, we'll rely on our friends from the Justice Center to help you on the legal side.
And so we'll stand back and watch them with admiration too.
If for some reason they can't help, we'll fill the void.
I'm impressed with what you're doing.
And it's encouraging that there are men who are willing to stand in the gap.
And thank you for that.
But then again, given your history of service to this country, it's not that surprising that here you are.
So thank you again.
And thanks for joining us today.
My pleasure, Ezra.
Thanks for having me.
It's our pleasure.
There you have it.
Jeff Evely, a man who's willing to test this unconstitutional law in Nova Scotia.
Stay with us.
more ahead.
Hey, welcome back.
Your letters to me.
Jacques Boucher writes: If we get fined for hiking, I'm curious to know what the actual arson has got.
That's a great point.
You know, I never thought of that.
In Canada, our laws are so lenient.
Our justice system is such a joke.
I bet if someone were actually arrested for arson, they would not get a $28,000 fine like Jeff Evelyn.
That is a great point.
Thank you for sharing that.
Zuber Bueller says, I wonder if this premier, along with everyone on his cabinet, will also adhere to these ridiculous rules.
Hey, boy, you're asking good questions.
And that reminds me of during the pandemic, the lockdowns.
Remember, we had this project where we tried to find politicians breaking their own rules, sneaking out, going on trips when telling everyone not to do that.
That's obviously happening here, too.
These rules are so stupid.
No one believes in them.
They're just the government flexing their power.
I bet the government is breaking their own rules.
I bet.
Aylmer Steph says, time for a freedom convoy in Nova Scotia.
Hey, not a bad idea, but I sure enjoyed talking to Jeff Evely today.
Don't you think?
Boy, that guy knows how to communicate.
And you could tell he's been a political activist for a while.