https://youtubetranscript.com/?v=jm7lLihEKvQ
We were accused of taking money from foreign entities, which it’s now come out that the Trudeau Foundation has been taking money from the Chinese government. And then we were accused of being infiltrated by the Russians, like foreign interference. Well, I mean, look at the situation that we’re in right now. Hello, everyone watching and listening. I’m co-hosting this podcast today with my wife, Tammy Peterson. We had Tamara Leach, our guest, over for dinner last night, and that went very well. We thought it would be useful to have both of us talk to her today. Tamara Leach explains her roles in the yellow vest-like rallies that occurred in Canada, the trucker convoy, her role in Wexit, a Western Canadian independence party, and, as I said recently, her leadership in the internationally recognized trucker freedom convoy. We discussed the current state of Canada, the current dismal state under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, the tyranny he unleashed during the COVID pandemic, why so many patriotic Canadians are fed up, and the unprecedented punishment that’s been unleashed upon those who, like Tamara, were daring enough to criticize their own leaders. Yeah, oh Canada, indeed. Looking forward to talking to her. Tamara, maybe we’ll start, maybe you can let people know a little bit about you. You said last night that you’re from Saskatchewan. Should probably explain what the hell Saskatchewan is to everybody listening to begin with. And then you moved to Alberta. Why don’t you just walk through where you came from? You worked for the oil in the oil and gas field too, which is, or in the oil and gas industry, which is relevant. So, yes. You want to fill people in? I was born and raised in Saskatchewan, and I lived in Saskatchewan until about 1998. And then we moved to Medicine Hat because of the Alberta advantage at that time. We had really low energy prices there, and a lot of Saskatchewan people ended up in Alberta. And predominantly I worked in the energy sector there. In logistics and organization and administration, which is basically how I got involved in this because that was my skill set. So I offered my services. So what exactly were you doing? You worked in logistics and administration. So what were you doing in the oil patch? And you said also you were mostly working with men. What skill set did you develop? I discovered I was really good at organizing. I looked after frat crews. I organized the frat crews and our fracturing jobs. And so I was responsible for finding the equipment, organizing the chemicals, the sand. I dealt with the salespeople in Calgary, and of course our managers and stuff. And I discovered that I was really good at putting all these pieces together in very tight timelines. Helping the patriarchy destroy the planet. Yes, that’s right. And really, really, you know, tight deadlines and such. And I reveled in it, and I was really good at it. So I was, you know, growing up and not really knowing what my place was, of course, you know, trying to find your spot in the world. And when I started doing that, I just found it so fulfilling. And I really loved it. And what did you like about it? The challenge. Yeah, it was a challenge. At that time, you know, we didn’t always have, we were just a small base in Medicine Hat. So we had to always find equipment from our larger bases in Red Deer and Grand Prairie and stuff like that. So it was just fun. It was like putting the pieces of a puzzle together, but it had to be done. And then, of course, dealing with a lot of, well, even at that time, you’re talking the late 90s and the early 2000s, there was still a lot of consultants in the oil patch that didn’t like dealing with women. And so that was also quite fun. But yeah, it was something I discovered I was really good at and I enjoyed it. And yeah. When did you start taking an interest in political matters and why? That actually started with my former husband. So when I met him, he always had his nose in a newspaper. And at that time, I mean, I was in my early 20s, I wasn’t really interested in politics for sure. And then I started reading the newspaper. The National Post was the one that we subscribed to. And I started really loosely following reporters like Don Martin, Christie Blatchford, of course, Rex Murphy. And I just started really paying attention to what was going on. And it was when the sponsorship scandal hit that I thought, what is going on here? Like, there was no accountability. They were just spending taxpayers’ money. And then I started checking into Question Period. And that baffled me also because I thought, these people are just, it’s theatrics. It’s like watching a soap opera. And for me, I would rather turn on Question Period and see two sides of the house sitting at a table working together to try and fix our problems than just the soap opera theatrics that I was witnessing. And so that’s kind of what led into my interest in politics. And that was when? That would have been in the late 90s, early 2000s. So it’s about 20 years ago. Yeah. So I really just kind of started following it around then. And I just couldn’t understand why none of these politicians were being held accountable for their actions. And I mean, that was already 20 years ago. And it’s gotten much, much worse. Back when they were accountable. Yeah, that’s right. When they were supposed to be. I mean, I remember somebody losing their job over a 20,000. A few truckers would drive across Canada, stand there with some signs, hop back in their trucks and come home. So within 24 hours, we had over 10 million. Who froze it? GoFundMe. What had happened was because the City of Ottawa and the Ottawa City Police had contacted them and said that we were terrorists, basically. I see. Oh, yes. Well, yes. So who’s the blame on then? Is the blame on GoFundMe or is the blame on the people who called you terrorists? I would say both. I would say both. Why both? You think GoFundMe should have told them to go to hell like Gifts and Go did? That’s right. Exactly. GoFundMe for goodness sake. Right, right. Yeah, right. It’s really their job. The ironic thing is that we’ve watched the Black Lives Matter protests. I watched the Chazz Chap autonomous zone that they had set up in Seattle. And at some of these protests, people got raped. They were murdered. Businesses were looted and burnt to the ground. Yeah, but that was in a good cause, Tamara. That’s right. That was for a good cause, right? That wasn’t like Confederate flag flying Canadian Nazis. By the way, for everyone watching and listening, there are no Confederate flag waving Canadian Nazis. That’s not a thing. Nobody waves the Confederate flag in Canada. Most Canadians don’t even know what the hell the Confederate flag is. And Nazis, that’s just not a Canadian thing. So that’s all complete bloody lies from top to bottom in every possible way. So GoFundMe stopped 10 million. What happened to it? Well, the government of Ontario wanted to seize it immediately. Those were conservatives, by the way. Yes, this is right. This is true. And so the writing was on the wall. We were never going to get those donations across into Canada. So Jacob Wells, one of the founders, him and his sister founded Give, Send, Go. Decided that he was just going to refund everything. And I know that the lawyers got up and said, no, you’re not going to. We’re going to file whatever they needed to file to stop that from happening. And he said, by the time you have your paperwork done, it’s going to be back in their accounts. You have no jurisdiction here. So kudos to him. Yes. So what had happened was GoFundMe had released 20 million that was essentially seized in one way or another. Yes. By various branches of the Canadian government right now. You said there’s some of that money that’s still around, I think. Yes, there is. So when Jacob and GiveSendGo refunded the GiveSendGo money, there was about 400,000 in e-transfers because right away when I set up the GoFundMe, people were messaging me saying, Don’t trust them. That’s right. So that was kind of my first concern. I was like, oh, geez, I probably should have looked into this a little bit more. But what do you do? Live and learn. Yeah. So we’re accustomed to operating on trust. That’s why our societies are rich. It’s because you can generally operate on trust or you could. So far, yes. Yeah, so far. So that money also went into the escrow account. And then a gentleman by the name of Chris Gera had started an organization. We had a ground zero team, we called it, in Ottawa that was getting everything, all the infrastructure in place for when we arrived, like food, showers, hotel rooms. How many people did come to the convoy? How many truckers were there? Do you know? Approximately? I have no idea. Where did they come from? They came from all over. Did they come from the East, too? They came from the coast of BC. They came from the coast of Newfoundland. Oh, wow. They came from the Northwest Territories. We had Americans that came up and joined us. And that was funny because we had a finance committee in place. So we put procedures and processes in place so that this would all be accountable. And so one of my jobs was going to be to stand at the gas pumps and record every trucker that came through with their truck number and their name and their receipts, which in the first day was not even possible. And one of my other jobs was to get truck counts every day. But that was impossible because the situation was that a lot of people couldn’t go all the way to Ottawa. So they would join us for like 100 kilometers or a province or, you know, they’d get to the Manitoba border. So we always had people coming and going. What did you see when you came across? Please tell me. The most beautiful show of humanity in the unity I’ve ever seen. I’ve never seen anything like it. After all these years of, you know, especially living under this prime minister who has tried to constantly divide people by race, religion, culture, income bracket, geographical location. Gender. Gender. Yes. Gender identity. Yes. Yes. So we were coming through Manitoba. We were coming through Headingley and it was the most massive crowd I’ve ever seen. And there was native drummers on the side of the road dressed in their full regalia. And standing beside them were like forsique gentlemen. And standing beside them were Hutterite women with their children holding signs. Thank you for giving us back our future. And beside them was nuns and full habits. And to me… You know when the nuns are protesting that things aren’t good. Right. Exactly. And the Hutterites. Right. Right. Absolutely. They’re not known for their political… We had them all the way from Madison Hat, all the way through Manitoba. And I found out after, because my dad’s great friends with a lot of the colonies down there, that they would go to one intersection on the back road, watch us go by, hop in their vans or trucks, drive two miles down the road. And they did this to just watch us, you know. A-K-I. Yes. And support. And it was just incredible because it didn’t matter. None of your background even mattered. We were just Canadians. Right. For once. For once. Come on, you know. And what sort of distances were people driving? Because lots of people watching and listening don’t know how big Canada is. So you said from Madison Hat to Ottawa is 36 hours. 36 hours. I think that’s about 3,500 kilometers. Which is quite a long ways. But we had people, the clan mothers that joined us came from the Northwest Territories. And there was truckers that had come from the Northwest Territories. And the East Coast, Newfoundland, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia. This was truly a Canadian movement. We had people from everywhere. Northwest Territories. I didn’t know that. Yes. Yes. Which shows you that people, like you said earlier, were ready. Well, and desperate. I mean, the thing is that for the… So first of all, this was in the middle of the winter. Right. Right. And that’s winter. It’s not easy. It was minus 20 in Ottawa for most of that protest day. Yeah. And then those truckers were taking their rigs out of service for what? Two weeks? Something like that. Some of them are longer. Three weeks. Right. Which is a major economic hit. You have to be driven to some degree of desperation. And it’s not like Canadian truckers like Dutch farmers are known for their political activism. I mean, they’ve never been a politically active class in Canada. There’s no history of even labour agitation on the trucker side in Canada. So the fact that it was them that finally had enough is really telling. Well, just like it is telling on the Dutch farmer scene. Right. And the yellow jackets to some degree. I mean, the French are a lot more volatile with their political demonstrations. But Canada doesn’t have a history of this. This isn’t something that ever happens here. Just like it never happens in the Netherlands. And so, all right. So you’re driving down the road and you’re seeing all these people. And this thing is ballooned like mad way beyond what you had initially envisioned. Yes. And you’re on your way to Ottawa. What happens when you get to Ottawa? We pulled up onto the hill. Well, we got into Arnprior on the Friday night. And Saturday we drove up around noon. We met at noon and drove into Ottawa. And the crowds all the way from Arnprior right into Ottawa were amazing. The overpasses were filled with people. And it was just so beautiful. And we got up there and there was massive crowds up on Parliament Hill, too. And so when we got out, I mean, it was just by now people knew who Chris and I were. So there was lots of people coming up and asking for photos and talking to us and stuff. And it was so surreal. Supportive. Yes. Yeah. And you know, Chris and I talked on the way out. And we didn’t have a plan for when we got there. I mean, just getting there was such a massive undertaking. And we, I mean, kudos to Chris. He led that convoy out. Chris is in jail. Barber. No, he’s not. He’s back home in Saskatchewan. So let’s walk through that briefly. Who ended up jailed? Chris was arrested and imprisoned for one evening. I was arrested and in jail for 18 days. Pat King was arrested and he was in jail for five months. He was the leader of the convoy. Yeah, he was involved in it. Yeah, he wasn’t the leader of it. And yeah, I was actually in jail last summer when he was finally released. Finally released. But there’s still people in jail. This year, there were still people in jail. Yes. Of all the Coots boys are going through their pretrial right now. I mean, they weren’t affiliated with us. That was all, you know, separate groups and stuff. But I mean, what’s happening there is just unbelievable to those guys. And Aaron Aldrich was another one. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen the photos, but there’s a gentleman in lots of pictures with a toque and a big belly. He never wore a shirt. Always smoking cigarettes. And that was Aaron. And he just had, he’s finally back in Alberta. I think he went back last week. He got out of jail when I was on my way out for the inquiry in the fall. And he had to stay there with his surety until last week. He hasn’t seen his mom since 2022. Oh, yeah. Okay. So what’s happened? So now in Ottawa, you have all these trucks gathered. There’s hundreds of them or are there thousands of them by this point? Thousands. Thousands of trucks by this point, right? So everybody’s shocked at the magnitude of this, including the Ottawa bourgeoisie who aren’t very happy with all the honking. There’s a lawsuit about that, eh, that you’re also facing. $400 million class action suit? Yes. Right. Because of the economic harm caused by the trucker convoy? Yes. Right. Not the two years of business closures and shutdowns and locked in your home. Right. And do you think that there was a deleterious impact of the trucker convoy on businesses in Ottawa? Absolutely not. We never told them to shut down. It was the city that advised them to shut down because they had to have painted us as hooligans and thugs before we even arrived. Yeah. I mean, it just came out. Racists, spigots, misogynists. That’s right. Fascists, Confederates. Infiltrated by the Russians. Yeah, yeah. And the Maga types. That’s right. Don’t forget about them. Right. There was a Black Rocks report that just came out, I think it was the week before last. It was a Public Safety Health Safety Canada memo that was sent out internally to all these businesses saying that we were entering federal buildings and causing damage and disruption, which was a bold-faced lie. Just nasty lies. Nasty, nasty lies. And why? Because we don’t have… And I said this in my testimony. When you lead a country, you do not get to pick and choose who you lead. You are responsible for every single person in that country, whether you believe in what they believe or not. Right. You don’t get to call them names. I mean, now our Prime Minister is calling parents alt-right because they want a say… No, no, far right. Even worse. That’s right. You think that you should be able to call them names. You’re not able to have the last say in relationship to what your children are being taught in school. And now you’re essentially a Nazi. Yes. Because, of course, that’s what far right means. That’s right. Right. So that means our Prime Minister now believes that if you believe that you should put your child’s interests as the paramount concern of your life, that you’re essentially far right. And so if Canadians had any sense, which I’m afraid generally they don’t, they would listen to that because he’s actually serious about what he’s claiming. We know that the New Brunswick Premier came out and made it illegal for schools to use gender-transforming pronouns without parental, without informing the parents, which seems like the minimal thing they could do, and Trudeau pilloried him. But the vast majority of Canadians agree with the New Brunswick Premier’s statement. And if they were informed, a lot more of them would agree because Canadians, as a general rule, don’t pay much attention to politics and don’t know what’s going on. If they actually knew what was going on, a hell of a lot more Canadians would have agreed with the New Brunswick Premier. I know. Kudos to him. Who saw that coming out of New Brunswick? I know. I know. He grew a spine. He did. I’m so impressed. They’re starting to rediscover their spines. That gives me hope. Yeah. Well, you have Daniel Smith and Scott Moll, who look like they’ve got some spines. And Pierre Poliev might have one as well. And the Premier of New Brunswick, right? That came out of right field, you might say. Yeah. Yeah, that’s right. Yeah, that’s really encouraging to me. All right. So you’re in Ottawa and we’re all watching this from the outside. I was on tour with Tammy at that time. We would have liked to have come to Ottawa. I did speak at one of the events electronically. And so what we’re watching from the outside and what we see from the outside is that despite the fact that you’re being painted as misogynist, racist, bigot, mega Confederate flag-wearing fascists, there’s like no violence. There’s children there. The bloody government conspired to threaten the truckers with the removal of their children, which was one of the most reprehensible acts I’d ever seen a Canadian government commit. It might be number one, freezing your bank accounts. That’d be the contender for top place. But the idea that the government would threaten those protesters with the removal of their children by social services, that was like they were crossing the line in a big way there, boy. But that’s what they did the whole time. It was all constant provocation. And what did the OPP have to do with it? The OPP were absolutely… And that’s the Ontario Police Department. Yeah, the Ontario Provincial Police. So obviously right away when we recognized before we left how much support we were getting, I said we need to let our local police departments know when we’re coming through so they can make arrangements and everything. And so that’s what we did. And the OPP were just the most amazing organization to deal with. They were very organized. They were professional. They were polite. They were supportive. And I firmly believe if we could have dealt with the OPP for the whole duration of this thing, it would not have ended the way that it did. And out of the inquiry, what I learned was besides the OPP, we were the most organized and professional organization out of them all. Well, you were right wing. Those left wingers, they have a hard time organizing. These right wingers were pretty good at keeping things straight. Yeah, that’s right. And they were just, they were wonderful. And we had a phone call from a gentleman called Officer Pierre. He was, I think, he was French, but he was OPP. The night after the raids, because the first thing they did was they raided Coventry, which was where we had a lot of supplies and donations and a lot of trucks parked. And they went in there. And they is who? The Ottawa City Police. They had snipers on the roof. And they stole food. They stole fuel. They stole firewood. Whatever they could take, basically. Now, remember, this is minus 30 in Ottawa. Right. Yeah, I lived there. It’s cold in February. It is cold. Colder than it is in Alberta, really. It’s cold. Minus 30 is cold. You don’t last outside very long. No. About half an hour. And then they started taking the jerry cans, which is when, I mean, this is the beautiful thing, like I was saying last night about Canadians. He calls us a fringe minority. What do Canadians do? Everyone’s got a t-shirt or a tattoo or a hat or a bumper sticker. They owned it. Now we’re proudly the fringe minority. Right. And they said they were going to confiscate jerry cans. And so Canadians came out in hordes with empty jerry cans. Yes. Yes. Was that spontaneous? Totally spontaneous. Nobody organized that. They just started showing up. Some of them were empty. Some of them were full of water. Some of them had fuel in them. Because they were threatening to start charging people that were bringing it in with mischief. And again, Canadians just took that and ran with it. They had a jerry can fashion show on the stage. So it was brilliant. So what’s happening as the protest progresses? What’s the mood in downtown Ottawa? And what’s actually going on? You have a center stage or a couple of center stages set up and there’s people speaking. Tell us a little bit about what you would have experienced being there. It was like Canada Day on steroids. It was the most beautiful, loving, healing atmosphere ever. I mean, strangers were hugging and crying on each other’s shoulders and people were singing, oh Canada, and flying our flag so proudly finally. It was a beautiful, beautiful atmosphere. Which was not what the mainstream media, of course, was reporting. But it was very jubilant, very happy. The thing that struck me the most, though, was people would come up to me and hug me and cry on my shoulder and tell me their story and thank us for what we were doing. But it was the immigrants who, when they came up to me, had this look of desperation in their eyes, like nothing I have ever seen before. It was gut-wrenching, you know, because they’ve lived through this. They’ve watched all these signs and now they escaped. Poland, Russia, Iran, Romania, China, you know. People under desperation. That’s right. People that have escaped communist countries. And I’m telling you, the look in their eyes was unnerving. We’ve seen that look in Eastern Europe plenty. Because the Eastern Europeans, they’re not very happy with all the woke nonsense they see enveloping the West. When we’ve gone through Eastern Europe, they tell us consistently, it’s like, what the hell are you people doing? Don’t you know what that did for us for 70 years? You’re walking down exactly the same pathway. How can you possibly be so blind? It’s like, yeah, well, they remember, man. Communism. Yeah. Let’s do it again. Yeah, let’s do it again. That was particularly germane in Albania because that was the worst of the communist countries. 1992, they were under lockdown until 1992. That’s only 30 years ago. They found a 100-room bunker, like 100 yards, an underground 100-room bunker, 100 yards away from their parliament building. Under the main square. No one even knew that was there, that the defense minister had built in secret at the height of the belief in Albania, that Albania was the center country of the world and that everyone was just waiting to invade because everyone wanted what the Albanians had. We went out on a boat into the ocean along the Albanian coast, and we could see these little things that looked like small adobe houses up in the hills. Yeah, except they were huge. Yeah, well, you couldn’t see them because they were anyway. Three quarters the way up the mountains. They were tunnels into the mountain. So they spent all their nation’s money on underground tunnels and tunnels into the mountain because they had to be careful because the world was after them. And then the people of the country had nothing. Nothing. That’s communism. Yeah, Albania. Well, they remember fear, fear and tyranny, boy. That’s for sure. All under the guise of compassion and morality, which is the epidemic we’re facing in the West. Well, it is. I mean, we’re basically crafting legislation and policy on hurt feelings. Yeah, yeah, for false moral reasons. All right, so you’re having a big celebration in Ottawa, and the legacy media are trying to paint you as misogynists and fascists and bigots, and so is the lead, the punitive leader of Canada. And you actually manage, God only knows how you did this, to keep that entire enterprise both peaceful and positive, right? And I know I’ve talked to BJ Dichter about this a fair bit too, that that was actually a conscious aim, that you did everything you could. The organizers did everything they could. And I believe the truckers themselves did this spontaneously to ensure that they were going to remain respectful to people in authority and to the general public and to the businesses that they frequented. I know that the crime rate in Ottawa fell during the trucker convoy. There were no overdose deaths in downtown Ottawa. People had hope again just for a little while. Well, and they were sharing food too. The streets were clean. There was no garbage on the streets. It was, my dad, I didn’t meet this gentleman myself, but my dad told me the story of this homeless man that had gone up to one of the food tents. And they were feeding him every day, and he asked if he could stay in there, because it was warm. They had heaters, and they said, you are welcome to stay here as long as we’re here, provided you do not drink. No drugs in here. No drugs, period. And you have to help out. And when they left, he said that that was the first time that he felt like he belonged somewhere. Yeah, I bet. He had a purpose. Right. Well, you can’t live without a purpose. Yes. All right, so what happens now? What happens? Walk us through the crackdown. Now, I was talking to Dictor in particular around the time when the convoy was starting to, when a lot of pressure was starting to be put on the convoy. I know you guys were really trying to figure out, should you stay, should you go, had you accomplished your goals? So what’s the atmosphere? Now, the government’s starting to crack down. Walk us through that, and then walk us through the decision-making processes that you engaged in when you decided to, well, to what? To bring it to an end, I suppose? Yes. We didn’t decide to bring it to an end. That was the government. Okay. So very quickly right away, well, I recognized even on the way there that we were going to need lawyers. Every time the finance committee would say, it’s almost at another million, you got to bump it up another million. And so I would bump it up on the thing. It was bittersweet because I would be so excited. We were taking in a million dollars a day at that point. But at the same time, I would just get sicker and sicker to my stomach. Because I knew when you’re talking about millions of dollars, the lawyers are coming. And boy, was I right. And so very quickly after we got to Ottawa, we contacted the JCCF, and they flew in five lawyers, two of them which stayed with us on the ground. My husband was on that flight as well. And the JCCF is? The Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms, a charitable organization, civil liberties organization. And that’s the organization that gave you an award two years ago? Yes. That’s right. The George Jonas Freedom Award last summer. Right, last summer. Yeah, that’s right. Yeah, there was legal trouble around you accepting that too, wasn’t there? I had to go to court to ask. Well, that’s pretty funny that you had to go to court in Canada to go accept a freedom award. That makes perfect sense. Because I was banned from Ontario. Banned from Ontario. I’m going to do a cover of that. Yeah, you should. You should do that. Which is hilarious. I know a lot of people that are trying to get out of Ontario. I don’t know a lot of people that are trying to get into Ontario. But anyways, yeah, so we had to go to court and have a hearing so that we could have those amended so that I could attend. And also my youngest daughter was going to go to university in Ottawa. So I mean, I was having a bit of a tough time being banned from Ottawa also. So we had that all changed. All right, so now we’re talking about what’s happening as the government starts to crack down on the convoy. So we got the lawyers there right away. How does the pressure start to mount? Yes. Well, there was always pressure because there was always rumors. I mean, this is the great thing about having people like Danny Bulford there and Tom Quaggen and Thomas O’Connor because they were able to disseminate what was factual and what was just wild rumors. I mean, right from day one, we were hearing they were coming to arrest us. We were going to be raided. It was every day. So what led to that was we get there and the city of Ottawa puts on a state of emergency. Right. And we’re like, OK, what does that mean? And really all I saw was little groups of cops standing around doing nothing turn into slightly bigger groups of cops standing around doing nothing. Then Doug Ford invoked the state of emergency for the province of Ontario. Same thing. I just saw this group of cops standing around doing nothing. And this group of cops standing around doing nothing turn into a bigger group of cops standing around doing nothing. So when he invoked the emergency act. Well, that could be worse. Yes. So when he invoked the emergency act, I personally didn’t even know what to expect. Federally. Federally. I mean, I thought it was ridiculous. There was definitely no threat to the security of Canada. We were in Ottawa. Right. And that’s supposed to be a last ditch move by the federal government in the case of like serious civil war like violent insurrection. Sabotage. Espionage. When you step outside the constitutional limits, right, this is to be used extraordinarily sparingly, right, under the only the most dire of circumstances. And yet he announced it because Ottawa residents were being traumatized by honking, which had already been brought to a halt. Right. Many, many, many days previously. And Chris Barber said, well, we embarrassed him. And I said, no, we didn’t. We just handed him a platform and he embarrassed himself. But he backed himself into a corner. And he ran out of the city when you guys showed up too, didn’t he? Yes. They skirted him out of the city for his safety. We found out he was just skiing. Didn’t he say he had COVID? If I remember correctly? He was exposed to COVID. He was exposed to COVID. First of all, he came out and called us racists. Then he came out with his big fringe minority with unacceptable views. Then all of a sudden, he had been exposed to somebody that had COVID, even though he was three times vaccinated. Then all of a sudden, he’s skirted out of Ottawa for his safety. And like I was just saying, we found out after he was skiing in the Laurentians. Just ludicrous. Like, who does that? Well, it was obviously time to go skiing. Yes, it was. That was very important. In the state of emergency. Yes. Doug Ford was also snowmobiling during that time too. So they were obviously very concerned. Very concerned. And I mean, the pressure just started getting more and more intense. And the irony of the invocation of the Emergencies Act was that Keith Wilson, myself and my husband, were on our way to go meet with the Honorable Mr. Brian Peckford. And on the way over, we heard on the radio that Justin Trudeau was going to be invoking the Emergencies Act. So imagine that moment. We walked in and Keith told Mr. Peckford about that. And he just sort of like sat in his chair. Right. And Peckford was one of the creators of the act. The last women. That actually put the potential for the powers for the Emergency Act in place. And it stated very publicly that Trudeau, the Trudeau government, by no means or by no stretch of the imagination had encountered a situation that necessitated what the original framers of that document would have considered a genuine emergency. Yeah. I mean, he just went full on nuclear. And that’s when the bank accounts were being frozen as well. Yes. 200 Canadians, right? 280 Canadian citizens. And had their money stolen? Mothers were stuck at the grocery store till, unable to pay for their groceries. Families were unable to buy medicine for their children. They couldn’t pay mortgages. People couldn’t pay or receive their child support. There was no parliamentary oversight. There was no court order from a judge. Christa Freeland couldn’t do it fast enough. I mean, she was giggling like a schoolgirl when she announced it, which was appalling. And the evidence that came out at the inquiry was that she wanted to label us as terrorists so she could seize our assets. It was disgusting. And so I’m doing a lot of American media right now to promote my book. And that’s one of the things I always say is that this isn’t just a story for Canada. This is important. Because if they can do it in Canada, the most peaceful, passive, and polite country on the planet, it can happen anywhere. And it will happen. Yeah, well, I know one of the things we did learn traveling around, Tammy and I have been in like 250 cities, something like that, in the last two years. And Canadians have no idea what the bank account thefts in particular did to Canada’s international reputation. First of all, I think Trudeau is regarded around the world as the worst leader of the G7 by a large margin. And I would say, especially in Eastern Europe, that’s true among those on the left as well as those in the center and on the right. And the most egregious error he made was taking bank accounts. People cannot believe that happened, and certainly not that it happened in Canada. That was just an absolute shock of an absolute 100% violation of trust in the government, but also trust in Canada’s banking industry and in the separation of the banking industry from the government, which is something we want to keep separate. We really want to keep that separate. Well, they’re not. So no, no, that’s for sure. Well, wait till the digital currency is hit. Not one single president of any bank stood up and said no. One of the banks apologized later. Yes, you’re right. I think it was Nova Scotia. Yeah, I think it was the Bank of Nova Scotia apologized. Well, I’m sorry, an apology doesn’t cut it. No, that’s for sure. They should have been standing up and saying, no, we need like a court order from a judge or anything. We need like 10 court orders from judges. This isn’t something we do overnight because we kowtow to the tyrants in Ottawa. Exactly. That’s for sure. But it was intimidation. Yeah, what was the rush to close the bank accounts? Yeah, well, everything’s an emergency. All right, so things start to get tense in Ottawa. And how does that play out on the ground? Well, a lot of people started leaving because they were threatening to take insurance and seize vehicles like children and take the children, pets, again, back to the provocation. Pets? Pets. Yeah, they were going to come take pets. Take those pets. They tried really everything that they could. And so a lot of people started leaving, which we were encouraging because we didn’t want, we didn’t know it was coming. I mean, I never in my wildest dreams imagined that was coming, but we didn’t want anyone to get arrested or lose their jobs. I mean, these people have suffered enough. And I remember the Wednesday, the Wednesday before I was arrested, I was at the Sheridan and a group of our core people started leaving and a Quebec mother, one of the road captains was taking off and we said a very tearful goodbye. And I went up to my room and I was upset, crying, because we were saying goodbye to these people became our family. And I reached into my pockets. And of course, every time I was on the hill, like people were literally stuffing money into my freedom pants. I called them my freedom pants. And I was like, oh my God. So I ran back downstairs and I just gave her everything I had. And we said another tearful goodbye. My dad had come into town with my sister. They brought some supplies and they were also picking up my other sister. And we were at the Swiss Hotel. And I remember dad said, well, we’re going to, my sister wanted to go to Gatineau because she’d never been to Quebec. And I said, no. Dad was like, well, we’ll get a room and then we’ll leave in the morning. And I said, you guys need to get as far away from here as you can now. And I started walking upstairs and I remember I turned around and I just said, I love you, dad. That’s when the rumors were flying that you evil truckers were going to regroup somewhere outside of Ottawa in preparation to retake the city. That’s right. Which is something, you know, that I find a little bit odd that they don’t give us credit for, especially after what came out of the inquiry. I mean, we outnumbered and overpowered them. If we had been there with an agenda to take over Ottawa and overthrow the government, we could have done it. They were not prepared. The Ottawa City Police was in a shambles, an absolute shambles. I mean, one hand didn’t know what the other one was doing. And would that happen to us in real time? A liaison officer comes to the Swiss to deliver a message and halfway through his message, we’re like, what? Because we had a different message. He gets on his phone and finds out it was the wrong message. Like this is happening right in front of us. Oh, wow. The ineptitude of that organization was stunning. Right. And you’re saying that in contrast to the Ontario Police. Yes, they were amazing. What do you think the difference was? Like, why do you think it was so inept in Ottawa, but working at the Ontario level? I don’t know. Bureaucracy. Yeah, but they’re both bureaucratic, right? One woke bureaucracy, one maybe not so woke. Maybe, maybe, yeah. Sounds like it to me because the clowniness of that sounds woke. Yeah, right. Yes, I think that’s a large part of it. And I mean, Chief Sloley, who was the police chief at that time, was having a lot of problems internally with his people not listening to him. Yeah, well, no wonder. When you listened to him publicly, you thought, well, there’s someone that no one should listen to. Yeah, you’re right. But you know what? I did get to go up to him at the inquiry and I shook his hand and I said, thank you for your service. And I’m sorry for the fallout that’s happened to you. Because I believe he did the best he could. He was under a lot of pressure. Did he do and say a lot of the right things? Absolutely not. But this is very telling. There’s six weeks of testimony at the inquiry. Justin Trudeau, Christopher Freeland, Mark Amendicino, David Lemeni, all these clowns, sorry, all these members of parliament were on the stand and examined for about two hours. Peter Sloley was on the stand for two days. Two days. So he was being scapegoated. He was being scapegoated. And I remember the day that he announced his resignation. Everybody in the room was just cheering and celebrating. And they thought this was excellent that this chief and I was, Keith and I are like, this is not good. Number one, a man just lost his entire career today. And number two, what’s coming next is not good, is going to be worse. And we were right. So it was very intense. Lots of people were leaving. We were saying a lot of goodbyes. And I went and did the video the night before because we were pretty sure we were going to be arrested. And I wasn’t going to leave. Like, how could I leave? I wasn’t going to leave all those people there. You know, that’s my perspective. I mean, I don’t mean to sound cliche, but I mean, a captain goes down with a ship. So we made plans. We got some people out of the Swiss hotel because we thought if we’re going down, we need someone to keep the ship afloat. So I sent Keith and Eva to a different hotel. We sent the accountants somewhere else and some other people somewhere else. And I’d been walking around the last few days there seeing these F Trudeau flags and people yelling at reporters. And while I was walking around, I saw a couple of people. And while I do believe that we were all justifiably angry, my perspective is we can’t win. We can’t meet hate with hate. And that was my message from the start. We can only do this peacefully. We can only do this coming from a place of love in our hearts, no matter what you think. And it was upsetting me. So I went up and I did that last video and discussed that. I just said, please remember that Justin Trudeau has three kids that have that same last name. And just like I have three kids and my kids are waking up to see me called horrible names. One of them woke up to read that I was dead in jail. Not at that point, obviously, but this is the stuff that they were seeing. And I’m just thinking like, think of them, even if you hate him, think of them. Think of those reporters that are out there. Doing a terrible job. They’re probably just trying to feed their families is what I said. And I don’t think that’s an excuse. They could do that by doing a good job. I agree. I agree. But I get your point. Yes. Yeah. And then I was pretty sure that I was going to be arrested. And sure enough, the next day, the next day, yeah, we were arrested. And what was that like to be arrested? Well, for somebody that’s never even been in Facebook jail before, it was quite an eye-opening experience. I spent the evening at the police station in the cells there, which was awful. I’d spent the day walking around with a veteran, talking to people and signing flags or whatever, just talking with people, listening to their stories. And so by the time we got back to the Swiss, I was quite damp and cold. And then Danny and I made the decision to go out and turn ourselves in after Chris had been arrested. Number one, the lady that owns that hotel. And had you been charged at that point? So why did you turn yourselves in? Because they arrested Chris. We knew that they were looking for organizers. We turned ourselves in because we didn’t want them coming to the Swiss hotel because she’s such a sweet woman. We saved her from bankruptcy. She was two weeks away from bankruptcy when we showed up. Saved her business. My husband and Danny’s wife were both at the Swiss hotel, and I can’t even imagine the trauma of having to witness something like that. I mean, I had it easy. I was in jail. It’s the people around me that really suffered, the people that cared about me that really suffered. I’m fine. I was fine. I mean, was it great? No, it sucked. But I prayed. I just said, okay, God, we’ve exposed so much. You’re obviously not done with me yet. And if this is my job, it’s thy will, not my will. And one foot in front of the other, you just keep on keeping on. I knew it wasn’t going to last forever. You guys, maybe we should, because we’re starting to encroach on the end of our time, maybe we should talk about what the trucker convoy accomplished. So let me lay out some of the things I saw, and then please, please elaborate. So, well, first of all, it was a model for a peaceful demonstration of great magnitude, well organized, under a tremendous amount of duress. Right? And in an inhospitable climate, literally speaking, and an inhospitable political climate, right? Under assault by the lying legacy media and by the top leaders of the country. Right? So that’s all quite something. And yet it was extremely peaceful and so peaceful that it was impossible for the people who were trying to pillory you to even find single events that weren’t entirely fabricated that indicated that anyone there at all was causing any untoward trouble. And that was always what I was looking for, because I thought you guys would be infiltrated by, like that the wing nuts would show up sooner or later. But we mitigated that. That’s what I was saying. It was like see a need, fill a need, you know? Antifa came in right away, so we set up block captains, and they would do patrols to make sure that the people were safe in their trucks. So they’d walk the streets. So you had jobs for them? Yes. Yes. I mean, that’s what I’m saying. And that worked with Antifa? Pardon me? That worked with Antifa? Yes. Yep. So they just need something to do. Yeah. That’s really not that surprising. Yeah. Exactly. But the superintendent of intelligence for the OPP testified at the inquiry that the lack of violence was shocking. His words. He also testified that what he was hearing coming from the media and from our politicians did not match with the intelligence that they were getting off the ground. So again, Lion Mendicino is up there every day talking about how violent we were and on and on and on. We’re like we’re rapists and arsonists and insurrectionists. And it was all a lie. The night they arrested those two guys in that apartment, they knew. They knew the night they were arrested, they worked with the convoy. Yes. Yeah. And that’s never been properly investigated and described in the Canadian media. Well, it’s going to be. It’s going to be. Where were they arrested? I’m going to make sure these guys are held accountable. Where were they arrested? In Ottawa. So there’s those two guys that were trying to burn the apartment building down. To lock the doors and to build the apartment. And a lady walks by, apparently, sees these guys. It’s all documented on Twitter. I’ve got all of them. So a lady comes into the apartment building, sees these guys trying to light a fire, and then goes up to her apartment. Yeah. Right. Glenn McGregor was first on the scene. He was there before the police were called. Yeah, that was quite the state of affairs. Just an absolute bloody lie from beginning to end. Really, really quite stunning. All right, so you managed this extremely peaceful demonstration. That was broadcast intently around the world despite all of the legacy media lies, and that’s all they did pretty much was lie about it. And that was a model for people around the world. I think I know for a fact, because I’ve talked to the Dutch Farmer organizers, that the Canadian protests were, what would you say? Inspiring. Inspirational. Yeah, and that’s happened in many countries. And I think it’s also given the Dutch farmer’s heart. And that’s produced somewhat of a political transformation in Holland, or in the Netherlands, which is a really big deal. And then there were radical changes in Canadian policy after you guys were, after the trucker convoy ended. So, well, let’s talk about what you faced right at the end. I mean, we saw footage of the police come riding in with horses, and we saw you said, we talked last night about the woman who was trampled by the police. You want to help talk about her for a moment? Yes, I was just fortunate enough to spend the weekend with her, and Chaba Veezie too. Candy was a carnival worker here in Ontario, and she was there protesting peacefully. She’s, I can’t remember the reserve she’s from, she’s Mohawk. And she was there with her walker, and they trampled her. And she’s got a broken clavicle, which has not been addressed yet. Well, she needs help, right? So she’s unable to work right now, clearly traumatized. It was devastating what they did. And also Chaba, who is just one of many, was surrendered peacefully, came out of his truck, and was badly, badly beaten. He had broken bones in his neck, he had a broken wrist, internal bleeding. Did you say they were kneeing him? Yes. There’s footage. I’ve sent it to you guys. There’s footage. Yeah, he surrendered peacefully, and you can see these cops, like literally with all their might, kneeing this guy in the back. He was atrocious, and he surrendered peacefully. It’s not like he was resisting arrest. I mean, we had all talked with Danny, we all knew what to expect if they are going to arrest you. Don’t resist. Tell them who you are, like identify yourself, and then that’s all you have to do. Just go. So, and then a lot of these people were arrested, handcuffed, left in cold transport units, or paddy wagons for hours, driven out to the outskirts of Ottawa, and dropped off in a snowstorm. No way. Way. Way. Wow. Really? Thankfully, Melissa McKee from Biker’s Church, and her husband, who were just the most beautiful people, they were very involved in, like it was their church was like a sanctuary. And so what she’d been doing was a lot of the people that she knew, she would have them write her number on their arm, and their lawyer’s number on their arm. So when that happened, or if that happened, they could call. Because I mean, a lot of these people, they don’t know anybody there. If I got dropped off on the outskirts of Ottawa, I would have no idea where to go. If I had no cell phone, or you know. So in the aftermath of the Tucker Convoy, now the conservative party essentially shattered itself, which wasn’t the goal of the party. Wasn’t the goal of the convoy. Right. But we became the unofficial official opposition. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What else do you think the convoy accomplished? It restored, oh this makes me cry. I don’t know why this always makes me cry. People were proud to be Canadian again. The two words that I heard the most, the first one was hope. Coming all across Canada was the number one word I heard, and the second one was pride. Yeah, hope. That’s a hard thing to give people. I mean, I myself, Canada Day was always one of my most favorite holidays until the last few years. And I just quit going. But I mean, I was the one that would always take my kids to the fireworks. Like, this is important. I grew up being fascinated watching the Americans and their passion for their country and their flag. And I was always fascinated by that. Americans are very good at that sort of thing. Yes. But there was never that sense here. And so that was my first experience imagining what that must be like. So, and I think we opened a lot of eyes. Like, I do believe. Well, and a lot of the COVID tyranny started to fall apart in the aftermath of the trucker convoy. Well, it should have been a super spreader event. We should have all been dead of COVID. I couldn’t tell you one person I know there that got COVID or had COVID. Yeah, well, it was more like a super spreader event that took down the COVID tyranny. Right? Because things really did start to open up after that. And I know the politicians denied that there was any connection, but it was pretty bloody obvious that there was a connection. So that was really heartening to see. Because one of the things to remember is that, well- That might have been the thing. Who knows, right? Because we toyed with totalitarianism for two years. Like, we seriously toyed with it. And then we walked back from the brink. That’s what it looks like to me. If you want to read it optimistically, I mean, a pessimist would say, well, maybe we didn’t have to toy with totalitarianism to begin with. And fair enough. But sometimes people have to be hit pretty hard in the back of the head before they wake up. And it is possible that we woke up and will decide not to go down that road. And I think that if that’s the case, then the trucker convoy played a signal role in that. And that’s not nothing. You know, that’s extraordinarily important. You know, and that’s pretty funny if that’s at least in part a consequence of your decision that, you know, maybe you had some responsibility too, despite the fact, you know, like, what the hell do you know? And you’re just another person. There might be more to be in just another person than people think. Yes. Well, I think Chris Barber said it best. And we were still traveling to Ottawa in the convoy at this time. And he was on the radio and we were just talking, or he was talking with other truckers about, I don’t even know what was waiting for us or what we were going to accomplish. And he said, we’ve already won, guys. And he was right. Like, people came out and came together. And, you know, there’s a gentleman that did a blog on a North Bay and he, in his blog, he said it was so dark. Like, it was everyone had the sense before we started that they couldn’t last one more week. So this gentleman in North Bay had done a blog and in his blog, he said, there was a sense that people could not go on even one more week. Like, this was dark times, really dark times. And nobody called anybody. Nobody organized any groups of people to go out. People just got up and got their families up off their couch and they went out to the side of the road. And then when they got to the road, there was all these other people there, thousands of people. And I can imagine the darkness. That’s right. Because it’s winter. Yeah, it’s cold, man. Cold. Yeah, we can’t see why. And it’s cold. Yeah, yeah. But all of a sudden, there’s all these people there and they’re like, they didn’t feel alone anymore. And they didn’t feel like they were going crazy because that’s how I felt sometimes. I was like, how? What the hell is going on? How can you guys not see what is going on here? Like, am I the only person seeing this? And so it was just so beautiful. It was honestly the most beautiful show of humanity I’ve ever seen. And Canadians did what they do. We had more donations than we knew what to do with. We were taking food as far away as Sudbury to the food banks because there were so much. Out at the farms, we had the little outposts. I mean, there was dog food, lip chap, gloves, tampons, everything. There was everything under the sun that Canadians just donated in droves. And that’s the Canada that I grew up in. Yeah, well, maybe we’ll hang on to our freedom. You never know. It’s possible. We’re going to find out over the next decade, that’s for sure, because we’re really toying with things on both ends at the moment. But yeah, well, it was heartening to see this happen. And while it was heartening to see its effect, for example, in the Netherlands, that’s a big deal, right? That what the Dutch farmers are doing there, that’s everybody in the world should have their attention focused on that because that’s battlefield central. These local battles aren’t local at all. That’s why so much international attention was focused on the Canadian trucker convoy at that point, too, because everyone had the sense that this is about more than, well, it’s about more than Canada, that’s for sure. And it’s about more than the local concerns of a handful of misogynists, bigots, and confederate flag-waving fascists, that’s for sure. Well, I mean, never before did we quarantine the healthy to protect the vulnerable. Yeah. Never before. Yeah, yeah. Well, and to no good end. And as a consequence, we’ve produced a tremendous amount of damage and it’ll take decades really to sort out exactly the cost of all that. Well, I deal with that. I have a daughter that has developed a drinking problem. She’s a girl. She can’t drive from Manitoba to Medicine Hat without having two panic attacks. She’s depressed. I mean, her graduation consisted of her putting on a gown and a mask and having a photo taken. Her graduation. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We took a lot from those kids, boy. Yes, that’s for sure. You know, that’s your whole school life is getting ready for that one moment. Yeah. And then, you know, that semester at the University in Calgary locked in her. I mean, she should have been going to pubs. At full tuition. And that’s, yes. At full tuition. Let’s not forget that. That was the university’s contribution to the totalitarian catastrophe. It’s like, well, we won’t actually offer you any services, but we’ll take your money. Cute. Well, look, we can end this with some hope. You know, the trucker convoy did accomplish a lot and we didn’t get a chance to talk to you about what you’re facing now in the future. Maybe we’ll do that on the DailyWire Plus side. For those of you who are watching and listening, thank you very much for your time and attention. And to the DailyWire Plus people for arranging this on very short notice, because Tamara just came over for dinner last night. We decided to do this then. That’s very helpful. I’m going to talk to Tamara for another half an hour on the DailyWire Plus side. And you guys who are watching and listening, you might consider heading over there and providing them with some support. You know, that YouTube has been on our case because I’m allied with the DailyWire folks for better or worse at the moment. And they’ve really launched, you know, somewhat of a full frontal attack on us in the last couple of weeks. And that’s not good. And so if you’re concerned about that, well, one thing you can do or think about doing is to provide the DailyWire Plus folks with some support. They’ve been very good partners for me for whatever that’s worth. And Tamara, thank you very much for agreeing to talk to us today. And Tam, thank you for participating today. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, for sure. Appreciate it. All right, everyone. Good. Thanks, Lord. Okay.