Shaun Newman Podcast - #572 - Mocha Bezirgan

Episode Date: January 24, 2024

He grew up in Turkey, worked for Rebel News, is an independent journalist and founder of Media Bezirgan. He has been covering the Coutts 4 and exposing the Regina bypass scandal.  To support Mocha:https://www.mediabezirgan.com/donate Let me know what you think. Text me 587-217-8500 Substack:https://open.substack.com/pub/shaunnewmanpodcastE-transfer here: [e-mail] Website: https://silvergoldbull.ca/ Email: [e-mail] Phone [phone] – general sales line, ask for Grahame and be sure to let us know you’re an SNP listener.

This is Danielle Smith. This is Tammy Peterson. This is Alex Kraner. This is Curtis Stone. This is Tom Longo, and you're listening to the Sean Newman podcast. Welcome on the podcast, folks. Happy Wednesday! Tucker Carlson is in Eminton and Rogers Place tonight.

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Call or email Graham down in the show details, okay? I got the SMP at Silvergoldbolt.com or there's a phone number down there. You can ask for Graham and he can give you details about RRS season. Or heck, if you just want to say, hey, thanks for supporting the show, shoot him an email. Well, they noticed. Silver Gold Bowl. Find out more, silvergoldbowl.ca. Caleb Tate.

C.T. Me'ah, Caleb, I can't say your name today. Caleb Taves, Renegade Acres. You know, he's put up a community spot. And I thought, you know, I was driving down 12th Street yesterday. And I noticed that Shying Christian Academy, man, the tongue is not working this morning. I guess Sean's going to take a civil.

a coffee here, folks. I know real professional. It's early morning while I'm recording this, to be honest. Caleb Taves has opened up a spot, and I was driving yesterday, 12th Street, and Shine Christian, man, Shine Christian Academy started out as a one-room schoolhouse out in Streamstown. I guess I can't call it that. It's a, it's a homeschool co-op, I think, is what it is. I actually don't know. I got Deanna. She's going to be coming in and talk about it. The reason I'm bringing it up is it's coming to Lloyd. They're opening a second location in Lloyd.

So if you've ever thought of taking your kid out of the public system and trying something new, maybe homeschooling, there might be something that's just a little bit different. And maybe take a look at what they're up to. I'm going to bring the full details on here soon. I got Deanna coming on hopefully soon. We've been bouncing text back and forth. But regardless, that is something here big in the community that I think is going to be interesting to pay attention to.

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700. Erickson Agro Incorporated at Irma, Alberta, that's Kent and Tasha Erickson. Well, they're family farm raising for kids, growing food for this community in this great country, and I've been giving, you know, Blair's been living this now, half a year kind of thing, hmm, now time flies, and he was supposed to be going to an all-star game in, uh, all-star tournament. I don't know, how did I say that? Anyways, for the JPMHL in Detroit, and it got shut down by Hockey Canada. So I kind of wait on more details, to be honest. Anytime hockey can continues to stick its nose into things, there's going to be things that happen there.

As we just talked about it on the Tuesday Massif, did you see the news about the H.HL? Brooks, Spruce Grove, Okotokes, Blackfolds, and I'm missing one. There's five of them, five teams that are going to be teaming up with the BCHL and are moving out of the HHL. That's big news. I mean, kids not being able to go across to play in a showcase MVP,

or MVP, All-Star Tournament Weekend style thing in Detroit, that's kind of big news too. So we'll look for more info when that comes up. If you haven't been paying attention to Facebook, which I know there's a whole bunch of you could give two craps about it. That's fine. We've been dealing with a few things there, and there's a possibility we get removed.

And if that happens, as I've been telling everybody, I think signing up for substantiated, right now is probably really important. At least then we have email, you know, a couple things. One, you're getting the substack exclusive right now for free so you can get all the bonus videos there if you haven't signed up for that, which is down in the show notes. Two, if we ever get removed from a bunch of things, email is probably the best form of communication where we can get directly to you and say, hey, this is what we're doing because we've been removed off these different social media platforms. Now hopefully

folks that never comes to fruition. Hopefully it never gets that bad. But right now, you know, we've already experienced being taken down from YouTube and Facebook throwing a couple things our way and we'll see what happens with that. Our website has been hacked.

So it's not like you can just show up to Sean Newman Podcast.com and find out what the heck's going on. So if you haven't signed up for Substack and you're like hesitant, right now it's free. Two, if the worst were to ever happen, email is probably going to be the way

we get the word out. It seems the most basic form, I mean, it feels like I'll be able to get a message out that way, so that's just my Wednesday morning thoughts. Now, let's get on to that tale of the tape. He's a young independent reporter covering the

Coots 4. He's a former employee of Rebel News and the founder of Media Bersergan. I'm talking about Moka Bersergan. So buckle up. Here we go. Welcome to Sean Newman podcast today. I'm joined by Mocha Bezurgan. So first, sir, thanks for hopping on. Of course. Thank you for having me. You know, I know, and I'm curious on the audience side, how much they know about you, but I mean, you've been all over my Twitter feed now for some time

in regards to the Coots 4, the Regina Bypass, and, you know, I've been getting set in your stuff quite a bit. I'm like, well, we just have to find a way to slowly get them on. So here you are, Before we get into some of the things you've been covering, I was hoping you could just talk a little bit about yourself, Moka, and just let us know, who are you? And where did you come from? Well, I'm 24 years old. I was born in Istanbul, Turkey.

And when I was one years old, my parents immigrated to Canada, to Toronto. And then when I was around the age of seven, they decided to move back. So they took me with them. I grew up in Turkey, got my education in Turkey, but because I had some education in Canada, I was immune to state propaganda and brainwashing in schools and media. With that immunity, I was emboldened to share my views, show my ideas. So I started doing short films around the age of 17.

And those short films, they went viral. They were funny. They were anti-government. They were critical of religion. They were anti-bigotry, basically. And people loved it. But then I got into trouble with the police because I had to go to the police station twice to give a statement saying, no, I am not trying to insult the president. I'm not insulting people's deeply held religious police, et cetera, because it's illegal in Turkey.

And even if you criticize the president, it could be construed as an insult. So I said, you know what? I'm too young. I was too stressed. I was only 18. I said, you know what? I'm going to go back to Canada, study broadcasting. So that's what I did. I went back to Canada, study broadcasting in Toronto, Humberg College. But they weren't teaching anything. So I didn't learn anything new. but I found a job as a video editor with a filmmaker who was working on a documentary. From there, I met a friend who was working at Rebel News,

and then I started working at Rebel News. After three years, we departed ways, and since last year, I've been independent, and I've been growing, and I've been covering stories all across the country. last week I was in Windsor, Ontario. There's another story I'm working on that is connected to the Regina Bypass project. It's about the Gordi Howe Bridge, International Bridge project and allegations of corruption within that project. So I'm examining documents.

I have still a lot to go through, but that's another story that's coming up next. Well, I'm going to rewind the clock then, and I'm going to go back to Turkey. just to have something that's outside our country, because I think a lot of people understand, or at least are paying attention to some of the things or a lot of the things going on here. When you talk about Turkey, what was it about the state propaganda there

that really bothered you as a younger person, that you're just like, this makes zero sense? Like, what was it? It was blatant lies that were being propagated against a naive community of people. And that was this idea that, okay, so in Turkey, economy right now is very bad. It has been bad for a while. Right now, the government, okay, here's how the media government relationship works.

There are many media organizations, and most of them are owned by the same holdings, same corporations. those corporations also own huge infrastructure companies, manufacturing companies, etc. And the government wants to build stuff, wants to build the biggest airport in the world or new subway lines or new infrastructure, etc. And so it gives those contracts to these corporations that also own the media. So then those corporations have to pay back and they need to kiss us. And that's what they do. So the idea is, because the economy is so bad and there is no escape,

because the rulers of the country have been very negligent in the last 20 years, they say to people in the media, we are searching for natural gas in the Mediterranean Sea. Once we find this gas, everyone is going to be rich. Everything's going to be fixed. Gas is going to be free. We just have to, wait, wait, one more one one more month so like this like this with new propaganda every month it keeps going and

there's always a new crisis there's always something new going on that dominates the new screens so there is never anything of substance that is related to the people and their struggles on the news never you never get that chance and i saw that and i started criticizing it doing short films through comedy and it got people's on you know when you do it with comedy and i had no interest i had no allegiance to any political party people like that and um i had an impact on my generation at least a positive impact and even i was in turkey a few months ago covering the latest election and i couldn't walk on the streets people still recognize me come to me for pictures it's a i'm a quite a celebrity celebrity down there well it's cool to you

have you on this side then staring at our problems and actually as you give your background it makes sense at why you're so good and have I don't know been shared so much you know there's very few people who start covering something and rise as fast as I think you have I you know

that's just from my circles and the things that I get sent you know I'm sticking with turkey here for a few more minutes when you go back to those days Were you nervous? Like you said you had to go down on the police station a couple times. Like when you first started criticizing the government, what's going on with the establishment? Did you ever think that the cops are going to show up and be like, listen, Malka, you got to come with us?

Absolutely. My friends have experienced this sort of arrests. My friend, in fact, he made a video mocking a rapper who was, who had a song in the lyrics. It has a line where he said. said, I'm smoking weed. So my friend was mocking him doing a parody rap video. Now, the rapper got

arrested and sent to jail for encouraging drugs. My friend, who was making a parody video of him, also sentenced to four years in jail. So sentenced to four years in jail? Yes. He just went in one day and came out. The rest, I think,

they converted to money or something, but he's not in jail. But that's the atmosphere. The judges have no sense of humor. The judges don't care. If they see you in front of them, they know what to do. So it's like a police state. When you stare at Canada today, you know, you mentioned you come back to Canada, right?

You got the cops showing up. You can, I don't know, maybe see where things are leading. But then you see just this, what is it? Now has it been 10 days, folks? David Menzies get pulled aside by the cops while trying to talk to Freeland. You know, when you see that, what comes, like, what are your thoughts? You know, I urged Canadians about three years ago. I told them when, for example, when I went to Victoria Island in B.C.

During the election, I caught Justin Trudeau at a campaign event, which I was not allowed in. But all the media was there. And then there was one protester, anti-vaccine mandate protester, yelling at him, his concern, her concerns. And the liberal staffers would line up in front of her, and the more she would yell, they would, they would clap and cheer to subdue her from getting her. Making a scene. Yeah. They didn't want her to be heard while Trudeau was giving a press conference. But to me, her concerns were legitimate and she deserved to be listened to.

And the liberals were making fun of her. So I asked the liberal, I pointed out, I asked them, I asked the person who was protesting. I said, the more you raised your concerns, the more they cheered and clapped. Isn't that a type of censorship? And the liberal staffers laughed. But then I showed the video in my report how Turkish presidents bodyguards handle protesters abroad, not just in Turkey, but abroad. They would line up in front of you, and the more you would yell your slogan, they would yell

like this to subdue you. Same tactic. So that was an ugly comparison that I saw, and I reported on. And what was shocking that there were indigenous protesters that lined up in front of through those bus, indigenous rights protesters, land protesters. whatever and they blocked that bus while Trudeau is inside for half an hour but there was no media covering it despite all of them being in there so it was just me holding my camera and recording it for half an hour they blocked the bus to do had to leave the bus because the bus couldn't move

and choose an alternative method of transportation and i'm like why no media reported this why why am I doing this who they consider not real media? So that was a big scoop I got and it got published. So that tells me the state of media, the state of the political elites, the way they think, the way they operate. And it's not shocking that what we saw with Menzies. This is just the new Canada. Does that, you know, you came away from Turkey going like, I'm getting away from this. And I don't know if you said it or not.

Maybe I'm just implying. But I assume you thought, oh, I'll go to Canada and I'll get away from this kind of totalitarian, authoritarian, authoritarian regime that's going to not allow free speech and, you know, comedy to play out and all these different things. And then you see Menzies. You see all these different things going on. What are your thoughts on Canada today? Well, what I see happening is there is a large population in Canada that is not interested. in politics that is not interested in free speech or freedom of movement, freedom of the press, etc. People just want to live their lives and that's what they do. If you ever go to Toronto,

if you ever go to, you know, big metropolitan cities, you can just look around and see. Like, you can be sure that the people you look at, they don't even follow the news. They get their content. They get their news from TikTok or, you know, different. corners of the internet because everyone has their own algorithm, what they're interested in. That's what the social media shows them. And the news that I report on, that we report on, it reaches to a very small population and rarely reaches to the larger population.

So, for example, the Coots 4 story. Not many people know about it. I mean, historically speaking, I think politics has been people only, small number of people who have been interested in politics. And it's been always minorities shaping the future of politics. It's always small minorities fighting each other to have control over the future of the country. The masses, they are not aware. They just need to be, their ideas need to be suggested, what they like, what they don't like, what they should do, what they should not do, what is moral, what is not moral, etc. That's how I see Canada is

also operated. You ever think of going back to Turkey then? Has it gotten to a point here in Canada where you're like, man, alive? I keep doing what I'm doing, you know. I assume you're not married and I assume you don't have kids, Moka. Am I fair an assumption there? Yes, I don't have kids. I'm not married.

So we, although the two of us are doing things that are hitting the bees hive or going against the machine or, you know, all these different, uh, thoughts. When I think about it, I think of, of my wife and kids. I think of what harms am I putting them in the way of? I think of all these different things. And I think of what temperature is canned at right now? Like, you know, have I had somebody show up to my door going, why did you

interview Moca? No more. Um, and now to the listener, that hasn't happened, right? So I gauge part of, uh, part of where I'm at off of something like that, right? In saying that, I've had different things attacked now online, which is very interesting to see. I've had different, been pulled from different platforms, which has also been interesting to watch as well. When I look at you, I go, you know, you left a country because of the persecution you were starting to face as being a comedian slash, you know, journalist, if I may, just pointing a spotlight on some of the, like, this is kind of odd, isn't it? now here in Canada you're really messing with the beehive you know you're you're pointing out

the coots for uh 700 plus days now and you're right some people think about it some people haven't even heard about it uh i would say a lot of people don't even know about it you uh point out the right regina bypass a scandal which has been murmured in the back rooms for for quite some time and now you're talking about the the gorty how bridge and you're doing these different things i'm like oh yeah you're messing with the staff do you ever think about going back to Turkey or has it gotten to a point where you would ever consider such a thing? I did consider going back to Turkey about six, seven months ago when my independent journalism, you know, I was running out of my budget because I put everything

that I have for this endeavor and I was running out of it almost. But then I didn't. I somehow recouped and so I'm like, I'm still, I'm going to keep going. There's no plan as me going back right now. But if I were to go back, I don't think things would be too much different other than the economy in Turkey is a little worse. But Canada is catching up. We have almost like 2 million people going to food banks at times. I shouldn't laugh, but I mean like you're bang on.

You're bang on. It's not funny, but it is. I interviewed the international students last week in Brampton who were protesting outside of their university. And they said, I asked them, would you come to Canada if you knew how it was going to be? They said, hell no. We wouldn't come to Canada if we knew everything is expensive. Rent is expensive.

This is not the lifestyle we want to live. And I ask, would you send your children to go through these difficulties? Is it worth it? No. The kid said, right now I would encourage everyone to stay in their own countries because inflation and everything is really bad. One of them compared Justin Trudeau to Kim Jong-un. He said, if you don't have money in this country, every right you have will be violated. And I think that is true.

If you don't have political connections, if you don't have money, you will be, the law will be applied to you to the full extent. If you have the money, if you have political connections like Sassi, Lavalant, et cetera, then you're fine. You will get away with it. You have politically. That's fine. Or the people who bombed the Air India flight.

in 1985. Who went to jail over that? We never got the masterminds arrested. CESIS was destroying evidence, in fact, while our CMP was trying to crack down on who did what. So that's the country we're facing, and I'm aware that I'm stepping on some toes with the recent reports,

whether it be Regina Bypass and the upcoming Cordy Howe Bridge project. And so I take my security seriously. it pains me to hear Canada talked about in that light. I don't know. I mean, I understand why. I've been talking about it now for, I don't know why it just when you say it the way you've said it.

I'm like, man, that pains me because this isn't, I would say for a lot of us, this isn't the Canada we grew up in. And where we're sitting, you know, with our fearless leader,

Justin Trudeau and all his insanity. It's probably good to hear is for what it is. I can't even access Canadian news on Instagram, on Facebook. It's same in Turkey. Just three days before the election, they shut down Twitter. You can't access certain accounts on Twitter. It was a regular thing. Whenever there was a protest, the government shuts down the internet completely

or just shuts down Facebook, YouTube, etc. And now because of their foolish dealings and demands of social media companies to fund mainstream media, now we can't access news on Instagram and Facebook. This is not how I imagined Canada would be. It's pathetic. If people want to support, you know, being independent is a tough slug because obviously you don't have a big organization.

We joke about CBC all the time and all the billions they get. And I'm like, man, you imagine if you gave independent media half of that? 500 million goes to independent media. I mean, then they wouldn't be independent. I get that. But, you know, just imagine this hypothetical where that money got dispersed to MoCA and all these different independents running around and doing podcasts and shows and everything else. You imagine all of a sudden what would happen to our government?

Like, it would be incredible because, you know, it costs money. So I guess where I'm going to is, you know, if there's listeners that have been following you or have never heard of you, if they wanted to support, if they wanted to follow along, where would they go? they could visit media bezirgyan.com slash donate and they could donate through PayPal or credit card or eat transfers and that would be very helpful for me to continue doing what I'm doing and also to expand you know I want to expand for example I hired a former I hired my friend a few days ago to write an article and I want to keep that going I want to have content coming out constantly to counter the mainstream media narrative, but also to report on news

that other independent media fails to report on, either for political reasons or for resource reasons. I'm just my own man. I have low costs. I edit the video. I write the article. I shoot the video. You know, I sleep in the car, et cetera, whatever it takes. You're a one man show. I love it. Yeah. Well, on this side, on this side, on this. this side, I, you know, this podcast, Mocha, we've been, we've been going for five years now. It'll be five years in February, actually. And what I'm going to do for yourself, for the listener, if you're interested, I've got the, I'll put the link in the show notes.

That way, all you got to do is scroll down. And if you want to support Mocha, you can. That's, that's, I mean, on this side, that's the least we can do is put your stuff in the show notes, because, I mean, you're doing something that we don't have enough of. You're an old school. to me, you're young, but you're an old school journalist, which is super cool. And this country needs more and more and more of. You need compelling stories to get people paying attention.

And I think you're doing a lot of that. And on this side, being the one-man band, as I like to call it, you know, like everyone goes, how do you get all the guests? Like, I reach out to them. And then, well, how do you? Well, I did that. And what do you do there? I do that too.

And so I hear what you're saying. You're ever through Lloyd Minster. You make sure you let us know because we'll find you a spot to put your head down so you're not sleeping in a car. That's the least we can do. A little Western hospitality on this side. Let's talk about the Coots 4. You've been one of the, you know, I know there's a few different people covering it. You're one of the few I haven't talked to.

What have you seen from the Coots 4 and been hearing? And, you know, whatever you want to say on this side, Moka, I think talking about the Coots 4, the fact they've been in remand now for what? 700 plus days going on. Yeah, like, I mean, we, whatever you want to say here. Yeah. I've been following that story since last year and I've been attending to court hearings month after month. And there are multiple publication bans.

So I can't get into the evidence or the reasoning of the judge or this or that. But I can't portray you what I'm seeing. and like what is happening to the best of my ability. Basically, the media have gotten most of the evidence, if not all, to examine. And they have examined the evidence. And I think they found them guilty. And that is why they're not showing up. But I don't think that is up to the media to decide.

These men are still innocent until proven guilty. It's up to the judge to decide that. On the other hand, these four men, they are not politically connected. They're not, they don't have unlimited resources. So they're being thrown under the bus. They're being ironed, railroaded. And they've been behind bars in remand for more than 700 days in atrocious conditions. Prison is in much better conditions because remand is supposed to keep you there just a day or two, not 700.

days. So they're going through a lot of painful experiences. They have some health-related issues that I reported on that were not being responded by Alberta Health Services. And people keep showing up, but no media is there. In fact, the last time I was there for Chris Carver's bail hearing, the courts have removed the rows that were designated for only accredited media. Because nobody's showing up. And before that court hearing, they shut down the online viewing of the court hearing

because there was no accredited media and regular people who were joining, they were opening their microphone, et cetera. So they asked, is there any accredited media? Nobody responded. So they shut it down. Angus Raid, who conducts Pauls.

His company conducts surveys, polls, yeah. Pauls, yeah. Chimed in. Yeah, he gave his opinion, his take. He said, the last time CBC published anything about the cruise four was before summer. And we've been through so many trials since then, but nobody's showing up. So I'm wondering why, for such a high case, no media is showing up. But the guys, you know, their families show up, their mothers, their sisters, their brothers,

their neighbors, they're always there to see them and to show their face and to show support. And the man are brought in with shackles on their feet. And, you know, they never speak. Their lawyers do to speaking. And one of the guys paid, like one of the guys' lawyer fees was over half a million dollars. And that's just one guy. That's one family. and now he is, according to what I hear from families,

he is planning to represent himself, which is, I think, a great mistake, but what can you do when you pay half a million dollars to a lawyer and you're still behind bars? And yeah, Chris Carbert, for example, second time, bail denied. And, you know, people say, well, we have all sorts of criminals, murders, literal cop killers being allowed on the streets giving bail. Why are they not getting bail?

So people who join the hearings and they see it for themselves. They are very critical of the justice system and they believe these men are political prisoners. And as I said before, I believe if they were politically connected well enough, And if they were rich enough, this wouldn't be happening this way. I don't think they would still be held in remand for this long. But I also think the government wants to send a message that you can't do this. You can't because including Arturo Pawlowski, who came down to coupes to give a sermon, was arrested and he was found guilty of.

eco-terrorism for blocking critical infrastructure. He's appealing this decision, but it just shows you anyone who they could get, they got it. Anyone who could make an example of, they made it. To give a message that because the coupes blockade, I believe, was the end of the beginning of COVID mandates. those protests in Ottawa in Coutts, they had an impact on the democratic process. And the rulers of this country, they don't like that. They don't want their plans to be disrupted.

They want things to be going the way they plan. And that's why they fund the media to shape public opinion. And that's what we saw, I think it was the peak of public opinion crystallization during COVID-19 pandemic. So yeah. It's, well, it's, it seems so black and white to me when you, you know, like when it comes to keeping people behind bars for, for 700 plus days. And I've heard about the conditions and, and on and on it goes. And yet, for some reason, it seems to just, it's almost like it's in, I don't know why the public, but you mention it.

The media isn't covering it. So that's part of it. but you but you you wonder why the the population of Alberta in particular isn't more fired up about it I mean there's people from our province being held in remand for 700 plus days when we talk about it you know you mentioned killers and different things I think of pedophiles you know getting let out and being able to walk around and these four guys it's so evident at this point it's political It has nothing more to do than exactly that. And yet it remains.

And I'm not sure, you know, I do. My thought, and maybe I'm wrong on this, let Moka decide if this is a dumb thought or not. I always thought, you know, if you had 50,000, maybe it only needs to be 1,000, people show up and demand their release and not leave until they were released. I wonder how quickly they'd come out. Yeah, you know what? In Canada, we lack creative protesting. We had the convoy, but that was it.

You know, the government is passing laws that are infringing on the freedom of the press, freedom of assembly, etc. And nobody is protesting. Nobody is coming together. No creative protest is happening. But yeah, you're right. Because this has, in fact, took place where one of the truckers were being held in a police station to be forced to sign some sort of a deal in um this was in fort mcclough alberta and then they had a whole bunch of people a whole bunch of people showed up yeah and what happened yeah they let him go and the they let him adjust their the crown adjusted their um deal according to you know so that was that was an example and when i when i got to the scene everyone was gone by then but you still had about 50 police police officers, RCNP from all across Alberta that rushed and came there in front of the

station just standing. And as soon as they saw our cameras, they started walking back into the police station. So that one of, you know, if you, you go, if you want to be creative about this. And once again, I'm pulling Moka into one of my thoughts. Is if you're sitting there and you go, people, you know, because I get messages all the time, you got to talk about the Coots 4 more. You got to talk about the Coots for more. And don't get me wrong, I hope we're bringing it up enough, you know, like, but in saying

that, can you always do more? Sure. But what was great about the trucker convoy? It galvanized and had an action item. Everybody's gone. And not everybody went, obviously, but a huge chunk of the population went. I think there'd be a huge chunk of the population. If you said, on this day, everybody's at the courthouse.

This is a giant, I don't know, this is just me spitballing with Mocha right now. And you invited all the independent media. You invited all the independent podcasts. You invited all the independents. You said, we need to blow the top off of this. I think there might be something there because, you know, public opinion, you've already said it. You know, like they're controlling how the public opinion,

public opinion right now doesn't even know these four guys are sitting there. I mean, there is a part of the population that gets it. But, you know, it's just every day it goes on and it's not headline news. It gets forgotten about again and forgotten about again. And from what I've seen when it comes to the judicial system, some of this is just a popularity contest too. Man, there's way too many eyes on this. We've got to get this done with.

Well, the way to do that is to mobilize a whole chunk of the population. Now, I sound like I'm leading to protest here, but I just mean, like, you could probably have, and there's probably people around Coots, and I don't, Moki, maybe you know a bunch of them that are probably going, yeah, Sean, we get it. We've been talking about this. we've been trying to get people.

But I haven't, I don't know, I don't know. What's Moca's thoughts on that thought process? Well, you know, I can't be involved in protests since I'm an independent journalist. But from experience, I have seen many. Well, that's me too. I'm sitting here. Yeah. I've seen many creative protests, both in Turkey and abroad.

In France, I was covering the riots in Paris, et cetera. And there are many ways to creatively protest something that, you are displeased with it and unfortunately we're lacking those minds in canada not just about this situation but in many other situations as i mentioned um but it works protesting coming together showing your support etc these actions they are newsworthy and when they are newsworthy when they are reported it reaches out to the masses and when it reaches out to the masses and when it reaches out to to the masses, people become aware. Some people become interested.

From your journalistic background, you mentioned creativity and we lack it. What are some of the creative protests you've seen? And what was creative about it? Well, one creative protest I seen was a decade ago in Istanbul during Gezi Park protests. And one guy decided to just show up at the square and just stand like this. just silently just standing there. Few hours later, people noticed them, and then media showed up, and they reported on him. And then the next day, you had hundreds of people coming, just showing up, standing next to him, just silently, just standing in protest.

You have other sorts of other type of protests, like sit-down protest. People just come together and they just sit down. or there are other ways of protesting. I've seen in Paris, but they were more so like dancing, etc. Singing, creating songs that are memorable, that sticks. Through arts, you know, art work. Sean Buckley, a lawyer here in Alberta,

he talks about one with health products back when they were trying to do the same thing they're doing now with trying to get health products, you know, made illegal and all these different things. Yeah. He said they had a formal, what did he call it? Was it a former dinner party in one of the parks in Vancouver? This is like 20 years ago.

And he said media couldn't help themselves. They're like, what the heck is going on in this park? They're all dressed up and whatever. And then it was a, it was a creative way, like you say, a creative way to get media interest. What are these people doing? And then once they started talking to them, they realized, uh-oh. And now they couldn't stop talking about it because now they'd, you know, and they'd

gotten their audiences. And when you're talking about creativity, and please, if I'm wrong on this, what you're saying is by creatively doing it, you suck the media in because the media wants to report on things. And if it seems like it's almost too harmless, oh, it's just a guy standing there. What's he doing? And then you go talk to him. Uh-oh, now the story's out of the bag. And then more people go, it's almost like you can't turn away from it. And if you do it creatively, not only are you going to get the independence, you might suck in some of the big ones. because they hear something going on. Am I correct in that thought process?

Yes. For example, I'll speak from my, let's say, industry. If Turdo is passing a law that is going to negatively affect free press, then why are we not coming together as independent journalists and organizations and organize a proper protest in front of Ottawa, where we also invite the public to come and join? Why nobody is doing this? why nobody's thinking of this.

I don't know. But unless we do something, some protests and show some seriousness, nobody is going to be paying attention. And that's how it goes. Well, I'm going to read you, I think this is partially our problem. I don't know if it's the full part, but I assume you know who Brett Weinstein is from the States, correct?

Yeah. He had a, man, I got something stuck in my throat and I don't know what the heck it is. So I apologize this morning, folks. He put on Twitter back on January 8th. Dissidents succeeded in upending the COVID narrative, a historic victory. But instead of coming together and gearing up for a rematch that Goliath is clearly planning, a fair fraction or overtaken by petty infighting. Why?

Question mark. He has three points. Dissidents tend to be lone wolves rather than team players. most dissidents have no experience wielding any power or influence at all, so they play game like novices. Finally, Goliath has read and listened to enough private correspondents to play the dissident rivalries, jealousy and mistrust like a fiddle. And then he finally says, anyone who is serious about fending off the next round of tyranny would be wise to level up and get pointed in the same direction. That goes for all of us, no exceptions. And I've highlighted that, because at times, sitting on this side,

I find the best way not to get in all the bickering is to just not be in the bickering. So I just sit over here. I bring Moka on. If Moka gets in a big fight with somebody, I don't go rushing in there and try and stir up the, I'm just like, well, I'll invite them both on and we'll talk.

We'll try and, you know, and I just try and stay almost a little bit removed from the situation. But that's its own part of the problem when Brett Weinstein's like, we got to come together. We got to come together fast. And what we're doing is, is we're fighting a ton.

And instead of, like you say, we have a big problem with independent media in this country because we're all being attacked. And instead of us all coming together and showing unity, we're all operating as lone wolves, so to speak. That's right. You know, I never thought that we would have this similarity of when there's a fight happening of, you know, staying back because I have witnessed many infighting within subjects that I cover

and I have like I keep myself out of it because it is not my domain I'm here to report the news I can't be I don't care who's fighting who I just I'll give anyone a chance to express their thoughts and feelings

if they are relevant to the news to the subject and you know this is also about editorial independence and you know if you're a journalist you need to keep yourself to higher standards and you can't get into pity pitiful fights and the more these fights are happening indeed the goliathan is laughing because

the more a population is divided the easier they are to control and it's unfortunate that there is no unity in Canada. There is no unity to counter the laws that are going to restrict our freedom and take away our rights that we, what we have left. But I am

hoping that some hero, we need a hero figure. We don't have a hero figure even. You know, that would come and that would unite everyone. And we don't even have that. I don't know. What are your thoughts on that? Well, the first thing I thought was, you know, there's the old adage, divide and conquer and certainly when we look at just, and we're talking about media right now. When you look at media, I felt it. Like it's, it's very evident. And at times, uh, I would assume Moka and myself have a little bit more insider information because we're part of that grouping of, of, uh, independence. And so the audience, maybe they clue into it. Maybe they don't. But certainly, uh, that's interesting. Now, as far as a white and shining night riding in and saving the world, I have a lot of time for two people.

One was Jordan Peterson. Without him reading his book, I don't know where I'd be. He helped formulate me starting a podcast, not him personally, just his writings and my thoughts on what he'd said. And it's a long story. And yet he came to Canada, and I've seen him say this multiple times. He came and I watched him at Rogers Place in Emmington. and he said, you know, nobody's coming to save you. I'm not coming to save you.

You have to save yourselves to an audience at 8,000. And that's a tough thing to hear and a good thing all at the same time, right? Because here's Jordan Peterson. He could come back and be a force to be reckoned with in Alberta, but he's not going to. Right? Alberta is originally his home province. The next one is Daniel Smith. you know, I had her on the show.

And I've had her on, just before Christmas, I had her again. But when she wasn't the premier and we'd talk and then when she did a run and won, I'm thinking, oh, man, here we go. And then she came out and apologized. Came out and said the unvaccinated word that, you know, most just discriminated against thing in her lifetime. And everybody just slammed her and she ends up apologizing. And I'm like, she can't do it alone. She just can't.

No one person. No way. There's not one person right now. You know, everybody looks at Donald Trump and it's like, well, they assassinate them and then what happens, right? I'm not trying to throw out bad ideas, but I'm just like, it's just one person. This is a culture thing. This is a huge deal. This isn't just on Moka.

It isn't on Sean. It isn't on all of us. All the listeners, everybody, whichever way you're pulling. You know, and so when I look around, you know, a lot of people are putting a lot of faith in Pierre Poliath. And I will never put my faith in one person ever again. Not because I don't think there are good people out there. There's lots. But we all need to pull our weight if we're going to get out of this.

So I guess my thought is that's why I come, I guess I come back to the 700 in, the four in Coots, the 700 days. They don't get out until enough of us realize they get out when we want them out. And when we want them out, then we get unified. We go put the pressure on the system. The system goes, oh, crap, they actually do care and out they come. I mean, will there be repercussions of that? Certainly. We saw it with Tamara and Chris Barber and a list of people there with the freedom

complies. But why did all the mandates come off? Because a whole group of people went and made sure they came off. And they've given us the roadmap. Now we just have to be creative like Mokas saying. That's my thought. Yeah, you know, yeah. And I think it's fair to say that you can't put your trust on a single individual.

You know, when I mentioned a hero figure, maybe that would have worked a few decades ago when we didn't have social media and we weren't this active, following the news, etc. And, you know, but today you're right. And I wouldn't put my trust on any politician whatsoever. And I accept whistleblowers who have, you know, evidence against anyone, any politician of any strikes. I don't care. Conservative, liberal, not, I don't care, but NDP, yeah, whoever is doing corruption. In Turkey, when you talk about a hero figure, in Turkey, is there a hero figure, one, and two, does a hero figure have to be a person or can it be a story where we're all the hero figure? That's a very good question, yes. So we have a hero figure, and that is President Erdogan, who has been ruling the country for more than 20 years. he is the hero figure he is the underdog he was jailed for citing an Islamic poet

Islamic poem during one of us one of his campaign speeches and back then Turkey was a secular country so he was jailed under inciting hatred among public now that law he's using it against his political opposition and political dissidents tens of thousands of people are being jailed, tens of thousands of people are facing prosecutions. The process is the punishment. So even if you didn't insult the president, just so you can't attack the dream, you can't attack the hero, the story. And the story is this. This is the story they sell to people. We are trying to gain our independence from the United States and from European Union and World Economic Forum. And because of this, they are really.

ruining our economy. And for this reason, we have to unite. This is a matter of honor. This is a matter of history. We have to unite and we have to just bear through it, you know, this harsh economic conditions, these bad times, we have to unite. We have to stick together. You have to vote for me.

These other politicians, they don't get it. They don't understand. They will sell us to World Economic Forum, United States, et cetera. So it sounds good. But the fact is, it's not black and white. The economy is so bad, not because World Economic Forum, United States, Europe, etc., outside forces. But mostly because incompetence, you have a guy who's appointing the central banker and then firing next month and then appointing another one and then just making stuff up along the way. just nepotism all over the country.

You have children of MPs doing cocaine in the state vehicle and recording it and no repercussions. All sorts of lawlessness. Everybody is driving crazy like they are. It's lawlessness. There's no rule of life. You're powerful. And if you're connected. And there is no economic people don't come there to invest because there's no guarantee that your money,

your property is not going to be taken away from you the next day. And so a bunch of insiders make lots of money, but the rest of the population suffers. And they are being told, you have to, you have to focus. We have to come through this. This is a matter of honor. This is a matter of sovereignty. But whereas the economy is bad because of incompetence. So.

So the hero. So the hero. I think that's your, yeah, sorry, go ahead. So the hero in Turkey at one point in time was the hero. And it reminds me of bringing some pop culture here. It reminds me of the Dark Night, which is either, what is it, you either die the hero or live long enough to become the villain? I got to look that.

Why can't I think that route right now? I think that's what, that's what happened with Ardoin. Harvey Dank goes, you either die a hero or you live long enough to see your, yourself become the villain. And in politics, what you're talking about is once upon a time he was the underdog and spoke out and then over time is using the same tactics that made him the underdog into the villain. And so, you know, any one time we put all of our faith into any single politician, Donald Trump would be a perfect example. I mean, don't get me wrong, he's having the book absolutely thrown at him. But if you turn him into the savior, um,

you'll allow him to do things that you, your political opponents are doing to you, right? Because it's on them. And so, you know, as you're talking, I'm like, all I'm reminded of is V for Vendetta. I'm like, how do we all just put on the mask and become V?

How do we realize the power is, is in all of us, is in just us to push on the system and hold them accountable? That probably comes back to David Parker. When he says, you know, politics isn't, a spectator sport, you have to get involved.

And trying to get people involved, as you pointed out, you know, there's lots of people just living their life, you know, Oilers game, maybe the Flames game. I don't know Moka's a hockey fan. Are you a hockey fan, Moka? I'm not following any sports. I don't even have a TV. I just, I have a TV to, you know, watch my own videos.

That's it. Sure, sure. So, you know, it's been this question of mine. Does it have to get? so painful that, you know, like pain on all of a sudden people start paying attention? Or is there a way? Because I, you know, like, I don't know what totalitarianism is, but I feel like we've had a thimble full. And COVID was it.

You know, you taste that. Oh, that's pretty bitter. I don't want to go back there. So that should have been enough motivation for a ton of us to be like engaged and going and volunteering and getting involved and on and on and on. And yet what a lot of us have probably noticed is, you know, they eased off the restrictions. Oh, life's back. Okay, I'm going to carry on.

It's like, well, you realize, you know, and this was a naive thought I had way back in the of COVID. I thought, oh, that'd be three months, be six months. Now I just look at it. No, this is life. And if you don't fight for it, you lose it. So how do we motivate people? How do people in Turkey or do both countries have the same problem?

Well, generally to motivate people or to direct them in a certain way to invoke some emotions, et cetera, you have to use art, whether that be comedy, whether it be literature, whether it be animations, caricatures. So it's not just like one thing. You have to have multiple divisions where you're directed at the public. And you have to choose your target audience. You have to understand what they laugh at, what they would read, what they would be attracted to, who they would listen to, you know, what type of person, what type of accent, what. So it gets detailed like this. And I'm speaking generally. I'm not speaking what I'm doing or et cetera.

And through that, you influence culture and your influence growth. And that's what I did in Turkey. I was using comedy to convey my anger, to convert my anger and to convey my thoughts of the ridiculousness of propaganda that the public was being fed. The older generations, they were totally sold to the idea that the mainstream media in Turkey was pumping. But the new generation, they didn't buy into that because new generation has access to the internet. They can see, they can think, they can see other sources, outside sources, what they see. So they have access to a wider variety of contacts. So with that it comes, there are some dark.

arts also. If you ridicule an idea or a person or an ideology, a political party, just enough, people are going to be less interested in being associated with that idea. And that's what we saw with the convoy. We saw all these caricatures. We saw all the mainstream media articles. We saw how they were attacking, calling them all Nazis, white supremacists, etc. This is the this is how they control the public also because who wants to be associated with Nazis or white supremacists. And we so that's just one tiny example if that makes sense. Well, I think of the Coots 4 and I look at where I sit and of all the people I've talked to. I've talked to some, you know, controversial people, you know, in parentheses.

And when they put out the picture of all the guns, and I've said this story multiple times, I backed away. I was like, oh, I don't want like they're going to murder cops. Oh, man. And that's the power of a story and how you frame it. And, you know, you're, you're bang on. It's funny how long it's taken folks to get Mocha on, you know. And it's some of you suggest a long time ago and sometimes I drag my feet. And other times it just doesn't work out with scheduling and different things like that.

But you, you find, I find you very sharp in your, in your thought processes. you have a background that a lot of us don't have, which is a different country in seeing how they did it. It's a very easy way to compare two countries. You know, when you say Turkey, you know, yeah, certainly Istanbul comes to mind. And once upon a time, I lived in Finland for a short period of time. And I heard about all the holidays people took there, but I don't know the ins and outs of the government. And I certainly wouldn't think of criticizing the government because what the heck do I know? Right. I'm sitting over here. But you having the background is very interesting to compare and contrast what's going on here in Canada.

You know, before I let you out of here, I do want to talk, you know, my home province was Saskatchewan. Here in Lloyd Minster, we sit right on the border. We're half Saskatchewan, half Alberta. I grew up as a Saskatchewan kid. Now I live just into Alberta. You know, when you released your, I don't know, short story, it isn't quite a documentary, but, you know, your story on the Regina Bypass, maybe you could bring.

people up to speed if they have no idea what I'm talking about. I would suggest they go to your Twitter and watch it. It's about half an hour, I think, 28 minutes, maybe 30 minutes. I can't remember the exact time. But yeah, 32. I mean, if you've been watching a ton of stuff, maybe spend half an hour and go check that out. But regardless, maybe you could give them a little teaser or just break it down for us what you discovered in digging into that.

So basically this story, I take it with caution, and I examine the documents with seriousness because the statements that are being made in that report have significant implications for the individuals in question. We're talking about Emerjit Sohi, who is now the mayor of Edmonton, who used to be the infrastructure minister under Justin Trudeau. During his tenure as the infrastructure minister, he was involved in the corruption of the Regina bypass project. By corruption, what I mean is that he did not disclose his middle brothers, this is what

the documents suggest, this is what the evidence suggests. He did not disclose his brother's trucking company that would. doing the hauling of crown aggregate, which was potentially illegal in the first place. The project to build Regina Bypass had a stipulation, a federal stipulation saying, you cannot use your own aggregate. You cannot supply the winning contractor as the government. You cannot supply crowd aggregate. Because in the bidding process, in the price that is already included for the contractor to go and buy it from private suppliers. But that's not what happened. The Saskatchewan government did open up multiple pits and one major one in Indian head,

where this French foreign company came in, took almost estimated to be half a million, so half a billion dollar worth of aggregate for free and then seemingly sold it back to the government at retail prices. And so he's brother was doing the trucking. And so he did not disclose this conflict of interest in his declarations as the infrastructure minister. So this is the kind of stuff that happens in Turkey and other third world countries. This is not supposed to be happening in Canada. But yet it is happening.

I reached out to Emerjit Sohi for comment. No comment. I reached out to the executive committee member of Winchie, RBDB, Gordon Pascini, whose name came out in Panama Papers. No response. I reached out to Saskatchewan government and they said, yeah, we did give borrow pits. Here's the contract. I check out the contract. The executive contract differs from whatever contract they uploaded on the website.

Missing table of contents. altered names, added appendices, etc. No signatures on the papers. And then there is a family connection between Rupin Pandya, who was the president of SASB at the time and his sister-in-law, the financial controller for WinschRPDB. I asked, has this been disclosed as a conflict of interest? And they said, Saskatchewan government said,

Rupin didn't reply himself. He said he directed me to the Ministry of Highway. And Ministry Highway said, yeah, some sort of disclosure was made. I'm like, can I see the document? No, it's not accessible to the public. And then I have a video of Rupin in a committee in 2017 being questioned about how conflict of interest are handled. And he says he is the ultimate authority.

He says, yeah, we have a committee. If the committee determines that someone who's working with us, engaged in conflict of interest, they will bring that to me, and I will decide whether or not to escalate, whether or not it's problematic. So he puts himself in the position of deciding what is conflict of interest and what is that.

So who did he declare that? Did he declare it to himself in the mirror? Did he declare to the committee? And the committee told him, and he said, you know what, it's not problematic? So there's a lack of transparency. And we have lots of questionable characters that are not being transparent with multibillion-dollar project.

A multibillion-dollar P3 project should not have the inconsistencies and lack of transparency that this project has. So I would encourage people to watch that report carefully, and I can assure you every word from the article, everything said in the video, everything has been carefully considered. and I have examined the evidence carefully. And I have done my part, so I would encourage people to watch it.

I've been to Indian Head Saskatchewan, draw all the way from Calgary, to see the ministry pit that Crown aggregate was taken from secretly. So, yeah, check it out. You may have said this. I just, I want to make sure, Crown aggregate, I feel like I'm, I'm, obviously the government owns an aggregate is what is mixed in part of the, the product they used. Am I right on that?

And maybe you said that and I just, I struggle with that. Crown aggregate. What a word to put it as. They couldn't just say like, what is aggregate? Is it a form of rock, a form of sand? It is multiple things. It can be rock, sand, asphalt. They mix it and then they make the, you know, they made the highway with that.

And the government says, now we have access to internal documents of windchers. RBDB, the contractor who built the project. And we have audio recordings of people who are involved with the project, like the project manager, who's saying taxpayer is irrelevant, who's saying, oh, yeah, we're doing the trucking with WRV, White Rock Ventures, owned by Amarjit Sohi's middle brother, who's admitting all of this, who's saying, yeah, the ministry supplied us the crown aggregate yeah the ministry supplied us the pit one in indian head yeah we're taking all of our aggregate out of that one pit and it's not going to change those recordings are in the video and i wouldn't it's it's alarming people need to pay attention to this and i have been receiving

phone calls from ex-politicians from saskatchewan who are saying yeah we knew about this this was going on and we we didn't understand why nobody reported on it at the time these people they made like I'm getting more documents. People are sending me now. And as I said, I don't care if it's conservative, liberal, NDP, whatever. Corruption is bad. And if you're sitting in Alberta, one of the guys in the middle of all that is the mayor of Emmington. Yeah.

Right? Like that's, I mean. And that guy has a questionable history. He was charged with terrorism-related offenses back in his country in India. And he was sent to prison. He was in prison. And he faced the judge. And then Canadian politicians, Canada, put some pressure on India to getting released.

And then he came to Canada. And then he was a bus driver. This guy, Mr. Sohi, has no education, has no experience. No university education, nothing. Yet he was made The infrastructure minister The resources minister Counselor in Edmonton

Now a mayor of Edmonton Why? What is he good at? Now today's infrastructure minister Has education from three different universities So Why did Why was Tim chosen to be the infrastructure

Minister? So that's the question I have And Mocha he won back in 2015 by 92 votes for his rioting to make federal government. Think about that. 92 votes. And if I'm learning anything in politics and everything, I'm speculating here,

but any time it's that close, you know, I won't put any thoughts out there because I have nothing to back it up. I just go, there's enough smoke, there's fire, right? And what you're talking about, this is why not only for Saskatchewan,

going and watching your your uh your investigation uh on twitter um and taking the 32 minutes would be very informative for you but for alberta as well if you're sitting in emminton going who the heck is our mayor well he's wrapped up in some serious stuff and then won't comment on it you're like well yeah you know gee isn't that just a convenient how anytime any of these folks get in hot water are political elites they just no comment i'm just going to avoid it for a while it'll go away. You know, that's, that is interesting to me. We're not going to let it go away.

Appreciate you hopping on. And folks, once again, if you want to support what Moka's doing, I've tossed it down in the show notes. We are going to slide over for a substack. I got one final question for Moka here before I let them out. But to find that, head over to a substack. I hope you'll subscribe, sign up, and find an exclusive over there. So we'll take a quick little break here.

and then we'll finish it up on substack.