Shaun Newman Podcast - #669 - Randy Hillier

Episode Date: June 26, 2024

He served as a MPP in Ontario from 2007-2022, he co-founded Lanark Landowners Association and was apart of civil disobedience in the early 2000’s that shut down the HWY 401 with 500+ tractors, closed down the border at Quebec, had a live cattle auction on the streets of Ottawa and shut down an international bridge. Let me know what you think. Text me 587-217-8500 Substack:https://open.substack.com/pub/shaunnewmanpodcast E-transfer here: [e-mail] Website: https://silvergoldbull.ca/ Email: [e-mail] Text: [phone] – and be sure to let them know you’re an SNP listener.

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So down in the show notes, you can text or email Graham. once again if you've never even well I don't know I every once in a while I get a text like I'm not really the text there but you know this episode or or what have you this thought you know even if you're not a texter I would love it if you'd scroll down in the show notes and text email text email text Graham at silver gold pole and just say hey thanks for supporting the SMP it does help believe me it helps letting them know that you're listening and that you care that independent media has businesses willing to support them talking about businesses willing to support them how about Caleb taves renegade acres you know he he supports the podcast and in return he just wants me to talk about things going on like community notes like what a cool thing so i got a lot of time for uh mr taves renegade acres and i i want to bring up and this is uh this is more from a the back point or the the standpoint of the podcast here as we walk into July. So July, I leave with Mel and the Kids. We are heading to the states. We're gone for the month of July, and you're going to notice the podcast is going to change for the month of July,

specifically for July. Not that much, but we're going to have episodes out. Monday, Tuesday, nothing Wednesdays, Thursday, and the mashup on Fridays, man, it's just grilled into my brain. It's the Tuesday mashup. The mashup on Friday mornings, we got special guest host. So it's going to start with Chuck Prodnick, then you've got Vance Crow, you got Drew Weatherhead, and you got Quick Dick McDick. So those four guys are going to guest host Friday morning once a week until August, and then I'll be back. And the thought process is, I was saying this to Drew Weatherhead. If you haven't gone and listened to our conversation on his end, the social disorder podcast,

the thought process was I want to slow down just a little bit. with the wife and kids for vacation and I want to think about some things here as we get closer to the end of 2024 obviously we're only halfway through the year but I want to really think about some things on where I want it to go where I want to put my energy in and so for the month of July we're going to slow things down so once again you're going to see Monday Tuesday Thursday and guest host on the mashup Friday morning so for all you faithful listeners and I cannot thank you enough, you are going to see a change here coming next week. And so I just want you to be aware of that.

The deer and steer butchery, it is barbecue season. And I tell you, we had some beautiful days here over the last couple of, well, over the last weekend. And they want to remind you, don't forget about barbecue and smoking time, which means it's the perfect time to fill all your freezers with the smoking and grilling cuts. You can get a hold of Amber. Yes, that's the new butcheress. out at the Deer and Steer.

Her number is 780870, 8,800. She's got a healthy career when it comes to meat cutting. She was in the Real Deal meats in Eminton. And also she worked out in Ontario at the St. Lawrence Market, which is the biggest fresh produce, meat, and seafood vendor in Canada. So, or one of the largest. So there you have it. The Deer and Steer, man, Wednesdays.

You know, I don't know. Wednesdays. Maybe I'm still reeling from the Oilers losing. Man, that sucks. Twice in my lifetime. You know, I mean, obviously I was born in 86, so I was alive for the run. But, you know, in my memory, two game sevens in the past 20 years, and we lose both of them to teams from Florida.

Like, it just frustrating. Let's get on to that tale of the tape. He's a former Canadian politician who served as a member of Provincial Parliament in Ontario from 2007 to 2022. I'm talking about Randy Hillier. So buckle up. Here we go. Welcome to the Sean Newman podcast.

Today I'm joined by Randy Hillier. So thank you, sir, for hopping on. It's a pleasure to be here. Thanks for asking. Well, I go back to your Twitter post over and over and over again, Randy, because I was saying to you, well, just give the listener a little taste of who you are, and then I'll hop into my thoughts, whatever. you want to, you know, whatever background you want to throw at them.

Well, listen, I'm a 66-year-old grandfather of eight grandkids, four adult children. My wife and I, Jane, have been married for 43 years. Congratulations. I'm an electrician. I'm a former MPP in the Ontario legislature for 15 years. and some people call me a maverick some people call me a redneck hillbilly with a gun-toating mentality you know I'm just a regular fellow who doesn't take bullshit for an answer and you know that's that's the way I was raised and that's the way I live and now I have my I live on a little little hobby

farm and raise my own food and kill my own chickens and collect my own eggs and and collect and weed my gardens these days as well as as well as fighting against nine criminal charges in the Ottawa courts and still have five charges for hosting rallies opposing the COVID insanity in 2020 and 2021. You know, you, you had for the, for the listener, they've probably heard of you. Like I'd heard of you before, before this and certainly around Ottawa and everything else. I think your name has been talked about a fair bit, I think. But it was one of the things you put on Twitter. I'm just going to read the start to it. People can then go, go read it all if they, if they prefer to, or if they would like to. But you've written, what's going on?

25 years ago, I realized that a profound and dangerous shift was underway in Canada, which would ultimately take me away from my private life as a husband, father, an electrician, into a very public advocate and public personality. My world in Canada were shifting quickly. The values, morals, and ethics that were timeless and inalienable truths of my youth were becoming increasingly rare and seldom shared by the majority of people I knew. The Ten Commandments were fast becoming the Ten Suggestions and the Seven Deadly Sins were rapidly becoming seven politically correct virtues. And then you go on to list all the things that you've done over the course of 25 years. one of which we're going to talk about today.

But I found it to be a very, I don't know why I, like, obviously people can go read it on substack as well. You have a substack. We'll toss that in the show notes for you if they want to go read your writing, Randy. But I just found the way you summarized it to be something, I think, you know, the freedom community probably needs to hear a bit more of. And that's like what worked, what didn't work, what's some of the things in civil disobedience when you're going to do it that can galvanize the public to not only

pay attention but come to your side right and actually support what you're trying to do because lots of civil disobedience is for the greater good of the public it's just trying to win that battle of getting them on your side and once again i just i thought the twitter post you had really summarized that really well thanks you know it was just a um i did up a little video monster I found a song that I've always liked and put a few of the images of my history in that little video montage. And just, you know, we have a real problem in this country and it's an ignorance of our history, an ignorance of our nation's history, an ignorance of our community's history. history and often um you know and so you know i've been a very public figure here in Ontario um but for when i started my advocacy many people uh that are now engaged you know well a lot of

them wouldn't have even been born or they maybe they were in elementary school or um or maybe they were teenagers out partying and having fun like teenagers are supposed to and more paying attention. So I just put a few of the things that I've done in a bit of a chronological or in sequential order about first writing my thoughts and sharing them as public opinion pieces in the newspapers, and which then led to the formation of the Lanark Landowners Association and our slogan, this land is our land, back off government. Because we were seeing these changes happening, especially so in rural Ontario. And then how that morphed into becoming a member of the Ontario legislature.

and then, well, now a alleged criminal felon for attending the Freedom Convoy. But I think what it comes down to what's important for people to understand is peaceful, nonviolent, civil disobedience is the only means normal people have ever had to alter the direction of their culture, their society, or their government. Right? And it goes back through our, through history. And in Canada especially, we have diminished the role of civil disobedience. But you know, the good example where this church was a fellow who nailed 99 grievances on the doors of the Catholic Church, a long time ago and said, this is what we're doing is wrong.

And of course, that single act of civil disobedience led to the Reformation and many, many great things afterwards. You know, we've, but here in Canada, we have a long history and colorful and successful history of civil disobedience as well. You know, the rebellions of 1837 to 39. Now, they weren't quite so peaceful eventually, but that led to responsible government. The Winnipeg General Strike in 1919, the conscription crisis during the wars.

Hell, even Greenpeace was a Canadian creation. And they were successful in, well, you like it or not they were successful in ending the seal hunt and and many other things. So the land art landowners was just another one of those elements where we saw substantial injustice happening and we used similar mechanisms that have been shown through history to work. and it did work. I don't know if you can see the little sign up behind me in my cabin, but up in the top corner,

it's this land is our land, back off government. There was tens of thousands of those signs on every fence post in rural Ontario. You know, we, this small group of people who got together and said, government is interfering in our lives excessively and how they're behaving is unjust. You know, that small group of four fellas became 15,000 members within a few years and signs everywhere in the country. And we meant business. And we were successful. Well, today, it seems like more and more farmers are in similar situations, not just an Ontario, but across the world.

When you go back, walk us through this landowners group, this Lanark Landowners group, like what was going on? What was the first, I don't know, meeting like? Was this some idea I had right from the get-go? Or did you guys just, you know, go for a quick beer? And all of a sudden this idea popped out, you know, like tell us the story. Well, it took a little while to develop. You know, I had met a few, well, I was not happy.

I had been writing columns and opinion pieces that were being published in many of the mainstream media. And I was living outside of a little town called Carlton Place in Lanner County. And the gun registry had come in. They were wanting to register guns and being able to come in and without warrant and inspect. They were bringing in all kinds of crazy concepts that I was experiencing with my children in school. You know, the no-touch rule, the kids were no longer allowed to touch one another in school. They had brought in rules that football was too dangerous, and you couldn't play football in school or hockey. And then I met a bunch of really, really fine individuals who were in the farming community,

Merle Bowes, John Vander Spank, and a few others. And they had a similar story, but broadened out a little bit about, how the government was actually preventing them from earning a living on their land with all these environmental regulations so you know we had these discussions and and it came out of these discussions that this excessive an intrusive type of government into our lives was starting with our properties where the governments were suggesting that they no longer needed a warrant to come into your property and inspect what you were doing or and one of the great ones for many of the farmers in Lanark County was this we had just a multitude of white tail deer who were loving all the farms here

and enjoying all the soybeans and all the corn and everything else. And it was being a very costly thing to the farmers. And the government was not allowing them to deal with this problem. To the government, the deer were more important than the profitability of our farmers. And, you know, deer, a farmer can shoot any predator or any nuisance animal that is destroying their livestock or their property, except deer, elk, and migratory birds like kand geese. So we challenge that law. and our first one of our first events was what we call the Father's Day deer hunt, deer coal. And it wasn't too much longer that the government decided to start issuing nuisance deer removal permits to all the farmers in eastern Ontario.

And, you know, we hosted a big Father's Day rally. We told the government, we told the Ministry of Natural Resources that we were going to be shooting. deer out of season and to come and watch us come and join us we're going to be serving hamburgers and hot dogs we encouraged all the media to come and see what was going on and sure enough shots were fired deer were running and and so was the government bureaucrats and the politicians after that day. They were running just as much as a deer. We had caught them in the headlights of their injustice. And as I said, the government started issuing deer removal permits. When you say you caught them in their injustice, what do you mean?

Well, it was a folly. It was foolish. It was harmful. The government is here to serve people, not to serve white-tailed deer. Right? That's what government is created for, not to prevent someone from having a prosperous, successful life, but to facilitate and encourage through legislation and laws that you can be successful and prosperous. And, you know, it was just a contradiction that why would they,

be wanting to protect deer more than farmers. What year are we talking about, Randy? Do you remember what year is this all going down? Like, what year does this start? I think the Father's Day deer hunt was in, it was either 2002 or 2003. I think 2000 and, I think 2003, but I might be off.

When you were having, you guys, yourself, and I think you said three others, and you're sitting around and you're throwing around ideas. Whose idea was a Father's Day deer call? And did you have some chuckles like, okay, this is how we're going to do this? We can't just shoot 50 deer because we'll all go to jail for that as of the law states right now? So we're, you know, when we got together, everybody appointed me as the mouthpiece for the organization. for whatever reason.

But we would get together and we would mull this through. And like I said, we had very good, you know, one, one, Murrow Bowles was an organic vegetable grower. Brian Hanna had a raspberry, pick your own raspberry operation. John Vander Spaint was a cash cropper. And there was others as well. But, but we knew, We just used history as our guide to this.

And we said, we're not going to make it easy for the government to charge us, but we're also going to make it very difficult for them to charge us. And like, I remember one, I'll go forward a couple of years. We were closing down the ministry of agriculture and the ministry of agriculture in the Ministry of Natural Resources buildings here in eastern Ontario. I think it was in 2004. And we had rolled in big 600-pound bales of hay and straw and barricaded the doors with tractors and bales of hay.

And the OPP came and tried to dislodge us, and they threatened us. And the OPP, Sergeant, said to me he said you know if you guys don't leave right now we're going to arrest you all for trespass and i said to the opi p uh sergeant i said who's it not going to look good on if you're arresting a bunch of middle-aged moms and dads and their kids farmers middle-class middle-aged men and women who's it not going to look good on I said to him and he realized at that moment that well first off I don't think they had enough jail cells in Campville to

put us all in but it would be a public relations catastrophe for the OPP to be arresting farmers for trying to defend their livelihoods so with going so i say that um so going back you know we we had all you know we had all our kids at at these protests you know our wives our children you know uh brothers and sisters um and it was a um um just a regular old family barbecue type of thing um so it would have been very the optics would have been very hard for the police to do anything. I'm curious.

When you talk optics, like it, to me, maybe I'm wrong on this, but it feels like there was like a lot of thought process put into, like, listen,

this is, you know, farmers. People naturally are like farmers are good, right? Like I don't think you think farmers evil. You think farmers,

they produce, they supply food and a whole bunch of other things. And naturally, you just lean towards that. But when you talk about optics, it's like, well, we better have our wives and kids there. This is a family affair. We got to make sure that, like, was that a lesson learned along the way or that was something you knew right away?

Because you say history as our guide, was that something you walked in right away? And we're like, yeah, we got to do it the right way right from the get go. Well, you know, we did. Yes, right from the get go. Like there was always. And I guess I would say this. if you're engaging in peaceful or civil disobedience, if it's not for your children and for your family,

then you have to think twice, why are you doing this? Right? And that's what we were doing this for. Not for, not just for the dollars, but to ensure the viability of the family farm. This is, yeah. So, you know,

but it was not, but we also take these from lessons. Look at the civil rights marches by Martin Luther King, you know, in the states. And in the great civil disobedience marches by Gandhi, they all included their, you know, families, wives, children. because that's who they are engaging in this disobedience for. And we just followed that system. You know, it was natural to do so. I don't know how much thought we put into it, but we made all of our events, very family-friendly events,

our plays, our skills, skits, our beef sales, always had music, always had, like I said, skits, entertainment to help tell the story of the injustice that government was doing. In the article I'd read, it talked about how you talked to a retired police officer before most of your events and that way you were in I assume you could you could discuss with the police that showed up and be like listen we've already done these things we've done this we've done that but when I you know when you get talking about some of the things you did by putting bales and like barricading and selling meat and different things like that how close I don't know I'm like

at what point did you go we're not going to just show up and have people show up we're going to start doing things to push on the government to force them to make a move, I guess, or to force them to change the laws so they don't have to make a move. Well, we did that. We knew we could take a look at all the farm organizations had been co-opted with government money. Just about every advocacy group is co-opted with government money. So we said we're not taking any government money. And, you know, so we did have some retired police officers in the association as well.

But we also, the Ottawa police, your OPP, all the police forces would always come and visit with us and try to convince us that we ought not to do this next act, whether it's closing up government buildings, whether it's closing up the highway 401, the interest. international bridges and all the many things selling, having a cattle auction on Parliament Hill in 2005. You know, they always tried to prevent us from doing this by, so we had these liaison members that would come and talk to us. And they would threaten us with charges and they would threaten us with different things. and we would just tell them, no, we're going to do it.

And I'll give you one story. When we were one of our demonstrations, we closed up Wellington Street. I think it was 2004. We closed up the entire downtown Ottawa with tractors, right? So this is, you know, 20 years before the trucker's cowboy. And this was during the height of. of the BSE crisis where nobody could, we couldn't export our cattle, we couldn't sell our cattle.

We talked to farmers who were getting two pennies a pound for their cattle. It was just an outrageous situation going on. And so we did a tractor convoy to Ottawa and when the cops came to visit us and I said, well, we're going to bring down a bunch of cattle. We're going to create a corral on Wellington Street. And we're going to unload the cattle into the corral. And we're going to have an auction for the cattle.

And the Ottawa cops just about lost her, you know what, when I told them that we were going to let cattle out on Wellington Street. And I'll never forget it. It was the Ottawa police officer's name was Sergeant Al Martel. And he says to me, he says, Randy, he says, you're going too far now. You're way too far. It's one thing to bring tractors into downtown Ottawa, but he says, we are not going to let you unload cattle. He says, that's a public danger and, you know, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And I said, and Al also, you know, was a part-time rancher as well, even though he was an Ottawa comp. And I said to him, I said, Al, I said, you know cattle, you know what they're going to be like if they're not unloaded in a nice, quiet, sensible fashion. I said, if there's noise and racket and conflict and controversy happening, when we go to unload those cattle, I said, then you're going to have a real bloody mess. You will have created the very danger that you want to prevent. I said, so if you're smart owl, when we bring our cattle trailers down there, you'll make sure that we unload them peaceful. And that's what happened. So you have to have some sort of this. I remember one other time we were closing up to Highway 401 down at Tilsenburg.

That's a major strip of highway down near between London and Toronto. And we had about 500 tractors and we had about 1,500 other. vehicles in that protest. And the Norfolk County Police OPP asked me to come and visit a day or two before we were going to roll the tractors out. And the OPP said, Brandy, we are not going to let you bring your tractors on Highway 401. That's just a non-starter. And he said, it's just too dangerous. I said, listen to here.

I said, we're going to bring the tractors on. And I said, you can either work with us and make sure that the tractors go on nice and orderly without chaos and confusion. Because we've got a lot of tractors and a lot of machinery coming here. I said, or if you want to be dicks, I said, I'll just put all the tractors in the farm fields next to the 401 and we'll just come on the 401 helter-skelter and cause absolute chaos. I said, which way do you want to do it? And of course, they knew that we meant business. They knew that we weren't joking.

in the next morning they had the ramps closed in all our tractors and machinery and trucks came on. We left one lane open for emergency vehicles. And I remember talking to this just as another. And so we closed about, I think it was eight kilometers in each direction on the 401. that day, eight or ten kilometers, something like that. And during the course of that protest, we kept one lane open, and an ambulance went speed and by. And that paramedic called us afterwards, and he said, thank God you guys were doing the protests that day. There was no way that I would have been able to get this emergency call

to the hospital so quickly if your tractors hadn't blocked up to 401 and left one lane, one emergency lane open. And he said, you know, that fellow owes his life to that tractors protest because usually on the 401 that time of day, you're not going very fast. You know, I guess I find it always, I got to stop being amazed at how little of Canadian's history, I know, you know, like certainly there's chunks of it. You know, you're taught in school or you read a boat, but what you're talking about, I had no idea of happen. You know, at that point, I'm in high school, you know, and how much am I really paying attention?

And yet I know all about 9-11, you know, like that was a big deal that was rolled right into our classrooms. But when you have a giant protest going on where you're talking shutting down one of the major highways in all of Ontario with not 10 tractors, but 500 plus, you know, a ton more machinery, that's that's no small feet, Randy. Like that's pretty serious in my mind. Oh, absolutely. You know, I think, you know, like, but that's one of our Canadian failures as well is most Canadians will probably have heard of Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks and will have seen and heard civil disobedience in the United States and elsewhere. But we downplay and we denigrate any civil disobedience here. And we denigrate our own history. And I think there's some, you know, I don't think that's just by coincidence to tell you, truthly, Sean.

We are educators, our government, our politicians, don't want Canadians to understand and believe that they do have a rich, strong, proud history that should be. celebrated and recognized that's they want us to believe well there is no culture in canada and they they want us to believe our history is is full of vile evil people and that we should rip down statues and we should keep our flage at half-masked for an entire year you know like those are in that we should celebrate a a rainbow flag that represents, you know, perverts and groomers, but we shouldn't celebrate our own flag, your own history. So that's not, I don't think that's, I think there's some level of design and purpose in our education system. Yeah, I would, I would, I would agree with you.

There's a, there's a lot of stuff going on in Canada right now that, uh, well, could use a little civil disobedience, right? Like, I mean, I don't know, like, I look at the story, and maybe I want to spend a couple more minutes here, like, because you rattled off a bunch. You closed down the highway. Did anyone get faced charges for that? It feels like where I sit right now, Randy, anytime anything goes on, you think of the Coots, four that went to prison or remand, and two of them still sitting there.

You think of, uh, from the Coots protest, Marco Van Hogan boss and others that, face jail time. You look at Tamara Leach and Chris Barber and the list goes on and on from the Freedom Convoy yourself, the charges you have. It just seems like anytime anything is done these days, although, you know, we went through something just like insanity in COVID. But I look back at what you did and I go, you mentioned a cattle auction on Wellington. You mentioned, which would have been a wild sight. An international bridge, whether you closed it down or drove on it. I didn't quite see. And any time I hear international, I'm like, well, that had to have been a huge deal. You mentioned closing down the highway with just a crazy amount of

machinery. I'm like, okay. So did you, did anyone face charges for this? Or is this something new that's come through under the Trudeau government? So in all those, and there's many, many more. We closed down the border at Quebec. We did close down the international bridge of Prescott. It was closed down. Not that we did drive a couple of tractors over the bridge, but what we did do, we circled our tractors all at the exit and entrance from the bridge. So we kept just a slow roll of tractors all day long. So nobody could get in or off and so the Port Authority just closed the bridge. You know, there was in all the time, I was, nobody was, nobody was, was ever charged or convicted in any of these events.

I was actually charged once for trespass. And I'll share you this little story. I'll try to make it quick. There was a big international conference happening in Cornwall, Ontario, had a big federal government building called Laf Canada. A bunch of cabinet ministers were there. Delegates from all around the world were there. This was on the new UN-sponsored source water protection act.

And myself and a few other people showed up early to have a little protest at this international convention. We weren't expecting it to be a very big protest. We just wanted them to know that we were there. And sure enough, the Cornwall police actually arrest me and take me to the jail cell in Cornwall after me refusing their direction to leave the property. So I was put in the jail cell and, you know, they stripped down your boot laces. You have to take off your suspenders. you know, in case you might hang yourself or whatever, whatever, take yourself home.

Anyway, a couple of hours later, this Cornwall police officer comes to my jail cell, and he says, Randy Hillier, he says, I think you spend enough time in jail. It was an unlawful arrest. You can't put somebody in jail for trespass unless you put them before Justice of the Peace as well. So he says, Randy Hillier, he says, I think you spend enough time in jail today. He says, I think you should leave. And I said, well, I agree with you. And he says, just sign this document and you're free to go.

And I looked at the document and it was a recognizance that I would not go back to the demonstration site, that I would not be at Nav Canada. And I said to the Cornwall cop, I said, piss off. buddy I said I'm not signing that and he just got furious I didn't know what else was going on out in in the world but he came back a couple minutes later and threw my jacket at me my my work boots and my suspenders and he said get the hell out of here here and so I get out of well that little small little demonstration had grown to like a thousand people when it got broadcast on the radio that I had been arrested and was being detained

at the Cornwall jail. The news spread like wildfire. People came from all over. And we all marched back up to that international convention. And they had tried to lock the doors and prevent us from going in. We went in. And we spoke to that convention. And we told all those cabinet ministers and delegates that what they were doing was harmful and what they better start doing to prevent this harm to people in rural Ontario. They got a message. So, you know, but that was the only time in all the years that I'd ever been arrested or detained or charged. And it was a $100 fine for trespass. So things have changed, but I think, you know, people need to realize if you're going to engage in civil disobedience, there is a cost that comes with it or a potential cost.

And you have to be prepared to pay that price or at least challenge those consequences. If you're not prepared to go to jail, then you're not serious about the fight. You've captured a thought I had a while back, you know, when it came to all the ramifications that come out of essentially the protest, is if you want to start civil disobedience of protest or push against the government, whatever you pick, the question should be, am I willing to go all the way on this? Because otherwise, you're going to be pushed around pretty darn quick. And I assume, you know, like you just literally said that. And I guess more and more people are asking that question. COVID pushed a lot of people to that level where they're like, listen, I don't care.

I've lost everything. Or XYZ, because there's so many stories from it. and people drove from across Canada, from every part of Canada to descend on Ottawa. Were you surprised, you know, back then, that would have been Stephen Harper, would have been the prime minister, correct? Well, when, yeah, mm-hmm. Did he talk with you guys? Like, you know, I just, I'm trying to see how it correlates to today. Like today, you know, like Trudeau gets COVID and then just disappears on the trucker convoy and he just puts his hands up.

And, you know, as a leader, he doesn't talk to anyone and, and, you know, he name calls and on and on. It's, it's beyond embarrassing is what it is, as a Canadian to watch it. When you're going back to the Stephen Harper days, you know, like you got people and it isn't just three. It is a large number. And they're causing, you know, as a politician, I would think, havoc might be the right word when you're shutting down the 401. You're going on international bridges. You've got cattle actions. You're closing down the border to Quebec.

That must have been fun. Selling uninspected meat at farmers markets. Right. Running the public health unit out of the farmer's markets because they want us to grate our eggs. You know, there's, it was an endless. Protecting the sawmills when they were trying to close down the sawmills. Like, you know, it was an endless. So those actions happened both under Kretcha and Harper federally

and both under conservative and liberal governments in Ontario. So, but I will say like we always had, I remember Harper came out to actually speak when we did, when we did the cattle auction, Harper came out and spoke on our stage on Wellington Street. We were hanging John Cretchen in effigy at the time and selling the cattle. And Harper came out to talk to us. But we also had liberals come out. You know, like that is a fundamental responsibility of elected representatives is to engage and listen to their constituents.

So that, you know, Trudeau is a, is cut from a different cloth, obviously, in that regard. And he was also, you know, willing to use absolute dishonesty and use divisive hateful language and vilify the truckers in the Ottawa protest. But that's due because, you know, COVID wasn't just a normal case of government incompetence or government stupidity or whatever. You know, there were people in government who knew that they were conning the Canadian public on COVID. They knew that COVID was not a danger. They knew that there was a great wealth of money to be made out of COVID. And Trudeau had to protect that, what I would call a criminal con job on Canadians.

And that's why he was willing to go so far, like what he did in Coots, what he did in Ottawa, arresting so many people. That is, that's an outlier situation. And I believe that it's, it's the only time that I can think of that, that Canadian citizens engaged in civil disobedience regarding public policy have faced serious criminal charges and who have faced a serious jail time. You know, all the things that Greenpeace did, yeah, they got charged with some mischief for going out and painting the white coats and destroying the value of the furs. And they got charged with mischief from impeding the whale boats and different things. But here what we saw, what happened in Coots, putting, holding four guys in prison for,

two years without bail wanting to put me in jail for three and a half years for what I said in in in in Ottawa this is you know there's a we've got a we've got an evil duplicitous and criminal government and they will go to no length to any length length to cover up their criminality. Do you think a change in government is going to solve a lot of these problems? It's not going to change much. You know, like, you know, I spent 15 years in elected office. You know, my understanding of politics was pretty good when I went in after being

involved so much with civil disobedience. but my understanding was enhanced significantly in my four terms there and you know political parties serve themselves they don't serve their constituents so the only thing that keeps a government honest is active engagement and participation and involvement by a large segment of the electorate. If most people are willing to do nothing but maybe cast a ballot once every four years, well, don't be surprised that you and your vote will be taken for granted and dismissed and not seem to have any value. You know, you need to be involved.

You need to be engaged. And we saw this again. Like even though Trudeau call this racist and neo-Nazis and white supremacists and the small fringe, hateful minority and all these different things, those truckers and those thousands of people in Ottawa, plus the many, many, many more tens of thousands who lined the overpasses and cheered on the truckers, that is why all the mass mandates were ended.

you know, every government in our country said during the trucker's convoy, well, the mask mandate's going off two weeks from now. The Vax passport is ending two weeks from now. In Quebec, they ended the curfew. It was the public display and the demonstrable display of opposition had put the government into an illegitimate position on COVID. And they had to change. And that's why civil disobedience must always be a tool that you want to be able to use. It is the most effective way. It is the only effective way for ordinary people.

people to be heard in the comments. Were you always, I'm curious, I'm just doing the math in my head, roughly 22 years ago, somewhere in that general puts you in your early 40s, mid 40s, somewhere in there. Were you always politically engaged or is that something that changed? Because you mentioned you were an electrician, correct? Throughout your life. Like, was this something, Randy, like way back when, you're always in a political family, you always paid attention to this, or is this something that, you know, you started to have

issues and it just kind of, you know, evolved and you evolved with it. And the reason I'm curious is, you know, I think of so many people specifically with COVID. Obviously, in my lifetime, it's just, it's unforgettable. And I went to Ottawa and all the people you're talking about lining the overpasses and the highways in frigid winter. And just like, it's insane. It's insane to me to even think back on that. It's, it's, it's, um, it's just a wild time. But, you know, when, and I look at my life, I go like, I was just in Bonneville talking about this, that I didn't set out to interview Randy about things like this. I actually started out on a podcast trying to interview all the hockey elites and, and to, to have all these great people, you know, I succeeded somewhat. I got to interview

Don Cherry and, and Glenn Sather and, you know, and a few others. And, uh, was having a lot of fun with it. And then COVID fell in all of our laps and you had to adjust and off you went. When you go back in your life, you know, before the, the Landark loaner landowners group, were you involved or was this something that you just couldn't, you know, you couldn't, I don't know, it was just put in your path and you had no choice. No, I was never like, I've, I've always been a very, I've always been passionate in a vociferous, reader of history and current events. But, no, the politics, you know, came after.

When I started seeing that my children, that their future was now being put in jeopardy and that they were not going to have a life of freedom that I had enjoyed. And, you know, so that's why I started writing all these opinion pieces, you know, that I've put up, I've re-puted up on my substack and whatnot. What was going wrong in our public education system? What was going on wrong with our public policies? Because I was concerned about my children's future. And so, you know, and not that I ever thought myself as being a great writer, but, you know, the first time I wrote one of these things and sent it off to the Ottawa citizen, and they not only did they publish it, but they sent me a check for 250 bucks. And I said, well, that's, that's pretty damn good. I better keep writing, you know, because I'm just ranting about what I see is wrong, and they're going to pay me for it. And, you know, as that developed, then I got involved in local politics.

And I got involved in a helping others to get elected, who I thought would be better men and women to represent me. And so it was just one of those one step at a time. And you just, and then the landowners came up. So, yeah, it was just, it was a natural progression, never had been involved in party politics or any politics. You know, I was an electrician. My wife was at home. We were raising four children.

and government was getting too much into our lives and I have to speak up. I just feel like what you said there is so many people listening to this, right? Government has just gotten into too much of our life. And so there's there's a ton of people. I was saying to this on the phone earlier today when we first talked. I feel like, you know, the convoy. showed so many people that you're not alone. There's things today in Canada that are not okay.

And wouldn't you know it? There's a whole bunch of people that agree with you. And so there you go. Okay. So now you got all this like energy that wants to run as hard as it can in the right direction. And yet at times, at times it just, it seems like it's got to stumble about six times until it hits the right thing. and then when it hits the right thing away it goes.

So I guess in a roundabout way, what I'm trying to ask is like, you know, I look at your story and, you know, it ends, well, it doesn't end, but I mean, certainly it graduates into you go into politics for a very long time. What advice would you have for people embarking on civil disobedience? You know, they look at different things going on in our society and they go, this is not okay. And if they've got the idea of like, listen, I'm, this is for my children. Because I think that's a pretty good start, right? Like figure out why you want to go do something and then realize at the end of it,

you may be facing especially in today's world, jail time or what have you. What advice would you have for those people? So before I answer that, I want to go back to something that you just said. And I can't remember exactly what you said now, but I'm going to share a story. When the four of us got together and we were mulling over this creation of the landowners and how and what we were due, you know, the pervading view of everyone, of the four of us was that we were alone, that we were the only ones who thought like this. You know, that was the, because you weren't hearing these thoughts elsewhere. So you thought you were alone. And I said, well, you know, I don't know if we're alone, but we'll find out.

We'll have a town hall meeting and we'll find out if anybody comes. So we, you know, this is like pre-phase social media stuff and whatnot, you know, and we went around, we put up posters on all the, at the general stores, on the hydro poles, you know, wherever we could. And said, we were going to have a meeting here. And, well, lo and behold, like 90 people came out. And they all bought signs, and they all bought a membership saying, this land is our land, back off government. And, like, we just said, well, holy gentleman. We aren't alone.

There are others like us. But, you know, until you do something, you don't know if there is. Right. So I just wanted to share that little story with you. But, you know, there is so much more you can do than that is more effective than being in politics, especially party politics. I think you can be far more effective. either as an independent or you can be far more effective in local councils.

If you go in and you know what you're doing and you have spent the time to become knowledgeable of the rules, knowledgeable about the process and the procedures, in that you've got some conviction, you know, that would be number one. But I would say, you know, if you're thinking to do, other things, some advice. You know, I was, I was blessed and very fortunate that I found the four other fellows who were all in very similar situations to me. They were all family men.

They all had children. We were all concerned about our children in the future. And I would say they were also very genuine, sincere, honest people as well. And there was a great deal of trust that was built up in respect that was earned from one another. Because, you know, this was not a one-man show by any means. And all these people, you know, when we agreed to do something, they, when they gave you a word that they were going to do something, they did it. And that's why all those protests were so successful and whatnot. But I would think, I want to share one other view.

You need to, if you're going to seriously consider civil disobedience, it is really wise to protect yourself. And not everybody can do this. but it was very you know when when we started the landowner I haven't shared this story publicly but I'll share it now I disposed all my assets

I got rid of my house got rid of my vehicles I owned nothing in my name because I said if I want to take on and defeat government. I've got to make it so that there is nothing tempting for them to go after, and there's nothing that I can lose in the battle. And because, and that came out because so many people were not in that position.

They, you know, with their farms and with their equipment and various things. But it was, for me and my wife, it was easy for me to do. And, you know, for all those years, I didn't even have a bank account. Because I didn't want the government being able to hold anything over. my head when I was fighting them. Yeah, once again, when you tell your story, I, I'm impressed by the level of strategy that you, that you, you know, you thought this out more than just, hey, we're going to have a protest next Monday and that's going to be it. We're going to do a one done and it's going to

be a great day and carry on with life, right? When I, when I listen to you, Randy, I hear a man who, when you talk about convictions and looking at how far you had to go, you knew this was, well, I assume you knew it wasn't going to be a one and done. I mean, how many years of your life did you put into the landowners group that saw all these different protests? Like, was this a busy summer? Was this over the course of multiple years? I think it was six years before I. And I did full time.

Like six years of protesting full time. Like I go back to, I had Julie Pedestion. And I've told the story a lot. It's maybe not not recent. but I had her way back on like, you know, I was, I think it was like episode 200 was Glenn Sather and episode 201 was Julie Pinesse, right? Like, I mean, what a wild, uh, uh, turn of events for, for this side of things. But I remember, you know, like asking, you know, how long do you think this is going to go on and saying something stupid, like three months?

And she kind of looked at me like, are you kidding me? No, like decades. And I'm like, decades. Like, what do you mean? And every time, now, I feel like I'm becoming more accustomed to this answer. Like, no, it wasn't a year. You, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, you, You did six years of protesting to push back against government. Like that should, when you hear that, that's not for the faint of heart, I guess, is what I'm trying to say. But also you go back to what Byron Bridal said the other night at the injection of Truth Town Hall. It's like, you know, to be first through the door, you know, when it's the kids who are in the sight line of the enemy. And the enemy can be a lot of different things, folks.

we should all want to be first through the door. And no matter how long that fight takes, you know what you're doing it for. And that's for future generations. And I guess when you talk about the six years, I assume, although they were busy six years, they were probably worthwhile every step of the way. Oh, it was just marvelous. The caliber and the quality of people that you met was just phenomenal. The, you know, just like what we saw on.

And in Ottawa, during the Trekkers Convoy, the euphoria of and the enjoyment and the fun and the friendship. Like these things are, nobody went to Ottawa and didn't experience that sort of euphoria, Sean. And that was similar at all these events and all these protests that we did in the landowners. See, you know, but, you know, I just, after six years, like, you know, and it's, it's not a high-paying job being a protester shot, but we managed to go through. And, you know, but there is, there is also, there's adrenaline, but there's also apprehension and anxiety. You know, like when you're going in to do battle with the cops or when you're going in and you're planning on barricading an interprovincial bridge or a government building, you don't actually know how many people are going to show up with you. And so there's always a little bit of apprehension. They're like, well, how many guys are going to be here at 5 o'clock in the morning and unrolling the hay bales with me?

So, but, you know, it always worked out well. But that creates a little bit of anxiety, not knowing what's actually. I look at, I, listen, Randy, I could be wrong on this. I don't know. I could be wrong. But to me, when I listen to you once again, I go, you know, like, I went to Freedom Convoy and went to the protest. And certainly I didn't have really, you know, other than being a podcaster, I didn't have any

hands-on experience during that protest, right? I wasn't organizing XYZ. You know, I have some stories, but, you know, I wasn't the guy directing traffic. I wasn't one of the leaders of the different, you know, groups that came in. And so when I listened to you, you know, I got to help organize a protest for the One Million March for Children

here in Lloydminster. And that was, to me, a new insight into what it takes to put on a successful day and all the logistics and all on and on and on it's it's it's quite a a feat so when you talk about shutting down the 401 or an international bridge um i was sitting here i'm like man the amount of work that would have went into doing that successfully would be insane and to me it's kind of like going um i don't know for civil disobedience it'd be like going to the gym day and trying to bench press, I don't know, 400 pounds or something, right?

You don't do that. You don't go to an international bridge day one and do that. That probably took time. And when I sit across me, I go, like, this guy has some knowledge we could all benefit from when pushing the boundaries of what you can do to disrupt your country so they pay attention. So, yeah, there's a whole lot of that history that I didn't get into. and we just glossed over some of the but but yeah that was you know to and even to mobilize people to be engaged in disobedience is is not an easy thing you have to do this very gradually

and very incrementally so um the very very first um protest was we were protesting um the Ontario Conservative Party were having a golf game at a local golf course in Ottawa and we showed up there with our signs and it was and that was just you know we had never done this before like what do you do?

So we showed up with some signs and we said on no okay well that wasn't that bad that was so difficult and then and then the next time I said okay let's do something a little bit more. And I said, let's do a road closure on a highway, a secondary highway, near the near Pakenham in Lanark County. And so about, I don't know, we had about 75 tractors, let's say, in cars come out. And we lined the tractors on each side of the second.

Dairy Highway and my wife and I and a few other people stood out in the middle of the highway with a rubber boot and we were handing out pamphlets and brochures about the landowners and about what government was doing that was we thought was wrong and and it wanted to be fixed and And so I say this because we did it in a very incremental, you know, we were learning as we went. And, you know, the cops came. They tried to get us to leave. We wouldn't leave. The cops kept saying to me, Randy, come out to the side of the road.

We want to talk to you. And we all, you know, we're not, didn't fall off the truck last night. And I said, no, you, if you want to talk. to me you come out to the road and we'll talk out here and so then all these they had nine cop cruisers there and they all started converging into the middle of the road where i was um and then all the farmers that were there they converged into the middle of the road and it was a standoff you know there was far more of us than it was of them even though they had not cops.

And then, and I said to him, I said, now the road really is closed and we're not leaving. And you're not going to be able to take us away either. And, you know, and it was, and I say that because the next one was even larger. You know, we went closer into the city and we did a bigger one. Once people were motivated and people were encouraged and people had. scene that we could actually stand up and fight back and be successful. You know, nothing breeds, you know, popularity like success. So it was all these little incremental steps.

And then, of course, our next one was, okay, now we're going to close up Wellington Street and do Parliament Hill. But we had to do it sequentially and build up people's, you know, like people. People aren't normally, most people don't like confrontation. But once you do it once or twice, it's actually quite enjoyable. But this is what I'm pointing, or I'm trying to point out, and I'm probably doing a poor job of it, is I look at you and I go, this is a guy who at some point got very comfortable talking to cops and being like, no. Be like, you just, no, we're going to go on the highway. You have an opportunity to work with us or not.

we're here and you can rest us all if that's what you want to do but we're going on there and if you go don't help us get on there then we're just going to roll the tractors on anyways but we're going on and you know as i get older i get more comfortable being around cops because you know you realize it's just human beings like like we are and if you talk to them it's it's uh you know there's certain things they can and cannot do just just like everybody else but i look at you and i see it just over and over again you know once again i go back to the twitter post where you you you you've outline the 25 years of doing this and I'm like, huh, this is something a guy needs to dig, you know, like take some of the wealth of knowledge you have when it comes to pushing back

against government. When everywhere I look, we just have issues with government. Like, we got a ton of issues going on right now in our country. And there's certain ways to push back and there's other ways to do it, I'm assuming, in the political realm or the media realm or the culture realm. And one of the ways you've outlined. You know, I see your journey and I see a lot of people's journeys resembling it. For them, the Freedom Convoy, they went, they protested. They protested peacefully and they got success. And from that, they then came home and they started to maybe get into city politics or municipal politics and different things like that. And I look at your post and I go, there must be a wealth of information that we can pull from you so people don't get into any

of the pitfalls. And one of the things you just said is I wrote it down, nothing breeds popularity like success. So if you're going to embark on anything, even if it's just a political career, remember that, I think, right? Like, you want to be, you want to be popular. You want, you want people to want to be a part of your cause or your thought process. And in order to do that, you got to be successful because that, you know, is going to pull people to your side. I think that's really important for people to think about when they're when they're thinking about what it is it's bothering them about today. So this is very true. Like, you know, I have come across so many people who who have these grandiose expectations, you know, to have a tax revolt or to do whatever, like on these large scales.

And, well, no, that's not how it works. It's not how you build things. You don't start, you know, just like the Freedom Convoy. It wasn't the beginning. It was a culmination and a result of hundreds and thousands of smaller protests happening everywhere across the country in 2020 and 2021. Like that, like it wasn't just, you know, it was spontaneous, but it was built on the success of all the other protests.

So, and it is important that you, that you, it's really important that you pay attention to details and that you have everything there. At all these protests, like we had to make sure that we had generators and microphones and stereos and that we had people to direct traffic and that we had issued the press statements and that we had media availability time. And like the, and that we would have, you know, food, drinks, coffee, whatever. Like, and that we would, you know, in that we had a cleanup. When we brought the cattle down to, in that large protest, tractor protests on Wellington Street, you know, after the protest, we cleaned up Wellington Street. And we brought our own brooms and shovels and everything needed. And the cops said to us, you know, we have never seen Wellington Street so clean after you left.

You know, so like there's all those little things. But I think, you know, and yeah, I could share a lot of these very, I think, little nuggets that I learned through the process. but one of them is you know you have to be very clear of what you want and and what you expect the other side to do and you know for us it was we want property rights to be enshrined in our constitution we had the mechanism outlined on how to do it and we could articulate that objective easily. We could articulate and enunciate the list of grievances easily. And of course, our signs, this land is airline back off government.

It was a nice, simple, easy message for people to understand. And then, you know, whenever you, and of course, you always need to, because you're engaged in civil disobedience and in opposition to the government, you still have to be respectful and considerate. You can be assertive and strong, but you'd be respectful and professional as well

while you're doing it. And if you can add in some humor, that's not a bad thing either. And probably know what you're talking about. You know, understanding how the law works, what cops can and cannot do, the laws surrounding highways. And, you know, I can imagine the amount of probably research that went into all of those different avenues that your group took upon themselves to do. Absolutely. That was a very important. What you had to do when the cop asked you and what you didn't have to do and be strong enough to stick with that.

And, you know, and these fellows, we also have to learn the laws, what was wrong with the laws and what were the functions of the law that could be utilized. Like with going back to the Deerco, there was a provision in the law already. for the minister to issue deer removal permits. He just wasn't doing it. And I would say, you know, there's nothing, if you want to get government to do something, the most important thing for people to understand, nothing motivates a political party like embarrassment.

When you can embarrass a political figure, they will do anything not to be embarrassed. So use that to your advantage. Now, they will also be motivated by things like gobs of money and things like that as well. But, you know, I'm saying for the common everyday ordinary folks who don't have gobs and gobs of money to slush around, politics. Embarrassment is a really, really important thing to utilize in the political system.

It's its own form of currency. Yes. Politicians have thin skins. Well, I appreciate, Randy, you doing this and coming on and chatting a bit about the Lanark land owners and some of the civil disobediences that you've undertaken, been a part of and sharing just some of your, you know, the experiences of it. Because I find it very, I just think there's a wealth of knowledge there. I just come back to it because I look at the future here in Canada.

And lots of people do not see bright days ahead. We see lots of things going on. And I think if you're going to embark on trying to change that, you need to understand what lies ahead. And it isn't one day and gee, it's all over. And I think people are realizing that, but I think it's good to hear. So maybe that's a good place to end off, but I'll put this last thought. Sure.

You know, you know, people are, you were asking and people are wondering how long this battle is, right? And it should be obvious. It's forever. It is forever. the day that people sit back and are not involved and engaged is the day that tyranny will rule you. Right? And we've seen this. Like this is, you know, as we started off, you know, talking about Martin Luther.

Like, tyranny is always around the corner in human civilization. So, yeah, you know, there's, these are not cliches, yeah, that are known throughout history that, you know, the price of freedom is ever vigilance. That's not a cliche. That's a truism. And, you know, in Canadians, you know, like, we've had a pretty good run out of it, you know, you know, pretty affluent, pretty successful, pretty prosperous. You know, I was gifted a great free life from the efforts and the works of my ancestors and yours. And if we want our children and our grandchildren to do the same, then the same efforts.

this is a forever battle. And if you think otherwise, you will be behind the Iron Curtain one day. Yeah, I think that's a really good way to put it. Like, it just doesn't end. And if you, you know, you think of all the things we've been gifted to this point. Yeah, it's on all of us. to become involved. I just I wish I'm trying to get this thought out of my brain and I'll try again

Randy and I keep butchering it because I just can't seem to pull it out the way I want it to come. But like you know it took me until like I don't know 30 38 right now so it took me until I was 35 to realize a whole bunch of things about society and government and like holy crap right and i go now that could be just john right like i i grew up and and maybe i just didn't pay attention that that's fair but i also told you you know when nine 11 happened they rolled the tvs into the and and stopped school and and on and on it went and when i listened to you and i hear some of the things you're saying here especially at the end you know like all through it right but this never ends it's like these are things that we need to be involving our children in way sooner than we are

Because you know, you think you just you just roll through life and you never have to stand up for your God given rights. That's that's a lie and you know like certainly the world wars and different things have happened and on this goes and you're you're talking about shutting down and for six years what you did there like huh and I was telling you before we started it was the the grain protests out here that that my uncle talked to me about and I'm like huh it's like why aren't we sharing these. stories with the younger generations. So the forever thing doesn't seem like such a shock. It's actually more like, yeah, that just makes sense. You know, like at 20, you should be reading or following up on XYZ. So you understand some of the history that has happened here in our country. So you're absolutely correct.

And, you know, like when I, you know, I went to public education. I, you know, there's nothing. My mom and dad owned a TV repair business. and raised nine kids. Like we were not, but we were always fully engaged in conversation. And the same thing is, like all my kids went to all these protests as well, Sean. Like, yes, your children need to be engaged. And like, if you're going to rely on public education for your children.

trial's level of knowledge, well, don't be surprised if you're disappointed with the level of knowledge your child will have. And we have seen this and we spoke about this earlier. I don't think it's just coincidental or accidental that we have denigrated our history. We don't spend any time teaching our children history in our education system. I don't know about you. You're a different generation than I, but did you learn about the 1837 and 39 rebellions? You know who Joseph Louis Papineau is and McKenzie King or William Lyme McKenzie McKinsey.

And did you learn about the storming of the fisheries in Newfoundland? Like, we have such a rich history. And from what I've seen in our public education system, we neither teach our youth anything about local history. we don't teach them anything about provincial history and what we do teach him on a national level is very superficial and also in large part falsely presented so so yeah we have to do a better job as dads and as moms to ensure that our like like I can tell you

You know, and this is one of the reasons why I, you know, none of my children are jabbed. None of my grandkids are jabbed. Not because I told them that they shouldn't get jabbed. But they grew up in a house where we knew and understood that you should always be skeptical of government. You should always be critical and evaluate. objectively what they are saying to you because they have a history of being dishonest and lying to us. Yeah, well, and I think, you know, you're asking a bunch of questions about history, Canadian history and school. And I just remember social studies and hating it.

I thought it was like the most boring class under the sun, which is funny because then I went on to college and became a history major, right? So when you're talking about Canadian history, I'm like, there's just a level of spice, I guess, you bring that it's like there's a lot of things to be that should be talked about in our history that probably has never been discussed in a classroom, I would assume. I shouldn't say that to all classrooms because I'm sure there's some teacher out there somewhere that knows everything you just rattled off. But I'm going to assume that majority of social studies classes across this country aren't teaching much of that. you know, for the most part. Yeah. So, you know, I think it gives you, you know, I think that in large part that was why so many Canadians,

you know, I think there is an underlying element of that. If you don't know your history, you can be easily led down a path that is not good for you. Like, yeah, and look back as it. Like, why did, you know, why did all these things happen? Why did we get responsible government? Well, it wasn't because somebody just gave it to us. There was a rebellion.

Canadians stood up and said enough is enough. And we're not going to be ruled by this little click of a rustic pratch in London anymore. We want to take care of ourselves. You know, and, you know, when they were talking about conscription and they said, no, no, like, you know, we're all for the war, but we're not going to, you're not going to take away my freedom to make a choice to go to battle. And so we didn't conscript, right, unlike the United States. Like Canada has a much firmer grasp in history

of defending freedom than most other countries in the world, Sean. But we are largely unaware of it. You know, and you know, the Winnipeg General Strike is another good example.

Like, um, and it was, you know, and I use this. Like, 1919 was the last time the government, any government in Canada, had used physical violence to quell a protest until February 18, 2022. So for 100 plus years, the strength of Canadian conviction to civil disobedience helped.

our government in check never to use violence to quell a protest. What was the, and what was it in 1919 that used physical violence? The Winnipeg General Strike. I literally don't know anything about this. So, um, yeah, it's, in this, um, well, these are important milestones, a powerful historical milestones in our in our history and you know but that's why Canadians grew and that's why I and you and so many have had a good life is because others before us fought those battles you know and and the government in 1919 was just you know they were so ashamed and

embarrassed of what happened after what in Winnipeg uh 400 years no government would ever do it again you got to tell me then what what the heck happened in Winnipeg well read it up looks like we're all doing some reading today fair enough randy fair enough now i'm good now i'm like well i got to go well you said your history i know you went to university for history and i didn't uh didn't study canadian history because i thought canadian history sucked it's only since i came into pot that I start talking all these stories. I'm like, man, where was all this? Like, where was all this?

Why do I hear about this? The only way I can hear about this is by talking to people. You know, and certainly there are books and everything else out now. I don't mean to say you can't find it anywhere. Just that in our own educational system that none of this is taught. Oh, and I've only skimmed a couple. There was also the, you know, in addition to the rebellions in the 1830, also, well, you'll have to read.

Like there's, you know, Canada has a rich, strong, proud history of civil disobedience. And that is why we have been able to, up until four years ago, be proud of our country and live in a very free country. And I suggest, you know, we've been on this very dark road. Not, you know, the dark road didn't begin in March of 2020. We were already starting down that path beforehand, but we took a giant leap forward into the darkness in March of 2020. And we're not going to get our freedom back. and have a country that we can be prodiging

in a future secured for our children until we're willing to do a few more things. I agree with you. I'm going to pull this up before I let you out of here because this is really bugging me. Winnipeg General Strike of 1919, folks. The Winnipeg General Strike in 191919 was the largest strike in Canadian history between 15th of May

and 25th of June 1919, more than 30,000 workers left their jobs, factory shops, transits, and city services shut down. The strike resulted in arrest, injuries, and the death of two protesters. It did not immediately succeed in empowering workers and improving job conditions, but the strike did help unite the working class in Canada. Some of its participants helped establish what is now the new Democratic Party. There you go, the NDP. Who knew? I tell you, I mean, obviously, Randy knew.

I'll have to go do some more digging in there. But I appreciate that. There you go. If the listener was going, what the heck is going on? We're going to talk about it. There it is. So thanks for that, Randy. I appreciate you hopping on and doing this.

Well, listen, my pleasure. And if there's anything else, give me a dingle. And of course, yeah, you don't just believe everything that Wiki says either. Fair enough. We've maybe learned that lesson, have we? Yes. Because of the experts. Thanks again, Randy, for doing this.

Appreciate it having you on. Where can people find you if they want to fall along with some of your writing or your thoughts? Where can they find you? So I do have a free subscription substack. So it's Substack Brandy Hillier. I also have a web page, No More Lockdowns. dot CA and if people want to assist and help in my legal defense or support me by renting my scuttlebut lodge cabin that I'm in right at the moment it's a 200 year old original log

homestead here in lanar county I'm also on Twitter at Randy at Randy Hillier Elon likes censoring me a little bit on that one. But there's also at NML Canada, No More Lockdowns Canada, on Twitter. And I have a YouTube channel at Randy Hillier, MPP, and a Facebook page at Randy Hillier. So you can see, I don't like using aliases or pseudonyms very much if I don't have to. Fair enough. Well, thanks again, sir, for doing this. And, well, we'll see what the people think. And who knows where the paths cross in the future. Either way, thanks for hopping on. Yeah. Well, it's been a pleasure. I look forward and listen, anytime you want to chat, give me a call.