(0:00 - 1:13) In January of last year, Justice Richard Mosley ruled that the Trudeau government violated the law and our constitutional rights with the use of the Emergencies Act and the freezing of Canadians' bank accounts during the Freedom Convoy in 2022. Now, a group of 20 Canadians who were victims of those actions have filed a lawsuit, not against the government, but against the individuals responsible. This means, among others, Justin Trudeau, Chrystia Freeland, who was at the time Minister of Finance and primarily responsible for the freezing of bank accounts, Marco Mendocino, who was then Minister of Public Safety and the government official who actually invoked the Emergencies Act, and Steve Bell, the interim Ottawa Chief of Police, and quite a list of others. In fact, the plaintiffs are suing these people for damages in the amount of $34 million. And if they win, it will set a precedent that could well guarantee that no future government will ever again dare to violate our rights. Eddie Cornell, one of the plaintiffs, served as the police liaison for the convoy. (1:14 - 1:36) Eddie is also a decorated member of our armed services and the co-founder of Veterans for Freedom. He joins me today to discuss the details of the case and what it will mean for us and for the rights and freedoms of our children. Eddie, welcome to the show. (1:37 - 1:44) Thanks, Will. It's a real pleasure to be here today. And we were talking just before the interview, it's a real pleasure to finally meet you. (1:45 - 3:28) I've, of course, known about you for years and your involvement in the Freedom Convoy and your co-founding of Veterans for Freedom and all the great work that you have done. And so we're here today because you and a group of other people are doing something extremely important to hold the parties who violated our rights under the Emergencies Act accountable. Now, just to give people a little bit of history, it was January of last year when the courts found that the use of the Emergencies Act was illegal, unconstitutional, the freezing of the bank accounts, all of that stuff. And so now you and a group of other plaintiffs are going after not so much the government, but the parties, Justin Trudeau and certain other people who were responsible for that to hold them accountable. And I believe also for damages. So please give us the details of what you're doing. Sure. Well, as people know, the Mosley decision did happen last January. And as a result, that opened the window. We had a small window to actually launch civil suits against named individuals and entities that committed these offenses against Canadians. And 20 of us banded together and decided that this is something that we need to do, not just for ourselves, but for all Canadians. And, you know, living under a government that likes to punish people under under tyranny that, you know, became unbearable for most of us for quite a period of time. So this lawsuit is structured a little bit different than some of the others that are out there. And there's a few. Ours is a lawsuit that is seeking thirty four million dollars in damages. (3:28 - 3:38) We don't have the ability to charge anyone criminally. So our actions all have to be in civil court and you have to put a monetary value. We're not in it necessarily for the money. (3:39 - 5:11) You know, that's what people say. Oh, you guys are just a bunch of grifters trying to, you know, put Canadian taxpayers on the hook for a large sum of money. We've designed this lawsuit so that we can avoid as much as possible taking money from the taxpayers. We're suing them individually. Everybody that's named by name, they're being sued personally. So should the government fall, it looks like it will. And then the next period of time, this lawsuit follows them into their private life and they'll have to defend themselves for their actions. Now, those defendants are Justin Trudeau. Who are some of the others? We've got Chrystia Freeland, Marco Mendicino, Lametti. We have Dominic LeBlanc. We have Steve Bell from the Ottawa Police Services. We've got 28 defendants in total in the lawsuit, including all of the banks that did it, the RCMP. And I think we're going to be successful in this lawsuit. You know, as you know, the Mosley decision ruled it ultra virus, which means illegal. What's interesting about that is next month, February 4th and 5th in Toronto, the government appeal for that decision takes place. So we're hopeful that that decision will stand. If people have taken the time to read it, it's a very solid decision by Justice Mosley. And it's going to be difficult, I think, for the government appeal to poke holes in that decision. (5:13 - 6:51) Now, my understanding has always been that the government is a corporation and that therefore, members of parliament are not liable for actions they take as a representative of that corporation. So if that's the case, how are you able to go after them individually when it was technically the government that violated our rights? That's a decision I think that should be left up to the court. But my basic opinion would be that they acted illegally. So it wasn't within their scope that they could actually do. So with the courts rendering it as an illegal thing that they did to us as Canadians, then they put themselves vulnerable to the law under the civil court. Okay. And I think I'm going to try to clarify here my earlier statement. Again, my understanding of this is that as long as they are not committing a crime, as long as they're acting in good faith, then they cannot be held personally liable for damages that come about as a result of government actions. But in this particular case, we have the Justice Mosley decision that says, sorry, that was illegal. You violated people's rights. That means they committed a criminal act. And I don't think that that indemnity coming under the shell of the government corporation protects them from that. Is that about correct? I would believe that's the understanding. Yes, that's what I'm led to believe. And I hope that that's the case. The courts will decide. But when you act illegally, I feel that they committed a crime. And the courts basically said that when they made the decision. (6:51 - 9:16) I'm talking about Justice Mosley. So that allowed us to pursue the case in a civil manner. Now, what specifically are you going after with these individuals? Obviously, some sort of monetary compensation. How much are you seeking? Are you seeking something other than money? Please give us the details. It is money. That's the short end of it, is that it is money. And that's our only option that we have in a civil case such as this. You have to seek damages. And that's what we're doing. I mean, the violation of having your bank accounts frozen is extremely severe. People think, well, you showed up with the trucker convoy, you did this, you did that. Well, think about it. I didn't even donate to the trucker convoy. Why was my bank account frozen? They've never said. Why were all the 256 people that had their accounts frozen in this country? Why were they frozen? Remember, our government took information that they received from a kid who was a hacker that hacked the GiveSendGo website, put that information out publicly. The government then used that information to provide to financial institutions across the country and gave them free will to freeze bank accounts for people that were on that list. And who did they pick and why did they pick those individuals? We don't know. They've never said. So that's a violation in itself that they used illegally obtained information to do this. And they sent it out across the world to who knows what country, what financial institution, how we've been branded. Are we classed by our government as domestic terrorists or ideologically motivated violent extremists? They called us every name under the book when we were taking place with the trucker convoy in Ottawa. So who knows what devastating effect that information had or will have in the future. And I think it's extremely difficult to quantify that to people. They say, well, you know, you shouldn't have been there. (9:16 - 11:47) You shouldn't have taken part in the trucker convoy. We didn't break any laws. We didn't commit any crimes. So you can say that all you want. What I would say to people that disagree, that's OK to disagree in a democracy. But if the political winds change and all of a sudden now what you say is not really going to be acceptable, according to the government, is it OK to freeze your bank account and do what they did to all of us? I'm pretty sure we're going to say no. So that's why everybody, regardless of the side of the fence that you stand on and what we did, you need to stand up for this because a government that can freeze your finances is extremely dangerous. You can't pay your bills. You can't buy food. You can't put gas in your vehicle. They gave us no means for recourse or appeal. They didn't even have a court order to do it. They just did it out of spite. And then if you've ever seen the video of Freeland when she was announcing that it'd be done, she giggled. She was giddy with doing this to hard working Canadians that wanted the government to listen what they had to say. And instead, we all had our bank account frozen. Do we have in the suit an estimate of the financial costs to those people who accounts were frozen? And what is the total amount of damages that are being pursued? Well, total damages with all of the 20 planets in our lawsuit is $34 million. And that includes punitive damages, actual damages. It's really hard to quantify what effect it had. It has a lasting effect. It's a traumatic effect when your government targets you and you don't know why. And they freeze and lock down everything you own. They even tried to come after everybody's vehicle and home insurance, anything that you'd signed your name to that had a financial aspect to it. They tried to shut it down. That's hard to put into words. And we had no idea for how long that would be in effect. They didn't give us a choice. They just wanted us to leave the city according to them. But think about it. They freeze everything you have. You have no money. I had no money to get home from Ottawa. I live out in New Brunswick. (11:48 - 12:05) And if it wasn't for nice people that gave me a couple of bucks to put gas in my car, it was minus 25 in Ottawa. I couldn't have made it home. I had nowhere to stay. I couldn't buy food. I couldn't buy gas. All of a sudden, what do you do? My credit cards don't work. (12:05 - 12:35) And then having to travel through Quebec, I stopped at a gas station. I wanted to buy gas and I wanted to pay cash. And they wouldn't take cash because they were afraid they were going to catch COVID from the cash I wanted to hand them. So it was traumatic. You have the feeling that at some point when you get home, are the RCMP or a goon squad going to break through your door and take you away in handcuffs? I don't know. They've done it to a bunch of people. (12:37 - 13:35) They've shown that they don't care to act within the law. The decision said so. They just do it to punish people. And I think they picked all of us, the 20 of us and the 256 total, because we were the low-hanging fruit. We were the everyday people that don't have a lot of money. That were really easy targets and they could punish us. As an example to everyone else, speak up and do something the government doesn't like. This is what could happen. And they thought, we can't fight back. Well, they're wrong. We will fight back and we are fighting back and we're never going to stop. All right. Now, unless people think that pursuing these individuals for $34 million is unrealistic, I'd like to point out that Trudeau alone is worth $100 million. So it's not an unrealistic goal. So let's fast forward, Eddie, and be optimistic. (13:35 - 15:54) And let's say this suit works and you're awarded $34 million in damages. What will be done with the money? I don't know. I've really not given that a lot of thought. I just want the government to never be able to do this to individuals again. I'm not looking at how I would spend the money. That's not even a concern. And all the people in our lawsuit, we're not doing this for the money. That's not our goal. If we do get some money, I think all of us will put it to good use, whatever that may be. People will donate to different charities of their choice. They'll get involved with other organizations and make that money do something positive. And we're not going to be buying mansions and yachts and all that sort of thing that people would think that we'd be doing. That's not the case at all. I know all of us are proud Canadians that are simple people that are going to do the right thing should we get an award. Now, you mentioned that the Ottawa chief of police, or the person who was chief of police at the time, is one of the defendants. And you were the liaison with the police. And it was a wise choice because you have some 25 years of military service. You're a decorated serviceman from the Canadian armed forces. So obviously you would be able to speak to them more on their level. And something I've been curious about, and I'm really glad we're finally talking today because I've been wanting to ask this question for some time. And maybe I really have two questions. Let's start with this one. I have heard, but you would be the person to confirm this, that the Ottawa police were actually fairly easy to get along with. It was the police that were brought in to support them. And we're still questioning who those people were that were the real problem. Is that the case? Yeah, that's really the case. The Ottawa police service in the beginning was terrific. They were engaging and supportive. And they kept an eye on what was happening within the city. And when you spoke to the police officers that were there, they thought it was fantastic. They said they've never seen the city safer and more exuberant, not even on a Canada day. They had many more problems in Canada days versus the trucker convoy. So they were great. (15:54 - 16:26) And the powers to be didn't want that message getting out there. And that's why slowly all of those officers from the Ottawa police were pulled back and others were inserted that were more likely to want to put their boot on your neck. Now, I've been wanting to ask you also this question, and it's a little off topic, but I finally have you here and I know people are curious. (16:26 - 16:37) We had these some two plane loans of extra police come in. It was fairly obvious that some of them did not speak English. There's been a lot of conjecture about who these people were. (16:38 - 17:56) Do you have any theories? No. You know, I'd like to have an answer to that question myself. I've asked and dug every possible place that I could, and I've never gotten a definitive answer. And I think that's something we need to know. And hopefully it'll come out and, you know, maybe it'll come out in the testimony for our case. Maybe these will be questions that our attorneys will ask and we'll finally get a definitive answer. But I'm like you, I would like to know. All of them were wearing full helmets with reflective face shields. Did you ever at any point see any of them remove those helmets? No. Interesting. So they kept their faces covered the whole time. They sure did. Yeah, they definitely stood up. You're speaking of the guys in green. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. And in my view, and I've never served in the military, I've never served with the police, but from my view, they sure looked a lot more like military to me than they did police. Yeah, that was my opinion as well. That's just, you know, my personal opinion. Do I know anything for a fact? No, but they definitely stuck out and were very unusual. (17:57 - 20:40) And I hope we do find out where they came from because they tended to be quite, what would you say? Aggressive? Yeah, I guess that would be a good term. Yeah, they were quite aggressive. Now that was off topic, Eddie, so thank you for indulging me and the viewers I know had those questions too. Let's get back to this case. We need some more details. When is the case, the trial taking place? At what point in time might we expect a decision? It's really tough to say. We're a year in on this lawsuit and I mean, it could take several years. I think having the, you know, the appeal behind this will certainly help. And I think this government doesn't want to deal with it, any of these lawsuits. They want to kick the can down the road and pass it to the next government. So, you know, I think the next government doesn't want to be handed, you know, something that's just radioactive, I guess, in their eyes. So I'm hoping that we'll get a quicker resolution to the case. 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You've mentioned the appeal now a couple of times, and one that's happening next month, and this is the government's appeal against the decision that found the Emergency Act use illegal. Assuming that the decision is upheld, that the appeal fails, would change of government make any difference? Because it's not really the government you're going after, it's individuals who were members of the government at the time, and were found to have committed an illegal act. (22:19 - 22:52) Other cases like ours, at the point where they actually come to the courts, would be assembled and heard simultaneously. That's what our lawyers had basically said, that they'll all be heard possibly simultaneously, so they'll all get a decision at the same time, which I think is really good, because we need to have this settled once and for all. And when you look back to the Mosley decision, this government, it was released to everybody. (22:52 - 23:07) Nobody got an advanced copy of the decision. 14 minutes after the decision dropped, the government said, we will appeal. There's 191 or 194 pages in this decision. (23:08 - 27:21) How did they possibly have a chance to even read what the decision said before they said they would appeal? They can't stand being questioned or held to account, so that's what they do. They lash out and strike back, and you see it in everything that they do. It doesn't matter whether it's right, they just lash out and come after people, and they try to bankrupt people, and that's what they do. They have unlimited resources at their disposal. We're just average citizens, so what do they do? They try to crush everybody through lawfare, and we see it all the time. All the individuals that have stood up for the past few years, look what has happened to some of these people. That's when you live in a tyrannical country under this government. Now, you and the other plaintiffs have secured the services of a private law firm, and I think maybe some people are a bit confused why you're doing that, because we have the Canadian Constitution Foundation, the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms that was involved in many of these previous cases, but this is not a constitutional case now. This is a criminal case, and so I assume that's why you've gone with a private law firm. Well, it's not a criminal case. It's a civil case. Correct. Thank you for correcting me. This is a civil case, but it's not a constitutional case anymore. It still is a constitutional case. It has ramifications of our constitutional rights, like under Section 8, under seizure, which is seizing of our bank accounts, and that's why we chose this type of case, because there's going to be many cases come forward with all the violence and everything that happened to people in other lawsuits down the road, but this one, people think of it as a class action suit. This isn't a class action suit. Class actions are where, I guess, everybody is in it for the same thing, the same cause. Ours is a tort, and a tort, each of our cases will be heard individually, so although we're grouped as having our bank accounts frozen, each of us as individuals, the court will hear each of our stories, and in a class action, they don't do that. It's like an overall 30,000-foot approach to what happened, so this is unique, and I think the JCCF, which was instrumental in fundraising and helping out with the first Mosley decision case, it's all a matter of funding. I mean, they raised a lot of money to help us to do that case. Unfortunately, in this particular case, we've had to go it alone. Us 20 individuals, we're having to fund this for ourselves, and as you know, Ryan with Take Action Canada has set up a way to try to help us as well, and if you don't mind, can I mention how people could help us out with this? Please do, and we'll put a link beneath the interview as well. Okay, it's takeactioncanada.ca forward slash justice, and I mean, we're looking for any type of help people can. I know people are stressed out from financially, I get it, but every dollar, there's no contribution that's too small. This is something that all of us have to stand behind. This is a very expensive venture. This case, you know, us as individuals could cost us up to two million dollars. I mean, none of us have that kind of money. We're employing Loberg Ector Law out of Calgary, and they're helping us tremendously with bringing the cost down, but we need help, and that's why Take Action Canada decided that we're going to do what we can to help these people, which is us, raise some funds to help to pay our legal fees. (27:21 - 29:32) Right, and that was how this came to my attention, because Take Action Canada is a partner organization to my own freedom organization of Strong and Free Canada. We've been working together since 2020. So, and something else that I think I should point out, though, Eddie, and you've been very humble in not mentioning this, but I think it needs to be pointed out. You are 20 of the some 250 people whose accounts were frozen. If you win this case, and as you said, this isn't a class action, this is 20 people who are each gonna have a chance to tell their own story. If you win this case, that sets a precedent, and now we've got 230 other people who could now launch suits against these individuals for damages. So, if Canadians really wanna see these people held accountable for their actions, supporting your lawsuit is one way to do that. Yeah, and you know, we're using the phrase, it could happen to you. It really could. It really could happen to you, and I mean, everybody out there that's listening, what if you said something or did something that you believe in that they didn't like? All of a sudden, they lock you down financially. You have no idea what that's like until it actually happens to you, that your government would violate you in that manner. You can never have trust again in your government. It's gone. You feel like an outsider living in your own country when your government does that to you. I've not committed a crime. I've never been convicted of a crime, and yet they do this to me. I serve my country. I'm not looking for a pat on the back. I'm just, I just wanna be left alone. I just wanna be free. I don't want a government controlling every aspect of my life, and it's my right as a citizen, and yours as well, to say something. Well, you heard Trudeau himself say, you know, he agrees with protests as long as people are talking about something he agrees with. That's not democracy. That's not freedom. (29:35 - 31:21) That's totalitarianism at its finest right there. Do you wanna live in a country like that? Do you wanna hand it to your kids or your grandkids that way? Do you wanna, when your grandkids say, Grandpa or Grandma, what did you do when the truckers came and, um, that happened in Canada, and do you wanna say, well, I sat on the couch and I didn't do anything? That's not something I'd wanna face the next generations to come and say. I wanna say, you know what? I said something. I stood up, and the government did this to me, and we held them accountable, and we won because we stood up. And I certainly hope that you do, and I completely agree with what you've just said. The whole reason that my wife and I launched Strong and Free Canada in summer of 2020 was we looked at what was happening to our country, and we said to ourselves, if our children end up growing up in a communist dictatorship, how do we look them in the eye and say we did nothing? Yeah. I guess some people are comfortable with that. It seems that way in this country because I think, what, maybe 15% of Canadians actually stood up and said something. The rest were quite happy to become enforcers for the state. You know, you'd go, you wanted to buy a sandwich, and the person making your sandwich all of a sudden was now an enforcer for the state, and also had a medical degree, and they could decide whether you deserve to have a sandwich based on your medical status. Like, if that isn't a clown show, I don't know what is. It's unbelievable that that took place in our country, and we can never let that rest. (31:21 - 33:07) They got to be held accountable. We can't let them get away with this because they'll do it again, and it'd be worse next time. Yes. And what they succeeded in doing was dividing Canadians against each other, when what we should be doing is working together against corrupt government. You're absolutely right. And you know, not to digress, but if you look at the situation now with what's happening in the United States and Canada, all of the pearl-clutching, patriot Canadians all of a sudden are standing up. These are the same people that came and tried to punish us. They've acted as enforcers for the state. These are the same people that want to take your guns. All of a sudden, they're now patriotic Canadians and want us to stand up and fight against the United States. You know what? I say to these people, you have zero credibility. Your time to stood up was in the past few years, and you prove you didn't. Why? And now you want to be on the winning team because it's easy. That's what they want to do. And you know, they think, oh, we're going to save Canada. We're going to talk tough. You're not going to save anything. It's too late in some cases for you to save anything. You sold your soul to the government and acted as enforcers, and while the rest of us suffered under tyranny, and you laughed, and you let them put their boots on our neck, and you let them imprison us, you let them freeze our bank accounts, and you said nothing. Well, it's time for you to stand up and redeem yourself and get on board with the rest of us that have been standing up for the past five years. And I do think we have to say that... And I hope that message gets out to them. (33:07 - 34:18) And I agree with everything you've said. I think we do have to make the one concession that there were many people who were deceived into believing the false narrative and were frightened of the virus that wasn't actually a threat to anyone. And for those people, you know, and I've been fighting all of this since 2020 as well. And so, I completely understand everything you're saying and the frustration of it, but I have come to understand that there are people out there who, had they had better information, had they understood that they were being lied to about COVID, that they would have been on our side, and it was only fear of this false narrative that prevented them from doing so. And so, I think we do have to cut some people some slack for that reason. But yes, you're making a very good point. Folks, and maybe what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna make my own little revision to what Eddie just said. If you now are in that camp, if you have been educated and you understand now you were lied to, if that was the reason you didn't stand up in 2020, 2022 rather, now's the time. Let's hold this government and these criminals who violated our rights accountable. (34:19 - 34:27) Well said, Will. I agree with you. They need to come over and work with us and stand with us. (34:29 - 35:40) They really do. And for the ones that, you know, imposed what they did, I'm talking the people in positions of authority that knowingly did that to us, they need to be held to account. And there's no length of time that's gonna pass that they will get forgiveness. They need to be held to account for what they did. The average people that just did what they did and went along because they thought they were doing the right thing, I get it. I totally get that. But the ones who knew and did it anyway, you need to be held to account and you need to be punished for your crime. That's the way I look at it. And that's my goal. And I won't stop until we get our country back to where it has some sense of normalcy because this country is in deep trouble and it's divided. And our government's the cause of that, pitting citizen against citizen. And it's shameful. (36:04 - 36:09) But you can help spread the truth and it will cost you nothing except a few moments of your time.