This Land is Ours, The Defense of Our Right to Move Freely | 2nd Interview with Brian Peckford

The Honourable Brian Peckford is a Canadian politician who served as the third Premier of Newfoundland 1979-1989 and participated in the creation of Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms. He joins us today for the second time to shed more light on how he is still involved in protecting Canadian’s rights and speaks to the law suit he recently filed with the Federal Court. 

On the violation of our right to move freely…

The federal government has mandated that I can’t get aboard a plane in British Columbia and go and see my family in Newfoundland. I can’t go and see my family in Ontario or Nova Scotia. I can’t visit any of my friends. I can’t go to the trucker’s rally on the weekend unless I can drive. We chose the federal mandate because it was going straight to the federal Court and we’d only have two steps. What I’m arguing is that the Government of Canada, through this mandate has violated my rights to travel across Canada or leave Canada, Section 6, all Canadians are in that same boat. This one in particular, the federal government has not demonstrably justified.

On how this suit is not limited to just personal travel…

This case has got ramifications beyond just a person’s right to get on an airplane. The cross-border trucking industry, which is estimated that if the government gets away with what they’re trying to do with the truckers, we’re looking at a shortage of 230,000 pounds of goods per day, coming into Canada. We’re already starting to see some bare store shelves, getting certain types of cars, certain types of electronics is becoming very difficult because it’s not coming across the border. This is going to affect a whole lot more than just someone’s ability to go to Hawaii on vacation.

On how a real emergency is supposed to be managed…

The first principle is that it’s a multifaceted approach because if a disaster or something very difficult happens, it’s going to affect everybody. So, we better involve everybody; private sector, public sector, all the departments of government that are relevant and come up with a multifaceted approach and target the real problem, the real core. So much about the situation is so bizarre and therefore they completely ignored their own bureaucracy on this. And when it was a very clinical issue, it wasn’t a multi-issue approach. When they started to institute this, there were going to be no repercussions from the lockdowns, but that is clearly not the case.

Link to First Interview