BUCK: We’re gonna go right now to Adam Soos on the ground with Rebel News in Canada. He is at one of the trucker protests. Things are getting hot over there. What’s going on, Adam? Tell us what’s happening.

SOOS: Yeah, it’s definitely a troubling situation that is arising here. For those unfamiliar, truckers and farmers and their supporters have been down in Coutts, Alberta, which is across from Sweet Grass, Montana. It’s one of the larger sort of border crossings for industrial and commercial purposes. So, there’s been intermittent closures by those farmers and truckers where they have blocked off the roads in protest to vaccine mandates here in Canada.

Now the RCMP about 15 minutes away from that have erected their own blockade so they’re only letting select people through. So, there’s about 20 vehicles — and the RCMP being our federal police, effectively. So, they’ve the effectively set up another blockade. Last night, they set up a third sort of checkpoint. So there’s basically two federal police checkpoints on the way down to this trucker blockade.

But at the middle checkpoint there’s been something of an encampment set up, a large sort of gathering, all off the highway, but parked in the ditch there’s fires and food and they’ve been standing sort of in solidarity with the truckers. There was hope that we would have an announcement today that the vaccine mandates would be dropped and then there’s truckers would be able to mosey on. But unfortunately, we are now getting word that that is not the story at all and in fact there is a possibility that there may even be action against these guys.

Now, this is all sort of tentative at this point, but what’s extremely concerning is mainstream media — who has not been present for any of the people peacefully protesting, not present for any of the people standing around — have arrived here as well as down at Coutts at the border, and they’re setting up their tripods and getting ready to film, which usually suggests to us that some sort of action — they’ve had tipped off by authorities that they plan to take action.

At 5 p.m. today there will be an announcement from the premier, leader of this province, discussing some lessening of restrictions. But it seems probable, if not possible, that they are going to be taking action at some point here. There’s been no lack of police activity.

BUCK: When you say action, you mean police raids to arrest everybody? What does action mean?

SOOS: Yeah, that’s effectively what’s suggested. That’s the fear. This isn’t for certain. The last thing we heard was that there was an injunction and a move for immediate action. Since that time, we’ve seen a number of sort of unmarked vehicles rolling through and heading in that direction. But so, I guess at one point — this is before I’ve arrived down here — about a week ago there was an attempt at a raid and it basically they kind of backed off.

But that was the last time media, mainstream media showed up and set up their cameras so we have two people right down at the Coutts border I am with the convoy — or rather the blockade set up protest here. But, yeah, likely the action would be down at the Coutts border, not here. But there will certainly be a reaction here if that is what happens. These people are in it for the long haul.

They aren’t going anywhere, and they aren’t going to — from what they’ve told me. I’m not, obviously, endorsing this. I’m just relaying what they’ve told me — they aren’t going to leave that blockade willingly. If it comes to arrest or whatever, they said that they’re not leaving. They aren’t going to cave based on threat of arrest. So things escalating rapidly here and so I thought I’d if possible just get in with you guys a bit early, ’cause at any moment I might have to run off if some action goes off here.

CLAY: First of all, thank you for making time for us and sharing on-the-ground reporting. You have seen the calumnies, the insults that Justin Trudeau, the prime minister, has thrown at these Canadian truckers, all basically every insult you could imagine. You’re around them. What are these guys and girls like who are part of this Canadian trucker protest?

SOOS: You know, they are the most incredible people. They are so kind. They’re from all backgrounds. Some of them are truckers. Some of them are farmers. Some of them are just families coming out ’cause they’re standing for freedoms and they want a future for their children. The rhetoric and the flat-out lies out there about this having anything to do with white supremacy are categorically false. It is fake news in the extreme.

And it has been propagated, unfortunately, by our state funded media and by our prime minister himself. Frankly, it’s a disgrace. The people here it’s incredible to hear them say that they’re finally again proud to be Canadian, proud to be Albertan because they’re taking a stand; they’re not taking it laying down. We’ve seen people of every background, every nationality.

There’s someone up here, actually, who had no intention of coming but they’re from Mexico, they’re a trucker, and they — basically the rules changed on them and so they couldn’t get back down and they were stuck here not through any intent to protest but just through the arbitrary laws that seem to be implemented by the government.

BUCK: Adam, Adam, we gotta go to a station break. Can we keep you on hold for a second?

SOOS: Sure. No problem.

BUCK: We got a few more questions to ask about the convoys since you’re with them. Is that all right?

SOOS: Yeah.

BUCK: Adam Soos with Rebel News. He’ll come back with us in a moment on the Canada trucker convoy.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

CLAY: We are talking with Adam Soos, who is up in Canada among some of the truckers to make sure that what is going on there is well covered. And, Adam, I appreciate you making the time for us. I know it’s a bit of a tempestuous time as you laid out for us at the border region there with the truckers. And this is maybe a piece of education that I would imagine many of our listeners also share with me in terms of being a bit ignorant about the way that Canada and the provinces interact with Justin Trudeau’s power.

You mentioned that there might be something coming where you were regarding what the mandates were. I know that the truckers have had an impact in some provinces in getting some of these rules changed. Can you give our audience a quick understanding of how province and federal authority applies in Canada and what these Canadian truckers with their protests have accomplished so far?

SOOS: Yeah, so effectively what we have is there’s a federal branch of government which we have our federal elections. We have provincial governments as well, and they have very much different mandates. There’s some overlap with funding and things like that. But generally, sort of health care matters as we have public health care and health authorities are largely provincially managing with some federal mandates sort of dictating and providing some overarching structure.

So with regards to covid-19 management, the federal government will provide some direction and obviously under Justin Trudeau that direction is everyone needs to get vaccinated over and over and over no matter what. Provinces have had different approaches. But, sadly, even our more staunchly conservative provinces — Saskatchewan, Alberta — they have largely caved and given into these types of programs including vaccine mandates.

So right now, unless you have a test for 72 hours, you can’t go into a movie theater unless you’re vaccinated; you can’t go to a restaurant, any of these types of things. So extremely exclusive. So province to province that can vary. Largely our premier would be someone who’s largely considered as butting heads with Justin Trudeau, but on covid-19, he’s seemingly caved on all fronts.

Saskatchewan, the adjourning province right next to us — adjoining province, rather — this morning they announced that they would be dropping restrictions. But they haven’t exactly laid out the timeline, to the best of my understanding. But they’ve at least made that acknowledgment. Today at 5 p.m. there is set to be an announcement that our restrictions will come too. Very much I suspect that they’re gonna say they do intend to drop it and they won’t lay out a very strict timeline.

It will likely be based on some sort of health care metrics like a reduction of people in hospitals relating to covid-19. But these truckers here want more than that, and I mean these politicians can profess that these truckers protesting do not have an impact. But the fact is since the original trucker convoy rolled out to Ottawa and since these boys have been down at the border blocking things up and taking a stand, the conversation around dropping restrictions has plummeted.

Unfortunately, it’s very political. These people don’t want to be seen as dropping restrictions. Our very progressive, very liberal society is quick to attack them and call them all sorts of bad names as we mentioned earlier. So I think that they’re playing that balancing act. But ultimately, they’ve been trampling on our freedoms for about two years, and it’s about time for it to come to an end.

BUCK: We’re speak to Adam Soos of Rebel News up in Canada. Right now, he’s at one of these trucker convoy protests. Adam, obviously Justin Trudeau despises this whole thing, and he doesn’t want to cave, but it is looking like the Canadian government here — especially given what’s happening in downtown Ottawa — is coming under increasing pressure. What would total victory look like here? Would it be a speech from Trudeau? Would it just be state after state in Canada dropping their mandates of their own volition at this point? What would be the truckers are all just celebrating getting what they want?

SOOS: Yeah. So the truckers effectively want the mandates to be dropped, no forced vaccination effectively, and people can argue over whether it’s forced vaccination. I mean, if you take away someone’s livelihood, take away all their access to society, on and on, that’s effectively forcing you. You’re not pinning them down and jabbing them but you’re taking away their entire livelihood.

They want all those mandates dropped across Canada not just here in Alberta, they want it across Canada. And furthermore, they want insistences and safeguards in place to ensure this can’t happen again. Now, that may not be a unilateral focus and emphasis based on all truckers, but the majority of the truckers I’ve spoken with down here, that is what they’re asking for: Permanent removal of vaccine mandates in Canada.

CLAY: How did this all start? Because we’re down in the states, and we’ve heard from a lot of truckers who many of them are listening in the United States, and they certainly have a great deal of affinity for their fellow truckers north of the border. How did this start, how organic was it, and how long has it been building to the point where we’ve reached what with a feels like a crucible moment in this protest?

SOOS: Yeah, so it’s been a few weeks. We are talking about fundamentally this movement has been going on for two years. Protests started… I’ve been covering them every week for two years. Sometimes we’re talking about hundreds of people coming out. Sometimes we’re talking about 10 of thousands in every city, every major city in Canada.

So this has been building for two years while most media outlets have failed, the doctors failed to take a stand, the pundits failed to take a stand. It took the blue-collar, hardworking, grassroots truckers to really capture the imagination and the hearts of the nation. So there have been convoys in the past, but they didn’t take off. This is a culminary moment in the history of Canada, I think, where other parts of the world were starting to change things.

The things that freedom fighters have said all along, you’re seeing even people like Fauci and doctors in the U.K. and the world was starting to shift. And premier — prime minister, rather — Justin Trudeau was utterly unwilling to shift or compromise from what is unscientific rhetoric, what he is espousing is unscientific rhetoric.

And so these truckers, I think they happened to come in at the perfect moment and they said, “You know what? We’re rolling across Canada and we’re standing together. Enough is enough.” And I think that the captured just the imagination of a nation that we indeed can be free. And I think it’s so incredible that it was working class truckers who brought everybody together at this crucial moment.

BUCK: Adam Soos of Rebel News up in Canada on the scene with the truckers. Adam, we’re hoping this comes to the positive resolution that everyone across the country here in the states hoping for listening to you right now, and we’ll continue to talk to you about it. Thanks for your work on the ground.

SOOS: Thanks so much. Really appreciate it.

CLAY: Fantastic work there in Canada.