The most recent leader of the PC Party of Newfoundland and Labrador says mistakes made during the pandemic must be accounted for or governments will jab and lock down Canadians again..Ches Crosbie made his comments in an interview with the Western Standard..“The public mood has to change. It's been changing. There are things you couldn't talk about a year ago you can talk about now, that people can have more or less rational discussions about. That pendulum will continue to swing,” Crosbie said..“But ultimately, we need a change of government at the federal level, for sure, in order to have accountability and in many provincial governments, because no government actually wants to do a look back, to decide how things could have been dealt with better. They figure it's too embarrassing.”.Crosbie joined the National Citizens Inquiry on COVID-19 as an administrator. During an NCI press conference last month, he said, “The ‘safe and effective’ slogan” was “nothing but a marketing pitch.” He added Canadians had been “duped into taking undue risks with [their] health and safety,” thanks to lying politicians and officials, and a “corrupted” Health Canada..The NCI stepped up where governments would not, Crosbie said..“A group of citizens have gotten together, a large group of citizens, in order to achieve some form of accountability because the governments don't want it,” said the former leader..“What it symbolizes is that there are many, many people in Canada who think that their governments have abandoned them.”.Testimony at the NCI highlighted many problems to Crosbie..“The resort to authoritarianism, the resort to stoking mob emotions, the trampling of human rights, the complete financial irresponsibility and opening the sluice gates of the money flow. I'd summarize it this way: the people who said before COVID, that you couldn't trust government, they won,” he explained..“The dominant theme was the Canada that we thought we knew has disappeared. And we're all worried about whether we're losing Canada or not and can we bring it back and save it?”.Crosbie fears the dark pandemic precedents could repeat themselves unless lessons are learned..“Some people say COVID is over, let's move on. Most of us don't agree. It's not over. They'll bring it back, if they sense an opportunity to do it.”.When asked who “they” were, Crosbie replied: “Certainly the Trudeau government is part of the ‘they’ and all of his supporting health officials who appear on TV now with their masks. This is all going on in lockstep,” he said..“The Trudeau Liberals are very deeply invested in the whole COVID narrative, and then locking people down and jabbing them up again should they have the least opportunity presented.”.Data leaked in February of 2022 showed Crosbie had given $800 to the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa through Give Send Go, as did more than 92,000 other donors. .As for Newfoundland, the provincial PCs have been without a leader since Crosbie resigned in March of 2021, a month after Andrew Furey’s minority Liberals won a majority. The son of the late John Crosbie, former federal cabinet minister and former lieutenant governor of Newfoundland, lost his seat of Windsor Lake by 534 votes..The election was controversial. A rise in COVID cases prompted officials to shut down in-person voting in the St. John’s area days before the election. Soon the whole province was forced to vote by mail. Some citizens complained that despite being on the phone for hours to request ballots, they could never get through. None of it sits well with Crosbie..“It was the most screwed up election in modern Canadian history,” he said..“You could only vote by mail. I think we can probably all recognize that lends itself to many abuses. And there were many abuses.”.Crosbie said three cases will finally go to trial in February regarding the “mishandling of the last election.”.“I think people are going to be amazed at the evidence that comes out that shows how mismanaged and corrupt that electoral process was,” he said..“There are many irregularities, and many examples of the chief electoral officer completely disregarding what the legislation required of him in order to achieve a fair election. The lawsuit alleges many breaches of the electoral laws and of the Charter of Rights as well.”.Crosbie said some ridings were quite close and the three-seat Liberal majority could be in jeopardy..“When you're in court, it's never a sure thing. But I'm confident that the allegations that have been made in the lawsuit will be borne out.”.But has the court record on pandemic matters inspired such confidence?.“It's a very mixed bag. I think the way the courts in the United States have responded is more consistent with a commitment to defending the rights of the people. Canadian judges have not stepped up in the same way,” Crosbie said.
