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Censorship, Convoy Prosecutions, and Empty Seats

Day 1 · 8:25:09 · Jason Lavigne · Ron Johnson

  • 📵 Johnson says Facebook has “blood on its hands” for shutting injured support groups, and only lawsuits forced platforms to ease censorship.
  • 🚛 Ongoing Canadian prosecution of convoy organizers does not surprise him; power corrupts and Canada’s response was worse than America’s.
  • 🪑 He appreciates the few MPs and independent media who showed up and expects legacy outlets will eventually be forced to cover the inquiry.

Discussion turns to platform censorship, trucker-convoy fallout, and sparse official attendance.

← Post-Hearing: Johnson on Media Capture and the COVID Cartel | Independent Media, Compensation Gaps, and Tam Search →

Transcript

Jason Lavigne · 8:25:09

And this was a place where people were looking to just be heard and be able to share their experiences. It was being shut down. Uh, for example, we had our YouTube channel deleted 3 times because we would just talk about what's going on in the news. We weren't making medical claims, but there was claims in the news. Uh, this has changed now. It's so much changed now. But how can we make sure this doesn't happen again?

Ron Johnson · 8:25:29

Well, the only reason it's changing is, is, uh, Louisiana and Missouri brought a lawsuit against Biden administration and won. And so it was revealed that the Biden administration was putting pressure on companies like Facebook to, again, censor malinformation. There was a truth that they just didn't like. Uh, so that, that was incredibly crucial. But no, I mean, Facebook, they've got blood on their hands. The fact they shut down these support groups for the, the COVID injection injured, that results in people's suicides. They lost any kind of comfort, any kind of solace, because they lost contact that, that, that, uh, Facebook group, and that's Facebook that caused it.

Jason Lavigne · 8:26:10

Now there's a lot of people here in Ottawa that were around during the trucker convoy in 2022, and you brought that up in your testimony as something that was kind of shocking to you to see the government respond that way. Is it shocking to you to find out that the government's still appealing the decisions and the acquittals that happened to this day? Tamara Leach and Chris Barber are still under prosecution.

Ron Johnson · 8:26:29

Doesn't surprise me because I'm not a fan of government. Uh, as I said in the testimony, one more definition of government is Power. And as Lord Acton said, power corrupts. So it's a corrupt process. Um, no, I— it was, it was disappointing. I mean, as bad as it was in America, it was worse in Canada and Australia. Again, I kind of view these, you know, we're all soulmates here, right? We're brothers and sisters, you know, we spring from the same heritage. So it was hard, it was very sad to watch that. Uh, I hope this is the start of turning things around here in Canada.

Jason Lavigne · 8:27:00

Now you're here at the Allison Inquiry, the first day, the first testimony. So thank you very much for coming out. For that, but this is one of those, the first times in Canada that anything's happened on the Parliament Hill. Any MP has stood forward and you see around that table, there's 20 seats, but there's only 4 MPs there, a lot of empty seats. What are your thoughts about that?

Ron Johnson · 8:27:18

I appreciate the, the 5 that we had, including, you know, uh, MPLs and, um, that's not unusual. I mean, people, when you're not in session, they're out traveling districts, uh, doing, uh, you know, that type of thing. So I, I appreciate the, the ones that came and I appreciated the, the media that showed up as well. It is unfortunate that the CBC and other, other legacy media here in Canada didn't choose to cover it, but eventually they'll be forced to.