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Chair Closes Day 3: Permission to Speak and Meeting Adjourned

Day 3 · 8:37:27 · Dean Allison · Drew Taylor · Cst. Helen Grus

  • 🗣️ Allison thanks Grus for taking a costly stand and frames the inquiry as giving the injured permission to speak about difficult things.
  • 🚫 He warns post-COVID legislation increasingly adds censorship and government overreach that further erode open debate.
  • 🏁 After thanking interpreters, volunteers and the global audience he adjourns Day 3, to resume at 8:30 for the final day.

Final reflections on free speech and formal adjournment of Day 3.

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Transcript

Dean Allison · 8:37:27

I'll get off my soapbox. Yeah, well, we appreciate you being here. So this guy flew a red-eye overnight so he could be here to hang out with us, so we appreciate that. And, and Mr., we thank you so much for— I didn't know we were going to get a chance to have you in. This wasn't planned originally, but we're so grateful that you were able to to take the time. We appreciate the stand you've taken. And, you know, really, I think the point of what we've been trying to do is that we, we want to give people permission to talk about difficult things. Really, that's what it ultimately boils down to. We've lost the ability in society to talk about difficult things. We've lost the ability to agree to disagree, right?

Drew Taylor · 8:38:05

Yes.

Dean Allison · 8:38:05

Just because I disagree with you doesn't mean I hate you. Doesn't mean that we can't ever discuss And we've gotta get back to that. We gotta get back to that. And the only way we get back to that is by being able to talk about difficult things. We've lost that ability. And I see legislation coming down that continues to encroach on our freedoms, continues to encroach on censorship. And all that legislation that's happened has just happened since COVID where the first part of the bill is not bad, it's probably well-intentioned. The back end of the bill talks about more censorship, more overreach, more government overreach. So I think that we should be allowed to talk about difficult things, and that's what we're doing. We're having a conversation. We're giving those that have been injured permission to speak publicly about things they have not been able to talk about. And we need to do that on a whole bunch of different topics. But the topic I think that we're here to talk about today is those that are injured and giving them a voice and being allowed to have them to have a conversation with family members, with neighbors, with community members.

Dean Allison · 8:39:11

And so it starts here, and you're part of that discussion. And we thank you for taking a stand and for doing what you believe is right, because it's, it's never really that easy, is it?

Cst. Helen Grus · 8:39:23

No, but if you again focus on the good, and God will get us where we need to be.

Dean Allison · 8:39:28

Well, listen, we're a little bit over time, and, and I have to always thank our interpreters. These guys do an amazing job. Thank you very much for what you've done. To all the volunteers that are here working every day, we want to thank you. To all the people in the audience and, and everyone that's watching around the world, thank you for being with us on Day 3. We have one more day. It's hard to believe that we've been through 3 days already out of, out of, uh, out of our 4 possible So with that, I'm going to end the meeting and we'll see everybody at 8:30. Meeting adjourned.