From LifeSiteNews

By Clare Marie Merkowsky

‘ a failure as a document. The first time Canadians needed it and needed to lean upon it, it completely collapsed.’

The commissioner of Canada’s National Citizens Inquiry (NCI) revealed that the Charter of Rights and Freedoms allowed the Trudeau government to “override all of our rights at a whim.” 

In an interview posted December 26, NCI Commissioner Ken Drysdale told the Post Millennial that the COVID ‘pandemic’ revealed that Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms fails to protect Canadians’ rights, allowing all levels of government to override basic rights under the pretense of an ’emergency’.  

“You talk about Canadians’ naïveté. You know, we as Canadians, for the last 41 or 42 years, walked around with an umbrella closed waiting for a rainy day,” Drysdale said.  

In this episode of Stand on Guard, host David Krayden interviews Ken Drysdale, the commissioner of the National Citizens Inquiry that examined the reaction of government to the COVID-19.
FULL interview link in comments.👇

The inquiry interviewed thousands of people, amassed… pic.twitter.com/uTX4Cq5U3Z

— David Krayden (@DavidKrayden) December 26, 2023

“And what I’m talking about is the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The trouble was that after 40 some years we went to use that umbrella. We opened it up, and it was full of holes,” he revealed. 

“Because essentially what we did was we put a lock on the door,” he continued. “But then we put the key under the mat and told the thief that the key was under the mat and thought the lock was going to protect us … We wrote a Constitution which gave an out to the government: they could essentially declare an emergency and override all of our rights at a whim – and that’s what they did.” 

The citizen-led and funded NCI was created in 2022 to investigate the “unprecedented” COVID mandates imposed on Canadians by all levels of government. 

According to Drysdale, the Charter failed Canadians when they most needed it, allowing the government to force people to take the experimental COVID vaccine and wear masks, and to close businesses and churches.  

He argued that the Charter “was a failure as a document. The first time Canadians needed it and needed to lean upon it, it completely collapsed.” 

“You have these absolute governments who are shutting down our industry, who are taking away Canadians’ rights and freedoms,” he continued.  

Drysdale suggested that Canadians have become accustomed to a government which infringes on their rights and freedoms.  

“It wasn’t that much of a leap for Canadians to start wearing these masks,” he added. “… You can be driving down the road minding your own business and police have the right to pull you over for a check-stop and examine you with no probable cause.” 

RELATED: Canadian citizen-led inquiry’s final report calls for all COVID court cases to be reviewed at once

Drysdale’s comments echo the NCI’s final report which was released in November 2023. The report called for a full review of all COVID-related court cases to restore the public’s faith in Canada’s judiciary system.  

The final report is 5,324 pages long and includes dozens of recommendations for lawmakers, public institutions, and the general public to implement.  

It was compiled by four independent commissioners. The NCI was tasked with looking into the negative side effects many Canadians experienced after getting the experimental COVID shots. They listened to testimony from doctors affected by the jabs. 

LifeSiteNews covered previous testimony from the NCI. In Ottawa on May 18, former CBC Manitoba reporter Marianne Klowak revealed that reporters were prevented from covering stories critical of COVID vaccines and lockdowns and were instead encouraged to push government “propaganda.” 

Earlier this year, retired Canadian Lt. Col. David Redman testified before the NCI that legacy media outlets such as the CBC are “ministries of propaganda.” 

The four commissioners on the NCI included Drysdale, Janice Kaikkonen, elected school board trustee Heather DiGregorio, a senior partner in a law firm, and Bernard Massie, an independent consultant in biotechnology. 

Throughout most of the COVID crisis, Canadians from coast to coast were faced with COVID mandates, including jab diktats, put in place by both the provincial and federal governments. After much pushback, particularly from the Canadian truckers’ Freedom Convoy, most provincial mandates were eliminated by the summer of 2022. In late 2022, the Canadian federal government under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau finally “suspended” a COVID jab travel mandate for flying.