PILOT GREG HILL CALLS ON CANADIANS TO HAVE COURAGE ~ MILITARY & POLICE NOW IS THE TIME TO SPEAK UP

Video Transcript:

Good day. I made these remarks on Parliament Hill yesterday, but watching where our nation is heading, I feel they're worth making again more broadly. I'm Greg Hill, a co-director group called Free to Fly, made up of over 40,000 aviation passengers and professionals all dedicated to the freedoms of our nation coast to coast. I also served in our military for 32 years in both the regular and reserve force as a military pilot. My remarks are somewhat related to aviation, but they're more broadly a call to courage to everyone in this country, but particularly to those in the military and law enforcement. In regards to aviation, there's a three word fairly well known disaster-averting life-saving statement. Here it is. This is stupid. Sounds kind of silly, I know, but join me quickly as I return back to March of 1977 in the island of London. There were two 747s that are just civilian airlines at the time, one KLM and one Pan Am, taxing slowly in dense, dense fog. The KLM flight was eager to take off, but unknown to them, the Pan Am flight was still crossing at the departure end of the runway. Now, both the first and second officer of that KLM aircraft quietly harbored growing concerns with whether or not the runway was actually clear. But they didn't speak up. It had been a long day. They diverted from their original destination and 243 passengers were tired, frustrated, and needed to get to their destination. Timelines were short. The results of compelling reasons for them to go. So the captain took the runway because he thought it was clear and off they went. That KLM flight ended up slicing through the Pan Am jet, killing 583 people, and it remains to this day the greatest deadliest disaster in aviation history. And with the throttle jammed wide open on that takeoff roll in the KLM flight with a speed increasing towards 100 knots, the first officer who seemed to have been concerned for a while, timidly says, is he not clear? Now, from where we sit many years later, it's easy to see this as tragic and unbelievable. But it happened through what could be seen as a fairly simple combination of complacency, deferring to authority, and not wanting to rock the boat by questioning. So as years passed afterwards, aviators have studied this and other tragedies trying to find ways not to repeat them. And this is where a jarring statement like this is stupid come in. When the person you're flying with doesn't respond to typical prompts or does something ill advised and time is short, then this is stupid or this is dangerous. Jar them awake to imminent danger. Now, fast forward to Canada in 2022, there's a dense fog gripping this nation. It's obscuring truth, dividing our nation, and clouding the consciences of good men and women. Our government has the throttles jammed full forward in a race for totalitarian control. Many of you have the power of influence, whether that's media, policing, politics, the military, business leadership, and the public. You know the truth of what's happening around you is your told lies. When you're asked to repeat the lies or worse, ask to crush the voice and freedoms of your fellow citizens. A voice inside you is saying, this is stupid, this is dangerous, this is wrong, and it is. But that voice inside you is useless if you stay silent. You have to summon the courage to say no. I want to address our military and our law enforcement particularly. You stand in these hours in a unique and critical place. What we've witnessed over the past days is dark and difficult. Scenes most of us thought we'd never see in this nation, with law enforcement tactical equipment facing off against peaceful unarmed demonstrators. Now I've watched with renewed hope this week as some courageous officers have spoken out. We had a retired RCMP officer stand on Parliament Hill yesterday. Speaking to the importance of his oath to uphold the Constitution and not comply with unlawful orders. This is huge and we commend all of you who've spoken. You as military and police stand in the gap between the forces of tyranny and the freedoms of our people. Now many more of you are actively but silently questioning what's being asked of you. I asked you be silent no more. Jordan Peterson says, it's not safe to speak but it's even less safe not to speak. Pay the price for speaking or pay the price for being a surf, subject to the whims and wills of those who sit silent before. Men and women of the armed and police service we applaud you. Your spouses, parents to children. You've been riding the ups and downs that we all have for these past few months and you've served honorably, sacrificing and protecting us over the years at great costs. I ask you don't dishonor this history, don't dishonor your service. We will all pay a dear price for silence and blind obedience. If you act in ways that violate your conscience and oath we are headed to dark places. Be men and women of courage. Now you may be saying I'll wait until they ask me to go too far but then it's not much different than that jet hurtling down the runway at 100 knots. It's too late then. This is your hour. Now is the time. Speak out reinforcing your commitment to your oath. We need a wall of courage to stand in the gap for the citizens of this nation. In closing all of us have a unique call on our lives in these hours. Speak the truth at all costs. You may be telling yourself it will cost too much. You've got a family, a future. But exactly your family and their future, our families and our futures are the reasons we must stand up and speak out. There is no future for our children if we enable the instruments of darkness with our silence. Make no mistake. We are in a battle for our future and it will be a long battle. Mandates and injections, they're only the start. But know this. Good will triumph over evil. But it will do so when honorable people in large numbers are willing to sacrifice. There's a direct relationship between our willingness to sacrifice and the power that these authoritarian hold over us. A people who counter to joy to suffer loss for a greater cause disarm them of their power. So to those in government and leadership seeking to control our lives, I say you can take our income, our career, you can take our home, our comfort. But you cannot take our dignity. You cannot take our freedom to choose and nor will you ever steal our resolve to fight for our freedom with all of our will. My fellow Canadian freedom lovers, let the nation know we won't be silent and we won't back down in our commitment to truth and freedom. May God keep our land glorious and free.