[00:00:00]

Ches Crosbie
Chief Greg Burke, do you affirm that this eagle feather symbolizes your direct connection to the Creator for your people, and you hold it in the spirit of honor and truth to your ancestors who have passed, and to your ancestral spirits who are here today to guide you and protect you, that the evidence you shall give in this matter shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

Chief Greg Burke
Je vais, I do. Wela’lin.

Criss Hochhold
Thank you, Chief Burke. For those of us that don’t know you, can you please state your name and let us know where you’re from?

Chief Greg Burke
Chief Greg Burke, originally from Cape Breton, Glace Bay. Don’t hold that against me, though. I run a financial practice in Halifax. I live outside of Halifax now and my office is in Bedford. My name is Chief Greg Burke.

Criss Hochhold
Thank you. Can you tell us a little bit about your background, Chief Burke?

Chief Greg Burke
Well, you don’t want to know it all, but I just want to share with you that I do have four years of nursing at Toronto East General, and I’m just not another head in the crowd. So going through this was very difficult for me knowing that the knowledge that I had through my training—that I worked in the OR, cardiac arrest unit. We did training in pathology as well as the OR, so I’m well versed—not only in our Constitution or my treaty rights, but I’m also well versed in the medical field in sterilization.

Criss Hochhold
Chief Burke, I understand you’ve had some significant health issues fairly recently—pretty much at the onset of COVID—that are not COVID-related. Can you tell us more about those please?

Chief Greg Burke
Yeah, I diagnosed myself with cancer back in 2019. Our medical system being what it is, what I told my doctor—I guess maybe I shouldn’t have directed the doctor—but I told him I wanted to go to a private clinic and get an ultrasound done and get my bloodwork done. It all came back negative, so I went on my way, thinking I was getting old, I guess, and figured it was just an old age thing.

In January 2021, I went to him and said, “I definitely have cancer.” I said, “I have to get a colonoscopy done,” so I had a colonoscopy done. I ended up with surgery in April of 2021, followed by eight treatments of chemo, which ended on December 24th of 2021. Following that, when they did the CT scan, they found three blood clots in my lungs due to the chemo treatment, so they had me on a high dose of blood thinners from January through to June.

Criss Hochhold
Were you on any medication for your cancer?

Chief Greg Burke
Yeah, I had the eight treatments of chemo, as well as they gave me dilaudid, which I didn’t use. I didn’t need dilaudid, and through my surgery I didn’t need dilaudid. Although, they told me to take it. They said opioids get a bad rap, but for some reason I didn’t have pain. But I took the dilaudid home with me. And, of course, they give you all kinds of mouthwash to kill the lumps and bumps that get in your mouth, and the lumps and bumps that get all over your body. So you know—yeah, I was on medication as well as the blood thinners.

Criss Hochhold
You said you had lumps and bumps all over your body. Can you tell us more about that? That’s related to the medication?

Chief Greg Burke
Yeah, it was hard to describe. It got to the point where it got so bad that I couldn’t touch myself, actually. Because there were, like, little hives, millions of little hives all over your body.

[00:05:00]

And the chemo treatment causes tissue damage. So even as I sit here today, my feet are on fire from the tissue damage as well as tissue damage on your hands. Someday maybe they’ll get back to normal. But as I was explaining to you, Criss, even today I struggle trying to take the top off plastic Tupperware.
Criss Hochhold
Did the medications affect your cognitive abilities at all?

Chief Greg Burke
Well, combined with the operation and the chemo treatment, you end up with chemo fog brain they call it.

Criss Hochhold
What does that mean? Can you explain that a little bit further? What do you mean by that? What happens?

Chief Greg Burke
Well, a cop asked me that, and he said, “What do you mean by chemo fog brain?” The best way I can describe it is, it’s not like you’re drunk, but it’s almost like you’re in a daze, like you’re stupid. So your reaction time and your thinking time isn’t sharp. You do everything slow. You move slow. You talk slow. You react slow.

Criss Hochhold
So it takes you a little bit longer to process information, when you were having a conversation sometimes, depending on it at that time?

Chief Greg Burke
Yeah, you have to compress it and then react.

Criss Hochhold
Because of the chemo treatments that you went through, and the diagnosis of the blood clots in your lungs, were you given a medical exemption, for example, for wearing a mask?

Chief Greg Burke
Well, when I started the chemo treatment in June of 2021, they gave me a yellow card. I’ll just show that to everybody if they’re not familiar with it. This is a “go to the emerge.” card. There are all kinds of warnings on it—if you’re having a heart attack or high blood pressure or fever, whatever, I override everything in the emerge. other than a car accident.

And because of this, you’re very susceptible to bacteria or whatever. Everything I know about wearing the chin diaper, working in the O.R., what people were wearing was really a joke to me. And when I seen people wearing it, I felt sorry for them, knowing how dangerous it was for their health.

Criss Hochhold
I’m just going to quickly forward the commissioners that exhibit Chief Burke is referring to. There are a number of them, and the labels will be TR-0010, as well as TR-0010a through e. Those will be the exhibits that we’re referring to.

Chief Burke, I’m going to fast forward a little bit. I want to take you to an incident on February 9th, 2022, at approximately 3 p.m. Can you tell me about that, please?

Chief Greg Burke
Sure. Well, because I wasn’t wearing a mask—I didn’t wear a mask at any time in hospitals. I was there every 14 days to get my blood checked to make sure my hematology was good and white cells were fine.

Actually, I’ll share something with you: it’s when I first arrived there to get my blood checked to take my first treatment of chemo. There was a lady there, said while I was going to the washroom—I didn’t hear her say, but my wife heard her say: “You make him wear a mask.” And the oncologist came up to my wife with the mask not sterilized. You know, if you’re going to touch these things, you have to be sterilized, you’ve got to scrub up. Anyway, the oncologist said to my wife, “Could you get your husband to wear a mask?” And Susan said, “Good luck with that.” When they asked me, I said, “No, I’m not going to wear it.” I said, “It’s on your finger. You’re not sterile, so I’m not going to touch it.”

And I went into several stores. And of course, when I explained to them my condition, they were okay with it.

Criss Hochhold
And you went into Canadian Tire. Now, I really just would like for you to talk to us about what happened up until the interaction with the owner, because I would like to show a video for that particularly.

Chief Greg Burke
Yeah. I went into Canadian Tire, as Criss said, on February the 9th.

[00:10:00]

It was around quarter to three. And I was going to return an item, and I walked up to the return desk. There was a huge plexiglass on the return desk, a girl behind it wearing a face mask. And I put my item down and she said, “You’ve got to wear a mask.” I said, “I don’t wear a mask.” She said, “Do you have an exemption?” I said, “Yeah, I do have an exemption.” She said, “Well, I can’t wait on you.” I said, “Why not?” And she said, “Well, you’re a danger to my health.” I said, “You’re behind a plexiglass wearing a mask. How am I a danger to your health?” And she said, “Well, you’re a danger. I’m not going to wait on you.” And she walked away from me, and I said, “Well, can I speak to the manager?”

And bear in mind here, I’ve got chemo brain. So it’s almost like you’re in sort of a dream here. So she picked up the phone, and I stood there probably for five minutes, six minutes waiting for the manager to show up. Everybody was calling. The girls at the cash register were trying to get a hold of a Mr. Keating. And while I was leaning against the railing, this individual—did you want me to go further with this?

Criss Hochhold
Nope, I want you to go right up to the point that you’re going through now.

Chief Greg Burke
This individual showed up, and he kind of towered over me, and he started—

Criss Hochhold
One second, Greg, I’m going to stop you right there. Unfortunately, I don’t have HDMI capability on my side, so I need to walk over to Chief Burke to show you the video on the laptop.

Chief Greg Burke
Did you want me to keep explaining?

Criss Hochhold
I’m going to play the video. And when I play the video for you, you can watch it. You can narrate it.

Chief Greg Burke
So Criss asked me to narrate this for you while it’s on the screen. So you can see me, I’m up at the desk.

Criss Hochhold
I’m putting the arrow to Chief Burke, as you can see there. He’s the gentleman in the blue.

Chief Greg Burke
I noticed that gentleman in the blue kept looking at me because I didn’t have a mask.

Criss Hochhold
I’m just going to skip forward just a little bit until the interaction occurs. Because now you’re waiting for a few minutes.

Chief Greg Burke
Okay, so she’s waiting on me there, or telling me that she can’t wait on me. I asked to speak to the manager. So she disappeared there, and she went on the phone to call the manager. And I stepped back, and you see me leaning there while I’m waiting. And I waited, and I waited, and I waited. And there, this guy shows up. He never asked me who I was, or what I was doing there, nothing. He just immediately started saying, “If you’re not going to wear a mask,” and he’s screaming, “leave the store!” And you can see his hand gesture.

You can see me asking him to calm down because he’s white-faced, dry-mouthed, and very confrontational. I’m saying, “I just want to explain something to you.” He said, “No, I’m not going to listen to you. If you’re not going to wear a mask, get out.” And you see him shaking his head back and forth, saying no. And that’s when he gave me three options. First option was, I can do my business out on the street. Second was, I can do it online—this is returning an item now. And the third, I can wear a mask. And I immediately said to him, “No, that’s not an option. But let me think of my other option.” And I put my head down to figure out, “How am I going to do this outside? They’ve got to bring the machine out.” This was how my brain was working that day.

And then when I left, I didn’t notice he went to the other side. And when I raised my head to ask him how I was going to do it outside, he immediately said— Okay, you see him grabbing me there. Immediately said, “If you’re not going to wear a mask, I’m going to throw you out.” And I said, “What do you mean? Like, you’re physically going to throw me out?” I couldn’t believe he said that. He said, “That’s right.” I laughed at him, and I started to leave. And I said, “That wouldn’t be a good idea.” But I wasn’t referring to that I would knock him out, which maybe I should have.

[00:15:00]

What I was referring to was my health. I’m on high a high dose of blood thinners, I’m suffering from chemo brain fog. And I’m not myself, so that’s what I am referring to.

I think that triggered him. And that’s why he grabbed me. And I pushed him off me and I was warning him not to touch me. But he came at me again and I pushed him off again. And he backs me up to the return desk. I thought that I grabbed him to hold him off—obviously, the video, I didn’t do that. But I did warn him. I said, “Look, don’t you dare touch me.” I said, and this is the way I said it, because I’m not an excitable type of individual. There, he grabs me again. And I had to push him away again. And that’s where I told him, “Don’t touch me, I can hurt you. And believe me, I can hurt you.” So at that point, he’s hollering, giving directions to call the cops.

Right about now, I’m very nervous. I’m not afraid of him. But I’m nervous of him doing something that I’m not expecting, and he’d get the advantage over me. Because if you know anybody on blood thinners, you get cut, you’re going to bleed pretty bad. So that was my worry there. And I told him, “Well, I’m going to call the cops. You go ahead. I’m going to have you charged with assault.”

While I was leaving—Criss is not showing that—but as I was leaving, he kept following me. I said, “Don’t follow me.” Because I was worried that he was going to jump me from behind. And anyway, I went out into my car. And I waited in my car. I called 911 when I was in my car. And he came out. And I thought, okay, he’s come to his senses. He’s going to come and apologize.

Criss Hochhold
I’m sorry Greg. I thought I pressed play to finish the video and I walked away. My apologies for that.

Chief Greg Burke
Okay. So he’s giving orders to the girl to call the cops, and right about now—I don’t know, this guy is unpredictable. I mean, he’s crazy. His eyes were like that, coming at me.

Criss Hochhold
Chief Burke, I know that the video is still playing, and we can probably switch off that. Thank you again because you do exit the store at that point in time. The lady that walked off: She at this time is actually calling 911 and the audio recording for that is available to the commissioners. It is one of the exhibits. As well as, Chief Burke, after the confrontation, and you went outside, I know the store owner followed you, but what happened outside of the store? Did you call anybody?

Chief Greg Burke
Yeah, I called 911 and told them that I’ve been assaulted, and I want charges laid against the— I thought he was the manager. I didn’t know he was the owner.

Criss Hochhold
For the commissioners, that 911 recording is also part of the exhibits that you can listen to. After that, what had taken place? Fast forward to when the police officer arrives. What happened then?

Chief Greg Burke
Yeah, I was talking to two RCMP officers that were in the parking lot at the time. They were on their coffee break and we were chatting. I waited about 15-20 minutes and this Bedford cop showed up. He asked me what was going on. I said, “Go watch the video and come back and talk to me.” Which he did. He went in and he come back out. It was a beautiful day, and he was wearing one of those N95 masks. And I thought, “Oh boy, this is going to be good for me.” They called the right guy.

So anyway, he went in and he came out and he said, “Yeah, I watched the video.” He said, “Yeah, he grabbed you, but you defended yourself, I’m not going to charge him, I’m not going to charge you.” And I said, “You’re not going to charge me? I defended myself.” He said, “Well, he’s allowed to do that.” Yeah. So the Bedford Canadian Tire store: bring a bodyguard with you because they’re allowed to grab you.

Criss Hochhold
Chief Burke, excuse me, please. Keep it down please, thank you. Chief Burke, the interaction with the police officer: Can you tell me specifically about that? What was the conversation you had with him and what was the result of that?

Chief Greg Burke
Well, it wasn’t much. After he said that he wasn’t going to charge me, he said, “I’m going to give you a ticket.” I said, “a ticket for what?”

[00:20:00]

He said, “for not wearing a mask.” I said, “a ticket for not—” I’m thinking, what ticket? And he walked away, and didn’t ask me what transpired inside, nothing. And he went to his car, and I waited and waited in my car.

And then I went over to his car in probably about 15, 20 minutes. I said, “What’s going on?” He said, “Well,” he said, “I’m having difficulty. They change the rules all the time, so I got to find out if I’m charging you with the right thing or not.” So he said, “I apologize for taking so long, but here’s a ticket for not wearing a mask.” And I said, “Not wearing a—what the heck?” And I look: it was $2,422, something like that.

Criss Hochhold
So the interaction with the police officer resulted in you receiving a fine for not wearing a mask. Did the officer at any point ask you if you had a mask exemption?

Chief Greg Burke
No.

Criss Hochhold
So there were no inquiries whatsoever about what transpired inside? He went inside the store and he felt satisfied with what he observed to issue you a fine but not proceed with anything else?

Chief Greg Burke
Yeah. But I found out later, when I tried to force him to put an assault charge on this guy. When I spoke to his sergeant, his sergeant said, “Well, I read his notes and I don’t see that we should file assault charges. It’s not going to go anywhere.”

Chief Greg Burke
And I said, “You read my notes?” He said, “Well, yeah.” I said, “He didn’t take any whatever from me. He didn’t take any statement.” He said, “Well, we got it on—” I said, “Well, he didn’t even talk to me about it.” So he said, “I’ll send over an officer now.”

So anyway, where was I?

Criss Hochhold
Chief Burke. I would like to stop this one here because we have another very important incident that we definitely have to get to.

Chief Greg Burke
I just will say this, that the cop lied to Canadian Tire and told him I was banned for six months. He never ever put a ban on me for six months. So this guy was a loose cannon.

Okay.

Criss Hochhold
So thank you. I now want to fast forward you 30 days to an incident on March 9th that you were also involved in. Can you briefly describe that for me?

Chief Greg Burke
Well, that was actually 30 days after the Canadian Tire assault. So Canadian Tire was February 9th and this is March 9th. And there was a homeless guy that I knew from years ago living in his car, so I thought I’d go and buy him supper. It was a late evening, so we went to A&W. I walked in, and the girl said, “you got to wear a mask.” I said, “I don’t wear a mask,” and she said, “well, you do your order by the plexiglass.” So I ordered for both of us and all of a sudden, this guy comes out—you can tell he was a migrant—he comes out of the door like a cannon had shot him through the door and started screaming for me to wear a mask. And I said, “well I got my order, it’s right there.” And he kept saying, “you got to wear a mask.” He was screaming, he was really upset. I said, “well, do I wear a mask if I sit down?” “No.” I said, “well I’ll sit down, and you can bring it.” No, he wouldn’t do it. I said, “how long you been in the country?” He said, “three months.” I said, “Did they teach you anything about the Canadian Bill of Rights?” “I don’t care about your Canadian Bill of Rights.” I said, “If you don’t care about my Canadian Bill of Rights, you go back to the country where you don’t have rights.” Anyway, he said, “Well, I’m calling the RCMP.” I said, “Go ahead.” I said, “Give me my money back.” He wouldn’t give me my money back, so I said, “When the RCMP come, I’m charging you with theft, because I want my money, I’m leaving. Now.” And this is the way I was talking.

Criss Hochhold
I’m sorry. I hate to interject, but in the interest of time, can you take us to the moment outside, when the police arrived, regarding this incident?

Chief Greg Burke
Yeah, I’m not a long-winded person but I’ll try to be short. As I was leaving, two RCMP officers were walking in, and they said, “What’s going on?” I said, “I came here to order food. They took my order, then he wouldn’t give me my money back, and I’m just about to leave.” He said, “Let’s go outside and we’ll talk about it.” I said, “okay.” We go outside, and he said, “Do you have your ID?” I said, “yeah.” “Show me your ID.” I said, “Did I break the law?” He said, “no.” I said, “Well, you don’t need my ID. I’m leaving.” He said, “no you’re not.” I said, “I’m detained?” “No.” I said, “Well, I’m leaving.” “Give me your ID.” “No.” So that went back and forth.

As this was going back and forth and I was trying to explain to the RCMP the rights and the laws

[00:25:00]

this little RCMP officer is coming across the parking lot. He immediately grabbed me and tried to throw me up against the wall. He said he was going to charge me with resistance. I said, “I’m not resisting.” I said, “You can handle my arms.” I said, “Just relax.” I said, “I’ll give you my arms if you want to handcuff me. You want to go down this rabbit hole, let’s go down this rabbit hole.” So I helped them handcuff me from behind and then he started pushing me towards his car. I warned him not to push me and he didn’t push me after that. And we get in the car.

Now, you have to appreciate, my skin is still hurting from the chemo treatment. He was helpful, he helped me get my legs in the backseat of the car. Because if anybody’s been in the backseat of the RCMP car, they’re like getting in a coffin. So anyway—

Criss Hochhold
Chief Burke, I want to just really touch upon when you had that interaction with the one police officer. You were having a conversation about the masking situation when an officer approached, came across in the parking lot and basically put his hands on you to affect the rest. They did tell you that you were under arrest at any time before they laid their hands on you, before they touched you?

Chief Greg Burke
Sorry. Repeat that again?

Criss Hochhold
When the second officer came and who then physically tried to take control of you, did he advise you that you were under arrest at that time?

Chief Greg Burke
No, no.

Criss Hochhold
How much force would you say—I know it’s difficult to gauge, but when he tried to gain control of you, was there a struggle? Is that why he was saying, you know, stop resisting? Were you struggling? Were you resisting the officer?

Chief Greg Burke
Yeah, he tried to slam me up against the brick wall. That’s what he tried to do, and I tried to prevent it because I didn’t want my face to go into the brick wall because I’m still on blood thinners.

Criss Hochhold
Right, so then you were cooperative, and you allowed him to put the handcuffs on?

Chief Greg Burke
Yeah, and I wasn’t combative or saucy or anything. I was just standing up for my rights.

Criss Hochhold
Were you handcuffed in the front or in the back?

Chief Greg Burke
Back.

Criss Hochhold
And then he pushed you towards the police car?

Chief Greg Burke
Yeah. Yeah, he pushed me several times.

Criss Hochhold
Okay. What did you say to him when he was pushing you?

Chief Greg Burke
I told him not to push me again.

Criss Hochhold
And then you walked to the police car, and he put you in the back of the police car. And he assisted you putting your legs in, because the backs of police cars are very, very small.

Chief Greg Burke
Confined, yes.

Criss Hochhold
Thank you, yes. What happened then?

Chief Greg Burke
He read me my rights and asked me if I understood them. And I said, “I understand the rights,” but I don’t understand why he read them. And I said, “what are you charging me with?” He said, “creating a disturbance.” I started laughing, I said, “The only fools that created a disturbance is the little guy that got shot out of a cannon there, and you.” I said, “I didn’t create this disturbance.”

And so we had a conversation about the handcuffs. I said, “Look, you got to take these off.” I said, “I’m not a threat to you.” I said, “I never was a threat to you.” I said, “I don’t know why you’re overreacting the way you are, but,” I said, “let’s go down this rabbit hole.”

So while we’re having this conversation, the Mountie that initially spoke to me came and they had a powwow in the front of the RCMP car. And then the guy that put the handcuffs on me, he said, “I’m going to give you a ban for six months.” And of course—I was teasing him—I said, “Oh my god, I’m going to starve to death. I’m not going to get out—” You know, I was basically being a smart ass, but I thought he deserved it.

When I get out of the car, I tried to ask him a legal question about showing your ID. Finally, after four or five attempts, he finally answered my question. And I asked him, I said, “if I’m walking down the street at 3 o’clock in the morning, do you have the right to pull me over? Although I’m not committing a crime, do you have the right to ask for my ID?” He said, “If I’m suspicious, I can.” Now that’s totally wrong.

So anyway, the two of them are under investigation.

Criss Hochhold
Chief Burke, I will eventually get to that, that’s okay. Once your interaction ended, you were given a piece of paper, which you understood to be basically a Protection of Property Act notice banning you from entering the A&W, that location?

Chief Greg Burke
No onion rings for six months.

Criss Hochhold
I’m sorry?

Chief Greg Burke
No onion rings for six months.

[00:30:00]

Criss Hochhold
But you were banned from the property for six months?

Chief Greg Burke
That’s correct, yeah.

Criss Hochhold
And did the officer open a piece of paper that he served you with and did he explain that to you?

Chief Greg Burke
No, he folded it over and gave it to me.

Criss Hochhold
Okay, so it was folded over, and he gave it to you, and he told you that you were banned verbally for six months. Was there anything within that piece of paper?

Chief Greg Burke
Yeah, I discovered after I opened the paper, there was a ticket for not wearing a mask: $2,422.

Criss Hochhold
Did the officer inform you at any time that you were being issued a citation for not wearing a mask?

Chief Greg Burke
Never. Neither one of them. And in fact, the ticket was written by the other Mountie, not by the Mountie that handcuffed me.

Criss Hochhold
Okay, as I understand it and what you’ve already said about it—

Chief Greg Burke
And oh, by the way—none of those RCMP officers were wearing a mask.
Criss Hochhold
The interaction you had with the officer outside of the store: They were not wearing a mask?

Chief Greg Burke
None of them were wearing a mask. In the store or outside.

Criss Hochhold
When you say “in the store,” did an officer have occasion to go inside the store? Did an officer go inside the store to find out what happened?

Chief Greg Burke
I don’t know. The only time I seen the girl and the initial constable was when I was leaving. I don’t know if they went back in.

Criss Hochhold
But that’s the initial contact inside the store—both of those officers came inside the A&W not wearing masks when you were there.

Chief Greg Burke
Correct.

Criss Hochhold
But you were issued a citation for not wearing a mask in a store, although they were not either when they entered the store.

Chief Greg Burke
Neither one of them wore a mask.

Criss Hochhold
Thank you for that. Chief Burke, I’m going to keep it short, but you’ve already stated as part of your testimony that you’ve made a complaint against these RCMP officers. You’ve made a public complaint?

Chief Greg Burke
To Ottawa, yes.

Criss Hochhold
Can you give me a brief overview of that?

Chief Greg Burke
Yeah, I called the sergeant to my house. He was a real nice guy; we had a good conversation. He was shocked that I was given a ticket without my knowledge. He said, “we don’t do business that way.” He wanted me to lodge a complaint with Ottawa, which I did. It’s still under investigation. The constable that is taking care of it on the local area has found the initial RCMP officers in six violations. The one that handcuffed me is under 12 violations. And they’ve asked me what I wanted done. And I said that I want the two of them fired.

Criss Hochhold
Thank you. Thank you for that Chief Burke. And in the interest of time, the documents are included and I will just defer to the commissioners for any follow-up questions.

Chief Greg Burke
Yeah, just one other thing that we didn’t touch on, Criss. He told me that— While I was in the car and he told me he was going to ban me he did say that he wasn’t going to charge me. I said, “Yes, you are.” So we had a little argument back and forth that I wanted him to charge me.

Criss Hochhold
To put that in context, that would be your interaction with the RCMP also at the A&W, when you were placed in the back of the police car.

Chief Greg Burke
Correct.

Criss Hochhold
And what were you arguing for to be charged with?

Chief Greg Burke
Well, he was going to charge me with disturbance, and then he said he wasn’t going to charge me. And I said, “No, I want you to charge me because we’re down this rabbit hole. So I want you to charge me.” He said, “No, I’m not going to charge you.” And I said, “Why not?” He said, “I’m not going to charge you.” That’s where we were.

Criss Hochhold
Thank you.

Chief Greg Burke
Thank you.

Commissioner Drysdale
We’re running out of time, but I judge you as a pretty amiable man. You’re social, and you’re communicative, and I have a feeling that you’re well-known in public to your community.
Chief Greg Burke
Yeah. My wife doesn’t want to go out with me because—

Commissioner Drysdale
Join the club! The question I have for you is: Have you had people react to you this way before? Before this whole pandemic did people generally react in this way to you?

Chief Greg Burke
Never. Never. I’m not a confrontational person, although I’ve never, ever backed away from a fight.

[00:35:00]

I’ve been an enforcer on the ice all my life, you know. And being brought up in Glace Bay, you know somebody looks at you— You know, coal mining town, you’re fighting all the time.

Commissioner Drysdale
Then Canadian Tire happened and that was an incident. And A&W happened so it’s not an isolated incident.

What do you think motivated these people to treat you this way—apart from the fact you weren’t wearing a mask? Why would they why would they react to you this way?

Chief Greg Burke
To sum it up, I would say the lack of knowledge, number one, the lack of education, and the influence that the medical health department and the politicians had on people by manipulating them.

Commissioner Drysdale
When you say the influence that the politicians and the media had on people, exactly what do you mean by that? What kind of influence?

Chief Greg Burke
Well, you had politicians that were passing laws that— You know, we got a young girl in here that she protested against Dr. Strange, or Strang, and she ended up in jail for six days. And the person that wrote that law, Brad Johns, who’s the Minister of Justice, happens to be one of the most crooked people. I don’t care about being so—

Commissioner Drysdale
Well, I think I’ve got my answer, but thank you very much.

Chief Greg Burke
Oh, you’re welcome.

Criss Hochhold
Thank you, Chief Burke.

Chief Greg Burke
Yeah. Wela’lin. I want to thank everybody for coming here. I was impressed.

Criss Hochhold
Just one second, Chief Burke. We do have one more question, I believe. Sorry about that.

Commissioner Kaikkonen
I just wanted to ask if the two fines have gone to court, and what was the outcome? Or was it stopped when you did the investigation against the RCMP?

Chief Greg Burke
Sorry, I didn’t hear you.

Commissioner Kaikkonen
I just wondered if there was any follow-up in court with the two fines. Or if the accusations—or the charge that you laid against the RCMP officers—if that has stopped the court action? I’m just wondering where it went from here, if there has been any follow-up?

Chief Greg Burke
My Canadian Tire ticket will be addressed on June the 1st at 6 o’clock. The RCMP ticket, I’m going to have to check on that. Criss and I had a conversation about that. He asked me if I went to court over that. And I said it was one of the stipulations— I asked the sergeant to drop it, given the fact that that it wasn’t presented to me.

Commissioner Kaikkonen
Thank you.

Criss Hochhold
Thank you very much, Chief Burke.

Chief Greg Burke
Wela’lin.

[00:38:20]

Final Review and Approval: Jodi Bruhn, August 3, 2023.

The evidence offered in this transcript is a true and faithful record of witness testimony given during the National Citizens Inquiry (NCI) hearings. The transcript was prepared by members of a team of volunteers using an “intelligent verbatim” transcription method.

For further information on the transcription process, method, and team, see the NCI website: https://nationalcitizensinquiry.ca/about-these-transcripts/

Summary

Chief Greg Burke, from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia has four years of nursing experience and had been diagnosed with cancer in 2019. His experience was that the required masks did not provide him sufficient protection, so he chose not to wear one. He experienced two significant altercations as a result, and details them both. One was in a Canadian Tire and the RCMP were called when he was assaulted by the store owner for failing to wear a mask. The other was at an A&W when he ordered a take-out order and wasn’t wearing a mask. Both times he was given hefty fines for failing to mask and banned from each establishment for six months. He has filed complaints in Ottawa against the RCMP officers.