Rebel News reporter Ezra Levin Levin joins host David Menzies to discuss the trucker convoy that rolled into Ottawa last weekend, and the people who were there to witness it. Plus, a look back at the best commentaries of the week by your favourite Rebels.
00:08:27.140And the thing is, I think normally in the past, the government narrative, the media party narrative would win because they just have so much momentum and resources and they all repeat each other.
00:08:38.840But in this case, I don't think it's working.
00:08:43.200The first is obviously a great number of people who either participated or cheered along or were like one degree of separation from it.
00:08:51.100I would say that probably one million people either saw it, cheered it, waved it on, or were in somehow part of it and felt connected to it.
00:09:36.900So if 32% of Canadians see themselves in the truckers, well, that's certainly more than see themselves as New Democrats or the Conservative Party of Canada.
00:09:46.260That is an enormous force that really came out of nowhere in the last two weeks.
00:09:51.260Another measurement, and this is what I said in my speech, is the $10 million raised by the truckers.
00:09:57.660But more than that, it's a measurement of the passion out there and the commitment.
00:10:01.600I mean, there's no political party that's raised $10 million in the last two weeks.
00:10:04.880So, and why is it that all of a sudden, and Angus Reid shows similar polling, now a majority of people say, it's time to end the lockdowns.
00:10:20.840B, I'm not going to proceed with my tax the unvaxxed.
00:10:23.780Is he doing it because he's truly had a change of heart, like the Grinch's heart grew three sizes, or is it because he saw the polls and said, yikes, this is the first opposition that there's really been in two years.
00:10:36.360And wouldn't you know it's working because it's so authentic.
00:10:43.320And it's not affiliated with any political party.
00:10:45.380The entire political class has been discredited.
00:10:47.920And why did Scott Moe announce a complete end to all COVID rules?
00:10:55.100He didn't give a specific date, but he said it's imminent.
00:10:57.620Why did Jason Kenney move from saying, oh, maybe by St. Patrick's Day will be done, that's March 17th, to, oh, my God, I think in a few days we'll do.
00:11:20.420And by the way, pursuing the political angle you're going down with in terms of those political figures with those premiers, let us not forget the other big news of the week.
00:11:57.580First of all, it's the only intervening fact in the last two weeks of any substance.
00:12:04.640Second of all, it drew into sharp focus the fact that Aaron O'Toole has been a coward, has been unconservative, has not opposed, and has not led over the last two months.
00:12:20.660And the worst part was when he just went with that rictus grin, and he said, and people say, oh, that inauthentic plastic say nothing, don't answer.
00:12:35.620Like, it's just that he's grating the way he's so fake.
00:12:39.940I think, and you know what, there's so much pressure on grassroots MPs, and especially in the West, especially in Saskatchewan, especially, that they just say, you know what, we can see the writing on the wall.
00:12:52.200And you started to see little acts of rebellion.
00:12:54.740And between the acts of rebellion and O'Toole's own absolute vanilla say nothingness, it was just a crisis.
00:13:21.620And he was stressed by the fact that his grassroots were no longer obeying him on that.
00:13:28.020The truckers got rid of Aaron O'Toole, and I thank them for it.
00:13:30.800And you know, Ezra, I think he missed an opportunity.
00:13:35.200Had he gone out there to meet with the truckers, had he echoed the statements of Tucker Carlson on Fox News, who has been covering this issue, which is to say, I love what Tucker made this quote.
00:18:11.940Well, I think you answered it right there.
00:18:13.580Because it was, I mean, Black Lives Matter protests, which not so much in Canada, but throughout the United States, torched the urban center of a half dozen U.S. cities.
00:18:26.560Justin Trudeau actually went to join them, breaking his no public gatherings rule.
00:18:43.240I saw people picking up garbage, people shoveling snow, very peaceful, severely normal people who had never been to a protest before in their life.
00:18:49.900But because they're against the lockdown, they were demonized.
00:19:01.200Well, it worked for Justin's father in 1970, the War Measures Act.
00:19:04.380Yeah, and it's quite something for all the Ottawa insiders, for the media, for the bureaucrats, for the politicians to say, okay, you've had your two days of democracy.
00:19:14.820Now, shoo, shoo, shoo, you're done with your two days of democracy.
00:19:56.560I would never have thought that it would be the truckers to free us in in Alberta for Jason Kenney in the course of 24 hours to go from smearing those truckers in Trudeau language, in Aaron O'Toole language, claiming they're violent, to actually putting out a tweet saying, I'm with you.
00:23:07.200And we just as people want our freedoms back.
00:23:11.060And we're here to stay until that happens.
00:23:14.640Chad Williamson, counsel with the truckers.
00:23:16.960We are on day five of the trucker blockade down at the Coots border crossing.
00:23:20.580It's an early morning here and there hasn't been a lot of activity.
00:23:22.740Some enforcement attempts and threats were made yesterday, but I think the logistical issues associated with enforcement on this type of a protest,
00:23:31.020especially with some peculiar and large pieces of heavy equipment out on the highway,
00:23:35.620and the sheer volume of them creates an insurmountable issue for law enforcement to actually conduct enforcement operations.
00:23:44.380Now, I don't think that that's necessarily to say that enforcement is not going to take place.
00:23:49.900But frankly, I don't think that it is helpful for people like Mr. Kenney to be making allegations of assault without having all of the information before jumping to such conclusions.
00:24:01.460It's my understanding that the RCMP themselves are questioning whether or not that assault happened.
00:24:06.340And frankly, it is not helpful to be running confusing and aggressive narratives against people without having all of the evidence.
00:24:14.880We hope that this doesn't help to build bridges of cordiality, which is why we're here to try to de-escalate an already tense situation.
00:24:24.880So, folks, what is the saddest thing about the never-ending stream of misinformation being generated when it comes to coverage of the Freedom Convoy?
00:24:34.400Is it the outright lies or is it those who are telling the lies?
00:24:39.520After all, the patriots can expect to be vilified by those on the left and the mainstream media.
00:24:46.060But to be falsely maligned by the likes of Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, well, that's another matter altogether.
00:24:53.340Premier Kenney is allegedly a conservative.
00:24:56.080And it's a safe bet that the truckers and those who support them tend to vote conservative.
00:25:02.280So why is Kenney reporting outright falsehoods?
00:25:06.560And joining me now from Coots, Alberta, is Kian Simone and Sid Fezard.
00:25:22.900So, Kian and Sid, the question arises, did Premier Kenney make an honest mistake regarding the, you know, ramming incident that never happened?
00:25:32.260Or is he, for whatever reason, demonizing truckers now, too?
00:25:38.400Well, when it comes to stuff like that, I don't think there's such a thing as an honest mistake making accusations like that.
00:25:43.820But maybe Kian would want to fill you in more.
00:25:45.480He's been talking to some of the guys more closely about that situation.
00:30:45.200And train traffic was completely stymied.
00:30:48.420As you mentioned earlier, there are two lanes open at the border crossing right now.
00:30:53.900Why is it that one group of people for one blockade, they have seemingly as much time as they want to do their protests or their demonstration or their blockade?
00:31:08.240And for these truckers, the moment it's a few days old, there's this urgency to dismantle it.
00:31:53.360But that's why I think they enacted so fast, and they wanted to shut this right down because the second those farmers got angry, they started blocking highways down here.
00:32:02.220And if that happens up near Calgary or Edmonton, we got a different kind of problem on their hands.
00:32:06.580And just to add on that, these protesters who are protesting at the trains and blocking that off, well, and this word, this phrase has been thrown around a little bit, the fringe minority.
00:32:18.680Well, they were—they are quite literally the fringe minority, the people who were doing that.
00:32:22.900Whereas now we are seeing it is literally the people en masse that are standing up against this.
00:32:29.120So it's a bit larger of a group, you could say, that's standing up against this.
00:32:33.220It just happens to be revolving around the same style of protest.
00:32:37.780And guys, if I can ask you to look into your crystal ball in terms of where this goes in the next days, in the next hours for that matter, what do you see happening?
00:32:49.980Do you see—I know online there are people urging others to come down and join the blockade.
00:32:56.820Do you see that happening in any kind of critical mass?
00:33:00.900Or, I mean, it must be very cold, very arduous, very boring for that matter.
00:33:08.680Do you see some truckers saying, oh, you know what, we've made our point.
00:33:13.600How do you think this is going to play out?
00:33:15.120Well, I certainly wouldn't say it's been boring.
00:33:18.420It really has been evolving by the hour.
00:33:21.600And I think looking forward, like, we were at the Milk's—so what is it?
00:33:24.880The Milk River police barrier that was set up.
00:33:28.620And there are hundreds and hundreds of trucks and other supporters there lined up, all trying to get in here to Cooch to support these guys and to bring them supplies and other things that they would need.
00:33:38.760So, yeah, it's kind of—the scope of this is quite overwhelming, and I sort of lost my train of thought there a little bit.
00:33:44.500But that's because it's been quite a few days here, and really so much is going on.
00:33:49.140And I think to finish off the point there, what's going to happen next is entirely dependent on how the government acts.
00:33:56.460These guys here, like we said, they have one lane open north, one lane open south.
00:34:00.300That was a showing of good faith because they wanted to get the ball rolling on the government end of things to see what they would do.
00:34:05.760And right now, the government here in Alberta and, I think, well, in Canada, it's in chaos over this because they don't have the manpower, so to speak, to bring an end to this in short order.
00:34:16.860So they have to kind of find some negotiation resolve there.
00:34:20.900And that's the big kicker is what are they going to do?
00:35:06.820More of Rebel Roundup to come right after this.
00:35:14.220Now, a politically incorrect hockey sweater, by the way, would be that of the Chicago Blackhawks or any other jersey depicting any sort of Indigenous theme.
00:35:24.380But check out this statement by Toronto's Parks, Forestry and Recreation Department.
00:35:30.860Quote, to promote a positive and inclusive experience in City of Toronto sports facilities and to protect the dignity and well-being of Indigenous communities, the City of Toronto prohibits the display of Indigenous-themed sports images, logos or team names, except for those used by Indigenous sports organizations.
00:35:56.180Wow, folks, just when did municipal politicians and bureaucrats reinvent themselves as the cancel culture cops?
00:36:05.640Aren't they supposed to be focused on, oh, I don't know, picking up the garbage, clearing the streets of snow, etc.?
00:36:12.180And by the way, an inconvenient question arises with this latest municipal mandate.
00:36:17.920Are Indigenous people really offended by Native themes, sports logos, nicknames, etc.?
00:36:27.600I started my journalism career, such as it is, back in 1985 in the northern Alberta town of St. Paul.
00:36:35.960There are several Native reserves near St. Paul.
00:36:39.200And the first thing I noticed whenever I visited an arena on reserve territory was that the most prominent hockey sweater by far worn by Indigenous people was, drumroll please, the red, black and white of the Chicago Blackhawks.
00:36:57.860Keep in mind, this was in the mid-80s, at the very height of the Edmonton Oilers dynasty, and in a region that was just two hours away from Edmonton, yet Natives, with their own moolah, were buying Blackhawk jerseys.
00:37:15.160I truly think that the iconic Chicago Blackhawks sweater is the most gorgeous jersey in the entire sports world.
00:37:23.040Obviously, a preponderance of Indigenous folk feel likewise.
00:37:28.060But apparently, when it comes to the politically correct palefaces at Toronto City Hall, well, they know best when it comes to allegedly offensive hockey haberdashery.
00:37:39.920By the way, when I read the city policy statement earlier, did you pick up on a mind-boggling loophole?
00:37:46.240Namely, it is offside for an individual skater, even a native, to don a Blackhawks jersey at a Toronto rink, but it's perfectly fine for an entire group of natives to play shinny wearing such gear.
00:38:03.640That a little bit of alleged racism on the ice, well, that's not okay, but a whole lot of alleged racism down at the rink, well, that's perfectly fine.
00:38:14.020Wow. Say, folks, is there any such thing as a game misconduct for, oh, I don't know, outrageous political overreach?
00:38:22.960Because if there is, methinks we could easily fill up the sin bin with numerous Toronto politicians and bureaucrats who are now playing offense for team cancel culture.
00:38:34.160Jeez, when is this woke madness ever going to end?
00:38:38.260In any event, you had plenty to say about this ludicrous hogtown hockey haberdashery policy.
00:38:55.140Can any Indigenous people out there put a light on this for me?
00:38:58.540I honestly don't know why this is negative.
00:39:00.980Well, Kelsey, the truth is that the Chicago Blackhawks name and logo are not negatives at all.
00:39:07.660Sports teams choose nicknames and logos that convey power, not negativity.
00:39:13.460This banning of the Chicago Blackhawks jersey at Toronto rinks is just another insane instance of virtue signaling social justice warriors who are trying to make life miserable for the rest of us.