EZRA LEVANT ｜ Yesterday in Peterborough： I fought the law, and the law won
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Summary
In a city where freedom goes to die under the ever watchful gaze of a potty mouth mayor, was found guilty yesterday of the heinous crime of not social distancing and/or masking during a protest at Peterborough s Confederation Park back on April 24th 2021.
Transcript
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tonight yesterday in peterborough i fought the law and the law won but did they really
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it is tuesday august 23rd 2022 i'm david menzies and this is the ezreal event show
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hey folks we finally had our day in court in the charming city of peterborough ontario
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otherwise known as the municipality where freedom goes to die under the ever watchful gaze of a potty
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mouth mayor i'll cut to the chase i was found guilty yesterday of the heinous crime of not social
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distancing and or masking when we covered a protest at peterborough's confederation park
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back on april 24th 2021 but what my conviction really indicates i think is that governments
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police forces and even the courts are politically motivated when it comes to those who dare stand up
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for their charter rights such as freedom of assembly freedom of speech and yes even freedom of the press
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freedom to some is the new f word after all by way of background rebel news decided to attend the
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peterborough anti-lockdown rally that day given that two notable speakers would also be attending
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namely randy hillier the interior pc mpp who was thrown out of caucus for raising impolite topics at
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queens park and maxine bernier the leader of the people's party of canada an estimated 600 people
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attended the rally at confederation park which made for the largest anti-lockdown protest to occur
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in peterborough almost everyone in attendance chose not to wear masks which we know are about as useful
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in preventing the spread of covid as the various covid 19 vaccines are which is to say not very useful at
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all as well since confederation park is less than three acres in size it should be noted that it was
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impossible for a crowd of some 600 people to socially distance even if they had wanted to
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now prior to the event peterborough mayor diane therian rolled out the welcome wagon for the demonstrators
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no that's not true if there is a welcome wagon in peterborough it's in the hands of the
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repo man these days indeed here's what mayor therian tweeted back then quote as a decent person if i think
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my actions might harm others i reconsider those actions these clowns don't gaf about your well-being
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and if you're upset about my unprofessional language but not upset about endangering others well g f y end
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quote oh such diplomacy from such a decent person now at first it looked like the esteemed members of
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the peterborough police service would allow the protest to carry on unmolested you know just like
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black lives matter protesters uh had free reign of the park during the previous summer they were allowed
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to protest without a permit and when it came to the coppers not only did they put away their ticket books
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but they bent the knee in solidarity with the demonstrators we're told to follow the science
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when it comes to covet 19 folks so i believe the science states that the coronavirus respects marxist blm
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protesters but it absolutely loathes anti-lockdown pro-freedom demonstrators i don't know if that is based on
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medical science or weird science now as i mentioned at first blush it looked like the peterborough police
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were going to do the right thing which would be to simply observe the demonstration ah but that changed
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when mr bernier and mr hillier left the stage and walked through the park that's because the police
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decided to cause an unnecessary scene by ticketing them check it out
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no no no no no that's not going to help go back into your speeches
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boo you don't be lying to me you don't be lying to me
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will they make their kids live in the gulag of fear that they're instilling or trying to
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do will they or will they have a backbone will they have some gumption will they have principles
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will they have any conviction to their oath of office
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i don't want a society show me your papers we don't want that
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barricading the roads trying to block people from coming in and showing their opposition to this
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now this was a completely needless act of provocation after all the cops could have later served bernier
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and hillier with a summons after the fact at their home residences this is not speculation folks this is
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a fact and exhibit a is yours truly because several days after this demonstration i was served with a
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summons at my richmond hale residence check it out yeah i'm going to give him his court documents his
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court documents yeah oh yeah so he missed his other appointment but they're being pretty flexible because
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of covid19 so how do you spell your first name my first name yes l-o-r-y-n l-o-r-y-n yeah the same last name
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and what court appearance is this for it's for his uh a failed compliant
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that's a failed compliance there all right all right have a nice date by the way the summons i
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received simply stated that i was being charged under section 7.0.2 of the laughably named reopening
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ontario act but the summons didn't say what specifically i was being charged with after all
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i was not the event's organizer nor a speaker nor even an attendee i was just covering this peaceful
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protest as a journalist i don't think the practice of journalism is illegal in our great dominion well
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at least not yet but get this folks in june 2021 i took delivery of the disclosure that the peterboro
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police service was planning to present in court against me finally i was informed of the crimes
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against humanity i had allegedly committed in peterboro back on april 24 2021 which is to say i
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i shook hands with people yes thanks to a telephoto lens uh that a photographer with the cops had
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they were able to provide photographic evidence of that crime as for the written disclosure check out
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these excerpts quote at 12 47 hours staff sergeant dan mcclain made note and observed menzies approach
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and greet mr maxine bernier by shaking mr bernier's hand the two stood next to each other and engaged in
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a conversation neither person was wearing a mask or maintaining the required two meters physical
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distancing after a short conversation menzies could be seen interviewing mr bernier on the grass
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just off the stage area end quote oh merciful god in heaven you mean i greeted someone in the time
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honored way of you know shaking hands and then i carried out my job duties by you know interviewing
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a politician gee i suppose i should be grateful that no peterboro cop decided to taser me that day
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later it is noted that the eagle-eyed staff sergeant mcclain observed the following quote at one point
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menzies stood behind mr randy hillier and wrapped his arm around and over mr hillier's left shoulder
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in an effort to record the conversation that was occurring mr menzies was so close to mr hillier
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at times he made contact with mr hillier end quote wow i made contact and yet me and mr hillier
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are still amongst the living fascinating oh i committed several other handshaking offenses all of
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them catalogued in excruciating detail here goes quote shaking the hand of a man in a blue and white
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baseball hat and dark hoodie end quote quote shaking hands with a female in dark brown pants turtleneck
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sweater purse over her left shoulder end quote quote shaking hands with a male in black baseball cap
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enough is enough t-shirt end quote guilty as charged folks but wait a second folks you see i committed
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another crime that day in addition to all that illicit handshaking here's the allegation quote one photo
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shows menzies and mr hillier standing next to each other both are laughing end quote oh my god i laughed
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on that day gee what oh what was i laughing about i really can't remember but in the eyes of the
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peterboro police service laughing presumably makes someone a super spreader of the wuhan flu
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or maybe they associate laughter with criminal behavior you know i did some research folks
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and i found there is indeed ample evidence that those who laugh aren't just mere run-of-the-mill criminals
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but they are actually super villains check out the video evidence make those messages clear
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in any event i finally had my day in court yesterday also on trial was neil sheard the organizer of
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last april's rolling thunder event in ottawa that was supposed to honor veterans obviously neil is a
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deplorable despite being a decorated war veteran himself also on trial was peterboro senior nikolai
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onak i think he ruffled the feathers of the peterboro elites by brandishing a sign that read quote god
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wins every time end quote obviously mr onak is one of those crazed religious zealots we were all
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collectively represented by a legal team dream team comprised of jenna little frank alfano and victoria
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solomon now during the proceedings we learned some fascinating things especially via the testimony
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of staff sergeant stadanko or i mean staff sergeant mclean for starters the peterboro police prior to the
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april 24 protest had amassed a persons of interest file regarding attendees who planned on visiting
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peterboro that saturday afternoon it was well publicized of course that bernier and hillier would be there
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and the police knew that these high profile speakers would indeed draw a big crowd but the police were also
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tipped off by so-called sources that i would be there too i'm not sure how they got this information
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as we don't tend to publicize what events were covering in advance also it was noted that they
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were even provided with a photograph of me so that all the police officers on duty would know exactly who to
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look for once rebel news showed up by the way when mclean was asked by our lawyer jenna little if there
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were photographs of other members of the media covering the event passed around to the constables
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the answer was no gee i wonder why that would be i know for certain global news was there as was the
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peterboro examiner maybe those media outlets were not part of the police briefing because they are
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state-funded and state-approved press whereas rebel news is crowdfunded and independent my defense for
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not socially distancing was that this was next to impossible to achieve in a confined area where
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there were hundreds and hundreds of demonstrators even if i had stood two meters away from my interview
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subjects that space would quickly be filled by members of what was a very fluid gathering
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especially when bernier and hillier were being confronted and ticketed by the police as for my
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sin of not wearing a mask i testified that this would hinder my job which is to say i didn't want
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my mouth covered by a face diaper when it came to asking questions in what was a very loud environment
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but the crown and eventually the judge they just didn't buy my arguments when it came to sentencing
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the crown suggested fines of two thousand dollars per defendant wow talk about christmas in august
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after all the crown could have suggested fines of up to 100 000 per person yes that's the maximum
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penalty well the judge reckoned 750 was a reasonable amount for me as for mr sheard and mr okan their
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fines were reduced to 500 as they are both pensioners it should be noted that the judge thanked mr sheard for
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his service to canada during his deployment in afghanistan oh we still find him though after the
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proceeding i interviewed our lawyers outside the peterborough courthouse here's what they had to say
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uh likely i think their position is going to be that it was a resources problem but really from
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the evidence we know that they focused on the three individuals we heard about today uh you know
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fear of seeing the movie the trial of chicago seven today i felt like we were defending the trial of
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the peterborough three indeed and jenna what did you make of uh the proceedings you know um one thing that
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kind of rose uh kind of raised a red flag for me jenna was the fact that uh staff sergeant mclean
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said that in advance of us covering uh the demonstration they knew we were coming they had a photo of me as
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i guess a person of interest gee what's that all about i think it's exactly what you think it's
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about i think they were looking into who was planning on attending the rally i think they were sizing them
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up and they were thinking of how many resources they needed to allocate to that particular protest
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so in other words despite what they're saying this was not a personal safety issue or a community
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safety issue this was all about um i don't know it seems politicized to me it very well may have been
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it's hard to get that out in court um it's hard to get police officers to answer that question if
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that's the way we want to lean and i think it might have also been a little bit about public safety
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because sometimes protests get out of control and as we heard um when one officer gave somebody was it
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oh maxime when one officer gave maxime a ticket in front of 80 to 100 different protesters that was
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directly against what the inspector told them to do so he specifically gave out a ticket in front of
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people to cause a problem you know there's that great moment where maxime bernier was arrested going
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from ontario into manitoba and as he's been handcuffed and put into an rcmp cruiser the officer says do you
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have any weapons and maxime bernier says words to the effect no unless you consider my words my
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thoughts weaponized and i guess that's where we're headed in canada it seems these days jenna
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i certainly hope not um and i think that using that using the guise of the covid restrictions to
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implement that is is very scary indeed and now victoria you were hoping it didn't come to fruition but to
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come up with a constitutional challenge um to these charges uh that i was under and there was
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also two other individuals uh that i'll get to later uh that were on trial as well um what were you
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planning on saying if you were going to go down the constitutional route well uh unfortunately we were
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not able to uh to argue this uh constitutional arguments which we planned in this case but we will
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definitely bring them forward on other facts and we have a lot of other defendants that may benefit
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from this defense so i'm going to you know to save the details for for the future when those cases will
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be argued so folks post-trial here are some of my personal observations first the judge who presided over
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the trial is a former journalist himself with a career spanning more than 20 years i naively thought
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that would be to our advantage that he would have some empathy regarding what it takes for a journalist
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to cover breaking news out in the field and that he would be a true believer when it came to that whole
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idea of freedom of the press but no secondly curiously no one seemed to have a problem with the double
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standard that prevails in peterborough i previously mentioned that blm protesters received a pass when
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it came to getting fines but get this just a few months after the april 24th 2021 demonstration
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a cbc production being filmed in peterborough was taking place and lo and behold folks the cast
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and staffers of the murdoch mysteries episode being shot were exempt from the masking and social distancing
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rules oh and yes we caught cast members shaking hands and even gasped laughing but of course no charges
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for them check it out i think it's my duty as a citizen to report a potential super spreader event
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in other words people handshaking and laughing on the set of murdoch mysteries i can't service you
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with no mask on oh what was that sir sorry service you with no mask on oh okay the royal wave there
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what you're talking about i have no idea you know when people laugh sir they shake hands uh you know when
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they're greeting no idea what you're talking you've never heard of that does the virus know
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the different place oh are you really that afraid yeah because we're in a pandemic right now
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oh okay that's right because i'm in the mask off area i think i saw two people giggling yes hi is for
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please please we have spotted people uh laughing and shaking hands i said erase that footage of me
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oh why is that because i didn't give you permission do you know basic laws uh yeah we don't need
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permission in a public place all right you'll be hearing from me okay i'm sorry i triggered you
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don't video me my name is happiness okay i'm the kobe i know so your happiness yeah so i'm the kobe guy
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we saw people handshaking and laughing okay and we're just wondering i i believe that's against
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the law in peterborough oh yes hi staff sergeant mclean what does it feel like to be named canada's
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worst police officer sir also it should be noted that in his testimony staff sergeant mclean said that
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there were about 600 people in confederation park on that day the vast majority of whom were not obeying the
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social distancing and masking rules yet only 10 to 12 people received tickets how is it possible
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that of those 10 to 12 people who were ticketed that a significant percentage just happened to be
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high profile targets i.e bernier hillier sheard and yes rebel news that was not random chance after
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all the odds of this organically occurring would make even the most reckless gambler cringe rather
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this was a political witch hunt the unspoken strategy was this the authorities were sending a clear
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message to anti-lockdown big mouse and independent media reporters that if you speak negatively of
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lockdown measures you will be punished shameful another observation the idea of law-abiding citizens
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standing up for their rights at the april 24 2021 protest attracted a disproportionate amount of police
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mclean testified that more than 30 police officers were on duty that day even though it was an entirely
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peaceful gathering oh and if you think there was nothing better for the constables to do on that
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saturday think again folks check out this peterborough examiner story from june it is headlined quote
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acting peterborough police chief wants to keep up with surge in calls end quote the lead sentence states
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quote city police are so short-staffed they can't keep up with surging calls for service said acting chief
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tim farkinson end quote yeah so as peterborough tries to cope with a surge in offenses ranging from sexual
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assaults to homicides the police force clearly lacks the resources to tackle real crime but when it comes to
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thought crimes well it's a matter of all hands on deck oh and if you want more proof of the heaping
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helping of hypocrisy on display that day then check this out the photographer for the peterborough examiner
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recently won an award for best spot news photograph yes photographer clifford scarsted won the 2021
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ontario newspaper award for spot news photography in papers under 25 000 circulation his photo depicts
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randy hillier in full-out lord tundra and jesus mode as he goes toe-to-toe with peterborough's soy
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boy police chief that would be scott gilbert who by the way abruptly resigned in february of this year
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for reasons that remain mysterious now here's what the judges at the ontario newspaper association had
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to say quote when gilbert waded into the heart of an anti-lockdown protest and gave hillier a ticket
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under the reopening ontario act scarsted conceptualized the shot perfectly
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gilbert and hillier at the tense epicenter of the scene surrounded by phone-wielding onlookers
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the result is canada's covid schism in miniature we see it in gilbert's weary eyes above his mask
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as well as hillier's pointed finger and open mouth mid-rent scarsted is tight on the action in this
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quintessential breaking news photograph where the main actors stand in for so many others
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end quote now full disclosure it is indeed a fantastic photograph no doubt about that folks
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but i can tell you that during this photo shoot i had a ringside seat if scarsted had been using a
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fisheye lens you would have seen me and my cameraman mocha filming nearby but here's the thing how is it
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that a member of a taxpayer funded and government approved mainstream media outlet receives an award
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and glowing praise and presumably a cash prize whereas i received the summons and a fine of 750
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even though i was doing the exact same thing in the exact same place at the exact same time namely covering
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spot news fascinating bottom line perhaps you can score the monday trial as a legal loss for us hey you
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win some you lose some but i truly think that in the department of unintended consequences this trial made
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for a journalistic win for us thanks to their prosecution of rebel news and others we have
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clearly exposed that the people running the city of peterboro and the peterboro police service and even the
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courts embrace a hypocritical double standard is it any wonder that hundreds of people last april took to the
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the streets in peterboro after all thanks to that so-called ontario reopening act many of these folks
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had lost their jobs many had lost their businesses not that the powers that be give a rodent's rectum mind
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you they have never missed a paycheck as they continually crooned we're all in this together
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so my advice to the freedom loving people of peterboro and abroad when the lockdowns inevitably return
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and i'm betting on flu season and you want to go out and protest again about this affront make sure you
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wear t-shirts emblazoned with the initials b l and m trust me nobody in law enforcement is going to
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bother you in fact they might even join in on the festivities
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talk about deja vu all over again bad deja vu that is once again a rebel news journalist has
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apparently been cross-checked by a government official when it comes to practicing journalism
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just the other day our wonder down under that would be avi yemeni meant to get on a plane and fly from
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australia to wellington new zealand avi wanted to cover the protests that are happening in new zealand
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right now regarding the lockdowns but shockingly even though mr yemeni had a valid passport and all of
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his paperwork was in order he was prevented from getting on board that plane and in the aftermath
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the question arises why and joining me now from the land of oz is avi yemeni himself good day avi
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how you doing there my friend good morning mate how you doing i'm i'm doing great well you know not so
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great i i it pained me to see what was happening uh with you trying to get over to new zealand and avi
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just rewind the tape here take us back to the other day when you were hoping to fly into wellington
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only to be told that you were essentially persona non grata for some reason what happened my friend
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look i think you even need to rewind you know a couple days earlier where one of the largest
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news uh outlets in new zealand ran a smear campaign against myself and uh rook sean who is also
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flying with us um on a later flight as part of the nz reports.com to cover the protests and and to cover
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um generally what's happening in new zealand you got to remember new zealand's been cut off from the
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rest of the world for two years now so um this was a very important trip and a couple days before our
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flight uh the that and the new zealand herald which is one of the largest uh news outlets in the
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country ran a smear campaign encouraging the government to ban us um at the time i thought oh
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well you know we we decided to just get legal advice to make sure all of our affairs are in order and
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that we are fine to travel and the advice was absolutely you are and um so as soon as i arrived
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at check-in here in australia in melbourne and uh it came to the computer the staff you know looked a bit
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um confused as my passport i was leaving first my passport was flagged not on the australian side
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on the new zealand side which um caused them to call the new zealand immigration to ask them what's
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going on new zealand immigration gave me about a 45 minute i'm guessing interview over the phone i was
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nice and early um gave me a 45 minute interview over the phone which was all like typical questions
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that you would expect from any sort of immigration interview until suddenly after you know asking me how
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much money i have in my account and you know making sure i'm not going to move there even though
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to be fair i was thinking it is a bit odd because as australians you actually have the right i think to
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to become a new zealand resident immediately so but i just thought they were ticking some boxes and they
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certainly were ticking those boxes but they were ticking those boxes to be able to get to their final
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point and their final point was oh mr ymini i've just read an article online about you i'm assuming it was
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um that article that had just come out from the new zealand herald a couple days ago encouraging the
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government to ban me um and they said i deem you of uh not good character and therefore exercising uh
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my power under the immigration act 97 97 section 97 of the immigration act of 2009 um in banning you
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refusing you entry today to new zealand um she was citing that i have a conviction now um which is
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true i'm not hiding that i have a conviction the the thing is that to be able to to be able to exercise
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that power for a conviction to stop you from entering as an australian to new zealand there's a certain
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threshold and that threshold was what we received advice on because that was obviously one of the things
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that the media was trying to use to encourage the government to ban us just an excuse to stop us
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you know it was it was completely politically motivated and um the threshold is that you've
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got to have been in jail for at least 12 months um in the last 10 years for that conviction well
00:33:55.440
minor minor conviction it it carried a fine it was the most basic in you know entry-level conviction you
00:34:01.680
can get so there was no real grounds there was no lawful grounds in using that conviction to stop
00:34:09.040
ingid from entering to cover the protests so abby um the most startling thing i think you said there
00:34:19.520
was the fact that this bureaucrat that is vetting you um seems to be taking her cues from the mainstream
00:34:28.400
media in new zealand and and i've looked at some of the uh mainstream media coverage i i would say
00:34:34.720
it's egregious uh bordering on defamatory the new zealand herald they described you as quote
00:34:41.760
an infamous australian far-right misinformation super spreader end quote i don't know whether to
00:34:48.720
laugh or cry but this to me is startling avi why is a government official um taking her cues from
00:34:57.680
what she reads in the media and does she assume that everything in the media is indeed factual
00:35:05.360
yeah look i think it's even worse than that i think if you take their word for it based on the
00:35:09.440
conversation she had with me by the way this immigration official refused to give her name
00:35:13.520
yeah um refused to put in writing in writing refused to put in writing the reason because they
00:35:20.400
know that as soon as they put it in writing i can go to the courts and appeal um and we've had lawyers
00:35:26.000
on the ground they're fighting for my appeal to turn this unlawful decision over since the minute i was
00:35:32.880
refused um but they've only got back to started communicating with us last night australia time
00:35:40.640
um but the the entire time since then they've been giving statements to the press
00:35:47.280
sorry that's my dog completely false statements to the press my dog is angry about this she calls out
00:35:55.280
fake news when when she hears it but seriously that so the they they have a a very you know unhealthy
00:36:04.400
to say the least relationship between the government of new zealand and the press and and and that that
00:36:11.440
explains everything here because obviously they don't want me there i am their biggest threat to
00:36:17.440
both those groups that are in cahoots because the last thing the mainstream media want there is
00:36:24.160
competition somebody who's going to um take away first firstly the eyeballs from their garbage
00:36:32.400
and make people think in new zealand maybe we're not being told the complete story here's somebody
00:36:39.200
telling the other side of the story from the ground so certainly the media have a reason to
00:36:45.680
really be behind the push and the government the adern government certainly have a reason so i i think
00:36:53.120
yes um they're taking cues from each other they're helping each other they're in this together and um the the
00:37:00.320
you know when when sarah the immigration officer refused to give her last name it became really clear
00:37:07.600
somebody was you know nudging her okay we need to stop this guy from coming just exercise whatever
00:37:15.120
power even if it's unlawful because you know the proof will be in the pudding i keep saying this
00:37:20.160
at the end of the day i will get to new zealand i will prove all those headlines to be false i will
00:37:25.840
tell the other side of the story there i will give those people who have for the last two years been stopped
00:37:32.000
from being allowed um to to have their say i'm going to give them that platform that the entire you
00:37:41.120
know the entire establishment have worked so hard in new zealand to suppress we're gonna we're gonna
00:37:48.320
succeed and and and the fact that i'm gonna get there proves that this was all politically motivated
00:37:54.560
and just to stop me from going to that process and i promise you now and i promise the audience that
00:38:00.080
it will backfire and and i'm appreciative to everyone that signed that petition at
00:38:04.800
save rvmini.com and everybody that's donated to the legal fund we're fighting and we're gonna win
00:38:09.920
this fight this is not a question as to if we're absolutely i'm an australian citizen who in comes
00:38:19.360
nowhere near the threshold of being allowed to be banned from new zealand you the only time you have to
00:38:27.680
you have to um apply for a visa in from australia or one of the the reason in my situation would be
00:38:35.120
if you're actually a criminal with a criminal history that you've served more than 12 months
00:38:39.440
ninja nowhere near the threshold yeah so there's as you said abby that benchmark hasn't been uh met
00:38:47.200
and it sounds to me like the relationship between the government and the mainstream media in new zealand
00:38:52.960
it uh it's a mere reflection of what we have in canada it's basically the same in fact i don't
00:38:59.520
know what the funding mechanism is in new zealand but as you know in canada um the cbc and the uh the
00:39:06.880
rest of the mainstream media are uh funded to the tune of billions of dollars per year it is it's a
00:39:13.680
blatant conflict of interest but on the topic of the government i do believe it's similar at least per
00:39:19.680
capital so it might not be the same numbers but it's it's certainly highly funded by by the adern
00:39:27.600
government well then you don't bite the hand that feeds uh that's for sure but speaking of the
00:39:33.040
government in new zealand abby uh the prime minister jacinda ardoran uh she was questioned
00:39:41.200
about this at a scrum uh let's throw to that video and see what the prime minister had to say
00:39:46.560
do there's also been a youtuber from australia that has been says that they've been denied entry
00:39:52.320
into new zealand have you been briefed on the situation i've only what i have seen in the public
00:39:56.960
domain uh and just to be absolutely clear this is not something that as i understand would come to a
00:40:03.760
up to a ministerial level decision i understand that it is solely for immigration and it's not
00:40:08.560
something i had any awareness of until i saw some commentary online yeah um how concerned is the
00:40:15.440
government at the potential for people coming from overseas to be part of these protests how what
00:40:20.720
sorry how concerned is the government that people might come from overseas to join these protests again
00:40:26.160
for us it's not about where people have come from it's simply whether they're willing to engage in
00:40:30.000
peaceful and lawful protest okay so abby um the prime minister is claiming that she only knows about
00:40:40.320
your situation based on what's in the public domain are you buying that look maybe but i ain't taking her
00:40:49.360
word for it that's for sure um maybe she doesn't know um but look she has an army of um you know
00:40:58.480
people that that that do her dirty work so she doesn't necessarily you know i think there's
00:41:03.840
certainly consensus amongst the adern government and bureaucrats that avi yamini is a threat so i
00:41:10.560
don't think it would have had to go to her level to ask her whether we should ban him um but but what
00:41:16.720
what she is saying that is interesting that it's not a ministerial decision it hasn't gone to that level
00:41:22.560
and why that is important for people to understand is because there's two ways
00:41:27.520
to ban to refuse an aussie entry it one is the conviction has to be over 12 12 months in prison
00:41:35.120
the other is if a minister the minister um uses a broad power which you could still appeal but it's
00:41:44.720
much broader than than just the the threshold of the conviction so if the minister can say
00:41:50.880
i believe that avi yamini might commit a jailable offense here then then we're talking about um
00:42:00.800
a case where well then we can argue with whether on what basis but but it is a much broader uh term and
00:42:08.960
and there's a much broader scope from and she's saying in there well no we don't it hasn't gone to that
00:42:14.720
level it it's just immigration distancing herself from from the decision because obviously it is not
00:42:21.520
a good look if the government um had a hand in it so avi um let's then for the sake of argument take
00:42:29.760
the prime minister at her word she had nothing to do with this it's not at the ministerial level
00:42:34.560
the only other conclusion i can draw from that is that this individual immigration officer whose name
00:42:41.200
we only have is sarah we don't have her surname i got a hunch that she recognizes your name
00:42:48.000
maybe she's not politically aligned to your viewpoints and she's carrying out a vendetta
00:42:53.840
because what else can it be my friend like i said in the beginning david i think that it's
00:43:00.560
potentially even something like i think it's much more sinister i think it's much more deep i think
00:43:05.680
it's a connection and you know there we go the big conspiracy theorist that i am
00:43:11.200
i'm proving the new zealand herald right but um you know when and if this actually ends up going
00:43:17.440
before a judge if they don't if they don't uh revert change the decision appeal the decision on their
00:43:24.800
own if it has to go in front of a judge it'll be interesting one to see all the communications
00:43:30.480
in discovery two it'll be great for people to hear that recording of especially the last few minutes of
00:43:38.000
the recording um of the uh immigration officer who said in on the call i just read an article about
00:43:48.480
you since when are articles in the paper grounds and and and since when is that evidence that you
00:43:55.760
rely on to make any decision they didn't by the way they didn't ask me anything about my criminal
00:44:01.440
history they didn't give me an opportunity to put my in my defense to put my defense forward as in going
00:44:09.760
i did say specifically i i said to her i understand that the threshold is 12 months and my i mean here's
00:44:18.960
the perversely ironic factor of this story i think yes they prevented you from leaving australia and
00:44:26.640
touching down in wellington but they didn't uh prevent rakshan fernando uh he was flagged he went
00:44:33.680
through all the the hoops uh they eventually uh let him there so he is reporting for rebel news uh he is
00:44:42.720
showing what's uh going on and why don't we throw to a brief clip of the demonstration that he covered
00:44:49.280
the other day check it out so guys i'm filming here the uh the counter protest here by antifa
00:45:03.920
so the two protesters are going the main protest is walking past but there is a counter protest
00:45:12.880
separated here by the police in the anti-government protest is a lot more diversity a lot more older
00:45:24.160
people families uh people of different backgrounds uh there's a lot more of that whereas on this side
00:45:32.640
a lot of young uh young and for lack of a better word uh white people mostly
00:45:52.320
so uh there you go first of all um avi i'm so sorry to see that the virus that is known as antifa
00:45:59.440
has even infected new zealand you know but um what did you make uh of that uh protest and that bizarre
00:46:08.160
counter protest when um you know the antifa types were denouncing the anti-lockdown people as racist
00:46:15.600
and as uh mr fernando pointed out there was more diversity on the anti-lockdown side than the antifa
00:46:24.240
side what do you make of that avi isn't that typical yeah absolutely and i'm looking forward to seeing um
00:46:30.720
rukshan's full reports on the on the day um which which i imagine are coming to new zealand the nz
00:46:37.360
reports.com in coming day um but absolutely it's it's it's laughable it's laughable you know what i
00:46:44.480
watched it with fomo because i'm thinking god you know me uh david i would love to get up in there and
00:46:50.320
have a chat with these anti-fascists that are standing there protesting you know indigenous
00:46:57.600
new zealanders telling them they're racist because they don't like mandates and they don't like
00:47:04.400
jacinda adern's um socialist policies that is destroying the country they don't like where the
00:47:11.040
cost of living is going they don't like the fact that they lost their jobs because jacinda adern is a
00:47:16.240
tyrant yes i would have loved to be there and and and i think it's great and you know i also i think on
00:47:22.880
the point that rukshan got there it's important for people to understand while rukshan doesn't have that
00:47:27.200
technicality of a a conviction that they can kind of try twist to use at least in the short term but
00:47:34.160
they tried really hard he was flagged um and the qantas staff fought hard for him he says um and i i
00:47:42.160
do truly believe that if not for firstly the thousands you know the thousands that have already signed the
00:47:49.920
petition to let me in and then also the fact that they know that there's uh legal action looming
00:47:58.000
again through the save rv mini.com um page so the the petition there and the the fact that we're
00:48:04.240
repealing it through the courts if we have to and and the fact that jacinda adern herself distanced
00:48:11.040
herself so quickly from the decision i think those three compounding um points basically made the the
00:48:21.040
the officer on the other end of of of rukshan's decision yeah think twice and go okay we don't have
00:48:29.280
a conviction that we can puff up and and and and basically use and and and act like uh we think you
00:48:38.480
know on the on the face of it is a character thing that we can kick him out so they had to lead let
00:48:43.200
him in and they let him in and he still reported on the on the event and i promise you now you know
00:48:49.040
to the entire audience my promise to you is i'm grateful new zealand's very close so well when i win
00:48:56.240
that appeal when i can take my passport and getting there i will be in there i will tell the other side
00:49:03.200
of the story nz reports.com will get more views and there will be more interest in it because of
00:49:11.120
this uh media smear campaign and this not just a smear camera the media campaign to have me banned
00:49:18.640
it will only draw more eyeballs to it and this will backfire spectacularly i'm not going to deny it
00:49:26.720
it hurt the last couple days it hurt to get banned off a flight it hurt that that that the immigration
00:49:33.120
uh department is so good at their pr that they managed to manipulate a media not to even ask the
00:49:41.280
question of okay you say he's banned for a conviction instead of asking well how could he be banned for
00:49:48.000
that conviction that wasn't ten he wasn't in he wasn't jailed for he was only fine for how can you
00:49:52.960
ban it for that when the act is pretty clear instead of them doing that they ran with the hurtful
00:49:59.040
uh headline avia miniband for you know an embarrassing conviction but that's what it is it's an
00:50:05.520
embarrassing conviction because um you know in time the time will tell all all truth but um it's
00:50:13.440
embarrassing having a conviction like that it's not something i'm proud of but it's it's certainly
00:50:18.560
a minor conviction i was fine for it because it was uh a a little considered from the legal perspective a
00:50:27.760
you know a minor assault no and to speak to your first point uh avi i think you're right i think
00:50:34.960
the uh the government of new zealand or and certainly the media in new zealand are going to experience their
00:50:41.360
own uh barbara streisand effect you know that of unintended consequences and uh we have to fight this
00:50:49.920
avi because this is becoming too due rigueur for my liking this idea that government officials and
00:50:58.160
bureaucrats they're picking and choosing which journalists are allowed into the press conference
00:51:03.600
and which are not which get funded which are not it is a dark direction we're going down in terms of
00:51:11.920
a free press and that is why we have to take this stand i'm so happy to see we already have about
00:51:17.600
14 000 signatures on the petition avi our goal is i i believe 20 000 i'm sure we're going to reach it
00:51:24.800
and more avi i want to thank you so much for your time and uh good luck we are indeed we're going to
00:51:31.280
get you uh into wellington um and come hell or high water it is important so thank you again my friend
00:51:40.000
you have a good weekend thanks david okay and that was avi yamini down under in australia keep it here
00:51:48.720
folks more of the ezra levent show to come right after this
00:51:52.720
well folks my colleague sheila gun reid she filled in for ezra on last night's show and lots of
00:52:10.400
responses regarding her monologue regarding canada's complete ineptitude in handling the so-called
00:52:18.720
covid 19 crisis canuck one writes is tam going to pull a fauci and resign just after polyev defeats
00:52:28.560
trudeau in the next election i guess he she will seek asylum in the motherland you know what uh it's
00:52:36.320
good that you're reaching out canuck one to be politically correct teresa tam after all is one of
00:52:42.080
those woke bureaucrats that uses the term pregnant people when she's actually uh describing pregnant
00:52:51.440
woman she is a disgrace from top to bottom just like dr fauci ggfd writes time for the nuremberg
00:53:01.680
canada trials millions of folks aren't willing to just let this go time for trials and convictions
00:53:09.920
you know i don't know if we're ever going to see those kind of trials my friend but i can tell you
00:53:14.320
this when history looks back upon this appalling period of time so many people ranging from prime
00:53:23.200
minister justin trudeau to dr theresa tam to yes even you premier doug ford you're going to be looked upon
00:53:31.680
in a downright shameful fashion and you deserve it well folks that takes care of tonight's edition of
00:53:40.320
the ezra levent show i believe ezra is going to be back in this chair tomorrow have yourself a
00:53:46.640
wonderful evening and hey never forget stay sane
00:53:53.200
we started off this convoy calling it taking back our freedoms but our freedoms are nobody's to take away
00:54:18.000
you know lots of people came here wanting to only do a day and uh the word with all the truckers is
00:54:24.400
they're now staying for many days you know like a lot of people now are planning on days and days
00:54:30.160
in ottawa so we are here to hand them out i am not leaving we get what we want we're not going to give
00:54:38.880
up my body my choice especially the choice for my child my body trudeau not yours when your job and your