Fight the Fines： How Rebels Stood Up for Civil Liberties through COVID-19
Episode Stats
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Summary
Canadians are rapidly losing their civil liberties. Over the course of this crisis, Justin Trudeau and leaders across the country are showing their true stripes, as most government leaders tend to do. Whether or not you elected them in good faith, everything changes when a crisis appears. It gives leaders an opportunity to gain power that they never would have had the opportunity to get through democratic means. Now, leaders are directing police officers, and sometimes police officers are even acting without direction from political leadership, to arrest or find people who they deem are breaking the rather haphazardly made laws. Sometimes it s not even laws, as Justin Trudeau does every morning, he might say something and police act on it when maybe they shouldn t.
Transcript
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Hey, welcome my rebels. Today, oh my gosh, one of the favorite things we've done in 2020
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is create a kind of public interest law firm called fightthefines.com. It's exactly what
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it sounds like. If someone's civil liberties have been violated by some overzealous pandemic police,
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well, we'll be there. It's great stories and I hope you enjoy today's Best of the Rebel.
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I really wish you could see it though because these people, their faces, the sorrow and feeling
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of alienation they have when they're accused of breaking the law just for living their lives
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and then the relief they feel when we help them, it truly is touching. I found it some of the most
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meaningful work we've done this year. You can get the video version of this podcast by going to
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rebelnews.com and simply becoming a subscriber. It's only eight bucks a month or 80 bucks for the
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whole year and you get the video version of this plus Sheila Gunn-Reed's show and David Menzies' show.
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Tonight, another very special episode, the best of the rebel and our coverage of civil liberties
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cases in the age of the pandemic. It's July 23rd and this is the Ezra Levant Show.
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Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?
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There's 8,500 customers here and you won't give them an answer.
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The only thing I have to say to the government about why I publish it is because it's my bloody right to do so.
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Well, the pandemic is almost over. The death toll, 9,000. Each one a tragedy, but much less than the 50,000 to 350,000 predicted by Teresa Tam and Canada's public health officers.
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In fact, it may turn out that the economic damage is the greatest damage to Canadian health.
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And I put it to you that the violation of our civil liberties was a form of a pandemic, too, or at least an epidemic.
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Well, Rebel News did more than just talk about it.
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We fought back creating our own civil liberties public interest law firm.
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Nobody else did, with the possible exception of our friend John Carpe of the JCCF.
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So today, in a very special episode, I'd like to show you the best of some of the cases we've been fighting with FightTheFines.com.
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Archer Pavlovsky, the Calgary pastor who was given a $1,000 fine for feeding the homeless,
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well, the crown dropped the charges against him completely thanks to you, our Rebel viewers, and the lawyer you crowdfunded.
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So without further ado, here is the best of FightTheFines.com.
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Canadians are rapidly losing their civil liberties.
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Over the course of this crisis, Justin Trudeau and leaders across the country are showing their true stripes,
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Whether or not you elected them in good faith, whether or not you voted for them and were happy with them when they were elected,
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It gives leaders an opportunity to gain power that they never would have had the opportunity to get through democratic means.
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Now, leaders are directing police officers, and sometimes police officers are even acting without direction from political leadership
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to arrest or find people who they deem are breaking the rather haphazardly made laws.
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Sometimes it is just mentions in a press conference, as Justin Trudeau does every morning.
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He might say something and police act on it, when maybe they shouldn't.
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Now, across the country, from Vancouver to Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal, and Toronto,
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we are seeing cases pop up where people are getting fined for going about their day-to-day lives in very normal ways.
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They're simply doing what they need to do, from walking their dogs to getting regular exercise.
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In the case today, it was a man in Calgary who was actually feeding the homeless when he was given a ticket.
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Archer Polarski received a ticket of over $1,000 for feeding the homeless.
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This is not your picnic in the neighborhood for the fun of it.
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We are providing necessities of life to those that you and your bosses refuse to provide.
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You've got all kinds of events happening right now,
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and yet the Calgary's finest are not bothering them.
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This is the hypocrisy of our wonderful, fearless leaders.
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Can you guys do the respect for the social distancing?
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You're going to f***ing threaten me and f***ing a few feet?
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The police surrounded Archer while he was in downtown Calgary giving food to people in need.
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They gave him this ticket, and we are going to help him fight it.
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We're saying we'll give legal help to anyone who needs it,
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who was acting in good faith, going outside, and doing what they need to do to continue on with their lives.
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They weren't being overly aggressive or hurting anyone or risking anyone's health or safety.
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And in the case of feeding the homeless outside, as Archer was, you can see in this video here,
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In fact, he was speaking with me earlier when he mentioned that it is much healthier to feed them outside
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because the alternative is taking them to a shelter where it's packed, they're indoors,
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Well, since we launched our website, fightthefines.com,
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in which we were looking for others who have been dealt very harshly,
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many, many tips have come in, including that of a preacher, Andre Rose,
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who lives and preaches out of his townhouse here in Cornwall, Ontario.
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What happened to him, folks, was on the first eve of Passover earlier this month,
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a neighbour, presumably, had phoned the police and said,
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get over to this address because there are more than five people there.
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And the next thing Mr. Rose knew is that he was being handed an $880 ticket.
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During a regular time, yes, but this is a state of emergency that we're under.
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well, don't you know the new rules during this period of the Wuhan virus?
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You're not supposed to have a congregation here, more than five.
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Well, frankly, this is my home, and we're celebrating Passover weekend.
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And so, I think it's malicious what they're doing right now.
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And I strongly feel like, you know, this is a hit for not just people that do have the coronavirus,
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but for those that don't, you know, it's causing a lot of problems in society.
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And, again, we were just having a setter night, and so we were five adults in total.
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The police came and told us that we had to disassemble, and I said, no, I'm not disassembling.
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And Justin Trudeau traveled interprovincially, and he was five, you know, in his family.
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And I don't think they were practicing the social distancing either.
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So, even the police, when they're in the cruiser, they're sitting two in the cruiser.
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And when the cops came to the door, they were both on my doorstep.
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It's hard to comply sometimes because it's just a little bit absurd.
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Is $880 no big deal for you, or is it a bit of a big deal, especially during these hard times?
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Well, $880 feeds me, my wife, and my son for almost two months.
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So, you know, to fork up an extra $880, that's a lot of money, man.
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Especially for, I hear that the Dow is going down.
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You know, the economy doesn't look good right now either with everything that's happening.
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There's been reports of close to a million people have been laid off, I think.
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I know that we're going to see a lot more people being tagged for $880.
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There's a lot of people that are going to stand up and going to say no.
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And so, I strongly feel like there's more to come.
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You know, Andre, we feel that you've been hard done by.
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First of all, the fine is outrageously high for the so-called crime that was committed.
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And the way in which the fine originated, it was basically via a snitch line.
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We have a fantastic top Toronto criminal lawyer, a veteran, a bencher at the Law Society of Upper Canada, Sam Goldstein.
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You and your family won't have to worry about a single nickel of legal fees.
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We're going to, when things return to normal and the courts are back to normal,
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we're going to see if we can, you know, get a little justice done here.
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Well, folks, as promised, we're taking your crowdfunding fees.
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And we are going to go to bat for Mr. Rose in Cornwall.
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And right now, I am joined by Toronto veteran criminal lawyer, Sam Goldstein.
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And thank you again for taking up the cause of Andre Rose.
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And I guess the first question is, Sam, what was it that attracted you to this case in the first place?
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Well, as a criminal lawyer, David, always my first concern is making sure that people's rights are defended.
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And secondly, and specifically with respect to this case, was that my concern is, is during this pandemic,
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that the authorities are overreaching the powers that have been given to them underneath the emergency acts.
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And, you know, I think that's a very important point that you make, Sam, that even in a state of an emergency,
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even when a government is operating under an Emergency Services Act, a war measures act,
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It still has to act in a reasonable way, does it not?
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The Charter is still supreme law in this country.
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And as I said in an interview with Ezra the other day, the, all the different legislations
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for the different jurisdictions all have to conform with the Charter in one way or the other.
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Earlier this month, a police officer paid a visit to your milk store.
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Well, there was some measures put in place, I guess, on the 3rd with the Eastern Ontario Health Unit,
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some, some guidelines, and the officer popped into our business, it would have been the 5th of April
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when he popped in, late in the afternoon, to inform us that we weren't in compliance with the new rules
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that were laid out by EOHU, Eastern Ontario Health Unit.
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And immediately we begun reading over the document that he left us.
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He had told us that he's not going to be issuing a fine at this time.
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He would allow us a little while to read over things and put these measures into place,
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which would be the plexiglass and the arrows on the floor for social distancing.
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So he wasn't going to fine us until he spoke it over with Dr. Paul Romuliotis at the Eastern
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Ontario Health Unit, and they would determine whether a fine would be put in place.
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However, the officer come back within the hour, and he fined us $880.
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You said, no, I don't believe in these measures.
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You started to immediately implement what you were told to implement,
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and within an hour, they're back to fine you $880?
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Yes, and that kind of blew us away by surprise when he came back to fine us,
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because I don't believe he really took the time to talk this through
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with the Eastern Ontario Health Unit to begin with.
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So, you know, to come in and blindside us with a fine like that is really unfair,
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considering I was putting the safety measures in place immediately after seeing this form.
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We take things very extremely seriously, as we hold licensing with the Alcohol and Gaming Commission
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Even with the sale of tobacco products in our business,
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the Eastern Ontario Health Unit is here and provide binders and information on,
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you know, training tools on how to handle the sales properly.
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So, I mean, the health unit, had they come forward on the morning of the 4th
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with some kind of guidelines in place and gave a time period to implement these, you know.
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But to be targeted like this and fined out of the blue for something you're completely dumbfounded
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And, you know, nobody seems to really have a grasp on exactly what the rules should be.
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I mean, Dr. Paul Romuliotis does speak in our local paper how he is working with small business
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and helping small business, but we have not had a visit.
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In fact, they could have sent this form via registered letter.
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Two weeks prior to this, we just had a break and enter in the evening,
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And, I mean, we do have insurance, but insurance is quite hard to get in our business.
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So, you know, do we make an insurance claim and risk, you know, no renewal at renewal time
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or having to shop around and, you know, maybe the premiums go way up, you know.
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So, you know, we're kind of at a catch where we just have to suck it up
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I mean, we're debating on whether we should fight this ticket.
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Again, that ties us up a whole day in court again as well,
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which is, you know, more loss to us having to pay an employee
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when we should be in our business running our business.
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This might just be the most egregious and baffling story that we have brought to you so far
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about a citizen getting an $880 ticket for, well, I don't know what for.
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Let's talk to Mr. McHenry and find out what happened earlier this month
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when law enforcement here in Sarnia gave him that big ticket.
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I brought her out to do her business, and I was out here maybe five minutes, six minutes.
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I don't use the elevator because I don't want to run into any people.
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To the third floor, and I got to the third door.
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There were two policemen standing in front of my apartment with Max's son, like yourself,
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They whipped it out like Matt Dillon and handed it to me, $880.
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Just out here to this parking lot to let my dog do her business.
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As a matter of fact, if you and I were to go in the back door right now
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and we walk up to the third floor, I can guarantee you we won't run into anybody
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because they want to use the elevator, and I don't use the elevator.
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Just for the specific purpose of not running into anybody.
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So, in other words, you're by yourself with the little dog.
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You don't run into anybody here in the parking lot nor in the stairwells.
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So, Pat, the question arises, what was the crime?
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I just think that it's the heavy hand of, especially our mayor here,
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our left-wing mayor here in Sarnia, who's a complete lunatic as far as I'm concerned,
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pushing this hysteria all over the place, all over our country.
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You can go to Walmart here in Sarnia right now.
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You go in there, there's lots of people in there.
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They're trying to practice social distancing, but if they can do it there,
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they should be able to do it in every business in Canada.
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And, Pat, it should be noted that you returned from a vacation in Mexico in March.
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Two days before the quarantine was up, I got the ticket.
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But even, as I understand it, even under the rules of quarantining,
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you're allowed to go, you know, into your backyard.
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This is essentially your backyard because you live in a high-rise apartment building.
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It's just for the tenants only, and I'm not the only person here that has a little dog.
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There are other people with dogs, but they usually use the front.
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Oh, a couple times I've run into people out here at the back,
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David Menzies for Rebel News here in Sarnia, Ontario.
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Well, I'm back here to update the story of Pat McHenry.
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He is the retired carpenter that was given one of those $880 tickets
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for allegedly not following the coronavirus safety protocols.
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Well, it's when good news is delivered by the people that occupy this building.
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The day after I interviewed Mr. McHenry, they returned to his apartment.
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And folks, you are not going to believe this story.
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So, Pat, you and I met for the first time on Wednesday.
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We had the interview of you getting that $880 ticket,
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and our viewers can go to my original report and get all the details there.
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But the nub of the matter was you walked your little dog, Molly,
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out to the parking lot, the deserted parking lot of your apartment building.
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You even took the stairwells to avoid any contact whatsoever with people
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because they typically take the elevator at your apartment building.
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And when you returned to your unit, two Sarnia constables were there,
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Then the day after we talked, the police returned to your apartment.
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And I knew intuitively that it was the police because nobody knocks on your door that loud.
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So, anyway, I opened the door, and there are two policemen there.
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He says, the original ticket that you got for – we're going to drop it.
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So, I'm thinking to myself, well, then that is good news.
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Then he hands me another ticket for the total sum of $1,255.
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More money than the original ticket just because you showed up in Sarnia to interview me.
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It's the most vindictiveness I have ever seen and very dishonest for the police to say – talk about good news.
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And, you know, Pat, those are the words he said.
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It was sarcastic because he was actually there to give you a ticket that was almost 50% more than the original ticket.
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Today, I'm excited to introduce you to Bridget Carlson, not because of the terrible things she says happened to her, but because, well, she needs our help to fight back.
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She's a young mom from North Bay, Ontario, and she's got a genuinely harrowing tale that will outrage and anger you.
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But I spoke to Bridget last week over Skype, and I was livid, mum to mum, to hear what happened to her.
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It was so upsetting that we just had to find a way to help her out.
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So we sent one of our really great Toronto-based videographers up to North Bay to talk to Bridget to get her side of the story on camera so that we could show all of you.
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We were on this wing for about 15, we were here for about 15 or 20 minutes.
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Two officers approached us and told us that we were breaking.
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I told them that we weren't harming anyone, that we needed to get outside and get some normality and just get some fresh air.
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We were talking for a little while, just like on a human-to-human level, explaining where I was coming from and all of this mental health.
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The lockdown, two months being inside with my daughter with no support.
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He grabbed my arm, took my backpack off, proceeded to put me in handcuffs, separated me from my daughter.
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I was taken up to the police vehicle where a cop did a body search on me, and it was very thorough and invasive.
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From there, they put me into the back of the cop car, and I didn't even know where my daughter was at that time.
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They went through all my things against my will.
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They finally came back and released me from the cop car, took my handcuffs off, and gave me an $880 ticket.
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They just gave me the ticket and told me if I didn't pay it, that they would take my license away from me.
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And so we left the car hand-in-hand, me and my daughter.
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My heart, my heartbeat has been racing since this happened.
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I'm up until midnight, until 1 o'clock in the morning.
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I can't believe that we're living in a country that's capable of doing this to the citizens.
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I don't have the money to pay $880, and I'm doing everything I can to support my daughter.
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Bridget's story made me so mad for her and her whole family.
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And how awful for her five-year-old to witness it all.
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Who was Bridget hurting in an empty park, alone with her five-year-old?
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What made her so dangerous that day that she needed to be cuffed, stuffed in a cop car, and searched?
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Her body and her belongings in front of her child, treated like a street thug or a violent offender,
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like an actual criminal instead of a mom just taking her daughter out for some fresh air.
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And all of this happened to Bridget before she was issued an insane $800 fine.
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Bridget has accepted our offer to help her fight this fine.
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We put Bridget in touch with the top Toronto criminal lawyer we've been working with, Sam Goldstein.
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He's a bencher with the Law Society of Ontario.
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Now, I spoke to Sam earlier about what Bridget says happened to her that day,
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What I understand is that there may very well be an infringement of Ms. Carlson's rights.
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And mostly what I'm concerned about is whether the police had the lawful authority to arrest her
00:25:37.240
With respect to Ms. Carlson, I understand the allegation is that she was alone in the park with her child
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and she was using the swing, and the police officer approached her.
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As a result of the conversation that took place between the police officer and herself,
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she then was arrested, meaning that she was handcuffed, escorted to a police cruiser.
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Her coat was searched, and her backpack was searched.
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Now, I think it's important for your viewers to understand that if there was a lawful arrest,
00:26:04.540
and let's assume that for a moment, that the police do have the right to search people incident to arrest.
00:26:11.000
And they have a very limited common law authority to be able to do that.
00:26:15.280
The issue becomes is the provincial legislation certainly gave the police the right, the authority,
00:26:21.160
statutory authority, to be able to ask her what her date of birth is, what her name is, and her address.
00:26:26.900
But I'm not so sure the provincial government also enacted companion legislation
00:26:32.460
to give the police the ability to actually arrest her, that is to say to handcuff her, right?
00:26:39.120
And in tickets, there was nothing that says all they could have simply done was to issue the ticket
00:26:45.120
by simply giving it to her and leaving her alone.
00:26:48.660
In this case, they went further to that, and I think that's the central issue about what happened to her.
00:26:54.120
Today, I want to introduce you to Walter Matheson from New Brunswick.
00:27:01.800
Sitting alone, in his car, in a Tim Hortons parking lot,
00:27:06.060
while he finished his muffin and coffee before carrying on his day.
00:27:10.060
For failure to comply with the direction of emergency measures.
00:27:14.220
But Walter is obviously a quick thinker because he did something many journalists wouldn't think to do,
00:27:19.600
let alone normal people just minding their own business,
00:27:21.920
trying to wash down a muffin with a double-double in a parking lot,
00:27:27.880
Walter started recording the audio on his phone.
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So while we don't have a video of what happened to Walter,
00:27:34.100
we do have the audio of his interaction with the police officer.
00:27:37.980
There's a lot of dead air as Walter politely waits for the cop to ticket him,
00:27:48.280
And the cop goes from jovial to angry, nearly immediately with Walter,
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the moment Walter wanted just a little bit of clarity from him.
00:28:01.060
Tim Hortons has asked me to move people from the parking lot here.
00:28:06.240
but what it does is it's letting the teens see what happens,
00:28:08.900
and then they all start hanging out here later on.
00:28:17.100
No, that's true, but they have asked, and it is up to them to do it.
00:28:21.540
Okay, if you don't move, I'm going to give you a $292 ticket.
00:28:25.980
For not moving in compliance to what I'm saying.
00:28:38.400
If I catch you back here, it will be a $292 ticket.
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I would still like to see your driver's license, though.
00:29:01.440
I don't like it any more than you do, but I'm doing a job.
00:29:11.020
Under the failure to comply with the direction of the Emergency Measures Act.
00:29:17.220
If you want to take it up with something, you can take it up with the sergeant at the office.
00:29:25.560
You can pay it at any service in New Brunswick.
00:29:29.060
Do you want to go to court in English or in French?
00:29:46.700
If you come back here, you will now be trespassing.
00:30:25.360
And so Walter tried to do what the cop asked him to do and leave.
00:30:28.880
And then the cop stops Walter from leaving and then tickets him for not leaving when the
00:30:36.740
Because an older man eating a muffin alone might attract teenagers to the Tim Hortons
00:30:45.180
Now, I talked to Walter a couple of days ago on Skype because his story is just so weird
00:30:51.380
Well, I think I was there about maybe five to ten minutes.
00:30:57.480
And they never told me when I went through the drive-thru that I could only get my coffee
00:31:04.780
So, of course, I always parked in the parking lot, drink my coffee, eat my muffin, and then
00:31:16.280
There was no sign saying no loitering or anything like that.
00:31:27.780
I don't know if they called them on me, but the police themselves, the police officer there
00:31:35.700
And the reason was that myself and the other people that were in the parking lot parked
00:31:44.100
there, there was probably five or six cars, would attract teenagers.
00:31:48.840
Now, I don't know if they have some kind of a problem with teenagers there.
00:31:52.840
You started recording your interaction with the police officer, which I think is fascinating
00:31:59.800
for me as a journalist, because I know some journalists who wouldn't do that.
00:32:06.780
Well, I've had experiences in the past where police officers have actually lied about what
00:32:15.020
So I said, well, it isn't going to hurt to record this.
00:32:18.620
And then I have my side of it and his side of it.
00:32:20.720
I tried to be as calm as I could there with him.
00:32:24.660
And I didn't use any swear words or anything like that.
00:32:28.500
And so I just said, well, I'll turn it on there.
00:32:33.260
I'll show my wife when I get home there what happened.
00:32:36.860
The police officer shows up at your window, I suppose.
00:32:48.060
But once you question this $292 ticket that he's threatening you with unless you leave,
00:33:00.640
He goes from happy to very angry and very aggressive with you.
00:33:06.240
Yes, it's almost like the excuse he gave me wasn't actually the truth.
00:33:12.620
And maybe he was upset about that, that really Tim Hortons didn't call him or something like that.
00:33:19.280
Even if he had come over and said, do you mind finishing your coffee and your muffin and leaving?
00:33:24.600
I would have said, that's what I always do, so I would have left.
00:33:35.520
But I certainly still think it's a free country.
00:33:39.920
I should have been able to sit there and have a coffee and my donut.
00:33:51.520
I think that our viewers at home will probably feel much the same way.
00:33:56.480
And that's why we are going to help you fight this ticket.
00:33:59.940
I have an incredible update to bring you about the case of Walter Matheson.
00:34:04.860
He's our fight the fines case from Hampton, New Brunswick,
00:34:07.820
who was ticketed by police in a Tim Hortons parking lot
00:34:11.660
while he ate his muffin and finished his coffee completely alone in his car.
00:34:15.700
He was ticketed for failure to comply with emergency measures.
00:34:19.720
The thing is, Walter did try to comply, but the police officer then stopped him
00:34:23.920
and ticketed him nearly $300 after Walter said, this is still a free country.
00:34:32.540
Okay, if you don't move, I'm going to give you a $292 ticket.
00:34:37.060
For not moving in compliance to what I'm saying.
00:34:39.260
And the cop involved, well, he got particularly abusive,
00:34:59.540
However, Walter brilliantly recorded the interaction,
00:35:09.020
Because we've now received a legal threat letter on behalf of the cop who ticketed Walter.
00:35:17.620
And I'll stop as I'm reading to point things that I notice out to you, if that's okay.
00:35:22.800
Because I am almost 100% certain this lawyer did not watch the video or read the accompanying website article
00:35:30.420
before firing off this bullying and threatening letter to us at Rebel News.
00:35:38.200
Dear Sir or Madam, regarding Constable John Thompson,
00:35:46.300
Now, I just want to point out that she got the address wrong.
00:35:54.580
Please be advised we represent Constable Thompson with respect to the above-sided matter.
00:35:59.820
We understand one of your reporters named Sheila Gunn-Reed published an article,
00:36:07.260
The grammar here, it's not great for a legal letter.
00:36:11.360
There are extra commas just hanging around all over the place.
00:36:15.840
We understand your reporter recorded a conversation without the knowledge of Constable Thompson.
00:36:22.820
No, no, you definitely don't understand that because I didn't do that.
00:36:27.280
Next time, watch the video before sending off a letter about how bad that video is.
00:36:34.280
I say repeatedly in the video that the recording of the interaction came to us by way of Walter Matheson.
00:36:41.900
He recorded his own interaction with a cop and then sent it to us.
00:36:45.660
I definitely wasn't on the other side of the country, sitting in a Tim Hortons parking lot,
00:36:49.940
with a man I absolutely didn't know at the time recording an interaction with a cop.
00:36:54.300
However, even if it were true that I was and it's definitely not, that's crazy,
00:37:03.140
And it doesn't change the fact that the cop did behave poorly and unprofessionally towards Walter,
00:37:10.860
Then the lawyer tells me that I'm mean, kind of.
00:37:22.840
I might have hurt Constable John Thompson's feelings a little bit,
00:37:26.320
but I certainly didn't break any laws by publishing that audio recording,
00:37:32.460
Constable Thompson has had two death threats as a result.
00:37:37.740
I definitely don't condone those, and I get my fair share of them too.
00:37:42.520
I'd advise Constable Thompson to call 911 or the Hampton Police Complaints Line
00:37:49.820
And if the death threats are really, freely getting out of control,
00:37:54.100
maybe the Hampton Police could take someone off the coronavirus muffin eater beat
00:37:59.280
down at the local Tim Hortons to help investigate the spate of criminality
00:38:09.320
In addition, Sheila Gunn-Reed repeatedly mentions his name in the article.
00:38:16.500
Now, the word article is capitalized here for some reason,
00:38:19.720
but this statement is also wrong for a couple of other different reasons.
00:38:23.720
And again, it furthers my suspicions that this lawyer
00:38:26.300
didn't even do 10 minutes worth of watching a YouTube video
00:38:33.700
First point, does she think we were supposed to hide this cop's identity?
00:38:40.860
Now, we used Thompson's name in the name key on the screen
00:38:44.140
to differentiate in the recording when he was talking
00:38:51.840
But we never even wrote his name in the accompanying article with the video.
00:38:57.960
I didn't even say the cop's name once in the video.
00:39:03.360
Neither did the lawyer I interviewed about the case, Sam Goldstein.
00:39:10.440
was truly with out-of-control coronavirus legislation,
00:39:13.960
not so much with the police tasked with enforcing it.
00:39:17.460
Except now I do have a real problem with this one specific cop, don't I?
00:39:25.720
I don't like it any more than you do, but I'm doing a job.
00:39:35.800
Because normally that's the first thing lawyers put in these sorts of letters.
00:39:40.280
Lawyers don't normally add that as a throwaway line
00:39:43.240
stuffed into the middle of a legal threat letter.
00:39:48.560
As such, we suggest you remove Constable John Thompson from the article.
00:39:54.900
That's the article in which his name was never really written.
00:40:01.780
And return the recording to the Hampton RCMP forthwith.
00:40:08.360
Yours truly, Lutz Longstaff Parrish, Carly Parrish,
00:40:15.700
This lawyer is demanding that I give my journalistic materials
00:40:26.080
You just can't write a demand letter telling a journalist
00:40:31.780
because a cop doesn't like a news report that he was in.
00:40:37.220
as though these materials belonged to the police in the first place.
00:40:41.220
Does the Hampton RCMP know that she's having them participate
00:40:43.820
in the proposed confiscation of my journalistic materials?
00:40:47.980
Now, if I were someone who would comply with this demand,
00:41:05.360
David Menzies for Rebel News here in Cobourg, Ontario.
00:41:12.580
And wow, this might be one of the most incredible
00:41:16.640
Fight the Fines case that Rebel News has taken on.
00:41:20.960
You are not going to believe what happened to Tamara
00:41:25.560
I believe exactly two weeks from this Saturday, Tamara,
00:41:29.340
you were down here near the beachfront of Cobourg.
00:41:46.820
We entered the pier as some exhibitors did today.
00:41:51.780
And about halfway through became harassed, per se,
00:42:09.780
So did you know that maybe you were in contravention
00:42:21.880
my freedom of mobility to stroll the shoreline.
00:42:26.480
Indeed, you sent along to me via email some land surveys.
00:43:07.000
The bylaw officer approaches you and your friend.
00:43:30.540
So you can imagine the two of us are quite the threatening pair.
00:43:35.280
And at that point, there was some backup called.
00:44:08.720
I'm going to write you up for one of those $880 tickets?
00:44:19.240
hit us with a fine to which I refused to receive
00:44:31.500
the officers and I went back and forth for a few minutes.
00:45:01.940
because we have seen throughout the Wuhan virus
00:45:08.180
correctional facilities releasing violent criminals
00:45:28.820
neither can I because in Coburg here specifically,
00:45:31.020
we've had no COVID cases since the end of April.
00:45:44.520
into our civil liberties and rights and freedoms.
00:45:56.260
But even if there was a hard and entrenched bylaw here
00:46:10.800
a street festival where there's hundreds of people
00:46:23.160
I mean, I'm trying to make sense of this all, Tamara.
00:46:28.240
where the people from that trailer park are coming from
00:46:30.600
if the intention here was to keep the others away.
00:46:40.540
I particularly think this is one of the most egregious ones yet.
00:46:43.800
Two people, law-abiding citizens walking on a deserted beach
00:46:51.980
And it's even questionable in terms of the boundaries of the town
00:46:56.580
and whether the bylaw is indeed in effect on the shoreline.
00:47:01.760
You know, Tamara, I'm sure our viewers are equally perturbed
00:47:09.340
I understand you've reached out to our legal eagle, Sam Goldstein.
00:47:30.500
because we need to put the end to this hypocrisy of the new normal.
00:47:39.420
including local ones in little towns like Coburg,
00:47:51.620
this is the theme we seem to come across all across Canada,
00:47:54.800
is that it's almost as though politicians of all stripes,
00:48:02.240
they've gotten a taste of almost totalitarian power
00:48:33.840
What I find so interesting about the Fight the Fines cases
00:48:36.120
is the different walks of life people are from.
00:48:40.040
who probably would never even think of the rebel as their place.
00:48:46.560
you were there helping to crowdfund the lawyers.
00:48:50.400
but I think that we're a reason the tide is turning.
00:48:55.720
on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters,