Four Acts of Government Censorship in Four Days
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
163.78282
Summary
4 Acts of Government Censorship in 4 Days. I don t think it's a coincidence. I think the era of censorship is upon us, and I think given that we're the most independent media in the country, they're coming for us first.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
One of my rebels, four acts of censorship have been committed against us in four days.
00:00:04.380
You probably know about the first one, when I was slapped with two fines totaling $3,000
00:00:11.800
Well, I've got three other stories for you today.
00:00:15.700
I think the era of censorship is upon us, and I think given that we're the most independent
00:00:20.560
media in the country, they're coming for us first.
00:00:24.880
Before I do, let me invite you to become a premium subscriber to what we call Rebel News
00:00:31.620
So it's this podcast plus the video version of it.
00:00:36.180
It's just $8 a month, which is, what, half of Netflix.
00:00:38.960
You also get shows by Sheila Gunn-Reed, David Menzies, and now Andrew Chapados.
00:00:42.860
So I think there's a lot of value in it, and believe me, it makes a difference here, because
00:00:59.720
Tonight, four acts of government censorship in four days.
00:01:12.740
It's January 25th, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.
00:01:15.920
Last week, I told you about my two convictions for publishing my best-selling book called The
00:01:48.300
Government censorship, the one good thing you can say about it is it's slow as a turtle.
00:02:05.900
It's a $3,000 fine for publishing the book and the promotion of the book because it compares
00:02:12.760
Trudeau to Tony Soprano from the old TV show The Sopranos that was specifically mentioned
00:02:20.500
However, Section 2 of the Canada Elections Act exempts books, and not just books, the
00:02:31.420
It's simply not covered by the election spending laws.
00:02:36.880
Normally, a rational person would grumble and pay $3,000 because appealing that will certainly
00:02:44.100
A constitutional challenge, I hate to say it, it's probably going to cost $100,000.
00:02:57.260
But since then, three more acts of censorship have been done to us.
00:03:09.400
I prefer to talk about common themes, things that happen in Canada and the United States,
00:03:16.280
I don't just want to talk about rebel news, but I suppose it's the fact that because we
00:03:20.880
are the leading edge of civil liberties battles, free speech battles, we ourselves are going
00:03:26.540
to become the news when the government starts to censor.
00:03:30.740
The same day that I got those two convictions from the elections commissioner of Trudeau,
00:03:37.680
I received a threat letter from Doug Ford's attorney general here in Ontario, the so-called
00:03:46.360
It was a threat, bizarrely, to prosecute us for our fightthefines.com project.
00:03:57.240
We crowdfund lawyers to defend people who got pandemic fines, lockdown fines.
00:04:02.360
It's very successful, not just here in Canada, but it's something we've exported to the United
00:04:08.140
I think it's irritated a lot of politicians because they want to just steamroller over
00:04:14.700
the little people who can't afford the lawyers.
00:04:17.020
And like I said with the book, $3,000 is a lot easier to pay than fighting a $3,000 fine
00:04:25.460
We are providing a sort of equalizer to the little people that Doug Ford used to care about.
00:04:31.720
Well, we got this threat letter over our use of a stock image of a police officer's vest.
00:04:42.240
It was just a vest that said, police, this image here.
00:04:45.080
And they were threatening to sue us, saying that it was a violation of privacy of that officer,
00:04:58.060
I got on the phone with the lawyers, and it was worse than I thought.
00:05:03.820
I gave them until tonight to call off their dogs.
00:05:19.580
But it's a sign that governments are growing bolder, threatening us, not for anything we did,
00:05:25.200
but for the fact that we're daring to stick up for other people who got pandemic fines.
00:05:30.160
And the story they made, I'll get into that later.
00:05:33.680
I'm just saying that was the second thing on that same day.
00:05:37.060
The first was two convictions and violations from Trudeau's elections commissioner,
00:05:42.600
and the second is from Doug Ford's attorney general.
00:05:50.100
So I'll tell you more about that in the days ahead.
00:05:57.900
Kian Bexty, our reporter based in Calgary, who's done some of our most exciting stories.
00:06:02.900
You might recall a few weeks ago, he broke a story on Canada's armed forces.
00:06:08.840
About 150 Canadian soldiers went over to Wuhan, China in the fall of 2019.
00:06:17.880
Well, Wuhan, as you know, is where the coronavirus came from, COVID-19.
00:06:21.240
And the fall of 2019, well, that's why they call it COVID-19.
00:06:26.340
Canada sent 150 plus soldiers as coaches and athletes in the world military games.
00:06:40.740
This was done after the two Michaels were taken hostage by China.
00:06:44.860
It's one of the things that was a cause of discord of the Canadian armed forces
00:06:54.100
One of the soldiers who was on that trip talked to Kian about how so many soldiers got sick
00:07:01.600
and how the Canadian armed forces tried to cover it up.
00:07:08.480
And then suddenly he got a knock on his door at his home from two of Trudeau's RCMP.
00:07:25.720
I'm with the federal, we're with the federal unit here in Calgary.
00:07:34.320
Is it okay if we step in for a quick conversation for two seconds?
00:07:43.660
Just in regards to, so we've been asked to come here and speak with you today, okay?
00:07:47.900
And like I said, we're with the RCMP here in Calgary.
00:08:03.540
So it's in regards to a tweet that was sent out January 8th.
00:08:33.720
It was basically the public notified the RCMP about this tweet.
00:08:37.700
So that's why we were asked to come here and talk to you today, okay?
00:08:40.120
So just wanted to let you know that we reviewed the items that you had put out there, and there's
00:08:48.320
We're not worried about materials that's non-classified, okay?
00:08:52.820
What it really comes down to, we've just been asked to come here, just because of some
00:08:59.480
of the nature of the text, that it was sensitive material, potentially.
00:09:02.680
Obviously, some citizens saw it, and they linked us, so we've been asked to come here
00:09:08.860
I know in a journalistic job, we meet with people, sources, exchange information, I get
00:09:15.080
So it's just to be cognizant that if you do come into sometimes a classified or sensitive
00:09:19.320
material, just be aware that that possession or acquisition or distribution could be an
00:09:25.280
So I don't know if you're familiar with the SOIA, Security of Information Act.
00:09:32.900
You can Google it, and it'll give you kind of a summary of what it is.
00:09:35.540
And even kind of like a, it'll help explain kind of what might be classified or sensitive.
00:09:43.900
We were just told to just come give you a friendly reminder.
00:09:45.840
If you do come and be aware, it's for your own protection as well.
00:09:50.940
Was it like your superiors in Calgary or in Ottawa?
00:09:57.220
Obviously, you know, our main bosses go all the way up to Ottawa.
00:10:00.500
But we're from, just from the local unit here in Calgary.
00:10:07.760
Would I be able to get a copy of that tweet that you, could I have that page?
00:10:25.780
I believe that you're referencing kind of that military COVID release.
00:10:31.420
It's just kind of how it started through the tweet.
00:10:37.040
Shared it with our kind of social media and it made its way up.
00:10:41.360
It's just to be cognizant that if you ever come into that, maybe a real stuff from a source
00:10:45.140
or someone providing it to you, that could be an issue.
00:10:51.380
So the week hadn't even ended and we got Trudeau's election commissioner slapping us with $3,000
00:10:57.240
We got Doug Ford's attorney general threatening us if we don't stop showing a police vest in
00:11:05.020
And then we have two of Trudeau's RCMP officers intimidating or trying to intimidate one of
00:11:13.940
Well, then the weekend came and a team of our rebel reporters went down to Toronto where
00:11:19.680
every weekend there's a large protest against the lockdowns.
00:11:27.740
David Menzies in his signature hat, Efron, Monsanto, Mocha Beziergan.
00:11:36.880
They go out there not to protest, but to report on the protests and they're wearing their badges.
00:11:43.820
Well, incredibly, our reporters, maybe it's not incredible anymore, it should be, they were
00:12:21.980
Efron was not in the way of any cop, was not obstructing anything, but because he was filming
00:12:28.120
the cops, beat up some lockdown protesters, they physically pushed him away.
00:12:34.560
Our other cameraman, Mocha, has been going every week.
00:13:03.000
Here's a shot of him being pushed around similarly, too.
00:13:11.820
Well, we growl about this and we send messages on Twitter directly to the Toronto Police Operations
00:13:21.520
So there was a new line that the police trotted out this weekend saying, we're not real journalists
00:13:31.200
The media is exempt, but it's like CP24 and stuff like that, right?
00:13:47.120
If you're not sure, then why are you making assumptions then?
00:13:58.220
In a police state, the police get to determine who is or isn't an official broadcaster.
00:14:06.100
But the crazy thing is, while they were saying to us we weren't real journalists, they spoke
00:14:11.220
to an established legacy media in Toronto called City News and said they're banned too.
00:14:18.780
Essentially, it's that media at this point in time, there's not essential service rate
00:14:23.460
So we can't have you come and gather and stay for a while and loiter unless you're
00:14:27.420
out for an essential reason, which is grocery shopping, going to the doctor, things along
00:14:30.560
So you're telling me media is not essential service?
00:14:32.440
That is, under information that I was provided that I'm acting on today, that's the information
00:14:42.780
I can't tell you the exact date that that started or anything like that.
00:14:45.800
I'm just telling you on the information that I've provided and that I'm acting on today
00:14:50.360
Can I have your name and badge number up there?
00:14:53.160
Can I just get a quick close-up of it there, if you don't mind?
00:14:56.260
Okay, so you're telling me I have to leave the square?
00:15:02.800
So I'm cautioning you right now and I'm giving you the opportunity to leave on your own admission
00:15:10.980
I just want to let you know the Constitution does not have a pandemic exemption clause in it.
00:15:16.320
The Charter of Rights is not suspended during this so-called emergency.
00:15:22.080
And a police officer simply waving a wand and saying, you are not essential, that's not even a thing.
00:15:28.500
Now, Mocha, our cameraman, tweeted some pictures of police, some video of police engaging in assaults
00:15:38.980
The Toronto Police Operations Centre tweeted back saying, oh, it was just all a misunderstanding.
00:15:44.680
Hey, guys, just a misunderstanding the way we roughed you up.
00:15:53.400
They didn't even have the courtesy or the politeness to tell Mocha and Efron that the police were wrong to push them around.
00:16:10.320
One, a conviction for a trial I wasn't invited to.
00:16:13.660
Two, a threat by the Provincial Attorney General.
00:16:20.440
And fourth, the Toronto Police pushing and threatening to arrest our reporters for reporting on a peaceful protest.
00:16:28.020
I want to tell you, we did not seek any of this out.
00:16:30.660
It was brought to us, done to us, because of our journalism.
00:16:35.020
Imagine how conflicted and corrupted the mainstream media must be that they don't have this happen to them
00:16:40.700
because they're so obedient, they don't provoke anything.
00:16:43.760
Even City News, when they were told to scram, they did scram,
00:16:48.460
and their mighty company called Rogers didn't do a bloody thing with it.
00:16:53.300
My friends, sometimes I feel like we're alone for censorship acts in four days.
00:17:18.180
Well, about a month or so ago, the biggest battle in Toronto, well, it was actually the gangland shootings.
00:17:26.080
Shootings in Toronto have tripled under the watchful eye of Mayor John Tory,
00:17:30.260
but the big police operation was against a barbecue joint called Adamson's Barbecue.
00:17:36.220
As you know, over 100 police, 50 police cars, and it turns out six riot horses were deployed to that big, bad barbecue joint.
00:17:46.780
Well, something's brewing in the small central Alberta town of Mirror.
00:17:54.820
So far, no riot cops, but Trudeau's RCMP have been by repeatedly because a little cafe,
00:18:06.060
has opened to the massive support of the little town.
00:18:13.920
They're going there to meet each other, to see each other, to live a normal life,
00:18:20.480
Well, our friend and chief reporter, Sheila Gunn-Reed,
00:18:24.000
joins us now via Skype from the Whistle Stop Cafe in Mirror, Alberta.
00:18:32.600
My Skype connection might be a little bit slow,
00:18:35.160
and it might be a little noisy because it's a lunch rush,
00:18:39.240
But I'm here in Mirror just to make sure that if the police or Alberta Health Services
00:18:47.580
come to drop the hammer on this little restaurant,
00:18:58.580
You know, Toronto is the biggest city in Canada.
00:19:01.920
The greater Toronto area, which is a lot of little towns and cities,
00:19:09.840
Last time I checked, I think Mirror has just over 500.
00:19:13.560
So it's the kind of place where everybody knows each other.
00:19:16.920
And I think there's a level of trust in small towns.
00:19:19.920
And if these folks want to come to the Whistle Stop Cafe,
00:19:28.220
You know, you're probably the only stranger in there today,
00:19:32.200
and you're not a stranger anymore because you've been visiting them.
00:19:34.880
My point is, everyone there knows what's going on, knows the risks.
00:19:39.900
And if they want to take them, they're sort of sick of the BS and the lockdowns.
00:19:44.920
I wonder if this would turn into the Adamson's Barbecue of the Prairies.
00:19:51.860
I think the problem in Toronto is the mayor thought,
00:20:00.680
In Little Mirror, Alberta, you'd have to go out of town to get 100 cops,
00:20:10.040
I think the closest RCMP detachment is about 20 kilometres up the road.
00:20:18.740
I think I could even be exaggerating that work at that detachment.
00:20:22.380
They've got a lot of better things to do in small town Alberta
00:20:26.180
than to crack down on an illegal burger here in Mirror.
00:20:30.620
Rural crime is out of control because of the bad economy,
00:20:34.660
and police are really too busy to be the enforcement arm
00:20:40.200
of the Alberta Health Services bureaucrats that want this place closed.
00:20:51.120
I want to tell you, I've started a campaign called No Burger is Illegal.
00:20:58.460
Earlier today, you were telling me about the menu there.
00:21:09.020
but I bet they would be happy for folks in the surrounding areas
00:21:18.380
You said they got some soup, burgers, fries, obviously, breakfast food.
00:21:23.280
Like, this is just a typical small town diner experience.
00:21:26.180
I was very hungry when you were describing it to me on the phone.
00:21:29.240
And Mirror, it's just east of Lacombe, if I'm not mistaken.
00:21:36.700
So if you're in central Alberta, why not go for a drive?
00:21:46.460
It's very easy to get to, but make sure you've left yourself a little bit of time
00:21:52.580
if you are coming, because this place has been busy since they opened.
00:21:57.340
From morning till night, people are coming from Calgary.
00:22:02.260
People who are not able to sit in and have a sit-down meal,
00:22:08.960
And sometimes those takeout orders, people have to wait two hours for them
00:22:16.420
While I was here this morning, one of the local ranchers came and dropped off some beef.
00:22:24.620
And they knew that Chris, the owner here, was having trouble getting off the grill
00:22:31.040
So the community is really rallying around him, not just by patronizing the business,
00:22:35.740
but for helping backstop the business with supplies.
00:22:39.180
Even the staff here, they know that Chris has been closed for quite some time,
00:22:47.380
But they are volunteering their time just to keep the doors open,
00:22:51.500
just so that they will have a job to come back to
00:22:54.400
if AHS ever lets them legally open going forward.
00:23:01.080
And when you say there's a lineup for food, that's how it was with Adamson's.
00:23:09.400
It's the solidarity with someone not only standing up to the infringements on our liberties,
00:23:16.160
but someone who's fighting for their own life and livelihood.
00:23:24.380
But I can imagine that they've poured years of their life and their heart into the place.
00:23:30.660
I mean, if you think about what makes a neighborhood,
00:23:33.120
you know, there might be a little park, there might be a school.
00:23:36.040
Often it's the restaurants that actually give a community, it's a neighborhood, it's character.
00:23:43.220
That's where you have the moments of your life.
00:23:45.280
The backdrop of your life happens in this restaurant, in that bar.
00:23:50.240
You know, it's the milestones and the landmarks.
00:23:52.040
And God forbid the Whistle Stop Cafe were to shut down.
00:23:55.960
I hate to even say those words, but that's the fate of more than 10,000 restaurants in Canada.
00:24:00.560
That will cast a long shadow over the cohesiveness of the community.
00:24:09.560
I tell you, Sheila, if I was there, I would go there out of solidarity.
00:24:17.040
I would just want to support them every way I can.
00:24:20.440
And if the police showed up to be bullies, I would do my best not to swear,
00:24:26.020
but I would ask challenging words to the police if this is really why they went to the police academy
00:24:36.140
did you ever imagine yourself cracking down on waiters, waitresses, and customers?
00:24:40.000
You thought you were going to be fighting murderers and robbers, didn't you?
00:24:43.160
That's the kind of stuff I would say if I could control my tongue and not swear.
00:24:47.680
Yesterday, I was here, not for work, but for personal reasons.
00:24:55.300
I wanted to do exactly what you were talking about, Ezra.
00:25:00.280
I've got a great video coming out where you can see the whole community is here.
00:25:14.060
We rounded up a bunch of people, including one of those freedom-minded restaurants,
00:25:19.680
our friends from Buffet Royale in the Edmonton area,
00:25:26.440
and then was subsequently protested by the Chinese consulate.
00:25:32.880
It's a little bit more difficult for a large buffet restaurant to open up on a moment's notice,
00:25:37.660
but they wanted to do what they could do to help Chris.
00:25:41.820
And you are right when you say that these small-town diners,
00:25:44.500
they really end up being sort of like the community center.
00:25:48.080
It's, you know, where everybody gets together to discuss, you know, business, funerals.
00:25:56.560
And when these places disappear, they disappear forever.
00:26:00.960
And you're right about Chris being part of the social fabric here.
00:26:05.160
At the beginning of the pandemic, when everything was closed,
00:26:08.460
he bought a massive screen and he set up a drive-in theater in his parking lot
00:26:18.340
And at the time, AHS closed it down the first time around,
00:26:26.940
AHS sat down and made some rules for him to reopen.
00:26:30.960
And I think that's what he's trying to do here.
00:26:33.440
He's just going to go ahead, do something, ask for permission later,
00:26:36.880
and hopefully he forces AHS to come to the table and allow everybody to open back up.
00:26:42.760
Yeah, that's, you know what, I tell you, just today I reviewed
00:26:48.020
Dr. Teresa Tam's weekly epidemiological report on COVID-19.
00:26:54.980
One of the pages in that report shows the number of outbreaks since the pandemic began.
00:27:02.820
More than 10,000 outbreaks, sorry, 10,000 deaths from outbreaks in seniors' homes, for example.
00:27:10.980
The grand total across all of Canada, in every restaurant and bar and retail,
00:27:19.040
the grand total, Sheila, three deaths, three across this entire country for the last year, three.
00:27:26.740
And the risk is so low, there is a greater risk driving to a restaurant that you'll get killed in a car accident, God forbid,
00:27:41.640
You know, so I find that, I got one last question for you, and by the way, I wish I was there.
00:27:49.100
And if the cops come, film everything, and if they give out tickets, please tell everyone there,
00:28:01.320
If you don't get their names, tell them to go to fightthefines.com, Sheila.
00:28:04.540
I don't want anyone there to have additional stress in their life, especially those waiters and waitresses.
00:28:12.920
You mentioned our friends from Buffet Royale and Edmonton came on down.
00:28:16.940
Do you have any indication, even whispers, that there might be other restaurants or shopkeepers
00:28:23.800
who are inspired by the Whistle Stop Cafe, and they're saying, hey, I mean, like Nanton,
00:28:31.460
I love driving down, and I always stop in Nanton for breakfast.
00:28:38.840
Do you hear any whispers anywhere else in Alberta that people are going to say, well, if they're going to do it,
00:28:43.900
I'm going to do it too, not out of jealousy, but out of, hey, that's a great idea, you know what I mean?
00:28:52.720
I don't want to give away the location in case the police decide that they need to pay them a proactive visit,
00:28:58.980
but there is one that is opening up on Wednesday night and one that's opening up following that.
00:29:03.280
And I think the idea is you cannot ticket us all.
00:29:07.740
They might, but I don't know if they can drag all these people before the courts.
00:29:12.320
And optically, it's going to look terrible on the government.
00:29:18.160
The government has driven them to the point where they absolutely have nothing left to lose.
00:29:24.120
In my interview with Chris yesterday, that's what he said.
00:29:33.740
But I'm going to keep opening up until they change the locks.
00:29:41.420
Well, here's the thing about if we provide a lawyer.
00:29:45.100
At the very, very least, it kicks the can down the road 6, 12, 18 months to take the stress off these restauranteurs.
00:29:53.920
And perhaps if we get out of this tyranny, which I hope we do, a judge in the sober morning light would say, what were we thinking?
00:30:05.860
And I think that people who are not used to dealing with the law, not used to being in an antagonistic situation, most people are not conflict-oriented.
00:30:18.500
So fighting, you know, and by fighting, I don't mean with my fist because I'd get pummeled.
00:30:29.940
We will be like the liver to take all the toxins, to take all the bad stuff.
00:30:34.780
Let us take all the bad stuff because we're sort of pros at that.
00:30:45.900
And if you want to buy a round of pies for everyone in the restaurant on me, send me the bill.
00:30:58.440
You know, I guess that's my way of saying I'm sending my support, Sheila.
00:31:06.840
And those other two restaurants, I can hardly wait to find out who they are.
00:31:09.640
We will fight them and hopefully Alberta will open up from the grassroots up, if not from the top down.
00:31:22.740
If the police do ticket him, we are going to be there to fight every single fine that he gets in court.
00:31:29.060
We're going to make these Alberta Health Services bureaucrats answer for what they are doing to him in front of a real judge and explain their actions.
00:31:41.540
So if people want to help us help Chris, they can do that at fightthefines.com.
00:31:48.420
I know you have already, but to the waiters and waitresses and the cooks, because anyone there and any customers, any customers.
00:31:56.100
So there's the owner, there's the workers, and then there's the customers.
00:32:09.920
I know it's like minus 20, minus 25 there in Mirror, Alberta.
00:32:14.060
But it looks like the warmth of the community is the real story there.
00:32:22.940
Sheila Gunreed, our chief reporter at the Whistle Stop Cafe in the town of Mirror, Alberta.
00:32:30.160
I don't know if it's a town or a village, when you only have about 500 folks.
00:32:35.220
Obviously, everyone in that cafe knows each other, and they know and support the owner.
00:32:41.200
And we're getting to know them, and we're supporting them, too.
00:32:44.260
You can also, if you want, at fightthefinest.com.
00:32:50.120
We've offered legal help to everyone in the place, and we'll give it with your help, because that's how we pay for it.
00:33:10.940
On my show Friday, Wendy writes, I just brought The Libranos, The China Virus, and The Case Against David Suzuki by Sheila Gunn-Reed.
00:33:21.280
When you ban a book, all of a sudden people are saying, oh, what am I not allowed to see?
00:33:29.080
So I think banning books often backfires, especially in the age of the Internet.
00:33:35.440
Paul writes, for your next book, have him on the cover in blackface.
00:33:41.720
You know, we saw that story the other day out of Hamilton, where someone called Trudeau a Nazi, and police were investigating that.
00:33:51.060
But when Trudeau calls people Nazis, they don't investigate that, and is putting a picture of Trudeau in blackface.
00:33:56.860
Is that racist, or is he racist that he did it?
00:34:02.240
You know, Trudeau really dresses up in costumes all the time.
00:34:17.520
If you Google Trudeau costumes, you'll probably get a hundred different images.
00:34:22.260
You'll probably get 20 just from his trip to India.
00:34:30.900
I think it's really weird, and it probably speaks to some issues, some Peter Pan issues, or some lack of a center.
00:34:49.160
Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us, you remember, I'm a world-packed world to you at home.