Rebel News Podcast - November 02, 2019


Rebel Roundup： David Menzies with guests Sheila Gunn Reid & Ezra Levant


Episode Stats

Length

39 minutes

Words per Minute

150.79344

Word Count

5,882

Sentence Count

361

Misogynist Sentences

20

Hate Speech Sentences

22


Summary

Jonathan aka Jessica Yaniv has not only lost his case against female estheticians who refuse to wax his genitals, he s been ordered to pay them thousands of dollars too. Today, Rebel Commander Ezra Levent joins me to talk about this rare victory for common sense in our system of kangaroo courts. And in a shameful display of disrespect, Nova Scotia authorities ordered pro-military artwork to be painted over because, get this, it was a distraction. And finally, we get your letters! And today, some of you weigh in on that pint-sized climate crusader Greta Thunberg who recently flew to Vancouver to lecture the rest of us about Canada s evil fossil fuel industry.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 You're listening to a free audio version of my show Rebel Roundup where we cover the hottest
00:00:05.800 Rebel stories of the week. Today my guests are Sheila Gunn-Reed and Ezra Levent. If you like
00:00:12.080 the podcast then you should become a premium content subscriber that gets you access to the
00:00:18.360 video version of my show as well as shows from Ezra Levent and Sheila Gunn-Reed. It's only $8
00:00:25.140 a month to subscribe and as a special bonus for you we're offering a 10% discount if you use the
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00:00:55.140 Welcome to Rebel Roundup ladies and gentlemen and the rest of you in which we look back at some of
00:01:01.140 the very best commentaries of the week by your favorite rebels. Well that human rights case that
00:01:06.760 made international headlines has finally come to an end. Jonathan aka Jessica Yaniv has not only lost
00:01:15.140 his case against female estheticians who refuse to wax his genitals, he's been ordered to pay them
00:01:22.280 thousands of dollars too. Rebel commander Ezra Levent joins me to talk about this rare victory
00:01:29.200 for common sense in our system of kangaroo courts and in a display a shameful display of disrespect
00:01:38.200 Nova Scotia authorities ordered pro-military artwork to be painted over because get this it was a
00:01:45.620 distraction. Our Alberta Bureau Chief Sheila Gunn-Reed joins me to discuss this latest
00:01:51.860 example of bureaucratic insanity. And finally letters we get your letters we get your letters every
00:01:58.460 minute of every day and today some of you weigh in on that pint-sized climate crusader that's Greta
00:02:05.860 Thunberg who recently flew to Vancouver to lecture the rest of us about Canada's evil fossil fuel industry
00:02:13.520 and did you ever have a lot to say about that one? Those are your rebels? Now let's round them up.
00:02:19.640 But even those moron, even those kangaroo courts, even those jokes, those unjust clowns,
00:02:39.760 even they have their limits and their limit was reached by Jonathan Yaniv, a man who now calls himself
00:02:46.480 Jessica Yaniv, who tweets about having his period, his menstrual cycle and things like that.
00:02:55.920 I don't think he's crazy. I think it's an act, a pervy act to access women's change rooms where he takes
00:03:06.020 photos, a pervy act to get access to naked teenagers who he invites to swimming pool parties,
00:03:15.460 and most grossly where he books appointments with estheticians who are used to giving women bikini waxes
00:03:23.060 and he books those appointments as a woman, pretending to be a woman, claiming to be a woman.
00:03:28.040 And then he shows up as a man and insists that they wax them and that they touch him and do to him what he wants.
00:03:35.080 And often, by the way, those estheticians happen to be immigrant women working from home.
00:03:39.480 He literally comes to their house and he does this again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again.
00:03:46.120 And when they say no, he demands money from them. He sues them at, you guessed it, the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal.
00:03:53.640 I mean, if you get 50 grand for not wanting to wash your hands as a McDonald's employee,
00:04:00.360 for the human right not to have to wash your hand before touching a hamburger, why not?
00:04:05.080 I mean, it's not like he has to pay for anything. It's all governed, all covered by the government.
00:04:10.040 And they do say he has a right because they're discriminating against him on the basis of gender identity.
00:04:17.500 He says he's not a woman. He said he's a woman, excuse me. He's not.
00:04:22.380 But he says he is. He says he's a trans woman. And he says that's the law now.
00:04:27.380 So he took all these women to the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal and he managed to get them prosecuted,
00:04:35.500 to let him prosecute them in secret, as in he got to hide his name.
00:04:43.300 He actually played the victim. He claimed he was in danger.
00:04:46.560 So he managed to get a publication ban on his own lawsuits
00:04:50.960 so he could continue to go out there and harass and entrap other women.
00:04:56.400 Listen, this happened.
00:04:59.580 Well, it also happened that he finally got the ruling from the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal
00:05:03.560 and he lost. And it is glorious.
00:05:07.780 Well, last week, hell froze over.
00:05:10.060 Well, that might as well be true because something very, very unusual happened.
00:05:15.320 The British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal ruled against a serial complainant
00:05:19.660 who was abusing the system.
00:05:21.960 That person was Jonathan, a.k.a. Jessica Yaniv,
00:05:26.560 whose campaign to force female estheticians to wax the genitalia has failed spectacularly.
00:05:34.280 And joining me to talk about this is our very own rebel commander, Ezra Levent.
00:05:37.980 Now, Ezra, you, of course, have had plenty of experience with these Human Rights Tribunals,
00:05:43.380 a.k.a. kangaroo courts.
00:05:45.180 What do you make of this somewhat stunning decision?
00:05:48.620 Because not only did Yaniv lose, but he's on the hook for something like $6,000 in damages.
00:05:54.280 Yeah. First of all, it's extremely rare that a human rights complainant has to pay costs to his victims.
00:06:02.580 That's standard fare in a civil court.
00:06:05.700 If you sue someone in contract law and any other normal dispute,
00:06:11.660 you'd better win or be prepared to pay not only your lawyers,
00:06:15.340 but your opponent's lawyers if it was a spurious case.
00:06:18.840 That's extremely rare in human rights tribunals,
00:06:21.320 which tells you how egregious his conduct was.
00:06:24.260 I read the 60-page ruling in the case of Yaniv versus more than a dozen of these estheticians,
00:06:33.460 almost all of whom were foreign-born, like immigrant women,
00:06:37.860 most of whom were working out of their house, their kids were at home,
00:06:41.400 it was just a way to make a few extra bucks.
00:06:43.940 And Yaniv would target these women, go to their homes.
00:06:48.360 He would often trick them by sending them a picture of a real woman claiming that was him.
00:06:54.560 Then he'd show up and he would trap them.
00:06:57.440 And he filed 13 identical complaints in the course of three or four months.
00:07:02.480 This was his job.
00:07:04.500 And the human rights tribunal was his weapon.
00:07:08.960 It was the tribunal that was his stick to threaten them.
00:07:12.440 The tribunal bizarrely agreed to give him a cloak of secrecy
00:07:17.080 to let him sue them in secret.
00:07:19.340 We don't believe in secret suits in Canada.
00:07:21.980 That's something that reminds one of the star chambers hundreds of years ago.
00:07:28.480 One of the important characteristics of our suits is that they're transparent
00:07:33.400 so everyone can learn what the rules are, everyone can see justice is done.
00:07:37.740 Yaniv got the human rights tribunal to let him attack these women in secret.
00:07:42.360 It was only later when the cloak of secrecy was removed,
00:07:47.540 when our friends at the Justice Center of Constitutional Freedoms
00:07:50.180 came in to defend these women, that everything started to come apart for Yaniv.
00:07:54.240 And what's so incredible is the human rights tribunal in B.C.,
00:07:58.600 which is the worst in the country.
00:08:00.380 These are the kooks that fined McDonald's $50,000
00:08:05.140 because they were making someone wash their hands.
00:08:06.980 Can you imagine?
00:08:07.500 And they ordered McDonald's never to do that again.
00:08:10.720 Thank God McDonald's is ignoring them.
00:08:12.960 Like, that's how crazy these things are.
00:08:13.840 But McDonald's is obligated to ignore them, Ezra,
00:08:16.460 because in the real world, real laws,
00:08:19.280 you can't be a food handler and not wash her hands.
00:08:21.400 Yeah, well, that just shows you how crazy these human rights commissions are.
00:08:24.680 And the tribunal member who ruled against Yaniv is crazy.
00:08:29.940 She's so far out there, I'm embarrassed by her.
00:08:33.660 But even she could see that Yaniv was, in her words, an extortionist.
00:08:41.240 Yeah.
00:08:41.900 To call someone an extortionist, extortion is a crime.
00:08:46.340 Yeah.
00:08:46.480 To say that Yaniv targeted these women for a financial shakedown,
00:08:51.760 that he lied, that it was extortion, that it was about financial gain,
00:08:56.380 that he had a racist undertone,
00:08:58.680 that is the most, it really is the most stunning rebuke I think I can remember.
00:09:04.700 I'm trying to remember a legal judgment that is so absolutely sledgehammers,
00:09:10.620 the plaintiff like this.
00:09:11.460 I can't think of one off the top of my head.
00:09:13.120 And the fact that the Human Rights Tribunal itself said this says two things.
00:09:18.980 Yaniv was so far out there.
00:09:21.460 Yeah.
00:09:21.760 But also the Human Rights Tribunal realized that they,
00:09:26.440 because they were the weapon here,
00:09:29.020 they, in a way, were on trial too.
00:09:32.000 And once their publication ban was lifted and the whole world,
00:09:35.640 and the whole world is watching the craziness here,
00:09:38.760 the Yaniv story is a global story.
00:09:41.220 Yes.
00:09:41.440 In America, in the UK, people, in Australia, people follow it.
00:09:45.300 And they were all laughing at the Human Rights Tribunal.
00:09:47.400 And it reminds me of when the Human Rights Tribunals went after me,
00:09:51.980 when they went after Mark Stein.
00:09:53.600 I'm talking around 10 years ago now.
00:09:55.220 Yeah.
00:09:56.420 I remember the front page story in the Vancouver Sun.
00:09:59.460 The BC Human Rights Tribunal murdered its own reputation.
00:10:03.920 That's what it said about Mark Stein's case.
00:10:06.920 So the BC Human Rights Tribunal gave belated and limited justice to these estheticians.
00:10:15.680 But what it was really doing was saving its own reputation,
00:10:19.540 because had they done anything else,
00:10:22.340 the political will to shut down these kangaroo courts once and for all
00:10:26.740 would have been a tidal wave reminiscent of the Anti-Human Rights Commission mood
00:10:32.780 a decade ago when they went after Stein and me and others like that.
00:10:36.260 And it's so well chronicled in your book, Shakedown, of course.
00:10:39.540 But, you know, Ezra, it's a bittersweet victory for these estheticians, isn't it?
00:10:44.220 I mean, yes, they prevailed.
00:10:46.800 But where I'm coming from is that these cases should never have been heard.
00:10:53.400 I mean, yes, the tribunal, thankfully for a change, ruled correctly.
00:10:59.220 But why didn't they look at this complaint, crunch it up,
00:11:02.760 and throw it into the round file in the first place?
00:11:06.180 Well, the obvious answer is that in the game of politically correct poker,
00:11:11.700 you're a middle-aged white man, so it's like you've got a high card of an 8.
00:11:16.880 It's about the worst imaginable card.
00:11:19.380 I'm Jewish, so it's like I got a pair of 2s.
00:11:21.660 You know, if you're a woman, maybe you're three of a kind.
00:11:24.980 If you're gay, if you're black, whatever.
00:11:27.220 The highest, like the royal flush, is trans.
00:11:31.440 Yeah.
00:11:32.060 And so normally you'd say, oh, the ruling, the 60-page ruling,
00:11:37.500 goes through various women abused by Yaniv.
00:11:41.560 A Sikh woman who doesn't speak English well,
00:11:45.160 a woman from Brazil who doesn't speak English well.
00:11:48.500 Normally these people would be like four of a kind.
00:11:51.900 Yeah.
00:11:52.120 In politically correct poker.
00:11:54.180 Women of color, immigrants, poor, at home with the kids, working moms.
00:12:01.080 Like normally that would be an extremely high poker hand.
00:12:04.860 But Yaniv comes in, and the whole world is crazy.
00:12:09.700 I mean, listen, we're watching in real time as the idea of women's sport
00:12:13.700 is being utterly annihilated by these loser guys who can't win a contest as a guy.
00:12:20.820 Yeah.
00:12:21.300 So they just say, I'm a girl now.
00:12:25.420 And then they just smash the girls, and they say, I'm the best woman.
00:12:31.060 And the whole world says, you're nuts.
00:12:34.440 Well, that has infected the law.
00:12:38.380 And the very first paragraph in this ruling, and I read it in my video,
00:12:42.680 you know, the BC Human Rights Act does say that not only is sex a protective characteristic
00:12:51.980 against which you can't discriminate, but gender identity and gender expression are too.
00:12:59.720 Well, what do those made-up words say?
00:13:01.840 Those are words that 10 years ago not a single human being would say.
00:13:05.120 So what?
00:13:06.280 Gender expression?
00:13:07.460 Gender identity?
00:13:08.060 What do you?
00:13:08.700 No one, in fact, to this day, I'd say 90% of real people don't even know what those words mean.
00:13:13.440 But it's the law.
00:13:14.840 And it is, what that means is, you can't make any decisions about someone
00:13:20.420 if they say they're a woman or say they're a man,
00:13:25.240 or pretend to be a woman or pretend to be a man.
00:13:28.060 You can't discriminate, choose, decide based on that.
00:13:32.700 So in that way, Yaniv had a case.
00:13:38.680 Incredible.
00:13:39.420 Because, and you, I hate to give that monster, that predator, that extortionist,
00:13:46.120 that shakedown artist, that bully, that racist, that madman, that criminal,
00:13:51.560 I'll call him a criminal, I saw how he hit you with a cane.
00:13:53.800 Yeah.
00:13:54.380 I hate to give that criminal madman and his deranged mother any credit at all.
00:14:00.800 But the law does say in black and white that you can't discriminate against someone in BC
00:14:07.820 based on their gender identity or gender expression.
00:14:12.360 So some six foot six linebacker walks in and says, I'm a girl.
00:14:17.600 Well, that's called gender identity because he said he's a girl.
00:14:22.300 Or if he puts on a wig, I'm a girl.
00:14:25.280 Well, that's gender expression.
00:14:26.580 So you've got to let him in the girls' change room.
00:14:30.980 And if you don't, the plain reading of the law.
00:14:34.200 So I don't, I hate to give any credit whatsoever to that monster, Jonathan Yaniv,
00:14:39.720 that serial predator, but the law enabled what he did.
00:14:46.520 But, you know, Ezra, how perverse is this?
00:14:49.620 I mean, some people might be saying, oh, yeah, a couple of white straight guys weighing in
00:14:54.800 on someone in the trans community.
00:14:56.580 But there were other prominent members in the trans community decrying this fraudster,
00:15:05.320 saying he's a liar, wanting nothing to do with him.
00:15:08.740 I mean, I think it's appalling that in the media when they put a descriptor on Yaniv,
00:15:13.180 it's trans activists, when other trans people are saying, what are you talking about?
00:15:17.340 This is a con man.
00:15:18.360 Yeah, listen, there is a thing of gender dysphoria.
00:15:22.680 There is a thing of people, you know, transvestites and transgenderism
00:15:26.480 was not just invented five years ago, although it was only about five years ago
00:15:31.360 that the American Psychiatric Association literally had a vote at a committee at a conference
00:15:36.640 to remove transgenderism from a mental illness to, like, a political statement.
00:15:42.880 Like, it was a political vote to say, oh, that's no longer mentally ill.
00:15:46.660 Well, I think that a guy who wants to dress up as a girl or a girl who wants to dress up as a guy
00:15:52.500 has some issues, and I don't think the reflex from society should be punish them, hurt them, be mean to them.
00:15:59.980 I think that they should have all the rights of the rest of us, especially the right to be left alone.
00:16:06.100 And I think that until a few years ago, most transgender people were just dealing with some issue.
00:16:11.780 And, in fact, some transgenders pass as women completely.
00:16:17.500 You wouldn't even know it.
00:16:18.280 They're not even trying to make a fuss.
00:16:20.300 But Yaniv is a con man who has, don't take my word for it,
00:16:25.460 the BC Human Rights Tribunal calls him an extortionist who gamed the system.
00:16:29.720 So he's just, like, and you see this more and more.
00:16:32.080 You see criminal men who say, hmm, so you're saying if I just call myself a girl and put on a wig,
00:16:41.980 I can go in the girl's change room, and instead of calling the cops on me,
00:16:46.160 you'll actually escort me in and arrest anyone who's against, are you serious?
00:16:50.800 And you see sexual predators who are convicted and sentenced to prison say,
00:16:56.960 I'm a girl now.
00:16:59.220 Put me in the women's prison.
00:17:01.660 And Justin Trudeau and his government have changed the procedures at Corrections Canada.
00:17:08.500 Now, any criminal who gender identifies as a woman gets to not only be incarcerated at a women's prison,
00:17:19.120 but gets to have female guards search him.
00:17:24.420 So, Ezra, what happened to the old chestnut of public safety always takes predominance?
00:17:31.280 Because you put a guy in a women's prison, here is someone with greater muscle mass,
00:17:35.820 bigger lung capacity, more testosterone, you go right down the list.
00:17:40.640 It's the very reason for, you know, the reason why forever athletics has been divided into two divisions.
00:17:47.940 What's the reason why we have men's prisons and women's prisons in the first place?
00:17:51.760 Exactly.
00:17:52.280 You know what?
00:17:52.600 I mean, I, being a natural compromiser and a diplomat, would say,
00:17:58.540 why don't you have a trans sports league?
00:18:01.900 Men's league.
00:18:02.440 I agree.
00:18:02.860 Women's league.
00:18:03.520 And go have your trans league.
00:18:05.460 And if you have a men's prison and a women's prison, maybe even have a trans prison.
00:18:09.560 Yeah.
00:18:10.420 But, and that would keep the con men out of the women's prison, which is,
00:18:16.220 and Jonathan Yaniv, in my view, belongs in prison.
00:18:20.040 Because we know about the 13 women he tried to abuse who fought back.
00:18:25.020 Yeah.
00:18:25.160 But was there only, were there only 13 women?
00:18:29.300 Or were there more?
00:18:30.980 Were there women who submitted?
00:18:33.540 Were there women who either paid him the shakedown?
00:18:36.440 Or, God forbid, were there women that he effectively sexually assaulted?
00:18:41.740 That he got away with it.
00:18:43.740 I mean, 13 women, immigrant women who didn't speak good English, who probably didn't know
00:18:49.960 their rights, who did not have lawyers until our friend John Carpe showed up.
00:18:54.860 13 women had the courage to stand up to this grotesque bully.
00:18:58.700 Good for them.
00:18:59.520 That's probably more courage than you and I would have, given their lack of knowledge
00:19:04.640 of the system, their lack of knowledge of their rights, their poverty.
00:19:09.340 Who did he destroy?
00:19:12.160 We will likely never know.
00:19:14.280 That's so sad.
00:19:15.280 As we almost have to wrap it here, one last question.
00:19:17.680 I'm just wondering, is this a come-to-Jesus moment for the B.C.
00:19:22.920 Human Rights Tribunal in that they're going to be less insane about their decisions and
00:19:28.380 the complaints they accept, or is this a one-off?
00:19:32.460 And I say this in light of the fact that just a few days ago, it made it into the press that
00:19:36.000 James Sirinowski out in the Edmonton area, this is the man who is suing parents for not
00:19:42.260 being hired as a babysitter, has suddenly withdrawn his complaints.
00:19:48.060 So do you think we're having a reset here, or is this just one anomaly in terms of common
00:19:55.400 sense and reason winning for a change?
00:19:57.620 The B.C.
00:19:58.140 Human Rights Tribunal today is the worst it has ever been.
00:20:02.960 If you thought that McDonald's $50,000 punishment for making someone wash their hands was weird,
00:20:08.420 that's playtime compared to where they are now.
00:20:11.660 The only reason they threw out Yaniv's case and gave him, and by the way, I forget how
00:20:17.460 much he had to pay these women, maybe it was a few thousand bucks, in civil court, 13 defendants,
00:20:22.480 he'd be out $100,000.
00:20:24.120 So it's a slap on the wrist to him.
00:20:27.620 And he's laughing off the case, he says, oh, they misunderstood.
00:20:30.400 He's laughing at them, and why not?
00:20:35.860 The answer is no.
00:20:37.480 The Human Rights Tribunals are worse than they've ever been.
00:20:40.260 The two cases you've mentioned have only been lost by these abusers because of media attention.
00:20:48.060 And that's the only reason Mark Stein was acquitted a decade ago, and I was acquitted
00:20:52.360 a decade ago, is because of media scrutiny.
00:20:55.940 Were it not for the sunlight of media scrutiny, every one of these abuses would have gone the
00:21:02.080 other way.
00:21:03.080 And the B.C.
00:21:03.740 Human Rights Tribunal was a party to the persecution here.
00:21:08.080 And it was only when the publication ban was lifted and the Justice Center got involved.
00:21:13.480 They are worse than ever.
00:21:17.240 And as far as we know, there are other trans activists doing the same thing, but they've
00:21:22.280 evaded media scrutiny.
00:21:23.500 So it's like a secret deal, an inside job they have with these tribunals.
00:21:27.040 The only answer is to shut them all down and salt the earth because they are—kangaroo
00:21:34.920 courts is an insult to kangaroos.
00:21:38.100 Kangaroos didn't do anything wrong.
00:21:39.800 Kangaroos don't destroy the rule of law, but these un-Canadian tribunals do.
00:21:47.740 You know, unfortunately, Ezra, I tend to agree with you.
00:21:49.660 And there you have it, folks.
00:21:50.420 I mean, I really think that no matter how ludicrous the complaint is, a human rights
00:21:55.460 tribunal in this country will listen to it because what is the number one job of any
00:21:59.760 bureaucracy?
00:22:00.780 It's to grow the bureaucracy.
00:22:02.700 And turning down cases is simply bad for business.
00:22:06.640 What a disgrace.
00:22:07.820 Keep it here.
00:22:08.520 More of Rebel Roundup to come right after this.
00:22:10.500 Paintings depicted a Canadian flag, the Red Cross, as well as the branches of our military,
00:22:21.560 the Navy, the Air Force, and the Army, painted within a maple leaf.
00:22:25.720 They were left unaccosted by the government since June, but they're gone now.
00:22:31.180 Halifax today has the whole story.
00:22:33.800 A man named Colin called into News 95.7's The Rick Howe Show to take credit for the artwork
00:22:41.760 and said, he's disappointed they've been removed.
00:22:46.140 I painted them on the rock walls to make a statement that we should honor our veterans
00:22:52.560 and they should not be forgotten, he said.
00:22:56.260 I put it there for them and somebody took it away.
00:23:00.080 Colin said he painted them in June along the 102, also known as the Veterans Memorial Highway,
00:23:08.300 to mark the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings and the Battle of Normandy.
00:23:13.780 I wanted people to enjoy them, to reflect the past and the effort by the military and other
00:23:19.500 individuals, Colin said.
00:23:21.800 Then the Nova Scotia Liberal Transportation Minister, Lloyd Hines, weighed in on the whole debacle,
00:23:28.620 defending the erasure of the great murals and congratulating his ministry for the well-done work of it all.
00:23:36.420 We are charged with public safety and we are very diligent about the right-of-ways in the province
00:23:42.380 that we have control over, he explained.
00:23:45.600 Our field staff are constantly monitoring for any kinds of distractions that might cause accidents.
00:23:53.060 Hines said the paintings would be removed whether or not there was a complaint,
00:23:58.180 but if one was filed, that might speed up the process.
00:24:03.040 He added, any advertisements, murals or graffiti that pop up without a permit are removed by staff.
00:24:11.340 Oh good, the minister is bragging about how fast his overpaid government ditch censors are working these days.
00:24:18.300 A Nova Scotia man took it upon himself to create some graffiti in honor of Canada's military.
00:24:24.760 And what do you know, the local authorities ordered it painted over.
00:24:30.120 Their reasons seem pretty arbitrary though.
00:24:33.120 Our Alberta Bureau Chief Sheila Gunn-Reed thought so too and she investigated and now she's here to talk about what really happened.
00:24:42.120 So Sheila, do you buy into this business about the bureaucrats saying that this pro-military artwork was a distraction?
00:24:50.580 You know, there's a lot of things that go on, you know, on the side of the road that the government doesn't find distracting.
00:24:58.600 For example, big billboards.
00:25:00.360 And I like billboards.
00:25:01.720 We get our own and we put them up along the side of the highway.
00:25:05.140 But if the government isn't finding those distracting, then how can they find these, really they're smaller murals.
00:25:12.820 They're not even as big as a person, you know, they're, you know, a couple feet across, a couple feet high, painted on rocks.
00:25:19.460 I don't know how the government finds these so distracting that they might cause a car accident.
00:25:26.100 Especially in particular, one of the murals was actually painted over previous graffiti that the government never got around to dealing with.
00:25:34.060 Because apparently that graffiti wasn't distracting.
00:25:38.900 But now these new murals that are dedicated to our military on D-Day, on a highway that's the Veterans Memorial Highway, it's just crazy and it didn't make any sense to me at all.
00:25:51.840 And Sheila, I think that's a very important point about the distraction element.
00:25:55.700 For example, I frequently use Toronto's Gardner Expressway and anyone that's familiar with that expressway in downtown Toronto, you are surrounded by three, four, five-story high billboards in HD that, you know, are portraying everything from the latest horror movie trailer to Victoria's Secret lingerie ads.
00:26:19.740 You couldn't possibly get more distracting.
00:26:22.820 And this is all approved by government and, of course, taxed by government.
00:26:27.640 So the idea that these giant HD video screens right in front of an expressway is okay, but some little hand-painted rock is going to cause cars to careen off the highway?
00:26:44.000 I'm sorry, Sheila, that doesn't compute for me.
00:26:47.000 No, and the transportation minister in Nova Scotia was sort of patting himself on the back for the good work of it all.
00:26:55.780 He was sort of bragging about how efficient these government workers are that they went out and painted away these murals.
00:27:02.780 I think what people don't realize is that highway is where the fallen soldiers for the region, that's where their bodies are repatriated on that road.
00:27:16.000 And so, you know, for those murals to be painted over as distracting, you know, it was never distracting when the residents of the region stood along that highway and stood on the overpasses to show the respects for the repatriated fallen.
00:27:33.240 But now these, you know, really small, incidental, they're not even all that colorful murals on this rock face.
00:27:42.600 Those are distracting.
00:27:44.040 It just doesn't make any sense.
00:27:46.420 And, you know, Sheila, what I'm worried about is what maybe the unspoken strategy is here.
00:27:52.500 If there's somebody in the transportation ministry who is simply anti-military, I say that because let's say this mural was something like, I don't know, the LGBT rainbow flag.
00:28:06.660 Do you think there would have been this same fervor to get it all painted over and out of sight?
00:28:14.360 Or do you think maybe, you know, the authorities would turn a blind eye to that?
00:28:19.460 Oh, they probably would have turned a blind eye.
00:28:22.900 And if somebody had taken it upon themselves to spray paint over it using distraction as an excuse, we'd be seeing a hate crimes investigation.
00:28:32.780 But, you know, I do have a very heartwarming, I guess, update to this story.
00:28:39.340 Oh.
00:28:40.220 After our story came out and sort of shone a national spotlight on this, you know, quite frankly, I'll agree with you.
00:28:48.440 It's sort of an anti-military sentiment that permeates much of left-wing politics and municipal politics are often as left-wing as they can get.
00:29:00.800 A couple of veterans went out there and repainted them.
00:29:04.220 Now, they're not exactly the same.
00:29:06.280 They're a little bit different.
00:29:08.000 The mysterious Colin was the gentleman who painted them the first time.
00:29:11.900 He didn't do it this time.
00:29:13.000 A couple of veterans went out there and they said, this will not stand.
00:29:17.800 We're going to repaint them.
00:29:19.480 And hopefully the government will leave these murals unmolested until at least Remembrance Day.
00:29:24.760 So good for these guys.
00:29:26.860 You know, good for them taking matters into their own hands and sort of pushing back against government.
00:29:33.960 It seems as though the stand for freedom is taking place in a rock face somewhere outside of Halifax.
00:29:40.100 You know, that's very interesting.
00:29:42.060 And Sheila, just to go back to the very genesis of this, was this government workers or the transportation ministry acting on its own accord?
00:29:51.820 Or did they get some complaints or just one complaint?
00:29:55.360 Because, you know, as we've seen in other stories, it's another facet of motoring, I guess.
00:30:00.660 All it takes, it seems, in Canada for, you know, somebody to have their vanity personalized license plate removed is to get one single complaint,
00:30:09.680 even though the plate has nothing to do with what the complainant thinks it's all about.
00:30:15.100 I talk about, if you look at that fellow in Manitoba, I believe, with Assimilate.
00:30:20.520 He's a Star Trek fan.
00:30:21.740 And this is a Borg reference, and somebody in Ontario that saw the plate online thought this was about assimilating natives, and his plate is gone.
00:30:31.320 So I'm just wondering, did we ever get any clarity if this was one particular person with a grudge against the Canadian military that got this ball in play in the first place?
00:30:44.520 The transportation minister wouldn't say, but what he did say was, you know, the highway workers are out there patrolling all the time for graffiti.
00:30:56.480 Give me a break.
00:30:58.480 And if there were complaints received, it would expedite the process of painting over this stuff.
00:31:05.800 Pretty convenient that all of a sudden, just before Remembrance Day, these paintings are painted over.
00:31:14.460 I suspect there was a busybody who did complain, and instead of government reacting with some common sense,
00:31:22.560 which is asking for more than the government is willing to give us these days,
00:31:27.100 they just went out there and painted it over instead of saying, you know what, this is on Veterans Memorial Highway.
00:31:33.280 This is where the bodies of our fallen are repatriated.
00:31:36.260 Let's just leave it.
00:31:38.180 They just went out there willy-nilly and painted it over with big, huge splotches of obnoxious white paint,
00:31:45.160 which is, I don't know, kind of distracting to me, too.
00:31:47.880 I would be more focused on what exactly I thought they painted over than the paintings themselves.
00:31:54.760 You know, that's just incredible, the perversity, Sheila, that there's this offensive mural bureaucracy department
00:32:03.080 patrolling the highways of the province, looking for things to censor.
00:32:08.780 How about this?
00:32:10.080 Patrol the highways looking for potholes to fill in, and then you'll have the public on your side 100%.
00:32:16.040 I guess the only other question, Sheila, if I'm to, you know, play devil's advocate here, to be a contrarian,
00:32:23.200 what would you say to those that say, well, you know, I'm all about free speech and freedom of expression and all that,
00:32:30.640 but, you know, we can't have a society where people en masse go onto the highway
00:32:37.100 and start painting rocks with every possible message there is.
00:32:40.600 And, you know, at one point it does turn into, you know, an eyesore.
00:32:47.260 What would you respond to those people who say that, you know,
00:32:50.640 I can understand what the government did in this case as it wasn't approved?
00:32:56.540 People aren't doing that, though.
00:32:58.300 People aren't going out there and just painting things all over the rock faces.
00:33:02.080 And this is the military.
00:33:03.600 I think we can give an exception to things that honour our fallen, things that honour our veterans.
00:33:11.900 Just use some common sense.
00:33:14.740 There can be some grey areas in the law around these things that should unite us all as part of our Canadian identity,
00:33:23.140 and I would think that our military heritage is one of those things.
00:33:25.940 Well said, Sheila, and let's see how long this new paint job lasts.
00:33:32.540 I can't imagine, I mean, that'll be really, I think, bad PR on the government side if they paint that over,
00:33:38.680 especially this close to Remembrance Day just being 10 days away.
00:33:43.200 So thank you so much for this superb piece as always, Sheila.
00:33:46.840 Great. Thank you, David.
00:33:47.920 You got it.
00:33:48.720 And that was Sheila Gunn-Reed in Alberta.
00:33:51.680 Keep it here, folks.
00:33:53.020 More of Rebel Roundup to come right after this.
00:33:55.940 Do you find it a little perversely ironic that there's a climate change rally
00:34:05.220 where the focus is on pipelines and the oil sands and carbon emissions
00:34:09.040 when here in B.C., unfortunately, this province leads all others in terms of raw sewage going into the ocean?
00:34:17.440 Most definitely.
00:34:18.280 We need people like Justin Trudeau down here to come and see what's going on
00:34:25.540 and considering that the strike today is being led by Greta Thunberg of Sweden,
00:34:32.660 who is one of the biggest teenage climate activists.
00:34:37.800 So just wondering where Justin Trudeau would be at and maybe we can come to some kind of compromise
00:34:47.880 or make some policies and change in the world.
00:34:52.920 That's interesting.
00:34:53.680 I didn't know that, so I don't have much of an opinion.
00:34:57.000 There's many, many things that could be cleaned up, but I think the most pressing one right now,
00:35:04.680 and the one that's in the news, is the pipeline, which involves tankers.
00:35:08.560 And so that's what we're concentrating on right now.
00:35:10.820 Do you think that should be a number one priority for both us and the fish?
00:35:15.640 No, not number one.
00:35:17.120 Shouldn't that be the number one priority from environmentalists?
00:35:21.520 No, that's not the worst thing.
00:35:22.860 It's bad.
00:35:23.420 It's bad.
00:35:24.160 Well, what brings you here, ma'am, today?
00:35:25.980 My sort of sense of social justice and hatred for people who don't understand simple things
00:35:32.500 like how to get along with each other and share the wealth.
00:35:36.180 Well, the St. Greta Thunberg World Tour continues.
00:35:39.420 Well, that tour doesn't actually venture into those truly despotic parts of the world
00:35:45.020 that truly need a lecture on environmentalism, mind you.
00:35:48.940 But when the great Greta dropped by Vancouver last Friday for the latest so-called climate strike,
00:35:56.260 there was plenty of love in the air for Sweden's pint-sized climate Cassandra.
00:36:01.980 There was also plenty of wacky tobacco fumes in the air and, in truth, tons of illogical thinking.
00:36:08.480 Indeed, why is it that so many climate change protesters want the oil industry shut down,
00:36:15.320 yet they themselves make full use of the products derived from the petrochemical industry?
00:36:21.620 In order to enhance the quality of their lives, of course.
00:36:24.660 In any event, here's what some of you had to say about the latest sad installment of Greta Mania.
00:36:32.800 Teacher Teacher writes,
00:36:34.120 It's just a bunch of Marxists that want the government to run our lives.
00:36:38.640 You know, there is a lot of truth to that, folks.
00:36:40.880 There were numerous far-left cranks at this rally,
00:36:44.260 distributing socialist literature and demanding that the wealth be shared.
00:36:49.600 Makes you wonder if this new whiz-bang green movement is, in reality,
00:36:54.520 just the ghastly, old-fashioned red movement, reimagined with a fresh coat of paint.
00:37:01.600 Gary Fitzsimmons writes,
00:37:03.520 2019 and we're still falling for cults and witchcraft.
00:37:07.980 Well, I'm not sure about the witchcraft part, so let's cut the Wiccans some slack here.
00:37:13.200 But for sure, there is a cultish vibe in the air when you go to these climate protests.
00:37:20.120 And I don't know about you folks, but personally speaking,
00:37:22.820 I'm not someone who's going to take his life lessons by following a cult
00:37:28.080 led by a 16-year-old high school dropout.
00:37:32.320 And Brian Sullivan writes,
00:37:34.140 Turn off their gas and electricity for a week and see how they feel about oil use.
00:37:39.580 Ha! Turn it off for a week, my friend.
00:37:41.600 They'd be screaming after being deprived for a few hours.
00:37:45.500 Look, even assuming one were to buy into the idea that we are living in a so-called climate crisis right now,
00:37:53.280 the problem with these rallies is the incessant preaching about doom and gloom
00:37:59.200 and the end of the world being imminent.
00:38:01.960 But where are the solutions when it comes to weaning us off fossil fuels?
00:38:06.920 They do not exist, at least not yet.
00:38:08.820 And hey kids, how about this concept?
00:38:12.140 Instead of playing hooky every odd Friday for the sake of creating climate change awareness,
00:38:18.480 how about going to school, actually hitting the books,
00:38:21.860 and coming up with tangible solutions to address climate change?
00:38:26.240 Or is that simply too much heavy lifting?
00:38:30.420 Well, that wraps up another edition of Rebel Roundup.
00:38:32.940 Thanks so much for tuning in.
00:38:34.220 And remember folks, without risk, there can be no glory.
00:38:37.260 Good night.
00:38:41.600 Good night.
00:38:42.600 Good night.
00:38:43.720 Good night.
00:38:52.480 Good night.
00:38:53.980 Good night.
00:38:56.280 Good night.