Rebel News has a brand new feature-length documentary project in the works, and it's called Church Under Fire: Canada's War on Christianity. It's a documentary that chronicles the trials and tribulations of the pastors who stood up to the government's attempts to ban all forms of Christianity in Canada.
00:05:03.980We're creating this documentary a little bit differently than we have in the past.
00:05:08.120We want you to be invested in the documentary as much as we are.
00:05:12.320So for those of you who are helping us crowdfund our documentary, because of course we do not rely on any money from Justin Trudeau or the government or the National Film Board, which is also the government, we want to maintain our independence and we want to know if you actually care about this project.
00:05:29.060So we've given perks to our donors at different levels and I think it's an exciting way for our people to also take ownership of this story too.
00:05:40.540Because without you, there is no Rebel News and there are no projects like this one that set a marker down about what was done to the Christians during the pandemic when so many people want us all to forget.
00:05:57.180So joining me now is Kian Simone and we're going to talk about our new documentary called Church Under Fire, Canada's War on Christianity.
00:06:06.460And for those of you who still want to get involved, you can definitely do that.
00:06:10.080If you donate, there are perks at different levels.
00:06:17.540So joining me now is the head of documentary filmmaking here at Rebel News, Kian Simone, whom I have the pleasure of working with on this project.
00:06:35.860You really joined us at Rebel News right in the heart of the crackdown on the Christians.
00:06:41.300I think your first assignment with us was sleeping on an air mattress in Pastor Art's church.
00:06:47.660I think I remember that was my first contact with you was this young man has driven across the country and he just started working with us and we're on a Zoom call with him and he has completely agreed to sleep on the floor of a haunted church.
00:07:50.240You also spent, I think, six weeks at Tim Stevens Church in Calgary, just smoking cigarettes in the parking lot waiting for the police to come.
00:07:58.740So, Saturday it would be Archer Povlowski's church in the parking lot.
00:08:02.380Sunday it was Tim Stevens for, yeah, six or seven weeks.
00:08:06.600The persecution of Christians in Calgary has done nothing for your cardiovascular health and your lungs.
00:08:14.140But let's get into why I know that you and I sort of, we came up with this idea and then we just announced it before we had anything formalized.
00:08:24.100We announced it at a prior documentary screening for another documentary that you had made.
00:08:29.500I know why I wanted to make it and I know how I ended up here, but why do you want to make this film?
00:08:35.720Well, I think it's just a, it's one of the biggest things that has ever happened to me in my life.
00:08:48.680I'm blessed to be a part of everybody getting arrested, but just blessed to be the one who could tell the story and be the person who could tell it fairly or just be there.
00:08:56.940You know, it was just like such a good feeling and so important that everybody saw it.
00:09:03.240So I was really, just felt really good that it was, I was able to do that.
00:10:18.880Yeah, for me, it was crazy to see the persecution of pastors happening in Alberta under a premier who's, in a previous career at the federal level, made support for religious freedoms internationally a cornerstone of Canada's foreign affairs policy.
00:10:42.320One of the proudest accomplishments in this place has been to have played a role during the previous government in the creation of the Office of Religious Freedom.
00:10:51.320And I would like, therefore, to address, first of all, the reason in principle why this office is necessary.
00:10:59.560Secondly, why it is particularly urgent at this time that Canada and like-minded democracies emphasize the protection of vulnerable religious minorities.
00:11:10.800And thirdly, I'd like to offer some practical reflections on why I believe this office is necessary, the Department of Foreign Affairs, now Global Affairs.
00:11:21.720And fourthly, I hope to have time to say a word about the reality of a genocide being inflicted against vulnerable religious minorities in the world today.
00:11:30.820And yet, when the rubber met the road here in Alberta, Jason Kenney was the harshest locker-downer of Christians.
00:11:42.500Did that surprise you as someone who fled Ontario because they roped off the grocery store?
00:11:48.820That, you know, while the people were trying their best to live free in spite of the government, the government here in what we like to think of as the freest place in Canada was the harshest on churches.
00:12:02.060I remember Jason Kenney said no one is above the law, no politician, no one who calls himself a pastor after he was caught on Sky Palace or whatever that building is called.
00:12:13.300Hey, there's Sid Rezard of Rebel News. I'm not sure if my question would be best directed towards you, but right now, of course, you're investing in religious infrastructure.
00:12:21.780But I think many around the province have a concern that you may not be best protecting their religious freedoms, as we've seen with Pastor Arthur Pawlowski.
00:12:29.460He still remains behind bars. This is well over 30 days.
00:12:32.400If you could just comment on that situation and maybe perhaps ease some concerns or just give some light to that situation.
00:12:39.440So in Canada, we have something called the rule of law, where courts are responsible for adjudicating criminal charges against individuals, not politicians.
00:17:11.220Yeah, I can totally attest to that part of the goal.
00:17:15.460I mean, I even think my goal is even just a little bit different, but they both kind of work together so well.
00:17:19.980But like I said before, I'm not even really Christian.
00:17:24.760But I understand and I know that this country was built on the foundation of God and the Christian morals and Christian ethics.
00:17:32.720And, you know, I follow those, even though I'm not Christian.
00:17:36.500And I want this documentary to be someone or to be something that someone like me who's 24 or maybe they're 20, maybe they're 35, who isn't Christian, can watch this and say, oh, crap.
00:17:48.340You know, if they're going for these people, you know, I know I'm next.
00:17:51.900They are the people who built this country, right, so long ago, like that kind of that religion.
00:18:01.240So it's just extremely important that we at least protect that, even as non-Christians, that it's extremely important.
00:18:09.460You know, for me, I went to northern Iraq in 2019, late 2019, November 2019.
00:18:17.620And just, you know, like three months later, by the time I got back, the lockdowns were here.
00:18:22.940And I went to northern Iraq to document the return of the Christians after the ISIS genocide.
00:18:31.340And I came home and I was embarrassed.
00:18:36.580I thought, you know, the point of being a Christian is you're not good at it, but it's okay because we have forgiveness built right into it.
00:18:44.260But I thought, you know, like I care about these things if I were tested, would I do what they did, you know, because the Christians didn't want to relocate.
00:18:57.200We went there as Rebel News in partnership with Mercury One and the Nazarene Fund thinking, okay, we're going to raise money to get these people out of here.
00:19:37.800And I came home thinking, this is the new thing that I am radicalized against.
00:19:43.620I've always been against persecution of religious believers.
00:19:47.780I've always been someone who cared in religious freedom.
00:19:50.540But when I came home and I saw that, I thought, not only did we do nothing, we didn't even care.
00:19:57.520And I thought, no, maybe I can't undo a genocide, but I can care.
00:20:02.960And I can be aware of these issues when they come home.
00:20:07.040And I think that is one of the reasons why it's so important for me to do this documentary is it started here.
00:20:14.960That slow roll down the hill towards something more terrible, it starts with forcing Christians to close their doors, telling them how they can worship.
00:20:26.500And for me, it's just also I want to make sure that the people who want us to forget are never allowed that from us.
00:20:39.380That I, as the good book says, I will forgive.
00:20:43.180Maybe one day I'm a far more vengeful Christian than I should be.
00:20:48.660But I don't want anybody to forget what these people did in the name of public health.
00:20:55.120I just got off the line with our videographer, K2, who was on this team.
00:21:06.600And he told me it was the hardest thing he has ever seen.
00:21:09.420The family of Pastor Tim Stevens was weeping as he was hauled away in cups like some common criminal.
00:21:16.000Pastor Tim was once again taken into custody.
00:21:18.860Numerous police vehicles arrived and put him in a car, taking him away from his family.
00:21:23.800It was an extremely emotional and harrowing ordeal.
00:21:27.280And we were there to capture it as it happened.
00:21:29.560I'm going to let you go now to the footage of his arrest.
00:21:32.280You know, my story of why I'm so into this is definitely not as powerful.
00:21:54.100But I kind of, like, found God through Rebel News.
00:25:11.200Like, I still definitely feel for the people who are kind of stuck in between trying to please both sides.
00:25:15.660Because you could not please everybody.
00:25:17.520But I do think that when it just got further than just capacity issues and further than just the mask, then I don't feel for the people who didn't stand up for that when they had the chance.
00:25:36.260Kian, I think, and I'm going to pat myself on the back here, you and me, we're doing something a little different than we normally do with our documentaries as far as fundraising goals go.
00:25:49.000We are incurring some substantial costs, production-wise, equipment-wise, travel-wise.
00:25:54.760Our travel schedule is grueling, by the way, because you and I are both doing our regular jobs at the company, which are already a lot greater than full-time.
00:26:07.020And then we're making this documentary in the background.
00:27:33.920Yeah, there's a lot of exclusive perks, depending on how much people donate, because we want, I mean, it's as much their documentary as it is ours.
00:27:43.980In fact, it is more theirs than it is ours, because we couldn't do them without them.
00:27:48.040And so we want to give people, you know, we want to say thank you.
00:28:35.960No, it's just that it's cutting down really long interviews is, like, the worst part of it.
00:28:41.220But the cool part about it is that I'm saving them.
00:28:43.740So when I do make those edits, and basically I'm just, like, cutting out your ums and buts and stuff and cutting out, let's say, Archer Pavelowski's ums and buts, I'm saving those copies and we can put up, like, full interviews.
00:28:57.460So when people only get 15 minutes of it in the final cut, those those who donated and who are part of the project can also go and watch the full interviews or or longer extended interviews, at least.
00:29:14.380Because, you know, people, but for time, you know, you have to edit down these two, two and a half hour really in depth conversations about the motivations for why these pastors did what they did and the impact on the congregation.
00:29:31.500I, I pity you having to carve that down and carve, you know, because it's all good.
00:29:40.440Um, and so, yeah, I'm, I'm really grateful that we have the opportunity to, you know, offer that to our supporters as well.
00:29:48.040Kian, this is a very busy day for both of us because we have to leave to travel in like a day and a half again.
00:29:54.740So we're trying to do a whole week's worth of work in a day.
00:29:58.460Why don't you tell us where people can go to support the work that you and I are doing to tell the story of the persecution of Christians here in Canada?
00:30:09.100Very special URL for very special people for a very special project.
00:30:13.160And you can see all the perks there and select your level of involvement in the work that we do at Revel News, but all of it is vital and all of it is necessary.
00:30:24.520And, um, you know, there's no, there's no national film board backing us on this.
00:31:00.160So it, it behooves me to care what you think.
00:31:05.240Um, so if you want to drop me a line, um, send me some viewer feedback on any of the work that we do here at Rebel News, but in particular the show.
00:31:12.360Um, my email address is Sheila at Rebel News dot com.
00:31:16.840If you want to talk about the show, it's gun show letters in the subject line.
00:31:20.340That way I know how to find it because, uh, well, I get, I get a lot of emails every single day.
00:31:26.700So if you wouldn't mind helping me get through them by putting a easy to search subject line, I'd really appreciate that.
00:31:36.300Bruce, he is a regular viewer of the show, he and his cat, and he lives sort of just north of me in a Radway, Alberta, beautiful downtown Radway, Alberta.
00:31:47.120And I pointed out every time I read a letter from Bruce that they really have an excellent, uh, military surplus store in Radway.
00:31:56.240Bruce writes on a show from a couple of weeks ago.
00:31:59.700It was my interview with Tony Bernardo from the Canadian Shooting Sports Association about Justin Trudeau's success of gun bans and what the firearms community can do to fight back.
00:32:32.800There should be a supporter category of membership where you believe in gun rights, you believe in property rights, you want your membership dollars to go towards legal challenges.
00:32:46.240Because you care about the rights of other people, not just your own.
00:32:48.720And I wonder if there's some tier of membership that would allow you to throw your support behind such a wonderful organization as Tony's.