SHEILA GUNN REID ｜ Robbie Picard from Oilsands Strong is going on a national tour
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Summary
Sheila Gunn-Reed is going on a bus tour to put a human face to the oil patch. Her friend Robbie Picard from Oil Sand Strong is taking her on a tour across the country to talk to people about how oil and gas development affects them and how it has changed their lives for the better.
Transcript
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One of my favorite oil patch advocates is going on a bus tour to put a human face
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to the oil patch. I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed and you're watching The Gunn Show.
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The economic downturn in oil and gas and bad environmentalist policies that really do nothing
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to make the environment cleaner but serve to make things far more expensive to human
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families. Well, they don't just hurt big scary oil. They hurt the people who work for big scary oil
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and they hurt the communities that rely on the economic activity provided by oil and gas
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development. But for so long, all we ever heard about were the big companies. We never ever heard
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about the people who rely on those well-paying jobs in their communities to provide for their
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families and to give themselves another life away out of generational poverty in some instances.
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That is until now. My friend Robbie Picard from Oil Sand Strong is going on a bus tour across the
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country. He said he's just going to tootle around and talk to people about how oil and gas development
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affects them and how it has changed their lives for the better. So joining me tonight in an interview we
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recorded yesterday afternoon in our offices in Calgary is my friend Robbie Picard from Oil Sand Strong.
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So joining me now in our Calgary office is my friend Robbie Picard from Oil Sand Strong. And Robbie, I wanted to have
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you on the show today to talk about your next big project. And I think it's fun, but I think the reason the
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project came together is also fun because you are sort of going after a big, huge liberal misstep. But I'll
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let you explain that. So tell us what the project is first.
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Okay, so I'm doing two things. I've converted a 1977 bus that I bought. And it's kind of has this weird
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70s, 80s feel. It has a bedroom and a shower and a sink and like a fridge and stuff.
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It's a school bus, yeah. But I bought it and we put the logos on it. And then it took me almost a year
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to change the transmission. So that was going to be like super cool and drive this five speed low and
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high. And then I drove it in Edmonton and I'm like, yeah, no. So I changed the transmission and I've got
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this automatic transmission and I'm taking it on a tour heading to Ottawa. And ultimately after Ottawa,
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I'd like to park it in St. John, New Brunswick so I can actually park it on the way to urban oil.
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Because ultimately I'd like it if the pipeline was built so we could just have full access to
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tidewater from each of the coasts, right? So the plan is to get the bus there. But along the way,
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I'm launching a new project called Oil and Gas World Magazine, which is my head office will be in
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Fort McMurray. We'll have a Calgary office and it's a print magazine, but it's also as much digital.
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And what we do is we interview people from all walks of life, some from the high CEOs of oil
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companies to just people who work in oil and gas or benefit from oil and gas. We also have a fashion
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section, which is just an excuse that I could sell more of my shirts, but I put them in hot models and
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make them look all sexy and stuff. And we are going to promote Alberta fashion. Farming will be a big
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part of it as well. And the goal is, is to take these voices and amplify them. And, um, also just
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explain that nothing is the oil and gas industry is very, very complex and it benefits multitude of
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people. And the other thing is we just really need to start this conversation. If we head in this just
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transition direction, I am researching tailings ponds on lithium ion batteries. And I mean,
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that makes the tailings ponds of the oil sand look like the Daytona beach or like, or, uh, Miami,
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Florida. Like, I mean, it's incomparable, the damage that can happen if we suddenly do this major
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shift. And I think the world will look more like Mad Max a lot quicker. If we mine these rare earth
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minerals irresponsibly. Um, and the other reason is kind of a, a slow punch back, but a little while
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ago, a peer poly of war, our hoodie in Ottawa. Um, and he got called the white supremacist. We got
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inferred that we're a bunch of white supremacist, which is very hilarious. Cause I'm game 18. Plus
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that very day I was filming a bunch of my friends in the Fort McMurray African community who were
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insisting on wearing my shirts and dancing yesterday. Our counselor, Funky Banjoko, um, you know, who is
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just this like full of life. She's like the Oprah of Fort McMurray. She wanted to be in the magazine as
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well. So we did an impromptu interview with her where she was dancing in my office of all the
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things to call me. You can call me many things, but for that, my organization and our group is
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white supremacist is the most absurd out of touch thing ever. And the elites of Carleton that did
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that, I mean, they're basically gone now. They did the guy didn't even run against peer and they took
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the post down, but I'm still going to park the bus in Ottawa to remind those at least that you can't
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just make statements like that, um, that are quite hurtful and harmful. Like if I, you know,
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like, and without knowing the situation. So the fact that they didn't even Google me or late, like,
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or, or do any research on me, I found that very hilarious and, um, out of touch, um, arrogant,
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um, entitled. So I do want to go there. I don't know if I'll have a run. And frankly, I don't care
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if I have a run with them or not. Um, this is different than the big convoy that everyone was
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talking about. I'm going on, I'm putzing along in this bus. We're going to go small. I'm hoping
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to get some Ukrainian food along the way. I like can, can I want to sell some shirts? You know,
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I like cookies and stuff. Like, I just want to do a nice little documentary. We'll have some teeth
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if we need to, but I'm not, I'm not going to blockade roads or anything. I'm just going to park
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and I, but I am going to make a strong message in Ottawa. You know, I think your bus tour coupled with
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your new magazine. I think it does the thing that has really never been done, although you really
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try to do it, but you're sort of a lone voice in all of this. And that's to humanize the people who
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work in the oil field, but also their families. Um, as you say, there's going to be a strong focus
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also on farming. Um, farming, the oil field is the perfect job for a farmer because a lot of people
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don't know, but there are times in the oil field where you can't go on a road. So it's called spring
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breakup. And incidentally that coincides with planting season. And then in the fall, when things
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get rainy and you, uh, you can't go on the roads again, then that coincides with harvest. So it's a
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really great job for a farmer to have. Um, so there, a lot of the people who are under attack by the
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liberals, it's the same people being attacked both ways with Justin Trudeau's nitrogen targets,
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it's attacking farmers. Um, and then those same people are being attacked by the maligning of
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the oil patch, the carbon taxes. So I think you're doing a very important service to everybody
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involved by doing your best to humanize the workers, the people who work in the offices,
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the people who work on the Derek floor. You, I think this is something that's never really been done
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before in, in any sort of effective way. Yeah. Thank you. Yeah. That is always what I've wanted
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to do because it's, it's, it's multifaceted and it's far more complex than people realize.
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Also, there's a sort of like, cause I'm kind of in between, like I lived in Montreal for quite a
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while. So I've been in the big city and I've also worked on, I grew up on a, working on a farm
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and I've driven truck at the oil plants and then, you know, and I'm gay and I'm like,
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now I'm a fashion guru because I'm going to have a fashion section on a magazine.
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So there's a lot of, I guess I can look at it from a broader spectrum. Um, but the one thing
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that I, the one thing, another reason that I'm doing this is I'm not, I am not going to touch
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COVID or I'm not, but that's not my role in this. But I was, when, when Justin Trudeau made that
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comment about the unvaccinated and basically labeled them, I, I actually, I'm fully vaccinated,
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full disclosure, but I took a big offense to that because a lot of my friends are not vaccinated
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and these are successful business people. These are people worth way more money than me,
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worth millions of dollars that run businesses. So when he made that statement that like he was
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kind of labying in that group, I thought, you know, you pompous ass, you are so out of touch
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with the reality, whether you like the truck, your convoy or not, there were people there that
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needed to be heard. No different than when black lives matters did went there. And let's just be
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candid. The damage that was done on those protests was far more smashed windows, riots, that type of
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stuff. Right. But he still took time to hear them out and sit with them. I, I, when you're a prime
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minister, you, you have to, you have to, you can't, I mean, being any type of politician is almost a
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little bit narcissistic in a sense. Yeah. You got to have that kind of like to finish it, I guess you
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have to have that ability, but you, he's a prime minister of those people as well. And he never heard
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them. And, and when he made that statement about what he thought of the unvaccinated, I, I, I want
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to, I want to do my part to, to, to amplify other people's voices that, that aren't necessarily as
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heard because the impression that he gave is that small town people are stupid. And that's sort of
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what the way I don't like that. Cause that doesn't, there's a lot of people that are very intelligent
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that don't want to live in the city. There's a lot of people that live in the city are completely
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brain dead and have no clue how their lights turn on or where food comes from. And they,
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they think buying vegan stuff at a grocery store is making a difference when it's not,
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they don't understand where their food comes from or where the oil comes from, or even when they drive
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an electric car, the amount of plastics and oil it takes to make that car. I'm hoping to do that,
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but on a larger scale, I'm hoping that this is a more positive trip where we connect the dots a
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little bit. One of the things that I was sad about is a few years ago, when we were doing our rallies,
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we were moving the needle when we had the pro pipeline rallies from all the way from Vancouver
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to when, when those environments, Halifax, when they accosted the stage with the big puppet.
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But we were moving the needle. And then when we, the first convoy, I think our side made a huge
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mistake. We, we planned on having a convoy first, but the Yellow Vest announced their convoy before
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we announced ours, even though ours was planned. And instead of just stopping our convoy and saying,
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you know what, like, this is not the time. A couple of us, you know, we went on mainstreaming
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and not me, but some of the people, right. And they slammed the Yellow Vest and they thought,
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well, our convoy is better and blah, blah, blah, blah. And the sad part of that, like,
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forget all that other side stuff. But the other, the sad part of that was, is all the good work
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we were doing with our pro pipeline rallies across the country just went away.
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A hundred percent. And, uh, so that's where I'm hoping to start over. Right. Um, and I don't want this
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to be a massive thing. I just want to take my bus, travel, interview people, you know,
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do a few rallies and stuff like that. But I'm more interested in this sort of from a,
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uh, I guess a journalist's perspective where we, where we kind of tell stories. And I did a little
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of this when I went to, um, Oyen, um, and I interviewed the mayor and I did a little series
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there or the one I met with, uh, chief, uh, Crystal Smith from the Sailor Tooth First Nation in BC.
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And I really want to amplify those stories. And then I want to take this reach and, uh, make sure
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that people in Ontario and Quebec understand that it's broader and there's, there's humans behind
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this type of thing. And all of a sudden strong, I mean, you know, last month our reach was
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significant. We have over 37 million on our social media. So we have a massive presence, even though
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we're, you know, not always, uh, we're not always in the fight as much, but that'll, that'll change
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a little bit. But, but I do hope that we can show it, tell more stories of the country.
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You know, I think that's, um, actually quite amazing for you to have a reach that broad,
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um, as big as the entire country and you do it largely unfunded. Yes. You know, you're up against
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the deep, deep pockets of the foreign funded environmental movement. And all you're doing
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is just sort of setting the record straight on the things that you know, to be true about the
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province and industry that you love. And you are taking on these foreign funded organizations.
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They're akin to multinational corporations at this point, and you're beating them just by being
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grassroots and telling the truth. I think it's amazing. Well, and that's sort of why I want to
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take it up a little bit of a level because like one of my favorite accomplishments was when,
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when Jane Fonda came to Fort McMurray and I got to stand up to her and there has not been a celebrity
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visit since Jane Fonda, um, other than Greta, but Greta doesn't count as a celebrity. Um, but other
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than that, and even Greta, I mean, like she had a massive security with her and she was, they were
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terrified that I, that I was going to like pop up, which was kind of, you know, they kind of her visit
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before McMurray was not even a blip. Right. Um, so the plan is, but had, you know, had, had a little bit
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more tools. They now have got a team assembled. We might've been able to take Jane Fonda on the
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next level. And the part where I do regret, Jane Fonda was in Washington. Um, they wouldn't,
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they were planning on coming to Fort McMurray, but they were too scared. So they, they actually
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had their tech rally in Washington to stop the tech mine in Fort McMurray. And Martin Sheen was
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there, Susan Sarandon and Jane Fonda. Now, if I had the ability and the time just to go, I would have
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taken them on right in Washington and I would have had, like, I would have been on them. That is one of the
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things that I do want to hope that I'm able to do is when there, when the need is there to defend
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the industry and defend our jobs, um, and our way of life. Um, I like, I'm hoping that this will
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provide a little bit of a, more of a tool for us to, uh, to do that. You know, and just going back to,
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um, you know, the, the industry itself and who is in the industry. I think that's one of the things
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that gets forgotten in all of this. If I had to select an industry in the whole country that I would
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call an indigenous industry, I would say it's the oil patch. I think by demographics,
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indigenous people are overrepresented in the oil patch. And I think that has a lot to do with,
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you know, where the jobs are, where the mines are, where the projects are, that it's often close to
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indigenous land, indigenous reserves, but also through the partnerships, allowing indigenous people
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to start companies. Like you see the Mikasu, um, you know, they're, they're worth millions. Um,
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but you never hear from, as we were saying before we started the interview, you never hear from Fort
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Mackay. You just hear from the indigenous activists in Vancouver. Well, see part of the, and that's part
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of the problem when I think when Jane Fonda came to town, I mean, at the time, chief Jim Boucher from
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Fort Mackay refused to meet with her, um, because he was like, I'm not, uh, I'm not doing this with
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you. Um, second of all, I mean, like, like, I mean, the, in Fort McMurray, like it's basically
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industry and the, I mean, all my clients from a marketing company and all that are all indigenous
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businesses. You know, I'm an indigenous business. Um, we all, uh, it's very interconnected and, um,
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it's taken, taken a kind of interesting story. So Doug Losky, who, who was in the first issue of
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oil and gas world magazine, you know, he's a very, very, very successful indigenous business man.
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Um, and one of the things that was kind of interesting, he would, they were telling me a
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story that he, when he had a clear water welding years ago, he hired a guy who, you know, was
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struggling a little bit and gave him a second chance. And well, 20 some odd years later, he got a
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thank you for that because now that guy's working at Syncrude and has turned his life around. And like,
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it's just, I think that the two things that I want to cover on this is one, the massive successful
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stories when you have the, the, the indigenous billionaires or multimillionaires that have just
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taken it to the next level. But also when I was in BC, I, one story really hit me, uh, that I was
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talking to this guy cause I just finished filming, uh, uh, chief Crystal Smith. And, uh, he came up to me
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and he said, listen, I just want to tell you my story. And I wish I didn't have any battery, but it was
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just such a touching story. He said, you know, 55 years old and I just got my first real
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job and I'm going to save enough money to put my kids through school or help them.
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And he wanted to work for 10 years at the Coastal Gath. Like boom, simple, like not, you know,
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like he's going to, you know, just make enough money that he can retire. And, and, you know,
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and, and I think that that's the story. And then, you know, that douchebag Mark Ruffalo,
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I was watching, it's kind of hard cause I kind of, I kind of like the, the concept of
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She-Hulk, uh, uh, attorney of law, which is kind of fucked up. It's ridiculous,
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it's ridiculous, but I kind of watched it. I was just like, uh, and I, I do struggle
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when I don't like a celebrity, but then sometimes, but sometimes I'm like, you can't, you can't.
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We would have nothing to watch. So it's sort of like, whatever. But, um, I mean, for him
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to speak about Coastal Gath Link, I mean, he like, it's just like, it's unbelievable. Those
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actors that they live this high life. And even if they drive an electric car and they become
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vegans and eat chickpeas and tofu or whatever, they're still benefiting from oil and gas. But
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the worst part is, is that he's actually hurting indigenous jobs because when, when these celebrities
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come and they like, we're here to save you, like they actually don't know the damage they're done.
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That is the biggest thing I'm proud of with Jane Fonda and bluntly. I mean, like industry should
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cut me a massive check because the amount of money that that saved them. Think of that millions of
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dollars in PR by standing up to Jane Fonda. When even Rachel Notley, the premier at the time,
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when she spoke out against the visit, when the Fort McMurray, uh, first nation outside of,
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um, just by Anzac there wrote a statement against her visit. And all of a sudden indigenous people
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said, no, she didn't speak on behalf of them. Um, but that's, that's what I'm proud of because
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Jane Fonda is not going to solve indigenous poverty. She's not going to, um, improve, uh, economic
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reconciliation or, um, or the damage done by residential schools by showing up here. She's a
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multimillionaire who dated a bill or was married to a billionaire. She is part of the Mile High
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Club and that's an exclusive club. And you can't be part of that club unless you use fossil fuels.
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Right. Right. And you have, and you have to have a private jet. Cause I mean, maybe, maybe if you,
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you know, you've tipped the West jet person five bucks or something, but I mean, but that's,
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that's how absurd Jane Fonda is. I'm actually being serious, which is kind of funny. Cause I'm
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talking, but she's on Ellen talking about how she's a part of the Mile High Club. Right. And joked
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about it and all that. But just basically, okay, you were living a life where it's immense privilege.
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You get to fly in a private jet with Ted Turner. And then you're coming to Fort McMurray and you're like
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talking about the wildfire and, and how you watched from LA and we were so upset, but it's all
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because of climate change. And, and if you come back for like seven, seven years, six, seven years
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later now, all the trees are coming back. It's part of the, the cycle of the forest and you understand
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what really went down. I think she's, she should be ashamed of herself because I'm not even going to
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falter for her activism, but she came to McMurray with a purpose and I'm happy that we stood up to her
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and I'm happy. Like, and that's one thing that I'm very proud of because the damage, the damage that
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Neil Young did was we still, when he called our community Hiroshima, now we can go on Facebook
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and post pretty pictures of like the beautiful clear skies and the, you know, the Northern Lights
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and all that stuff. But to combat what Neil Young did outside of our region, that's hard because he
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damaged us. Right. Same with Leo, not so much Leo as much as Neil Young. But if we, if I would have been
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able to like square off with Neil Young and tell him off and point out his hypocrisy, you
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know, and even if it's vegetable driven Lincoln, you know what I mean? I could have gone into
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a race with my link, but my point is that I would have called him out on it. Yeah. And
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by unfortunately I wasn't doing it at that time. I think that is the PR of, of being there
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to fight back. So I think that's something that I'm, that I'm going to do a little bit more
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of, but right now it's, it's been, you know, they're, they're, they don't really come
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before McMurray as much. Um, and the indigenous, I mean, every single indigenous, uh, organization
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group of between the Métis, um, from the first nations, et cetera, they all have deals
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with industry now. So, and they're solid multimillion dollar deals, which is how it
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should be because the oil doesn't just belong to, it belongs to everybody and everyone needs
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to benefit from the oil. It doesn't just belong to industry. It belongs to the indigenous
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people. It belongs to Albertans. And that's, that's the one thing that I think that we need
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to, I think everyone needs to understand that when the oil does well, we all do well, you
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know, like, I mean, the oil companies here have had record profits, 3 billion or whatever.
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And it's, that's amazing. But then when you look at what, um, Saudi America just made.
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Yeah. They overtook Apple, I think for a time on being the most, I think it was most profitable
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company. And it was, you know, it was like, depending on the day where they were overtaking
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A hundred percent. And, and that's where I think we really need to figure out why it's
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Yeah. Well, and you know, I don't know if you've, have you seen the movie Frack Nation?
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Okay. So I would recommend that you watch that. It was made by Phelan McAleer and he,
00:21:51.140
it was much like sort of what you want to do. And it was this journalistic journey through
00:21:56.940
Pennsylvania and the difference that fracking had made to the farmers there who were, you know,
00:22:04.460
on the verge of losing their land, losing their farms until the fracking companies came along
00:22:09.980
and said, we're going to frack. Well, directional drill, tiny, tiny footprint, but the royalties
00:22:15.580
you make are going to save your farm. And it changed people's lives. And it was the counterbalance
00:22:21.220
to, uh, Gasland. Do you remember that awful movie Gasland? It was the, the real story, um,
00:22:27.960
of those communities. And I hope that you, well, and I know that you're going to do some of that,
00:22:33.800
telling the stories of how oil and gas opportunity has changed people's lives and maybe even saved
00:22:39.980
their lives. Like that man that you met who was 50 getting his first real job while some white
00:22:44.900
colonialist named Jane Fonda said he shouldn't have one.
00:22:48.360
Well, and that's, that's the problem. Right. And it's like, when I, you know, when I took on,
00:22:52.020
I did a video one time with Melina Lubecon-Mossimo and I just got a kick out of her because,
00:22:57.060
you know, she was in New York at a fashion show and then she's with, you know, Jane Fonda. And
00:23:02.620
she's like, like some of these environmentalists, they become sort of, I don't know, the mean girls
00:23:08.600
so to speak, where they're really pretty and they're like, they're doing their photography and
00:23:12.640
stuff and they're posing and we're warriors and that make sure their hair is perfect while they're
00:23:16.600
doing it. I found that so absurd because they're not really helping and they're not understanding
00:23:24.380
what it means. Like I, you know, Greta Thunberg, I, I'm, I'm fat. I wasn't, I'm like, she's kind
00:23:29.720
of disappeared a little bit now. She turned 18. That's why she's not a child soldier in the war
00:23:34.300
anymore. But what I found quite interesting, they were, they were all, everyone was going after,
00:23:40.620
you know, white middle-aged men that were attacking her and they, they were being vicious to these men.
00:23:44.640
And I thought, okay, why, why is it that a white middle-aged man would go after Greta? And I
00:23:49.660
realized what exactly what it is because those white middle-aged men have daughters and those
00:23:54.620
daughters, you know, they want to put them through school and they care about them. And the absurdity
00:23:58.940
of Greta and her rich privileged parents, I remember they posed some pictures of her house and they had
00:24:03.460
like these like $10,000 massage chairs. It was just absurd, the wealth that she came from. And
00:24:09.120
when she lectured the world, I mean, and the world bought it for a quite, for, I think it's kind
00:24:16.240
of, she's played her course a little bit, but the bottom line is, is that there is such a disconnect.
00:24:22.300
I mean, her generation is the most privileged generation in the world of like skip the dishes
00:24:26.260
and, uh, you know, Ubers. And I mean, try to fix a phone now if you break it, there's no point.
00:24:32.880
You know what I mean? Like it's like, it's such a toss away society. I'm trying to fix my dishwasher
00:24:37.700
and I can't fix it. I'm going to have to buy a new one. Like it's insane how you don't,
00:24:42.000
but the generation before, I mean, your fridge would last for a hundred years. Your cars would
00:24:45.420
last. And one of the things too, about this bus and the Lincoln that I'm going to tell a story of
00:24:49.240
like, I, my, the bus is a 19, it's my age. It's my age. I'm going to be honest about my age.
00:24:55.240
We're close to the same age. It's fine. So it's a 45 year old bus and, um, but it still runs
00:25:01.360
and with a little bit of repairs, it runs really good. Same with my 77 Lincoln, my 77 Lincoln
00:25:07.140
runs better than my brand new truck. So this throwaway society, like, is it more,
00:25:14.580
is an electric car that might last 10 years, maybe. And then if the battery goes, you're,
00:25:19.640
you're, you're in real, you're bad trouble. Um, it, is that really more of an environmentally
00:25:26.060
friendly car than a bus the last 45 years that's built well? I think that we need to like, I'm going
00:25:31.500
to tell that side. Cause I think a lot of these old cars, they still run. They like, they fire up.
00:25:36.240
You know what I mean? Like it's, it's, uh, it's an interesting take. I would argue that they're
00:25:41.780
probably more environmentally friendly for the long game. And, uh, and I think that that's something
00:25:46.880
too, that we maybe need to look at. Like, why are we tossing everything away and not, I'm all for
00:25:51.680
improvement. I'm not even anti-solar or anti-wind, but I'm anti this notion that it's like, it's somehow
00:25:57.560
going to make a difference compared to just cheap, affordable energy that if we burn it properly and we
00:26:03.760
take care of it properly and we improve constantly to burn less or hybrid cars, I don't know this
00:26:10.260
direction of just decimating the fossil fuel. And I, you know, the other part is I don't think
00:26:14.240
it's going to happen. I don't see the fossil fuel industry going anywhere, but so instead of just
00:26:19.620
like, I mean, this intense trauma of bashing it, maybe we just work together to make a better world.
00:26:26.200
You know, it's interesting that, uh, the people who decry the consumerism of plastic straws
00:26:33.420
will throw out everything that came before them to have the newest, greenest thing.
00:26:39.300
Well, yeah. Or it's just, and I find those plastic straws hilarious, right? So like you're,
00:26:44.300
everything else that you're getting is all plastic. And the straw is paper. Yeah. And wrapped. Yeah.
00:26:49.060
It's paper like, or yeah, like one of my, one of my friends was like, uh, she's like, we're friends,
00:26:55.960
but she disagrees with me and with my, isn't that interesting that you can be friends with people
00:27:00.840
you disagree with? Isn't that odd? So, but anyway, so she's like, you know, Robbie, you're ruining the,
00:27:06.220
she doesn't like the magazine. She's like oil sands or anything like that, but she's a good friend.
00:27:09.120
So like, you just kind of just, whatever I argue. There's other things to talk about. Exactly. So we
00:27:13.200
talk about fish or, you know, or my decorating or whatever. I'm thinking actually starting a fashion
00:27:17.120
magazine or no, a home decor magazine. So anyway, I can see that actually on a side note. But anyway,
00:27:23.540
which I found kind of funny though, it's like, so the doorbell rings and, um, Amazon drops off dish
00:27:30.220
detergent for her. And I'm like, I thought you were like, so pro environment. What do you mean? And
00:27:36.080
I'm like, someone had to drive this to you, your extra packaging. Like, like she could have made it
00:27:42.200
just part of her general grocery run store. Yeah. But you know, and then, and then,
00:27:47.120
uh, skip the dishes and then Uber. And then there's, or then, uh, well, there's this other
00:27:51.180
one. Um, uh, what's that one? Uh, they, they bring you the ingredients to your house. Now,
00:27:56.920
um, hello fresh, hello fresh. Right. So it's like all of that transportation, like all that
00:28:03.400
packaging, individual packaging. Exactly. So it's like, you know, let's, this next generation
00:28:08.380
isn't so green. You know what I mean? And then the funny part is when you go to like to the
00:28:12.440
grocery store now, they have paper bags again. And I find that hello. I hate them,
00:28:16.980
by the way. How do you hang on to them? You can't hang on to them. I know it's very old
00:28:22.140
school and it feels cool when they're coming them in, like you're getting fresh food, like
00:28:25.920
kind of like grandma would used to do kind of thing. But here's, there are five to seven
00:28:29.780
people in my house at any given time. I cannot carry in the paper groceries like that. But
00:28:34.980
a few years ago, many years ago, they got, why did they get rid of paper bags to save the
00:28:39.680
trees? Don't you know? And now they're back to paper bags. So I, I think the real solution
00:28:45.760
is not getting rid of disposable plastics. It's not, it's not getting, it's figuring
00:28:49.680
out what to do with them after the fact. It's better recycling. It's not sending them
00:28:53.040
to, I'm pro incineration actually. Burn them. I've heard, well, I've heard good things about
00:28:57.220
that and you can burn them. You can use them for energy also to don't send them to the
00:29:01.000
Philippines. Right. And let's stop faking. We're recycling when we're not like, there's
00:29:05.960
so many stories of like, Oh, my cousin, like she separates everything perfectly. And she's
00:29:12.220
just a little over the top. Right. And anyway, and then she found out that I'll just guess
00:29:16.840
like, like, what are you doing? So maybe like you turn garbage into a commodity where you
00:29:22.660
actually really, you like, you do something with the garbage for energy or, or find like
00:29:29.040
find ways to actually recycle it. I mean, I think there's a, and here's the thing to be
00:29:33.880
honest about how it's getting in the ocean. You look at the Dominican Republic, pretty clean,
00:29:37.700
but Haiti right next to it, rivers and rivers of garbage going in the ocean, call them out
00:29:42.480
on it. How is us not having, I don't believe, I'm not saying that our plastic in Canada doesn't
00:29:47.620
go in the ocean. Cause I'm sure a little bit of it does, but not. It falls off a ship on
00:29:50.520
the way to the Philippines. Yeah. So like, I think that that's what we need to do. And also
00:29:57.340
we need to be more honest. I do. I'm a big believer in planting trees. Um, I did a little
00:30:01.820
experiment in my backyard where I have a big tree and the temperature is way cooler under
00:30:05.860
the tree in the hottest summer. I think that that's something we could revisit. Like these
00:30:09.940
cities, I think they need way more trees than they have. I also think they need to water
00:30:13.360
the trees. Um, you, you see these new developments. So like, like, like the tree needs help. If
00:30:18.960
you look at trees beside, this is where farmers are smarter. Like when I had the farm, we, we
00:30:23.380
wanted to save moisture. So we built a row of caragannas. Um, and then we made a trench
00:30:29.280
in them deep. So once a year we could take the hose and give them a fiery chance to grow
00:30:35.480
with more water. Cause the water that the trees that grew by the ponds would always be taller
00:30:40.620
than the trees in the field. So it's like, but that's what the city people don't understand
00:30:44.740
because they don't have that, you know, it's just, it's just weird. And it's like, cause
00:30:48.720
I'm actually really good with plants and I don't know a lot about plants, but you see
00:30:51.400
my sunroom, it's looking amazing. But then I saw this app and he took a picture of the
00:30:55.560
plant and it would tell you if you need a water. And I'm thinking like, like, Oh my
00:30:58.380
God, like I can't, you just touch the pot and it's like dry. And I know if it needs
00:31:02.360
water. Is it yellow? Is it wilting? Yeah. You can kind of tell. Right. So I think that
00:31:06.320
that's kind of sixth sense is sort of missing now in the world of technology. But, um, but
00:31:11.560
yeah, so I'm hoping that this, uh, magazine strikes a conversation. It'll be edgy when it
00:31:15.940
needs to, but the intent is to be far more like, let's go see, let's stop at this small
00:31:21.240
obscure town and talk to a lady. I'm hoping to get a lot, like maybe not.
00:31:25.420
I don't think I'm going to like get antiques and stuff cause I've got too many, but, um,
00:31:29.600
I'm hoping to just have a little adventure and tell the story of people along the way.
00:31:33.480
I don't, you know, and, but, um, yeah, I'm excited about it and the bus is pretty cool.
00:31:38.540
I'm excited about it. Um, how are you, are you selling ads in the magazine?
00:31:44.760
Yes. So I'm going to, we're going to be, um, selling ads in the magazine, um, but it's
00:31:48.600
more by appointment. We're going to reach out to people and see if, uh, you know, if they
00:31:52.200
want to help out on a longer term scale, we're going to be selling tons of shirts.
00:31:55.420
I haven't decided if I'm going to do like, uh, like a fun, like a GoFundMe type thing
00:31:59.980
here yet or not. Um, I, I might, uh, but we'll, we'll see how it plays out. But, uh, so far
00:32:05.580
it's like, like in this magazine is printed, but it's also very digital and the stories are
00:32:10.980
done digitally. So they're, they're compelling and there's a lot of, I filmed them and then
00:32:15.300
we edit them. Shareable. Yeah. And we edit them and I've done a few little testers. Like
00:32:19.140
I, um, you came to my house. Yes, I did. And we, we, and you left with pickling.
00:32:25.420
I did left with, well, that's, that's what I like. I like, um, I like canned food. Um,
00:32:30.820
so, um, that's, uh, that's sort of the idea. Um, it's a kind of like, and then when you click
00:32:36.220
on the magazine, you get the digital person portion, but it's also a print and they've
00:32:40.300
been looking for distribution. I think we might sell it. It'll be free online, but I think the
00:32:44.440
paper copy we will sell. Um, and, uh, I, yeah, we'd like to, I mean, the more money we make
00:32:50.160
and the, can do it. Like I have, I, you know, I've got seven full-time staff now. My media
00:32:54.320
company is carrying this right now. I'd like it to carry itself. Um, and it's not a not
00:32:58.980
for profit. I have no intention to be a not for profit. I'm a capitalist and this is gonna,
00:33:02.080
but I mean, I've definitely, uh, invested in this for years and I, I think it's the next
00:33:06.860
phase. Now on the other side of your capitalist ventures with oil, sand, strong, how do
00:33:14.000
people support the work that you do there? Because you are up against, like I said, the
00:33:18.440
deep pockets of the environmentalist movement. Um, and we see your shirts everywhere. So how
00:33:24.420
So go online to oil sand strong.com and buy some shirts. We're also going to, uh, do the
00:33:29.500
shirt of the month club. So for 25 bucks a month, you get two t-shirts, um, and that change
00:33:35.960
every month. Um, and, uh, and also too, we're going to have like, kind of like a, like we're
00:33:41.560
going to have a, our newsletter, which is that's free, our monthly newsletter. Um, and
00:33:46.660
Oh, wonderful. I'm going to have to join the t-shirt of the month club for sure. You know,
00:33:51.220
me and t-shirts, Robbie, thanks so much. Um, and thank you so much for working so hard to
00:33:55.720
tell the stories of families just like mine. Um, you know, I can advocate for my own family,
00:34:01.360
but there are a lot of people who just feel so forgotten in the equation and the government
00:34:06.480
is doing things to them, not with them. And, uh, they don't have anybody out there sticking
00:34:11.340
up for them. So I'm, I'm glad to hear that you're giving a voice to those people.
00:34:15.820
Thank you. And it's always a pleasure being on your show. So thank you for having me. I
00:34:18.760
think this is the first one we've done like this. No, we've done, we've done one otherwise,
00:34:23.240
but you're in Calgary. So you came by the office.
00:34:28.220
This is the portion of the show where we welcome your viewer feedback. We actually want to hear
00:34:39.520
from you. We want to know what you think about the work that we're doing here at Rebel News,
00:34:43.380
because really we can't do any of it without you. So one of the best ways to send viewer
00:34:48.120
feedback to me on the show is send me an email, sheila at rebelnews.com. That's my email. Send
00:34:54.260
me a letter, put gun show letters in the subject line so that I can find it. But sometimes I go
00:34:59.040
looking on the Rumble comments to see what you're saying. And so if you have something to say about
00:35:04.660
the work that we're doing, send it to me in an email or leave a comment on Rumble and perhaps I
00:35:10.160
will find it. Now, today's comment comes to me from my email and it's about a story that I did over
00:35:19.480
the course of six months. Um, my friend and I, one of us was unvaccinated, but recovered from COVID
00:35:28.860
diagnosed COVID case. And the other one of us was double vaccinated, but not doing the booster thing.
00:35:36.480
And so we tested every single month because we were trying to prove with scientific evidence,
00:35:43.700
just how unscientific the vaccine passports were because even though we were close friends
00:35:50.080
known each other, most of our lives, we could not go for a beer together. We couldn't go
00:35:58.200
to watch my kids play sports if the sports were happening indoors. And so we thought let's test to
00:36:07.660
show that we are both immune to COVID. And so we tested our, our antibodies every single month at a
00:36:18.060
company called I-Corps. And part of it was to see whose immunity levels dropped off because we could
00:36:24.160
test for, um, just the levels of antibodies in our blood too. So we could test to see whose immunity
00:36:31.880
was lasting longer, the vaccinated or the unvaccinated but naturally immune person. And we
00:36:39.060
tested and we tested and we tested and our immunity levels were never changing, which meant our unvaccinated
00:36:47.720
person was completely discriminated against, but we knew that something else was going on because we
00:36:54.580
knew that the unvaccinated person should have been due for a booster, but they, they're,
00:37:01.880
immunity levels never started to drop off the way you would expect them. Well, as it turns out,
00:37:08.020
the company that we were using, I-Corps Blood Services, towards the end of our experiment,
00:37:13.800
introduced a new test, which actually ended the experiment because the new test was called a T-cell
00:37:19.220
test. And what it does is test not just for immunity levels, but T-cells show natural immunity. You see,
00:37:29.320
we started to suspect that our vaccinated person's vaccines had failed somewhere along the way
00:37:36.980
and they had contracted COVID and didn't even really realize it. And so we tested for T-cells and as it
00:37:46.260
turns out, yes, indeed, the vaccines had failed and that person had contracted COVID, didn't really
00:37:56.300
even realize it to the extent beyond just a cold. And that was sort of the end of the experiment.
00:38:04.920
And it really laid bare the discrimination of the vaccine passports because we were discriminating
00:38:11.780
against people in society based on medicine that didn't work for no reason whatsoever,
00:38:22.720
except to pretend like we were doing something. Anyway, all that is to say, Ollie Kay writes me
00:38:29.820
and says, I haven't seen an update posted on YouTube regarding the test you and your friend
00:38:33.460
were doing comparing blood samples. Just wondering if you're going to continue those
00:38:37.000
or not, as they were quite helpful to folks who've had COVID but chose not to vaccinate in our respective
00:38:43.520
battles. Keep up the great work. So I just told you why we ended the testing. And the test,
00:38:48.240
we ended it because, well, the vaccines obviously didn't work. And as it turns out, both of our test
00:38:53.260
subjects were naturally immune. But it was one of the most emailed stories that I got because people
00:39:00.960
were constantly reaching out to me. How do I do this? I'm curious. And it was a little bit expensive,
00:39:06.920
but it was kind of affordable, you know, just to prove a point. The testing was, you know, like a
00:39:12.860
couple hundred dollars every month. And our T-cell tests, I think were about $300 a piece.
00:39:18.380
But, you know, we just wanted to use our own bodies to prove how unscientific everything is.
00:39:24.540
So I thought, out of curiosity, that maybe we would go back and just get our immunity levels tested
00:39:32.480
again to see now how long natural immunity maintains in the blood. Because the doctors are saying,
00:39:40.360
well, you can't trust natural immunity. But we do have tests that show us how long we can trust it
00:39:46.660
if we're willing to take it. But unfortunately, the testing company that we used has gone into
00:39:52.800
hibernation. Because, you know, when I started going there, it was really busy because this blood
00:39:59.920
testing that they were doing, your doctor, even if he tried to order it for you, the Central Alberta
00:40:08.020
government lab would step in and say, no, no, no, you can't do this test. You can't tell people
00:40:12.740
how immune they are to COVID. So they saw a real boom in business because people like me were trying
00:40:20.100
to prove a point. Some people wanted to know if they had ever even had COVID. They wanted to know
00:40:24.900
if they had the antibodies. They wanted to know how effective the antibodies were so that they could
00:40:30.180
make an informed decision before they chose to vaccinate. Well, as it turns out, the vaccines didn't do
00:40:35.620
any good either. But going on the information at the time, this is what people were trying to do.
00:40:41.960
But then the vaccine passport ended in Alberta, and business dropped off for the company. Now,
00:40:47.600
they've gone into hibernation. But before they did, they did something interesting. So I'm going to
00:40:53.940
read a letter to you from the CEO of I-Corps Blood Testing. That's the company that we use.
00:41:02.580
La Crete did a big experiment with the town of La Crete, Alberta. La Crete is a mostly Mennonite
00:41:10.600
community at the end of the road in northwestern Alberta. And they, despite what the province asked
00:41:17.560
them to do, they never closed their churches, they never closed their businesses, and they never
00:41:21.960
imposed a vaccine passport up there. In fact, they went one step further. If you were a business that
00:41:27.220
did impose a vaccine passport, you couldn't do business with the county up there, with Mackenzie
00:41:35.480
County, which was wonderful. They stood against discrimination. They stood together as a community
00:41:42.380
and respected everybody's medical choices. And as it turns out, once you took coercion out of the
00:41:48.160
equation, the town of La Crete, only about one in three people made a choice to vaccinate because
00:41:56.300
they weren't coerced. And that town, according to I-Corps Blood Testing, achieved natural immunity
00:42:02.660
way sooner than the rest of the population. So all that is to say, I-Corps, before they went into
00:42:11.480
hibernation, they made a proposal with the Alberta government. And I'll read from the CEO's letter.
00:42:17.420
Just before we went into hibernation, I submitted a proposal to Alberta Health Services for a pilot
00:42:22.320
project. Under this pilot, we would complete screening testing on 1,000 Albertans between
00:42:27.080
the ages of 50 and 75 and screen for 10 different types of cancer as well as cardiovascular disease.
00:42:34.780
The case we want to make is that money spent up front for screening testing can identify individuals
00:42:39.760
with cancer or cardiovascular disease while still in the early stages. By doing this, our healthcare
00:42:45.560
system can then intervene, which not only increases survivability odds, but also decreases the long-term
00:42:52.640
cost impact on the system. We can keep individuals out of the hospital or mitigate expensive late-term
00:42:59.860
treatments. Although I cannot share the details of the pilot, I am pleased to report that we have received
00:43:04.520
positive feedback on it and are hoping for further conversations or approval soon. The outcome of this
00:43:10.380
pilot, if positive and demonstrating value, could then set the stage for an I-Corps resurgence focused
00:43:16.360
on government-backed preventative screening testing. The selection of pilot participants is yet to be
00:43:21.820
determined, but I have requested that I-Corps qualify participants from this mail list. So stay tuned for our
00:43:28.200
next newsletter for an update. I think this is wonderful. Screening people in advance for diseases
00:43:36.440
to increase their survivability, but also lessen the burden on the healthcare system. I don't know why
00:43:44.120
the government wouldn't do this. I wish them the best of luck. This is a huge thing to put healthcare
00:43:51.280
back in the hands of the patient. That's wonderful. Good for I-Corps for being innovators. And let me
00:43:58.060
tell you, I'm not sponsored by I-Corps. They've never given me anything for free. In fact, I paid for
00:44:02.540
all of our testing through the support of our viewers at home. But very innovative. It's the possibility
00:44:13.360
of a public-private partnership with healthcare, which means that definitely the left is going to
00:44:19.820
absolutely hate this because they love big government and making sure that they are in
00:44:25.920
control of your health instead of you. Well, everybody, that's the show for tonight. Thank
00:44:29.720
you so much for tuning in. I'll see everybody back here in the same time, in the same place next
00:44:33.760
week. And remember, don't let the government tell you that you've had too much to think.