Walmart kicks out disabled customer, COVID airport quarantine
Episode Stats
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Summary
Rebel News is back with a new audio-only version of my show, Rebel Roundup, in which we look back at some of the very best commentaries of the week by your favourite rebels. This week, we have a story about a man with a medical exemption from wearing a mask, and a woman being held against her will in a hotel near the Calgary airport.
Transcript
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Hello, Rebels. You're listening to a free audio-only recording of my show, Rebel Roundup.
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And now, enjoy this free audio-only version of my show.
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Welcome to Rebel Roundup, ladies and gentlemen, and the rest of you,
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in which we look back at some of the very best commentaries of the week by your favourite rebels.
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Have you noticed that some hotels in certain Canadian cities are looking a little ominous these days?
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Some properties are now apparently doing business as quarantine facilities for Canadians flying back to Canada.
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Alex is afflicted with cerebral palsy and is confined to a wheelchair.
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As such, he cannot wear a mask and he has a bona fide medical exemption.
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So when he went to a Walmart to buy a box of chocolates,
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incredibly, Alex was frog-marched out of the store by heartless security guards.
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Just will you hear what Tamara Ugolini has to say about this most egregious incident?
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And you had plenty to say about a shopping spree like no other in Toronto recently
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when anti-lockdown crusader Chris Sky led dozens of maskless people into three shops,
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much to the chagrin of management, security, and even the police.
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Thank you for Rebel News coming to you with a story that you're just not going to believe.
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I'm standing outside of a hotel near the Calgary airport
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where a woman is currently being held against her will
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and Justin Trudeau's thugs appeared, picked her up, and brought her here.
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She hasn't been able to speak face-to-face with her family since landing
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and her family is horrified at what's going on.
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She's spoken to me over the phone and she sent me a video from within her hotel room
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showing me that the hallway outside of her room is lined with plastic.
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What's going on here is insane and there's seemingly no reason for what's going on.
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I'm going to go in there and speak to the people running this hotel
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to see exactly what Justin Trudeau has directed them to do,
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why they are doing it, because it's just not clear.
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She's currently in one of these rooms in the hotel right behind me.
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She says she was threatened with six months in jail if she did.
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We believe it has something to do with testing.
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She took a test while she was in the United States.
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even though she had the paperwork to document it, to back it up herself.
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You can see clear as day that she does not have the Wuhan coronavirus.
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But when she landed, she was not only denied the rapid testing
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that is available to everyone who lands at the Calgary airport.
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She was picked up and brought here and locked in a hotel room
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where she can't leave under threat of actual arrest.
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I'm going to go in there to try and figure it out.
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Could you please explain to me how many Canadians you have detained in this hotel?
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How many Canadians, against their will, are being held in this hotel?
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What kind of secret operation is going on here?
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What kind of secret operation is going on here?
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How many people do you have detained here in this building?
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Can you tell me how many people are detained here?
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You will not tell me how many people are detained here.
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And why are you guys actively doing the bidding of Justin Trudeau,
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someone who you know is not acting in the best interest of Canadians at all?
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No way whatsoever is this a reasonable thing to do.
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To hold people against their will in a hotel under the threat of arrest,
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Because what's going on here, I don't think is illegal.
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But if you don't, the cops will be here in no time flat.
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Quarantine hotels or perhaps even COVID concentration camps.
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The thing is, for a government that pretends to be all about transparency,
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there is anything but transparency when it comes to Justin Trudeau's holding pens
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And yet, why all the secrecy in the first place?
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And joining me now to try and unravel this disturbing mystery is Kian Bextie in Calgary.
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So, Kian, for starters, are these quarantining facilities even legal in the first place?
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I mean, Canadians have a right to not be detained unreasonably if they haven't broken any laws.
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And these Canadians, they haven't broken any laws, at least not in any way that the government
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Canadians have an inherent right to return to this country, to leave this country, or to
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It's those rights are something that are given to us so that the government can't overstep
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their bounds and, you know, send away voters that they don't like or stop voters from coming
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There's a whole bunch of reasons for why we have mobility rights.
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And the underlying facts of them are the government has no right to interfere with them.
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That includes Justin Trudeau, even though he might disagree with that.
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Oh, my God, I can just see the Justin Trudeau liberals drooling over your idea, getting rid
00:08:05.420
You know, but, you know, Kian, last month I had a bizarre story involving, it was a fellow
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called DeRay and his father who flew into Toronto from Jamaica, and they were put into one of
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these quarantining facilities here in Toronto, the Radisson near the airport on Dixon Road.
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And, I mean, full hazmat suits on the staff, you know, plastic taped everywhere.
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At the end of the day, anti-lockdown protesters got wind of this story, sprung an escape for
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them by way of hiring an Uber car to come along.
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And here's the thing, they were told repeatedly as they left the hotel, stop in the name of
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the law, you cannot leave, you will be facing consequences, et cetera, et cetera.
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So the point I'm trying to get to, Kian, is that are people being told falsehoods in terms
00:09:07.080
of what their rights actually are in the hopes of the authorities thinking that they'll buy
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Like, I wouldn't put it past this government to lie to people, to their faces, especially
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in the great confusion that they've caused, right?
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I'm not sure if it's ever happened in Canada where the government has, by decree, said certain
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people can't come back unless they meet certain requirements that the government says of Quarantine
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The Charter of Rights and Freedoms is the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
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To your question, I wouldn't put it past the government to lie straight to Canadians.
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And Canadians don't understand exactly what's going on.
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Lawyers, in some cases, don't understand what's going on because they're just so taken
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aback by the brazenness of the moves of how brazen this government is in these moves.
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So, naturally, we've retained lawyers and they are the best in the business and we're using
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them to help as many people as we can who return to this country, who ask for help.
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And just a note to the viewers, I mean, if anyone is returning to this country by plane, please
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There we'll be able to sort of triage what's going on, maybe help you out a little bit if
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we can, and at least cover your story of you returning to this country.
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And Kian, we can say for certain there is lying going on.
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When we went to that, Radisson, there was a security guard who said to us on camera that
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the camera was closed because, sorry, that the hotel was closed because it was under construction.
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No construction workers, no construction equipment, and faces pressed up against windows looking
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But I want to tackle one other thing, and to me, this is a perverse irony.
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We have Canadian citizens, and in the case of the lady you interviewed, she had a negative
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COVID test from her departure point of Texas, which for some reason was not accepted.
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But we have them being sheep herded into these COVID quarantine hotels.
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And yet, Kian, you can have illegal aliens cross over from the U.S. into Canada at places
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such as the infamous Roxham Road, and not only are they denied entry, not only have they told
00:11:38.940
you you've got to quarantine for lack of a COVID test, you'll have the RCMP carry their
00:11:50.420
Well, it's frustrating to me, and I think every other Canadian who's had to return over
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I was in the United States just a bit ago, and I seriously thought about coming and crossing
00:12:00.220
it at Roxham Road because the government, for some reason, has an exception for everyone
00:12:07.800
Of course, they're just, Justin Trudeau would, you know, lock me, throw me in jail probably
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if I did that, because the only people that get that exception are fake refugees, people
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who don't even belong in the United States as refugees.
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Justin Trudeau wants to bring them to Canada so that they can vote for him in three, four,
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This is peak insanity of the Trudeau government.
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And I'm certainly going to continue as much coverage as I can at those airports to explain
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to Canadians what's going on and the risks that they face with Justin Trudeau at the
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And of course, Kian, the Wuhan virus is such a super intelligent virus.
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It would never dare infect illegal aliens come in because, you know, it's heavily vested
00:13:00.340
But a bona fide Canadian coming in who apparently doesn't have the right paperwork, well, off
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Please keep us posted on any more developments coming out of Calgary regarding this property.
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More of Rebel Roundup to come right after this.
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As the masked madness continues, more and more individuals are having to choose between
00:13:34.560
going out into society and potentially having police or security called on them for simply
00:13:42.280
Or they attempt to wear the mask at the expense of their health.
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I'm Tamara Ugolini for Rebel News and this mask exemption story is one for the charts.
00:13:53.140
Alex Lightwind submitted a video to us at the Rebel with details of how he was ridiculed
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and segregated while trying to simply buy a box of chocolates for a friend as a Christmas gift
00:14:09.020
You see, Alex has fairly advanced cerebral palsy, so he is exempt from wearing a mask
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or a face covering as per the Manitoba mandate where it says,
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And so, Alex, maybe you can just give us a quick recap of what happened to you at that point.
00:14:44.020
Yeah, so as I answered the Walmart, I was just minding my openness when all of a sudden
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me and my home care worker were pulled by not one, but two security guards, one on either
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And the one security guard goes to my home care worker and goes,
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Can you talk to him, meaning me, to put on his mask?
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And the second time, they asked my home care worker to tell me to put on my mask.
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At this time, I was frustrated because I was completely annoyed, and so I tried to interrupt
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and said, Excuse me, sir, if you want to talk to me about something I'm doing, talk to me.
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And then they ignored me and continued to talk to my worker.
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So for the third time, I moved my voice and said, You can talk to me.
00:16:00.840
So the security guard went to me and goes, Well, I need you to put on your mask.
00:16:06.500
And I said, No, I don't have to wear a mask because it's different.
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It's my life to my health and health Canada that I have a disability and I do not need to wear a mask.
00:16:24.300
And as I could see, this conversation wasn't going nowhere.
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Alas and alack, calling for the manager did absolutely nothing to rectify the situation for Alex Litwin.
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In fact, he was eventually frog-marched out of that Walmart store in a most humiliating fashion.
00:16:45.920
And in the aftermath, has Walmart reached out to him to apologize?
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Besides, Walmart is just too busy these days raking in the cash thanks to its current favoured retailer status.
00:17:06.240
And joining me now to discuss Alex's plight is Tamara Ugolini in Coburg.
00:17:14.460
Fantastic. Tamara, I've got to be honest, I was on the brink of tears.
00:17:21.640
I was so frustrated and so angered watching your interview with Alex.
00:17:30.040
But it seems that there isn't a hell of a lot of humanity at Walmart these days.
00:17:35.540
Why was this gentleman treated so brutally when he clearly is entitled to his legal mask exemption?
00:17:45.720
Well, that's what I've been finding in some of these interviews that I'm conducting,
00:17:49.300
is that there's just a complete disregard for ethics in the face of these broad policies that are being implemented on people.
00:18:03.620
And I don't know if it's a lack of education or people just aren't versed in what the actual laws and mandates are.
00:18:13.700
But it's clearly laid out there in this particular instance, the province of Manitoba, that mask exemptions exist.
00:18:20.700
You know, Tamara, I mean, the people at Walmart, the management, the workers, the security guards, they're all humans.
00:18:41.680
You know, Alex is a good guy. I've had email chats with him.
00:18:45.220
He's been dealt a harsh, you know, hand in life for them to humiliate him and even ignore him.
00:18:53.900
Talk to his caregiver as though he didn't exist, as though he was a non-person.
00:19:01.840
Yeah, I mean, it seems a bit ignorant to take that stance.
00:19:09.380
I mean, just in my own conversations with Alex via email and then, of course, virtually when we did our interview,
00:19:16.460
he's very intelligent and a big hit to him as a person going about navigating this world to be treated with such disregard to Walmart.
00:19:27.520
And then, I mean, in my report, I highlight, once again, the hypocrisy of Walmart, who touts inclusivity and compassion and respect and kindness.
00:19:40.640
It does not sound like Alex was treated that way that day.
00:19:49.800
Promises to apparently look into it via Twitter to try to save face and no follow up.
00:20:00.460
Later in the video, you show that you did your due diligence.
00:20:04.280
First of all, you phoned the manager of this particular Walmart and she turned into Sergeant Schultz on the phone.
00:20:13.660
And said, go to corporate communications in Toronto.
00:20:25.000
And it used to be when you reached out to communications departments, whether it was the private sector or the public sector or government,
00:20:32.900
you did get a response, even if the questions were impolite.
00:20:36.980
Now there seems to be this new way of thinking that, you know what, this is a hot subject.
00:20:43.920
And Rebel News, well, you know what, they're not favoured media.
00:20:48.240
We're just not going to do our job and even give a damn response.
00:21:00.300
And B, it makes them look like idiots in the process.
00:21:08.240
If you can't, if there's no accountability there and you can't attest as to why this, in this instance, this person was treated that way and justify it,
00:21:17.080
then it stands to reason that you were in the wrong and that needs to be acknowledged somewhere and remedied for future.
00:21:25.780
Sadly, Alex was at the receiving end of this treatment.
00:21:29.000
And I hope that no one is treated that way ever again at Walmart.
00:21:33.520
But without them having any sort of reprimand or re-education of their staff or maybe the security firms that they're hiring or contracting out,
00:21:43.240
then how do you guarantee that that doesn't happen again?
00:21:46.020
Well, maybe the way you guarantee it, Tamara, is what Alex has to do is go out and hire a high-paid lobbyist.
00:21:56.660
And I know his story is a Manitoba story, but I can tell you, in Ontario, Melissa Lansman,
00:22:02.240
she was part of the Doug Ford War Room in terms of helping Doug Ford get elected premier.
00:22:07.380
And she did a wonderful job, obviously, with a super majority.
00:22:10.660
But afterwards, she got hired on by Walmart with God knows what kind of dough she raked in.
00:22:17.760
And I wouldn't be surprised if it was six figures to go to Ford's office and make sure that Walmart wouldn't be affected by the lockdown.
00:22:28.760
And again, mission accomplished for the person I now call Lockdown Lansman.
00:22:36.040
She's running for the nomination of the Federal Conservative Party in Thornhill.
00:22:43.100
I'm sure she'd be Erin O'Toole's candidate of favour.
00:22:47.660
So I guess what I'm leaning up to, Tamara, is that there's a bit of chutzpah here with Walmart.
00:22:53.720
Walmart is incredibly fortunate that they've gone through this pandemic, business as usual.
00:23:02.700
They're raking in more money than ever because there's no competition open.
00:23:06.060
And you'd think they would at least try to do the right thing for a person who's dealing with a severe handicap.
00:23:17.380
And, I mean, Alex, at the end of the day, I don't think he's some money-hungry lobbyist, obviously.
00:23:24.720
But he's not looking for any sort of compensation.
00:23:27.660
He just wants to ensure that this doesn't happen again and to be, you know, get an apology.
00:23:37.600
Actually, I would argue that he very much more than deserves that.
00:23:42.080
And it could go quite a lot further than just an apology for Walmart.
00:23:48.640
And so for them to throw out some baseless tweet on Twitter and state that they're looking into it and not even follow up at all with Alex,
00:23:58.160
who he himself states he's a very easy person to get in touch with, I mean, it's disgusting.
00:24:04.800
I mean, if I was advising Walmart, I would say at the very least give this individual a $1,000 gift card and you'll be getting away like bandits.
00:24:14.680
Last question, Tamara, looking towards the future in terms of Alex's case, if he doesn't even get an apology,
00:24:26.320
Is there not that I espouse people going to the kangaroo courts that are the human rights tribunals,
00:24:37.120
What is Alex going to do in the near future or the far future if Walmart doesn't even have the bloody decency to give this individual an apology?
00:24:48.380
Yeah, I think he was reaching out to some media to try to get some help in that regard to have some accountability.
00:24:54.560
I'm not sure what Alex's, you know, it always boils down to, and it's very sad, the financial state of the individual.
00:25:03.000
And so I'm not sure what Alex's financial finances look like.
00:25:08.300
Living with a disability in itself is expensive.
00:25:11.360
I mean, right away off the bat, your work is limited and your expenses are high.
00:25:20.580
And that's disappointing that the system can be such a failure in that regard.
00:25:24.560
Um, I know the human rights tribunal was something that was on his radar, but like you say, it's a kangaroo court.
00:25:30.760
It'll be at least a year before anything tangible happens in that sense.
00:25:35.680
So, yeah, unfortunately, I can't touch on that.
00:25:39.520
But I do hope that Alex keeps me posted because I was heartbroken listening to his story.
00:25:45.880
And I don't think that companies and huge billion dollar corporations should be able to get away with this treatment of their patrons.
00:25:55.660
And yeah, I mean, in terms of the human rights tribunals, they so often get it wrong.
00:26:00.060
I could actually see them siding with the Walmart here.
00:26:02.700
But let's hope as word gets out, there is maybe a lawyer in Manitoba who will do this pro bono.
00:26:14.900
Nobody deserved that kind of humiliation like Alex did.
00:26:27.000
And folks, that was Tamara Ugolini in Coburg, Ontario.
00:26:32.040
More of Rebel Roundup to come right after this.
00:27:18.120
Can everybody stand six feet away from me, please?
00:27:22.920
Here, you can talk to Rebel News and tell them why you're violating the law.
00:27:41.000
I claim my medical exemption like everyone else.
00:27:45.520
The by-law states that you cannot deny service.
00:27:51.220
So what you're doing right now, denying these people service, is illegal.
00:28:32.280
They were notorious back in November for banning the poppy, or at least banning their staff
00:28:38.720
I'm sure they wouldn't care if their staff wanted to wear a rainbow.
00:28:41.320
He's 100% within his rights to serve the public.
00:29:00.620
The manager just came over here and instructed him to stop serving the public.
00:29:04.280
We will guard this man's job with everything we've got.
00:29:12.000
So the store cannot make rules above the by-law.
00:29:19.720
In other words, picking up fresh produce and whatnot while going maskless.
00:29:26.520
That was indeed the scene late last month when anti-lockdown hero Chris Guy led dozens of
00:29:32.340
maskless people into three downtown Toronto stores to shop like it was 2019.
00:29:38.880
The bad news, Chris was indeed later charged with being a common nuisance and he was also
00:29:48.200
But the good news is that nobody else was charged for asserting their rights, even though police
00:29:56.720
Marcus Starr writes, as a musician forced out of work for almost a year, this video is bringing me hope.
00:30:09.900
Marcus Starr, I hope these ridiculous restrictions are lifted soon so that you can indeed get back
00:30:15.920
to work and make music and say, any relation to Ringo?
00:30:25.540
Well, Jordan, the police are kind of making an example out of Chris, much like they did with Adam Skelly
00:30:32.200
of Adamson Barbecue, Chris might be down for now, but he's not down for the count and I guarantee you
00:30:39.400
he'll be shopping mask-free for more bananas in the near future.
00:30:44.900
Creepy little girl writes, at the 5.30 mark, eek, your invisible spit is slicing right through
00:30:52.680
my invincibility mask, I'm melting, poor little snowflake.
00:30:58.480
Yeah, that Longo's manager is never going to be mistaken for he-man, is he?
00:31:03.940
But that's been the worst thing about this pandemic.
00:31:07.700
The social justice snowflakes are truly in meltdown mode.
00:31:12.240
But again, it bears repeating, if you are relatively young and or relatively healthy,
00:31:17.980
you have a six times greater chance of getting killed while crossing the street
00:31:27.780
Frank Webb writes, that was my favorite video by Rebel.
00:31:31.480
This needs to happen in every town and city in Canada.
00:31:39.060
Hey, Frank, between you and me, this was my favorite video of the year, too.
00:31:43.540
I just love the chutzpah, the brazenness, the humor,
00:31:50.280
And CT82 writes, this is one of the best videos yet.
00:31:54.740
I particularly love it because we've been long overdue to actually fight back
00:32:00.100
against the forced masking, which is probably the most ridiculous,
00:32:05.060
annoying, and dehumanizing aspect of this pandemic.
00:32:09.980
Chris Guy, come to Alberta and organize the same thing, please.
00:32:14.300
I'm surrounded by mask-wearing lemmings, and I'm struggling to find like-minded individuals.
00:32:21.440
Well, thanks for the kind words, CT82, but hey, you don't need Chris Guy in your corner.
00:32:27.260
Simply recruit some like-minded friends and go on a shopping trip and bring along the bylaw legislation
00:32:33.400
proving that the law actually trumps company policy, not the other way around.
00:32:40.800
Well, that wraps up another edition of Rebel Roundup.
00:32:45.980
And hey, folks, never forget, without risk, there can be no glory.