What does Erin O’Toole have to say about the pandemic？
Episode Stats
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Summary
Aaron O'Toole, the conservative opposition leader in the UK, takes aim at the government's response to the Global Warming Pandemic and its bizarre policies, including a 10pm curfew and a ban on eating in public places.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
Hello, my Rebels. What does Aaron O'Toole, the conservative opposition leader, have to say
00:00:03.720
above the lockdown? Well, I'll take you through a major speech he gave on the subject just a
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couple days ago. Hey, before I let you hear that, let me invite you to become a subscriber to Rebel
00:00:12.500
News Plus. It's just eight bucks a month or 80 bucks for the whole year, and you get the video
00:00:16.740
version of the podcast, plus extra goodies from Sheila Gunn-Reed and David Menzies. Just go to
00:00:21.740
rebelnews.com and click subscribe. All right, here's the podcast.
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Tonight, what does Aaron O'Toole have to say about the pandemic and the government's
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response to it? It's December 2nd, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.
00:00:50.800
Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?
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There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.
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The only thing I have to say to the government about why I publish it is because it's my
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The British government, run by the allegedly conservative Boris Johnson, has been even
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worse than Canada's in terms of its bizarre, erratic, unscientific, and punitive response
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to the pandemic. Just nuts. Crazy rules like pubs are now only allowed to serve drinks to
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customers if they are also ordering a substantial meal. Along with it, what's that got to do with
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the virus? And what is exactly a substantial meal? And the police are going to enforce how
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substantial your meal is. Do you know what a scotch egg is? It's a British thing. Their health
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minister is now literally taking questions on what food items are legal in pubs during the
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pandemic. Are scotch eggs legal? This is a big scotch egg I've got in my hands. Is that
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a substantial meal? Well, as far as I'm concerned, it's probably a starter. But the broader and
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more serious point that I think that we need to establish is that there are reasonable rules
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about hospitality, which are there in order to keep us all safe. And they specify that in certain
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areas, if you are in a hospitality setting, in a pub, that when you're ordering drinks, it needs to
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be alongside a substantial meal. The stupid, it burns. I don't mind my politician's stupid, frankly,
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because maybe they'll be less effective that way. Alas, in the United Kingdom, they match stupidity
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with meanness, which is very un-British, I think. What are those police even doing? I'm pleased to
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say this week we will reveal to you that we have hired a new British journalist to cover this beat
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for us, like Avi Amini is doing in Australia. And our first British video done by a Brit should be up
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as soon as tomorrow or Friday, so I'm excited about that. There is one thing I will say about
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the Brits, though. They let their MPs have some freedom in Parliament. And so a few Conservative
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MPs have actually disagreed with Boris Johnson and Matt Hancock, their laughable health minister.
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Here's an example. Freedom, Madam Deputy Speaker, is not an absolute, but it should be regarded as
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precious. And it should be always the strongest possible presumption in its favour. If government
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is to take away fundamental liberties of the people whom we represent, they must demonstrate
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beyond question that they are acting in a way that is both proportionate and absolutely necessary.
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Today, Madam Deputy Speaker, I believe the government has failed to make that compelling case.
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The benefit of the doubt that this House has extended to government in March and since is
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harder to take for granted in December. Madam Deputy Speaker, six weeks ago, many of us made the case
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that the curfew policy at 10pm was not just unnecessary, but that it was counterproductive. Today,
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the government apparently agrees that the 10pm curfew makes no sense. A month ago, the government insisted
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that golf and tennis and bowls and gyms were unsafe. Now, it seems that they are not.
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Madam Deputy Speaker, before the second lockdown, I invited the House to consider whether government
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had the right to make it illegal for people to see their children, their grandchildren or their
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elderly relatives, whether the government had the right to ban collective worship or to take away
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the right to work to support your family. Different people, different members of this House
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will draw the line in different places, but we must all accept that these are fundamental freedoms.
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Why can't we have something like that over here? Here's another example.
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Charles Walker. Madam Deputy Speaker, I have just witnessed an elderly lady peacefully protesting
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with a handful of other people be arrested and carried spread eagle to a police van just outside
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the precinct of the House of Commons. This is a disgrace. This is un-British. It is unconstitutional.
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And this government, our Prime Minister, needs to end these injustices now.
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Madam Deputy Speaker, will you bring the Prime Minister and all the Home Secretary here today
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to sort this out? She was an old lady robbed of her dignity for having the courage to protest
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about having her fundamental rights and those of my constituents and others removed.
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We have 338 MPs in Canada. Have you heard one of them raise that alternative point of view?
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Surely that must represent at least a sizable minority of Canadian opinion, perhaps even a
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majority, but not one out of 338 MPs will muster themselves. Well, I thought I'd check to make sure
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that I wasn't just relying on the untrustworthy media party to tell me what our MPs were up to.
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So I reviewed an entire lengthy speech given just a couple days ago by Aaron O'Toole,
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the fairly new leader of the Conservative Party, new leader of the opposition. I'm hopeful for him.
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I'm hopeful that it'll be more conservative and more feisty than the footnote in history he just
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replaced, old what's-his-name, you know, the guy with the dimples who kept putting his family
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members on the payroll. Anyways, I found a recent speech that O'Toole gave on Monday, I think it was,
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and I'd like to share it with you in some length, some excerpts. So this is the state of the art of
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his thinking since it's just two days old. Here, let's start off this way.
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Mr. Speaker, the Minister of Finance has proven their government has no plan. Without a plan for
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vaccines, there can be no long-term plan for our economy. Without rapid testing in wide distribution,
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we've missed out on a critical medium-term tool, Mr. Speaker. And the Minister of Finance in her
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speech seems to realize that she's putting the economy on hold. She'll say, we'll rebuild the
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economy once COVID is beaten. Well, Mr. Speaker, rapid tests could help preserve the economy and the
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vaccine will help us beat it. This government is late and has no plan for both. Canadians should see
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that off the start. This year has been a very difficult year for Canadians, Mr. Speaker. We all
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know that. 2020 will be remembered as the year of global pandemic came to our shores and took this
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government completely by surprise, despite many departments warning them for months. It will be
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remembered as a year of foreclosures, rising unemployment and uncertainty. Worse, for 12,000
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Canadian families, it will be remembered as a year of grief and tragedy. I agree. It's a tragedy that
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12,000 people have died from the virus. That's slightly higher than the normal death toll for the annual
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flu. It's typically, I don't know, seven, eight, nine thousand deaths. So this is worse and every life is
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precious. And now that we've all said that, let's talk about how the opposition leader is opposing.
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At least in that clip, his big beef is that there hasn't been lots of rapid testing for the virus.
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Is that really the problem? Not enough testing. Now, when you test healthy populations, especially when
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you set the actual test to be extremely sensitive, which is being done, you know that half or more of the
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results are false positives, right? Here's the deputy public health officer of Ontario saying exactly
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that. And in fact, if you're testing in a population that doesn't have very much COVID,
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you'll get false positives almost half the time. Rapid tests and a vaccine? I mean, maybe it'll be
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here in a few months. And I'm absolutely sure that Justin Trudeau has botched whatever he's done with
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vaccines. He actually signed a bizarre contract with a Chinese military company a few months back to get
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in on the ground floor of their vaccine. He's so dumb, that Trudeau. But look, my thesis, and I think
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the facts bear at home, is that the big problem now is not the virus, actually. It's the government
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response to the virus, the lockdowns, the quarantines of healthy people, the travel bans, the fear
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mongering, shutting down hospitals for regular operations, thus delaying countless small examinations
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and surgeries and tests, leading to so many more casualties than the virus itself.
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I agree with O'Toole that Trudeau was sleeping at the switch. I agree we're in a pickle. But what is
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the opposition leader's opposition today? All right, let's listen to find out. I'm going to let this run
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Canadians have shown courage and fortitude. They've respected directives from our health
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authorities. But Canadians are hurting. Canadians want their lives back. And this fall economic
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statement shows that they cannot rely on the Liberal government to get their lives back.
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Canadians are not difficult people, Mr. Speaker. They have complied, followed rules. They've
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tightened their belts. They're reassuring their worried children and taking care of aged parents.
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And to this effect, I'm really glad the Liberal government and the Minister took my proposal from
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this spring on support for parents by boosting the Canada Child Benefit. There it was on page 10 of my
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leadership platform, Mr. Speaker. And I'm so glad the Liberal cabinet was reading it
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just as hundreds of thousands of Conservative members were.
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Yes, I'm glad, Mr. Speaker, because this was a concrete proposal to help families, especially
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moms, working moms, juggling it all, helping families through the toughest time in our modern history.
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But we know that Canadians need more. As I said, Canadians want their lives back, Mr. Speaker.
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And they've only asked one thing from this government, one simple thing. What is the plan, Mr. Speaker?
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For widespread use of rapid tests, what is the plan for rolling out the vaccine? When does it arrive?
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Who gets it first? Do we have the freezers for the minus 70 vaccine, Mr. Speaker?
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A robust portfolio in 2023 doesn't help us as we enter 2021.
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Well, Mr. Speaker, this fall economic statement answers the question on whether there is a plan.
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And it answers that no, there is not. And as the red ink on our balance sheet turns a dark crimson,
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we're facing a $399 billion deficit, Mr. Speaker. Not $400 billion. It's a bit like 1999.
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You're not spending $20, Mr. Speaker. It's only $399 billion, Mr. Speaker. And Canadians know that not
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even half of that went to the emergency programs.
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Okay. Good points about overspending. Excellent. Good point about wastefulness,
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about debt. I get it. I'm with you. That's important stuff. Good. And questions about the
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vaccine. Fair enough. But is there a more philosophical opposition to the government's
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approach? Let's listen some more. If this government spent half as much time
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meeting with real Canadians, small business owners, than they spend on photo ops, they would
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know that workers, small business owners, are asking for clarity. Canadians in a pandemic aren't
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asking them to ban single-use plastics. They're asking for details on when the vaccine gets here,
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how it's being distributed, how it's being preserved at minus 70. How can they save their aging parents
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from a senior's home or a hospital bed? This Prime Minister needs to get his priorities straight,
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but it's hard to take this government seriously when we know how this all started, Mr. Speaker.
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Think about how much better off Canada would have been if the Liberals had not shut down the pandemic
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early warning system. They did that in 2019, Mr. Speaker, without any consultation with scientists or
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with opposition parties in parliament. I don't disagree with any of this. The government is childish and
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silly, plastic bag bands, things like that. I agree with shutting down the warning system was stupid,
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all the botched responses. I get it. But that was the story six months ago, right? Is there anything
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more now than Monday morning quarterbacking about the past? As in, other than simply promising to be
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more competent, and hopefully he would be, what would Aaron O'Toole actually do differently? Is he a lockdown
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man? Is he more laissez-faire? Is he worried about civil liberties? Does he really believe that this is
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on par with the Black Plague and we have to shut everything down? Or is it overblown and simply being
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used as an excuse to build bigger government? Like John Jane Fonda says.
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This is a crossroads. It's an existential crossroads. And we are people who can help determine which way
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humanity goes. What a great gift. What a tremendous opportunity. We're just so lucky. We have to use it
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with every ounce of intelligence and courage and wherewithal we have. Because you're absolutely right.
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This is it. This is it. And, you know, I just think COVID is God's gift to the left.
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The Liberal government closed our borders two months too late. They also flip-flopped on the risks of
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contagion in person and on mask wearing. The Conservatives though have been good team players,
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Mr. Speaker. We tried to work with the government as much as we could. We tried to improve the
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government's erratic action. Most importantly, the Conservatives have been there for workers who
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really needed our help. We voted for emergency legislation and we voted for programs to help
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workers. Again, I'm fine with this, but what's the conservative approach? What's the alternative?
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I'm just showing you as much of his speech as I can without playing the whole long thing.
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I want to show you that I'm not cherry-picking anything. I'm still waiting for that aha moment.
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Here's some more. While Americans are talking about mass vaccination throughout all of January,
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our government is only speculating about getting part of our population vaccinated by September.
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That means 10 extra months, Mr. Speaker, of health risks for Canadians, business closures,
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and economic uncertainty. Canadians want their lives back, Mr. Speaker.
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The Minister of Health talks a great deal about the whole of government effort and the robust portfolio.
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But there's only one way to describe the performance of this government
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when it comes to vaccines. Incompetent, Mr. Speaker. Canadians, in the midst of the second wave,
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would rather have one dose of the vaccine in the next month
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than the largest portfolio 18 months from now, Mr. Speaker.
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So he's big on vaccines. Okay, fair enough. I believe people should be free to take a vaccine
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if they want. I don't think that's the actual issue. What I'm worried about is whether or not
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vaccines are safe, especially if they're being rushed without the usual testing. I'm worried about
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mandatory vaccines, not just forced by governments, but vaccine passports that corporations may try to
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impose to fly on a plane, to go to a restaurant, to work at a job. Does O'Toole have a view on that?
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And if so, is he afraid to say it? Here's some more.
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This liberal government does not inspire confidence.
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This liberal government does not inspire confidence. Let's talk about its purchase of
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$370 million for medical gowns paid to a company with almost zero experience. Or
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their $237 million respirator contract to their friend Frank Bayliss. The We Charity scandal revealed
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liberal friends who are trying to profit during a pandemic. And at a time when the trust of citizens is
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so important, the liberals continue to use their donor list to choose future judges.
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Yes, yes, I agree. It's a corrupt government. It's getting filthy rich off the pandemic.
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All of their friends are. Just like profiteers get rich off of the crisis of war,
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every liberal lobbyist is feasting off the spoils of this war. I get it, but what's the alternative vision?
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Well folks, here's some more, but I don't think you're going to get it. Take a listen.
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My first job was as a dishwasher and a short order cook, Mr. Speaker, in high school.
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And my last job before the military was with TransCanada inspecting pipelines.
00:20:00.520
Back at a time before this government when that company was still proud to have Canada
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in its name, Mr. Speaker. I respect people, my colleagues do, that work hard to provide for
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their family, whether they're a uniformed and unionized plant worker or an entrepreneur,
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whether they work the night shift in Mississauga, Ontario, or get up at 5 a.m. to open their small
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business in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. There's a nobility in that act of discipline,
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perseverance, and working hard for your family. We cannot lose that in this country, Mr. Speaker.
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We will fight hard to ensure that we never lose touch with that fundamental value upon which Canadian
00:20:48.360
All right. So you're a grassroots guy as much as a lawyer can be, but I admire his work ethic and his
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military service. But I don't think we're further along in understanding, does the Conservative Party
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of Canada have any fundamental objection to the Trudeau Liberals approach? Sure, they want to spend less
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money. And let's give them that. That's important. Though I note O'Toole bragged in his speech about
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supporting a lot of Trudeau's spending. But other than the evergreen criticism of competence, is there any
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opposition to the state of fear and panic and the forever lockdown, the violation of civil rights?
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This country working again, Mr. Speaker. Hard work emboldens the soul and builds a nation.
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Hard work helps families. Those families build communities and make us proud to be Canadian.
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Got it. I think a Liberal could say those exact words, right? What makes a Conservative different? I'm
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trying to get to it. Listen to some more. Canadian workers deserve a government that fights for them.
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A government that is not obsessed with transitioning our industries in the midst of a pandemic,
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Mr. Speaker. A government that is patriotic and not afraid to fight on the world stage for rapid access
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to vaccines. A government that knows that Canada has an identity, a history, and that we can be proud of
00:22:18.120
this. More vaccine talk. I'm fine with people being allowed to choose vaccines. I want to make sure we
00:22:23.800
can choose not to take them too since they're so new and risky and the virus itself has turned out to be
00:22:28.760
not risky for young people especially. Is there anything on that? And the lack of a plan to address the
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most critical issues facing our country in one of the most challenging years in our country's history
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will only fuel the fears and uncertainties facing Canadian families across this great country.
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Mr. Speaker, now is not the time for experiments. Now is the time for experience. Now is not the time for
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building back with slogans. Now is the time we show we have our citizens backs, Mr. Speaker. That's right.
00:23:05.560
We need to have a plan for the challenges we face today so that our children will have the same
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opportunities we did tomorrow. Look, I'm going to stop punishing you with with more of this
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blather. It's all boilerplate stuff. I don't know what he said. That speech could have been half as long
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and I only played half of it to you to begin with. Look, I know it's tough to take on the establishment,
00:23:28.680
take on the government, take on the media, take on the public health, deep state, the experts. I know
00:23:32.760
it's tough. The social peer pressure, all the people who are loving this lockdown because it's just a big
00:23:38.680
paid staycation for them. They get to order and take out and watch Netflix. That's how half the world
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sees it and probably 90% of how Ottawa sees it. But it's not how conservatives see it. It's not how
00:23:51.080
working people see it. Most Canadians would rather take the chance of a virus with a 99% plus recovery
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rate and be able to have a job and live freely than to live under this perpetual state of fear
00:24:02.200
and stress and disinformation. It's hard opposing the juggernaut. I get it. Look at what they did to
00:24:07.880
Adam Skelly, the barbecue restaurant guy. I get it. But look at the job description. Leader of the
00:24:13.480
opposition. Her Majesty's loyal opposition. It's Erin O'Toole's job to oppose. I know it's tough,
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but it's the job he asked for. I think Erin O'Toole has to oppose what's going on.
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And I don't think he is. And I hope that changes. Stay with me for more.
00:24:43.480
My friends, there's an important video I want to show you. Normally I interview a guest at this hour,
00:24:48.200
but Sheila Gunn-Reed has an important video about the war on Christian churches that is happening
00:24:54.760
under cover of the pandemic. You'll notice cannabis stores are open, liquor stores are open, Walmart's
00:25:00.120
open, Costco's open, and of course Amazon dominates it all. But the one place where the crackdown is the
00:25:05.400
crackdown is the toughest. Other than that barbecue in Toronto, it's churches. I want to play for you
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Sheila's story from Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. Take a look.
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A Prince Albert, Saskatchewan church has received a $14,000 coronavirus fine for singing without wearing
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masks. It's outrageous. It's un-Canadian. And we refuse to let this stand. We are helping
00:25:31.160
the full gospel outreach center. Fight back. And we need your help to do it.
00:25:41.080
Today I'm bringing you a story about a fight the fines case that we've been working on for
00:25:46.280
almost a month now. And then after this is all over, I'm going to ask you to help us help a man
00:25:52.200
who's doing good work to help vulnerable people that few people are willing to do. And he's paying
00:25:58.360
a high cost for all of it. In early October, an inner city Prince Albert, Saskatchewan church
00:26:05.400
was given a five-figure COVID-19 fine by the province of Saskatchewan for singing in their
00:26:11.640
church without masks on. It could be one of the highest fines of this kind we've seen in Canada.
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Look at this. A Prince Albert, Saskatchewan church was fined $14,000 after a multi-day event caused an
00:26:24.200
outbreak of the novel coronavirus. A traveling evangelist spoke at the full gospel outreach
00:26:30.600
for several days, according to Prince Albert Mayor Greg Dion. Remember that name? He said the
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event drew hundreds to the church, both from the city and further north. They crossed the line, said
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Dion, adding he doesn't understand why the church wouldn't follow guidelines when, quote,
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every other place of worship in the city has. And while it was the province of Saskatchewan
00:26:59.480
that eventually issued the fine for the church, it was that mayor, Greg Dion, and a local First
00:27:06.040
Nations chief who pushed the province to issue the fine to the church. Look at this. The mayor of
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Prince Albert and the chief of the Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation in northern Saskatchewan,
00:27:18.520
say the organizers of Prince Albert church meetings that have been tied to a regional outbreak of
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COVID-19 should be fined by the provincial government. There's got to be strict consequences,
00:27:34.920
said Mayor Greg Dion. They weren't wearing masks. The rules say they have to. So take action. People have to
00:27:44.840
know that we are a strong government. Well, that was it for me. This bully mayor
00:27:53.080
had a poor church fined for singing without masks on. It's absolutely unreal. So I went on a road trip
00:28:01.320
to Prince Albert, Saskatchewan to see this church for myself and meet with the pastor the mayor insisted
00:28:09.720
be fined. Pastor Vernon Temple to get the other side of the story. I met with Pastor Vernon Temple
00:28:15.320
at his church in downtown Prince Albert, where he ministers to the homeless and the addicted,
00:28:22.520
where he also runs a clothing bank to clothe the cold and wary, where he feeds the hungry.
00:28:29.480
There are intravenous needle drop boxes just up the street from Pastor Vernon Temple's church. And as
00:28:37.320
you'll see, his church is not wealthy by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, the church recently
00:28:45.160
suffered a flood. And that was when the city and that vindictive mayor Greg Dion cracked down on
00:28:51.640
Vernon Temple. Take a look at this. There's something about it when the government intervenes like this,
00:28:56.600
and they kind of really put the, uh, the screws down on you and put fear in, in, into, you know,
00:29:04.520
and it's, it's, it is a serious thing, right? It's a serious virus, very contagious, and, and in some
00:29:11.240
cases can be fatal. So that, that kind of, that kind of is, is the faith position of a lot of, a lot of, uh,
00:29:21.080
faith people is, is that they were kind of intimidated by the, you know, the whole propaganda,
00:29:26.920
all the, all the media, all the government, uh, propaganda of, of, uh, fear. So it's, it's something
00:29:34.040
that, you know, uh, it's sad. I want to learn a little bit more about your ministry here, Pastor Vernon
00:29:41.640
Temple. Um, because it appears to me that you minister to people sort of, uh, the most vulnerable.
00:29:51.160
Yeah, no doubt. That's, um, um, like we, we, uh, we have apartments upstairs. The city pushed hard
00:29:59.080
against us to close them. So we just, you know, figure, well, you know, like it's, uh, it just isn't
00:30:05.800
worth the trouble anymore. So we close our apartments. That's what we do. So we, you know,
00:30:10.600
fulfill that one of the part of that commission, at least to, you know, feed the hungry and to
00:30:16.840
close the naked and, and, uh, and then, um, and so we kind of given up a little, a little part of that
00:30:23.720
in, in providing shelter. But even when we're having services here, we had services for 32 days.
00:30:29.560
There's always people here that wanted, that needed a place.
00:30:32.680
These people are like second, third generation coming from second, third generation, dysfunctional,
00:30:38.520
alcoholic, violent homes. And, and, and they need, they need, they're hopeless. Like they just,
00:30:45.400
they're, they can't even go back to their own reserve. In some cases, they, they can't go back
00:30:49.160
to their families because, because, you know, uh, it just too much chaos, right? Again, these marginalized
00:30:55.240
people, they were receiving and may in a process of turning, changing their lives.
00:31:02.520
And, and, and surrendering their lives to God. And then all of a sudden it just stops.
00:31:09.240
I just want to go back for a second here, um, and, and come back to the point that you're making,
00:31:13.960
because the government did force you to shut down. Um, and I think you and I would both agree
00:31:20.360
that church is essential. It's an essential service. Um, tell me about what services looked like
00:31:28.040
during the pandemic. Did you have hand sanitizer, offer masks? How many people were here?
00:31:33.640
Uh, in this, in this area we had, I think maybe up to about maybe a hundred people. Uh, we provided,
00:31:41.800
um, uh, sign in sheet. Um, I think, I think most people signed in at least to begin with,
00:31:51.880
you know, once they, I guess maybe once they figured they signed in, then they're recorded
00:31:56.760
as being, you know, like if there's ever an issue, uh, then they would, they were on the list,
00:32:02.120
right? So they didn't have to sign in every day or they just forgot. I'm not sure what happened there.
00:32:06.440
And we provided masks and we provided hand sanitizer. Um, the problem with, with, you know,
00:32:12.840
social distancing in the church is that, is that, you know, a group of people come in and you're assuming
00:32:18.840
and they drove together that they're family, uh, that they're kind of a, what they call a pod or
00:32:23.560
whatever. And so they want to sit together. So you can't just put chairs, you know, uh, you know,
00:32:29.320
like six feet apart because, because they're actually people, people are allowed to sit together.
00:32:36.440
Families are allowed to sit together. So, um, so we did, we did, um, it's, it's very difficult to
00:32:44.680
monitor those, but the street people are probably the, the hardest to manage. Um, you know, like
00:32:51.800
if you're used to not washing your hands more than once a day or once a week or something, you know,
00:32:57.400
I don't know what the situation is, then, then hand sanitizer, like, you know, like, you know,
00:33:03.160
like they're, they're just, you know, so how do you enforce that? Right. So, um, and even social
00:33:07.640
distancing, we'd put chairs out kind of, but you know, you want to include them, eh? You don't want to
00:33:12.360
put, okay, all the street people have to sit in the back here, you know, and sorry, but you know,
00:33:16.600
just government regulation, you know, and, uh, you know, like that, how do you, how do you do that?
00:33:21.480
You know, that's a really great point. You want people to show you, you love them and care for
00:33:25.480
them and you're, you're, you're really there to help them. And you're saying, well, you know,
00:33:29.400
but you've got to sit over there, right? You're trying to integrate the homeless population into
00:33:33.400
your regular congregation. Yeah. You mentioned that you already had some friction with the city
00:33:38.760
because of, uh, in the past, because, because of the apartments upstairs where you're trying to,
00:33:45.160
you know, meet your Christian obligation to, you know, put a roof over the head of the homeless.
00:33:49.960
Um, and so even though you were holding, uh, church here and doing your best to social distance
00:33:57.800
and follow the rules, um, you still came under fire from Prince Albert Mayor Greg Dion and the chief of
00:34:04.680
Peter Ballantyne First Nation, Peter Beattie, they called on the province to find you.
00:34:10.600
Yeah, apparently. Um, and this is after the outbreak, of course. Right. And, and, and, um,
00:34:17.080
uh, I think that maybe at the time there might've been maybe 20 cases, 20 known cases.
00:34:23.160
And, uh, but Greg Dion, like he would just jump on any opportunity to, to come against us and to,
00:34:30.360
to, uh, to, uh, anything that he could possibly use to, to, they, they wanted two years ago,
00:34:37.400
they wanted to, uh, uh, uh, take our building, close it down, take our building and demolish it
00:34:43.240
for a parking lot. Like, so that's, you know, like no, no consideration for what we're doing,
00:34:49.160
what we're trying to do, trying to reach out to, to homeless, marginalized people.
00:34:53.560
How did, uh, the outbreak sort of come to light? I know it was initially just a handful of cases
00:35:00.280
that were attributed. One person that I know of that was, she worked at the casino. Uh,
00:35:04.760
she got tested positive. And so that was the first one that I know of.
00:35:11.880
So the casino, so maybe it came from the casino, right?
00:35:17.280
So the church is closed, but the casino's open. Yeah.
00:35:19.800
Oh, okay. So, yeah. But then, you know, like they, again, it's just, you know, to where it came
00:35:25.320
from. Yeah. Like it, you know, it came from somewhere, right? Came from China.
00:35:32.600
So let's blame the Chinese again, right? We should be, that's what, you know, and if we're really all
00:35:37.080
in this all together, then that's probably, you know, like, should, should there even be tickets?
00:35:43.400
You know, like, let's, let's try to get some money out of China, perhaps, you know, like.
00:35:52.120
You know, maybe that's where we should be trying to get the money from, but no, then, then, but then,
00:35:58.120
you know, we're afraid to challenge China, right? And we're afraid to stand up against them.
00:36:03.920
It's easier to challenge Christians who are called to turn the other cheek.
00:36:09.680
How did the fines come down? How did you find out that you were levied some fines? You had an
00:36:15.720
evangelist, Ian Lavely, he received a $2,800 fine plus a victim surcharge. And the, your ministry
00:36:24.600
received what I think so far is the largest fine issued in the country for the coronavirus
00:36:32.320
and breaking the regulations of a municipality is $14,000 plus a victim surcharge or with 10 plus
00:36:41.000
the victims. Yeah. So yeah, I was just, I was contacted by Peter Ross from the, you know,
00:36:48.820
from the health authority said he wanted to talk to me and I wouldn't, even if he said,
00:36:53.880
I've got something for you. I might, I think he did say that anyways, but he didn't tell me he's
00:36:59.140
going to, you know, give me a fine. Uh, but yeah, two weeks ago, uh, he contacted me and, uh, so I
00:37:08.440
met him at my place of, uh, quarantining and, uh, out at the farm and, and he, uh, um, basically gave
00:37:17.600
me the ticket. Now you're not a wealthy congregation, but your congregants immediately
00:37:24.000
started fundraising to help you pay that fine. Now at Rebel News, we don't want you to pay that
00:37:29.620
fine. We want you to keep that money, continue to do the good work that you do for, uh, vulnerable
00:37:35.620
populations, people on reserve, Métis communities. So are you going to get us off this? We're going to
00:37:39.880
do our best to get you off it because we hired you a really great lawyer and he's going to fight
00:37:44.480
that fine for you. And our people at home, our viewers, our rebel supporters are going to fundraise
00:37:51.360
to pay your lawyer. And, and, uh, so nothing out of pocket. The lawyer doesn't work for us. He works
00:37:58.480
for you. We're going to pay the bills. Um, and that's what we're going to do because, uh, we believe
00:38:03.560
that church is essential. And I'm very disappointed that the city of Prince Albert put a stop to the
00:38:10.760
work that you were doing when people needed it the most. Yeah. You know, like, I really,
00:38:17.040
really appreciate that. Really awesome. Uh, wonderful. Um, uh, so we've been, we have been
00:38:24.040
doing fundraising, uh, not really because people are just voluntarily given, you know, the money's
00:38:29.120
gone into our savings account. Uh, we're going to keep the money there for the fine. Well, we'll see
00:38:34.960
about that. We'll see about that. But you know, it's comforting to know that the money's still
00:38:38.840
there, right? Like, and people have been so good, been so gracious and loving and caring
00:38:43.060
about this and been sending us, you know, like, like I think we're at 11, $12,000 right
00:38:49.560
now. And, and, uh, you know, and I so appreciate that and it's going to stay in the account until
00:38:55.820
this is done. Hey, like, uh, and, uh, but you know, by all means, you know, uh, you know,
00:39:02.240
we, we, um, we, um, we'll, um, keep receiving, um, we'll keep receiving gifts for, and specifically
00:39:09.660
for that, for the, for the fine, uh, just, and, and, um, maybe any other costs incurred. But
00:39:17.100
yeah, uh, it's been, it's been, uh, pretty amazing to see the support and the help. And it's
00:39:24.740
really amazing that, um, that you've got a lawyer for us. And, uh, it's really, really
00:39:31.800
wonderful. Thank you. And, and, uh, thank you to your supporters. We don't want to be
00:39:36.820
uncooperative. We don't want, well, we don't want to be uncooperative in the least, but the
00:39:41.840
thing is, is that as a church, we're trying to exercise our rights and freedoms, constitutional
00:39:46.540
rights and freedoms, and, and, and the commission, which, which a lot of people actually ignore,
00:39:53.500
or they don't even know about, but the commission of Jesus to preach the gospel to the poor, you
00:39:58.480
know, that was, uh, yeah, that's, that's a command, right? That's, that's a, uh, that's
00:40:02.960
a commission to preach the gospel to the poor. I know that, that I was gifted to minister
00:40:07.900
to the poor. Not everyone is gifted to minister to the poor. Not everyone. And I write, I don't
00:40:13.020
judge Christians for not reaching out because they just not gifted to, to reach out to, to
00:40:19.740
people that are just like crazy lives, you know? And, and, uh, so I know that I was gifted
00:40:27.120
at that time. The Lord gave me the gift of mercy. And, um, and you know, that's been part
00:40:32.880
of the reason why I've been able to persevere because when you know you're called to do
00:40:36.280
something, then there's no turning back. You can't back down from the government. You
00:40:39.980
can't back down from their pushing hard against you. You just have to keep going on. You know
00:40:44.380
that God is on your side. That's part of faith, right?
00:40:47.060
I don't think this is going to happen because we've been pretty successful fighting these fines,
00:40:51.280
um, for other people. If the government doesn't drop this fine against you, what does $14,000
00:41:01.480
taken out of your ministry mean for the people that you're trying to help?
00:41:07.140
Right. That's my question. What would you do with that money if you were able to keep it?
00:41:10.080
We would, uh, what we do some renovations in the church. We have to, we'll go next door
00:41:14.660
there and we had, we had a flood there a year and a half ago and we were underinsured,
00:41:19.480
which, you know, like people understand that, right? They understand, they, you know, you
00:41:24.480
have a $3 million building and you, you, you insure it for about as much as you can afford
00:41:33.400
and hope for the best. But when something happens, then you're underinsured. And so it paid,
00:41:42.440
paid our bill of, of tearing out the stuff. And, um, and, but there was, there was no
00:41:49.760
money left over to do the renovations to re to rebuilding.
00:41:53.760
Here's another issue, right? Like we were packed in here and then Ian says, we got to
00:41:59.100
move next door. We, we have to, we need the space, right? So, and then, so we, we, we
00:42:04.880
got, probably got the ticket because of this, but then we moved next door where there's
00:42:09.580
lots of room. There's positive space. So, um, but it's a little rough in there. We moved
00:42:14.700
over there from there over to here so that we would be able to, you know, uh, social distance
00:42:22.160
and to comply to as well as we could, you know, to, to the, uh, you know, reopen Saskatchewan
00:42:28.300
guidelines. And then they hand us a ticket a week later or, or, you know, 10 days later,
00:42:34.840
actually, you know, or actually it's about two weeks after, but we were here for, uh,
00:42:39.520
Brad, do you remember how long we were in here? Like at least a week, eh? Yeah. At
00:42:45.200
least a week we're in here and we were trying to move sooner. But the problem is, is that
00:42:49.240
like, um, uh, we weren't sure what to do with the floor.
00:42:54.180
Yeah, basically, you know, but it doesn't, you know, I mean, it's okay. You know, it's
00:42:57.620
like camp meeting, right? Like if you've ever been, ever been to a tent meeting, you know,
00:43:00.940
they have, you know, grass is your floor, right? So then, yeah. So we move over here
00:43:05.880
and then they, after we've moved over here and actually, uh, complying to the, to the
00:43:12.260
regulations a lot better here than we were over there, they still give us a ticket.
00:43:16.160
So there's, you know, not saying, okay, well, we can see what you've done. You know, you
00:43:20.560
move from there to here, uh, you know, you're, you're like, that's a major effort, right?
00:43:25.580
Sure. That's a major effort on our part to, to, uh, to comply, you know, to do our best
00:43:32.100
I didn't even realize that they ticketed you after you moved over here.
00:43:35.660
Yeah. Like that's almost insane. Like that's, that's vindictive. I think that's vindictive.
00:43:41.760
That's, you know, and so here, like again, the mayor makes, you know, he makes decisions
00:43:47.900
off the cuff. Uh, he doesn't understand, you know, like really doesn't understand that
00:43:53.540
people we're trying to minister to. And if he doesn't understand the people we're
00:43:57.260
trying to minister to, then he doesn't understand us. Right. Nick, he doesn't, he's,
00:44:02.100
you know, and, uh, you know, and that has never really made any attempt to bridge that
00:44:09.240
gap of ignorance. Not that I'm calling him ignorant, but you know, uh, ignorance is bliss
00:44:14.260
for some people. And, and like he, he should have, he should have been, Hey, he got, and
00:44:20.000
he's got my phone number. The mayor has my phone number and he should have been phoning.
00:44:25.460
Hey, Vern, we've got to talk, you know, but never, never is always, always a political
00:44:30.720
agenda. And he used to be a nice guy, but then it became a politician. You can quote
00:44:38.240
Does that look to you like a church that has $14,000 just to throw around to pay a bully's
00:44:43.640
fine. Imagine what taking $14,000 out of the budget of a church that feeds the homeless
00:44:51.860
really means in a practical sense to the people they help every day. I want to tell you, I
00:44:59.020
reached out to the mayor, Greg Dion, that mayor of Prince Albert with some questions about
00:45:05.100
why he was so heavy handed with the full gospel outreach center, because the more I dig, the
00:45:14.680
more I find out there's absolutely more to this story. And I'll share that with you in
00:45:19.400
a subsequent update. But here's what I asked the mayor to clarify. Were any attempts made
00:45:25.440
by the city to bring the church into compliance before calling on the province to levy fines?
00:45:32.060
Were any warnings issued? Inspections done? Advice given? Supplies provided?
00:45:39.860
Question two. Pastor Temple says that contact tracing suggests the outbreak spread to his church
00:45:46.560
through a congregant who caught it on the job at the local casino. Did the casino face any
00:45:53.060
strict consequences, investigations, fines, or closures? If not, why not? What replacement
00:46:01.920
resources are being provided by the city of Prince Albert to the vulnerable populations that usually
00:46:08.520
seek food and clothing from the now closed full gospel outreach center? Well, I'm sure that none of
00:46:17.380
you are surprised to learn that this authoritarian mayor with what I have now learned seems to be a
00:46:23.460
real vendetta against Pastor Vern never ever got back to me. I sent that email three weeks ago at least.
00:46:31.880
Now, our regular viewers know that religious freedom and the rights of Christians in the public square to
00:46:36.740
practice their faith completely unmolested by the government is something that I am deeply passionate
00:46:44.460
about. And I've raised money to help Christians return to their indigenous homeland on the biblical
00:46:51.860
Nineveh plain after facing an ISIS genocide in Kurdistan. I've walked in the bombed out churches
00:46:59.820
in the Iraqi town of Batnaya, a town that sat behind the ISIS front lines. So what I'm saying here is I'm not
00:47:07.720
scared of a small town bully mayor with a mean on for a pastor who helps inconvenient people on the fringes
00:47:16.440
of society so that the city of Prince Albert doesn't have to. As I mentioned in our interview, I promised
00:47:23.700
Pastor Vern that I would find him a lawyer. And I did just that. Sarah Miller from JSS Barristers is a lawyer
00:47:32.220
whom I think might feel as deeply passionate about religious freedom as I do. She's already had some
00:47:40.480
success fighting for Christians in the public square. She was the lawyer who helped street preacher
00:47:47.620
Archer Polosky beat his fine in Calgary. Archer was given a social distancing fine for feeding the
00:47:56.340
homeless on a bitterly cold Alberta winter day. Rebel News stepped in and we connected Sarah and Archer
00:48:05.160
and Sarah helped Archer fight that fine. And now she's going to be the lawyer to help Pastor Vern
00:48:13.460
beat this fine too. I spoke with Sarah a couple days ago from her office in Calgary about how she plans
00:48:21.320
to do just that. Sarah, thanks for taking on the case of Pastor Vernon Temple. Why did you take on
00:48:31.000
this case? We had a little bit of trouble finding a lawyer who would. You're based in Calgary, but you're
00:48:35.780
still helping Vernon Temple and Prince Albert. Yeah, absolutely. So when I was first contacted by
00:48:43.260
Rebel News and as part of the whole Fight the Fines program, I've been helping a number of pastors and
00:48:49.460
street churches and for whatever reason, Saskatchewan, Alberta, anywhere we seem to be, the police and
00:48:57.580
the professionals who are prosecuting and charging these people really target churches. And they're
00:49:05.840
doing great work. They're helping the poor. We've seen over and over in the media how the rules of
00:49:12.600
COVID and the laws on lockdowns target and affect poor people, marginalized people the worst. And so
00:49:19.900
I decided to take on this file because that, you know, offends something deep in my core. I think it
00:49:27.160
offends most people's understanding of how law and justice should work. $14,000 for a church that is
00:49:35.480
working with the poor in a, you know, a relatively small community in Saskatchewan is just frankly
00:49:42.260
obscene. Um, and so that's why I decided to take it on. You know, I agree with you. I've been to see
00:49:49.360
the bombed out churches in Northern Iraq. So I've, I've seen churches that are in places where they are
00:49:56.740
doing the absolute most with the least amount of resources. And that's what I saw when I visited
00:50:04.140
Pastor Vernon's church. Now, without giving away too much of what you plan to do, because I mean,
00:50:11.380
you don't work for us, you work for Pastor Vernon and the Full Gospel Outreach Center. What is the
00:50:19.180
vague plan of attack here? Yeah, absolutely. So part of what we've been doing on, on a number of these
00:50:26.840
church defenses is first looking at the facts, what, you know, happened around the time of the
00:50:32.580
circumstances, the alleged circumstances, and, and does that really fit what these, these new laws
00:50:39.760
are supposed to be doing and providing for the public? Um, so just doing a review of the facts
00:50:45.300
and seeing if there's any way on those facts that, you know, this doesn't fit what the purpose of the
00:50:50.080
law is. Um, and then also considering charter rights, uh, it's one of our fundamental freedoms in
00:50:55.900
the charter to have a right to religion and a right to practice your religion. And so that is one of the,
00:51:02.480
the big questions that come up in all of these, uh, these defenses is at right to assembly, right to
00:51:08.620
association, right to freedom of religion, right to freedom of speech. So, uh, we're going to kind of
00:51:13.780
attack it as a two prong. Uh, I think I've mentioned before in the show that we, we look at the facts, see if
00:51:19.180
there's, you know, a factual analysis, that's kind of our, our first step. And on the second side,
00:51:25.920
our two prong approach is addressing the charter issues. Well, Sarah, I want to thank you so much
00:51:31.340
for agreeing to take on this case. It's a, it's a big one. It's egregious. $14,000 is a lot to ask of
00:51:37.020
any church, but especially this church that is doing such good work, um, feeding the, the hungry and
00:51:45.560
clothing, the, the poor and the cold in downtown Prince Albert. Um, it's just, it egregious to see
00:51:54.660
the amount that they were fined. And I think that people fighting for their own religious freedom
00:52:00.300
have a good friend with you, Sarah. Thank you so much. Great. Thank you, Sheila. Now here's where you
00:52:05.480
can help me help Pastor Vern continue to help the homeless, the addicted, the marginalized, and the poor
00:52:13.680
in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. Fighting this enormous fine and fighting for religious freedom
00:52:20.560
in Saskatchewan is going to cost a lot of money in legal fees, but Sarah Miller is one of the best
00:52:28.620
and she's been successful so far. And I think she's absolutely the right person for the job. And we are
00:52:35.200
already winning these cases with your help and your donations at fightthefines.com. If you go to that
00:52:43.360
special website, fightthefines.com, you can see all of our previous cases and our recurrent victories
00:52:50.660
that are already starting to trickle in. There's Walter Matheson, the man who is fined for eating a muffin
00:52:55.880
in a Tim Hortons parking lot, Tamara Ugolini. She's now a rebel news reporter, but at the time she was just
00:53:01.520
a lady wanting to walk on her local beach. And the aforementioned street preacher, Arter Poloski.
00:53:09.940
These are all fight the fines cases that we won with your help and your donations. And maybe you
00:53:17.440
don't care about religious freedom and you know what? That's fine too. But maybe you care that $14,000
00:53:24.340
is an atrocious fine for anybody to be given for singing without a mask on. And maybe you care about
00:53:31.920
people who find it their calling to help those of us with nothing, because that's Pastor Vern.
00:53:39.600
Please go to fightthefines.com to help us help Vernon Temple today. For Rebel News, I'm Sheila Gunnery.
00:53:47.840
Well, let me read you my letters. That's Sheila video. She's the best, isn't she?
00:54:04.160
On my show last night, John writes, cops are becoming goons for hire. Overtime hours add up
00:54:08.740
real fast for a small army standing around doing nothing. You know, it's frustrating to me that
00:54:13.120
police can be used as such political props. I sort of don't mind the idea that you can hire a cop to
00:54:19.360
guard a school or a church or a synagogue. I remember as a kid, there were police guarding
00:54:24.700
the synagogues in Calgary on the high holidays. Just, you know, make sure nothing happened. I think
00:54:29.720
that's okay. But for such a political muscle flexing, it gives me the creeps that you can hire police as
00:54:36.920
some sort of private mercenary army. I don't think it looks good on the cops. Guard a school, sure,
00:54:41.900
fill your boots, but be part of a political showdown between a mayor and an intransigent
00:54:46.720
restauranteur. I don't like the looks of them. Susan writes, I just don't understand that if
00:54:52.280
places like Costco and Walmart can operate as non-spreaders of the China virus, why small
00:54:57.840
businesses can't implement similar practices to keep their customers safe and therefore remain
00:55:02.280
open? Well, not just that, but restaurants actually train food safety, cleanliness, hygiene. It's a
00:55:09.020
higher standard of training and regulation than a Costco or a Walmart that's not a restaurant.
00:55:15.680
So I don't think it makes any sense other than, as we told you before, Walmart hired two in Ontario,
00:55:21.800
two of Doug Ford's senior staff as lobbyists to lobby the government to let them stay open. So
00:55:27.740
I guess it's who you know. Our last letter, Corey writes, great professional reporting by Drea,
00:55:33.700
a good hire, I think, Ezra. Drea is amazing. I'm so proud of her. And our whole Rebel team has done
00:55:39.640
very well during the pandemic and it's growing. I should have news for you as soon as tomorrow
00:55:43.680
about a new teammate joining us too. Well, that's our show for today. Until next time,
00:55:48.500
on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home, good night and keep fighting for freedom.