Greg Wycliffe - Message to Small Business Owners

00:00:00.080 all of this infighting and cat fighting and shaming that's happening amongst small business owners

00:00:06.320 this is a perfect foreshadow of what's to come for the canadian public if things don't turn around

00:00:12.480 i'm a canadian my name's greg i'm making this video for small business owners in light of the

00:00:18.480 lockdowns happening december 2020. if there's one message i want you to take away from this

00:00:23.040 video as a small business owner it's this it's a strong suggestion i strongly suggest

00:00:28.720 you don't listen to people who aren't in your situation most people aren't in your situation

00:00:36.240 the only person who could possibly relate is probably another small business owner yet 95 99

00:00:44.080 of the noise you hear are not from people who understand your situation at all let's start with

00:00:49.120 public servants and politicians oh yeah guys everything's going to be fine just locked down

00:00:54.560 it's all good easy for you to say when you have a salary that's paid for by taxpayers in fact if

00:01:00.320 you're a member of parliament in the house of commons your salary went up during the covet 19

00:01:05.600 lockdown very easy for them to say that next we obviously have the journalists and the newscasters

00:01:12.160 hey everybody just stay inside nothing to worry about easy for you to say newscaster or journalist

00:01:18.640 that industry by the way is now subsidized by our liberal government yeah you didn't know that back

00:01:24.080 in 2018 595 million dollars was announced for the liberal government to give to trusted journalists

00:01:31.360 in canada this is why our newscasters hardly ever criticized this trudeau guy think of it this way

00:01:37.840 imagine if the liberal government said hey uh restaurants in toronto for example we're going to give you

00:01:44.240 guys 500 million dollars that you can draw upon to help subsidize your operation because i know you're

00:01:49.760 struggling there uh by the way there's a couple stipulations if you want that money you need to

00:01:54.960 put a huge poster of justin trudeau on the wall of your restaurant you might think that's outrageous

00:02:00.480 but as i just said why do you think they're never critical of this guy there's a reason for it it's

00:02:05.120 almost like if you pay somebody to do something they work for you or vice versa if somebody pays you to

00:02:12.240 do something you work for them but that's what's happening in our news media so all of that noise

00:02:18.720 yeah i'm not surprised that they're all for the lockdown they're just in complete lockstep with

00:02:24.400 whatever the politicians have to say and then the next biggest category of noise is what you're hearing

00:02:30.080 in social circles what you're reading online all the comments in the comment section about this and i

00:02:36.160 probably don't have to tell you how toxic and ridiculous some of these comments are but really just

00:02:42.240 just as a reminder this is not a proper reflection of how canadians actually feel at all these are

00:02:49.360 just comments these are people who are hiding behind their keyboards and also hiding behind the authority

00:02:55.040 of public figures and what they say on the news and saying yeah lockdown i love being on lockdown i love

00:03:01.520 collecting my serb check and smoking my government weed and watching netflix just shut down small business

00:03:07.760 this is not people you should be taking advice from this is not uh opinions you should be giving much

00:03:14.080 value to whatsoever at all and we're going to jump into some more comments in regards to adamson barbecue

00:03:19.920 but i want to point out the obvious here folks this isn't about health and safety anymore closing down

00:03:26.400 gyms for health and safety that's that's a little uh that's a stretch in my opinion telling people to

00:03:32.160 stay inside is not good for your health i think we can all agree on that uh if if not maybe you'd

00:03:38.080 tell me like to tell me the big loophole that you have in your in your big brain there of how

00:03:42.640 staying inside binge drinking eating uber eats watching netflix is good for your health please

00:03:49.040 leave a comment below would love to hear your argument there but the reason i know it's not about

00:03:53.600 health and safety and more about fines is just these things that have happened in canada you've

00:03:58.000 probably never heard of this i don't know if you have maybe you have in walmart in manitoba they're

00:04:03.280 covering up certain items in walmart with garbage bags because they're non-essential items when you

00:04:09.360 talk to the people there hey why can't i buy this they say we'll get fined they don't say oh we're health

00:04:15.040 and safety no no you will get fined if we sell you that how is that about health and safety that's that's

00:04:21.520 about uh tyranny that's about uh getting fined that's not about health and safety there's also pastoring

00:04:27.440 calgary who is feeding the homeless and he's getting fined for feeding the homeless under a

00:04:33.360 covid bylaw measure hey more than 10 people are seeing each other outside you're gonna get fined

00:04:39.520 but but officer i'm feeding the homeless these people have nowhere to go they're they're gonna

00:04:43.360 starve to death or freeze i don't care for health and safety you're getting fined this isn't about

00:04:48.320 health health and safety another one is a drive-in church in manitoba they have a drive-in with the

00:04:54.880 screen shortwave radio they have all this technology people are staying inside their

00:04:59.600 cars and their bubbles and they're still getting fined this is not about health and safety hey

00:05:05.600 just editing here there is a quick update on that story manitoba has removed the ban on drive-in church

00:05:11.280 services quote the covid19 pandemic does not suspend the protection of the canadian charter of rights and

00:05:17.360 freedoms or the rights of canadians things can happen when people stand up and stand for something

00:05:22.400 change can happen here's a great example i'll link this in the description finally with adamson barbecue

00:05:27.680 one of his bail conditions when he got bail was being banned from social media

00:05:34.640 what does that have to do with health and safety and again folks if you want to know what's to come

00:05:41.920 for the canadian public you're looking at it they did not come for me for i was not a pastor so i did not

00:05:48.320 speak out they did not they they then they came for the small business owners and i didn't say anything

00:05:52.800 because i wasn't a small business owner like this meme it's it's happening you know i'm not trying

00:05:57.440 to scare you guys but this is what's happening in our country another anecdote i'll bring up is from

00:06:03.280 dan kelly he is the leader of the cfib the canadian federation of independent business he is trying

00:06:09.440 to fight this stuff as best as he can if you are a small business owner then reach out to the cfib because

00:06:15.520 they can maybe help you or you can help sign their petitions because they are trying to fight this

00:06:19.200 lockdown stuff he shared an anecdote of a small business owner out front the curb because you

00:06:25.280 can't be inside selling reefs and he and they got fined for selling reefs outside can you imagine a

00:06:34.000 couple of gestapo stopping by hey no selling reefs out here you're getting smacked with the fine

00:06:40.400 merry christmas merry christmas this is happening this is happening in our country this is happening

00:06:45.520 in canada hi and of course the worst part is not even necessarily all this fighting that's going on

00:06:51.680 the worst part is to watch the common people fight amongst each other over this and not see that we have

00:06:58.640 common interests in what's going on here and i have to single out this particular facebook page

00:07:05.440 that i used to be a part of called food and wine navigator it's toronto area restaurants restauranteurs

00:07:14.080 servers chefs cooks and it is so awful to watch how this facebook group completely craps all over

00:07:23.040 adamson barbecue and anybody who has any amount of sympathy for him because this guy you could disagree

00:07:29.360 with him you can disagree with how he did it he didn't really focus on health and safety when he did

00:07:33.600 open up that probably would have made him look a lot better um but i think there are valid points

00:07:39.200 to which he brought up but oh no talking about any positive thing this guy did no no no this is a no

00:07:45.280 no on this facebook page um i'll get into that in a second but if you're wondering why all this confusing

00:07:53.040 fighting is going on and all this chaos welcome to politics you may have avoided politics your whole

00:08:00.240 life and as a canadian i totally get it i did the same thing i've only been following politics for

00:08:05.280 about five years myself but you know why how i know that this virus and especially this lockdown has

00:08:10.960 been politicized three reasons smearing shaming censoring say it with me folks smearing shaming

00:08:19.520 censoring let's just follow this adamson barbecue thing he opened his business all of a sudden he's

00:08:24.560 an anti-masker and then they found something in his past oh he's a he's a ableist white supremacist

00:08:30.880 and on and on oh the other one i love is oh he has three locations he has three locations this guy is

00:08:38.160 basically jeff bezos this is an actual smear that people have lofted at this guy and this just goes

00:08:44.160 to show why you really should not be listening to these people because they're it's like uh duh you have

00:08:50.480 three locations that's three times the costs that's three times the employees that's three times the

00:08:55.840 overhead duh like these people clearly don't understand anything about uh business and three

00:09:01.920 times the risk as well so the smearing happens of this character and then the shaming happens

00:09:07.280 which is anyone who associated with adamson barbecue shame on you anybody who had any amount

00:09:12.880 of sympathy for adamson barbecue shame on you and it just goes on and on like the guilt by association

00:09:18.720 game and then finally censoring adamson barbecue got banned from social media that's uh that kind of

00:09:25.200 that tells me it's very political that they're not going to let this guy have a platform anymore

00:09:29.200 oh the health and safety i don't think so i don't think so and as i was saying it's so painful to watch

00:09:36.800 people advocate for their own demise like these people in this restaurant group in toronto are just

00:09:43.680 crapping on him oh he was nothing was good about him there was another thread that was made talking

00:09:50.000 about how sad it was for all these small businesses being shut down and it the list is huge and it is

00:09:56.000 sad it's horrible and everyone's chiming in that's so sad that's so sad and i chime in saying are the sad

00:10:03.040 people commenting here the same ones who gleefully cheered when the cops forced that barbecue guy to close

00:10:10.160 last week genuinely curious then someone replies there's a big difference between being genuinely

00:10:17.360 concerned for our industry and supporting that asshat there's the smearing with a little bit of tinge

00:10:23.920 of shaming as well for even thinking i would defend this person um i replied with i thought bbq guy's

00:10:31.440 whole point was that these lockdown measures are unfair and killing small businesses it's weird to see

00:10:37.360 people in this group crap on him when he is clearly standing up for the interests of the industry is

00:10:42.720 he not i worry that the more these new lockdown measures are embraced by the industry and go

00:10:49.040 unchallenged the harder it will become for this industry to ever thrive again i continue i can guarantee

00:10:57.360 you tim hortons mcdonald's and other large chains are not challenging these lockdown measures at all

00:11:03.200 because they know it will benefit their business in the long run competition will die out as the

00:11:08.640 lockdown continues but hey maybe i'm wrong i just don't know where all of this passive optimism is going

00:11:16.720 to get us then what happened i got banned from the group and apparently these comments got deleted

00:11:24.080 censorship there you go so it's very disappointing to see that a facebook page food and wine navigator will

00:11:31.360 discourage discourse any support any type of support for a small business who you know is kind of

00:11:40.320 questioning this stuff and as i said in my comment you know passive optimism what's with this passive

00:11:47.760 optimism what do you what what are we waiting for okay what do you think is going to happen

00:11:53.200 i think a lot of small businesses are going to close do you think it's justified and once again whether

00:11:58.880 or not you think this stuff is political we are seeing the characteristics of something that is

00:12:06.160 political this smearing the shaming the censoring these tactics are nothing new and this smearing and

00:12:12.960 this shaming this tactic is only used if the person or the movement is being effective adamson barbecue

00:12:20.400 gained a lot of popularity he had a lot of support he was being effective that's when the smearing and the

00:12:25.440 shaming began this is how it works if this video were to miraculously blow up the same thing would

00:12:30.000 happen that would get smeared i would get shamed yada yada yada because that is how it works and i do

00:12:35.760 want to put the spotlight real quick on to the big boys because we've been focusing scrutinizing on the

00:12:41.040 small businesses what about shaming the big businesses is that happening leon's received almost

00:12:46.880 30 million dollars in government covet handout money and now it looks like they've posted record profits

00:12:52.720 and they're just passing it off to their shareholders that's disgusting they laid off

00:12:58.080 70 of their workforce since the beginning of covet closed 72 stores and hey they're just pocking in

00:13:04.000 that government cash that's shameful but i'm not saying grab your pitchforks and go after leon's

00:13:09.840 that's not the point these are desperate times people are doing a lot of weird stuff my point is

00:13:13.920 that why isn't there more conversation focused on this why isn't there more shame being focused on

00:13:19.040 larger organizations like this yet we're just targeting a little barbecue guy and getting mad

00:13:24.160 at him and if you want to talk about health and safety two ontario long-term care operators got 157

00:13:31.280 million dollars in covet 19 aid and they paid off 74 million to shareholders i'm not sure if this is

00:13:37.200 the exact same situation as leon's it looks like there's more nuance to it but there is a gross article

00:13:42.480 where people are talking about how the care and the service in these long-term care homes wasn't

00:13:47.280 that good so during covet times with all this money you would think that they would try to make

00:13:52.640 the service better i don't know i'm not going to make any objective takes on this but it looks like

00:13:57.680 there's more to the story i just think if you want to put attention and shame in a certain direction

00:14:02.400 and you actually care about the livelihood of the most vulnerable then this is the type of stuff you

00:14:08.160 should care about not barbecue guy selling brisket on a tuesday but it's it's just really sad that people

00:14:15.440 would have these disgusting sort of opinions while people are losing everything um and to think that

00:14:24.080 oh government money will save us

00:14:30.560 no no it won't no it won't we're in the honeymoon phase right now what's coming is not going to be

00:14:38.880 pretty and these rules were invented yesterday practically so the fact that people are challenging

00:14:44.960 them and questioning them i think that's very natural i think that's very normal and i think

00:14:49.120 shaming anybody for doing that is gross it's disgusting what you're being a bootlicker you're

00:14:56.240 you're you're loving authority you're being a lockdown nazi and trust me i don't like that word i don't like

00:15:04.240 to throw that word around willy-nilly but when i'm seeing people shelling wreaths getting fined when i'm

00:15:11.040 seeing small independent business owners being locked down by a row full of cops it really conjures

00:15:17.760 these images of real fascism okay not some conservative in politics who has an opinion you

00:15:26.160 don't like i'm talking about real tyranny real fascist dictatorship behavior oh but it's for health and

00:15:34.160 safety no no it's not no it's not no it's not you're wrong there is so much to potentially talk

00:15:42.960 about and work toward as a small business owner with other small business owners with your community

00:15:49.120 and all of this shaming and smearing and this infighting is is not productive at all okay um we

00:15:56.320 need to work together here let's work together here let's put politics aside the politics should not

00:16:02.720 even be mentioned but we are participating in the tribalism back and forth and it's getting us

00:16:08.240 nowhere and it's helping no one so i suggest we really try to put any sort of opinions aside and

00:16:14.720 think about solutions talk about solutions like i saw one here about um you know restaurants have to

00:16:22.240 pay wholesale or sorry retail price for alcohol still from the lcbo that's an interesting angle let's

00:16:29.200 talk about that let's talk about all sorts of stuff why not this is your time this is the time

00:16:34.960 to say something this is the time to stay up to stand up and say something i am here to help send me

00:16:41.840 a message on instagram send me a message on twitter or what have you because this is intense stuff

00:16:46.320 that's going on um and i'm helping i am working with like local networks and local businesses to try and

00:16:52.400 stimulate more for more business for uh for local business owners because i want to help uh anyway

00:16:59.440 thanks so much for watching don't listen to people who aren't in your situation strong suggestion

00:17:06.400 but uh i did also make a video addressing adamson barbecue haters if you want to watch that i've also

00:17:12.800 made some comedy videos on covet 19 that are very inappropriate but some people seem to enjoy

00:17:18.640 thanks for watching

Greg Wycliffe - December 10, 2020

Message to Small Business Owners

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