00:00:00.000Adam Skelly was arrested yesterday at the site of his restaurant, Adamson Barbecue, in Etobicoke.
00:00:11.840His crime was to defy the COVID-19 lockdown orders of Mayor John Tory.
00:00:17.240This morning, the restaurant site was surrounded by dozens of Toronto police officers,
00:00:22.740and they had barricaded the site entirely with stanchions and fencing.
00:00:27.760There were dozens of supporters of Skelly outside the police barricades,
00:00:33.400sharing pizza and generally sharing to be what appeared to be a tailgate party in a parking lot.
00:00:40.440Three days ago, no one really knew who Adam Skelly was.
00:00:44.980Today, he is one of the most famous names in Canada.
00:00:49.020Amazing what a little civil disobedience will do for you.
00:00:52.480A GoFundMe account supporting Skelly has raised over $130,000 in its first 24 hours.
00:01:02.000Clearly, Canadians support his position and not that of the draconian mayor of Toronto.
00:01:08.840Skelly looks like the everyman Canadian.
00:01:11.760He's a bit of a hoser, but I think that makes him a bit more endearing.
00:01:15.800Wearing a grey pullover hoodie and a red and black Mackinac, people identify with him, standing up to big to government.
00:01:24.700They cannot identify with the mayor of Toronto, John Tory, who issues edicts from on high and drags the police into it to support him.
00:01:34.820Just as an aside, I have heard from a number of Toronto police officers who have said they wholeheartedly disagree with their department's position in all this
00:01:46.240and say they are only doing their job and following orders in blockading Adamson's barbecue and arresting Skelly.
00:01:55.800As of Friday morning, Skelly was facing 13 charges, including criminal charges of obstructing police.
00:02:02.440It is the equivalent of trying to kill a gnat with a sledgehammer.
00:02:08.380In a statement Thursday evening, Toronto Police Superintendent Dom Sinopoli described a situation around the restaurant as, quote, dynamic.
00:02:19.920He finished his statement saying, rather lamely, I might add, quote,
00:02:24.620But at the end of the day, if Mr. Skelly and others intent on contravening the law, we will take action, unquote.
00:02:33.900The problem with all this is it just seems patently unfair.
00:02:38.680There is no evidence of a single case of COVID-19 emanating from Adamson's barbecue.
00:02:44.120In fact, from all accounts, Skelly has been following all the regulations and suggestions emanating from the health authorities
00:02:52.720since staged reopening was allowed in the GTA in the spring.
00:03:22.600But he couldn't serve up a barbecue beef on a bum for his customers?
00:03:28.400It is this patent unfairness enforced by the jackboot of the state
00:03:32.900that has captured the attention of the country.
00:03:36.760The Canadian Bill of Rights was first brought in by Prime Minister John Diefenbaker in 1960.
00:03:44.180That was followed up by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms by Pierre Elliott Trudeau in 1982.
00:03:51.980The rights of Canadians are carved in stone in those documents.
00:03:56.860They are not to be taken away by any government on a whim, which is exactly what this is.
00:04:02.880Masks and lockdowns are just guesswork by public health bureaucrats in the absence of actual evidence of what's going on with the pandemic.
00:04:13.720Equally, it would seem that orders for the first doses of vaccines will be going out within the next fortnight.
00:04:22.920On the surface of things, it is hard to see the potential damage Adam Skelly is doing by selling a few barbecue sandwiches.
00:04:31.720Yet, nearly a hundred Toronto police officers barricaded his restaurant and arrested him on Thursday.
00:04:43.100If he's looking for a silver lining after being handcuffed and perked to a waiting police car,
00:04:49.460it is that with that, he is now qualified to be Heritage Minister.