Juno News - May 20, 2021


Are anti-lockdown protesters “far-right extremists？”


Episode Stats

Length

4 minutes

Words per Minute

159.74709

Word Count

699

Sentence Count

52


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Hi, everybody. I'm Jessica Shamiyovsky for True North. And over the weekend on Saturday, May 15th,
00:00:12.840 thousands gathered in Queen's Park in Toronto to join the worldwide Freedom Rally.
00:00:18.900 Now, just last week, a couple of prominent politicians made some claims and accusations
00:00:24.240 about those protesting. Listen to what NDP leader Jagmeet Singh and Calgary Mayor Naheed Nenshi
00:00:31.620 had to say about those protesting. Yes, I do think that there is a connection with people who
00:00:37.720 aren't wearing a mask or who aren't following public health guidance and the extreme right
00:00:42.780 and the idea that folks in the extreme right don't care about people around them.
00:00:47.120 Those people at those anti-mask protests, let's not kid ourselves. They are people who are marching
00:00:52.440 in thinly veiled white nationalist supremacist anti-government protests, and they don't
00:00:57.660 deserve that kind of sympathy. Those are some pretty serious claims. So I went out to the Freedom Rally
00:01:04.180 basically looking for these so-called extremists. And not only did I get a chance to speak to
00:01:10.280 protesters, I got a quick comment from PPC leader Maxine Bernay. So please have a listen to what
00:01:17.160 protesters and Maxine Bernay had to say about these types of labels and accusations.
00:01:23.240 Do you have any comment? What do you think about politicians calling freedom protesters either white
00:01:28.120 nationalists, white supremacists, right-wing extremists? Do you guys have any comments on that?
00:01:33.060 It's politics of division. You ask anybody here that they're here to fight for Canadians' rights,
00:01:39.380 Canadians' freedom. There's one race, the human race.
00:01:42.620 We love Canadians. We love freedom, irregardless of skin colour. That's just disingenuous. And
00:01:49.900 they have nothing better. There's no argument to justify these lockdowns, these measures.
00:01:56.380 So they start to use the race card and name-calling, and it's pathetic, really.
00:02:01.920 It's all division. That's all they want. Just to divide us. We can't be near each other.
00:02:05.420 We can't have our energy connected. They don't care about us. They never did. They never will.
00:02:09.260 I think they can label you as whatever they want to try and push their agenda. I think most people
00:02:14.240 here are just here for freedom and to get their lives back in order. And at the end of the day,
00:02:19.620 if that's what they want to label people, I think people are smart enough to understand that these
00:02:23.220 people here are here for the greater good and not to push any of that sort of crap that they're
00:02:28.620 talking about. That's very typical of those politicians who are imposing all those measures.
00:02:34.600 We are people from all cultures and pretty much you can see people of different colours,
00:02:44.960 if you like. And we are parents, grandparents, small business owners. We are professional
00:02:51.060 of all kinds, from all walks of life, all standing together against lockdowns and all measures
00:02:58.020 that were imposed on us without any scientific background or reason.
00:03:06.340 Nobody's labelled as anything. And if you notice, it's so diverse right now. So kudos to everybody
00:03:12.800 here trying to make a difference. And we don't know if we'll make any change today, but we're
00:03:17.180 here to stand up for what our freedom is and our rights.
00:03:19.760 I think, first of all, he must come here and he must follow me on all these rallies that
00:03:24.680 I'm doing across the country. He will be able to see by himself that ordinary Canadians that
00:03:30.900 are fighting for their freedoms. So it's a huge disinformation. But I'm not surprised coming
00:03:37.140 from him. He doesn't know what he's saying. And I just try to discredit myself and to discredit
00:03:44.240 all the Canadians that believe in freedom.
00:03:47.420 Walking around the rally, it was perfectly clear how diverse this crowd really was. It
00:03:53.560 was not about the right versus the left, and it had absolutely nothing to do with race or
00:03:59.760 white nationalism. This was a group of Canadians, thousands of Canadians, gathering together.
00:04:07.200 And what they did have in common was their passion and the fight for their freedom to get
00:04:12.260 back to normal life.
00:04:14.540 For True North, I'm Jessica Schwentznyowski.
00:04:16.440 Thanks for watching and please like and subscribe and make sure you hit that notification bell so
00:04:21.300 you never miss another video.