Juno News - November 30, 2020


Criminalizing Everything


Episode Stats

Length

33 minutes

Words per Minute

179.73566

Word Count

6,065

Sentence Count

387

Misogynist Sentences

1

Hate Speech Sentences

3


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Welcome to Canada's Most Irreverent Talk Show.
00:00:06.700 This is The Andrew Lawton Show, brought to you by True North.
00:00:13.060 Coming up, what do a priest, a politician, and a barbecue restaurant owner have in common?
00:00:17.940 All charged by police.
00:00:21.940 The Andrew Lawton Show starts right now.
00:00:25.480 Hello, everyone. Welcome to another edition of The Andrew Lawton Show,
00:00:32.200 Canada's Most Irreverent Talk Show, listening to which is pretty much the last legal activity in Canada right now.
00:00:39.340 So if you're cooped up, afraid of getting ticketed, you don't want to open your barbecue joint,
00:00:43.500 you don't want to go to church, you don't want to do any of these other things
00:00:46.420 that are apparently criminalized now in the last week, I thank you very much for tuning in.
00:00:51.520 In all seriousness, this has been just an abysmal week for liberty in Canada.
00:00:58.320 And I was actually off last week, so I guess maybe there's a joke in there about this is what happens when I take a week off.
00:01:04.560 But I mean, it was very, very discouraging and very unsettling to just see the volume of people
00:01:10.360 that were being charged, arrested for, for what?
00:01:17.540 For what? Because of this veiled sense of public health guidance,
00:01:21.640 even though there is no public health benefit to what's been happening here.
00:01:25.640 And I'm actually going to be devoting the entire show to this,
00:01:28.760 because we are at this critical point in Canada,
00:01:30.880 where people can decide to go along with this,
00:01:33.760 to go along with the big lie from the government,
00:01:36.760 or to go along with the individual liberties.
00:01:40.220 And by the way, individual liberties are also collective liberties.
00:01:43.620 The individual liberties of the people who are now finding themselves
00:01:46.940 receiving the ire of the state for the apparently criminal act of wanting to go about their lives.
00:01:53.660 And it's not just Adam Skelly,
00:01:55.760 although certainly we'll be talking about the owner of Adamson Barbecue in Etobicoke,
00:01:59.940 but also Ontario Member of Provincial Parliament, Randy Hillier.
00:02:03.640 Anyone who goes to church in Steinbach, Manitoba.
00:02:07.420 It might be Steinbach.
00:02:08.660 I know I'm going to get like an angry email or two from Manitoban,
00:02:12.140 despite whichever way I go, but I think it's Steinbach, Manitoba.
00:02:15.620 Despite any number of other areas where government crackdowns are now pushing
00:02:20.120 the envelope further and further into this enforced lockdown mentality.
00:02:25.260 And I have to say, though, on the 30,000 foot view of this,
00:02:28.660 remember when this was all about we're all in this together?
00:02:32.840 Remember when that was the line?
00:02:34.960 And it's amazing how we're all in this together became snitch on your neighbors.
00:02:39.460 Most notably in Manitoba, Brian Pallister, the premier,
00:02:42.500 had put out this snitch line encouraging people to report anyone they see
00:02:47.740 who might be violating COVID-19 lockdown restrictions.
00:02:51.420 Toronto has done the same thing.
00:02:53.320 Police are not just issuing warnings, they are actually issuing fines.
00:02:56.900 And a lot of them came on the same day.
00:02:59.860 And that's an aspect of this that I haven't seen a lot of people talking about yet.
00:03:04.220 So I want to address that.
00:03:05.780 But let's talk about Etobicoke here.
00:03:07.820 Now, I've never been to Adamson Barbecue.
00:03:10.440 And some people are saying, oh, this is all just a big publicity stunt
00:03:13.740 because now more people know about Adamson Barbecue.
00:03:16.460 If you look at the actual things that are happening
00:03:19.940 and what the owner of this restaurant is doing
00:03:22.140 and what he's standing up for,
00:03:23.720 this is not a publicity stunt.
00:03:25.220 And he's staking a lot on this and may end up losing his business.
00:03:30.800 This was the guy who, after Toronto went into lockdown mode last week,
00:03:34.700 decided, you know what, I'm not going to take it.
00:03:36.580 And the first day everything was closed,
00:03:38.420 he said, I'm open up and I'm serving ribs.
00:03:40.400 And he sold out.
00:03:41.640 And then the next day he sold out again
00:03:43.260 and kept selling out over the last week.
00:03:46.060 And the law enforcement response to it kept escalating.
00:03:49.620 At first, they just dropped by and said,
00:03:51.660 OK, we're just trying to tell you all that you have to leave.
00:03:54.080 And you know what, this is something that you should do.
00:03:57.000 And then later on, everyone said, well, that's ridiculous.
00:03:59.420 What's the point of having these laws if you're not going to enforce them?
00:04:02.660 And then things started to get more and more serious.
00:04:06.940 Then he was fined.
00:04:08.900 Eventually, he was arrested.
00:04:11.120 And by the end of the week,
00:04:12.280 you had dozens of police officers on site outside a barbecue joint.
00:04:17.480 The mounted police called in.
00:04:19.240 And you had basically this approach that was predicated on there being riots,
00:04:23.620 despite the fact that no such riots took place.
00:04:26.460 Actually, there was one video I saw from Joe Warmington on Twitter
00:04:30.020 of people just dancing and having a great old time.
00:04:32.680 You don't get that at the Antifa rallies, I can assure you.
00:04:36.100 And now here we are.
00:04:37.440 So the lockdown culture war has kind of found a battleground site at Adamson Barbecue.
00:04:43.560 And I want you to actually hear from Adam Skelly what it is that he's doing here,
00:04:49.620 because he has found himself going up against pretty much the entire apparatus of the government.
00:04:55.600 So yes, he's a fighter, but he's actually a very real person as well.
00:05:00.520 Take a look at this.
00:05:01.340 I have to speak from the heart to just put myself out there
00:05:05.220 and share my perspective with everybody.
00:05:07.500 I mean, of course, it's terrifying going up against the entire system.
00:05:11.320 I put myself out there like that, but there's no choice.
00:05:15.020 There's nothing we can do with doing it.
00:05:16.440 What do you got here?
00:05:17.260 This is my three-year-old boy, Riley.
00:05:19.660 I'm fighting for him today.
00:05:21.260 He says in that clip, he knows he's going up against the entire system,
00:05:24.120 but what the heck else is he going to do?
00:05:26.600 As he's there talking with Joe Warmington as well of the Toronto Sun.
00:05:30.100 And I know I've mentioned Joe Warmington twice.
00:05:31.980 He's been doing some tremendous work covering this.
00:05:34.560 Just to put it into perspective, this is how the mainstream media covers it.
00:05:39.140 To see white privilege in action, look at Toronto's Adamson barbecue debacle.
00:05:44.300 That's from the Huffington Post.
00:05:46.180 They say that this is not about coronavirus.
00:05:48.400 This isn't about lockdown.
00:05:49.620 This isn't about government overreach.
00:05:51.600 They say this is actually about Adam Skelly's white privilege,
00:05:55.660 because if he were not white, then, you know, something else would have happened.
00:06:01.580 The argument seems to be that if he weren't white, you know, there wouldn't be a police response.
00:06:07.600 Although the fact that the mounted police are there and he was taken away in handcuffs
00:06:12.260 would seem to indicate to me that there is very little privileged about what's been happening here.
00:06:18.080 He does have a crowdfunding campaign going,
00:06:20.280 which I shudder to even give the dollar amount,
00:06:22.360 because I know it's going up so quickly it'll be outdated.
00:06:25.200 But, you know, at the time I'm recording this,
00:06:27.240 it's, I think, just shy of $290,000 that's been raised for a legal defense.
00:06:33.960 And I don't know how much the legal defense is going to cost.
00:06:36.360 I think it's probably at the point where he's got enough to get through.
00:06:39.640 But this is about more than just Adam Skelly.
00:06:42.820 And this is the important point,
00:06:44.780 because I know people will always try to pick apart the motives or motivations of someone
00:06:50.120 that they see taking a stand like this.
00:06:51.920 And people are saying, well, you know, maybe he's,
00:06:54.140 he just doesn't even believe in COVID,
00:06:56.020 because there are business owners that are very much true believers in the idea that,
00:06:59.960 no, COVID's a thing and I want masks and I want this,
00:07:02.720 but we can run our business safely.
00:07:05.400 But I also am increasingly uninterested
00:07:08.900 in going through and parsing individual people's motives
00:07:12.960 when the frustration is entirely justifiable.
00:07:17.540 If you have businesses, and I know everyone knows this,
00:07:20.100 but it bears repeating, especially restaurateurs,
00:07:22.820 an industry that has just the slimmest margins,
00:07:25.900 even if you're a successful restaurant,
00:07:27.460 that typically is not a huge profit that you're bringing in
00:07:30.860 if you're an independent restaurant owner.
00:07:33.080 So for restaurateurs who barely got through the first lockdown
00:07:36.340 to now be once again with just two days notice told by the government,
00:07:40.220 okay, you're locked down again.
00:07:42.040 I do not blame any one of them for saying,
00:07:44.480 you know what, I'm done with this.
00:07:45.680 I did my part two weeks to flatten the curve
00:07:48.200 and then it was two months and then it was three years or whatever it was.
00:07:51.360 I don't blame them for saying, you know,
00:07:52.880 because if there is another lockdown,
00:07:55.500 the few businesses that were able to reopen after the first lockdown
00:07:59.740 are going to find themselves unable to open after the second one.
00:08:03.440 So I do not at all fault anyone.
00:08:06.460 There was another restaurant in Toronto, Hogtown Smoke,
00:08:08.920 that took a very different approach.
00:08:10.520 Now they were not as defiant as Adam Skelly,
00:08:13.640 but they put out a statement that went around the internet the other day
00:08:17.300 saying something very similar.
00:08:19.220 Listen, we're sanitizing everything.
00:08:21.900 We're doing far more than a lot of retailers that are allowed to stay open are,
00:08:26.360 yet we are for some reason being the scapegoats here.
00:08:29.320 The government's telling us we have to shut down.
00:08:31.720 So in Toronto, it's restaurants.
00:08:35.320 In Manitoba, it's pretty much anyone and everyone, including churches.
00:08:38.860 We'll talk about that in a moment.
00:08:40.560 But the whole point of this is that the government
00:08:42.780 is not just going after Adam Skelly for violating the lockdown.
00:08:48.640 They are trying to throw absolutely everything at him.
00:08:52.680 And I want to read a section here
00:08:54.520 from a press release sent out by the city of Toronto on November 24th.
00:08:59.440 This is the day that things started to escalate.
00:09:01.440 And they said that they sent bylaw officers,
00:09:03.300 public health inspectors, and police officers.
00:09:05.820 So we're talking about already multiple government agents
00:09:09.360 that are being sent to the barbecue joint.
00:09:12.080 And then here's what they say.
00:09:13.780 The city is also investigating this business
00:09:16.620 for compliance with business licensing,
00:09:19.220 zoning, public health, Ontario building code,
00:09:22.000 and Ontario fire code requirements.
00:09:26.660 They're throwing the book at him.
00:09:28.580 They're throwing the library at him.
00:09:31.000 And there's a reason for this.
00:09:32.760 You know that old yarn that people tell about Al Capone,
00:09:35.640 how the only thing that he'd get him for was tax evasion?
00:09:38.640 Well, that's the whole thing with Adam Skelly here,
00:09:40.620 where even if he beats the rap on the one charge that he's defending
00:09:43.540 or the four charges that he's defending himself against,
00:09:46.240 if he beats the rap on those,
00:09:47.720 he's still going to go down on, you know,
00:09:49.500 not having batteries in the smoke detector or something,
00:09:51.700 because they are now hell-bent on getting him
00:09:54.280 on anything and everything they can.
00:09:57.560 Don't be surprised if, you know,
00:09:59.560 he finds himself randomly selected for additional screening
00:10:02.260 next time he tries to get on a plane or something,
00:10:04.680 because this is what's happening now.
00:10:06.520 The guy has become public enemy one,
00:10:10.000 public enemy number one to the state,
00:10:11.920 so they're going to get him on anything.
00:10:13.720 And, you know, he's going to be audited by CRA next time.
00:10:16.420 Personal income tax, business income tax, doesn't matter.
00:10:19.500 He is now patient zero of the new pandemic,
00:10:23.120 which is government overreach under the guise of curbing the original pandemic.
00:10:28.060 And this is what Adam Skelly is dealing with.
00:10:30.500 So when people say that, you know what,
00:10:32.480 he's, you know, not the best poster boy for this,
00:10:35.480 I say, you know what,
00:10:36.520 he is enduring more than most other people are
00:10:40.180 who are pushing back against this lockdown.
00:10:42.840 So I have a lot of sympathy for what he's doing.
00:10:45.540 And I have a lot of support for the people behind him
00:10:48.700 and for him saying to the government,
00:10:50.240 listen, you can't do this.
00:10:52.700 You can't do this.
00:10:54.020 And this is, I mean, going to continue.
00:10:56.580 I don't know how long the horses are going to be camped out
00:10:58.680 outside Adamson barbecue.
00:11:00.940 But this has become, when I see the videos and pictures of this,
00:11:03.940 this is like the conservative answer to what we've seen from the left
00:11:07.560 in a lot of protests in the past of like the tent cities
00:11:10.300 where these areas kind of become these encampments for whatever movement.
00:11:14.200 I mean, this one smells a lot better because, you know,
00:11:16.240 instead of body odor, it's, you know, the smell of a smokehouse.
00:11:19.600 So this is a lot better than the left-wing tent cities.
00:11:22.360 But it's like now the new encampment for conservative anti-lockdown protesters,
00:11:26.660 which is kind of fun because conservatives don't usually protest in this way.
00:11:30.160 So that's why the anti-mask and anti-lockdown movements and all that
00:11:34.160 have actually been quite unique
00:11:36.060 because it has pushed the envelope far enough that people on the right
00:11:40.060 who typically just want to go about their lives
00:11:42.600 and don't typically want to organize
00:11:44.040 are now standing up and saying,
00:11:46.060 you know what, I'm pushing back.
00:11:48.360 And ordinary people, this is critical,
00:11:50.860 ordinary people who wouldn't normally be activists.
00:11:54.600 And I say that as well, talking about a lot of members of the clergy,
00:11:57.860 a lot of ministers, priests, pastors,
00:11:59.720 that again, are not typically all that political that are speaking up.
00:12:05.140 Now, we've spoken on the show twice to Pastor Henry Hildebrandt
00:12:08.520 from the Church of God in Elmer, Ontario.
00:12:11.080 And I'm not saying he's a shrinking violet in any way.
00:12:14.120 I know he's never shied away from speaking out since the very beginning of this.
00:12:18.360 But Pastor Hildebrandt, who we had on the show a week and a half ago,
00:12:21.680 was actually charged by police last week on Thursday
00:12:25.800 for daring to attend a protest in London earlier last week.
00:12:31.580 So if you're not familiar with southwestern Ontario geography,
00:12:34.600 I don't blame you.
00:12:35.560 Elmer, smaller town just outside of St. Thomas,
00:12:38.740 which is itself, I think, like 25 minutes south of London.
00:12:42.160 So not far from London, but a different town.
00:12:44.800 He went into London, went to Victoria Park,
00:12:47.460 which is the big downtown park,
00:12:49.400 participated in this rally.
00:12:51.500 And then London police hunted him down
00:12:54.780 and served him with a summons to attend court in February.
00:12:59.800 Take a watch.
00:13:00.440 Hello, sir.
00:13:01.540 How are you?
00:13:02.200 Doing well on yourself.
00:13:03.240 Good.
00:13:03.940 So I'm Constable Owen from the London City Police Corps Unit.
00:13:07.380 I have a Part 3 summons that I have to serve upon you.
00:13:13.200 Am I okay to speak in front of these gentlemen to you?
00:13:15.960 Absolutely.
00:13:16.660 Okay.
00:13:17.180 So would you like me to explain this document to you?
00:13:20.540 What is it?
00:13:21.200 Okay.
00:13:21.460 It's a ticket or a summons to court
00:13:24.100 for failing to comply with a Section 7.0.2 order to wit.
00:13:28.820 Participate in an outdoor gathering at Victoria Park,
00:13:32.000 which exceeded 25 people,
00:13:34.040 contrary to the reopening Ontario Act.
00:13:37.160 Section 10, sub 1, sub 8.
00:13:39.180 So you're required to attend court,
00:13:41.980 824 Dundas Street, London, Ontario,
00:13:44.280 on the 22nd day of February 2021 at 9 a.m.
00:13:49.020 courtroom 101.
00:13:50.320 All the information's on the back,
00:13:53.540 and I'm serving that on you.
00:13:55.800 Do I receive it?
00:13:56.840 You can put it in the mailbox if you'd like.
00:13:58.240 I can put it in the mailbox.
00:13:59.160 Sure.
00:13:59.480 Yep.
00:13:59.860 Thank you.
00:14:00.800 Is everyone receiving a ticket that was there?
00:14:03.020 I'm not at liberty to discuss that right now.
00:14:05.160 Why is that?
00:14:05.760 Not a document.
00:14:06.260 Not a document.
00:14:06.420 Not a document.
00:14:06.440 To say that that document is for you,
00:14:09.260 and any discussions will happen in court.
00:14:11.500 So are you treating people differently?
00:14:13.040 I was there.
00:14:13.500 Anything else I can do for you?
00:14:14.220 I was there, sir.
00:14:15.140 Answer his question.
00:14:16.240 I was there.
00:14:16.640 Then I don't have to answer your question.
00:14:19.540 Then leave the property immediately.
00:14:20.680 Have a wonderful day.
00:14:22.220 Now there were, I think, about 200 people at this rally,
00:14:25.700 just to put things into perspective here.
00:14:27.580 And this is very important.
00:14:28.880 200 people at this rally.
00:14:31.180 Police charged three women who organized it,
00:14:34.820 one of whom is a nurse, incidentally.
00:14:37.580 The police charged three women who organized it.
00:14:39.700 They charged him.
00:14:40.460 He may have spoken at it, but he wasn't an organizer.
00:14:43.440 But here's the thing.
00:14:44.520 200 people.
00:14:45.520 Now that very same park, that very same park,
00:14:49.420 was home to a rally of 10,000 people earlier this year
00:14:54.260 at the initial Black Lives Matter protest in London.
00:14:57.340 One of the largest in the country took place in London
00:15:00.320 at that very same place, Victoria Park.
00:15:02.780 Not a single charge was laid, so far as I understand.
00:15:06.300 Not a single charge.
00:15:07.480 But 200 people.
00:15:09.340 200 people, anti-lockdown protesters,
00:15:11.720 are finding police starting to go on a road trip
00:15:14.300 around different communities to find them here,
00:15:17.500 charge them, issue summons.
00:15:19.120 And this is not, I don't blame the individual officers.
00:15:21.660 And I feel bad about that video in a way,
00:15:23.540 because you can tell that one officer who was doing it
00:15:26.620 was very professional.
00:15:28.260 I liked what he said.
00:15:29.880 I mean, I didn't like it, but I noted what he said about,
00:15:32.760 I have to serve this to you.
00:15:34.560 And it was a subtle wording, but I think a very revealing one.
00:15:38.540 He's like, I have to.
00:15:39.360 You know, he's being told to do this.
00:15:42.380 And I know that a lot of people,
00:15:44.120 a lot of people like to target the individual frontline officers.
00:15:47.540 And I see them compared to, you know, just horrific things.
00:15:50.980 I see them compared to like the Nuremberg,
00:15:52.960 just following orders stuff.
00:15:54.380 And I don't buy into that.
00:15:56.060 I don't, these are not the problem.
00:15:57.840 The problem is the lawmakers.
00:16:00.160 The problem is the lawmakers who are putting forward these restrictions
00:16:04.300 and putting law enforcement officers
00:16:06.060 who should be out there solving real crimes
00:16:08.320 into the position of having to go after pastors and churchgoers.
00:16:13.280 That's the problem here.
00:16:14.860 It's not the frontline officers.
00:16:16.220 The problem is the government that is making this directive
00:16:19.480 and prioritizing this and taking,
00:16:22.120 whether it's, again, a barbecue restaurant owner,
00:16:25.660 a pastor, or an Ontario member of provincial parliament
00:16:28.860 and making them the enemies of the state
00:16:31.500 and not people that are actually committing real crimes.
00:16:35.220 Randy Hillier, again, another alumnus of the Andrew Lawton Show.
00:16:38.400 I'm beginning to think we are part of the problem here in a way
00:16:40.980 because everyone we interview is ending up getting charged.
00:16:43.900 Randy Hillier was ticketed for participating
00:16:47.020 in the Pots and Pans rally at Queen's Park last week.
00:16:51.100 This is, again, an Ontario legislator.
00:16:54.400 This is a member of Ontario's provincial legislature,
00:16:57.460 and he has been now charged,
00:17:00.340 issued a summons by Toronto police,
00:17:02.000 again, around the same time.
00:17:04.020 I won't play the video because the audio is really bad,
00:17:07.000 but you can see it here
00:17:08.040 and just know that the police are giving him a court date.
00:17:11.960 They're telling him what courtroom,
00:17:13.160 they're telling him when.
00:17:14.180 I think it's all in February.
00:17:15.840 So they're just kind of kicking the can down the curb
00:17:17.980 and, or down the road, rather,
00:17:20.540 and that's going to be when it happens.
00:17:22.020 But here's the thing.
00:17:23.660 Imagine the juxtaposition of this.
00:17:27.180 Opposition member charged for protesting government.
00:17:30.940 I've seen that headline before, many times.
00:17:34.860 I've seen it in Belarus.
00:17:36.900 I've seen it in Russia.
00:17:38.880 I've seen it in Iran.
00:17:40.820 I've seen it in, not North Korea,
00:17:43.000 because there they get shot, not charged.
00:17:44.540 So we're better than North Korea.
00:17:45.720 I've seen it in China, I believe.
00:17:47.780 I have seen countless times stories about opposition politicians
00:17:52.080 being charged for daring to criticize
00:17:54.560 and protest against the government.
00:17:56.300 And that's what happened in Ontario.
00:17:59.420 That's what happened to Randy Hillier.
00:18:01.400 Here is a guy who is an independent MPP.
00:18:04.660 He's opposing the government.
00:18:06.520 He's participating in a protest at Queen's Park,
00:18:09.280 the seat of government in Ontario.
00:18:10.840 And he has now been charged for protesting.
00:18:15.440 And I made this point on Twitter,
00:18:16.940 and I had people say, oh, no, he's not charged for protesting.
00:18:19.200 He's charged for attending a mass gathering.
00:18:21.380 I say, well, the mass gathering is the protest.
00:18:23.920 The mass gathering is the protest.
00:18:25.640 So I'm going to repeat this again,
00:18:27.240 because this is particularly chilling.
00:18:29.720 Opposition member charged for criticizing government.
00:18:35.560 That is what Ontario has fallen to.
00:18:39.580 And that is what Canada has fallen to right now.
00:18:42.420 When protest, which has always been respected as an essential aspect of freedom
00:18:50.140 and of a free society, is criminalized,
00:18:53.900 you no longer have free speech.
00:18:56.160 And you can protest against public health advice.
00:19:02.420 You can protest in contravention of public health advice,
00:19:06.800 a la the Black Lives Matter protesters.
00:19:08.780 Remember, a lot of public health officials were kind of saying,
00:19:11.680 ah, you know, we think it's really not something that people should do,
00:19:15.100 but we understand it's important.
00:19:16.500 And if you do it, you know,
00:19:17.740 be careful and social distance and try to self-isolate.
00:19:20.720 But there was no skull cracking.
00:19:22.380 There was no state mandate.
00:19:24.620 And this is what's particularly insidious, I think,
00:19:27.300 and why I'm sympathetic to police officers.
00:19:29.800 Because police officers stood by
00:19:31.580 when thousands of people were talking about how all cops are murderers.
00:19:35.960 Police stood by because that's their job.
00:19:38.200 And now police are being directed by the government
00:19:40.220 to go and criticize people
00:19:41.460 who are criticizing the government on lockdown stuff.
00:19:44.800 And that's why I don't think police are really,
00:19:47.160 as individual officers in the driver's seat of this at all.
00:19:50.200 Because they're not.
00:19:51.080 In fact, a lot of the pro-lockdown
00:19:52.780 or a lot of the anti-lockdown people
00:19:54.620 are actually very courteous to police.
00:19:57.340 You see at the Adamson barbecue videos
00:20:00.940 that a lot of people are thanking police for their service.
00:20:04.760 Look at the end of that arrest or charging, rather,
00:20:07.920 of Pastor Hildebrandt and his son,
00:20:10.320 who was filming it, said,
00:20:11.380 OK, you know, we're going to get off the property,
00:20:12.900 but have a great day.
00:20:14.360 Like, conservatives are typically the ones
00:20:16.880 that are supportive of the police,
00:20:19.160 especially in the last year
00:20:20.820 when that support in society at large
00:20:23.400 cannot be taken for granted.
00:20:26.320 But we are now seeing the criminalization of everything.
00:20:31.500 And in Steinbeck, Manitoba,
00:20:33.320 I mentioned this earlier,
00:20:34.500 police were doing the whole Adamson barbecue thing.
00:20:37.480 They were actually lining the streets,
00:20:39.580 blocking, blocking people from going
00:20:42.360 to a drive-in church service.
00:20:44.640 Now, do you know what the COVID-19 transmission risk is
00:20:47.760 at a service where everyone stays in their cars?
00:20:50.540 I'm going to say it's less than zero.
00:20:53.860 I know that's a theoretical number.
00:20:55.300 So for all the mathematicians or statisticians out there,
00:20:57.720 I'm going to say absolutely zero with an asterisk.
00:21:01.220 The caveat being if you're in the car
00:21:03.060 with someone who had it.
00:21:04.480 But you know what?
00:21:05.000 That's your own responsibility
00:21:06.540 because you probably are close contact with them anyway.
00:21:09.600 So it has nothing to do with the church service.
00:21:11.800 But this was a minister delivering a sermon
00:21:14.880 from the back of a pickup truck parked on the highway
00:21:17.100 and police are now fining people.
00:21:20.220 They fined a person on Sunday
00:21:22.240 after 100 cars were trying to watch this service
00:21:26.380 and police were blocking the entrance
00:21:28.220 of the parking lot for the planned service.
00:21:30.360 So police are trying to deny people the right
00:21:33.060 to do something safely
00:21:34.340 because in Manitoba, everything's non-essential.
00:21:37.540 In Manitoba, you can't do church.
00:21:39.240 In Manitoba, you can't buy something
00:21:41.020 with the exception of essential goods at a store,
00:21:43.820 even if the store is deemed to be open.
00:21:47.220 So when the pastor says,
00:21:48.720 we are standing up for religious freedom,
00:21:50.880 police are there trying to block anyone from hearing it.
00:21:54.720 They're actually trying to deny anyone the right
00:21:56.720 to partake in that religious freedom.
00:21:59.700 And this is the local RCMP,
00:22:01.940 who again are responding to a government directive
00:22:05.440 from Brian Pallister,
00:22:06.680 which says churches are not essential,
00:22:08.200 which says that, you know,
00:22:09.720 the Black Lives Matter protest,
00:22:11.060 that's fine,
00:22:11.720 but church is not essential.
00:22:13.280 You can safely buy apples or milk at a store,
00:22:16.540 but you can't safely buy skis
00:22:18.580 or a Lego set for your kid in a store.
00:22:21.660 This has nothing to do with health.
00:22:24.440 This has nothing to do with healthcare guidelines.
00:22:27.100 As I said last week,
00:22:28.140 this is about controlling the people,
00:22:30.260 not controlling the virus.
00:22:32.060 And what's happening here?
00:22:34.680 Well, you're pushing more and more people
00:22:36.340 into the anti-lockdown column.
00:22:39.140 That's one of the most notable things I'm seeing
00:22:41.720 is that people I know that I'm connected to on social media
00:22:44.820 who are not typically political
00:22:46.620 and not even right of center
00:22:48.480 are coming more and more on side
00:22:51.240 with the anti-lockdown protesters.
00:22:53.900 People that, again,
00:22:54.600 aren't even a fan of Pastor Hildebrandt
00:22:56.460 that are saying,
00:22:56.960 you know, I'm starting to see his side.
00:22:58.620 People that don't like Adam Skelly,
00:23:00.060 that even in the last week have turned
00:23:01.960 from being critical of him
00:23:03.820 to supportive of him
00:23:05.100 because they see the state overreach.
00:23:07.660 They see the government overreach
00:23:09.100 and people are starting to, I think,
00:23:11.040 wisen up to the fact
00:23:12.400 that this is not going to get better
00:23:16.140 unless people start resisting against it
00:23:19.140 and saying, no, this is not sensible.
00:23:21.520 This is not viable.
00:23:22.980 And again, there are a lot of people
00:23:24.640 who will just do whatever the government tells them to do
00:23:27.680 because they are good citizens.
00:23:29.560 That's their mentality.
00:23:30.880 And that's part of the Canadian identity.
00:23:32.940 And the one line that I've heard,
00:23:35.000 which I have to caution people about,
00:23:37.860 is, well, you know,
00:23:38.880 this is just for two weeks
00:23:40.000 to get it under control.
00:23:41.560 Where have I heard that before?
00:23:44.840 Just two weeks.
00:23:45.900 We are right now in what?
00:23:47.600 You know, month nine of two weeks
00:23:49.460 to flatten the initial curve.
00:23:50.780 So don't let something being temporary
00:23:53.400 or ostensibly temporary
00:23:55.220 ever be used to justify it
00:23:57.680 because the temporary becomes the permanent.
00:24:00.180 And anyone who's paying income tax
00:24:01.580 or sales tax knows this very well.
00:24:03.740 The temporary becomes the permanent,
00:24:05.620 especially when it comes to government.
00:24:08.340 RCMP are charging people in Manitoba.
00:24:11.220 OPP are charging people in Ontario.
00:24:13.320 Municipal police forces
00:24:14.420 are charging people all over the place.
00:24:17.160 And rallies, protests,
00:24:19.060 these things,
00:24:19.740 which again are all protected forms of speech,
00:24:22.200 normally are now finding people
00:24:24.920 getting ticketed, fined,
00:24:26.400 or summoned to court.
00:24:27.340 Not even just ticketed, by the way.
00:24:28.860 Summoned to court.
00:24:30.560 That's the thing.
00:24:31.440 So it's not even like in some of these cases
00:24:33.300 you can just pay the fine
00:24:34.820 and make it go away
00:24:35.760 if you wanted to do that,
00:24:36.900 like it were a parking ticket
00:24:38.400 or a speeding ticket
00:24:39.620 or something like that.
00:24:40.600 They're actually being summoned to court.
00:24:42.260 Now, the good thing is
00:24:43.220 a lot of these things
00:24:44.020 are going to be thrown out.
00:24:45.520 But Christine Van Gein,
00:24:46.800 who is the litigation director
00:24:48.200 for the Canadian Constitution Foundation,
00:24:50.900 had an op-ed in the Toronto Sun about this,
00:24:53.360 where she said there's been a lot
00:24:54.600 about the constitutionality of things.
00:24:57.380 Now, her position,
00:24:58.400 and I think this is a valid one,
00:24:59.700 and she's a great litigator,
00:25:01.120 so she knows this very well,
00:25:03.260 is that it's a bit more complicated
00:25:05.060 with businesses
00:25:05.880 because in Canada,
00:25:07.300 businesses do not have charter rights.
00:25:09.160 So a business does not have the right
00:25:10.920 to life, liberty, security of the person
00:25:13.460 because it's security of the person.
00:25:15.660 So, you know, the idea of saying,
00:25:17.080 you know what,
00:25:17.400 my business's security is being threatened,
00:25:19.200 that's not a constitutional argument.
00:25:21.680 But she said on protests,
00:25:23.740 there is a constitutionality aspect there
00:25:26.820 on mask orders,
00:25:28.160 on protests,
00:25:28.980 freedom of assembly,
00:25:29.940 mobility rights,
00:25:31.160 privacy rights,
00:25:32.480 freedom of religion,
00:25:33.340 all of these things.
00:25:34.380 And she's not saying
00:25:35.920 that all of these things
00:25:36.980 will be thrown out,
00:25:38.000 but she's talking about
00:25:39.220 how much of an argument
00:25:40.540 there is behind this.
00:25:42.560 And anyone who's studied
00:25:43.560 any of the constitutional cases
00:25:45.280 in Canada knows
00:25:46.100 that there is a very broad exception
00:25:48.520 to constitutional rights
00:25:49.940 in section one of the charter,
00:25:52.020 the so-called limitation clause
00:25:54.380 or the reasonable limits clause.
00:25:56.180 But the idea that courts would find
00:25:58.900 all of these infringements
00:26:00.740 to be reasonable,
00:26:02.580 I don't quite buy into,
00:26:04.360 even in Canada,
00:26:05.060 where I tend to have
00:26:06.040 very low expectations
00:26:07.620 when it comes to
00:26:08.600 interpretations of freedoms.
00:26:10.540 So here's where I would say
00:26:12.720 that we are.
00:26:14.140 The Black Lives Matter protests
00:26:16.100 proved very inconvenient
00:26:18.280 for the government
00:26:19.880 and for the left, I think.
00:26:21.440 And the reason I say that
00:26:22.600 is because that proves
00:26:25.020 the malleability
00:26:26.820 of what's happening right now.
00:26:29.260 If those protests never happened,
00:26:31.340 what's happening now
00:26:32.420 would still be wrong,
00:26:33.640 but we would not have
00:26:35.140 as strong a piece of evidence
00:26:36.840 to prove that,
00:26:38.520 A, protests are not responsible
00:26:40.200 for transmission,
00:26:41.380 and B, that government
00:26:42.740 is not enforcing this
00:26:43.920 equally and evenly.
00:26:45.960 And that's a very important
00:26:47.900 aspect of this
00:26:48.720 because if the government
00:26:50.000 were enforcing it equally,
00:26:51.260 it would still be wrong,
00:26:52.820 but it wouldn't be
00:26:53.740 as brazenly wrong
00:26:55.060 as it is now
00:26:55.800 where we can prove
00:26:56.600 very easily
00:26:57.260 that they're only interested
00:26:58.360 in some cases.
00:26:59.700 They're only interested
00:27:00.500 in going after 200,
00:27:02.200 you know,
00:27:02.800 anti-lockdown protesters
00:27:04.060 and not 10,000
00:27:05.600 anti-police protesters,
00:27:07.200 which seems odd
00:27:08.040 because you think police
00:27:08.860 would be going after both,
00:27:10.080 which is why I put the blame
00:27:11.260 squarely at the government.
00:27:13.740 So yes,
00:27:14.300 there's a constitutional
00:27:15.380 question here,
00:27:16.120 but there's also
00:27:16.600 a public trust.
00:27:17.640 If you want people
00:27:18.440 to take your guidance seriously,
00:27:20.700 you have to prove
00:27:21.860 that you're actually
00:27:22.700 approaching it
00:27:23.500 with a level
00:27:24.440 of consistency.
00:27:26.240 And when you have
00:27:27.120 every government agency
00:27:28.320 imaginable
00:27:28.880 throwing the book
00:27:29.480 at a barbecue joint owner,
00:27:30.680 police driving
00:27:31.380 to ticket pastors,
00:27:32.720 they're not going
00:27:33.680 to take it seriously.
00:27:34.900 And when it comes
00:27:35.540 to trying to tell people
00:27:36.560 that they can't have
00:27:37.260 their Christmas dinners
00:27:38.060 with their family,
00:27:39.100 a lot of people
00:27:40.020 are not going to be
00:27:41.100 interested in going along
00:27:42.240 with the big lie,
00:27:44.320 the big lie about this.
00:27:45.460 And when I talk
00:27:46.000 about the big lie,
00:27:46.720 I'm not blaming
00:27:47.300 an individual politician.
00:27:48.420 I'm talking about
00:27:49.220 this idea
00:27:50.300 that no one's liberties
00:27:52.740 exist in the period
00:27:54.520 of the pandemic,
00:27:55.580 that no one's liberties
00:27:56.380 exist by this point
00:27:57.780 in 2020.
00:27:59.700 The one benefit,
00:28:01.060 I say that very cautiously,
00:28:02.720 of how long
00:28:03.420 this has gone on
00:28:04.440 is that we know
00:28:06.540 how to live our lives
00:28:07.800 and we know
00:28:08.800 how to adapt things.
00:28:10.860 And one point
00:28:12.040 that I would stress here,
00:28:13.640 we were told
00:28:14.540 about the second wave
00:28:15.980 when we were in the midst
00:28:17.120 of the first wave.
00:28:18.440 And it was told to us
00:28:20.080 as though it was going
00:28:21.040 to happen.
00:28:22.220 So the idea
00:28:23.020 that the existence
00:28:24.120 of the second wave
00:28:25.840 proves that something
00:28:27.640 needed to change
00:28:28.840 is murky.
00:28:30.740 It's very murky
00:28:32.400 because the existence
00:28:34.460 of the second wave
00:28:35.740 was something
00:28:36.260 that was predicted
00:28:37.100 from the get-go
00:28:38.600 and said to be
00:28:39.500 basically part
00:28:40.480 of the trajectory
00:28:41.280 of these sorts
00:28:42.600 of viruses.
00:28:44.140 And we learned
00:28:45.260 going through
00:28:45.700 the first wave
00:28:46.680 that lockdowns
00:28:47.720 did not help.
00:28:49.620 It was adapting practices,
00:28:51.780 finding ways
00:28:52.520 to go shopping safely,
00:28:54.260 finding ways
00:28:54.860 to go to church safely,
00:28:56.420 finding ways
00:28:57.240 to protect the vulnerable
00:28:58.880 and sever
00:28:59.460 and segregate them
00:29:00.340 off from society
00:29:01.180 and allowing families
00:29:02.640 to make individual decisions.
00:29:04.540 In the U.S.,
00:29:05.280 we saw a patchwork of this.
00:29:06.840 There are some states
00:29:07.560 that said,
00:29:08.000 listen, we trust people
00:29:08.940 and other states
00:29:09.980 that banned anyone
00:29:11.400 from having Thanksgiving dinner
00:29:12.860 with any other household.
00:29:15.540 And there was
00:29:16.020 a complete range
00:29:16.860 about this.
00:29:17.520 So we won't know
00:29:18.480 for another couple of weeks
00:29:19.480 what the U.S. Thanksgiving effect
00:29:21.080 was on things overall.
00:29:22.900 But I don't think
00:29:23.760 it will be as dramatic,
00:29:25.400 as dramatic,
00:29:26.320 as a lot of the pro-lockdown activists
00:29:29.160 would like you to believe.
00:29:31.180 Because people
00:29:32.440 are taking it seriously,
00:29:34.320 are capable
00:29:35.140 of taking it seriously,
00:29:36.480 and are capable
00:29:37.480 of adapting.
00:29:38.420 But if you start
00:29:39.080 to put government overreach
00:29:41.020 as being the priority,
00:29:42.360 be ahead
00:29:42.880 of public health guidelines,
00:29:44.480 ahead of education,
00:29:45.560 ahead of any other things,
00:29:46.620 then people are just
00:29:47.420 going to retreat
00:29:48.180 from it all
00:29:48.700 and say,
00:29:49.020 you know what,
00:29:49.360 I'm done.
00:29:50.500 I'm tapping out.
00:29:51.560 You're going to get
00:29:52.060 COVID fatigue
00:29:52.820 to the nth degree
00:29:53.960 if you make that
00:29:54.640 the priority.
00:29:56.880 So my heart goes out
00:29:58.060 to people
00:29:58.600 that are genuinely
00:29:59.280 trying to do
00:30:00.100 the right thing.
00:30:01.540 That are genuinely
00:30:02.620 trying to do
00:30:03.400 the right thing
00:30:04.020 and are finding
00:30:04.980 that they can't.
00:30:06.840 Or that they don't know
00:30:07.560 what the right thing is
00:30:08.380 because the advice
00:30:09.160 hasn't been clear.
00:30:10.660 And now they just
00:30:11.520 are terrified
00:30:12.140 of police busting
00:30:13.100 down their door
00:30:13.780 because,
00:30:14.520 as I joked last week,
00:30:15.440 you know,
00:30:15.580 maybe they were spotted
00:30:16.260 at the grocery store
00:30:17.020 buying a turkey
00:30:17.820 that was too big.
00:30:18.920 Because the snitch culture,
00:30:20.500 the snitch culture
00:30:21.300 now is massive.
00:30:22.560 I saw this video
00:30:23.760 from a CBC reporter.
00:30:25.420 It looks like
00:30:26.460 she's got like
00:30:27.140 the zoom lens
00:30:28.300 as she's counting people
00:30:29.800 that are coming
00:30:30.400 out of a church.
00:30:31.600 Counting people
00:30:32.440 coming out of a church.
00:30:33.380 Just watch this.
00:30:34.980 45,
00:30:36.620 36,
00:30:39.040 37,
00:30:40.700 48,
00:30:41.820 49,
00:30:52.840 50,
00:30:54.140 51,
00:30:56.380 52,
00:30:57.820 53,
00:30:58.860 54,
00:31:00.800 55,
00:31:02.940 56.
00:31:05.860 And that's
00:31:06.880 life now.
00:31:07.820 That is life now.
00:31:08.800 Snitching on your neighbors,
00:31:09.960 ratting them out.
00:31:10.620 If you hear a little bit
00:31:11.900 too much noise coming
00:31:13.100 from the next door
00:31:14.560 neighbor's house
00:31:15.520 at Christmas,
00:31:16.340 well,
00:31:16.580 you know what?
00:31:16.920 You got to call it in
00:31:17.680 and we're going to see
00:31:18.140 the hotlines come out.
00:31:19.300 I had predicted on the show
00:31:20.300 more than two weeks ago
00:31:21.160 they were going to cancel Christmas
00:31:22.260 and I was right
00:31:22.960 pretty much to the day.
00:31:23.940 I think I was a day off
00:31:25.460 from when the official edicts
00:31:27.280 were coming that,
00:31:27.980 oh,
00:31:28.080 you know what?
00:31:28.540 Christmas isn't going to
00:31:29.280 happen this year.
00:31:30.540 And it's funny.
00:31:31.380 I'm going to tell you
00:31:32.120 two stories very briefly
00:31:33.500 before I wrap things up here.
00:31:35.380 I saw a photo
00:31:36.720 that a friend of mine
00:31:37.860 who has children
00:31:38.560 posted on,
00:31:39.200 I think it was Instagram
00:31:40.060 on the weekend,
00:31:41.300 of visiting mall Santa.
00:31:43.460 But,
00:31:43.860 you know,
00:31:44.140 the kid was on one side
00:31:45.620 of a plexiglass barrier
00:31:47.080 while a masked Santa
00:31:48.880 was on the other side.
00:31:49.980 So there was no
00:31:50.640 sitting on the lap.
00:31:51.820 It was like a weird
00:31:52.500 sort of confession thing
00:31:53.540 where I guess maybe
00:31:54.120 you have to talk
00:31:54.620 through the sheet.
00:31:55.580 And I watched this
00:31:56.460 and I'm like,
00:31:56.840 you know what?
00:31:57.200 At a certain point,
00:31:58.380 it might not even
00:31:59.280 be worth doing things.
00:32:00.580 And visiting Santa
00:32:01.580 was one of them.
00:32:02.340 So I had a couple
00:32:03.480 of parents say they agree.
00:32:04.700 I had a couple
00:32:05.060 of parents say,
00:32:05.700 yeah,
00:32:05.880 you know what?
00:32:06.240 They want to do
00:32:06.700 as much as they can
00:32:07.480 with their kids.
00:32:08.480 And the other thing,
00:32:09.360 I don't watch a lot
00:32:10.220 of fictional television.
00:32:12.100 I saw an ad on TV
00:32:14.000 for some legal drama.
00:32:16.200 And on the legal drama,
00:32:18.160 people were wearing masks.
00:32:19.460 And I unmuted it.
00:32:20.520 And I'm like,
00:32:20.780 what the heck's going on here?
00:32:21.800 And it wasn't an episode
00:32:22.820 about the pandemic.
00:32:23.640 It wasn't an episode
00:32:24.580 about COVID
00:32:25.240 where they had worked it in.
00:32:26.480 It was just an episode
00:32:28.020 that takes place
00:32:29.560 in our modern reality.
00:32:31.040 So they were all
00:32:32.940 reflecting the modern reality
00:32:35.300 without the show
00:32:36.080 being about it.
00:32:37.980 And I actually found
00:32:39.180 that genuinely unsettling
00:32:41.500 and depressing,
00:32:42.860 especially as someone
00:32:43.620 who likes old TV shows.
00:32:45.260 You know,
00:32:45.500 I love Lucy and MASH.
00:32:47.200 And I don't know
00:32:48.500 how much of today's television
00:32:50.080 is going to be around
00:32:51.120 in 50 years
00:32:52.060 and actually be watched
00:32:53.120 like some of the great shows
00:32:54.460 from the last 30,
00:32:55.360 40,
00:32:55.660 50 years.
00:32:56.560 But imagine if this is now
00:32:59.460 how the time is remembered.
00:33:01.520 And some people may say,
00:33:02.860 you know what?
00:33:03.220 The jig is up.
00:33:03.860 It's going to be remembered
00:33:04.500 that way anyway,
00:33:05.300 which is fine.
00:33:05.960 But to be immortalized
00:33:07.520 in that way,
00:33:08.820 to be immortalized
00:33:09.740 in that way
00:33:10.280 is contributing
00:33:11.260 to this normalization
00:33:12.740 of this culture.
00:33:14.580 And even if you accept
00:33:15.940 the inevitability
00:33:16.780 of what we're living
00:33:17.560 in right now,
00:33:18.620 do not accept
00:33:19.580 the normalcy of it.
00:33:21.200 Do not accept
00:33:22.240 that this is how life
00:33:23.200 is meant to be.
00:33:23.880 Because if you do,
00:33:25.120 that is how you stop
00:33:26.160 losing the freedoms
00:33:26.960 that are more essential now
00:33:28.220 than they have been
00:33:29.120 in most of our lifetimes.
00:33:31.220 With that,
00:33:31.960 I will talk to you
00:33:32.560 later this week.
00:33:33.260 From True North,
00:33:34.360 I'm Andrew Lawton.
00:33:35.140 Thank you,
00:33:35.580 God bless,
00:33:36.240 and good day, Canada.
00:33:37.280 Thanks for listening
00:33:37.980 to The Andrew Lawton Show.
00:33:39.500 Support the program
00:33:40.220 by donating to True North
00:33:41.460 at www.tnc.news.