Juno News - Criminalizing Everything

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. 0.52

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, 0.98

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, 0.88

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. 0.98

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.

Juno News - November 30, 2020

Criminalizing Everything

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