Juno News - Vilifying the Normals

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.

00:00:12.860 Coming up, the Liberals malign gun owners as extremists,

00:00:16.460 vaccine passports, and Ezra Levant on a dark day for press freedom.

00:00:22.660 The Andrew Lawton Show starts right now.

00:00:26.180 Hello and welcome to another edition of Canada's Most Irreverent Talk Show here on True North.

00:00:34.860 This is The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:00:36.400 It is April 13th, 2021, and after a little bit of a week of,

00:00:41.820 I don't want to say respite because I was doing a fair bit of work last week

00:00:44.700 on my supposed week off, working on getting this documentary together on firearms,

00:00:49.720 which we'll talk about in a couple of moments,

00:00:51.920 I am very much glad to be back.

00:00:54.500 Although it has been an eventful few days, even just over the weekend,

00:00:58.400 as we see the vilification of what I would call very normal people.

00:01:03.920 The vilification of the normals is what's happening here.

00:01:06.960 And the Liberals are creating a world in which everyone but them is an extremist.

00:01:13.080 And in some cases, they're going to come right out and say that,

00:01:15.920 as Bill Blair did, the public safety minister,

00:01:18.400 at the Liberal Convention on the weekend during a discussion about,

00:01:22.860 it's not quite clear what.

00:01:24.720 I mean, he was talking about gun control and he was talking about the makeup of the gun lobby,

00:01:29.160 but he decided to go very wide.

00:01:31.300 And in doing so, malign the 2 million Canadian firearms owners,

00:01:35.740 who he says have extremists in their midst.

00:01:39.220 Here's what Bill Blair said.

00:01:40.580 You know, we're seeing ideologically motivated violent extremists who are using online platforms

00:01:45.500 to propagate and advocate for hatred and violence against women,

00:01:49.740 against religious minorities, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic,

00:01:53.640 and hateful speech and advocating violence.

00:01:56.300 And we can use these red flag laws because I will tell you many of those extremists,

00:02:00.540 not every person who's in the gun lobby is an extremist,

00:02:03.800 but everybody in the extremist is in the gun lobby.

00:02:05.880 So did you get that?

00:02:06.560 He said, well, he was very charitable with it.

00:02:08.960 He said, well, not every gun owner, not everyone in the gun lobby is an extremist,

00:02:13.100 but anyone who's an extremist, they're in the gun lobby.

00:02:16.440 Now, I've covered numerous stories of radicalism and terrorism.

00:02:20.660 I covered a case not far from where I am in Strathroy, Ontario,

00:02:23.860 but a terrorist who was thankfully foiled in his efforts to undertake an act of terror,

00:02:29.660 but in the end was not a member of the gun lobby.

00:02:32.100 I never saw him at the range day.

00:02:33.680 I've never seen him in the membership roles of any gun group, as far as I'm concerned,

00:02:37.900 nor that Toronto van attacker, nor the guy who decided to go on a rampage in Nova Scotia,

00:02:44.600 nor any number of other killers, people who have perpetrated heinous crimes in Canada.

00:02:49.940 These are not people that I would say are part of the gun lobby.

00:02:54.580 And there's a very easy way of figuring this out.

00:02:56.960 The gun lobby in Canada advocates for safe, responsible, and legal firearms ownership.

00:03:02.940 So all of the people who are doing things with guns that are not those things

00:03:06.780 are therefore not part of the gun lobby, either in form or in spirit.

00:03:12.580 But it doesn't matter.

00:03:13.600 I mean, I'm not one of these people that wants to decide to meet a bad faith argument

00:03:17.740 with logic and reason and sense,

00:03:20.220 because clearly Bill Blair doesn't want to play that game.

00:03:23.080 Bill Blair wants to just go and peddle complete falsehoods about gun ownership and gun owners,

00:03:28.920 knowing that a lot of the people in his audience in the Liberal Convention

00:03:32.600 and also the mainstream media and a lot of other Canadians watching that

00:03:36.700 will have no idea that what he's saying is just complete fiction,

00:03:41.520 like the idea of evidence-based decision-making from the government.

00:03:45.820 This is the same Bill Blair who has said alongside Justin Trudeau

00:03:50.020 that not a single law-abiding gun owner is going to be targeted

00:03:54.240 by the myriad gun reforms that the Liberals are putting in place,

00:03:58.000 such as that order in council last May

00:03:59.960 that overnight prohibited 1,500 types of firearms,

00:04:03.480 and then a couple of weeks later, quietly adding more to the list.

00:04:06.840 Or more recently, Bill C-21,

00:04:09.220 which goes after the scourge that is replica firearms,

00:04:12.700 among many others,

00:04:13.760 and also allows municipal governments to ban handguns

00:04:16.640 from law-abiding gun owners,

00:04:18.280 or as Bill Blair would say,

00:04:19.520 from, you know, just the extremists that live in your midst.

00:04:22.600 So I don't have a lot of patience or time

00:04:26.000 for this form of disingenuous,

00:04:29.100 I don't even want to call it debate,

00:04:30.480 for this disingenuous drive-by smear

00:04:32.680 from the guy that's supposed to be holding himself up above politics.

00:04:36.420 Remember, he thumps his chest and says he was a former police chief.

00:04:39.760 He knows what it's like to serve,

00:04:41.240 and now he's in Justin Trudeau's cabinet.

00:04:43.540 But he actually has disgraced himself in both roles.

00:04:47.200 The fact that he was such an embarrassment as Toronto police chief

00:04:50.360 meant that he wasn't content to just share that embarrassment with Toronto alone.

00:04:54.300 He wanted to bring his incompetence to the entirety of Canada,

00:04:57.460 which is why the rest of us are stuck with him now.

00:05:00.380 And he brings no credibility to this file,

00:05:03.160 so all he has are attacks.

00:05:05.460 All he has are insults.

00:05:07.300 But I want you to take a look at this tweet from Bill Blair about the convention.

00:05:10.820 He said he was proud to meet with liberals from across the country virtually

00:05:14.100 about what we're doing to keep Canadians safe from coast to coast to coast,

00:05:18.400 and how we can work together to build a better future for all Canadians.

00:05:24.400 Do you think that anything that is a part of that line that he gave about extremists

00:05:29.100 is working together?

00:05:31.200 Is that building a better Canada?

00:05:33.180 Is that making people safer?

00:05:34.580 No.

00:05:35.600 What he's doing is he's trying to scapegoat gun owners,

00:05:38.880 which he calls the gun lobby because it sounds scarier

00:05:42.500 than just saying lawful licensed firearm owners.

00:05:45.320 But he's trying to scapegoat the gun lobby

00:05:47.440 and say that whenever someone is an extremist,

00:05:50.240 they are in the gun lobby.

00:05:51.580 Now, look, we know that there are bad people in any facet of society.

00:05:56.560 It's an unfortunate reality, but it exists.

00:05:59.120 But the one thing he's failing to acknowledge here,

00:06:01.500 and this is statistical, this is not conjecture on my part,

00:06:04.500 is that law-abiding gun owners are statistically safer

00:06:07.500 than the general population.

00:06:09.760 And you may say, how's that?

00:06:10.800 Well, there's a reason for it,

00:06:12.120 because there is no real barrier to entering the general population,

00:06:16.180 but there is a barrier to entering the community

00:06:18.580 of licensed gun owners in Canada.

00:06:20.680 You have to go through quite a rigorous screening,

00:06:23.600 and you are actually checked daily,

00:06:25.860 daily background checks to make sure your status hasn't changed,

00:06:28.800 which means if someone has a gun license,

00:06:32.020 they are actually safer and more responsible in many regards

00:06:36.260 than an average Canadian.

00:06:39.300 Now, does that mean average Canadians are unsafe?

00:06:41.740 No.

00:06:42.420 It simply means that you can't look at gun owners or the gun lobby

00:06:46.300 and say that these are the people that are responsible

00:06:48.780 for the ills of society.

00:06:50.800 Or even to say that these people are welcoming to extremists,

00:06:54.280 because he was trying to be shrewd there.

00:06:56.720 He's saying, no, no, no, I'm not arguing that all gun owners are extremists.

00:07:00.980 I'm just saying that all extremists are gun owners.

00:07:03.460 Just listen to that last section of his answer there.

00:07:06.440 I will tell you, many of those extremists,

00:07:08.300 not every person who's in the gun lobby is an extremist,

00:07:11.580 but everybody in the extremist is in the gun lobby.

00:07:13.680 So yeah, all extremists are part of the gun lobby or in the gun lobby.

00:07:17.560 Well, that just isn't the case.

00:07:18.980 And let me tell you, as someone who has talked to gun owners,

00:07:22.180 has talked to gun groups,

00:07:23.500 has had people from numerous firearms organizations on this very show,

00:07:27.420 I can tell you that the gun lobby is more likely to purge extremists from its midst

00:07:33.660 than to allow them in it.

00:07:36.340 So there's no sense about this.

00:07:39.640 The problem is that a lot of this rhetoric to people that don't know better

00:07:43.620 does seep into the public consciousness.

00:07:47.040 And I know I may sound like a broken record on this,

00:07:50.060 but I have to tell you, because I'm excited about this project,

00:07:52.160 this is the reason I've been going across the country,

00:07:55.240 talking to real gun owners, gun business owners, sports shooters,

00:07:58.880 people in the so-called gun lobby in many cases,

00:08:01.760 about what they are experiencing at the hands of the liberal government.

00:08:05.860 The documentary is coming out, I hope, in about six weeks' time.

00:08:09.120 We've still got a little bit of work left to do on it,

00:08:11.080 but it's coming together well.

00:08:12.720 That is called Assaulted, Justin Trudeau's War on Gun Owners.

00:08:16.260 And you can get all the information about that over at www.assaulted.ca.

00:08:21.260 And if I can put in a shameless plug on it,

00:08:23.480 we do need your support to make projects like this happen.

00:08:26.340 So there's a donate option if you can contribute financially,

00:08:29.760 however big or small, to the project.

00:08:31.880 It would very much be appreciated.

00:08:34.680 But again, when I set out to do that,

00:08:36.320 I didn't expect that Bill Blair would be reminding me on a regular basis

00:08:39.460 why it is important to showcase the face of gun owners.

00:08:43.780 And some of the people I've spoken to in the production of this,

00:08:46.920 just, you know, moms, dads, mom-and-pop shops,

00:08:50.040 ordinary people, Olympic athletes,

00:08:52.980 people that are part of the gun lobby,

00:08:55.240 which in Bill Blair's eyes is a safe haven for extremists.

00:09:00.660 And as I've said, this is now an era

00:09:02.680 where there's a scapegoating of everyone,

00:09:04.940 a vilification of everyone,

00:09:06.200 and normal people are the ones in the government's crosshairs.

00:09:10.080 We've got to take a break.

00:09:11.180 When we come back, more of The Andrew Lawton Show

00:09:13.240 here on True North.

00:09:14.940 You're tuned in to The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:09:22.020 Welcome back to The Andrew Lawton Show here on True North.

00:09:25.440 A couple of weeks ago, I had the good privilege of being a guest

00:09:28.980 on Maxime Bernier's show, The Max Bernier Show.

00:09:32.320 And it was great.

00:09:33.280 We had a wide-ranging chat.

00:09:34.720 We talked about my time in politics and media,

00:09:37.520 independent media, COVID lockdowns.

00:09:39.660 We spoke for, I think it was 40, 45 minutes or so.

00:09:42.660 And I'm not a PPC supporter

00:09:44.360 in the sense that I'm not a supporter of any particular party,

00:09:47.860 but I enjoyed the conversation

00:09:49.260 and would happily go back.

00:09:51.520 But it was interesting.

00:09:52.340 There was one section of that interview

00:09:54.180 with Maxime Bernier

00:09:55.780 that has had me getting deluged

00:09:58.980 by a lot of very nasty email.

00:10:01.840 And it was a section in which

00:10:03.040 I talked about vaccine passports.

00:10:05.520 Here's what I said.

00:10:06.280 I think that a vaccine passport is inevitable. 1.00

00:10:09.480 And I'm kind of of two minds on this

00:10:11.600 because on one hand, I respect national sovereignty

00:10:14.660 and I respect that countries need to be able

00:10:16.880 to make decisions that are right for them.

00:10:18.720 So even if Canada doesn't have a vaccine passport,

00:10:22.540 countries that Canadians might want to travel to,

00:10:24.780 like France or Germany or Israel, may expect one. 0.60

00:10:28.100 So if a Canadian wants to travel, 0.86

00:10:29.680 they have to play by other countries' rules.

00:10:31.920 Now, one of the problems is

00:10:33.140 I generally tend to be an easygoing person.

00:10:35.340 And some people are uncomfortable

00:10:36.540 with the fact that I'm not angry all the time,

00:10:38.660 to which I say it's very difficult

00:10:40.340 to sustain being angry all the time.

00:10:42.500 But I gave what I believe

00:10:44.180 is a matter-of-fact assessment

00:10:46.400 that vaccine passports are inevitable.

00:10:49.760 And a lot of people didn't like that.

00:10:51.820 And I realized that I haven't actually talked about this

00:10:54.200 in a little while.

00:10:54.980 And I wanted to delve into it in a way

00:10:56.940 that people understand my position,

00:10:58.960 that I think vaccine passports are terrible, 0.97

00:11:01.460 but also that they are unavoidable.

00:11:03.760 And the reason I say this is twofold.

00:11:06.840 Number one, I am committed to my libertarian principles,

00:11:09.820 and I don't believe that anyone has a right

00:11:11.920 to go into another country.

00:11:13.420 As much as I became accustomed to in the before times,

00:11:16.540 being able to just head on over to the United States

00:11:18.680 if I wanted, or pick up on a plane

00:11:20.580 and go to a country anywhere in the world

00:11:22.360 if I so desired,

00:11:23.780 no other country has a right

00:11:25.640 to admit non-citizens into its borders.

00:11:28.700 Which means that if any country

00:11:30.220 that is a tourist destination

00:11:31.800 decides it wants to put up barriers

00:11:33.940 and say, in order to enter,

00:11:35.280 you must prove that you are vaccinated,

00:11:37.160 I believe they have a right

00:11:39.700 as a sovereign nation to do that.

00:11:42.960 Now, if Canada were to do it,

00:11:44.460 I would oppose it because I'm a Canadian.

00:11:46.240 I have a say in how the Canadian government does things,

00:11:48.960 or that's how it's supposed to be

00:11:50.380 in a democratic society,

00:11:52.000 but that's a topic for another day.

00:11:53.960 And the issue with businesses is very similar.

00:11:56.540 I believe that businesses have a right

00:11:58.600 to determine whatever rules and guidelines they want

00:12:02.060 for admittance.

00:12:03.600 So if Live Nation,

00:12:04.800 which is one of the biggest concert companies,

00:12:06.760 decides that they're going to say,

00:12:07.980 in order to come to one of our concerts,

00:12:09.480 you need to be vaccinated,

00:12:10.600 you need to prove it,

00:12:11.460 and you need to show a vaccine passport,

00:12:13.600 I would oppose that,

00:12:15.560 but respect their right

00:12:17.200 as an independent private company to do it.

00:12:20.700 And that's the challenge with liberty,

00:12:22.880 is that if you believe people have a right

00:12:24.900 to make these decisions for themselves,

00:12:26.920 you unfortunately will inevitably lead to situations

00:12:29.660 where these things have very wide-reaching implications.

00:12:33.760 And this is where we are now.

00:12:35.700 If the Canadian government mandates a vaccine passport,

00:12:38.840 that would be incredibly wrong.

00:12:40.980 It would be a violation of people's right

00:12:42.720 to not be vaccinated.

00:12:45.000 Like I've said in the past,

00:12:46.280 I support vaccinations,

00:12:47.440 but I also support people's right to say

00:12:49.520 a vaccine is not for them.

00:12:51.180 And that's an especially important freedom

00:12:52.980 as we see stories of concern about the AstraZeneca

00:12:55.740 and Johnson & Johnson vaccines in particular.

00:12:58.960 Just this morning,

00:12:59.640 U.S. health authorities recommended a pause

00:13:01.880 in the Johnson & Johnson vaccine

00:13:03.800 over a small number,

00:13:04.860 but still a number of cases involving blood clots.

00:13:08.720 But all of that is beside the point.

00:13:10.960 You as an individual have a right

00:13:12.640 to decide what you want to put in your body.

00:13:15.480 Similarly, other businesses have a right

00:13:17.520 to decide what rules they want to put out.

00:13:19.940 And other individuals have a right to decide

00:13:22.180 what comfort level they have

00:13:24.180 about people in their orbit.

00:13:26.700 And this is the inevitable problem

00:13:28.760 we are going to see with vaccine passports,

00:13:31.360 is that we may reach them by default

00:13:33.720 without them being adopted by a state.

00:13:36.980 Without them being adopted

00:13:38.240 by the Canadian government necessarily.

00:13:41.420 Because if the Canadian government

00:13:43.000 were to start mandating this,

00:13:45.040 or even airlines which are federally regulated,

00:13:48.760 I'd say there is an argument

00:13:50.460 that Air Canada and WestJet

00:13:51.960 are not private companies,

00:13:53.300 especially Air Canada

00:13:54.260 now that they've gotten

00:13:55.100 a multi-billion dollar aid package

00:13:57.120 from the government.

00:13:58.460 But this is not me endorsing vaccine passports.

00:14:01.580 This is me taking a very realistic view

00:14:04.080 of how the world is headed

00:14:05.780 and where the world is headed.

00:14:07.320 One story that came across my radar

00:14:09.380 regarding the TIAC,

00:14:11.000 which is the Tourism Industry Association of Canada,

00:14:13.700 is that they're calling for a vaccine passport

00:14:15.840 because they see it as being the only way

00:14:18.260 that you could have travel reopen.

00:14:21.760 This industry, which is again,

00:14:23.240 made up of Air Canada, Via Rail,

00:14:25.840 a bunch of government-funded tourism boards,

00:14:28.640 they are saying that,

00:14:29.800 listen, the 14-day quarantine

00:14:31.100 is killing tourism,

00:14:32.600 travel restrictions are killing tourism.

00:14:34.740 They think a vaccine passport

00:14:36.200 is the only way to get out of that.

00:14:39.020 And that's the problem here,

00:14:40.580 is that a lot of people right now

00:14:41.880 think that that is the only way out of it.

00:14:43.900 And if they don't see another solution,

00:14:46.120 that's going to be a position

00:14:47.460 they're going to adopt.

00:14:49.620 And I think the response to that is very easy.

00:14:52.160 Government has to get off of this quarantine mindset,

00:14:55.460 which simply isn't working.

00:14:57.120 And I'll give you an example of why.

00:14:58.820 If you want to drive into Canada right now,

00:15:01.300 you're a Canadian citizen,

00:15:02.420 you're allowed to be in Canada,

00:15:03.880 you have to get a test

00:15:05.080 three days before you cross the border.

00:15:07.040 And then on the day you arrive,

00:15:08.900 you have to get another test.

00:15:10.140 And if it's negative,

00:15:11.160 doesn't matter,

00:15:11.840 you're still in quarantine.

00:15:12.740 And then on your 10th day of quarantine,

00:15:15.020 you have to get another test.

00:15:16.980 And if it's negative,

00:15:18.040 you get to leave your quarantine

00:15:19.460 on the 14th day

00:15:21.440 when you would have left it anyway.

00:15:23.700 So you need to do three tests,

00:15:26.120 even though the outcome is the same,

00:15:28.160 which is you being stuck in quarantine for 14 days.

00:15:31.180 So the idea of just going away for a weekend

00:15:33.740 is simply not possible for most people

00:15:36.360 unless they want to deal with the two weeks

00:15:38.480 of house arrest that comes after it.

00:15:40.880 And we've already talked on the show

00:15:42.780 on numerous occasions

00:15:43.840 about what happens when you fly into the country.

00:15:46.100 You have to spend up to $2,000

00:15:47.460 to hang out in hotel quarantine for three days.

00:15:50.540 And at the end of which you get a negative test,

00:15:52.840 you still have to spend your 14 day quarantine at home.

00:15:56.080 What government is trying to do

00:15:57.660 is basically prohibit travel

00:15:59.780 without coming out and saying

00:16:01.640 that you are not allowed to leave the country,

00:16:03.420 which government can't do.

00:16:04.700 They can not deny you entry into your country,

00:16:07.540 but they can make it miserable,

00:16:09.160 which is what they're trying to do.

00:16:10.680 And it's causing a slow, painful death

00:16:13.440 to the travel and tourism sector in Canada,

00:16:15.920 so much so that people are grabbing onto a vaccine passport

00:16:18.820 because they think it's the only available concession.

00:16:22.800 So while I think these things are inevitable in some form,

00:16:26.480 I'm also very aware that government is trying to make it

00:16:30.200 so that the vaccine is the be all and end all,

00:16:32.440 but they're not even doing a particularly good job at that.

00:16:36.480 The government isn't saying that being vaccinated

00:16:38.540 gets you out of quarantine.

00:16:40.300 And the reason the government's not saying that

00:16:42.080 is because they failed at getting vaccinations to Canadians.

00:16:46.120 They failed at getting people who want to be vaccinated,

00:16:48.840 vaccinated, and that failure is going to continue 0.99

00:16:51.460 and persist for months and months and months,

00:16:54.060 which is why Canada is, as a developed nation,

00:16:56.740 still shamefully doing this four month interval

00:16:59.040 between first dose and second dose,

00:17:01.340 despite the fact that that's not what

00:17:02.880 the vaccine manufacturers have tested for

00:17:05.460 and it's not what they are prescribing for these things.

00:17:09.440 So again, I'm never going to force anyone to get a vaccine.

00:17:12.080 Get one, don't get one, that is entirely your choice.

00:17:15.040 But the thing is, not everyone has to accept that choice.

00:17:18.500 The government has to, yes.

00:17:20.300 Do other individuals?

00:17:21.460 No.

00:17:22.000 Same as you don't have to respect their choices.

00:17:24.040 Do private businesses?

00:17:25.180 No.

00:17:25.760 Same as you don't have to respect their choices.

00:17:27.820 So you can call me a big globalist shill

00:17:30.760 because I think that vaccine passports are inevitable, 1.00

00:17:32.920 but the fact that we're already seeing so many pushes for this

00:17:35.700 is kind of indicating that I'm right.

00:17:37.780 Whether you like it or not, this is what's coming.

00:17:40.280 That doesn't mean it's agreement, it's a prediction.

00:17:43.080 We'll be back in a moment talking to Ezra Levant of Rebel News.

00:17:46.400 Stay with me.

00:17:47.120 This is The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:17:48.440 Welcome back to The Andrew Lawton Show,

00:17:57.320 Canada's most irreverent talk show here on True North.

00:18:00.480 I want you to just take a look at some of this footage

00:18:03.800 from Montreal over the weekend.

00:18:05.880 Now, if I didn't tell you that was Montreal

00:18:21.460 or you didn't recognize any of the players or people involved,

00:18:24.540 you'd think that this was some sort of raid taking place

00:18:27.260 in a foreign land,

00:18:29.020 a place that doesn't have a constitutional protection of freedom

00:18:31.880 or freedom of the press specifically.

00:18:33.880 But that was in Montreal.

00:18:34.860 That was in the Dominion of Canada over the weekend

00:18:37.760 and a raid on a boat occupied by members of our friends

00:18:41.360 over at Rebel News for the purported offense

00:18:44.900 of engaging in journalism under lockdown.

00:18:48.040 Rebel Commander Ezra Levant joins me on the line now.

00:18:51.280 Ezra, good to talk to you.

00:18:52.260 Thanks for coming on today.

00:18:53.880 Well, thank you.

00:18:54.580 And I actually think you're the first Canadian journalist

00:18:58.000 to interview me about this.

00:18:59.560 I've done this circuit in the United States.

00:19:01.760 Major outlets are shocked by this.

00:19:04.860 But I think most Canadian media party journalists

00:19:08.180 are either not allowed to say anything,

00:19:11.240 don't want to say anything,

00:19:13.360 or frankly agree with the police raid on our journalists.

00:19:16.380 I find that troubling.

00:19:17.960 You raise an interesting point there.

00:19:19.840 And actually, maybe we'll start with the bigger picture,

00:19:22.200 because you and I have been in London, England,

00:19:24.820 for the Global Conference for Media Freedom,

00:19:26.980 when Canada stands up as a leader and a beacon of press freedom

00:19:30.640 and talks about how countries like the Congo and Venezuela

00:19:33.920 need to do better without looking in its own,

00:19:36.800 not even its own backyard, its own front yard here.

00:19:39.420 And similarly, we have a lot of people in Canada

00:19:42.880 that when you were going through your Human Rights Commission battles,

00:19:46.060 what, 15 years ago, would take principled stands,

00:19:49.200 even if they didn't agree with what you said.

00:19:51.080 But now that's gone, and people are uninterested

00:19:53.800 in standing up for the freedom of people

00:19:55.540 they've determined are not worth it.

00:19:57.520 Yeah, I remember when we published

00:20:00.640 the Danish cartoons of Mohammed.

00:20:01.900 It was almost universal, the support for us.

00:20:05.140 Even if people didn't like our politics,

00:20:07.100 they thought it was outrageous

00:20:08.560 that we would be investigated by the state.

00:20:12.140 Things have changed completely in those 15 years.

00:20:15.380 I'm incredulous, for example, at La Presse,

00:20:19.500 that's a large newspaper in Montreal,

00:20:22.380 cheering for the police raid on our Airbnb.

00:20:27.520 When just a couple years ago,

00:20:30.020 one of their own columnists was subject to illegal wiretaps

00:20:35.220 by the same Montreal police force.

00:20:38.240 They were outraged when their reporter

00:20:40.740 was illegally spied on by police,

00:20:44.700 but they're thrilled that we are the subject of a raid.

00:20:48.720 I don't know if they can see what they look like

00:20:52.360 or can see what they're doing

00:20:54.140 because the precedents being set against us

00:20:57.900 will surely be used against them.

00:21:00.400 Let me give you a one-minute recap of what happened.

00:21:03.420 We've been covering the lockdowns

00:21:05.640 and lockdown protests across Canada

00:21:08.020 almost since the beginning.

00:21:09.940 Well, since the beginning.

00:21:11.800 And we don't have a lot of strength in Quebec

00:21:15.140 because we're English-speaking,

00:21:16.960 and we only have one employee in Quebec,

00:21:19.640 and most of what he does is not on camera.

00:21:22.860 But he started picking up a camera

00:21:24.560 and going out at night to show us

00:21:26.120 what the pandemic curfew in that province is like.

00:21:29.320 I don't know if most Canadians know this,

00:21:31.000 but in Quebec, they actually have a curfew at night.

00:21:33.900 They claim that somehow stops the virus.

00:21:36.560 And at 8 p.m. in Montreal,

00:21:39.240 you can't be on the streets

00:21:40.640 unless you have a special exemption.

00:21:42.700 And just to confirm,

00:21:44.200 journalists are eligible for those exemptions, correct?

00:21:46.880 That's right.

00:21:48.480 So our journalist, his name is Yankee Pollack,

00:21:50.940 he has an authorization,

00:21:53.760 he has an exemption,

00:21:54.680 he has a confirmation from the police.

00:21:56.660 It's totally kosher, so to speak.

00:21:59.320 So Yankee goes out there 0.92

00:22:00.380 and he points a camera

00:22:02.160 at police enforcing this curfew,

00:22:04.520 and they don't like that.

00:22:05.780 Police in Montreal don't wear body cams.

00:22:08.140 They are, I don't think it's controversial to say,

00:22:10.580 the most corrupt police force in Canada.

00:22:12.520 If you Google Montreal police corruption,

00:22:15.120 you'll get more than 2 million hits.

00:22:17.000 It really is a bad place.

00:22:19.660 So our reporter would go out

00:22:21.120 and point a camera at these police,

00:22:23.260 and they would ticket him and harass him.

00:22:25.760 And it started getting weird.

00:22:28.080 They would call him Jew media. 0.66

00:22:30.460 Are you a Jew?

00:22:31.520 They repeatedly,

00:22:32.560 and I thought that that could be anti-Semitic.

00:22:36.080 I don't want to jump to a conclusion.

00:22:37.460 Maybe something was lost in translation.

00:22:39.540 Maybe they were asking

00:22:40.280 if he was with a Jewish newspaper.

00:22:41.940 There are such things,

00:22:42.820 like there's Christian newspapers,

00:22:43.940 but I didn't like the treatment of him.

00:22:47.040 So we sent more reporters

00:22:48.520 to join him in solidarity.

00:22:51.940 They were also called Jew media,

00:22:53.860 and they were handcuffed,

00:22:55.860 arrested,

00:22:56.900 pushed around by Montreal police.

00:22:59.760 And by the way,

00:23:00.440 they were doing nothing.

00:23:01.180 They were standing on the sidewalk

00:23:02.340 with a camera.

00:23:03.620 But because they were reporting

00:23:05.360 on the lockdown

00:23:06.320 and what I would call police brutality,

00:23:09.560 they were brutalized, too.

00:23:12.320 So our one guy was brutalized.

00:23:14.440 We sent a bunch of reinforcements.

00:23:16.240 They were brutalized.

00:23:17.520 So I do what we often do here

00:23:19.040 at Rebel News.

00:23:19.680 We show solidarity.

00:23:21.380 So me and 16 other of our staff

00:23:24.400 went to Montreal

00:23:25.660 in solidarity with Yankee

00:23:27.180 and the rest of the team.

00:23:28.780 And we also brought

00:23:29.620 Montreal lawyers with us,

00:23:31.340 Francophone lawyers

00:23:32.080 who know the criminal law.

00:23:33.760 We had a one-hour briefing

00:23:35.280 with the lawyers in advance

00:23:36.580 to make sure we knew

00:23:37.820 all the rules

00:23:38.460 and were in compliance

00:23:39.400 and knew what to do.

00:23:41.400 We all had the lawyer's phone number.

00:23:43.200 And actually,

00:23:43.780 the lawyer came out

00:23:44.560 on the streets with us

00:23:45.500 just so we were compliant.

00:23:48.580 Friday night went fine.

00:23:51.020 We stayed in an Airbnb,

00:23:52.800 as I mentioned,

00:23:53.360 just for privacy.

00:23:54.680 We rented a whole houseboat.

00:23:56.720 21 people was the capacity.

00:23:58.640 We had 17 people.

00:23:59.980 We followed all the rules.

00:24:01.260 It was a registered Airbnb.

00:24:03.000 It was sort of fun

00:24:03.840 because it was a houseboat

00:24:04.840 as opposed to a regular house.

00:24:06.000 We liked that

00:24:06.760 because it gave us privacy.

00:24:08.540 Saturday morning comes around.

00:24:10.360 We're having breakfast

00:24:11.380 in the Airbnb.

00:24:13.420 And a bunch of cops

00:24:14.360 come up to him and say,

00:24:15.780 we want to come on your Airbnb.

00:24:18.200 We want to come in your houseboat.

00:24:20.660 And I said,

00:24:22.160 come back with a search warrant.

00:24:23.600 We're reporters.

00:24:24.820 I know this is Montreal,

00:24:26.320 but I also know

00:24:27.020 there's still a little bit

00:24:27.800 of rule of law left.

00:24:29.060 They did not, in fact,

00:24:30.620 storm the boat.

00:24:31.880 But because I wouldn't

00:24:33.000 let them come on,

00:24:34.180 they took that orange police tape,

00:24:37.980 roped off the entire pier,

00:24:39.940 including our cars,

00:24:41.680 roped off the boat,

00:24:43.000 called it a crime scene,

00:24:45.080 and for the next 10 hours

00:24:46.900 trapped us.

00:24:48.000 They wouldn't let anyone

00:24:48.740 off the boat

00:24:49.300 unless they submitted

00:24:50.060 to a personal search.

00:24:51.660 They wouldn't let anyone

00:24:52.700 back on the boat.

00:24:53.620 They pushed our people around.

00:24:56.620 They actually arrested

00:24:57.640 David Menzies

00:24:58.320 and took him to jail.

00:24:59.440 And here's what they said to us.

00:25:01.080 And I remembered this,

00:25:03.200 and a day later I thought,

00:25:04.560 no, that can't be.

00:25:05.380 I can't be remembering this right.

00:25:06.820 So I called our lawyer

00:25:07.920 and double-checked.

00:25:09.040 And they said,

00:25:09.560 oh yeah, that happened.

00:25:10.660 It's so absurd.

00:25:11.580 What I'm about to tell you

00:25:12.320 is so absurd,

00:25:13.240 I almost thought

00:25:14.200 that my mind created it.

00:25:16.380 And so I double-checked

00:25:17.400 with the lawyer

00:25:17.880 because what I'm about to say

00:25:19.220 is so insane.

00:25:20.280 They handcuffed David Menzies,

00:25:23.120 took him to a police jail,

00:25:25.140 a police station jail.

00:25:26.760 And then they said

00:25:28.420 to our lawyer,

00:25:29.840 if you let us search

00:25:32.460 your Airbnb,

00:25:34.840 go room to room

00:25:35.920 and search the personal effects

00:25:37.600 of your reporters,

00:25:38.860 if you let us do that

00:25:40.480 without a search warrant,

00:25:42.060 we'll let David out of jail.

00:25:44.220 If you don't let us do that,

00:25:45.980 we'll keep David in jail.

00:25:48.540 What were they looking for?

00:25:50.280 What were they looking for?

00:25:53.160 I don't quite know.

00:25:54.960 At one point,

00:25:55.880 they said,

00:25:56.340 are there other people

00:25:57.280 on the boat?

00:25:58.320 What, do you think

00:25:58.860 we were like smuggling people

00:26:00.000 across Roxham Road?

00:26:01.340 I want to let you know

00:26:02.000 it was a houseboat,

00:26:02.720 so it looks like a boat,

00:26:04.240 but it's permanently

00:26:05.280 in the pier, you know?

00:26:07.360 Well, yeah,

00:26:07.640 because I was wondering

00:26:08.240 when this happened

00:26:08.960 why you didn't just,

00:26:09.840 you know,

00:26:10.100 go away from the dock

00:26:11.080 and just sail off

00:26:12.060 into the sunset.

00:26:13.040 But that's your point

00:26:14.200 that you couldn't.

00:26:14.820 The boat was fixed in place.

00:26:16.060 Okay.

00:26:16.980 Well, and we had nothing

00:26:18.400 to run away from.

00:26:19.620 I mean,

00:26:20.320 it's just like

00:26:21.040 a slightly quirky Airbnb,

00:26:23.080 but I chose it

00:26:24.020 because it was

00:26:24.780 of privacy reasons.

00:26:26.500 We would have

00:26:26.960 the whole thing

00:26:27.360 to ourselves.

00:26:28.100 And because when you're

00:26:29.120 buying hotel rooms

00:26:29.860 for 17 people,

00:26:30.900 it actually worked out

00:26:32.480 more economically

00:26:33.320 to do it in one Airbnb.

00:26:34.320 Now, have any charges

00:26:35.260 or tickets been laid

00:26:36.340 against anyone,

00:26:37.380 against Rebel

00:26:37.940 or any of the people

00:26:38.780 that were involved

00:26:39.400 in this on this day?

00:26:41.640 Yes, they've given

00:26:42.580 a charge to David Manzies,

00:26:44.920 and I haven't actually

00:26:46.120 inspected the charge yet,

00:26:48.960 so he has been charged.

00:26:50.280 He has to go back

00:26:51.000 to Montreal.

00:26:52.200 None of the rest of us

00:26:53.360 have received any charges.

00:26:55.300 I presume something

00:26:56.520 will come in the mail,

00:26:57.680 some sort of ticket.

00:26:59.400 But like I say,

00:27:00.260 we were all

00:27:00.780 in compliance

00:27:02.080 with the law.

00:27:04.020 It was an Airbnb.

00:27:05.300 It was like a hometown.

00:27:05.680 And was this,

00:27:06.800 the cause of the investigation

00:27:08.600 that you were violating

00:27:09.920 gathering restrictions,

00:27:11.020 was that what

00:27:11.520 they were suspicious of?

00:27:13.580 Well, that's one

00:27:14.340 of the things they said,

00:27:15.420 but it wasn't a gathering.

00:27:16.820 It was like a hotel.

00:27:17.860 Yeah, and I'm also curious

00:27:19.320 if they're suspicious

00:27:20.960 of you for having

00:27:21.820 a gathering,

00:27:22.600 what benefit do they have

00:27:23.660 from going through

00:27:24.220 your backpacks

00:27:24.960 and your laptops

00:27:25.980 and your purses

00:27:26.880 and all of these things?

00:27:27.860 I mean, are they looking

00:27:28.720 for other, yeah,

00:27:29.320 more people in them?

00:27:31.280 And I was worried

00:27:32.400 that if they got on the,

00:27:33.540 and they wouldn't let us

00:27:34.380 on the boat,

00:27:34.980 they wanted to search

00:27:36.020 the houseboat,

00:27:37.300 but they wouldn't let us

00:27:38.240 accompany them.

00:27:39.520 I was very worried,

00:27:40.920 given the history

00:27:41.980 of corruption

00:27:42.500 in this police force,

00:27:43.560 that they might plant

00:27:44.420 something on us.

00:27:45.360 I don't know,

00:27:45.740 drugs or a weapon

00:27:47.300 or something,

00:27:48.280 but here's the incredible part.

00:27:50.800 For 10 hours,

00:27:53.180 we refused to let them

00:27:54.460 on the boat.

00:27:55.120 They refused to let us move.

00:27:57.680 They held David

00:27:59.320 in a jail cell

00:28:00.120 for about half that time.

00:28:00.980 For 10 hours,

00:28:02.140 they shopped around Quebec

00:28:03.660 to try to find a judge

00:28:05.800 to give them a search warrant.

00:28:07.600 No judge would sign it.

00:28:09.960 I don't know,

00:28:10.280 maybe they couldn't

00:28:10.700 find a judge,

00:28:11.540 or maybe a judge

00:28:12.680 would look at it

00:28:13.260 and say,

00:28:13.660 what?

00:28:14.240 You want to search

00:28:14.960 journalists' hotel rooms?

00:28:16.420 Because you claim

00:28:18.620 they were,

00:28:19.220 like,

00:28:19.680 here's the owner

00:28:21.620 of the Airbnb

00:28:22.620 came down

00:28:23.460 because he heard

00:28:24.280 there were 50 police there.

00:28:25.580 He was panicked.

00:28:26.260 He came down.

00:28:27.580 He thought maybe

00:28:28.160 we were like

00:28:28.640 a Hell's Angels gang

00:28:29.760 or having an illegal rave

00:28:31.640 or something,

00:28:32.260 and he saw

00:28:32.680 it was just journalists.

00:28:34.680 And he talked to me,

00:28:35.820 then he talked to the cops,

00:28:36.740 and he came back to me

00:28:37.520 and he said this.

00:28:38.220 He said,

00:28:38.580 I sure hope you're right

00:28:40.440 and I hope they're wrong,

00:28:42.140 he said,

00:28:42.520 referring to the police,

00:28:43.740 because if they're right,

00:28:45.440 I'm out of business.

00:28:46.320 Because if having a bed

00:28:48.820 and breakfast,

00:28:49.440 having an Airbnb mini hotel

00:28:51.500 is now called

00:28:52.660 an illegal gathering,

00:28:53.920 he's out of business.

00:28:55.580 And think about that.

00:28:56.580 Like,

00:28:56.720 if you just deem

00:28:58.000 a hotel to be

00:28:59.580 an illegal gathering,

00:29:00.560 it's not a gathering.

00:29:01.700 It's a hotel.

00:29:03.280 He said,

00:29:04.080 if you're wrong,

00:29:05.740 he said to me,

00:29:06.660 I'm out of business.

00:29:07.480 So he wasn't even mad at me.

00:29:09.220 I asked him,

00:29:09.880 because his day

00:29:11.140 was ruined by this.

00:29:12.140 Imagine having

00:29:12.780 a huge police force

00:29:14.980 surrounding your B&B,

00:29:18.100 taping it off

00:29:18.820 as a crime scene.

00:29:19.820 You don't know

00:29:20.620 what's going on.

00:29:21.280 You come down there

00:29:21.960 and it doesn't make sense.

00:29:23.060 There was such a huge

00:29:24.080 crowd of police,

00:29:25.340 police cars,

00:29:26.080 police trucks,

00:29:26.580 police bikes,

00:29:27.840 that a crowd gathered

00:29:29.340 to watch.

00:29:30.240 One person said,

00:29:31.400 are they filming a movie?

00:29:33.040 Because it was so absurd,

00:29:35.540 no one could believe

00:29:36.340 what happened.

00:29:37.100 Yeah,

00:29:37.280 it's not a great movie.

00:29:38.240 I don't want to see

00:29:38.740 how this one ends.

00:29:40.500 Yeah,

00:29:40.820 well,

00:29:40.960 I guess we are making

00:29:41.840 a movie out of it,

00:29:42.680 but it's not a happy movie.

00:29:44.560 It's a movie of police brutality.

00:29:46.380 And as the police

00:29:47.380 pushed us,

00:29:48.080 pushed us,

00:29:48.800 the crowd started

00:29:50.040 booing and heckling

00:29:51.400 and swearing at the police.

00:29:53.460 Listen,

00:29:53.840 we were heckling

00:29:55.120 the police too.

00:29:56.180 It's all you can do

00:29:57.020 when they've got the guns,

00:29:58.500 when they're breaking the law.

00:30:00.420 I believe it is

00:30:01.780 at least bending the law,

00:30:02.980 if not breaking it,

00:30:03.980 to arrest David Menzies,

00:30:05.340 hold them in an awful jail cell

00:30:07.080 and use that

00:30:08.040 as a bargaining chip

00:30:09.140 to get illegal access

00:30:10.760 into our hotel rooms.

00:30:12.920 I mean,

00:30:13.860 either David Menzies

00:30:14.960 did something wrong

00:30:15.800 or he didn't.

00:30:16.860 Either they have

00:30:17.520 the legal right

00:30:18.260 to search our hotel

00:30:19.240 or they don't.

00:30:20.300 For them to grab Menzies 0.99

00:30:22.180 and then say,

00:30:23.140 we'll let him go

00:30:23.940 if you give us

00:30:24.820 the right to search

00:30:26.520 a place without a warrant,

00:30:27.800 that's in itself corruption.

00:30:30.880 And why are they doing that?

00:30:32.860 I mentioned earlier

00:30:33.740 they call us Jew media

00:30:35.120 and are you a Jew?

00:30:36.540 I don't actually think

00:30:37.660 that's their central

00:30:38.760 motivating factor.

00:30:40.360 In fact,

00:30:41.200 we only have that one

00:30:42.520 Jewish reporter,

00:30:43.720 their Yankee,

00:30:44.320 our reporters

00:30:45.020 of various religions,

00:30:46.940 various races.

00:30:48.160 I don't think it was racism

00:30:49.680 that was their dominant motive.

00:30:51.800 I think they just hated

00:30:53.000 the fact that we were

00:30:53.840 pointing cameras

00:30:54.560 at what they were doing.

00:30:56.180 Because another policeman

00:30:57.560 told our reporter

00:30:58.400 another day,

00:30:59.980 he said,

00:31:00.860 why are you

00:31:01.740 out recording us?

00:31:03.860 Why are you

00:31:04.500 asking us such questions?

00:31:05.540 Yeah, I saw one

00:31:06.380 saying there's nothing

00:31:07.500 to see here.

00:31:08.140 There's no story.

00:31:08.960 Well, that's for journalists

00:31:09.740 to decide.

00:31:11.180 They say that all the time

00:31:12.500 and they also,

00:31:13.200 on one occasion,

00:31:13.960 said,

00:31:14.620 the CBC doesn't ask us

00:31:15.980 these questions.

00:31:16.660 Why are you?

00:31:18.000 As if...

00:31:18.960 Asked and answered.

00:31:19.980 Which was incredible.

00:31:21.420 Yeah.

00:31:21.880 So they show

00:31:22.660 they want a compliance

00:31:24.180 subordinate media.

00:31:26.080 And by the way,

00:31:27.500 police in Montreal

00:31:28.380 do not have body cams.

00:31:29.920 So a lot of their abuses

00:31:31.160 go undocumented, 1.00

00:31:32.940 unrecorded.

00:31:34.660 I...

00:31:35.020 It was incredible.

00:31:36.780 We went there

00:31:37.340 and we had this big

00:31:38.420 team meeting

00:31:39.060 before we went.

00:31:39.800 We had 17 people.

00:31:41.100 We met with the lawyers.

00:31:42.440 They briefed us.

00:31:43.120 We really had our battle plan

00:31:44.460 in advance.

00:31:45.440 And I said to everybody,

00:31:46.680 our goal

00:31:47.520 is to have

00:31:48.580 an uneventful weekend

00:31:49.720 where we simply

00:31:50.780 record the news

00:31:51.860 and go home.

00:31:52.920 If I can interrupt you there,

00:31:54.480 Ezra,

00:31:54.740 and I'm sorry.

00:31:55.480 So you were here

00:31:56.800 to report.

00:31:57.500 You weren't just here

00:31:58.140 because you wanted a fight.

00:32:01.100 Oh, exactly.

00:32:02.080 It was the opposite.

00:32:02.940 In fact,

00:32:03.540 we had a real talk

00:32:05.260 with our lawyers,

00:32:06.200 with our staff,

00:32:07.360 and we decided...

00:32:08.580 I mean,

00:32:08.780 the whole reason

00:32:09.400 we met with the lawyers

00:32:10.180 in advance

00:32:10.660 and had the lawyer with us

00:32:11.840 is so we would be

00:32:13.800 compliant the whole time.

00:32:15.600 We literally went out

00:32:16.840 on the streets

00:32:17.420 of Montreal

00:32:18.000 with a criminal lawyer,

00:32:20.320 a native French-speaking

00:32:22.480 criminal lawyer,

00:32:23.980 walking the streets

00:32:25.420 with us,

00:32:26.620 ready to interact

00:32:27.600 with police

00:32:28.300 because we were

00:32:30.060 briefed on the law.

00:32:30.880 But you know,

00:32:31.420 if you get into trouble,

00:32:32.380 you call a lawyer.

00:32:33.660 But if it's 1 a.m.

00:32:34.660 or whatever,

00:32:35.140 because we were out

00:32:35.820 reporting on the lockdown

00:32:37.220 until 1 a.m.,

00:32:38.020 the lawyer was literally

00:32:39.220 walking with us.

00:32:40.380 And I said to the whole team,

00:32:41.500 including the lawyer,

00:32:43.000 we're not going to protest.

00:32:44.600 We're not going as activists.

00:32:45.840 We're going as reporters.

00:32:47.820 We may be forced

00:32:48.840 into some action

00:32:49.900 by the police,

00:32:51.480 but our goal

00:32:52.020 is to have

00:32:52.420 an uneventful weekend

00:32:53.500 where the lawyers

00:32:54.720 at the end of it say,

00:32:55.940 huh,

00:32:56.420 that was the easiest money

00:32:57.700 we ever made.

00:32:58.380 Why did you even hire us?

00:32:59.720 So the ideal outcome

00:33:01.000 is nothing would have happened.

00:33:02.960 But you and I know

00:33:04.260 that these days,

00:33:07.120 just getting the right

00:33:08.620 to report

00:33:09.240 often involves

00:33:10.300 some sort of a battle.

00:33:11.880 I remember when you

00:33:12.680 and you

00:33:13.400 and David Menzies

00:33:15.740 and Kian Bexty

00:33:16.600 went to federal court,

00:33:18.080 we had to fight

00:33:19.320 just to do our reporting

00:33:21.320 in the 2019 leaders debate.

00:33:24.020 So I know you weren't

00:33:27.180 looking for a fight then.

00:33:28.440 Neither were we.

00:33:28.980 We were just looking

00:33:29.620 to go and do the reporting,

00:33:31.540 but we had to fight

00:33:32.580 for that right.

00:33:33.520 Same thing here in Montreal.

00:33:34.900 It was the police

00:33:36.020 that were escalating.

00:33:37.100 They were picking

00:33:37.560 on our reporter Yankee.

00:33:38.920 Then they picked

00:33:39.660 on our smaller team

00:33:40.680 that went.

00:33:41.080 So I sent 17 people.

00:33:43.380 It was a proof.

00:33:44.560 It was sort of,

00:33:45.240 let us test the system

00:33:46.460 completely lawfully.

00:33:48.120 We're going to be

00:33:48.880 really legally briefed.

00:33:50.300 We're going to have

00:33:50.760 lawyers with us.

00:33:52.140 We will see

00:33:53.620 if Quebec is indeed

00:33:55.680 a police state

00:33:56.480 or if it's free.

00:33:58.320 And they failed the test.

00:34:00.820 It's incredible

00:34:01.800 how they attempted

00:34:03.720 to get on the boat.

00:34:05.260 When I said,

00:34:06.220 get a warrant,

00:34:06.920 they detained me.

00:34:08.580 And then they said

00:34:09.520 to my younger staff,

00:34:11.260 you have to let us in

00:34:12.680 if you're not...

00:34:13.760 Like, they tried

00:34:14.700 these tricks,

00:34:15.540 this tricky,

00:34:16.680 deceptive language,

00:34:17.740 but our staff

00:34:18.400 are pretty smart.

00:34:19.740 And they said,

00:34:20.400 no, no,

00:34:20.800 come back with a warrant.

00:34:21.940 They couldn't believe

00:34:22.980 that we resisted

00:34:23.960 their demands.

00:34:24.980 For 10 hours,

00:34:26.960 they shopped around

00:34:28.120 their search warrant

00:34:29.520 application.

00:34:30.800 No judge in Quebec

00:34:32.260 would give it to them.

00:34:33.140 So suddenly,

00:34:34.500 10 hours after

00:34:35.520 they first arrived,

00:34:36.340 they just left.

00:34:38.500 No explanation,

00:34:39.520 no apology.

00:34:40.300 They just left.

00:34:41.500 And we went back

00:34:42.440 on our Airbnb.

00:34:44.220 It was the most

00:34:44.960 incredible thing.

00:34:45.880 And they released...

00:34:46.760 David just released him

00:34:48.060 when they realized

00:34:49.040 that they couldn't

00:34:49.600 use him as a hostage,

00:34:51.340 the ransom being

00:34:52.440 letting them in our Airbnb.

00:34:53.740 Now, here's the thing.

00:34:55.640 And La Presse

00:34:56.340 is really strange about it.

00:34:57.420 Like I say,

00:34:57.900 their own reporters

00:34:58.820 have been illegally

00:34:59.960 spied on by Montreal police,

00:35:01.500 but they are mocking

00:35:03.120 this police raid

00:35:04.640 on our Airbnb,

00:35:06.220 saying that we're not

00:35:06.980 real journalists,

00:35:08.160 that we're clowns,

00:35:09.020 whatever.

00:35:09.640 I don't think we're clowns.

00:35:11.020 I know we're real journalists.

00:35:12.360 As I said,

00:35:12.840 the Federal Court of Canada

00:35:14.240 said that you and we are

00:35:15.580 and they commanded

00:35:16.300 the Debates Commission

00:35:17.440 to let us in.

00:35:18.240 But let's say

00:35:18.940 we aren't good people.

00:35:20.460 Let's say we're really,

00:35:21.340 really bad people.

00:35:22.600 Let's say we're clownish,

00:35:23.940 whatever the accusations are.

00:35:26.380 So what?

00:35:27.580 The Charter of Rights

00:35:28.900 and the Rule of Law

00:35:30.440 protect everyone in Canada,

00:35:32.260 whether you're smart or dumb,

00:35:34.000 whether you're friendly or mean,

00:35:36.640 whether you're an excellent journalist

00:35:38.020 or a crummy journalist.

00:35:39.420 The Charter of Rights,

00:35:40.400 the Rule of Law,

00:35:41.640 limited police powers,

00:35:43.160 civilian oversight of police,

00:35:44.840 search warrants,

00:35:45.820 that all applies

00:35:47.100 whether or not

00:35:47.700 you're a nice person

00:35:48.580 or a bad person.

00:35:50.820 The press can love you

00:35:52.040 or hate you.

00:35:52.920 We are all protected

00:35:54.780 by the law.

00:35:56.360 And I find it

00:35:57.240 extremely disappointing

00:35:58.620 that most Canadian journalists

00:36:00.820 were thrilled

00:36:01.760 that we were

00:36:03.220 the subject of a police raid.

00:36:05.060 I find that the scary part.

00:36:06.380 I'm glad you're all okay,

00:36:07.340 but you're right.

00:36:07.860 A lot of very significant questions

00:36:09.700 this raises

00:36:10.300 about the state of media

00:36:11.380 and also

00:36:11.940 the law enforcement

00:36:13.140 in Quebec and Montreal.

00:36:15.060 Ezra Levant

00:36:15.480 from Rebel News.

00:36:16.440 Always a pleasure.

00:36:17.080 Thanks for coming on.

00:36:18.980 Thanks, my friend.

00:36:20.160 Wow.

00:36:20.620 Just insane.

00:36:21.340 And again,

00:36:21.760 there are so many people

00:36:22.840 in Canada

00:36:23.380 that are going to say,

00:36:23.900 well, it's Rebel.

00:36:25.160 Well, it's Ezra.

00:36:26.160 Well, it's...

00:36:26.680 I mean, who cares?

00:36:28.300 Who cares?

00:36:28.980 If I would in a heartbeat

00:36:30.360 stand up

00:36:31.060 for any CBC,

00:36:32.660 CTV,

00:36:33.460 Global News,

00:36:34.260 Vancouver Sun,

00:36:35.100 Montreal Gazette reporter,

00:36:36.740 Canada Land,

00:36:37.440 Press Progress,

00:36:38.260 Rabble,

00:36:38.660 doesn't matter.

00:36:39.840 Would stand up

00:36:40.360 for any of them

00:36:40.900 to do their jobs

00:36:41.700 even in the face of lockdown.

00:36:43.280 The problem is

00:36:43.820 a lot of people

00:36:44.360 in the media

00:36:44.900 have committed themselves

00:36:46.480 to big lockdown,

00:36:48.240 which means that

00:36:48.860 any reporter

00:36:49.500 that decides,

00:36:50.480 you know what,

00:36:50.880 we're going to keep

00:36:51.380 working through the lockdown.

00:36:52.640 Us is a journalist

00:36:53.860 right is now

00:36:55.260 themselves being vilified.

00:36:56.960 As I mentioned

00:36:57.520 at the beginning

00:36:58.000 of the show,

00:36:58.780 the vilification

00:36:59.480 of the normal.

00:37:01.060 We've got to wrap things up,

00:37:02.160 but we'll of course

00:37:02.700 follow this

00:37:03.420 and all other sorts

00:37:04.400 of happenings

00:37:04.980 in the land of Canada.

00:37:07.020 We'll talk to you

00:37:07.740 in a couple of days.

00:37:08.440 This is Canada's

00:37:09.360 most irreverent talk show

00:37:10.740 here on True North,

00:37:11.640 The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:37:12.760 Thank you,

00:37:13.280 God bless,

00:37:13.860 and good day to you all.

00:37:15.160 Thanks for listening

00:37:15.820 to The Andrew Lawton Show.

00:37:17.260 Support the program

00:37:18.080 by donating to True North

00:37:19.300 at www.tnc.news.

00:37:22.480 The Andrew Lawton Show.

Juno News - April 13, 2021

Vilifying the Normals

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript