Rebel News Podcast - Alberta’s new recall legislation is guaranteed never to work — it’s worse than nothing, and I’ll show you why

00:00:00.000 Hello, my friends. I compare the recall going on in California with the fake recall legislation

00:00:06.500 being proposed in Alberta. I take you through the Alberta recall legislation and show

00:00:11.240 that it is scientifically impossible to get a recall under that law. And I compare it to how

00:00:18.000 it is very possible, maybe even probable, to get a recall in California. I think you might find it

00:00:24.900 interesting. May I invite you to become a subscriber to Rebel News Plus? That's the video

00:00:30.100 version of this podcast. Just go to rebelnews.com, click subscribe. It's eight bucks a month or 80

00:00:36.160 bucks for the whole year. You get my show, David Menzies' show, Sheila Gunn-Reed's show, Andrew

00:00:41.360 Chapitow's show. But I think the big payoff is, frankly, keeping Rebel News strong because we don't

00:00:47.380 get any of that government money. So please consider subscribing at rebelnews.com. All right,

00:00:53.020 here's the podcast today. Tonight, Alberta's new recall legislation is guaranteed never to work.

00:01:13.620 It's worse than nothing, and I'll show you why. It's March 17th, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.

00:01:20.440 Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?

00:01:26.200 There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.

00:01:30.260 The only thing I have to say to the government about why I'm publishing it is because it's my

00:01:34.860 bloody right to do so.

00:01:40.860 I like the idea of recalling politicians. That's just a way of saying, forcing them into an election

00:01:47.220 without waiting for the next scheduled election. It's happening right now for one of America's

00:01:53.300 worst governors, Gavin Newsom of California. He's a disaster in every way. He's an environmental

00:01:59.500 extremist. He's an open borders, illegal migration guy. He's super woke. Now, in California, that gets

00:02:06.840 a guy elected. It's hard to believe that Ronald Reagan was once the governor there. But Newsom's

00:02:12.340 atrocious handling of the pandemic and the lockdown is just too far, even for California liberals.

00:02:18.180 I can see it even on Twitter, ordinary people whose lives have been destroyed, people who

00:02:23.520 surely voted Democrat in the past, lots of restaurant owners, mums and dads who can't send their kids to

00:02:30.700 school anymore, and tons of people leaving California for less disastrous states like Texas.

00:02:37.600 So California's population, by the way, it's just a shade under 40 million people. It is huge.

00:02:45.740 It's the largest state in the union. It's actually more people than all of Canada.

00:02:49.760 And they are currently having a petition to recall Gavin Newsom. They're not waiting until he's done

00:02:56.020 his term. They want him out now. He's wrecked enough things. He did what Andrew Cuomo did. That's the New

00:03:01.420 York governor who shipped six seniors into long-term care homes, infecting thousands. He did

00:03:07.560 things that were really, really infuriating. He locked down restaurants, but he went to dinner

00:03:13.140 parties at closed restaurants with his fancy friends. Just incredible. And his excuses were

00:03:20.220 just cringeworthy. I don't know if you remember this. A few weeks ago, I was asked to go to a

00:03:26.060 friend's 50th birthday. My wife and I, a friend that I've known for almost 20 years, and a friend that

00:03:33.220 had, well, put a lot of time and energy into his 50th birthday. It was in Napa, which was in the

00:03:39.300 orange status, relatively loose compared to some other counties. It was to be an outdoor

00:03:45.640 restaurant. And we started the, well, the program started at four o'clock. It was one of those early

00:03:52.160 reservations. I got there a little bit late at 4.30. And as soon as I sat down at the larger table,

00:03:58.500 I realized it was a little larger group than I had anticipated. And I made a bad mistake. Instead

00:04:05.580 of sitting down, I should have stood up and walked back, got in my car, and drove back to my house.

00:04:15.280 Instead, I chose to sit there with my wife and a number of other couples that were outside the

00:04:21.040 household. You can quibble about the guidelines, et cetera, et cetera, but the spirit of what I'm

00:04:26.380 preaching all the time was contradicted. And I got to own that. And so I want to apologize to you.

00:04:31.840 People hate the guy, and I don't just mean Republicans. So what does the California

00:04:36.760 Constitution have to say about recall? What are the rules? Well, Article 2 of their Constitution

00:04:43.420 specifically permits recalling different kinds of politicians. It's not just some law,

00:04:49.160 it's their actual Constitution. Here's what Article 14 of Section 2 of their Constitution says.

00:04:55.300 Recall of a state officer is initiated by delivering to the Secretary of State

00:05:00.160 a petition alleging reason for recall. Sufficiency of reason is not reviewable.

00:05:07.080 Proponents have 160 days to file signed petitions. A petition to recall a statewide officer must be

00:05:15.280 signed by electors equal in number to 12% of the last vote for the office, with signatures from each of

00:05:22.660 five counties equal in number to 1% of the last vote for the office in the county. Signatures to recall

00:05:29.780 senators, members of the Assembly, members of the Board of Equalization, and judges of courts of appeal

00:05:34.820 and trial courts must equal in number 20% of the last vote for the office. The Secretary of State

00:05:41.900 shall maintain a continuous count of the signatures certified to that office. So that's Section 14 of the

00:05:49.020 California Constitution. There's a few things in there. First of all, it's tougher to get a judge

00:05:53.980 out, and I think it should be. For a statewide office like the governor, you've got to get enough

00:05:59.180 signatures to match 12% of those who voted last time. In this case, it works out to 1.495 million.

00:06:08.540 Just, let's call it one and a half million people. And you saw it there. They have 160 days

00:06:14.080 to get those signatures. Keep in mind those numbers. 12% of the number of people who voted.

00:06:21.360 Not 12% of the number of people who could vote. 12% of the number who actually did. And 160 days, more than

00:06:29.340 five months to get the names. Organizers say they've already got more than 2 million signatures,

00:06:35.040 and they're still collecting them. They want to make sure that any dodgy signatures that are thrown out

00:06:40.000 don't cost them the recall opportunity. It's interesting to watch Democrats who normally hate

00:06:45.280 things like voter ID and vote fraud allegations. They want, normally, everyone to vote, even

00:06:52.000 illegal aliens. This time they're very, very interested to watch voter ID these days because

00:06:58.080 they don't want Gavin Newsom kicked out. Anyways, I want to mention a few points. I think Gavin Newsom will

00:07:04.000 face a recall vote. As in, I think they will clearly get the 12% they need. But it's for sure not clear

00:07:10.640 that he's going to lose that recall vote. He won the general election with 62% of the vote last time.

00:07:17.440 And Democrats are very organized in California. But even just forcing Newsom through this process

00:07:24.960 is a humiliation. It takes him down a peg. I don't think he's going to go to that fancy restaurant for

00:07:29.760 more birthday parties anymore. But look, it is possible to kick him out. In 2003, another

00:07:35.840 Democratic governor in California was, in fact, recalled by voters. And Arnold Schwarzenegger then

00:07:41.920 ran and became the next governor. I don't think there's a Schwarzenegger-type character waiting in

00:07:46.560 the wings this time, though I do see a Trump cabinet minister, Rick Grinnell, really pushing the recall

00:07:51.920 campaign. He's looking through the campaign website for recallgavin2020.com. Looks like you have to

00:07:57.760 organize in person, not just vote online. So it is old school. Got to get those signatures.

00:08:02.880 Getting 2 million-plus signatures is pretty impressive. But one last comment before I compare

00:08:09.200 this all to Alberta's new recall legislation. I'm going to tell you four numbers, and please stay with

00:08:14.160 me. This is actually important, okay? The first number, I mentioned the California's population,

00:08:21.040 is just under 40 million. So 25 million are eligible voters. So adult citizens, okay? 25 million.

00:08:31.120 Of those, 19.6 million registered to vote. So they had to positively say, hey, I'm going to vote.

00:08:39.920 And of those, 12.4 million people actually did vote. That's a lot. In the previous election,

00:08:48.400 it was barely half that, by the way. Anyways, of those 12.4 million people who voted, 7.7 million

00:08:55.440 people voted for Gavin Newsom. So did you get those numbers? Just to emphasize, under the Constitution,

00:09:01.520 to get a recall, you need 12% of the number who voted in the last election. So 12% of 12.4 million,

00:09:08.960 that's where you get the 1.5 million petition. So it's not 12% of the total number of electors,

00:09:14.480 which is 25 million, exactly double. Okay. Now let's compare that to the new Alberta recall bill

00:09:21.920 just introduced in that province. Bill 52, the Recall Act. Now look at Section 8. It's called

00:09:29.760 verification. I'm going to read it. A recall vote is authorized if the chief electoral officer verifies,

00:09:35.760 in accordance with this section, that the recall petition, now get this, has been signed by at least

00:09:41.600 40% of the total number of electors. So not 12%, 40%. And not just 40% of the people who actually

00:09:52.720 bothered to vote last time, 40% of the total number of electors who could. That's the total voting list,

00:09:58.960 total universe of possible electors. So in the California case, if we were to apply the Alberta

00:10:05.440 law, that would mean 40% of 25 million or almost exactly 10 million signatures needed. Not 1.5

00:10:14.240 million signatures needed. Just a reminder, Gavin Newsom only got 7.7 million votes last time. Imagine

00:10:20.320 trying to get 10 million signatures to kick him out last time. To kick him out just for comparison,

00:10:27.200 the Republican in 2018 didn't even get half that. One more thing. I showed you that in California,

00:10:34.080 they have 160 days to get the signatures. Almost half a year, actually. But look at Section 7 of

00:10:40.080 Alberta's law. The chief electoral officer shall not accept a recall petition submitted after the

00:10:46.240 expiry of 60 days. So you've got to get 40% of all electors. That's more than triple the California

00:10:55.280 standard, because remember, California is just the number of voters. And you have 60 days in Alberta,

00:11:00.960 about a third of the time you get in California. In other words, Alberta's recall legislation makes

00:11:06.720 it absolutely impossible to do. Let me show you a practical example of this. There's an awful MLA in

00:11:13.840 Alberta named Pat Rain, who's possibly the worst politician in the world. Just got elected and then

00:11:19.920 decided he was done, went on vacation, left the country. He's not there. He doesn't go to meetings.

00:11:24.320 It's just so weird and lazy. I don't get it. Jason Kenney finally just kicked him out of the party.

00:11:28.960 He's so bad. He's from a district called Lesser Slave Lake. In the last election, though,

00:11:35.600 he got 57% of the vote, or 5,873 votes. So you'd think he could get 40% of the voters who were against

00:11:46.480 him, right? If he got 57%. So 43% of people voted against him, you could think, okay, I'll just get

00:11:52.400 those 43% by adding up the liberals and the NDP, let alone disappointed conservatives. Oh,

00:11:58.640 there's your signatures. But no, no, no. Remember, you have to get the total number of voters. So there

00:12:03.920 are 16,154 electors in this district. You have to get 40% of that number, which is over 6,400 people

00:12:14.720 to sign a petition in 60 days. Is that really going to happen? That in 60 days, you're going to get more

00:12:21.200 signatures than he got in his general election? It's not going to happen. And even if you think

00:12:27.520 there's a chance, the Alberta bill makes certain it won't happen. Get this. Even to collect signatures

00:12:34.240 on a petition, the signature collectors have to meet strict standards. Here's section 5.1.

00:12:42.560 You have to have lived in the district for three months. You have to be a voter yourself. So you have

00:12:47.440 to be an adult, no teenagers helping, which is frankly a staple on a lot of campaigns. And you

00:12:52.720 can't pay anyone or compensate them in any way. So just true volunteers who live in the riding

00:12:59.680 for three months, no teenagers. Hey guys, I'm starting to think that maybe the Alberta government

00:13:05.520 doesn't actually want anyone to be recalled. But in case you're still thinking, no, no, no,

00:13:09.920 this could work. It's not impossible. There's still a chance. Well, let me show you

00:13:15.840 the absolute poison pill clause here. Section 2.5c. It bans any recall petition that, quote,

00:13:23.840 if during the term of office to which the application relates, a recall petition has

00:13:30.400 already been published by the chief electoral officer in respect of the member named in the

00:13:34.960 notice of recall petition. Let me explain in plain English. If anyone has already tried to recall that

00:13:43.040 politician and didn't reach those staggering goals, that's it. No one else gets to take another

00:13:49.840 shot at them. No one else. So if I were that loser, Pat Rain, I'd have a friend or a neighbor

00:13:56.320 start a recall petition against me and then have them go on vacation, do absolutely nothing for two 0.57

00:14:02.400 months, have it fail, and then I'd be home free because no more recall petitions would ever be allowed

00:14:08.640 against me. What do you think? I think recalls are good. In California, they're happening about once

00:14:15.520 every 20 years. I think that's pretty okay. Frankly, I'd like to see it a bit more often.

00:14:21.040 All the rest of us live in some fear that we'll lose our jobs somehow. Why shouldn't politicians?

00:14:26.880 And if they're really that great, they'll win the recall vote, won't they? I think there will be

00:14:31.840 a recall vote on Gavin Newsom. I think they'll reach that threshold. But I think he might win

00:14:37.600 the election that's called because of it. That's not a terrible outcome either, by the way,

00:14:42.320 chasing him a bit. Maybe he'll stop sneaking into chic restaurants while banning everyone else. It'll

00:14:47.920 be good. But this Alberta legislation, it's not recall legislation. It's anti-recall legislation. It

00:14:56.080 guarantees there will never be an MLA recalled ever. In fact, you'd have to be stupid to try, 1.00

00:15:03.280 unless you're Pat Rain, in which case you would try, but just not try very hard to recall yourself 0.99

00:15:10.000 as a guarantee that no one else ever could recall you. This is not recall legislation in Alberta.

00:15:16.400 This is fake recall legislation designed to dupe conservatives who actually want more democracy. 1.00

00:15:24.160 I guess they really do think we're all that stupid. Stay with us for more. 0.99

00:15:28.160 Well, it marks one month since the government of Alberta arrested and imprisoned Pastor James

00:15:47.200 Coates. For what crime was he arrested? Well, no crime, actually. Yet he has been in the maximum

00:15:54.560 security facility of the Edmonton Remand Center for a full month, which I should tell you is a punishment

00:16:01.520 that even violent criminals seldom face. Before the pandemic, 400 violent criminals from that maximum

00:16:10.480 security facility were released, lest they catch the bug. But Pastor Coates was put in there. And I had

00:16:17.120 the opportunity to meet Pastor Coates' wife 10 days ago, and she tells me she has not had a single

00:16:24.240 visit with him in his month in prison. And she's not even allowed to make Zoom calls with him. She has

00:16:33.680 to go to a government facility when they can arrange it to chat with him briefly by voice calls. I have

00:16:39.280 never heard of a prisoner treated this way, even when I visited Tommy Robinson in the most secure prison in

00:16:45.680 the United Kingdom. HMP Belmarsh, similar to Guantanamo Bay. He was allowed two visits from his wife a week,

00:16:52.560 even though he was in the special handling unit at that terrorism facility. Pastor James Coates has done

00:17:00.080 a month of very hard time. And for what? For not closing his church. Well, the good news is today,

00:17:09.840 after one month in prison, the government of Alberta has decided to drop all but one charges against him.

00:17:17.760 That one charge is a health infraction, like a traffic ticket, really. And Pastor Coates should be

00:17:24.720 out in a matter of days. Joining us now via Skype from Calgary is the head of the Justice Center for

00:17:30.800 Constitutional Freedoms, John Carpe, the public interest law firm that has been defending Pastor

00:17:36.160 Coates. John, great to see you. Congratulations on this change. I know it's a day of happiness

00:17:42.320 for Pastor Coates and his family and his congregation. But for me, it's a day of fury

00:17:47.120 that he has been in there for a month and that the various charges against him were dropped so casually

00:17:54.880 by the satanic prosecutor. I say that because putting a pastor in prison while releasing violent 0.77

00:18:00.640 criminals, that's right out of the Bible. Who would you want to free, Barabbas or Jesus? 0.50

00:18:05.920 That's right down to what that is. And for a month, that prosecutor thought, oh, let's keep him in.

00:18:11.920 So I'm not particularly impressed that after a month, she says, okay, maybe I got it wrong. But you

00:18:18.000 tell us the facts. Well, I'm really grateful to have a superb legal team. It was Leighton Gray and

00:18:27.680 James Kitchen and Jay Cameron, who did outstanding work. We were in negotiations with the Crown for

00:18:34.080 several days back and forth. And of course, you know, the government is loath to do 180 degree turn and,

00:18:42.080 you know, suddenly drop everything. On our end, of course, we were not going to agree to,

00:18:48.880 you know, the bail condition that was keeping Pastor Coates in jail, which is that he would agree to

00:18:57.440 have his charter rights and freedoms violated by unscientific and unconstitutional health orders.

00:19:05.920 He was not willing to agree to that. And so he was in jail. Now, this time being released,

00:19:11.040 there is not this condition that he agreed to have his charter rights and freedoms violated by

00:19:18.480 unconstitutional health orders. So therefore, his release is going to be possible by as early as

00:19:25.360 Friday, March the 19th. Now, I want to ask you, why does it even take two extra days if the prosecution

00:19:33.840 says, all right, fine, forget about the last month, let's just pretend we haven't had a pastor in prison

00:19:39.680 for a month? If they've come to that agreement with you, does it need to be sanctioned by a judge?

00:19:45.120 Is that the delay? Your agreement with the prosecutor has to be stamped by some court?

00:19:51.280 That's correct. There's going to be a joint Crown and defense submission to accept a guilty plea to

00:19:59.280 failure to abide by an undertaking, which by the way, it was an undertaking that was imposed on

00:20:04.000 Pastor Coates. He never agreed to it at any time. But apparently police can impose undertakings on

00:20:11.120 people and then charge you for violating them. So there will be a joint Crown defense submission

00:20:17.200 that Pastor Coates pay a $100 fine in respect of that criminal charge of not complying with an

00:20:27.120 undertaking. But the good news is this is going to trial May 3rd because there's one of the charges

00:20:33.360 of breaching the Public Health Act is going to trial May 3rd to May 5th. And the onus will be on the

00:20:41.040 government to prove that the violations of our charter freedoms are justified. And the government's not

00:20:49.200 going to be able to operate just by news conferences and fear mongering. Government's going to actually have

00:20:55.280 to produce evidence in court to show demonstrably that these lockdowns were necessary, that they're

00:21:02.800 beneficial, that they're working, that they're effective. And most significantly, the government

00:21:07.360 is going to have to prove that the lockdowns are doing more good than harm. And I think the government's

00:21:12.960 going to have a tough case to prove in court. John, you sound optimistic. You sound hopeful. You're

00:21:18.160 looking forward to that event. I understand all that. I'm still not over the last month. And I want to ask you

00:21:24.960 this. Is it the same prosecutor, Karen Thorsrud, who made the deal with you, that put the pastor

00:21:34.080 in prison to begin with a month ago? And by the way, this was the pastor, you and I spoke about this

00:21:39.600 the other day, that was obviously so embarrassed by what she was doing, she asked the judge to not put

00:21:47.280 her name on the prosecution. She was so ashamed of her own misconduct. Is it that same disgraceful

00:21:53.760 prosecutor, Karen Thorsrud? No, I believe that the Justice Center lawyers were, I read the letters

00:22:01.760 back and forth, and it was a different individual that we were dealing with. It was not Karen Thorsrud.

00:22:07.440 But I do find it rather despicable that she would ask to have her name removed, especially when it was

00:22:13.920 previously publicized. Her name was not removed when she was before the justice of the peace arguing to

00:22:22.080 to keep Pastor Coates in jail. So, but it wasn't her. Well, I suppose I'm glad to hear it. I mean,

00:22:29.200 the idea of a secret prosecutor who hides from the world while throwing pastors in jail is just too gross.

00:22:36.960 I mean, even the Star Chamber in medieval London had lawyers mandatory, not lawyers secret. So, so gross. 0.59

00:22:47.120 I think that Pastor Coates, by pretty much any definition, would be a political prisoner. I say 0.94

00:22:55.040 again, what he's charged with, you mentioned a hundred dollar ticket. I've had parking tickets of

00:23:00.720 almost a hundred dollars. I don't know if there are even any speeding tickets under a hundred dollars.

00:23:07.120 Those are, I'm not going to call them trivial matters, but they're non-criminal matters. And the idea that you

00:23:12.000 would be in jail for a parking ticket is unthinkable in Canada, yet it happened for a month. I have a theory,

00:23:21.760 and I know it's only speculation, but I have seen the last two public opinion polls in Alberta, both of which put

00:23:29.040 the United Conservative Party in second place. In fact, the latest by Leger pollsters has the NDP at 51%

00:23:39.520 and the United Conservative Party at 30%. I'm not sure if that poll is reliable, but Leger is,

00:23:45.360 you know, they've been around a while. I think that there is an anger in the province at these

00:23:53.200 lockdown extremists and the way they're being so punitive against pastors, against restaurant

00:24:00.880 owners. I know the case of Pastor Coates has been reported literally around the world. Do you think

00:24:06.880 that there was a political decision to change course? I mean, how can you hold the line against

00:24:12.560 a pastor for a month and then suddenly say, oh, okay, pay a hundred bucks and you're out?

00:24:17.520 You know, I know that the Justice Centre lawyers were in negotiations with the Crown, and it was

00:24:26.000 somebody other than Karen Thorsrud. You know, it's just pure speculation as to, you know, how independently

00:24:34.000 or not was the Crown Prosecutor's Office operating. And frankly, for, you know, for purposes of the rule of law,

00:24:44.320 and, you know, to not have repeats of the SNC-Lavalin situation, there is something to be said for

00:24:52.880 elected politicians not being involved in decisions to prosecute or not prosecute or what kinds of

00:25:00.560 agreements are entered into. Now, that said, I think at the end of the day that, you know, unless you or I

00:25:07.600 have got, you know, special access to conversations that we were not privy to, I mean, we'll probably never

00:25:13.760 know to, you know, whether there is any influence there or not. But certainly on the face of it,

00:25:20.000 we were just dealing with the Crown and you kind of have to, you know, take it for granted that the

00:25:26.080 Crown is acting independently as it should be. Yeah. You know what? I suppose you could say,

00:25:33.360 well, the law is the law, but a law that's promulgated by unelected, unaccountable public health

00:25:40.480 officers who are not judges, who are not even police, and who have tyrannical powers to throw

00:25:46.720 some in prison, that is inherently political. And the idea of a prosecutor saying, in my professional

00:25:55.920 discretion, under the aegis of the Justice Department, I say put that man in prison for two

00:26:02.000 months till his trial, that's inherently political, especially when down the road, Costco, Walmart,

00:26:09.280 have thousands of people filing through every day. I don't know, I just find the whole thing

00:26:15.120 political. And although of all the 10 premiers, Jason Kenney, I think is the closest to being a

00:26:21.760 conservative and the closest to being a Christian. The treatment of Pastor James Coates was unique in

00:26:29.760 Canada, and I dare say unique in the free world. I am unaware of any Christian pastor or priest,

00:26:37.840 anywhere in the Western world, who has been imprisoned for opening his church. I simply

00:26:42.960 have not, and I follow the news fairly closely, I bet you do too, John.

00:26:47.280 If... It's unique. It's unique in the world.

00:26:50.000 It's a unique disgrace. And you mentioned, you know, you mentioned the political aspect of it. I

00:26:55.360 can't help but ask, why were the restaurant owners in Alberta, not a huge number, at least one,

00:27:03.280 the owner of Whistle Stop in Mirror, Alberta, but apparently two or three others. There were

00:27:08.000 restaurant owners who said, we are staying open. We're defying these unconstitutional health orders.

00:27:15.360 Issue as many tickets as you want, but we're going to stay open. And those people did not end up in

00:27:19.840 jail. And yet Pastor Coates did end up in jail. And Jason Kenney delights in telling Albertans that

00:27:26.960 the restrictions here are less onerous than in other provinces. And as far as I know, that's probably

00:27:32.480 true. But that's no excuse for having unconstitutional health orders that hugely violate

00:27:41.040 our human dignity and our human rights and our basic freedoms, like being able to associate

00:27:45.440 with whomever you want, when you want, where you want, how you want, in person, not having the

00:27:52.960 chief medical officer tell you that you can only enjoy relationships by way of a two-dimensional

00:27:58.000 computer screen. These are severe restrictions on our charter rights and freedoms, even in Alberta.

00:28:04.480 And there's no way that Pastor Coates should ever have been put into jail. The condition that was imposed

00:28:09.840 upon him that he actually make an express commitment to abide by unconstitutional health orders that

00:28:16.880 violate his charter freedoms, that's unusual because usually the condition for a bail release is

00:28:23.680 be of good behaviour and keep the peace. It's a very boilerplate clause that you agree to be of good

00:28:31.280 behaviour and keep the peace and that's it. And yet the government here sought to impose this

00:28:39.600 condition on Pastor Coates that he agree ahead of time to abide by unscientific and unconstitutional

00:28:46.320 health orders. John, I went to the Grace Life Church about 10 days ago. I was in Edmonton and I

00:28:53.120 went to the church on that Sunday morning. I was wonderful. I'm not even Christian, as you know,

00:28:57.280 I'm Jewish, but just to be with hundreds of normal people living normally, not living in fear,

00:29:03.840 not being gripped by fear. And like you say, they're not looking at a screen. I mean,

00:29:07.680 basically every man, woman and child has been instructed to live either watching Netflix,

00:29:14.640 buying something on Amazon or in a Zoom call. And for just a couple hours to be with real humans

00:29:20.320 in person and talking about something other than the latest Netflix series was the most refreshing

00:29:26.320 day I've had in a year. And I joked that if I lived in Edmonton, I'd go to that church every week,

00:29:33.040 even though I'm not even Christian. I would just go there for the normalcy. And I found that the

00:29:38.720 members of the church that I spoke with were very politically aware and awake and very conscious of

00:29:44.400 what was happening, as you would expect. And like I say, the church was full when I was there. So Pastor

00:29:51.040 Coates was in prison, but that church was given her. What do you think is going to happen? Because

00:29:57.440 I can't imagine that a man who endures prison for a month won't immediately go back to his church

00:30:04.880 the Sunday he's free and that his church will be more packed than ever. What's going to happen now?

00:30:11.120 I don't envy the RCMP detachment in Stony Plain. You know, that's another unknowable,

00:30:21.440 but very interesting question is, you know, who are they taking orders from, if any, and how are

00:30:26.880 they going to exercise their discretion? Because as your reporter, Sheila Gunn-Reed attended there,

00:30:32.240 I haven't been up to Edmonton in over a year. But, you know, you and other media are reporting that

00:30:42.000 they've had a full church every Sunday since Pastor Coates was imprisoned on February the 16th.

00:30:50.080 And I would be surprised if he's out of jail on Friday, why would he not attend church on Sunday?

00:30:55.760 So it'll be really interesting to see what happens in the next six weeks or so, six or seven weeks until

00:31:03.200 the trial, May 3rd. It'll be interesting to see each Sunday what the health authorities are going

00:31:11.120 to do with that situation. You know, John, you're a Christian, I'm a Jew, and I know there's some

00:31:17.440 differences between the Old Testament and the New. Old Testament, a bit of fire and brimstone,

00:31:21.680 New Testament, a bit of turn the other cheek. And I understand why you're so sanguine and excited,

00:31:27.040 and you had a victory, he's out of prison without selling out his soul, and you deserve the kudos,

00:31:37.600 and you deserve to take a victory lap, and you deserve to have a smile on your face.

00:31:42.080 I am still not over the grievous injustice of the last 30 days, and I am full of an Old Testament

00:31:49.440 style anger on that. And I don't know what can be done about that, because that is a justice deficit.

00:31:56.800 That is a justice debt. I think I told my viewers once, maybe I even told you, the very first time I

00:32:01.840 was in criminal court as a young articling student for a law firm in Edmonton, by the way, I went in

00:32:07.280 and I heard all manner of criminal matters, and I heard a judge sentence a man to 30 days for sexual

00:32:14.400 assault. 30 days. And for sexual assault. And here we have a pastor who's just done 30 days

00:32:23.120 for opening a church. And this, this is a warp in the, in the fiber of the universe. And I don't know

00:32:32.560 how it can, I think justice must be done in some way. And I don't know what that is. How, what can be

00:32:38.960 done for the last month that we've had? I mean, fight the future. Go fight on May 3rd to 5th in

00:32:44.320 court. You're doing that. Go to the church this Sunday. Yes. But, but surely the last month,

00:32:50.480 something must be done about it. Is there anything that can be done?

00:32:55.280 It's a good question. It's a fair question. And, and by the way, I, I agree with you that,

00:32:59.680 you know, yes, I am smiling because it's, it's great that he's going to be out in, in the next,

00:33:04.800 you know, two or three days, as opposed to having to stay in jail all the way through to,

00:33:10.000 to May 3rd. So I am smiling, but I, I also, I, I share your anger. This is a travesty of justice.

00:33:16.560 This is a grave injustice to, to have a pastor put into prison simply for exercising his charter

00:33:23.040 rights and freedoms, you know, and then in a province that's governed by a man who has for decades,

00:33:29.360 held himself out to be the champion of religious freedom. You may have come across my, my post

00:33:36.640 millennial column a few weeks ago, quoting Jason Kenney from his speech to the St. Thomas Moore

00:33:43.360 Lawyers Guild, a group of Catholic lawyers speaking at a Toronto dinner in 2014 about conscience and how

00:33:50.640 conscience has to stand up to the prevailing spirit of the age. And now we've got the prevailing spirit of

00:33:56.320 the age says that we should all be living in a permanent state of fear of some virus that is

00:34:01.520 harmless to 90% of the population. And we've got, you know, Jason Kenney enforcing the spirit of the

00:34:07.840 age. So there has been a travesty of justice, you know, in, in terms of civil remedies, wrongful

00:34:15.200 imprisonment. I mean, you know, you and I know those are potential legal remedies. I don't think that

00:34:21.440 they're on anybody's mind just yet. Uh, but, uh, you know, who knows what, what Pastor Coates may want in,

00:34:28.640 in the future. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's, it's hard to get a wrongful imprisonment case if the judge

00:34:34.720 oversaw it. I mean, we, when a judge gets it wrong, you appeal it, you don't, you know, sue the judge, you,

00:34:40.880 you appeal the ruling. Um, but I think that the misconduct of the, the police and the health officers is

00:34:48.320 something to investigate. And I know they're harassing churches around Alberta and across

00:34:52.240 Canada. And it's my observation and, and you're defending a lot of churches and I salute you and

00:34:57.920 we like to, we like to give you journalistic support and we tell our viewers, go to jccf.ca

00:35:04.800 and chip in to, cause you guys survive on donations too. We're, we're representing a few churches in

00:35:11.200 Canada and elsewhere. One of our lawyers noted how these, and, and by the way, Jewish synagogues in

00:35:18.800 the Orthodox parts of Montreal, um, it's the churches and the Orthodox synagogues that are being

00:35:26.080 really poked at by the, like there's a disparity that they're going after churches more than they,

00:35:32.000 they would never go after the church of material consumption, Walmart, Costco. They wouldn't go after

00:35:38.240 those capitalist churches, but they go after religious churches. I just think there's something

00:35:43.200 very wrong. John, I won't, I won't belabor the subject. Uh, this is a day to be happy. Sheila told

00:35:50.400 me she had a little cry, uh, when she heard the news, uh, it was such an emotional relief. And I think

00:35:56.000 that's wonderful. And, um, you know, keep up the fight and get them out of jail and keep others out of

00:36:04.960 jail and we'll do our bit where we can. But I think there's unfinished business here. And I think we

00:36:10.000 have to weed the garden of these illiberal, un-Canadian lockdown arrests and persecutions. I,

00:36:18.800 I know I'm rambling, John. I'm just mad. I know you're happy and I, you have a fury underneath it,

00:36:23.200 but I'm all fury. Last word to you, my friend. Well, um, lessons to be learned. You talked a few

00:36:30.560 minutes ago about, you know, the future, because I think that, uh, Pastor Coates is an example

00:36:35.600 of, uh, courage and principle. And he, he reminds us of the fact that you can only win battles by

00:36:43.200 fighting them. And if we all cheerfully, unthinkingly, meekly comply with all of these

00:36:49.760 measures and, uh, slowly turn ourselves into the government sheep and cattle to be managed like farm

00:36:56.480 animals rather than being free and responsible adults living in a free society and making our

00:37:01.600 own decisions. If we just continue with this, uh, blind and sinister obedience, we're going to lose

00:37:08.160 our rights and freedoms more and more. And, uh, it's just going to get worse and worse. So Pastor

00:37:14.240 Coates, uh, you know, silver lining on the cloud, he, because of his suffering and the unjust imprisonment

00:37:20.400 for losing a full month of his life, uh, that should serve as an inspiration to, to you and to me and

00:37:28.080 to, to everybody to, uh, to be that courageous and to take a stance and to continue to exercise

00:37:36.160 your charter rights and freedoms in the face of intimidation and, and stand up to government.

00:37:42.160 And you'll be surprised what happens. Uh, if, if, if all of us stand up, uh, the government's going to

00:37:47.600 start losing a lot more battles. That's a very new Testament thought to end on that the pastor

00:37:53.360 suffered for, uh, the sins of the lockdown. Um, I'll stop being sad and mad and I'll enjoy the day

00:38:02.160 and congratulations again to you. And we'll definitely continue to cover the story. Uh,

00:38:08.320 John Carbay, congratulations. And, and please pass on our viewers, best regards to your team.

00:38:15.280 We've talked to some of your other lawyers over the months and they've done a great job. So, uh,

00:38:19.040 kudos to you. I'm so glad you're out there fighting.

00:38:22.160 Thanks for having me on your show, Ezra.

00:38:23.600 Right on. There you have it, John Carbay. He's the boss of the Justice Center for Constitutional

00:38:28.480 Freedoms, jccf.ca. If you got a few bucks kicking around, don't be shy. Feel free to give them to John.

00:38:36.720 They don't take any government funding, which is why they're so good. Stay with us. More ahead.

00:38:40.960 Hey, welcome back on my show last night. Derek writes,

00:38:55.920 tell a lie long enough and people will believe it. You're talking about that Pfizer investors call

00:39:01.280 where they say, Hey guys, great profit-making opportunities. Yeah. Here comes the third booster

00:39:06.000 and the fourth booster. We're, we're never going to get out of this, are they? Are we? And,

00:39:09.680 and why would we? I mean, there's such concentrated benefits to extremely wealthy people, uh, that

00:39:18.000 each of us suffers a little bit, but the wins are so concentrated. The Pfizer's, the Amazon.com's, the

00:39:26.880 liberal insiders getting massive contracts. They will never allow this to end. They just have too

00:39:32.080 much skin in the game. Jer writes, Bill Gates and Jeffrey Epstein hanging out tells you everything you

00:39:37.760 need to know about this man's character and trustworthiness. Yeah. I know one person who

00:39:43.200 met, uh, Jeffrey Epstein and was immediately creeped out by him. And it's actually Ann Coulter

00:39:49.520 who tells the story of when she was, when he pulled up alongside her in his limo and, and she just

00:39:56.240 immediately, all the alarm bells were ringing. I obviously never met Jeffrey Epstein, but even if

00:40:01.920 he didn't creep you out and weird you out just on site, Bill Gates was still hanging out with him

00:40:08.560 after his crimes came public. So I think Bill Gates knew exactly what Jeffrey Epstein was about.

00:40:16.000 And I wouldn't be surprised if he was a participant. Paul writes, Ann and Fellum have been kicking it

00:40:21.600 lately. I'll be donating. The trouble today is that you want the truth. You have to go looking for it.

00:40:26.480 Big media will deliver nothing but lies, half-truths, and censorship.

00:40:30.720 Yeah. I mean, listen, we're talking about lots of crowdfunding, right? Rebel lives on crowdfunding.

00:40:35.600 Uh, we mentioned John Carpe and the JCCF, Ann and Fellum McAleer. That's how it is when you're not in

00:40:41.680 the government track. I mean, if we were in the government track, we'd be getting huge bailout money,

00:40:46.160 maybe huge corporate money, maybe even venture capital money, but we're not. We're for the little

00:40:51.360 guys. So we rely on little guy donations. It's a tough way to live, but I think it's a more honest

00:40:55.520 way to live. Well, that's the show for today. Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel

00:41:00.720 World Headquarters, to you at home, good night, and keep fighting for freedom.

Rebel News Podcast - March 18, 2021

Alberta’s new recall legislation is guaranteed never to work — it’s worse than nothing, and I’ll show you why

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