Rebel News Podcast - Behind the Scenes of Fight the Fines in Canada, Australia and the UK

00:00:00.000 Hello, my Rebels. Today, I'm going to give you sort of a state of the union, what we're

00:00:18.880 up to here at Rebel News, tell you some of our plans, tell you some exciting news. We've

00:00:22.680 got a new book we're publishing. You can get it right now. I am very excited about that

00:00:26.780 and a few other things we're cooking up. So that's ahead on today's podcast. Let me invite

00:00:30.980 you, though, to become a Rebel News Plus subscriber. It's only $8 a month. That's not a lot. That's

00:00:36.340 less than Netflix. And you know, if you buy a year in advance, it's only $80 for the whole

00:00:40.360 year. You get the video version of the podcast, plus other goodies like a show from David Menzies

00:00:46.180 and Sheila Gunn-Reed every week. All right, here's today's podcast.

00:00:49.860 Tonight, an update on what we're doing here at Rebel News. It's December 3rd, and this

00:01:00.020 is the Ezra Levant Show.

00:01:03.800 Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?

00:01:07.540 There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.

00:01:11.600 The only thing I have to say to the government, the why I'm publishing, is because it's my bloody

00:01:16.500 right to do so. Hello, my friends. You know, we've never been busier in our nearly six years

00:01:27.320 at Rebel News. I feel like we're drinking from a fire hose. There's so much going on. In fact,

00:01:33.000 we're hiring new staff every few weeks just to keep up. I think you can see a lot of that

00:01:37.840 on your TV screens, but of course, there's also people behind the scenes. It's so busy besides doing

00:01:44.620 the show I do every night, and then I do live streams during the day, and so does Sheila

00:01:49.620 Gunn-Reed and David Menzies, and our reports out in the field. There's a lot of building

00:01:54.020 the business in the background. I almost didn't have time to do the show today, but I thought

00:01:58.060 instead, why don't I turn the show into sort of a report on how we're doing? Because I think you,

00:02:04.480 as our most loyal viewers, would find it interesting. So I've got some points here I'm going to go

00:02:09.880 through, and I'm going to throw to clips of videos that illustrate things. So I've got

00:02:14.860 a lot of news. There's even some news I can't share with you yet, but I'm proud to tell you

00:02:19.780 what we're up to. I hope you find that interesting. You will get some great videos today, too,

00:02:24.500 besides me just blathering about the company. The first thing I want to tell you is I'm very

00:02:29.360 excited about it. It's Raheel Raza, who is the chairperson of our advisory board. She's got

00:02:35.860 a new book, and we are the proud publishers of it. The book is called The ABCs of Islamism.

00:02:43.660 If you're wondering what Islamism is, well, first of all, you can get the book. Second of all,

00:02:48.040 it's Political Islam, the politicized, aggressive attempt to infuse radical Islam into every aspect 0.84

00:02:56.500 of life. But don't take it from me. Take it from the book. And you can find out about the book

00:03:01.300 at theabcsofislamism.com. And look at that beautiful cover. So I'm very excited that we

00:03:10.460 have a new author. And you can get the book, and it'll be shipped to you before Christmas.

00:03:15.680 So that's some interesting reading for you. And there's another book we have in the editing

00:03:20.800 process right now that should be out probably in February. If we can squeeze it out in January,

00:03:26.980 we will. I don't want to give it away, but it is going to be hot. It's going to be Tabasco.

00:03:33.520 So I don't even want to tell you who the author is. It's going to blow you away.

00:03:37.380 I'm very proud. We're turning into a bit of a publishing house. I mean, we published

00:03:40.540 14 titles, if you include e-books and paperbacks, from me, from Sheila. We have a lot of different

00:03:49.820 subjects we cover. And I'm just very proud of Raheel's new book. I hope you like it too.

00:03:58.180 Our big focus these days is fighting the fines. And by fines, I mean the lockdown fines. And they're

00:04:05.360 so bizarre and so capricious and so punitive. I really think that most of the damage is being

00:04:14.560 done, not by the virus itself, but by the politicians using the virus as an excuse to

00:04:20.160 show their inner authoritarians. And as I mentioned yesterday, when we went through Aaron O'Toole's

00:04:25.960 speech, I really think it falls in part to us here at Rebel News to tell the other side of the story.

00:04:32.160 That's our motto, right? To be responsible skeptics of every government, whether it's Trudeau's government,

00:04:38.420 that comes naturally, it has to be skeptics, or so-called conservative governments like

00:04:42.800 Brian Pallister in Manitoba, and Doug Ford in Ontario, and of course Canada's awful mayors.

00:04:49.560 So we're covering the story. I mean, that's our motto, telling the other side of the story.

00:04:53.660 And these days, the political establishment, the public health deep state, and the media party,

00:04:59.780 they are all walking in lockstep. Someone's got to tell the other side of the story, and that's us.

00:05:06.240 I want to give you a few examples. David Menzies, who has been a real star covering the pandemic

00:05:11.380 since the very beginning, he led Canada's coverage of Adam Skelly, the barbecue restaurant

00:05:18.520 owner in Toronto who refused to bend the knee. And just outstanding reportage. Let me show you this

00:05:25.360 clip of David's work. Here's a couple minutes of that. What brings you out to this eatery,

00:05:30.560 this illegal eatery, I might add?

00:05:33.020 Just support, support for freedom, yeah.

00:05:35.660 So why is it, do you think that, I mean, Adam's point, and it's a valid one, I think,

00:05:41.260 when you have the Walmarts and the Costcos of the world open, but all these little businesses

00:05:45.620 shut down under threat of heavy penalties, why are we tolerating this double standard in the first

00:05:52.820 place?

00:05:53.100 We shouldn't be. I think a lot of people are scared. I think that's the reason why people

00:05:56.960 are tolerating it. A lot of people are just scared to stand up. They don't know their rights.

00:06:01.480 They don't know that this is just a mandate.

00:06:03.180 And we're fighting for their future, so they have the same opportunities that I was provided.

00:06:08.400 Hey, Adam, what did the police and bylaw officers say to you?

00:06:11.240 They were all very respectful. They made sure that we, they took a look through and,

00:06:16.320 I'm a little overwhelmed right now, brother. They made sure, they took a look at the different

00:06:22.400 rules that we're supposed to be complying with. They found that we were in non-compliance of people

00:06:27.300 eating inside. Everything else was good. We're contact tracing. We have the signs posted so that the

00:06:32.640 customers maintained social distancing, but it looks like there's a little bit of civil disobedience

00:06:36.180 happening today. They decided not to enforce that. And it sure isn't my job as a guy who

00:06:40.360 cooks brisket to enforce government regulations.

00:06:43.940 Adam, do you think you're a catalyst for so many other businesses in the same position you are,

00:06:49.100 with your backs up against the wall, just trying to earn a livelihood, that they will look upon what

00:06:53.960 you've done today and they will also open up in civil disobedience?

00:06:57.500 Of course, I know I'm going to be the catalyst for this. When everybody stands up and says enough

00:07:02.240 is enough, that's when we're going to see this end.

00:07:04.740 And what is the ostensible policy reason in the first place of shutting down a little mom-pa 0.95

00:07:10.060 operator like you, and yet the Costcos, the Walmarts, the Loblaws of the world, they get to open.

00:07:16.400 It seems to be a double standard, doesn't it?

00:07:20.040 Don't ask me, man. How am I supposed to know? I don't make policy. I'm just supposed to enforce it at

00:07:24.900 my restaurant. I don't know why that's happening, but it doesn't feel right to me. And I know there's

00:07:28.760 a lot of other people that doesn't feel right to them either.

00:07:30.940 Well, I'm looking at this lineup, Adam. How soon are you going to run out of food?

00:07:34.560 If we haven't sold out of some meats already, I'm sure we're going to very soon. We had a lot

00:07:39.040 of support today. We have some freedom-loving patriots that are here to support. I'm sure we'll

00:07:43.660 be out of food in no time.

00:07:45.280 And no fines so far, right?

00:07:46.680 No, sir. Not a single fine issue today to my business, myself, or anybody who came here to support.

00:07:52.040 What does it feel like to put defiance on the menu? 0.95

00:07:54.900 F***ing amazing, bro. 0.60

00:07:57.160 I believe that Adam Skelly is a very interesting character. I don't know him well. I can't 0.97

00:08:02.460 vouch for him in any way other than showing you what we know. And what amazes me about

00:08:08.680 him is his courage to stand up to literally all the king's horses and all the king's men.

00:08:13.840 And the resonance of those stories, the number of people who have watched them tells me he's

00:08:20.100 striking a chord, he's filling a void. And he may turn into a leader, a public, organic

00:08:26.220 protester that people are marshalling around. I don't know where he gets his courage and defiance

00:08:32.500 from, but it's quite impressive to watch. And we'll report that story in a way that's not a hater,

00:08:40.660 attacker style like the media party does.

00:08:42.840 I don't know if you saw this video yesterday that Sheila Gunnery did from the town of Prince

00:08:46.780 Albert, Saskatchewan. I want to show you a little bit of it. The largest pandemic lockdown fine in

00:08:52.440 Canada, did it go to some nightclub? Did it go to, I don't know, it went to a church,

00:09:00.040 fined $14,000 for singing. I'm not making that up. The local casino is open in Prince Albert,

00:09:08.220 of course, but this church is shut down, $14,000 fine. Here's a little bit of Sheila's new story.

00:09:13.340 We moved over there, from there over to here, so that we would be able to, you know,

00:09:19.500 social distance and to comply as well as we could, you know, to the, you know, reopen Saskatchewan

00:09:27.360 guidelines. And then they hand us a ticket. I know that I was gifted to minister to the poor. Not

00:09:33.720 everyone is gifted to minister to the poor. Not everyone. And I write, I don't judge Christians

00:09:38.880 for not reaching out because they're just not gifted to, to reach out to, to people that are 0.88

00:09:45.340 just like crazy lives, you know? And, and, uh, so I know that I was gifted at that time. The Lord

00:09:52.960 gave me the gift of mercy. And, um, and you know, that's been part of the reason why I've been able

00:09:59.040 to persevere because when you know you're called to do something, then there's no turning back. You

00:10:03.480 can't back down from the government. Prince Albert Saskatchewan Church has received a $14,000

00:10:10.420 coronavirus fine for singing without wearing masks. It's outrageous. It's un-Canadian and we refuse to

00:10:19.440 let this stand. We are helping the full gospel outreach center fight back and we need your help to do it.

00:10:29.040 Today, I'm bringing you a story about a fight the fines case that we've been working on for almost

00:10:36.980 a month now. And then after this is all over, I'm going to ask you to help us help a man who's doing

00:10:43.120 good work to help vulnerable people that few people are willing to do. And he's paying a high cost for

00:10:49.920 all of it. In early October, an inner city Prince Albert Saskatchewan church was given a five figure

00:10:57.660 COVID-19 fine by the province of Saskatchewan for singing in their church without masks on. It could

00:11:04.060 be one of the highest fines of this kind we've seen in Canada. Look at this. A Prince Albert

00:11:09.700 Saskatchewan church was fined $14,000 after a multi-day event caused an outbreak of the novel

00:11:15.560 coronavirus. A traveling evangelist spoke at the full gospel outreach for several days, according to

00:11:22.900 Prince Albert mayor, Greg Dion. Remember that name? He said the event drew hundreds to the church, both from the

00:11:30.340 city and further north. They crossed the line, said Dion, adding he doesn't understand why the church wouldn't

00:11:39.860 follow guidelines when, quote, every other place of worship in the city has. Oh, that is infuriating. And if you want to

00:11:48.020 help us fight back, we've hired an excellent, excellent young lawyer, Sarah Miller. She's helped

00:11:53.740 us with Arthur Pawlowski in other cases. I'm so pleased that she's really becoming a civil liberties

00:11:59.120 fighter. And it's fun to watch. And frankly, I pity the mayor of Prince Albert, who doesn't know what

00:12:06.400 he's in for. So if you want to help us fight back, go to fightthefinance.com. I'm worried that this

00:12:12.040 weekend, as in this Sunday, will be the worst civil liberties weekend in Canada since the

00:12:17.760 FLQ crisis. I think you're going to see brutal police enforcement. The sorts we saw for Adamson's

00:12:24.480 barbecue, I think you're going to see it at churches in Aylmer, Ontario, in Wellington County, Ontario,

00:12:30.240 in Steinbeck, Manitoba, in Vancouver, BC. And lucky for us, we have reporters all across the country.

00:12:36.840 So you're going to see Kian in Manitoba. You're going to see Drea in Vancouver. You're going to

00:12:43.380 see Tamara doing her work in Ontario. As you know, she joined us from a Fight the Fines program. 1.00

00:12:48.340 And as you know, we have a plan, an assembly line now. We're putting it together. It's led by David

00:12:55.980 Amber, lawyer based in Ottawa. He's working with Aaron Rosenberg. We've got a lot of lawyers.

00:13:01.400 You may recall, here's a little clip of David Amber fighting for a personal trainer who was

00:13:09.020 shut down and locked down in the Ottawa area, just to remind you who I'm talking about. Take a look at

00:13:13.980 this. His back is up against the wall. He feels he has the open, almost as an act of civil disobedience,

00:13:19.960 just in order to A, make a living and B, provide the services his clients so desperately need.

00:13:26.100 What was it about his case that attracted you to it?

00:13:31.540 Well, here in the city of Ottawa, David, you know, we've been now, what, on six or seven months of

00:13:35.740 flattening the curve. And I know that the city of Ottawa has been, on one hand, vigilant in terms

00:13:41.620 of trying to enforce some of these new regulations. But on another hand, in many situations, they've

00:13:47.080 been overzealous in terms of their enforcement and in terms of whether or not they're even giving

00:13:52.460 effect to any exemptions that exist. And there's questions as to whether or not we really need

00:13:58.280 these laws anymore at this point in time.

00:14:00.320 So that's David Amber. And he has agreed to set up our assembly line just to take hundreds and

00:14:07.920 hundreds of cases. So, I mean, you can see Sheila went to Prince Albert and really did a long story

00:14:13.720 and spent a lot of time on it. That's great. And that case was a very special one. But I want to

00:14:18.300 take every case. And I mean hundreds. I mean, I know it sounds audacious, but I actually think we

00:14:23.740 can take a thousand cases. And hopefully, we can get them thrown out en masse. But if that means

00:14:31.480 running a thousand little trials, thankfully, we've had a lot of people volunteer to help.

00:14:36.260 David's going to help manage that because, I mean, come on, you're taking hundreds of cases.

00:14:40.800 That's a lot of behind-the-scenes work. That's one of the things I'm talking about. But I'm really

00:14:44.060 excited about that. And I have instructed our team, David and Sheila and Kian and Drea and Tamera

00:14:49.200 and the whole team, not to mess around. If Drea's in Vancouver and she sees police finding a church,

00:14:57.740 if Kian's in Steinbeck and he sees police acting abusively, don't stand on ceremony.

00:15:05.700 Sign up these people for free lawyers from David and we'll work out the paperwork later.

00:15:09.800 We've got to help people in real time. We can't wait 30, 60, 90 days. So that's really our big

00:15:16.280 project behind the scenes. I want to let you know that we've taken a ton of cases in Australia.

00:15:25.200 Our firebrand of a reporter down there, Avi Amini, he's a one-man army. He's doing such a great job.

00:15:32.120 And his cases that he's taking down under aren't just individual cases. We're doing a

00:15:39.100 constitutional challenge down under because they've been arresting people for merely protesting.

00:15:46.000 And those cases are moving through the courts. They're at a fair clip. The worst of the lockdown

00:15:53.600 has been lessened. And I credit Avi Amini for that. But here's a clip of one of the latest cases down

00:16:03.000 under just to show you that we're, you know, Canada's our home. Our heart's in Canada. 95%

00:16:10.080 of our staff are in Canada. But we do care about the world. And with Avi down under, we can make a

00:16:14.980 difference there too. Take a look at this. Mate, fantastic day. I know you're excited. I can see

00:16:18.560 the smile on your face. Before we get into your reaction, first tell us the story. We haven't had

00:16:24.220 a chance to even catch up on camera, only over the phone. So let people out there know what happened

00:16:29.080 from the beginning. So I've taken the family out on the bushwalk over in Mansfield, beautiful mountains

00:16:37.940 along there. And on the way back heading home, we ended up being pulled up by police and they let us

00:16:47.040 know we're breaking the law. So we said, oh, we didn't know, you know, legitimately. So we took the

00:16:53.980 family straight home. Thanked them for the advice. And of course, a month later in the in the mail was

00:17:00.640 a fine. Didn't have the funds at the time doing double shifts trying to support a family of four

00:17:05.960 and renew it. So how are you feeling today now that Madeline managed to get this revoked?

00:17:12.820 It's fantastic. It's amazing news to hear how it's been revoked. And yeah, they've dropped the

00:17:19.420 charges, been pulled out of court. So do you think this was going to happen? I thought it was going to

00:17:23.280 take a lot longer. I didn't expect it to happen so soon. And yeah, it's just exhilarating.

00:17:31.200 Family's overwhelmed. Thanks for joining us again, Madeline. And thank you for this very first

00:17:37.160 win. How are you feeling about the news? Oh, very happy. Very, very pleased for Tony that we were

00:17:42.720 able to get his matter withdrawn and withdrawn very quickly. Well, it certainly helped him out because

00:17:47.760 obviously it's affecting his employment as well. But the crazy thing is Tony was actually about to

00:17:53.100 pay it. Yes. Well, Tony's matter demonstrates the value of getting legal advice in these type of

00:18:01.920 matters. Absolutely. And that's why we're doing what we're doing. I'm really excited for all the

00:18:06.360 upcoming cases and to see some hopefully similar positive results. Again, thank you for taking on

00:18:13.520 all these cases. And thank you on behalf of Tony and everybody out there supporting this.

00:18:19.280 Thanks. What's your message to Madeline? Thank you. Thank you, Heaps. It was a fantastic job. 0.92

00:18:25.320 It was great news from the start. Even just having her phone call straight up, she let me know,

00:18:30.220 yes, we have got something to go to court with sort of thing. Letting me know straight away,

00:18:35.560 it was relieving news. Could you have done this and won this alone? No. Well, we're really happy.

00:18:41.360 We're really glad that Madeline was able and fightthefinals.com.au was able to make this happen

00:18:46.940 for you because this is what it's about. It's about helping regular everyday Australians who didn't

00:18:52.640 even do anything wrong to fight back and stand strong and at the end succeed. So well done. Thank

00:19:02.320 you so much. Thank you for being a part of it. Thank you for sharing your story and empowering

00:19:06.420 others to do the same. That's right. Thank you, Rebel News. Thank you, Riavi, that you have been

00:19:12.180 fantastic throughout the process. I can't thank you guys enough. It's our pleasure. This is what it's

00:19:18.900 about. You know, I was worried that we would have to really subsidize the Australian operation. But

00:19:25.100 in fact, Australia is so hungry for telling the other side of the story. I'm really pleased

00:19:29.920 to say that our Australia operation is doing great. In fact, it shows that some of the issues

00:19:36.240 we're dealing with here in Canada are universal. Canada, Australia, and I don't know if you saw,

00:19:42.080 but this morning we revealed that we have a new teammate in the United Kingdom. We used to have a

00:19:49.620 whole crew there centered around the rambunctious Tommy Robinson. He left our employee about two and a

00:19:55.680 half years ago. We helped him out when he was thrown in jail on a bogus contempt of court charge.

00:20:01.780 Tommy's been doing his own thing for a couple of years. I still stay in touch with the lad. It's

00:20:06.220 fun to banter with him. Of course, it's hard for me to try. I haven't left the country since the

00:20:11.400 pandemic. I used to go to the UK at least once a month. So it's hard for us to tell stories in the UK

00:20:17.800 when we don't have any people there. Well, now we do. Benjamin Lockname has signed up with us. He's

00:20:23.840 very British. And here's our first British video done by a British journalist in years. And hopefully

00:20:32.020 it's the first of many. And it's with our Fight the Fines project in that country. They all have

00:20:37.500 similar websites. Fightthefines.com is our Canadian website. Fightthefines.com.au

00:20:45.420 is our Australian website. And fightthefines.co.uk is our UK website. I know it's hard to keep

00:20:52.400 track, but each country has their own domain. And so here's a little snippet from our first

00:20:58.480 Fight the Fines case in the UK led by a Brit. Take a look. 1.00

00:21:04.500 This is a substantial risk that you are facing by not adhering to the lockdown guidelines and based

00:21:10.040 on what trading standards have advised you already.

00:21:11.920 We all have to look into that. See, the thing is, you're not even giving us time to sort

00:21:19.820 out what our rights are here. This is a, no, wait a minute. This is a business of 30 years

00:21:24.620 here. And we don't feel that you are, that the law is right in this respect, that we are

00:21:33.320 not doing anyone any harm by being open. We are doing no harm. What proof is there that

00:21:38.820 we have harmed anyone? I'm visiting a family who run a business who have been persecuted

00:21:43.260 by the local police. They've received warnings, they've received orders to shut down and they've

00:21:47.220 received fines. And just around the corner there's a WH Smith doing the exact same services

00:21:51.960 that they offer, but they're not being targeted. It's just the small local family businesses.

00:21:56.620 What I've been told, if you keep failing to abide by the trading standards saying that

00:22:00.620 you need to be closed, there is a risk that you pay quite yourself...

00:22:03.620 But I don't get how...

00:22:04.620 ...that if you continue to fail to obey by the regulations...

00:22:07.620 Well, we'll shut down completely.

00:22:09.620 ...that there is a risk that you can be given away or you can have your license taken away

00:22:12.620 from you and you can be shut. This is a substantial risk that you are facing.

00:22:16.620 If you or someone you know has been unfairly fined, ticketed or even arrested, head over

00:22:21.620 to fightthefines.co.uk and fill out a form with the details of your case. We will crowdfund

00:22:26.620 a civil liberties lawyer to fight the fine in court, just like we will for this shop here

00:22:31.620 in Droitwich.

00:22:32.620 On the first day of this second lockdown, we'd already decided before that that we would be

00:22:38.620 opening, so we opened up on the first day and within an hour and a half the police came

00:22:44.620 and physically shut the shop, actually closed the doors.

00:22:50.620 Well, they stood in the door and stopped people coming in basically.

00:22:53.620 Oh really?

00:22:54.620 So you were still open?

00:22:55.620 We were open and we had one officer talking to us, the other one standing in the doorway.

00:22:59.620 This isn't for us a challenge, that'll be a few to take up with them. As far as we're

00:23:03.620 concerned, we've been told by the government that this does not meet the requirements for the shop

00:23:06.620 to be open. So that is what we're here to advise you.

00:23:10.620 And did they have sort of a notice or permission to do that or did they just take it upon themselves?

00:23:15.620 No, no. Yeah, so that was the first day. So we kind of, we just went along with it that day

00:23:22.620 because it was quite, it was quite dramatic, wasn't it, the way you put people in?

00:23:28.620 Yeah, it was. Intimidatory, if you could use that word.

00:23:32.620 Right, exactly, yeah.

00:23:34.620 Yeah, so we went away and thought about it and decided to reopen as an essential shop,

00:23:40.620 which we kind of felt we were essential before anyway.

00:23:43.620 And the main reason for that was because we saw that this lockdown wasn't like the previous one.

00:23:48.620 Other shops were open who had been closed before, and similar shops to us.

00:23:52.620 Like WH Smith over the corner, which effectively is doing the exact same thing as you do.

00:23:56.620 Except they sell newspapers.

00:23:58.620 You're a small business trying to stay open, and a big chain like WH Smith can get away with the exact same thing.

00:24:04.620 Do you think that's anything to do with the fact that you're a small business and therefore an easy target?

00:24:08.620 Yeah, I think so. They're allowed to be open. The post office sells loads of cards as well.

00:24:12.620 Right.

00:24:13.620 And of course, I've got to mention the garden centres because they, I mean, you go to a garden centre for a trip, for a jolly,

00:24:22.620 you don't go up to a garden centre for essential stuff. They're usually more expensive anyway. People go there for a trip.

00:24:28.620 And they're allowed to stay open. They're selling all the same kind of things as we, gifts and cards and, yeah, clothes and everything.

00:24:36.620 All those kind of shops have to close, but they're being allowed to stay open.

00:24:40.620 Can you imagine that? That's the same problem we have here in Canada.

00:24:43.620 So it's a little gift shop that sells cards and stuff, and they're being crushed.

00:24:48.620 But WH Smith, that big chain, we have it here in Canada too, they're allowed to sell cards because they have snack food.

00:24:54.620 So this little mom and pop shop says, well, we can sell snack food too.

00:24:58.620 Which one do you think the police have gone after?

00:25:00.620 And I'm really excited that we have a teammate in the UK now, and I think he's going to have a little bit of fun.

00:25:06.620 So that's a little bit of a summary of our focus these days, but you knew that.

00:25:12.620 I'm really excited about Raheel's new book. There's a new book in the new year.

00:25:16.620 Boy, you know I want to tell you about it, but we have to, you know, you can't take the cake out of the oven until it's baked.

00:25:21.620 And we're baking it right now.

00:25:23.620 You know, I'm thinking ahead to the year 2021.

00:25:26.620 In so many ways, the year 2020 was stolen from us. It was wasted.

00:25:30.620 I, like everyone else, was confused and uncertain about the virus for several months.

00:25:37.620 Would it really be like Ebola or a zombie apocalypse?

00:25:40.620 And now, I realize it's really a bad flu season.

00:25:45.620 It's comparable to that in terms of its death toll.

00:25:49.620 Any death is a tragedy, but the average age of people dying from the virus is in the mid-80s.

00:25:55.620 And most of them have underlying serious health conditions.

00:25:59.620 I'm not downplaying those deaths.

00:26:01.620 I'm saying now that we know that it affects people in their 80s who have underlying health issues, let's give them all the protection and care.

00:26:09.620 And let's let the rest of the world go back to work.

00:26:11.620 But alas, authoritarians on the left have said, no, no, no.

00:26:14.620 Don't let a crisis go to waste.

00:26:16.620 And so that's the real battle, the political battle that just begins now.

00:26:21.620 And I just want to show you that clip of Jane Fonda again.

00:26:23.620 She knows that the virus is a great opportunity.

00:26:26.620 Take a look at her saying that. 0.82

00:26:28.620 This is a crossroads.

00:26:30.620 It's an existential crossroads.

00:26:32.620 And we are people who can help determine which way humanity goes.

00:26:38.620 What a great gift.

00:26:41.620 What a tremendous opportunity.

00:26:43.620 We're just so lucky.

00:26:44.620 We have to use it with every ounce of intelligence and courage and wherewithal we have.

00:26:51.620 Because you're absolutely right.

00:26:53.620 This is it.

00:26:54.620 This is it.

00:26:56.620 And, you know, I just think COVID is God's gift to the left.

00:27:07.620 Yeah, that's what we're fighting in Canada.

00:27:09.620 They're fighting in the United States.

00:27:11.620 It's who knows what will happen if Donald Trump will pull out a win.

00:27:14.620 I don't know.

00:27:15.620 But Joe Biden, he's going to be a full lockdown guy.

00:27:17.620 You know, let me close with you.

00:27:19.620 I remember way back when I went to business school at the University of Calgary, got a commerce degree.

00:27:23.620 And I remember they had something called a SWOT analysis.

00:27:26.620 Strength, weaknesses, opportunities, threats.

00:27:29.620 It's just a way of looking at your situation.

00:27:31.620 What are our strengths going into 2021?

00:27:35.620 We're not quite there yet, but I was thinking about it anyways.

00:27:38.620 Our strengths are our track record.

00:27:41.620 We've done, I don't know, 15,000 videos now.

00:27:44.620 We've worked out our systems.

00:27:46.620 We have more than 1.4 million YouTube subscribers.

00:27:49.620 I looked at our statistics today.

00:27:52.620 We've had 570 million views of our videos totaling more than 2.5 billion minutes watched.

00:28:02.620 And that's just on YouTube.

00:28:04.620 We're also on Instagram now and Twitter and Facebook.

00:28:08.620 To add it all up, we are Canada's largest independent broadcaster.

00:28:12.620 And we're, online, we're larger than many of the old line players like Global News and CTV.

00:28:21.620 So that's the strengths.

00:28:23.620 Our track record, we've been doing this for a while.

00:28:25.620 The machine is sort of working.

00:28:27.620 We've figured things out.

00:28:30.620 And we've got, you know, millions of people who rely on us for information.

00:28:34.620 Our weaknesses are sort of related.

00:28:37.620 We're sort of in a silo, off to the side.

00:28:40.620 The mainstream media so despises us.

00:28:43.620 I get it.

00:28:44.620 The feeling is mutual.

00:28:45.620 So it's not a permeable membrane between us and them.

00:28:49.620 That is, when we break important news, when we tell important stories,

00:28:53.620 it's like the media party says, oh, huh.

00:28:56.620 Well, if Rebel News is talking about these, even if they're newsworthy,

00:28:59.620 we're deliberately not going to talk about those because those are tainted,

00:29:04.620 because those are rebel stories.

00:29:06.620 So the very thing that makes us strong, we tell the other side of the story.

00:29:10.620 We give people another point of view.

00:29:12.620 We give news for people who don't feel served by the CBC and the Toronto Star.

00:29:16.620 That distinctive flavor we have is also a weakness in that our ideas cannot permeate into the mainstream culture.

00:29:25.620 That's why we rely on people like you to spread the word.

00:29:28.620 So that's a weakness.

00:29:29.620 We probably have others, too.

00:29:31.620 Opportunity?

00:29:32.620 Well, more than ever, people need the other side of the story.

00:29:36.620 And although the pandemic is a terrible time, both in terms of health and, most importantly, civil liberties,

00:29:41.620 it is a time when people value that other side of the story.

00:29:44.620 And I think we are really becoming that, not just in word, but in deed.

00:29:48.620 And these fight the fines projects are tremendously popular, not just with viewers, but with people who need the help.

00:29:55.620 And what's the threat?

00:29:57.620 That's the T in the SWAT analysis that I remember from business school.

00:30:01.620 Well, I think our threat remains what it always has been.

00:30:05.620 And in fact, I think it's getting worse.

00:30:07.620 And again, depending on the US outcome of the presidential race, if Biden wins, which I think is still likely.

00:30:14.620 Tech censorship.

00:30:17.620 That is not censorship at the hands of a Human Rights Commission or a court,

00:30:21.620 but censorship at the hands of some unknown bureaucrat in Silicon Valley who just pushes a button called delete.

00:30:27.620 What would we do if we were shut down from YouTube, where we have so many millions or billions of views?

00:30:33.620 What would we do if we were shut off of Twitter?

00:30:36.620 All of a sudden, we would be a rumor, just a mist, just history.

00:30:40.620 And that remains our threat.

00:30:42.620 I think, of course, those companies are being pushed by leftist governments to censor us.

00:30:47.620 We see that kind of language all the time in Canada, also in the Democrat Party in the United States.

00:30:52.620 And even just yesterday, this clip in the United Kingdom, where both the Labour Party and the Conservative Party are talking about censoring contrary views about vaccines and the pandemic.

00:31:07.620 Look at this.

00:31:08.620 As the Prime Minister knows, we've got the highest regulatory and medical safety standards in the world.

00:31:14.620 But it's really important we do everything possible to counter dangerous, frankly, life-threatening disinformation about vaccines.

00:31:22.620 We on this side have called for legislation to be introduced to clamp down on this with financial penalties for companies that fail to act.

00:31:29.620 So will the Prime Minister work with us on this and bring forward emergency legislation in the coming days, which I think the whole House would support?

00:31:36.620 Prime Minister.

00:31:37.620 Well, Mr Speaker, we are, of course, working to tackle all kinds of disinformation across the internet.

00:31:48.620 And he's right to single out the anti-vaxxers and those who I think are totally wrong in their approach.

00:31:56.620 And he's right to encourage take up of vaccines across the country.

00:32:01.620 And we'll be publishing a paper very shortly, Mr Speaker, on online harms designed to tackle the very disinformation that he speaks of.

00:32:09.620 So I think there's enormous pressure on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Google, Amazon to censor our side of the story.

00:32:17.620 I lived with that earlier this year when my own book, The China Virus, was banned, then unbanned, then re-banned, then re-unbanned by Amazon because it contradicted official points of view.

00:32:29.620 You'll notice on a lot of our videos we start off with a censorship warning.

00:32:33.620 YouTube requires us to put a warning like we're poison or something in the front of our videos.

00:32:39.620 That, I believe, remains our greatest threat.

00:32:41.620 But I suppose if I had to sum up why we're still here, coming up on our sixth birthday, well, because it's you.

00:32:48.620 We don't take a dime of money from Justin Trudeau.

00:32:51.620 We're 100% viewer supported.

00:32:53.620 And for that, I thank you.

00:32:55.620 Well, that's our show for today.

00:32:57.620 Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you and all, goodnight, and keep fighting for freedom.

00:33:03.620 Thank you.

00:33:04.620 Thank you.

Rebel News Podcast - December 04, 2020

Behind the Scenes of Fight the Fines in Canada, Australia and the UK

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