Rebel News Live is happening in Red Deer, Alberta on Saturday, June 14th, at the Red Deer Curling Centre. Stand up, speak out, and be there! Tonight, an update on the Amish, the ones that the government punished for not downloading the Arrive Can app.
00:00:00.240Feel like Ottawa's got its boot on Alberta's neck? Well, it's time to push back.
00:00:05.500Join us for Rebel News Live, Saturday, June 14th at the Red Deer Curling Centre.
00:00:10.620Spend the day with Ezra Levant, me, Sheila Gunn-Reed, and a powerhouse lineup of freedom fighters, political thinkers, and grassroots leaders.
00:00:18.920We're talking energy, free speech, and especially independence, and how the West can finally stop getting screwed.
00:00:25.540This isn't just a conference, it's a rallying cry. Tickets are going fast. Get yours now at donegettingscrewed.com.
00:01:15.880Oh, hi everybody, Ezra Levant here. I am back in Chatsworth, which is about two and a half hours northwest of Toronto.
00:01:23.280No, I am in Amish country. And the reason I'm here is because nine months ago, Rebel News and the Democracy Fund charity made a promise to the Amish that we would help them fight one of the most outrageous cases of government overreach I've ever seen in my life.
00:01:39.840If you don't know what the Amish are, they're a very strict religious denomination.
00:01:45.220They're Christian. They came as a sort of refugee from Central Europe.
00:01:51.060They're pacifists, and they have a belief to eschew anything modern.
00:01:56.140They don't drive cars. They don't have smartphones. They don't use electricity.
00:01:59.820They traveled, even in 2025, in a horse and carriage, and they keep to themselves their very low-tech.
00:02:09.540It's a lifestyle choice that wouldn't be there for many, but for the Amish, it's their religious faith expressed every day.
00:02:16.260They get along with their neighbors. They're quiet people. They're not aggressive. They live in the countryside.
00:02:21.880They're not ostentatious. In fact, because they use animal power for their farm implements, they're financially modest people.
00:02:31.140But then the pandemic happened, and when the Amish would cross the border to the states, because there's Amish communities in the northeastern United States, in Ohio, in Pennsylvania, in New York,
00:02:42.760they would be asked upon their return a question that would have sounded something like this.
00:02:47.260Have you downloaded the Arrive Can app on your smartphone?
00:02:53.920Okay, these folks don't have smartphones.
00:02:56.440An app is not a word they use, other than maybe it doesn't mean an appetizer.
00:03:02.280Arrive Can is a meaningless phrase for 99% of regular Canadians.
00:03:06.940I'd be surprised if a single Amish person had heard of it.
00:03:09.620So these Amish who were crossing the border were asked this absurd question if they downloaded this government malware, this spyware that Trudeau's friends made.
00:05:27.240I found them on Telegram, and I read up on it.
00:05:31.400I became familiar with what they've done so far in helping those people in BC.
00:05:35.740That's what really piqued my interest, and I didn't know that the Amish had a problem.
00:05:40.660I've had various conversations, but they found out that I dealt with customs issues commercially, and that's how that topic came up.
00:05:48.220It's a matter of trust with the Amish as well, because I've known them so well for so long that they felt comfortable asking me about that.
00:05:57.420So you reassured them, because you've been dealing with them on a business level, you've gotten to know them personally.
00:06:05.980So it was your telephone that was used to connect Adam Blake Gallupo of the Democracy Fund with the head of what they call their steering committee.
00:06:15.000So you were sort of the bridge between the old world and the new.
00:06:19.320Well, you sat in the meeting, and it's sort of funny what I'm doing here now, because normally I would show the leader of the community, and I would have him done.
00:06:26.860By the way, he looks wonderful. He sounds wonderful. It was such a heartwarming meeting, but he can't be seen on camera. That's just not their way.
00:06:35.080You heard my introduction here. Is that an accurate representation of what's been happening to the families here?
00:06:41.860And, of course, Adam Blake Gallupo is dealing with the families directly, and again, I'm not exactly sure how that's being done, because, you know, fax machines, phone calls, emails.
00:06:52.220I guess you're the interlocutor. You're like the ambassador, the diplomat.
00:06:56.380That's right. I show up. We set a date and a time, and I go to a certain place, and then we have a meeting on the phone with Adam.
00:07:04.720Well, Grant kept his promise to help the Amish, and so did the Democracy Fund.
00:07:10.280Over the last nine months, Democracy Fund lawyers Mark Joseph and Adam Blake Gallupo have come out here hours and hours to meet in person with dozens of Amish, and they come in their horse and buggy.
00:07:24.700It's quite a logistical thing to set up a meeting.
00:07:27.740I mean, think about it. How would you set up a meeting in another city?
00:07:31.020You would telephone. You would use an email. You might use a Google Map or Waze.
00:07:37.100How do you do that with folks who don't use electronics?
00:07:39.580So it's very logistically intensive just to get Amish people here and then to explain in layman's terms what's going on.
00:07:48.360Well, over the course of time, dozens of Amish have made the journey to the house here, and I can't show you the house,
00:07:55.180and I can't show you the leader of the Amish, who I've gotten to know a little bit over the last nine months,
00:08:01.220because again, not only do they not use video cameras and photographs,
00:08:05.640they really believe in not appearing in cameras or videos as well.
00:08:11.060There are other Amish in the States who have less strict approaches,
00:08:14.680and of course, if you want to see what the Amish look like, as I've mentioned before,
00:08:18.900there are some outstanding movies that actually sort of do look like the Amish in real life.
00:08:26.320Harrison Ford had a great one about 25 years ago.
00:08:30.420My point is it's very hard to tell the story when you can't show the people involved.
00:08:33.520If you think it's hard to tell the story, imagine fighting not just lawsuits,
00:08:37.420but lawsuits that have aged out, because what happened was these Amish would get the fine.
00:08:44.820It wouldn't be brought to their attention.
00:08:46.740They're not checking their email or faxes.
00:08:49.960A lien would be put on their property.
00:08:52.100They would not be in any court hearing.
00:11:45.620These Amish travel around from community to community for dating.
00:11:48.860I mean, if you're a young Amish guy, you're not using Amish Tinder or whatever the apps are these days.
00:11:54.960You are going in person and you're going to other Amish communities.
00:11:59.240And so whenever they would cross the border, which they would do all the time because their friends and families are just on the other side.
00:12:05.240Anyhow, so a couple of the guys here today, one of them in particular lives in Ohio, just got married down there.
00:12:10.620But he's got to come back up here to fight this because he can't do it by remote.
00:12:18.720So the hassle, I'm just trying to imagine.
00:12:21.140He leaves his farm in Ohio by horse and carriage.
00:12:25.180I think he takes a bus across the border.
00:12:27.620Then he somehow gets another horse and carriage and he's here because he's got to be here in person.
00:12:32.700And just the logistical challenge of him coming here, which is something that any other victim of the justice system would just handle in a Zoom call.
00:12:42.740Yeah, I mean, our court system isn't really designed to handle these folks.
00:12:47.140So as you say, they have to make travel arrangements.
00:12:49.840They can't go online to find out, you know, what train or bus they need to take.
00:12:54.960So really, the logistics are difficult for them.
00:12:57.860But, you know, we've managed to handle it so far.
00:13:00.420All I was thinking about when I was in there, like I was listening, and I'm not going to give away any solicitor-client privilege,
00:13:05.920but you were talking about if you get something in the mail, give a copy and we'll send something.
00:13:12.040Like just things that we take for granted in the 21st century in Canada, that's not how they operate.
00:13:18.760And we hear all this talk about reasonable accommodation and is the government being culturally sensitive?
00:13:24.980And is the law being sensitive and sensitivity training for judges?
00:13:29.460And it makes me want to gag all this DEI.
00:13:31.820But here we have a real case of a community that they're not being intransigent.
00:13:36.880This is just, they just don't use tech.
00:13:39.520And instead of accommodating them, instead of, I mean, the very fact that they punish these people in the first place is insane.
00:16:01.960It was some YouTube commenter who said, oh, this is a scam or a scheme to get their land.
00:16:07.940I thought, no, it's just an abusive debt collector.
00:16:10.440But what you're saying proves the conspiracy theory true.
00:16:14.420And these Amish, I was talking, I don't want to mention names, but I was talking to the, and I even promised the head of the steering committee, I wouldn't say his name on camera.
00:16:25.680But the head of the steering committee, who we both know and have met several times, he was telling me about how terrified a lady was when she came here to deal with the ticket and she found out she had a lien.
00:16:39.380She actually fell ill from the stress of it.
00:16:43.740Because imagine, these folks, they're doing their best to live old-fashioned style, to live in the world but not of the world, they say.
00:16:53.220And to be told that your property might be seized by the government because of some damn fool arrive, can't they have?
00:23:23.620You know, when I talked to, I was going to say his name, the head of the steering committee as well, and it takes up a lot of his time, but they're pleased with it.
00:23:59.600We'll go to the, you know, the divisional court or wherever you have to go to appeal these if they don't overturn them.
00:24:06.500But that's what we're committed to do.
00:24:08.180You know, I want to respect their rules.
00:24:11.320We're very careful to respect their rules.
00:24:13.360I have not said the name of the steering committee boss or any of the clients.
00:24:16.900We drove out here in our cars, but they came out here in their horses and carriages, and it's sort of cool to see a parking lot of horses and carriages all tied up.
00:24:30.720It's like you're living in a cowboy western movie.
00:24:34.640And I wanted to film that horse and carriage parking lot.
00:24:42.900We are helping people that no one else has helped or would help or frankly could help.
00:24:48.700And I wish I could share with you their words to me directly of how much this help means.
00:24:54.900You're just going to have to take my word for it and Mark's word for it because they will not go on TV.
00:24:59.200And I think this is the work the Democracy Fund was built to do, helping people who cannot help themselves, and in this case, who cannot even speak for themselves.
00:25:09.060It's one of the most unusual cases the Democracy Fund has taken.
00:25:12.440All right, there's two ways you can help.
00:29:28.280The letter to the court is a page and a half.
00:29:31.020The key sentences from that are these.
00:29:33.940We are writing to make an informal request for a special hearing.
00:29:37.160To have the application for an injunction heard remotely, if possible, and in the alternative in Calgary.
00:29:42.720And decided before the end of business on Friday, June 13, 2025.
00:29:48.940And this, there is significant urgency to having the injunction heard prior to the commencement of the summit.
00:29:55.380The applicants will be significantly prejudiced and will suffer irreparable harm if the motion hearing is delayed.
00:30:01.340We note that the applicant, Rebel News, has been granted urgent sitting dates in similar injunction applications, resulting in the granting of mandatory injunctions against the Leader's Debate Commission.
00:30:13.100As in, we need to have an emergency hearing ASAP or we will miss the G7 and we'll never get that opportunity again.
00:30:21.320And by the way, this delay is 100% part of Carney's scheme because we applied months ago.
00:30:28.180He wanted to wait until the last minute.
00:30:29.380Now, the meat of this lawsuit, as I mentioned, is called the Notice of Application, which is actually quite short, too.
00:30:36.020These key sentences are the ones that I think of as the meat of it.
00:30:41.000Paragraph 17, the accreditation refusal is unreasonable and unlawful, is contrary to natural justice, and lacks procedural fairness.
00:30:52.180The applicants will suffer irreparable harm as a result of the accreditation refusal.
00:30:55.96018, additionally, failing or refusing to grant media accreditation to Ms. Gunn and Mr. Fouzard by way of the accreditation refusal is contrary to the principles of Section 2B of the Charter, which guarantees freedom of the press.
00:31:11.020That's the thing about Carney and his reheated leftovers from Justin Trudeau's government.
00:31:16.420They just don't care about civil liberties.
00:31:19.340I mean, these are the people who invoked a form of martial law because some truckers were honking their horns.
00:31:25.840I mean, these people have no patience for opposition or criticism.