Rebel News Podcast - How can you follow COVID science, and follow politicians at the same time？

00:00:00.000 Tonight, the science, or should I say the weird science, as it pertains to the Wuhan virus.

00:00:21.760 It's Monday, February 1st. I'm David Menzies, and this is the Ezra Levin Show.

00:00:30.000 Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?

00:00:33.520 There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.

00:00:37.580 The only thing I have to say to the government about why I'm publishing it is because it's my bloody right to do so.

00:00:48.320 Consider yourself lucky if you never got to see Weird Science.

00:00:51.780 It's a groan-inducing film about two high school nerds who use a computer program to create what they hope will be the perfect woman.

00:01:01.840 I think the screenplay was written by two high school nerds.

00:01:06.220 But it's the title that has always struck a chord with me.

00:01:10.100 I mean, weird science? Isn't that an oxymoron?

00:01:14.160 After all, there's absolutely nothing weird about science.

00:01:19.520 Certainly not to an ethical scientist who can explain the way in which principles of science work.

00:01:26.220 Science is not black magic.

00:01:28.240 Ergo, 1 plus 1 shall always equal 2.

00:01:31.400 The boiling point of water is 100 degrees centigrade.

00:01:35.020 The speed of light is 186,000 miles per second.

00:01:38.560 E equals mc squared, and so on and so on and so forth.

00:01:42.280 But that's the thing about science.

00:01:44.740 It's absolute.

00:01:45.980 There's no nuance.

00:01:47.620 There's nothing open for interpretation.

00:01:50.440 In the immortal words of Jean Chrétien...

00:01:53.520 I don't know.

00:01:54.220 A proof is a proof.

00:01:55.320 What kind of a proof?

00:01:56.280 It's a proof.

00:01:57.080 A proof is a proof.

00:01:58.460 And when you have a good proof...

00:01:59.580 Okay, granted, that was somewhat awkwardly stated.

00:02:03.420 But you get the gist.

00:02:04.580 Oh, and by the way, I take back every mean thing I ever said about Mr. Chrétien

00:02:09.120 in light of the ongoing torture this nation continues to endure

00:02:13.120 under the leadership of Prime Minister Blackface. 0.60

00:02:17.340 Anyway, the point is that a scientist is truly the polar opposite of a politician.

00:02:23.540 Most politicians change their opinions and policies on the fly

00:02:27.400 like so many hockey players doing a shift change while the game's in play.

00:02:31.920 The end goal of the politician has very little to do with actually doing the right thing.

00:02:38.500 And it has very much to do about amassing political capital.

00:02:43.000 Job one of the politician, after all, is to get elected.

00:02:46.640 Job two is to get re-elected.

00:02:50.180 Rinse and repeat.

00:02:51.920 But a monkey throws a bone in the air and suddenly it's 2021.

00:02:55.140 And here we are confined in a biosphere of the bazaar.

00:02:59.680 One that is supposedly lorded over by science.

00:03:03.720 But in reality, it's more like weird science thanks to that thing that will not leave,

00:03:10.820 aka the coronavirus.

00:03:13.120 Indeed, in the past 12 months, we've witnessed a kind of

00:03:16.560 when-worlds-collide collision involving the realms of science and politics.

00:03:21.700 This has not proven to be a good thing.

00:03:26.260 You see, for about a year now, as politicians release edicts such as cruelly locking down the economy

00:03:32.980 and mandating mandatory face mask rules and social distancing edicts and all the rest,

00:03:40.460 the constant refrain is that they don't really want to inflict all this misery on us,

00:03:47.160 but that they must.

00:03:49.420 It's in the name of science, you see.

00:03:51.180 And so it is that virtually every politician of every political stripe

00:03:56.640 has repeated over and over again that he or she is being directed by the science

00:04:03.460 and that we, the great unwashed masses, are fully expected to follow the science

00:04:10.280 and listen to the science.

00:04:13.020 Oh, and if you don't follow and listen to the science,

00:04:15.420 well, in the words of Ontario Premier Doug Ford, you're a yahoo. 1.00

00:04:20.160 And in the words of Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister, you're an idiot. 1.00

00:04:25.360 I wonder which politician will double down by referring to the anti-lockdown types as idiotic yahoos. 1.00

00:04:33.980 As we've chronicled for months now, if you do not heed the so-called science, 1.00

00:04:39.440 like if you decide to gather with family members for Christmas dinner,

00:04:43.900 or if you decide to venture outside in Quebec past 8 p.m., well, these are super spreader events, don't you know?

00:04:52.180 And the state shall ensure it bashes a science lesson over your thick numbskull head 1.00

00:04:58.760 to the tune of, say, $880 or perhaps even more moolah or maybe a prison stay

00:05:05.500 is an order for committing such egregious crimes against humanity,

00:05:09.780 such as, oh, reopening a restaurant or deciding to do some mask-free shopping

00:05:15.260 at those chosen few retailers such as Costco and Walmart.

00:05:20.420 Because evidently there is some science somewhere that somehow chronicles

00:05:27.620 that it is far less risky to shop with hundreds of people inside a big box store

00:05:33.560 than going to a small mom-pa shop that caters to just a couple of customers at a time. 0.61

00:05:39.680 Like Claudia's Closet or Noble Toys in Bolton, Ontario.

00:05:44.700 You know, folks, both these little shops have actually been sent letters

00:05:48.100 from the Attorney General's office threatening the owners with imprisonment

00:05:53.480 should they ever have the temerity to open their doors to people who actually want to shop there.

00:06:00.240 Why? Well, it's because of science.

00:06:03.620 Yeah, science. Or is it weird science?

00:06:07.160 Geez Louise, who the heck saw this coming? 0.98

00:06:10.960 If you were to saunter into a bank with a face mask on a year ago,

00:06:15.660 that would have resulted in the manager pushing the silent alarm button. 0.54

00:06:19.920 Today you walk into your local CIBC without a mask on

00:06:24.180 and head teller Karen McCarron is going to scream at you 1.00

00:06:28.640 as if she were a banshee caught in a leghole trap. 0.52

00:06:31.860 Ooh, this new normal is something else, isn't it?

00:06:41.880 Who knew, given all that facial masking out there,

00:06:45.980 that Billy Idol's great ballad, Eyes Without a Face,

00:06:49.540 would emerge as an oh-so-appropriate anthem

00:06:52.520 for those of us living in the not-so-roaring 20s.

00:06:57.780 But I digress.

00:06:59.800 Because you see, I am a big fan of science.

00:07:03.200 Honestly, the glory of science is that it is so absolute and unforgiving.

00:07:08.560 Science is the gold standard of truth.

00:07:11.700 Tune into an episode of Forensic Files if you require a proven proof.

00:07:16.980 But these days, when it comes to science in the eyes of political types,

00:07:21.540 and even in some cases, scientists and doctors themselves,

00:07:27.240 science is fluid.

00:07:29.840 You know, like gender is these days.

00:07:32.800 Oh sure, Bruce is sporting an Adam's apple and five o'clock shadow,

00:07:37.360 which makes him really resemble a man.

00:07:40.280 But since Bruce identifies as an asexual, non-binary, two-spirit, lesbian unicorn,

00:07:47.720 and then Bruce shall be referred to as such as he goes about securing a spot in women's wrestling 1.00

00:07:54.220 and then proceeds to clean the clocks of biological females. 1.00

00:07:59.140 Oops, did I say he?

00:08:00.800 Got to be careful given the pronoun police out there, folks. 0.99

00:08:04.600 So I humbly apologize.

00:08:05.700 I meant to say that Bruce's pronoun is Z, Zer, Zay, Zippity, Doo, Da, and sometimes Y.

00:08:14.760 And so it is that just as gender is now fluid, well, science is kind of fluid too.

00:08:22.600 Well, at least when it comes to the Wuhan virus,

00:08:25.660 this is especially the case when politicians appropriate science

00:08:30.200 because politicians must always do the politically correct thing,

00:08:36.360 meaning that truth is always the first casualty.

00:08:40.380 Indeed, during this pandemic,

00:08:42.460 how many times have we seen politicians politicize science

00:08:46.840 so that it fits their narrative,

00:08:49.260 ultimately making science, well, unscientific?

00:08:54.140 Case in point, I reference Premier Ford's infamous bunch of Yahoo slur

00:08:58.320 that was uttered last April when anti-lockdown protesters

00:09:02.300 began gathering upon the lawns of Queen's Park,

00:09:06.080 clearly violating the science that pertains to social distancing

00:09:11.000 and gathering limitations.

00:09:13.840 If that's the way Premier Cherry Cheesecake is going to roll, so be it.

00:09:18.060 And yet, in the weeks that followed,

00:09:21.300 we witnessed even larger gatherings of people

00:09:24.380 who were part of Black Lives Matter demonstrations

00:09:28.020 they too congregated at Queen's Park.

00:09:31.280 Hey, same pandemic, same place, same time, right?

00:09:35.280 And what did Marie Antoinette, or I mean,

00:09:38.060 what did Premier Ford have to say about those BLM demonstrations?

00:09:48.440 Yeah, no slurs to hear here, folks,

00:09:50.980 because apparently the Wuhan virus is super intelligent

00:09:54.420 and is a staunch social justice warrior,

00:09:58.240 meaning it gives a pass to racial injustice protesters,

00:10:02.140 it would never infect those SJWs,

00:10:05.800 but alas, it despises anti-lockdown protesters

00:10:10.020 for reasons that continue to elude us,

00:10:13.160 but I'm sure there's some sort of explanation

00:10:15.720 that has to do with science.

00:10:18.760 More recently in Hogtown,

00:10:21.140 we have seen small gatherings of generally peaceful protesters

00:10:24.940 at Yonge Dundas Square,

00:10:26.920 people who want to go back to work

00:10:28.860 or go back to school

00:10:30.060 or reopen their shops.

00:10:32.480 And this is how police responded.

00:10:35.820 Mainstream media has decided to sit this one out.

00:10:52.140 Nothing to see here, folks.

00:10:53.300 Go for Moscow! 0.96

00:10:55.760 Go for Moscow! 0.96

00:10:58.040 The people who own everything in this world,

00:11:00.440 they tell us we will own nothing and be happy!

00:11:03.500 You must be questioning this!

00:11:05.440 This is Toronto.

00:11:07.260 This is not North Korea.

00:11:11.140 You're infringing on my rights!

00:11:13.360 You are infringing on my rights!

00:11:15.520 Officer, why are these protesters not allowed to protest

00:11:18.240 and people like you took the knee

00:11:20.480 for Black Lives Matter in the summer?

00:11:23.060 I'm not going to leave a communist country

00:11:25.380 to my kids or anyone else's kids.

00:11:28.200 I know the mainstream media is not here 0.99

00:11:29.920 because they probably support censorious thugs like you. 0.95

00:11:34.080 I know people need to see this. 0.98

00:11:36.320 People need to see this.

00:11:37.600 If you don't give an ID, that'll be obstructed.

00:11:39.480 You can't be arrested for that.

00:11:40.580 That's fine.

00:11:41.080 I've always wanted to go to jail.

00:11:42.700 Are you saying that media is not exempt?

00:11:44.120 Can you say that on camera?

00:11:45.220 Media is not exempt.

00:11:45.760 Media is exempt, but it's like 2.4 and stuff like that. 1.00

00:11:49.240 Oh, damn you, you yahoos. 1.00

00:11:55.920 Don't you know there's a pandemic afoot? 1.00

00:11:58.420 Even standing alone on a street corner is dangerous.

00:12:02.100 So disperse, disperse, disperse for your own safety.

00:12:05.560 It's all in the name of science.

00:12:07.840 And yet, check out this photo of the same police force

00:12:12.500 in this same city when it came to a BLM protest.

00:12:17.300 Yep, nobody was fined.

00:12:18.880 Nobody was ticketed.

00:12:20.340 In fact, the cops, including the chief at the time,

00:12:23.280 actually bent the knee in solidarity.

00:12:27.140 Again, science only applies to certain protests, you see.

00:12:31.420 Indeed, check out this front page photo in the Toronto Sun

00:12:35.440 just three days after that egregious crackdown of civil liberties

00:12:40.120 at Yonge-Dundas Square a week ago Saturday.

00:12:44.180 People were being ticketed and arrested for failure to maintain

00:12:47.920 two meters of social distancing.

00:12:50.800 But look at this Toronto Transit Commission streetcar.

00:12:54.420 There's not even two centimeters of social distancing going on

00:12:59.180 in that hermetically sealed city-owned and city-operated vehicle.

00:13:04.040 So where are the cops?

00:13:06.580 Where's the ticketing?

00:13:07.680 Where's the violent takedowns?

00:13:09.660 Oh, I almost forgot.

00:13:11.160 This is public transit and the socially aware Wuhan virus,

00:13:15.400 much like Toronto City Council, is really gung-ho

00:13:18.080 when it comes to the ongoing war on the car.

00:13:21.440 Thus, Mr. Wuhan virus would never, ever infect those Torontonians

00:13:26.580 who are doing their civic duty by taking public transit

00:13:30.300 and resembling a bunch of sardines in a tin can in the process.

00:13:35.740 Capisce?

00:13:37.140 But in reality, this is the problem vis-a-vis political correctness.

00:13:42.420 When politicians preach science, science goes right out the door.

00:13:47.780 Even worse, what is one to make of those bona fide scientists

00:13:51.960 who bend the knee to political correctness? 0.96

00:13:55.960 For yes, there are indeed scientists who believe that the principles behind science

00:14:01.720 are not absolute but rather intermittent and fluid.

00:14:08.180 Case in point, check out this Jump the Shark tweet from Jennifer Nuzzo,

00:14:13.800 an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University,

00:14:18.040 back when massive Black Lives Matter gatherings were occurring.

00:14:22.760 Quote,

00:14:23.140 We should always evaluate the risks and benefits of efforts to control the virus.

00:14:30.100 In this moment, the public health risks of not protesting

00:14:34.440 to demand an end to systemic racism greatly exceed the harms of the virus.

00:14:41.720 End quote.

00:14:42.140 Is that clear, class?

00:14:44.580 Dr. Nuzzo seems to believe that while the virus is dangerous,

00:14:49.560 it is far less deadly than racism. 0.98

00:14:53.760 Well, if that's the case, let's forget about all those COVID crap provisions 0.98

00:14:58.640 that are making our lives so miserable. 0.61

00:15:00.920 And instead, let's ramp up the social justice programs 0.59

00:15:04.020 that demonize so-called white privilege. 0.93

00:15:07.220 Hey, you lead the way, Dr. Nuzzo. 1.00

00:15:10.120 I mean, you may as well retire your lab coat, 1.00

00:15:13.500 given that your street cred as an epidemiologist has all but vaporized due to that single idiotic tweet. 1.00

00:15:21.360 Then again, folks, what if she's right? 1.00

00:15:23.260 Maybe there are more deaths that can be attributed to racism than the coronavirus.

00:15:28.620 So how about we reopen the economy so that people of all races and religions and skin color

00:15:35.620 can get back to work and actually earn a living as opposed to following the stay home edict

00:15:43.360 and vegetate, courtesy of the orders of Dr. Doug Ford?

00:15:48.600 I mean, seriously.

00:15:50.020 Look, we know the Wuhan flu is almost exclusively lethal to the very elderly and the very sick.

00:15:56.660 And don't get me wrong, their lives have meaning too.

00:15:59.880 But the point is, this virus is very picky when it comes to who it targets for a death sentence.

00:16:07.900 Is there really any merit when it comes to penalizing the relatively young and the relatively healthy

00:16:14.340 for a virus that has a recovery rate between 97 and 99.7%?

00:16:23.000 COVID-19 is not Ebola, not even close.

00:16:27.460 Now the question arises, what's worse than a politically correct scientist?

00:16:33.020 Well, how about an incompetent one?

00:16:35.900 Remember this hot mic moment in December involving a discussion between Ontario's two top doctors,

00:16:43.200 David Williams and Barbara Yaffe?

00:16:46.780 I don't know why I bring all these papers.

00:16:49.100 I never look at them.

00:16:51.220 Oh, you're giving numbers.

00:16:52.300 I do.

00:16:52.600 I go, oh, oh, oh.

00:16:53.780 Did you really say that?

00:16:55.280 I just say whatever they write down for me.

00:16:58.420 That's why you're guessing.

00:17:01.100 Oh, way to go, Einstein.

00:17:03.140 Yaffe would appear to be less a doctor and more a parrot.

00:17:07.140 And hey, I hate to be impolite to Dr. Frankenstein.

00:17:11.080 I mean, Dr. Yaffe.

00:17:12.240 But who exactly is they?

00:17:14.980 And please, folks, refrain from passing Yaffe some papers stating that the law of gravity has just been repealed.

00:17:24.240 This automaton might actually think it's true and jump from the window of her ivory tower 1.00

00:17:28.980 in the tragic wrongful belief that she will simply float back down to earth like a wayward feather from a seagull.

00:17:37.320 Still, Yaffe is a ham and egger compared to numero uno medical guru in the U.S.

00:17:44.940 I speak, of course, of Dr. Anthony Fauci.

00:17:47.800 Do you remember how about a year ago Fauci warned people not to wear a mask?

00:17:55.200 That doing so would result in more harm than good?

00:17:58.440 And then weeks later, he did a complete 180 by telling people to mask up.

00:18:04.300 And now he's been advocating double and even triple masking based on what?

00:18:12.060 A hunch?

00:18:13.380 Geez, what new level of hell does Dr. Fauci want us to descend into?

00:18:19.000 I mean, it's brutal enough trying to understand the clerk at the local PetroCanada

00:18:24.240 wearing a single face mask while standing behind a plexiglass shield

00:18:28.880 as he asked you if you'd like to play Encore with that 649 Quick Pick.

00:18:33.800 But imagine the horror of trying to have a conversation

00:18:37.860 when everyone is going around sporting three mouth diapers.

00:18:43.220 Wow, we're talking Charlie Brown teacher territory here.

00:18:47.340 And say, Doc, where is the actual science indicating

00:18:54.080 a triple wrapping of non-medical masks will do more harm,

00:18:59.160 will do more good than harm, rather?

00:19:00.920 You know, I pray for my American friends that Fauci is a better doctor

00:19:06.060 than he is a baseball pitcher.

00:19:14.060 Dr. Anthony Fauci.

00:19:15.720 So it is that the Wuhan virus world in which we live,

00:19:19.960 decisions are not being governed by science, but, well, intermittent science.

00:19:26.980 Indeed, science is only truly championed when it is politically convenient

00:19:32.140 and politically correct to do so.

00:19:36.000 But alas, when one merges science and politics,

00:19:40.040 what you end up with is a combination of political science

00:19:44.880 and weird science,

00:19:46.680 and there's nothing scientific about that.

00:19:51.640 Stay with us for more.

00:19:52.840 Hey, folks.

00:20:05.200 Well, how surreal is this?

00:20:07.180 I'm David Menzies, and I'm hosting the Ezra Levent Show.

00:20:10.320 And who's my guest today?

00:20:11.520 It's Ezra Levent.

00:20:12.780 I mean, I'm losing track of reality.

00:20:15.760 But it's with good reason.

00:20:16.860 And you see, the big boss man himself came down to the protest,

00:20:20.980 the Yahoo Nation protest, the anti-lockdown protest in Toronto on Saturday morning.

00:20:27.080 And, well, we spent about five hours, I think more than five hours,

00:20:30.740 following the protesters.

00:20:32.420 There was good news and bad news.

00:20:33.720 The good news is the police modified their behaviour somewhat.

00:20:39.680 The bad news is I don't think Toronto really is as free as it should be.

00:20:44.900 And without further ado, Ezra, what did you make of witnessing the police

00:20:50.100 and the interaction with the protesters firsthand?

00:20:52.940 Thanks very much.

00:20:53.620 And first of all, thanks for hosting the show this week.

00:20:55.960 And I just want to tell folks, obviously, I'm here in the studio.

00:20:58.860 I'm working on finishing up a new book.

00:21:02.220 And just the hours a day that I spend on the show and on the things,

00:21:06.020 it just wouldn't get done.

00:21:07.540 So I really appreciate you filling in for me.

00:21:09.580 But I'm just a couple doors over.

00:21:11.420 So I will be popping in every day to say a quick hello.

00:21:14.460 And I appreciate the viewers waiting for me.

00:21:17.780 I hope that the book is worth your wait.

00:21:20.140 And my goal is to finish it up this week.

00:21:21.420 So I just want to get that out of the way.

00:21:23.580 I went down.

00:21:24.440 First of all, thank you for going down for 10 months in a row

00:21:27.860 for these protests.

00:21:29.120 And I've watched it with great interest.

00:21:31.120 I either watch the video we produce,

00:21:32.960 or sometimes I try and follow it in real time on my phone.

00:21:35.820 And last week was so disturbing, like 10 days ago,

00:21:38.400 it was so disturbing to me to see what can only be called police brutality.

00:21:42.340 And the absolutely shocking video,

00:21:45.420 not just of you and our other journalists being physically pushed,

00:21:49.340 but the insane arrest and physical brutishness shown by Toronto police.

00:21:56.320 It truly is reminiscent of what we see in Russia these days 0.99

00:21:59.560 with some of their political policing.

00:22:02.320 So I went down on Saturday to show my solidarity with you and the others,

00:22:05.920 but to witness with my own eyes what the police were going to do,

00:22:09.540 and to talk to, if I could find any commanding officers,

00:22:13.420 to let them know with great clarity that if they touch our team,

00:22:19.500 they will get a legal reaction from us.

00:22:21.800 And this is, we've already sent them a legal demand letter.

00:22:24.800 We've sent lawyers' letters warning them.

00:22:28.580 So I was there to see with my own eyes how bad it would be or wouldn't be,

00:22:32.820 and to talk directly to the cops.

00:22:35.240 So I wasn't there really to report.

00:22:36.800 I didn't have a mic.

00:22:38.100 I mean, you've been doing a great job for 10 months.

00:22:39.840 I was there to watch the police.

00:22:41.240 And to my mild surprise, they seemed to have pulled in their talons a bit.

00:22:48.640 Now, partly because it was more a marching protest than a static one, I think.

00:22:55.260 So after we spent about five hours there, I mean, I got some great exercise.

00:23:00.520 As did I, yes.

00:23:01.500 But I went home, and my worst fears were not realized.

00:23:06.720 That said, I don't think that the police department has properly addressed their past violence.

00:23:11.940 I don't think they've knocked you around physically.

00:23:14.720 No.

00:23:15.120 I was very fortunate in that way.

00:23:17.180 And they also addressed what was, let's be honest, Ezra,

00:23:21.320 a lie going back a week ago Saturday where they said,

00:23:25.160 essentially, freedom of the press has been suspended at Yonge Dundas Square.

00:23:29.560 That miscommunication was clarified about 48 hours later.

00:23:34.820 And you were very adamant that we were going to cover this come hell or high water.

00:23:39.440 Yeah.

00:23:39.700 And when I first presented at these various locations,

00:23:43.160 I would look and find who appeared to be the most senior officer.

00:23:46.600 It's hard to tell sometimes because of how they were dressed.

00:23:49.000 And I am not an expert in the different uniforms.

00:23:52.660 But I did find some people who seemed to have the age and stature and rank.

00:23:59.560 And, again, to my mild surprise, they were very pleasant.

00:24:05.160 They were not aggressive in their language.

00:24:07.580 I mentioned to several senior officers that their stance of 10 days ago saying free press was suspended,

00:24:15.860 they acknowledged that that was incorrect and that they've corrected it.

00:24:19.100 I told them that if there were any assaults by their people, we would sue them.

00:24:25.220 And I didn't say that in a threatening way.

00:24:27.680 I just said be on notice.

00:24:29.780 I also said, by the way, don't do that to other people too.

00:24:32.620 Yes.

00:24:32.860 But I was there to make sure our team was fine.

00:24:35.080 And it looks like our team was untouched on the weekend.

00:24:40.700 But let me, can I share a couple other anecdotes just while I was down there?

00:24:43.880 100%.

00:24:44.280 And, by the way, we should point out Kellyanne Wolfe was arrested again and under dubious charges.

00:24:49.920 She was, I guess, the ringleader.

00:24:51.920 And once she was gone, the march sort of marched off on a nameless direction.

00:24:56.980 Yeah.

00:24:57.120 Yeah, it sort of zigzagged around.

00:24:58.860 It was good exercise.

00:24:59.780 But here's a few observations I made that I probably wouldn't have made just watching things from home as I usually have done.

00:25:08.100 Yes.

00:25:08.420 The first is a shocking reminder of the decay of Canada's greatest city.

00:25:14.440 And when I say greatest city, it's the largest city, the richest city, the city of the head offices, the media and banking center.

00:25:21.760 It's the fashion center.

00:25:23.140 Toronto, I mean, I'm a Calgary boy, so I have a rivalry with Toronto.

00:25:27.540 But by most measures, you would say Toronto is the greatest city in Canada.

00:25:31.680 It's the fourth largest megalopolis in North America.

00:25:34.760 It's a, it is an outstanding city by some measures.

00:25:38.860 But to see its decay.

00:25:40.720 We're there at Yonge-Dundas Square, which is like the Times Square of Toronto.

00:25:43.420 Correct.

00:25:44.480 And we see all these cops ready to take on anti-lockdown protesters.

00:25:48.400 And the first thing that happens is a guy comes up and asks me and one of our journalists, Alex, where's the works?

00:25:56.100 The works.

00:25:56.800 And Alex thinks, oh, that's a hamburger shop called The Works.

00:26:00.460 And he says, and the guy says, no, no, no, no.

00:26:02.620 It's a shooting gallery, man. 0.96

00:26:04.020 I want to go shoot drugs. 0.98

00:26:05.380 Yeah. 0.97

00:26:06.060 He said that.

00:26:06.780 And we both were shocked.

00:26:08.160 And then we see another lady on the ground, just planting herself right in the middle of Yonge-Dundas Square, and setting up all her gear to start shooting drugs right there. 1.00

00:26:19.700 Yep.

00:26:19.940 And I swear there were a dozen police cars and 20 or 30 officers right there.

00:26:26.220 Yep.

00:26:28.060 And she was right there.

00:26:29.200 A hundred percent.

00:26:30.200 So my first thing was shock at that.

00:26:33.500 Then we walked to, on our journey, we walked by Trinity Bellwoods Park, which is a beautiful, large park that's much beloved in Toronto. 0.96

00:26:43.880 Not by me, after what that hog did. 0.95

00:26:46.240 Right. 0.96

00:26:46.800 But it goes to that.

00:26:48.280 And I saw all these tents there.

00:26:50.160 Yeah.

00:26:50.460 And we walked by other parks that I don't know the name of.

00:26:52.860 Yeah.

00:26:53.020 And they were, and these are not campers.

00:26:56.620 No.

00:26:56.760 These are vagrants, homeless people. 0.99

00:27:00.360 Some of them have mental illness. 0.99

00:27:01.620 Some of them need help more than scorn. 0.99

00:27:04.480 Yeah.

00:27:05.120 But whatever the case is, and we should be generous to people who are sleeping outside in the cold.

00:27:11.040 That's obviously not what they want to do with their life.

00:27:14.380 But that has turned the parks of Toronto into dangerous places, and you yourself were attacked by a dog.

00:27:19.780 Yeah.

00:27:19.880 And the reason I mention that is because Mocha, one of our journalists, he said, well, I live in that building right there.

00:27:24.540 So there's all these young people in Toronto who live in these tall, tall towers, and they don't have a backyard, obviously.

00:27:32.500 If maybe they have a tiny balcony.

00:27:35.140 In many cases, they don't.

00:27:37.080 So they're in a small, expensive apartment.

00:27:40.520 The restaurants are closed.

00:27:41.820 The bars are closed.

00:27:42.760 The gyms are closed.

00:27:43.720 The stores are closed.

00:27:45.500 But the parks cannot be used by them either because they're physically dangerous.

00:27:51.700 What do they do with their lives?

00:27:53.060 How do they get exercise?

00:27:53.800 How do they meet people?

00:27:54.740 Where do they go?

00:27:56.540 And yet they are being harassed on the street for being in a cluster of five people.

00:28:00.160 Unless you go to Costco or Walmart.

00:28:01.440 Oh, yeah.

00:28:01.640 That's the one outlet they're allowed to go to.

00:28:03.820 So I saw all these contradictions.

00:28:06.140 And I don't come downtown that often in Toronto because my life is more in the burbs.

00:28:12.060 To see the decay and the hopeless, to see boarded up storefronts, especially for restaurants.

00:28:16.720 I was driving by our favorite place on Eglinton West, all those Jamaican and Caribbean barbershops.

00:28:23.720 Just that brown paper in the window.

00:28:25.860 You know when you, that brown newsprint, it's not newsprint, it's just the paper that says, we're shut down.

00:28:32.940 Barbershop after barbershop, restaurant after restaurant, to see the destruction of this great city.

00:28:39.500 And the police not attending to any of these issues, but going after the lockdown protesters.

00:28:45.020 It was a very depressing day for me.

00:28:47.960 It's sad, you know, and as we spoke about this on our walk, what is the substance of a great city?

00:28:54.240 Whether we're talking Toronto, New York, London.

00:28:56.440 It's the restaurants.

00:28:57.740 It's the shops.

00:28:59.260 It's the theaters.

00:29:00.580 It's the movie complexes.

00:29:02.440 All of which are shut down.

00:29:04.980 Kitty Corner to Young Dundas is the Pickle Barrel Grand.

00:29:10.240 This month, it was going to celebrate its 40th anniversary.

00:29:14.120 Three, it's gone for good.

00:29:15.920 How many more of these businesses?

00:29:17.000 And probably 200 jobs to go with it.

00:29:18.100 Oh, easy.

00:29:19.100 And, you know, the one image I had of the, and I think my wife would have gone crazy observing this.

00:29:26.680 While we were marching along Bloor Street, there was a shoe store.

00:29:29.500 And there was a lady in pretty nice clothes. 1.00

00:29:31.980 And she was there for the curbside pickup. 0.90

00:29:34.700 But, of course, you're not allowed in a shoe store.

00:29:36.400 You can go inside a Costco or a Walmart and buy your shoes.

00:29:39.480 And they had this little wooden bench where she sat outside in January in minus nine weather trying on new shoes.

00:29:49.360 Oh, my God.

00:29:49.700 And I thought.

00:29:51.120 For her health.

00:29:51.940 For her health.

00:29:53.500 And I'm thinking.

00:29:54.660 And, you know, and the poor shoe.

00:29:56.020 I'm not blaming the shoe store.

00:29:57.200 They've been ordered by, you know, the likes of Tori and Davila.

00:30:01.160 This is the way the new normal works.

00:30:02.880 But these images, Ezra, that's what struck me as so disturbing.

00:30:07.860 Yeah, it was really miserable.

00:30:11.200 This dreary.

00:30:12.440 I mean, listen, January's a dreary time.

00:30:14.320 February's a dreary time in Toronto and much of Canada.

00:30:17.420 But it's the life of a city is always its people.

00:30:21.500 And where do people meet?

00:30:22.800 Well, if they're not already in families and friends, you go out somewhere.

00:30:26.700 Or that's maybe where you meet new family and friends, new friends, rather, a restaurant, a bar, a club, a social gathering, a church, a food bank.

00:30:36.940 You know, actually, the food bank, I walked by one of them.

00:30:38.900 It said closed on it.

00:30:43.440 The life of a city is where the people gather and commune with each other.

00:30:47.520 That's the source of the word community.

00:30:49.040 We are together.

00:30:50.480 And that is being destroyed.

00:30:52.160 And it makes me terribly sad.

00:30:53.940 Now, I do see, because I follow things on Twitter.

00:30:57.820 For example, I saw Kristi Noem, the governor of South Dakota, was at an enormous rodeo, actually.

00:31:05.960 Thousands of people this close to each other, like at any, you know, music concert.

00:31:12.080 I saw in the crowd one person wearing a mask.

00:31:14.140 Great, wear a mask if you want to.

00:31:15.380 And I thought, my God, there are other.

00:31:16.860 And Florida, same thing.

00:31:18.200 All the schools are open.

00:31:19.480 All the shops are open.

00:31:20.280 There's no lockdown order in effect.

00:31:21.620 And I thought, we don't have to live like this.

00:31:25.600 There are other places, South Dakota, Florida being the best, where they're not living like

00:31:31.360 they're under house arrest, where they're not living like prisoners, where their police

00:31:36.420 are focused on criminals, not innocents, where they're treating sick people, not quarantining

00:31:43.340 healthy people.

00:31:44.020 The way we're living in Canada is madness.

00:31:47.300 And it doesn't have to be this way.

00:31:49.040 And yet, especially in Canada's greatest city, I'm afraid that is the new brand of Toronto.

00:31:53.920 The most paranoid, scared, confused, dreary, hopeless, lockdown city in North America.

00:32:01.240 And Ezra, it should be pointed out that some of the residents in Toronto support the lockdowns.

00:32:07.020 And by that, folks, I'm going to run a little clip here of what happened Saturday.

00:32:10.460 Ezra and I had broken off from the rest of the group.

00:32:14.220 It was Mocha and Efren that were on the scene for this.

00:32:17.700 As the protesters meandered through downtown Toronto, people in high-rise apartment buildings

00:32:24.260 that didn't agree with the anti-lockdown message, well, they not only hurled obscenities

00:32:29.940 and gave the middle finger, they actually threw garbage and ice from their balconies.

00:32:37.600 Check this out.

00:32:38.320 And Ezra, the disturbing thing, I had a conversation with Efren, our ace cameraman and film editor.

00:33:03.220 The police, after that guy got hit, and Efren believes he was actually concussed,

00:33:09.980 they were doing everything they could to say, please don't press charges, don't press, just move along.

00:33:16.620 And Efren disgust them and said, hey, listen, you've got a case.

00:33:20.120 What do you make of that?

00:33:21.160 Yeah.

00:33:21.640 Well, again, treating innocent people like guilty people, but letting guilty people run,

00:33:26.620 whether it's someone from balcony throwing, that's assault with a weapon.

00:33:29.980 We saw, I mean, it was a bit of a celebrity case, that girl who threw a chair off her balcony. 0.89

00:33:35.220 And I'm obviously against that, very risky.

00:33:38.160 But she was put through a number of trials, a number of hearings on that.

00:33:42.780 And here, the police were more attentive to peaceful protesters, guarding, marching, scolding them,

00:33:49.420 but had not a word to say about an actual crime that they witnessed with their own eyes,

00:33:52.720 and that was caught on film.

00:33:54.840 That's upside-down policing.

00:33:56.140 That's the kind of policing that destroys the respect and support of a community.

00:34:00.560 Policing only works if it has the consent and support of the people.

00:34:04.280 And I think one of the worst transformations of Canada in the last 10 months

00:34:08.920 is to watch the police go from, as the Mounties motto is,

00:34:13.000 maintain le droit, stand for what's right, support the right, support the law,

00:34:18.020 to run errands for mayors, attack the people, be snitches, be like the East German Stasi 0.90

00:34:26.600 in terms of inspecting non-criminal behavior and criminalizing it.

00:34:32.300 I don't know why any police are involved in health matters to begin with.

00:34:36.300 They never have been historically.

00:34:38.360 Under all the legislation I see, the role of police is extremely limited,

00:34:42.280 only when there's, not to serve an order or to give a ticket,

00:34:47.080 but only in the case where there's a typhoid Mary running around infecting, 0.98

00:34:51.000 or only in the most extreme circumstances, and even then, with a court order.

00:34:56.580 But as you point out, the worst part of it all

00:34:58.680 is that a significant portion of Canadians are fine with it

00:35:03.180 and even seem to be going further.

00:35:05.220 These are the worst of times.

00:35:06.580 It is indeed a very dark vibe in this city of my birth, Ezra.

00:35:10.580 One last question.

00:35:11.640 You're coming back this Saturday, boss.

00:35:14.260 Well, I think I'm interested in it.

00:35:16.760 Okay.

00:35:17.420 The most important, like you're doing a great job reporting,

00:35:20.140 and I don't want to step on your toes in that.

00:35:23.400 My primary interest is to make sure our people,

00:35:27.900 you, Mocha, the rest of our team, Efren, are not touched.

00:35:32.720 I mean, you've done a great job,

00:35:34.300 and frankly, if you ever want to take a break on a weekend, feel free.

00:35:37.400 That's okay.

00:35:38.200 What else am I going to do?

00:35:40.400 It was of grave concern to me,

00:35:42.960 just like it was when you and our team

00:35:46.920 were pushed off from the Toronto City Hall Plaza.

00:35:50.620 Oh, yes.

00:35:51.940 And I felt that as the president of Rebel News,

00:35:58.720 I had a special corporate and legal obligation

00:36:01.400 to go down there to make sure you guys weren't roughed up,

00:36:03.580 and I'm glad it didn't happen.

00:36:04.820 I might come back next week if it looks like that's another risk.

00:36:08.120 Well, I'm glad you did come.

00:36:09.320 And, folks, if Ezra doesn't come this Saturday, it's my loss.

00:36:12.340 I'll tell you, I spent more than five hours

00:36:14.180 walking the streets of Toronto with Ezra Levin.

00:36:18.000 It kind of felt like a father-son fishing trip.

00:36:20.320 Who is the father and who is the son?

00:36:21.540 I'm not going to say.

00:36:23.780 Although, given that it was January

00:36:25.560 and double-digit minus figures, an ice fishing trip.

00:36:28.540 But we will be there to cover it.

00:36:31.520 We've got to keep an eye on the shenanigans

00:36:33.200 because you know the mainstream media,

00:36:35.780 they're sitting this one out.

00:36:37.780 Keep it here.

00:36:38.460 More of the Ezra Levin show coming up right after this.

00:36:41.340 Hey, folks, thanks so much for tuning in

00:36:54.900 to the Ezra Levin show.

00:36:56.320 Tomorrow, my good friend Sheila Gunn-Reed takes the helm.

00:37:00.760 In the meantime, stay sane.

00:37:11.340 We'll see you next time.

00:37:12.340 We'll see you next time.

00:37:13.340 We'll see you next time.

00:37:14.340 Bye.

Rebel News Podcast - February 02, 2021

How can you follow COVID science, and follow politicians at the same time？

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