Rebel News Podcast - Manitoba's Premier Brian Pallister Makes a Promise He Can't Keep

00:00:00.000 Hello, my rebels. In today's podcast, I talk about Brian Pallister, who tried being angry

00:00:20.900 guy a few weeks ago, and his poll numbers plummeted to the lowest in Canada. So now

00:00:26.540 he's trying to Justin Trudeau cry a little bit on camera, dramatic acting. I'm not sure if it's

00:00:32.180 working, but I'll take you through Brian Pallister's little theatrical drama. I'll give you my thoughts

00:00:38.020 on that. Before I do, let me invite you to become a subscriber to Rebel News Plus. Just go to

00:00:42.500 rebelnews.com and click subscribe. You get the video version of this podcast. It's eight bucks

00:00:48.520 a month, and that goes to keeping us independent. You know we don't take a dime from the government.

00:00:53.760 All right, here's today's podcast. Tonight, Brian Pallister makes a promise he can't keep.

00:01:01.000 It's December 4th, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.

00:01:05.840 Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?

00:01:09.640 There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.

00:01:13.720 The only thing I have to say to the government of a wire publisher is because it's my bloody right to do so.

00:01:23.760 Hey, did you see this story just a few days ago? Premier Brian Pallister has the lowest approval

00:01:31.480 rating in Canada. Poll. Let me read a bit. Manitoba Premier Brian Pallister had the lowest approval

00:01:37.640 rating of the nine premiers whose performance respondents were asked to rate, with 32% of the

00:01:43.080 residents approving of the premier. This is a 12-point drop since the last quarter.

00:01:48.140 Of those surveyed, 64% disapproved of Pallister, and 4% were not sure.

00:01:55.560 It isn't the poll that matters to me. What matters to me is that we beat COVID,

00:01:59.920 Pallister said during a press conference on Tuesday. Basically, it tells me that people

00:02:03.380 don't like COVID, and neither do I. We'll stay focused on fighting COVID.

00:02:08.060 Got it. Except COVID wasn't on the poll. Pallister was.

00:02:12.600 Bizarrely, Quebec's premier, Francois Legault, a province of less than 25% of the population in Canada,

00:02:20.960 has had about 60% of the deaths and cases from the disease. But Legault is at 64% in the polls,

00:02:28.360 tied for first place. I can't explain why. But Pallister's explanation of people not liking the virus

00:02:33.860 doesn't seem to hold up. It also doesn't explain his 12-point drop in the last quarter.

00:02:38.380 So if Pallister's political performances aren't that strong, well, he tried for a dramatic

00:02:44.660 performance. What do you think? Are you convinced by this dramatic thespian? 1.00

00:02:50.060 I will do what I believe is right. And right now, we need to save lives.

00:02:58.220 If you don't think that COVID's real, right now, you're an idiot. You need to understand 1.00

00:03:04.360 that we're all in this together. You cannot fail to understand this. Stay apart.

00:03:13.280 So I'm the guy who has to tell you to stay apart at Christmas and in the holiday season

00:03:18.960 you celebrate, with your faith or without your faith, that you celebrate normally with friends

00:03:24.420 and with family, where you share memories and build memories. I'm that guy. And I'll say that

00:03:33.020 because it will keep you safe.

00:03:37.480 I'm the guy who's stealing Christmas to keep you safe. Because you need to do this now. You need to

00:03:49.280 do the right thing. Because next year, we'll have lots to celebrate. And we'll celebrate this year

00:03:55.540 if we do the right thing this year. You don't need to like me.

00:03:59.760 I hope in years to come, you might respect me for having the guts to tell you the right thing.

00:04:07.120 And here's the right thing. Stay safe. Protect each other. Love each other. Care for each other.

00:04:13.400 You've got so many ways to show that. But don't get together this Christmas.

00:04:18.000 I wonder if that works. Those crocodile tears, that dramatic acting. I mean, I give him points for trying.

00:04:24.160 It seems to work for another substitute drama teacher level actor, Justin Trudeau.

00:04:28.980 Especially with women. They seem to love it when Trudeau looks right into the camera.

00:04:34.220 Maybe with a wink and uses his sexy voice to ask forgiveness for whatever he's just been caught doing.

00:04:40.780 You know, blackface, firing Jody Wilson-Raybould, the Wee charity scandal, taking free trips to a 0.97

00:04:47.620 billionaire's vacation island, whatevs. He just looks into the camera.

00:04:51.360 Will it work for Canada's most despised premier, Brian Pallister?

00:04:54.380 I have to say, it's probably more effective than Pallister's last attempt.

00:04:59.600 Instead of being sad, remember when he was practicing being nasty.

00:05:04.180 It's clear that, unfortunately, some organizations and individuals just aren't getting the message.

00:05:10.800 In all, across Manitoba last week, 95 tickets had to be issued.

00:05:16.200 That's roughly 10 times the number of tickets that was handed out at the start of the month.

00:05:19.780 Looking back at last week, the combined total of fines was over $125,000.

00:05:27.120 But it's not about the money.

00:05:29.160 It's about preventing situations that hurt people.

00:05:33.840 Situations like the one I'm about to describe.

00:05:36.200 One of the tickets had to be issued to a hotel in western Manitoba that had its beverage room open

00:05:42.180 and had people playing pool in it.

00:05:45.560 And that hotel was the Corona Hotel, which I have had a beer or two in in my life,

00:05:50.520 and it's a nice hotel in Glenella, Manitoba.

00:05:53.820 But guys, don't do things like that.

00:05:58.220 This is disheartening.

00:05:59.280 If you break the public health rules, there's a good chance you might get your name mentioned on TV.

00:06:06.560 Yeah, see, there's a problem with that.

00:06:08.540 If you get a ticket for something, and you probably know this,

00:06:11.480 that's what he's been doing, handing out $5,000 tickets.

00:06:15.460 The ticket is not the result of the trial.

00:06:17.660 It's an accusation that starts a process.

00:06:20.780 It's a notice of a trial to come.

00:06:23.120 When you get a traffic ticket, same sort of thing,

00:06:25.640 the policeman who gives it to you, he's not the judge.

00:06:28.560 He's the accuser in a way.

00:06:29.900 You can say, all right, you got me, fair cop.

00:06:31.720 Or you can say, no, no, no.

00:06:33.840 Or you can say, it's just not worth fighting, I'll pay it.

00:06:36.080 But that's your choice to concede without a trial.

00:06:38.840 Because on every ticket, if you ever got a ticket,

00:06:41.500 it's clearly laid out how you can have a trial.

00:06:44.100 And you can make your case to the judge, and he's the final decider.

00:06:48.520 Not that I've ever had a ticket.

00:06:50.040 I wouldn't know.

00:06:50.880 People just tell me these things.

00:06:52.280 Anyway, so people are innocent until proven guilty.

00:06:54.600 That's another way of saying it.

00:06:55.580 You probably heard that phrase.

00:06:57.040 It's why during trials, we always say the alleged murderer,

00:07:00.580 or the accused murderer, because it hasn't been proven yet.

00:07:04.620 Until the judge rules and makes official findings of fact and law.

00:07:08.680 And then the appeals are exhausted.

00:07:10.480 He ain't guilty yet.

00:07:12.740 But Pallister just published to the world his list of enemies,

00:07:17.120 by which I mean people that his bureaucrats have chosen to accuse

00:07:20.980 of breaking his laws.

00:07:23.060 They haven't had a trial yet.

00:07:25.120 But no matter, the premier has declared them guilty.

00:07:27.580 guilty, except they're not, they're not.

00:07:33.660 They're not crimes.

00:07:35.440 We don't even use the word guilty.

00:07:37.220 These are tickets.

00:07:38.740 The premier's done so much more than convict them, hasn't he?

00:07:42.540 He's defamed them.

00:07:43.760 He's smeared them.

00:07:44.560 He's possibly killed their businesses.

00:07:46.400 $5,000 fine is bad.

00:07:48.680 But the premier of the province denouncing you to the whole world?

00:07:51.440 That?

00:07:52.580 Well, that'll bankrupt a guy.

00:07:53.760 I wonder if that is why Pallister is the most hated man in Manitoba.

00:08:01.120 Or maybe it's because he's doing this strange thing. 0.78

00:08:03.660 He's picking on Christians.

00:08:05.760 I mean, look at this.

00:08:06.760 By a reporter from the Winnipeg Free Press.

00:08:09.120 Plan for this fascism that you are demonstrating today.

00:08:13.380 That's right.

00:08:13.920 This is not right.

00:08:15.640 Go close down the liquor stores. 0.71

00:08:17.600 Go close down the sex shops. 0.55

00:08:20.020 The stores that sell drugs. 0.95

00:08:21.280 Come on.

00:08:21.780 Why are they being closed?

00:08:23.320 Why can't we go to church on a private property?

00:08:26.060 Exactly.

00:08:27.060 God is essential.

00:08:28.960 We need them no more than ever.

00:08:31.340 So the police are swarming the churches, finding anyone.

00:08:36.640 Even that same reporter from the Winnipeg Free Press.

00:08:39.440 She was threatened just for taking pictures of the police raid.

00:08:44.620 And sending squad cars in the dead of night to harass pastors at their home?

00:08:51.940 So what makes me different from the others that were there at church?

00:08:57.840 We don't have their identities.

00:08:59.500 Oh, okay.

00:09:00.920 You're picking on one person.

00:09:02.660 Do you realize?

00:09:04.320 So, again, like Tyler said, you've got three options.

00:09:08.140 And the options are laid out on your ticket here.

00:09:10.520 Your first option is that you could plead guilty and pay the fine.

00:09:14.440 The second one is that you can plead not guilty.

00:09:19.000 And then you can have your time in court.

00:09:20.340 Your third option would be to plead guilty with an explanation

00:09:24.140 where you could present your arguments to the justice or the judge.

00:09:28.180 And then they'll look at your information.

00:09:30.560 They'll look at our information.

00:09:32.100 And then they'll decide whether or not to issue the full fine,

00:09:34.740 a partial fine, or they may waive it completely.

00:09:37.380 Yeah.

00:09:38.320 I can't put my finger on it why Brian Pallister is suddenly unpopular.

00:09:42.020 So he's trying the opposite approach now.

00:09:44.820 Guys, he's the victim, you see.

00:09:47.420 That's why he's crying or trying to.

00:09:50.760 He's the victim.

00:09:51.680 He's the one who has to tell you the hard truth.

00:09:54.680 Look, shutting down your business.

00:09:57.460 Going bankrupt.

00:09:58.500 Being harassed by the police.

00:10:00.640 That's not a hardship.

00:10:01.960 You see, being the guy who does that to you, that's the hardship.

00:10:07.180 This is going to hurt him more than it hurts you people.

00:10:10.060 If you know mercy, no sympathy for Brian Pallister,

00:10:12.740 and all he's been through as he destroys lives in Manitoba.

00:10:17.580 I mean, sure, he has never missed a paycheck.

00:10:20.720 None of the ruling class have.

00:10:22.600 But it's been so, so hard on him, you see.

00:10:25.260 So as you shut down your business, and as you lose your job,

00:10:29.080 and live under virtual house arrest,

00:10:32.620 give a thought for poor Brian Pallister, would you?

00:10:35.720 I mean, he'll probably be on the next private jet to Costa Rica,

00:10:38.880 where he really likes to be.

00:10:39.960 I don't blame him.

00:10:42.120 Winnipeg is pretty cold in the winter,

00:10:43.920 and he's got this gorgeous place in Costa Rica that he really seems to prefer.

00:10:48.500 So that's how he suffers, people.

00:10:50.160 Have you no care?

00:10:51.840 You know, my main problem with Brian Pallister, though,

00:10:53.480 isn't the sociopathic drama, the fake acting, the fake tears,

00:10:57.440 how he is pivoted, asking you to believe that he's the victim,

00:11:01.000 and that you're the enemy, that he's the hero.

00:11:04.040 Just ask him.

00:11:05.300 That's not my main problem. 0.99

00:11:06.340 My main problem isn't even that he's a hypocrite. 0.98

00:11:09.080 It's that he's lying about how to stop the virus 0.99

00:11:13.040 by fencing off parts of stores

00:11:15.820 and banning people from shopping for, say, Christmas gifts.

00:11:19.040 That simply has nothing to do with the virus.

00:11:21.760 It will not stop it.

00:11:23.000 It just won't.

00:11:24.160 I mean, did you see this video by Keem Bexley the other day?

00:11:28.300 Friends, I've been out there.

00:11:30.840 And the people, they need some holiday cheer.

00:11:33.860 It's your time to shine.

00:11:39.080 If you break the public health rules, there's a good chance you might get your name mentioned on TV.

00:11:53.040 I can just let you guys know that they have been in this morning.

00:12:10.540 Do you think that the act of that lady removing something from Keem's cart

00:12:22.980 changed the epidemiological situation, changed the health or medical situation?

00:12:28.820 That Keem was at risk of getting the virus.

00:12:30.420 Stop, stop, stop.

00:12:31.360 You can't buy that Christmas card.

00:12:32.920 You get the virus.

00:12:33.920 Get that out of your car.

00:12:34.760 But how bad is it?

00:12:39.120 He's saying we have to cancel Christmas, as in we do.

00:12:42.880 I think he'll be spending Christmas on a nice beach somewhere.

00:12:45.340 But how bad is it for you and me?

00:12:48.320 I mean, really?

00:12:49.800 Well, here's some graphs from Manitoba's own website.

00:12:52.620 Look at the fourth chart on this page.

00:12:54.200 It's the number of people who got sick.

00:12:56.560 That's in red.

00:12:58.840 Number of people who got better.

00:13:00.240 That's in blue.

00:13:01.660 And the ones who have died are in green.

00:13:03.200 Can you see the green?

00:13:06.020 It's pretty hard to see, isn't it?

00:13:07.700 That's why you hear a lot about cases.

00:13:10.420 Not a lot of talk about hospitalizations or deaths.

00:13:13.800 What's the case, by the way?

00:13:15.000 It's a positive test, including false positive tests.

00:13:17.940 I'm not saying this virus is not deadly.

00:13:20.480 It is.

00:13:21.660 Twelve people passed away in Manitoba yesterday,

00:13:25.500 reportedly from the virus, if we believe that, and let's believe it.

00:13:29.300 Nine of them were in their 70s, 80s, or 90s.

00:13:31.660 In fact, five of them were in their 90s.

00:13:35.380 Now, I'm not saying that's a good thing, but I am saying it's information.

00:13:39.460 This disease targets people who are extremely old, 0.94

00:13:43.300 have extremely serious underlying health conditions.

00:13:46.260 I'm not talking about minor things.

00:13:47.840 I'm talking about liver disease and kidney disease and heart attacks and dementia,

00:13:52.400 that sort of thing.

00:13:53.140 Manitoba refuses to publish that comorbidity information as it's caused.

00:13:59.680 Alberta's actually one of the only jurisdictions that does them.

00:14:03.420 And the vast majority of deaths had not one, not two, but three underlying diseases.

00:14:09.500 People in their 80s and 90s with extreme health conditions.

00:14:12.360 I'm not glad they're dying.

00:14:14.720 Of course, it's a tragedy.

00:14:15.600 But I'm saying, why are families with kids being told they can't have Christmas?

00:14:22.780 If you were to say, hey, guys, don't invite your 90-year-old extremely sick grandma to Christmas,

00:14:28.580 I'd say, well, you have no right to separate families.

00:14:30.820 You have no right to tell families they can't be together.

00:14:33.880 That's fascist stuff.

00:14:35.000 But at least I would understand it from a medical advice point of view.

00:14:38.140 To protect 90-year-old grannies, people in their 80s and 90s, 0.98

00:14:42.700 especially if they have diabetes and heart attacks and dementia,

00:14:46.300 sure, don't invite her for Christmas dinner.

00:14:48.120 That could be good advice.

00:14:50.720 Though I know that most of these deaths of seniors are actually not just seniors,

00:14:55.320 but seniors in institutional seniors' homes, not just random seniors.

00:15:01.200 So why are kids being punished again?

00:15:03.400 Punished again, excuse me.

00:15:04.700 Why are kids being punished?

00:15:05.940 Why are young families being punished? 1.00

00:15:08.900 That's why Brian Pallister is a fool and a dangerous fool. 1.00

00:15:12.320 Not because he's crying, but because he's lying. 1.00

00:15:17.140 Banning Christmas will not stop this disease

00:15:19.200 any more than banning Christmas cards will, which he's also done.

00:15:24.560 Banning anything involving children or young families won't make any difference at all. 0.56

00:15:28.500 It's very sick seniors who are at risk. 0.99

00:15:31.600 Brian Pallister is a liar. 0.99

00:15:34.280 And judging by his acting, he's not a very good one. 0.99

00:15:36.360 Oh, and if you think that this Christmas is the last one he'll want to cancel,

00:15:42.420 and that next Christmas, if he's still in office,

00:15:45.920 if you think he won't be banning Christmas then too,

00:15:48.660 well, then maybe you're the kind of person who actually thinks they really meant it

00:15:53.280 when they said in March,

00:15:55.000 two weeks to flatten the curve,

00:15:57.200 and then we'd be all free.

00:15:58.680 Hey, folks, stay with us.

00:16:01.600 Up next, Sheila Gunn-Reed talks about fighting the flames.

00:16:04.320 Well, here in the City of Ottawa, David,

00:16:18.360 you know, we've been now, what, on six or seven months of flattening the curve?

00:16:21.880 And I know that the City of Ottawa has been, on one hand,

00:16:26.100 vigilant in terms of trying to enforce some of these new regulations,

00:16:29.380 but on another hand, in many situations,

00:16:32.080 they've been overzealous in terms of their enforcement

00:16:34.600 and in terms of whether or not they're even giving effect to any exemptions that exist.

00:16:40.320 And there's questions as to whether or not we really need these laws anymore at this point in time.

00:16:45.320 Welcome back, everybody.

00:16:47.040 As you can see, I'm obviously not Ezra Levant,

00:16:50.240 but I am filming his interview for him.

00:16:53.880 And I have somebody coming on the show today

00:16:56.900 who I think is very instrumental in the fight for civil liberties in this whole country.

00:17:03.920 I want to introduce you to David Anber.

00:17:07.180 He will be our point lawyer on our very ambitious,

00:17:10.340 but I think very worthy Fight the Fines 1,000 campaign.

00:17:16.960 We want to take on 1,000 cases across the country.

00:17:22.320 Wherever you get a ticket, we're going to be there to fight it.

00:17:25.540 And we want to take on the first 1,000 of them and provide a free lawyer.

00:17:30.420 Now, when you hear the words free lawyer, you think you get what you pay for.

00:17:35.360 But David's one of the best,

00:17:37.280 and we're covering the cost through crowdfunding at fightthefines.com.

00:17:41.920 David, thanks for coming on the show.

00:17:45.000 I guess my first question to you is,

00:17:48.560 why on earth would a young, ambitious, up-and-coming lawyer

00:17:52.020 want to take on this cause of fighting these fines?

00:17:57.240 Because, you know, people who engage in civil disobedience

00:18:01.440 are not always the most well-behaved people.

00:18:04.540 They're kind of prickly by nature.

00:18:05.660 That's why they do these things.

00:18:07.280 And yet, here you are, stepping into the gap to take on these cases.

00:18:11.840 Well, Sheila, I, like you, and like millions of other Canadians,

00:18:16.020 are very concerned about the status of civil liberties in our country right now.

00:18:20.360 There's no denying that we do have a public health situation that's going on,

00:18:23.880 but the reaction that we're seeing from mayors and premiers across the country,

00:18:28.380 often with rules and laws that are not even voted on by a legislator,

00:18:32.120 what we're seeing is this government overreach.

00:18:35.340 And the application of these laws involve infringing on many people's civil liberties in this country.

00:18:40.500 Now, is this something that you do every day in your normal work?

00:18:45.240 What is the normal David Anber case that you would take on?

00:18:51.140 Well, my firm is primarily a criminal defense firm, but I also do provincial offenses as well.

00:18:57.340 I'm based in Ontario, and I also do many cases in Quebec as well.

00:19:02.380 And provincial offenses are what are known as quasi-criminal offenses.

00:19:06.040 They're offenses that follow a criminal procedure, so to speak, but they're not criminal in nature.

00:19:11.360 The most common one that almost every Canadian at one point or another will have contact with is some form of driving offense,

00:19:19.220 either be it a parking ticket, a speeding ticket, or some type of ticket related to an accident.

00:19:24.380 So these fines that we're going to be fighting are fines that are issued under provincial proceedings in all of the provinces.

00:19:33.500 So they are provincial offenses, and they're very similar in some ways to the provincial offenses that my firm routinely handles as well.

00:19:42.940 Now, again, you don't work for us.

00:19:46.280 You'll work for the clients, the people who receive the tickets.

00:19:49.280 So you don't really need to be specific with me, although, you know, we've already got cases that are rolling in.

00:19:56.700 They're already in the pipeline.

00:19:57.960 We're trying to streamline the process because it's very ambitious to take on a thousand of these.

00:20:01.780 But in the vaguest and most general terms, what's the legal strategy here to fight these tickets in court?

00:20:11.400 Well, there are going to be different strategies for each of the different cases.

00:20:14.960 I'm already aware of a few of the fight the fines cases that have been coming across my desk.

00:20:19.400 But I mean, right at the top, we're going to start by looking at the law in question.

00:20:23.140 Is that law constitutional?

00:20:24.960 We're going to be looking at the application of it because in many situations,

00:20:28.960 the law just grants these broad powers to premiers or to mayors to essentially decree whatever they want.

00:20:36.240 And often these decrees are not written very properly or they're not written in a way that respects the Charter of Rights.

00:20:43.440 So we're going to be looking at that.

00:20:44.940 We're going to be looking at whether or not the people are even factually innocent.

00:20:49.080 In many cases, I've seen where they've been, where clients have received tickets and they did not actually commit an offence.

00:20:56.420 Or at least there's a dispute in law or a dispute in fact as to whether or not an offence even occurred.

00:21:01.800 You know, that's one of the things that I think is lost in the shuffle of all of this.

00:21:06.360 Politicians and in some instances, it's health bureaucrats who are making regulations,

00:21:12.440 unaccountable, unelected health bureaucrats, by the way. 0.96

00:21:14.840 They're making these regulations that seem to stomp on the Charter of Rights.

00:21:19.220 And there is no law to be made in this country that stomps on the Charter of Rights.

00:21:25.200 Right.

00:21:25.660 And I've been saying this since the beginning, Sheila.

00:21:27.900 I think we keep hearing, you know, we have to listen to the scientists.

00:21:30.660 We have to listen to the epidemiologists.

00:21:32.500 We have to listen to the medical experts.

00:21:34.820 And that's true.

00:21:35.580 We do have to listen to them.

00:21:37.020 But when it comes to public policy, it's our politicians that need to be making the decisions.

00:21:42.420 Those politicians need to, of course, listen to the experts on health as it pertains to the health consequences.

00:21:49.880 But they also need to listen to other voices, voices regarding civil liberties, voices regarding the economy.

00:21:57.020 And it's not up to medical health officials to say that these types of restrictions or these types of laws should be designed.

00:22:04.300 They're to provide information on the seriousness of the current health situation, on what some of the effects would be.

00:22:11.020 But ultimately, it's up to the legislators in each province to craft good public policy that balances the health concerns along with the economic concerns, along with the mental health concerns of Canadians, and along with civil liberties.

00:22:26.300 And that's not being done right now.

00:22:28.260 You know, I'm glad you brought that up, that politicians need to be the ones making these decisions.

00:22:33.260 And they should be balancing all considerations.

00:22:36.900 And that's a great segue into something I wanted to ask you about, because you are in the centre of the universe of Ontario, and I'm out here in God's country, Alberta.

00:22:47.020 And, you know, two conservative premiers are handling this pandemic very differently.

00:22:54.560 And in Alberta, Jason Kenney has sort of taken the advice of the unelected health bureaucrats and balanced it with the economy and mental health and business concerns.

00:23:05.200 That's not happening in Ontario, and so you're seeing businesses in Ontario being, you know, fined for doing things that are perfectly legal in other jurisdictions with the same COVID infection rates.

00:23:21.800 So for you, you're going to be working in this patchwork quilt of regulations.

00:23:27.240 How do you plan on managing that?

00:23:30.360 Well, I think my approach is going to be the same everywhere we go, looking at the constitutionality of the law, looking at how it was applied and looking at the facts of the case.

00:23:39.500 I mean, what we're seeing, Sheila, is we're seeing essentially fear being used as a blunt object across the country.

00:23:44.800 I know that to compare just a little bit of Ontario and Alberta, my last look about a week ago at the statistics is that in Ottawa, for example,

00:23:54.300 about three tenths of one tenth of one percent of the population of Ottawa were out and about with COVID.

00:24:03.260 Now, I appreciate in Toronto, for example, the number is closer to about one percent.

00:24:07.440 In Calgary, I believe it's one quarter of one percent.

00:24:10.080 So we do have different situations across the country, but we're still dealing with relatively microscopic numbers,

00:24:18.340 which can often be dealt with by less intrusive measures than we're seeing right now.

00:24:23.660 When I talk about fear, obviously, we were well aware that the mainstream media have been using fear to get people all worked up about the possibility of getting COVID and what that means.

00:24:34.540 But we're actually seeing fear as being a bigger problem with regards to the premiers.

00:24:38.380 Premiers are fearful as to how they're going to look if they don't one up each other with the measures that are being taken.

00:24:45.180 We saw that in the United States, this preposterous idea that Donald Trump was responsible for all of the 200,000 or 300,000 deaths.

00:24:54.240 And then here in Canada, we're seeing some premiers who are acting either in Quebec or Ontario and other provinces, Manitoba,

00:25:01.860 with this fear in their eye that if they don't overreach and if they don't use overkill in the manner in which they pursue this,

00:25:11.920 that they feel that they're going to be hung up to dry in the media or somehow they're going to be falsely held responsible for what is turning out to be not as serious of a public health crisis as we originally thought.

00:25:25.260 You know, I'm so glad that you brought up Manitoba because, again, Brian Pallister claims to be a conservative premier,

00:25:34.180 someone who, you know, you would think would be on the spectrum of caring about civil liberties.

00:25:40.160 And yet they issued more than $180,000 in tickets in one week to people accused of breaking their coronavirus regulations.

00:25:54.560 There were 100 tickets issued and nearly half were for not following various public health orders, according to the CBC, and take that for what you will.

00:26:05.040 But, I mean, they're reporting the raw numbers here.

00:26:07.360 In total, 20% of the tickets were related to gatherings of larger than five people.

00:26:13.320 So this could be a family get-together.

00:26:16.660 And yet that's basically been outlawed in Brian Pallister's Manitoba.

00:26:22.040 How do we fight this?

00:26:23.540 Do we, I guess the idea is to take on as many cases as we can and just overwhelm them with our ability to fight back and maybe they'll just stop charging people and ticketing them?

00:26:36.240 Well, I think, again, Sheila, it comes back to the issue of fear, is that lots of people, citizens, are so fearful that when they either hear of these tickets being issued or even receiving them themselves,

00:26:50.520 they kind of just say, they capitulate and say, well, I guess, you know, it's something that's necessary because we have such an important health situation.

00:26:58.420 But I think we just need to look at these tickets one at a time, whether they come to us through Fight the Fines or anyone who's representing themselves or who has other lawyers.

00:27:07.000 They need to be looked at and see if there's any real connection between, first of all, health concerns and the laws that are in place.

00:27:17.080 And if not, there can be an attack on that in terms of the constitutionality of it.

00:27:20.800 And then we need to look to see if people are actually breaking the law.

00:27:23.900 We see bylaw enforcement officers.

00:27:26.140 I have one case in here in Ottawa where a bylaw officer assaulted my client as he was leaving a park following an instruction to to leave a park very early in the pandemic.

00:27:37.820 And he was assaulted by the bylaw officer.

00:27:41.160 The bylaw officer has has since lost his job, but the charges remain and we're fighting that.

00:27:46.860 So each one of these charges, if they're fought and if they're challenged and if people don't just simply capitulate, I think we'll see a bit of a different shift in focus from both the government and the prosecution branch of the government in as to to what extent this needs to be pursued.

00:28:05.280 Now, one last question.

00:28:07.320 In some instances, I think a lot of these gatherings of larger than five people, particularly in Manitoba, end up being church services.

00:28:15.980 Christian church services, Christian church services, and I think there's some legal question around the ability of police and bylaw enforcement officers to disrupt a church service that's taking place.

00:28:29.500 And we've seen some video footage of that, particularly with a Mennonite church near Steinbeck.

00:28:36.720 How do we how do we fight that?

00:28:38.860 How do we help that?

00:28:39.860 Well, at this point, Sheila, I'm not able to say that I've seen a considerable amount of evidence that the churches are being targeted or that freedom of religion is being targeted, but they do make an easy target, so to speak, for bylaw enforcement officers.

00:28:54.780 Is that where these laws, and we're seeing this across the country, have basically resulted in normal society as we're used to, you know, walking to the store, being able to leave your house, being able to see the faces of the people in your community.

00:29:10.120 Normal life has been changed.

00:29:12.220 And for many people, worship is a very important part of normal life.

00:29:16.320 And so where people want to keep experiencing normal life, that's where we're seeing the friction between some of these overreaching government policies.

00:29:25.540 Well, David, I'm so glad that you are working on these Fight the Fines cases with us.

00:29:30.560 I know that you and I have been working on one in particular that I hope everybody at home stays tuned, because that'll be coming out shortly.

00:29:37.940 If anybody would like to support the work that David is doing to help people fight these fines, they can go to fightthefines.com and donate today and see some of our prior cases and, of course, some of our successes that are already starting to trickle in.

00:29:54.280 David, thanks for joining me.

00:29:56.080 We'll talk very, very soon.

00:29:58.620 Thank you, Sheila.

00:29:59.480 Stay with us.

00:30:00.600 More Up From Ezra right after the break.

00:30:07.940 Well, thanks for watching.

00:30:16.600 What a busy week.

00:30:17.380 I had so many projects I was working on on the side, so I feel like I didn't do enough videos myself, but we had some great content out there.

00:30:24.760 I only did one live stream this week.

00:30:26.460 I'll look forward to three next week.

00:30:27.940 Plus, we've got lots of big stories.

00:30:29.440 We're fighting the fines like crazy.

00:30:32.580 We've got more U.K. stories coming.

00:30:34.560 Avi Yomini's just killing it in Australia, and I'm so, so proud of our Canadian team.

00:30:38.740 What a week it's been.

00:30:39.780 Thank you for your support.

00:30:40.920 Until next time, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, you at home, good night, and keep fighting for freedom.

00:30:46.560 We'll see you next week.

Rebel News Podcast - December 05, 2020

Manitoba's Premier Brian Pallister Makes a Promise He Can't Keep

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