Rebel News Podcast - Meet the New Rebels!

00:00:00.000 Hello, my Rebels. A little bit of a different show today. Instead of a monologue, well,

00:00:04.000 we've got our staff meeting, and I thought, well, you know, let me introduce some of our

00:00:07.920 new people to you, because some of them I bet you haven't really met before. Some of

00:00:12.740 this is our first time coming to our office. So that's what today's show is. Anyway, I

00:00:17.060 hope you like it. I encourage you to get the video version of this podcast so you can see

00:00:21.400 these people with your own eyes. Just go to rebelnews.com and click subscribe. It's eight

00:00:25.640 bucks a month, and you get the video version of this program. And more importantly, in

00:00:31.880 my opinion, well, equally importantly, let me put it that way, you support Rebel News

00:00:36.420 because, you know, we are not laying people off. We are hiring people. We are growing

00:00:41.920 because we want to serve you, our listeners, even better. So please consider supporting

00:00:47.060 us. Go to rebelnews.com and click subscribe. Okay, here's today's podcast.

00:00:55.640 Tonight, let me introduce you to a few new rebels. It's May 14th, and this is the Ezra

00:01:12.160 LeVant Show.

00:01:14.840 Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?

00:01:18.280 You know, I don't have time to do a regular show today. I even skipped our noontime live

00:01:38.220 stream. First time I've done that in a while. Because we're having an all-staff meeting here

00:01:43.040 at our world headquarters in Toronto. So we brought our whole team in. We're doing a bunch

00:01:47.400 of training, and we're just getting to know some of the new teammates. Plus, we had an

00:01:51.180 excellent lunch catered by Adamson's Barbecue. You know them. So what a wonderful day.

00:01:58.380 And I know everyone on the team, obviously, but I don't think we've had a chance to properly

00:02:02.900 introduce some of our new talent to you. And we've got young people and people from different

00:02:09.400 walks of life. And we've got new people in Alberta and Ontario and here and there. So

00:02:15.800 instead of doing a regular show, I'm just going to introduce you to a few of our new teammates.

00:02:20.540 And I hope you're going to love them as much as I do. So for the next half hour, enjoy meeting

00:02:25.460 seven. Well, the first new talent I'd like to introduce to you is Daniel Day. He's the youngest

00:02:43.600 rebel, just turned 18. And he's actually the fourth generation of the Day family with whom I have had

00:02:49.200 the pleasure of talking and getting to know him. Daniel, you started with the rebel sort of in a

00:02:54.700 casual way. You attended at the Grace Life Church with Sheila Gunn-Reed every Sunday. And you saw

00:03:03.180 the cops try and get in that building, didn't you? That's right. It was outrageous what I've seen.

00:03:08.500 It's like something straight out of communist China. Huh. Well, and you were there when the police

00:03:13.300 tried to smooth talk their way into the door. Now, some of those church elders knew the law,

00:03:19.580 maybe even better than the cops did. There's part of the criminal code that says you cannot disturb

00:03:23.620 a church. Tell us about that because you filmed that key interaction, which I think showed the

00:03:28.620 whole game. I think they were really trying to intimidate that church. Tell me about that

00:03:33.140 film that you recorded. Yeah. So the AHS and the police were trying to get into the church,

00:03:40.140 but the elders seemed to know a lot better than they did. And I guess outsmarted them.

00:03:45.820 And then they had to turn away because it's against the law to do that.

00:03:49.760 Yeah. Section 176.2 of the criminal code says it's actually a crime to disrupt a church service. I

00:03:55.800 actually didn't know that until just a few months ago. I think that's a pretty good law,

00:03:59.740 by the way. And by the way, that law applies to everyone, including police, including health

00:04:04.580 officers. Your first adventure with Rebel News was extremely stressful. And frankly,

00:04:12.000 I thought there was a 50-50 chance we'd never see you again. I'm kidding around. You were with us

00:04:17.920 in Montreal when the Montreal police tried to raid our Airbnb that happened to be on a houseboat

00:04:24.440 without a search warrant. We had a real standoff there. That didn't scare you off?

00:04:28.840 No. I mean, it was exciting. And it was definitely outrageous what the police were doing. It didn't

00:04:34.560 scare me off. It rather, like, encouraged me to, like, be here and want to help because this should

00:04:40.100 not be happening. Right on. Well, listen, we're delighted to have you aboard. I like the fact

00:04:45.820 that you care about things. When I went to that Grace Life Church and I saw you there, and it was

00:04:50.880 clear to me that you really believed in our mission of telling the other side of the story.

00:04:54.640 And occasionally we actually go even farther and help people fight in the court of law. We don't

00:04:59.740 represent Grace Life Church, but we are helping other churches around Canada. So it's nice to

00:05:04.940 have you here. I know you're working closely with our chief reporter, Sheila Gunn-Reed, and I think

00:05:09.480 that's going to be a key to your success. Sheila, I think, is the best of the rebels. She's got one

00:05:15.840 foot in the city, one in the country. She's a little bit oil and gas, a little bit farm, a little bit 1.00

00:05:19.760 big. Like, she's just got all our bases covered. And in the six years she's been with us,

00:05:24.500 she hasn't put a word wrong. So if you stay close to Sheila and follow her guidance, I think you too

00:05:29.480 could be an outstanding citizen journalist. I know it. And it's fun to have you aboard.

00:05:34.940 It's an honor to be out here and Sheila's amazing.

00:05:37.400 Isn't that the truth? Well, listen, great to have you here. Stay with us. We're going to have

00:05:41.320 more new rebels. I'm so proud of these folks. And we've got them all out here in Toronto for a bit

00:05:47.120 of a staff meeting. So I thought, well, let's just get them in the chair and a quick hello. So stay with us.

00:05:54.500 Well, we're back. You know, our new talent sitting in the chair next to me, we have given him a

00:06:00.040 nickname already. K2. You know, there's a mountain in the Himalayas called K2. It's the second highest

00:06:05.780 in the range. The reason we call him K2 is his real name is Kian Simone. And Kian,

00:06:13.060 the very first Kian I had ever heard of was Kian Bexty, who worked with us in Calgary. I'd never heard

00:06:18.800 the name Kian before in my life. Now you've joined us in Calgary and your name is Kian. And it's

00:06:23.660 almost too much of a coincidence. It's certainly odd. Listen, we can call you Kian. We can call you

00:06:28.500 K2. It's great to have you. How did you come to the rebel? You just joined us in the last two weeks.

00:06:35.140 Actually, your very first week on the job, you were sort of thrown right in the deep end, weren't you?

00:06:38.600 Yeah, that was one of the craziest weeks of my life. About a year ago, my dad actually said,

00:06:43.820 hey, there's another Kian and he's doing news. I was like, oh, that's weird. So I became a fan 1.00

00:06:49.500 actually through Kian. And he was actually a big inspiration to me to, you know, get people's

00:06:54.140 faces. You know what, from one Kian to the other, keep it spreading. In your first week on the job, 1.00

00:06:59.380 and I think your title is technically intern, am I right? Yeah. So that sounds like a humble title,

00:07:04.940 a modest title, a ground floor, you know, first rung on the ladder title. But in your very first week,

00:07:09.620 you were thrust into the largest story in Canada, the arrest and imprisonment of Pastor Arthur

00:07:15.720 Pawlowski. Yeah, I don't feel like an intern after that. Yeah, I don't think you are. You did

00:07:20.580 something and we kept it secret at the time, but I think you can reveal it now. We didn't know when

00:07:25.200 the police would strike. So you literally slept at the church in case they did a morning raid.

00:07:32.100 Yeah, that was it was it was crazy. It was weird. That's a heck of a stakeout. Yeah, I woke up like

00:07:37.640 every hour, not knowing what was to expect. Yeah. Well, and you know, that it's a little bit

00:07:42.720 dramatic, but in the Grace Life Church, police did a dawn raid to lock the place down. So I had this

00:07:48.200 premonition that they were going to do the same thing. They didn't have that dawn raid, but I'm

00:07:52.960 really glad you were there just in case. Sometimes journalism is about waiting for something to

00:07:56.780 happen. No, I'm glad that you were wrong about that, though. No news is good news in that case.

00:08:00.460 Yeah. Well, I mean, we wouldn't talk about what would happen if the police came into the church and

00:08:04.720 found you there and how that would go down legally. That wasn't the only excitement, because

00:08:10.280 a couple of days later, when Pastor Arthur Pawlowski was set to be released from the Calgary V-Man

00:08:17.220 Center, their maximum security holding jail, the judge, Justice Germain, sent the order to the jail

00:08:25.320 saying, release him. And the jail guards wouldn't. They were arguing with the judge. Oh, we need two

00:08:30.760 orders, one for each brother. There's Pastor Arthur, there's Brother David. Like it was, I've never seen

00:08:35.360 guards fight a judge saying, no, we're not doing, like it was bizarre. You were standing outside the

00:08:41.620 jail waiting, and a couple of guys in uniform came out and started telling you that you had to leave.

00:08:49.220 Tell me about that. You called me on the phone, but I couldn't see what was happening. I could only hear

00:08:53.720 it from the phone. You were there, obviously. What went down there? Well, the first guy that came out,

00:08:58.260 he was extremely nice, and I said, I'm with Rebel News. And he said, okay, well, let me go speak

00:09:01.940 to my boss, because I said, I'm not going to film until Arthur comes out. I have no, I don't care

00:09:05.920 what you guys are doing here. Maybe just get some B-roll, but if I don't get that, fine. I'll respect

00:09:11.320 that. And his boss came out, and he said, oh, you're with Rebel News? I love Ezra. Oh my God,

00:09:17.280 what? I've been so mean to them. My dad's been such a great fan of his, but I have to ask you to leave.

00:09:22.320 And then that's when you were still on the phone. Oh, I got so mad. I swore. I swore. Because my

00:09:28.840 point of view is that we have a right to be on public property, filming matters of public interest.

00:09:37.280 And just because someone in a uniform says leave or turn off your camera doesn't mean you have to do

00:09:42.980 it. In fact, we have a right to report. And the thing is, this is your first week on the job.

00:09:48.640 Yeah. Someone in a uniform at a jail is saying leave or you're in trouble.

00:09:53.820 I don't know. Maybe you're going to wind up in jail. Already there.

00:09:57.920 Yeah. So for you, like if you didn't quit after being on the nighttime stakeout and being threatened

00:10:06.340 by some uniformed folks at a jail, I know you've got what it takes to be a rebel. And I did not expect

00:10:12.800 that to happen in the first week to an intern. Yeah. It's honestly the best job in the world.

00:10:17.780 Well, that's great. I think you're doing great. Every day I can see you getting stronger.

00:10:23.260 It's quite something. And the timing was fortuitous that you were there for the big story

00:10:27.200 in Canada, I think. And great work. And I was, I remember I was hollering at you,

00:10:31.640 don't, don't, don't leave. Don't do it. You tell him. Oh my God. I was stressed for you. Because I

00:10:38.000 thought, who has the courage to stand up to an armed guard? Well, the next guy that came out with the

00:10:43.480 acting director, he was a lot more lenient on getting me to leave. And he was more mean about

00:10:49.900 it. And then that's when, you know, the first guy I was nice and he was nice. So it was just more of

00:10:53.940 like a weird casual. But the acting director was the tough guy. Yeah. I'm so glad you held the line.

00:10:57.720 That's part of being a rebel reporter. If you're a CBC reporter, a Toronto Star reporter, you're not

00:11:03.280 asking tough questions at all. So no one's really miffed. And you certainly don't speak truth to power.

00:11:07.980 So, you know, the CBC is really never asked to leave anywhere important because they're just,

00:11:12.260 they're stenographers. Rebel reporters get asked to leave all the time because when we show up,

00:11:17.300 we're shining a light of public scrutiny, typically on someone who doesn't want that light. So I hate

00:11:22.000 to say it, Kian, but you are going to get other people telling you to leave. And it's going to be

00:11:27.680 a test of your courage every time. Keep the camera rolling. Do not leave unless they prove they have

00:11:34.100 lawful authority for you to leave and then only do so reluctantly. I mean, if you are on private

00:11:39.760 property and if the owner asks you to leave, you do have to leave. But public property, a public

00:11:44.660 interest story, I'm so glad you held the line. What a first week. I have no fear, Ezra. All right.

00:11:48.900 Well, great to have you here. That's Kian, Simone, or K2, as we call them. Stay with us for more new

00:11:54.640 rebels.

00:11:59.920 Well, like I say, we have all the staff here at our world headquarters in Toronto. We're having

00:12:04.060 a little bit of Adamson's barbecue for lunch. But in between bites, I'm pulling some of the new

00:12:08.760 talent into the studio because I thought, well, hey, we haven't even properly introduced some of

00:12:13.520 these new folks. Some of them are so new. Like K2 has only been with us about a week or two and

00:12:18.740 same with Daniel Day. But Matt Brevner has been working with us for a few months. He's based in

00:12:24.540 Vancouver. Now, most of the time he works with Drea Humphrey, our outstanding bureau chief out there.

00:12:29.880 But Matt's also appeared on camera a couple of times. And he was also with us at that dramatic

00:12:34.080 incident in Montreal when the police tried to raid our hotel rooms without a search warrant. That

00:12:40.380 turned into a 10-hour standoff. I just talked to Matt before we turned the camera on. I said,

00:12:44.280 is there anything you want to talk about? He said, well, you know, my own story. I'd like to share

00:12:47.900 that with viewers. And, you know, frankly, Matt and I haven't had a chance to really go deep on it

00:12:51.440 anyway. So I'd love to hear it. Matt, we're delighted with your work. We think the work that you're doing

00:12:57.480 out there is so visually beautiful. The stories are so well edited. And Drea is one of my favorites.

00:13:03.480 She's amazing. But why don't you tell us a little bit about you, the man behind the camera?

00:13:07.740 Sure. Because I don't think most of our viewers even know you're on our team yet.

00:13:12.120 Sure. Yeah, I'm a musician from Vancouver. Music's been very good to me. I've been able to

00:13:17.400 travel all over the world and win multiple awards and pay my bills as a musician, which,

00:13:22.880 That's pretty rare. Yeah, especially for a kid from Vancouver who started making music

00:13:26.280 in his grandma's basement. That's a dream come true. Last year, I attended, I went to go watch

00:13:33.320 a street preacher. And the story was taken out of context and covered by CTV as a homophobic

00:13:39.540 protest. And unfortunately, my social media reach as you know, on was on par with CTV Vancouver. So

00:13:48.380 you can't have as you know, you can't have any sort of success without some haters. So people who have

00:13:53.120 been, you know, quietly hating me over the years took this as the opportunity to take potshots at me

00:13:58.300 and, and labeled it as some sort of homophobic protest, which it was not in any way, shape or

00:14:03.260 form. And I was subsequently canceled for that. I was dropped from my record label without even

00:14:08.200 them reaching out to me. I know what that feels like not on the music side, but we've had people

00:14:12.400 deplatform us. No conversation, no appeal, no discussion. It's, it's the height of injustice.

00:14:17.580 Yeah, it's, it's, and you know, it's tough, you know, as an entrepreneur, your greatest resource are

00:14:22.160 your relationships. So when something devastating like that happens to you, and you also can't call

00:14:27.940 on familiar friends to help you, it's a really, it's difficult. So, you know, that led me to, I'm

00:14:33.520 good friends with Alex. I've known Alex for over over 10 years.

00:14:36.460 That's Alex on our, who works here in our Toronto office. Yeah, one of my oldest friends. And he's

00:14:41.000 like, Hey, you know, maybe we should link you with our reporter, Drea, and she can ask you about what

00:14:45.980 happened. So, you know, we met up and I kind of told her the story. And at the time I was, it was a

00:14:52.300 devastating experience and I was still getting my footing. So I was like, I don't know if I'm ready

00:14:55.920 to fight this yet. I kind of want to let, I don't want to reemerge on the defense. I kind of want to

00:15:01.600 let the dust settle and see what's next for me in that way. But I told her, Hey, no, I love what you

00:15:06.400 guys are doing. And if there's any way that I can contribute, you know, I'm out of prudence.

00:15:11.100 I'm quite handy with a camera and I would love to, you know, work with you guys in that capacity.

00:15:15.160 So I started working with you guys part-time, I think last fall, and now I've been on full-time

00:15:19.460 for the last couple of months. And it's interesting because, you know, when I applied for the job,

00:15:23.960 I wanted to make a point to not really highlight or emphasize my accolades or achievements in that

00:15:29.560 other industry, because I wanted to work with you on the merit of, you know, my convictions and my

00:15:33.680 skill set. And I knew that if I was given that opportunity, obviously the rest of it would

00:15:38.840 would come out. And, you know, every time I'm out with Drea, someone recognizes me either positively

00:15:43.980 or negatively from my career or from, you know, the debacle. So she's like, wait, there's

00:15:49.040 there's something different about you, right? I'm like, well, actually, yeah, there is. So

00:15:54.380 and it's, I never thought that life, you know, would take me on this path, but it's amazing to be

00:16:01.060 able to, you know, the thing I really love about working for Rebel is when we show up,

00:16:05.380 we get, we get to be like, people look at us like we're the good guys. You know, we get to really

00:16:09.000 help people. In Montreal, especially, I really felt that, which was a surprise to me because we're

00:16:12.760 pretty new to Quebec. Tell me a little bit more about that, because it sounds like, I'm hearing

00:16:18.740 some of your pain about what was done to you in that previous career. And I honestly didn't know

00:16:24.020 that background. We hired you because of the excellence of your work, and you just seemed to click with

00:16:28.640 Drea, and I really love what you guys are doing out there. We need strength in BC. It's such an

00:16:33.480 important province. Vancouver, it's a great city. So we're telling important stories there. But you

00:16:39.360 said you get some negative and some positive. I want you to tell the viewers, because I, and I'm a

00:16:44.680 lightning rod. Yeah. I have to say, I go out and about, and it is 99% positive in my life. Tell me about

00:16:53.460 some of the positive feedback you get. Obviously, there's some negative, but I want to hear about

00:16:58.360 the positive. What do people say? What do they refer to? Or do they just say, hey, keep at it?

00:17:02.760 What do they say? Well, it's a little, a little bit of everything, but you really understand the,

00:17:07.040 the impact and the consequences of what we're doing when people reach out to us, especially for like

00:17:12.920 the Fight the Fines initiative. Yeah. Because we're their last line. We're their last help. You know,

00:17:18.140 people can't afford to pay the tickets, let alone like the idea of even, you know, hiring a lawyer

00:17:23.440 is a, is a. Very scary to most people. Yeah. How do you even do it? Is the lawyer going to take all

00:17:27.880 my money? How do I know if he's the right guy? You know, hiring a lawyer is as scary as finding a fine

00:17:34.220 yourself. Totally. And it's a, it's a responsibility that I don't hold lightly. Being able to, I have a

00:17:42.320 passion and, you know, for the underdog, I always have. And if you look into my, my past, uh, you

00:17:48.240 know, uh, controversies, they're often because of that. Um, and yeah, it's just, it's a, I don't,

00:17:55.200 because of what happened to me and how I understand how, you know, fake news or false information can

00:18:00.120 completely derail you and ruin, ruin your life. Essentially. I don't hold that responsibility

00:18:04.520 lightly when we're, when we're speaking to people, regardless of their political belief or alignment

00:18:09.280 or religious belief or alignment, I really believe in above all, like, you know, human dignity and

00:18:15.060 to be able to dignify somebody in a long format video that isn't just a snappy news piece that's

00:18:19.820 10 seconds taken out of context. It's like, no, I actually want to hear what you're about. Now,

00:18:23.980 you know, once that's public and on the internet, people can make their own decisions. But at least

00:18:27.600 for me, I try to like, as, as least as I can interject myself into the situation and just look people in

00:18:33.580 the eye and give them an opportunity to, you know, for redemption because that's something that I was

00:18:37.900 never afforded. Well, that's amazing. It's a very touching story. And Dre is so good at that. I

00:18:42.560 know you guys work as a team. We have a phrase we sometimes use with complicated stories. We say,

00:18:46.920 well, look, follow the facts wherever they lead. We have our ideas about a story. For example,

00:18:53.140 when you guys went to this Chinese restaurant that had all the cameras, all the spy cameras,

00:18:58.400 okay, we, it was, the story was a little more complicated than we, it wasn't quite the narrative

00:19:02.600 we had read in other media. All right, we'll follow the facts where they lead. Let both sides have

00:19:07.280 their say. In fact, our main motto is telling the other side of the story. So listen, I'm glad that

00:19:12.720 you find some moral value in our work. That's the chief reward for me is I feel like in these

00:19:19.960 upside down times, we are doing small things to make a difference. And you know, you do small things

00:19:26.320 to make a difference every day. They add up, you know, we're over 1200 cases on that fight.

00:19:30.100 That's amazing.

00:19:30.820 And that's 1200 families that we've helped even just this much. I feel like if, if I go to the

00:19:37.300 pearly gates and St. Peter says, you're not getting in, I'm going to say, whoa, before you kick me out,

00:19:42.240 I want to make it, I want to advocate for myself. I'm going to point to the fight the flies.

00:19:46.300 Knowing you, you might sue.

00:19:47.480 Yeah, I might sue him. I might sue him to let me in. That's a great joke. But no, I think that what we do

00:19:53.220 here is a business. It's how we earn our living. It's a product, the news, but I think there's a

00:19:58.380 moral value to it, which is my chief reward. And working with folks like yourself, you're fairly

00:20:03.560 new to the organization. And some folks have literally started with us in the last week or

00:20:07.260 two. Working with like-minded people is really a highlight of my day, especially in these times

00:20:13.600 where we're pitted against each other, where, where there's fear and loathing. So Matt, it's great

00:20:21.280 to have you on the team. I think your work is excellent. Thank you so much. It's beautiful. Like,

00:20:26.260 it's visually beautiful. You have a tremendous talent. And I'm just so glad you're on the team.

00:20:32.580 It's an honor and a pleasure to be here. And I really, you know, I feel a duty to not only tell

00:20:38.660 the truth, but make it in a way that's digestible for folks who maybe, you know, look like me or into

00:20:44.980 the same things that I'm into because, you know, my generation has spam blockers up, but unfortunately

00:20:50.160 they don't have the sharpest discernment for what's spam and what isn't. So I feel like if we can

00:20:54.080 package the truth in a way that people are familiar, at least, you know, to seeing it and,

00:20:58.680 you know, for me watching Vox and Vice and whatever else, then hopefully we can plant some seeds of

00:21:02.820 truth in people and watch those things grow into, you know, oak trees of righteousness.

00:21:07.220 Amazing. Well, I'm just so pleased you're with us. There you have it. Matt Brevner, one of the new

00:21:11.460 talent here at Rebel News. I'm just so proud of our team and I hope you are too. And I hope over the

00:21:15.800 course of months and years ahead, you come to follow our different teammates and love them

00:21:20.040 as much as I do. Stay with us. More talent ahead.

00:21:27.760 Well, we earlier talked to Kian Simone, a.k.a. K2, about his exciting first week on the job

00:21:34.140 around the largest story in the country. In fact, one of the largest stories in North America,

00:21:37.920 namely the arrest of Pastor Arthur Pawlowski. Kian was doing some interesting work. He camped out in

00:21:44.460 the church at night as a night watchman in case the police made a raid then. They didn't.

00:21:49.640 Kian also went up to the jail and faced a bit of a shakedown from the correctional guards. But the

00:21:54.660 leader on our reportage throughout the week has been this man, Adam Sose, a new Calgary reporter

00:22:02.900 who joins me in the studio. Adam, great to see you again. Thanks for having me. Happy to be here.

00:22:05.900 Well, you know, you did such a good job on such an important story and it's clear to me that you

00:22:11.080 have won the trust of Arthur Pawlowski, the pastor who was arrested. And that's not easy to do because

00:22:17.660 I think he has the right to regard pretty much 99% of the mainstream media as hostile and unethical

00:22:27.580 and biased and sometimes downright lying. So obviously you've won his trust and respect to be

00:22:34.220 able to tell the story. Yeah, I certainly agree. I mean, I've kind of been there since the get-go.

00:22:39.160 I've had conversations with him. I've talked with his family. My wife's family has a similar

00:22:44.500 experience to his family escaping from communist Poland through Greece. So there's that connection

00:22:49.500 there. But he's said repeatedly that it's nice to have someone who's not, and he's not looking

00:22:53.760 for someone to sort of tout the party line or say what he wants. He just wants someone who's

00:22:58.660 going to share the truth, not spin it. He shared early on an article that I sent you as well

00:23:03.760 of people saying he was terrorizing the neighborhood. Oh, I saw that. You know,

00:23:07.780 the Calgary Herald just ran a pack of lies. I'm so embarrassed for the Herald on that. It makes me

00:23:12.840 mad. Now, you joined us, I'd say, in the last month or so. Not even, I think. Before that,

00:23:18.780 you were affiliated with our good friends at the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedom,

00:23:22.980 who are frankly the only other civil liberties group in this country who's fighting the good fight

00:23:28.220 here. The Canadian Civil Liberties Association, that's the left-wing group in Toronto. I give

00:23:33.600 them a monthly donation, by the way. I shouldn't. They don't deserve it. Those leftist civil liberties

00:23:39.800 activists haven't lifted a finger. The JCCF and John Carpay and his team, they've got a ton of cases,

00:23:45.880 haven't they? Oh, yeah. I mean, they've been on this right from the start. I sat down with John.

00:23:49.920 We did a long interview that folks can check out. But they're defending the coats.

00:23:54.540 That's the pastor up there in Grace Life Church. Grace Life Church. But again, and they've been

00:23:59.340 sort of outspoken. Some of the amazing work that they're doing, particularly, is the infographics

00:24:03.080 that they've been putting out. Oh, they're getting good at that. And they're not putting an opinion

00:24:06.640 on it. Yeah. They're just presenting, here are the facts. And I think that's incredible for people

00:24:10.260 to look at. Well, they were very early on this pandemic. They figured out what was going on very

00:24:15.040 early. What were you doing over there, the JCCF? So, yeah, I would do a number of events for the

00:24:19.080 large. I used to do some back-end web stuff. Not a lot of events these days with the whole rules.

00:24:22.880 Oh, yeah. But we did, as a few of the Rebel staff came out, we did during the start of

00:24:27.140 the lockdown. We bought some tables. Yeah, we bought just a little bit of a show of support.

00:24:31.020 I went to your Toronto, Calgary, and Vancouver. That's right. Yeah. It was a lot of fun. It was

00:24:35.340 great. Rex Murphy was the speaker of that. Oh, he was great. Yeah. Well, yeah. Well, listen,

00:24:38.780 I mean, I'm sorry that events across this whole country have been shut down, including for us,

00:24:42.400 too. But I guess it turns out that's our good luck to have you aboard. And just in time,

00:24:48.720 there's so many stories in Calgary. You're going to keep covering the Arthur Pawlowski story.

00:24:52.580 It's so important. Please stay on that. I think we are the window to that story for

00:24:56.660 literally millions of people. Of course, yeah. I mean, when I say millions, that's not an

00:25:00.460 exaggeration. And like you said, he trusts us. Before he had a chance to speak to his lawyers

00:25:04.440 because he didn't have their contact information left, he got permission to call his wife.

00:25:07.820 Yeah. And she patched right through to me because he wanted to get the story out.

00:25:11.540 I'm so glad that happened. Of course, Calgary is one of Canada's largest cities. It's very

00:25:17.100 important in a number of ways. It's an oil and gas city. It's a conservative city. It's a city

00:25:20.940 that's been hit hard by the carbon tax, by pipeline blockades. It's a city that Justin

00:25:26.360 Trudeau despises. Putting aside the story of the lockdowns and Arthur Pawlowski, which

00:25:32.500 are important stories, what other stories are there in Calgary and Southern Alberta that you

00:25:37.020 could imagine covering in the months ahead?

00:25:38.880 So, I mean, along the lines of that, there are obviously other pastures also been targeted.

00:25:44.620 But beyond that, just the impact on small businesses, the breakdown of leadership on

00:25:49.640 a provincial level. We finally had somebody that we thought in Jason Kenney was going

00:25:52.960 to go to bat to us. And that's clearly shifted. The marginalization, so to speak, of Alberta

00:25:58.740 and Western Canada has just become so dramatic and so magnified. And there's sort of this pendulum

00:26:03.800 swing in society. And Eastern Canada, it seems, or at least Ottawa, has swung so far away from

00:26:09.780 caring about Alberta that Albertans are starting to say, hold on a second, this isn't right.

00:26:13.320 And they're starting to stand up.

00:26:14.640 Yeah. Yeah. It'll be interesting to see how that expresses itself. I don't trust the polling

00:26:19.440 out there right now because I think the pollsters, when they give party choices, I think they're

00:26:24.580 forcing people into a template that doesn't fit. I think if you were to ask, do you want

00:26:29.260 either a different party or a separatist party? That would be the true expression, the sentiment

00:26:34.180 there. I think just saying, hey, who do you like? New Democrats or Conservatives? I don't

00:26:37.900 think that captures it.

00:26:39.020 No.

00:26:39.300 Well, I'm glad you're out there. Sheila testifies to your tremendous work ethic and your good

00:26:43.880 news judgment. And she really likes having you commanding our Calgary outpost along with

00:26:51.380 K2. I feel like our Alberta coverage is stronger than ever. So thanks for being an important part

00:26:56.380 of that.

00:26:56.640 So happy to be here. I think that it was just meant to be like, we all, K2 came on board, 0.99

00:27:01.100 I came on board, and we're here just as these stories are breaking. There's definitely some

00:27:04.180 sort of providence at play there.

00:27:05.740 Yeah. Isn't that great? Well, Adam Sosa, it's nice to have you aboard. There you have it.

00:27:08.720 You got to follow Adam for all his coverage and his savearthur.com work is of global importance.

00:27:14.500 Stay with us more ahead.

00:27:19.820 Well, last but not least today, Catherine Kozanowski. She's actually been with us for a little while.

00:27:24.960 She was out there in the Montreal craziness when the police tried to raid our hotel rooms without

00:27:30.420 a warrant. Who does that? That's police state stuff.

00:27:32.340 That was shocking to me. I was a little naive.

00:27:35.060 You came aboard doing video editing. Then you came to Montreal for our great effort there. You've

00:27:40.900 been doing some on-camera fight to fight stuff. I think you're doing great.

00:27:44.420 Oh, thank you.

00:27:45.080 Tell us a little bit about yourself, because what I'm doing today is, since everybody's

00:27:48.660 in town for the staff meeting, I thought, well, instead of me just blah, blah, blah,

00:27:52.460 let's just say a quick hello to some of the new people on the team. Now, you're not super

00:27:55.320 new, but you're still fairly new.

00:27:57.280 I'm fairly new, but things move fast here, so new is old a week later.

00:28:00.820 Well, our team is very big and very strong, and I think everyone's pulling in the same

00:28:06.740 direction. There's a diversity of views, but I think the crisis of our age, the pandemic

00:28:14.620 and how it's being used as an excuse for authoritarianism, I think that's the story of

00:28:19.380 our age, and that's sort of a new coalition, isn't it?

00:28:21.760 Yep. Well, I'm old enough to remember when kids went to school and teenagers went to,

00:28:27.680 well, young adults went to bars and people had parties and weddings and funerals, and

00:28:32.220 it's like we're becoming so normalized to, oh, in the future, when we can go back to normal,

00:28:37.020 we can do all these things again, but I'm like, we can do those things now. We should be doing

00:28:40.940 those things now.

00:28:41.760 Yeah. It's the obedience that I don't like to see. I mean, there is a time and a place

00:28:47.200 for obedience, but I think that citizens should generally not obey the government. It should

00:28:54.160 be the other way around. There are some rules we want to obey, but some unelected, unaccountable

00:28:58.560 health bureaucrat from a bureaucratic deep state that we never even knew about until 14 months

00:29:03.420 ago, now issuing edicts from high up on Mount Olympus, like Zeus just throwing thunderbolts.

00:29:08.200 Yeah. Well, that's what people are shocked about. They're saying we didn't elect these health

00:29:11.880 officials who are telling our government leaders how to impose law. We elected those leaders.

00:29:17.180 But they're not in charge anymore, it would seem. It's like they're saying it's out of

00:29:21.200 my hands.

00:29:22.280 Yeah. And the ease with which such a lot, I don't know if it's a majority of the population,

00:29:28.580 but a sizable chunk of the population just does whatever they're told.

00:29:33.280 Yeah, it's compliant.

00:29:33.780 It is shocking to me, and it is an explanation and an unhappy reminder. As a kid, I kept thinking,

00:29:41.200 how could Germany, which was an outstanding Western liberal modern democracy, how could

00:29:48.060 it have gone along with Hitler? Hitler actually won an election in 1933.

00:29:52.160 Yep. People forget that.

00:29:52.900 It was a six-year process. Like, it was a multi-year process.

00:29:57.340 It happens slowly.

00:29:58.780 Yeah. And how did that happen? I always thought, couldn't they see? How did they not stop?

00:30:02.200 And I'm not saying that we are on the road to Nazism, but I'm saying, holy cow, those 1.00

00:30:08.080 first steps sure went quick. Suspend parliament, suspend elections or delay elections, mail-in

00:30:16.040 ballots just because...

00:30:17.060 Giving the police extra power.

00:30:18.520 Extra power. Civil liberties groups shut up. Opposition shuts up.

00:30:22.100 Shutting down gatherings.

00:30:23.040 Yeah. Shutting down gatherings. I just thought, holy cow, those first five lines of defense

00:30:29.180 sure went quick.

00:30:29.960 Yep. And people didn't even blink an eye. Well, most people.

00:30:33.040 Yeah. In fact, the reverse, they sort of reveled in it. I mean, how many volunteer street captains?

00:30:41.640 I'm the street captain on the mask watch. I'm the street captain. You know, we used to

00:30:47.760 have, you know, crime watch, rural crime watch, neighborhood watch. You know, people just

00:30:54.420 keep looking out for each other.

00:30:55.560 Yeah. Now it's the East German model of that, spy on each other. And the willing, passionate,

00:31:05.040 almost erotic, and yes, I've got them. Holy cow, where did that come from?

00:31:10.940 I think it's power. What's the word? When someone gets power hungry.

00:31:14.600 Power tripping is what I'm trying to say. But I'm talking about, like, just your neighbor.

00:31:18.400 Well, yeah. But I think it's like you give someone a little, it's, they don't have power,

00:31:21.860 but they think that they have power because now they can tell you what to do and they can,

00:31:25.720 they can tell on you. When we were on our way to Montreal, we stopped at an en route and we saw

00:31:31.240 a woman with her, two young children there. One was under the age of three, not wearing a mask.

00:31:36.480 And the teenager working at the Tim Hortons was imposing the mask rule on the woman and said, 1.00

00:31:41.820 your son needs to put on a mask. And she wouldn't serve the woman. So the woman left in tears. And

00:31:46.800 we caught up with her in the parking lot and we're just like, don't worry. She was like,

00:31:50.180 am I normal? Or is that? And we're like, you're normal. That was abnormal. That teenager was power

00:31:54.880 tripping.

00:31:55.660 Oh my God. And obviously it was completely wrong in law, but whatever that teenager lacked in

00:32:04.780 correctness and moral authority. There's a woman, she, she made up for uncertainty and there is no 0.97

00:32:12.780 greater certainty than that of a zealot. And that is terrifying. Well, I think you're doing a great

00:32:18.200 job covering these things. Thanks for doing the fight the fines project. We're trying to get all

00:32:21.900 I love doing those. I love meeting those people. They're incredible. You know what? And that's

00:32:25.520 important work. And you may, I mean, we've done 1200 of these cases. So they just, you know, okay,

00:32:31.080 that's routine. Another day at the office for us, but for every family we help for them,

00:32:35.220 it's the first time. And like, I remember the first one you did, it was a, it was a low

00:32:40.080 income family and they had, I think four tickets or something, six, six tickets for a birthday

00:32:45.880 for thousands of dollars. And there is no family in Canada other than like a ultra rich who you give

00:32:53.840 six tickets in the thousand dollar range to that's going to rock that family. So it would have

00:32:59.400 rocked my family growing up. It would have destroyed us. Yeah. And all of a sudden you've

00:33:03.780 got discord in the house. If there's a marriage that's having trouble, that's going to money 1.00

00:33:10.000 is a leading cause of marital breakups. It really is. You know, the stress in the home.

00:33:16.080 On the children. Yeah. I mean, these police, some of them are just robots. Some of them have

00:33:23.180 a viciousness to them. Some of them are money collectors. They don't realize what they're

00:33:28.520 doing to families when they drop these little bombs on them. But I feel like we're helping

00:33:32.540 to fix things and set things right. So thanks for being part of that. Thank you very much.

00:33:36.240 All right. There you have it. One of our new crop of young rebel talents, Catherine Kuczynowski. 1.00

00:33:41.560 Stay with us. My final thoughts are next.

00:33:44.340 Well, what do you think of them? And I have to say, that's not even everybody. I mean,

00:34:00.740 you've met Lincoln Jay, Amoka Bezergin, you know, Ephraim Lonsanto. Well, he's not even

00:34:04.800 a newcomer. He's been with us for four years now. So we've got so many people and we're

00:34:08.880 giving her full tilt. We have a young lady here today. I haven't introduced her to you

00:34:12.360 because I'm going to meet with her after this show and hopefully we'll sign her up.

00:34:16.300 So we'll have another new reporter. We're really growing. And it's important to me to grow

00:34:20.880 because people are trying to stop us. YouTube demonetized us. That kicked $400,000 a year

00:34:27.860 out of our budget. Then they suspended us for a week. PayPal suspended us. We're fighting with them.

00:34:34.400 All these people want to slow us down, stop us, maybe make us lay people off, God forbid.

00:34:39.740 No, no, no, no, no, no. That just tells me our work is more important than ever.

00:34:44.480 And it is so reassuring to me to see these young people, especially I'm 49 now. I'm nowhere close

00:34:50.360 to young. But to see young rebels as young as 18 saying, I'm on board. Boy, that gives me some hope.

00:34:59.080 I hope it gives you hope too. And it's my commitment to you as the boss of Rebel News

00:35:04.240 that we stay strong and be able to make payroll and be able to continue to bring you the news

00:35:10.020 and by hiring young talent to do the job. So thanks for letting me share with you my new friendships

00:35:15.920 with these folks. And that's not even all of them. Let me tell you that. All right. That's the show

00:35:20.060 for today. Until next week, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters and you at home,

00:35:24.580 Good night. Keep fighting for freedom.

Rebel News Podcast - May 15, 2021

Meet the New Rebels!

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