Rebel News Podcast - The Most Orwellian Public Service Lockdown Announcement Yet

00:00:00.000 Hello, my rebels. Today, I'm going to show you an absolutely terrifying video published by the

00:00:05.180 Home Office in the UK. That's the office in charge of domestic affairs, law and order,

00:00:09.440 stuff like that. It's a bizarre ad, shocking, almost feels like satire, very dark,

00:00:19.360 legally illiterate, but such a sign of the times. I'll describe it to you. You'll hear it,

00:00:26.260 of course, but I really wish you could see it. It's a video and you can do that by becoming a

00:00:31.480 subscriber to Rebel News Plus. It's just eight bucks a month and you get the video version of

00:00:35.420 this podcast, plus videos from Sheila Gunn-Reed, David Menzies and Andrew Chapados. And importantly,

00:00:42.020 your eight bucks a month goes to support Rebel News because we don't take any money from Trudeau and

00:00:46.740 I think it shows. So please go to rebelnews.com and click subscribe. You can even get the whole year

00:00:53.020 for 80 bucks, which is a discount of $16. So please consider it. All right, here's today's show.

00:01:15.020 Tonight, let me show you the most Orwellian public service announcement yet about the lockdowns.

00:01:21.240 It's February 18th and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.

00:01:26.620 Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?

00:01:30.420 There's 8,500 customers here and you won't give them an answer.

00:01:34.500 The only thing I have to say to the government, the why I publish it, is because it's my bloody right to do so.

00:01:40.360 George Orwell's chilling book, 1984, was set in the United Kingdom, but in the novel, it has been renamed.

00:01:53.740 They call it Airstrip One, as in a military base, just to let everyone know that their chief identity

00:02:00.940 was that of people in the permanent crisis of a war. One of the interesting things in the book is that

00:02:06.740 the enemy in the war changes from time to time. In Airstrip One, which was part of Oceania,

00:02:13.920 they were perpetually at war with Eurasia.

00:02:18.420 And they were allied with East Asia until one day they switched.

00:02:23.620 And then they were perpetually at war with East Asia and allied with Eurasia.

00:02:28.160 And the hero of the book named Winston, of course, his job was working in the Ministry of Truth

00:02:33.360 to rewrite old newspaper stories and destroy the originals to make it seem like they were always

00:02:40.120 at war with the country they say they were now at war with, just constantly changing the past

00:02:46.460 to conform to what works politically today. So often that Winston himself forgot what the original

00:02:52.740 story was. Here's how the book put it. Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the

00:02:59.600 present controls the past. One of the big themes of the book is controlling language. In the book,

00:03:05.900 they call it Newspeak. It was a shocking concept to me first reading the book 30 years ago,

00:03:11.460 but now it's completely normal. It's what we do all the time. We actually name things their opposite.

00:03:18.720 Here's how it was in the book. The Ministry of Peace concerns itself with war. The Ministry of Truth

00:03:25.460 with lies. The Ministry of Love with torture. And the Ministry of Plenty with starvation.

00:03:32.440 These contradictions are not accidental, nor do they result from ordinary hypocrisy.

00:03:37.180 They are deliberate exercises in doublethink. Here, let me show you an example of that from today.

00:03:44.580 Here's an amazing little speech by Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany, the most powerful

00:03:51.120 person in Europe, who says, we have to take away your freedom of speech or else you won't be free.

00:04:14.580 Just to acknowledge that it is given some critically important

00:04:17.500 well, everyone will claim a legal basis like the United States, without any views.

00:04:18.840 I mean, I said the general that seems to be free.

00:04:20.060 I mean, you know, all your Bra wasn't right, I can take a take away myself, but I want to 1.00

00:04:21.340 speak to a droite and a fence that someone PRO-Sp Secret force which is an egalitarian

00:04:24.520 of rondillion doing right now to somebody's right and wrong.

00:04:25.520 You don't distract me from the reaction of rule.

00:04:26.120 Here, next to V Emerald on the wall, close to the clearing

00:04:27.900 of saying everything you have to kill equally completely obscure.

00:04:30.340 And you're damn sure you may and pity だ for another man who knows doing it.

00:04:32.580 What's so crazy is that the continuer of peace and politics and politics is that the

00:04:34.580 people of peace will communicate with conflict with empathy.

00:04:37.400 what's so crazy is that no one even batted an eyelash over that double think and double speak

00:04:49.960 is normal now it goes by other names woke cancel culture political correctness it's calling things

00:04:57.100 their opposite to steal the meaning from words like the lockdowns they're unhealthy right i mean

00:05:03.780 people are getting fat because they're not allowed to exercise go to the gym people are

00:05:07.260 getting depressed and sometimes even violent towards their own families and even towards

00:05:13.040 themselves suicides are way up drug abuse way up because of the loneliness and stress and the

00:05:18.180 disconnect from society children are being screwed up forever because they're being told not to be

00:05:23.380 near each other they go all day without seeing a smile they wear these masks at school so yeah we

00:05:28.760 say that's for your health we say we're all in this together when we see the lockdown ruling class

00:05:35.240 jetting around it's just the little people who are cracked down on we quarantine the healthy not

00:05:41.000 the sick we lock up the innocent um in alberta there's a pastor in maximum security jail right

00:05:49.440 now for holding church services but we've emptied the jails of real criminals because of the pandemic

00:05:55.060 and even the word pandemic i'm sad that 21 000 canadians have died from the virus in the past

00:06:01.960 year or at least died with the virus which is a little bit different of the average age of these

00:06:06.980 deceased is 82 and they averaged three underlying serious illnesses i'm sad they died at all but i'm

00:06:14.620 you know people do die any loss as a source of sorrow but i put it to you that if we didn't have a

00:06:20.200 shrieking 24-hour news media and if people weren't wearing masks as some sort of superstitious ritual

00:06:25.840 none of us would even know about the pandemic because every year normally in canada we lose you

00:06:31.800 know six seven eight nine thousand people from the regular flu anyways and i'm not happy about that

00:06:37.200 either i'm just saying this pandemic isn't what it was sold to be so yeah you speak orwellian double

00:06:43.160 think it's been here for a long time trudeau doesn't spend your tax dollars he invests them for

00:06:49.420 you you get my point but look at this ad from airstrip one sorry from the united kingdom just watch

00:06:55.420 this ad i'm going to play it for you twice because it's so intense i think you need to watch it twice

00:07:00.180 to get all the little images and meanings it's quite hyper uh the the sound the the editing it's designed

00:07:07.080 to be stressful you take a look

00:07:08.840 so

00:07:11.840 so

00:07:16.600 so

00:07:21.360 so

00:07:26.120 so

00:07:28.120 so

00:07:32.880 so

00:07:34.880 so

00:07:36.880 so

00:07:38.880 it's from a real tweet from the uk home office uh the tweet reads all gatherings are currently

00:08:07.460 generally against the law

00:08:09.020 now that that's not true of course and i'll get to that in a moment but imagine writing that it were

00:08:15.340 true and trying to convince people that it were true and thinking you were a hero for doing so

00:08:20.940 and and this stay home protect the nhs save lives nhs is the national health service it's their

00:08:29.380 government-run health care over there you might think that the purpose of the health

00:08:32.840 health system is to save you but you're wrong in double think the purpose is for you to save the

00:08:40.540 health service save lives don't save your own life don't live your own life that's not allowed

00:08:47.020 save lives by not living at all stay in your home like a prisoner so now watch the video

00:08:52.000 you

00:09:10.200 We'll be right back.

00:09:40.200 Meeting up is against the law.

00:09:43.960 Don't meet people.

00:09:46.140 Using riot cops in full SWAT team gear to break up a baby shower?

00:09:51.700 Demonic music, demonic images.

00:09:54.400 The state will crush you.

00:09:55.620 It's dark.

00:09:56.620 If you try to live, we will hunt you down.

00:09:58.960 No gatherings, no meetings, not even a baby shower.

00:10:01.860 You will be arrested. 0.99

00:10:02.900 We will attack you with clubs if necessary. 0.99

00:10:05.340 Watch it again. 0.84

00:10:05.920 Near the end, I think they even show some blurred police violence.

00:10:10.200 Right after the baby shower part, I couldn't quite tell.

00:10:13.000 Take a look again.

00:10:14.480 Go, go, go.

00:10:16.400 Go, go.

00:10:17.760 Go, go.

00:10:19.260 Go, go.

00:10:20.400 Go.

00:10:21.540 Go, go.

00:10:21.600 Go, go.

00:10:22.260 Go, go.

00:10:30.880 Go, go.

00:10:32.240 We'll be right back.

00:11:02.240 This monstrous film was conceived, approved, compiled, edited, approved again, filmed,

00:11:13.060 and published by a government agency.

00:11:16.680 I bet a hundred people in government looked at that before it went out, and they all said,

00:11:21.280 yep, that's us.

00:11:23.460 That's who we are.

00:11:24.620 That's where we are now.

00:11:26.180 I'm sure it is.

00:11:26.980 I think it really does reflect government these days.

00:11:30.180 We've got a Christian pastor in prison in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, but it's everywhere.

00:11:35.540 Remember that homeless man we're helping in Australia who lives in his car.

00:11:39.480 Police came by to give him a $1,652 ticket for violating a curfew, but he doesn't have a

00:11:44.940 home.

00:11:46.180 He compared that to people who come by and throw rocks at him while he's sleeping in his

00:11:50.100 car.

00:11:50.380 That's the authoritarian instinct of police to harass this guy in his car.

00:11:53.700 The video that they're playing in the UK, that's their rock video.

00:11:58.320 That's their anthem.

00:11:59.300 That's their cheer.

00:12:00.980 They love it.

00:12:01.840 Imagine some lockdown police watching this horrific video on full volume a couple of times before

00:12:09.100 going out just to rough up people.

00:12:11.000 I was on public property.

00:12:29.600 Yeah.

00:12:29.820 You know, sometimes it's hard to believe that the Brits once ruled the largest empire in

00:12:35.620 history, larger than Rome or Greece, and all in an ennobling, improving way.

00:12:42.680 Now I see tyranny.

00:12:45.840 You know, the Brits used to run Canada and America, half of Africa, India, the Middle East,

00:12:50.140 Australia, and now look at what they've become.

00:12:53.040 Look at what they've become.

00:12:54.900 China has this brutality too, by the way, but in a strange way.

00:12:59.240 I don't know.

00:12:59.640 It doesn't seem as capricious as what we just saw there from the home office.

00:13:03.180 I wouldn't want to be a Tibetan or a Uyghur or a democracy activist in China. 1.00

00:13:07.520 I would not do well there.

00:13:09.700 You know, you'll be gulagged. 1.00

00:13:11.200 Maybe you'll be killed. 1.00

00:13:12.320 If you're a Uyghur woman, you'll be raped, perhaps. 1.00

00:13:16.480 It's terrible. 0.99

00:13:17.160 But I don't think even China has SWAT team violence against baby showers and then brags 0.81

00:13:23.720 about it.

00:13:24.780 I could be wrong.

00:13:26.820 Britain, where the legal maxim, a man's home is his castle, came from.

00:13:32.440 You know that famous case?

00:13:34.320 It's not anymore, is it?

00:13:36.400 Now it's, oi, where's your license to have a friend over?

00:13:40.020 And then a police billy club to the head.

00:13:42.020 Adam Wagner is a British civil rights lawyer.

00:13:45.020 He points out that this is just not legally true, what the home office says.

00:13:51.560 Here's what Adam Wagner says in reply.

00:13:53.800 He says, oh my goodness, I'm not sure where to start.

00:13:58.700 He says, this is the home office, the government department responsible for law and order.

00:14:03.760 This tweet and video grossly misstate the law.

00:14:07.400 All gatherings are not illegal.

00:14:09.280 There are a huge number of gatherings that are illegal.

00:14:12.220 And then in this tweet, he says, meeting up is not, quote, against the law.

00:14:17.940 Some gatherings are prohibited.

00:14:19.460 But if you read the law itself, there are many exceptions, including where reasonably

00:14:23.080 necessary for work, volunteering, accessing social services, assisting vulnerable people,

00:14:28.940 support groups, avoiding harm. 0.91

00:14:31.960 In another tweet in reply to this video, he said, the video is ridiculous.

00:14:35.260 The music, the footage, it's like something from The Simpsons. 0.95

00:14:37.520 But aside from that, it is fear-mongering and legally illiterate.

00:14:41.600 It could lead people misunderstanding and not, example, leaving home to access, assist the

00:14:47.440 vulnerable.

00:14:48.500 It should be removed.

00:14:50.920 So he's right.

00:14:51.940 He's being rather lawyerly about it, which makes sense he's a lawyer.

00:14:55.240 He's saying, look, the lockdown is bad, but it's not quite as bad as that video says.

00:15:02.380 And he's right.

00:15:02.780 People will believe this video, that's the point of this video, not just citizens, but

00:15:08.120 I'm sure many police will watch this too and say, right on, that's what we do.

00:15:12.340 Do you really think that police can understand the changing laws, laws that change week to

00:15:17.740 week, red zone, gray zone, orange zone?

00:15:20.700 And what is a law?

00:15:22.080 And what is just guidance?

00:15:23.240 And what is just a politician mouthing off at a press conference?

00:15:26.400 And what is a low information, high malice Twitter video ad?

00:15:31.380 Anyway, so Adam Wagner's right.

00:15:33.020 It's junk law by the people in charge of the law. 0.97

00:15:35.960 In that way, it's an utter disgrace. 0.90

00:15:37.680 But in another way, even Adam Wagner's response is sad because we're quarreling over details

00:15:45.380 now.

00:15:45.720 Please, master, may I have an exemption?

00:15:48.060 I promise I'm going to work.

00:15:50.380 And it's essential work, not non-essential work like my neighbor does.

00:15:54.580 Please, sir, let me go to my essential meeting.

00:15:57.420 It's an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, very important for my mental health, unlike my

00:16:02.180 neighbor who just wants to go to church and we know what they're like.

00:16:06.220 We're quibbling about details, you see, as we approach the one-year anniversary of two

00:16:10.500 weeks to flatten the curve.

00:16:11.760 We're just quibbling about details.

00:16:14.880 Stay with us for more about what's going on in Alberta.

00:16:27.420 If you would have told me one year ago that there would be a pastor arrested and jailed

00:16:38.060 for conducting a church service, I would not have guessed that the country you were talking

00:16:43.000 about was Canada.

00:16:44.380 And I would not have guessed that the province would be Alberta and that the government would

00:16:48.680 be one that at least in name calls itself conservative and that is led by a Christian

00:16:53.460 himself, Jason Kenney, but alas, all those things have come true.

00:16:57.460 In the case of Pastor James Coates, the pastor of a large church west of Edmonton called the

00:17:03.560 Grace Life Church, see, the thing about Pastor Coates is he thinks that a church should have

00:17:09.220 the same rights as, oh, say, a big box store like Walmart or Costco or even in Alberta,

00:17:15.940 the restaurants are open again.

00:17:17.380 But that is not the view of the unelected, unaccountable public health officer of the

00:17:24.920 province who has issued orders, not only shutting down the church, but since the pastor himself

00:17:31.440 refuses to comply, he's being prosecuted and he sits in jail to this day.

00:17:40.400 No legislature has approved this, no elected official.

00:17:43.460 It's all being done by a power-mad bureaucrat, a member of the public health deep state, Dr.

00:17:49.820 Dina Hinshaw.

00:17:51.040 We're joined now by one of the few civil liberties lawyers in the country who even care about this.

00:17:56.680 You'll know exactly who I'm talking about.

00:17:59.040 It's our friends at the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedom.

00:18:03.320 And the lawyer we're talking with today is James Kitchen, who's in Calgary.

00:18:07.060 James, great to see you again.

00:18:08.420 First of all, thank you for taking this case.

00:18:11.040 We take some cases at Rebel News.

00:18:13.440 We've started our Fight the Fines project.

00:18:15.620 But you guys have been fighting for civil liberties for a decade now.

00:18:19.120 I salute you.

00:18:20.940 Thanks.

00:18:22.360 You are the lawyer for Pastor James Coates.

00:18:25.280 Have I accurately recited the basic facts of the case?

00:18:29.600 The basic facts, yes.

00:18:31.460 There's a lot of details to fill in, but that's the basic situation.

00:18:34.940 Well, why don't you give me some more details?

00:18:36.200 Well, as I have in front of me your press release, I understand that the police came, gave him a ticket, said shut her down.

00:18:43.240 He didn't.

00:18:44.380 They didn't arrest him right then.

00:18:45.920 The next week they came, they said shut her down. 0.93

00:18:48.160 He didn't.

00:18:48.940 They said sign this undertaking, which is like a legal promise that you'll shut her down.

00:18:53.460 He refused to sign.

00:18:54.760 Then they arrested him, charged him, prosecuted him for breaking his undertaking, which he actually never signed.

00:19:02.900 And because he still won't bend the knee, he still won't say, yes, I will shut down my church.

00:19:10.360 He sits in jail and will, for at least another week, waiting for a hearing.

00:19:16.280 Are those some of the details?

00:19:17.560 And please jump in now, fill in the gaps.

00:19:19.860 I don't want to get it wrong.

00:19:20.740 I want to hear from you, the lawyer.

00:19:21.880 No, that's essentially it.

00:19:25.420 He was charged with breaching an undertaking, which is a serious criminal code charge.

00:19:31.100 But of course, the undertaking of that, the validity of the undertaking is questionable at best because he didn't agree with it.

00:19:37.340 What's supposed to happen when you're arrested, if you don't agree to an undertaking, you're supposed to be brought to a justice of the peace right then and there.

00:19:43.640 So when he was arrested on the 7th, and it wasn't really an arrest, it was just a meeting in his office at the church.

00:19:48.440 The RCMP left that detail out.

00:19:49.800 What should have happened when he refused at that point to sign the undertaking is he should have gone before the JP right then and there.

00:19:56.240 The RCMP didn't do that.

00:19:57.220 They waited a week, and then he held church again, and then they charged him with breaching that undertaking, which is really not the way it should have been done.

00:20:03.940 So, you know, and the justice of the peace at the bail hearing that occurred here on Tuesday generally agreed with that.

00:20:10.580 And that and a number of other reasons decided that it wasn't appropriate to detain him.

00:20:18.660 Interesting enough, though, the prosecution did ask the JP to detain him.

00:20:24.000 As far as the prosecution was concerned, he was a menace to the public.

00:20:29.120 You know, and the prosecution said that it would actually be bringing the administration of justice into disrepute to release him.

00:20:37.580 I mean, obviously, I feel it's the other way around.

00:20:39.940 I think it's a stain on the administration of justice for putting a pastor in jail for holding church.

00:20:44.580 So anyways, the JP did release him, but under the condition that he stopped holding church as he had been doing.

00:20:51.660 And of course, obviously, that violates his conscience to agree to that.

00:20:54.800 So without agreeing to the condition for release, he can't be released.

00:21:00.720 And so he's in jail.

00:21:02.260 Wow.

00:21:02.380 Now, let me just ask a question.

00:21:04.200 It's been a while since I practiced law.

00:21:05.960 I did practice in Edmonton, which is, I presume that's the judicial center that has been carrying this case.

00:21:12.760 Am I right?

00:21:13.320 Parkland County, does it have its own court or was this in court in Edmonton?

00:21:17.720 Well, it was in Stony Plain, which is right beside Edmonton.

00:21:20.840 And now he's been taken to the Edmonton Remand Center.

00:21:23.800 When I was a young lawyer, I did some lawyering at the Remand Center, probably the old one.

00:21:29.380 And it is one of the worst facilities you could be put into, at least back in the day when I was a young lawyer in Edmonton.

00:21:38.060 First of all, it was a maximum security facility.

00:21:41.620 It's where people were taken right off the streets.

00:21:44.580 They may still be drunk.

00:21:46.100 They may still be drugged up.

00:21:47.580 They may have come straight from a fight.

00:21:49.980 Literally, murderers are held there pending their disposition.

00:21:54.020 That's my memory of the Edmonton Remand Center when I practiced law there more than 20 years ago.

00:22:00.980 Is the pastor in a high security facility with violent criminals?

00:22:08.920 I hope not.

00:22:10.000 To be perfectly honest, I'm not entirely sure.

00:22:12.480 I haven't had a chance to talk to him since he's gone there.

00:22:15.120 I talked to him when he was still at the station yesterday, just before he left.

00:22:18.180 I haven't had a chance to connect with him since.

00:22:20.920 One of the first things I'm going to ask him is how he's doing and how he's being treated there.

00:22:26.380 Unfortunately, on top of the fact that he's in jail, they, of course, put him in this 14-day isolation,

00:22:34.280 which is basically solitary confinement because of their ridiculous COVID restrictions.

00:22:38.240 So normally, he would eventually be entitled to some sort of visit or contact with his wife.

00:22:42.420 Well, he can't have that right now because of the COVID restrictions.

00:22:44.980 So it's kind of jail on top of jail and just, you know, to add salt to the wound.

00:22:50.720 So that's unfortunate.

00:22:52.400 You know, but he's obviously a very courageous man.

00:22:54.760 He's in there out of principle, you know, and he's got his Bible with him.

00:22:58.900 And so I think he's probably doing all right.

00:23:02.520 I certainly hope so.

00:23:03.300 And I look forward to talking to him again.

00:23:04.880 Well, I look forward to an update on that.

00:23:06.760 I have visited a man in prison before who was in solitary confinement.

00:23:11.540 And I can tell you that a day in solitary confinement is like a week or a month in regular jail.

00:23:19.400 The mind plays tricks on you.

00:23:21.240 It's the isolation.

00:23:22.720 And when I visited someone in solitary, frankly, the first 20 minutes of the conversation,

00:23:28.600 the person in solitary was not all there.

00:23:31.280 The stress of dealing with a person after being really in an isolation tank, that is a form of torture.

00:23:37.700 Solitary confinement has been called a form of torture.

00:23:42.520 And the fact that he doesn't have visits even from his own wife, which I don't understand,

00:23:48.480 because, of course, he's living with his wife.

00:23:50.600 Why would he have to be separated from his wife in prison?

00:23:54.840 They were both just, it makes no sense to me other than, as a punitive example,

00:23:59.900 to any other pastor who would dare stop worshipping Dina Hinshaw, the unelected, unaccountable public health bureaucrat. 1.00

00:24:09.920 And that comes to my next point.

00:24:11.240 I don't believe in police meddling with police, with politicians meddling with police.

00:24:16.020 We have to have some sort of separation.

00:24:17.980 We don't want what we see in Toronto, where the mayor commands the police like they're his toy soldiers.

00:24:24.180 It's a terrible thing.

00:24:25.120 But in this case, where it's so obviously a political fight, where the Charter of Rights are so obviously being violated,

00:24:33.920 you need someone with better judgment, a more well-rounded judgment, and with democratic legitimacy to step in and say,

00:24:42.360 you Alberta health bureaucrats who are having the time of your life, you've gone too far.

00:24:48.700 And public health is important, but we're balancing that with not just any old freedom, but our fundamental freedoms.

00:24:56.380 And I note that freedom of religion is the very first freedom in the Charter, even ahead of freedom of speech,

00:25:02.900 even ahead of freedom of the press, freedom of conscience and belief in religion.

00:25:06.960 And I think it is a blemish on Alberta, whose motto is strong and free, that a Christian pastor rots in solitary confinement for 14 days 0.98

00:25:19.360 because some bureaucrat says Walmart can open, but not your church.

00:25:24.780 Yeah, it's dark times.

00:25:31.660 You know, that is something.

00:25:33.880 If we weren't the boiling frog right now, we'd probably be more shocked because, I mean,

00:25:38.500 the idea of a pastor being thrown in jail is so utterly antithetical and foreign to a nation that purports to be free and democratic.

00:25:47.600 I mean, that's something you expect to hear from China or North Korea.

00:25:51.800 We often do hear it, right?

00:25:53.760 And hopefully that's ringing some bells for people to think, okay, I'm hearing now something that's happening on a regular basis

00:26:01.620 in a totalitarian dystopian nightmare like China and North Korea. 0.63

00:26:06.660 Maybe that means that there's something wrong with our country right now that purports to not be a totalitarian dystopian nightmare.

00:26:15.040 Now, I know Jason Kenney.

00:26:17.160 I've known him on a personal level for, frankly, most of my adult life.

00:26:22.160 It was that same time I was up in Edmonton going to law school and then practicing law that I met him.

00:26:28.140 So we go way back, and I've always known him to be an advocate for religious freedom.

00:26:34.760 In fact, I think he was instrumental in the creation of the Office of Religious Freedom under Stephen Harper.

00:26:40.540 I find it very contradictory that the greatest violation of religious freedom in Canada also happens to be in the province of which he's premier.

00:26:52.660 I know that JCCF, your Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms, has written to Premier Kenney asking him to intervene

00:27:00.420 and to countermand his out-of-control health bureaucrats. 0.84

00:27:06.580 Have you had any response?

00:27:08.020 Your letter was sent yesterday.

00:27:09.860 Have you had any response from the Premier's Office?

00:27:13.240 Not that I'm aware of.

00:27:14.520 You know, I certainly hope for a response, but I'm not overly expectant.

00:27:21.660 You know, what's one of the problems is not just Kenney, but in general, we see a lack of responsiveness from governments, you know,

00:27:30.060 from the pleas of their people that are crying out about the economic devastation and the loss of their liberties.

00:27:36.060 There seems to be a lot of indifference and a lot of callousness.

00:27:39.220 I mean, obviously, they say otherwise, but I judge people by their actions, and the actions of governments are that they really don't care about their people at all, right?

00:27:48.200 And now, of course, they say they do, right, because the COVID restrictions are all about saving lives.

00:27:51.660 Meanwhile, the restrictions themselves are destroying far more human life, whether it's through life itself, people dying because they can't get their medical care,

00:27:59.820 or, you know, through the economic loss, the relational loss, the mental health devastation, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

00:28:07.120 So I, you know, it's in the name of compassion that governments seem to be destroying their own people.

00:28:13.940 So, well, I mean, if I can make one more reference to my glory days as a lawyer, I recall that, you know, under our Constitution, we have these lists of fundamental freedoms.

00:28:24.400 I mentioned a few of them earlier, but even before that, our Charter of Rights says that they may be infringed only if it's demonstrably justifiable in a free and democratic society.

00:28:36.820 So there are some limits on our freedoms, but I do remember from law school that it's a very high test that the government has to make.

00:28:44.760 There was a case called the Oaks Test, Oaks, and it's been called the Oaks Test.

00:28:49.200 But the infringements have to be proportionate.

00:28:54.000 I don't think throwing a pastor in solitary confinement for two weeks is proportionate.

00:28:59.020 They have to be rationally connected to the pressing and substantial problem.

00:29:04.720 I don't know how shutting down a church, but not shutting down a Costco is rational.

00:29:10.460 And finally, pressing and substantial, I mentioned that a moment ago,

00:29:13.640 I see that the cases of the virus in Alberta are plummeting.

00:29:20.700 I mean, forget about the fact that Trudeau hasn't brought in any vaccines.

00:29:23.780 This thing's going away.

00:29:24.780 Like, it's down more than 50% in just a couple weeks.

00:29:28.880 Out there in west of Edmonton, it is not a hot spot.

00:29:34.960 So even if there was a factual rationale for this, let's say, a month or two ago, it's gone now.

00:29:42.480 I mean, the pandemic's pretty much over.

00:29:45.520 So I think that if there even was a charter rationale for this bizarre punitive and selective lockdown,

00:29:56.020 it's no longer there.

00:29:57.580 What do you think of my back of a napkin analysis on the Oaks Test?

00:30:01.240 Well, we could spend a long time on this, but ultimately what it comes down to is the judges, right?

00:30:09.740 The judges get to interpret Section 1.

00:30:12.220 And if you look at the last 20 years, 20, 25 years, the Section 1 test itself hasn't changed,

00:30:18.900 but how it's been interpreted and used and applied by judges has changed.

00:30:23.300 That threshold you mentioned as being very high, it once was.

00:30:27.800 It no longer is.

00:30:28.880 In practice, in reality, when you go to the court, it no longer is.

00:30:32.720 The court has somewhat become a rubber stamp for government action instead of that lever of accountability.

00:30:41.620 And that's ultimately the problem, right?

00:30:45.180 I think we'd be seeing more of these restrictions struck down as not being justified under Section 1

00:30:50.480 if the court was ruling in the same way that it did in the 80s and 90s when the charter first came out.

00:30:59.140 I don't think this would have flown.

00:31:01.520 If this was 88 and people like Iacobucci was still on the bench of the Supreme Court,

00:31:09.400 and Justice Major was probably the most pro-freedom justice we had at the advent of the charter,

00:31:14.840 I don't think you would have saw this go through.

00:31:18.300 Well, we're in the era of woke law, that's for sure.

00:31:22.080 Let me ask you this.

00:31:22.780 So the pastor's in jail, I'm not even going to say jail, I think it's in a maximum security.

00:31:29.840 If he is in the Remand Center, I think he is, in the west side of Edmonton there, maximum security.

00:31:35.480 You're telling me it's solitary confinement, he can't even get a visitor.

00:31:39.220 Two weeks, that'll do psychological damage to you.

00:31:43.240 I'm just saying.

00:31:45.240 So he's out of action for two weeks.

00:31:48.320 Political prisoner, absolutely.

00:31:49.580 But what happens to the church on Sunday?

00:31:53.380 You and I are talking close to the end of the week.

00:31:56.460 There's probably other pastors, deputy pastors, other church leaders who probably want to open that place up.

00:32:02.000 And last I saw, this is a popular church.

00:32:04.240 You're probably going to see a lot of regular congregants go.

00:32:08.120 What's going to happen on Sunday?

00:32:11.900 That's going to be interesting to see.

00:32:13.660 My guess is that the church is going to hold church in some fashion.

00:32:20.620 And, you know, I have no reason to think they're going to do anything different than what they have been doing.

00:32:26.360 Ultimately, you know, who they follow is the Lord Jesus Christ.

00:32:30.120 It's not James Coates.

00:32:31.380 So I think you're going to see much of the same thing this weekend.

00:32:37.500 So if the government is thinking, you know, we'll just take out the leader and everybody will scatter, I think these people's belief is a little more resilient than that.

00:32:50.200 So it'll be interesting to see what they do this weekend.

00:32:52.740 Well, our own Sheila Gunn-Reed has been on the scene.

00:32:56.540 In fact, she was actually in the church and had an exclusive interview with Pastor Coates.

00:33:01.940 And I recommend to our viewers to watch it elsewhere on our website if you haven't seen it yet.

00:33:06.800 I mean, I suppose theoretically they could do what they did to Adamson's Barbecue in Toronto.

00:33:12.960 They could change the locks, bar the doors, weld it shut, bring riot cops.

00:33:20.080 And you say this is the RCMP, so this is Justin Trudeau's police.

00:33:25.260 So they'll do anything.

00:33:26.600 I mean, I wouldn't put it past them.

00:33:28.480 I'm very curious because with Adamson's Barbecue in Toronto, you drew people from all over the greater Toronto area who had been protesting the lockdowns for weeks or months.

00:33:41.560 So it wasn't like a local, organic, we're supporting our local guy.

00:33:46.320 It was, oh, here's a guy standing up, let's drive across town to support him.

00:33:51.340 I think it's different here.

00:33:53.320 It's not just a barbecue sandwich place, it's a church.

00:33:58.240 It's not just support the guy out of fraternal, you know, solidarity.

00:34:02.720 It's a religious freedom matter.

00:34:05.260 And his congregants are severely normal, regular people.

00:34:10.860 They're not sort of professional activists.

00:34:12.820 I think they will be a much tougher nut to crack.

00:34:15.940 Mayor John Tory brought out 100 cops, 50 cop cars, six riot horses to dispatch the protesters.

00:34:23.720 I think unless you've got that kind of firepower, you're not going to stop these dedicated grassroots Christians.

00:34:29.780 That's just the sense I get of it.

00:34:31.280 I think you're pretty close to the mark.

00:34:35.360 You know, and I'll note that as far as, you know, being able to bring in the police and barricade the church, that could have happened two months ago when the first AHS order was issued.

00:34:46.480 And at the time, I wondered if it would happen.

00:34:49.340 And I actually prepared the church for that possibility.

00:34:52.520 So, I mean, two months have gone by.

00:34:54.200 That hasn't happened, which is very interesting.

00:34:57.680 So, yeah, it could happen.

00:35:00.440 It could have already happened.

00:35:01.640 And I don't know.

00:35:02.280 Maybe it'll happen someday.

00:35:03.560 It really comes down to the political will, right?

00:35:06.440 I mean, is there the political will to do that?

00:35:09.560 I don't know.

00:35:10.180 We'll see.

00:35:10.640 There was political will to arrest him and put him in jail.

00:35:15.320 I mean, the pastor, I mean.

00:35:16.540 So, we'll see.

00:35:17.980 Yeah.

00:35:18.460 I mean, it depends on how vicious these public health bureaucrats are. 1.00

00:35:21.400 Again, I'm just here in Toronto, and Eileen Davila, the public health bureaucrat for Toronto, is so vicious. 1.00

00:35:28.400 The premier is talking about relaxing the lockdown, but she says, I will not relax it.

00:35:33.540 I will continue it and strengthen it.

00:35:36.020 I've never seen a tyrant like that before.

00:35:38.540 I don't know Dina Hinshaw well enough to know what her temperament is. 1.00

00:35:42.640 But you try and have a staring contest with these bureaucrats, and they say, I'll show you.

00:35:47.500 That's what happened in Toronto.

00:35:48.400 That's why the riot squad, a riot squad with riot horses, was sent to a restaurant.

00:35:54.260 I think that what happens this Sunday at the Grace Life Church in Parkland County is perhaps the most important civil liberties moment in Canada.

00:36:06.620 I think that it's more important than a restaurant, like I like Adam Skelly of Adamson's Barbecue, but at the end of the day, it's just a restaurant.

00:36:14.820 I'm not disparaging that, but it's not a foundational strategic freedom, like freedom of religion, conscience.

00:36:24.060 This is the foundation of the whole house.

00:36:27.500 And you've got hundreds of churchgoers, and you've got a man who's in solitary now.

00:36:33.040 I can't think of a bigger showdown, and I'm going to make a prediction to you, James, and then I'll ask you for your last thoughts.

00:36:40.460 I think that Dina Hinshaw, the public health bureaucrat for Alberta, knows that if she doesn't crush the Grace Church rebellion, it'll spread.

00:36:52.880 If this church is allowed to win the staring contest with her, maybe another church, and another church, and a synagogue, and a mosque, and a Sikh temple. 0.82

00:37:02.140 And I think she says, I have to smash these people to atoms, because if I don't, then people will laugh at me, and I can't have people laugh at me.

00:37:12.660 I am the queen.

00:37:14.160 So I think it's going down this Sunday.

00:37:16.680 Now, that's my view from 2,000 miles away.

00:37:18.780 What do you think?

00:37:19.400 I think that's accurate.

00:37:23.060 I think that's historically accurate.

00:37:24.760 That's how it works, right?

00:37:26.620 I mean, why did Kenny relent, or Dr. Hinshaw, relent on the salons, salons, sorry, and the restaurants?

00:37:34.960 Because the rebellion got out of control, and they knew they couldn't contain it, and they had to relent.

00:37:39.300 That's how democracy works, for better or for worse.

00:37:41.380 That's how it works.

00:37:42.940 So, yeah, I think your analysis makes sense.

00:37:47.060 That's just how it works.

00:37:48.140 That's how it's historically worked.

00:37:49.960 Right?

00:37:50.220 So, yeah, I think, you know, when people get arrested and places get shut down, it's, you know, the fancy word we're used for is deterrence.

00:37:58.300 But really what that means is, you know, I make an example of you so that none of you will do what he did.

00:38:04.320 That's what that is, right?

00:38:05.760 And that's what's going on here.

00:38:07.140 So, yeah, it'll be interesting to see how other churches react and, you know, what spreads and how.

00:38:14.840 Well, listen, we have a great interest in what you're doing.

00:38:19.600 As I started off our conversation, we're very supportive of the JCCF, the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms.

00:38:26.680 We admire your work and that of your colleagues.

00:38:29.060 We interview your colleagues from time to time, including John Carpet, the boss over there.

00:38:35.080 So we're very proud of the work you're doing.

00:38:36.620 I'd like to encourage our viewers to chip in at JCCF.ca.

00:38:41.100 We do crowdfunding here at Rebel News all the time.

00:38:44.400 JCCF can use the dough, too, especially for such an important case.

00:38:47.740 So don't be shy.

00:38:49.380 They're one of the few civil liberties, public interest law firms in this whole country.

00:38:53.840 There is so much work.

00:38:55.120 We need 10 law firms like the JCCF.

00:38:59.500 So thank you, James, for what you're doing.

00:39:03.600 Will you be up there this Sunday?

00:39:08.160 No, it's a bit of a drive for me.

00:39:09.760 I've thought about going, but it's three hours, and I'll probably get up there eventually.

00:39:14.460 But yeah, I don't know about this Sunday.

00:39:17.220 But I'm sure someone in the church will be videoing everything on their cell phones just to document it, right?

00:39:23.860 Yeah, I have no doubts about that.

00:39:25.700 And it'll be interesting to see if Sheila captures anything as well.

00:39:29.040 I'm sure she'll go.

00:39:29.720 I haven't spoken to her about it, but I know she's very dedicated to this story and has a couple of videos out on it.

00:39:35.520 I think it's the most important civil liberties battle in Canada.

00:39:37.760 But James, thanks for spending so much time with me, and thanks for letting me relive some of my days as an Edmonton lawyer.

00:39:43.500 I hope I didn't bore you too much with my old stories.

00:39:45.260 But when I think about my visit to the Remand Center those 20-odd years ago, it was one of the worst places I had ever been in my life until that moment.

00:39:57.960 You don't want to go to the high maximum security Remand Center.

00:40:03.020 You don't want to be there.

00:40:05.700 And the fact, if that's true, that that's where the pastor is right now, that is a cruel and unusual punishment.

00:40:12.660 And that will live for the eternal shame of this Alberta provincial government.

00:40:18.220 James, good luck to you and the team at JCCF.

00:40:21.600 Thank you.

00:40:22.420 All right, there you have it, James Kitchen, the lawyer who's working on behalf of Grace Life Church.

00:40:28.320 I'm sure Sheila Gunn-Ree will have more stories, including on Sunday.

00:40:33.240 Stay with us. More ahead.

00:40:46.120 Hey, welcome back on my show last night.

00:40:47.940 Paul writes,

00:40:49.300 Which puppet is the most puppet-like? Does it matter?

00:40:51.620 They're walking rubber stamps for the Communist Chinese and whoever else bought their way into power. 0.99

00:40:56.220 Yeah, it is really shocking to me.

00:40:57.940 I mean, I remember, and I'm older than you probably, that once upon a time, the Liberal Party really held itself out as the party of human rights and civil rights.

00:41:07.020 And we care about people and, you know, we care about suffering around the world.

00:41:12.280 They don't even pretend anymore.

00:41:14.600 They're corporatist globalists.

00:41:16.360 They love Huawei.

00:41:18.520 They love, you know, big multinationals.

00:41:22.680 Where is that old, bleeding-heart liberal?

00:41:25.280 I miss them.

00:41:26.400 Jack writes, 0.99

00:41:27.980 What a clown. 0.99

00:41:29.420 Wasn't it only last year that he said Canada was guilty of genocide with the indigenous people? 0.99

00:41:34.100 Yeah, that's my point.

00:41:35.620 He calls Canada genocidal.

00:41:38.980 But China?

00:41:39.900 No, no, he won't go that far.

00:41:42.580 Gilly writes,

00:41:43.620 It seems that disarming the public is part of the Trudeau agenda.

00:41:46.100 Well, yeah, I was reading, though, that the number of firearms that are used in actual crimes in the city that are covered by this ban, it's, you know, the number of firearms that are currently legal is like, what, 5% maybe?

00:41:59.360 Crooks don't use, you know, let's use a big, long shotgun for a gang shooting on the street.

00:42:05.760 They don't do that.

00:42:06.680 They use illegal guns to begin with.

00:42:08.520 And even if the guns that they were using became banned, if you're shooting an innocent person, you sort of tip this off that you don't care about following the law.

00:42:17.400 Well, I regard this gun grab, as I said to Andrew yesterday, as simply away from changing the channel, away from Trudeau's inability to negotiate a vaccine deal.

00:42:27.980 That's our show for today.

00:42:29.000 What do you think of that Orwellian ad?

00:42:30.700 I think if the pastor in jail in Edmonton saw that ad, he'd say, yep, that's about right.

00:42:35.940 Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home, good night.

00:42:40.800 Keep fighting for freedom.

00:42:47.400 Keep fighting for freedom.

Rebel News Podcast - February 19, 2021

The Most Orwellian Public Service Lockdown Announcement Yet

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