We've just seen what happens when the people no longer listen to the elites
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Summary
What happens when the people no longer listen to the elites? I'll show you what happened this weekend in Toronto, when the weather was perfect, and up to 10,000 Torontonians decided to go to the park.
Transcript
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Hello, my friends. Trinity Bellwoods Park is a very nice park, lovely park in Toronto. I'm not
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going to quite compare it to Central Park in New York, because that's a unique park. But it's a
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really lovely park in Toronto, and the weather was perfect this weekend. And wouldn't you know it,
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up to 10,000 Torontonians just said, the heck with this lockdown, I'm going to the park.
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Oh boy, Toronto's mayor was mad. He went down there himself, except for the funny thing is,
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he didn't socially distance himself either. In fact, he took his face mask off. I'll have the
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photos and the story in today's episode. Let me invite you to become a video subscriber. Just
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join Rebel News Plus. It's eight bucks a month, no big deal, or 80 bucks for the whole year. You get,
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as you can see, a couple months off. And you get the video version, and I want to show you the
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pictures. I'm going to show you the pictures of the mayor and his goofy non-mask wearing. I want
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to show you the pictures of the park and the lovely people there. Anyways, without further
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ado, here's the podcast. Tonight, what happens when the people no longer listen to the elites?
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I'll show you what happened this weekend. It's May 25th, and this is the Ezra Levant Show.
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Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?
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There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.
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The only thing I have to say to the government about why I'm publishing it is because it's my
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You know, we've all been scared for two months because they scared us. Seriously, do you remember
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when Health Minister Patty Hajdu gave her advice to Canadians, go to the store and buy up everything
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you can, make your own stockpile at home? That really was her advice. And the wild predictions
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of hundreds of thousands of deaths in Canada. But at the same time, the refusal to stop direct
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flights from China, which continue to this day. Frankly, I think the scariest thing is that Teresa
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Tam, Trudeau's health officer, has kept her other job throughout this whole crisis, and she works for
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the China-controlled World Health Organization. When you understand that, a lot of other things start
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If there are people who are non-compliant, there are definitely laws and public health
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powers that can quarantine people in mandatory settings. It's potential you could track people,
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put bracelets on their arms, have police and other setups to ensure quarantine is undertaken.
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Yeah, so they scared us, not just Trudeau, but other politicians too. So we all accepted house
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arrests pretty meekly, didn't we? To flatten the curve. That was the phrase. Just to remind you,
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flattening the curve didn't mean it would stop infections. It would slow down the rate of
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infection, so it would be spread out over a longer period of time. So there would be no peak that would
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overwhelm hospitals. We all had two weeks until that crisis would hit. So every non-emergency patient
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was cleared out of hospitals. In the US, they actually deployed those two Navy hospital ships.
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And everyone braced for the overflow that never came. It just didn't. There was no curve to flatten.
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The latest death toll for Canada is just over 6,000, which is terrible. I should tell you though,
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it's less than the average annual death toll from the flu and pneumonia. And I think it's absolutely
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critical to point out that 82% of all Canadian deaths are in seniors' homes. What is it about
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seniors' homes or some seniors' homes that made it that way? So I won't even say it's a disease that
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targets people over 80, because if you weren't in certain seniors' homes, you didn't die from the
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virus, even if you were over 80. So take out those 82%, call this seniors' home flu, and then acknowledge
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that the death toll for the other parts of society has been about 1,000 people over the past two months.
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So 16 people a day, on average, excluding seniors' homes. In Canada, about 1,000 people a day die from
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all causes. So my point is, they scared us as hard as they could. And we braced ourselves for two weeks,
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and then that became four weeks, and now we're into two months. They said it was just for two weeks
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to flatten the curve. Thankfully, no curve to flatten in our hospitals. Our seniors' homes need a proper
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independent inquiry, I would say. But the rest of us, thank God, are fine. Not a single death in
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Canada under age 20. I'm pleased to report eight million Canadians in that age bracket. Not one died.
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I'm not happy that seniors' homes residents are dying. But my point is, if schools are closed,
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I think we can agree it's a teacher's union thing, probably. It's not a health thing.
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So two months cooped up, stressed out. For millions of people, unemployment and the risk of poverty, and on top
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of that, the people who said we had to be scared, and strict, and not come into contact with other
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humans, and not cross provincial lines, not travel. Well, they all did precisely those things.
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Trudeau was the most brazen, of course. For many weeks now, authorities are saying,
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don't go to your cottage. On the Ottawa River, there's even some control
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by the police to make sure that people don't go from Ottawa to Gatineau. Why was it okay for you to do this?
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As I mentioned last week in my presentation, after three weeks of my family living up at
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Harrington and me working here, I went to join them for Easter. We continue to follow all the
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instructions from public health authorities. Yeah, he broke the rules. What are you going to do about it?
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Oh, and so did Ontario Premier Doug Ford. On Sunday morning of Easter, my team told me I got the
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morning off, and it was the first time I got off in, I don't know, two months. And it's weighing on me,
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because a couple of years ago, we had burst pipes, made a terrible mess, thousands of dollars of
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damage. And that night, you know, I was thinking about it, I woke up early in the morning,
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5.30. And then I just got ready and hopped in the pickup truck myself at 6.30 in the morning. I drove up
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there and checked out, you know, make sure everything was okay. And it was, I literally hopped
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back in my truck and drove right back. I was back by noon. That's the ticket. He went up there to check
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on the plumbing. That's why he had a family reunion out there in the cottage. Here's Toronto's Mayor
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John Tory. It's just so disappointing. You just can't believe people really, you know, want this
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to last longer. They're ones that said they needed to have a break, you know, in the park. And I get
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that from their own apartments and condos and so on. And yet they don't realize that by doing what
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they did yesterday, they are, you know, running a real risk that we're going to prolong this whole
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thing or have to close the city down again. Yeah, he's so disappointed in us. Don't we know
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we risk killing everyone? It's okay for him to take off his mask and pose for a photo op
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in front of a hospital with frontline workers. Mask off so we can see. It's him in the PR photo.
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That's fine, but not for you. And here he is at a large park in Toronto on the weekend
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called Trinity Bellwoods. It's such a pretty park. It's a fun park, lots of people, lots of pets,
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just a great place to go. The mayor actually put fences around the pretty trees to stop people
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from looking at them. I swear I'm not making that up. Anyways, after we mocked,
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those fences, the mayor took them down. But anyways, the mayor went to the park this weekend.
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I think he knows that's not how you wear a mask. I think he knows that, but he did that with his
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mask because it was, I don't know, inconvenient or uncomfortable or people couldn't hear him,
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or he just felt stupid wearing it. All of those things can be true. All probably are true. But he
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literally went down there precisely to scold people. And that's what's so amazing. It was packed.
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And I mean packed. I heard estimates of up to 10,000 people in the park. Now, if you know downtown
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Toronto, you know there's a forest of very tall high-rise condos, typically pretty small,
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usually young people living in them right downtown. So no backyard, no open spaces.
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And everything's being shut down. So you're cooped up at home. You're doing nothing. Or if you can work
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from home, you're still slowly going mad. The only human contact you have is via Skype or Zoom,
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and 10 seconds when the food delivery guy comes. So you've been cooped up for two months,
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like you've been holding your breath. You've been waiting for the worst. And thank God,
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the worst never happened. And maybe you've heard that not a single case is being recorded of
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catching the virus through casual outdoor contact. And you know the young people don't get it. And
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more to the point, you see that all the bosses are cheating. They don't really mean it.
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And maybe you've started to see other jurisdictions going back to normal,
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especially in the United States, but some Canadian places too. So it's a gorgeous weekend,
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this last weekend. And you say, I'm going out. To heck with it. I'm alive. I want to
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see other humans. I want to live. I want to see my old friends. I want to maybe make some new friends
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or just talk to people in person. No screens, no Skype, no cell phones, just to connect human to
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human. And it looked wonderful. I don't see a lot of cell phones in the picture. Do you?
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People have had their fill of cell phones. They want to live again. It's wonderful.
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And not that this is political, but these are liberals, these people, young, single, downtown,
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Toronto, high-rise dwellers. Yeah, that's liberal. That's NDP. That's Green Party. That's Obama
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wannabe. That's not right-wing conservative Trump people. But it's not even about partisan stripes.
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It's just about being human and deciding that you're done being scared and that really the only
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people who should be scared are seniors who are stashed in seniors' homes. So the mayor goes down
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there to scold people. I'm serious. That's what he was doing. Mask off, no social distancing.
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Isn't it funny how it seems to work that way? So many cases, including our Fight the Fines cases,
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the police themselves are the ones causing the risk, if you believe it's a risk, with no masks,
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no social distancing. So the mayor of Toronto was so, so disappointed in the people. And so was the
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mayor's chief medical officer, Eileen Davila. Well, we should have a lot of chief medical officers
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in Canada. Lots of chiefs, don't we? Theresa Tam, one for each province and territory.
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Looks like all the big cities have one. That's a lot of chiefs, isn't it? All very important.
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All paid a lot. Just basically telling us to wash our hands. Scolding, scolding, scolding.
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I understand that the photos of people in Trinity Bellwoods were disappointing today,
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said Toronto's chief public health officer. It was a beautiful day and we all want to enjoy our city
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together. But this could be selfish and dangerous behavior that could send us back.
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Is selfish a medical diagnosis? And is she now saying that the virus is indeed transmitted through
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casual outdoor contact? 312 studies say it's not. What's her source on this? And this one.
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Please keep a physical distance and do not socialize in group settings, especially indoors.
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Please continue to practice physical distancing and please continue to take care of each other.
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Hang on. Don't socialize outside, but definitely don't socialize indoors. And but also take care
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of each other, but don't. What? They're not listening to you. They listen for two months and
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they've had enough. You don't even make sense. A Toronto news channel called CP24 went down to the
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park and they were appalled. But here's two photos sent to me from someone who's at the park. You can see
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the reporter there, the second cameraman wearing a mask. That's good hygiene people, but for him at
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least. But as soon as they were off camera, he took off his mask just like the mayor did. It was just for
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show. Well, everyone was so mad and the mayor was threatening fines and tickets. So they deployed a ton
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of police the next day, Sunday, and they managed to scare away the crowds. Who knows where they went?
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But look at this guy literally lying down by himself in the middle of the park. No one around him for
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100 feet and he still got a ticket. Why? For doing what? How did that guy by himself get a ticket
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when the mayor went down there mixing with crowds with no mask on and he didn't get a ticket?
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It's hard not to notice the people who have summer cottages and big backyards are doing pretty good
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in this lockdown. They don't mind. And they're pretty scoldy of people who don't have
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those things and just want to go to the park. The poor's. Just like people who are being paid
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no matter what. They love this surprise bonus vacation at home. It's the little people who've
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lost their jobs as waiters, waitresses, barbers. They're the ones who want to get back to work.
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I think this is a class thing, really. Here's a website that compiles the salaries and names from
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Ontario's sunshine list. That's provincial employees who earn six figures. Eileen Davila makes $309,000
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a year as Toronto's public health school. That's up from $215,000 just two years ago. I'm guessing
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she's got her own lake house if she's making that kind of coin. So she doesn't need some park.
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There are actually public health officers in Ontario who make close to $400,000 a year.
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They're not even meeting patients. They're just scolding. They tweak their disappointment to the
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rest of us. I was mad at these fancy schools and their private vacation homes lecturing young men
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and women out of the park. So I wrote on Twitter, I said, Bounty, I'll pay you $2,500 cash for photos
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or videos of Cruella Davila breaking her own pandemic guidelines like Doug Ford at the cottage and
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Trudeau visiting his family over Easter. You don't actually believe that she follows her own rules,
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do you? And I will pay that bounty. I'd love to get photos of any of those things. But out of the
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blue, I got a reply from a 90s TV celebrity on that old station called Munch Music, Erica M.
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She's such a fan of, you know, she's a girl groupie who just made eyes at every band passing
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through town. It was sort of funny, a 90s moment. Anyway, I guess she's still alive, thank God. I was
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delighted to learn. And she looks wonderful for age 58. And she was super mad at me though. She said,
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do you really need attention this badly? Please act like a responsible adult and stop with
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them games and name calling. It's so easy to disparage and bully safely from the sidelines,
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especially women. They're always an easier target. I'm trying to get attention. It's true,
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because I'm trying to get everyone with a fine to come to me and we'll fight the ticket for them.
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It's not games. The name calling is pretty gentle. I call politicians names, but it's that one line
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she said, it's so easy to disparage and bully safely from the sidelines, especially women. They're
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always an easier target. What are you talking about? I wrote back. I said, what a blast from
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the past. I can't believe it's been 26 years since you run much music. I'm glad to see you're still
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alive and kicking. I criticized three political bullies, two men, one woman. It's condescending to
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see Davila for you. It's condescending to Davila for you to blame sexism rather than incompetence.
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And she said this, she said, yes, still standing. Let me rephrase. Please don't be a bully on social
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media, especially the public servants working hard with no road map. Everyone's doing what
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they can to find a way out. Rather than criticize, find positive solutions. What? Twice she calls me
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a bully? Is that what it is to criticize a politician who earns $300,000 a year from taxpayers and is
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threatening thousands of people with fines? Is that bullying? I said, I'm not a bully. Davila's a bully,
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scolding and threatening to fine working class people who've been cooped up in tiny apartments,
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don't have fancy lake cottages like Trudeau Ford or $1,000 a night Muskoka family getaways.
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And I linked to this vacation travel log by Erica M of her taking her family to $1,000 a night
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lake resort. That's the thing. Don't tell a working class young person he can't go to the park
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because he doesn't have a country home. He doesn't have a home at all.
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It'll be interesting to see how this all plays out. They promised us it would be a two-week lockdown,
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it's two months. If some politicians had their way, they'd keep us like this for a long, long time.
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If there are people who are non-compliant, there are definitely laws and public health
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powers that can quarantine people in mandatory settings. It's potential you could track people,
00:16:07.300
put bracelets on their arms, have police and other setups to ensure quarantine is undertaken.
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You have bracelets, eh? This isn't going to end quickly, is it? Stay with us for more.
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So you guys know the Canadian Charter, right? We have the right to peaceful assembly and municipalities
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during a regular time, yes, but this is a state of emergency that we're under.
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Uh, he had told us that he's not going to be issuing a fine at this time. He would allow us a little
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while to read over things and put these measures into place, which would be the plexiglass and the
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arrows on the floor for social distancing. So he wasn't going to fine us until he spoke it
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over with Dr. Paul Romuliotis at the Eastern Ontario Health Unit and they would determine whether a fine
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would be put in place. However, the officer come back within the hour and he fined us $880.
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I brought her out to do her business and I was out here maybe five minutes, six minutes.
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I came back to the back door and I got to the third door. There were two policemen standing in front
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of my apartment with Max's son, like yourself, and they had the ticket already made out. They whipped
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it out like Matt Dillon and handed it to me. $880. Basically, as soon as I walked out onto the skate
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park, three bylaw officers walked out and they just ticketed me. They didn't give me a warning,
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they didn't tell me to just go. I asked, I tried to talk to them about it, but they just stuck me with
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the ticket. I was walking around this field, you know, figuring, you know, metal detecting,
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what could be more of a social distancing hobby, right? So I figured, you know, it's cool. I'm not
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near the benches. I'm not near other people. I'm in the middle of a field, you know, what could go wrong?
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And lo and behold, from half a kilometer away, here they come and I knew right away. So
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what could I do? I just stood there and expected the worst and the worst happened.
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There's your ticket. Leave the parking lot. Next one goes up to $1,000. Really? Yes. You can get up to
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$10,000. How many have you given out today? You're the first. Well, I feel so good about that. You're lucky,
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you're the first. You're the first out, fall right back. We were on this wing for about 15, we were here
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for about 15 or 20 minutes. She was just on this wing. We weren't hurting anyone. We were here by ourselves.
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The police showed up. Two officers approached us and told us that we were breaking. And they put
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handcuffs on my mom. Welcome back. Well, you might recall that about a month ago,
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we knew that civil liberties were going to be one of the things broken or infringed during the pandemic
00:18:56.340
overreaction by the government, not just here in Canada. Of course, the United States and the UK
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in particular have seen some bad behavior by government, but we're based in Canada.
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So we thought let's actually do something about it. So we set up a website called fightthefines.com.
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And we made an arrangement with a civil liberties and criminal law defense lawyer in Toronto named Sam
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Goldstein to help us vet cases brought to us through that website. And we would crowdfund the legal fees.
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Well, I'm pleased to report that we now have more than 10 cases that we're working on. You can see
00:19:35.460
all of them at fightthefines.com. And I thought it would take a moment to catch up with who I call
00:19:41.700
the managing partner of our civil liberties public interest law firm, Sam Goldstein himself,
00:19:48.020
who joins us now via Skype. Sam, great to see you again. Welcome back.
00:19:50.900
You know, it's nice to see you too, Esther. Be careful if I'm going to be called the managing
00:19:55.700
partner and maybe asking for an increase in my fees. Well, listen, it's been a very interesting
00:20:01.540
and educational month for me. I've enjoyed watching you discuss these cases and our journalists
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reporting cases from as far west as Calgary and as far east as New Brunswick. That crazy case of the
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Tim Hortons coffee drinker just sitting in his car by himself. If you had to sum up the commonality
00:20:23.620
in the 10 or so cases we've published so far, what would you think they have in common?
00:20:30.580
Well, you know, I think what we're seeing across Canada, Ezra, is some of it I think is due to
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people misunderstanding what the law is. And I don't think you can fault them because it's quite
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confusing. Even sometimes I'm confused about what the laws are. You're getting a little bit of mixed
00:20:48.820
messages from the federal level and the provincial level. Now, particularly when provincial levels are
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talking about easing things up and the federal level continues to have this message that we have
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to crack down on things and we're still there's a concern out there. So I think there's a lot of
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confusion still about what the laws are. And I think sometimes that confusion spills over into the
00:21:09.860
police who are supposed to be out there enforcing along the bylaw officers. I think that case
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New Brunswick might be an example of that where if we take a look at the Ontario legislation, I think
00:21:21.780
the New Brunswick legislation is somewhat similar. And I'm telling you, you know, Ezra, I'm having a
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difficult time trying to find what all the legislation is across Canada. So you can only imagine individuals
00:21:35.140
in that province are having a bit of a problem. I don't think that guy did anything wrong. Again,
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in the Ontario experience, assuming the laws are the same. And I think they're more or less
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are in variations of it. They're the same. You know, you're certainly allowed to be in a public
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or public place, including a private place like a golf club and or even like a drive, you know,
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parking lot for Tim Hortons. All he was was being alone. That's not a problem. The problem would have been
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if he gathered with X number of people. I think in New Brunswick, they have a different number.
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I think it was 15 in New Brunswick here in Ontario. They said it was five. Or if you're in closer than
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a hockey stick distance from someone. And that's actually a municipal bylaw. So to me, I just don't
00:22:22.980
understand why that individual got ticketed at all. I got a question for you, Sam. In the 10 cases that
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we've taken so far, we were reactive. People got a ticket. They were sort of random people out there.
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And we took the cases because they were typically working class folks. They didn't have a thousand
00:22:41.940
dollars. The cases were egregious. So that's reactive. And I feel really good about those
00:22:46.820
cases. But I don't know if any of them are going to really change the world other than a moral victory
00:22:53.380
in helping one person. But are there any things that you found in the law that would allow us to
00:22:59.140
go proactively to fight for the ability of a barbershop to reopen or a restaurant to reopen?
00:23:07.140
Is there something we can do in the name of a larger group of people that would have a more symbolic
00:23:12.100
or precedent setting win? I guess what I'm saying is I'm so proud of what we've done fighting the fine
00:23:17.860
so far. But is there anything we can do in the legislation challenging some ban here,
00:23:23.700
challenging a ban there that would free not one person, but maybe hundreds or thousands?
00:23:29.220
So yes and no, Ezra. A lot of people automatically sort of assume that the charter will protect us.
00:23:36.420
And I've been a little bit agnostic about that because I recognize, as you may also realize, that
00:23:41.780
we don't have absolutes in Canada, absolute rights in Canada, or at least the absolute rights that we have
00:23:47.620
in Canada are not the ones that we would normally think. All the rights of freedom of expression,
00:23:52.420
assembly, association, and so on, that we think we have, and that we do have, are not absolute.
00:23:59.140
The state could always override them by saying that there is this greater goal out there that
00:24:03.300
we need to justify. In this case, freedom of religion, for example, telling people that they can't
00:24:09.060
gather in homes, synagogues, and so on, would be that freedom of religion would be
00:24:14.980
override by the fact that Section 1, the goal is to flatten the curve. That was the purpose of it.
00:24:21.300
Now, you had a case coming out, being launched by the Justice Center for Constitucional Freedoms,
00:24:26.900
about that person, the preacher in Elmer, who said that he had the right to perform his services in
00:24:33.620
the parking lot. People would stay in their cars, and his services would be broadcast in FM.
00:24:38.820
The government, interesting enough, backed down, changed the definition of what a gathering was,
00:24:44.500
and allowed him to continue doing that. I don't think that's necessarily a win for freedom of
00:24:49.060
religion. The reason why is because I think what happened there is, if you read the section of the
00:24:55.460
Emergency Measure Civil Protection Act of Ontario, there's three built-in, amongst many limitations,
00:25:01.380
there's three limitations specifically to that act. One of the limitations is, it says that everything
00:25:07.140
that act has to be minimally intrusive on our rights. So I really think what happened in there
00:25:14.260
is, instead of going to the charter, the government itself realized that, internally in the act itself,
00:25:22.100
says you have to be minimally intrusive. So I think what they did is, they made their legislation
00:25:27.060
more in accordance with the own legislation. And we've been talking about that. Some of this,
00:25:33.540
some of the legislation I think is not minimally intrusive. So instead of going to the charter,
00:25:38.020
relying upon charter arguments, which can be very risky, I think you go directly to the EMCPA,
00:25:43.860
and in that legislation, it has a built-in charter type of analysis to it. I think that's really
00:25:53.380
the way that people should be going. That said, Ezra, I think what now has been happening is you have so many
00:25:59.380
exceptions to the social distancing rules that two things are happening. One is people are beginning
00:26:06.180
to think, well, why are all these exceptions, right? I mean, there seems to be inconsistency
00:26:11.860
with saying that essential service workers can have their children going to daycare, but other
00:26:16.420
people can't go to daycare, right? How does that make sense at all? If the real concern is flattening the
00:26:22.020
curve, certainly you're exposing a certain number of population to the virus. And there's other
00:26:28.420
exceptions. So I think you're going to have now going forward a built-in problem of public
00:26:33.300
support for the social distancing laws. I think you saw that in Trinity Bellwoods over the weekend
00:26:38.260
in Toronto, big popular park here, a lot of people out just sunbathing. Our Mayor John Tory had to go
00:26:45.540
out the next day and chastise people for obeying the social distancing laws. And secondly, more
00:26:51.220
important, I think for us in dealing with the fighting the fines, I think all these exceptions creates a
00:26:57.140
legal problem for the government to justify how they can make an exception here, the non-exception
00:27:02.580
here, specifically when the act itself says you have to be mentally intrusive. So there's a built-up
00:27:08.100
legal pressure now, I think, to start relaxing things if people come forward with legal challenges
00:27:15.540
to them. And that's something again that we're talking about. And when it's the appropriate time,
00:27:21.460
we'll announce that. So I think those two things are happening in terms of going forward. You have
00:27:26.900
people coming forward with some challenges, whether the JCCF realized what they were doing or not,
00:27:32.340
is beside the issue. But you have, I think, a breakdown in the public support for it, with all
00:27:37.380
these exceptions. And I think it'll cause legal problems going forward for the government.
00:27:43.380
Well, it's very interesting. It's hard for me to read the public. I mean, 10,000 Torontonians voted
00:27:49.940
with their feet and went to the park in defiance of the mayor's scolding. But there certainly was no
00:27:55.860
shortage of scolding and nags in reaction in the media. I don't know how to measure which has,
00:28:03.700
which is larger, which is more passionate. Because of course, the very next day,
00:28:07.620
the police were out in force and scared away the park goers. I don't know. I think that some
00:28:12.500
Canadians are still too afraid. They like the idea of being safe. And frankly, scolding other people
00:28:19.220
makes them better about not going out to the park themselves. It makes them feel like it's the one
00:28:23.620
thing they can control. I can control myself and I can scold others. I don't know. Maybe it'll be
00:28:30.100
interesting to see how this goes. But I believe that as the months turn into many months, that people
00:28:36.660
will be tired of these inconsistently applied rules. I mean, if Mayor John Tory himself didn't
00:28:43.860
get a ticket for not wearing a mask, I don't know why anyone else should pay theirs. Last word to you,
00:28:49.060
Sam. Do you think that we're going to be out of this Emergency Measures Act by the time summer's here?
00:28:58.740
It's still mid-May. Do you think by Canada today, let's say July 1st, we'll be out of this emergency law?
00:29:06.340
Well, I only wish I had a crystal ball on the table to predict that. Certainly, I think,
00:29:12.740
you know, through rebel media, we're going to do everything we can to try and put pressure on the
00:29:17.220
government to ease the restrictions as much as possible. You know, Ezra, you know, I'm always
00:29:23.540
sort of judicious in some of my comments. I want to acknowledge that when you look at the legislation,
00:29:28.420
I really do think the drafters of it, I want to give credit where credit due, they did in fact
00:29:32.900
look at many of the constitutional issues and to try and make the laws as constitutional as possible.
00:29:39.780
That said, I think these issues are very complicated. It's very fine calibrating. I think you could
00:29:46.020
understand when you looked at SARS what happened, why the government reacted the way they did. But also
00:29:51.780
keep in mind, Ezra, that the Eves government, the Conservative government in 2003, under pressure,
00:29:58.020
tried to ease up the restrictions. Remember, it happened in February. March, they called it
00:30:07.940
the crisis. They used the Ontario Provincial Health Act to deal with that because, as I said,
00:30:12.500
the Emergency Measures Act wasn't available to them. And then in May, there was an outbreak in the
00:30:16.900
Scarborough hospital. So you could see why the government may be a little bit concerned and wants
00:30:23.220
to go slow in easing up the restrictions. But nevertheless, I think it's important to have
00:30:27.140
a counter weight, counter balance, counter pressure to try and let the government know that there are
00:30:32.180
people like you and like myself who are a little bit skeptical. They're concerned about health,
00:30:38.260
but they also have concern about civil rights. And they want to put a little bit of pressure on
00:30:42.100
the government to move forward in easing the restrictions. And I think that's, if anything,
00:30:47.140
Ezra, I think your work on rebel media talking about this and the fighting of fines is so important
00:30:53.300
because it's putting that alternative narrative out there that you're right, the traditional media
00:30:59.380
are not as much talking about. I've seen some of it in the National Post and some of it in other
00:31:04.900
newspapers, but your voice is very important. And I think your viewership supporting you and getting
00:31:12.580
your voice out is also very important to provide that counter narrative to the government to let
00:31:17.460
them know that people want these restrictions to be eased. Well, that's very kind of you to say,
00:31:21.700
Sam. And of course, you are the linchpin in the legal strategy. So we're very grateful to you. You've
00:31:27.140
spent a lot of time not only looking at the cases, but sort of walking our journalists through the case
00:31:32.020
and our viewers, too. So we're grateful to you. All right, Sam, we'll let you go today, but we'll keep
00:31:35.780
up the fight. And I just want to tell folks at home, if you or someone you know has a ticket,
00:31:41.060
go to fightthefines.com, fill out our very simple form, and we will vet it. And who knows,
00:31:47.220
maybe Sam will get back to you. We'll take your case, too. Thanks, Sam. Great to see you again.
00:31:52.020
Nice to see you, too. Bye-bye. All right. There you have it, Sam Goldstein,
00:31:55.860
criminal and civil liberties defense lawyer in Toronto. He's also a bencher of the Law Society
00:32:11.060
Hey, welcome back on my monologue on Friday about Justice Patrick Smith.
00:32:16.180
Cheryl writes, wow, are we living in an alternate universe? Thanks, Ezra. We wouldn't have heard
00:32:20.740
about the story otherwise. Yeah, I just, I don't even know how I came across the story. I just read it.
00:32:26.820
I noticed Justice Zinn's name. That made me a little bit curious. And judges battling it out
00:32:32.100
in court with another judge moderating. That's just, wow. Boy, did they ever do a number on him.
00:32:38.580
And all I could think about was if they are that vicious to a judge, one of the most powerful people
00:32:43.860
in the country, access to the law, smart, connected, if they would do that to a judge,
00:32:52.980
imagine how little they would think of doing that to you.
00:32:55.700
Burt writes, Justice Smith is the object of a bureaucratic witch hunt.
00:33:01.700
Yeah, and he had a moral victory in the form of this court ruling, but I'm pretty sure he's
00:33:06.260
still net negative on the whole adventure. On my interview with Ben Weingarten, Michael writes,
00:33:12.180
the Chinese Communist Party has corrupted the media, Google, YouTube, universities,
00:33:16.260
and any number of global institutions, not to mention the economy. We need to break all ties
00:33:20.420
with the PRC and recognize Taiwan. You know, Taiwan is a great little country. It's a democracy.
00:33:27.860
It's 23 million people though. So that's what? Less than 2% the population of all of China.
00:33:37.220
So we have to deal with China in some way. I think obviously recognizing Taiwan is important,
00:33:42.340
but how do we deal with China itself? That's the big puzzle. I think we have to decouple from its economy
00:33:48.260
and treat it like we treated the Soviet Union. Too big to attack, but let's contain it. And like
00:33:54.660
South Africa, let's denormalize it. That's what I think. That's our show for today. Until tomorrow,
00:34:00.420
on behalf of all of us here at Rebel News, good night and keep fighting for freedom.