Rebel News Podcast - Why is Canada the only country jailing Christian pastors？

00:00:00.000 Hello, my Rebels. I've got a question for you. Why is only Canada arresting Christian pastors?

00:00:05.720 Like, there's lockdowns in almost every country. Why are we the only ones arresting Christian 1.00

00:00:10.880 pastors? Not even China is. Not even Iran is. Nowhere in America. Nowhere in Europe. Why are

00:00:16.380 we doing it? We did it again on the weekend, Pastor Arthur Pawlowski. Why? I'll try and answer

00:00:22.820 that in today's podcast. I'd like to invite you to become a subscriber to the video version of

00:00:28.280 the podcast. There's some incredible video, shocking video, of the arrest this weekend of

00:00:32.320 Pastor Arthur Pawlowski. A SWAT team style raid. You think he was El Chapo or Pablo Escobar, the way

00:00:40.400 they took him down in the middle of the highway. Cars whizzing by. Just unbelievable. Anyways, that's

00:00:46.840 today's podcast. I just want you to see what it looks like, the video footage. And you can get

00:00:52.200 that becoming a member of Rebel News Plus. It's eight bucks a month, which is half the price of

00:00:56.940 Netflix. Just go to rebelnews.com, click subscribe. You get my daily show. Weekly shows from Sheila

00:01:02.840 Gunn-Reed, David Menzies, Andrew Chapados. And you get the knowledge that you're supporting

00:01:06.720 Canada's most important independent media company. All right, here's today's podcast.

00:01:10.400 Tonight, why is Canada the only country jailing Christian pastors? It's May 10th and this is the

00:01:31.800 Ezra Levant Show. Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?

00:01:38.800 There's 8,500 customers here and you won't give them an answer. The only thing I have to say to the

00:01:44.380 government about why I'm publishing it is because it's my bloody right to do so.

00:01:48.740 I've known Pastor Arthur Pawlowski for years. I got to know him when I was at Sun News. We did stories

00:02:01.720 on him. And at Rebel News, he became our very first client in our Fight the Fines project. More than a

00:02:09.760 year ago, it was still snowing in April in Calgary. He was out feeding food to the hungry homeless. And

00:02:17.000 police said that was an illegal gathering. Remember this?

00:02:19.820 This is not an event. This is not your picnic in the neighborhood for the fun of it. We are providing

00:02:28.040 necessities of life to those that you and your bosses refuse to provide. You've got all kinds of events

00:02:36.900 happening right now. And yet, the Congress finest are not bothering them. This is the hypocrisy of this

00:02:46.600 city. This is the hypocrisy of our wonderful, fearless leaders. Where is the head named she?

00:02:53.620 The mayor of this city.

00:02:55.020 Can you guys do respect the social distancing?

00:02:57.140 I'm going to stand back from you a little bit.

00:02:59.380 Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

00:03:00.460 I'm going to need feet. Stand back.

00:03:02.360 Or what? You're going to f***ing threaten me and f***ing abuse me. 1.00

00:03:05.680 Hey, guys.

00:03:06.940 Do not do that.

00:03:08.020 Tell him not to touch me.

00:03:09.520 Six feet away for everybody.

00:03:11.520 That's for everybody.

00:03:12.340 He was our very first client. Now, we have over 1,200. He beat that case. Our first client,

00:03:20.560 our first victory. And the lawyer was Sarah Miller of the Calgary firm JSS Barristers. It's been

00:03:27.560 lots of work for Sarah since. Arthur's received more tickets. Here's an example.

00:03:33.000 The difficulty was they didn't give any of these tickets to Arthur and his brother while

00:03:39.220 they were actually handing out food. They showed up at Arthur's house many days later

00:03:44.020 to hand him just a pile of tickets. So the tickets are very disconnected from the actual

00:03:51.600 incident. That's not necessarily bad faith, but another kind of step of we're showing up

00:03:57.660 at your house. We're showing intimidation. We're giving you these tickets. So the two things

00:04:03.460 combined really make you think, what is Calgary Police Service doing with Arthur Pawlowski here?

00:04:09.760 Sarah's gotten to know Arthur well, probably even better than I know him.

00:04:14.700 Well, the whole world has been getting to know Pastor Arthur. Sometimes he's called the Polish

00:04:19.940 Pastor because this video went super viral globally.

00:04:24.460 Please get out. Get out of this property immediately. Get out. Get out of this property 0.84

00:04:32.220 immediately. Out. I don't want to hear anything. Out of this property immediately. I don't want

00:04:37.460 to hear a word. Out. Out. Out of this property immediately until you come back with a warrant.

00:04:46.080 Out. Out. Out. Out. Out. Out. Out of this property immediately out. I don't care what you have to say. Out. Out. Out. Out of this property you Nazis. Out.

00:05:15.840 Out. Out. Out. Out. Out. Out. Out. Out. Out. Out. Out. Out. Out. Out. Out. Out. Out. Out.

00:05:41.840 That's pretty powerful stuff. Normally, I get a little nervous when people throw around the word

00:05:46.100 Nazi or Gestapo too casually. But as you know, Pastor Arthur Pawlowski is Polish. He knows what

00:05:54.460 it's like for his country to be dominated by the Nazis and the Soviets, the communists and the 0.93

00:06:00.620 Nazis. You know that when he says someone is the Gestapo, he's not using it as an insult. He's using

00:06:07.000 it as a description from his and his family history. Well, he did it a second time.

00:06:13.640 No, you can contact. No, no, no, no, no, no. You can contact my lawyer. Okay, my lawyer takes care

00:06:19.440 of this. I'm not interested to listen to any word you have to say. I do not cooperate with the

00:06:25.120 Gestapo. I do not talk to the Nazis. You came in your uniforms like thugs. That's what you are.

00:06:32.140 Brown shirts of Adolf Hitler. You are Nazi, Gestapo, communist, fascist. I do not cooperate

00:06:39.180 with Nazis. Talk to my lawyer. You're not allowed here. You're not welcomed here. And I'm not going

00:06:46.480 to cooperate with Gestapo like you. Okay. So is that fair enough for you? Talk to my lawyer. 0.92

00:06:53.340 I just wanted to explain a little bit about the order. I'm not interested. I'm not interested in

00:06:59.460 talking. You see, you see, this is what the Gestapo is doing. You're coming to, you're coming

00:07:04.600 to the place of worship to intimidate and to harass. So you can make an appointment. Lady, listen to me. 1.00

00:07:12.380 You can make an appointment. Another day. You Gestapo. Another day. Not this day. Not this

00:07:23.520 day. Not during the church. You understand? Make an appointment. Okay. So go. See you later on. Have a good

00:07:35.700 day. You are sick. That's what you are. Well, the Calgary police and the government of Alberta did not

00:07:44.740 like that. They did not like that one bit. I mean, they locked up even the quiet and dove-like

00:07:51.240 pastor in Edmonton, James Coates with Grace Life Church. You see, something of the impression that if

00:07:58.280 we were being persecuted, that only then would it be right for us to gather, which is a strange

00:08:03.980 position, especially since all you need to do is obey the government, comply with government to avoid

00:08:11.480 persecution. If you comply with the government, you may never be persecuted. Now, can you tell us

00:08:19.960 exactly what happened last week? Because I've seen reports that you were arrested. I was arrested.

00:08:24.420 I was arrested and released in the same moment. And the RCMP has been excellent as they've navigated

00:08:34.940 this. Obviously, they're under a lot of pressure, I would think, to enforce the health orders that are

00:08:41.280 in place. But yeah, they've been good. I was arrested. And I even said to them at one point in time,

00:08:52.060 so technically I'm arrested. And they said, oh, you're arrested. But I was arrested and released

00:08:57.120 in the same moment. And so that was for violating the public health order? Yes. Section 73.1 of the

00:09:04.800 Public Health Act. Yeah. If they would lock up such a gentleman as him and jail him for 35 days, and

00:09:11.900 of course, they seized the Grace Life Church and expropriated it and turned it into an armed garrison,

00:09:18.080 of course they're going to go after the firebrand of Calgary, Arthur Pawlowski. And so it was that this

00:09:25.880 Saturday, Pastor Arthur held services again. Look at this quick clip from our cameraman, K2, who was in the

00:09:33.820 church. Boy, that looks great. It looks heartwarming, doesn't it? It looks like a vignette from the

00:09:56.840 before times when we didn't go crazy from the pandemic. Well, the SWAT team arrived, but they

00:10:04.760 looked at the 100 men, women, and children in the church and they thought, maybe we better not go

00:10:10.120 in there. Guns blazing. Look at this.

00:10:24.520 But the thing is, you don't call up dozens of SWAT team cops, put them on overtime pay, tell them to

00:10:39.900 wear their heavy weapons for nothing. So after the church, when Pastor Pawlowski and his brother David

00:10:48.040 got into their car to drive home, the SWAT team, well, they decided to have an El Chapo style, a Pablo

00:10:56.600 Escobar style raid. They raided, they swarmed Pastor Arthur as he was driving on the road. They extracted

00:11:06.820 them from his vehicle. Take a look.

00:11:09.680 Take a look.

00:11:11.960 Let me see.

00:11:16.960 Take a look.

00:11:21.960 You're nuts. You're nuts. You're nuts. You're Gestapo. Psychopaths. Gestapo psychopaths you are. Gestapo.

00:11:37.960 What's your name, officer? Do it the Nazi style. Do it the Nazi style. You're good Gestapo. Do it the Nazi style. 0.90

00:11:48.960 Do it the Nazi style. Do it the Nazi style. Do it the Taser. Kill me. 0.83

00:12:03.960 Do it the Nazi style. 0.96

00:12:07.960 What is this? What is this? What is this? What is this?

00:12:20.960 Shame on you guys. This is not communist China.

00:12:24.960 Can I ask some questions? Why did they pull him out of his car and take him into the middle of the road, a very busy road?

00:12:33.960 Why did they make him kneel? Why did they need so many cops?

00:12:38.960 Why didn't they stop traffic? Cars were whizzing by. It was an exit lane.

00:12:43.960 Why were they putting him at risk like that? Was he so dangerous? Why did they handcuff him?

00:12:50.960 Was he violent? Did he have a weapon?

00:12:53.960 And then why did they hold him in prison for so very long without letting him talk to lawyers?

00:13:00.960 Remember, they know his lawyer, Sarah Miller. They've worked with her many times.

00:13:05.960 She's beaten them every time. 0.99

00:13:08.960 Maybe that's the answer why they wouldn't let his lawyer, Sarah Miller, talk to her.

00:13:13.960 Well, finally, this morning, Pastor Arthur had his day in court, and I think it might be a victory, a miracle, I mean.

00:13:22.960 It was a victory, and that's a miracle.

00:13:24.960 I'm actually a little bit stunned, and I think so was the government.

00:13:27.960 How? How did Pastor James Coates get thrown away for 35 days in the prison, but Pastor Arthur Pawlowski get out at his first bail hearing?

00:13:37.960 How did that happen? I don't know. I've got some theories.

00:13:40.960 Good lawyers. Sarah's doing a great job. Crowdfunded by good people.

00:13:44.960 A government that's maybe overreaching. A judge that is fair-minded. Prayer.

00:13:51.960 I don't know. I'm surprised.

00:13:54.960 I think he will be back in jail, though, because I don't think he's going to stop opening up his church.

00:14:01.960 But why is this only happening in Canada?

00:14:05.960 Now, I have seen some bad things in other countries.

00:14:08.960 For example, remember this from Easter weekend in the UK?

00:14:12.960 Main house.

00:14:15.960 Ladies and gentlemen, this gathering is unfortunately unlawful under the coronavirus regulations we have currently.

00:14:25.960 You are not allowed to meet inside with this many people under law.

00:14:29.960 At this moment in time, you need to go home.

00:14:32.960 And that is just appalling. That is outrageous. That is a disgrace.

00:14:37.960 But the police apologized and there were no arrests made. No priest was taken off to the clink.

00:14:43.960 Why is Canada so gung-ho about jailing Christians? And only Christians. No one of any other faith. 0.83

00:14:50.960 And why is there no one speaking up against this? No one.

00:14:55.960 There's no opposition speaking up against this.

00:14:58.960 In fact, Rachel Notley, the former NDP Premier, said it was about time.

00:15:03.960 Here's her tweet on that.

00:15:05.960 Where's the media?

00:15:07.960 Well, here's a freelance photographer who does a lot of work for the CBC.

00:15:11.960 He was thrilled with the arrest and didn't mind if you knew it.

00:15:15.960 Where are the civil liberties groups? They're silent.

00:15:18.960 Where are, I don't know, the law professors?

00:15:20.960 Where are the other churches?

00:15:22.960 Well, they're either silent or cheering on the cops.

00:15:25.960 Here's a letter from the Knox United Church that was condemning grace life.

00:15:30.960 If they condemn grace life who are peaceful like doves, imagine what they have to say about a lion like Arthur.

00:15:36.960 Well, then who's going to fight back? Who cares about civil liberties?

00:15:41.960 Who says, look, if Costco's open and Walmart's open and liquor stores are open and marijuana stores are open

00:15:47.960 and NHL teams are open, how about a church?

00:15:52.960 Well, I guess until sanity returns, I guess it's us.

00:15:58.960 Stay with us for more from Alberta.

00:16:12.960 Welcome back.

00:16:13.960 Well, for various reasons, Rebel News head office is in Toronto, Ontario.

00:16:18.960 And around that, our office staff has grown.

00:16:23.960 Ontario is the largest province in terms of population.

00:16:27.960 It's where the federal capital is.

00:16:29.960 It's where the country's biggest city is.

00:16:31.960 You know the reasons.

00:16:33.960 That said, Alberta is also a laboratory of ideas in this country.

00:16:38.960 It's a place where conservativism sometimes finds deep roots.

00:16:43.960 It's also a place where populism bubbles up.

00:16:46.960 And recently, bizarrely in my mind, it's been a place where freedom has been in the deepest retreat.

00:16:53.960 The province's motto in Latin means strong and free.

00:16:56.960 And yet it has the most punitive lockdowns in the country.

00:17:01.960 And so I'm delighted to report that in the last few weeks, we have increased the size of our Alberta team.

00:17:08.960 Under the leadership of Sheila Gunn-Reed, our chief reporter and our Alberta bureau chief, we've added to that a reporter in Edmonton named Daniel Day, working for us on a halftime basis.

00:17:20.960 A reporter in Calgary named Adam Sose, who's just done outstanding work even in the short weeks he's been with us.

00:17:27.960 And our newest recruit, who coincidentally happens to be named Kian, Kian Simone.

00:17:34.960 We call him K2 to distinguish him from Kian Bextie. 0.99

00:17:37.960 So we have a four person team in Alberta.

00:17:40.960 And just in the nick of time, the province is overflowing with news.

00:17:45.960 And now we go to our Alberta bureau chief, Sheila Gunn-Reed, who is on the scene in central Alberta with some breaking news.

00:17:54.960 Sheila, great to see you again.

00:17:56.960 Hey, Ezra, thanks for having me on the show.

00:17:58.960 Yeah, I'm here with some breaking news.

00:17:59.960 I'm actually at the ranch of Ty Northcott and the Northcott family and Northcott Rodeo Inc.

00:18:06.960 Because he has just received, he and his wife and the company have received summonses to appear in court to answer to the charge of breaking the Public Health Act for holding their protest rodeo rally.

00:18:22.960 It would be two weekends ago now in Bowdoin.

00:18:25.960 So thank you for breaking that news.

00:18:28.960 You're on the scene.

00:18:29.960 I know you were at that rodeo.

00:18:31.960 It certainly felt free.

00:18:32.960 It felt very Albertan.

00:18:33.960 And it felt rural.

00:18:35.960 Obviously, those things, you know, they're self-evident.

00:18:38.960 But the rural part is interesting because rural Albertans, they're physically spread out.

00:18:44.960 They're often outdoors.

00:18:45.960 Outdoors work in a rodeo, in a ranch, in a farm, in oil rigs, whatnot.

00:18:49.960 So they're not densely packed urban dwellers living, you know, in stuffy high rises, working in stuffy skyscrapers.

00:19:00.960 The public health dynamics of people living in the country is very different from those living in the city.

00:19:08.960 And yet the decisions in Alberta and indeed in most Western jurisdictions are made in capitals.

00:19:14.960 And some grand public health vizier sends out an order and everyone must follow it regardless of the local circumstance.

00:19:21.960 That's the first thing that strikes me is the epidemiological differences between rural Alberta and, you know, the bunkers where these health experts so-called are in.

00:19:31.960 The second is the politics.

00:19:34.960 There's no one more free and independent than a cowboy.

00:19:36.960 I mean, they are, you know, the idea of a cowboy and the government, that's like oil and water.

00:19:43.960 So the idea that some city slicker bureaucrat like, I don't know, Dina Hinshaw, the health officer in Alberta, is going to issue some, you know, decree. 1.00

00:19:52.960 And suddenly a cowboy is not going to ride a ride a horse.

00:19:55.960 That just sounds laughable to me.

00:19:57.960 Politically, it sounds like a death wish for any conservative party that depends on rural parts.

00:20:04.960 What do you make of what I've just said that what you have here is an urban leftist authoritarian police state ideology being imposed on far away rural independent minded people?

00:20:19.960 And if I was a local UCP, United Conservative Party, MLA, I would be deeply worried for my future.

00:20:28.960 I think you're exactly right.

00:20:30.960 A lot of the dynamic that and as a lifelong rural person, I feel this deeply every single day.

00:20:37.960 It's very much the same dynamic that Western Canada has with Ottawa, where these far off people with different issues than us are making these blanket decisions to control our lives when they don't know what it's like where we are.

00:20:52.960 And we have a different set of values. And that's the same dynamic at play right now with a bunch of cubicle dwelling Edmonton decision makers making decisions for cowboys and ranch hands and people who work on drilling rigs.

00:21:08.960 It just doesn't make any sense. And that's why Ty Northcott held his rodeo.

00:21:15.960 It was a rally to show the government that we still think it's fine to do these sorts of things outside.

00:21:23.960 If you can be in a Walmart, you can go to a rodeo.

00:21:26.960 And so, you know, you've seen it in Mirror, in Bashaw, in Bowdoin.

00:21:34.960 The community has come out in full force to support these guys as they stand up to the decision makers in Edmonton.

00:21:41.960 Their communities support them.

00:21:43.960 Now, will their MLA support them?

00:21:45.960 That remains to be seen.

00:21:46.960 However, those MLAs a few weeks ago who signed that anti-lockdown letter, I think it's about a dozen and a half UCP MLAs signed a letter basically saying they no longer support these ongoing lockdowns.

00:22:02.960 Those were largely rural MLAs.

00:22:05.960 So are we seeing sort of that unraveling of the party back to the old PCs that held on to Edmonton and Calgary and then the Wild Rose that represented the rural parts of Alberta?

00:22:20.960 I don't know, but it seems as though the broad coalition of the UCP is starting to come apart at the seams.

00:22:27.960 Yeah, it's incredible to me. I mean, the Western Standard Magazine, an online publication that actually picked up the reins from the old print magazine that I used to publish more than a decade ago.

00:22:38.960 They published a scoop a week or so ago where they say that Jason Kenney told his caucus MLAs that he wants a new party base.

00:22:49.960 Base referring to, you know, the most passionate, the most partisan loyalists.

00:22:55.960 The UCP base would include rock ribbed conservatives, rural people, Calgarians kind of thing.

00:23:02.960 Their growth area would be downtown fancy pants, Edmontonians, things like that.

00:23:07.960 So you generally don't do well replacing your base.

00:23:12.960 You know, I've heard of parties losing, winning with just their base.

00:23:18.960 I've never heard of parties winning without their base.

00:23:23.960 And it's so odd because Jason Kenney himself was the one who laboriously combined the progressive conservatives and the Wild Rose Party.

00:23:32.960 So it's very odd that he would be so cavalier about it, considering it took him years to put it together.

00:23:39.960 Yeah, it's very weird to hear Jason Kenney say that he wants a new base.

00:23:45.960 Who's he going to replace them with?

00:23:47.960 NDPers, guide in the wool NDPers, university students.

00:23:51.960 I mean, the Liberal Party does not exist in Alberta.

00:23:54.960 So you have to draw from the NDP well of public sector unionists, students and academics.

00:24:03.960 How does Jason Kenney think that he can expand his base to consume those people?

00:24:11.960 It just doesn't work.

00:24:12.960 I mean, cowboys, ranchers, rake hands, blue collar people, rural people.

00:24:18.960 Those are the reliable conservative base.

00:24:20.960 Jason Kenney has so annoyed them that they are protesting against him now.

00:24:26.960 And in the instance of Chris Scott, they're willing to go to jail to protest him.

00:24:32.960 I don't see how Jason Kenney hangs on to power without making peace with these people, apologizing to them.

00:24:39.960 But my concern is that he's running out of runway before the next election to make it right.

00:24:43.960 Yeah.

00:24:44.960 You know, I used to work 25 years ago for Preston Manning.

00:24:49.960 And I listened to him because, of course, his father, Ernest Manning, was the premier of Alberta from 1944 on or 1943, 1944, after the death of the social credits founder, Bill Eberhardt.

00:25:02.960 So Preston and his father, Ernest, lived grassroots populism, even more than ideological conservatism.

00:25:12.960 It was populism.

00:25:13.960 And the history of Alberta, Preston Manning always said, was tired parties being replaced with new populist parties from the right.

00:25:24.960 The United Farmers of Alberta, who were then replaced by the Socrates.

00:25:29.960 And it looked like the progressive conservatives of Alberta were going to be replaced by the Wild Rose.

00:25:35.960 Jason Kenney came in and did a merger kind of thing.

00:25:39.960 I have to say, I mean, although Alberta's demographics have changed and there's a lot of newcomers who aren't part of this old mold,

00:25:45.960 there's still, you know, there's still a lot of seats that I don't think Jason Kenney can take for granted.

00:25:52.960 If there were a credible alternative, they would absolutely go to it because Alberta does that every generation.

00:25:59.960 Some provinces would never in a million years create a new party.

00:26:04.960 I think of Ontario.

00:26:05.960 They just wouldn't.

00:26:06.960 But Alberta creates new parties as often as they wash their hair. 1.00

00:26:10.960 Yeah, we do it provincially and federally.

00:26:14.960 You know, like the reform party really grew out of Alberta and then took over the federal PC.

00:26:21.960 So, I mean, it's something that we have a long history of doing and that we're really good at.

00:26:27.960 But to say that Alberta's demographics are changing, I think that's true. 1.00

00:26:33.960 But people still choose Alberta for the same reasons people have always chosen Alberta.

00:26:39.960 The same reason my ancestors chose Alberta and your ancestors chose Alberta.

00:26:43.960 Come here because it's free.

00:26:45.960 Because this is a place where you can be left alone.

00:26:47.960 You can live your life however you want.

00:26:50.960 And there's this ethos of hard work and good choices will pay off.

00:26:56.960 And it has, by and large, for most people.

00:26:59.960 So, for me, while the demographics have somewhat changed, I don't think the philosophy of Alberta has.

00:27:07.960 There's a reason you come to Calgary and Bowdoin and Fort Saskatchewan as opposed to Toronto.

00:27:12.960 That thing remains true.

00:27:14.960 Well, Sheila, I have one more question for you.

00:27:17.960 I saw Brian Jean, who was the former Wild Rose leader.

00:27:21.960 He used to be an MP with Jason Kenney under Stephen Harper.

00:27:25.960 Then he came to run the Wild Rose.

00:27:27.960 He had a battle with Jason Kenney for the leadership of this new thing.

00:27:31.960 And he's sort of been nursing his wounds, looking at his wounds for a while.

00:27:35.960 I saw him make a statement the other day about the party base and about the leftward drift, authoritarian drift.

00:27:41.960 I haven't been following Brian Jean lately.

00:27:44.960 And sometimes he looks like a little bit of a, I'll take my marbles and go away kind of guy.

00:27:49.960 But maybe he is the right guy to come back.

00:27:52.960 Or if not the right guy, a guy.

00:27:54.960 You can't beat someone with no one.

00:27:56.960 And maybe Brian Jean wants to get back in the game.

00:27:59.960 Do you have any info about that other than his one statement that I think you both, you and I both saw?

00:28:04.960 I don't have any inside information quite yet.

00:28:08.960 However, I do know that the party base, or I guess the old party base, before Jason Kenney threw them off the lifeboat, they are saber rattling for a leadership review.

00:28:23.960 And that sort of has been squashed at the local level by the party itself.

00:28:31.960 But there's only one way to move forward with this mess that Jason Kenney has created.

00:28:38.960 And it is a leadership review.

00:28:40.960 And I don't know if Brian Jean would be willing to throw his hat back in the ring.

00:28:45.960 But if Jason Kenney truly believes that the majority of the party, faithful, the voting members, the donors, the volunteers, if he believes what he's been doing,

00:28:59.960 especially these last few months, is in line with what they would like to see for him as the leader of the party,

00:29:07.960 then he's got to put it to them to put this to rest and heal the party.

00:29:11.960 Otherwise, it's going to break apart.

00:29:13.960 Before we go, you're at Ty Northcott's ranch where he's being served these summonses, along with his family and his business.

00:29:22.960 Can you give us an update on our friend Chris Scott, the proprietor of the Whistle Stop?

00:29:27.960 We've been calling it a diner, but it's much more than a diner.

00:29:30.960 It's the only gas station in town.

00:29:32.960 It's the only general store in town.

00:29:34.960 It's the community hub.

00:29:36.960 And they serve food.

00:29:37.960 He was arrested.

00:29:38.960 And again, I find this like a knight of the long knives when the Soviet Union, you know, the dictators would round up all their political opponents all at once. 0.68

00:29:48.960 I say that analogy because the health orders involved here, they don't actually carry a jail term.

00:29:55.960 And when you're scooping up Arthur Pawlowski in Calgary and scooping up Chris Scott in Mira, Alberta, you're using police and handcuffs and jail cells for people who are not actually accused of any crimes.

00:30:08.960 It's tantamount to, I mean, the dollar amount on their fines is large, but if it was a parking ticket or an overdue library fine, you know, that's about the same gravity legally as a ticket under these health laws.

00:30:24.960 It's just that they're fifteen hundred bucks.

00:30:26.960 So, I mean, I haven't looked at the summonses that have been issued in the last week, but my understanding is that none of them carry with them custodial punishment.

00:30:36.960 None of them require a jail term.

00:30:38.960 So, to throw a guy in jail preemptively for an alleged offense that doesn't carry with it a jail term seems like political punishment and a political prisoner to me.

00:30:50.960 What do you know about Chris Scott?

00:30:52.960 Well, I just checked my phone as we were talking there and we are in constant communication with his lawyer, Chad Williamson, from Williamson line.

00:31:01.960 He said his whole firm is mobilized to try to get Chris out on bail.

00:31:05.960 And it seems as though that won't happen until tomorrow.

00:31:09.960 So, he spent Saturday night in jail all day Sunday.

00:31:13.960 Looks like he's going to spend Monday night in jail before they can get a hearing to get him out.

00:31:19.960 But what they're doing to Pastor Art and to Chris and potentially Glenn Carrot of United We Roll, because he did attend Chris Scott's protest over the weekend, is very similar to what they did to Pastor James Coates.

00:31:37.960 It is not the crime of breaking the public health order, if you can call that, that they're going to jail for.

00:31:44.960 It's for contempt of court, really.

00:31:47.960 Because the province, on Thursday, in secret, went and got an emergency restraining order against Chris Scott, Glenn Carrot, those are the two men named in the order, and Jane Doe's and John Doe's.

00:32:06.960 So, that's you, me, everybody.

00:32:08.960 Preventing them and us from organizing, participating in, or even promoting what the government calls an illegal public gathering, which is anything more than five people.

00:32:21.960 And it's the Orwellian term the government is using to describe political protest against the laws the government is bringing down on these people.

00:32:31.960 Jason Kenney has a restraining order against the charter rights of all Albertans right now, and that's why Chris Scott is in jail.

00:32:37.960 Because he held a protest, and the government has a restraining order against his right to do that.

00:32:42.960 You know, and I've never heard of such a thing that you get a restraining order against the whole world.

00:32:46.960 I've never heard of that.

00:32:48.960 It feels like it's an attempt to legislate through a secret court process.

00:32:54.960 It just feels like an end run around democracy.

00:32:57.960 Yep.

00:32:58.960 And gatherings are a fundamental freedom in Canada.

00:33:01.960 You're allowed to gather in a Costco, why aren't you allowed to gather politically?

00:33:05.960 I think there's some charter challenges we need to do here.

00:33:08.960 I just can't believe this is all happening under Jason Kenney's watch.

00:33:12.960 He used to be so strong a conservative, not just financially, but in every capacity, especially religious freedom.

00:33:20.960 A smaller government reining in authoritarianism.

00:33:23.960 I am having trouble understanding it.

00:33:26.960 I've known Jason since I was in college.

00:33:28.960 I find this confusing, but we must do what we must do.

00:33:32.960 And that is to fight like hell, to cover journalistically what's happening, and to, through our Civil Liberties Project, defend those that no one else will defend.

00:33:42.960 And that's why I would encourage people to go to fightthefines.com.

00:33:46.960 Sounds like Ty Northcott has his own lawyer, but we're giving the lawyer, we're crowdfunding him for Chris Scott.

00:33:52.960 We're crowdfunding the lawyer for Arthur Pawlowski.

00:33:55.960 And actually, as of this morning's meeting, I learned that we are now representing 1,200 people across Canada.

00:34:02.960 And Sheila, I know you've gotten to know dozens of them.

00:34:06.960 Thank you for this update.

00:34:07.960 Let us know when Chris Scott is out of jail, we'll want to talk to him.

00:34:11.960 And let us know if the police try any more moves.

00:34:13.960 Okay, will do, boss.

00:34:14.960 Talk to you later.

00:34:15.960 Okay, thanks, Sheila.

00:34:16.960 There you have it, Sheila Gunn-Reed, coming to us live from the property of Ty Northcott in central Alberta.

00:34:21.960 Stay with us more ahead.

00:34:34.960 Welcome back.

00:34:35.960 I tell you, we have such a growing team, so many new people, including a team working all over Alberta.

00:34:39.960 There's now four reporters on our team in Alberta.

00:34:42.960 I think that's incredible where recently we just had one.

00:34:45.960 But there's so much news out there as there is across Canada.

00:34:48.960 Our team is growing and it's growing because of support from you.

00:34:51.960 So I thank you for that.

00:34:52.960 The $8 a month you spend in subscribing to this premium show helps pay those bills.

00:34:57.960 Plus, if you're part of our crowdfunding effort, that helps too.

00:35:01.960 We now have a registered charity called the Democracy Fund working with us on the Civil Liberties project.

00:35:07.960 So, for example, the SaveArthur.com crowdfunding goes through that charity.

00:35:12.960 The charity hires the lawyers directly.

00:35:14.960 So the money never comes to Rebel News, but it pays for the battles that we would have had to pay for out of our own pocket.

00:35:21.960 So everyone's a winner.

00:35:22.960 The Civil Liberties clients get their legal help.

00:35:26.960 The lawyers get paid directly.

00:35:28.960 And donors actually get a charitable tax receipt.

00:35:31.960 Now, that's only for certain projects that are covered under the CRA categories of charities.

00:35:37.960 But it's still wonderful.

00:35:38.960 And it's how we've been able to support 1,200 fight the fines cases.

00:35:44.960 It's just incredible.

00:35:45.960 You know, I feel like we're all alone sometimes when I look at Twitter or the other media.

00:35:50.960 We're the only folks on a certain side of the issue most of the time.

00:35:54.960 That is a lonely feeling if cyberspace were real, if Twitter were real, if the CBC were real.

00:36:02.960 But it's not real.

00:36:04.960 I find great strength in the fact that grassroots Canadians support us every step of the way.

00:36:09.960 We don't take a dime from government, of course.

00:36:11.960 So anything that has the word rebel on it, any reporter, any project, anything we do,

00:36:17.960 you know is supported by a viewer just like you.

00:36:20.960 So thank you for being part of our efforts.

00:36:22.960 That's the show for today.

00:36:24.960 Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, excuse me,

00:36:28.960 to you at home.

00:36:29.960 Good night.

00:36:30.960 Keep fighting for freedom.

00:36:31.960 We will too.

Rebel News Podcast - May 11, 2021

Why is Canada the only country jailing Christian pastors？

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript