Sheila Gunn Reid and Keean Bexte join David Menzies on Rebel Roundup to expose Lethbridge Police’s arrest of a teenage Stormtrooper cosplayer—nose bloodied, handcuffed—for a plastic toy blaster, despite officers confirming it was harmless. Earlier, a cop ran over a deer instead of shooting it. Bridget Carlson, a North Bay single mom, faced invasive searches and a $880 fine for swinging her child in an empty park during COVID lockdowns. Protesters at Queen’s Park called Ford’s "Yahoos" remark outdated, questioning lockdowns’ economic toll against minimal hospital impact. Gunn Reid insists accountability for bad cops preserves trust; Bexte highlights systemic cultural issues. The episode underscores escalating police overreach and public skepticism toward pandemic restrictions. [Automatically generated summary]
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Welcome to Rebel Roundup, ladies and gentlemen, and the rest of you, in which we look back at some of the very best commentaries of the week by your favorite rebels.
I'm your host, David Menzies.
So, what happens when you get a teenage girl to dress up as a Star Wars character to promote a business during these dark days of the coronavirus?
Star Wars vs. Stormtroopers00:14:32
Well, in Lethbridge, Alberta, you get a severe beatdown by the cops.
Kian Bexty will weigh in on what is perhaps the most egregious overreach by law enforcement so far this year.
Oh, and speaking of law enforcement and overreach, Sheila Gunread offers her thoughts on a young single mother in North Bay, Ontario who was allegedly roughed up by the cops, verbally insulted, arrested, searched, handcuffed, fined $880, and shoved into a police cruiser right in front of her five-year-old.
And her crime?
Well, she was letting her daughter enjoy some playtime on a swing in a deserted public park.
Wow, just throw away the key already.
And finally, letters, we get your letters, we get your letters every minute of every day.
And I'll share some of your responses regarding another protest on the lawns of Queen's Park on Saturday by individuals who want to get back to work and or school.
Now, while Premier Doug Ford calls these people yahoos, I actually encountered many savvy people making profound arguments to loosen the reins on the coronavirus crackdown.
Those are your rebels.
Now let's round them up.
Reports coming in from the Death Star that even stormtroopers are now being arrested by Sith police.
Officers in Justin Trudeau's draconian galactic empire are now arresting their own.
Stormtroopers with blasters in Lethbridge are being detained, put on their knees and having their nose bloodied by officers who do not care to be careful, officers who are not interested in showing compassion or taking their jobs slowly.
Normally I am on the side of police officers.
But throughout Justin Trudeau's regime, we've seen police officers become their own worst enemy.
Most of them are great.
Most of them serve their communities with dignity and pride.
But in some cases, we are seeing dramatic overreaches.
We are seeing in Lethbridge, and I'm joking here with all of these Star Wars metaphors because this story is so ridiculous.
Officers showed up on scene as an employee of a store was dressed up as a stormtrooper for May the 4th.
She was trying to bring customers into the store, and as is typical for stormtrooper cosplay, as anyone with a brain would know, she was holding a stormtrooper blaster, a plastic blaster that anyone could buy at any dollar store.
The police, responding absolutely haphazardly to this situation, came and put this person on their knees and bloodied her nose without asking a single question.
And then demanded that people get out of the area because, oh, it's so dangerous, this stormtrooper with a plastic blaster.
It is just so asinine.
You'll have to watch it for yourself.
check this video out.
It's a plastic gun.
Are you serious?
Seriously, this is Canada.
We don't have guns in Canada.
Go record us.
Go record us.
But don't come approaching us.
Stay back there.
Like everybody else, please.
Okay, but this is Canada.
There's other guns.
This is a plastic gun.
I can buy it at the dollar store.
They're going to get arrested until we interfere here.
Stay back.
Wow, and here I was thinking that Darth Vader was the bad guy in the Star Wars universe, but Mr. Vader is about as terrifying as a tribble compared to the wannabe stormtroopers who comprise the Lethbridge Police Service.
Oh, and by the way, nerds, I know I just appropriated character examples from both Star Wars and Star Trek, so relax already.
But seriously, did that video depict the most appalling overreach by law enforcement so far this calendar year?
Sure looks that way to me.
And with more on the cosplay crackdown in Lethbridge is our roving reporter, Kian Bexti.
Welcome to Rebel Roundup, my friend.
Thanks for having me.
Always a pleasure.
So Kian, I'll be honest with you, when I first saw this video, my spidey senses started tingling.
I really and truly thought that this was an elaborate prank, that someone went to the trouble to impersonate police officers to comically arrest a Star Wars stormtrooper.
I really honestly thought that this had to be a publicity stunt because there's no way real police officers would act like that.
But talk about truth being stranger than fiction.
This was a genuine police takedown of a teenage girl wearing a Star Wars costume.
Kian, let's just say we give the cops the benefit of the doubt that they thought the toy blaster was a real rifle.
Fine.
Here's my take.
Once it was determined that the teenager was armed with a plastic plaything, shouldn't the takedown have ended there?
Why did they continue to rough her up based on what was perhaps a misunderstanding?
Yeah, I mean, your original take on it is the same as mine.
I thought it was a joke.
I almost, I could not believe that they were arresting a stormtrooper.
Just the picture of that on its own was weird enough.
And then once you took a while to watch the whole video, because it was about five minutes, the uncut version, you realize that they were genuinely arresting someone because they thought they were a threat to society because they had a plastic blaster from a very popular children's show, Star Wars.
Everyone knows what a stormtrooper is.
Everyone knows that they're used frequently for promotional reasons.
And when they came on scene and the individual put down the blaster and the police surrounded her, guns drawn, this teenage girl who was in tears and then pushed her face into the concrete when they could clearly see that it was a plastic device.
It's sorry to say device.
It's a toy.
When they realized it was a toy, less harmful than a BB gun, than an airsoft gun, the police should have standed down and apologized for their overreaction.
But instead, they doubled down and handcuffed a teenaged girl who was in tears.
It was a disgrace.
And you know what, David?
I actually want to add something else before you ask another question.
There have been so many people that have reached out to me, several grown men who are upset that I covered this story, that are upset that I called out those police officers for doing what they did.
It is never okay to shove a young girl's face into the concrete who is completely harmless, especially when the police officers knew better after they had put her on her knees and realized that it was just a toy, that it was a disgrace on the policing profession.
I'm on the side of police officers 99% of the time, but this was just an absolute overreach by the police.
Kian, I'm absolutely stunned you've been getting that reaction from people.
I mean, this is a story because of the Star Wars element.
It has gone viral worldwide.
Star Wars is a global brand and is being picked up all over the world.
You're saying there's some people that think that the Lethbridge police acted properly?
I mean, surely that must be the lunatic fringe because the vast majority of comments I see have various words about the Lethbridge Police Service using the other P-word when it comes to describing the cops.
I don't get, I can't understand why anyone would defend their actions in handcuffing a person, giving her a bloody nose, and really in that bulky costume, Kian, no one could run away from somebody with, you know, from somebody in law enforcement.
You can barely move in those things.
So I don't understand those who are coming to the defense of what I consider to be some really, really bad cops.
Yeah, the police, they obviously overreacted in this situation.
And the people that are fighting back are conservatives.
They're very same people that will have the flag on their wall with the blue line through it.
They're respectable people.
They're conservatives even.
But I can't stress this enough.
It is not acceptable.
And I do not want to live in a society where you are at risk of getting taken down by the police and having your nose ground into the asphalt because you're wearing a costume.
The police need to exercise discretion.
They need to execute their jobs in a safe way and in a way that protects society.
Blindly saying that police are great, they're always great, and their jobs are hard, so cut them a little slack is not the approach here.
They screwed up.
And this is something that the Lethbridge police do routinely.
Last year, there was a video of a Lethbridge police officer putting down a deer in the middle of the city.
Something that happens frequently if the deer is being a menace or a risk to people, if wildlife is being a risk.
They put it down with their car by hitting it and running it over multiple times instead of using their sidearm.
It was insane.
It also caused global outcry from how the Lethbridge police were acting.
They have a very bad track record and they need to be called out when they make mistakes like this.
And Keen, I got to tell you, I'm on side with you with your opinion on that.
I know our colleague Sheila Gunread feels exactly the same way, and I'm sure Ezra does too.
But I'll tell you a disturbing aspect of this particular story.
It's not so much that there are bad cops in every detachment.
And if you don't believe that's the truth, folks, you're delusional.
You're not being honest with yourself.
But here's the thing, Kian, with this particular incident, there were several cops, you know, on the scene.
Now, I can understand one guy going all rambo, but you'd expect the other ones to talk him down and go, oh, you know, honest mistake.
But they were all complicit in taking this young lady down, giving her that bloody nose and putting her through a very awful and humiliating experience.
That's what I find particularly disturbing.
And I think it goes to your point that maybe there is a culture problem in the Lethbridge Police Service.
I think you're right.
And this is a huge problem for police officers all across Canada because it only takes one police officer to give the entire profession a bad name.
In this case, it was several.
Think about the children that are watching this video.
There was a school bus that actually drove by the altercation, watching what was happening, watching police officers take down a young woman in a children's show costume.
When children watch this, their trust in the police service is going to drop.
And that's a problem because children should be able to trust the police.
All Canadians should be able to trust the police.
But recently, they've been screwing up more than they've been helping, especially when it comes to these overreaches in Lethbridge.
When it came to Nova Scotia and their screw up without putting out an emergency alert, there is a serious issue with policing in Canada where they're targeting people that they shouldn't be targeting and ignoring people that they shouldn't be ignoring.
Think, Jessica, you need.
There's problems systemic in our police forces across Canada, usually the RCMP, but in this case, it was the Lethbridge Police.
We need to seriously be critical of their mistakes so that we can fix them because it's in everybody's interest to have a responsible and respectable police force.
Well, you know, we're going to have to wrap it here.
Kian, we're going to keep our eye on how this materializes.
The last thing I saw in the press was that the Lethbridge Police Service said they've launched an investigation of the issue, and there will be no further comment to the media.
But here's the thing, my friend: the Lethbridge Police Service is investigating the Lethbridge Police Service.
I'm sure it'll be by the book, you know.
So let us make sure we follow up to see what happens in the weeks and months ahead, Kian.
Certainly.
Okay.
Thank you so much for weighing in.
And folks, that was Kian Bexty in Calgary.
Keep it here.
tomorrow bravo roundup to come right after this today i'm excited to introduce you to bridget carlson not because of the terrible things she says happened to her but because well she needs our help to fight back She's a young mom from North Bay, Ontario, and she's got a genuinely harrowing tale that will outrage and anger you.
I know it angers me a lot.
I spoke to Bridget last week over Skype, and I was livid, mom to mom, to hear what happened to her.
It was so upsetting that we just had to find a way to help her out.
So we sent one of our really great Toronto-based videographers up to North Bay to talk to Bridget, to get her side of the story on camera so that we could show all of you.
Just watch.
We were on this swing for about 15 or 20 minutes.
We were here for about 15 or 20 minutes.
She was just on the swing.
We weren't hurting anyone.
We were here by ourselves.
Bridget's Ticket Trouble00:09:42
The police showed up.
Two officers approached us and told us that we were breaking and they put handcuffs on my mom.
I told them that we weren't harming anyone, but that we needed to get outside and get some normality and just get some fresh air.
We were talking for a little while, just like on human to human level, explaining like where I was coming from and all of this mental health.
The lockdown, two months being inside with my daughter with no support.
They proceeded to call backup.
The sergeant showed up here.
Same thing.
I tried to discuss it with him.
He didn't want to hear it.
He grabbed my arm, took my back tucked off, proceeded to put me in handcuffs, separated me from my daughter.
I was taken up to the police vehicle where the cop did a body search on me and it was very thorough and invasive.
From there, they put me into the back of the cop car and I didn't even know where my daughter was at that time.
They went through all my things against my will.
We were separated for about 20 minutes.
He called me an idiot and yelled in my face.
They finally came back and released me from the coffer, took my handcuffs off.
They gave me an $880 ticket.
Unbelievable.
So a young single mother is allegedly roughed up by the cops, verbally insulted, arrested, handcuffed, and shoved into a police cruiser.
And her crime was pushing her young daughter on the swing at a public park.
Jeez, when will it end?
Indeed, welcome to yet another staggering overreach by those members of law enforcement who comprise the rank and file of the pandemic police, cops who are more concerned with padding the municipal coffers than they are with maintaining public safety.
And with more on a story that is equal part sad and enraging is Sheila Gunreed.
Welcome to Rebel Roundup, my friend.
Hey, David, thanks for having me on the show.
Yeah, it's great.
Sheila, you'd think that given her alleged treatment, that Bridget Carlson was at the park, I don't know, dealing in crack or selling illegal handguns.
What in blue blazes is going on here?
Well, that's the thing.
She was there completely by herself.
I don't know who called the cops or if the cops just rolled up on her, but she was there completely by herself, just her and her daughter.
So, I mean, who is she endangering?
Herself, her child?
No, they're in the same apartment together.
Why slap cuffs on this woman?
Why search her under her clothes?
They searched her under her clothes in front of her child.
I mean, stuffed her in a cop car, verbally abused her, and then eventually let her go with an $880 fine.
My kids would be beside themselves, absolutely in hysterics if they were that little.
Now, I think they'd think it was kind of cool if the cops came and got me.
But when they were five, I mean, they're pretty mom-centric.
What a horrifying thing for her daughter to go through.
And as a mom, I know you have some guilt that your kids are exposed to these things.
You know, this is just a terrible thing that happened to Bridget and her family.
After all of this, they give her that $880 fine.
She's a single mom.
You know, times are tough.
It's the coronavirus.
This is absolutely devastating to her.
And she's really got no one there to help or no one to help her fight back.
So I'm really proud to say that we took on this case.
And I'm very proud and grateful.
Let me just say how grateful I am to everybody who's donating to our fightthefines.com fund to take on these cases.
You're really making a difference in the lives of people like Bridget Carlson.
Yeah, and sadly, Bridget is not just the only person we've had to go to bat for for, I guess, egregious treatment.
You know, Sheila, I watched your video twice, and I'm just trying to make sense of why she was roughed up in the way she alleges she was.
All I can think of, and I don't know if we have an answer, I don't know if you asked her this question, but does she have any kind of criminal record, any kind of history of violence, something that would have triggered the cops to act so over the top as the way they did?
Not that I know of, and not that I think that it matters.
I mean, Sam Goldstein, our ACE legal eagle from Toronto, explained to me that this is nothing but a ticketable offense.
It's like getting a parking ticket.
It's not even like getting pulled over for speeding.
This is a parking ticket kind of a thing.
So when the cops roll up on you, they really don't have the ability to be searching you, cuffing you, sticking you in a cop car.
This is like getting a parking ticket.
And if the meter maids roll up and stuff you in a cop car, you've got a real problem here with police overstepping what they're allowed to do.
And that sounds like exactly what happened to poor Bridget.
And Sheila, I have to ask you, whatever happened to the concept of officers' discretion?
And by that, I mean, like, if we look at Winnipeg, and I think Winnipeg has really led the way in Canada on this file, they've had their officers go out and warn people.
They've had the officers educate people, disperse people.
The fourth arrow in their quiver is taking out their book and fining them.
So, in other words, they give everybody the chance to cooperate with the bylaw, whether you like it or not.
But I think that's right.
I think municipalities shouldn't be using this global pandemic that has thrown so many people out of work, that has caused so many businesses to go bankrupt as a way to pad their own coffers while their own citizens are going without.
This is driving me crazy why this discretionary aspect isn't being used, Sheila.
Well, you know, you make a great point.
Winnipeg is doing it right.
They haven't had a terrible outbreak.
They're managing their people properly.
Same thing to some extent in Edmonton.
I do know that I think there's been one ticket issued, and I'm sure we'll hear more about that in the coming days.
But even when we had that big protest at the legislature, while I was there, the police stood there with their ticket books and gave everybody the opportunity to disperse before they started issuing tickets.
It's not making any sense because it doesn't act in the interest of public safety.
Because where's the safety issue?
As far, you know, I was watching Ezra's live stream and pointed out that there's really no evidence of any transmission of anybody catching this outside in a park.
So why are we policing the parks hard?
It doesn't do anything to keep people safe or healthy.
You know, that's a very good point, Sheila, because I know the contrarians will say, Well, if the police and the authorities turn a blind eye to this one single mother with one child, then what's going to happen is more mothers and fathers and more children are going to go, and then pretty soon the park is packed.
But like you said, that wasn't the case here, certainly.
And there's this evidence of no evidence rather than outdoor transmission, which is a great argument, by the way, to get the golf courses open.
I have no idea why they're still closed because that is the ultimate non-contact sport where you can maintain social distancing very easily, given that golf courses are built on hundreds and hundreds of acres of land.
But one last question when it comes to Bridget, Sheila.
Not only do I think this was an overreach by law enforcement, but I think, in addition to getting this ludicrous $880 ticket toss, which I'm pretty confident it will be, does she have maybe a civil action here?
I don't know.
I'm not a lawyer, but from what I can see, from what her story was, I'm thinking forcible confinement, kidnapping, maybe borderline assault with that searching.
I mean, that was all over-the-top unnecessary stuff for, like you said, Sam Goldstein said, that was something that was a bylaw ticket infraction at most.
Yeah, you know, if there is something that we can do to help her with regard to that, I'd love to.
Because you and I have said it, we say it every time we talk about anything to do with the police.
I'm pro-cop.
I couldn't possibly be more pro-cop.
I have cops in my family.
Here's the thing: I don't like the cops' political bosses.
I can't stand it.
And I don't think good cops sign up to the police force to be ticketing moms pushing their kids in the park.
But here's the thing: these bad cops damage the goodwill that better cops have earned for them in their community.
And then that turns public sentiment away from cops, good and bad.
And I don't want to see that.
I think cops are good people doing hard jobs and they live in the communities that they police.
So I think we should support cops.
And one of the ways we support cops, the good cops, is calling out the bad ones and making sure that they don't represent the police force and putting them back in check.
You know, Sheila, I'm with you 100% there.
Yahoos And Protesters00:06:41
We have to wrap this up.
And I have to tell you, too, a lot of the good cops, I know this for a fact, they're going to their chiefs and superintendents and saying, listen, this isn't what I signed up for.
I'm not trying to ambush somebody sitting by themselves on a park bench and I'm done with it.
So good on them.
Sheila Gunread, great report.
I hope there will be justice for Bridget in the future.
I'm actually sure there will be.
Thank you so much for weighing in.
Thanks, David.
Have a great weekend.
You too.
And that was Sheila Gunread in the wild northern hinterland of northern Alberta, where there are very few bylaw officers around to give anyone a ticket of any kind.
Keep it here.
More of Rebel Roundup to come right after this.
David Menzies for Rebel News here in Toronto.
Well, folks, I'm back at Queen's Park, and this is the site of another protest by Torontonians and others who want to get the economy open.
Now, you may recall Premier Doug Ford's response to these people.
Well, he called them a bunch of Yahoos.
Well, you know what?
I googled the dictionary definition of Yahoo.
It is a rough, coarse, or uncouth person, a loud, boisterous person, or a derogatory term for a white person from the Confederate South.
Well, I got to tell you, folks, a lot of these people are wearing Yahoo as a badge of honor.
They're back in even bigger numbers.
And the message to Premier Ford is they want to go back to work.
They want to go back to school.
They are sick and tired not of the Wuhan virus, but about being cooped up.
Let's see what some of them have to say today.
So, sir, I'm reading your sign.
It says real data versus fake model.
What has been your reaction to the way in which the federal government has handled this crisis?
I think the federal government at this point should be held responsible for all the crisis that's happening in our country specifically.
I mean, I watched your newscast before, guys.
I mean, Dr. Tam knew about the person-to-person transmission back on January 15th.
And then two weeks later, she goes and says that doesn't exist.
And the World Health Organization, like the person that's leading the World Health Organization for the first time, is not a physician.
And he was health minister of Ethiopia and trying to cover three outbreaks of cholera before.
And I'm supposed to take that person's advice and take his credibility like it's a joke.
They gave us these three projections: elevated, probable, and lowest, and said, oh, we've got to do everything we can to avoid this.
Well, we got the hospital data.
The hospital data didn't even come anywhere to their lowest predictions.
So what is the justified lockdown?
So obviously, you know, the reaction was swift, and it was a blanket policy that we modeled off of a communist dictatorship.
So folks, the question arises, did those protesters seem like a bunch of Yahoos to you?
They seemed like very informed, very concerned citizens.
At least to me they did.
Sure, there are always fringe elements at any protest, but most of the people I met on the lawns of Queen's Park last Saturday were honest, taxpaying Ontarians who simply want to go back to work or go back to school.
What's so yahoo-ish about that?
And here's what some of you had to say.
Rafat Macker writes, God bless you all who made this sacrifice and what out to say what it is that the majority wants to say.
You know, I agree, Mr. McCarr.
I think the vast majority of people are sick and tired of being cooped up while the economy is put into a blender.
And I think there's now a growing realization that we kind of blew it with our response to this pandemic, that perhaps we should have concentrated our efforts on the vulnerable, such as the elderly and those with respiratory conditions and those in nursing homes rather than putting the entire populace into quarantine.
What was truly accomplished?
Did we curb the virus or did we curb the economy?
Jen B. writes, a real heartfelt public apology from Doug Ford is in order over this Yahoo statement.
Just because people protest doesn't make them Yahoos.
People died to protect those freedoms from tyrannical leaders and dictators.
God bless the Yahoos.
Oh, Jen, no such public apology shall be forthcoming from the Premier.
In fact, he doubled down on his criticism post-protest number two.
He accused those protesters who displayed the Canadian flag upside down as showing, quote, the utmost disrespect to the men and women that are overseas fighting for our freedoms, end quote.
What?
Oh, Doug, come on, an upside-down flag isn't anti-armed forces.
It's a universal symbol of distress.
And believe me, so many people are in distress due to those coronavirus restrictions.
As well, I would bet the wrench that the vast majority of the people at that Saturday protest are indeed pro-military.
So come on, Doug Ford, you should know better than that.
Lone Wolf writes, nice to see someone tear up that ChiCom flag.
Yeah, I like that too.
After all, evidence is increasingly mounting that China's government was really too inept or too malicious or both to clamp down on this virus when it first emerged in that nation late last year.
As a result, Beijing has inflicted trillions of dollars of damage on the world.
That commie flag deserves to be disrespected.
But hey, let's never forget that China is the basic kind of dictatorship that Justin Trudeau admires.
His words, folks, not mine.
But not everyone was a fan of the protest.
AL writes, sweet Christ, that was hard to watch.
Yahoo is a generous term.
How about we start calling them what they really are?