Jeremiah Lucin, a rural Alberta farmer dragged from his tractor by sheriffs—neck-pulled, punched, and left with a destroyed $100K machine—had charges dropped after public outrage, yet Minister Doug Schweitzer’s delayed intervention exposed systemic failures in untrained, VIP-focused enforcement. Meanwhile, Justin Trudeau’s government hired two journalists for six-month contracts to produce pro-energy-efficiency propaganda, including low-flow toilets and LED bulbs, while blocking transparency, as seen in Rebel News’ reliance on costly ATIP requests versus cozy leaks to outlets like True North. Cases like Ontario farmer Scott Luna’s OPP harassment—over COVID rules despite no fines—reveal how rural businesses face arbitrary crackdowns while urban criminals evade scrutiny, underscoring a pattern of enforcement bias and government media manipulation. [Automatically generated summary]
You're listening to a free audio-only recording of my show, Rebel Round.
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.
Remember that hard-working farm lad in rural Alberta who was grotesquely assaulted by sheriffs a while back?
Well, I am pleased to report that we now have justice for Jeremiah in that all the charges against him were rightfully dropped.
Kiam Bexte has all the details.
And all you media party types that are craving greener pastures, have you heard?
Justin Trudeau wants to hire you.
Oh, I know you're already getting taxpayer money from the Liberals, but now the government wants to take some journalists in-house, you know, to even better control the narrative.
Sheila Gunn Reed shall explain all.
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 my most recent visit to Albion Orchards in Caledon, Ontario, to report on that farmer who was being hassled by the Ontario provincial police for selling apples on his 50-acre farm.
Oh yeah, apparently this acreage is a Wuhan virus hotspot.
Well, victory folks.
The publicity from our original story resulted in the OPP backing down.
And now droves of customers, new customers, are visiting Albion Orchards.
Farmer Scott Luna is actually busier than ever.
I think that's called the Barbara Streisand effect.
Those are your rebels.
Now let's round them up.
You may recall the story of Jeremiah Lucin.
He's a young farm boy in rural Alberta who was pulled out of his tractor by his neck, pushed onto the pavement, and given scars that he has to this day.
He was also punched in the face by Alberta sheriffs in an act of police brutality that is rarely seen in Alberta.
Problem is regular social justice warriors, folks who are opposed to police brutality, they weren't really interested in this case because Jeremiah was a white farm boy from rural Alberta.
He was a Catholic.
He doesn't fit the bill that Black Lives Matter really is interested in today, but police brutality of any kind is a problem.
And this, what happened to Jeremiah, was particularly egregious.
The news today, well, the government of Alberta, their prosecutors, have dropped all charges against Jeremiah and the charges that were ascribed to his brother.
I spoke with them today at their farm.
They took a few minutes out of their harvest to speak with me about what went on and why they think the charges were dropped.
Well, I'm sure they saw the situation I was in and everything that happened to me.
And they, you know, all the support I'm getting like from Rebel and everyone else.
And that's mostly one of the reasons why they probably thought about dropping it.
Because they don't need all this trouble, especially when the court date comes.
These are really great folks out here.
They're doing great work feeding the country and they're not at all the type of people that Alberta sheriffs or law enforcement should be prosecuting and giving criminal charges to.
And it's really confusing why Minister Doug Schweitzer, who was then the Minister of Justice and the Attorney General for Alberta, didn't immediately throw out this charges.
It took Minister Casey Medieu, the individual who replaced Minister Doug Schweitzer as Minister of Justice and Attorney General, to have these charges completely thrown out.
Finally, justice for Jeremiah.
But some questions remain.
Like, why did it take so long to correct this law enforcement abomination in the first place?
And why in blue hell did those sheriffs decide to physically assault this young, hardworking farm lad in the first place?
And joining me now to shed some light on this baffling case is Kian Bexti.
Welcome to Rebel Roundup, my friend.
Hey, David.
So, Kian, I think you nailed it in your intro, actually.
This sort of brutality should have been front page material for the mainstream media, but the narrative kind of isn't correct for 2020 and that the victim of this egregious takedown was white, not black.
But I think the real issue here, vis-a-vis law enforcement, is that these city slicker sheriffs don't seem to know the rules when it comes to enforcing the law in rural Alberta.
Would that be correct?
Oh, yeah, no, they don't know anything about rural Alberta.
They are city slickers by definition.
Their jobs are to protect the premier, to protect VIPs, even the opposition leader in some cases, to protect the governor general, to protect prisoners during transfer, whole lineup of really important jobs.
But what happens to be on that list as well is rural traffic enforcement, which makes absolutely no sense because they're two totally different worlds of law and two totally different types of people.
And the training clearly has not been done properly to allow them to know basic things like, you know, tractors are not motor vehicles.
They are not subject to the same laws.
And that incompetence led to the violent arrests of Jeremiah.
And it's a serious issue that needs to be solved.
You know, and the other baffling thing about this, Kian, I mean, you look at Jeremiah, he is so soft-spoken.
He's so well-spoken.
He's really the definition of a gentleman, as far as I can see.
And yet, what was it in the heads of those sheriffs?
Yeah, granted, they don't know the laws.
It pertains to rural Alberta, certainly.
But what was it in the heads of those sheriffs that they would gang up and brutally beat him the way they did?
Clearly, this was not a guy, as the saying goes, wearing trouble on his shirt.
I just can't believe the footage we saw there, Kian.
No, it seems like it went from zero to 60 real quick, way faster than a tractor could go zero to 60.
And they made a good point, actually, when I was there.
What was the freak out for?
What was he going to do?
Speed away high speed on a tractor?
No, no, he wasn't.
He was no risk at all.
He obviously wasn't being violent.
He had no weapons on him.
But the police reacted in the way that they did.
He had a string of safety precautions that he was taking, Jeremiah, to make sure that the tractor was safe, to make sure that the people around the tractor were safe, all while he was being punched in the face by Alberta sheriffs.
There's certain things you need to do while you're on a tractor, while you're driving a tractor to make sure that it's operating correctly, that it's shutting down correctly, and that it's parked properly.
That includes a parking break.
That includes allowing it to cool down after you've been driving it really hard for a long time when the engine's really hot.
All that stuff was going through his mind as the police were punching him, yanking him out of the truck, out of the tractor.
So he's a really smart guy.
He only had good intentions, but the police officers looked like they just had a bone to pick with some rural Albertan kid.
It doesn't make any sense.
No, it doesn't make sense.
I mean, the only thing I can think of is that if Jeremiah had been impaired, you know, with alcohol or drugs, Kean, clearly that wasn't the case.
I mean, then the sheriffs could say, well, we had to, you know, do what we did in the name of public safety, driving this enormous harvester around.
But that wasn't the case either.
I'm glad the charges are dropped, but I'm sure I speak for the majority of our viewers when you look upon that egregious takedown, Kian, and say, sorry, that's not enough.
Gofundme For Farmers00:03:59
Is there anything in the works, Kian, about a civil lawsuit, especially given the damages that he incurred physically and the farm machinery incurred?
Yeah, you know, I was telling them, I know what I would do if I was in their position.
I would be suing the Alberta sheriffs for destruction of property, unlawful arrest, a whole host of things.
But they said, you know, that's not what they were put on earth to do.
They were put on earth to sow fields and harvest them and feed the world.
That's what they're doing.
That's their job and that's their passion.
Their passion isn't being in a courtroom.
That's the last place they want to be.
They've set up a GoFundMe to help them cover the costs of the destroyed tractor because the transmission was destroyed.
The rental tractor that they needed, the lost weight, not wages, but income from contracts that they were trying to fill that evening.
And that GoFundMe is hopefully going to cover it all.
If it doesn't, I'm not sure what they'll do.
But they did say if it overcovers their costs, because they're still just estimating them right now, while their tractor is still in the shop, they say that they're going to donate the proceeds to charity.
So really, these people, they're not out looking for any sort of justice than what they do.
I mean, from what you just told me, these people almost sound too good to be true, Kian, because they have every right to go after damages.
You know, and I got to say, Kian, I had a story a week ago about an apple farmer being harassed by the Ontario Provincial Police.
Evidently, the idea of people congregating in a 50-acre outdoor farm for you pick apple orchard sales.
That was an egregious breach of protocol for the Wuhan virus.
Never mind that five clicks away, there was a Walmart of a smaller footprint indoors with far more people.
I guess what I'm getting at, we depend on farmers, like you said.
Farming is such a tough business.
I mean, you're at the mercy of weather patterns.
You're at the mercy of world commodity prices for your crops.
I mean, can't law enforcement give these guys a break and let these guys just do what they want to do?
And that is farm?
That's a great point.
And it's a problem that rural Albertans have, whether they're farmers or ranchers, or if they just work in rural Alberta, there's this huge problem right now, David.
And maybe this problem exists in Ontario as well.
But rural crime is a huge issue.
The criminals are not the rural folks.
The criminals are folks from cities who come to take advantage of people who don't lock their doors at night, leave their keys in the tractor, in the combine, in their trucks.
The crime is city folks coming out to rural areas.
So the people that need to be policed are not the good Catholic families like Jeremiah here.
It's the people coming out to rural Alberta to cause trouble.
But the problem is, law enforcement in rural Alberta is so detached that they can't get to anywhere where there's a scene of a crime within half an hour, within an hour sometimes, depending on where you are.
Really, the way to solve this problem is to quit policing rural Alberta and to give good people like Jeremiah, open carry permits, Second Amendment rights, and they could do the job themselves.
Unfortunately, that's not how it works in Canada.
That will never happen.
But really, it would solve the problem 100% if they could.
I'm afraid you're dreaming in Technicolor, friend, even though I do agree with your proposal for this problem.
But Kian, I want to thank you for an excellent piece.
Hire In-House Journalists?00:13:56
I want to thank you for shedding light on this story.
Certainly, the likes of CBC, CTV, Global, they're not interested, as you said in your piece, doesn't quite fit the 2020 narrative of policing and victims.
So they took a pass on this egregious story.
But I think it was your coverage that perhaps led to the authorities dropping the charges in the first place.
It was such an enormous PR black eye for them.
So thank you again, my friend, on a job well done.
No problem, David.
Thanks so much.
And that was Kian Bexte in Calgary.
Keep it here, folks.
More of Rebel Roundup to come right after this.
Natural Resources Canada is looking to hire two journalists.
I think the Liberals are looking to set the record straight on the foreign-funded attacks on Canada's oil and gas by publishing just the straight facts of the oil patch.
Because as you know, the facts speak for themselves about job creation, wealth creation to the entire country, high environmental standards, and Indigenous prosperity.
Just kidding.
You see, the Liberals are in power still, so there will be no fact-filled defense of oil and gas here in Canada.
On the flip side, the ministry is looking for two, obviously, recently laid off mainstream media hacks to talk up the wonders of low-flow toilets, turning down the thermostat, and LED light bulbs, because we don't get lectured about that sort of stuff enough already.
Just look at this from the government tenders and contract website, buyandsell.gc.ca.
Natural Resources Canada is seeking proposals from bidders for the services of two columnists.
The services of the columnists will be to supply stories on the energy efficiency achievements of the industrial, buildings, utilities, and government sectors on an ongoing basis.
Energy and cost savings must be included in the stories to show how the energy efficiency actions taken help companies to be competitive and achieve sustainability goals.
It's a six-month contract with the possibility of a two-year extension if you write really good pro-government fluff.
I think this is probably the literal definition of propaganda, dissemination of information, facts, arguments, rumors, half-truths, or lies to influence public opinion.
That's what the government wants here.
And they aren't even pretending that it's not what they want.
They want uncritical, unbalanced stories on the quote, achievements of government sectors to show how the energy efficiency actions taken help companies achieve sustainability goals.
Now, I think we taxpayers have paid for these two columnists hundreds of times over already.
It's called the Media Party, and they already got a half a billion bucks to write pro-government content that no one reads in the form of a bailout.
And then there's the CBC.
They get over a billion dollars per year for no one to tune in to watch Rosie Barton go on romantic strolls with her platonic boyfriend, Justin Trudeau, to ask him the tough stuff, the things you really want to know, like, are you smart enough to run and listen to a podcast at the same time?
And what do you want to be when you grow up?
Remember this?
If you could do any other job and you have to answer, what would it be?
I'd be a school teacher.
I knew you were going to say that.
No, that's an aspirational.
I am.
Aspirational.
Something you haven't done.
What kind of music are you listening to right now?
If you have time.
Or podcasts.
Podcasts?
No, I don't.
I've tried.
I run regularly and I've tried to do the podcast thing, but it hasn't really said.
I don't like people talking in my ears when I'm trying to run.
I like to sort of vibe out.
I suppose this is probably the most honest thing the liberals have done with their meddling in the media.
And I guess we should probably applaud them for finally cutting out the middleman.
Wow, there you have it, folks.
Instead of the Trudeau liberals simply paying off the mainstream media via the various newspaper and magazine bailouts and, of course, the endless billions of dollars known as CBC welfare, or I mean funding, why not simply hire some journalists in-house to absolutely 100% ensure that the narrative is completely controlled?
You can call it cutting out the middleman, or if you want to get fancy, vertical integration.
But the fact remains: if these, if there are ink-stained wretches out there that have no qualms when it comes to selling their souls, well then, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, he has a job for you.
Joining me now with more on this story is Sheila Gunread.
Welcome to Rebel Roundup, my friend.
Hey, David, thanks for having me on the show.
Always a pleasure.
So, Sheila, just for laughs, why don't you send in your resume?
Although, I fear you're perhaps overqualified to turn out this sort of government-sponsored pablum.
Well, and that's the thing.
Where's the need for this?
Like, I could understand if there was a need for, as I pointed out in my video, debunking the myths that go around about the oil and gas sector, or not even just debunking the myths, just telling the truth, talking about reducing emissions, the, you know, the salaries, Indigenous employment, indigenous opportunity, all those things that are great about our oil and gas sector, because, you know, Natural Resources Canada, that's kind of their job.
They act as the stewards of natural resources.
If they said that, I would be open to the idea.
I'm not really open to government spending in general, but it would at least be mirroring what's happening here in Alberta with the energy war room.
They do have some former journalists that are just writing articles, straight facts about the industry.
Because it's the government's job, at least here in Alberta, to market oil and gas on behalf of the citizens who own it.
But that's not what's happening here with the federal government.
They want, obviously, formerly recently laid off journalists, and boy, you know, there's a bunch of those to write articles about the wonders of energy efficiency.
Like there aren't enough of those out there already.
They won't shut up about light bulbs.
They won't shut up about low-flow toilets and the shower heads that don't get the soap out of your hair.
They don't shut up about those.
There's plenty of those articles out there.
Why not just license a couple of those from the mainstream media since we already paid for the mainstream media?
License a couple of those articles and republish them if that's what you want to do.
But instead, they're actually hiring two journalists full-time to do this.
And you know, Sheila, what gets me is that, you know, when you go to Ottawa, there are towers packed full of bureaucrats for all the various ministries.
And I'm assuming there are hundreds, if not thousands, of people, you know, bureaucrats that are working there.
And the thing is, why can't they do it?
They're supposedly qualified.
They can put a sentence together.
It's just like in Toronto, since Mayor Torrey became mayor, the amount of money spent on consultants, it has risen exponentially.
And the thing is, Sheila, the bureaucrats that are in these towers at City Hall, well, aren't they the consultants?
Aren't they knowledgeable whether it comes to sanitation or housing, what have you?
Why hire all this extra help?
It just drives me crazy when I see this kind of gravy train to enrich others when you already have an entire battalion, full-time workers that can do this anyways.
Not just full-time workers that can do this, but whose job it is to do this.
They're called communications people, and every ministry has them.
So beyond the communications people, the people who deal directly with the media as well, their media liaisons, they're hiring two journalists.
And frankly, I know I'm slightly annoyed by all of this, but I at least appreciate the honesty because it appears the federal government has finally cut out the middleman.
They've been dumping money into the media sector for the last year and a half, since forever, if we're counting the CBC.
And a lot of that money ends up in the hands of upper management who pay themselves bonuses for continuing to have their businesses fail.
Whatever.
But at least this time, they're cutting out the middleman and just hiring the journalists directly.
So I suppose we should be glad for the efficiency of it all.
You know, Sheila, I got to tell you, back in the day, once upon a time, this would have been seen as heresy.
There used to be a real separation of church and state when it came to journalism, i.e., you didn't get handouts from anyone to alter the narrative.
Journalists wouldn't even be talking to the ad sales reps because you didn't want any kind of cross-contamination that you were unnecessarily being biased in the name of an advertiser.
But now it seems that so many of these journalists, they've just sold their soul.
They've got their hands out like Oliver Twist in Oliver saying, please, sir, I want more.
And we have this problem where, Sheila, in terms of the media, it's not censorship.
It's self-censorship.
They don't want to rattle their sugar daddies in Ottawa.
Well, every story acts as a cover letter for a job application going forward, whether it's in communications for the government or maybe it's a grant application for some of that $650 million in Trudeau bailout bucks.
It seems as though the media has gone from espousing the concept of the free press to thinking the free press means give me free money.
And, you know, it really shows in the quality of their work.
And yet still, the media continues to fail year after year.
Layoffs and budget cuts, layoffs and budget cuts.
But they keep doing more of the same.
They keep producing a product that nobody wants to watch, that nobody wants to pay for, that nobody wants to read.
They go through a cycle of layoffs, but they never change what they're doing.
And they won't now because Justin Trudeau has intervened to prevent that market correction.
It's amazing.
And one last point, too, Sheila, as you referred to these other positions that are being created that journalists are going to fill, you called them communications people, which is what they'll be, of course.
But isn't it perversely ironic?
There's all these communications people, all these media relations people, all these spokesmen and spokeswomen.
And yet, when you, I, Kian, when we reach out for information, we're told to take a long walk off a short pier, file a freedom of information request.
Sometimes those freedom of information requests are denied, so we have to appeal that freedom of information request.
This costs us a lot of money.
And what gets me, Sheila, is that these communications people who are being paid to communicate are doing anything but that.
Well, yeah, I mean, I would love it if they would even return an email and tell me to take a long walk off a short pier, but I never even get that far.
You know, much of the work that I do, including this story that I'm currently working on, is in access to information.
And it doesn't really have to be.
I am forced to file so many access to information requests, and they are very expensive.
They're very time consuming because they won't hand over the information through their media relations people.
They just won't.
They'll leak friendly things to friendly media, which is basically everyone but us, except for a handful of media outlets, including True North.
But we're forced to file access to information through necessity because the government is so tight with their information and all information when I ask for it.
Even if I'm just asking for a clarification, they will not give it.
And one of the best ways to support us in our access to information requests, because like I said, they're very expensive, very time-consuming.
It's hours and weeks, sometimes months and years of work on a story before you even see the five-minute or 10-minute story.
They can do that at rebelinvestigates.com.
Thank you so much, Sheila.
And when it comes to analyzing the information that you get when we get it from for these freedom of information requests, to quote Carly Simon, nobody does it better than you, Sheila Gunread.
So you keep at them because if you aren't doing this and if we aren't doing this, I don't think hardly anybody is going to be doing it.
So I think in that sense, Rebel News is an essential service if you care about the truth.
Thank you so much for that piece, Sheila.
Thanks, David.
Covid Fines Rescinded00:06:23
Have a great weekend.
You too.
And that was Sheila Gunread, somewhere in the northern hinterland of Alberta.
Keep it here, folks.
Tomorrow, Rebel Roundup to come right after this.
We're at Albion Orchards.
I'm with Scott Luna.
And as you may recall, last weekend, the OPP, whether it was on their own volition or a wild Karen, blew the whistle, they paid a visit to Scott here.
And when they got here, Scott, they kind of read you the Riot Act.
Even though you've got 50 acres of the great outdoors here, they were worried that somehow you might be violating the social gathering limit of 25.
Regardless, there's more than that going into a Walmart and a Costco.
I thought businesses were exempt.
And then, of course, your tractor was not being sanitized.
It just made for more COVID madness in 2020.
What has been the result of you trying to find out whether or not you're breaking the law?
Because we visited the OPP detachment in Calden, and they basically told us they didn't know.
Go to the public health unit.
I think you said off camera you spent something like three or four hours phoning the various authorities and you never got a clear answer.
Not a clear answer.
Anyways, goodness gracious, David, things have kind of cooled a bit.
The police have not been back, so I think, you know, they're doing a great job.
It's got to be stressful for them.
And, you know, with rules changing, they were uncertain as well.
But so we haven't been fined.
We're still open for business.
People are still coming, and it's all good.
Scott, personally, I think, given our report on the matter, it got a lot of views.
I've read the comments.
It is...
People are baffled.
They're gobsmacked that they even paid you a visit.
I really think those OPP officers that came here are suffering buyers' remorse, especially when we just had a 24-hour period in the greater Toronto area where we had eight separate shootings.
I mean, my goodness.
I would think there's more important things for the police to be concerned with than going after an apple farmer.
Certainly, David, as a taxpayer myself, I would rather that the police spend their time hunting down criminals and preventing crime.
But again, thankfully, they have not returned.
I've not received a fine.
I'm very grateful for that.
I know they're doing a busy job, and I don't think they're going to be back.
What's happened is I've gotten answers from other people in my industry.
So other farm marketers in other jurisdictions, municipalities, they've reached out to me by phone, by email, and let me know, here's what's happening in our area.
This is, you know, our counselors told this.
Our MP has told us that.
The police have told us this.
There have been other fines passed out, but they've actually...
To farmers?
Yeah.
Yeah.
There's Lucas.
I'm sorry, I forget the name of the farm off the top of my head, but him and his father were each given an $880 fine under the COVID rules, but that has since been rescinded.
Who knew it was so tough being a farmer in Canada these days?
And no, I'm not talking about extreme weather patterns, folks, but rather overzealous law enforcement that doesn't quite fully comprehend the laws that they themselves are trying to enforce.
Amazing.
In any event, here's what you had to say about the saga of Kaledon, Ontario farmer Scott Luna, a hardworking man who just wants to sell his apples.
Ms. Clementine writes, five customers at a time.
Is he serious?
I've stood in line with over 30 people at Walmart.
What?
Indeed, but then again, one thing we have learned about this pandemic is that when it comes to the retail sector, there are different rules for the big guys and for the little guys.
I guess the Wuhan virus is somehow biased.
For whatever reason, this virus doesn't like small entrepreneurs trying to make a living, but it has the utmost respect for, say, a multi-billion dollar corporation based in Arkansas.
Amazing, eh?
Joe Pace writes, this is amazing news.
Thank you once again, Rebel, for reporting this story.
Well, thank you for your kind words, Joe.
And I do believe shedding a spotlight on this story led to a happy ending for Albion Orchards.
Ain't it great how publicizing an injustice can sometimes act as sanitizer.
Sharpshooter writes, well, how do you like them apples?
Oh, I like them very much, sharpshooter.
And I'll tell you this, the day it becomes illegal to go to a U-Pick apple orchard is the day I'll become an outlaw.
Karma S writes, in Laval, Quebec, there's an apple orchard that ordered no eating of apples in the orchards due to COVID-19.
25% of orchards were closed.
You know, I'm really sorry to hear that, Karma S.
But can someone kindly explain how picking apples in the great outdoors is a Wuhan virus health hazard, but it's okay to cram inside a big box store to shop?
What utter madness.
And Brian Woods writes, his shirt is awesome.
I love apple pie, LOL.
That is indeed a great shirt, isn't it?
But then again, maybe that is the source of Scott's problems.
After all, we all know that Premier Doug Ford wants everyone to stay inside baking cherry cheesecakes.
Maybe Premier Ford looks upon apple pies as competition to his favorite food stuff.
Sorry, Doug, but I'll take a freshly baked pie stuffed with Ontario grown apples over cheesecake any day.
Well, that wraps up another edition of Rebel Roundup.
Thanks so much for joining us.
See you next week.
And hey, folks, never forget, without risk, there can be no glory.