David Menzies on The Ezra Levant Show (Oct. 16, 2020) details left-wing violence—Miss Deanna Harper’s assault accusations, Antifa threats against journalists in Kingston (June 2020), and Nathan Phillips Square’s illegal occupation by Afro-Indigenous Rising—while criticizing Toronto police for targeting media instead of enforcing rules. He contrasts this with conservative outlets like Rebel News facing disproportionate aggression, blaming political correctness and the far left’s weaponization of terms like "Nazi." Menzies also opposes York Region’s Stage 2 lockdown (starting Oct. 19), citing economic harm to businesses and questioning shifting health advice from WHO and Fauci, who reversed mask-wearing guidance on March 8. Lockdowns’ collateral damage—domestic violence, unemployment, delayed care—may outweigh benefits, with Sweden’s early approach suggesting one large wave could be less harmful than prolonged restrictions. [Automatically generated summary]
Tonight, why does the left always resort to violence?
It's October 16, 2020.
I'm David Menzies, and this is the Ezra Levent Show.
Why should others go to jail when you're the biggest carbon consumer I know?
There's 8,500 customers here, and you don't give them an answer.
The only thing I have is in government, but why others is because it's my bloody right to do so.
Two days ago, I found myself in the courtrooms at Toronto Old City Hall, which I must tell you resembles a haunted house now.
The grandiose structure was almost completely devoid of people thanks to trials being held in a virtual manner.
And if anyone should think that's a utopia, think again.
There were numerous incidents of the audio cutting out or the link failing completely.
As for the few actual humans in the courts, well, thanks to the donning of masks and or face shields, verbal communication was muffled at best.
It wasn't long before people were verbally sniping at one another.
I've never seen anything like it in a court, and it was just one more facet of life making me pine for a return to the old normal.
But I digress because I was there for the matter of one Miss Deanna Harper, who is facing assault charges.
Now, regular viewers may recall the disturbing incident involving Leja Blazovic.
On May 16th, Blazovic and her children planned to attend one of those Yahoo Nation demonstrations at Toronto's Queen's Park, urging Premier Doug Ford to fully reopen the economy.
Alas, the Blazovic family never made it there.
Just outside Women's College Hospital, Blazovic approached a woman and her teenage daughter.
Blazovic asked if they knew the directions to Queen's Park, but instead of telling Blazovic to head one block west, Harper asked Blazovic if she was going to the legislature to take part in the protests.
Blazovic answered in the affirmative.
This inexplicably infuriated Harper, who allegedly began verbally abusing Blazovic and noting that she was a terrible role model for her children.
Needless to say, Harper didn't provide Blazovic with directions, so Blazovic moved on.
But the encounter didn't end there, folks.
Harper then allegedly grabbed a cup of coffee from her car, ran back to Blazovic, and threw it in her face.
As well, during the melee, the woman's daughter allegedly sucker-punched Blazovic in the face, knocking her glasses off.
Now, police were called, and when they arrived, Harper was charged with assault and assault with a weapon.
Still, in the bigger picture, this alleged incident makes for yet another odious example of the way discourse has devolved in our nation and, for that matter, other nations around the world.
Which is to say, if one espouses a contrary opinion, apparently one must be silenced, even via physical violence, if need be.
Discourse Devolution00:15:31
And I'm going to call it, as I see it, folks, this reflex action to snuff out contrary opinions or even impolite questions tends to be embraced by those on the ever-loving left.
I know how odd.
I mean, whatever happened to can we agree to disagree or love Trump's hate?
Yeah, and the check is in the mail, too.
Because the left is all about groupthink these days, and committing a thought crime is practically a capital offense.
Orwell is either spinning in his grave or he's saying, I don't want to say I told you so, but I told you so.
The Deanna Harper case has been punted down the road to a future date, and we'll be sure to cover it.
But still, it gave me pause to consider how many times in the five-year history of Rebel News that I've endured violence or the threat of violence simply for having the temerity to ask questions.
Oh, and it's not just me, of course, but my colleagues such as Kian Bexti and Sheila Gunn Reed.
And really, what sort of a thug would want to hurt either Kian or Sheila?
Now, I don't have the time to outline all the incidents I've been involved in, but I thought maybe it's worth taking an abbreviated stroll down memory lane so that I can prove to you with video evidence what I'm speaking of.
I mentioned right off the bat how I was at Old City Hall court the other day.
Well, I was there last year too to cover the trial of a vile specimen known as Jordan Hunt.
If the name rings a bell, it should.
Hunt believes he has the right to use violence whenever he sees women, and it's always women, by the way, who are pro-life demonstrators.
Check out the following videotape evidence of Hunt delivering a roundhouse kick to a pregnant protester and then Hunt trying to push another protester into a live lane of traffic.
If somebody gets raped by somebody and they're like, I'm a 16-year-old and I can't have this baby, think you should keep it.
It's a baby.
Someone was raped and she gave birth, and she decided to kill her three-year-old child.
I meant to get your phone!
You can't harm somebody else.
You can't get physical.
You can disagree with somebody's message.
I got Ariana Flamme.
I laughed about Lee.
Tried to take that away from you.
Tried to take all your pamphlets away from you.
Arguably that is wrong.
Yeah, I tried to knock your stupid billboard in the sign.
Okay.
So if you don't want me to f with your stuff, why are you deciding to f with other people's choices?
Nice.
Okay, I guess we can all have a bad day or a bad few days, as the case may be.
But the thing about Jordan Hunt is that he was never remorseful about his acts of violence.
Check out this brief clip when I attempted to question him outside the courtroom.
Jordan Hunt, do you have any words to say to Marie Claire Business?
Hold still.
Well, not quite a roundhouse kick, but what kind of a assault was that?
Looked like circus clown confetti.
Jordan, who's paying your legal bills?
Jordan, it doesn't seem like you're very tough when a man is asking you questions.
You like to ambush women.
This is what those look like.
By the way, how come your hair isn't purple and you don't have a flower anymore then?
How come you have to use cameras like these to record?
How come you did the budget end at like the cheap suit?
Is it?
Well, yeah, it's cheap.
Well, you know, I mean, you're very touchy-feely, but why is it that you like to assault women so much?
You have no contrition.
You have no empathy, it seems.
Really want to take your glasses.
I missed.
Oh, do you?
Do you really want to assault me?
Yes, no contrition, no empathy.
And oh, by the way, no mainstream media either to cover the trial, folks.
Hmm, I wonder if we reverse the roles here, if this was a story about a man kicking and pushing female pro-abortion protesters.
Do you think then the likes of CBC and CTV and Global would be covering this story?
I think they'd have their live eyes set up right outside the courtroom.
Speaking of the abortion issue, this is one that really tends to bring out the rabid left.
I discovered this last year when I covered dueling protests on the lawns of Queen's Park in Toronto, where both pro- and anti-abortion demonstrators showed up at the same time in the same place.
Now, keep in mind, I don't have a dog in this race.
I was simply covering the event, and I wanted to give equal time to both sides.
Let's begin with the lovely scholars who comprise the pro-abortion camp.
Hi, sir.
Well, that's a nice greeting.
You don't want to talk about why you're here?
Go away.
Okay.
All right, we'll try this lady.
Hi, ma'am.
Can I ask you what brings you out to this rally?
What brings me out to this rally?
My right to choose.
Okay, then.
How do you feel about gender?
Oh.
Apparently, we have members of Antifa here, and they're telling these people that they shouldn't be talking to us.
I'm nobody's handmade.
You're nobody's handmaid?
How do you feel about gender-selective abortions?
Ma!
How do you feel about you?
F ⁇ you!
Suck a d ⁇ !
Can you air any of this?
Suck a d ⁇ !
F ⁇ butt!
You can't articulate your points better than yelling.
I just don't want you to be able to post any of this online.
F ⁇ you, butthole!
Suck a d ⁇ .
Well, that's quite profound, but I was hoping to find out what her position was.
Can you ask me one question?
What is your position on sex selective abortions?
F ⁇ you, asshole!
You don't care that you're a liar.
You are a f ⁇ ing liar.
What have I said that's being a lie so far?
What about the, what about the, okay, this says safe.
Well, folks, I'm trying to read their sign, but they're throwing it in my face, so I can't read it.
But a lot of noise signifying nothing, I would assume, because we can't get them to articulate their positions.
sounds like a horror movie behind me all this screaming you know would anyone else like to My body men!
I heard you.
Now, I can tell you for a fact, folks, that if Queen's Park Security and the Toronto Police were not out in full force on that day, both my cameraman, Efren, and I would have definitely been assaulted.
As a side note, these are the same people who want the police defunded and or abolished.
I wonder why.
Now, check out some of the people who I interviewed on the pro-life side.
Can you tell a difference, folks?
I can sure tell a difference.
Just wondering what brings you out to this rally today.
I just feel really passionate that we need to show love to the mothers who are hurting and also the babies that are hurting and don't get to experience a voice.
You know, one of the angles of the abortion debate, certainly you have your opponents over there, but we've noticed that on campus, those supporting pro-life, they have their displays damaged.
They are physically assaulted.
Why is it that these people that are opposing your viewpoint want to shut down your voice?
No, no, it makes me feel really sad.
And I think that the way to make something good come of this and have people feel healed and appreciated on both sides is not violence, compassion.
Compassion for the mother who's been hurt.
Compassion for the baby who's been hurt.
It's not an either or.
It's a both.
It's a love both.
It's a heal both.
Mostly because the more extreme they get on the abortion issue, the louder they have to yell to drown out the sounds of their own conscience.
They're supposed to be so accepting, but I think the big issue that they're having a hard time with is cognitive dissonance.
They know that they don't have a moral argument, so the only way that they can quantify that and sort of cope with that in their own mind is to act in the most immoral way possible, to validate their own immoral thoughts.
You know, it's so nice to conduct a civil interview without people screaming profanity and making death threats.
But that's the way the left rolls these days.
Here's a more recent example in Kingston back in June.
My cameraman Mocha and I went there to cover a gathering of antiphotypes who were openly threatening to pull down the magnificent statue of Sir John A. MacDonald.
Alas, given that most of the protesters here were experts on gender studies as opposed to engineering, the statue remained upright and they had to merely resort to throwing eggs at it instead.
Yet, check this out.
I wasn't even engaging these people.
I was a good 60 meters away simply filming an introduction to my report.
But like so many ants to an open jam jar, they cannot resist the opportunity to express their displeasure with us physically, of course.
I have noticed that throughout the crowd, they are distributing eggs.
And excuse me, ma'am?
No, we're not right now.
Oh, why is that?
What makes me a racist, man?
Okay, we need to heard your own words because I just don't know what to do.
Don't touch me.
Do not touch me.
You do not touch the camera.
You said we're racist.
Why is that?
And you use a lot of bad language.
Not very ladylike language, I must say.
I'm not a f ⁇ ing lady.
Get out of here.
Oh, okay, then.
What about yourself, ma'am?
You were saying something as well, I believe.
I said that I thought your speech was offensive and inaccurate.
Oh, it was a- Oh, what did I get wrong?
Kingston's motto is not where history innovations are.
Do you believe that removing a statue removes history?
What would you call it?
I would say that we're no longer celebrating a racist creep.
The history doesn't.
Time to go.
What are you pouring water on?
Excuse me.
Time to go.
Time to go.
As you can see, these people.
It's a park.
It's a public park.
Do not push us.
Time to go.
Do not push us.
We're making our way out.
Okay, good.
Get your boy out.
Get your boy out.
You're going to get egged.
Get out.
What, you're going to threaten me by throwing an egg at me, sir?
No, get out of here.
It's a public park.
Well, in the Department of Silver Linings, at least the bottle that was thrown at my cranium was plastic as opposed to glass.
But it is the same pathetic pattern, isn't it?
The protesters can't articulate their points, which really is the ostensible policy reason for staging a protest in the first place.
Then they demand you vacate the premises, which is public, not private property.
And then, as sure as the sun sets in the west, out come the fisticuffs.
And it's getting worse, folks, thanks to governments that refuse to govern and law enforcement that refuses to enact the rule of law, likely because they have been ordered by their political masters not to do so, thanks to a lethal combination of cowardice and political correctness.
Now, if you think I exaggerate, I need only hearken back to the disgrace that was the illegal occupation of Nathan Phillips Square by a motley crew of thugs calling themselves Afro-Indigenous Rising.
That group was breaking some 11 sections of the Trespass Act, including camping overnight, cooking meals, and urinating and defecating on the public square.
But our spine challenge mayor, John Torrey, put up with this garbage for an entire three weeks.
Even when these people acted out violently, the authorities not only turned the other cheek to the mob, but rather came after us for practicing journalism in the public square.
Check out the highlight reel, or perhaps it's a low light reel.
We're going to go there.
David's going to try and do journalism.
Ideally, we're done in half an hour because nothing happened.
Hey, people here, bro!
What would you like us to do?
Touch my fing elder.
Your elder?
What you're doing is causing a disturbance with everybody here.
I need to ask you to leave, okay?
What have I done against you?
It's causing disturbance.
Come on, man! Come on!
That in Toronto, the town square is a place where journalists can go peacefully.
So if that is not true, we need to know it.
I love you! I love you!
Don't run away from love!
Uh-oh!
Don't run away from love!
Yeah.
What are you?
What's your purpose here?
I'm a cameraman.
Can I stop?
Are you going to stop me instead of them trying to stop you?
I'm asking you.
I don't have to provide you anything.
Okay, well, just like they don't have to provide anything to you.
I'm not harassing them.
They're bothering me.
Can you please stop?
No.
We just came here to see what's going on.
You guys are getting violent right away.
That's what we do.
We evolved through love and diversity.
That's what we do.
We evolved through love and diversity.
This is you the chance.
Folks, welcome to John Torrey Strano.
Hey, get off me.
Don't stop my hand away.
Don't stop the camera.
Don't slap my hand away or get off the break.
What do you mean?
Huh?
Is that fair?
I will trespass you for non-compliance.
I need you to stay back.
So this isn't probably the best time to be coming here and doing this.
I understand what you're trying to do.
So for today, City Hall Security and their staff, they're trespassing you.
Okay, so we're going to have to escort you off the property.
You should really check out that entire video, folks, if you haven't already done so.
It may very well be our best and most important video in this company's history.
Oh, and spoiler alert, we did not bend the knee in spite of cowardly politicians who deemed journalists to be a threat as opposed to the rank and file of the antifa types that were occupying the square.
Why Leftists Become Nazis00:05:31
Ah yes, Antifa, or as I like to call them, the unofficial militia of the Democrat Party.
Look no further than Portland, Oregon, parts of which have descended into anarchy.
Do you remember the assault of journalist Andy Ngo a while back?
No, no!
You know, in a way, I actually feel sorry for those on the political far left who show up to protests these days, typically anti-Trump or anti-oil sentence protests.
First of all, they all seem to be so inexplicably angry.
And despite their alleged love of liberalism, so many just seemingly can't wait to get violent.
And as I've stated before, it seems they really got ripped off on their college tuition fees, given that so many cannot string two words together in a sentence unless those two words represent an F-bomb or some other profanity.
Wow.
Whatever happened to freedom of expression the left, or at least classical liberals, have long championed.
These days, so-called anti-fascist protesters are all about anarchy and chaos and nihilism and censorship.
Okay, okay, in fairness, it's mostly peaceful anarchy and chaos and nihilism and censorship.
But this new and not-so-improved brand of liberalism seems to boil down to a solitary mission statement, which is this.
We support freedom of expression and speech unless your particular viewpoints conflict with what we believe in.
And if that's the case, there shall be no civil debate.
Rather, we shall shut you down by any means necessary, including violence.
Indeed, they embrace a tragic train of thought that, as far as I can tell, comes down to this: it's okay to punch a Nazi.
You know, I would agree with that statement if this were, oh, say, 1939.
We were at war with Nazi Germany at the time.
After all, Hitler was bent on world domination via war that took the lives of more than 70 million people.
And then there was Hitler's evil and inexplicable obsession with the genocide of the Jewish people and others.
So, yeah, Nazis are about as vile and wicked as you can get and very punchable indeed.
But the thing is, Nazis haven't been in a position of power for 75 years now, but that doesn't matter to those on the far left because their definition of Nazi has radically changed.
A Nazi is no longer someone bent on world dominance and engineering a genocide.
Rather, a Nazi is someone who holds an opinion that is merely disagreeable.
And a disagreement no longer means passionate debate, but rather the tossing of rocks or Molotov cocktails or anything else that might draw blood.
We see it so often in certain cities where, quote, mostly peaceful protests, end quote, are carried out in the middle of the night by violent mobs.
But then again, as Nancy Pelosi would say, I don't care that much about statues.
Shouldn't that be done by a commission or the city council, not a mob in the middle of the night throwing it into the harbor?
People will do what they do.
Yeah, in other words, nothing to see here, folks.
Move along, move along, and blame Trump, not Antifa, while you're at it.
Somewhere along the line, the left has deviated from that time-worn phrase uttered on elementary school playgrounds: you know, sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never break me.
Because today, the wrong sort of words trigger the leftists.
Hey, even asking the leftists if they're being triggered can trigger them.
You actually approached me with a comment.
Oh, I see.
We're going to read your palm then, I guess.
Have you painted your fingernail, sir?
What do you identify as?
Excuse me?
What do you identify as?
Excuse me?
Did I trigger you?
Get out of here.
Get out.
Get out.
Get out of my face.
You're walking in.
Get out of my face.
You're walking into me.
Out of my face.
You're in my face.
Excuse me?
What's wrong?
What the f ⁇ is wrong with you?
And as you saw, when leftists are triggered, they feel entitled to get violent with those they disagree with.
And how perversely ironic that this is being done in the name of anti-fascism, given that the so-called anti-fascists make use of the exact same tactics of fascist classic, alas these new age thugs would appear to be the only ones oblivious to this irony.
They are not anti-fa, as in a contraction of the words anti- and fascism.
They are simply merely pha for fascism.
Which leads me to my final point.
How exactly did we get here?
As far as I can tell, it is due to an infiltration of so-called progressivism in all areas of our lives, government, the bureaucracy, the judicial system, and of course education.
Marxism, after all, embraces the same kind of mission statement as advertising.
Get them young, get them forever.
Toronto's Dam 4th Avenue00:02:41
This became abundantly clear a couple of years ago when my cameraman Efren and I were doing streeters on Toronto's Dam 4th Avenue in the aftermath of a massacre that occurred, potentially by someone who had been influenced by the dogma of ISIS.
Now, keep in mind, the person who approached us is a high school teacher, Katja Berdachevsky, who is gainfully employed by the Toronto District School Board.
Just check out her geopolitical mindset and ask yourselves, folks, would you want this person teaching your children?
The Rebel is not okay.
That does not represent Canadian values.
Why are you so mad, ma'am?
This is a news report that broke today.
Can I call you back?
This is not what we're about.
I'm sorry.
This is not what Canada is about.
Canada is not about racism.
I will not stand for it.
You're the one that's raising race.
You just asked if the man was a part of ISIS.
Ma'am, if you listened, can I speak?
I'll let you speak.
Can I clarify?
No, CBS in the U.S. is reporting that he had...
CBS, that's like reporting on Fox.
Fake news.
Really?
The Rebel.
Fake news.
Fake news.
What's real news?
People that actually have a media outlet that is real and not racist.
Like CBC?
Dude.
Yes, like CBC.
It's better.
It's not perfect, but it's definitely better.
The Rebel is a racist source of news.
Because we're asking people their opinion of a mass shooting.
And the mass shooting.
What does the mass shooting have to do with a man that visits?
Like, come on.
Come on, man.
What does it have to do with a man who you didn't finish that sentence?
Why should I need to?
Because I'm trying to understand what you're saying, ma'am.
It's not about ISIS.
Thasya, stop.
No, we're not going home.
We're not going home.
We're going for ice cream.
This is a community thing.
We're here to take back our community.
And this, you are not my community.
You can leave now.
Oh, this is your sidewalk.
This is your property.
This is about peace.
This is about my community taking back my community and not being racist.
Ma'am, you're the one that's raising race.
You're the one yelling.
You raised ISIS as a factor.
No, I said CBS in the U.S. is reporting.
Propagating racist values.
That is.
This is our community.
U.S. doesn't know anything about this community.
So this is Damforth.
This is our city.
This is our city.
Here's the thing.
I need to not be here.
Based on whose authority.
Based on my authority, because I live here.
Do you?
Do you?
You live right on this spot.
I'm on private property.
Do you live here?
And that gives you the right to tell people at the league.
Capitalist mentality.
Is it my property?
No, but this is my community.
We live in a capitalist society, don't we?
Lockdowns And Their Impact00:15:21
We do, unfortunately.
Unfortunately.
You prefer a communist society?
I prefer socialist society.
Yes, I do.
Like in Venezuela, perhaps?
No.
North Korea.
Oh, my God.
Cuba?
Wow, wow.
I'm naming all the social media.
You're descending into your own hell right now.
Listen.
These are hell holes.
I agree with you.
Hell holes.
Now you're quoting Trump.
Lovely.
That was perfect.
Perfect.
He did a different kind of hole.
Quoting Trump is the best thing you could have ever done for yourself.
Way to go.
That was priceless.
As Mr. Spock would say with a raised eyebrow, fascinating.
But I think you can see that, as they say in Vegas, the fix is in.
So even if yours is a conservative household, If you wonder why it is that your kids are spouting ideology lifted from the Communist Manifesto, now you know why.
Kids are being indoctrinated, be it via social media, be it via celebrities and sports stars, be it via their classroom teachers.
It's hard and getting harder to think independently, and it is especially hard to break away from such groupthink if an acceptable response to a differing opinion is an upper left hook.
Bottom line, I think this makes it even more important, not just for the United States, but for the entire free world, that Donald Trump is re-elected come November 3rd.
He is one of the few champions standing between those who believe in the rule of law and those who lust for mob rule.
Stay with us for more.
Well, this just in, York Region in the province of Ontario is now going to go under stage 2 lockdown as of Monday, joining the City of Toronto, Ottawa and Peel Region.
I'm especially miffed at this, folks, because I live in York Region, so it's goodbye to the movie theaters, adios to the fitness facilities, farewell to sit-down restaurants.
But it's all based on the science you see.
Yet, isn't it kind of weird that the science that is apparently dictating these economic smackdowns is in dispute by none other than the World Health Organization.
It is saying going the economic lockdown route is not the appropriate way to go indeed.
And joining me with more on this story is Andrew Lawton of True North.
Andrew, thank you so much for joining me today, sir.
Hey, happy to be here.
Thanks very much.
Well, Andrew, what do you make of this?
First of all, the breaking news of earlier today that York Region is going to join those other regions in Ontario in terms of going into the stage two lockdown, something I find very distressing given that so many of these restaurants, pubs, fitness facilities are only hanging on by their fingernails.
And like I said, if this is being directed by medical science as opposed to what's good for the economy of the province, how do you square it that the province of Ontario seems to be contravening the advice of the World Health Organization?
Well, I mean, I should say first off that shutting down fitness centers is actually the one effect of lockdown that generally doesn't affect me at all.
So I would say keep them locked down longer.
So I have an excuse to not go to them.
But on a more serious note, there is a big problem in this.
And the first case that we saw, the first guest go-round with the lockdowns, showed that all you're really doing is delaying the inevitable.
You're not actually preventing the virus from ever existing, from ever getting transmitted.
And this was actually the crux of what a lot of studies have said, one in particular that was just in the British Medical Journal about a week ago, is that all you're going to do when you do these aggressive lockdowns is delay what everyone is going to basically have to confront at some point, just on a different timeframe.
The lockdown route the second time, I don't think is going to go all that well for the government because people are tired of it.
People already felt like it didn't really work.
They did their part.
It was supposed to be two weeks to flatten the curve, and then it became just a little while longer.
And now the goalposts have kept moving and moving and moving until it's, you know, wait until we have a vaccine and also wait until we've been testing the vaccine for a good 10 years and then wait a couple weeks more.
So, right now, people are not likely to go along with this as well as they did being the good, obedient Canadians the first time.
So, Andrew, I don't understand though.
Going back to my original question, Doug Ford, I'm paraphrasing here, prior to the other stage two lockdown for Peel, Ottawa, and Toronto.
He was basically saying, Look, I don't want to go this route.
These businesses are struggling, et cetera, et cetera.
And then within 48 hours, somehow miraculously, the science had changed.
Yep, we've got to lock it down with almost zero notice.
The lockdown kicked in Friday midnight.
And again, if this is based on the science, well, the tall foreheads at the WHO are saying this isn't the way you should be going.
I'm here, I'm just scratching my head.
Where is Doug Ford or his government getting their advice from?
Yeah, it's tough to say.
And remember, a couple of days before these rollbacks happened, the tourism minister in Ontario, Lisa McLeod, was at Cineplex talking about all the great ways that we could revitalize the cinema industry and the theater industry.
And then again, you go a couple of days forward and we're in the situation we are in now, seeing these gradual rollbacks from stage three to two in a number of provinces.
I don't know where the advice is coming from.
I don't know if it is ultimately just because this is the only tool that governments like to have in the toolbox because it's easy, it's understood.
You just lock everything down, and that's that.
But these are not abstract issues for the people who themselves are being locked down.
And you know, Andrew, I mean, my heart is breaking for so many of these facilities.
They are barely hanging on thanks to the lockdown nonsense they just went through earlier in the year.
And I'm just really concerned, first of all, can these businesses actually make it?
Is this a temporary goodbye or farewell forever?
And secondly, what do you make of it coming out of the Doug Ford government?
One of their election slogans going back to 2018, Andrew, was Ontario, open for business.
This is precisely the opposite of that.
Yeah, it's challenging.
And I mean, I don't see it as exclusively an Ontario phenomenon.
I think Western governments right now, all over North America, are finding that this is the easiest way to respond to this, even though we clearly saw in the first wave of lockdowns that it doesn't really, again, to go back to what I mentioned earlier on, achieve the desired outcome, which is this, I guess, mythical eradication of the virus.
I do think that we need to have an understanding here that we are not going to lock down our way out of this mess.
If we're going to do it, we have to confront it.
And yes, I think businesses are smart and prudent to adapt their ways of doing things, but they had already done that.
I mean, the benefit of the first lockdown, if I can say that, was that businesses had time to sort of regroup and say, okay, how can we do this?
Movie theaters did this by spacing things out.
Restaurants did it by spacing things out.
Grocery stores.
I mean, it was really annoying early on when you had to wait in the breadline to get into the grocery store, but grocery stores have managed to find a way, and everyone's got to get food to adapt their practices so that you are not contracting COVID-19 when you go grocery shopping.
So we should take the benefit of the fact that we've been living through this now for about seven months and say the businesses have actually found a way to safely open.
The cases we are seeing are not coming from people going to the gym or going to restaurants or going to movie theaters.
So to target those businesses is egregious.
100%.
And Andrew, I think that's where the inherent unfairness of these lockdowns are.
But regardless of what region you live in, anywhere in the world, do you think, my friend, that people are, you know, they've got a credibility issue now with their governments, the bureaucracies, the health authorities.
The World Health Organization originally was in favor of lockdowns.
Now they're saying, no, that's not the route to go.
I can remember the date, Andrew, when Dr. Anthony Fauci in the U.S., March 8th, said, do not wear a mask.
Essentially, that's going to do more harm than good.
Then weeks later, you better wear a mask.
I'm thinking if I'm just, you know, and I am just an average Joe.
I don't understand the science of viruses or what have you.
But I sure, my ears sure perk up when I hear two different things suggesting, you know, two different routes coming out of the mouth of the same person.
I'm just having a big credibility issue right now with what we're being told.
Yeah.
And again, I mean, the double standards that we have being set by politicians is one issue, the reversals of advice.
I mean, I generally speaking don't put a lot of stock into what the WHO says.
So when the WHO comes down against lockdowns, I don't say, ah, well, the WHO says lockdowns are wrong.
Ergo, they're wrong.
I take it more as if even the WHO is saying this, then surely there's a discussion to be had.
I mean, generally speaking, my view is that if you want to know, if you want the WHO to say what you agree with, just give it a couple of days and eventually they'll change and get around to your position.
So, I mean, they're against lockdowns now.
In two days, they might be for them again, just like with masks, with border shutdowns, with travel restrictions.
But now they're saying, you know, don't do travel restrictions.
They were saying don't shut down the border.
Generally speaking, the WHO has not been on the right side of this, which is why governments should not be deferring to the WHO.
But at the same time, when, yeah, when even the WHO is saying no lockdown, surely we could kind of accept and understand that, hey, perhaps there's something to that.
You know, and Andrew, I think also there's a mindset that we don't have any kind of success or victory until we get zero COVID-19 positive test results every day.
And I think that might be unrealistic for months, maybe even years to come.
And yet it's all being driven through the prism of health.
That's what the Premier is saying.
He says, listen, I'm all about Ontario open for business, having a strong economy, but public safety, the health takes precedence.
Well, if that is the case, Andrew, then why are cigarettes still for sale in the province of Ontario?
Hey, used as directed.
It's going to potentially or very likely shorten your lifespan or give you lung cancer.
Yeah, and one of the prevailing themes of the nanny state is trying to protect people from themselves.
Whereas I always take their approach, which is kind of what you just indicated, that yes, we're surrounded by risk in our lives.
We have to assess our own willingness to embrace risk and also make the decisions that best align with us.
And I think with that, we need to, as a society and as a country, very much protect the vulnerable.
That means protecting long-term care homes, nursing homes, people in hospitals, people with weakened immune systems.
But remember, a lot of these people have already sort of adapted their lives to protect against these other things.
And I'm not saying that people should do the whole chickenpox party thing and, you know, all go to a house party to get COVID.
I think there are still questions about reinfection, about building up immunity.
And I think those questions are going to take a lot of time.
I think the idea, though, that we should be locking down everyone to protect the vulnerable doesn't fly.
And Sweden, which the mainstream media and a lot of people on the left were actually deriding in the early days because they kind of took a laissez-faire approach.
Sweden, it looks like, and again, we can't say this for certain, it looks like Sweden is on track to be somewhat vindicated because they may have avoided the second wave by having one larger first wave.
And I guess the question is: does the mega first wave come at a higher damage level or lower damage level than two smaller waves?
And that's what we're still trying to see here.
But if in Ontario we were told, no, no, no, we have to protect everyone and lock everyone down, and that's how we're going to beat it.
And then the second they pull the foot off the brake just a little bit, we're back into what they are saying is a worse situation than we were in before.
Clearly, our approach hasn't been working.
You know, I think you're dead on with the Swedish example, Andrew.
That seems to have been the Swedish strategy: endure a bigger first wave and, you know, ride out the second wave.
And also, you mentioned long-term care facilities.
This is the other maddening thing about the Wuhan virus: that when you look at the demographics, and the last time I looked at the numbers in Canada, it was something like more than 80% of the deaths are seniors in long-term care facilities.
That's a staggering number.
The fact is, if you're relatively young, relatively healthy, I believe the figure was you have a six times higher chance of getting killed crossing your neighborhood street by a car than you do of contracting the Wuhan virus and dying.
So I think this idea of one size fits all and this economic lockdown is a terrible way in which to go.
Yeah, it is.
And again, we also haven't had any opportunity because we are still in the midst of this to research the real effects of lockdown.
And to say that, okay, by locking down, we can save this many lives is all well and good.
But remember that lockdown comes with it, its own casualties and its own death tolls.
And whether this is domestic violence, suicide, unemployment, poverty, I mean, a lot of these things.
And again, we can't yet quantify these things.
We are hearing anecdotally that they might be an issue.
But the idea that lockdown does not have its own collateral damage is just not a claim that people can make.
You know, and thank you, Andrew.
We're going to have to wrap here.
And that is indeed the other profound point.
All these other issues you just mentioned from depression, suicide, spousal abuse, people dying on elected surgery lists.
I think, my friend, that when it comes to this Wuhan virus, for the most part, the cure has been worse than the curse.
But in any event, Andrew, thank you so much for joining me on this important topic today.
Anytime, David, thank you.
You got it.
And that was Andrew Lawn at True North.
Keep it here, folks.
More of the Ezreal event show to come right after this.