Toronto’s Adamson’s Barbecue, owned by Adam Skelly, faced violent police enforcement on November 26—100 officers, horseback riot units, and dozens of vehicles—after authorities shut it down for violating COVID-19 lockdowns under the Reopen Ontario Act, despite nearby Walmart and Costco staying open. Skelly, backed by 11,000+ signatures at freeadamskelly.com, calls the charges unconstitutional and vows to reopen, defying potential fines or jail time while comparing his treatment to leniency shown BLM protesters. Legal hearings loom in February-March, but Skelly’s resistance exposes arbitrary enforcement, provincial lobbying loopholes, and a fractured public debate over lockdowns as fascistic overreach. [Automatically generated summary]
On this podcast, you'll hear about it, but I wish you could see the riot police on horseback, the mounted police that Toronto Mayor John Torrey dispatches to shut down a restaurant for the crime of serving sandwiches.
Probably 100 cops, probably 50 police cars.
Just outrageous.
Amazing footage.
Our cameraman got the key shot.
No one else did.
Amazing, amazing.
You'll get a lot out of this show on the podcast, but I want to encourage you to subscribe to the video version too.
It's just eight bucks a month for my show every weeknight.
Plus, Sheila Gunread and David Menzies have weekly shows also.
Plus, your $8 a month helps keep us going because we're 100% independent.
We don't take any money from the government.
And I think it shows.
I think one of the reasons why the media party is in favor of the lockdowns is because they take money from the government that's in favor of the lockdowns.
That's one of the reasons we're free.
All right, here's today's show.
Tonight, the barbecue rebellion turns violent in Toronto.
It's November 26th, and this is the Ezra Levant show.
Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?
There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.
The only thing I have to say to the government about why I'm publishing it is because it's my bloody right to do so.
Well, it's been such a busy day.
I've been doing live streams practically all day, so I have not properly scripted tonight's show.
There just wasn't time.
So forgive me.
I'm going to be speaking from notes in my hand.
But I'm talking about the barbecue rebellion at Adamson's barbecue restaurant in Etobicoke, a suburb of Toronto.
It's an outstanding barbecue restaurant.
I've been to the outlet in Leaside, another Toronto neighborhood.
Lineups for half an hour.
They'd always sell out.
Outstanding food.
The hipsters loved it.
And the entrepreneur himself, his name is Adam Skelling.
And you got to give the man credit.
Making one restaurant work is hard.
But three, kudos to him, a working class man who found a way to appeal to the snobby classes in Toronto.
Well, they've turned against him because this working class man wants to actually work.
A lot of Toronto's been loving the staycation of the lockdown.
They've gotten paid no matter what.
I think of the government classes, the bureaucratic classes who have not worked at all or worked from home, haven't lost a minute's pay, use the time to catch up on some Netflix series.
They're actually loving the lockdown.
Whereas the working classes, well, they've been forced out of work.
Remember this.
It was not the virus that flattened these companies and businesses and mom and pop shops.
It's not the virus.
It's the politicians ordering these companies locked down.
Well, Adam Skelly decided he had nothing to lose.
He was going to go bankrupt anyway, so he may as well go out in style.
And he announced that he would open his restaurant on Tuesday.
And indeed, he did.
Police stood by, but didn't know quite what to do.
And then Wednesday, again, police stood by, didn't know quite what to do.
This morning, they tipped off the media party who went at 6 a.m. to catch police changing the locks on the restaurant, locking the owner out.
Well, that didn't stop him.
Adam Skelly went there, entered in another door, busted down the locked door, and in went the hundreds of people getting their smoked meat and brisket.
Police Response: Cavalry Style00:03:07
Well, that's when the police showed up with the cavalry.
I kid you not.
The Toronto police responded with what looks like 100 policemen, dozens of police vehicles, and the riot squad on horseback.
Well, when Adam Skelly made a move, so did the police.
They grabbed him and frog marched him in handcuffs to the police car.
Take a look at this amazing footage caught by our videographer, Lincoln.
Fucking bitch!
Stop it.
Get it on my way!
Shame on you!
Shame on these people back!
Shame on these police!
Look at the way they've started now!
You're a hero, Adam!
I love you guys!
Small business!
Small business!
How does he feel the Michelle ourselves as feeding their kids?
We're stopping everybody.
Adam, we got your mind.
Hey!
Hey!
My back!
Get back!
He's got my wrist, bro!
Just get back!
He's a hero!
This is a hero!
That's incredible.
I love how he was shouting small business, small business.
Because remember, it's only small businesses that are shut down.
Walmart's still operating.
Just a few hundred meters down the road from Adamson's barbecue.
Costco was open, selling all manner of goods, including, well, their in-store restaurant.
You know, Costco, you can get a slice of pizza, you can get a hot dog, French fries, soft drinks.
That's totally safe from the virus point of view.
But Adamson, he was a public health risk.
At least that's what the mayor and the premier said.
City Hall Protest00:07:45
The police response, though, I haven't seen anything like it in Toronto.
I think there were more officers on the scene than there have been for some than in some of the mass shootings or terrorist events in Toronto.
I seriously haven't seen this many police and heavily armed riot police.
Well, since the G20 riots in Toronto many years ago, in the minds of the mayor and the premier and the public health deep state, the people who have an interest in perpetuating the lockdown, this man was the greatest risk to them since, well, terrorism, I suppose.
It's interesting to contrast how the police arrested, handcuffed, and frog-marched away a man for cooking sandwiches compared to how they treated Black Lives Matter protests that also violated the social distancing spaces.
Take a look at this photo of police literally taking an E.
And that's Black Lives Matter.
Antifa, as you know, was far worse, far more violent.
Antifa literally had a permanent encampment right outside the mayor's office on the plaza in front of Toronto City Hall.
They called it the Afro-Indigenous Rising, but there weren't a lot of black or aboriginal people.
There was basically white woke leftists and they were violent.
As you know, we tried to go and report on that.
Police didn't shut down the rioters.
They shut down us.
Remember this?
I was told I had to leave under the trespass, and I said, what have I done?
And she couldn't say it.
So what I'm saying here is, and I'm happy to go alone or send David alone.
The reason we brought seven people with us is because our journalists were threatened yesterday and I thought, I can't have our journalists being beat up.
So will you either allow me or hopefully walk with me so I stand in front of my city hall as a journalist and do a five-minute news report in front of my city hall, completely compliant with the law and separated by a band of blue steel from the protesters.
So right now, I got to talk to the city hall security again.
They advised me that they had trespassed you guys from the property.
Do you guys want to do your journalism?
We don't take offense to that.
Blessed are the peacemakers.
I think you could fix this by letting us go out.
Those guys won't.
I want to stand.
Why don't you guys like stand here?
No, no, no.
I'm going to go on the other side of the ramp.
I'll keep 20 feet away from the bad guys.
And I'm going to use my Section 2B charter right to report the news in my city.
You're free to report the news.
That's not the problem at all.
And I'm also free to stand on the town square.
I say again, in John Torres, Toronto, and I shouldn't pick on Toronto because it's the same in many cities across this country and certainly in the United States.
If you're a violent leftist, the police will bend the knee.
They'll protect you.
But if you're a conservative who just wants to peacefully protest or have a smoked meat sandwich, they'll send in the riot squad.
You know, we could have used the riot squad very early this year when there were blockades of railways across the country, but no, that was too dangerous and not of public interest enough to send in the cops.
But this restaurant was.
What's particularly gross is the class divide here.
And you know me, I'm not a Marxist, but more and more I see that's the divide.
The haves and the have-nots, not by their own labors, but from the government class, the deep state, the people who love the lockdown, the bureaucracy, the government unions.
And I point out this story here, which is if the Premier of Ontario, Doug Ford, if his late brother Rob Ford were here to see this, he would be appalled.
The gravy train, the lobbying class.
Look at this.
Walmart, a huge multinational company based in Arkansas.
They hired two of Doug Ford's staff, Melissa Landsman and David Tarrant, to arrange a private meeting between the president of Walmart and Doug Ford to convince him that when he locks down the mom and pop shops to keep open not just Walmart, but all the non-essential stuff in Walmart.
So not just the groceries, but the greeting cards and the toys and all the other stuff.
So all the private stores are shut down, but Mighty Walmart, which paid a hefty fee to lobby Doug Ford, well, he gave them what they wanted.
Do you see what I mean?
If you're not rich enough to hire Doug Ford's staff and lobby him, you'll be flattened.
It's not that we're all in this together.
This is a two-tier lockdown.
The media, bizarrely, put themselves with the government.
The media is not a check on government anymore.
It's an auxiliary to government.
It caresses and massages government.
Look at this clip from last night where you can see in real time the mayor colluding with the media to go get this restaurateur.
To our behavior at Christmas.
Mayor John Torrey, we will leave it there today, and we'll all wait and watch to see what plays out in that Adamson barbecue today at 11 when that is supposed to open.
Have a productive day.
We'll chat with you again Friday.
Don't give this guy too much publicity.
You know, it's a political, but a lot of this is a political stunt.
So, you know, absolutely.
Let's be careful about that.
But I mean, that's the thing.
If the police had shutting his nose at this instant.
If the police had shut it down quickly yesterday, we wouldn't have given them that much publicity.
That's part of the whole problem, right?
I mean, the longer this is allowed to stay open, the longer we have to cover it.
I don't think it'll be open for long today, if at all.
It shouldn't be open at all if this man was any kind of a respectable citizen and a person who really wanted to, you know, respect the best interests of his fellow Torontonians.
All right, Mayor Tori, appreciate you joining us.
We'll chat again soon.
And indeed, that's exactly what happened.
You saw it planned and plotted in real time.
You know, there's so many fancy pants in Toronto and they love their fine dining.
And I have to tell you, I say I've been to this guy's restaurant before.
It's amazing.
All the hipsters love it.
But my God, they've turned against that blue-collar man now.
Here's Sherry DeNovo, who's a left-wing NDP politician activist.
Look at this mocking him.
Oh, a third rate.
I mean, just the classism here, third rate.
It's not a third rate restaurant.
It was the toast of the town.
But how dare this working man be in a working class neighborhood feeding working class people?
That's the NDP for you.
You know, it wasn't just Adam Skelly who was arrested and handcuffed with 100 police around him.
Perhaps in its own way, even more shocking was this.
Here's Randy Hillier elected as a conservative member of the provincial parliament.
He now sits as an independent.
He's a thoughtful critic of Doug Ford's lockdowns.
It's one of the reasons he sits as an independent now.
He is an elected MPP standing on the precincts of the provincial parliament, and the mayor gave him a ticket.
Look at this.
It's going to be next year, January 7th, 10 in the morning, and it's going to be a purple sea.
Okay?
Yep.
And I won't be wearing a mask.
You're going to, so I'm going to just serve your copy officer.
Oh, that'll have a different one.
Think of your kids.
Think of the kids, your family.
Opposition Politician Ticketed00:14:32
And the lack of freedom that you're imposing upon your kids.
Take that into consideration.
You want your kids.
I couldn't imagine being so cowardly.
I appreciate it.
Thank you for your cooperation, sir.
Thank you very much.
You're ticketing an opposition politician for opposing.
You're giving him a massive fine.
Who the hell do you think you are?
Someone with no real opposition, I suppose.
One of the reasons we launched yesterday's Fight the Fines reboot is we want to give lawyers to literally 1,000 people that get tickets like that because we believe they're unconstitutional.
In fact, today I had a phone call with Randy Hillier.
I hope we can give him a hand, though I know he can take care of himself.
We've also launched a petition called freeadamskelly.com.
And last I checked, we had over 11,000 signatures.
People are fed up.
He's become a bit of a grassroots hero.
I guess what I'm wondering is, where are the conservatives?
Where are people for limited government, for individual liberty?
If you want to stay home and wear a mask, wear five masks.
Wear a total hazmat suit, dress like an astronaut, knock yourself out.
The conservative way is not to let those people, not to give a veto to those people for the rest of us, when we all know that this disease is not an equal opportunity disease.
It targets the elderly with underlying conditions.
Protect them.
Quarantine them.
Give them all the medical care.
But let the rest of us live our lives.
That's the conservative point of view.
There's one bright light on the horizon, and it's the conservative premier Jason Kenney, who addressed this very issue yesterday when he talked about the mistake of locking down small businesses but letting the Walmarts of the world go.
Take a look.
Let me say something.
We need to acknowledge as we go through COVID when we have made mistakes.
This government made, I think, a grave mistake in the spring when we made, frankly, I think a stupidly arbitrary distinction between essential and non-essential retail businesses that had the unintended consequence of allowing Walmarts and Costco's to sell darn near everything because they have a grocery section or they sell pharmaceuticals while shutting down thousands and thousands of retail small and medium-sized businesses.
You know, I talked about the fifth generation family in my remarks running a store in rural Alberta.
100% of their business went to the big U.S.-owned box store down the street, or of course online, for 10 weeks because of that, frankly, stupid mistake that we made, for which I apologize.
We tried to undo that as quickly as we realized it and saw the impact.
But we are not doing that now, unlike other provinces that have done that.
You don't hear a lot of talk like that, do you?
Apologies and saying it was a dumb idea.
That's Ralph Klein style.
It's one of the reasons Ralph was so popular.
I hope that more Jason Kenneys emerge.
I hope that some conservative opposition parties oppose.
I mentioned earlier how that lobbyist in Toronto, Melissa Lanceman, arranged a meeting between Walmart and Doug Ford to give them a special rich man's exemption.
I'm not against rich people.
I'm against double standards where the rich buy themselves out of the lockdown.
I see 1,300 professional athletes bought their way through the quarantine.
I'm sorry.
Either we're all quarantined or none of us are.
I don't think that that's fair.
This Melissa Lanceman, this lockdown lobbyist, is now running for the Conservative Party federally in the nomination opening up in Thornhill, Toronto.
It'll be interesting to me if the federal conservatives are the party of the lockdown like they are in the UK, like they are in the provincial government in Ontario.
I sure hope not, because it's not a conservative idea.
And even if there was some conservative argument to protecting people, it's not to lock everyone down.
It's to protect those who are vulnerable, not to protect people from going to a restaurant voluntarily.
I'm worried that in this country, we don't have an opposition.
The media is cheering the lockdowns.
When was the last time you saw media cheering a riot squad of horses dragging people away in handcuffs?
The world's upside down.
I promise you this, we'll fight like hell here in the rebel.
And I'm sorry I'm saying hell so much.
I know I'm going to get some emails about that.
Stay with me.
Next, David Menzies' special report on yesterday's events at that same barbecue.
I thought he did such a good job.
I want to show it to you in its entirety.
David Mendes for Rebel News here in Toronto.
Well, folks, it is day number two of the Great Barbecue Rebellion.
Yes, we are once again back at the so-called scene of the crime, Adamson Barbecue.
Just a few minutes ago, Adam Skelly, the owner, went in.
He said he's not doing interviews today, but we're welcome to come on his property.
Unlike the mainstream media, they are out in full force today.
I see basically every outlet, and he doesn't want any part of them.
So it's a kind of a reversal of fortune for us here at Rebel News, and I'm digging it.
And I can understand his outrage to the mainstream media, the way they have been framing this story.
He's the bad guy.
He's the second coming of Typhoid Mary.
He should be shut down.
They're not so much reporting the story, but acting as like snitches to the mayor and the premier and the authorities.
Just another mainstream media disgrace.
But Adam is here.
He is prepping.
It is now just a little after 10 a.m.
He's going to open in an hour and there's a lot of prep to do.
He expects another big crowd here.
In any event, I am almost certain that the moment someone goes in there for some delicious brisket, the bylaw, the police, the health authorities, they are going to descend on this little restaurant like an army and we're going to be there to see what unfolds in the minutes and hours away.
I'm just wondering, Adam, are you fearful of what's going to happen in the minutes and hours ahead if you start to fire up those grills?
No, not at all.
Why would I be fearful of what's going to happen?
This business probably won't make it through the wintertime anyway.
So I got nothing to fear.
We're going to take a stand.
We're going to push this as far as it goes.
We'll accept the fines.
We'll accept the tickets and any court summons.
And we'll see if any of this is going to hold up.
Yeah, and I mean, we have to talk about the hypocrisy, as we've been saying all along since day one.
400 meters down the road, there is a Costco.
It is jammed to the gills of Christmas shoppers.
They have a food service facility there.
How come they can open?
And a guy like you can't.
Well, I'm not sure if their food service facility is open, but they are considered an essential business.
People go there to buy their groceries and stock up at home, and they consider that essential.
I, for one, consider my business to be essential.
And we're going to see today how many other people do as well.
100%.
And now, what about the cost to you in terms of all these potential fines that can go up to $100,000, even a year in jail?
I think you said off camera to me, you've already got pro bono legal representation.
What are they telling you?
I have to interview lawyers today.
I've had so many reach out to me and offer to take this case.
Most of them are very, all of them are confident that we will win this, that the emergency orders are not justified, and that any of these charges won't hold up in court anyway.
So I'll be the first one to stand up, be the test case, and we'll see how it goes.
I know you have a ton of prep to take care of, Adam.
One last question.
We have the media mob here.
What has been your take on the kind of coverage you've been receiving?
It seems to me from what I've seen in the last 24 hours of the news cycle, they're almost cheering on the authorities to put you out of business.
It's quite shocking.
What has been your take?
Well, this is the establishment media over there.
So I've asked them to stay across the street so they're all over there with their telephoto lenses trying to get shots of me.
I thought it was really funny because yesterday I had the most incredible day.
We had so much love and support from our fans and people I've never met before.
I was energized all day, had an incredible day and I think it was CTV managed to have one picture of me going with a bit of a sad look on my face or a little bit distressed.
And that's the one that they put up on the front.
You know what?
They can keep trying to get those with their telephoto lenses.
They get one of me in a fighting stance or something like that and they could try to say that I'm trying to take down the police or something.
Who knows?
They can say across the street thank you for being here.
Thanks for actually getting our side of the story and not twisting our words.
Well Adam, thank you for your hospitality for allowing to come on your private property.
We really appreciate it.
I think there's going to be a showdown.
I'm really fearful about how the city is going to react.
Come on, no fear, no fear, let's go.
Here we have Adam as a true rebel.
He's taking a stand and maybe when they see how he is going to be treated with hundreds of thousands of dollars of fines, even potentially a year in jail if you can imagine, maybe that's going to scare them off from doing what Adam's doing.
The government is betting on ignorance and intimidation and they're going to lose because when you come to the point where you have nothing to lose, you're going to do whatever it takes.
And that's why we're going to win because we're going to do whatever it takes to make sure that the tyranny of the government goes out of this country.
The mayor has said, said last night that if Mr. Skelly opens again for business, he hopes the authorities throw the book at him.
And yet this is the same mayor that has been seen for photo ops, not social distancing, not wearing a face mask.
Do you think we have sort of a one law for thee, one law for me in the city right now?
Oh, there's a true double standard here.
So I'll be straightforward and blunt.
John Torrey is a fussful.
Well folks, I'm with Vincent Gerses and Mr. Gerses is an ex-OPP officer.
And Vincent, tell me, first of all, what brings you out here today and what's your take on what we're seeing going down here?
The reason I'm out here is this is a fundamental fracture about to happen in monumental biblical proportions in Canada and the fracture of the human rights and the Canadian Charter of Rights.
I've been an OPP officer for 32 years.
I'm now retired and have been for a few years.
I started with the OPP in 1982, the same year that the Canadian Charter came out.
And what was instilled upon me at the Ontario Police College in Elmer, Ontario, was how important those fundamental rights were.
They're the core of our rights in Canada and everything is based on that.
Here today, this restaurant chooses to stay open and defy these lockdowns.
These lockdowns are unconstitutional, clearly, and they go against our human rights.
It's freedom taken away from all of us.
This has nothing to do with church, but he's part of the, the owner is part of the human family, and I stand behind him.
I cannot stand thinking all the big stores are open, no problem.
And then killing these little people, it's just not right.
It's not right before God.
And I felt obligated to come here today.
Well, sir, what brings you out to this eatery today?
What brings me out the courage of that man for saying no to this lockdown, styrony, to this fascist.
And now I hope he's going to give a green light to every other business to do the same.
You know, that is the question.
Is he going to be a catalyst or will other businesses look at all this law enforcement here today and will they'll be scared off from opening?
No, if they're going to be scared at all, that these are not the people that, then you know what, let them be scared off.
that are probably the people that's six feet apart from their parents wearing a mask and then abide the lockdown order.
Arrest Eileen.
Please everybody could you stop talking?
Can we please give the floor to the police?
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
Everyone I just want to bring your attention to the fact that the restaurant is operating against the public health work order or order that was issued yesterday.
I'm verb or not.
Guys, everybody please be quiet.
Please.
The restaurant was ordered closed by public health.
It is unable and it's unlawful to operate.
In addition to that, the ROA Act has closed down in dining and everyone in here is in contravention of that also.
And keep in mind this is quite the large gathering over the maximum number inside and obviously there is a consequence, possible consequence of being charged.
So I just want to provide you.
Please, please, please, please.
Quiet, please.
So I'm hoping to deliver the messaging that you are in contravention of these acts.
There is potential for charges.
And again, I wanted you to be made aware of it.
You are violating the ROA.
Thank you for your service, I'll buy it.
And hopefully, I should ask you to leave.
Otherwise, there is a possibility of being charged.
So thank you.
Everybody, please, there's a second.
I'd like to be here.
Everybody, please.
Please, can I have the floor?
This is my restaurant, please.
He's asked everybody to leave.
Does everybody understand that?
Yeah.
Okay.
I accept what you're saying, and I approve of your message to my customers today.
He has asked everybody to leave.
Thank you, Acia.
I don't think I'm sorry.
I'll buy you guys biscuits.
No crimes are being briskets.
No crimes.
Follow the Orders00:07:05
I gotta see the fight for people.
Please try to restaurants.
Nobody do us.
Okay, some guy done this wrong.
If anybody, if you guys would like to grab some food, let's get back into a nice lineup again.
And anybody can come in and order some food at the counter.
And let's stop yelling at the police.
They've done their part.
They're being very respectful with us.
Let's give the same respect back to them.
Thank you, Actor, sir.
Thank you.
Okay, so look, they came by.
They gave me a couple of municipal charges because we do have some issues with our business license here.
That's what they started with.
I basically had to beg them to charge me with the provincial orders.
That's what my lawyers want to take to court and fight.
So they did give us a summons.
They did not give us any fines.
As far as I know, nobody here was fine today?
No.
Okay, so as far as I'm concerned, the police are not going to be breaking up these type of gatherings.
They obviously don't want them to happen.
But I think we have a lot of power and numbers here.
And I really hope we can go and start supporting all the other restaurants that will follow in suit and open in protest this week.
And I think we had some boys here with a tattoo shop that I just talked to.
They're going to do it too.
So yeah, let's go.
Let's make that wave.
And are you guys all going to support the other businesses that choose to open in protest?
Yes!
Let's go.
Anybody who opens, we need to get all this support over to them, too, to really show them that this is the way it's going to go.
Adam, are you back opening tomorrow?
Tomorrow's another day.
It's two.
Then the next day we'll get four until there's so many businesses.
We'll outnumber them.
It's easy.
Yes, sir.
Was your landlord involved in any of the negotiations, Adam?
No, I have not spoken with my landlord yet regarding this.
Hey guys.
Shout out Rotorooter.
So what did the cops tell you in terms of future reopenings, Adam?
They told me that more fines, they told me that more fines could be issued.
They told my staff that fines could also be issued against them.
So now some of my staff have also been, you know, maybe intimidated to not come back in again.
We'll see how that goes.
I might need a couple guys to work the counter if we keep going.
Anybody here looking for a job?
Yeah.
Okay.
All right.
Well, I might need some other people to scoop some potato salad for me tomorrow.
But I will be back here as long as we can have some more support.
I will be back here again tomorrow to open.
Adam.
Adam, what kind of legal advice have you been getting?
They feel very confident about the emergency order that it has to be, the measures have to be enacted on people proportionately.
And small business is being affected disproportionately.
I think that's very clear.
And just to be clear, how many tickets did you receive today?
Can we see the deacons?
Move horn guys.
Give him the mic.
I tried, bro.
He wants to do it himself.
Yep.
I understand.
Click the button.
Trying to drive you into financial ruin.
It's a bunch of court summons.
There's no fines.
Look, I have.
Look at that.
I have all of these that were issued.
These are all municipal charges based on things that I didn't have properly set up in my business.
Wow.
Unrelated to anybody else.
I have these two.
This is the failure to comply for today and yesterday.
We have been charged under the Provincial Offenses Act.
Grand Total.
None of these are fines.
These are all court summonses, and they're not until February and March.
So you were charged under the Reopen Ontario Act?
Yes.
This is the Reopen Ontario Act, right?
That I was charged under?
Yeah.
Do you think the courts will be open in February?
They'll be there to take your money.
Adam, do you feel that the state is trying to make an example out of you to dissuade others from opening?
Is that what's really going on here?
No, I think if they were trying to make an example out of us, they would have given fines to everybody here today.
They would have tried to prevent us from opening.
I'm not sure they have a leg to stand on.
And do you see anyone else opening in the days ahead after all the aggravation you've gone through?
I've spoken with like a dozen people today and yesterday and other people on social media and someone just right now who promised me that they would be opening and I could share their message.
I'm welcoming all those messages from everybody else who's ready to do this.
We'll share the message.
We'll get the same thing happening.
We'll get all your businesses full of support on the day that you choose to open.
We'll coordinate it.
We'll do it in a really productive way and get everybody open with tons of business again.
Adam, the crowds are about three times the size of yesterday.
What do you think?
I think this is amazing.
I love all you guys.
I'm so happy to have your support.
Thanks for showing up for small business today.
I love you guys.
Thank you so much.
So every one of these fines is just like the fines they gave me.
Smoke and mirrors to try to keep the public compliant.
Just like yesterday, the fake news told everybody that he got shut down at 4 o'clock.
He got a closure order.
No, everybody, he ran out of food at 4 o'clock.
He took their little closure order, used it like toilet paper.
And as you see, he opened up today.
And this time, he sold out at 1 o'clock instead of 4 o'clock.
No, he sold out before noon, Chris.
There you go.
So that's how much power the state has to even close one little small business.
So what's going to happen when hundreds open?
Thousands open.
They brought all their resources to one.
All their cops, all their bylaw, all that intimidation is for one place.
And they don't have any more resources to spread around anywhere else.
And even with all that, what could they do?
All they did was make him sell out faster.
Mr. Grimes, Mr. Grimes, a quick question.
Why is it that this small mom paw restaurant is being targeted and just 400 meters down the road, there is a Costco jammed to the gills?
How do you square that?
Well, again, that's a call from the province.
That's above my pay grade.
So I hear that argument all the time.
Walmart's and Costco's being opened.
I think they've been deemed essential.
But that's a different issue.
That's not what I'm here for.
So, listen, I hear that argument.
I hear it, and I accept that argument.
But again, that's not my call.
It's Medical Officer Health's call, and we're here to uphold her order.
And what is the evidence that the food service industry is some sort of a hotspot, a spreader for the virus, sir?
If you talk to Restaurants Canada, they say there's no evidence.
Medical Officer Health disagrees with that.
They do have the evidence.
That's where a lot of this is being spread.
And I'm not going to argue that.
I'm not an expert.
I'm not at those tables.
So I'm just here to make sure we get this order and get this guy shut down.
Do you want to see the authorities throw the book at him, sir?
Well, yeah, he's targeting himself.
So, you know, like I said, it takes me no great pleasure to find a business owner.
But we give the order for MediClust Health to shut down permanently and he just defiantly disobeys it, then we have to throw the book at him, right?
We have to.
Something Broken Here00:02:39
A lot of people are watching what's happening here.
So it's important that we follow the orders.
We all follow the orders.
And we listen to what MediClos Health is telling us.
He's just following the order's state.
Thank you, sir.
Well, folks, it's almost two o'clock and day two of the great barbecue rebellion is slowly winding down.
And what did we witness here today?
Well, we witnessed an even bigger outpouring of support by the common folk who came out to patronize the business.
In fact, he was completely sold out before noon, if you can believe it, and had to shut his doors.
And when he shut those doors, law enforcement and bylaw went in.
And that's when the paperwork started.
He's received two provincial offenses and about a half dozen municipal offenses.
That's regarding his business license.
There was no dollar amounts on those.
That'll be argued in court in February.
And I should note, you see a considerable presence of people.
I can tell you for a fact, folks, the number of people would be far greater.
It has just come to my attention that the police have blocked off the entrances to Adamson Barbecue.
So there's no way for more people to come and show their support.
I'm not sure what the agenda is there.
But the bottom line is, according to Adam, he is indeed opening his barbecue tomorrow at 11 a.m.
And he's welcoming everyone who enjoys delicious brisket with a side order of freedom to come on down.
For Rebel News, I'm David Demenzoid-Menzes.
What a big day.
What a bad day.
In some ways, I found the footage of the arrest and the police overkill, as David said, using a bazooka to go after a mosquito.
I found it infuriating and motivating.
And I think a lot of conservatives will feel the same way.
They'll say something's broken here.
If we're sending 100 police to shut down a restaurant, something's broken.
But I also know that that's only how half the world thinks.
The other half was cheering the cops, cheering the jailing of this man, cheering the lockdown state.
I think we have a great divide in this country as much as in the United States.
I just wish our side had some sort of heroes and champions.
Until that day comes, I'm afraid you're stuck with us.