Grace Life Church’s Pastor James Coates faces 14-day COVID isolation in Edmonton’s maximum-security remand center after arrest for defying Alberta’s lockdown—charged with breaching an unsigned "undertaking" by unelected officials like Dr. Dina Hinshaw, violating Canada’s Charter of Rights. Premier Jason Kenney’s silence contrasts his past religious freedom advocacy under Harper’s government. The church plans a high-stakes protest Sunday, targeting faith sites, while critics call it a civil liberties showdown. Meanwhile, Trudeau’s vaccine deal failures and selective gun bans (5% of crime guns legally owned) distract from broader authoritarian overreach, echoing the UK Home Office’s "Orwellian" lockdown messaging that prioritizes state control over individual freedoms. [Automatically generated summary]
Today I'm going to show you an absolutely terrifying video published by the Home Office in the UK.
That's the office in charge of domestic affairs, law and order, stuff like that.
It's a bizarre ad, shocking, almost feels like satire, very dark, legally illiterate, but such a sign of the times.
I'll describe it to you.
You'll hear it, of course, but I really wish you could see it.
It's a video.
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All right, here's today's show.
Tonight, let me show you the most Orwellian public service announcement yet about the lockdowns.
It's February 18th, and this is the Ezra Levant Show.
Why should others go to jail when you're the 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 is the government will want to publish it's because it's my bloody right to do so.
George Orwell's chilling book, 1984, was set in the United Kingdom, but in the novel, it has been renamed.
They call it Airstrip 1, as in a military base, just to let everyone know that their chief identity was that of people in the permanent crisis of a war.
One of the interesting things in the book is that the enemy in the war changes from time to time.
In Airstrip 1, which was part of Oceania, they were perpetually at war with Eurasia.
And they were allied with East Asia until one day they switched.
And then they were perpetually at war with East Asia and allied with Eurasia.
And the hero of the book named Winston, of course, his job was working at the Ministry of Truth to rewrite old newspaper stories and destroy the originals to make it seem like they were always at war with the country they say they were now at war with, just constantly changing the past to conform to what works politically today so often that Winston himself forgot what the original story was.
Here's how the book put it.
Who controls the past controls the future?
Who controls the present controls the past.
One of the big themes of the book is controlling language.
In the book, they call it New Speak.
It was a shocking concept to me first reading the book 30 years ago, but now it's completely normal.
It's what we do all the time.
We actually name things their opposite.
Here's how it was in the book.
The Ministry of Peace concerns itself with war.
The Ministry of Truth with lies.
The Ministry of Love with torture.
And the Ministry of Plenty with starvation.
These contradictions are not accidental, nor do they result from ordinary hypocrisy.
They are deliberate exercises in doublethink.
Here, let me show you an example of that from today.
Here's an amazing little speech by Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of Germany, the most powerful person in Europe, who says we have to take away your freedom of speech or else you won't be free.
Save Lives, Don't Save Yours00:11:21
We have no way to do it.
All those who say, they don't need their own opinion, they must say, who they say, and if they pronounce it, they must live with them, that there is no way to do it.
It doesn't exist.
It doesn't exist.
And they start there, where there is a hatred, where there is a hatred, where there is a word of other people, because it's not that, it doesn't exist.
What's so crazy is that no one even batted an eyelash over that double think and double speak is normal now.
It goes by other names: woke, cancel culture, political correctness.
It's calling things their opposite to steal the meaning from words, like the lockdowns.
They're unhealthy, right?
I mean, people are getting fat because they're not allowed to exercise, go to the gym.
People are getting depressed and sometimes even violent towards their own families and even towards themselves.
Suicides are way up, drug abuse is way up because of the loneliness and stress and the disconnect from society.
Children are being screwed up forever because they're being told not to be near each other.
They go all day without seeing a smile.
They wear these masks at school.
So, yeah, we say that's for your health.
We say we're all in this together when we see the lockdown ruling class jetting around.
It's just the little people who are cracked down on.
We quarantine the healthy, not the sick.
We lock up the innocent.
In Alberta, there's a pastor in maximum security jail right now for holding church services.
But we've emptied the jails of real criminals because of the pandemic and even the word pandemic.
I'm sad that 21,000 Canadians have died from the virus in the past year, or at least died with the virus, which is a little bit different.
The average age of these deceased is 82, and they averaged three underlying serious illnesses.
I'm sad they died at all, but I'm, you know, people do die.
Any loss is a source of sorrow.
But I put it to you that if we didn't have a shrieking 24-hour news media, and if people weren't wearing masks as some sort of superstitious ritual, none of us would even know about the pandemic because every year, normally in Canada, we lose, you know, six, seven, eight, nine thousand people from the regular flu, anyways.
And I'm not happy about that either.
I'm just saying this pandemic isn't what it was sold to be.
So yeah, News Speak, Orwellian Doublethink, it's been here for a long time.
Trudeau doesn't spend your tax dollars.
He invests them for you.
You get my point.
But look at this ad from Airstrip One, sorry, from the United Kingdom.
Just watch this ad.
I'm going to play it for you twice because it's so intense.
I think you need to watch it twice to get all the little images and meanings.
It's quite hyper.
The sound, the editing, it's designed to be stressful.
Here, take a look.
It's from a real tweet from the UK Home Office.
The tweet reads: All gatherings are currently against the law.
Now, that's not true, of course, and I'll get to that in a moment.
But imagine writing that it were true and trying to convince people that it were true and thinking you were a hero for doing so.
And this: stay home, protect the NHS, save lives.
NHS is the National Health Service, it's their government-run healthcare over there.
You might think that the purpose of the health system is to save you, but you're wrong in double think the purpose is for you to save the health service.
Save lives, don't save your own life, don't live your own life.
That's not allowed.
Save lives by not living at all.
Stay in your home like a prisoner.
So now watch the video.
Don't meet people using riot cops in full SWAT team gear to break up a baby shower.
Demonic music, demonic images.
The state will crush you.
It's dark.
If you try to live, we will hunt you down.
No gatherings, no meetings, not even a baby shower.
You will be arrested.
We will attack you with clubs if necessary.
Watch it again.
Near the end, I think they even show some blurred police violence right after the baby shower part.
I couldn't quite tell.
Take a look again.
Monstrous film was conceived, approved, compiled, edited, approved again, filmed, and published by a government agency.
I bet 100 people in government looked at that before it went out, and they all said, yep, that's us.
That's who we are.
That's where we are now.
I'm sure it is.
I think it really does reflect government these days.
We've got a Christian pastor in prison in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, but it's everywhere.
Remember that homeless man we're helping in Australia who lives in his car.
Police came by to give him a $1,652 ticket for violating a curfew, but he doesn't have a home.
He compared that to people who come by and throw rocks at him while he's sleeping in his car.
That's the authoritarian instinct of police to harass this guy in his car.
The video that they're playing in the UK, that's their rock video.
That's their anthem.
That's their cheer.
They love it.
Imagine some lockdown police watching this horrific video on full volume a couple of times before going out just to rough up people.
You're in bank.
This is a song!
Move back!
I was on public property!
Yeah.
You know, sometimes it's hard to believe that the Brits once ruled the largest empire in history, larger than Rome or Greece, and all in an ennobling, improving way.
Now, I see tyranny.
You know, the Brits used to run Canada and America, half of Africa, India, the Middle East, Australia, and now look at what they become.
Look at what they become.
China has its brutality too, by the way, but in a strange way, I don't know, it doesn't seem as capricious as what we just saw there from the Home Office.
I wouldn't want to be a Tibetan or a Uyghur or a democracy activist in China.
I would not do well there.
You know, you'll be gulaged, maybe you'll be killed.
If you're a Uyghur woman, you'll be raped, perhaps.
It's terrible, but I don't think even China has SWAT team violence against baby showers and then brags about it.
I could be wrong.
Britain, where the legal maxim, a man's home is his castle, came from, you know, that famous case.
It's not anymore, is it?
Now it's, oi, where's your license to have a friend over?
And then a police billy club to the head.
Adam Wagner is a British civil rights lawyer.
He points out that this is just not legally true, what the Home Office says.
Here's what Adam Wagner says in reply.
He says, oh my goodness, I'm not sure where to start.
He says, this is the Home Office, the government department responsible for law and order.
This tweet and video grossly misstate the law.
All gatherings are not illegal.
There are a huge number of gatherings that are illegal.
And then in this tweet, he says, meeting up is not, quote, against the law.
Some gatherings are prohibited, but if you read the law itself, there are many exceptions, including where reasonably necessary for work, volunteering, accessing social services, assisting vulnerable people, support groups, avoiding harm.
In another tweet in reply to this video, he said, the video is ridiculous.
The music, the footage, it's like something from The Simpsons.
But aside from that, it is fear-mongering and legally illiterate.
It could lead people misunderstanding and not, example, leaving home to access, assist the vulnerable.
It should be removed.
So he's right.
He's being rather lawyerly about it, which makes sense.
He's a lawyer.
He's saying, look, the lockdown is bad, but it's not quite as bad as that video says.
And he's right.
People will believe this video.
That's the point of this video.
Not just citizens, but I'm sure many police will watch this too and say, right on, that's what we do.
Do you really think that police can understand the changing laws, laws that change week to week?
Red zone, gray zone, orange zone.
And what is a law?
Lawyerly Lockdown Defense00:15:07
And what is just guidance?
And what is just a politician mouthing off at a press conference?
And what is a low information, high-malice Twitter video ad?
So Adam Wagner is right.
It's junk law by the people in charge of the law.
In that way, it's an utter disgrace.
But in another way, even Adam Wagner's response is sad because we're quarreling over details now.
Please, Master, may I have an exemption?
I promise I'm going to work.
And it's essential work, not non-essential work like my neighbor does.
Please, sir, let me go to my essential meeting.
It's an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting, very important for my mental health, unlike my neighbor who just wants to go to church and we know what they're like.
We're quibbling about details, you see, as we approach the one-year anniversary of two weeks to flatten the curve.
We're just quibbling about details.
Stay with us for more about what's going on in Alberta.
If you would have told me one year ago that there would be a pastor arrested and jailed for conducting a church service, I would not have guessed that the country you were talking about was Canada.
And I would not have guessed that the province would be Alberta and that the government would be one that, at least in name, calls itself conservative and that is led by a Christian himself, Jason Kenney.
But alas, all those things have come true.
In the case of Pastor James Coates, the pastor of a large church west of Edmonton called the Grace Life Church.
See, the thing about Pastor Coates is he thinks that a church should have the same rights as, oh, say, a big box store like Walmart or Costco or even in Alberta, the restaurants are open again.
But that is not the view of the unelected, unaccountable public health officer of the province who has issued orders not only shutting down the church, but since the pastor himself refuses to comply, he's being prosecuted and he sits in jail to this day.
No legislature has approved this, no elected official.
It's all being done by a power-mad bureaucrat, a member of the public health deep state, Dr. Dina Hinshaw.
We're joined now by one of the few civil liberties lawyers in the country who even care about this.
You'll know exactly who I'm talking about.
It's our friends at the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedom.
And the lawyer we're talking with today is James Kitchen, who's in Calgary.
James, great to see you again.
First of all, thank you for taking this case.
We take some cases at Rebel News.
We've started our Fight the Viens project, but you guys have been fighting for civil liberties for a decade now.
I salute you.
Thanks.
You are the lawyer for Pastor James Coates.
Have I accurately recited the basic facts of the case?
The basic facts, yes.
There's a lot of details to throw in, but that's the basic situation.
Well, why don't you give me some more details?
I have in front of me your press release.
I understand that the police came, gave him a ticket, said shut her down.
He didn't.
They didn't arrest him right then.
The next week they came.
They said, shut her down.
He didn't.
They said, sign this undertaking, which is like a legal promise that you'll shut her down.
He refused to sign.
Then they arrested him, charged him, prosecuted him for breaking his undertaking, which he actually never signed.
And because he still won't bend the knee, he still won't say, yes, I will shut down my church.
He sits in jail and will for at least another week waiting for a hearing.
Are those some of the details?
And please jump in now, fill in the gaps.
I don't want to get it wrong.
I want to hear from you, the lawyer.
No, that's essentially it.
He was charged with breaching an undertaking, which is a serious criminal code charge.
But of course, the undertaking of that, the validity of the undertaking is questionable at best because he didn't agree with it.
What's supposed to happen when you're arrested, if you don't agree to an undertaking, you're supposed to be brought to a justice of the peace right then and there.
So when he was arrested on the 7th, and it wasn't really an arrest, it was just a meeting in his office at the church.
The RCMP left that detail out.
What should have happened when he refused at that point to sign the undertaking is he should have gone before the JP right then and there.
The RCMP didn't do that.
They waited a week and then he held church again.
And then they charged him with breaching that undertaking, which is really not the way it should have been done.
So, you know, and the Justice of the Peace at the bail hearing that occurred here on Tuesday generally agreed with that.
And that and a number of other reasons decided that it wasn't appropriate to detain him.
Interesting enough, though, the prosecution did ask the JP to detain him.
As far as the prosecution was concerned, he was a menace to the public.
You know, and the prosecution said that it would actually be bringing the administration of justice into disrepute to release him.
I mean, obviously, I feel it's the other way around.
I think it's a stain on the administration of justice putting a pastor in jail for holding church.
So anyways, the JP did release him, but under the condition that he stop holding church as he had been doing.
And of course, obviously that violates his conscience to agree to that.
So without agreeing to the condition for release, he can't be released.
And so he's in jail.
Wow.
Now, let me just ask a question.
It's been a while since I practiced law.
I did practice in Edmonton, which is, I presume that's the judicial center that has been carrying this case.
Am I right?
Parkland County, does it have its own quarter where is this in court in Edmonton?
Well, it was in Stony Plain, which is right beside Edmonton.
And now he's been taken to the Edmonton Reman Center.
When I was a young lawyer, I did some lawyering at the Reman Center, probably the old one.
It is one of the worst facilities you could be put into, at least back in the day when I was a young lawyer in Edmonton.
First of all, it was a maximum security facility.
It's where people were taken right off the streets.
They may still be drunk.
They may still be drugged up.
They may have come straight from a fight.
Literally, murderers are held there pending their disposition.
That's my memory of the Edmonton Reman Center when I practiced law there more than 20 years ago.
Is the pastor in a high security facility with violent criminals?
I hope not.
To be perfectly honest, I'm not entirely sure.
I haven't had a chance to talk to him since he's gone there.
I talked to him when he was still at the station yesterday just before he left.
I haven't had a chance to connect with him since.
You know, one of the first things I'm going to ask him is how he's doing and how he's being treated there.
Unfortunately, on top of the fact that he's in jail, they, of course, put him in this 14-day isolation, which is basically solitary confinement because of their ridiculous COVID restrictions.
So normally he would eventually be entitled to some sort of visit or contact with his wife.
Well, he can't have that right now because of the COVID restrictions.
So it's kind of jail on top of jail.
And just, you know, to add salt to the wound.
So that's unfortunate.
You know, but he's obviously a very courageous man.
He's in there out of principal, you know, and he's got his Bible with him.
And so he's, I think, I think he's probably doing all right.
I certainly hope so.
And I look forward to talking to him again.
Well, I look forward to an update on that.
I have visited a man in prison before who was in solitary confinement.
And I can tell you that a day in solitary confinement is like a week or a month in regular jail.
The mind plays tricks on you.
It's the isolation.
And when I visited someone in solitary, frankly, the first 20 minutes of the conversation, the person in solitary was not all there.
The stress of dealing with the person after being really in an isolation tank is a form of torture.
Solitary confinement has been called a form of torture.
And the fact that he doesn't have visits even from his own wife, which I don't understand, because of course he's living with his wife.
Why would he have to be separated from his wife in prison?
They were both just, it makes no sense to me other than as a punitive example to any other pastor who would dare stop worshiping Dina Hinshaw, the unelected, unaccountable public health bureaucrat.
And that comes to my next point.
I don't believe in police meddling with police, with politicians meddling with police.
We have to have some sort of separation.
We don't want what we see in Toronto, where the mayor commands the police like they're his toy soldiers.
It's a terrible thing.
But in this case, where it's so obviously a political fight, where the Charter of Rights are so obviously being violated, you need someone with better judgment, a more well-rounded judgment, and with democratic legitimacy to step in and say, you Alberta health bureaucrats who are having the time of your life, you've gone too far.
And public health is important, but we're balancing that with not just any old freedom, but our fundamental freedoms.
And I note that freedom of religion is the very first freedom in the charter, even ahead of freedom of speech, even ahead of freedom of the press, freedom of conscience and belief and religion.
And I think it is a blemish on Alberta, whose motto is strong and free: that a Christian pastor rots in solitary confinement for 14 days because some bureaucrat says Walmart can open, but not your church.
Yeah, it's dark times.
You know, that is something.
If we weren't the boiling frog right now, we'd probably be more shocked because, I mean, the idea of a pastor being thrown in jail is so utterly antithetical and foreign to a nation that purports to be free and democratic.
I mean, that's something you expect to hear from China or North Korea.
We often do hear it, right?
And hopefully that's ringing some bells for people who think, okay, I'm hearing now something that's happening on a regular basis in a totalitarian dystopian nightmare like China and North Korea.
Maybe that means that there's something wrong with our country right now that purports to not be a totalitarian dystopian nightmare.
Now, I know Jason Kenney.
I've known him on a personal level for, frankly, most of my adult life.
It was that same time I was up in Edmonton going to law school and then practicing law that I met him.
So we go way back, and I've always known him to be an advocate for religious freedom.
In fact, I think he was instrumental in the creation of the Office of Religious Freedom under Stephen Harper.
I find it very contradictory that the greatest violation of religious freedom in Canada also happens to be in the province of which he's premier.
I know the JCCF, your Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms, has written to Premier Kenny asking him to intervene and to countermand his out-of-control health bureaucrats.
Have you had any response?
Your letter was sent yesterday.
Have you had any response from the Premier's office?
Not that I'm aware of.
You know, I certainly hope for a response, but I'm not overly expectant.
You know, what's one of the problems is not just Kenny, but in general, we see a lack of responsiveness from governments, you know, from the pleas of their people that are crying out about the economic devastation and the loss of their liberties.
There seems to be a lot of indifference and a lot of callousness.
I mean, obviously they say otherwise, but I judge people by their actions.
And the actions of governments are that they really don't care about their people at all, right?
And now, of course, they say they do, because the COVID restrictions are all vote-saving lives.
Meanwhile, the restrictions themselves are destroying far more human life, whether it's through life itself, people dying because they can't get their medical care, or through the economic loss, the relational loss, the mental health devastation, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
So it's in the name of compassion that governments seem to be destroying their own people.
Well, I mean, if I can make one more reference to my glory days as a lawyer, I recall that under our Constitution, we have these lists of fundamental freedoms.
I mentioned a few of them earlier.
But even before that, our Charter of Rights says that they may be infringed only if it's demonstrably justifiable in a free and democratic society.
So there are some limits on our freedoms, but I do remember from law school that it's a very high test that the government has to make.
There was a case called the Oaks test, the Oaks, and it's being called the Oaks test.
The infringements have to be proportionate.
I don't think throwing a pastor in solitary confinement for two weeks is proportionate.
They have to be rationally connected to the pressing and substantial problem.
I don't know how shutting down a church, but not shutting down a Costco is rational.
And finally, pressing and substantial, I mentioned that a moment ago.
I see that the cases of the virus in Alberta are plummeting.
I mean, forget about the fact that Trudeau hasn't brought in any vaccines.
This thing's going away.
Like it's down more than 50% in just a couple of weeks.
Out there in west of Edmonton, it is not a hotspot.
So even if there was a factual rationale for this, let's say a month or two ago, it's gone now.
I mean, the pandemic's pretty much over.
So I think that if there even was a charter rationale for this bizarre, punitive, and selective lockdown, it's no longer there.
What do you think of my back of a napkin analysis on the Oaks test?
Well, we can spend a long time on this, but ultimately what it comes down to is the judges, right?
The judges get to interpret Section 1.
And if you look at the last 20 years, 20, 25 years, the Section 1 test itself hasn't changed, but how it's been interpreted and used and applied by judges has changed.
That threshold you mentioned as being very high, it once was.
It no longer is in practice.
Barbecue and Belief Resilience00:06:55
In reality, when you go to the court, it no longer is.
The court has somewhat become a rubber stamp for government action instead of that lever of accountability.
And that's ultimately the problem, right?
I think we'd be seeing more of these restrictions struck down as not being justified under Section 1 If the court was ruling in the same way that it did in the 80s and 90s when the charter first came out, I don't think this would have flown.
If this was 88 and people like Yakobucci was still on the bench of the Supreme Court, and Justice Major was probably the most pro-freedom justice we had at the advent of the charter.
I don't think you would have saw this go through.
Well, we're in the era of woke law, that's for sure.
Let me ask you this.
So the pastors in jail, I'm not even going to say jail.
I think it's in a maximum security.
If he is in the reman center, I think he is.
And the West Side Edmonton there, maximum security.
You're telling me it's solitary confinement.
You can't even get a visitor.
Two weeks, that'll do psychological damage to you.
I'm just saying.
So he's out of action for two weeks.
Political prisoner, absolutely.
But what happens to the church on Sunday?
You and I are talking close to the end of the week.
There's probably other pastors, deputy pastors, other church leaders who probably want to open that place up.
And last I saw, this is a popular church.
You're probably going to see a lot of regular congregants go.
What's going to happen on Sunday?
That's going to be interesting to see.
My guess is that the church is going to hold church in some fashion.
And, you know, I have no reason to think they're going to do anything different than what they have been doing.
Ultimately, who they follow is the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's not James Coates.
So I think you're going to see much of the same thing this weekend.
So if the government is thinking, you know, we'll just take out the leader and everybody will scatter.
I think these people's belief is a little more resilient than that.
So it'll be interesting to see what they do this weekend.
Well, our own Sheila Gunread has been on the scene.
In fact, she was actually in the church and had an exclusive interview with Pastor Coates.
And I recommend to our viewers to watch it elsewhere on our website if you haven't seen it yet.
I mean, I suppose theoretically they could do what they did to Adamson's barbecue in Toronto.
They could change the locks, bar the doors, weld it shut, bring riot cops.
And you say this is the RCMP, so this is Justin Trudeau's police.
So they'll do anything.
I mean, I wouldn't put it past them.
I'm very curious because with Adamson's barbecue in Toronto, you had, you drew people from all over the greater Toronto area who had been protesting the lockdowns for weeks or months.
So it wasn't like a local organic, we're supporting our local guy.
It was, oh, here's a guy standing up.
Let's drive across town to support him.
I think it's different here.
It's not just a barbecue sandwich place.
It's a church.
It's not just support the guy out of fraternal solidarity.
It's a religious freedom matter.
And his congregants are severely normal, regular people.
They're not sort of professional activists.
I think they will be a much tougher nut to crack.
Mayor John Torrey brought out 100 cops, 50 cop cars, six riot horses to dispatch the protesters.
I think unless you got that kind of firepower, you're not going to stop these dedicated grassroots Christians.
That's just the sense I get of it.
I think you're pretty close to the mark.
And I'll note that as far as being able to bring in the police and barricade the church, that could have happened two months ago when the first AHS order was issued.
And at the time, I wondered if it would happen.
And I actually prepared the church for that possibility.
So, I mean, two months have gone by and that hasn't happened, which is very interesting.
So, yeah, it could happen.
It could have already happened.
And I don't know.
Maybe it'll happen someday.
It really comes down to the political will, right?
I mean, is there the political will to do that?
I don't know.
We'll see.
There was political will to arrest him and put him in jail.
I mean, the pastor, I mean.
So we'll see.
Yeah, I mean, it depends on how vicious these public health bureaucrats are.
Again, I'm just here in Toronto and Eileen De Villa, the public health bureaucrat for Toronto, is so vicious.
The Premier is talking about relaxing the lockdown, but she says, I will not relax it.
I will continue it and strengthen it.
I've never seen a tyrant like that before.
I don't know Dina Hinshaw well enough to know what her temperament is, but you try and have a staring contest with these bureaucrats and they say, I'll show you.
That's what happened in Toronto.
That's why the riot squad, a riot squad with riot horses, was sent to a restaurant.
I think that what happens this Sunday at the Grace Life Church in Parkland County is perhaps the most important civil liberties moment in Canada.
I think that it's more important than a restaurant.
Like I like Adam Skelly of Adamson's Barbecue, but at the end of the day, it's just a restaurant.
I'm not disparaging that, but it's not a foundational strategic freedom like freedom of religion, conscience.
This is the foundation of the whole house.
And you've got hundreds of churchgoers and you've got a man who's in solitary now.
I can't think of a bigger showdown.
And I'm going to make a prediction to you, James, and I'll ask you for your last thoughts.
I think that Dina Hinshaw, the public health bureaucrat for Alberta, knows that if she doesn't crush the Grace Church rebellion, it'll spread.
If this church is allowed to win the staring contest with her, maybe another church and another church and a synagogue and a mosque and a Sikh temple.
And I think she says, I have to smash these people to atoms, because if I don't, then people will laugh at me.
And I can't have people laugh at me.
I am the queen.
So I think it's going down this Sunday.
Now, that's my view from 2,000 miles away.
What do you think?
I think that's accurate.
I think that's historically accurate.
Encouraging Support: JCCF Thank You Party00:05:15
That's how it works, right?
I mean, why did Kenny relent or Dr. Hinshaw relent on the saloons, salon, sorry, and the restaurants?
Because the rebellion got out of control and they knew they couldn't contain it and they had to relent.
That's how democracy works, for better or for worse.
It's how it works.
So yeah, I think, you know, your analysis is just, it makes sense.
That's just how it works.
It's how it's historically worked, right?
So yeah, I think, you know, when people get arrested and places get shut down, it's, you know, the fancy word we use for is deterrence.
But really what that means is, you know, I make an example of you so that none of you will do what he did.
That's what that is, right?
And that's what's going on here.
So yeah, it'll be interesting to see how other churches react and, you know, what spreads and how.
Well, listen, we have a great interest in what you're doing.
As I started off our conversation, we're very supportive of the JCCF, the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms.
We admire your work and that of your colleagues.
We interview your colleagues from time to time, including John Carpe, the boss over there.
So we're very proud of the work you're doing.
I'd like to encourage our viewers to chip in at jccf.ca.
We do crowdfunding here at Rebel News all the time.
JCCF can use the dough too, especially for such an important case.
Don't be shy.
They're one of the few civil liberties, public interest law firms in this whole country.
There is so much work.
We need 10 law firms like the JCCF.
So thank you, James, for what you're doing.
Will you be up there this Sunday?
No, it's a bit of a drive for me.
I've thought about going, but it's three hours, and I'll probably get up there eventually.
Yeah, I don't know about this Sunday.
But I'm sure someone in the church will be videoing everything on their cell phones just to document it, right?
Yeah, I have no doubts about that.
And it'll be interesting to see if Sheila captures anything as well.
I'm sure she'll go.
I haven't spoken to her about it, but I know she's very dedicated to this story and has a couple of videos out on it.
I think it's the most important civil liberties battle in Canada.
James, thanks for spending so much time with me and thanks for letting me relive some of my days as an Edmonton lawyer.
I hope I didn't bore you too much with my old stories.
But when I think about my visit to the Reman Center those 20 odd years ago, it was one of the worst places I had ever been in my life until that moment.
You don't want to go to the high maximum security reman center.
You don't want to be there.
And the fact, if that's true, that that's where the pastor is right now, that is a cruel and unusual punishment.
And that will live for the eternal shame of this Alberta provincial government.
James, good luck to you and the team at JCCF.
Thank you.
All right, there you have it.
James Kitchen, the lawyer who's working on behalf of Grace Life Church.
I'm sure Sheila Gunri will have more stories, including on Sunday.
Stay with us.
Hey, welcome back on my show last night.
Paul writes, which puppet is the most puppet-like?
Doesn't matter.
They're walking rubber stamps for the communist Chinese and whoever else bought their way into power.
Yeah, it is really shocking to me.
I mean, I remember, and I'm older than you probably, that once upon a time, the Liberal Party really held itself out as the party of human rights and civil rights.
And we care about people and, you know, we care about suffering around the world.
They don't even pretend anymore.
They're corporatist globalists.
They love Huawei.
They love, you know, big multinationals.
Where is that old bleeding heart liberal?
I miss that.
Jack writes, what a clown.
Wasn't it only last year that he said Canada was guilty of genocide with the Indigenous people?
Yeah, that's my point.
He calls Canada genocidal, but China, no, no, he won't go that far.
Gilly writes, it seems that disarming the public is part of the Trudeau agenda.
Well, yeah, I was reading, though, that the number of firearms that are used in actual crimes in the city that are covered by this ban, it's, you know, the number of firearms that are currently legal is like, what, 5% maybe?
Crooks don't use, you know, let's use a big long shotgun for a gang shooting on the street.
They don't do that.
They use illegal guns to begin with.
And even if the guns that they were using became banned, if you're shooting an innocent person, you sort of tipped us off that you don't care about following the law.
I regard this gun grab, as I said to Andrew yesterday, as simply a way from changing the channel away from Trudeau's inability to negotiate a vaccine deal.
That's our show for today.
What do you think of that Orwellian ad?
I think if the pastor in jail in Edmonton saw that ad, he'd say, yep, that's about right.
Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home, good night.