Jason Kenney’s Alberta lockdown, triggered at 50 COVID cases per 100k (May 5), contradicts his earlier 350-case threshold, exempting the NHL and Walmart while banning gatherings over five—even in rural areas like Mirror’s Whistle Stop Diner, padlocked by RCMP despite no outbreaks. Faith services face 15-person limits, yet businesses serving sparse populations endure harsh enforcement, sparking outrage over selective restrictions. The move underscores a pattern of prioritizing political optics over public health, raising questions about compliance and fairness in crisis governance. [Automatically generated summary]
Today I look through Jason Kenney's new lockdown on Alberta.
The first thing to note is that he said he would bring in these harsh measures if the infection rates or the case rates per 100,000, as they're called, were 350 plus.
So he said, oh, if they're really bad, that's going to trigger the lockdown.
But in fact, yesterday he said he's putting the lockdown in at 50 per 100,000, one seventh the level, a level that's lower than every single province other than the small population Atlantic provinces.
So what is really going on?
I'll take you through it point by point and I'll give you my thoughts on it.
It's very, very annoying.
Before I get there, let me invite you to become a subscriber to Rebel News Plus.
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All right, thanks very much.
Tuesday show.
Tonight, Jason Kenney throws Alberta into a brutal lockdown.
But why are Walmart and the NHL exempt?
It's May 5th, 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 will watch the public is because it's my bloody right to do so.
Last night, Jason Kenney announced the harshest lockdown yet for Alberta.
He's banning pretty much all social interaction, both inside and outside, shutting down countless businesses, and he's doubling down on his enforcement.
We are doubling the basic fine for violating public health measures from $1,000 to $2,000.
The maximum fine for serious offenses remains under the law $100,000.
And we are introducing a tougher enforcement protocol for repeat offenders because we will not tolerate those who endanger the health of their fellow Albertans while the vast majority of people are doing the right thing.
But why is he doing all this?
This is the chart from the Alberta government's own website of COVID stats showing that the daily deaths in the province, well, it's about five a day on average, 81 years old, with on average, three or more very serious health conditions preexisting, like dementia, stroke, cancer, diabetes.
I'm not happy that five people a day are dying from COVID, but it's nowhere near the leading cause of death in that province.
And as you can see in the government's own graph, it's pretty much the rate of death since the beginning of the whole thing last year, except for that big spike in December and January when it was 25 deaths per day.
So it's down by 80% from 90 days ago.
So why is the government locking everyone down now?
See the graph for yourself.
The death rate was flat.
It's off the spike from December, January.
So why panic?
I know why.
Because cases are up, they say.
But what's a case?
Someone who tests positive but doesn't even get sick?
That counts as a case, you know.
Someone who gets sick, but it's so mild it's over in a couple of days like the regular flu, and then they're naturally immune to it.
That's a case too, you know.
You can't actually stop a virus.
They've been coming at us since we lived in caves.
People who get sick from the virus and get better, that's not actually a terrible outcome.
If you're worried about dying, and that's a good thing to be worried about, I guess, how about focus on, you know, the 81-year-olds with heart conditions and strokes and cancer.
I'm all for that.
Let's take care of them.
But the thing is, last night, that is not who Jason Kenney's new rules focus on.
I know because I watched his speech and I read his new memo.
Things for 81-year-old, very sick people, they're not actually going to change at all.
What will change are the rules for everyone else?
People who aren't dying and who aren't even getting sick.
I don't think this is about health.
I think this is about control and power.
And it's about political games.
Take a look at this.
Here is the official list of rules.
Expanded restrictions for high-case regions.
Starting May 5th, additional restrictions come into effect for regions with at least 50 cases per 100,000 people and at least 30 active cases.
These restrictions will be in place for at least three weeks and will be extended if necessary.
Province-wide restrictions remain in effect for all other communities.
Well, hang on, Just the other day, Jason Kenney was threatening tough measures, but he said he would only apply them if the case rate was 350 per 100,000 people.
But now he's bringing in his harsh rules at one-seventh that level, at 50 per 100,000.
What?
Literally all of Canada would be locked down under that rule, except for the small population provinces in the Atlantic.
50 cases per 100,000?
That's his rule for a brutal crackdown.
That's not a good idea.
No one else in the whole world does that.
His threshold for a crisis is not a crisis.
It's ridiculously low.
It's lower than he said it would be just a couple days ago.
And look at how draconian it is.
Indoor gatherings.
All indoor gatherings remain prohibited.
Oh, just that.
Just banning all gatherings.
Except for his government gatherings, I presume, the meetings of his cabinet to ban everyone else.
They meet.
They're very important.
Outdoor gatherings.
All outdoor social gatherings must be limited to no more than five people and a maximum of two household cohorts.
Mandatory physical distancing must be maintained at all times between members of different households.
So I got it.
So two people can meet up outside in a giant field with three people, but they can't actually meet.
They have to stay six feet apart.
And that's outside, by the way.
Yeah.
Look, I know the political class, the media class, they love this lockdown.
But normal humans will not do that, cannot do that.
We're social creatures.
Do you really think that even conservative MLAs will follow that rule?
We know the answer.
Half of Kenny's MLAs and even his own chief of staff scoffed at his no travel rule for the public over Christmas.
No one listens to these absurd rules, certainly not the ruling class.
And stay home, but only to watch TV.
Let me read some more.
Indoor activities, all indoor sport, performance, and recreation activities for youth and adults are prohibited.
Indoor fitness and recreation facilities must close, including for one-on-one training.
Not a single person under age 20 has died from the virus in Alberta, by the way.
I don't think that indoor sports for youth are the problem, do you?
There are no 81-year-old triple-sick people in those groups that were just banned.
Neither are there 20-something coaches.
Why are you punishing kids by making them unhealthy?
You can't go to sports.
You can't work out.
Why do you think this will suddenly make people in seniors' homes safer?
Now look at this juxtaposition.
Look at this.
Outdoor activities.
All outdoor activities and recreational activities are prohibited except with members of your household or your two close contacts if you live alone.
This includes all group physical activities such as team sports, fitness classes, training sessions, and one-on-one sessions and training activities, all practices, training and games.
Again, I don't think there's a lot of 81-year-olds with strokes and diabetes and cancer that are being covered here.
But no team sports at all, no kids' sports, nothing.
But look at this next bullet point and realize what's going here.
This is not about health.
This is about power and influence and who's on the inside and who's on the outside.
Look at this next point.
Professional sport organizations, professional sport organizations that have received an exemption can continue, provided protocols are strictly followed.
Oh, oh, hmm.
I thought it was dangerous to do team sports.
I thought people were really, really bad if they did that and needed extra enforcement.
I thought they hated society if they did that.
Not only do NHL players get to play, while your kids don't, but their exemptions include the right for them to have their whole entourage go out to restaurants for dinner and have those restaurants open up to serve them, but only them.
See, your problem as a citizen or as a kid who wants to play hockey is that you don't have the right lobbyists and you're not millionaires playing hockey for billionaires.
You're just kids wanting to burn off some energy and hang out with friends and have fun.
See, the virus doesn't touch the millionaires, you see.
That's science, you see.
Now look at this about stores.
Mandatory additional restrictions for high case regions, effective May 5th.
Remember, they're calling high case regions 50 cases or more when just two days ago, Kenny said it was 350 cases or more.
He lowered what he calls high case rates.
Let me read.
Retail services must limit customer capacity to 10% of fire code occupancy, not including staff, or a minimum of five customers.
So stores can have 10% of their fire code capacity.
So a Walmart that could legally hold, say, I don't know, 1,000 or 1,500 people can take 10% of that.
So 100 or 150 at a time, as if they even count, as if they even limited.
But look at this.
Mandatory additional restrictions for high-case regions.
Faith services are limited to 15 in-person attendees.
Physical distancing between households must be maintained at all times.
Hang on, hang on, hang on.
Did you catch that?
You just said that Walmart could have 10% of its fire code.
So it's a proportion of its size.
So that could be hundreds.
But a church, even a large church, even what they call mega churches, it could hold thousands.
They can only have 15 people no matter how large they are.
So Walmart gets 10% of their capacity, but a huge church doesn't.
That's obviously absurd.
It's like California.
You know, they banned singing in churches, but not in Hollywood studios.
That's why the Supreme Court of the United States struck down that ban because it was bigoted against churches.
Just like these rules are, there's a church, as you know, in Calgary.
The Senate Street Church holds over 3,000 people.
They're only allowed to 15.
You know, Kenny changed the terms of his deal.
He said he'd crack down on regions of the province that had 350 cases per 100,000.
I disagree with that on its own right, but he literally said that 48 hours ago.
Look at his tweet.
New measures apply to municipalities or regions with 350-plus cases per 100,000 people and 250-plus currently active cases.
Now he just made it 50 cases per 100,000.
Cases, not people sick, not people in the hospital, just cases.
But he's still exempting his NHL friends, and he's still exempting the lobbyists from Costco and Walmart, just not the churches.
And he's going to deploy the cops heavy duty.
We are doubling the basic fine for violating public health measures from $1,000 to $2,000.
The maximum fine for serious offenses remains under the law $100,000.
And we are introducing a tougher enforcement protocol for repeat offenders because we will not tolerate those who endanger the health of their fellow Albertans while the vast majority of people are doing the right thing.
Yeah, I'm not sure how that's going to go.
You know, many Albertans, like many other Canadians, love being told what to do.
They find it, you know, feeling a safety and security being bossed around.
Some prisoners in prison do the same.
It's a way of coping.
They like being told what to do.
Other people are holding the stick during the lockdown.
They're not being hit with the stick.
The staycation class, the lockdown class, the bureaucrats, the officials, the teachers, unions, the politicians, for example, the media, they love the lockdown.
But many Albertans, I don't think they're going to.
Rural Albertans in particular, who have nothing to do with spreading diseases in big cities, anyone, rural or urban, who looks at the science on the government's own website and asks, why are you bullying children and young people and shutting down businesses for families when they're simply not at risk statistically?
Or some people will say, you know, we live with risk every day.
Life is about making thoughtful decisions about risk, whether it's crossing the street or what you choose to eat.
And 14 months into this, it's not the apocalypse we were told it would be.
The time for panicking, if we wanted to panic, might have been in the beginning of the pandemic when we knew nothing about it.
Or it might have been in December when the death rate suddenly quintupled in Alberta.
Why is it happening only now, this panic, when the death rate is down to five a day, one in a million people, to be precise?
Why now?
Well, precisely for that reason.
The hyperdrama is necessary to keep the state of fear going because the pandemic itself doesn't seem to be scaring people, a fact that Kenny himself noted last night.
I know all of this is discouraging to hear.
Nobody wants to be here, especially after 14 months with multiple waves of this pandemic.
Panic And Property Rights00:13:06
You know, my old magazine that's being reborn called the Western Standard, I haven't been with them for over a decade, but I think they're doing a great job now.
You know, the Western Standard reported that Jason Kenney told his caucus he doesn't much care for his party's base anymore.
He wants a new party base.
Good luck with that.
That's the Aaron O'Toole Patrick Brown approach to conservative politics.
But really, at what point is it obvious that Albertans are done with living in fear, even if the government itself isn't?
Stay with us for more on the Whistle Stop Cafe and how the government's cracking down on them.
Well, early this morning, the RCMP raided the Whistle Stop Diner in the small town of Mirror, Alberta.
As you know, we have been crowdfunding a lawyer to defend that shop.
It's a diner.
It's a general store.
It's a gas station.
It's really the only thing in Mirror, population 502.
Well, this morning, police raided it and put a chain on the door.
A few hours after that, I went live via Skype with our friend Sheila Gunread, who was on the scene.
Here are some excerpts from that interview.
Joining us now live from Mirror, Alberta, at the site of the police raid is our friend and chief reporter, Sheila Gunread.
Sheila, how are you doing?
Hey, Ezra.
Well, you know what?
I'm just landing here at the whistle stop, just trying to sort everything out.
I guess, like everybody involved, at 6.30 this morning, RCMP, along with Alberta Health Services and the RCMP conflict resolution team, whom I've seen down at Grace Life Church, rolled in here and paddle locked the doors and cut Chris Scott off from, according to him, about $70,000 worth of inventory,
perishable inventory that he had stocked up for an event that they are holding here on Saturday.
And it sounds like the event is still going to go ahead, whether or not they've locked the doors.
I don't think that matters to Chris.
Yeah, now, I looked at the Alberta regulations for restaurants, these new draconian regulations that were brought in last night by Jason Kenney.
But if I'm not mistaken, they were like, Kenny announced a bunch of different rules last night.
Some of them took almost immediate effect, but others, I think, delayed a few days, including, I think, the ban on restaurants.
And I would imagine that's so that restaurants could use up their perishable inventory.
That's just my guess if I had to wonder why some things kicked in on May 5th and some things kicked in until May 9th.
Justin, if you can, can you go to alberta.ca slash stop the spike?
And we'll check the rules there.
We'll put them up on the screen, Sheila, as we go just to make sure.
So my first question is, if restaurants aren't being banned for another four days, which I believe is the case, and I'm going to check that really with you on screen here in real time.
Why would this restaurant, corner store, gas station essentially be expropriated today?
And we'll put those, it looks like Justin's found them here.
Can you scroll down a little bit and go to gatherings indoor and out or yeah, click on that one there, scroll down, retail, personal wellness, funerals.
Yeah, go to retail.
Just bear with us a second here.
Province-wide rescriptions, place of worship, scroll down.
Business, it's restaurants.
There we go.
Okay, so I got it on the screen right here, Sheila.
It says mandatory restrictions province-wide, effective May 9th at 11.59 p.m.
So that's basically midnight.
May 9th is Sunday night.
All in-person dining, including on patios, is prohibited.
Restaurants, pubs, bars, lounges, cafes, and food courts can be open for takeout, curbside, picket, and delivery only.
So why is this rule that doesn't take effect until midnight on Sunday being enforced against the Whistle Stop Diner on Wednesday morning?
Thanks, Justin.
You can take that down.
Well, it seems as though they're doing exactly to the whistle-stop what they did to Gracelife Church, and that is acting on an earlier closure notice.
So Albert Health Services has been issuing Chris closure notices all along.
He's just been saying, stick it on the wall with the other one.
I'm going to keep going.
And so now they're using those prior closure notices to shut Chris down before his anticipated super spreader event, as they say, coming up on the weekend.
Do you have a copy of the order?
Like, for example, is the building, I see the building behind you.
It looks like people are still able to pump gas.
Is that true?
No.
Nope.
Those are people, just supporters who saw the live stream that Chris posted this morning at 6:30 and decided they had to do something and come down here.
But the doors are chained.
And so nobody can use the gas pumps.
These, it's, I mean, these are old-timey sort of small-town Alberta gas pumps.
So they're not automated.
You can't just put your debit card in and pump away.
You have to go inside the store, prepay for your fuel, then come back out.
So what Alberta Health Services and the RCMP did this morning when they locked the doors on this little gas station, convenience store, and restaurant is they cut off this small town and all the rural people around here from their only convenience store and gas station.
The next closest convenience store and gas station is 20 kilometers up the road in Bashaw.
It's an Esso up there.
So this just doubles everybody's commute.
You can't go to the corner store now if you live in Mirror, if you need milk.
You've got to fire up the vehicle and go to Bashaw now.
And you can't get fuel here.
Yeah, so that's a collective punishment, really.
I mean, Jason Kenney last night made it pretty clear that there's certain people he blames for the virus.
The virus is the virus.
There have been viruses for millions of years.
But apparently this virus is the fault of the whistle stop and the fault of people who went to the rodeo.
Certainly not the fault of Wuhan China.
Anyone who says so is obviously a racist, but it is, according to various governments, the fault, you know, they're blaming people for it.
And so I suppose it's fitting that they're meeting out a collective punishment by shutting down, shutting down the essential services for that whole town.
I mean, I haven't been in the whistle-stop, but I've seen your footage from inside.
And there is the restaurant, but it's also a counter.
There's hardware in there.
It's a general store.
That's what it would be called.
100 years ago, they would call that the general store.
Now it's called the convenience store.
It's the same thing.
But actually, a general store has more stuff and it's a gas station.
Now, where is the owner himself, who we see on the screen right now?
Where is Chris?
Chris was here all morning.
He's gone home for a shower and a cup of coffee.
And then he's, I texted him before I came on air with you.
He said he's on his way back.
Got it.
And are there any law enforcement or Alberta government people on the property?
No.
And that's an interesting thing that was in Chris's live stream this morning is when he was demanding and even pleading with the government officials to be allowed to go inside of his own property and turn the gas off, turn the equipment on, secure his restaurant for a long-term shutdown.
They wouldn't let him.
They only let his staff go in.
And they also said that they need to get out of here, the law enforcement, before other people woke up and saw what they were doing to Chris.
That's in the live stream.
Law enforcement say it.
They said, no, no, no, this is going to be quick.
We're going to get out of here because we don't want to be around when everybody else wakes up and sees what we've done.
Because they know that what they've done is shameful and disgraceful.
Was anyone on the scene when it happened?
Chris did have, I believe, one of his cooks and one of his staff who wait tables and operate the cash register on the convenience store side.
It's my understanding that they were both here because they were preparing for the morning rush, like the breakfast rush.
And so, you know, the RCMP, it's clear in their conversations with Chris in that live stream, wise of Chris to record that and broadcast it, that they knew that they had to get out of here before Chris's customers started showing up because they knew that the customers would strongly object to this.
Chris has the support not only of his community, but of so many Al Burtons.
And again, AHS and the government cannot point to a single case that's attributed to this restaurant that's been operating at full capacity, operating outside, holding events outside since it opened in objection to these restrictions in January.
There's not a single case here.
All the problems are in the city, and the rural people are being collectively punished.
Yeah, exactly.
And that's what I said at the beginning of the show.
When you have a town of 1,100, you know everybody, and you can much more effectively gauge the risk to you and to others and make your own decisions because you know what's going on.
It's a small town.
Do you know if those cooks or whoever were there in the morning, do you know if anyone caught the cops on video by any chance?
I mean, that would take some calm presence of mind to take out a cell phone and film things.
Not everyone would be thinking that way.
Do you know if that happened?
It's my understanding that it didn't, but that's just on the cursory information that I have right now.
Maybe that did happen, but I do know that, you know, as soon as the RCMP showed up, they were on the phone to Chris.
Chris was on his way down here and that was it.
They started locking the doors.
There's a chain across the door.
That's the fence that Chris erected.
Got it.
Okay, so we got a minivan and cars.
Okay, I thought we'd just see a bunch of Ford F-250s and whatnot.
There were, but those people have jobs.
Yeah.
So there was people in the past.
Yeah, so I can see the propane.
You take me a little closer if you don't mind.
You just take a, can you do that?
Sure.
I'm on a.
Oh, these guys are cheering for us.
Sorry, I'm just, things are falling off my tripod.
Gotta, you're carrying the tripod.
All right, so there's a lot of things.
So first of all, I see a big antenna.
Like, what's that all about?
Oh, that's the town cell phone tower.
That's the town.
So this is the everything store.
Yeah.
It's got the town cell phone tower.
I see a couple of porn potties there.
What's that little structure there by the pickup?
Okay, so that white screen right there.
Oh, he wanted to have an outdoor movie theater so people could still get together during the pandemic, right?
Right.
So when the pandemic first hit, sorry, I just have to step back and I left my cell phone and my other tripod right in the middle of the street.
Just give me a second.
So when the pandemic first hit and Chris was looking for ways to keep his community together and keep them from being isolated, he bought this movie screen so that people could come from all around and have outdoor movies.
And they cooked popcorn and whatever and delivered it to the cars so that everybody could social distance.
This is what kind of guy he is.
And I remember that the same health inspector said, no, you can't gather even if in your individual cars.
So that's what I mean by disgraceful public.
So I see there's some picnic tables in the movie theater.
I didn't, that's great.
Okay, so we see some more tables.
So let's point the camera to the left a little bit.
Freedom Is Essential00:03:16
Let's see what's take us by the store.
I want to do a little bit of a okay, freedom is essential.
All right.
So this is this is the Stock Freedom Park, they call it.
Right.
And so this is where they host events so that when Adam and I were here a couple weeks ago for their big barbecue with Adam Skelly, it was all sort of right here.
And this is where the beer gardens were.
And so this is their patio and they're cooking burgers because even though they're locked out, they are cooking burgers.
Hey guys, burger.
Well, you know what?
I wish I were there, Sheila.
Fantastic.
I wish I were there.
And they put up fences.
Chris, I don't know, I'll show you here.
He's put up a fence to keep the government out.
Yeah, that's a good idea.
It's a good reason to have a fence.
Yeah, that's why I have a fence at home.
But he's still got the Canadian flag.
So he's still hanging on with his toenails.
There's a little, those are fun things for the kids.
Yeah, and this cool Kubota tractor.
I'm a fan of Kubota.
This one is old enough to vote, obviously.
And then let's just go up to the store here.
You know what, Ralph Jean's girl?
Preaching your beanie.
We were sitting there, me and my buddies talking.
And we think you should run for premier.
Oh, I don't know, guys.
Well, there's a fan of Sheila Gunner.
I'll tell you what.
So they've got some t-shirts here.
Whistle stop.
I'll have to buy some Whistle Stop gear, some merch.
Yeah, there's Whistle Stop merch.
I think you can find that on their Facebook page.
And then the door.
Yeah, and there's where the chain is.
Does it show me the chain?
Yeah, there's a chain in the log.
You know what?
I don't need to give any instruction.
I'm a city boy.
I don't need to give instructions to the country boys about things.
Look how, like, I don't have big hands, but look, like how this is a very small chain.
Yeah.
I'm just saying.
I wouldn't, like I said, I wouldn't lock my bike up with that.
Yeah.
It's not strong enough.
That's the closed.
So not only have they closed the store itself.
Can you zoom in on that?
Because that's the order.
So what does that say?
Okay, so it's difficult because it's sort of behind the bars here, but it says that it's closed to the public.
And not only have they closed the store itself, but they've closed the campground next door, which also is run by Chris here at the Whistle Stop.
And what's the, who signed this letter?
Says it's ordered closed to public access until such time that this order is rescinded by an executive officer of Alberta Health Services.
So in my time with in trial with Pastor Coates, I learned that an executive officer can be any health inspector.
Right.
So it's just a fancy name that's trying to intimidate you.
Not Your Average 7-Eleven00:04:12
And then it looks like there's propane, lots of propane uses in the country.
Dairy, there's a dairy products truck there.
So this is not just your regular 7-Eleven in the city.
This is also the campground.
That's where they'd want the propane for.
Yeah.
So if they're closed, but I see there's campers there.
Yeah.
And some of these are long-term campers, people who work in and around the area.
Like you can see.
And these are not like, these are, like, that's a big diesel pusher.
That's an expensive camper.
And, you know, these are, some of them are long-term campers.
Some of them are just camping here because they need a place to camp.
And some of them are here to support Chris.
So, you know?
Yeah, these folks know how to do things.
That's how we.
All right.
Well, listen, very interesting.
I haven't read any comments.
Let me just see if I see Chris has just pulled up here.
Oh, well, let's go.
Okay, I was going to read some, but let's go and see if we can say a quick hello to Chris, if that's him there.
Yeah, I just saw him run by.
Well, sometimes your reception is crystal clear.
Other times it's a bit blurry.
It's crystal clear right now.
Listen, it's out in the country.
I'm underneath the cell tower.
Yeah, I think.
I tell you, I saw his, what does he call it?
A zombie burger.
Oh, yeah.
And, you know, I'm going low carb these days, so I would probably just order that without the bun.
And I know that's a really sitty thing to do, but I would eat it like a meatloaf.
That's fair.
I'd call it a meatloaf.
That's what I would do, Sheila.
Hey, Chris.
I don't know if it matters, Rebel News Girl, but you might want to put this out of the way of my life.
I'm live right now, actually.
Hi Chris!
I am financially secure and single active.
Hi Chris!
I'm live with Ezra right now.
Hi, Ezra.
Hey, say hello to Chris.
Give him a few questions.
Ask him what's what.
Okay, Chris.
So 6.30 this morning, your staff were in the store when it happened.
One worker was in the store.
Okay, just one.
And so this comes after last week.
Ezra, you and I were talking about this a couple days ago.
AGLC, and so that's the gaming and liquor and cannabis people plus the RCMP came and confiscated your liquor.
They did, yeah.
Yeah.
And so were you expecting this?
I wasn't expecting this.
I wasn't expecting this.
I was expecting different enforcement, but after Premier Kenny's address last evening, I don't, I'm not surprised.
And so are you, I guess I'll flat out ask you, are you going to cut the locks and go back in?
No, I'm not going to cut the locks, but we are still open for business.
We're going to be serving coffee and burgers all day.
We've got fries coming and we'll be doing everything outside in the park.
Ezra, did you hear that?
Ezra, did you hear that?
Yes, I did.
Oh, yeah.
Yeah, I did.
Sorry, Sheila, I did hear that.
Well, listen, I'll let you talk to Chris offline because we're at the top of the hour.
Give Chris my best personal regards.
Confirm for him that we are happy to crowdfund his lawyer, Chad Williamson, who I know is on the case, and that will continue to do so as he continues to battle.
And if anyone wants to chip in, that's at fightthefines.com.
So give Chris my best.
And I'll sign off with you now, Sheila, and I'll let you talk to Chris on your own schedule.
Okay, we'll do.
Thanks, Boss.
Okay, thanks.
Well, there you have it.
Sheila Gunnreed coming to us live from Mirror, Alberta, a town of 502 citizens now that Sheila's there.
It's 503.
What do you think of that?
Bill Gates and Landownership00:02:44
I wonder if that chain that locked the gates will stay on there.
I mean, any of those folks could cut it off in a second.
The only reason they wouldn't is if they respected the government authority behind that chain.
I mean, look, that's the only gas station in town.
It's the only general store in town.
You have to drive an hour if you're going somewhere and back if you can't get to that general store.
I wonder if people will respect the government, which is, you know, manifested in that chain or if they'll just lop it off and go in.
I wonder.
We'll probably know as soon as tomorrow.
I don't think the government or even the police have the same respect that they did.
Stay with us.
your comments to me next.
Hey, welcome back on my show last night.
Hugh writes, Gates is a real-life supervillain.
Yeah, you know, Bill Gates looks like a bit of a schlep, to use a Yiddish word.
He's a bit of a schlamiel.
Do you know what those words mean?
The thing about Yiddish words is you don't even have to really know what they mean.
They sound like a klutz.
He's a klutz.
You know, a schleppy son, he's a little schlepy and a schlomiel.
He's a little bit rough around the edges.
I'm a schlamiel sometimes.
I think that's a cultivated look.
I think when you're worth how much money he is, I mean, I don't think he cares about his appearance.
I think he's always been a nerd his whole life, but I think he uses that nerdiness to avoid looking like Darth Vader.
I mean, George Soros really does indulge the Darth Vader meme.
Jeff Bezos does too.
Mark Zuckerberg looks like an alien.
But I think that Bill Gates sneaks through life by having a bit of a Colombo look.
It's just me, when in fact he's a deeply strange guy who has supervillain ideas.
Lawrence writes, I'm curious on why Gates is buying up huge areas of land.
He's one of the largest landowners in the U.S.
Yeah, I saw that.
It's strange to me.
And I wonder, I mean, we read yesterday that his girlfriend tried to get him off meat.
He was back on meat, but now that he's telling people not to eat meat and he wants them to drink poop water, but he's buying up land.
Who knows?
It could just be an investment, but it could be some weird plans.
Into these weird plans and schemes, anyone who actually wants to blot out the sun and means it as opposed to just some script writer for a James Bond movie, that's a creepy guy to keep your eye on.
So I don't know what he's doing with that land.
I do not know.
Very strange.
That's our show for today.
Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, see you at home.