David Menzies highlights Calgary’s arson attack on the Vietnamese House of Prayer Alliance Church—displacing multicultural congregations and delaying repairs for six to nine months—while questioning why 11 acts of church vandalism in one night go ignored, unlike mosque attacks. He exposes a $12k COVID fine against charity workers Carol and Grant Lamb for refusing a quarantine hotel despite negative tests, contrasting it with exemptions granted to officials and athletes. Outside Ontario’s Grand Valley Institution, Menzies interviews protesters opposing male prisoners identifying as women serving in female facilities, citing sexual assault risks and legal absurdities. The episode reveals systemic bias against Christians, arbitrary COVID enforcement, and safety failures under identity-driven policies, exposing deep cracks in justice and media accountability. [Automatically generated summary]
Welcome to Rebel Roundup, ladies and gentlemen, and the rest of you, in which we look back at some of the very best commentaries of the week by your favorite rebels.
I'm your host, David Menzies.
Ho-hum, another day, another church in Canada falls victim to an arsonist.
This time it was a Vietnamese church in Calgary.
Adam Seuss has all the details regarding one of the latest examples of what has become a deplorable and despicable trend.
Speaking of deplorable, Canada's completely nonsensical COVID quarantine hotel program continues to make people's lives miserable for reasons that defy logic.
And just will you hear one of the more egregious cases to date, namely a married couple returning home from a charitable mission in Guatemala that ended up being fined $12,000 for deciding not to be incarcerated in such a joint?
Catherine Krazonowski has all the appalling details and letters.
We get your letters.
We get them every minute of every day.
And you had plenty to say about my story on a protest outside the Grand Valley Institution for Women in Kitchener, Ontario.
And what were the protesters perturbed by?
Well, if you can believe it, folks, biological males who simply say they identify as females can actually serve their sentences in female prisons.
And gee, I know what could possibly go wrong with that scheme.
Those are your rebels now.
Let's round them up.
I'm so for Rebel News here, and we are outside of the House of Prayer Alliance Church.
This is a Vietnamese community alliance church here in the city of Calgary, and it was subject to arson.
There is quite a bit of damage on the other side of the building.
The entire property has been roped off by police, so we can't gain access to the property.
We're just speaking with security, and the pastor is here.
He's going to be talking to us about access to the facility.
But there is serious and substantial fire damage to this building in the city.
The great tragedy is for the Vietnamese community here.
Many of them escaped Vietnam, escaping persecution at the hands of communists there.
They've arrived in Canada.
They've arrived in Calgary seeking a new life.
And this is what they've been greeted with.
Arson at their church.
This is precisely what they were attempting to escape.
A tragic situation and one we'll continue to keep you up to date on as it develops.
There are four different groups that are meeting here.
It's a lively place on Saturday.
There's a one group meet here.
And then in the morning, the main groups, the Vietnamese group congregation meet.
Following that, the Filipino groups and then another church.
So there's a four-group meeting here.
Okay.
So there's four communities gathering in this one building.
So this fire has affected more than just one community.
It's affected all these communities.
And you were saying Vietnamese, Filipino, a number of cultural groups being targeted in this instance.
How has this affected, and either of you can sort of speak to this, the community?
What's the response been from the churchgoers?
Are they sad?
they scared and if you want to translate or yeah I think the initial response is a very shock and sad because the next thing they're gonna find out is we're gonna meet these coming weeks you know So we suggest it's something we have to go online again.
People really anticipating to go back after this step three to go back to the church.
And it's very exciting and going back.
But now it's a different, so they're going to have to look for new places temporarily.
And it's very sad because for lots of Christian communities that have been reduced, you can only have 10 or 15 people.
They've lost that community, particularly if it's a Vietnamese community or a Filipino community.
That's really at the heart of their life.
And they've now lost that space.
Particularly, we had COVID restrictions.
They couldn't get together.
Now finally, things are opened up and we've completely lost the space.
Do you know any information as to when the space might become available again?
Or is it just you're waiting to hear now?
We're still waiting for the insurance, the adjuster, and the district help us to find out when.
Just basically now we don't know anything about when is the time we're going to go back, but at least six to nine months.
And do you have any thoughts on the fact that there's been numerous arsons and vandalisms against particularly the Christian community across Canada as of late?
Do you have any comments maybe for either the people carrying out these attacks or the community themselves?
We don't really know.
We don't really know at all.
So we rather just I feel sympathy for the church here, but it's a very sad situation that happened across Canada.
Yes, indeed.
This torching of churches across our great dominion is a sad situation.
But then again, I guess it depends on who you ask, right?
I mean, just consider the comments of Justin Trudeau's little buddy, Gerald Butts.
Oh, sure, he doesn't actually condone arson against churches, but he says he understands this need to burn down churches.
Gee, what a creep.
And joining me now for the latest chapter regarding arson attacks on Christian churches in Canada is Adam Seuss in Calgary.
Welcome to Rebel Roundup, Adam.
Happy to be here.
Hey, Adam, little wonder why firebugs are so emboldened given the shocking sentiments by the likes of Gerald Butts.
But could you imagine if, say, more than a dozen mosques or even two mosques had been incinerated over the past two few weeks, you'd never be able to hide from the outcry and the anguish.
Yet, when it comes to Christian churches, it's barely being reported on.
Adam, why the double standard?
Well, you know, there is certainly a double standard there, but I think at the root of it is a sort of anti-Christian sentiment.
We have a liberal political class that is likely more concerned about the carbon emissions from these fires than these places of worship being absolutely razed to the ground.
On the note of the double standard, we saw virtually immediately tweets going out when, say, a mosque was vandalized, or even if some sort of Islamophobic sentiment is echoed within society.
But when you have in one night 11 acts of vandalism against churches, targeted vandalism, that I think is fair by definition under the Criminal Code of Canada to call an act of terrorism, in addition to these brazen fires, this is a crisis that if it were occurring to any other group at all in this country, we would have a state of emergency.
We would have tactical teams assembled.
There'd be committees struck.
But instead, we've had not so much as a tweet.
In fact, it took days and eight fires for Justin Trudeau to say something when asked.
He didn't jump onto Twitter to decry these acts.
So it's no wonder with all the rhetoric around these residential schools by Justin Trudeau, other political parties, as well as the CBC, that people feel angered.
And I completely understand anger over the residential schools is a logical and justified response, 100%.
But the problem is we've crossed a threshold.
We should be able to, on one hand, say that the residential schools are extremely problematic and we need to do something to rectify that situation, even if it is in the past.
The idea that there's wounds that are lingering is a fair and valid idea we have to approach.
But on the other hand, we should be able to just condemn the burning of places of worship without saying but if or qualifying that language.
Those are two things that can be condemned without apology or qualitative language.
Oh, 100%, Adam.
But, you know, I'm also curious, did any of these arsonists bother to ask the natives if this is what they want?
I mean, I understand some of these churches are beloved by Native people.
This is where weddings were held, funerals were held.
They were used as community centers.
How does burning down that social hub, if you will, help things on the reserve?
Well, you know, we went out to Sikhica Nation and we met with Father Long, who was Vietnamese, I believe.
So there's another tie to the Vietnamese church we can talk about here.
But he talked about how the church is actually part of the healing heart of the community moving forward.
Often we in our culture, we go to church on Sunday and that's about the extent of it.
That's not how their lives work.
He told us about people coming to the church, struggling with addictions and making commitments to get through that.
And the church is part of their rehabilitation process.
Even on the note of the residential schools, they had an area in the church designated near the altar for sort of a healing process.
There was like an animal pelt and a number of stuffed animals, sort of a shrine to those people lost in the residential schools.
So it is certainly part of their daily life on a very fundamental level.
We've heard virtually across the board from chiefs and representatives of First Nations communities and elders that this hatred and this process of sort of vigilante retribution is not at all what they are advocating for and that it in fact damages reconciliation.
It does nothing to improve relations or to heal.
It just creates a new dark chapter in Canadian history.
Oh, 100%.
And, you know, Adam, I mean, I was shocked and appalled when you see the likes of, I'm disremembering her name to use a Roger Clemens line, but the head honcho at the BC Civil Liberties Association, who Tucker Carlson rightly describes as a dangerous lunatic, who's tweeting out, burn it down.
I mean, for anyone to say that is bad enough, but for someone who's about civil liberties, endorsing arson, and let's not forget in many parts of the country, Adam, there are record heat waves being carried out.
Lighting a building like a church on fire is kind of a perfect storm situation if you want a lot of arson to happen to people that are completely innocent in this debate.
Well, we've seen fires where a family was inside the church when someone attempted to light it on fire.
Someone is eventually going to die.
And particularly, and I know Drea and Matt are covering the story, but if you look at Lytton, British Columbia, they originally, all mainstream media outlets were reporting that it was sparks from the train.
Now, very quickly, now that they've investigated, the mainstream media who stoked the fires, so to speak, with their rhetoric, couldn't bear to have the idea spread that, well, maybe someone set a church on fire and it spread.
So they were so quick to say that, well, this was just sparks from the train, something along those lines.
Now it's coming out with investigations that it seems to have been started by a person intent, whether by accident or on purpose.
But if we look at a string of fires in the area across British Columbia and across Canada centered on churches, and you have a church at the center of that town, as well as a strong First Nations community, it's not too much of a stretch to suggest that it is possible that there was another arson and this time things spread.
That being said, it shouldn't be only a tragedy once it spreads to neighboring buildings.
We should also be in arms, up in arms about the fact that churches themselves are being burned.
But this is dangerous.
And my main concern is that they're not going to convict these people, that judges will take into account the hurt of residential schools.
It's absolute madness.
You can't justify someone.
If someone is outraged or angry about something, it doesn't give them free license to commit horrific acts of hatred and discrimination.
No, it doesn't.
And Adam, I mean, I really felt moved by your video with the Vietnamese church in Calgary.
I mean, what did they have to do with anything involving the residential school issue?
This seemed to be just a building with the wrong logo on it, i.e., a Christian cross.
And therefore, it's open season, time to burn it down.
It just broke my heart.
I mean, how did you feel talking to those people there?
Because that seemed like such a needless tragedy.
Well, and that church houses four congregations, four communities, among them a Vietnamese community and a Filipino community.
Now, particularly for the Vietnamese community, many of those people in their lifetimes, I know pastors and priests who escaped persecution under the communists, who saw family members killed for their faith.
And they escaped that.
They no doubt have post-traumatic stress from those horrific encounters with communists.
They come to Canada, they come to Calgary, Alberta, strong and free.
They think that they're finally going to have this.
They have their small church.
They're gathering.
They have the sense of community, the safe space.
In a society that can sometimes seem at odds with how they grew up, they have this one space in society that's safe.
And some, we don't know if it's some punk kid or if it's an organized attack like likely occurred with the acts of vandalism, the spree in one night, but someone went out of their way to set this.
We use the term safe space very often.
This is a safe space for these people, a sacred space, a space of worship.
Someone went out of their way to set it on fire and attempt to destroy it.
Well, Adam, we got to wrap it there.
Great report.
As always, my friend, you stay safe, my friend.
Thank you so much.
Appreciate it.
And that was Adam Seuss in Calgary.
Folks, keep it here.
more of Rebel Roundup to come right after this.
Katherine Krasnowski here for Rebel News.
Fight the Fines Case00:09:04
I want to share a Fight the Fines case with you today that will really tug at your heartstrings.
Carol and Grant Lamb are a married couple who have devoted their lives to helping children in Guatemala through their charity, Power at Work.
Watch what happened to them when they returned home from abroad after refusing to enter the government-mandated quarantine hotel.
We're going to talk to the legal team about their case as well.
So stick around to hear that update.
But first, if you aren't familiar with Fight the Fines, it is one of our largest civil liberties projects ever.
Rebel News, in partnership with the registered Canadian charity, the Democracy Fund, fight unlawful lockdown tickets by setting up Canadians with top-notch criminal defense lawyers.
Take a look at their story.
The stress that comes out just thinking about it.
We already knew we were not going to do their three-day hotel.
So whatever else that looked like, that kind of was our anticipation.
And so when we arrived, we went to customs.
He was a very pleasant guy, nothing wrong with the customs guy.
He had to do paperwork.
We told him we were not going to the hotels.
So we got a different sticker on our passport.
If you were going to hotels, you got an orange sticker.
If you were not, and we'd have to have a health guy speak to us, we got a blue sticker, I believe.
We did see the lineup of the people to the hotel.
It was, they were just lined up again like cattle, being told exactly what to do.
They hurdled us down.
They took our temperature.
We were fine.
They basically said we were fine.
We refused to go for the three-day hotels.
We said we have an empty home at home.
Nobody's been in for five months.
Because we refused their hotels, that cost us each, I believe, $3,700 in fines.
And then they wanted to give us another test right there on the spot.
In doing that, I showed them I had a negative test.
We both had a negative test the day before.
And they said, well, don't you want this test?
It's free.
And I go, I don't need a test.
I'm negative.
And on that response, I said to them, because they were trying to force me to have a test, I said, when were you ever tested?
And their response was they had never been tested.
Wait, what?
The border officials who face thousands of new faces every day aren't being tested.
Carol and Grant Lamb were tested before leaving Guatemala and were both negative.
But for refusing another test at the airport, they were given more fines.
So then they said, well, because of the quarantine act, you refused this other test.
So you get another $1,800 ticket each.
If we were sick, I would have gladly said, fine, we deserve a quarantine because we don't want to give anything to anybody.
But on doing this, they wrote out another ticket for each of us for $3,800 or $1,800 each.
So our total bill for the two of us to leave the airport was $12,270.
Over $12,000 in fines for two healthy people with negative COVID tests to return to their empty house in the country.
Does that make sense to you?
No, it sure doesn't make sense to me.
In fact, since we know there have been cases of COVID-free people checking into these quarantine hotels only to get infected, please remind me again how these rat traps are all about health and safety.
And joining me now to try to make sense out of an insane situation is Catherine Krausenowski.
I hope I didn't butcher your name again, Catherine.
Thank you so much.
Well, welcome to Rebel Roundup, Catherine.
I got to tell you, to me, this story is perverse.
Here is a couple going abroad, improving the lives of those who are less fortunate, return to their country and are treated like criminals, put in these COVID jails, I call them.
Why?
Well, it's actually interesting.
I don't know because I was speaking to our paralegal, Jenna Little, who's amazing, and she was saying that what stood out to her about the lambs who got these tickets coming back from Guatemala, what stood out to her about the case was that there are so many people in the airports who are not going through to the COVID hotel and not getting these crazy fines.
They were each given two, one for not getting another PCR test at the airport when they had a negative test from 24 hours prior.
And the second was from refusing to go to the quarantine hotel.
And Jenna said that not everyone's getting sucked with all these tickets.
So it's almost like they were targeted.
It's so arbitrary.
And, you know, Catherine, we know it's not a pleasant experience in many of these hotels.
You were my camera person when we went and talked about that.
A lady that allegedly got sexually assaulted at a Toronto COVID hotel by somebody who was pretending to be a staffer.
So much for a secure environment.
There's another story we did about the fellow that if he ate the meal that he was given, he would have gone into anaphylactic shock and maybe have died.
And that was the Red Cross catering it, even with warnings and signs posted on his door.
I think what this is all about, and I want to get your take, is it's the Justin Trudeau Liberals doing political street theater here.
They're saying to Canadians, look how we're protecting the safety of our great dominion by putting these selfish travelers into COVID hotels so that they don't spread their COVID cooties to the rest of you.
And yet, that's the optics, but the substance is, well, no, it's not working and it's actually having a debilitating effect.
Would you agree with that?
Yeah, absolutely.
And what you said about it being arbitrary is spot on because Rebel News did a story about they had gotten access to some documents about who was exempted from the COVID hotels.
And it was like professional athletes, this, and people who were working for the government.
And it's like, okay, so those people are magically not spreading the disease.
And someone who's coming from Guatemala helping children is going to spread the disease.
Oh, the hypocrisy is unbelievable.
And I even believe the head honcho of the CBC, she flies from New York into Canada on a weekly basis.
No quarantine hotel for her.
So somebody please explain the science there, Catherine, because that's the other thing.
We are told that it's always science dictating these decisions.
Maybe weird science, maybe political science, but not science.
I mean, because a virus can't determine, I should think, who is a member of the great unwashed masses and who is a VIP, right?
I'm not a virologist, but I would think that a virus doesn't do that.
Yeah, absolutely.
Now, tell us about the lambs.
What I found wonderful about your story is that it's not a matter of them going to Guatemala and just giving handouts.
They're teaching people there woodworking skills, I think welding skills, how to do bike repairs.
It's kind of like, you know, give a man a fish, feed him for a day, teach him to fish, feed him for life.
They're doing such great work in very, I would imagine, difficult conditions.
And again, to be treated like that.
But what's their motivation of devoting their life to this?
Their motivation is to put God first.
And they're quite religious.
And I'm not so much a religious person, but I found the way that they were speaking about the, I don't remember the specific piece of scripture that they were, their whole charity is built around, but it's basically put God first and the rest will take care of itself.
So if you were, and it's something about through the power of your work, you're putting God first.
So that's what they're teaching these children.
And apparently the saying in the village that they have in Guatemala is, coincidentally, God first.
So they were like, it's a perfect marriage of their philosophy.
So they're teaching them, like you said, not to do handouts, but they're giving a man a fish.
Sorry, teaching a man to fish.
And these children are growing up with culinary skills and welding and woodworking and things that will actually not just arbitrarily, like theoretically help them, actually help them when their bicycle that they need to use to get to school breaks down, they can fix that bicycle.
It's incredible.
Women's Incarceration Rights00:09:20
And yet when they get back to Canada, it's almost like our slogan is welcome to Canada where no good deed goes unpunished, right?
Well, you know what?
We're going to fight for them and they deserve it.
Everyone deserves it, Catherine.
You know, in the big picture, first of all, I think we're going to win all of these fines, and we're up to more than 1,800, I believe.
Secondly, I think when these do go to a court of law, and we're talking months, perhaps years down the road, I personally think there's a very good chance that the justice system won't want the courts tied up with these trivial, and that's what they are, trivial fines.
They're not real criminal charges, and they're going to dismiss them across the board.
I think what the government is counting on is people being naive with these tickets, being scared of these tickets, being terrified of going into a criminal court, which they've never done, and they'll pay it that way.
But those who are saying, forget it, I'm fighting it, or I'm ignoring it, I think there's a very good chance the vast majority of these people are going to get off.
I hope so.
I think that ignoring the ticket isn't probably the best option.
Our lawyers have said that because we don't know.
They actually might go through and they might spend the next 10 years prosecuting these people.
I think you're probably right.
They probably will not.
And hopefully, it's like when they legalized marijuana in Canada where they just wiped out all the previous like little mini convictions.
I hope that it's the same thing.
Well, you know what?
If they can wipe that out, they can wipe this out.
So, Catherine, I want to tell you a great story.
I love your stories, David.
Well, thank you so much.
And I love your t-shirt, by the way.
Thank you.
It's new on the store, folks.
The menzoid.
I'm so honored and flattered that Catherine wears.
It's a great shirt.
I like this shirt a lot.
It's endorsed by Catherine.
And folks, by the way, if you do want to help us help the Lems and about 1,800 other people that are facing these grotesque COVID fines, please go to fight thefines.com.
I know these are tough times, but if you can throw in a couple of bucks, it helps pay the legal fees for these people and we can put up a good fight for them because this is just so undeserving.
Keep it here.
More of Rebel Roundup to come right after this.
When I first got here, I was told right away by some of the women to watch out for a certain prisoner.
And I said, wait, we have men here?
And they're like, yeah, we do, but you're not allowed to call them men and you have to use she, her pronouns.
Are you telling me, Heather, I can just deviously say, hey, I'm a woman all of a sudden, and I'm here?
Yes, you could.
Will you do your best to ensure that trans women are put in prison or prison more appropriate to their gender identity?
The answer is yes.
The next day it was policy.
Unbelievable.
That is how much consideration women got.
Sorry to see real women like yourselves throw women inmates under the bus because of males pretending to be females.
I will not call him a woman because he was not.
How he victimized women throughout the compound over that period of time absolutely floored me.
We really should be able to define a woman in this country.
And sure, let trans people live the way they want.
However, you can't just throw women under the bus.
Faking transgender just to be where you want to be, where your victim pool is, is wrong.
I right now identify as a female, and if I'm found guilty, I want to be incarcerated in that building.
Is that okay?
Sir, you have the right to do whatever you want.
David Menzies for Rebel News here in Kitchener, Ontario.
Well, folks, I'm standing outside the Grand Valley Institution for Women.
This is a female prison.
And that is the Reason Du jour for our visit here today.
As you can see behind me, a group of demonstrators have gathered.
And what it is that they're protesting is an absolutely egregious thing that is occurring in the penal system in Canada.
Namely, going back to 2017, the Justin Trudeau Liberals and Correctional Service of Canada thought it was a perfectly good idea to have male prisoners who identify as females be incarcerated in female institutions.
And we are talking murderers.
We are talking rapists.
We are talking pedophiles.
And naturally, I know what you're thinking.
What could possibly go wrong?
Well, a lot can go wrong.
A lot of the women who are here, that is to say the real biological woman, are at risk to their personal health and safety because they are in the same institution as biological males.
This is crazy.
So it is that this group who is assembling here today is trying to create awareness of a truly egregious situation.
Let's hear what it is they have to say of radical transgenderism run amok.
I don't even know how to.
I lived with one of them in my unit for about six months.
And to witness how he, I will not, I will not call him a woman because he was not.
How he victimized women throughout the compound over that period of time absolutely floored me, disturbed me.
He sexually assaulted a woman in my house when we were there.
It's hard to believe, isn't it?
Thanks to the Justin Trudeau Liberals, biological male prisoners who simply identify as female prisoners are allowed to serve their time at female prisons, commingling with the real woman there.
Oh, great idea.
Because like, really, what could possibly go wrong?
In any event, you had plenty to say about yet another perverse policy change put into place in order to appease radical transgender activists.
Last Minute Prayer writes, so if you identify as a five-year-old, do they send you to Juvie?
Hey, last minute prayer, please don't give these cats any ideas.
Klaus Null writes, RPM, who claims to be a feminist, treats women worse than ever.
Look at his track record.
Why do women vote for the liberals?
You know, that's a great question, Klaus.
But then again, just take a gander at the woke weakling who heads up the official opposition party.
I think these days our fake feminist PM and his cronies merely just have to show up at election time and basically win by default.
Sad.
Roland Grange writes, why the hell would you let a man into a woman's prison?
This is insane.
Oh, careful, Roland, in our cancel culture environment.
What you just wrote might be deemed as a hate crime.
Even though every word is true, it is insane because dangerous male offenders are gaming the system so they can abuse vulnerable female prisoners behind bars.
It's sickening.
Warm Sunny Today writes, David did a great job reporting on a story that needs to be told and yet no one else is covering.
Thanks for the kind words, Warm Sunny Today.
And you are right.
This is a very important story and it's an issue that's receiving almost zero mainstream media coverage.
Well, far be it for the CBC to report on such insanity.
It might come across as transphobic and surely there is no greater sin than that these days, right?
Steve Goodman writes, if someone accuses you of being transphobic, just accuse them of being heterophobic.
One problem with that strategy, Stephen, the loony left thinks it's perfectly fine and politically correct to be a heterophobe these days.
And finally, FireGuy97 writes, if David Menzies just declared his identity as a female, that officer is now guilty of an offense because he just used false pronouns.
He said, sir, you can do whatever you want.
That officer called a woman, sir.
You know, FireGuy97, I wish I had caught that misgendering moment when it had occurred.
Then again, perhaps it's best I didn't.
After all, you know, if a single complaint was made regarding a misgendering moment, that poor police officer is likely sent directly to sensitivity training.
And I'm sure this guy is already dealing with enough BS as it is.
Well, that wraps up another edition of Rebel Roundup.
Thanks so much for joining us.
See you next week.
And hey, folks, never forget, without risk, there can be no glory.