David Menzies examines Alberta’s lingering COVID lockdown enforcement, where the government dropped restrictions on July 1 but still prosecutes minor infractions like ice fishing or Easter Bunny visits, with Williamson Law’s "Fight the Fines" campaign overturning dozens of cases amid accusations of precedent-setting cherry-picking. Sheila Gunnreid suggests embarrassment—not public health—drives the crackdown, while Toronto’s "woke" social justice warriors face backlash for allegedly obstructing police clearing a homeless encampment, exposing clashing priorities in post-pandemic governance. The episode reveals how legal overreach persists even after restrictions end, raising questions about accountability and shifting public trust. [Automatically generated summary]
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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.
Government's Vindictive Fight00:05:17
Well, the lockdown is pretty much over in Alberta, yet the provincial government is nevertheless still cherry-picking those Albertans who committed the egregious offense of merely trying to make a living.
And the government is still pursuing legal actions against these individuals.
Why?
Sheila Gunnreid has all the details.
And hey, did you get the memo?
Recently, Canada anointed a new queen to lord over us.
Alas, Her Royal Highness Romana Didillo is so much fakery, yet thousands of people are apparently buying into this proclamation.
Andrew Chapado's will try to make sense of it all.
And letters, we get your letters, we get them every minute of every day.
And you had plenty to say about the latest filthy tent city in Toronto being eradicated, but there was a twist.
The woke social justice warriors were trying to prevent the police from doing their jobs.
They seem to think it's a good idea for the homeless to remain homeless.
He hikes.
Those are your rebels now.
Let's round them up.
People have received lockdown tickets for such innocuous things as going ice fishing, taking a horse to a Calgary protest, and hosting the Easter Bunny at an outdoor event for little kids.
But the work for me is more than just telling the story of the bad government actions during the pandemic lockdown.
It's also about offering help to someone on what could possibly be the worst day of the pandemic for them.
The day they receive a crushing fine for doing truly absolutely nothing wrong.
So I thought I would catch up with one of the incredible Alberta law firms working so hard on these Fight the Fines cases and get a little bit of a state of the union.
So here is Chad Williamson from Williamson Law and Chad fights every single Fight the Fines case like it is the most important one at his law firm, whether it's a $1,000 ticket or something that may send his client to jail.
Take a lesson.
Well, here we are, nearly a month out from the purported lifting of the aggressive and oppressive government lockdown restrictions that seemed to disappear on July 1st for quote-unquote the best summer ever.
The government is still continuing to prosecute dozens of these cases in our office is continuing to aggressively defend our clients against some of these charges in the fight the fines campaigns.
Now, we've successfully had dozens of them withdrawn or discharged, but the government continues to amp up its enforcement of some of these while withdrawing some of the more precarious charges and claims that they have against business owners and restaurateurs and regular Albertans pursuant to some of these regulatory charges.
Now, the fight is not over.
We've got a whole bunch of stuff happening on the whistle-stop file and some of our other clients that have appeared in other videos.
But most specifically, the fight the fines claims, we are going to fight these until the end.
And whether or not the government wants to discharge these claims, try to save themselves some money and not being forced to actually run fulsome due process trials for each one of these, we will meet these every step of the way through the fight the fines program.
Now, we haven't had, as I said, one conviction to date.
That doesn't mean that the battle is over.
And we think that the government will cherry-pick a couple of files that they will want to prosecute to the fullest extent to make an example of anyone who may have disagreed with some of the implemented lockdown restrictions.
Well, isn't that special?
Now that the lockdowns are over in Alberta and Albertans are allegedly now enjoying their greatest summer ever, the provincial government is nevertheless still cherry-picking those Albertans who committed the egregious offense of merely trying to make a living or trying to have some fun.
And the government is still going after these people legally.
Yet the ostensible policy reason has little to do with health and safety.
And, well, it has a whole lot to do with making an example of alleged scoff laws.
Amazing.
And joining me now for more on this story is Sheila Gunread.
How are you doing, Sheila?
I'm great, David.
Thanks for having me on the show.
It's always a pleasure.
Sheila, this is surreal.
I personally think that all of these fight the fines cases should be thrown out of a court, should be thrown out of courts, rather.
But the Alberta government seems to be harboring a grudge against certain citizens.
Why the vindictiveness toward people who surely have already suffered enough?
Because these people embarrass the government, many of whom on an international scale.