David Menzies examines Aaron O’Toole’s sudden ban of Rebel News journalist Alexa Lavoie from a Conservative event, despite prior engagement, mirroring Andrew Scheer’s 2019 backlash over Trudeau scandals like Blackface and SNC-Lavalin. Winnipeg fitness instructor John Zimmer faces $5,000 in COVID fines for outdoor classes—no risk proven—while billion-dollar corporations like Rogers’ Blue Jays escape scrutiny. Ford’s vaccine passports spark outrage as Menzies frames them alongside apartheid, citing viewer letters and protests against forced medical compliance, questioning media’s role in normalizing government overreach. [Automatically generated summary]
Welcome to Rebel Roundup, ladies and gentlemen, and the rest of you, in which we look back at some of the best commentaries of the week by your favorite rebels.
I'm your host, David Menzies, here in beautiful Gatineau, Quebec.
Well, as the Who song goes, meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
That's what Alexa Lavoie found out going to a conservative event, because evidently the conservatives under Aaron O'Toole are the same as the conservatives under former leader Andrew Scheer.
In other words, Rebel news reporters are persona non-grata.
But why?
Alexa will have all the nitty-gritty details.
And out in Winnipeg, Manitoba, there's a fellow called John Zimmer.
He's a fitness enthusiast.
He leads fitness classes outdoors.
Can you imagine?
The authorities look upon this man as a modern-day typhoid Mary.
He's received more than $5,000 in fines.
What a disgrace.
Lincoln J will drop by to discuss the details of that case.
And letters, we get your letters.
We get your letters every day.
And you had plenty to say about the healthcare workers and their allies having a massive protest last week at the precise same time that Doug Ford announced there would indeed be a vaccine passport for Ontario coming into place.
What?
Doefo did another 180 backflip?
Well, knocked me down with a slice of cherry cheesecake.
Those are your rebels.
Now let's round them up.
So we're going to go.
Are you going to come with me or do I have to get someone to help us out?
I'm not like a criminal.
I'm not like a person like Disrupt.
You disrupt your own event.
You came here to disturb me.
I will stay here.
Actually, we stay here.
Yeah, but I want you to say that is not true what you're saying.
No.
We are not disrupting any event.
Well, spoiler alert, folks.
Inexplicably, incredibly, egregiously, Alexa Lavoie was not allowed to remain at that Conservative Party event.
That's right.
A Conservative Party event, not the Liberals, not the Block Quebecois, not the NDP.
And why?
I mean, look at our YouTube audience, for example, more than 1.5 million people, most of whom I presume are right of center.
This is exactly the kind of audience the Conservatives should be seeking to reach.
But Alexa, journalist non-grata, unbelievable.
And joining me now is Alexa Lavoie herself.
Wow, that was quite the rude reception you got, Alexa.
I don't see you as being disruptive.
You're a journalist.
You just want to ask questions, specifically questions about vaccination policies.
First of all, who was that rude man giving you the bums rush out the building in the first place?
That was his media relation communication.
It was Corey Han.
So Corey Han came to me really rude and didn't like say, oh, I'm sorry.
I told you last time you were not the welcome.
No, he came and said, you need to go out or I will help you out.
I was like, well, I'm just standing there.
I'm not doing anything.
And he said, you keep disrupting our event.
say, no, you just disrupt like now.
Like you came to me and you make a scene to make that bigger that it is to make to actually to show that I was not the welcome there and I was actually the problem there.
But I was like, it's not me.
You know, Alexa, it is just downright inexplicable to me.
14 months ago, when Conservative Party leader Aaron O'Toole was simply Mr. O'Toole vying for the leadership, he attended the independent press gallery debate.
I was there.
He took my questions.
He was very friendly.
I thought he was charming and intelligent.
And somehow, in between the time he was vying for the leadership and becoming the leader, whereas he reached out to Rebel News and some other independent media, suddenly we are media non-grata.
Why?
I just think that he's an opportunist.
He used you as before for showing himself.
Now that he don't need you anymore, you're out.
So I think it's just like taking opportunity.
And like, I don't think that should be right for a politician to choose the question, to choose the media, because if you are a person who wants democracy, you will accept everybody.
And you know what, folks?
Where oh where have I seen this strategy play out again?
Oh yeah, it was 2019, Andrew Scheer.
Again, he was banning rebel news journalists from covering his campaign.
He was sucking up to the mean girls in the media party, the Toronto star, the CBC.
And we all know how that played out for him.
Indeed, Alexa, I thought it was a failed strategy from the beginning.
Those journalists hate conservatives.
They'll always hate you.
And sure enough, in 2019, so many scandals Justin Schruder was involved with from groping to Blackface to SNC Lavlin to Jody Wilson Raybolt, too many to list here.
And yet, look how the media party that Andrew Scheer sucked up to turned on him.
He didn't have his full brokerage license.
He's a dual citizen.
Shockers knock me down with a feather.
The question is, obviously the strategy didn't work in 2019 with Scheer.
Why does O'Toole think this same strategy is going to work in 2021?
I didn't follow really in 2019 what happened, but I think they just make all the time the same mistake and they keep thinking that it would work when it's not.
But don't actually say that Justin Trudeau was involved.
I think he's still involved.
And I think like everybody is still involved in wrong strategy to just gain more vote.
And I just think that is not the right thing to do.
But I really want to make a point on what you used to say, but it's just because I didn't follow that, I cannot really answer it.
No, I understand, but I just think that if the strategy didn't work two years ago, there's nothing to suggest it's going to work this year.
But also, folks, here's the thing.
Does this surprise you too?
Just two days ago, Alexa Lavalle was at the French federal leaders debate.
And suddenly, the policy of not taking questions or allowing admittance to Rebel News, well, that went out the window because Aaron O'Toole was the first leader Alexa got to ask questions to.
And, well, he did entertain the questions.
Check it out.
So there you have it, Alexa.
He did entertain your question.
He didn't go the cowardly jug meet sing route of I don't answer rebel news questions.
But in a way, this kind of says it all, I think, about Aaron O'Toole.
He flip-flops.
He flip-flopped on the gun ban.
He flip-flopped on carbon taxes.
And now he flip-flops on entertaining rebel news questions because he didn't have that event in Quebec that he went to, but he did, like I said, two nights ago.
Why yet another flip-flop and what would be the reason for it?
Once it's because I think it's for his image.
He wanted to look great and asking and showing that is for democracy.
And especially because on my question, I say, why your party banned me to enter and run away from me?
That is not supposed.
As a leader, you should take and talk to any Canadian.
So I think this question attack him to say like, oh, now I need to answer or I will look bad and I will be like, I will lose vote.
It's all about vote now.
It's all about getting more vote.
But to your earlier point, I think you're right, Alexa.
It's not just about the votes, it's about the optics.
When you were at that event, it was just you and your cameraman.
You know, one outlet captured it at the Museum of Canadian History.
Tons of cameras from every media organization.
And I guess O'Toole couldn't back up his own I'm not talking to rebel news policy in front of those cameras.
It was going to be too embarrassing for him.
Yeah, exactly.
Because when I'm with my cameraman, like on the scene, they can push me back or whatever.
Nobody will see it.
Nobody will actually take care of it.
But in the front of million, billion of people who watch the TV right now, he would say, like, no, I'm not doing that because everybody see it.
Like, it's so funny when something is not visible.
For them, it doesn't exist.
Yeah.
And it is sad.
I agree with your earlier point too.
I think at the Independent Press Gallery debate, we were simply being used.
We were convenient pawns when he had no leadership role.
And now that he's used us, it's kind of like someone using a Kleenex for a sneeze.
We are dismissed.
Last word goes to you, Alexa.
So for me, journalists are not important in the campaign.
The fact is we ask questions and it's to them to demonstrate it that the value that they show is worth to be choose for being a leader.
It's all about that.
It's not about who you are for journalists, for who you were.
You take the question and you answer as much as you can for being good on camera and you answer.
That's it.
Well said, Alexa.
And you know, I'll tell you, for Aaron O'Toole, Jugmeet Singh, you are vying to become the prime minister of our country.
You're going to, if that comes to fruition, you're going to be dealing with some of the worst despotic governments in the world.
If you can't entertain questions from the likes of Alexa Lavois, fair questions, maybe they're a little prickly to you, but they are fair, then I'm afraid you're really not fit for office in the first place.
Keep it here, folks.
People Working Backyard Healthy00:08:11
More of Rebel Roundup to come right after this.
Right on, guys.
All right, who's ready to get this workout started?
We've got one, two, three undercover cars that think that's a good use of our tax dollars to come here.
And bother these people working out.
It's illegal for you to be working out, but you can go to the beer store.
You can go to the farmer's market right there.
Line up.
Have all the candy you want.
But you can't be here doing this.
We got these guys who got a fucking problem with it.
Good to see you guys.
You want to work out?
What's it take for?
I can't hear you with that fucking muzzle.
Failure to complain with the public health award.
Failure to comply because all these people working out is illegal.
They can't work out here.
Is that right?
They come right here on the fence.
We're not doing this in a private location.
My house is next to one of the busiest streets here.
And they come here and they gave me three fines so far: $1,300, $1,300, and $2,600.
Well, folks, you would think that Sean Zimmer is public enemy number one, but in reality, he is a fitness enthusiast and he's just trying to help people get healthy.
And for his efforts, he has received more than $5,000 in fines, allegedly because doing outdoor fitness classes in Manitoba, well, that makes him a modern day typhoid Mary.
Give me a break.
And with more on this story, I'm joined by Lincoln Jay, who went out to meet Sean Zimmer and catch him with his outdoor fitness classes in the backyard.
How you doing there, Lincoln?
Good, David.
Thanks for having me on.
Always a pleasure.
Lincoln, you're too young to remember this, but back in the 70s, there were government-funded participation ad campaigns.
Basically, the premise was the average 30-year-old Canadian was about as fit as the average 60-year-old Swede.
And so the government wanted Canadians to get out.
They wanted them to break a sweat, get healthy, get physically fit.
And here we are in 2021, and you do that, and the government fined you thousands of dollars.
How does one make sense of this?
The whole situation is crazy.
They're healthy people working out.
They're in a backyard.
It's private property.
You'd think the police, even if they technically have to enforce these measures, they might just turn a blind eye.
But Sean brought up some really good points.
If you've seen the video, he says that there's a farmer's market that you can go to and people are lined up there, you know, to buy food.
You can go to the liquor store, get liquor, but a dozen or so people gathered in a backyard exercising, getting healthy, taking care of their bodies.
That's the crime here.
And Lincoln, that is the crime.
I mean, we have seen since day one of this pandemic just double standards galore.
As you alluded to, the Manitoba liquor stores, which are a monopoly, they've never lost a single penny in sales.
I'm sure sales have gone up in the last year and a half.
And yet you can cram into an indoor setting, but not spread out getting physically fit in an outdoor setting.
We have been told since the get-go, science is driving these decisions.
Where's the science here?
There is no science.
It almost seems targeted.
You know, like they're going after people like Sean.
The whole thing just, it makes it makes no sense.
Everything in this COVID world just seems backwards.
You know, they're not allowing healthy people to make their own decisions and to continue on with their life.
It's just that they're trying to enforce these measures in any which way.
And it's just so odd that, again, people working out in a backyard, that's the crime.
And then you can go into a liquor store.
You can go to the farmer's market around the corner, Walmart, jam-packed, yet a couple, a dozen people in a backyard.
That's the crime.
It's very strange.
You know, and just comparing apples with apples when it comes to physical sports, we saw back in late July, the Toronto Blue Jays cut a national interest exemption to basically get around the COVID-19 rules that everybody else has to abide by.
Evidently, it's in the national interest to, oh, I don't know, watch the Toronto Blue Jays blow a game in the bomb in the ninth inning.
Maybe that's the solution for Sean.
Him and his fitness enthusiasts should just don the uniforms of the Toronto Blue Jays and be nationally exempt.
Again, it just goes back to the double standard that we're seeing all across the board with these COVID measures.
They're targeting small businesses, you know, the little people, the little guys, while they basically make exemptions and loopholes for big organizations.
And we're seeing that in all aspects, for sure.
Yeah, I think you've nailed it.
The unspoken reason for why the Toronto Blue Jays get a national interest exemption and Sean Zimmer does not is the Blue Jay players are all multi-millionaires.
The owner is a multi-billion dollar conglomerate, Rogers.
So again, when it comes to the money, it's one rule for thee, one rule for me, Ergo.
If you are a deep-pocketed corporation, you have the ear of the federal government.
And if you're Sean Zimmer, well, you have the ear of bylaw getting thousands and thousands of dollars of tickets.
Lincoln, it just drives me crazy.
Yeah.
And yeah, so Sean got three, three tickets, all for, I forget what the exact term is, but it's basically defying the public health order at the time.
And it's totaling to over just over $5,000 worth of tickets.
You know, it's not easy for people to pay these fines.
And the fact that they just slap these fines on people.
And again, for healthy people working out, taking care of their body, it's just crazy what we're seeing.
Yeah.
And what really disheartens me is that you will see people, and certainly the mainstream media that are going, yeah, go government go.
This is a good thing.
This is a potential super spreader event.
Whereas I get back to the science, Lincoln, there's no evidence at all of a bunch of people getting together in a backyard doing exercises that this is going to cause an outbreak in COVID cases, is there?
Nope, not at all.
And it's just, again, it's just you see Walmart, Costco, all these places, they're jam-packed.
They're jam-packed.
And indoors.
Indoors, too.
And we're comparing this to an outdoor setting with a fraction of the people that you see in any kind of superstore on a daily basis.
Yet that's allowed, but working out in a backyard isn't.
And it does not make sense.
One last question, Lincoln.
That's a lot of money for Sean Zimmer.
We're going to fight these horrible tickets, of course.
I'm very confident we're going to win.
Has it deterred him?
Has this bullying, and that's what it is.
When I see all those squad cars come up, you know, it looks like a raid on a crack house, but it's just a bunch of people having fun and getting fit.
Has all of these fines and harassment deterred him?
Or is the fitness show going to go on?
The fitness show is going on for sure.
You can give Sean a follow on Instagram.
I believe it's Sean Jay Zimmer.
And if you do, you'll see that if anything, it's ramped up since all these police interactions.
They have boot camps going on.
They have children boot camps.
They have Muay Thai classes.
So if anything, he's completely ramped it up, which he should.
Segregation and Bullying00:04:22
But I should note that the restrictions in Manitoba have loosened up a little bit.
So he's not getting as much pressure and enforcement, I guess you could say, from the police.
Sean's the type of guy that he's not going to back down from anything.
He's going to do exactly what his heart desires.
That's just Sean.
You know, I got that vibe from the interview.
But in any event, Lincoln, great report.
Keep us up to date on how this pans out.
And we'll certainly have a follow-up, eh?
Great.
Thanks for having me, David.
Okay, Dad.
And there you go, folks.
Keep it here.
More of Rebel Roundup to come right after this.
We're adopting an enhanced vaccine certificate.
It's almost like instead of moving forward, we're moving back in time.
And it's almost like segregation all over again.
It is dividing people.
It's breaking apart even families and friends because everyone is becoming separated over a vaccine.
More people have to get involved.
They have to.
They can't just sit down.
So they keep pushing the number of people that has to get vaccinated higher and higher.
They want to get it to 100%.
If they get it to 100%, then the trap is closed.
I don't know why I bring all these papers.
I never look at them.
I just say whatever they write down for me.
I'm on the verge of losing my job, but I will fight to the end of this.
I feel so sorry for those kids.
I cry almost every day for those kids.
My heart goes to them.
Even if it's one against 100, I'll still be that one who stands up.
It's just segregation at this point.
People should have the right.
I don't want the vaccine, honestly.
I don't want my family getting it, but if they want to get it, they should have the choice to get it.
I just don't want them forcing it on me.
How about yourself, personally speaking?
If you are coerced into a position, do you bend the knee or do you resign?
Warning.
Censorship.
Let's just say I won't be forced.
And there's a gentleman that interviewed me for Global News and afterwards he came off the camera.
And I won't say his name either, but he told me that definitely there's a narrative that they're playing.
Well, I think they are treading on the rights of the people because ultimately it should be the individual decision.
If someone wants to get vaccinated, then they can get as many of the vaccines as they want.
If someone doesn't, then they shouldn't be compelled to because everyone should presumably be the best judge of their own health.
IT, the lockdowns, the mandates, all of it is partly illegal and morally reprehensible.
Well, folks, that was the scene last week when Premier Doug Ford did another spectacular 180, this time in terms of going ahead with a vaccine passport.
Coincidentally, a protest by healthcare workers and their allies had been scheduled at the same time.
Meanwhile, the following day, members of the Toronto Police Service and their allies held a demonstration outside police headquarters.
And in the event, you had plenty to say about those Ontarians who, when push comes to shove, would rather lose their jobs than agree to get the jabs.
Texas Maxaroni writes, we'll fight to the end no matter what the odds.
That's what makes a hero.
Yes, Texas, I too subscribe to the motto of death before dishonor, something that seems terribly out of fashion these days with our politicians.
Too bad Ontario is stuck with a premier who has a spine that is about as firm as weak old linguine.
The question is, who is really pulling the strings at Queen's Park these days, given that clearly Doug Ford cannot be trusted?
And he certainly did not come as advertised based on what he claimed to stand for on the 2018 election campaign trail.
How sad.
Razier writes, quote, even if I'm the one in 100, I'll still stand up, end quote.
These are the type of people we need holding public office.
Yes, Razier, that young lady had such a positive spirit in terms of standing up for one's rights.
Too bad she's not part of Doug Ford's inner circle of advisors.
Mainstream Media Stenographers00:01:02
Jan Daly writes, please don't ever stop sending these videos, Rebel News.
The world needs to hear from you, not the MSM narrative.
Thanks, Jan.
And your wishes are command, especially given that the mainstream media is fully on side with government clamping down on the rights of citizens thanks to these crazy vaccine passports.
Then again, the mainstream media stenographers are increasingly paid by government these days.
So really, what do you expect?
That they would bite the hand that feeds?
And Balls of Fuzz writes, as a South African who saw apartheid firsthand, this is exactly the same tactics that were used before.
Well, Balls of Fuzz, my wife is also from South Africa and she completely concurs with you.
Apartheid Classic was a system based on race.
This new form of apartheid is one based on medical history.
Both are despicable.
Well, that wraps up another edition of Rebel Roundup.