David Menzies highlights Alexa Lavoie’s harassment by Quebec security guards while filming outside the National Assembly, mirroring Maurice Duplessis’ 1940s crackdowns on dissenters like Jehovah’s Witnesses. Brian Landrew, a Nova Scotia single father with a medical exemption, faced a $1,000 fine for grocery shopping without a mask, later overturned by Fight the Fines. Ontario MPP Rick Nichols, removed from caucus and deputy speaker role over unvaccinated dissent, accuses Corey Tanaik of Rubicon Strategy—a Big Pharma lobbyist—of pressuring Premier Doug Ford to enforce vaccine mandates. Nichols’ expulsion and others’ (Belinda Karahalios, Randy Hillier, Roman Baber) suggest Ford’s policies may prioritize corporate interests over individual rights, risking voter alienation amid economic threats tied to vaccination status. [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.
Well, our Quebec-based reporter, Alexa Lavoie, was harassed by security guards for shockers filming on the grounds of the National Assembly in Quebec City.
All of which further strengthens Alexis' thesis that current Quebec Premier François Laguaux really does resemble former Quebec Premier Maurice Duplessé when it comes to the bully boy factor.
Alexis On Duplessis00:02:17
Alexis will join me to try and make sense of it all.
And we have notched yet another success on the Fight the Fines front.
This time our legal team saved Brian Landrew of Stellerton, Nova Scotia from having to pay a $1,000 ticket that he received simply for doing some grocery shopping at the local Sobeys.
Sheila Gunnreid has all the details.
And letters, we get your letters, we get them every minute of every day.
And you had plenty to say about Ontario MPP Rick Nichols, who was first kicked out of caucus for not getting vaxed and then coerced into giving up his deputy speaker gig at Queen's Park because his unvaxed status was offensive to the NDP.
And oh, Mr. Nichols has some very interesting things to say indeed about Corey Tanaik of Rubicon Strategy Inc., a man who A allegedly represents big pharma clients such as Pfizer and AstraZeneca and B has the ear of Premier Doug Ford.
How does that saying go again?
Oh yeah, follow the money.
Those are your rebels.
Now let's round them up.
Maurice Duplessis is a Canadian lawyer and politician who served as the 16th Premier of Quebec.
The period during his premiership is known as the Great Darkness.
Towards the end of 1944, Jeova Witnesses embarked on a massive door to door operation to distribute their newspaper, The Watch Tower.
The clergy, supported by the unionist government of Maurice de Plessis, denounced this campaign and encouraged the arrest of church members, which was carried out between 1944 and 1946.
More than 400 Jehovah witnesses were accused of sedition and concerted revolt against the established authority.
Parliament Camera Confiscation00:06:47
So in 1944, 41 Jehovah witnesses were arrested in Montreal, 105 in 1945 and 241 in 1946.
This form of repression garnered attention and publicity.
It was then that restorateur Frank Roncarelli intervened by paying the bond for the detained Jehovah Witnesses.
Outraged by the attitude of Rocarelli, then Premier Duplessis withdrew his liquor license.
A wind of protest arose across Canada over this arbitrary measure.
Doesn't that sound awfully similar to what is currently happening here in Canada?
Trying to be heard before a judge.
Roncarelli lodged a complaint against 50 queas, more and you must have been a little bit more than a moment.
Qu'est-ce que ça vous fait, là?
Pourquoi vous venez ici, là?
Eh, je veux juste vous dire que vous pouvez faire votre vidéo en dehors de notre...
Euh, pourquoi ici, c'est...
Parce que ici, ça n'a pas une autorisation pour faire faire...
Pourquoi les touristes peuvent venir filmer, mais...
Pourquoi les touristes peuvent venir filmer par nous?
Oui, mais vous êtes en train de faire un reportage, là, madame.
Vous ne pouvez pas me filmer quelque chose.
Je suis un média, comme les autres médias qui sont ici.
C'est ce que je vous dis, tous les médias qui...
Oui, tous les médias font des reportages ici.
Je les ai toutes vues.
Oui, mais ils ont une autorisation, madame.
Et ils obtiennent l'autorisation pour le faire.
Est-ce que vous comprenez ça?
Je ne viens pas juste parce que j'ai envie de vous embêter.
Pasteur you have sued you and the wife, it's what you have to do.
Non, mais par exemple, vous me suivez partout, donc là, on commence à se connaître.
Je fais mon boulot, moi.
Mon boulot, c'est de faire appliquer les textes ici.
OK?
S'il vous plaît, monsieur, il faut bien que je vous dise ce à quoi je suis assigné.
J'en ai pour 15 minutes.
Qu'est-ce que ça vous fait dans votre vie?
Vous ne m'auriez peut-être jamais vu.
J'aurais fait ma vidéo.
Ça aurait été datif, là.
OK.
Okay, the problem is that I live and I do my boulevard.
And I want to say a little bit more experience.
At the same time, Monsieur Dupless, the son of the story, and my voice can't be aware of it.
It's completely crazy.
Did you see it like that?
They authorize any other media, but Ribell Media is not allowed here in this place.
No, I'm reporting what is going on here.
You enforce this.
No, you are enforcing this kind of thing.
I'm not doing anything wrong.
I'm just filming.
And you come to me, two officers, to tell me that I'm not allowed to film for not even 10 minutes.
I find that horribly completely outrageous.
And if you don't understand English, it's not my problem.
Have you seen that?
What did you do?
They came to me, I was just recording one video, and they came to say that I'm not allowed to film here when all the tourists who come to the Parliament of Quebec are allowed to shoot their video.
Can you believe that?
In which kind of Canada we are, which kind of democracy we have.
I'm not allowed to record anywhere.
That's not supposed to be.
So folks, how does that saying go again?
The more things change, the more they remain the same.
Case in point, going back to 1944, Quebec Premier Maurice Duplessé resented the Jehovah's Witnesses, likely because the witnesses back then embarked on a massive door-to-door operation to distribute their newspaper.
The church was supported by the unionist government of Duplessé, and incredibly, the arrests of more than 400 witnesses were carried out between 1944 and 1946.
But the inconvenient truth was that the witnesses weren't actually breaking any laws.
And then Duplessé goes after the man who helped them seek justice, Ron Corelli, by getting his liquor license revoked.
It was equal parts outrageous and scandalous.
Well, we fast forward to the tape to 2021 and just look how Quebec's current premier, François Legaud, is behaving.
But this time, it is the unvaccinated citizens who are playing the role of the Jehovah's Witnesses.
And as you just saw, Legault's goon squad doesn't like any negative media coverage taking place on the grounds of the National Assembly.
So they shut it down.
Unbelievable.
And joining me now with more on this story is our Quebec-based reporter, Alexa Lavoie.
Bonjour, Alexa.
Bonjour.
So Alexa, lots to unpack here.
Let's begin with your treatment by those security guards.
Now, I could tell you were absolutely furious with those guards following you around, and your fury was indeed justified.
But what's the problem with anyone filming outside the National Assembly in the first place?
But I think it's mostly because it was the same day that I bring the petition at the parliament where six officers and police came towards me and they were keeping following me everywhere.
And I think they just saw me on the parliament.
And I don't know if you know, but during this day, they actually panic if they saw anybody filming or taking pictures around the parliament.
So it's why like they keep following me.
But I was like, not again.
So I get really mad because I was like, I'm just trying to do my job and you try to interrupt me every time that I'm doing my job.
And I was like, you know, tourists come, they do, they take movie, they take pictures and you don't stop them, but you will come and stop me because you consider Rebel News as a not accredited media and I should not be around.
So we are kind of dangerous media.
So it's amazing then.
Tourists, you can come and film the statue, no problem.
Accredited media to the National Assembly, they can film the statue, no problem.
Rebel news, as a member of the independent press, that's a problem.
Unbelievable.
Government Overreach in Licensing00:08:05
But you know what?
That's a bizarre sidebar to the main point of your story.
And I thought you made an excellent point, Alexa.
Going back to the 1940s, this jihad by Duplessé against the Jehovah Witnesses, it was incredible.
It was an incredible overreach of power, an abuse of authority, you name it, and the courts eventually shut them down.
But like you mentioned, we're seeing a repeat of history, aren't we, with Legault?
It's not a religious group that he's concerned with.
He's going after the unvaccinated.
What do you make of this?
It's actually the, okay, he's going against the non-vaccinated people, but the people who try to help them as restaurant who say, I will not ask for your medical record, it's already okay, we licensee your liquor license.
And it's always the first thing that they will do to restaurant.
Your liquor license, it's out.
And we will give you a fine as well.
But it's actually the same process that what Duplessis did before.
So, and now they actually infringe like the right of all unvaccinated people.
And because they probably think that more we put some restriction, more they will decide to get the vaccine.
But I don't think it's working.
You know, and I think if this comes to a court of law, because Duplessé lost and he lost badly, he went after Ron Corelli's restaurant, his livelihood by having the authorities yank his liquor license.
And you're absolutely right.
There are Quebec eateries having their licenses revoked, their liquor licenses, that is.
In Winnipeg, Monstrosity Burger, same deal.
The province pulled their liquor license.
In Calgary, same deal with Without Papers Pizza, their liquor license being yanked.
I have a hunch, Alexa, that whenever this gets to court, if it gets to court, that is too, I think this is going to be recognized as an abuse of regulatory authority, that the government doesn't have the right to yank a liquor license based on this.
Maybe if you were serving minors liquor, that's another thing.
But this is all about a vindictive way to put somebody out of business, and I think that's wrong.
It's just because they consider the liquor license as a privilege for a restaurant.
So we give you the privilege to have a liquor license.
So because you don't go on what the government say, so we'll just remove your privilege.
It's up to you.
It's why I think they should bring back the court case about Maurice Duplessis and say, you see, it was an overabused power in the past time.
Why now, today, that should be okay?
Yeah, no, 100%.
And thankfully, Alexa, you have brought this back as a talking point.
I'm not sure how known this scandal is outside of Quebec, but certainly we're rehashing it right now and with good reason.
And again, you know, if we go back to the 1940s, what I'm trying to figure out here, Alexa, there's such a small number of Jehovah Witnesses in the first place.
Whether you love them or loathe them, who cares?
They have the right to distribute their literature.
What was Maurice Duplessé thinking in the first place?
But I think it's just because they were going against the clergy.
That was a big deal at that time because Christianism was the main religion who were following as well the government rule.
And now we are in a society with a lot of different religions.
So what's the point?
Like, it's just because you don't follow what the government say.
It's the only point.
You were able to be like a motorbike person, like a gang, it would be the same.
Yeah.
But you know, I would argue, Alexa, that if we go, if we look at Quebec, you know, certainly the Catholic Church has been very prominent in Quebec over the decades.
And yet, I would say that if you can't handle some criticism from a very small group of people, well, how strong is your faith?
I mean, you should be able to shrug that off like it's nothing, but instead, they jailed people.
They went after arrested who are paying their legal fees.
Like I said, the abuse was so over the top for such a teeny tiny target.
But it was a tyranny fear.
Like, I will show what I'm doing with these people who don't follow my rule.
So you will see what will happen if you do it.
So they instill like a fear, like environment.
So people will do like, oh, no, okay, I'm keeping like following the rule.
No, you're right.
Maybe it was all about making an example out of the Jehovah's Witnesses and telling everybody else in the province, you dare do what they're doing, and we're coming after you.
One last question, Alexa.
When you were last here in our head office in Toronto, you were talking about some potential legislation that might be going through in Quebec.
And one was, and I still can't believe it, it was LeGog trying to have legislation preventing people from calling him a dictator.
I can't get this out without laughing.
It's so surreal.
What happened?
Did that get struck from the legislation or is he still thinking about doing something like that?
So it was for the project of Law 105.
Actually, he wanted to remove the right to call him a dictator or talking bad against him.
So Mr. DuM says, okay, so I can have a board writing, I love Lagau, I want Lego, but I cannot have a board.
I want Lego out.
So they say that that actually is stopping free speech, freedom of speech.
And so it was removed because, yeah, it's the freedom of speech.
You can say whatever you want because it's what you actually think.
So same today, if you have just a board writing like something bad, like if Lego is a dictator and you are less than 50 meters from a school or like hospital, you cannot have a fine.
Just having a board.
It's amazing.
You know, it seems that only Mr. LeGog is blind to the irony that the only person that would implement a law saying you're not allowed to call me a dictator is a dictator in a dictatorship.
But, oh my goodness.
Well, you know, Alexa, I love Quebec.
I love the people of Quebec.
The people in government, many of the law enforcement personnel, that's another story.
But that was an excellent report of the similarities of today versus the mid-1940s.
And look forward to your next reports in the days ahead.
Thank you very much.
Have a great day.
You too, Alexa, and have a great Thanksgiving.
Mask Controversy00:15:19
And that was Alexa Lavois in Quebec City.
Keep it here, folks.
More of Rebel Roundup to come right after this.
Ian, why don't you tell us what you were doing when you got your lockdown ticket?
Okay, long story short, was I was at my Sobe's closest to me, which is in Stellar, Nova Scotia.
And it just happened to be the day.
It was April 30th.
And that was when the Nova Scotia doctor, Dr. Strang, had issued another week of lockdowns.
And that day it had started.
So, but I was in shopping like every other day, like I normally do.
Mind you, I have a mask exemption.
So I was in there without a mask.
But, you know, I practiced every other rule, you know, keeping my hands clean, following the arrows on the line.
Trying to keep, you know, six feet apart from everybody in the store, which was quite hard that day because it was actually quite busy, because I believe a lot of people were there doing uh, panic buying, if you'd call it because again, it was just issued that that was the first day of another week of lockdowns issued by dr Strang, and as I was going to the grocery store, everything seemed fine.
I went up to the checkout and, as I was finishing paying for my groceries uh, a Stellerton police officer approached me and um asked to speak with me.
So uh, she made it very clear that I was in the store without a mask and that was one of the mandates.
She let me finish paying for my groceries and the conversation carried on outside, at which time I informed her that I had a medical exemption and that I didn't have to wear a mask, and she had asked me uh, what was my medical exemption for?
And um, I just explained to her that I I felt it was my privacy and not actually the law that I reveal sensitive medical information.
And then she asked me to wait in my car because she wanted to speak to uh somebody in the store I guess it was a staff member, the produce manager, I do believe, and her colleague.
At that same time her uh, her partner showed up and within about 10 minutes they came out to my car and he himself asked me again.
He said, you know you have a medical exemption.
I said yes.
I reiterated that.
He said, well, what for?
And I said i'm not, i'm not going to tell you that.
And uh, then he said, well, do you have a note or any medical information on you that would show proof that you're exempt?
I said no, not on me.
But I said I could get something from my doctors stating that I am exempt.
I didn't know.
I had to carry that.
The the, the police informed me that yes, you do have to show proof, even if it is a note.
I said okay, that's new to me.
But I said what i'm willing to do is show you guys that letter at a later date.
Is that okay?
He said well, do you have it on you now?
I don't know why you'd ask me that, because we just went through that.
I said no again, I don't have any proof on me now.
And he said, well no, unfortunately you're going to get a ticket.
So um she, the female officer proceeded to write the ticket, gave me the ticket, you know, told me what my options were, and it was for a ticket of a thousand dollars.
I even got my local MLA involved who um uh, was aware of my medical exemption, who contacted the the, the police department, and let them know.
Listen, I know we didn't have any proof on him at the time, but our office can vouch for mr Landrew and say that he has a medical exemption.
You know, during this time of the ticket and you know, could this ticket, could this be resolved like, could it be rescinded?
And they said no, they said it's going to be passed on to the crown, it'll be in the crown's hands, and then they can, they can kind of deal with it, right?
So at that point um uh I, i'm a single father and uh, my income is, is like a lot of people's is uh just, you know, making ends meet some months right.
And I thought to myself, you know, I have a medical exemption and I I don't believe this should have been done this way.
But I I need some help and, being a rebel subscriber and uh, I knew you guys had fight the fines, so I thought i'll fill out the application go from.
There, had my fingers crossed and lots of prayers and I said I hope they can.
I hope Rebel can come to my rescue And come to his rescue is precisely what we did.
Indeed, our legal team saved Brian Landrew from having to pay a $1,000 fine.
And we saved him from the stupidity and ignorance of a police officer and a store manager who were demanding information that they had absolutely no right to see.
It just goes on and on, doesn't it, folks?
And joining me now for more on this egregious story, albeit one with a happy ending, is Sheila Gunn Reed.
How you doing there, Sheila?
David, I'm great.
Thanks for having me on the show.
Always a pleasure.
Sheila, Brian seems like such a down-to-earth, super nice guy.
He doesn't strike me as the sort who is, you know, wearing trouble on his shirt.
You know, he's not going into the grocery store, you know, to cause trouble.
He's just doing some shopping.
But the maddening thing here is this.
We are more than a year and a half into this bloody pandemic.
And yet even now, people who should know better, i.e. law enforcement officers, are still clearly ignorant of the laws that they are entrusted to enforce.
Sheila, what gives?
Well, that's the thing.
Like if Brian didn't have fight the fines, Brian probably would have just paid the ticket.
And Brian's just a regular guy.
That's a lot of money for anybody, really, to just make the ticket go away.
But that's for us, that's not the right thing to do because Brian didn't do anything wrong.
Having a medical condition or any condition that prevents you from wearing a mask is not a crime in this country.
And if you need to get groceries, you shouldn't have to choose between risking my physical health or my mental health to put on this mask to go get groceries.
You should just be able to do what you need to do.
And everybody else should just mind their business.
You see, that's where most of the problems of the pandemic come from, right?
Somebody not minding their business and just worrying about what they're doing.
Somebody worried about what Brian was doing and why Brian wasn't wearing a mask.
So they called the cops and then put Brian through this big ordeal.
And then we had to step in and help Brian fight his ticket, thanks to a partnership with the Democracy Fund and everybody's generous donations.
But that's where it seems to me that all the problems of the pandemic come from.
Just worry about what you're doing in a grocery store.
And if you see somebody who's not wearing a mask, keep going.
Smile under your mask and keep going because you don't know what that person is going through.
You know, we've discussed this before, Sheila.
This pandemic, this is the salad day time for the COVID Karens out there.
And I'm not being sexist without language.
If it's a male acting that way, I also call him a COVID Karen.
The fact that they love ratting out people, they love lecturing people.
And we've seen videos, haven't we, Sheila, where you're in a dollar store or what have you, and somebody's running up to an unmasked shopper saying, you're putting my life at risk.
But they're getting in their grill as opposed to, if they really believed that, you'd be walking away.
But by the same token, law enforcement, surely by now, should know the rules.
Should know that we do not have the right to ask for your papers, please.
Maybe they're going to change that.
So, why is this still going on?
They must know what the lay of the land is by now, Sheila.
Do you know?
I was talking to Brian's Fight the Fines lawyer, Christina, this morning on another case.
Stay tuned.
That's a huge one.
You won't even believe how bad that one is.
And she said that part of the problem is that these rules are changing so fast all the time that you can't expect even law enforcement to know them, let alone the people who are trying to stay on the right side of them.
And so that's part of the problem here.
But I don't think that that's the real problem here because I think most cops know that there are people out there who can't wear a mask for whatever reason.
And then when they tell you that, that's where it should stop because they're really not putting anybody else in danger.
One of the things that I despise about the pandemic is like if your mask works, why doesn't it work?
Like if your mask works, what do you care if I'm not wearing one?
If your vaccine works, what do you care if I'm not vaccinated?
But it's not about efficacy.
It's not about science.
It's that we all must agree all the time on all these issues.
And if we all don't agree, then the cops are going to make us all agree.
Apparently, that's how it works.
And you're so right about this whole idea now that we must produce papers, that we have to tell perfect strangers our private medical history.
I've taken to putting this all into context.
I call these people medical voyeurs or public health peeping toms because that's really what they are.
If they were looking in your window to find out are they wearing a mask, what is their medical history, you would call the cops on them.
But now they're calling the cops on you because you won't tell them what your medical history is.
Oh, and Sheila, you know, there is a surreal element to this, don't you find?
I mean, I think back to a few months ago a story I did on a Toronto home hardware store that shooed out a customer who purposely went there to give the little home hardware store business as opposed to the big box just two clicks away.
And he pointed out that right on the sign in their own window, there is an exemption, a medical exemption for customers.
And the home hardware employee went into the store, came back out, and duct taped over the law on the sign, which you're not allowed to do.
And then, of course, an added layer of surreality was one of our very first Fight the Finds stories.
It was yours, Sheila.
Also out on the East Coast, the senior citizen in his car by himself at a Tim Hortons parking lot that had a very rude RCMP officer read him the Riot Act and give him a ticket.
You know, Sheila, I don't know where I'm going with this other than have people lost their minds during this pandemic?
You know, Walter Matheson's story, we should have paid closer attention to it because it was a harbinger of things to come.
Yes.
At the time, we thought it was ridiculous that a man sitting alone in his car with the windows rolled up eating a muffin would somehow be a danger to public health.
But now we have the federal government mandating vaccines for federal employees who work from home and people who work in federally regulated industries from home, like doing remote tech help for a telecom company like Rogers or TELUS.
Those people all have to get vaccines now because it's a federally regulated industry and they might not ever come in contact with another co-worker physically speaking during their entire employment.
But now the federal government says they too have to be vaccinated.
And it doesn't make any sense because they are alone.
And we should have paid closer attention to Walter Matheson's case at the time because it doesn't matter if you're alone.
Apparently you can be alone in a car with the windows rolled up and be a public health danger.
Likewise, you can be sitting at your kitchen table working on your work computer, just you and the dog in a cup of coffee.
And according to Justin Trudeau, you are also a public health danger.
Unbelievable.
Well, Sheila, this story has a happy ending and good for Brian.
I mean, he's a single father.
As he mentioned in your interview, some months he's just making ends meet.
$1,000 is a very big deal indeed to Brian.
And I'm so glad we helped him.
And one last point, Sheila, if any of our viewers want to help us with his legal fees, where do they go to make a donation if they're able?
They can go to fight the fines.com.
All donations there now qualify for a charitable tax receipt through our partnership with the registered Canadian charity, the Democracy Fund.
And let me just thank everybody who donates and continues to donate because you may not get to speak to the people who are being helped through Fight the Fines.
But while, I mean, in this pandemic, you might feel like you can't change the world.
The world is sort of changing for the worse, and you feel like you can't change the world.
But let me tell you, your donations are changing the world for people like Brian.
Because if he had to pay $1,000 ticket, it would have been a catastrophe.
And because he didn't have to, through your generosity, he can carry on, take care of his kids, and take care of himself.
So that is the difference of the Fight the Fines program and the Democracy Fund and all of you at home.
100%.
And basically, Sheila, who else is going to bat for these people that are being victimized and bullied by law enforcement people that really should know better?
Sheila, you have a wonderful Thanksgiving with your family, and we will chat next week.
I will.
I'm going to be breaking all the gathering rules, too.
Yeah, that's right.
Or vax giving, as Mayor John Torrey calls it in these parts.
Unbelievable.
Thank you so much, Sheila.
Hi, David.
And that was Sheila Gunnread, somewhere in the northern hinterland of Alberta.
Keep it here, folks.
More of Rebel Roundup to come right after this.
When we try to reverse engineer this, Rick, what is behind all this?
Is it necessarily Premier Doug Ford or is it Corey Tanaik who has apparently the ear of the Premier and is also the lobbyist?
He runs Rubicon.
He has several pharmaceutical clients, including, I believe, Pfizer and AstraZeneca.
And I understand you had discussions with him when you were still in caucus.
Didn't go nicely, did it?
You know, I noticed that several times during caucus when I would question the science table or I would question ministers on the direction that we were headed.
One time I actually caught him because we were doing these Zoom meetings.
I caught him just shaking his head negatively.
And I thought, oh, okay, so he's not agreeing with what I'm saying.
And however, you know, I challenged.
I stood up for children.
I stood up for the reasons why are we doing these vax passes?
Why are we doing all of this vaccination per se?
I said, listen, I'm not an anti-vaxxer.
But again, I want to reiterate, though, that now you have companies, just because John Torrey came out the day after I was removed from caucus, he said that he was going to make it mandatory for all public service workers for the city of Toronto.
They had to be vaccinated by a certain date, I believe around in October sometime.
Mandatory Vaccines Controversy00:07:49
And if not, they were going to be fired.
Well, excuse me.
You know, what makes you so almighty?
And so I had some real serious concerns about that.
But here's the downside, further downside.
You know, a lot of municipalities decided, well, then if John Torrey's doing it, perhaps maybe the thinking was, we better do it too.
And I'm thinking, what changed from yesterday to today?
Really and truly.
Our workplaces were safe.
We had proper COVID protocols in place.
People were working.
People were happy.
You take a look at our health care situation right now, and you look at the nurses who, these nurses, for 18 months, 18 to 20 months, they would go in and they would care for these people.
Most of them had, the COVID patients had additional comorbidities.
And yet, you know, and they wore the proper PPE, but they weren't vaccinated.
And very few of them ever caught sick, you know, and then all of a sudden now they have to be vaccinated or else they're going to be fired.
You go from hero to zero, and that's not right.
And now it's affecting even children, too.
You know, you're absolutely right, Rick.
I mean, they were the frontline heroes celebrated for the last year and a half.
Now they've become modern-day typhoid Marys, if you will.
It's despicable.
But I understand when you had conversations with Corey, he used language that I thought was very inflammatory.
I think he, please correct me if I'm wrong, he called you a cookie conspiracy theorist.
He said the party would be better off without you than with you in the party.
I'm staggered by that.
In the brief time we've known each other, I think you're a man of principle.
I think you're a good man.
Why would he say this?
Well, that's an excellent question.
I don't know why he would say this.
He has, obviously, his own agenda, and he has people in caucus that I think that he would like to see removed.
And so he does what in football they call it a straight arm.
And of course, I'm sure that that's exactly what he's doing.
He has the ear of Premier Ford.
And of course, it's not just him.
There are others that perhaps have comments and thoughts with regards to caucus members.
But I was appalled at the fact that he would actually bully me, telling me you have 72 hours to get vaccinated or you're going to be sitting with the independents.
So you either better have a very good medical exemption reason why you cannot get the vaccine or you're going to be gone.
And I tried to reason with him and he'd have nothing to do with it at all.
He says, I don't care.
He said, 72 hours.
Not by 5 o'clock on Thursday.
That was back on the Monday.
Then, of course, then I'm sitting in the independent side.
And the rest is history.
Here I am sitting in the independent side.
Never been freer to speak my mind over the last three plus years than right now.
Well, that must feel good.
But I think, Rick, as always, as we say in this business, follow the money.
And certainly what's good for AstraZeneca and good for Pfizer, i.e. mandatory jabbing policies, is very good for Rubicon and extremely good for the co-founder of Rubicon, and that would be one Corey Tanaik.
Is that what this is all about, perhaps?
Well, again, you have to follow the money on that one.
One might perceive that that is in fact the case, because a lot of the things that have been happening and a lot of the rules and regulations, even here at Queen's Park, don't make a lot of sense.
Yes, follow the money indeed.
How sad that a MPP standing up for principles is booted from caucus and then has to relinquish his deputy speaker gig.
Yet Premier Doug Ford, well, he's only too happy to do the bidding of a powerful lobbyist representing big pharma.
And surely it is only a coincidence that Ford is now all in when it comes to mandatory vaccinations, whereas he used to say he was dead set against such coercion.
Unbelievable.
In any event, you had plenty to say about the fate of Rick Nichols and the fact that an unelected lobbyist seemingly has the premier doing all his bidding.
In Finloor writes, none of this is legal.
How is it just constantly rolling ahead without any pushback?
Well, in Corey Tonaik, we have a lobbyist for Big Pharma who enjoys a very cozy relationship with the Premier, a Premier who, of course, would go on to do a policy flip-flop and mandate the compulsory injection of certain big pharma products, if you want the full rights and freedoms of citizenship, that is.
In my eyes, this is immoral and unethical, but hey, maybe there is indeed a case to be made here regarding illegal influence peddling.
So who knows?
Maybe one day this will indeed be headed to a courtroom.
Stay tuned.
Sheila Chapman writes, Doug Ford is something else.
Please, people from Ontario, never let him back in.
We need a new Premier.
His business is open during a pandemic selling decals and pandemic stuff.
Yeah, sounds about right.
That and cheesecake.
Wow, Doug will never live down that cherry cheesecake video, eh?
And you are right, Sheila.
The pandemic has been very good for his company, Deco Labels, which has never shut down to the best of my knowledge.
But the problem is this, the progressive conservative government has done an awful job managing the pandemic.
And I have met scores of people who voted PC back in 2018 who will definitely not be voting PC in 2022.
But if the Liberals or the NDP were in charge, would things really be any better?
Talk about being between a rock and a stale slice of cherry cheesecake.
Kevin Wants to Shred writes, the entire point of democracy is having diverse opinions and perspectives.
Only tyrants purge dissidents.
Well said, Kevin, but in Doug Ford's government, the slogan that is embraced seems to be that lyric from the song Home on the Range, you know, where seldom is heard a discouraging word.
Because if you dare voice a contrarian opinion to Premier Dofo, you are kicked out of caucus, just ask Rick Nichols and Belinda Karahalios and Randy Hillier and Roman Baber.
And I'm sure I'm missing a few others that were abruptly showing the door.
Yet meanwhile, Ford has plenty of time for the unelected Corey Tanaik.
After all, Corey represents clients that earn billions of dollars.
And apparently in Ford's Ontario, money talks and contrarian MPPs walk.
And old school writes, so in 10 years from now, no one will be hired because they are unvaxed?
Well, old school, if you are not getting the COVID-19 vaccine, that is certainly going to be harmful to your economic health.
Every day here at Rebel News, we get emails from people who are being threatened with termination or have already been fired.
Meanwhile, I'm sure business has never been better at Rubicon.
I can only ponder how many millions Corey Tanaik is raking in thanks to his puppet premier, Doug Ford, mandating vaccines that are being manufactured by Corey's big pharma clients.
Sickening.
Well, that wraps up another edition of Rebel Roundup.
Thanks so much for joining us.
See you next week.
Have a happy Thanksgiving.
And hey, folks, never forget, without risk, there can be no glory.