Ezra Levant examines NBA player Enos Cantor’s bold criticism of China’s Uyghur abuses—calling it genocide—and his silence on Muslim leaders’ complicity, contrasting it with NFL players’ protected protests. Meanwhile, Ontario MPP Randy Hillier flags a 50-fold spike in myocarditis among vaccinated young men, demanding investigations into unexplained deaths while lamenting Canada’s lack of political opposition to pandemic mandates. Teacher Judy, fired for refusing vaccine disclosure, exposes risks like ethylene oxide and masks worsening students’ communication and development, accusing unions of betrayal. Cantor’s $400M backlash and Judy’s forced compliance reveal how free speech and bodily autonomy face unequal threats—whether from authoritarian regimes or domestic mandates—exposing a global pattern of silencing dissent under the guise of safety. [Automatically generated summary]
I don't want to talk about the pandemic just for five minutes.
I want to talk about a surprising spokesman against Chinese authoritarianism.
And he's from the NBA.
He's a Muslim man himself, and he's upset about China's treatment of the Uyghurs in Xinji province.
And he just won't shut up, and Xi Jinping hates it, and I love it.
I'll show you who he is and what he said next.
But first, let me invite you to become a subscriber to what we call Rebel News Plus.
It's the video version of this podcast.
Just go to RebelNewsPlus.com and click subscribe.
It's $8 a month.
Plus, you get weekly shows from Sheila Gunrid, David Mentis, and Andrew Chapidos.
And the $8 a month, well, that goes to keep us independent, unlike 99% of Canada's government-paid media.
All right, here's today.
Tonight, should NBA players be able to speak out about human rights?
It's October 22nd, and this is the Ezra Levant Show.
Why should others go to jail when you're the biggest carbon consumer I know?
There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.
The only thing I have to say is governments about why I publish them is because it's my bloody right to do so.
For a whole year, professional sports was mobilized against the government of the United States.
I think it was actually a partisan thing.
I think it was more anti-Trump than anti-America.
But there's an awful lot of overlap between those two things, am I right?
I mean, let's be honest, if you see an American flag on someone's private home in the United States, or even just someone wearing a U.S. flag lapel pin, I think we can all guess which party they're with, am I right?
I mean, take it from Barack Obama himself, who officially stopped wearing the American flag pin and made a public statement about it.
It's one thing to not positively fly the flag, but it's another thing to protest when someone else does fly it.
The whole idea of taking a knee was a way of defying the national anthem, of disparaging it, protesting it, of a passive-aggressive war against anyone in the stands or anyone watching at home on TV who feels patriotic.
It was the teams versus their own fans.
It was stupid.
But it was about politics and it was about dislodging Trump.
Never used to be that way.
Remember this?
It looks like he's going to burn a flag on Rick Monday.
Runs and takes it away from him.
And so Monday, I think a guy was going to set fire to the American flag.
Can you imagine that?
Yeah, well, times have changed.
Anti-Americanism infected the heart of the most American of institutions.
I mean, the NFL for crying out loud.
Even NASCAR.
It was clearly a psyop of some sort, a psychological operation to demoralize people.
And the leader of it was one of the luckiest, most privileged millionaires in America, a half-white, half-black man raised by a white family named Colin Kaepernick.
And I tell you his race and his family background to show you how his own life and success was the result of racial harmony, not racial division, of meritocracy and unity, not division and antagonism.
But what a sullen, spoiled brat he has become, because he wasn't quite as good at football as he thought.
He wasn't getting the success he thought he deserved.
So this would more than make up for it.
Normally endorsement deals come to the best athletes.
That's not him.
He could get an endorsement deal for demeaning America.
He was the best at that.
Look at this ad.
So you just weren't allowed to criticize him while he criticized you.
That would be racist.
We had to listen to the millionaires tell us how unjust the system was.
But it was a bit odd because while they never ran out of disparaging things to say about America, they sure seem quiet about the NBA's new home.
I'm moving from the NFL to the NBA here, the Basketball League.
Communist China.
Here's LeBron James telling a fellow NBA leader to shut up about China.
We all talk about this freedom of speech.
Yes, we all do have freedom of speech.
But at times there are ramifications for the negative that can happen when you're not thinking about others and you only think about yourself.
So I don't believe, I don't want to get into a word or sentence feud with Daryl, with Daryl Moray, but I believe he wasn't educated on the situation at hand and he spoke.
And so many people could have been harmed, not only financially, but physically, emotionally, spiritually.
So just be careful what we tweet and we say and what we do, even though yes, we do have freedom of speech, but there can be a lot of negative that comes with that too.
I mean, there's a lot of money over there in China, right?
Just shut up and get educated, right?
That's odd.
But look at this.
I mean, would you look at this?
Ines Canter, born in Switzerland to a Turkish mom and dad, smart man, runs in the family.
His dad's a doctor in a university professor.
His mom's a nurse.
He's a smart guy.
He's also almost seven feet tall.
Good athlete.
Moved to America.
He played for a bunch of teams, Utah Jazz, New York Knicks, and he's with the Boston Celtics now.
He's 29 years old.
He's a Muslim, as most Turks are.
He went to an Islamic school, but he has criticized the Islamist president there, Erdogan.
He actually called Erdogan the Hitler of our century.
That's pretty tough talk.
It won't surprise you that Turkey canceled his passport.
Anyways, you could say he fits right in with the NBA, right?
People speaking out, taking a stand, speaking out against injustice.
That's what the NBA is all about, right?
And he's Muslim, and that's one of his motivating philosophies.
It's actually why he criticized Erdogan.
Well, would you look at this?
Dear brutal dictator Xi Jinping and the Chinese government, Tibet belongs to the Tibetan people.
Free Tibet.
I like that.
He sounded reasonable in this video, I think.
Here, take a listen to this video.
My message to the Chinese government is free Tibet.
Tibet belongs to Tibetans.
I'm here to add my voice and speak out about what is happening in Tibet.
Under the Chinese government's brutal rule, Tibetan people's basic rights and freedoms are non-existent.
They are not allowed to study and learn their language and culture freely.
They are not allowed to travel freely.
They are not allowed to access information freely.
The Tibetan people are not even allowed to worship freely.
For more than 70 years, Tibetan monks, nuns, intellectuals, writers, poets, committee leaders, activists, and many more have been detained, sent to political re-education classes, subject to torture, lengthy interrogations, and even been executed simply for exercising the freedom that you and I take for granted.
There have been more than 5,000 political prisoners in Tibet the last 25 years.
5,000.
Did you know that simply owning a photo of the Dalai Lama in Tibet is ground for arrest?
even flying the Tibetan national flag could get you arrested.
I say, shame on the Chinese government.
The Chinese dictatorship is erasing Tibetan identity and culture.
The cultural genocide in Tibet is so stifling that more than 150 Tibetan people have burned themselves alive, hoping that such a horrific act of sacrifice will raise awareness and attention towards the ongoing abuses within Tibet.
After learning all of this, I cannot stay silent.
I stand with my Tibetan brothers and sisters, and I support their calls for freedom.
The communist ideology of China has been around for only about 100 years, but Buddhist civilization, ideology, and philosophy has been around for thousands of years.
Only the Tibetan people should decide the future of Tibet.
100%.
Tibet belongs to the Tibetan people.
And I hope and believe Tibet will achieve independence.
Brutal dictator of China, Xi Jinping, I have a message for you and your henchmen.
I will say it again, again, and again, loud and clear.
I hope you hear me.
Free Tibet, free Tibet, free Tibet.
I think he sounded fairly well informed.
I'm not going to make him my go-to scholar on the subject, but he was earnest.
I think he was more substantive than just taking a knee, literally whatever that means.
I don't really know.
I mean, I know that when Tim Thibault, the Christian player, took a knee in prayer in football, he was punished for it.
I guess that's the wrong kind of knee or something.
But here's Enos Cantor making a tweet that sounds thoughtful, even if you don't agree with it, and China is mad at him, very, very mad.
Celtics blacked out in China after Cantor's Tibet comments.
League missed about $400 million U.S. during last season's follow-up with China.
Chinese broadcaster and NBA partner Tencent is not showing current or archived Boston Celtics games on its platforms in apparent response to comments that Celtics center Enos Cantor made to advocate Tibetan independence.
Cantor is part of a series of social media posts, also called Chinese President Xi Jinping a dictator.
Cantor did not play in Boston's season opening 138-134 loss to New York on Wednesday night.
The game was not shown on the streaming services that typically broadcast most NBA games to millions in China.
The NBA had no immediate comment and the Celtics were not practicing Thursday.
It was also not immediately clear how long Tencent's plans to not air the Celtics would last.
That's so great!
$400 million!
And look at these shoes!
Good for him.
Uyghur Concentration Camps00:05:29
More than 150 Tibetan people have burned themselves alive, hoping that such an act would raise more awareness about Tibet.
I stand with my Tibetan brothers and sisters and I support the calls for freedom, Free Tibet Freedom Shoes.
I think those might be homemade shoes, I'm not sure.
Something tells me Nike did not make them, certainly not in their sweatshops in China.
I say this young lad has more fight in him than, oh, say the entire U.S. foreign affairs establishment.
And he's just getting started here.
Let me play the latest from this young Turk.
Here's another tweet from him.
It's about being Muslim and other Muslims in sport and real Islamophobia, concentration camps and labor camps and eradicating Uyghur Muslim culture and identity and history.
Listen to this.
There is a genocide happening right now.
Right now, as I speak this message.
torture, rape, forced abortions, and sterilizations, family separations, arbitrary detentions, concentration camps, political re-education, forced labor.
This is all happening right now to more than 1.8 million Uyghurs in the Xinjiang region in northern Western China.
Uyghurs are a Turkic Muslim ethnic group native to the Uyghur region.
The Chinese government has been taking sweeping measures to crack down on the Uyghur people simply because they embrace their own religion, their own culture, language, history, and identity.
The Uyghur region has become an open-air prison, a surveillance state where freedoms are non-existent for the Uyghur people.
The Chinese government has sent Uyghurs along with Kazakhs, Tajiks, and other Muslim groups to concentration camps for simply applying for a passport, for texting someone overseas, or for believing in anything that does not align with the Chinese Communist Party's agenda.
Anyone and everyone, athletes, doctors, poets, intellectuals, musicians, community leaders, you name it, are currently suffering inside this camp where the Chinese government is conducting unimaginable human rights abuses and crimes against humanity.
All of us must spread the word and call on the Chinese government to free the Uighur people.
It is so disappointing that the governments and leaders of Muslim majority countries are staying silent while my Muslim brothers and sisters are getting killed, raped, and tortured.
I'm talking about you, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, Saudi King Salman, United Arab Emirates Mohammed bin Zayd, Iranian President Ibrahim Raisi.
It's shameful and sad how you have decided to prioritize money and business with China over human rights.
You call yourself Muslims, but you are just using that for show.
You simply do not care about people.
And this goes to fellow Muslim athletes as well.
Why are you staying silent?
Mohammed Salah, Karen Abdul-Jabbar, Amir Khan, say something, do something, speak up.
Your silence and your inaction is complicit.
To those of you watching who care about human dignity, please join me in spreading the word.
What is happening to the Uighurs is one of the worst human rights abuses in the world today.
We cannot stay silent.
Heartless dictator of China, Xi Jinping, and the Communist Party of China, I'm calling you out right now in front of the whole world.
Close down the slave labor camps and free the Uyghur people.
Stop the genocide now.
I love who he calls out there.
Isn't it true?
Why do Muslim world leaders so rarely call out China?
Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan, even the Taliban.
You know, China has basically absorbed Afghanistan as America fled, right?
I like this guy.
I like the fact that he hasn't backed down.
In fact, he's doubled down.
What will they do to him?
He's costing his fellow athletes millions of dollars.
He could cost the league billions?
But hey, as Nike told us when they were backing an American basher, believe in something, even if it costs you everything.
Am I right?
Stay with us for more.
Civil Liberties Crisis00:10:14
Welcome back.
One of the things that's so frustrating to me as we look at this civil liberties crisis and this health crisis, and by health crisis, I don't necessarily mean just the coronavirus.
I mean the forced vaccinations and the growing health crisis that that seems to be causing, at least amongst, for example, young men who are vulnerable to myocarditis and pericarditis II.
Heretofore rare inflammations of the heart that are now unfortunately commonplace.
I keep wondering, where's the opposition?
Every political party in the country, other than the PPC, which has no seats, supports lockdownism.
Erin O'Toole, the federal conservatives, hasn't said a word against it.
Whether you're conservative, liberal, or NDP, you seem to be speaking and acting in lockstep.
There are a couple of individual MPs, MPPs, and the like, but as soon as they speak out, they're hounded from their parties.
In the government of Ontario, which is nominally a conservative party, there are a number of MPPs who have been thrown out of the party for questioning lockdownism.
In the Greater Toronto area, that includes Roman Baber, Belinda Karahalios, a bit further out, and Randy Hillier in Eastern Ontario.
He joins us now via Skype.
Randy, good to see you again.
Nice to catch up with you.
How are you?
Well, other than living in a communist country, everything else is okay as whether it is the living under tyranny in an authoritarian government is not conducive to my understanding and expectations of what a free country is.
But otherwise, everything's good, but I would just also add it's not just Ontario.
We saw elected members in the Nova Scotia caucus getting kicked out.
We saw elected members in the UCP caucus in Alberta also getting kicked out for speaking out against lockdownism.
This is indicative of our electoral system and the dysfunctional state of our democracy without question everywhere across the country.
Oh, you're so right.
And even individual city councillors or the odd mayor, even of a small place, they get hounded out.
I've never seen such discipline, and I won't even say party discipline because it's much beyond just parties.
And the discipline applies to the courts and the media and to any institution of any sort.
I find it terrifying.
One thing that I note in Ontario, I mentioned some names of your colleagues as MPPs, and there was another deputy speaker, I believe, who was thrown out because, yeah, because he didn't say the right things on vaccines.
It seems to me like there's a critical mass in Ontario, but you guys are not getting together, are you?
I mean, there's what, four or five MPPs.
I'm not saying that's big enough to make a party, although I suppose it could be.
You would immediately have more seats than Maxine Bernier does federally.
Are you guys ever going to get it together, put aside whatever differences there are and focus on the commonalities?
I hope so.
I hope so.
Listen, there's been lots of discussions going on for a long time, but as of yet, we haven't found the promised land, and we haven't found that common ground.
Even though this is far greater than any one individual's political career or political aspirations, we ought to recognize that this is the future or lack of future for our children and grandchildren.
And it's, you know, yes, it's the disaffected members who have been kicked out of caucus.
But let's also not forget that there's still a great number of members in the caucus who are opposed to this lockdownism, to this authoritarian measures, but they continue to support Doug Ford and his government in Ontario.
So there are more discussions going on.
Hopefully we can get our act together soon and offer up to the people of Ontario a viable alternative to lockdownism in well time's wasting.
I'm not sure when the next Ontario election is thought to be scheduled for.
I'm sorry, I just don't know my electoral calendars provincially well enough to know that.
But let's make a prediction.
By the way, Randy, everyone knows I like you.
I'm a fan.
And I think you have been an important voice for liberty, for property rights, for common sense from well predating the lockdown.
But here's my observation as someone who's been following Canadian politics for a few decades: is that independence, running as an independent, is an extremely hard thing to win.
I mean, unless you have a unique story and you were wronged, like, for example, when John Nunziata was thrown out for opposing the GST.
Or there was an MLA, I think it was one you mentioned in Nova Scotia, who stood on a local issue, Andre Arthur, who stood for free speech in Quebec.
But you can almost count on one hand's fingers the number of people who have won as independence.
It's just not how Canadians think when they go to vote.
So I think the four or five of you, Belinda Cara-Halios, yourself, Roman Baber, Rick Nichols, who, you know, I don't know if others will join.
I think you're all going to get wiped out as independents, no matter how good you are, if you don't put some water in your wine and pull it together.
I agree.
I agree with you, Ezra.
There's no question about it.
To win as an independent in Ontario, we haven't.
The last time I believe we had an independent win in Ontario was 1995, or maybe 1990.
Peter North down in southern Ontario.
These are rare situations.
So I agree with you.
If you had a party, you could have a very simple platform.
You don't need 20 things in the platform.
The crisis of our age is on a handful of things.
And you could start to attract people.
You could sell memberships.
You could raise funds.
And I know I'm positively asking you to do it, but I just, I have noticed that there is no countervailing institution.
And yet you have the embryonic institution of a could-be, would-be party.
I just hope you guys get it together.
I know how it is in politics.
Everyone wants to be the boss.
Everyone wants all the decisions to break their way.
But politics is also the art of the possible.
Putting, you know, can you guys find a Venn diagram?
Do you know what I mean by that?
It's that overlapping area in two circles.
You may not agree on everything, but if you can focus on the overlap, you got yourself a coalition.
I agree.
All right, well, I agree.
But it hasn't happened yet.
I'm going to continue to do everything I can to make it happen, but it hasn't happened yet.
Well, I would ask you questions, but I know you probably wouldn't answer them publicly.
I would ask you when the last time is you spoke to Roman Baber?
When the last time you spoke to Belinda Karahelios?
I know her husband, Jim, has a vision of a party called the New Blue Party.
And I think Roman Baber presents himself a leader, too.
I've talked to all those within the last few weeks, and some much sooner than that.
The conversations are happening, Ezra.
And like you and like many people in Ontario, we'd like to see a viable political option.
Like we have to understand that this is a political crisis.
We're not in a health crisis.
It's never been a health crisis.
This is a cultural war that is in play right at the moment.
This is a war against individual freedoms, individual responsibilities, a war against our families.
And we need to wake up and realize that this is not just some other political issue.
This is an actual war that if we do not stand up, if we do not find a way to fight back effectively, there will be no more freedom in our country.
Things are going to get much worse if we don't reassert that we're free people in a free country.
And, you know, that's the way I see it.
And I worked extensively with the PPC to win some seats in the federal election.
And you know this to be true, Ezra.
You know, I'll work with lots of different people.
I'll work with anybody on ending these lockdowns, ending this attack on our freedoms, ending this political crisis.
But, you know, it's lonely on the dance floor when you're only by yourself.
And we need to get a few more people on the dance floor, recognizing that this is not just a time for political theatrics.
It's not a time for political stunts.
It's a time to look at what is the greatest peril facing our country ever.
And it is this embrace of authoritarian government under the disguise of a virus.
Hey, Randy, I hope you can muster things and bring things together, and I wish you good luck.
I want to talk about one more thing before we go.
Unexplained Sudden Deaths00:08:50
I see you were tweeting an image of different young people who died so suddenly.
And young people generally don't die suddenly unless there's some shocking thing that happens.
Often, unfortunately, it's suicide or a car accident or some other act of violence.
But for a health crisis, like not a self-inflicted wound and not an accident, for young people to die, even especially athletes.
For example, there was a recent case of a University of Ottawa star football player who died, you know, he was in the prime of health, probably one of the fittest people in the country.
And all these young people in a forced vaccine setting, often having to be vaccinated to go to university, all these young people dying so suddenly.
Now, it could be other things.
It could be a coincidence.
I know this, in terms of counting COVID deaths, they throw everything in.
If you tested positive for COVID within 28 days of your death, they call that a COVID death no matter what you actually inspired from.
But in terms of vaccine injuries, it seems they have the opposite approach.
They won't count it unless they can absolutely say for sure it was the vaccine.
And I tell you, there's never been so much myocarditis or pericarditis amongst young people ever.
I show this graph here from Public Health Ontario that shows that young men are 50 times more likely to get that vaccine injury than our adults in their 80s who the vaccine is designed to protect.
I find it an upside-down morality where old people are being sacrificed, sorry, are sacrificing the youth.
It's just so opposite of humanity.
Do you have any thoughts on that, Randy?
Yeah, so listen, we know that there has been a rash and a surge of these unexplained sudden deaths in young people in our province and in our country.
We've seen other countries, the Nordic countries in Iceland, have recognized this as well and have suspended or halted altogether some of these pharmaceutical injections in their countries because of this rash of fatalities and permanent, irreparable damage to one's heart with pericarditis and myocarditis.
So we know this.
We also know that the coroner, under the Coroner's Act of Ontario, the coroner has got a responsibility and an obligation, and he or she can investigate any sudden or unexplained death.
But throughout all this, the coroner has failed to investigate any of these sudden unexplained deaths in our use, in the youth of Ontario.
Today, I have issued a letter to OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrick outlining all these concerns and citing this significant rise of death in young people.
And I've asked the commissioner to look at the evidence that I've provided and initiate, it certainly appears to me on its face, Ezra, that there are grounds for a criminal investigation into these rash of unexplained deaths in our use, in our youth.
So I have sent that letter off today.
That was further to the vitriol and the animosity that was on display when I first put that post out about 11 people that I collected information off the internet that seemed to be suspicious that they had all been vaccinated recently and either they died.
One young man is 14, another 17 year old, a number of university students, some musicians, who have either died or are now suffering permanent paralysis and nonverbal in some cases as well.
And nobody is investigating.
This is an outrage, an absolute outrage.
And I don't know, you know, I can't say for certain, and that's what my post said was, you know, I'm not certain what is causing this, but it seems, and it appears, that there may be a correlation or a contributing factor.
And it is the duty and the obligation of all of us, especially the coroner and our police services, that if people are dying suddenly and prematurely, and if it may be a result of a public policy, then we better damn well investigate it and protect the youth and not sacrifice them in the fashion that it appears that we're doing.
Well, I don't know that much about Doug Ford's OPP, but the little I do know suggests that it is just as political as Trudeau's RCMP.
So I'm not sure if you'll have any luck with them.
But if you do, please let us know.
Randy Hillier, it's great to catch up with you.
Good luck out there.
You're one of the few good guys.
Well, thank you very much, Ezra.
But I understand the political interactions between the OPP and Doug Ford as well, and the political interactions between our coroner's office.
And these things are, these institutions must be at arm's length.
But I've also sent that request out to every other chief of police in the province of Ontario who isn't quite as beholden to Doug Ford and the current government.
All right.
We'll leave it there, Randy.
Good luck.
Thank you.
There you have it, Randy Hillier, an independent member of the provincial parliament in Ontario.
Stay with us.
More ahead.
Hey, welcome back.
Your feedback.
Loretta Herzog says, I was speaking with my 80-year-old aunt in Germany on the phone last weekend, and she told me some places in France and Italy are denying people access to grocery stores if they haven't been vaccinated.
We are facing real evil.
Oh, it's either weeks away from being here or it is already here.
You've seen that case of someone being denied a kidney transplant.
They're not sick.
They just won't get the jabs.
So they're basically being sentenced to death.
Another letter.
Where did listening to the experts get us 18 months later in this pandemic?
It's BS, enough with the parasitic establishment, sucking the life out of the West.
Well, you know, as Richard Feynman says, science is the belief in the fallibility of the experts, the belief that the experts can get it wrong.
Science is a process of always challenging the hypothesis and doing tests and seeing if you can improve and find your way to the truth slowly but surely.
Science is not superstition and it's not religion.
It's not faith.
It's constantly testing and throwing out hypotheses and fixing them.
And surely we've learned so much over the last 18 months that we shouldn't be stuck in a rut.
That's not science.
That's, I don't know, good business for Pfizer.
One John Henry says, it's our born obligation to fight tyranny and hold politicians accountable.
When politicians and health authorities start being charged and convicted, liberty will be restored.
Well, I don't think that the criminal or a police response is the right one.
I think we need a political response.
In some cases, I think we need a legal response.
The problem here is not something that police should solve either way.
I don't want police to arrest health bureaucrats any more than I want police to arrest anti-lockdown protesters.
We don't live in a police state where we resolve our problems through police.
I think what we need is an official opposition to oppose.
I think what we need are media to ask skeptical questions, not cheerlead and do stenography.
I think we need to vet and weed out any public health doctors who were sponsored by Pfizer or other drug companies.
I don't know.
I think that we need lawyers to stand up when civil liberties are being smashed.
Police are not the solution.
Just because the police are being deployed against skeptics does not mean they should be deployed against the government either.
Left in Silence00:14:35
But I tell you, we are in dark days.
That's our show for today.
Until Monday, on behalf of all of us here at Rubber World Headquarters, to you at home, good night and keep fighting for freedom.
And let me leave you with an interview that David Menzies did with a teacher who's about to be fired.
And these students that were nonverbal were forced to wear the mask.
And myself, I had to observe one day, you know, support staff, a few of them.
One in particular, he went up to the student and physically forced the mask on the student.
And that for me, and I, you know, I watched the student again, non-verbal, take it off again.
And the support staff, he went back last year and put it back on.
And that for me, I had to hold back my tears as an educator and say, this is not okay.
This is not okay.
And the unfortunate part is you can't speak up because you say anything and you're the one going against these policies.
David Menzies here in Parts Unknown, Ontario.
And forgive me, folks, I have to be a little evasive with some of the details because the person I'm about to interview, we're going to call her Judy for the purposes of this interview.
That's not her real name.
But Judy was employed at a school.
It was in a Catholic school board district.
And, well, basically, Judy would not reveal her vaccination status.
That meant that she had to get tested twice a week.
And basically, the hammer dropped on the Friday before Thanksgiving Day.
You got to make up your mind by Monday, Thanksgiving Day, or else you are suspended with pay, which I guess is a fancy way of saying you're fired.
So Judy, thank you so much for making time with us.
I know you want your identity concealed because you are going to obviously be seeking other employment opportunities.
And did I get that right?
Because you did not reveal your vaccination status, that led to the mandated twice-a-week test.
You had an issue with that.
Can you explain yourself?
So my issue was the fact that the testing includes ethylene oxide.
And when I asked the people giving me the kit who would be held liable or where are the health risks associated, nobody could answer the question.
And just to correct, it was suspension without pay.
And I wasn't given a choice.
I was given an ultimatum.
So the biggest thing was the health risks.
And if you can't answer that, and if you're not a medical practitioner, how do I feel or I don't feel comfortable taking that?
And so I was just at that point seeking information that was not available and was not provided to me by my employer.
Yeah, and your health status, that is your personal information.
Once upon a time, it would be unthinkable for an employer to request what your health information is.
That's information between you and your doctor.
And more to the point, Judy, when we go back a year ago, there was no such thing as a COVID-19 vaccine.
You were in school with a mask on.
That was sufficient for the powers that be then.
Why is it different now?
That's a great question.
And when we pose that question as teachers, we're left with silence.
And that for us is where we stand our ground, is when do we draw the line?
When do we say enough is enough?
Nothing makes sense.
And I think not only standing up for teachers, but standing up for those students as well.
The mask was enough for me as an educator last year, and for some reason this year, and the sanitizing and the washing of our hands, you know, extra frequently.
And this year, none of that is good enough.
Yeah, and you're an environment with children.
We know from the statistics that children dying from COVID-19, it's almost unheard of.
Why would there be this thinking that a school with young people in it is the same as, say, a long-term care facility with elderly people that might have additional medical issues?
That's where the lion's share of the COVID-19 deaths are occurring in Canada, more than 80%.
So I'm trying to understand the science behind this decision, Judy.
You are not alone in that.
I think that there are hundreds, if not thousands, of teachers and other federal employees across the province having that same question and being left in silence again where no one's able to answer that.
Again, where are the facts?
And are we actually looking at the facts?
Are we looking at the science and understanding how does that impact the biggest one is the students, right?
How do we, where do we see that, you know, again, progressing forward?
And if not, we're doing more harm than help for these communities.
You know, you raise a good point there.
The students in the last year and a half, have you noticed any changes in behavior since all these masking and social distancing mandates have come to be?
Absolutely.
You have, okay, there's a number of them.
So number one is the inability to hear, right?
We're unable to hear because of, you know, students enunciating or pronouncing words, especially at the elementary or, I guess, secondary level as well.
You have social development issues.
You have behavioral issues, the inability to communicate and communicate effectively.
Then you have the simple idea of being covered, covered where you have, you know, skin irritations, taking it off.
You know, I had some students in the past remove their mask, sneeze, and then put it back on.
There's a sense of etiquette.
And again, I'm okay because I know that I keep myself healthy and overall health.
You know, we teach our students that.
So you have to learn and teach not to live in fear, but there's an element of etiquette here.
So is it really effective?
And I think that that is what is not shared with the public is are these students that are wearing these masks, are they wearing it effectively?
And is it even needed?
It almost sounds as though the so-called cure might be worse than the curse.
Absolutely.
Again, you know, as a, for myself as an educator, I know I stand with so many others.
Where do you draw the line?
You know, I, you know, all last year I worked a combination of special needs and in classroom.
And I look at that and I say, for those students that I've worked with in the past, that especially nonverbal students, putting a mask on students, especially, you know, just know especially, putting a mask on a student actually hinders that best way of communication, right?
So we've actually limited their development.
We've actually put a stop to their development in so many respects because you've put a mask on them.
How are they able to learn, be comfortable, be in a safe space?
Oh, well said.
Now, the thing is, Judy, you, of course, are represented by a union.
When you went to your union and you talked about this, call it what you will, coercion, constructive dismissal, being held to an ultimatum that you could not acquiesce to.
What did your union do to help you?
First off, I had reached out in September three or four times, four different phone calls to the union president.
I was left in silence, no answer to any of them, voicemails and everything.
And that in the beginning was the attestation where I didn't have an option to say I choose not to disclose my medical information.
We have privacy laws in Canada that respect that.
And so I was left again with silence.
I returned to the union again and I said, you know, can somebody please provide me information on ethylene oxide?
You know, you're not a medical practitioner.
You've already shared my privacy information at that point.
And now you have a non-medical practitioner providing these teachers with kits, but you have no liability and you also have no information on the health risks associated with that.
And again, I was left with silence.
I was actually, no, sorry, I was left with silence in the beginning and then I got an email and the email stated that we do not encourage the suspension.
At this point, we encourage you to accept the kits in order to maintain your employment.
And again, you know, I repeat, and you know, we shared that before, it's not a choice.
That's an ultimatum.
I wasn't given an option.
Again, my mask was good enough last year.
This year, it was not good enough.
That was my ultimatum.
Wow, I guess you're wondering in the aftermath what you've been paying all those union dues for.
Absolutely.
And I know, again, there's comfort in knowing that I'm not alone and not just in the education sector, but in so many other sectors.
We pay for the unions to support us and to at least provide us with information when we are seeking it.
And to be left with, again, silence or a lack of support, in some cases, I know that teachers were told to seek their own lawyer.
This is unheard of from unions.
This is unacceptable.
And again, you ask yourself, where do we draw the line?
Where do we draw the line as a union representative?
Where do you draw the line as a teacher?
Where do you draw the line as a principal?
You know, being told you have to do X, Y, enough of it.
I've been told.
Let's get down to the facts.
And Judy, when it comes to your colleagues, how many are in a similar boat?
I know you don't have an exact number, but if you were to guesstimate the percentage in terms of those who care not to reveal their vaccination status and like yourself, don't want to get tested twice a week.
How many are in the same predicament as you?
Okay.
Without speaking directly to my colleagues, to be respectful of them, I want to say I know for a fact there are hundreds, if not thousands, across Ontario that I have connected with just to find support and know that I'm not alone and how do we move forward as a collective unit.
And at the same time, I know that the fear mongering continues.
And I don't even know if fear is the right word anymore because it's assault at this point.
When you take away someone's livelihood because we were told to or because that was the only option, that's no longer fear.
That's really walking into assault.
We're walking into criminal issues here.
Well, I can say the coercion is off the charts.
Every day we get dozens and dozens of emails.
They're all the same.
I've lost my job.
I'm about to lose my job.
Just the other day I interviewed a CN locomotive engineer, great paying job, likes his job.
On November 15th, if he doesn't get the jabs, he's out of a job and he's not getting the jabs.
I guess in response, how do you respond, Judy, to those on the other side, the pro-vaccine side, that, well, I think there's some demonization going on.
They're saying, listen, get the jabs, be transparent about your information.
And if not, too bad, this was your choice.
It's your bed, the lion.
How do you respond to those on the other side that are very pro-vaccination?
I think it's, we need to really think about that word pro-vaccine, right?
Because I think that there's a lot of people that are choosing not to share their medical information, whether they have it or not.
This injection, it's not fully approved, so that's why I call it an injection, not necessarily a vaccine.
People are not necessarily anti-vaccine.
They're just anti-pro-choice, right?
They want to have that freedom of choice.
Maybe in a couple years when there's more studies done.
So to respond to those individuals is: let's not create further division and instead let's find a common path where we can all stand unified together.
I know many people that have chosen to obtain this injection and yet still stand alongside so many other federal employees saying you still have a right to choice.
So just because you chose this injection, that's fine and I respect you.
I don't treat you any less, but that shouldn't be reciprocated just the same.
And you know, Judy, you raise a profound point, I think, and that is for decades we've seen the feminist movement, at least when it comes to abortion, say the chestnut, my body, my choice.
Has that evaporated in this day and age of COVID-19 or does my body, my choice only apply to terminating the life of a baby?
I think that, you know, when you state that, there are conditions that now we have placed on that, right?
My body, my choice, absolutely, but there's conditions.
And those conditions are not based on science, right?
They're not based on facts.
They're based on fear.
So I think that we really, again, need to really sit back and ask ourselves whether you've chosen to get the injection or not.
We have to really look at how do we want to continue to live in a sense of community?
Why are we dividing?
Are we not learning anything from those history lessons?
Are we learning anything from the past where we don't want to create further division?
We want to come together in unison and stand for choice, whatever that may look like.
Accommodations.
We teach our students about accommodations.
We are told we have no other choice but to accommodate our students on every single level, physical, mental, emotional, social.
And that's my job for how many years?
And now I don't get no accommodation.
So there's again a level, and I say this wholeheartedly, as a Catholic in a Catholic school board, there's a level of hypocrisy there.
And I think that's where, again, why I've said it before, where do we draw the line?
Where do we say, you know what?
It's not about the paycheck.
If we are teaching anything to our students about justice, love, respect, essence of Catholic education, we have to continue to preach that.
Not start, continue to preach that.
And you know, you raise another great point too: reasonable accommodation.
We're supposed to be accommodating to whatever minority concern there is, but again, something that has gone into hibernation during COVID-19.
Step Outside Comfort Zone00:10:07
But I got to tell you, Judy, my heart breaks when I read so many of these stories because it's literally get the jabs or lose your jobs.
And at the end of the day, you can take a principled stance, but especially if you're supporting a family, you've got to put, you know, the bread on the table, so to speak.
People are being put into a hellacious choice here, I think, you know, maintain their privacy regarding their vaccination status or lose a job and fall on hard times.
I think, you know, I mentioned this before.
You know, you ask yourself, where do you tap out, so to speak?
And I think that in these situations and in these circumstances, when things are done unlawfully, we have to ask ourselves, what do we stand for, right?
And for myself, it's a matter of the house, the home, the apartment, it means nothing, right?
If I am not alive and well and being able to be with family, what is the reason for life?
So I think, you know, I encourage every single person getting that ultimatum to really think of where do we place our values.
It's not in the cars, it's not in the homes, it's not in the materialistic things.
It's about where we stand in our freedoms, our freedom to continue to live a fruitful life.
And I say that because everybody, no, not everybody, many, many, many hundreds, thousands of people are being pushed against the wall and not given a choice.
But I encourage that to step those ones to step outside of your comfort zone.
I know that feeling.
I know that feeling of everything that I've worked for in terms of career shattered in a matter of one email.
You know, I wasn't given a choice.
I wasn't respected as an individual.
I wasn't valued.
And for myself as a Catholic, I have to ask myself, where do we draw the line?
And so it will be uncomfortable.
We will, you know, many living paycheck to paycheck, many probably dipping into savings, many, you know, maybe selling homes, selling cars.
That's okay when we continue to stand unified.
That for me is, you know, again, if I'm looking back on my values as a Catholic, that's what we are teaching our students.
It's not about the materialistic things.
It will get uncomfortable.
Our lives have been uncomfortable for the past two years, you know.
So we've already, we know that we are resilient.
We know that we are adapting to these pressuring changes.
Let's continue with that resilience to get back out, to get back up and swimming.
And Judy, when it comes to your own personal story moving forward, I don't see the governments changing their minds on these vaccine mandates.
I don't see the school board doing a 180.
Your union, as I say in Alabama, this dog don't hunt when it comes to this issue in protecting their members.
So I know we spoke off camera.
At first you were looking at maybe going to a private school, but that might not be a utopia either.
Yeah, so I looked into the Bill 12 that was, I guess, passed or presented at first reading.
I know it didn't get second reading or third reading yet, nor royal assent, but pretty much that is a hammer down on everyone in education, and that included the private schools.
So I think that, again, what the government is doing is, I told you before, is criminal.
It's malicious.
I think it's evil and evil to the core.
But again, you know, looking back at my own values and in my heart, I think that this is going to be another uncomfortable space and an uncomfortable time until our voices are heard.
And yeah, and so it's a matter of how do we move forward and it's going to be uncomfortable, whether it's finding a new career path.
I know now there's so many jobs online.
It's about not giving up.
It's okay.
You know, we tell our students the same thing.
It's okay to feel down.
It's okay to be filled with a lot of different emotions.
That is okay, but it's what do we do with those challenges that are presented?
You know, how do we lift ourselves and lift those around us in community with others in unison?
And that for me is my drive and will continue to be my drive.
You know, if I, whatever sacrifices we need to make as a community, I am willing to make for freedom and for our voices and for equality, the same things that we preach to our students and yet as adults in our communities, we are failing to live up to.
So Judy, it might be a matter of you're going to have to reinvent yourself, go into a different career, which I think is a shame.
You went to teacher's college, obviously.
You've got years of experience.
You strike me as somebody I would want as a teacher.
You come across that way to me.
It seems a shame, but I guess your back is against the wall, isn't it?
They are forcing you to go somewhere else in order to make a basic livelihood.
Absolutely.
And I think that there is comfort in knowing that I'm just not alone when I reach out and I know that there is hundreds and in some sectors thousands of other teachers, again, in other sectors, police officers, firefighters, nurses, doctors that are on the same page.
So I think that there is comfort in knowing that I'm not alone.
The battle does feel alone in so many respects when it's you up against whoever gave you the medical kit was in that situation.
But again, it's, yes, you're absolutely right, reinventing the wheel.
But I think that as teachers, this is what we went to university for, right?
We find paths for our students.
There's never a no in education.
So any challenge you're given, there's, you know, even your principal, your VP, whoever, there's never going to be, oh no, we've exhausted.
No, no, no.
There's no such thing as exhausting all your options.
You keep going.
You're never exhausted.
So I feel for me, you know, again, you got to go back to what did, you know, even when I look back at my teacher's license as Ontario College of Teachers, what do we represent?
What do we stand for?
That's what I need to continue to stand for.
It will be hard.
I've said this before.
It's going to be difficult.
It's going to be challenging.
It's going to be exhausting.
But I'm not done exhausting all of those options because there's never a no.
There's constantly yes and we push forward together.
Well, I wish you well.
And some of those occupations you mentioned, I can't help but notice the perverse irony.
Nurses and other healthcare workers just a few months ago, these were the frontline heroes.
They're like superheroes.
And now you don't divulge your vaccination status or say you're not getting vaccinated.
You're demonized.
You are modern day Typhoid Marys.
Firefighters, police officers.
We just had the 20th anniversary of the 9-11 attacks.
And remember how first responders, again, heroes.
Now the heroes have gone to zeros.
If you don't get your jabs, you're going to lose your job.
It's funny how everything is being turned upside down because of this virus.
Absolutely.
And I think I wanted to touch on one thing because you mentioned it.
You know, all these people that are speaking out are seeing something behind those closed doors.
And I think that unfortunately with the censorship that's going on, the facts are not shared.
The stories of, you know, the testimonies are not shared.
And I can say, and I'll share one with you today from a teaching perspective.
You know, I was teaching last year students that were non-verbal.
And these students that were non-verbal were forced to wear the mask.
And myself, I had to observe one day, you know, support staff, a few of them.
One in particular, he went up to the student and physically forced the mask on the student.
And that for me, and I, you know, I watched the student again, non-verbal, take it off again.
And the support staff, he went and went back last year and put it back on.
And that for me, I had to hold back my tears as an educator and say, this is not okay.
This is not okay.
And the fortunate part is you can't speak up because you say anything and you're the one going against these policies.
But these policies are doing more harm than help to our own students.
That is the next generation.
So for me, and again, you know, you mentioned it, you got all of these sectors standing up.
Their voices are not heard.
That alone should be questioned.
That alone should be a big red flag.
And I say this from a teacher perspective because you see, the parents don't understand what's happening in the classroom because there's no transparency, right?
There's already, I guess you say, a barrier when they drop off their students, whether that's high school or elementary.
So there's no transparency there.
So if nobody is sharing their story because they're living in fear in every single sector, then where, how do we obtain that truth?
And this is the reason why I've decided to share my story today with you is slowly trying to break free of that fear.
It's going to get uncomfortable, but when you think, and I think of that one story, I'm getting choked up saying it, when you think of that one story, one of many of students being forced to, for example, mask in this sense, in this example, high school students non-verbal who don't have, sorry, that is their best form of communication.
And you've hindered that.
You've stolen that opportunity from them.
And that for me goes back to, as I said before, it's no longer abuse.
It's beyond that.
It's assault.
And yet, you know, more and more people, I hope I give you a little bit of confidence to step out and share your story.
Share the facts of what's happening.
Don't look at the, you know, the news.
Look at the facts from the people that are experiencing it firsthand.
Judy, I want to thank you for your time and I want to wish you the best of luck moving forward.
Who knows, since teaching might be a dead-end profession for people like yourself taking a principled stance, maybe you're going to find another career in another sector that you'll enjoy even more.
But once again, thank you so much for your time and good luck.
Share the Facts00:00:16
Folks, can you imagine vaccine passports are a fact of life in Canada?
Do you think that's right to have medical apartheid?
Well, I sure don't.
If you can, please go to fightvaccinepassports.com.