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Feb. 5, 2022 - Rebel News
53:35
EZRA LEVANT | Ottawa police drop the mask and reveal their authoritarian side

Ezra Levant reveals Ottawa Police’s February 4th press conference and 22-tweet threat against the Trucker Convoy, exposing surveillance via CSIS, RCMP, and FBI/CIA—collecting financial, digital, and vehicle data for minor violations. Despite isolated incidents like a swastika flag (dismissed as staged), police blocked roads and bought hotel rooms to intimidate protesters, aligning with Trudeau’s rhetoric. Polls show 32% of Canadians support the convoy, including Liberals and Greens, while police from Toronto, London, and others appear indifferent or even friendly. The movement demands vaccine choice for children, hospital freedoms, and challenges media narratives, suggesting a broader shift in public trust and authoritarian overreach. [Automatically generated summary]

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Ottawa Police's Authoritarian Threats 00:01:57
Hello my rebels.
Today we talk about Ottawa Police's shocking and authoritarian threats against peaceful protesters at the Trucker Convoy in Ottawa.
Just outrageous language and outrageous claims that they're using national spy agencies.
Literally they say they're using national intelligence agencies to spy on these peaceful protesters on everything from their financial history to their car insurance.
They're listing their misconduct.
It's unbelievable.
I'll take you through what they're threatening and we'll talk to our friend on the ground, Lincoln Jay, who's actually there amongst the truckers today.
That's ahead.
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All right, here's today's podcast.
Tonight, the Ottawa police drop the mask and reveal themselves to be an authoritarian political police force.
It's February 4th, 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 government aware publisher is because it's my bloody right to do so.
Take a look at this press conference by Ottawa's police chief.
Surge Contain Protest 00:14:49
We have increased ability to identify and target protesters and supporters of protesters who are funding and enabling unlawful and harmful activity by the protesters themselves.
Investigative evidence gathering teams are collecting financial, digital, vehicle registration, driver identification, insurance status, and other related evidence that will be used in prosecutions.
Every unlawful act, including traffic and insurance violations, will be fully pursued, regardless of the origin, at any time in the future.
The primary focus of each of these measures will be on the unlawful behavior connected to the ongoing demonstrations.
This includes parallel and counter-demonstrations.
We strongly urge all demonstrators and those engaging with the demonstrators to act lawfully, peacefully, and respectfully.
The hatred, the violence, the illegal acts that Ottawa residents and businesses have endured over the last week is unacceptable in any circumstance.
The Ottawa Police Service and the City of Ottawa are bringing significantly greater resources to restore order, hold offenders to account, and protect our neighborhoods.
The current demonstration in the Parliamentary Precinct Red Zone remains unresolved despite significant successes in reducing the number of trucks and demonstrators while preventing riots, injuries, or deaths.
We take no solace in these operational successes to date.
Our goal is to end the demonstration.
The demonstrators in the Red Zone area remain highly organized, well-funded, extremely committed to resisting all attempts to end the demonstration safely.
That was an excerpt of his remarks, obviously carefully scripted.
I don't know by whom, but none of that is normal policing.
Much of that is illegal if it's actually done.
That's how a police state sounds.
That's how they do it in Castro's Cuba or Hugo Chavez-style Venezuela.
Both of those tyrants have passed on, but their authoritarianism remains.
As that police chief gave that bizarre threat, The Ottawa Police Twitter account published an incredible 22-tweet temper tantrum outlining the chief's remarks.
I'm going to go through those 22 tweets, and I'm going to respond to them.
And I'm going to tell you a little bit about what we're doing in reaction.
Let me just start.
I'm just going to read them.
I want you to see that this comes from the Ottawa Police, a scripted communications package.
This was not off the cuff.
You can see the chief was reading from his script.
You can see that same script in a 22-part tantrum online.
Let's go through it.
Ottawa police and its partners, who are they, are implementing a surge and contain strategy in Ottawa's downtown neighborhoods to further protect neighborhoods, restore order, and prevent unlawful activity.
Surge and contain.
Surge, that means they're attacking, contain, they're trapping.
There's a phrase for that.
It's kettling.
And that's exactly what police did illegally in the G20.
They trapped people in a cage, physically attacked them.
The thing is in Ottawa, there's no violence at all.
In fact, in the first two days of the huge protest last weekend, when it was at its height, there wasn't a single arrest, not even a single charge.
This isn't violence.
Why would you attack, surge, and contain, trap a peaceful protest?
Why would you escalate rather than de-escalate?
Why would you threaten and antagonize unless you're looking for violence, unless you're looking for that Reichstag moment, unless you're looking for that January 6th insurrection narrative that the truckers themselves did not give you?
I'll keep reading.
In connection with ongoing demonstrations, Ottawa's downtown residents and businesses continue to be severely impacted by unlawful acts, including harassment, mischief, hate crimes, and noise violations.
Well, if any of those things are happening, they're happening by individual people.
I dispute that they're happening.
I doubt that they are, because I've seen what was called a hate crime before.
I saw some staged agent provocateur at the Chateau Laurier had a swastika flag.
Nowhere near the protesters.
I saw that someone put a cape over Terry Fox and someone briefly parked where they shouldn't have near the war monument.
That's it.
But that was turned by the prime minister and his lackeys in the media into desecrating the war memorial.
Yeah, mate, no, sorry.
That didn't happen.
It's one thing when Trudeau says it.
We know he's a politician who's in trouble.
It's another thing when the media party says it.
We know that they're Trudeau's paid rented media.
They take the media bailout, but it's quite something when the police say it.
I was there in Ottawa, and it is true that roads are blocked, some of them by the trucks, to be sure.
But the hotel I was on on Queen Street, for example, the road was blocked off completely by police.
I tried to order in some dinner and the delivery person said he could not get there, not because of trucks, but because of police.
I believe there are businesses that are cut off.
I also know that it's because of police.
Should tell you that there are reports from Ottawa that the police bought up every available hotel room in the city to block protesters.
This is a political response.
It's not a police response.
The next tweet from Ottawa says, we know that additional demonstrators are coming and we are significantly increasing our policing resources to respond.
Well, why are you doing that?
When I was there, I saw with my eyes police from Toronto, police from Durham, the RCMP.
We saw snipers on the roof.
Why are you saying this if there's no riot there?
No one has been charged with riot.
No one's been, the laws are on the books.
This is simply an attempt to intimidate Justin Trudeau's political opponent.
Let me keep reading.
To prevent and reduce the impacts of demonstrators entering the downtown core and to improve neighborhood safety, Ottawa police is implementing the following measures effective immediately.
What does it mean to change the effectiveness of the demonstrators?
The point of a demonstration is to show your displeasure.
They're not honking their horns in suburban neighborhoods.
They're doing so in the parliamentary precincts.
And I am sure it's annoying.
You know, many years ago, I worked in Parliament Hill.
I was on the fourth floor of the center block.
I would have been overlooking these four.
You can hear honking.
You can hear protests outside your window.
And you know what?
That's sort of the point of a protest.
There have been protests on Parliament Hill from the left and the right and across the spectrum and by many foreign diasporas in Ottawa trying to exert pressure on the government.
Why is it the place of police to determine who can or can't protest?
If there is violence, of course police should deploy.
But if these are peaceful protesters, why are police even talking about it?
I'll keep reading.
Major deployment of police officers in the downtown neighborhoods.
There will be approximately 150 additional uniformed and non-uniformed officers dedicated to only patrolling and addressing unlawful and threatening conduct in the most impacted neighborhoods.
Well, I have no problem with police dealing with actual unlawfulness.
They list Center Town, Sandy Hill, Lower Town, and the Byward Market.
This includes working with Ottawa City and National Capital Region officials to prevent unlawful and unsafe use of public space by demonstrators.
Okay, I know what unlawful means.
You're breaking the law in some way.
And I say again, I have no problem with police addressing law breaking.
I was there walking around for hours.
I didn't see any law breaking.
In fact, it was sort of the opposite.
People had such goodwill, they were sort of engaging in random acts of do-goodery.
Maybe you were watching the live stream when someone sort of got in my way to pick up some garbage on the ground.
They were picking up garbage.
They were shoveling snow and slush.
I have no problem with police actually dealing with unlawfulness, but what is an unsafe use of public space by demonstrators?
These are peaceful protesters.
What's unsafe?
Do you mean politically unsafe?
What does unsafe mean?
Are they balancing on some edge and they're going to fall?
They're skateboarding or something?
No, what they mean is politically unsafe.
The police are trying to intimidate protesters.
I'll keep reading.
Expand and harden the perimeter of the demonstration red zone.
Ottawa Police in Ottawa City will utilize concrete and heavy equipment barricades to create no access roadways throughout the downtown core.
Ottawa City will release a map of impacted roads later today.
Okay, so if there's a public highway, a public sidewalk, a public park, a public avenue, it is completely lawful to stand there whether or not Trudeau likes you, whether or not the police like you.
You can protest anyone, including the police.
If you're on a public place, since when do police set up red zones where you have free speech and areas where you don't have free speech, that's not up to the police to do.
Since when do the police say where you can and can't stand on public property?
Protester vehicles will be directed to designated parking zones outside the downtown core.
Illegal parking by demonstrators will result in Ottawa by law enforcement, removal, and impound.
If necessary, interprovincial bridges, highway off-ramps, and or roads will be closed.
You know, that's what they do in third world countries.
They literally close highways, close bridges.
They seal off people from getting to the capital.
That's a typical third world banana republic move.
If the tyrant is in trouble and he's got his private jet ready to take him and his family and his bags of cash into exile, they seal off the roads to the presidential palace.
Trudeau really played to type when he ran away from Ottawa and was in hiding.
But who is it that gives the police the authority to simply say, peaceful protesters are coming to Ottawa, we will close the roads to the capital city.
Do you own the capital city?
It's the capital city for all Canadians.
Section 6 of our Charter of Rights, as you remember from our show yesterday, specifically allows you to travel wherever you want.
To ban someone from going to Ottawa because they have a particular affiliation or a particular point of view?
That is what Trudeau meant, I suppose, when he said China is the country he most admires for, quote, its basic dictatorship.
How Castro-like of them.
I'll keep reading.
Enforcement directives.
A surge of police officers will result in enforcement to restore public safety.
This includes increased investigation enforcement and charges for all criminal acts related to hate, harassment, assaults, including spitting, intimidation, and mischief.
Well, listen, I did see some people throwing things at protesters.
I haven't heard of spitting.
Listen, I'm all for actually enforcing that.
But they're threatening peaceful protesters.
Their language switches back and forth to crimes that have not happened, and I know they haven't happened because the police department itself says they have not happened.
So they switch back and forth to talking about peaceful protesters that they're going to banish and then coming up with crimes that have not been committed as a pretext.
This is Reichstag fire stuff.
This is the scariest of them all.
Enhanced intelligence operations and investigations.
That's how you say spying.
National, provincial, and local intelligence agencies have increased efforts to identify and target protesters who are funding, supporting, enabling unlawful and harmful activity by protesters.
Again, if someone is funding a crime, all right, how do you know and what's the crime?
And no crimes have been alleged, charged, or proven here.
But you're getting national spy agencies.
That's what they said.
National intelligence agencies.
CISIS, the RCMP, maybe getting the FBI and the CIA involved.
You're spying on protesters, not for, I mean, unlawful.
I say again, there's nothing unlawful about a peaceful protest.
What's a harmful activity?
Look up the word harmful in the criminal code.
You won't find it.
Unlawful, you'll find.
What's a harm?
You mean politically harmful?
You mean someone doesn't like it?
This is deeply disturbing that intelligence agencies whose jobs are to protect citizens from attack from foreign terrorists are being turned against our own citizens by an out-of-control authoritarian prime minister and a police department that is happy to go along with it.
Who wrote that speech for that police chief?
Who wrote that?
I'll keep reading.
Investigative evidence gathering teams are collecting financial, digital, vehicle registration, driver identification, insurance status, and other related evidence that will be used in criminal prosecutions.
What criminal prosecutions?
No one has been charged.
You're spying on people's financial information?
Digital.
What does that mean?
You're hacking people's phones?
We already know that the federal government has been spying on Canadians through the app.
Police Spying Scandal 00:12:58
They said they wouldn't.
They illegally tracked our cell phones, millions of us.
They lied about it.
Here they're not even hiding it.
What are they collecting?
By what authority?
And who issued the search warrant?
Are they literally saying they are spying on the personal financial and other information of anyone who is a peaceful protester, and they're doing that without a search warrant?
And they're saying this in an official press conference.
This isn't a gaffe.
This isn't a misspeaking.
They're saying this out loud.
They're saying the quiet part out loud.
You know, a lot of groups have lost all credibility and reputation over the last two years.
The colleges of physicians and surgeons, I think the media has been atrocious.
Judges haven't stopped a thing.
But the police and their willingness to be weaponized for political edicts is perhaps one of the gravest losses we've suffered.
Never trust the Ottawa police again.
How can you when they tell you they're spying on you in concert with national intelligence agencies?
They're saying, I'm using their words, because you're a protester who is harmful.
I'll keep reading, every unlawful act, including traffic violations, will be fully pursued regardless of origin.
The primary focus of each of these measures will be on the unlawful behavior connected to the ongoing demonstrations, including parallel and counter-demonstrations.
We strongly urge all demonstrators and those engaging with demonstrators to act lawfully, peacefully, and respectfully.
Hang on.
Are they doing that now or are they not doing that now?
Are they terrorists that you're spying on or are they lawful?
You said that you were going to close bridges and roads.
Have they actually done any of these things in your pretext, your fake excuse to crack down on civil liberties?
This is a schizophrenic note, isn't it?
Are they talking about crimes or are they talking about peaceful protesters?
Are they talking about criminals and smashing them?
Or are they talking about smashing about peaceful people?
I'll keep reading.
Look at this line.
The hatred, violence, and illegal acts that Ottawa residents and businesses have endured over the last week are unacceptable in any circumstance.
Well, what is he talking about there?
I haven't seen any violence.
What is he talking about?
The only hate I've seen, besides the one liberal provocateur with his Nazi flag, has been emanating from Justin Trudeau himself, who has whipped up hate against unvaccinated people and demonized them again and again.
What is the Ottawa police talking about?
And I'm not even looking for it to make sense.
I'm just saying who put these words in their mouth?
I'll keep reading.
Ottawa police and Ottawa City are bringing significantly greater resources to restore order, hold offenders to account, and protect our neighborhoods.
Restore order?
What disorder?
Now, if they're talking about the honking, say so.
If they're talking about the signs, say so.
If they're talking about the fact that there are people there who the liberals don't like, say so.
But what are they talking about, violence and hatred?
They're smearing the protesters.
They're using language not of police, but of Justin Trudeau.
Who wrote that speech?
Was that speech written by Gerald Butts or by the PMO's media team?
That was not a police speech.
I'll keep going.
The current occupation, oh, is it an occupation of the parliamentary precinct remains unresolved despite significant success in reducing the number of trucks and demonstrators while preventing riots, injuries, and death?
Okay, so now you're saying you prevented riots, injuries, and death.
Because a moment ago you said there was violence.
Well, which is it?
Were they violent or not?
Because you just said you prevented that.
Notice the word occupation.
I was there.
They're not occupying parliament.
Parliament is closed.
There is some debate in the West Bloc when there is some question period.
Protesters aren't anywhere near that building.
No one's gone inside.
Occupation?
It's called a peaceful protest at the capital city of a corrupt country.
That's literally in the fundamental freedom section of the Charter of Rights.
An occupation.
What, like some foreign military?
You know, Occupy actually was a thing.
Occupy Wall Street, Occupy Toronto.
There actually were occupations across Canada for the better part of a year, about a decade ago.
And the police were fine with that.
They're calling these peaceful protesters an occupation.
Who wrote this?
This is not police language.
This next one is just quite something.
We take no solace in these operational successes.
The demonstrators in this red zone area remain highly organized, well-funded, and extremely committed to resisting efforts to end the demonstration safely.
Oh, hang on.
Hang on, hang on.
So the police are saying the demonstration's over.
Is that how it works?
So the police will tell you how many minutes you have for your demonstration.
So because they're resisting efforts to end the demonstration, they need to be corrected.
They need to be surged against.
Let me read some more.
This remains a very volatile and very dangerous demonstration.
That is a wicked lie.
That is a wicked lie.
It's not, you know, the only footage from the ground shows people dancing, people giving out free food, people hugging.
A dangerous demonstration is a wicked lie.
Let me read some more.
Ottawa Police continues to work with national security agencies, the RCMP, the OPP, and other police agencies.
We're also working with all three levels of government to effect a safe, timely, and lawful end to this unlawful and unacceptably dangerous demonstration.
Is it dangerous or not?
Because you just said that nothing bad happened there.
You just pat yourself on the back for saying nothing happened there.
But it's the police who are determining the end of the peaceful protest.
Is that how we are in Canada?
Public safety remains paramount, as does our commitment to work with all levels of government and all parts of civil society to bring this demonstration to an end.
So I guess you're not working with that part of civil society that doesn't want the demonstration to end, so stop lying.
You know, it's quite something to have the police tell you when you can and can't protest peacefully.
If there was violence there, I would agree with the police.
Now, I have some thoughts on this.
First of all, it's obvious that this is a political effort.
These are political words.
This is not police talk.
Police de-escalate situations.
Police try to keep the peace.
They don't ratchet up.
They don't threaten surges.
They don't use incendiary language designed to get people's backs up.
I think there's two parts here.
First is they're trying to appease the whiners, that political bureaucratic class that dominates downtown Ottawa.
The protesters are not honking in suburban areas.
They're just next to parliament.
So all the fancy people, the lobbyists, the politicians, the bureaucrats, they don't like these unwashed ruffians with their big trucks.
Only Priuses should be allowed on those roads, Priuses in government limos.
So I think part of it is appeasing them.
I think part of it is also trying to scare away peaceful protesters.
There's some insane language here about being hunted and your banking information and being prosecuted.
It's designed to terrify people.
And even if they don't mean it, it's still disgraceful.
If the police chief would have said something else he didn't mean, like, I'm going to physically knock ads of anyone who comes, I'm using an extreme example, of course, he would never be that ridiculous.
But threatening something illegal, threatening abusive conduct to scare people away, I can understand the rationale to scare people away, but it's unacceptable for the police to threaten abuses like this, even if they don't actually mean it, even if they're not actually going to do anything other than reading Trudeau's speechwriter's speech.
It's unacceptable.
It destroys the modern approach to policing, which is policing by consent.
If you don't have the trust and support of everyone on the street as a policeman, then you can't police.
This is police state stuff, not modern policing.
I should tell you there is a real reason for this.
I don't know if you saw this poll by Abacus Research.
I think I mentioned it the other day.
Abacus, as you know, is run by Bruce Anderson.
He's a senior liberal, so this is not a pro-trucker poll by any state.
But look at that.
32% of Canadians say they see themselves in the protesters.
That they see the protesters are speaking for them.
When have you ever heard of a protest with, most protests are fringe.
That's why they're protesting, because they're angry at the establishment.
32%.
By the way, Justin Trudeau in the last election only got 32%.
I'm pretty sure he's below that number now.
In two weeks, these truckers have caught the hearts and minds of 32% of Canadians.
And look at this.
57% of Green voters.
Most Greens like the truckers.
Makes sense.
The Green Party used to be against big pharma.
Green Party used to be for personal choice and distrusting big corporations and being forced to inject things.
Of course the Green Party supports this.
Even 25% of Liberals support it.
It's just incredible to me.
The NDP, the level of NDP support, of course, since when did the NDP side with the bosses forcing people in a collective agreement to get an injection or be fired without compensation?
These vaccine mandates have destroyed the very notion of collective bargaining.
This trucker convoy has a lot of support from conservatives and people's party types, but it has support amongst every single group out there precisely because the rest of the political establishment has gone mad.
This shocking series of tweets and the speech that it was cribbed from show how deeply endangered the political regime is by this grassroots group of peaceful protesters.
It's incredible.
It's already knocked Aaron O'Toole out of his job.
It's made Scott Mo announce an end to the vaccine mandates and vaccine passports, although he still hasn't said when.
So you better keep your eye on that slippery fish.
Jason Kenney is in a panic because of the blockade in his province.
He too is saying that an end to the vaccine passport will come within days.
But again, you can't trust a word he says.
He actually, if you recall, once said there would never be vaccine passports, so you can't really trust him.
But across this country, these truckers have changed the political math.
According to Angus Reed, a majority of people want an end to the lockdowns now.
Even Francois Legault, the abusive Premier of Quebec, who locked down that whole province and brought in a curfew, even he has agreed to meet with the truckers.
This trucking convoy, a peaceful, grassroots, unified and diverse group, has brought about more political change in the last two weeks than anything else has in the last two years.
It has changed everything.
Everyone knows it, Aaron O'Toole, the most.
Justin Trudeau knows it, which is why he's panicking and having the Ottawa police stand up for him.
The one group that doesn't realize how much they've been devastated yet, the one group that doesn't see how they've burnt to a crisp any of their remaining public support, the one group that's being hurt the most is the media party.
They still think they speak for the people and to the people.
I think until this point, a lot of Canadians distrusted the media.
Now they just hate it.
Stay with us for more.
Hey, welcome back.
One thing I didn't mention in my monologue was that the Democracy Fund, the registered civil liberties charity with whom Rebel News has been working this past year, they have dispatched lawyers to Ottawa to assist any trucker or any other peaceful protester that is being abused by police.
Police Support Protests? 00:06:22
Part of me thinks it's just a scare tactic to scare away more peaceful protesters and appease the locals.
But Justin Trudeau has told us in plain English, I mean, why would you not believe him, that communist China is the country he most admires, quote, because of its basic dictatorship.
So there are Democracy Fund lawyers on the ground there, and you can learn more about that at thedemocracyfund.ca.
But besides Democracy Fund lawyers, we also, of course, have our rebel news reporters.
Our friend Alexa Lavoie is on the ground.
So is Lincoln Jay, and others are going there, including our old friend David Menzies, who's back in full force.
But let's join in now from the streets with our friend Lincoln J. Lincoln.
How you doing there today?
Good, Ezra.
How are you doing?
Thanks for having me out.
I'm great.
It looks frosty.
Is it still minus 20?
It's freezing out here.
I don't think I can reiterate enough how cold it actually is.
You take your gloves off for a second, and it's freezing, but it's not stopping people from coming out here, that's for sure.
Yeah, well, that's quite something.
I mean, if the weather were warmer, I think there would be 10 times as many people there.
I mean, you forget how cold minus 20 is when you're a kid.
You're out playing in the snow.
You don't care, but holy moly.
A lot of the protesters are living in the cabs of their trucks.
So they're not actually milling about.
It's hard to mill about when it's minus 20.
You just don't want to be out at great length.
And I think that's one of the reasons why the protest is so calm and why the Ottawa police statement is so weird.
It's not like you have marauding bands of wild youths going through the city like the BLM riots in America last year.
Everyone's pretty much just on Parliament Hill and staying warm in their trucks.
Is that right?
Yeah, that's exactly it.
You know, there's teams of people forgetting around gas and that they can't keep the trucks up.
Sorry, the truck's running all night to stay warm.
So yeah, all those truckers, they're sleeping in the back of their cabs.
They're dedicated here.
They're here to stay.
That's for sure.
There's been rumors that there's hotel rooms provided for them to shower and everything like that.
Now, we hear those honking trucks go by, and I think that's really what it is: all the fancy pants in the imperial capital who are used to their luxurious life.
Everyone there, not a single person in politics lost a day's work, or they probably lost work, but they didn't lose pay.
They probably took a lot of time off.
They got pay raises.
MPs themselves gave themselves pay raises twice during the pandemic.
MPs have had two pay raises during the pandemic.
No one's lost work.
The lobbyists have had a feast.
They just don't like all these unwashed blue-collar people coming into their turf with their noisy horns.
I think it's the honking.
I think it's they're just irritated by the presence of blue-collar workers who don't obey them.
I think it's sort of wonderful that they're irritated, and I don't think that's a crime or dangerous.
Yeah, you know what?
We need to speak to all actual locals here.
And yeah, they are supportive, but we've actually been speaking to some locals on the street.
Alexa LeBar has a good video coming out where she's speaking to people who are around the area, who are from Ottawa, and aren't exactly participating in the protest, but she's able to gather their thoughts.
And yes, there are some people that are very unhappy, but half of the people that she interviewed had no problem with it.
And they were waking up with porns honking and everything.
And they're still in support.
So I think you have a valid point when it's just kind of the political class and the elites and the establishment that have an issue with this.
I can't quite recognize the exact street you're on.
I used to live in Ottawa.
I worked in Parliament for a couple of years, if you can believe it, in the last century for Preston Manning.
I was his assistant.
You're probably in a very highly dense political place, but you go a few miles out to suburbs to regular Ottawa.
Not everyone in Ottawa works in Parliament.
And the truckers aren't honking in residential neighborhoods.
I mean, there are some downtown apartments, it's true.
But this is a very focused, peaceful protest.
The way those Ottawa police tweets read, you would think it's BLM and Antifa burning down a city center like they did in America.
Yeah, and when you speak so loudly, when you speak to the, when you speak to the police officers on the ground here, you know, they don't fully say it, but you can tell that I think the majority of them are in support about what's happening here.
You know, they're giving high fives to people and they're saying it's a peaceful protest.
And I think a lot of them are going to be very disappointed if they have to use excessive force or whatever the case may be to try and end this demonstration.
Because the complete vibe I've gotten on the street here is that the police officers are, for the most part, in support.
I had a police officer actually help me get through a barricade when I was returning my rental car yesterday.
And he looked at my hat, saw the hat, he said, level news.
And I said, yeah, are you a fan?
And he said, I can't answer that.
And then blinked at me.
You know, it's true.
I mean, you were with me, I think, when I walked up to some cops, and I was pretty mad seeing all these out-of-town cops, Toronto cops, Durham regional cops.
And I went up to the mad, I won't lie.
And they couldn't have been friendlier.
I mean, I was sort of expecting them to get into an argy bargie with me, but they just said, no, we're just here to keep the peace.
And I have to say, they were friends.
And I'd have to check this, Lincoln.
Don't quote me on this, but I think the Ottawa police have not enforced a vaccine mandate.
I don't think they fired their unvaxed officers.
So that shows you that the police union in Ottawa, frankly, if they could speak candidly, they would be with the protesters.
I saw this morning an email sent around to the Canadian Armed Forces to every soldier saying, don't tweet your support.
You'll be reprimanded.
So you just know that a lot of these guys who are being called on to punish the peaceful protesters, cops and possibly soldiers, they're actually standing with the protesters.
Quite something.
Yeah, and like you said, so they're bringing in different squads.
They're bringing in different squads from all around Durham, South Hamilton, London police.
And like I said earlier, the vibe that I'm getting is that they're almost happy to be here.
Farmers Almost Happy 00:03:19
You know, although they're not, they can't clearly stand with the people.
I feel like they're almost happy to be a part of this historic moment.
Yeah, I think you're right.
I mean, we saw the mayor of Ottawa complaining that he's spending $800,000 a day on policing.
And I understand that the city or the police, I'm not sure which, has bought up every available hotel room downtown to make it impossible for people to come into the city.
That's got to be a million bucks a night, too.
So those are not the protesters incurring those costs.
That's a foolish mayor trying to appease Justin Trudeau.
Or maybe it's Trudeau that's paying for it through the public safety administration.
Who knows?
So you have all these out-of-town cops who have flown in there.
They're on overtime.
They're getting special pay, their overtime pay, all their accommodations.
But you're right.
It's like they're on sort of a road trip having fun of the protests, too.
So far, God forbid they actually start swinging truncheons like that police chief said.
I don't believe that's actual policing.
That was a Trudeau speech put into police language.
That's not a real police speech.
What do you think?
Yeah, I don't know.
You know, I can't comment on enough.
Everything is just, you can feel that the tensions are kind of getting a little bit higher.
People are sort of anticipating something is coming.
I think we all know that something is coming.
Trudeau, it's who knows what has planned.
Who knows what's going on behind the scenes, what is orchestrating behind the scenes.
But I think everyone is just kind of hiding right now.
There's supposed to be a ton of people coming here tomorrow.
There's supposed to be farmers coming with tractors.
So I don't know if they're going to put, I don't know how if they're going to put barricades or what they're going to do, what tactics they're going to use.
But as of right now, here on the scene, it's been like how it's been for the past week.
There's a little bit more undercover talk for cruisers, but that's about it.
Other than that, it's like business as usual as far as the truckers convoy.
So we'll see.
Yeah, and well, that goes to my theory that maybe some of this was just for public consumption to A, scare away people and B, shut up the local wokesters who don't like the unwashed truckers.
So see, people just handing out gloves to me right here just for being outside.
That's the environment here.
Yeah, it really is a festival feeling.
Well, that's, isn't it?
That's exactly how it was when I was there.
I'm going to see if I can get there this weekend.
I'm not sure if I can break away to go there.
Very interesting times.
You're there.
Our friend David Menzies, if he's not there already, he's arriving shortly.
Some lawyers from the Democracy Fund are there.
I'm glad because if something goes sideways, I want them there.
You know, I want to tell you a joke.
If you say the farmers are coming, if those farmers blockade avocados, you know, the woke breakfast is avocado toast.
By the way, it's delicious.
I'm not knocking it.
But if those farmers could cut off the avocados to Parliament Hill for just 24 hours, Trudeau would rescind every lockdown and every vaccine mandate because those woke hipsters who are shouting at the truckers, and oh, stop honking your horns, you take away their avocado toast, Lincoln, and they'll fold like a cheap suit.
Or maybe you take away shampoo imports for Justin Trudeau, and that's what it'll take to end the mandate.
The Power of Avocados 00:04:42
So we'll see.
Well, how are you doing otherwise?
You obviously found a place to stay, and how long are you going to be down there?
I'm willing to stay as long as it takes.
I don't, like I said, it's unprecedented what's going on here.
So we don't know if it's going to take days, weeks, or what's going to happen.
But almost every trucker I've spoken to says that they're not leaving anytime soon.
Almost every supporter that I've spoken to has said that they're not leaving anytime soon.
So it's going to be really interesting what's going to happen here.
From the sounds of it, again, like you said, it could be scare tactics.
Nobody knows, right?
So if it was my best guess, I would say that they are going to start to implement some sort of procedure like what we saw earlier tweeted out by the Ottawa police.
So who knows?
We're going to see.
And I'm here to cover it.
Very interesting.
Well, listen, keep it up.
You're going to be joined by a bunch of other rebels this weekend.
If they're not already in place, they'll be coming over the next few hours.
We're going to have the largest team on the ground.
It is true, obviously, that CBC, CTV, and the rest of the bailout media have more people than Rebel News does.
Obviously, it would be ridiculous to claim otherwise.
But we will have more people actually amongst the truckers, actually on the street, showing what it actually looks like.
And of course, our friends at the Democracy Fund will be there on the lawyer's side.
So between the two entities, Rebel News and the Democracy Fund charity, I think there will be a significant force for freedom there.
And Lincoln, you're obviously the pointy edge of that spear.
Stay safe.
All your vids will be compiled at convoyreports.com.
We'll also be crowdfunding there to help cover the costs of your hotel and food and stuff like that.
Keep it up.
Thanks for joining us today and stay warm.
Thanks, Ensworth.
Thanks for having me on.
We have Lincoln Jay, one of our half dozen or so reporters who is on the ground or will very shortly be on the ground in Ottawa at the Trucker Rebellion.
I don't even want to say rebellion anymore because I want to emphasize how peaceful it is.
The bizarre language in the police chief's tweets and speech suggests that they're violent, dangerous, and hateful.
The only thing that meets that test in Ottawa is the Prime Minister himself.
Stay with us.
Some final thoughts are next.
You know, we're going all blockade, convoy, all trucker all the time around here.
And there are other things I want to talk about, of course, but it's just so important.
And it's the most seismic political movement in the last two years.
For whatever reason, nothing else clicked.
Maxime Bernier has been consistent throughout the last two years.
And his party is now in the low teens in the polling, which is important.
But these truckers, I showed you that abacus poll, 32%.
I think it's because they're so organic, so fresh, and so obviously uncontrolled by the establishment.
So obviously causing heartburn in the establishment that people love them.
It's a reflection of what people have wanted these past two years.
I don't know if the government's going to succeed in stealing the money raised by these truckers, about $10 million.
We saw that the truckers retained the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms as their lawyers yesterday.
That's excellent.
It's not even the money, though.
It's what the money stands for, this massive grassroots appeal.
And the fact that so many Trudeau liberals saying, I want that money, again, shows that they really are like Hugh O. Chavez.
They would nationalize your property, your money, in a heartbeat if they thought they could, and they're no longer keeping that point of view secret.
I was deeply disturbed this morning when I saw those tweets in that video by the Ottawa police that really felt like police state stuff.
On reflection, I think some of it was just shock and awe to scare people.
But if that's true, that's still not a good thing because these words were said and the fear of the police state is emanating.
Even if the police state really won't manifest itself, it has announced itself.
And that's no good.
We need our police to be apolitical, non-partisan, and not a threat to people, but a supporter to serve and protect.
That's not what we're seeing in Ottawa.
Trouble is, I don't think we have any checks and balances left in Canada these days.
No courts, no media, no opposition parties.
I have some hope for the Conservatives now, but not much still.
I'm worried that whereas in the past maybe some part of civil society would speak out against these abusive comments by the Ottawa police, that none have done so.
Ottawa Police Controversy 00:08:49
I'm going to look.
I haven't seen anything from the Canadian Civil Liberties Association or other groups.
I think they like the lockdowns and they like police beating up or threatening to attack at least these truckers.
I'll keep my eyes peeled and I'll keep my eyes peeled on our lawyer friends from the Democracy Fund who are down there looking to protect people from police abuses.
We are in dangerous days, but I think they're dangerous precisely because perhaps we're on the precipice of turning this thing around and the other side knows it.
Maybe the propaganda wouldn't be so loud if our side wasn't so promising right now.
I have a little bit of hope which I have not permitted myself until recently.
That's the show for today.
Make sure you tune in all weekend at convoyreports.com.
I'm not sure if I myself will be able to go down there, but you can see we have a very able team on the ground.
Let me leave with a video by Alexa Lavoie, who investigates the allegation that the Terry Fox statue was desecrated by truckers.
I'll leave you with that until tomorrow's convoy reports on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters to you at home.
Good night and keep fighting for freedom.
And one of the first days we came back to where we were staying and we saw Aaron O'Toole and a bunch of the liberal media saying that we completely defaced the statue, that the convoyers were destroying it.
They said that people were peeing on it.
And so we came out here the next day and there was nothing.
What had happened was they put a Canadian flag on him, a mandate freedom sign, a Canadian hat, and a flag in his hand.
And we've had people from downtown Ottawa come up absolutely livid.
They come and look at the statue and they're like, wait a second, what's wrong with it?
There's nothing wrong with it.
And today I'm going to talk about what happened with the Terry Fox statue.
Recently, some protesters put a Canadian flag on Terry Fox statue and it freed up each on it.
Not only the mainstream media, but Erin O'Toole and Brad West, that is actually the mayor, went out to say that it was disgraceful, an inappropriate move.
and that should be like removed straight away as it was the worst thing that the people have did so far.
So I'm gonna ask some people about if they find it really disturbing to have done that to this statue.
And what do you think about Terry Fox?
And as well I have some people who saw a little bit of the Evan Man.
Let's check it out!
Recently, the mainstream media have discredited the movement because some people put a flag and a board on Terry Fox.
Do you find that insulting to put like a freedom board on Terry Fox with the Canadian flag?
I personally don't find that offensive at all.
I mean it's just freedom.
It's a Canadian flag.
You know, how is that?
Does that not seem neutral?
Should freedom be controversial?
You know, so how is freedom controversial saying that on Terry Fox when he was free to run across the country?
You know, and we all rally behind that.
I mean, how many people, how many of us run, run every year because of Terry Fox?
So that's great.
So shouldn't we all be free in Terry Fox statue?
I'm okay with that.
So can you explain to me what happened exactly with Terry's statue the other day?
Yeah, me and my wife, we've been here every day for the past four days.
We traveled out with Convoy West and one of the first days we came back to where we were staying and we saw Air No Toole and a bunch of the liberal media saying that we completely defaced the statue, that the convoyers were destroying it.
They said that people were peeing on it and so we came out here the next day and there was nothing.
What had happened was they put a Canadian flag on him, a mandate freedom sign a Canadian had, and a flag in his hand.
And we've had people from downtown Ottawa come up absolutely livid.
They come and look at the statue and they're like, wait a second, what's wrong with it?
There's nothing wrong with it.
So me and my wife created this sign that just says, we love you, Terry, and we're just trying to push back against the fake news, against the fake media.
People have been, we've been, there's probably been about 2,000 people who've come and taken pictures of this.
My wife walked 10 blocks and picked up some flowers to sit there.
There's a video of me just cleaning off the statue.
There was nothing dirty on it, but I just gave it a little bit of a polish.
And I've just been absolutely blown away and been sickened by how fake the news has been towards this convoy.
And realistically, they have absolutely nothing to throw on us.
I don't find it offensive that they did that to Terry Fox.
This is Canada.
He was and still is a part of Canada.
I support the Terry Fox Foundation with the Terry Fox runs, with educating my children.
When that happens, we talked about Terry Fox all the time.
They are suggesting with what they put on it to mandate freedom and to support Canada.
So I'm not offended by the fact that they did that to the Terry Fox statue.
I was just at the Terry Fox statue and there is a bouquet of flowers at the Terry Fox statue and I'm sure the people that did that feel suitably chagrined by it.
If they should, but I'm sure that they do.
So I'm not offended.
I don't really know if I have an opinion on that.
I don't really know.
It doesn't bother me, but I don't want, I'm not his brother, so I don't know if I have an opinion.
I just have other opinions.
I have opinions like everything's clean here.
It's not what Trudeau's saying.
It's not what the mainstream media is saying.
Everybody's peaceful.
The police are very happy with us and we with them.
I think that if they were to leave it alone, it would have probably been better, but it wasn't really offensive.
There's been more offensive things done to it that I've seen pictures of that the media isn't covering.
Mainstream media, excuse me, you guys are doing a great job.
Well, I find it entirely typical of what we've come to see from Trudeau and the mainstream media in this country.
It's just about their narrative.
They'll take any subject matter and twist it around to suit their desires.
It has nothing to do with the facts.
They care nothing for the truth.
They care nothing for the Canadian people.
Last year we witnessed a series of protests across the country, in this country and the world basically, where all kinds of statues were torn down, decapitated, paint thrown on them.
Where was the outrage?
There was none.
Oh, those that tried to make outrage were vilified as evil, horrible, white supremacists.
It's ridiculous.
This is the Canadian people.
We used to call these people the salt of the earth.
What happened to that?
What happened to that?
Where are we?
Let's come together.
These truckers are uniting the country in a way that I've never seen.
It's incredible.
The loves, the support, everything here is powerful.
And I hope that you will see.
You come down here with your own eyes and see what's happening in Ottawa.
These truckers aren't going anywhere.
Trudeau's regime is over.
And we're waiting for him to realize it.
If you look at the rallies that have happened in the past two years, there's been police cars burning, there's been churches burning, police have been assaulted, and they have nothing, no dirt to throw on this rally.
And it's been four days of hard-working blue-collar Canadians coming out representing Canada well.
And me and my wife are so proud to still be here day after day.
And we're going to be here as long as it takes.
We're going to be here with these truckers for as long as it takes.
So do you think that it's someone who tried to discredit the movement by doing that?
Absolutely.
Even the person with the Nazi flag, we have not seen a single Nazi flag in this whole grounds.
And we've been here for four days and I really believe that they're planting people.
People are walking up.
That photo you see of the Nazi flag, two things.
It was taken with a long-angled lens and we don't know when it was actually taken.
It may not have even been here.
Yesterday I watched a video of these convoyers, these protesters, forcing out somebody who had a completely covered face mask and he had a Confederate flag.
And the protesters on their own forced him out of the rally.
These protesters are not racist.
Grandma's Concerns 00:00:34
They're not pushing any religion or any other things than freedom.
These people, I've seen people from all different backgrounds, all different faiths, religions, ethnicities, coming together under one thing that is rallying together and they want their freedoms back.
They want the right to choose for their children.
They want to be able to watch their kids play sports.
They want to be allowed in the hospitals when their wives are giving birth.
They want to be there when grandma dies in her hospital bed.
And it's just, it's unreal.
So now you can see the other side of the story of what happened to the statue of Terry Fox.
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