Lincoln Jay spent three weeks covering Ottawa’s truckers convoy (Jan 28–Feb 18), debunking claims of staged police violence—like Alexa Lavois’ tear-gas injury—using live-streamed evidence. He highlights Canadian media’s bias against Rebel News while American outlets like Fox News engaged, though he dodged Charlottesville baiting. Skeptical of COVID mandates and Ukraine conflict narratives, Jay warns of government overreach, comparing vaccine passports to potential future targeting of Russians amid manipulated coverage. His observations suggest systemic media distortion and escalating state coercion, raising alarms about erosion of public trust and rights. [Automatically generated summary]
I know you've been in a place recently that doesn't have as much freedom as Miami.
Is that true?
Yeah, I was in, just got back to Toronto from Ottawa late last week.
I was there since the 28th of January covering the truckers convoy, as we all know.
That was for so long, man.
How, like, did you expect to be there for that long?
No.
I originally packed for two days, so the intention was two days originally, and then obviously we realized that the truckers weren't leaving.
So Ezra told me to stay.
And three weeks later, yeah, that's what it.
Did it seem like they were planning to stay for as long as possible right away?
Because there were so many rumors about people taking tires off their trucks and just parking there for as long as possible.
Was the feeling from the get-go that they weren't going to stay?
Or did they sort of escalate when the government escalated, do you think?
Yeah, the majority of truckers that we spoke to, their intention was to stay for sure.
It was just hard to gauge on the ground.
We kept on thinking that truckers were leaving.
We were seeing trucks move to different spots, which made us think that they were leaving.
But all in all, I would say the majority of the trucks stayed there for the duration of the three-week period.
And it wasn't until the very end, when the police, which we all saw, the police crackdown, that a lot of the truckers just said, I'm going to get out of here instead of getting my truck damaged, towed, so impounded, whatever the case may be.
So point being, majority of the truckers stayed until the very end, but a lot of them got out of town real quick when they heard police were coming.
Now, have we fast forward to, you know, when they first started saying that they're going to start laying charges down, did people start to dissipate right away?
Or was it a slow trickle of people leaving?
Or how quickly did people start to leave their posts there?
Well, basically what happened was, so this all happened on the 18th, I believe, of, so the 18th of February is when the police actually came in and started to basically sweep out the convoy.
But two days prior to that, so on the Wednesday, they started handing out these notices, these blue notices, from the Ottawa police saying that if you're a part of the convoy, you know, if you have a car, a vehicle parked on the streets of Ottawa that is part of the convoy, you must leave the area now.
You're facing threats of arrest, etc., etc.
So they kind of warmed up the protesters, the supporters, the truckers.
And then the following day, they handed out the same kind of notice, but this time it was red.
So I guess they were just giving sort of two warnings.
And then on the Friday, they came and basically the full force of the police came to sweep out the convoy.
A lot of the stuff we saw, whether it was people being trampled, having their trucks being broken into by police, did that frighten people, or did that make them want to stay more?
I'd imagine there was a lot of old people there who started, once they started busting out horses, running people over, and SWAT teams, busting in windows, that they might have gotten a little scared.
Yeah, it was like even me being on the ground, like, you know, I'm a journalist, so I feel like I have some sort of protection, although not really, because we saw Andrew Lawton got pepper sprayed, Alexa Lavois got shot with the tear gas canister.
Guillaume, one of our cameramen, got pepper sprayed.
But even still, I still felt like I had a little bit more protection if I played it right, if I didn't get too close to what they were calling the front line, which is basically the line that the police officers made, various different units from Canada, and then the protesters on the other side.
So at times it would get very tense and people were legitimately trying to hold the line.
So stop the police from coming up and moving in on the convoy.
Without real, like, they weren't being violent about it.
They were just kind of like a human chain.
And it was so easy to get mixed up in that chain.
And there was elderly people.
We saw in my live stream, you can see an old man collapses.
Some people were saying he had a heart attack, stroke.
Can't confirm any of that.
But he was on the ground from the crowd, you know, just basically backing up on him.
So it, you know, it depends.
I would say that a lot of the people, once they saw that it was getting really crazy, a lot of the older people and stuff, they kind of got out of the crowd or just kept their distance.
But matter of fact, it's just to see the police, you know, smashing the windows of the rigs, just no questions asked, just dragging the truckers out.
And we've seen the videos of them, you know, kneeing protesters while making arrests, multiple officers on top of one protester.
So the only violence I saw was from the police.
You know, I was there for three weeks on the ground and there was no violence from protesters within the convoy.
The only violence was when the police came.
Let's talk about when Alexa got shot by the gas canister, I guess it was.
So what did you see from that?
What was going on at the time?
Did you think it was justified force for them to be shooting this stuff into the crowd?
How did you feel about the whole situation?
So basically that was day two.
So the whole crackdown from the police happened over two days.
So basically they cleared out an area of Wellington Street, which is where the majority of the demonstration had been taking place.
And then they basically formed a line and then camped out on that line overnight.
And then once again, in the morning, we got word that there was a huge police presence not far from where it had ended the previous night.
So they just trickled in and we started going live.
And then next thing you know, so they would just say they would, all the police would just start saying, move, move.
And that's when they had batons and they would basically just trying to just gain ground, right?
To eventually sweep the whole convoy out.
So as that was happening, we started hearing pops going off, like pops, and we assumed they're just tear gas canisters, but they were so loud because they were being fired from a rifle.
So that happened.
And I didn't even realize I was on my live stream.
I didn't even realize.
I just saw people commenting saying, Alex is injured, Alex's leg.
People were saying, Alex's leg is broken, you know, like just a whole bunch of things.
So I didn't know what was actually happening until I saw her about an hour and a half later.
She's a trooper, and she came back and told me what had actually happened.
And you can see a slight angle of her running off after she got shot in my live stream.
But at the time, I had no idea.
And then realized after that, she literally got shot point blank in the leg with, I don't know the name of the rifle, but it's a rifle that shoots tear gas canisters.
And yeah, it's crazy to think of.
There's a lawsuit there, isn't there?
I don't know how much you heard about it, but there was like people saying that that was staged.
I don't know if you heard that.
That Alexis Alexa being shot was staged because you know how we have websites that we get up like people think that there's a and I remember one for Avi Yamini when he was arrested and people thought that was staged.
So not and David Menzies of course, which you were also there for, where people think that we actually send people in to get hurt like that.
And just because we have a web team who's able to put up a website, that it must be faked.
It's wild stuff.
And I know we're in a position now where most people don't believe everything they see and they shouldn't.
But how does it feel thinking that people, you know, they think what you're involved in is staged and faked.
And we can go back to David Menzies if you want to, getting roughed up by the RCMP.
Yeah, it's crazy to think because I'm there, you know, boots on the ground, actually, you know, putting in my time and effort.
You're just trying to show people what's actually happening there.
That's why I went live.
Just to like, so people, just so basically people can't have those excuses, right?
So that they can't say it's cut up.
They can't say it's edited.
If you just go live, you know, everything is there for you to judge.
You can come up with your own conclusions from the live feed.
And it's just crazy that people come up with these theories, these rumors, whatever you want to call them, when all the evidence is right there.
You can't stage that.
There's just no way.
So I think it's just, they're just trolls, just people just trying to create something out of nothing.
And it's so obvious to anyone that's seen the footage, that's seen the live streams.
That's not the case.
And even with the, you know, we didn't go live for with David Menzies when he got his head slammed by Trudeau's RCMP officers.
But even though there's just no arguing the footage, there just is no arguing the footage.
And people are just going to say what they say.
Now, tell me about some of the media coverage that this got.
Obviously, we're up here in Canada in our own little bubble when Sean Hannity's people call.
Does that freak you out a little bit?
Yeah, it's just crazy, to be honest.
I can just consider myself lucky.
I was on a hot story.
It had international attention.
Everybody was talking about it at one point.
And, you know, when you're really in Ottawa, you could feel the buzz, the energy about it.
We saw Fox News on the ground there, which I don't think they come.
I don't think they put people in Canada too often like that unless it's a big story.
So I think it's something I'll remember forever, definitely.
And just you don't really, again, you don't really realize when you're in the thick of it how big of a story it actually is and how much of an impact it may or may not have.
But looking back at it, just no regrets on the coverage I did for sure.
Yeah, that's like six, seven, or eight million people watching live there.
However many Hannity has.
You think about that while you're doing it?
That's great.
I never did a live stream before going to Ottawa.
It was all so new to me.
Yankee, one Yankee, our social media guy, which I'm sure a lot of you guys know who he is.
He kind of just coached me through how to do the live streams and said it would be valuable to do them.
And same with the, I was doing some on Getter and that just kind of introduced me to it and just kept on doing them.
And then I kind of got a little bit more comfortable with doing the live broadcast, but I don't think there's any preparing for when like Hannity calls.
Fox News.
I was just thinking in my head, just don't screw up.
Yeah, pretty much, right?
And then there's that other one.
I think it was The Hill where they tried to bait you into talking a little bit about like Charlottesville, which is something before you or I were ever even in like news media happened before.
Like we weren't even in 2017, I think.
Neither of us were in like the media when this was going on.
And this guy sort of just, and after the fact, I sort of looked into him and he's kind of like their guy who tries to get people.
He's like their Washington, like, I'll call him shill kind of guy.
Any feelings on that about a guy who basically like the segments about Ottawa and all of a sudden somebody tries to basically ruin your credibility, like one of your first like big exposures to U.S. audiences?
Yeah, so basically when people, when they, when some different stations and stuff were reaching out to me in Ottawa, because we only had like a couple people on the ground there, so I was getting reached out to a little bit and I would just ask Sheila if what she thought about it.
So Sheila said, yeah, just go for it with the Hill.
We were so busy down there, I didn't really have time to do my research and kind of like, I prepared what I could, but not to like break down who I'm going in front of and who's going to be asking me questions.
And they were just really quick hits.
So I didn't really think anything of it.
So I sat up in my usual spot and everything was going, everything was great as we were leading up to actually going on air.
So it was a panel of three hosts and it was one female, I forget her name, and then two male hosts.
I forget, I forget their names.
And basically it was all good.
They were chatting with me, just mainly the female host was chatting with me and I was getting good vibes overall from it.
And then even the show opened up good.
They started asking me questions.
And this guy just brought up Charlottesville two or three times throughout the interview.
And I just, I just dodged, just kind of no commented it because I really have no comment on it.
So I just said that.
And then he asked me again right before the show is about to end.
He asked me for a final time.
He's like, why don't you want to comment on Charlottesville?
it's like it's just leaving me with a bit of discomfort and I'm just and then the female host actually she kind of intervenes and she's like why are you at She actually defended me.
And she's like, why are you asking him these questions?
We're talking about the Chuckers convoy.
Why are you bringing this up?
And basically, I just answered.
I said, I was in college.
Like, I have no clue what you're talking about.
So I could feel that it was, that they were baiting me or something.
Or at least the one guy was definitely baiting me.
I could feel the energy right away.
And it kind of shook me when I was getting interviewed.
I didn't expect it at all.
Just to bring up something so out of the blue, such a different topic.
But it was nice to see that the co-host defended me.
And looking back at it, I'm happy I did it.
It was a good experience to see that not everyone, not all media outlets that reach out to you are going to try and give you exposure that's in your favor.
And Jimmy Dore also broke down the interview too, which kind of was the cherry on top.
Yeah, it's interesting.
I'm pretty familiar with The Hill.
I mean, most people know that they're left wing, but that morning show that they do is supposed to be like fairly down the middle and just reporting on Washington news.
Mask Mandates Lifting?00:07:36
And I think that surprised a lot of people.
And like you mentioned, Jimmy Dore talked about it, who's, I think he's basically an anarchist.
I'm not sure what his actual, like, he would call himself, but like him defending it was really funny.
Did any of the mainstream Canadian outlets reach out to you?
Like, were you on any of those?
Were you on any CTVs or CP24 or anything?
No.
And isn't that interesting?
Yeah, I think looking back at it now, I think it was all I think it was all American outlets.
Yeah, it wasn't any Canadian outlets.
They all had their experts and their people on the ground that they wanted to talk to.
We would see them out there every day, but I just, they don't, I think it's obvious they don't want anything to do with Rebel News.
Yeah, it's pretty sad there.
Colin DeMello, CTV News, reporting live.
What year are we on of lockdowns now?
Like, we're just in Ontario.
Things are, passports are getting lifted.
You've been reporting on this along with the others for at least two years now.
First question, did you ever think it would be this long?
Second question, do you think we ever actually get out of this stuff?
It's crazy to think how long it's actually been.
I remember I was working as a waiter before I was even in this world.
I was just finishing up college.
And I remember just saying to one of my co-workers in the restaurant, I was like, it was like the night before it was my final shift at the restaurant.
They were shutting stuff down the next day.
And we're just like, I have a feeling this is going to be the last time I'm going to see you for a while.
And just like, we just had a feeling that this was that something, that there was something more and that this was going to last a long time.
But I don't think anybody thought that we'd still be dealing with it, that we were just going to be coming out of lockdown.
What was it, two months ago?
After there's majority of the country's double vaccinated.
So I don't think anybody thought that this was going to go on this long.
And second question is, where do I see this going?
Do you think it's going to end?
Do you think we're actually going to end?
Or do you think we're just going to move on to something else?
That's what most people are saying.
We're just going to move on to a climate lockdown or there's going to be another bio thing going on.
I don't know.
It's hard to tell.
You're seeing Teresa Tam now, you know, they're doing giving the whispers again, saying that, yes, they are lifting the vaccine passport provincially, but now, but they're saying, as usual, that, you know, they will bring them back if necessary if things continue to spike, I believe, in the fall.
So I don't know.
It's just so hard to predict.
Half of me believes that we are kind of exiting it.
The other half of me believes that we're going to see them come back.
We're going to see masks come back if they're eventually lifted.
So I don't know.
It's just hard to tell.
I don't know.
Watching police interactions for this long now, what's your opinion on them been like?
Has it changed for better or for worse?
And do you think that the general public opinion has changed as much as I do?
Because I used to look at myself.
You'd see those videos.
I don't, like, I have my opinions on the George Floyds and the Arberys and the guy who tried to kidnap his kid and everything else shot and all this stuff.
All these cops, all the Black Lives Matters and everything.
And it's like, you know what?
Police have a tough job.
You take that position.
But then you start working up here during lockdowns and all of a sudden the police are ticketing you for shaking hands.
There was the one day where yourself, myself, writer Dave, and producer Efron were reporting, and the cops didn't like us standing next to each other.
They tried to disperse us for standing next to each other on a street corner.
Does your opinion change going forward, or do you are you just a little bit more cautious?
How do you feel about policing now?
It depends.
There's good cops and there's bad cops.
I have multiple friends, some that I grew up with, went to high school with, that are police officers now.
I know they're good guys.
But at the same time, it's hard for me to look at police officers who are taking the time and a half pay to come down to Ottawa and to treat these protesters like animals, to be quite frank.
And again, you could tell when you're out there, you can tell that a lot of the officers didn't really want anything to do with it.
They kind of just wanted this over and done with.
I'm sure they just went for the money.
But at the same time, you see so many police officers just acting so viciously.
So it's really hard to tell.
I don't want to categorize all of them into one category because they're all different.
But definitely there's a different sense for policing now.
It seems like they are acting.
They're following orders a lot more.
And I don't know, it's a lot harder to just simply back the blue.
You really have to characterize them individually.
What do you think now is the way forward for us as a province or even a country in terms of who to vote for?
Because we thought we had the Conservative Party in charge of us for a while with Doug Ford and then in Alberta and everything.
And it turns out that their way of governing is still taking away your rights.
Do you have any thoughts just from like a person or a voter's perspective about what you think the next move forward should be for us as a people?
Like not even who to vote for, but like what type of thing should we be looking for?
I think it's hard to say who to vote for.
A lot of people like a lot of people that I was speaking to in Ottawa while I was covering the Chuckers Convoy were very excited about Per Polyev being elected the leader of the Conservative Party.
But a lot of people at the same time are like he's just another politician.
So it's just hard to tell.
I think moving forward though, the thing that just needs to be respected all across the board is not coercing and not coercing people to take a vaccine that they simply don't want to take for whatever reason that's their own.
And simply the mandates.
All these things are just infringing on people's rights.
And we see the rest of the world around us slowly starting to lift these mandates and basically put COVID in the past.
So whoever is, Whoever we elect, whoever should be in power in Canada, needs to understand that and respect people's rights and not coerce people for not taking a vaccine.
Do not fire people for not taking a vaccine.
And simply do not force people to wear a mask.
If you can respect all those things, like those are the main things that's changed Canada from what it once was to what it is now.
And no more lockdowns.
Do you think people are going to stop wearing masks?
It's going to be 50-50, maybe a bit.
It's so tough to say.
Some people really like it.
Some people really like to police people.
That was one of your early predictions: the people wanting to use a mask as a way to hide from the public.
Yeah, I think that's true.
I think that's very true.
I think a lot of people just like to wear the mask just because it kind of, like if they're shy or whatever the case may be, I think the mask is kind of like a form of protection almost.
You can hide a lot of your emotions, your facial expressions, and just cover it up with the mask.
I think it's true.
Hopefully we're not.
I think once enough people do it, people will stop doing it as in take it off.
I think it's one of those social things that like no matter what, it's not going to be preferable to wear a mask.
It's sweaty after minutes.
I try not to ever wear one.
Behind the Mask00:03:40
What do you think is going to be the next big thing that's going to happen in Canada that we're going to send you to cover?
After six weeks.
I don't know.
I feel like so many people got so excited over what we saw happen with the truckers and the convoy that I think I wouldn't be surprised if there's going to be something similar similar to like that similar to that in the near future.
I don't know if it's a convoy to another part of Canada where they basically do the same thing and park out front of somewhere.
I just don't know.
So many things did happen behind the scenes while the truckers were there and a lot of people believe that it helped push help push COVID behind us even more.
So I'm not sure.
It's tough to predict.
But if I had to guess, I would say yes, there will be something in the near future that people are going to get behind.
I don't know if it'll be a convoy, but what exactly is that going to be?
I don't know.
So Lincoln, we were talking about some fake news with the trucker protests in Ottawa, people thinking conspiracies.
How closely are you watching Ukraine-Russia right now?
And are you as skeptical as I am of everything, given what we've learned the past couple years with COVID and everything?
At first, I was kind of just, you know, it's just like when COVID hit.
You don't know what to, you're trying to filter through everything, right?
There's basically breaking news, and you're just trying to filter out what's real, what's not.
I don't know.
It's so hard to predict right now.
I'm hearing mixed stories.
I like to talk to Dave, our editor, and he kind of gives me a good consensus on what's going on.
I just don't know.
Once again, we're seeing these crazy images.
Like, I don't know if you saw with the cardboard, the cardboard AK-47.
Yeah, I did see that guy.
That was run on Fox News.
You know, and I'm seeing that.
And then I saw the Time magazine cover of the lady who was in some sort of bombing.
And people are saying that's from 2018.
So I don't know.
When I see them using images that aren't related to the actual conflict, it definitely sends out some red flags for sure.
So I don't know what to make of it.
Yeah, I'm torn between, you know, people doing that on purpose and people just being bad reporters.
There's that Adam Kinzinger guy, and we can just look up his Twitter and bring it up.
He had the ghost of Kiev guy, which was the Sam Hyde comedian, Photoshop.
And then there's people using footage of bombings from, I think it was from 2018, a gas explosion.
Have a girl yelling at a soldier.
The girl is actually like a Palestinian little girl.
So maybe we can have a little bit of a mashup of all the things that have been proven wrong.
But it's gotten to the point here where I'm not seeing, and I'm sure by the time this even airs, that I'm going to be proven wrong by some stuff.
But I'm not seeing the people dying in the streets.
I'm not seeing anything other than some buildings being shot with missiles, which is, in my guess, when that happens, that means somebody's firing from this building, like an apartment building.
But I'm kind of coming at it from the angle of Ukraine is this notoriously corrupt country where the Clintons and the Obamas and the Bidens love to work out of.
And now all of a sudden, do you notice the sort of like the social media machine behind it?
Like whenever we have like a BLM thing or a rainforest thing, it's the same sort of deal where it's like, you're a good person if you support this and change your flag and everything.
Do you get that feeling that it's got like that artificial push?
Yeah, for sure.
It's like when everyone posted the black screen on their Instagram, it just seems like that.
Social Norms Pushback00:04:14
And it's just when the mainstream media just completely jumps over a story so quickly and it's just the number one story.
I don't know.
Immediately all these red flags just start going up.
I just, they've been, there's been so many things that they've said over this COVID period that we now know are just completely not true.
And they were just willing to push that narrative, whatever it may be, with vaccines, with masking, everything that we were told was effective that turned out to be not effective at all.
So it's just, it's just, you just have to be so cautious when mainstream media is running these stories.
And then now with the internet, with all these other alternative sources, we're able to see the other side of the story and see what's actually happening.
I think it's too early to tell what's really happening, but I guess time will tell.
Who do you watch?
Who do you look to for these things besides Dave?
Sputnik is good.
They just banned RT and Sputnik in Europe on YouTube.
I think it's going to get to this point where everything they did with people who are unvaxed, they're going to start treating that in the same way as they do with Russians.
You know what I mean?
Like they're already, they kicked them out of the Olympics, they kicked them out of the World Cup.
Russian teams aren't allowed to be in the soccer tournaments right now.
People want Alexander Ovechkin to speak up and everything.
Dominic Hashik, the former goalie, said that all NHL players who are Russian should be suspended.
I don't know how that makes any sense.
But I feel like we're just going down this line.
We're like, oh, we found another group of people we can otherize.
And this is supposed, and as long as we're making ourselves feel like we're good people, then it's okay.
But where does that exactly end?
And I think this is going to be the first example.
Like, you can say unvaccinated people are endangering other people and whatnot, but like just being a Russian person now is enough to be criticized for your government.
It doesn't make any sense to me.
It makes no sense.
You're just going to throw all Russians under this one bubble and say that all Russians should be held responsible for what their leader is doing.
So, you know, that Russian vodka company that's being boycotted.
So what do they have?
Is it does Putin have stocks in it?
Like, why is that related to why is that related to what's happening with the war?
It's just that's another point when they're just when everybody is just jumping on something so quick.
They're boycotting everything from that country.
When I don't know, I think it's just common sense to realize that you can't just put everybody under one umbrella.
Well, it's like, why is it companies doing this?
It's like it's the new cool thing to do.
But like, why is the first thing that a company's responsibility is to determine, like, it's like trying to please the government.
Oh, Joe Biden's going to love us if we stop doing dealings with this Russian company.
When in the end of the day, we know that a communist dictator is not going to thank you at the end of the day.
They're just going to hurt you if you're not doing what they want.
And that's sort of the pressure I feel like these companies have succumbed to.
And they all just started doing it one by one.
Just like with lockdowns, just like with Black Lives Matter on the basketball court.
Everybody, if you remember the brief period of time where like every video game had to have a BLM message and Amazon had to have it.
It's like there's now these social norms that as long as a big company or the government pushes it, now it's something you have to do.
And if you're not, you're outcast for some reason.
I'm not sure I understand it.
It stems from the top down.
It's some very powerful and influential company, a media company, a social media platform.
Like at the very top, they basically send the message and then it's like a domino effect.
And all these media companies, all these platforms underneath them just follow suit, whether they truly believe it or not.
Makes me feel like high school.
Okay, I'm going to pass out from the lights.
And I was sick for like six days, so I'm going to have to cut it short here before I fall asleep on this table and die.
Top-Down Influence00:00:32
Thanks, everybody, for watching and sticking around for this extra segment with Lincoln Jay.
Lincoln MJ on Twitter.
Anything else we want them to follow you on?
No, that's it.
Just Twitter.
It's where the fame is, where the cloud is.
It's producer Efron is.
The blue check mark of producer Efron looms over us.
His influence gets to us.
You know, when you get that retweet from a blue check mark, Efron grows in power each and every day.
That's how you know you made it.
Yeah, exactly.
All right, thanks for joining us.
Thanks for being subscribers and loyal viewers of Rebel News Plus.