Ezra Levant questions whether Justin Trudeau’s Liberals will drop the ArriveCAN app, a privacy-invasive tool demanding COVID tests, vaccines, and daily symptom checks—even for children like Boy Scouts stranded in Zurich. The app’s data-sharing risks and forced compliance by airlines like Air Canada mirror state overreach, with the Democracy Fund’s constitutional challenge looming. Meanwhile, Evelyn Young’s "medical kidnapping" after a hospital-induced drug reaction reveals systemic custody grabs when parents resist treatment, sparking legal battles. Alberta’s 2035 fossil fuel vehicle ban, pushed by Transport Minister Omar Algebra despite gas-fired electricity and winter reliability doubts, exposes Canada’s unpreparedness for toxic lithium battery reliance, blending environmental hubris with parental rights crises. [Automatically generated summary]
It really is spyware, malware that the government forces on you.
Looks like the Liberal Party's thinking of abandoning it, or at least making it non-mandatory.
Now, I'll believe it when I see it, but I'll take you through the evidence and my thoughts on it.
And then we'll talk about a crazy case in Kansas City, Missouri, where a 10-year-old child, well, you know what?
I won't tell it now.
I'll let the family tell it and our reporter on the scene, Jeremy Lafredo.
But first, let me invite you to get a subscription to what we call Rebel News Plus.
It's the video version of this podcast.
These are both very visual stories, especially the one in Kansas City.
Just go to RebelNewsPlus.com, click subscribe.
It's $8 a month.
My show is every weeknight.
Plus, we have four weekly shows.
That's 36 episodes a month.
I think it's good value, but more importantly, it's how we survive.
We don't take any money from Justin Trudeau.
Please go to RebelNewsPlus.com and click subscribe.
Here's today's show.
Tonight, is the Trudeau government actually going to get rid of the Arrive Can app?
It's September 22nd, and this is The Ezra LeVant Show.
Shame on you, you censorious bug.
Have you ever read the fine print in your passport?
There's not a lot of it, actually.
Maybe you have read it once when you were killing time in an airport, or more likely, maybe you have in the last two years as your freedom of mobility was infringed by the Trudeau government.
The whole passport, it's actually a wonderful document.
It took me months, but I got mine renewed this summer.
What an atrocious mess that whole thing was and still is.
Did you know that as of the summer at least, a majority of passport staff were still working from home because of the pandemic on the series?
No wonder the backlog was months and months, and panicky travelers who had to leave soon were camped outside of passport offices waiting hours or even days to get theirs filled for urgent travel.
Pierre Polyev was right when he said the government that can't even run a passport office wants to run your life so pitiful.
But I finally got mine and it's actually a beautiful document.
On every page in the inside where you get it stamped is another image of a Canadian moment or theme, sports, industry, scenery.
It's actually beautifully done.
And though there's an electronic chip in the cover of the passport, it is still largely an old-fashioned document.
It's a little book with a pretty tough cover, pocket size.
They really want to get rid of it, just like they want to get rid of other physical things like cash, or instead they want to put microchips in cash like they have with the passport.
They really want to destroy the old customs and beauty of it.
But back to the very first page in the passport, which is really the whole thing in a nutshell.
That first page, I'll read it to you.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada requests, in the name of Her Majesty the Queen, all those whom it may concern, to allow the bearer to pass freely without delay or hindrance and to afford the bearer such assistance and protection as may be necessary.
That's it.
46 words, one sentence.
It's all you need.
The Queen says the person who holds this book is a Canadian.
Please let them pass freely.
New passports, I presume, will now say king instead of queen.
Now, whether or not other countries do let the bearer pass without hindrance is a matter of politics and international relations.
But when it comes to our own country, the queen, now the king, is the personification of the state.
She is superior to any politician or to parliament.
And she says, if you have this passport, you can come home without delay or hindrance.
It's a mighty thing.
I mean, Trudeau himself once believed that.
ArriveCan: Mobile App for Border Compliance00:04:00
He said that even if you're a terrorist, he said, even if you've committed terrorist murder and rape overseas, you can still come back to Canada.
Remember when he said that?
This was a bill put forward by a member of parliament who is himself an immigrant, Devinder Shori.
This is not the standards we expect.
Immigrants, Canadians, all of us who are here expect that we would have a minimum bar that people would not, people who came here would not be guilty of trying to plan terrorist attacks against this country.
A Canadian individual Canadian is a Canadian and you devalue, you devalue the citizenship of every Canadian in this place and in this country when you break down and make it conditional for anyone.
The end of the rule of law in this country and you can't take away someone's individual.
It's awful how much he loves terrorists, but there is some truth to his argument.
Even our criminals are still citizens.
Quite something that he would insist on the rights of terrorists to come into Canada, but not the rights of unvaccinated people.
Now, don't get me wrong, if you are unvaxed, you can come into the country, but not quite.
Certainly not without delay or hindrance.
Am I right?
Because you have to fill out that infernal ArriveCan app now.
I've never done it because I have not left the country since the before times.
Unlike Omar Khad or the Al-Qaeda terrorists, I am on the no-fly list in terms of foreign flying.
I can fly domestically in Canada now, but I can't go to the U.S.
And if I were to go there, I'd have to quarantine for two weeks upon return to Canada, which I cannot afford to do, of course.
But let me show you what the app looks like.
Here is a two-minute propaganda video by the Canadian government describing the app in the most positive way they can.
Are you planning to travel to Canada?
If you are traveling by air, land, or water, you are required to provide essential information before you arrive using ArriveCan.
ArriveCan is a user-friendly digital tool to help travelers comply with Canada's border measures quickly and securely.
It is available as a mobile app or by signing in online.
Within the 72 hours before your arrival in Canada or before boarding a cruise ship destined for Canada, you must use ArriveCan to submit your contact and travel details, including where you've been and where you're going, your COVID-19 vaccination information, your pre-entry COVID-19 test results, and your quarantine plan.
You may be exempt from some of these requirements.
If you are a fully vaccinated traveler, you must submit your proof of vaccination in ArriveCan to be considered exempt from certain public health requirements.
You must be ready to show your ArriveCan receipt to your airline carrier, cruise operator, and to border officials when seeking entry into Canada.
After entering Canada, travelers who are required to quarantine or isolate must confirm that they have arrived at their place of quarantine or isolation.
During their quarantine period, travelers must provide a daily COVID-19 symptom self-assessment.
This must be done through ArriveCan or by calling the toll-free number.
Use ArriveCan by signing in online at canada.ca slash arrivecan or by downloading the latest version of the mobile app through Google Play or the Apple App Store.
For more information, including whether you're eligible to enter Canada, call 1-833-283-7403 or visit canada.ca/slash arrive can.
Now, it's a lie to say it is easy to do.
It's just a lie.
Reports from various border crossings say up to half of people cannot do it, can't do it properly, just it glitches or they don't know how.
Putting Us At Risk00:12:39
If you don't have a smartphone, you can't do it at all, obviously.
If you're overseas and can't get online, you can't do it.
People from all over the world have to do it, but the app is only in English and French, and I think maybe Spanish too.
It's not in Chinese or German or Arabic or whatever other language people speak coming to Canada.
Maybe you saw that story about a whole Boy Scout troop stranded overseas.
Here's a CTV propaganda story trying to spin it.
Young scouts stuck in Zurich after missing Air Canada flight to Toronto.
But that's not really the story, is it?
It's not until you're deep into the story that you get what should have been the lead when you realize they didn't miss their flight.
They were there on time.
They didn't do anything wrong at all.
In fact, it was the ArriveCan app.
Let me quote.
But on their way home, the Bancroft contingent faced challenges with the ArriveCan app.
The leaders had entered the group's information on the app, but when they arrived at the airport, they discovered only the information for the two adults was logged.
They also couldn't get Wi-Fi at the airport because they didn't have a local phone number.
Unpossible.
The propaganda video said it was so easy to do.
But back to the passport.
These were Canadian citizens.
They were children.
They had to be treated carefully.
Imagine stranding children overseas.
What happened to without delay or hindrance?
What happened to that part?
But here's the thing.
If they were in Toronto at the airport border desk, or if they were at a border crossing by land, they actually could come into Canada even without the ArrivCan app.
The government might hector them or badger them or lecture them about taking tests or quarantining at home.
The government might try and boss them around for sure, but they would legally be entitled to enter the country.
They're Canadian citizens.
But what Trudeau did, and this is so atrocious and so unforgivable, is that he ordered Canadian Airlines to enforce this app for him.
That's what happened to the Boy Scouts.
They had to show Air Canada that they filled out the app or Air Canada wouldn't let them on the plane.
Now, obviously, this isn't Air Canada's idea.
They're not interested in bullying their passengers.
They're not border guards.
They're not health officials.
But Trudeau said to Air Canada and to WestJet and other Canadian airlines that if they didn't enforce his app, he would fine and punish that airline too.
Imagine how evil that is.
You will be stranded from your own country, forbidden from getting on a plane to your own country unless you fill out some bloody app.
They actually can't stop you from coming into the country once you're at the border, if you can make it to the border.
But they have commandeered the airlines, making them the enforcers.
And it's one thing for you to get a fine for not filling out paperwork, but physically stopping you from coming back to your country by bullying Air Canada into bullying you.
That is outrageous.
That is illegal.
That is vengeful.
That is unscientific.
and so utterly on brand for Justin Trudeau and his immoral war against anyone who dares to defy him.
I showed you that's happening.
I showed you the Boy Scouts.
There are countless other stories I've read and people I've spoken to personally telling me their stories, how they were not allowed on the plane because the planes are scared of Trudeau punishing them.
One lady told me she was coming back to Canada on WestJet.
WestJet refused to let her board without the ArriveCan app, so she had to buy another ticket last minute, extremely expensive, on a foreign-based airline because they don't follow Trudeau's bullying orders.
So it's happening.
But look at the lie right there on the app.
If you go to the app store, this is how the app describes itself.
Travelers with a right to enter Canada, such as Canadian citizens, will not be denied boarding of their flight or entry to Canada if they do not use ArriveCan.
Well, that's a lie.
A thousand times it's been proved a lie.
They are liars.
So Trudeau is forcing the airlines to violate not only the passport, but our essential rights as Canadians.
We have to answer some questions at the border and whether or not there are quarantine rules to follow or the foolishness of testing yourself for two weeks worth of folly.
Let's put all those things aside because none of that goes to whether you can or can't enter your own country, right?
Trudeau is literally banning you from your country unless you fill out his spyware app.
He won't let you even get to Canada.
You know what spyware is, right?
It's like an app that spies on you, that gets details about you.
That is explicitly what this is.
In fact, it forces you to give data, but it's also malware.
Do you know what that word means?
Software that's malicious.
And that's what this ArriveCan is.
It's not just invading your privacy.
It's giving your secret private data to bad actors, to lobbyists, to hucksters, to drug companies, to foreign governments, anyone Trudeau wants to.
It's unlimited, really.
They literally can give it to anyone they want.
This is again from the app store.
Personal information may be disclosed to contractors working for the Public Health Agency of Canada and Service Canada, as well as the following entities, other government institutions, as well as provincial, territorial, municipal governments, or international health organizations, as well as their institutions for these purposes.
That is an unlimited list for an unlimited set of reasons.
And according to Apple, and it's the same on the Android store, this privacy policy is just what Trudeau told them.
Let me quote.
This information has not been verified by Apple, so it could be much worse.
And here, this is from the app also.
I didn't download the app.
I was just reading the privacy policy.
This is so key.
Remember in the propaganda video, they said you had to answer some questions.
And those are bad enough.
But look at what this app will extract from your cell phone without asking you.
Anything in your phone's health and fitness information.
Did you see that?
Now, my phone is an Apple, and it's attached to my Apple Watch, which has a great deal of information about me from my heart rate to when I exercise and where it's attached to my GPS, so it knows where I am.
So how much I exercise, any health info I type in, it just steals that.
Unrelated to anything.
And it gives it to Trudeau's lobbyists or contractors or China or literally whoever they want.
But now come rumors that Trudeau will end the mandatory use of ArriveCan and perhaps end some of the other punishments too.
Now, the rumors are all published by the media party, the Toronto Star, the CBC.
So they're obviously regurgitating what the regime wants them to say.
Probably Trudeau testing the waters to see how the public health deep state will react to this.
All the stories note that Trudeau himself hasn't finally signed off on the change.
I mean, he's pretty busy.
Give him a break.
Between singing queen songs in bars in London, and now he's partying in New York with Jacinda Ardern, and then he's off to Japan for another funeral.
Hopefully, he won't do any karaoke when he's down there, caused yet another international incident.
So it might be hard to pin down this jet setter for a moment to actually do some work.
Sorry about that.
Everyone seems to think ArivCan will be shelved as soon as next week, and of course, I hope it will be.
But I'm also a bit skeptical because if you look at ArriveCan as a health measure, of course it should be scrapped.
It's ridiculous.
I mean, even sleepy Joe Biden knows the pandemic is over.
Mr. President, first Detroit auto show in three years.
Yeah.
Is the pandemic over?
The pandemic is over.
We still have a problem with COVID.
We're still doing a lot of work on it.
But the pandemic is over.
If you notice, no one's wearing masks.
Everybody seems to be in pretty good shape.
And so I think it's changing, and I think this is a perfect example of it.
The whole world is over it now, not just Florida.
It's a joke now.
Wearing a mask now is a joke.
Imagine quarantining for two weeks, even if you're not sick, even if your test says you're not.
It's never been about health.
It's not about health.
It has never been about health.
So if you think that this might be ended for health reasons, you are missing the whole point.
The app was not made to deal with COVID.
It's the other way around.
COVID was the excuse used to justify the app.
The app isn't a means to the end.
It is the end result itself.
It's what they want.
COVID was the excuse, the justification.
Just ask the World Economic Forum's deep thinker, Yuval Noah Harari.
And COVID is critical because this is what convinces people to accept, to legitimize total biometric surveillance.
If we want to stop this epidemic, we need not just to monitor people, we need to monitor what's happening under their skin.
That's why I'm not 100% convinced Trudeau will give up ArriveCan.
First, because he hates the unvaccinated and anyone else who ever opposes him.
He says as much.
Would you support policies that prioritized vaccinated patients over those who are unvaccinated who are in there because they made that choice?
I have heard from health care professionals across the country who are, as we know, exhausted from the past year and a half, who are worried about their own loved ones,
who are working incredibly hard to keep all Canadians safe, whether they're vaccinated or unvaccinated, but who are expressing increasing frustration and little bits of anger that they are spending so much of their time trying to save people who could have saved themselves.
And now is the time for people who are still resistant to getting vaccinated to realize that that choice, which has consequences on putting our kids at risk,
which has consequences at having us risk more lockdowns because they haven't chosen to get vaccinated yet, that there will be consequences for those people in not being able to go to a gym or a restaurant, not being able to go to a movie theater, not being able to get on a train or a plane.
You don't want to comment on the triage because it's a provincial jurisdiction, but so are movies, so are gyms, all of those types of things.
And you also say, you look pretty angry about it, that they're putting kids and people who are vulnerable at risk.
Are they not putting some people who may not get the treatment they need in hospitals at risk?
And yes, we can all say to a certain extent that it is unfortunate that people who chose not to get vaccinated are now the ones clogging up our ICU systems and our hospital beds that should be available for people who did their work and did get vaccinated.
That is really unfortunate.
And that is why we are unequivocal.
They don't get to put others at risk by not getting vaccinated.
But second, Trudeau is fully on board with China-style social credit tracking you, spying on you, punishing you.
He doesn't want to give that up.
Now, I hope this all ends next week.
But even if they do end it, don't think they wouldn't try and bring it back in if they could.
Stay with us for more.
I think the most terrifying thing of the pandemic has been not just that adults were forced to get the jab, but children were forced to on pain of being kicked out of school or even worse, marginalized, demonized.
Medical Kidnapping Battle00:12:53
Children were the victims in so many ways of forced masking.
And this story I'm about to tell you is about children actually being, well, I think kidnapped is the most accurate way of describing it.
A young child named Evelyn in Kansas City, Missouri, brought to the hospital by her family.
And when they started to ask questions about the treatment, they were told they no longer had authority over her.
And they were looking to bring in authorities, as in police, to physically stop the child from leaving with the parents.
Instead of my secondhand telling the story, let me now introduce you to Jeremy Lafredo, our New York-based correspondent who spent the last few days in Kansas City meeting with the family and the lawyers.
Jeremy, great to see you again.
You're always doing interesting work.
I want to make sure I've accurately described what is happening to Evelyn and her parents.
Why don't you give us a summary?
I want to make sure we get this just exactly factually accurate.
Sure, yeah.
This is a harrowing story out of Kansas City, Missouri.
We have the Children's Mercy Hospital.
It's one of the most prestigious children's research hospitals in the Midwest.
And they've been accused time and time again by different families of, you know, they're calling it, quote, medical kidnapping.
Now, what is medical kidnapping?
It's when a family brings their child to the doctor or to the hospital.
And once the family, you know, disagrees with the treatment or has questions or concerns or, you know, is a sufficient advocate for the child, the hospital calls child protective services or, you know, the state, and they get involved and they no longer have custody over their own children.
This is what we call medical kidnapping.
So this is what's happening to 10-year-old Evelyn Young in Kansas City.
Her family brought her in because she had a swollen face and a swollen tummy.
And after the hospital tried a few things, they tried a pharmaceutical treatment that actually made Evelyn go temporarily blind and caused encephalopathy, which is a swelling of the brain.
So the family was very upset, very angry at this.
And when they told the hospital that they disagreed with the treatment, is when Child Protective Services was called.
So right now they're in a legal battle for the custody of their own daughter, which they brought to the hospital because they were concerned for her health.
And Rebel News actually got involved.
We got involved.
We went to Kansas City.
We're trying to help the family get back custody of their child at savelyn.com.
Can go there and you can donate to their legal fund.
We're going to try to help them get the child back.
And you could sign a petition, which I'm actually going to personally bring to the hospital's board of directors, which I've looked.
There's some conflicts of interest.
They have some pharmaceutical companies on there and some federal agencies on there.
I'm going to bring it to the board of directors and we're going to try to get Evelyn back.
All right.
Well, you've said a lot of things here.
I want to talk in a moment about the campaign we're doing.
I personally have spoken with Evelyn's mom and I've had a detailed conversation with a lawyer right there in Kansas City, Missouri, who has been engaged by the family.
And I can confirm what you've just said, Jeremy, that we have signed an agreement.
We will cover the legal bills for this family to get their daughter out.
In a moment, we're going to get to what we're going to do in the campaign, the petition and the lawyering.
But first, I want to show a clip from when you, Jeremy, were in Kansas City, Missouri, and we're talking with the young family.
When we tried to take Evelyn out, I had like, you know, legal wording written out on a paper, even like memorized, so that I could say, like, we do have the right, she's non-emergent, her vitals are stable, so you don't have a right to like claim her.
Where we were stationed in the hospital, there was a little, there's a little boy who needed an armed guard there, and so the guard was there all the time because of that boy.
And as soon as he heard we wanted to take her out, MA, he stood up from his thing.
I was like, yep, this is not going to go.
Well, I know they're not going to let us leave, even though we have a legal right to get her a second opinion.
And because her vitals were stable and she was non-emergent, we had a legal right to take her out, not just like file for one and do it online or whatever.
The Young's questioning of Children's Mercy hospital procedures and the destructive treatment the hospital was giving their daughter was regarded by the hospital officials as disregard for medical professionals and therefore an endangerment to their own daughter, Evelyn.
The hospital didn't let the family leave and place an armed guard in the room.
So guards stood in our way.
One even like slammed his foot down it into the wheelchair so that we couldn't leave like with my 10-year-old in the wheelchair.
Like he was the worst.
They were like, let us just give us a minute and we'll like print off the paperwork for you.
And I was immediately like, they're getting a social worker.
I know they're getting a social worker.
Then they told us she can't leave the hospital without her pick line removed, which is like an IV thing.
I was like, well, you've got two minutes to take it out and then we're going to take her to the next place.
And they're like, we'll get the stuff, blah, blah, blah.
But then within just a couple of minutes, like, well, we can't.
We can't take the pick line out.
I'm like, so you're refusing to let us go based on the pick line, but you're also refusing to take it out.
You guys are creeping me the hell out.
You haven't listened to us.
You have endangered my daughter's life.
She's been vomiting for like 13 hours and she's declining in your care, not advancing.
We were there, I think, for like almost two hours total in the hallway.
And at the beginning, there were just two guards that came up, but for the brunt of it, there was always seven minimum and more usually coming in and out.
And all of them had guns in holsters.
So what do you do in that scenario?
Even when they're doing things illegally, what do you do when there's a gun?
Like, see, I said like a day before to the doctor, you've got a gun to our head.
And now they literally had guns.
It wasn't a euphemism for me.
They placed a 12-hour hold on Evelyn.
And after 12 hours, she was property of the state of Missouri.
Terrifying.
I mean, terrifying.
Who do you call?
How do you call police when it's the police enforcing the child being taken away from you?
Now, you met the mom, you met the dad, and you met the lawyer.
Do they have a plan for getting that kid out of there?
I talked to the lawyer a little bit, so I think I know it.
What's the latest?
They're going to try and move this to a more sympathetic jurisdiction where the family has ties and they're going to try and get an emergency order to get the kid out.
Like, that's happening right away, isn't it?
It's happening as soon as possible.
They're trying to get it done right now.
What's happening is the hospital is in Missouri.
The family is from Kansas.
And it's Missouri that wants to take custody of Evelyn Young.
So they're trying to get the Child Protective Services first in Kansas to have custody of Evelyn, and then they're going to try to take custody from Child Protective Services back to the parents.
So first they need to change states, and then they need to get the custody from the state to the parents.
All right, here's a clip of the lawyer who I spoke with.
She's about 25 years at the bar.
So this is a pretty seasoned lawyer, not just some kid.
I spoke with her.
I had confidence.
I liked her strategy.
Here's a little word from the family lawyer.
Our first goal is to get the custody of Evelyn back to Justin and Jesse.
And I think that if we can get reasonable people to look at the facts in this case, I think it's very obvious on our side that this is not a medical neglect case.
This is a case of two parents who have done an enormous amount of research and want to do what is best for their child.
And so questioning any type of medication or procedure or wanting a second opinion is not neglect in our eyes.
It is actually doing their due diligence and being good parents.
Well, you know, Rebel News does this a lot in Canada, Jeremy.
We do it a bit in the United Kingdom and we've done it in Australia to hire a lawyer, a civil liberties-oriented lawyer, to help a family that's not wealthy.
And I spoke to them on this is not a rich family.
They don't have a lot of dough.
Even at the reduced rate the lawyer is charging, there's no way this family can go up against this mighty hospital with unlimited coffers.
So I'm sort of excited that we're going to try this.
This is a classic Rebel News move.
Tell a story, but then try and do something about it.
We've never done this in America before, Jeremy.
But I'm hopeful that if this works, we could do more and more of this citizen activism combined with our citizen journalism.
What do you think?
Yeah, I mean, I think this is a great place to start.
This is a family who's, you know, their child that they love very much has been stolen by this giant, this giant health institution, and the state is enforcing it.
So, you know, what, you know, to throw our, to throw our gloves in the ring with this one is really a great place to start.
Yeah, I started off by talking about the lockdowns and how children were persecuted.
This is not a pandemic case.
This is a regular case of medical kidnapping, and that's a terrifying phrase.
What do you do when the authorities are the ones doing the kidnapping?
Who do you call?
Well, in this case, you call a civil liberties lawyer and Rebel News will be there.
We've set up that website that you mentioned.
We set it up.
It's called savelyn.com.
So I'm in Canada, and I would invite all our viewers, whether you're in Canada, the United States, or anywhere in the world, to consider signing that petition.
Jeremy will take it to the hospital.
And I'm hopeful that we can, I mean, I've only heard of cases like this before, but usually not in America.
America is more free than this.
I've heard of a terrible case in the UK before.
If we can make a difference here, Jeremy, I bet other families will make themselves known to you and say, well, we've got a terrible.
I mean, I can't think that this is a one-off.
I bet there's a whole world of families who made the wrong choice in the eyes of a hospital or a big pharmaceutical.
And they say, well, we're going to take your kid.
I bet that there's a lot going under the surface here.
You're already being proven, right, Ezra.
I mean, since going to Kansas City and poking around, you know, there is a tiny community of parents there in the Midwest who've had their children taken from them by this hospital and they didn't have the resources to get it back.
You know, thankfully, with Evelyn, you know, we're getting it early and we're getting involved early.
So hopefully we can help out here.
But there's definitely other cases that are similar to this and it's a shame.
Yeah.
Well, Jeremy, you're fairly new to the Rebel News team.
I know we've talked to you a couple of times before, but we're still getting to know you and your kind of journalism.
You really have a penchant for sticking up for the underdog, and that is our Rebel News style.
And Rebel News itself is not wealthy.
We're not sitting on millions and millions of dollars that hiring this lawyer is easy for us.
It's the opposite.
It's because we have thousands of ordinary folks chipping in 25 or 50 bucks that we can appear to be big like a puffer fish when it's actually just lots of little Davids banding together to go after the Goliath.
And I'm really hopeful.
I've talked to the mom.
I've talked to the lawyer.
Obviously, I'm following your work there.
I don't want to get my hopes too high, but I think that we've got a real chance here.
So thanks for your great work.
And please keep us updated because I know this is all going to go down in the next week or so.
I definitely will.
All right.
There you have it.
Jeremy LaFredo, our New York-based reporter in the U.S. of A. Stay with us.
more ahead.
You know, there's a theme between the two stories we talked about today.
The first was the Arrive Can app, violating your privacy, violating your personal autonomy, picking on kids.
Can you imagine stranding Boy Scouts overseas?
Oh, and then blaming it on Air Canada.
Air Canada was a kind of victim, too.
They actually did some bullying themselves, but it was only because a bigger bully was bullying them.
But litigation may be the answer.
As you know, the Democracy Fund has filed a constitutional challenge to the ArriveCan app.
And I think there's some overlap with that second case, Jeremy LaFredo reporting on Evelyn Young, the 10-year-old girl being medically kidnapped.
Journalism can help, but I think sometimes you need a lawyer.
Now, you need a good judge even more than you need a good lawyer.
Challenges of Electric Vehicles00:07:55
We're going to try in both.
The Democracy Fund, which is the charity spin-off that does civil liberties law, they're working on the ArriveCan app.
If Trudeau does not abandon it in a week, that constitutional challenge will proceed.
And hopefully it'll proceed even if Trudeau does take his foot off our neck.
But this case of a 10-year-old child, imagine going into a hospital.
They give your daughter an experimental drug.
She goes temporarily blind.
And then when you say, I want to get out of here, they say, no, child protective services is coming.
I can't think of anything more scary.
Well, we're going to be involved with both of these battles.
You know it.
Until tomorrow, on behalf of us here in Rebel World Headquarters, see you at home.
Good night.
And keep fighting for freedom.
Angelique Atoy for Robins.
I'm out in downtown Calgary to gather public opinion on a net-zero concept proposed by Liberal Minister of Transportation, Omar Algebra, where he plans to ban fossil fuel-based vehicles by 2035.
Today, we can say there are several plans that are being announced for building these cars here at home for building the products associated like batteries and car components here at home.
And we invested in our budget close to half a billion dollars to help municipalities and regions build infrastructure for refueling those vehicles.
So we are working at it from different levels.
Yes, it feels that we're behind and we all need to work together to get to that goal, but we're all committed to getting there.
I can understand why they're doing it for the environment.
However, I think it's a little short-sighted in a lot of ways.
Number one, we cannot turn off oil and gas at all.
We're gonna need it in other ways, for one thing.
For another thing, the infrastructure isn't there to support electric vehicles with charging, with the electrical grid.
Plus, in Alberta, how is our electricity created?
By burning gas.
So either way, it's really seriously going to affect us poorly.
I think electric cars are interesting.
It's a step forward.
As with anything else, we move on.
Just like phones one time didn't have a screen on it, and now they do and we can browse the internet on them.
So it's kind of the next step, but I think it's very short-sighted.
I think it's terrible.
That's all I got to say.
It's terrible.
It's awful.
Well, I'm going to stop people driving their favorite car.
They can't do that.
It should be illegal.
That would not be 2035.
That's like how many years?
No?
30 years.
I think it's better to kind of like make the production of the regular gas vehicles just decrease the production and increase the production of the electric vehicles.
If you want to do that, I think banning completely, it's going to be a little bit difficult because not everybody can afford an electric vehicle.
At least I can afford one right now.
So these rebates seem to be for people who can afford fairly expensive cars.
Well, I mean, it's true that electric vehicles are more expensive than internal combustion engine, although experts tell us that there won't be much of a price difference in the coming years.
Is it 2025 or 2026?
Maybe even before that?
By 2035?
Good luck.
I'm not sure if that's going to happen, but I wouldn't be against it.
Well, I probably wouldn't be excited about it because to be honest with you, our electric grid can't handle that many electric vehicles charging at any rate.
So I don't think oil and gas is going away for a while.
It's ambitious and it has to come with massive infrastructure right across the country, like charging stations.
So I'm wondering, is Canada ready for that?
I would agree with you.
It is an ambitious target.
Are we ready?
I'd say we are getting ready.
If you look at provinces like British Columbia and Quebec, which have put in place incentive programs many years ago, which have put in place mandatory sales vehicle for car manufacturers, we're already around 12, 13, 14% of new sales that are electric vehicles or plug-in hybrids.
So going from 14 to 20% in these two provinces will not be that difficult.
Would you say you're a fan of electric vehicles?
Oh, I don't even think I have an opinion.
No, I just really like a reliable car.
I mean, I wouldn't, like, maybe I'd consider it if I bought a new car, but I wouldn't buy change the car I have just to get an electrical one.
Would you think an electrical vehicle would be, like you said, reliable, say, during the wintertime?
I'm not sure.
I know there's a lot of debate.
Like, electrical engineers say yes, but some people are worried about the battery lasting through harsh winters.
Maybe not so much here, but I moved here from Canmore, so there I don't think I trust it.
California, electric vehicles have been pushed quite greatly in the last little while, and currently they are facing an energy crisis where they can't meet the electrical needs, so they're being told that they can't charge their vehicles.
would you still be willing to give up your freedom to drive in an energy crisis?
Um, freedom to drive, I guess that's a hard question.
Yeah, I guess I am.
I'm walking today, but it's a very complicated situation, isn't it?
How are we going to do it?
So, yeah.
I think unfortunately, our politicians haven't figured out the science behind the issue.
Did you say you're a fan of electric vehicles?
Yeah, we get a lot of work from them.
So, I'm an electrician, right?
So, yeah.
Do you know how the batteries are produced?
I know lithium's not very good for you, and it's not a good thing, and we can't dispose of it.
You can't protect yourself against the lithium, right?
So, how do they protect people that are mining it?
And then, you know, 20-30 years from now, if we can't get rid of these lithium batteries, how are we supposed to dispose of these?
Right?
Like, you're gonna have like a massive pile of them.
What are you gonna do?
Ship them to China?
Like, I don't think so, right?
So, while some people promote this idea as a breakthrough towards green energy, others see it as an attack on the environment and on the fossil fuel industry in Canada, specifically in Alberta.
Speaking of people around town, we can come to see that this is also an economic and an ethical issue.
How are people supposed to afford electric-based vehicles when not all of us can afford oil-based vehicles currently, and the electric ones are much more expensive?
And it also raises questions on how we dispose of these batteries and the production behind them, because these aren't renewable, they aren't recyclable, and it starts to affect our environment and the people that are around such toxic chemicals.
And it sounds great, but it is a huge change.
This is a very big country.
You know, people use their car a lot to go from one city to the other.
That's why I asked you about charging stations, right?
A colleague of ours went from Ontario to the Atlantic provinces and sort of chronicled his ride.
And it was not easy.
It took a day and a half more because there were no charging stations.
So, you will have to accompany this ambitious 20% by 2026 of sales of electric vehicles with a huge infrastructure across the country, even in remote areas.
Absolutely.
And so, I don't personally own a vehicle.
I've never owned one, but my service vehicle as minister is 100% electric vehicle.
So, I totally understand what some of the challenges are.