LATE BREAKING NEWS: Ex-Political Prisoner Brad Love Arrested for Harassing Phone Calls & Letter
FORT McMurray, Alberta, August 23, 2023. At 3:45 this afternoon former political prisoner Brad Love called CAFE from the police station in Fort McMurray. It must be a slow crime week. The RCMP were seen lurking around the doors and peering in the windows of Mr. Love’s townhouse yesterday. Today, they showed up in person to arrest Mr. Love for three counts of harassment.
In woke, snowflake Canada today, calling or writing to a public body with a strong message of protest is considered “harassment” by the vulnerable dears. One charge refers to a letter Mr. Love sent last year to the Fort McMurray Mayor’s Committee on Drag Queens. Two other counts arise from phone calls to his MP and to a native affairs group. “It’s a pile on,” Mr. Love told CAFE.
After previous arrests by the Fort McMurray RCMP, operatives of Canada’s highly politicized justice system, Mr. Love was granted bail the same day after a hearing, either in person or by video. Not today. He will spend the night in prison and attend a bail hearing.
Back on the streets in the world of real crime, there’s a war going on among the city’s vitamin stores. One was recently firebombed. The highly politicized cops have not cracked this arson or the conflict. Far better to hassle an opinionated man who protests the woke policies of government bodies.
[Note: ” Meanwhile, other actors in this appalling tragedy thrive. The KOJO Institute appears to have received at least $100,000 from the federal government for offering three courses. But its list of clients reveals its reach to be long and extensive in Canada: TD Bank, the National Ballet School, Loblaws, the Ontario government, the RCMP, the CBC, Rogers, school boards across Ontario, and many others.” These organizations have subjected their employees to this White-hating hate propaganda. — Paul Fromm.]
Michael Higgins: School principal’s death is a stain on the conscience of this nation
It’s time to stand up against the woke zealots who destroyed Richard Bilkszto Author of the article: Michael Higgins Published Jul 25, 2023 • Last updated 5 days ago • 4 minute read 688 Comments
Richard Bilkszto, a highly lauded Toronto school principal who was an anti-discrimination advocate, took his own life on July 13. He had suffered a mental health crisis after being accused of white supremacy by a DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) trainer. The Toronto District School Board subsequently rescinded his work contract. Photo by Veronica Henri / Postmedia News
The suicide of former school principal Richard Bilkszto is an appalling tragedy and a warning that unless we stand up to woke, moralizing, antagonistic bullies who seek to shame Canadians then we are all complicit in such deaths. Advertisement 2 Story continues below
It is regrettable that the majority of sensible, pragmatic and well-meaning people in this country have been cowed into silence by the vocal, angry, shrill hectoring of ideologues who preach nothing but destruction: destruction of institutions, society, history and people. Read the conversation Have your say Leave a comment and share your thoughts with our community. Read All 688 Comments
All in the name of what? What vision do they offer? What better world do they proclaim? What glorious future awaits us once our guilt has been cleansed, our penance done? Except for the woke lecturers, our guilt can never be forgiven, our repentance never done and our remorse never enough.
Stand up to these people and you will be shamed, singled out and bullied. It happened to Richard Bilkszto, and if you take a stand it will almost certainly happen to you. Be aware of that and be prepared. Because the alternative to not taking a stand is terrifying and is already happening. We have become a nation where good people are afraid to speak their mind; where silence is chosen when colleagues are savagely abused by these hostile fanatics, and where people avert their gaze so they do not have to see what is happening before their very eyes. Advertisement 3 Story continues below
What happened to Richard Bilkszto is a stain on the conscience of this nation.
Bilkszto had been a principal for 24 years, previously taught at an inner-city Buffalo school, was said to be an exemplary teacher, and was working as a contract principal for the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) when he underwent a diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) course in April 2021.
As described by journalist Jamie Sarkonak, Bilkszto had the courage and temerity to question DEI trainer Kike Ojo-Thompson, CEO of the KOJO Institute, over a claim that Canada was, in essence, a racist hellhole.
According to a lawsuit by Bilkszto, Ojo-Thompson described Canada as a “bastion of white supremacy and colonialism” where capitalism and the patriarchy were killing people. Canada was more racist that the U.S., she said.
It was all too much for Bilkszto, who spoke up. “To sit here and talk about facts and figures and then walk into the classroom tomorrow and say ‘Canada is just as bad as the United States,’ I think we are doing an incredible disservice to our learners,” he told the class.
According to the lawsuit, that’s when the shaming started.
That’s when the shaming started
“We are here to talk about anti-Black racism, but you in your whiteness think that you can tell me what’s really going on for Black people?” the lawsuit alleges Ojo-Thompson said.
In your whiteness?
Another KOJO training facilitator told Bilkszto, “If you want to be an apologist for the U.S. or Canada, this is really not the forum for that.”
Ojo-Thompson added, according to the lawsuit, that “your job in this work as white people is to believe” — not to question claims of racism.
When did it become acceptable practice to pay DEI facilitators tens of thousands of dollars for sessions where they tell people: Shut up you racist?
But another disturbing aspect of Sarkonak’s reporting is this: “Nobody from TDSB interjected at any point to defend Bilkszto and stop the DEI trainers from berating a staff member, according to the court filing.”
Worse, Sarkonak reports, “After the class, a TDSB superintendent even thanked the KOJO Institute in a tweet for ‘modelling the discomfort administrators may need to experience in order to disrupt (anti-Black racism).’”
As if that wasn’t enough, Bilkszto was then harangued by superiors for his “white male privilege.”
Not surprisingly, considering he stood alone, was belittled by the moralists and betrayed by his bosses, Bilkszto went on sick leave. But the events plagued him, said his family.
“Unfortunately, the stress and effects of these incidents continued to plague Richard. Last week he succumbed to this distress,” read a statement by the family released last Thursday by Lisa Bildy, his lawyer.
Corporate Canada and many civil institutions pay out millions to get someone to tell their employees how racist they are. And, unless you are Richard Bilkszto, employees sit there and take it.
Meanwhile, other actors in this appalling tragedy thrive. The KOJO Institute appears to have received at least $100,000 from the federal government for offering three courses. But its list of clients reveals its reach to be long and extensive in Canada: TD Bank, the National Ballet School, Loblaws, the Ontario government, the RCMP, the CBC, Rogers, school boards across Ontario, and many others.
Sheryl Robinson Petrazzini, the TDSB superintendent who thanked KOJO for “modelling discomfort,” has since gone on to join Ontario’s Hamilton-Wentworth District School Board as director of education.
The woke agitators might say that one man’s death means nothing when you are dismantling white supremacy and the patriarchy. But don’t listen to them.
Poet and cleric John Donne wrote in the 17th century that no man is an island.
“Any man’s death diminishes me/because I am involved in mankind./And therefore never send to know for whom/the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”
Richard Bilkszto stood alone. And in the end he couldn’t endure. But what might have happened if one person had stood with him? Just one?
It is to be hoped that Bilkszto’s sacrifice serves as an example to others. And if we find ourselves not brave enough like Richard Bilkszto to stand up to the woke zealots, then let us pray we at least find the courage to stand next to people like him.
Human rights tribunal says the quiet part out loud
National Post
22 Mar 2023
BRUCE PARDY Bruce Pardy is executive director of Rights Probe and professor of law at Queen’s University.
In June 2021, an Ontario high school student tried to sign up for a summer program. He was rejected because he was white. The “Summerup” program, sponsored by the Ontario government, was open only to Black students. His father filed a complaint with the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal alleging racial discrimination. Last November, the Tribunal dismissed the complaint, saying the quiet part out loud. White people, wrote the Tribunal, cannot claim discrimination.
The law appears to say otherwise. Under the Ontario Human Rights Code, every person has a right to equal treatment without discrimination. The Code, however, has a loophole. “Special programs” are exempt. Special programs give special treatment. They discriminate “to assist disadvantaged persons or groups to achieve or attempt to achieve equal opportunity.” A government, company or organization like a school board can apply to designate a discriminatory program as a special program.
The Summerup program had not been designated as a special program. But the Tribunal determined it met the requirements anyway, which the Code empowers it to do. If a program discriminates against the “correct” groups, it will fit within the exemption as a matter of course. The Tribunal wrote, “an allegation of racial discrimination or discrimination on the grounds of colour is not one that can be or has been successfully claimed by persons who are white and non-racialized.” The statute that purports to prohibit discrimination authorizes it instead.
It’s not just the Human Rights Tribunal. For almost 40 years, the Supreme Court of Canada has eviscerated legal equality. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms
states that every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination. But the Court has given it the opposite meaning. Like the Human Rights Code, the Charter has an equity exception, and like the Tribunal, the Court has made the exception into the rule. The Charter, the Court insists, requires not equal treatment between individuals but equal or comparable outcomes between identity groups.
The Charter does not merely allow discrimination against certain groups, the Court has said, but sometimes requires it. For instance, in 2020 the Court declared unconstitutional a RCMP job-sharing scheme that enabled employees to work part-time if they wished. The voluntary program was open to men and women. Since part-time employees worked fewer hours, they earned lower pension entitlements. More women than men chose to enrol, and as a result more women than men ended up with lower pensions. The program was unconstitutional because the rules of the program were the same for men and women.
Other courts, of course, have followed suit. In December 2022, the Ontario Divisional Court declared a standardized math test for teacher candidates unconstitutional. East and southeast Asian and white candidates passed the test more frequently than Black and Indigenous test-takers. Therefore, the Court concluded, the test was discriminatory, “which occurs when neutral laws have a disproportionate impact on members of enumerated or analogous groups.” The Court did not care why different groups passed the test at different rates. The fact of disparate success was enough to bring use of the test to an end.
Justice is supposed to be blind. Blind justice means that the same rules and standards apply to everyone without arbitrary distinctions. When the law treats people as individuals rather than as members of groups, it does not matter whether they are Black or white, man or woman, straight or gay, rich or poor. The law should not care who you are.
Unlike Canadians, Americans have a right to equal treatment, at least in principle. The Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the Constitution and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 require it. The American legal system still contains within it the essence of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dream of a society in which people are judged by the content of their character (as evidenced in their actions) rather than the colour of their skin. The U.S. Supreme Court will soon decide a challenge to Harvard University’s race-based undergraduate admissions process, which complainants allege discriminates against Asian and white applicants. In the U.S., “equal protection” is still the legal test.
In Canada, legislatures, courts, and tribunals have rejected equal protection, but they are not the only ones. Professional regulators, universities, and other public institutions have piled on, too. The Law Society of Ontario insists that in the practice of law there are too many of certain kinds of people and not enough of others. It aims to socially engineer the profession’s demographic makeup and to require lawyers and firms to comport with mandatory “equity, diversity and inclusion” measures. Universities offer admission processes, support programs, and faculty positions for which only certain races are eligible. Government agencies offer grants and other benefits to specific identity groups.
Preferential measures, distinguishing between people by their colour, lineage, gender and sexuality, are becoming the order of the day. It is time to say the other quiet part out loud: Canadians have not agreed to be treated unequally.
Hi everyone. Just a reminder, that I am in the Provincial Court, 1355 Water St. in Kelowna, just down the street from Stuart Park, at 9:30 am. Many of you are aware of the falsified assault charge that was laid against me during our protest at the Interior Health building in Kelowna, and set for trial on March 1, 2 at this same courthouse. In response, I filed a Notice of Constitutional Challenge that the RCMP Act is of no force and effect as policing is Constitutionally an exclusive Provincial power under s. 92 of the Constitution Act (aka BNA Act 1867), not Federal. The Crown has placed my Constitutional Challenge on the docket for this day to seek judicial directions on how we are to proceed. Please come and pack the courtroom with supporters and for people who truly would love to get rid of the RCMP in BC. Friday, Feb. 10, 2023 9:30 Kelowna Courthouse The room number will be posted inside the courthouse. This will not be a long hearing, but an important one to determine how this Challenge will proceed to be heard and ruled upon.
I, Tanya Gaw, Action4Canada, have an announcement that I hope will bring health care professionals in BC some much needed encouragement… I had to wait for Rocco to give me the thumbs up to announce it … we will be including Bill 36 in our amended Notice of Civil Claim when we file it in the very near future. That means it will be part of our constitutional challenge against the BC government. This is a very important and critical action against the BC government’s unlawful passing of this Bill that violates guaranteed protected constitutional rights of citizens
Mon Dec 12, 2022 – 6:19 pm EST Listen to this article 0:00 / 4:01 BeyondWords
(LifeSiteNews) — A new report shows that a large Canadian credit union reported to the police one of its customers who “liked” the Freedom Convoy Facebook page and proceeded to monitor his financial transactions.
According to Blacklock’s Reporter, recently released records show that on February 15 of this year, Assiniboine Credit Union in Winnipeg, Manitoba, reported one of its users to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) because he had “liked” the Freedom Convoy Facebook page, telling the federal police he is “potentially involved” in the protest.
The report to the RCMP came the day after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau enacted the Emergencies Act (EA) to shut down the protest, wherein the government gave banks and financial institutions the power to freeze suspected Freedom Convoy donors’ accounts without a court order.
Assiniboine went as far as having its staff members monitor the man’s social media posts, as well as comb through his checking account transactions.
Management at Assiniboine noted that before the EA was enacted, “account activity was being monitored but not deemed illegal.”
Police noted in a memo that same day that the credit union member in question was a “well known anti-vax” person, suggesting the tip from the credit union was followed up on.
In another instance of financial institutions using the EA as a reason to go after their customers, the same report shows that an unnamed Canadian bank had also reported to police one of its credit card users who had allegedly purchased a gas mask from an army surplus store.
This information was shown in a February 17 email, with police noting “It won’t come as a surprise but a bank has frozen assets of an individual and they also disclosed that a purchase was recently made at an Ottawa Army Surplus store.”
“Most likely a gas mask,” added the RCMP.
These recent revelations are not the first instances of Canadian financial institutions reporting their customers to the police due to their political views.
As noted last month by LifeSiteNews, records show Desjardins Group also reported to the RCMP some of its customers who were making financial transactions supporting the Freedom Convoy.
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The bank had reported a couple that made a $20,000 deposit, which the bank claimed was being used to pay for pro-Freedom Convoy signs.
Trudeau’s use of the EA led to almost $8 million in funds from 267 different people being frozen, in addition to 170 bitcoin wallets.
The full impact of Trudeau’s cabinet’s use of the EA to expand the scope of the Proceeds Of Crime And Terrorist Financing Act to allow for such freezing has yet to be determined by a parliamentary committee.
Last month during a round-table discussion at the Public Order Emergency Commission (POEC), panel member Dr. Gerard Kennedy, who along with other POEC members was tasked with advising government officials on future policy in light of the Freedom Convoy, seemed to agree with the controversial freezing measures taken by the Trudeau government, saying it was “efficacious” and “even justified” for banks to freeze the assets of demonstrators for protesting government COVID measures.
During testimony before the POEC last month, it was also revealed that one Canadian bank executive suggested Freedom Convoy protesters could be labeled as “terrorists” to allow for a quick freezing of their funds.
Finance Minister Chyrstia Freeland’s testimony before the commission showed that she even agreed with one Canadian bank CEO’s call for possible military intervention in the Freedom Convoy.
With the POEC’s public policy phase coming to a close two weeks ago, they are now tasked with releasing a report to Canada’s parliament and Senate with their findings and recommendations by February 20, 2023.
Is stating a political OPINION, even a bit rudely, now a criminal offence? Only in states with political police. And this mouthy hypocrite says she’s protecting democracy in the Ukraine. What about not trampling it here in Canada?
He wrote a compelling letter when he resigned. Here’s a brief excerpt that everyone in the world should read.Steve KirschJan 11Corporal Richard Mehner, has served in the RCMP for 21 years.He was forced to resign over the vaccine mandate. He penned an excellent letter explaining how he felt.
I wanted to share a snippet with you because it puts everything into perspective: basically, the death rate hasn’t changed at all because people are dying with COVID rather than from COVID.Check this out.At the end of 2020 I became convinced we were all being force fed a giant load of absolute bullshit. Don’t believe me? Look at world population statistics. Here’s a sample.At the end of 2018, the world population was 7,631,091,040 and that year 57,625,149 people died. This showed an overall death rate of .76%. I know some of you are shocked by this, but yes, 57 million people died of all types of causes in 2018. When you reach the end of your life, you die.At the end of 2019, the world population was 7,713,468,100 and 58,394,378 died. Naturally, because we had more people reaching the end of their lives, more people died. The death rate that year was .76%.
Now let’s see what 2020 brought us. The year of the pandemic.At the end of 2020, the world population was 7,794,798,739 and 59,230,795 died. The death rate was .76%. Yes. That’s right. In the year of the deadly pandemic the world’s population grew by 81,330,639 people and the death rate did not change by even a hundredth of a percent. The media never once pulled back the lens to show this, they continued to show the narrow focus of case counts and Covid deaths. Even going so far as to change causes of death so that someone who died “with” Covid in their system was counted as someone who died “of” Covid. The Western world shut down over a disease about as deadly as the common flu. And our rights were shut down along with it.Despite this disease having a non existent effect on the overall death rate of the world’s population the call came out for a mass vaccination.
Justin Trudeau’s bodyguards beat up REBEL NEWS reporter David Menzies
I’m angry and sad at the same time.
Justin Trudeau’s bodyguards beat up our reporter David Menzies. It was completely unprovoked.
David was standing on a public sidewalk outside a public event where Trudeau was going to a Liberal Christmas party. David was doing what all media do — waiting patiently to call out a question to Trudeau as he walked in.
But Trudeau’s bodyguards know Rebel News. And they hate Rebel News. Because their boss hates Rebel News.
Trudeau says it again and again. He says we’re not real reporters. He says we don’t deserve any respect. He publicly blames us for the sorry state of Canada. He personally bans us from attending public press conferences. And if we manage to get in, he insults us, instead of answering our questions.
So after demonizing us and denormalizing us and defaming us for five years, his staff got the message.
They smashed David’s face against the wall — you can clearly see that David was so stunned, he couldn’t speak straight. They beat him up, they bloodied him. They destroyed his property.
David had to go to the doctor later that night — his ears were still ringing and he was bloodied and cut.
There is no excuse for this.
David did nothing wrong. He was never arrested. He was never charged with anything. He committed no crime — he literally was just standing on the sidewalk, waiting to ask a question.
The crime was committed by Trudeau’s thuggish bodyguards — who knew they were doing something evil, and refused to tell David their names, despite the legal requirement to do so.
They beat him up just because he was with Rebel News, and Trudeau has let the world know Rebel News does not deserve respect.
Enough is enough.
Every day, Trudeau becomes more of an authoritarian bully. He rules by decree, not bothering to consult Parliament. He’s ordered the government to crack down on his opponents on the Internet — specifically against YouTube channels like ours. And of course he has banned Rebel News from attending any press conferences or even covering the Leaders’ Debates during the election campaign.
(That was quite a telling moment: mere hours after the Federal Court of Canada ruled that Rebel News must be accredited at the Leaders’ Debates, Trudeau refused to answer our reporters’ questions, saying we were not in fact journalists — even though the court just said that we were. He defied and disrespected the court order upholding our Charter rights. Is it any wonder that his personal bodyguards feel they don’t have to obey the law, either?)
This is the worst thing that has happened to a Rebel News reporter in our seven years. We’ve had street thugs and Antifa members attack our reporters. But never a government bodyguard.
The Toronto Police Service came quickly, but they refused to lay charges against Trudeau’s thugs, despite the assault being caught on video. They know it would be career suicide to cross Trudeau.
So we have to go to court ourselves.
Today we filed a lawsuit on behalf of David. It’s very simple — just 10 pages long. Click here to read it for yourself.
It details the vicious assault by Trudeau’s henchmen. And it also describes how this was entirely foreseeable: for five years Trudeau has demonized us as an enemy. It was only a matter of time before his personal staff took the hint and beat a Rebel News reporter up to please their master.
This isn’t how we live in Canada. This is the kind of thing that you might expect from an authoritarian regime like Turkey or Russia or Venezuela. Imagine if Stephen Harper’s bodyguards had beat up a CBC reporter! But I fear that because most of the media is on Trudeau’s payroll now too, they’ll be silent — or even say that David “deserved it”.
Please help us fight back for David. It’s not just David who got beat up by Trudeau; it’s the very idea of a free and independent press, and the right of non-government journalists to ask questions of our political class.
If Trudeau and his thugs can get away with this, what’s next? Raiding our Rebel News offices? Jailing our reporters?
This cannot stand.
If you agree with me, please click here, or go to StandWithDavid.com. Help chip in to cover our lawsuit against Trudeau — we’re suing the RCMP, the three officers involved, and the government itself. (You can see our full lawsuit by clicking here.)
This isn’t about money — it’s about holding Trudeau’s goons to account. A lawsuit like this could easily cost us $75,000 in legal fees. It really is a David versus Goliath story — and I stand with David. And if you do too, please go to StandWithDavid.com — thanks.
And while you’re there, please sign our petition to Brenda Lucki, Trudeau’s hand-picked RCMP commissioner, who has done nothing but protect Trudeau and investigate his enemies. Tell her that she must suspend her three thugs who beat up David, and call in an outside investigator to review their misconduct. At that same website you can also click on an email that will be sent directly to Brenda Lucki.
I’ve watched that video of David being assaulted three times, and each time it makes me feel worse. Not just for how brutish the RCMP has become towards David himself but also for how brutish they have become towards our freedoms.
Please help me stand with David.
Yours truly,
Ezra Levant
P.S. David did nothing wrong. He was standing on a sidewalk, waiting to ask a question of Trudeau as he walked in to his lavish Christmas party (mask-free of course; but you’re supposed to cancel your family Christmas gathering). Trudeau’s thugs attacked him simply because he works for Rebel News.
P.P.S. Trudeau and the RCMP have unlimited resources. The last time we took them to court, they sent SEVEN government lawyers to fight against us. (That was when they banned us from the Leaders’ Debates). But we won that battle, and I believe we’ll win this one. We just need your help to pay for the lawsuit — please click here to help us. If you give us the tools, we’ll finish the job. (Thanks.)
P.P.P.S. If bodyguards for a conservative politician had beat up a liberal journalist, what would be the reaction from the Media Party? It would be the only thing they would talk about until the politician resigned and the bodyguards were prosecuted. I predict we won’t hear a peep from the Media Party — they’re all on Trudeau’s payroll, and they don’t want to be roughed up either. Please click here to help.
Urgent Protest, Sunday, December 12 in North Vancouver to Support RCMP Victim Arrested/Kidnapped Dr. Mel Bruchet
URGENT NOTICE:
Today, on December 8, 2021, our ally, Dr. Mel Bruchet (on our Sovereign Doctors Board), was wrongfully arrested and wrongfully accused of extortion. This occurred from problems with his tenant. RCMP was called and female Constable Nordino arrested him today.
URGENT NOTICE: Today, on December 8, 2021, our ally, Dr. Mel Bruchet (on our Sovereign Doctors Board), was wrongfully arrested and wrongfully accused of extortion. This occurred from problems with his tenant. RCMP was called and female Constable Nordino arrested him today.
Dr. Nagase were with him earlier today on a video call. Dr. Daniel Nagase has a statement of fact in what transpired today, which RCMP Const. Pedersen would not take. The North Vancouver RCMP are not answering their phones or returning voicemails, to take the statement. Popois has also tried calling and nobody answers their phone or their voicemails. Clearly, this is the treatment all of us Truthers are getting. Thursday morning, Popois will be going to the North Vancouver RCMP detachment on 14th Street, to file wrongful arrest charges against the RCMP, as well as defamation of character charges.
We urge all to support Popois in his actions of defending Dr. Bruchet. We need to defend his passionate heart in his Activism. Popois will be there at 8:30 a.m.
Please call the RCMP detachment at 604-985-1311 case #2021344687. Demand why Const. Pedersen didn’t take statement from Dr. Nagase. Please defend Dr. Bruchet’s character. Call RCMP Direct Messaging: 604-969-7445 Pedersen 5026# Nordino 5087# State the same. We need to fight for our Freedom Fighter Brother!
People’s Party of Canada Leader Maxime Bernier arrested by RCMP in Manitoba
Social Sharing
Bernier attended rally against COVID-19 restrictions held in southern Manitoba village
[Pyongyang on the Prairies. Human rights — freedom of speech, freedom of assembly — brutalized and trampled. A former Member of Parliament arrested and handcuffed for attending a non-violent rally. Hope Pol Pot Pallister is proud. — Paul Fromm]
Caitlyn Gowriluk · CBC News · Posted: Jun 11, 2021 2:49 PM CT | Last Updated: 24 minutes ago
Maxime Bernier was taken into custody by Manitoba RCMP after attending a rally protesting COVID-19 restrictions on Friday in St-Pierre-Jolys, Man. (Laïssa Pamou/SRC)
People’s Party of Canada Leader Maxime Bernier was arrested after appearing at a sparsely attended rally against COVID-19 restrictions in a southern Manitoba village on Friday afternoon.
Radio-Canada’s Laïssa Pamou who was covering the event said the rally in St-Pierre-Jolys, which is about 57 kilometres south of Winnipeg, saw no more than 15 people in attendance. After the event ended, Bernier got into a vehicle to head to a rally in nearby St. Malo, another small, rural community.
That’s when he was pulled out of the vehicle by Mounties who handcuffed him and put him in the back seat of an RCMP vehicle.
Bernier spoke to Radio-Canada shortly before he was detained and said he got a ticket for violating public health orders at a rally in the nearby town of Niverville earlier Friday. He did not say how much he was fined — just that he planned to fight it.
An RCMP spokesperson confirmed Bernier was ticketed earlier in the day.
“It is the duty of the RCMP to enforce the laws of Manitoba, and those include public health orders. Mr. Bernier knew of the health orders and has already received a ticket. The continuation of the offence of violating the current public health orders in Manitoba has resulted in his arrest,” Tara Seel said in an email.
WATCH | Bernier arrested in Manitoba:
People’s Party Leader Maxime Bernier taken into custody by RCMP in Manitoba
8 hours ago0:25People’s Party of Canada Leader Maxime Bernier was handcuffed and put in the back of an RCMP vehicle after attending a rally against COVID-19 restrictions in St-Pierre-Jolys, Man., on Friday afternoon. 0:25
Bernier was charged under the Public Health Act for assembling in a gathering at an outdoor public place and for failing to self-isolate once he got to Manitoba, and he will appear before a magistrate, Seel said.
Manitoba Justice said it would not comment on how long Bernier might be held and also would not say when he might appear before the magistrate, as his case is now before the courts.
The penalties section of Manitoba’s Public Health Act states the maximum sanction is a $100,000 fine, one year in jail or both.
Bernier had announced a tour of southern Manitoba this weekend that was set to include several stops at anti-lockdown rallies in spite of pandemic restrictions banning large events and requiring people to self-isolate when entering the province if they’re not fully vaccinated.
Bernier’s appearances in Niverville and St-Pierre-Jolys were the first two rallies listed on an itinerary posted on Facebook that was supposed to see him stop in the rural cities of Morden and Winkler later Friday.
He was also scheduled to appear in the communities of La Salle and Lorette, as well as in Winnipeg on Saturday, then in the cities of Steinbach and Selkirk on Sunday, according to the itinerary.
Rights violated, party claims
People’s Party of Canada spokesperson Martin Masse said in a statement Bernier was “wrongfully arrested” on charges that violate his charter rights.
“This isn’t about COVID anymore. It’s political repression. This is the kind of stuff countries like China and Russia do,” Masse said.
The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms said in a news release that it will appear in court on Bernier’s behalf.
The Calgary-based organization has also been involved in challenges of lockdown measures across the country, including one in Manitoba that saw seven churches take the province to court over its pandemic powers. No decision has been issued yet in that challenge.
A provincial spokesperson previously told CBC News that the province was aware of Bernier’s planned rallies and would be conducting surveillance to gather video and other evidence.
At a news conference on Thursday morning, Premier Brian Pallister said Bernier would be “light in the pocket book” if he planned on violating Manitoba’s public health orders.
Police confront Freedom Convoy protesters in downtown Ottawa.Shutterstock
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