The Fake News & the False News Media Smear the Weekly END THE LOCKDOWN Rallies in Kelowna: Anatomy of a Hatchet Job
I usually don’t reproduce lies and smears but, for the reader to fully understand what is happening, I am doing so here. Long before Donald Trump, people supporting freedom of speech, immigration reform or a host of other “rightwing” causes found themselves ignored by most of the mainstream media or, when covered at all, demonized. Donald Trump, however, crystalized this perception of the utter bias of most of the mainstream media by repeatedly labelling them as the Fake News or the False News media.

About 15 years ago, I developed the insight that most of the “news” media are not about news at all — a reporting of the facts — but, rather, are a soap opera where the reader or listener is told that there are good guys and bad guys, as in a soap opera. The good guys and bad guys are readily recognizable. The Fake News media slaps labels on the characters it reports on  as “moderate”, “conspiracy theorist”, “racist” to signal to the reader good guy or bad guy. Often what the “bad guy” says or believes is not even reported, just the labels.
Many Fake News media stories fail the basic test of news reportage — it must be objective. In the words of the gruff, crew-cutted detective Joe Friday in the 1960s era Dragnet show,a good news story should contain “the facts, ma’m. just the facts”: the who, where, what, when, why and how. In many media today, the only stories that might get a passing grade — and I taught journalism — would be the weather and, perhaps, the sports. A good news story presents the objective facts and let’s the reader draw his/her own conclusions. That’s not to say that a newspaper or radio or television channel has no room for opinion. Opinion as opposed to news should be clearly labelled as opinion columns or editorials.
Which brings us to the poisonous Fake News media coverage of the December 12 END THE LOCKDOWN mega rally in Kelowna which saw 2,000 joyous unmasked people, families, even couples with babies in strollers, peacefully parade through downtown Kelowna. The END THE LOCKDOWN rallies have been a regular every Saturday occurrence in Kelowna drawing anywhere from 35 to 2,000 participants concerned about the government’s repressive wild overreaction to the flu known as COVID-19, the coronavirus or the Wuhan Flu. One might imagine that such dedicated and peaceful protests would be of interest to the local media. Certainly, if it were a handful of aggrieved Indians or a few Black Lives Matter types, their every word would be lovingly reported. Instead, with almost no exception, the Kelowna media has ignored the protests. Indeed, although rally organizer Dave Lindsay has tried repeatedly to get media coverage, he reports:
“Local media from Castanet has recently admitted to me that he has
instructions ‘from above’ that they are not to give us any “platform” at all on
their news site. Similar comments have been made from other media, who
simply refuse to state anything unless it is derogatory in nature, belittles all
of us, or somehow cites extremist elements. Our facts and laws are simply
ignored.Local Okanagan print media have already told me that they will not print any
ads that we may wish to print, that oppose the Government narrative.”
Thus, by their own admission most of the local media are merely shills for government opinion. They exist to suppress or belittle views contrary to the government line; in other words, a lot like the newspaper Gramna in communist Cuba or the old Pravda in Russia.
However, when a group can bring out 2,000 people on the streets of Kelowna, people start to ask questions, Why wasn’t there a report in the local media? Such a protest could not be ignored. So, the following week two reports occurred, one on Castanet, an online website, and the other in the Kelowna Courier.  Did someone in the Medico-Stalinist government in Victoria set the smear dogs loose? These are reproduced below.
Read over both articles. Nowhere does either explain WHY people are protesting the lockdowns and the forced masking. This despite the fact that all of organizer David Lindsay’s e-mails announcing the rallies contain pamphlets with copious documentation that the threat of COVID is wildly exaggerated and that masks are not just useless but harmful. the Fake News media are not interested in presenting the facts so that a reader might judge. The Fake News media want to tell you that these are bad guys.

First, let’s examine the Castanet smear. It’s almost certain that Castanet’s reporter was not even present at the December 12 Mega Rally. The picture of Dave Lindsay was taken in the summer, not on chilly December 12. Look at the short sleeves. Most of this article is a biased account of Mr. Lindsay’s lecturing, court work and activities. I’ll not discuss this as they have nothing to do with the COVID craziness, which Castanet refuses to discuss, but is simply a way to shoot the messenger. Notice the headline which accuses Mr. Lindsay of “profiting off conspiracy theorists”. I’ve known Dave for over a quarter of a century. What he’s charged for seminars or collected at meetings has never done more than cover modest expenses. Notice the smear words “conspiracy theorists”, “fringe groups” and the unsupported editorial judgement : “Lindsay has spread pamphlets across the Okanagan containing misinformation related to COVID-1.” We’re not told what this misinformation is or who says it’s misinformation. The accusation is a blanket smear and the intended impression is that organizer David Lindsay of Common Law Education And Rights” (CLEAR) Initiative is a disreputable character.
To add to the impression that David Lindsay is a disreputable character, Castanet links him with me. To be clear, I have never been more than an attendee at about a half dozen END THE LOCKDOWN rallies in Kelowna. I have never been a speaker. Then, Castanet accuses him of attending part of the Arthur Topham “hate law” trial in 2015 — any citizens right — with other “fringe” characters and doing a video interview with me criticizing  arbitrary  “searches of attendees carried out by sheriffs at the courthouse, falsely claiming they were illegal.” Again, Castanet offers an unsupported conclusion that David Lindsay is wrong.
Castanet offers no evidence or even an interview to support its judgement:  “The views of Fromm — one of Canada’s most prominent white nationalists — do not reflect the vast majority of attendees.” Frankly, no one knows. The END THE LOCKDOWN rallies draw people with a number of different motives. Some oppose the attacks on churches and religion. Many oppose the imposition of masks or the closure or restrictions of businesses. Others fear that the imposed masks are merely a dry run for compulsory vaccinations. Some  are suspicious of Big Pharma or non-natural methods of healing. Some, like me, fear the restrictions on free speech meetings and gatherings.
Castanet never interviewed me

Now, for the Kelowna Courier article. Although the article leads off with a number of lies about me, I was never interviewed or given a chance to label myself. Instead, the article lets mortal free speech haters from the government-funded, BMO-funded Canadian Anti-Hate Network label me as a “neo-Nazi” and “White supremacist”. I am neither. I doubt writer Alastair Waters was even at the rally. The picture of a person even the Kelowna Courier is not certain is me was taken from a video of the event. The reporter apparently wasn’t there to ask the man in the photo who he was. The entire smear is based on information from the Canadian Anti-Hate Network. There is no attempt to get a statement from the object of the smear — me. It would be the equivalent of writing about the Christian Church, relying only on statements from Satanists!

The article warns:  ” They include an over emphasis on individual rights over what’s good for the community, conspiracy theories and, in some cases, outright racism and bigotry.” This smear is a lie, with no specifics — again “conspiracy theories”. What examples of ” outright racism and bigotry” are there. The Kelowna END THE LOCKDOWN rallies attract people from a number of different racial backgrounds.
The article is not a news story. There is almost no mention of what was said at the protests or the concerns that led  people  to give up a  number of hours of their time Saturday after Saturday. The article is typical soap opera, labelling those concerned about individual freedoms as “bad”!
Paul FrommDirectorCANADIAN ASSOCIATION FOR FREE EXPRESSION

Kelowna  

Kelowna anti-mask protest leader has long profited off conspiracy theorists, rubbed shoulders with white nationalists

Protest leader’s strange past

Colin Dacre – Dec 15, 2020 / 4:00 am | Story: 319195

Photo: Rob Gibson David Kevin Lindsay, organizer of Kelowna’s anti-mask and anti-lockdown protests, speaking at a protest outside the Kelowna CBC earlier this year

When hundreds of people gather in Kelowna’s Stuart Park each week to protest COVID-19 restrictions, it’s a familiar group of faces who take the microphone. 

But no face is more familiar than David Kevin Lindsay, the man who has been leading Kelowna’s anti-mask and anti-lockdown movement since its infancy.

While COVID-19 is less than a year old, this is familiar territory for Lindsay, who for decades previously made a name for himself within fringe groups by arguing that taxes are unconstitutional.

Lindsay has lost dozens of civil and criminal court cases and has been declared a vexatious litigant in B.C., meaning he cannot initiate a lawsuit without a judge’s permission. He has served prison time for failing to pay taxes.

Previously, he charged for access to his seminars on how to challenge tax law and at one time advertised himself as “Canada’s foremost freedom expert on the secrets of laying criminal charges against government officials.”

It is a business model he had adopted to cater to COVID-19 conspiracies, charging $25 for an online seminar on Sunday where he promised to provide “today’s answer to the COVID-19 insanity.”

Lindsay was profiled in Meads vs. Meads, a 2012 ruling from the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench, which was an unprecedented 736-paragraph decision from a judge that has acted as a guide for courts across the country on how to deal with “Organized Pseudolegal Commercial Arguments.”

The judgment lists Lindsay one of Canada’s top OPCA “gurus,” a prominent member of the OPCA community who sells their ideas in seminars or acts as an agent in court to make bogus arguments to avoid paying taxes, child support or paying speeding tickets. Lindsay, while not a lawyer, represented dozens of people in court making such arguments. 

“This is a business where secret ‘cheat codes’ and ‘get out of jail free’ cards are marketed to a gullible, often conspiracy-driven, customer base,” wrote Donald Netolitzky, complex litigant management counsel for the Alberta Court of Queen’s Bench, in the Alberta Law Review about OPCA gurus generally.

At an anti-mask and anti-lockdown event in the summer, Lindsay was introduced as appearing in court more than 300 times in seven provinces.

When he was hauled into court in 2008 after not filing a tax return in more than a decade, he tried to argue that Queen Elizabeth II did not correctly complete her coronation oath in 1953, resulting in a lack of constitutional authority in Canada’s Parliament and, as a result, the Income Tax Act.

He also unsuccessfully challenged the authority of the judge and demanded to cross examine him. 

Lindsay was sentenced to 150 days in jail and fined $5,000. The BC Court of Appeal would lower the sentence to 30 days in jail while maintaining the fine. He tried to take the case to the Supreme Court of Canada, but the court refused to hear it. 

He would serve 60 days in jail in December 2012 for failing to follow the ensuing court order requiring him to file his taxes for the years 1997-2001.

Lindsay has also attempted to argue in court that the relationship between the state and a person is a contract that can be opted out of and that an aspect of the 1931 Statute of Westminster meant all post-1931 government legislation and action is unauthorized.

When he was caught driving without a driver’s licence, without insurance, and without displaying proper licence plates in 2001, he tried to argue that King John’s Magna Carta of 1215 supersedes modern law.

Lindsay started his OPCA activities in the late 1990s in Manitoba, but eventually settled in the B.C. Interior where he became “ubiquitous” in the detaxer movement and founded his “Common Law Education And Rights” (CLEAR) Initiative.”

Under that brand he has hosted and charged for entrance to seminars on how to “avoid being a natural person,” on how “all taxes are voluntary” and “how to file criminal charges when the police won’t.” COVID-19 is just the latest seminar topic for Lindsay under the CLEAR banner.

It’s under that same brand that Lindsay has spread pamphlets across the Okanagan containing misinformation related to COVID-19, held protests at news outlets and outside schools, and become the leader of weekly anti-lockdown rallies in Stuart Park.

The Kelowna RCMP says it issued the organizer of Saturday’s large downtown protest a $2,300 ticket. Longtime ally of Lindsay and white nationalist, Paul Fromm, identified Lindsay as the receiver of the penalty on his website Sunday night. Lindsay confirmed Monday he received the ticket, suggesting he will fight the penalty in court.

Photo: CAFE White nationalist Paul Fromm at a Kelowna rally in August

Fromm has appeared at multiple of Lindsay’s rallies in Stuart Park, promoting them on his channels and attending early in the movement when they attracted just a few dozen people.

Lindsay’s association to Fromm is not new. Lindsay was one of many fringe characters who travelled to Quesnel to attend the 2015 trial of Arthur Topham, who was convicted of communicating online statements that wilfully promoted hatred against Jewish people. 

Outside the Quesnel courthouse, Lindsay complained to Fromm in an interview about the routine searches of attendees carried out by sheriffs at the courthouse, falsely claiming they were illegal. 

With several hundred people from across the B.C. Interior attending the last few Kelowna anti-lockdown rallies, the views of Fromm — one of the Canada’s most prominent white nationalists — do not reflect the vast majority of attendees. But Lindsay has refused to answer questions on his relationship with Fromm.

“As you can see, there are a significant amount of angry people in relation to the COVID CON,” said Lindsay in a lengthy email to Castanet that attacked the provincial statistics on COVID-19 as “completely false and misleading” while threatening additional protests at Castanet’s Kelowna offices.

“For every person in attendance, there are many thousands not in attendance due to fear of losing their jobs and other public retribution and fear for their families. Canadians are living in fear of the state – that is not freedom – that is tyranny,” Lindsay continued.

“What you should be focusing upon is the nature and accuracy of the information we possess (as do many others) that confirms that there is no pandemic,” he said, while rejecting the term “conspiracy theorist.”

Lindsay also refused to answer questions about whether he now files taxes, or if he will return to the detaxer movement when the pandemic ends.

Most of Lindsay’s speeches at anti-mask and anti-lockdown rallies remain focused on the pandemic rather than his previous legal adventures, but some of his followers remain under the impression that he is a lawyer. 

“The man David Lindsay, the head of C.L.E.A.R. in Kelowna, is a lawyer – by the sounds of it a really good one,” said one of Saturday’s rally attendees, Marjorie Paulson, on Twitter. “A wealth of knowledge and information is on our side.”

While he may be very familiar with the inside of a courtroom, the BC Court of Appeal ruled in 2007 when it declared Lindsay a vexatious litigant “that almost all of the applications Mr. Lindsay has made on his own behalf have been without any merit and so found by the courts who have considered them.”

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All eyes on Kelowna protests

• Alistair Waters/Special to The Daily Courier
• Dec 18, 2020 Updated Dec 18, 2020

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In this image taken from video of an anti-lockdown march in Kelowna on Saturday, a man who appears to be notorious white supremacist Paul Fromm can be seen at the far left. YouTube.com

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Anti-mask and anti-lockdown rallies in Kelowna have caught the attention of anti-hate groups across Canada because of what they say are ties to a known Canadian white supremacist.

According to Elizabeth Simons, deputy director of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network, the presence of Paul Fromm at several local rallies dating back to the spring, and his association with rally organizer David Kevin Lindsay, are troubling.

Fromm has been described by anti-hate groups as a known neo-Nazi.

According to Simonds, far-right and white-nationalist groups and supporters are directly involved in organizing many similar rallies across Canada.

“It’s hugely concerning seeing this trend right across the country,” she said.

Last Saturday in Kelowna, a large protest was held against the current provincial mandatory mask order for indoor public spaces and other B.C. public health orders aimed at curtailing the spread of Covid-19.

Fromm posted on his website that Lindsay received a $2,300 ticket from police for staging that event because it broke public health orders.

But even before that event, Simonds said other rallies in Kelowna were noticed because of Fromm’s presence here and the appearance of images co-opted by far-right supporters.

Video of man holding a large Knights Templar flag at the Kelonwa rally last weekend has circulated. While not a direct far-right image, Knights Templar crosses have been used by far-right supporters in the past, according the Canadian Anti-Hate Network.

The network says many of the rallies being held across the country to protest public health measures aimed at stopping Covid-19 — such as mask wearing and lockdowns — are being organized by, and often promote ideas of, people on the far right. They include an over emphasis on individual rights over what’s good for the community, conspiracy theories and, in some cases, outright racism and bigotry.

Garth Davies, associate professor at Simon Fraser University’s School of Criminology, said the far-right has been very successful at using the pandemic to find subtle ways to get its messages out. And because they are espoused as part of peaceful, anti pandemic measure rallies, they often go unconfronted.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that these rallies are not just being attended by, but driven by, the far-right,” said Davies, who has studied terrorism and violent extremism for 30 years. He said many of the messages, such as individual rights, conspiracy theories and extreme suspicion of government are “straight out of the far-right’s playbook.”

Despite that, Davies said people seem to be more focused on the message than the messenger, something he said needs to change.

The danger, he said, is the possibility of radicalization of people who attend these rallies, hear the messages over and over and start to believe them.

They then start spreading them to others.

While the Kelowna RCMP did not directly address the issue of far-right supporters being involved rallies protesting public health measures when asked, a spokesman said the force will continue to monitor such gatherings to make sure public health orders are not being defied.

If they are, tickets will be handed out, said RCMP spokesman Cpl. Jessie O’Donaghey.

“Regardless of their views, as long as a group does not incite or encourage violence, the RCMP respects the right of individuals to peaceful and lawful protest.” O’Donaghey said. “That being said, any person who encourages others to gather, and purposefully defy public health orders makes such a demonstration unlawful and (that) is concerning to police.”

Those in attendance at rallies, as well as the organizers, are in violation of current public health orders, added the RCMP spokesman, and are subject to charges and fines under the Covid Related Measures Act.

Conviction of those offences can carry a penalty of up to $2,000 and/or six month in jail.

Lindsay, who has been associated with Fromm in the past, is well-known for his unsuccessful court cases opposing the payment of income tax and fighting for what he has describes as personal freedoms.

In 2015, he was in Quesnel to support man convicted of willfully promoting hatred against Jewish people and was interviewed outside the courthouse by Fromm, comparing security measure to something you would see in North Korea.

Both Simonds and Davies said the anti-mask and anti-lockdown rallies here will likely continue to draw scrutiny.

According to Davies, the pandemic has provided unprecedented opportunities for the far-right to get its messages out, as people are much more susceptible to conspiracy theories during a time of uncertainty and anxiety.

“The pandemic causes more anxiety and higher levels of stress and, as a result, response to conspiracy theories … goes up.”

He said while it is difficult to give a definitive answer to what people should do to fend off the spread of far-right messaging, he said talking to others, learning to recognize the rhetoric and educating yourself about who is delivering the messages can help.

Shaming others about things like mask-wearing and following provincial health guidelines and orders, he said, is not productive, but establishing dialogue is.

Simonds said it’s important to call out far-right messaging and ideas and confront them head-on; however, given they are espoused at rallies involving legitimate protest, and many who would not knowingly associate with people with far-right ideology attend, she said it’s more important now then ever before to recognize and counter the messaging.

“It’s unprecedented,” said Simonds of the current ability of the far-right to get its ideas across to the public.

“We’ve never seen anything like this before in this country.”

Lindsay has reportedly said he plans to continue organizing rallies against the current public health orders v