Ontario Reopening Act – Lockdowns- Shutting down small business
Mar 9, 2024
In 2020, Adam Skelly was one of the first people in Canada or the world to stand against the medical deception and tyranny of the covid-19 agenda. This quite restaurant owner, husband and father became the tip of a spear against authoritarianism, lawlessness and human rights violations.
We know the arch-criminals of covid, are plotting against us still. The WHO’s Pandemic Preparedness Treaty and IHR amendments; mRNA factories being built all around the world; continued gain of function research; and the WEF telegraphing “disease X” are clear evidence of this.
Adam Skelly is still the tip of a vital spear in Ontario and Canada; the tip of this spear is placed against the heart of a criminal conspiracy and abuse of power that has hurt all of us, left many injured, and cost others their lives.
If Adam and his team succeed, as they should, in their legal challenge against the province of Ontario, the attorney general, and public health for their abuse of us all using the “re-opening act”; then all of us and our children are safer moving forward. Please grab onto this spear and put your weight into it.
Adam Skelly is a humble man who choose to stand up for what is right. Though he has risked by far the most in this situation; it is everyone of us who stand to be either liberated or trampled on depending on the outcome.
Please support Adam Skelly’s fight for all of us in whatever way you can. Below is an important message from all of us at Take Action Canada.
The stakes are high and we need your financial support for a legal challenge against the province of Ontario, the Attorney General, and Public Health for instituting the Re-Opening Ontario Act Regulation 82/20 during Covid.
This Orwellian regulation provided the government with broad power to shut down businesses and limit organized events and gatherings. Since the height of the “medical emergency”, the data has demonstrated that these lockdown provisions destroyed small businesses, families, mental health, and the economy. It became a perfect example of the “cure” being worse than the disease. This is a fact that has been corroborated by experts with data now that enough time has passed to reflect.
You may remember the plight of Adam Skelly. He was a conscientious objector who put himself, his family, and his business all on the line, on our behalf, to fight against the lockdown. In November 2020, when Regulation 82/20 was starting to be enforced, Adam decided to defy the government at great personal and financial risk and announced that he was keeping his small restaurant open for business. Adamson BBQ remained open and like-minded people came from all over to show their support. Adam’s defiance of the regulation became a rallying cry for many individuals and small businesses. The media portrayed Adam as irresponsible and a criminal for defying the orders.
The police fined him many times, but he continued to remain open. When the fines didn’t work, the police changed his locks in the middle of the night in order to lock him out of his business. With everything to lose, Adam broke into his own restaurant and reopened. Adam’s defiance was receiving national press so the now disgraced Major Tory and the Toronto Police decided to make an example of him to send a message to all small businesses in the province. In a sinister example of overkill, the police sent approximately 250 police officers, horses, and cruisers to his restaurant to arrest him. The images from that evening were plastered all over social media and the mainstream media. Adam never recovered from the loss.
Adam Skelly’s challenges may be the impetus for this lawsuit, but he is taking it forward courageously on all of our behalf and with the support of the Concerned Constituent of Canada (CCCan).
There are over 400,000 small businesses (categorized as 1 – 99 employees) in Ontario.
According to Statistics Canada, 19.8% of all small businesses with 1-19 employees shut down during the lockdowns.
13.4% of small businesses with 20-99 employees were lost.
These shutdowns didn’t just affect the business owners. The closing of each business creates cascading ramifications for their employees’ and suppliers’ livelihoods. Many survived on government handouts, but the bill has come due.
Bankruptcies are on a 10-year high, up 55% year over year.
It is estimated that small businesses are carrying an average of $190,000 in Covid debt with another 18.5% of small businesses considering declaring bankruptcy now that the government programs have subsided. The CERB program just kicked the can down the road.
We need to seize this opportunity to ensure that this does not happen again. That the next time, and there will be a next time, governmental powers will be limited and the standard of proof will be higher
The time is now. Please defend our future by donating to support this important legal challenge by etransfer to donations@takeactioncanada.ca or with a debit/credit card.
Rupa Subramanya: Ludicrous to call the Freedom Convoy an occupation
The protesters didn’t come from Mars, or from anywhere outside Canada Author of the article: Rupa Subramanya
(National Post, Oct 28, 2022)
Protesters gathered around Parliament Hill and the downtown core for the Freedom Convoy protest that made their way from various locations across Canada, Sunday January 30, 2022. Photo by Ashley Fraser /Postmedia
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As the second full week of hearings by the Public Order Emergency Commission winds down, it’s becoming increasingly clear just how weak the government’s rationale appears to be for invoking the Emergencies Act. As I wrote last week, key witnesses, including the OPP’s intelligence chief Supt. Pat Morris, shredded the federal narrative that the protesters were a violent and dangerous fringe who posed an imminent threat to the nation’s capital. Morris’s point of view was reconfirmed by OPP Commissioner Thomas Carrique, who asserted categorically that there was no “credible threat” to national security posed by the Freedom Convoy.
Echoing the OPP, Ottawa Police Service incident commander Supt. Robert Bernier made clear that the Emergencies Act was not required for the police to do their job. Added to this, interim Ottawa police chief Steve Bell said that while the emergency powers were “helpful,” they were not “needed” for the police, the OPP and the RCMP as part of their unified command to do their job.
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It’s obvious that emergency powers being helpful is not an adequate criterion to invoke them, and it’s going to be very hard for the government to make a convincing case that there was no viable alternative except imposing an emergency. Presumably, the last straw for the government to grasp at is that they had lost faith in the ability of the Ottawa Police, something suggested in a text message exchange now made public between Carrique and RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki, who apparently relayed the government’s lack of faith to Carrique.
Leave the police aside — there’s ample reason to have little faith in Ottawa’s outgoing mayor, Jim Watson. One of his more outlandish suggestions after the protests had already been cleared was that protesters’ vehicles that had been seized be sold and the proceeds used for policing costs. City solicitor David White, in a memo that since been made public, shot down the idea, saying the city had no legal authority to permanently seize vehicles in such a manner. The fact that Watson, the mayor of a G7 capital, was apparently unaware of this and was proposing tactics that you would more usually find in a banana republic is flabbergasting and scary. Yet, this is of a piece with the federal government’s freezing of the bank accounts not just of the protesters but those who gave them a few dollars of support online.
Equally disturbing was some of Chief Bell’s verbiage during his testimony to the commission of inquiry. He repeatedly referred to the protests as an “occupation” and the protesters as “occupiers,” terms widely used by critics and opponents of the protests. Such terms are clearly intended to delegitimize what was in fact a peaceful disobedience movement, of a type that Canada or Ottawa has not seen much of, but which is common around the world, including in our neighbour to the south.
Likewise, when challenged under cross examination by Convoy lawyer Brendan Miller, Bell, who repeatedly invoked “violence” being done to city residents, conceded that his use of the term did not refer to actual violence as defined by the Criminal Code but a violence that was “felt” by Ottawa residents. Again, such an assertion might possibly make sense coming from a psychiatrist or a psychological counsellor, but seems rather bizarre coming from the chief of police, whose day job is enforcing the law, not psychologizing what some residents may or may not have felt.
If the rest of the hearings go like this, it’s hard to believe an impartial commission could conclude otherwise than the government failed to make its case for the invocation of the Emergencies Act. However, the Liberals have their waiting saviour in the NDP and Jagmeet Singh. Singh has said, while the inquiry is in progress, that even if the commission finds fault with the government, his party won’t pull the plug on Trudeau’s minority, thus propping them up until their term expires in 2025. Rationalize it however Singh may, this is nothing other than the most cynical political calculus, since an early election is likely to prove ruinous to the veto that a party unlikely to ever form a government has over the current governing party.
In the ultimate analysis, the narrative tone was set from the outset by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and it continues to this day. Commenting on the actions of Ontario Premier Doug Ford, Trudeau praised Ford for “standing with the people of Ottawa, of Ontario and of Canada, and not others.” Unless the prime minister believes, contrary to the evidence, that members of the Freedom Convoy came from Mars, or at any rate from outside Canada, he’s quite literally “othering” fellow Canadians. Trudeau is no longer even bothering with the pretence that he governs for all Canadians, and not just the minority (not even a plurality) who voted for him.
Independent Ontario MPP Roman Babar Runs Ads to Expose the COVID Lies, Failures & Misinformation of the Doug Ford Gov’t
Doug Ford tried to distract Ontarians from his own failures by offering us more crumbs in a sleight of hand. Instead of allowing restrictions to expire on January 26, he extended them to January 31 and announced a “slow and cautious opening”. Doug is not fooling anymore, instead he got caught trying to save himself politically.
By the Government’s measures, Ontario’s hospitals are in worse shape today than they were in October 2021. There is less hospital staff now than in March 2020. If Doug stuck to the illusion that we must lock down to protect hospital capacity, then he would not announce any reopening at this time. Instead, he knows where the wind is blowing and is trying to save his political career.
On Wednesday, the Minister of Health, Christine Elliott, threatened some Ontario’s Physicians for allegedly spreading vaccine misinformation. Understanding of the Covid vaccines is an evolving scientific matter. One could have been accused of misinformation by suggesting that the risk of the Astra Zeneca vaccine was too high due to the risk of blood clots before it was pulled from the market. One could have also been accused of misinformation for suggesting that that Moderna should not be offered to 18-24 year olds before it was no longer recommended by Public Health Ontario for that age group. Threatening professionals for expressing a professional opinion is a chill on speech to be expected of dictatorial regimes. This is an unprecedented territory.
The McDonald Laurier Institute concluded that “other nations managed to maintain hospitalization and death rates at levels comparable to Canada – but without the harsh restrictions and lockdowns.” Read about it in the National Post. We must continue to persuade our friends, family and neighbours that lockdowns caused significantly more harm than any benefit.
One of the greatest harms perpetrated by the Ford Government is the cancellation of elective surgeries. Even independent clinics outside of hospitals were ordered to cancel procedures involving nurses or anesthesiologists. That is despite the fact that the doctors and nurses employed by these clinics were not redirected to hospitals. The extent of Ontario’s healthcare mismanagement as well as the human toll resulting from it is astonishing.
My Constituency Association started an ad blitz. Here is a sample of an ad you could hear on several radio stations (YouTube). It will extend our ad blitz throughout Ontario, as it is imperative that our view point is heard on mainstream media. We ask you to support the ad blitz by donating to the Roman Baber Constituency Association.
Finally, we have reason to be hopeful as several jurisdictions around the world are coming to the conclusion that we must live with Covid. Please continue to share my social media messaging and do not be afraid to speak out about the harms of lockdowns, passports, and mandates. For two years, Ontario’s pandemic response wreaked havoc on Ontarians. But more people are changing their minds and the narrative may soon come to an end.
Arjun Singh: Left wing values have invaded Canada’s legal system and diminished our charter rights
Arjun Singh: Left wing values have invaded Canada’s legal system and diminished our charter rights
[Social justice warriors now dominate our judiciary and are making the always limited guarantees of individual rights in Pierre Trudeau’s Charter a joke. Far from protecting free speech or freedom of movement, the Courts have endorsed massive state repression as long as it advances “equity” and other leftist goals. — Paul Fromm]
Why Canada should abolish Section 1 Author of the article: Arjun Singh, Special to National Post Publishing date: Sep 23, 2021 • 1 day ago • 4 minute read • 368 Comments
The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms Photo by The Canadian Press
By all accounts, vaccine passports are here. Quebec, with the most provincial chutzpah, first introduced them, and B.C. followed suit. As have Ontario and Alberta, after Doug Ford’s U-turn from his “Hard no” earlier this year and Jason Kenney’s similar opposition. Outside government, scores of businesses are mandating vaccinations for employees, with proof being required — else, they be terminated.
One would think, in governments’ cases, that the law would safeguard citizens’ freedoms. Indeed, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms states that Canadians have the “freedom of conscience and religion” (Section 2a), freedom of movement within Canada (Section 6) and “equal protection … before the law” (Section 15). At the very least, this would prevent the imposition of vaccine passport requirements on citizens — vaccinated or otherwise — for travelling, let alone while accessing basic services: for most charter rights are fundamental. Quebec’s programme and the Trudeau Liberals’ recent federal vaccine mandate for flights and trains, thus, ought to be dismissed.
Arjun Singh: Left wing values have invaded Canada’s legal system and diminished our charter rights
But this is Canada: where, for years, left-wing Liberal values have slowly invaded our legal system. This was true for Trudeau’s father, Pierre Elliot, as it is now. Hence, in 1982, when the charter was introduced, its first section included the following proviso: “The Canadian Charter … guarantees the rights and freedoms set out subject only to reasonable limits … as can be justified in a free and democratic society.” In essence, the charter rights of anyone may be limited for what the state considers “reasonable.”
By itself, this clause is only partly dangerous. Absolute freedom, in any context — especially if causing physical harm — is undesirable; as the ever-pithy Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. said, “the right to swing your fist ends at the tip of my nose.” But, as most would agree, allowing the government to judge whether its own acts are “reasonable” is, itself, an invitation for power to abuse such privilege. From Quebec’s strict curfews to Ontario’s police crackdowns, the pandemic and its oppressive responses in the name of “science” have laid that truth bare.
In response, one would expect the courts, upon petition, to step in and stop government overreach, being the constitution’s supposedly “non-partisan” referees. Until 1986, in Canada, that was true — until left-wing jurists, after rewriting the law, captured the judiciary that interpreted them. That year the Supreme Court, in a unanimous decision by Trudeau appointees, established the Oakes Test in R. v. Oakes to determine what restrictions on charter rights were “reasonable.” Among others, it allowed the curbing of charter freedoms in the name of “a commitment to social justice and equality” and “respect for cultural and group identity.”
With this decision, a faction of activist judges — seeing the constitution as a ‘living tree’ to be pruned without the people’s consent — reset the foundations of freedom overnight, bending them towards progressive politics. Instead of having minimal restraints for public order, all charter freedoms could now be legally impeded in the name of contested left-wing concepts like “social justice” and protecting “group identity.”
Worse, neither did the court define what these terms meant, enabling the left — via its dominance of social science academia — to influence their meanings, suiting the moment’s political objectives. As its late Chief Justice, Antonio Lamer, himself said, Section 1 empowered judges to “make essentially … a political call.” In effect, the constitutional “referees” changed the rules mid-game, to ensure their side would always win.
Thus, with Oakes, the dangers of Section 1 were fully unleashed, and have since beat a toll on Canadians’ civil liberties — capturing our constitution for the supremacy of “woke” social mores. “Whoever would overthrow a nation must begin by subduing the freedom of speech,” said Benjamin Franklin; and, true to form, it was one of the first casualties. In the Keegstra and Andrews decisions, the Supreme Court used Section 1 to allow the criminalization of speech “inciting hatred” — an ambiguous offence, at best, which effectively curbs free speech for the sake of hurt feelings. Once more, in the Little Sisters case, Section 1 rubber-stamped the Chretien Liberals’ banning of LGBTQ books’ import for their “obscenity.” This spate has continued, with governments and courts in concert over the years using Section 1 to curb the presumption of innocence until proven guilty (R. v. Stone), conservatives’ participation in elections (Harper v. Canada) and, most recently, to ban travel by citizens during COVID-19 (Taylor v. The Queen).
In defending such overreach on the charter, the progressive establishment has often asserted the notion of “collective rights” as the reason for restraining individuals, e.g., “safe spaces” precluding free speech to avoid public offence. There are few greater absurdities than this; “rights” exist to protect individuals and minorities from tyranny of the majority, which — with strength in numbers — needs no further safety in a democracy. By claiming a “collective right” of any kind, the Canadian left turns the very notion of rights on its head. It is legal fiction at best, and a neo-Marxist praxis at worst — a desperate attempt to stir up “class conflict” between the majority and minority where none ought to exist.
In the future, it’s highly likely that Section 1 will be used again to uphold encroachments upon citizens’ rights — from vaccine passports to online censorship (e.g., Bill C-10) and others. Canadians must, hence, stand on guard for thee and expunge this threat — regardless of the high bar for constitutional change. If Section 1 is the end of charter rights, we must end it, first.
Arjun Singh is a recent graduate of political science from the University of Toronto.
As a Canadian immigrant from the former Soviet Union, with family from Russia and Ukraine, it’s inconceivable to me that the Doug Ford Government or any Canadian Government would propose to create 21st century segregation anywhere in Canada.Over the past year all leaders agreed that vaccination is a choice. As a Western Democracy we respect bodily autonomy and the right to refuse treatment. But denying a person access or employment negates the choice and undermines informed consent.That is why regardless of our vaccination status, we must adamantly oppose any attempt by the Ford Government to bring in a certificate of vaccination. Downloading denial of access or services to businesses and institutions is also unacceptable. It’s up to Doug Ford to defend Ontarians from discrimination and segregation.I am most concerned that Doug Ford is providing the vaccination status of Ontarians to the Federal Government for purposes of the Federal Vaccine Passport and at the same time empowered local Chief Medical Officers of Health to impose their own, regional vaccination passports by a cabinet regulation adopted on August 24, 2021.
Details at https://www.ontario.ca/laws/.This afternoon the pressure is mounting on Doug Ford from all sides. We must do our part to encourage the Government to not go through with vaccine certificates. Please call the Premier’s Office at 416-325-1941 and write to him at Premier@ontario.ca.
I also encourage you to contact your Member of Provincial Parliament (MPP) and demand “no vaccine certificate” for the Province of Ontario. Please find your MPP by postal code here https://voterinformationservice.elections.on.ca/.
For the last 18 months Ontarians were forced to surrender many of our Charter Rights but we must peacefully insist on the preservation of Equality and Security of a Person.Yours very truly, Roman Baber
As We Predicted: Forced Vaxxing Follows Forced Masking in the March to Tyranny
The latest victim of Fidel Ford & Medico Stalinism in Ontario. MPP Rick Nicholls kicked out of PC caucus for not being vaccinated. ““I took the premier at his word that vaccination is a choice and that all Ontarians have a constitutional right to make such a choice.” https://pic.twitter.com/9NmPZZZlIK
In politics, they call summer the silly season. Hardly anything of substance seems to happen, and the politicians are typically in their ridings having BBQs and whatnot.
Such was the case on Sunday in Thornhill, Ontario, just north of Toronto. The outgoing MP, Peter Kent, was having a summer shindig in the parking lot of the Promenade Mall. I dropped by not so much for Mr. Kent, but to interview the replacement candidate for the federal riding of Thornhill, Melissa Lantsman.
I assume most people don’t know who Melissa Lantsman is, but they should. She was Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s war room director in 2018 and helped create slogans like “For the People” and “Ontario: Open for Business.”
Alas, we all discovered that when the COVID pandemic hit last year, the Doug Ford PCs were not “for the people,” and Ontario was very much closed for business. Oh, not all businesses, mind you. If you were a U.S.-based multi-billion dollar conglomerate such as Costco or Walmart, it was business as usual.
And speaking of Walmart, by 2020, Lantsman had resumed duties as a lobbyist. And she lobbied mightily for the Arkansas-based superstore chain. Lantsman went to Premier Ford and successfully ensured Walmart would be exempt from any lockdown rules.
So now that Lantsman is the Conservative Party candidate for Thornhill in 2021, I wanted to ask her a simple question: how can she possibly run to be the MP to represent the people of Thornhill when she was personally responsible for engineering a lockdown policy that caused so many businesses to fold and so many people to be thrown out of work? I mean, her nickname is actually “Lockdown Lantsman.” How do you recover from that? And it was hard to believe this woman is a professional communicator, given how tongue-tied she got when it came to answering hard questions.
And then I wanted to know how she became the representative for the Thornhill riding in the first place. You see, a few months ago, Ontario PC MPP Gila Martow was vying for this position. Martow is a veteran politician who is well-liked and well-respected. I think she would’ve been a slam dunk to win the riding in the next federal election. When Lantsman was declared the winner, it was a shock to everyone — including Lantsman herself, who did not have a victory speech prepared! So, either those exit polls were mightily flawed or this was a screw job of Herculean proportions.
So, I reached out to members of the Martow camp, none of whom want to be named. Why would the Conservative party go with a candidate who has more baggage than the Arrivals terminal at Pearson International Airport?
And the answer was this: it had everything to do with Melissa Lantsman’s sexual orientation.
You see, the Erin O’Toole Conservatives are obsessed with the party being a so-called “Big Tent” operation – it’s not just a bunch of old white guys anymore, you see. They’re sick of the CBC calling them names.
And what better way to prove that point than to promote a LGBTQ candidate representing the Conservatives in the suburbs? Wow, look at that diversity!
Now, folks, I personally do not give a rodent’s rectum if a candidate is a lesbian or a Martian. I think it’s irrelevant. But Lantsman and the Conservatives can’t stop talking about her gayness — it was their main selling point. Is the Conservative Party now fully invested in identity politics and playing the race card and gender card and sexual orientation card? What about who is the best person for the job — no matter what
So, I asked Melissa: is she the candidate for Thornhill based on merit, or her sexual orientation? She sort of answered the question and didn’t object to it. I asked it again, and she ignored me. And that was that.
I had more questions about Walmart, but then I was interrupted — by police! The Lantsman campaign called the cops on me. But there is no crime of asking prickly questions, so they lied to the police, making accusations that I assaulted people. It was the other way around. They were purposely bumping into me and trying to block me. They knocked my hat off. They threw water on me. And for what? Asking questions
And how about this slice of unethical behaviour: while I was being arrested and handcuffed by police, one of them stole my clipboard notebook and took photos of my notes. What’s the deal with that? What kind of political party has a reporter arrested, and then steals their notebook and takes pictures of it?
It looked awful on the Conservatives — especially having me arrested. So after ten hours, they decided to revise history. They say I engaged in homophobic slurs against Lantsman? What? I did not — you can see my question and her answer to it. It wasn’t homophobic, and she obviously didn’t think it was at the time — until later, when her spin doctors needed a way to change the subject from having me arrested, throwing things at me and stealing my notebook.
My final question to Lantsman was this: when Erin O’Toole was running to be the Conservative leader, he was the pro-free speech/anti-cancel culture candidate. And then he becomes leader, and it turns out he is pro-cancel culture/anti-free speech. So I asked Melissa what’s the deal with that?
Could you imagine a real leader such as Donald Trump saying “no comment,” and even running away? Can you imagine a politician of substance calling the cops to have a reporter criminally charged? And that’s what Lockdown Lantsman did on Sunday — she or her minions called the cops. She later issued a press release saying it was a safety issue. A “safety issue” — yeah, my safety! I was pushed, shoved, splashed with a liquid and arrested.
And in the department of perverse irony, check out the tweet Mr. O’Toole issued around the same time I was being stuffed into a police cruiser based on lies from the Lantsman camp: “If you don’t support free speech, you have four parties to choose from. If you do, you only have one: Canada’s Conservatives.” Sorry, Mr. O’Toole. Sorry, Lockdown Lantsman. Actions speak louder than words. And just like Andrew Scheer, you are already blowing this election. Big time.
Loss of Freedoms & Canada’s End the Lockdown Movement
[On May 17, the Globe and Mail published an opinion piece co-authored by Bernie Farber smearing the END THE LOCKDOWN rallies. For several days, I sought to reach the editor and Opinion Page editor of the Globe. They are unreachable by phone. I sent an e-mail proposing a rebuttal piece. I got no answer. I submitted a response which forms part of the article below. I received no answer. The Globe happily publishes smears by one of Canada’s most notorious opponents of free speech, but permits no reply. Here is the Farber hatchet job: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-the-overlap-between-lockdown-agitators-and-hate-groups-is-a-threat-to/]
Since mid-March, 2020, End the Lockdown rallies have been a regular weekly occurrence in cities across Canada. At first, most of the press ignored them or dismissed them, as Ontario’s Premier Doug Ford did, a “a bunch of yahoos.” However, their staying and spread across the Dominion have made them impossible to ignore.
So, many in the elite have changed their tune.
Calgary’s mayor Naheed Nenshi is a Moslem who alleges that the End The Lockdown Movement is a vast rightwing conspiracy. “They are people who are marching in thinly veiled white nationalist supremacist anti-government protests,” he said. His accusations were echoed by Jagmeet Singh, he of the rainbow coloured collection of turbans, the $2,000 suits, the BMW Coup, hailed by BuzzFeed as the “most stylish politician in Canada”. He is a supporter of the radical Sikh Khalistan movement and, in 2013, was banned from India. He heads the socialist New Democratic Party in the Dominion Parliament. Recently Singh said the protests are part of “extreme right-wing ideology.” He complained “To brazenly not follow public-health guidelines puts people at risk and that is something that we’ve seen with extreme right-wing ideology, ”
And Bernie Farber, long one of Canada’s fiercest opponents of free speech weighed in. Writing in the Globe and Mail (May 17, 2021)he alleged: “The principal actors of the anti-lockdown movement have either been or rubbed elbows with some significant haters on the scene. Vancouver neo-Nazi Brian Ruhe, Quebec’s far-right conspiracy streamer Alexis Cossette-Trudel, a big name among France’s QAnon following, is an important mouthpiece of the francophone anti-lockdown movement. Neo-Nazi Paul Fromm is a fixture at rallies in both Ontario and in Kelowna, B.C. Antimask activist Chris Saccoccia’s social-media feeds feature Holocaust denial and racist posts.” Farber was for years the CEO of the Canadian Jewish Congress, whose lobbying brought about Canada’s notorious Sec. 319 of the Criminal Code, the “hate law”. Farber lobbied mightily to have me fired from my 25-year teaching position as an English instructor in Peel County. He now heads the Canadian Anti-Hate Network (CAHN), funded by federal government grants and a huge donation from the Bank of Montreal.
The CAHN tosses around the smear “neo-Nazi” promiscuously. Farber’s fellow board member at the Canadian Anti-Hate Network Evan Balgord elaborated on the conspiracy theory: “We have two pandemics: We have the actual pandemic and then we have this pandemic of hate.Things are kind of getting worse both online and offline … with maybe one pandemic, we have kind of a solution for, but the hate thing, we don’t have a vaccine for that.” The Toronto Star (May 10, 2021) quoted Balgord: “Balgord said such events make for ‘fertile hunting’ for new recruits because hateful ideas are not being policed, and once someone believes in one conspiracy theory, it’s easy to believe in others. ‘We now have a greatly increased number of people who are coming into close contact with racists and bigots of all stripes with more conspiracy theories.'” he said.
As early as last December, Canada’s censorship lobby was sounding the alarm. The Kelowna Courier (December 18, 2020) reported: “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.”
Jewish lobby groups have, in the past, been adept at “divide and conquer”, decreeing who may associate with whom or meet with whom without being tainted.
However, with Canada’s End the Lockdown movement, the old tactic is just not working. That’s because of the nature of the movement, as I shall explain. If the End the Lockdown movement is not a vast rightwing conspiracy, then what is it? As they say on the dating sites: “It’s complicated.”
On May 17, the Globe ran an opinion piece by Bernie Farber and David Fisman entitled “Overlap between lockdown agitators and hate groups is a threat to us all” which caricatured the END THE LOCKDOWN rallies that have occurred on a weekly across the Dominion.
A reader, uninformed by information available on the Internet or his own experience at a local rally, might conclude these rallies comprised people strutting around in funny armbands or earnest conspiracy weirdos with tinfoil hats. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Attend one of these rallies and, although the attendees are angry at the job killing lockdowns, and the loss of freedom to gather to worship, you find a happy atmosphere, reminiscent of a 60s love-in. Far from being a “hate group”, these rallies are joyous events, often with people dancing to boom box music and songs like Twisted Sister’s “We’re not gonna take it anymore” or Rolling Stones Mick Jagger’s new anti-lockdown song “Easy Sleazy”. No one wears a mask — well, occasionally, some wit wears one of those mediaeval doctor’s masks that looks like a bird’s beak. People embrace and hug complete strangers. Everyone is welcome. Indeed, one of the groups participating in many rallies is called Hugs Over Masks. In Toronto, a Chinese lady circulates through the crowd offering a tray of her home-baked treats free to fellow “freedom fighters.” Sadly, this elegant lady, in high heels and a fashionable dress, was handcuffed and arrested on May 8 for being in possession of a megaphone.
The END THE LOCKDOWN rallies are a political protestof a sort unseen since World War II. They started in Vancouver in mid-March 2020 The next weekend, they spread to Toronto. Those calling for an end to the crippling lockdown were sniffily dismissed by Premier Ford as “a bunch of yahoos”. Ironically, many of these people had been part of his populist “Ford Nation.”
Since then, the rallies have spread right across the country. The remarkable fact about these protests is their regularity and consistency. They occur weekly in cities large and small. Movements in the past have staged mass rallies but not weekly and not right across the country. In the late ’60s, the left organized large anti-war demonstrations in major cities opposing the war in Vietnam twice a year. Similarly, in the mid-80s, the left staged large demonstrations against President Reagan’s star wars programme. Although these demonstrations were large, they were not weekly. Other groups have organized large protests but only on occasion like Right to Life’s annual pro-life rally in Ottawa and demonstrations against specific legislation like more stringent gun control.
The consistency and persistence of the END THE LOCKDOWN rallies are remarkable and they have spread and become a weekly occurrence from Kelowna to Penticton to Kamloops to Calgary to Edmonton to Fort McMurray to Saskatoon to Brantford and many other places. These rallies are really like ’60s “happenings.” The word goes out, usually over the Internet and concerned people show up, often with little advance notice and usually with little media attention. For instance, on May 14, over an estimated 50,000 END THE LOCKDOWN supporters gathered in Queen’s Park and heard speakers like Maxime Bernier, leader of the populist People’s Party of Canada. The rally and Mr. Bernier’s message went all but uncovered in the mainstream media. That evening, a smaller demonstration estimated at about 5,000 people supporting Palestine had sporadic clashes with a smaller group supporting Israel at Nathan Phillips Square. That was the event that got all the media attention.
Participants hail from a wide range of backgrounds. I have talked to participants who voted Liberal, NDP, Green, Conservative or People’s Party in the last election. Mr. Farber, who, I suspect, has never attended an END THE LOCKDOWN rally, alleges participants are dedicated to “an anti-public health agenda aimed at undermining the Canadian economy and the health and well-being of Canadians”.
What unites these people, young and old, working class, middle-class, rural, urban, is a passionate attachment to freedoms they see being vacuumed away in government lockdowns and restrictions. Far from undermining the economy, they want the economy re-opened and the job and business crippling lockdowns ended, perhaps like the state of Florida which is wide open, with businesses open and no enforced mask mandate and an infection rate slightly lower than Ontario, which has been locked down since November.
Some from the start some feared that enforced masking was a dry run for forced vaccination. Now, there is widespread talk of some sort of proof of vaccination being a requirement for air travel, attendance at sporting event or entry to certain jobs.
Many are appalled by the loss of religious freedom. Three Alberta pastors have been handcuffed and jailed for holding Sunday services. Yes, in Alberta, not North Korea. A ban or severe limitation on gatherings essentially cancelled Christmas and Easter worship. Religious folk and many civil libertarians are horrified at the padlocking of defiant Christian churches as has happened to Pastor Henry Hildebrandt’s in Aylmer and Pastor James Coates’ in Edmonton.
The essential spirit of the END THE LOCKDOWN rallies was captured at a mass protest on a scorching July 1, Canada Day, on Parliament Hill. A sea of Canadian flags and some old Red Ensigns is one section set up a booming chant of “Freedom, Freedom” to be answered by a sea of Quebec Fleur de lys flags and a few flags from the Revolution of 1837 in another section and their chant “liberte, liberte”. — Paul Fromm
groups participating in many rallies is called Hugs Over Masks. In Toronto, a Chinese lady circulates through the crowd offering a tray of her home-baked treats free to fellow “freedom fighters.” Sadly, this elegant lady was handcuffed and arrested on May 8 for being in possession of a megaphone.
The END THE LOCKDOWN rallies are a political protest unseen since World War II. They started in Vancouver in mid-March 2020 The next weekend, they spread to Toronto. Those calling for an end to the crippling lockdown were sniffily dismissed by Premier Ford as “a bunch of yahoos”. Ironically, many of these people had been part of his Ford Nation.
Since then, the rallies have spread right across the country. The remarkable fact about these protests is their regularity and consistency. They occur weekly in cities large and small. Movements in the past have staged mass rallies but not weekly and right across the country. In the late ’60s, the left staged large anti-war demonstrations in major cities opposing the war in Vietnam twice a year. Similarly, in the mid-80s, the left staged large demonstrations against President Reagan’s star wars programme. Although these demonstrations were large, they were not weekly. Other groups have staged large protests but only on occasion like Right to Life’s annual pro-life rally in Ottawa and demonstrations against specific legislation like more stringent gun control.
The consistency and persistence of the END THE LOCKDOWN rallies are remarkable and they have spread and become a weekly occurrence from Kelowna to Penticton to Kamloops to Calgary to Edmonton to Fort McMurray to Saskatoon to Brantford and many other places. These rallies are really like ’60s “happenings.” The word goes out, usually over the Internet and concerned people show up, often with little advance notice and usually with little media attention. For instance, on May 14, over an estimated 50,000 END THE LOCKDOWN supporters gathered in Queen’s Park and heard speakers like Maxime Bernier. The rally and Mr. Bernier’s message went all but uncovered in the mainstream media. That evening, a smaller demonstration estimated at about 5,000 people supporting Palestine had sporadic clashes with a smaller group supporting Israel at Nathan Phillips Square. That was the event that got all the media attention.
Participants hail from a wide range of backgrounds. I have talked to participants who voted Liberal, NDP, Green, Conservative or People’s Party in the last election. Mr. Farber, who, I suspect, has never attended an END THE LOCKDOWN rally, alleges participants are dedicated to “an anti-public health agenda aimed at undermining the Canadian economy and the health and well-being of Canadians”.
What unites these people, young and old, working class, middle-class, rural, urban, is a passionate attachment to freedoms they see being vacuumed away in government lockdowns and restrictions. Far from undermining the economy, they want the economy re-opened and the job and business crippling lockdowns ended, perhaps like the state of Florida which is wide open, with businesses open and no enforced mask mandate and an infection rate slightly lower than locked down Ontario.
Some from the start some feared that enforced masking was a dry run for forced vaccination. Now, there is widespread talk of some sort of proof of vaccination being a requirement for air travel, attendance at sporting event or entry to certain jobs.
Many are appalled by the loss of religious freedom. Three Alberta pastors have been handcuffed and jailed for holding Sunday services. Yes, in Alberta, not North Korea. A ban or severe limitation on gatherings essentially cancelled Christmas and Easter worship. Religious folk and many civil libertarians are horrified at the padlocking of defiant Christian churches as has happened to Pastor Henry Hildebrandt in Aylmer and Pastor James Coates in Edmonton.
The essential spirit of the END THE LOCKDOWN rallies was captured at a mass protest on a scorching July 1, Canada Day, on Parliament Hill. A sea of Canadian flags and some old Red Ensigns is one section set up a booming chant of “Freedom, Freedom” to be answered by a sea of Quebec Fleur de lys flags and a few flags from the Revolution of 1837 in another section and their chant “liberte, liberte”. — Paul Fromm
Charges Withdrawn Against Mask Dissident John McCash
BRAMPTON, June 3, 2021. Today, in a brief court appearance, Mississauga dissident John McCash, 48, learned that the Crown had withdrawn a charge of causing a disturbance that goes back to an incident at a Chinese grocery store last July 5.
Mr. McCash was denied entry to T & T Grocery store because he was not wearing a mask. He was caught on a cellphone camera arguing with a bossy boots employee and saying: “If I wear a mask I will have an asthma attack and these communists are attacking all of us…go back to China and take your coronavirus with you.”
He was instantly denounced in the woke press for “racism”. Police duly charged him, on July 16, with “causing a disturbance.” The charges were always political. Had he been shouting “Black lives matter” or “defund the police,” there’d have been no charges.
“Hate-crime incidents have a negative impact on our community and create a ripple effect. It can increase feelings of vulnerability, anxiety and fear, not only on the individual who has directly been victimized, but also to the community at large. Reporting incident of hate-crime is essential to stopping these incidents; we are dedicated to ensuring the safety and well-being of all we serve,” said Chief Nishan Duraiappah.
“This was political persecution from the beginning,” says Paul Fromm, Director of the Canadian Association for Free Expression. “Mr. McCash was expressing a political and medical opinion. There was no ‘hate’ there
CAFE backed Mr. McCash and staged a protest, September 25, outside the Brampton Courthouse at his first appearance (although it was by video.)
“While we are happy that the Crown recognized its nothing burger of a case and withdrew the charge,” says Paul Fromm, “the initial charge was political persecution. Mr. McCash had to hire a lawyer and is out of pocket. This is an abuse BY process.”
Mr. McCash is a regular at the weekly Saturday END THE LOCKDOWN rallies at Queen’s Park in Toronto. He and a group of like minded Christians meet on the steps of nearby St. Basil’s church for some short prayers. Because of Medico-Stalinist rules, the church is not actually open.
He and his group, complete with a large cross and posters the Blessed Mother talk to the public at Queen’s Park. In a loud voice he greets passersby with “We follow the Lord, not Ford”; that is Doug Ford, Premier Lockdown.
John McCashPart of CAFE Protest in Support of John McCash, September 25
Doug Ford is the ultra-obese (5’10”, 330 lbs.), faux-conservative governor (premier) of Ontario, which comprises half the population of Canada. His brother Rob was once the equally fat, overtly alcoholic, drug-addicted mayor of Toronto, the largest city in Canada. .
The previous premier of Ontario province was the square-jawed lesbian Kathleen Wynne. .
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Oh, Canada….
Wiki:
Third wave
On April 9, 2021, Ford received his first dose of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine at a local pharmacy in Toronto, and encouraged eligible Ontarians to get inoculated.[192]
Amid growing case numbers in 2021, the government moved to introduce a third province-wide shutdown. As part of the response, Ford announced on April 16, 2021 that outdoor amenities including playgrounds would be closed, and that he would be authorizing police to require pedestrians and drivers to explain why they are not at home and provide their home address and ask why they are not at home.[193] The regulations raised concerns about a re-legalization of carding.[194] The government experienced significant backlash with the new enforcement measures, with some commentators – such as the National Post‘s Randall Denley, a former PC politician[195] – equating the province to a “police state“[196] Members of the Ontario COVID-19 Science Table described the new restrictions as “absolute madness”, and not based on science questioning the need to restrict “safe options from people as you do nothing to impact the places where the disease is spreading”.[197] After dozens of police services across the province announced that they would refuse to enforce the new measures,[198] Ford promptly rolled back the new enforcement provisions the next day and reopened playgrounds, while keeping other outdoor amenities closed.[199][200]
Dear Mr. Cooper: Let me get this straight: You want me to “Stand With Doug” and send some money? No way. Doug Ford has presided over the greatest destruction of citizens rights this province has ever seen. Since March, 2020, Doug Ford has vacuumed away the Charter rights of Ontarians to freedom of assembly, freedom of worship, freedom of movement. We have gone through long periods of stay at home orders, a form of house arrest. But the victims have committed no crime, faced no charge, had no trial or an opportunity to defend themselves. They have just been punished.The Ford government has acted as if there were no Charter of Rights and Freedoms
The right to gather and worship, gone or severely restricted. The right to gather with family for meals or worship at Christmas and Easter, gone. Doug Ford closed schools, ruled one business essential and it could stay open with shifting restrictions, but another business must close. Thousands of businesses closed and ruined; tens of thousands of Ontario workers made jobless. Mobility rights, freedom of assembly, freedom to protest stomped on. I believed in the populism of Ford Nation. My belief began to fade when Doug Ford dismissed END THE LOCKDOWN protesters rallying at Queen’s Park, many of them ardent Ford Nation supporters, as “a bunch of yahoos”. I watched as Ontario turned into a police state. A Christian church in Aylmer had been fined over $100,000 for the “crime” of gathering together to worship the Lord. Its Pastor Henry Hildebrandt was conducting a service. His congregation were singing hymns. In strode a sheriff backed up by local police. The congregation was ordered out. The church locks changed by court order. No, this was not North Korea; it was Ford’s Ontario. Oh, and the police had blocked all roads to the church, as if engaged in some drug takedown. Then there was Adamson’s Barbecue in Etobicoke. Owner Adam Skelly made the mistake of thinking he could serve up barbecue to willing customers. Over 100 Metro police and the cavalry descended on the restaurant to drag Mr. Skelly off to jail. The police state goon squad might have suggested a biker’s convention. On May 23, Hamilton was the scene of something that might have been out of a Monty Python skit. Local police stormed out of a building to slap tickets with hefty fines on peaceful protesters who opposed the lockdown. The insane pièce de resistance was the double fining of a Rebel reporter. He received a fine under the lying and misnamed “Re-opening Ontario Act” for being in a public gathering of more than five persons. He received a further municipal fine for shaking hands with another consenting adult. Yes, shaking hands in Doug Ford’s Ontario is now illegal. One of the darkest days for civil rights in Ontario was April 16. The government authorized police to pull over pedestrians and motorists and demand that they justify being away from their home. It sounded like some grade B movie from the 1940s with some surly police agent demanding: “Where are your papers?” What is scandalous is that this was a cabinet decision. Doug Ford and his cabinet had met and discussed this police state measure. Sylvia Jones, a lawyer, had seen no problem with trampling the rights of taxpaying Ontarians and their right to be free from intrusive police checks? True, most police forces announced they would not be making such stops. Good, but it was Doug Ford and his band of freedom thieves who had sought to tighten police state rules on Ontarians. The announcement was walked back a little, but not entirely: Police can stop motorists or pedestrians if they think they’re participating in a public gathering of over five persons. Ontarians can look with envy at US States such as Florida or Texas. There businesses are open, restaurants are open, bars are open. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has FORBIDDEN local governments and school boards from imposing the hated masks on people. Oh, yes, these free states are not cesspools of disease; They have lower infection rates than Ontario, which has groaned under eight months of lockdown tyranny! And you expect my donation to further enable this tyrant! No way. Paul FrommDirectorCANADIAN ASSOCIATION FOR FREE EXPRESSION I, Margi and Paul in East Lansing, Michigan to speak in 2007.
