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Rebel News reporter David MenziesRebel News

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PETERBOROUGH, Ontario, June 18, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — A Canadian reporter has been officially charged for shaking hands and having physical contact with other live human beings while doing their job.

Rebel News reporter David Menzies recently received a summons to provincial court in Ontario and was charged for failing to comply with section 7.0.2 of the Re-opening Ontario Act, while covering an anti-lockdown rally in Peterborough, Ontario on April 24, 2021.

The investigative report filed by the Peterborough Police Service gave a detailed account of Menzies offenses while he was reporting the news. The report included four accounts of shaking hands, two accounts of standing close to MP Randy Hillier, one account of laughing while in close proximity, and not wearing a mask.

Menzies responded on video to the summons by stating, “Hey cops, I’m a journalist. I interview people for a living. How was I supposed to communicate with Mr. Bernier and Mr. Hillier — by using sign language?

As for the handshake, that is the de rigueur salutation in the Western world. Perhaps I could have bowed, but what do you wanna bet I would be criminally charged with appropriating Japanese culture?” 

Menzies stated in his own Rebel News report that, “There was plenty of handshaking and laughing occurring on that day, but the cops were not focused on law and order; they were driven by a political agenda. That’s the bailiwick of a banana republic, not a Western democracy.”

Menzies’ fellow Rebel News journalist, Efron Monsanto, in recent weeks has also been fined $1,440 for the “offense” of shaking hands with protestors at anti-lockdown rallies.

The Re-opening Ontario Act forbids individuals from being within 2 meters of other living, breathing, human beings without something covering both their mouth and nose. The only humans that Ontarians are legally allowed physical contact with are those living in their own household or with their caregivers. The penalty for shaking hands or touching someone's shoulder is “ a fine of not more than $100,000 and for a term of imprisonment for not more than one year.”

These fines were part of the new restrictions in Ontario announced by the Ford government in January 2021. The restrictions and steep fines were implemented due to projections of his Science Advisory Table predicting that the ICU bed capacity in Ontario would hit critical numbers. 

This, despite a growing amount of evidence that the damage that lockdowns are incurring is greater than the damage caused by the Wuhan Virus itself. A peer-reviewed study published in February 2021 by Dr. Ari Joffe, found that lockdowns inflicted “significant collateral damage … adversely affecting millions of people with poverty, food insecurity, loneliness, unemployment, school closures, and interrupted healthcare.” Children First Canada reported in May 2021, that there has been a 100 percent increase in suicide attempts among Canadian youth. The McMaster Children's Hospital reported a 200 percent increase in the same population.

The Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA), a “civil society watchdog” of government's use of power, believes that government actions like the Ontario stay-at-home order are “a form of detention … [and] amounts to one of the most serious lawful infringements of our fundamental freedoms in Canada.” 

“This is the state telling people that they are not free to go; they are not free to interact with their family and friends; they cannot hug their kids or vice versa.” 

The hearing for Menzies is June 21, 2021. Menzies reports that Rebel News has “no plans to bend the knee” but that they will “fight these farcical charges.” 

“And you know something? I can't wait for my day in court,” he said.