Shaun Newman Podcast - #543 - Jesse Johnson

Episode Date: December 4, 2023

He has been in the restaurant industry for 20+ years and during Covid his restaurant Without Papers Pizza was accused of allowing customers on the premises without vaccination verification and failing to exhibit mandatory health order signage. In November 2023 he had all charges dropped against him.  Let me know what you think. Text me 587-217-8500 Substack:https://open.substack.com/pub/shaunnewmanpodcast E-transfer here: [e-mail]

This is Tanner Nadee. I'm Trish Wood. This is Tammy Peterson. This is Curtis Stone. This is Quick Dick McDick, McDick. This is Carrie the Don, and you're listening to the Sean Newman podcast. Happy Monday, folks. Welcome to the show.

Welcome to the podcast. Happy, happy December. Oh, man. December, Christmas, right around the corner. Where did that sneak up on us? You know, I have no idea. And I just love, you know, I know it's the second one back, but just love when the intro changes, you know? I just, it's one of my favorite parts right now is the intro changes.

I'm like, oh, it's a new month. What guests can we bring on that are going to be on January 2024's intro? And I might also point out that in December here on social media, we're going to be laying down the top 25 episodes as downloaded by all of you. That's a fun thing we do here in December. We started that last year. The number one last year was Tom Luongo and Alex Craneer, and I can tell you right now, they are in the running, but they are not the number one episode right now. And the other thing is, is we're trying to hit 1 million downloads on the podcast. You do not need to download the podcast.

You just need to listen to it on a podcast app like Spotify, like Apple. Those show up as views or downloads. It used to be downloads. Anyways, we're trying to chase one million. And right now we're over 900,000. So we're closing in on it. I need your help. So if you like today's episode or any episode, for that matter, please share.

please help with getting this number. We're like 6,000. The numbers say the pace we've set says we're going to be 6,000 away. And what I need from all of you is to share it if you like it and try and get some others downloading it. If you're just signing back in, I know people are like me, they take time away from the podcast, then come back. Just know that we are so freaking close to 1 million, folks.

One million. Anyways, we've got to get there. We just got to get there. And I hope you'll help. Either way, let's get to today's episode sponsors. Canadians for Truth, their nonprofit organization consisting of Canadians who believe in honesty, integrity, and principal leadership, and government, as well as the Canadian Bill of Rights, Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Rule of Just Laws. You can go to CanadiansforTruth.ca, or you can send on another Facebook page.

The Facebook page has everything that Joey, Joseph Jamie. I was thinking Jamie, and I spit out Joey. Anyways, Joseph Jamie or Theo are doing. All their shows are there. roundtables are there. You can get up-to-date information on anything coming their way. And of course, over the course of the year, they've had people like Dallas Alexander, Peter McCullough, Shadow Davis, Sarah Palin, a bunch of different people grace the stage with them. For all that, go to Canadiensfortruth.ca, or like I say, their Facebook page is a great spot to go as well.

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by Hancock Petroleum for the past 80 years. They've been an industry leader in bulk fields, lubricants, methanol, chemicals delivering to your farm. Commercial or oil field locations. For more information, visit them at Hancock Petroleum.com. com.com. He's been in the restaurant industry for 20-plus years. His restaurant without paper's pizza back in 2021

was accused of allowing customers on the premises without vaccination verification and failing to exhibit mandatory health order signage. I'm talking about Jesse Johnson. So buckle up. Here we go. Welcome to the Sean Newman podcast. Today I'm joined by Jesse Johnson. So first off, sir, thanks for hopping on.

Thank you for having me, Sean. You know, before we started, folks, he was asking, you know, I don't even want to talk about it. I'm like, it's funny. Like, I probably sound like an old record when I say this all the time. But, like, you know, through COVID, I was interviewing people from all over the place. Once I got on to, you know, doctors and lawyers, and then it was, you know, medical professionals. And it just kept going on and on and on and on and on. And here I sit, you know, what is it, two years, almost three years away from where I started.

And you've never graced the podcast before. There's a whole bunch of people that I just keep running into. And I'm like, how did I miss this? Or were there just so many people trying to tell their story and only so many outlets allowing it that you were just flooded? I have no idea. Either way, Jesse, I'm happy to have you on board. And I just want you to walk me through the story. I know that it's been on lots of different shows.

I know it's been in the newspaper. paper. I know on and on and it goes, but when it comes to the podcast, you're the first, it's the first time you've been on here. And I don't, I don't want to jump to conclusions. I'd like to hear it for myself. Sure. My name is Jesse Johnson. I'm a restaurateur. I was a restaurant tour in Calgary for close to 25 years. I opened my first restaurant in the neighborhood of Inglewood in 2001. It was called Sugo Cafe Italia. We were a Italian restaurant, but really maybe a bit ahead of our time, maybe a little bit too far ahead of our time, to be honest with you for Calgary. We did bar to table before anybody really knew that was.

It was me and my business partner, Andrew Contrata. I took care of the front, and he took care of the beautiful food that we did for close to 17 years. In 2011, we opened up without papers, pizza, and it was a bit of a funny story. You know, I mean, we were doing Sugo, and it was a feast or famine type situation at that restaurant. You know, we'd have a weekend and we would just be packed, you know, and double seating. And then we'd come in on Monday and maybe we would do zero. And we were just getting tired of it. And it was really a labor.

It was a passion play. And it was just too all over the map. And we decided that we wanted to do something. And this was after 10 years, you know, that we had really blood, sweat and tears, made this thing work. And we decided that we wanted to do something that had a little bit more of a hopefully consistent revenue stream. And, you know, being the whops that we were, we're like, all right, well, either we're going to start making bricks or, you know, we're going to start making pizzas. And we had never made pizzas before, funny enough. We did some flatbread things that people loved at Sugo, but we'd never done pizzas.

But, you know, we were very adept in the kitchen, and we didn't think that would be an issue. And a space came up literally right next door to Sugo in Englewood, upstairs in a hundred-year-old building. And, yeah, we fell in love with it. We opened up in February of 2011, and literally within the first week, I knew that it was a success. And it was a, it was a, it was really a remarkable place. It's funny. You know, when we, when we opened up WAP, we had this mindset. It was a Kastanza, you know, and we felt that everything that we did at Sugo was, was wrong in terms of our marketing and advertising and everything like that.

And so we just had this mindset of WAP. It's just like, you know, everything we did at Sugo, we're going to do the exact opposite here. And so we never ran any print media. You know, our motto was always pizza to the people. Let's take it to the streets. Let's take it to the streets. And yeah, we got up running and it was really, truly a great, wonderful place. High energy, awesome chi and beautiful music.

The music was always such a big, big part of the space itself. I know a lot of places, you know, when you have music, it's, you know, it's just in the background. And, you know, it's not really meant to do anything, you know, except for maybe fill a void of sound that's in the room. Whereas to us, you know, the music was, was a big, big part of it. And we had these two screens and I used to curate these, these, these crazy playlists, you know, that were that were literally like 50, 60 hours long that would span for days.

And I, you know, I would be like, okay, this is we're going to do a lunch and then the period between lunch and then dinner. And then, you know, we would, we would tailor at three o'clock to be like, you know, kids sort of stuff where when all the kids were done school, they would come in with their parents. And then we would more from that, you know, until the end of the night where, you know, we're playing punk shows. I mean, it was a, it really was a crazy place, man.

It really was. It was beautiful. We were loved. We were honestly loved, and we loved the community that we were in. I loved Calgary. And, yeah, and then one day we said that we love everyone, and they shut us down. Before we get to all that, can I just ask, I think you said you were farm to table at the start, yes? At Sugo we were, yes.

Yeah. So I don't know. I'm just, I feel like that's a jump, isn't it? You go from farm to table where you're like, I think that's very popular now. And when you say you're ahead of the game, that makes, I'm like, yeah, you probably were. And saying that, you're like, you're very like, I don't know, farm to the table. And then you jump from that to pizza. Well, you know, I mean, pizza can still be farmed to table as well, right?

I mean, we were voted best pizza numerous times and, you know, we put the same in the out of passion into the into the pizza that we did into the beautiful food that we did at Sugo. It's just that, you know, the type of cuisine, the dining experience was very different at Sugo. You know, it was white table cloths and everything like that where, you know, without papers was a pizza joint, right? I guess the reason I ask, it's not to say there isn't the same, like, effort that goes into pizza. I don't mean to say, like, you turn into all of a sudden little Caesars or something, you know, where you're throwing a $5 pizzas. I just, the, it must have been a real change. Even when you talk about the, the music, right?

Like, that's like really getting into the details of like, what do people want out of an experience? You went from like, I don't know, it sounds like this very, like, upscale restaurant, whether or not that's what it was, Jesse, just the way you talk about it. I'm like, oh, yeah, okay, I get this into like, kind of like everybody's welcome here.

You can go up or down. The pizza's amazing. And when you serve amazing anything, it no longer matters about certain. things because everybody comes for the food. You know, I think of when you talk like that, I think of, in Philadelphia, I got to go to the original cheese steak place. And it's just, it's nothing fancy, but it has like a vibe to it. You're like, this is, this is really cool. And when you talk about, you know, like having different music for different times, I'm like, I get that. That, that actually is

really brilliant. Yeah, that was exactly it, you know, and that was the funny thing about WAP as well. you know, it was the entrance to it was right in the middle of the, of the floor. And you kind of entered the, you know, at stage center. And, you know, I remember because as soon as you came into the door, you know, it was me that you saw, you know, as terrible as that was. But, uh, you would come in and, you know, most people as soon as they came in, they would do a pirouette, actually. And the energy of the room would just sort of like, turn them 360 and they'd be like, oh, this place is amazing. You know, it's, it looks so great and everything like that. And And then I would just think to myself like, man, this place is just like the whole thing is made from IKEA, you know?

But I had learned a long time ago in the industry that, you know, although I did exquisite food, most people don't really remember the food, you know, it's the experience that remains with you. And an experience is more than just, you know, did the waitress smile at you and did you ask, you know, I was your spaghetti? The experience is, you know, the whole energy of the room. And WAP was really that. It was, it was an incredible placement. It really was. We had people loved us. People came from far and wide. You know, I mean, the whole city was our was our client base. And I still remember, you know, like 10 years into it, you know, every day, it was just new customers, new customers, new customers. It was a tremendous success. And it was, it really was, it was a reflection of me and all my nuances and all my idiosyncrasies. You know, it, it was great. When you talk about the music, you know, I used to have this, I used to really play it loud. really play it loud. And, you know, the waitresses, they would, you know, when they first started working, they're like, you know, table seven, Jesse, they asked if you could turn it down, right?

And I would just be like, oh, you know, we're not turning it down. And they would, sometimes people would call me over and you like, you know, the music is kind of loud. Can you turn? And I was like, you know, I'm just going to be honest. We're like, we're probably going to be turning it up pretty soon, you know, and that was just the way we did it. We did everything really, really different. And we were, you know, we were rebels from the get to be honest with you. When you talk about people don't remember the food, they remember the experience. Where along the journey did you learn that? Like was that like a painful lesson to learn?

Or did you learn that a way? Like part way you're like, people really enjoy the spirit? You know, like we just served them, the best food I've ever seen. And they're still talking about, you know, the feel of the room. Like did you, was that something you learned early on? No, that took me a long time to learn. Honestly, I'd say that that took me 10 years to learn. And, you know, that was one of the things with Sugo, too.

I mean, we, we loved my partner and I, like, we loved our restaurants to a fault. And Sugo, we really loved to a fault. I mean, it just, like, it was everything to us, the whole world. And I remember days, you know, when it was in the early days where, you know, my business partner was in the kitchen. And, you know, I'm in the front serving. And I'd come to the line to pick something up. And then he'd put the plate on the, on the, on the pickup station. And we would just both look at it in awe, you know, just be like,

like oh my god like look at that that's the most beautiful thing i've ever seen in my whole life it's like we're going to be rich we're going to be famous you know uh and then i'd bring it out to the table and you'd come back and then then you know the table would send it back and this is shit right you'd be like oh my god like what are we doing right uh and uh yeah it was just a a trip i took one time uh to uh to uh england uh and i just kind of yeah i i i i understood that you know it was it was really a feeling that most people that they remember right and yeah that's what we tried to cultivate a walk when you were young younger uh did you always want to be like a restaurant owner like did you grow up in that i think i did i think i did you know my father's friend uh no no no no you never

know we went to the school of hard knocks um no i didn't go to any schools uh my my father's uh a couple of his friends owned pizza joints and uh you know just just like sporadically throat uh you know my early years and I don't know what it was. I always, yeah, I always just really, really liked being around them. And, yeah, lo and behold, you know, here we are. You know, for the, the people who are closest to me, they'll know this story, but for the audience member, they probably don't. I played hockey over in Finland, Jesse. And I was no, let's be very clear, I was far from the NHL, but a dream of mine was to sign a professional contract and to get paid, I didn't care.

So I got paid very little. And I had a part-time job in a pizzeria in Finland. And I was the guy who rolled in bright at like 5 a.m. And cleaned the place from the night before and then made the bread and got everything going. And I dang near burnt the place down one morning off of one of the ovens had a piece of cardboard on it. And I lit it on fire. And you can imagine this Canadian and Finland pizzeria running around trying to like put it out. And then I just sat there for like, like probably a solid 10 minutes like, oh my God.

I don't know if pizza is the thing that I'm cut out for, you know? Like I mean, saying that, I got my hand right in the dough. So it's an interesting experience, the restaurant life, I mean. It is. You know what? And it's a, you have to be a certain kind of crazy to do it. That's for sure. And, yeah, we have those bases covered.

Well, walk us through, you know, you come to, you know, like, I don't know. I tell my story all the time. you know, I was, it's not that I wasn't skeptical at a certain point. I certainly was, but as far as the podcast goes, you know, it started in 2019, and I didn't start talking openly about COVID until 2021. I thought, you know, they're going to, you know, I just, I looked at it and I went, oh, we're going to hit a certain, you know, what did they keep saying? You know, if we get 50% of the population to get vaccinated, it'll all go away.

Then it was 60, then it was 70, then it was 80, then it was 90, you know. And I was pretty naive. I just thought, you know, at some point, they're just going to let this go, you know? eventually that was not the case and maybe that was right from the get-go. I'm curious, you know, from a restaurant's perspective, your perspective, Jesse, were you skeptical from day one? Were you fighting it from day one? Walk us through your COVID story. Of course. I wasn't, well, yeah, I was skeptical from day one, but I didn't say anything

from day one, that's for sure. But I still remember it clearly, you know, that first weekend just before the lockdowns. We used to do live music on the weekends. And it was a Saturday night and, you know, the band, nobody showed up for the band, right? Everybody was already starting to, you know, being inundated with the fear. And on Monday, when the government told me that I had to shut my business,

that's when I really started to become very concerned. And, you know, I don't, I wasn't really a conspiracy theorist, but maybe a bit. I mean, 9-11 kind of woke me up and everything like that. But when they shut down my business, when they took away my customers, you know, I started to really wake up. And yeah, it was just maybe a week into it where I started to think like this is, you know, I don't believe anything that's going on. And I didn't believe anything that's going on. And I'm not ashamed to admit that now, you know, but you didn't say that at the beginning, right?

Because everybody's like, oh, my God, you know, there's a global pandemic. We're all going to die. And I just, you know, I believed what I saw. And, you know, what I saw was, was nothing. You know, I just was like, well, all these people were just hiding in their houses. There's, you know, like some incredible virus outside. But what I did notice was the systematic destruction of my profession, of my industry. You know, and what it took me 20 years to perfect, I saw the government literally decimating, you know, systematically piece by piece day by day, every day, just taking away, taking away, taking away.

and they were likening going to a restaurant being akin to going to a leper colony. And it really hurt me. You know, I was like, well, there's nothing bad going on here. You know, and what is it? Why are they doing this? You know, why are they targeting the restaurant industry? Why can I go to Walmart, but you can't go to the restaurant, you know? And then you start thinking about it more and more and more.

And you're like, well, what's the one thing that we all do? You know, you like to do podcasts. I like to go skiing. This guy likes to ride bikes. But there's one thing that brings us all together, and that's eating a meal. you know, and I really think that that's why they had targeted us. And, you know, and what they did to the restaurant industry was reprehensible. I mean, they literally, they took our customers away and then forced us demand loans, you know, to the government of Canada.

We'd have been better off that we took those loans from the hell's angels. At least they got morals and scribbles and values. But they took our customers away, forced us these loans in order to stay alive and then just said, you know, hold on and hold on and hold on. And by the time, you know, you were talking about the vaccination rate. and everything like that. And I knew that I wasn't going to get, I shouldn't say I didn't, I wasn't going to get vaccinated.

I always said like, listen, I'm going to be the last one in line for this thing. You know, like I, I just, I don't trust what's going on. And I'm going to sit back and just watch.

And I remember the summer of 2021. And, you know, people just, everybody asking, you know, did you get the vaccine? Did you get the vaccine? I hope you got vaccinated.

I hope you got vaccinated. You know, and I just remember people like telling me like, oh, they shouldn't even be allowed in the hospital. They should die on the street, you know, and all this stuff.

And I started coming up with, you know, because it was, it's hard to lie. You know, most people don't have difficulty lying. And when people would ask me if I got vaccinated, I'd be like, oh, yeah, double, double, you know, like, I mean, it was just like the, the Tim Horton's line just so we could pass on. But when they came out with the passport, they had broken me. They had literally broken me, you know, mentally, spiritually and financially. And I just, I couldn't abide by it anymore. And when I read that passport, you know, I was like, okay, so what the hell is this? You know, like, there's no expiry date on this.

And they were like, oh, these are temporary measures, but they're, you know, indefinitely they could have held that on for. And I read it to be that, you know what, I'm not going to be able to even own this business anymore unless I go and get that quackination. And I, you know, I'm not going to do it. And on top of that, it was against the very ethos, the very, you know, the very, the very essence of our profession for me to judge anybody that comes into our door. I've always said the good Lord will judge you, not me. And it was never any of my business what you did before you came to the restaurant. It didn't matter if you were the CEO of Exxon or the tattoo artist down the street. It was none of my business.

What you did, who you love, what medicine you took. All of those were not my concern. My concern was to make sure that you came to my restaurant, had a great, delicious meal, and a wonderful experience. And that was it, you know, and please come back again. And I could not believe that they were going to force me in my own business to stand at the front door and turn somebody away who's healthy for being nothing else other than the same as me. I was like, I won't be a part of this. And I honestly thought when I spoke out that I was going to be the 100th restaurant to speak out, I really, really truly thought. I was like, there's no way

these restaurants are going to be part of this thing, right? And yeah, I spoke out and, you know, it was unfortunate that I was made example of. And, you know, when I look back on it now and for a long time, I felt a lot of betrayal from my restaurant friends. And I still do. I got to be knowledge with you. I'm trying to shake it to forgive. I'm not quite there yet. But I was always like, why? You know, why? I knew everybody in Calgary. I knew everybody. If I went to a restaurant in Calgary, I guarantee you I knew somebody in the kitchen or in the front or the owner or whatever the case was. And I couldn't believe that nobody stood up for me and nobody spoke for me. And then I realized what it was is that, you know, all of these restaurants were essentially held hostage by our

government and should any single one of them say anything positive towards me that they were to receive the same retribution that I did, which was destruction. And when you look back on it now and you know, and I just remember the hate, the hate that came down on me, you know, for professing nothing else than love. And I, when I look back in it now, I realize that, you know what, most of that hate, it was truly, it was robotic hate. You know, there was people paid sitting in some basement somewhere in Sri Lanka that would just look for code words, you know, a vaccine passport and then just come in and start attacking you and you know it gave all the other the pundits and the haters the fuel that they needed to to jump on the bandwagon and nobody you know like nobody would

dare say anything not one of my friends said anything to defend me you know online in on the in the street anything like that and the fear was rampant it was really omnipresent and yeah it's taking me a long time to get over that and that's one of the biggest hurdles i have in my life is you know to forgive is to forgive people who I think, you know, slighted me. And it wasn't, and it's not the people that cast stones at me. It was the people that did nothing that, you know, I was really the most, the most bad at. But yeah, that's basically it, you know, and I honestly, it's been over two years now since my restaurant was closed. And you have to understand, like, you know, that, it really, you know, it broke me. It really did break me. And every day, you know, in the beginning,

I used to wake up and I swear that thought would come through my brain, you know, 6,000 times a day. Like, why did I do it? Why did I do it? Why did I do it? And I realized now that, you know, it wasn't one thing. It was just, it was a multitude of things. And then finally, I just broke. You know, I broke.

And I couldn't take it anymore. And here we are. You know, you're going to be about the 50 millionth guest, which isn't true because you're, your episode like 540 something anyways. But hearing your story really, um, like saddens me. And the reason it does, Jesse, is because when I was in the middle of COVID, I was working full time for Baker Hughes out in the oil field. And I was doing this as a hobby or as like, you know,

hopefully someday this gets to be where I could do this full time, right? He used to tell Eric Payne, I'm like, as you lose your dream job of speaking out because you're like, this is, I'm giving you an opportunity to speak out and I'm gaining my dream job. So I have this real, like, opposite, like, certainly, almost identical story, not in the scale of what you've done, but like I have the complete opposite because through COVID, all I did was give people such as yourself the opportunity to explain their side because nobody else would do it. And I don't mean nowhere else because obviously folks,

there's a lot of people that were doing podcasts still are, but it was just, you know, I was just one of the voices that was doing it. And through COVID, you know, I got to go out to Ottawa and experience Ottawa and interview like fantastic human beings that, you know, like if I, if I cross past with a couple of them in a lifetime, I think I'd be honored. And instead, here I am like over and over and over again, getting the opportunity to talk to people such as yourself that gave up like, folks, I think we can all agree. When you talk about without papers, it's like you light up. You lost what you'd worked your bag off to get and love doing it. And everybody came and enjoyed it and it got taken from you and it got taken because you you stood up

and said this is not right and without people like you who who literally stood up and said no more of this i'm willing to give up what i've worked my entire life for we're not going any further without you people i don't know where we are right like i mean i was just texting with chris barber because i mean obviously trial and everything else going on and like he's in amazing spirits right it's always it's always nice to talk to him as a guy faces two to ten years of jail if he gets convicted and him to be like no i'm i'm everything's great and i'm like cool that's good to hear um because without the people standing up and doing it and galvanizing the public because there's so many people that wanted to say something i don't know jesse maybe you don't have the same experience

but i there was online i got roasted but quietly people would come and talk to me all the time and be like keep going i'm really enjoying this but i can't say anything because like i'm literally literally, and I'm like, you need to say something. Because if you don't say anything, you know, then you're just, I'm just this little guy bobbing in the, you know, the ocean getting hammered by waves after wave. I just stopped looking on social media because social media like is toxic. They just, they just eat me alive. But in real life, that never happened.

I don't know. Maybe I'm, maybe you didn't like Lloyd Minster to Calgary. There are two different, two different areas. Maybe there's, I don't know. What's your thoughts? Yeah, it did. you know, it broke me when they closed my restaurant. I honestly didn't think that they were going to close my restaurant.

You know, I just didn't think that. I thought that, you know, that they were going to maybe, you know, find me and throw me in jail and all of those things, you know, I was fine with. But really the worst punishment that they could give me was closing my restaurant. You know, and after they did that, I'm the kind of person where I'm hyper-focused. You know, I was hyper-focused on without papers, for 10 years. And when that was taken from me, I became hyper-focused on protest.

And, you know, I literally dedicated a good year and a half of my life to hit in the streets and seeing if I could spread the message. And, you know, it was the most traumatic and the most beautiful experience of my life as well. And I think about the effort that I put in to protest, you know, and I remember in the beginning a lot of people just telling me, you know, don't, don't. don't, you know, Jesse, you're just wasting your time and what's the point and you should, you know, refocus. And I couldn't.

I couldn't. I literally thought, I was so naive, you know, that I was like, I'm going to wake everybody up. You know, I'm going to wake everybody up. Why can't you see it? Why can't you see it? You know, they used to just infiltrate my brain. Like, why can't you see it, you know? And I thought I could wake up everybody up.

And now I realize that, you know, most people you can't wake up with a sledgehammer. But, yeah, yeah, it was a crazy time, man. Dr. Jordan Peterson put out, the light that you discover in your life is proportionate to the amount of darkness you are willing to forthoritely confront. Would you agree with that? 100%, man, 100%, you know, and it was the darkness that made me see the light. Isn't that, you know, I've, that literally makes the hair on my arms. That's, Peterson talks about going and fighting the dragon or going to the darkest parts, you know, in order to, you know, you have to conquer your demons and different things like that. But when you're like, you know, you said it.

The most traumatic and beautiful experience of your life was losing what you loved to stand up for what you believed in. Correct? It was. Yeah, 100%. Over the course of that year, year and a half, where you're going to every protest, you're just like, I don't know, like, this is the only way out. What did you learn? Like, what did you, like? I learned that I wasn't alone.

you know and that was the first thing and that was you know definitely part of the sciop right is that you know they made you feel that if you didn't want to you know take part of this an experiment that you were you know a fringe minority and an extremist and right wing tinfoil hat or nut job and i realized very very quickly that i wasn't alone and i realized you know very quickly just how afraid people were and i realized very quickly just how much people wanted to have hope you know And when without papers was taken down, protests started happening just organically. You know, nothing. I didn't do any social media before this happened, you know.

But these protests started happening. And then once without papers got shut down, you know, I was gravitated towards these people because, you know, everybody else had forsaken me. And, you know, I ran to these people because they, you know, they supported me and they gave me hope and they provided the love that I needed. and I started organizing my own protests in Inglewood. And, you know, I'd never done that before. And they started to grow, you know, really quickly.

And it got to a point where I was, you know, I was disturbing my neighbors. And I didn't want to do that. You know, I didn't, I understand, man. You know, you just want to wake up and sell your stuff and go home and, you know, feed your children. And so they had offered me as a way to placate me. There was a parking lot down the street from us on the corner. And they said, you know, you take the protests into there, right?

So it doesn't disrupt the businesses and everything like that. And I was like, yeah, you know, 100% I'll take that parking lot. And I viewed that parking lot like, you know, like my room. I was like, you know, I filled a room in Englewood for 10, for 20 years. I'm going to be filling in this parking lot very soon too. But it was a learning curve to protest, you know. And the one thing I realized quickly was that most people, most Canadians, you know, it's very difficult to get out on the street, you know, with a sign and, you know,

and say, you know, anti this. I'm against this. And most people don't want to do that. It's very, very hard. You know, and especially when people are driving by and giving you the finger and calling you and Nazi and spitting on you and all this sort of stuff, they don't want to do that. And I was like, okay, well, how do we make this happen? And I started to realize just by noticing, you know, that when I was out on the corner,

I would, mothers would be walking down the street with their children. And instinctually, you know, a mother wants to keep her children away from harm and commotion and all that sort of stuff. And so I would see mothers coming and as soon as they saw us, you know, they would either, you know, cross the street, turn around. They would just get the heck out of there. But I started to notice that mothers were walking down the street, you know, with their baby in a carriage and another one in tow. And they were coming towards me, you know, really slowly. And they would pass a shop and then they would stop, you know, and look at the shop.

But in a very, you know, not a fake way, but I could tell that it was subterfuge, you know. And I was like, what's going on here? And then I realized what was happening is that, you know, they were pretending to walk down the street nonchalantly so that their neighbors, our neighbors, you know, wouldn't see them and say like, oh, look at that. You know, Susie Q over there, you know, she's a damn anti-vaxxer and she's going over that anti-mask party, right? But they were coming towards us because they were afraid and they would get to the corner. We were hanging out, you know, and they would invariably come up to me and what's going on here. And I would tell them, listen, you know, we're we're against the. the segregation and, you know, a society and we're against discrimination.

And, you know, we believe that everybody should be afforded the right and the dignity to eat. And they would break down. They would break down. These mothers would break down on the street and just be like, I'm so afraid. You know, I don't know what to do. My husband's going to lose his job. I'm going to lose my job. We're going to lose my house.

My children can't go out. My neighbors hate me. I don't know what to do. I don't know what to do. And then we would take them, you know, and we would just come. We had these little, we had fire set up on the street. I loved it. And, you know, we would, we would gather around the fire and there would be a bunch of like-minded people.

And we would just give these people some salvation and some hope. And next thing you know, you know, this mother with two kids, she'd grab a picket sign and she'd be out on the street doing her stuff. And that's what I learned the most is that people really, they want to have hope. And that's what we tried to provide the most of our rallies was hope. And I got to, the first thing that comes to mind is if you haven't seen that little dance, of like where they're so nervous to come up to you, but they want to. That's an interesting feeling or experience to have. Like it's just, it's interesting to see, like, to remember how terrified people were.

Like, I mean, I mean, I would argue you could go out today and look at somebody wearing a mask and see the look on their face. There's probably two looks. One is they're all angry at you. Or the other one is they're somewhere else. Like they're literally just somewhere else. They don't even, they're just caught in half. zombieified. Yeah.

They're just gotten a hell of their own creation, or I shouldn't even save their own creation. Government put them there, you know, and they're just, they're, they're lost right now. They don't even realize they could take the bloody thing off, I don't think. And then there's the other side that literally hates everyone's guts because they're killed, they believe we're killing everybody. Either way, that's an, that's an interesting thing to, to, to have seen. You know, you strike me as a really, really, really observant person. Like you've, you've picked up on, you know, when somebody used to walk into your, your restaurant,

and they come through the floor and they're in the middle and they kind of do this little like, you know, I'm like, oh, I can actually place myself kind of like what you're talking about. I'm like, that would be a cool experience to see it happen over and over and over again. And now you're on the street corner and you can start to see that, you know, instead of the instinctual walk to the other side, they're starting to come up and everything else. I'm curious, Jesse, you know, where we sit right now? We sit in this like really precarious point. You know, there's a whole bunch of us, and it's growing who see everything and you go like,

like are we just going to like act like nothing happened and move on and and see what they throw at us next are we going to do something about it and then there's a whole part of the population that's like nothing bad happened at all i don't know what you're talking about i got my 15th jab the other day is there a way in your mind to bridge a gap to bring people together you know and i'll stick this out there i remember when darrell sutter said it though um he was on this uh you know in a press conference and he said you know there there's certain things that bring he said three things that bring people together church uh sports and i think he said what do you say folks do you say music now i'm forgetting i think it was music and then somebody else had mentioned you

know after we got talking about it like comedy comedy when you can make people laugh that brings people together you know when we're dealing with such like nefarious characters and such dark times and like you can really go down a dark rabbit hole real fast and then you have the other people who are just like nothing happened there's nothing wrong I don't know what's going on do you see a way to bridge a gap there to bring people kind of under the I don't know to get even talking again because you know at the very start of this you said like I've been trying to forgive but it's tough and I'm like I know that like I got my own demons the when it comes to my life of like trying to like move past people's choices through

the dark days of COVID and yet I go like is there a way to do that you know I don't, is there? I don't know. You know, and it's true. You know, you think about the scenario that we're in right now where there are a great many people, you know, they don't want to talk about it anymore. And I realize, you know, that it's PTSD. I mean, these people are shell-shocked, you know, as to what happened. And I think the vast majority just want to forget about it, you know, and I want to forget about it.

I don't know how we bring us together. The divide was purposely created. And, you know, I don't know. I think faith is really the only thing that, you know, that's going to bring us together. And, you know, when we talk about the darkness and it was the darkness that made me see the light, that that is true. You know, I wasn't really, I don't want to say the word religious, but maybe spiritual be the word that I'm looking for. You know, I was brought up Catholic, but I, you know, I wasn't. the practice in Catholic and anything like that.

And I don't even know that I really truly believed. But what made me believe was, you know, to see the evil. And I realized that, you know, this is a spiritual war and I can see evil. I need to embrace, I need to embrace God. You know, if there's a, I consider myself kind of observant at times, if there's a trend that I see, it's the amount of people that are turning to faith, are turning to God, are turning to like this is being eroded from our entire society right now. Like just the word God.

Right? Like it's just, yeah. And the longer you look into it, you're exactly right. This hasn't been like, this isn't just this last year. This has been a lifetime of just slowly pulling it out. Just slowly pulling it out. You know, it took me a long time to realize that as well. And yeah, you know, God, right.

I gave that speech, you know, after my trial last week. And, you know, I said the word Jesus Christ in it. And that really, you know, it caused a lot of people to, you know, to make very quick opinions and assumptions about me. And, you know, my girlfriend was like, you know, maybe don't say Jesus Christ, you know, it's alienates people. But no, you know, I'm not afraid to say it. And yeah, yeah, you know, I think a lot of people have turned to faith. And when I think back on it, you know, this new religion of scientism, And I've started to formulate my own opinions in my brain as to, you know, why this came about.

And you think about it, you know, God has been systematically removed from our thought process in society now for decades, you know, or I think possibly since, you know, maybe before the First World or Second World War, but definitely, you know, from the 1950s on, right, you know, it was, okay, let's take it out of the schools, let's take it out of the courts, let's take it out of here, let's take it out there. And you look at it and you're like, okay, so why, you know, why is it that they're doing that? And to me, you know, it's because they don't want you to believe in God. You know, they want you to believe in science, you know, and that it was science that saved us.

And it was science that did this and it was science did that. When you realize that that's all just bullshit, all of it, you know, it was Jesus Christ that saved us. And forever I will love, you know, offer my soul to him. Well, it's interesting because, you know, I tell this, I've been talking about a lot. you know I just I to me it's just a trend I see more and more people and I don't know I don't know at what point you finally get to where you're pulling on a thread you're pulling on a thread and it pulls you towards faith I have no idea where that that happened if I could pinpoint that I'd just be like here here's the manual just turn down this thing eventually you're going to hit a point and at that point you're going to be like oh it's I got to start looking over here because in the beginning you're looking everywhere you know but there and with with faith, with Jesus Christ in particular, you know, as soon as I was like, all right,

let's do this. My level of stress went from being like, man, I was stressed. I was, I was really stressed. I was just like a lot of things were bothering me and I couldn't figure it out. And I'm not saying I got all the answers overnight, folks. I still am a moron. Um, but my level of stress just dropped immediately, like noticeably. Boom. Okay. Hmm. That's something. And I, I've been walking around like that now for, I don't know, is it six months now maybe? It hasn't been that long, but it's been long enough. And like, it's just perceptible. It's just noticeable.

I mean, you know, I don't want to preach to anyone. Nobody has to follow what I'm doing by any stretch. I just see this trend of people who stood up, specifically people who are like, what is going on? What is this? What is this level of evil that is attacking us? And the only thing, the only thing that's made my life calm has been the Bible, Jesus Christ, actively, you know, praying every day, reading. Like, those two things, all of a sudden, whether it's, you know, whether we want to get into, you know, the, you know, the spiritual realm and the attacks that come that way, that's the only thing that makes sense to me at this point, right? is certainly there's like the physical of them

showing up to Jesse's storefront and yanking him out. But then there's like the other side of it which is like, man, there was some dark thoughts that were going through my brain for a long time. They're all gone. Like they're all gone and we can point to a lot of different things. But to me, you know, I, it is like I just cracked this thing, you know?

Just started reading. Yeah. And all of a sudden, huh. Things start to make sense. Yeah, they do. Yeah. Yeah. You know, the other thing I would suggest to people, too, is, you know, not to not to find, to find Jesus the way that I did. Maybe that's not quite the path. But I would suggest to get out of the city and to embrace your and immerse yourself in nature.

And, you know, when I was, I'd like to say banished from Calgary, but I came out to British Columbia. And I spent a lot of time outside now, like a lot of time outside. And, you know, you start to, you start to just just look, just be. aware of your surroundings and you start to realize that there is that that god provides for all you know and that there is no such thing as scarcity you know all of that is man-made and that there's always balance and that there's always harmony and that mother earth you know and jesus christ are you know essentially the same uh and uh they they provide for all there's no such thing as waste uh you know what comes from the earth is returned to the earth uh it's just it's the most beautiful thing

you know every year spring comes every year's fall you know we we die and then you know it's all the analogies of Jesus. It's just, yeah, it's perfection. It's pure perfection. And, you know, this, this climate change hoax that everybody's pulling down, everybody. It's just, just, just look, you know, just go surround yourself with the trees. And I like to think, you know, more, you know, more trees, less libtards, right? Well, and I always joke, I got three young kids. I'm like, you want to solve the world's problems? If I could jam the world population into the Civic Center here in Lloyd Minster on a Sunday morning and watch you seven hockey players, So five and six year olds go at it.

I'm like, we'd have no wars. We'd have no, everybody'd be happy. I mean, it's just simple. Like, I mean, you surround yourself with children competing at something that is really difficult, like hockey at that age. You know, it isn't like sock. It's like no other sport I know where you stick blades on the bottom of their feet. You know, comedians make jokes about it all the time. And then you watch them try and do that.

It's hilarious. I mean, in the best possible way, right? Like, I mean, it's awesome. And if we did, if we all showed up to that, I don't think we'd have any. I don't think we did I think everybody just believe they're going all right well I'm you know I'm gonna see about help my neighbor I think today I don't know because I'm feeling pretty good you know like you know what we're all we all love each other and that's really truly what I believe now and I'm just going to give you kind of a weird example but my pizza place that I have in Windermere now

pal pizza by the way for a lot of different reasons the only payment method I take now is cash and sometimes we'll get people that will come and, you know, they'll order two, three, one, four pizzas, whatever it is. And they don't have any cash on them. And the bank machine across the street is not working. And, you know, there's no way that they can give me a payment. And what I do for them is I just tell them, you know, that's okay. Just come back tomorrow.

And they're like, what do you mean? I'm like, yeah, just come back tomorrow or next week, you know, or whatever's convenient for you, right? Just come back and pay. They're like, really? you can just take? I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, take the pizzas, you know, go eat them, right? Do you want my name?

Do you want my driver's license? I'm like, I don't want anything. Nothing, nothing whatsoever. I go, you know, just come back and I give them a handshake. 100% of them come back. 100% of them come back. And you realize that, you know, we all are the same. And the divisions that are created between us are manufactured by these tyrannical, you know,

governments and regimes and, you know, globalist powers. We all want to love each other And I think inherently You know, all of us are good people And it's the demons that bring out the badness You know, you're hearkening back to something very ancient In like a handshake, like I trust you And that, you know, is

It's kind of, you know, as quickly as God's been removed from things That's been removed for things. Yeah, you can't trust people. You can't trust and I'm like And how did that come about? It's them that's been telling us this. Oh, you don't trust this guy. You know, you can't trust people. And I realize that, you know what?

I mean, to a certain extent, you know, but I mean, for a pizza, I'm definitely willing to trust everybody. Where are you located now? Like, if people are listening to this and they're like, man, I didn't realize that Jesse's wherever and I can go pay him some cash and have one of his fantastic Zaws, where would I go? We're in Windermere, British Columbia, which is about three hours west of Calgary. So right to, if you know where Radium is, Inbermere, it's just a little town on the lake right by there. And yeah, you know, I think about how it was that I ended up here. You know, I'm a city boy. I'm born and raised in Calgary downtown.

I'm raised in Inglewood, Victoria Park and, you know, how it is that ended up here. But it's kind of a funny story. You know, I had mentioned that I didn't, you know, the narrative. I was very skeptical of in the beginning, but the first summer of the apocalypse, I came out here camping and, you know, we came camp because you couldn't go to the campgrounds back then. We were going to die. And we just spent it out here. And there was a piece of commercial land that was for sale. And it was just the right moment in time, you know, where my father had sold a condo and he had some money and I had some money and my business.

And my business partner had some money within our company. We had some money. And I had recognized that, you know, although I have a very successful business, I'm exposed to a tremendous amount of risk because I'm. I don't really believe the narrative and, you know, I don't trust where this is going. And I bought this commercial land, you know, and it's always been, it's always a restaurateur's goal and dream to own the dirt because the biggest risk that you have in a restaurant is your lease and your landlord. You know, and I'll give you an example, like, you know, where a restaurateur will be up and he's running and his lease comes up. And then all of a sudden his landlord's like, you know what, I'm going to rent this place to my daughter's boyfriend because he wants to go up a tattoo shop, right? and you lose your place.

And, you know, I think of WAP and it's like, you know, had I own that building, you know, I'd still be shooting my guns out the window. And the reason that I was evicted from that is because I didn't own the building. And yeah, we found this place. And I built this, I built this just this weird little thing, you know. I've always been aware of my surroundings and we had this pizza truck. And yeah, yeah, anyways, I'm out here now. And I'm loving it for the first time.

in my 25 years, I'm making food. You know, it was always my beautiful partner that was making beautiful food. And now, you know, I'm doing it by myself. And I love it. I absolutely love it. You know, I start to understand, you know, why these chefs are also crazy and passionate. And, you know, it's because in order to succeed, you have to be. And, you know, I have this reverence for the dough and the technique.

And it's just like, you know, it's so simple, you know, what I'm doing. I'm making pizzas. but it's, you know, it's like becoming, you know, a very skilled cellist. You know, it's 10,000 hours of repetition or whatever it is. And it's the same with pizza, you know, every single one is just better and better and better. So yeah, yeah, come out. I only, I don't just take cash either, Sean. You know, I accept vodka, silver, and ammunition.

Well, I don't drink vodka. So you're going to have to suffer through scotch. And scotch is good too. Yeah, well, that's what we, the, the, I got three older brothers. And when we sit in the studio and bicker about the oilers, it's always scotch. So it would be a bottle of scotch. I gladly do that for one of your odds. That sounds, you know, I'm married to an American.

And this Mayshrock, a few folks, I've never taken her to British Columbia yet. And I've taken her into the mountains, but I've never gone into BC with her yet. I'm like, I'm just looking on the match. Yeah, bring cash. Yeah, the communist got full hold of this province, that's for sure. I haven't even brought up the court, you know, and with, you know, we should talk about what just happened, you know, you lose your business, everything else. Walk me through a week ago.

So it was, I mean, obviously two years later and my time in court had come. And, oh, man, it's such a strange, strange. journey. You know, I remember when we got taken down, I was like, well, this is just, you know, this is unheard of, right? Like a business, a restaurant closed down for accepting everyone. I, I couldn't get it. And I was always like, I'm going to sue these buggers and I'm going to get them. And everybody was like, ah, Jesse, like you're delusioned. You know, there's no chance in hell. You broke the law and that's the way it is. And you lost your business. It doesn't matter that it was unadjudicated. You know, you broke the law and that the bylaw officers decide your

bait and everything like that. And I just never believed it. I never believed it. And, you know, know, when you lose everything, it's obviously very hard to accept. What was the most difficult part for me is that, you know, I came to accept what I lost personally very quickly. But what tore me up the most was my business partner, my, you know, my brother, literally a brother from another mother. And he lost the same as me. And, you know, this decision that I made was made on my own.

And it had very dire consequences for him. So everything I've ever fought for, I fought so that, you know, he could somehow, you know, regain what it was that we lost. And so, yeah, I'm going to try and get my thoughts here quickly. The first time I went to court for my tickets, I had, we had 27 tickets against me, you know, all of them related to, you know, not enforcing the vaccine passport, not putting up a sign saying we're going to check for the vaccine passport. And then when they were sent to my license and permits, everything like that.

But the first time I went to court, It was January 4th, 2022. And when I think back on it now, I'm like, that was God guiding me, you know, and what happened that day. But I showed up. It was a blizzard in Calgary that day. And I drove in to go to court. And it was a 9 a.m. appearance. And I show up, you know, and you go through the gates and the security.

And, you know, I'm doing cabdy searches or whatever the hell they're doing down there. And I get to the wicket counter, you know. And I'm not going to like to see the Supreme Court here. I'm literally going to traffic court, you know, for my business. That's 20 years that was closed down and broke my mind, right? But court was canceled that day because of Omicron, you know? And I was like, what do you mean? Courts canceled, you know?

Like, everybody's still here. You guys are all sitting there like behind the glass. Like, the hell's going on? Like, give you my time, right? But court was canceled that day. And, you know, and then they issued warrants from my arrest saying they didn't show up. But that's another story. But I realize that, you know what?

The number one thing that I need to do is delay. is delay as long as possible. And I was given advice by some good friends of mine in the legal industry a long time ago. It's that, you know, if you ever commit a heinous crime where you think, you know, the repercussions of which are going to be severe, the best advice I can ever give you is just get the hell out of the country. You know what I mean? And just give yourself as much distance in time as you can from what happened.

And the same was true with me, you know, and time is the great equalizer and, you know, unveils all truths. And, you know, sometimes when you. delay, you know, somebody will change their mind. Maybe somebody dies. Maybe a witness goes, you know, leaves the country. Or in my case, you know, the law itself was deemed illegal. And that's essentially what happened to me. Had I gone to court, you know, on that January 4th or the two or three or four times others that I was supposed to go up, I would have been found guilty and would have stood no chance to, you know, to receive any sort of retribution for what I did. But I delayed and I delayed and I

delayed and sure enough, a miracle came to me. And that miracle was in the Ingram decision that came forth in July of this year, in which the court of Queens bench, Justice Romaine, found that every single mandate that was issued under the command of Chief Medical Officer of Health, Dina Hinshaw, was illegal, ultra-vieries. And what was discovered, you know, you think about what happened here, like in how twisted and dirty and corrupt, government was, you know, it never gets very much mentioned this Jason Kenney in his cabinet.

So in 2019, Jason and Kenny creates this position of the chief medical officer of health, just by coincidence, of course, you know, and then assigns her the most, you know, tyrannical power, essentially, the undemocratic to essentially a bureaucrat, a government bureaucrat. This woman was given a power akin to Caesar, you know, she could do anything in her means in order to, you know, to curb the spread or whatever the case was. And what happened was and what was revealed under the cross-examination of Jeff Ruff and Laiton Gray was that none of the decisions were her, made by her. They were all made by Jason Kenney and Cabinet, and her position was simply to enforce those

decisions. So lockdowns, closing businesses, shuddering schools, you know, preventing worship, muscling your children, force injections, vaccine passports, all of them. of it, all of it. The only science that it was based on was political science. And what happened was Dina Hinshaw under cross-examination essentially through Jason Kenney and cabinet under the bus and said that, you know what, none of these decisions were hers. Because if she had said that the decisions were hers, they would have all been validated and legal. That's how dystopian, you know, we had become, is that we had given this one single woman all the power

in the world. And if she had said shut it down, then it was shut down and it was all legal. But she threw Jason Kenny under the bus and said none of these decisions were mine. They were all Jason Kenney in cabinets. And that was essentially ultra-viris, meaning that it contravened the process of the law. And all of them were thrown out. And so what they charged me with in itself was illegal. And in fact, it was me that upheld the law. The law, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the Bill of Rights, the Law of Land, and God's land.

It was me that upheld it. and not these demonic counselors and, you know, alder persons, whatever the hell you call them now, that decided over lunch that they were going to divide and segregate to Calgary. You know, it was me that upheld the law, and it truly was a miracle. And I thank Rebecca Ingram for the bravery in the darkest of times. You know, they did this way back, way, way, way back in December of 2020. They took this woman to court when nobody thought that she stood a chance

and lo and behold, you know, the miracle came to me. And yeah, yeah, that's basically it. And we got to, I got to give a shout out to the lawyers, too, because I don't know about you, Jesse, but in the dark days of COVID, I remember reaching out to a bunch of lawyers

and nobody would touch. Not a single one. Nobody would touch anything. Yeah. And I remember. Not a single one. That's section one in that charter. Like, what a scam, you know?

Like these are all your rights, you know, unless, of course, bro, it's too dangerous for you to have any rights that we're just going to take them all the way. It's like, what the hell is this? I remember having Laten Gray in studio and him talking about lawyers are like sharks once there's blood in the water they'll all come but until then they're all like me and you're like and he you know whether you agree or disagree whether

you're a lawyer listening going that's not true i can simply say that the lawyers i talk to in the middle of covid none of them wanted to talk to me none of them will return calls none of them you know they're just like no yeah that really shocked me yeah i had good friends over lawyers that uh i thought held the charter in very high regard and our rights and freedoms in very high regard. And then I realized that, you know, that that's not the case. But, you know, I understand like where they came from too, right? I mean, the process, it was just impossible. And you're right about the blood and the water, you know, now that my decision has been,

you know, brought forth, you know, I don't, I don't search for these lawyers now. Yeah, they all come knocking, right? Yeah. Like, it's been really interesting to sit here and watch because, you know, like, I'm sure that I'm speaking to the choir here, but I remember talking to a lawyer out of Emmington, and he was just like he wouldn't read anything I was sending him. I had a contract.

I was trying to figure out of, you know, like in the contract I'd signed on to like, they have to force me to get vaccinated to keep my job, you know, keep my job. It was a pretty like, like, I'm willing to pay. I want to find out. How can I get around this? Like just tell me what I'm missing.

Nothing. Crickets. It was just like, you know. It was amazing time. You know, nobody thought that they could say no. Nobody thought that they could say no. you know, you had to, you know, I don't know how many Canadians were vaccinated. I'm going to guess, you know, the population is 40 million, maybe 30 million Canadians got vaccinated.

And I'm willing to bet that of the 30 million that got vaccinated, 20 million didn't want it. You know, they were forced to. And of that 20 million, I bet you a good majority of them wish that they had never taken it. Well, and there's, and of those people, Jesse, you think you're mad. They're like really, really mad. They're like really, really. Isn't that the thing, you know, that's what really shocks me the most is that I don't think there is mad, as they should be.

And I don't really quite know what that is. And I just keep on coming back to that old, I think it's a Mark Twain quote where, you know, it's easier to fool somebody than to convince them that they've been fooled. And I really think to myself, like, why aren't you more mad? You know what I mean? Like I talked to some students on my deck at the pizza place,

you know, they came by on the weekend. And I was like, you know, they asked me how I ended up here. And I told them my story and, you know, oh, I heard about you and blah, blah, blah. But I was like, where are you guys going? Are you going to you going to USC? They're like, yeah. I'm like, how do you feel, man?

How do you feel, bro? You know what I mean? Like they literally, they forced you to take that jab in order to go to class, and then they canceled class. You know what I mean? I'm like, what the hell? And now all you're doing is hearing about all the terrible side effects and consequences of this.

And, you know, why did they do it? Why aren't you more mad? I don't know. I wish they would stand up. But when you said no, like you talked about the 10 million. roughly that said no the thing is they started saying no and they saw how extreme it got right like for a lot of people they don't remember half the steps we're talking about because they went and got it and nothing happened to them for the most part nothing physically and they got you know they need a card

to get okay well here's my thing whatever and so they don't remember any of that for all of us we i remember that oh they'll never introduce a Vax Pass and then the Vax Pass comes and you're like oh my god like i literally i can't like if i go into the rink now like watch my kids like is that okay like where are we at right now and every time i didn't think it was going to get any worse something new would come and it would make it even worse and if you weren't paying attention just one day they had vax passes and what's the big deal but if you were paying attention you're like literally they've tried to bribe me they're trying to force me through my work now they're trying all these tactics to get me to get me to get you to get you

to get you and I watched as more people slowly caved to the pressure because the pressure you know started here and they talk about a frog and boiling water but I mean like to me it was like pressure and by the end I was so stressed about like how can I survive a day let alone another month you're just like this is insane and then and I'm like and how am I going to keep my kids out of this because now they're talking about you know like Lloyd's weird because we get Saskatchewan and Alberta we're a border city So in Saskatch, when we had to pay attention to two premiers, they were talking about a, like a provincial police force,

and that isn't what they called it. They hired all these ex-police officers to go around and enforce the mandates. And they were talking about building these, you know, in case you don't have a safe place to quarantine. We're going to build quarantine facilities. And you're like, folks, like, and then I remember talking about, I remember talking about a few people are like, well, have they built them yet? And that only makes sense.

It's only for the city folks. And I'm like, oh, my God. Like, this is, this is stressing me out. Like, you know, and you think of all the stress because it was just one after the other. But we were, like, at that point, I was paying attention to everything. Every little thing that came down, you're like, that can't be. Because I'd gotten caught in the trap of Ocean Wiseblat when he got pulled off the ice in Calgary, the outdoor rink. I got in the trap of that'll never come to Lloyd.

And then it did come to Lloyd. And by the time it came to Lloyd, they're like, well, they're just being a little extreme. You're like, a little extreme. They got pulled out of the, they got pulled out of the swimming. pool where if you're on the other side of the glass in your trunks you don't need a mask on but if you're in the lobby you need the mask it's like can we see what's going on here like this is getting a little bit insane actually it was a little bit more than a little bit but you it was crazy you know that that and and i i i told it to a few of my friends and uh you know in the legal

profession and they always thought it was hyperbole but in my opinion that backsfeeling passport was the most heinous crime ever enforced upon Canadians ever uh it caused uh uh people to uh uh be forced to come out publicly with their very private decisions and upon doing so be vilified and ostracized from society. It was the darkest moment in time in Canada's history. It was the catalyst for the trucker movement for the Freedom Convoy, for Coutes, for Ottawa, for everything. And I truly, you know, I've had to justify to myself over and over and over again, you know, why did I do it? Why do I do it? But I really believe now, and, you know, maybe I'm exaggerating, but I believe that had I not stood up, you know,

you'd still be showing your QR code to get a cheeseburger today. And it was that passport that caused people to finally, to finally revolt in Canada. I don't think you're wrong, Jesse. I think if it wasn't for a whole group of people standing, somebody once told me it's like looking at a puzzle. And if you're missing one piece, you stare at the piece and go, you know, like, where is it?

And I think everybody had their part to play in, you know, getting things removed. You know, like, I truly believe that. It doesn't, you know, like, did Tamara Leach have a bigger part to play? Okay, maybe. Maybe she was a bigger piece. Certainly on the world stage, on the Canadian stage, she's paying for it. Chris Barber or another.

But like, Jesse Johnson's just, you know, it's another piece in that puzzle. And if you had just gone along quietly, if Ocean Wiseblood had gone along quietly, if all these people had gone along quietly, I have no idea where we are. We're not in a good place. Instead, there was a whole group of people. They said, no-uh. Not on my walk. That's it.

And they just slowly start to fill in this puzzle. And all of a sudden, you know, there it is. And off to Ottawa goes. And, you know, like everyone's like, oh, Ottawa didn't, you know, I shouldn't say everyone. People like to, that aren't paying attention like to say, oh, Ottawa didn't really have that big of an effect. I'm like, didn't have that big of an effect, really? It's like within like three days, everything's pulled off in Saskatchewan and Alberta and everything. And it just had ripple effects across all of Canada.

that. Yeah. You know, and I everybody always says that, you know, you can't make a difference. And again, that's just part of the lie as well. You can't, you can't make a difference. And I realize now, you know, I threw a stone in the ocean. It created a ripple. And by the time it got to the other show or it was a tsunami. And yeah, always, always, always trust your gut. Always trust your instinct. And believe in yourself. You have more power than you can possibly imagine. And as I said, you know, that the power of the human spirit is indomitable. And if. And. If there's a mountain in front of you, that mountain shall move. You're not wrong because, like, I just someday, hopefully sooner than later, but I have no idea. Jordan Peterson will come on the podcast. And when he does, like I've been, I don't know, I've been thinking about it a lot, a lot. But like, you think of what one individual standing up for what he believes in has done. And I can only see it from my angle. I have no idea if he, like, his thoughts on it.

but because of him we start a book club because of the book club I start a podcast and on it and on it and on and it goes and that's a pretty big freaking ripple

and I'm not trying to pat myself on the back I'm just saying that's a big ripple that's a ripple and that's one guy and I'm just one guy and Jesse's just one guy and there's women as well and you think

what can I do and it's funny you start going it's surprising what one person can do and what they can encourage. Courage. Yes. You know, before I let you out of here, I, I, I've been meaning to ask it because I've heard you bring it up multiple times. You were in the, the, the, the food industry for 20 years,

roughly. You had the same partner, the, the business partner the entire time. Is that true? Or correct? Yeah, 100%. Yeah, an anomaly. And I don't think that it ever happens, you know, where we're a partnership lasts that long. you know, I've always said, like, the perfect amount of partners is zero, you know, and then from then, it's one, it's two, it's three, but we're, we're, you know, it's unfortunate that what's happened has created a wedge between us, but we will come back together again. And our partnership was a

yin and yang, you know, my strengths were his weaknesses and vice versa. And we truly are brothers. And yeah, yeah, yeah. Did this, then it is your confirm, like, I didn't want to. mask because I could see that at times when you talk about it, you're like, well, obviously, 20 years, this is a big deal. This isn't just some acquaintance. Through COVID, then it did wedge itself, you know, with your stance and everything. It did come between the two of you. It wasn't, you know, it wasn't COVID that drove. It was the repercussions of my stance, you know, and the hard thing to, to, and I understand, you know, the way that he feels,

you know, 20 years. We were in business. In that 20 years, we worked 30 years. And to lose it all for accepting all is just very, very hard to accept. And, you know, I, there was a lot of people that just felt that, you know, I should have just done, you know, what everybody else did, right? Which was just shut up, you know, and it's unfortunate that I didn't. And, you know, it's unfortunate that the repercussions of it. But I truly believe that what was stolen from us will be returned tenfold. And that, you know, a lot of people said, oh, the Without Papers brand.

and, you know, it's damaged forever. And I disagree with that. I think that our name will live on for a very long time. I would disagree with that a lot. Yeah. I would say if anything, when you talk about return tenfold, it's like, man, I'm thinking, you know, like I'm like, how on earth do I get out to have one of his pizzas now, right? Like, and I wonder how many listeners are doing the exact same thing.

They're like, how in the heck do I get there, right? Like, to me. You know, I'm in the middle of nowhere, man. I just get like people dropping in. I'm just like, where are you coming from? It just blows my mind, you know, and people, people seek us out, you know, because of the stand that we took and the respect that they have for it. Well, yeah.

It's like I say, I get to rub shoulders with the podcast, with people who are giants. Like, I just, I don't even understand, you know, like when you think of what we've come through and your stance you took when nobody thought that was the right thing to do, when no other, you know, what other restaurant in Canada did you say is similar to you? Only one other restaurant, Jack Tuesday. that's it in Ontario, Kelly Hale, who, you know, and you think about just how powerful the SIEP and the censorship was in Canada. I didn't even know that this guy existed until just the spring.

You know, I saw something somewhere and I was like, what? There's another. I had always thought that it was just me. But, yeah, there was only two restaurants that stood up vocally and were destroyed by the man. And that was me without Papers Pizza and Jack Tuesdays in Ontario. Yeah. You know, we were made an example of, right? And that was it.

You know, nobody, nobody would stand up after they saw what happened to us, right? Yeah. Well, I appreciate you coming on. And if you're okay to give me a couple more minutes, Jesse, I would like to slide us over to Substack. I got the Crude Master final question for you, only five, ten more minutes, and then I'll let you back on your day. For folks listening to the podcast, watching the podcast,

we're heading over to Substack. We hope you'll see you there for the Crude Master final question. Either way, we're going to take a short brief. We'll be on substack.