With files from National Post
Joe Rogan has taken aim at lockdown measures implemented across Canada, meant to curb the spread of COVID-19.
In an April 28 episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, which is almost three hours long, the podcast host and comedian said he didn’t understand why Canadian officials think lockdown measures are a “solution.”
“Canada’s f—-d right,” said Rogan. “They’re so locked-down and I don’t understand why they think that’s good.”
Nearly 24,500 Canadians have died of COVID-19. As of Wednesday, there were 7,378 new cases of the virus across the country — 3,424 of which were in Ontario.
“Hey guys, take your vitamin D, sleep, drink water,” said Rogan.
The podcast host also compared the enforcement of provincial lockdown measures to the Gestapo, the political police of Nazi Germany, who played a critical role in the roundup of Jewish Europeans for deportation to concentration camps and killing centres.
“You can’t do Canada,” he said. “You can’t do what you’re doing, where you have f—–g Gestapo pulling people over for your papers, ‘Why are you out? Why are you out of your house? There’s a cold floating around’.”
In April, Ontario premier Doug Ford gave police the power to stop people on the street or in vehicles and ask why they were out during the province’s stay-at-home order. But, many police forces in the province said they did not intend to randomly stop residents.
The province later revised the measure so that police can only stop residents if they have a reason to suspect they’re participating in a social gathering. Ford also issued an apology.
Rogan’s guest, Canadian chef and podcast host Matty Matheson, also said that “there’s a lot of overreaction” and called Ford a “a piece of s–t.”
Ontario is currently under a stay-at-home order until May 19, which requires residents to remain at home except for essential purposes, such as grocery shopping or exercising outside.
A couple social media users went as far as cancelling their Spotify subscriptions to send a message about Joe Rogan’s words.
