Rhino’s Ramblings - Sometimes A Court Room Is The Wrong Place

Robert Thomas Opinion/Commentary

I was stopped on the street today and asked if I had read the Moose Jaw Express website and if I knew anything about a present defendant Tannis Brideau.

“The woman is crazy!” I was told.

And on that I had to agree.

No I’m not taking a shot at Ms Brideau’s beliefs but rather what I personally believe in my own opinion the woman suffers from some sort of mental illness. A delusion if you like.

Something a seasoned judge and courtroom should be able in my opinion to readily ascertain.

Personally I don’t think a criminal trial is the proper place for Ms Brideau but rather psychological or psychiatric treatment is better. But that is just my layman’s opinion.

It’s not her beliefs I think need treatment - she is entitled to believe whatever she so chooses - but rather it’s how she acts about them.

As I will state again I’m no medical doctor, psychiatrist or psychologist but it’s easy to see Ms Brideau in my own opinion requires medical intervention.

For people who are unaware who Ms Brideau is well she is the lady who had her red PT Cruiser plastered with all sorts of conspiracy theory stuff on it.

Then she parked it in front of businesses or the school division offices as her way of protesting.

That is until she parked it on Hall Street by the Prairie South School Division office and instead of ticketing her - as they would for most people - the Moose Jaw Police Service simply towed it.

Effectively it eliminated her traveling billboard. A billboard that was promptly replaced with a shopping cart.

With that said yes I’ve had my own run-ins with Ms Brideau. It is from these run-ins that I formed an opinion.

An opinion - albeit a personal one - Ms Brideau is in need of medical attention and likely not the courts.

If the Court doesn’t see it this way then perhaps they need to take another good look at it.

This isn’t the first cause Ms Brideau has been consumed with.

She has appeared before Council before and that was on the issue of missing and murdered indigenous women.

Now I will have to say it is a noble cause but Ms Brideau was obviously so enraptured in it it was obvious something was wrong.

Council denied her request to hang a red dress I believe in the entry of city hall and as a result Ms Brideau started hanging red dresses all over the downtown core.

But it was the COVID - 19 epidemic where Ms Brideau seemed to take things to the extreme and when I say extreme I mean to the cliff.

Personally I don’t care what beliefs Ms Brideau may have. So long as they are not about violence to others it’s her right to have them.

I may or may not agree with her views but I do agree with her right to think whatever she wants to think. she can express those views so long as she stays within the confines of the law.

It’s the obsessive nature of her character that is where I see something that requires a good look at medically.

On this latest fantasy driven fiesta Ms Brideau approached MJ Independent as a means of getting her message out.

When I spoke to Ms Brideau - once when she admitted to who she was and a second time on a separate phone number when she said she was a friend calling - it’s obvious there is something medically wrong here.

Something in my humble opinion our local finest have either ignored or simply hope to force underground. Something that in my opinion could maybe have been dealt with better in a 30 day psychiatric exam rather than a courtroom.

In my opinion it’s like Ms Brideau has been brainwashed by the Internet. A victim of our growing delusional times.

When Ms Brideau first contacted MJ Independent it was through someone who wrote lifestyles stories for us.

And I will be honest Ms Brideau scared the bejeezus out of our lifestyles writer. So Ms Brideau was quickly passed onto me.

I will be honest I listened to Ms Brideau who wanted me to travel to Lethbridge Alberta to cover the trial of the Coutts Four.

Her point was that these four men were innocent and being railroaded by the police and it was my responsibility to go down there and fix it.

I told her honestly I personally would cover the trial if it was being held here and not in Lethbridge but it was out of my coverage area.

I tried very hard to explain to Ms Brideau that it is not up to the media to take sides on issues just to report the truth.

For some reason Ms Brideau thought it was incumbent for the media to take sides - really her side on the issue. Anything less than that and you were an active participant in some massive worldwide conspiracy.

And yes she actually told me that.

My guess she told the two other media outlets in Moose Jaw the same thing.

Unfortunately for Ms Brideau legally one of those two media outlets are thin skinned.

Ms Brideau did tell me that her motivation were voices telling her what she was doing was the right thing to do and it was going to save the world from a major conspiracy.

A conspiracy that included everyone as nobody would listen to her.

So I listened as she grilled me where I get the money to run MJ Independent.

So I told her it cost about $25 per month.

And no I didn’t have the thousands of dollars to sit in Lethbridge reporting on a single trial.

I explained to her the structure of the local media and they had Alberta affiliates and it would be best to address her concerns through them.

Personally it’s an oops sort of moment as she went back and let’s just say bothered the other media in town.

I also told her on numerous occasions had she considered professional help about her problems - the voices.

She would later send me a letter saying I was her only hope and she didn’t care if I thought she was “bat shit crazy” she simply wanted to save lives from the conspiracy.

So I published the letter and that’s the last I heard from her.

I never called the police nor alerted the authorities as really I never saw her as a danger to myself or others. It was nothing more than a mental fascination to follow causes or the voices on the Internet and elsewhere messing her up so to speak.

Meh really I’ve seen a lot worse in my lifetime.

I never saw her as a pain really just someone out on a self destructive mission to warn the world or at least what she saw as the world.

The next time I heard about her it was the police had impounded her vehicle and she was after the people she saw as promoting (the media) the COVID - 19 vaccination clinic.

It was the conspiracy she told me about. I was some devil and part of it.

With that said I personally don’t think a courtroom is an answer and in my opinion there is a better answer or step needed here first.

Here’s hoping the Court finds the same conclusion.