Alberta's pro-oilsands “war room” isn't fighting back. Here's our advice.
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
165.43979
Summary
After 10 years of ignoring foreign-funded anti-oil sands lobbyists, the media is finally starting to fight back. Ezra Levant explains who's really behind the campaign to block Canadian oil production and what they're really trying to do to stop it.
Transcript
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Hello, my rebels. Today's show is for the birds.
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Tonight, after 10 years of ignoring foreign-funded anti-oil sands lobbyists,
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the media is furious that Alberta's government is starting to fight back.
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It's September 12th, and this is The Ezra Levant Show.
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Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?
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There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.
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The only thing I have to say to the government about why I'm publishing it
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Hundreds of millions of dollars have poured into Western Canada
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from foreign-funded lobby groups for the sole purpose of flattening the oil sands.
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No other oil industry has been targeted in the same way around the world.
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Have you ever, I mean ever, seen a call for the boycott of conflict oil from OPEC?
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From Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Nigeria, Iran, whatever?
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Just one time, Greenpeace boarded an offshore oil rig in Russia.
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It was the first time, and it was the last time,
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They never even went that far with other OPEC countries,
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Have you ever even seen a press release by Greenpeace or Zipporah Berman
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against oil from a terrorist regime, like Iran or Saudi Arabia?
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Saudi Arabia is what, quadruple the size of the oil sands in terms of production?
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There are various motivations for the war against Canadian oil.
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We think that the oil sands have been expanded too rapidly
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without a serious plan for environmental remediation in the first place.
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So that's why we don't think it's up to us to decide
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whether there should be another route for a pipeline,
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because the real alternative is not an alternative route.
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But I wouldn't even call Butts a true believer,
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because I don't know anyone in the world who flies as much as he does,
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I think a lot of cases of anti-oil sands extremism comes,
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or at least is funded, by competitors to the oil sands.
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Like I say, who is funding the war against Canadian oil?
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Well, it's foreigners who don't like Canadian oil.
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Here's a letter from a U.S. company called Citgo,
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It's a letter to Canada's National Energy Board a few years back
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demanding that they block the Northern Gateway Pipeline
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So who funds the foreign meddlers like Zipporah Berman?
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It's mainly secret, because the donations are laundered
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to third-party groups like the Tides Foundation.
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They publish annual lists of all the Canadian radicals they fund,
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Of course, they got their money from oil, didn't they?
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So finally, after the industry has been killed,
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after $100 billion has been chased out of the country,
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Northern Gateway, Trans Mountain, and Energy East,
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one that was killed, one that was made, completed.
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She knows some of the tools that can be used to fight back.
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The existing criminal law, how about start there?
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Trespass, mischief, break and enter, extortion,
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That's like the U.S. RICO statute used to go after gangs.
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All right, I don't think there's any shortage of ideas.
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I think we've all been discussing it for many years.
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and the political establishment, not just foreign enemies.
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I saw this story just the other day in French CBC.
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Les Albertains aiment bien blâmer les autres pour leurs difficultés
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Mais devraient-ils aussi se regarder dans le miroir?
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The Albertans like that, and translated into English,
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it means Albertans like to blame others for their difficulties.
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They're telling Albertans to stop bitching about the lack of oil and gas pipelines
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as if the CBC, and frankly Quebec, weren't a major force in cancelling them,
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including through the CBC's in-house lobbyist, David Suzuki,
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who has had a 30-year campaign against the oil sands.
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This is a Vancouver pundit for the Globe and Mail.
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Jason Kennedy fights for Alberta even if the enemy isn't real?
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The fact that a reputable organization such as the Pemina Institute,
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a non-profit think tank focused on energy sustainability,
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could be lumped in with groups said to be working against Alberta's interests
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with the support of shadowy funding, Mr. Kennedy's words,
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is patently absurd, and underscores just how ridiculous
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The Pemina Institute was one of the groups financed
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by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund to stop and kill and demonize the oil patch,
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but sure, Vancouver expert on Alberta, sure, the enemy isn't real.
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Alberta's offensive against oil sands opponents is politics,
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Alberta looks to be moving towards a green version of the Red Scare.
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Premier Jason Kenney's United Conservative Party's launched its offensive
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against what it says is a scourge of environmental opposition to the oil industry.
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But imagine claiming that it's a fiction or a witch hunt.
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It was largely baseless name-calling, as if the pipelines have not been killed,
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Amnesty International, the group that's supposed to worry about,
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well, frankly, places like OPEC countries where they actually abuse their people.
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I've never seen them write a letter about OPEC oil, but boy, they hate Alberta.
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Amnesty International is writing this open letter in the response to the
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fight-back strategy that has been launched by your government,
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specifically the establishment of an energy war room devoted to defending
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the oil and gas industry in Alberta and a public inquiry into the foreign funding
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of groups who oppose or criticize energy developments in the province.
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Hey, guys at Amnesty, a war room isn't really a war.
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I know you were created to be against wars and to go after war criminals.
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Amnesty International is deeply concerned that these initiatives undermine
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and violate a range of Alberta's human rights obligations
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under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and international law,
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including freedom of expression, freedom of association,
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the rights of indigenous peoples, and gender equality.
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The fight-back strategy also risks setting back the province's responsibility
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to advance comprehensive action to address the human rights impacts
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Oh, is that, is that what Amnesty International is about now?
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For a civil rights group, nothing more interesting, more important out there,
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The freest province in one of the freest countries?
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Amnesty International is also greatly concerned that these initiatives
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and the rhetoric surrounding them feeds into a worsening climate of hostility
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towards human rights defenders, particularly indigenous women
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and environmental human rights defenders, exposing them to intimidation and threats,
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Amnesty International in Canada has literally published a dozen defenses
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of an actual war criminal, an actual murderer and terrorist,
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Kenney's government has been in office for a few months now.
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So it's coming up on, what, it's almost half a year.
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These early months are a test of the government's resolve and priorities
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So is this war room going to be about anything more than a fancy website
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and some feel-good videos and maybe a suggestion box,
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It was going to actually be a war room and not just a bureaucrat's room.
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Unless they were more worried about pleasing Vancouver pundits
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I'm talking about Jason Kenney and Sonia Savage.
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That's really the essence of their electoral mandate.
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Which brings me to the turkey farm invasion story of the other day
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There was a radical group paid and organized by people outside the province,
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some of them having registered charitable status,
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sending in dozens of young people as cannon fodder
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turn the other cheek in that friendly Alberta way,
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That's pretty much the identical MO of the anti-oil extremists, isn't it?
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Foreign organized, foreign funded, sham charities,
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and the local RCMP just standing around stunned,
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It's been more than a week and not a single arrest.
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This isn't what the war room to support oil was meant to do.
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But that's why this is a great first battle to fight.
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to test out the people who were going to execute the plans,
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And not just for a slap on the wrist, minor offense, let them go.
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Well, does Alberta have the courage to prosecute every single possible charge?
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Extortion, animal cruelty, criminal organization, all of them.
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Does Alberta have the courage to work with the Hutterites to file a civil suit
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Does Alberta have the will to take on the Globe and Mail and the CBC's French office?
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they'll never have the courage to take on mighty Greenpeace.
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Do this and do it right and do it as mercilessly as they would do it to us,
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and you'll not only do the right thing by those farmers,
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you'll scare the hell out of every environmental group around.
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But back down here in this turkey farm thing and do nothing?
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Well, you've just confirmed that this war room was a bunch of nothing.
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Tens of millions of dollars for consultants and ad agencies to produce feel-good BS
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And get all their internal records through examination for discovery and disclosure and lawsuits.
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Pressure little people to rat out the bigger people.
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And you'll show that indeed there's a new boss in town.
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It's not even about the Hatterites and certainly not about turkeys.
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Stay with us for more on this with my friend Sheila.
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I'm here at the Jumbo Valley Hutterite Colony Turkey Farm.
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Now, I have a lot to unpack before I get to my interview with the farmers here today.
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the Hutterites are a Christian sect who dress modestly,
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But boy, oh boy, do they love themselves some free enterprise.
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They are some serious business people and highly effective farmers.
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Now, the reason I'm here is because this Hutterite owned and operated turkey farm
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was invaded on Labor Day by animal rights activists
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who I suspect targeted these Hutterites specifically because
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as opposed to dozens of other poultry farms in southern Alberta
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specifically because they knew they wouldn't be met with violent resistance.
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foreign-funded extremist groups targeting the industry.
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Lord knows they've got the multi-million dollar war room.
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And I think the first case they need to do that on
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is the turkey home invasion by animal rights extremists
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Our friend Kim Bexty covered the launch of Chick-fil-A
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we had Kian in Toronto covering the Chick-fil-A protest
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and you in Fort McLeod covering the turkey thing.
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I got to tell you, my anger rose with every minute.
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Those farmers, I'm not going to call them simple
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But I mean simple in that they have a simple life
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And they're not sophisticated lawyer litigators
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So when I mean simple, I don't mean simple-minded.
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And here comes these bizarre animal rights freaks
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of being persecuted for their religious beliefs.