Rebel News Podcast - May 01, 2020


Between COVID19 and 20% unemployment, why are we still bringing in temporary foreign workers？


Episode Stats

Length

43 minutes

Words per Minute

173.01022

Word Count

7,482

Sentence Count

444

Misogynist Sentences

15

Hate Speech Sentences

35


Summary

Why are we still bringing in temporary foreign workers with the virus still a problem, and with unemployment at 20%? It s April 30th, and this is The Ezra LeVant Show. Why should others go to jail when you're the biggest carbon consumer?


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Hello, my friends. Today I take you through a few of the measurements of slavery.
00:00:04.740 What is a slave? I mean, a slave doesn't give 100% of his labor to his slave master
00:00:10.140 because he still, you know, has to have some housing and food and the odd moment of rest.
00:00:17.180 So maybe a slave has 90% of his work taken away from him.
00:00:21.920 And of course, he is personally owned by the slave master.
00:00:25.080 What do you think the ratio is for Canada's temporary foreign workers,
00:00:28.580 the universally visible minority, low-wage people brought in just to serve Canadian plantations?
00:00:35.160 Do you think they have like, do you think they're 60% free?
00:00:39.380 I don't know. I try and make a comparison today. I don't want to overstate it.
00:00:42.400 No one kills a temporary foreign worker like they could kill a slave.
00:00:46.540 And at the end of the day, they do have some personal liberty.
00:00:49.200 But there's more than a few comparisons. I'll make my case.
00:00:52.620 You tell me if I'm right or wrong. That's today's show.
00:00:55.420 I'm just so mad at these multinational plantations.
00:00:58.560 And I'll explain why I'm using language that normally Marxists use.
00:01:02.880 Before I get to the podcast, please consider becoming a subscriber to Rebel News Plus.
00:01:07.020 It's eight bucks a month. You get the video version of these podcasts,
00:01:10.540 and it helps us stay strong.
00:01:12.780 Okay, here's today's show.
00:01:13.720 Tonight, why are we still bringing in temporary foreign workers
00:01:32.100 with the virus still a problem and with unemployment at 20%?
00:01:36.540 It's April 30th, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.
00:01:38.880 Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?
00:01:44.680 There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.
00:01:48.740 The only thing I have to say to the government about why I publish it
00:01:52.240 is because it's my bloody right to do so.
00:02:00.140 America's worst mistake, a mistake that lasted centuries, was slavery.
00:02:04.500 Now, please don't get me wrong.
00:02:05.600 I am in no way anti-American, and I must immediately note
00:02:09.140 that slavery has existed on every continent in the world,
00:02:12.940 including, I should say, here in Canada,
00:02:15.080 where, for example, the Haida Indians were famous slave hunters,
00:02:19.480 slave traders, slave owners.
00:02:21.840 Here's how the Canadian Museum of History puts it.
00:02:25.300 The Haida went to war to acquire objects of wealth,
00:02:28.180 such as coppers and chilcat blankets
00:02:30.200 that were in short supply on the islands,
00:02:32.200 but primarily for slaves who enhanced their productivity
00:02:35.920 or were traded to other tribes.
00:02:39.040 High-ranking captives were also the source of other property
00:02:41.600 received in ransom, such as crest designs, dances, and songs.
00:02:48.220 Now, that's nothing compared to the ceremonial human sacrifice
00:02:52.080 of slaves by the Aztecs.
00:02:54.520 If you haven't watched Mel Gibson's movie Apocalypto,
00:02:57.100 do yourself a favor and watch it.
00:02:58.860 Now, of course, slavery exists in the world even today,
00:03:01.060 especially in Africa and the Middle East and in Asia.
00:03:05.620 Of course, slavery, including the rape slavery of women,
00:03:10.340 was an essential economic and political and religious component
00:03:14.580 of the Islamic State during its terrible existence.
00:03:18.500 Here's ISIS terrorists getting excited
00:03:21.520 about buying Yazidi slave girls to rape.
00:03:25.380 Today's
00:03:47.120 So I'm not picking on America when I say slavery was its worst mistake.
00:04:17.760 It's every country's worst mistake.
00:04:21.220 The British Empire was an incredible force for good in first banning and then eradicating slavery, deploying the mighty Royal Navy to stop slave ships.
00:04:30.680 It's something every Canadian and everyone in the Commonwealth should be proud of.
00:04:34.080 And though America got it wrong at first, it removed itself from that moral catastrophe with a military catastrophe, the Civil War, the deadliest war in America's history.
00:04:43.540 Six hundred and eighteen thousand men dead.
00:04:47.800 And in fact, new research suggests it could be as high as 750,000 souls.
00:04:52.280 That was out of a population of only 31 million Americans back then.
00:04:56.760 Population wise, America then was actually smaller than Canada is now.
00:05:00.120 Imagine losing that many men.
00:05:02.800 Can I compare Abraham Lincoln's two inaugural addresses?
00:05:06.340 Here's how he ended the first one.
00:05:07.840 He was trying to avert the Civil War, trying to resolve things.
00:05:10.860 Listen, he said,
00:05:11.680 We are not enemies, but friends.
00:05:15.500 We must not be enemies.
00:05:17.520 Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.
00:05:22.840 The mystic cords of memory, stretching from every battlefield and patriot grave to every living heart and hearthstone all over this broad land will yet swell the chorus of the union.
00:05:33.360 When again touched, as surely they will be, by the better angels of our nature.
00:05:38.080 That's beautiful, but it didn't work.
00:05:40.360 Can I read to you from Lincoln's second inaugural address four years later?
00:05:44.520 It's downright biblical.
00:05:45.640 I'm a Canadian, so I actually didn't learn this until I visited the Lincoln Memorial just this February before the virus stopped all the travels.
00:05:53.420 This is on a huge engraving right inside the memorial.
00:05:56.900 It's terrifying to read.
00:05:57.980 Let me read some of it.
00:05:58.840 Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away.
00:06:07.900 Yet if God wills that it continue until all the wealth piled up, piled by the bondsman's 250 years of unrequited toil,
00:06:17.660 shall be sunk until every drop of blood drawn by the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword.
00:06:26.660 As was said 3,000 years ago, so still it must be said, the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.
00:06:33.160 So America had slavery and got rich off it, but surely all that wealth was burned up in the Civil War.
00:06:41.720 Surely all the blood of the slaves was equaled by the blood of the soldiers.
00:06:45.860 I think that's what Lincoln was saying.
00:06:47.880 In a way, it reminds me of the story of Marseille, France, that I told you on Tuesday night.
00:06:52.880 A city that got rich off trade with Asia and China, Arabia, and the East.
00:07:00.140 Well, that same city of Marseille was cut in half.
00:07:03.700 Half its people were killed by a plague from China and Arabia and the East.
00:07:08.060 Of course, there's nothing inherently immoral about buying and selling spices and fabrics like Marseille did.
00:07:13.080 It's just that with the trade came the risk.
00:07:15.060 That's all. It wasn't God's justice that half of Marseille was killed.
00:07:19.280 But I think Abraham Lincoln was implying that the brutal death toll of the Civil War
00:07:22.640 was some sort of moral punishment for slavery.
00:07:26.420 And I'm not picking on America.
00:07:27.700 In fact, Lincoln's point is the opposite.
00:07:29.720 What other country has paid such a price to root out slavery from itself?
00:07:34.060 Literally every continent had or has slavery.
00:07:37.860 I can't think of any other that had to root it out through a Civil War.
00:07:42.880 I don't know. The only comparison I can come up with is Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt,
00:07:49.600 out of slavery, and the ten plagues wreaked on the Pharaoh.
00:07:53.000 But that was God punishing Egypt, not Egypt coming to terms with itself.
00:07:57.580 And I tell you all this because I want to talk to you about our own Canadian use of cheap ethnic labor.
00:08:06.700 Now, they're not slaves, of course.
00:08:09.980 But it's sort of funny how they're all visible minorities, all of them, all from poor countries.
00:08:15.640 They're not slaves, no, no, no, that's for sure.
00:08:17.580 Perish the thought.
00:08:19.140 But don't think for a second that our temporary foreign workers program
00:08:23.260 isn't a modern, woke form of slavery light.
00:08:27.640 Oh, I know, no one physically owns a temporary foreign worker as property.
00:08:34.640 We don't literally have slaves stand on a stage in New Orleans
00:08:38.100 and have slave owners check their teeth for health and bid for them at an auction.
00:08:41.780 I mean, they have basic civil rights, and they obviously want to do it.
00:08:45.860 It's better than life back in their home countries, I guess.
00:08:47.880 But don't you kid yourself.
00:08:49.580 It's a cheap labor economy.
00:08:51.120 It's not quite slavery.
00:08:52.220 I mean, they're paid.
00:08:53.360 They're not owned.
00:08:54.400 But they're here to work for less than Canadians do.
00:08:57.180 That's the whole premise.
00:08:58.500 And this is obviously a problem because now we have 2 million unemployed Canadians.
00:09:03.220 So the idea of bringing in cheap foreign migrants to undercut Canadians,
00:09:06.540 well, it doesn't make any sense, does it?
00:09:08.460 I mean, from our own selfish point of view,
00:09:10.540 you've got 2 million citizens desperate to work, who want to work,
00:09:13.780 and we're literally, even in the midst of the virus,
00:09:16.360 still flying in foreign migrants to work for cheaper?
00:09:19.780 Why, again?
00:09:20.540 Imagine to save some corporate employer a few bucks an hour,
00:09:24.680 foreign-owned corporations mainly.
00:09:26.420 Back in Alberta, I used to know a guy who owned a bunch of Tim Horton's restaurants.
00:09:29.800 He swore by the temporary foreign workers program.
00:09:32.460 And back then, a decade ago or so, the job market was so tight in Alberta.
00:09:38.580 Unemployment was so low, you literally couldn't find people to work in those kind of jobs
00:09:42.580 because everyone was working in the oil patch for six figures,
00:09:44.900 even unskilled workers, and certainly anyone with a trade
00:09:47.320 was making strong six figures.
00:09:49.960 I remember 7-Elevens were giving $500 signing bonuses to cashiers.
00:09:54.760 I remember drive-thrus had signs in the windows saying they just didn't have the staff to open them.
00:09:58.500 Please walk in instead.
00:10:00.000 Yeah, that's gone now.
00:10:00.900 Now we have mass unemployment.
00:10:02.260 So what's the excuse for the cheap imported labor again?
00:10:05.420 I mentioned my old friend who owned a bunch of Tim Horton's.
00:10:09.600 Well, that same company was bought out by a massive Brazilian hedge fund company called 3G Capital.
00:10:15.800 Did you know that?
00:10:16.620 Did you know that's who owns Tim Horton's?
00:10:18.320 Here's their website.
00:10:19.400 They're based in Brazil.
00:10:21.120 They have a New York-style website, though.
00:10:23.540 They bought out Tim Horton's, I think it was six years ago now.
00:10:28.060 So why are we letting a Brazilian multi-billion dollar hedge fund
00:10:32.760 bring in cheap foreign laborers to Canada
00:10:36.340 to undercut Canadians during a recession?
00:10:38.720 How is that in our interest again?
00:10:40.280 It's so often foreign multinational corporations.
00:10:42.880 Why do we owe them our loyalty, above loyalty, to our fellow Canadians?
00:10:46.120 Why are we permitting them to bring in essentially foreign indentured workers?
00:10:50.180 Oh, I know.
00:10:50.820 They're not quite slaves, right?
00:10:52.740 They're paid a living wage, right?
00:10:54.440 Well, yeah.
00:10:55.860 But to be punctilious slaves in pre-Civil War America,
00:11:00.120 all slaves are paid enough to live and eat, and I suppose some time off.
00:11:07.420 I say it's immoral to have a slave class.
00:11:09.680 I say it's immoral to have an underclass that's beneath our unemployment laws.
00:11:14.160 If we have laws for a minimum wage,
00:11:16.780 if we have laws governing things like child labor,
00:11:19.080 like limited hours of work per week, like workplace safety laws,
00:11:22.000 if we have those laws, it's not just for practical reasons.
00:11:25.820 I think it's for moral reasons, too, I think.
00:11:28.460 So why are we fine waiving those laws, suspending those laws for foreigners?
00:11:33.380 If the laws are wrong, then change them,
00:11:35.300 but don't have an underclass beneath our laws.
00:11:38.320 How is that different from the exploitation of Mexican migrants in America
00:11:41.700 picking fruit for a sliver of what an American would get paid,
00:11:45.100 except that we have normalized and legalized that exploitation of the underclass?
00:11:49.840 Now, I haven't turned into a Marxist.
00:11:51.280 Don't you worry.
00:11:53.420 I'm just asking why we do it again.
00:11:55.820 I know why Cargill, America's wealthiest private company
00:12:00.600 that owns the slaughterhouse in High River, Alberta,
00:12:03.620 I know why they like to have foreign workers to save them millions of bucks a year.
00:12:08.780 Absolutely.
00:12:09.360 Here's their annual financial report.
00:12:11.240 Let me quote.
00:12:12.660 We delivered $2.82 billion in adjusted operating earnings in fiscal 2019,
00:12:19.400 down 12% from last year's top performance.
00:12:22.060 Net earnings on a U.S. generally accepted accounting principles basis decreased 17% to $2.56 billion.
00:12:29.240 Revenues dipped 1% to $113.5 billion.
00:12:32.840 Okay, got it.
00:12:34.360 Sorry, Canada.
00:12:35.920 Sorry, Alberta.
00:12:36.820 We want to operate a beef factory in your country, but we just don't want to hire any Canadians, okay?
00:12:44.240 I mean, you know, we are down 1%, it's $113.5 billion.
00:12:48.980 Can we just hire foreign migrant workers because it saves us a few bucks an hour.
00:12:53.320 So you'll sacrifice 2,000 Canadian jobs, but that's a price we're willing for you to pay
00:12:58.480 because we had $113.5 billion and that dipped 1% last year and we can't have that.
00:13:06.280 I mean, why don't you just call it the Cargill plantation?
00:13:09.740 Don't call it a plant.
00:13:10.680 Call it a plantation.
00:13:11.560 So having a foreign indentured visible minority, underpaid underclass, working for a massive
00:13:17.760 global corporation, if that doesn't ring any moral alarm bells for you, well, how about
00:13:22.260 look at it as a problem when we have 2 million Canadians unemployed?
00:13:28.040 But how about look at the other problems, too, that these foreign migrant laborers, when they
00:13:31.500 live on these temporary foreign worker plantations, when they're working for their American or Brazilian
00:13:37.380 taskmasters, they live en masse because they're poor and they're trying to save money.
00:13:41.560 Because they send money back home or they might go back.
00:13:43.840 And so they're underpaid.
00:13:44.920 They know they might well be going back to Somalia or Mexico, wherever they're from.
00:13:49.600 So they're here temporarily.
00:13:51.800 It's right there in the name, temporary foreign workers.
00:13:54.340 So they're not really investing in normal housing or putting their roots, are they?
00:13:58.040 They live in groups.
00:14:00.120 They carpool in groups.
00:14:01.460 And so it will not shock you, the Cargill and the JBS slaughterhouses in Alberta, JBS is
00:14:08.240 another foreign multinational, also from Brazil, weirdly, just like Tim Horton.
00:14:13.100 So Cargill and JBS are where hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of coronavirus cases have
00:14:18.520 spread.
00:14:18.820 I don't know if they're at 1,000 yet, but it's the biggest COVID-19 virus hotspot in all of
00:14:24.460 Canada.
00:14:24.960 It's actually the reason why Alberta's curve isn't flattening.
00:14:28.620 The rest of Alberta is fine.
00:14:30.220 It could go back to work now, were it not for these massive outbreaks at these foreign
00:14:35.440 migrant plantations.
00:14:38.480 But hey, feel free to force another few billion dollars of costs on Canadian taxpayers, as
00:14:44.500 long as it saves a Brazilian and American multinational corporation a few bucks.
00:14:48.800 Am I right?
00:14:50.420 And look at more news today.
00:14:51.780 Look at this.
00:14:52.980 It's from Ontario.
00:14:54.980 COVID-19 southwestern Ontario outbreak puts migrant farm workers in spotlight.
00:15:00.220 With southwestern Ontario hit by its first COVID-19 outbreak, among the thousands of
00:15:04.820 offshore farm workers it relies on, the head of the province's largest agricultural group
00:15:10.460 says it was only a matter of time before the coronavirus erupted in the farm belt.
00:15:16.780 But in the fallout of the outbreak on a Chatham area greenhouse operation, with dozens of foreign
00:15:22.500 workers infected, activists say governments need to do better to protect such laborers from
00:15:27.700 the virus.
00:15:28.200 Quote, for the past couple of years, we've been trying to sound the alarm above the spread
00:15:31.920 of pandemics on farms, said Chris Ramsarup of Justice for Migrant Workers, an umbrella
00:15:38.340 group that advocates for foreign laborers.
00:15:41.240 This is something that was preventable, Ramsarup said Monday.
00:15:44.680 The temporary workers, especially prevalent in the vegetable and fruit industries in southwestern
00:15:49.800 Ontario, handle jobs Ontarians won't do, and often live in bunkhouses on the farms.
00:15:59.960 Back communal housing, monitored by the federal government, with input from local bylaw and
00:16:04.080 provincial and public health authorities on standards, often means crammed and confined
00:16:09.280 conditions, said Ramsarup.
00:16:10.980 Now, look, I'm no commie.
00:16:15.280 But seriously, I use the word plantation to evoke imagery of the U.S. South, the cotton and sugar
00:16:20.260 plantations.
00:16:21.320 So you could call it bunkhouses, if you prefer, if that makes you feel better.
00:16:26.320 Do you have any moral pangs about any of this?
00:16:29.000 No.
00:16:29.160 You're happy to subsidize some big foreign corporations to save a few bucks?
00:16:35.380 Like Lincoln said, every dollar, every drop of blood from slavery was repaid with the treasure
00:16:41.460 and the blood spent on the Civil War.
00:16:43.540 So is the 10 cents you're saving on your pint of Ontario strawberries, is that worth shutting
00:16:50.480 down your provincial economy and being imprisoned in your own house?
00:16:54.260 And sorry to bring Canadians in this again.
00:16:55.840 Why are we not letting Canadians do this work?
00:16:58.400 Is it really true that Ontarians don't want to do the work?
00:17:02.240 Really?
00:17:03.640 Is it true that there were no farms in Canada without foreign migrant workers?
00:17:07.520 Is it true that no one here knows how to farm or likes to farm or loves to farm?
00:17:12.700 Have we not been growing crops for a century in Western Canada?
00:17:16.860 For two centuries in Ontario, three centuries in Quebec and the Atlantic?
00:17:20.180 What?
00:17:20.740 Newfoundlanders don't know how to fish, maybe?
00:17:22.600 Is it too tricky for us to figure this out?
00:17:24.520 We need to bring in PhDs?
00:17:26.040 To do that?
00:17:26.480 Is that who these foreign laborers are?
00:17:27.820 They're really sophisticated in ways that we're not?
00:17:30.380 Well, that's the CBC's view.
00:17:31.640 Listen to the execruple Rosemary Barton, just the worst of the worst on Trudeau's CBC.
00:17:39.340 Listen to her laugh out loud when a Canadian citizen actually says, yeah, he'd like to work on a farm.
00:17:46.360 What do you see yourself doing in terms of volunteer work or one of the jobs that the prime minister was talking about?
00:17:53.880 Honestly, farming sounds quite interesting.
00:17:57.420 I do have a background in athletics, so I'm not averse to rolling up the sleeves and getting out there.
00:18:04.100 Did you hear that laugh?
00:18:05.380 But what's nuts is that even now, more foreign laborers are being flown in all the time.
00:18:16.700 Four temporary foreign workers in British Columbia test positive for COVID-19.
00:18:20.360 British Columbia's top doctor says the province has detected four cases of COVID-19 among temporary foreign workers, TFW, who entered the country in recent weeks.
00:18:31.660 All four had arrived in BC on different flights.
00:18:34.260 Oh, good, so that's four more flights that are infected, said provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry.
00:18:40.320 The federal government has exempted TFWs from cross-border travel restrictions, citing their critical role in sectors of the economy, such as agriculture.
00:18:47.700 So they just arrived in just the past couple of weeks.
00:18:49.960 You and I are in lockdown.
00:18:50.880 Schools are locked down.
00:18:51.920 Restaurants and bars are locked down.
00:18:53.180 Churches are locked down.
00:18:54.140 But let's bring in some slave class laborers, because no Canadians know how to pick fruit.
00:18:59.380 Certainly no British Columbians.
00:19:00.900 I don't know how to do that.
00:19:02.080 I love that line.
00:19:02.840 Their critical role in agriculture, I agree, agriculture is critical.
00:19:06.620 I disagree that no one in Canada knows how to do it.
00:19:09.360 But hey, at least we've got some more virus cases to work on now.
00:19:14.600 Henry said more than 900 such workers have entered BC in the last several weeks and are being given medical and social support,
00:19:23.300 as well as accommodations to ensure they remain quarantined.
00:19:27.620 It just speaks to us of how important it is to keep up these measures,
00:19:30.940 to support people to make sure they can do what we need them to do,
00:19:34.320 and to be able to identify people who have symptoms, get them tested,
00:19:37.780 and be able to support them medically through getting over their COVID-19, said Henry.
00:19:43.020 Not 900.
00:19:44.500 You brought in 900 cheap foreign laborers shipped in right at the depth of our worst great recession since the 20s and 30s?
00:19:51.460 Just in the past few weeks.
00:19:54.000 But they're actually not working yet, are they?
00:19:55.440 Because four of them have the virus and maybe more, and they're all being quarantined and we're paying for that.
00:19:59.740 So they're being given our health care.
00:20:01.100 They're being given free housing.
00:20:02.600 You know, I bet someone back in Mexico or Somalia or wherever,
00:20:06.040 if they were smart and they knew we are as dumb as we are,
00:20:09.300 they would say, I've got the virus.
00:20:11.540 I have no health care of any repute here in my third world country.
00:20:14.580 Let me get on a plane to British Columbia as a farm laborer,
00:20:17.220 but really just to use their health care.
00:20:18.980 They're going to give it to me for free.
00:20:20.220 They'll literally let me in.
00:20:21.380 Would you rather be sick in British Columbia or in Mexico?
00:20:25.860 And because of that, you heard the public health Zarina out there.
00:20:29.600 She said that's precisely why the province's lockdown remains.
00:20:35.460 Because we're bringing in our cheap, cheap foreign labor.
00:20:38.700 I'm no Marxist, but I don't like slavery.
00:20:42.240 I don't like its deodorized modern version, slavery light.
00:20:48.900 I don't like what it does to foreign laborers.
00:20:51.760 I don't like what it does to our own unemployed.
00:20:55.080 But right now, I just want you to know that hundreds,
00:20:58.400 thousands more are being shipped into Canada every week,
00:21:04.100 even as our own unemployment sores.
00:21:06.380 And they're a big part of the reason
00:21:08.040 why you still can't go back to work or to school.
00:21:11.300 Oh, don't expect the Conservative Party to mention any of this.
00:21:15.320 You see, if you don't know yet,
00:21:18.120 it's racist not to like this new form of wage slavery.
00:21:23.820 Don't you know?
00:21:25.760 Stay with us for more.
00:21:26.800 Are you on Twitter?
00:21:40.160 Maybe you're on Facebook.
00:21:41.520 Do you make dumb jokes or funny jokes
00:21:43.580 or funny jokes that other people don't find funny at all?
00:21:46.800 Well, of course you do.
00:21:47.520 That's called being a human.
00:21:49.360 And if you're talking about politics,
00:21:50.800 well, someone's sure to be offended.
00:21:52.880 Even if they're not, they'll say they're offended.
00:21:54.900 That's part of how the whole thing works.
00:21:57.160 But a few months back,
00:21:59.520 a conservative online publisher,
00:22:02.840 I guess that's sort of like what I am,
00:22:05.540 made a joke on Twitter.
00:22:07.720 And we'll show you what the tweet said right here.
00:22:10.460 He was reacting to a union drive
00:22:15.100 at a liberal website called Vox Media.
00:22:18.620 And so he wrote a tweet joking to his own staff
00:22:22.020 at a website called The Federalist.
00:22:25.440 He said,
00:22:26.620 for your information, FYI, Federalist,
00:22:28.880 first one of you tries to unionize,
00:22:30.440 I swear I'll send you back to the salt mine.
00:22:33.880 Obviously a joke.
00:22:35.380 The reason it's funny
00:22:36.420 is because it's a conservative website
00:22:38.340 not sympathetic to unions.
00:22:39.820 And it was having a good laugh at Vox's expense.
00:22:42.500 Well, so much for a Twitter laugh.
00:22:46.440 The National Labor Relations Board
00:22:50.160 has convicted The Federalist
00:22:53.740 and its publisher
00:22:54.740 of breaking the law
00:22:57.160 by being an anti-union ruffian.
00:23:00.720 Maybe I've got that wording not quite perfect.
00:23:03.880 So now we're joined via Skype
00:23:05.200 from the Washington, D.C. era
00:23:07.220 by the man at the center of the Twitter tussle,
00:23:10.040 Ben Dominich.
00:23:10.720 How are you doing?
00:23:11.180 Nice to meet you.
00:23:12.520 I'm doing great.
00:23:13.560 And thank you for having me on.
00:23:14.940 I appreciate you taking some interest in this.
00:23:17.200 And I hope that it serves as a warning to you
00:23:19.780 of what might happen
00:23:20.800 if you make a joke
00:23:22.060 that offends the wrong people.
00:23:23.840 Well, I mean, that's the story of my life.
00:23:25.280 Now, did I more or less accurately
00:23:27.160 retell what happened?
00:23:29.880 Absolutely, you did.
00:23:30.760 And one thing that I do want to add
00:23:33.440 is in terms of the perspective
00:23:35.940 that I have on all of this,
00:23:37.100 you know, the reality is
00:23:40.200 that I did not believe
00:23:41.300 that in America
00:23:42.680 you would have a situation
00:23:45.020 where if you make a joke
00:23:47.240 and it offends someone
00:23:49.040 who has never worked for you,
00:23:51.200 has never contracted for you,
00:23:52.960 does not know you,
00:23:53.920 lives in a different state from you,
00:23:55.840 that they have the ability
00:23:56.800 to within a few minutes
00:23:58.140 file a complaint
00:23:59.680 that can unleash
00:24:01.440 the entire force
00:24:02.840 of the federal government
00:24:03.780 against you as an entity.
00:24:06.040 That's something that I learned
00:24:07.300 because of this.
00:24:08.680 And what really is the case
00:24:10.800 is that anyone
00:24:11.700 who's offended by your joke
00:24:13.060 in this instance
00:24:13.760 can go to the National Labor Relations Board.
00:24:15.820 They can file against you.
00:24:17.360 And the power that they have there
00:24:19.080 is immense.
00:24:20.200 They subpoenaed every email
00:24:22.020 that I've ever exchanged
00:24:23.100 with any of my staffers
00:24:24.440 going back through
00:24:25.560 all the editorial emails
00:24:27.580 and conversations,
00:24:28.580 confidential ones frequently
00:24:29.920 that we've had
00:24:30.560 with sources and the like,
00:24:32.000 going back ages.
00:24:32.980 They subpoenaed
00:24:34.260 my staffers themselves,
00:24:35.820 even though they were not
00:24:36.620 offended by the joke,
00:24:37.660 to come and testify
00:24:38.700 at their own expense
00:24:39.740 in a different state
00:24:40.480 to hire their own lawyers
00:24:41.540 at their own expense
00:24:42.280 because if I were to pay for it,
00:24:43.980 it could be viewed
00:24:44.940 as being coercive.
00:24:46.400 Even though my own staffers
00:24:48.480 filed affidavits saying
00:24:49.740 they were not offended
00:24:51.180 by this joke,
00:24:52.000 they understood it as a joke,
00:24:53.540 they didn't feel threatened by it,
00:24:55.180 the administrative law judge
00:24:56.440 in this case,
00:24:57.080 which is basically a bureaucrat
00:24:58.560 who has the power of a judge
00:25:01.360 without having to actually
00:25:02.840 live under the laws
00:25:04.200 of the land
00:25:04.660 and the Constitution,
00:25:06.480 he found that
00:25:07.860 it was totally irrelevant
00:25:08.900 that my staffers felt this way,
00:25:11.320 that because someone,
00:25:14.580 someone mentally ill,
00:25:15.580 presumably,
00:25:16.100 or perhaps without
00:25:17.260 any sense of humor,
00:25:18.960 could view my joke
00:25:20.360 as being an actual threat,
00:25:22.260 that that amounted
00:25:23.200 to the same thing.
00:25:24.300 And I've chosen to fight this,
00:25:26.000 and I want to be clear
00:25:27.320 because I know that
00:25:28.680 there are a lot of people
00:25:29.300 who have gone up
00:25:30.480 against the speech police
00:25:31.520 in various ways,
00:25:32.780 that the stakes here
00:25:34.680 are much smaller
00:25:35.340 than what they typically face.
00:25:37.800 The National Labor Relations Board
00:25:39.220 just wants me to delete the tweet.
00:25:41.220 They want me to inform
00:25:42.260 my intelligent writers
00:25:43.540 what they already know,
00:25:44.520 which is that they have
00:25:45.120 the freedom to unionize
00:25:46.100 if they would so please,
00:25:47.700 and move on.
00:25:49.300 And the reason that I haven't
00:25:50.540 and the reason that
00:25:51.100 I've continued to fight this
00:25:52.220 is because I think
00:25:53.160 it's a question
00:25:53.760 that ought to go
00:25:54.860 to the real courts
00:25:55.760 about the power
00:25:56.840 that we've enabled people to have,
00:25:59.280 regardless of whether
00:26:00.080 they have any standing
00:26:01.060 on the issue,
00:26:02.120 regardless of whether
00:26:02.900 they have any relation
00:26:03.740 to the companies in question.
00:26:06.680 Because I think
00:26:07.200 this is the sort of thing
00:26:07.900 that will happen again,
00:26:08.800 and it will happen increasingly
00:26:09.980 as people become aware
00:26:11.600 that they can target
00:26:12.760 anybody whose jokes
00:26:13.800 they disagree with
00:26:14.780 with these types
00:26:15.880 of ridiculous complaints,
00:26:17.720 ludicrous complaints
00:26:18.420 that should be laughed
00:26:19.240 out of court,
00:26:20.040 as opposed to have
00:26:21.040 God knows how much
00:26:22.140 taxpayer money spent
00:26:23.340 coming after me
00:26:24.400 for a joke tweet
00:26:25.220 that hurt no one.
00:26:26.280 Yeah.
00:26:26.760 You know,
00:26:27.320 you're just outside
00:26:28.860 Washington, D.C.
00:26:30.540 You tell me,
00:26:31.760 and I accept that
00:26:33.340 obviously none of your
00:26:34.540 conservative writers
00:26:35.640 took it seriously,
00:26:37.160 none of them were
00:26:37.560 planning to unionize.
00:26:38.960 If they wanted to,
00:26:40.080 they wouldn't have
00:26:41.120 been deterred,
00:26:41.660 I imagine, by a joke.
00:26:42.960 The complaints were,
00:26:43.840 I'm looking at your article
00:26:44.560 on the subject
00:26:45.160 of the Wall Street Journal,
00:26:46.360 some leftist writer,
00:26:47.740 Matt Brunig,
00:26:48.600 who had nothing to do
00:26:49.560 with your outfit at all,
00:26:52.680 and then a Massachusetts
00:26:54.820 nuisance lawyer,
00:26:56.480 Joel Fleming.
00:26:57.480 So these were
00:26:58.220 officious intermeddlers,
00:27:01.440 they're busybodies,
00:27:02.700 who just said,
00:27:03.620 oh, I can file a complaint
00:27:06.040 and then I can unleash
00:27:07.080 the resources
00:27:07.780 of the federal government.
00:27:08.520 It's not even like
00:27:09.040 a nuisance lawsuit
00:27:10.000 where the nuisance litigant
00:27:11.600 is spending his own money.
00:27:12.520 It sounds like
00:27:13.420 they just file
00:27:14.800 a piece of paper
00:27:15.560 and then the government
00:27:17.240 with its resources
00:27:18.760 and personnel
00:27:19.480 runs with it.
00:27:20.560 Am I right on that?
00:27:22.040 Yes, you are.
00:27:22.740 And I mean,
00:27:23.080 one other little nugget
00:27:24.460 of this that I think
00:27:25.200 is interesting
00:27:25.700 is that Brunig,
00:27:27.700 who's a former
00:27:28.300 leftist policy staffer
00:27:29.820 and someone who worked
00:27:30.480 briefly at the NLRB
00:27:32.460 as a government employee,
00:27:34.580 is actually married
00:27:35.320 to a writer
00:27:36.600 then at the Washington Post,
00:27:37.820 now at the New York Times.
00:27:39.500 So, you know,
00:27:39.980 he has,
00:27:40.720 he's aware
00:27:41.440 of what journalism is
00:27:42.740 and the idea
00:27:43.720 that he would send
00:27:44.440 an agency after us
00:27:45.400 that would tell us
00:27:46.020 that they don't consider us
00:27:47.180 a publication,
00:27:48.100 they consider us
00:27:49.180 a quote-unquote
00:27:49.860 anti-union website,
00:27:51.680 which is something
00:27:52.220 that the prosecutor
00:27:52.940 actually said
00:27:53.760 in the hearing
00:27:54.820 and they judge us
00:27:56.380 from the reasons.
00:27:57.520 Frankly,
00:27:57.820 as an anti-union website,
00:27:58.660 we're not doing
00:27:59.240 a very good job
00:28:00.040 because I would say
00:28:00.860 in our entire history,
00:28:02.240 we've probably published
00:28:03.660 maybe two dozen articles
00:28:04.780 that are about unions
00:28:05.580 and most of those
00:28:06.200 just telling you
00:28:06.780 why public school
00:28:07.800 teachers unions
00:28:08.460 are not good.
00:28:09.560 But it's one of these
00:28:10.560 situations where
00:28:11.420 they have so much power
00:28:13.380 thanks to
00:28:14.580 just effectively
00:28:15.880 an internet troll
00:28:16.980 who has the capability
00:28:18.800 to unleash
00:28:19.700 a government agency
00:28:20.900 against people.
00:28:21.620 And from my perspective,
00:28:22.300 this isn't so much
00:28:23.120 about me
00:28:23.820 because I know
00:28:25.000 a lot of lawyers
00:28:25.660 and I'm friendly with them.
00:28:27.100 If you are the publisher
00:28:27.920 of The Federalist,
00:28:28.620 you naturally have
00:28:29.620 a lot of connections
00:28:30.220 with lawyers.
00:28:30.980 And there are plenty
00:28:31.700 of them who would be
00:28:32.460 happy to defend me
00:28:33.500 and in this case,
00:28:34.620 the new Civil Liberties Alliance
00:28:36.080 defending us,
00:28:37.600 you know,
00:28:38.020 pro bono,
00:28:38.620 going out there
00:28:39.240 and trying to make
00:28:40.860 this argument.
00:28:41.940 The flip side is
00:28:43.000 not a lot of people
00:28:43.940 are like that.
00:28:44.600 If you own a deli,
00:28:45.700 if you own,
00:28:46.360 you know,
00:28:46.780 a small business,
00:28:47.980 you don't necessarily
00:28:48.960 know someone
00:28:49.580 who's going to be able
00:28:50.300 to come in
00:28:50.740 and defend you
00:28:51.500 for free
00:28:51.980 against some kind
00:28:53.240 of leftist troll.
00:28:54.740 Now,
00:28:55.000 we have the resources
00:28:55.820 and connections
00:28:56.380 to do this.
00:28:57.560 And so I think
00:28:58.140 that this is the opportunity
00:28:59.200 that has really risen up
00:29:00.860 for us to put this question
00:29:02.240 again to the courts,
00:29:03.020 which they haven't really
00:29:04.020 dealt with since the 1970s.
00:29:05.900 Is this the kind of regime
00:29:07.300 that the National Labor Relations
00:29:08.860 Board was really intended
00:29:10.280 to be?
00:29:10.940 Or wasn't it supposed
00:29:11.760 to be about looking out
00:29:12.760 for the workers themselves
00:29:13.900 and what they want
00:29:15.000 as opposed to what
00:29:16.000 some internet troll thinks?
00:29:17.480 You know,
00:29:18.040 I'm familiar with
00:29:18.740 the new Civil Liberties Alliance.
00:29:21.440 I'm friends with one
00:29:23.700 of its lawyers
00:29:24.560 and so I know
00:29:25.960 that they are liberty-oriented.
00:29:28.620 I think they might even
00:29:29.640 call themselves conservative,
00:29:30.960 although I think
00:29:31.400 they love that word
00:29:32.360 civil liberties.
00:29:33.640 So it doesn't surprise me
00:29:34.960 that they're coming
00:29:35.460 to your aid
00:29:36.000 because they love free speech.
00:29:37.200 But I want to ask you,
00:29:40.300 for I think a generation
00:29:41.660 or two,
00:29:43.680 the free speech movement
00:29:44.780 has claimed to be
00:29:45.640 a left-wing project.
00:29:47.640 It emanated from Berkeley
00:29:49.680 that was the center
00:29:50.860 for free speech.
00:29:52.340 The ACLU would definitely
00:29:54.140 call itself leftist,
00:29:55.260 but I remember
00:29:55.840 in the 70s and 80s,
00:29:57.320 it would defend
00:29:58.000 even neo-Nazis.
00:29:59.820 They'd make a point
00:30:00.660 of sending a black lawyer
00:30:01.740 or a Jewish lawyer
00:30:02.760 to defend the neo-Nazi
00:30:03.840 to make it clear
00:30:04.460 they didn't agree with them,
00:30:05.840 but they would defend them nonetheless.
00:30:07.680 Have you received
00:30:08.780 any offers of assistance
00:30:10.460 or even just moral
00:30:12.780 attaboy, go get them,
00:30:14.280 even a tweet of support
00:30:15.640 from the ACLU
00:30:17.180 or other leftists
00:30:18.620 who traditionally
00:30:20.040 were watching out
00:30:22.480 for infringements?
00:30:24.340 Well, I will say
00:30:25.340 that I haven't received
00:30:26.000 anything from the ACLU
00:30:27.220 and I do agree with you
00:30:28.620 in terms of your frustration
00:30:30.320 expressed,
00:30:31.820 the underlying
00:30:32.220 what you just said there
00:30:33.120 about them.
00:30:34.240 Their priorities
00:30:35.200 have shifted dramatically.
00:30:36.820 They are much more
00:30:37.680 about advancing
00:30:38.560 the trans agenda
00:30:39.780 and things like that
00:30:40.800 as opposed to standing up
00:30:42.080 for the civil liberties
00:30:42.860 of people who say
00:30:43.780 things that are
00:30:44.880 particularly objectionable.
00:30:46.540 I have a lot more
00:30:47.280 objectionable than my tweet,
00:30:48.940 but I think in terms
00:30:50.300 of a couple of leftists
00:30:51.460 since my piece has come out,
00:30:52.640 I've gotten a couple
00:30:53.280 of messages from them
00:30:54.320 and I've seen a couple
00:30:55.480 of tweets from commentators
00:30:57.040 who basically say,
00:30:58.540 you know,
00:30:58.760 I hate everything
00:30:59.520 the Federalist stands for,
00:31:00.660 but they're actually
00:31:01.160 right about this.
00:31:02.040 And I think that's
00:31:03.600 an understanding
00:31:04.220 of the danger
00:31:05.280 that they realize
00:31:06.140 this poses
00:31:06.760 for any real participant
00:31:09.000 in the media landscape
00:31:11.040 who appreciates the value
00:31:12.620 of the First Amendment.
00:31:14.000 Look, it's one thing
00:31:15.260 if you can demonstrate
00:31:16.020 actual harm,
00:31:17.060 if there was an actual threat
00:31:18.660 against people
00:31:19.300 being able to organize,
00:31:20.680 and I certainly understand that.
00:31:22.620 But in this case,
00:31:23.700 what has happened
00:31:25.120 is you've had
00:31:26.620 an empowered taxpayer-funded agency
00:31:29.420 come down in a way
00:31:30.860 that if we had lacked
00:31:32.660 the resources
00:31:33.340 or didn't have the connections
00:31:34.640 to be able to fight it,
00:31:35.940 could have really
00:31:36.500 destroyed an entity,
00:31:38.020 could have rendered them
00:31:39.020 incapable of doing their jobs.
00:31:40.400 They could have eliminated
00:31:41.100 the very jobs of the workers
00:31:42.520 that they're pretending
00:31:43.420 to want to care about
00:31:44.380 and protect.
00:31:45.520 And I think that that's something
00:31:46.520 that needs to be confronted.
00:31:47.840 It needs to be drawn out.
00:31:48.940 And these administrative law judges
00:31:50.320 who work within courts
00:31:51.860 where one day
00:31:52.680 they're wearing the judicial hat
00:31:53.860 and the other day
00:31:54.460 they're wearing the prosecutor hat,
00:31:55.980 they're essentially unelected,
00:31:57.580 unaccountable bureaucrats
00:31:58.780 who are capable
00:32:00.420 of really wrecking
00:32:01.540 the businesses
00:32:02.640 and livelihoods
00:32:03.440 of people at whim.
00:32:05.660 That needs to be confronted.
00:32:07.120 And that's something
00:32:08.160 that I care about deeply.
00:32:09.500 It's just something
00:32:09.940 that the founder of the NCLA,
00:32:12.340 Philip Hamburger,
00:32:13.220 cares about deeply.
00:32:14.060 He's known as a First Amendment
00:32:15.220 and administrative law scholar
00:32:17.020 of excellent reputation.
00:32:20.500 And from my perspective,
00:32:21.380 this is the kind of thing
00:32:22.080 we really need to care about
00:32:23.080 because it's only going
00:32:24.000 to increase going forward.
00:32:25.660 And if you think about
00:32:26.300 the kind of landscape
00:32:27.200 that someone like Elizabeth Warren
00:32:29.080 wants in America,
00:32:30.280 it's one where the bureaucrats
00:32:32.260 really scare you into submission,
00:32:34.740 that you don't express yourself
00:32:36.180 because you know
00:32:36.960 that that will lead to dangers
00:32:38.540 for you and your livelihood.
00:32:40.180 And that's something
00:32:40.840 that I think is fundamentally
00:32:42.080 un-American
00:32:42.640 and needs to be confronted as such.
00:32:44.840 You know,
00:32:45.660 listening to this particular case,
00:32:49.540 the fact that none of your employees
00:32:52.360 felt threatened by this,
00:32:54.180 it wasn't a real thing,
00:32:55.080 there was no union drive,
00:32:56.660 they gave affidavits
00:32:57.640 saying they support you.
00:32:58.840 That was all irrelevant
00:33:00.160 because, you know,
00:33:01.280 in your Wall Street Journal article,
00:33:02.760 you quote Section 8A1
00:33:06.800 of the Wagner Act,
00:33:07.820 that it's just,
00:33:09.160 you know,
00:33:11.700 in a way,
00:33:12.840 an extremist reading
00:33:14.300 of the law would say,
00:33:15.140 well, it doesn't matter
00:33:15.900 what they say,
00:33:17.060 you did make the threat.
00:33:18.660 And it reminds me,
00:33:21.600 if I may,
00:33:22.400 of my own freedom of speech case
00:33:24.580 a dozen years ago.
00:33:26.420 I published the Danish cartoons
00:33:28.040 of Mohammed in Canada
00:33:29.240 in,
00:33:30.380 I'm trying to remember now,
00:33:31.320 like 2006.
00:33:31.780 I remember it.
00:33:33.220 So that's 14 years ago.
00:33:35.380 Let me just,
00:33:36.000 and I'm going to tell you
00:33:36.600 from memory
00:33:37.160 the section of the law
00:33:38.380 I was charged under.
00:33:39.360 And I don't mean to
00:33:40.140 tell you my own tale here
00:33:42.160 other than it's eerily similar.
00:33:43.620 It was against the law
00:33:46.680 in Alberta,
00:33:47.400 still is,
00:33:47.880 to publish anything,
00:33:48.840 quote,
00:33:48.980 likely to expose a person
00:33:51.640 to hatred or contempt.
00:33:53.340 So maybe,
00:33:54.320 maybe not.
00:33:55.720 Truth is not a defense.
00:33:57.880 There are no damages.
00:33:59.540 It's just,
00:34:00.660 this might have,
00:34:01.360 what you wrote
00:34:02.040 might have caused someone
00:34:03.080 to be exposed to contempt.
00:34:04.580 So there's no defense to that.
00:34:07.000 And indeed,
00:34:07.980 at the moment I had been charged,
00:34:10.700 no one had ever
00:34:11.360 been successfully acquitted.
00:34:13.620 Because there's no defense.
00:34:16.580 Now,
00:34:17.120 in Canada,
00:34:17.700 we live with this,
00:34:18.580 we fought with this,
00:34:19.260 but we don't have
00:34:19.780 a First Amendment.
00:34:21.080 It sounds like you're going
00:34:22.480 through this same exercise.
00:34:24.820 Instead of the Human Rights Commission,
00:34:26.680 it's the National Labor Relations Board.
00:34:29.600 Instead of about Muslim cartoons,
00:34:32.100 it's about a tweet.
00:34:34.700 But my Canadian viewers,
00:34:36.640 of whom we have many,
00:34:38.980 are probably thinking,
00:34:39.960 Ezra,
00:34:40.260 what about the First Amendment?
00:34:41.780 Those Americans are supposed
00:34:42.860 to be free of this kind
00:34:44.200 of infringement.
00:34:45.400 This sounds like
00:34:46.260 a Canadian-style censorship.
00:34:47.920 What's going on?
00:34:49.300 Well, I have to say,
00:34:50.840 you know,
00:34:51.200 in recent years,
00:34:51.860 and I've paid attention,
00:34:52.620 I remember your case,
00:34:53.520 but I also, you know,
00:34:54.660 have paid attention
00:34:55.260 to some of the lawsuits
00:34:56.600 involving, you know,
00:34:58.220 deadnaming your own child
00:34:59.820 within the context
00:35:00.740 of a lawsuit
00:35:01.700 about, you know,
00:35:02.900 the trans rights
00:35:04.220 of teenagers
00:35:05.920 and things of that nature.
00:35:07.680 Certainly,
00:35:08.380 I'm concerned
00:35:09.180 that we're seeing
00:35:10.180 these types of speech codes
00:35:11.900 gradually being exported
00:35:15.220 into America.
00:35:16.820 And I certainly think
00:35:17.640 that there's a good degree
00:35:18.820 of overlap there.
00:35:20.280 I would much prefer
00:35:21.120 for Canadian exports
00:35:22.460 to be letter kenny
00:35:23.660 and comedians.
00:35:24.560 But, you know,
00:35:25.240 when it comes to
00:35:25.900 this sort of thing,
00:35:27.820 I don't think
00:35:28.240 that we should be resembling
00:35:29.340 the way that Canada
00:35:30.840 has approached it.
00:35:31.520 And I think that
00:35:32.080 the First Amendment
00:35:32.820 is of the utmost importance.
00:35:34.620 In this day and age,
00:35:36.080 you're going to offend
00:35:36.880 people constantly.
00:35:38.480 And, I mean,
00:35:39.520 I'm not a comedian.
00:35:40.660 I like a lot of comedians
00:35:41.720 and I listen to a lot
00:35:42.500 of comedians.
00:35:43.400 But I'm not particularly funny.
00:35:44.800 I don't even think
00:35:45.300 my joke was particularly funny.
00:35:46.760 It was just a snarky
00:35:47.880 Twitter comment.
00:35:48.860 But it's one of these things
00:35:49.820 where the fact
00:35:51.060 that it was a joke
00:35:52.060 that triggered them
00:35:52.840 is another reminder
00:35:54.140 that comedy is typically
00:35:55.560 the canaries
00:35:56.720 in the coal mine.
00:35:58.020 You know,
00:35:58.300 it's the parody joke.
00:36:00.720 It's the parody
00:36:01.360 art in your case
00:36:02.720 that tends to
00:36:04.640 rile people up the most.
00:36:06.980 And when you start
00:36:07.740 to go after that,
00:36:08.540 when you start
00:36:08.920 to shut it down,
00:36:10.320 when you start
00:36:10.760 to use the government
00:36:11.460 to do that,
00:36:12.720 then you run into
00:36:13.580 a very dangerous direction
00:36:14.880 very quickly.
00:36:15.840 Yeah.
00:36:16.280 Andy Levy says,
00:36:17.960 you don't have to think
00:36:18.720 it's funny,
00:36:19.260 but you do have to acknowledge
00:36:20.520 that it was meant
00:36:21.280 as a joke.
00:36:21.780 And I think that's
00:36:22.240 a good point here.
00:36:23.680 Everyone knows
00:36:24.580 that's a joke.
00:36:25.240 The fact that they're
00:36:26.320 pretending it wasn't
00:36:27.840 shows that there's
00:36:28.760 an inherent malice here.
00:36:30.000 Well,
00:36:31.860 it's fascinating
00:36:33.120 and it shows
00:36:34.080 that the cancel culture
00:36:35.200 finds the soft spots
00:36:38.380 in our legal system,
00:36:40.000 in our judicial system,
00:36:41.180 because it's one thing
00:36:42.000 to try and convince
00:36:42.920 Twitter to ban a guy.
00:36:44.600 But if you can unleash
00:36:45.780 the machinery of the staff,
00:36:47.000 I can only imagine
00:36:47.760 how much your defense
00:36:48.780 would be costing you
00:36:49.640 if you didn't have
00:36:51.000 a public interest law firm
00:36:52.400 on your side.
00:36:52.960 I mean, just the idea
00:36:53.880 of schlepping all your staff
00:36:55.180 at their own expense
00:36:56.260 to testify in New York
00:36:58.520 is very crazy.
00:37:00.620 This would destroy a company
00:37:02.640 if they didn't have
00:37:04.420 a guardian angel
00:37:05.580 like the new
00:37:06.120 Civil Liberties Alliance.
00:37:08.420 Is there any chance
00:37:09.780 of reform of this?
00:37:11.200 I mean, I presume
00:37:12.240 that this is all happening
00:37:13.400 under the watchful eye
00:37:15.100 of a Trump cabinet secretary
00:37:16.880 of some sort.
00:37:18.280 Is there any move
00:37:19.360 to strengthen
00:37:20.180 freedom of speech
00:37:21.580 or even to deal
00:37:22.620 with the NLRB directly?
00:37:25.020 I think that we'll see
00:37:26.260 going forward
00:37:27.020 what this looks like.
00:37:27.980 I mean, we'll see
00:37:28.440 what circuit we end up with.
00:37:30.040 We'll see how the case advances.
00:37:32.460 I mean, it's interesting.
00:37:33.080 One of the key questions
00:37:34.040 that was put to
00:37:35.000 Justice Gorsuch
00:37:36.220 when he was going
00:37:37.240 through his approval
00:37:38.060 in the Senate
00:37:39.740 was related to
00:37:40.960 administrative law
00:37:41.780 and the concern
00:37:42.440 that he was someone
00:37:43.160 who was generally
00:37:44.180 a skeptic of it.
00:37:45.900 He navigated that himself.
00:37:47.360 obviously ended up
00:37:48.160 on the court,
00:37:48.740 but that also raises
00:37:49.540 a number of questions,
00:37:50.560 I think now,
00:37:51.480 about the way
00:37:52.200 that this bureaucrat
00:37:53.240 empowered area of law
00:37:55.720 has been considered
00:37:57.240 for the past century,
00:37:59.020 you know,
00:37:59.180 really going back
00:37:59.900 to Woodrow Wilson.
00:38:01.060 And to me,
00:38:02.260 this is a new question
00:38:03.840 in this reality
00:38:04.720 where people can just
00:38:06.320 reach out from anywhere
00:38:07.420 where they can be aware
00:38:09.200 of your Facebook posts
00:38:10.140 or Twitter posts
00:38:10.880 without having known you.
00:38:13.100 Speech takes on
00:38:13.720 a different nature
00:38:14.440 and it takes on
00:38:15.120 a different nature
00:38:15.740 in the context,
00:38:16.700 I think,
00:38:17.180 of what should be
00:38:17.960 the threshold
00:38:19.060 for starting one
00:38:20.140 of these things
00:38:20.680 at taxpayer expense.
00:38:22.280 I don't know
00:38:22.880 what kind of landscape
00:38:24.540 awaits us in this,
00:38:25.680 but I do think
00:38:26.200 this is a fight
00:38:26.780 worth having
00:38:27.340 and a conversation
00:38:28.040 worth having,
00:38:29.000 especially because
00:38:29.720 I believe it will
00:38:30.480 only increase,
00:38:31.260 like I said,
00:38:32.040 going forward
00:38:32.680 for people who
00:38:33.320 don't necessarily
00:38:34.080 have the means,
00:38:35.160 the resources,
00:38:35.780 or the friendships
00:38:36.260 in order to fight
00:38:36.940 this battle.
00:38:37.760 Yeah, well,
00:38:38.380 and if it's happening there,
00:38:39.280 it's obviously going
00:38:39.840 to happen here in Canada
00:38:41.460 and in the UK too,
00:38:42.700 two jurisdictions
00:38:43.420 that are less free
00:38:44.800 than America.
00:38:45.220 Well, Ben,
00:38:45.800 Dominance,
00:38:46.160 it's a pleasure
00:38:46.540 to talk with you.
00:38:47.660 Even though the subject
00:38:48.500 matter is unhappy,
00:38:49.700 it sounds like you're
00:38:50.520 taking the principled
00:38:51.720 course and will fight
00:38:52.720 this to the end,
00:38:53.380 hopefully,
00:38:54.180 to reform or amend
00:38:55.660 the law or its
00:38:56.360 interpretation.
00:38:57.040 I wish you so much luck.
00:38:58.560 I see so many
00:38:59.800 similarities between
00:39:01.100 our experience
00:39:02.720 at the Western Standard
00:39:03.620 14 years ago
00:39:04.680 and what you're going
00:39:05.280 through,
00:39:05.900 so I will watch
00:39:06.660 this keenly
00:39:07.320 and give my best
00:39:08.260 regards to your
00:39:09.500 civil liberties lawyers
00:39:10.480 who are doing
00:39:11.100 important work.
00:39:12.780 Thank you so much,
00:39:13.640 Ezra.
00:39:13.820 It's a pleasure
00:39:14.200 to be with you
00:39:14.780 and I do love
00:39:16.260 a fight.
00:39:17.080 All right,
00:39:17.540 so tell me your
00:39:18.080 website URL.
00:39:19.320 Is it thefederalist.org?
00:39:20.680 Yes, it is
00:39:21.200 thefederalist.com
00:39:22.500 and I hope folks
00:39:24.060 will go and check
00:39:24.660 out the content there.
00:39:26.060 Thefederalist.com,
00:39:26.900 super.
00:39:27.360 All right,
00:39:27.620 thanks for your time.
00:39:28.220 Good luck out there.
00:39:29.780 Thank you.
00:39:30.400 There you have it.
00:39:31.060 Ben Dominic
00:39:31.880 is the publisher
00:39:32.520 of thefederalist.com.
00:39:34.960 I think we have
00:39:35.460 some of his writers
00:39:36.080 on our show
00:39:36.560 from time to time.
00:39:37.560 Good people.
00:39:38.260 All right,
00:39:38.620 stay with us.
00:39:39.160 More ahead.
00:39:39.540 Hey, welcome back
00:39:48.740 to my monologue yesterday
00:39:49.660 about the CBC
00:39:50.620 smear of the Epoch Times.
00:39:52.800 Lou writes,
00:39:54.160 shame on the CBC
00:39:54.900 for their smear
00:39:55.580 and biased article
00:39:56.240 against the Epoch Times.
00:39:57.180 I trust the reliability
00:39:58.500 and the tutorial integrity
00:39:59.740 of the Epoch Times,
00:40:00.540 never the CBC.
00:40:02.040 Well, Lou,
00:40:02.620 I got to tell you
00:40:03.280 that today the CBC
00:40:04.740 has already made
00:40:05.520 two factual corrections
00:40:06.740 to that story,
00:40:07.580 but here's the thing.
00:40:08.560 They changed their headline.
00:40:10.380 They took the word racist
00:40:11.520 out of the headline,
00:40:12.440 but they have no editorial note,
00:40:14.780 editor's note,
00:40:15.400 explaining why they do that.
00:40:16.880 I hope and I wish
00:40:18.600 that the Epoch Times
00:40:19.720 would sue them
00:40:20.600 for defamation,
00:40:21.660 but I know people
00:40:22.540 from the Falun Gong
00:40:23.500 too well to,
00:40:24.460 I know them,
00:40:25.200 but they're too gentle.
00:40:27.160 They're meek and gentle
00:40:28.380 with those CBC butchers.
00:40:30.000 Gerald writes,
00:40:32.880 thank you for today's show.
00:40:34.160 I've followed the Epoch Times
00:40:35.000 online for two years
00:40:35.900 and subscribed
00:40:36.600 for one year in print.
00:40:37.960 Hey, I'm glad to hear that.
00:40:39.000 You know what?
00:40:40.100 I don't know if you,
00:40:41.640 every day at 12 noon
00:40:44.300 during this interesting time,
00:40:47.260 we're having a live stream
00:40:48.400 at 12 noon Eastern time.
00:40:49.560 I do it Monday,
00:40:50.280 Wednesday, Friday,
00:40:51.580 and Sheila
00:40:52.740 and David Manzies
00:40:54.340 do it Tuesday, Thursday.
00:40:55.540 So yesterday,
00:40:57.660 I did my whole noon hour
00:40:59.120 show about it
00:40:59.880 and I wrote a letter
00:41:01.480 to Cindy Gu,
00:41:02.820 the publisher
00:41:03.340 of the Epoch Times
00:41:04.260 and I got an email back
00:41:05.480 from right when
00:41:06.020 I was doing the show.
00:41:06.880 I mean,
00:41:07.000 her computer was right here.
00:41:08.260 So I followed up with her
00:41:09.280 and I said,
00:41:10.520 well, we'd like to help.
00:41:11.840 We don't want to just
00:41:12.420 write about it.
00:41:13.420 We want to help
00:41:14.160 and so we're going
00:41:15.400 to do a promotion
00:41:16.320 for the Epoch Times.
00:41:18.560 We're going to try
00:41:19.240 and sell some subscriptions
00:41:21.280 for them.
00:41:22.260 I think we're going
00:41:22.680 to get like a discount code
00:41:23.760 or something like that
00:41:24.600 because I'm so angry
00:41:26.460 at the CBC
00:41:27.080 and I love those
00:41:28.040 Epoch Times guys so much.
00:41:29.680 They've got such good hearts.
00:41:31.900 They're independent.
00:41:33.520 Many of them
00:41:34.100 were actually tortured
00:41:35.220 or abused by China.
00:41:36.460 They're the best people
00:41:37.800 and for them
00:41:39.080 to be devoured
00:41:39.960 by the CBC,
00:41:40.940 it pricks me
00:41:42.180 and so my goal,
00:41:44.500 I'll just tell you
00:41:44.980 my goal right now
00:41:45.580 and I will have
00:41:46.040 a formal announcement
00:41:46.920 in the days ahead.
00:41:48.700 We're going to launch
00:41:49.600 a little campaign
00:41:50.600 not for us
00:41:51.240 but for the Epoch Times
00:41:52.200 and my goal
00:41:53.380 is to sell
00:41:55.980 1,000 subscriptions
00:41:57.280 for them.
00:41:59.060 So I'll let you know,
00:41:59.960 go ahead and subscribe now.
00:42:01.180 Yeah, go ahead
00:42:01.620 but I hope to have
00:42:03.200 the terms of our deal
00:42:04.560 with them
00:42:04.880 in the next day or so
00:42:05.740 and it might give you
00:42:07.360 a little discount
00:42:07.960 or something
00:42:08.520 but frankly,
00:42:09.100 go ahead and subscribe
00:42:09.760 at full rate.
00:42:10.480 I mean,
00:42:10.740 give them the support,
00:42:11.540 right?
00:42:11.680 I did.
00:42:12.800 So thanks for your note.
00:42:13.820 Linda writes,
00:42:15.020 great reporting
00:42:15.460 on the CBC's bias.
00:42:16.520 As we're the only organization
00:42:17.500 lower than that creepy mailman
00:42:18.920 are the conservative MPs
00:42:20.220 who want Derek Sloan
00:42:21.300 to apologize to Dr. Tam.
00:42:22.660 I saw that.
00:42:23.640 That made me so mad
00:42:24.640 and you know what?
00:42:25.860 Those conservative MPs,
00:42:28.580 you know what?
00:42:29.000 They're doing Trudeau's work for them.
00:42:30.700 They're absorbing the mindset
00:42:33.000 and the vocabulary of the left
00:42:34.760 denouncing people as racist
00:42:36.520 instead of just saying,
00:42:37.780 well, I disagree with you
00:42:38.640 but I don't even think
00:42:39.520 those conservative MPs
00:42:40.640 would disagree with Derek Sloan.
00:42:42.260 I think they're just so terrified
00:42:43.480 of being called racist.
00:42:45.160 I think the conservative party
00:42:46.320 of Canada is pitiful.
00:42:47.080 I'm sorry to say that.
00:42:48.060 I've been a conservative
00:42:48.720 my entire life.
00:42:51.660 My entire life.
00:42:53.060 I think they're pitiful.
00:42:55.520 David writes,
00:42:56.240 just subscribe to the Epoch Times.
00:42:57.680 Whoah!
00:42:58.360 Hey, I am so glad to hear that.
00:42:59.900 Well, I'm just delighted
00:43:00.560 to hear that
00:43:01.060 and again,
00:43:01.940 I'm glad you did.
00:43:03.220 We'd better get our offer out quickly
00:43:04.700 because I want as many people
00:43:06.480 to sign up as possible.
00:43:08.400 All right,
00:43:08.580 that's our show for today.
00:43:09.360 Until tomorrow,
00:43:10.220 on behalf of all of us
00:43:11.160 here at Rebel World Headquarters
00:43:12.240 to you at home,
00:43:12.960 good night.
00:43:13.300 Keep fighting for freedom.