EZRA LEVANT ｜ City of Victoria cancels Canada Day celebrations — but they all still take their paid vacation day off!
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Summary
The City of Victoria, British Columbia is canceling their Canada Day celebrations, but they'll still take their paid vacation day off. Ezra takes you through their thinking, and why he thinks it's so disloyal. Plus, a contest for Canada's Worst Mayor.
Transcript
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Hello, my friends. Canada Day is coming up pretty soon, and the city of Victoria, British Columbia,
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has decided to cancel it. Well, to be honest, they already canceled it because of COVID,
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but they're going to double, double cancel it now. I'll take you through their thinking and
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why I think it's so disloyal. I've got some arguments you might not have thought of.
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Before I get to that, let me invite you to become a subscriber to Rebel News Plus. That's what we
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independent. We don't take a dime from Justin Trudeau, and it shows. All right, here's today's podcast.
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Tonight, the city of Victoria is canceling their Canada Day celebrations, but they'll still take
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their paid vacation day off. It's June 11th, 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. The only thing I have to say to
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the government about why I publish it is because it's my bloody right to do so.
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I've been so busy with the pandemic news and our civil liberties project called Fight the Fines
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and fighting against attempts to deplatform us that I haven't had a chance to follow up on some
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other ideas and other stories. I had an idea for a contest for Canada's worst mayor, almost like a
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reality show, maybe where viewers would vote on it. I see that as the ultimate reality show. It really
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is so hard to choose. There are so many worthy contestants for worst mayor. City halls across
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Canada are like weird laboratories where the worst possible politicians are grown, and then they,
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the worst of the worst, move on to provincial or federal politics. They're all disasters. I think
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each of us is probably a little biased to choose our own mayor as the worst, just because we're the
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most familiar with what they do on the ground. I live in Toronto, and I'd nominate our mayor,
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John Tory. I think he's been the absolute worst in the country, indeed in the world, for any big city
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in terms of lockdowns. At least that's what the BBC says. Toronto, the most lockdown city in the world.
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So I think my guy is in the running. But you have to agree, listen, I do agree, that the city of
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Victoria and their atrocious mayor and city council really are a strong contender for Canada's worst
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mayor. Look at this, just the latest story. BC's capital cancels scheduled Canada Day programming in
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wake of Kamloops residential school discovery. And look at this on the CBC story. Warning,
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this story contains distressing details. Huh, that's a new one. The news is often distressing.
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The CBC doesn't say that for many distressing things. They're just telegraphing their political
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position here and giving you a hint about what your views should be too, don't you think? Let me read.
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Victoria City Council has decided to cancel its scheduled Canada Day programming this year following
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the discovery of what are believed to be the unmarked burial sites of children's remains near
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the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. Now, let me stop for a moment. Just FYI,
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that's the distressing part in the story that they wanted you to brace yourself for.
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Originally, the city had planned virtual programming to mark the day due to COVID-19 pandemic gathering
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restrictions. Instead, the city said it will produce something for broadcast later this summer
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featuring local artists and guided by local First Nations. Let me stop there for a second.
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So they weren't even having anything anyways. That's how lockdown-ish, that's how awful and
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authoritarian the city council was anyways. There actually wasn't anything to cancel because they
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already canceled it. They're double canceling it. Stamp, stamp, no erases. They're super duper
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triple canceling it. I'll read more. As First Nations mourn, and in the light of the challenging
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moment we are in as a Canadian nation, following the discovery of the reins of 250 children at a
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former residential school, council has decided to take the time to explore new possibilities instead of
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the previously planned virtual Canada broadcast, Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps said in a media statement.
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Now, hold on, hold on for a second. By the way, can you see what Lisa Helps has done?
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She has otherized First Nations people. She's said, because of what happened there,
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we're not going to celebrate Canada Day. Well, who are you to say that? Aboriginal people,
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Indigenous people are just as Canadian as anyone else. In fact, you could say they're the most
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Canadian people. They're here first. You are deciding that there will be no Canada Day because
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of an issue on a First Nation. Who the hell are you to kick them out? You have made them the other.
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You have kicked them out. I don't even think she's realizing. Now, there are some questions
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to be asked about that Kamloops residential school story. The chief there says the remains of 215 people
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were found through ground penetrating radar. Now, the press release was written to create an
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emotional reaction, and it sure did. I mean, Jody Wilson-Raybould, one of my favorite people,
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she read the press release and assumed that 250 children were killed. It just wasn't in the press
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release. Many other media assumed it meant mass graves, like a calamity that was covered up. That
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was later corrected. You'll see a full report by our West Coast reporter, Drea Humphrey, on this.
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She went to Kamloops to do a deep dive on the story. Drea is very compassionate.
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Does a great job of the story, and I want to learn more about it. I know she does too.
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One of the questions we'd like to know is, was this a regular cemetery? The school was around
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for almost a century. People, including children, do die, especially 100 years ago, naturally from
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diseases, from accidents. Was it like a normal cemetery like that that was maybe just lost in time?
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Or was there something criminal or negligent about it? Who were they buried there? Was it like over
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the course of 100 years? I'm really curious, and I want to keep an open mind. I think any policy
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that takes children away from their parents to raise them in a culturally different way, I think
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that's offensive to our values of freedom and family unity. However, I have to say, I do know several
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graduates of these Indian residential schools who tell me it was the best thing to happen to them,
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really, like a boarding school, one that gave them many practical skills for modern life, they tell me.
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One senior lawyer in Edmonton told me it actually saved his life, and it put him on a path. He said
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he'd never have been a lawyer without it. That's what he said. But look, let's keep an open mind to
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what's going on in Kamloops. Let's see what the facts actually are. Drea's got a great report coming up
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on that. But does any of this justify renouncing our whole country, renouncing our patriotism,
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renouncing our national day? I don't think so. I think this city council hates Canada and always has
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long before they latched onto the Kamloops story as their latest justification. That's one thing I
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think Drea is going to show, how there is a story to be told in Kamloops, and it may well be a story of
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sorrow and maybe even a story of crime. But boy, did it ever give every two-bit leftist like the
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city council of Victoria grist for their own particular meal. The mayor of Victoria is not
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indigenous. She's just a garden variety, extreme left winger. When she was first elected mayor way
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back in the day, she refused to give the traditional oath of allegiance to Queen Elizabeth. Of course.
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I mean, this radical mayor only worships herself and power. But here's the thing. It's Queen
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Elizabeth, who is our queen. Her delegate is our head of state, the governor general, and then
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there's the lieutenant governors. Any power that Lisa helps, thinks she can wield, doesn't come from
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her herself. It's not just from the people. It's through our constitutional system, which is a
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constitutional monarchy. Any power she has is through the queen and her delegates. You can't say,
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I want to be a mayor in the system, but then decline to be part of this system or give loyalty
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to this system. Let me put it another way. You can't insist on being paid as mayor and taking coins
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and bills with the picture of the queen on them as your salary and sending stamps with pictures of
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the queen on them as your mail and using a passport with a queen's letter in it. You can't use all these
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accoutrements and benefits of being in Canada and then say you don't believe in any of those things.
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I mean, you can. Mayor Lisa Helps is doing that, but she's just a lying hypocrite then.
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Lisa Helps only has power because of the queen. Attacking Canada today itself is even a degree worse,
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I think. You reject the idea of Canada as a country. So you're not just a Republican who
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maybe doesn't like the queen so much. You want a different head of state. And I understand some
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people who want a republic and they don't want a queen from thousands of miles away. Although,
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for example, her late husband visited Canada 70 times in his royal role. I think he loved Canada
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very much. In fact, I think that Prince visited Alberta more than Justin Trudeau ever has. So I
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would disagree with those who want to throw out the queen. But I get it. If you're a Republican,
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you want to do something different, but denying Canada Day itself. I somehow doubt a single person
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who works for the city of Victoria will decline to take Canada Day off work or will decline to take
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it as a paid vacation. If you hate Canada Day so much, why don't you go into the office? See,
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they want the benefits, including the benefits of the most peaceful empire, the most peaceful
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commonwealth ever do have existed in all history. They want all the good stuff. They're ungrateful to
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the system, to the culture, to the history, to the customs, and frankly, to Queen Elizabeth herself
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and her late husband. They're ingrates. Well, here are some dark predictions I have.
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The name of the city itself, Victoria. Well, that's named after Queen Victoria, who was also the
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Empress. Empress Victoria, she was ruling over half the world, from India to Canada through the British
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Empire. I bet that city itself will be renamed in a decade. And why stop there? British Columbia.
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Why, that's double-barreled British. Well, we can't have any of that. And Columbia, well, you know
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that's named after Columbus, right? If you can destroy a statue of the man who founded the country,
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John A. Macdonald, whatever his flaws, then you surely mean to destroy the country he founded.
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Show me where I'm wrong. Stay with us for more.
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Well, around the world, certain jurisdictions make a name for themselves economically, commercially,
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by having laws that promote commerce. I mean, Bermuda is a capital of insurance companies.
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Cyprus is a place for bankers who don't want to be under the thumb of Russia. Panama is a banking
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capital for that region. And now El Salvador wants to add its name as a place where you go if you want
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progressive legislation. In this case, I'm talking about El Salvador's rather surprising decision
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to announce that Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency, is legal tender in that country. And they want to
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take steps to make it accepted in commerce, even to pay your taxes. Little El Salvador leading the
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way. I see other countries are contemplating it as well. Joining us now to talk about this development
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is our friend Alan Bakari, senior tech editor at Breitbart.com. His story is called
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El Salvador. El Salvador, first country to accept Bitcoin as legal tender. Alan, great to see you
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again. It's the first country to announce it. But I see that other countries, including in Latin
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America, are considering following suit. Is that true? I'm not sure if any other countries are
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following suit. But it's certainly got a lot of attention for El Salvador. And I think they might be
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the only country in the world to do this. Most countries classify Bitcoin as an asset, which means
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you pay capital gains tax on it when you convert Bitcoin into a regular fiat currency. El Salvador
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essentially is saying, well, no, it's going to be legal tender, which means there's no capital gains
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associated with transferring it. And I think the law also says that vendors in the country have to
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accept Bitcoin as a unit of exchange. Yeah, that's what's going to be interesting because, of course,
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that requires some technological sophistication on the part of shops. I don't know if an ordinary
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shopkeeper is going to be ready for that. Then there's the transaction fees and the delays. But
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I think all those are technical solutions that can come later. I think you've nailed the most
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important thing. If people in El Salvador can hold on to Bitcoin and not pay capital gains if it goes up
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in price, then all of a sudden that becomes an extremely attractive place for anyone working in
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cryptocurrency because it would be like your Canadian dollar or your American dollar, your British
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pound going up and down. You're not paying taxes on that. If your cryptocurrency, if your Bitcoin is
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treated the same way, that could really pull a lot of entrepreneurs, especially in the tech space for
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cryptocurrency, to that little country, don't you think? Yeah, I think that's probably what they're
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going for. I mean, there've been examples in the past of cryptocurrency enclaves appearing in places
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like Puerto Rico and small little countries because of the low capital gains tax. And with El Salvador
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essentially eliminating it altogether for Bitcoin, that'll certainly make it an attractive destination
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for people involved in crypto. Of course, there are other reasons why you might not want to go to El Salvador,
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or namely the crime. But it's certainly an interesting move by that country's president,
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who is probably one of the most pro-Bitcoin heads of state, most pro-Bitcoin political leaders around
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at the moment. Yeah. Well, I wonder if it's going to come to an American jurisdiction. Let me give you
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an example of that. New Hampshire, for example, sometimes states, like sometimes companies are
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incorporated in certain states to give them a better legal background. Even if the operations
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of the company are not in New Hampshire, for example, a company might register there for tax
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reasons, for business law reasons, because the courts apply laws differently there. I don't know.
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I see that the mayor of Miami, Mayor Suarez, who is a high energy guy, loves the crypto, just hosted a big
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Bitcoin conference in Miami a week or so ago. He's a Republican, by the way. I think he really wants
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to make Miami that kind of jurisdiction in America. Now, he has to obviously work with the state and the
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federal government. But I wonder if that will happen in America, too, because El Salvador, it's a little
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exotic, a little far away. Like you say, there may be some crime issues. But wouldn't it be interesting
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if an American jurisdiction said we're going to be that crypto haven in the United States? I don't
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know if that's even possible, though, because that's a real threat to the Federal Reserve System
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and the, as you call it, the fiat currency. It's a real threat to the inflationary just print money
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Yeah. And inflation is becoming a real problem in America, price inflation especially. And yeah,
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a number of states are actually going for this crypto-friendly approach. I think
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there are some Rocky Mountain states, red states, of course, that are taking that approach as well.
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Suarez is an interesting character. I'd count him generally on the establishment wing of the
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Republican Party. I've heard him compared to Nikki Haley, for example. But he certainly should be
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leading the way on crypto. And Miami was the destination of this massive Bitcoin conference.
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I think it was last weekend. So personally, I know a lot of Bitcoin people who are moving there or
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currently live there. So there's a lot of opportunity at the moment for jurisdictions,
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whether that's national governments or state governments, to make themselves crypto-friendly
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because, you know, not a lot of places are at the moment.
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Yeah. I know a lot of people are skeptical about cryptocurrencies. Is it a fad? Is it just
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a pyramid scheme, people manipulating it? Some people even accuse Elon Musk of manipulating
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different currencies just for laughs, let alone profit. But I think there is a couple of underlying
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truths to it. First of all, because it lives on the blockchain, it is less easy to seize and manipulate
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than currencies that are printed. There is some resistance to hyperinflation. Like if there's a
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limited number of Bitcoin that will never grow beyond a certain number of Bitcoins, you can't just
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double the money supply and cut everyone's wealth in half. And as inflation is really starting to tick
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up, I think some people are going to say, why am I holding Canadian money or American dollars that are
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getting less and less valuable? All the criticisms of crypto, you know, you could probably apply them
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just as well to the insecurity and the manipulation ability of regular... I mean, I don't trust what
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Justin is doing, Justin Trudeau is doing to the Canadian economy. I think he's spending like a madman,
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Joe Biden too. Whatever the risks of cryptocurrency are, I think the risks of fiat currency are rapidly
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rising to meet them. That's an ideological opinion of mine. What do you think?
00:18:46.020
Well, fiat currency is definitely more vulnerable to inflation. There was a question about whether
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Bitcoin is... I mean, this is a big debate in the crypto world. Is Bitcoin a currency that you use
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to exchange or is it a store of value where you put your money as a kind of refuge against... as like
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a hedge against inflation? And I think the latter is the way that most people use it. They put money in
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Bitcoin as a kind of long-term investment, not as a unit of exchange, which is how it was kind of used
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in the early days of Bitcoin when it was very, very cheap. As the value has increased, I think
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people see it more as an investment than as a currency. But of course, that's because Bitcoin
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is inherently deflationary. As you said, number one, the total number of Bitcoin is limited.
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It's capped. And number two, the difficulty of mining Bitcoin with computers is that gets cut in half
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at a set time. I think it's every four years, every two years. I'm not entirely sure which one.
00:19:46.700
But that also is a deflationary element of the currency. Now, there are other cryptocurrencies that
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are inflationary, like Dogecoin, which started off as a joke project but has become one of the
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highest performing cryptocurrencies. That's like extremely volatile in its price because
00:20:06.300
that is sort of designed to simply just print more and more and more and more. It's a very
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inflationary thing. But that ironically could make it a better kind of currency, a better unit of
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exchange because you actually don't want to hold it. But of course, that was the case before it went
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up, I think, 11,000% this year, however much it was. Well, all the things you said about,
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you know, can you flee? Is something a unit of exchange or is a store of value? You could say
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similar things about the role gold used to play. You could say similar things about the role the US
00:20:40.140
dollar used to play when other currencies around the world were risky. In fact, many third world
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countries, people prefer to hold their value in American dollars. I mean, because they're not,
00:20:51.740
like I'm thinking of Venezuelan currency or even in the Weimar Germany, people were adding million
00:20:58.700
dollar bills. I think those same arguments can be made about crypto. I know this is something that
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some of our viewers are very interested in and others are quite skeptical of. I suppose that's why
00:21:08.380
it's newsworthy that El Salvador is taking a big leap. We'll have to follow this story. It wouldn't
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surprise me if the central banks want to clamp down on it or come up with their own version
00:21:19.100
of digital currency to make it easier for them to track and tax. I think that's really
00:21:25.020
the challenge to crypto is if you had an official Bank of China cryptocurrency, an official Joe Biden
00:21:33.100
Federal Reserve cryptocurrency that you were being pushed towards because it would make it easier to
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tax it. Just grab it right out of your wallet, track it, see who you're spending it. That's a
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terrifying cryptocurrency that I would regard as a prison as opposed to the liberating cryptocurrency
00:21:49.660
that's the promise of today. Last word to you, Alan.
00:21:52.700
Yeah, you know, the bottom line is there are all sorts of factors that we can't predict that could
00:21:56.780
affect the price of cryptocurrency that could really tank it or could make it go up. So, you know,
00:22:00.380
I'm not advising anyone to get into it or get out of it or whatever. That's up to,
00:22:03.900
you know, people to make their own judgments about that. What I will say is that, you know,
00:22:08.300
as you pointed out, Weimar Germany, Venezuela, fiat currency can sometimes be just as risky as
00:22:15.100
cryptocurrency, especially when you get that spiraling and inflation.
00:22:18.140
Yeah. Well, I think we're in very dangerous times, so who knows what will happen. Great to see
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you again, Alan. Thanks for taking time with us. Thanks, Ezra.
00:22:25.340
There you have it. Alan Bucari, senior tech writer for Breitbart.com. His newest story is called
00:22:29.980
El Salvador, first country to accept Bitcoin as legal tender. Isn't that interesting? Stay with us.
00:22:47.180
Hey, welcome back on my show last night. Paul writes, the conservative party has abandoned
00:22:51.180
their conservative base, just like the various provincial conservative parties have. There's
00:22:55.260
a very good chance after the next election that Rempel will be handed all sorts of free time.
00:23:01.020
Could be. I think it's even more likely that Justin Trudeau will appoint
00:23:06.140
Michelle Rempel to something as his token conservative. I think that's what's going to happen.
00:23:11.580
Bruce writes, the sickness infecting conservative parties is cowardice. They figure any bad press will
00:23:16.620
tip the election. You know, I'm so disappointed in the cowardice. One thing I think we can learn
00:23:22.460
from not only Trump himself, but Ron DeSantis and the most successful American conservatives
00:23:27.580
is if you just hold your ground and fight hard, you will win. I see Pierre Pauliev doing that,
00:23:32.780
but my God, the rest of the party is certainly full of cowards.
00:23:37.180
Grant writes, Rempel is a fine example of what's gone wrong with the conservative party. Oh,
00:23:41.500
exactly. She, I think, I mean, I don't know where she personally stands. I don't know what's real with
00:23:48.060
her. I know half the time she's down in Oklahoma married to a cowboy. Okay. Why don't you move
00:23:52.540
there then? But half the time she's in, in Ottawa clinking white wine glasses with the CBC. I don't
00:23:58.540
even know who she is. Maybe she's an actress. She should be a blogger or a YouTuber, not an MP.
00:24:03.980
But I do know this. She's much more concerned about what the fancy pants in Ottawa at the CBC think
00:24:10.460
than what her own constituents think. Well, that's the show for today. Until next week,
00:24:15.420
on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters to you at home, good night. Keep fighting for freedom.