Homelessness is up in Canada and the poverty consultants are cashing in. Then Alexa Lavie joins us to discuss the Texas border fight. It s February 5th, 2024, and you re watching the Ezra Levant Show.
00:00:44.080Friends, you may notice a change of scenery.
00:00:46.640Ezra's busy today, David's off, and so here I am at the kitchen table of the Airbnb in Ottawa
00:00:52.000that's serving as the HQ where he and Simone and I are working on our newest documentary.
00:00:56.500It's called Made, the Dark Side of Canadian Compassion.
00:01:00.280You can learn more about that at maidedocumentary.com.
00:01:04.620However, medical killing isn't the only misery ballooning under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
00:01:09.580Homelessness is on the rise in Canada, along with spending on so-called homelessness consultants.
00:01:16.120Since February 2020, homelessness is up 40% in Canada.
00:01:21.580According to Statistics Canada's latest data, financial challenges are the leading cause of homelessness.
00:01:29.080Deteriorating housing affordability following the onset of the pandemic, combined with higher unemployment and fewer job vacancies in recent months,
00:01:40.080along with a surge in inflation through 2021 and 2022, has led to higher costs for essential goods and services.
00:01:47.160These factors continue to place financial pressures on many households across Canada.
00:01:53.040In the fall of 2022, almost half, or 44% of Canadians were very concerned about their households' ability to afford housing or rent.
00:02:01.080So it comes as no surprise that the most reported reason leading to homelessness was financial issues, almost 42%.
00:02:08.440What would be the effect on inflation if the carbon tax was eliminated?
00:02:12.420And that would create a one-time drop in inflation of 0.6 percentage point.
00:12:08.220So that clip you saw right there is from a trip that our Revolues reporters Alexa Lavoie and Lincoln Jay made to the Texas border, the southern border of the United States.
00:12:26.220As the state of Texas and Governor Greg Abbott is in a bit of a standoff with the Biden administration about what to do with illegal immigration.
00:12:37.220Greg Abbott thinks that he has a solution.
00:12:42.220And Biden has other plans, I think, because he assumes that many of the people fighting across the border will end up one day as Democrat voters in the state of Texas, thus flipping the state of Texas to the Democrat Party.
00:12:58.220But what about the people who have to live with the consequences of Biden's manipulation of a humanitarian crisis to help Democrats?
00:13:08.220Well, that's part of what Alexa and Lincoln were doing down there, talking to the very people affected by Biden's, I was going to say inability, but I don't think it's an inability to enforce border policies.
00:13:21.220He just doesn't want to because it helps his agenda.
00:13:27.220We have a ton of videos still that you filmed at the border to publish.
00:13:33.220Tell us what you learned at the southern border at Eagle Pass.
00:13:38.220I was really surprised because the main reason why we went down there, it's because of the pushback of Greg Abbott against what he say that is Biden lawless policy regarding the immigration.
00:13:52.220So Greg Abbott has decided to reinforce the border, putting some razor wire, putting some shipping container and making really a wall where it's Shelby Park.
00:14:08.220So since then, since he's reinforcing in these arresting people for crossing illegally, making as a crime because he started in 2021 at the Operation Lone Star.
00:14:22.220So the word has spread in the other side in Mexico, where people like now know that in Texas, it's beginning beginning a little bit more difficult to cross over.
00:14:34.220So we saw a decrease in the illegal crossing, but we need to know that in January, we usually it's a month that it's always low for the crossing.
00:14:46.220So we need to wait a little bit longer in the next few months to see like if it is effective what Governor Greg Abbott is actually doing in Texas.
00:14:58.220But for now, what we were able to see, it's like, yes, there is less people crossing around Shelby Park, but not far away.
00:15:21.220If there is a lot of loophole where you can just like cross over and and it would be always difficult for the government, the states to take care and to seal the border completely.
00:15:37.220There is also like border patrol that are patrolling and there is helicopter all the time patrolling the area.
00:15:45.220There is also sensor tower with camera who are always like, look what is going on at night.
00:15:52.220We see more border patrol because of course, like the camera is probably less effective.
00:15:58.220But we saw tons like not we saw on our eyes eight people crossing.
00:16:06.220We were kind of lucky because, as I say, border is huge.
00:18:06.220And talking with the former border patrol agent, what they were saying is like, you know, those people are getting processed here.
00:18:14.220But after that, they are either being bussed up or fly up.
00:18:19.220So those people are going to sanctuary cities and those cities is not safe anymore.
00:18:25.220Those cities, it's being crowded by illegal migrants or by like people would cannot find like any place to stay because the inflation is getting skyrocket.
00:18:39.220And so those people would want to go to Canada where it's like really spacey, where it's better because our health system is better from the US because it's free.
00:18:55.220We're all helping those illegals to cross over and to get all the help that they need.
00:19:03.220So now those people who are crossing illegally, and this shocked me so much because as I was mentioned before, they don't need to have any idea.
00:19:17.220They don't need to prove from which country they are coming from.
00:19:21.220They don't need to prove who they are.
00:19:24.220If you say, oh, my name is this and I'm coming from Honduras and you have no proof.
00:20:39.220But one of the big precipitating factors is cost of living.
00:20:42.220And then, so this is not a problem that's unique to the United States when you have an influx of people that you don't have the resources for and you don't have housing for and you don't have healthcare for and you don't have the supports for.
00:20:56.220That drives homelessness right across the board.
00:20:59.220And you did reporting on this earlier in Quebec where when you were doing reports on Roxham Road, which is now closed, but there's kind of a loophole there and we'll talk about that in a second.
00:21:11.220But the illegal migrants from Roxham Road were occupying the homeless shelters meant for Canadians because there were just too many of them coming across the border.
00:21:23.220And as you say, a lot of these people are being shipped up north, some of it by Greg Abbott.
00:21:28.220You know, if New York wants to be a sanctuary city, they get to prove it and take a bunch of migrants, but they don't stop there.
00:21:38.220And one of the loopholes in closing the illegal border crossing at Roxham Road is that now a number of asylum claims will be taken at regular ports of entry.
00:21:53.220So at the airport, at Pearson, at Trudeau Airport, you can make a sanctuary claim there now.
00:21:58.220And we know the Canadian government turns away very few people and those people will continue to take spaces in our homes.
00:22:08.220And what we learned not long time ago, I think it was by CTV, but the number of people arriving by flight for refugee status have doubled this year.
00:22:25.220So people arrive on a tourist visa, but not for being tourists.
00:22:29.220And the same day, they will come and claim for asylum.
00:22:33.220And so this is a real burning problem because not only our airport is being slammed, but our border by feet is getting slammed, too.
00:22:43.220So we have people arriving from everywhere because the word is passing around.
00:22:48.220People know about it and they know that they would be welcome under Justin Trudeau and under Biden administration.
00:22:56.220When the administration would change, because it might change in the future if Piapoli is taking office or maybe if, I don't know, a Republican is taking office in the U.S.,
00:23:09.220I'm pretty sure that there would be a flooding of people getting in before anything's changed.
00:23:17.220But the question remains, like, for how long it takes us we'll be able to hold the line and protect the border?
00:23:25.220Because some of the people say that all what is going on at Shelby Park is kind of big show to show because it's just at Shelby Park.
00:23:35.220Like, every reinforcement that we see, mostly it's at Shelby Park when we know that people are crossing on the side of it.
00:23:43.220And we don't know for how long, but what we know that apparently the governor of Texas is putting pressure on the Mexican government to do something.
00:23:54.220So apparently at multiple bus stations, military is looking at buses to look for migrants and to turn them back at the southern border for exposing them.
00:24:08.220For now, we saw some video online. We tried to find where the military were doing that. Unfortunately, it's not at the main town. It's apparently outside.
00:24:20.220But this is something that I learned, too. Under Trump administration, the migrants were crossing illegally. They wanted not to be seen. They wanted to really hide.
00:24:32.220But under Biden administration, they want to be caught. They want to be caught by the Border Patrol. They want to be caught by the authorities because they know they will be receiving refugee status or they will wait for so long for their court trial that they will be a little bit everywhere.
00:24:51.220And when we were at the airport, me and Lincoln coming back, we saw some migrants with the bracelet on their feet because those people are waiting a court trial to know if they are receivable into the country.
00:25:07.220So they have, like, electronic bracelet on their feet. So they have, like, electronic bracelet on their feet. And they've been, like, put on flights. And now they need to wait.
00:25:14.220So I just wonder, because when I was at Roxham Road, I was able to see someone with the ankle bracelet.
00:25:23.220So these people were waiting for a court trial in the U.S. to know if they were receivable as a refugee claimer.
00:25:33.220And because they knew they would not be received, they just say, we will just try into Canada.
00:25:39.220Because I know I saw some people having that at their ankles. So all this, we should be more concerned because it's just people flooding in from different countries, sometimes from Middle East, sometimes from China.
00:25:58.220And you just think to yourself, why all those men that travel alone are going to do it? And they are all middle age, about 20 to 30.
00:26:15.220So I think we should be more concerned of who is crossing over.
00:26:19.220Yeah, I think you're exactly right. You know, the other side of this says, you know, it's mostly women and children. It's families. They're fleeing strife or whatever.
00:26:32.220But as you demonstrated time and time again, that's really not the case.
00:26:37.220And I think one of the reasons the Biden administration really wants to crack down on what Greg Abbott's doing is Greg Abbott is showing that reinforcing the border is possible.
00:26:50.220And with all the resources of the federal government, the Biden administration just refuses to.
00:26:57.220It's not that they can't. They just don't want to.
00:27:00.220And also the old story about, you know, the legal battle.
00:27:07.220Now that we heard that, OK, Greg Abbott has lost a Supreme Court saying that, yes, the Fed can cut the razor wire if they need to.
00:27:18.220But the Supreme Court didn't say to Greg Abbott, don't put more razor wire or you have no rights to put razor wire.
00:27:27.220No. Greg Abbott can put more if he want. He can put whatever he wants.
00:27:34.220And the thing is, we didn't see federal cutting the razor wire, especially at the Shelby Park, because the part remains to the state.
00:27:48.220And the federal have no rights to come and cut the razor wire on a piece of land that is not them.
00:27:55.220So for now at Shelby Park, they give access to the water to federal official, the Border Patrol, so they can cross and put their boat on the water.
00:28:06.220But that's it. They have no rights to to operate on the state place.
00:28:13.220So Border Patrol is being mostly seen on the side road and patrolling the road and on a state land.
00:28:23.220Alexa, I want to thank you and pass along my thanks to Lincoln for your very hard work at the southern border with the United States and Mexico.
00:28:32.220How do people see your reports? I mean, you've got a ton of reports that already got.
00:28:37.220I mean, in the morning staff meeting this morning, you listed like at least half a dozen more yet to come.
00:28:43.220You guys work nonstop in some pretty treacherous and changing conditions.
00:28:48.220How do people see the reports that are coming, but also support your independent journalism to the southern border?
00:28:55.220So me and Lincoln, we travel really mostly modestly. We we travel economic.
00:29:02.220We had like a really modest Airbnb and we eat on the fly all the time.
00:29:08.220So if you want to support us on our journey, you can do it at TexasBorderReports.com.
00:29:16.220On this website, you can donate a couple of bucks if you it's only what you have.
00:29:21.220But just helping us and make this journey being a worthy trip.
00:29:28.220And I think we need to really put our awareness on the southern border because the southern border is also a kind of our border
00:29:37.220because we have the same border with the US.
00:29:41.220So thank you for everybody who chip in generously.
00:29:44.220And you can also watch all of our reports and you will see a really nice report about Canadians coming up at the southern border.
00:29:54.220I think really nicely produced, but I think the video will be frightening.
00:30:13.220Stay with us your letters to Ezra unceremoniously read by me up after the break.
00:30:18.220Again, for those of you who want to see and support Alexa and Lincoln's work from the border, please go to TexasBorderReports.com.
00:30:40.220Now, we've come to the portion of the show wherein we invite your viewer feedback.
00:30:44.220I say this every time I host Ezra's show, but also on my own show, The Gun Show.
00:30:49.220Without you, there is no Rebel News and that's why we want to hear from you.
00:30:53.220I care about what you think about the work that we do here at Rebel News.
00:30:57.220So, unlike the mainstream media, we leave our comment section open and we even tell you how to get in contact with us via email.
00:31:06.220Now, today's letters come to us on Ezra's show the other day on CBC Kids News lying about the Freedom Convoy.
00:31:18.220Ray Zier writes, I remember a time when children's TV was about innocuous cartoons.
00:31:25.220Now, everything has become politicized.
00:31:28.220They're grooming an entire generation of aspiring activists.
00:31:32.220Yeah, if they don't get your kids in the classroom, they get them on what they sell to you as innocent children's programming.
00:31:39.220I don't know if you've spent any time whatsoever on CBC Kids.
00:31:43.220It's nothing but climate activism and sex activism.
00:31:49.220It's polluting the most innocent amongst us.
00:31:52.220And the worst part is that CBC Kids does it with our tax dollars.
00:31:57.220They're brainwashing our kids with our tax dollars.
00:32:01.220And if I were you, I'd be wondering if your children's school uses CBC Kids as a learning resource, because I know some schools do do that.
00:32:11.220Lori Parker Stewart 868 writes, always remember Prime Minister Trudeau on the television telling parents to leave the room, saying he wants to talk to your children alone.
00:32:23.220These are your family, not the property of his government.
00:32:31.220The second somebody says that they want me to leave the room and talk to my kids alone, that's when I want to look at their hard drive.
00:32:37.220And I'm not saying Justin Trudeau has anything strange on his hard drive, but it's funny how normalized the language of grooming has become.
00:32:49.220You know, we see this in Alberta right now where activists are doing their best to pit kids against their parents and doing their best to advance a narrative that they love your kids and know your kids better than you do.
00:33:08.220And we know that's absolutely wrong, but that's what Marxists have done ever since there were Marxists.
00:33:15.220Renee KK1HF sends us a note on Alexa and Lincoln and their trip to the southern border of the United States.
00:33:26.220Renee writes, thank you for going to Texas to cover this.
00:33:29.220The migrants seem to be going in through California now.
00:33:33.220I heard Trudeau has given flights to the border with travel papers.
00:33:39.220There's a lot of things on the Internet that we hear about Justin Trudeau that aren't necessarily true.
00:33:43.220And Justin Trudeau is so bad that we don't need to exaggerate how bad he is.
00:33:50.220That's why we always double check, triple check everything that we publish.
00:33:55.220But Justin Trudeau doesn't have to give these people flights and travel papers because the Biden administration, as you heard from Alexa, is already doing that.
00:34:09.220And Justin Trudeau, for his part, is allowing people to make refugee claims at regular points of entry.
00:34:18.220So his big thing was that, oh, we're closing Roxham Road.
00:34:23.220OK, but the reason people were using Roxham Road is because you couldn't make a refugee claim at a regular point of entry.
00:34:33.220So they were doing it at what they called an irregular point of entry while Justin Trudeau fixed that by just making migrants able to make refugee claims at Pearson or Trudeau International or, you know, however they come into the country.
00:34:48.220So you may have heard that Trudeau has given flights to the border with travel papers.
00:34:55.220He doesn't need to do that. He absolutely doesn't need to do that.
00:34:59.220The Biden administration is already doing that.
00:35:02.220We don't need to advance conspiracy theories when we have already conspiracy facts.
00:35:07.220Well, everybody, that's the show for tonight. Thank you for tuning in.
00:35:10.220Thanks to everybody who works behind the scenes in Toronto and across the country who will be putting together what I shot at the kitchen table of our Airbnb while we work on our made documentary in Ottawa into a perfectly usable Ezra Levant show episode for tonight.
00:35:29.220And as I always say, because I'm filling in, I get to say my tagline.
00:35:34.220Don't let the government tell you that you've had too much to think.