EZRA LEVANT ｜ In an era where statues are torn down, a monument to Sir Winston Churchill stands tall
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Summary
A statue of Sir Winston Churchill is unveiled in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, on the 80th anniversary of D-Day. His great-grandson, Randolph Churchill, was there to honour the former Prime Minister and first Canadian Prime Minister.
Transcript
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Hello, my friends. I'm in Calgary today. I'm very excited. They're unveiling a new
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Churchill statue. I want you to see it with your own eyes because it's not often
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that a statue of Churchill gets put up. More often,
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statues of great men are torn down. So I'd like you to get the Rebel News Plus
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version of this podcast. That's the video version. Just go to
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rebelnewsplus.com. Click subscribe. It's eight bucks a month. You get
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my video content every weekday. Sheila Gunn-Reed does a weekly show too.
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And you get the satisfaction of supporting Rebel News because, as you know,
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we take no money from the government and it shows. All right, here's today's podcast.
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Tonight, a statue of Sir Winston Churchill goes up. It's not torn down. It's June 6th
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Hi, everybody. It's June 6th. You may know that as D-Day. June 6th, 1944, was the day that the
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greatest seaborne invasion in history happened, launching from the United Kingdom and attacking
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the shores of Normandy, France, and thus began the liberation from the Western Front of Nazi-occupied
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Europe while the Red Army came in from the east. It was an enormous invasion led by Dwight D. Eisenhower.
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There were different beaches. There were the American beaches, Omaha and Utah. There were the British
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beaches soared. And there was the Canadian beach, Juneau Beach, where Canadian troops participated
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side by side with the Brits and the Yanks and the liberation of France going on to liberate
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Europe and end the Nazi regime. That's the anniversary today, but I don't think a lot of people even know
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that history because I don't think that history is taught much. And it does feel so long ago and
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we're very forgetful. I put it to you that most people on the street wouldn't even know what happened
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on 9-11, wouldn't know what date it was. And that's only 23 years ago. D-Day was 80 years ago today.
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The reason I set the table that way is because today in Calgary, Alberta, on this sunny day,
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the latest statue for Sir Winston Churchill was unveiled. And to me, that's an important moment
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because we live in an era of tearing down and smashing statues. I'm embarrassed to say in the city
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I now call home, Toronto, which is the capital of Ontario, in front of their provincial parliament
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is a mighty statue of Sir John A. MacDonald, the founder and first prime minister of Canada.
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You can't even see it. They put a wooden coffin around it. They have built a wooden sarcophagus
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around Sir John A. MacDonald, and that is under a conservative premier. What a disgrace across the
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country. Statues being torn down. Of course, you remember when they literally tore one down in
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Victoria, B.C. Why don't you just go ahead and rename the city now? We know you're going to do it
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later, named after Queen Victoria. Alberta itself was the middle name of a British royal.
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So many things about our country are named after people from the past. You certainly couldn't name
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anything after people from the future. And although the past may be flawed, at the time, it was progressive.
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It was an innovation for freedom and prosperity and justice. And for people in the comfort of 2024
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who luxuriate in the freedoms hard won 80 or 100 or 200 years ago to denounce the past and tear it down
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is not just ingrateful. It's historically illiterate, and it irks me badly. So that's why I think we have
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to celebrate a dead white male like Sir Winston Churchill being elevated in a statue. And I was
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delighted to be invited here. And let me show you how it went. Let me start with some excerpts of some
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of the speeches. Of course, Sir Winston Churchill died more than half a century ago, but his great
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grandson, Randolph Churchill, was here and he had some remarks. Here's a taste of that.
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Honourable Premier, honoured guests, ladies and gentlemen, it's a great honour to be with you
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in what my great grandfather Sir Winston called affectionately, the great dominion. The words
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from your national anthem are poignant. O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
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O Canada, we stand on guard for thee. God keep our land glorious and free. And so it is.
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Today is D-Day plus 80 and it's right for us to remember those Canadian heroes who won our freedoms.
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In two world wars, Canadian young men, including from the indigenous population,
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signed up in droves to aid the mother country. As the late Brian Marmaruni pointed out at the dinner
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I attended 10 years ago at Lennon Palace, Churchill's birthplace. He said,
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in World War II, from a population of only 11 million, over 1 million Canadian men and women,
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mostly volunteers, served in uniform. Canada fielded the fifth largest naval fleet, the fourth largest
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air force in the world. Canada suffered over 100,000 casualties, half of whom were killed in action.
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D-Day was the beginning of the Allied liberation of Europe, when Canadian troops would join their
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British and American brethren in the daring assault on Normandy beaches.
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Canada did not have it easy. This project was undertaken when the last premier,
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Jason Kenney, was in office and the current premier, Danielle Smith, who was here today,
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was gracious enough to allow Jason Kenney to give us some remarks. Here's an excerpt from that.
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On this day eight decades ago, farm boys, shopkeepers' sons, proud young First Nations braves,
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Southern Alberta cowboys, young recent immigrants to the Northern Dominion and so many others landed
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at Juneau Beach as part of the greatest ever army of freedom. Today, we gather to remember their heroism
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and sacrifice. And today we also gather to honor permanently their extraordinary leader,
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without whom D-Day, the liberation of Europe, and the defeat of the Nazi menace and the fascism are
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unthinkable. To honor forever, here in Calgary, the legacy and the memory of the great Sir Winston Churchill.
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It is astonishing to think that in our own time there are some who seek to cancel the memory of this,
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the greatest leader of the modern era. Those who seek to do so apparently do not understand how he stood
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in the breach between freedom and tyranny in a way that was extraordinary and essential
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to ultimate victory. He understood the stakes, but he understood the stakes years before others did.
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If one of the virtues that was necessary, if the landing on D-Day was vigilance, this man
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was the voice of vigilance for the free world. Of course, Premier Danielle Smith spoke herself,
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and she made time for the event. Here's a look at her remarks. It is an honor to join all of you
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as we mark the incredible life and legacy of Sir Winston Churchill, a remarkable man whose courageous
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actions and leadership changed the course of history. And we are doing so on the 80th anniversary of D-Day,
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when 160,000 Allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy in the largest seaborne invasion in history.
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It was a day that altered the direction of the Second World War and proved to be one of the ultimate
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turning points of the 20th century. And today, 80 years after one of the great military operations,
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we still remember the heroes who landed up and down the shores of Normandy, who parachuted behind enemy
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lines, and who fought so that we can enjoy the freedoms and comforts of today. It's quite fitting,
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then, that today we are unveiling a statue that commemorates one of the greatest leaders of all
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time. Sir Winston Churchill's unwavering defense of democracy in the face of tyranny, injustice,
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and oppression is one of the reasons why we are free to gather here today. He is a champion of human
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rights and freedoms. He opposed anti-Semitism, fought against segregation, and fought for the fair
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treatment of all workers. He firmly stood up for what he believed, and his love of freedom was a
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love of freedom for all. He also loved Alberta. Nearly a century ago, Sir Winston visited our province,
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where he saw the potential of our energy industry and fell in love with the beauty of the Rocky Mountains.
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He carried that beauty in his heart, memorializing the Rockies through his many watercolor paintings.
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And today, through that art, we, through art as well, we memorialize him. With this bronze statue
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that is like he was, larger than life. I mentioned before that we live in an era of cancel culture,
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where people tear down the past. Even if you disagree with certain elements of the past,
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should you not learn from them? I mean, I can only imagine the horrific things that the pharaohs did,
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and yet we don't raise to the ground the pyramids. If you think they're bad, you know what happened on
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the pyramids in Central and South America. They literally had human sacrifices on those pyramids,
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but the Mexicans and other Latin Americans would never in a second talk about detonating their
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history. At least learn from it. At most, celebrate it. But to erase it and destroy it, that's a uniquely
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woke Western self-loathing. You know, I think of slavery, which is the alleged cause of so much of
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wokeism. I recently was reminded by Christopher Hitchens in an old video, the late Chris Hitchens,
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that 400,000 black people from Africa were sent as slaves to North America, 99% of them to the United
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States. 1.5 million Europeans and Americans were captured and sold into slavery. Here's a little
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reminder of that from Hitchens, a man of the left. In 1788, when the United States was barely a
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country, was having its sailors taken as slaves by the Barbary states, the states of the Ottoman
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Empire in North Africa. Tripoli. Tripoli. Shores of Tripoli. Shores of Tripoli. And its people,
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ships stopped, its crews carried off into slavery. We estimate one and a half million European and
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American slaves taken between 1750 and 1815. Jefferson and Adams went to their ambassador
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in London and said, why do you do this to us? The United States has never had a quarrel with the
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Muslim world of any kind. We weren't in the Crusades. We weren't in the war in Spain.
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Why do you do this to our people and our ships? Why do you plunder and enslave our people? And the
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ambassador said very plainly, Mr. Abdul Rahman said, because the Koran gives us permission to do so,
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because you are infidels. And that's our answer. And Jefferson said, well, in that case,
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I will send a navy which will crush your state, which he did. And a good thing, too. Islamic
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fundamentalism is not created by American democracy. It's a lie to say so. It's a masochistic lie.
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And it excuses those who are the real criminals. And it blames us for the attacks made upon us.
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Yeah, I don't know why the West is tearing down its statues while statues around the world of horrific
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and bloody tyrants remain up. I mean, do you think that, you know, Genghis Khan and the great
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horsemen of his tribes, they don't destroy them, even though he killed in percentage terms as much
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as many as Hitler or Stalin. I despise the tearing down of statues. And that's why I was delighted
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to see the unveiling today. Take a look at this. This is the moment where they took off the veil.
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And the veil on the statue, by the way, was a parachute. How fitting for D-Day. Take a look at this.
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They will know better than I how to take down the, this is a parachute, by the way,
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Well, that's a very interesting looking statue. And I had a moment with the sculptor himself,
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who has a personal story. Here, take a look at that.
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Well, today's the big day, the unveiling of the statue. It's tremendous. Tell us about the project.
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How long have you been working on it? Four years. Four years. Wow. Hallelujah.
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And are you Canadian? Where are you from? Yeah, I was born in Edmonton.
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And tell me what attracted you to this project. And what research did you do into Winston Churchill?
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Well, I tried to find every image of him available. And I called the lot.
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And made copies of the ones that were informative. And that is, I needed to understand what his head
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was shaped like from every direction. So, a lot of those are just marginal photographs in archives.
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But they're, for me, a treasure trove. You know, sort of glancing views from the side.
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You know, how is a person's head shaped, really? You know, every head is very unique.
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And I had to capture that intensely. And what scale is that? How tall is the actual statue?
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It's eight foot four. It's somewhat larger than one and a half life size.
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Wow. I'd like to ask you a cultural question that I put to Randolph Churchill a moment ago. Which is,
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I believe we're in an era where we're tearing down our history. We're canceling our history.
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We're renaming institutions. We're even tearing down statues. And yet, here we are putting up a statue
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to someone that the left would call a dead white male. A warmonger. They would call him these things.
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In fact, there are a few protesters here saying that. What's the importance of remembering the past?
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What's the importance of not canceling the past? Well, for me, I wouldn't be here if the war hadn't been won.
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So, there's no possible victory. There was no possible victory without Winston Churchill.
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Well, I think the entire past should be comprehended and assessed. We need to come to terms with the past
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as it was and direct us in the future. I caught up with Randolph Churchill, the great grandson
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of Sir Winston Churchill himself. He was very proper and very gracious to everybody. You know,
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he just had that class and style to him. Here's his words to me.
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Thank you very much. So good you've all come today and magnificent. What do you think of the statue
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itself? It's quite impressive. It's bold. I love it because it shows the man of action and Churchill
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was a man of action. And to unveil it today, on the 80th anniversary, that we celebrate those brave,
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young Canadian men who stormed ashore to give us our freedoms and liberties. It's absolutely
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threatening. Now, you can feel the energy in the statue. It's in a fantastic place in the MacDougall
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Centre. And no, I'm very, very proud of this and a great turnout today. Thank you.
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I'd like to ask you one last question. And I don't mean to be political. It's more a cultural question.
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Yes. We live in an era where statues are being torn down, where the past is being erased or cancelled.
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And I feel like today is a resistance to that trend where we celebrate the past. Do you have
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any thoughts on the global trend of tearing down our history and the self-denunciation that's
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happening in the West, both in the UK and here in North America?
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We've all got to remember those people that gave their lives so we could have our freedoms.
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And the great thing about our freedoms is we're allowed and people are allowed to demonstrate
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and make their points of view known with dignity and they can do it. In the totalitarian states,
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there's no right to demonstrate. There's no chance of having your views heard or listened to. And my
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thing which I'm passionate about is people understand the history. They learn the facts,
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they learn the context. And in terms of education, to enable young people to form their own skills and
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their own views, that's what makes a great society. And there's great spirit in Canada and it's thrilling
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to be here. Thank you very much indeed. Thank you. Last question, if I can sneak one more in. Can you
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tell us just a tiny bit more about yourself? Do you go around the world celebrating the history
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of your great-grandfather or are you a private citizen most of the time? Give us just one minute
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on yourself. The great thing is I'm a private citizen. We've all got to get on and contribute
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to society. So it thrills me to do these sorts of things from time to time for the Churchill Legacy.
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And when you see those veterans on the beaches of Normandy, you know, not one of us
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cannot shed a tear for what they did and how they served and how selfless those people were.
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So in my life, I love to celebrate these remarkable heroes that came ashore and gave us our freedoms.
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Well, shortly after this all happened, when all the dignitaries were taking pictures in front of the
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statue, wouldn't you know it, some woke leftists came down to have a protest. Now, police stopped
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them from interfering with any of the VIPs. I went up to them just to introduce myself because I'm a
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friendly kind of fella and they really didn't have a lot to say. I will give them credit. Some of them
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were not wearing masks. I come from Toronto where every thug wears a mask. They love it. They wear a mask
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either because they're still living the COVID dream, but mainly to hide their identity. I don't
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want to overemphasize these folks, but the fact that they're there proves my whole point, that they
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would rather tear down history than learn from it. They would rather destroy statues than erect them.
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Here's my attempt to chit chat with them. It didn't go very far, but I think that's because
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they really don't know why they're there other than it's the protest du jour. They were probably up at the
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Gaza encampment a few weeks ago. They'd probably go to all the climate protests and this was just
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their project for the day. They didn't know what was on their signs. They couldn't back it up.
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They were just there to, well, I don't know, collect a check. They wouldn't tell me. Take a look.
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Are you guys going to try and take down the statue or deface it or something?
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I'm just hanging out in the park, buddy. Well, but you're denouncing Churchill. Do you have any plans
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to vandalize the statue? I'm just hanging out in the park, buddy. So who are you and why did you come
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here? I like hanging out in the park. Sounds like you don't really have a lot to say.
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Do you know why you're here? No, I'm really confused right now, buddy. How about you? Why are you here?
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I'm just hanging out in a public park. It sounds like you aren't very articulate. Did someone tell
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you what to put on your sign? I'm just chilling in the park. I'm allowed to do this. What's your name and
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why are you here today? To make fun of you and make you look like an asshole. How are you doing
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that? How are you making fun of me and how are you making me look like an asshole? By just making
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you talk. You're natural at it. Well, you're covering your eyes with reflective sunglasses.
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You're covering your face. It sounds like you've got something to hide. Why won't you show your face?
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I don't want to be embarrassed by being seen talking to you. Well, yeah, I had your mask and
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sunglasses on before I even came over. I think you were ashamed of yourself. Yeah, I mean,
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I knew you were going to be here, so. How did you know that? Well, your losers are always at things
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like this. You know, you're the guy wearing the mask in 2024. It's a bit rich having you call anyone
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a loser. And who told you to be here today? I'm just hanging out in a park now. Are you with any
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organization? Just a regular person. It sounds like you're sort of ashamed of yourself if you're not
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saying who you are or why you're here. Like, it sounds like you're maybe a little embarrassed.
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I'm impressed that you're not wearing a mask. That's new.
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It sounds like you're ashamed of yourself if you won't even put your name to what you're doing.
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I mean, are you not proud of what you're doing? I don't make content for Rebel News.
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Well, you're here at a protest, I presume, so you want to send a message. I don't think you even
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made your own sign, did you? No, that's third grade handwriting handwriting is mine.
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That I believe. Who are you with? What group are you with? Did you make your own sign?
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I made it with your mom. I don't think you did, but it sounds like you're not really proud
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of yourself. You don't really have anything to say. You don't know what to say. Do you need like
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a spokesman or something? I mean, yeah, I guess I don't really know because I was hanging out
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with your mom earlier and it takes up all my time. All right, man. I think you've shown
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that you really, you're like a rent-a-mob. You pick up a sign that someone gave you,
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you have nothing to say, you're hiding your face. I think you are an excellent representative
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of your side, whatever that is. Later, Jabroni. Okay. How come you're covering your face too?
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It's what you, oh, now you're hiding your face all together. I think you're ashamed of yourself,
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aren't you? Follow me. Don't follow you. Why? Is that, is that interfering with your space or
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something? Not sure if I said hi to you. I'll give you a half marks for not wearing a mask. I mean,
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it is 2024 and all, but how come you're, you're sort of hiding your face from the camera? Are you
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ashamed of yourself? What's your name? Why are you here? Do you know why you're here? Who, who made the
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sign for you? Cause I don't think you made it. You don't really know why you're here. Did someone
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pay you to be here? Are you having some, you're shaking. What's that? Are you, are you nervous?
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Well, why don't you, I mean, you're here to protest, but you're not saying anything that,
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it seems to me like you, you just are a rent a mob that'll, you know, next week it'll be Gaza.
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The week after that, it'll be climate. Like you really, it seems like you really don't know what
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you're doing here. Now you're wiggling your eyebrows at me.
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It's like you're shaking a little bit. I'll give you, I will give you marks for not wearing a mask
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though. Cause most of your tribe does. So that's my day in sunny Calgary, this June 6th, the 80th
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anniversary of D-Day. I came out here because I wanted to be there when a Churchill statue was
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actually put up rather than when a statue of a great man was torn down. I am slightly worried that
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this statue will be vandalized either by the handful of protesters who are here today or by Gaza
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protesters or climate protesters. You know, it's coming. I mean, just the other day I saw someone
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attack. I think it was the Mona Lisa. There was some gorgeous painting in Europe that was smeared on.
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That's a real tactic they have in the UK, defacing artwork, priceless artwork, if you can believe it.
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I have a terrible prediction that that kind of vandalism will target this statue, but it looks like
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a fairly sturdy statue. Hopefully it'll resist it. That's it for today. Until tomorrow, on behalf of
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all of us at Rebel News, to you at home, goodbye and keep fighting for freedom.