EZRA LEVANT ｜ Is Biden's Afghanistan disaster Trudeau's Afghanistan disaster, too？
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
174.77495
Summary
According to the Globe and Mail, there are 1,250 Canadians still in Afghanistan, including women and children. That country is run by terrorists, now the best armed terrorists in the world. And what does Justin Trudeau have to say about any of it?
Transcript
00:00:00.000
Well, my friends, the Afghan scandal, the fiasco of leaving in such haste, has properly been around
00:00:06.200
Joe Biden's neck. But according to the Globe and Mail today, there are 1,250 Canadians still in
00:00:13.140
that country, including women and children. That country is run by terrorists, now the best armed
00:00:19.880
terrorists in the world. And what does Trudeau have to say about any of it? I'll take you through
00:00:24.820
the news and Trudeau's role next. But first, let me invite you to become a subscriber to
00:00:29.500
Rebel News Plus. That's the video version of this podcast. A lot of people like it. It helps us
00:00:34.580
because it's $8 a month and we don't take any money from Trudeau. You know what, though? During
00:00:39.460
the election, we're giving it away for free if you use the coupon code ELECTION. So just go to
00:00:44.620
rebelnewsplus.com, coupon code ELECTION, and you're watching that quality content for free. The idea
00:00:51.740
is hopefully you'll be so hooked on it, you'll actually pay for it after the election. All right,
00:00:56.040
here is today's podcast. Tonight is Joe Biden's Afghanistan disaster, Trudeau's Afghanistan
00:01:17.280
and disaster, too. It's August 31st, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.
00:01:23.560
Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?
00:01:27.240
There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.
00:01:31.320
The only thing I have to say to the government, the wire publisher, is because it's my bloody
00:01:37.180
The Globe and Mail is part of the media party, no doubt about it. They're the official newspaper
00:01:47.180
owned by Canada's wealthiest family. It's a newspaper, the establishment. They're not really
00:01:51.600
on the side of populism or grassroots Canadians, but I have to give them credit. On a few issues,
00:01:57.020
they do a great job. On China reporting, they are the best in the country other than the Epoch Times.
00:02:02.580
And when it comes to the scandals in Afghanistan and the loss of Canadian life and Canadian military
00:02:09.840
matters, I think the Globe and Mail does itself a credit. Let me read to you the story in the
00:02:15.280
Globe and Mail today. Ottawa says 1,250 Canadians and family members still stranded in Afghanistan.
00:02:25.360
I'll read a little bit from the story for you now. Foreign Affairs Minister Mark Rineau says about
00:02:30.220
1,250 Canadian nationals, permanent residents and family members are stranded in Afghanistan as Canada
00:02:37.100
and its allies continue to put pressure on the Taliban to allow them safe passage out of the
00:02:43.820
country. What does that mean, put pressure on them? They're a terrorist group. The only pressure that
00:02:48.800
works on them is military might. But every Canadian troop was pulled out in 2014. Those Canadians,
00:02:55.620
the embassy that was guarded, they're long gone. And the Americans are gone too. What pressure could
00:03:01.160
there possibly be? Sanctions of the United Nations? A sternly worded tweet? I'll read some more.
00:03:08.200
Mr. Garneau and Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino held a news conference in Ottawa Tuesday to announce
00:03:14.300
that Canada was accepting 5,000 Afghan refugees that are now in overcrowded U.S. bases in the Middle East
00:03:21.660
and Europe. Hang on. So the headline here is that there's 1,250 Canadians, Canadian citizens in
00:03:29.740
Afghanistan. And the best we got is, oh, we're going to put pressure on the Taliban to get them out.
00:03:35.920
But in the same breath, they're going to take Afghans that foreign countries withdrew and take
00:03:42.220
them to Canada? I'm open to examining Afghans who helped the West after they're vetted to make sure they
00:03:49.860
are indeed not terrorists themselves, not double agents, not just opportunists. I'm open to Canada
00:03:57.680
accepting some genuine refugees from the Taliban. But aren't there 1,250 Canadians who are trying to
00:04:04.500
find refuge from the Taliban? And we're not talking about that and only that and not moving on from
00:04:10.980
that until it's done? I'll read some more. Mr. Garneau said if Canadians wish to try to get out of the
00:04:17.140
country through bordering nations, he said Ottawa has alerted its embassies and consulates to help
00:04:22.700
process them so they can come to Canada. So if you're a Canadian and you're most likely in the
00:04:28.680
capital of Kabul, which is swarming with Taliban and the airport is completely taken over by the
00:04:34.240
Taliban, the Canadian government is saying we're not going to help you. We can't help you. But if you
00:04:39.400
manage to get out of the country on your own by foot or by car and make it to our embassy,
00:04:45.900
we'll be there waiting for you and give you a hot cup of coffee and we'll help you from there.
00:04:50.640
Yeah, I think if someone has the ability and the nerves and the courage and the resources
00:04:55.640
to make their way out of Afghanistan by foot or by car, they got it from here, mate. They're not
00:05:01.580
really waiting on some diplomats in, I don't know, Pakistan somewhere to help them out. It's incredible.
00:05:07.940
This is a disaster. We're mainly seeing the disaster through American eyes because America was there
00:05:13.880
until moments ago, whereas Canada was withdrawn in 2014. And I think it was a good idea that Canada
00:05:20.700
was withdrawn. But obviously, 1,250 Canadians are still there, including families, including wives
00:05:27.600
and children. Let me look at, I think, the most stunning day here. The day Kabul fell was the day
00:05:35.760
that Justin Trudeau, who surely was being briefed on this, chose to end his briefing, put on his campaign
00:05:43.160
gear, walked down to Rideau Hall and asked the governor general to call the election. The day
00:05:49.980
Kabul fell was the day he said, I'm not going to pay attention to that. I'm going to enter the busiest
00:05:56.320
month of my life campaigning for my personal gain. The day Kabul fell, he could have delayed. He could
00:06:04.140
have said, I'm going to delay even by a week to work on this important national matter. But he did not
00:06:09.220
because he doesn't care. You know, it's interesting when Joe Biden, who is asleep literally at the
00:06:16.260
switch, here's video. I don't know if you saw this. Here is him sleeping. He was meeting with the Israeli
00:06:21.420
prime minister and then he just dozes off. And the Israeli prime minister just kept talking to Biden,
00:06:28.820
but he knew the cameras were there, so he didn't dare say, wake up. Anyways, Joe Biden was literally
00:06:34.320
snoozing through this crisis. And Justin Trudeau couldn't get in touch with anyone in the White
00:06:42.540
House. He didn't talk with Joe Biden. In fact, Joe Biden didn't talk to any world leaders.
00:06:47.560
So Justin Trudeau contacted Hillary Clinton. Remember that?
00:06:51.460
I also spoke last night with former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,
00:06:55.080
who shares our concern for Afghan women and girls. She welcomed our efforts and urged Canada to
00:07:01.740
continue our work. Governments, international organizations and civil society must continue
00:07:08.520
to work together to support women and girls in Afghanistan. Hillary Clinton is not part of the
00:07:14.020
administration. She was the former Secretary of State, but that ended in 2016, in 2017, January.
00:07:21.980
Why would he call Hillary Clinton? The only thing Hillary Clinton is good at
00:07:26.700
is figuring out how to survive after a scandal of abandoning people overseas. That's what Hillary
00:07:32.080
is famous for, Benghazi, when she left Americans to die in that city in Libya. Justin Trudeau has left
00:07:38.380
1,250 Canadians, God forbid, to die in Kabul. What's he doing? Is he asking her for advice on that?
00:07:45.540
Well, I want to show you the most terrifying image out of Afghanistan today. This, this is an American
00:07:53.560
helicopter, and it appears that they're hanging someone, that they've conducted a hanging by
00:08:01.560
helicopter using one of the dozens of helicopters left behind in haste by Joe Biden. The Taliban
00:08:08.260
terrorists now have an air force. Here's a video. At first, you'll think these are Americans,
00:08:15.520
Americans, because one fellow's talking in English, and the others look like Americans, but
00:08:20.040
these are not Americans. This is the Taliban wearing American military uniforms, including
00:08:27.580
high-tech night vision goggles, walking through an American arms depot in Afghanistan that was
00:08:34.960
abandoned so hastily, it's where some of the $85 billion worth of equipment is that America
00:08:43.640
All right. We're here right now with the Taliban as they enter into the, what was only minutes
00:09:00.560
ago? It was an American-controlled portion of the military airport. Now they're taking over.
00:09:11.460
You really could be mistaken for thinking that those are Americans in a high-tech American
00:09:16.960
base, because he was speaking English, and if you didn't hear what he was saying, you'd say,
00:09:20.860
yeah, of course, those are Americans in Afghanistan. Pretty mighty operation. Yeah, the Taliban's the
00:09:25.400
pretty mighty operation. Now, here's a chart from the Times of London, one of the world's leading
00:09:29.820
newspapers showing the weapons that were left behind. Afghanistan, the Taliban, that is, now
00:09:38.900
has more military helicopters than any country in the world other than the United States, Russia,
00:09:45.500
and China. It is the fourth largest military power, if you're measuring simply by military
00:09:51.720
helicopters. Obviously, that's not the sole measure, but they have a lot of other equipment
00:09:55.600
too. They also, most incredibly, were given intelligence by the CIA director. It's hard
00:10:02.580
to believe, but here's the headline to show it. The head of the CIA flew to Kabul to meet
00:10:07.200
with the Taliban and stunningly gave information on Americans they were worried about to the
00:10:15.080
Taliban, naively thinking the Taliban would help get them out. No, that just gave the Taliban
00:10:20.740
a kill list. And I don't know if you saw this. Joe Biden launched a missile strike, obviously,
00:10:28.540
with information given to it by the Taliban, wound up striking and killing a family, including
00:10:34.160
an interpreter that had helped the U.S. Look at this. You know, there's an image that I saw
00:10:41.460
on the internet last night of a burnt out American helicopter with a bunch of dog kennels in front of it.
00:10:47.820
And reporters say that those are the service animals that helped the U.S. military during the 20 years
00:10:56.340
in Afghanistan, that were sniffer dogs, that were guard dogs, that were attack dogs, just helper dogs,
00:11:02.880
the canine unit, that they were abandoned and left behind in Afghanistan when America hastily exited.
00:11:10.960
Now, obviously, a dog's life, even a wonderful, loyal dog, is not of equal value to a human life.
00:11:18.180
I accept that and acknowledge that. But the casualness of abandoning those dogs, I think,
00:11:23.980
is symbolic of the casualness of abandoning one of the greatest military trenches of weapons in history
00:11:32.640
to a terrorist force and the casualness of leaving behind 1,250 Canadians and, as far as we know,
00:11:38.900
at least hundreds of Americans to the mercies of the Taliban. I do not believe that America or Canada
00:11:45.900
should be the world's police. I think Justin Trudeau uses the military for photo ops, including
00:11:51.800
to get some brownie points at places like the U.N. Our mission in Mali made no sense militarily,
00:11:58.020
strategically, economically, diplomatically. It just simply was something Trudeau did to try and
00:12:03.480
win some seat on the U.N. Security Council. I don't believe we should be a global cop. I think
00:12:08.160
some parts of the world cannot be reformed into liberal democracies. And if we're going to nation
00:12:12.720
build, well, why don't we start nation building here at home? I know 50 boil water advisories that
00:12:17.680
Justin Trudeau has promised he'd deal with for six years now. But that said, the manner in which the
00:12:24.820
United States and Justin Trudeau abandoned not only the works of the West, not only the legacy,
00:12:31.680
I get that, but the actual people of the West is a great disgrace. And the fact that we have left
00:12:38.060
behind 1,250 Canadians, including women and children, but are willing to take unvetted thousands
00:12:45.280
of Afghan refugees that are waiting in Europe shows the backward priorities of this country. I think
00:12:51.700
we're in dark times, my friends. Stay with us. More I have you.
00:13:06.160
Welcome back. Well, it's been an exciting campaign so far, I have to say. The Conservative Party is
00:13:10.920
polling better in the polls than I thought they would. The Liberals are having a rougher ride than
00:13:15.560
I thought they would. And an interesting part of the story is that the People's Party of Canada,
00:13:21.600
Maxime Bernier's party, is doing much better than the polls would have suggested. And of course,
00:13:27.000
then there's the Maverick Party out West. It's a very interesting race. Rebel News is doing our best
00:13:32.420
to cover it from around the country, flying around, running around. Sometimes we have great conversations
00:13:38.440
with candidates. Here's a quick clip of David Menzies talking to Kostas Menegakis, a Conservative
00:13:45.560
candidate, once an MP who hopes to be again. Just a quick snip of that. When we see somebody is trying
00:13:50.960
to sort of manipulate the system for their own personal electoral advantage, people see through
00:13:58.300
that. And I believe that's what happened in Nova Scotia. There was no need to call that election,
00:14:02.880
and there's no need to call this federal election now either. To call it an election just so you can
00:14:08.000
secure your spot for the next four years because you think you're going to get a majority is unfair
00:14:13.180
to Canadians. It's an expensive process. It's at the wrong time. People are coming out of the pandemic
00:14:18.680
now. You know, we want to bring back optimism and ensure that people get back to work and back to
00:14:25.660
a semblance of normal life. Instead, we're embroiled in the middle of an election that nobody wants.
00:14:31.240
Yeah. And like you said earlier, that might just cost Justin Trudeau. I think even if he gets the
00:14:38.380
status quo, a liberal minority government, that is, in a sense, a failure, is it not?
00:14:43.260
Oh, absolutely. Kostas is a good guy, and that's David's turf. Sometimes, though,
00:14:48.900
Conservative MPs start to talk to us, but when they realize our reporters are rebels, they run away.
00:14:55.640
Here's a Quebec lieutenant for Erin O'Toole panicking when he realizes he's talking to Alexa LaVoie,
00:15:10.940
I know, but at the same time, it's any media that should be accepted. You shouldn't choose the media
00:15:28.720
who take questions, Mr. Well, the Conservatives have a love and hate affair with us. I suppose
00:15:35.640
it's mutual. But one quality guy, one of our favorite guests on the program, who has had great
00:15:43.040
access to the Conservative campaign and just spent a week on their campaign buses and planes,
00:15:47.580
and, in fact, had some chances to put questions to Erin O'Toole himself, is our friend Andrew
00:15:52.740
Lawton, who joins us now via Skype from his home in London, Ontario. Well, you've been jutting around
00:15:57.740
with Erin O'Toole. How's it been? Has it been fun? Has it been exciting?
00:16:02.660
Yeah, it's certainly been busy. I mean, I should be grateful. I know in the 2019 pre-COVID
00:16:08.000
era of media coverage of campaigns, what had happened was they were sometimes doing five,
00:16:14.860
six events a day. So, thankfully, it wasn't that busy, but we were moving a bit around over the
00:16:19.040
weekend. We were in Atlantic Canada, Quebec, Ontario. So, we did a fair bit and a combination
00:16:24.780
of these very sort of controlled, small announcements and press conferences and a couple of, they call
00:16:31.520
them supporter events. They're sort of the modern version of what one would say is a rally, but with
00:16:36.460
a much smaller crowd. But, yeah, there was a good combination of them over the last few days.
00:16:40.580
Yeah, it's very sad when you think about it. I mean, sometimes big rallies were not just a chance
00:16:45.980
to speak to hundreds or even thousands of people, but they were a real spirit-building event. I mean,
00:16:50.500
if you're at an event with thousands of like-minded people all enthused together, you really, it really
00:16:55.620
gets seared into your memory. I think of Donald Trump's 10, 20, 30, 40,000 person rallies in his
00:17:02.520
campaign. There's a real electrifying effect on the community. It's sort of pitiful when you have
00:17:06.960
little events. But, frankly, the events that have been the most newsworthy out there, this is coming
00:17:14.940
as an interesting revelation to me, Andrew. Justin Trudeau can't go anywhere without being booed and
00:17:20.960
heckled. That feels new or different. I mean, it's not the first time politicians have been heckled, but
00:17:28.100
Yeah, I remember trying to cover the 2019 election. And as you may remember, it was a bit difficult
00:17:33.840
because I had been banned by the Liberals from doing it in any official capacity. But still,
00:17:38.840
I'd go on the road and try to cover it. And Justin Trudeau had a very electrifying quality about him.
00:17:44.600
And a lot of people on the right may not agree with this or want to agree with it. There was no denying
00:17:49.000
it on the ground that he had that celebrity complex where even, especially with young people in
00:17:54.460
Hamilton, Burnaby, Montreal, they would really just flock and fawn and get their selfies and get
00:18:00.200
their picture beside the Trudeau bus and the Prime Minister, the Liberal leader himself.
00:18:05.080
And this time, that just isn't there. And, you know, there have been a couple of events where
00:18:09.220
he's been able to have a rally-like crowd packed into a restaurant or whatever. But you're right.
00:18:15.000
I mean, very much this, there's a large crowd, but a lot of them are there to boo and heckle and
00:18:19.120
protest. And that is very different. And, you know, I couldn't remember. Now, granted,
00:18:23.840
I haven't been following the Liberals full time because I have been embedded with the
00:18:27.840
Conservatives for the last week. But the clips that I was seeing of Justin Trudeau's press
00:18:31.540
conferences, in every one of them, you can hear that chanting in the background.
00:18:36.320
Yeah. I mean, some of them include swearing. And I don't think that's the most polite way to be.
00:18:40.640
But I think the ability to heckle politicians and, frankly, to swear at them. I mean, I'm not
00:18:46.900
prescribing it, but neither would I ban it. That comes as a shock to the media who have never heard the
00:18:53.580
precious one referred to that way. I think it's 18 months of pent-up political talkback that no one
00:19:00.520
had a chance to speak back to power. Parliament wasn't really sitting. The media were more as
00:19:05.520
stenographers than anything. The opposition parties weren't really opposing. I think this is people
00:19:10.760
having 18 months worth of frustration and anger and dissent. And if they want to swear, you know
00:19:16.940
what? I'm not going to get too panicked about it. Whereas the media is all clutching their pearls.
00:19:21.260
Some of them are implying it's violence to heckle the prime minister. No, it's not. In fact,
00:19:26.860
it's enshrined in our constitution, section 2b, isn't it?
00:19:31.460
This is a big problem that I have with a lot of the discourse around this. There are two types of
00:19:36.600
displays. There are, by and large, the protest, the people that are out there as they have a right to,
00:19:42.280
and then a very, very, very small subset that I would say has crossed the line. You know,
00:19:46.680
people who have very violent rhetoric or violent imagery on a sign. And you know what? Those
00:19:51.640
people, I think, are not doing themselves any favours if they think that is a way to protest
00:19:56.420
and make a point. But there is this problem here of the peaceful protesters who make of the majority
00:20:02.300
being lumped in with those who are in the minority. And I think it's very,
00:20:07.560
very much in poor form to do that. And in fact, the political left has been saying that
00:20:11.540
whenever anyone tries to point out radicalism, rioting and looting in Black Lives Matter rallies,
00:20:17.040
they say, oh, no, no, no, you can't let them speak for the majority. But I mean,
00:20:20.380
that same courtesy doesn't seem to be extended the other way. Listen, I mean, I've always been
00:20:25.140
an opponent of no platforming, of deplatforming. My view is that you shouldn't use your right to
00:20:30.140
free speech to shut down someone else. So if the idea is to drown someone else so they can't speak,
00:20:35.960
I'm not a fan of that. But if people are trying to say, we're here,
00:20:38.940
we have all of these issues, and these are not being heard, these are not being addressed,
00:20:43.300
that is absolutely a protected form of free speech. And for Justin Trudeau to launch this
00:20:48.400
campaign saying this is about Canadians being heard. Well, this is Canadians being heard.
00:20:54.660
Yeah, he only likes to hear what he wants to hear. You know, I just want to make one quick comment.
00:20:58.340
You said some of the imagery is beyond the pale. I saw this picture in Ontario. It's a big poster
00:21:04.580
of Trudeau and a noose and an accused of treason or traitor or whatever. And I would have said,
00:21:11.720
well, that's sort of startling. But then I saw the logo on the bottom right-hand corner of that
00:21:17.200
propaganda image. And I don't know if you recognize that, but that is a logo for a fake
00:21:21.920
front group called The Line. And I identified that group about a year ago. It's run by
00:21:28.340
a guy named Lamont Daigle, who suddenly appeared on the scene with all sorts of slick ads and
00:21:34.480
financing. And he said, I'm the leader of the anti-lockdown movement. And everyone said,
00:21:37.960
who are you? And I started seeing him say crazy things, saying like, we should talk about violence
00:21:44.980
or revolution. Or even one day he said, sometimes I feel like driving my truck through the CBC office.
00:21:50.340
And we said, whoa, who is this guy who is so obviously a narc, a fed, an undercover officer,
00:21:59.800
an agent provocateur? And we had David Menzies ask him those questions. And he didn't resile from
00:22:05.740
them. Here's a quick clip of that. When we look at this one quote here, trust me when I tell you it
00:22:10.940
is a daily battle to not take someone's car and drive it through the middle of the CBC. I don't know
00:22:18.160
how that falls into the bailiwick of self-defense in any regard. I mean, I'm no fan. I don't think
00:22:22.820
anyone at the Rebel is a fan of the CBC, but I would never advocate a violent act against the CBC
00:22:28.840
or an employee of the CBC. I completely agree with you. And as a matter of fact, it's not just
00:22:33.360
about the CBC, about CTV, City TV, any of these mainstream media that have been lying about the
00:22:38.840
numbers that have been here. Because quite frankly, we've seen up to 10,000 people here. And they're
00:22:43.060
always reporting about 100 people, 200 people, 300 people. So they're lying to the people.
00:22:48.160
They've been lying to us for seven months. And personally, not the line Canada, but personally,
00:22:54.040
I'm fed up with them. And I can have ideas in my mind about how I feel about driving a car through
00:22:59.980
the CBC. It's a fantasy in my mind that would never play out in actuality. Ever, ever, ever. So
00:23:06.540
sometimes you say things when you're fed up. That's all. It's just emotion.
00:23:10.060
Well, I am happy to hear that. I mean, I'm pretty much a free speech absolutist, but the line in the sand
00:23:14.480
is advocating harm, violence, death against a person, an identifiable group of people. So
00:23:20.580
when people see that. Change the word violence to enraged.
00:23:24.360
And I didn't mean to go on that detour, Andrew, but my point is the guy who was seeking to enter
00:23:30.920
into the anti-lockdown movement to discredit it with his violent BS talk. And we outed him a year ago.
00:23:36.940
So that's him again. I would bet a thousand to one. He's an undercover RCMP asset who isn't actually
00:23:45.500
a genuine anti-Trudeau protester. Like his fake talk of violence at the anti-lockdown movements,
00:23:52.660
I think he's there to give Trudeau the talking point. Oh, look at that call for incitement. Anyhow,
00:23:58.740
I just think that's, don't think that undercover feds are only an American phenomenon. We have them
00:24:04.460
here too. Grant Bristow of the Heritage Fund was a CSIS agent. All right, back to what you've been
00:24:09.260
doing. Sorry for that tangent. Andrew, you had a chance to put some questions to Aaron O'Toole.
00:24:15.040
Here's one you put to him about global warming, carbon taxes, and does every single MP have to
00:24:22.660
adhere to Aaron O'Toole's line? Here, let's take a look at that. Andrew Lawton, True North. During your
00:24:29.700
leadership race last year, you committed often to allowing free votes in caucus. You spoke numerous
00:24:35.420
occasions about the importance of having a Big Ten party. Yet in your statement yesterday, you said
00:24:40.440
if MPs and candidates don't get on board with the climate plan and every single aspect of your
00:24:45.820
platform, they'll be booted from caucus. So specifically, sir, on which issues will you allow
00:24:50.560
free votes and on which issues will you demand a vote in favour of a particular proposal?
00:24:56.020
Andrew Lawton, True North. We are running on a plan. Canada's recovery plan, which the country needs to
00:25:02.140
get back on its feet. On the first full day of the campaign, we launched our plan. All of our
00:25:09.600
candidates are committed to the plan. It's exactly what the country needs. Jobs, accountability,
00:25:17.120
mental health leadership, preparing ourselves for the next pandemic, and a commitment to getting
00:25:23.420
the budget balanced over the next decade. Everyone will be focused on that plan and a positive
00:25:28.640
campaign. You know, I don't think he quite answered what you said. I mean, I get it. If you're running
00:25:33.760
on a team, you have to be part of a team. But part of a political team is having the ability to have a
00:25:39.740
range of opinions, not just to walk in lockstep with one man. If you're just a repeater of the leader,
00:25:46.160
it's not much of a team, not much of a party. And I think if you're going to win, you need a big
00:25:50.640
enough tent that you have some degrees of opinion. I know for a fact, Andrew, that there are members
00:25:56.340
of parliament and the Conservative Party in Alberta who absolutely do not agree with Aaron O'Toole on
00:26:02.120
the carbon tax. They told me that. They told me that as recently as last month. So if they're
00:26:06.860
nodding along just so they don't cause a scandal in this election, that problem will arise later,
00:26:11.860
because most conservatives do not agree with Aaron O'Toole on the carbon tax. They said so at the
00:26:16.420
last policy convention. Yeah. And just to give a bit of context on that question, on Sunday,
00:26:22.580
I think it was, Aaron O'Toole had put out a statement saying if conservative candidates are
00:26:27.460
not prepared to get on board with the climate plan, or if, sorry, if they object to the climate plan or
00:26:32.700
quote, any other part, unquote, of the conservative platform, they will not be allowed to sit in caucus.
00:26:39.760
Now, this is a 160 page platform. There are things in here that have to do with taxes to animal
00:26:46.380
welfare to moving the embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. All of these things are in
00:26:52.580
the platform. And it was that, quote, any other part, unquote, that jumped out at me there, because
00:26:56.960
this was a guy who in the leadership race, his great appeal as a pro-choicer to social conservatives
00:27:02.480
was, yeah, I'm not one of you, but I support free votes. I think you have a place in this party.
00:27:07.040
So I was trying to get a sense of, OK, which issues are the ones that you think require free
00:27:12.400
votes and which issues are the ones that you think need to be whipped? If it's just about the climate
00:27:17.220
plan and the budget and some big picture items, that's kind of normal. You may object to it, but
00:27:22.360
that's pretty much the standard process in whipping votes. If you're talking about every single part
00:27:27.680
of your platform, I mean, just to talk about the embassy, because that was a question I asked him
00:27:31.720
yesterday. What if an MP were, for whatever reason, to not support moving the embassy? Does that mean
00:27:36.680
they could no longer sit as a conservative? I was trying to get a sense of just how much
00:27:41.160
that those three little words, any other part, were really going to extend. And as of this point,
00:27:48.020
You know, I'm a little bit nervous because on a number of issues, Aaron O'Toole has changed course,
00:27:53.300
whether it's defunding the CBC or cancel culture. I mean, he gave the heave-ho to Jim Carahalios
00:28:00.680
and then to Derek Sloan, both of them on trumped up charges, I would say. Even his dealings with
00:28:06.160
Rebel News. I think he's too easily panicked by what the mean girls of the CBC have to say.
00:28:11.140
I mean, obviously, Aaron O'Toole would be an improvement over Trudeau in that he would just
00:28:15.080
clean out the stables. But I have to tell you, Andrew, I'm sometimes worried that you're just
00:28:19.300
swapping red team for blue team. And then on the key issues, there's nothing different. Open borders
00:28:24.640
immigration, he's identical to Trudeau. Carbon tax, he calls his a carbon levy. I haven't heard
00:28:31.560
him be a passionate opponent of lockdowns or vaccine passports. He says, oh, that's for the
00:28:36.320
provinces to do. I really haven't seen him. In fact, there hasn't been an official statement by him
00:28:42.840
about the Facebook and social media censorship. I'm not talking about Bill C-10 or C-36. I'm talking
00:28:50.660
about the other stuff that was released by the Liberals after Parliament broke. On all these
00:28:55.880
key issues that I care about, he has literally said nothing substantial to differentiate himself
00:29:02.160
from the Liberals. Am I too critical? I'm suspicious of the guy. Am I being too critical? What do you
00:29:07.900
think? Well, I mean, one of the big issues that he has to face is that his platform in the leadership
00:29:13.300
race came out just a year ago. So that's not a lot of time for people to forget and move on from
00:29:18.480
things. And that was a leadership campaign in which he was positioning himself as the true blue
00:29:22.860
conservative. Had a fair amount of red meat issues in there, like defunding CBC. So that was one that
00:29:28.160
early on we saw had been walked back significantly. One area that I was actually quite pleased to see in
00:29:33.460
the platform, he had been silent after the Liberals introduced Bill C-36, which was their attempt, as you
00:29:39.460
and I have talked about, to bring back Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act. The platform is
00:29:44.240
unequivocal on that. He's not going to touch the Human Rights Code. He's not going to introduce
00:29:48.780
Bill C-10. So there are a lot of things that I think are very good in the platform. There are also
00:29:53.460
a lot of things that I'm wondering, OK, why is this happening when that's not what was promised
00:29:58.220
previously? But what's interesting is that when he's campaigning, he's playing it very safe. And if
00:30:04.040
you watch enough of these press conferences, listen closely, because a lot of the time you'll hear,
00:30:08.580
and there are a couple of reporters in particular, but you'll hear yes or no answer the question
00:30:12.840
shouted at him when he hasn't, in their view, answered a question. And in a lot of cases,
00:30:16.940
he only wants to talk about things that are in the platform. That's the only thing he wants to do.
00:30:21.960
So he's very good on message discipline, which if you're a political staffer wanting to get out the
00:30:26.440
message of the day is a good thing. But if you're a journalist or if you're a Canadian voter wanting
00:30:30.760
to know where he stands on these things, well, not every answer is in the Bible, the Bible of the
00:30:35.800
campaign, if you will. Yeah. Well, Andrew, I'm really grateful that you went on the bus and the
00:30:41.740
plane and crisscrossed at least part of the country with him. I'm glad you put those questions that you
00:30:47.160
did. I love following you on Twitter and on TNC.news. Of course, you got the Andrew Lawton show. I really
00:30:55.580
think that True North has done a great job of this campaign. I think Rebel News has too, of course,
00:31:00.640
but I really think that you guys are punching above your weight. You're really giving her and
00:31:06.900
I'm just so glad you're out there doing what you're doing. AndrewLawtonShow.com, that's the main
00:31:12.140
website, right? For my show, yes. Yeah. And then TNC.news. I think most of our viewers are already
00:31:18.060
your viewers too, and I'm glad they are. And I chipped in a little bit to your election campaign
00:31:24.080
fundraiser and monthly because I'd like to see what, and I know that like us, you don't take a dime from
00:31:29.700
Trudeau. So that's why I can trust you. Well, it's very much appreciated. And I should just say,
00:31:34.520
I had a gentleman yesterday come up and say, Andrew, I loved your interview with Costas
00:31:38.480
Menegakis. I said, wait, what? And then I realized he was talking about David Menzies' interview. So
00:31:43.220
sometimes people are, they're watching both of us. They know who both of us are. They might get us
00:31:47.600
mixed up, but they are watching. Well, you and David both have, you have both a friendly style to you.
00:31:53.440
You're respectful of people. You're not snobby. You don't look down on anyone. So I think you and
00:31:59.080
David have a hail fellow, well-met personality in common. Like, I think you look quite different,
00:32:03.940
but I'm not surprised people confuse the two of you because you're both really affable,
00:32:09.600
friendly reporters who ask good conservative questions. So I think that's a compliment to
00:32:13.580
both of you that you were confused with David, by the way. There we go. We'll take it.
00:32:19.000
Great to see you. Thanks for taking the time. Keep it up. We'll keep following you on Twitter
00:32:22.260
and all your other platforms. See you later. Thanks a lot. All right. There you have it.
00:32:25.580
Andrew Lawton, one of the good guys with TNC.new. Stay with us.
00:32:40.340
Hello, my friends. Normally we run letters from you to me, letters from viewers. Most of them are
00:32:46.080
positive, but occasionally I run the critical letters. I like those. It makes me think.
00:32:48.900
Today I received an apology letter. I don't often get those. I know how hard it is to make an
00:32:55.920
apology. I have a joke. I apologize to someone once a year, whether I need to or not. The joke
00:33:01.340
being, of course, we all need to apologize much more often than once a year, don't we? Well,
00:33:05.800
I received an apology letter and I thought it was important enough to make a little video about.
00:33:10.120
So instead of reading my fan mail or hate mail, I'll read this apology mail. I made a video. I'll leave
00:33:15.540
it with you. And I'll say goodbye now until tomorrow. On behalf of all of us here at Rebel
00:33:20.100
World Headquarters to you at home, good night and keep fighting for freedom. Here's that letter.
00:33:24.360
The largest newspaper company in Canada just apologized to Rebel News. Here, let me read it to
00:33:30.940
you. Dear Ezra, on behalf of Post Media, I write to apologize to you, Rebel News and Kian Bexty for
00:33:39.580
inappropriately using your photo and video without properly crediting the source of the photo video
00:33:46.160
or payment and for removing your logo from the video and replacing it with our logo. That was
00:33:52.880
wrong and we are sorry. I have spoken with the senior editorial team to reiterate it is completely
00:33:58.600
unacceptable to reproduce content from other media without proper acknowledgement. Sincerely,
00:34:04.500
Yucinda Chodin, Senior Vice President Editorial. Well, Post Media owns most of the daily newspapers in
00:34:14.660
Canada was stealing our Rebel News photos and videos. They just took our work without permission,
00:34:20.220
without payment. Then they took unethical steps to hide it. They actually stripped off our Rebel News
00:34:25.480
marks, took our logo off and put their own company logo on the work to pass it off as if it was their
00:34:31.280
work. We caught them. We demanded they stop. They wouldn't. So we sued them. But that's like a canoe
00:34:39.280
suing a battleship. They're the richest newspaper company in Canada and they're not even Canadian.
00:34:45.020
I don't know if you know this, but Post Media is owned by a giant New Jersey hedge fund called
00:34:50.220
Chatham Asset Management. It's a vulture fund worth billions of dollars. They could afford to pay their
00:34:56.200
own reporters to do their own work. They don't need to steal ours and put their logo on it. But the
00:35:01.380
idea of a vulture fund is just what it sounds like. Pay as little as possible. Ring out as much as
00:35:07.260
possible. Get away with whatever you can. Never apologize. Never explain. That's their mindset.
00:35:13.380
Post Media wasn't always this way. You know, I used to work there myself. They were once the closest
00:35:18.060
thing Canada had to a conservative-leaning news company. But that was then. This is now. Today,
00:35:23.700
they're the number one recipient of Trudeau's bailout money. Did you know that? They take $140,000 a week
00:35:30.280
from Trudeau, and it shows. And like Trudeau, they're just as arrogant as they are rich. For two
00:35:37.720
years, Post Media refused to pay us for what they stole. They refused to even acknowledge that they
00:35:43.820
stole it. They actually claimed that they had the right to use our work the way they did. But this
00:35:49.540
morning, two years after the fact, they finally admitted everything. What made them change their
00:35:56.240
mind? Well, we finally got to court this morning. We had a special court mediation in front of Deputy
00:36:02.060
Judge Carla Bocci. Post Media brought out all their big guns. A senior in-house lawyer, a senior hired
00:36:09.260
lawyer, their senior VP editorial. Three big guns to fight against little old us. But they blinked.
00:36:17.740
It doesn't happen often, but it happens. Even the billionaire bullies sometimes admit they're
00:36:24.040
wrong. Read their apology for yourself. They were inappropriate. They were wrong. What they did was
00:36:28.680
completely unacceptable. So why did they apologize? Only they know for sure. And I can't tell you
00:36:34.300
some of the things that happened at the mediation, they're confidential. But I think I know what it was
00:36:39.720
in my heart. I think it was that someone finally stood up to them. I think that's what it was.
00:36:44.760
Look, we're just a small news company run by citizen journalists. Normally, people like us get run over
00:36:51.060
by billionaires like Trudeau's Post Media. They certainly did everything they could to delay today's
00:36:56.100
court date. They stretched it out for two years. But when I made it clear to them that we weren't going
00:37:02.180
to back down, they did. There's a lesson here to all the Davids out there, keep fighting. Goliath looks
00:37:12.280
mean, but if you show courage, you can sometimes win and even get Goliath to apologize to you.
00:37:21.640
You know, it's funny. Post Media mocks our journalism all the time. They hate rebel news,
00:37:27.040
but they were secretly stealing it. Makes you think.