EZRA LEVANT | Jacinda Ardern, the New Zealand Trudeau, flies to the UN to call for internet censorship
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
158.60358
Summary
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's speech to the United Nation's Economic and Human Rights Council on September 30th. She called for the internet to be banned in all its forms, including the use of the internet. She also suggested that people who post on social media in New Zealand should be punished for it.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
Hello, my rebels. Today I'm going to take you painstakingly, and it will be painful both for
00:00:05.520
you and for me, through Jacinda Ardern's speech at the UN a couple weeks ago. She's the New Zealand
00:00:11.580
Prime Minister who is even worse than Justin Trudeau. I'm going to take you through about
00:00:15.620
half her speech, which is probably too much, but I want you to hear it for yourself. I want you to
00:00:19.620
hear how she says that words must be banned just like nukes, that words are weapons. And she's got
00:00:26.960
this theory, at least I think. I think she's saying that the war in Russia and Ukraine is the
00:00:32.720
fault of people who post on Facebook in New Zealand. Again, I will play for you her actual remarks so you
00:00:37.700
can see them for yourself. And I'd like you to see them, not just hear them. And by that, I mean
00:00:40.980
this podcast is in audio format, but we actually make it as a video first in our mind. And you can
00:00:48.500
get that daily video by going to rebelnewsplus.com. It's a video version of the podcast. It's just eight
00:00:54.400
bucks a month. I do 20 of these shows a month and my colleagues here do another 16.
00:00:59.880
That's 36 episodes a month just for eight smackers. And you know what? That's how we pay the bills
00:01:05.720
around here because we don't take a dime from Trudeau. So please consider going to rebelnewsplus.com,
00:01:10.420
chipping in eight bucks a month. You get the video version and you help keep us strong.
00:01:16.280
Tonight, Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand's version of Justin Trudeau, flies to the U.N. to call
00:01:37.340
for global internet censorship. It's October 3rd, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.
00:01:42.540
You're fighting for freedom. Shame on you, you censorious bug.
00:01:57.500
Do you remember this video clip of Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand's prime minister early in
00:02:02.380
the pandemic? What a little fascist she is. We will share with you the most up-to-date
00:02:08.060
information daily. You can trust us as a source of that information. You can also trust the
00:02:14.640
Director General of Health and the Ministry of Health. For that information, do feel free
00:02:20.040
to visit at any time to clarify any rumour you may hear, covid19.govt.nz. Otherwise, dismiss
00:02:28.780
anything else. We will continue to be your single source of truth. We will provide information
00:02:34.440
frequently. We will share everything we can. Everything you are, else you see, a grain
00:02:41.020
of salt. And so I really ask people to focus on that.
00:02:43.880
Well, there's a great example of that. It appears to be this text which originated in Malaysia
00:02:47.620
and has become a viral hoax in Australia and in New Zealand. How irresponsible is it the
00:02:52.320
people that are sharing that news of a lockdown imminent in New Zealand?
00:02:55.460
Yeah. And look, that's the kind of thing that adds to the anxiety that people feel. So I
00:03:01.040
continue to share the message. New Zealanders must prepare. But do not panic. Prepare. And
00:03:07.300
when you see those messages, remember that unless you hear it from us, it is not the truth.
00:03:14.020
And I really ask people, just visit covid19.govt.nz. It has all of the up-to-date information.
00:03:21.800
And we will continue to provide everything you need to know.
00:03:25.440
You know, sometimes people tell me to change the name of Rebel News. And I think the number
00:03:29.060
one suggestion people give me is to call it Truth News. And obviously, I believe we tell
00:03:34.900
the truth. But I also know that there are other points of view out there. And from time to time,
00:03:39.300
we can get things wrong. And someone can see things from another angle. It's like a car accident.
00:03:44.820
Two different witnesses standing in two different places can tell two different stories. But
00:03:49.140
they're both telling the truth. They saw it. And so I would never say we're called Truth News,
00:03:54.200
because I would never be so absolutely certain that we could never be wrong and that our critics
00:03:59.740
could never be right. That's not a false modesty. It's just there are some things that we don't know.
00:04:04.940
And there are some things I'm sure that we think we know that we will one day realize we're wrong.
00:04:10.120
I suppose that's all obvious. Our command of the world is imperfect and always will be. Only God
00:04:15.040
is omniscient and omnipotent. We are flawed. And anyone who tells you they're not is either
00:04:20.220
misleading you or misleading themselves. That's why we're not called Truth News.
00:04:24.560
And that's why Jacinda Ardern is a wacky tyrant when she tells you to dismiss anything else you hear,
00:04:31.100
dismiss anyone else who contradicts her. And she says that sight unseen in advance of hearing any critic.
00:04:37.500
Without yet hearing the objection, she rules it out. We will continue to be your single source of
00:04:43.180
truth. A Christian pastor could say the Bible is the perfect truth, and maybe he's right. But he
00:04:49.160
doesn't have the power of the police and the state to back him up, or even the power of censorship over
00:04:53.860
YouTube and Facebook to back him up. And I think that pastor would probably say the Bible is the
00:04:59.820
perfect truth. I doubt he would say that he himself, a flawed sinner, was a perfect source of truth.
00:05:05.760
Imagine saying that about yourself. Dismiss anyone else, everything else. We're the single source of
00:05:12.080
truth. And that if anyone else says something contradictory, ignore them without question.
00:05:17.920
And don't you worry about any of this. Don't you worry your pretty little head. We will continue
00:05:22.860
to provide everything you need to know. Really, who talks that way? Well, Jacinda Ardern does.
00:05:30.740
And you know, she hitched a ride recently with Justin Trudeau, her left-wing globalist mini-me,
00:05:36.440
from London to New York. They were both in London for the Queen's funeral, and in Trudeau's case,
00:05:41.200
to do some drunken singing in a bar, in a party atmosphere.
00:05:58.040
Yeah, Trudeau's so classy. So what did they talk about on that flight to New York?
00:06:05.380
Well, they're both young World Economic Forum types. I guess they're not so young anymore.
00:06:12.020
What we are very proud of now is the young generation, like Prime Minister Trudeau,
00:06:18.420
president of Argentina and so on, that we penetrate the cabinets.
00:06:25.200
I think they probably talked about the things they have in common, their love of authoritarianism,
00:06:30.520
taking rights away from people, replacing local sovereignty with globalist control,
00:06:35.500
censorship, forced vaccines, gun control. But out of all those things, censorship is the most important
00:06:43.480
because if you still have free speech left, you can fight to regain your other rights. But without
00:06:49.140
free speech, you can't. So let me show you what Trudeau and his U.S. taxpayers paid to bring Ardern to
00:06:58.460
New York to say. Here are some clips from Ardern's visit to the UN and her big speech there.
00:07:04.060
Of course, she starts off in Maori. I mean, if you think Justin Trudeau is woke and virtue signaling,
00:07:10.680
I don't think Ardern actually knows how to speak Maori. I think he's a good one.
00:07:16.280
I don't think Ardern actually knows how to speak Maori. I think she just memorized those lines like an actor, like Trudeau is an actor.
00:07:44.580
Like when he rattled off this for a reporter on command. He's good at memorizing a few lines, not much more.
00:07:50.960
I was going to ask you to explain quantum computing, but when do you expect Canada's ISIL mission to begin again?
00:08:00.340
And are we not doing anything in the interim while we prepare?
00:08:11.660
Come on down. Don't interrupt me. When you walk out of here, you will know more. No, some of you will know far less about quantum computing.
00:08:20.840
But most of you, normal computers work either there's power going through a wire or not. It's one or a zero.
00:08:27.220
They're binary systems. What quantum states allow for is much more complex information to be encoded into a single bit.
00:08:35.600
A regular computer bit is either a one or a zero, on or off. A quantum state can be much more complex than that because, as we know,
00:08:43.060
things can be both particle and wave at the same times, and the uncertainty around quantum states allows us to encode more information into a much smaller computer.
00:08:53.520
So that's what's exciting about quantum computing, and that's what we're going to do.
00:09:01.820
Back to the speech at the UN. Here's what she said.
00:09:05.900
COVID-19 was devastating. It took millions of lives.
00:09:10.340
That's not quite true. It did take millions of lives, if you trust the statistics.
00:09:15.720
But I know that in the West, the statistics included anyone, often, who died within 30 days of a diagnosis of COVID.
00:09:22.660
So they could have died from some other cause, but COVID was to blame.
00:09:26.600
It made more money that way for hospitals, for more excitement for TV doctors, for politicians, for vaccine companies.
00:09:33.380
Now, that's the disease, and I'm not minimizing its actual death toll.
00:09:37.760
I'm saying there was massive overcounting, as many jurisdictions have since grudgingly acknowledged.
00:09:48.720
But she cares about using COVID for other political goals, too.
00:09:53.040
It set us back in our fight against the crisis of climate change and progress on the sustainable development goals,
00:10:00.120
while we looked to the health crisis that was right in front of us.
00:10:04.560
Global warming. That's what she really cares about.
00:10:07.460
The lessons of COVID are, in many ways, the same as the lessons of climate change.
00:10:11.960
When crisis is upon us, we cannot and will not solve these issues on our own.
00:10:19.880
The next pandemic will not be prevented by one country's efforts, but by all of ours.
00:10:24.820
Climate action will only ever be as successful as the least committed country,
00:10:29.440
as they pull down the ambition of the collective.
00:10:34.200
She really is using the deaths of people as a political platform to stand on,
00:10:38.380
stand on the dead bodies to push her obsession with global warming.
00:10:41.480
If you think it's absurd for Canada, with our tiny population of 38 million people,
00:10:46.100
to try to stop the world from warming, imagine how nutty it is for New Zealand to do that.
00:10:52.740
And you have to fly across the ocean to get anywhere.
00:10:57.480
So naturally, she goes to globalism, giving the power to faraway organizations like the United Nations.
00:11:03.080
We need a dual strategy, one where we push for collective effort,
00:11:08.600
but where we also use our multilateral tools to make progress.
00:11:17.080
we support efforts to develop a new global health legal instrument,
00:11:24.760
and a strong and empowered world health organization.
00:11:30.600
She wants to give them more power, the one that's run by China?
00:11:34.180
The same world health organization that told the world,
00:11:36.580
don't worry, COVID-19 is not contagious, that world health organization?
00:11:43.260
I mean, I know you can't unelect them, but seriously, not a soul over there fired.
00:11:48.280
She talked more about global warming, you know, in her bones.
00:11:51.700
She wants to bring in climate lockdowns, just like COVID lockdowns.
00:11:57.740
She did some virtue signaling about Ukraine and calls for the abolition of nuclear weapons.
00:12:03.720
I mean, do you think China or Russia would ever give them up?
00:12:13.060
but believe it's simply too hard to rid ourselves of nuclear weapons at this juncture.
00:12:17.160
There is no question that nuclear disarmament is an enormous challenge.
00:12:23.040
But if given the choice, and we are being given a choice,
00:12:27.100
surely we would choose the challenge of disarmament,
00:12:30.380
then the consequences of a failed strategy of weapons-based deterrence.
00:12:37.500
I mean, she has no nukes in New Zealand, neither does Canada.
00:12:45.580
You know, she used to be the youth head of the Socialist International.
00:12:53.220
But look, she's got no chance to eliminate nukes.
00:12:56.620
She was just saying that to impress her old socialist friends.
00:12:59.560
She does, however, have the power to censor New Zealanders,
00:13:06.200
Traditional combat, espionage, and the threat of nuclear weapons
00:13:09.520
are now accompanied by cyber attacks, prolific disinformation,
00:13:14.920
and manipulation of whole communities and societies.
00:13:22.440
And if she has to call everyone else a foreign spy or disinformation agent,
00:13:27.640
I mean, she would never engage in misinformation herself.
00:13:32.920
Now, as leaders, we have never treated the weapons of old
00:13:50.900
But what if that lie, told repeatedly and across many platforms,
00:13:56.180
prompts and spies or motivates others to take up arms,
00:14:11.100
But there is an enormous difference between an idea and an action.
00:14:18.480
that in her prophecy could possibly one day lead to a conflict
00:14:23.880
I'm not sure what words she thinks led to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
00:14:27.800
I'm not sure if she's blaming some Facebook post in New Zealand
00:14:31.760
I think it was Russia's Vladimir Putin that did the invasion.
00:14:35.260
He sensed weakness in the West, especially under Joe Biden.
00:14:38.080
I don't think it was some comment on Facebook or YouTube
00:14:45.060
not an ordinary citizen, certainly not one in New Zealand.
00:14:47.860
But she somehow has blamed everyone who has an idea she doesn't like,
00:14:53.480
She blames them for an invasion by an authoritarian ruler
00:15:04.940
They are upon us and require the same level of action and activity
00:15:12.440
We recognize the threats that the old weapons created.
00:15:15.540
We came together as communities to minimize these threats.
00:15:18.580
We created international rules, norms, and expectations.
00:15:22.780
We never saw that as a threat to our individual liberties.
00:15:29.560
The same must apply now as we take on these new challenges.
00:15:32.980
She's speaking vaguely, but her point is clear.
00:15:36.300
Words are weapons, and she wants to ban word weapons
00:15:40.900
Now, she briefly tips her hat to freedom of speech,
00:15:52.920
yes, I believe in free speech, but, I stop listening.
00:15:59.580
You know, I believe in free speech, but people should behave themselves.
00:16:09.120
I believe in free speech, but we shouldn't upset anybody.
00:16:12.440
I believe in free speech, but let's not go too far.
00:16:15.020
The point about it is the moment you limit free speech, it's not free speech.
00:16:25.180
Now, watch this clip and listen for the word but.
00:16:27.880
In New Zealand, we deeply value our right to protest.
00:16:33.140
Some of our major social progress has been brought about by hekoi, or people power.
00:16:38.780
Becoming the first country in the world to recognise women's right to vote.
00:16:42.900
Movement on major indigenous and human rights issues, to name but a few.
00:16:46.340
Upholding these values in a modern environment translates into protecting a free, secure, and open internet.
00:16:56.500
To realise all of the opportunities that it presents in the way we communicate, the way we organise, the way we gather.
00:17:02.200
But that does not mean the absence of transparency, expectations, or even rules, if we correctly identify what it is we are trying to prevent.
00:17:13.300
Did you hear the word but, make an appearance, but?
00:17:18.440
And surely we can start with violent extremism and terrorist content online.
00:17:24.080
Okay, well, terrorism is already banned online in every country in the world.
00:17:27.660
Of course, she means incitement of terrorism, which is banned.
00:17:32.360
But that's already banned under criminal law and by the social media platforms, too.
00:17:38.480
But she uses the phrase extremism and the word content, which only she will define, like Trudeau did.
00:17:44.980
I mean, he called the peaceful truckers extremists.
00:17:50.360
Ardern moves from rare terrorist attacks to treating everyone online as a potential terrorist
00:17:56.220
and getting algorithms to suffocate dissenting opinions.
00:18:00.220
This week, we launched an initiative alongside companies and non-profits
00:18:03.480
to help improve research and understanding of how a person's online experiences are curated by automated processes.
00:18:11.720
This will also be important in understanding more about myths and disinformation online,
00:18:21.740
Sadly, I think it's easy to dismiss this problem as one in the margins.
00:18:26.000
I can certainly understand the desire to leave it to someone else.
00:18:33.720
She's saying everyone you meet could be a potential terrorist.
00:18:38.020
Everyone who has extreme opinions, like opposing her on climate or the lockdowns, I imagine.
00:18:44.240
As leaders, we're rightly concerned that even the most light-touch approaches to disinformation
00:18:49.880
could be misinterpreted as being hostile to the values of free speech that we value so highly.
00:18:57.560
But while I cannot tell you today what the answer is to this challenge,
00:19:01.860
I can say with complete certainty that we cannot ignore it.
00:19:05.980
To do so poses an equal threat to the norms we all value.
00:19:12.940
I love free speech, but we can't ignore the problems with free speech.
00:19:23.520
if people are led to believe the reason for its existence is not only legal but noble?
00:19:30.780
How do you tackle climate change if people do not believe it exists?
00:19:34.980
How do you ensure the human rights of others are upheld
00:19:37.720
when they are subjected to hateful and dangerous rhetoric and ideology?
00:19:41.880
Is she saying that censoring people in New Zealand on Facebook
00:19:49.300
Did the war start because of something her citizens said?
00:19:52.620
If not, why are they being punished for the war?
00:19:55.340
She literally says that free speech is a weapon of war that needs to be defeated.
00:19:59.220
The weapons may be different, but the goals of those who perpetuate them is often the same.
00:20:06.080
To cause chaos and reduce the ability of others to defend themselves.
00:20:12.380
To collapse the collective strength of countries who work together.
00:20:16.760
But we have an opportunity here to ensure that these particular weapons of war
00:20:26.440
She's saying that free speech is what caused the war.
00:20:33.060
And so, once again, come back to the primary tool we have.
00:20:40.620
Working together on solutions that do not undermine human rights, but enhance them.
00:20:45.220
By the way, what diplomacy in Ukraine has she ever supported?
00:20:51.300
Jacinda Ardern is an even more authoritarian bully than Justin Trudeau is.
00:20:54.900
And because New Zealand is an island, she can sort of be more abusive to her citizens
00:21:01.340
And their media is even worse than ours in many ways.
00:21:05.020
But she and France's Emmanuel Macron and Justin Trudeau all share the World Economic Forum
00:21:10.560
globalist view on free speech that it is the problem, not Putin.
00:21:14.060
Free speech is a weapon that needs to be destroyed.
00:21:18.020
But really, if all you need to know, if all the truth you could ever want comes from Jacinda
00:21:22.920
Ardern, herself, why would you ever want to think a thought by yourself?
00:21:30.820
Well, there was a spectacular act of what many are calling sabotage, the Nord Stream undersea
00:21:50.240
gas pipeline that ships gas from Russia to Europe blown up.
00:21:59.360
Other accusations that seemed to me more logical were that it was done by a Western power.
00:22:12.180
If you think that's hard to figure out, imagine trying to decipher what's going on in communist
00:22:19.240
There's a language barrier, a cultural barrier.
00:22:21.380
Of course, the great internet firewall of China makes it hard to pierce through that
00:22:29.960
And I ask that because what is happening to Xi Jinping?
00:22:34.960
There are internet rumors that he is facing internal dissent, which is a difficult thing
00:22:45.800
Well, here's a tweet of Xi Jinping making a public appearance.
00:22:52.880
He shows an image of Xi Jinping appearing in public with a mask on.
00:23:06.260
I find these things difficult to understand, but I want to understand them.
00:23:10.700
So we're delighted to have Gordon Chang himself appear on our channel, as he often does.
00:23:24.140
Ezra, I think he is in a little bit of hot water.
00:23:27.620
And you'd expect that, because you've got the economy in reality is contracting.
00:23:39.720
And yet Xi Jinping seems like he'll get his third term, precedent-breaking third term,
00:23:45.100
as general secretary of the Communist Party, when the party holds its 20th National Congress
00:23:50.880
The point here, though, is that there were rumors a week ago of a coup.
00:24:00.960
So, for instance, about 60% of China's flights were canceled.
00:24:08.540
Rail and bus traffic into Beijing was canceled.
00:24:14.760
It's just that, as you say, China's very opaque, and we have no idea, really, of the full extent
00:24:25.560
It feels like something out of a Jason Bourne movie, where the CIA would just turn off the
00:24:35.580
You know, I would have thought that Xi Jinping was doing well because of Russia's troubles.
00:24:42.340
I mean, Russia's looking for friends and allies, looking for customers for its oil and gas.
00:24:47.160
I mean, who knows what it's going to do now that that pipeline was blown up.
00:24:51.260
And Xi Jinping seems ready to stand by and be the bigger partner, the senior partner.
00:24:56.820
That's at least how it looked to me that one of the beneficiaries of the Russia-Ukraine war
00:25:05.120
Did China manage to get cheap energy or political concessions from Putin?
00:25:11.520
Well, certainly, China and India have gotten cheap energy, and China has been effectively
00:25:17.120
financing the war with its elevated commodity purchases from Russia.
00:25:21.880
China benefits in the sense that the world now focuses on Putin, so that means we're not
00:25:29.760
And I think that the Chinese feel that that's an advantage.
00:25:32.540
Also, they like the idea that the Russians are taking on the international order, and so
00:25:39.900
But clearly, Putin and Xi Jinping do view the world in the same terms.
00:25:49.380
I think if I was trying to explain NATO's approach to Ukraine, and you tell me what you think
00:26:02.280
Why is the U.S. Congress, why is the Pentagon, why is it so focused on the war, giving massive
00:26:10.160
military grants, and why is there almost no talk of peace negotiations from official sources?
00:26:16.480
My theory is that the Pentagon, and also the U.K. and other parts of NATO, and the Five
00:26:23.220
Eyes, see that Russia is trapped in Ukraine, and American military hardware, and according
00:26:31.340
to the New York Times, the CIA is helping to quarterback things out of Kiev, it's sort of
00:26:35.420
like they've got the Russian bear in a leghole trap, and they're using modern American weapons
00:26:42.120
to grind down Russia militarily, burn out its equipment, hurt its economy, harm Putin democratically.
00:26:52.840
So they don't really want peace, because they are degrading Russia's military so substantially,
00:27:01.280
and perhaps even in a way that caught Russia by surprise.
00:27:05.980
There's sort of fighting to the last Ukrainian.
00:27:08.480
I mean, Ukraine is the punching bag, but it's Russian casualties of the NATO goal.
00:27:16.100
And I wonder if that's a premonition for what the U.S. might do, God forbid, if China were
00:27:26.400
Obviously, the difference is Taiwan is an island that could be embargoed, whereas Ukraine can
00:27:33.760
Maybe I'm wandering too much into speculation here, or wandering off the subject, but I wonder
00:27:39.860
if what NATO and America are doing in Ukraine is a—and insofar as it may have shocked Putin—I wonder
00:27:48.000
if there's any lesson there for China and its ambitions.
00:27:53.120
I think the lesson that China takes is very different from what we think.
00:27:58.400
The Western narrative is that the heroic resistance of Ukraine has made China think twice about invading
00:28:09.580
I think, though, that China sees something very different, and that is the failure of
00:28:14.360
the West to deter Russia from invading Ukraine.
00:28:18.160
You've got to remember that last year, the coalition that was arrayed against Russia,
00:28:22.800
the United States, 27 nations of the European Union, and Great Britain had an economy that
00:28:28.160
was 25.1 times larger than Russia's, and yet we absolutely failed to maintain peace in Ukraine.
00:28:35.000
And I think that China looks at that and says that the West is feeble, it's incapable, and
00:28:42.080
so therefore, Beijing has latitude to do what it wants.
00:28:46.120
Also, you know, they see the sanctions regime on Russia, and the sanctions regime hasn't stopped
00:28:53.340
So Beijing probably believes that any sanctions imposed on China for invading Taiwan or something
00:28:59.000
else are not going to really affect Beijing's ability to accomplish its military objectives.
00:29:05.380
Yeah, I think that touches on something you and I discussed last time we met, which was
00:29:09.120
if Western Europe couldn't get off of Russian oil and gas, like if they refused to sanction
00:29:16.080
their own lifeline of energy from Russia, how could they possibly sanction China, which is so
00:29:23.500
dominant in everything from electronics to, well, just, there's almost no field of indebtor.
00:29:30.400
Pharmaceuticals, 90% plus of our medicine is made in China.
00:29:38.320
If you can't sanction Russia for natural gas, you're never going to sanction China for everything
00:29:49.040
That's probably the lesson they're saying, which is sanctions are more PR than bite, more
00:29:56.440
Yes, well, you know, I believe that that's what Beijing, in fact, thinks.
00:30:00.980
Now, we can talk all day about whether Beijing is right about that, because this is a complicated
00:30:06.580
issue about the effect of sanctions and how they work.
00:30:09.580
But that's the lesson that I believe that Beijing has taken away.
00:30:13.220
And that's a very dangerous lesson, because deterrence has already been breaking down.
00:30:17.540
It was breaking down, we saw in March of last year, when China sent its top two diplomats
00:30:25.620
And China, you know, in that open public session on the first day, actually said, well, look,
00:30:31.180
China can, the U.S. can no longer talk to China from a position of strength.
00:30:36.320
But since then, we've seen the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, the failure of deterrence
00:30:42.320
And I believe that Beijing is looking at the world and thinking about what it can get away
00:30:49.480
You mentioned perhaps some of the bubbles in China's economy are shrinking, the real estate
00:30:58.260
I think that a lot of China's strength was its promise, its growth, lifting up hundreds
00:31:05.040
of millions of people from poverty to the middle class.
00:31:13.620
China's promise is this enormous market that will move from poor to middle class.
00:31:18.880
But a lot of that is based on hope and confidence and projections.
00:31:22.500
I mean, it's a very large country now, but it has quite a long ways to go.
00:31:27.440
Perhaps if it had an existential conflict with the West that caused, if not actual sanctions,
00:31:36.780
but caused a breaking of the psychological, emotional connection between China and the West,
00:31:44.400
that the West no longer thought of China as a partner or a place to invest or a place to
00:31:52.180
grow, maybe just the loss of confidence that China had unfettered access to the West, maybe
00:31:57.980
that would cause collapse because it's still, you know, it's more promise than actual economic
00:32:09.160
I guess what I'm saying is Russia already had a number of collapses.
00:32:14.600
It's shrunk in the world and you can't really shrink oil and gas.
00:32:23.520
But a lot of China's strength is the prospect of a million new skyscrapers, the prospect of
00:32:32.380
And that prospect depends on continued access to Western markets and capital.
00:32:37.580
Is that, is there anything to that speculative theory?
00:32:41.780
I think what's occurring right now is that psychological change that you're talking about.
00:32:47.180
You know, we're starting to see companies withdraw from China, starting to build production facilities
00:32:55.200
So they're not so dependent on factories on Chinese soil.
00:32:59.420
And there's been a reassessment of China's role in the world.
00:33:03.340
So these are not working to the benefit of the Communist Party.
00:33:07.760
We are seeing, I think, very different attitudes.
00:33:10.860
And, you know, one thing that has triggered this, you know, we were just talking about Ukraine,
00:33:15.300
is China's full-throated support for the Russian war effort in Eastern Europe.
00:33:20.940
That is something that has forced people in countries and companies and, you know, and
00:33:27.740
barbershops to just see China in a very different light.
00:33:31.600
Let me ask you one last question about Hong Kong.
00:33:36.900
What a valiant, peaceful struggle the people of that city had in the streets, in the universities.
00:33:44.200
But in the end, they succumbed to the relentless, I guess, soft violence.
00:33:55.220
And the one there in the world was really there to help.
00:33:59.760
I think a lot of lights have gone out in Hong Kong, especially in terms of democratic opposition,
00:34:08.540
And it's almost like there was no marking of that funeral.
00:34:20.220
But has the world actually pulled out of Hong Kong?
00:34:24.960
Have companies relocated to Singapore, thought twice?
00:34:28.880
Or are they saying, all right, well, we'll just keep doing business and now we'll know
00:34:36.380
Like, has the death of freedom in Hong Kong actually hurt Hong Kong economically and China
00:34:44.260
Or are as was it Solzhenitsyn or said, please don't capitalists will say or was it Lenin who
00:34:51.700
said capitalists will sell us the rope by which we'll hang them?
00:34:54.740
Are the world's capitalists just so hungry for that market that they don't care?
00:35:00.320
You see, businesses are reducing their exposure to Hong Kong.
00:35:07.620
And largely it's because what China has done in Hong Kong is it just smothered freedom.
00:35:17.220
So Hong Kong right now is probably less free than the mainland.
00:35:27.700
So I think that essentially we are going to see Hong Kong just erode.
00:35:32.700
It'll remain a financial center, Ezra, but it won't be an international financial center.
00:35:39.260
It will be a Chinese financial center like Shenzhen or Shanghai, but it won't be the same.
00:35:46.840
I find these are dark days and I don't want to be reflexive and say, well, if Donald Trump
00:35:54.740
But I have to say when Donald Trump was in power, a lot of these things did not happen.
00:35:59.960
I think a lot of authoritarians hesitated, didn't take risks because they, you know,
00:36:06.280
the very things Trump was accused of, erratic, wild, radical.
00:36:10.560
Well, that's what actually scared the tyrants because they didn't know what Trump's reaction
00:36:17.940
With Biden, you always know what's going to be underwhelming.
00:36:21.440
I mean, why did the Taliban make their move under Biden instead of under Trump?
00:36:27.560
Why did Russia make their move under Biden instead of Trump?
00:36:31.140
I'm not saying Trump is flawless, but I'm saying his very character, which liberals often hate,
00:36:39.420
is probably what was necessary in this foreign affairs world today.
00:36:45.180
Yeah, it was Trump's unpredictability that I think deterred both Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping.
00:36:52.060
You know, we have what is close to a real life experiment.
00:36:55.300
Russia invaded Ukraine, took Crimea in 2014 during the Obama administration.
00:37:03.500
Nothing like that occurred during the Trump years.
00:37:07.000
And then, of course, we have the February invasion this year under Biden.
00:37:11.180
So clearly, you know, whatever it was, it certainly worked.
00:37:18.420
And I think there are a lot of reasons for that.
00:37:20.200
But essentially, I think Putin and Xi were just afraid of Trump.
00:37:28.160
And forgive me for throwing all my homemade theories at you.
00:37:38.020
I mean, for heaven's sakes, Putin's actually talking about nuclear weapons.
00:37:47.760
I enjoy following you on Twitter at Gordon G. Chang.
00:37:51.280
And I certainly encourage all our viewers to do so.
00:38:16.800
Your feedback on my interview with Manny Montenegreno.
00:38:19.780
Teachering says, I am certain that Prime Minister Giorgia Maloney is not losing sleep over Trudeau's
00:38:26.960
She is more than likely aware of this guy and what he's all about.
00:38:30.540
Yeah, I don't think that Canada is top of mind for Giorgia Maloney.
00:38:35.740
I think she is battling real problems in Italy, economic problems.
00:38:40.960
And I think she's battling problems within the European Union.
00:38:43.960
I mean, she has a lot to say about Emmanuel Macron.
00:38:45.680
I'm sure she has a lot to say about Germany, maybe on Russia.
00:38:51.240
But I really don't think that Trudeau is on the top of her mind.
00:38:58.080
On Sheila's monologue about the CBC, here's a letter from Kelly Abrams, who says,
00:39:02.520
Pierre better completely defund them when he becomes prime minister at all his rallies.
00:39:11.480
If he does not, then that will be a disappointment.
00:39:13.700
Well, disappointment is one thing, but they're actually more dedicated as his enemy than even
00:39:21.840
So I think it's not just keeping his principle.
00:39:24.380
I think it's self-preservation that he must defund them.
00:39:29.200
On Sheila's interview with Robbie Picard of Oil Sand Strong, Spielman says,
00:39:36.220
even in the post-apocalyptic world of Mad Max, oil was the commodity most needed.
00:39:41.780
I mean, nothing has done more than to lift humanity up out of drudgery and out of poverty
00:39:47.960
and into prosperity and comfort than fossil fuels.
00:39:53.140
And it's linked to so many other metrics in life, to health, to longevity, to, you know,
00:39:59.680
infant mortality, to survive in cold weather or hot weather, to build.
00:40:04.680
I mean, there's nothing that is more correlated to human success than energy.
00:40:14.880
Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home,
00:40:20.420
David Menzies for Rebel News here in Richmond Hill, Ontario.
00:40:24.840
And a massive protest is taking place right now on Yonge Street between 16th Avenue and Major McKenzie.
00:40:37.240
And the reason is much like the reason for protests erupting in Iran and all over the world.
00:40:45.020
Late last month, Masha Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian woman, died in police custody very mysteriously.
00:40:56.360
Well, the morality police arrested her because she wasn't wearing her hijab properly.
00:41:03.160
So the protest has spread to all of Iran's 31 provinces, to cities around the world.
00:41:10.260
And here we are in Richmond Hill where there are literally thousands of people taking to the street.
00:41:15.740
And I've got to tell you, folks, two questions spring to mind.
00:41:19.580
One is, what can Canada and other Western democracies do to help the Iranian people right now,
00:41:27.400
especially since thousands have been arrested, dozens have been killed while demonstrating?
00:41:39.580
The liberal MP for this writing, the writing of Richmond Hill, that would be Majid Johari.
00:41:45.560
I don't think he'll dare show his face today, much like he didn't dare show his face at the vigil two years ago
00:41:53.060
when the Ukrainian Airlines plane was shot down.
00:41:56.700
That's because, if you can imagine, folks, Majid Johari actually supports this regime.
00:42:04.900
Yes, a Canadian member of parliament is an ally of the biggest state sponsor of terrorism in the world,
00:42:16.340
In any event, let's wade into the crowd and see what these folks have to say.
00:42:23.880
I think most people here, virtually everybody, would agree with that.
00:42:27.800
I guess there's a lot of people experiencing buyer's remorse from the 1979 revolution.
00:42:33.380
Yeah, I agree with that, and that's why we're all here,
00:42:36.980
and we're supporting the people and our people and their voice in here.
00:42:42.020
And, you know, it's such a shame what happened to Ms. Amini.
00:42:47.240
She was arrested by the morality police, died for not allegedly wearing her hijab properly.
00:42:54.120
How can this force be called the morality police?
00:42:57.660
That seems to be the most immoral thing possible, killing someone for not wearing clothing properly.
00:43:06.560
These protests have spread to all 31 of Iran's provinces.
00:43:12.240
They've spread to major cities around the world.
00:43:14.060
Here we are in Richmond Hill, thousands of people.
00:43:18.920
In terms of tangible change in Iran, what would you like to see countries like Canada do to help the Iranian people?
00:43:27.120
Sure. The main thing that we want to get across is getting the IRGC as a terrorist organization.
00:43:34.120
There's going to be people here that you don't know.
00:43:35.980
They're associated with the regime back home, but they are.
00:43:38.800
They're going to be taking pictures of everyone, trying to catch them back home, putting them in prison.
00:43:46.360
They own multiple businesses all around the GTA.
00:44:07.340
First of all, I think Canada can do whatever the states did before.
00:44:12.000
Here is a country that the Iranian government uses as a money-laundry country.
00:44:22.540
And for example, the military system uses this country as a backyard.
00:44:33.100
To send the family, the money, everything to Canada, but they stay in Iran.
00:44:43.580
They need to hear that the world is with them because they're running towards bullets.
00:44:53.380
You know, certain people, they're not backing up the population of Iran, the actual Persians,
00:45:08.120
She was 22 years old who lost her life, got murdered by morality police in Iran,
00:45:15.000
Hopefully, this revolution will happen, and everything will change that country.
00:45:18.840
Support the people, support the people, announce this dictatorship, must come to an end.
00:45:29.740
What do you think our government should do to help the people of Iran right now?
00:45:40.880
Hey, do you think that's going to happen, folks?
00:45:43.620
Justin Trudeau is managing the biggest gun grab in Canadian history.
00:45:47.680
Then again, there's going to be a lot of inventory.
00:45:51.600
Maybe those firearms should be sent to the people in the streets of Tehran,
00:45:56.680
but I don't think this prime minister has the intestinal fortitude to do that.
00:46:03.160
And how do you feel about the fact that the liberal MP for this riding of Richmond Hill,
00:46:08.300
Majid Johari, he's actually a supporter of the regime?
00:46:12.920
I don't think you're going to have a voice with that.
00:46:15.020
I mean, how is it possible that someone in a Western democracy would support the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism?
00:46:23.420
I don't know why he's here, and he should not even be living here, and this is very shameful.
00:46:30.940
And I feel very sorry that he's... I don't even feel sorry that he's not here.
00:46:40.620
He probably doesn't dare show his face at this protest.
00:46:43.520
Yeah, because nobody's accepting her, and we don't want him, and we don't want him in Parliament.
00:46:52.100
Well, hopefully there'll be regime change in Iran and in Canada.
00:47:11.140
And he's not here because he actually supports the regime, doesn't he?
00:47:23.780
This is indeed the hill in Richmond Hill, the hill leading up to Major McKenzie here on Yonge Street.
00:47:30.760
And in the 24 years I've lived in this city, I have never seen a demonstration of this size.
00:47:37.500
Literally, the hill is alive with the sound of protests.
00:47:42.680
But the thing is, that's the big question, isn't it?
00:47:45.680
In the days and weeks to come, will we see anything tangible happen in the Islamic Republic of Iran?
00:47:52.760
Will there indeed be regime change, or will the mullahs there brutally snuff out this protest that is occurring with their own people?
00:48:04.040
And secondly, unfortunately, we really can't expect the Justin Trudeau liberals to stand up to the regime.
00:48:12.340
Sure, they'll throw a few sanctions here and there.
00:48:14.360
But they turn a blind eye to the agents that are here.
00:48:20.340
They turn a blind eye to members of the regime coming into Canada who literally have blood on their hands.
00:48:27.300
And look at the MP for the federal writing of Richmond Hill, Majid Johari, an ally to the mullahs in Iran.
00:48:36.520
It just goes to show, I think, with friends like Majid Johari, who needs enemies.