A feature interview with our friend Manny Montenegro, a leader, an advisor, a lawyer, a political counselor to Preston Manning, Stockwell Day, and Stephen Harper, we ll talk to him about the conservative race and the state of freedom that s ahead.
00:00:54.220Tonight, a feature interview with our friend Manny Montenegrino about the conservative
00:01:04.560leadership race. It's May 23rd, and this is The Answer of the Vance Show.
00:01:10.400Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?
00:01:14.120There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer. The only thing I have to say to the
00:01:19.680government, but why I publish it is because it's my bloody right to do so.
00:01:29.260Well, as you know, Rebel News, we always have the Ezra Levant Show, even on stat holidays. We like to
00:01:35.080take the opportunity, if we can, to have a feature-length interview with someone we'd really
00:01:41.120like to chew over the news of the day with. So not just our regular guests, but a special guest.
00:01:46.560And one of our favorites is someone we haven't had on for too long, our friend Manny Montenegrino,
00:01:52.420who was a senior advisor, lawyer, and counselor to several leaders of the Conservative Party, in fact,
00:01:59.120predating the merged Conservative Party of Canada, going back all the way to Preston Manning times.
00:02:05.020That's when I first met him. Our friend Manny Montenegrino is now the boss of ThinkSharp,
00:02:10.720and he joins us via Skype from Ottawa. Manny, great to see you. It's been too long. I don't even think
00:02:16.600we've spoken in 2022. Great to have you back on the show.
00:02:19.780Well, thank you for having me. You're now Grizzly Adams. I get to see Ezra in the macho man look now.
00:02:30.980You know what? Everyone makes fun of it. I should abandon the attempt. I don't know. I just thought
00:02:37.180I would grow a beard. It's not really working for me. Manny, you're looking sharp as always. You
00:02:40.800always are looking very impressive on the show. But what we love talking to you about is you really
00:02:47.380have the overlapping experience, politics, law, strategy. You've really been in all those
00:02:55.360different places. And for a variety of Conservative leaders, Preston Manning, Stockwell Day, Stephen
00:03:00.300Harper. And we are at a very interesting time for the Conservative Party of Canada right now.
00:03:06.220Give me a download. Give me the Manny brain dump. What do you think of the state of the Conservative
00:03:11.720Party of Canada today? Well, it's probably as most hopeful as it's been in a long time.
00:03:19.040And that really makes me feel great. Ezra, I don't know if you know, but I know many young people,
00:03:28.100young Canadians that are leaving Canada. It's great despair. And the greatest despair, it
00:03:36.680doesn't come from the economy, jobs and those issues that normally touch us day to day. But
00:03:43.960it goes to the very DNA of Canada. And that is our freedom. Are we truly a free country? And
00:03:51.400we have seen, Ezra, we have seen the greatest attack on charter rights since the charter in 1983.
00:04:02.780And it is, what it does, freedom and the charter does two things. If properly used, it beckons
00:04:12.020immigrants around the world, come to Canada. It is a free country. You are leaving the oppression
00:04:19.720of the country that you're at. Come join us to build a great nation. So it's a beacon light. But it's also
00:04:26.740when not guarded carefully, it repels Canadians to other beacons. And we have seen a what I will call
00:04:35.560a historic, unprecedented attempts to leave Canada, particularly to Florida. I saw, Ezra, I don't know
00:04:43.940if you saw, I saw the governor mention that Florida is getting a bunch of new citizens to Florida and
00:04:53.000many from Canada. Yeah. Let's play a quick clip of that. I just, it's incredible. Normally Canadians
00:04:59.000love it when an American notices us, but this wasn't the fondest of mentions. Here's that clip
00:05:04.400from Governor Ron DeSantis. And there's a reason why people are pouring in to the state of Florida.
00:05:10.060There's a reason why we've led the country in net in migration. I'm not even asking anybody to come.
00:05:15.860You know, some governors beg people to come. I love the people we have here. I'm fine. But people are,
00:05:21.120they're fleeing a lot of these bad, and not just fleeing other states, they're fleeing from Canada.
00:05:26.860They're fleeing from other places to be able to come to the state of Florida. And so I realize there may
00:05:32.460be some people in the state of Florida, not in my party, but some others, politicians who have a soft spot.
00:05:40.060For dictatorships, like in Cuba, they have a soft spot for people like Maduro and Ortega. And I just
00:05:46.500want people to know that I have contempt for those views, because those views do not represent the
00:05:52.980values of the state of Florida, but particularly the values of the people of South Florida.
00:05:57.180It's exactly right. So I didn't mean to interrupt you. I just wanted to show people that video. Keep
00:06:02.320going. So yeah, Canadians love Florida at the best of times, but these are not the best of times.
00:06:06.720Yeah. And so you look at the charter, and what's amazing about the charter, it basically says that
00:06:16.020the individual has certain guaranteed rights and freedoms. And that's very important to a lot of
00:06:22.480people. A nation's built on that. Canada has been built on its freedom. Especially if you go back to
00:06:30.880Canada. And you look at, you know, where I was born in Italy. Well, it's very easy. And Italian is Italian nation. Germans can be easily defined. But Canada was hard to be defined, because we were drawing from all around the world. And he had a
00:06:34.880Sir Ruffin Laurier. And he was asked, and it was a tough question. And he was asked, and it was a tough question. Because, you know, what kind of nation is Canada? And Sir Ruffin Laurier answered, and you look at, you know, where I was born in Italy. Well, it's very easy. And Italian is Italian nation. Germans can be easily defined. But Canada was hard to be defined. Because we were drawing from all around the world. And he had a brilliant statement.
00:07:01.880He said, freedom is our nationality. And if you look at, and I actually posted this on Instagram, but if you look at your passport, page 16 of your passport, everyone's passport, there is that quote from Sir Wilfrid Laurier, freedom is our nationality. So we're not a nation of a certain race. We're not a nation of a certain skin color, or a certain ethnicity.
00:07:31.880Or a certain religion. We're a nation that's all bound together by the concept of freedom. And that's what draws us as one. And we've lost that. We've actually not only lost that, but we have destroyed it. And Ezra, I sit, and I'm telling you, and I speak with all seriousness, I sit every day, I wake up, and I'm just sick to my stomach, that there are millions of Canadians upwards to
00:08:01.8607 million Canadians that have their charter rights trampled every day. And that is Section 2, Freedom of Consciousness, Section 6, Freedom of Mobility. We're the only country in the world where you can't get on a plane and go visit a relative if you have a certain status or if you don't have a certain status.
00:08:24.480And this is the worst country because we're the largest country. I mean, if it was, you know, if it was, you know, a small little country like Geneva, yeah, you could drive in a couple hours and see your relatives.
00:08:36.440But you literally cannot see your family member. And if you go in a car, it will take four or five days to do so. So that charter right of mobility, Section 6, it was, you know, and people don't understand this charter was created in 1983. We understood the nation at the time.
00:08:57.040So when you talk about mobility rights, you're talking about air travel, you're talking about train travel. And then there's obviously the Section 7 of the charter is violated by this, you know, de facto imposition of a mandatory vaccine, you know, your health, your body, your autonomy.
00:09:16.040So here we have, I mean, at a point in time where, you know, it's great despair to a lot of people saying, is this truly our country? And so people want to leave to somewhere that's free. I mean, my family left Italy for somewhere that was free. It was Canada.
00:09:33.980We got here in 1959, the greatest nation in the world, the freest nation of the world. It was it was. And from that, we could build a family, we could build a business, we could build, you could build everything from the concept of freedom.
00:09:49.660And so, so as much and as dark as it was, and it has and continues to be, there's some hope. And the hope is there are a few members of the Conservative candidates that are talking about this issue. It's become a real issue. So with great despair, and I tell you, Ezra, I have been referred to by a Prime Minister of Canada as an unwavering patriot.
00:10:19.080I mean, I carry, I, that's what he called me. And that's what I believe I am. And I'm telling you, I have been waving. I have been waving. I'm no, because I believe that this country is in deep despair.
00:10:32.700Wow. Well, you said a lot there. You know, one thing that a friend pointed out to me is a lot of families, you have different choices within that family. There might be a mom who works in healthcare and on pain of losing her job, she had to get the jab.
00:10:48.580There might be a kid. So you might have a family with different statuses. But if that family wants to go on a vacation, if there's one person who's not vaxxed, they can't go, really. So it's not just the 7 million or whatever.
00:11:01.060It actually impacts a larger number. And remember, amongst those who did get the jab, some did so willingly, happily, with good, and they're pleased with the result.
00:11:13.340But of course, many others did so under some sort of duress. So I think that the problem's actually larger than the media party lets on, larger than Trudeau and Omar Al-Gabra let on.
00:11:25.460But in the last week or so, it's really hit a critical point, hasn't it? And I'm pleased that the Conservatives are raising it all the time in Parliament.
00:11:32.140Here's a quick clip of Melissa Lansman, the transport critic for the Conservatives, raising it just this week in Parliament, or last week in Parliament. Take a look.
00:11:40.600The decision to cling to restrictions and mandates, why is it such a secret? Will the Minister tell this House, finally, what specific advice he's getting to keep them?
00:11:54.420When he got it last, when he's going to get it next, will he table that advice in the House for all Canadians, or will he continue to hide it from Canadians while they're stuck in line at Pearson?
00:12:10.600Thank you, Madam Speaker. The evidence is not secret, Madam Speaker. Everyone knows that vaccines save lives. In the United States, 165,000 lives would have been saved just during the Omicron crisis if they had had a better vaccination uptake.
00:12:31.040165,000 lives, Madam Speaker, in the Omicron crisis? That's 50% more people than in any one of our writing in this House.
00:12:40.600I'm pleased that the Conservatives are digging into it now, Manny. I wish they would have been a harder line on this before, but I don't think their former leader let them.
00:12:49.560Well, exactly. And that's a very good point, and I'm glad you raised it, because people are questioning certain candidates. Why didn't you raise it earlier?
00:12:57.700Well, that's the answer. But boy, are they raising it now.
00:13:01.040Now, Ezra, I'm going to tie something in, because you love when I tie things in, but I'll give you that legal analysis of Omar Qadar and his violation of charter rights.
00:13:14.100Oh, sorry. No, no, no. No, no, no, no, no. I do mean Omar Qadar. No, no, wait a minute. Leave me there. This is a jihadist that was found guilty of murder.
00:13:24.420OK, good. For one second. You know what? OK, I'm sorry. It was my mistake.
00:13:30.500Yeah. My mistake. We're talking about the guy who was at Guantanamo Bay. Right. Right.
00:13:34.420He brought back to Canada. Oh, I know. Sorry. I interrupted you, Manny. Keep going. You're talking about Omar Qadar. Go ahead.
00:13:39.920Right. Now, remember that time. And the prime minister, you know, the most disingenuous person that I've ever heard, Justin Trudeau stood up and preached about Omar Qadar's charter rights.
00:13:56.320And what what happened with Omar Qadar? Very simply, he was a jihadist. He was a he pled guilty to murder.
00:14:05.580You couldn't get a more debased Canadian who sat and fought against the troops.
00:14:13.020But he was brought to Guantanamo Bay, which is basically American territory.
00:14:18.460What Canada did not do in 2003 when they sent someone to interview him was read him as charter rights.
00:14:27.320And now, Ezra, I'm going to be a little bit long on this, but I'll try to be as quick as possible.
00:14:32.880In 2003, the status of the law in Canada, when Omar Qadar was caught, was he did not enjoy charter rights outside the boundaries of Canada.
00:14:42.700And so he did not he could not bring the claim. But they brought a claim to the Supreme Court saying in certain circumstances, charter rights should apply, even if you're not on Canadian soil.
00:14:56.540And in 2010, the Supreme Court of Canada said, yes, his charter rights do apply in Guantanamo Bay.
00:15:03.680So then it was retroactively put back to 2003 when he was brought in. Now, that was a charter right violation.
00:15:12.260What what did the Canadian government do? Did they beat him? Did they intern him? They did nothing.
00:15:18.140They asked questions without giving him his charter rights. Pretty, pretty minor.
00:15:25.080If you look at the egregious things that you can do with charter rights, Trudeau stood up and said his charter rights have been violated and he deserves something.
00:15:39.120In my opinion, if I argued it, he would not have got a penny because simply there were no additional damages that Canada caused Omar Qadar.
00:15:49.540All the damages were done by America. All the damages were done by America. Canada could not have taken him out.
00:15:54.360But in any event, he got 10 million dollars. And I listened to Prime Minister Trudeau when he gave a lecture to Canadians how important charter rights, even in this smallest of small cases.
00:16:08.560The charter prevailed and Omar Qadar got his charter right remedy.
00:16:15.180Well, right now, six to seven million Canadians are actually being affected.
00:16:22.760They can't get on a plane. They can't go to work. They lost their jobs.
00:16:27.820Their bodies are being taken over by the state.
00:16:31.760These is this is much more substantial charter violation than Omar Qadar even saw from Canada.
00:16:39.660So so so when you put the two together, what I mean, these Canadians did not murder anybody.
00:16:46.080They did not join Al Qaeda. They did not come and try to kill other Canadian troops.
00:16:51.480All they wanted to do was go work in their home alone for the government.
00:16:57.440Yeah. Yeah. And so so so when you look at that, that's a huge, you know, body blow to what Canada is.
00:17:06.780And it has to be restored. And if it doesn't get restored, Canada is no longer the country that I know or that, you know,
00:17:15.380and we need a new leader from the Conservative Party who understands that to the core of his DNA.
00:17:22.740You know, that's a it's a great contrast of charter rights.
00:17:26.280But here's the thing, Manny, we are now 26 months into this state of emergency.
00:17:33.620I believe we're the only country in the world that does not let unvaccinated people fly or take the train.
00:17:38.440And it doesn't even make sense because you could be someone who has naturally recovered as natural immunity.
00:17:44.980You're not allowed on the train or plane because you're not that right versus someone who is double or triple vaxxed and actually catches COVID again.
00:17:54.140And it's not it's not screened out. It's so upside down.
00:17:57.380But here we are 26 months into this and the and the Supreme Court of Canada and even lower courts,
00:18:04.640there has not been a single substantial case that I can think of where the courts have rolled back some of these civil liberties violations.
00:18:16.440I know there is a lawsuit afoot. Brian Peckford is one of the plaintiffs on the airfare side.
00:18:21.560Right. That's not even scheduled to go to trial.
00:20:22.560As soon as other people message it, and as soon as people like Ezra, back in 1980, when I was called to the bar, every politician was talking about charter rights.
00:20:35.460Every media was talking about charter rights.
00:20:41.080It was it was it was like living in heaven.
00:20:44.460People were talking about how to protect the individual.
00:20:47.700And Ezra, you know, let me tell you, the greatest thing that you can do to unite Canadians, it isn't about skin color, sexual orientation, gender.
00:20:59.820It is about values that we believe in.
00:21:02.420Ezra, I'll tell you something extremely funny.
00:21:06.500When I was working for Preston Manning.
00:21:10.780And here's this Italian immigrant that that comes from a different nation.
00:21:15.820And he is in sync with Preston Manning, because what bound us was not a race, not our culture.
00:21:22.580What bound us was this concept of freedom, unity and the charter and what those Canadians values are.
00:21:30.380You know, I will never be a black person.
00:25:40.680And and when the banks I if I were advising the bank at that time or any bank, I'd be saying, I don't care what the emergency act is tested in court.
00:25:52.200Go and fight it and fight it, because what you are saying is once the banks creep into as as an arm of the government, then we've lost everything.
00:26:20.200I understand that none of the American banks complied.
00:26:23.840At least I haven't heard reports that they did, which tells me that the Canadian banks didn't need to apply also.
00:26:30.280But they they it sounds like they were certainly quite willing to do so and and and didn't put up a fight.
00:26:35.900Yeah. And to me, that is the greatest fight that should have had, because basically the banks should be saying that the moment that we are seeing as an arm of prosecution for the government, then we are no longer there in the trust of the of the Canadian citizens.
00:26:56.100So, I mean, you look at all the institutions as there's a there's a there's a there's a great line by Justice Clarence Thomas talking about in America about how the institutions are are are are are slowly being co-opted by government.
00:27:14.140And where does where does America stand after these great institutions are being co-opted?
00:27:19.200And Clarence Thomas made that statement. And you look at the FBI in the states and you look at other great institutions that are seem to be political arms of a certain party.
00:27:31.140Well, when you lose your institutions and in Canada, it's much worse.
00:27:34.920I don't know what the confidence is of the RCMP when there is.
00:27:39.600I looked at the law on obstruction of justice with the SNC-Lavalin.
00:27:43.260And Ezra, it made every point of that section 139.1 of the criminal code.
00:27:50.440Justin Trudeau breached every one of those and it didn't even get a review.
00:27:56.140So when you have the RCMP, you have the Governor General, you have the Bank of Canada and maybe the banks for the first time and all our institutions can be gathered at the political will.
00:28:08.920And then you have the Charter of Rights, you know, basically, you know, shotgunned with three sections being hold.
00:28:19.760I mean, Charter, the Section 2, the Charter Right of Freedom of Conscience.
00:28:26.200Ezra, right now, you know this. You know this.
00:28:30.000There are people that are going before the federal government and being interviewed about the religious status.
00:28:36.940Not in conference, but who are you? What do you believe in? Are you a Jew? Are you not a Jew?
00:28:46.120You know, this sounds like it's just terrible.
00:28:49.620I mean, and questions and livelihoods are affected by this inquisition.
00:28:55.060I never had thought in my life that I would be seeing people questioned in those ways.
00:29:01.880And so when you put it all together, I really do think we're at the darkest moment in Canadian history.
00:29:09.540But it also could be the brightest moment in the sense, you know, and I think of how Pierre Polivare is doing a great job.
00:29:17.160But if he can rally all Canadians and put, you know, and I see it happening.
00:29:22.660I see a bunch of PPCs running to Pierre. I see liberals.
00:29:27.080I know if we could all collate under what was once the Canadian value, which was freedom,
00:29:33.580and we get back to creating a great country instead of picking it apart like a carcass, like a vulture picks a carcass.
00:29:41.320You know, like, you know, Canada is now a carcass lying down,
00:29:45.720and everyone's picking it apart for its sins of the past, and no one's talking about, you know, letting this bird fly again.
00:29:53.500And so we are at the greatest despair, in my opinion.
00:29:58.600But boy, oh boy, it could be a great moment of rebuilding.
00:30:04.200Well, I heard Pierre Polivare give a speech just last couple of nights ago,
00:30:08.160and it was very interesting to hear him talk because it was the language that a generation ago you might expect from the NDP.
00:30:17.860It was the language of workers and grassroots people and young people trying to scrape together money to buy a home for themselves
00:30:24.280and how if you don't have a home already, if you have a home, maybe there's skyrocketing property values, you're loving it,
00:30:32.440but if you don't have one, you'll never get in there.
00:30:59.660I could be from a different – we all speak that language.
00:31:03.380I mean, you have to have understood when you have left your homeland because they thought you were trash or they could do whatever they want to,
00:31:14.920and you come to this great land and they embrace you.
00:31:17.940I mean, you know, Pierre Poliver is married to a Venezuelan refugee.
00:31:24.340I mean, you know, you can't get it closer to home than understanding what built this great country.
00:31:32.060And so when he gets it – and I hope his wife kind of chirps him every day how important it is because I certainly chirp my kids every day.
00:31:43.280My kids were born in this country, but boy, oh boy, they haven't lost the lesson of this great country,
00:31:49.380what it is to be free and what it is to fight for freedom and what it is – you know, Canada by far was the greatest country in the world
00:32:00.860because it put people under the flag of freedom.
00:32:07.080We've lost that, and America is being – was constitutionally a greater country of freedom because it had its constitutional rights in 1776.
00:32:19.720But by God, when we put them up in 1983, we were as good if not better than America.
00:34:24.720But that doesn't – tell me – what is it – tell me the ideas, the idea or the substance or the track record.
00:34:32.300What has he done that makes you rank him last?
00:34:35.080You know, I'm not going to get into the fact that he was a liberal and he has the taxes.
00:34:39.820And, you know, Pierre Polver has done a good job of that.
00:34:42.140I'm going to talk to you from a Canadian point of view.
00:34:44.360And that is, for the love of God, he's sitting there and siding with the illegal criminalization of people that saw freedom with a convoy.
00:34:58.340What are you – this is a time in Canada that we need to bring back freedom and bring back Canada to where it was, the freest country in the world.
00:35:07.800For him to sit there and say that this was criminal activity.
00:35:39.900You took the freedoms at the end of the pandemic of people that sit alone in their cab, that were heroes for two and a half years, that sit alone and bring us our food.
00:35:50.000And you wanted to vindictively punish them.
00:36:20.360And there's a whole bunch of – I can get into the technical stuff about his taxation, being a liberal, and being from Quebec, and all what he's done in the past.
00:36:29.120But, really, that one's to the core of me.
00:36:31.500If he's not – and, you know, damn it, he's a lawyer.
00:36:53.980I mean, I don't know how old he is now, but he – but it burns him to the core that he's taking the case to the federal court, Brian Patford.
00:37:00.440That's the kind of guy that understands what Canada is.
00:37:05.200Charest, oh, well, you know, said to many people, you know, their rights were violated.
00:39:41.640And, you know, Ezra, you know, here's how – I'm going to say this to every conservative that's listening to your show.
00:39:50.060If you're confused about which person to vote for or which person would be the best candidate and you don't want to do all the homework as to what does he stand for, what does she stand for?
00:40:05.760Just simply look at the legacy media, the fake news media.
00:42:12.740I cried, Ezra, because there's no greater taste, no greater emotional taste than freedom.
00:42:22.860And people who have fought for freedoms in many, many ways, whether it be the gay community, whether it be the Jews, whether it be immigrants.
00:42:31.620When we fought for freedom, there's nothing greater that unites us to all when the fight for freedom.
00:42:36.960And those truckers, everybody let me down.