EZRA LEVANT： Manny Montenegrino Performs An Ethical Audit of Justin Trudeau
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Summary
An ethical audit of Justin Trudeau's Liberal government. We talk to Manny Montenegro about what an ethical audit would look like, why it's needed, and why it would be a good idea. Plus, Ezra talks to Think Sharp's CEO, CEO and former lawyer to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and partner at a major national law firm.
Transcript
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Hello, my Rebels. Today, one of our fan favorites, people love Manny Montenegrino.
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And I know why. First of all, he's a character, great sense of humor,
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but he's got so much wisdom and experience. I mean, the guy has been around politics, law,
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journalism, and he makes connections. One of the signs of intelligence is finding patterns or
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relating things to each other. And Manny comes up with ideas and linkages that I just don't think
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of until he mentions them and then they're clear as day. I really like him. He's got a great sense
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of humor and he's just so smart. So we're going to have a talk with him today. An idea that I've
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never heard of before, an ethical audit of Justin Trudeau. Well, you know how that's going to go.
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But first, let me invite you to get the video version of this podcast. Go to rebelnewsplus.com,
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rebelnewsplus.com. Click subscribe. It's eight bucks a month. I can't believe it's that cheap,
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frankly. I think we're the cheapest podcast around, but we do need that dough because it adds up. That's
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how we pay our bills here. We don't take any money from the government, which is why we can be so
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free. So do it because it's great video content, but also do it to keep us strong. Please go to
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rebelnewsplus.com and click subscribe. All right, thanks. Here's my friend Manny.
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Tonight, an ethical audit of Trudeau's liberal government. It's April 7th, and this is the
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Ezra LeVant Show. You know, I don't follow everything that Warren Buffett says, but I heard
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once how he hires people, and it stuck with me. He said he hires for honesty, for intelligence,
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and for work ethic in that order. He says, honesty has to be the most important thing because you
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don't want a dishonest person, and you certainly don't want a clever, hardworking, dishonest person
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in your company. Honesty and character, he said, was the most important. And that's an interesting
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thing to hear from one of the world's richest men. You would think cleverness and work ethic,
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but no, at a certain point in time, the professional conduct, the trustworthiness is the most important
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asset that a worker would have, and certainly a CEO. Because of course, the example from the top,
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everyone looks to see how the boss does. It's like children. As I said the other day, they don't listen
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to what you say, they watch what you do. And so I ask you, is Justin Trudeau's leadership,
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does it pass the ethical test? If we were to subject his government, especially in recent months,
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to an ethical audit, would he pass? Would he be hired from Warren Buffett? I don't know if he has
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the intelligence needed. I certainly don't think he has the work ethic. I think he is the least hard
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working prime minister in decades. But I think on the first category, ethics, he is sorely lacking.
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Joining me now via Skype from Ottawa is the CEO of ThinkSharp, also former lawyer to Prime Minister
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Stephen Harper and partner at a major national law firm. I'm talking about our friend, Manny Montenegrino.
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Great to see you again, Manny. Welcome back. It's nice to have you on the program.
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You know, Manny, people make a lot of lawyer jokes. But in fact, being ethical and honest is a core
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requirement to be a lawyer. And you can understand why. Lawyers handle a lot of money. Lawyers handle
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secrets. Lawyers have to stand up for clients, even when clients don't know the law. You are really
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putting yourself in the hands of a lawyer when you hire them, especially for certain sensitive
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matters. And so although the public likes to joke about lawyers, they actually have a code of ethical
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conduct that is enforced, that is enforced constantly. Lawyers are constantly being reviewed
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and audited and even prosecuted by their own law societies. And so I think the higher you get up the
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legal ladder, the more ethics counts. And Justin Trudeau is not a lawyer, but everything he touches
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affects the law, affects these kind of ethical matters I talked about, financial matters, privacy
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matters. I think all the things I've just said apply to a prime minister and then some. From your
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vantage point, how would you rate Justin Trudeau's ethical conduct in recent months?
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Yeah, well, Ezra, I would say that our whole parliamentary system depends on ministerial
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responsibility. And we can go back through the history of Canada, the Tuna Gate, the orange juice,
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$16 orange juice, the unethical purchase of an orange juice got that cabinet minister removed. So our
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parliamentary system, I would argue, only can only survive on ministerial ethical responsibility. If that's
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lacking, our parliamentary system completely fails. So I would say the standard is much higher because it really
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depends on ethical procedures. Now, if I look at Justin Trudeau, there, you could start from the day that he
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decided to charge charities. While he's a member of parliament paid to speak to children. He was a
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member of parliament paid to speak to charities and paid to speak to schools, young, young high school
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kids. He charged the fee. I mean, that's unethical. He did return some of the money at that time.
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So his unethical roots go right to the beginning. But the major five elements, the SNC-Lavalin,
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we've never seen in history, the attorney general, which is there to protect Canada from wrongdoings from
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members of parliament, even the prime minister, that attorney general was removed. Never in history.
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In America, the removing of an attorney general will get you impeached. Trudeau removed the attorney
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general because he wanted to cover up his obstruction of justice. There's number one, an unethical
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conflict. Number two, we all know that he was found guilty not once, but twice for unethical practice
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under the conflict of interest. Now there he he personally gained in one instance, he got a
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beautiful private island. And some say the cost of that island, if it were to be, you know, bought,
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it'd be about $200,000 for his family. And the deal was give something to the owner of that island.
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And they got a grant. And that was unethical and found guilty. So there's three examples. And then
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we get and Trudeau gets away with it. And when you get away with unethical behavior, you're emboldened
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and you do more. I found that the emergency act was clearly was not called for. And Trudeau to make
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sure that he stacked the odds in his favor appoints Judge Rouleau. Judge Rouleau has been involved in
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the Liberal Party since the 1970s, was part of John Turner's transition team, was appointed and was a
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major donator to the Liberal Party his whole life. He should never have taken that appointment.
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And Trudeau should never have appointed him. But Trudeau knows that by appointing friends and family,
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he can get away with more unethical conduct. In that, I mean, as you and I know, as lawyers,
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there has to be no bias, but also no apprehension of bias. That is anyone that watches and say,
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and sure, the person might be great, but I have a suspicion that he might be biased. If there's even
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a hint of suspicion of bias or any apprehension of bias, the person cannot sit. I mean, in my law career,
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a good friend of mine was a judge. And she came from a very good law firm. She wouldn't hear a case
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from one of her ex-partners. And it was a big law firm because she felt that people might think that
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she was biased hearing her old partner's case. That's the level of... There was no bias. There was
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no evidence of bias. But she didn't want to see anyone say, oh, but your decision, we feel there's
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an apprehension of bias. Out it goes. I mean, Judge Trudeau, I watched his behavior. Justin Trudeau
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committed perjury in that hearing. He was asked directly, why did you disparage the unvaccinated?
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He said, I never did. And we know there's a video where he called them racist bigots and don't belong
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in our society. It was pure perjury, nothing picked up by the judge. And so whether you believe he was
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biased or not, you can absolutely be convinced there was an apprehension of bias. And so whatever
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that decision, and I've read it, whatever that decision says, it reeks with bias because of the
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apprehension. Then he's emboldened. I mean, he gets away with that. I mean, the madness of it,
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CBC and all the legacy media were arguing, well, he's a wonderful judge. And that's not the point.
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The point is, does the public feel that there's a bias? And if the public feels a bias, the question
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ends, he should be removed. And that was, you don't argue whether, and that also happened with
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the appointment of, this is amazing, appointing the CEO of the Trudeau Foundation to look into the
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China influencing of elections, who received hundreds, if not millions of dollars from China.
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I mean, but he appointed the head of the Trudeau, the CEO of the Trudeau Foundation,
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to provide an opinion. Yeah, I mean, he had a Trudeau Foundation insider, Morris Rosenberg,
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I think was his name, write a report exonerating him. And now he's appointed David Johnson,
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his lifetime, lifelong family friend, who is so pro-China, he sent all his kids to school
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in China. Even after he was no longer governor general, he would still call the Chinese embassy
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to talk about who knows what. Was it friends? Was he working for them? Was he working for someone
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to lobby them to choose? I mean, it's just incredible. I, you know, there, there's a lot
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of sayings in law, a lot of legal maxims. Sometimes they're even in Latin. They're so ancient. You know,
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one of them in English is justice must be done, but it also must be seen to be seen to be done.
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Because that's how you get confidence in the justice system. And there's language that is in
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so many laws and codes of conduct about bringing the administration of justice into disrepute.
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That's the phrase, bringing the administration, because it's, it's not just important that each
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case is handled fairly, but you must have public trust in the system. The only way the system works
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is if people believe in it. Another analogy would be the only way people believe that a game or a
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sport is fair. It's not just that the referees were fair in that one case. It's the entire sport
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is sporting and that's sports, but this is the government. Manny, I think that public trust in
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our institutions has got to be at an all time low. I saw a story just recently in Black Locks
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suggesting that trust in institutions, whether it's police or judges or the media or even schools
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is at an all time low. And I think it's because people like Justin Trudeau are leveling down.
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They're not increasing public standards, they're decreasing them. And we're sort of in a race to
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the bottom. Well, that's true, but I wouldn't even call it leveling down, Ezra. I call it exploiting
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for your own benefit. And the media sits silent, silent while Trudeau has a history. And the fifth
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one I was going to mention was appointing the interim ethics commissioner who happens to be the
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sister-in-law of a cabinet minister who was found guilty of an ethics violation. I mean,
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that's how brazen it is now. That's how, like you were caught five, six times. You would think that you
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would say, okay, look, I can't bring the disrepute of parliament any further lower. And he does. I
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mean, to answer your question, Ezra, with respect to our institutions, the RCMP, I don't want to get
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into it, but you know how much it's failed because to the common folk, the RCMP, at least that last
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commissioner, was there to protect Trudeau in every instance. We found that in Nova Scotia. We found
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that with the SNC-Lavalin, there was pure obstruction of justice and there was no case
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commenced. The attorney general left. The attorney general hinted there was even a decision,
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a 70-page decision from the ethics commissioner saying that there was obstruction of justice and
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that wasn't even looked at the RCMP. But one institution that really concerns me, and you look
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at it, and most institutions have been co-opted to by Trudeau, is Elections Canada. I mean, I was there
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when Elections Canada was very vigorously against the Conservatives on the In-N-Out scandal. That was a
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six-year trial. On the robocall where there was not even one vote lost. No evidence of someone losing
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a vote, but there were trials and the elections kind of proceeded against a volunteer who did a robocall,
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but amounted to nothing. We had Dean DiMastro go to jail for five months because he put $20,000 in his own
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election campaign. And now we have China putting in millions, affecting many ridings. The CISA saying
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effectively winning ridings on the China direction. And Elections Canada hasn't even issued a statement
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saying we are going... There are enough laws, Ezra, enough laws in the Criminal Code and the Elections
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Canada Act to proceed against China or any Liberal Party member who influenced an election improperly.
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There's enough laws on the books. We don't need to have an inquiry. Elections Canada needs to stand up
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and say, under these laws, under the Criminal Code, we are prosecuting for the millions of dollars that
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went in for what they have done in this election. And they haven't. They haven't said a word. I mean,
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if you ask me, do I feel confident that the elections in Canada are at the highest standard?
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I haven't heard from Elections Canada during this major thesis outbreak that there was an influence
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in many ridings, money given to people, money given to top-up expenses, money given to the Trudeau
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Foundation. I mean, and Elections Canada sat there, doesn't issue a tweet, or at least I haven't seen it,
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or it certainly has been in use. They're the ones... I don't want Trudeau protecting my elections.
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I don't want him setting up another sham committee to look into his elections. I want Elections Canada
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standing up. I want RCMP standing up. I want the people that are entrusted to protect Canadians
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to stand up, not there to protect the Prime Minister.
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That's incredible. You know what? I never thought of it that way. You're so right. Dean Del Mastro,
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a Conservative MP, literally was sent to prison for what's not much more than an accounting error.
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I mean, obviously, it was more than that, but I don't know if you know this, Manny, but Elections
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Canada right now is prosecuting me for publishing my book, The Libranos, and not registering it with
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the government. I was one of 24 authors to write a book about Justin Trudeau in the 2019 election.
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I was the only one to be investigated, prosecuted, convicted, and fined. We're appealing that. We're
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still fighting in court. Elections Canada is very, very busy going after my book, but too busy,
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apparently, to do a thing about this Handong Chinese influence. It's been front page of the
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papers for weeks, and you're right. They've been quiet as mice. I tell you, if it was a Conservative
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who was accused of taking payments from Russia or the Russian embassy, it would be all the Elections
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Canada would be talking about. They have been silent, and I don't think it's a coincidence.
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Ezra, on the In-N-Out scandal, I was peripherally involved in that. It was a six-year or five-to-six-year
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trial. It went to the federal court. It went to the federal court of appeal. Four conservatives were
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criminally charged. It was all about monies from the federal party down to the local ridings.
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It was approved at the federal court. It was denied at the federal court of appeal. It was simply,
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at the end, Ezra, it ended with a $52,000 fine. Elections Canada spent $5 million and five years
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prosecuted the Conservative Party for a $52,000 fine. That's what it was. So, I mean, when you ask me,
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I mean, like, what institution is not working in favour of Justin Trudeau? They get paid. I mean,
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you have, like, the RCMP, I mean, it's embarrassing that the commissioner, during the mass murder in
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Nova Scotia, was only concerned about making Trudeau look good on the gun laws, not about the people that
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were slain and how the RCMP failed completely, the people of Nova Scotia. The only thing that the
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commissioner was worried about is, hey, we got an opportunity to make Trudeau look good. I mean,
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you know, it's so, when I look at the institutions, they're all working for Trudeau. How do you have
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any confidence? And therefore, Trudeau can lower his bar of ethics to a point, I mean, the laughable
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point. The poor outgoing commissioner, ethics commissioner, said, we need to have a training
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exercise for the Liberal Party, because too many of them are breaching the ethics commission of the
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code. I mean, if you can't get any lower than that, the man that's running the ethics commission
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saying, it's so bad. Not all members of parliament, not the conservatives, not the NDP, but the Liberal
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Party should all take a refresher what it is to be a normal human being.
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You know what, and I know there was that cabinet minister, Ing is her name, if I'm pronouncing it
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right, and she kept giving contracts to her personal friends, and she said, oh, no one told me it was
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wrong. No one told me it was wrong. She knew it was wrong. She just knew that that's how it rolls
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with Trudeau, and if Trudeau can do it, obviously she could do it, and if Trudeau can get away with
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it, obviously she can get away with it. Ezra Bev Oda, cabinet minister, a wonderful woman who I know,
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lost her cabinet spot for drinking a $16 orange juice. What she should have done is she should
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have had the $80 breakfast buffet and it would have been all right, but she had the $16. She just
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didn't want to eat that morning. So for $16, the ethics and the accountability was so important to
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the media and so important to Trudeau. He tweeted on that, said, we must get rid of her because she's,
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you know, this is how high and moral they are, but when it comes to them in power, they all circle.
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The media circles the wagon to protect Trudeau. Like, how do you appoint a long time? I gave an
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analogy. I did a lot of work for the Conservative Party, and if it had been Stephen Harper appointing
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a judge to do the Emergency Act, first of all, he would never appoint me. Stephen Harper has so much
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ethics. He would not appoint a friend or a long-term serving Conservative lawyer to the position. And
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certainly, if he did try to appoint, I would not take it. As a lawyer, I'd say, come on, I have to
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recuse myself. Everybody knows that I've worked for the Conservative Party. We don't want to bring
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everything down to disrepute. So there was two tests, and they wouldn't have not happened. Under Trudeau,
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the two tests never happened. And then the media circles, it says, what a wonderful man. What a
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wonderful judge he is. Yeah. Well, and you know what? David Johnston, who has had a successful and
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prominent career, shame on him for taking the gig. I mean, everyone praises him for a life of public
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service. OK, well, in his final hour, he made the wrong judgment call. He cannot properly review Trudeau
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and China, given his connections to Trudeau and China. And he should know better.
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Ezra, there was an interview, and I think you posted it, and I saw it from the rebel. And it was
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where Trudeau was lavishing in his public speech. And David Johnson was behind him saying how wonderful
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of a friendship their family was. And he was gloating. And he's saying, you know, we skied together,
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our kids together, 30-year relationship. And he's behind gloating. I would be puking if I was behind
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hearing that from the prime minister, say, oh, my God, everybody knows how close we are,
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and I'm still taking the job. You know, it's not just David Johnson, but someone who really is
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a soulless sociopathic operator, if I may say so, is Gerald Butts. And I say that based on his track
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record of the SNC-Lavalin matter, he is the one who basically had Jody Wilson-Raybould fired
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because she would not drop the criminal prosecution of his friends at SNC-Lavalin,
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a corruption trial. And Gerald Butts was thrown out of the PMO over his disgrace. He basically left
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for New York where he got a job with a lobby group called the Eurasia Group. But Gerald Butts is
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being rehabilitated in the media party. I see him on pundits panels all the time.
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And he was recently at the state dinner for Trudeau and Biden in Ottawa.
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How did the man who knifed in the back the first indigenous justice minister in Canadian history,
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how did the man who orchestrated the SNC-Lavalin matter, how did he become redeemed and rebuilt
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other than, I mean, you can't just blame Trudeau for that. Where the hell is the media party,
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as I call it? How can Gerald Butts be polite company anymore?
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Because at the end of it all, the media wants what Trudeau is doing. And I forgot, you now
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reminded me of now the sixth or seventh institutions that the Canadians depend on. We know the RCMP,
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how it behaved under the commissioner, the past commissioner, Brenda Leckie, in favour of Trudeau.
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We've talked about Elections Canada being solid on an elections issue. Can you imagine that?
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For the first time, there was a poll, I think about 37 Canadians, 37% of Canadians do not have
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faith in our elections. We haven't heard from Elections Canada say we're going to shore it up. So
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there's another institution. But the public service, we forgot Kevin Lynch for the first time in
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history, as the clerk of the Privy Council had to leave because of a bias or an apprehension of bias
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in favour of Trudeau. The public service is supposed to be independent. And so if I poke everywhere,
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if I, Ezra, we could do a two-hour show on this, but every institution that's important,
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we already know the universities are in, but every, if I took the five top institutions that are there
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to protect Canadians from all politicians, all five are beholding to Justin Trudeau. How could you,
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how could you, and we see it when he's so brazen that he appoints the last three appointments. And the
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last appointment, the ethics commissioner is the sister-in-law of a, how is she going to do her job
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if, if Trudeau or her brother-in-law gets in trouble again?
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Yeah. And by the way, Dominic LeBlanc and Seamus O'Regan, these are all old, and Gerald Butts,
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these are all old cronies of Trudeau. They were part of his wedding party.
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Like, he, he has put his hand-picked lifelong friends in, in place around him. Some of them
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have some competence. Some of them clearly don't. Their only value is their loyalty to him. And you
00:26:18.560
know, I was, I was thinking about it. There are some places in the world where shame is still part
00:26:24.880
of public life. I mean, let me give you an example from 40 years ago, but it was still incredible when
00:26:30.380
it happened. Remember when the, when the Argentine government seized the Falkland Islands? Those
00:26:38.020
were British islands way at the southern tip of South America. And, you know, very small population,
00:26:45.260
very close to Argentina. And then the Brits sent this armada and aircraft carrier all the way down
00:26:51.580
and retook it. It was quite a dramatic thing. Happened about 40 years ago. If I remember the
00:26:57.120
British defense minister resigned, he said, it's on me. I didn't see a company. I should have known.
00:27:05.560
The only thing for me to do now is to resign. And that happens from time to time in healthy
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democracies, but it requires a certain amount of character on the politician in question.
00:27:17.760
Well, yeah. Japanese MPs, I mean, you're now going, go ahead. Sorry. You're now going to the
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beginning of our discussion. And that is our Canadian system, parliamentary system depends
00:27:30.520
on ministerial responsibility. So that minister did something wrong and he resigned. I am old enough
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to see many ministers resign for very small, inappropriate behaviors, usually ethical in
00:27:44.960
nature or conflict in nature or failure in nature. So without ministerial responsibility or conflict
00:27:53.700
of interest and all that, our system is no better than Russia or Xi. I ask you, replace Justin Trudeau
00:28:04.340
with Putin and Xi. And then if I told you Putin had his six cronies from his wedding as part of all
00:28:11.660
these institutions doing something wrong and directing the government, you'd say, yeah, well,
00:28:16.200
of course, that's Russia. I mean, he's got his buddies, his closest friends protecting him and
00:28:21.300
the media doesn't do anything in Russia because it's owned by the Russian government. Yeah, of course,
00:28:25.260
you'd expect that. Of course, you'd expect to see that with Xi in China. Xi's got his best friends,
00:28:30.380
his brother-in-law and his wedding party all running in the country. Well, of course, that's China.
00:28:35.580
This is Canada. We don't have that. We have accountability. Well, no, we don't.
00:28:40.020
We are no better than Russia, no better than China. And we see the evidence. I mean, the blood is
00:28:46.680
dripping from everyone's hands when the ethics commissioner is related to one of the cabinet
00:28:51.700
ministers, when the China influence. I mean, we've never seen this in Canada. You know,
00:28:57.880
Trump went through two-year Russian investigation influencing trial where there is no evidence and it
00:29:05.600
was impeachable. Even if there was no evidence, he was impeached. In Canada, we have actual evidence
00:29:11.240
of China interfering and everyone saying, well, yeah, well, that's okay. They were interfering for
00:29:16.260
the liberals. Had they interfered for the conservatives, people would be in jail.
00:29:20.560
Yeah. You know, I was thinking about this. I was talking to some Americans about
00:29:24.800
Justin Trudeau and his dad, Pierre Trudeau. And I added it up. Justin Trudeau has been in
00:29:31.360
office for about eight years. And his dad was in office for about, I don't know,
00:29:38.920
if he was first elected in 68. And then there was a bit of a Joe Clark moment, but then he went all
00:29:45.140
the way to 1984. So between the two of them, the Trudeaus have been the prime minister of this country
00:29:52.060
for about a quarter of a century. Canada is officially 156 years old. So 25 years of that
00:29:59.780
has been under the Trudeaus. And I think it changes a country. Obviously, there's more to Canada
00:30:07.140
besides politicians. There's more to Canada besides the prime minister. There's a lot of other forces
00:30:12.340
in our life. But I think in terms of the public life of this country, the arrogant authoritarianism
00:30:18.700
of that Trudeau family has made a mark on this country. I think it's made us less free.
00:30:24.560
I think it's made us less democratic. I think it's tilted us away from our natural allies in the world
00:30:33.780
towards our natural rivals or even our enemies, whether it's communist China, communist Cuba.
00:30:40.280
I really think that you can't have a quarter of century of authoritarian style, authoritarian ideology
00:30:47.440
leadership without it corroding the system. Like you've talked about elections, Canada. You've talked
00:30:52.300
about the others commissioner. You've talked about the RCMP commissioner. You talked about just how
00:30:57.260
cabinet ministers operate. A fish rots from the head down. And we have had a rotten fish leading this
00:31:05.380
Yeah. No, and it's so true. I mean, you know, as there was, I forget what it is, a security group,
00:31:11.700
which includes United States, UK and Australia. They went on without Canada.
00:31:18.920
Yeah. I guess, you know, so when's the first time that Canada has been part of this joint committee
00:31:25.380
with the rest of the top common law countries? So, commonwealth countries. So, yeah, we're moving
00:31:31.460
that way. The recent article is United States is very concerned about our close connection with China
00:31:37.740
and they want. So, yeah, that's what's happened. And Canadians will let it happen. Listen, I mean,
00:31:44.040
I came to this country when it was, uh, when all those wonderful values, uh, that were fought in two
00:31:51.080
wars and, you know, the concept of freedom, freedom of speech, the charter, the bill of rights, it now
00:31:56.740
became the charter of rights. And these were things that drew us closer to a country that, that, that
00:32:03.540
repelled authoritative. This is a country that said, no one politician should be above Canadians.
00:32:10.960
Well, we saw this guy use the emergency act. There wasn't, I live in Ottawa. There was noise.
00:32:17.880
The noise lasted for a week. Then the noise ended. There wasn't one broken window. You look at what
00:32:23.220
happens in the United States, uh, with, with the, look what's happening in France. There are fires,
00:32:29.320
millions around the street, uh, arson fires, property damage, human damage. There's no emergency
00:32:37.000
act placed on these citizens. In Canada, there wasn't one assault charge. There wasn't one arson
00:32:43.960
charge. And the commissioner found that it was okay. That actually, if you read the, uh, it's amazing.
00:32:50.340
If you read the decision from a lawyer's point of view, Judge Rulo basically said, yeah, there's a lot of,
00:32:57.840
uh, reasonable doubt that they shouldn't have used it, but I'm saying it's okay. Can you imagine,
00:33:04.900
imagine hearing any, and this is the standard for the emergency act has to be the highest beyond
00:33:11.620
reasonable doubt. I mean, the standard for a criminal conviction is reasonable doubt.
00:33:15.780
So if you found it's beyond any reasonable doubt, boom, he's convicted to use, to strip away
00:33:21.520
Canadians' individual rights protected under the charter. The standard has to be higher. He says,
00:33:27.840
oh, there's no way that, you know, it should have happened, but I think it's okay. Well,
00:33:33.500
you can imagine a judge saying, I find there's a lot of reasonable doubt in this case. I find that,
00:33:40.020
uh, but however, he's guilty of murder. I mean, that would never happen in the real world,
00:33:44.740
but it happens when you will, when I see the apprehension of bias, I say, oh, I can see why
00:33:50.220
that happened. He agrees with me in law that there should be an emergency act, but his political side
00:33:55.700
said, I got to protect Trudeau. That's how I read the decision. He agreed with me in law,
00:34:00.580
but I'm a politician. I'm a political favor guy. That's my apprehension of bias. That's what I,
00:34:06.720
that's the only way I can square that decision. Because if you read the decision, he's basically
00:34:11.320
saying it could not have happened, but it happened and it's okay.
00:34:14.980
Yeah. Well, in, in the UK, they'd call that a stitch up, a stitch up, an inside job. Well,
00:34:22.180
um, let me ask you, because at a certain point, too many institutions are broken.
00:34:29.540
The media being an important one. I mean, he's colonized the media with his subsidies and grants.
00:34:36.240
And I really think it's taken the fire out of them because they're not just taking money. They're
00:34:41.220
constantly lobbying for more money. The Canadian Association of Journalists, which used to care
00:34:46.540
about journalism almost exclusively, besides talking about woke things that have nothing to do with
00:34:52.860
journalism, almost exclusively talks about getting more subsidies from Trudeau. They've been completely
00:34:58.500
defanged. They've been tamed and trained. And you can't turn every journalist in this country
00:35:07.420
into a beggar from Trudeau without having some subconscious effect on the journalists that
00:35:13.500
they're going to pull their punches and they're not going to, they can't beg on Monday, but then
00:35:17.680
criticize Trudeau on Tuesday. I'm worried, Manny, that between the courts and the media and the
00:35:23.680
other institutions in civil society, that, that Justin Trudeau actually might squeak through another
00:35:31.860
victory. I like Pierre Polyev. I think he's a clear thinker, a clear talker. He's younger than
00:35:37.300
Trudeau. He's smarter than Trudeau. He's, he's tougher than past conservative leaders. But I am
00:35:43.880
worried that if you corrode the entire system for long enough, you can slouch to another win. I mean,
00:35:53.120
I think it would be wrong to bet against Trudeau. I'm hopeful for Pierre Polyev, but I'm not counting
00:35:59.180
out Trudeau. He's just simply corrupted the system too much. Yeah, I think I agree. But in addition to
00:36:05.060
the financial, you know, I mean, Ezra, the most important, you know, I'm a lawyer. I would say
00:36:12.800
the justice system is the most important system in a country, but I really do believe it's a media.
00:36:20.820
I do believe with a, a robust independent media, you have a great country. And we've had that for a
00:36:29.660
long time, but in the last 10 years, and I'm going to add another flavor. It's not just that Trudeau was
00:36:35.260
smart enough to buy the media. I mean, CBC, I don't know what those hundreds of thousands of people
00:36:40.620
were, how many people did CBC do, but they certainly do a lot to protect Trudeau. But the,
00:36:47.300
but the media, it's, it's something different. It's not only the money, Ezra. Social media has,
00:36:54.900
the first time I was on Twitter, I was shocked to see the, the editor of the Ottawa citizen make
00:37:04.660
certain posts. And it was to me, very biased in favor of the liberals. And I was shocked because
00:37:12.320
what I saw was, was, was the, the unveiling of, of the bias that they normally held behind that we
00:37:21.060
didn't know. Social media. So here's what's really happened, Ezra. Yes, they bought, Trudeau bought
00:37:26.620
the media. That's easy. That's easy to say. But more importantly, social media did two things.
00:37:31.900
It exposes the bias of people. You saw journalists, you know, and I remember once I wrote them when I
00:37:39.140
was on Twitter, I said, Hey, that's pretty biased on one side. And you got to see the bias. So social
00:37:45.440
media allowed the bias to come out. And number two, it solidified it and made it open and apparent.
00:37:53.180
And it's one team versus the other. So what's happened now is not only are the media bought,
00:38:00.060
but they're on a team and it's team liberal and they know they're on the team and they want their
00:38:05.360
team to win. Even if it means unethical practices, conflicted, do conflict of interest charges. Yeah.
00:38:12.200
Yeah. But it doesn't matter. Our team has to win. And so they'll work for their team. So
00:38:17.500
the bad thing about social media is allowed the, what I would call the, the, the hidden latent bias
00:38:28.260
of the media to surface and to solidify and to be part of a organized team to win.
00:38:35.200
Hmm. Well, Manny, it's always great to catch up with you. You're the, you are the place where law,
00:38:43.160
politics, and journalism combine. And so you have such interesting insights on things. Great to catch
00:38:48.660
up with you. Look forward to doing it again soon. Thank you very much, Ezra. Take care.
00:38:53.400
Our pleasure. There you have it. Manny Montenegrino, the CEO of ThinkSharp. He joined us today
00:38:58.520
via Skype from Ottawa. That's our show for today. Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at
00:39:04.960
Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home, good night and keep fighting for freedom.