What kind of conservatism should we adopt for the next decade? Ezra Levenkamp shares his thoughts on the latest controversy surrounding the National Conservatism Conference in Washington, D.C. and the attempts to shut down the event by the mayor of Bruegelburg.
00:02:30.440Controversy continues to plague the National Conservatism Conference in Brussels after attempts were made to shut it down yesterday.
00:02:40.280The local mayor has called Emir Kir and he opposed all that was going on, claiming he issued the order to police to ensure public security.
00:02:51.080Well, Nigel Farage was a keynote speaker at the event and he was on stage as police arrived to try and close it down.
00:02:59.020The police are outside my door as I speak.
00:03:16.200If anything ever, ever made me think that Brexit was the right thing to do, it's the events here in Brussels today.
00:03:24.660Well, the Belgian Prime Minister labelled the moves unacceptable, a sentiment echoed by the British government who told GB News.
00:03:31.960It's unclear exactly what's happened here, but the scenes will worry anyone who believes in free speech.
00:03:37.400Free society should be confident enough to allow free debate.
00:03:41.020Now, on the whole, the reaction to this around the world has been outrage with the mayor for thinking that he had the right to close down this event.
00:03:50.780And there are plenty of Brexiteers who sort of follow what Nigel Farage said yesterday and said that this is a good reason to leave the European Union.
00:03:59.260One element of this, which I find quite fascinating, is in the UK, we've had such a controversy over the European Court of Human Rights.
00:04:06.340But there is an argument, lawyers have been suggesting, that some of the Conservative MPs who were there, for example, Suella Braverman, who had to stop speaking because of the police turning up, she could potentially sue the Brussels mayor under the rules of the European Court of Human Rights, the organisation which she has been so keen for Britain to leave.
00:04:25.940So there's all sorts of interesting elements playing out in this saga here.
00:04:30.380Yeah, who says conferences are boring, eh?
00:04:33.320Well, it's that same group that was meeting here today and yesterday in Washington.
00:04:38.960So I thought, well, I better come down, although I think it's less likely they'd be raided because America is the land of the First Amendment.
00:04:45.400Under this White House, there's no certainty on that.
00:04:49.260As you know, they raided Donald Trump's own home in Mar-a-Lago with guns drawn.
00:04:54.460I mean, it's insane, the weaponization of the government against Trump and his allies.
00:04:58.560You have to be careful when you go to a conference in the United States for the reason of the First Amendment and that there are radical groups that meet all the time with positions that may be shocking and they're allowed to do it because America is free.
00:05:13.000So for being a Canuck, going down to the U.S. to a ideological conference that talks about things like borders and immigration, you want to be a little bit careful.
00:05:21.900And I think I was. And I want to talk to you about what I think this conference stands for and what we could do with the ideas in Canada.
00:05:32.180National conservatism sort of sounds obvious, but what is it not?
00:05:38.120Well, it's not transnational. It's not global.
00:05:42.180There's a lot of wonderful things that come to us from transnational globalism.
00:05:48.240It's so much easier to fly around the world. It's so much easier to be a tourist.
00:05:52.660We can buy and sell things from faraway countries that improve our lives and lower our costs.
00:05:58.640There's a big downside to that, but the upside is places like Walmart or Best Buy where you can get amazing things at amazing prices.
00:06:06.520If you look at where they're all made, you'll see made in China.
00:06:10.620And so I think transnational conservatism would say anything that's good for the GDP is good.
00:06:16.880Anything that reduces the cost of the consumer is good.
00:06:21.140But if you're paying a few cents less for something at Best Buy or Walmart, but the job that made it is now in China instead of in Ontario, British Columbia, Alberta, Ohio, if you shipped a job overseas and the net benefit to yourself is a few pennies less on your consumer goods, was it worth it?
00:06:45.240Transnational conservatives would say, yes, we've got, you know, the consumer is the winner and our GDP is higher.
00:06:52.840But a national conservative would say, what price did we pay for that?
00:06:57.500A transnational conservative might say, bring in cheap foreign labor to pick our crops and save us a penny for every apple that's picked.
00:07:08.280OK, that's true. But you're driving down wages in your own community for your own people.
00:07:13.200Is it worth it to have an apple for a few cents less?
00:07:17.240I think that's one of the differences between transnational conservatism and national conservatism.
00:07:23.940In Canada, we see this with the temporary foreign workers program that, first of all, isn't very temporary, but you have hundreds of thousands.
00:07:31.240I think the last time I checked, it was 600,000 foreigners in our country working for wages that Canadians cannot bear.
00:07:40.880OK, so your Tim Hortons is a little cheaper and every fast food outlet in Canada is a little bit cheaper.
00:07:46.940But so we have youth unemployment. Is is that the tradeoff?
00:07:51.020So your double double is a few pennies less.
00:07:55.620One of the things I heard at this conference was Senator Josh Hawley talking about how he backs unions.
00:08:03.300When I was growing up, unions equaled left wing, conservatives equaled capitalist businessmen.
00:08:09.680But I'm not sure if that's true anymore.
00:08:12.420I just don't think it necessarily equates that the owner of a company is my ally as a conservative.
00:08:18.320In fact, I think companies have been some of the most pernicious political actors around.
00:08:22.440Another thing that I heard yesterday when I arrived was very interesting.
00:08:43.920It was to protect Europe from a real threat, namely the Soviet Union and the resurgence of Germany that had already started two world wars.
00:10:20.600Whereas a nationalist conservative would say, what are we doing tying ourselves in with a bunch of little countries around Russia that may trigger a war?
00:10:30.140That's just something I heard at the conference yesterday.
00:10:35.420Other things I heard, I went to a panel discussion, as you know, on immigration.
00:10:40.620And of course, we know about the driving down the wages and the crime and how more than 30 percent of all the women who are trapped across the border are raped.
00:11:07.180And that happens in Canada, too, by the way.
00:11:09.800So all these issues combined, you can see the difference of opinion between, say, an open borders libertarian approach or a strong borders national conservative approach.
00:11:21.920With no borders, you're going to have poverty, you're going to have social discord, you're going to have drugs.
00:11:28.180If I have to sum up what national conservatism is, I would say it's borders and citizenship.
00:11:35.700And I think we're really missing both of those in Canada.
00:11:39.000For the longest time, we said Canada had the longest undefended border in the world.
00:11:44.760And that's because we're next to the best people, Americans.
00:12:35.720And we need to revalue our citizenship.
00:12:39.140I think that's what National Conservative means as a political platform.
00:12:44.500Reducing immigration to people we choose.
00:12:47.460Not just anyone who is an obviously fake asylum seeker.
00:12:51.400Strengthening our military to use to defend ourselves, not for faraway missions.
00:12:59.100Social cohesion, not bringing in such masses of people that we destabilize neighborhoods, bring crime waves, and recently Hamas hate marches.
00:13:08.500Strengthening borders and citizenship makes it valuable to be a Canadian, not something that's sold off by fake diploma mills that aren't really selling college courses.
00:13:20.280They're selling roundabout ways to immigrate to Canada.
00:13:24.080That's what there's 900,000 student visas in Canada for.
00:13:29.040They're not studying chemistry at the University of Guelph.
00:13:32.780They're all in these fake colleges studying fake degrees, if they're studying at all, and in return for spending tens of thousands of dollars for that fake diploma, they get a toehold in Canada.
00:13:45.440They're basically being promised that they can immigrate here.
00:13:49.040Here's a recent report that our friend Lincoln Jay did, and here's an additional report by Sarah Stock.
00:13:57.340This is who has been entering in our country for just a few thousand bucks.
00:14:25.040You need to work like six months, then you can apply for your permanent residency.
00:14:28.700Rules were changed overnight, and we were not even notified.
00:14:31.340We were working in the sales sector, food sector, and we are now not even eligible to apply for nomination.
00:14:37.100Right now, I am on the streets of Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island.
00:14:41.500Now, the reason I'm here is because immigrant workers have taken to the streets to protest the expiry of their work permits.
00:14:50.300Recent change in the government's work permit policy has sparked protests over the past week.
00:14:55.700According to the Office of Immigration, the province is prioritizing skilled workers in high-demand sectors such as trades and health care.
00:15:03.780Individuals working in sales and the service sector may not receive invitations to apply for work permits.
00:15:09.340The people that have been protesting here are on post-graduate work permits, meaning that they once studied here in Canada and then were permitted to work here for a certain period of time on work permits.
00:15:22.300Now, we spent the day talking with locals, talking with the protesters and just getting a better understanding of what the demands are of the protesters and how the locals feel about the immigrants working here in PEI.
00:15:36.300Is it helping the economy? Is it putting a burden on the economy? Do the locals care? Do they not care?
00:15:43.220Well, we spoke with them. We spoke with the protesters. And let me show you exactly what they had to say.
00:15:48.420If you would like to support my independent journalism, head on over to migrantreports.com.
00:15:54.540We were here long before rules were implemented. And the reason we are here is because we demand that we need to be grandfathered as we were unaware that this would have happened. This is the reason why the protest is here.
00:16:09.780What would you say to people that claim you guys are just here on a temporary work visa, you don't have the right to stay? What would you say to those people?
00:16:16.120So I would say to those people, why were we deducted the CPP, the Canada pension plan at the very first paycheck? Why were we deducted the CPP on every paycheck after the first paycheck that we are going to get after 60 years of age?
00:16:33.040Education, we spend a lot of money to rent as well. So we have the right to stay here.
00:16:37.760Everyone is working. Everyone is paying tax. So everyone has equal and fair rights to show in this country.
00:16:43.980We are not trying to oppose the government. We are just trying them to do the fair thing.
00:16:49.780If you think it's temporary, then you tell me one thing. So after six months, you guys just use us, right? We work for six months. Then you say, OK, we cannot give you the PR. You need to go out.
00:17:01.160So it's like use, right? You just use it to get your work done.
00:17:05.060Everybody is targeting that all foreign workers are, they are trying to live here illegally. They are spreading hate messages. And this is what we don't stand for. We don't want nothing for free. We just want them to be fair with us. From our perspective, this looks total discrimination.
00:17:23.800First of all, we're having a good support from the city people who are living in Charlotte Town in Prince Edward Island. The people who are living over here, we're having a good support from them.
00:17:31.280There's a lot of good workers here that are filling jobs and it's definitely a good thing. Keeps the economy going and stuff like that.
00:17:48.020But it might be a little harder for like the average Canadian to get a job now.
00:17:53.460That we're putting the run to people who have come here to settle, to have make a life for themselves and their family and to enrichen our society. To put the run to these people is immoral.
00:18:08.520I appreciate what the government might be trying to do, but I don't think that how they did it may have been the best way to do it.
00:18:17.080It would make more sense to get people that are skilled to fill positions that we can't fill, rather than something that anybody, I guess, could get a job doing.
00:18:28.080If you're going to let the Mexicans or the East Indians or the Asians come here and they're working in a minimum wage in a food restaurant, that does not bode well for the country.
00:18:38.880It was the government that convinced everybody to please come because they felt there was a shortage in the workforce, that our population was an aging generation.
00:18:50.520And this is why they opened the doors. And now it seems like they're turning back.
00:18:55.800Yeah, but I think if you look across the country, other jurisdictions have stopped doing this completely or have followed the lead that we've had and have ratcheted back that certain sector.
00:19:04.760As I say, last year in Prince Edward Island, we nominated 855 people for a PR through sales and service.
00:19:10.760The year before that, we did roughly the same amount, just a little bit less.
00:19:14.660If the industry is doing a relatively good job in terms of retention, that should be a significant number to augment their labor force and to make sure their business is running and being successful.
00:19:26.580Immigration remains an incredible strength and force for Canada and for the Canadian economy.
00:19:32.280Being able to welcome in people from around the world, particularly at this time of labor shortages, is good for our country and good for the future that we're building together.
00:19:41.040Look, international students are a credit to this country, Mr. Speaker.
00:19:44.400They are the future of this country and they are an asset that is very lucrative.
00:19:48.120I came to Canada as a foreign student from India many years ago, back when this country was a much different and nicer place.
00:20:07.720I'm here to speak out against what is happening.
00:20:10.700As requested, we have hidden the identity of the man interviewed in this section of the report.
00:20:17.000This is not the first time he has spoken out and he feels it is necessary to bring awareness to this situation.
00:20:23.860So what exactly is the purpose of so many people coming to Canada on these student visas?
00:20:29.360It is best explained here with this immigration flyer.
00:20:32.280It says that you come here as a student, once you establish yourself here, you bring your entire family over and then get use of all the social services that Canada offers.
00:20:44.020They see the loopholes that our incompetent government has created and they have abused it full throttle.
00:20:52.860But just last month, the teachers at Conestoga College were complaining that these kids are actually illiterate.
00:21:00.120They can't read, write, they don't know basic arithmetic.
00:21:03.660The loopholes here are many, such as attending a shady college and not even attending.
00:21:11.160There's a couple of colleges that the Globe and Mail investigated and they didn't even have classrooms in them, but they had places to process your immigration file.
00:21:20.960Some of these colleges are even owned by immigration consultants.
00:21:25.540While most of us are suffering in this really poor economy, there's a section of the society which is becoming rich off of these loopholes.
00:21:35.500It's not even about permanent residency.
00:21:38.300Canada's reputation for being such a soft country has gone global.
00:21:43.020And everybody knows that the minute you step foot in Canada, the odds of you being sent home are almost zero.
00:37:34.400So you study, you do your thing for three years which the work permit they get.
00:37:41.240And after that, if the country needs you, like if you are in health care or if you are in trade, if the country needs you, they will take you in.
00:39:35.840I think that government also is taking a good decision if they don't extend the time period as housing crisis and job crisis are at its peak at the moment.
00:39:48.360So I think both the values are appreciated.
00:39:55.520Something I've been hearing is a lot of these students were told by immigration agents and people like that or by the colleges that if you come study here, you will get to stay here forever.
00:40:09.220Do you think people are being told that?
00:40:11.080Yeah, I think that because a lot of immigration consultants just want to make money.
00:40:17.300So that's why they lure students by giving these kind of advertisements that we can get into PR with study and all these kind of stuff.
00:40:28.500And many students come here for that purpose only.
00:40:32.000Yeah, it's absolutely atrocious that these hucksters and hustlers are selling de facto, selling Canadian citizenship for 10 or 20 grand.
00:40:40.940They've become millionaires, but they have choked our country with people who we did not choose to bring here.
00:40:48.020I think that we have to go back to the traditional definition of immigration, which is bringing people into Canada that we choose for our benefit that we can properly absorb and integrate and assimilate.
00:41:02.160And we've been doing that, by the way, for decades.
00:41:05.180It's only in the last 15 years that immigration has raced and only in the last three years that Trudeau has quadrupled it.
00:41:13.800One of the things I still want to learn, I'm going to head back to the conference now, it's just so hot outside, is how do you talk about borders and citizenship and immigration without being called racist?
00:41:25.180It's not racist to have a happy homeland, France for French people, Italy for Italians, the Poles for Poland, Hungary is full of Hungarians.
00:41:36.320Should Canada not be Canadian in nature?
00:41:39.060Should America not be American in character?
00:41:42.140It doesn't mean you can't come here from another place.
00:41:44.700But if you bring in such vast numbers of people with foreign ideas and don't integrate them and assimilate them, don't be surprised if your own country changes.
00:41:55.320I want to learn a few more things before I depart.
00:41:58.620I want to learn how to not be afraid to talk about these things.
00:42:02.020I mean, I'm not particularly afraid, but how do we give ordinary Canadians courage to talk about immigration and citizenship and borders without being called racist?
00:42:13.280It's like we have a bathtub that's overflowing.
00:42:16.540I think step one is you have to turn off the tap and then figure out how to empty the drain.
00:42:23.820I think the most terrifying thing that will come is what we're starting to see in the UK.
00:42:29.140Ethnic enclaves of people who have come over to the UK, some of them decades ago, who simply have not been asked to and have chosen not to become British.
00:42:39.860In the last election, as you know, there were five districts that voted for independent MPs, Jeremy Corbyn, and four Muslim Brits who ran on a Muslim platform, who ran with Gaza as the centerpiece of their campaign.
00:43:01.140But when the only issue you talk about and the only flag you fly is Gaza and you only campaign on Muslim issues because you have an enclave of 30 or 40 percent Muslims, that is not Britain anymore.
00:43:25.820We don't have a dirty reputation we need to launder.
00:43:32.020I would put it to you that neither do America or the UK either, by the way.
00:43:35.700Both countries have done more than anyone else to abolish slavery, which still exists in Africa, the Middle East and Asia.
00:43:41.440But if you really want to apply that Marxist lens of colonization, it's Canada that is now being colonized by foreign people, as the UK is.
00:43:53.360Anyways, it's getting just absolutely hot and scorching out here.
00:43:57.540I think I'm going to go back inside, but I wanted to share with you these thoughts, and hopefully we'll grab a few more interviews today.
00:44:41.360Here's an excerpt from a panel on Islamic immigration, and then I have a sit-down with the speaker, Ben Weingarten.
00:44:49.180So take a look at this from earlier today.
00:44:50.940So my question to you is, why do Jews get to be the only religious group to have a state that was taken from Palestinian Muslims in the entire world?
00:45:07.780And if it is such a legitimate state, then why has it not gotten along with its neighbors like legitimate states do for the past 60 years,
00:45:19.120to the point where even America, under President Trump, tried to initiate peace, and it didn't work, and it still hasn't worked.