Rebel News Podcast - February 08, 2024


EZRA LEVANT ｜ NDP MP introduces bill to make pro-fossil fuel talk illegal


Episode Stats

Length

48 minutes

Words per Minute

163.51851

Word Count

7,921

Sentence Count

574

Misogynist Sentences

9

Hate Speech Sentences

16


Summary

A bill introduced by an NDP MP would make it illegal to talk about fossil fuels in public, and anyone who does so would be fined millions of dollars. It's just the latest in a long line of crazy bills introduced by the left-wing New Democratic Party.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Hello, my friends. I'm going to take you through a crazy private member's bill by Charlie Angus of
00:00:04.620 the NDP. And you might be thinking, Ezra, private member's bill by the NDP, likelihood of that
00:00:08.780 succeeding is very low. Well, you're right. But what it does is it injects an idea into parliament
00:00:14.480 and often these terrible ideas are picked up by the liberals and turned into their ideas and made
00:00:19.120 law. It's an idea to ban promotion of oil and gas. You can't say anything nice about fossil fuels
00:00:26.020 or you may pay millions in fines. I'll take you through the law. But first, let me invite you to
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00:00:35.380 rebelnewsplus.com. Click subscribe. Eight bucks a month. And not only do you get great video content,
00:00:41.600 but you help keep Rebel News strong. We rely on that eight bucks a month to pay our bills because
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00:00:55.080 here's today's show.
00:01:11.940 Tonight, an NDP member of parliament introduces a bill to make it illegal to talk positively about
00:01:18.180 fossil fuels. I'm not kidding. It's February 7th, and this is Ian from LeVant Show.
00:01:22.560 He's ready to feed them. Shame on you, you censorious bug.
00:01:37.680 Charlie Angus is one of the longest-serving MPs in parliament. He's been there 20 years. He's a kook as
00:01:43.660 much as any NDPer is, but because he's in his 60s, he's a bit less woke than the newer crop of NDP
00:01:50.060 MPs. So he's a bit less, let's say, insane on things like Hamas than his newer colleagues are.
00:01:56.500 But I think he's trying to close the crazy gap with the youngsters and take the lead. I'm making light of
00:02:01.960 things, but I shouldn't, because this private members bill that he just introduced, while it's surely doomed to
00:02:08.180 failure, it's going to get dozens of votes in parliament if it comes to a vote, which is uncertain for private members bills.
00:02:15.420 But if it did, we'd get the NDP, we'd get the Greens, we'd get the Bloc, and probably a few liberals.
00:02:21.860 The private members bills, because they're usually doomed to failure, are often ways that ideas are
00:02:27.520 injected into the system for a tryout. What's radical today is edgy tomorrow and conventional wisdom the
00:02:36.160 next day, and then after that, it's the law. And often NDP ideas are taken up by the liberals,
00:02:42.340 who normalize what was once extreme. Trudeau does that a lot, actually.
00:02:47.240 The proposal I'm talking about, introduced by Charlie Angus, is called C-372, the Fossil Fuel
00:02:53.680 Advertising Act. I'm going to read a little bit of it, and then I'm going to play you a clip of
00:02:57.580 Charlie Angus talking about it. It was introduced on Monday. Let's look through it a bit. Here's the
00:03:03.140 preamble. Whereas climate change represents an unprecedented and existential threat to people
00:03:09.080 in Canada and around the world. Is that true, actually? Are we all going to die? When's that
00:03:16.920 supposed to kick in? I thought Al Gore said there wouldn't be snow anymore by now. Is it really an
00:03:21.960 existential threat if everything's sort of the same? Whereas extreme weather events such as the 2021
00:03:29.140 heat dome in British Columbia are already proving deadly in Canada, and according to Health Canada,
00:03:35.020 they are expected to increase in frequency and magnitude during the climate change. Whereas in
00:03:39.840 2023, Canada experienced the worst wildfire season ever, recorded as the country exceeded the largest
00:03:45.280 area ever burned in a year, totaling more than 7.9 million hectares. Yeah, that was pretty bad.
00:03:52.880 And it was arson that did that. So you do you, but maybe the cops should track down that arsonist.
00:03:58.960 Whereas the government of Canada has made international climate commitments to drastically
00:04:04.740 reduce fossil fuel consumption and to reach carbon neutrality by 2050, which requires the timely phase
00:04:10.240 out of fossil fuels. Why do leftists always care about international promises and keeping promises to
00:04:15.720 foreigners as if anyone in any country in the world says, hey, Canada promised to reduce their emissions.
00:04:21.940 I'm mad at Canada for not keeping their promise to me. Do you think a citizen of Senegal or New Zealand
00:04:28.780 or Cambodia has ever said those words in their life? Why do leftists put other countries ahead of
00:04:34.760 their own countries? Whereas the production production in the environment is a valid use of the federal
00:04:40.260 criminal law power. Really? So they want to criminalize views they don't like. It's the same with their proposal
00:04:49.740 to criminalize denial of mass graves at indigenous Indian residential schools. You're not allowed to
00:04:56.380 criticize the narrative. That's a crime they want to do. By the way, good luck with that constitutional
00:05:02.200 jurisdiction of telling Albertans they can't talk about oil and gas. I'll keep reading.
00:05:07.560 Where I'm still in the preamble, by the way, that you can just see it's lie upon lie. Whereas air pollution
00:05:12.240 caused by fossil fuels leads to millions of premature deaths globally, including tens of thousands of
00:05:17.860 premature deaths in Canada alone, and is a major cause of cancer, respiratory illness, adverse pregnancy
00:05:23.780 outcomes, children's diseases, and cardiovascular symptoms. I doubt that very much. Actually, there is
00:05:30.580 air pollution problems in much of the world, but it's not from oil and gas. It's from, in many cases,
00:05:36.220 burning dung, burning things that are not clean fuels, not even burning coal. I challenge those stats.
00:05:44.300 I think it's actually the opposite. If you've ever read some of Alex Epstein's work, he's a fossil fuel
00:05:52.460 advocate. I think he makes a pretty convincing case that life expectancy and fossil fuel consumption
00:05:59.100 go hand in hand. The more fossil fuels you have, the less you're burning wood and dung and other things
00:06:08.500 like that and more. You're cooling your house in the summer, warming it into the winter, transportation.
00:06:15.500 It's just the opposite of what Charlie Angus is saying. And you'd think he'd know. He'd know. I'll
00:06:21.760 get back to that in a minute. I'll keep reading the preamble. Whereas fossil fuel production and
00:06:25.900 consumption has resulted in a national public health crisis of substantial and pressing concern
00:06:30.960 in a way that is similar to the public health crisis caused by tobacco consumption.
00:06:35.160 You just made that up, didn't you? You just made that up. You just you just put those words on a
00:06:41.180 paper. But you can tell they're using health crises for any authoritarianism they were practicing
00:06:46.900 during the pandemic. They're still going through the recitals here. But again, I want to show you
00:06:50.880 what's in their mind. Whereas in 1989, Parliament restricted tobacco advertising and sponsorship to
00:06:57.240 reduce tobacco use to respond to that public health crisis. Yeah, that's true. And I don't know if
00:07:05.080 you notice, though, but pretty much every strip mall in this country has one or even two cannabis
00:07:11.360 stores. And in every major and some minor cities in this country, there's injection sites. So, yeah,
00:07:17.420 if I was Charlie Angus, I wouldn't be boasting too much about how people aren't doing nicotine because
00:07:22.440 they're doing much harder drugs with the blessing of Trudeau and the provincial governments.
00:07:27.260 Whereas in the context of a climate emergency, fossil fuel advertising sends a confusing and
00:07:32.600 contradictory message about the need to originally end Canada's reliance on fossil fuels.
00:07:38.180 Really? Is Canada the problem here? Canada is a rounding error, not even close to 1% of global
00:07:43.840 emissions. How come Canada has to shut down our industry and censor our people? How come China
00:07:49.540 is never mentioned by the liberals or the NDP as a source of emissions, fake emissions, or even real
00:07:56.480 emissions like real pollution? And I think this is the last slide in the preamble.
00:08:00.440 And whereas Parliament is of the opinion that fossil fuel advertising currently deploys techniques
00:08:06.420 which knowingly mislead the public and fail to disclose the health and environmental harms associated
00:08:11.700 with their use, impeding informed consumer decision-making, undermining public support for
00:08:16.140 effective climate action, and delaying the transition to safer, cleaner energy sources.
00:08:22.320 Yeah, yeah, people are fooled by using oil and gas. And if only we would stop the lies, they would throw away their cars,
00:08:32.660 turn off their gas furnaces. And did you see some of the snow in the Atlantic lately? Just check out some of these images.
00:08:40.820 I'm pretty sure they're not being cleared by Teslas or other rechargeable cars. Let me get back to the bill.
00:08:47.540 Now, therefore, His Majesty, by and with advice and consent of the Senate of the House of Commons of Canada,
00:08:54.000 enacts as follows. So I just read through the preamble to show you what their thinking was.
00:08:58.280 Here's the law. Let's get into the law. I'm not going to spend that much time here, but I wanted to show you
00:09:01.860 what was on their mind.
00:09:04.220 This act may be cited as the Fossil Fuel Advertising Act.
00:09:06.660 And then they have some definitions. The following definitions apply in this act.
00:09:11.820 Brand element includes a brand name, trademark, trade name, distinguishing guise, logo, graphic arrangement,
00:09:17.120 design, or slogan that is reasonably associated or evokes a product, a service, or a brand of product or service,
00:09:23.220 but does not include a color.
00:09:25.860 I'm going to skip ahead. I just want to read a couple definitions.
00:09:28.660 Fossil fuel means a fuel that, in whole and in part, is or is derived from petroleum, natural gas, or related hydrocarbons.
00:09:36.740 It excludes a fuel that consists only of non-fossilized, biodegradable, organic material that originates from plants or animals,
00:09:43.660 but does not originate from a geological formation, including gases and liquids that are recovered from the decomposition of organic waste.
00:09:51.880 Hang on a second. How's that fair?
00:09:53.320 If we're trying to fight emissions, why are emissions from other sources banned?
00:09:59.440 I mean, other than the fact that the NDP hates Alberta and oil and gas jobs.
00:10:03.820 Promotion. This is what they're really, this I really want to highlight.
00:10:06.140 This is what they're making illegal.
00:10:09.020 Promotion means a representation about a product or service by any means, whether directly or indirectly,
00:10:14.960 including any communication of information about the product or service and its price and distribution
00:10:20.160 that is likely to influence and shape attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors about the product or service.
00:10:25.400 So, no more coupons, no more five cents off or three cents off, no more advertising on where to get cheaper gas.
00:10:34.020 That's all illegal because that's promotion now.
00:10:37.100 You will pay more. No more coupons.
00:10:39.620 Charlie Angus doesn't think you're paying enough for your gas. Do you think so?
00:10:43.480 Oh, and they hate retailers. That's the thing.
00:10:45.440 They talk about big oil, but look at the penalties they have for the little guy.
00:10:49.500 I mean, when was the last time you went into a gas station?
00:10:52.380 I mean, I go in probably twice a week.
00:10:54.840 And it's always someone who's on a lower rung in the socioeconomic ladder.
00:11:01.720 It's often a new immigrant or it's a kid or someone who's just working their butt off.
00:11:07.000 Sometimes in a graveyard shift, the gas stations that are open 24 hours a day.
00:11:10.900 Have you ever seen anyone work harder than someone who's in a gas station?
00:11:15.120 And they have to deal with crime and surly customers and they're up late and they're on their feet all day.
00:11:22.420 I have a lot of sympathy for a retailer who gets a few pennies at most a liter.
00:11:28.460 But Charlie Angus, who claims to be for the little guy, hates them.
00:11:34.120 Let me read to you the definition.
00:11:35.660 Retailer means a person who is engaged in a business that includes the sale of fossil fuels to consumers.
00:11:42.080 Sell includes offer for sale, expose for sale, and sell for export.
00:11:45.640 So they're going after the little guy.
00:11:47.320 And I'll show you the massive fine.
00:11:48.960 You know what?
00:11:50.340 You take on big oil.
00:11:51.880 I mean, whatever, it's the whole thing's stupid and I'll tell you why, but you're really targeting a mom-and-pop shop.
00:11:58.920 You're targeting that newcomer to Canada who's working at midnight.
00:12:04.100 He's the enemy, is he, because he wants to give you a three-cent off coupon.
00:12:07.900 Charlie Angus is not for the little guy.
00:12:10.780 Okay, reading the law.
00:12:12.220 This act is binding on his majesty and right of Canada or a province.
00:12:15.540 So Charlie Angus is going to ban coupons across Canada and every province.
00:12:19.640 You know, get ready for your constitutional reward there.
00:12:22.560 This guy just doesn't respect the law.
00:12:25.080 He'll be struck down if this ever became law.
00:12:27.800 Purpose of the act.
00:12:28.480 Well, we've already talked about that.
00:12:31.020 The purpose of this act is to provide a legislative response to a national public health and environmental problem,
00:12:37.040 pressing, substantial and pressing concern, and in particular, well, they're going to go on,
00:12:42.820 but they're using that language, pressing and substantial concern.
00:12:45.620 That's the language the Constitution contemplates for seizing our rights.
00:12:49.780 That's exactly the language that was used, pressing and substantial concern, to take away our rights during martial law.
00:12:55.720 They were practicing with the Emergencies Act.
00:12:58.800 They had a COVID emergency.
00:13:00.780 Now they're talking about a climate emergency to suppress your speech.
00:13:04.460 One of the things that they aim to do is to prevent the public from being deceived or misled with respect to the environmental and health hazards of using fossil fuels.
00:13:14.440 Hey, Charlie Angus cares more about you getting the truth than you do.
00:13:18.380 He's more able to discern truth and falsehood than you are.
00:13:22.320 Do you trust him or any other politician?
00:13:24.980 And who's the actual source of disinformation here?
00:13:27.340 By the way, OPEC is probably just delighted with Charlie Angus because he's cracking out on Canadian oil and gas,
00:13:34.860 but obviously not on our foreign competitors.
00:13:37.880 Russia is the winner, as always.
00:13:41.000 D, and to enhance public awareness of those hazards.
00:13:43.900 Now, which hazards are those?
00:13:45.120 Again, which hazards are those?
00:13:47.580 Like I said before, oil and gas is connected, really a one-to-one.
00:13:53.580 And the graphs track, if you want to see how well a society is doing, see what its fossil fuel use is.
00:14:00.880 The healthier, the longer life, the more they use fossil fuels.
00:14:04.980 So here's the hammer.
00:14:06.180 I told you what they were trying to accomplish or why, and here's how they're going to do it.
00:14:10.960 Section 7.
00:14:11.640 Well, I think it's sort of against the law right now to engage in false advertising.
00:14:36.460 I'm not sure what Charlie Angus is saying is false or not, but this next line may help us understand.
00:14:42.560 The general impression conveyed by a promotion and the literal meaning of any statement contained in a promotion
00:14:48.580 are to be taken into account in determining whether a promotion is made in such a manner.
00:14:53.280 Manner of promotion and prohibited elements.
00:14:55.040 It is prohibited for a person to promote a fossil fuel or the production of a fossil fuel, A,
00:14:59.740 in a manner that states or suggests that the fossil fuel is production or its emissions are less harmful than other fossil fuels,
00:15:06.920 their production or their emissions.
00:15:07.940 So stop right there.
00:15:09.140 What if that's true?
00:15:10.060 There are ways to produce fossil fuels that have fewer emissions.
00:15:15.200 Now, I'm not particularly worried about emissions.
00:15:17.120 I don't think that carbon dioxide is a pollutant, but Charlie Angus does.
00:15:21.020 You can have 10 different sources of crude oil with 10 different amounts of sulfur in them
00:15:26.020 or carbon dioxide in them that have 10 different requirements of energy on how they need to be refined.
00:15:32.500 You know, there's West Texas Intermediate.
00:15:35.020 There's Sweet Light Crude.
00:15:37.360 These are names of different types of oil.
00:15:40.060 That refers to how much more refining they need to do, how much sulfur they have in them.
00:15:44.900 It's simply a fact that different types of oil and gas have different environmental footprints,
00:15:49.820 if you care about that sort of thing, which I don't think most people do.
00:15:52.700 And even as between different fossil fuels, they have a different carbon, coal, oil, natural gas.
00:15:59.760 Is Charlie Angus saying you can't say that anymore?
00:16:02.020 B, in a manner that states or suggests that a fossil fuel, the practices of a producer of the fossil fuel industry,
00:16:15.980 would lead to positive outcomes in relation to the environment, the health of Canadians,
00:16:20.440 reconciliation with indigenous people, or the Canadian or global economy.
00:16:24.140 Well, stop right there.
00:16:24.900 What if they do?
00:16:28.060 What if a pipeline proposal is owned, in part, by a group of Indian bands?
00:16:32.800 And they're going to get rich off that.
00:16:36.380 And it's going to give jobs for their people.
00:16:38.760 That's not speculation.
00:16:40.020 That happens quite a lot.
00:16:41.760 You're not allowed to say that.
00:16:43.260 The Indian band itself is not allowed to say that.
00:16:45.840 A lot of proposals for liquid natural gas and pipelines and oil and gas are indigenous proposals,
00:16:51.260 especially in Alberta.
00:16:52.100 If you've ever been in the Fort McMurray, Fort Mackay area,
00:16:55.140 I think the first indigenous billionaire in Canada will, if he's not here already,
00:17:00.260 will surely come from that area.
00:17:02.600 And how is it not a selling point, especially with liberals, to say this is indigenous owned?
00:17:08.000 That's against the law now, if this becomes law.
00:17:11.140 Also against the law by using terms, expressions, logos, symbols, or illustrations that are prohibited by the regulations.
00:17:17.060 So they're going to have more words than they ban.
00:17:18.740 They're just not going to tell you now.
00:17:19.840 And let me get right down to the retailer, because who's going to be the guy slapped with fines and prosecutions?
00:17:25.900 Sales promotions.
00:17:26.720 It is prohibited for a producer or retailer to, A, provide or offer to provide any consideration for the purchase of a fossil fuel,
00:17:34.080 including a gift to a purchaser or a third party.
00:17:36.660 Bonus, premium, cash rebate, or right to participate in a game.
00:17:39.540 Draw a lottery or contest.
00:17:40.940 So no more coupons.
00:17:42.180 No more collect your points.
00:17:43.700 No more Petro points.
00:17:46.180 It's a war on you, the oil consumer.
00:17:48.820 But really, you're not in trouble here.
00:17:51.320 The retailer, if a retail wants to lower their price, they're going to be prosecuted.
00:17:56.240 It's a war against gas station owners, is what it is.
00:17:59.760 Oh, and it's a war against the media.
00:18:02.280 It is prohibited for a person to, on behalf of another person, with or without consideration, publish, broadcast,
00:18:07.440 or otherwise disseminate any promotion that is prohibited by this act.
00:18:10.880 So, newspapers, radio stations, you cannot say gas is cheaper here or three cents, because that's against the law.
00:18:20.620 But look at this.
00:18:22.260 If you're a foreigner, if you're OPEC or Russia, don't worry.
00:18:25.640 Subsection 1 does not apply to the distribution or sale of an imported publication or the retransmission of radio or television broadcasts that originate outside Canada.
00:18:34.900 So, if you watch CNN or Fox or ABC, NBC, CBS, you can get all sorts of ads for American oil and gas or OPEC or Russian oil and gas.
00:18:44.360 That's allowed to be pumped into Canadian airwaves, but Canadian media can't.
00:18:49.540 As usual, they treat foreigners much more gently than how they treat Canadians.
00:18:54.060 It was the same with the carbon tax.
00:18:56.180 Foreign oil exports to Canada are not charged to carbon tax, only Canadian oil.
00:19:00.440 So, I'm almost done.
00:19:01.820 I just want to show you what Angus, Charlie Angus, wants to do to you and society, foreign media.
00:19:08.540 It is prohibited for any person in Canada by means of a publication that is published outside Canada, a broadcast that originates outside Canada,
00:19:15.660 or any other communications that promote a fossil fuel or its production or disseminate promotional material that contains a fossil fuel-related brand element in a manner that's contrary to this act.
00:19:25.220 So, it's basically North Korea.
00:19:26.780 They're building China, the great firewall of China, keeping out those harmful messages from abroad.
00:19:33.360 And now I'm going to get to the crux of it here.
00:19:37.700 So, what does the retailer face?
00:19:39.620 What happens?
00:19:40.600 Well, false promotion.
00:19:42.160 False promotions.
00:20:08.300 If you have a coupon, every person other than a producer who contravenes Section 7 is guilty of an offense.
00:20:15.260 Summary conviction of fine of $750,000.
00:20:17.920 Every retailer who contravenes some Section 9 is guilty of an offense and liability on summary conviction.
00:20:23.520 For first offense, a fine not exceeding $3,000.
00:20:26.220 For subsequent offense, a fine not exceeding $50,000.
00:20:30.080 And, of course, the producers have a much higher penalty as well.
00:20:33.760 But imagine you're a retailer and you're making just a few pennies from every sale and some guy wants to use a coupon.
00:20:40.880 That's a $3,000 hit right there.
00:20:43.400 That's just taking all the profit out of your entire week.
00:20:46.600 But, hey, Charlie Angus gets to feel better.
00:20:49.440 Anyway, I'm going to stop there.
00:20:50.320 I could go on.
00:20:51.080 I think you're getting the feeling here.
00:20:52.640 Here's how Charlie Angus put it himself for two minutes when he announced it at a press conference.
00:20:57.380 Take a look at that.
00:20:57.900 Big Oil has always relied on the Big Tobacco playbook of delay and disinformation.
00:21:04.600 And so to tackle this immense threat to human health, we need to use many of the strategies that finally took down Big Tobacco.
00:21:12.340 In 1997, the Canadian Parliament banned advertising from Big Tobacco because of the clear threat to human health.
00:21:19.200 This is why I'm so proud to stand here today with representatives of Canada's medical community to state that the time has come to ban all oil and gas advertising.
00:21:32.120 The Big Tobacco moment has finally arrived for Big Oil.
00:21:37.020 Bill C-372 will, quote,
00:21:39.740 The legislation will make it illegal to falsely claim that the use of one fossil fuel product is somehow better than another fossil fuel product in improving the environment.
00:22:10.540 To claim that there are clean fossil fuels is like saying there are safe cigarettes.
00:22:14.840 We know that is simply not true.
00:22:18.180 Morgan Stanley points out that the damage from climate crisis for the North American economy in just three years has been a staggering $415 billion.
00:22:27.020 And this legislation will target advertising that falsely claims that oil and gas are having a positive impact on the global economy.
00:22:36.720 And we recently learned that toxic contamination from Canada's oil and gas industry is 6,000 times higher than officially reported.
00:22:47.000 This legislation will make it illegal for Canada's oil and gas giants to falsely identify themselves with the health and positive lifestyles of Canadians,
00:22:56.320 or with reconciliation of Indigenous people on whose lands the toxic contamination is highest.
00:23:03.000 The Big Tobacco moment has arrived for companies like Suncor, Imperial, and the oil and gas giants of Canada.
00:23:11.860 You stopped Big Tobacco, did you?
00:23:14.820 Yeah, no, I don't think you did.
00:23:16.540 I think that tobacco is still on sale.
00:23:18.620 But you're actually trying to stop the sale of oil and gas, which is a bit of a lie.
00:23:24.100 Considering the riding that Charlie Angus represents, it's enormous.
00:23:29.280 It's Timmons James Bay.
00:23:30.680 And I checked.
00:23:31.600 It's so big.
00:23:32.760 It's almost a quarter million square kilometers, which is about almost half the size of Alberta.
00:23:37.500 Like, his district is truly, other than none of it, it's one of the largest districts in the whole country.
00:23:43.080 You can't get around James Bay without, obviously, a car, usually a truck, snowmobiles, airplanes, and boats, none of which are electric.
00:24:00.020 I bet you that Charlie Angus has the largest fossil fuel footprint of anyone in opposition.
00:24:07.300 I won't say the Prime Minister or the Cabinet, because they're always standing around the world.
00:24:10.320 But just going back to his riding around, his riding, I don't think anyone uses fossil fuel more than Charlie Angus.
00:24:16.740 Or he's got to be up there with Nunavut and some of the other northern territories.
00:24:21.440 But imagine the mind that would think up this bill and the demand that it be debated and actually suggest it become more.
00:24:30.840 Charlie Angus thought he was talking about oil and gas, but he wasn't.
00:24:35.560 And he wasn't really talking about health either, was he?
00:24:38.420 He was talking about all the things he thinks he has the right to do to you, if he could.
00:24:49.640 Stay with us for more.
00:24:50.960 Hey, welcome back.
00:25:03.440 I have a theory about conservative institutions.
00:25:06.940 Think about the institutions in the world that are right-wing, whether it's the NFL or a police force or the military or NASCAR.
00:25:17.060 What are the most masculine things?
00:25:19.080 The Boy Scouts might be an example of that.
00:25:21.340 Well, these either must be destroyed by the woke left or, better yet, colonized.
00:25:28.140 And if you colonized, let's say, a police force, you do two things.
00:25:32.520 For example, let's say you bring in a vaccine mandate and you demand that every cop take it.
00:25:38.560 Well, two things are going to happen.
00:25:39.980 First of all, you're going to purge and push out people who are sort of, don't tread on me, conservatives and libertarians, people who are more skeptical.
00:25:47.980 You're going to purge a lot of true conservatives and you're going to entriest a bunch of underminers.
00:25:55.700 Look at the take a knee move in the NFL, which has destroyed a lot of political support and public support for the NFL.
00:26:03.100 Well, I put it to you that that is Justin Trudeau's plan for the Canadian Armed Forces.
00:26:09.880 I see in the news that recruitment is down 19 percent, that I see most coverage says this is a terrible thing.
00:26:18.060 This is not going well.
00:26:19.680 And I thought, no, are you kidding?
00:26:21.880 This is exactly what Justin Trudeau and his advisors wanted to happen.
00:26:27.740 And do you think that tampon dispenser, which Trudeau ordered, be put in military bases, men's rooms, do you think that was just a gimmick?
00:26:38.300 Or do you think it was a flag to push away traditional military recruits to lead the way for who knows well?
00:26:45.900 Well, joining us now is a man with his own opinion on the subject.
00:26:49.020 I'll ask him what he thinks of my pieces.
00:26:50.780 Lorne Gunter is a senior columnist at the Edmonton Sun and other post-media newspapers.
00:26:54.700 And his latest is called Canadian Military in Shambles, thanks to liberals underfunding and woke policies.
00:27:02.700 Lorne, great to see you again.
00:27:04.560 Good to see you.
00:27:06.440 Now, there's a saying, never ascribe to malice what could be explained by stupidity.
00:27:12.560 And I hear that a lot in politics, which is don't cook up a conspiracy theory.
00:27:17.420 The simplest answer is probably the right one.
00:27:19.980 That's called Occam's Razor.
00:27:21.440 Occam's Razor.
00:27:22.040 And this is just, you know, unintended consequences and bad side effects.
00:27:28.020 That's the happy version.
00:27:29.720 I say, no, I bet this was deliberate.
00:27:33.020 What do you think?
00:27:33.980 I don't give them that much credit for that kind of intelligence.
00:27:37.400 They can't sit down and plot this out because they're not that smart.
00:27:42.020 Not because they don't have all of those values and goals that you ascribe to them, but just because, I mean, this is a government that late last year was still taking six months to get new passports out.
00:27:55.560 They are just incompetent, period.
00:27:58.420 They're dense.
00:27:59.420 They haven't a clue.
00:28:01.220 I used to say when I worked on Parliament Hill in the 80s that there were people who didn't know how to organize flatulence at a bean dinner.
00:28:10.160 And these are those people.
00:28:12.160 So, no, are there some people in their advisor's circle?
00:28:19.040 There was a minister's advisory committee that came out two years ago with a plan for getting rid of systemic racism, colonialism, settlerism, white supremacy in the Canadian Armed Forces.
00:28:31.640 Are there some of them who are maybe smart enough to have figured out how to do that?
00:28:35.920 Yes, possibly, but anybody in this government, they just don't have the brainpower to come up with something like that.
00:28:43.220 But they are woke enough and fashionable enough that they would buy into all of this stuff on a very superficial basis and do the same amount of them.
00:28:54.920 By the way, it's happening in other militaries, too, probably not to the same degree.
00:28:58.860 The UK has basically announced we don't want stale, pale males is one of the phrases.
00:29:03.800 In the United States, they're really emphasizing transgender recruitment.
00:29:08.260 But both the British and the American military are so much larger to start with that the erosion of these woke policies, I mean, it's happening, but they're starting from a larger pile.
00:29:19.540 In Canada, we were already depleted.
00:29:21.320 And the other advantage that the Americans and the Brits have over us is that they properly fund or close to properly fund their military.
00:29:30.900 And they give them real tasks, real missions to do.
00:29:35.020 We don't give anybody in our military real missions anymore.
00:29:38.860 You remember when Trudeau came in in 2015, on the night that he won, he said he was announcing to the world that Canada was back.
00:29:45.720 And part of that meant, on the international stage, that we were going to do more peacekeeping.
00:29:53.240 Well, we have done vastly less peacekeeping than the Harper government did.
00:29:57.940 We have done one six-month peacekeeping tour since 2015.
00:30:03.640 And that was in Mali.
00:30:04.780 Because his mom's on vacation there, right?
00:30:06.840 Exactly.
00:30:08.000 And when the UN asked us to extend our mission there, because, of course, the people we send are really good.
00:30:17.020 And they do very good jobs with very little equipment.
00:30:20.460 Old equipment, bad equipment, lots of pieces.
00:30:23.220 But they're so well-trained and they're so intelligent that they do a good job.
00:30:26.760 And when the UN asked us to stay an extra six months, we said, no, we're not going to do that.
00:30:32.140 So, even when the UN asks, these guys can't do peacekeeping.
00:30:36.840 And, of course, they won't do hot war.
00:30:40.480 And the thing that really got me is about a year ago, there was that gigantic earthquake in Turkey and Syria that killed tens of thousands of people.
00:30:49.980 We have two absolutely first-class military hospitals that also deal with, they have bulldovers so they can open roads.
00:31:00.160 And they're called darts.
00:31:02.140 And they are really, really good.
00:31:05.160 We didn't even send those.
00:31:07.240 Like, it just absolutely baffles me.
00:31:10.880 So, maybe, maybe you're right.
00:31:13.480 Maybe there are people deep down in the bowels at the Department of National Defense who are thinking up ways of undermining the military.
00:31:20.680 But I just think that it's this woke party that they're having in Ottawa under Trudeau.
00:31:26.940 And it's really killing our military.
00:31:30.100 You know, we were told at the last NATO meeting, which followed NATO exercises where we couldn't participate because we don't have enough people or equipment.
00:31:39.660 We were told at the last NATO summit that we had better live up to our commitments to go from 1.2% of our GDP on military to closer to 2%.
00:31:52.760 We have, I mean, even Harper made that commitment and never lived up to it.
00:31:56.380 Harper got to about 1.5% and the liberals have now scaled back down to about 1.2%.
00:32:01.640 But we have the lowest percentage of our GDP devoted to the military of any country in NATO.
00:32:07.840 And we just expect that the Americans would defend us if anybody attacked.
00:32:12.440 The Americans will put us in their planes and fly us wherever we need to go if we want to go somewhere.
00:32:16.920 So at the last NATO summit, we were told, in no uncertain terms, I mean, NATO is a bureaucratic, diplomatic organization.
00:32:26.200 They don't say blunt things.
00:32:30.140 They're not tough talkers.
00:32:33.100 But almost as tough as NATO's ever been, they said, look, you have got to start spending on your military.
00:32:41.840 And Trudeau, budget comes out after that and they just ignore it.
00:32:45.160 We're not going to spend any extra money on that.
00:32:47.620 We're going to spend a lot.
00:32:49.280 We're going to spend $200 billion on infrastructure for green programs that aren't reducing emissions at all.
00:32:58.280 We'll give you $8,000 to go out and buy an EV that won't run for you in January and February in much of the country.
00:33:05.720 But we're not going to spend on the military.
00:33:07.960 Their priorities are so screwy that it's really head shaking.
00:33:12.580 It's hard to believe that these are grown-ups who are in charge of a sovereign nation.
00:33:18.460 You know, for years now, certainly since Trudeau's dad was the prime minister back in the 70s, they've been nationalists.
00:33:27.720 Oh, Canada.
00:33:28.420 We are so proud of Canada.
00:33:29.820 Canada is a nation unlike any other in the world.
00:33:33.460 And we are a leader in the world.
00:33:35.460 And we punch above our weight.
00:33:36.640 You've heard them use that term so many times.
00:33:38.800 Well, one of the things that small countries which have sovereignty aspirations do is they properly fund their military.
00:33:48.640 I mean, the Swedes, they're about to join NATO, I think, but they have been neutral now for 70 years.
00:33:55.140 And they realize that part of that is, to maintain their neutrality, they have to have a properly funded armed forces.
00:34:04.000 So they built their own jets.
00:34:05.740 They have their own submarines.
00:34:07.760 They have armored vehicles that are, you know, modern and new.
00:34:15.360 We don't do that.
00:34:16.740 And yet, they keep boasting about how wonderful Canadian sovereignty is.
00:34:22.320 Like, you can't defend your sovereignty.
00:34:23.920 You don't have sovereignty.
00:34:25.600 We were just in Switzerland covering the World Economic Forum.
00:34:29.280 There were a lot of police and military police deployed.
00:34:32.080 But even in other parts of Switzerland, I kept seeing all these military trucks.
00:34:36.600 So it wasn't just Davos.
00:34:37.800 They have a real military because it's what you said.
00:34:40.700 They want to be independent.
00:34:41.720 They want to be neutral.
00:34:42.560 And it's actually part of the culture there.
00:34:45.140 And it actually felt sort of neat.
00:34:47.440 Every adult male and an increasing number of adult females in Switzerland must have an assault rifle in their home in case of an invasion.
00:34:58.840 Wow.
00:34:59.540 Now, they also have one of the lowest gun crime rates in the Western world, despite all of these arms that they have.
00:35:07.040 So that sort of blows the other liberal theory that we hear a lot, and that is lots of guns leads to lots of crime.
00:35:13.480 Well, no, it doesn't.
00:35:14.840 But the Swiss understand that if you are going to defend your sovereignty, everybody, everybody has a role to play.
00:35:23.720 And that includes the government, and it includes funding a proper military.
00:35:27.420 And as we were at the World Economic Forum, and it was sort of an impenetrable fortress, like to get there high in the Alps, and we saw all these windy roads, and we saw all these soldiers.
00:35:38.800 And I thought to myself, it would be really tough to take Switzerland, not that anyone's really aiming for it these days, but 75 years ago they were.
00:35:47.560 And to take those mountain passes with all these, you know, snowshoeing snipers would be a tough trick.
00:35:54.280 I really liked my visit to Switzerland, even though I was there to report on bad dudes.
00:35:58.860 Hey, let me just ask you for a few quick facts, because I was reading your column here.
00:36:02.540 You mentioned that we weren't even able to participate in the largest NATO training exercise in years.
00:36:07.300 Like, we weren't there.
00:36:08.980 That's so embarrassing.
00:36:09.560 There's been some other news lately, for example, a missile system that Trudeau promised Ukraine, and that was said to be on the way.
00:36:19.200 It has not been shipped.
00:36:21.160 I think we promised some leopard tanks.
00:36:24.880 What's the detail on...
00:36:26.400 I mean, Trudeau has really said that he's a super fan of Ukraine.
00:36:31.360 And there's a lot of reasons to say that.
00:36:33.420 There's genuine foreign policy reasons.
00:36:35.920 There's also diaspora politics.
00:36:37.740 We've taken 200,000 Ukrainian refugees.
00:36:40.580 There's a lot going on.
00:36:42.040 But when he says we gave billions in weapons, did he really do it?
00:36:48.800 No.
00:36:50.040 We have given real material aid to Ukraine.
00:36:54.720 But these missiles that they promised, which are basically...
00:36:59.660 We've declared them surplus.
00:37:02.280 They're useless to us.
00:37:03.820 They're too old.
00:37:04.820 We don't think that they're worth maintaining.
00:37:08.040 There's tens of thousands of them.
00:37:10.780 We could give them over to the Ukrainians, who've said they would take them on and they would update the software and they would maintain the physical systems.
00:37:19.040 But, you know, to actually give missiles to combatant is just beyond, I think, where these people, they will give them all sorts of kudos and pats on the back and hail fellow, well met kind of support.
00:37:36.640 But they don't actually come up with a lot of tangible support.
00:37:39.760 We did land some leopard tanks, which is the reason I'm laughing is they asked us if we could, they asked the whole of the West if they could give tanks to Ukraine.
00:37:52.720 And, of course, the Americans had some M1A1 Abrams hanging out in the back that they put on to ships right away and sent them over.
00:38:01.680 And some of them put on planes and sent them over.
00:38:03.500 And the Brits had extras and the Germans, even the Germans had extras that they could give the Ukrainians.
00:38:09.800 We looked around and looked around.
00:38:12.860 We only had four that were serviceable.
00:38:15.920 And I have to admit, I don't know whether we actually sent those four or not, but the embarrassment was we claimed to have over 100 tanks, but really only four of them were functioning.
00:38:27.080 And so we couldn't even send those, I don't think.
00:38:30.160 And no wonder when David Lemetti suggested deploying tanks against the truckers, he only asked for one.
00:38:36.140 That would be a quarter of the entire fleet of tanks.
00:38:39.500 You know, we're laughing because what else can you do?
00:38:42.300 Cry.
00:38:42.760 And, again, you mentioned Pierre Trudeau.
00:38:44.700 And when I think of Justin Trudeau, I think that he was a young boy when his dad was PM.
00:38:51.900 So his memory of what his dad would have said and the meetings that would have happened in 24 Sussex is a child's memory.
00:38:57.980 So he would only have vague outlines.
00:39:00.180 And so if you look at the things he believes in most firmly, it's the things he would have picked up by osmosis from his dad.
00:39:07.820 Hate Alberta, hate the oil patch.
00:39:11.460 Hate America, hate the military.
00:39:14.460 Those were all things years ago.
00:39:16.920 You used to call him the shiny pony, didn't you?
00:39:18.980 That was your term for me.
00:39:21.200 The man is an intellectual lightweight.
00:39:23.280 Like his father or not, and I didn't like his father, you couldn't say about him that he wasn't intelligent.
00:39:31.380 But you can easily make that argument about Justin who just sort of floats on the top of whatever wave is fashionable at the time and never, ever sees the direction or the consequences of his actions.
00:39:45.880 I mean, why would you take an $84,000 free vacation when you know that you've got to figure out that the press is going to be bad on that?
00:39:56.680 The publicity on that is going to be bad.
00:39:58.800 Well, it's because he doesn't ever think through the consequences of what he's doing.
00:40:02.040 He believes he's entitled.
00:40:03.280 He's always done these sorts of things.
00:40:05.360 His daddy's friends have always paid for stuff like that.
00:40:08.020 And so, why wouldn't he continue to do that?
00:40:12.760 And again, I'm going to have a slightly different, darker interpretation than you.
00:40:16.980 It's because he wants to show that he can.
00:40:19.820 He knew what would be good.
00:40:20.600 Yeah, yeah.
00:40:21.000 And they think they can bull their way through this, right?
00:40:27.620 That eventually people will forget about it.
00:40:30.460 If you just keep saying there was nothing wrong, it won't stick to you.
00:40:35.160 And eventually people will forget and you will have had the vacation and not taken a huge political hit over it.
00:40:43.360 I mean, I do think they make that kind of calculation.
00:40:47.020 And they realize that with their base, people in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, and Vancouver, their voters,
00:40:53.420 they would sort of see that as kind of sleek and sexy.
00:40:59.220 He was able to do that.
00:41:00.340 Yeah.
00:41:00.760 I think it's a dominance move.
00:41:02.060 I mean, just today, Francois-Philippe Champagne released a video of him walking with two Canadian astronauts.
00:41:09.140 And let me just show a little clip of this video.
00:41:11.340 The first thing I laughed at was I forgot how short Francois-Philippe Champagne is.
00:41:16.380 And listen, I'm not exactly a super tall guy.
00:41:18.600 I mean, that was the first thing.
00:41:19.640 But the second thing that jumped right out at me is Trudeau greets these two young astronauts.
00:41:24.320 He shakes the hand of the man, but he goes in for a body hug of the woman.
00:41:31.600 And what is that?
00:41:33.300 That's, I'm the man, I can do...
00:41:35.080 He does this to everyone.
00:41:36.440 He did even touch the governor general, which you're not under, you know, protocol etiquette.
00:41:41.760 You're not even supposed to physically touch.
00:41:43.760 The queen, you're not...
00:41:46.360 The monarch, you're not supposed to.
00:41:47.520 But the Gigi, it's not quite as big a...
00:41:50.700 But still, what's he...
00:41:51.480 He puts his hand on her ass.
00:41:52.940 He puts his hand on her lower back.
00:41:55.580 He's so familiar.
00:41:57.320 And I just want to play a quick clip of Trudeau.
00:42:00.320 He meets two strangers for the first time.
00:42:02.640 They are equal in rank and stature and importance and authority.
00:42:05.620 These are our two young astronauts.
00:42:07.780 He shakes one hand and then he goes for the chest to chest hug of the other.
00:42:10.860 Take a quick look at this.
00:42:11.900 I think it's the same thing.
00:42:24.960 I think he's saying, I can hug this woman in a way that would get anyone at a corporation
00:42:31.460 an HR disciplinary warning.
00:42:34.200 The head of the Spanish Soccer Federation would lose his job over a hug like that.
00:42:40.420 You remember that at the Women's World Cup, Spain won, he gave the Spanish team a kiss.
00:42:47.700 Governor Cuomo of New York, one of the most powerful, consequential men, he said,
00:42:51.980 I'm Italian.
00:42:52.640 I like to hug.
00:42:53.400 And he actually does hug a lot.
00:42:55.440 He was driven out because he hugged a staffer.
00:42:57.640 Trudeau, the $84,000 vacation is the same as I'm going to hug this gal on camera and what is she going to do about it?
00:43:07.140 She's going to make a scene in public and it's the same thing.
00:43:11.420 If he were Pierre Polyev and he did the same thing, the CBC, the Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star would have a fit over it.
00:43:22.140 And they would be talking that he should go, that it's inappropriate.
00:43:25.160 But Trudeau also gets away with it because he's on their side of issues.
00:43:30.500 And it's not like they say, oh, we can't say this because he's on our side.
00:43:34.820 They never even think about it.
00:43:36.580 He's just considered automatically to be sensitive and caring in the way they are.
00:43:43.040 And so his actions are not reviewed.
00:43:45.240 They're not judged.
00:43:47.480 They're not looked at under a microscope the way people who are considered to be uncaring and traditional are looked at.
00:43:56.100 And by the way, that hug video was absolutely curated and produced by the government because they know what they're doing.
00:44:02.020 We're talking with Owen Gunter.
00:44:02.980 His latest column is called Canadian Military in Shambles, Thanks to Liberals' Underfunding and Woke Policies.
00:44:09.020 You can read it in the Sun chain of newspapers.
00:44:12.380 Owen, great to see you again.
00:44:13.960 Good to see you.
00:44:14.800 All right.
00:44:15.160 You take care.
00:44:15.700 There you have it.
00:44:16.360 Our favorite guy in the West.
00:44:18.340 Stay with us.
00:44:19.340 More ahead.
00:44:31.660 Hey, welcome back.
00:44:32.640 Your letters to me.
00:44:33.340 The first one is about the three cabinet ministers, Marcy Ian, Karina Gould, and Ya'ara Sachs, agreeing to never again to block Rebel News journalists.
00:44:41.660 I felt good about that.
00:44:42.380 Calico Cat says, I would 100% agree.
00:44:44.680 Marcy Ian is fibbing to Rajit.
00:44:46.360 That's about taking calls from Alberta teenagers.
00:44:48.640 That's weird.
00:44:49.680 I don't feel badly for Rota, as he seemed quite all right with being the scapegoat.
00:44:54.080 Members of government should not be allowed to block people.
00:44:56.560 No one should have to go to the courts.
00:44:58.920 The transparent liberal party are pretty opaque.
00:45:00.800 Yeah, and I say again, these days, getting information from the government is often done online.
00:45:08.660 Yeah, I mean, 20 years ago, you had to telephone or go into an office.
00:45:13.160 These days, you can do a lot by email or website, and Twitter is a source of information.
00:45:17.800 Having them cut you off from that for no reason at all, other than they don't like you politically, is totally unconstitutional.
00:45:25.660 But more than that, I think it shows a hubris, a condescension.
00:45:29.760 We're the ruling class.
00:45:31.000 You're our subjects, and you'll do what we say.
00:45:33.460 Well, this is a democracy.
00:45:34.400 You work for me.
00:45:35.920 Anyhow, I don't know how many of these liberals we're going to have to sue, but I'm going to sue everybody one of them.
00:45:39.520 Jen Zabel says, Danielle Smith is offering more government-covered care for people suffering from gender issues than were available prior.
00:45:48.520 Yeah, exactly.
00:45:49.640 I mean, if you actually look at what she's doing, she says she wants more trans doctors in Alberta to take care of trans patients.
00:45:57.300 All she's doing is saying, you're not going to have little children doing this stuff, and you're not going to do it behind the back of parents.
00:46:03.940 Oh, and by the way, sports, you can have a transgender league.
00:46:06.840 You can't beat up women anymore.
00:46:08.160 One of the things that came out was that her policy is actually more liberal and more lenient in some ways than Justin Trudeau's policy in regards to the public service.
00:46:17.560 So this is all just, I mean, do you think they mean it?
00:46:20.740 I'm impressed with how some of these pro-trans politicians literally cry on demand.
00:46:26.460 I don't know if they actually mean it.
00:46:27.840 I'm sure some of them are emotionally fraught people.
00:46:29.680 But if they actually look at what Danielle Smith proposed, no secrets from parents, no irreversible surgery till the kids are grown-ups, and no beating up girls in women's sports, that's got to have 80%, 90% support.
00:46:46.080 I don't know if the journalists really are against it if they just say, oh, this is something to insult and attack a conservative politician.
00:46:53.140 Either way, I'm glad to see Danielle Smith is sticking to her guns.
00:46:56.620 On the liberals' expense of retreat, Canadian citizens says retreat seems to be the most appropriate liberal word these days.
00:47:02.580 In the polls, federal court cases, media presence of representing actual Canadians' needs, they retreat.
00:47:08.120 Yeah, they can't retreat fast enough for me, though.
00:47:10.760 You know what?
00:47:11.260 People often ask me, when will the next election be?
00:47:13.820 Now, of course, I don't know that, but under our constitutional system, Trudeau could theoretically go a full five years.
00:47:21.000 That's very rare for that to happen in Canada.
00:47:23.120 Four years is typically as long as it goes.
00:47:25.820 And if you recall, the elections were 2015, 2019, and 2021.
00:47:29.800 So we've had three elections in less than nine years.
00:47:33.520 So it's typically every three years, which tells me that we're going to have an election this year.
00:47:39.200 But why wouldn't Trudeau stretch it out if he's still 20 points back in the polls?
00:47:43.700 I mean, he doesn't care.
00:47:44.980 So we'll have to see.
00:47:45.840 But we'll, in the meantime, keep holding his feet to the fire.
00:47:49.000 That's our show for today.
00:47:50.960 Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home, good night.
00:47:55.460 And keep fighting for freedom.
00:47:56.480 We'll be right back.