EZRA LEVANT ｜ Steven Guilbeault, Trudeau's environment minister, gives money to Steven Guilbeault’s old lobby group to fight against Canadian SUVs
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
164.94855
Summary
A convicted criminal who went on to become Trudeau s environment minister. And today I learned he s steering money back to his old lobby firm. I ll take you through and you ll be grossed out what the money is for. That s on today s show.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
Hello, my friends. Today I talk about a convicted criminal named Stephen Gilbert Bow, who went on
00:00:04.880
to become Trudeau's environment minister. And today I learned he's steering money back to his
00:00:11.160
old lobby firm. I can't believe that. I'll take you through and you'll be grossed out what the
00:00:16.100
money is for. That's on today's show. But let me invite you to become a subscriber to Rebel News
00:00:20.320
Plus. It's a video version of this podcast. It's eight bucks a month. You get my daily video show,
00:00:25.700
weekly video shows from four of my colleagues. So you add it all up. That's, you know, nine shows
00:00:33.220
a week. That's 36 shows a month for eight bucks. Like that's just pennies a show. It's half the
00:00:41.740
price of Netflix. And you know, even if you don't have time to watch it all, could I invite you to
00:00:48.160
do it anyways? You know why? Because that eight bucks a month might not seem like a lot to you,
00:00:51.820
but it's really what we rely on here at Rebel News, because we don't take any of that Trudeau
00:00:55.560
media bailout money. So please go to rebelnewsplus.com and click subscribe. I appreciate it. All right,
00:01:15.600
Tonight, Stephen Gilbeau, Trudeau's environment minister, gives money to Stephen Gilbeau's old
00:01:21.100
lobby group to fight against Canadian SUVs. It's May 10th and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.
00:01:29.220
Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?
00:01:32.920
There's 8,500 customers here and you won't give them an answer.
00:01:36.980
The only thing I have to say to the government about why I'm publishing it is because it's my
00:01:48.560
You know, I believe in second chances. I really do. I've had a few in my day.
00:01:52.600
People can change. Maybe it doesn't happen often, but they can. So just because Stephen
00:01:58.200
Gilbeau, the convicted criminal seen here, is a convicted criminal doesn't mean that he can't
00:02:05.060
reform himself, become a positive contributor to society. Except that if you're a convicted
00:02:11.320
criminal like he is, you have to come to terms with that to understand why what you did was wrong
00:02:18.100
and genuinely believe that and genuinely change. There has to be contrition, maybe some restitution.
00:02:24.840
I don't know. Of course, Stephen Gilbeau was not contrite. After his arrest and conviction,
00:02:31.260
he was jubilant. It was a media stunt for Greenpeace. It made a ton of money for Greenpeace,
00:02:38.200
his lawbreaking. And he tricked the judge. Here's how the Globe and Mail reported his arrest at the
00:02:44.440
time. I'll read. Greenpeace takes Kyoto protests to new heights. I don't think this cheapens it at all,
00:02:52.520
Mr. Gilbeau said before he was rescued. Our goal was to come here, climb and get our message out.
00:02:57.980
And that's what we did. It was a difficult climb, Mr. Gilbeau said. I've done climbing actions for
00:03:05.260
Greenpeace in the past, but nothing this high. So he was excited about what he had done. He was thrilled
00:03:11.000
about his planned crime when he was caught. He loved it. And here's the Globe and Mail continuing the
00:03:19.540
report after he was convicted and sentenced. CN Tower climbers ordered to pay costs.
00:03:27.560
Two Greenpeace activists who scaled the CN Tower last summer and unfurled a massive banner in a stunt
00:03:33.300
that drew international media coverage pleaded guilty yesterday to public mischief.
00:03:38.660
Britain Christopher Holden, 24, and Montrealer Stephen Gilbeau, 32, received conditional discharges
00:03:45.500
and agreed to pay $3,000 to the tower's corporate owner as compensation for the security and staff
00:03:51.140
costs it incurred. Although a prosecutor told an Ontario court judge the two men were remorseful,
00:03:58.640
both expressed jubilation outside court about having drawn public attention to global climate change and
00:04:05.220
the need to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Oh, so they lied about remorse and the prosecutor went along
00:04:11.320
with it. They literally said what they needed to say to stay out of jail. Tell the judge whatever
00:04:16.180
he needs to hear. And once they had fooled the judge, once they tricked him, they reverted to their
00:04:21.260
real selves. Is that perjury? I wonder. Mr. Gilbeau told reporters that the climb helped raise public
00:04:29.240
awareness about climate change, and he believes it influenced Prime Minister Jean-Claude Chen's decision
00:04:34.220
to commit Canada to ratifying the Kyoto Accord on global warming. Mr. Gilbeau was placed on one
00:04:41.420
year's probation in order to perform 100 hours of community service in Montreal, where he works for
00:04:47.420
Greenpeace, and pay $1,000 of the $3,000 restitution. That's a pretty good deal. Break the law, no fine,
00:04:55.000
no jail, just pay a few bucks to CN for their costs, 100 hours community service. I bet he just called his
00:05:01.420
Greenpeace lobbying community service. I bet he called his crime community service. I bet that's
00:05:07.060
what he did. An unrepentant, unreformed criminal who lied to the courts to get an easy sentence,
00:05:13.620
who broke the law with impunity. Sounds like a Trudeau man. Well, of course, he's the environment
00:05:20.120
minister now. And a communist is a communist. He has not reformed himself. He's done the opposite.
00:05:26.880
He's learned how to game the system. Gilbeau actually went on to start his own lobby group
00:05:32.460
called Équiter, sort of a Quebec version of Greenpeace, but more radical. That's what he was
00:05:38.580
doing for a living before he ran for politics for Trudeau. And being an unethical criminal,
00:05:43.880
it won't surprise you that as environment minister, he steers funding to his old lobby group. Look at
00:05:50.780
this. This is Équiter's website. Équiter launches an awareness campaign of the impacts of large
00:05:57.820
vehicles. It's a campaign against SUVs. Here's their slogan. It loses something a bit in English.
00:06:04.960
The translations are clunky. But their new campaign is, no SUV for me. The main complaint, of course,
00:06:11.740
is that SUVs consume more gas and therefore have more emissions in smaller cars. Well, of course,
00:06:18.300
a car uses more gas than a motorbike, too. But the war against SUVs is actually just a war against
00:06:24.040
a family. If you're a single person, a political activist who lives in the downtown of a big city
00:06:30.020
that has public transit, you hate SUVs for political and aesthetic reasons. But if you are a family who
00:06:37.220
lives in the suburbs where there's no subway and you have children, maybe take the kids to hockey
00:06:43.420
practice or girl guides or maybe go shopping at Costco and have a lot of stuff to take home and
00:06:49.480
using a bus or a subway isn't even an option, SUVs are a godsend. They're really just this generation's
00:06:55.600
version of a minivan, station wagon. But I want to point out to you this at the bottom. Scroll down
00:07:03.940
to the bottom of this campaign page. Look at this. The No SUV for me campaign is coordinated by Equitair
00:07:10.840
with financial support from the government of Canada? What? So the government of Canada, the environment
00:07:18.400
department, presumably, Gilboa's budget, presumably, they're funding this anti-SUV propaganda?
00:07:25.400
And other weird supporters, let me read, collaborating partners include Access Transport,
00:07:30.980
Veilable, the Automobile Protective Association, CAA Quebec, the Canada Research Chair in the Mobility of
00:07:37.100
People, the David Suzuki Foundation, the Fondation Quebecoise d'Education en Securité Routière,
00:07:43.880
HEC Montreal, Option Consumateurs of Piets en Quebec. Sorry, my accent's terrible. But the CAA,
00:07:50.200
that's the Canadian Automobile Association. They're against SUVs now? Is that what they're doing
00:07:56.220
with their members' membership fees? Attacking their members? HEC Montreal, I googled it,
00:08:00.900
it's a business school. So, more government money, really? Canada Research Chair, more government
00:08:06.780
money, really? So this is a government attack on SUVs, which really means on SUV drivers,
00:08:13.060
families. Well, I have an idea. How about Gilboa and the rest of the cabinet?
00:08:19.200
Lead by example. Here is a list of ministerial vehicles disclosed by the Trudeau government a few
00:08:26.340
months ago. They dropped more than a million bucks on cars for cabin ministers. And, of course,
00:08:31.540
they each have their limo driver, too. Lots of Toyota Highlanders, Ford Explorers. Most of the
00:08:38.080
vehicles on this list are SUVs. And not the little ones, either. The people who are chauffeured around
00:08:43.680
in SUVs are telling you not to drive SUVs. They're probably the same ones feasting on steaks while telling
00:08:49.900
you eat to eat bugs, living in big mansions while telling you to live in a pod. Yeah. I don't know
00:08:56.940
if you saw this story. Trudeau is contemplating a new tax on trucks. Of course he is, because it's a
00:09:02.900
vengeance against the truckers who embarrassed him politically. I bet that was his reasoning.
00:09:07.360
So he's going to tax trucks. Not like that won't be passed on. You know, everyone is, I mean, is there a
00:09:17.700
single thing you buy in a store, whether it's food or clothing or toys or books or even gasoline itself
00:09:25.380
that hasn't been brought in on a truck? So, yeah, tax trucks. That'll show them. Trudeau raises the
00:09:32.860
carbon tax every year already. Why not tax trucks, too? I mean, it's not like he and his
00:09:37.060
cabinet pay those taxes when they ride in their SUVs paid for by you. Taxpayers cover those costs.
00:09:43.240
It's just weird. It's just weird. Here's Trudeau making an announcement of $110 million in tax money
00:09:52.720
that he's giving to a Toyota factory to make RAV4s. I don't know if you know what that is. It's an SUV.
00:10:00.520
What are we doing? You know, Toyota made $20 billion U.S. profit.
00:10:07.060
In the last nine months. So they're on track for what, like a $25 billion a year in profit?
00:10:11.960
And Trudeau thought it was so important that they make SUVs in Canada that he gave him $110 million
00:10:17.560
of your money to make SUVs. So money to make SUVs, but also tax money to stop SUVs, to attack them?
00:10:27.620
He really is stupid. Or maybe Trudeau's not stupid. Maybe we're the stupid ones.
00:10:33.680
Abiding Trudeau and his convicted criminal environment minister, who's still shoveling money back to his
00:10:42.240
own personal lobby group. Yeah, I take that back. Trudeau's not the stupid ones. We are. Stay with us for more.
00:10:48.960
In recent weeks, there's been a lot of bragging by the Pentagon about Ukrainian military victories
00:11:02.080
over Russia. Americans took some credit in the media for the sinking of the capital ship,
00:11:08.600
the Moskva, which was a disaster for the Russian Navy. And the Pentagon also took credit
00:11:14.520
for targeting Russian generals for Ukrainian attacks. A large number of senior ranking Russian military
00:11:23.340
officials have been killed. And America was taking credit for it, doing a bit of a victory lap.
00:11:28.980
I'm worried about that, that that will cause an escalation with Mothscow. But it also shows perhaps
00:11:34.900
one of the rationales for America's support for Ukraine is that Russia, thinking it would be a quick
00:11:41.740
victory as it had in the past in Ukraine and in Georgia, has become trapped again, sort of like
00:11:46.940
it was in Afghanistan. And the entire Russian military will be worn out, burnt up, that there
00:11:53.600
will be casualties and sinkings and crashes, and a large number of their tanks and planes will be
00:11:59.220
destroyed. Maybe the American position does make some sense, even if Ukrainians themselves are
00:12:07.080
the cannon fodder for it. I don't know. There's so much disinformation going around. But it's one of
00:12:12.460
the things on my mind when I look at China, and it's increasingly bellicose language in respect of
00:12:19.320
Taiwan. Now, it's very different. It's not a land war. It would be a sudden shock invasion over the sea
00:12:27.180
and air. I don't know if Taiwan could hold off the Chinese military in the same way the Ukrainians have
00:12:34.960
been able to. I don't know if America could restock Taiwan with high-tech weapons systems the way it
00:12:42.300
has been restocking Ukraine. But I do know that China has been increasingly vocal and dramatic in
00:12:49.780
its threats. There was a major incursion over Taiwanese airspace in recent days. I'm very worried
00:12:56.780
about this. And so it was that I saw this article in Newsweek magazine, written by our friend Gordon
00:13:04.200
G. Chang. The subject line of the essay is China now preparing to invade Taiwan. And of course,
00:13:12.900
Gordon Chang is one of the leading experts in China in the Western world. He's the author of the book
00:13:18.520
The Coming Collapse of China. You can follow him on Twitter at Gordon G. Chang. And he joins us now
00:13:25.120
via Skype. Gordon, it's a pleasure to see you again. Thanks for making the time for us. You and I have
00:13:30.700
talked about China's ambitions in Taiwan before. I think they're at a fever pitch. I really don't
00:13:36.820
think they've been this aggressive before, both rhetorically and in probing Taiwan's airspace and
00:13:43.240
actually with naval actions, too, that seem designed to keep Americans out. Do you think they're actually
00:13:49.040
going to invade? I think that they will invade at some point, but not now. This year is a very
00:13:57.300
politically sensitive one for Xi Jinping, the Chinese ruler. He wants a president breaking third term as
00:14:03.260
general secretary. And the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party, if tradition holds, will be
00:14:10.240
held in October or November. But after that, anything can happen. Now, Ezra, there are hundreds of reasons
00:14:17.420
why China should not invade Taiwan. But those are like in a rational world. The Communist Party lives in a
00:14:25.640
different world than we do, different galaxy. So I'm very concerned that they can take us by surprise.
00:14:31.600
They've got a number of things going on, which we can't see because the political system has become
00:14:36.760
less transparent. So there is a real possibility that they would make some military move on Taiwan.
00:14:43.840
You know, one of the big issues in Europe in dealing with Russia is Europe's dependence
00:14:51.020
on Russian oil and even more on Russian natural gas. And, you know, Germany itself,
00:14:57.920
more than a third of their energy comes from Russia. So how do you put sanctions on an enemy that
00:15:05.160
supplies you a third of your energy? I mean, if you put sanctions on them, are you not actually
00:15:09.900
punishing yourself? Well, Russia is small economically compared to our integration with China. And it's
00:15:17.900
almost unthinkable if we were even to try to put economic sanctions on China. I mean, I learned
00:15:25.100
during the pandemic that more than 90 percent of our medicines are made in China. Just for one example,
00:15:32.080
so much of our technology comes from China, even our food, so much of our logistics. So I wonder,
00:15:40.960
is China actually immune to some of the economic and political sanctions that are being used against
00:15:47.500
Russia? Some people in Beijing think that China is, in fact, immune and that the United States and
00:15:53.580
others would not sanction China for the reasons you talk about. And that is extremely dangerous. Now, I think
00:16:00.320
the Chinese are extraordinarily dependent on the U.S. and others, because they right now got an export
00:16:06.620
dependent economy. They need money because of the debt crisis. And they're short of food. But nonetheless,
00:16:14.940
Chinese arrogance right now is breathtaking. And I think the gap between China's abilities and what
00:16:22.520
the Chinese actually think they can do is really something that should make us concerned that they
00:16:27.620
would make a grab for Japan, Philippines, India, Taiwan, could be any number of different victims.
00:16:35.020
How is the military balance? I mean, the Chinese Navy in particular has had great advances. They're
00:16:43.400
getting used to using their operational aircraft carrier and they have more on the way. I mean,
00:16:49.040
they're replacing their old, you know, Cold War era fighter jets with modern jets, some of which
00:16:55.260
look like they were just ripped out of the American blueprints. I mean, I don't think the entire
00:17:01.240
people's liberation army is modern and ready to fight. But I think there's a percentage of it that
00:17:06.940
is probably almost on par with the American military. But the advantage is it's just across the
00:17:13.640
narrow strait from Taiwan. And like at least Ukraine abuts the rest of Europe. There's trains,
00:17:22.000
there's trucks. I mean, Taiwan is so far away from being resupplied. Biden just said he's going to send
00:17:29.340
another 40 billion or so to Ukraine. I know how it can get there. If America were to say we're going
00:17:34.200
to give 40 billion to Taiwan, I actually don't know how it would physically get there. I'm worried
00:17:39.980
that Taiwan could not stand a lengthy battle with China. Maybe I'm saying the obvious. What do you
00:17:46.260
think? Well, there's a lot there to talk about. Some of China's weapons are actually better than
00:17:52.020
America's. So for instance, their cruise missiles, they travel faster, they got longer range. And that's
00:17:58.160
critical because that can keep the U.S. Navy away from Taiwan, which goes to your point about can we
00:18:03.860
resupply the island. And because of that, I think the United States needs to pre-position weapons on
00:18:09.880
Taiwan and actually needs to put troops there as a tripwire. We were surprised, of course, about Russia
00:18:16.800
invading Ukraine. And we should not be surprised about Taiwan. You know, the idea of resupplying Ukraine,
00:18:25.420
that's great. But it would have been better if the Biden administration and the Trump administration
00:18:31.440
had actually put more weapons into Ukraine and more training. So this is something, a mistake we should
00:18:37.980
not make twice. Now, I don't want this to be partisan because this is something that should concern anyone,
00:18:44.800
Democrat or Republican or in our country of any party. I mean, I have such a sympathy for Taiwan.
00:18:50.640
The democratic reforms it has made, the economic liberty, I just have such a soft spot for it.
00:19:00.020
I'm worried that it's going to be devoured. For whatever criticisms there are of Donald Trump,
00:19:05.640
I don't think that some of the world's bad actors had the courage to make a bold move because they had
00:19:11.040
no idea what Trump would do. In fact, his very impulsiveness was a sort of a deterrent because you
00:19:18.220
just didn't know what Trump would do, but you knew he would do something. And in the form of Joe Biden,
00:19:23.360
who looks like he's in some cognitive decline, who doesn't look physically or mentally sharp,
00:19:30.300
who uses language of appeasement, he ran away from Kabul. You know, I think his weakness was a
00:19:38.480
provocation of sorts to Putin. I'm worried that Biden himself, who's going to be in office for a couple
00:19:44.440
more years. I'm worried that the Chinese look at him and say, ah, he's not going to do anything.
00:19:50.260
Yes, that's right. You know, to your point about Trump, it was his unpredictability that unnerved
00:19:55.800
China. And I think it also unnerved Putin. It's no coincidence that Putin went after Crimea in the
00:20:02.700
Obama administration, and it's went after the rest of Ukraine in the Biden administration.
00:20:07.500
You know, the Chinese, they can deal with hostile American leaders, but the one thing they can't deal
00:20:13.840
with is someone they cannot predict. And so it is the impulsiveness that was the deterrent. With Biden,
00:20:21.100
right now, we've got to be concerned about one thing, and that is you have Russia, China, and North Korea
00:20:28.480
threatening to use their nuclear weapons, not as deterrence, but as offensive weapons. And this really
00:20:35.860
means that the whole idea of deterrence is broken down. As Henry Kissinger said on Saturday, we live in a
00:20:43.900
totally new era. And that era is not one of the calm and general peace after the Cold War. It's one, I
00:20:51.040
believe, of constant turbulence. So we have hit an historic inflection point. And it looks like we could
00:20:57.460
transition from the best moment in history to the worst.
00:21:00.140
Oh, my God. Let me ask you about Shanghai, a wonderful city, one of the most open-minded
00:21:06.960
Western cities in, Western-oriented, free-thinking cities, if I may say so, in China. A wonderful
00:21:13.900
place. Absolute lockdowns over COVID. Like, it's just such extreme video. And I know some of it's
00:21:22.460
disinformation and some of it's hoaxes. But the word we're getting back here, even from Western
00:21:28.360
expats in Shanghai, suggested it's a devastation what's happening. The lockdowns, that is. I'm not
00:21:34.860
referring to COVID itself. Why is China doing that? Do they believe in COVID zero? Like, it just seems
00:21:45.880
odd because they really came out of their lockdowns very early. They were out of their lockdowns by 2020.
00:21:51.080
It was only the West that had Fauci's, I don't know, you know, double mask and, you know,
00:21:58.920
six feet of separation. Like, it seemed to me that China got out of the lockdowns very early. But now
00:22:04.340
they're back harder than ever. What's going on? There are three things. First of all, China does
00:22:10.860
not have an effective vaccine, even against Delta and the prior variants. It has no defense against
00:22:17.500
Omicron BA2, the subvariant that is now ripping through Shanghai, Beijing, and many of the cities
00:22:23.580
on the eastern part of the country. Second thing is that Xi Jinping, as I mentioned, wants that third
00:22:30.740
term as general secretary. He's known as the author of the dynamic zero COVID policy. And he's not
00:22:38.100
allowing any criticism because he believes that any adjustment in the policy would be like giving a
00:22:43.580
dagger to his political opponents. And he's not about to do that. And the third thing is a general
00:22:49.320
Communist Party consideration. In the early months of the pandemic, go back to the beginning of 2020,
00:22:56.700
the Communist Party made the point that its control of coronavirus showed that its form of governance was
00:23:02.780
superior to democracy, and particularly American democracy. So every case, every death is a basically
00:23:11.420
a threat to Communist Party legitimacy. And that means that they'll do anything possible,
00:23:17.760
even the most draconian, even the most ridiculous, in order to keep their case numbers down. And so we're
00:23:23.780
seeing the confluence of those three factors. Let me ask you one last question. I'm so grateful for
00:23:29.700
your time. You've mentioned twice now that Xi Jinping is up for, I'm not going to call it really an
00:23:35.320
election, but it is an election from the party poobahs. It's not an election of a billion free
00:23:40.980
citizens casting their vote in a multi-party democracy, but it's the insiders through their
00:23:47.180
politburo, I guess. And tell me a little more about that and tell me who the rivals are, who, if it's not
00:23:54.160
Xi Jinping, is there someone else waiting in the wings? Are they more authoritarian than him? Are they more
00:24:01.740
reformists than him? Give us some Kremlinology, if I can use a Cold War term.
00:24:08.540
Right now, Xi Jinping, actually for the last five years, even longer, has made sure that there are no
00:24:15.300
rivals who can take over. The Communist Party has some guidelines as to who can become general
00:24:20.920
secretary. He's made sure that nobody fits those guidelines. Now, the answer to your question is
00:24:26.780
anybody could take over. And, you know, when you look back at two millennia of Chinese history,
00:24:33.100
some of the most unlikely characters have risen up to become emperor. So the answer to your question,
00:24:40.540
I suppose, is that there's 1.41 billion people who could, you know, any one of them could become the
00:24:46.340
next leader of China. But it's very dangerous right now because Xi Jinping has fundamentally changed the
00:24:53.860
political system. He inherited a consensual form of government where every important decision was
00:25:01.060
shared across the Politburo Standing Committee, which is the highest body in the Communist Party,
00:25:05.660
and even across the wider Politburo. Now he's turned it into a one-person system. And at the same time,
00:25:14.120
Ezra, he's also increased the cost of losing a political struggle. So he's got a very low threshold
00:25:20.200
of risk. And we have seen, for instance, in this last week, dueling statements. Xi Jinping on Thursday
00:25:26.900
doubling down on zero COVID. And on Saturday, Li Ka-chong, the premier, the head of the Chinese
00:25:33.180
central government, actually talking about stabilizing the employment situation. Well,
00:25:38.860
you can't do both. And so there is now, even in public, evidence that there is extreme discord at
00:25:46.500
the top of the Communist Party. Very interesting. Gordon, we're in your debt. Your knowledge is so
00:25:52.020
deep and wide on these subjects. We're grateful to you. Let me recommend Gordon's latest piece in
00:25:57.120
Newsweek magazine. The title is China Now Preparing to Invade Taiwan. So many facts in there. And of course,
00:26:04.500
as always, I recommend Gordon's book, The Coming Collapse of China. And I follow Gordon on Twitter. And if
00:26:11.280
you're on Twitter, you absolutely must. If there's one source for China news and views, let it be
00:26:16.560
Gordon G. Chang on Twitter. Great to see you, my friend. I'm always grateful when you jam us in
00:26:21.620
your busy schedule. We learn so much. Take care and stay safe. Well, thank you so much, Ezra. And you
00:26:26.700
too. Thank you. All right. Stay with us. Your letters to me next.
00:26:30.220
Hey, welcome back. Your viewer mail RT says, in current times, business success is based on how
00:26:45.180
much fiat currency access they have, either by affinity to ruling political party because of
00:26:50.460
donations or receipt of stimulus or bailout packages. You know, I'm not sure exactly what you mean, but
00:26:56.480
here's what I think. There's a lot of companies in Canada that get bailouts from the government.
00:27:02.340
Earlier today, I told you about how Trudeau gave $110 million to Toyota, which is one of the richest
00:27:07.460
companies out there. But if you give $110 million to Toyota, it's not going to change how they make
00:27:14.340
their car. Their car will be the same. They're not going to change how they sell their car or the color
00:27:18.820
of the car. Nothing will change other than taxpayers are on the hook for it. I think with most businesses,
00:27:24.780
it's that same way. They're really not going to change what they do just because they got a government
00:27:29.100
grant, like a clothing company or a restaurant. But of all the industries in the world that will
00:27:36.860
be changed, that must be changed when the government gives them money, journalism is probably the most
00:27:42.700
changeable. And that's why they're giving them money. If the center of your work as a news journalist
00:27:48.880
is to report on Justin Trudeau and the federal government, and Justin Trudeau and the federal
00:27:53.440
government gives you a bailout, you will change your product more than almost any. I can't even
00:27:58.940
think of another industry that would change their product more. Like I say, Toyota is not changing
00:28:03.160
what its RAV4 looks like because Trudeau gave them $110 million. But you give the National Post or the
00:28:08.720
Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star, $110 million from Trudeau. They are absolutely going to change
00:28:13.540
their product. That's why David Skok of the logic is a bit of a fibber.
00:28:18.260
Eric Ochico says, I don't see a problem with him taking a one-time grant from the government. It's
00:28:24.560
free money to be taken. It's only a problem if you rely on that cash yearly like the Toronto Star,
00:28:29.020
etc. I think Ezra needs to get off his high horse and give the guy a break. Ezra is looking more
00:28:35.040
masculine these days. Is he hitting the gym? Is that the same letter? Well, you know what? I don't want
00:28:41.680
to raise expectations, but I actually am hitting the gym. You can't even believe it. I'm about to say
00:28:46.760
six times a week. And so I don't know if it's making any difference, but six days a week I go
00:28:54.900
in at 7.30 in the morning. Now I don't know if it's making a difference, but thank you. But to answer
00:28:59.260
your question, like I say, there is no way that journalism cannot be changed by government giving
00:29:06.280
it money. But more to the point, none of these grants are one-offs. They are annual. And in that
00:29:13.260
video I referred to yesterday, David Skok was arguing for more money. Because when you start
00:29:18.320
to be a grantrepreneur instead of an entrepreneur, when you start to change your whole thinking to
00:29:24.200
what can I get for free? What can I beg from government? You're on an endless conveyor belt
00:29:29.400
of begging and them giving and begging and giving. And pretty soon you're merged and you're a government
00:29:34.300
man. JR says Russia has already stated both Canada and Finland are next on their hit list.
00:29:43.680
Well, I don't know who in Russia stated that, but it does worry me. You know, the Pentagon has bragged
00:29:52.580
about helping to sink that Russian major ship called the Moskva. And the Pentagon has bragged
00:29:59.360
about killing Russian generals. That's sticking your, you know, that's poking them in the eye with
00:30:07.000
a stick. That is flaunting and taunting. And I don't know if Vladimir Putin makes decisions
00:30:13.080
emotionally and impulsively, or even just in a tit-for-tat way. But if you've got Americans
00:30:20.500
and Canadians being deeply involved in military affairs against Russia, do not be shocked if they
00:30:29.360
retaliate. I am nervous about it. That's our show for today. Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us
00:30:37.640
here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home, good night. And keep fighting for freedom. And let me
00:30:41.560
leave you with our video of the day, our friend David Manzies.
00:30:43.780
Ottawa police arrest a demonstrator and tow his bus twice from a private parking stall
00:30:53.540
for blowing bubbles? Sounds like a perfect David Manzies story. So I'll leave with that.
00:30:59.000
Well, folks, I'm with freedom fighter Jim Kerr. And we've interviewed Jim on several occasions,
00:31:04.800
but he had a very rude welcoming to Ottawa going back to Friday. Jim had his famous bubble bus
00:31:12.840
towed not once, but twice. Right now, I think it is safe in a church parking lot, but these days
00:31:20.520
in Ottawa, who knows? Jim, why in the world did Ottawa police tow your vehicle? Is blowing bubbles
00:31:27.720
illegal in Justin Trudeau's Ottawa these days? I'm quite confident that he does not like bubbles.
00:31:33.600
First day on Ottawa Insight, we were at Metcalfe and Slater, the same place where we were for half of
00:31:39.300
the Ottawa thing in January. The police came in. There was about a dozen police. Three of the owners
00:31:44.340
of the lot came down and said, yes, police, we would like you. We're not going to open the lot this weekend.
00:31:49.780
We want everybody out. Now, this is after we had already paid for the parking at Metcalfe and Slater.
00:31:54.520
Oh, so you paid for parking on a private parking lot. You were not on a no-stop-in street, correct?
00:31:59.080
Correct. Yeah, we were inside the parking lot with a couple of other trucks who had paid for parking.
00:32:03.920
Okay. And then the cops said, well, you're going to have to move. I said, we paid for parking. They said,
00:32:08.080
well, no, because the owners here want you to move. It's private property. They want you to move.
00:32:13.520
Yeah. Wait a minute. They took your money. Why did they want you to move?
00:32:16.960
Uh, you'll have to ask them. I don't, I don't really, I don't, I don't really, no, honestly.
00:32:21.600
But Jim, that sounds like fraud to me. If there's any policing, if you pay for a parking spot and then
00:32:27.040
they say leave and they don't give your money back. In all fairness, I did speak with the owner
00:32:32.960
of the thing. And she reassured me that she was going back to the office. And if you emailed them,
00:32:37.200
that they would get you their money. Okay. So that's- You got it yet? Oh, dude,
00:32:41.520
I haven't had two seconds to breathe. I was up at Parliament Hill. We were a couple of blocks down
00:32:45.920
another private lot. Um, this time I did not pay for parking. Somebody comes up and goes,
00:32:50.160
there's a dozen people around the bubble bus, man. I'm freaking out. So I ran and that's,
00:32:53.280
I started the live and I went live for like two hours yesterday. I just started my phone.
00:32:57.360
I heard there's a dozen cops down by the bus. I'm beginning to think that you gentlemen might have a
00:33:02.000
problem with bubbles. Everywhere the bubbles go, evidently the suits show up. I'm wondering why.
00:33:07.280
Could you maybe let me know that? I go running up and the 12 cops that had already kicked us out
00:33:11.600
over there are now 15 or 16 along with a couple of bylaw outside of the bus. And there's not really
00:33:16.960
anybody else there. Does it actually require one, two, three, four, eight, 10, 14 officers to issue a ticket?
00:33:23.520
Is that an effective use of city resources? I can't take you seriously, man. You're not supposed to.
00:33:33.200
I'm a church of bubbles, man. I blow bubbles. I want to make better things better for all
00:33:37.600
humanity. Every single one of us. I'm trying to communicate with these people. Here's the problem.
00:33:42.640
All I want to do is have a conversation with somebody who can give me an answer that makes
00:33:48.080
sense. That's all. Tell me how I'm literally breaking the law or doing something that is
00:34:09.120
illegal or is going to hurt someone. Tell me that and I will respond. I don't need force in order to
00:34:14.320
respond. Let's go. Show me your ID. Why? What crime have I committed? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Great, good.
00:34:25.280
Great, great. Are you guys going to beat it now? Thanks so much. Your country loves you.
00:34:31.200
They threatened to charge me with mischief when I was in the car and then when I was in the second
00:34:34.880
cop car they ended up charging me with trespassing. Don't resist, don't resist. You said you told the
00:34:40.960
truth. You gave lots of time. Let's go. Trying to get out of here, right? Let's go.
00:34:47.600
Don't resist. Don't resist. Don't resist. Sir, you're under arrest. Let's go.
00:34:51.920
Unbelievable for blowing bubbles. Thank you. You're under arrest for trespassing right now,
00:34:57.440
okay? We'll deal with this. I mean, I'm not interested in this, but I can't let it go.
00:35:03.360
I understand. Do you feel good about doing this? It's not about that right now. I'm not. Again,
00:35:08.400
if we speak differently, I'm not going to talk about good or bad or anything else. It's part of the job
00:35:12.000
that is. Laws are being broken right now. That's what we do, right? I think it's an egregious injustice.
00:35:17.280
That's not the end of it. No, no, no. God, dude, I'm just getting started. Okay. They eventually
00:35:22.160
towed the bus, arrested me, let me go in a parking lot, and then the next day as I was pulling into
00:35:28.080
Confederation Park. The cops pulled me over. They didn't give me any explanation why I was pulling
00:35:31.440
over. They just said, ID, ID, ID. I ended up producing the ID. They brought in the MTO. The
00:35:36.080
MTO helped me to figure out how you break an emergency brake line. If you've got an older
00:35:41.200
vehicle, you haven't used your brake line. If you press it all the way to the foot, it breaks. Well,
00:35:44.080
guess what? I did that. The brake line popped. I said, dude, something just snapped. He says,
00:35:47.680
oh, don't worry about that. Apply your foot on the other brake and release it slowly. I rolled forward,
00:35:52.400
and he went, oh, guess what? You're off the road. You have no emergency brake. Unbelievable.
00:35:57.600
Jim, do you think we're living in a police state now?
00:36:03.200
I guess we're going to let's play that look on your face. I'm concerned.
00:36:07.440
I'm sorry to hear a genuine nice guy like you, you know, attract all this petty policing,
00:36:16.320
shutting you down for no reason, giving you tickets. If you come, listen to me. If you come back,
00:36:20.640
you're going to be arrested. Back where? For trespassing. Okay. For no reason. It's a disgrace.
00:36:26.000
I hope you fight them, and I hope you get some justice because this is just egregious, Jim. So
00:36:31.760
thank you again for your time. No problem, dude. Don't feel bad. It's all good. All worked out well.
00:36:36.240
Everybody's safe. It's a couple of bucks and fines, and it was a great weekend with great people. I
00:36:41.120
can't be happier. Honestly, it was a bit of trouble, but it's not too much. Everybody's doing their own