Rebel News Podcast - April 30, 2022


EZRA LEVANT ｜ Trudeau's friend Craig Kielburger tried to nickel and dime the Canadian taxpayer during Debates Commission stint


Episode Stats

Length

33 minutes

Words per Minute

154.92902

Word Count

5,136

Sentence Count

306

Misogynist Sentences

2

Hate Speech Sentences

14


Summary

Justin Trudeau's friend Craig Kielberger tried to nickel and dime the Canadian taxpayer during his time on the Debates Commission. Then, Grace Life Pastor James Coates joins us on his new book, God Versus Government. It's April 29th.


Transcript

00:00:00.460 Oh, hey, Rebels. I bet you were expecting Ezra Levant today, but once again, it's me, your guest host, Sheila Gunn-Reed.
00:00:08.240 You're listening to a free audio-only recording of Ezra's nightly, fully-produced Ezra Levant show.
00:00:14.380 Tonight is a bit of a fun show because I got my hands on Craig Kielberger's expenses when he was with the Debates Commission
00:00:24.220 and he tried to nickel and dime the Canadian taxpayer for hotel rooms when he wasn't even doing Debates Commission work because, of course, he did.
00:00:35.780 We gave him $43.5 million in grants, but yeah, he tried to stick us for an extra night in a three-star hotel room.
00:00:46.200 Just the gall of this guy.
00:00:47.260 Then, we're talking to Pastor James Coates from Grace Life Church on his brand new book, God vs. Government.
00:00:54.740 It was sure fun to catch up with him.
00:00:56.940 Now, if you like listening to the show, then you're probably going to love watching it,
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00:02:31.000 Justin Trudeau's friend, Craig Kielberger, tried to nickel and dime the Canadian taxpayer
00:02:50.440 during his time on the Debates Commission.
00:02:53.100 Then, Grace Life Pastor James Coates joins us on his new book, God Versus Government.
00:02:57.860 It's April 29th.
00:02:59.140 I'm Sheila Gunreen, but you are watching The Ezra Levant Show.
00:03:04.920 Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?
00:03:08.680 There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.
00:03:12.740 The only thing I have to say to the government of a wire publisher is because it's my bloody
00:03:17.600 right to do so.
00:03:18.600 You know, the Kielberger scandal, the WE Charity scandal, the WE Organization scandal, you know,
00:03:28.340 that all seems so far away.
00:03:29.880 Feels like we've just bumped from scandal to scandal to scandal with Trudeau in power.
00:03:33.820 The latest scandal, of course, being Trudeau's treatment of peaceful protesters during the
00:03:38.040 convoy to Ottawa, and how I'm sure the Ottawa police will again overreact, enabled by Justin
00:03:43.240 Trudeau's Emergencies Act, to the Rolling Thunder Bikers Convoy to the nation's capital this
00:03:48.320 weekend.
00:03:48.740 We've got three teams of rebel news journalists on the ground there to capture it all, and
00:03:52.960 you can support their work at convoyreports.com.
00:03:56.040 Now, the bikers are set to start rolling in today.
00:03:59.260 Up to 1,000 bikes from all across the country are coming to protest not only remaining COVID
00:04:04.880 measures, but the totalitarianism with which the last convoy to Ottawa was treated.
00:04:10.660 You see, after peacefully protesting for nearly four weeks, Trudeau invoked the Never Before
00:04:15.180 Used Emergencies Act, meant for Pearl Harbor-level events, to dissipate the truckers and their
00:04:20.720 supporters who had been organizing street concerts, planning community cleanups, feeding
00:04:25.520 the homeless, playing street hockey, and erecting bouncy castles.
00:04:30.020 The truckers and their supporters basically created a community during their time in Ottawa
00:04:33.840 while they protested the division of our communities under government COVID mandates.
00:04:38.860 That is, until Justin Trudeau sent in the cops, the horses, the pepper spray, the batons,
00:04:44.520 to arrest, detain, jail, seize bank accounts, seize trucks, seize Bitcoin wallets, euthanize
00:04:49.820 opposition to his government.
00:04:51.480 But before this latest scandal, the biggest scandal Justin Trudeau was dealing with was
00:04:56.000 the WE organization.
00:04:57.420 That unfolded April 2020.
00:04:59.680 He gave the WE organization, headed by his friends, the Kielberger Brothers, a sole source
00:05:04.080 contract worth millions of dollars to administer a nearly $1 billion COVID student bailout program.
00:05:11.620 They were the only ones capable of administering this important program, but as it turns out,
00:05:15.480 the program was specifically crafted for the Kielbergers to administer.
00:05:20.120 Oh, and then there's this extra layer of scandal in the middle of all this, because for years,
00:05:24.520 the Kielbergers have been employing Justin Trudeau's family members to give speeches at their
00:05:28.740 WE Day events.
00:05:29.500 I bet those speeches were riveting.
00:05:31.820 But the relationship with the Kielbergers, and specifically Craig Kielberger, had yet another
00:05:36.200 layer.
00:05:37.200 Kielberger was on the Debates Commission advisory board, you know, the people tasked with keeping
00:05:40.920 independent journalists out of the federal leaders' debates, the commission that Rebel
00:05:45.780 News had to sue twice in court.
00:05:49.240 And at least the first time we sued them, Kielberger was on the board.
00:05:52.440 He left, or rather was replaced in July 2021.
00:05:55.880 We sued them again in August.
00:05:57.160 Now, knowing what we know about the Kielbergers, we wanted to know more about his role on the
00:06:02.300 Debate Commission and specifically his expenses.
00:06:05.120 I have 90 plus pages of documents about them.
00:06:08.380 Most of it is nothing, but it also in the middle shows you how little respect Kielberger
00:06:13.260 had for the Canadian taxpayer.
00:06:15.100 Let's take a look at some of these expenses.
00:06:17.360 It's odd that Kielberger's role in the Debate Commission advisory board was run through the
00:06:21.140 WE Charity.
00:06:21.640 You can see that on pages 87 through 92.
00:06:23.900 Because the WE Charity was not on the Debates Commission, Kielberger was.
00:06:28.320 On page one, you can see that Craig Kielberger's expenses are almost higher than that of any
00:06:32.740 other advisory committee member.
00:06:34.640 I think he's generally number two in every category.
00:06:37.340 And funny enough, we're going to take a little side trip here in the story back to our lawsuits
00:06:41.740 with the Debates Commission.
00:06:43.720 The bureaucrats who sent me this document also include some legal fees here.
00:06:47.660 BLG Legal Services, look at this.
00:06:49.740 BLG Legal Services, $32,551 and change.
00:06:53.900 July 2019, that was the first time we had to drag these people to court.
00:06:57.700 Now, are those expenses all for us?
00:06:59.440 No, they probably involve True North too.
00:07:02.180 BLG Legal, another $160,897 and change.
00:07:07.380 This coincides with the next legal battle they lost.
00:07:10.060 So Trudeau spent five times more money on lawyers at the Debates Commission in the lead
00:07:14.320 up to the next election.
00:07:16.220 Let's just pause on this for a second.
00:07:18.120 Trudeau lost in court once, and instead of backing off and doing the right thing and
00:07:21.580 just respecting journalistic freedom, he instead spent two years trying to rig the rules and
00:07:26.720 ramped up his legal attacks fivefold, at least according to these expense reports.
00:07:30.760 And then he was still handed his own rear end in a sack by a judge.
00:07:34.680 I think if my math is correct, that's $193,000, much of it, to fight independent journalists
00:07:40.620 in court over two years.
00:07:41.760 And that $12,000 you see there, well, that was to us to cover some of our legal costs
00:07:46.540 after being forced to sue these gatekeeping expense account junkies for the charter right
00:07:51.600 to do our job.
00:07:53.560 This is ironic, considering these are the same sorts of legal expenses that they considered
00:08:00.100 a state secret when we asked for them specifically.
00:08:03.680 Don't take my word for it.
00:08:05.000 Here's a prior access to information request we filed looking for legal expenses associated
00:08:11.320 with Fighting Rebel News and True North in court when they blocked us from the federal
00:08:15.540 leaders' debate.
00:08:16.920 And you see that there?
00:08:18.160 It's all redacted.
00:08:19.560 In the end, Trudeau didn't respect that a judge just a few hours earlier had wrapped
00:08:24.000 his knuckles.
00:08:24.900 He still acted like a spoiled brat, thinking he can control who is media in this country,
00:08:29.600 either through bailout bribes or tantrums.
00:08:32.340 My question is the following.
00:08:34.960 Israel is one of the most vaccinated countries in the world.
00:08:39.780 They are now turned to their fourth vaccine report.
00:08:43.320 They don't consider that those who received two doses of vaccine are fully vaccinated.
00:08:49.520 My question is, many Canadians don't want to have a vaccine report.
00:08:57.340 Anyway, let's get back into these documents.
00:09:25.960 Because Trudeau's friend, Craig Kielberger, was so petty that he was trying to nickel and
00:09:32.200 dime his expense account with the debate commission, though he is a wealthy man in his own right
00:09:37.000 with the WE organization.
00:09:39.060 Once upon a time, owning about $40 million in real estate and Craig bragging once in an
00:09:44.240 MTV Cribs episode about his Kenyan house and his oversized cars and teams of donkeys.
00:09:50.240 Look at this.
00:09:51.220 That aged like a banana, didn't it?
00:09:53.440 Now back to these documents.
00:09:55.760 It's interesting to note that other members of the debate commission refuse to accept any
00:09:59.920 payment for their role, but not Craig Kielberger.
00:10:02.720 See this?
00:10:03.440 Two names are blacked out as refusing payment, but not Kielberger.
00:10:07.520 This is an email that is discussing paying his professional fees at the debates commission.
00:10:12.620 Page 79 is where the petty nonsense really starts.
00:10:15.860 Kielberger is trying to bill for an extra hotel room for a meeting of the debates commission.
00:10:20.200 I think he thought he could get away with this because, you know, he's the boss's buddy
00:10:26.060 and he employs the boss's mom.
00:10:29.020 Look at this.
00:10:29.980 Please find attached the travel expense claims for the advisory board meeting that took place
00:10:33.860 on March 25th, 2019.
00:10:36.380 And somebody's actually providing some appropriate scrutiny here because then they ask,
00:10:41.540 Do you have proof for taxis for Craig Kielberger?
00:10:44.080 The amount for the room is $432.48 for two nights.
00:10:48.560 You're only allowed one night.
00:10:50.280 Do I reimburse at $216.42 or two nights at $432.48?
00:10:58.560 When you're Justin Trudeau's friend, why not try to bill another hotel room to the taxpayer?
00:11:03.520 Shoot for the stars, Craig Kielberger.
00:11:05.600 Page 80, someone responds that he was here for other business.
00:11:08.640 I guess, and he's still trying to bill it to the debates commission and therefore the
00:11:11.440 taxpayers, but okay.
00:11:13.160 $40 million in real estate holdings and this guy's trying to wring another $216 from the
00:11:18.580 taxpayer.
00:11:19.140 Just wow.
00:11:19.720 Now, according to the Trudeau III ethics report, that's right, there are so many ethics violations
00:11:24.480 with Justin Trudeau that they've started giving the reports Roman numerals.
00:11:29.520 The WE organization paid the Trudeau family a total of $481,000 in gifts, fees, and expense
00:11:35.840 paid trips to London and New York.
00:11:38.080 The Morneau II ethics report, that's right, former finance minister Bill Morneau also had
00:11:42.860 so many ethics violations that they started Roman numeraling his reports too.
00:11:46.980 Well, in that report, it was concluded that Craig Kielberger had a friendship with former
00:11:51.900 finance minister Bill Morneau, and Morneau approved a $43.5 million grant to the WE organization
00:11:58.440 without disclosing the Kielbergers had hired his daughter out of college and covered $41,000
00:12:03.980 in Morneau family expenses at resorts in Ecuador and Kenya.
00:12:08.140 The Canadian public gave the Kielbergers $43.5 million to his organization.
00:12:14.080 And how did he thank us?
00:12:15.480 He tried to stick us with a three-star hotel bill.
00:12:18.780 Wow.
00:12:20.400 Stay with us.
00:12:21.500 Our guest joins us up after the break.
00:12:36.280 So my monologue today focused on how so much of the regulations around masking were purely
00:12:41.440 political, but those weren't the only purely political decisions made during the pandemic.
00:12:46.660 For example, why could Walmart and Costco see a steady stream of shoppers, but churches,
00:12:51.420 sometimes churches right across the street, were severely limited, sometimes to just 10
00:12:55.480 people in the case of a funeral.
00:12:57.200 Scientifically, of course, we know that doesn't make any sense.
00:12:59.400 But neither do those rules respect the fundamental values our Western civilization was founded
00:13:05.520 upon.
00:13:06.020 Religious freedom, the ability to gather together for people to make their own health care decisions
00:13:10.840 and to be dictated by their own conscience.
00:13:14.100 Joining me now is someone I haven't seen in quite some time, and that's my fault.
00:13:17.580 It's Pastor James Coates from Grace Life Church.
00:13:19.680 One of the few churches in all of the country that followed the biblical directives of choosing
00:13:26.720 God's law over an unjust government edict.
00:13:30.680 Pastor James Coates, thanks for joining me.
00:13:33.020 It's so great to see you.
00:13:34.660 It's great to see you too, Sheila.
00:13:36.080 Thank you for having me.
00:13:37.800 Now, we're having you on the show today because you've written a brand new book.
00:13:41.140 Tell us about it.
00:13:42.900 Well, I've co-authored a book with Nathan Boosnitz.
00:13:45.880 Nathan Boosnitz is one of the pastors at Grace Community Church with John MacArthur.
00:13:50.860 And in that book, we are both telling the story of what happened at each respective church
00:13:56.400 in our battle with the governing authorities as we decided to keep our church open in the
00:14:01.060 face of these government edicts.
00:14:04.380 And then we even provide a framework.
00:14:06.520 We see that in this season, the church has been exposed as weak on both its ecclesiology
00:14:14.940 as it relates to the doctrines of the church, as well as our relationship as churches to
00:14:20.980 the governing authorities.
00:14:21.920 And so we wanted to provide a framework for the believer, the Christian, the church to
00:14:27.600 be able to understand when it's necessary to practice civil disobedience.
00:14:32.200 And when that threshold is breached, we must obey God, not men.
00:14:37.920 And so we're telling the story because we think the story provides a really wonderful
00:14:42.580 illustration of the kind of gospel courage we're talking about and calling for.
00:14:47.680 And then we have a framework to equip the church to be able to know when it's time to
00:14:53.080 obey God, not men.
00:14:54.900 You know, for those people who are watching who don't know, and I don't know how they
00:14:58.780 could possibly not know.
00:14:59.840 But Pastor James, you spent 35 days in jail because you refused to force the government
00:15:07.920 rules on the congregation at Grace Life Church and just wonderful people.
00:15:12.600 They welcomed me there.
00:15:13.760 I made so many friends that are still my friends now.
00:15:16.320 During my time, they're reporting on that.
00:15:18.700 But it went further than that.
00:15:20.200 They also seized your church for almost three months.
00:15:23.740 The building itself forced your congregation underground, basically having to hold services
00:15:30.260 in secret, like the early Christians, to prevent the government from ticketing you, fining you,
00:15:36.340 breaking up the congregation.
00:15:38.860 And it was in stark contrast.
00:15:41.000 And I think that's why this book is so important.
00:15:43.200 You're telling the story of two churches, Grace Life and Grace Community, and the very different
00:15:50.980 outcomes when you stood up to the government.
00:15:53.540 Why don't you tell us a little bit?
00:15:54.680 And Canadians may not be as familiar with Grace Community, but I am because Devin from Grace
00:16:02.080 Life, thank you very much, gave me my John MacArthur study Bible.
00:16:05.000 It stays on the desk here.
00:16:06.520 But why don't you tell us a little bit about what happened at Grace Community?
00:16:11.780 Well, they refused to comply with the government edicts that were being levied against them with
00:16:18.860 respect to their gatherings and the health orders.
00:16:21.080 And that ended up into the court system.
00:16:24.180 And in their court system, with their constitution being what it is, the courts ruled in their
00:16:29.400 favor that the governing authorities did not have the ability to prevent Grace Community
00:16:36.100 Church from gathering.
00:16:37.360 And so in their court system, they were able to actually get support for religious liberty
00:16:44.360 and freedom.
00:16:44.940 Now, in reality, their stance as ours was not a political stand.
00:16:49.060 It wasn't primarily about religious liberty per se.
00:16:52.580 It was a theological stand where we were taking a stand on the headship of Christ over his
00:16:57.680 church, in effect, saying to the governing authorities, you don't have the authority to dictate to
00:17:02.760 the church the terms of worship.
00:17:04.840 And so that was fundamentally what the stand was.
00:17:07.100 But their court system did support them in that stand.
00:17:10.340 And that's vastly different than what we experienced here in our country.
00:17:13.460 Yeah, I think I remember reading about the decision when it came down against the state
00:17:19.460 of California, and it basically said you cannot ask churches to do something that you are not
00:17:24.460 asking Walmart to do.
00:17:26.320 It came down to basically treat this, the church fairly.
00:17:32.660 But as you say, you go one step further.
00:17:35.340 The government is not in charge of the church.
00:17:37.640 The church dictates your behavior as a Christian.
00:17:43.720 Tell us a little bit about what you're still going through.
00:17:47.020 You're still involved in legal troubles, I guess, with the province of Alberta.
00:17:53.620 Yeah, as it stands right now, we currently have a court summons that's against the church,
00:17:57.880 and I still have a $1,200 ticket that is against me.
00:18:02.380 That's obviously not very much, and so we're not concerned about the dollar figure on that $1,200 ticket.
00:18:08.080 It's more symbolic of the issue at play.
00:18:11.660 Does the governing authorities, does our government have the authority to infringe on religious liberty?
00:18:17.880 And did the COVID pandemic provide justification for doing that in light of the charter,
00:18:23.520 which does allow for infringement on our charter rights and freedoms, should it be justified?
00:18:30.800 And to this point in time, at least from my perspective, the government has not been required to,
00:18:36.260 nor have they attempted to, justify that their health orders were, in fact, justifiable.
00:18:42.780 Now, I remember one of the things that you said that struck me the most,
00:18:46.700 and you said it to me in an interview, but you also said it to your congregation,
00:18:50.300 I think, in one of the most shared and most viewed sermons that you gave.
00:18:55.760 And it was that it didn't matter if what was happening to Grace Life and to you was persecution,
00:19:02.120 because whether or not it's persecution, it doesn't change your behavior.
00:19:06.200 You're still commanded by God to honor His laws above that of the state.
00:19:11.000 Yeah, that's absolutely right.
00:19:12.040 So a lot of folks approach this as though you have to basically reach the point where the church is clearly being persecuted.
00:19:19.900 And if it is at that point, then the church must be civilly disobedient.
00:19:25.700 And that's just a faulty rubric for even discerning when it's time to obey God, not men.
00:19:31.920 We just always obey God.
00:19:34.120 And obedience to God at times and usually requires submission to the governing authorities.
00:19:39.420 When the governing authorities step outside their lane and outside their God-given purpose
00:19:44.220 and begin to infringe on other spheres of authority like the home or the church
00:19:48.460 and act as though they have total authority over every other human institution,
00:19:52.720 at that particular point, especially when there are issues that are being breached as far as obedience to God are concerned,
00:20:00.260 it's necessary at that point in time to obey God, not men.
00:20:03.220 And so it's not necessary to figure out, well, is this persecution or is it not persecution?
00:20:07.520 The issue is, what does it look like to obey God in the context that we're in?
00:20:12.340 And that's what we determined.
00:20:14.060 We determined that to comply with the public health orders would have been disobedience to Christ.
00:20:19.980 Now, I want to talk about the second part of your book because the first part tells the story
00:20:24.660 and the second part is, you know, sort of the tools and framework for Christians,
00:20:29.240 but hopefully for churches and pastors too, to sort of navigate when it's time to be civilly disobedient.
00:20:39.500 And for me, I think churches all across the world failed their congregations when they shuttered churches,
00:20:49.720 when people needed the comfort of the church the most.
00:20:53.120 Funerals.
00:20:53.760 My own personal example of this, my mom's funeral was limited to 10 people.
00:20:57.720 We felt like Roman soldiers casting lots to see who could go to the funeral.
00:21:01.980 And that's the time when Christians need the comfort of community the most.
00:21:08.600 What do you think caused the church to capitulate and fold so fast?
00:21:14.720 Well, I think, number one, the church in general is weak.
00:21:18.680 It's weak theologically.
00:21:19.800 And it's weak because we've moved away from a sound preaching of the word of God.
00:21:25.480 So, number one, the church is weak.
00:21:27.580 Number two, I think we've enjoyed in our part of the world a healthy relationship between the governing authorities and the church,
00:21:34.640 whereby the church has been able to function, apart from any real government overreach, into matters pertaining to the church.
00:21:42.420 And so, there's that piece.
00:21:44.500 We've come almost in some senses to be too trusting of the governing authorities.
00:21:50.640 And so, you've got the weakness of the church.
00:21:52.780 You've got just the relationship that we've enjoyed with the governing authorities to this point in time in our church's history.
00:22:00.600 And so, with those two pieces in place, plus you go and then add the unique context of a health issue where now this seems to be about health and a protecting of people's lives.
00:22:16.020 You're adding a level of complexity that I think most Christians just aren't prepared to think through.
00:22:22.140 And even most pastors aren't prepared to think through.
00:22:24.840 And so, I think those features being what they are, that really set the table for the church to miss this so significantly.
00:22:32.680 And even to this point in time, I mean, I think that there are churches that still believe that their approach to the pandemic and complying with the public health orders was the right approach.
00:22:45.060 And yet, as more information rolls in and the picture becomes clear, not just theologically, but practically as far as the way the governing authorities handled this virus, it should be evident that they took the wrong approach.
00:22:59.980 Yeah, you know, it's funny to hear the argument, well, my church complied, why couldn't Grace Life?
00:23:05.460 Well, your church let you down.
00:23:07.140 Why does Grace Life have to let down their congregants?
00:23:09.900 But I think it also has something to do with people not being Christians, not being properly evangelized or not great, strong on apologetics.
00:23:19.200 And I saw this in real time when I saw a Calgary City police officer while arresting Pastor Tim Stevens in front of his screaming children.
00:23:32.100 I'll never forget that, quote, Matthew 22, 21, as a reason to arrest Pastor Tim, basically telling this pastor to render unto Caesar, but forgetting the second part of the context of that, which actually goes on to limit what is Caesar's and what is God's.
00:23:52.520 Yeah, there's no question. I think you've seen in this season across the board a lack of biblical, robust thinking as it relates to how we relate to governing the governing authorities, how we relate to government overreach and just the responsibility that we have.
00:24:12.860 I mean, even the whole command to love your neighbor as yourself.
00:24:15.700 I mean, that command was being used to to to basically justify complying with all these public health orders because you're you're protecting the lives of your neighbors.
00:24:24.300 Well, that's the second commandment.
00:24:26.740 The greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your mind, soul and strength.
00:24:29.780 And it's actually the the command to love God that's going to shape your love for neighbors, not vice versa.
00:24:36.120 And so to elevate the second commandment to really effectively effectively be the greatest commandment is to turn the whole thing upside down and to fail to realize that God is the one that instructs us on what love is, how we love our neighbors and what that looks like.
00:24:52.140 And and really, people need to realize, even going beyond just the significance of this for the church, that by complying with the public health orders that were in place, they were essentially participating in an approach to managing this virus that had a lot of harmful impact on lives outside of the virus itself.
00:25:14.020 The lockdowns were incredibly harmful, there were suicides and lives lost to drug overdose and many issues that stem from the lockdowns themselves that people participated in.
00:25:27.420 And they didn't seem to apply the command to love neighbor as themselves in that context, recognizing that this isn't just about a virus.
00:25:35.640 And you can't just simply try and shut down society to to address one aspect of harm in a virus that could come upon a person without recognizing that there are side effects that go along with that.
00:25:49.680 So it's just not thinking clearly and robustly about anything, really, as it relates to this whole pandemic.
00:25:57.240 Now, Pastor Codes, how do people get your book?
00:26:00.820 Well, they can order it in all the normal ways that you could.
00:26:03.560 I mean, it's available on Amazon, Christian Books dot com, Barnes and Noble, Indigo.
00:26:09.220 It's it's online anywhere that you can purchase a book.
00:26:12.640 You should be able to get your hands on it.
00:26:14.480 I don't know that it's in a lot of actual stores, bookstores, because it's a controversial book.
00:26:21.720 And so I guess a bookstore wouldn't necessarily want to be seen as as endorsing the book itself.
00:26:27.660 But it's available online pretty much anywhere you can purchase a book.
00:26:31.040 That is sort of a shocking statement, but also the state of society these days that your book about Christian obedience to the Bible is somehow controversial.
00:26:41.900 But you can have, you know, stories about kids who want to change their gender.
00:26:46.680 And that's fine.
00:26:47.800 That's right up front in the store.
00:26:49.380 One last question before I let you go.
00:26:52.400 Have you yet created a Ezra Levant tier of membership at Grace Life Church?
00:26:59.780 For example, the Jewish but curious membership.
00:27:02.440 I remember we joked that he wanted to buy a membership.
00:27:06.180 Do you have one of those yet?
00:27:07.820 Yeah, no, not yet.
00:27:09.100 You know, still in discussion on that and how we would be able to do that biblically.
00:27:13.660 But no, we have not made that provision as yet.
00:27:17.520 But we welcome Ezra to our church anytime he's in the area.
00:27:22.140 We'd love to have him.
00:27:24.120 Well, thank you so much, Pastor James, for taking the time.
00:27:26.760 I'll see you soon at church.
00:27:28.300 Stay with us more up next after the break.
00:27:30.780 We've come to the portion of the show where it's your chance to have your say.
00:27:39.260 This is where you let Ezra know exactly what you think.
00:27:43.420 He reads his fan mail.
00:27:44.560 He reads his hate mail.
00:27:45.560 He reads his comments.
00:27:46.300 So these have been selected for me to read by Ms. Producer.
00:27:51.500 I haven't looked at them yet.
00:27:52.560 So we're going to react together.
00:27:55.540 God help all of us.
00:27:56.860 Good luck to us.
00:27:57.840 Let's take a look.
00:27:58.460 I think you're referring to the work that our newest reporter, Juan Mendoza Diaz, is doing at the southern border between the United States and Mexico.
00:28:19.320 Eagle Pass, Texas, actually.
00:28:20.840 You know, some of the images that came from his report, they're pretty haunting.
00:28:29.160 Including the trees where the women are basically chained to and sexually assaulted.
00:28:37.460 An open border is truly an inhumane border.
00:28:41.020 People are risking their life to come across that border, putting their lives in the hands of human traffickers, sex traffickers, coyotes, cartels, to come into the United States only because they know they can, because that border is open.
00:28:58.340 The fact that Biden leaves the fact that Biden leaves the fact that Biden leaves the border open is part of the business model for the cartels.
00:29:05.940 They're getting rich because Biden won't close that border.
00:29:10.600 And women and women and children are suffering along the way.
00:29:14.420 And drugs are being trafficked into American communities.
00:29:17.740 It's a humanitarian crisis unfolding not only at the border, in those border communities, but all across the United States and eventually Canada too.
00:29:29.420 So, let's keep going.
00:29:31.460 H1R 086 writes to us, this is what happens when terrorists, users of politically motivated threats, violence, murder, take over a country and there's no accountability.
00:29:46.000 I think you're referring to Mexico, you know, it's Mexico has its own problems, but Mexico's problems, I think, are Mexico's and I don't think they need to pour into the United States.
00:30:02.480 Now, I have a lot of empathy for the people that Juan Mendoza Diaz encountered at the border, particularly those Venezuelan migrants.
00:30:13.340 Those are legitimate refugees, but maybe the problem is that refugees from Venezuela would put their lives in the hands of human traffickers and walk for a month to illegally enter into the United States.
00:30:30.360 I think the problem is the process for legitimate refugees to get into the United States is unnecessarily difficult.
00:30:39.040 Maybe if they made that process easier, it would take away some of the incentive to rely on a cartel.
00:30:48.180 Again, this is, comes with the process of separating economic migrants from legitimate refugees like those fleeing the tyranny of Venezuela.
00:31:01.380 Let's keep going.
00:31:03.760 Bob Badigley writes, it was known early on, the social distancing rule was created by Niles Ferguson.
00:31:12.020 Niles Ferguson, you say, I haven't heard that name in a while because he sort of flamed out in embarrassment and went away.
00:31:18.780 He was known as Dr. Lockdown.
00:31:21.660 He was a failed COVID computer modeler who advocated lockdowns and then he was caught in a bit of a tryst breaking the lockdown rules that he would impose on everybody else.
00:31:39.800 I think he was groping his girlfriend in, you know, an elevator or a hallway or something.
00:31:46.100 Definitely not social distancing.
00:31:49.220 So, I mean, if the six foot rule did come from him, boy, he sure didn't follow it.
00:31:55.400 Thanks for reminding me of one of those rules for the and not for me guys that burned out like a dying star.
00:32:06.040 Well, everybody, that's the show for tonight.
00:32:07.560 Thanks so much for tuning in.
00:32:09.060 And thank you to everybody in not only Toronto HQ, but behind the scenes in our respective locales all across the country for putting the show together.
00:32:19.580 We'll see everybody back next week.
00:32:22.220 I think Ezra's back hosting the show next week.
00:32:24.620 If not, could be me, could be David Menzies, who even knows.
00:32:28.500 And as Ezra always says, keep fighting for freedom.
00:32:39.060 We'll see you next week.