EZRA LEVANT ｜ Why is Canada supporting a Nazi battalion in Ukraine？
Episode Stats
Length
1 hour and 8 minutes
Words per Minute
155.69827
Summary
Why is Canada supporting a Nazi battalion in Ukraine? Why should others go to jail when you're the biggest carbon consumer in the world, and you won't give them an answer? This is the Ezra Levenrant Show, and it's a huge one.
Transcript
00:00:00.060
Hello, my Rebels. We've got a huge show for you today. It's enormous.
00:00:04.880
Let me start with the guest interview, Leslie Lewis.
00:00:07.380
She's throwing her hat into the ring for the leadership of the Conservative Party.
00:00:12.100
But before that, I have sort of a personal reflection on Ukraine and Nazis and liberals and all sorts of things.
00:00:20.260
I don't know, maybe it was too personal, too much of an essay rather than a news analysis, but I'll let you judge.
00:00:26.860
I felt like saying it. You can let me know what you think afterwards.
00:00:31.900
If you want to see the video version of it, which I recommend, go to rebelnewsplus.com, click subscribe.
00:00:37.440
I show a lot of photos and videos, photos and videos of the Holocaust, actually, to make a certain point,
00:00:44.060
and photos and videos of the Azov battalion in Ukraine.
00:00:49.160
What's that? Well, I'll try and explain it to you.
00:00:51.240
Go to rebelnewsplus.com, click subscribe, eight bucks a month, you get the video version of it,
00:01:14.840
Tonight, why is Canada supporting a Nazi battalion in Ukraine?
00:01:19.100
It's March 10th, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.
00:01:24.600
Why should others go to jail when you're the biggest carbon consumer I know?
00:01:28.320
There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.
00:01:32.400
The only thing I have to say to the government about why I publish it is because it's my bloody right to do so.
00:01:38.260
I don't know if you know this, but my family is originally from Ukraine.
00:01:51.420
They're from Dniepro, which was once called Dniepro-Petrovsk.
00:01:56.700
It was under Soviet domination, and now it's Ukrainian, and who knows?
00:02:03.180
I grew up in Alberta, of course, which is a lot of Ukrainian Canadians.
00:02:06.960
Western Canada was deliberately settled by the Canadian government with an appeal to Eastern Europeans
00:02:17.020
There are still some communities in the prairies where German is the first language,
00:02:24.240
They teach Ukrainian in schools in places like Vegreville.
00:02:27.060
I'm Jewish, too, and there were a great number of Jews in Ukraine until the Holocaust.
00:02:40.240
Here's a famous photograph, terrible photograph, searing in your memory.
00:02:44.640
This photograph has been called the last Jew in Vinitsa.
00:02:49.260
Whereas in Poland, they had concentration camps where they would kill Jews in a mass building.
00:02:56.120
In Ukraine, it was mobile killing squads called Einsatzgruppen, deployment groups in English,
00:03:08.480
Here's a picture of the Einsatzgruppen taking women of the town of Misoc, if I'm saying that right,
00:03:20.820
Obviously, the Holocaust was perpetrated by the German Nazi Party and the SS and the Wehrmacht
00:03:26.940
and led by Adolf Hitler and other German Nazis.
00:03:32.900
For example, here's Adolf Eichmann, who was in charge of the final solution, as it was called.
00:03:38.080
But in the countries that Hitler invaded and conquered,
00:03:42.020
there were local politicians and local gangs and local militias and local soldiers
00:03:48.180
that were only too happy to team up with the Nazi invaders.
00:03:52.460
We know this in other countries, in Western Europe, in Northern Europe.
00:04:03.120
Vidkun Quisling, he's the guy on the left there.
00:04:06.180
He was the Norwegian, who was happy to collaborate with the Nazi invaders.
00:04:12.500
He was made the head of the puppet Nazi government in Norway, but he was Norwegian.
00:04:19.320
The insult, calling someone a Quisling, isn't widely used anymore, I don't think.
00:04:24.660
I think people sort of forget what it means and who he was.
00:04:27.440
But for a generation, Vidkun Quisling's sellout to the Nazis made his name synonymous with disgraceful disloyalty,
00:04:41.220
Well, it happens everywhere, for ideological reasons or for opportunists just taking an opportunity in the moment.
00:04:49.780
If you feel hard done in a certain regime, and then that regime is conquered by an invader, maybe you'll like it.
00:05:02.100
Maybe if you collaborate with the invader, you get to be on top now, not on the bottom.
00:05:06.700
If you enjoy violence, well, it was your moment, wasn't it?
00:05:12.600
This is an appealing invitation to many young men.
00:05:15.860
It's how ISIS recruited terrorists to go to Iraq and Syria.
00:05:26.540
Come and do everything you've ever wanted to do, not just with impunity, but with encouragement and reward.
00:05:35.720
And so it was with the local Nazi sympathizers across Europe.
00:05:40.420
It's tough to learn about these things as an adult.
00:05:43.120
I can tell you it's tough to learn about them as a kid.
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And I even had our teacher and our principal were concentration camp survivors.
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So you're a six or seven year old and you're learning about the Holocaust.
00:06:03.320
And it's the first time you hear about places like Poland, where Auschwitz is.
00:06:16.620
That's this ravine where the German Nazis and their local supporters massacred more than 30,000 Jews in just two days in 1941.
00:06:26.040
You hear these things and they scare you and they color your views on the world.
00:06:31.960
When I was a child growing up in the 1970s and 1980s, I remember there were many Jews who refused to buy German cars like Mercedes because of the Holocaust.
00:06:43.360
I think a lot of the Polish jokes that used to be so popular in the 70s and 80s were a kind of revenge by Jewish comedians against the place where so many Jews were killed.
00:06:56.060
And I say all this because I like Germans and I like Germany.
00:07:00.560
And although I haven't been to Ukraine, I grew up amongst countless Ukrainian Canadians in Alberta.
00:07:06.360
And so the bitter history of the Holocaust met the reality of life two generations later.
00:07:16.720
And though I believe in remembering the past and learning from it, we cannot engage in collective guilt.
00:07:25.080
I believe that there were Nazis in Germany and Nazis throughout the world who collaborated with the Germans.
00:07:31.620
But I also know that there were many righteous Gentiles who saved Jews, like Oskar Schindler, after whom the famous movie was made, like the family that hid Anne Frank.
00:07:43.980
The world is complicated, but we live in 2022, not 1942.
00:07:48.640
We must try to love each other now and we can all agree that Nazism is evil.
00:07:53.120
My real worry, to tell you the truth, is that nobody even knows what a Nazi is, what the Holocaust was.
00:07:59.320
Nazi is just some insult that Trudeau uses against truckers, right?
00:08:05.480
Nazi is just what you're called after they call you racist, sexist, anti-gay, transphobic.
00:08:12.520
I mean, seriously, if we sent reporters out to the center of the city and asked random people on the street,
00:08:25.340
Let's just ask, who fought the Second World War?
00:08:27.640
Do you think a random person on the street would know?
00:08:30.960
If you asked them who won, do you think they would know?
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I'm not saying that you and I are smarter than anyone.
00:08:41.160
People are interested in their own lives, their own times.
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New immigrants to Canada from nontraditional sources of immigration like Africa or Asia.
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They don't know the history of the European Holocaust.
00:09:02.520
You might call me right wing, though that doesn't really mean a lot these days.
00:09:05.420
And I've traveled widely in Canada, at least until they put unvaccinated people on a no-fly list.
00:09:11.320
It was brought in by Trudeau, who implied unvaccinated people are tantamount to Nazis.
00:09:15.920
Anyway, there won't be a no-fly zone over Ukraine, but there really is a, you know, Trudeau bravely imposed a no-fly list over Canada.
00:09:30.060
I've traveled to nine provinces and two territories, and I have met a lot of people in my life.
00:09:34.680
And I run in populist conservative circles, and I talk to a lot of people online also.
00:09:41.120
And I have to tell you that in my 50 years, I have never met a Nazi in Canada.
00:09:57.700
Oh, there are a few pretenders, people who play dress-up, people who get a tattoo, or people who hide in their basements taking pictures of themselves on a cell phone saying,
00:10:14.980
They do it for the shock and awe as rebellion against society, against their parents, against the world,
00:10:21.300
because they're frustrated by things, or simply because they know it's a bad thing, and they want to show that they will do bad things.
00:10:29.340
I told you I went to Jewish school as a young kid, but I also went to a school in the country, west of Calgary, countryside.
00:10:37.320
And obviously, my sister and I were the only Jews in the whole school.
00:10:40.760
And it was there that I first encountered a kid drawing a swastika on a desk.
00:10:52.980
I mean, here was the symbol that I had been taught was a symbol, a sign of violent death to the Jews.
00:10:59.460
But the kid who was scrawling the swastika, I remember his name, I'm not going to say it.
00:11:04.260
When I challenged him, he literally didn't know what it was.
00:11:14.360
He just saw it and knew it was a very bad thing to do, and that is why he drew it.
00:11:22.300
It would be like drawing a naked lady or a swear word.
00:11:29.880
And I tell you that shocking but harmless encounter as a child,
00:11:34.560
that was the most anti-Semitic Nazi thing I've ever seen in my entire life in Canada.
00:11:50.000
In fact, they're quite liberal and tolerant in many ways.
00:11:53.140
In fact, I think sometimes, and I've been to Germany a few times,
00:11:56.940
I think Germans in particular are still reacting to and apologizing for and trying to counterbalance their past.
00:12:03.580
And in some ways, they're punishing themselves for what their grandparents did.
00:12:06.500
I think they're too liberal now as if it'll balance things out.
00:12:15.720
But I wanted to make it clear to you that I'm sensitive to Nazis and anti-Semitism,
00:12:23.020
And I visited the Holocaust Museum in Israel and the one in Washington, D.C. several times.
00:12:29.700
So on my mind, it's part of who I am, but it's in the background.
00:12:34.080
And it bothers me deeply when liberals like Justin Trudeau and his deputy, Christian Freeland,
00:12:40.320
and the rest of the fools in the Liberal Party throw around words like Nazi so cavalierly.
00:12:49.680
You know, it's as if they're, it's because what they're doing is they're taking the chilling, shocking, horrific evil of the Nazis.
00:13:00.040
Here's another picture of the Einsatzgruppen in Russia.
00:13:02.040
And they're using it as a talking point, as a little heckle, just a dart, something to fill the daily chatter,
00:13:13.160
It's like a very sharp knife that has to remain sharp, but you're dulling it with overuse.
00:13:22.700
How much vitriol do we have to see of honk honk, which is an acronym for Hail Hitler,
00:13:28.640
do we need to see by these protesters on social media?
00:13:34.900
An Israeli Jew in the Liberal Party trotted out to compare horn honking to saying,
00:13:40.340
Hail Hitler, if you've got to engage in those kind of mental gymnastics, sister,
00:13:46.240
to find Nazis where there are none, you live in a pretty safe place.
00:13:50.900
There are no real Nazis in Canada, which is why demand exceeds supply,
00:13:56.420
which is why hustlers and hucksters and race baiters and the Southern Poverty Law Center
00:14:02.000
and the so-called Canadian Anti-Hate Network work so constantly to promote hate hoaxes.
00:14:08.680
There just aren't enough real incidents of hate in Canada.
00:14:13.320
The Canadian Anti-Hate Network, it's an Orwellian name,
00:14:16.620
they're actually paid more than a quarter million dollars by Trudeau to dig up hate
00:14:21.120
and then make public complaints about it, to gin it up.
00:14:30.140
So here I'm now, I've just taken up all your time
00:14:32.900
and I have not yet told you what I want to tell you.
00:14:39.400
I don't think there are any because I haven't met any.
00:14:45.120
Certainly not amongst the Conservative Party or the People's Party or the Truckers.
00:14:55.060
There have been a few actual Nazis who sneaked in.
00:15:05.200
He was one of those local collaborators with the Nazis I told you about
00:15:12.880
He ran a pro-Nazi newspaper and he just happens to be Chrystia Freeland's grandfather.
00:15:20.640
Chrystia Freeland, the Deputy Prime Minister of Canada.
00:15:23.180
Now you cannot blame a grandchild for what her grandfather did
00:15:32.220
And that's what I would say to all Germans and all Ukrainians.
00:15:37.260
But Chrystia Freeland actively covered up her grandfather's crimes.
00:15:49.560
I won't casually call her a Nazi in the same manner
00:15:59.380
And I'm not even talking about her grandpa anymore.
00:16:03.160
showing Chrystia Freeland holing up the colors of blood and soil,
00:16:07.360
the colors of the Bandera movement, an actual Nazi movement in Ukraine.
00:16:12.880
Freeland was caught with this scarf, with this banner,
00:16:15.400
and she deleted the tweet, but not before it was captured.
00:16:23.580
Freeland is pretty deep into Ukrainian nationalism.
00:16:30.120
Do you know that she has an apartment in Ukraine?
00:16:33.620
I wish I had an apartment in other countries to go visit, too.
00:16:42.000
She talks about her grandparents and all that she learned from them.
00:16:46.900
By this point, she was still keeping her grandfather's Nazism a secret.
00:16:52.920
She actually has the temerity in this essay to claim that her family fled Nazism.
00:16:59.700
No, sister, your grandpa was a Nazi and you were hiding it.
00:17:14.060
We've talked about before how everyone says that they would be the one guy in the crowd not seek heiling Adolf Hitler.
00:17:22.080
But we know that's not true because we've watched in the past two years how most people have absolutely gone along with everything awful.
00:17:30.660
Nothing as awful as the Nazi Holocaust, but brutal treatment of dissonance, of segregation, of dehumanization, of jailing pastors, of telling us who we can meet and can't meet, who can come to our house, who can say what, who can work where, who must be fired, who must submit to the state.
00:17:48.060
It's not the Nazism of Babi Yar, but it's the Nazism of the Nuremberg Laws in 1935.
00:18:04.960
That would be a good approximation of what you might have done had you been around in the 30s in that terrible place in time.
00:18:12.360
And I prefer not to talk about Ukraine and Germany and Poland and Russia during the Holocaust.
00:18:19.060
Certainly not to my Ukrainian and German and Polish and Russian friends.
00:18:22.740
I want to learn from the past, but I don't want to be trapped by it.
00:18:25.780
And I certainly don't want to be turned hateful because of it.
00:18:28.340
I don't want to engage in collective guilt because of it.
00:18:30.800
I love Canadians and I love Alberta where I grew up.
00:18:33.140
And I'm deeply grateful that I grew up there amongst Ukrainians and Scots and Mormons and the Indian Reserve not far away.
00:18:46.480
I think the people born in 2002, I think I'm luckier than them.
00:18:52.100
But let's not talk about history or blame for things in the past or collective guilt.
00:18:57.780
And I don't even mean Chrystia Freeland hiding her past or lying about her past or pretending that she was an anti-Nazi.
00:19:05.220
I mean what she's doing now and what Canada is doing now.
00:19:09.700
Look at this story from the Ottawa Citizen just a couple months ago.
00:19:15.220
The story is Canadian officials who met with Ukrainian unit linked to neo-Nazis feared exposure by news media documents, say documents.
00:19:24.940
A year before the meeting, Canada's Joint Task Force, Ukraine, produced a briefing on the Azov Battalion, acknowledging its links to Nazi ideology.
00:19:38.380
So this isn't just Chrystia Freeland's personal life now.
00:19:43.320
This is a government policy of the government of Canada.
00:19:46.020
Did you know the Canadian government was meeting with Nazi paramilitaries?
00:19:54.640
Just like the Nazi militaries who worked with Hitler's Nazis at Babi Yar.
00:19:59.020
Let me read a little bit from the story in the Ottawa Citizen.
00:20:01.780
Canadian officials who met with members of the Ukrainian battalion linked to neo-Nazis didn't denounce the unit,
00:20:08.460
but were instead concerned the media might expose details of the get-together, according to newly released documents.
00:20:16.540
The Canadians met with and were briefed by leaders from the Azov Battalion in June 2018.
00:20:22.560
The officers and diplomats did not object to the meeting and instead allowed themselves to be photographed with battalion officials,
00:20:32.080
despite previous warnings that the unit saw itself as pro-Nazi.
00:20:35.880
The Azov Battalion then used those photos for its online propaganda,
00:20:42.900
pointing out the Canadian delegation expressed hopes for further fruitful cooperation.
00:20:57.620
Allegations of Canadian troops training neo-Nazis and war criminals sparks military review.
00:21:02.860
A review into how Canada approves the foreign military personnel it trains should be ready by early next year,
00:21:10.380
but parts of the study will need to remain secret.
00:21:13.940
The review comes as a Jewish group in Ukraine is highlighting a new video of Ukrainian paratroopers
00:21:22.760
Bandera was an anti-Semite and Nazi collaborator
00:21:25.980
whose organization is linked to the murder of more than 100,000 Jews and Poles during the Second World War.
00:21:33.360
He is revered in Ukrainian nationalist and far-right circles.
00:21:37.720
The Canadian military was warned in 2015 before starting its Ukraine training mission
00:21:43.140
about the dangers of the far-right within the Ukrainian military ranks,
00:21:46.740
but the senior leadership largely ignored those concerns.
00:21:59.700
She was holding that banner, the Bandera banner.
00:22:05.340
The Azov Battalion does not represent all of Ukraine or all the Ukraine military or all Ukrainians.
00:22:13.320
And frankly, even if it did, that does an excuse of Putin's war against Ukraine
00:22:19.620
that is brutal and deadly and invasive and imperialistic and illegal,
00:22:24.340
led by Vladimir Putin, a former KGB agent who seeks to rebuild the Russian Empire.
00:22:28.860
But when Putin claims, as he does, that one of his aims is to denazify Ukraine,
00:22:38.640
saying, honk, honk, it's the sign of a Nazi takeover.
00:22:42.660
He's talking about armed militias, like with tanks and things.
00:22:51.080
But real Nazis with real military gear and real military battalions,
00:22:57.760
And it looks like the Canadian military was actually training them,
00:23:06.420
Now, I'm not saying that's justification for an invasion by Putin,
00:23:15.320
If you try to Google anything about the subject,
00:23:19.360
you'll note that it's pretty hard to find Putin's actual statements about the Azov battalion.
00:23:29.520
They'll give you a hundred links to fact checks or rebuttals to Putin's case,
00:23:36.620
many of which point out the obvious, that Ukraine's president is himself Jewish,
00:23:43.740
So obviously it can't be true that there's Nazis in Ukraine, right?
00:23:59.020
Sometimes they use another Nazi symbol called the Black Sun.
00:24:03.620
Here's Catherine McKenna, the disgraced former Trudeau cabinet minister,
00:24:06.880
giving a shout out to some pretty Ukrainian girls on Women's Day a couple days ago.
00:24:13.180
When I pointed out on Twitter that the girls in the top right corner were wearing that Nazi symbol,
00:24:22.980
the Black Sun, Catherine McKenna deleted a tweet, just like Chrystia Freeland deleted a tweet.
00:24:35.420
This is a documentary that they made a few years ago.
00:24:38.920
I just want you to watch the first minute or two.
00:24:58.340
The marching young men are far-right nationalists from the Nazionalny Druzhiny, or National Militia.
00:25:20.600
This was the Maidan in 2014, as hundreds of thousands of people rallied and ultimately forced out an unpopular president.
00:25:29.740
Russia branded it a coup, orchestrated by neo-Nazis and fascists.
00:25:38.660
But four years on, Ukraine's far-right is on the march, and there appears little appetite for stopping it.
00:25:47.860
Here's a major pro-Ukraine news outlet showing the delivery of Javelin anti-tank missile systems to the Azov battalion.
00:26:00.020
A shipment of N-LAW grenade launchers and instructors from NATO countries arrived in Kharkiv.
00:26:09.900
The Azov regiment was the first to learn about their new weaponry.
00:26:21.420
Not a honk-honk, pretend Nazi who doesn't exist.
00:26:31.020
Here's something you might not see every day in Canada.
00:26:33.380
The NATO flag, the Azov flag, and the German-Nazi flag all together.
00:26:45.440
He's the editor of the Kiev Independent, and he was sworn in as an honorary member of the Azov battalion.
00:26:56.920
Some of his writers are in the battalion, too, he says.
00:27:02.020
Here he is, happy to tweet the Azov battalion and its Nazi-style logo in the picture.
00:27:08.740
I should tell you, Chrystia Freeland has given hundreds of thousands of Canadian tax dollars to this Kiev Independent News Agency.
00:27:16.660
Oh, what, you didn't think Trudeau's media bailout you thought was just for Canadians, did you?
00:27:32.640
But I have a difficult time sorting through rumors and fog and, you know, from the truth here on all sides.
00:27:42.840
And I don't trust the journalists in most cases.
00:27:45.380
But one thing I am seeing so often is that there really are Nazi paramilitaries in Ukraine.
00:27:57.660
It's, you know, it's not even most people who care about Ukraine.
00:28:04.980
It's happening often enough that liberal MPs keep casually tweeting pictures of the Nazis until they have to take them down.
00:28:14.540
They promoted one of these Nazi battalions, but they didn't recognize some of their insignia.
00:28:24.380
CTV News Vancouver aired a story Tuesday that included an image of two female Ukrainian soldiers who were wearing, get this, an offensive symbol on their uniforms, which was regrettably not recognized before being broadcast.
00:29:01.820
You know, calling it offensive is how someone might react to it, but it doesn't actually describe it well because they want to pretend that this is not happening.
00:29:13.500
They want to pretend that the only Nazis in the world are here in Canada at the trucker convoy.
00:29:23.840
How much vitriol do we have to see of honk honk, which is an acronym for Hail Hitler.
00:29:29.780
Do we need to see by these protesters on social media?
00:29:39.160
You know, the official hate finders, they go nuts to find Nazis where there are none.
00:29:45.560
You know what I'm talking about, the Southern Poverty Law Center, the Canadian Anti-Hate Network.
00:29:49.200
I went to both of their websites today, completely silent on the actual, real, armed paramilitary Nazis in Ukraine that Western powers are arming and training and promoting.
00:30:06.800
I mean, maybe I understand it coming from Chrystia Freeland.
00:30:14.640
I mean, you can be for Ukraine, but against the Nazis, right?
00:30:21.340
I just find it bizarre and crazy and troubling that the most real Nazis left on Earth, I mean, really, are there any actual Nazis anywhere else on Earth?
00:30:33.480
The real ones have been officially deemed the good guys.
00:30:40.960
I'm not going to claim that all Ukrainians are like those folks.
00:30:44.060
I want to believe, and I think I do believe, that they are a small fringe.
00:30:50.720
That's the language Trudeau used to talk about the truckers, didn't they?
00:30:58.200
The small fringe minority of people who are on their way to Ottawa or who are holding unacceptable views that they're expressing
00:31:11.200
do not represent the views of Canadians who have been there for each other,
00:31:19.020
who know that following the science and stepping up to protect each other
00:31:24.720
is the best way to continue to ensure our freedoms, our rights, our values as a country.
00:31:31.280
So when we really do have a small fringe of Nazis with unacceptable views,
00:31:37.220
Or at least just brainstorming here, maybe stop arming them and training them and promoting them?
00:31:48.440
Remember this when they call you a Nazi next time.
00:32:10.000
Well, I am delighted that the Conservative Party of Canada is having another leadership race.
00:32:15.060
It is no secret that I was a critic of Aaron O'Toole, not just because he didn't win,
00:32:20.880
which of course is the main characteristic you look for in a politician,
00:32:23.480
but because I don't think he was particularly conservative.
00:32:27.120
And I think one of the side effects of the trucker rebellion was that issue was forced,
00:32:32.180
and the Conservative caucus said goodbye to him.
00:32:34.160
It was a bit of a miracle, political accountability, I think.
00:32:40.500
The date, if I'm not mistaken, of the new leadership vote is in September 10th.
00:32:45.940
Now, that feels like an eternity from now, but it's not too far away.
00:32:50.400
I suppose they put it in the distance to get a chance to some outsiders to throw their hat in the ring.
00:32:55.580
I see reports that Jean Charest, the former Mulroney cabinet minister and then Liberal Premier of Quebec,
00:33:04.800
Patrick Brown, the former Ontario PC leader, who's now the mayor of Brampton.
00:33:12.860
Roman Baber, the Ontario MPP who came out against lockdowns, announced his campaign last night.
00:33:17.840
But one of our favorite people is throwing her hat in the ring.
00:33:22.940
I'm talking about Dr. Leslyn Lewis, the MP for Haldeman Norfolk,
00:33:26.900
who did so well in the last leadership campaign.
00:33:29.280
What a delight to welcome her back to the show.
00:33:33.560
You can see I'm a fan, and I don't even care who knows.
00:33:38.820
I'm delighted that you're running in the leadership campaign.
00:33:41.520
Tell me a little bit about your strategy, what you're going to emphasize as your issues.
00:33:50.920
So many people would ask, well, why are you doing this again?
00:33:54.740
And to be honest with you, that not much has changed since last time.
00:33:58.360
I'm still concerned about the direction of the country.
00:34:01.500
I'm still concerned about our $1.3 trillion debt.
00:34:09.660
I'm concerned about some of our environmental policies that we have,
00:34:16.300
And looking back, we can see that that was a grave mistake.
00:34:19.920
And so I want to put forth a platform that will get Canadians on track,
00:34:26.280
make sure that we're developing our natural resources,
00:34:30.760
and also that we also have a plan to protect the environment.
00:34:34.360
I don't believe that those things are mutually exclusive.
00:34:37.200
I also want to see people, businesses, have hope again.
00:34:41.100
And as you know, 80% of all Canadians are employed by small businesses.
00:34:46.260
And so we have to find a way to get them back, get hope back to them so that we could rebound out of COVID and get people employed,
00:34:55.060
start building up revenues and pay down that debt.
00:35:00.260
Of course, I agree with, I mean, the pipelines.
00:35:03.600
Canada could so obviously be a supplier of what I call ethical oil to the world.
00:35:16.260
But Dr. Lewis, one of the things that has come home to me over the last two years is that sometimes we take our civil liberties for granted.
00:35:23.340
Because, yes, the debt is important, and, yes, pipelines are a solution, and, yes, getting small businesses.
00:35:34.240
You can't pay the rent if you don't have those things.
00:35:36.380
But there are some other intangibles, civil liberties, freedom of speech,
00:35:41.140
that I think the lockdowns of the last two years have really showed us the importance of those age-old principles.
00:35:48.000
What do you have to say about freedom of speech and freedom of protest, the recent civil liberties inferno of the Emergencies Act?
00:35:57.380
Can you talk a bit about those, not the pocketbook issues, but more the heartfelt issues a bit?
00:36:05.260
I think it's very important that in a democracy that we uphold those liberties.
00:36:11.300
And many Canadians and many immigrants came to this country because we were the beacon of hope, of democracy.
00:36:19.820
And when we have policies and practices that undermine that, it really erodes confidence.
00:36:27.180
I was very, very concerned during the convoy protest because I was just two blocks away from parliament,
00:36:34.940
and so I had to walk through that protest every day, and I was able to speak to people,
00:36:39.660
people who came all the way from B.C., and they just wanted to be heard.
00:36:51.560
Some of them, they did whatever they could, but they wanted answers as to why the government wasn't listening to them.
00:36:58.840
And they came all the way to parliament so that they could be heard by the government, and nobody wanted to listen.
00:37:04.600
And it was very, very sad to see that the approach that Justin Trudeau took, that he refused to meet with these individuals,
00:37:13.240
and then he labeled them racist, demonized them.
00:37:16.960
And it was very, very disconcerting to see that how fragile our democracy is and our rights.
00:37:24.120
And the evoking of the Emergencies Act was something that I also wasn't very pleased with because it suspended civil liberties.
00:37:31.320
And people were very, very concerned that if this could be done so easily, what could the government do?
00:37:37.840
Could they freeze our bank account for other issues that they disagree with us on?
00:37:47.420
There, cancel culture is bad enough when it's some woke mob on Twitter, but when the prime minister and the finance minister and the justice minister are directing it,
00:37:57.320
and there's no court process, the banks are going along with it, I think that's really terrifying.
00:38:02.520
You know, I remember when you and I last met, it was actually on that very chilly day on Parliament Hill at the trucker protest.
00:38:11.220
Not all conservative MPs or senators went down there.
00:38:15.360
I think if I had to guess why, some disagreed with them, but more, I think, were scared of getting offside with the mainstream media.
00:38:26.220
And I think that's, frankly, Aaron O'Toole, what happened to him, is I think maybe his instincts would have been sympathetic,
00:38:35.620
I mean, the media was such a strong player in this drama, and they weren't just a neutral observer.
00:38:43.260
Let me ask you about that, because I think that should you become leader, obviously Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party machine are going to be your nominal opponent,
00:38:53.600
but I think that in Canada, the toughest opponent for any conservative is the mainstream media.
00:39:01.080
I think they mock, first they ignore you, then they mock you, then they lie about you.
00:39:06.580
And I think in the case of Aaron O'Toole, and I'm not asking for you to defend him or to condemn him,
00:39:12.140
I'm just saying when I look at his tenure as leader, I think he was terrified of being devoured by the media,
00:39:21.140
How will you handle a hostile media who hate the very thought of a black woman being a conservative?
00:39:29.460
I mean, I think they would hate you triple because of that.
00:39:34.620
Yeah, I've seen them really misstate positions that I've had in the past and try to make it seem like if I was anti-LGBTQ+,
00:39:44.860
which is really ridiculous because I worked in refugee law and defended people who were being persecuted because they were a member of the LGBTQ plus community.
00:40:05.020
And so I could see the media has even taken something like that and not recognize it.
00:40:11.880
So I know that they're not my friends, but I'm not here to make friends with the media.
00:40:20.200
And I understand the cost and I'm prepared to pay the cost of that.
00:40:25.120
And as you said, that day, that whole day that I interviewed with you in front of the convoy,
00:40:31.660
it was because I believed that these individuals came here and they needed to be heard.
00:40:37.620
These are people that were traumatized, that were locked down for two years, that may be losing their jobs,
00:40:44.080
may have had family members lose their jobs and they wanted to be heard.
00:40:48.940
And I am being paid by these individuals, some of them making $15, $20, $25 an hour.
00:40:55.640
And politicians are making hundreds of thousands of dollars an hour.
00:40:59.480
So I don't understand why a politician wouldn't want to hear from their constituents.
00:41:08.800
And it's something that I felt that I had to do or else it would be meaningless.
00:41:18.380
I want to ask you a question because I remember when you were running for the leadership last time,
00:41:25.220
I think everyone was very excited, but there was that one knock against you that you were fairly green.
00:41:31.580
Now you've been in Parliament a couple of years.
00:41:36.700
You've been practicing, I guess, being a politician.
00:41:40.360
Tell me what you think you've learned since the last go-round.
00:41:47.880
What did you maybe not know about two years ago that you think,
00:41:51.820
okay, now I understand it or now I'm working on that.
00:41:59.060
Well, there's some good and there's some bad in that because I think that one thing I've learned is that
00:42:03.600
when you're coming in, you just want to see change.
00:42:08.300
And you realize sometimes that the wheels of politics turn really slowly.
00:42:14.020
And so that was a little bit frustrating for me.
00:42:20.720
And that's something that I think that you can only get that experience by being within the system.
00:42:28.020
And so I'm glad that I do have that experience.
00:42:32.180
And I feel that the policies that I have now, they come from a place of authenticity.
00:42:40.200
And I think that that's what's important to the people.
00:42:42.340
That's what they want to see, that you're going to stand up for them, even if it costs you, even if it's not popular.
00:42:50.200
And they know that when you present a certain policy, you have the best interests of Canadians at heart.
00:42:57.120
You know, I'm a super fan and I'm not hiding it.
00:42:59.700
But I want to ask you a tough question because that's what we do here at Rebel News.
00:43:05.400
And I want to ask you, and I don't know if it's fair, but in Canada, there's a tradition that if you're running for prime minister, you do have to speak both languages.
00:43:14.960
And I know that really limits because most people grow up unilingual.
00:43:22.180
What would you say to people who say, well, Leslie Lewis is great, but her French skills are not strong and a quarter of the country speaks French?
00:43:32.500
Yeah, I think it's very important that you speak French.
00:43:45.000
Unfortunately, during the election, I took a little bit of time off because I really wanted to focus on the new writing.
00:43:58.100
And so I felt a sense of vulnerability going in as a new person that they didn't know me.
00:44:03.720
So I did take a few months off my French lessons, not doing it the way that I should have.
00:44:11.420
And the people of Quebec, they just want to see that you're trying and that you are committed to learning it.
00:44:18.320
And to be honest with you, though, I feel that if there were a French person who couldn't communicate in English and he was a great or she was a great candidate, I think that things are evolving to the point where people would accept that.
00:44:33.520
For the first time, we have a governor general who does not speak French.
00:44:38.620
And I'm sure she's making efforts to speak French and she has some unique qualities that she brings to the job.
00:44:45.600
And so I think people would recognize those in me also and also recognize that I'm a person who values education.
00:44:51.200
So I'm going to make the best effort to continue to learn French.
00:44:54.960
I want to ask you a question on behalf of Canadians who have not been vaccinated for whatever reason, perhaps it was a religious reason, perhaps it was a medical decision they made, perhaps they they're hesitant and they've just weighed the odds and the risks for whatever reason.
00:45:11.980
They made that choice in most places, vaccine mandates are coming down, although some governments still require them to work there.
00:45:22.260
But in Canada, you still can't get on an airplane or a train or a ferry if you're unvaxxed.
00:45:29.920
It's almost like there's a no fly list for for millions of Canadians.
00:45:34.260
And of course, there's the possibility that other lockdown restrictions can be brought back in.
00:45:40.000
What would you say to Canadians who are glad that things seem to be loosening up, but we're still not out of it yet?
00:45:49.640
Do you have a message to Canadians who are unvaxxed or what you might do for them?
00:45:54.680
Well, I think we have to look at what's happening around the world and around the world.
00:45:58.740
We're seeing that the mandates are being removed.
00:46:02.380
And throughout this pandemic, we've heard over and over, trust the science, trust the medical officers of health and the medical officers of health across the country are saying that it's time to remove the mandates.
00:46:17.620
So I think it's time that the federal government does put a plan on the table that will end the mandate.
00:46:25.320
Right now, it's just a means of discriminating against those who are not vaccinated because we know that we have other means of accommodation.
00:46:34.240
We can test the unvaccinated to have an increased level of security.
00:46:41.580
And so the prohibition for them not being able to get on a plane or a train, etc.
00:46:56.220
And I think that the government needs to follow the science and look at what other jurisdictions are doing and look at what the provinces are doing and get up to speed and end those mandates.
00:47:08.800
Do you think people who were fired over the last year because they didn't get jabbed and now the mandates have been removed, do you think they should be, especially in the public sector, do you think they should be invited back to work?
00:47:22.880
I never believe that people should have been fired because they are unvaccinated for a medical choice.
00:47:29.420
We've always had medical freedoms in this country, and especially when the science came out that whether you're vaccinated or unvaccinated, you could still spread and contract COVID.
00:47:44.740
I think that at that point in time, the policy should have reflected that.
00:47:50.580
And it's very important for us to look at personal responsibility.
00:47:55.620
I think every individual should take responsibility for themselves to do whatever they can to protect themselves, protect their family and minimize the strain on our health care system.
00:48:07.380
But I also believe in informed consent and I believe in medical privacy.
00:48:12.360
And I also believe that people need to make these decisions in accordance with their doctor and they need informed consent to make their decisions.
00:48:20.700
And I don't believe that people should have been fired for a medical choice.
00:48:24.260
What's a website that people can learn more about you?
00:48:28.260
And if they want to sign up to be a part of this, where can they get more info?
00:48:35.540
And all the info that you'll need is there, how to take out a membership, because you have to be a member to vote.
00:48:41.720
And everything that you'll need to be a member and also to donate is on the site.
00:48:50.580
I will be doing tours and small group meetings, and I hope to meet some of you in person.
00:49:00.080
It was a pleasure to have you in the last campaign.
00:49:02.200
I remember that we were one of your very first stops, and it was great to meet you that day.
00:49:07.320
And we've been following your career ever since.
00:49:19.820
Leslynlewis, candidate for the Conservative Party of Canada.
00:49:38.200
Cologne 42 says, I had almost completely written off the rule of law, but a handful of recent
00:49:44.080
rulings gives me a sliver of hope that reason might return to Canadian courtrooms.
00:49:50.100
Yeah, well, I was glad to see that ruling by Justice Hina had.
00:49:53.080
Of course, we knew that we had won during the election, but it was nice to see it in writing.
00:49:57.640
We're not done in the courts because I think Trudeau is not done trying to bring in a new
00:50:03.820
He really meant it when he says he admires Castro and China.
00:50:08.620
Like, he says these things, and people must think, oh, he's kidding or he's exaggerating.
00:50:16.540
I sure hope that the courts will rule for freedom, but I wouldn't bet on it.
00:50:27.720
Will you be allowed to ask little Justin questions or will he just ignore you as usual?
00:50:34.100
Well, I mean, you saw what happened literally hours after that court case when Alexa LaVoie
00:50:38.340
and Tamara Eucolini and the rest of our team was allowed to put questions to him.
00:50:45.120
And the Parliamentary Press Gallery will not let our reporters come near Trudeau.
00:50:51.500
Literally, our rivals and our competitors are banning us from coming into any press gallery
00:50:59.680
So it's too bad because I think someone ought to ask Trudeau some tough questions.
00:51:05.720
Andrew Merlach says it's real funny seeing how angry he gets when confronted by people
00:51:12.860
who have views he finds, quote, unacceptable or anyone not on the Liberals' payroll.
00:51:18.100
And how funny is it that 97.7% of the Canadians don't watch the idea of credible media?
00:51:27.380
Yeah, I mean, a lot of chutzpah there when Trudeau was over in Europe criticizing Putin
00:51:32.560
for being an authoritarian and cracking down on the media.
00:51:36.200
Did he forget what he just did in Canada, including seizing private bank accounts and
00:51:41.440
declaring a national emergency because there was some peaceful trucker protests?
00:51:48.720
I wonder what you think about my dear diary entry.
00:51:51.460
That was personal reflections as much as anything.
00:51:54.460
But I just find it odd that someone, Christopher Freeland, Justin Trudeau, who calls everyone
00:52:02.360
they don't like a Nazi, are actually supporting the last Nazis in the world.
00:52:07.920
I'm not saying that Ukrainians are Nazis or the Germans are Nazis.
00:52:17.700
And Freeland is supporting them and arming them and training them.
00:52:25.840
Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, good night.
00:52:29.900
And let me leave you with this video of the day from Alex Alavoie, who met some Communist
00:52:34.900
Party supporters who crashed a pro-convoy rally in Ottawa.
00:52:44.500
When I say we are unstoppable, you say a better world is possible.
00:52:49.940
I'm in the city hall where counter-protests just happened.
00:53:01.360
But they are protesting against the convoy, saying that they are full of white supremacists,
00:53:06.640
racists, misogynists, and other names that I will not tell now.
00:53:12.340
But I'm coming here to see their point of view, what they have to say to me.
00:53:23.400
I'm wondering, what is the protest about today?
00:53:34.360
This is a reaction to the occupation of Ottawa a couple of weeks ago by the truckers.
00:53:40.540
And this is to show solidarity with the community and emphasize love and not hate.
00:53:47.580
And what is the damage that the convoy have caused in your life?
00:53:53.260
Well, I live downtown, so I heard a lot of noise.
00:54:01.020
I had people yelling at me from trucks as I drove by.
00:54:08.400
Nothing like what's going on in Ukraine right now, but I did feel under siege.
00:54:11.500
Learning to live with COVID is coded language that means it's okay if disabled people die.
00:54:25.620
So you don't understand that 20% of the population...
00:54:39.420
Well, this is the people who had to survive the occupation by the far-right convoy of difficult people.
00:54:49.000
Many of them were traumatized, especially the people living downtown.
00:54:53.420
That maybe seeing the Canadian flag doesn't make you nervous again,
00:54:56.180
because we had three weeks of the Canadian flag in trucks,
00:55:04.260
You call the convoy the left-extreme, the left-wing, white?
00:55:15.460
I realize that not all of them were Nazis, because, you know, only several of them had Nazi flags.
00:55:24.180
I realize not all of them were white nationalists, because only several of them had white nationalist flags.
00:55:30.240
Um, yes, this was a very ultra-right conservative protest of, yes, anti-vaxxers who had their rights to, you know, to protest.
00:55:41.440
And we lived in a city where people took over downtown to tell us,
00:55:48.240
It's an oppressive Illuminati conspiracy theory nonsense.
00:55:55.640
If they ever come back and brag that they were part of this convoy, they have enemies for life.
00:56:01.300
Do you, um, do you think that some of the people just right here are Nazi and white supremacists as well?
00:56:32.460
So, the police basically stood by and let them do whatever they wanted to do.
00:56:37.160
Even though the police chief was saying they were taking measures, like not letting them refuel,
00:56:45.060
And there were lines of people bringing in jerry cans full of fuel to refuel.
00:56:54.220
They made it a crime to do it, but then they weren't enforcing it.
00:56:57.480
So, there's different definitions of peace, right?
00:57:00.320
So, I don't think that anyone thinks it's peaceful to set off fireworks next to somebody's home at midnight every night for a week.
00:57:08.000
But people are dying because we're not wearing masks.
00:57:12.940
I saw people coming in the streets really aggressively, driving backwards, going over the sidewalk.
00:57:22.600
Well, there were also some signs, like the American flag, the yellow flag, which is a really racist flag.
00:57:36.780
There was people who obviously have the right to be angry.
00:57:50.080
Have you joined them for maybe a day to join them and talk to them?
00:57:58.160
I have the girls, and it was impossible for me to go.
00:58:00.260
I think what the issue is is that your line of questioning is a little bit aggressive.
00:58:04.500
And so, that's what he's trying to say is maybe you need to reframe it.
00:58:08.940
He's already told you that he saw aggression in the streets and felt it himself.
00:58:13.180
And so, that's when you stop, and you stop pressing as a journalist, if you are, in fact, a journalist.
00:58:33.340
At the moment, I'm free, and I can't stand here.
00:58:43.880
But what is your authority on me for asking me to leave to a public space?
00:58:48.560
I think all of us are feeling pretty uncomfortable, so it would be great if you'd leave.
00:58:58.920
Yeah, but I'm just asking, like, what is going on here?
00:59:01.740
Maybe just take a break and let everybody cool off.
00:59:03.660
People are feeling a bit harassed, so maybe just take a break.
00:59:09.000
I've never been feeling harassed nowhere else than here.
00:59:12.560
But people are telling you how they feel about it, right?
00:59:36.760
Oh, it's a QR code so people can get information.
00:59:56.020
If you ask not to speak to him, please stop harassing him.
01:00:00.360
People have said that they're not going to speak to you.
01:00:03.400
So just live, the people in the front just make aware of everybody that they had bad people
01:00:11.800
in the back, not on their side, and we should be aware of them and be careful.
01:00:20.180
So they are actually doxing us in the front, telling like we are here and we are bad people.
01:00:29.000
I don't know what they want to hide from us, but we have nothing to hide from them.
01:00:39.780
So first time I need to have like as much security for one camera and one microphone.
01:00:49.500
So I cannot, you cannot sue me for anything because you're following me.
01:01:14.000
I have my camera so I can prove that I didn't touch you.
01:01:22.960
So to talk about this, we're going to bring up our next speaker.
01:01:27.000
And folks, it is my great pleasure to introduce this speaker.
01:01:32.740
So I cannot, you cannot, you cannot, shoulder to shoulder next to, sue me for anything.
01:01:36.960
with this is you following me this woman walked to hello how are you anti-racism and peace movements
01:01:57.440
you want to answer my question today raise your voices
01:02:00.320
okay but he's like he wants to film me but he don't want me to ask him question so
01:02:08.880
it's getting a little bit tense here um we try just to see the other side of the story so
01:02:15.920
we saw so many uh flags today we saw the communist party of canada we saw defund the police we saw um
01:02:23.920
so many like board writing like we are against nazi or other so what is going on here i've didn't
01:02:35.920
i've did take one minute to go and see the people at the parliament or they are just based what they
01:02:43.440
are saying by the legacy media telling them what they saw so far or they were able to see by themselves
01:02:52.400
what happened during the convoy i would never know because they don't want to answer to my question
01:02:58.240
and it became clear and it became clear that the oligarchs around the world
01:03:03.680
mainly headed by communist party of canada yeah i'm good so what is what is the communist party of canada
01:03:13.440
they are not in good faith yeah they are pro-convoy and just trying to dox your
01:03:18.480
from no all you can say that i'm pro-con boy they start talking to you for 15 minutes
01:03:23.920
we're not going to uh we're not going to entertain i'm sorry no i was just wondering why you have a
01:03:28.160
flag of our communist party of canada well their support uh they've been uh you know very supportive
01:03:33.600
so what can we do in support of the community so that's all i don't know if you can see the
01:03:45.760
they actually block me not not only the security but now the people and we can feel like the tension
01:03:53.120
here um i'm just asking simple questions to understand the other side and um most of them
01:03:59.280
they don't want to answer to me so and now aggressivity is rising but i do do not do anything
01:04:08.640
most of the time i'm just laughing because make no sense to be angry over someone who tried to
01:04:37.920
what is going on they say that we are harassing people but they are harassing us following us
01:04:52.480
blocking us putting some stuff in our face and almost like grabbing our our stuff and as well
01:04:59.920
what they were saying it's like oh if you touch me i'm gonna sue you um i'm sorry you touch me and
01:05:05.840
you came towards me and you're following me so who is harassing who here
01:05:18.000
they keep saying that the convoy was violent they were harassing people and
01:05:25.440
and as well they were nazi and white supremacists but so far since i'm here
01:05:32.000
not only i got harassed but i get almost some violence against me they almost pushed me
01:05:40.400
they blocked the camera they were giving me some name against me
01:05:47.200
what is going on and it's only a protest that it's been what an hour and this convoy was there for three
01:05:55.360
weeks and i was there on the ground since the 28th and never see any violence there it was peaceful
01:06:07.520
and for freedom but where is the peaceful protest here when a journalist just tried to ask some simple
01:06:14.080
question so i'm in the parliament hill and we have two counter protesters not behind me and they put on
01:06:23.200
terry fox board writing go home traitor so at the end to that is not the same that putting a freedom
01:06:34.320
mandate board as well there i don't know like board that against the people there instead of i don't
01:06:42.560
know i'm just wondering what part of this is inaccurate information because let me the traitor on
01:06:50.080
it i just don't understand go home traitor they're asking for our democratically elected government to
01:06:57.440
dissolve so they can what implement their own hand-picked one i i would call that traitors to
01:07:03.200
democracy i would pretty well call that being traitorous that's your point of view but um as
01:07:09.520
well why you say that terry fox bro that's not that's not a point of view that's literally what's
01:07:15.200
happening i just try to understand all your board that's it no i'm just curious i'm just so curious here
01:07:22.640
what exactly is it you're trying to get from me so why am i getting attacked for something that is
01:07:28.640
quite like you no but plenty of people here have the harassment of me which by the way what are you
01:07:35.680
doing no no no no no i don't justify it it's not okay but it's not okay to yell because i have to
01:07:44.080
shout over all this mother i can't even hear myself i can't even hear myself do you do you hurt me
01:07:52.720
do i'm yelling do i'm yelling this was not okay so many stuff is not okay but that is the polarized
01:08:00.800
uh population i'm sorry for that i didn't create it and i'm just there for understanding both side of
01:08:10.880
the story and i'm not for that i'm not against that leave me the alone
01:08:23.600
leave me the alone did you hear me that time thank you move on move on to someone else
01:08:29.360
if i'm so aggressive then go puss to someone else i don't want it bro