In Harper's magazine, liberal elites get worried about cancel culture — about ten years too late
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Summary
Why should others go to jail when you're the biggest carbon consumer in the world? Ezra Levant explains why it's our bloody right to do so. Plus, why liberal elites are starting to get worried about cancel culture about 10 years too late.
Transcript
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Hello, my rebels. I have good news for you today. I feel in good spirits because we have two free
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speech mini victories. They're sort of mini, but you know, two is almost a trend. Before I get to
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So that's rebelnews.com and eight bucks a month. Okay, here's today's podcast.
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Tonight, liberal elites start to get worried about cancel culture. About 10 years too late.
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It's July 7th, and this is the Ezra Levant Show.
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Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?
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There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.
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The only thing I have to say to the government, the wire publisher, is because it's my bloody
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Cancel culture has gone mad. I've never seen it this bad in the West. It's a mania. It's
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a madness of crowds. The closest thing I've ever seen to it is photos from the struggle
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sessions and self-denunciations in communist China in the Cultural Revolution under Mao Zedong.
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I don't know if you ever watched my noontime live stream show, 12 noon Eastern, but I found
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a copy of that old book that I once bought in Hong Kong called Red Color News Soldier.
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Dozens of photographs from the Chinese province of Heilongjiang during the Cultural Revolution.
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Some show trials, struggle sessions, self-criticisms, as they called them. Just incredible. And when
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I look at it, I think, that's exactly what's happening now. I think of the know-nothing
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millennial scribblers at the National Post, some of whom had only been working there for
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a year, who tried to get Rex Murphy fired from their own newspaper for the sin of being
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a 73-year-old white man. Just a wild mob. Now, Rex Murphy survived that for now, but
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every day someone else falls, including, for maybe the first time I can remember, some
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leftists. Wendy Mesley, who was sacked at the CBC for saying the N-word repeatedly at the
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office. I find it hard to mourn for her, to be honest, given that her entire job description
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after the CBC was cancel culture. She was the inquisitor for any conservative who was foolish
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enough to go on a show. She accused anyone and everyone of being racist, including us here
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at Rebel News, by the way. You know, in the five and a half years I've worked at Rebel
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News, I have never heard the N-word spoken by anyone at the company. Not once ever. Wendy
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Mesley was apparently throwing that word around like confetti at the CBC. Imagine her judging
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us. But the fact that she's been sacked, and other cultural fancy pants like Jessica Mulroney,
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daughter-in-law Brian Mulroney, sacked from, I think it was CTV, shows that this is a tidal
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wave that will sweep away mighty ships, not just little boats like us. Tomorrow on my noontime
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show, I'll take you through that picture book, Red Color News Soldier, and take your questions
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on the live chat. So please tune in. It's a free show. You don't even need the paywall.
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Well, it's at 12 noon Eastern time tomorrow on YouTube. So things are getting bad. It's
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a form of madness. But look at this. Look at this. Harper's Magazine. That is an establishment
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liberal magazine. That's a magazine for the fancy people. They've come out against cancel
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culture. It's one thing for Rebel News or, I don't know, Breitbart.com to fight against
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it. Heck, we have to. We're targets of cancel culture and deplatforming, not only from left-wing
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mobs, but from tech companies too. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube. But this is Harper's. There
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is fancy and liberal an establishment as it gets. A letter on justice and open debate.
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All right. Let's take a read. It starts with some introductory throat clearing, I call it.
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Our cultural institutions are facing a moment of trial. Powerful protests for racial and social
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justice are leading to overdue demands for police reform, along with wider calls for greater
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equality and inclusion across our society, not least in higher education, journalism, philanthropy
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So they're proving they're woke and they care. And then they come to the word but. And as
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you know, whenever someone says the word but, you can ignore everything they said before
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the word but, I'd really like to empty the dishwasher now, but. You know, I'd really like to lend you
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money, but. I'd really like to help you move apartments next weekend, but. But, but, but.
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So here's their but. But this needed reckoning has also intensified a new set of moral attitudes
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and political commitments that tend to weaken our norms of open debate and toleration of differences
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favor of ideological conformity. Okay, good. I like that but. That's a fancy way of saying
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people are afraid to speak now. It's been an interesting few months, but people are afraid
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to speak now. I'll read some more. As we applaud the first development, we also raise our voices
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against the second. Okay. So now that they've spoken out against the mob, they have to quickly
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prove their credentials again, just like they said, you know, we're liberal, we're anti-cop,
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blah, blah, blah, blah. And then they snuck in their belief on free speech. Now they have
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to immediately bolster their left-wing credentials by bashing Trump a bit as if he's the censor
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in America. Hey, that's fine. Whatever you need to get courage to take on the mob, if you
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need to scapegoat Donald Trump to rediscover your own belief in free speech, that's fine.
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That's a small price to pay compared to the intellectual alternative. The forces of illiberalism
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are gaining strength throughout the world and have a powerful ally in Donald Trump, who
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represents the real threat to democracy. Really? Is this the Russia collusion thing again? Or
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what? I don't know. We're never quite told. But hey, it's fine. It's okay. These are leftists
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and liberals. They need their safe things near them, like a security blanket, like Linus
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from that Peanuts cartoon. It's a bit childish to poke at Trump here, but it's okay. They have
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to bash Trump like you and I have to breathe. Don't worry too much about it because they throw
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in the word but again. I want to mow the lawn today, but. Trump is bad. But resistance must
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not be allowed to harden into its own brand of dogma or coercion, which right-wing demagogues
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are already exploiting. The democratic inclusion we want can be achieved only if we speak out
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against the intolerant climate that has set in on all sides. On all sides, eh? Again, not
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sure how right-wing demagogues are exploiting being cancelled and silenced and deplatformed.
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How exactly? Again, who cares? Let them say that. If they have to tell themselves,
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that both sides censor, who cares? Baby steps, right? This is a breakthrough for them.
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The free exchange of information ideas, the lifeblood of a liberal society, is daily becoming
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more constricted. Okay, good. They're getting braver, getting braver. So they're dropping
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anti-Trump slogans every other sentence. Now to stay brave, that is okay. Now they use the
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word while instead of but. Same thing, same thing. I like it. While we have come to expect
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this on the radical right, censoriousness is also spreading more widely in our culture,
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an intolerance of opposing views, a vogue for public shaming and ostracism, and the tendency
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to dissolve complex policy issues into a blinding moral certainty. Hey, can you tell me the last
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time a conservative censored anyone? Any time a conservative mob rioted to protest anything?
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A conservative club on a university blocking a liberal or leftist speaker? Ever? A conservative
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somehow got a liberal journalist fired from a liberal magazine for being too liberal? I can't either. I
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mean, about 50 years ago, there was still some censorship of pornography and obscenity. And some of that did come
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from the religious right. It's true. Or at least the rhetoric did. I don't think the religious right
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ever banned anything. Though I seem to recall it was Tipper Gore, Al Gore's former wife, who led the
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charge against swear words in pop music. She's a Democrat, of course. Now I'm not for censorship,
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but I do agree that the constant denigration of women as sexual objects in rap music, for example,
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that seeped into the larger culture. I think it's had a coarsening effect on all of society,
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especially on young people. You don't have to be a censor to notice that. Okay, back to the
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statement today. We uphold the value of robust and even caustic counter-speech from all quarters.
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But it is now all too common to hear calls for swift and severe retribution in response to
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perceived transgressions of speech and thought. More troubling still, institutional leaders in a
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spirit of panicked damage control are delivering hasty and disproportionate punishments instead of
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reconsidered reforms. Editors are fired for running controversial pieces. I'll come back to that.
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Books withdrawn for alleged inauthenticity. Journalists are barred from writing on certain
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topics. Professors are investigated for quoting works of literature in class. A researcher is fired
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for circulating a peer-reviewed academic study. And the heads of organizations are ousted for what are
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sometimes just clumsy mistakes. Whatever the arguments around each particular incident,
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the result has been to steadily narrow the boundaries of what can be said without the
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threat of reprisal. We are already paying the price in greater risk aversion among writers,
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artists, and journalists who fear for their livelihoods if they depart from the consensus
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or even lack sufficient zeal in agreement. Hey, that's pretty good stuff. And they got all that
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out without another impeached Trump commercial. This isn't bad. Okay, last paragraph.
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This stifling atmosphere will ultimately harm the most vital causes of our time.
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The restriction of debate, whether by a repressive government or an intolerant society,
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invariably hurts those who lack power. It makes everyone less capable of democratic participation.
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The way to defeat bad ideas is by exposure, argument, and persuasion, not by trying to silence or wish
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them away. We refuse any false choice between justice and freedom, which cannot exist without each other.
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As writers, we need a culture that leaves us room for experimentation, risk-taking, and even mistakes.
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We need to preserve the possibility of good-faith disagreement without dire professional consequences.
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If we won't defend the very thing on which our work depends, we shouldn't expect the public or the state
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to defend it for us. Hey, that's good. I can't quarrel with that.
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Well, free speech is indeed a tool for the powerless. People who have power don't actually
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need free speech. They already control things. They're incumbents. They have inertia. They're in.
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People on the outside with no money or power, they only have speech and their ideas. Think of all the
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liberal causes over the years, from the suffragettes a century ago to black civil rights 50 years ago to gay
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rights. When each cause was new, they were deemed offensive ideas. And those offensive ideas were
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rejected by the establishment. Speech was the great equalizer for them. How perverse that now
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elements of those same leftist causes censor their own opponents now that they are in. Black Lives
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Matter, radical feminism, actually these days, transgenderism. I think that's the most censorious
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ideology in the world today. More strict even than radical Islam. So kudos to the people who drafted this
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letter and to those who signed it. I actually know some of the names personally. I know more of them
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by reputation. It's an uneven list. Some people are intellectual titans, I'd say. Some seem a bit out
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of place. Some are scholars. Some are authors, novelists, writers of fiction. I saw a Hollywood
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agent on there. Some are nonfiction news people. I see Margaret Atwood is on there. David Brooks,
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the boring pundit, but good for him. There's a former ambassador on there. I see Michelle Goldberg is on
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and that's interesting. She's a New York Times columnist. You know, they fired their editorial
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page editor just a few weeks ago for running an op-ed by a U.S. senator who opposed the Black Lives
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Matter riots a bit too firmly for the time. Seriously, a sitting U.S. senator writes a column.
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I mean, agree with it or disagree with it, whatever. But they literally fired the editor. I know that
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headline says he resigned. Don't be naive. They fired him for letting a different point of view appear
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in their opinion pages where you're supposed to have an opinion. Maybe Michelle Goldberg,
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who was so brave in Harper's Magazine, maybe she can be a bit braver at the New York Times where she
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works. I see Wynton Marsalis, the musician, is on there. That's a good thing. No one is more conformist
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than the music business. What was about dissent and dispute in the 60s is now about conformity totally.
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I'm sure someone will call him a racist for signing this. I see J.K. Rowling is on there.
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Her own protégés denounced her for daring to say that men who say they're women are not actually
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women. I mean, this nobody who would be a nobody were it not for Rowling's books,
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he denounced her. He's a man denouncing her. Her own agency. I mean, she has made her agent
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tens of millions of dollars, maybe a hundred million dollars. They still denounced her for
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saying women are women and men are men. And I mean, J.K. Rowling is very nice to gay people
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and transgender people. She's very progressive. But she just insists that no, transgender women
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are not biological women. And for that, they fired her. She made them millionaires. They fired her.
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But good for her for not bending the knee. I'm pleased that Salman Rushdie signed this too. He was
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the first prominent Western victim of Islamist censorship, a fatwa, against him more than 30
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years ago for writing a novel that mocked Mohammed. The U.K. back then stood up for him, protected him,
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gave him 24-7 security. But those days are done. Today, the U.K. enforces fatwas against what
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they call Islamophobia. I like what he says about the word but when it comes to free speech. Remember
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this. And now the moment somebody says, yes, I believe in free speech, but I stop listening.
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You know, I believe in free speech, but people should behave themselves. I believe in free
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speech, but we shouldn't upset anybody. I believe in free speech, but let's not go too far.
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The point about it is the moment you limit free speech, it's not free speech.
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The point about it is that it's free. I like that, the bumper game. So there are some good
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people on the list, and there are some weird posers. Liars even, I think. This guy,
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Jeet here, who used to work at the National Post, overlapped with my tour of duty there years ago,
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he signed this letter, which is weird, because he's actually a cancel culture guy. Just a few weeks
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ago, he said this. He wrote, I'm pretty sure everyone doesn't agree on that, and there are
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people obsessed with a largely fictitious cancel culture who ignore real problems. Or he said this
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in November. He said, kind of shows that cancel culture isn't a thing, no? And he said this
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in December. He said, it's kind of amazing that people believe cancel culture is real. And he said
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this. You can criticize cancel culture, social justice warriors, political correctness, etc.,
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all you want. But the fact remains that a much bigger problem is that the mainstream media is
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constantly whitewashing bigots and normalizing bigotry. Oh, my God. I'm not sure what this guy's
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doing on the list. He's actually a race hustler censor in his own right. Well, I mean, who cares?
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If a weird opportunist is willing to sign a bold letter like this, maybe that's an indication
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that it's safer than we think to stand up for freedom. Here's hoping. Hey, stay with us. I've
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Welcome back. Well, I was sitting at my desk and I sometimes procrastinate by looking at Twitter.
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And by sometimes, I mean, well, let's be honest, over 100,000 times since I joined Twitter,
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apparently. But it's my source of news, breaking news. And look what I just saw out of the blue,
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a series of tweets from our friend Candace Malcolm. Let me just read the first one here.
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I am excited to announce a new initiative, the Independent Press Gallery of Canada.
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It's open to all independent journalists and outlets, regardless of where you land on the
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political spectrum. Find out more here. And there's a link and there's more tweets. But I'm
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just going to read one more. I was so excited by this. The purpose of this organization is to
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provide an alternative to the stale and closed minded parliamentary press gallery. Ain't that the
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truth? As you may know, I've been trying to get True North's journalists recognized, accredited in
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Ottawa for months and have faced ridiculous and unreasonable barriers. Okay, I'll just read one more
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because it's so good. I've spoken to several other independent journalists and smaller outlets
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who've also been excluded and bullied by the PPG. That's Parliamentary Press Gallery. Many indie or
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smaller outlets don't have the same resources as True North, i.e. the ability to go to court as we did
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and won during the last lecture. Okay, I'll just read one more. I tell you, this put me in such a good
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mood when I saw this today. Freedom of the press and independent journalism are sacrosanct in a free
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and democratic society. While the government tries to create barriers and regulate our profession,
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we need to promote and encourage a culture of free inquiry and thought in Canada in order to preserve
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these values. Okay, I'll read the last one. I can't tell you how happy I am. That is why today I am
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pleased to be announcing the launch of the Independent Press Gallery of Canada. We are now accepting applications
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for membership and sending out membership cards. Laminated, I'm sure. Our first event will be in
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late July. Details to come apply today. And I happen to know that one of our reporters was literally the
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second person in the country to get his application in. There's probably a gold rush on. Imagine that.
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An actual independent press gallery. I was joking about the laminator. I'll tell you the punchline for that
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joke later. Joining me now is my friend and my ally and the leader of the Independent Press Gallery,
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the author of those tweets, Candace Malcolm from True North. Candace, I got to tell you,
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there's a lot of bad news out there when it comes to cancel culture and censorship.
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And you can get down on it. But when I saw those tweets from you today, I tell you, I felt hopeful.
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I felt hopeful again. And I felt good. And I just thought, maybe we can do this. Maybe there's
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enough of us like-minded. All our journalists are going to join. I know Kian was the second person
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Well, we're excited and absolutely we're going to sign up, you and your journalists, Ezra. I think
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the only reason Kian was second was because Andrew Lawton beat him to the punch in applying. But that's
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because I gave him a heads up about it before I sent those tweets out. But we're really excited as
00:20:37.920
well. Ezra, you know, in the fall when we teamed up to go to court and to sue the federal government
00:20:44.420
in order to allow us into those debates that were run by the government. And, you know, Trudeau was
00:20:50.420
trying to close the door to people who weren't friendly to his ideology. It was great to be able
00:20:54.860
to team up with a like-minded organization. And I know we're not the only two independent journalist
00:21:00.680
organizations in Canada. There are so many others who I've spoken to, who I've dealt with, who I've heard
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from, who also face these barriers, who can't get their journalists into the parliamentary press
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gallery. It's sort of an antiquated idea that the government runs the club of journalists,
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isn't it? I mean, it doesn't really make sense, especially in this modern age of independent
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outlets and the ability, like we talked about last week on your show, you know, there's so many
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journalists out there, so many outlets that have the ability to bypass their traditional distribution
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streams and reach Canadians directly. So why do we have to go through the government in order to get
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accredited and in order to be considered journalists? Well, we shouldn't. And that's why we're starting
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this. We're trying to create a culture, really foster an environment in Canada of freedom of
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the press and independence of the press. And I'm so glad that you're on board and so excited for the
00:21:48.260
future of this organization. Well, it made my day. And you know what was so important? I read all your
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tweets. I was only going to read one, but they were all so good. Each one of them had an important
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point. And you said that anyone on the entire political spectrum, you don't have to be right-wing
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or left-wing. You're just a journalist. And if you're independent journalists, you're welcome.
00:22:07.780
That's so important because you and I, I think we have a similar worldview. I think I may be like
00:22:12.560
1% more conservative than you, whatever. It doesn't even matter. But it would be great if independent
00:22:17.660
liberals and progressives and people who don't even see themselves as right or left-wing, like let
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there be anyone publishing their point of view. Why shouldn't they be part of a press gallery too?
00:22:31.100
I find that hopeful. And hopefully there can be people like that, liberals, who still believe in
00:22:37.960
freedom. Well, I think there are, Ezra. I think that out there, you know, we sort of get marginalized
00:22:43.660
and the establishment people try to write us off as being too conservative or right-wing or whatever.
00:22:50.200
But I know that there are other people who are troubled by the Trudeau government's sort of
00:22:54.520
increasing involvement in the press by that report that came out earlier this year that made all these
00:23:00.740
recommendations to regulate and license journalists. The idea that the parliamentary press gallery is
00:23:05.660
so exclusive. It isn't just too conservative outlets, although we feel the brunt of it. But a lot of
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freelancers can't get in as well. So, you know, I think it's so important. And I really do hope that
00:23:16.080
journalists from across the political spectrum right now, I'm still working on reaching out and
00:23:20.240
recruiting people. But, you know, the board members are going to include journalists from across the
00:23:24.740
spectrum, not just conservatives, but hopefully liberals and NDP people as well. And same with
00:23:30.620
journalists outlets. I would be happy to accept applications from, you know, the TAI or Canada
00:23:35.920
Land, should they apply. And I hope they will, because really the point of this organization,
00:23:40.460
Ezra, is to promote and, again, foster and celebrate independent journalism. You're right that journalism
00:23:46.300
in itself isn't ideological. But talking about the sort of editorial position of the outlets,
00:23:51.640
it really, it doesn't matter where you are. Obviously, you know, there are limits. I'm not
00:23:57.500
going to say that the independent press gallery is open to people who, like, promote violence or
00:24:02.100
something. If Antifa applies, I'll probably say no, just as a heads up. But, you know, as far as true
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journalists who are trying to report and do journalism, absolutely, it's open to everyone.
00:24:15.180
Yeah. You know, you mentioned Canada Land. I have deep ideological disagreements, deep editorial
00:24:20.240
disagreements with them. But I have to acknowledge they've made a go of it, I think, without government
00:24:26.900
money. They just got a $1 million three-year investment from some tech guy in Vancouver.
00:24:32.860
To me, you know, he's a man of the left, Jesse Brown in Canada Land. But he's making a go of it.
00:24:40.440
And instead of being marginalized by the fancy pants, you know, that would be someone on the
00:24:48.380
left who should join the independent press gallery. Now, I want to ask you what the word
00:24:53.200
independent means. I mean, I went through the website, but sort of quickly. There's an emphasis
00:24:59.080
on being independent from government. I think being a government journalist is an oxymoron. I mean,
00:25:04.520
how can you be? Oh, it's like being a government punk rock band. If you're part of the government,
00:25:10.840
you can't really be punk rock. So is there any rule about taking government dough? Like,
00:25:17.400
and I'm not trying to put you in a tough spot here. I bet you've thought of this already.
00:25:22.460
Let's say if, oh, I don't know, Rosemary Barton of the CBC applied. On the one hand,
00:25:28.800
she is a journalist. And, and I suppose inclusion and ought to say, well, let her in. And on the
00:25:35.760
other hand, she does work for a state broadcaster. What would you say to a CBC reporter? And what
00:25:41.820
would you say to China Daily? That's a state owned propaganda broadcaster run by the Communist
00:25:50.660
Party of China. They're actually a member of the parliamentary press gallery that won't let
00:25:55.060
you and me. Now, I'm not trying to grill you here. I'm just curious about your thinking. And I'm sure
00:25:59.740
I'll be persuaded either way. Well, no, these are really good questions. And, you know, this is a
00:26:04.460
new organization. I just launched it today, but I have given it a little bit of thought, Ezra. And
00:26:08.920
basically where I come down on this is there are two general principles that we ask members to abide
00:26:14.660
by. First is something called the Bordeaux principles, which is just a general journalistic
00:26:19.520
ethics that have been developed by a broader international federation of journalism in a complex,
00:26:24.660
in a accompaniment with the United Nations. So it's just very basic journalistic principles. So
00:26:30.420
we ask that journalists abide to that and pledge to uphold those those journalistic standards. And,
00:26:35.500
you know, it's pretty basic stuff like, you know, you don't take money for stories, you don't you
00:26:39.660
don't pay sources, all that kind of stuff. But then the other principle, which is exactly right,
00:26:45.040
what you're talking about, the word independence, we ask that journalists do not take funding from the
00:26:50.760
government, because it's my belief that as soon as a as a journalist becomes an employee of the state
00:26:56.480
or gets paid by the state or gets subsidized by the state, they're no longer truly independent in
00:27:01.940
the same way as those Bordeaux principles apply. So you can't be taking money from Trudeau will also be
00:27:07.700
the one that's pledged to hold him accountable. I don't think that those two principles can be squared.
00:27:12.720
So so so I would say no to membership for state run organizations like the CBC. However, you know,
00:27:18.940
we're going to be hosting all kinds of events, we're going to be doing press conferences and
00:27:22.200
facilitating all kinds of media events, and our events will be open. So so so I wouldn't want
00:27:28.320
government employees to be members. But I think that they should still be able to participate in
00:27:33.180
our events, which is, you know, completely the opposite of the parliamentary press gallery,
00:27:36.700
who you know, you have to be a member even just to walk in the door. So we we still want to
00:27:40.680
maintain openness and be inclusive and, and, you know, really welcome people. And hey,
00:27:44.920
if Rosemary Barton ever wants to leave the CBC, and do her own initiative, maybe join an independent
00:27:50.200
firm or strike on a strike out on her own. I'd be happy to reconsider and consider her membership,
00:27:57.940
Ezra. Yeah, you know, I think it would be neat, just to get to know the other independent journalists
00:28:04.560
in the country. And it would be neat if there was a place, either digitally, where they could
00:28:09.340
hang out, or like you say, events. I was talking the other day with Cindy Gu. She's the publisher
00:28:16.360
of Epoch Times, which is one of my favorite newspapers. And that made me think, well, there's
00:28:22.380
even foreign language like the ethnic press. Like in there's a lot of Chinese language news media in
00:28:29.800
Canada. Some are pro communist, some are very much pro democracy. Wouldn't that be great to have some
00:28:36.100
democracy oriented ethnic press? I don't regard Epoch Times as ethnic press. It's, you know,
00:28:42.540
people of all backgrounds work there. And it's in the English language. But wouldn't it be neat if
00:28:46.520
there was all sorts of people that we don't even really know about? But the one thing we had in
00:28:51.580
common was we believed in independent journalism. I hope this really grows. I'm not asking for you to
00:28:57.780
reveal any confidences. But before we turn the camera on, you said you had other editors and
00:29:04.860
publishers reach out to you proactively before you could even call them. Is that right?
00:29:10.160
Yeah, that's right. I had a bunch of emails sent out trying to, again, recruit members and recruit
00:29:14.660
board members and stuff like that. And as soon as I sent out those tweets, which was really just sort
00:29:19.080
of a soft launch, because we're going to be doing a big event at the end of July. And that will be sort
00:29:23.560
of the main launch. But the soft launch through the tweets, I was already getting DMs and emails
00:29:28.480
and texts of other kind of professional colleagues and people in the media asking questions and sort
00:29:34.980
of applauding the effort. So I think that there's definitely a demand for this, Ezra. There are a lot
00:29:39.800
of people who understand this sort of changing landscape and see the need for this, especially
00:29:45.040
just given all of the things that Trudeau is doing. So we're having a great response so far. I would
00:29:50.740
love to branch out to some of those outlets that you mentioned. I'm a big fan of Epoch Times. And
00:29:55.880
I thought that that CBC attack piece against them earlier this summer was horrendous. And it made me
00:30:01.380
want to cheer for them all the more. And if there are other language, for language, ethnic medias
00:30:06.900
are called sometimes in Canada that want to join, more than happy to. The whole idea is to have this
00:30:13.220
community of journalists that we can potentially maybe down the road will do award shows and journalism
00:30:19.380
awards and all that kind of stuff. I can envision doing a lot of things together and also internships,
00:30:24.420
getting young people interested in independent journalism and giving them career advice and
00:30:29.460
mentoring opportunities and internships and all that kind of stuff. I think that the possibilities
00:30:33.780
really are endless. The parliamentary press gallery has really squandered an opportunity and
00:30:38.820
really it's a closed door organization, very Ottawa centric. Whereas, you know, this is for all of
00:30:43.140
Canada and for all different kinds of journalists, not just the very strict, rigid ones that the PPG
00:30:51.460
says that you have to be in order to be part of their club. So I think there's a lot of potential.
00:30:54.980
I'm really excited about it, Ezra. You know, I love the idea of an awards show
00:30:59.780
and students. I remember six years ago, when I was still at Sun News, we had a student journalism
00:31:06.020
conference. We brought in kids from across the country. They were just students. But there's a lot of young
00:31:10.820
people who want to be journalists and they get sucked into the government journalism group think.
00:31:16.260
And sometimes you never sort of see them again. If there was another way for it. It sounds very exciting.
00:31:20.740
I got I got so many questions, but I don't want to. And I know you're still sort of figuring these things out.
00:31:25.540
But I know our viewers are going to be thinking this. So again, if you don't have the answer just yet,
00:31:31.220
I forgive you, given that you just launched this thing a few hours ago. But maybe something to think about is this.
00:31:37.380
I bet that a number of our viewers are saying, well, I'm not a journalist myself and I don't really
00:31:42.900
plan to be, but I want to support this. Can there be some either? I don't know. I mean, would you be
00:31:49.780
open just to a layman who wasn't a practicing journalist who would say, well, I want to support it
00:31:54.740
maybe with a donation or even be like an affiliate member? I just want to give my moral support,
00:32:00.900
but I want to go beyond just sort of quietly rooting for them. Like I bet there's some people out there
00:32:04.740
who would say, oh, well, if you guys are going to have a journalism contest, I'll chip in a hundred
00:32:09.540
bucks and maybe have a little bit of a cash prize there because the left sure does that. Or maybe
00:32:14.740
if someone said, well, I'd like to get involved if you're hiring student interns. I don't know. I
00:32:21.220
guess I'm saying I bet there's people watching who aren't professional journalists who want to help
00:32:26.340
you anyways. So something to think about. Yeah, absolutely. And I think these are the kind of
00:32:31.220
things that we can help fill in the gaps and we'll sort of learn as we go. I've never obviously
00:32:35.860
launched an independent press gallery before. So I still, again, thinking things through,
00:32:40.260
but I think you're right. I think that we have to expand it beyond just journalism because a lot of
00:32:44.980
the comments that I was getting on social media were people applauding and asking if they could make
00:32:49.940
donations as well. So I think that that's something that we're going to have to think about
00:32:54.180
and potentially open up. You know, maybe we can do a big awards gala where we give awards and we invite the
00:33:00.740
public and they can come and watch and participate as well. And again, the idea is to have an open
00:33:06.900
community, not a closed door thing like the parliamentary press gallery. So we'll work on
00:33:11.940
it and I'll have an answer next time we talk. Yeah. And I'm sorry, I don't mean to be lobbying
00:33:15.620
these things at you. I just, my mind is racing of all the things. I mean, I'll just throw one more at
00:33:19.380
you. I remember last October when you guys at True North and we guys here at The Rebel both went to
00:33:25.540
court in the federal court on an emergency basis because Trudeau kept both of our reporters out of,
00:33:32.420
uh, out of the debates. Well, wouldn't it be neat if the independent press gallery would be a legal
00:33:39.700
intervener? Again, I'm just brainstorming here. Look at me. Uh, I just want to go a million miles an
00:33:44.420
hour, but we, I felt alone in that court. I mean, I wasn't alone. We were there with you guys.
00:33:49.780
Uh, and, but it was still pretty quiet in there. There was no group there, but wouldn't it be neat
00:33:56.740
if they, if we had maybe a free speech, uh, committee and maybe occasionally if there was
00:34:03.540
some case of censorship that the independent press gallery itself would go to court as an intervener
00:34:10.660
or just to, so it wasn't just small. And this is one of your tweets also, like you and I managed to
00:34:18.580
muster some crowdfunded donations to fight, but there's individual reporters out there. There's
00:34:24.180
no way. I mean, we spent 18 grand in court that day and the, and the days leading up to, there's
00:34:29.700
no way an ordinary reporter is going to come up with 18 grand for a day in court. Hey, I'm just
00:34:34.740
brainstorming. Don't mind me. And I'm not trying to give you work, but holy cow, is there a lot of
00:34:40.020
work to be done here. And we, all our journalists, I know we're going to want to join. And, uh, I think
00:34:45.700
it's going to be great. Well, thank you, Ezra. And absolutely. That was part of the idea behind
00:34:50.020
this. When, when we went to court, I recognized that we're in a fortunate situation true north.
00:34:54.820
You know, we, we crowdfund, we have a fairly big audience, well connected and that kind of thing.
00:34:59.940
And we had the resources to go to court, but you know, if you're just a independent person,
00:35:04.500
a freelancer, someone who's doing really good investigative work and you get, you come up to
00:35:10.020
one of these barriers, it might just be enough to sort of crush your spirit and get, get you to go
00:35:14.660
home and, and not pursue what you're looking for. So I definitely think that the idea behind
00:35:19.780
the independent press gallery is that there's strength in numbers. If we can create a large
00:35:24.020
enough community of journalists demanding access to the government, demanding that we
00:35:28.500
be part of these debates and be part of these briefings, you know, you wouldn't see lone Kian Bextie
00:35:33.780
getting pulled off by a RCMP thug outside of the prime minister's residence. If there was 10 journalists
00:35:40.180
and the presence of the independent press gallery there, you know, again, there were strengths in
00:35:44.340
numbers. So the idea is that we're stronger together. And I think that, that, that definitely
00:35:49.140
is part of the purpose of this organization. And we're going to build up to that and, and be there
00:35:53.300
for other journalists who, who go through that. So hopefully, you know, what happened to Kian that day
00:35:58.420
doesn't happen again. And, and again, we were, we have a force to push back against that kind of
00:36:03.780
bullying that does unfortunately happen too often in Canada. Well, that's exciting. I'm going to let
00:36:08.900
you go. Otherwise I'll keep you here all day, just peppering you with questions and suggestions.
00:36:13.060
And I'm like a puppy, just too excited. I'm wagging my tail because I'm so excited about the independent
00:36:19.060
press gallery and the website is easy to remember. It's independentpressgallery.ca, right?
00:36:23.700
That's right. All right. Well, Candace, you made my day. I wish you good luck. And I don't even think
00:36:30.820
you need luck because you're going to have so many supporters and finally people have a place to go if
00:36:38.660
they want to be independent journalists. And we're going to sign up all our talent. We're all going to
00:36:44.180
join. And I hope many others do. And you know what? It wouldn't shock me if you and I look back a
00:36:50.180
couple of years from now. And we say, huh, I remember when the independent press gallery just
00:36:54.820
started, Candace, and we had application number two. And it wouldn't shock me if you had 50
00:37:02.580
or more members a year from now. 50. That's my prediction. 50 members in the IPG one year from
00:37:10.420
now. Let's check if I'm right in a year. All right. That sounds great. Take care,
00:37:15.060
my friend. Good luck. All right. Thank you. All right. There you have it. Candace Malcolm. Normally,
00:37:19.780
I just say she's the founder of True North. But today,
00:37:23.460
she's also the founder and the president of the Independent Press Gallery. Stay with us for more.
00:37:29.060
Hey, welcome back. On my monologue last night, William writes,
00:37:43.780
funny how the virus can tell the difference between evil sunbathers and virtuous Black Lives Matter
00:37:49.140
rioters. Yeah. I think you're so right on that. In the media, politicians,
00:37:57.540
I think that politicians have actually turned the mask into a symbol of your political stripe
00:38:08.820
because they choose to say it's necessary only when it suits them. Not necessary for Black Lives Matter
00:38:16.340
rallies. Necessary for Trump rallies. They've sort of turned it into if you're wearing a mask,
00:38:21.940
it's a sign you're a conformist leftist. If you're not wearing a mask,
00:38:26.100
it's a sign that you're an independent, free person. But I think that's inevitable,
00:38:30.580
given how political most of these public health officials are. Henry writes,
00:38:37.300
I live next door to a park in Vancouver, BC. Every day, parents and children are running wild.
00:38:42.420
The park is the fullest I have ever seen. No one has a problem with that. I absolutely believe that.
00:38:48.820
And the thing is, the more things you cut off, the crowder, the crowded-er everything else gets.
00:38:56.340
But people's own actions shows that they're not really believing the public health theater.
00:39:02.340
You know, we call airport security, security theater. In the 19 years that we've had the transit,
00:39:10.020
the TSA in the States are cats up here. They've never caught a terrorist in 19 years. It's security
00:39:16.820
theater. What we're seeing now is public health theater. The pandemic's over people.
00:39:23.860
On my interview with Kurt Schlichter on his new book, Ron writes,
00:39:26.900
Great to see Kurt again. Love his passionate rants. Oh, he gets so revved up. He starts calm and cool,
00:39:33.380
and then he just starts punching, punching. I think he's a good egg, and it was great to see him
00:39:38.340
again. And that looks like a great book. And he's published by Regnery, which is a pretty top-notch
00:39:43.220
title. I think that's going to do very well. It's nice to see a pro-Trump book. It's going to be
00:39:47.620
about 200 anti-Trump books. I just know it. Anyways, that's the show for today. I thought there was
00:39:53.380
two pieces of good news today. Number one was that some fancy people signed a pro-free speech
00:39:58.420
letter. How often do you see the hat? And there was even a couple of Canadians on it.
00:40:03.300
And number two, Candace and the independent press gallery. That's some good news that's
00:40:09.380
really tangible here in Canada. So maybe I'm a little more upbeat than I normally am.
00:40:13.940
Thanks for watching today. Until next time, on behalf of all of us here at Rubble World
00:40:17.860
Headquarters to you at home. Good night, and keep fighting for freedom.