Meghan Markle and Prince Harry give up the duties of the Royal Family while keeping all the benefits
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
149.97034
Summary
A passenger plane carrying 63 people was shot down by Iran on its way back from a flight from Ukraine to Tehran, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau still hasn t called Donald Trump about it. Should the Queen cut ties with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle?
Transcript
00:00:00.000
Hello, my rebels. Today, I tell you my thoughts on Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, and I tell you
00:00:06.060
a historical story of the last time an American divorcee tried to get herself a king. That didn't
00:00:13.280
end too well. I'll give you the details in my suggestion for the Queen. Before I get out of
00:00:19.900
the way, let me invite you to become a premium subscriber to the podcast. That means you get
00:00:23.760
the video version of it as well as video access to Sheila Gunn-Reed's show and David Menzies' show.
00:00:29.820
And it's only eight bucks a month, so it's not going to kill you, and it will help support
00:00:34.940
the rebel. So please go to premium.rebelnews.com, premium.rebelnews.com, eight bucks a month,
00:00:42.660
and you get the video side of the podcast. Okay, here you go.
00:00:59.820
Tonight, another American grifter tries to burrow into the royal family. Should the Queen cut ties
00:01:09.080
with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle? It's January 10th, and this is The Ezra LeVant Show.
00:01:13.840
Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?
00:01:19.680
There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.
00:01:23.760
The only thing I have to say to the government about why I publish it is because it's my bloody
00:01:29.620
The serious world has been riveted by the conflict in Iran. That didn't include Justin Trudeau,
00:01:41.040
who was partying in Costa Rica when that all started to go down, and he couldn't be bothered
00:01:45.640
to cut short his vacation or even just take a phone call with Donald Trump about it. He's still
00:01:51.220
in vacation mode. He's got his vacation beard that has the entire media party dazzled. Well,
00:01:58.900
now Canada is at the center of that conflict in a way. Iran shot down a passenger airline that was
00:02:05.960
taking off from its own airport. But look at the map. Look at where Tehran is. You see that on the
00:02:10.900
right-hand side there? And look where the rocket attacks on Iraq's air bases are, hundreds of miles
00:02:18.900
away. How on earth did Iran choose to shoot down a passenger plane hundreds of miles away? Why was
00:02:25.480
it the only plane shot down? Why didn't Iran stop civil aviation for the hours around its attack on
00:02:33.680
Iraq? And what did these cryptic comments from one of Iran's dictators, what did they mean,
00:02:42.380
published shortly before shooting down the airliner, referring to then 290 people killed a few years
00:02:49.560
ago when America actually accidentally shot down an Iranian passenger plane? By the way, the U.S.
00:02:55.960
military attempted to contact that plane many times before shooting it down. America apologized for
00:03:01.320
that, paid a compensation to every family on the plane. But not that that excuses it, but rather the
00:03:07.440
opposite. When Iran's dictator mentions America shooting down an Iranian jet in a tweet about
00:03:13.920
vengeance, and then Iran shoots down a passenger jet, granted it was from their own airport, but it
00:03:21.100
was chock full of foreigners, isn't that more than a quirky coincidence? Alas, Trudeau doesn't think so.
00:03:27.500
He still thinks it's an accident, and the only person he blamed yesterday was Donald Trump, who he still
00:03:33.920
hasn't phoned. Do you feel that the U.S. is partly responsible for this, given that they created the
00:03:40.380
situation in which the missiles were launched? I think that's one of the many questions that people
00:03:47.080
will be thinking about and trying to find answers to. So Canada has gone from being disconnected and
00:03:55.020
disinterested in Iran and world affairs to being, well, I'd still call it disconnected and disinterested.
00:04:02.680
Trudeau has no plan. He has no clue what to do. He won't talk to the grown-ups like Donald Trump
00:04:08.980
because he's afraid. He literally phoned up the prime minister of the Netherlands yesterday. Okay,
00:04:14.780
I get it. That's one of the few guys who will still take a call from Trudeau. But
00:04:23.040
CBS, look at this. CBS crew just visited the Ukrainian Airlines crash site west of Tehran,
00:04:28.220
9 a.m. local time. Virtually all pieces of the plane were removed yesterday.
00:04:32.680
Say locals. Scavengers now picking site clean. No security. Not cordoned off. No sign of any
00:04:38.800
investigators. Does that sound legit? Hide the black box. Remove everything from the crash
00:04:47.780
scene, such as any parts of the missile that shot it down. But Trudeau knows who the real
00:04:53.400
enemy is, doesn't he? Donald Trump. Yeah, the past week has shown the world that if you touch
00:04:57.640
one hair on the head of an American, Donald Trump will flatten you. But if you kill 63
00:05:04.380
Canadians, Justin Trudeau will just mumble something about seeking justice and then take
00:05:09.020
another personal day. I'm not even kidding. If my math is right, today marks the 22nd day
00:05:13.820
in a row that Trudeau's either been on vacation or taken personal or private days. I really think
00:05:19.860
he's the laziest prime minister in Canadian history. I mean, he wants all the perks. He wants
00:05:25.300
the private jets. He wants the luxury vacations, the status, the money, but none of the responsibility,
00:05:30.880
none of the hard work, certainly none of the hard decisions. I think people are noticing,
00:05:35.980
and I think he knows, he's got to know, he's an imposter. I think when his vote count and seat
00:05:44.660
count fell in the last federal election, when he lost his majority government, when people saw
00:05:48.700
through him saw that he's a faker, he's a fake feminist, we sort of already knew that. But the
00:05:54.160
Jody Wilson-Raybould thing proved that. But the blackface, because it showed his whole woke thing
00:06:00.300
was just an act, that he's an imposter. I think he's always known that he's an imposter, but he just
00:06:06.320
bluffed it out. And I think serious leaders around the world knew pretty early, but now Trudeau knows
00:06:14.200
that we all know that he's an imposter, so he's just checked out. I mean, he knew, he always knew.
00:06:20.840
I've shown you this video before, but let me add a laugh track to it. Look at this guy.
00:06:26.800
Bruh, look at this dude. Wait till you see the...
00:06:33.720
Yeah, I think that's about right. So a lazy man in empty suit won't quit because
00:06:52.000
he'd be a nobody again. Trudeau loves the perks. He's a gold digger as a wife. And I say that as
00:06:58.220
an observation, not a condemnation. You'll recall that whole illegal trip to the Aga Khan's private
00:07:03.700
billionaire island in the Bahamas. That was Sophie Trudeau's doing. Here's an excerpt from the
00:07:09.820
Ethics Commissioner's report. You know, she kept calling the Aga Khan's daughter, asking him to go
00:07:15.420
there with her rich girlfriends to show off like she's some Kardashian or something. She went back
00:07:20.740
without Trudeau himself. The Aga Khan and his family weren't even there. But Sophie didn't care.
00:07:25.840
She just wanted the free stuff. She's a grifter. And that's one big reason why Trudeau won't quit
00:07:31.620
his prime minister. His wife demands the free stuff. I mean, their eight-day trip to India had
00:07:37.920
seven days of family vacations. One day of work. It's him, but it's her too. And I can't think of
00:07:46.020
another lazy, entitled... Well, I can think of one. Another lazy, entitled fake celebrity couple.
00:07:53.740
Prince Harry and his grasping wife, Meghan Markle. Taxpayers just spent millions of pounds on their
00:08:04.960
glamorous royal wedding. And then millions more renovating their house. I mean, that happened,
00:08:15.140
what, just five minutes ago, it seems? So millions. And now, now they want to quit.
00:08:23.180
They want to quit. They want to quit doing the work. They want to stop having to do the hard parts,
00:08:29.760
the boring parts, the uncool parts. They want to stop going to every hospital and school and food
00:08:34.420
bank and orphanage and veterans hospital. And they want to stop shaking hands with lowly people and
00:08:38.560
cutting ribbons and smiling even if they're not happy. They want to stop clapping even if they're
00:08:42.300
bored. They want to get rid of all that part, the duty part, the service part. They want to leave
00:08:48.700
all that and just keep the celebrity part, the richest part, the fancy titles. The queen's over 90.
00:08:54.860
She can do the hard work. These youngsters, they want to party. Harry and Meghan Markle,
00:09:00.720
they're just grifters. They're like the Trudeaus. They're literally trying to monetize the brand.
00:09:08.660
And they're trademarking Sussex Royal. Trademarking it. Like they're the Kardashians with a new line
00:09:15.400
of makeup or something, except that Kim Kardashian, she has no official duties, no constitutional duties,
00:09:22.260
no public responsibilities, and her money is her own. She's not living off the avails of the state.
00:09:27.640
She's not living off the taxpayer. In fact, Kim Kardashian West and her husband Kanye West,
00:09:33.040
the musician, they pay enormous taxes in because they're enormously successful. They're not
00:09:39.840
moochers. Meghan Markle was a B-list or more accurately a C-list celebrity. One step up from
00:09:48.140
a nobody really, not a starving wannabe starlet working as a waitress in poverty just waiting to
00:09:54.840
be discovered. But maybe one notch above that, she had a minor role in some shows like this one on the
00:10:01.200
screen here. She wasn't a multimillionaire by any stretch. She probably made high six figures,
00:10:06.040
low seven figures as an actress. But, you know, once taxes and expenses and managers and agents are
00:10:12.080
all paid, she had enough to live comfortably. But she didn't want to live comfortably because she was
00:10:19.060
in Hollywood and she saw how the real stars, the superstars lived. She went by Beverly Hills. She saw
00:10:26.600
the fancy cars and she started comparing herself to those around her. Meghan Markle was never going
00:10:33.060
to be an A-lister. She knew it. But she had a plan. She divorced her husband. Get rid of him. He's
00:10:41.120
since remarried. And she remarried. She married herself a real prince. Gold digger, social climber,
00:10:49.680
for sure. Like no one's ever seen in 90 years. Since the last American divorce, a Wallace Simpson
00:10:58.060
married herself a royal King Edward. It was a constitutional crisis. And on the eve of the Second
00:11:04.720
World War, no less. And she was a Nazi sympathizer. Can you believe it? You know, they visited Germany
00:11:11.220
and met with Hitler. So that woman, Wallace Simpson, met Edward when he was still a prince.
00:11:21.000
Now, he became a king when his father died. Simpson wasn't even divorced yet. She had become his
00:11:27.880
mistress, boasting, soon I shall be queen of England. Yeah, it did not happen. King Edward resigned.
00:11:36.040
He was pressured to resign. Abdicated the throne, as they say. Crisis averted. Let those
00:11:42.940
philandering Nazi sympathizers go. Give them a few pounds to live off. Give them modest titles.
00:11:50.460
They were sent to the Bahamas, far away, where Edward was made the governor. What a disgrace.
00:11:54.440
I guess that grifter, Wallace Simpson, still got her title, Duchess. And I guess in the end,
00:11:59.060
Edward did the right thing, sort of, and paid a bit of a price for it. He wouldn't be king anymore.
00:12:06.040
But what about Harry and Meghan? They want their cake and eat it too. They just decided this. They
00:12:12.700
didn't consult with their family. They didn't consult with the queen. They didn't consult with
00:12:16.040
anyone. They just announced their plans on their Instagram page because they think there's stars
00:12:22.020
that way or something. Let me read their Instagram message. After many months of reflection and internal
00:12:30.260
discussions, we've chosen to make a transition this year in starting to carve out a progressive
00:12:35.860
new role within this institution. We intend to step back as senior members of the royal family and
00:12:41.740
work to become financially independent while continuing to fully support Her Majesty the
00:12:46.420
Queen. It is with your encouragement, particularly over the last few years, that we feel prepared
00:12:51.180
to make this adjustment. We now plan to balance our time between the United Kingdom and North America.
00:12:56.100
Oh, really? Continuing our duty to the Queen, the Commonwealth, and our patronages,
00:12:59.920
this geographic balance will enable us to raise our son with an appreciation for the royal tradition
00:13:05.480
into which he was born, while also providing our family with the space to focus on the next chapter,
00:13:11.900
including the launch of our new charitable entity. We look forward to sharing the full details of
00:13:16.000
this exciting new step in due course as we continue to collaborate with Her Majesty the Queen,
00:13:21.900
the Prince of Wales, the Duke of Cambridge, and all relevant parties. Until then, please accept our deepest
00:13:26.380
thanks for your continued support. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, for more information,
00:13:31.580
visit our website, Sussex Royal. Please hit the tip jar.
00:13:37.940
They were lying there, by the way. They didn't talk to the Queen about any of this.
00:13:43.020
That website, Sussex Royal, apparently, they've trademarked that. You're going into the trades,
00:13:50.280
are you? You're getting a job, are you? A real job, are you? You're renting out the name,
00:13:53.640
Maria's Sussex Royal, because they want to make money. And the Queen and her family,
00:13:59.240
look, they're already amongst the richest people in the world. I mean, castles, huge property,
00:14:05.140
servants. But these two little grifters want that Kardashian style. They want it to be about them,
00:14:12.320
them, them, them, them, them, them, them. They want to rent it out. They want to monetize.
00:14:16.700
They had a PR firm write this weird memo on their private website about funding,
00:14:25.000
trying to spin the fact that they're quitting the work part of being royals, but keeping the
00:14:30.180
money part of being royals, keeping the money part, the funding. It goes on and on and on.
00:14:37.440
They want to keep their multi-million dollar residence that just had millions in renos.
00:14:41.640
It's called Frogmore Cottage. I love that part, cottage, like it's a little shed or something.
00:14:48.240
Their Instagram post said that they've had many months of reflection and internal discussions,
00:14:52.200
but the royal family says that's a lie. None of them were consulted. I think the royal Sussex,
00:15:01.380
they were just talking to their C-list Hollywood friends who see a gravy train here. Harry brings
00:15:07.460
the name and the wealth and the titles and the class, and Meghan will take care of the grifters
00:15:11.780
and the graspers and the PR firms. You know, she came to Canada two weeks ago with Harry. Actually,
00:15:18.400
they landed the day after Trudeau left for Costa Rica. He couldn't be bothered to stick around and
00:15:22.720
greet them. Now, they flew back to the UK, but apparently Markle is back in Canada again. I guess
00:15:28.040
things aren't going so well with the reflections and discussions with the Queen. I'm guessing the Queen
00:15:33.120
and the rest of the royal family are using words like, well, the four little word. You know what I'm
00:15:37.980
talking about. Duty. Yikes. And responsibility and constitution. And not words like Instagram and
00:15:47.000
self-actualization. I note that Markle left her baby with the nanny as she jetted around back and forth.
00:15:56.140
Of course she did. The royal family isn't the most important thing to her. Neither is her own family.
00:16:03.760
She is the most important thing to her. It's pretty gross and it's pretty sad what she's made of Harry.
00:16:11.180
You know what I liked about Harry? He served. He served in the army dangerously in Afghanistan,
00:16:17.660
on the ground, for years in real danger, real work, real service. He once said it was the best thing
00:16:24.180
he'd ever done, the most real thing. He got to meet other real people in the army. I get it,
00:16:31.320
living in the royal family must be like a fantasy or a bubble or maybe a gilded cage. In Afghanistan,
00:16:38.340
he could be real and just a man in the army. And he started a charity and a competition,
00:16:44.040
the Invictus Games, for wounded vets. Good for him. You know, that's great. That's service,
00:16:52.580
isn't it? That's duty. And something he actually knew a little bit about. How different from the vanity and
00:16:58.160
narcissism his American wife is pulling him into? And Canada too. Here's the big scoop on them
00:17:05.560
that ran in the Sun tabloid. I understand this huge report in the Sun. It's why Harry and Meghan
00:17:13.940
made their huge announcement in an Instagram post because they panicked because they hadn't set it
00:17:19.080
all up yet and it was still being planned and the Sun was about to reveal it. So they just blurted it
00:17:24.480
out on Instagram. It sounds like they want to move to Canada so that they can say they're still in the
00:17:29.680
commonwealth, but they'll be close to Hollywood and Manhattan whenever they like. I think I actually
00:17:35.900
know, you see this forest here that's on their page, on their website, Sussex Royal? There's some
00:17:44.240
wider angle pictures of the forest. I know this sounds crazy, but I think I actually know the forest.
00:17:50.940
I think it's a forest between Nanaimo and Alberni on Vancouver Island. I think I've been to that
00:17:56.660
forest. I know that sounds absurd, but just to look at some trees, but I think I know where they are.
00:18:01.400
The Sun says they rented a $14 million home over Christmas. I think that's in Tofino. I think they're
00:18:09.600
in Tofino. They're doing what Trudeau does when he runs away from his duties. I wonder if it's in the
00:18:16.380
exact same house or on the exact same beach where Trudeau goes. Now look, I'm a huge monarchist,
00:18:21.940
despite Prince Charles and despite Prince Andrew, the super gross friend of Jeffrey Epstein.
00:18:27.840
But there's a lesson there. You know, after Epstein was killed, the BBC interviewed Prince
00:18:33.600
Andrew about his role. Did he rape young girls like Epstein did? Here's how it looked on the BBC.
00:18:41.820
One of Epstein's accusers, Virginia Roberts, has made allegations against you. She was very specific
00:18:48.680
about that night. She described dancing with you and you profusely sweating and that she went on to have
00:18:56.860
bath. There's a slight problem with the sweating because I have a peculiar medical condition which
00:19:08.860
is that I don't sweat, or I didn't sweat at the time. And that was, oh actually, yes, I didn't sweat
00:19:15.860
at the time. Because I had suffered what I would describe as an overdose of adrenaline in the Falklands War
00:19:22.860
when I was shot at. And I simply, it was almost impossible for me to sweat.
00:19:30.860
Yeah, mate, I think you're a liar. Well, after that interview, the Queen fired him. I mean,
00:19:39.440
the Queen is his mum. He is still who he is. But she essentially said, you're not representing our
00:19:46.620
family or our country anymore. You're a disgrace. Now she let him make the announcement to save whatever
00:19:51.960
scraps of dignity he has left. But he's done. If that's how she handles her own son, I bet she'll
00:20:03.240
be as tough with her grandson and his grasping American wife. I wouldn't be, wouldn't that be
00:20:09.800
just a thing? I mean, what do they want? What are they after? Free stuff, but obviously the title to
00:20:17.000
rent out, to ring out, Sussex Royal. Well, that's exactly what the Queen should take away from them.
00:20:25.560
Take away all the free stuff, all the money, all the glitz and glamour and the perks. But take away
00:20:30.780
the word Sussex. Just like King Edward became the Duke of Windsor, that's still a pretty nice title,
00:20:38.280
isn't it? And that governor of the Bahamas thing. And Prince Harry is not the king. I think he's about
00:20:44.580
5th or 6th in line, so he'll never be king. He's not that high. I think Meghan and Harry
00:20:50.000
need a new name. They need a low name. But one that won't sell in America. One that's a bit too
00:21:00.200
quirky, a bit maybe even gross or weird sounding. One that'll make Americans say, huh?
00:21:05.380
Like the Earl of Sandwich. You ever heard of that? There's nothing wrong with sandwiches. I love
00:21:14.620
sandwiches, you can see. I think most people do. There are, you know, the Sandwich Islands. That's
00:21:19.540
what Hawaii used to be called. There's still a place called the South Sandwich Islands. This is a map.
00:21:26.800
Do you see how far away they are? They're near the Falklands, near Antarctica. They're near the South Pole.
00:21:32.000
Oh! I think that is perfect for these two grifters to be the governor of the South Sandwich Islands.
00:21:42.520
Now, the trouble is, this guy is already the Earl of Sandwich. He's a real guy, John Montague.
00:21:51.140
And he has plenty of heirs. So I'm not sure if he'd give up the title. It's his title by right.
00:21:57.560
But if he's the Earl of Sandwich, I don't know, maybe Harry can be renamed the Duke of Donuts or
00:22:07.020
something like that. I don't know. Meghan can become the Duchess of Donuts. No problem.
00:22:11.400
I think they might actually love it. They could open up a really, really classy donut and coffee
00:22:16.480
shop in Tofino in Beverly Hills, charge all their sea-less friends $10 a coffee or something.
00:22:21.960
really live in the life. Just get them out of the senior ranks of the royal family, as Harry
00:22:27.900
calls it. Like the royals removed that Nazi sympathizer, Edward, and his gold digger wife
00:22:34.380
80 years ago, before they destroyed the whole place, too. Stay with us for more.
00:22:41.680
Welcome back. Well, when I first heard that a passenger airliner crashed in Iran at precisely
00:22:59.100
the same time as Iran's missile strikes on Iraqi air bases, I put the two things together.
00:23:05.940
But it was another day or so before intelligence agencies said, in fact, that's what had happened.
00:23:13.620
The missile had downed the airliner, killing more than 175 civilians. But I didn't realize
00:23:21.820
till even later that the jet that crashed was hundreds of miles away from the Iranian attack
00:23:30.920
on those Iraqi air bases. That's just one of the very many strange things about this.
00:23:38.100
I haven't been in a war, thank God. But our next guest is someone who has. And I'm hoping that he will
00:23:45.340
help us shed a light on what might have happened, what could have happened, and what we can do now.
00:23:50.700
I'm talking about our friend Lee Humphrey, who is a Canadian Forces veteran. And he, in fact,
00:23:56.940
help start, veterans for the Conservative Party of Canada. Lee, it's great to see you again. Thanks
00:24:01.240
for being here. You're very welcome, Bowser. It's good to talk to you.
00:24:04.900
Well, I mean, one of the terrible things about war is that it doesn't just have casualties amongst
00:24:11.080
the combatants, but of course, civilians, collateral damage. Often there are more civilian deaths in a
00:24:18.180
war than soldiers themselves. This, there's a lot of questions about this. Give me your thoughts.
00:24:25.980
Were these people, do you think, likely shot by accident? Do you think this was some bizarre
00:24:31.300
vengeance or message sent to the West? Just to help us wrap our heads around what went on with
00:24:37.960
this passenger airliner. Yeah, so the system that is most likely to have been used is called the SA-15,
00:24:49.140
which is a Russian-based mobile medium-range surface-to-air missile system used to shoot
00:24:57.600
down enemy aircraft. And it has two functions. It has an automatic function where a computer,
00:25:03.660
based on algorithms of flight patterns for aircraft, determines that something is an enemy aircraft,
00:25:11.540
or it has a manual function, and an operator using the built-in radar system that the system operates
00:25:22.560
under, can launch missiles. So the real question, and something we will probably never learn,
00:25:30.420
is whether it was in automatic mode, and it failed because the Russians hadn't updated the
00:25:38.000
algorithms properly for the Iranians, or whether it was in manual mode, and you have a nervous
00:25:44.700
young officer who is concerned about incoming American missiles or incoming American aircraft
00:25:53.080
attacking Tehran, who panics and misreads what he's seen on his radar screen.
00:26:00.200
Those are definitely two possibilities. A programming glitch, terrible, terrible glitch. The other is a
00:26:08.160
nervous, young, panicky officer. But would you say that there's also perhaps another alternative,
00:26:15.920
which is that this wasn't a glitch, and this wasn't a panicky young officer, but rather this was a
00:26:21.860
willful, thoughtful, evil decision made wittingly. And the reason I suggest that, and again, I have no
00:26:30.860
experience with Iran or with the world of military things, but if I understand it, there were other
00:26:37.840
jet airliners coming and going. This was taking off from Tehran heading out. This was many miles away
00:26:45.720
from an Iranian border. The possibility that this was some bizarre, deliberate decision from Iran. I
00:26:56.660
can't, I mean, I'm so paranoid about the Ayatollahs and their attempts to harm the West, that I can't help
00:27:03.560
but think maybe it wasn't a glitch, or a panicky young guy who made a mistake. Maybe this was a sober-minded,
00:27:10.320
positively made decision. Yeah, so the willingness of the Ayatollahs to kill their own people makes this a
00:27:19.240
simple and easy thing to conclude. And had it occurred closer to the battlefield, if you will, where
00:27:29.440
missiles were being launched, had it occurred in the middle of a U.S. retaliatory strike, which never did
00:27:37.980
come. I'd be more inclined to include that as a more distinct possibility. The fact that it occurred
00:27:50.180
right in Tehran, I mean, the plane literally was hit within four to six minutes of takeoff,
00:27:59.260
meant it crashed into the suburbs and the farming agriculture land just on the outskirts of Tehran,
00:28:05.600
made it very obvious and very easy for U.S. intelligence, which monitors all of these
00:28:12.220
areas for missiles being launched. And they have satellite communication intercepts of the crews
00:28:21.300
talking and of government officials talking. So I find it hard to believe that this would have been
00:28:30.320
willful simply because of where it took place, how it took place. There is some crazy willfulness on
00:28:37.480
the idea that they allowed their airport to continue to operate only four hours after they launched
00:28:44.900
missiles at a sovereign nation attacking the United States and its coalition partners,
00:28:50.400
and were expecting retaliation unless they had communications from the United States back saying,
00:28:57.000
you know, you do your save the face attack and we won't respond. But, you know, I struggle with the
00:29:06.060
idea that this was a purposeful attack simply because of where it occurred and how it occurred.
00:29:12.840
Well, let's say it was a nervous, panicky young officer or a technological glitch that the two
00:29:20.480
other alternatives you put forward. Occasionally, airlines are shot down by accident or on purpose.
00:29:29.620
I mean, in fact, the United States shot down an Iranian airliner some years ago. They claim they
00:29:37.500
tried to hail it 12 times. They claim it was coming for their airspace. They shot it. It happened. Now,
00:29:44.160
America sent a letter of regret, paid tens of millions of dollars in reparations to the families.
00:29:53.020
Obviously, a terrible thing. So terrible things do happen. And I don't believe for a second that when
00:29:59.240
America downed that Iranian jet years ago, that anyone would have done so willfully, perhaps, God forbid,
00:30:06.620
negligently or accidentally. But that's just not how America fights. And it certainly did great harm
00:30:14.280
to America's reputation. Let's say it was those first two possibilities you outlined, an accident or
00:30:22.400
a panicky young guy. How would or should Iran deal with this? Not how should they? We know how they
00:30:33.800
should. How do you think they will? They've already said they won't hand over the black box.
00:30:38.940
They already, quote, cleaned up the scene of the crash, removing, let's say, that remnants of the
00:30:46.240
SA-15 missile. What will Iran do now? Will they make an acknowledgement? What will they do or say?
00:30:55.120
Yeah, well, I think they're going to follow the same pattern of behavior that they've always followed.
00:31:02.800
They will deny this completely. They will never admit this occurred. I will be really,
00:31:11.740
really shocked if the data associated with those black boxes makes it out of Iran. I'll be shocked if
00:31:19.140
the Canadian investigative team actually gets into Iran until the site is fully cleaned up.
00:31:27.420
I doubt they'll get access, the kind of access that they would normally get in a normal plane crash
00:31:35.560
or an incident where an airliner is down, regardless of how it is down. I think you'll see a lot of the
00:31:41.600
same sort of denials that Russia made when they downed the Malaysian airliner over the Ukraine.
00:31:51.960
And it will be up to the world community to prove this beyond a reasonable doubt to the rest of the
00:31:59.040
world. And it took four to five years for the world community to do that in the case of the
00:32:05.500
Malaysian airline, while Russia still to this day denies that their Puck anti-missile system,
00:32:12.720
or Buck anti-missile system, brought that airliner down. Iran will never admit to this.
00:32:19.420
Yeah. You know, I want to note something. I mean, Muammar Gaddafi of Libya was certainly no
00:32:25.720
kind gentleman. But in the brief moment where he tried to realign himself towards the West,
00:32:32.040
I think maybe in the first time in history, he acknowledged that Libyan forces knocked down
00:32:39.840
a commercial airliner over Scotland, took responsibility, and he actually paid more than
00:32:45.820
a billion dollars in reparations, which, I mean, he was trying to realign and synchronize his country
00:32:53.680
with the West, how that country has fallen since then. So it's maybe in the future, some possible
00:33:00.740
Iranian government trying to change its place in the world might own up to it. But I think you're
00:33:05.600
right. I think they're going to stonewall. So what should Trudeau do? I mean, I paid very close
00:33:12.800
attention to his press conference yesterday. He did not have any words that even came close to
00:33:18.160
accusation, condemnation, or even criticism of Iran. There just were no negative words,
00:33:24.540
let alone insults or threats. In fact, he led with the statement, this is probably inadvertent.
00:33:33.140
The only person he obliquely blamed in three answers to three separate questions, he implied
00:33:42.000
that Donald Trump set things in motion with their drone strike against the terrorist general.
00:33:48.500
So I think that Trudeau is extremely acquiescent and submissive right now. Do you think that will
00:33:58.340
ever change? Do you think Trudeau, what could he do? What should he do? I understand if he's sending a
00:34:04.600
team over there to get access and investigate, maybe he has to hold his tongue a bit. But I think that
00:34:10.460
he's going to be stonewalled. What should he do in that case?
00:34:13.100
Yeah, so I agree with your assessment that I gave the Prime Minister a minor pass yesterday. I was
00:34:22.100
disappointed that he didn't use one of those three questions to take that off ramp and say,
00:34:29.060
no, this is not Donald Trump's fault. This is Iran's fault. It's an Iranian missile that took down
00:34:37.920
an aircraft, an aircraft, a civilian aircraft, whether accidentally or purposefully outside of
00:34:44.860
the capital of Iran. So I was a bit perturbed that he didn't take that opportunity in one of those
00:34:53.140
three questions to say, no, this is not Donald Trump's fault. But at the same time, to be fair to
00:34:59.520
the Prime Minister, I do believe that at this point, because they have the bodies of 63 Canadians,
00:35:06.840
and under Iranian law, they do not recognize dual citizenship. And I'm not sure how many of the 63
00:35:17.020
are dual citizenship Iranian Canadians, or how many were actually born in Canada and are strictly
00:35:24.740
Canadian citizens. But Iran could keep those bodies and bury them in Iran under their law and treat them
00:35:35.980
as Iranians and not return them to their families here in Canada. So I will give the Prime Minister
00:35:42.900
somewhat of a pass for holding his tongue until we can get our people out of Iran. And we can get our
00:35:50.800
accident investigators in there to get whatever it is they can get. It may be very little in the long
00:35:59.880
And I'm sure the Americans in the background would truly appreciate if professionals from
00:36:06.480
Canada were able to get access to the black boxes. And I know the executives at Boeing that want to
00:36:13.720
find out what happened to their aircraft would want that information as well.
00:36:18.800
Yeah. Well, yesterday, one of the strange things in Trudeau's press conferences, he mentioned he talked to
00:36:24.700
several world leaders. He mentioned, it stuck in my mind, the Prime Minister of the Netherlands. Of course,
00:36:31.920
there was the connection to their downed airliner a few years back. But it seemed to me that one person
00:36:40.740
that Trudeau didn't phone, and I think he would have said if he had done so, was President Trump.
00:36:47.920
He mentioned Trump obliquely by, you know, implying there's blame there. But it sounds to me, Lee,
00:36:56.220
like Justin Trudeau has not spoken to Donald Trump since that NATO meeting late last year,
00:37:02.320
where Trudeau sort of poked fun at Trump for being too talkative and being slow, like where he was sort of
00:37:08.520
giggling with the other NATO leaders about Trump. I would think that Trudeau would want to talk to
00:37:15.480
Trump to get Trump's either intelligence, to understand Trump's strategy, to get advice from
00:37:21.120
Trump, to get help from Trump. I think that if they would have spoken, we wouldn't have known about it.
00:37:27.760
I don't think they've spoken. And I think that's a problem to me. What do you think of that?
00:37:32.580
I absolutely don't think they've spoken. And I highly doubt they would speak about anything
00:37:41.200
other than a cursory call where Trump expressed his condolences. But my bet is that the only
00:37:49.620
relationship left is at levels below the head of state level. So you might see a bit of a relationship
00:37:58.560
between Pence and Freeland. But even that might be a little dicey. And I think it might have to
00:38:07.000
fall on the shoulders of the ministers working with the cabinet secretaries in the United States.
00:38:13.920
I know that Secretary of State Pompeo spoke with our foreign minister today
00:38:20.700
and exchanged both condolences and had a bit of a working meeting. So my guess is it's going to be
00:38:29.360
at that level because Trudeau just can't help himself. He gets every opportunity to get back
00:38:35.800
into the good graces of President Trump, which is so necessary if we're ever going to get the two
00:38:42.800
Michaels out of China. And every time he has that opportunity to repair that relationship,
00:38:51.380
he does something immature, silly, or downright foolish to further crater the relationship.
00:38:59.000
Yeah. You know, he had a 17-day trip to Costa Rica, which is an extremely long holiday
00:39:05.400
for a world leader of a G7 country. Things started to get hot in Iraq and Iran, December 31st. That's
00:39:14.200
when the attack on the embassy happened. Things really heated up over the next 48 hours.
00:39:21.280
Trudeau did not break away from that holiday. He seemed detached from the world. And I suppose that's
00:39:28.960
okay when Donald Trump is doing the heavy lifting. But all of a sudden, Canada was thrust into the
00:39:34.600
middle of it. And I sense that Trudeau is saying, oh, okay, I guess I have to come back to work. I
00:39:39.820
guess I got to put on a suit and show myself to the public. But he seems really disengaged on this
00:39:45.440
file. I think you're correct to mention the two Michaels, the two hostages in China. I just think
00:39:54.100
that Trudeau feels like he's in shell shock or he's tuned out. I don't want to engage in some
00:40:01.320
diagnosis. But he almost seems like he's depressed and unmotivated. I think that he's disengaged. It's
00:40:09.740
like he's not even there mentally. I don't know. Maybe that's too much speculation on my part. Let
00:40:14.220
me leave you to give the final word. What do you think is ahead for your 2020? I think we're off to
00:40:20.620
a terrible start. Yeah. And I'd even back you up a little bit, Ezra, in the sense of on the 27th,
00:40:28.000
when the PMUs, the Popular Mobilization Units, which are Shia militias, when they struck coalition
00:40:37.960
bases in the northern part and western part of Iraq, the Canadian base in Erbil at the airport and the
00:40:45.940
Baghdad area bases were put on high alert. And the prime minister didn't engage. The next day, the U.S.
00:40:53.820
struck back and killed almost 50 members of the Shia militia, various militias, and hit storage sites
00:41:01.000
for rockets and such all over Iraq. And the Canadian government, Trudeau, was not heard from.
00:41:07.940
So it was even a week before that when Canadian forces directly went on high alert and their force
00:41:14.300
protection levels were raised significantly as this tit-for-tat began with the Shia militia.
00:41:22.220
But to your broader point on the prime minister, I'm no psychologist, but what I have seen before
00:41:28.960
is people that are motivated to win fights and people that are whipped.
00:41:33.040
And Prime Minister Trudeau looks like the recruit that's just about to quit and call it a day and say
00:41:45.880
Yeah, you know what? That's exactly right. And I got no problem with a guy having a beard. You've got
00:41:50.900
a handsome beard yourself. But just that look of, like he feels like he's not, I mean, we've had great
00:41:59.700
prime ministers with great beards. I mean, it's been a while, I suppose. But it just feels like his
00:42:04.240
mentally, he wants to go back to Costa Rica, take it easy, go in a town, shop for beer, hang out on the
00:42:11.840
beach. Like it feels like he's still in vacation mode. That's his happy place. Whereas Trump, whatever
00:42:17.760
else you think of him, the guy thrives on the action, the deal, the, like he's always kinetic. He's
00:42:25.920
always going. And, and he, he takes the odd round of golf, which I think he uses for business purposes.
00:42:31.660
But I don't think Donald Trump's taking a vacation in, in his term. You wouldn't think that Trump is
00:42:39.200
almost twice as old as Trudeau, given his engagement, his energy, his schedule. I, I'm, I'm worried. And I
00:42:47.040
don't even know who the, the backup PM is, because I don't think the answer, Chrystia Freeland, is a
00:42:52.720
satisfactory one. Last word to you, my friend. Well, you know, we, we ended 2019 with several
00:43:00.600
world crisis occurring, uh, at the same time as we have a lot of political protests in South and
00:43:08.760
Central America and throughout Europe. France has been in turmoil for better part of a year,
00:43:15.740
and it's only increasing as they move to a general strike. Uh, Mr. Trudeau was reduced to a minority
00:43:22.020
government, meaning a whole new host of challenges for him. And we kicked off 2020, uh, with literally
00:43:30.500
quite the bang. And sadly, a lot of dead Canadians on the other side of the world. And this is no time
00:43:39.180
for a prime minister that is, has taken his walk in the snow and is debating the timing of, of when to
00:43:47.020
pull the pin. We need somebody that is out there and advocating for Canada and has the energy to do
00:43:54.000
the job. And if he doesn't have it, then he needs to get out of the way and let Christina Freeland take
00:43:59.240
over or whomever, but somebody that wants it. Yeah. Huh. Wise words. Well, we'll have to have you on
00:44:05.040
another day to, to get your thoughts on the Conservative Party's leadership contest. It's not really in high
00:44:11.040
gear yet. We've had a couple of names, but once that's up and running, I'd be very curious to have
00:44:15.980
your rundown of the various candidates, the pros and the cons, because I know you were very engaged
00:44:20.980
in those things in the past. And I think foreign affairs and military matters are a legitimate, uh,
00:44:27.680
policy area we need to know, uh, from our prospective leaders. Lee, it's great to have you. Thanks for being
00:44:32.260
so generous with your time and your experience and your wisdom. Thank you, Ezra. All right. There you have
00:44:38.100
with our friend Lee Humphrey. He's with veterans for the Conservative Party of Canada and also James
00:44:43.760
International Security Consulting. Stay with us. More ahead on The Rebel. Hey, welcome back on my
00:44:56.960
monologue yesterday about banning Iran. Daniel writes, Trudeau will not retaliate in any form.
00:45:02.800
He'll probably send them a pallet of cash. Well, it's funny today, I think it was today, I'm getting my hours
00:45:09.500
mixed up. Donald Trump rolled out new sanctions against Iran, like additional sanctions. As far as I know, Canada
00:45:18.280
hasn't matched them yet. Why? It wasn't 63 Americans who were killed. Why is Trudeau not matching Trump's
00:45:27.320
sanctions? Steve writes, why is anyone sending foreign aid to Iran? Well, I showed you that under
00:45:33.760
Trudeau, about 20 million bucks have gone to Iran from Canada. Um, then again, Trudeau is still sending
00:45:39.760
foreign aid to China. Naz writes, as an Iranian Canadian, I'm glad that we were at least told the
00:45:47.100
truth about the crash. What a nightmare. Well, Naz, there, there's a large Persian population in Toronto
00:45:52.980
and in Vancouver. And of course, in the United States, it's a very large Persian population,
00:45:57.140
especially in Los Angeles. I think a lot of Persians who came over when the Ayatollahs seized power
00:46:02.960
are very liberal, Western, moderate people. And I think there is still a core of Iran that way.
00:46:09.320
That's why it's so interesting to watch Donald Trump. I think a lot of people thought he was
00:46:12.960
going to just dumbly, blindly attack or invade even. I don't think Trump wants to invade. I don't
00:46:20.000
think he wants a foreign military adventure. But what if he could topple the Ayatollahs and allow
00:46:27.240
some sort of organic civil government to emerge from Iran? I think that's actually possible in a way
00:46:34.980
that's probably not possible in Iraq and definitely not possible in Afghanistan. What's so weird is that
00:46:41.500
the Iranian-Canadian MP for Richmond Hill is like the only Persian I know who's pro-Ayatollah,
00:46:50.420
whereas most Canadian Persians are pro-democracy. Well, that's our show for today. Until next time,
00:46:56.900
on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World headquarters to you at home, good night. Keep fighting for freedom.