Rebel News Podcast - February 16, 2021


MPs From All Parties AGREEļ¼š The Little People Need to Be More Polite to Them!


Episode Stats

Length

23 minutes

Words per Minute

151.4081

Word Count

3,543

Sentence Count

304

Misogynist Sentences

3

Hate Speech Sentences

3


Summary

In this episode of The Ezra Levant Show, Ezra talks about what it's like to be an MP, and why he doesn't think any of us would have ever thought of running for office. He also talks about a censorship project that the Liberals are driving, but that the NDP and Conservative opposition seem to love just as much.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Hello, my Rebels. Two things today. First of all, it's our sixth birthday.
00:00:04.740 So at the end of the show, we have a highlight reel of some of the great moments this past year.
00:00:10.340 I really wish you could see it with your eyes, because we are a video medium primarily.
00:00:14.940 So let me invite you to become a video subscriber.
00:00:19.280 We call that Rebel News Plus. Just go to rebelnews.com and click subscribe.
00:00:23.540 It's eight bucks a month, and you get all the podcasts in video form.
00:00:26.880 Plus access to Sheila Gunn-Reed and David Menzies' show, and Andrew Chappanos.
00:00:32.500 And eight bucks a month goes to keep us strong. We don't take a dime from Trudeau, so let me encourage you to do that.
00:00:37.600 I also talk about a censorship project that the Liberals are driving, but that the NDP and conservative opposition seem to love just as much.
00:00:46.680 That's in today's podcast. Here we come.
00:00:53.320 You're listening to our podcast.
00:00:56.880 Tonight, MPs of all parties agree.
00:01:06.900 The little people need to be more polite to politicians.
00:01:10.600 It's February 15th, and this is The Ezra Levant Show.
00:01:15.040 Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?
00:01:18.620 There are 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.
00:01:22.960 The only thing I have to say to the government about why I'm publishing it is because it's my bloody right to do so.
00:01:28.800 You know, once upon a time, I used to want to be an MP.
00:01:36.800 I don't know if you know this, but way back in 2001, I think it was, I actually ran for parliament, very briefly, for the Canadian Alliance Party in Calgary Southwest after Preston Manning resigned there.
00:01:48.920 I think I would have won. I mean, it was Calgary, after all, and the Canadian Alliance was the successor party to the Reform Party and the precursor to today's Conservative Party.
00:01:59.000 I won the nomination in Calgary Southwest, and we were campaigning.
00:02:04.260 Long signs were going up. The election was just weeks away, and Stephen Harper became the new leader of the party, and he wasn't an MP, so he needed a quick and safe entry into parliament.
00:02:15.880 And I was running in a special by-election, so he pushed me aside and he ran in that seat.
00:02:20.040 I was quite perturbed at the time, but I sometimes wonder if it was good or bad.
00:02:25.000 I mean, being a Conservative MP from Calgary Southwest is a great job. It's a safe job.
00:02:31.180 I love that community. Four generations of my family are from there. I know that part of the world very well.
00:02:36.300 I think I would have represented the community well, I happen to believe.
00:02:40.920 But would I have survived the discipline of political party life?
00:02:45.240 Reading out only official party statements, deferring to other MPs who are the official critics on many subjects,
00:02:54.000 deferring to the leader on all subjects, voting as the party tells me to vote, not causing too much trouble, playing nicely with the Ottawa media.
00:03:05.020 I'm honestly not sure if I would have been able to do that. I don't know.
00:03:09.000 I think you can never discount the malice or ignorance of politicians if Pierre Polyev can be sacked and abused by the party leader for doing nothing wrong than anyone can be.
00:03:21.160 So as much as it was my youthful ambition to be an MP, if I'm really honest with who I am and what I like to do,
00:03:28.880 I don't think I would take that path if I have a time machine to go back there and then do it again.
00:03:37.500 I think of the things I've been able to accomplish in other fields, including at Sun News, including writing books, including Rebel News,
00:03:45.560 our work overseas, whether it's in the UK or Australia or even Hong Kong and Iraq,
00:03:50.640 and now with our civil liberties projects during the lockdown, things I really don't think I would have been able to do,
00:03:58.880 would have been allowed to do as an MP.
00:04:01.500 I think an MP's job is to clap for the party leader and nod along.
00:04:06.520 And unless you are the leader or a senior critic, I think it's like being a dog in a dog sled team.
00:04:12.160 Unless you're at the front, you really don't get a change in scenery.
00:04:15.080 I mean, think about this.
00:04:19.120 Not a single Conservative member of Parliament or Senator has spoken out against the civil liberties outrages of lockdowns.
00:04:27.440 Are all 100-plus of them fine with it?
00:04:32.300 Or more likely, have they been told by Aaron O'Toole to shut up?
00:04:37.720 And they all obey.
00:04:40.600 Do you really think I could survive in there if I were one of them?
00:04:43.460 I don't know, maybe I would have trained myself to be obedient.
00:04:48.380 Could be.
00:04:49.660 And so my point is, whereas I once was interested in being an MP, I was running.
00:04:55.060 I now write that off as a youthful fancy.
00:04:58.940 And as I grow older, my regard for MPs falls with every new year.
00:05:04.680 I'm sure they're nice people, but look at them.
00:05:07.480 But their regard for themselves continues to grow every year.
00:05:10.700 I remind you that as the pandemic spread and the lockdown spread, on April Fool's Day of last year,
00:05:17.660 the MPs and Senators all gave themselves a hearty pay raise.
00:05:22.960 Every damn one of them.
00:05:25.060 They all did.
00:05:25.920 I don't think a single one voted against it.
00:05:29.160 And in any party, I mean.
00:05:31.340 If I've got that wrong, please tell me that there's some hero out there that I've missed.
00:05:35.260 But literally, these lazy seat warmers gave themselves a pay raise, even as Parliament didn't sit for months.
00:05:42.960 I'm pretty sure they have another pay raise coming this year, too.
00:05:46.480 They keep wanting more perks, too.
00:05:48.840 Trudeau sets the tone, obviously, by demanding more and newer private jets for himself and his gold-digging wife.
00:05:55.860 Now, our fighter pilots are flying CF-18 jets that are older than the pilots themselves.
00:06:04.200 That's 1970s, 1980s technology.
00:06:07.600 And we just bought some old hand-me-downs, some F-18s from Australia.
00:06:12.840 They're getting rid of theirs to upgrade.
00:06:14.760 So it's like, you know, you're a little kid inheriting your older brother's clothes.
00:06:19.220 But for fighter jets, but Trudeau gets the fancy private jets.
00:06:25.320 You see a pattern here?
00:06:27.360 They think they're an elite class.
00:06:29.420 Even, especially, the socialists in Parliament.
00:06:33.380 There's no one more elitist than a socialist politician.
00:06:36.960 Because he thinks he deserves everything.
00:06:38.740 He thinks that he's morally superior so he can pig out.
00:06:41.200 Just look at how Jack Layton was.
00:06:42.720 Sorry, St. Jack, but it's true.
00:06:44.960 He'd have his limo driver drop him off a couple of blocks away from a public event.
00:06:49.740 Pulled the bike out of the trunk.
00:06:51.580 And he'd bicycle the last walk to make an impressive entrance.
00:06:54.700 That's a fact.
00:06:55.760 That's the NDP for you.
00:06:58.220 I mean, Jagmeet Singh is the biggest clothes horse dandy you'll ever meet.
00:07:04.440 One of his suits is a month of your rent.
00:07:07.700 He boasts about how rich he is.
00:07:10.700 These people think they're better than you?
00:07:13.060 All of them?
00:07:14.060 Of all parties.
00:07:15.740 And I tell you this lengthy introduction.
00:07:19.220 To show you their plans for you.
00:07:22.580 Your speech.
00:07:23.400 You see, MPs have protected speech.
00:07:25.640 I don't know if you know this.
00:07:27.100 I think you probably do.
00:07:28.860 It's called parliamentary privilege.
00:07:31.420 And part of that is an MP can literally say anything in Parliament and not be sued for it.
00:07:39.020 An MP can stand up and slander anyone.
00:07:41.660 He could accuse you of murder.
00:07:43.260 You can say the most shocking and defamatory lies.
00:07:46.740 But parliamentary privilege is absolute.
00:07:50.280 A court is compelled to throw out any lawsuit against an MP for whatever he says.
00:07:55.640 It's worse than that.
00:07:56.860 MPs have their personal misconduct protected too.
00:07:59.960 MPs who engage in sexual misconduct with staff, sexual harassment, even sexual assault.
00:08:07.820 They have their legal defense paid for by taxpayers, including any hush money paid to the victims.
00:08:14.080 And these are the folks who lecture you.
00:08:18.280 And so now let me show you what they all agree on.
00:08:21.260 This is the news.
00:08:23.180 And by the way, the conservatives seem to agree with it too.
00:08:26.560 They all seem to agree that you simply aren't respectful enough to them.
00:08:33.780 You criticize them too much.
00:08:36.760 You insult them too much.
00:08:39.180 And you shouldn't.
00:08:40.360 Show some respect.
00:08:41.440 They're honorable members.
00:08:43.740 And, you know, by criticizing, that's a problem when you do it.
00:08:47.560 Now, they can say anything they want.
00:08:50.160 But they want to take that same freedom away from you.
00:08:52.560 Look at this.
00:08:55.460 MPs say hate speech is constraining public discourse.
00:09:00.860 I love that juxtaposition.
00:09:02.140 Speech is constraining speech, they say.
00:09:05.080 That's Orwellian.
00:09:06.480 But hate speech, I mean, that sounds pretty bad.
00:09:09.940 It sounds pretty hatey.
00:09:12.020 And you don't support hate, do you?
00:09:14.960 I mean, that would make you a hater too.
00:09:16.560 You're not a hater, are you?
00:09:17.720 You're not one of those Nazis, are you?
00:09:21.220 So stop with the hate speech, okay?
00:09:23.640 But if you read further, they don't mean anything like uttering a death threat.
00:09:28.240 Or even the criminal code provisions against hate speech.
00:09:30.600 They want to ban mean tweets or mean Facebook pages when you talk about politicians.
00:09:36.280 Online hate is discouraging Canadians from participating in the democratic process, say MPs.
00:09:44.620 There's no proof of it offered in the article I read.
00:09:46.580 The members were speaking during a virtual talk on online hate, hosted by Friends of Canadian Broadcasting, an advocacy group that monitors developments in TV and radio, and the Samara Centre, which advocates for citizen engagement.
00:10:01.920 Users who post hateful and abusive comments disrupt public conversations, causing public discourse to break down, said New Democrat MP Charlie Angus, vice chair of the House of Commons Privacy and Ethics Committee.
00:10:16.640 We need to have that sense of a public conversation between people with different political views, thereby adding to who we are as Canadians, he said.
00:10:25.900 For example, Angus said he regularly sees remarks that the Prime Minister is a traitor, who should be hanged, and that the leader of the Conservative Party is a fascist, comments he never used to see.
00:10:38.620 Are you kidding?
00:10:41.240 The left calls Conservatives fascists every hour of every day.
00:10:46.640 They call us Nazis every hour of every day.
00:10:50.320 It was the chief epithet towards Donald Trump.
00:10:53.780 Canadian leftists said the same thing.
00:10:56.160 They celebrate that.
00:10:57.940 During the Stephen Harper days, he was called a Nazi.
00:11:01.880 The CBC celebrated any wacko with F Harper signs on their cars.
00:11:06.720 The CBC's own Mary Walsh even did this video calling him Hair Harper and Stasi Steve.
00:11:13.740 So, help save poor Stasi Steve this season.
00:11:19.580 God knows here Harper doesn't have enough sense to save himself, so let's bring him a load of sense.
00:11:25.480 Yeah, we are called Nazis every day.
00:11:32.500 Right up to Trudeau's own office.
00:11:34.040 Here's Gerald Butts implying that me, a Jew, that I'm a Nazi.
00:11:38.100 We're Nazis over here at Rebel News.
00:11:39.880 Charlie Angus, of all people?
00:11:41.860 Seriously?
00:11:42.120 Just last month, he was implying that the Jewish state of Israel was as immoral as the racist South African apartheid regime.
00:11:51.100 And this is the guy who's telling you and me to stop insulting politicians?
00:11:55.520 He wants to raise the dialogue?
00:11:58.400 I love this line.
00:12:00.200 If left unchecked, such comments could lead to physical attacks, he said.
00:12:05.100 Really?
00:12:05.620 Has that ever happened in Canada?
00:12:10.980 I can't think of an instance.
00:12:12.500 Let me know if I'm wrong.
00:12:13.360 Of course, that was the storming of Parliament by an ISIS terrorist, but that wasn't a Twitter meanness.
00:12:18.840 I'm trying to think of someone who's been assassinated.
00:12:23.480 It was Thomas Darcy McGee.
00:12:25.280 That's about 150 years ago.
00:12:27.300 I can't think of a reporter who's been attacked, either, in Canada.
00:12:32.920 Oh, except our reporters.
00:12:34.900 All at the hands of the left.
00:12:36.640 Like Dion Buse, the NDP volunteer, who punched Sheila Gunn-Reed.
00:12:40.680 Or when that manager of the Trudeau Refugee Hotel, Radisson, Toronto East, punched David Menzies.
00:12:46.620 Or, frankly, when the lockdown cops get going.
00:12:51.420 I don't see violence in Canada from grassroots citizens against politicians.
00:12:54.820 I just don't see it.
00:12:55.620 I do see some from lefties against us, especially Antifa and Black Lives Matter types,
00:13:01.140 who were never accosted by police and who were celebrated by the media.
00:13:05.380 But why not?
00:13:06.240 Why are the politicians focusing on mean tweets instead of on actual street criminals like Antifa and BLM writers?
00:13:13.440 So this story I've been reading to you rehashed a university study that claims to have studied one million tweets.
00:13:23.320 Do you believe that, though?
00:13:24.500 Well, I'm pretty sure they didn't read a million tweets, aren't you?
00:13:28.780 I mean, that would take a very long time.
00:13:31.700 Let me read from the story.
00:13:32.820 Chris Tanova commented on the report.
00:13:35.140 He co-authored with Heidi Torek, titled Troll on the Campaign Trail,
00:13:39.020 an analysis of more than one million tweets directed at candidates in the 2019 federal election campaign.
00:13:44.980 Tanova is a postdoctoral fellow in the Departments of Political Science and History at the University of British Columbia.
00:13:52.400 Of the tweets they examined, which include ones later removed for violating Twitter's hate speech policies,
00:13:57.360 1% were highly negative, threatening or hateful.
00:14:02.820 15% were of medium negativity, explicit insults.
00:14:07.500 25% were of low negativity, dismissive or disrespectful.
00:14:11.800 7% were positive and 12% were unclear.
00:14:13.780 So, if you believe that they actually did review a million tweets,
00:14:19.540 they say 1% were threatening or hateful.
00:14:25.700 But those are two very different things, aren't they?
00:14:28.340 I mean, if you say you hate a politician, that's not a threat.
00:14:32.120 But that's your opinion.
00:14:33.920 That's actually, you just say what your emotions are.
00:14:36.960 So, how many tweets were actually threatening?
00:14:39.640 Well, I actually dug up the study that these postdoctoral scholars wrote.
00:14:46.180 I read the whole thing, if you can believe it.
00:14:48.840 They didn't actually count the threats made online.
00:14:51.660 At least not that I could see.
00:14:53.900 They say they talked to politicians in interviews to ask them if they ever were threatened.
00:14:59.600 Online or in person or on the phone.
00:15:03.200 I read the report.
00:15:04.300 They never actually quantify the threat of violence.
00:15:08.660 The closest they came to is linking to this CBC News story about threats in Quebec.
00:15:13.640 So, I read it.
00:15:14.680 And they say that four people in Quebec have been arrested for making threats in the past year.
00:15:20.200 It's not a lot, I don't think.
00:15:22.400 But a careful read of the story suggests that only a single one of them,
00:15:26.700 the threat was made online.
00:15:27.980 The others in the CBC story, they're people who made threats.
00:15:33.180 And then CBC went to their Facebook page to find something to smear them with.
00:15:38.860 So, the CBC went on their Facebook page to see who they liked.
00:15:42.860 It's sort of a guilt by association thing to prove that the problem is Facebook itself.
00:15:47.000 But in only one of these instances was the threat made on social media.
00:15:51.160 I think I'm probably only one of ten people in the entire country who's read this eye-glazing report.
00:15:58.220 So, there is no documentation about threats in there.
00:16:02.340 There's not.
00:16:04.020 They literally link to a junk news report from the CBC State Broadcaster, the one I just showed you.
00:16:10.540 That's junk science.
00:16:11.900 But why?
00:16:14.100 Why this study?
00:16:16.560 Why?
00:16:17.040 Are you still missing it?
00:16:18.380 They want to censor you.
00:16:21.380 All the politicians want to censor you.
00:16:23.460 Trudeau's hand-picked race relations committee hand-picked Trudeau's favorite liberal pollster
00:16:28.340 to do a junk poll showing that Canadians want to censor the internet.
00:16:32.100 That's backed up with a government-funded policy study commissioned by the government
00:16:37.480 showing the government that the government should censor people.
00:16:40.240 And then Stephen Gilboa, the heritage minister, he announced a new agency to censor social media.
00:16:46.100 That happened all in the same week.
00:16:47.640 Do you think that's a coincidence?
00:16:50.420 And the Conservative Party of Canada, and I say that, I should have air quotes whenever I say that.
00:16:56.040 They have no problem with any of this.
00:16:57.580 The only word from the Conservatives in the story I just read to you is this.
00:17:03.620 Foreign actors and their influence on Canadian politics should also be monitored,
00:17:08.620 said Conservative MP Bob Zimmer, a former chair of the Ethics Committee.
00:17:14.020 That's all you got?
00:17:16.000 So you're not opposed to it?
00:17:17.140 In fact, you want to expand it to foreign actors, like, what, Russia or something?
00:17:20.500 In fairness, maybe Bob Zimmer passionately disagreed with censorship and the reporter just left that part out.
00:17:28.600 I mean, it could be, but I doubt it.
00:17:31.700 Says he wants wider censorship, it sounds like.
00:17:36.520 That's what the party said in the 2019 election, in the run-up to the 2019 election.
00:17:41.940 The party actually said in parliamentary hearings they wanted more censorship faster.
00:17:46.860 I saw the committee meetings myself.
00:17:48.420 I did stories on it at the time.
00:17:49.680 You remember, I did my show on it.
00:17:52.240 And when Stephen Gilboa appeared at the Heritage Committee just a few weeks ago,
00:17:55.920 he was bringing in more censorship.
00:17:59.940 The Conservative critic literally did not ask him a single question about it,
00:18:05.280 did not object to it.
00:18:06.940 He just didn't.
00:18:09.200 So yeah, it's unanimous, sounds like.
00:18:12.620 Just like they all took the raise together.
00:18:14.480 You think Trudeau and Gilboa are bad and Charlie Angus?
00:18:18.580 Well, you're right.
00:18:20.140 But if you for a moment think this isn't unanimous amongst all the parties,
00:18:24.660 including O'Toole's so-called Conservatives, you're dead wrong.
00:18:27.860 Seriously, let me know.
00:18:29.420 If there is a single Conservative MP or Senator in this entire country who is against censorship,
00:18:36.220 I think this is the time to stand up and be counted.
00:18:39.620 Oh, I know you'll be Aaron O'Toole'd.
00:18:41.800 You'll be sacked just like Derek Sloan was and Pierre Polyev was.
00:18:46.700 But at least you'll be a Conservative.
00:18:49.100 And you just might help us preserve our freedoms.
00:18:52.880 Stay with us for more.
00:18:53.900 Hey, you know what today is?
00:19:07.520 It's February 15th.
00:19:09.260 You know what that is?
00:19:10.800 It's our sixth birthday.
00:19:12.780 Our sixth anniversary of Rebel News.
00:19:15.440 Can you believe it?
00:19:16.100 So we asked our team to put together a little highlight reel, a little montage of what we've been up to lately.
00:19:22.100 I haven't even seen it yet, so we're going to watch it together at the same time.
00:19:26.060 I'm going to say goodbye to you now.
00:19:28.320 But let me leave you with this highlight reel that our editors have put together in honor of our birthday.
00:19:35.680 Good night.
00:19:35.960 We came here to meet the leader of Rebel Media.
00:20:01.820 I follow him on Facebook.
00:20:03.260 He's a great guy.
00:20:04.000 You are a real media.
00:20:05.920 Well, I love the Rebel, right?
00:20:07.660 I love you.
00:20:08.420 Lots of that too.
00:20:09.420 Oh, yes.
00:20:10.320 I'd like to thank everybody that stood behind me for this, especially Rebel News, of course.
00:20:18.680 And you, Sheila.
00:20:19.800 You're my hero now.
00:20:22.220 I really am a supporter of Rebel.
00:20:24.020 I like Rebel.
00:20:24.820 I see what they had to offer, some of the issues.
00:20:27.340 I wanted to meet Ezra and I wanted to meet you as well.
00:20:29.780 Sometimes the prosecution, the Crown, will back down.
00:20:32.860 It's much easier to prosecute people who are not represented by lawyers or have the backing of Rebel News.
00:20:39.060 I love Rebel Media.
00:20:40.280 You show both sides of a story.
00:20:42.380 You don't just show one side.
00:20:44.040 You show the truth.
00:20:45.020 You show what Canadians need to hear.
00:20:46.800 It's not going to cost you a penny.
00:20:49.060 We are going to crowdfund this through our fightthefines.com website.
00:20:54.880 What do you think of that offer, my friend?
00:20:56.700 Oh, I am so much obliged.
00:20:58.540 That is the greatest thing.
00:21:00.160 I cannot thank you guys enough.
00:21:02.120 And like you said, it's not about the money here.
00:21:04.140 It's about letting people know you can't be doing stuff like this.
00:21:07.060 This is not animal firearm here.
00:21:10.740 This is not 1984.
00:21:12.020 We cannot just tear rights away from people whenever it's convenient.
00:21:16.480 And we're going to fight for some justice for you.
00:21:18.700 What do you think about that?
00:21:19.740 That's amazing.
00:21:20.660 Best news I've heard all week.
00:21:21.760 Thank you so much.
00:21:22.580 Okay, then.
00:21:23.420 I really appreciate you guys.
00:21:24.840 And thank you, David, for coming over.
00:21:26.920 And it was a pleasure having you in my home.
00:21:28.480 I appreciate it just for the simple fact that I can't afford to have a lawyer.
00:21:33.440 But if I had to go to court by myself, I'd still take them on.
00:21:37.740 I thank you so much for reporting this.
00:21:39.800 Like, Rebel, you're the best.
00:21:41.560 I thank you, Sarah Miller, for covering the case, for taking the case.
00:21:45.980 That's our lawyer that was provided by the Rebel News.
00:21:48.820 Thank you so much.
00:21:50.020 You all have been helpful.
00:21:51.780 You spread the news.
00:21:52.840 You let the people know what's going on.
00:21:54.680 And, you know, that's power.
00:21:56.280 And they put handcuffs on my phone.
00:21:57.780 When the people know what's going on, that's a powerful thing.
00:22:00.540 Because it puts the, you know, the government a check.
00:22:04.180 It's not just someone that no one knows about.
00:22:07.060 You brought this whole case into the public eyes.
00:22:09.440 And the public should know about what's going on in their own country.
00:22:12.860 So, thank you so much.
00:22:14.300 Rebel, rebel, rebel, rebel!
00:22:17.680 Fire, rebel, rebel, rebel!
00:22:23.040 Rebel!
00:22:24.040 Farm-Yay!
00:22:30.500 Everyone Buenos Aires!
00:22:32.180 Let's go, the Leo!
00:22:54.040 Thank you.