Rebel Roundup： Guests Kurt Schlichter, Ezra Levant & Sheila Gunn Reid
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Summary
A Canadian now sits on death row in China, but it seems that Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland is just too busy going to bat for assorted other foreign nationals as opposed to taking an interest in a Canadian citizen who might pay the ultimate price. Ezra Levent will try to make sense of it all. And remember how back in 2015, the Trudeau Liberals promised to be the most transparent federal government in Canadian history? Well, that was then and this is now.
Transcript
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Welcome to Rebel Roundup, ladies and gentlemen, and the rest of you, in which we look back at
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some of the very best commentaries of the week by your favourite rebels. I'm your host, David Menzies.
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Well, a Canadian now sits on death row in China, but it seems that Foreign Affairs Minister
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Chrystia Freeland is just too busy going to bat for assorted other foreign nationals,
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as opposed to taking an interest in a Canadian citizen who might pay the ultimate price.
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Ezra Levent will try to make sense of it all. And remember how back in 2015 the Trudeau Liberals
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promised to be the most transparent federal government in Canadian history? Well, that was
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then and this is now. Sheila Gunn-Reed will explain how the Trudeau Liberals are all about suppressing
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information that should be made public. And talk about your Mexican standoff as President Trump
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is insistent upon receiving funding for a wall on the southern border. The Democrats are refusing to
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compromise or negotiate. Kurt Schlichter will offer his take on what is likely to play out in the days
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ahead. And finally, we get your letters. We get your letters every minute of every day. And I'll share
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some of the feedback we received regarding my commentary about a police officer who inexplicably
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concluded that a senior citizen who was returning about nine bucks worth of empties to a beer store
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was surely a drunk driver and was threatened with a $2,000 fine unless he submitted to a breathalyzer
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test. Just will you hear this one, folks? Those are your rebels. Now let's round them up.
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China sentences a Canadian, Robert Lloyd Schellenberg, to death. He wasn't originally sentenced to death
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there, but they kicked it up a notch after Canada arrested Meng in December. Let me read the first
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sentence from the New York Times. Ready? China's diplomatic clash with Canada escalated sharply on
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Monday. That's today. When a Chinese court sentenced a Canadian to death for a drug smuggling
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at a one-day retrial ordered weeks after a Chinese executive's arrest in Canada. That's how they
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roll in China, a one-day retrial, a do-over in one day to kill a guy. I have no idea if he really is a
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drug dealer, but I do have an idea about Chinese courts. They are not independent. They're really
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just window dressing for whatever the Communist Party says. There are some lawyers in China, but they're
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really symbolic. The fix was in. Maybe he really was a drug dealer, but it's certain that this was an
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escalation. China is saying, you arrest one of ours, we kill one of yours. So that was the news that
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Chrystia Freeland was facing today. So why not scoop up a bounty, a prize, and make sure that she hugs
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you, and make sure she doesn't say anything. Only you get to talking. Isn't that weird? Now as I do my
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research for this video, Chrystia Freeland has yet to put out a public statement on the death
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sentence in China. Now the last thing I see, and maybe this will change between when I speak this
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and when it goes to air, but the last thing I see on her Twitter feed is indeed about Thailand. You see
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that thing, that Thai pongal thing there? That's just typical political pandering to some Thai ethnic
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festival of some sort. So I scrolled back a few days, and I saw nothing about this death sentence.
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I saw this tweet by her a few days ago. Canada is seriously alarmed by today's court decision
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in Myanmar, that's Burma, to uphold the imprisonment of Reuters journalists Wa Lone and Kia Sohu.
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Now I'm sure that Wa Lone and Kia Sohu are good people. I'm sure they've been mistreated. I mean,
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I'm not sure, but let's assume that. The problem is they're just not Canadian. They have no connection
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to Canada. They work for Reuters, and so used to, Chrystia Freeland worked for Reuters before she ran
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for office. So maybe this is a favour to her old company that, I don't know, that would be how the
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Liberals work. But maybe she just really likes to virtue signal, to show how much she cares to people,
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about people, just not people she has any responsibility for, or can do anything about.
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Well, talk about having your priorities in order. Sure, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland
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loves to don her Supergirl cape when it comes to championing the violated human rights of
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foreign nationals. But when a trial redo is carried out in China that results in a death sentence
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for a bona fide Canadian citizen, well, suddenly the minister is apparently too time-pressed to get
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involved. How disturbing is that? Join me now with more about Ms. Freeland's apparent vow of silence
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with regard to a Canadian who now finds himself on death row under some very dubious circumstances
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is our very own Rebel Commander, Ezra Levant. Welcome to Rebel Roundup, Ezra.
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Good to have you. And Ezra, tell me, I'm just wondering, the potential fate of Robert Schellenberg
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is about as dire as it gets. Do you think Freeland and company are furiously working behind the scenes
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to get some justice done here? Or is this a case of paralysis by analysis, given that they simply
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don't know what to do when it comes to this crisis? As far as I know, Justin Trudeau has not phoned the
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president of China, either for this Robert Schellenberg, who I believe is a drug dealer, because he had
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drug convictions and all sorts of criminal convictions in Canada. And, you know, he should
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have stuck to Canada, where we're extremely lenient, and we have liberal judges, and you
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get his... I don't know why anyone who is a serial criminal, which I think he was. I think that's
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what the criminal record shows. Don't go to China and do crimes here. So, I mean, I don't believe
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the Chinese legal system. It's not independent. That's not controversial to say that. They convicted
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him, and they sentenced him. Okay, fine. But then what happened is, after this current spat with
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China, they had a do-over trial. Now, they got a conviction. So, another trial, that's just not a
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thing. And the second do-over trial was in one day, and obviously lawyers in China are more like for
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window dressing. They're not... And judges really... So, they took this guy, retried him, and gave him the
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death penalty. And, I mean, that's a scam. That's a sham. I acknowledge that China ought to have
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the right to have the death penalty for a drug dealer. But I point out the obvious that this
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guy didn't get that until it became a political pawn. But let me say this. The liberals pressed
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extremely hard to have a convicted murderer and terrorist named Omar Cotter, five counts of war
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crimes, 40-year prison sentence under Guantanamo-based military commission by a jury. The liberals wouldn't
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stop saying, bring him home, bring him home, even though he was a murderer and terrorist. He sat on
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the streets. Even if it was just to have this guy serve his sentence in a Canadian jail, he's been
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sentenced to death. And I haven't heard a word in public from Trudeau on this. And again, I'm not in
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favor of this guy. I think he's a bad dude. But he shouldn't be murdered as a political spar at us. And
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Trudeau and Freeland are too timid to say anything. But, you know, Ezra, at this stage, how do you
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unravel this mess? I mean, we all go... It goes back to last month, the Huawei CFO, Meng Wenzhou,
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arrested to be extradited to the U.S. That's what started this going... It's funny, the Chinese say
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that the trial redo of Mr. Schellenberg has nothing to do with that issue, which is a jaw dropper,
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to say the least. But when it comes to this, as it's being labeled by some in the media,
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death penalty diplomacy, how do you fix this to begin with? Well, look, just because Canada is a
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smaller country, a middle power, let's use that word, doesn't mean that we can't command respect
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around the world. I note that even though Barack Obama was against the Keystone XL pipeline and was
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never going to approve it, he didn't actually kill it until right after Stephen Harper left,
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because he knew that Justin Trudeau you could push around. Stephen Harper took on Vladimir Putin in
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ways that no one had imagined. Stephen Harper took on the francophonie and their anti-Israel bias.
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Stephen Harper did a lot of things as prime minister with a small country, and he earned
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respect for it around the world. So you can do that. I think, how does respect around the world
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come? I think it's speaking clearly, speaking the same way publicly as privately, keeping promises,
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doing what you say, showing self-respect. To me, the perfect summary of Trudeau's China policy is not
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even when he said when he was running for office, China is my favorite country because of their basic
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dictatorship. That was a shocking thing to hear. But when he sent his Chinese ambassador, John
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McCallum, the former member of parliament, when McCallum was before a Canadian committee talking about free
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trade, and he was asked, what's the Canadian stance? He said, I would say to China, more, more, more.
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Like, he basically said, whatever China wants, we're down for. So if you have so little self-respect,
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have so little savvy, that you're going to negotiate with one of the most, I mean, the Chinese have been
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into diplomacy and negotiating for 5,000 years. I mean, it's like Persia, Iran. These people have had
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empires and kingdoms and intrigues for millennia. And to think that some dopey trust fund kid can say,
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I'm just going to go in, I'm going to say I love them, and whatever they want, I'm going to give them
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more, more, more. So that's your opening position, is whatever they want. That's your opening position.
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And I'm not even kidding. Canada invested half a billion dollars of Canadian tax money in China's
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Asian industrial infrastructure bank. Why are we putting half a billion Canadian tax dollars in a
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Chinese bank to build infrastructure in China and around the world? How about in Canada? Like,
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why did you just give them half a billion dollars? Is that like a thank you gift or a pre-thank you?
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Like, when you don't respect yourself, when you have no self-confidence or self-respect,
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other people can detect that in about a second, and they'll take advantage. I mean,
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the irony is Donald Trump has made it clear that other than Mexico, China is the country he most
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despises. I mean, count the number of tweets he's made on China versus Mexico. There's this hilarious
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clip, I think the Huffington Post put it online. It's just a montage of Trump saying China, China,
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China, China, China, China. Online is very funny. But when that China hater, let's call it like it
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is. I mean, Trump says he likes the Chinese people and Chinese food. Sure he does, but he hates the
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Chinese government. When he landed in Beijing, they rolled out the red carpet. They treated him
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like a king. Why would they treat a guy who hates him like that? Because Donald Trump, you know,
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they had to give him a nickname. They have two nicknames for trying to, according to the New York
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Times. Uncle Donald or Donald the Strong. And strength garners respect, obviously. Whereas what's
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the, do you remember their nickname for Justin Trudeau? Little Potato. Little Potato. Little Potato.
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Has something been lost in the translation? What? No, it's a, it's a, it's a, it's a homophone,
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Xiao Pudo or something like that. It means little potato because it, like it, it rhymes with his
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name. So what? But you don't, but so what? A lot of things would rhyme with Trump, but they call him
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Donald the Strong is not a rhyme. Yeah. And Trudeau, it's Trudeau the weak, Trudeau the lesser,
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Trudeau the clown, Trudeau the child. I mean, throughout history, there's, you know, there's Ivan
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the terrible, you know, there's Vlad the impaler, you know, there's, there's so-and-so the fat,
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so-and-so the thin, so-and-so the elder, the younger, Plato the elder, Plato the younger,
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you know, there's all these historical names that we give people. So-and-so the weak, you know,
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Trudeau's nickname must be the lesser, Trudeau the lesser. The little potato. And, you know,
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and yet here's another, you know, spanner into the works as far as I see it, Ezra. In a very rare
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public appearance, China's ambassador to Canada, Ambassador Liu, he said, and I wonder how the
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likes of a social justice warrior like our prime minister would handle this. He said that Western
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nations are showing their, quote, Western egotism and white supremacy, end quote, in their approach
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to China. First of all, I think that's a little rich coming from a country like China. But these
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are the kind of, these are the words, this is the language of, you know, the, the, the Trudeau and
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his ilk. And I wonder how they fight that. I mean, it, like I said, you know, Ezra, this to me is a
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crisis. It's a mess. And I don't know if you can put Humpty Dumpty back together. And I wonder
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if we are actually going to see Schellenberg, he may as, might very well be a drug dealer,
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as you said. Certainly it's stupid to flaunt any law in a foreign regime. But is this going to end
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up with him paying the ultimate price? Well, that would be shocking. But listen, Canadians are
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murdered all the time overseas and Trudeau doesn't care. There's a Canadian murdered in, I think,
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Burkina Faso just in the couple days ago by a Muslim terrorist. I didn't even see a word on it by
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Trudeau. Maybe he said something. I, and I missed it. Well, I think there was some Syrian hipster in
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an airport somewhere. Yeah. They were going to battle. Yeah. So I think that Trudeau, so there's,
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at any given time, there's hundreds of Canadians in prisons around the world. Most of them actually
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did a crime. Canadian policy is to, if the country's legal system or prison system is too
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barbaric, we try to bring them home. And we actually have treaties with other countries where we say,
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okay, we will accept your sentence, but let him serve it out in Canada. Now, our parole laws kick
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in, so they generally get out quickly. And I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing. If someone
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is convicted of, let's say, drugs, should they die? We don't think so as Canadians. Right. Should
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they come back to Canada and serve other prisons from here? You know, it's not a bad policy to have.
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But Trudeau is silent on ones where the captor is his friend, like China, or he admires, he's sucking
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up to. And he's also silent usually when it's a Muslim terrorist that's killing our people. Like,
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I think there's a couple of Canadians in the Philippines. He didn't lift a finger
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to kill him. No, to rescue the Canadians from the terrorists who captured them. In fact, even Joshua
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Boyle, the Taliban-loving friend of Trudeau's. Who got an audience with him. Yeah.
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It was the Americans who rescued him, not Canada. And Trudeau was not even told about the rescue
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until afterwards because he was recalcitrant. By the way, so was Joshua Boyle. He refused to get
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on an American airplane in some country because he was worried he would be taken to Guantanamo Bay.
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So certain is he of his own guilt. How sad we didn't grant him his wish of not getting him on.
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Yeah. Well, I mean, he was already, he was rescued from the Taliban. There's so much,
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Justin Trudeau, see, the thing is everyone's, oh, Stephen Harper was a cowboy. Stephen Harper was so
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rough. Stephen Harper doesn't know you need nuance. Stephen Harper doesn't understand. Really?
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Because all these pros and experts and woke speeches about feminism and woke speeches about
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global warming-ism. How can you name me a single country that today has better relations with Canada
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than five years ago? Not even Cuba. Cuba's bombarding our diplomats with sound waves. Iran,
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even the countries that Trudeau loves, China is further away from us. They're about to kill one
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of our citizens. India, Trudeau brought a terrorist to India. Saudi Arabia is practically at war with us.
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Donald Trump eats us for breakfast. I cannot think of a single country in the world that is closer to
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Canada now than when Trudeau took over. And Russia, I mean, Russia you have to be very careful with,
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but Russia's actually banned Chrystia Freeland from setting foot in their country. So who,
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where is this super diplomat? Where is this professional? Canada's back. I don't see Canada
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back. I think Canada is, has never been this isolated in the world. I can't think of a country,
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name one, one country that's closer to us now than three, four years ago.
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It's been completely aggression, Ezra. I'm so sorry we're out of time. I didn't even get into the
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angle that the title sponsor for Hockey Night in Canada, if you can imagine, is indeed Huawei.
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So how do you like that? Yeah, well, give me 10 more seconds. Huawei is also a major donor
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to Justin Trudeau's personal think tank called Canada 2020. I didn't know that. Canada 2020 is
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basically the liberal in-house think tank. It's run by Trudeau's old buddy. Huawei has given a ton of dough
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to Canada 2021. Incredible. There you go, folks. What was the name of that Meryl Streep movie? It's
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complicated. We'll see what happens in the days ahead and keep it here. More of Rebel Roundup to come
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In November of 2017, we filed an access to information request with the RCMP.
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This is what we asked them for. It's pretty clear. Please provide copies of all of the survey responses
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collected from those crossing the border with personal information redacted as reported here.
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And then we linked back to a mainstream media report on the subject. Then we sent a second
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access to information request about two weeks later. We asked the government to provide copies of all
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documents, including emails, text or instant messages, memos, media lines, briefing notes,
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backgrounders, etc., regarding the use and creation and the pullback of the RCMP questionnaire for
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asylum seekers crossing the border as reported here. And then, of course, again, we linked to a
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mainstream media report on the matter. So to be clear, we wanted the survey responses themselves
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because we wanted to see what the government is fully aware that migrants are saying with regard to
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equality and human rights and religious freedom. But we also wanted to see the government's planning
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and their frightened eventual pullback on the questionnaire. We wanted it all. So we waited
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and we waited and we waited. January 10th, 2019, we get a response to our requests. So to be clear, we
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waited all of 2018 and all of December 2017 to bring us to nearly 14 months wait time. But we don't
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actually get the documents. Oh, no. Look at this line here. The RCMP bureaucrat says to us,
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please let me know if you still require the files. What? Remember how during the 2015 Canadian
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federal election campaign, the boy who would become prime minister promised that this liberal regime
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would be the most transparent government ever? Well, turns out the precise opposite is true. So much
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information that should be public is hidden and so much information that is acquired through the official
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freedom of information process is redacted. And then there are the delays, the endless, endless delays.
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And with more on trying to get the very important information regarding the immigration
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file we should all be entitled to is the host of the gun show, Sheila Gunn-Reed. Welcome to Rebel Roundup, my friend.
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Hey, David. Thanks for having me on. Always a pleasure. So, Sheila, correct me if I'm wrong here,
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but the information you're currently seeking, I think, should have taken minutes, not months to produce.
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So why is the bureaucracy ragging the puck on this issue in the first place?
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Well, yeah, that's a really good point. The RCMP actually has people in their office whose only job
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is to redact personal information from their files. That's their only job. So the information I'm seeking
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was redacted. All the personal information was removed as it became a part of the official
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greater RCMP bureaucracy. So it was redacted a long time ago. I asked for this information,
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14 full months ago. I just got a response saying, hey, do you still want it? Well,
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yeah, of course I still want it. What a crazy question. But they're clearly dragging their feet,
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kicking the can down the road, trying to delay this until it no longer is the election issue
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that it really should be. And Sheila, you know, that's an important point.
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You've been waiting for this for 14 months. As you said, it's already been obtained, redacted.
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And they say, do you still want this information? I mean, I don't want to be insulting here,
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but are they simpletons or something? I mean, this is the very reason for your request. I've been
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waiting 14 months for something that should have taken 14 minutes to produce.
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I think sometimes, you know, it's the inverse of that old saying, never attribute to malice,
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but you can attribute to stupidity. I think this is the inverse of that. I would attribute
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malice to this. We know that the greater bureaucracy of the federal government is sort of infested by
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liberal partisans, especially those belonging to the Peace Act Union. And we know they actively
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campaigned for the federal liberals last time. And this is just another, I suppose, campaign effort
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from the larger unions of the federal government to delay the release of this information. This is
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really dangerous information if we get it and it comes to light. If these migrants crossing the border
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had answered these questions from the RCMP at the border in any other way, like if they answered
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these questions saying, yeah, we believe in equality between the sexes. And yeah, of course we believe
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in freedom of religion. And yeah, you know what? Let those girls let their hair down. If they had
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answered questions that way, I would have seen them already. But the fact that they're hiding this
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information tells me exactly what's in these documents. Yeah, no, I think you and I and our audience
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are really now waiting more so with bated breath to find out what this, you know, what these documents
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state, Sheila. But you know, I want to talk about the ethical part of this. And to me, this is a complete
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breach of ethics. And I'll tell you, Sheila, over my career as a journalist, I have filed FOIs to government
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ministries and crown corporations and government agencies. And I have found for the most part
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that the FOI people are really good people. They want to do the right thing. They recognize the
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separation of church and state, if you will, and that their job is to access this information and
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give it when requested because legally that's what we're allowed to receive. And that's what they're
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obliged to do. They're not supposed to be told by their higher ups, oh, sit on this or pretend it
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doesn't exist. So it looks like the kettle of fish you're dealing with at the RCMP,
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they're not subscribing to these ethical standards. That's my viewpoint on this, Sheila.
00:24:38.300
I don't want to be rude here, David, but you're a little longer in the tooth than I am.
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I've been only at this journalism thing about three and a half years. And it has been my experience,
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my overwhelming experience, both at the provincial level and at the federal level,
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across several bureaucracies, across several ministries. It is all delay, delay, delay,
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and obfuscate. And we've seen different ministries take measures to hide what they're doing to say,
00:25:09.340
oh, let's take this offline and discuss it offline. I've seen that happen in Alberta. I've seen that
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happen at the federal level. So what may have been your experience when you were a bit of a
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younger gentleman is certainly not my experience now. This has been one of the most cloistered
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and secretive governments I would suspect ever. Well, you know what? That is such a sad statement,
00:25:31.100
Sheila. And I'm not disputing that it's not true because this is at the end of the day,
00:25:36.780
and I don't want to sound too dramatic here, but it's an attack on the democratic process.
00:25:41.660
I mean, we live in a democracy and we, the people have a right to this information. It is public
00:25:47.500
information and it shouldn't be clamped down and redacted the way it is. And I just find it dreadful
00:25:55.020
that this is the new normal now. So why don't, you know, aside from the fact finding process,
00:26:00.700
Sheila, we are of course left to speculate now that we're heading into month 15, waiting for this
00:26:07.020
information to request it. What do you think it is that they are so obviously hiding that is
00:26:14.540
potentially so toxic to Canadian citizens to hear? Well, I think they're clearly hiding the fact that
00:26:21.820
the migrants crossing the border are not expressing things that are in line with Canadian values. And I
00:26:27.020
I know the liberals like to say that we don't have Canadian values except when it suits them.
00:26:31.820
Um, but I suspect there are a large portion of the migrants who are crossing the border who are
00:26:37.900
saying, yes, I believe in Sharia law. Yes, women should have their hair covered. No, uh, I don't believe
00:26:45.820
in freedom of religion and, uh, and all other manner of things that are not in line with the free and
00:26:53.980
small L liberal society that can, that Canada really should be. That's what I think is the
00:26:59.660
problem. I think if the Canadian public realized that we were importing on mass, a large swath of
00:27:07.020
people who fundamentally disagree with Canadian rights and freedoms, I think the Canadian public
00:27:13.180
would have a real problem with it. And you know, Sheila, we know where Justin Trudeau stands on this.
00:27:18.300
Going back some five years ago, I'm sure you remember his condemnation of, uh, the Stephen
00:27:24.700
Harper government because of the, um, it was the immigration guide at the time that was condemning
00:27:30.620
so-called barbaric practices. And this prime minister in waiting actually had a problem with things like,
00:27:39.660
oh, I don't know, female genital mutilation, uh, being described as barbaric. In other words,
00:27:45.740
he had a problem with barbarism being described as barbarism. So I think you're dead on. I think
00:27:53.260
there are a lot of people or a significant number of people that are coming in
00:27:57.020
that do not subscribe to Canadian values. And yeah, you know what? That's a problem.
00:28:02.460
I don't want people like that in this country, Sheila.
00:28:07.260
Well, and you know, we've seen that evidenced. Um, the CBSA has said that they have found people
00:28:12.940
coming across the border, primarily women, uh, with what they would describe as cutting kits.
00:28:18.780
And this is to practice female genital mutilation in Canada. So these people travel into our country
00:28:25.740
with these kits to cut girls here as opposed to sending girls away for the quote unquote procedure.
00:28:32.540
So we know that that is a problem, but the liberals have a problem saying that it's a problem
00:28:37.420
and they don't want people to know that that's happening. And that's why they redacted all these, um,
00:28:45.580
questionnaires. That's why they won't give me the questionnaires. And that's why they stopped
00:28:48.780
doing the questionnaires. You know, it's absolutely appalling,
00:28:52.220
Sheila, because please square this circle for me. How is it that our so-called first feminist prime minister,
00:28:59.340
um, is okay with the idea, with the idea of FGM? Or maybe he's one of these, um, really outrageous
00:29:08.540
progressives that has rebranded FGM as FGB, female genital beautification. Is that what's going on here?
00:29:17.420
Well, how do we square that circle, uh, uh, in, in any other matter? How do we square that circle when we are
00:29:23.500
giving, you know, uh, hundreds of millions of dollars to the developing world for what they
00:29:30.140
call reproductive health, which really needs avoiding baby girls in the developing world?
00:29:35.340
How do we square that circle when we have a feminist prime minister who's perfectly fine with importing,
00:29:40.460
uh, Saudi oil in the Irving oil refinery, some 40% of the oil that comes into that refinery,
00:29:46.540
Canada's largest refinery is 40% from Saudi Arabia, where women are stoned, where, um,
00:29:52.620
women, uh, cannot go outside without a male relative who can't really drive, can't really
00:29:58.220
vote. He's not a feminist in the true meaning of, I believe in equality for all women. He's just a
00:30:06.380
first world busy body using the word feminism to hide his own bad behavior. Wow. Well, Sheila,
00:30:12.780
I agree. And I think we're gonna have to wrap it here. We're just out of time, but I will say this,
00:30:17.660
hopefully you're gonna get these documents ASAP and that these people would not have the audacity,
00:30:25.100
although I wouldn't put it past them to delay this request until November so that it's after
00:30:32.060
the next federal election, but you keep on them. Let's get that information out there before the,
00:30:38.860
the election in October. So once again, Sheila,
00:30:41.660
great work on this file and thanks so much for joining me here today. Thank you,
00:30:45.900
David. You have a good weekend. You got it. You too. And that was Sheila Gunn-Reed in Alberta.
00:30:51.100
Keep it here, folks. More of Rebel Roundup to come right after this.
00:30:54.060
Today, it's the day 25 and America says, who gives a damn? Nobody cares. No one cares. Well,
00:31:11.260
some people around Washington DC care. Some decent people who work for the federal government,
00:31:16.140
they care too. But most of us, nah, I don't see it. Do you see it? I don't see it. Nobody's talking
00:31:22.700
about it. No one cares. Now look, there's polls out, but that's part of their strategy.
00:31:27.980
They've got kind of a two-pronged strategy. And let me tell you how they're gonna try and break
00:31:31.340
Donald Trump because they've got to break him, right? They've got to make him say, read my lips,
00:31:36.860
no new taxes, then raise taxes. They must make him go back on his promise to build a wall because that
00:31:44.780
will destroy his base. And they know it. And that's why they're doing it. They voted for walls 100 times.
00:31:49.660
This time, they won't. All because they don't want to give Donald Trump a victory. They want to use it
00:31:55.980
to break us, his supporters, off from him and leave him isolated and alone.
00:32:00.460
So as we head into the one month mark of the US federal government shutdown, the rhetoric continues
00:32:06.940
to amp up. President Donald Trump is committed to fighting for funding for a wall on the southern
00:32:12.940
border. Whereas Democrats, even those Democrats who just a few years ago supported the idea of a
00:32:19.820
border wall, well, they're simply refusing to negotiate. The question arises in the days and
00:32:26.380
weeks ahead, which side is going to win this politicized version of the proverbial Mexican standoff?
00:32:35.180
And joining us now with more on this ongoing story is our US-based rebel, Kurt Schlichter.
00:32:41.020
Welcome to Rebel Roundup, Kurt. Hey, thanks for having me.
00:32:44.060
Always a pleasure. So, Kurt, as this saga drags on and on, who do you think is going to blink first?
00:32:51.340
Is it going to be the president or is it going to be the Democrats who have so far indicated
00:32:56.220
they are in absolutely no mood whatsoever to compromise on this issue?
00:33:01.420
I don't know if that's a good assumption. The fact is that a lot of these Democrats,
00:33:09.260
the ones that gave them the majority, come from purple districts. They don't come from hard left
00:33:13.100
districts. They come from districts where people want to see compromise. They want to see border
00:33:18.860
security. And they are not interested in committing ritual suicide on behalf of Nancy Pelosi's constituents
00:33:27.180
in San Francisco. So I think there's some pressure there. On Trump, the only pressure
00:33:33.420
from his own voters, from his own base, it really seems to be to not do anything at all. Yeah,
00:33:39.580
you got the soft, weak sisters like Lisa Murkowski and a few other wimps in the Senate. Why do we
00:33:47.420
call it the shutdown? But, you know, normal people like me and you and most of the other people around
00:33:52.620
here are just kind of like, who cares? Shutdown's been going on for four weeks. I have not noticed.
00:33:58.060
The number of people, now I live in California, but I've traveled to both Virginia and Texas since
00:34:04.060
since it started. The number of people who brought up the shutdown in front of me who are not RA political
00:34:10.380
is zero. It's not 1, 2, 10, 20. It is zero. No one here cares. These federal employees are largely
00:34:18.940
Democrat voters. There are about 800,000 of them. Not all, but many of them. The Democrats are the party of
00:34:25.100
government workers. And Trump's got nothing to lose. In fact, he has everything to lose if he gives
00:34:30.700
in because he's made a promise and he's got to keep it. So why not? You know, this is, I think,
00:34:38.060
a fascinating angle, Kurt. The idea that this stonewalling is really going to hurt the Democratic
00:34:45.900
base more so than Trump. And as far as Trump is concerned, I mean, his brand, if you will,
00:34:52.460
is promises made, promises kept. This is promise numero uno going back to 2016.
00:34:59.180
So the way this is going to play out, there might be, I guess what you're saying is more internal
00:35:05.900
pressure in the Democratic Party to get a deal done. I think that's going to start developing.
00:35:11.900
And the way it'll happen is eventually the Democrats will decide, well, we'll just go to be the bigger
00:35:17.260
people. You know, we have to give in to this blackmail. We don't want to, but we've got to,
00:35:22.380
and we'll get him. We'll impeach him or something. Trump has no reason not to. His base isn't going to
00:35:30.700
move. Base doesn't care. Base is foreign. Yeah, I think some moderates are probably going to hold it
00:35:39.260
against, are probably going to hold it against the president for a little while, then they'll forget about
00:35:43.980
it because it isn't affecting them. At the end of the day, Trump has got to keep his promise,
00:35:49.100
and they know that. And that's why they're going against the very things that they voted for just
00:35:55.500
a few years ago. This is a political move to try and destroy Donald Trump's political
00:36:01.420
connection with his base. And that's simply it. But on that note, what I find disturbing about how
00:36:08.860
things have evolved on the left in the U.S. to paraphrase that old General Motors ad tagline,
00:36:15.020
not your father's Oldsmobile. These aren't your father's Democrats. These are the sanctuary city
00:36:20.780
Democrats. These are the no one is illegal Democrats, at least the mouthpieces getting the airtime on the
00:36:28.620
national cable networks. What I guess I'm saying, Curt, is they seem so ideologically committed
00:36:35.740
to doing the wrong thing that I'm just wondering if reason can prevail in that party such as it is
00:36:43.820
right now? No, what we need to do is break them. We need to continue to nurture the cracks in their
00:36:52.140
facade. They've got a tougher problem than us. Now, it's kind of the, you know, we're surrounded,
00:36:57.340
good, we can attack in every direction problem. If you're surrounded, it really makes your
00:37:02.620
your combat planning simple. Democrats, you know, and Trump's Trump's base is united,
00:37:08.620
but they're they're in a minority is 45%, 43%, something like that. The Democrats have to
00:37:14.140
hold together a coalition. The coalition is not all dedicated to committing ritual suicide over
00:37:20.380
open borders. It just isn't. And you can see you can see some of these new Democrats
00:37:25.900
are in a really tough place. And we know what they did during Obamacare. A lot of them agreed to,
00:37:31.740
you know, commit suicide for Nancy Pelosi and to vote for Obamacare. And they were wiped out the
00:37:37.420
next election. That's what's going to happen here. There's a lot of campaign ads. At the end of the day,
00:37:42.140
you chose Nancy Pelosi and the San Francisco Democrats against your, you know, suburban Philadelphia
00:37:46.780
district and border security. You chose them over us. And that's a powerful message for Republicans
00:37:55.260
running to take these seats back. This is a bigger problem for the Dems.
00:37:58.460
And Kurt, let's talk about the other angle here. And I speak of, and you address this in your
00:38:03.500
commentary to the useful idiots. And by that, I mean, members of the media party, if you will,
00:38:10.380
who are basically the propaganda machines for the Democratic Party. You know, it's funny,
00:38:16.940
I did a commentary earlier this week, where I talked about how a TV station in San Diego, KUSI,
00:38:23.180
which has been around since 1982, they invited CNN to pick up footage they had done, a series of
00:38:30.700
reports with border patrol agents who go after illegal aliens on a 24-7 basis. And CNN, because of their
00:38:39.340
narrative allegedly said, no, thanks, we'll pass. We'll do our own narrative from Washington in New
00:38:45.260
York. What do you make of this kind of media narrative that we're getting, Kurt? And is it
00:38:51.500
going to work? I don't think the media no longer acts as gatekeepers. We have social media, we have
00:38:59.340
alternative media sources like The Rebel. And people are not dependent on ABC, NBC, CNN to get their news.
00:39:06.780
You know, they flip over to Fox and see a whole different perspective.
00:39:11.660
The, but a lot of the, you know, the media seems to think it's still 1985. And it just isn't. Yeah,
00:39:20.060
I mean, they're still powerful. They still speak to some people. But do you know anyone who's watched
00:39:26.380
a network news show in the last decade? I haven't. I don't, I have no idea who, and I mean, I'm politically
00:39:34.940
in tune. ABC, NBC, CBS, I could not tell you who their anchor is. Yeah. No, certainly.
00:39:41.980
Couldn't even venture a guess. Certainly in this day and age, their monopoly has been broken. You're
00:39:47.580
right. It's not 1985 as much as the media wishes it was 1984. That was a bit of a joke there on my part.
00:39:55.180
Kurt, one last question, because this comes up from time to time. And I want to get your perspective.
00:40:00.700
Why didn't Trump and the Republicans push this idea of border wall financing before the midterm elections?
00:40:11.580
My answer is, what thing that they did push through would you have rather than put, chosen instead?
00:40:18.780
I, you know, you have to prioritize. That's the essence of leadership is figuring out your priority.
00:40:24.940
If it wasn't this, maybe it would have been, maybe we'd have gotten a wall, but not tax reform.
00:40:29.500
I, I, I don't, I don't know the answer. They, they prioritized other things. I know the Senate spent
00:40:33.740
a lot of time confirming judges. Um, you have a limited amount of time. You have a little minute,
00:40:39.340
limited amount of options, uh, every, and you have to prioritize. And they did, they went for things
00:40:45.340
that they could get. I don't know if the Republicans could have passed a wall bill. I think they probably
00:40:50.780
could have, but what would we, what did we have? Would we have rather given up is my question.
00:40:56.860
Yeah. No, I mean, my personal take Kurt is that, you know, the Republicans from time to time seem
00:41:04.700
to lack a killer instinct. They're playing by the rules of Kingsbury and they're up against a bunch
00:41:09.740
of, uh, back alley, back alley street fighters. So, well, Kurt, we're, we're at a racetrack here,
00:41:14.700
but it'll be a fascinating, um, uh, timeframe ahead in terms of the days and weeks, uh, to come
00:41:21.420
to see what happens, who folds and what the outcome of this is. It really is a fascinating chapter in
00:41:27.180
terms of the, uh, the Trump administration. So thank you again for weighing in. Thank you.
00:41:31.340
Your expertise. Thanks. Gotcha. And that was Kurt Schlichter in the U S and keep it here,
00:41:37.100
folks. More of Rebel Roundup to come right after this.
00:41:47.340
Now I'm not making this up folks, but apparently the police officer had been staking out the local
00:41:52.860
beer store and he had duly observed that art had just returned an excessive amount of empties to that
00:42:01.100
beer store. Well, one needn't be blessed with the detective acumen of Sherlock Holmes to crack this
00:42:07.580
case, right? Lots of empty beverage alcohol containers obviously means the person returning
00:42:14.620
the containers is a drunkard. What else could it mean? Only drunk drivers return empty beer bottles,
00:42:22.620
right? You know, I would have loved to have heard that conversation play out with dispatch.
00:42:27.820
Stedanko here. We got a code 2-4 in progress. Observing suspect Mr. X, approximately 70 years old,
00:42:35.580
currently entering a beer store. Suspect is returning an inordinate number of empty bottles.
00:42:42.380
Dispatch here. Go on, Stedanko. This sounds interesting. How many bottles is Mr. X returning
00:42:47.260
exactly? Precisely three cases of beer bottles and eight wine bottles. Good God, Stedanko. That adds up to,
00:42:55.500
well, let's see now. 80 empties. Do you need backup? Jeez. And so it was that after Art Leitlauer exited the
00:43:03.660
plaza, he was pulled over and requested to provide a breath sample. Art planned to refuse until he was
00:43:11.580
informed that doing so would result in an automatic fine of $2,000, a considerably higher sum than Art earned
00:43:20.860
from returning those empties, namely $8.80. Well, in case you haven't heard, folks, under changes to
00:43:27.100
the criminal code passed by the federal liberals, police across Canada are now allowed to randomly
00:43:33.100
stop and administer roadside alcohol breath tests on any driver, even without a reason to suspect
00:43:39.820
that the person has been drinking. And apparently that includes someone flaunting their alleged liquor
00:43:47.660
consumption by returning an inordinate number of empties for refund at a beer store. Look, like most
00:43:55.100
reasonable people, I want drunks off the road and I want convicted drunk drivers locked up for as long
00:44:01.100
as possible. But what occurred to Art Leitlauer was a complete abuse of process,
00:44:07.580
one that followed a logic process that I'd referred to as being moronic, except that I
00:44:13.340
really don't want to insult the moron community. Police have been entrusted with new powers thanks
00:44:18.460
to this legislation, but surely they must use these powers wisely as opposed to losing the public trust
00:44:25.900
by jumping to preposterous inclusions, i.e. someone returning a lot of empty beer bottles for recycling
00:44:33.420
is obviously a drunk driver. Give me a break. In any event, here's what some of you had to say about
00:44:40.060
the Art Leitlauer story. West Coaster writes, those bottle drive kids are in trouble now, them cubs and
00:44:47.260
brownies. They must be real boozers. Indeed, I guess charities are going to have to think of other ways to
00:44:53.740
stage fundraisers. A bottle drive is just too fraught with pearl nowadays. And Alan Wood writes,
00:45:01.420
so it's now illegal to recycle in Canada? Well, not illegal, Alan, just a potential big waste of time
00:45:09.900
if any other cop out there comes to the conclusion that returning empty beer bottles is a telltale sign
00:45:16.940
of impaired driving. Incredible. And Joe Groh writes, but they can't ask a little punk for his ID where he's
00:45:25.500
roaming the streets at 2 a.m. What WTF is wrong with Toronto? Well, you know, good point, Joe. But
00:45:33.900
alas, the folks at Black Lives Matter are dead set against carding. And as you know, what Black Lives
00:45:41.180
Matter wants, Black Lives Matter gets. Oh, and in case you weren't paying attention, 2018 also happened to be
00:45:49.980
a record year for homicides in Toronto. So yeah, sounds like a great plan to stake out those beer
00:45:56.860
stores in the meantime, clamping down on drivers who aren't drunk, but doing the right thing by
00:46:03.100
embracing the three R's. Geez, I think I need a drink, folks. Well, that wraps up another edition of
00:46:09.260
Rebel Roundup. Thanks so much for joining us. See you next week. And hey, never forget,
00:46:14.140
folks. Without risk, there can be no glory. Good night.