VANCOURCES Vancouver's City Council declares a climate emergency, which is easier than fixing their homelessness, housing, or drug gains. Ezra explains why this is a good thing, and why you should listen to it.
00:01:19.360Well, fine, all the law really did was issue a press release and make Vancouver taxpayers have to pay for virtue signaling street signs around the city.
00:01:28.200It's about as effective as those gun-free zone signs are in deterring criminals.
00:01:32.980Oh, shoot, it's a gun-free zone. I won't take my gun.
00:01:35.580But I'm here today to tell you that obviously it worked.
00:01:38.560In the 30 years since Vancouver declared itself a nuclear weapons-free zone, there has never been a nuclear weapon in the city.
00:02:30.580And so I come back to you and say, do not underestimate the power or the vision or, if you're a bit more skeptical, the plain old craziness of Vancouver City Council.
00:02:41.660And so let me announce to the world the next target of the city of Vancouver's aldermen.
00:02:46.680I mean, these are the people who helped end the Cold War without a shop being fired.
00:03:12.820The motion was introduced by one city councillor, Christine Boyle.
00:03:16.480Now that the motion has passed, city staff will come up with new ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and set new climate change targets.
00:03:23.800Boyle says her motion, passing unanimously, proves how important it is to be a greener city.
00:03:28.320I think what she really means to say is this proves how important she is.
00:06:13.440In fact, the UN's global warming conferences are always in exotic locales around the world with tens of thousands of very important people coming to them by jet plane.
00:06:22.260As opposed to, I don't know, even talking online over Skype or something.
00:07:33.980So you can't just say that an arson is global warming.
00:07:39.060Well, I mean, I guess the people who think they ended the nuclear arms race with a street sign might, but that's not a global warming thing.
00:07:49.500Their next whereas is the legislature of British Columbia and the House of Commons of Canada acknowledged the growing crisis of climate breakdown by holding emergency debates following the release of the October 2018 IPCC report.
00:08:02.940Well, if a political debate, if politicians talking about something isn't proof that something is a real emergency, I don't know what is.
00:08:20.520And calling on senior levels of government for a more urgent emergency response.
00:08:24.600So, so far, their rationale for declaring an emergency is a bunch of arson-caused fires, very important politicians debating in other legislatures, and very important politicians calling for an emergency.
00:10:56.100But the UN doesn't actually say that ever, anywhere, not even in their craziest moments.
00:11:00.540And I've been following this closely for 20 years.
00:11:02.740No United Nations study or even their political emanations have ever said that reducing the human emissions of carbon dioxide will stop global warming.
00:11:13.660They don't say that because even they know man-made emissions, even if they do contribute to global warming, are a tiny fraction compared to natural warming, natural emissions.
00:11:23.040And the greatest greenhouse gas of all water vapor, you could delete every human from the planet and it would still warm.
00:11:29.660I'm not trying to get science-y on you.
00:11:31.760I'm just saying there's a reason they wrote that paragraph in such a word pretzel.
00:11:39.040Because not even the crazy United Nations would ever say that if you ban cars, you'll change the weather.
00:11:43.880No one, not even Justin Trudeau or Rachel Notley or Catherine McKenna says that a carbon tax, for example, will change any weather.
00:11:51.060Their language, if they're ever pressed, which is rare that they're pressed, their language is that it's a moral symbol.
00:11:55.840That it sets an example for the world.
00:12:00.320But since it's useless, an example of having more money than brains, an example of the kind of suckers we would be while China, India, Brazil, all the OPEC countries emit as much of whatever emissions they like while we waste our time and money on this stuff.
00:12:14.560And Rachel Notley's explanation that putting a carbon tax on Alberta will appease Vancouverites into allowing a pipeline through social license.
00:12:25.200So I'm not going to go through the whole rationale.
00:12:27.040Now, the motion is three pages long and a lot of it's baffled gab, but let me just read the action plan.
00:12:34.080Therefore, be it resolved, the council recognize the breakdown of the stable climate and sea level under which human civilization developed constitutes an emergency for the city of Vancouver.
00:12:46.480Hey, guys, we are about to be swallowed up by the sea.
00:12:50.980And I don't think Vancouverites actually believe that, though.
00:12:54.520I just don't think they really believe that.
00:12:57.620Because if they did, those expensive houses right on the waterfront, including David Suzuki's, one of his four properties, his favorite property,
00:13:07.320they would not be the most expensive parts of the city.
00:13:09.540Suzuki literally lives right on the water.
00:13:45.620If I thought my $10 million house was going to be swamped by the sea, and if I thought that it was really emergency, I'd sell it and head inland.
00:15:37.580They want the bureaucrats just to come up with some plan in 90 days.
00:15:41.520Yeah, I don't know if that's going to happen.
00:15:42.980I mean, maybe they could cure cancer in 90 days, too.
00:15:46.060But at least curing cancer is scientifically possible.
00:15:48.360I suppose people changing the world's weather.
00:15:51.180The U.N. itself says that will not happen.
00:15:54.820But maybe the very last sentence of this motion is what this is really about.
00:16:00.700That council direct staff to establish a climate and equity working group to provide guidance and support to the city's efforts to transition off fossil fuels in ways the priorities.
00:16:14.580Again, weird wording there that those most vulnerable to climate impacts and most in need of support in transitioning to renewable energy.
00:16:22.160So it's not really about controlling the weather.
00:16:25.180It's about controlling people or climate equity, which really means changing how we live, changing the law, changing spending, using the climate emergency as the excuse for spending for more government.
00:21:47.700I think of Robin Williams, who was a master of accents.
00:21:50.920I think of, I mean, there's people who all they do are impressions.
00:21:57.100A Chinese accent, an Indian accent, a French accent, a German accent.
00:22:02.020Like any form of acting, you're being someone else other than who you are.
00:22:07.440That's the difference between fiction and nonfiction.
00:22:09.900People who would say a comedian can't be someone who he's not, they would probably rule out most jokes that people would make too.
00:22:18.200Because most jokes that a comedian tells are not actually their true life experiences or true opinions.
00:22:24.160They're an exaggeration, an appropriation, a thought experiment.
00:22:29.160Why even bother to have comedy if you're not allowed to be someone who you're not?
00:22:33.920You know what, Ezra, you've nailed it.
00:22:35.640Here's the saddest thing about all of these stories, about comedians being hauled in front of a kangaroo court and fined tens of thousands of dollars.
00:22:43.660You know that because of the way of the days have shaped right now, the political world, the world of academia, basically the business world, every facet of life, everything has to be buttoned down.
00:23:12.540You could mock, you could use profanity, you could be vulgar, you could be distasteful.
00:23:18.080Yeah, no one's saying that what these guys are saying is, you know, is 100% kosher.
00:23:25.000But the point of view, my point of view, Ezra, is that you can choose to laugh or not laugh or boo if you want.
00:23:31.140And that's the way that realm used to be.
00:23:33.680Now these politically correct mavens are getting their talons into this world and they're ripping it apart.
00:23:40.360And I mean, you know, it's funny you mentioned at the University of Quebec the name of the comedy club, the Snowflake Comedy Club.
00:23:49.680At first I thought, oh, that's brilliant.
00:23:51.700That's obviously people that get the joke that what they're going to do, we're going to call it the Snowflake Comedy Club and, you know, book guys like Andrew Dice Clay.
00:24:04.000They don't want you to say anything upsetting and they don't want you to wear your hairstyle in a so-called cultural inappropriate fashion.
00:24:13.240Yeah, you know, anyone with kids knows that you try and find jokes that are funny but kid-friendly and there's a lot of them online.
00:24:21.000I mean, I'll tell you a joke for a five-year-old.
00:25:16.020And I think that is indeed the case of the other comedian, Mr. Ward, who is being vilified and prosecuted and fined multiple thousands of dollars for going after somebody who is disabled.
00:25:29.260And, I mean, his jokes were, you know, and it gets back to the, you know, speaking to the truth of the matter, that because this individual is young and has what was thought to be a terminal disease, therefore, he's getting all these singing gigs with famous celebrities, whereas if he was just a normal kid of that age, he wouldn't be.
00:25:51.660Now, you may laugh at that or you may not.
00:25:54.180But the fact of the matter is, there's a hell of a lot of truth in that, Ezra, you know.
00:25:59.140Well, I mean, this young kid, he's got some deformities, and he was sort of given a nickname, Little Jeremy.
00:26:07.460Everyone was sort of treating him as a, like a perpetual, you know, make-a-wish foundation.
00:27:24.840And I can imagine that if I was a family member or a friend or just of this Jeremy Gabriel, I would be upset by the jokes about why aren't you dead yet.
00:27:33.500But I'd either laugh it off or I'd ignore it or I'd be really mad about it.
00:27:37.840But the idea of running to the state to have someone punished, that is un-Canadian and I hope it's un-Quebecish also.
00:27:46.380But, you know, the judge in the original ruling against Ward, he said that Ward had violated Jeremy Gabriel's right to, quote, dignity, honor, and reputation.
00:27:57.920And, again, I go back to what I referenced earlier.
00:27:59.980I think when you're in a comedy show, you waive those rights.
00:28:38.980Can we mock judges that are stopping us from mocking people?
00:28:43.440Or you're not allowed to mock the judges?
00:28:44.660Or you're only allowed to mock the judges?
00:28:46.160What a bunch of stupid rules we're making.
00:28:48.080And could you imagine, Ezra, the screening process for the bureaucrat in Ottawa who's going to be in charge of the Canadian Ministry of Comedy Appropriation Approval?
00:28:59.020I mean, can you, I mean, the very antithesis of comedy, of stand-up, is a government bureaucrat.
00:29:07.080And having someone judging what is not funny, it's like the Latin phrase that translated in English, who watches the watchers.
00:29:16.100You know, it is, we have lost our minds on this.
00:29:19.460Like I said, Mr. Ward is not a politician.
00:29:24.420He's not a head of state that made these remarks.
00:29:40.700I think of the government comedians in Canada, of course, the CBC has a whole comedy channel, comedy network.
00:29:47.880It's not a channel, it's comedy shows, it's our 22 minutes, they have a comedy department.
00:29:54.420Generally unfunny, because they're afraid of hurting some political sensibility.
00:29:58.960But when they have an approved government enemy, used to be Stephen Harper, now it's Jason Kenney, and especially Donald Trump, they're vicious.
00:30:08.080They're not funny, they're vicious with a laugh track, which is a different thing.
00:30:13.480So there will always be mockery in the state.
00:30:16.540The question is, can you mock the state itself?
00:30:19.720And I think that's what's really, I mean, this guy, this white guy with dreadlocks being banned, it's an embarrassment, it's foolish, but it's not the government.
00:30:32.780What the government does to Mike Ward, I think, is much more telling.
00:30:36.700You know, going back to the Quebec part, Ezra, I would always have liked to think that things are a little different in Quebec in terms of comedy.
00:30:45.700I mean, Montreal is host of the Just for Laughs Festival.
00:30:48.280The TV show Just for Laughs Gags is a worldwide phenomenon.
00:30:53.760There, you know, there's this joy of life, there's this idea of taking, you know, the piss out of things.
00:31:01.460Radio Canada was in the news, of course, earlier this month, their bye-bye show.
00:31:05.000They did a brilliant mocking sketch on Justin Trudeau's trip to India, that disaster.
00:31:11.400And, of course, English media raked them over the coals for how insensitive and culturally inappropriate.
00:31:17.000So it really saddens me that I thought that this last bastion of political incorrectness, of comedy at its true roots, is now, even there in the province of Quebec, under attack.
00:33:58.900As I asked Michael Knowles, is it because maybe some women buy razors for their husbands or boyfriends when they're at a drugstore or something?
00:34:10.620I think it's just a disconnect between the corporate head office, which has its own social culture, and the grassroots.
00:34:17.260I see this all the time in companies that are really woke PR side of the industry, doesn't understand what made them great and strong to begin with.
00:35:24.860What bugged me the most about that story was a little item that there was a high school protest in the middle of the day outside City Council.
00:35:31.260That's actually the scariest thing about the story.