Rebel News Podcast - August 05, 2020


Victoria, Australia declares martial law over COVID-19


Episode Stats

Length

30 minutes

Words per Minute

161.5415

Word Count

4,910

Sentence Count

408

Misogynist Sentences

3

Hate Speech Sentences

12


Summary

The Australian state of Victoria has declared martial law, and it s worse than anything we ve ever seen before, and we re here to tell you why. It s August 4th, 2019, and this is The Ezra Levant Show.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Hello, my Rebels. It's great to be back. Listen, I want to tell you about Australia.
00:00:03.940 What a wonderful country. The state of Victoria, that's what they call the state in which the great
00:00:10.520 city of Melbourne is located, they brought in martial law. And I got to tell you, it is stricter
00:00:16.040 than anything we had during the War Measures Act. And I know some former Soviet citizens,
00:00:22.420 and I've talked to them at great length about what the Soviet Union was like under the communists.
00:00:28.020 And it was not as intrusive as what is happening in Melbourne, Australia right now. I'll prove it
00:00:36.660 to you in today's show. But before I do, let me invite you to become a subscriber
00:00:40.460 to Rebel News Plus. Just go to rebelnews.com. It's eight bucks a month or 80 bucks if you buy the
00:00:45.700 whole year in advance, which is basically two months free. You get the video version of the
00:00:50.380 podcast plus Sheila Gunn-Reed's show and David Menzies' show. And that eight bucks a month,
00:00:54.880 it really helps us keep things going here because, as you know, we don't take a dime
00:00:58.560 from governments. So just go to rebelnews.com. Be a real favor to me. Thanks. Okay, here's
00:01:03.400 the rest of the podcast. Tonight, Australia's socialist state of Victoria declares martial law.
00:01:25.380 It's August 4th, and this is The Ezra Levant Show.
00:01:27.820 Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?
00:01:33.660 There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.
00:01:37.740 The only thing I have to say to the government about why I publish it is because it's my bloody
00:01:42.600 right to do so.
00:01:48.640 Melbourne is the largest city in the beautiful Australian state of Victoria. It's a pretty big
00:01:54.900 city, about 5 million people, about the size of Toronto. Victoria, the state has almost 7 million
00:02:00.680 people in it. And like all of Australia, it has been pretty much spared the coronavirus, at least
00:02:05.940 compared to much of the world. But then they decided to quarantine all returning travelers from overseas
00:02:12.420 in a few select hotels. And they decided to guard that quarantine with security guards they found
00:02:20.540 online for cheap. And wouldn't you know it, some of those online security guards and some of the
00:02:28.640 quarantine travelers who were cooped up and bored, well, they started having sex. The guards, the guards,
00:02:36.680 I'm using my quotation mark fingers. I mean, these were just people that answered, help wanted online
00:02:42.380 ads to be guards. And so I know this is shocking to hear. The government solution actually made things
00:02:47.860 worse. They managed to spread the virus. The premier of Victoria State is a socialist named Dan Andrews.
00:02:55.900 He's the worst. He's signing treaties and partnerships with communist China. He's not the prime minister
00:03:03.520 of Australia. He's the premier of his state. But in the face of his own federal government's opposition
00:03:08.900 to China, he's signing on to their Belt and Road Initiative. Here's a news clip of that.
00:03:15.480 The US Secretary of State has issued a stern warning about any deals done with China under its Belt
00:03:21.520 and Road Initiative. The Victorian government has been criticized for refusing to release federal
00:03:26.740 government advice about the state's contentious economic partnership with China. Secretary Pompeo
00:03:33.000 says he isn't aware of the specific details relating to Victoria's Belt and Road Initiative,
00:03:38.360 but warned the US would be prepared to disconnect if the deal adversely impacted America's national
00:03:45.060 security. That snapped back pretty hard when Secretary Mike Pompeo weighed in. But it shows
00:03:54.060 you what Dan Andrews is like. He's even worse than Justin Trudeau and our pro-communist foreign
00:03:58.980 minister, Francois-Philippe Champagne, if you can believe it. He is in love with Xi Jinping and he
00:04:04.780 doesn't care who knows. So when he had this outbreak of the virus from his hotel sex strategy
00:04:12.300 online cheap security thing, well, who did he follow as a role model? Well, totalitarian,
00:04:19.220 authoritarian Xi Jinping. I don't mean he issued a few tickets like we've seen in our fight defines
00:04:26.200 campaigns in Canada. You know, guys getting nuisance tickets, some people spending half an hour in a
00:04:30.840 police car, 90 minutes in a police station. Those are terrible. And we're fighting those like crazy.
00:04:35.040 But what they're doing in Victoria, Australia, is on a whole other level. In some ways, I think it's
00:04:41.560 even worse than what China did to its own people. Let me read you a series of tweets that sums up what
00:04:48.020 they've done in Australia in this one state. And this is from a news reporter with a major network
00:04:54.820 based in Melbourne. Now you tell me how this isn't exactly what martial law is. This is actually worse.
00:05:01.680 So the first tweet is just the basic facts. Victoria has 439 new COVID-19 cases, 21,000 tests done
00:05:11.960 yesterday, 456 Victorians in hospital, 38 Victorians in intensive care, and 11 new deaths all in aged care.
00:05:21.580 That's where they call seniors homes. 1186 active cases in aged care. Now I'm sorry to hear about the
00:05:28.420 11 deaths. It's important to note that like across the West, the death toll is overwhelmingly very old
00:05:34.440 people who are locked up in old folks' homes. Poor air circulation, perhaps poor hygiene from workers who
00:05:41.880 go from patient to patient or even facility to facility. I don't have the ages here, but in British
00:05:46.540 Columbia, as we saw last week, the average age of the deceased is 85 years old. So you have 11 new
00:05:53.520 deaths in a state of nearly 7 million people. I'm not happy about that, but it's 11 people in a state
00:05:59.280 of 7 million. It's barely one in a million. Look at this. I'll read some more tweets from this reporter.
00:06:05.320 Enforcement. 3,000 door knocks conducted. More than 800 people weren't home. Exercise is now banned for
00:06:13.800 people isolating. 500 plus ADF coming to Victoria. That's Australian Defense Forces. Close contacts
00:06:20.660 of known cases will be door knocked randomly too. New $4,957 fines for individuals who breach
00:06:28.840 isolation. So you're literally sending armed soldiers to the homes of people who are sick. Oh, and to
00:06:34.960 their friends. What are you doing that for again? $5,000 fines for people who step outside of their
00:06:41.800 house? As we've told you before, the virus does not transmit outdoors through casual contact. It
00:06:47.680 transmits in the house. That's why all 11 deaths are seniors in a stuffed up seniors home. Seniors who
00:06:54.400 aren't allowed to go out and about. No one gets the virus from being out and about. You're literally
00:06:59.120 sentencing people to stay in houses or apartments, some of which are tiny, and you think this is going
00:07:04.880 to make fewer cases and a $5,000 fine. So bankruptcy for the average Joe. The average bloke can't afford
00:07:11.120 a $5,000 fine. You'll scare some people with that number, but you'll make other people even more
00:07:16.300 desperate. And look at this. This is the next tweet in the series. Work permits. Piece of paper signed by
00:07:22.240 employer and employee. Must be carried with you. Shown to officers if pulled over. Easily identifiable.
00:07:27.980 Essential workers, nurses, cops, etc. can use their current work ID. Paperwork will be online later today.
00:07:32.880 There's some irony there in that all health care has been ground to a halt, except extreme
00:07:39.060 emergencies. So the hospitals will be empty, just as they are here. So expect lots of cancer,
00:07:47.620 cataracts, heart disease, strokes, whatever. Expect a lot of those things to rise while we chase the
00:07:53.200 virus that has 11 deaths. Recent fines. 161 fines issued. 60 for no masks. Someone bought
00:08:02.860 a car after 8 p.m. Well, you know, the virus. The virus can tell. If you buy the car at 759,
00:08:07.860 virus don't mind. You buy a car at 8 p.m., virus minds. Oh, get this. Police had to smash windows of
00:08:15.780 four cars after documents refused to give details. 38-year-old woman not wearing a mask smashed
00:08:22.120 policewoman's head into concrete. She's being charged in bail. Did you get that? Police had to smash
00:08:27.140 windows of four cars. I mean, they absolutely had to, guys. Come on, guys. They had to smash the
00:08:31.660 windows. Public health depended on it. The virus made me do it. So someone's in the car. Windows
00:08:36.600 rolled up. Chance of spreading the virus? Zero. But better smash the glass, you know, for health
00:08:42.780 reasons, you see. Were there kids in the car? Did the person get glass shards? Well, who cares?
00:08:48.300 Look, this is for their health, you see. And their trust in police. That's going to rise, isn't it?
00:08:53.600 I can see why that Premier Dan Andrews, I can see why he loves China. He's acting like a communist
00:09:00.760 dictator himself. Here's our friend Avi Yamini, who just happens to live in Melbourne. Take a look at
00:09:06.580 this video. I'm going to play about two minutes of this video from Avi, and then I'll come right
00:09:10.740 back. Take a look. So let me get this straight. We did a full 12-week lockdown to flatten the curve,
00:09:18.560 and it only failed because Dan Andrews hired Gumtree security guards to manage the hotel quarantine
00:09:24.020 of international arrivals. We now know that he's dodgy security companies that he paid
00:09:30.020 millions of dollars, then underpaid overseas students to do the guarding. Andrews' untrained
00:09:36.820 guards then went and caught COVID from the travellers and spread the virus far and wider in
00:09:43.300 our community undetected for weeks. The madness didn't end there. The government then allowed
00:09:48.420 a massive Black Lives Matter rally here in Melbourne, and shockingly, there was a mass
00:09:53.460 outbreak weeks later at a housing commission towers where numerous of the Black Lives Matter
00:09:58.780 protesters live. I'm no rocket scientist, but I think I've got this one figured. But in response,
00:10:05.080 Andrews imposed another stage three lockdown for six weeks to re-flatten the curve, which
00:10:10.260 in the 14-day incubation period got 10 times worse. So he introduced compulsory masks. Still,
00:10:17.040 each and every day went by. It was obvious they weren't helping at all. So now, after blaming
00:10:23.400 every other person, Dan Andrews has declared Victoria a state of disaster. That essentially gives him
00:10:30.200 even more power to, one, enforce his original state of emergency restrictions, and two, add and execute
00:10:37.100 even more exceedingly harsh rules, including a freaking curfew. I haven't had one of those since
00:10:42.400 I was a kid. So there will be a curfew across metropolitan Melbourne from 8pm this evening,
00:10:47.380 and it will run from 8pm to 5am each and every day. Meanwhile, Andrews still refuses to answer any
00:10:54.340 questions relating to his hotel quarantine debacle that put us in this mess in the first place.
00:10:58.980 In fact, his judicial inquiry into what went wrong starts this week, and guess who isn't
00:11:04.940 appearing to answer any questions? That's right. Dictator Dan or any of his ministers. Imagine my
00:11:12.580 shot. With respect, those questions are being asked because the answers aren't there.
00:11:16.580 Because the answers are to be provided by the retired judge and the judicial inquiry. I think
00:11:20.800 that's the point that I'm trying as politely as I possibly can to make.
00:11:23.640 The truth is, we don't need to waste any more time or money on an inquiry. Every sensible person
00:11:31.340 has already figured it out. Only idiots still believe a word that man utters these days. And it's clear
00:11:39.020 that this lockdown and curfew won't last only six weeks, just like it didn't take 15 days to flatten
00:11:44.580 the curve with or without masks. Who knows if they'll even manage to take back control from this
00:11:51.900 outbreak or not. The only thing for certain, this lockdown will cost livelihoods and lives
00:11:58.060 of people already struggling to cope.
00:12:01.260 Spot on. Now you can see all of Avi's work at TR.news. I'm trying to arrange a time when he can join us
00:12:07.280 via Skype, which is a bit hard because of all the time zones. I want to talk to him what it's like
00:12:11.640 living under martial law. I've never known anyone who's lived under martial law since the Soviet era.
00:12:16.980 But check out some of these rules. These are official rules published, just insane.
00:12:22.900 Stay at home with a one hour exception in 24 hours for exercise. You know, that's exactly what Tommy
00:12:29.700 Robinson lived under when he was in solitary confinement in Belmarsh prison. He was allowed
00:12:34.020 one hour a day out of his cell. Hey, same in Australia. And look at that. Literally no visitors
00:12:39.600 allowed. At least Tommy Robinson could have visitors once a week at Belmarsh prison. Obviously all schools
00:12:45.820 are canceled, et cetera. No weddings allowed. Just none. Sorry, guys. The dictator says no weddings. So
00:12:52.280 sorry. Literally every place closed. You can't even get into a car with someone else who does not live with
00:12:58.720 you. This story here from ABC, that's Australia's state broadcaster like the CBC. They say that fines
00:13:06.700 are actually as high as $20,000. By next week, there will be 4,000 household visits by authorities
00:13:12.360 every day. An additional 500 Australian Defence Force troops will be joined by 750 Victoria police
00:13:18.460 officers plus 300 extra health officials for widespread checks across the state. Yeah, they're going to be
00:13:23.680 spreaders, by the way, in case you're wondering. They want to ensure that those issued with stay
00:13:30.140 at home orders are remaining in their residences rather than sneaking out. Yeah, sir, I got news for
00:13:36.560 you and I'm not an expert in anything, but I don't think you can treat people like this, not in a free
00:13:40.520 society. That's totalitarian. Even the Soviets didn't live like this. New restrictions on business and
00:13:47.340 industry will come into force from 11.59 p.m. on Wednesday. Employees in permitted industries will
00:13:52.820 be required to carry a working worker permit when traveling to and from their workplace. With
00:13:57.420 Melbourne under curfew from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. each night, checks and enforcement will be carried out
00:14:02.340 on public transport with the support of protective services officers. The worker permit is a piece of
00:14:08.200 paper. Your employer fills it out. They sign it. You sign it, Mr. Andrews said. You carry it with you and
00:14:13.280 then you're able to demonstrate so there's not a sense of anxiety or a sense of having to tell your
00:14:17.460 story 17 times. Okay, so they acknowledge that they're creating a sense of fear and panic and
00:14:23.700 insanity enforced by soldiers, massive fines. Yeah, this isn't going to end well. Are they surprised that
00:14:31.020 some people are snapping? A young policewoman who was enforcing coronavirus restrictions in Melbourne
00:14:36.640 Southeast has allegedly had her head repeatedly smashed into concrete paving during a confrontation
00:14:41.740 with a woman who wasn't wearing a mask. The 26-year-old constable was on patrol with another
00:14:46.280 officer when they approached the 38-year-old and asked for her name about 5 p.m. near a shopping
00:14:51.860 center in Frankston. Yeah, I don't support smashing a cop, but you're going to see more of that.
00:14:58.860 You treat citizens like prisoners. They're literally getting the Australian prison authorities to enforce
00:15:05.580 the thing here. Don't be surprised if you get the odd prison riot. You know, there's an old saying
00:15:11.380 that no one in prison is guilty. Just ask them. But the fact is no one in Melbourne is guilty. They
00:15:17.160 haven't been tried or convicted of anything, but they're being sentenced to solitary confinement.
00:15:21.980 Melbourne's a city as big as Toronto and it's being turned into a giant prison cell.
00:15:26.360 Don't be surprised if they defy their guards a bit. And all of this is happening because in the
00:15:32.020 state of Victoria, 11 senior citizens in seniors' homes died from the virus. Hey, how about we take
00:15:38.240 every single senior out of every senior's home? And don't put them in a jail. Take them somewhere
00:15:43.300 nice. And give them each a nurse and lots of happy things. Not banning them from visiting family,
00:15:49.260 but facilitating visits. Probably outdoors, in the sun, in fresh air. It's Australia.
00:15:54.520 Don't turn an entire state into a prison. I know that's how they do it in China. Dan Andrews'
00:16:00.460 favorite place. That's not how free countries do it. Say, if Justin Trudeau and Theresa Tam
00:16:07.260 and Patty Hajdu ever decided to go full Mao Zedong on us here in Canada, do you really think
00:16:13.280 that either the media party or the Conservative Party would even object? I mean, they haven't
00:16:19.520 objected so far, have they? Stay with us for more.
00:16:34.580 Well, I'm always slightly amazed and delighted when our next guest makes time for us. I say
00:16:40.740 that because he is one of the most sought-after commentators on U.S.-China relations. He's also
00:16:48.520 a scholar who writes for our friends at the Gatestone Institute. He has a new publication
00:16:53.860 out there. It's called China Seeds, A Biological Attack on America. A very curious development.
00:17:02.380 Without further delay, let me welcome back our friend Gordon G. Chang, a must-follow on Twitter
00:17:09.120 for all your China news. Gordon, great to see you again. Can you explain for us what are these
00:17:14.360 mysterious seeds? People in America, people in Japan, other countries, be receiving just seeds
00:17:20.840 from China. A very strange gift. I suppose the instinct is to plant them. Why is China sending
00:17:27.300 the world mysterious seeds, and what happens if we plant them? Well, thank you so much, Ezra,
00:17:32.320 and I'm always honored when you ask. So thank you very much. Oh, it's our pleasure.
00:17:37.000 These seeds, we don't know what's going on here. But this is a global issue because it's gone to all
00:17:45.140 50 states, gone to Canada. As you mentioned, Europe, UK has got them, Japan, and also there's
00:17:52.840 mystery soil in addition to the mystery seeds. Someone in Taiwan got soil from China unsolicited.
00:17:59.700 Many people think that this is a brushing scam, you know, where people are sent goods unsolicited,
00:18:07.720 and then others write fake online reviews in order to boost popularity. But there's really
00:18:13.400 no evidence that this is brushing. So we've got to be very concerned. Even if there is an innocent
00:18:20.080 explanation for all of this, and I don't think that there is, but even if there were, these seeds
00:18:25.660 can be invasive, they can cause damage to livestock, they can harm and disrupt the environment.
00:18:32.020 We know that some of these seeds will cause weeds, and the Indiana Department of Agriculture is worried
00:18:38.300 that that would severely restrict the soybean crop in that state. So there's real concern. And by the way,
00:18:46.620 some of these seeds have purple coatings. Could be insecticide, fungicide, who knows what those
00:18:53.560 coatings are. But we've all got to be concerned that this can really cause great damage to the
00:18:58.780 recipient countries.
00:19:00.780 You know, I know you and I have talked before about Xi Jinping having a warlike stance towards
00:19:06.480 the West, but it's not a hot shooting war. It's an asymmetrical war. It takes the form of cyber
00:19:12.020 attacks, industrial espionage. So the idea of a biological war against the agriculture of the West,
00:19:19.380 it may seem shocking and like a black swan, something nobody thought of before,
00:19:25.040 but it could fit with Xi Jinping's militaristic approach to the West.
00:19:30.440 Well, certainly. We've known that for decades, China has had a biological weapons program.
00:19:36.600 It was supposed to turn it to peaceful purposes when it ratified the Biological Weapons Convention,
00:19:43.540 but it's given no evidence that it's done so. The U.S. State Department's most recent report on
00:19:49.320 weapons of mass destruction has a very pointed sector on China because it talks about China's
00:19:57.020 dual-use research, which is probably a violation of the convention. We know that Beijing in December
00:20:05.020 and January of this year took steps that led inevitably to the spread of the coronavirus
00:20:09.500 beyond China's borders. So that was, in essence, a biological attack. Therefore,
00:20:16.220 we've got to be concerned that there are malicious motives behind these seeds in the soil.
00:20:22.560 Yeah. We'll need some sort of scientific investigation. I don't even know how one could determine
00:20:27.080 the true nature of seeds. Here's a picture I found on Twitter that claims to be someone in Japan
00:20:36.460 who planted it, touched it, and whose hand swelled up. Now, this could just be a rumor. This could be
00:20:44.080 an internet prank, someone hoping to jump on the bandwagon. But the fact that it, you know, one
00:20:49.340 wonders if this is true. More research is necessary. It's probably going to be very technical research
00:20:54.380 done in Western labs because there may be some genetic modifications here that are not easily
00:21:00.520 identifiable to the eye. But let me move to another form of Chinese asymmetrical warfare. And that is
00:21:07.320 the extremely popular social media app called TikTok. Last I checked, TikTok is the number two
00:21:15.520 most downloaded app in the world after WhatsApp, the communications tool. Every young person I know
00:21:23.460 is obsessed with it, addicted to it. It's really a musical karaoke dance app. But Donald Trump and
00:21:31.320 Mike Pompeo have been talking seriously about banning it. Can you give us an update on why they want to
00:21:37.560 ban it and if that ban will actually happen? Yeah. People are concerned about what TikTok is doing.
00:21:46.860 It's been caught surveilling users. Apple caught it twice this year in April and in late June.
00:21:52.840 We know that TikTok has misused information on minors. And there's also concerns that TikTok was used by
00:22:02.500 China to inflame the George Floyd protests in the United States and maybe even trying to manipulate
00:22:08.900 the political process in the U.S. in the run-up to the November 3 elections here. Those are unconfirmed,
00:22:15.240 but nonetheless, we should investigate them because there's been numerous evidence pointing in that
00:22:22.220 direction. President Trump has said that he would ban TikTok, but he's also most recently said that he
00:22:30.380 would give TikTok 45 days to come to a deal and to sell itself. And Microsoft is in negotiations to buy
00:22:38.200 TikTok in Canada, the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand. We'll see how that goes. The Committee on Foreign
00:22:45.760 Investment in the U.S., which is an interagency panel, is also involved in those negotiations
00:22:51.120 because of the sensitive national security implications. There's one reason the administration
00:22:56.060 doesn't give for banning TikTok, but I think it's the most fundamental one of all.
00:23:01.960 Ezra, American apps are not allowed in China. So why are Chinese apps allowed in the U.S.? This is an
00:23:09.500 issue of reciprocity and fairness. And for this reason alone, I think the president is right to
00:23:15.520 ban TikTok. Yeah, that's a great point. Now, I think the company that owns TikTok is called ByteDance.
00:23:21.660 So theoretically, they would be selling this popular app to, let's say, Microsoft. I don't know much
00:23:28.760 about Microsoft these days, but I'm guessing that if they moved their servers to America and decoupled
00:23:35.480 from China and made sure that there were Microsoft executives in the place of the old ByteDance
00:23:40.700 executives, it seems to me that that could remove some of the threat. It would deal with the
00:23:46.960 reciprocity issue you just mentioned, and it would probably deal with the surveillance issue,
00:23:52.020 although you never know. Do you think that would be acceptable if ByteDance sold TikTok to Microsoft?
00:23:57.880 Do you think that would remove the critical nature of this?
00:24:01.600 Well, President Trump has indicated that would be acceptable. But there's one other thing that we
00:24:07.300 would need to do, and that is to go through every line of code of TikTok software to make sure that
00:24:12.600 nothing's embedded in it. So this would really be a top-to-bottom investigation, and it just
00:24:18.680 absolutely needs to do this because TikTok has been caught in unacceptable behavior.
00:24:25.080 Yeah, in a way, going through every line of code in an app is sort of like going through every line of
00:24:29.760 genetic code in the seeds. What you see on the outside may hide the true nature within the inside.
00:24:36.500 What a high-tech challenge. Well, Gordon, I want to give a quick shout-out to your Twitter feed
00:24:41.640 because I rely on you to give me the latest in U.S.-China and China-world relations, too,
00:24:49.040 very much relevant to Canada. So if you're not yet following Gordon on Twitter, please take a moment
00:24:53.900 and go to Gordon G. Chang on Twitter. It's a must-follow account if you care about the news.
00:25:02.600 One last question, if I may. We've recently seen consulates in U.S. and China have a reciprocal
00:25:11.340 closing. The U.S. consulate in, I think it was Xi'an or Chengdu, I'm sorry, I think it was Chengdu,
00:25:16.920 and then the Chinese consulate, I think it was in Houston, both closed. I don't find this a bad
00:25:24.480 thing. I find it becoming more honest and more candid about the decoupling. I mean, I'm sure it's
00:25:30.560 inconvenient for a lot of people, but I actually think that reducing diplomatic relations and stopping
00:25:37.240 the pretense that everything is normal, my hunch is that that's a healthy thing. What's your opinion,
00:25:43.540 Gordon? I agree with you, Ezra. The Houston consulate was involved in spying. There were
00:25:50.180 a number of targets, including U.S. energy companies because of their South China Sea
00:25:54.580 connections. Also, there are hints that it was spying on medical institutions trying to grab
00:26:00.720 information about a potential COVID-19 vaccine. There are suggestions that are unconfirmed that the
00:26:07.780 Houston consulate was engaged in fueling through logistics and through financing the George Floyd
00:26:15.380 protests. Also, we know that that consulate was involved in Operation Box Hunt, which is China's
00:26:21.340 attempt to coerce people in the United States to return to China, and it was surveilling Chinese
00:26:26.880 students in the U.S. So there were many reasons for Secretary of State Pompeo to close the Houston
00:26:33.200 consulate. I'm really happy that he did so. And by the way, yes, China closed our Chengdu consulate,
00:26:39.760 but to me, that means many fewer American hostages or potential hostages in China. So I'm not upset
00:26:47.320 about the closure of the Chengdu consulate. Yeah. Well, and by the way, I think that everything you
00:26:53.640 mentioned that was allegedly happening at the Chinese consulate in Houston, I am quite sure would be
00:26:59.700 happening in Canada, too, whether it's in Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, and of course, in Ottawa. So
00:27:05.920 I hope we follow more closely the American approach, especially on Huawei. I think Canada is alone
00:27:12.440 amongst the Five Eyes security network that is still dallying with Huawei. I find that very
00:27:17.840 concerning. Gordon, there's so much I'd love to talk to you about, but I know your time is precious,
00:27:21.080 so we'll say goodbye now. Great to see you. We follow you at Gordon G. Chang on Twitter. We love to
00:27:27.320 see what you do next, and I'd encourage everyone to read your essay on these mysterious seeds at the
00:27:33.340 Gatestone Institute. Great to see you, my friend. Thanks for your time. Thanks, Ezra. All right,
00:27:38.060 there you have it. Gordon G. Chang, what a smart guy. Stay with us. More ahead.
00:27:41.720 Hey, welcome back on my monologue about mandatory vaccines. Mike writes, I'll die before I take any
00:27:59.620 vaccine. Now, a pro-vaccine person would say, yes, you're going to. But someone who is more skeptical
00:28:08.460 would say, this is a disease that targets people average age of 85. And if you're not living in a
00:28:18.800 senior's home, your chance of contracting this disease and dying from it is markedly less than
00:28:25.700 the annual flu season. Maybe it's worth taking a vaccine, but I'm not sure if I would take a vaccine
00:28:33.280 made in China hastily rushed to market just because politicians want me to take it. I'm open to
00:28:40.900 vaccines, by the way. I just don't think I'm going to take a vaccine on a World Health Organization
00:28:46.940 official pandemic that the World Health Organization and Trudeau's got every single thing wrong so far.
00:28:54.660 And there's so clearly a political agenda behind it. Yeah, I'll wait a bit on this one. Thanks.
00:28:59.960 Elizabeth writes, I have a feeling that you're going to be getting a vaccine whether you want one or not
00:29:05.480 once you get thrown in jail. Well, that's the weird thing is because all the governments in the West
00:29:12.020 emptied their prisons of actual criminals, claiming they were afraid of the virus. And yet they put into
00:29:22.580 jail, at least in some cases, people who didn't wear a mask. I don't get that. But yeah, I mean,
00:29:27.540 Teresa Tam herself talked about it, handcuffing, jailing people, tracking them for not taking
00:29:33.100 vaccines. It's very much about control. I'm not sure how much is actually about health.
00:29:38.660 On my interview with Manny Montenegreno, Paul writes,
00:29:42.280 of course, Trudeau will get away with a wee scandal. He paid good taxpayer money to the media
00:29:46.320 party to look the other way. Yeah, it's more than that. You know, when Trudeau took office in 2015,
00:29:53.100 one of the first things he did was suspend audits of charities, because a lot of his friends' charities
00:29:58.600 were being audited, including Gerald Butt's charity, which was called the World Wildlife Foundation.
00:30:05.640 I think Trudeau sort of sent a message to charities, do whatever you like, you will not be audited.
00:30:11.740 Is it any surprise that the more crooked ones took advantage? Well, that's our show for today.
00:30:17.100 Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you and all,
00:30:21.780 good night, and keep fighting for freedom.