Juno News - Liberal MP SUED for slander (ft. Keean Bexte, Ezra Levant, Kat Kanada)

00:00:00.000 When I joined Independent Media two years ago, I was surprised at the level of vitriol leveled at me simply for doing the work of holding the government accountable without accepting taxpayer dollars.

00:00:11.860 In the years since, those attacks have only increased along with the prowess of Independent Media.

00:00:17.080 Earlier this month, the Tenet Media bombshell erupted, in which a conservative media outlet run by Canadians in the U.S. allegedly accepted $10 million in funding from a Russia state-controlled media outlet.

00:00:31.740 Now, I didn't have anything to do with that, but that hasn't stopped online anonymous losers from accusing everyone in my field of being a covert Russian spy.

00:00:40.340 No surprises there. But the slander took a weightier turn last week, when a Liberal MP accused a conservative influencer and social media editor of another independent media outlet of being paid by a foreign government.

00:00:54.460 He's now being sued for defamation, and a lesson we can only hope translates into putting your money where your mouth is.

00:01:01.080 We'll be hearing from internet sensation Cat Canada and the Countersignal Editor-in-Chief Kian Bextie today.

00:01:06.000 Rebel News President Ezra Levant will join the show later to weigh in on Russiagate, as well as the failing Liberals.

00:01:13.500 I'm Rachel Parker. Welcome to The Rachel Parker Show.

00:01:15.560 Kat, Kian, thank you both so much for being here. I know that you both have a lot to do, since you were running your own media organization, and now you have this big lawsuit on your hands.

00:01:42.920 So I want to start off, Kat, by just asking you, so Tenant Media, the Canadian Conservatives' Lauren Chen and her husband Liam Donovan founded it.

00:01:52.200 You really only got tangled up in this because you appeared on that show. You were interviewed by Lauren Southern.

00:01:59.000 We know that the hosts who ran shows for Tenant Media say that they are also victims in this case.

00:02:03.680 They did not know that Tenant Media was accepting money from Russia.

00:02:07.360 Can you just start by telling us, why did you agree to appear on the show, and what did you talk about with Lauren when you first had this Tenant Media appearance that has now just blown up so much?

00:02:18.420 Right, yeah. So I met Lauren just a few weeks prior to that at a freedom conference in Victoria, and we became, you know, acquaintances.

00:02:29.920 She messaged me later down the road to ask me if I wanted to join her show to talk about communism and the dangers of it, given what state of our country is currently in under the Trudeau Liberals.

00:02:42.640 And she wanted to basically see if I see any similarities happening currently in Canada compared to the country that I once lived in.

00:02:51.260 And so I decided to absolutely go on her show and share my memories, my experience, my current observations within our own country here in Canada,

00:03:00.900 and the warning signs and the danger signs of, you know, the rise of authoritarianism here, because I wanted people to know, I wanted to people hear, hear it from someone like myself who's lived under communism before, under an authoritarian regime before.

00:03:16.780 So that's why I agreed to do her show.

00:03:19.560 So you were essentially doing the show to warn Canadians about the dangers of authoritarian regimes, and now you're being accused, wrongly, of course, of being paid by authoritarian regimes.

00:03:28.540 That's basically it, it's, if it wasn't so egregious in terms of what I've had to deal with, since the accusations have poured in baseless accusations.

00:03:40.400 It's pretty funny, because, you know, the claims are so ridiculous, and the people who are making these accusations, don't do a single ounce of research before just throwing mud at the wall like that.

00:03:54.180 I've, you know, I've agreed to do her show, I was on there once, I'm not, you know, implicated in anything, in any documents, basically just a third, you know, a third degree victim of whatever is happening with that situation.

00:04:08.940 The outrageous thing here, if I may, is that Kat left an authoritarian regime to come to Canada, and she's lucky to be able to talk about it here.

00:04:21.940 And then Mark Gerritsen comes into this conversation, as you showed on the screen earlier, to threaten, actually, to call for her to be dragged in front of Parliament.

00:04:32.020 That is how authoritarian regimes behave, and it was predicated on a lie, which means that he was abusing his office to drag a journalist as some sort of cruel punishment. 0.99

00:04:44.460 Look, I don't know if Mark knew that he was a liar when he tweeted that, or if he's just stupid, but here's the point. 0.98

00:04:52.180 Journalists in this country have a right to exist, and they have a right to exist outside of government punishment for doing the work that they do. 0.99

00:04:59.960 Kat has been super effective over the last few months, while she's been with the Counter-Signal, last few years actually, fighting against corrupt regimes around the world by exposing them.

00:05:11.500 She does that here at home, she does that with regimes abroad in Europe, and she's not going to stop, she's not going to be intimidated by Mark Gerritsen, of course.

00:05:19.280 But it's important that we lay down the law here and show people in power that they can't abuse journalists like this, they can't defame them.

00:05:28.000 And what's the worst thing about this?

00:05:30.320 You know, I love Kat.

00:05:31.680 She's one of the best people we've ever hired at the Counter-Signal, and the issue that she's facing now is constant death threats, constant abuse leveled at her, quoting Mark Gerritsen, someone who's in a position of authority over her and the rest of the country, actually.

00:05:46.940 Mark Gerritsen is the deputy house leader of the governing liberals.

00:05:51.380 He has a seriously senior position in parliament.

00:05:54.780 He's actually the person that brings people in to testify in front of committees, and he said on Twitter that he wanted to do that.

00:06:02.780 Now, he did offer a really, really, really hollow retraction, no apology at all, and that's just not going to cut it.

00:06:12.100 You know, you might see the retraction that he posted.

00:06:15.000 He didn't even tag Kat.

00:06:16.220 He tagged an incorrect account, which makes it seem like, you can see Kat Canada there.

00:06:22.140 That's not actually her handle.

00:06:24.420 So if you click on that, you'll see that it says this account has been suspended.

00:06:28.440 So anyone who's interested at all in getting to the bottom of this would click on that and would see, oh, maybe there is some weight to this.

00:06:34.860 Maybe Kat actually did do something wrong. 0.98

00:06:37.600 And of course she didn't.

00:06:38.680 Her hands are totally clean in this situation, and she's a victim as much as anyone else.

00:06:42.660 So, Kian, obviously, you know, he's got a lot of things wrong here.

00:06:46.120 How concerning it is that a sitting Liberal MP, and as you mentioned, the Deputy House Minister, is not able to get basic facts about this case correct?

00:06:55.180 Well, he's just obviously blinded by his ideology.

00:06:58.320 He's blinded by the disappointing polls that the Liberals have been seeing, and they're desperate.

00:07:03.720 And they take that out on who they perceive to be their enemies.

00:07:07.060 And in this case, their enemy is Kat and the countersignal.

00:07:10.420 Their enemy is anyone who holds them accountable for their actions.

00:07:15.100 Obviously, you know, this is going to be a big issue for him.

00:07:18.740 We're not concerned that he has to face an election.

00:07:21.000 We're going to drag him to court if we have to.

00:07:23.260 Our settlement offer is pretty, you know, extremely fair.

00:07:27.300 In fact, we asked Mark to donate $1,000 to an Nanaimo food bank.

00:07:34.120 That was a charity of Kat's choice.

00:07:37.020 That was a symbolic, we thought, of the damages he did, not just to Kat, but the damage that the Liberals have done to this entire country.

00:07:45.960 Food bank usage is at an all-time high in this country.

00:07:48.940 We thought that that would be fitting.

00:07:51.220 We also asked him to post an apology tweet on his Twitter.

00:07:54.420 It's three tweets long, and it's pretty specific.

00:07:58.900 We'll see if he agrees to doing that or not.

00:08:01.480 You know, it would be hugely humiliating for him to do that.

00:08:04.620 But it's important that that sends a message to everyone who saw his original tweet.

00:08:10.000 You know, the math here, over 300,000 people saw his original tweet.

00:08:15.540 That's about 1% of the country, which is a huge number of people.

00:08:19.000 Then, his poor retraction, which didn't even tag Kat properly, was seen by a similar amount of people.

00:08:26.700 But those people are different because of the way the Twitter algorithm works.

00:08:30.140 The first set of tweets were seen by people who support Mark Garrison and who hate conservatives.

00:08:36.260 And it emboldened them to send Kat death threats.

00:08:39.960 It emboldened them to hurl defamatory abuse, in fact.

00:08:45.640 And then, this follow-up tweet was seen by people who don't like Mark Garrison already.

00:08:50.200 Those are the people who would have shared it, obviously.

00:08:52.580 So, there's a huge disconnect between the people that have actually seen an update to Mark's lies.

00:08:59.220 And then, there's a huge amount of people who have seen that original tweet and haven't seen a thing since then.

00:09:04.820 Every day that this stands is added damages to Kat's reputation. 1.00

00:09:09.800 And, in fact, to the counter-signal as well.

00:09:11.440 Because we are the ones that hired Kat and paid Kat.

00:09:14.560 And we don't take money from the Russians either, just like, I assume, True North does. 0.77

00:09:18.460 And mostly every conservative outlet or independent outlet in this country.

00:09:23.020 So, Mark Garrison has a lot to lose here.

00:09:25.200 There's a lot on the line.

00:09:26.200 And we're not going to back down at all because he needs to see justice.

00:09:30.880 So, Kian, you're asking Mark Garrison to make a donation to a food bank to issue a proper apology and correction for his incorrect tweet.

00:09:39.780 And I understand they are also asking him to unblock Kat off of Twitter, which is, you know, pretty custom for sitting members of Parliament.

00:09:47.480 They shouldn't be blocking Canadians or certainly their constituents.

00:09:51.000 When will we learn what his response is going to be?

00:09:54.240 I think a lot of people have kind of been really eagerly awaiting your follow-up.

00:09:57.240 When will we know what his response is?

00:09:59.640 Yeah.

00:09:59.860 So, we gave him a deadline of Friday last week.

00:10:04.040 He came back to us with a counter-offer, which we deemed completely unacceptable.

00:10:08.680 He asked us to, if he settled and agreed to give money to the food bank, that we would never talk about this again.

00:10:16.240 Which is, you know, a non-starter completely.

00:10:19.960 We're not going to rely on one tweet from Mark Garrison to defend Kat's reputation or the counter-signal's reputation.

00:10:28.140 We will talk about this until the end of time because it's the truth and because Mark Garrison lied and defamed one of our reporters.

00:10:35.960 And we will stand up every single time and we will take this to the end because Mark Garrison needs to be held accountable.

00:10:44.060 And everyone who's thinking about lying to push their ideological agenda, to push this hoax that Russia is for some reason behind every conservative in this country who doesn't like Justin Trudeau.

00:10:55.980 So, it needs to stop and we are going to put a stop to it ourselves.

00:11:01.680 And Kat, I just wanted to go to you one last time.

00:11:04.340 What has the impact of this been on your personal life?

00:11:07.480 I know Kian said that you've been receiving death threats.

00:11:10.120 Has this been, you know, something that you found has really impacted your personal life or is it pretty much relegated to the online sphere right now?

00:11:16.800 Well, for example, when it's anonymous trolls chirping at me with these ridiculous allegations that are completely unfounded, it's easy to just wave them away and to not think about it again.

00:11:29.380 But when it's a sitting member of parliament dragging my name online, it certainly does, you know, have implications for my personal life because now I'm constantly wondering and looking over my shoulder.

00:11:43.440 Like, is a crazy person going to come for me when I'm walking on the street?

00:11:46.540 Am I going to get recognized?

00:11:47.760 Is a crazy person going to do something more than just call for my, you know, send death threats to me?

00:11:55.060 Like, you just never know what kind of crazies are out there.

00:11:57.860 So, yeah, it certainly impacted my personal life, not just online, but offline as well in that I think about it more.

00:12:05.080 I'm cautious and nervous when I step outside now.

00:12:08.000 So, and Kian, just my last question for you here, as I mentioned, I know people are really following this case closely.

00:12:13.960 Where can they go for updates?

00:12:15.300 Where can they go to support you guys?

00:12:17.380 Yeah, thank you, Rachel.

00:12:18.580 They can go to suegarrettson.com.

00:12:21.660 There will have updates on everything.

00:12:24.500 And I should note, you know, our settlement terms to mark right now are extremely generous.

00:12:29.740 As the publisher of the countersignal, I'm sort of, you know, trying to walk this line of defending our reporters, but also coming to a quick settlement so that Mark corrects the record and protects Kat's reputation.

00:12:45.840 That said, if Mark doesn't agree to our terms, which expire today, we will go to court.

00:12:54.060 We will sue him and our demands will change and the damages will change.

00:12:59.200 Mark won't just be able to get off with a thousand dollar donation to a food bank.

00:13:02.940 He will be paying a lot, a lot more.

00:13:05.820 And, you know, that just reflects the fact that he could have corrected the record immediately and he chose not to.

00:13:12.020 He chose to hide behind, he chose to hide behind his lies.

00:13:16.820 And that's just not acceptable.

00:13:19.340 Kat, Kian, thank you both so much.

00:13:21.600 Thanks, Rachel.

00:13:22.340 Thanks for having us.

00:13:23.300 We'll now be joined by Rebel News founder Ezra Levant.

00:13:27.020 Ezra, thank you so much for being here today.

00:13:29.120 My pleasure.

00:13:29.740 Thank you for having me.

00:13:30.500 We were just joined by Kat and Kian who were telling us a little bit about the Countersignals lawsuit against Liberal MP and Deputy House Leader Mark Gerritsen as he incorrectly claimed that Kat was being paid by a foreign government following the fallout of the tenant media scandal.

00:13:46.120 You've been commenting a little bit on this line online.

00:13:48.360 I know you know a lot about defamation law.

00:13:50.580 I just want to tell you what Kat and Kian are asking for and to see how likely you think.

00:13:54.780 So currently the terms are set to expire today and if Gerritsen doesn't agree to a settlement, they will be going to court.

00:14:01.280 But currently they're asking Mark Gerritsen to unblock Kat on X.

00:14:04.980 They're asking him to make a donation to a food bank and to issue a correction and an apology tweet online to really set the record straight.

00:14:13.520 Do you think that these are fair terms for Mark Gerritsen to agree to?

00:14:17.600 Yeah, and they're very easy for him to agree to.

00:14:19.820 I mean, he just has to swallow his pride.

00:14:21.320 That's very hard for a politician to do.

00:14:23.580 I suppose all of us are quite proud and we don't want to admit that we're wrong.

00:14:27.020 But in terms of defamation law, that's a pretty light penalty.

00:14:31.540 If I heard you correctly, they're not even asking for their legal costs, just a thousand dollar donation to charity and Gerritsen would get the tax benefit of that.

00:14:40.360 I like the idea of Gerritsen not being allowed to ban Kat because, you know, as a journalist, she has a right to access information through government Twitter accounts.

00:14:51.620 You may know that a couple of years ago I sued Stephen Gilbeau and then three other cabinet ministers for blocking Rebel News on Twitter.

00:14:59.440 And we went to the federal court and we actually in the end got a consent order that they can't ban us for the rest of their careers.

00:15:05.620 Because I think it's accepted law in Canada now that if it's a government, that is a public Twitter account, you can't discriminate any more than you could stop someone going into a government office like to get a driver's license.

00:15:21.120 Now, I don't know if that applies to backbenchers like Gerritsen, but I think there is a good precedent in Canada that government Twitter accounts cannot block you any more than a government phone number could hang up on you because they don't like your politics.

00:15:36.840 I'm glad to see the counter signal standing up.

00:15:40.060 Rebel News does this a lot.

00:15:41.260 We fight for our people using the courts of law.

00:15:43.780 But not a lot of groups on the right do it.

00:15:47.160 We're not as litigious, even though we're harmed all the time.

00:15:50.120 Now, let me just say a word about freedom of speech.

00:15:53.120 I believe in freedom of speech, and I believe we should go quite far for freedom of speech.

00:15:57.960 And I believe in the Canadian legal custom that you're allowed to express almost any opinion, even if it's an extreme opinion.

00:16:07.240 But what's different is when someone, especially someone authoritative in government, says something that's not a matter of opinion, but says something false as a matter of fact.

00:16:17.880 Because if Gerritsen, in this case, had just said, I don't like the counter signal, they're too pro-Russia.

00:16:25.420 Okay, well, that's an opinion, and everyone can see that's an opinion, and you can agree or disagree or find it unreasonable or reasonable.

00:16:31.420 But no one thinks of that as any more than, oh, there's Gerritsen mouthing off.

00:16:36.080 But what he did is different.

00:16:37.760 He said, you are being paid from by Putin to do certain things to me.

00:16:44.000 And it had an extra ring of credibility because there had been a revelation that another media group called Tenet Media had done exactly that, had taken $10 million from Russia to set up fake pro-Russian accounts or something, or to set up this sort of secret pro-Putin network.

00:17:05.960 So the difference between Gerritsen giving his opinion, which is, I hate you, I don't like you, you're bad, you're pro-Putin, that's all identifiable as opinion, and people can take it or leave it.

00:17:17.240 I really don't think it would persuade a lot of people.

00:17:19.540 But what he did was he made a false fact.

00:17:21.900 He said, as a factual statement, you are taking money from Putin to contact me and harass me.

00:17:29.140 Well, that's not a matter of, you know, opinion.

00:17:33.060 That's either true or not.

00:17:34.360 And in this case, Gerritsen lied.

00:17:36.020 That's dictionary definition disinformation.

00:17:39.860 And it can be quite harmful.

00:17:41.700 We heard what Katja said there about in her personal life, but let's talk about her professional life.

00:17:47.100 If someone actually thought that she was not a real journalist but rather just a message machine for Putin, no one would take her seriously as a journalist.

00:17:56.540 It could affect her prospects who would do interviews with her, her career prospects who would be written off.

00:18:02.480 And the fact that it's based on her ethnicity, I understand she's Russian ethnically, that sort of implies she's culturally disloyal to Canada.

00:18:10.980 So there were a lot of awful things there.

00:18:12.960 And it's nice to see the liberals get smacked around.

00:18:15.700 And frankly, that's something that we like to do here at Rebel News is to take liberals to court.

00:18:19.960 I think we've done it seven times now.

00:18:22.100 And we've had a few important victories over the years too.

00:18:24.280 When we talk about you guys liking to take the liberals to court, I know that you yourself have been sort of swatting down your own allegations online of people accusing you of being a Russian propagandist or Russian spy or paid by a foreign government, whatever you want to call it.

00:18:39.920 At this point, have you had to formally issue a defamation notice to anyone?

00:18:43.840 Well, it's funny you say that because literally just last night, a couple of radical leftists claimed that we were somehow working with the Kremlin, which is the opposite of the truth.

00:18:56.040 I don't know if you know this.

00:18:57.120 I mean, my family originally in 1903 came from the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, which is sort of the center of Jewish life in that part of Ukraine.

00:19:06.440 So, ethnically, I mean, historically, I'm from Ukraine.

00:19:10.260 My family members are Ukrainian.

00:19:12.320 And I have no time for the authoritarian leadership of Vladimir Putin.

00:19:17.400 I think he's – I know he's an ex-KGB agent.

00:19:20.260 I know he's brutal.

00:19:21.540 I don't support his invasion of another country.

00:19:24.580 He's invaded various countries.

00:19:26.000 And I don't know if you remember, but about 10 years ago, I wrote a book called Ethical Oil, The Case for Canada's Oil Sands.

00:19:33.340 And then I wrote a sequel called Groundswell, The Case for Fracking.

00:19:36.920 And I really went hard on Putin.

00:19:39.500 And I said, look, Europe is buying all this natural gas from Russia.

00:19:43.920 Not only are they making themselves potential hostages for Russia to turn off the tap, but they're financing Russia's war machine.

00:19:51.260 I wrote my Groundswell book in 2014, and I said the number one weapon Russia uses in Ukraine is not an artillery system.

00:19:58.980 It's the energy weapon.

00:20:00.560 They turned off the tap to Ukraine in the winter, and they used the cash from Europe to finance the war.

00:20:05.860 So the idea of claiming that I'm pro-Putin when I wrote a book that is so anti-Putin it's not safe for me to travel to Russia, not that I would, is absurd.

00:20:16.320 And again, people can say, oh, Ezra, you're not pro-Ukrainian enough, and that could be their opinion.

00:20:22.500 But when you move from an opinion to what I saw a couple people on Twitter yesterday said, which is that we worked with the Kremlin.

00:20:29.520 The Kremlin actually put things on our website.

00:20:32.280 That's absurd.

00:20:33.340 It's false.

00:20:34.360 It's factually untrue.

00:20:36.060 And, you know, obviously you don't want to go chasing every loser on the Internet, half of whom are anonymous.

00:20:40.720 But if it's a high-profile person who has a lot of credibility, I think you've got to do something.

00:20:46.700 I mean, Mark Garrison is a member of Parliament in the government.

00:20:50.520 And although a lot of people consider him a clown, he's still authoritative in that he is part of the government. 0.90

00:20:57.300 And if a member of Parliament accuses someone of being a Russian spy, that carries more weight than if some drunk hobo were to shout it out when you pass by. 0.96

00:21:06.200 So, obviously, you don't want to chase down every liar on the Internet.

00:21:10.120 That would be an endless job.

00:21:11.780 But I think every once in a while you have to take a step to protect your reputation and to let people know that criticism is fine.

00:21:20.960 But don't make up factual lies that are damaging.

00:21:25.180 I mean, we have part of the essential Rebel News brand is that we never take money from the government.

00:21:31.900 And it's true. We've eschewed all funding, especially from Justin Trudeau.

00:21:37.580 So the allegation that we're actually working with the government, and not just the Canadian one, but a foreign one hostile to us, if anyone believed that, that would be so damaging.

00:21:48.920 And again, that's not just, hey, Ezra, you should be more pro-Ukrainian.

00:21:52.680 Okay, that's a matter of opinion. It could be right, could be wrong.

00:21:55.180 But to say you are working with the Kremlin, they are putting things on your website, that's a false statement.

00:22:02.280 But if someone says that authoritatively, someone might actually believe that.

00:22:05.860 So I believe in every once in a while stopping to defend your reputation.

00:22:10.700 And if someone won't correct the record voluntarily, get a judge to correct it.

00:22:15.080 And I've had, you know, mixed results in defamation court, and we're probably in there too often.

00:22:20.420 But I think that the liberals and their regime media get away with too much, partly because conservatives just roll over.

00:22:28.200 We don't fight back in all the ways we can.

00:22:31.500 The left is very good at fighting and threatening.

00:22:34.840 And I don't believe in malicious litigation.

00:22:38.880 I don't believe in vexatious litigation.

00:22:41.220 But if there is a prominent person who says, I have factual evidence, you are letting the Kremlin publish on your platform.

00:22:51.300 And if that is a lie, but he says it, that sounds like the kind of thing you got to go to court to get a judge to say that's a lie.

00:22:58.480 And that's my opinion.

00:22:59.900 We'll see what the courts have to say.

00:23:01.420 You know, Ezra, initially when the Tenet media scandal broke and we saw some of the subsequent stories,

00:23:07.220 there's certainly a lot of outlets on the left that are doing anything they can to tie the Tenet media scandal to outlets like Rebel News, to True North, to the Counter Signal.

00:23:15.620 I thought, oh, this is turning out to be a big nuisance for us in the independent media.

00:23:19.460 And you saw all the anonymous trolls come out and make those same claims. 0.92

00:23:23.140 And then you saw, you know, a few real dummies like Mark Gerritsen take things a bit too far.

00:23:28.120 And, you know, the Counter Signal is fighting back on that.

00:23:31.280 And as you said, I think rightfully so.

00:23:32.920 I think it's good that they do that.

00:23:34.120 And, you know, they're a smaller player.

00:23:35.920 They haven't been around as long as True North and certainly as long as Rebel News.

00:23:40.020 And so I think for them to set this precedent that we're not going to allow ourselves and we're not going to allow our reporters to be slandered is good and important.

00:23:48.240 And I'm wondering if you think that these desperate efforts on the left to tie all of us to the Tenet media scandal is ultimately going to backfire in the end.

00:23:57.500 Well, I don't know.

00:23:58.080 I mean, it's sort of embarrassing how much the Trudeau liberals try to replicate the U.S. Democrat narratives.

00:24:05.880 For example, they tried to brand the 2022 Trucker Freedom Convoy as our Canadian version of the January 6th insurrection.

00:24:15.980 They were trying so hard to force that narrative and many in the media were only too happy to oblige.

00:24:21.720 But it just wasn't true.

00:24:23.020 There was no riot.

00:24:24.260 There was no breaking into buildings.

00:24:25.760 It was hot tubs and bouncy castles and peacefulness.

00:24:29.500 And I think independent media helped do that.

00:24:32.220 Okay, so now they're trying to have the Russian collusion narrative.

00:24:35.740 And, again, they're just copying what they think works in the United States.

00:24:40.580 This one, you know, how will they do on this one?

00:24:43.880 The problem with the Tenet media story that you mentioned is that it actually was.

00:24:48.660 There was some independent journalists who got – I mean, I don't know how anyone could think.

00:24:54.440 And in the case of Tenet media, there was about a half a dozen journalists, independent journalists, citizen journalists, YouTubers who were invited to join.

00:25:03.520 Not all of them knew where the money came from.

00:25:05.580 But if they were getting paid $100,000 a video and they didn't think something was wrong, that's a head scratcher.

00:25:13.720 I mean, other than Rockstars or Mr. Beast, no one makes $100,000 in a video.

00:25:18.660 I think they should be more alive to it.

00:25:21.000 But I think that that gave some fresh fodder to brand everyone a Russian spy.

00:25:28.220 It's not the case.

00:25:29.920 And, in fact, there's a lot of irony there because I think the Canadian government has done outrageous things to support Russia. 0.59

00:25:40.020 I don't know if you remember.

00:25:40.980 But part of some very important pipeline turbines had to be serviced – of the Russian pipeline were sent to Montreal to be refurbished by SNC-Lavalin, of all companies.

00:25:55.980 Now, this was contrary to the Canadian sanctions.

00:25:59.780 But Justin Trudeau waived the sanctions to allow this important Russian pipeline to be maintained in Canada while the war is going on.

00:26:10.640 So, Trudeau is tub-thumping about how he'll be with Ukraine to the very end.

00:26:15.360 Oh, except if it involves a lucrative contract for his buddies at SNC-Lavalin.

00:26:20.960 So, there really are some things I think we should be more careful of.

00:26:25.640 I think Iran is running amok in Canada. 0.97

00:26:28.660 700 Iranian agents, according to Global News, are operating in Canada.

00:26:33.240 We know that China has compromised nearly a dozen parliamentarians.

00:26:37.640 So, that's real foreign interference. 0.73

00:26:40.960 I think one of the reasons Trudeau is accusing domestic conservative peaceful opponents of being Russian is partly to distract from the actual foreign interference here.

00:26:53.000 Iran, China, and frankly, to distract from his own cooperation with Russian oil companies.

00:26:59.600 I don't know.

00:26:59.980 I put it this way.

00:27:03.300 I don't think that's going to save Justin Trudeau in the next election.

00:27:07.600 But he's sloshing around a lot of money.

00:27:09.540 He's calling it misinformation.

00:27:11.920 I mean, when you say misinformation and foreign interference, a lot of people are worried.

00:27:18.240 But we're not going to let them get away with labeling us.

00:27:21.440 And I'm glad counter-signals don't let them get away with that.

00:27:23.920 Ezra, super quickly, before I let you go, we talk about Justin Trudeau in the next election.

00:27:29.120 Of course, the Liberals lost a seat in Montreal over the weekend, went to the Bloc Quebecois.

00:27:34.140 A lot of people celebrating this, understandably so.

00:27:36.860 Good news for the Bloc. 0.99

00:27:38.660 But I have to wonder, what does this actually translate into for Canadians who are just sort of waiting for an election?

00:27:44.000 We know that the Bloc is looking at propping out the Liberal government after the Supply Conference Agreement with the NDP fell apart.

00:27:49.720 So does this actually translate into a possible election coming?

00:27:53.600 Does this translate into Justin Trudeau resigning?

00:27:56.540 Or are things going to kind of continue ticking along as they have been?

00:28:00.080 You know, the loss last night in the by-election Monday night in Manitoba was expected.

00:28:06.160 The NDP always do well in that district.

00:28:08.820 But the riding in Montreal called Le Salomar Verdun is Liberal Heartland.

00:28:13.800 That's where their former Justice Minister David Lamedi had his seat.

00:28:18.220 That's where, I don't know if you remember way back in the day, Paul Martin, the Liberal Prime Minister.

00:28:23.160 So this is Liberal Tour for decades.

00:28:26.900 The fact that they lost that in the heart of Montreal has got to be terrifying to the Liberal Caucus.

00:28:32.860 Ezra, thank you so much for your insight today.

00:28:34.980 I really appreciate that.

00:28:36.080 And now we'll be tuning to the final segment of the show, the most shocking clip of the week.

00:28:41.680 We're going to play that for you.

00:28:42.660 But if you guys think that there is a more shocking news clip this week, let me know what you think it is in the comments below.

00:28:48.200 Maybe I'll get to it next week.

00:28:49.780 As some of you know, I have a deep interest in Alberta politics hailing from the province.

00:28:54.000 And I've promised my Alberta followers that I would be paying close attention to Alberta news and do some Alberta coverage on my new show.

00:29:01.600 So we're going to start by taking a look at this clip.

00:29:03.320 You guys might remember, Jennifer Johnson was kicked out of the United Conservative Party Caucus during the general election and was told to sit as an independent.

00:29:11.860 For comments that she made against the trans community, she is now hoping to get back into caucus and is doing that work of re-education.

00:29:20.600 And we got a little look at what that was looking like for her this week.

00:29:25.600 Take a look at this next clip.

00:29:26.500 I'm going to throw it over to Victoria now, and she'll just touch on a little bit more about that.

00:29:34.020 Hi, Jennifer.

00:29:34.760 I really want to thank you for meeting with us today and taking the time to try to signal that this is more of a priority for you.

00:29:42.120 Absolutely.

00:29:42.660 Delighted to meet with you all.

00:29:44.080 Yeah.

00:29:44.440 Thanks for having us.

00:29:45.800 Before I would ever say, though, that this was a productive meeting and be counted to the list of contacts that you've reached out to in the queer community, I have to know a few things of where you sit.

00:29:55.100 Will you state on the record right now that trans women are women?

00:30:02.940 I've never been asked that before.

00:30:05.220 Will you say that on the record right now?

00:30:07.900 No, I want to have some time to think on that.

00:30:10.380 Okay.

00:30:10.820 Well, that's me.

00:30:12.140 Have a great day.

00:30:13.680 And I will be speaking out against this meeting because you are clearly not ready to have this.

00:30:18.100 So I'm not going to be added to the list of meetings that you are going to have with people where you say, well, I met this person and this person.

00:30:25.100 Because no, no, no, no.

00:30:27.100 You can't say I've had these consultations and use that as justification for you to work your way back into caucus, which is why we know you're really here.

00:30:35.000 This only happens.

00:30:36.780 This meeting is only happening because you're on Twitter, in the Twittersphere, and people are debating whether or not you're going to be led back into caucus.

00:30:44.260 And Premier Smith is debating that.

00:30:46.480 And so you need to do some PR work.

00:30:49.300 And I'm not going to be your Band-Aid.

00:30:50.740 I'm not going to be your pinkwashing unless you can tell me right now that you believe that I, as a trans woman, right now, right here, am a woman.

00:30:59.680 Then we don't have a lot to work on here.

00:31:02.660 You want to talk about listening to the community?

00:31:04.360 If you can't start with that basic foundational principle that we are who we say we are in our bones, then I don't think we're on the same page for working forward.

00:31:14.560 So I'll give you one last chance.

00:31:17.700 Are trans women women? 1.00

00:31:19.060 Will you say that on the record right now?

00:31:20.980 Victoria, we can disagree on things.

00:31:23.200 Not on that.

00:31:24.040 Not on my identity.

00:31:25.300 No, no, no, no.

00:31:26.140 Not on that.

00:31:26.360 And I can still care about you, even if we disagree.

00:31:28.860 Wonderful.

00:31:29.500 But I will be speaking out against this meeting 100% if you can't say that right now.

00:31:34.980 An absolutely stunning and honestly, frankly, quite sickening video to watch.

00:31:39.460 It's clear that that trans individual was recording this from the beginning and was trying to get a clip of Jen Johnson to go viral online to have his 10 minutes of fame.

00:31:49.300 Well, listen, Jen Johnson deserves our respect. 0.99

00:31:52.560 She obviously really stood her own in there.

00:31:54.360 She was being pressured to say that men can be women when we know that they cannot be.

00:32:00.480 And I think a lot of times in politics, you know, she's been put in a very difficult situation being kicked out of the caucus and not being able to be as effective as an independent MLA.

00:32:10.240 But, you know, I watched that clip and I have a lot of respect for her for standing her ground and for not being pressured.

00:32:17.160 The individual that was in that clip was not interested in having a discussion with Jen.

00:32:21.940 They were not interested in actually talking through some of the issues.

00:32:25.380 They simply wanted MLA Jen Johnson to just go along and agree without thinking and to say the thing that they want us to say.

00:32:33.880 And that's so much of what society has become nowadays.

00:32:35.780 It's not about actually having dialogue with people and talking about our differences and our disagreements.

00:32:41.220 It's just about needing to say the right thing all the time.

00:32:44.020 That was what we saw during COVID with masks.

00:32:46.060 It wasn't about whether or not masks were effective.

00:32:48.080 It was just the act of putting one on to show that you were on the government side, that you were on medicine and you were on science's team.

00:32:55.680 Even though many people doubted that they worked at the beginning of the pandemic, you might remember we were told we didn't need to wear them.

00:33:01.680 And once that narrative changed, it became the most important thing.

00:33:04.300 So for those of you who are in Alberta, I think that it is important to show Jen Johnson some respect.

00:33:10.420 She's obviously being lambasted by the left on this.

00:33:12.620 And many of us talk about how it's important to stand up for our beliefs, but we aren't actually challenged in the way that MLA Jen Johnson is being challenged right now.

00:33:21.480 And, you know, some of us would probably crack under that pressure as well.

00:33:24.800 So if you're in Alberta, make sure you send her office an email.

00:33:27.360 Let her know that you're supporting her, that you appreciate her.

00:33:30.040 Email the premier's office.

00:33:31.060 Let her know that you think she should be allowed back into the caucus.

00:33:33.660 Because as I said on X this morning, Jen actually displays two really rare qualities for politicians. 1.00

00:33:40.120 And one, that is courage.

00:33:41.380 And second, that is an ability to think for herself. 1.00

00:33:44.340 Everyone, thank you so much for joining the show today.

00:33:46.440 In weeks to come, we'll be covering federal politics, Alberta politics.

00:33:49.860 We'll be covering American politics, culture, health.

00:33:52.320 If you guys have any clips or content you want me to cover, please let me know in the comments section below.

00:33:57.160 I will see you guys next week.

00:33:59.140 Unless you want to tune into my American politics podcast on Wednesday, Rachel and the Republic.

00:34:03.660 I hope that you guys have a great rest of your week.

00:34:06.240 God bless.

Juno News - September 17, 2024

Liberal MP SUED for slander (ft. Keean Bexte, Ezra Levant, Kat Kanada)

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