Rebel News Podcast - Another day, another loss for Canadian civil liberties

00:00:00.000 Hello, my friends. I have an update on two disasters for civil liberties in Canada today,

00:00:04.520 but I end with a little bit of hope for civil liberties in La Belle-Provence. That's next.

00:00:12.380 But first, let me invite you to become a subscriber to Rebel News Plus. It's just

00:00:16.700 eight bucks a month to get the video version of the show. Go to rebelnews.com and click subscribe.

00:00:22.780 It's eight bucks. We need the dough to keep paying the bills. And I think it's better TV

00:00:27.120 than you get on, say, Netflix. Okay, thanks, everybody.

00:00:36.380 Tonight, another day, another loss of civil liberties in Canada. It's January 29th, and this

00:00:50.680 is The Ezra Levant Show.

00:00:52.160 Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?

00:00:57.840 There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.

00:01:01.900 The only thing I have to say to the government about why I publish it is because it's my bloody

00:01:06.780 right to do so.

00:01:12.560 Hello, another very busy day at Rebel News. Obviously, the news keeps coming. We are in

00:01:18.120 a time of a lot of news, and that is not a good thing. It is not a good thing because the news

00:01:23.560 is overwhelmingly bad, and it's getting worse. Those who thought that the year 2020 was the

00:01:28.000 worst and 2021 would get better. No, I think it's the opposite. In 2020, there was genuine confusion

00:01:33.920 and fear about the pandemic. In 2021, we know better. We know that it primarily, overwhelmingly,

00:01:39.840 in fact, affects only the very elderly and the very sick. And so to justify the continued

00:01:45.600 existence of lockdowns, the continued power of social media companies and continuing borrowing

00:01:51.880 and spending power of politicians, I fear that the diminution of our civil liberties will

00:01:58.580 actually accelerate. We saw that today in two ways, and I'm going to show you that today.

00:02:03.200 First came Justin Trudeau, making a strange announcement out of the blue that anyone coming

00:02:11.380 back to Canada at one of four airports, Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Montreal, from an international

00:02:16.860 place, now has to quarantine in a federal quarantine facility. They're transforming hotels into these

00:02:26.360 if they have the virus. Here, take a look. Listen to him himself.

00:02:32.220 Starting next week, all international passenger flights must land only at the following four

00:02:40.080 airports, Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, and Montreal. In addition to the pre-boarding test we already

00:02:49.480 acquire, as soon as possible in the coming weeks, we will be introducing mandatory PCR testing

00:02:56.340 at the airport for people returning to Canada. Travellers will then have to wait for up to three

00:03:03.660 days at an approved hotel for their test results at their own expense, which is expected to be more

00:03:11.880 than $2,000. Those with negative test results will then be able to quarantine at home under

00:03:19.340 significantly increased surveillance and enforcement. Those with positive tests will be immediately

00:03:26.800 required to quarantine in designated government facilities to make sure they're not carrying

00:03:32.680 variants of potential concern. We will also, in the coming weeks, be requiring non-essential

00:03:40.200 travellers to show a negative test before entry at the land border with the U.S., and we're working to stand up

00:03:46.940 additional testing requirements for land travel. So I don't understand. If people take the quick

00:03:54.080 virus test, the quick test, are you sick, and it turns out they're healthy, why would they still have

00:04:02.320 to quarantine for two weeks? Can you help me with that one? So you're adding a new layer of a mandatory

00:04:07.840 test for everyone landing, so that's a new burden, a new invasion, and a new cost, but there's no upside for

00:04:15.820 passing that test. Why would you do that if there's no upside for finding out that someone's not sick?

00:04:22.840 Why are you insisting that people still quarantine if they are healthy and you know they're healthy?

00:04:29.000 But the other part is weird, too. If people arrive and they have the virus, or so says a test,

00:04:37.820 to make them go to a federal facility, now is that like a jail? Do they have to stay there? How will

00:04:47.980 they eat? What happens if they have to take care of kids? And even more bizarre, that three-day stay

00:04:57.340 will cost, I don't know if we even have all the details, $2,000 for the three-day stay at a federal

00:05:08.040 facility, and who will guard it, and when does this apply, and are these liberal hoteliers, and

00:05:14.460 there's so many, what if you're disabled? What if you need special care? There's so many unknown

00:05:20.500 things, and all I'm thinking of is, why now? Why weren't any strictures put in place from

00:05:27.160 flights from China almost a year ago? You might recall in the early days of the pandemic,

00:05:32.620 we sent our reporter, David Menzies, to Toronto Pearson Airport almost every day, and there were

00:05:37.780 flights arriving from China every day. No one was being tested. No one is being screened. It was an

00:05:43.740 audit system just saying, no, I didn't come. I don't feel sick, and I didn't come from Wuhan. It was

00:05:50.280 insane. Why are we doing this now? Well, we're doing it now to keep you in a state of fear, and

00:05:56.160 we're doing it now because Justin Trudeau has absolutely bungled the one job he has, which is

00:06:04.740 to distribute vaccines to the provinces. Now, I'm skeptical of vaccines. I think that now that we

00:06:10.020 know that the disease is not, it's a 99% plus recovery rate for people under 70, I'm less in panic to get a

00:06:19.600 vaccine, and the idea of rushing a vaccine to market makes me a little nervous. I'm glad I'm under 70

00:06:25.460 and healthy because I don't have to think too much about it, but for those who want the reassurance of

00:06:30.180 the vaccine, those who choose it, those who feel they have to have it, we're all waiting for Justin

00:06:36.280 Trudeau, and he bungled it. He's far behind the United States, the United Kingdom, far behind other

00:06:42.600 jurisdictions, and that was really his only job. You know, for weeks, he never even got his calls

00:06:48.960 returned by these vaccine makers. I think that part of Trudeau's shock and awe announcement today

00:06:55.760 of really penitentiaries, but you're staying in a hotel. Like, are you in jail? Can you leave?

00:07:04.580 We know so little. It was obviously hatched so quickly as a PR move, not a real policy move.

00:07:11.620 But while that was happening, another terrifying thing was happening that I'm afraid will be under

00:07:18.340 the radar. I think Justin Trudeau is appalling, and his talk about mandatory detention centers and

00:07:24.720 having to stay there even if you're, I mean, we don't even know all the details yet. It reminded me

00:07:29.520 of what Teresa Tam said in that National Film Forum documentary a few years back. Remember this?

00:07:34.000 I think the public has to know this is one of the worst case scenarios in terms of an infectious

00:07:39.280 disease outbreak in that their cooperation is sought. If there are people who are non-compliant,

00:07:45.520 there are definitely laws and public health powers that can quarantine people in mandatory

00:07:53.840 settings. It's potential. You could track people, put bracelets on their arms, have police and other

00:08:02.680 setups to ensure quarantine is undertaken. Yeah, that was supposed to be some hypothetical

00:08:08.880 situation that's coming true. But while that was happening as, I think, a distraction and more

00:08:13.900 conditioning us to think of, oh yeah, he's in the quarantine jail, he's in the quarantine jail.

00:08:18.640 Something else was happening under the radar. In parliament, Stephen Gilboa, the heritage minister,

00:08:26.360 was announcing his plans for a new official censor. He called it a new regulator. And it became quickly

00:08:34.420 clear that he chose today because it's the anniversary of when that mosque in Quebec City was attacked by a

00:08:43.600 mass shooter who murdered people who were there at prayer. That's why Stephen Gilboa was in parliament

00:08:50.380 today. And that was his peg, his news peg, to announce that he is going to censor the internet.

00:08:58.200 Here, take a little bit of a listen to that.

00:08:59.820 I am joining you from Montreal on the traditional territory of the Mohawk and other Odessa-Sani peoples.

00:09:07.040 Before I begin, I would like to highlight that four days ago, four years ago today, a shooter

00:09:17.780 attacked a mosque in Quebec.

00:09:25.740 Canadians remember this violent act today.

00:09:37.960 During the pandemic, we saw that digital platforms are more than ever at the heart of communications

00:09:48.220 between Canadians and are keeping us connected and informed. Unfortunately, some internet users

00:09:54.720 are also exploiting these platforms maliciously to spread hate, racism, and child pornography.

00:10:01.200 There is currently illegal content being uploaded and shared online to the detriment of Canadians

00:10:06.840 and our society. This is simply unacceptable.

00:10:09.460 So I heard that, and my spider senses started tingling. I said, this is exactly what he's been

00:10:15.620 working towards for months, is what we did our show about the other day. And then I thought,

00:10:21.200 who is the conservative critic again? I can't really remember. I can't really remember.

00:10:24.640 Okay, it's this guy. So here's the big moment. You've got Stephen Gilboa in Parliament saying

00:10:30.560 he's going to bring in a new regulator to regulate speech, especially what he calls hurtful speech,

00:10:36.320 people who have political opinions he says are dangerous. And what does the conservative critic

00:10:41.680 have to say? Well, can you make any sense of this?

00:10:45.520 Looking into the relationship between your government and Facebook, we're referring to an email

00:10:52.000 that was sent. It led to some confusion, and people are wondering about that. So today,

00:10:58.960 I'm sure we'll be able to clarify the situation. Since you're here, Mr. Minister, I would like to take the

00:11:04.880 time to make a comment about the last time you were at our committee on November 5th, when you asked

00:11:13.200 a simple question. Or rather, we asked you how you did the calculation at your department

00:11:22.960 regarding $830 million of additional investments by 2022. Today, your senior officials are with you again.

00:11:35.680 Here we're talking about information that you shared publicly, even on the Quebec talk show,

00:11:48.000 Tout le monde en parle.

00:11:54.080 However, when I have met with major stakeholders in TV and digital sectors,

00:12:01.920 everyone seemed to be confused about how your calculation was done. After November, we did not

00:12:08.560 hear back from your department. And we tabled a resolution which was unanimously accepted

00:12:16.880 in the House, including by your Liberal colleagues, to gain access to that information. As you know,

00:12:24.240 we on our committee are working on a study. And I feel that this information is extremely important. First,

00:12:39.040 so that we can trust that we have access to all relevant information surrounding that project.

00:12:45.920 Next week marks three months since you were asked about that calculation.

00:12:57.680 And I want to ask you today if it is possible for us to have those details now.

00:13:01.680 What was he talking about? This is perhaps the greatest censorship of Canadians since the War Measures Act 50

00:13:11.520 years ago. There were censors in in Quebec newspapers during the War Measures Act. I think this is the

00:13:16.640 greatest censorship since then, probably even bigger than that. This is the probably the largest act of

00:13:22.080 censorship since the Second World War. A whole new position, a regulator for censoring. Did you even

00:13:31.120 understand what the conservative was saying? Well, there was another question. This was put by a Liberal MP.

00:13:36.880 And you can see she's reading. And it doesn't even matter what her name is because they're all

00:13:40.400 interchangeable. She's reading from a prepared script. So she has a question pre-written for her.

00:13:46.720 And Gilboa has an answer pre-written for him. Take a look at this exchange.

00:13:52.880 Thank you, Minister, for being with us today. As you explained in your speech, four years ago today,

00:14:00.800 six people lost their lives. So tonight there will be a prayer held at the Quebec City mosque. I extend

00:14:08.400 my condolences to all families affected. Xenophobia and Islamophobia motivated this attack.

00:14:16.160 The attacker had been radicalized using social media. We know that Canadians are often exposed to

00:14:24.160 hateful, extremist, or even radicalizing content on digital platforms.

00:14:35.120 In your mandate letter, regulating digital platforms is included. I would like for you to give us an

00:14:44.880 update on the essential work the government is carrying out to protect Canadians online.

00:14:49.920 Thank you very much for the question.

00:14:57.840 We have discovered something. And to that end, on Radio Canada's website this morning,

00:15:03.040 there was an article about radicalization on online platforms.

00:15:09.920 In particular, the attacker from January 29th, four years ago.

00:15:20.800 Our initiative is a joint initiative between a number of departments, including Heritage Canada,

00:15:30.720 the Justice Department, Public Safety, and the Innovation Department. We're working together

00:15:36.560 to table a new bill, which will define a regulatory framework on hate speech, but also on child pornography

00:15:48.720 and content that incites people to violence. Currently,

00:15:54.560 we see that few countries in the world have tackled this problem. Some have.

00:16:06.960 We are having meetings in the public service and at government levels with those countries that are

00:16:13.280 acting to see what they are doing and see how we can adapt their approaches to the Canadian reality.

00:16:19.520 Recently, I had a conversation with Australia's e-safety commissioner to understand how they implemented their program,

00:16:33.840 which things we should be cautious about.

00:16:37.120 For example, there are concerns surrounding freedom of expression,

00:16:50.880 which has been an important part of Canadian laws over history. So we will look at how to

00:16:58.720 reproduce the same framework in the physical world, in the virtual world. Thank you very much,

00:17:04.480 Mr. Minister, for all of this work that you are carrying out day in, day out to better protect

00:17:09.760 Canadians on digital platforms. So this whole thing was a stage-managed exercise to announce to the

00:17:15.440 world, while Trudeau's off distracting with some, you know, quarantine prisons, that Gilboa is bringing in

00:17:22.240 a new office of censorship. And it was all crafted, the messaging, the timing of the day,

00:17:27.440 the softball questions. And the conservative critic was like he was in another conversation, like he was

00:17:34.720 in another planet. It was not like he was in charge of criticizing for the official opposition on behalf

00:17:42.320 of every conservative voter, and indeed every voter of every stripe, who cares about our fundamental

00:17:47.040 freedoms of free speech. He just didn't talk about it. These are dangerous days.

00:17:53.040 Welcome back. Well, if you were with us on the evening of the U.S. presidential election, you'll remember

00:18:13.120 our key commentator that night was our friend Ben Weingarten of The Federalist. And there were moments

00:18:20.000 that night where I allowed my heart to hope when the results in key states, whether it's Georgia

00:18:27.520 or Pennsylvania, showed that Donald Trump was set to win. And then strange things started to happen,

00:18:34.240 including vote counting being stopped, huge caches of votes being found. You're not allowed to talk

00:18:39.600 about that or you'll be deplatformed by the social media companies. But that was the last time we had a

00:18:45.600 long chat with Ben. We've talked to him a couple times since. But I'm delighted to say that Ben has a

00:18:51.040 new show and the pilot episode was just released. He calls his show Bad News. And I'm depressed just

00:19:01.760 hearing the title. But joining us now via Skype is Bad News Benjamin. Ben, how you doing?

00:19:07.920 Ezra, I'm well. And while I know it sort of has a negative connotation to it, I promise it'll be

00:19:16.160 entertaining, enjoyable. And if the world is burning down around us, at least we'll be able to have a

00:19:20.400 few laughs about it. Well, I want to say thanks again for you staying up super late with us that

00:19:25.120 night on election night. And there was that moment. I remember we looked at how betting futures were

00:19:30.640 looking and how the stock market was looking. There was maybe an hour there where things looked like he

00:19:36.240 might pull it off. But alas. Now, I think that bad news is sort of a pun, isn't it? You're not saying,

00:19:42.000 hey, guys, I've got bad news. Is it more a media criticism? You're calling the mainstream media.

00:19:48.000 Oh, that news? No, no, no, that's bad. That's that's you can't rely on it. That's it's another way of saying

00:19:53.280 like unreliable news or the news itself. The news media is bad. Am I right in understanding the

00:20:00.560 the hidden meaning in your in your new show's title? Yeah, it's at least a double entendre,

00:20:05.920 maybe a triple entendre. And we had, of course, considered fake news as one potential show. But

00:20:12.160 I think this captures really the entirety of it, which is that it's not just the substance

00:20:17.760 of what our betters in the corporate media are portraying. But it is actually as well,

00:20:22.880 they're sort of malign ends. And I think sort of the meta narrative, at least that from my perspective,

00:20:28.960 that governs the show. And my co-host Emily Jashinsky has her own view on this as well. My

00:20:34.160 view is that the corporate media has essentially become the communications arm of the ruling class.

00:20:41.200 It is part of the ruling class. It's not adversarial to it. It's an accessory of it. It doesn't question

00:20:48.160 the powerful. It has become the mouthpiece for the powerful. And so what we hope to do with this show

00:20:54.000 is to expose it every single day. I think you're exactly right. I mean,

00:20:58.160 I often noted that one of the most beautiful women in the world, Melania Trump, 1.00

00:21:04.960 never was on a single cover of a women's magazine, a fashion magazine. Michelle Obama,

00:21:13.680 and I'm not going to criticize her looks, but she was on the cover of dozens, maybe hundreds of 0.81

00:21:20.480 women's magazines, fashion magazines. But not Melania, an actual model. There was an obvious

00:21:27.760 tactic of taking, let's say, a hundred photographs of Melania and capturing the one where she wasn't

00:21:35.120 smiling. So at the very least, it made her less attractive. And at most, it would imply, oh,

00:21:40.720 she's not happy with Donald Trump either. And I mention all that because that kind of coverage,

00:21:45.840 which we had for four years has been replaced with absolute hagiographies, absolute fangirl,

00:21:53.280 fanboy love letters. It's just incredible. And I think they're counting on most people not to notice

00:22:00.960 the 180 degree change. Yeah. And in the process, I think they're really discrediting themselves for

00:22:08.160 anyone who goes in with eyes open and looks at the media. And I grant, rightfully so, the American

00:22:14.480 people overwhelmingly do not trust the media with writ large, with good reason. And it's in no small

00:22:20.800 part because this is a media that, remember, said that the only scandal in the Obama administration

00:22:26.400 was the fact that he wore a tan suit to a press conference once. They're simply on one level,

00:22:32.560 they're unserious. On another level, they are deathly serious about protecting and preserving

00:22:38.080 the power of the people whose narratives they spin and propagate to the world. They want to maintain

00:22:44.560 access to the powerful. They want to be accepted at all the cool cocktail parties in D.C., New York,

00:22:50.560 L.A., and around the country. But ultimately, the American people suffer it as they foist effectively 0.66

00:22:56.880 these information operations on us that are all about, again, keeping the powerful

00:23:02.240 in power. There was a time where there truly was at least some percentage of the media that

00:23:06.720 was adversarial. And of course, there are always self-interested people in media who are not going

00:23:11.040 to pursue hard-hitting stories. They're just going to try to curry favor with those in the political

00:23:17.040 class and the business world and beyond. But now, everyone is on the same team. And as a consequence,

00:23:23.200 truth really does die. Democracy really does die in darkness, as the Washington Post likes to tell us.

00:23:28.880 But they've been engaging in projection over it for the last four years. What we're seeing right now

00:23:34.000 is real-state media.

00:23:35.360 Mm-hmm. You're right. You know, I'm not... What's Joe Biden? Is Joe Biden 78, if I'm not mistaken?

00:23:42.880 Mm-hmm.

00:23:43.440 I'm 48, so he's got 30 years on me. And I find myself sometimes pausing for one second before we're

00:23:51.680 calling a name that, you know, probably 10 years ago, I wouldn't have had a second's pause. And I

00:23:57.600 mention that because we all get old and we all get a little bit more forgetful. But I remember when

00:24:01.520 Donald Trump would host one, two-hour-long press conferences, especially in the early days of the

00:24:08.480 pandemic, he would seriously stand there for an hour or 90 minutes fielding questions from the most

00:24:17.360 adversarial... Like, he kept calling on his haters. It's not like... I mean, he expressed his

00:24:22.400 antipathy towards them. But he never stopped calling on Jim Acosta of CNN, for example. He just

00:24:28.000 never stopped. And the point I'm making now is he always called them by name, or at least quite often.

00:24:35.120 There was no doubt that Trump was fully in command of his faculties. And he would remember the names of

00:24:41.440 at least the leading lights. One tiny change that I think shows so much is that Joe Biden is not the

00:24:49.120 one calling the reporters by name. He has an assistant there, a staffer, who calls them by name.

00:24:58.880 And I really think, Ben, it's because Joe Biden doesn't remember the names. Maybe he doesn't even

00:25:05.600 remember who they are at all. Now, maybe I'm focusing on a tiny, minute point. But just like the

00:25:12.720 Melania Trump was never on a magazine cover, talking about a press aide calling people by name 0.93

00:25:20.080 shows that we have a president of a much lower cognitive level. His staff are covering it up,

00:25:27.760 and the media are going along with it. There was a question the other day about Biden and Putin,

00:25:33.760 and Biden's answer was chippy and chirpy and angry. If Trump would have had such an answer,

00:25:40.480 it would have never been accepted for a heartbeat. You can see it in the little things as much as the

00:25:45.040 big things. When does the Russian collusion investigation get started when it comes to Joe

00:25:50.640 and Hunter and the rest of the Mary Biden corrupt band? Look, I think that your point is very well

00:25:56.960 taken that sometimes these little insights have very big substantive significance. And you simply

00:26:04.160 have to ask the question, look, at every single turn in the Biden so-called quote unquote campaign,

00:26:10.960 and I say that because it was essentially like a 19th century campaign run from his porch,

00:26:15.920 except just in his basement via Zoom. At every point, it has been a hermetically sealed

00:26:22.640 campaigner and then president-elect and now president. And the archetype, or if you wanted

00:26:29.440 to describe kind of what the prototypical Biden press conference, if you can even call it that,

00:26:34.000 looks like today, it's about 10 minutes of prepared remarks, five minutes of which they're actually

00:26:39.360 intelligible, and the rest is sort of gobbledygook. One person asks a question. He says, come on,

00:26:44.720 man, in response. And then his team shoes everyone out of the room. So he never takes a question.

00:26:51.120 Everything is staged, managed. It's all prepared. Like you said, he's not the one calling the

00:26:55.360 reporters by name. Can he handle being pushed under questioning? Unclear. Are they protecting

00:27:02.400 him because it'd be embarrassing if he was able to go off script? That's probably an element of it as

00:27:06.480 well. But I actually think a couple media sources have dropped the mask a little bit on this. And I

00:27:11.440 believe Politico and maybe The Hill as well have at least quoted unnamed Democratic sources who have

00:27:17.440 said, look, there's real concern about can Joe Biden handle a 20 minute Rose Garden press conference

00:27:23.360 and going back and forth jousting with the press. The fact that that's even being leaked out and

00:27:30.640 filtered into publications, to me, indicates that while Joe Biden is being treated as God incarnated

00:27:37.680 today by the media, it's very clear that they are paving a path where down the road,

00:27:44.720 they may push him aside essentially in some sort of semi-dignified fashion. And there's been some talk

00:27:51.680 out there about the fact that if you look at the constitution, a vice president could technically

00:27:56.160 serve 10 years. If Joe Biden served as president two years and one day and then stepped down and Kamala

00:28:02.240 Harris assumed the seat, she could then run for the next two consecutive terms and potentially be 1.00

00:28:08.000 president for 10 years. So I think it's something to keep in mind as we watch the media engage in the

00:28:12.880 hagiography as you so aptly describe it. Let's see over time how much the questions of fitness, mental

00:28:20.880 acuity, health and the like start to become filter through the narratives. I'm not saying that it's going

00:28:27.040 to be the dominant part of media coverage because it's a love affair for now and for the foreseeable

00:28:31.760 future. But there's also a love affair going with Kamala Harris as well. And so I suspect as time

00:28:36.720 goes on, you'll see this transition from Biden to Harris in what he's referred to inaptly as the

00:28:44.080 Harris Biden or maybe aptly as the Harris Biden administration a couple of times. Now, with Donald

00:28:50.800 Trump, there were other forces resisting him. And that's not a conspiracy theory. I mean, so many of

00:28:56.640 his senior staff picks who turned out, personnel picks turned out to be awful. He had to fire them.

00:29:02.240 And later on, they made it very clear they were grudging appointees who were working to slow him

00:29:07.680 down, undermine him. That was particularly true in the military and in the intelligence and the security

00:29:13.640 communities. I mean, they didn't want to withdraw troops from Afghanistan or Syria or other places

00:29:19.920 around the world. And after they were no longer serving the president, they made that crystal clear.

00:29:26.400 So there were people who were resisting Trump from within the administration or the civil service.

00:29:33.120 But as far as the actual official administration, I don't think there was any doubt that Trump was the

00:29:40.800 boss. He would sack people like it was on The Apprentice. He would say dramatic things and take

00:29:46.800 dramatic courses of action that only Trump would or could do. He would handle those long

00:29:52.960 press scrums. And I'm not saying he would do them all perfectly, but you could tell he was engaged in

00:29:58.080 the files. It was like Stephen Harper in Canada. The man knew the file better than anyone else in

00:30:02.880 government. So whatever else you have to say about Trump, he was in charge. I don't think anyone

00:30:09.120 believes that about Joe Biden. He's not the master of any file. And so my question to you is,

00:30:14.560 and I'm guessing you don't know and no one knows, who's the real boss? No one actually asked during

00:30:23.120 Trump's administration who's the real boss. They knew it was Trump. He had mutineers, but he was the

00:30:27.760 boss. Who's the real decider in the White House today? I have two takes on that question. The first is

00:30:39.280 that to some extent, Joe Biden is merely a figurehead and he was always sort of a figurehead compromise

00:30:46.880 candidate who would put a quote unquote moderate veneer on all the raft of radical leftism that you

00:30:55.760 see if you just look at the Democrat platform or you look at the Biden-Sanders unity agenda, much of the

00:31:01.520 language of which, by the way, has been incorporated into this flurry of initial executive actions that the

00:31:08.560 Biden administration has undertaken. But I think part of foisting Joe Biden on the American people

00:31:14.400 in terms of clearing the field for him, which the Democratic establishment clearly was able to

00:31:18.720 execute during the primary, and then as we get to this point today, I think is all about the fact that

00:31:25.280 basically the establishment was showing we can beat you with anyone, anytime, anywhere. We control them.

00:31:32.240 It wouldn't matter if it was Joe Biden or any of five other figures that were in that primary or beyond.

00:31:38.560 This would be the slew of policies that would be put forth. So part of it is he is sort of an

00:31:42.960 inconsequential figure in some ways and purely a figurehead. My second response is personnel is

00:31:50.320 policy. And if you look at who he surrounded himself with, it's essentially all veterans of the

00:31:54.960 Obama Biden administration. It's my view that Barack Obama essentially pushed to, and it didn't have to

00:32:02.800 be something that was explicit, but I think he called the Kamala Harris selection as vice president,

00:32:08.320 you know, an inspired choice, an excellent choice. I think it was always Obama's push to get Kamala

00:32:14.400 Harris on that ticket. I think the fact that Biden is surrounded by Obama veterans speaks volumes.

00:32:20.480 And I do believe that this is essentially a continuation of his White House.

00:32:25.200 You know, I think that's right. I don't think Joe Biden was an important or effective vice president.

00:32:30.160 I don't think he ever had the trust or the love of Barack Obama. I think there's lots of apocryphal

00:32:36.560 and off the record and some on the record reports that Obama sort of sneered at and laughed at

00:32:47.600 Joe Biden, but kept him around because he was that goofy guy with that smile and saying,

00:32:51.200 come on, no malarkey. So I think that Obama never respected Biden. He waited till the last possible

00:32:58.960 moment to say, yeah, I'm for Biden. Like he wasn't an earlier booster. I think that Joe Biden was a

00:33:05.040 figurehead even as VP. And I think that really nothing has changed other than he's a figurehead

00:33:12.560 president. I think you're so right. It's the same administration as it was in the Obama years.

00:33:19.200 They've just moved the figurehead guy up a notch, but nothing's really changed. I think that's,

00:33:24.000 I think you nailed it.

00:33:26.560 I appreciate that. And then it's a great point that Obama never really wanted to support Biden

00:33:31.680 until he absolutely had to at the end. And I think one other point that's worth making

00:33:37.280 is Biden is being portrayed as sort of a return to normalcy. But look, I think that the political

00:33:43.440 establishment has been in command to the maximum extent possible perpetually. And that's not in any

00:33:49.760 way to talk down about what President Trump was able to accomplish, because he accomplished an

00:33:55.920 incredible amount of elements of his agenda, in spite of the fact that, as you noted, he was essentially

00:34:01.920 sabotaged and undermined at every turn. And it's really a small coterie of people in government

00:34:06.960 who actually agreed with most of his agenda and actually helped him execute it. But I think the

00:34:11.280 entire time, the establishment that what I would call now the rolling class, because it really

00:34:17.040 extends beyond just the political elite to now woke capital and corporate media and beyond. Ultimately,

00:34:24.960 they really, they've been in power the whole time. They just did not have the top job, but they did

00:34:28.880 everything they possibly could to destroy the man who had the top job. And now they're fully back in

00:34:34.480 power. And that's there's sort of a depressing aspect to it, because it means that the administrative

00:34:39.440 state essentially really runs the show. Congress essentially is involved in political theater and

00:34:45.360 non-entities. And essentially, you don't really have consent of the governed. And that's one of the

00:34:50.400 disasters about the fact that the president didn't really have a second term to more fully implement

00:34:55.680 his agenda. I think you're right. There you have it, Ben Weingarten, who has a new show called

00:35:02.480 Bad News, along with his co-host, Emily Jashinsky. Great to see you again, Ben. Thanks for being here.

00:35:08.160 Thanks for having me. All right. There you have it. Stay with us for more.

00:35:10.720 My friends, I do want to tell you one more thing about what we've been working on. And I spent half

00:35:29.440 the day speaking all for all say, and I think you're going to get a kick out of it. You know,

00:35:35.920 we have a very strong Fight the Fines program throughout Canada. And we've done some in

00:35:41.040 Australia and the United Kingdom. I'm not ready to play you the video today. I will be on Monday.

00:35:47.680 But we spent the day making a video en Francais, because we are about to expand our Fight the Fines

00:35:55.600 project to Quebec. And as I said, en Francais. Well, let me read that part, if I may.

00:36:02.080 Don't mind me. Don't mind me. I practiced.

00:36:20.400 My French is pretty rough. It's sort of Preston Manning French. What that means is,

00:36:26.080 surely, if we will help people in other countries,

00:36:29.520 countries like Australia and the United Kingdom, surely when it comes to civil liberties,

00:36:35.280 we can help our brothers and sisters in Quebec. And so I'm very excited to tell you,

00:36:40.320 our super subscribers, that we are about to launch, and I recorded it en Francais today,

00:36:46.800 we are about to launch a French language Fight the Fines project with lawyers who speak French in the

00:36:53.120 great province of Quebec that has the brutal curfew and the brutal lockdowns.

00:36:58.880 My friends, we will help them. And I think it'll be a wonderful moment of national unity. I don't

00:37:04.000 care what language you speak, what race you are, what religion you are. I don't care anything other 0.58

00:37:07.920 than you believe in freedom and you have an innate right to be free. And I think this will be a wonderful

00:37:15.280 opportunity for a Toronto guy born in Alberta to work with people in Quebec. And I'm counting on all

00:37:21.600 our rebel viewers around Canada and the world to get into the spirit of helping other people with

00:37:28.480 civil liberties. I hope it works. Anyways, you'll see. I don't want to tell you the website right

00:37:31.920 now because we're still tinkering with it, but we've got a French language website too. All right. Well,

00:37:36.640 I'm interested in your thoughts on that, but also the rest of the bad news that we've had

00:37:41.200 for civil liberties today, both Trudeau sending people to quarantine jails and of course the big

00:37:45.920 one, Stephen Gilbo announcing the end of internet freedom and the conservative MP really asking where

00:37:53.680 he is and what time it is. My friends, that's the show for today. I'm sorry it was a little bit

00:37:58.240 truncated, but boy, we have a lot of things afoot until Monday. On behalf of all of us here at Rebel

00:38:03.600 World Headquarters to you and have a good night and keep fighting for freedom.

Rebel News Podcast - January 30, 2021

Another day, another loss for Canadian civil liberties

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