Rebel News Podcast - Canada's economy teeters on recession, and Media Party is “shocked”

00:00:00.000 Hello, my Rebels. Welcome to another podcast. You know, these podcasts are free. They're the audio

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00:00:57.920 that today. We talk about two things. We talk about how Canada's slipping into a recession

00:01:02.640 for three out of the last four months. We've had negative growth. A recession is defined as two

00:01:08.620 quarters in a row where the economy is shrinking. I think we're on the doorstep of that. I think

00:01:14.020 we'll be in a recession by the summer. And Trudeau is really to blame for that. You can't kill a

00:01:19.340 hundred billion dollar oil and gas industry, give away the story to Donald Trump in auto negotiations

00:01:25.260 and think you're going to be fine. And of course, we talked to Manny Montenegrino about Jane

00:01:29.980 Philpott's shocking resignation from Trudeau's cabinet. That's all ahead. By the way, if you're

00:01:35.580 listening to this, hey, can you do me a quick favor and give us a rating? Of course, I'm hoping you

00:01:40.380 think it was a five out of five experience. But the odd doubter thinks it's only a four and a half

00:01:45.380 out of five. All right, fine. So without further to do, may I invite you to listen to today's

00:01:51.960 audio only podcast. You're listening to a Rebel Media podcast. Tonight, while Justin Trudeau was

00:02:00.300 busy alienating our foreign allies and corrupting our domestic legal system, guess what? Our economy 0.99

00:02:06.400 has teetered to the brink of recession. It's March 4th, and this is the Ezra Levant Show.

00:02:13.140 Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?

00:02:16.680 There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer. The only thing I have to say to the

00:02:22.520 government about why I'm publishing it is because it's my bloody right to do so.

00:02:32.340 Well, shocking news today. Jane Philpott, another liberal cabinet minister, resigned in disgust,

00:02:38.340 saying she simply couldn't trust Justin Trudeau anymore. We'll have a lot more on that story

00:02:44.520 with our friend Manny Montenegrino. But first, I want to talk about something else. We'll get right

00:02:49.500 back to the scandal. You know, our economy in Canada is now on the brink of recession, and the

00:02:55.940 mainstream media has been too busy with Trudeau's scandals to notice. Here's the Wall Street Journal

00:03:01.020 the other day. They pay closer attention to our Canadian economy than do most Canadian reporters.

00:03:06.000 Their headline, Canada's economy delivers worst quarterly growth in two years.

00:03:10.440 Just a reminder, a recession is defined by economists as two consecutive quarters in a row,

00:03:17.980 that's six months, with negative economic growth, as in half a year where the economy shrinks, where

00:03:23.980 people spend less, buy less, build less, sell less, things hurt. We're teetering on the brink of that

00:03:29.340 right now. Now, you'd know that if you watch my show, as I know you do. In fact, I pretty much

00:03:35.200 predicted the timing even. Remember when I told you what had not been reported anywhere else in the

00:03:39.580 mainstream media, a huge announcement by Donald Trump a few weeks ago, when he just announced a

00:03:44.540 new Buy American executive order, shutting out Canadian companies from hundreds of billions,

00:03:49.520 maybe even trillions of dollars worth of U.S. construction projects. And that's on top

00:03:54.200 of what Trudeau has done to our economy, killing the three pipelines, Northern Gateway, which was

00:04:00.520 already approved by the National Energy Board, Energy East, and the Trans Mountain Pipeline, which was

00:04:05.480 also approved by the National Energy Board. I mean, Justin Trudeau just killed $30 billion in pipeline

00:04:12.600 construction. And then another $30 or $50 billion in LNG, liquefied natural gas projects in BC.

00:04:20.200 How on earth do you think you can do that to an economy and not have a recession? And we're doing

00:04:25.020 that to ourselves. And then there's just his regular war on the oil patch, his carbon tax. And remember,

00:04:31.700 you're calling for the phase out of oil companies altogether.

00:04:36.480 I've said time and time again, and you're all tired of hearing me say it, you can't make a choice

00:04:41.920 between what's good for the environment and what's good for the economy. We can't shut down the oil

00:04:46.740 sands tomorrow. We need to phase them out. We need to manage the transition off of our dependence on

00:04:53.640 fossil fuels.

00:04:55.720 Yeah, you get rid of the oil patch. You fail to protect the auto industry from Trump's repatriation because

00:05:01.540 you're picking a fight with Trump on feminism or global warming or whatever. And you're surprised when

00:05:07.480 the economy is starting to run out of steam.

00:05:10.380 Canada's economy slows a lot more than expected, said the Financial Post. Really? A lot more than who expected?

00:05:18.120 I've been expecting it. I think we're heading into a recession. I think we're heading there fast.

00:05:23.400 There are too many things falling apart at the same time. But have you heard about any of this in the

00:05:27.960 mainstream media? I'm guessing no. The CBC's weekly magazine show, hosted by Wendy Mesley,

00:05:34.960 they had the latest conspiracy theory. Seriously, they did a huge feature on how Donald Trump Jr.

00:05:41.840 is going to be arrested any moment now. And that will surely mean that then Donald Trump is going to be

00:05:47.720 arrested. And it's, we're all going to be saved. It was a true conspiracy theory. It was kooky.

00:05:57.100 But the weirdest part about it is, why is that on a Canadian news show on the Canadian Broadcasting

00:06:03.240 Corporation? I mean, if you want to go full Trump derangement syndrome, I get it. Fill your boots.

00:06:07.820 But you can get that on CNN or MSNBC or any U.S. late night talk show. Why wait a week for your news

00:06:16.000 to be stale and then done by a clunky Canadian show? That's so weird, that show. But hey,

00:06:23.080 anything rather than talking about the economy or even talking about a Canadian scandal that's

00:06:27.500 actually real. I mean, in the past few weeks, we've seen Jody Wilson-Raybould quit as veterans

00:06:32.000 minister. Then we saw Trudeau's right-hand man, Gerald Butts, resign in disgrace. Then we saw

00:06:38.960 Trudeau's chief of staff, Katie Telford, brag that she has the media in the palm of her hand and that

00:06:43.960 can make all these problems away. We saw, as the whole country watched, riveted as Jody Wilson-Raybould

00:06:50.020 gave a meticulous point-by-point, day-by-day history of how Trudeau and his cronies met with her 10 times

00:06:55.720 and phoned her 10 more times and emailed and texted her to try to get her to drop the criminal charges

00:07:00.860 against one of their crony corporate friends, SNC-Lavalin, to cover for the corruption in

00:07:05.980 Libya. We also learned that SNC-Lavalin spent millions of dollars on hookers and drugs for

00:07:12.360 Libya's former dictator's son when he visited Canada. And then today, another bombshell,

00:07:18.940 Jane Philpott, widely regarded as one of Trudeau's most competent ministers, with a lot of complicated

00:07:25.180 files, just quit. And in a heartfelt letter that she surely wrote herself, said she just couldn't

00:07:32.200 live up or live down to the ethics of supporting the cabinet. She just couldn't support Trudeau with

00:07:37.920 a straight face. It was brutal. And do you think she's the last to quit? Yeah. So it's pretty

00:07:45.840 conspicuous when you're in that news environment and the CBC says, gee, I think what Canadians really

00:07:52.580 need to look at and think about now is Donald Trump Jr. Yeah, he's the real Canadians. Get mad

00:08:01.420 about Donald Trump Jr. It's so sad. Now, to be fair, the CBC is actually an anomaly these days.

00:08:08.640 Other media are actually showing surprising signs of curiosity. I mean, look at Mercedes Stevenson

00:08:14.220 asking David Lamedi, Trudeau's new handpicked attorney general, if he has any qualms about interfering

00:08:20.440 in a criminal case, to help Justin Trudeau win an election. I mean, that should be a pretty

00:08:26.900 easy question to answer. And apparently it wasn't.

00:08:31.700 But if someone approached you and said an election is at stake, would that be a persuasive argument

00:08:36.280 to you?

00:08:37.580 Again, it depends on the context. The leading case from the UK...

00:08:40.440 Sorry, just to stop you there, but an election could be a reason for an attorney general to

00:08:44.920 interfere in a criminal prosecution. That would be appropriate.

00:08:47.520 I'm not saying it would be appropriate or inappropriate.

00:08:52.240 Holy moly. I wonder if watching that is what made James Philpott quit today.

00:08:59.900 What else could explain the timing? Now, this is a pleasant change to see an actual question asked

00:09:05.540 by a journalist. There have always been a lot of scandals out there with Justin Trudeau. The fact

00:09:09.540 that he's scandalous is nothing new. This is just the first time the mainstream media is actually

00:09:13.480 talking about them. Here's the new cover of Maclean's magazine. Now, look, it doesn't mean

00:09:19.360 much. Maclean's has a sliver of the readership it used to have. It's not an important magazine

00:09:23.920 anymore. In fact, I think it's just down to a skeleton crew working there. But it's useful

00:09:28.080 as a barometer for the media party, for the fancy-pants insiders, elite media. I mean,

00:09:32.640 really, they just talk amongst themselves. But it's interesting. They now feel comfortable

00:09:36.480 challenging the precious. I'm surprised. I mean, they've always supported him ideologically.

00:09:43.880 And obviously, they still do support him ideologically. Canada's media aren't suddenly

00:09:48.480 conservative. They don't suddenly doubt the theory of man-made global warming. They don't

00:09:53.300 suddenly support private firearms ownership. They don't suddenly doubt the wisdom of a carbon tax or

00:09:58.900 giving a public apology and $10.5 million to Omar Khadr. They're still the same. I think it's that

00:10:04.940 they still believe in all those things. But they realize now, finally, three and a half years into

00:10:10.780 it, that Trudeau doesn't really believe in those things himself. Like Maclean says, he's an imposter.

00:10:17.020 He just says and does whatever it takes to get him through the day. He's been playing them for chumps.

00:10:23.420 That's really what this cover means, the imposter. I think Trudeau is the same guy he's always been,

00:10:29.500 a shallow, selfie-obsessed, trust-fund kid. The kind of kid who, when he was in high school,

00:10:35.700 probably asked to copy the homework off the smart nerds in exchange for being their cool friend for

00:10:41.420 a minute. But of course, he wasn't truly their friend. It was all part of his grift, his back

00:10:46.020 slapping, his sales pitch. That cover story, that imposter cover story of Maclean's, was written by Paul

00:10:51.820 Wells, seen here joking with Trudeau a few years ago. I think Wells really thought that Trudeau was

00:10:58.860 listening to him, really thought Trudeau was a passionate citizen who valued ideas and progressive

00:11:05.040 thinkings. I think maybe Paul Wells actually thought Trudeau was his friend, like the nerdy

00:11:10.400 kid doing his homework. Maybe he thought, I think he really likes me. And now Paul Wells has woken up

00:11:17.140 and is being disillusioned and realizes that he was tricked. Trudeau wasn't really friends with him.

00:11:23.400 Trudeau just needed someone to copy his homework from. Trudeau was just saying whatever it would

00:11:27.760 take to get Paul Wells to be really friendly to him. As in, Trudeau was a master at flattering

00:11:32.600 the Paul Wells's of the world. He flattered their vanity. He made them feel special. He made them feel

00:11:38.540 cool. And of course, he was happy to parrot whatever policy blather they wanted to hear from him. It's not

00:11:43.160 like he had an opinion about ideas. What you're seeing here isn't any new Justin Trudeau. You and I have

00:11:50.280 known he was a shallow faker all along. What you're seeing here is not news about Trudeau. You're seeing

00:11:56.000 news about the media. They are disillusioned, or at least those who like to think of themselves as public

00:12:01.000 intellectuals of some sort. And Paul Wells certainly thinks he is. So let's recap. You've got a scandal, a

00:12:08.040 corruption scandal that proves everything Trudeau ever said about being progressive and modern,

00:12:12.780 let alone a male feminist. It's a lie. He's an old boy feathering the nest of his Montreal cronies, 0.84

00:12:18.960 worse than anyone else, frankly. And public opinion polls are starting to show that it's sticking.

00:12:25.140 He's not skating through this scandal as he did, for example, the revelation that he sexually assaulted

00:12:30.160 Rose Knight, a young woman in Creston, B.C. in August of 2000. He skated through that one.

00:12:35.480 People laughed at how foolish he was in India, dressing up like it was a costume party. But it 0.97

00:12:42.740 didn't detonate him. I mean, sure, it made him look shallow and childish and narcissistic and wasteful

00:12:47.920 and a little kooky. But it didn't make him look deeply corrupt. This scandal is. And it's not done

00:12:54.940 yet. Jane Philpott, big bomb going off today. There will be more testimony in Parliament in the weeks

00:13:00.560 ahead. I predict more resignations, too. You want to be the last one to get off a sinking ship?

00:13:05.480 I presume that Gerald Butts, when he testifies, will do his best to rebut Jody Wilson-Rabel. But

00:13:10.900 I'm pretty sure she's got some more ammo on him. And frankly, if Butts lies, maybe you'll see more

00:13:18.160 resignations from people who know he's lying. Sounds like Jody Wilson-Rabel took copious notes and had

00:13:23.720 plenty of unimpeachable witnesses. Sounds maybe like she even confided in people like Jane Philpott,

00:13:29.020 people she trusted. I don't think this scandal is going away. Of course, the liberals will try to change the

00:13:34.660 channel on this. The other day, Trudeau was literally tweeting about the moon, the lunar

00:13:39.760 gateway or something. Yeah, he's a space cadet. We know that. This week, it's more global warming,

00:13:46.260 global warming. They love that one. It's an old reliable. It just happens to be a winter of record

00:13:51.520 cold. But look, it's all they know. My point is, I'm not sure if they're going to get out of this one

00:13:57.500 scandal so easily. And people are starting to notice. But so far, no one has really noticed the

00:14:02.440 economy. But they're about to. What has driven our economy for the last few years? It's not oil

00:14:09.240 and gas. That's been shrinking on purpose. Notley and Trudeau and Butts all hate it. They want to

00:14:13.820 face it out. You know Butts on pipelines. I'm going to show you this video again. I'm so sorry,

00:14:17.800 but I want you to know this video so well. You memorize it. Remember this?

00:14:21.700 We think that the oil sands have been expanded too rapidly without a serious plan for environmental

00:14:28.500 remediation in the first place. So that's why we don't think it's up to us to decide whether there

00:14:34.200 should be another route for a pipeline. Because the real alternative is not an alternative route.

00:14:41.320 It's an alternative economy.

00:14:43.720 So yeah, take out $100 billion of oil and gas from the economy. Bungle your trade deal with Trump so

00:14:49.760 badly that he brings home the auto industry to the Midwest like he's been saying he would do for

00:14:54.480 years. He doesn't care if Trudeau hates him. Trudeau doesn't get a vote in the 2020 election.

00:14:59.900 Steel workers in Indiana and auto workers in Michigan do. So scratch oil and gas. Scratch the

00:15:06.320 auto industry. What's left? The overheated housing market in Vancouver and Toronto. That's where a

00:15:11.840 lot of the wealth is coming from these days. But look, a real estate bubble isn't truly building wealth

00:15:16.560 in a sustainable way. First of all, it makes everyone who rents poorer. And it makes it hard for people to

00:15:22.420 buy a home. It makes it hard to start a family. It delays adult children from leaving their parents'

00:15:27.500 homes, getting married, having kids of their own. It's like a massive brake pedal on life. Sure,

00:15:32.380 it's great for those who already own a home and have paid it off. But that's sort of the opposite

00:15:36.660 of growth, isn't it? And according to police, it's not people really saying, I'd like to pay $2 million

00:15:42.300 for a starter home in Vancouver. It's often mainland Chinese getting their money out of China,

00:15:48.760 using the city's real estate just like a safe deposit box, just buying up homes, sometimes

00:15:53.700 without even seeing them first. Sometimes not even living in them, just to stash money away from

00:15:58.460 the Communist Party of China. That and massive criminal money laundering too. Lots of Russians 0.96

00:16:02.820 doing the same in Toronto for the same reason. Better to put your money in a Toronto condo than in a

00:16:07.560 Russian bank. My point is, what's left? Public sector growth? Those are the takers, not the makers.

00:16:14.700 And the few makers who are left, well, Trudeau and his crew don't like them much.

00:16:19.140 Now they have to answer all sorts of feminist puzzles before they're allowed to hire anyone. 1.00

00:16:25.500 Project's decisions will be based on science, evidence, and Indigenous traditional knowledge.

00:16:30.820 We're also taking a bigger picture look at the potential impacts of a proposed project.

00:16:34.900 Instead of just looking at the environmental impacts, we'll look at how a project could

00:16:39.660 affect our communities and health, jobs and the economy over the long term. And we'll also do

00:16:45.240 a gender-based analysis. Yeah, thanks but no thanks. Who would invest in Canada rather than in Donald 0.87

00:16:54.740 Trump's America? Like him or hate him, you know he's not going to make you do a gender analysis of

00:17:01.280 your steel mill before letting you open it. My friends, as Margaret Thatcher once said,

00:17:07.040 socialism only works until you run out of other people's money. Alberta is broke. It looks like

00:17:12.280 it's heading back into a second NDP recession. The rest of the country is tipping into a recession.

00:17:17.300 Trudeau and Morneau had already been spending tens of billions of dollars a year in deficits.

00:17:22.360 What are they going to do now? Oh, and here comes Donald Trump's buy American trade barriers and

00:17:27.880 his tax cut. Let me close with a few lines from the who could have seen this coming story that

00:17:34.020 the Financial Post ran. Canada's terms of trade, a comparison of the prices of exports versus the

00:17:39.720 prices of imports, saw its biggest drop since early 2009. The report said it fell 3.6% in the fourth

00:17:46.620 quarter, which was mostly due to a 34.3% decline in crude exports. Oh, well, who needs crude exports

00:17:53.540 anyways? Am I right? I mean, let's get down to zero. That's what phase it out means. The lower GDP

00:17:59.760 figure for all of 2018 reflected a slowdown in most categories, including weaker results for

00:18:04.540 household consumption, business investment, and housing investment, which contracted 2.3%.

00:18:09.740 The agency said the drop in housing investment coincided with rising interest rates and stricter

00:18:14.940 mortgage rules coming into force. In December, economic growth contracted 0.1% for the second

00:18:21.960 consecutive month and the third decline in four months. Third decline in four months, eh? We're

00:18:28.820 almost in a recession, aren't we? But hey, gang, there's great news out there. The one policy

00:18:34.240 success for Justin Trudeau, the one thing he was really passionate about all these years, the one

00:18:38.660 thing he really cares about and can talk about without using notes, this.

00:18:43.280 The current approach on drugs is not working. I'm in favor of legalizing it. Five or six times in my

00:18:51.100 life that I've taken a puff of protecting our children from marijuana. So yes, five or six times in

00:18:58.260 my life that the continued prohibition of marijuana, that's a lot of smoking. I've never done it except

00:19:03.220 with people I know and trust.

00:19:06.860 Yeah, that's great news, man. Let me read from the report. Household spending on marijuana

00:19:13.660 at an annual rate totaled $5.9 billion in the fourth quarter, with illegal pot accounting for $4.7 billion

00:19:20.980 of the total, and illegal weed representing $1.2 billion. Cannabis accounted for 0.5% of the total

00:19:28.380 household spending. The report said of the quarterly numbers, and non-medical cannabis accounted for 11.2%

00:19:35.120 of spending on alcohol, tobacco, and cannabis. That's your good news, people. That's your good

00:19:39.980 news right there. There's pot to be bought. So everything's declining in Canada. Real work is

00:19:46.520 declining. Real things, construction, oil, gas, building cars, it's all going to hell. We've got

00:19:53.980 some inflated housing in the big cities for now, part of which is just money laundering for

00:19:57.900 Russian and Chinese tycoons. But don't worry, my dudes. Just smoke some pot and do your part for 0.95

00:20:05.560 the economy, and it'll all be super. Oh, brother. Stay with us for more on today's shocking news

00:20:12.960 of Jane Philpott's resignation.

00:20:27.900 Welcome back. Well, bombshell after bombshell in the case of Justin Trudeau, SNC-Lavalin,

00:20:35.560 and his apparently illegal attempts to obstruct the course of justice by pressuring former Attorney

00:20:43.960 General Jody Wilson-Raybould into dropping criminal charges against the corrupt Quebec-based engineering

00:20:50.740 firm. Well, the bombshell today is the sudden resignation of Jane Philpott, widely regarded

00:20:58.280 as one of the most competent of Trudeau's ministers. You can see on your screen a lengthy, heartfelt

00:21:06.640 letter by Jane Philpott, who just says she can't stick around, she can't be part of it. Instead of

00:21:13.460 letting me paraphrase, let me read it to you verbatim. I've been considering the events that

00:21:19.200 have shaken the federal government in recent weeks, and after serious reflection, I have concluded that

00:21:23.500 I must resign as a member of cabinet. In Canada, the Constitutional Convention of Cabinet Solidarity

00:21:29.520 means, among other things, that ministers are expected to defend all cabinet decisions. A minister

00:21:35.140 must always be prepared to defend other ministers publicly, and must speak in support of the government

00:21:39.620 and its policies. Given this convention, and the current circumstances, it is untenable for me to continue

00:21:46.200 to serve as a cabinet minister. Let me just read one more paragraph.

00:21:50.020 Unfortunately, the evidence of efforts by politicians and or officials to pressure the former Attorney General

00:21:56.800 to intervene in the criminal case involving SNC-Lavalin, and the evidence as to the content of those efforts,

00:22:03.300 have raised serious concerns for me. Those concerns have been augmented by the views expressed

00:22:09.600 by my constituents and other Canadians. Let me just read one more part, and then we'll turn it over

00:22:15.760 to our friend Manny Montenegrino, who's joining us on an urgent basis.

00:22:21.040 She says,

00:22:21.700 The solemn principles at stake are the independence and integrity of our justice system.

00:22:25.340 It is a fundamental doctrine of the rule of law that our Attorney General should not be subjected

00:22:28.720 to political pressure or interference regarding the exercise of her prosecutorial discretion in criminal

00:22:34.800 cases. Sadly, I have lost confidence in how the government has dealt with this matter and in how

00:22:40.840 it has responded to the issues raised. Last sentence,

00:22:44.680 It grieves me to leave a portfolio where I was at work to deliver on an important mandate,

00:22:49.240 but I must abide by my core values, my ethical responsibilities, and constitutional obligations.

00:22:54.960 There can be a cost to acting on one's principles, but there is a bigger cost to abandoning them.

00:23:01.680 What a devastating letter. And joining us now via Skype from Ottawa is our friend Manny Montenegrino,

00:23:10.380 the CEO of ThinkSharp, former national chairman of a major law firm, and I should say lawyer to

00:23:16.540 Stephen Harper. Manny, great to see you again. What a bombshell. What do you make of that letter

00:23:21.280 of which I read quite a bit?

00:23:23.880 It was foreseeable. In fact, Ezra, if you go to my Twitter account, I post it as my pin,

00:23:31.560 I think three weeks ago, I said she would do this. What's amazing is the fact that this

00:23:39.560 prime minister, Gerald Butts, and his team are tone deaf. They really don't know what's going on.

00:23:45.840 And Ezra, as I said in one of my interviews with you two, three, four weeks ago, or three weeks ago

00:23:53.140 when this occurred, I said, this is a constitutional crisis. And they tried to deal with it in their

00:24:00.020 typical political way. But when you have a one sitting attorney general making the strongest case

00:24:08.920 ever for obstruction of justice against a sitting prime minister, and the sitting prime minister

00:24:14.760 doesn't do anything, that is a constitutional crisis. And they try to manage this as they've done.

00:24:20.420 Everything else was managed poorly. And now you'll see the effects of it. And this government will

00:24:27.840 not last, in my estimation, for much longer. Manny, I saw your private email exchange that you posted

00:24:35.620 online where you predicted Jane Philpott. What was it about her that made you think she would be the

00:24:42.420 one to go next? Well, that's a great question. I think, and we talked about this, Ezra, these are

00:24:49.500 two very principled women. These are two professional women. One is a doctor, and one is a lawyer. And when 1.00

00:24:56.380 you get to that stage, and you know, the prime minister has never been in a profession, never

00:25:01.180 understood the concept that's required to reach those high levels. These two women certainly understand

00:25:09.220 their duties, and they're just exhibiting them. So this is not, so you could see it. And if you watch

00:25:15.880 the, what is also, and I don't understand, for the prime minister to be boasting to be a feminist,

00:25:24.380 to not be able to read these two strong women and not understand who they are, what they did in their

00:25:32.220 lifetime, what commitment they gave to their profession, and have them at your cabinet table and

00:25:37.060 listen to them. I made these decisions three weeks ago. I don't know these women. I understood them. I looked at

00:25:43.640 their profession. I looked at their duties, and I understood that they would. I don't know them. How could you be

00:25:48.860 sitting at a table for three years and not know these women? This is the opposite of what a feminist is. This is a 1.00

00:25:56.340 person that just does not, and listen, it also goes to men. I mean, but he touts himself as a feminist. But these are very

00:26:03.740 strong women. Ezra, when I was managing my law firm, I had strong women. I made them partners.

00:26:12.040 It's very obvious to see the strength and integrity of women. And by far, they wear it a lot more proudly 0.85

00:26:21.900 than some men do. And so it's not a shock. I tweeted it three weeks ago privately. Someone asked me, and I

00:26:28.540 said, here's what's going to happen. I've been calling this as it unfolds day by day. But we have

00:26:34.020 a constitutional crisis. Can you imagine a sitting attorney general calling out a prime minister for

00:26:40.580 obstruction of justice? And now we have, I cannot see the RSMP after this resignation, not having a full

00:26:49.080 investigation. Yeah. Because remember, Jody Wilson-Raybould has not been freed from all of her

00:26:56.640 confidentiality limits. For example, what she learned and discussed when she was demoted to

00:27:02.740 veterans minister. She has not been released to discuss that. So I'm sure that Jane Philpott knows

00:27:09.640 some things that we don't know. Of course she does. She's a member of Canada. Can I show you a video

00:27:14.860 clip from the weekend? This is David Lamedi. He went on Global TV. He was interviewed by Mercedes

00:27:21.340 Stevenson. And let me throw something at you again. I'm just speculating. And so maybe I'm asking you to

00:27:26.340 speculate too. But I think that Jane Philpott, who, like you say, was sensitive to this issue to begin

00:27:33.600 with. My personal theory is she saw the new attorney general that Justin Trudeau handpicked. And she

00:27:41.560 saw this little exchange. And she thought, if that's what we're doing, count me out. This is my theory.

00:27:47.540 Take a look at this, Manny. Sure. But if someone approached you and said an election is at stake,

00:27:52.540 would that be a persuasive argument to you? Again, it depends on the context. The leading

00:27:57.640 case from the UK... Sorry, just to stop you there, but an election could be a reason for an attorney

00:28:02.120 general to interfere in a criminal prosecution. That would be appropriate. I'm not saying it would

00:28:06.740 be appropriate or inappropriate. That should be an easy answer to say no to. But he dodged it for about

00:28:13.100 a minute. My personal theory is she saw that and said, I'm out of here. Yeah, Ezra, I warned you once.

00:28:19.400 I don't want to speak that man's name. Listen, one more warning. He's done more harm to the whole

00:28:28.940 legal profession than any person that I know. Absolutely. But that is certainly, that would

00:28:35.920 enrage anybody seeing the new attorney general do a complete opposite of what his duties are.

00:28:44.020 But I'm going to add something else. The justice committee or the conservatives in the justice

00:28:50.120 committee tried to get Gerald Butts before the committee and they struck it down. Now, the power

00:28:56.400 was at the prime minister's office. The biggest problem of this government is a prime minister

00:29:01.840 office and Gerald Butts basically treating cabinet ministers like servants. So he was not permitted to

00:29:12.480 speak to the justice committee because it was shut down by the liberals. So the conservatives tried to

00:29:17.960 and the NDP tried to have him. But now Gerald Butts writes a letter. He quits, resigns, but he writes a

00:29:24.100 letter and says, I need to speak to you. That would enrage me if I were the minister, the Treasury Board,

00:29:31.740 and knowing that this person got the cover by the Liberal Party not to go because we're protecting the PMO

00:29:39.180 and he will now wants to speak. I think that as much as David Lamedi's insane

00:29:46.520 review of the law, that probably had a lot to do with it. I mean, my view is, listen, this is historic.

00:29:58.780 Never has it happened in Canada. The majority government is going to fall apart in three years.

00:30:03.940 It's not happened. And it didn't happen because of a mistake. It happened because of a continued

00:30:11.940 PMO mistake after mistake after mistake. You have, I mean, Ezra, you want to go quickly through

00:30:18.320 that India trip. How did that ever happen? A tweet, welcome to Canada tweet that's now cost us

00:30:24.920 three to five billion dollars and put our whole asylum program into jeopardy. The tweet,

00:30:31.240 the Saudi Arabia tweets, which cost billions of dollars. And in my view, may have caused the

00:30:37.160 SNC-Lavalin because they lost a billion dollar contract. This PMO has been running like a fourth

00:30:45.140 grade committee. And so, of course, they're going to screw this up as well because they don't know

00:30:53.980 how to manage anything correctly. And to think, and I'll predict, I think this government will fall.

00:30:59.680 I think Trudeau will be gone. I think there's another tweet. And I said, he'll be gone by the

00:31:05.020 Ides of March. So we've got about another 10 days, but he cannot survive. When you have cabinet ministers

00:31:11.200 saying, I don't have confidence in you, he has to step down. The RCP has to take over. The Liberal

00:31:16.620 Party has to regain its party and it will, it'll put new people in. And then we'll get rid of this real 1.00

00:31:23.600 dark nightmare that Canadians have been faced for three years.

00:31:26.740 Well, that's the thing. The more people, and especially Jane Philpott, who's not regarded as 0.89

00:31:31.920 a schemer or, you know, she's not a rival to Justin Trudeau. It's not like she's doing this to

00:31:39.020 position herself for something. So I think her move has to be taken at face value. I think if another

00:31:47.420 joins her, well, that would be three then. And I think you're right. Let me ask you, do you think

00:31:54.860 Justin Trudeau is going to be thrown out? Or do you think he's going to take, quote, a walk in the

00:32:00.140 snow and say, you know what? I didn't sign up for this. I've made some mistakes. Maybe the Harper ads

00:32:05.260 were right. Maybe I'm just not ready. I'm not having fun anymore. I like having fun. I like being

00:32:10.920 a mascot. I love the soft press. It's hard now. I'm just out of here and I'll go work for the UN or

00:32:17.720 something. Do you think he's going to be thrown out or will he jump out?

00:32:20.460 Well, he won't jump out because, you know, he doesn't, again, I don't think he has great

00:32:25.780 judgment. Right now, I imagine there are 50 people clamoring and saying, you have no option.

00:32:31.060 You've got to leave. You have no option. You've got to leave. And I think it's going to take some

00:32:35.920 time to get that message across. I think there'll be about six, seven ministers that say, look,

00:32:41.100 we're doing the right thing, but we agree with the two ministers left. You make the right decision

00:32:46.660 or we're all gone. So that's going to take some time for him to process it. There is nothing

00:32:53.140 of a future of this, of this liberal government. I think they will replace and get some new people

00:32:59.980 in there and they'll give themselves another shot. But there is, there is no way he can continue.

00:33:06.520 You can't have cabinet ministers say that I don't have confidence in the prime minister.

00:33:10.500 Uh, and, and, and, and, you know, there'll be others. There'll be others.

00:33:15.180 Well, this is very interesting. Permit me one last observation and then I'll let you close the

00:33:19.580 segment. And by the way, Manny, thanks for agreeing to talk with us on very short notice. This literally

00:33:24.440 just broke about an hour ago from when we're talking. So thank you for, for agreeing. No problem.

00:33:30.000 You know, um, one of Stephen Harper's, uh, important legacies was putting in place legal checks and

00:33:38.420 balances to catch precisely this sort of thing. He's the one who set up this legal scheme for the

00:33:44.960 director of public prosecutions to take it out of the politics of cabinet. In a way you could say

00:33:50.460 he was protecting it, building a fence around it. But I guess that fence is sort of electrocuted

00:33:54.940 because the liberals are zapping themselves. They couldn't keep their hands out of the cookie jar 0.99

00:33:58.640 in a way it's Harper's revenge. What do you think of that? Oh, well, that's true. But let's,

00:34:04.240 let me tell your viewers legally what happened. Of course, there's always been a separation between

00:34:10.400 the judiciary and, uh, the, the, the government. Uh, and that has been part of common law and part

00:34:17.780 of parliamentary government for hundreds of years. Uh, the prime minister Harper, who, uh, who, uh,

00:34:24.120 you know, I proudly served, uh, he understood that, you know what, things are going the wrong way.

00:34:30.100 Let me put a legal obligation, not just a constitutional historical obligation. So he

00:34:37.080 changed the law. And what was important was not to, not the separation of, uh, of the public

00:34:44.040 prosecutor, but the, the important thing, Ezra, is he put in the law that if the attorney general

00:34:50.780 overrules the public prosecutor and decision, that must be gazetted, i.e. made public.

00:34:56.980 Mm-hmm. So that was a little, so basically not only do we separate it in law, but we're saying

00:35:03.780 to you, if you make the change, you have a statutory obligation to make it public. And that's when

00:35:10.400 it broke because you had the chief of staff, Katie Teflard say, don't worry, we'll line up a bunch of

00:35:18.440 op-eds to kind of shelter your quote legal, because there must have been a discussion where the attorney

00:35:24.400 general says, you understand my obligation. I now have to tell the world that I reversed the decision

00:35:31.180 of the public prosecutor, and everyone's going to see this as political interference. I don't want to

00:35:37.040 do it. Yeah. And the PMO sat there and said, don't you worry. We'll get 20 op-eds, 30 op-eds, 50 op-eds

00:35:44.780 to say that what you did was legally okay. We will do that for you because you're worried that publicly,

00:35:51.820 you're going to tell the world that you were politically interfering. That's a little bit

00:35:56.960 that the Prime Minister Harper and a very detailed, one of the, I mean, one of the brightest men you'll

00:36:02.980 ever meet, one of the most ethical men you'll ever meet. It was just an honor to serve him. And

00:36:07.960 Canada was blessed by having him as a Prime Minister. We see it now today with the complete opposite of

00:36:15.340 this Prime Minister. Well, just amazing. Manny, once again, we're in your debt. I like to say

00:36:20.360 when you come on the show, it's a masterclass in law and politics and, and media too, frankly. So

00:36:27.820 we're always grateful for your time and expertise. Thanks, my friend. No problem. All right. Take

00:36:31.640 care. Right on. Take care. There you have it. Manny Montenegrino, formerly a senior managing partner

00:36:37.360 at a national law firm, of course, a lawyer to Stephen Harper when he was Prime Minister,

00:36:41.500 and he is now the CEO of Think Sharp. He joined us via Skype from Ottawa. Stay with us. More ahead

00:36:48.020 on The Rebel. Hey, welcome back on my monologue Friday about Trudeau doing well when he's

00:37:02.880 underestimated. Betty writes, maybe before the next election, Trudeau will resign, saying he wants to

00:37:07.940 spend more time with his family. That way he won't be around to lose the election.

00:37:11.500 Being Prime Minister is just too much work for him. You know, Betty, I have been saying that. I'm not

00:37:16.540 saying it's my for sure prediction, but I think it's a greater chance when people think that he'll

00:37:22.760 say, I don't need this. It's not fun anymore. I like being liked. I don't like being hated.

00:37:28.100 You know, it's funny because when you're a conservative, when you're a dissident, when you're,

00:37:32.700 when you're taking an unpopular position, you have to live with the fact that not everyone's going to

00:37:37.140 love you. Stephen Harper, I think was quite fine with the fact that the fact that a good number of

00:37:41.980 people didn't like him. Here at The Rebel, we get smashed around so much by our enemies. You just

00:37:46.300 have to be okay with that. If you're not okay with that, don't work for The Rebel. Go be a weatherman

00:37:49.660 or a sports reporter or something uncontroversial. Justin Trudeau has never really been in the political

00:37:57.140 controversy in his life. He's never really had a tough time. He's never been on the wrong side of a

00:38:02.020 fight because the media are so gentle with him. This is the first time in his life that he's having

00:38:08.420 a tough go. That cover in McLean's magazine, calling him an imposter by his best buddy, Paul

00:38:14.500 Wells. That's got to sting when all these passionate women that he appointed as part of his gender 1.00

00:38:20.420 quota, when they're quitting saying he's unethical, that's got to sting. Now, don't get me wrong.

00:38:25.500 You're not going to see unethical women like Miriam Monsef or Ikra Khaled or Christy Duncan 1.00

00:38:31.300 and Catherine McKenna quit on him. They're loyal to the end. But the actual competent women of 1.00

00:38:35.660 achievement, they're quitting. That's got to sting. I mean, it's one thing when a conservative shoots

00:38:41.820 an arrow at him. But when Jane Philpott, diehard liberal, well-respected, says, yeah, you're a

00:38:49.160 little too corrupt for me, he's not used to that, is he? I think there's a 25% chance he'll quit.

00:38:56.240 Maybe I'm hedging my bets, but I think there's a chance. Daniel writes, interesting to think what

00:39:04.200 would happen if Justin Trudeau's new minister of justice decides to give SNC-Lavilland that deal

00:39:08.300 now. The liberals would never hear the end of it, and they may not get reelected. I'm going to stop

00:39:15.120 you there for a second, because that's their only way out, in my view. I think they've broken the law.

00:39:19.420 Well, I think they've broken section 139.2, the criminal code obstruction. They may have broken

00:39:25.140 other sections as well, including intimidation. But how, see, you're thinking like a conservative.

00:39:31.100 A conservative would say, uh-oh, if you do the nasty, you're going to get in trouble. But no,

00:39:35.600 no, see, a liberal thinks, yeah, so what? Yeah, of course we did. We did it to save jobs.

00:39:42.420 Are you against saving jobs? Are you against kids? We did it to stop global warming. We did it to stop

00:39:47.860 the war in Yemen, or whatever they'll say. Like, they'll say anything. You know, they'll say,

00:39:52.980 they'll admit it's a judo move. Instead of pushing back, they'll just, yeah, of course we did it.

00:40:00.260 It would be shocking if we didn't do it. It'd be shocking if we didn't interfere to save jobs.

00:40:04.460 Well, you don't like jobs anymore? Or do you hate Quebec? Which is it? Do you hate jobs? Or do you

00:40:07.660 hate Quebec? Because you're sure full of hate, Mr. Conservative Islamophobe,

00:40:10.700 gay-bassing, racist, Westerner, rebel convoy oil man? So that's exactly the move they will do. 0.94

00:40:20.300 The only thing that'll stop them, I think, is what we saw today, is someone on the inside who says,

00:40:25.860 I just can't stomach this. And I'm amazed that you have two politicians who'll do that. You know,

00:40:31.360 when was the last time you saw a politician resign on principle? I remember the defense minister in the

00:40:38.320 United Kingdom who missed the warning signs of the Argentine invasion of the Falkland Islands.

00:40:44.540 Was it Hazeltine, his name? I can't remember. That was when I was just a young lad. But he resigned.

00:40:50.700 He resigned. He said, I should have seen it coming. I didn't. What can I do but resign? That's an

00:40:55.840 honorable resignation in the face of a failure. That's very rare in our political culture, isn't it?

00:41:01.920 But how much more rare to resign not because you've done something wrong? Jane Philpott,

00:41:10.260 from all reports, has never done anything wrong. She's too liberal for my taste. But I cannot dispute

00:41:16.740 that the woman has ethics and competence. For her to resign on principle because the government itself 0.94

00:41:23.620 is ethically rotten. In the year of an election when she was a shoe-in in cabinet, that's an even

00:41:32.280 higher level of integrity. I can't believe I'm praising these liberals. These are words I never

00:41:36.880 thought I would say. But it's one thing for a cabinet minister to resign in disgrace over a failure as the

00:41:43.320 British defense minister did 30, 40 years ago. But it's another thing for someone to say, I've seen

00:41:50.080 things that I can no longer stomach, and I must quit because I can't defend. That's a level of integrity

00:41:55.960 I am shocked to see here. Would you agree with me? I'm not saying I agree with Jane Philpott on policy

00:42:02.140 one, two, or three. I'm just saying in terms of ethics, you got to take off your hat to the lady. 1.00

00:42:08.760 Robert says, Rosemary Barton, cats, bubble bath. Holy crap, that's hilarious. Well, I got a little

00:42:15.180 carried away yesterday. But my example today was the same thing, really. Wendy Masley did her show

00:42:22.320 about Donald Trump. He's going to be arrested. Donald Trump Jr. He's going to be arrested any

00:42:26.220 moment. And then you see the dominoes will fall. I mean, that's a bigger conspiracy theory than this

00:42:30.940 whole QAnon thing. And they make a lot of fun of Alex Jones of Infowars. His conspiracy theories

00:42:36.820 were never as Byzantine as those pitched by the kooks at the CBC. Wendy Masley, Rosemary Barton, 0.59

00:42:43.300 they'll talk about anything other than the precious one getting in trouble.

00:42:48.680 On my interview with James O'Keefe about Project Veritas' latest investigation involving Facebook,

00:42:52.720 Liza writes, I'm grateful for James O'Keefe. O'Keefe, he is a warrior. You are so right. And

00:42:57.900 you know, I have the pleasure of meeting him about once a year. I bump into him somewhere.

00:43:01.620 I saw him just after New Year's this year. He's doing so well. And you know, he's just got that

00:43:06.980 discipline and that patience. And boy, he's been metaphorically punched a lot. And he just,

00:43:13.580 you know, like that old song, he gets knocked down, but he gets up again and then they're never

00:43:17.160 going to hold him down. He is, he's got a tenacity, resilience, a bounce backiness. I love

00:43:22.720 that guy. He's great. May we at the rebel have the impact and courage that he shows from Project

00:43:30.980 Veritas. As you can see, I'm a super fan. Well, my friends, what a momentous day. I'm curious what

00:43:37.920 tomorrow will bring. Until then, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, you at home,

00:43:42.680 good night and keep fighting for freedom.

Rebel News Podcast - March 05, 2019

Canada's economy teeters on recession, and Media Party is “shocked”

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