Cancel culture returns — Conservative Party demands the Epoch Times be banned any government funding
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Summary
Aaron O'Toole's MP in Quebec is calling for a newspaper to be defunded, banned, really, because it's too conservative. I'm not even kidding. I'll read you the story from French to English.
Transcript
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Hello, my rebels. Today, I tell you a terrible story out of Quebec.
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It's about Aaron O'Toole's MP out there, his heritage critic, as he's called,
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calling for a newspaper to be defunded, banned, really, canceled culture,
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Aaron O'Toole's guy is trying to cancel a newspaper. I'm not even kidding.
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Before I do, let me invite you to become a Rebel News Plus subscriber.
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We'll show you the article, en France, show you the individuals involved.
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The Conservative Party demands that the Epoch Times be banned from government funding.
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It's March 11th, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.
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Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?
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There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.
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The only thing I have to say to the government about why I publish it
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I don't really know what Aaron O'Toole stands for.
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but he just hired the former vice president of Huawei Canada,
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a position that is effectively a Chinese intelligence asset.
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It's the only thing he truly seems to commit to with passion.
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He had Jim Karahelios kicked out of the Conservative Party leadership campaign.
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He accused Derek Sloan of racism and kicked him out of the party.
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Derek Sloan is no racist, and neither are his visible minority wife and kids.
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widely regarded as the most effective Conservative MP in Parliament,
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Aaron O'Toole needs to be the brightest star in the sky.
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Justin Trudeau himself couldn't help but notice.
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Is he really going to expect us to believe that when I ask him about having the worst vaccination rates,
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the worst jobless rate, among the highest misery rate during COVID,
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the best he can do is stand up and read some talking points that were written for him by his bureaucrats?
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Why can't he show a little bit of contrition for his failures?
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This Prime Minister has cost the most to achieve the worst results,
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and what he expects us now to do is to just continue down this failed path.
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If the Prime Minister wants the confidence of Canadians,
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will he tell them what will he change to reverse the failures that he has delivered thus far?
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You might recall that I did an exclusive interview with Aaron O'Toole about my big China scoop a few months back,
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where I revealed that Canada was actually training Chinese People's Liberation Army troops in cold-weather warfare.
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O'Toole did an email interview with me, and I thought he came across pretty well in it,
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but as soon as we published it, the mean girls of Twitter just sputtered,
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and then O'Toole immediately capitulated to them.
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Here's Andrew Coyne, not particularly articulate, just what in the absolute F?
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Like just sputtering, and that was enough to make Aaron O'Toole panic and cower
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and try to throw us under the bus and say he would never do another interview with us again.
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I'll be honest, losing Aaron O'Toole as an interview subject isn't a particularly grievous loss.
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but his willingness to panic and join any outrage mob of the left does say a lot about him.
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I think it's the one thing he truly believes in.
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It's the one thing he's good at, throwing people away, casting people out, culling the herd.
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I'm just not sure how that's going to grow the coalition to win this year's federal election.
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According to the CBC's poll aggregator, which simply blends every public opinion poll out there,
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if an election were held today, O'Toole would lose more than a dozen MPs.
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And the liberals would pick up more than a dozen MPs.
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So I'm not sure if O'Toole's strategy is working.
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It's in La Presse, which is a left-wing newspaper in Montreal.
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It takes massive handouts from Trudeau, by the way.
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Here's the story in French, but I'm going to show you the Google Translate version of it,
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Grant of $455,000, a helping hand from Ottawa for newspaper font of conspiracy theories.
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Now, what conspiracy theories are they talking about?
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Is it the grand conspiracy theory unanimously promoted by the Canadian mainstream media for
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years that Donald Trump didn't actually win the 2016 election and that he was actually a Russian
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And pretty much every Canadian journalist promoted it, and many still do, even though it's been
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categorically refuted by a team of Democrats led by Robert Mueller after their massive inquiry.
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Maybe they're talking about a conspiracy theory that came true.
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I guess there wasn't a conspiracy theory, but a conspiracy fact.
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Here's a story from October from Trudeau's CBC state broadcaster, saying not to believe
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reports that Trudeau was setting up mandatory quarantine detention facilities and hotels.
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But incredibly, that CBC conspiracy theory story is still online.
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So is this the press story about the government funding those conspiracy theories?
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The Department of Canadian Heritage last March awarded a grant of $455,000 to the Epoch Times,
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a publication which, according to the majority of experts, has been promoting conspiracy theories
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for several years, and which has become a forum for the movements of the far right.
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Well, the Epoch Times, one of the few media outlets that is actually skeptical of communist
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The majority of experts say it's been promoting conspiracy theories.
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An expert in what's right and wrong, what's reasonable or what's not, there's no expert
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Who thinks, like, isn't that just a lazy way of a newspaper saying, we know better than
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And since you don't trust us, we'll say experts say.
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But it's really just us couching our own opinions that way.
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You have to believe us because we're important and we're experts.
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The newspaper, which publishes an edition in 36 countries and in 22 languages, received
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a financial boost from Ottawa through the Canada Periodical Fund on 1st of April 2020,
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Again, I'm just reading from the Google translation here.
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The grant, which was awarded under a special component to support media affected by the crisis
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The newspaper's owner, the Epoch Times Media, also got a second financial boost from Ottawa
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through the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy, according to the Canada Revenue Agency website.
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But it was impossible to know the extent of this financial assistance, the amount not being
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They were actually amongst the most aggressive in lobbying for media bailouts and special tax
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They just don't want people to disagree with them to get the same bailouts.
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In the United States, the Epoch Times openly supported former United States President Donald
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Trump during his years in office, even receiving praise from a former close aide to Mr. Trump,
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Bannon, who claimed to be impressed by the newspaper's growing influence with right-wingers.
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They should be ashamed to have a political point of view that's different from La Presse,
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a left-wing newspaper in a left-wing city, in a left-wing province, in the French language,
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I mean, how dare the Epoch Times' American edition support the American president?
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Founded in 2000 in the United States by Chinese Americans, affiliated with the spiritual movement
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Falun Gong, or Falun Dafa, the newspaper has been very critical to Chinese people.
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Among other things, he accuses her, or it accuses her, this is the translation again,
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of persecuting members of the spiritual movement in China.
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Are we still calling the persecution of the Falun Gong just an accusation?
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Is La Presse saying that the Falun Gong people are not to be trusted, or that they really are
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This isn't religious bigotry from La Presse, is it?
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This isn't just Chinese Communist Party talking points from La Presse, is it?
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Last October, the New York Times ran a lengthy report above the newspaper's management,
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noting that it was one of the promoters of Spygate, a baseless conspiracy theory that
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Obama administration officials illegally spied on Mr. Trump's campaign in 2016.
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That has been incontrovertibly proven true through not only declassified documents, but
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also by disciplinary measures taken against Obama officials who were involved in the illegal
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The Epoch Times also relayed other QAnon conspiracy theories on voter fraud and the Black Lives
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Matter movement, and during the pandemic, the newspaper focused on the unfounded theory
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that the coronavirus was engineered in a Chinese military laboratory at the instigation of the
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I'm not sure about a conspiracy theory with the Black Lives Matter movement.
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I've never heard that as part of the QAnon belief system.
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And I read that Epoch Times story that they mentioned about the theory that the coronavirus
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It absolutely was a theory that the Epoch Times investigated.
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But they talked about it like, I guess, LaPresse is doing.
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But my point is, instead of trying to defend Epoch Times point by point on these subjects,
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which is not really my job, I would say to all these questions by LaPresse, so what?
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So what if the Epoch Times is wrong or right on all these issues?
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Is the rule now that no newspaper is allowed in Canada if it deviates from the mushy left-wing
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The talking points that has reduced Canadian trust in media to an all-time low?
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Let's say the Epoch Times was wrong on every one of those things I just mentioned.
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Isn't part of freedom of the press the right to be wrong?
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Isn't that part of a national discussion, figuring these things out together?
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Now, I'm not going to read this whole thing in LaPresse.
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It's pretty embarrassing for LaPresse, to be frank.
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But look at this comment from Stephen Gilbeau, the heritage minister in charge of the media
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The minister of Canadian heritage, Stephen Gilbeau, indicated that, quote,
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It is undeniable that the past publications of the Epoch Times have conveyed prejudices
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and reproduced stereotypes against Asian communities, particularly on the Internet.
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The pandemic has exacerbated the effect of racism and hatred online on racialized communities.
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We are currently working on a bill that will specifically target hate speech on online platforms.
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However, he insisted that is not his role as minister, quote,
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to determine for Canadians what news content and opinions to read or avoid.
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As a government, our role is to act upstream to prevent, raise awareness, and educate about
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She's the publisher of the Epoch Times in Canada.
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She speaks with a Chinese accent, so I presume she was born there and is a refugee from there
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And yet he sits in cabinet and calls Cindy Gu and other Chinese Canadians who work for the
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But at least while he calls Cindy Gu and other Chinese Canadians who work at Epoch Times,
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while he calls them racist, this mansplaining, whitesplaining, liberal defames her.
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At least he's not calling for her to be cut off from the government teat.
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Conservative MP Alain Reyes said he was outraged that aid was being given to this newspaper when
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How can the Minister of Canadian Heritage justify giving $455,000 to such a controversial newspaper?
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I am not questioning the existence of the newspaper, but the fact that the federal government is
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While our community media are dying out is completely, totally unacceptable.
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So the Liberal Cabinet Minister says he hates the Epoch Times.
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He mansplains to a woman and whitesplains to an Asian Canadian.
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But at the end of the day, he says he will not censor them or shut them down.
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And the Conservative critic, well, hold my beer, he says.
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He's outraged that they're receiving any funds like other media are.
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He wants to punish them, cut them off, demand that the feds cut them off.
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It's the only newspaper or media outlet Alain Reyes has ever ordered or demanded be cut off
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Have you ever heard Alain Reyes say that about the CBC, about the press, about the Toronto
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Star, the National Post, anything that they've been cut off?
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I spent some time searching online, his Twitter feed, his parliamentary speeches.
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I couldn't find such a statement in English or French.
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I have never heard Alain Reyes say that he would cut off the newspaper bailout to all the
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The only newspaper in the entire country, the only media company in the entire country
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that Aaron O'Toole's heritage critic hates so viciously that he wants them cut off and
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he's furious about it is the Epoch Times because they're controversial.
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Even that crackpot convicted criminal Stephen Gilboa won't say that, but Aaron O'Toole's
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So yeah, if you were to ask me today to be as honest as I can be, as fair as I can be,
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and tell you what I really think the core beliefs of Aaron O'Toole's Conservative Party
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are, I would have to say the thing they are most vocal about, most passionate about, most
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consistent about, most angry about, most motivated about, is silencing.
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Silencing people, cancelling people, banning people, deplatforming people, especially it
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Well, it has been well over two years since the two Michaels, Michael Kovrig and Michael
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Spavor, Canadian citizens in China, were snatched off the street in a retaliation to Canada's
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arrest of Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of Huawei.
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And now comes news on a Chinese propaganda website that the two men are headed to trial.
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Let me quote to you from the editor of Global Times, which of course, like all media in China,
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The editor says, Canadian nationals Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor were prosecuted by
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the procuratorates in China for suspected crimes undermining China's national security in June
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Source told me China's judicial department will conduct the first trial over these two cases
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So it sounds like there was a preliminary trial last summer, and now comes the main event,
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of course, the Chinese judicial system is not independent.
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Joining us now via Skype to talk about this is perhaps North America's leading expert on
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China, democracy, and North America-China relations, our friend Gordon G. Chang, who you can follow
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What do you make of this statement by Hu Xijin?
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Obviously, it's just information the Chinese Communist Party wants to deliver to the West.
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Yes, and I think this is basically China's regime trying to put more pressure on your
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The thing the Chinese are doing is dragging this out, because they know that if they actually were
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to sentence both of these guys, that that would sort of remove some of their leverage over Canada.
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So they're just drawing it out, hoping that they can use this to free Meng Wanzhou, the
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Huawei Technologies chief financial officer, who is now under house arrest in Vancouver.
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Well, there was a point in time where the Chinese truly thought Xi would be released from prison.
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I understand they actually chartered a jet and were ready to go into celebration mode.
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Perhaps they thought that our judiciary in Canada was also under the thumb of politicians or bureaucrats
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The fact that they sent a plane, they must have been stunned that it didn't go their way.
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I hate to use that metaphor, but the moment, God forbid, you kill a hostage, you've lost your
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That's sort of what dragging this out is, right?
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And we've also got to remember that a government grabbing innocent people and holding them as
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hostages is pretty much a crime against humanity.
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So we've got to understand the gravity of what China is doing.
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Now, China commits all sorts of human rights abuses.
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And what it's really saying in this case is that it believes that Canada doesn't have free
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will, that it can push Canada around by grabbing the two Michaels.
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And Justin Trudeau, unfortunately, hasn't done very much to disabuse the guys in Beijing of
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Well, recently, there was a vote in Canada's parliament as to whether or not China's treatment
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of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang province was a genocide.
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And the entire cabinet just simply did not show up to vote.
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One single cabinet minister showed up and voted to abstain.
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Justin Trudeau, the foreign minister, they just didn't show their faces.
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Either Trudeau thinks it's a genocide or doesn't, but he wouldn't even show up.
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That seemed like a sign of weakness and indecisiveness to me.
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I don't know how that would be read by Beijing.
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Maybe it was read as a great victory by Beijing since they saw that Trudeau wasn't willing to
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And I'm sure that's the way Beijing saw this, that they've got a lot of people in parliament
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who don't like them, but they don't really care because they believe that when push comes
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to shove, that they can get Justin Trudeau to do what they want.
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And I think that what we're seeing right now is Canada is going to go through some very
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difficult times because Beijing is just generally arrogant.
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But it's especially arrogant when it comes to your government.
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Let me ask you about the United States, because over the years, you and I have talked a lot
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about Donald Trump's China policy, which was very forceful and had a strong point of view.
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And, you know, we could have quarreled with different aspects or the speed of it or, but
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generally, I think Trump was the first president to really take on China in decades.
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I think Joe Biden's been president for about 50 days, long enough that we can see the contours
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Can you give us a quick review of the first 50 days?
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Well, that would be a quick review of his slew of executive orders, because many of them
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either propagated China's narratives, like his one on January 26th on xenophobia, or more
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important, they also took down protections that President Trump put in place.
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The one that I think that is just indefensible in the part of President Biden was that on
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January 20th, just a few hours after taking the oath of office, he repealed President Trump's
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And President Trump's order prohibited utilities and grid operators from purchasing equipment
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from China, which could be compromised and sabotaged.
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And we know from what happened in Texas during the winter storm, what happens when a grid is
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Also, there's been reporting that China turned off the lights in India's Mumbai in October
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of last year, which means that President Trump was thinking about things which were not just
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theoretical, that China was actually doing this stuff.
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So we've got to be concerned that Biden's instincts on China are all wrong.
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And of course, by the way, his national security advisor, Jake Sullivan, his secretary of state,
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Tony Blinken, are going to meet their Chinese counterparts in Alaska on the 18th of this
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You know, I recall Susan Rice, who was Barack Obama's security advisor.
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She did an interview with Canadian media where she warned against Huawei.
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What is the security risk to Canada if it does business with Huawei while the United States
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It's hard for me to emphasize adequately, without getting into classified terrain, how serious
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it is, particularly for countries that are part of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing network
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with the United States, so the U.K., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the U.S., for those countries
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in particular to be reliant on Huawei technology.
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It gives the Chinese the ability, if they choose to use it, to access all kinds of information,
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civilian intelligence, military, that could be very, very compromising.
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So I, much as I disagree with the Trump administration on a number of things, on this, their concern
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There's all kinds of ways that they're doing things around this issue which are unhelpful.
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But on the very specific concern about Huawei, I think it's frankly quite justified.
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In terms of the relationship between Canada and the United States and the rest of the Five
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Eyes, if Canada does business with Huawei in the future, as a matter of protection, would
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the United States have to have a slightly different security relationship with Canada?
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And that will throw the Five Eyes collaboration, which serves the security interests of every
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Canadian and every American, into jeopardy.
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I don't see how we can share in the way we have.
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So that's a leading Democrat thinking about security and foreign affairs.
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I thought, I was a little bit startled by that, frankly, Gordon, because, you know, Barack
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Obama was not known for a hardline foreign policy, but there it was.
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Do you think, where do, which is the new Joe Biden?
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Because she was the national security boss when Biden was VP.
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And the reason is that it's not so much that Biden has changed.
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They've become much more obviously hostile and provocative.
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And that means, as a political matter, Biden's going to have to respond to that.
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We got a very sort of disturbing view into Biden's state of mind on China in that CNN
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town hall with Anderson Cooper when Anderson Cooper just asked him about China's human rights
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And what we got from Biden was, this was just after the oath of office, what we got from
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Biden was essentially, oh, well, you know, these crimes against humanity, this genocide,
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it's just a result of China's different cultural norms.
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Let's just play that really quickly to refresh our viewers' memory.
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You know, Chinese leaders, if you know anything about Chinese history, it has always been the
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time when China has been victimized by the outer world is when they haven't been unified
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So the central, to vastly overstate it, the central principle of Xi Jinping is that there must be
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And he uses his rationale for the things he does based on that.
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I point out to him, no American president can be sustained as a president if he doesn't
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And so the idea, I'm not going to speak out against what he's doing in Hong Kong, what
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he's doing with the Uyghurs in western mountains of China and Taiwan trying to end the one China
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And culturally, there are different norms in each country, and their leaders are expected
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And I noticed that the CNN didn't follow up on it.
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Last question for you, and I really appreciate your time.
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I know you've got so many things on your day, so we're grateful to grab you for a few
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One thing about Donald Trump, like him or hate him, the guy had an energy.
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He would sometimes do a press conference for more than an hour.
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He hasn't done a press conference since becoming president.
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Some people wonder about his stamina and even, frankly, his mental state.
00:30:10.980
Um, I sometimes wonder if Joe Biden is the key decider on these things.
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And, you know, I don't know any unknown details about his health.
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Who do you think, other than Joe Biden, is the center of the action when it comes to foreign
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I don't know, Ezra, but if I had to take a guess, I'd say Jill Biden, his wife.
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And so, um, I was looked for, I'd look to her to basically being the, um, an important
00:30:59.540
Um, because as you point out, uh, there are questions about his mental, um, acuity and
00:31:06.060
And I think she's probably the one who could very well be influential in getting,
00:31:15.540
And we see that she accompanies him sometimes into journalistic interviews.
00:31:23.780
Well, listen, Gordon, it's great to catch up with you again.
00:31:25.760
Once again, folks, if you are not following Gordon on Twitter, you're doing it wrong.
00:31:34.260
You will learn more about China and China-Canada relations, China-America relations than from
00:31:41.160
And as you can see, he's a great communicator and a great friend of ours.
00:32:03.280
Thank you to my friends, Kian and David, for holding the fort while I was away.
00:32:09.520
I just had to go out to Edmonton for, believe it or not, an old legal matter hanging over
00:32:22.360
Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home,