Rebel News Podcast - November 08, 2019


Chinese police now patrol the streets — in Italy. But guess what's going on in Canada...


Episode Stats


Length

41 minutes

Words per minute

159.46764

Word count

6,558

Sentence count

536

Harmful content

Misogyny

2

sentences flagged

Hate speech

14

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Chinese police patrol the streets of Italy on purpose and with the approval of Italian police. Is this any stranger than the way Canadian authorities bend the knee to China? I go through some of the details today, and explain why I think it's pretty crazy.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 I saw the craziest thing online today.
00:00:02.760 Chinese police wearing Chinese police uniforms,
00:00:06.600 patrolling in the streets of Italy on purpose
00:00:10.600 and with the approval of Italian police.
00:00:13.580 I thought it was quite odd.
00:00:15.540 But really, is that any stranger than the way
00:00:17.700 Canadian authorities bend the knee to China?
00:00:19.880 I go through some of the details today.
00:00:23.020 Can I invite you, before I get out of the way,
00:00:24.920 can I invite you to become a premium subscriber?
00:00:27.960 You get the video version of the show,
00:00:31.020 which in this case is sort of important.
00:00:32.520 I want you to see what these Chinese police look like
00:00:36.620 patrolling in Rome.
00:00:38.220 It's almost crazy.
00:00:39.780 It's almost like some, you know, alternative universe sci-fi.
00:00:44.720 You know, what was that one?
00:00:46.740 The Dark Castle or something where if the Axis had won 1.00
00:00:50.880 the Second World War and East Coast America was under the Nazis
00:00:54.220 and West Coast was under the Japanese,
00:00:56.340 like something really, really weird like that,
00:00:59.020 to see Chinese police patrolling in Rome.
00:01:01.260 I wish you could see that.
00:01:02.700 You can by getting the video version of this podcast,
00:01:07.180 which is locked up for our premium members.
00:01:10.240 I want you to become a premium member.
00:01:12.420 Go to premium.rebelnews.com, premium.rebelnews.com.
00:01:16.500 It's eight bucks a month.
00:01:17.740 It's a bargain at twice the price.
00:01:19.160 All right, here's today's podcast.
00:01:20.260 Tonight, Chinese police now patrol the streets in Italy.
00:01:40.100 I wonder what Julius Caesar would say.
00:01:43.260 It's November 7th, and this is The Ezra LeVant Show.
00:01:45.540 Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?
00:01:51.420 There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.
00:01:55.500 The only thing I have to say to the government about why I publish it
00:01:59.000 is because it's my bloody right to do so.
00:02:06.340 I saw an interesting little video produced by a Hong Kong newspaper
00:02:10.800 called the South China Morning Post.
00:02:12.820 It's less than a minute long, and it doesn't actually have any sound,
00:02:16.400 just some elevator music.
00:02:18.120 All the information is conveyed in pictures and words on the screen.
00:02:21.500 It's designed to be something you see on your social media
00:02:24.240 and just scroll through on your phone, not even listening.
00:02:27.520 But can I show you the whole video?
00:02:29.320 It only takes about a minute.
00:02:30.600 Take a look.
00:02:31.000 Take a look.
00:02:32.180 Take a look.
00:02:33.680 Take a look.
00:02:36.680 Take a look.
00:02:43.540 Take a look.
00:02:49.420 Take a look.
00:02:49.960 Take a look.
00:02:50.140 Take a look.
00:02:50.560 Take a look.
00:02:56.320 Take a look.
00:02:56.700 What do you make of that?
00:03:20.300 My own first impression was, wow, Rome used to be the world's mightiest empire
00:03:26.140 with most of the known world under its grip, from Londinium to Alexandria.
00:03:33.980 There was once a time, so it goes, that simply saying,
00:03:39.760 Civis Romanis Sum, was enough to guarantee your safety.
00:03:44.600 I am a Roman citizen.
00:03:47.860 Yeah, now Rome is a city in Italy which is being colonized by China.
00:03:53.320 I mean, what do you call it when a foreign government sends its troops to patrol your streets?
00:04:01.660 Did you see the Coliseum in the background of that little video?
00:04:04.580 Imagine what the Caesars would think.
00:04:07.240 Now, don't let me go too far.
00:04:09.320 It sounds like a short exchange.
00:04:11.560 You saw the stats.
00:04:12.480 It's just 10 Chinese cops, and it's just a three-week tour.
00:04:19.140 They've done this a few times now since 2016.
00:04:22.100 I'm just going by what the South China Morning Post says.
00:04:25.320 I couldn't tell in the videos if the Chinese police are armed,
00:04:29.400 and it looks like they were always accompanied by real Italian police,
00:04:35.620 so they weren't on their own, based on that video only.
00:04:39.360 To be candid, it looks like they were slightly glorified translators.
00:04:45.140 To help with Chinese tourists?
00:04:47.760 Except that doesn't really make much sense, does it?
00:04:50.540 There are plenty of people who speak Chinese around the whole world these days,
00:04:54.380 including in Italy, there are Chinese-Italians, Italian citizens of Chinese descent.
00:05:00.920 There are even travel agents and tour agencies from China that could do that kind of work.
00:05:07.780 But this is very specific, isn't it?
00:05:09.520 It's police in uniform.
00:05:14.040 Most importantly, it's government police from a communist dictatorship.
00:05:19.540 That's the same Chinese police who are brutally suppressing peaceful democracy protests in Hong Kong right now.
00:05:28.900 Remember, police in China are not like police in Canada or police in Italy.
00:05:34.020 They are not independent.
00:05:36.000 They are not non-partisan.
00:05:38.360 The opposite.
00:05:39.220 They're the paramilitary wing of the Chinese Communist Party.
00:05:43.140 They are loyal to the party first, just like the KGB was in the old Soviet Union.
00:05:49.540 So it makes me wonder, what is their true purpose?
00:05:55.100 I think maybe it's to keep an eye on any Chinese people in Italy.
00:05:59.800 Maybe to spy on them.
00:06:01.280 I don't know.
00:06:02.360 Perhaps to tamp down on any Chinese democracy activists in Italy.
00:06:06.960 The same way the Chinese embassies in countries around the world
00:06:09.720 spy on Chinese democracy activists in countries around the world.
00:06:13.900 Because otherwise, I don't think this tourism police thing makes sense.
00:06:18.940 I don't know.
00:06:19.360 Maybe it's to try and find holes in the police force.
00:06:21.940 Try and find someone to bribe.
00:06:23.160 I don't know.
00:06:24.080 I don't get the feeling that these Chinese police would dare yet 1.00
00:06:29.400 to arrest an Italian citizen in Italy.
00:06:34.320 Just judging by the video, it looks like they're really just patrolling with the Italian cops
00:06:38.140 in a secondary role.
00:06:40.880 It feels like an exchange program, a feel-good program.
00:06:43.420 And in a way, that's a good thing.
00:06:47.640 Maybe they'll observe, these communist police, maybe they'll observe that in free countries,
00:06:53.120 police don't take out their truncheons to beat people for peaceful democracy protests.
00:06:58.320 Maybe some of those Western ways of liberty and limited government
00:07:02.180 and police following the law themselves will rub off on these Chinese cops.
00:07:07.500 Except, who am I kidding?
00:07:09.580 That's what everyone's been saying forever.
00:07:12.740 Maybe if we welcome communist China into the United Nations. 0.99
00:07:17.620 Maybe if we push democratic Taiwan aside, China will be more liberal.
00:07:23.800 Maybe if we ignore how China treats the Falun Gong or the Uyghurs or Tibet.
00:07:29.920 Maybe if we give communist China the Olympics. 0.97
00:07:33.160 Maybe if we just pretend they're not stealing all of our industrial technology.
00:07:37.320 Maybe if we just pretend they're not manipulating currency.
00:07:41.680 Maybe if we just pretend they didn't kidnap and hold hostage two Canadian citizens almost a year ago. 0.98
00:07:48.720 Maybe if we just pretend a little bit longer, communist China will learn to be more like us. 0.85
00:07:56.460 No, I don't think so.
00:07:57.720 They'll only learn more about what they can get away with.
00:08:00.480 The Chinese know what Vladimir Lenin knew. 1.00
00:08:04.240 As he famously said, the capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them.
00:08:11.220 And isn't that the case here?
00:08:12.360 I think that to a degree, Westerners would naturally be a little bit resistant to China's wiles if it were not for the money.
00:08:21.220 But Lenin called it, you can simply make a lot of Westerners get over their odium for communism
00:08:26.900 by flashing a few rubles or yuan at them.
00:08:30.120 I mean, the NBA is as woke as it gets about civil rights and criticizing American government abuses.
00:08:39.020 But a few weeks ago when one of their coaches or managers published a tiny little tweet criticizing China in Hong Kong,
00:08:47.560 Oh, my Lord.
00:08:49.540 We all talk about this freedom of speech.
00:08:51.760 Yes, we all do have freedom of speech.
00:08:53.500 But at times there are ramifications for the negative that can happen when you're not thinking about others.
00:08:59.920 You're only thinking about yourself.
00:09:01.300 So I don't believe, I don't want to get into a word or sentence feud with Darryl, with Darryl Morey.
00:09:10.900 But I believe he wasn't educated on the situation at hand.
00:09:14.700 And he spoke.
00:09:16.800 And so many people could have been harmed, not only financially but physically, emotionally, spiritually.
00:09:23.500 So just be careful what we tweet and we say and what we do, even though, yes, we do have freedom of speech,
00:09:30.580 but there can be a lot of negative that comes with that too.
00:09:34.560 Yeah.
00:09:35.340 Who knew that King James, that's his nickname, would bend the knee to the emperor?
00:09:41.720 Got to keep those Chinese endorsement contracts going.
00:09:44.980 Got to shut up any democracy voices. 1.00
00:09:46.960 I think he's more vicious about it than those Chinese police in Italy who seemed rather meek. 1.00
00:09:53.500 But, you know, going and taking hostages can really change someone's mind, even make them overlook a few dollars.
00:10:00.640 And when China kidnapped the two Canadians almost a year ago, it had a dramatic effect.
00:10:05.060 Last year, Canadians were generally positive towards China as a country.
00:10:10.020 I mean, we know Trudeau was, that's for sure.
00:10:13.820 There's a level of admiration I actually have for China.
00:10:18.400 But ordinary Canadians were too, according to all surveys, but then came the double kidnapping.
00:10:26.160 And now, look, this is a new international survey by the liberal but widely respected think tank called Pew Research.
00:10:34.940 This is just from about three weeks ago.
00:10:37.620 Canadians now, well, they hate China.
00:10:41.220 Strong dislike, let's say, 67%, look, Canada, right at the top there, 67% of Canadians have an unfavorable view of China.
00:10:51.720 Only 27% favorable.
00:10:54.980 You know, other than Sweden, which hates them a little bit more, and Japan, which really, really, really hates them. 0.56
00:11:02.300 I'm not sure why Sweden's in there. 0.94
00:11:04.180 Japan has a centuries-old rivalry with China, though.
00:11:07.120 I mean, they've fought each other in wars many times.
00:11:09.320 But Canadians are even more anti-China than Americans, despite Trump's focus on them.
00:11:16.740 China.
00:11:17.360 China.
00:11:17.980 China.
00:11:18.540 China.
00:11:19.020 China.
00:11:19.580 China.
00:11:19.900 China.
00:11:20.440 China.
00:11:20.880 China.
00:11:21.800 China.
00:11:24.540 But look at this.
00:11:26.140 This is my real news of the day.
00:11:28.480 Look at this.
00:11:29.200 This is from the Vancouver Sun.
00:11:30.900 Meng Wanzhou arrest caused UBC leaders' concern over enrollment, fundraising.
00:11:38.720 Internal documents show the email records come at a time when post-secondary institutions around the world have come under increased scrutiny over their ties to China.
00:11:48.280 Would you look at that?
00:11:49.240 Universities.
00:11:50.220 The place of scholarship and ideas and free thinking.
00:11:53.300 In Canada, their top concern about the whole China-Canada thing, the kidnappings that happened after Canada lawfully arrested the woman who was in the bottom of that photo, Meng Wanzhou.
00:12:05.400 She's a senior executive with the Chinese tech firm Huawei.
00:12:09.420 The number one thing UBC was worried about was that sweet, sweet Chinese money.
00:12:13.840 Not about freedom.
00:12:16.260 About money.
00:12:17.260 The university was.
00:12:18.640 Let me read.
00:12:19.140 The vice-provost international told colleagues in an email,
00:12:25.100 A campus-wide meeting was needed, given our significant reliance on China for students and do-re-mi.
00:12:33.080 One theme of the internal discussions was whether UBC needed to take a more vocal stance to counter darker public feelings about China
00:12:41.340 and to respond to critics who were calling on universities to cut or minimize ties with Huawei and other Chinese companies or institutions.
00:12:49.140 So not only was UBC going to continue their relationship with the communist dictatorship that just kidnapped two Canadians,
00:12:57.280 but they were going to volunteer to be a propaganda arm for China in Canada.
00:13:04.780 They weren't going to try and bring Canadian values to China.
00:13:07.040 Oh, were you crazy?
00:13:08.360 They were going to make the case for the communists because of all that money.
00:13:12.400 Lenin had their number.
00:13:13.360 Let me read some more.
00:13:14.880 Huawei sponsors $9.5 million in research agreements with UBC.
00:13:20.840 Campus spokesman Kurt Heinrich said Wednesday,
00:13:24.140 Oh, my God, is that all it took to turn the entire university into a group of prostitutes? 1.00
00:13:30.900 You know, UBC's annual budget is $2.7 billion with a B.
00:13:36.580 That's mainly from Canadian taxpayers.
00:13:38.140 But $9.5 million, that's not even 1%.
00:13:42.360 That's a third of 1%.
00:13:44.020 That's all it takes for a foreign company, a foreign country to corrupt UBC?
00:13:49.020 That is so gross.
00:13:50.780 It's also really pitiful.
00:13:52.820 I mean, I wonder if ISIS came to UBC with $9.5 million or Omar Khadr with his $10.5 million.
00:14:00.100 Would UBC go into PR mode for the terrorists too?
00:14:03.300 Please don't answer.
00:14:06.000 By the way, Huawei isn't just a concern for anti-communists or right-wingers.
00:14:10.880 Here's Barack Obama's national security advisor talking to Canada's state broadcaster the other day about this very subject.
00:14:17.860 It gives the Chinese the ability, if they choose to use it, to access all kinds of information,
00:14:28.120 civilian, intelligence, military, that could be very, very compromising.
00:14:33.300 So much as I disagree with the Trump administration on a number of things, on this, their concern about Huawei, I believe they're right. 0.99
00:14:41.300 As a matter of protection, would the United States have to have a slightly different security relationship with Canada?
00:14:46.700 Yes.
00:14:47.320 And that will throw the Five Eyes collaboration, which serves the security interests of every Canadian and every American, into jeopardy.
00:14:57.300 We just, it can't be done.
00:15:00.820 Can't share.
00:15:01.820 I don't see how we can share in the way we have.
00:15:04.420 It's not a joke.
00:15:06.040 It's truly serious.
00:15:08.540 Do you know what the craziest part of the prostitution of University of British Columbia is?
00:15:12.700 While they were planning their PR propaganda for China, I read you that one quote there, while they were planning to defend the dictators, publicly.
00:15:23.580 That was their public plan.
00:15:25.260 Their private plan, they were privately worried about the safety of their own students over in China.
00:15:30.980 And they were even worried about the UBC president visiting China.
00:15:34.620 Let me quote in, this is, this is from the memo that the dean wrote, in the near term, there was concern about the safety of the students, faculty, and even UBC president Santa Ono, who had trips planned overseas.
00:15:52.420 One email thread carried the subject line, very concerned about Santa's trip to China.
00:15:59.260 And they don't mean Santa Claus, they mean Santa Ono.
00:16:01.300 So, you're embarking on a PR campaign to whitewash a regime that's so dangerous that you're thinking of not even sending your own university president over there?
00:16:12.440 How corrupt they are.
00:16:15.560 Hey, how come taxpayers have to pay for this?
00:16:17.560 I mean, Canadian taxpayers.
00:16:20.160 I know why Chinese taxpayers do. 1.00
00:16:23.020 I know what they get out of it.
00:16:25.020 We all know.
00:16:27.400 Stay with us for more.
00:16:28.560 The other day, I interviewed the head of Wexit.
00:16:30.340 That's Nick.
00:16:43.080 Welcome back.
00:16:44.420 Well, mere hours after the election results on October 21st, the word Wexit started to trend on social media.
00:16:54.120 It's a takeoff of the word Brexit, the referendum by which United Kingdom voters voted to leave the European Union.
00:17:02.560 The last three years have passed and they have not yet exited.
00:17:06.640 But can Alberta and or other western parts of Canada exit from confederation?
00:17:13.780 That's a question that's not just the stuff of social media now.
00:17:17.480 Well, pollsters say the idea is gaining traction, not just in Alberta, but other western provinces too.
00:17:24.500 In the meantime, Jason Kenney, the premier of Alberta, says that he hopes to find a stronger place for Alberta within Canada.
00:17:31.560 Well, which will happen or do they both work in tandem?
00:17:36.140 Joining us now via Skype from Edmonton is Peter Downing, the boss of WexitAlberta.com, a website and Facebook group that got a lot of the momentum in those early days.
00:17:48.700 Peter, thanks very much for joining us here on Rebel News.
00:17:52.080 Hey, thanks for having me, Ezra.
00:17:53.040 Well, it's nice to talk with you.
00:17:55.840 We've heard so much about you, including from absolutely predictable critics who I think are criticizing in bad faith.
00:18:05.360 They would criticize anyone who stands up for western values or against liberal or Trudeau values.
00:18:11.340 But I just want to ask you some basic familiarization questions for myself and our viewers who are curious about you and the website and your plans.
00:18:21.080 Why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself?
00:18:23.000 You seem like a youngish guy from Alberta.
00:18:25.760 What's your background?
00:18:27.740 My background is youngish, 37.
00:18:31.840 I spent two years with the Canadian Armed Forces, nine years with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police after my public sector service.
00:18:40.620 Went back on education in business, project management, change management, continuous process improvement.
00:18:46.300 I'm actually doing a PhD right now in industrial psychology.
00:18:49.960 But my heart for this is whether it's seeing government policy translate into poor choices that, you know, my friends had died in the line of duty as a result of, or whether it's my friends and neighbors over 100,000 Albertans who are out of work.
00:19:05.840 We have 16-year-old Greta Thunberg coming to Edmonton with all sorts of fanfare.
00:19:10.960 But there's enough 16-year-old girls here in Alberta whose dads are out of work right now.
00:19:14.840 They don't have certainty.
00:19:16.760 People drawing out of their savings right now to even take care of medical expenses.
00:19:21.280 So much uncertainty.
00:19:22.280 200 more people got laid off with Husky Energy the day after the election.
00:19:27.440 And Canada is now going south.
00:19:28.960 They're rebranding.
00:19:29.780 They're going to be American. 0.88
00:19:30.740 And we have a prime minister and an Eastern Canadian political establishment that simply doesn't care, that simply wants to tell us to buck up, to diversify our economy, to slap on a sales tax.
00:19:42.740 And the reality is the only leverage that we have is our geopolitical leverage, our trillions of dollars of resources, our young, hardworking, dedicated, intelligent labor force, and our lawful ability to leave the Confederation of Canada.
00:19:55.900 All right.
00:19:56.240 Well, you talked about a bunch of things there.
00:19:58.080 Let me just ask a little bit more on the biography.
00:20:00.120 Have you yourself ever run for public office?
00:20:03.180 I mean, I think you're an entrepreneur.
00:20:06.400 You've got the website.
00:20:07.500 You've got the names and the list.
00:20:09.400 I think you had a town hall-style meeting in Edmonton, if I'm not mistaken, with over 700 people there.
00:20:14.900 900.
00:20:15.480 900.
00:20:16.200 Congratulations.
00:20:16.920 So you've got some ability to organize.
00:20:19.180 I think you were nodding when I asked if you've run for office.
00:20:22.120 Have you run for office before?
00:20:23.800 Yeah.
00:20:24.320 My first kind of kick at the cat getting involved in the whole electoral sphere.
00:20:28.540 I actually, my first time doing any kind of politics, was volunteering for the Wild Rose Party in 2015 for one of the candidates here in Edmonton during that provincial election.
00:20:40.920 So I got my feet wet there that way.
00:20:42.780 And then I actually got some experience.
00:20:45.500 I ran for the Christian Heritage Party in 2015 in the fall.
00:20:49.440 Really, I'd always been a card-carrying conservative member.
00:20:53.740 I had a fundamental issue with the arms treaty deal with Saudi Arabia.
00:21:00.920 Again, we have a law that protects against, you know, that says that you can't give advanced military weaponry to regimes that have a likelihood of using it on their own people, abusively.
00:21:11.640 So that was that.
00:21:12.780 And I ran.
00:21:13.480 I got some experience with the Christian Heritage Party.
00:21:15.620 I'm not a member of that party anymore.
00:21:17.440 Since then, I've managed some political campaigns for candidates municipally, as well as being involved in other political organizations and groups moving forward until I got involved in the election.
00:21:30.180 Actually, I registered Alberta Fights back as a third-party political advertiser with Elections Alberta and then moved into the election project.
00:21:39.640 Okay.
00:21:40.480 I mean, obviously, you can organize something if you've got 950 people showing up.
00:21:45.100 Do you have a bit of a team?
00:21:46.360 Are there other people working with you?
00:21:49.120 That's right.
00:21:49.580 We have a fantastic team within Edmonton and across the prairies.
00:21:54.640 We've just got the best talent, the best people.
00:21:57.400 Again, the majority of it's all self-funded.
00:22:00.540 We've had fantastic interest from people who bought memberships.
00:22:03.400 Our membership sales have exploded.
00:22:05.740 So what's a membership?
00:22:08.160 I just want to finish that last point.
00:22:10.880 It is definitely not a one-man show.
00:22:12.480 A membership in what?
00:22:15.080 Are you an organization or a club?
00:22:18.360 Or what does a membership give someone?
00:22:22.820 Well, just like any other organization, whether it's a club or...
00:22:26.380 We're obviously in the registration process now.
00:22:29.960 Wexit Alberta has become a member.
00:22:33.180 We're in the process right now of...
00:22:35.420 Wexit Alberta was launched on June 9th to bring together the smaller conservative, non-UCP independence elements together
00:22:43.240 to try to bring something credible and cohesive that would move toward getting, obviously, winning seats in the legislature.
00:22:51.080 And that would be willing to legislate a bill or draft a bill to legislate a referendum on separation
00:22:56.660 if the current UCP government, for whatever reason, decides they're going to maintain their Federalist line.
00:23:03.040 Okay.
00:23:03.600 So let me ask you this, because I saw in the news that you have sent in...
00:23:09.260 I'm just looking at the CTV story here, 500 signatures to Elections Canada to register as a federal party.
00:23:20.540 Is that accurate?
00:23:21.780 And how does that...
00:23:22.720 You were just mentioning the Alberta legislature.
00:23:27.160 And then earlier you said you had some experience on the municipal level.
00:23:29.860 So do you intend...
00:23:31.900 Is it going to be a federal party or a provincial party or a movement?
00:23:35.860 So we...
00:23:37.780 In the next coming days, we're just drafting up kind of like a pictorial kind of explanatory org chart
00:23:43.220 so that everybody can kind of look at it at a glance.
00:23:45.540 And it makes sense to everybody, because there are a number of moving parts.
00:23:49.000 So we...
00:23:50.060 What you saw on the news is we filed our official registration with requests for registering our political party federally
00:23:57.300 with Elections Canada.
00:23:58.620 So basically to do for Western Canada what the Bloc Québécois does for Quebec.
00:24:03.520 We want to promote the unity of the four Western provinces.
00:24:07.500 We want to have a seat, obviously federally, and to fight back against any legislation
00:24:11.760 or regulation that harms Western Canadian interests.
00:24:16.000 And obviously as well to bring Western Canadian issues to the national forefront.
00:24:20.640 As well, having runners on base, you know, when...
00:24:23.780 We're successful in a referendum to help have favourable parliamentary negotiations with a province who decides to leave.
00:24:32.000 And also what it does do, too, is it creates basically a choice.
00:24:36.040 Based on the success of the Reform Party in the 80s and the 90s, we do expect to be successful here.
00:24:42.720 Ontario, as we know, keeps electing more liberal members of Parliament,
00:24:46.780 which obviously would have made it tough for the Conservatives to win government anyway.
00:24:50.320 So it creates this wedge that it sets a political dynamic that it's going to be either perpetual liberal governments
00:24:56.460 or we vote to gain our economic liberty, our social stability, and our self-determination here in Alberta.
00:25:03.220 The door for us was locked on the inside.
00:25:05.020 Wexit Alberta was the brand that we launched to bring together groups like the Freedom Conservative Party,
00:25:10.400 the Alberta Independence Party, Alberta Advantage Party, and again, lots of personalities, moving pieces.
00:25:15.920 Sometimes it doesn't work as quick as possible.
00:25:17.860 All right, well, let me interrupt you, Peter, because I just want to figure it out.
00:25:21.680 Listen, I share a lot of your views and a lot of your frustration.
00:25:25.600 I'm just trying to understand a little bit of the plan.
00:25:28.540 And maybe you're still working that out.
00:25:30.740 And by the way, I think that's a good answer to say we're still figuring it out,
00:25:35.700 because it's only been two weeks since the election, and you've only had this idea for a few months.
00:25:42.240 You mentioned having a federal party.
00:25:45.720 But do you need, if WEXIT is really about an exit, do you need the provincial government to have the referendum?
00:25:55.920 I'll admit I haven't read the Clarity Act recently, and I haven't reviewed the Supreme Court's treatment of it,
00:26:01.760 so I should probably do that.
00:26:03.600 But don't you need to have strength provincially?
00:26:07.080 Yes, we do.
00:26:07.820 So how does that, are you going to get a provincial party too?
00:26:12.420 Right.
00:26:13.280 So the WEXIT Alberta brand, just to explain that piece again, that other side of it,
00:26:17.740 whether it takes the form of, let's say, for instance, the other groups aren't able to work together,
00:26:22.940 unify, and slap the WEXIT Alberta name on themselves,
00:26:26.400 if there still is disunity or dysfunction or a lack of organizational capacity,
00:26:30.200 then we will look to register WEXIT Alberta as a provincial political party.
00:26:34.280 Hopefully we don't have to go down that road.
00:26:36.640 We have a lot of support from industry here in Alberta, industry, labor, indigenous communities,
00:26:41.740 immigrant interests, immigrant communities, senior citizens.
00:26:46.140 Again, public sector as well, private sector, everybody,
00:26:48.800 because this isn't a left-wing versus right-wing issue.
00:26:51.300 It really is a Western Canadian issue.
00:26:53.680 But everybody really wants to see Jason Kenney have the chance.
00:26:57.700 I know he said he's a Federalist, but again, lots of people are kind of counting on him
00:27:02.160 and hoping that he's going to lead us out of Confederation,
00:27:05.900 that he's going to implement an enhanced version of the firewall letter that we call the Infernal Wall.
00:27:11.320 So in addition...
00:27:12.240 Listen, I mean, I don't claim to be the closest Jason Kenney confidant,
00:27:17.680 but I have known the man for 20 years, 30 years.
00:27:23.880 And the idea that he would lead Western separatism is not only something that I have never heard him say
00:27:32.580 in public or in private, even when we were young friends.
00:27:35.940 And I'm not that close to him these days, obviously.
00:27:38.320 But it seems so obvious to me that he is a Federalist, that he has said as much.
00:27:48.320 His consultations are how to strengthen Canada within Confederation.
00:27:52.860 It seems so patently obvious.
00:27:56.060 He's not your man.
00:27:58.240 And even his own political destiny seems so focused on...
00:28:01.880 I mean, he speaks French, English, bilingually.
00:28:04.260 He's got all these...
00:28:04.820 Maybe he's starting to become the Prime Minister.
00:28:06.980 We don't know.
00:28:07.520 Well, that's...
00:28:08.400 So how...
00:28:10.640 Because it needs to...
00:28:11.840 Because, Ezra, because it needs to be spelled out for everybody who thinks...
00:28:16.620 Everybody who thinks that Jason Kenney will lead them out of Confederation,
00:28:20.660 whether they're the, you know, the voter...
00:28:22.900 Well, he's not gonna.
00:28:23.960 I'll just...
00:28:24.620 Let me save you some time.
00:28:25.640 He's not gonna.
00:28:26.260 And that's the point.
00:28:27.680 I know he's not going to.
00:28:29.600 But some people believe that he will.
00:28:30.920 So we want to be in good faith with a political mood and say,
00:28:33.940 hey, here's your chance to be a hero.
00:28:35.860 Here's your chance to be the first president of Alberta because the reality,
00:28:39.360 the electoral math, whether it's just Ontario becoming more liberal on their own,
00:28:43.880 but with us winning, let's say, 50 seats in Western Canada,
00:28:47.140 the Conservative Party of Canada will never win government again.
00:28:49.860 So it's a choice between perpetual liberal governments
00:28:52.940 or voting for economic liberty, social stability, and self-determination.
00:28:57.160 Okay.
00:28:57.320 Voting to leave.
00:28:57.780 Now, and I'm not trying to nitpick.
00:29:03.180 I'm just trying to understand.
00:29:05.480 Sure.
00:29:05.900 Because you talked about Alberta and president of Alberta or whatever.
00:29:10.460 What's your desired outcome?
00:29:13.160 I guess, like, if you could look ahead 5, 10, 20 years,
00:29:18.240 what do you want it to be?
00:29:20.680 Right.
00:29:20.880 Alberta, a stronger Alberta within a stronger Canada.
00:29:25.280 That's probably what Jason Kenney would say.
00:29:27.840 An independent Alberta or an independent West.
00:29:30.860 You talked about unifying the Western provinces.
00:29:33.320 Like, I'm just trying to understand where you go and wex it,
00:29:36.320 but you're running federal candidates.
00:29:38.120 Again, I'm not trying to trick you or trap you.
00:29:40.100 I'm just trying to understand what you're doing.
00:29:42.580 There's a number of moving parts.
00:29:44.140 So I'm trying to keep it, obviously, as direct and on point,
00:29:47.280 but also, obviously, it's clear, too.
00:29:50.720 So the vision is simply this.
00:29:53.740 We're marching towards independence.
00:29:55.980 We're marching towards our sovereignty.
00:29:57.940 The Wexit Canada, in a sense, is the shield,
00:30:00.180 fighting back against federal regulation, Bill C-69, C-48,
00:30:04.460 whatever other horrible thing Justin Trudeau is going to come up with,
00:30:07.060 his new green economic plan that, you know,
00:30:09.920 when he announces his cabinet ministers on November 20th.
00:30:12.760 So Wexit Canada, in one sense, serves as a shield.
00:30:14.900 Well, and also as a catalyst to help the provincial separatist parties
00:30:20.200 in each of the four provinces,
00:30:21.780 obviously more stronger in Alberta and Saskatchewan,
00:30:25.100 but Northern BC is very supportive.
00:30:26.680 But what separatist parties?
00:30:27.580 Like, I don't...
00:30:29.300 Are there separatist parties in the four Western provinces?
00:30:32.680 Oh, they are starting.
00:30:34.220 There will be Wexit, BC, Wexit, Alberta,
00:30:36.460 Saskatchewan, Wexit, Manitoba.
00:30:38.160 Absolutely.
00:30:39.080 100%.
00:30:39.560 And are those going to be something that you organize?
00:30:42.920 I'm involved in the organization with it right now.
00:30:47.100 All right.
00:30:49.120 So, anyway, I won't press you more on that.
00:30:51.820 I was just trying to...
00:30:52.540 I'm just trying to understand.
00:30:53.820 What I can say very clearly, Ezra, is this is...
00:30:56.960 We're marching towards independence.
00:30:58.800 So if the powers to be in Eastern Canada,
00:31:01.720 in Ontario, in Quebec, in the Senate,
00:31:03.780 all of it, say, okay, we will open up the Constitution.
00:31:07.180 We will have an equal, elected, and effective Senate.
00:31:09.460 We will have proper regional represent...
00:31:12.020 Or, sorry, regional representations for the provinces.
00:31:16.880 I live in a riding with 177 people.
00:31:19.940 177,000 people per one member of Parliament.
00:31:22.860 An Atlantic Canadian has a member of Parliament
00:31:24.960 for every 38,000.
00:31:26.380 So to be able to even out the seat count,
00:31:29.400 scrap the carbon tax, scrap bills, D69,
00:31:31.800 scrap unfair equalization programs.
00:31:33.940 Then I think that we have a basis
00:31:35.140 and allow free trade throughout the country.
00:31:37.340 Then I think we have a basis to be part of a country.
00:31:41.640 But until those things happen,
00:31:43.040 and the ball is in the court of Eastern Canada,
00:31:44.720 obviously you saw that Canadian Senators group,
00:31:48.700 those 11 people, I think five of them
00:31:50.240 only happen to be from the West,
00:31:52.180 they're going to focus on regional issues.
00:31:54.040 We don't have an equal, elected, effective Senate,
00:31:56.020 not like advanced democracies like Australia or Germany
00:31:59.220 or the United States or even Russia.
00:32:01.300 You recognize that you have to have balance for the region
00:32:03.480 so you don't have the tyranny of the masses voting to out-tack
00:32:07.680 and out-regulate the less populated, more resource-rich areas.
00:32:12.600 So I think if they want to open that up
00:32:14.960 and say that, you know, we need to do this,
00:32:16.740 then I think there's a basis to continue to be a part of the country
00:32:19.800 because otherwise we are marching towards separation.
00:32:22.700 All right, so are you going to be the leader of the party?
00:32:28.120 Or are you the leader?
00:32:28.960 I am the leader of Wexit Canada.
00:32:31.640 And that's seeking registration as a party.
00:32:34.860 Will you have a party leadership contest
00:32:38.420 or will you just sort of be the leader?
00:32:41.600 You just see how it goes for now.
00:32:43.100 The reality is about effectiveness.
00:32:44.880 It's not about me.
00:32:46.880 It's not about anybody.
00:32:47.880 It's about achieving the effect and achieving the result,
00:32:50.480 which, by the way, I think we're doing right now.
00:32:52.500 We're already having this national conversation.
00:32:55.320 And I think that whether it be,
00:32:56.380 I think Diane Francis wrote in the business post-financial post
00:32:59.900 that Alberta needs a new deal right away or separation is inevitable.
00:33:04.100 I think the people who are paying attention,
00:33:06.000 and again, it takes me, you know, there's moving pieces.
00:33:08.220 We've got to explain the plan maybe one, two, or three times.
00:33:11.200 But when they see how it results in the electoral math
00:33:13.760 and the disposition of voters here in Alberta,
00:33:16.760 recognize that this is going to happen
00:33:19.660 if something drastic isn't taken to ensure
00:33:23.540 that our interests here in Western Canada are protected.
00:33:26.180 Because we simply won't allow, you know,
00:33:28.720 our well-being and our futures and the future of our children,
00:33:31.680 our grandchildren to be contingent on the benevolence
00:33:34.180 of Justin Trudeau or Eastern Canada.
00:33:36.160 That's not a sound plan.
00:33:37.600 All right.
00:33:38.020 Well, I will look forward to you fleshing things out.
00:33:42.340 And again, I feel like I don't want to cross-examine you here.
00:33:46.140 You're a lawyer.
00:33:47.600 It's okay.
00:33:48.180 I just, I'm trying to, like, I was a young man once,
00:33:52.480 and I observed Preston Manning do the extremely hard work,
00:33:58.260 200 nights a year on the road,
00:34:00.160 of building a political party from scratch.
00:34:02.680 And by the way, in those early days,
00:34:04.940 he only ran candidates in the four Western provinces.
00:34:09.000 So it sounds...
00:34:10.060 We've learned from our friends who were early reformers, too,
00:34:13.660 and that was the biggest mistake they made,
00:34:15.580 was running candidates east of Manitoba.
00:34:17.520 We are only running candidates in Western Canada.
00:34:20.740 And again, for the purpose to be...
00:34:22.360 And again, I'm not trying to argue with you,
00:34:23.940 but the lesson I learned,
00:34:25.720 and I was Preston Manning's assistant for a couple years,
00:34:27.880 I saw some of it,
00:34:29.700 was the Reform Party guaranteed three liberal majorities in a row
00:34:37.320 because it was trying to do things in the federal parliament.
00:34:41.400 government, its motto was the West wants in.
00:34:44.540 I don't know if its motto was the West wants out,
00:34:47.020 would have been stronger.
00:34:48.540 But I don't want to go back on that again,
00:34:52.860 but I'm just not sure how sending MPs to Ottawa fixes the problem.
00:35:00.940 But let me move off that,
00:35:02.760 because I think you're just going to have to figure these things out
00:35:06.020 and flesh them out.
00:35:06.580 You've told me that's what you're doing.
00:35:07.740 So you've got exactly what we're trying to do.
00:35:11.520 We're trying to keep...
00:35:12.120 I don't.
00:35:12.880 I don't.
00:35:13.640 I mean, I'm rooting for you.
00:35:14.920 I'm just trying to understand what you're saying.
00:35:17.000 Let me ask you more concrete questions.
00:35:18.640 You had this event in Edmonton.
00:35:20.560 We'll be sure to cover them.
00:35:22.200 I'm not sure why we missed that one,
00:35:23.920 but we'll keep our eyes peeled for your other events.
00:35:25.580 Come on down to Calgary.
00:35:26.480 We'll be in Calgary on November 16th,
00:35:28.480 and the event's expected to be bigger.
00:35:30.540 We'll have a live band this time.
00:35:31.860 November 16th, you're having an event in Calgary.
00:35:34.700 And who's speaking?
00:35:35.260 We'll stay up to date on...
00:35:37.180 We're just trying to find a venue big enough right now.
00:35:39.400 We're almost there.
00:35:40.460 But to stay updated,
00:35:41.520 go onto our website at wexitevents.com,
00:35:45.200 and you'll see everything that we've got lined up.
00:35:47.000 Okay, so you've got Edmonton,
00:35:48.240 and you've got Calgary coming up.
00:35:49.520 Are you doing anything in the other Western provinces?
00:35:52.040 We'll be in Red Deer on November 30th.
00:35:55.640 And then in the new year,
00:35:57.380 I'm expected to be out in Saskatchewan
00:35:59.240 helping start to develop the grassroots,
00:36:03.260 the grassroots, the CAs,
00:36:05.100 and all that kind of stuff,
00:36:06.280 and the structure and the leadership group out there.
00:36:08.520 So I'll be doing a little bit of traveling
00:36:09.820 in Saskatchewan in the new year.
00:36:11.440 And who will be speaking at these events?
00:36:13.920 Obviously, you will.
00:36:15.360 Will there be other speakers in Calgary and Red Deer?
00:36:19.520 Yes, there will.
00:36:20.240 You've got to show up to see who they are.
00:36:23.540 Fair enough.
00:36:24.220 Well, listen, Peter,
00:36:25.200 I appreciate you taking the time.
00:36:26.620 I like your entrepreneurial spirit.
00:36:31.540 You clearly struck a chord,
00:36:33.680 and we know that that's true
00:36:34.900 because we see it in the polls,
00:36:36.560 and we see it in the abuse you're already taking
00:36:38.500 from some of the snide journalists out east.
00:36:42.580 Yeah, yeah.
00:36:43.660 We got lawyers to deal with some of that stuff.
00:36:47.400 Some of the stuff we don't care about.
00:36:49.220 The other stuff that's the lie.
00:36:50.280 Well, I know my history enough to know
00:36:53.420 that Doug Christie,
00:36:55.040 the former leader of the Western Canada Concept,
00:36:57.500 he sued his critics,
00:36:59.000 and he wound up in court for a decade.
00:37:00.840 I wouldn't recommend being a politician who sues.
00:37:05.200 I mean, and I say that as someone
00:37:06.580 who's in too much litigation myself.
00:37:08.900 But listen, I'm glad you came on the show today.
00:37:13.060 I like your entrepreneurial spirit.
00:37:15.040 I love the work you guys do.
00:37:16.340 Thank you very much.
00:37:17.060 I'll tell you, and I'll tell my viewers,
00:37:20.520 I look forward to the plan
00:37:22.180 and the strategy and the philosophy
00:37:25.820 being more ironed out
00:37:29.240 because I don't quite understand it.
00:37:32.880 We're going to make it very,
00:37:34.040 we're making it clear.
00:37:35.420 We have it ironed out.
00:37:37.360 We just have to figure out
00:37:38.180 how to communicate it better.
00:37:39.320 But you'll see that soon.
00:37:40.440 All right.
00:37:40.800 Well, I look forward to that.
00:37:41.680 I won't keep you any longer.
00:37:42.700 I'm grateful for your time.
00:37:44.000 We're interested in what you're doing.
00:37:45.900 And we'll follow it along with the other people
00:37:49.480 trying to make sense of the mess we're in.
00:37:51.880 So, Peter, I'll leave it there.
00:37:53.340 Thanks very much for joining us today.
00:37:55.700 Thank you, Ezra.
00:37:56.240 I really appreciate it.
00:37:57.120 All right.
00:37:58.020 There you have it.
00:37:58.780 Peter Downing is the founder of Wexit,
00:38:03.300 who has applied for a federal party registration.
00:38:07.220 And you heard the man.
00:38:08.300 He's got events coming up in Calgary on November 16th
00:38:11.500 and Red Deer on November 30th.
00:38:14.200 Stay with us.
00:38:14.860 More ahead on the road.
00:38:24.440 Hey, welcome back.
00:38:25.480 I did that segment just before I got my haircut,
00:38:28.060 so it was out of order.
00:38:29.000 I hope you don't mind.
00:38:30.040 On my monologue yesterday about the 11,000 so-called scientists
00:38:32.920 signing off on a letter, Jan writes,
00:38:35.520 finally a show we could get a laugh from.
00:38:37.520 Thank you.
00:38:38.240 Am I paying these screwballs at CBC to promote a joke?
00:38:41.100 A hoax?
00:38:41.960 Because that's what this is.
00:38:42.820 What a great show tonight.
00:38:43.960 Well, thank you very much, Jan.
00:38:45.860 I went through it, and I just didn't know what I was going to find.
00:38:49.420 It was basically the same as saying, hey, click like on my Facebook post.
00:38:54.280 There was no screening.
00:38:55.860 It was fortuitous that the jokester was in the W's.
00:39:00.580 I went through alphabetically, so A, B, C, and it was only when I got to the W.
00:39:04.780 And I was sort of pooped by then because I was getting a little crazy.
00:39:07.380 I was Googling all these names.
00:39:08.540 It was all blurring in my mind.
00:39:09.800 When I got to the W's and I got that one jokester, he just made me laugh so hard.
00:39:14.080 Liz writes, that guy from Hamilton who signed as one of the scientists needs to come on the show.
00:39:19.320 What an epic troll.
00:39:20.520 That was entertainment.
00:39:21.920 You know what?
00:39:22.580 I just saw that.
00:39:23.580 I saw BS, detection, and analysis.
00:39:29.780 I mean, normally I would say, yeah, that's really funny.
00:39:33.300 But I had just spent a couple hours going through so much gobbledygook.
00:39:38.540 I thought, well, maybe that means something in some scientific jargon.
00:39:41.840 I mean, BS can sometimes stand for Bachelor of Science, or maybe that's BSC.
00:39:47.060 I don't know.
00:39:47.480 I was so up to my eyeballs in bureaucratic lingo.
00:39:51.020 I thought maybe BS, detection, and analysis was some fancy thing.
00:39:54.700 It was just some guy from Hamilton.
00:39:59.020 Oh, he made me laugh.
00:40:01.080 Phil writes, nice to know that Hans Wienerholder is in our corner.
00:40:07.000 They're expertly detecting and analyzing BS.
00:40:11.840 You know, I just, it took me a while to figure out who he was.
00:40:16.080 When I went to his Facebook page and I saw him in the mask, I thought, maybe that's some
00:40:19.600 Antifa guy.
00:40:20.340 Could be.
00:40:21.260 Then I saw him fishing in a MAGA hat, Make America Great Again hat, and I thought, no,
00:40:26.000 this guy's having some fun.
00:40:27.520 And I should reach out to him.
00:40:29.600 He was wearing a Make Canada Great Again hat, which is our hat.
00:40:33.600 So he must have some connection to the rebel in some way.
00:40:36.420 I'll try and track him down.
00:40:37.880 We can have a good laugh.
00:40:38.680 You know, that's a good idea.
00:40:39.180 Thanks for the tip.
00:40:39.980 I'll see if we have his email or something.
00:40:42.860 I'll reach out to him.
00:40:44.760 Anyways, that's the show for tonight.
00:40:46.540 Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World High Borders, good night.
00:40:50.620 Keep fighting for freedom.
00:40:51.720 You know, I'll be right back.
00:41:03.080 We'll see you next time.