Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ A major church in Toronto is burnt to a crisp and all the media cares about is the architectural loss

00:00:00.000 Hello, my friends. I went to the scene of the St. Anne's Anglican Church in Toronto.

00:00:05.680 That's the big church that was burnt down on Sunday morning. I chatted with some firefighters

00:00:11.040 and I'll give you my thoughts about what happened. But first, let me invite you to become a subscriber

00:00:15.420 to Rebel News Plus. That's the video version of this podcast. Just go to rebelnewsplus.com,

00:00:21.000 click subscribe. It's eight bucks a month, but you get all the video version of the show

00:00:25.840 and the satisfaction of keeping Rebel News strong, because we don't take any money from

00:00:31.060 Trudeau and it shows. All right, here's today's podcast.

00:00:49.540 Tonight, a major church in Toronto is burnt to a crisp, and all the media cares about is the

00:00:55.820 architectural loss. It's June 11th, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.

00:01:01.040 Shame on you, you censorious bug.

00:01:15.560 Hi, folks. I have an interesting show for you today. In a few minutes, I'll introduce you again

00:01:19.540 to my friend Franco Teresano. We're going to go over the latest weird statement by Chrystia Freeland.

00:01:24.680 She implied that if we don't raise taxes, there's going to be like some Hunger Games sci-fi dystopian

00:01:33.480 revolt, and people will climb over the gated fences of rich people and skewer them or something. It was

00:01:39.180 sort of really crazy, and it was really crazy for a finance minister whose party has been in power for

00:01:44.460 almost 10 years to say, didn't you make the mess we're in? Anyway, we'll talk about that a little later.

00:01:50.920 But first, I want to show you a video I recorded on the streets yesterday.

00:01:55.340 We just did it late in the day, so we didn't have the chance to show it yesterday. We're going to show it

00:01:59.680 today. A large and impressive church, almost a cathedral, beautiful on the inside, to be sure,

00:02:06.880 went up in smoke. It was a four-alarm fire. It was the first thing on Sunday morning. Luckily,

00:02:12.760 no one was hurt. I stopped by and looked around, and I talked without a camera to a number of the

00:02:20.380 firemen, and I'd like to show you a report I put together on the scene of St. Andrew's Anglican

00:02:27.040 Church. Here, take a look. Ezra Levant here for Rebel News. I'm in Midtown Toronto. Behind me,

00:02:35.160 the charred remains of a major church in Canada, St. Anne's Anglican Church, a mighty church more

00:02:43.520 than 100 years old, a massive edifice in this community, burnt to a crisp, a four-alarm fire

00:02:51.280 earlier. Early yesterday morning, you can see fire crews are still here en masse. Almost a dozen

00:02:57.640 vehicles surrounding the place. Firefighters told me that the fire has burned out, and now they're

00:03:03.980 focused on pumping out the water from the basement. The water obviously used by them to put out the

00:03:10.380 flames, but not before the building itself was completely burnt. Now, what's interesting is that

00:03:16.380 this has received coverage in the mainstream media, which is not usual. There have been literally

00:03:22.360 dozens of churches, many of them burnt to a crisp in Canada, that have been hit by a crime wave of arson

00:03:30.800 in the last few years. In fact, if you add in other vandalism, more than 100 Canadian churches have been

00:03:38.980 vandalized, smashed, or burnt in approximately four years. It's every other week. The fact that this one

00:03:48.960 also had some famous paintings in it by the so-called Group of Seven, I think that's what made the

00:03:56.400 mainstream media cover it. For example, let me quote to you the headline from the Globe and Mail. Look at

00:04:03.840 this. Loss of Historic St. Anne's Anglican Church in Toronto's Catastrophe for Canadian Architecture?

00:04:12.980 Seriously, an entire article, and the bulk of it is how architecturally interesting it is, and there was

00:04:19.480 some secular artwork in it. Could you imagine if a Jewish synagogue, or a Sikh temple, or a Muslim mosque

00:04:28.420 had been torched? And the headline was, it was architecturally interesting, people. This is a real

00:04:35.440 loss for architecture. Unthinkable. Now, I should say that we don't yet know conclusively the cause of

00:04:44.260 the fire. I spoke to two firefighters who said it's still under investigation, and yet every news article

00:04:50.840 I've read, and public statements too, such as this one from the CBC, say they rule out arson. How can you

00:04:58.340 rule out arson if the investigation is ongoing? Would they prejudge a fire at a mosque that way? Of

00:05:09.260 course not. Justin Trudeau would have an emergency national press conference using his best substitute

00:05:14.980 drama teacher voice. But this is just a Christian church, so who cares? The prime minister has not 1.00

00:05:20.380 been motivated to put out a statement, though it's burnt to a crisp. The fact that officials, or the

00:05:25.880 official regime media, they're really wanting the same, say it's not arson, while the investigation is ongoing, is

00:05:33.040 reminiscent of the terrible fire that torched the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, France. Before the

00:05:40.660 investigation, they announced it was not terrorism. Our friend Morrissey even made a song about it. Remember this?

00:05:47.520 Not for that, we will not be silent. Not for that, we will not be silent. Before any investigation, they said this is not terrorism.

00:06:11.740 Listen, it is possible that it wasn't arson, and it's also possible that if it was arson,

00:06:19.180 it wasn't anti-Christian bigotry. This is Toronto. It's in a perpetual crime wave. Typically, the crime

00:06:26.600 is stolen vehicles, not arson. But it might have just been mischief all around, including right across the

00:06:32.820 street. Vandalism is everywhere. Graffiti. It's accepted as normal in Mayor Chow's Toronto. I can't just put the

00:06:40.840 blame on her. The premier of this conservative province and the prime minister, they abide this

00:06:46.400 as the new normal. It's interesting to me what does or does not get labeled a hate crime. Even hoaxes get

00:06:54.460 this prime minister's attention. I don't know if you recall, a few years ago, a young lady said someone

00:06:58.840 ran up to her with scissors to cut her hijab. It was so evidently a Jussie Smollett-style hoax. But the prime

00:07:06.200 minister met, tweeted about it, and the tweet remains, even though it's debunked. I don't know if this is a hate

00:07:13.580 crime or just a regular crime. I do know the silence of officialdom is echoing. The worst that they're

00:07:20.960 concerned about is the architectural catastrophe. I shouldn't say that Justin Trudeau had nothing to say

00:07:28.240 about this. A few years ago, his senior advisor, Gerald Butts, when pressed about this crime wave of church

00:07:36.400 arsons, said it was, quote, understandable. As I've also said, it is unacceptable and wrong that acts of

00:07:47.280 vandalism and arson are being seen across the country, including against Catholic Churches.

00:07:57.280 One of my reflections is I understand the anger that's out there against the federal government, against

00:08:03.280 institutions like the Catholic Church. It is real and it is fully understandable, given the shameful history that we're all 0.98

00:08:11.280 becoming more and more aware of. It was understandable. I mean, not that he condoned it or approved it. He just

00:08:19.520 understood why people would torch churches. This, of course, because like Trudeau, Butts himself has a

00:08:26.960 loathing for Christianity. He participates in the defamation that the church was responsible for a

00:08:34.240 genocide of indigenous people. And who wouldn't understand torching a symbol of genocide? That's where

00:08:41.440 we are under Justin Trudeau in Canada. We'll keep you posted on this story. It's very sad that an iconic

00:08:48.480 church is torched. Yeah, there's architectural and art reasons for it. But when a house of worship is burned

00:08:56.480 and no one in the regime gives a damn, I think that's a sign that your civilization is unhealthy.

00:09:02.800 For Rebel News, I'm Ezra Levant.

00:09:09.200 Well, one of our younger reporters, Sarah Stock, was down there as well. She later went and did what we call

00:09:16.000 streeters, vox pop, asking ordinary people on the street what they thought about things. Here's an excerpt of that.

00:09:22.160 Sarah Stock for Rebel News. We're here in little Portugal in Toronto, standing in front of St. Anne's Anglican Church.

00:09:29.040 It burnt down yesterday morning, just before 8 a.m., went all the way up in flames. And the way the mainstream media is

00:09:35.280 talking about this church, the focus seems to be, oh, this church was a symbol for the community. People would meet in this

00:09:41.440 church and have dinner. This church, they're focusing on the artwork and the architectural design, which, yes, that's important.

00:09:48.160 And I think it does make the church stand out. In the grand scheme of things, there have been more than

00:09:53.040 40 churches in the past couple of years that have been burnt down, whether by arson or whether by

00:10:00.400 inconclusive investigations that could have been arson. Now, this came after insufficient claims about

00:10:08.240 residential schools committing a genocide against Indigenous people. And when Justin Trudeau talked

00:10:14.800 about these events, he said this torching of churches was understandable.

00:10:20.000 As I've also said, it is unacceptable and wrong that acts of vandalism and arson are being seen across the

00:10:29.680 country, including against Catholic churches. One of my reflections is I understand the anger that's out

00:10:37.760 there against the federal government, against institutions like the Catholic Church. It is

00:10:43.520 real and it is fully understandable.

00:10:45.920 So what's to stop Canadians from burning down churches? 0.86

00:10:49.120 Imagine if this was a Jewish synagogue or a Muslim mosque. The mainstream media would have the same

00:10:54.400 reaction. Well, we're here in Young Dundas Square, which is soon to be named Sankofa Square, by the way,

00:11:01.360 because apparently Henry Dundas was a racist, even though he was an abolitionist. But regardless,

00:11:08.000 it's noisy here as usual. There's lots of people around. So this is the perfect place to talk to your

00:11:13.200 average Toronto resident and see if they've even heard of the 100 churches that have either been vandalized

00:11:20.400 or burnt down in the past couple of years and see how that relates to the St. Anne's church that was

00:11:26.560 just burnt down yesterday. Have they heard of that? Not sure. Let's see if anyone sees a connection

00:11:31.600 here. Do you know that there is 47 churches in Canada, Christian churches, that have been burnt down

00:11:38.640 either by arson or suspected arson just these past couple of years? Have you heard about that?

00:11:43.360 No, not at all. Not at all? No. Why do you think you haven't heard of that?

00:11:47.120 Uh, I don't know. It hasn't been in the news? I actually haven't, no. No?

00:11:52.800 Um, I have not. You haven't? No. Okay. Why do you think that is, that you haven't?

00:11:58.720 Um, I'm not too sure. I'm not too involved with Christian media myself. What was the question?

00:12:04.160 I heard about that, but I don't know much about this. I did not know that, no. No, I did not.

00:12:09.280 Why do you think you haven't heard about that? Because, uh, the news is censored in our country, maybe?

00:12:13.920 Yeah. Wow. That's very unfortunate. Did you know it? I did not. You haven't even heard about it anywhere?

00:12:22.000 Maybe I have and just forgot, but I don't know, to be honest. No. You haven't? Why do you think that

00:12:27.600 is, that you haven't heard of it? I'm not, I'm not sure it's not on the news. Um, maybe it's not that big

00:12:34.400 of a deal. For real? I've not heard that. I've not heard about that. Why do you think you haven't

00:12:39.680 heard about, don't you, like what, why aren't people making a big deal about this? Yeah, because

00:12:44.400 this is 2024, right? People are not as religious. Have you heard of that? I have not. You haven't 0.98

00:12:50.080 heard of that? No. A little bit of it. A little bit? A little bit. Did you hear about the church that

00:12:54.560 burned down yesterday? I did not hear about those. Let's just think about this. Do you think if it was 47

00:13:00.800 Jewish synagogues or Muslim mosques, do you think you would have heard of it? Well, yeah,

00:13:06.720 but are you sure that there are 47 churches burned down? That's an awfully large number. Yeah,

00:13:12.000 probably more than that were accents, but it's 47 that are either confirmed arson or suspected arson.

00:13:19.120 Yeah, no, I wasn't aware. Did you hear about that in Toronto? That I actually didn't hear either,

00:13:23.120 no. No? Sorry, no. Um, like, what do you think that is that you haven't heard of it? Like,

00:13:27.760 it seems like it's like a pattern, you know what I mean, of these hate crimes? Personally,

00:13:31.920 I would not be involved in any type of Christian things because I'm a First Nations person. And,

00:13:37.360 um, just because due to residential school and the pain that it put all of my family through,

00:13:43.520 um, I prefer not to deal with it. Okay. Do you think that this would be considered a hate crime

00:13:50.480 if you're burning a church down because it's a place of worship? Yeah, I think so. Yeah.

00:13:56.240 I think so. Do you think the mainstream media might have anti-Christian bias?

00:14:00.880 There's definitely some sort of an agenda, but I feel like it shifts throughout the years,

00:14:04.640 you know? Yeah, for sure. In the government, these same mainstream media sources like the CBC,

00:14:09.520 they like to call a lot of things hate crimes, right? Yeah. But when we hear all these churches

00:14:14.160 have burned, I haven't heard the word hate crime used once, and it's a place of worship. Why do you think 1.00

00:14:18.880 that is? Uh, I don't know, honestly. I'm kind of going to be stumped there. I think it's because

00:14:27.520 there's maybe in the news, people are just talking about bigger things than the church is burning down,

00:14:33.760 as in, for example, the Palestine and Israel war. But it is an important issue. But I just think that

00:14:41.760 people just don't really exactly know what's going on because it's not really out there. Yeah.

00:14:48.320 Um, not too much. I don't know. It just seems to be a fairly common occurrence now. Yeah. Why is it

00:14:55.760 so common? What could the motivation be, do you think? Well, um, what kind of church was it that was

00:15:02.160 burned down? What religious? This was an Anglican church. Anglican church. See, I'm an atheist,

00:15:06.960 so to me, like all churches and synagogues. Well, the churches that have been burned down there,

00:15:12.880 they were from all sorts of different denominations all over Canada. So it wasn't,

00:15:17.440 you know, it's kind of a common misconception. They were all Catholic churches, but there's Anglican,

00:15:22.320 United church, Lutheran is a pretty big assortment. I mean, let's face it. Anything to be burned down 0.98

00:15:28.720 like that, it's bad. And I certainly don't condone it, but I don't get all exercised about it because,

00:15:34.480 you know, to me, it just doesn't affect me. It doesn't affect you, is that what you said?

00:15:38.880 No, because I don't go to churches or synagogues. I do respect the churches. I respect everyone,

00:15:44.480 but it's just coming from my personal point of view so that I wouldn't really be involved.

00:15:50.640 Do you think that it would be considered a hate crime if you burn a church?

00:15:54.720 Uh, it depends your reason for it. Yeah, I think it really depends on the context because,

00:16:00.880 yeah, because it's just different from each person's point of view, you know?

00:16:05.280 I think it's, like, I don't think it's okay to disrespect people's religious beliefs like that.

00:16:11.840 Like, you can take it up with the church without, like, messing up their place, like.

00:16:19.680 I don't know if there are 47 Jewish synagogues or Muslim mosques that were burnt down in Canada.

00:16:27.520 Do you think you would have heard about it?

00:16:28.960 Yes, I do think so, because I think there was a couple reasons. One, I think those two religions

00:16:35.120 are very vocal and they, again, not to get too religious or whatever, but I think those religions

00:16:41.360 actually stand for their beliefs. I don't know, maybe the media's trying to hide it? I'm not sure.

00:16:45.280 Do you think that might have to do with, you know, the kind of bias there? They're not going to call

00:16:50.560 it a hate crime. Even Justin Trudeau, he said, oh, you shouldn't do that, but it's understandable.

00:16:56.320 That's what he said about burning churches.

00:16:58.080 One of my reflections is I understand the anger that's out there against the federal government,

00:17:04.720 against institutions like the Catholic Church. It is real and it is fully understandable.

00:17:10.240 What do you think about him saying that? I mean, yeah, it's kind of like,

00:17:14.640 shit, you got me there. I mean, like, it's kind of like, it's like you're feeding them 1.00

00:17:18.320 something to work with, right? It's like... Yeah, I think it's a hate crime because, like,

00:17:21.920 it's destroying property, right? That's already a crime already. So, like, I think it's a hate crime.

00:17:28.480 Like, let everyone do whatever they want to do, to be honest. This is an important thing.

00:17:32.240 Something that's a part of God, a lot of people believe in nowadays, it's not like we believe in,

00:17:36.000 it's a religion, got burnt down and no one absolutely cares about it because they're going

00:17:40.960 to go talk about the next celebrity or like, oh, the celebrity got pregnant or something. Like,

00:17:45.040 it's insane. Crime is a very subjective term and it's very, very hard to decide if something's

00:17:52.400 done because of something being Jewish or something being Muslim or something being Christian.

00:18:00.480 Probably there is a motive, but then it could just be random violence. I don't know.

00:18:05.120 It's hard to prove. I mean, do you think if it was 47 transgender care facilities that were

00:18:11.600 burnt down, do you think people would call it a hate crime? That, for sure, yeah. Yeah. Oh, 100%.

00:18:18.080 I think it's yellow tape. Everyone's going crazy. Yeah, I think they'd probably value that more than

00:18:21.760 the churches, to be honest. Why do you think that, why do you think our culture has gone to that point

00:18:25.440 where people don't seem to care? Uh, I'm not sure, to be honest. Maybe just propaganda and

00:18:30.960 shit. I don't know. Okay. Do you think that's considered a hate crime if you burn a church? 0.99

00:18:37.280 Yeah. Yeah. Do you think that the government would call it that? No. No? Well, we've talked

00:18:44.240 to a lot of different kinds of people here today, but one thing seems to be in common. Not very many

00:18:49.760 people have heard anything about these churches burning down. I wonder why that could be. For Rebel News,

00:18:56.800 it's Sarah Stock. Well, what do you think of the whole thing? I mean, maybe it was an electrical

00:19:04.160 fire. Could be. Maybe it was just regular arson. I mean, Toronto is in the middle of a crime wave,

00:19:09.920 and there's a lot of graffiti and vandalism. Or maybe it's just the latest in fires against Christian

00:19:17.040 churches. It's hard to tell because, of course, like Notre Dame's fire in Paris, authorities do not

00:19:22.960 want you to know who really is torching places. They didn't in Notre Dame and in almost actually

00:19:29.280 over 100 churches in Canada that have been torched or vandalized in other ways. It certainly feels like

00:19:35.760 the regime doesn't want you to know they're being targeted because they're Christian. Stay with us. 0.97

00:19:41.200 My interview with Franco Terrazzano is next.

00:19:54.800 I'm not sure why Christian Freeland was appointed finance minister. She has no training in the subject.

00:20:00.960 She went to school studying Slavic matters, language, geography, which are interesting things but

00:20:08.000 have nothing to do with economics or finance. She was an absolute disaster when she was appointed 1.00

00:20:14.400 an executive for Thomson Reuters, a large news company. She was put in charge of something called

00:20:19.840 Reuters Next, and she actually destroyed the entire company. Once she was done with it, 0.98

00:20:28.560 they didn't try and fix it. They threw it out. She lost hundreds of jobs and tens of millions of dollars, 0.97

00:20:36.960 an absolute meltdown. And you could see in it the descriptions of how she would ignore advice,

00:20:43.920 bring in her personal friends, money was no object, sort of a premonition for how she would run Canada. 0.95

00:20:50.880 And of course, she was right up Trudeau's alley. Never forget that Christian Freeland's job before she

00:20:56.800 became an MP was George Soros' authorized biographer. That's really what she did. No wonder she's been

00:21:05.520 appointed finance minister. One last tidbit before I show you a video, and you'll understand why

00:21:10.960 I'm talking about Christian Freeland, is she lived in the States. She jetted around the world. 0.98

00:21:16.480 She came back to Canada as a favor to us to run for parliament. You would think someone who had held 0.99

00:21:23.200 high positions at Reuters and was probably making close to a million dollars a year would have saved up

00:21:27.600 a few bucks. But even 10 years ago, she couldn't afford a home in Canada. Now, I'm not mocking or

00:21:35.120 laughing. It's extremely expensive to buy a home in Canada. In Toronto and Vancouver these days, the

00:21:41.200 average home is more than one million dollars. But 10 years ago, that wasn't the case. And she was a grown

00:21:47.600 woman, an MP, her husband was working too. And yet she needed her parents to co-sign her mortgage for her,

00:21:56.320 to make the down payment for her. And I'm not laughing at someone for being poor. I'm not laughing at someone

00:22:02.480 for not having a million dollars that they can borrow in their own credit. I'm not saying a million cash.

00:22:07.920 She couldn't even get credit for that. I'm saying these are warning signals that maybe

00:22:15.520 she has no clue how to manage her own money or a business's money in the case of Reuters next. 0.97

00:22:22.800 And you want to put her in charge of the economy? Well, look at Chrystia Freeland just the other day, 1.00

00:22:28.640 talking about how she thinks the economy works and how she thinks people should consider taxes.

00:22:35.040 Take a look at this monstrosity. Do you want to live in a country where the only young Canadians 1.00

00:22:40.800 who can buy their own homes are those with parents who can help with the down payment?

00:22:48.240 Do you want to live in a country where we make the investments we need in health care, in housing,

00:22:55.120 in old age pensions, but we lack the political will to pay for them and choose instead to pass a

00:23:03.840 ballooning debt onto our children? Do you want to live in a country where those at the very top

00:23:12.400 live lives of luxury, but must do so in gated communities behind ever higher fences using private

00:23:22.240 health care and airplanes? Because the public sphere is so degraded and the wrath of the vast majority of

00:23:31.200 their less privileged compatriots burns so hot. Every Canadian across our great country needs to ask

00:23:43.200 themselves these same questions because the stakes could not be higher. Oh my God, what a wacko. Oh, 1.00

00:23:52.720 I've got a lot to say about this as you can guess, but let me bring in an expert. I'm talking about

00:23:57.040 Franco Teresano. He's the boss of the Canadian taxpayers federation. I had no idea the stakes

00:24:02.560 were this high. Franco, if we don't raise taxes, by the way, it's been nine and a half years of

00:24:06.960 liberal government. If we don't raise taxes right now, we're going to turn into some, I don't know,

00:24:12.400 Blade Runner, Robocop, dystopian place where people are hiding with their private jets behind

00:24:18.080 gated. I don't even know what that was all about. Franco, do you want to take a first stab at it?

00:24:22.640 I mean, all this government does is raise taxes and waste our money. So like, what are they talking

00:24:29.600 about? There's so much to pick out there. But first, can I just state the obvious?

00:24:34.400 Did the finance minister just warn about adding debt onto the backs of future generations?

00:24:40.240 Like, are you serious? Like, are you serious? I mean, as of this year, the Trudeau government will

00:24:46.240 have officially doubled the entire federal government debt. Nine years doubled the entire

00:24:53.120 federal debt by adding $600 billion onto the debt tab. Well, who's going to be paying for that?

00:24:59.280 Canadians, kids and grandkids, future generations of Canadians will be making payments on the debt 0.52

00:25:06.160 for their whole lives. So like, I don't think Canadians buy that line of argument from the finance

00:25:13.520 minister or the Trudeau government. But you know what I think that Freeland and Trudeau really have

00:25:18.640 to worry about here are Canadians who are absolutely fed up about being overtaxed all the tax hikes that

00:25:25.680 we're seeing and the federal government wasting our money like crazy. You know, I'm glad you focused on

00:25:31.760 that debt part because that that's insane for the liberals to pretend they care about the debt. I mean,

00:25:37.280 you probably know the stats off the top of your hat of how much they've added to the debt.

00:25:41.280 I don't know that figure without looking it up, but I think the largest deficit in Canadian history

00:25:46.960 was actually run under Justin Trudeau. Correct me if I'm wrong on that. I'm not putting you on the

00:25:53.680 spot with this. No, no, no. During the COVID years, I mean, remember the massive deficits that we were

00:25:58.400 seeing. Yeah. You said, look, when Trudeau first came to power, the debt was like $616 billion.

00:26:04.720 The debt today is more than $1.2 trillion. So the Trudeau government has doubled the federal debt.

00:26:13.840 And Ezra, to your point, they don't care about the deficit. I mean, come on. They don't care about

00:26:18.960 the debt. They've proven to taxpayers that they do not care about fiscal responsibility. This is fiscal

00:26:24.240 insanity. I mean, listen to this, folks. They're hiking the capital gains tax. This is a massive tax

00:26:30.640 hike. And the government is still running a $40 billion deficit this year. Okay. The capital gains

00:26:38.480 tax increase will cost Canadians about $7 billion this year. But with Trudeau spending $535 billion

00:26:46.800 this year, he's going to blow through that extra cash in less than seven days.

00:26:51.440 Oh my gosh. Now that's what this is. This is her sales pitch for her increase in capital gains tax.

00:26:58.640 And I think what she's trying to do is do a bash the rich, only rich people get capital gains. This 1.00

00:27:05.280 is about, I think she actually said, I don't know if it was in this clip or I think it was another one

00:27:09.360 where she talked about the 0.013% as if it was just an obscure group of billionaires. I think she implied

00:27:17.280 people with private jets, but that's not who pays capital gains tax. Tell me about the typical

00:27:28.000 Canadian. Give me a sketch for me, an example of a Canadian who would be taxed under the capital

00:27:34.240 gains tax. I got a few ideas, but taxpayers is your business. Tell me who will be hit by this.

00:27:40.880 What about doctors? You know, doctors who spend their whole career saving lives and now just want

00:27:47.040 to save for the retirement. Well, they're going to get hammered by the capital gains tax increase.

00:27:51.440 Or what about, you know, your small business owner who doesn't have a government pension

00:27:56.480 so relies on capital gains to fund their golden years, right? So essentially the government is

00:28:02.720 going after entrepreneurs going after, you know, professionals like doctors also like to state the

00:28:08.720 obvious discouraging young, smart computer science grads who graduate from a Canadian university

00:28:15.200 who want to start like the next Amazon here in Canada, but now we're being chased away to other

00:28:20.400 places because of this capital gains tax increase and all the other tax hikes that the federal government

00:28:25.520 is doing. But, you know, let's go back to that political wedge here for a second, okay? Because like

00:28:30.960 Trudeau and Freeland are talking about how they want the rich to pay more. Well, how about you just make

00:28:37.120 rich multinational corporations pay for their own factories, right? Like, let's not pretend,

00:28:43.600 let's not pretend like the federal government didn't just announce billions of dollars for

00:28:47.920 the boardrooms in Germany and Japan, right? The billions of dollars going to multinational

00:28:53.360 corporations from taxpayers to corporations like Volkswagen, Honda, Stellantis, and companies like

00:29:00.800 that. So you want to make the rich pay their fair share? Well, how about you just cut out all this

00:29:05.840 corporate welfare going to multinational corporate corporations? Yeah, that's a great point. They're giving

00:29:10.640 money to some of the most profitable foreign countries and companies in the world, and they're,

00:29:16.080 I suppose, money is fungible, but they're getting it. I mean, tell me if this is an example of someone

00:29:20.960 who, I mean, I'm not a tax expert, so Franco, correct me if I'm wrong. So let's say someone's a plumber,

00:29:27.440 and they save up a few bucks and get their own equipment, get their own truck, and hire some other

00:29:32.400 guys, and soon they've got a couple trucks and a couple guys, and soon they've built up a bit of a

00:29:36.640 plumbing company, and you work your fingers to the bone for 50 years, and then you retire, and you

00:29:42.240 sell that thing. Is that an example of a capital gains? Is that a scenario?

00:29:48.240 Well, those are similar. Those are things that could happen here, or just people who have like

00:29:52.880 other like real estate properties because they don't have the government-funded pension that all

00:29:58.080 the bureaucrats in Ottawa essentially do, right? So one other thing, you know, Jack Mintz, a famous

00:30:04.400 economist who was at the University of Calgary, rightly pointed out that it's not the same

00:30:09.760 people every single year who are making these capital gains, right? Like many Canadians will

00:30:14.640 make capital gains, or many different Canadians will make capital gains in different years as

00:30:20.720 they sell some of these assets, for example, to fund their golden years. So it's not like the

00:30:25.600 government is just going after like a couple people who have all these bags of money. Like this is

00:30:31.920 going to have real life implications for Canadians who are getting ready to retire.

00:30:36.400 You know, there was a while, I think it was 2006, 2007, sorry, 2016, 2017, before Trudeau's policies

00:30:46.320 really started to bite, where he was still riding on being cool, when he was showing foreign leaders

00:30:51.600 his fancy socks, you know, before people really started to find out about him. And he would hang out

00:30:58.640 with tech leaders, because nothing is cooler than tech. And one of the most successful Canadian

00:31:06.400 high-tech companies is called Shopify. And that might sound strange to some people, but it's an online

00:31:13.440 system for selling things. It's basically a way to sell things online, whether you're a small business,

00:31:19.600 a big business, or just someone with a hobby. And Shopify is a Canadian success story.

00:31:26.240 And in the past, Trudeau would hang out with their president and founder and their senior executives,

00:31:33.360 because it's pretty cool starting a high-tech company from scratch, being a global force,

00:31:38.560 making lots of money. But in the past week or two, the leaders of Shopify, who used to be really chummy

00:31:46.320 with Trudeau, have put out statements just completely candid, saying this will destroy

00:31:53.680 entrepreneurship. And I have to say, that's all Shopify is, entrepreneurs. They don't deal with

00:32:02.320 anyone else. I bet you that the CEO of Shopify knows a thousand business owners on a first-name basis,

00:32:10.800 and their company would know hundreds of thousands aggregate. Like no one, I don't think there's a human

00:32:17.440 being in Canada who knows more about small businesses and entrepreneurship and how to make a go of it

00:32:23.120 than Shopify. Like that's all they do. And here's a tweet from them just saying this is a disaster.

00:32:32.240 I don't think Trudeau would be welcome in a lot of those high-tech hothouses anymore. What do you think?

00:32:39.040 Okay. So, you know, I think it's pretty obvious that this tax hike is going to be disastrous for

00:32:45.360 entrepreneurs, for small businesses, for professionals like doctors, right? Like I think

00:32:50.400 that's very easy to understand how this tax hike will chase away investment. It'll chase away young

00:32:55.520 talent to other countries. But let me just like make a pitch on why every single Canadian taxpayer

00:33:01.760 should be against this. Number one, it's not about tax fairness. Okay. If it was even remotely about

00:33:07.520 tax fairness, somebody's taxes would be going down. But in fact, people's taxes are going up,

00:33:13.680 carbon tax up, alcohol taxes up, payroll taxes up, a new streaming tax, and now this capital gains tax

00:33:20.640 height. So this is about really one thing when it comes to all taxpayers, the government trying to

00:33:25.840 take as much money from Canadians as it can get away with. Number two, we cannot let the Trudeau

00:33:31.920 government get away with this. With it running deficits in the tens of billions of dollars

00:33:37.440 every single year, if the Trudeau government gets away with this capital gains tax hike,

00:33:42.480 it is a very good bet that it's going to keep on looking for new ways to get more money from

00:33:48.000 already tapped out Canadian taxpayers. So even if you think that this particular capital gains tax hike

00:33:54.720 won't affect you, you need to get off the bench and you have to oppose this because guess what?

00:34:00.880 This government doesn't deserve a single penny more from Canadians. This government does not have a

00:34:07.520 revenue problem. It has a spending problem and all Canadians have to push back against Trudeau's

00:34:13.040 capital gains tax hike before the government comes looking for even more ways to take more money from

00:34:18.320 you. Yeah. I just want to touch on one last thing before you go. I think it was the craziest part of

00:34:23.680 Christian Freeland's little screed there. I mean, you pointed out immediately the joke that she cares

00:34:29.520 about debt and the deficit. You're pointing out how, you know, the tax is going to hurt everyone.

00:34:35.360 But she had a, like her theme was, hey, rich people, if we don't raise this tax on you, 0.63

00:34:44.160 the poor's are going to, like, it's going to be like Mad Max, a Mad Max movie. They're going to 1.00

00:34:51.840 invade and with swords and, you know, attack you and your gated communities. Like it was basically

00:34:58.560 saying there will be a civil war and you'll be killed or something. Like it, that's actually how

00:35:03.760 it sounded. She was talking about gated communities and private jets. Like she was saying, she was basically

00:35:10.880 saying Canadians are so animalistic and volatile. They hate you so much. If we don't tax you more, 0.99

00:35:18.400 there's going to be a civil war. I think that's what she was saying. I think she's full on wacko 0.93

00:35:24.400 to use a phrase. I don't know if she wrote that herself or if some staffer wrote it.

00:35:31.280 I think that sounded full on crazy. What do you think? Well, I think it's another proof

00:35:38.160 point that the government just has absolutely no idea the struggles facing ordinary Canadians

00:35:43.760 or what ordinary Canadians are talking about and thinking, right? Because like, let's just go back

00:35:48.720 only a couple months to April one, when the government raised the carbon tax again,

00:35:54.320 which for ordinary can make Canadians makes the necessities of life more expensive, like

00:35:58.800 driving to work, like heating your home, like buying groceries. And the vast majority of Canadians,

00:36:04.960 we released a poll. The vast majority of Canadians were against the carbon tax increase.

00:36:10.240 What did the federal government do? Did it listen to Canadians? No, it hiked the carbon tax again.

00:36:15.200 It plans on hiking the carbon tax again next year. So you know what I, what I really think that the

00:36:20.160 government has to do and particularly Freeland and Trudeau and the liberal cabinet ministers

00:36:25.360 is to listen to Canadians and to understand that what Canadians are really fed up with

00:36:30.400 is the overtaxing the tax hikes. And then the fact that they take our money and they waste it

00:36:37.040 largely on themselves. Just madness. I mean, there, there's also an implication that, um,

00:36:44.240 that the crime in this country is because people are poor. There is a crime wave in this country,

00:36:48.720 in this country, and I don't think it has anything to do. I just just, I'm going to be thinking about

00:36:52.960 that rant by her for a long time. Franco, it's great of you to spend some time bringing the smarts.

00:36:57.840 I'm, I'm bringing the, I feel like I was watching a little bit of a sci-fi movie there. Like the,

00:37:02.320 like, uh, um, you know, what's that movie where for 24 hours, what's it called? The Purge

00:37:07.200 or something for 24 hours, there's mass lawlessness. That's the craziness of Christy Freeland. I can

00:37:12.160 hardly wait till the next election. Franco, we love you because you're nonpartisan and because you

00:37:16.320 don't take a dime from government. So you are the advocate for taxpayers of all stripes. Thanks for

00:37:20.960 your time, my friend. Hey, thank you, Ezra. All right. There he is. Franco Terrazano.

00:37:25.360 Can you imagine that really is like the movie, The Purge or Mad Max, where she's saying we need

00:37:29.520 to raise taxes or else the wildlings will come. All right. Stay with us more ahead.

00:37:45.360 What do you think of that fire at a church? I mean, it really irks me that the coverage was all about

00:37:50.800 the architecture and the art. And I'm not denying it was an interesting church. I mean, it wasn't,

00:37:56.160 it wasn't a great medieval wonder. I mean, it's 120 years old. I respect the building

00:38:00.720 and it did have some artwork and I'm not denying that. And I'm not denying that either are a loss

00:38:05.200 or a painful loss. I'm not denying any of that. I just find that an odd thing to focus on. If there

00:38:10.560 was a mosque or a Jewish synagogue that was burnt down in Canada, do you think that would be the

00:38:16.640 totality of the commentary by The Globe? Actually, I shouldn't say that. These days, The Globe and

00:38:21.040 other media are doing their best to downplay anti-Semitic attacks. So maybe they wouldn't

00:38:25.360 care if it was a Jewish synagogue. But I just find it odd. At the slightest flicker of an insinuation of

00:38:33.200 Islamophobia, Justin Trudeau's on the scene with denunciations and statements. I don't think he said

00:38:38.720 a word about this church. Because I don't think he cares. Actually, I do think he actually does care.

00:38:45.520 I think part of him is glad to see it. You saw his statement and that of Gerald Butts. They

00:38:51.120 understand people who want to burn down the church. Just outrageous. Well, that's our show for today.

00:38:57.760 Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home,

00:39:01.600 goodnight, and keep fighting for freedom.

Rebel News Podcast - June 11, 2024

EZRA LEVANT ｜ A major church in Toronto is burnt to a crisp and all the media cares about is the architectural loss

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