Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ America's billionaires became freedom advocates under Trump—are they genuine or opportunistic？

00:00:00.000 Hello my friends, we've got an incredible story for you today. I really can't believe it.

00:00:03.940 Jeffrey Bezos, one of the richest men in the world, the owner of Amazon, and the owner of

00:00:08.340 the Washington Post newspaper has written a beautiful, even poetic letter in defense of

00:00:14.620 freedom. And the reaction to it is quite something as well. I'm going to take you through it today,

00:00:19.820 but first let me invite you to become a subscriber to what we call Rebel News Plus. That's the

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00:00:34.160 subscribe. It's eight bucks a month. Thanks so much for that. Hey, one more thing. The last time you

00:00:40.080 sat down with your financial advisor, did you have a real conversation? Did they allow you to express

00:00:45.280 all your concerns? Or did they dismiss them out of hand and give the head office talking points?

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00:01:25.200 at rocklink.com. That's Rocklink with a C, info at rocklink.com. All right, here's today's show.

00:01:31.640 Tonight, billionaire Jeffrey Bezos orders his Washington Post to fight for freedom every day.

00:01:51.340 And they hate it. It's February 26th. This is the Ezra LeVant Show.

00:01:59.120 Shame on you, you censorious bug.

00:02:10.920 I have strong opinions about Google and YouTube because they are the worst censors in Canada

00:02:18.040 and the United States. In the world of big tech, they're the worst. Facebook, which also owns

00:02:24.240 Instagram and WhatsApp, they are awful also. But their opportunistic owner, Mark Zuckerberg,

00:02:31.400 had a meeting with Donald Trump, and that seemed to change his trajectory. You might recall shortly

00:02:37.080 after that meeting, he announced that he was going to fire 40,000 censors and stand for free speech,

00:02:44.100 both in America and around the world. Remember that? We're going to work with President Trump

00:02:48.700 to push back on governments around the world that are going after American companies and pushing to

00:02:54.140 censor more. The U.S. has the strongest constitutional protections for free expression in the world.

00:03:00.440 Europe has an ever-increasing number of laws institutionalizing censorship and making it

00:03:05.500 difficult to build anything innovative there. Latin American countries have secret courts that

00:03:10.720 can order companies to quietly take things down. China has censored our apps from even working in

00:03:16.200 the country. The only way that we can push back on this global trend is with the support of the U.S.

00:03:22.540 government. And that's why it's been so difficult over the past four years when even the U.S.

00:03:28.000 government has pushed for censorship. By going after us and other American companies,

00:03:32.740 it has emboldened other governments to go even further. But now we have the opportunity to restore

00:03:38.420 free expression, and I am excited to take it. Now, I'll believe it when I see it, but it's

00:03:43.300 certainly promising that he's at least saying those things. And of course, nothing comes close

00:03:48.140 to Elon Musk, the free speech champion who saved Twitter and made it a force for freedom. But

00:03:54.560 Jeffrey Bezos of Amazon, I don't know, I never thought of him as much of a censor given the nature

00:04:00.880 of his main platform. Amazon, it's a store, really. Now, I did have a censorship problem with Amazon

00:04:08.000 when I published my book, China Virus, a few years ago, the beginning of the pandemic. Amazon banned it,

00:04:15.380 then they unbanned it, then they banned it again, and then they unbanned it again. I'm not making that

00:04:20.500 up. Four flip-flops. It was madness. They later said in a very cryptic letter that officials didn't

00:04:28.880 approve of the book, but they didn't say which officials. Were they Canadian officials? Were they

00:04:33.040 Chinese officials? Were they officials from the World Health Organization? It was very mysterious.

00:04:37.740 Anyways, I really just sort of thought of Bezos as an e-commerce guy more than anything. He's had

00:04:44.400 some midlife crisis things like getting himself a pneumatic second wife who makes the news for

00:04:50.420 underdressing, shall we say. And he's got his own spaceship company, a little bit like Elon Musk does,

00:04:55.700 I guess. But Bezos does own the Washington Post, perhaps the most influential political newspaper

00:05:03.620 in America, and thus the world. Now, the New York Times, of course, is very important and larger, but

00:05:09.080 for covering Washington, I think the Washington Post is the insider newspaper. And obviously, Jeffrey Bezos

00:05:16.160 owns it not to make money. It loses money, but because he wants a seat at the political table, as all these

00:05:22.580 billionaires seem to do once they've conquered everything they set out to conquer. And I don't

00:05:29.080 know if it's a reaction to some of the crazy Trump derangement syndrome stuff in the media these days,

00:05:34.600 or I don't know if Bezos is trying to cozy up to Trump in some way, like Zuckerberg clearly is, or

00:05:40.840 I don't know, maybe Bezos is just actually getting around to reading his own newspaper for once,

00:05:47.420 years. And he can't believe what he sees. But today, for whatever reason, he wrote an extremely

00:05:54.700 important and bold memo that was actually beautiful in parts. And I want to read it to you in full. Here

00:06:01.920 it is posted to Twitter. It's a letter to his staff. He said, I shared this note with the Washington Post

00:06:08.320 team this morning. I'm writing to let you know about a change coming to our opinion pages. And that's key,

00:06:15.620 opinion pages, not news reporting. We are going to be writing every day in support and defense of two

00:06:23.340 pillars, personal liberties and free markets. We'll cover other topics too, of course, but viewpoints

00:06:29.820 opposing those pillars will be left to be published by others. Let me just pause for a second. He means

00:06:35.780 other newspapers. The Washington Post will not. Let me pick up on his letter. There was a time on a

00:06:43.320 newspaper, especially one that was a local monopoly, might have seen it as a service to bring to the reader's

00:06:49.040 doorstep every morning a broad-based opinion section that sought to cover all views. Today, the internet does

00:06:55.820 that job. I am of America and for America and proud to be so. Isn't that a beautiful line? Our country did not get

00:07:07.320 here by being typical. And a big part of America's success has been freedom in the economic realm

00:07:13.860 and everywhere else. And then here's maybe my favorite line that I think shows how deeply thoughtful

00:07:19.740 he is. Freedom is ethical. It minimizes coercion and practical. It drives creativity, invention,

00:07:28.140 and prosperity. I offer David Shipley, he's the existing op-ed editor, whom I greatly admire,

00:07:34.980 the opportunity to lead this new chapter. I suggested to him that if the answer wasn't

00:07:40.000 hell yes, then it had to be no. After careful consideration, David decided to step away.

00:07:46.340 This is a significant shift. It won't be easy, and it will require 100% commitment. I respect his

00:07:51.540 decision. We'll be searching for a new opinion editor to own this new direction. I'm confident that free

00:07:57.500 markets and personal liberties are right for America. I also believe these viewpoints are underserved

00:08:03.320 in the current market of ideas and news opinion. I'm excited for us together to fill that void.

00:08:10.500 Jeff, boy, he says a lot there. First of all, I am of America and for America. I'm choked up just

00:08:20.640 thinking of him saying that. Because a lot of these multi-billionaires, they regard themselves as larger

00:08:27.700 than being citizens of a nation. They be stride continents. He's saying, no, I'm American. I'm of

00:08:35.020 America and for America. And then he says that freedom is a moral thing. We're going to fight for

00:08:41.340 every day. I think there's some deep thinking in there. But the nature of America, how it's special,

00:08:46.880 the nature of owning a prestige newspaper, and that the owner of it can make a decision

00:08:53.680 to control its moral viewpoint, of course. He says he won't meddle in the reporting. And I'm sure

00:09:00.540 that's true. But when it comes to exhorting viewers to see things in a freedom way, an American

00:09:06.440 way, that's what Bezos says he's going to do. And I love that question he put to the editors. Say

00:09:10.860 hell yes or retire. What an amazing opportunity that would be, that job. And it says a lot about the man

00:09:17.080 who declined that opportunity. And by the way, you can see the gnashing of teeth throughout the media,

00:09:22.460 including at the Washington Post. Look at this. This is a reporter. This is an incredible response

00:09:29.660 by a Washington Post reporter who says, massive encroachment by Jeff Bezos into the Washington

00:09:39.220 Post opinion section today makes clear dissenting views will not be published or tolerated there.

00:09:46.040 I still have not felt encroachment on my journalism on the news side of coverage. But if Bezos tries

00:09:51.920 interfering with the news side, I will be quitting immediately and letting you know. Encroachment,

00:09:57.340 he owns the newspaper. He's not stopping news from being reported. He's taking ownership of the

00:10:02.640 exhortations of the moral beliefs of the editorial pages, which is exactly where you would want a media

00:10:07.960 owner to do so. That's where he should speak, if anywhere. Imagine the sense of entitlement that some

00:10:15.840 reporter, a dime a dozen reporter, objects to the owner having a point of view. And, and, but the half

00:10:23.000 courage of it. Oh, I'm really mad. I'm really mad. I'm going to stick around for now because I like my

00:10:27.760 job for now. But I tell you people, I'm so mad. If he goes further, I'll let you know. What a weirdo.

00:10:33.100 What an un-teamed player. Here's another Washington Post writer who seems to have quickly deleted his

00:10:38.640 comment. I can't find the original, but I see it screenshot so many places. Yeah. That person didn't

00:10:46.920 like it very much. And he had courage for about 10 minutes, then he deleted. And then there's this

00:10:51.900 from Keith Olbermann, who is not with the Washington Post, but he's a leftist TV journalist who used to 0.98

00:10:57.140 have a show way back when he said, F you Nazi. And tell your plastic girlfriend, she's actually 0.97

00:11:03.540 shamed herself, which none of us who ever met her thought was possible. What? First of all, I don't

00:11:10.120 think the Nazis stood for personal freedom, which is the distillation of Bezos's message. And while I

00:11:15.600 have my aesthetic differences with Bezos's new missus, how on earth is a weird personal attack

00:11:21.220 against her relevant or even appropriate? Oh, right, right, right. The left is only feminist. 1.00

00:11:27.140 Whenever it suits them, just ask the male feminist we call Justin Trudeau. I am very excited about

00:11:34.000 this, but I'm also very jealous. Why does only the United States have this awakening? Why does one of

00:11:41.220 the richest men in America get to do this, but the owner of the Globe and Mail, the richest man in Canada

00:11:45.700 not do so? I'm talking about David Thompson. First it was Mark Zuckerberg, now Bezos, Elon Musk, and the

00:11:52.180 Doge rooting around waste thing. Why don't we get that? Will we ever see freedom on the

00:11:58.220 march in Canada too? Yeah, one can only hope. Stay with us. More ahead.

00:12:05.080 Well, the specter of Donald Trump bringing in tariffs against Canadian exports to the US

00:12:21.880 has caused a discussion about another kind of tariff, which is interprovincial trade. If you can

00:12:28.420 believe it, we do not have trade, free trade that is, within Canada itself. Not only does that deter

00:12:35.900 our industries, but it adds cost to the very stuff of life. Now, there's other problems too. As you

00:12:41.800 know, on April Fool's Day, the carbon tax goes up, which will give a beating to many Canadian industries

00:12:49.000 just as badly as an export tariff. But the idea of internal trade barriers has been kicked around

00:12:54.860 for decades. But today, it seemed like maybe the frozen river was starting to break in the spring.

00:13:02.820 Let me read to you a tweet from Tim Houston, the Premier of Nova Scotia, who said,

00:13:08.760 Today I introduced legislation to end trade barriers in Canada, improving the flow of goods

00:13:14.280 between our provinces. I'm calling on all premiers to join me in passing reciprocal legislation to help

00:13:20.400 Canadians better sell goods to Canadians. And then he has a bit of a graphic there, as you can see,

00:13:25.940 streamlining the sale of goods across Canada, recognizing professional accreditation from other

00:13:31.300 provinces. That seems like a no-brainer too. And inviting all provinces to join in reciprocal

00:13:37.680 legislation. And I thought it was sort of fun. Not long after that, Doug Ford, the Premier of Ontario,

00:13:45.600 obviously the economic older senior partner in Canada, said, count me in. To which Dan Kelly,

00:13:54.740 the boss of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, said, this is a major commitment on the

00:13:59.420 part of Ontario Premier Ford towards eliminating inter-prevential trade barriers. Nova Scotia and Ontario

00:14:06.240 will lead the way. Congratulations to both premiers. And joining us now via Skype is Dan Kelly of the CFIB.

00:14:13.980 Dan. It feels like these guys had maybe been talking about it beforehand, because that's quite a

00:14:20.300 quite a commitment for the Premier of Ontario to make in response to a tweet. I'm guessing these guys

00:14:25.020 have been talking about this ever since the specter of Trump's tariffs came along.

00:14:29.740 Yeah. In fact, I believe the Premier of Nova Scotia was in Ontario during the election campaign.

00:14:34.840 And they did talk a bit about internal trade. This announcement from Tim Houston was significant.

00:14:43.100 And then the follow-up from Ford, certainly a reason for optimism. Obviously, he has to get re-elected

00:14:49.000 for that to happen. But this is pretty major. I've been dancing around this file for 30 years,

00:14:55.820 my journey at the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. We've had lots of good talk,

00:15:00.600 but very, very little action on the part of provincial governments to getting rid of some of these 0.97

00:15:05.700 stupid minor differences in rules, regulations, permits, licenses, that cause all sorts of costs 0.97

00:15:13.320 to Canadian businesses and to workers as well. But don't add up to much of anything in terms of 0.99

00:15:20.080 any protections that they offer society.

00:15:22.820 You know, I think people have been talking about internal free trade for decades. And the reason

00:15:28.240 it hasn't happened is because the interests that are protected by this over-permitting or this

00:15:35.240 exclusion is like, for example, I'll just give the example of excluding professionals from other

00:15:39.820 provinces where you can immediately guess who's for that. You're protecting a guild. They don't want

00:15:46.600 competitors. They want barriers to entry. So it's easy when you speak in generalities.

00:15:52.420 We want free trade amongst provinces. Yes. Okay. Well, now try doing it when you have all these

00:15:58.700 interests saying, hey, hey, not us, because we have our special ways. So let me ask you,

00:16:05.180 I think sort of the obvious question is, these politicians sound pretty enthusiastic,

00:16:10.120 but they haven't done it so far, presumably because it's tough. Do they actually have the courage to

00:16:15.940 steamroller over the lobbyists who are protecting their turf?

00:16:19.400 I think they do. And look, even among some of those protected interests, I think that is starting

00:16:25.880 to thaw too. I think many of them recognize that for the next generation of entrants into whatever

00:16:32.220 profession, they need people from other provinces to be able to supplement that. And we saw some of

00:16:38.320 this during the pandemic. One of the very few helpful outcomes of that was that we started to,

00:16:44.860 you know, in healthcare, we started to free up a little bit of the licensing and other

00:16:49.140 bureaucratic systems that people had to go through. I actually think the problem is deeper than that,

00:16:54.100 though, Ezra. It's not just that you're right that sometimes there are people protecting their turf in

00:16:59.420 these fields, but premiers have not really figured out until recently how to do this. There's been good

00:17:06.060 intentions on their parts, but I think many of them just get overwhelmed. So the typical answer is,

00:17:11.880 and I'm asked this question all the time by premiers, by others, sure, we're interested,

00:17:16.660 Dan, in helping to lower or end interprovincial trade barriers. How do we do it? And or give me

00:17:21.940 some examples. So one I raised, in fact, with a former Saskatchewan premier was something as stupid 1.00

00:17:28.740 as safety kits. Every province required different items to be in their safety kits that were mandated to 1.00

00:17:35.600 be carried by businesses across the country. So that meant that a company to create these kits had

00:17:42.860 to make 10 different versions, one for every single province to serve with different numbers of band-aids

00:17:49.460 or slings in the kit. It made no sense. It led to zero additional safety for anyone. And so what did

00:17:58.660 premiers do? Well, let's convene a panel. And so they both brought bureaucrats from 10 provinces. They spent

00:18:03.340 months and months and months. And finally, they actually did make some headway. But for that one

00:18:07.960 regulation on safety kits, some provinces maintain up to 400,000 regulations. So if you try to harmonize

00:18:16.360 400,000 rules and regulations, and we should certainly talk about whether that number is appropriate,

00:18:21.480 but if you tried to harmonize even a fraction of that, it would be our grandchildren that would still

00:18:26.040 be talking about this. And that's why what the premier of Nova Scotia proposed was aligned with what we

00:18:32.540 had recommended, and that is mutual recognition. So if something's okay to do, that process is

00:18:37.580 approved, that good is approved, the licensing is approved in Saskatchewan or in Alberta, it's good

00:18:44.400 enough in Manitoba or Ontario, and vice versa. This mutual recognition is the way to get cut through

00:18:50.460 all of that. It's one simple piece of legislation. And the fact that the premier of Nova Scotia proposed

00:18:55.960 it, and now the premier of Ontario, the largest province, has said that he's in, that to me is the first

00:19:02.340 significant movement on this in decades. You know, I think a lot of Canadians are watching

00:19:08.820 in the United States what Elon Musk calls DOGE, Department of Government Efficiency,

00:19:14.580 and they're moving so quickly, and they're breaking stuff, and they're shutting stuff down. Like there

00:19:21.300 was this entire $40 billion program called USAID. They just shut it down. They started looking through

00:19:28.500 and said it's unsalvageable. Now, that's more about a spending savings. That's not so much about

00:19:34.260 regulations and trade barriers. But, you know, what you were talking about there about these 10

00:19:39.940 different kits in every province, it's almost like the mythical Gordian knot. How do you untie this knot?

00:19:47.620 Of course, the way that in mythology was cut through with a sword. And I think that's the thing. You could

00:19:54.100 try and out bureaucrat the other bureaucrats, or you could just take a sword and cut through it.

00:20:00.340 I don't know if our Canadian system has the ability to muster a DOGE. But I sense that you got to move

00:20:09.540 so quickly that the bureaucrats and those with the inertia can't react. One of the things that Elon Musk

00:20:15.380 is good at doing is working fast, working around the clock, and working in dramatic ways that the

00:20:24.340 incumbents are not used to handling. And I don't know if we have that spirit in Canada. I would like

00:20:32.260 to think we do. Or is that necessary? I'm sort of jealous of them, Dan.

00:20:37.700 Well, look, one of the few potential positives out of the threat of US tariffs is that it has sharpened

00:20:49.460 Canadian minds to cut through some of the BS in our systems. I mean, gosh, look, even the liberal

00:20:55.620 leadership candidates have started to pivot on many of their major policies in response. Provinces are

00:21:01.940 looking at getting serious about this and saying, okay, we just need to do this. And yes, we're going to

00:21:06.980 break a few things. And I have no doubt that there will be some, ultimately some exemptions,

00:21:12.580 and perhaps some with value. But if we did this on the negative option side, that we said everything

00:21:18.020 is permitted, and provinces only where they had compelling reasons to do this could put in place

00:21:24.020 the odd exception here or there, this will be way, way better than the current scenario where,

00:21:29.460 unless you go through the six-year process in Saskatchewan, you can't get approved. Gosh,

00:21:34.340 we have municipalities getting in on the action too. I mean, I remember in Alberta,

00:21:39.860 you had to have a separate business, like if you were a Calgary business, you had to have a separate

00:21:43.460 business license in Canmore and in Banff in order to go and do a job there. And how is that adding

00:21:49.700 any value? It's just adding costs and frustrations and limiting competition among businesses in local

00:21:56.340 areas, which of course is the salvation towards cost reductions and efficiency gains.

00:22:00.340 Yeah. Hey, you know, I mentioned the tweets by Tim Houston and Doug Ford. And one of the reasons I

00:22:06.820 like Twitter is that politicians sometimes sort of make policy and make announcements in real time

00:22:12.660 to the world. It's sort of fun. And sometimes they speak their mind. I really admire the platform.

00:22:18.980 But let me read to you one more tweet. And this is from Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe. And he was

00:22:25.860 responding to the surprising announcement, I think it was yesterday, by US President Donald Trump,

00:22:31.940 who said he wants to revive the Keystone XL pipeline, even though it's been dead. It was

00:22:37.220 actually a first day executive order by the previous president. Joe Biden killed it. Since then,

00:22:43.540 I mean, a plan doesn't stick around for four years. That metal pipe is sent elsewhere. The workers,

00:22:52.900 they're not waiting around for four years. So to exhume and revive that is quite a big thing,

00:23:00.020 although I think it's so valuable might happen. But let me read what Scott Moe said. It's in reaction to

00:23:04.580 that. He said, effective immediately, all pipeline permits going east, west or south received in

00:23:14.820 Saskatchewan will be considered pre-approved. We encourage all provinces and the federal government

00:23:21.380 to do the same. And then he tags Justin Trudeau and Donald Trump. Well, now, now this is the test,

00:23:28.340 isn't it, Dan? Because it's one thing for Tim Houston and Doug Ford to say, I'm for trading

00:23:34.900 goods and services. You too? Yeah, we're all in. Okay. Now here's Scott Moe doing the test.

00:23:40.100 Will you allow a pipeline? Will you allow a pipeline? And I am terrified of the answer behind

00:23:45.460 that, Dan, because I don't think you're going to have the me too, me too retweeting like you had on

00:23:51.140 this other stuff. No, no, you're quite right. Look, these major development projects are viewed as a

00:23:56.500 separate kettle of fish. But the Premier, Premier Boe has put out a good challenge and certainly one

00:24:02.980 that we're hoping more Canadian premiers take him up on. I got to say, though,

00:24:10.820 I do sense a new spirit around some of these major projects. It seems like people are getting

00:24:16.100 the message that we just can't say no or keep people in perpetual loops of uncertainty.

00:24:21.780 It does feel like the ground has shifted. And that is one of the, as I said, a helpful outcome

00:24:29.220 of the challenge to the South. I don't know why we have this gear in Canada that we cannot change

00:24:34.820 anything unless there is an existential threat. But literally, something has to be burning

00:24:42.100 for Canadian governments to take action to try to address. But burning things are right now.

00:24:49.220 And it does feel like that is switching Canadian governments into gear. And it's not a moment too

00:24:56.580 soon.

00:24:56.820 Well, I hope you're right. I mean, I haven't seen any other, I haven't seen the Premier of Quebec

00:25:01.700 retweet Scott Martin.

00:25:03.460 Yeah, that one would be a tall order, for sure.

00:25:05.540 Yeah. I mean, I don't think, I wonder how they think the oil gets to Montreal. Do they think it

00:25:10.660 just sort of, I don't know, appears by, you know, Santa Claus down the chimney?

00:25:14.100 Well, it comes from the Middle East. That's the reason. 1.00

00:25:16.500 That's the reason.

00:25:17.060 Well, yeah, by pipeline, by the way. We won't get into all that right now. But listen,

00:25:22.420 thank you for updating us. And I hope that the stress of the possible tariff debt from the United

00:25:28.980 States is enough to concentrate some of the minds in Canada. However, I remain a pessimist. Dan,

00:25:34.580 great to see you. Thanks for keeping up the fight.

00:25:37.060 Anytime, Bishop.

00:25:37.780 There you have it. Dan Kelly, the boss of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business. Stay with us.

00:25:43.060 More ahead.

00:25:55.300 Hey, welcome back. Your letters to me on Canada being possibly removed from the five eyes intelligence 0.92

00:26:02.660 group. RF7 says, so instead of having five blind mice, there will only be four. I disagree with your

00:26:11.860 metaphor. The five eyes. I mean, that's MI6. That's the CIA. I don't know what the secret

00:26:17.540 agencies in Australia and New Zealand are called. But let's be candid. Canada is the main beneficiary

00:26:24.420 of this. I mean, the CIA and MI6 do the heavy lifting. How many times have you seen news in Canada

00:26:33.380 where we were tipped off to a looming terror attack by Americans all the time? We're the beneficiaries 1.00

00:26:41.860 of it. It's insane and terrifying that they're talking about kicking us out. And why would they do

00:26:47.620 it? Well, probably because we're tweaking their nose. How about bringing thousands of unvetted 0.94

00:26:52.740 migrants in from Gaza? Can you imagine wanting to be in the five eyes super friends club, but doing 1.00

00:26:58.900 something as reckless as that? Brian Rapson says, as a 32 year veteran, I left communist China

00:27:07.380 10 years ago. Thank God. Well, listen, first of all, thank you for your service. And second of all,

00:27:13.140 hopefully you went somewhere free and prosperous. I remember during the lockdowns during the pandemic,

00:27:18.900 a number of my friends left Canada for the United States. They had a job that they could

00:27:23.460 do anywhere. They had a job that really was on the phone and on their laptop. So some of them even

00:27:28.260 moved to Florida and no one even knew. And a lot of people said, get out of Canada. It's not

00:27:34.180 free. It's not prosperous. It's going in a dark direction. And it's a compelling thing to think of.

00:27:42.740 But if you're in the ideas business, which I believe I am, and if you call on people to commit

00:27:50.020 to freedom every day, which I do, I mean, it's how I sign off my show every day, right? I certainly

00:27:55.860 felt an obligation and I feel it still to stick around and fight. I mean, I suppose if police were

00:28:01.460 busting down the doors to arrest me, I might seek asylum. But I mean, I actually was arrested last

00:28:08.180 month, if you recall, and I didn't run and we're going to stand and fight. So I'm not saying you

00:28:13.620 were wrong to leave. And in fact, you may be very wise to have left. But in my own case,

00:28:20.260 I feel an obligation to stick around and fight. And let me give you an example of how that pays off.

00:28:25.540 Would you agree with me that just six months ago, things looked quite dark?

00:28:30.820 Maybe not six months ago. I forget when Kamala Harris took over from Joe Biden and the Democrats 0.75

00:28:35.700 were surging in the polls and the media found their love for the Democrats again. And Donald

00:28:39.940 Trump was maybe wobbling a little bit. Did you not feel like things were quite dark? I certainly did

00:28:45.380 when it came to censorship and when it came to foreign policy mistakes. And look at how the sun has risen

00:28:52.820 from the dark midnight of despair. And I feel amazing about what's happening in the US. Obviously,

00:28:59.140 I'm not thrilled with their tariffs on Canada. But so many freedom expanding things are happening there.

00:29:05.700 And that happened in the course of six months. And so I would like to think that there is a good chance

00:29:13.060 that in six months, maybe sooner, maybe a little later, Canada may turn the chapter from the Trudeau

00:29:20.180 years as well. I have to think that and I do think that and I hope you're in a happy place. But for us,

00:29:28.100 it's Canada. Greggs says, open up our country to investment from China and Japan is one solution.

00:29:35.460 The other solution is easy and cost effective interprovincial trade. Well, as we just talked

00:29:43.860 about with Dan Kelly, what if Quebec doesn't want our oil? What if they refuse our pipelines?

00:29:51.060 I'm happy selling our stuff anywhere. It is a moral improvement to the world to sell Canadian oil to a

00:29:57.780 customer rather than have them buy conflict oil from Russia or OPEC. But I would be worried about

00:30:05.540 strengthening China too much because it is the world's largest authoritarian regime. That's our

00:30:11.620 show for today. Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home,

00:30:17.060 good night and keep fighting for freedom.

00:30:19.460 Do you have any regrets about forcing Canadians to live under a government they don't want so you can 0.99

00:30:29.540 get richer? Because congratulations, today you are eligible for your pension. Like I said,

00:30:34.020 I'm not going to be answering your questions.

00:30:38.980 And that's the leader of the NDP. Will he put the country ahead of his pension and vote for a carbon

00:30:45.940 tax election now? Mr. Singh, for the good of the country, are you going to walk away from your

00:30:58.180 multi-million dollar pension? No media is allowed. No media is allowed. No? Is that right? Pierre Polyev is

00:31:01.940 accusing you of keeping the government in power to keep your pension. What's your reaction to that?

00:31:07.620 It's another tired old lie that Pierre Polyev likes to say. And it's a lie that he uses to distract from the

00:31:13.700 facts. Mr. Singh, what's more important, your pension or the lives of Canadians?

00:31:22.100 So the whole 41 million Canadians are being held hostage by the pension of one man.

00:31:27.940 Alex Alavoie for Rebel News and I'm currently in Montreal and today it is the day that the pension of

00:31:36.580 Jagmeet Singh kicks in. Yes, he qualified for his pension. So I was kind of surprised because,

00:31:44.980 you know, who was here today? Of course, Jagmeet Singh. So me and my colleague Guillaume Roy,

00:31:50.740 we drove all the way here to have the opportunity to ask him a question since there were media availability.

00:32:00.100 For years, Jagmeet Singh has propped up the Liberals while Canadians called for an election. Now,

00:32:08.340 let's ask him if he has any regrets about doing so just to secure his pensions. Also, with the

00:32:16.580 imminent appointment of our next unelected Prime Minister, who by all indications seems to be Mark

00:32:24.580 Carney, we want to know if Singh will keep his promise to vote against the Liberals as soon as

00:32:32.180 he can to launch an election as Canadians were asking. So I'll let you on the full interaction

00:32:39.700 with Jagmeet. You will not believe what happened.

00:32:42.260 Mr. Jagmeet Singh, I know you don't want to answer my question, but I think you have to listen

00:32:57.300 to it. You have to listen to all journalists. I won't answer the question, sorry, but I'll take the other

00:33:01.460 questions. I have to ask my question and if you don't want to answer it, it's up to you, but you don't have to

00:33:08.260 discriminate the journalists. Do you have any regrets about forcing Canadians to live under a 0.77

00:33:13.940 government they don't want so you can get richer? Because congratulations, today you are eligible for

00:33:19.780 your pension. Like I said, I'm not going to be answering your questions. Is there any other questions?

00:33:24.260 Are you going to vote against the government at the earliest opportunity, as you say before Christmas?

00:33:32.020 Any other questions? So no other journalists want to take my question and ask it back?

00:33:38.900 Hamas. We all agree on Hamas on a two-state solution. No, we don't agree with Hamas. 0.90

00:33:45.060 No, we're against Hamas, absolutely. Yes, we're against Hamas, we are. 0.60

00:33:50.180 And we're in favour of a two-state solution. But it must be a Palestinian state.

00:33:56.020 Mr. Karné s'est exprimé à propos du Moyen-Orient et du Hamas. There are no people in the

00:34:01.140 social media who have reacted correctly. What do you think of this comment?

00:34:05.700 The comment of?

00:34:07.300 About Hamas of Mr. Karné.

00:34:09.460 Yes, I hope it was a mistake because he said he agree with Hamas. We reject that proposal.

00:34:20.180 Hamas, on a condamné Hamas comme un groupe terroriste. Pour ceux qui ont brisé les droits, 0.54

00:34:27.300 les droits de la personne, les droits de guerre, les personnes qui ont fait tout ça ont le droit d'avoir la justice.

00:34:32.900 Mais M. Craig Sauvé, en arrière de vous, M. Jagmeet Singh a utilisé justement un pamphlet avec la Palestine dessus,

00:34:40.180 qui a fait beaucoup de backlash. Vous voulez pouvoir répondre à ça?

00:34:45.300 I agree, man. As part of your negotiation with Trump, would you cancel that contract,

00:34:52.980 not give a bunch of money, pay money to a U.S.?

00:34:55.700 So Jagmeet, you are ready to answer a question from someone who just get out of jail for allegedly

00:35:03.540 harassing two women. And you just answer his question and you refuse to answer my question

00:35:10.020 about if you have any regrets about forcing Canadians to live under a government that they

00:35:17.540 don't want just to get richer with your pension. Why do you keep refusing? Because you answered me in

00:35:24.820 the past. You answered me multiple times, Mr. Jagmeet Singh. You don't remember and nothing happened.

00:35:31.620 And you answered my question. We need accountability. You understand?

00:35:37.700 You saw at one point Jagmeet Singh took a question from a really well-known anti-Israel activist,

00:35:46.020 Yves Engler.

00:35:47.300 You condemn the genocide, Mr. Gilbaud. You condemn the genocide in Gaza. Mr. Gilbaud. 0.51

00:35:54.340 Kerrigan, Ms. Kerrigan. Is the Canadian military an extension of the U.S. Empire? Ms. Kerrigan.

00:35:59.620 How do you feel about the Holocaust in Gaza? Do you know what they're saying that 96% of children

00:36:05.220 in Gaza? 96% of children in Gaza feel like they're about to die. 49% want to die.

00:36:12.340 You've been supporting it. Your government's been supporting that, Mr. Gilbaud.

00:36:15.140 Mr. Champagne, do you have any comment on Israel's Holocaust in Gaza?

00:36:19.380 Were you at the conference this morning?

00:36:20.820 Do you have a comment on Israel's Holocaust in Gaza?

00:36:23.380 I normally see you everywhere we go.

00:36:24.820 Mr. Champagne, when you were a foreign minister,

00:36:27.780 you called on the International Criminal Court to not investigate Israel's crimes.

00:36:32.660 Why can't you answer that? Is Israel's Holocaust in Gaza?

00:36:34.900 Don't do that.

00:36:35.380 Are you willing to condemn Israel's Holocaust in Gaza?

00:36:38.900 Madame Plante, were you condemned? You condemned October 7th, Madame Plante?

00:36:42.420 I was kind of shocked because he just got out of jail for allegedly harassing two women.

00:36:49.860 So I took the opportunity to speak a little bit about that with also the freedom of the press,

00:36:58.180 and I let you on my interaction with Eve Engler.

00:37:01.140 You see, so Eve Engler just showed up and he just went out of the jail for allegedly harassing two

00:37:11.380 women. But he took his question, but he refused my question. Actually, I'm going to ask. 0.82

00:37:17.620 What's wrong with me?

00:37:19.700 I just saw you in the news that you just get out of the jail. Can you explain what happened?

00:37:24.180 They went along with his claims that there was a potentially some form of harassment, which is

00:37:32.340 totally absurd. And they tried to bring in conditions that said I couldn't write about the case,

00:37:38.500 about the fact that I was being charged. The Crown, the police tried to bring a condition that said

00:37:43.060 I could not write about the fact that I was being charged for having an author charged for writing

00:37:50.500 criticism of Israel. And then I wrote about this and the police responded by presenting themselves

00:37:57.940 as a victim and then bringing in four new charges of harassment of the police for, again, writing an

00:38:04.500 author, writing about charges that had been brought against him for writing on X, criticism of Israel.

00:38:13.700 And I had to spend five days in jail to defeat this condition. And we did, we won. The judge,

00:38:22.020 I didn't have to actually, my lawyer ultimately didn't have to present his defense because it was so

00:38:27.220 obviously an infringement of my freedom of speech to have a condition that said I couldn't write

00:38:32.500 about the charges and specifically this arch anti-Palestinian influencer that that brought the case

00:38:38.900 against me. So we won. We won a victory for free speech and obviously Rebel News, which says it

00:38:44.580 supports free speech.

00:38:45.380 No, without any evidence, I give you the benefit of the doubt.

00:38:53.140 Oh yeah, Jagmeet Singh got it. He got qualified for his pension today. But we have a petition at

00:39:00.900 jagmeetpayday.com. On this website, we have a petition to request him to vote for a non-confident vote

00:39:11.540 at the parliament. So we will see if Jagmeet Singh is keeping the liberal into power or he will actually

00:39:20.580 vote against the government to hear the Canadian who won an election. So I repeat, jagmeetpayday.com.

Rebel News Podcast - February 27, 2025

EZRA LEVANT ｜ America's billionaires became freedom advocates under Trump—are they genuine or opportunistic？

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