EZRA LEVANT ｜ An election is coming. How will Rebel News cover it？
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Summary
A federal election is coming, and Rebel News is here to cover it. This is the Ezra Levenant Show, where we talk about the upcoming election and how we'll cover it, and why we should all be worried about it.
Transcript
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Hello, my friends. Today, I talk about the looming federal election in Canada. I saw my first election
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ad yesterday. It was online. I didn't have a chance to record it, but the liberals are looking good.
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Charming, twinkling Trudeau's eye, none of that vacation lazy man's beard that he had. Oh,
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he's looking sharp. On the other hand, Aaron O'Toole is talking about the deadly Delta variant.
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I don't know who he's trying to appeal to, but I know which one I think an alien would vote for if
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they just saw this happy, positive Trudeau and this cringy, pouty O'Toole. I'll give you some more
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of my thoughts. And more importantly, I'd tell you our plan for how we're going to cover this election
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that's ahead. Let me encourage you to become a subscriber to Rebel News Plus. That's the video
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version of this podcast. Just go to rebelnews.com, click subscribe, eight bucks a month. Most
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importantly, it's a source of revenue for us. It is not from the government. We don't take
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government money, unlike most of the media. And I think in the months ahead, you'll see a real
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difference between how an independent news organization like ours covers the election versus
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how bought and paid for bailout journalists on the left cover it. All right, here's today's show.
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Tonight, an election is coming. How will Rebel News cover it? It's August 10th and this is the Ezra
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LeVant Show. Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?
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There's 8,500 customers here and you won't give them an answer. The only thing I have to say to the
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government, but why I publish it, is because it's my bloody right to do so.
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I saw my first election ad yesterday. It was on the internet, of course. I think that's where most
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ads will be. It was an ad for Trudeau's liberals. I don't think I'll ever vote liberal. And I think
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Justin Trudeau could well be the worst prime minister in our country's history, even worse than
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his father. But the ad was good. I can't find it online. I think it ran accidentally too early.
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But I can see the ad working. Gone is the ugly, I'm on permanent vacation, lazy beard and hairstyle
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that Trudeau had for a year that he looked like he was always sleeping in. You know, when he was just
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phoning in his work. Trudeau was never one for hard work, never in his whole life. I don't know if you
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remember, but one of the excuses he tried out when he was convicted of corruption involving his free
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vacation on Billionaire Island with the Aga Khan. His argument seriously made that he never really knew
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what anyone in a meeting was talking about. Certainly not who was lobbying for what. So he was immune to
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corruption. Because if the Aga Khan would have mentioned some grant he was applying for, some
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favor, Trudeau just wouldn't know what he meant. He was there for relationship reasons only, to make
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people feel good. And other people in the prime minister's office did the real work. He really did
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argue that. And frankly, who would disagree? It's obviously what Trudeau is, a mascot. He has no work
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ethic. He doesn't know any details. He can memorize a few lines about anything, very shallow, like a quick
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actor. And good news for him, he'll never be asked anything more deeply or more repeatedly that can be
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handled by one or two cute phrases. That's what his ad felt like that I saw online. Just style and feeling.
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Happy, positive, youthful, no worries. He's got a twinkle in his eye. Don't listen to those meanies. I know you
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won't, because you can't even name Aaron O'Toole, let alone pick him out of a police lineup.
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And if you do happen to know Aaron O'Toole's name, and if you do happen to give him a moment of your
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time, you won't hear anything inspiring, any competing vision. You'll hear someone whining about
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how unfair it is to have an election, and how the main issue in Canada right now is that we should all
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be terrified of the Delta variant of the virus. I'm serious, I didn't know Theresa Tam was the new Tory leader.
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Canadians are worried about a fourth wave of COVID-19. The dangerous Delta variant is here,
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and we have to be ready. Now is not the time for an election. We can all wait and go to the polls
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when it's safe. We need to focus on health and well-being, securing our economic future,
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and fighting COVID-19 together. My wife and I had COVID. Like many families, we want to get past this
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pandemic. But let's pull together for one more fight. Let's beat COVID-19 and have an election when it's safe.
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Yeah, so people aren't paying attention to you at the best of times. Now you have their attention,
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perhaps for the first time ever, and you're talking about being afraid of the Delta variant.
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Really, that's your number one issue. So I think it's fair to say, I know your views about lockdowns
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and travel quarantines and even vaccine passports, because you're so terrified of the Delta variant.
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It's the most important topic you think we should know about.
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You know, I've shown you this all the time. This is the daily stats. It's close to zero the number
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of people dying from the virus in Canada these days. 55 deaths in the entire country in the entire last
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week. So on any given day, it's single digits. It's zero in half the country.
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How ironic. For 18 months, Trudeau has been the fearmonger. He's been the one locking us down,
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making travel horrendous with the COVID quarantine jails and airports. He's the one terrifying people,
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abiding civil liberties, abrogations by mayors and provinces, allowing interprovincial check stops.
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He's gone full big pharma. He's being that guy, the malaise guy, the doomsday guy.
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Now he flips the switch and he's Mr. Hopeful and Happy. And I promise you, take this to the bank.
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He's timed an announcement with Joe Biden where he'll open up travel with the U.S.
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He'll make that announcement during the campaign as part of his platform. He was waiting for the
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election to do it. He's probably delayed it just for the election. He's going to be the guy to give
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you freedom back. And the conservative candidate is the one telling you to be afraid? How did that happen?
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Oh, I think he's going to win, Trudeau. Here's a poll from Abacus. I think they tilt liberal,
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but show me a poll that's fundamentally different from this. When was the last time the conservatives
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were at 25% in the polls? What's their excuse? Erwin O'Toole has been a leader for a year.
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The party did better without a leader than with him as a leader. But why would he have support?
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How is he different from Trudeau? Carbon taxes? Check. Mass migration? Check. Pandering to Quebec?
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Check. Check. The lockdowns? Check. Cancel culture? Like I said, he hasn't said a word against
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the new censorship proposals from Trudeau and Stephen Gilbeau. In fact, the last word on the
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subject was from his critic, Alain Reyes, supporting censorship.
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But we don't see it in the bill. There's nothing in this bill that allows for the regulation of social
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media or platforms like YouTube. And it's clear we would have liked to have seen this in the bill.
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The minister even says we have to find a way of preventing hate speech, conspiracy theories and fake
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news that's shared. But right now in the bill, unfortunately, we won't even be able to amend it
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in that aspect. And because it's simply absent from the bill.
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Yeah. Woo. Can hardly wait to put up a lawn sign for that guy. But what should we do? I mean,
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we can't vote for Trudeau. He'll continue to destroy so much of Canada, not just statues and symbols,
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but Canada's entrepreneurial spirit. He'll continue to punish the oil and gas sector in Alberta and
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Saskatchewan workers. He'll continue open borders, mass migration. He'll continue to align with China,
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continue to obey the UN. This isn't a conspiracy theory. It's a conspiracy fact.
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This pandemic has provided an opportunity for a reset. This is our chance to accelerate our pre-pandemic
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efforts to reimagine economic systems that actually address global challenges like extreme poverty,
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inequality and climate change. Well, look, I'm not going to make predictions about the outcome,
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but would you agree with me that not only are the polls looking pretty bad for O'Toole, the worst ever,
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where St. Andrew Scheer had, but that the political battlefield is more tilted than at least it was
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two years ago. The media is two years more colonized by Trudeau and his endless media party bailouts.
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We've already seen the journalists union, Unifor, roll out their attack ad against O'Toole. The CBC is
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not only in full Trudeau mode, as always, they're in full pandemic lockdown propaganda mode.
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Really, it's worse than ever. And my point is, if Trudeau could be re-elected last time,
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even with the blackface scandal and Jody Wilson-Raybould's fiasco and SNC-Lavalin,
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Trudeau firing Wilson-Raybould because she wanted to stop him from interfering in a
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corruption trial. Even if Trudeau, if he could win then, why wouldn't he win now?
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Look, across Canada, provincial governments are being re-elected during the pandemic. Why wouldn't
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Trudeau himself? So what are we going to do? Well, I think we do what we always do.
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We're going to ask tough questions of every politician. And by that, I mean questions that
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talk about subjects that politicians don't always want to be asked about,
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and that the rest of the media usually don't ask about. For me, that means freedom-oriented
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questions about lockdowns and vaccine passports, about censorship laws and control of the internet,
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about Trudeau's war on oil and gas and pipelines, but is favoring OPEC oil imports,
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with the war on working families in the form of taxes and borrowing and inflation,
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about driving up housing prices through unlimited immigration to Canada,
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driving down wages despite our recession-level unemployment, our bizarre foreign policy,
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loving China, loving Iran, preferring OPEC oil imports to Alberta oil production.
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We're going to ask about all those things, but we're not going to just talk to Trudeau and O'Toole
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and their candidates, if they even allow us to. I mean, they don't like those questions. We'll talk
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to the fringe parties, too. Jagmeet Singh's NDP and the Green Party, whoever it is that controls it at any
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given moment, because don't think those parties aren't important when it comes to giving Trudeau
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a de facto majority. They've propped up Trudeau these past two years supporting his minority
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parliament. But we won't just talk to the small parties on the left, because they need scrutiny,
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particularly their increasing radicalism, their support for socialism, and especially the Green
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Party's anti-Semitism, which I think is the real reason they're trying to get rid of their black
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Jewish leaders. She's Jewish, you know. But we'll also talk to the small parties on the right,
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Maxime Bernier's People's Party. He's been one of the few politicians who opposes lockdowns.
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I like a lot of things about Maxime Bernier, his belief in freedom, free speech, opposing lockdowns.
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I think his arrest by Brian Pallister's political police just for going to a meeting, I think that
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shows where this country is headed. And that it's not just the liberals, it's the so-called conservatives
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who are acting like bullies too. And we'll talk to Derek Sloan, the leader of a new party he's
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founding. I don't think Bernier or Sloan will win seats. I just don't think they will, at least not
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this time, not in any one district. But perhaps like the UKIP party in the UK, or even the NDP here
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in Canada, they can become an important outlet for dissent that causes the mainstream parties to fix a
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problem. They choose to ignore. Perhaps if Maxime Bernier's party and Derek Sloan's party get three,
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four, five percent of the vote each and take it away from the conservatives, maybe that'll make
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the next conservative party leader pay attention to those issues that they're sloughing off.
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I'm sure they'll be marginalized and shut out in the leaders' debates that are run by the government.
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They shut us out last time too. We had to go to court, remember, to get a judge to let us in.
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I'm sure we'll have more litigation ahead because the censorship instinct in Canada has never been
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this strong, not in my lifetime, probably not ever. So that's what I think. I think we'll be in an election
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mere days from now, but really it's already begun. Trudeau's running happy ads. I saw one yesterday.
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O'Toole is muttering about Delta variants. And the reporters, their own union, from their own pockets,
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are running attack ads on conservatives with their own union dues. The powers that be
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will likely try to ban us. And they'll probably try and ban a couple of those smaller parties on the
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right, maybe even arrest Maxime Bernier or Derek Sloan again. But we will be out there, our rebel
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reporters, like always. We're going to put our reporters on planes and trains and automobiles to
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cover the election across this country. We're not just going to sit here in our offices. We're going
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to be out there. Trudeau's bodyguards have shown us their approach. They've assaulted
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our reporter, Drea Humphrey. Humphrey, excuse me. Aaron O'Toole's staff called the police on David
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Menzies just a couple of weeks ago for asking questions they didn't like. So I'm sure we'll
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get the brunt of it. But we have to do it. Imagine for a moment in an election where the only point of
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view was from CBC state broadcasters or the bailout newspapers. I can't imagine what a fake news
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campaign like that would be like. That's what I think the next two months are going to be like.
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And I won't lie. I think Trudeau's going to win. I think Canada's descent into authoritarianism will
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continue. Trudeau has always told us he admires communist regimes like China and Cuba. He wants
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to be leader for life like they have in those countries too. I'm here to tell you we're going
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to do our best to document what the rest of the media party won't and where we can to help fight
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Well, it's coming up on a thousand days since China, I think the phrase that would fit is kidnapped
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two Canadian nationals, Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig. It was a clear tit for tat of Canada
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arresting the CFO and daughter of the founder of Huawei, Meng Wanzhou, and holding her in Vancouver
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for extradition to the United States. There's another Canadian in jail in China. His name
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is Robert Schellenberg. He's charged with drug trafficking. He denies it, says he's neither a
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drug user nor a drug trafficker. He was convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison. And then the
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Chinese state decided to change his sentence to a death penalty. He lost the appeal in the last 24
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hours in China. There is an ultimate appeal to the Supreme People's Court. But unlike Canada or other
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countries with the rule of law, the courts in China are really expressions of the will of the Chinese
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Communist Party. There is no independent judiciary. So why is China making these moves right now?
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It's not just Robert Schellenberg, whose death penalty was upheld, but Michael Spavor's case is
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expected to be dealt with in the next few days. Is this China trying to influence the Canadian election,
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which is set to be called any day? Joining us now to talk about this is our friend Gordon G.
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Chang, a China expert who is actually in Canada today. What a pleasure to have you north of the
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border, Gordon. Welcome back. And before I ask you a question, I want to make sure everyone's
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following. You got to follow Gordon on Twitter at Gordon G. Chang. Great to see you, my friend.
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What do you make of the latest moves out of China? Well, first of all, it's great to be in Canada.
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So thank you, Ezra. This really is perplexing, because as you point out, it comes on the eve of a call
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for election. And you would think that China would realize that this could only help the conservatives.
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But nonetheless, you know, Chinese diplomats, Chinese strategists, they're not stupid. So
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they must have some reason. I just can't figure it out. Because of course, yes, they're trying to
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intimidate the Canadian political establishment, but they've already accomplished that. So the question
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is, what more can they gain by announcing the confirmation of the death sentence?
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Yeah, it's very unusual. I noticed that this time, Dominic Barton, Canada's ambassador to China,
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was on the scene, and he was speaking in diplomatic terms, but he made it clear that he disagreed with
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the Chinese government. I note this because the last time that these Canadians were on trial,
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and I'm going to call it a show trial, Dominic Barton was not there. He sent some lower level
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diplomat, which I found confusing and disappointing. So I don't know what to read into that. But I would
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think that China wants to define an issue in the Canadian election. I just, I don't, you raise a good
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question. How do they think it'll break? I don't know. But it's clear they want to meddle a little bit
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in what Canada's about to decide over here. I think that's what they want.
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Well, they certainly want to do that, Ezra, but the timing is perplexing. You know, I'm certainly
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not an expert on Canadian politics, but my friends tell me that Trudeau could actually win an absolute
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majority if the election were held. If that's the case, then Trudeau would be free to implement his
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pro-China policies. And one of them would be just bring Meng Mengzhou. But something like this,
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it would seem to me, highlights the failure of Trudeau's approach to China. So it's, you know,
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it might not change the election results, but it's certainly not going to help the incumbent
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prime minister, a friend of Beijing. So this has all the hallmarks of another Chinese mistake.
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But, you know, this is one of those things where China must have some reason for doing this. It's
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just that we can't figure it out. Yeah. I mean, one of the things that puzzles me is,
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is, are China's decision makers receiving unvarnished news, even news they don't like? Or
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is there a culture of fear and compliance? No one wants to tell them the truth. So perhaps
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diplomats or other sources of intel shade their information, color it a little bit to please
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their masters. What I mean by that is, I think the Canadian public opinion has hardened against China
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in the last two and a half years. We see that in poll after poll. Canadians are becoming more and
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more skeptical. And I have to give credit. I often criticize the Globe and Mail, but they've
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actually been outstanding in their coverage of this issue and other Chinese issues. I really admire
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the work, especially by Steve Chase. So I think that maybe there's a chance that Chinese diplomats are
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reporting back to Beijing and saying, oh, boss, it's going really well. We've left them on the knees
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now. Because I remember there's a news story a little while back, Gordon, that China was actually
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getting ready to send a big jet to Vancouver expecting Meng Wanzhou to be released. They had
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this whole plan for a wonderful return home triumphant. And I think they were stunned that
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the Canadian court said, no, she has to continue the legal process. So they've been wrong before,
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whether that was self-delusion or just trying to say the right things back home. I think that's
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a risk when you have a dictatorship, isn't it? Well, it is. And you point to something which
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is really important. And that is, especially over the last couple of years, we have seen Chinese
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diplomats engage in tactics that actually alienate target countries. And they've been doing this more
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and more. And China's watchers actually speculate what you said. And that is that they cannot report
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what they see on the ground to their superiors in Beijing, because that would be considered to be
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politically unacceptable. It would undercut what Xi Jinping, the Chinese ruler, is trying to accomplish
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and the approach that he's taken. So they can't do that. Now, we have witnessed a number of cases of
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that in other countries. So we shouldn't be surprised that they're also making the same
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mistakes in Canada. So I think you're absolutely right about what's happening inside at this
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particular time, because at least from the outside, that is what appears is appearing to happen.
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Hey, let me ask you a question about something we used to track fairly closely, but I think it fell
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off the front pages. And I don't know why that is. Maybe it's just pandemic coverage has taken up all
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the space. But whether or not Huawei and other Chinese-associated companies would be allowed
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to build the 5G internet backbone, really, of Western countries. And we've seen some countries
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debate this. Some literally pay to rip out their Huawei hardware. Has there been any movement on this
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file in other countries? I know the UK had some debates on it, and Australia seemed to be going
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pretty hard line against it. But New Zealand, maybe not. Do you have any news? Because I haven't seen a
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lot of news on this issue probably in six months. Yeah, there hasn't been much news, and it's a really
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important issue. And generally speaking, and you look at the Five Eyes Consortium, that's the
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intelligence-sharing consortium among Western democracies, Canada is really the only country that
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has yet to make a decision. All the other countries have, to varying degrees, decided to rip out and
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replace their Huawei equipment or not buy Huawei 5G networking gear. Canada is the only one that has
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not. And, you know, Beijing is obviously looking to the upcoming election, because if Trudeau does get
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what he wants, which is his outright majority, then clearly he's going to go with Huawei. At least
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that's the way it appears to me. Now, one of the things that could happen is that Trudeau's minority
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partners actually score bigger. And if that's the case, then Trudeau would not be in a position to do
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what he wants to help his friends in Beijing. But this is something that the Canadian public, I hope,
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puts the pressure on their prime minister, regardless of how they vote in the upcoming
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election, because this is critical. If Canada goes with 5G from Huawei, then I don't know how it
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remains part of the Five Eyes. Yeah, wow. Let me ask you just for a quick update on a few different
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things. You know, Taiwan is always in the news, and Japan has spoken, you know, about how defending
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Taiwan in an interesting way, because Japan really has an inward-looking foreign policy and military
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policy dating back to the Second World War. Can you give us any tidbits on Japan or Taiwan or the
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recent Olympics and how Taiwan won a medal and China itself claimed it? Give us a little bit of an
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update, because I know you follow so many, there's so many parts to the China story these days. Maybe
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give our viewers a bit of an update on a few things that you think have been interesting since the last
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time we spoke. Yeah, I think the most important Japan development is that the defense minister
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actually came out and said that if there were to be an invasion of Taiwan by China, Japan would have
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to get involved. And that triggered a threat, not from Beijing officially, but obviously from the
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Chinese regime, that they would actually use nuclear weapons against Japan in that circumstance.
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That obviously would be a violation of their no-first-use policy that China has roundly and loudly
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declared. But clearly, Japan is standing with Taiwan. And that's great news, because that gives
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encouragement to others in the region to do the same thing. This really is, I think, the result of
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that summit meeting in Washington between Prime Minister Suga and President Biden. And I think that at the
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time, many people, including me, were disappointed with the official pronouncements on Japan and Taiwan
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that followed that. But since that, there's been a number of developments in Tokyo showing that Japan
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is really becoming stalwart in the defense of Taiwan. Well, you know, that's the best news I've heard all
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day, because I know that you and I have been nervous a little bit about Joe Biden on China. But if you're
00:24:44.980
saying that the meeting between the Prime Minister of Japan and Joe Biden may have been a source of confidence
00:24:53.240
or direction for Japan to speak up, I find that, I mean, these days, you've got to find hope where
00:24:58.880
you can. And that's a little bit of hopeful news there. I'm really glad to hear that. Any last thoughts
00:25:05.220
about Taiwan itself? I saw that China was claiming one of their Olympic medals for their own, and that's
00:25:13.260
just some shenanigans. But how is Taiwan? I know sometimes that there's a politics in Taiwan that says,
00:25:21.060
well, can't we just make up with China? Let's not fight. Let's get rich with China. Is that,
00:25:27.000
are the reunifiers sort of in retreat because people realize the danger? They watch Hong Kong,
00:25:33.940
they see the new laws coming down in Hong Kong, and they say, yikes, that's the future for us.
00:25:40.040
What's the read on Taiwan these days? Yeah, the people who want unification with China are actually
00:25:47.060
louder than they've been, just generally. But they don't seem to have that much influence. So they
00:25:53.840
don't, they're not resonating with people in Taiwan. And largely, it's because people in Taiwan,
00:25:58.860
regardless of how they feel about China, believe that they're Taiwanese, not Chinese. And the most
00:26:05.300
recent self-identification surveys confirmed a trend towards Taiwan identity. So I think Taiwan is safe.
00:26:13.060
One of the interesting things, of course, is that China actually believed it would have the
00:26:17.680
greatest number of gold medals in the recently completed Tokyo Olympics. And then the last day,
00:26:24.300
the US pulled ahead. And so what China did in response was to aggregate the gold medals from
00:26:31.880
Taiwan and Hong Kong to show that China actually had more. This was just sort of hilarious. But it shows
00:26:40.140
you to the extent that Beijing really is looking at the Olympics as a source of legitimacy for the
00:26:46.060
regime. Yeah. And of course, they've got the Olympics coming up in a couple of years. Gordon,
00:26:50.640
great to see you again. Once again, folks, please join me in following Gordon on Twitter. He's my
00:26:55.460
number one source of China news at Gordon G. Cheng. Take care, my friend, and enjoy the rest of your time
00:27:00.780
in Canada. Thank you so much, Ezra. It's just really, really good to be up here.
00:27:05.960
Right on. Well, I'm glad you think that because we have our challenges, as you know. But thanks
00:27:11.180
for giving us your insight into things. Take care, my friend. Stay with us. More ahead.
00:27:27.660
My show last night, Smith writes, typical example of rules for thee and not for me.
00:27:33.460
Yeah, you're talking about Obama's party. But really, it's the same for all of them. I don't
00:27:37.440
know if you saw, but Catherine McKenna, who's, you know, flamed out as a cabinet minister and not
00:27:42.740
running again. She loves to tweet about herself, lots of photos about herself. So she tweeted that
00:27:48.140
she was going to Nineveh, the Northern Territory, on the government time for a little vacation to swim
00:27:53.820
in the Arctic. But all her photos when she landed was her without a mask. But I checked, and the rules
00:27:59.360
in Nineveh, say, if you go into that territory, for two weeks, you have to have sort of a semi-quarantine.
00:28:06.180
You have to wear masks and socially distance. She landed, immediately started politicking no mask.
00:28:12.040
It's a small thing. But if that were anyone else, they'd be getting thousands of dollars of tickets,
00:28:18.820
maybe tens of thousands of dollars of tickets. And she and the rest of the liberals screech at
00:28:24.760
anyone who doesn't want to stay in a COVID jail hotel. Then again, Trudeau himself went to the
00:28:30.260
G7 Summit in the UK. No masks, lots of personal contacts, super spreader event. Look, they simply
00:28:37.100
don't believe it's a danger. Just like they don't believe global warming's a danger.
00:28:42.180
Same Catherine McKenna jetted to the far north. That's a very long journey. So when she says no using
00:28:48.240
fossil fuels, she just means for you not to use it. Jose writes, CNN qualified half the United States
00:28:55.480
who do not want to comply with mask mandates as irresponsible and the problem, but Obama's as
00:29:00.780
classy. Yeah, I mean, like I say, a lot of this is classist. I mean, I'm not a Marxist, but I can't
00:29:08.260
help but see there's a lockdown class, typically well-to-do people who are loving this lockdown,
00:29:13.480
making more, the same or more money for the same or less work. And then there's just working people,
00:29:20.500
whether you're a waiter or a waitress or someone who's hassled by the rules police. It's a clear
00:29:26.400
class divide. I wouldn't even call it right-wing or left-wing. It's just people in power letting
00:29:31.340
you know that they're powerful and exempt from the rest of us. That's our story for today. Thanks for
00:29:37.260
joining us. Until next time, on behalf of all of us here at Rubble World Headquarters, to you at home,