Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ An election is coming. How will Rebel News cover it？

00:00:00.000 Hello, my friends. Today, I talk about the looming federal election in Canada. I saw my first election

00:00:04.240 ad yesterday. It was online. I didn't have a chance to record it, but the liberals are looking good.

00:00:09.760 Charming, twinkling Trudeau's eye, none of that vacation lazy man's beard that he had. Oh,

00:00:15.620 he's looking sharp. On the other hand, Aaron O'Toole is talking about the deadly Delta variant.

00:00:22.700 I don't know who he's trying to appeal to, but I know which one I think an alien would vote for if 0.71

00:00:30.500 they just saw this happy, positive Trudeau and this cringy, pouty O'Toole. I'll give you some more

00:00:37.300 of my thoughts. And more importantly, I'd tell you our plan for how we're going to cover this election

00:00:41.660 that's ahead. Let me encourage you to become a subscriber to Rebel News Plus. That's the video

00:00:46.080 version of this podcast. Just go to rebelnews.com, click subscribe, eight bucks a month. Most

00:00:51.220 importantly, it's a source of revenue for us. It is not from the government. We don't take

00:00:55.840 government money, unlike most of the media. And I think in the months ahead, you'll see a real

00:01:00.660 difference between how an independent news organization like ours covers the election versus

00:01:06.240 how bought and paid for bailout journalists on the left cover it. All right, here's today's show.

00:01:14.980 You're listening to our latest podcast.

00:01:17.920 Tonight, an election is coming. How will Rebel News cover it? It's August 10th and this is the Ezra

00:01:31.360 LeVant Show. Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?

00:01:37.860 There's 8,500 customers here and you won't give them an answer. The only thing I have to say to the

00:01:43.460 government, but why I publish it, is because it's my bloody right to do so.

00:01:52.520 I saw my first election ad yesterday. It was on the internet, of course. I think that's where most

00:01:58.100 ads will be. It was an ad for Trudeau's liberals. I don't think I'll ever vote liberal. And I think

00:02:03.280 Justin Trudeau could well be the worst prime minister in our country's history, even worse than

00:02:07.380 his father. But the ad was good. I can't find it online. I think it ran accidentally too early.

00:02:14.680 But I can see the ad working. Gone is the ugly, I'm on permanent vacation, lazy beard and hairstyle

00:02:24.500 that Trudeau had for a year that he looked like he was always sleeping in. You know, when he was just

00:02:30.380 phoning in his work. Trudeau was never one for hard work, never in his whole life. I don't know if you

00:02:36.920 remember, but one of the excuses he tried out when he was convicted of corruption involving his free

00:02:42.080 vacation on Billionaire Island with the Aga Khan. His argument seriously made that he never really knew

00:02:48.780 what anyone in a meeting was talking about. Certainly not who was lobbying for what. So he was immune to

00:02:54.520 corruption. Because if the Aga Khan would have mentioned some grant he was applying for, some

00:02:59.660 favor, Trudeau just wouldn't know what he meant. He was there for relationship reasons only, to make

00:03:05.620 people feel good. And other people in the prime minister's office did the real work. He really did

00:03:10.380 argue that. And frankly, who would disagree? It's obviously what Trudeau is, a mascot. He has no work

00:03:17.080 ethic. He doesn't know any details. He can memorize a few lines about anything, very shallow, like a quick

00:03:23.820 actor. And good news for him, he'll never be asked anything more deeply or more repeatedly that can be

00:03:29.580 handled by one or two cute phrases. That's what his ad felt like that I saw online. Just style and feeling.

00:03:38.140 Happy, positive, youthful, no worries. He's got a twinkle in his eye. Don't listen to those meanies. I know you

00:03:45.140 won't, because you can't even name Aaron O'Toole, let alone pick him out of a police lineup.

00:03:50.980 And if you do happen to know Aaron O'Toole's name, and if you do happen to give him a moment of your

00:03:55.580 time, you won't hear anything inspiring, any competing vision. You'll hear someone whining about

00:04:01.700 how unfair it is to have an election, and how the main issue in Canada right now is that we should all

00:04:07.800 be terrified of the Delta variant of the virus. I'm serious, I didn't know Theresa Tam was the new Tory leader.

00:04:13.400 Canadians are worried about a fourth wave of COVID-19. The dangerous Delta variant is here,

00:04:19.240 and we have to be ready. Now is not the time for an election. We can all wait and go to the polls

00:04:24.660 when it's safe. We need to focus on health and well-being, securing our economic future,

00:04:31.020 and fighting COVID-19 together. My wife and I had COVID. Like many families, we want to get past this

00:04:36.660 pandemic. But let's pull together for one more fight. Let's beat COVID-19 and have an election when it's safe.

00:04:43.400 Yeah, so people aren't paying attention to you at the best of times. Now you have their attention,

00:04:53.480 perhaps for the first time ever, and you're talking about being afraid of the Delta variant.

00:04:58.780 Really, that's your number one issue. So I think it's fair to say, I know your views about lockdowns

00:05:04.460 and travel quarantines and even vaccine passports, because you're so terrified of the Delta variant.

00:05:08.480 It's the most important topic you think we should know about.

00:05:13.600 You know, I've shown you this all the time. This is the daily stats. It's close to zero the number

00:05:19.100 of people dying from the virus in Canada these days. 55 deaths in the entire country in the entire last

00:05:25.220 week. So on any given day, it's single digits. It's zero in half the country.

00:05:30.640 How ironic. For 18 months, Trudeau has been the fearmonger. He's been the one locking us down,

00:05:37.340 making travel horrendous with the COVID quarantine jails and airports. He's the one terrifying people,

00:05:42.860 abiding civil liberties, abrogations by mayors and provinces, allowing interprovincial check stops.

00:05:49.620 He's gone full big pharma. He's being that guy, the malaise guy, the doomsday guy.

00:05:55.880 Now he flips the switch and he's Mr. Hopeful and Happy. And I promise you, take this to the bank.

00:06:00.520 He's timed an announcement with Joe Biden where he'll open up travel with the U.S.

00:06:05.060 He'll make that announcement during the campaign as part of his platform. He was waiting for the

00:06:09.960 election to do it. He's probably delayed it just for the election. He's going to be the guy to give

00:06:14.180 you freedom back. And the conservative candidate is the one telling you to be afraid? How did that happen?

00:06:19.260 Oh, I think he's going to win, Trudeau. Here's a poll from Abacus. I think they tilt liberal,

00:06:26.760 but show me a poll that's fundamentally different from this. When was the last time the conservatives

00:06:31.040 were at 25% in the polls? What's their excuse? Erwin O'Toole has been a leader for a year.

00:06:37.940 The party did better without a leader than with him as a leader. But why would he have support?

00:06:43.540 How is he different from Trudeau? Carbon taxes? Check. Mass migration? Check. Pandering to Quebec?

00:06:48.620 Check. Check. The lockdowns? Check. Cancel culture? Like I said, he hasn't said a word against

00:06:53.280 the new censorship proposals from Trudeau and Stephen Gilbeau. In fact, the last word on the

00:06:57.360 subject was from his critic, Alain Reyes, supporting censorship.

00:07:01.340 But we don't see it in the bill. There's nothing in this bill that allows for the regulation of social

00:07:10.180 media or platforms like YouTube. And it's clear we would have liked to have seen this in the bill.

00:07:16.460 The minister even says we have to find a way of preventing hate speech, conspiracy theories and fake

00:07:25.300 news that's shared. But right now in the bill, unfortunately, we won't even be able to amend it

00:07:32.820 in that aspect. And because it's simply absent from the bill.

00:07:36.780 Yeah. Woo. Can hardly wait to put up a lawn sign for that guy. But what should we do? I mean,

00:07:43.060 we can't vote for Trudeau. He'll continue to destroy so much of Canada, not just statues and symbols,

00:07:49.220 but Canada's entrepreneurial spirit. He'll continue to punish the oil and gas sector in Alberta and

00:07:55.760 Saskatchewan workers. He'll continue open borders, mass migration. He'll continue to align with China, 0.60

00:08:02.680 continue to obey the UN. This isn't a conspiracy theory. It's a conspiracy fact.

00:08:07.720 This pandemic has provided an opportunity for a reset. This is our chance to accelerate our pre-pandemic

00:08:14.280 efforts to reimagine economic systems that actually address global challenges like extreme poverty,

00:08:20.760 inequality and climate change. Well, look, I'm not going to make predictions about the outcome,

00:08:25.020 but would you agree with me that not only are the polls looking pretty bad for O'Toole, the worst ever,

00:08:30.360 where St. Andrew Scheer had, but that the political battlefield is more tilted than at least it was

00:08:35.200 two years ago. The media is two years more colonized by Trudeau and his endless media party bailouts.

00:08:41.400 We've already seen the journalists union, Unifor, roll out their attack ad against O'Toole. The CBC is

00:08:47.460 not only in full Trudeau mode, as always, they're in full pandemic lockdown propaganda mode.

00:08:53.160 Really, it's worse than ever. And my point is, if Trudeau could be re-elected last time,

00:08:58.900 even with the blackface scandal and Jody Wilson-Raybould's fiasco and SNC-Lavalin,

00:09:04.260 Trudeau firing Wilson-Raybould because she wanted to stop him from interfering in a

00:09:08.180 corruption trial. Even if Trudeau, if he could win then, why wouldn't he win now?

00:09:15.220 Look, across Canada, provincial governments are being re-elected during the pandemic. Why wouldn't

00:09:19.320 Trudeau himself? So what are we going to do? Well, I think we do what we always do.

00:09:25.920 We're going to ask tough questions of every politician. And by that, I mean questions that

00:09:29.280 talk about subjects that politicians don't always want to be asked about,

00:09:32.620 and that the rest of the media usually don't ask about. For me, that means freedom-oriented

00:09:38.880 questions about lockdowns and vaccine passports, about censorship laws and control of the internet,

00:09:44.680 about Trudeau's war on oil and gas and pipelines, but is favoring OPEC oil imports,

00:09:50.220 with the war on working families in the form of taxes and borrowing and inflation,

00:09:55.000 about driving up housing prices through unlimited immigration to Canada,

00:09:58.600 driving down wages despite our recession-level unemployment, our bizarre foreign policy,

00:10:05.800 loving China, loving Iran, preferring OPEC oil imports to Alberta oil production.

00:10:11.880 We're going to ask about all those things, but we're not going to just talk to Trudeau and O'Toole

00:10:16.520 and their candidates, if they even allow us to. I mean, they don't like those questions. We'll talk

00:10:21.260 to the fringe parties, too. Jagmeet Singh's NDP and the Green Party, whoever it is that controls it at any

00:10:27.180 given moment, because don't think those parties aren't important when it comes to giving Trudeau

00:10:31.880 a de facto majority. They've propped up Trudeau these past two years supporting his minority

00:10:37.160 parliament. But we won't just talk to the small parties on the left, because they need scrutiny,

00:10:43.660 particularly their increasing radicalism, their support for socialism, and especially the Green

00:10:48.980 Party's anti-Semitism, which I think is the real reason they're trying to get rid of their black 1.00

00:10:53.460 Jewish leaders. She's Jewish, you know. But we'll also talk to the small parties on the right, 0.97

00:10:59.260 Maxime Bernier's People's Party. He's been one of the few politicians who opposes lockdowns.

00:11:04.120 I like a lot of things about Maxime Bernier, his belief in freedom, free speech, opposing lockdowns.

00:11:10.640 I think his arrest by Brian Pallister's political police just for going to a meeting, I think that

00:11:16.800 shows where this country is headed. And that it's not just the liberals, it's the so-called conservatives

00:11:22.060 who are acting like bullies too. And we'll talk to Derek Sloan, the leader of a new party he's

00:11:29.140 founding. I don't think Bernier or Sloan will win seats. I just don't think they will, at least not

00:11:35.120 this time, not in any one district. But perhaps like the UKIP party in the UK, or even the NDP here

00:11:42.860 in Canada, they can become an important outlet for dissent that causes the mainstream parties to fix a

00:11:48.560 problem. They choose to ignore. Perhaps if Maxime Bernier's party and Derek Sloan's party get three,

00:11:54.140 four, five percent of the vote each and take it away from the conservatives, maybe that'll make

00:11:58.800 the next conservative party leader pay attention to those issues that they're sloughing off.

00:12:04.820 I'm sure they'll be marginalized and shut out in the leaders' debates that are run by the government.

00:12:08.820 They shut us out last time too. We had to go to court, remember, to get a judge to let us in.

00:12:14.020 I'm sure we'll have more litigation ahead because the censorship instinct in Canada has never been

00:12:18.360 this strong, not in my lifetime, probably not ever. So that's what I think. I think we'll be in an election

00:12:24.780 mere days from now, but really it's already begun. Trudeau's running happy ads. I saw one yesterday.

00:12:30.100 O'Toole is muttering about Delta variants. And the reporters, their own union, from their own pockets,

00:12:36.200 are running attack ads on conservatives with their own union dues. The powers that be

00:12:41.060 will likely try to ban us. And they'll probably try and ban a couple of those smaller parties on the

00:12:46.380 right, maybe even arrest Maxime Bernier or Derek Sloan again. But we will be out there, our rebel

00:12:52.260 reporters, like always. We're going to put our reporters on planes and trains and automobiles to

00:12:57.240 cover the election across this country. We're not just going to sit here in our offices. We're going

00:13:01.040 to be out there. Trudeau's bodyguards have shown us their approach. They've assaulted

00:13:06.120 our reporter, Drea Humphrey. Humphrey, excuse me. Aaron O'Toole's staff called the police on David

00:13:11.900 Menzies just a couple of weeks ago for asking questions they didn't like. So I'm sure we'll 1.00

00:13:17.680 get the brunt of it. But we have to do it. Imagine for a moment in an election where the only point of

00:13:23.520 view was from CBC state broadcasters or the bailout newspapers. I can't imagine what a fake news

00:13:29.260 campaign like that would be like. That's what I think the next two months are going to be like.

00:13:33.640 And I won't lie. I think Trudeau's going to win. I think Canada's descent into authoritarianism will

00:13:39.480 continue. Trudeau has always told us he admires communist regimes like China and Cuba. He wants

00:13:45.820 to be leader for life like they have in those countries too. I'm here to tell you we're going

00:13:51.740 to do our best to document what the rest of the media party won't and where we can to help fight

00:13:58.400 for freedom. Stay with us for more.

00:14:12.720 Well, it's coming up on a thousand days since China, I think the phrase that would fit is kidnapped 0.99

00:14:19.600 two Canadian nationals, Michael Spavor and Michael Kovrig. It was a clear tit for tat of Canada

00:14:27.020 arresting the CFO and daughter of the founder of Huawei, Meng Wanzhou, and holding her in Vancouver

00:14:34.420 for extradition to the United States. There's another Canadian in jail in China. His name

00:14:39.680 is Robert Schellenberg. He's charged with drug trafficking. He denies it, says he's neither a

00:14:45.800 drug user nor a drug trafficker. He was convicted and sentenced to 15 years in prison. And then the

00:14:52.140 Chinese state decided to change his sentence to a death penalty. He lost the appeal in the last 24

00:15:02.580 hours in China. There is an ultimate appeal to the Supreme People's Court. But unlike Canada or other

00:15:10.600 countries with the rule of law, the courts in China are really expressions of the will of the Chinese

00:15:15.820 Communist Party. There is no independent judiciary. So why is China making these moves right now?

00:15:23.040 It's not just Robert Schellenberg, whose death penalty was upheld, but Michael Spavor's case is

00:15:28.140 expected to be dealt with in the next few days. Is this China trying to influence the Canadian election,

00:15:36.080 which is set to be called any day? Joining us now to talk about this is our friend Gordon G.

00:15:40.540 Chang, a China expert who is actually in Canada today. What a pleasure to have you north of the

00:15:45.900 border, Gordon. Welcome back. And before I ask you a question, I want to make sure everyone's

00:15:50.080 following. You got to follow Gordon on Twitter at Gordon G. Chang. Great to see you, my friend.

00:15:55.620 What do you make of the latest moves out of China? Well, first of all, it's great to be in Canada.

00:16:01.760 So thank you, Ezra. This really is perplexing, because as you point out, it comes on the eve of a call

00:16:08.940 for election. And you would think that China would realize that this could only help the conservatives.

00:16:15.720 But nonetheless, you know, Chinese diplomats, Chinese strategists, they're not stupid. So 0.99

00:16:21.500 they must have some reason. I just can't figure it out. Because of course, yes, they're trying to

00:16:27.680 intimidate the Canadian political establishment, but they've already accomplished that. So the question

00:16:33.260 is, what more can they gain by announcing the confirmation of the death sentence?

00:16:39.700 Yeah, it's very unusual. I noticed that this time, Dominic Barton, Canada's ambassador to China,

00:16:47.500 was on the scene, and he was speaking in diplomatic terms, but he made it clear that he disagreed with

00:16:52.900 the Chinese government. I note this because the last time that these Canadians were on trial,

00:17:00.040 and I'm going to call it a show trial, Dominic Barton was not there. He sent some lower level

00:17:05.360 diplomat, which I found confusing and disappointing. So I don't know what to read into that. But I would

00:17:15.200 think that China wants to define an issue in the Canadian election. I just, I don't, you raise a good

00:17:22.460 question. How do they think it'll break? I don't know. But it's clear they want to meddle a little bit

00:17:27.900 in what Canada's about to decide over here. I think that's what they want.

00:17:31.720 Well, they certainly want to do that, Ezra, but the timing is perplexing. You know, I'm certainly

00:17:36.840 not an expert on Canadian politics, but my friends tell me that Trudeau could actually win an absolute

00:17:42.580 majority if the election were held. If that's the case, then Trudeau would be free to implement his

00:17:48.980 pro-China policies. And one of them would be just bring Meng Mengzhou. But something like this,

00:17:55.340 it would seem to me, highlights the failure of Trudeau's approach to China. So it's, you know,

00:18:00.700 it might not change the election results, but it's certainly not going to help the incumbent

00:18:05.560 prime minister, a friend of Beijing. So this has all the hallmarks of another Chinese mistake. 0.99

00:18:12.400 But, you know, this is one of those things where China must have some reason for doing this. It's

00:18:18.220 just that we can't figure it out. Yeah. I mean, one of the things that puzzles me is,

00:18:23.320 is, are China's decision makers receiving unvarnished news, even news they don't like? Or

00:18:30.600 is there a culture of fear and compliance? No one wants to tell them the truth. So perhaps

00:18:36.000 diplomats or other sources of intel shade their information, color it a little bit to please

00:18:41.880 their masters. What I mean by that is, I think the Canadian public opinion has hardened against China

00:18:47.500 in the last two and a half years. We see that in poll after poll. Canadians are becoming more and

00:18:52.520 more skeptical. And I have to give credit. I often criticize the Globe and Mail, but they've

00:18:56.720 actually been outstanding in their coverage of this issue and other Chinese issues. I really admire

00:19:01.840 the work, especially by Steve Chase. So I think that maybe there's a chance that Chinese diplomats are

00:19:08.880 reporting back to Beijing and saying, oh, boss, it's going really well. We've left them on the knees 0.98

00:19:12.880 now. Because I remember there's a news story a little while back, Gordon, that China was actually

00:19:17.580 getting ready to send a big jet to Vancouver expecting Meng Wanzhou to be released. They had

00:19:24.060 this whole plan for a wonderful return home triumphant. And I think they were stunned that

00:19:30.520 the Canadian court said, no, she has to continue the legal process. So they've been wrong before, 0.97

00:19:36.040 whether that was self-delusion or just trying to say the right things back home. I think that's

00:19:40.660 a risk when you have a dictatorship, isn't it? Well, it is. And you point to something which

00:19:45.780 is really important. And that is, especially over the last couple of years, we have seen Chinese 0.78

00:19:51.960 diplomats engage in tactics that actually alienate target countries. And they've been doing this more

00:19:58.240 and more. And China's watchers actually speculate what you said. And that is that they cannot report

00:20:06.680 what they see on the ground to their superiors in Beijing, because that would be considered to be

00:20:12.780 politically unacceptable. It would undercut what Xi Jinping, the Chinese ruler, is trying to accomplish

00:20:18.160 and the approach that he's taken. So they can't do that. Now, we have witnessed a number of cases of

00:20:26.400 that in other countries. So we shouldn't be surprised that they're also making the same

00:20:31.020 mistakes in Canada. So I think you're absolutely right about what's happening inside at this

00:20:36.460 particular time, because at least from the outside, that is what appears is appearing to happen.

00:20:42.880 Hey, let me ask you a question about something we used to track fairly closely, but I think it fell

00:20:48.220 off the front pages. And I don't know why that is. Maybe it's just pandemic coverage has taken up all

00:20:53.460 the space. But whether or not Huawei and other Chinese-associated companies would be allowed

00:21:00.220 to build the 5G internet backbone, really, of Western countries. And we've seen some countries

00:21:08.040 debate this. Some literally pay to rip out their Huawei hardware. Has there been any movement on this

00:21:15.340 file in other countries? I know the UK had some debates on it, and Australia seemed to be going

00:21:22.020 pretty hard line against it. But New Zealand, maybe not. Do you have any news? Because I haven't seen a

00:21:28.720 lot of news on this issue probably in six months. Yeah, there hasn't been much news, and it's a really

00:21:34.500 important issue. And generally speaking, and you look at the Five Eyes Consortium, that's the

00:21:40.140 intelligence-sharing consortium among Western democracies, Canada is really the only country that

00:21:46.680 has yet to make a decision. All the other countries have, to varying degrees, decided to rip out and

00:21:53.220 replace their Huawei equipment or not buy Huawei 5G networking gear. Canada is the only one that has

00:22:02.840 not. And, you know, Beijing is obviously looking to the upcoming election, because if Trudeau does get

00:22:09.200 what he wants, which is his outright majority, then clearly he's going to go with Huawei. At least

00:22:16.920 that's the way it appears to me. Now, one of the things that could happen is that Trudeau's minority

00:22:24.440 partners actually score bigger. And if that's the case, then Trudeau would not be in a position to do

00:22:31.480 what he wants to help his friends in Beijing. But this is something that the Canadian public, I hope,

00:22:36.760 puts the pressure on their prime minister, regardless of how they vote in the upcoming

00:22:41.360 election, because this is critical. If Canada goes with 5G from Huawei, then I don't know how it

00:22:48.620 remains part of the Five Eyes. Yeah, wow. Let me ask you just for a quick update on a few different

00:22:54.320 things. You know, Taiwan is always in the news, and Japan has spoken, you know, about how defending

00:23:00.800 Taiwan in an interesting way, because Japan really has an inward-looking foreign policy and military

00:23:06.620 policy dating back to the Second World War. Can you give us any tidbits on Japan or Taiwan or the

00:23:13.680 recent Olympics and how Taiwan won a medal and China itself claimed it? Give us a little bit of an

00:23:19.540 update, because I know you follow so many, there's so many parts to the China story these days. Maybe

00:23:24.320 give our viewers a bit of an update on a few things that you think have been interesting since the last

00:23:28.720 time we spoke. Yeah, I think the most important Japan development is that the defense minister

00:23:33.760 actually came out and said that if there were to be an invasion of Taiwan by China, Japan would have

00:23:40.920 to get involved. And that triggered a threat, not from Beijing officially, but obviously from the

00:23:48.220 Chinese regime, that they would actually use nuclear weapons against Japan in that circumstance.

00:23:53.960 That obviously would be a violation of their no-first-use policy that China has roundly and loudly 0.55

00:24:01.280 declared. But clearly, Japan is standing with Taiwan. And that's great news, because that gives

00:24:08.340 encouragement to others in the region to do the same thing. This really is, I think, the result of

00:24:13.720 that summit meeting in Washington between Prime Minister Suga and President Biden. And I think that at the

00:24:21.000 time, many people, including me, were disappointed with the official pronouncements on Japan and Taiwan

00:24:26.960 that followed that. But since that, there's been a number of developments in Tokyo showing that Japan

00:24:33.000 is really becoming stalwart in the defense of Taiwan. Well, you know, that's the best news I've heard all

00:24:39.200 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 1.00

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, 0.99

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. 0.99

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 1.00

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 0.94

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. 0.99

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 1.00

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 0.99

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,

00:29:41.760 good night. We keep fighting for freedom.

Rebel News Podcast - August 11, 2021

EZRA LEVANT ｜ An election is coming. How will Rebel News cover it？

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