EZRA LEVANT ｜ Canada's Ostrich Scandal is a Test for our Love of Freedom
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Summary
What's the deal with those birds? And why do they seem to be immune to the flu? Ezra explains it all in this episode of the Ezra LeVant Show. Ezra Levenkamp is a writer, podcaster, and host of the radio show "The Ezra Lee Vaynerchuck Show" on SiriusXM Radio.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
Hello, my friends. Did you see what I did the other day with the federal health minister?
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I asked her a super friendly question, maybe even a softball question, and she just stood there
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blinking while her staffer said, don't answer, don't answer. Well, he actually said, next question,
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next question, but it had the effect of bossing his actual boss around. Crazy stuff. I'll show
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you the video that explains it all. But first, let me invite you to become a subscriber to Rebel
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News Plus. That's the video version of this podcast. I want you to see my interaction with
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Marjorie Michelle. That's the new health minister. It was crazy. And I want you to see it and have
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my explanation for it. To see it, you need to become part of Rebel News Plus. Just go to
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rebelnewsplus.com, click subscribe. It's eight bucks a month. You get all the video content in
00:00:43.360
this show, plus the satisfaction of keeping Rebel News strong. All right. Tonight, seriously,
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what's going on with those ostriches? It's October 20th, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.
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You know, I didn't get the ostrich story for a long time. It just seemed a little too odd, a little
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too niche, a little too obscure. I mean, not to be mean, but I don't really have a natural affinity
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for ostriches. I don't think a lot of people do. They're not exactly swans or even peacocks. I mean,
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they're not beautiful. But this is not a test of your affection for a particular species. I mean,
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it's very easy to love dogs, isn't it? Much more than to love ostriches. But that is not the point.
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The point isn't even about animals themselves. I don't actually believe in animal rights. I believe
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that animals are property. We should treat them humanely. But that's more a limit on our own
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conduct. It's not for the sake of the animals. We must not be cruel to other people or other living
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things. But this ostrich story, the more I've learned about it, it's about people and about
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governments. Ostriches just happen to be the flashpoint. It's about a government that insists
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on mass killing hundreds of healthy birds. Because last year, a fraction of them got sick. But then
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they all got better. And now they are immune. That's an interesting story. And it's about a
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foolish, slavish adherence to Kafka-esque rules. Red tape that makes no sense. Processes that make no
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sense. And if you ask about it, you'll be told, don't ask or you'll get in trouble. Like one of the
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craziest things is that the farm themselves have offered to test the birds to show they're not
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sick. And the government says, if you test the birds on your own, that is an offense and you'll
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be fined or even jailed. That's Kafka. It's about a total lack of transparency, including even about
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the so-called science. I'd like to see the science here. What is the science exactly that says we have
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to kill healthy birds? It reminds me of the same science that for a period of a few years during
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COVID-19, suddenly natural immunity, i.e. the kind of thing we all did when we were kids. You know,
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I remember when I was a kid and someone got chicken pox or measles, all the other moms and
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dads had our kids play with those kids, had their kids play with those kids. So you would get sick
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as a kid and then get immune. That's called natural immunity. It's been known about for centuries.
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Suddenly natural immunity doesn't apply to COVID-19. Suddenly natural immunity doesn't apply in the
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case of these birds. I mean, that's what I mean by junk science. But we're supposed to believe it
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because they're wearing hazmat suits. It's also about the thuggish threats of police to enforce
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foolish political policies. There were some police forces around the world that said, yeah, no, we're
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not getting into mask patrol. We're not getting into six foot of separation patrol. But those were
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fewer in number than the police who loved it. I remember seeing a video of some cops literally
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with a measuring tape in a barber shop to make sure that barber's chairs were six feet apart and not
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an inch less because, you know, science, if it's six feet less than an inch. Of course, in some
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countries it was two meters, not six feet. They're not the same. In some places it was one meter. You
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think there was science behind that? There was not. All of those things are back here again. All of them
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are back. And there's lots of questions to be asked about it. But very few answers, just speculation and
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conspiracy theories fill the void. If you remember, the very first person I interviewed when I went to the
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Ostrich Farm was the cop to try and get some understanding. There was no understanding to be
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coming. Basically, the cops said, we're not in control. We're here to be errand boys for the
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Canadian Food Inspection Agency. They're calling the shots. We're just doing what we're told. Really?
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Can anyone rent you for this? Can any bureaucrat get 50 cops to be pulled away from everything less
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important to go into the middle of BC for a month or two and just be on standby? I mean, what powers
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to this CFIA have? And just all of these things and no transparency, of course, conspiracy theories
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are running wild. It has to, to fill the void. And in that way, it's just like COVID too, isn't it? And if you
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dare say the wrong things during COVID times, you'll be shut down on social media, on Facebook, on YouTube.
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If you dare say, well, maybe it came from the Wuhan Institute of Virology. Well, back then you would lose
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your voice. And so far that hasn't happened here. It reminds me of that silly saying, shut up, he
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explained. That's the only explanation we've received from authority. So I went to the source
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about this whole regime. Who's the boss? Who's in charge? It's not the RCMP. They told me.
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The CFIA, well, they answer to someone. Who do they answer to? Well, I Googled it.
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And the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. And again, why is the Food Inspection Agency having
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anything to do with ostriches that are not for food? That's weird. Do they even have any experience
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with it? That's weird. Anyways, they all answer to the Minister of Health. And I didn't know who
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Mark Carney's new Minister of Health was, but her name is Marjorie Michelle. And she's actually from
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Justin Trudeau's old district in Quebec called Papineau. She's a Haitian Canadian. And I found this
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really interesting. Her dad used to be the Prime Minister of Haiti. So I don't know what that says
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other than if she grew up in the household of a Prime Minister, she probably is fairly savvy. Even
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if she's not that smart, and I have no idea how smart or dumb she is, she would know how a Prime
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Minister talks and, you know, pivots and dodges questions. Like, even if you're not smart growing up
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in the household of another politician, you just learn. So I'm guessing she's not a bad politician.
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And I assume she's smart enough to make it into cabin. Although looking at Melanie Jolie,
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I realize it's a very low bar, Stephen Gilboa even lower. Anyways, so I was looking forward to
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putting a question to her. Now, how could I do that? Because of course, Rebel News never gets
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accredited in the House of Commons. Well, that's the thing. Marjorie Michelle was on the road,
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she was going to Alberta for a joint press conference after joint meetings with all of
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her provincial counterparts. So it was the federal health minister, Marjorie Michelle, and all the
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provincial and territorial ones gathered together. So Alberta was co-hosting him. And I applied to be
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credentialed, I applied through the federal government, they simply refused to write back.
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So I applied to the provincial government. And I said, look, don't let the feds bring their Ottawa
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censorship to free Alberta. And there was a back and forth. And in the end, the federal government
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agreed to credential Rebel News, which was pretty cool. And they said, Ezra, are you going to be on
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your good behavior? And I said, of course I am. I mean, when am I not? I made a joke about, you know,
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that clip from the office where Jim was asked, Jim, I need you to be on your best behavior. And he said,
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well, I already promised someone else I'd be on my worst behavior. I made that joke.
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And then I immediately said, I'm kidding. I'll be on my best behavior. I was early. I checked in.
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I introduced myself. I got my name tag. I was literally, I think there was one other journalist
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in the room. I checked in so early. I sat near the mic and I thought, what a good boy am I? And
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then they opened up the questions. And I put a question to the Alberta health minister about a
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different subject. But then I asked the, I was given two questions. I asked the federal health
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minister a question and she actually looked engaged. She actually looked interested.
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Here is my question. My question sounds long, but I timed it. It's actually less than a minute.
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And I didn't, there wasn't even one second after I finished my question that someone
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interrupted here. Watch for yourself. Here's the whole thing. Take a look.
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Thank you, minister, for agreeing to accredit Rebel News. I very much appreciate your
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dedication to freedom of the press. I have a question about the ostrich farm. Now,
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don't worry. I'm not going to ask about the lawsuit because I don't want you to
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talk about anything that are before the courts. But there was a letter. And I noticed in the
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statement, you talk about Canada-US cooperation. I know that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., your US counterpart,
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has written saying he thinks that there's some medical research value in these ostriches because they
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had avian flu, but then have recovered and they're now immune. In fact, he's offered to do the research
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and even to pay for it. It seems to me that we need allies around Trump's cabinet table.
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And if you could throw him a bone and say, sure, Secretary Kennedy, you can study these birds.
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It's sort of no skin off Canada's nose. And don't you think it would be helpful to have an ally in
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Trump's cabinet when we're doing our trade negotiations? That's my question. Don't you think
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it would be helpful to have a friend? Thank you. Next reporter. Merci.
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Oh, you're not going to answer, Minister? I don't understand. Did I do something wrong?
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Next question. Thank you. Minister, did I miss an answer? I don't get it. Okay. I'll sit down.
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I guess it's question period, not answer period. Merci beaucoup.
00:10:15.700
What on earth is going on? You know, as soon as I said my question, he said,
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prochaine question or something, which I knew enough French means the next question. I thought he maybe
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didn't. I thought maybe he was saying, all right, wrap it up, Levant. You've been talking for a full
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minute. Where's your question? I honestly thought his first interruption was because I was going
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long. So he said, oh, that is my question. Why won't you throw Trump a bone? And then he just said,
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next question in French. And I thought, am I missing something? So I put on my simultaneous translation
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headphones. But no, he kept interrupting. It took me about three times to realize what was going on.
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Now, the minister herself looked at me. She was attentive. I know she can speak English. And even if she
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didn't have a strong grasp of it, those headsets or translation, but why was some guy whose name
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I don't even know, who was he who was interrupting his boss? I mean, why would you have a press
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conference and why would you credential journalists if you simply weren't going to answer them? Part of
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me thinks she was being handled by that staffer. And if I was a leftist, I'd say, oh, so he was
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mansplaining to her. He didn't think the poor little lady could answer. He was whitesplaining
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to her. That's what I would say if I was on the left. Not really on the left, but it is noticeable
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that she was being handled by someone who we don't know. She's not really the cabinet minister in charge
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of health, is she? She reports to a boss, some guy on the side saying, next question, next question.
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Who is the boss? I do not know. But I have a theory that that guy who kept interrupting,
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I have a theory that he's some communications staffer probably sent from the prime minister's
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office to stop her from interacting from Rebel News. And I actually, hand to God, I think he
00:12:06.260
believes their BS propaganda that we are like January 6th insurrectionists, we're domestic right-wing
00:12:12.980
extremists, and that maybe I was going to hop over and, you know, wrestle her or something. I think
00:12:18.900
they believe their BS. They thought this about the Canadian truckers. Oh my God, they're so dangerous.
00:12:23.860
No, they got bouncy castles and hot tubs. These people hate ordinary Canadians, especially those
00:12:30.020
on the right. Anyways, it was sort of fruitless in a way. It's sort of like when we used to talk to
00:12:38.260
Jagmeet Singh. Remember that loser, that footnote in history, that nothing, that empty suit? And we
00:12:43.860
would ask him questions and he would never answer. Remember when Dre Humphrey put a great question to him?
00:12:49.140
At the last leader's debate. Here, let me, let me play it again before we take a look.
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Hello, Mr. Singh, Dre Humphrey with Rebel News. Your party takes great pride in standing against
00:12:58.740
hate such as white supremacy, Islamophobia, and online... Sorry, I didn't get your outlet.
00:13:06.660
You know where I'm going to go with this though, right?
00:13:09.220
Can I speak? Yeah, you can. I'm just going to say you know where I'm going to go with it though.
00:13:12.580
Your party takes pride in standing against hate such as white supremacy, Islamophobia,
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and online hate speech. Yet you stay silent about ongoing attacks against Christians,
00:13:23.380
even after Conservative MP Jamil Javani's order paper question revealed that over 200 churches
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have been targeted by arson and vandalism since claims of remains being discovered at former
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residential schools swept the nation in 2021. These claims have been disproven by bans that excavated
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and remain unproven by those that have not. Will you condemn the rise in acts of hate against
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Christians today and explain what your party will do moving forward to keep Christians safe from hate in Canada?
00:13:58.180
Again, thank you, but I'm not going to respond to an organization that promotes
00:14:02.100
misinformation and disinformation like Rebel News, so no, I'm not going to respond to your question.
00:14:10.580
Perhaps you didn't hear me. Over 200 Christian places of worship have been attacked in Canada since
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2021. Many served First Nations communities, many were historic, and they diverted police
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and resources and put others at risk. What do you say to Canadians who see your refusal to answer,
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especially from one of the few media outlets here that are not funded by the state, as proof that a vote
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for you is a vote for a dangerous radical party that gaslights the public into thinking it stands against
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hate when its silence is instead emboldening Christophobia? Your question is another example
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of why I don't respond to agencies like Rebel News that promote misinformation and disinformation.
00:14:55.620
In the case of Jagmeet Singh, and I say this, I've thought about this a lot. I don't think this is name
00:15:02.180
calling. I think Jagmeet Singh was always a little bit dumb. Have you ever seen him say anything deep or
00:15:09.220
complex or full of policy? He, you know, he was always like as deep as a puddle and he would have
00:15:16.180
a few catchy phrases. I think his say, oh, I don't talk to Rebel News was just a dumb guy's way of saying,
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I don't have any clue what you're talking about. I don't have a good answer. So I'm going to rename
00:15:28.420
my stupidity of as some sort of weird principle that I don't talk to conservatives, which is not a
00:15:34.820
good principle. Anyway, so I tweeted, Rebel News first tweeted, and then I personally retweeted
00:15:41.220
that video. And between the two tweets, about a million people, a million people watched my,
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I wouldn't even call it an interaction because it wasn't very interactive, watched my question and
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the lack of answers. And I don't know if most people even heard of this Marjorie Michelle before. I
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honestly didn't until I Googled her. What a bad way to make your introduction to Canadian life,
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Canadian political life, as the woman either unable or unallowed to answer a pretty friendly
00:16:12.580
question. Let's play it one more time. I put it to you. This was friendly. This was me on my best
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behavior. And I thought this was an interesting question. I bet you haven't heard that question
00:16:21.620
before, have you? Here, take a look. Thank you, Minister, for agreeing to accredit Rebel News. I very much
00:16:26.660
appreciate your dedication to freedom of the press. I have a question about the ostrich farm. Now,
00:16:32.260
don't worry, I'm not going to ask about the lawsuit, because I don't want you to talk about anything
00:16:36.660
that are before the courts. But there was a letter, and I noticed in the statement, you talk about
00:16:41.380
Canada-US cooperation. I know that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., your US counterpart, has written saying he thinks
00:16:49.620
that there's some medical research value in these ostriches, because they had avian flu, but then have
00:16:55.540
recovered and they're now immune. In fact, he's offered to do the research and even to pay for it.
00:17:02.180
It seems to me that we need allies around Trump's cabinet table. And if you could throw him a bone and
00:17:09.060
say, sure, Secretary Kennedy, you can study these birds. It's sort of no skin off Canada's nose. And don't you
00:17:16.020
think it would be helpful to have an ally in Trump's cabinet when we're doing our trade negotiations?
00:17:24.660
That's my question. Don't you think it would be helpful to have a friend?
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Minister, did I miss an answer? I don't get it. Okay. I'll sit down. I guess it's question period,
00:17:54.100
Yeah, just stonewalling. In a way, it reminded me of my one-sided interview with Avi Amini,
00:18:00.180
of Albert Bourla, the CEO of Pfizer. Remember that one? Here's just a few moments from that.
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Mr. Bourla, can I ask you, when did you know that the vaccines didn't stop transmission?
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How long did you know that without saying it publicly?
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Answer that question. I mean, we now know that the vaccines didn't stop transmission,
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You said it was 100% effective, then 90%, then 80%, then 70%, but we now know that the vaccines
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do not stop transmission. Why did you keep that secret?
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I won't have a nice day until I know the answer. Why did you keep it a secret that your vaccine
00:18:45.540
Is it time to apologize to the world, sir, to give refunds back to the countries that
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poured all their money into your vaccine that doesn't work, your ineffective vaccine?
00:18:58.740
You know, I get that a lot at Davos. Here's a few moments with Larry Fink,
00:19:02.100
the boss of BlackRock. Same thing. No answers. Remember that one?
00:19:05.940
Mr. Fink, are you going to follow Donald Trump's
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plan and get rid of DEI and ESG in your companies?
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BlackRock really is the opposite of Donald Trump in so many ways. You're authoritarian,
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you're anti-populist, you're top-down. Are you going to change it all in light of the US presidency?
00:19:29.460
How has Donald Trump, have you talked to Donald Trump since he was elected?
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Is the World Economic Forum a counterpoint to Donald Trump?
00:19:43.460
The thing about Burla and Larry Fink is they're not political officials. They're public in the sense
00:19:49.940
that they're in the public sphere and the public, you know, there's a lot of interaction that control
00:19:54.980
a lot of things. But at the end of the day, Albert Burla and Larry Fink work for companies,
00:20:00.020
not for me. I'm not a shareholder of their companies. I'm just a media person on the street.
00:20:05.620
In a way, I mean, I think it shows a thin skin on their part. I think it shows a lack of transparency.
00:20:12.340
I think it shows a haughtiness. But I don't know if there's anything morally wrong with a businessman
00:20:18.980
ignoring a stranger journalist. But what about Marjorie Michelle? Because I'm not an outsider.
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I'm a full Canadian citizen. In fact, I've been a citizen longer than she's been. I was a citizen
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since I was born. How dare she look down her nose at me and her staffer. That's so gross.
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This is a cabinet minister who works for me. I think in Canada, they've been in power so long
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that they believe that the government is our master, not our servant. I think they need to
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have their attitude changed on that, don't you? Stay with us for more on this subject.
00:21:00.740
Welcome back. You know, I've done my best to reach out to authorities to try and get their
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explanation for things at the Edgewood, B.C. Ostrich Farm. In fact, when I was out there briefly
00:21:20.020
a couple of weeks ago, the very first person I interviewed was an RCMP spokesman. And I thought,
00:21:25.940
you know, I've heard the criticisms. I've heard the case made by the ostrich farm.
00:21:30.820
Let me do my best to get the other other side of the story. And I have to say, talking to the police
00:21:36.660
officer was not fruitful. I mean, basically his answers to everything was, we're just here as
00:21:43.220
security for the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. And they, of course, had nothing to say themselves.
00:21:49.300
Here's a quick clip of that longer interview. I'll only show you about a minute. Take a look.
00:21:54.420
Rebel News Armada was telling the other side of the story. And we're sympathetic to the ostrich farm
00:21:59.620
and even the ostriches. But it behooves us to get your side of the story if the police indeed have a
00:22:05.780
side. Maybe you could start by telling us who's here on behalf of the RCMP and what your mandate is.
00:22:13.300
Yes. Well, so in any situation where there's protest, we are an impartial party. So in this particular case,
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we're on site at the request of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. And our role here specifically
00:22:28.580
is public safety, to keep the peace and to enforce the law. Now, I spoke to some of the other officers,
00:22:36.740
they're coming in from pretty far afield. I mean, it looks like a pretty big operation. Are you at
00:22:41.540
liberty to disclose how many RCMP are involved? We don't speak to numbers specifically for operational
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security reasons. What I can tell you is there are a number of different support units under the
00:22:53.540
critical response unit here. So overall operations is conducted by critical response unit, which
00:22:59.780
responds to such things as wildfires, floods, things of that nature, as well as protests.
00:23:07.300
Those support services that you may have seen over the last couple of weeks, we have a remote
00:23:11.620
pilot aircraft system, obviously. We've got some medics here, among others. So to ensure that we
00:23:20.180
don't compromise public safety in any one community, we bring in officers from across the province.
00:23:25.700
As you may have seen on Friday, I actually had a chance to put a question to the federal health
00:23:30.820
minister herself. And I tried to be so gentle and softball. You saw me, I said, don't talk about the
00:23:38.100
lawsuit. Just try and help me understand why the federal government wouldn't at least pause the
00:23:43.860
execution of these birds, even to placate U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy,
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Jr. And you saw how that went. She just looked at me blankly and her staffer insisted we move on.
00:23:58.340
Here's a clip from that. Thank you, Minister, for agreeing to accredit Rebel News. I very much
00:24:03.620
appreciate your dedication to freedom of the press. I have a question about the ostrich farm. Now,
00:24:09.300
don't worry, I'm not going to ask about the lawsuit, because I don't want you to talk about
00:24:13.140
anything that are before the courts. But there was a letter, and I noticed in the statement,
00:24:17.700
you talk about Canada-U.S. cooperation. I know that Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., your U.S. counterpart,
00:24:24.340
has written saying he thinks that there's some medical research value in these ostriches,
00:24:29.380
because they had avian flu, but then have recovered and they're now immune. In fact,
00:24:34.900
he's offered to do the research and even to pay for it. It seems to me that we need allies around
00:24:42.100
Trump's cabinet table. And if you could throw him a bone and say, sure, Secretary Kennedy,
00:24:48.660
you can study these birds. It's sort of no skin off Canada's nose. And don't you think it would be
00:24:53.460
helpful to have an ally in Trump's cabinet when we're doing our trade negotiations?
00:25:01.620
That's my question. Don't you think it would be helpful to have a friend?
00:25:17.940
Minister, did I miss an answer? I don't get it. Okay. I'll sit down. I guess it's question period,
00:25:30.980
So weird. I got to tell you, there's all sorts of theories and rumors and hunches that people have.
00:25:37.940
And this silence in the case of the health minister, total silence in the face of legitimate
00:25:43.300
questions. It's not helping. It's making things look even more suspicious. I mean, there's got to be
00:25:49.300
a good explanation for things and failing us being told that we'll come up with our own theories. Well,
00:25:55.140
one man who's been on the ground of the ostrich farm for, I think, over a week now, and he has
00:26:00.900
brought some interesting tools and an interesting eye to things is our friend, Chris Dacey. Normally,
00:26:07.300
he's in Ottawa. Sometimes we see him in Toronto or other places, but he has decamped for Edgewood,
00:26:13.140
BC. Chris Dacey joins us now. Chris, great to see you. Thank you for joining us from British Columbia.
00:26:20.740
Yeah, thank you. And it's actually going on over just just over two weeks now.
00:26:24.100
Oh, my gosh. Well, you're becoming an old timer out there. When I visited, it was very brief.
00:26:30.900
There was a fairly good-sized crowd of people there. Are the people still there in their RVs
00:26:36.900
and their tents and their cars? Is it still a bit of a mass event?
00:26:42.180
Yeah, definitely. There's still a large number. I would say the number has slightly dwindled,
00:26:47.060
but people are still coming and going continuously. So, yeah, the numbers are a bit lower, but it's
00:26:51.620
still quite a large number of people here. Presently, a few are gone. There's actually a rally going
00:26:58.820
on in, I believe it's Kelowna, this morning. So, there was a rally at the RCMP, and a lot of
00:27:03.460
people went over there for that. Huh. Now, you're used to covering the Ottawa protest scene,
00:27:09.300
which is a very particular group of people, both on the police side and the protest side. I mean,
00:27:14.740
I suppose there's different protests, but it's a bit of a different thing. I think in BC,
00:27:19.140
we have a permanent standoff. How would you compare what you traditionally report in Ottawa
00:27:25.540
versus what you're seeing in BC? Are there any similarities, or it's just a completely different
00:27:31.540
kettle of fish? Yeah, I would say that this is a pretty unique situation. The only similarities
00:27:37.060
is being stood up face-to-face with police, which I mean, that's happened to me a number of times,
00:27:41.460
but other than the RCMP and the large number of police, this is a pretty unique kind of place
00:27:47.380
and a pretty unique protest. I don't even know if it's protest. I wouldn't say that. Supporters,
00:27:52.500
I don't even know what to call it, to be quite honest. Huh. Now, you mentioned you've been there
00:27:56.740
for two weeks. I guess time flies. I think the police have been there now. I think it's going
00:28:02.660
to be measured in months, and I don't quite understand it because they're, like I said,
00:28:07.620
they're there sort of as the escorts, the bodyguards to the farm inspection people,
00:28:14.180
the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. So the cops, at least they say they're not the deciders here.
00:28:20.500
They're not the bosses here. It's like they're the helper outers. How are they doing? I mean,
00:28:25.780
I asked the cop, what's your morale like? And his answer was, well, it's our job.
00:28:31.780
You actually managed to see an image of an RCMP chaplain, as in a religious clergy member,
00:28:40.900
who traditionally, if I understand military or police chaplains, their job is to help with morale,
00:28:48.020
help pep people up, help people get over grief or a crisis. Why would the RCMP be bringing in a
00:28:55.460
chaplain for their own people? Yeah, well, I imagine that people must be having a hard time.
00:29:01.460
If there's a chaplain, generally, it's because people are in need of, like you say, moral support.
00:29:06.100
I have posted in the last few days a little bit about the behavior or kind of the stress of the
00:29:11.540
RCMP. There's been a number of incidents, you know, with even with RCMP leadership,
00:29:16.340
yelling at supporters here, yelling at each other, and even an incident where an RCMP officer was
00:29:24.980
PLT, that's just for our viewers. That's a police liaison team. That's sort of like the police ambassadors.
00:29:31.860
Is that right? Yeah, correct. So we have those in Ottawa as well. We have them on Parliament Hill.
00:29:37.060
So those are kind of go-betweens. So they are police officers, but they're not really involved
00:29:41.060
in the policing. They're more go-betweens. But there has been obvious tension here. And
00:29:47.540
it seems to me that it's not really about this order. I think it's tension being under the orders
00:29:53.220
of the CFIA. Every time you ask the RCMP anything or there's a request, the RCMP are basically,
00:29:59.620
they're going to hand off notes and they're going to ask permission from the CFIA for everything.
00:30:04.420
And then they come back to the family and they'll say, oh, yes, no. Generally, it's no for every
00:30:08.820
question. But the CFIA is definitely in charge. It's very strange, honestly.
00:30:14.900
Yeah. Now, I mean, that's one of the things I asked the cop spokesman is where are all these
00:30:21.300
police from? Because Edgewood is just a very small place. Kelowna is about two and a quarter hours
00:30:27.940
away by highway. It's not a huge city, but it's a city to get that many police officers. I estimate
00:30:34.900
there's about 50 of them all together. And they come in different shifts and they're coming back
00:30:39.860
and forth. Like it's a really big operation. My guess, Chris, is it's the largest police operation
00:30:45.300
in British Columbia. It's been going on for more than a month. People have come in from quite far away
00:30:51.380
to get 50 RCMP. Now, they are getting paid a premium, overtime, travel pay, like they're making
00:30:58.420
money. But it wouldn't surprise me if they're lonely, if they're a little irritated, if, like you
00:31:04.100
say, they're not used to working for some government bureaucrats in the food inspection side of things.
00:31:10.500
Plus, you know, police are curious people. They go online. They would check social media.
00:31:15.460
They probably are getting an earful and some might be numb to it. But, you know,
00:31:20.500
I think police want to think of themselves as the good guys. Maybe it's all adding up,
00:31:25.220
being away from home, a purposeless mission, being criticized by the public and social media.
00:31:31.460
Maybe that's why the chaplain's there. These cops just don't want to be there.
00:31:35.380
Yeah, it very well could be. And I know that since I started providing certain kinds of video,
00:31:42.340
Mike Rude has taken some incredibly good video with the camera equipment that we have here.
00:31:46.980
And we're just trying to answer questions that the public have, right? The RCMP attempted to help
00:31:51.940
answer this question by flying a drone to do a head count, and they were reprimanded by CFIA.
00:31:58.580
Yes. Yeah. So, I mean, I can see that there'd be frustration. I mean,
00:32:02.260
it's starting to get to a point where this is looking very embarrassing. The CFIA are not
00:32:07.620
transparent. They have no spokespeople, not for the family, not for the public, and not for the media.
00:32:12.420
And then the RCMP are here kind of doing their bidding, but they're the front face.
00:32:17.060
So they're getting, you know, they're getting a lot of the heat when, I mean, just following orders,
00:32:21.780
but they're, I mean, they're here under the warrant and that's what they're here for, but it's CFIA show.
00:32:29.460
Yeah. You know, I mean, the government, I think, has a moral duty to let the public know some basic
00:32:35.140
things. I accept, even though I disagree with what the CFIA are doing, I accept that they may have some
00:32:41.780
confidential processes or operations. I get it. But to never say anything, not say a word,
00:32:49.300
to be completely opaque. And by the way, it comes from the minister herself. Chris, I don't know if you
00:32:54.660
saw that blank look on her face when I, like, my question was so softball, like from the top down.
00:33:01.220
And these cops are the ones that are taking the abuse for it. And as you say, you know,
00:33:07.380
they're following orders, but that's not a great excuse. I don't know. I find the whole thing
00:33:11.860
frustrating. Let me pick on something you said. You said the police had offered to use a drone to do
00:33:17.620
a head count of the birds because how many have passed away? Have any been killed so far?
00:33:23.540
Have there been any accidents? Has any ostrich died? And the CFIA tried to keep that confidential
00:33:30.580
or secret. Now, you were saying that the police offered to do a drone sweep, but they got in
00:33:36.420
trouble for it. Or maybe I misunderstood you. Tell me about the drone and the head count.
00:33:40.260
Yeah. So the drone was flown actually just a while ago now. So for quite some time,
00:33:46.340
people have been asking for a head count, which isn't unreasonable, I don't think. And not having
00:33:51.700
the head count is causing a lot of stress. It's causing a lot of wild speculation. And so the RCMP
00:33:56.340
decided to try to try to fly a drone quite high this time. So there wouldn't be another incident
00:34:00.500
where the birds got spooked. I think they learned from that. But they put their drone up and they were
00:34:04.980
reprimanded pretty almost immediately after. Now, how were they reprimanded? How did you hear about
00:34:11.380
it? Did you see it? Did they tell you? How do you know they were reprimanded?
00:34:16.580
I didn't see it personally, but that's the message that was related to me from the family.
00:34:20.900
Isn't that interesting? I mean, I've seen like, of course, every police officer
00:34:26.260
has their own personality. Now they're all under the same marching orders. But even when I was there for
00:34:31.700
my brief time, I could see some who were more friendly, who were trying to, you know,
00:34:36.820
build some sort of rapport with people. And I remember this one particular guy who had a mask
00:34:42.020
on and whenever the people, like there's sort of a police line of yellow ribbons, which is sort of
00:34:47.540
like a DMZ or something. And the farmers come up to that line and the police come up to that line
00:34:52.980
and they sort of meet, it would be like the Berlin Wall or something. And when the farmers come up and
00:34:58.980
talk, the police are there and they're trying to keep the energy level down. They're trying to,
00:35:03.460
you know, be friendly. I mean, I respect that's hard work, but there was this one cop I saw who
00:35:07.860
had his face mask on, who was filming any farmer who came close. And I thought, yeah, I'm going to
00:35:13.540
swear here. That guy's a bit of an asshole. He's enjoying the antagonism. He's spying on people.
00:35:19.940
Why is he doing that? Does he think the people are the enemy? So there's different personalities
00:35:27.300
of different police. And I don't know, in their own way, they're cooped up too.
00:35:34.820
Yeah. And I've definitely noticed that some police officers are a little different than others. And
00:35:39.140
honestly, I've gotten into it a little bit with a couple of them who I thought were being pretty rude.
00:35:43.860
That area you're talking about is actually called the arrest gate. It's by the RCMP, not me. That's
00:35:49.300
what they called it for their operation. And that's the gate that this property on the corner,
00:35:54.020
there's a family on the corner that aren't the farm, but just happened to be near the farm and
00:35:58.740
they needed their property. So they line up against that at the arrest gate. And there's some tension
00:36:03.460
there sometimes, especially at night, when that family wants to get cleaning out of their property,
00:36:08.180
they have to come in and ask permission and a few things could go wrong. And there's been,
00:36:12.660
you know, a few incidents there and that kind of bothered me a bit. I had like shining my eyeballs,
00:36:16.900
like high powered flashlights. That didn't make me too thrilled and directly into my camera while
00:36:21.700
I was trying to film. So, you know, things like that, that don't go over too well with me. And
00:36:26.260
I have a bit of history with the police. I'm emotional at times. And there was once or twice,
00:36:30.180
I got a little bit heated, but you know, nothing crazy.
00:36:33.540
Isn't that funny? You made me think of something from a few years ago during the lockdowns.
00:36:37.700
There's a church south of Edmonton called the Grace Life Church. And the police came
00:36:41.220
and they put a fence around the whole church and sort of commandeered it and turned it into like
00:36:45.620
a police base. It was really crazy. But there was a neighbor who shared part of the entrance road
00:36:52.500
and the police blocked his road and the fury with which he came out at those cops who blocked him
00:36:59.380
instead of just the church. It was outrageous that they blocked the church. But you made me just think
00:37:03.620
of the police sort of being ham-fisted, not planning well, not taking into account neighbors. It's quite
00:37:09.540
something. Now, I think everyone's waiting on the Supreme Court of Canada to issue an advisory on
00:37:18.180
whether or not they will hear an appeal. You have a right to appeal anything to the Court of Appeal in
00:37:24.020
your province. But not everyone has the right to appeal it to the Supreme Court of Canada. In fact,
00:37:30.420
you have to sort of make a little application called for leave to appeal. The Supreme Court has to say,
00:37:39.460
yes, your case is important enough or controversial enough that we think it should be one of the small
00:37:46.980
number of cases we can hear. There's only one Supreme Court. They don't have time to hear a thousand
00:37:50.740
cases a year. So right now, everyone's waiting to hear whether or not the Supreme Court of Canada will
00:37:58.020
grant leave to appear in the Supreme Court. So until the Supreme Court says yes or no to whether
00:38:04.340
they'll take the case, everything's frozen. So that's how we sort of know that these ostriches
00:38:10.180
aren't in jeopardy right now because the Supreme Court still hasn't let us know when they're going to
00:38:17.540
make that ruling. This could drag on for months, Chris. I mean, the Supreme Court is not known for being
00:38:24.180
fast. What would happen if this thing goes, I mean, I don't know what the weather's like out there,
00:38:30.820
but what happens if this thing goes to Christmas or to the new year? What happens if it's snow on
00:38:36.500
the ground? I mean, how are they even going to handle things then? Yeah, I mean, there's already
00:38:41.380
snow now if I look out in the tops of the mountains and it's definitely getting cold here at night. I do
00:38:46.420
know that people around here and their supporters, they're already starting to prepare,
00:38:49.300
hunker down for winter. So it sounds like people are going to keep riding this out. As far as winter
00:38:55.620
coming, actually, that brings up an interesting concern as well. Normally, there's preparations
00:38:59.460
for winter that are done on this farm. Normally, there's a lot of stuff that is done on this farm.
00:39:03.220
And a lot of that work doesn't seem to be being done. The birds are going to need protection during
00:39:07.220
the winter and some sort of shelter and bedding. And it seems like a lot of the regular farm work that
00:39:11.860
should be done on a farm is not getting done right now. Wow. How do you think it's going to end?
00:39:20.900
I mean, I suppose that's a tough question. You don't have any secret knowledge, neither do I.
00:39:28.020
But just based on your gut and how the CFIA has handled itself, how the RCMP has handled itself,
00:39:33.940
how the how the counter protesters, if I call them, how do you think this is? I mean, what's going to
00:39:42.020
happen? Yeah, I mean, it's hard to say, really. And I'm not going to guess what the court may do or
00:39:47.940
or anything like that. But I mean, this is such a big story already. So much attention still. And
00:39:53.300
it's and it's continuing to keep that, you know, the attention of the of the media and of people,
00:39:58.420
which I've never seen anything really like that. If they go ahead with this, like, I can imagine,
00:40:05.140
honestly, I don't know. Everything about this is so bizarre. I just think that if they do go ahead,
00:40:11.300
people are already quite upset with what they're seeing. They're upset with the behavior of the
00:40:14.500
CFIA with unelected bureaucrats and, you know, the armed wing of the government protecting them.
00:40:19.540
So there's a lot of upset people. If they start killing birds, that ups, you know, that that will
00:40:25.300
seriously up the energy and the and the emotion for people. So I'm kind of wondering if they're
00:40:30.660
they're holding out or they're waiting till winter, hoping things will die down. I'm not really sure,
00:40:35.540
but I don't see how this plays out. Well, the government's not one to normally back down.
00:40:40.740
Yeah. Let me ask you one last question before we let you go. You have managed to zoom in. I think
00:40:47.460
you've got a great zoom lens or something. Tell me a little bit about that. I tried to put my phone
00:40:52.660
on the other end of a telescope and that did not work, but you found a solution. Tell me a little
00:40:58.820
bit about this. I don't know if it's a lens or a telescope. Tell me how you managed to zoom in
00:41:04.740
because you had some unique footage really close up of the CFIA interacting with the ostriches. How
00:41:11.780
did I mean, if it's a trade secret, then don't tell me. But if you if if it's something you feel
00:41:16.980
comfortable sharing because I think you you really cracked the code on that. Yeah. I mean,
00:41:21.860
the the camera itself is a Nikon P 1000 and it has a hundred and twenty five times optical zoom.
00:41:27.860
Wow. Wow. Well, there's your answer right there. I mean, you can see you can see the craters on the
00:41:33.380
moon with one hundred and twenty five times zoom. I did actually while I was here. There was a full
00:41:38.980
moon or a super moon and I got some great pictures of that. And and those photos and videos are coming
00:41:44.020
from I mean, very I won't say exactly where crown land. But some of them are well over a mile away,
00:41:50.500
two miles. We were, I think, five kilometers away one time filming. So it's one heck of a lens.
00:41:56.580
Wow. Well, that really showed the lengths that the government is going to hide what they're doing.
00:42:02.900
It really is quite shocking. Well, Chris, we're so grateful that you're there. Thank you for being there.
00:42:08.100
Different rebels have done shifts. I don't know if we have a rebel on the ground right now. I have to
00:42:12.340
check if Dre is there. She's gone a few times, but she always has to go back to Vancouver sort of
00:42:17.380
to refuel and things like that. But I'm glad you're there. What's the best way for people to follow
00:42:21.780
your work, Chris? Yeah, all my work is going up to X at Chris Dacey on X. And while I'm here,
00:42:28.420
I'm also sharing stuff to Facebook. I have been banned from Facebook, but we're using Mike Rood,
00:42:33.700
Sergeant Mike Rood retired, the Rood Awakening Tour Facebook page. So for people on Facebook, check that out.
00:42:39.460
He does a lot of a lot of work helping the veteran community. So it's nice to be collaborating with
00:42:43.460
him. Great. Well, you know, I really am grateful for your work. Like I say, you've got some new stuff
00:42:49.380
that no one saw before until you got that 125 times lens. And I think you're sort of a seasoned
00:42:56.820
veteran from the streets of Ottawa. And I think there's a little bit of the trucker convoy spirit
00:43:02.020
out there amongst the ostrich supporters. I mean, it's obviously a lot of differences, but that same
00:43:06.740
feeling of standing up to the government against long odds. So Chris, I'm really glad you're out
00:43:10.980
there. And thanks for sharing your info with us today. Yeah, thanks for having me, Ezra.
00:43:15.620
All right. Our pleasure. There you have it, Chris Dacey. And you can follow him as I do on X.
00:43:32.740
Hey, it's Monday night. It's great to be back in the studio. So much is going on. You know,
00:43:35.940
I zipped out to Calgary for that half question to Marjorie Michelle and I came back. But you know,
00:43:42.500
I'm hopping on a plane tonight because something absolutely terrifying and heartbreaking just happened
00:43:48.500
in Dublin and the government just turned the largest hotel in Ireland into a migrant center
00:43:57.780
for military age, single men. Gee, what could possibly go wrong? People who destroy their ID illegally
00:44:05.620
come into the country and are put up at taxpayer expense in a luxury hotel, three square meals a day,
00:44:11.940
cell phone, spending money, but we have no idea who they are. Well, a horrific, horrific thing
00:44:17.780
happened tonight. A 10 year old girl was raped and one of the migrant men from this City West hotel
00:44:24.180
was accused. And already a huge crowd is gathering outside the hotel. This is what we've been reporting
00:44:30.580
about and warning about for more than a year in Ireland. And we've seen it in the United Kingdom too.
00:44:35.620
So Lincoln Jay and I are immediately getting on a plane to cover what I think is going to be a massive
00:44:41.140
protest outside City West. And what some politicians are saying is a breaking point in Irish politics.
00:44:47.460
We'll go and see what we find. You'll be able to follow all our reportage from Dublin at
00:44:53.940
migrantreports.com. So I got to get out of here. I got to get on that plane. Until next time,
00:44:59.380
on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, see you at home.