Rebel News Podcast - May 24, 2024


EZRA LEVANT ｜ Canada should be cherished, not cancelled for its imperfect past


Episode Stats


Length

37 minutes

Words per minute

169.65826

Word count

6,421

Sentence count

415

Harmful content

Misogyny

10

sentences flagged

Toxicity

21

sentences flagged

Hate speech

16

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Is it possible to put up a statue of a dead white male like Sir Winston Churchill? We ll talk to someone who s fighting back against cancel culture, and who s involved with the putting up of a new statue. That s ahead.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Hello, my friends. Is it possible to put up a statue of a dead white male like Sir Winston
00:00:05.780 Churchill? I mean, they're tearing those sorts of things down. We'll talk to someone who's
00:00:10.160 fighting back against cancel culture and who's involved with the putting up of a new statue.
00:00:16.060 That's ahead. But first, let me invite you to become a subscriber to what we call Rebel News
00:00:19.940 Plus. That's the video version of this podcast. Just go to rebelnewsplus.com, click subscribe.
00:00:26.560 It's eight bucks a month, and we need the money because we don't take a dime from Trudeau,
00:00:30.860 and it shows. All right, here's today's podcast.
00:00:49.220 Tonight, what should we do about people tearing down statues of John A. MacDonald?
00:00:53.840 It's May 23rd, and this is The Ezra LeVant Show.
00:00:59.980 Shame on you, you censorious bug.
00:01:11.720 Hey, look at this video that my friend Joe Warmington of the Toronto Sun took over the weekend.
00:01:16.180 It was in something called Belleville House, which I don't know anything about it, but it
00:01:21.980 almost doesn't matter where it is because it was the home of our founding prime minister,
00:01:26.680 Sir John A. MacDonald, the man who cobbled this country together and then led it as our first prime
00:01:33.080 minister. I should tell you that John A. MacDonald has fallen out of favor in the last few years,
00:01:38.400 particularly under the Trudeau regime. He was stripped off of our $10 bill, you might recall.
00:01:45.820 And it's not just on Trudeau. That would be unfair and partisan of me to blame him.
00:01:51.220 I note, for example, that at Queen's Park, which is the provincial parliament of Ontario,
00:01:56.240 under the leadership of allegedly conservative Doug Ford, there is a statue of Sir John A. MacDonald
00:02:01.940 that has a coffin built around it. That's the only way to describe it. You could use a fancy word like
00:02:08.980 sarcophagus. They have built a coffin around the statue of Sir John A. MacDonald in which he has
00:02:15.340 been imprisoned for years. So don't let me get away with saying that it's merely a liberal thing.
00:02:22.180 Let me play for you now the video that Joe Warmington filmed. There's a liberal MP in the
00:02:28.560 background. This is a Parks Canada reintroduction of this home of Sir John A. MacDonald. And look who
00:02:35.620 they got there to basically denounce the man. This was the liberal compromise. Sure, they were
00:02:43.460 going to grudgingly open Sir John A. MacDonald's home to the public, but not before denouncing him
00:02:49.920 at length. Take a look at this.
00:02:52.380 And it was also a time when many people of African descent were coming to Canada via the Underground
00:02:58.040 Railroad and through other ways, not only to escape enslavement, but to live freely,
00:03:03.840 create communities, and just live in peace with their families. However, upon arriving in Canada,
00:03:10.860 people of African descent quickly came to realize that they were not welcome and that Canada, like
00:03:16.960 the United States, was steeped in racism, colonialism, white supremacy, and other legacies of enslavement.
00:03:24.260 I believe there are widespread myths and misconceptions, views, and ideas that some Canadians have that we are
00:03:31.640 somehow better than the United States, that the United States had enslavement and we here in Canada did 0.70
00:03:37.320 not, that we here in Canada are immune to racism, and that we welcomed and still welcome people of African
00:03:45.240 descent with open arms. However, these inaccurate views and ideas are traced back to not knowing our
00:03:52.460 Canadian history, and that these histories were not and are still not in many cases being taught in
00:03:58.980 classrooms across the country. Many people still do not know that Canada had enslavement for over 200 years,
00:04:06.700 from the early 1600s, all the way to when it was abolished in 1834 across the British Empire. Now, it first was
00:04:15.440 under the French, Canada was then known as New France, and then it was under the British, and Canada was known as
00:04:21.860 British North America. That's actually a lie. Slavery did not start in Canada under the French. It started 0.76
00:04:29.800 centuries before that. The Indian tribes that covered this country had slavery as an integral part of 0.97
00:04:39.280 warfare and economics. Not just the Mohawks in the Ontario and Quebec areas, but in the West, the Haida. 0.99
00:04:47.400 Slavery, of course, existed on every continent in the world other than Antarctica. Slavery has touched every society, but it was
00:04:56.020 the British North American land that when the British Empire declared slavery to be illegal, Canada abolished it as well.
00:05:08.060 And when that happened, there were more Aboriginal slaves and slaveholders than there were of any other sort. In fact, I recall
00:05:15.120 looking up a census at the time, around 200 years ago, the black population of Toronto
00:05:21.220 was 16, not 1,600 or 16,000, 16 people. So to portray Canada as a racist place, as a place of slavery,
00:05:33.580 and to imply that it only started when the Europeans came here, is a lie. Now, I had never heard of that
00:05:40.020 person before. Shanyan Oyeniran is her name, and I've Googled her. And she has a degree in slavery 0.98
00:05:46.580 studies from a British university. I can only imagine what that's like. But before that, she was,
00:05:54.560 for seven years, an administrator and understaffer at an old folks' home. So she's certainly well-schooled
00:06:00.280 in book learning. She's a damn liar, but the world is full of liars. She might say, 1.00
00:06:05.960 I'm a liar. But her lies were paid for by the government of Canada. This was their 0.95
00:06:12.500 reintroduction of our founding father, our founding prime minister, to hurl accusations at him, but
00:06:19.500 much more importantly, at Canada, to imply we weren't the safe haven for black people. Joining us
00:06:25.940 now to talk about this outrage and what he might do about it is our friend, Dr. Mark Mielke, the boss
00:06:31.980 of a rather new civil liberties-oriented charity in Canada called the Aristotle Foundation. And he
00:06:38.620 joins us now via Skype from Calgary. Great to see you again, Mark.
00:06:41.960 Thanks for having me on, Ezra. It's great to be here.
00:06:44.140 Can you imagine that? I mean, they reintroduce Sir John A. MacDonald and his home. I guess we should
00:06:50.840 give them some marks for not boarding it up like the statue at Queen's Park. But they reintroduce them
00:06:57.480 to denounce them. I haven't heard the liberal government denounce, oh, let's say, the terrorist
00:07:04.120 government of Iran in the vitriolic language that they say for our founding prime minister. 0.88
00:07:09.620 Just so gross. 0.86
00:07:12.440 Well, it's maddening. And the clip you just showed of the lady there that talked to this, 0.66
00:07:21.400 you know, revisionist kind of approach to John A. MacDonald's home and her claim that blacks
00:07:25.340 weren't welcome in Canada. Look, I think it's a mistake to romanticize history either way,
00:07:29.980 to see that Canada was somehow this, you know, pluralistic, liberal in the best classical liberal
00:07:35.320 sense place in the mid-19th century that there was no racism. I mean, that would be a denial of
00:07:41.100 the facts as well. But to say that blacks were not welcome when she, you know, when she herself
00:07:47.540 mentions the Underground Railroad. Let me give you another example that I pointed out in one of my
00:07:51.980 books a couple of years ago, The Victim Cult. And we also touch on this a little bit in the first
00:07:55.960 book for the Aristotle Foundation, the 1867 Project, Why Canada Should Be Cherished, Not Cancelled.
00:08:02.180 There's a story of how, you know, a cohort of black Americans came from California to Victoria in
00:08:08.700 1858. And they wrote home to their relatives and friends in California to do what a lot of people in
00:08:14.100 Victoria do, not only to brag about the flowers, presumably, but to say this is a really tolerant place
00:08:19.500 compared to California, which was pretty racist, anti-black, of course, and anti-Asian at the time
00:08:24.900 in 1858. And this cohort of black Americans that had arrived in Victoria found that they were welcomed
00:08:31.620 by the governor, by the Anglican Archbishop, that they could become citizens and vote after two years
00:08:37.600 and run in the school board elections, you know, in the local municipal elections, so on and so forth.
00:08:42.100 Now, these black Americans did encounter prejudice over the next few years,
00:08:47.320 in part, from some indigenous tribes, the Cowichan up north of up island from Victoria,
00:08:52.640 and also white Americans who increasingly also moved to British Columbia, the colony at that point,
00:08:58.060 from the United States. So it's not like Canada was a place free of racism. But ironically,
00:09:04.420 I mean, black Americans, and at one point, there was several hundred black Americans in Victoria,
00:09:08.160 apparently, that had moved up there to escape the racism of the United States. So
00:09:11.480 that speaker that, you know, opened or christened, I guess, this new tour at the Johnny McDonald house
00:09:17.260 there in Kingston, you know, lacks facts, lacks nuance, lacks a bit of understanding of the age
00:09:24.580 people lived in, and the progress that had already been made by 1858.
00:09:29.700 You know, Canada, of course, only came into existence in 1867 in its own legal entity. Before
00:09:36.060 that, of course, it was part of the British Empire, the same British Empire, that for 50 years,
00:09:41.040 dispatched the West Africa Squadron, as part of the Royal Navy, that sole mission was intercepting
00:09:47.100 black slave ships, capturing the ships, arresting the slave traders, and returning the slaves back 0.71
00:09:52.680 to Africa. They captured well over a thousand such ships. It was an enormous effort. And we've talked
00:09:59.820 before on the show, about the British Empire borrowing, in today's money, a quarter of a trillion
00:10:06.180 dollars to pay for the emancipation of slaves throughout the British Empire. China didn't do 0.66
00:10:12.960 that. Africa didn't do that. India didn't do that. It's astonishing that she would seek, she would learn
00:10:22.060 in her slavery studies degree, that she wouldn't learn that Canada, I mean, look, like you, Mark,
00:10:27.720 I won't deny it. It's so one-sided. Yeah, I mean, was there racial tension? Sure, there was for
00:10:33.100 everyone. If you were Irish, if you were Italian, if you were Jewish. But to see that Canada is
00:10:39.720 inherently, it's so, so gross to me. Hey, I want to play the video that you guys made at the
00:10:45.400 Aristotle Foundation. I want to stop talking for a moment about this disgrace over the weekend that
00:10:50.880 Joe Warmington filmed. I'm so glad he was there with his camera. Let's talk about what you guys are
00:10:55.460 doing, but I think you guys have put together a video. Let's take a look at it now.
00:10:59.980 Why are some people trying to cancel Canada's history?
00:11:06.880 You've seen the attacks on Johnny MacDonald,
00:11:11.600 Henry Dundas,
00:11:14.360 Matthew Begbie,
00:11:16.320 and so many others.
00:11:25.460 Even Mahatma Gandhi.
00:11:29.120 These attacks are common,
00:11:31.180 and they need to stop.
00:11:33.480 Here are three reasons why.
00:11:36.620 It's unfair to expect people in history to be perfect when some Canadians can't achieve that standard today.
00:11:43.160 We demand historical figures, hold 21st century views, but based on that standard,
00:11:48.540 future generations will condemn us all. 0.62
00:11:51.000 We focus on all of the bad and none of the good.
00:11:55.240 For example,
00:11:56.220 British colonialism ended slavery,
00:11:58.200 including for First Nations.
00:12:00.860 So,
00:12:01.840 instead of canceling history,
00:12:04.500 let's expand our perspectives,
00:12:06.640 especially for those who helped build Canada.
00:12:10.140 Henry Dundas,
00:12:11.480 instrumental in ending slavery by appointing an anti-slavery governor.
00:12:16.060 Johnny MacDonald,
00:12:16.860 fought for more funding for indigenous Canadians to fight famine and smallpox,
00:12:22.000 and was key to confederation.
00:12:23.980 Justice Matthew Begbie,
00:12:25.580 an early proponent of native rights,
00:12:27.360 and who opposed anti-Chinese racism in British Columbia.
00:12:30.900 Let's add more facts to our history.
00:12:33.540 Reject cancel culture, 1.00
00:12:35.320 treasure our past,
00:12:36.700 and move Canada forward.
00:12:38.420 If you agree,
00:12:39.660 share this video,
00:12:40.960 and sign our petition to stop canceling Canada's history.
00:12:44.060 For more,
00:12:45.640 go to aristotelfoundation.org.
00:12:48.280 Well,
00:12:48.800 there you have it,
00:12:49.240 the aristotelfoundation.org.
00:12:51.680 aristotelfoundation.org is where you can learn more about that,
00:12:54.860 and that's the organization that Mark leads.
00:12:58.360 I like your arguments there,
00:13:01.520 but,
00:13:02.220 and I think I've seen this video once before,
00:13:04.240 and I think it's good.
00:13:05.080 Those are great arguments for why we don't tear down statues,
00:13:08.460 and why we don't delete the past.
00:13:09.840 But watching it,
00:13:12.160 I fear that you missed the real purpose of tearing down statues.
00:13:16.180 I think the purpose of tearing down statues is the tearing down.
00:13:21.200 It's not even the statues.
00:13:22.560 You mentioned Mahatma Gandhi.
00:13:24.160 I mean,
00:13:24.440 who could possibly disagree with him?
00:13:26.480 He's almost a saint-like figure.
00:13:28.800 But I think the purpose of the tearing down,
00:13:32.120 the purpose,
00:13:32.940 whether it's the Hamas protests,
00:13:35.640 or Black Lives Matter,
00:13:37.360 or Occupy Wall Street,
00:13:39.500 or so many of these projects,
00:13:41.340 it's the tearing down.
00:13:42.520 It's the revolution.
00:13:44.900 As our friend Dr. James Lindsay says,
00:13:47.440 the issue isn't the issue.
00:13:48.680 The revolution is the issue.
00:13:49.960 So I think your counter-argument to cancel culture makes sense to me,
00:13:54.420 because I'm trying to understand,
00:13:55.540 how do you deal with historical figures that aren't perfect by today's prism?
00:14:00.540 But I don't think you'll ever convince a terror downer to stop tearing down.
00:14:06.160 Oh,
00:14:06.280 I don't think we will either.
00:14:08.340 Part of the goal of the Aristotle Foundation is to start telling the truth,
00:14:11.380 right?
00:14:11.600 Because it's not being told in Canada.
00:14:13.740 So,
00:14:14.140 and point out,
00:14:14.760 and you're absolutely right.
00:14:15.440 Look,
00:14:16.180 this,
00:14:16.800 a lot of these protests is too mild,
00:14:19.720 but the tearing down,
00:14:20.980 the,
00:14:21.520 they're nihilist,
00:14:23.120 they're revolutionary,
00:14:23.900 and they're utopian.
00:14:25.140 But one of the arguments we make in the 1867 project,
00:14:28.040 why Canada should be cherished,
00:14:29.140 not canceled,
00:14:30.280 by various authors,
00:14:31.340 and I'll make it in the introduction to the book,
00:14:33.580 is that you're looking at utopians,
00:14:35.440 utopian revolutionaries,
00:14:37.040 right?
00:14:37.240 These are people,
00:14:37.760 at least the Marxists in the 20th century,
00:14:39.540 in the 19th century,
00:14:40.420 they were looking forward.
00:14:41.600 They were dead wrong about economics and how to,
00:14:43.800 you know,
00:14:43.960 create a prosperous,
00:14:44.960 flourishing,
00:14:45.480 free society.
00:14:46.700 The Marxists were dead wrong about that,
00:14:48.420 but at least you could argue the Marxists were looking forward to create a
00:14:50.960 utopia paradise on earth.
00:14:52.500 But weirdly,
00:14:53.940 you've got people these days,
00:14:55.220 when it comes to history,
00:14:56.440 that expect people in history to be perfect,
00:14:58.620 as if 39,
00:15:00.320 40 million Canadians agree on everything today,
00:15:02.540 40 million Canadians are perfect today.
00:15:04.360 Like,
00:15:04.540 come on.
00:15:05.240 So,
00:15:05.960 you're absolutely right.
00:15:06.920 It's a revolutionary impulse.
00:15:08.220 It's dangerous.
00:15:09.480 But our goal at the Aristotle Foundation is to start telling the truth,
00:15:12.240 which we've done with this video,
00:15:13.340 which we do with the 1867 project,
00:15:15.860 and move people forward,
00:15:17.560 and give people facts and informed history.
00:15:19.360 Because I think,
00:15:19.860 I think as actually the majority of Canadians would agree with you and I,
00:15:23.580 that attacking statues of Johnny McDonald,
00:15:25.980 refusing to offer nuances,
00:15:27.580 Parks Canada has done here,
00:15:29.420 skipping other facts and history is also a mistake.
00:15:33.220 Let me give you one clear example.
00:15:34.500 You referenced indigenous slavery.
00:15:36.460 So again,
00:15:36.900 that speaker that,
00:15:37.700 that talked to that Johnny McDonald kind of revisionist ceremony there at
00:15:41.500 McDonald's house there in Kingston.
00:15:43.020 you're unlikely to see Parks Canada offer a tour in the near future of how
00:15:49.600 indigenous communities in British Columbia held slaves until the late
00:15:52.720 19th century over the objections of the British,
00:15:56.740 which didn't have the capacity on the ground.
00:15:58.880 I mean,
00:15:59.140 British Columbia was a backwater at that point.
00:16:01.120 There's no way to enforce anti-slavery legislation of British Empire in what 0.94
00:16:04.960 would become British Columbia when it joined the Federation and before when it
00:16:08.720 was a colony.
00:16:09.220 So those are facts that are worth knowing.
00:16:12.680 Why?
00:16:13.020 Not because we want to pick on indigenous Canadians,
00:16:15.400 but to point out,
00:16:16.460 look,
00:16:16.800 everyone's history,
00:16:17.700 if you go deep enough,
00:16:18.740 back far enough,
00:16:20.080 has some flaws in it to say the least.
00:16:22.300 And it makes no sense to demonize Johnny McDonald and then to romanticize
00:16:26.940 indigenous peoples as if they come from some sort of what?
00:16:31.820 Perfect utopian,
00:16:33.760 non-slave holding history.
00:16:37.100 I mean,
00:16:37.220 that's simply,
00:16:37.660 that's simply nonsensical from the Haida to the Aztecs,
00:16:41.340 you know,
00:16:41.900 to the wars in Ontario among indigenous peoples before and after settlers got
00:16:45.980 there,
00:16:46.280 European settlers.
00:16:47.320 I don't like that term,
00:16:48.040 but I mean,
00:16:48.360 using their language.
00:16:50.040 So yeah,
00:16:51.180 what we're trying to do with the Aristotle Foundation is of course,
00:16:54.100 provide some facts and informed history.
00:16:56.000 And that two minute video,
00:16:57.620 thank you for showing was,
00:16:58.660 was our start to say,
00:17:00.300 come on people,
00:17:01.260 let's,
00:17:01.700 let's,
00:17:02.320 let's get a little more sensible.
00:17:04.180 I think there's a couple of things going on.
00:17:05.280 The first is the concept of the noble savage to use a term from history and
00:17:10.440 philosophy that,
00:17:11.840 that before our civilization,
00:17:14.600 there was this garden of Eden,
00:17:16.880 like harmony.
00:17:17.600 And it just wasn't true.
00:17:21.860 I mean,
00:17:22.340 we,
00:17:22.440 we both talked.
00:17:23.020 Well,
00:17:23.120 I'm not a fan of that.
00:17:23.720 I'm not a fan of the term.
00:17:24.720 I mean,
00:17:24.960 it has obvious,
00:17:26.440 you know,
00:17:27.000 possible fence.
00:17:27.880 And I get it.
00:17:28.380 You know,
00:17:28.580 we're so used that term.
00:17:30.060 I think,
00:17:30.800 yeah,
00:17:31.080 I mean,
00:17:31.480 the romanticization doesn't help.
00:17:34.260 And the key thing is to get people to unite around good ideas.
00:17:37.000 And if you trash British hit British,
00:17:39.120 you know,
00:17:39.460 a North American history,
00:17:40.920 what you're in effect doing is,
00:17:42.580 as you pointed out earlier,
00:17:43.500 a revolutionary project.
00:17:44.600 You're trashing the ideas that helped build modern day Canada.
00:17:47.480 I mean,
00:17:47.700 where do people think that the notion of the individual came from,
00:17:50.580 that liberalism came from in the classical sense,
00:17:52.840 not the 21st century,
00:17:54.060 Justin Trudeau,
00:17:55.300 but the classical sense for people value property rights,
00:17:57.920 the rights of the individual,
00:17:58.980 the rights of women.
00:18:00.040 When John Diefenbaker made the case that native Canadians should have the vote,
00:18:03.280 restored when even Johnny McDonald in the 19th century was advocating for the
00:18:07.540 vote for indigenous peoples and for women. 0.97
00:18:09.480 Where do they think those ideas came from?
00:18:11.260 Well,
00:18:11.500 they came from the Anglosphere.
00:18:13.020 They didn't come from Germany and they didn't come from indigenous
00:18:15.140 communities in North America.
00:18:16.980 That's part of,
00:18:18.020 not the debate,
00:18:18.840 that's part of the fact-based analysis that needs to occur in this country.
00:18:22.380 And apparently it needs to occur at Parks Canada and within a lot of
00:18:26.000 bureaucratic and educational departments across the country.
00:18:29.200 Sorry to interrupt.
00:18:29.940 No,
00:18:30.260 I'm so glad you said that.
00:18:31.260 I mean,
00:18:31.780 I think about certain things often that maybe I should move on from,
00:18:37.140 but Mel Gibson,
00:18:38.380 who's a very interesting character and a very political character,
00:18:41.900 made a movie more than a decade ago.
00:18:43.660 I don't know if you've seen it,
00:18:44.540 Mark,
00:18:44.700 called Apocalypto.
00:18:46.460 And it was very dramatic,
00:18:47.840 very violent.
00:18:49.060 It was in dead languages.
00:18:50.940 I mean,
00:18:51.140 it was,
00:18:51.520 it was a very unusual movie.
00:18:52.680 It was about life.
00:18:53.260 life in,
00:18:55.580 I think was the Aztec empire right before Columbus would have arrived.
00:19:01.980 And I don't want to give away the spoiler scene at the end,
00:19:05.540 but it,
00:19:06.400 that sort of unlocks the meaning of the whole previous 90 minutes to me.
00:19:09.640 Why would Mel Gibson make this very strange movie?
00:19:12.720 And I think it was to demonstrate what life was like pre conquistador,
00:19:18.880 pre Christian,
00:19:19.840 pre colonial.
00:19:20.800 And of course there was violence and abuses with,
00:19:24.400 especially the Spanish conquistadors.
00:19:26.300 I mean,
00:19:26.420 they were not gentle,
00:19:27.500 but I think Mel Gibson's point was there was something much more horrific
00:19:32.840 that it,
00:19:34.100 that those conquistadors found when they landed the endless human sacrifice of
00:19:39.280 slaves.
00:19:39.460 You want to talk about slaves?
00:19:40.700 That was the entire economy of,
00:19:42.520 of the Aztecs.
00:19:43.800 Chris Champion does a nice job in the 1867 project of pointing this out.
00:19:48.200 And the old joke from,
00:19:49.400 I think it was Monty Python.
00:19:50.500 What did the Roman empire ever do for you?
00:19:52.340 And they talk about the roads,
00:19:53.440 the prosperity.
00:19:54.320 He applies that,
00:19:55.300 he applies that to the British empire.
00:19:56.480 What did the British empire ever do?
00:19:57.500 You mean besides abolish slavery,
00:19:59.660 besides Johnny McDonald being instructed by the British colonial office to
00:20:03.080 sign treaties wherever possible and not engage in a genocide,
00:20:07.800 which he's accused of not engage in genocide,
00:20:09.740 like some of the American forces did.
00:20:12.640 These are the,
00:20:13.460 you know,
00:20:13.780 indigenous tribes in that country.
00:20:15.520 So what did the British empire ever do for people?
00:20:18.020 Well,
00:20:18.180 actually a lot.
00:20:19.580 The problem,
00:20:20.280 the problem when people look at history is they think that somehow,
00:20:23.700 again,
00:20:24.000 it should be perfect or,
00:20:25.240 or somehow we just arrived here.
00:20:26.880 Miraculously much of human history is a tragedy in terms of the blood and you know, 1.00
00:20:32.000 the blood spilt for idiotic reasons. 0.99
00:20:34.500 And most of human history is tribal. 1.00
00:20:36.220 Most of it is anti-individual.
00:20:37.900 And we began to get away from that.
00:20:39.640 I would argue the last 800 years,
00:20:41.260 starting with the Magna Carta or starting with other influences,
00:20:43.840 Western history that have now spread around the world.
00:20:46.380 So,
00:20:47.860 you know,
00:20:48.480 from Magna Carta to the glorious revolution,
00:20:50.340 to the enlightenment,
00:20:52.080 to the notion of the individual,
00:20:54.300 these are developments in Western civilization that have spread around the world.
00:20:58.400 And it's a good spread.
00:20:59.940 It doesn't mean our country,
00:21:01.640 our civilization is perfect.
00:21:03.120 I mean,
00:21:03.240 there's things I would take from other civilizations that I would apply to Western civilization.
00:21:06.920 But without going down that rabbit hole,
00:21:09.340 I mean,
00:21:09.940 it's,
00:21:10.740 this is part of what people need to understand.
00:21:13.240 Civilization is actually very tenuous.
00:21:15.160 And it's one of the reasons that the Aristotle Foundation say we champion peace and democracy and civilization.
00:21:20.240 It's an old fashioned word.
00:21:21.880 But I can tell you what civilization looks like when it's destroyed.
00:21:24.700 It looks like October the 7th in Israel,
00:21:26.700 when Hamas attacks.
00:21:28.800 It looks like what happens in other wars when civilization breaks down.
00:21:35.180 It happens in civil wars,
00:21:37.240 so on and so forth.
00:21:38.160 It happens when you revert to a tribal notion of what humanity should operate like on a government level,
00:21:43.320 where it's my tribe versus your tribe,
00:21:44.880 as opposed to,
00:21:46.340 let's get back to the notion,
00:21:47.840 individuals should be seen as equal with rights and law and policy.
00:21:52.960 And that's where we should start and stop.
00:21:54.720 And we shouldn't be trashing really the oak tree that is Canada that's been built over the last two centuries.
00:21:59.880 We should remember our history and understand that the oak tree that is Canada,
00:22:03.280 the shelters that now shelters 40 million people,
00:22:06.000 came about as a result of conscious choices by British North Americans,
00:22:11.120 and later by Canadian founders and Canadian politicians,
00:22:14.260 and all of us and all of our ancestors who built this place,
00:22:17.400 that said,
00:22:18.420 look,
00:22:18.620 we want a free flourishing country based on equality under the law,
00:22:22.460 not your tribe versus my tribe,
00:22:24.240 whatever that tribe happens to be.
00:22:26.060 And if people don't remember that,
00:22:27.620 we are in serious trouble.
00:22:31.460 You know,
00:22:31.740 there's a saying that every generation has 18 years to civilize the next generation.
00:22:36.880 Really,
00:22:37.100 I mean,
00:22:37.700 you've got 18 years to take a baby from a barbarian that would smash everything in sight 1.00
00:22:42.380 to a responsible adult who understands.
00:22:45.520 I mean,
00:22:45.680 you have to,
00:22:46.120 you have to teach self-restraint.
00:22:48.240 You have to teach being sociable.
00:22:52.020 You have to impart to them the memory of civilization,
00:22:55.860 of all the bad and hard lessons we've learned over time.
00:22:58.900 That's why history is so important.
00:23:00.560 That's why the written language is so important.
00:23:03.440 And we have to learn from what happened before us.
00:23:06.460 That's why I think history is being destroyed.
00:23:09.280 And I look at Mao's revolution and their cultural revolution.
00:23:15.800 And really the vanguard of that was what he called the red guard,
00:23:20.480 which were kids,
00:23:22.340 which were students.
00:23:24.180 Why did Mao lean on the students to be the most radical,
00:23:27.440 to go around with the little red book?
00:23:29.660 And he had what they called the four olds,
00:23:32.880 O-L-D-S, 1.00
00:23:33.660 the four old things,
00:23:35.040 old ideas,
00:23:35.900 old culture,
00:23:36.620 old customs,
00:23:37.340 old habits.
00:23:38.220 Who would destroy those things?
00:23:40.340 Not someone who's in middle age or a senior who understands the value of them,
00:23:44.940 but a young person.
00:23:46.260 Young people are wonderful and they're energetic,
00:23:48.080 they're hopeful,
00:23:48.660 they're idealistic,
00:23:49.740 but not to be mean, 1.00
00:23:50.640 they're also stupid. 1.00
00:23:51.820 They haven't learned things yet. 1.00
00:23:53.300 They're stupid. 1.00
00:23:54.060 It's not the right way. 1.00
00:23:54.720 They're ignorant. 1.00
00:23:55.420 They haven't learned things yet. 1.00
00:23:56.900 And so,
00:23:58.100 like the concept of Chesterton's fence,
00:24:00.100 do you know what I'm talking about?
00:24:01.540 You acquire some land and there's a fence across the road and you don't know why.
00:24:06.600 Chesterton would say,
00:24:07.440 before you tear down that fence,
00:24:08.740 understand why it's there.
00:24:10.300 You don't know what danger that fence was meant to keep out.
00:24:17.140 And when you entrust young people, 0.89
00:24:19.780 the woke young college kids who have learned the least,
00:24:24.800 who have traveled the least,
00:24:25.660 who have experienced the least,
00:24:26.700 who still are in this life of youthful privilege being paid for by someone else,
00:24:31.560 that's why Mao used them to smash the four olds.
00:24:34.160 And that's who's tearing down,
00:24:36.360 I think,
00:24:37.020 a lot of the statues.
00:24:37.900 I think so.
00:24:39.200 And I think we should place a lot of the blame,
00:24:40.760 Ezra,
00:24:41.420 on educators,
00:24:42.560 right,
00:24:42.740 on the education system,
00:24:43.880 on the education faculties,
00:24:45.680 and what's happening in universities.
00:24:47.460 Alan Bloom in 1987,
00:24:49.080 talking about the closing of the American mind,
00:24:50.840 well,
00:24:51.020 add the closing of the Canadian mind to that,
00:24:52.920 and chaos of the Canadian mind,
00:24:54.440 universities,
00:24:55.220 and the education system.
00:24:57.300 They bear a lot of the responsibility.
00:24:58.960 You know,
00:24:59.760 it's hard to blame kids to ask them to know what they don't know,
00:25:03.020 what they haven't been taught,
00:25:04.440 when they were propagandized in schools for K to 12,
00:25:07.300 and then universities in addition.
00:25:09.480 You know,
00:25:10.000 and it's simplistic,
00:25:10.900 right?
00:25:11.180 And this notion.
00:25:12.740 Thomas,
00:25:13.180 all the great American economists,
00:25:14.360 gives a great example of how fishing fleets around the world,
00:25:17.160 historically,
00:25:17.580 were dominated by the Italians,
00:25:19.020 not the Swiss.
00:25:20.060 And to make the mistake of thinking that racism is why the Swiss went in the industry,
00:25:23.420 is to ignore a pretty salient factor.
00:25:25.140 Geography,
00:25:25.800 the Italians of coastal islands,
00:25:27.020 the Swiss don't. 0.80
00:25:27.940 Same thing with this notion that everything today is due to racism,
00:25:30.720 or somehow everyone in the past didn't think about racist issues.
00:25:34.020 Well,
00:25:34.160 they did in the 1800s.
00:25:35.700 They actually,
00:25:36.580 you know,
00:25:36.980 thought about how to move from,
00:25:39.100 you know,
00:25:39.600 you know,
00:25:40.220 a pretty discriminatory society against Catholics and Jews.
00:25:43.540 And of course,
00:25:44.220 you know,
00:25:44.540 eventually got there,
00:25:45.580 especially post-World War II,
00:25:46.900 in terms of getting rid of discriminatory practices and laws,
00:25:50.460 and making it illegal to discriminate against people,
00:25:52.900 say,
00:25:53.220 in the province of Ontario,
00:25:54.200 in the early 1950s,
00:25:55.460 based on skin color or gender.
00:25:57.440 And somehow in 2024,
00:25:59.020 people still think we're institutionally racist,
00:26:01.200 which is also part of what's going on here.
00:26:03.940 And that lady, 1.00
00:26:04.700 again,
00:26:05.160 you referenced in the initial video,
00:26:07.080 not thinking that anything has changed,
00:26:08.840 or that we're still some sort of systematically racist society.
00:26:12.120 It's nonsensical.
00:26:13.180 It's anti-history.
00:26:14.160 It's certainly anti-nuance history.
00:26:16.580 And it's dangerous to be revolutionary about such things,
00:26:19.960 because again,
00:26:20.520 then you chop down the oak tree that's protecting all of us,
00:26:23.040 the civilization that's been built.
00:26:25.240 And Edmund Burke,
00:26:26.100 to speak of another dead white English male,
00:26:28.500 or Irish male,
00:26:29.380 I guess,
00:26:30.200 pointed this out on his book in the late 1700s,
00:26:34.160 on reflections on the revolution in France.
00:26:36.280 What you want to do with any country,
00:26:38.080 you know,
00:26:38.280 unless you're talking about Hitler's Germany,
00:26:40.420 Stalin's Russia,
00:26:41.260 is you want to modify its institutions organically.
00:26:46.320 You don't want to upset or uproot everything that's been in the tradition of the country.
00:26:50.580 And your reference to Mao is exactly right. 0.73
00:26:52.440 That's exactly what he did.
00:26:53.500 And it was a disaster.
00:26:54.420 And it led to the deaths of tens of millions of people,
00:26:57.040 and repressions of others.
00:26:58.560 So the revolutionary sentiment is incredibly dangerous.
00:27:03.180 And unfortunately,
00:27:03.820 we see it in a variety of ways in Canada today.
00:27:07.140 Yeah.
00:27:07.740 You know,
00:27:08.240 I'm thinking you're so right to focus on the education system.
00:27:12.240 Money is a big factor,
00:27:13.620 too.
00:27:13.760 The reason that historian was allowed to spout that disinformation
00:27:18.460 is because she's actually made a good living with a slavery studies degree. 1.00
00:27:24.800 The whole grievance studies industry,
00:27:26.580 I always mocked it as being unemployable.
00:27:29.180 Am I ever wrong?
00:27:30.060 In the age of DEI,
00:27:32.140 diversity,
00:27:32.580 equity,
00:27:32.880 inclusion,
00:27:33.540 grievance studies is the hot ticket.
00:27:35.860 She went-
00:27:36.180 It's so simplistic,
00:27:36.920 though,
00:27:37.000 isn't it?
00:27:37.320 It's so crazy to pay someone to ignore parts of history,
00:27:41.800 not give a nuance.
00:27:42.620 She makes tens of thousands of dollars for seminars and sessions,
00:27:47.620 coaching you not to be racist when she's so clearly obsessed with race.
00:27:52.800 I got to tell you,
00:27:54.060 your audience needs to know that so much of what they're seeing in terms of
00:27:58.420 DEI,
00:27:59.440 in terms of this anti-nuance history,
00:28:02.280 approach to history,
00:28:03.740 is funded by the federal government and sometimes provincial governments and
00:28:06.800 the civil governments.
00:28:07.880 But everything from research grants that go through the federal government
00:28:12.900 to departments in the government that promote DEI,
00:28:16.020 this is driven by the federal government.
00:28:18.160 And again,
00:28:18.420 like you,
00:28:18.660 I don't want to be partisan.
00:28:19.480 Look,
00:28:19.660 this is,
00:28:20.240 you know,
00:28:20.680 this happens under various governments.
00:28:22.340 I mean,
00:28:22.600 you mentioned Ontario's Doug Ford government,
00:28:24.900 sort of government there.
00:28:26.320 You know,
00:28:26.600 they also had DEI in practice.
00:28:28.640 They have this notion that somehow we should,
00:28:32.060 we should look back and feel guilty as opposed to proud that Canada got rid of
00:28:35.300 slavery,
00:28:35.640 really beginning in the 1790s.
00:28:37.220 So there's governments across the partisan landscape that are funding what I
00:28:43.360 think is an egregious attack on Canadian history.
00:28:45.740 They're literally pouring poison on the roots of an oak tree that is Canada.
00:28:50.560 And taxpayers and citizens,
00:28:52.940 really citizens should be aware that it's their money funding a lot of this
00:28:56.680 stuff,
00:28:57.060 as opposed to an organic approach is the best way to describe it,
00:29:00.720 where like we acknowledge the flaws in Canada's past,
00:29:03.420 in Canada's past,
00:29:04.400 but I don't think anybody has never not acknowledged that.
00:29:06.600 And this is why we changed the laws of the 1950s,
00:29:09.400 stop discriminating against black Canadians and accommodation.
00:29:13.140 So,
00:29:13.780 but you've got to,
00:29:14.960 you've got a crew today that just looks at everything through the lens of
00:29:17.900 racism.
00:29:18.420 They call themselves anti-racist when in fact,
00:29:21.820 you know,
00:29:22.100 they're promoting policy that is divisive,
00:29:24.220 that is a liberal,
00:29:24.880 that is anti-individual.
00:29:26.040 And there's a word for that racist.
00:29:29.080 Last question for you,
00:29:30.180 Aristotle foundation,
00:29:31.420 fairly new.
00:29:32.120 You do,
00:29:33.720 I've been to a couple of your events.
00:29:35.040 I like it.
00:29:35.560 You've got an event coming up in,
00:29:38.040 in Calgary.
00:29:39.140 Do you want to give us a word about what that is?
00:29:41.240 It's just coming up in a week or so.
00:29:43.240 Sure.
00:29:43.660 Putting on a different hat,
00:29:44.540 actually,
00:29:44.900 it's,
00:29:45.260 you know,
00:29:46.200 we've got an event for the Churchill society,
00:29:48.200 which I'm volunteer president of with the great grandson of Winston
00:29:51.220 Churchill,
00:29:51.640 where we're going to honor and commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day.
00:29:55.340 Of course,
00:29:55.640 the famous landings of Canadians,
00:29:58.420 Juneau Beach and other allies who started the fight back in,
00:30:01.780 on the European continent on June 6th,
00:30:03.760 1944.
00:30:04.720 So we do have a dinner,
00:30:06.040 which people can come to if they register pretty quickly in the next few
00:30:08.400 days for,
00:30:09.400 on June 6th in Calgary.
00:30:11.700 But the Aristotle foundation,
00:30:13.040 which is my full time gig,
00:30:14.740 we championed reason,
00:30:16.100 democracy,
00:30:16.740 civilization.
00:30:17.200 But I would say the quickest way to,
00:30:18.540 to describe this,
00:30:19.520 we're trying to make people think,
00:30:20.660 is Canada institutionally racist?
00:30:22.260 No.
00:30:23.040 Do we have enough democratic practices in this country to push back against bad
00:30:26.960 policy?
00:30:27.420 I'd say no.
00:30:28.160 And civilizational issues,
00:30:29.760 everything from the,
00:30:30.640 the crazy responses,
00:30:32.240 after October the 7th on our university campuses in Canada to other issues.
00:30:37.880 We better think through the kind of Canada we want.
00:30:40.120 We prefer that Canadians unite around laudable ideas like the rights of the
00:30:43.240 individual,
00:30:43.860 the free and flourishing society,
00:30:45.800 that people be able to exercise their rights under the constitution instead of
00:30:50.000 being suppressed on campus or elsewhere.
00:30:52.260 That's the kind of country we should unite around,
00:30:54.320 regardless of one's background,
00:30:55.860 you know,
00:30:56.060 indigenous or European,
00:30:57.480 or if you're from,
00:30:58.500 you know,
00:30:59.000 South Korea.
00:31:00.060 So that's the kind of Canada we want,
00:31:01.860 a free and flourishing country in the future.
00:31:03.640 And that's what aerosol foundation is working towards in part by educating
00:31:06.800 Canadians on our history and our presence.
00:31:09.960 Well,
00:31:10.020 I'm excited about the fact that you're putting up with the traditional society,
00:31:13.820 a statue of Churchill.
00:31:15.700 And to me,
00:31:17.600 that's going to be a real litmus test because it's going to attract bad guys.
00:31:20.900 It's going to attract protesters.
00:31:23.180 And we're hoping,
00:31:23.820 we're hoping not as look,
00:31:25.060 I hope that by now people understand again,
00:31:28.040 and what you're referencing is we at the Churchill society,
00:31:30.940 and I put on my volunteer president out of that society.
00:31:34.140 There is a Churchill statue about to be erected.
00:31:37.320 That's been underway for a couple of years.
00:31:39.080 And the sculptor is Danik Mosdensky.
00:31:41.160 He put,
00:31:41.900 he created Lester Pearson on Parliament Hill,
00:31:43.680 Sir Isaac Brock,
00:31:45.060 jazz artist,
00:31:46.120 Clarence Horatio Miller,
00:31:47.120 and one of the famous five suffragists.
00:31:49.800 He's an incredible sculptor.
00:31:51.360 It's an incredible gift really to the province of Alberta.
00:31:54.100 It would be put up in Calgary on June 6th as well,
00:31:56.260 or uncovered.
00:31:57.640 And look,
00:31:58.560 I'm hoping though,
00:31:59.860 that frankly,
00:32:00.660 you know,
00:32:00.900 that this cancel culture has gotten past this notion.
00:32:03.380 They should be attacking inanimate objects as if they're the Taliban attacking Buddhist statues. 0.71
00:32:09.220 Again,
00:32:09.580 Churchill came to Southern Alberta in 1929 as part of a North American turnip, loved the place, painted some paintings in the Rockies,
00:32:16.900 was very supportive of the oil industry, actually, ironically back then, and, you know, was fascinated and loved Western Canada.
00:32:24.420 He thought it beautiful.
00:32:25.160 So, we're honoring that and his legacy and his, you know, his pushback against, you know, fascism in World War II, but also his time in Southern Alberta.
00:32:37.200 So, look, I'm hoping, frankly, that, you know, on D-Day, the 80th anniversary of the landings at Juneau Beach by Canadians and others, that there will be no nonsense surrounding any statue in Canada anywhere.
00:32:49.220 We should honor, again, those who fought in the World War II generation and where millions of people died in the cause of freedom.
00:32:54.780 Listen, I don't think any protesters would be foolish enough to attend on the day of the unveiling.
00:33:01.260 I'm just saying, I know that in the United Kingdom, there's a, right there in Parliament Square, outside the Palace of Westminster, there's a mighty statue of Churchill that's defaced all the time.
00:33:13.560 And, by the way, citizens go and clean it up all the time.
00:33:16.760 It's become a real center of this debate.
00:33:19.840 And I'm hoping, and I guess what I'm saying is, to put up a statue of Churchill in 2024 is a statement of reclaiming our past and defying the statue topplers.
00:33:31.760 And that's why I'm going to be there.
00:33:33.360 I'm coming all the way to Calgary for that statue unveiling.
00:33:36.880 I want to see it.
00:33:37.700 I want to mark it.
00:33:38.460 I want to brag about it, that Calgary's got it.
00:33:41.320 I want others to put up statues and not have the denunciation like we saw at the beginning of our segment where a quack historian was asked to lie about our past.
00:33:53.700 So I'm excited that that's going up. 0.97
00:33:56.080 And I pity the fool who would take a run at that statue. 0.98
00:33:58.960 And I tell you, God forbid if they do, I hope they're prosecuted to the hilt. 0.98
00:34:02.620 I don't mean to be so dramatic, but I think it is a dramatic thing to put up a statue of Churchill.
00:34:07.240 I agree.
00:34:08.120 Great to catch up with you.
00:34:09.260 Great to hear about the Aristotle Foundation.
00:34:11.320 AristotleFoundation.org is the way to check it out.
00:34:14.240 Thanks for talking with us about this, Mark.
00:34:15.580 I want to keep in touch.
00:34:17.120 Anytime.
00:34:17.600 Thank you, Reza.
00:34:18.160 All right.
00:34:18.600 There you have it.
00:34:19.040 Mark Milkey.
00:34:19.540 He's the boss over there.
00:34:20.900 Stay with us.
00:34:21.740 Your letters to me next.
00:34:34.880 Hey, welcome back.
00:34:35.660 Your letters to me about Klaus Schwab of the World Economic Forum announcing he's going to retire.
00:34:41.320 Mary Marr says he's a replaceable figurehead.
00:34:45.280 There's some truth to that.
00:34:46.380 I'm only in the sense that the World Economic Forum has grown so huge and has such a permanent
00:34:52.060 staff and permanent bureaucracy and other smart, capable people that he can be replaced.
00:34:59.960 But I think you downplay him.
00:35:01.980 He was the founder of this thing.
00:35:03.420 He's led it for 50 years.
00:35:05.740 He's like a human Rolodex, if you remember that old-fashioned thing, which would have like a bunch of business cards in it.
00:35:11.500 I mean, he knows probably more powerful people in different spheres of life, business, politics, academia, philanthropy.
00:35:22.080 He probably knows more powerful people than maybe anyone else in the world other than George Soros.
00:35:27.680 So I think he is actually much more than a figurehead.
00:35:30.960 But I agree with you only in the sense that he can and will be replaced.
00:35:36.200 Lynn Castro Trudeau says with his family already installed within the organization, nothing will change other than possibly getting even worse.
00:35:45.000 As I mentioned the other day, his daughter is, of course, involved.
00:35:50.060 She publishes some pieces.
00:35:51.480 She has some—she's had some modest roles to play.
00:35:54.600 I think she will stay there as a kind of nepotistic favor to the family. 1.00
00:35:59.860 But she doesn't have the charisma, the vision, the intelligence, the authority of her father.
00:36:06.580 I would be very surprised if she takes over that position. 0.87
00:36:10.460 No doubt she'll stay on—in the organization like a barnacle on a ship. 0.99
00:36:15.000 But I think they want someone who has the kind of global vision and name of a John Kerry.
00:36:22.780 Kerry's pretty old, though.
00:36:24.320 I don't think he would stick around for even five years.
00:36:28.120 It wouldn't be much longer than that.
00:36:29.920 So they might go for someone young.
00:36:32.160 They would never go for Justin Trudeau. 1.00
00:36:34.140 He's too stupid. 1.00
00:36:35.640 He's too unserious. 1.00
00:36:37.720 He's too flighty.
00:36:39.240 He's too shallow.
00:36:40.040 But I think they would go for someone around 50 because they would want to get 20 years of leadership out of that someone.
00:36:49.260 That's why I mentioned there could be a long shot someone like Leo Varadkar.
00:36:54.960 There are other 50-year-old ex-politicians.
00:36:58.600 Santa Marin of—I think it was Finland.
00:37:01.080 Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand.
00:37:06.760 I think they're too shallow.
00:37:08.420 Anyhow, we're all spitballing here.
00:37:10.420 But I think it'll be someone serious.
00:37:14.100 That's our show for the day.
00:37:15.560 Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home, good night.
00:37:19.840 And keep fighting for freedom.
00:37:20.820 We'll be right back.