Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ City of Victoria cancels Canada Day celebrations — but they all still take their paid vacation day off!

00:00:00.000 Hello, my friends. Canada Day is coming up pretty soon, and the city of Victoria, British Columbia,

00:00:06.340 has decided to cancel it. Well, to be honest, they already canceled it because of COVID,

00:00:10.940 but they're going to double, double cancel it now. I'll take you through their thinking and

00:00:16.060 why I think it's so disloyal. I've got some arguments you might not have thought of.

00:00:21.880 Before I get to that, let me invite you to become a subscriber to Rebel News Plus. That's what we

00:00:25.440 call the video version of this show. Just go to rebelnews.com and click subscribe. It's eight

00:00:30.860 bucks a month or 80 bucks for the whole year. You get my video podcast, plus Sheila Gunn-Reed,

00:00:36.580 David Menzies, Andrew Chapados all have shows too, and the knowledge that you're helping keep us

00:00:42.500 independent. We don't take a dime from Justin Trudeau, and it shows. All right, here's today's podcast.

00:00:55.440 Tonight, the city of Victoria is canceling their Canada Day celebrations, but they'll still take

00:01:09.540 their paid vacation day off. It's June 11th, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.

00:01:16.040 Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?

00:01:19.580 There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer. The only thing I have to say to

00:01:25.260 the government about why I publish it is because it's my bloody right to do so.

00:01:34.520 I've been so busy with the pandemic news and our civil liberties project called Fight the Fines

00:01:40.980 and fighting against attempts to deplatform us that I haven't had a chance to follow up on some

00:01:46.940 other ideas and other stories. I had an idea for a contest for Canada's worst mayor, almost like a

00:01:55.180 reality show, maybe where viewers would vote on it. I see that as the ultimate reality show. It really

00:02:00.800 is so hard to choose. There are so many worthy contestants for worst mayor. City halls across

00:02:07.860 Canada are like weird laboratories where the worst possible politicians are grown, and then they,

00:02:13.520 the worst of the worst, move on to provincial or federal politics. They're all disasters. I think 0.96

00:02:20.060 each of us is probably a little biased to choose our own mayor as the worst, just because we're the

00:02:25.020 most familiar with what they do on the ground. I live in Toronto, and I'd nominate our mayor,

00:02:31.160 John Tory. I think he's been the absolute worst in the country, indeed in the world, for any big city

00:02:37.020 in terms of lockdowns. At least that's what the BBC says. Toronto, the most lockdown city in the world.

00:02:42.620 So I think my guy is in the running. But you have to agree, listen, I do agree, that the city of

00:02:48.900 Victoria and their atrocious mayor and city council really are a strong contender for Canada's worst

00:02:56.460 mayor. Look at this, just the latest story. BC's capital cancels scheduled Canada Day programming in

00:03:04.720 wake of Kamloops residential school discovery. And look at this on the CBC story. Warning,

00:03:10.480 this story contains distressing details. Huh, that's a new one. The news is often distressing.

00:03:18.460 The CBC doesn't say that for many distressing things. They're just telegraphing their political

00:03:23.440 position here and giving you a hint about what your views should be too, don't you think? Let me read.

00:03:28.800 Victoria City Council has decided to cancel its scheduled Canada Day programming this year following

00:03:36.120 the discovery of what are believed to be the unmarked burial sites of children's remains near

00:03:40.880 the former Kamloops Indian Residential School. Now, let me stop for a moment. Just FYI,

00:03:46.180 that's the distressing part in the story that they wanted you to brace yourself for.

00:03:50.740 Originally, the city had planned virtual programming to mark the day due to COVID-19 pandemic gathering

00:03:57.560 restrictions. Instead, the city said it will produce something for broadcast later this summer

00:04:02.300 featuring local artists and guided by local First Nations. Let me stop there for a second.

00:04:06.940 So they weren't even having anything anyways. That's how lockdown-ish, that's how awful and

00:04:12.980 authoritarian the city council was anyways. There actually wasn't anything to cancel because they

00:04:19.160 already canceled it. They're double canceling it. Stamp, stamp, no erases. They're super duper

00:04:24.980 triple canceling it. I'll read more. As First Nations mourn, and in the light of the challenging

00:04:31.820 moment we are in as a Canadian nation, following the discovery of the reins of 250 children at a

00:04:36.860 former residential school, council has decided to take the time to explore new possibilities instead of

00:04:42.980 the previously planned virtual Canada broadcast, Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps said in a media statement.

00:04:50.800 Now, hold on, hold on for a second. By the way, can you see what Lisa Helps has done?

00:04:58.360 She has otherized First Nations people. She's said, because of what happened there,

00:05:05.920 we're not going to celebrate Canada Day. Well, who are you to say that? Aboriginal people,

00:05:12.020 Indigenous people are just as Canadian as anyone else. In fact, you could say they're the most

00:05:15.900 Canadian people. They're here first. You are deciding that there will be no Canada Day because 1.00

00:05:23.040 of an issue on a First Nation. Who the hell are you to kick them out? You have made them the other.

00:05:29.040 You have kicked them out. I don't even think she's realizing. Now, there are some questions

00:05:33.000 to be asked about that Kamloops residential school story. The chief there says the remains of 215 people

00:05:41.220 were found through ground penetrating radar. Now, the press release was written to create an

00:05:46.160 emotional reaction, and it sure did. I mean, Jody Wilson-Raybould, one of my favorite people,

00:05:49.820 she read the press release and assumed that 250 children were killed. It just wasn't in the press

00:05:56.680 release. Many other media assumed it meant mass graves, like a calamity that was covered up. That

00:06:03.260 was later corrected. You'll see a full report by our West Coast reporter, Drea Humphrey, on this.

00:06:07.700 She went to Kamloops to do a deep dive on the story. Drea is very compassionate.

00:06:12.720 Does a great job of the story, and I want to learn more about it. I know she does too.

00:06:16.840 One of the questions we'd like to know is, was this a regular cemetery? The school was around

00:06:21.500 for almost a century. People, including children, do die, especially 100 years ago, naturally from 0.99

00:06:27.960 diseases, from accidents. Was it like a normal cemetery like that that was maybe just lost in time?

00:06:33.280 Or was there something criminal or negligent about it? Who were they buried there? Was it like over

00:06:39.520 the course of 100 years? I'm really curious, and I want to keep an open mind. I think any policy

00:06:46.000 that takes children away from their parents to raise them in a culturally different way, I think

00:06:50.980 that's offensive to our values of freedom and family unity. However, I have to say, I do know several

00:06:57.020 graduates of these Indian residential schools who tell me it was the best thing to happen to them, 1.00

00:07:03.140 really, like a boarding school, one that gave them many practical skills for modern life, they tell me.

00:07:09.320 One senior lawyer in Edmonton told me it actually saved his life, and it put him on a path. He said

00:07:14.900 he'd never have been a lawyer without it. That's what he said. But look, let's keep an open mind to

00:07:18.920 what's going on in Kamloops. Let's see what the facts actually are. Drea's got a great report coming up

00:07:23.520 on that. But does any of this justify renouncing our whole country, renouncing our patriotism,

00:07:32.360 renouncing our national day? I don't think so. I think this city council hates Canada and always has

00:07:39.800 long before they latched onto the Kamloops story as their latest justification. That's one thing I

00:07:45.180 think Drea is going to show, how there is a story to be told in Kamloops, and it may well be a story of

00:07:50.840 sorrow and maybe even a story of crime. But boy, did it ever give every two-bit leftist like the

00:07:57.380 city council of Victoria grist for their own particular meal. The mayor of Victoria is not

00:08:01.340 indigenous. She's just a garden variety, extreme left winger. When she was first elected mayor way 1.00

00:08:07.080 back in the day, she refused to give the traditional oath of allegiance to Queen Elizabeth. Of course.

00:08:13.300 I mean, this radical mayor only worships herself and power. But here's the thing. It's Queen 1.00

00:08:19.000 Elizabeth, who is our queen. Her delegate is our head of state, the governor general, and then

00:08:25.120 there's the lieutenant governors. Any power that Lisa helps, thinks she can wield, doesn't come from 0.80

00:08:31.760 her herself. It's not just from the people. It's through our constitutional system, which is a

00:08:37.440 constitutional monarchy. Any power she has is through the queen and her delegates. You can't say, 0.99

00:08:45.340 I want to be a mayor in the system, but then decline to be part of this system or give loyalty

00:08:50.920 to this system. Let me put it another way. You can't insist on being paid as mayor and taking coins

00:08:55.760 and bills with the picture of the queen on them as your salary and sending stamps with pictures of

00:09:00.580 the queen on them as your mail and using a passport with a queen's letter in it. You can't use all these

00:09:06.600 accoutrements and benefits of being in Canada and then say you don't believe in any of those things.

00:09:11.640 I mean, you can. Mayor Lisa Helps is doing that, but she's just a lying hypocrite then. 1.00

00:09:17.640 Lisa Helps only has power because of the queen. Attacking Canada today itself is even a degree worse, 0.99

00:09:24.940 I think. You reject the idea of Canada as a country. So you're not just a Republican who

00:09:29.880 maybe doesn't like the queen so much. You want a different head of state. And I understand some

00:09:34.360 people who want a republic and they don't want a queen from thousands of miles away. Although,

00:09:40.080 for example, her late husband visited Canada 70 times in his royal role. I think he loved Canada

00:09:50.280 very much. In fact, I think that Prince visited Alberta more than Justin Trudeau ever has. So I

00:09:57.680 would disagree with those who want to throw out the queen. But I get it. If you're a Republican,

00:10:02.760 you want to do something different, but denying Canada Day itself. I somehow doubt a single person

00:10:11.640 who works for the city of Victoria will decline to take Canada Day off work or will decline to take

00:10:17.720 it as a paid vacation. If you hate Canada Day so much, why don't you go into the office? See,

00:10:22.560 they want the benefits, including the benefits of the most peaceful empire, the most peaceful

00:10:26.860 commonwealth ever do have existed in all history. They want all the good stuff. They're ungrateful to

00:10:33.480 the system, to the culture, to the history, to the customs, and frankly, to Queen Elizabeth herself

00:10:37.500 and her late husband. They're ingrates. Well, here are some dark predictions I have. 0.93

00:10:44.180 The name of the city itself, Victoria. Well, that's named after Queen Victoria, who was also the

00:10:51.420 Empress. Empress Victoria, she was ruling over half the world, from India to Canada through the British

00:10:57.520 Empire. I bet that city itself will be renamed in a decade. And why stop there? British Columbia.

00:11:06.460 Why, that's double-barreled British. Well, we can't have any of that. And Columbia, well, you know 1.00

00:11:12.120 that's named after Columbus, right? If you can destroy a statue of the man who founded the country,

00:11:18.200 John A. Macdonald, whatever his flaws, then you surely mean to destroy the country he founded.

00:11:25.180 Show me where I'm wrong. Stay with us for more.

00:11:39.980 Well, around the world, certain jurisdictions make a name for themselves economically, commercially,

00:11:46.140 by having laws that promote commerce. I mean, Bermuda is a capital of insurance companies.

00:11:53.460 Cyprus is a place for bankers who don't want to be under the thumb of Russia. Panama is a banking

00:12:00.880 capital for that region. And now El Salvador wants to add its name as a place where you go if you want

00:12:07.960 progressive legislation. In this case, I'm talking about El Salvador's rather surprising decision

00:12:15.120 to announce that Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency, is legal tender in that country. And they want to

00:12:23.040 take steps to make it accepted in commerce, even to pay your taxes. Little El Salvador leading the 0.92

00:12:30.280 way. I see other countries are contemplating it as well. Joining us now to talk about this development

00:12:35.140 is our friend Alan Bakari, senior tech editor at Breitbart.com. His story is called

00:12:40.000 El Salvador. El Salvador, first country to accept Bitcoin as legal tender. Alan, great to see you

00:12:45.420 again. It's the first country to announce it. But I see that other countries, including in Latin

00:12:50.600 America, are considering following suit. Is that true? I'm not sure if any other countries are

00:12:56.300 following suit. But it's certainly got a lot of attention for El Salvador. And I think they might be

00:13:03.180 the only country in the world to do this. Most countries classify Bitcoin as an asset, which means

00:13:08.760 you pay capital gains tax on it when you convert Bitcoin into a regular fiat currency. El Salvador

00:13:15.820 essentially is saying, well, no, it's going to be legal tender, which means there's no capital gains

00:13:20.660 associated with transferring it. And I think the law also says that vendors in the country have to

00:13:26.580 accept Bitcoin as a unit of exchange. Yeah, that's what's going to be interesting because, of course,

00:13:32.360 that requires some technological sophistication on the part of shops. I don't know if an ordinary

00:13:38.340 shopkeeper is going to be ready for that. Then there's the transaction fees and the delays. But

00:13:43.800 I think all those are technical solutions that can come later. I think you've nailed the most

00:13:49.080 important thing. If people in El Salvador can hold on to Bitcoin and not pay capital gains if it goes up

00:13:55.620 in price, then all of a sudden that becomes an extremely attractive place for anyone working in

00:14:01.740 cryptocurrency because it would be like your Canadian dollar or your American dollar, your British

00:14:06.640 pound going up and down. You're not paying taxes on that. If your cryptocurrency, if your Bitcoin is

00:14:12.500 treated the same way, that could really pull a lot of entrepreneurs, especially in the tech space for

00:14:17.700 cryptocurrency, to that little country, don't you think? Yeah, I think that's probably what they're

00:14:22.580 going for. I mean, there've been examples in the past of cryptocurrency enclaves appearing in places

00:14:29.560 like Puerto Rico and small little countries because of the low capital gains tax. And with El Salvador

00:14:37.240 essentially eliminating it altogether for Bitcoin, that'll certainly make it an attractive destination

00:14:42.320 for people involved in crypto. Of course, there are other reasons why you might not want to go to El Salvador,

00:14:47.720 or namely the crime. But it's certainly an interesting move by that country's president,

00:14:52.960 who is probably one of the most pro-Bitcoin heads of state, most pro-Bitcoin political leaders around

00:14:58.340 at the moment. Yeah. Well, I wonder if it's going to come to an American jurisdiction. Let me give you

00:15:04.120 an example of that. New Hampshire, for example, sometimes states, like sometimes companies are

00:15:12.420 incorporated in certain states to give them a better legal background. Even if the operations

00:15:19.840 of the company are not in New Hampshire, for example, a company might register there for tax

00:15:24.880 reasons, for business law reasons, because the courts apply laws differently there. I don't know.

00:15:31.140 I see that the mayor of Miami, Mayor Suarez, who is a high energy guy, loves the crypto, just hosted a big

00:15:40.220 Bitcoin conference in Miami a week or so ago. He's a Republican, by the way. I think he really wants

00:15:46.580 to make Miami that kind of jurisdiction in America. Now, he has to obviously work with the state and the

00:15:52.860 federal government. But I wonder if that will happen in America, too, because El Salvador, it's a little 1.00

00:15:58.320 exotic, a little far away. Like you say, there may be some crime issues. But wouldn't it be interesting

00:16:03.620 if an American jurisdiction said we're going to be that crypto haven in the United States? I don't

00:16:11.280 know if that's even possible, though, because that's a real threat to the Federal Reserve System

00:16:15.360 and the, as you call it, the fiat currency. It's a real threat to the inflationary just print money

00:16:22.040 strategy of both Joe Biden and Justin Trudeau.

00:16:25.620 Yeah. And inflation is becoming a real problem in America, price inflation especially. And yeah,

00:16:33.940 a number of states are actually going for this crypto-friendly approach. I think

00:16:36.960 there are some Rocky Mountain states, red states, of course, that are taking that approach as well.

00:16:42.960 Suarez is an interesting character. I'd count him generally on the establishment wing of the

00:16:48.560 Republican Party. I've heard him compared to Nikki Haley, for example. But he certainly should be

00:16:53.260 leading the way on crypto. And Miami was the destination of this massive Bitcoin conference.

00:16:59.840 I think it was last weekend. So personally, I know a lot of Bitcoin people who are moving there or

00:17:07.100 currently live there. So there's a lot of opportunity at the moment for jurisdictions,

00:17:12.020 whether that's national governments or state governments, to make themselves crypto-friendly

00:17:17.080 because, you know, not a lot of places are at the moment.

00:17:19.120 Yeah. I know a lot of people are skeptical about cryptocurrencies. Is it a fad? Is it just

00:17:26.100 a pyramid scheme, people manipulating it? Some people even accuse Elon Musk of manipulating

00:17:31.680 different currencies just for laughs, let alone profit. But I think there is a couple of underlying

00:17:37.840 truths to it. First of all, because it lives on the blockchain, it is less easy to seize and manipulate

00:17:47.780 than currencies that are printed. There is some resistance to hyperinflation. Like if there's a

00:17:57.060 limited number of Bitcoin that will never grow beyond a certain number of Bitcoins, you can't just

00:18:03.740 double the money supply and cut everyone's wealth in half. And as inflation is really starting to tick

00:18:08.980 up, I think some people are going to say, why am I holding Canadian money or American dollars that are

00:18:15.240 getting less and less valuable? All the criticisms of crypto, you know, you could probably apply them

00:18:22.560 just as well to the insecurity and the manipulation ability of regular... I mean, I don't trust what

00:18:29.180 Justin is doing, Justin Trudeau is doing to the Canadian economy. I think he's spending like a madman,

00:18:34.620 Joe Biden too. Whatever the risks of cryptocurrency are, I think the risks of fiat currency are rapidly

00:18:40.940 rising to meet them. That's an ideological opinion of mine. What do you think?

00:18:46.020 Well, fiat currency is definitely more vulnerable to inflation. There was a question about whether

00:18:50.860 Bitcoin is... I mean, this is a big debate in the crypto world. Is Bitcoin a currency that you use

00:18:56.420 to exchange or is it a store of value where you put your money as a kind of refuge against... as like

00:19:02.140 a hedge against inflation? And I think the latter is the way that most people use it. They put money in

00:19:08.540 Bitcoin as a kind of long-term investment, not as a unit of exchange, which is how it was kind of used

00:19:13.420 in the early days of Bitcoin when it was very, very cheap. As the value has increased, I think

00:19:17.820 people see it more as an investment than as a currency. But of course, that's because Bitcoin

00:19:22.920 is inherently deflationary. As you said, number one, the total number of Bitcoin is limited.

00:19:28.940 It's capped. And number two, the difficulty of mining Bitcoin with computers is that gets cut in half

00:19:42.060 at a set time. I think it's every four years, every two years. I'm not entirely sure which one.

00:19:46.700 But that also is a deflationary element of the currency. Now, there are other cryptocurrencies that

00:19:52.220 are inflationary, like Dogecoin, which started off as a joke project but has become one of the

00:19:59.100 highest performing cryptocurrencies. That's like extremely volatile in its price because

00:20:06.300 that is sort of designed to simply just print more and more and more and more. It's a very

00:20:09.180 inflationary thing. But that ironically could make it a better kind of currency, a better unit of

00:20:14.060 exchange because you actually don't want to hold it. But of course, that was the case before it went

00:20:19.420 up, I think, 11,000% this year, however much it was. Well, all the things you said about,

00:20:27.340 you know, can you flee? Is something a unit of exchange or is a store of value? You could say

00:20:34.220 similar things about the role gold used to play. You could say similar things about the role the US

00:20:40.140 dollar used to play when other currencies around the world were risky. In fact, many third world

00:20:45.420 countries, people prefer to hold their value in American dollars. I mean, because they're not,

00:20:51.740 like I'm thinking of Venezuelan currency or even in the Weimar Germany, people were adding million

00:20:58.700 dollar bills. I think those same arguments can be made about crypto. I know this is something that

00:21:03.660 some of our viewers are very interested in and others are quite skeptical of. I suppose that's why

00:21:08.380 it's newsworthy that El Salvador is taking a big leap. We'll have to follow this story. It wouldn't

00:21:13.100 surprise me if the central banks want to clamp down on it or come up with their own version

00:21:19.100 of digital currency to make it easier for them to track and tax. I think that's really

00:21:25.020 the challenge to crypto is if you had an official Bank of China cryptocurrency, an official Joe Biden

00:21:33.100 Federal Reserve cryptocurrency that you were being pushed towards because it would make it easier to

00:21:38.620 tax it. Just grab it right out of your wallet, track it, see who you're spending it. That's a

00:21:43.660 terrifying cryptocurrency that I would regard as a prison as opposed to the liberating cryptocurrency

00:21:49.660 that's the promise of today. Last word to you, Alan.

00:21:52.700 Yeah, you know, the bottom line is there are all sorts of factors that we can't predict that could

00:21:56.780 affect the price of cryptocurrency that could really tank it or could make it go up. So, you know,

00:22:00.380 I'm not advising anyone to get into it or get out of it or whatever. That's up to,

00:22:03.900 you know, people to make their own judgments about that. What I will say is that, you know,

00:22:08.300 as you pointed out, Weimar Germany, Venezuela, fiat currency can sometimes be just as risky as

00:22:15.100 cryptocurrency, especially when you get that spiraling and inflation.

00:22:18.140 Yeah. Well, I think we're in very dangerous times, so who knows what will happen. Great to see

00:22:22.540 you again, Alan. Thanks for taking time with us. Thanks, Ezra.

00:22:25.340 There you have it. Alan Bucari, senior tech writer for Breitbart.com. His newest story is called

00:22:29.980 El Salvador, first country to accept Bitcoin as legal tender. Isn't that interesting? Stay with us.

00:22:35.020 More ahead.

00:22:47.180 Hey, welcome back on my show last night. Paul writes, the conservative party has abandoned

00:22:51.180 their conservative base, just like the various provincial conservative parties have. There's

00:22:55.260 a very good chance after the next election that Rempel will be handed all sorts of free time.

00:23:01.020 Could be. I think it's even more likely that Justin Trudeau will appoint

00:23:06.140 Michelle Rempel to something as his token conservative. I think that's what's going to happen.

00:23:11.580 Bruce writes, the sickness infecting conservative parties is cowardice. They figure any bad press will

00:23:16.620 tip the election. You know, I'm so disappointed in the cowardice. One thing I think we can learn

00:23:22.460 from not only Trump himself, but Ron DeSantis and the most successful American conservatives

00:23:27.580 is if you just hold your ground and fight hard, you will win. I see Pierre Pauliev doing that,

00:23:32.780 but my God, the rest of the party is certainly full of cowards. 0.97

00:23:37.180 Grant writes, Rempel is a fine example of what's gone wrong with the conservative party. Oh, 0.98

00:23:41.500 exactly. She, I think, I mean, I don't know where she personally stands. I don't know what's real with

00:23:48.060 her. I know half the time she's down in Oklahoma married to a cowboy. Okay. Why don't you move

00:23:52.540 there then? But half the time she's in, in Ottawa clinking white wine glasses with the CBC. I don't

00:23:58.540 even know who she is. Maybe she's an actress. She should be a blogger or a YouTuber, not an MP. 1.00

00:24:03.980 But I do know this. She's much more concerned about what the fancy pants in Ottawa at the CBC think 0.92

00:24:10.460 than what her own constituents think. Well, that's the show for today. Until next week,

00:24:15.420 on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters to you at home, good night. Keep fighting for freedom.

Rebel News Podcast - June 12, 2021

EZRA LEVANT ｜ City of Victoria cancels Canada Day celebrations — but they all still take their paid vacation day off!

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