Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ Did Canada just declare war on Russia？

00:00:00.420 Hello, my friends. Today I want to talk about a statement made calmly and deliberately and carefully by our foreign minister that I just can't believe she said it and I can't believe it hasn't gotten more coverage.

00:00:12.800 Melanie Jolie, Canada's foreign minister, said it is a goal, it is a definite goal, she said, of Canada and our government and our foreign policy to have regime change in Russia.

00:00:25.340 I've never heard of such a thing before. In fact, Joe Biden blurted it out once and he immediately retracted and walked it back.

00:00:33.260 I want to show you the tape and I want to ask you if you think she's for real.

00:00:37.760 We also have a great guest interview today, Tracy Wilson. I can hardly wait to show you that talk.

00:00:42.380 But first, go to Rebel News Plus at rebelnewsplus.com. Click subscribe. That's the video version of the show.

00:00:50.320 We put a lot of effort into the video side and also the eight bucks a month, you know, we rely on that because we do not get any government funds.

00:00:57.700 And it shows. We're one of the freest companies, freest journalism companies in this country.

00:01:02.760 Go to rebelnewsplus.com. All right, here's today's podcast.

00:01:05.380 You're listening to a Rebel News Podcast.

00:01:20.320 Tonight, did Canada just declare war on Russia? It's March 13th and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.

00:01:30.100 Shame on you, you censorious bug.

00:01:33.300 Last week, Melanie Jolie, the foreign minister, was in front of a parliamentary committee.

00:01:47.400 And what made all the news was this exchange between her and Michael Cooper, a conservative MP.

00:01:52.560 Jolie talked about staring down Vladimir Putin and Cooper laughed at that.

00:01:56.940 I mean, say what you will about Putin, but he is deadly serious.

00:02:01.180 He's a former KGB agent. He's an invader of countries, the country of Georgia, Ukraine twice.

00:02:08.040 Most likely, he ordered the assassination of his domestic political enemies.

00:02:14.140 And up against him was Melanie Jolie, who before she became an MP was a lawyer who ran for mayor of Montreal and lost.

00:02:21.600 That's her background. 0.86

00:02:23.900 Yeah, I'm not I'm not sure if it's an even match between her and Putin.

00:02:26.600 Minister Jolie, you've talked tough.

00:02:29.900 You've talked tough with your Beijing counterparts.

00:02:33.900 So you say you even stared into his eyes.

00:02:37.300 I'm sure he was very intimidated.

00:02:39.640 And now we learned today and now we learned today or yesterday in the Globe and Mail very conveniently

00:02:46.640 that a visa was not was denied of a diplomat who wanted to work at the Canadian Beijing embassy.

00:02:58.340 One visa is that.

00:02:59.840 Well, that exchange bizarrely went viral.

00:03:02.680 Well, not not not really.

00:03:04.680 I mean, no one real.

00:03:06.080 No one really cared.

00:03:07.980 It was passed around Ottawa as proof of how sexist the conservatives were.

00:03:12.420 I mean, anything to change the channel on the Chinese corruption scandal that is engulfing Trudeau right now.

00:03:18.640 By the way, here's Chantal Ibert saying Trudeau looks guilty as sin.

00:03:23.560 What is the crux of this story?

00:03:26.960 What is the issue?

00:03:28.480 If you can boil it down to, you know, to one thing, what is the issue here?

00:03:33.220 So by now, to me, it boils down to an issue of political accountability and the political accountability that is being questioned is that of the prime minister.

00:03:45.080 After a week of evasions in the House of Commons, Philly bustering to keep his chief of staff outside of a committee room,

00:03:53.500 you kind of wonder whether the prime minister and the staff are trying to feed the narrative that they have something that they desperately want to hide.

00:04:02.360 And I'm not saying that's the case.

00:04:04.340 How in the world would I know?

00:04:06.680 But that is what it looks like.

00:04:09.400 And it isn't the opposition that has made it look like that.

00:04:12.360 It's the government itself with the incapacity of the prime minister to answer fairly basic questions about what he knew when and how and what he did about it.

00:04:24.620 All those questions, and I've come to that school, could be answered in the context of a parliamentary committee.

00:04:32.360 So if Justin Trudeau wants to put this behind him without having a public inquiry, and I still have doubts as to the merits of the exercise of a public inquiry,

00:04:46.360 let him go sit in a parliamentary committee and answer the questions, not provide evasions.

00:04:57.060 And if the prime minister believes, as he said in the House, that anything he would do would still be doubted by many Canadians,

00:05:06.420 maybe it's time he reconsiders whether he wants to be the prime minister.

00:05:10.100 See, the thing about that is Chantali Baer herself is a Trudeau Foundation fellow. 0.60

00:05:17.100 As in, she was paid money from the same crooked organization that China later poured money into when they realized they could just buy the Liberal Party and the goodwill of Trudeau.

00:05:27.040 Imagine how bad Trudeau must be doing if even a fellow grifter from the Trudeau Foundation, no less, is saying he's gone too far.

00:05:34.380 Anyways, none of what I just mentioned was the real news last week.

00:05:38.900 While the Liberals and the Liberal media were chasing this proof that Michael Cooper was sexist because he laughed at the prospect of Bambi scaring Godzilla,

00:05:48.260 Melanie Jolie actually said something newsworthy.

00:05:50.560 I can't believe I didn't catch this until now.

00:05:54.880 She said that Canada's goal, and she's the foreign minister, so this isn't a pundit, this isn't a backbencher, this isn't some crank, this isn't some junior person.

00:06:05.380 This is the foreign minister.

00:06:07.080 This is the real deal.

00:06:08.080 This is our woman who's going to go head to head with Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin.

00:06:12.420 And she said calmly, clearly, it wasn't blurted out in an accident.

00:06:17.040 She said, our goal as a country is regime change in Russia.

00:06:23.460 And in case you were wondering, it was definitely the goal, she said.

00:06:28.460 Here, take a look.

00:06:29.200 I heard you use before, referring to Russia, you talked about regime change.

00:06:33.320 And I was just wondering, at what point in time did that become Canada's policy to advocate for?

00:06:38.700 And I wanted to ask, Minister Ditfeld, if that's the right approach to advocate for when it comes to Russia.

00:06:45.940 Well, we believe that we need to isolate Russia diplomatically, economically, and politically. 0.99

00:06:53.860 And that is the regime that I'm referring to, of course.

00:06:59.600 And as I mentioned earlier in the discussion, I always make a difference between the regime and the people of a given country,

00:07:08.060 which is fundamental.

00:07:09.860 I think also that we've imposed very strong sanctions, more than 2,000 sanctions since the beginning of the war.

00:07:15.560 The goal is definitely to do that, is to weaken Russia's ability to launch very difficult attacks against Ukraine.

00:07:26.340 We want also to make sure that Putin and his enablers are held to account.

00:07:34.560 And that's why I also referred to the different actions we're taking regarding accountability when it comes to war crimes,

00:07:41.440 when it comes to crimes against humanity, and also the crime of aggression.

00:07:44.960 Now, look, I understand helping to defend Ukraine by sending weapons.

00:07:49.460 I understand that.

00:07:50.500 But it's a bit embarrassing when you literally send one tank.

00:07:55.180 I don't know why we did that.

00:07:57.060 That's a German-made leopard tank.

00:07:59.800 That's what it's called.

00:08:00.980 I don't know.

00:08:01.440 Was it the only one that was up to par with the other NATO countries sending leopard tanks?

00:08:05.500 Was it the only one that was maintained and working well?

00:08:08.720 Was it the only one we could spare?

00:08:09.900 I don't know.

00:08:10.380 Why just one?

00:08:11.860 So I get sending weapons.

00:08:13.940 Of course, there's the question of who will operate these weapons, who will maintain them, who will fix them.

00:08:19.240 I'm not sure how practical it is to train the Ukrainian army on new equipment in the middle of a war.

00:08:26.480 How long does tank training normally take?

00:08:29.660 Months, I'm guessing.

00:08:31.160 Maybe if you know how to drive a Russian tank, which is what they use in Ukraine,

00:08:35.200 maybe really quickly, a few weeks, you could run the Leopard 2 tank.

00:08:39.140 I don't know.

00:08:40.160 But how long would it take to learn how to do maintenance of it?

00:08:43.100 How long would it be?

00:08:44.300 I don't know.

00:08:44.920 I just don't know.

00:08:45.560 I'm not an expert in those things.

00:08:46.780 But I can understand it, or at least I understand the idea.

00:08:50.100 I also understand the idea of sending cash, too.

00:08:52.980 But it makes me more nervous, given how corrupt Russia and Ukraine both are. 0.92

00:08:57.580 I mean, take it from this guy.

00:08:59.100 Pre-war, you know, the Ukrainian government is one of the worst in the world.

00:09:03.880 You know, corrupt, controlled by a few rich people.

00:09:07.900 I mean, really unfortunate for the people in Ukraine.

00:09:12.040 Even Bill Gates knows that.

00:09:13.540 And I understand economic sanctions on Russia.

00:09:16.200 Jolie announced, it was actually Chrystia Freeland who announced a couple more of those, too.

00:09:20.980 Here's how the Canadian press reported those new sanctions.

00:09:25.360 Here it is, as picked up by the National Post.

00:09:28.000 Also Friday, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland announced a ban on imports of steel and aluminum,

00:09:33.500 which she said will help undermine Moscow's ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

00:09:37.240 Figures from the Department of Industry show that Canada imported $208 million in steel products from Russia in 2021

00:09:43.100 and $79 million last year.

00:09:46.600 Canada also imported $44 million in aluminum from Russia in 2021 and another $16 million last year.

00:09:54.220 So you can see it's already plunging anyways.

00:09:57.180 Now, I googled the size of Canadian iron and steel market because I didn't know.

00:10:02.660 And if this study is right, the market is $11.6 billion last year.

00:10:08.180 So Russian imports, they're not even close to even 1% of our steel uses.

00:10:15.880 I just don't think this is going to dent the Russian economy.

00:10:19.100 I think it's more symbolism.

00:10:20.520 By the way, if you remember when we sent Jeremy Lafredo to Moscow to see what life is like for ordinary people during the war,

00:10:27.640 he reported that Google and Google Pay and Apple Pay, you know what those are?

00:10:32.100 Those are the payment processors on your phone and your smartwatch.

00:10:35.140 They work in Moscow.

00:10:37.420 They just don't work with Canadian or American banks.

00:10:40.180 But that's the banks doing that. 0.97

00:10:41.420 It's not Google or Apple.

00:10:42.660 They're still doing tons of business in Russia.

00:10:46.180 There's still plenty of trade going on between the West and Russia.

00:10:48.340 And, of course, Trudeau personally intervened to amend Canada's sanctions last year so that SNC-Lavalin could repair Russia's natural gas pipeline turbines,

00:10:58.180 which I dare say is a bit more strategically important to Putin than $16 million worth of steel exports.

00:11:05.100 So I get sending tanks or sending tank.

00:11:09.440 I get sending cash, though.

00:11:10.880 I really doubt that money is going to go where it's intended.

00:11:14.000 I'm sorry, I'm skeptical of all politicians, but Ukraine really, they're so sketchy over there.

00:11:19.840 Every party over there, frankly.

00:11:23.300 I mean, just do a Google search, if you like, for Zelensky and the Pandora Papers.

00:11:29.440 You've probably heard of the Panama Papers, the Pandora Papers.

00:11:32.660 You'll see thousands of stories about Vladimir Zelensky hiding money in secret offshore accounts.

00:11:39.140 It was revealed in a massive investigation dubbed the Pandora Papers.

00:11:44.540 But you'll notice that all of those stories are dated 2021 or earlier.

00:11:49.560 For some reason, the media stopped talking about that corruption after Russia invaded and Ukraine became the new thing. 0.85

00:11:56.660 So I get the photo ops.

00:11:57.960 I get the sanctions.

00:11:58.780 I get sending the tank.

00:12:00.180 I get it.

00:12:00.880 And I think it's appropriate that Canada express its opposition to countries invading each other.

00:12:06.400 But regime change, regime change in Russia, even during the Cold War, I don't think that NATO ever called for the death or assassination or removal or regime change of the Soviet Union.

00:12:23.000 I don't think anyone ever said that.

00:12:26.060 I think certain things were off limits for perhaps moral or legal reasons, but also for pragmatic reasons.

00:12:34.020 If you say, I'm going to try and assassinate or remove the Russian or at the time the Soviet leader, it was a giant game of tit-for-tat and brinksmanship.

00:12:46.700 You would expect that they would do the same to you.

00:12:49.460 I mean, has Trudeau or Melanie Jolie called for regime change against any other leader in the world?

00:12:57.720 I mean, anywhere.

00:12:59.320 I tried to find it.

00:13:00.800 Here's a news story about Justin Trudeau calling Iran a bloodthirsty regime.

00:13:06.780 So he used the word regime about Iran a fair bit.

00:13:10.300 But I couldn't find any evidence that he ever called for outright regime change as a goal.

00:13:15.720 I really think the only country in the world he said that about is Russia, or Melanie Jolie did in his name at least.

00:13:24.000 I mean, Trudeau says he would like a new regime in Iran, but he's not saying our goal is regime change.

00:13:30.440 He only said that about Russia.

00:13:32.580 Now, Joe Biden, who is not all there mentally, he once said a similar thing.

00:13:38.860 Here he was in Poland, and apparently this was not a scripted remark.

00:13:43.560 Take a listen.

00:13:44.080 A dictator bent on rebuilding an empire will never erase a people's love for liberty.

00:13:52.700 Brutality will never grind down their will to be free.

00:13:57.020 Ukraine will never be a victory for Russia. 0.75

00:14:00.920 For free people refused to live in a world of hopelessness and darkness.

00:14:05.760 We will have a different future, a brighter future, rooted in democracy and principles, hope and light,

00:14:11.360 of decency and dignity, of freedom and possibilities.

00:14:14.080 For God's sake, this man cannot remain in power.

00:14:19.600 Cannot remain in power.

00:14:22.140 That's tantamount.

00:14:24.100 That's not as far as Melanie Jolie went.

00:14:26.560 Now, Antony Blinken, who is about 20 years younger than Biden and still has his mental faculties, he knew what a disaster and a risk this was.

00:14:37.940 He was in Israel.

00:14:39.380 The very next day, he said, no, no, no, no, no, no.

00:14:42.340 Don't misunderstand that.

00:14:44.020 Take a look at this.

00:14:44.740 As you know, and as you've heard us say repeatedly, we do not have a strategy of regime change in Russia or anywhere else for that matter.

00:14:52.120 I think the president, the White House, made the point last night that, quite simply, President Putin cannot be empowered to wage war or engage in aggression against Ukraine or anyone else.

00:15:06.560 Yeah, look, he said it, but they wanted to pretend he didn't say.

00:15:11.020 You bet they were on the phone to Moscow saying, oh, it was just a gas, a gaffe.

00:15:15.920 Here is the White House gaslighting a great reporter who was just asking some basic questions.

00:15:24.460 Her answer was, no, no, no, no.

00:15:25.700 Never happened. 0.99

00:15:26.440 Don't believe your lying eyes. 0.99

00:15:27.540 Take a look. 0.95

00:15:29.040 We need some more clarifying questions.

00:15:30.980 Thank you.

00:15:32.760 Thank you very much.

00:15:33.660 I know you're going to ask a really nice question.

00:15:35.480 Well, it's an important question, I think.

00:15:37.520 Are you worried that other leaders in the world are going to start to doubt that America is back if some of these big things that you say on the world stage keep getting walked back?

00:15:50.260 What's getting walked back?

00:15:51.600 It made it sound like, just in the last couple of days, it sounded like you told U.S. troops they were going to Ukraine.

00:15:58.140 It sounded like you said it was possible the U.S. would use a chemical weapon.

00:16:02.100 And it sounded like you were calling for regime change in Russia.

00:16:06.820 And we know.

00:16:07.820 None of the three occurred.

00:16:09.840 None of the three occurred?

00:16:10.720 None of the three.

00:16:11.620 Mr. President.

00:16:12.240 You interpret the language that way.

00:16:14.020 I was talking to the troops.

00:16:15.120 We're talking about helping train the troops in that are the Ukrainian troops that are in Poland.

00:16:22.980 That's what the context.

00:16:24.200 I sat there with those guys for a couple hours.

00:16:26.780 That's what we talked about.

00:16:28.020 Yeah, sure.

00:16:28.660 But what are you going to do when you have a cleanup on aisle three?

00:16:32.200 You just have to clean it up.

00:16:33.720 And I'm sure there was a lot of private diplomacy behind the scenes reassuring the Russians that, no, the United States was not, for the first time in its history, calling for the removal or assassination of the Russian leader.

00:16:46.880 That would be a whole different thing. 1.00

00:16:50.940 I mean, look, Biden is a doddering old fool. 1.00

00:16:53.240 But even he knew he screwed up. 1.00

00:16:55.800 But what's Melanie Jolie's excuse? 0.73

00:16:57.300 And if she screwed up, where is the walking back?

00:17:02.380 Like, give the White House credit.

00:17:03.740 They walked it back.

00:17:05.780 How can regime change be a Canadian goal?

00:17:08.360 I mean, a goal usually is something that you work towards, often as a team.

00:17:14.660 Good goals are realistic and achievable and understood and believed in by whatever organization has the joint goal.

00:17:22.980 So what does she mean?

00:17:24.160 Is Canada working towards that?

00:17:27.640 How?

00:17:29.200 By banning steel imports and sending a tank?

00:17:31.980 That can't be right.

00:17:32.900 That's not going to do regime change. 0.98

00:17:34.720 Regime change is something different from helping Ukraine.

00:17:37.780 It's not defensive.

00:17:40.660 It's a dramatic incursion into Russian sovereignty at the very top.

00:17:45.720 I don't even think that Russia is trying to achieve regime change in Ukraine.

00:17:50.820 They're trying to conquer eastern parts of Ukraine that they claim are Russian by ethnicity and history.

00:17:56.860 But I don't think they're trying to kill or exile Zelensky.

00:18:00.340 I mean, obviously, they would be happy if those things happened.

00:18:03.520 But I think even Putin is sane enough not to assassinate Vladimir Zelensky.

00:18:10.620 I think if they wanted to, they could have done it by now.

00:18:15.380 So back to the question of the day, is Canada planning to kill or exile or remove Vladimir Putin?

00:18:24.900 Isn't that what regime change means?

00:18:26.420 How would we do that even?

00:18:27.880 Are we the only country in the world with that goal?

00:18:32.000 Is it wise to tell that to the world, including to the Russians? 0.99

00:18:36.640 I mean, Putin was a KGB agent, and I'm not sure if the KGB is something that there is a past tense to.

00:18:43.200 I think once KGB, always KGB. 0.64

00:18:46.380 It's called the FSB now.

00:18:48.000 I think he's probably killed people personally.

00:18:50.380 I think it's certain that he's ordered people killed. 0.88

00:18:52.140 Is it wise for Canada's foreign minister to say we want to kill him or remove him or whatever regime change means?

00:18:59.340 And we don't really know what it means.

00:19:01.680 Journalists were too busy asking about the feminist thing. 1.00

00:19:05.640 I mean, I think Vladimir Putin might laugh when he sees Melanie Jolie.

00:19:10.720 I think Michael Cooper might be right on that.

00:19:12.900 But I presume Melanie Jolie wants to be taken seriously, doesn't want to just be a joke.

00:19:18.520 Do we, in this case, even want Russia to take her seriously?

00:19:21.060 What do we think might be the consequences of that?

00:19:25.600 Surely someone has thought that through.

00:19:28.640 I mean, every single person in the White House and Joe Biden himself pretty quickly realized that he had done something terrible when he had said something like that last year.

00:19:38.840 And he wasn't even as brazen as her.

00:19:40.600 Do we have no grownups in Canada?

00:19:42.580 There's no one saying, yeah, we'll just walk that one back.

00:19:47.000 Now, I remember the Cold War.

00:19:48.340 That's how old I am.

00:19:49.120 I'm 51.

00:19:49.760 I remember watching a movie as a child.

00:19:53.400 I was 11.

00:19:56.000 The year was 1983.

00:19:57.880 And there was this movie just on regular TV.

00:20:03.000 One hundred million people watched the movie.

00:20:06.580 It was called The Day After.

00:20:09.360 It was terrifying.

00:20:11.020 It was about a nuclear war between Russia and America.

00:20:14.120 I thought it was terrifying as a kid, obviously.

00:20:17.040 I want to show you a trailer for the movie.

00:20:20.220 I think this movie did a lot of mental health damage to millions of people.

00:20:25.620 It scared me for years.

00:20:27.120 Take a look.

00:20:27.520 The president is presently in direct communication.

00:20:41.420 It's a real privilege of losing that launch message at this time.

00:20:44.460 We, Soviet tactics, it's poison. 0.67

00:20:48.560 Current world intelligence situation.

00:20:50.640 And you might pay particular note to the nuclear submarines off the east and west coast.

00:20:54.180 Having already captured NATO advanced positions.

00:20:56.140 Hey, any of you guys hear anything about an alert?

00:20:59.840 I really don't think either side wants to be the first to use a nuclear device.

00:21:02.860 It's not a question of who, but where.

00:21:04.700 East Germany sealed off the borders to west Berlin.

00:21:07.500 It's not that happening.

00:21:08.340 The world's principal west German access port.

00:21:10.180 People are crazy, but not that crazy.

00:21:11.740 I don't believe this is happening.

00:21:17.800 We have a massive attack against the U.S. at this time, ICBMs. 1.00

00:21:23.440 Over 300 missiles inbound now.

00:21:26.520 Either we fired first, and they're going to try to hit what's left.

00:21:30.780 But they fired first, and we just got our missiles out of the ground in time.

00:21:39.660 This is not an exercise.

00:21:41.740 One millisecond takes you beyond imagining, beyond tomorrow, and into the day after.

00:21:59.580 You know, that was scary.

00:22:01.860 But in a paradoxical way, it gave certainty back then.

00:22:06.460 Mutually assured destruction.

00:22:08.380 The acronym being MAD.

00:22:10.060 It was the theory that neither side, neither the Soviets nor the Americans, could win a nuclear war.

00:22:17.220 So neither side would start that war.

00:22:20.460 It kept things frozen.

00:22:21.680 It was called a cold war for a reason.

00:22:24.680 It was tense.

00:22:26.380 It was stressful.

00:22:29.200 But it kept the peace for 50 years.

00:22:31.740 But there was a fear underneath it all, wasn't there?

00:22:35.300 People had bomb shelters back then.

00:22:37.740 I remember our neighbors built a bomb shelter.

00:22:39.520 They used it as a wine cellar.

00:22:41.940 People really thought those things would happen.

00:22:44.440 Stop, drop, and roll.

00:22:46.080 Duck and cover.

00:22:47.740 Of course, it might.

00:22:48.580 And of course, it still might.

00:22:49.980 But I don't think I've ever seen anything so reckless during the Cold War as Melanie Jolie, an affirmative action, gender quota high. 0.79

00:22:59.760 Let's be honest.

00:23:01.140 A foreign minister with no foreign policy experience.

00:23:04.720 Failed mayoral candidate.

00:23:06.120 Telling nuclear-armed Russia, telling KGB agent Vladimir Putin that Canada's goal is to have regime change in Moscow.

00:23:18.780 Now, I don't think they'll take her seriously.

00:23:20.980 I mean, I don't think Canadians take her seriously. 1.00

00:23:24.580 But this is a special level of stupid. 1.00

00:23:27.780 I'm not even talking about Ukraine anymore. 1.00

00:23:30.040 I'm talking about essentially declaring war on Russia itself.

00:23:38.360 But really, it's one thing to call for regime change.

00:23:41.960 To call for regime change when you literally won't say that about any other country in the world.

00:23:47.960 But to call for regime change when none of your allies will say the same thing.

00:23:53.740 When Biden's retracting it because they all know better.

00:23:58.140 And Canada's leading the way.

00:24:03.420 Are you scared?

00:24:04.640 I think you should be just a little bit.

00:24:07.740 Stay with us for more.

00:24:20.860 Well, Danielle Smith ran for the leader of the United Conservative Party to be the successor premier to Jason Kenney.

00:24:27.240 In large part on something she called the Sovereignty Act.

00:24:30.980 What's that?

00:24:31.560 Well, it certainly got the media all agog.

00:24:34.660 But it was really just Quebec's approach for the last generation.

00:24:37.840 Which is, under the Canadian constitution, provinces have a lot of rights.

00:24:42.800 The federal government sort of barged its way into.

00:24:46.140 And Quebec would like to reassert its rights in those constitutional areas.

00:24:50.240 I don't know if you know Section 91 and Section 92 of our BNA Act, our Constitution Act of 1867.

00:24:58.120 It delineates what Ottawa can do and what the province can do.

00:25:02.040 Well, few provinces have stuck up for themselves as much as Quebec has.

00:25:06.040 And look at how it's profited them.

00:25:07.700 And so Alberta is taking a page from their book. 0.76

00:25:12.420 And the Sovereignty Act is one thing.

00:25:14.100 But Alberta is starting to flex its muscles to take up some space to crowd out incursions by the federal government.

00:25:23.020 Without further ado, let me show you an excerpt from an announcement made last week by Tyler Shandro, the Justice Minister of Alberta,

00:25:30.140 announcing that Alberta was going to introduce its own Firearms Act to crowd out any invasions by Justin Trudeau's gun grabbers.

00:25:42.060 Take a look at this.

00:25:43.040 It would also empower our chief firearms officer to advocate more strongly on behalf of Albertans to have the federal government reconsider policy changes that infringe on their rights.

00:25:54.640 And it would enable Alberta to leverage the areas of jurisdiction that we have through regulations that help to preserve public confidence in the integrity of the firearms control program.

00:26:08.120 Now, specifically, Alberta could create regulations to respond to federal actions that negatively impact law-abiding firearms owners here in the province.

00:26:17.440 For example, the seizure and confiscation of firearms.

00:26:20.740 Because of this legislation, Alberta could create a regulation regarding who in this province can be involved in taking part in this.

00:26:29.660 Through regulations, Alberta could also establish our expectations that firearms owners are fairly compensated for seized firearms.

00:26:38.800 Well, the legal theory is simple.

00:26:41.440 Provincial rights, certain matters are those of the province.

00:26:46.680 If the province doesn't legislate, well, maybe Justin Trudeau can get away with it.

00:26:50.380 But if Alberta crowds out and says, we're going to pass a bevy of laws regulating firearms, well, that, the theory goes, would trump the same laws that would have different purposes issued by Justin Trudeau?

00:27:03.980 I love the idea.

00:27:05.640 It's very Quebec-ish. 0.99

00:27:08.000 And so I would certainly hope that any critics of Alberta taking back its jurisdiction would say the same thing to Quebec.

00:27:14.300 Of course, they will not.

00:27:15.440 Well, joining us now via Skype from Ottawa is someone who knows this battle very closely because she is the vice president of the CCFR, the Canadian Coalition for Firearms Rights.

00:27:27.740 Tracy Wilson is a regular guest on Sheila Gunn-Reed's show, but I'm delighted to talk with her today.

00:27:32.000 Tracy, how are you doing?

00:27:33.180 I'm doing good, Ezra.

00:27:34.120 Thanks for the opportunity.

00:27:35.800 Well, it's a pleasure.

00:27:36.740 And I know that you and our friend Sheila Gunn-Reed talk a lot.

00:27:40.400 Sheila is more familiar with the firearms issue than myself. 0.54

00:27:43.100 I think it's important because I think Justin Trudeau demonizes legal gun owners for the delight of urban voters in Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver, who think guns bad.

00:27:55.980 But, of course, the guns that are bad in those cities are pistols, revolvers.

00:28:00.100 They're not the long arms that Trudeau tries to license in Alberta or the prairies.

00:28:05.420 Tell me what you think of this chess move by Alberta's justice minister.

00:28:10.500 I'm fascinated by it.

00:28:11.780 What do you think?

00:28:12.340 Well, this is just one step in a series of measures that the Alberta government has taken to protect Albertans from government overreach from the federal liberals.

00:28:22.760 You'll remember not long ago, they also introduced Bill C2 or Bill 211, which prevented municipalities from introducing a handgun ban, because at one point, the Trudeau liberals were promising cities that they could ban legal ownership of handguns within their jurisdictions.

00:28:40.860 So they preemptively put legislation to block that, and they've also intervened on our federal court challenge against the big sweeping May 2020 gun ban.

00:28:50.240 So Alberta is definitely leading the fight as far as provincial support for Canada's most trusted vetted citizens.

00:28:59.020 So, yeah, this bill is interesting.

00:29:00.820 It's got a couple of different things it does.

00:29:02.580 It will introduce the ability to make regulations that would allow for the licensing of seizure agents.

00:29:10.420 So Justin Trudeau is looking at ways of grabbing guns from millions of Canadians who've done nothing to warrant it.

00:29:16.520 And what Alberta is saying, OK, well, if you want to come do that in our province, they're going to need a special license in order to seize guns.

00:29:23.860 Well, who would they apply to that license for?

00:29:25.980 To the Alberta government.

00:29:27.500 So I think it's a very clever workaround.

00:29:31.280 And I think it's interesting.

00:29:34.000 They're also fighting for fair compensation for gun owners in Alberta who may want to participate in some sort of buyback confiscation program.

00:29:42.460 They're demanding better testing, which I think is something that everybody on all sides of this debate would support.

00:29:48.500 We need to know where crime guns are coming from.

00:29:50.980 And for the most part, we know they are coming from across the border.

00:29:53.820 And then, of course, there are also this legislation, Bill 8, would make a requirement that municipalities within the province of Alberta would have to meet certain regulatory requirements before accepting any federal funding for gun grabs.

00:30:10.420 So, you know, I think it's a lot of putting up a lot of blockades for Justin Trudeau.

00:30:15.260 I love it.

00:30:16.260 Yeah.

00:30:17.060 And I'm thinking back to my time at law school.

00:30:19.540 I remember one of the provincial domains, like the feds have control over crime.

00:30:25.280 The criminal code is federal.

00:30:27.120 OK, got it.

00:30:28.280 But merely owning property is a provincial matter.

00:30:33.120 Property and civil rights is a provincial matter.

00:30:35.800 So until someone commits a crime, the feds cannot get in there.

00:30:40.380 And so if now you've got to deal with this provincial gun grabber, and guess what?

00:30:45.820 There's not going to be any licenses for gun grabbing issue.

00:30:48.260 I think that's fascinating.

00:30:50.120 And, of course, I remember also from constitutional law that cities are a creature of the provincial government.

00:30:57.140 Theoretically, the provincial government could abolish a mayor and city council.

00:31:02.080 I mean, it's very rare that that would be done, but legally they could.

00:31:06.100 So I think it's a great idea that they're ordering city councils not to play footsie with Trudeau, because that's the crazy thing about Alberta.

00:31:15.360 It's such a conservative place, but for some weird reason that I've never been able to figure out, they always elect left-wingers as mayors.

00:31:22.960 Calgary's been doing that for most of my life.

00:31:26.000 Edmonton is even worse.

00:31:27.180 So this is the province saying, guess what?

00:31:29.680 You have to behave, and you can't do tricky deals with Trudeau.

00:31:34.600 I really like this.

00:31:35.920 I don't like Tyler Shandro, because I remember him as the oppressor during the lockdowns, and I'll never forgive him for that.

00:31:42.280 But I sure feel good about this latest move by him.

00:31:44.940 And the fact that he brought it in under Danielle Smith, as opposed to under Jason Kenney, his previous boss, tells me that the credit probably belongs to the premier here.

00:31:55.320 Yeah, that's right.

00:31:56.020 So most of these moves that have happened, Bill 211 did happen under a Jason Kenney government, but intervening on our court challenge, we had actually invited them to come in.

00:32:06.720 We invited all the provinces to intervene, and at that time they didn't.

00:32:11.060 And then when Danielle Smith took over, we heard back from the Minister of Justice, and yeah, he went ahead, filed, and was granted intervener status by the Associate Chief Justice of the federal court.

00:32:23.080 So another interesting tidbit for your listeners out of that Tyler Shandro press conference is he admitted that during a meeting with the other deputy minister's provincial counterparts and Marco Mancino,

00:32:37.420 Marco let loose the fact that they will be extending the amnesty for that original gun ban, which I know it gets confusing.

00:32:44.620 We've had three in three years, but it looks like they're going to extend that amnesty, which was due to expire in October.

00:32:52.780 So it shows us that at the end of the day, Marco has no idea how to even implement this.

00:32:57.960 The idea and the logistics and the administration of this, I've said it many times, it's actually impossible.

00:33:04.020 So, you know, here we are, three years later, these guns are so dangerous, you know, too dangerous to own that you were forced to keep them for years and years on end.

00:33:14.420 You know, Marco Mancino always seems a little bit clueless to me. 0.87

00:33:18.200 He's so goofy.

00:33:18.920 I think he was atrocious during the whole trucker convoy and the martial law. 0.96

00:33:24.640 In fact, if I recall, his own staff didn't even bother to circulate certain memos to him because they knew he wasn't the real decider.

00:33:32.120 He's sort of pitiful.

00:33:33.320 But, you know, you made me think I wrote it.

00:33:35.480 I just had a flashback.

00:33:37.100 And forgive me, Tracy, but I'm going to indulge myself here.

00:33:40.540 20 years ago, I wrote a book called Fight Kyoto, referring to the Kyoto Protocol.

00:33:47.220 And I said, and I went through the Kyoto Protocol, I was young, so I'd probably do a better job now.

00:33:53.640 I wasn't, you know, I was still learning things.

00:33:56.520 But I'm trying to still learn things now.

00:33:58.760 But my recommendation was that the province of Alberta legislate climate and environment to stop the Kyoto Protocol by putting in provincial space taker upper legislation, just like Shandro's doing on firearms.

00:34:16.380 So I'm glad he's doing it on firearms.

00:34:18.700 I'm glad he's making the feds blink.

00:34:20.980 I'm glad he's showing that long arms and hunters and farmers are not the problem.

00:34:25.820 I like that.

00:34:26.840 But it's also opening up my mind to other ways that the province could scoot out Ottawa from provincial affairs.

00:34:35.320 And I remember 20 years ago, I wrote in my book, the province should take up that legislative jurisdictional space.

00:34:43.320 It sounds like a technical lawyer's argument.

00:34:46.120 It sort of is.

00:34:47.300 But it's really a way of saying to Ottawa, you've been mucking around in things that are not your business for decades.

00:34:54.500 Get out.

00:34:55.460 That's what I think this is really about. 0.99

00:34:57.040 Kicking them out. 0.97

00:34:58.360 Yeah.

00:34:58.600 Well, and at the end of the day, I think I can speak for all gun owners when we just want to be left alone.

00:35:02.860 I mean, even handgun owners.

00:35:04.140 I own handguns.

00:35:05.620 Every handgun, legally owned handgun in Canada, is registered and can only be used at a government-approved shooting range.

00:35:12.020 This entire thing is focused on the wrong problem.

00:35:15.900 And at the same time, we've got a 92% increase in gun crime or gang crime.

00:35:20.980 We've got a 33% increase overall in violent crime.

00:35:24.940 So the liberal record on public safety speaks for itself.

00:35:28.920 And they're spending years and billions of dollars chasing around sport shooters and duck hunters.

00:35:35.320 And it's insane to me.

00:35:36.820 At the same time, they're tabling legislation to let repeat violent offenders back out of prison quicker.

00:35:42.280 Yeah, oh, tell me, but I live in Toronto, and I follow Toronto Police Operations on Twitter.

00:35:49.340 And every day, like, it's just shocking.

00:35:52.520 I probably shouldn't look at it because I, like, every day, I mean, it's a stabbing or a shooting or a drive-by.

00:36:00.940 Yeah.

00:36:01.120 And I'm pretty sure they're not licensed, law-abiding farmers and duck hunters.

00:36:06.160 But it's politically expeditious for Trudeau to pick on folks like that and folks like you.

00:36:11.580 Tracy, I have enjoyed our conversation so much.

00:36:15.140 And you've given me a little twinkle, give me a twinkle of hope.

00:36:17.980 And I don't say that very often, but I think this is a good move.

00:36:21.980 Do you think other provinces might do the same?

00:36:23.700 That's Scott Moe of Saskatchewan.

00:36:25.220 And he's on the sovereignty agenda also.

00:36:29.440 Do you think he might do something like this?

00:36:31.460 Yeah.

00:36:31.860 So Saskatchewan actually introduced legislation to protect their gun owners before Alberta did.

00:36:37.680 I'm not sure if it's as fulsome as the Alberta legislation, but he's also taking great steps to intervene in, you know, Justin Trudeau's war on legal gun owners.

00:36:48.760 So, yeah, you've got a couple of provinces sort of taking up the fight.

00:36:53.280 And I think as we go and provinces see, you know, rising crime, just going out of control, I think they're going to see that this isn't the way to go.

00:37:02.420 And they are in the best position to force Trudeau to reroute his focus on reducing actual crime violence and gun smuggling.

00:37:10.920 Well, you know what?

00:37:12.580 I'm very rarely optimistic, but I'm optimistic today.

00:37:16.040 Tracy Wilson, great to have you on the show.

00:37:18.060 Thanks very much.

00:37:18.800 And keep up the fight.

00:37:20.200 Oh, you know I will.

00:37:21.700 All right.

00:37:22.180 There you have it.

00:37:22.640 Tracy Wilson is the vice president of the CCFR, the Canadian Coalition for Firearms Rights.

00:37:28.220 Stay with us.

00:37:28.780 More ahead.

00:37:41.420 Hey, welcome back.

00:37:42.600 Your letters to me, I am Mama, says they always project what they're doing onto conservatives.

00:37:48.720 It's always opposite day with the left.

00:37:50.520 But if you want to know what the left is doing, just listen to what they accuse others of.

00:37:55.980 You're so right.

00:37:56.820 That especially goes for Justin Trudeau and Gerald Butts.

00:38:00.780 Gerald Butts blocks me on Twitter.

00:38:02.440 But when I see people screenshotting what he says, it's the only way I can see it.

00:38:06.780 He always accuses people of taking foreign money, being in league with foreign troublemakers.

00:38:13.240 And all I can think of is Gerald Butts used to lead the World Wildlife Fund when it took foreign money to attack Canada's oil sands.

00:38:21.000 So every insult he has, everything he says he hates about his opponents, they don't do.

00:38:27.440 He's done it.

00:38:28.400 He preempts you asking questions about him by accusing you first.

00:38:32.940 I think there's a battle on for the soul of the Conservative Party of Canada.

00:38:53.840 I mean, surely the words Conservative Party of Canada cannot have red Tories like Hugh Siegel and populist conservatives like, oh, I don't know. 0.64

00:39:06.700 I might even put Michael Cooper in that category, but I don't know if he's particularly populist.

00:39:11.480 Can you have one party that is that big a tent?

00:39:14.100 I think you can.

00:39:17.460 I think you should if you want to win in this country that is naturally tilts to the left.

00:39:22.880 I think the Conservatives have to have a big enough coalition or they're just going to keep losing and losing and losing.

00:39:29.680 But I think the part of that coalition that doesn't like the other is the red Tories don't like the blue Tories.

00:39:34.860 The red Tories are the more censorious.

00:39:36.900 And I was disappointed when Pierre Polyev attacked the MPs for meeting with Christine Anderson, the member of the European Parliament.

00:39:43.920 It was very cancel culture-ish, very woke.

00:39:47.560 And I don't see populist conservatives trying to cancel the red Tories.

00:39:51.400 I don't think it should be the other way around.

00:39:54.280 Christopher says, I did manage to get my hands on one of your long ago recommended books, Red Color New Soldier by Li Junsheng.

00:40:02.000 The story of that unthinkable widespread public madness and literal worship of one man would almost be unbelievable if it were not for the photos included.

00:40:09.060 I wonder what generations use from now when they look back on the society and see that a detailed example of where this all inevitably will lead us was available for us when we did nothing we'll think.

00:40:21.260 Are there any more books that you recommend and think are helpful in understanding our current era?

00:40:25.260 I have a lengthy reading list, but I'll add any recommendations on the must-read soon roster.

00:40:31.680 It's funny you say that.

00:40:32.760 I just took out that Red Color New Soldier the other day and I was showing it to my kids.

00:40:38.900 You know, it's incredible to me how few kids have even heard of Mao.

00:40:44.160 And as I said to my kid, I don't want to tell personal stories, but you would think they would have heard of Chairman Mao or Mao Zedong.

00:40:52.760 He killed more humans than anyone else in the history of our species.

00:40:58.880 Killed more than Stalin, more than Hitler.

00:41:01.520 And I don't think we study him enough.

00:41:04.500 I don't think we study Hitler or Stalin enough either.

00:41:06.840 I think those words are forgotten to the new generation.

00:41:09.520 As to your real question about what books I recommend, I want to give some thought to that before I answer.

00:41:17.700 But let me give you a small answer in the meantime.

00:41:20.420 I was in an antique bookstore, which is such a pleasure.

00:41:25.160 It's such a luxury.

00:41:26.020 Just a thumb through the books in an antique bookstore.

00:41:28.340 It feels like you're doing something secret.

00:41:31.120 It feels like you're in a time machine.

00:41:33.100 I really enjoyed it.

00:41:34.500 I must have spent an hour in there.

00:41:36.740 And in the end, I only bought two little books.

00:41:38.500 I couldn't afford what I really wanted in there.

00:41:41.040 But I got some original printings of Rudyard Kipling.

00:41:45.320 Kipling wrote The Jungle Book.

00:41:46.780 I think it's probably his most famous book.

00:41:48.480 Every kid knows it.

00:41:49.580 You know, The Bear Necessities, the movies, the Disney cartoon.

00:41:53.420 Great story.

00:41:55.560 He wrote an incredible story that was turned into a movie with Michael Caine and Sean Connery

00:42:01.360 called The Man Who Would Be King.

00:42:03.220 One of my favorite movies of all times.

00:42:04.860 I think I've watched it five times.

00:42:06.000 He also wrote a lot of poems.

00:42:10.080 Every November 11th, Remembrance Day, I read his poem, Tommy Atkins, about soldiers and how

00:42:15.740 we don't treat veterans properly.

00:42:17.960 He has some other very politically incorrect poems that I don't know if you're even allowed

00:42:22.520 to read these days.

00:42:24.640 One of them is called The White Man's Burden.

00:42:26.820 One of them is called Ganga Din. 1.00

00:42:28.320 One is called The Stranger.

00:42:34.360 He said things.

00:42:35.640 He thought about the world.

00:42:37.100 Spent a lot of time in India.

00:42:38.300 A lot of time with people of different cultures and backgrounds.

00:42:40.840 He was really at the height of the British Empire.

00:42:43.900 And he gives you a thought into a window into the mind of someone who loved the empire and

00:42:50.060 had his reasons for it.

00:42:51.220 And I don't know.

00:42:54.440 I haven't read all of his works, but I find them fascinating.

00:42:57.140 And he was strongly political.

00:42:58.940 Absolutely.

00:43:00.020 He was the anti-woke, perhaps the most anti-woke person who's lived in the past century.

00:43:06.420 Rudyard Kipling.

00:43:08.060 I would start with the fun stuff.

00:43:10.040 I would start with The Man Who Would Be King.

00:43:11.880 I'd start with that movie.

00:43:12.520 It's just such an enjoyable movie.

00:43:14.040 And if you like that genre, you can go deeper.

00:43:17.680 So that's a very small answer.

00:43:19.860 That's the show for today.

00:43:21.560 Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home,

00:43:24.740 good night.

00:43:25.940 And keep fighting for freedom.

Rebel News Podcast - March 13, 2023

EZRA LEVANT ｜ Did Canada just declare war on Russia？

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript