Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ Do independent journalists enjoy freedom of the press, too？

00:00:00.000 tonight why are political parties giving rebel news the silent treatment it's wednesday august

00:00:22.440 18th 2021 and this is the ezra levent show why should others go to jail when you're a biggest

00:00:30.960 carbon consumer i know there's 8 500 customers here and you won't give them an answer the only

00:00:36.700 thing i have to say to the government about why i publish it is because it's my bloody right to do so

00:00:42.220 so there i was in barry ontario yesterday afternoon at a delightful brew pub called flying monkeys

00:00:53.660 the slogan for this brewery slash restaurant is quote normal is weird end quote you know what a

00:01:03.120 fitting place for justin trudeau to drop by for a meet and greet photo op because when it comes to

00:01:09.560 this so-called new normal that we're enduring yet normal is very very weird indeed now i had

00:01:18.040 some questions for the prime minister most of them related to the upcoming vaccine passports

00:01:23.980 for example i wanted to ask him the following is the vaccine passport permanent will religious

00:01:30.580 exemptions to the vax passport be permitted will the vaccine passport recognize natural immunity

00:01:38.040 for people who got covid and recovered and what will be the consequences for those canadians

00:01:45.640 who refuse to get vaccinated now i think those are fair questions and i also had some queries

00:01:53.320 regarding canada's immoral disgrace when it comes to leaving interpreters and their families

00:01:59.740 stranded behind in afghanistan which may prove to be a death sentence for them and of course i wanted 0.99

00:02:07.220 to know if justin would have the moral integrity to step down if he fails to get a majority mandate

00:02:12.820 come september 20th because hey let's face it folks that's what this election is really all about

00:02:19.100 but while we have freedom of the press in canada justin trudeau the fanboy of the people's republic of

00:02:26.880 china doesn't care to embrace such a concept well that's not entirely true because there are those

00:02:35.280 journalists the prime minister is happy to shoot the breeze with whereas other sluggos are persona 1.00

00:02:41.600 non grata so how does one tell who's who in the journalistic zoo which scribes are on the favored

00:02:50.240 nations list and who are the pariahs at least the pariahs in the eyes of the liberal party of canada

00:02:57.120 well that's easy peasy folks government funded media which once upon a time was known as

00:03:03.180 the mainstream media they are welcomed with open arms by prime minister trudeau indeed check out this

00:03:10.800 footage from yesterday in barry you know there's a big red bus for justin trudeau and his staff and

00:03:16.160 there's another almost identical big red bus for the approved media types they travel around together

00:03:23.960 like one big happy convoy along with about seven chevy suburbans full of mounties golly that's a

00:03:31.800 lot of carbon isn't it but i digress because after justin trudeau bolted out the pub's back door to the

00:03:39.400 safety of his bus i spotted a government-funded journalist pounding out some pithy prose while

00:03:46.200 sitting on a staircase she turned out to be mariki walsh of the globe and mail and i thought i'd ask

00:03:52.680 her a question or two check out the video in there are you with the mainstream media

00:03:59.320 well it says meeting mar marika walsh just wondering getting government money do you think

00:04:05.720 you can objectively report on prime minister trudeau mariki

00:04:11.240 miss walsh are you able to uh be uh non-biased in your reporting even though you're getting paid by

00:04:17.640 the trudeau liberals wow for someone who asks questions for a living and expects those questions

00:04:24.920 to be promptly asked miss walsh sure doesn't like to be queried herself but really isn't she obliged to 1.00

00:04:32.440 provide answers you and i and some 38 million other canadians now contribute towards paying her salary

00:04:40.280 but no the only quote is i'm not talking to you now there's gratitude for you rebel news journalists

00:04:48.440 are not allowed on the press bus of course and i found out that i wasn't even allowed to come into

00:04:54.120 the brew pub either as a journalist or a paying customer check out my reaction with uh norman the

00:05:01.240 doorman sir are you an employee at this establishment are are you allowed to let me in are you allowed

00:05:08.680 to let me in i'm david menzies with rebel news you are not is is this a private affair for uh justin trudeau

00:05:19.960 it isn't so if it's open to the public can i just come in buy a beer

00:05:23.160 is that yes or no what about you ma'am you're uh you're telling him what to say i can i come in

00:05:33.000 and buy a beer as a customer unfortunately we closed the doors for the anyone coming in at the moment

00:05:38.520 just a whole bunch of people that walked in front of me right now that wasn't up to me

00:05:45.640 you know i hear flying monkeys brews superb beer i guess i'll have to take their word for it

00:05:53.400 nevertheless from the sidewalk i was able to get within two meters of the prime minister

00:05:58.840 and i fired away with my questions but given the lack of response i think justin is either deaf

00:06:06.440 or he automatically clams up big time when he sees a rebel news flash on a microphone vaccine

00:06:13.720 passports be permanent mr trudeau will there be religious exemptions for the passports

00:06:18.760 what are the consequences for canadians not taking the vaccine mr trudeau mr trudeau why have you

00:06:26.520 abandoned our allies in afghanistan mr trudeau will you resign if you fail to get a majority but you

00:06:33.720 know it's both frustrating and disturbing shouldn't elected officials or those vying for public office

00:06:40.840 have a duty to answer questions even prickly questions or will these politicians only talk to

00:06:47.960 people who they agree with and it's not just trudeau check out my colleague tamara ugolini

00:06:54.920 check out how she was treated the other day when she tried to ask questions of liberal candidate anita

00:07:00.520 anan canada doesn't recognize you as a media source email last night from the liberal party that showed

00:07:07.080 that you are for open and transparency and you actually the wording in there was that you facilitate

00:07:12.760 media coverage so you're not allowing us as independent journalists into this event you're not

00:07:17.240 invited to this event i'm sorry and the event was it an invite only event this is an event that you're

00:07:22.840 not invited to

00:07:38.360 minister anand i have a question for you uh the liberals are campaigning on openness and transparency

00:07:43.640 and i face barriers to get here as a women woman trying to work will you give me five minutes of your 1.00

00:07:47.720 chime gee what a visual eh after exiting the cadillac coupe anita literally runs away while her blob-like 1.00

00:07:56.760 bodyguard turns into a human barricade pathetic oh and it's not just liberals playing this game folks

00:08:04.520 in the department of cowardice check out how my colleague in quebec alexa lavoy was treated at a

00:08:12.120 blocked quebecois presser well in the department of silver linings within dark clouds of despair

00:08:30.120 at least blanchette was polite to alexa but again if mr blanchette is afraid of answering questions

00:08:37.480 from alexa or other rebel news journalists questions that he himself admits are good ones

00:08:45.080 then what else is he afraid of and is this a man who truly has the right stuff when it comes to being

00:08:53.000 a leader but perhaps the biggest head-scratcher when it comes to getting interviews with zip-lipped

00:08:59.320 politicians is none other than conservative party of canada leader erin o'toole apparently o'toole has

00:09:06.840 imbibed the rebel derangement syndrome kool-aid too and that is most curious you know our audience is

00:09:15.480 huge 1.5 million youtube subscribers alone the lion's share of that number surely being red meat 1.00

00:09:22.600 conservatives our audience numbers are bigger than the cbc's national newscast and yet mr o'toole is

00:09:29.880 apparently following the same grossly flawed strategy andrew sheer embraced in 2019 namely

00:09:37.560 shun rebel news and court the mean girls of the media party such as the cbc and the toronto star oh

00:09:45.720 and we all know how well that turned out for mr sheer despite justin trudeau scandals too numerous to

00:09:52.280 mention in this space the journalistic jackals and the media ignored such things as grope gate

00:09:58.920 and blackface and instead went after sheer given that he allegedly fibbed about his brokerage credentials

00:10:06.440 and being a dual citizen oh that's the stuff that's the stuff of serious scandal is it not 0.98

00:10:13.240 the problem is that sheer in 2019 much like o'toole in 2021 doesn't realize that the vast majority of

00:10:23.160 people toiling in the mainstream media loath conservatives and absolutely hate the conservative

00:10:30.280 party of canada you want proof in the proverbial pudding folks consider the unifor ad that debuted earlier

00:10:37.480 this month most of the government-funded journalists are members of this union check out the open disdain

00:10:45.240 unifor has for mr o'toole the next model of conservative is here meet the 2021 o'toole ready to steer canada

00:10:54.840 in the wrong direction engineered by big corporations to leave us behind driven to cut health care and public

00:11:03.240 services just like jason kenny another out of touch politician at a price we can't afford

00:11:10.920 meet the 2021 o'toole new name same old conservative

00:11:17.880 well at least unifor is transparent in terms of its visceral hatred for all things conservative and yet

00:11:25.720 when my colleague lincoln jay ventured to richmond hill last night to scrum mr o'toole

00:11:31.720 the conservative leader had no time for lincoln the party line being that we are too disruptive

00:11:39.320 check out this clip and ask yourself was lincoln being disruptive were his questions unfair mr o'toole

00:11:47.560 are vaccine passports a temporary or permanent solution

00:11:50.600 trudeau said he'll allow medical exemptions are you looking to provide religious exemptions

00:12:01.880 geez what a difference a year makes eh last summer when erin o'toole was vying to be the leader of the 1.00

00:12:08.600 conservative party he attended the independent press gallery event which rebel news was part of of

00:12:14.440 of course and he openly entertained questions from yours truly but alas that was when mr o'toole was

00:12:21.880 merely a candidate not the leader of the party that was when he was running on a platform of being pro-free

00:12:28.840 speech and anti-cancel culture i would argue now that since becoming leader erin o'toole has not come as

00:12:37.720 as advertised and as far as political strategy goes vis-a-vis andrew sheer well as the who once saying

00:12:46.600 meet the new boss same as the old boss in the final analysis all of these politicians who are embracing

00:12:55.000 the cone of silence when it comes to rebel news and other independent media outlets are committing

00:13:01.480 a gross disservice to canadians from coast to coast these are very important times in which we live and

00:13:08.600 there are so many crucial issues that must be addressed moving forward for these so-called leaders

00:13:15.880 to keep their lips zipped tightly when confronted by tough yet fair questions is not only cowardly

00:13:24.360 but it is also an act of disrespect against canadians and even an affront to the democratic process

00:13:33.880 you know folks i can't help but think of that infamous quote by prime minister for a day

00:13:39.320 kim campbell way back in 1993 namely quote an election is no time to discuss serious issues end quote

00:13:48.360 wow back in 1993 kim was crucified for stating that half-baked policy but geez who knew that by 2021 0.98

00:13:59.160 kim wasn't a nutter but rather she was just way way ahead of the curve unfortunately 0.99

00:14:18.360 well folks if you ask me the most overlooked underreported story so far in 2021 is what is

00:14:25.640 happening to so many churches across our great dominion more than 50 churches have been burned to the

00:14:33.320 ground or vandalized or desecrated in one way or another and yet the silence is deafening our political

00:14:40.840 leaders aren't speaking out against us the media is all but silent as well it's a national disgrace

00:14:47.880 but we came across a church and there's going to be a different twist in terms of what's going to

00:14:54.680 happen to the structure there and with more on this story i am joined now by adam seuss adam how

00:15:00.680 you doing my friend wonderful thanks for having me well adam as i said i think this is a disgraceful

00:15:06.600 story it is an overlooked underreported story but you came across a little church just outside of calgary

00:15:14.120 and tell us what is going to happen there yeah so it was a very sort of a providential turn of events

00:15:20.680 we're actually at the calgary stampede covering that we headed down to the elbow river camp which

00:15:25.720 is an area where first nations culture is on representation and the first person we spoke to

00:15:30.520 actually informed us that her grandfather built the church that the first nations community the tzutina

00:15:36.440 nation owns out on their land land so they actually invited us out to join them learn some of their uh

00:15:42.840 their traditions and learn about how this church came to be um while we were out there she mentioned

00:15:48.120 that oh sure it would be nice if we could do a little work and get my grandpa's church back in

00:15:52.200 shape um i immediately thought well i thought that was something that our rebel viewers would certainly

00:15:57.240 be on board to help out for so we started a fundraiser repair the church dot com after speaking to the

00:16:03.880 parish priest as well as the chief out on that tzutina chief roy whitney one spot um the consensus

00:16:09.560 was that the roof is leaking and that's probably the first thing that needs to be replaced so

00:16:14.280 we set out to raise twelve thousand five hundred dollars at repair the church dot com and you know

00:16:20.760 adam what i love about our viewers here is that within 24 hours of launching that website repair the church

00:16:29.320 we have already received more than fifteen thousand dollars we've already exceeded the goal

00:16:35.000 and uh boy talk about a worthy cause i've seen images of this church it's a delightful little

00:16:39.320 building but it really does need a nip and a tuck so in addition to a new roof adam what else do we

00:16:46.200 have in store in terms of uh refurbishing this place of worship and i really have to say i'll get into

00:16:53.080 that but our viewers have absolutely blown me away when we first started uh i thought you know what i i

00:16:58.440 know we've got exceptional viewers supporters twelve thousand five hundred dollars is a lot of money but

00:17:03.480 i know with our principled and passionate viewers we can raise that but our viewers absolutely blew me

00:17:09.240 away we're actually closing in on well over fifteen thousand dollars so we're going to do a number of

00:17:14.760 other projects um one of the concerns they mentioned was uh that there's a bit of a pest problem so we

00:17:20.280 actually reached out to a local pest control company we're going to do an update on this uh friday we're

00:17:25.160 going to be doing an update about this but and we told them about what's going on they actually

00:17:28.840 volunteered their services so they're going to help that there's also a broken window at the back of

00:17:33.560 the church we thought we could use some of the money towards that when we spoke to a local glass

00:17:38.040 company and told them the story they said they don't want any credit and they're going to come out

00:17:41.800 and replace the window for free so there is so much work being done but there's a ton of work to be

00:17:47.720 done this is a very simple church it's got a porta potty not restrooms um there's a bit of water

00:17:53.320 damage inside some parts of the roof are sort of coming in there's an abundance of work to be done

00:17:58.440 so our approach is going to be twofold first off i'd like to extend an invitation to any contractors

00:18:04.280 in air in the calgary area who might be willing to volunteer their services to help this church

00:18:09.560 to send me an email at adam at rebelnews.com now that could be as much as fixing a bit of a

00:18:15.960 ceiling that's damaged by water uh or a more serious project that if you're a major contractor you

00:18:21.960 might like to contribute to this community reach out to me we'll do that beyond those volunteer

00:18:27.240 efforts we're going to certainly have a lot of work to do we want to help preserve the art that's

00:18:32.600 sort of falling apart on the outside of the building sure could use a paint so there's no

00:18:36.600 lack of work to be done to ensure that they have a safe and sound worship space to enjoy their communal

00:18:42.760 prayer together you know adam this is such welcome good news and a tonic to the kinds of stories we've been

00:18:49.640 hearing about for weeks now and i want to talk about that in the big picture of course we have

00:18:53.640 to look at what's happening these churches through the lens of the unmarked native graves at former

00:19:00.440 residential schools when that story broke there was an outcry and yet i can't help but think

00:19:08.440 what does burning down the church in the here now especially a church on the native reserve

00:19:13.000 do to further uh this issue for example we've spoken to natives who have lost their churches

00:19:19.880 and they've said listen weddings have been conducted here funerals it serves as a community center and now

00:19:25.640 we have just a big pile of burning embers adam how do you make sense of this i don't think one can it

00:19:33.560 really doesn't make sense particularly this example is perhaps the strongest example because the person who

00:19:39.400 invited us out to tsutina land her own grandfather built this church it is owned by the community

00:19:44.440 now it hasn't been targeted yet but the story is not a unique one um there are there are life on their

00:19:50.760 on on these communities can be difficult they deal with more funerals and more hardship than we would

00:19:56.200 endure on a day-to-day basis and this these church buildings are essential two times we've had to reschedule uh events or meetings out of the church because of unfortunate and untimely passings

00:20:07.400 so these churches are part of the healing grounds and part of the

00:20:11.320 really central life it's not simply something that occurs on sundays or on occasions or on easter

00:20:16.600 it's really part of the day-to-day life there's funerals there's weddings it's part

00:20:21.000 of their intimate day-to-day lives and to attack it is fundamentally disrespectful every

00:20:26.360 indigenous person that we've spoken to has made abundantly clear that while there were traumas in the past and they uh 1.00

00:20:32.520 we even talked to bruce starlight out on tsutina he said they came and burnt my sweat lodge like

00:20:38.440 they're not respecting my culture either he made clear though that we should respect each other and

00:20:44.120 instead of viewing each other as opponents or people walking separately we should come together

00:20:48.600 share our cultures certainly not be attacking each other uh he suggested that if people should respect

00:20:54.360 a sweat lodge people should also be respecting these churches because they're both holy locations where first

00:21:00.120 nations people gather for worship and for faith yeah it's too bad the people carrying out this carnage

00:21:07.720 don't understand that kind of wisdom adam the other part of this disgrace as i alluded to off the top

00:21:14.440 was how ignored this is by our so-called leaders and the media it barely gets a mention in the press

00:21:22.360 uh a couple weekends ago i was out at a mississauga mississauga rally um denouncing the burning of these

00:21:30.840 churches our own raheel razza was there can i tell you something i'm not a single elected official

00:21:36.920 was there uh no city councillor or mayor no mp no mpp and yet i can't help but think adam if this was

00:21:46.440 another place of worship if this was a single mosque for example uh you'd have the prime minister doing

00:21:53.160 a photo op right on the grounds you probably have a royal commission struck right now what i'm getting

00:21:58.200 at adam is why the double standard why the silence from the political and media elites on this issue

00:22:05.400 well i mean the reality is is they don't objectively care about protecting all places of worship they

00:22:11.640 they care about uh scoring political points and that's why very often when we see these people

00:22:17.240 uh progressive politicians or progressive social media pundits taking to social media what they're

00:22:22.680 tweeting about is very often uh things where there's no concrete action or no immediate threat to address

00:22:29.320 progressives don't really like taking concrete action they like talking about things that happened

00:22:33.720 in the past they like talking about things that will score them points but they don't care about

00:22:38.360 genuinely defending faith groups or standing up in battles that are difficult they like scoring those

00:22:43.560 easy points on social media we've had some people actually back off helping with this project

00:22:49.560 because they thought oh well churches on first that's a little bit political we're talking about

00:22:54.600 we're talking about literal structural repair and helping a community with no strings attached just just

00:23:00.280 simple service this is just service to a community and and they're saying that it's too political

00:23:05.160 there's nothing political about a place of worse worship being respected and venerated by their

00:23:11.000 community and for those people in the community asking for it to be respected externally that should

00:23:15.800 apply it doesn't matter if you're if you're muslim or jewish or christian your place of worship

00:23:21.000 should be honored and that's one of the things we've really wanted to drive at throughout this entire

00:23:25.080 campaign this is about honoring and protecting places of worship a value that was once intrinsically

00:23:30.520 canadian something we now understood i i think 10 20 years ago if we saw these churches being

00:23:35.800 attacked it would be categorically condemned now it's not necessarily on vogue to condemn the attack

00:23:41.640 of christian places of worship so politicians are doing it and that's a problematic shift within society

00:23:47.400 wow how sad and speaking of sadness i guess a sad sign of the times adam maybe some of the money that's

00:23:53.880 being raised should go into surveillance cameras because uh these desecrations of churches it's

00:24:01.880 still happening and um you know there still hasn't been any significant arrests as far as i'm uh aware of

00:24:09.320 um what do you think about that it's tough we're i'm following up regularly with police i've spoken to a

00:24:16.840 bunch of individuals and repeatedly we have been told that there is an abundance of evidence and that

00:24:22.120 they should be able to narrow this down to a very short list of suspects and yet we never see action

00:24:27.720 i can't help but think as you mentioned that perhaps if this was another faith group there may have been

00:24:32.520 more action uh they're very much hoping to sweep this under the rug because once again they don't want

00:24:37.080 to get into the nuanced conversation i don't think there is a nuanced conversation there are there are

00:24:43.080 two things which you can say which do not conflict each other what happened to the residential schools is

00:24:47.640 dreadful and unexcusable and attacking and burning worship places is dreadful and unexcusable you don't

00:24:53.480 need to preface or counteract those those are both statements which stand alone and have merit uh and

00:24:59.560 they can co-exist so i think that that that is a sentiment that the the police services who are

00:25:05.000 investigating that are politicians and we ourselves have to look into our heart and understand that we

00:25:10.200 can do and say both of those things yeah 100 whatever happened to the saying two wrongs don't make a right but

00:25:16.200 on a high note adam uh i know you'll be taking photos and videos of the church uh well i can't wait to

00:25:24.600 see the before after uh transformation uh thankfully this is a church story in our great dominion that's

00:25:31.800 going to have a happy ending last word goes you my friend again i also encourage contractors who are

00:25:37.560 willing to help to reach out at adam at rebelnews.com i'm really hoping that we can turn this into a

00:25:43.000 a story of joy a story of communities coming together as we said in our original interview

00:25:49.320 with bruce starlight uh us sitting down together and really communicating together and doing something

00:25:53.960 positive to shift the narrative in society and to shift the narrative within our culture so thank you

00:25:59.720 so much to our amazing viewers who have already far surpassed what i thought we might do in a month in

00:26:05.000 less than 24 hours but if you're able please continue to give it repair the church.com and again from the

00:26:10.600 bottom of my heart thank you so much everybody well adam i want to thank you for some great reporting

00:26:16.120 on this file reporting that is much needed given that the cbc and the rest of the government funded

00:26:21.560 media wouldn't touch this with a 10-foot pole as you say it doesn't fit their political narrative so

00:26:28.520 thank you my friend and like i said can hardly wait to see the before after transformation photos

00:26:34.600 of this little church thank you so much appreciate it you got it and that was adam seuss in calgary

00:26:41.480 keep it here folks more of the ezreal event show to come right after that

00:26:56.760 well that's tonight's show thanks a lot for tuning in folks the big boss man ezreal event

00:27:01.160 we'll be back here tomorrow in the meantime stay sane

Rebel News Podcast - August 19, 2021

EZRA LEVANT ｜ Do independent journalists enjoy freedom of the press, too？

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript