Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ Doug Ford weighs in on Ontario crime — as if he's the victim, not the cause

00:00:00.000 Hello, my friends. There's so much crime in Ontario that the premier keeps talking about

00:00:04.380 how he stands with the victims. Really? But it's his own government that prosecutes those victims

00:00:10.040 for engaging in self-defense. I'll show you a few examples of Doug Ford doing this,

00:00:15.060 but it's not just Doug Ford. This happens across the country. And I'll also give you some tips for

00:00:19.080 how we could change this and how it doesn't take us, we don't need to wait for the federal

00:00:25.060 government to change our laws. Yeah, that's what I talk about in the monologue today. But first,

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00:01:38.160 Tonight, they're doing that thing again. Politicians who cause a disaster talking about their own

00:01:46.980 disaster in the third person, like they're just outside observers. It's August 28th,

00:01:52.060 and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.

00:01:56.760 Shame on you, you censorious bug.

00:02:08.940 There's a massive crime problem across Canada. Very acute crimes, violent crimes, but also slow-burning,

00:02:16.260 low-level crimes that we've just come to accept. It really is terrible.

00:02:20.020 It's worst in the big cities. Vancouver's downtown east side has never been this bad,

00:02:26.140 but Ontario is particularly bad, especially Toronto. And you may recall about a week or two ago in the

00:02:34.180 town of Lindsay, Ontario, which is about 90 minutes outside Toronto, a man was sleeping at 3am when a

00:02:40.540 criminal, a serial criminal, out on bail broke in. At 3am, the homeowner was sleeping. He woke up,

00:02:48.300 an altercation. An altercation ensued, and the intruder was injured. Police came, arrested the intruder, yes, but also

00:02:57.840 arrested the homeowner, and charged him with serious forms of assault. A man defending his own home at 3am.

00:03:06.860 It's just outrageous. The police won't protect you, and yet they won't let you protect yourself. It was an international story, really,

00:03:16.280 and it was certainly covered coast to coast. And the Premier of Ontario, who has presided over this province for seven full years,

00:03:23.200 who has more skin in the game politically than anyone else, who appoints the judges of the provincial court,

00:03:30.400 who is the political boss of the police and the prosecutors. Doug Ford had the temerity to say he totally

00:03:39.400 stands with the homeowner, Jeremy McDonald. And boy, is he on side of the little guy and opposed to the criminal.

00:03:46.760 So here's his press conference about that. Everyone hear about the story in Lindsay? So this criminal that's wanted by the police

00:03:53.800 breaks into this guy's house. This guy gives him a beating, and this guy gets charged. Like, and the other guy gets charged.

00:04:02.540 But, like, something is broken. I know if someone breaks into my house or someone else's, you're going to fight for your life.

00:04:10.300 This guy has a weapon. You're going to use any force you possibly can to protect your family. I'm telling you, I know everyone would.

00:04:19.160 I'd be scared to break into Kevons. He's like a linebacker. He'd beat the living crap out of the guy, as he should.

00:04:28.260 Because, no, enough's enough here. Violence and breaking into people's homes, putting guns in their heads. 0.99

00:04:35.740 And guess what? Some bleeding heart judge, little Johnny, he didn't have a good upbringing.

00:04:41.900 So we're going to let him out on bail five more times, because he's on his fifth, you know, being let out on bail five times,

00:04:48.480 just to go do the same thing the next day. I'll tell you one thing. I get more calls than anyone in the country.

00:04:55.280 People are done with this. They're absolutely done. They're finished.

00:04:59.920 You should be able to protect your family. When someone's going in there to harm your family and your kids,

00:05:07.100 you should use all resources you possibly can to protect your family.

00:05:10.880 And maybe these criminals will think twice about breaking into someone's home.

00:05:14.120 We've got to get tough on this crime. People are fed up.

00:05:17.220 And I'm wishing all the best for our friend in Lindsay. I don't know who it was,

00:05:21.680 but people are at their peak with this violence. I mean, with the violence, but the criminality and

00:05:29.400 and they're just at their wits end that the judges keep letting people out on jail, out on bail.

00:05:35.240 So we're going to hold these guys accountable and I will be all over the prime minister about bail reform.

00:05:42.920 Yeah, no, of all the people in Ontario who get to weigh in in support of Jeremy McDonald,

00:05:49.760 Doug Ford is not one of them. Doug Ford is more responsible than anyone in the province

00:05:54.720 other than the criminal himself. It's Doug Ford who appoints the judges of the provincial court

00:06:00.400 and who has obviously adopted the policy that he will prosecute anyone who dares to defend themselves.

00:06:07.440 How dare he pretend he's not deeply culpable for this? But it's incredible.

00:06:16.360 It's not Mark Carney's prosecutors that are doing the charging. It's Doug Ford's.

00:06:22.440 This comes after a video a few months ago of Doug Ford literally talking about the castle doctrine.

00:06:29.620 A man's home is his castle and you better not go in there. He said that, but of course he did nothing. 1.00

00:06:35.760 Take a look at that old video. Did you hear about the guy that these thugs came up, you know, ready to steal his car?

00:06:42.340 They're all in their masks and everything. So I guess he was a hunter or something.

00:06:45.860 He shot, he shot a shot up in the air. I don't recommend that by the way, but he gets charged.

00:06:52.060 I got to find out this guy's name and number and I'm going to hold a fundraiser for lawyer fees for him.

00:06:57.740 He should get a medal for standing up. It's like down in the U.S. we should have the castle law.

00:07:02.460 Now, someone breaks into your house, and I know any of these people here, someone breaks into your house and they're coming after your kids and you're coming after your spouse, you're going to fight like you've never fought before.

00:07:13.620 You're going to use anything that you have, be it weapons, baseball bats, knives. You're protecting your family. These thugs shouldn't be coming in there.

00:07:21.960 Now, it's true that in Canada, we have one national or federal criminal code. There are provincial offenses, but the heavy duty stuff is done by parliament.

00:07:31.800 So it's true. A deep amendment to the way we handle that part of criminal law, self-defense, would have to be done through Mark Carney's parliament.

00:07:40.220 And of course, Doug Ford says he's best buddies with Carney, but Doug Ford doesn't have to wait for parliament to make that law before he can change the policy on what police and prosecutors do.

00:07:50.860 Let me give you the example. Justin Trudeau legalized marijuana, but for probably about 20 years before that, criminalized marijuana.

00:08:00.280 It was in the criminal code. It was against the law, but it was the policy, it was the discretion of most police forces and most prosecutors not to prosecute possession of small amounts of marijuana.

00:08:14.000 If you were a big dealer and had a lot, they might go after you, but if you were just an ordinary person with a personal supply, it was pretty much guaranteed you wouldn't be charged.

00:08:24.520 Again, that's a political decision taken by police commissioners, mayors, premiers, and prosecutors not to go after that.

00:08:33.200 Doug Ford, if he truly believed in the Castle Doctrine, could simply have instructed his attorney general,

00:08:40.000 do not prosecute those. He could have instructed his solicitor general to have police forces not do it.

00:08:47.040 But he had the worst of all worlds. He had his police and prosecutors go after anyone who dares to defend themselves while he goes on TV pretending he's with the victim here.

00:08:58.880 It's unacceptable. But then this isn't the first time Doug Ford has one law for himself and one for others.

00:09:05.220 Remember when someone tried to steal a car from Doug Ford's own property?

00:09:08.640 Now, I'm going to tell you a story. Probably get in trouble for this.

00:09:12.400 Do you want to hear about stupid criminals? Have you ever seen that show about stupid criminals out there? 1.00

00:09:16.940 So, four thugs come racing down my street, masks on, ready to take the car out of the driveway. 1.00

00:09:24.100 Surprise, surprise, at 12.30, the two police cars are there. The chase is on.

00:09:28.860 So, they chase him. One guy runs out, takes off. They capture him and they catch these other guys.

00:09:36.560 But just imagine all the unfortunate people that don't have security there at their house with masks on and they have all the tools ready to break in and everything.

00:09:46.960 You know, and guess what's going to happen? They're going to be back out.

00:09:50.040 Why don't you guys come over for a barbecue tonight?

00:09:52.140 You know, I'll take care of you better than the police and thank God the police got you and I never did.

00:09:57.140 Anyways, that's my rant. I'm sick and tired of the weak justice system that we have.

00:10:01.900 They have to get a backbone and we start, we need to start throwing these people in jail.

00:10:08.560 This is turning into a lawless society. That's my rant and that's it.

00:10:13.860 I think he's trying to show how relatable he is that he himself had a car stolen, but it's actually the opposite.

00:10:21.860 I don't think telling that story is the win he thinks it is because it shows that he has a second, higher standard.

00:10:28.980 He wasn't robbed because he's got a police escort all the time, police park at his house.

00:10:34.040 He's showing how cocooned he is, how insulated he is from the life that other people lead.

00:10:39.280 Well, now there's a new case. I don't know if you saw, but there were recent thefts from the LCBO, that's the Liquor Control Board of Ontario, the official government liquor store.

00:10:52.240 A group of people, they look like migrants, but you can't say for sure, just robbed the place blind. 1.00

00:10:59.260 They were filmed and they didn't care. They didn't even cover their faces. Here's the video.

00:11:03.160 By the way, there's a lot of videos like this.

00:11:30.960 This one got the premier's ire again.

00:11:34.140 Okay, so here's my little crime rant of the day.

00:11:39.220 I don't know if you've ever seen, did you see these characters on the news last night that went into the LCBO up in Kitchener? 0.54

00:11:48.000 They're brazen bunch of crooks. 0.96

00:11:50.580 You know, I have all the confidence in the world and the water police services, Waterloo police services, the chief. 0.86

00:11:57.180 He's a champion, the chief. We've got to catch these guys and throw them in jail.

00:12:01.840 They just do not care. 0.85

00:12:04.020 They go in there, they start loading up, loading up and loading up.

00:12:08.180 And you know what's ironic? It's the taxpayers' money, the LCBO.

00:12:11.680 And so they're stealing off the taxpayers.

00:12:14.980 But I have confidence they're going to be caught and the judges have to keep these guys in bail.

00:12:21.820 Or the other one, did you see the gangsters going into the mall there and smashing people's jewelry right in broad daylight and just hammering away at it?

00:12:33.220 It's out of control.

00:12:35.580 And I love the one, I think it was a year ago, when the guy in the LCBO, just a customer, he stood up and held him accountable.

00:12:46.200 I'd love to meet that guy one day.

00:12:47.980 He gave him a couple of slugs in the head. 0.99

00:12:49.300 They deserve a slug in the head every once in a while. 0.99

00:12:51.500 So he thinks that people should slug them. 1.00

00:12:55.240 Really? 0.97

00:12:56.600 There's so many layers here.

00:12:58.060 The first one is that the LCBO actually, as I mentioned, is a crown agency.

00:13:03.520 It is owned by the government run by Doug Ford.

00:13:07.500 And yet the LCBO has an explicit policy, do not stop shoplifters.

00:13:15.060 That's a policy.

00:13:16.360 It costs tens of millions of dollars a year.

00:13:18.920 You go into any store, you don't know what's going to happen.

00:13:21.820 If you're a shoplifter, they might fight back, they might not.

00:13:24.800 But if you go into the LCBO, the liquor board, you can bet that they will not stop you at all.

00:13:32.320 You can steal the most valuable liquors and they'll let you walk right out.

00:13:35.820 That's on Doug Ford.

00:13:37.020 Who else would it be on? 0.96

00:13:39.100 He said that bystanders should slug them. 0.92

00:13:42.560 Really?

00:13:44.160 But then they would be charged, just like Jeremy McDonald was charged.

00:13:47.720 Jeremy McDonald fought back against a home invader.

00:13:51.640 Doug Ford charged him. 0.90

00:13:52.740 Doug Ford's giving advice to bystanders to slug these criminals.

00:13:57.440 Doesn't he know that his police and his prosecutors would go after them?

00:14:01.200 He'd probably be sued also in civil court.

00:14:04.320 Hey, I got an idea.

00:14:05.520 It's crazy.

00:14:07.080 How about actually enforce the law?

00:14:11.260 Or how about actually running the LCBO as if the province owned it?

00:14:15.600 Which it does.

00:14:16.700 There's more every day.

00:14:19.400 Like this jewelry store robbery.

00:14:21.820 Did you see this?

00:14:22.660 You're kidding me again.

00:14:27.120 This time ...

00:14:57.120 Ford talked about that too, but again, as if he was an outsider, as if he was a pundit or a third

00:15:10.060 party observer, as opposed to the key architect of the Ontario of 2025. And then there was this

00:15:17.040 case of an attempted rape kidnapping in Peel region, which is adjacent to Toronto. I've been

00:15:25.180 talking to you about Ontario cases, but it's the same in Quebec and British Columbia and Alberta

00:15:30.880 and pretty much every province now to a degree. Seven years of this, but there's a glimmer of hope

00:15:40.020 out there. Even a weakened and politically correct and woke and demoralized police could handle any of

00:15:49.820 these things. They really could. In fact, if they were asked to actually stop crime and fight

00:15:55.160 crime, I think it would remoralize the police. Right now, the police are told to let criminals

00:16:02.100 go all the time. It's got to be deeply unsatisfying to be a cop in 2025. You can see in the United

00:16:08.480 States that when Donald Trump has invited police to actually enforce the law and invited the border

00:16:13.960 police to do so, they do so with gusto when he's remoralized their military. People sign up in huge

00:16:21.300 numbers. U.S. deportations of criminal migrants. This has caused the U.S. border police, other police,

00:16:30.800 FBI, ICE, they're actually being respected and being allowed to do their job. In the United States,

00:16:39.240 the shock of the government actually defending itself has had a salutary effect itself. There are five

00:16:46.540 times as many voluntary deportations from the U.S. as there are enforced deportations. Let me say that

00:16:54.040 in plain numbers. Since Donald Trump took office, about 1.5 million people have left the country.

00:17:03.900 300,000 have been deported by police, but the rest have self-deported. Why would you do that?

00:17:11.880 Well, you realize that the United States is no longer a pushover, and you realize that if you don't go,

00:17:17.320 bad things could happen to you. You could be arrested. You could be prosecuted. If you're a criminal

00:17:21.700 and you know that Joe Biden wouldn't go after you, well, you know Donald Trump will. And what's the

00:17:26.860 outcome for you? I don't know if you remember, but early days in Trump's enforcement of border law,

00:17:31.940 he made a big show about taking gang members. There were a lot of Mexican and Latin American gangs like

00:17:37.940 MS-13. And he would put them on a planes. And I don't know if you remember, they were sort of

00:17:42.880 incredible. He flew them down to this supermax terrorist holding facility in El Salvador. El 0.57

00:17:51.000 Salvador used to be one of the most violent countries in the world. And then they elected

00:17:54.780 Nayib Bukele as their leader. And he built this huge prison and basically took the army and smashed 0.99

00:18:01.120 the gangs and put them all in this supermax prison. And he said he made a deal with Trump to take the

00:18:07.360 worst of the worst, the MS-13, these deported criminals. And this was produced like a Hollywood

00:18:13.740 movie. As you can see here, it was sort of a, it felt like a Hollywood movie. It was shot

00:18:20.460 professionally. Why would they do that? Because they wanted to show that they were keeping their

00:18:27.060 promise to voters, but much more importantly, they were showing traffickers, gang members,

00:18:32.880 what would happen to them. It wasn't the Joe Biden government anymore. It was the Trump

00:18:37.540 government. And if you don't want to end up in that supermax prison in El Salvador,

00:18:42.740 get out of America. Five times as many people voluntarily left than were left by police escort.

00:18:52.000 They've actually built something called Alligator Alcatraz in Florida. Same reason. Why would they call it

00:18:58.180 that? Why would they make it sound as awful as possible? Because they want to change the perception

00:19:03.440 that crime gets away with it. What I'm saying is Ontario and indeed any part of Canada could

00:19:10.800 actually do that. Now, Donald Trump cleaned up Washington, DC, one of those crime ridden cities

00:19:16.900 in America in a week, they cleared 37 homeless encampments. They simply are policing and enforcing

00:19:24.580 the law. It's how Rudy Giuliani broke the back of crime in New York City in the 80s. Here are possible

00:19:31.600 things a real leader would do other than doing what Doug Ford does, just pretending to commiserate

00:19:37.920 with the victims while actually continuing their victimization. Like I said, the first thing you

00:19:43.600 could do is change the castle law policy de facto by just saying, I'm no longer going to prosecute

00:19:51.500 anyone who defends their property from a home invader. Just by saying that, I think he would

00:19:57.820 make home invasion robberies fall, don't you think? And if he really cared, he could talk to his dear

00:20:03.920 friend, Mark Carney, to make the changes in law and parliament. He could do what Rudy Giuliani did when

00:20:10.600 he cleaned up New York and what Trump is doing in Washington, DC, taking the broken windows approach

00:20:16.480 to policing. I don't know if you've heard of that theory. I've talked about it before. James Q. Wilson,

00:20:21.320 an American scholar, noted that if there was a building and none of the windows were broken,

00:20:28.200 it was fine. But if a single window was broken, and if it wasn't patched up right away, soon every

00:20:35.500 window in that building would be broken. And it was done with cars as well. If a car was parked there,

00:20:40.440 nothing would happen to it. But if you smashed a window in the car and no one cleaned it up,

00:20:44.760 soon the car would be stripped down to the bone. The message being people look and see what kind

00:20:50.520 of a place they're in. Are people watching? Does anyone care? And the answer is, if you don't take

00:20:58.500 care of the small stuff, it soon turns into big stuff. In New York City, they would prosecute people

00:21:04.680 for jaywalking, for jumping over the affair in the subway system without paying for it. By enforcing the

00:21:12.040 law, you set a new culture that laws are to be abided. Not as in Canada now, where there's crimes

00:21:19.040 and you just take out your phone and film it. Enforce the small things so people know you're

00:21:25.240 watching. And one of the things that's not so small, but I think every single Canadian has seen

00:21:30.740 a hundred images of this in the last two years, is foreign nationals committing lawless, hateful 0.84

00:21:38.120 conduct in our streets. I'm talking mainly about the weekly Hamas protests across this country. And

00:21:44.360 I don't mean peaceful protests. I mean, breaking the law, harassment, blocking roads, blocking synagogues 1.00

00:21:51.760 and churches, assaults, threats, mischief, vandalism. We can all see that the police have been instructed

00:21:58.140 to abide this. Don't you think that sends a broader message that anything goes in Canada?

00:22:02.900 If you crack down on the lawlessness and deport foreign criminals, soon this country will be 1.00

00:22:10.200 safer immediately. Enforce non-criminal norms too. Let me give you an example. In food banks across

00:22:18.980 Canada, foreign nationals who are here as temporary foreign workers or international students, they

00:22:25.640 realize that we're suckers because they're from a low trust society and we're a high trust society.

00:22:30.460 You can't have food banks in a low trust society. People come and just take everything. That's come 0.94

00:22:37.080 to Canada now. If you are a foreign national and you go to a food bank to get free stuff, you should

00:22:43.680 be kicked out of Canada. I mean, it's food bank fraud or other things that are just gross, like pooping on 0.96

00:22:51.280 the shore in lakes. I know that sounds crazy, but it's a bit of an epidemic here in Ontario.

00:22:56.860 If you, these are all things well within the power of any politician, certainly a premier, but even of a

00:23:04.240 mayor. If you want to really get serious, I think you call for a moratorium on immigration. You call for 0.99

00:23:10.680 a repeal of Justin Trudeau's pro-crime laws, his bail laws, the ending of Stephen Harper's three

00:23:16.920 strikes are outlaws. Minimum sentences, but no. Now, in Ontario, just like in Ottawa, we have a fake

00:23:26.480 tough guy giving terrible legal advice to victims, don't we? Stay with us more ahead.

00:23:33.680 Hey, everybody. Remember I showed you the other day, Tim Hodgson, that's Mark Carney's new energy

00:23:47.820 minister in Berlin, talking about getting energy to Europe, but admitting there's no way that's

00:23:54.860 going to happen at the soonest in five years, simply because the Trudeau liberals killed pipeline

00:24:01.140 and tanker projects. Well, today he's on TV talking about the one pipeline that was built,

00:24:07.940 and that was built at a staggering cost to the public. It was owned by Kinder Morgan, which is a

00:24:13.980 private company, an American company. They wanted to simply expand an existing pipeline, the Trans

00:24:20.780 Mountain Pipeline, just like it sounds. It goes from Alberta over the mountains and into Vancouver.

00:24:26.680 It's actually, it was built, I don't know, 75 years ago. So twinning it was the smart move. You

00:24:33.420 didn't have to dig up new land. You didn't have to go over virgin territory or negotiate anew with

00:24:39.980 Indian man. It was a great idea, but the Trudeau liberals killed it. And when they threatened,

00:24:45.600 were threatened with a huge lawsuit by Kinder Morgan, they agreed to pay out Kinder Morgan by

00:24:51.380 paying an astonishing amount of money to buy the dead pipeline, which then they took years to

00:24:58.600 complete. But it's actually done. About four times more expensive than the original private sector

00:25:06.220 version, but it's done. Trouble is, there's barely any oil in it because of regulatory reasons.

00:25:13.960 Well, Tim Hodgson was asked about that today. Here's his answer.

00:25:17.380 Well, the federal government threw cold water on the suggestion from the CEO of Trans Mountain

00:25:22.020 that Ottawa prioritise optimising the capacity of the government-owned pipeline before greenlighting

00:25:27.780 new major pipeline projects.

00:25:29.660 I don't think that's a project of national interest. So I'm not going to jump in front of that.

00:25:36.000 If there's a case to be made for optimisation, they will make that case and we'll consider it

00:25:42.760 through the normal course.

00:25:43.860 Using the pipeline is up in the air. It's not necessary in the national interest to use it.

00:25:50.080 So they built the pipeline. And there is some oil in it, I won't deny it. But optimising it,

00:25:55.760 that is, filling it up, it's not in the national interest. Could they be more blatant? These people

00:26:03.460 do not want the oil industry. Joining us now to talk about it is someone who has a lot to say about

00:26:09.380 tax dollars being used for government-funded white elements. It's our friend Franco Terzano,

00:26:15.600 the boss of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. Franco, am I misunderstanding what's going on here?

00:26:21.960 Well, I think the government is misunderstanding its own role in society, okay? The government should

00:26:27.720 not be in the business of business, right? The government should not be in the pipeline business.

00:26:31.600 In fact, the problem isn't that there isn't an economic case for more oil and gas development,

00:26:38.040 more resource extraction here in Canada. There is an economic case. The problem is,

00:26:43.260 governments getting in the way, governments throwing up roadblocks, and governments chasing

00:26:48.520 away investment in Canada for years, okay? Bill C-69, the no more pipelines law, the discriminatory

00:26:55.680 tanker ban on the West Coast, rejecting the Northern Gateway Pipeline, politicians chasing away

00:27:01.940 the private company when it wanted to spend billions of its own dollars to twin that transnational,

00:27:07.340 uh, Trans Mountain Pipeline, sorry. Or how about this? The government moving the regulatory goalposts

00:27:13.140 on the Energy East Pipeline, okay? So it's not an economic issue, so to speak. It's not a free market

00:27:19.800 issue, so to speak. It's a government issue where you have these politicians and bureaucrats who want to 0.99

00:27:25.060 run around, pretend like they're an investment banker, uh, with Canadian taxpayers' dollars. Look,

00:27:29.920 the government should get out of the business of business. The government should remove all of

00:27:34.040 these regulatory burdens and let the business community do what it does best, get our Canadian

00:27:39.140 neighbors back to work. You know, Franco, you're so right. I don't know what the government is doing

00:27:43.740 in the pipeline business. That really smacks of 1980s-style national energy program, total disaster.

00:27:50.280 But just a couple days ago, this same energy minister was in Berlin. In fact, for all I know,

00:27:55.960 that's where he was doing the Zoom call from. And he was saying, oh, we're going to sell so much energy

00:28:00.760 to Germany. We're going to get you off that Russian energy because they buy a lot from there. The German 0.94

00:28:06.520 press were saying, well, how's that going to work? Because you keep killing pipelines. It was sort of an

00:28:11.060 awkward moment. Here he is with a pipeline that is built, built by taxpayer money because they screwed

00:28:18.900 up the private sector deal. And he will not fill it. There is a pipeline, but they will not use it.

00:28:26.520 I think that is insane, Franco. I, and since when is it a political decision if selling oil is in the

00:28:35.040 national interest or not, do we need the government's political permission to sell anything?

00:28:40.460 What do they get to decide is important work and what's not important work? This really feels like

00:28:45.680 a centrally planned economy and it's not going well. Well, hey, it's a good point to bring up the old

00:28:51.280 fact of life. You are not the government and the government is not you, right? Like, look, I don't

00:28:56.220 want these politicians and bureaucrats determining what is in the national interest. I mean, at the end of the

00:29:01.040 day, right, it's kind of ironic to now hear the government talk about selling our natural resources

00:29:07.300 to other countries when you look at the fact that we've lost, what, hundreds of billions of dollars

00:29:12.040 since 2015 because of stalled and cancelled natural resource projects here in Canada. I mean, look, Canada

00:29:18.740 should be the envy of the world, okay? We have highly talented, highly educated workforce. We have abundant

00:29:25.000 natural resources, diverse natural resources from coast to coast to coast, right? Like, we have

00:29:30.860 every opportunity here in Canada to be the freest, most prosperous country in the world. And what

00:29:36.620 is the problem standing in our way? It's government. It's government bureaucrats. It's politicians who

00:29:42.340 think they know how you should live your life better than you do, okay? We got to get these government

00:29:46.920 bureaucrats out of the way and we have to be able to have job creators actually build and develop our 0.99

00:29:52.820 natural resources. Hey, Franco, I saw a tweet that you made today and I just got to show it to you. I want

00:29:58.440 you to talk about it. It's just incredible. Let me read it and then you can just tee off from there.

00:30:03.220 New PBO report. That's parliamentary budget officer, right? So the new parliamentary report

00:30:09.540 should be a huge wake-up call. Reign in the out-of-control bureaucracy costs. And then here's,

00:30:14.540 I almost couldn't believe this. The federal bureaucracy cost taxpayers $71 billion last year.

00:30:20.380 That's a 77% increase since 2016. But here's the part that actually shocked me. Total compensation per

00:30:30.080 full-time bureaucrat will hit $172,000 by 2029. That is what doctors make. That's more 0.95

00:30:43.580 than what a lot of family doctors make. The average full-time bureaucrat in just four years will make 0.97

00:30:53.140 close to $200,000. How can that be right? You know, they call themselves public servants, right? But

00:31:03.860 who's really serving who here, right? Who's really serving who? I mean, Ezra, you really summed it up

00:31:09.840 very well there. I mean, number one, the cost of the federal bureaucracy has gone up 77%.

00:31:15.460 Are you getting anywhere close to 77% better services from the federal government since 2016?

00:31:23.800 Unless you're collecting a taxpayer-funded paycheck, the answer to that question is a big fat no,

00:31:29.300 right? I mean, look, half of Canadians, according to a poll that we commissioned from Leger,

00:31:33.580 say that services have gotten worse since 2016. And, you know, this all goes back to the idea

00:31:39.820 of the government rewarding itself for failure with our tax dollars, okay? Ezra, this is what

00:31:46.180 really just turns my stomach upside down. The federal government has rubber-stamped $1.5 billion

00:31:52.960 in bonuses since 2015. Government departments can barely meet half of their own performance targets

00:31:59.600 every year, okay? That's like you write a test, you get a D, and then you give yourself an $18,000

00:32:06.120 bonus check. But there's some other crazy examples, okay? Arrive Scam, right? That app went from 80

00:32:12.800 grand to 60 million. Government executives working on Arrive Scam took $340,000 in bonuses. How about

00:32:20.460 the Bank of Canada? One job, keep inflation low and around 2%. Inflation reached a 40-year high,

00:32:27.060 Canadians couldn't afford groceries, and Bank of Canada bureaucrats printed up $20 million in bonus

00:32:32.740 checks. Jeez. It's unbelievable. And, you know, the premise that Mark Carney was a master

00:32:40.780 economist and banker and would reign this in, I don't know. I'm terrified of what's going on. I

00:32:46.080 just can't get over $172,000. You know, there's still a lot of federal public servants, and I use

00:32:50.640 that word with an asterisk, who are working from home. You know, the rest of us returned to work

00:32:56.640 years ago. I just, $172,000. Is that the average? Is that what they said? Total compensation per

00:33:04.860 full-time bureaucrat? Yeah. That would be total compensation per bureaucrat, right? So essentially,

00:33:09.320 the average full-time federal bureaucrat, their total compensation will be about $172,000

00:33:14.220 by 2029. And remember, that's because salary is the tip of the iceberg when you're talking about a

00:33:20.140 government bureaucrat, right? There's a whole bunch of other perks, like bonuses, and then the pension,

00:33:25.360 right? The pension, the platinum taxpayer funded pension that, like, you really only get nowadays

00:33:30.640 if you're a government bureaucrat or really a politician. I think that's the single worst piece

00:33:37.360 of news I've seen in a month. How can the rest of us live? I mean, I'm here in Toronto,

00:33:44.840 and I'm doing okay, I suppose, but we have a lot of young people here, and they're working hard in

00:33:50.180 this expensive city, and it's tough to save up to buy a home, and groceries are expensive, and they

00:33:56.500 are paying taxes so the government can live large. When you're making $172,000 a year, the average

00:34:01.960 bureaucrat, you are insulated from the consequences of running a massive debt-ridden taxing government.

00:34:09.920 You just insulate it because they'll just pay their own people to be immune to it,

00:34:13.820 while severely normal people, ordinary people, have to bear the burden. I hate that statistic.

00:34:19.440 I'm deeply troubled by it, and I haven't seen it in headlines. Have you seen that reported widely?

00:34:25.240 Well, it just came out today, right? This is fresh off the press, so we'll see how much pickup it gets,

00:34:30.340 but Ezra, you know what? It also really makes me upset too, right? Because these bureaucrats are

00:34:35.960 shielded behind the golden gates of government, right? It's really a tale of two Canadas, right?

00:34:40.920 Tons of private sector pain over the last handful of years, while there's been so much financial gain

00:34:46.040 within government, right? It's really the story of the makers versus the takers, the taxpayers versus

00:34:53.480 the tax consumers, right? And it's not just the compensation, the pay. It's also just the size of the

00:35:00.200 federal bureaucracy, where today you're now paying for 99,000 more federal paper pushers than you were

00:35:06.920 back in 2016. Like, no wonder the cost of the bureaucracy has gone up 77% since 2016.

00:35:14.820 It's unbearable. It's just too much. Well, Frank, I'm glad you're out there, frightened like heck every day.

00:35:19.880 Taxpayers Federation, one of the good guys. Thanks for joining us today, as you do from time to time.

00:35:24.220 Great to catch up.

00:35:25.800 Hey, thanks, Ezra. And hey, sorry for being a bit of a rain cloud today.

00:35:28.580 No, I mean, we've got to know. That is the single worst fact I have seen in a month. But you need to

00:35:35.040 know it. You simply need to know it. Thank you, Franco. All right, there he is, Franco Teresano,

00:35:40.320 the boss of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. Stay with us. Your letters to me next.

00:35:45.660 Hey, welcome back. Your letters to me. Torcadian says of this Scottish girl who was wielding an axe, 0.92

00:36:01.760 this young girl is scared. When you've been the prey of a predator, you fight back.

00:36:05.920 The adults state have failed her. You know, we've learned a lot more about the migrant since I did

00:36:10.820 that story. He's from Bulgaria, but he's there as a refugee. He's in free housing. And he has

00:36:16.820 endless Instagram pictures of himself being a mafia tough guy. In fact, he's got a tattoo on the back

00:36:22.220 of his neck of an AK-47. This guy is a thug. It's incredible what the Brits have allowed to happen 1.00

00:36:28.440 to themselves. Saturn, he says, in Montreal last summer, they had problems with immigrant men lurking

00:36:34.600 around the public pools, taking pictures and harassing women. I know our Alexa Lavoie is covering those 1.00

00:36:39.780 stories that have generally been covered up by the mainstream press. Sandy Flixier says tolerance

00:36:45.720 is overrated. You know, it's a tricky one. If you're too tolerant, you're tolerating intolerance. If you

00:36:54.240 allow people in our freedom to organize to destroy our country, are you really being tolerant? I think

00:37:01.340 we've bent over so far that our backbone is shattering. I don't know. I hope the pendulum swings back before

00:37:07.260 it's too late. Well, that's our show for today. Until next time, on behalf of all of us here at

00:37:12.600 Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home, good night, and keep fighting for freedom.

Rebel News Podcast - August 29, 2025

EZRA LEVANT ｜ Doug Ford weighs in on Ontario crime — as if he's the victim, not the cause

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