Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ Exploring citizen journalism and Canadian politics： In-depth interview with True North's Andrew Lawton

00:00:00.000 Tonight, a feature-length interview with my friend Andrew Lawton of True North

00:00:04.740 about the state of citizen journalism and politics in Canada.

00:00:11.420 Shame on you, you sensorism bug!

00:00:22.740 You know, the movie The Matrix gave us so many ideas, it was quite ahead of its time.

00:00:28.220 One of the ideas that has persisted in popular culture is the idea of the red pill or the blue pill.

00:00:35.540 And this was a scene where Neo, the hero of the movie, was offered a blue pill that would make him forget everything

00:00:43.600 and sort of go back to this numb state of affairs where he didn't have to worry about things,

00:00:48.860 he just became part of The Matrix.

00:00:50.120 Or the red pill that would wake him up and make him alive and alert to the problems of the world.

00:00:55.160 In a way, it was an echo of the archetype of the Garden of Eden and eating from the tree of knowledge.

00:01:01.300 And would you, if you had the choice, prefer the bliss of ignorance as opposed to the stress and pain of knowledge?

00:01:09.640 And this is something we think about, I think, all the time.

00:01:12.880 And how much news do we consume?

00:01:15.640 And can you consume too much?

00:01:17.320 And is it better sometimes not to know and not to live out personally the stress of the world?

00:01:23.180 And I tell you this because I think independent journalists by nature have decided to be red-pilled,

00:01:30.960 have decided that it's better to know the truth rather than the corporate gruel served up,

00:01:37.960 the homogenized, normalized corporate message that emanates from legacy media,

00:01:45.040 from the CBC and CTV and the Globe and Mail, etc.

00:01:48.140 And never before has that been clearer than the coverage, for example, of the war between Israel and Hamas,

00:01:55.540 where you look at the baudelarized version on CBC and CTV,

00:01:59.380 neither of which, by the way, will ever refer to Hamas as a terrorist group,

00:02:03.240 versus the direct information that we now learn about the war and many other subjects

00:02:08.280 because of Twitter, especially under Elon Musk, who has taken Twitter out of the corporate media matrix.

00:02:14.880 So I think by nature, independent journalists, citizen journalists, and those who watch them

00:02:20.340 make the choice in that movie, The Matrix, to take the red pill.

00:02:24.820 Here's a flashback of that movie in case you haven't seen it or don't remember it.

00:02:28.680 You take the blue pill.

00:02:30.660 The story ends.

00:02:32.460 You wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe.

00:02:35.640 You take the red pill.

00:02:37.460 You stay in Wonderland.

00:02:39.820 And I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.

00:02:42.480 Well, one of my favorite independent journalists, citizen journalists in this country,

00:02:48.540 really I think he is my favorite, who doesn't work for Rebel News,

00:02:51.940 is our dear friend Andrew Lawton, who has a career from the mainstream media.

00:02:57.820 In fact, for quite a while he worked for the mainstream media,

00:03:00.480 but now he is a leading journalist with our friends and allies over at True North.

00:03:05.960 And what a delight to spend the course of the next 45 minutes or so with him,

00:03:11.060 talking about the year that passed, but more importantly, looking forward to 2024,

00:03:15.120 and in particular, the role of citizen journalists like him and, I guess, like us.

00:03:22.040 Andrew, great to see you again.

00:03:24.160 Hey, always good to be here.

00:03:25.280 Thanks for the invitation.

00:03:26.420 And happy holidays in a non-politically correct way to you and all your audience.

00:03:31.240 Well, you know what?

00:03:32.620 I appreciate that.

00:03:33.960 And it's crazy how, I mean, the holidays, we have a Christmas party here at Rebel News.

00:03:40.280 I'm not Christian myself.

00:03:41.180 I'm Jewish.

00:03:41.740 But I think Christmas parties are something that people from all backgrounds can get behind.

00:03:45.580 It is obviously a religious ceremony underneath, but it's something everyone can get into.

00:03:50.880 And at our Christmas party, we had a little menorah that we lit because there's a few Jews here in the company beside myself.

00:03:56.200 And the crazy thing is the war on Christmas, and I guess you could say the war on Hanukkah, 0.50

00:04:00.920 has always been more a rhetorical thing.

00:04:04.060 People who say, well, don't say Merry Christmas, say season's greetings.

00:04:07.320 But, Andrew, this season, menorahs, that's the Jewish candelabra, menorah lightings, 0.60

00:04:14.640 which have happened for decades, have suddenly been banned or canceled.

00:04:19.880 The city of Moncton canceled.

00:04:22.280 There's later rescinded that.

00:04:23.620 In Calgary, the mayor, Jody Gondek, refused to light the Jewish menorah, saying it was divisive.

00:04:30.680 And in some places, they banned the Jewish menorah and realized, oh, yikes, we can't just ban the Jews. 0.78

00:04:37.380 So to compensate and equalize, they banned Christmas decorations as well.

00:04:43.600 So I know I'm going on at some length about your offhand comment, Merry Christmas.

00:04:47.840 But actually, I think the war on Christmas and the war on Hanukkah has never been this dire because we are afraid of standing up for Judeo-Christian values in the era of Islamic terrorism. 0.99

00:05:01.820 I think that's just what it is.

00:05:03.440 It is, and I please don't take this the wrong way, but I'll say one constant throughout history has been that Jewish people are victims.

00:05:12.720 And I don't mean that in the sense that their identity is victimhood, but I mean it's a constant through history that the Jewish people have been targeted by other people.

00:05:20.700 Now, I'd say the real story of the Jewish people is their resilience and their survival and their thriving in spite of that.

00:05:27.700 But why it's so dangerous when you look at the climate around is that this history of Jewish people being persecuted at every stage in their existence and being the number one victim of hate crimes in every statistic that's ever been looked at on this subject.

00:05:46.520 Anti-Semitism always dwarfs other forms of hatred, but we have now made Jews the oppressors and Jews the majority and Jews are white Jews are all of the things that we've decided to vilify in the same way that many people mocked the idea that Harvard said Asians were whites when it came to affirmative action. 0.61

00:06:05.200 We've now said Jews are whites, Christians majority when it comes to this oppressor-oppressy dynamic, and this is why the menorah, which is literally in Canada a symbol of a minority religion, is now treated the same way that so many of these Christian traditions have been. 0.73

00:06:25.040 We've now decided that Jews are at the top of the pecking order, therefore we are okay, we are licensed to vilify them and start stripping away all of these aspects of their identity in the public square. 1.00

00:06:36.440 And it's so disheartening. Now, I don't think we should do this with any group. We shouldn't do it with Christians. We shouldn't do it with Jews. 1.00

00:06:41.860 But I think this is why the majority, and by that I mean the tyrannical woke majority, has been licensed to attack Judaism in this way that we've seen so explicitly this year.

00:06:53.640 You know, you said so many fascinating things there. I think you're right about Jews sort of being a canary in a coal mine. 1.00

00:07:01.860 You know, there's a philosopher in Europe who said where books burn, men will in turn burn, and I think he was right, and that was the Nazis had their book burnings. 0.97

00:07:11.240 But there's another way of looking at it where Jews burn, Christians will burn as well. 0.99

00:07:14.820 They go for the Saturday people first, then the Sunday people. 0.99

00:07:17.760 I've been to Bethlehem. I've been to those formerly Christian cities in the West Bank.

00:07:24.740 Egypt itself used to be a Christian country. Now it's maybe 10% Coptic Christian.

00:07:31.040 The Christians in Iraq who were extirpated by ISIS and now the Iranian militia called Hashd al-Shabi. 0.97

00:07:41.820 I think those who say, well, that's just the Jews, and the Jews are a bit much, and the Jews are a bit of a pain,

00:07:47.860 and let's just buy ourselves some peace by voting for a UN resolution condemning the Jews, it never stops there. 0.98

00:07:55.420 It never stops there. I think of terrorist attacks throughout Europe.

00:08:00.320 Of course, there are attacks on Jewish institutions, but most of the terror attacks in Europe and even in North America are not on Jewish targets.

00:08:08.800 They're just on Western targets. And I think in some ways Jews who, you know, are Jews a minority?

00:08:17.100 Of course they're a minority. Are they a racial minority?

00:08:19.420 I think most Jews are white, although there are darker-skinned Jews from other places.

00:08:23.520 But I think that attacks on the Jews are rooted in that same critical race theory that you just talked about,

00:08:30.640 putting the whole world into two camps, oppressors and the oppressed.

00:08:35.060 And the oppressed can do literally anything against the oppressors, and it's justifiable.

00:08:39.660 And I think that is a warm-up act for the war against the West generally.

00:08:45.220 And look at us talking about critical race theory and the Jews and the war when I did want to talk mainly about independent journalism.

00:08:52.720 But I think there is some connection between the two because were it not for social media and citizen journalists,

00:08:59.880 I think we would be getting a very different coverage of that war.

00:09:04.960 Listen, I don't want to talk just about the war and about Jews and Christians.

00:09:08.820 If I can jump in there, and I feel it bridges the gap between this topic and where we wanted to go with on this,

00:09:15.660 you mentioned in your introduction mainstream media's refusal to call Hamas a terror group.

00:09:20.540 And what a fascinating display of inconsistency and incoherence.

00:09:24.720 Because you may recall when the Canadian government listed the Proud Boys on its list of terrorist entities in Canada,

00:09:31.960 the Proud Boys is officially a terrorist group.

00:09:34.220 So the media used that as cover to say, OK, well, the terrorist group Proud Boys, the terrorist group Proud Boys,

00:09:40.160 even when individuals were not associated with allegations of terror.

00:09:44.500 And then you look at Hamas, which has the very same legal designation.

00:09:48.180 It is an official terrorist entity in Canada.

00:09:51.600 And CBC says, well, yeah, I mean, that's just the government's way of looking at it.

00:09:55.520 That doesn't mean it binds our editorial guidance.

00:09:57.580 And it's amazing how the appeal to authority only works when it fits the narrative.

00:10:02.940 When it doesn't, they will ignore that and come up with their own parameters.

00:10:05.820 And to go back to independent media, that's why I think independent media outlets are so important,

00:10:10.520 because they have a lot more of a connection to reality and a lot more of a connection to,

00:10:14.640 I think, how ordinary people see these phenomena unfolding.

00:10:18.720 Yeah, boy.

00:10:19.440 You know, and I think also about the churches, I mean, literally dozens of churches in Canada

00:10:25.700 have either been torched, including burnt completely to the ground or vandalized in a less finalist way.

00:10:35.800 And the difference in coverage there, too.

00:10:38.080 I mean, if a mosque were arsoned and torched, I mean, there was a Jewish synagogue and Jewish schools

00:10:44.300 in Montreal that were shot at and Molotov cocktails.

00:10:46.960 And yeah, it got some press attention, it sure did.

00:10:49.560 But I just can't help but think if it was 80 mosques that had been vandalized instead of 80 churches

00:10:56.140 or a Muslim school rather than a Jewish school, I think that both the media and the Trudeau government

00:11:02.540 would have reacted differently.

00:11:04.080 I don't know, we're talking about the issues of the day, but I do want to bring it back to independent journalism

00:11:08.660 because when Rebel News started, out of the ashes of Sun News Network in 2015,

00:11:14.260 there really weren't a lot of independent citizen journals around.

00:11:18.720 And part of that was, you know, figuring out how to make money off it.

00:11:23.600 Part of it was the technology.

00:11:25.840 How do you do it?

00:11:26.860 Smartphones were fairly new.

00:11:28.980 The cameras and smartphones and video editing software wasn't as ubiquitous as it is now.

00:11:34.140 Now everyone is a videographer and an editor right on their phone.

00:11:39.080 I mean, TikTok, the video app that kids make pretty good videos on just while they're, you know, on the school bus.

00:11:47.420 When Rebel News started, we were pretty much alone.

00:11:50.380 I think Canada Land, which is a center-left podcast site, was around.

00:11:54.960 They were around before we were.

00:11:58.460 And of course there were some websites, rabble.ca, a union group, and there were some environmental websites.

00:12:07.100 But the idea of covering daily news, especially with the video focus, that was not a crowded field.

00:12:14.540 Today there's Rebel News, there's True North.

00:12:17.860 One of our alumni, Kian Bexty, has set up Counter Signal.

00:12:22.340 You know, Western Standard has been revived by Derek Fildebrandt.

00:12:26.260 They have some video and some written.

00:12:28.040 I feel like there's a bit of a community forming in this enormous void that the media party, the mainstream media, has left open to anyone who's an independent thinker.

00:12:39.960 And I don't know, I'd like your thoughts on the growth of this industry.

00:12:43.980 I mean, between Rebel News and these other organizations I mentioned, there's probably a hundred journalists now.

00:12:49.480 I mean, we've got, I think, 46 or something in our company.

00:12:52.620 You add up all these different entities I've just listed, I think there's got to be a hundred journalists.

00:12:59.000 And by that I mean producers and editors and people behind the scenes too.

00:13:02.360 A hundred journalists working for freedom-oriented citizen journalism companies.

00:13:09.120 That's more than work for the National Post, I'll tell you.

00:13:13.420 Go ahead.

00:13:14.060 Yeah, I mean, so you start your story, I think, in the independent media story in 2015, rightfully so.

00:13:21.320 This is the collapse of Sun News, the birth of Rebel, and all of the other subsequent things that came about, and True North, and Counter Signal, and people doing it independently.

00:13:29.940 I go much earlier than that, and I don't have a precise year and time, but I go back to the advent of the conservative blogosphere in Canada.

00:13:38.300 I mean, you were one of the early adopters of this, and I think we're quite prolific at it.

00:13:41.820 You had other people as well, our late mutual friend, Kathy Shadle, who had Five Feet of Fury, which still remains a phenomenal resource.

00:13:49.440 And you had all of these others that were doing this.

00:13:51.580 The difference between that 1.0 era of independent media in Canada is that you lost more money than you made, because you had to pay for web hosting, and you would sometimes get deplatformed, and you had to move somewhere else.

00:14:06.020 And maybe you'd put a little tip jar, and you'd make a few bucks off of it.

00:14:09.680 But it was something people did, and I did it as well for a time, because we liked it because we wanted to, not because there was ever a career and a job into it.

00:14:18.220 And I think the turning point took place when people on the right, who had devoted so much effort into just getting politicians elected, realized that we cannot, what's the word?

00:14:31.080 We cannot abstain from the culture war, and we need to start putting our money where our mouth is and supporting people who are telling these stories.

00:14:38.860 Because the media has left, we know the media has left, we're always going to see this resistance from the media to the things that we care about, so we need to start telling our own stories.

00:14:47.600 And I mean, in a way, it means that we professionalize something a little bit.

00:14:52.420 I mean, it's still, I remember that just the Wild West and how much fun it was when you had these bloggers, and we were all sharing links to each other's stories.

00:14:59.600 But it's not sustainable, because people have their own lives and their own livelihoods and their own family drama.

00:15:04.900 And you also had some very nefarious actors that were trying to shut people down, either through human rights commissions or through lawsuits.

00:15:11.900 And there was really no means to defend yourself in that period.

00:15:15.380 So what happens, you know, with the advent of rebel, which is so important, is we start to see a business model form.

00:15:21.820 And, you know, it was always very uncomfortable for me to make money in this world, because that's not why I'm in the world.

00:15:28.800 I'm in the world because I enjoy it and because I want to be.

00:15:31.540 But when I take the bigger picture view and take myself out of it, it's, I think, important that we do it, because we actually need to be able to compete with the people that we've been criticizing and complaining about on their turfs.

00:15:44.340 And people in the left have always had deep-pocketed donors that have wanted to insist on left-wing narratives.

00:15:49.920 And it's taken the right longer to do that.

00:15:52.660 But I think that's why independent media is so important.

00:15:55.140 And to go to where we are now, it's amazing that, you know, the rebels and the true norths and the western standards are in some ways criticized as being too establishment by some people.

00:16:05.920 And I think the criticisms are silly, but what I think is important there is that independent media itself has grown enough that we now have the more scrappy, independent DIY folks that are doing what we were doing five years ago.

00:16:20.820 And in five years, they're going to have built up these networks that are very large as well.

00:16:24.820 And we've actually started this very incredible generational transformation.

00:16:30.160 Yeah.

00:16:30.800 Boy, you said a lot of interesting things there, too.

00:16:32.960 I remember.

00:16:33.760 Sorry, I've been right.

00:16:34.400 You're very.

00:16:35.020 No, I love it.

00:16:35.920 It just makes me have a hundred thoughts.

00:16:38.320 I remember when, you know, Western Standard, the print magazine that I published was winding up and we were still fighting the Human Rights Commission that was coming for us for publishing the Danish cartoons.

00:16:50.540 So the magazine was done.

00:16:51.840 But my battle with the Human Rights Commission continued.

00:16:55.340 And I really didn't have much of a job because I used to work in the magazine.

00:16:59.880 It was done.

00:17:00.660 And I had these legal bills.

00:17:02.180 And I'm not sure if crowdfunding was even a real phrase back then, but I was trying to gather together some dough to pay my lawyer.

00:17:11.640 And I just, you know, YouTube was pretty new and blogging.

00:17:16.400 Twitter wasn't even around, really.

00:17:18.480 I don't think it was even invented back then.

00:17:20.880 But I was able to scrape together enough dough from people.

00:17:26.200 And remember, and I'm talking about my Human Rights Commission battle.

00:17:29.420 So that was like 2006 that I was charged.

00:17:33.080 2008, when things really heated up, that was so, that was before smartphones, by the way.

00:17:39.400 And people were shy about doing commerce on the internet.

00:17:43.380 They thought, oh, am I going to be ripped off?

00:17:45.660 Is my credit card?

00:17:46.560 Especially, especially our types of people.

00:17:48.600 Yeah.

00:17:49.080 And with, you know, it's good to be skeptical.

00:17:50.820 Now, I think everyone does so much of their life on their phone and the website, especially banking.

00:17:56.520 People have a high level of trust with it.

00:17:59.320 But it's not just the people now trust online commerce.

00:18:03.420 It's that I think we've created a culture of political, journalistic giving in Canada that maybe wasn't there before.

00:18:13.420 And fair enough, because everyone was used to getting TV for free, paid for by advertisers, or in the case of the CBC, paid for by the government.

00:18:21.340 But that's the thing, is if you're not paying for it, then you are what's being bought and sold by advertisers, or in the case of the CBC, you are a target market for the government's point of view.

00:18:32.960 So I think it's taken 10 years for a critical mass of Canadian freedom-oriented people to say, you know what?

00:18:39.460 If I want there to be an alternative to the CBC and CTV and Globe and Mail, maybe I'm going to have to pony up 5 or 10 bucks a month.

00:18:48.040 And maybe I'm used to that now.

00:18:49.460 Because, by the way, Netflix and Crave and all those HBO and sports channels, they've also, quote, trained people to pay for subscriptions 5, 10 bucks a month.

00:19:01.420 So I think you have a critical mass of Canadian people who are frustrated with the incumbent media, and they're willing to chip in because you can't save the world if you can't pay the rent.

00:19:13.840 And, you know, we thought we could make money off YouTube ads, and there was a while that we were.

00:19:19.680 You know, in 2017, we were on track to make $1 million just from those little click now, skip now ads on YouTube, and then they just took us down to zero.

00:19:29.460 And so, you know, if you don't get any money from government, because you wouldn't take any, and if YouTube cuts you off because of their political censorship, what's left?

00:19:39.540 Well, thank God, enough Canadians believe in it, and not just to support Rebel News, but true Northwestern Standard, Counter Signal, Spencer Fernando.

00:19:47.800 I don't want to leave anyone out, but I think it's actually very encouraging.

00:19:51.980 And instead of adopting a viewer-first model, the incumbents have taken a government-first model, and instead of trying to compete with you or me, or even non-political YouTubers, I think of J.J. McCullough, who's slightly political, but he's just sort of this independent content creator in Vancouver.

00:20:12.860 He's a hoot, you know, he's just such a likable guy, very, you know, very viewer-oriented.

00:20:19.980 Instead of trying to compete, the incumbents are all saying, shut down or throttle our competitors and give us free money.

00:20:29.440 Like, it's just, they're not even trying to put their viewers first, they're trying to put the government first in their life.

00:20:36.820 I think it's sort of sad, the stronger independent media grows, the weaker the incumbents are, and the more, instead of trying to fix things, they just whine to the government and say, give us another bailout, please.

00:20:47.740 Yeah, and what you said about people thinking they were getting it for free, I think is very important, because every now and then I try not to engage too much in the stupid YouTube and X comments and all that, but every now and then you'll get a criticism of, oh, you know, you're beholden to your donors and your backers and your funders and all of that.

00:21:07.280 And first off, I'd say it's not true.

00:21:09.400 The people that donate to us do it because they value the work that we're already doing and would otherwise do.

00:21:13.960 But it's a ridiculous premise because mainstream media outlets are beholden to their funders as well, whether it's government or advertisers.

00:21:22.740 And we just expect that they will put in adequate firewalls and guardrails in place to avoid it becoming an influence of content.

00:21:30.420 But how you get your money is a business decision, and I think it's something that consumers will ultimately decide if they align with them.

00:21:36.460 And I would say that the independent media funding model is a much better reflection of what an outlet should be doing than the traditional model.

00:21:47.020 And one example I can give on this is our coverage at True North of the World Economic Forum.

00:21:51.920 Now, Rebel has also done this.

00:21:53.960 I went for the first time in May of 2022.

00:21:56.600 I went back in January of this year, and I'm going back in January.

00:22:00.140 And this is expensive.

00:22:01.260 It's expensive to fly to Switzerland, to stay in Switzerland, to eat in Switzerland.

00:22:05.620 And this is a cost that every time I'm like, oh, I feel bad about it.

00:22:09.820 But our donors have said consistently, we want you to be there.

00:22:14.160 This is important coverage.

00:22:15.820 We want you to be there.

00:22:16.980 And they donate to cover the cost and maybe even more than cover.

00:22:21.140 I don't know.

00:22:21.740 But to cover the cost of us doing that form of coverage.

00:22:25.820 And imagine if the Globe and Mail or the Toronto Star said, do you want us to write about how Canada is systemically racist?

00:22:37.420 If you do, donate here.

00:22:39.640 I don't know if they cover that.

00:22:41.740 I don't know if their salaries are covered by that.

00:22:45.520 So their coverage of that is being funded now by government subsidies and advertisers.

00:22:51.620 And again, if there's a market for that coverage, great.

00:22:53.700 But what makes you a more authentic representative of what your audience needs and wants, but having to finance on a more project-specific basis the work that you do?

00:23:06.460 And I think that's a very revolutionary business model that doesn't need to be limited to independent journalism.

00:23:12.540 You know, I'm glad you mentioned Davos.

00:23:15.320 I went there last time.

00:23:17.320 I had the pleasure of hanging out with you a little bit.

00:23:19.120 I'd like to show, and people have seen the videos we've done.

00:23:22.120 My favorite was when we scrummed Albert Bourla, the CEO of Pfizer.

00:23:25.460 But let me show one of my favorite videos of you because, boy, I've described this to our viewers before.

00:23:32.960 You're in this small town.

00:23:34.240 It's like BAMF, Alberta.

00:23:35.420 Like, it's a small ski town, really, in the middle of the mountains that's suddenly taken over by thousands of these VVIPs. 1.00

00:23:43.940 There's John Kerry.

00:23:46.080 There's Tony Blair.

00:23:47.240 There's, like, and you only have a few minutes with them as they're walking on the street.

00:23:51.740 So to see them, identify them, and then think of a smart question in 60 seconds.

00:23:58.240 It's tougher than it sounds because they might be a bank president.

00:24:01.420 They might be a former prime minister.

00:24:03.640 They might be a health pharma CEO.

00:24:06.040 Like, you've got to switch gears really quick.

00:24:08.420 Like, it's tough to do.

00:24:09.900 One of my favorites was when you talked to the man who would be prime minister, Mark Carney, the former Bank of Canada and then Bank of England governor,

00:24:20.800 who I think wants to be the successor for Justin Trudeau.

00:24:25.300 And I'll give him credit.

00:24:26.960 He actually had a bit of a banter with you.

00:24:28.680 Let's take a look at that right now.

00:24:30.280 Hi, Mr. Carney.

00:24:30.900 Andrew Lawton with the Trudeau North and Canada area.

00:24:32.420 Nice to see you.

00:24:32.960 I never do, I never do spontaneously.

00:24:37.980 I understand.

00:24:38.420 My one question is, could the Canadian oil and gas sector survive the net zero approach that's being promoted here?

00:24:45.160 As I said, I never do.

00:24:46.860 If you want an interview with me, like everybody else, you make a request and make an interview.

00:24:52.320 And will you accept that?

00:24:53.940 Like everybody else, if I can think of it.

00:24:55.720 Well, that was, and Mark Carney is a pretty clever fella, but I think my favorite one was when you actually went face to face with a banking CEO, I think it was Bank of Montreal, and you asked him a question I am certain he has never been asked before,

00:25:13.500 which is namely about freezing the trucker's bank account with no judicial processes.

00:25:19.680 Take a look at that.

00:25:20.560 Minister Freeland said during the Public Order Emergency Commission that you had wanted to call the convoy protesters terrorists to deal with their financing.

00:25:27.720 Why was that?

00:25:29.920 So I would never call the convoy protesters terrorists.

00:25:34.020 What was said was that in order for the banks to be helpful, there are certain protocols, and those protocols include a sanction where we can, in fact, help in that case.

00:25:51.460 Otherwise, it's not our business to interfere in the affairs of anyone's finances, truckers or otherwise.

00:25:57.640 One of the other banking executives on that call had pushed back a little bit and said that they didn't want the banks to be weaponized.

00:26:03.660 Was that a view you shared?

00:26:05.140 Oh, it's always a view I shared.

00:26:06.280 I don't think banks should be weaponized any more than any other industry.

00:26:10.100 I think we have jobs to do, and we do it for Canadians, and I think generally, in fact, more than generally, we do it pretty well.

00:26:16.200 Did you support the financial measures?

00:26:17.440 You know, Andrew, you mentioned, you know, would journalists cover these things?

00:26:25.000 There were a ton of journalists at Davos, but they're all, quote, on the inside.

00:26:30.180 They're all paying to be there.

00:26:32.300 Their companies spend hundreds of thousands of dollars paying the World Economic Forum to be involved, to hobnob and make deals.

00:26:39.500 So none of their questions are ever truly accountability-oriented.

00:26:44.140 I mean, Albert Bourla, the Pfizer CEO that we scrummed, he does interviews all day long if he wants to, but they're always softball-scripted, gentle, loving questions.

00:26:53.720 They're not uncontrolled surprise questions or critical questions.

00:26:59.160 I'm looking forward to seeing you there in Davos, and I think you do good work there.

00:27:03.360 Simply by being there, you're doing more work than our state broadcaster or the regime media.

00:27:08.640 I think, though, that when we go to places like the World Economic Forum, you know, we're kept out of certain areas that citizen journalists aren't allowed.

00:27:21.760 What's concerning me, Andrew, is as citizen journalists become more ubiquitous and bolder and there's a bit of a community forming,

00:27:29.740 is that these institutions are then saying, well, you aren't real journalists.

00:27:34.280 You're not trustworthy. We're going to block you from attending by denying you accreditation.

00:27:39.680 Or if you manage to show up and manage to get one of our people being candid, we're going to throttle that on the Internet.

00:27:46.140 We're going to have it fact-checked and called disinformation.

00:27:50.340 So I think that they – I think some people are waking up to the threat to the incumbents of citizen journalists.

00:27:56.120 And frankly, it can be hard to find your work or our work using a Google search or YouTube search because we're not promoted like regime media sources are.

00:28:10.040 And that's not a theory. It's not a conspiracy theory.

00:28:12.040 We have a YouTube media handler assigned to us by YouTuber named Coco Pinnell, and she, you know, is candid with us that YouTube suppresses alternative media and boosts what they call quality or trustworthy media.

00:28:27.440 It's not a conspiracy theory. That's what they tell us to our face.

00:28:30.060 Yeah, and the one thing that people need to realize is the value of discovery.

00:28:36.660 And, you know, one of the reasons that Netflix is so great is that when you're scrolling around, you'll get access to a show that you had never heard of before.

00:28:43.100 And the trailer looks interesting or you recognize someone's in it or there's just nothing else and you watch it and say, oh, wow, this is fantastic.

00:28:49.100 And, you know, to use a self-indulgent example here, I did a few weeks back my first ever book event at a bookstore for my book, The Freedom Convoy, which came out a year and a half ago.

00:29:01.180 And I say it was the first event because many of the bookstores in Canada wouldn't carry it.

00:29:04.800 Indigo wouldn't put it on its shelf.

00:29:06.820 And, you know, the book still did very well.

00:29:08.640 But it was interesting that there were people that had learned of it for the first time in December of this year because they walked past the bookstore and they saw it in the window and said, oh, there's a book about The Freedom Convoy.

00:29:21.300 I've heard about that.

00:29:22.100 They walk in and they don't know who I am, but the subject grabs them because it was there.

00:29:26.660 And that's what the government is banning.

00:29:28.800 I mean, for now, yes, True North will be able to mail our list that we have and Rebel will be able to mail its list.

00:29:34.540 Now, there are still challenges there if some of these mail service providers are pressured and Internet service providers are.

00:29:41.560 But the issue is government trying to ban the discovery of new audiences and the ability of new audiences to discover the work that we're doing.

00:29:50.580 And that's the inevitable outcome of a government policy that by its design, it's a feature and not a bug, manipulates algorithms and manipulates homepages.

00:30:00.240 And that's what's happening here.

00:30:01.320 It's basically to limit the audience that can ever exist for these outlets.

00:30:07.040 And and they don't hide that.

00:30:08.740 I mean, that's the number one thing that scares me about Bill C-11, which is now law in this country.

00:30:13.160 Bill C-11, I regard it as the the foundation for Trudeau's Internet censorship strategy.

00:30:19.600 Step one is to put the Internet under government control.

00:30:22.660 That's never happened before.

00:30:24.280 The CRTC was limited to radio and television, which no one really cared about anymore.

00:30:28.920 Everyone's online.

00:30:29.720 So C-11 gives government dominion over the Internet.

00:30:33.140 But they have in Section 9, and I think you know this, they have a section, a subsection dealing with what they call discoverability.

00:30:41.320 Like you say, how did you hear about this movie on Netflix?

00:30:44.060 How did you hear about this book in the bookstore?

00:30:46.320 Well, that discoverability.

00:30:47.700 And that's what I mentioned that YouTube does.

00:30:49.720 They de-boost sites they don't like and boost the ones they do.

00:30:53.140 It's bad enough when YouTube is doing that.

00:30:56.100 But Section 9 of C-11 gives the government through the CRTC the power to alter the, quote, discoverability of anything on the Internet for any reason at all.

00:31:08.980 Now, they list for French language reasons or Aboriginal reasons or Canadian content reasons, but those are just examples.

00:31:16.240 That's not an exclusive or exhaustive list.

00:31:19.120 So by giving the government the power to alter discoverability, do you doubt for a second that they will use that power, which they just gave themselves, to boost CBC, Globe and Mail, and de-boost Andrew Lawton, and completely unboost Ezra Levant?

00:31:35.740 Yeah, well, no, for sure.

00:31:38.720 And, I mean, the great irony is that the letter of what they're claiming is that they're trying to make Canadian content more available.

00:31:45.800 Well, I mean, you can't get more Canadian than True North.

00:31:49.120 I mean, our coverage is about Canada.

00:31:50.740 We aren't talking about how terrible Canada is.

00:31:52.680 If anything, we're being far more patriotic and talking about how great Canada is.

00:31:56.640 But I don't believe for a second that True North will be the beneficiaries of this.

00:32:00.640 And the reason that's very important here, and contextually why people need to realize this, is that they're going to be making these normative judgments about what type of Canadian content is available.

00:32:12.120 And I've said, you know, if I basically come out as a disabled transgender lesbian and change the Andrew Lawton show, I bet it will be C11 compliant.

00:32:20.080 It will be on all your homepages.

00:32:21.320 When CBC did that one thing a while ago where Talking Tomato was lecturing the audience about colonialism, that'll be Canadian content.

00:32:29.560 But anything critical of that will not be.

00:32:32.380 Now, there's an easy answer to this, which is just let the companies, who are not perfect, but they have a pretty good sense of what audiences want to see, let the companies run their algorithms.

00:32:41.700 If someone like you or I has an issue with the way YouTube is doing things, we can decide, hey, we want to use Rumble, or we want to start our own platform.

00:32:49.720 But, I mean, again, it's going to be very interesting to see how players like Rumble are forced into this.

00:32:54.880 If they don't play ball, are they going to be blocked?

00:32:57.860 Will you as a Canadian not be allowed to go to Rumble because they've decided that they will not manipulate these algorithms to comply with the government?

00:33:05.780 You know, and that's a great point about Rumble.

00:33:08.120 They have been banned in France.

00:33:11.600 The entire country of France.

00:33:13.340 You can't get Rumble precisely because they will not follow France's censorship regime.

00:33:17.960 And I salute Rumble.

00:33:20.020 And I'm a little bit worried for them because as Rumble grows, it intends to be a YouTube competitor.

00:33:25.740 It's probably only 1% the size of YouTube, but still, that's enormous.

00:33:28.980 But, boy, they want to squash Rumble like they want to squash Elon Musk's Twitter, or X as it's now called.

00:33:38.020 Let's look ahead to 2024.

00:33:39.720 We're going to see you at the World Economic Forum in three weeks in Davos, and I love hanging out with you.

00:33:43.980 It's nice to have a friend from Canada when we're surrounded by all these jet-setting.

00:33:47.820 In the belly of the beast.

00:33:48.960 Yeah, it really, it's quite alienating to be in those circles, and it can be a little lonely in a way

00:33:54.820 because, you know, you have thousands of these people all on this World Economic Forum mission,

00:34:02.220 and it's like trying to swim against a tidal wave.

00:34:06.000 There are a handful of other citizen journalists there.

00:34:08.220 I saw Savannah Hernandez there. 1.00

00:34:10.900 There was a Japanese citizen journalist who said she was inspired by our work, and she decided to go to Davos.

00:34:18.040 It was a wonderful, so there are some.

00:34:21.420 And she actually, by the way, questioned Klaus Schwab.

00:34:24.200 She saw him on the street, Masako Ganaha, and he was about to answer her question,

00:34:29.540 and then he said, which meets you are you from?

00:34:31.960 And she said, I'm an independent journalist, and his answer was, no, thank you,

00:34:35.880 and he got in his car, which tells you how afraid they are of independent journalism.

00:34:40.160 And I should tell you, Masako is about the sweetest, nicest person you ever meet.

00:34:43.260 Here's a clip of her.

00:34:44.760 She waited in the cold for hours to get a moment with him.

00:34:48.440 She was not rude.

00:34:49.300 She was as polite as you would expect a young Japanese journalist would be, so polite.

00:34:54.500 But his disgust for the fact that she wasn't one of the journalists who paid to be there,

00:35:00.520 and that's my point.

00:35:01.560 If she would have said New York Times, Washington Post, CNBC, CNN, he would have made a moment for her

00:35:07.200 because they all paid to be there.

00:35:09.520 But how dare you grubby citizen journalist ask me a question.

00:35:13.560 Here's Masako, I can't remember her last name off the top of my head,

00:35:16.720 trying to ask a very polite question of Klaus Schwab, and he showed his true self.

00:35:21.520 Take a look.

00:35:22.020 Chairman Schwab, Chairman Schwab, I'm from Japan.

00:35:25.480 May I ask you for, I'm from Japan?

00:35:28.340 Yeah.

00:35:28.840 And may I ask you for a comment?

00:35:31.280 No, we're on our way to the next thing.

00:35:33.220 We're a bit late.

00:35:33.980 Oh, I can just talk with you and ask questions.

00:35:36.320 I think we're going to rush, actually.

00:35:38.100 But thank you.

00:35:38.920 Thanks very much.

00:35:40.480 Which media are you with?

00:35:42.880 I am an independent journalist from Japan.

00:35:45.660 Yeah, no, thank you very much.

00:35:47.100 I have to ask.

00:35:48.100 Thank you.

00:35:48.580 Thanks for coming.

00:35:49.960 Well, good for her, and hopefully she'll be there too.

00:35:52.680 You know, there are some interesting people who go there, but it's quite difficult to get there.

00:35:56.140 Davos, it's sort of like Banff, and then you have to really go there on purpose,

00:36:00.260 but they buy up every single hotel room and every single Airbnb in the entire town.

00:36:04.400 So you have to stay one or two towns away and schlep in every day.

00:36:07.720 It's quite arduous, and of course the prices are jacked up enormously.

00:36:12.460 Just for that week, the week before, the week after Davos, you can get a lovely hotel room

00:36:17.680 for a hundred bucks a night.

00:36:19.420 During Davos, if you can get them at all, they're literally thousands of dollars a night.

00:36:23.460 It's crazy.

00:36:24.400 We're staying literally in another country.

00:36:27.180 We are staying in Austria and driving in and out every day because we could not find

00:36:31.860 a place that would not have just made our donors, even then, who want us to be there,

00:36:35.820 think this is, I can't do that.

00:36:37.480 Wow.

00:36:38.340 I mean, it is an interesting geography.

00:36:41.560 There's so many other countries right around there, but coming in from a different country

00:36:45.440 every day, well, I hope you drive safely because those roads can be snowy in the islands.

00:36:51.080 But you know, seriously, it's, why wouldn't the CBC go there?

00:36:55.100 I mean, it's a target-rich environment.

00:36:57.260 I use the phrase VVIP because these aren't just VIPs.

00:37:00.620 These are the masters of the universe.

00:37:02.060 BlackRock has a huge pavilion there.

00:37:05.700 And a lot of the causes on the liberal left.

00:37:08.620 I mean, when I was there last time, Ukraine had a large booth, a kiosk.

00:37:14.600 I went there.

00:37:15.480 I thought it was very educational, actually.

00:37:17.960 The CBC would have loved that.

00:37:20.140 But they don't want to acknowledge that the World Economic Forum is some source of power.

00:37:24.920 It's sort of funny.

00:37:25.840 Klaus Schwab wrote a book literally called The Great Reset.

00:37:28.900 He talks about these things.

00:37:30.820 But if you support them, then no problem.

00:37:34.240 But if you oppose them, you're a conspiracy theorist who's talking about things that don't exist.

00:37:38.940 Jonathan Monpetit of the CBC said talking about eat the bugs is a conspiracy theory

00:37:45.360 when, in fact, the Canadian government itself gives subsidies to that insect farm.

00:37:50.300 I think it's in London, Ontario, in fact.

00:37:54.340 If you talk about the World Economic Forum or the United Nations or any of these globalist institutions,

00:38:01.320 if you talk about them approvingly, thumbs up.

00:38:03.740 But if you oppose them, you're told you're a kook for even claiming they exist. 0.98

00:38:10.120 You go there and you see with your own eyes.

00:38:13.220 That's why the CBC won't go.

00:38:14.700 What do you think the CBC – why do you think they don't go there?

00:38:17.600 Like they would have 100 interviews a day, they could, with the world's leaders.

00:38:23.080 Why won't they go?

00:38:25.820 It's tough.

00:38:26.600 I mean, on one hand, they want to pretend that there is no connection to Canada.

00:38:30.720 And I think that's the reality there is that they want to say that this organization

00:38:35.240 on which our deputy prime minister sits on the board and for whom our prime minister

00:38:39.940 was a young global leader and for whom Canada has given money, has literally financed the

00:38:45.200 World Economic Forum.

00:38:46.160 They want to say that there's no Canadian connection there.

00:38:48.560 And in fact, I think it was – and I might be wrong about this – there was a Canadian

00:38:52.540 media – I won't actually say who it was because I can't remember.

00:38:54.860 There was a Canadian media outlet that literally ran an op-ed from the former spokesperson for

00:39:00.620 the WEF chastising people for criticising them and accusing them of being conspiracy theorists.

00:39:07.220 So the Canadian media was literally doing damage control for the organization.

00:39:11.200 The editor-in-chief of the Globe and Mail, David Wamsley, I've seen him at Davos the last

00:39:15.820 two times.

00:39:16.600 I've had some lovely chats with him, but he's part of the club.

00:39:19.120 He's not there reporting.

00:39:20.320 He's there as a participant.

00:39:21.640 So he would have paid to go.

00:39:23.240 So the Thompson family, which owns the Globe and Mail, they're the richest family in Canada.

00:39:28.640 I can't remember offhand their net worth, but it is 11 figures.

00:39:33.460 Like it's in the tens of billions.

00:39:35.080 So when the Globe and Mail sends someone to Davos, they pay to be there, and they're

00:39:40.840 going to be connected and to do some deals.

00:39:43.800 They're not going to be – to scrutinise.

00:39:46.880 I should have pulled it out for our conversation.

00:39:49.100 But yeah, he didn't have the orange, you're a member of the press badge.

00:39:52.660 He had the white badge with the blue line that you're an invited guest.

00:39:56.340 And I will say, incidentally, I was accredited last time as media.

00:40:00.880 This time, they have not responded to my many, many inquiries about that.

00:40:04.840 Now, as it happened, I think the best coverage was the coverage that we all got out on the

00:40:09.200 street, just catching people as they went in and out.

00:40:11.680 Because even as accredited media, there were not a lot of places I was able to go.

00:40:15.440 But even that this year was a little too close for comfort for them, apparently.

00:40:19.200 Yeah.

00:40:19.520 Well, we tried the opposite.

00:40:20.860 We applied this year, and I wrote them a very nice letter, if I may say so.

00:40:24.900 I said, look, we're going to be there anyways.

00:40:26.900 We're going to talk about you anyways.

00:40:29.400 Why don't you manage us, handle us, talk to us, give us your side of the story?

00:40:34.320 We are going to be there, and we are critics.

00:40:37.700 Why don't you answer our criticisms or try?

00:40:40.780 I mean, I'm not going to lie and say we're there to praise you.

00:40:44.640 We're not there to praise.

00:40:45.620 But I said, why don't you do some media relations with us and accredit us?

00:40:50.220 And they refused.

00:40:50.820 We'll be there nonetheless.

00:40:51.960 Hey, I want to end with what I promised we would do, which is to talk about the year

00:40:56.660 ahead.

00:40:57.900 I can think of four things that if I'm really trying hard to be an optimist, and you've

00:41:04.580 got to try, you've got to keep hope alive.

00:41:08.200 These are four things that I think might change in 2024.

00:41:12.180 I think there's reason for optimism.

00:41:13.600 I mean, look, you never know what's going to happen.

00:41:15.460 Out of the blue, Elon Musk decides to spend $44 billion to buy Twitter to de-censor it.

00:41:22.920 I mean, he's not making money off it, I'll tell you that.

00:41:27.000 The largest purchase in history, maybe, he just took $44 billion to buy a social media

00:41:37.020 app and to reinstate banned people.

00:41:40.560 And I think that's a miracle.

00:41:44.360 I'm worried about his personal safety, frankly.

00:41:47.540 I think they're going to try and Donald Trump him with all sorts of prosecutions.

00:41:51.760 But in the meantime, it's sort of a miracle.

00:41:55.720 Andrew, let me read you four things that I think might happen in 2024, and you tell me

00:41:59.980 if you agree or disagree, and maybe tell me if these are things you're going to watch,

00:42:04.440 or you don't have to answer my list.

00:42:06.140 You can tell me what you think is going to happen in 2024.

00:42:08.760 So here's a few things I just jotted down.

00:42:10.740 I think the D-E-I-E-S-G, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and environmental and social

00:42:19.700 and governance movements, these woke movements in our institutions, I think they've reached

00:42:25.860 their peak.

00:42:26.940 And we're going to start to see governments defund DEI offices.

00:42:32.940 For example, a week or so ago, the state of Oklahoma wrote to every university and said,

00:42:38.760 you must shut down your diversity, equity, and inclusion office if you seek any more funding

00:42:43.920 from the state.

00:42:44.820 So boom, a stroke of a pen, hundreds of DEI troublemakers gone.

00:42:50.040 I think what we saw recently from the Ivy League justifying their anti-Semitism,

00:42:57.520 the DEI officers justifying bigotry, I think that was their jump-the-shark moment.

00:43:02.580 So I think you're seeing some pushback on that.

00:43:06.120 I think transgender extremism has overplayed its hand too, and you're starting to see provinces 0.93

00:43:12.980 like New Brunswick and Saskatchewan bring in basic laws, giving parents the right to know

00:43:18.860 what's going on in schools.

00:43:21.660 I think the carbon tax and nitrogen tax idea, which they tried out in the Netherlands, I think

00:43:28.040 times are so tough economically that people are just sick of it.

00:43:31.320 Even traditionally liberal voters who in fat years would have said, oh yeah, sure, give

00:43:36.520 me some of that environmentalism.

00:43:37.900 I think that that is out of favor, including in Canada.

00:43:42.660 And finally, I think the subject that no one's been allowed to talk about for 20 years,

00:43:48.400 immigration, is finally on the table again, partly because of extreme housing prices, because

00:43:54.720 bringing in a million folks a year, and partly, I think, because people look at the pro-Hamas

00:43:59.700 hate marches and say, holy mackerel, a lot of those folks are newcomers who just brought 1.00

00:44:05.220 their ancient hatreds here.

00:44:06.840 So DEI, transgenderism, carbon and nitrogen taxes, and immigration, I think those are four 1.00

00:44:13.600 issues in 2024 that you'll see movement on, and hopefully you'll see a move back towards

00:44:20.320 conservative ideas and free ideas.

00:44:22.820 What do you think?

00:44:23.360 Yeah, and I think I'll say on all four of those issues, there is a giant chasm between

00:44:31.500 what the establishment has said is the universal accepted and acceptable view, and what a lot

00:44:37.820 of ordinary people think, who aren't connected with politics and who aren't entrenched in

00:44:41.480 a left or right conception of politics.

00:44:44.180 And we saw this on a lot of the gender stuff with the million person march.

00:44:47.940 I mean, the idea that there was no consensus on this in the way that the media claimed there

00:44:52.520 was, and the liberals claimed there was, was very apparent.

00:44:55.280 Immigration is very similar as well.

00:44:57.040 We are in the midst of a housing crisis, and you cannot have a government that is committed

00:45:01.120 to bringing in millions more immigrants in the next few years without that, I mean, again, 0.99

00:45:07.240 just numbers alone, to have an increase in the population that is vastly larger than the

00:45:14.340 amount of housing units that are being built, is going to exacerbate an existing problem.

00:45:21.060 So there is a consensus that is shifting and eroding on all of these issues.

00:45:25.140 Now, who leverages that, how it plays into politics, these are all, I think, very real

00:45:29.700 things.

00:45:30.040 But generally speaking, I would agree on every one of those four points, that there is a

00:45:34.160 divide between how ordinary people view them and how the elites view them.

00:45:37.500 And I think that will become very apparent, and independent media is crucial to that.

00:45:42.620 You've been very generous with your time.

00:45:45.720 I want to talk a little bit about True North and your personal projects.

00:45:48.800 You guys are doing great.

00:45:50.240 I'm a subscriber and a monthly donor, by the way, just telling you.

00:45:55.400 And I know you had your live event.

00:45:57.700 It was called True North Nation, which was a conference, which was wonderful.

00:46:01.720 You guys do books as well.

00:46:03.380 I know that you published Dr. Tom Flanagan's new book about Kamloops, and we interviewed him

00:46:07.600 a few days ago.

00:46:08.920 Are there any other things we should be excited about or look forward to in 2024?

00:46:13.900 Are you in a position to make any announcement, yes, about your own projects?

00:46:17.260 Or you just, I don't want to let the air out of your balloon, but, you know, and you want

00:46:21.140 to announce things in your own way.

00:46:22.400 But are there certain things we should be looking for from True North in the year ahead?

00:46:28.260 I think one thing we'll do in True North is try to expand even more.

00:46:32.860 I mean, we've had a really, really strong year, and we've added more people to the team.

00:46:36.420 And we're going to have some more new faces that people will be able to see.

00:46:40.120 As far as personally, I'm not in a position to announce it just yet, but I have a new book

00:46:44.820 that I have just sent off to the publisher and, or will be just sending off to the publisher

00:46:50.020 soon, depending on when people see this.

00:46:52.340 And I'll hope to have an announcement about that pretty early in the new year.

00:46:55.100 I'm excited about that, but I can't let the cat out of the bag too, too much just yet.

00:46:58.700 But I am optimistic about 2024, both professionally for me and for True North.

00:47:03.540 You know what, and you told me in confidence, so I wasn't trying to put you on the spot.

00:47:07.000 I was just hoping you were going to let us know.

00:47:09.100 But folks, it's very exciting, and you'll want to keep your eye on Andrew Lawton, who

00:47:12.800 had one of the best-selling books in 2022, by the way, of course, about the trucker convoy.

00:47:18.700 He was the first out of the gates with an excellent history, sort of the people's history of the

00:47:25.340 trucker convoy.

00:47:26.160 So absolutely, the website is tnc.news.

00:47:31.800 And you could say that Rebel News and TNC, True North, are competitors, and in some ways

00:47:37.280 that's obviously true.

00:47:38.620 But I think that there are so many thousands of regime journalists with such enormous budgets

00:47:47.460 and viewerships and influence that the handful of citizen journalists and independent journalists

00:47:53.840 and non-government-funded journalists out there, I think whatever competition there is

00:47:59.620 between us dwarfs an importance to our collaborative goal of telling the other side of the story

00:48:07.040 and shining a light of scrutiny on things that the regime media won't.

00:48:10.800 So I regard True North as a friendly competitor, but frankly, I regard them as an ally more

00:48:17.280 than anything.

00:48:18.280 And I feel that way about Western Standard Magazine, which, of course, I ran as a print

00:48:24.100 magazine 20 years ago and is now online.

00:48:26.680 And I hope to maintain this collegial approach.

00:48:29.720 For heaven's sakes, there's so bloody many of them, and there's so few of us, that I think

00:48:34.480 that the good guys have to stick together.

00:48:36.240 And Andrew Lawton, you're certainly one of the good guys.

00:48:38.480 Please pass on my personal regards to your whole team, including to your founder, Candace

00:48:42.760 Malcolm, who I think is a great innovator and a thought leader.

00:48:46.640 Great to spend some time with you.

00:48:48.260 Merry Christmas, and we'll see you at the World Economic Forum, and we'll try to catch

00:48:54.000 us some bad guys out there.

00:48:56.080 Yeah, we'll have to go back to Al Capone's Pizza and Closters, which was like the most cost

00:49:00.840 effective meal we could find in Davos.

00:49:02.800 So I think we went there like two or three times, our respective teams.

00:49:05.860 But I look forward to it again, and great work as always.

00:49:08.480 All right, there he is, Andrew Lawton, senior journalist at True North.

00:49:13.300 That's our show for today.

00:49:15.040 Until next time, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, do you?

Rebel News Podcast - December 29, 2023

EZRA LEVANT ｜ Exploring citizen journalism and Canadian politics： In-depth interview with True North's Andrew Lawton

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript