Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ Guilbeault and the UN continue their assault on plastic goods

00:00:00.000 Hello, my friends. I'm actually at the United Nations. Can you believe it? I've been accredited

00:00:04.300 to come to their United Nations Environmental Conference. They want to ban plastics here. Well,

00:00:10.340 I've got a few things to say about that and a few questions that I asked the minister,

00:00:14.800 Stephen Gilbeau. We'll show you all that. You really have to get the video version of this one.

00:00:19.760 I actually scrum Stephen Gilbeau, and it's amazing to behold, if I do say so myself.

00:00:25.220 Just go to rebelnewsplus.com and click subscribe. Eight bucks a month,

00:00:30.720 and you keep Rebel News strong. All right, here's today's podcast.

00:00:38.640 Tonight, Rebel News goes inside the belly of the beast. I'm at a United Nations conference in Ottawa,

00:00:43.740 whose mission is to create a plastics registry and an international anti-plastic treaty.

00:00:51.760 It's April 23rd, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.

00:00:55.220 The announcement that our government made in 2019 on banning single-use plastic remains,

00:01:14.520 if not the most popular announcement that we've done since 2015, certainly one of the

00:01:18.920 most popular announcement in terms of the public support.

00:01:24.700 Oh, hi. Ezra LeVant here. I'm at a United Nations conference in Ottawa,

00:01:29.000 where the Shaw Convention Center, hundreds of delegates from around the world,

00:01:33.880 here to talk about plastic as a problem. Plastic, of course, is a solution to many problems.

00:01:39.740 Plastic is the ubiquitous design material in everything from my glasses,

00:01:44.320 to my microphone, to my clothes, to every single thing in modern society is plastic.

00:01:50.560 It's actually inert, and it's safe. That's why our credit cards are made of plastic.

00:01:55.040 Medical equipment is made of plastic. It's a miracle, but these folks want to ban it

00:02:00.080 and register it and regulate it.

00:02:02.420 That's why today, on Earth Day, I'm pleased to announce the release of the Federal Plastics Registry.

00:02:08.180 Of course, we're all against plastic being dumped into the river, and that's a huge problem in places

00:02:14.520 like China and India, not so much in Canada, even though Stephen Gilboa, the Environment Minister,

00:02:20.700 has announced his plan for a plastics registry that would include your toothbrushes.

00:02:26.460 The registry will require plastic producers to take more responsibility for the plastic they put on the market.

00:02:33.420 Anyhow, it sounds like they're about to get underway.

00:02:36.040 What's interesting to me is that the two biggest polluters, China and India,

00:02:39.780 refuse to be part of the negotiation for a treaty.

00:02:44.220 It would be, well, rather like our carbon taxes, where clean, efficient countries like Canada

00:02:49.720 are asked to reduce, reuse, recycle, live less, have colder winters, hotter summers, drive less, fly less.

00:02:56.100 But the real polluters get away with as much pollution as they want.

00:03:00.120 It's a very masochistic thing.

00:03:02.040 There are delegates here from around the world who come from countries where there is a lot of pollution.

00:03:07.540 I'm not sure why they need a treaty to clean up the mess in their own countries.

00:03:12.240 Why don't they just do it?

00:03:14.400 And what does maple syrup taps have to do with that?

00:03:17.820 You're probably wondering why I'm mentioning maple syrup.

00:03:20.000 That is one of the specific items listed in Stephen Gilboa's proposed plastics registry.

00:03:25.440 It's a disaster, but amazingly, we were given accreditation to be here

00:03:30.400 after being banned by the Canadian government for several years.

00:03:34.080 Maybe it's because I've already beaten Stephen Gilboa in court.

00:03:37.020 He didn't want to ban me a second time.

00:03:39.260 I'll have more information for you throughout the day, and I'll do my whole show on it.

00:03:43.640 If you want to see more, go to no green reset dot com.

00:03:48.640 Ezra Levant here for Rebel News.

00:03:53.200 Look at this.

00:03:53.820 It's just a little sign here at the UN Convention Against Plastics,

00:03:58.480 but it reads like it's something, I don't know, out of Lord of the Rings or Game of Thrones.

00:04:03.680 Grulak.

00:04:04.720 Weog. 0.97

00:04:05.740 SIDS.

00:04:06.440 E-E-G. 1.00

00:04:07.540 Or is that pronounced Eeg?

00:04:09.540 D-S-A. 0.99

00:04:10.800 What does that even mean?

00:04:12.080 When I was a kid, SIDS stood for Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

00:04:15.480 It was something parents were terrified about.

00:04:17.660 I'll tell you what all those things mean.

00:04:19.860 All those things are a kind of jargon that the high priest class uses

00:04:24.620 to separate the elite from the peasants.

00:04:28.160 These are deeply meaningful things.

00:04:30.300 Grulak.

00:04:31.200 Nothing is more important than Grulak.

00:04:33.360 What, you don't know what Grulak is?

00:04:34.780 What are you, some lowly taxpayer?

00:04:36.840 I don't know if you get my point.

00:04:38.020 It's this.

00:04:38.860 The UN is so detached from the real lives of any country, Canada in particular.

00:04:44.560 But I got to say, there are delegates here that I can tell from very poor countries in

00:04:50.460 Africa, for example.

00:04:52.220 But their folks got on jet planes, flew first class to Ottawa, staying in five-star hotels,

00:04:58.060 eating gourmet meals to talk about Grulak, Weogsids, and Eeg, and things that people in

00:05:05.040 their home countries wouldn't even understand or know about.

00:05:08.140 There are real pollution problems around the world.

00:05:12.000 Plastic straws in Canada are not one of them.

00:05:14.880 But the fact that they make it impenetrable to the common person tells you that they find

00:05:21.320 ordinary people repulsive.

00:05:24.400 They live in a self-perpetuating world.

00:05:27.460 In fact, I'm not sure if you can see, but down there, you can see in the distance, there's

00:05:31.660 a booth to sign up for next year's party in Korea.

00:05:36.220 So this movable feast, this annual reunion, this get-together of the fancy people.

00:05:43.400 Today, it's in Ottawa.

00:05:46.280 It's going to be in Korea. 0.73

00:05:48.280 A few months ago, it was in Nairobi.

00:05:50.660 This is a jet-set class telling you not to use plastic straws and not to fly.

00:05:57.700 What's this?

00:05:58.300 This is the translator headset.

00:06:01.980 Of course, here at the United Nations, they have, I think, six official languages.

00:06:05.960 What do you think it's made out of?

00:06:07.260 Wood?

00:06:09.020 It's not made out of paper.

00:06:10.540 It's made out of plastic.

00:06:11.880 In fact, walking around this convention center, there's almost nothing that isn't plastic.

00:06:16.600 Of course, the fibers in the carpet are plastic.

00:06:20.200 The garbage cans are plastic.

00:06:22.880 The plastic single-use lids in the coffee dispensers are plastic.

00:06:27.400 There is almost nothing in this place that's not plastic.

00:06:32.760 I mean, I was showing you the sign a moment ago with words like grulac and other impenetrable jargon.

00:06:39.720 The sign's not made out of wood.

00:06:41.720 It's made out of plastic.

00:06:43.160 And have you ever heard of latex paint?

00:06:45.140 That's plastic.

00:06:46.140 That's plastic.

00:06:47.140 And, of course, there's two other kinds of plastic in this place.

00:06:50.980 I think the second most important kind of plastic they have, I don't know if you've looked at your Canadian currency lately, but the dollar bills or $5 bills, $20 bills, they're made of plastic, not paper.

00:07:04.380 And the most important kind of plastic here are the fake plastic politicians.

00:07:12.240 I stepped outside the fancy-schmancy Ottawa Conference Centre because I wanted to see what's going on outside.

00:07:20.220 The answer is not a lot.

00:07:21.820 But across the street, they've built a bit of a plastic garbage display.

00:07:27.900 And when I say they, I mean the government-funded protesters who are protesting the government-funded people inside.

00:07:37.780 They're on the same team.

00:07:39.600 And what's interesting to me about the garbage statue they've made is Ottawa is actually a pretty clean city.

00:07:47.020 In fact, Canada is a pretty clean country.

00:07:49.560 We don't throw our garbage in the ditch.

00:07:52.180 We don't litter.

00:07:54.300 Some people recycle.

00:07:55.540 Some people just throw it in the landfill.

00:07:56.720 But we don't throw it in the ditch.

00:07:59.020 So to make their impact, they have to create a fake act of pollution because otherwise people would say, what are you talking about?

00:08:07.860 This is actually a beautiful town, a beautiful city.

00:08:10.360 I think the dirtiest city I've ever been to in my life in terms of things being thrown in the ditch was Port-au-Prince, Haiti. 1.00

00:08:18.180 And it was a lot of plastic pollution, I'll tell you that.

00:08:21.840 They just threw things in the street, threw things in the alley, threw things in the water.

00:08:27.520 I don't know how Canada can fix that.

00:08:30.880 I don't know how a treaty that Canada signs can fix that.

00:08:34.780 And I don't know how a plastics registry that says your plastic cutlery and plastic lids for coffee have to be registered and declared to the Canadian government.

00:08:45.560 I don't know how that's going to clean up Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

00:08:48.780 But I think my main message about this plastic protest outside the Plastic Conference is that it's all fingers on the same hand.

00:08:58.940 I mean, look at on the sign behind me here.

00:09:02.320 Freshly taped up posters.

00:09:05.300 Oil and gas executives rake in profits.

00:09:07.620 Canadian pay the price. 1.00

00:09:09.060 Make polluters pay.

00:09:10.140 And right above that, Chrystia Freeland, the Deputy Prime Minister.

00:09:15.420 Minister Freeland, make big polluters pay.

00:09:18.320 And these, of course, are a message to the delegates inside, I presume.

00:09:23.200 Well, I just went to the website, makepolluterspay.ca, and they're all government-funded NGOs.

00:09:28.820 NGOs stands for non-governmental organization, but they should be called gongos. 0.99

00:09:34.140 Government-organized non-government organizations.

00:09:37.080 They get government grants.

00:09:38.540 The politicians inside lobby the activists outside to lobby the politicians inside.

00:09:46.900 And it's a circular loop of your money every way.

00:09:51.900 Hey, I'm back.

00:09:52.500 It's 4 p.m.

00:09:53.560 I've got to tell you, a lot has happened since I filmed that little intro in the main plenary area there.

00:09:59.440 Boy, a ton of things have happened.

00:10:00.900 First of all, I spoke with a skeptic.

00:10:04.480 There actually is someone here who doesn't believe in a ban on plastics.

00:10:09.000 I'll have an interview with him later on in the show.

00:10:12.340 I wandered around and just saw all the different plastics things here.

00:10:15.980 But really an interesting undercurrent of my entire day has been how the United Nations, environmentalist, liberal government establishment handles a skeptical journalist like me and my colleague Alexa Lavoie, who was also here.

00:10:32.640 It's a bit of a miracle that we got these accreditations in the first place.

00:10:36.640 They really delayed.

00:10:38.200 We had to get a lawyer engaged.

00:10:39.740 But in the end, they accredited me and several of my colleagues.

00:10:43.480 And we came in.

00:10:44.320 And I have to tell you, we've been on our best behavior in here.

00:10:47.820 And by that, I mean, we're just being polite.

00:10:50.660 That doesn't mean our questions aren't sharp.

00:10:53.380 But you can ask a sharp question without shouting, without swearing.

00:10:58.040 But I think the fact that we ask critical questions at all is so alien to these people.

00:11:05.200 I mean, I should tell you, I was in a press conference a moment ago with Greenpeace.

00:11:08.820 Greenpeace was hosting the press conference.

00:11:11.100 And you know what a press conference is, right?

00:11:12.760 You have some officials at the front and you have reporters in the audience.

00:11:16.300 But at this press conference, after every remark, the audience applauded because the journalists who are here, other than us, I guess, are Me Too, Ditto, environmental activist journalists who were applauding Greenpeace in a press conference.

00:11:37.960 I'm sorry, that's not a real press conference, is it?

00:11:40.640 So to have a critical question in the middle of that was so alien to them.

00:11:44.740 In fact, there was this funny moment.

00:11:46.660 I had asked Stephen Gilbeau, the environment minister, a question.

00:11:51.140 And I was super polite.

00:11:53.540 And he gave an answer that wasn't satisfactory.

00:11:55.920 But he gave an answer anyways.

00:11:57.720 And a reporter for the Hill Times, which is sort of a lobbyist newspaper here in Ottawa, came up to me.

00:12:04.040 And the most important thing to her was, how did you guys get in?

00:12:08.460 Why are you here?

00:12:09.700 What are you doing?

00:12:11.080 She was appalled and shocked.

00:12:14.220 And here you're at the United Nations conference to ban plastics.

00:12:18.380 You got the environment minister up there.

00:12:20.020 You got some international big shots.

00:12:22.100 I don't know who they are.

00:12:22.940 But if you're in the U.N. world, I guess they're big.

00:12:25.140 And the number one news story this Hill Times reporter took away from that was, Rebel Luz is here.

00:12:30.200 How come?

00:12:31.160 And that shows you how insulated and what an echo chamber these things are.

00:12:36.480 Anyways, I want to tell you this story, what happened to me.

00:12:39.700 I came in and I did some wandering around and I did some little videos.

00:12:42.900 And then I went outside because there was this weird garbage statue that some environmentalists put up. 0.99

00:12:49.860 They're just a bunch of garbage. 1.00

00:12:51.460 And I think the point was, look at all this garbage. 1.00

00:12:55.120 We've got to clean it up. 0.90

00:12:56.060 But the obvious response from my mind was, you brought the garbage here because it's not a garbagey place.

00:13:02.720 You had to create a fake garbage pile that you then said, look, look, look at the garbage pile. 0.55

00:13:08.680 Well, you brought it here, brother. 0.71

00:13:10.040 I've been to some third world places in my life that has a lot of real garbage on the streets. 1.00

00:13:15.920 Canada's not one of them. 0.89

00:13:16.960 America's not one of them.

00:13:17.720 I'm not saying that it's pristine. 0.99

00:13:19.020 But, of course, all the places in the world with the most garbage, especially plastic garbage, China, India, Africa, it's not Canada. 0.98

00:13:31.600 So I was outside talking to a guy near the garbage pile. 0.99

00:13:36.820 And walking by was Stephen Gilboa himself.

00:13:41.560 This was outside the conference on the street.

00:13:44.640 One of our teams spotted him.

00:13:46.420 And I got into Davos mode.

00:13:49.040 And I right away ran up to him.

00:13:50.840 And I thought to myself, I could ask him a couple of questions.

00:13:53.400 But the one that I really wanted an answer to was, remember when he banned me on Twitter a couple years ago?

00:13:59.380 And I sued him because he didn't ban me from his personal account.

00:14:02.460 He banned me from his government account.

00:14:03.980 And that's not his power to do so.

00:14:06.820 Two years later into the battle, I won.

00:14:09.300 And he had to pay $20,000 in cost to us.

00:14:12.800 He got the taxpayer to pay for it.

00:14:14.880 And, you know, I wanted to ask him about that.

00:14:18.020 Here's how it looked.

00:14:19.100 I was sort of huffing and puffing because I had a heavy backpack on and I was running and talking.

00:14:23.420 But I think my message was clear.

00:14:25.140 And he didn't say a word.

00:14:27.220 Take a look.

00:14:28.420 Minister Gilboa, you lost a court case to me.

00:14:31.620 And the judge ordered you to pay $20,000.

00:14:34.280 But instead of paying it yourself, you had taxpayers pay for it.

00:14:38.800 Why?

00:14:43.260 Minister Gilboa, the court ordered you to pay me $20,000.

00:14:46.860 But you foisted that on taxpayers instead.

00:14:49.180 You illegally blocked me on Twitter.

00:14:57.060 You fought for two years.

00:14:59.220 You used a quarter million dollars in taxpayers' money.

00:15:02.240 And then you stiffed the taxpayer and foisted the bill on them.

00:15:07.200 Why did you do that?

00:15:11.900 Why don't you think you have to answer for $20,000 of legal bills that you sent to the taxpayer to pay your fine?

00:15:26.420 Why aren't you talking about it?

00:15:27.980 You had a lot to say in court.

00:15:29.680 You claimed that your Twitter account was a personal account.

00:15:32.180 But if that's the case, why didn't you pay the fine personally?

00:15:39.440 Do you disrespect taxpayers, Mr. Gilboa?

00:15:43.100 It sure seems that way.

00:15:46.960 Hey, you're on the board of a Chinese agency, a Chinese government agency for the environment.

00:15:53.600 How is that not a conflict of interest, given that you're in the Canadian cabinet?

00:16:03.540 Is that why you never criticized China, the world's largest producer of plastic?

00:16:10.680 Why are your staff pulling at me?

00:16:12.740 Why are they assaulting me, sir?

00:16:17.440 Why don't you ever criticize China?

00:16:20.040 Have you received help from China in your political campaigns, too?

00:16:23.600 China refuses to sign the anti-plastics treaty.

00:16:32.680 Why are you forcing that on Canadians?

00:16:38.660 What does that mean, the registry, Mr. Gilboa?

00:16:41.300 What do you mean by it?

00:16:42.780 What is the cost that the organization and taxpayers would need to pay for your registry?

00:16:50.840 Run away.

00:16:52.220 Run away.

00:16:52.940 Stephen Gilboa, on the streets of Ottawa, I was running with my heavy backpack, had a few questions for him.

00:17:14.060 He didn't want to answer.

00:17:15.060 We'll have more later.

00:17:18.800 Well, he did not like that.

00:17:22.020 But, you know, it was on the street.

00:17:24.640 He was on the street, public person, public place, public sidewalk, public interest questions.

00:17:28.480 He had nothing to say.

00:17:29.660 Fair enough.

00:17:30.000 He's not used to being asked real questions.

00:17:33.300 What a huge entourage, by the way.

00:17:35.140 I mean, holy moly.

00:17:36.060 Why does he have that many staff?

00:17:38.840 I'm not quite sure.

00:17:39.760 You know, we came back into the official conference area, and we all got emails.

00:17:44.860 We all, I mean, me, my intrepid cameraman, Lincoln Jay, who ran backwards for so much of that filming.

00:17:52.500 Alexa Levoix, Guillaume Roy, that's, of course, our French team here at Rebel News.

00:17:59.720 We all got an email at the same time from the United Nations saying our credentials were being suspended because of problems with our documents.

00:18:12.420 What problems with our documents?

00:18:13.500 They wanted to see our passports and our ID.

00:18:15.980 We provided that for them weeks ago.

00:18:17.780 They approved it.

00:18:19.140 Because I asked a prickly question to Stephen Gilbeau on the streets of Ottawa, not at the UN event, by the way, they suddenly said, you guys, your credentials are in jeopardy.

00:18:30.240 Well, I'm in the building.

00:18:31.320 I'm not going to leave.

00:18:32.660 We got to the press conference early where Stephen Gilbeau and three other senior leaders were going to meet, and the event was supposed to start at 1.15.

00:18:42.560 Okay, we're all there.

00:18:44.140 It doesn't start.

00:18:45.440 1.20.

00:18:46.140 It doesn't start.

00:18:46.920 1.30.

00:18:48.880 And where is everybody?

00:18:50.700 Stephen Gilbeau, he was the hero of the day.

00:18:53.220 This is his big show.

00:18:54.780 He wouldn't come in the room.

00:18:56.260 They sent in a man in a suit.

00:18:58.740 I didn't catch his name with my eyes.

00:19:00.620 Maybe we caught it on camera.

00:19:03.400 He said to Alexa, come outside. 1.00

00:19:05.420 I want to talk to you.

00:19:06.180 Alexa is smarter than that. 1.00

00:19:07.440 She said afterwards.

00:19:08.980 Then he came to me and said, come outside.

00:19:10.660 I want to talk to you.

00:19:11.440 And I said, afterwards.

00:19:13.140 I said, what's your name?

00:19:14.380 And he said, he wouldn't tell me, but he said, I know who you are.

00:19:19.080 Okay, well, I mean, I'm glad.

00:19:22.080 So they waited another five minutes and another five minutes.

00:19:25.140 And I was saying to my colleagues, I actually think they're considering calling off the press conference because Rebel News is here.

00:19:33.380 And by the way, I sent a letter right then, an email to our lawyers, our criminal lawyer in town and our civil lawyer.

00:19:39.940 And I said, get ready, because I think they might actually come and have the police extricate us.

00:19:45.700 Well, half an hour after the press conference was supposed to start, guess who walked in?

00:19:51.820 But Stephen Gilbeau.

00:19:52.820 Oh, and there I was sitting in the second row, smiling from ear to ear like a Cheshire cat.

00:19:59.040 He said his blah, blah, blah.

00:20:01.160 And then a lady from the U.N. was fielding questions. 1.00

00:20:04.220 And I assumed that there was no way on God's green earth they weren't going to give me a question to ask.

00:20:11.940 But I guess she had not been briefed by Gilbeau's team.

00:20:17.400 And I was offered to ask a question.

00:20:19.740 I actually turned around to see if it was someone behind me that she meant.

00:20:23.100 No.

00:20:24.040 So I actually put the same question to Gilbeau that I did on the street.

00:20:29.160 I put it to him very calmly because the question is the question.

00:20:33.640 I was sort of huffing and puffing on the street and I was hollering on the street and he was running away from me.

00:20:37.740 But here we were at a press conference for which we were accredited and that was all my best behavior.

00:20:42.380 I actually started with words I never thought I would say in my 52 years of life, which is thank you to the U.N. for accrediting us citizen journalists.

00:20:51.800 And now here's how my question went and his answer.

00:20:54.600 Take a look.

00:20:55.620 Ezra Levant for Rebel News.

00:20:57.300 And I'd like to thank the U.N. for accrediting a citizen journalist outlet like us.

00:21:01.720 Mr. Gilbeau, according to the Globe and Mail, you serve on the China Council for International Cooperation on Environment and Development, which is a government agency controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.

00:21:15.760 Is that a conflict of interest with your role as a Canadian cabinet minister?

00:21:21.980 And is it perhaps why you have really been gentle on China, even though it is by far the world's largest polluter, including with plastics pollution?

00:21:32.720 Thanks again for letting me ask that question.

00:21:35.960 The Canada-China Council is an organization that has been in existence since, from memory, 1971 or 1972.

00:21:44.420 And a succession of environment ministers from all colors and stripes, including under Stephen Harper, a number of environment ministers sat on this organization.

00:21:56.860 It is a partnership where we exchange information on environmental issues.

00:22:00.260 And we work together to develop public policies that are implemented in China to tackle a number of the things that we're talking about here.

00:22:09.300 All right.

00:22:09.980 So we had an answer, not a very good answer, but he should have answered me that way on the street.

00:22:14.300 Don't you think?

00:22:15.340 I mean, yeah, I was huffing and puffing, but I wasn't swearing at him.

00:22:18.440 I wasn't pushing him.

00:22:19.160 His people were pulling me. 0.99

00:22:20.440 I don't know if it was caught on tape, but one guy grabbed my backpack and tried to stop me from following him.

00:22:25.520 And then to my surprise, my colleague, Alexa Lavoie, had a question, too.

00:22:31.020 Here's Alexa, and here's the answer she got.

00:22:33.700 Thank you, Alexa Lavoie for Ribbon News.

00:22:36.180 And my question is regarding, you know, Daniel Smith, the Premier of Alberta.

00:22:41.940 She has expressed to fight against what she called absurd plastic bans.

00:22:48.020 I want to have your thoughts about that.

00:22:50.120 I respectfully disagree with the Premier of Alberta on the plastic ban that Canada has put in place.

00:22:59.560 But we don't think that we won't ban our way out of plastic pollution.

00:23:02.940 But we do, and there is a large consensus here, and if you talk to delegates and experts from all around the world, there is an agreement that we should ban those plastics that are either non-recyclable or almost impossible to recycle,

00:23:18.280 that have large impacts on the environment and on human health.

00:23:22.920 But as Inger and others have said, and I've said myself, we will continue using plastic.

00:23:28.320 We need to make sure that we ban those that we don't need and that we continue using those that are essential in certain sectors, like the medical sector, appliances, aeronautics.

00:23:38.260 And we keep those plastics in the economy and out of the environment and out of our body.

00:23:44.520 Well, I tell you, of all the scenarios, I did not expect that one.

00:23:50.080 When they sent in someone to ask us to leave and when they delayed things by more than half an hour, I thought, oh, boy, they're panicking.

00:23:57.360 But in the end, it was actually the only good journalism there was there.

00:24:01.700 Everyone else was just sort of a seal clapping their flapping their flippers.

00:24:06.560 In fact, we decided not to leave the premises in case we were not allowed back in.

00:24:11.100 And we sat there in a Greenpeace press conference.

00:24:15.180 Well, first of all, what's Greenpeace doing having an official press conference at the United Nations?

00:24:20.580 They're not part of the UN.

00:24:22.100 They're an activist fundraising organization that systematically breaks the law in stunts to raise money for their perpetual motion machine.

00:24:31.500 They almost never criticize Russia or OPEC or China.

00:24:35.820 What are they doing having a press conference at a government-funded event here in Ottawa with the UN?

00:24:42.040 Well, obviously, the answer is Stephen Gilbeau, their most notorious alumnus.

00:24:47.000 Stephen Gilbeau, the environment minister who used to be a Greenpeace activist, who's been arrested several times,

00:24:52.620 including for breaking out of the CN Tower and causing a huge amount of problems there.

00:24:58.140 And then that one atrocious day where he climbed onto the roof of Ralph Klein's house when Ralph Klein was out of town,

00:25:05.060 it was just Ralph Klein's wife in the house. 0.97

00:25:07.320 Imagine you're alone in the house, you're a mother, and you hear someone climbing on your roof in a bizarre stunt.

00:25:15.940 Imagine how terrified you are.

00:25:17.740 The maniac who did that was Stephen Gilbeau.

00:25:19.960 So, of course, he approved Greenpeace to have a press conference.

00:25:23.820 But, again, I was a credentialed journalist.

00:25:27.020 They let me ask not one, but two questions.

00:25:32.380 Here's how that went.

00:25:33.180 And I put them very friendly.

00:25:35.660 And here's what they said.

00:25:36.820 I have a question for Greenpeace.

00:25:38.540 It's a critical question.

00:25:40.360 But I'd like your candid response to it.

00:25:43.820 Greenpeace has been very active against oil and gas in Canada.

00:25:47.460 And it's been successful in reducing that.

00:25:50.840 But that hasn't reduced the amount of petroleum that the world demands.

00:25:54.600 It's just shifted production from Canada to OPEC and Vladimir Putin's Russia.

00:26:00.760 And I see the same thing here with plastics.

00:26:04.260 China is by far the largest producer of plastic and polluter of plastic and all under pollution.

00:26:11.640 And yet they have just a fraction of Greenpeace's attention.

00:26:15.120 They do not appear willing to be part of any restriction on production.

00:26:21.300 So, if you're successful in limiting plastic production in the West,

00:26:27.480 really all I think you're going to wind up doing is driving that production to China,

00:26:32.900 which has lower environmental standards than we have in Canada and the United States.

00:26:37.960 I don't think there's going to be one fewer plastic items produced after this treaty.

00:26:45.040 It'll just be done in China, India, and other countries that aren't going to self-sacrifice.

00:26:51.920 So, I really want to know, do you consider that at all?

00:26:56.680 Like, do you think it's a success that you've driven oil and gas production to the Qataris and the Vladimir Putin's of the world?

00:27:02.800 And while you think it's a success, if you shut down factories in America and Canada,

00:27:08.500 but build them up in China and other non-compliant countries?

00:27:12.040 Thank you for letting me ask the question.

00:27:13.460 Thank you so much for your question.

00:27:20.380 I mean, it's a valid question.

00:27:21.780 That's something that, I mean, I can explain a little structure of Greenpeace,

00:27:25.500 but Greenpeace, there is an international umbrella,

00:27:28.800 and then we have different NROs in different regions, so we campaign globally.

00:27:32.820 So, Greenpeace does not campaign only on the West.

00:27:36.400 I come from Middle East and North Africa.

00:27:38.440 We have colleagues here from Greenpeace Africa, and we campaign on the local and national.

00:27:42.340 And then at certain points, like INC and also the COP,

00:27:45.740 we collectively join forces to campaign internationally on internationally binding agreements targeting fossil fuel industry.

00:27:53.180 So, in COP28, we have campaigned among allies and partners in order to get a binding,

00:28:00.220 I mean, mention of fossil fuel reduction in lime to science 1.5C, collectively as Greenpeace, as different NROs.

00:28:08.740 So, I would say that Greenpeace is not a Western organization in that sense,

00:28:15.540 but we are representative of different NROs who are campaigning for a global outcome on fossil fuel,

00:28:22.160 not specifically in Canada or on the West.

00:28:24.480 This is my take.

00:28:25.860 So, you have a very good point, and this is exactly why Greenpeace is campaigning for global targets and sector-specific targets.

00:28:37.180 So, it's not just going to be one country that is responsible for reduction.

00:28:41.500 We're expecting that all countries contribute to reducing plastic production.

00:28:46.640 We don't, coming from Asia, we definitely don't want any production bases to be transferred to our region and the world,

00:28:54.520 because that means that the impacts of plastic production will be transferring to our countries.

00:28:59.360 And what we're pushing for is that all countries collectively have to contribute to this reduction in plastic production,

00:29:07.420 and all of them will abide by a single global target,

00:29:11.780 and we figure out how these differentiated responsibilities will happen.

00:29:16.880 It may be different timelines based on production capacity or countries,

00:29:20.740 but at the same time, we all have to have that same goal of reducing plastic production together,

00:29:25.960 because we don't want any of these effects to just transfer to different places,

00:29:30.960 and different populations will be impacted by it.

00:29:36.040 Thank you for the question.

00:29:37.840 I don't speak for Greenpeace.

00:29:39.700 I speak for the scientific community.

00:29:42.660 You may be following a long-term trend in sperm count,

00:29:46.500 which is happening around the world,

00:29:48.160 about 50% reduction in the last five decades.

00:29:52.300 Projected losses of sperm by 20,

00:29:56.600 the middle of the century may make it very difficult for young men

00:30:00.180 to reproduce the old-fashioned way.

00:30:03.260 And that trend is even stronger in China now.

00:30:07.660 Data came out about two years ago.

00:30:09.700 And I should let you know that some of the best

00:30:11.920 and a lot of the studies of endocrine disruption

00:30:14.860 are being carried out by Chinese laboratories.

00:30:18.160 They are struggling, the whole country is struggling right now,

00:30:21.420 how to rebuild their fertility.

00:30:24.280 They don't know.

00:30:25.400 And we're pretty sure that plastic chemicals are contributing to it.

00:30:29.540 So right now, they may not be ready to act on these data,

00:30:34.620 but they're going to have to.

00:30:35.740 Thank you for that.

00:30:39.660 We also have a question from a general news.

00:30:43.420 Port of South Louisiana,

00:30:44.860 which is the largest tonished port in the Western Hemisphere,

00:30:47.620 as they like to advertise themselves.

00:30:49.620 I think in 2023,

00:30:51.320 they had about 43 million shark tons of petrochemicals

00:30:54.720 that was moved throughout our region.

00:30:56.840 That's one port in Louisiana.

00:30:58.600 And there's several,

00:31:00.420 Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Lake Charles,

00:31:02.540 I can name a whole bunch.

00:31:04.260 So what we're seeing is that

00:31:05.700 when the production is stopped in other places,

00:31:09.120 guess where it's coming?

00:31:09.980 To Louisiana.

00:31:10.820 Because we have the laws

00:31:11.940 and we have the subsidies in place

00:31:13.600 that allows the production to happen.

00:31:16.160 So I feel for what you're saying.

00:31:18.080 For me, this Global Plastics Treaty is important 0.58

00:31:20.180 because we can showcase that this is an international problem.

00:31:24.560 Although I'm in Cancer Alley,

00:31:26.080 although I'm in a very small community,

00:31:28.900 what's happening here impacts everybody.

00:31:31.340 That's why it's needed to have this global instrument

00:31:34.940 because this is a global problem.

00:31:36.860 And I think this treatably showcases

00:31:39.260 how much we're all connected

00:31:41.300 and that if we want to stop production,

00:31:43.980 we all have to be on board

00:31:45.600 in spite of getting there

00:31:47.560 to stop the production of plastic.

00:31:49.720 By the way, I think the truckers were over-prosecuted.

00:31:52.500 They actually brought in

00:31:53.480 the Emergencies Act of Martial Law.

00:31:55.420 I was just asking them

00:31:56.660 if given the fact that truckers are arrested for mischief

00:31:59.840 and sent to jail

00:32:00.820 and Gilbo got what, like a $1,000 fine or something,

00:32:04.140 will they rethink their tactics?

00:32:05.680 And, you know, it wasn't a very detailed answer

00:32:07.820 by their Greenpeace Canada boss

00:32:10.400 who said, basically,

00:32:11.680 no, we're going to keep breaking the law for cash.

00:32:13.400 And why wouldn't you?

00:32:15.000 Nothing happens to Greenpeace activists

00:32:16.720 when they break the law.

00:32:17.800 It's not on the wrist at most.

00:32:19.000 If you're a trucker, though, go to jail.

00:32:22.400 It was a very interesting day.

00:32:24.620 And I'm glad I was here.

00:32:26.140 I'm glad I was credentialed.

00:32:27.900 And why wouldn't I be?

00:32:29.220 I mean, other than the obvious reason

00:32:30.980 is that we're asking questions

00:32:32.640 that are mildly critical of the UN.

00:32:37.460 I thought it was worthwhile coming.

00:32:39.640 And I thought it was worthwhile

00:32:40.720 flying the flag of Rebel News.

00:32:43.200 I don't know if my friends will be allowed back tomorrow.

00:32:48.380 I'm actually off to New York City.

00:32:50.040 I want to cover the insane race. 1.00

00:32:53.920 I don't know what you call it. 0.99

00:32:54.880 Don't buy from Jews. 1.00

00:32:55.940 Don't let Jews onto campus. 1.00

00:32:57.340 The insane things going on in New York City. 0.69

00:32:59.540 So I'm actually going to be there tomorrow.

00:33:00.840 I want to check out what's happening at Columbia

00:33:03.380 and what's happening at NYU.

00:33:05.920 It's a hop, skip, and a jump down from here.

00:33:07.840 So I'm going.

00:33:08.780 But my colleagues, Alexa and Guillaume,

00:33:10.900 will remain here.

00:33:11.740 And I think Sheila Gunn-Reed's planning on coming here. 0.97

00:33:13.560 It'll be interesting to see

00:33:14.820 if Stephen Gilboa's rage

00:33:17.080 at being asked those prickly questions on the street

00:33:19.820 will cause the UN to blacklist us again.

00:33:23.200 I don't know the answer to that question.

00:33:25.260 As I say, we've engaged our law firm already.

00:33:28.900 Hopefully that will allow, you know,

00:33:31.320 hopefully the UN will calm down and let us stay here.

00:33:34.540 We've behaved very well, I have to say.

00:33:36.840 Would you agree with me?

00:33:37.940 You've seen me ask questions a lot

00:33:39.160 over the course of my life.

00:33:40.540 Would you agree with me that the questions I posed

00:33:42.660 to first Stephen Gilboa

00:33:44.520 and then second to Greenpeace

00:33:45.820 in those press conferences

00:33:47.100 were probably the gentlest, softest,

00:33:51.280 butter-wooden-in-his-mouth politest questions

00:33:55.080 I've ever asked in my life.

00:33:57.200 In fact, I have to say, my first question,

00:33:59.360 I think the Greenpeace people

00:34:00.180 actually enjoyed answering it.

00:34:02.560 We'll see if we're banned again tomorrow.

00:34:04.720 And you know what?

00:34:05.760 I've learned a lot over the years.

00:34:07.420 You might recall that the UN,

00:34:09.320 at the behest of the liberals,

00:34:11.240 banned us from attending

00:34:12.320 their global warming conferences

00:34:13.820 about eight years ago now.

00:34:16.540 And I didn't know how to fight back

00:34:18.300 as effectively as I do now.

00:34:19.800 So help me God,

00:34:21.520 if they ban my colleagues tomorrow,

00:34:23.680 they can expect litigation

00:34:25.140 in ways they've never imagined before.

00:34:27.800 We deserve to be accredited

00:34:29.580 because our conduct here

00:34:30.860 at the UN Convention was exemplary.

00:34:33.540 The only possible reason

00:34:35.140 they're now claiming

00:34:35.980 our documents are insufficient

00:34:37.780 is because I asked some embarrassing questions 0.79

00:34:40.100 of that buffoon outside Stephen Gilboa 0.88

00:34:44.020 that has nothing to do 0.94

00:34:45.040 with our conduct here in the conference.

00:34:47.440 Anyways, that's the show for today.

00:34:48.760 What a hoot.

00:34:51.000 Until next time,

00:34:52.140 on behalf of Rebel News,

00:34:53.400 whether it's here in Ottawa

00:34:54.300 or anywhere around the world,

00:34:55.400 to you at home,

00:34:56.000 good night.

00:34:57.120 And keep fighting for freedom.

00:34:58.180 Bełbym.

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Rebel News Podcast - April 23, 2024

EZRA LEVANT ｜ Guilbeault and the UN continue their assault on plastic goods

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