EZRA LEVANT | I think we all know how corrupt the U.S. security and intelligence industry is — wait till you see how bad Canada’s is
Summary
On today's show, David Spunt tells us about the bombshell trial of former Hillary Clinton campaign lawyer Michael Sussman, who is on trial for lying to the Federal Bureau of Intelligence and Security (Fbi) about spying on Donald Trump's political campaign.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
tonight i think we all know how corrupt the u.s
00:00:18.000
security and intelligence industry is well you see how bad canada's has become
00:00:24.200
it's may 24th this is yes why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer i know
00:00:32.960
there's 8 500 customers here and you won't give them an answer the only thing i have to say to
00:00:38.620
the government about why i publish it is because it's my bloody right to do so
00:00:43.120
did you know that hillary clinton's campaign lawyer is being prosecuted right now
00:00:54.000
probably going to go to jail that's my amateur assessment for lying to the fbi for giving them
00:01:01.780
false information about donald trump in an attempt to have them investigate trump to embarrass him and
00:01:09.240
to spread that embarrassment in the news media what what you didn't know that that bombshell trial was
00:01:15.700
going on right now it's not just any trial it's the result of a government investigation by u.s
00:01:22.940
attorney john durham and it's already proved that the u.s government was spying on donald trump's
00:01:30.000
political campaign what that's not on the cbc each night or the globe and mail it's not i checked you
00:01:37.980
you'd think it would be covered around the clock i mean here's just a randomly selected bombshell
00:01:45.300
moment from the trial i i could have chosen from five clips here take a look at this one
00:01:51.000
fox news alert on the trial of former clinton campaign lawyer michael sussman
00:01:58.700
hillary clinton's 2016 campaign manager robbie mooc testified today that clinton herself
00:02:05.880
approved the idea of giving the alpha bank story to a reporter as part of the trump russia narrative
00:02:12.580
as you'll remember that suggested that there were connections between alpha bank and the trump
00:02:17.500
campaign server the fbi looked into that and found nothing suspicious david spunt is live outside
00:02:23.460
the federal courthouse in washington with more david hi kaylee good afternoon uh there was a little
00:02:29.820
bit of surprise in the courtroom when robbie mooc the 2016 hillary clinton campaign manager
00:02:35.460
just answered a question casually that she personally approved uh sending that story to the media as you
00:02:42.500
mentioned it deals with an allegation or an accusation about the trump organization not the trump
00:02:48.320
campaign but the trump organization having a back channel to a russian bank named alpha bank which
00:02:54.520
has some ties to the kremlin some russian oligarchs uh that are close with vladimir putin so to give
00:02:59.880
everyone a little bit of a backstory uh on this story because it is complicated there are a lot of
00:03:04.580
twists and turns hillary clinton had a campaign attorney named michael sussman he is on trial right
00:03:09.740
now behind me in federal court because in 2016 september 2016 he went to his friend who happened to be the
00:03:17.040
general counsel at the fbi a man named james baker and sussman said james i have or jim rather i have some
00:03:23.940
information linking the trump organization to a russian-based bank via a back channel via a computer
00:03:31.160
server james baker took the information at the fbi the fbi investigated they found out there was
00:03:38.160
nothing to it kaylee as you mentioned hillary clinton's team at the campaign also found out about
00:03:44.200
that information and we are learning today via robbie mooc the campaign manager she personally was
00:03:50.160
briefed on this allegation about the uh russian bank and trump organization and she said okay go ahead
00:03:56.380
give it to the media and that's where we are right now sussman is charged with one count of uh providing
00:04:01.620
a false statement to the fbi the trial's been going on for a week it's expected to continue another week
00:04:07.160
but again uh definitely a little bit of a surprise in the courtroom i think from not only the government
00:04:12.880
but the defense when robbie mooc uh went ahead and admitted that clinton herself uh gave the go-ahead
00:04:18.780
for disseminating that story which turned out to be false oh nothing just that hillary clinton approved
00:04:24.860
a shopping around a false perjury filled document about trump including giving it to the fbi no big
00:04:33.120
whoop i mean they're all in on it the cia the fbi the national security agency i would never have said
00:04:40.100
that before in my whole life i would have called any skeptics or critics either kooks or paranoids or
00:04:47.080
conspiracy theorists or probably communists or anti-americans i would have said those things
00:04:51.460
myself but they really were all in on the plan to keep donald trump out of office by spying on him
00:04:59.740
and leaking this so-called dirt on him as the left-wing critic at grand glenn greenwald points out
00:05:06.840
it's very very weird that every senior fbi and cia man whether he's uh doing his career in the
00:05:15.020
when he's done rather doing his career in the military industrial complex gets a job afterwards
00:05:22.120
as a pundit on cnn or some other network in the past they tried to influence the news
00:05:27.880
subtly but not directly seriously even the ones caught doing atrocious things here's peter strock
00:05:36.020
former senior fbi agent spying on trump his text amongst his colleagues came out terms out he was
00:05:45.840
having an affair with another fbi agent but that's not my point he's allegedly a cop a neutral cop
00:05:51.800
allegedly working for the law but he was actually campaigning against trump using his law enforcement
00:05:57.040
powers here's senator lindsey graham reading out some of strock's texts march 16th 2016
00:06:06.260
i cannot believe trump is likely to be an actual serious candidate for president july the 21st 2016
00:06:14.600
trump is a disaster i have no idea how destabilizing his presidency would be august the 8th 2016
00:06:22.180
three days before struck was made deputy acting uh in charge of the counterintelligence division of
00:06:29.980
the fbi he's never going to become president right page to struck no no he won't we'll stop him
00:06:40.080
these are the people investigating the clinton email situation and start the counterintelligence
00:06:49.820
investigation of the trump campaign compare them to muller august the 15th 2016
00:06:57.220
struck i want to believe the path you threw out for consideration in andy's office
00:07:03.220
that there's no way he gets elected but i'm afraid we can't take that risk it's like an insurance
00:07:10.600
policy in the unlikely event you die before you're 40 august 26 2016
00:07:18.180
just went to the southern virginia walmart i could smell the trump support
00:07:25.560
october the 19th 2016 trump is a idiot he's unable to provide a coherent answer
00:07:34.920
sorry to the kids out there these are the people that made a decision that clinton didn't do anything
00:07:44.820
wrong and a counterintelligence investigation of the trump campaign was warranted we're going
00:07:52.760
to in a bipartisan way i hope deal with russia but when the muller report is put to bed in it soon
00:07:59.120
will be this committee is going to look long and hard and how this all started do you see what i
00:08:05.480
mean so yeah they're all in on it uh none have gone to jail they've all landed rich tv gigs including
00:08:11.680
struck there they're still lying there's a trial on right now that's getting next to zero media coverage
00:08:19.840
at least in canada not much in america either hillary was just implicated by name by her own lawyer but
00:08:25.480
nothing um thanks for letting me tell you that by the way because i want to put it to you that canada
00:08:31.720
is sort of the same these days you know uh because brenda lucky the head of the rcmp that's the
00:08:39.120
equivalent of the fbi down there she's just as in the pocket as james comey was he was the former head
00:08:45.660
of the fbi brenda lucky was handpicked by trudeau to run the rcmp she owes her career to him
00:08:52.780
she simply won't allow charges to be laid against him not for using not for taking a bribe in the
00:09:00.080
form of a free vacation to the bahamas in the aga khan not for interfering with the prosecution of
00:09:06.500
snc lavaland and trying to bully the justice minister jody wilson raybold into dropping the
00:09:12.280
charges against his friends yeah our military industrial espionage deep state is politicized
00:09:19.060
and corrupt too um here's a story uh they literally deployed a military aircraft to spy
00:09:26.480
on the truckers in ottawa that's against the law by the way they lied about it but
00:09:32.160
they did it other than a story in the ottawa citizen and a few small echoes it really went
00:09:38.000
unmentioned but the real shock is that not a single person involved no one on that spy plane
00:09:44.620
no one involved with planning or executing that mission no one on the civilian side said
00:09:50.700
what are we doing using canadian armed forces to spy on a civilian peaceful protest just because they
00:09:57.620
are you know honking their horns at trudeau that that's that's my point they're all in on it just
00:10:03.840
like the fbi and the cia are all in on it they're corrupt and partisan they're anti-trump and here's my
00:10:09.560
proof look at this story in trudeau's cbc state broadcaster today just astonishing the story canada
00:10:17.540
should rethink relationship with u.s as democratic black backsliding worsens security experts say
00:10:25.620
what rethink our relationship with the united states in favor of whom china should we just ignore the
00:10:33.480
world's longest undefended border and our geographical location what does it even mean
00:10:37.100
although i suppose it's not the world's longest undefended border anymore try crossing it if you
00:10:42.200
don't jab but seriously i'll read more former national security advisors ceases directors saying
00:10:49.220
u.s could become a source of threat and instability
00:10:52.640
really canada's intelligence community that's an oxymoron will have to grapple with the growing
00:11:02.340
influence of anti-democratic forces in the united states including the threat posed by conservative
00:11:07.760
media outlets like fox news says a new report from a task force of intelligence experts oh i get it um
00:11:14.980
so they love america they they all go down in new york to catch some broadway shows they all go down to
00:11:21.040
florida for the sun um but it's the conservative political opinions that they hate and they don't just
00:11:28.020
disagree with them they're calling conservative viewpoints dangerous foreign policy threats now
00:11:34.980
not china that actually kidnapped two canadian men and held them for a thousand days china
00:11:41.360
that's about to swallow taiwan china that's stealing our industrial secrets stealing things from our
00:11:47.180
bio labs it's building up its military no no no that's not the threat to canada fox news it's a threat
00:11:53.080
to canada let me read the united states is and will remain our closest ally but it could also become
00:11:59.120
a source of threat and instability says a newly published report written by a task force of former
00:12:04.420
national security advisors former canadian security intelligence service directors ex-deputy ministers
00:12:09.380
former ambassadors and academics members of the group have advised both prime minister justin
00:12:14.620
trudeau and former prime minister stephen hopper now is the time for the federal government to
00:12:19.700
rethink how it approaches national security the report concludes imagine believing that imagine
00:12:26.940
imagine writing it and calling it a national security document these people are just like james comey
00:12:33.280
and the other crooks down south except in america their judicial system works and wrongdoers are
00:12:40.720
occasionally rooted out and brought to justice tell me the last time that happened in canada
00:12:45.320
last time that happened when jody wilson rabel tried to root out corruption from trudeau and jerald
00:12:53.200
butts who were trying to get their friends at snc level and off the hook it was jody wilson rabel
00:12:58.220
who was fired not the crooks i'll read you some more from this cbc story
00:13:03.480
we believe that the threats are quite serious at the moment but they do impact canada said report
00:13:11.280
co-author vincent rigby who until a few months ago served as a national security advisor to trudeau
00:13:16.900
we don't want it to take a crisis for the government of canada wake up okay at least we know this is a
00:13:24.080
liberal document but uh he controlled things he he changed the the national security apparatus
00:13:31.840
um trudeau is changing what we look for we're not looking for terrorists anymore
00:13:38.260
not islamic terrorists not eco-terrorists whatever they're looking for truckers now and for us tv hosts
00:13:45.820
let me read thomas juno co-director of the task force and associate professor at the school of public
00:13:52.400
and international affairs at the university of ottawa said that while canada's right-wing extremism is
00:13:58.240
homegrown cross-border connections between extremist groups are alarming there are growing
00:14:04.280
transnational ties between right-wing extremists here and in the u.s the movement of funds the
00:14:10.420
movement of people the movement of ideas the encouragement the support by media such as fox
00:14:16.240
news and other conservative media he said what what extremists the only ones they seem to mention
00:14:23.380
are the peaceful trucker protests where every single allegation of violence turned out to be
00:14:27.860
false he pointed to a state senator doug mastriano's recent win in the republican primary for governor
00:14:35.700
pennsylvania mastriano is a well-known proponent of the lie that election fraud caused former president
00:14:43.680
donald trump's loss in 2020 there are serious risks of democratic backsliding in the u.s and at this
00:14:49.960
point that is not a theoretical risk juno said so all of that is a serious threat to our sovereignty to
00:14:55.680
our security and in some cases to our democratic institutions we need to rethink our relationship
00:15:00.660
with the united states so because some republican that these liberals don't like want a primary election
00:15:08.080
democratic institutions are at risk because the election didn't go the way the liberals wanted
00:15:15.020
and the cbc says they just say they just assert that it's a lie lie that there was an election fraud not
00:15:25.020
that it's an error not that it's a opinion not that it's a matter uh contested they have decided it's a lie
00:15:31.020
that there was election fraud in 2020 was there election fraud in 2020 i mean surely there was some
00:15:37.180
there always is in a large nation that's quite something it is a lie that there was election
00:15:45.320
fraud against trump is this a news report or or a democratic party talking points it's so weird
00:15:51.460
the word fox news by the way is in the cbc story seven times i check during the convoy protest
00:15:59.160
fox host tucker carlson whose show draws in millions of viewers each night called trudeau a
00:16:04.420
stalinist dictator on air and accused him of having suspended democracy and declared canada
00:16:10.020
dictatorship now you might think that's a bit much um i might have until trudeau brought in
00:16:17.520
martial law seized bank accounts without legal process deployed riot police with guns to clear
00:16:24.460
out unarmed peaceful truckers shot our reporter alexa in the leg
00:16:29.240
yeah i think stalinist uh is strong but i can see it i can understand it but but look at what
00:16:54.000
they're saying here because tucker carlson called trudeau stalinist because he said that about our
00:17:01.480
prime minister our precious one um so tucker carlton carlton is therefore a military and security risk
00:17:09.560
to canada so canada needs to i don't know to get stalinist on him i guess it's just crazy on top of
00:17:16.800
crazy let me read more calls for new national security strategy when we think about threats to canada
00:17:22.700
we think about the soviet military threat we think about al-qaeda we think about the rise of china
00:17:27.480
we think about the war in ukraine all of these are true but so is the rising threat to canada that
00:17:33.300
the u.s poses said juno actually there is no more soviet union so i think he's wrong saying the soviets
00:17:38.200
form a threat um that's completely new that calls for a new way of thinking and a new way of managing
00:17:45.620
our relationship with the u.s yeah i don't like tucker carlson so let's build a new military security
00:17:53.640
spy strategy around our tv pundit tastes that's not uh a report from a serious country but then again
00:18:03.360
you already knew that i got a copy of this underlying report that the cbc cites with such glee the first
00:18:09.640
thing i noticed is that the cbc sort of doctored the report a bit i mentioned that the cbc story
00:18:14.880
contains the word fox as in fox news it's seven times on the page i checked the report that they're
00:18:22.740
reporting on mentions the word fox just once in passing it's still nuts to mention the conservative
00:18:30.340
media outlet as a risk to your country but it shows that the cbc cannot be trusted at all and that
00:18:36.340
they have some bizarre rivalry with fox and tucker carlson at least in their own mind because i don't
00:18:41.840
think carlson even knows the cbc exists tucker uh isn't even mentioned um in the report itself but
00:18:50.180
he's mentioned twice by the cbc and his picture is in the cbc story too don't you think that's a bit
00:18:56.700
weird the report by the deep state lists the top risk to canada as great powers russia and china i think
00:19:05.800
that's right even trudeau's people who wrote this thing aren't crazy enough to say that tucker
00:19:11.620
carlson is a bigger threat than them uh they sure downplay islamic terrorism boy i hope they're right
00:19:17.140
on that they'd probably say that tucker carlson works for russia that's probably how they'd square
00:19:22.200
all that but but there is this crazy paragraph that the cbc did use as a jumping off point for
00:19:27.880
their article i'm just going to read the crazy it also quickly became apparent that there were ties
00:19:33.800
between far-right extremists in canada and the united states there was moreover open support from
00:19:39.100
conservative media including fox news and conservative politicians in the united states
00:19:43.120
this may not have represented foreign interference in the conventional sense since it was not the
00:19:47.960
result of actions of a foreign government but it did represent arguably a greater threat to canadian
00:19:52.920
democracy in the actions of any state other than the united states it will be a significant challenge
00:19:57.840
to our national security and intelligence agencies to monitor this threat since it emanates from
00:20:02.880
the same country that is by far our greatest source of intelligence they're talking about the truckers
00:20:08.000
they're saying bizarrely here they just said that russia and china were the threat but here they're
00:20:12.560
saying the truckers are the greatest threat to canada in the world now what they said is simply factually
00:20:18.700
not true there were no ties between the truckers and foreign actors there just weren't a sliver of the
00:20:26.800
gofundme funds were raised were from americans as you know those funds never actually got to the
00:20:31.500
structures uh the cbc grudgingly apologized for this conspiracy do you remember this one i do ask that
00:20:39.820
because uh you know given canada's support of ukraine in this current crisis with russia i don't know if
00:20:47.500
it's far-fetched to ask but but there is concern that russian actors could be continuing to fuel things
00:20:55.020
as this as this protest grows but perhaps even instigating it from from the outset
00:20:59.740
well again i'm going to defer to uh our partners in the public safety the trained officials and experts
00:21:08.220
in that area yeah uh that was fake of course fake news having u.s politicians speak out against trudeau
00:21:14.900
imposing martial law hardly is a threat to canada it's actually nice that some politicians care
00:21:20.940
about democracy in canada it's sort of opposite day when the guy suspending civil liberties justin trudeau
00:21:27.420
is called the democrat and peaceful protesters who care about canadian civil liberties are called the
00:21:32.960
greatest threat to canada in the world just dumb you know it's not serious when they say global warming
00:21:39.720
is a national security threat and their proof is a scary red and orange map the authors lie again
00:21:47.120
saying the truckers were part of an ideologically motivated violent extremism poses a growing threat
00:21:53.920
to canadian national security the disruptive protests in ottawa windsor emerson and coots in early 2022
00:22:00.480
validated concerns that experts have been voicing for years cases are mounting of threats directed at
00:22:05.680
canadian politicians officials and vulnerable groups individuals and groups who adhere to do a
00:22:11.760
diffuse range of violent far-right ideologies have become better organized and emboldened in the
00:22:18.320
wake of the events of early 2022 what what what violence the most serious offense for which charges were
00:22:26.640
laid in the entire ottawa trucker protest was incitement to mischief that's it nothing violent
00:22:36.800
not even mischief mischief itself i'm not sure how you can be charged with inciting mischief
00:22:44.560
if it never was incited no weapons were found in the entire ottawa trucking convoy that arson claim
00:22:51.440
as you know turned out to be a hoax but these authors put the truckers in with terrorists violent
00:22:56.640
far-right ideologies is it far right by the way to say my body my choice i thought that was liberal
00:23:01.840
or give me my privacy or let me travel by plane or train in my own country or don't segregate me is
00:23:08.640
that is that far right they keep saying right and far right again and again because that's
00:23:15.040
that's where they're looking for evil the words left wing never actually appear in the entire report
00:23:20.960
neither does the word environmentalist or eco-terrorist look at this from from just a few weeks ago
00:23:28.000
there really are eco-terrorists in canada attack on coastal gas link left workers terrified the
00:23:34.480
company said 20 people surrounded and attacked workers rcmp are investigating and had to make
00:23:39.600
their way through downed trees wire boards with spikes and other obstacles to get to the location
00:23:45.520
that's terrorism wonder why it wasn't mentioned in the report even toronto's globe and mail
00:23:50.640
covered this eco-terrorist attack on a natural gas pipeline construction website
00:23:54.720
more violence in one nightmare and by all the trucker protests combined total ever
00:24:02.800
but eco-terrorists are not mentioned in the report look it's not a serious report by serious people
00:24:08.000
i'll tell you what it is it's the liberal party platform rewritten as a national security document
00:24:16.400
yes there are a few national security things in the report but but the heart of it is trudeau's own
00:24:22.000
partisan grudges he hates conservatives he hates the truckers he doesn't really like the more vocal
00:24:28.320
parts of america not a word about threats on the left so not surprisingly their recommendations are not
00:24:34.960
actually national security recommendations the trudeau's policies dressed up as national security
00:24:41.040
recommendations like his plan to restrict social media here the deep state says they need to do a lot
00:24:48.240
more spying on what canadians are saying online let me read to you one of the key challenges in this
00:24:55.680
area however is collection of social media posts who in the government should be responsible for
00:25:01.920
monitoring social media different parts of the national security community have the partial mandate to do
00:25:08.320
so the rapid response mechanism at global affairs canada for example monitors and analyzes potential
00:25:14.640
cases of foreign interference including by observing content shared through social media but as we saw
00:25:20.560
during the protests across canada early 2022 when protest organizers were openly telegraphing their
00:25:26.000
intent on various social media platforms government mandates are strictly limited this impedes and sometimes
00:25:32.560
prevents the ability of national security agencies to do their work what what work would they have with a
00:25:38.000
peaceful protest and here's the recommendation here's the recommendation of these experts
00:25:44.320
devote greater resources to open source intelligence to the national security community i mean spying on you
00:25:52.000
gathering and analyzing open source intelligence and then incorporating it into the broader intelligence
00:25:57.520
collection and analysis process is complex it requires specific skill sets which despite recent improvements
00:26:05.600
are often lacking this requires the hiring of analysts with the necessary skills e.g imagery analysis
00:26:13.360
as well as a broader cultural change to remove analysts away from a mindset that still often perceive
00:26:19.760
such intelligence as inferior to classified intelligence so so they're saying we need to spy on citizens more
00:26:25.600
spy on what they're saying on facebook and twitter more on canadian citizens for their political beliefs that's
00:26:32.080
what the truckers were about there is no question that the world is changing rapidly and getting more dangerous
00:26:40.080
in new ways than ever before when we look at the prevalence of misinformation of disinformation
00:26:47.360
the way social media has been weaponized both by uh foreign actors and by people within canada pushing
00:26:54.240
extremist views trying to foment anger and discord whether it's uh extremist ideology and right-wing
00:27:01.680
terrorism on the rise in canada or whether it's uh examples like the illegal uh protests we saw in in in
00:27:10.160
the winter um there are a whole new set of challenges that uh we need to be responding to and that's why we're
00:27:16.800
working closely with our national security agencies working closely with uh organizations like the the
00:27:22.560
the uh canadian security establishment around communications uh to make sure uh that we are able to
00:27:29.920
respond to these new issues new new realities we need to do it however in a way that continues to defend
00:27:36.320
freedom of speech freedom of expression freedom to protest for uh pro to to uh legally protest
00:27:43.360
while at the same time we're taking on more tools uh to keep canadians safe because increasingly we're
00:27:48.480
seeing that things that start online end up having impacts on the real world
00:27:53.440
now i'm sure they would pick up the odd criminal threat on on twitter or facebook but and i'm no
00:28:01.440
expert here uh i'm guessing that criminals generally don't tweet their plans out in public the tweeting
00:28:07.840
and the facebooking is more done by regular people uh regular citizens yeah no trudeau's brain
00:28:14.080
tough trust doesn't really think americans are our top national security threat
00:28:38.800
i do lots of uh media friendly media no i do no god the ones that are here invited
00:28:45.040
no i'm doing i'm doing no media can we sit down and i'll make a time with you and answer some
00:28:50.960
actual tough questions you can you can make a request for a meeting and so you can deny it
00:28:59.760
i never do uh my one question is canadian oil and gas sector survive the net zero approach that's
00:29:07.040
being promoted here i as i said i never do you want if you want an interview with me uh like everybody
00:29:13.760
else you make a request and you can have it and will you accept that like everybody else if i can
00:29:19.120
put it in okay how do you how do you justify the how does the un climate envoy justify the massive
00:29:24.080
carbon footprint here today to set this up this fake city for a week event how did you how did you get
00:29:32.320
here did you thought you walked yeah did you come on a private jet of course not no so how do you
00:29:39.840
justify this look at all of this for one week event the carbon footprint is huge do you think that's
00:29:45.440
a bit of hypocritical oh drop it no look there's uh lots of progress being made but look i'm not
00:29:52.640
doing a stand-up interview okay why not you're walking that way anyways i think people around the
00:29:57.920
world you know they see they say regaining trust that's the whole purpose i do lots of uh media friendly
00:30:04.640
media no i do no god the ones that are here invited look i'm doing i'm doing no media can we sit down
00:30:11.200
and i'll make a time with you and answer some actual tough questions you can you can make a request
00:30:17.520
for a meeting and so you can deny it look as i say with everyone as with everyone else you can do the
00:30:23.360
same thing as with the uh the guy from true north yeah oh you he's he's a good guy but i'm not a good guy
00:30:29.680
i'm sure you're a good guy as well all people are good it's absolutely right but uh but the whole
00:30:34.480
world is looking at this now going you're a pack of hypocrites and you're the you're at the top of
00:30:38.400
the chain there how do you what would you answer people just give me one answer to the people
00:30:44.160
take care sir that's our viewers choice award-winning journalist avi amini trying to get a straight answer
00:30:53.520
from mark carney the former governor of the bank of canada the bank of england
00:30:57.120
a u.n climate uh diplomat and perhaps a future leader of the liberal party of canada you probably
00:31:05.440
saw our friend andrew lawton ask some questions first then avi amini took over there is a gaggle
00:31:12.320
of canadian journalists in davos but they are all of the independent variety six journalists are coming
00:31:19.040
from rebel news including the aforementioned avi his friend rakshan fernando from melbourne australia
00:31:27.120
two brits our own lewis brackpool and sophie corcoran a young lady just ripping it up
00:31:33.760
on social media in that country two americans also
00:31:41.120
and savannah hernandez who is a great field journalist too team of six and our friend andrew lawton
00:31:48.480
i put it to you that you just saw more journalism by avi and andrew with mark carney than the entire media
00:31:55.440
party combined have ever put to that man and joining us now from the airbnb outside of davos
00:32:02.400
switzerland is avi amini i'd be great to see you you've been working so hard and it's late at night
00:32:08.560
over there so thanks for staying up to do this interview give me a report you're there in the
00:32:13.920
airbnb there's six of you tell me a little bit about what your day is like because you've got to schlep
00:32:19.200
into the city you've got to sort of split up tell me how you've been doing it so we drive about an
00:32:24.080
hour and a half from the airbnb because this terrain is pretty intense and they've blocked the main road
00:32:32.000
the highway for security reasons um and you know if you have a business on that highway well too bad
00:32:39.600
and so we're forced to drive through the the alps the mountains and it's um we've just arrived back
00:32:46.720
here it's it's supposed to take about an hour i think it's taken us closer to two just because of the
00:32:52.560
intense and clouds and fog so it was we were driving probably a kilometer an hour at one point
00:32:58.960
um we drive in there and uh then spent the day in town on the on the promenade looking for um i guess
00:33:08.080
it's elitists to challenge on their ideas and and break their safe space uh here's one you button
00:33:16.720
hold the very senior executive at microsoft let's take a look at that you're from microsoft is that
00:33:23.040
right yeah why is microsoft wearing like a un pin
00:33:29.360
rebel news avi from rebel news well we uh because we do a lot of work on the sdgs
00:33:34.880
um you know we address things like skilling and climate change internet access for everyone
00:33:40.560
and i happen to be an sdg advocate uh myself for appointed by the un secretary general and and this
00:33:46.720
year it's you into your thing okay yeah one more question one more question is this year they're
00:33:51.040
saying that this is about regaining trust why do you think so much of the world has lost trust in the
00:33:54.720
wef well the first thing i would say is we live in a world where i think people question much more
00:34:02.720
everything around them and questioning can be a challenge but you know questioning i think is
00:34:07.360
also an opportunity mostly to provide people with better information more information and
00:34:12.080
that's one of the things that the world economic forum does but that doesn't answer that doesn't
00:34:16.800
answer the question why people mistrust and specifically bill gate no no but it's okay that's
00:34:22.400
all right there we go microsoft un looks like uh their one organization there you go
00:34:28.000
okay so you've got to move fast i guess they're all wearing name tags with different kind of
00:34:34.800
access um a lot of these tech and journalist executives are there not to sort of report on
00:34:41.840
it but to participate in it to sponsor it to try and get business deals to lobby for things like
00:34:47.600
they're all insiders there right 100 and what i keep saying is that these guys don't practice what
00:34:53.680
they preach at all what they want the rest of the world to do except for one thing um this segregated
00:35:00.320
society and this class system they've created in davos where they put their name tag and in fact it's
00:35:06.240
all color coded so you know who's more important than who which has been a blessing for any investigative
00:35:14.160
journalists any real journalists that's there trying to track down um the most important figures and
00:35:20.880
those that are really running the show it's been great um i dare say that they may
00:35:27.600
cut their segregation from next year because um they certainly handed us one where we're able to
00:35:34.240
and thanks to the help of andrew gorton there from the true north that we've really worked hard on on
00:35:39.600
tracking him down there was a moment uh where another uh rebel news alumnus jack pasobic was in town
00:35:47.360
and he was surrounded by swiss police with guns i shouldn't say swiss police because they actually
00:35:54.080
had patches that said world economic forum police which is frankly the most terrifying thing i've ever
00:35:59.440
heard and it wasn't until savannah hernandez from our team came there and started uh shining a light
00:36:05.120
of scrutiny on these cops that jack was let go i won't play the whole thing but look at this and look
00:36:09.840
at this lady he's saying i have a reason for detaining him i won't tell it to you turn the camera off
00:36:15.200
it's quite something uh take a look excuse me can i ask you while you're detaining this journalist
00:36:34.480
can you put the phone away please uh can i ask you why you're detaining this journalist i don't answer
00:36:38.640
your question is it uh not uh we're not able to report here please put your phone away okay uh can
00:36:44.160
i ask you guys you can can you yeah can you um please stop filming then we can talk oh why do i
00:36:50.080
need to stop filming because i ask you to it's the per it's my personal right because i don't like to be
00:36:55.760
filmed and it's a right in switzerland um if i don't want to but can i ask why he's being detained then i
00:37:01.440
won't point the camera at you then i won't film you but i would like to know why this journalist is
00:37:05.200
being detained on public property what's detained uh can you explain how come he's being surrounded
00:37:11.280
right now is he allowed to leave the area we're we're just um making a normal police control uh
00:37:17.440
because you know it's web everything is very he specifically was targeted uh there is a reason
00:37:24.000
because we we have to have a reason to to to uh control that what was the reason what was he doing
00:37:31.280
yeah world economic forum police that's actually what their badges say just just crazy times i have
00:37:38.960
a theory i'll be that you and the rest of the six on the rebel team plus jack basobiec plus andrew
00:37:46.320
lawton so that's eight independent journalists you've done more journalism than has ever happened
00:37:50.960
to davos before i think they're going to change the rules next year i think they're going to find
00:37:55.840
some way to try and keep you guys out again uh a hundred percent you see their reaction um when we
00:38:02.880
do confront and more than anything is is utter shock yeah how dare somebody walk up to me and ask me a
00:38:11.680
question and you know you they put they they basically tell you just get in line send me an email and and
00:38:18.400
and i'll um we'll make a time to to do a proper sit-down interview and it's obviously that they're not going to
00:38:25.520
to follow up on that because i'm happy to do that in fact the who um the the the who executive or
00:38:34.960
envoy un m w ho special envoy he was really he was so shocked at the end that all he could do was
00:38:43.840
even turn to um rook sean and at the end because he'd realize i you know i've asked him questions
00:38:52.080
frankly that every normal person who has suffered under um uh covert tyranny in the last two years
00:38:59.840
would ask anything a regular person would ask but he was so shocked like physically shaken up visibly
00:39:06.720
shaken up and he and he realized that he had nowhere to go with me and i i said to him i'll email him
00:39:12.640
which i did email him to give him the option the opportunity to sit down and do the interview and
00:39:17.360
finish it properly so it wasn't on the run so he didn't feel like i threw what he called um
00:39:22.160
ambushing questions but he went to rook sean and and basically tried to guilt trip him and
00:39:28.160
pattern him and said i hope you feel good with yourself that you're doing this you're part of
00:39:32.640
this ambushing journalism i'm just you know that is what journalism is supposed to be but these guys
00:39:40.640
feel so safe and protected why because they've built this um place where it's it's just you know
00:39:47.280
all the journalists there in davos want to be in the club and they know that if you actually question
00:39:54.640
them properly if you do your job you're not going to you're not going to get an invite next year and
00:39:59.280
you're not going to be part of the elite you know something we don't have to worry about ezra because
00:40:04.640
thanks to you and the supporters that we have that we're only accountable to the truth and um
00:40:11.280
we'll keep chasing it yeah all our reports are at w e f world economic forum wf reports.com
00:40:19.200
it's it's like when mark carney was asked about private jets oh just leave that aside put that aside
00:40:24.960
sorry that's not a substantive answer that is not as an acceptable answer for mr global warming when he's
00:40:30.800
asked how he travels let's let's show that world health organization uh uh diplomat um because of
00:40:38.160
of course both the world health organization and the world economic forum are meeting at the same time
00:40:43.840
in the same country so there's lots of cross pollination here's that interview the one where
00:40:47.920
you describe he says i hope you feel good about yourself well i hope you do avi because you're doing
00:40:52.240
more journalism than the rest of the media party put together here's that video i'm an envoy
00:40:57.520
on behalf of who have you many for rebel news in davos switzerland at the world economic forum moments
00:41:03.840
ago i managed to track down one of the special envoys for the who's response to covert 19. now
00:41:12.080
i'm not going to put his full interview yet because i hope viewers can understand and i hope this is not
00:41:19.440
cut out that i've been ambushed in the street and i'm responding to this gentleman's i don't even know his
00:41:26.000
name of you many i'm responding to his questions because i believe that it is my duty to attempt
00:41:32.960
to communicate so i appreciate that i don't mean i don't mean to be strange we're just running fast
00:41:38.320
so that's why i i get it i'm late for a meeting all right it's just that you are asking questions that
00:41:43.840
i can't answer all right thank you for your time i i would like to say to those of you who are watching
00:41:50.320
this you know i would be very happy to be interviewed normally about this can i get a car ambushed i don't
00:41:56.400
have any cards left david where can i catch you to to continue this interview uh let me just write
00:42:02.480
it down i mean i want to show one more because we actually um you actually before you get before you
00:42:08.480
get to that ezra i want the audience to know that that is just that is 30 seconds because i am a man of
00:42:14.800
integrity and a man of my word and i promised him i'll email him to let him have the opportunity
00:42:20.480
for a sit down and i have emailed him and in fact i've also tagged him on twitter to make sure he knows
00:42:25.440
that that opportunity is there and i'm even willing to meet him in geneva at the world health
00:42:31.120
organization assembly but if not i am running with what we have and i promise the viewers um that there is
00:42:40.000
a few newsworthy elements to the interview with him and some of it's going to be shocking including
00:42:46.480
him just a bit of a preview is that he actually condemned any mandates that's one thing he did say
00:42:53.200
so there is an interview at that and maybe that's why he's he's so nervous for it to go out because he
00:42:58.800
kind of went against the grain at one point in uh maybe i forced him into it i don't know the the
00:43:05.440
audience will decide wef reports.com it's going to come out i dare say he's not going to answer me so
00:43:11.120
we will run with the the interview i got with him on the street then i want to show um one more thing
00:43:17.840
you and kid you saw the different media companies as massive sponsors i can only imagine how many
00:43:24.480
hundreds of thousands or possibly even millions of dollars that these sponsors pay to have their
00:43:29.440
names plastered everywhere for the world's oligarchs wall street journal uh i think i saw cnbc
00:43:36.640
um obviously google youtube etc different banks um accounting firms here's the new york times
00:43:44.960
wasn't there to report i'd like to have a thoughtful investigative report by the new york times no no
00:43:50.960
they're not there to the report they're there as a sponsor which tells me you cannot get an honest
00:43:56.720
report from the new york times because they're literally advertisers here i'd like to show your
00:44:00.960
interaction with this lady who i understand is the deputy editor there take a look rebecca how you
00:44:06.000
doing from new york times can i ask you a quick question as ivy from rebel news how is the public
00:44:11.280
meant to believe that the new york times is here to actually ask the tough questions when you're here
00:44:16.080
as an invited guest how are people meant to rely on the mainstream media we have if you wouldn't mind
00:44:22.960
we're just having just if you could give us you know thank you you don't want to explain to people
00:44:28.480
why we should trust the mainstream media no of course no comment there we go so that's the point
00:44:34.480
here is in davos you have the mainstream media that are not here to report the truth they are
00:44:39.680
here as part of the event invited guests with a white name tags now you're more polite than me i think
00:44:46.880
i would have asked one more round of questions uh but you know you left good enough alone i think you
00:44:51.120
made your point that these folks have nothing to say these folks who like to hold others to account
00:44:56.800
refuse themselves to be accountable absolutely and i think it's important you know to find balance
00:45:01.920
between um what people try to say you're you're harassing you know innocent people and i'm there to
00:45:09.280
do my job i'm there to make a point to show the world what the truth and the truth is that the mainstream
00:45:14.720
media media is is not unbiased they are actually part of the story that they're supposed to be there
00:45:22.400
reporting on um and and an active part and in fact worse than that like you said they spend hundreds of
00:45:30.000
thousands probably even millions of dollars to be a part of it so how can we get objective journalism
00:45:36.560
there we can't they can say whatever they want about us but the fact is that wef do not own us
00:45:45.440
yeah the viewers do well you made the longest journey you and ruckshan came all the way from
00:45:50.000
melbourne australia which is quite a journey our americans traveled far our brits not quite as far
00:45:54.640
but still it's a schlep you've got a couple more days in the continent uh without giving away any of our
00:46:00.240
journalistic moves because we don't want to telegraph to the bad guys what we're up to next
00:46:04.240
um how much longer are you in the country we'll be here till friday where uh both the wef and who uh
00:46:15.040
end their uh um their meetings their respective meetings both in davos and geneva to be fair now
00:46:24.080
that i myself and ruckshan we got here early because we need to get over the jet lag and we
00:46:29.440
we we witnessed the construction of this fake town and what must be the enormous um carbon footprint
00:46:37.920
from these people that are telling us how to live our life to be better people but uh there's a part
00:46:44.480
of me that wishes that i probably should stay just to see um the destruction the wrecking ball that will
00:46:51.440
go through davos when everybody leaves um because you know if if the setup is anything to go by ezra
00:47:00.400
um i i i have a feeling because these are not the nicest people in the world i don't think they care
00:47:05.680
much for the town of davos or or geneva or wherever they're setting up um for the cameras it's all when
00:47:13.360
the cameras then when the mainstream media's cameras are there the cameras that um have paid hundreds of
00:47:20.160
thousands if not millions of dollars to be there when they move on when they're not there whether
00:47:25.200
it's before or after um it is an absolute disgrace what goes on there well avi i i couldn't be prouder
00:47:33.360
of you and the rest of the team some of whom i know more than others you know we have some pretty
00:47:38.480
new teammates there including uh sophie corcoran a very young lady from the uk who we've only just
00:47:44.640
met and jeremy lafredo our newest hire in new york so it how's it been working with these
00:47:50.320
journalists from three different continents three different styles different i mean you're the most
00:47:56.000
seasoned of the group sophie's the the most junior and there's everyone in between how are you guys
00:48:01.360
getting along and and are you learning from each other are you becoming friends absolutely it's been
00:48:08.560
every time we do something like this ezra it's it's a learning experience i remember in hong kong
00:48:13.120
even before i was officially with rebel i i you know i met some of the rebel team there and we
00:48:17.760
worked alongside each other i think every time if you don't learn something from um whether it's the
00:48:23.360
most experienced or the newest uh team members then you're doing something wrong everybody's gives
00:48:30.160
something has got something to offer and it's been amazing it's been tough it's been long days um tiring
00:48:37.120
but um uh i wouldn't give it up for anything it's been amazing and i want to thank
00:48:42.080
everybody that's supporting the work here because whilst it is hard um it's an honor but it's uh
00:48:48.400
it's also an experience of a lifetime that i'll never forget and hopefully um we shine a light in
00:48:53.760
a place that's quite dark well you sure have listen you you mentioned the the airbnb you mentioned the
00:49:00.160
van that you're going back and forth of course you guys have to eat there's lots of little expenses
00:49:04.560
keep those receipts and and i and i sent this uh message to the other reporters to keep those receipts
00:49:10.240
because we don't want you out of pocket and we're crowdfunding the airbnb and and other things that
00:49:15.440
we didn't disclose i'll mention it now that we're coming to an end we had a lawyer a swiss lawyer that
00:49:23.040
we hired and had on standby because i was worried that what happened to jack what happened to our team
00:49:29.040
it's happened before so you know we did a lot of preparations behind the scenes we had the flights
00:49:34.000
the the taxi the car so keep all those things because obviously we want to reimburse you and
00:49:40.240
the other journalists i i think it's money well spent i think our viewers are so interested in this
00:49:45.920
subject that that this is something they really value folks if you're watching and you haven't
00:49:50.800
gone to wefreports.com yet you should go there see all the work from the six journalists and if you
00:49:57.280
want to chip in to help cover the cost for these guys maybe even buy them a beer when they're in the
00:50:01.440
swiss alps that's the closest thing it'll be to a vacation these guys are not on holidays i can
00:50:06.000
assure you that they travel economy class but if you want to chip in go to wefreports.com
00:50:11.520
i'll be say hi to the rest of the team and have a good night i know it's super late over there
00:50:15.760
thank you thanks for everything okay right on good night cheers well there you have it our friend
00:50:21.200
avi amini our chief australia correspondent and two-time back-to-back winner of our viewers choice
00:50:41.360
hey welcome back your letters to me marie jean garrity says excellent interview hope a bunch more
00:50:47.280
people get it real soon are you talking about my interview with manny monogreno i like that
00:50:52.880
guys great to see him again paul batik says amazing that they don't even have to explain
00:51:00.400
the current rationale all other laws or policies have to have an explanation especially if a charter
00:51:07.280
issue you know there were so many things done wrong legally judicially legislatively medically
00:51:15.360
statistically policing journalism everything failed everything failed you know there's some amazing
00:51:23.920
videos our teams are getting out of davos uh you got to check out the website wefreports.com
00:51:31.760
and jeremy lafredo our new new york reporter makes the point that the theme of davos is building back trust
00:51:39.040
but they don't know why they lost it they don't know what they did wrong because they can't admit they
00:51:43.840
did anything wrong they want to build back trust but they refuse to come to grips with what they
00:51:48.240
did to destroy the trust in the first place rorschach says what shocks me is how the conservatives
00:51:55.840
are not mentioning this pfizer documents at all you know i myself haven't dug deep into them although
00:52:01.840
we've criticized pfizer many times maybe i should take a look at the papers well that's our show for
00:52:07.280
today until tomorrow let me leave you with our video of the day from sheila um calgary is stonewalling
00:52:15.680
rebel news on how much money bureaucrats blew on climate change influencers it really bugs me that
00:52:22.960
our government spends money on these like tick tockers and instagram models to talk politics it just
00:52:29.520
it feels like a weird corrupt bribe and calgary won't disclose it here's sheila's video on that i'll see
00:52:35.920
you tomorrow just a few weeks ago actually at the end of april 2022 rebel news filed for access to
00:52:41.200
information regarding the amount of money the city of calgary is spending on third party social media
00:52:47.120
influencers to push the government's agenda on a whole host of issues we hadn't even quite asked for
00:52:53.120
the names of the people or companies they were contracting with we just wanted to know the bulk numbers
00:52:58.800
the costs and if the numbers were outrageous then that's when we were going to dig down and file a
00:53:03.760
second access to information request or maybe a third or even a fourth to get all the details of
00:53:08.640
the contracts again we would only do that if the numbers were ridiculous and if the spending was
00:53:12.720
insane you see unlike the city of calgary we're trying to be frugal over here because these sorts
00:53:18.880
of investigations cost money and precious time and we even have a researcher who helps us carry them
00:53:25.040
out we try to be strategic and follow the breadcrumbs if indeed there is a breadcrumb trail at all
00:53:30.720
and here somebody left me a whole bakery in the woods what i can tell you is that over the course
00:53:36.160
of january 1st 2020 up until april 25th 2022 the city of calgary has spent nearly 75 000 hiring paid
00:53:44.000
tweeters and instagramers to talk about all sorts of things like labor day canada day tomorrow's
00:53:49.280
chinatown their toolkit for covid and a climate program just to name a few but if you look right here
00:53:55.200
in 2022 i cannot tell you the specific numbers of the contracts for a whole bunch of these things
00:54:01.440
and in particular the climate program you know that's really the one i'm interested in the cities
00:54:06.720
redacted it for some reason while also publishing the data on other programs i think that's odd don't you
00:54:13.280
now i want to know how much that money was and now i want to know who they paid it to we are going to
00:54:19.200
appeal those redactions and just to be clear those 16.1 redactions that's the section of the
00:54:24.800
information law they're using to justify blacking things out that's the disclosure harmful to business
00:54:31.040
interests of a third party clause so if the city tells us how much money they blew on so-called
00:54:37.120
influencers it would be harmful to the business interests of the influencers how could it be harmful
00:54:44.000
they haven't even told us the names of the paid tweeters and instagramers so how could it harm them
00:54:49.440
the amount of money spent by the city on influencers particularly on the issue of climate change
00:54:54.720
in the heart of oil country should not be a trade or state secret especially when the city has no
00:55:00.880
problem giving away other information on other influencer contracts on other issues for example
00:55:06.640
apparently it's harmful to find out how much calgary taxpayers were paying for climate change postings but
00:55:12.000
not for canada day ones what's the difference so today i'm just showing you the first
00:55:19.040
part of an access to information investigation that is just getting started if you'd like to help me
00:55:24.720
find out how much money the city of calgary actually paid to climate influencers to push their
00:55:29.920
climate scare agenda and now you can help me find out exactly who they paid it to you can do that by
00:55:36.400
topping up our investigations fund at rebel investigates.com you know we don't take any
00:55:41.200
money from justin trudeau to hold governments to account and that means all levels of government we're
00:55:46.320
proudly independent and supported by our viewers at home so thank you these people don't get to spend
00:55:52.320
taxpayer money in secret and i think the new mayor of calgary god gondek best learn that sooner rather
00:55:59.040
than later for the sake of calgarians i am going to drag this information out of them now we can do it
00:56:05.040
the easy way or we can do it the hard way with your help though i will get it for rebel news i'm sheila gunreed