Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ I thought that Vladimir Putin would be banning TV stations — but actually it’s Trudeau who’s doing that

00:00:00.000 Hello, my friends. Today, I talk about an authoritarian world leader who's banning TV

00:00:05.480 channels he doesn't like. No, I'm not talking about Vladimir Putin. I'm talking about Justin

00:00:09.500 Trudeau. I'll give you the details ahead. But before I do, let me invite you to become a

00:00:12.440 subscriber to Rebel News Plus. That's the video version of this channel. Just go to rebelnewsplus.com,

00:00:17.820 click subscribe, eight bucks a month. You get this show every day in video form, plus weekly shows

00:00:23.160 from four other of our teammates. It's worth the eight bucks a month. And by the way, we need that

00:00:27.920 money to stay independent from Trudeau. We don't take a dime from him. All right, here's today's show.

00:00:48.160 Tonight, I thought that Vladimir Putin would be banning TV stations, but actually, it's Trudeau

00:00:54.400 who's doing that. It's March 1st, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.

00:01:00.420 Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?

00:01:04.140 There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.

00:01:08.200 The only thing I have to say to the government about why I publish it is because it's my bloody

00:01:13.080 right to do so.

00:01:14.060 I don't think it's a healthy sign that this tweet is considered normal. I bet even you think it's

00:01:26.020 normal. We just see it so often. 600 episodes making us laugh. An epic milestone. Congratulations,

00:01:33.460 22 minutes. So we've got a Trudeau cabinet minister, Pablo Rodriguez, praising Trudeau's

00:01:39.880 government comedians on Trudeau's CBC state broadcaster. None of that is a real or authentic

00:01:45.880 expression of Canada. It's all political propaganda. It's all bought and paid for. You cannot actually

00:01:52.560 be a government comedian unless you are a court jester in the style of William Summers. You know

00:01:59.440 who that is. We've talked about him before. William Summers was the official jester to Henry VIII,

00:02:03.960 who was a sort of leader of the opposition before that was a thing. His job was to mock the king

00:02:10.180 to his face, to challenge him, to rebut the flatterers, to bring him back down to earth, 1.00

00:02:16.400 given all the professional liars that you could imagine hung around a king. And Will Summers was

00:02:22.260 given special immunity to do so. He said what no one else dared to say to the king's face. Yeah,

00:02:30.000 the government comedians on the government broadcaster, the CBC, they do the opposite.

00:02:35.840 They attack Trudeau's enemies for him with a laugh track. That's not normal, by the way. I know a lot

00:02:42.800 of comedians are left-wing anyways. I get that. A lot of the arts are left-wing. I get that. But I'm

00:02:47.880 here to tell you it is not normal for a government cabinet minister to promote a government comedy

00:02:52.560 show on the government broadcaster. That is not normal in a healthy democracy. That's something

00:02:58.380 you'd see in Turkey or Iran or Russia, which is why I mention it. As far as I know, there is no ban

00:03:07.200 on Western broadcasters in Russia. At least the ones that I checked, the big ones, including state

00:03:13.940 broadcasters based in the West. For example, here's a dedicated British broadcasting channel, BBC,

00:03:21.180 called BBC Russian. It's an entire news channel published by the government of the United Kingdom

00:03:29.320 targeting Russia in Russian. Here's the U.S. government's Russian language broadcaster

00:03:35.880 called Voice of America in Russian. I don't think either are blocked in Russia. And frankly,

00:03:43.000 I'm not sure what that would even mean to try and block something. It's pretty easy to get access to

00:03:47.460 something on the internet that is blocked for geographical reasons. There's something called

00:03:52.400 a VPN. Maybe you've heard of that, or you can download a VPN that gets around a geographical

00:03:58.200 barrier by making it seem like your computer or your phone is located in a different country.

00:04:03.820 So I don't think Putin even tries to block BBC Russian or Voice of America Russian. But Pablo Rodriguez,

00:04:11.440 Trudeau's heritage minister who loves the government broadcaster, he's in charge of the CBC,

00:04:16.780 and he's also in charge of internet censorship, by the way. He just banned Russian TV stations from

00:04:22.500 Canada. Now you can still get the Trudeau CBC state broadcaster in Russia, but you can't get Russia

00:04:30.340 today, Putin's state broadcaster over here. At least not on TV where it had served countless thousands

00:04:39.680 of Russian-speaking Canadians for years. Now it started with a public suggestion by Rodriguez that

00:04:47.620 if Canada's heavily regulated cable companies knew what's best for them, they would delete Russia 0.90

00:04:53.960 today from their cable packages. I share the concerns of many Canadians about the presence of Russia today 0.84

00:05:01.240 in our broadcasting system. We're looking at all options. Now I don't like foreign government 1.00

00:05:08.560 propaganda here, but there sure is a lot of it starting with the CBC's own government propaganda,

00:05:15.180 but going much further than that, I mean, Trudeau's government press gallery specifically approves

00:05:22.680 applications from state broadcasters from Russia, Ukraine, Vietnam, and they just welcomed an

00:05:31.220 application from China's Xinhua, that's the state broadcaster for the Chinese Communist Party,

00:05:36.220 and that's the official precincts of Canada's parliament. Those folks get privileged access to

00:05:42.220 Trudeau and the government and the buildings. Rebel News was officially refused by the press gallery. So

00:05:47.720 Trudeau's heritage minister told Canada's broadcasters to cancel Russia today, and they did.

00:05:55.780 And I learned this not from those companies themselves, but from the government itself.

00:06:00.380 Here's Pablo Rodriguez. I commend Bell for removing RT. That's Russia today. Russia has been conducting 0.88

00:06:06.200 warfare in Ukraine since 2014 and information warfare across the world. RT is the propaganda arm

00:06:12.460 of Putin's regime that spreads disinformation. It is no place here. I'll have more to say

00:06:17.720 very, very soon. Well, what do you think was going on behind the scenes? The company's got the

00:06:24.360 message. What's the word for it when big government and big corporations make political decisions

00:06:31.340 together behind closed doors? I think that is actually a technical definition of fascism, isn't it?

00:06:37.740 Here's what the government reported. Rogers will also remove RT and replace it with a broadcast of

00:06:45.800 the Ukrainian flag. Now, that's not a business decision, then, is it? It's a political decision

00:06:52.220 just to have a flag there. Here's another one. Thank you to Shah for also removing RT from its network.

00:06:59.560 We must all do our part to fight back against Russia's propaganda. Must we all do our part to

00:07:06.400 fight propaganda? I accept that Russia today engages in propaganda. I accept that fact, just as Ukraine does 0.93

00:07:13.540 through its government and its government news network, just as Trudeau and Pablo Rodriguez do,

00:07:18.980 especially the CBC state broadcaster. Is this new partnership between the government and the media

00:07:23.600 to censor viewpoints, is it really mandatory? As Rodriguez says, we must do all our part. So do I have to do my

00:07:30.340 part to censor people? Say, are we at war? Can I ask? I applaud TELUS for joining Canadian broadcasters

00:07:40.540 and giving RT the boot. Canadians stand with the people of Ukraine. I'm sure many do. Maybe even most do.

00:07:48.860 I also know that a lot of Russians in Canada watched Russian news. I guess they're being punished too,

00:07:55.100 or they're being treated as untrustworthy, maybe, and that we have to save them from hearing things we

00:08:00.000 don't want them to hear, maybe. So Trudeau's cabinet minister says ban them, and they ban them.

00:08:08.000 I mean, would you argue with your boss if you're a cable company? And don't forget that the government

00:08:12.700 is their boss. Look at the rationale. They have disinformation. What is disinformation, by the way?

00:08:18.020 Spin? Is that what it means? One man's propaganda is another man's truth. Canadians get to make up their 0.93

00:08:24.220 own minds, except when Trudeau says they can't, I guess. This from the CBC state broadcaster,

00:08:30.960 this is not disinformation, apparently. I do ask that because, you know, given Canada's support of

00:08:38.020 Ukraine in this current crisis with Russia, I don't know if it's far-fetched to ask, but there is

00:08:44.840 concern that Russian actors could be continuing to fuel things as this protest grows, but perhaps even

00:08:52.900 instigating it from the outset. Well, again, I'm going to defer to our partners in the public safety,

00:09:01.080 the trained officials and experts in that area. Can we get them banned, too? Of course,

00:09:07.200 big tech is getting in on it. Here's Google YouTube with a statement out of Europe. They say,

00:09:12.140 due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, we're blocking YouTube channels connected to RT and Sputnik,

00:09:17.960 that's another Russian news agency, across Europe, effective immediately. It'll take time for our

00:09:23.840 systems to fully ramp up. Our teams continue to monitor the situation around the clock to take swift

00:09:28.700 action. Swift action. Is Google YouTube a country now? I mean, it does have 140,000 employees. That's as big

00:09:41.060 as, you know, a dozen small countries. But it's as big as a big country financially. And it has more

00:09:49.640 power than any country when it comes to the internet, doesn't it? I mean, they literally banned Donald

00:09:54.560 Trump when he was the sitting president. Why wouldn't they ban Vladimir Putin or any of his

00:09:59.740 associates? Here's a former British politician, Nick Clegg, who is now a senior executive at Facebook.

00:10:05.940 We have received requests from a number of governments and the European Union to take

00:10:11.380 further steps in relation to Russian state-controlled media. Given the exceptional nature of the current

00:10:16.900 situation, we will be restricting access to RT and Sputnik across the EU at this time.

00:10:24.260 Here's the Globe and Mail reporting the news. They say, Russia's RT to be removed from Canadian lineup by

00:10:30.240 Bell, Rogers, Shaw, and Telus. The story doesn't have a word against censorship. In fact, they quote,

00:10:37.240 the Conservative Party is wanting the government to do more and harder and faster. Conservative

00:10:44.520 interim leader Candace Bergen has called on Ottawa to issue an order of general application directing the

00:10:50.100 CRTC to adopt a new broadcasting policy that revokes the licenses of such outlets so that Russia today

00:10:57.680 is taken off Canada's airwaves. Okay, so that's censorship. And that's the Globe and Mail.

00:11:07.440 It's a bit weird to read of a cheering for censorship in the Globe and Mail, given that China literally

00:11:17.200 publishes a propaganda section written by the Chinese embassy, but made to look like a special news report

00:11:26.080 in the Globe and Mail. It's called China Watch. Maybe you've seen it. China Watch makes it sound

00:11:30.820 skeptical, almost hostile to China. But in fact, it's written by the Chinese embassy and paid for by

00:11:36.920 the Chinese embassy. And the Globe and Mail runs it in the middle of their newspaper. So that's fine.

00:11:43.760 And so is pretty much everything from China, whether it's the Olympics or YouTube channels for Chinese

00:11:49.320 propaganda, even though YouTube itself is illegal in China. So there's that. We have had censorship in

00:11:57.240 time of war in Canada, World War II, for example. We have propaganda in times of war also. But Canada is not in a war.

00:12:07.560 Canada is using someone else's war as an excuse to censor a TV channel for Canadians.

00:12:14.840 And of course, no one speaks out. I'm not particularly a fan of Russia today. I'm not particularly a fan of Russia. 0.75

00:12:20.680 I probably watched a grand total of an hour of RT in my whole life. Say, do you think censorship of

00:12:27.560 Canadian TV channels will stop with RT? Or do you think that's just the start of that? Do you think it

00:12:36.040 might just be used against Canadians who have a different point of view from Trudeau on other matters,

00:12:40.920 like the truckers of freedom? And when censorship is used against others, probably against us,

00:12:49.240 do you really expect the conservative party to try to stop them? Stay with us for more.

00:12:55.480 You can go to Costco, you can go to Walmart, you can go shopping. You know, you don't know if the person has a shot

00:13:13.880 beside you or not. But we also know that it doesn't matter if you have one shot or 10 shots, you can catch COVID.

00:13:20.120 You see, the Prime Minister has triple shots. And I know hundreds of people with three shots that caught

00:13:25.320 COVID. We just have to be careful. We've got to always make sure we wash our hands and move forward.

00:13:31.480 But, Colin, we can't stay in this position forever. We've got to learn to live with this and get on with

00:13:37.000 our lives. I bet if I asked every single person in this room, do you want these damn masks or do you

00:13:41.960 want them off? They want them off. They want to get back to normal. They want to be able to go for dinner

00:13:46.600 with their families. And there's every single person, including myself, knows people that are

00:13:50.440 unvaccinated. You know, sure, there's the rebel rousers. And then there's just hardworking people

00:13:56.440 that just don't believe in it. And that's their choice. This is about, again, that democracy and

00:14:02.760 freedoms and liberties. And I hate, as a government, telling anyone what to do. We just got to get moving

00:14:08.920 forward and get out of this and protect the jobs. You know, I think a lot of people call them

00:14:15.480 probably yourself, too. Everyone's done with us. Like, we are done with it. Let's start moving on

00:14:21.720 and cautiously. And, you know, we've followed the rules, all of us, like 90% of us, for over two

00:14:28.920 years. The world's done with it. So let's just move forward. That was the first honest thing that Doug

00:14:34.920 Ford has said in two years. First thing that wasn't scripted for him by, I don't know, Pfizer or some

00:14:42.440 chief medical officer who was enjoying their celebrity. Of course, even there, he says no

00:14:47.080 one wants masks. Of course, all the staffers and ministers around him had their masks on.

00:14:51.960 And the funny thing is, he's acting as if he's always believed that, when, of course,

00:14:57.080 he was the one who declared an emergency in Ontario. And he's the one who fired hundreds,

00:15:03.560 perhaps thousands of nurses and others from the public sector. By the way, they're still fired,

00:15:08.840 even though tonight marks the first night that unvaccinated people in Ontario can go to the

00:15:13.880 restaurant. But even that's not quite true, is it? Because like in Alberta, he's maintaining the QR

00:15:19.560 code system to have vaccine passports implemented by individual businesses. So if they're not medically

00:15:26.840 necessary anymore, why are they allowed as a tool of discrimination? And why is the government of Ontario

00:15:32.600 Ontario supporting that? You can't trust a word these people say. And you notice that they're

00:15:36.840 talking about the damage they did in the passive third person as if someone else did the damage.

00:15:42.920 And Doug Ford's mad that he's learned about it. Yeah, I don't buy it. Joining me now via Skype to

00:15:48.360 talk about this is our friend Andrew Lawton, the boss of The Andrew Lawton Show and a reporter for

00:15:54.280 The True North. Good to see you again, my friend. Thanks for your time. That clip was from a few days back.

00:15:59.960 I think that's the most authentic and natural I've heard Doug Ford in two years. What do you think?

00:16:06.680 Yeah. And I think it was certainly in the midst of the convoy fever where pretty much everyone

00:16:13.320 was fed up with it. And I think a lot of politicians were starting to see that the Canadian

00:16:17.320 population that had been, I think, for much of the last two years, fairly complacent and actually

00:16:22.660 welcoming of restrictions had started to turn. And I think that, again, there's a lot of a lot you

00:16:28.360 could ask about whether that was the authentic Ford or the Ford that imposed the vaccine requirements

00:16:33.160 and restrictions, or perhaps both were true. But certainly it did go to a lot of places. But even

00:16:39.000 then, that was, I think, a couple of weeks back now. The vaccine passport is gone in Ontario. But as

00:16:45.160 you alluded to, still some restrictions in place and still no end date for the mask mandate.

00:16:49.800 Yeah. You know, I haven't been to a restaurant in a while. I do. There's a couple of restaurants

00:16:54.520 in Ontario that I go to that don't ask me for a mask and don't ask me if I'm vaxxed.

00:16:59.960 And if someone says, I mean, and I just, like, I just don't engage in those conversations. And I

00:17:05.180 know these places won't kick me out. I don't want to name them because they'll probably get in trouble.

00:17:10.520 But I'm, you know, so tonight is theoretically I can go to my old favorite restaurants. But even then,

00:17:15.040 I don't want to wear a mask. I don't want to, I don't want to go through this public health

00:17:19.120 theater. We know it's all BS. We know, as Doug Ford says, we're all sick of it. But they can't

00:17:25.280 quite give it up, can they? The mask will be the last thing to go because it was the first thing to

00:17:30.480 come. Because I believe the mask is the flag of lockdownism. It's the symbol that you're submitting.

00:17:38.240 Because you can't tell just by looking at someone if they're vaxxed or not. You can't tell if

00:17:43.120 they've had it or not. But you can tell if they're wearing a mask if they're a believer,

00:17:48.320 if they're a submitter. And that's why it's such a proxy for things. I might go to a restaurant

00:17:54.240 tonight, Andrew, for the first time in probably a year. But I'm not wearing a mask. I'm just telling

00:18:00.640 you. Yeah, I think you're right there about the symbol of the mask. And the one problem that I have,

00:18:08.720 well, I have many problems. But one of the main problems I have with the masks is that they are

00:18:13.440 pretend unintrusive. Yeah, the people that promote them claim they are least intrusive. They are well,

00:18:20.560 it's just a piece of paper on your face. It's just it's it's barely anything at all. How is that a

00:18:24.880 problem? But doctors wear these all the time. And people try to claim that it's insignificant,

00:18:29.680 but it's not. It's not insignificant. It's entirely abnormal to go about in society,

00:18:35.280 not being able to see the faces of the people you are interacting with. I talked to someone who had

00:18:41.580 started a new job recently in an actual workplace. And they said, you know, they had never actually

00:18:46.460 seen their co workers faces, except for on, you know, the odd zoom call, if they were going in from

00:18:52.420 home or on Facebook or whatever, but they had never actually in person seen these people's faces that

00:18:56.800 they work with. And that is symbolic. It's not something you can quantify, but it is a very real

00:19:02.080 issue. And more importantly, it is just as it's a symbol of compliance to some people. It's also a

00:19:07.900 symbol to people like me of a new normal. You and I have both run into each other in foreign cities and

00:19:14.540 in cities across the country. And, you know, air travel is something that I fear is never going back

00:19:19.640 to the way it was before. Right now, you need to be vaccinated to get on an airplane in Canada.

00:19:23.920 And even once you're on there, you've got to keep the mask on. And heaven forbid, you take more than

00:19:28.620 30 seconds to eat your peanuts or whatever. There's a flight attendant telling you to put it back on

00:19:33.040 stuff like that is not the way a normal functioning society operates. Yeah. You know, and it it was the

00:19:39.900 little tool that every petty little authoritarian used to trump their neighbor, not only so they could

00:19:45.680 say they were more morally righteous than their neighbor, but it was a weapon to attack their

00:19:50.700 neighbor. And it really showed an authoritarian subtext or just beneath the surface. And it reminded

00:19:59.760 me of the fact that and I'm not comparing the lockdown to the Nazi Holocaust, but I am comparing

00:20:08.580 aspects of authoritarianism and how they can take root in a liberal society that sees itself as liberal

00:20:16.280 and educated and educated and cultured. Because remember, Nazism didn't happen overnight. Hitler 0.86

00:20:21.140 came into office, I would say, in 1933. It took him six more years to get full power in his hand.

00:20:30.560 And the height of the Holocaust was actually 10 years. So from 33 to 43, it took 10 years for the most

00:20:38.120 liberal, cultured, educated country in Europe to become fully Nazi and deathly. And obviously, 0.84

00:20:44.720 we didn't go down the whole road. But boy, we sure went to the demonization part. We went to the

00:20:50.540 segregation part. We went to the fire doctors who didn't agree with it and condemn. We sure whipped

00:21:01.080 up the crowd. And as I've said before, I think we walked several years down the road. 1935 were the

00:21:08.800 Nuremberg laws, the segregationist laws. We didn't hit 1938, which was Kristallnacht, 0.68

00:21:14.220 where there was the smashing and the rioting. But we went a few years down that path, Andrew.

00:21:18.300 What do you think of that?

00:21:19.760 I mean, listen, I'm not Jewish. So I make a very deliberate point of avoiding any comparison to

00:21:25.400 that episode of history, because I don't feel like I've earned the right to make those comparisons.

00:21:30.080 But I do think that just more broadly on the question of authoritarianism,

00:21:34.320 there is a significant part that we often view authoritarianism in terms of the actual authoritarian

00:21:39.600 leaders. But they only have legitimacy because people give them legitimacy before it gets to that

00:21:45.220 point where they have the apparatus of a state and of enforcers. And to go back to the Canadian

00:21:50.300 context here, that's been one of the biggest frustrations I've had for most of the last two

00:21:54.440 years is how Canadians have actually been condemning the government for not regulating them more,

00:22:00.140 condemning the government for not putting more restrictions in place.

00:22:03.100 There were businesses before Ontario had a vaccine passport that were demanding Doug Ford

00:22:08.400 impose a vaccine passport on them. And I'm like, well, hang on, if that's important to you as a

00:22:12.880 business, why don't you make the decision? The reason they didn't want to is because they knew

00:22:16.560 that it would alienate their customers. They wanted to blame someone else. So there's a huge problem

00:22:21.640 of people looking to the government to solve their problems when it comes at the expense of their

00:22:26.240 own liberties and those of their countrymen.

00:22:28.620 Yeah. You know, my life has been changed and I'm a grown man. For children, it's been their lives

00:22:36.500 have been devastated. But I remember how I used to be. Our office is in sort of a light industrial

00:22:41.560 park part of Toronto. It's not in the downtown. It's sort of an interesting neighborhood. And there

00:22:45.560 were there was a bakery I would always stop in the morning just for it was an Italian bakery. I would

00:22:49.760 stop for a quick little espresso and maybe a little, you know, Italian baking or something.

00:22:54.580 And I just loved going there and seeing the workers every day and saying hi to the, like

00:23:00.040 it was just a neighborhood feeling. And I felt like I was connected to the neighbors and, and

00:23:04.820 maybe they knew my name or maybe they had forgotten it, but I always waved and said hi. And it was

00:23:08.400 a ritual. And the places in your neighborhood are part of your ritual. They're the backdrop to

00:23:12.980 your life. And I remember when I went in there and, and I had been friends with them for, for

00:23:18.680 years and we had done thousands of dollars worth. We would have our lunches catered from this

00:23:22.920 little bakery at our office here. So we weren't just friendly neighbors. We were, we were fairly

00:23:28.020 serious customers and just put your mask on. No, it has to be above your nose. And I'm thinking

00:23:34.340 what happened? You've just destroyed, I'm not going to call it a friendship, but I tell

00:23:39.260 you, I haven't been back there since that. And all these little places I would go, all these

00:23:46.400 folks I would say, Hey, how are you? How are you doing? It pitted us against each other.

00:23:50.900 It pitted shopkeeper against customer, neighbor against neighbor, family member against family

00:23:56.100 member. And it licensed rage instead of politeness. And I, I think that long after the legal instruments

00:24:06.080 for this lockdown are gone, I think the destruction of social niceties and politeness and courtesy

00:24:16.780 will take a generation to, to, to regrow. That's what I think.

00:24:21.980 Oh, I think you're right about that. I, there were a lot of people that derived great purpose

00:24:26.300 from these COVID restrictions, from the bylaw enforcement officers that in April of 2020,

00:24:31.780 we're handing out tickets for playing on closed slides and swing sets to the people now that are

00:24:37.640 saying, no, no, no, you have to show that you're vaccinated and have your mask on. And you've got to,

00:24:42.120 you know, pin it around your nose and all of that. There are people that have derived great purpose

00:24:46.140 from the control that the pandemic has brought them. And a lot of these people are going to,

00:24:50.460 to retreat back into irrelevance once this is all done. And I think that's very threatening because

00:24:55.660 they've enjoyed for the last two years, a sort of cultural hegemony on, on the narrative,

00:25:00.740 which they will not have forever. And I think fewer and fewer Canadians are accepting.

00:25:05.080 Yeah. You know what? I mean, it's hard to even, I mean, I think some people are coming out of the

00:25:10.540 haze now. There was, I don't know if you read that case from family court in Ontario of a judge.

00:25:16.060 Yes, yes.

00:25:16.800 That was just, I think that, that felt like the fever broke to have that judge speak that way.

00:25:22.340 Frankly, I think that the combination of the truckers and then the Ukraine war just sort of

00:25:26.600 making everything else seem trivial. I think that snapped a lot of people out of the fever. I saw the

00:25:32.460 New Zealand high court recently announced they were scrapping their mandates. So I think that

00:25:37.500 certain slow institutions are catching up. But I remember in there in 2020, when there was literally

00:25:43.320 police do not cross tape on children's playgrounds. So that, so the kids are not allowed to be outside

00:25:50.760 where you don't catch the virus. Kids who are the least affected by the virus and no exercise,

00:25:56.280 go home and watch Netflix and order fast food delivered to your house. The, the anti-public

00:26:03.020 health, like roping off, chaining off police tape on outdoor playgrounds. We did that. And I think it's

00:26:12.720 important never to forget what was done because I feel like we're coming close to the end of at least

00:26:18.680 some of it. Justin Trudeau is going to hang on to what he can forever. But I think that, I think we have

00:26:24.720 to remember who did this to us and in what name they did it to us. And I think we have to remember

00:26:28.520 not to be duped again. Last word to you, my friend. Yeah. The first couple of weeks of this,

00:26:33.880 I'll admit there was a lot of distribution of the benefit of the doubt. We were seeing horror stories

00:26:39.240 emerging from Wuhan in China. We didn't know what we were dealing with. And at a certain point,

00:26:44.360 people were prepared to give the government and each other the benefit of the doubt. Social distancing

00:26:49.120 wasn't a state mandate. It was something that people did because it was courteous. You give

00:26:53.880 people extra space if you're passing them in a hallway or something. And at a certain point,

00:26:58.600 the government knew and decided to willfully obstruct the truth on COVID. And I'm not talking

00:27:04.660 about this in a conspiratorial way. I'm talking about committing to a path, committing to a narrative,

00:27:09.320 committing to an approach that flies in the face of the science. And more importantly,

00:27:14.240 that opened up a whole host of other issues that still they have been unwilling to address

00:27:19.280 the impact on children as one it will take years for us to understand the full extent of.

00:27:24.720 Yeah. Well, I feel like the tides are turning in public sentiment. I might go out for dinner tonight

00:27:31.000 and I can tell you I'm not wearing a mask in the lineup. There's nothing dumber than standing up,

00:27:35.800 wear a mask, sit down, take your mask off. I'm not going to go through that again. Let's see.

00:27:39.480 No, but the COVID has an altitude. It goes above your head when you're sitting.

00:27:43.820 That's right. What a world we have all lived through. I feel like you and us here at Rebel

00:27:48.740 News and a handful of others were on the right side of history, but the vast majority were not.

00:27:53.820 And that's something we're going to have to think about for a long time. Great to see you again,

00:27:56.620 my friend. Thanks for your time today. As always.

00:27:59.240 All right. There you have it, Andrew Lawton. He's the boss of the Andrew Lawton Show.

00:28:02.300 And you can watch him at tnc.news. That's our friends at True North. Stay with us. More ahead.

00:28:09.480 Hey, welcome back. Someone with a nickname, Rebel Richard says, hey, let's not buy gas and oil from

00:28:24.820 Russia. Then Trudeau can ride his bike to work. You know, when I wrote the book Ethical Oil about a

00:28:31.280 decade ago, I had an idea for country of origin labeling for energy. You know what I mean by that?

00:28:36.740 Literally anything you buy in a store, anything at Walmart, anything at Costco, your clothing,

00:28:41.560 even your food has country of origin labeling. You have the right to know where it came from.

00:28:49.240 Except for oil at your gas pump. Isn't that funny? You could track it. And you could be told if it was

00:28:56.140 Canadian oil, American oil, Saudi oil, Russian oil. I think we should have country of origin labeling

00:29:00.560 for oil so people can know, well, is this Russian oil or Saudi oil or American oil? Just so you can

00:29:07.180 make a choice if you care. I think most people wouldn't care, but some people would really care.

00:29:13.740 Chase James 2021 says, Biden wants the USA a third world country with the elimination of fossil fuels.

00:29:19.940 Fossil fuel is more economical and in the long run, much cleaner fuel than these electric cars

00:29:24.220 everyone keeps promoting. Yeah. And there's something called density of fuel. Here's what

00:29:28.540 I mean by that. Like this much fuel in a car will let you go more than a hundred miles. To get that

00:29:38.100 kind of energy that small, you can't do it with solar. You can't do it with wind. And, you know,

00:29:48.120 I mean, you can't fly a plane. Uh, you can't have a jumbo jet take off. You can't, you, let me put it

00:29:55.180 this way. You can't make wind turbines. The factories that make wind turbines are not powered by wind

00:30:01.600 turbines. They're powered by coal-fired power plants. Um, green energy, maybe one day it'll be a thing.

00:30:09.740 I don't know if you ever remember that movie Avatar, but, uh, they were looking for this mineral called

00:30:15.540 the unobtainium, unobtainium. Yeah, that's about it. This fantasy fuel of the future that's perfect

00:30:22.740 in every way, except it doesn't exist. Maybe one day we'll find it, but we haven't yet. And until

00:30:27.780 then we have to use fossil fuels, gas for your car, jet fuel for planes. Sorry, solar doesn't work

00:30:32.860 yet. Alma Alma says, so Christy Freeland lived and studied in Ukraine and bought an apartment with

00:30:39.440 her sister in Kiev overlooking the square. Is that the same apartment in Kiev that one of Putin's

00:30:44.700 missiles pierced? Anyone else read about the recent suicide of one of Gazprom's directors

00:30:48.640 who was found dead in St. Petersburg? I did hear the part about a Gazprom director found dead.

00:30:54.660 I didn't hear the part about Christy Freeland, um, buying a, an apartment in Kiev. I'll have to

00:31:00.180 look into that because there's so many rumors out there. I think we have to be on guard in case that's

00:31:04.240 one of them. But, uh, I have no doubt. I mean, Christy Freeland has been an anti-Russian activist

00:31:08.980 her whole life. And in many ways, I think I have too. I remember even when I was in high school

00:31:13.960 during the Cold War, that's how old I am. I was one of the few people in my class who were

00:31:19.800 vocally against communists, even in my book, Ethical Oil. And my book, Shakedown, sorry,

00:31:24.940 my book, pardon me, Groundswell, The Case for Fracking. I've, I go on at great length about

00:31:29.760 the dangers of Russia and Putin. Um, but I think that Christy Freeland has an obsession that is very

00:31:36.620 deep. And as you probably know, her grandfather, uh, published a Nazi newspaper. Um, and she covered

00:31:44.640 that up for him for years. I think Christy Freeland is really iffy. I think she's ethically iffy. I

00:31:50.660 think her family history, although I would never put the sins of the grandfather on the granddaughter,

00:31:54.780 I would like to know more about what the grandpa, the Nazi taught Christy Freeland. And I think most

00:32:00.640 relevant is I'm worried about her being on the board of directors of the World Economic Forum.

00:32:06.080 I think Christy Freeland, um, is actually probably more dangerous than Justin Trudeau in many ways.

00:32:12.360 And I am a critic of Vladimir Putin and have been for 20 years, but, uh, it makes me nervous that

00:32:19.960 Christy Freeland is leading the charge. I, I think she's, uh, she's a diplomatic risk. Let me put it that

00:32:26.400 away. That's our show for today. Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters

00:32:32.040 to you at home, good night and keep fighting for freedom. And let me leave you with our video of

00:32:36.000 the day from Adam in Calgary, who did a story about protesters continuing their demonstrations

00:32:42.140 against government overreach. I should tell you, Jason Kenney is trying to rehabilitate his image

00:32:47.140 on Twitter by saying how much he's against those damaging policies that he himself brought in

00:32:52.160 for the lockdown, but he still is, um, banning unvaxxed people from working in large swaths of

00:32:59.780 the public sector. He's still jailing Pastor Arthur Pawlowski. And, uh, I think he's just,

00:33:07.040 he's caught between nervousness that he's going to lose his party, uh, leadership convention in a

00:33:13.340 month or so. And also his commitment to being a lockdown. This is really bizarre to see. I'll leave

00:33:17.840 you with that video. I'll see you later. I'm Sos here for Rebel News and we are once again at the

00:33:22.580 Calgary Freedom Rally here in Central Memorial Park where hundreds are once again gathered. I want to

00:33:28.720 take just a moment to pause and reflect on the fact that week after week, hundreds and indeed

00:33:33.440 thousands of people have been standing in solidarity together in what is very likely one of the largest

00:33:39.820 civil rights movements in Canadian history. We have never seen so many cities standing so many

00:33:45.480 weekends week after week for their freedom, standing in unity and standing for each other.

00:33:51.520 These people are protesting, demanding a permanent end to mandates and an end to all the restrictions

00:33:56.480 from COVID-19 that have done so much harm to society.

00:34:00.220 And this is my warning to these so-called leaders, leave our children alone!

00:34:07.440 So there is a pretty clear sentiment among the people here that temporary lifts of mandates

00:34:17.340 and restrictions aren't enough. There's always this threat that they will return those half

00:34:22.180 promises. What is the impression you're gathering from people here? What do they want for these

00:34:26.380 protests to come to an end?

00:34:28.040 We need to be sure that this can never happen again. We need our elected officials to vote into

00:34:33.620 law. Restrictions on their abilities to impose these non-pharmaceutical interventions.

00:34:38.620 Well, I can't speak for the rest of these people. I can only speak for myself.

00:34:42.620 I want freedom. I want this to end. I want it never to be reinstigated again because I'm free

00:34:51.620 and they have no right to tell me what to do.

00:34:53.620 Total freedom. No government controls. No vaccine mandates. No government controlling bank accounts.

00:35:01.620 We're trying to keep the country free. It's all about freedom.

00:35:05.620 Freedom. It's not about the vaccine. We, you know, people here, we all believe science.

00:35:09.620 We all trust science. It's not about that. We're against Trudeau. We're against tyranny.

00:35:13.620 We want to be free. It's our bodies. It's our choice. That term doesn't get to change just because the narrative changes.

00:35:19.620 You still have to get a vaccine in order to have able to go to work and able to travel.

00:35:27.620 There's still a lot of pressure for people who aren't convinced about why that's important.

00:35:34.620 So, you know what? Although on the surface, it feels like we're kind of free and we are,

00:35:40.620 there's still several people or groups, if you want to call them, that are still getting pressured to do that.

00:35:46.620 I don't think that's fair because they just want to have a conversation about it.

00:35:51.620 They want some more information before they do it.

00:35:53.620 But so many people got forced after Christmas, if they were in health care or if they were in travel industries

00:36:01.620 or if they worked for the government to get vaccinated without question.

00:36:05.620 And I don't think that's right. I don't think that's fair. That's why we're here.

00:36:08.620 Well, I don't think anybody's going to want to end the protest until everything guaranteed is not going to reopen.

00:36:16.620 Like even in Alberta, we don't trust the premier.

00:36:19.620 Yeah.

00:36:20.620 We want our freedom. We want our right to choose. We want our lives back. This is a free country.

00:36:26.620 What we're doing is beyond wrong. We want freedom, freedom to live our lives the way that we see fit.

00:36:34.620 Well, we're fighting for bodily autonomy and we know these things are going to come back.

00:36:39.620 Like they're not done with them. And these governments got to go, all of them.

00:36:43.620 You know, there's not one premier. There's not one federal government that's on our side.

00:36:49.620 And we need to keep fighting for that. Get them all out. 0.64

00:36:53.620 Well, folks here are speaking about this as a great awakening.

00:36:57.620 The people here are not simply being placated by the fact that some mandates and restrictions are being dropped.

00:37:03.620 They want assurances that these restrictions and mandates are gone for good.

00:37:08.620 They're also calling for an end to the keeping of political prisoners like Pastor Archer Pawlowski

00:37:14.620 who are being held simply for questioning their narrative.

00:37:24.620 So you're, are you attending the protest or did you stumble upon it?

00:37:28.620 We are waiting for a friend down the line. We've been here one week before and now we're back again.

00:37:33.620 So what is it that you want? What are you fighting for? What are you protesting?

00:37:36.620 Well, we are both musicians and have lost a lot of work over the past year to do these mandates.

00:37:41.620 And we have a seven month old baby. I was pregnant when the vaccine came out.

00:37:45.620 And we just basically want people to have control over their medical choices again.

00:37:50.620 So that's what we're here for.

00:38:00.620 For the first time in effectively the two years that these protests have been taking place,

00:38:04.620 we're seeing a significant counter protest here.

00:38:07.620 Police have effectively set up a barricade preventing the protesters from interacting.

00:38:12.620 I'm going to try and speak with some of the counter protesters to see what their perspective is.

00:38:16.620 Would you guys like to say at all how you're counter protesting or what you're standing for?

00:38:20.620 Sure.

00:38:21.620 Yeah.

00:38:22.620 So what exactly is it that you're counter protesting here?

00:38:25.620 I support the right to protest. That is at the heart of any democracy.

00:38:32.620 That being said, we need to keep our society safe. Public health measures are a means of doing that.

00:38:38.620 Sorry. Thank you. Did you want to say something? No. Does anyone want to say why you're...

00:38:54.620 We're happy to include your perspective.

00:38:57.620 Just a sign?

00:38:58.620 Yeah, we'll get up with that.

00:38:59.620 You have to care about freedom. You wouldn't march with the flag.

00:39:02.620 So it's incredibly interesting.

00:39:04.620 The last few weeks we've attended these protests,

00:39:06.620 we have seen the public opinion on the sides of streets shift.

00:39:09.620 People have been clapping and cheering in roadside cafes and bars.

00:39:13.620 This week it's interesting.

00:39:14.620 It's almost as though while society begins to shift,

00:39:17.620 while the perspectives begin to change,

00:39:19.620 the more radical people out there,

00:39:21.620 some of the activists, some of the counter protesters,

00:39:23.620 can sense that there's a shift taking place.

00:39:25.620 And so they, for the first time today,

00:39:27.620 are out in numbers counter protesting.

00:39:29.620 As society begins to open up,

00:39:31.620 as society begins to become more free,

00:39:33.620 they want us locked down once again.

00:39:35.620 And what do you make of, for the first time really,

00:39:37.620 in some time we're seeing counter protestors

00:39:39.620 seemingly wanting things locked down.

00:39:41.620 What do you make of them?

00:39:42.620 I think they're paid.

00:39:44.620 I mean, they're not...

00:39:46.620 Who can be anti-freedom?

00:39:48.620 Honestly, like to me,

00:39:50.620 I don't really care how you want to live your life.

00:39:52.620 Whether, you know,

00:39:54.620 however you want to live your life is your right to choose.

00:39:56.620 Honestly, I don't think that they...

00:39:58.620 I think they're just paid to be here.

00:40:00.620 Paid to slander us.

00:40:02.620 I mean, this is a peaceful group.

00:40:03.620 Everybody's happy.

00:40:04.620 We're singing.

00:40:06.620 We're having a great time.

00:40:07.620 Last week we spoke with your family.

00:40:09.620 You were in Ottawa with the convoy.

00:40:11.620 You are now back here.

00:40:12.620 What was the experience like?

00:40:14.620 Like nothing I've ever been a part of in my life.

00:40:17.620 Just the energy, the unity, the love.

00:40:21.620 Just the way everybody was coming together.

00:40:25.620 And we needed it for the longest time.

00:40:27.620 It was unbelievable.

00:40:29.620 I was riding that high for days after I got home.

00:40:33.620 And we've seen the Emergencies Act drop.

00:40:35.620 Some of these other measures drop.

00:40:37.620 But lots of it, there's sort of ifs and buts languages

00:40:39.620 that suggest it might come back.

00:40:41.620 What do you think of that?

00:40:42.620 Well, what I've been hearing is they dropped it.

00:40:45.620 But they only dropped specific portions of it.

00:40:48.620 So the fact...

00:40:49.620 It might be dropped, yeah.

00:40:50.620 But the fact is they can still freeze our bank accounts

00:40:53.620 and all that stuff.

00:40:54.620 So it doesn't really make a difference.

00:40:56.620 We're seeing week after week thousands and thousands of people

00:40:59.620 coming, standing in solidarity.

00:41:01.620 In your lifetime, have you ever seen a movement like this

00:41:03.620 for civil liberties, a movement where so many people

00:41:05.620 have come together in Canada?

00:41:07.620 Never.

00:41:08.620 No, never.

00:41:09.620 And I started coming here about a year ago.

00:41:12.620 And it's growing like crazy.

00:41:14.620 We love you!

00:41:17.620 We love you!

00:41:19.620 Woo! 0.99

00:41:20.620 Woo! 0.99

00:41:21.620 Well, the Emergencies Act for the time being has been revoked.

00:41:25.620 Mandates and restrictions are also being revoked.

00:41:29.620 But people continue to demand their freedoms long term.

00:41:32.620 And these people are not going to desist in their protests

00:41:35.620 until those freedoms are guaranteed for the long term.

00:41:38.620 People will continue to march for their freedoms.

00:41:40.620 As always, I want to thank you all so much for tuning in.

00:41:42.620 For Rebel News, I'm Adam Sos.

00:41:44.620 I'm Adam Sos.

00:41:45.620 I'm Adam Sos.

00:41:51.620 I'm Adam Sous.

00:41:52.240 We'll see you all next time.

00:41:52.620 Bye.

00:41:54.620 I'm Adam Sos.

00:41:56.620 Bye.

00:41:57.620 So, by now, we're you on this free ISIS. 0.88

00:42:00.620 MyTIFARMS metal battery.

00:42:01.620 Efforts procrastinate.

00:42:02.620 Welcome to

Rebel News Podcast - March 02, 2022

EZRA LEVANT ｜ I thought that Vladimir Putin would be banning TV stations — but actually it’s Trudeau who’s doing that

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