Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ In an era where statues are torn down, a monument to Sir Winston Churchill stands tall

00:00:00.000 Hello, my friends. I'm in Calgary today. I'm very excited. They're unveiling a new

00:00:03.840 Churchill statue. I want you to see it with your own eyes because it's not often

00:00:08.080 that a statue of Churchill gets put up. More often,

00:00:12.000 statues of great men are torn down. So I'd like you to get the Rebel News Plus

00:00:16.640 version of this podcast. That's the video version. Just go to

00:00:20.080 rebelnewsplus.com. Click subscribe. It's eight bucks a month. You get

00:00:24.000 my video content every weekday. Sheila Gunn-Reed does a weekly show too.

00:00:28.680 And you get the satisfaction of supporting Rebel News because, as you know,

00:00:32.420 we take no money from the government and it shows. All right, here's today's podcast.

00:00:51.280 Tonight, a statue of Sir Winston Churchill goes up. It's not torn down. It's June 6th

00:00:57.840 and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.

00:01:02.580 Shame on you, you censorious bug.

00:01:14.640 Hi, everybody. It's June 6th. You may know that as D-Day. June 6th, 1944, was the day that the

00:01:22.500 greatest seaborne invasion in history happened, launching from the United Kingdom and attacking

00:01:29.000 the shores of Normandy, France, and thus began the liberation from the Western Front of Nazi-occupied

00:01:36.800 Europe while the Red Army came in from the east. It was an enormous invasion led by Dwight D. Eisenhower.

00:01:44.100 There were different beaches. There were the American beaches, Omaha and Utah. There were the British 0.83

00:01:51.480 beaches soared. And there was the Canadian beach, Juneau Beach, where Canadian troops participated

00:01:59.920 side by side with the Brits and the Yanks and the liberation of France going on to liberate

00:02:05.120 Europe and end the Nazi regime. That's the anniversary today, but I don't think a lot of people even know

00:02:12.640 that history because I don't think that history is taught much. And it does feel so long ago and

00:02:17.960 we're very forgetful. I put it to you that most people on the street wouldn't even know what happened

00:02:24.380 on 9-11, wouldn't know what date it was. And that's only 23 years ago. D-Day was 80 years ago today.

00:02:33.180 The reason I set the table that way is because today in Calgary, Alberta, on this sunny day,

00:02:38.620 the latest statue for Sir Winston Churchill was unveiled. And to me, that's an important moment

00:02:47.100 because we live in an era of tearing down and smashing statues. I'm embarrassed to say in the city

00:02:54.080 I now call home, Toronto, which is the capital of Ontario, in front of their provincial parliament

00:02:59.400 is a mighty statue of Sir John A. MacDonald, the founder and first prime minister of Canada.

00:03:05.540 You can't even see it. They put a wooden coffin around it. They have built a wooden sarcophagus

00:03:13.120 around Sir John A. MacDonald, and that is under a conservative premier. What a disgrace across the

00:03:19.480 country. Statues being torn down. Of course, you remember when they literally tore one down in

00:03:24.120 Victoria, B.C. Why don't you just go ahead and rename the city now? We know you're going to do it

00:03:29.340 later, named after Queen Victoria. Alberta itself was the middle name of a British royal.

00:03:39.900 So many things about our country are named after people from the past. You certainly couldn't name

00:03:45.260 anything after people from the future. And although the past may be flawed, at the time, it was progressive.

00:03:51.820 It was an innovation for freedom and prosperity and justice. And for people in the comfort of 2024

00:04:00.940 who luxuriate in the freedoms hard won 80 or 100 or 200 years ago to denounce the past and tear it down

00:04:09.540 is not just ingrateful. It's historically illiterate, and it irks me badly. So that's why I think we have

00:04:17.420 to celebrate a dead white male like Sir Winston Churchill being elevated in a statue. And I was

00:04:24.380 delighted to be invited here. And let me show you how it went. Let me start with some excerpts of some

00:04:31.260 of the speeches. Of course, Sir Winston Churchill died more than half a century ago, but his great

00:04:38.220 grandson, Randolph Churchill, was here and he had some remarks. Here's a taste of that.

00:04:43.020 Honourable Premier, honoured guests, ladies and gentlemen, it's a great honour to be with you

00:04:50.140 in what my great grandfather Sir Winston called affectionately, the great dominion. The words

00:04:57.900 from your national anthem are poignant. O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

00:05:05.180 O Canada, we stand on guard for thee. God keep our land glorious and free. And so it is.

00:05:17.660 Today is D-Day plus 80 and it's right for us to remember those Canadian heroes who won our freedoms.

00:05:24.780 In two world wars, Canadian young men, including from the indigenous population,

00:05:30.620 signed up in droves to aid the mother country. As the late Brian Marmaruni pointed out at the dinner

00:05:39.020 I attended 10 years ago at Lennon Palace, Churchill's birthplace. He said,

00:05:44.700 in World War II, from a population of only 11 million, over 1 million Canadian men and women,

00:05:53.820 mostly volunteers, served in uniform. Canada fielded the fifth largest naval fleet, the fourth largest

00:06:01.100 air force in the world. Canada suffered over 100,000 casualties, half of whom were killed in action.

00:06:11.580 D-Day was the beginning of the Allied liberation of Europe, when Canadian troops would join their

00:06:17.820 British and American brethren in the daring assault on Normandy beaches.

00:06:24.700 Canada did not have it easy. This project was undertaken when the last premier,

00:06:30.060 Jason Kenney, was in office and the current premier, Danielle Smith, who was here today,

00:06:35.020 was gracious enough to allow Jason Kenney to give us some remarks. Here's an excerpt from that.

00:06:39.020 On this day eight decades ago, farm boys, shopkeepers' sons, proud young First Nations braves,

00:06:48.380 Southern Alberta cowboys, young recent immigrants to the Northern Dominion and so many others landed

00:06:55.820 at Juneau Beach as part of the greatest ever army of freedom. Today, we gather to remember their heroism

00:07:04.140 and sacrifice. And today we also gather to honor permanently their extraordinary leader,

00:07:13.420 without whom D-Day, the liberation of Europe, and the defeat of the Nazi menace and the fascism are

00:07:20.700 unthinkable. To honor forever, here in Calgary, the legacy and the memory of the great Sir Winston Churchill.

00:07:29.180 It is astonishing to think that in our own time there are some who seek to cancel the memory of this,

00:07:38.780 the greatest leader of the modern era. Those who seek to do so apparently do not understand how he stood

00:07:48.860 in the breach between freedom and tyranny in a way that was extraordinary and essential

00:07:58.540 to ultimate victory. He understood the stakes, but he understood the stakes years before others did.

00:08:06.460 If one of the virtues that was necessary, if the landing on D-Day was vigilance, this man

00:08:13.500 was the voice of vigilance for the free world. Of course, Premier Danielle Smith spoke herself,

00:08:19.740 and she made time for the event. Here's a look at her remarks. It is an honor to join all of you

00:08:25.260 as we mark the incredible life and legacy of Sir Winston Churchill, a remarkable man whose courageous

00:08:30.860 actions and leadership changed the course of history. And we are doing so on the 80th anniversary of D-Day,

00:08:37.260 when 160,000 Allied troops stormed the beaches of Normandy in the largest seaborne invasion in history.

00:08:43.980 It was a day that altered the direction of the Second World War and proved to be one of the ultimate

00:08:49.100 turning points of the 20th century. And today, 80 years after one of the great military operations,

00:08:55.660 we still remember the heroes who landed up and down the shores of Normandy, who parachuted behind enemy

00:09:01.660 lines, and who fought so that we can enjoy the freedoms and comforts of today. It's quite fitting,

00:09:07.100 then, that today we are unveiling a statue that commemorates one of the greatest leaders of all

00:09:11.820 time. Sir Winston Churchill's unwavering defense of democracy in the face of tyranny, injustice,

00:09:17.020 and oppression is one of the reasons why we are free to gather here today. He is a champion of human

00:09:23.020 rights and freedoms. He opposed anti-Semitism, fought against segregation, and fought for the fair

00:09:28.780 treatment of all workers. He firmly stood up for what he believed, and his love of freedom was a

00:09:34.460 love of freedom for all. He also loved Alberta. Nearly a century ago, Sir Winston visited our province,

00:09:41.100 where he saw the potential of our energy industry and fell in love with the beauty of the Rocky Mountains.

00:09:46.460 He carried that beauty in his heart, memorializing the Rockies through his many watercolor paintings.

00:09:51.820 And today, through that art, we, through art as well, we memorialize him. With this bronze statue

00:09:58.140 that is like he was, larger than life. I mentioned before that we live in an era of cancel culture,

00:10:04.060 where people tear down the past. Even if you disagree with certain elements of the past,

00:10:08.060 should you not learn from them? I mean, I can only imagine the horrific things that the pharaohs did, 0.63

00:10:13.420 and yet we don't raise to the ground the pyramids. If you think they're bad, you know what happened on

00:10:18.620 the pyramids in Central and South America. They literally had human sacrifices on those pyramids,

00:10:24.860 but the Mexicans and other Latin Americans would never in a second talk about detonating their 1.00

00:10:31.180 history. At least learn from it. At most, celebrate it. But to erase it and destroy it, that's a uniquely

00:10:39.340 woke Western self-loathing. You know, I think of slavery, which is the alleged cause of so much of

00:10:46.620 wokeism. I recently was reminded by Christopher Hitchens in an old video, the late Chris Hitchens,

00:10:52.540 that 400,000 black people from Africa were sent as slaves to North America, 99% of them to the United

00:11:01.420 States. 1.5 million Europeans and Americans were captured and sold into slavery. Here's a little

00:11:09.180 reminder of that from Hitchens, a man of the left. In 1788, when the United States was barely a

00:11:15.180 country, was having its sailors taken as slaves by the Barbary states, the states of the Ottoman

00:11:22.460 Empire in North Africa. Tripoli. Tripoli. Shores of Tripoli. Shores of Tripoli. And its people,

00:11:28.700 ships stopped, its crews carried off into slavery. We estimate one and a half million European and

00:11:35.900 American slaves taken between 1750 and 1815. Jefferson and Adams went to their ambassador

00:11:41.500 in London and said, why do you do this to us? The United States has never had a quarrel with the

00:11:44.780 Muslim world of any kind. We weren't in the Crusades. We weren't in the war in Spain. 0.99

00:11:49.340 Why do you do this to our people and our ships? Why do you plunder and enslave our people? And the 1.00

00:11:54.460 ambassador said very plainly, Mr. Abdul Rahman said, because the Koran gives us permission to do so,

00:11:59.100 because you are infidels. And that's our answer. And Jefferson said, well, in that case, 0.99

00:12:03.500 I will send a navy which will crush your state, which he did. And a good thing, too. Islamic 1.00

00:12:10.060 fundamentalism is not created by American democracy. It's a lie to say so. It's a masochistic lie.

00:12:16.140 And it excuses those who are the real criminals. And it blames us for the attacks made upon us.

00:12:22.620 Yeah, I don't know why the West is tearing down its statues while statues around the world of horrific

00:12:30.380 and bloody tyrants remain up. I mean, do you think that, you know, Genghis Khan and the great

00:12:39.820 horsemen of his tribes, they don't destroy them, even though he killed in percentage terms as much

00:12:48.140 as many as Hitler or Stalin. I despise the tearing down of statues. And that's why I was delighted 0.99

00:12:54.780 to see the unveiling today. Take a look at this. This is the moment where they took off the veil.

00:13:00.300 And the veil on the statue, by the way, was a parachute. How fitting for D-Day. Take a look at this.

00:13:06.380 They will know better than I how to take down the, this is a parachute, by the way,

00:13:09.660 it's a very symbolic, a parachute, so.

00:13:39.660 Well, that's a very interesting looking statue. And I had a moment with the sculptor himself,

00:13:49.260 who has a personal story. Here, take a look at that.

00:13:52.060 Well, today's the big day, the unveiling of the statue. It's tremendous. Tell us about the project.

00:13:57.740 How long have you been working on it? Four years. Four years. Wow. Hallelujah.

00:14:03.660 And are you Canadian? Where are you from? Yeah, I was born in Edmonton.

00:14:07.660 And tell me what attracted you to this project. And what research did you do into Winston Churchill?

00:14:15.100 Well, I tried to find every image of him available. And I called the lot.

00:14:26.540 And made copies of the ones that were informative. And that is, I needed to understand what his head

00:14:34.780 was shaped like from every direction. So, a lot of those are just marginal photographs in archives.

00:14:41.340 But they're, for me, a treasure trove. You know, sort of glancing views from the side.

00:14:47.020 You know, how is a person's head shaped, really? You know, every head is very unique.

00:14:51.980 And I had to capture that intensely. And what scale is that? How tall is the actual statue?

00:15:01.660 It's eight foot four. It's somewhat larger than one and a half life size.

00:15:08.620 Wow. I'd like to ask you a cultural question that I put to Randolph Churchill a moment ago. Which is,

00:15:14.860 I believe we're in an era where we're tearing down our history. We're canceling our history.

00:15:20.060 We're renaming institutions. We're even tearing down statues. And yet, here we are putting up a statue

00:15:27.100 to someone that the left would call a dead white male. A warmonger. They would call him these things. 0.90

00:15:33.980 In fact, there are a few protesters here saying that. What's the importance of remembering the past?

00:15:39.580 What's the importance of not canceling the past? Well, for me, I wouldn't be here if the war hadn't been won.

00:15:49.900 So, there's no possible victory. There was no possible victory without Winston Churchill.

00:15:57.980 Well, I think the entire past should be comprehended and assessed. We need to come to terms with the past

00:16:11.340 as it was and direct us in the future. I caught up with Randolph Churchill, the great grandson

00:16:20.060 of Sir Winston Churchill himself. He was very proper and very gracious to everybody. You know,

00:16:25.980 he just had that class and style to him. Here's his words to me.

00:16:30.220 Thank you very much. So good you've all come today and magnificent. What do you think of the statue

00:16:37.020 itself? It's quite impressive. It's bold. I love it because it shows the man of action and Churchill

00:16:43.740 was a man of action. And to unveil it today, on the 80th anniversary, that we celebrate those brave,

00:16:52.460 young Canadian men who stormed ashore to give us our freedoms and liberties. It's absolutely

00:16:59.340 threatening. Now, you can feel the energy in the statue. It's in a fantastic place in the MacDougall

00:17:07.020 Centre. And no, I'm very, very proud of this and a great turnout today. Thank you.

00:17:12.700 I'd like to ask you one last question. And I don't mean to be political. It's more a cultural question.

00:17:17.340 Yes. We live in an era where statues are being torn down, where the past is being erased or cancelled.

00:17:24.860 And I feel like today is a resistance to that trend where we celebrate the past. Do you have

00:17:31.820 any thoughts on the global trend of tearing down our history and the self-denunciation that's

00:17:37.020 happening in the West, both in the UK and here in North America?

00:17:40.300 We've all got to remember those people that gave their lives so we could have our freedoms.

00:17:47.740 And the great thing about our freedoms is we're allowed and people are allowed to demonstrate

00:17:52.140 and make their points of view known with dignity and they can do it. In the totalitarian states,

00:17:58.220 there's no right to demonstrate. There's no chance of having your views heard or listened to. And my

00:18:05.500 thing which I'm passionate about is people understand the history. They learn the facts,

00:18:10.300 they learn the context. And in terms of education, to enable young people to form their own skills and

00:18:19.580 their own views, that's what makes a great society. And there's great spirit in Canada and it's thrilling

00:18:27.100 to be here. Thank you very much indeed. Thank you. Last question, if I can sneak one more in. Can you

00:18:31.900 tell us just a tiny bit more about yourself? Do you go around the world celebrating the history

00:18:38.780 of your great-grandfather or are you a private citizen most of the time? Give us just one minute

00:18:43.500 on yourself. The great thing is I'm a private citizen. We've all got to get on and contribute

00:18:48.700 to society. So it thrills me to do these sorts of things from time to time for the Churchill Legacy.

00:18:55.340 And when you see those veterans on the beaches of Normandy, you know, not one of us

00:19:01.180 cannot shed a tear for what they did and how they served and how selfless those people were.

00:19:06.860 So in my life, I love to celebrate these remarkable heroes that came ashore and gave us our freedoms.

00:19:13.900 Well, shortly after this all happened, when all the dignitaries were taking pictures in front of the

00:19:19.180 statue, wouldn't you know it, some woke leftists came down to have a protest. Now, police stopped

00:19:25.660 them from interfering with any of the VIPs. I went up to them just to introduce myself because I'm a

00:19:31.100 friendly kind of fella and they really didn't have a lot to say. I will give them credit. Some of them

00:19:36.620 were not wearing masks. I come from Toronto where every thug wears a mask. They love it. They wear a mask

00:19:44.300 either because they're still living the COVID dream, but mainly to hide their identity. I don't

00:19:49.740 want to overemphasize these folks, but the fact that they're there proves my whole point, that they

00:19:55.900 would rather tear down history than learn from it. They would rather destroy statues than erect them.

00:20:01.900 Here's my attempt to chit chat with them. It didn't go very far, but I think that's because

00:20:07.180 they really don't know why they're there other than it's the protest du jour. They were probably up at the

00:20:12.300 Gaza encampment a few weeks ago. They'd probably go to all the climate protests and this was just

00:20:18.220 their project for the day. They didn't know what was on their signs. They couldn't back it up.

00:20:23.260 They were just there to, well, I don't know, collect a check. They wouldn't tell me. Take a look.

00:20:27.820 Are you guys going to try and take down the statue or deface it or something?

00:20:32.060 I'm just hanging out in the park, buddy. Well, but you're denouncing Churchill. Do you have any plans

00:20:38.860 to vandalize the statue? I'm just hanging out in the park, buddy. So who are you and why did you come

00:20:44.220 here? I like hanging out in the park. Sounds like you don't really have a lot to say.

00:20:49.740 Do you know why you're here? No, I'm really confused right now, buddy. How about you? Why are you here?

00:20:55.500 I'm just hanging out in a public park. It sounds like you aren't very articulate. Did someone tell

00:20:59.820 you what to put on your sign? I'm just chilling in the park. I'm allowed to do this. What's your name and

00:21:04.220 why are you here today? To make fun of you and make you look like an asshole. How are you doing 1.00

00:21:09.260 that? How are you making fun of me and how are you making me look like an asshole? By just making 1.00

00:21:13.580 you talk. You're natural at it. Well, you're covering your eyes with reflective sunglasses.

00:21:19.100 You're covering your face. It sounds like you've got something to hide. Why won't you show your face?

00:21:24.940 I don't want to be embarrassed by being seen talking to you. Well, yeah, I had your mask and

00:21:28.860 sunglasses on before I even came over. I think you were ashamed of yourself. Yeah, I mean,

00:21:32.620 I knew you were going to be here, so. How did you know that? Well, your losers are always at things

00:21:37.180 like this. You know, you're the guy wearing the mask in 2024. It's a bit rich having you call anyone 0.99

00:21:43.580 a loser. And who told you to be here today? I'm just hanging out in a park now. Are you with any 0.81

00:21:50.860 organization? Just a regular person. It sounds like you're sort of ashamed of yourself if you're not

00:21:57.020 saying who you are or why you're here. Like, it sounds like you're maybe a little embarrassed.

00:22:02.220 I'm impressed that you're not wearing a mask. That's new.

00:22:07.340 Yep.

00:22:07.580 How about yourself? What's your name?

00:22:11.900 I'll speak to real media, but not you.

00:22:13.660 It sounds like you're ashamed of yourself if you won't even put your name to what you're doing.

00:22:18.300 I mean, are you not proud of what you're doing? I don't make content for Rebel News.

00:22:22.300 Well, you're here at a protest, I presume, so you want to send a message. I don't think you even

00:22:27.180 made your own sign, did you? No, that's third grade handwriting handwriting is mine.

00:22:33.100 That I believe. Who are you with? What group are you with? Did you make your own sign?

00:22:37.260 I made it with your mom. I don't think you did, but it sounds like you're not really proud

00:22:42.780 of yourself. You don't really have anything to say. You don't know what to say. Do you need like

00:22:46.060 a spokesman or something? I mean, yeah, I guess I don't really know because I was hanging out

00:22:50.300 with your mom earlier and it takes up all my time. All right, man. I think you've shown

00:22:56.380 that you really, you're like a rent-a-mob. You pick up a sign that someone gave you,

00:23:00.940 you have nothing to say, you're hiding your face. I think you are an excellent representative

00:23:05.340 of your side, whatever that is. Later, Jabroni. Okay. How come you're covering your face too?

00:23:11.340 It's what you, oh, now you're hiding your face all together. I think you're ashamed of yourself,

00:23:15.420 aren't you? Follow me. Don't follow you. Why? Is that, is that interfering with your space or

00:23:20.700 something? Not sure if I said hi to you. I'll give you a half marks for not wearing a mask. I mean,

00:23:26.620 it is 2024 and all, but how come you're, you're sort of hiding your face from the camera? Are you

00:23:30.700 ashamed of yourself? What's your name? Why are you here? Do you know why you're here? Who, who made the

00:23:39.900 sign for you? Cause I don't think you made it. You don't really know why you're here. Did someone

00:23:44.780 pay you to be here? Are you having some, you're shaking. What's that? Are you, are you nervous?

00:23:54.940 No, you're not nervous. Are you mute?

00:23:59.020 Well, why don't you, I mean, you're here to protest, but you're not saying anything that,

00:24:02.380 it seems to me like you, you just are a rent a mob that'll, you know, next week it'll be Gaza. 0.93

00:24:07.660 The week after that, it'll be climate. Like you really, it seems like you really don't know what

00:24:12.060 you're doing here. Now you're wiggling your eyebrows at me.

00:24:20.220 It's like you're shaking a little bit. I'll give you, I will give you marks for not wearing a mask

00:24:25.980 though. Cause most of your tribe does. So that's my day in sunny Calgary, this June 6th, the 80th

00:24:31.740 anniversary of D-Day. I came out here because I wanted to be there when a Churchill statue was

00:24:37.660 actually put up rather than when a statue of a great man was torn down. I am slightly worried that

00:24:45.180 this statue will be vandalized either by the handful of protesters who are here today or by Gaza 0.99

00:24:52.060 protesters or climate protesters. You know, it's coming. I mean, just the other day I saw someone

00:24:57.900 attack. I think it was the Mona Lisa. There was some gorgeous painting in Europe that was smeared on.

00:25:03.900 That's a real tactic they have in the UK, defacing artwork, priceless artwork, if you can believe it.

00:25:11.180 I have a terrible prediction that that kind of vandalism will target this statue, but it looks like

00:25:17.180 a fairly sturdy statue. Hopefully it'll resist it. That's it for today. Until tomorrow, on behalf of

00:25:25.420 all of us at Rebel News, to you at home, goodbye and keep fighting for freedom.

Rebel News Podcast - June 06, 2024

EZRA LEVANT ｜ In an era where statues are torn down, a monument to Sir Winston Churchill stands tall

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