EZRA LEVANT ｜ Ireland erupts in trucker protest over sky-high fuel taxes
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Summary
I'm in the heart of Dublin, and it feels a little bit like Ottawa, Canada, four years ago, because there is a trucker and farmer convoy protesting the government. Well, that's exactly what happened in Canada. You can see a lineup of tractors here, no fuel, no food, no farms.
Transcript
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Tonight, Ireland has a general strike over carbon taxes.
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It's April 10th, and this is The Ezra Levant Show.
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I'm in the heart of Dublin, the capital of Ireland.
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although it feels a little bit like Ottawa, the capital of Canada, four years ago because there
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is a trucker and farmer convoy protesting the government. Well, that's exactly what happened
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in Canada four years ago. You can see a lineup of tractors here, no fuel, no food. There's more
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tractors over here, no farms, no food. They're protesting by the thousands across Ireland,
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a number of things happening all at once and the most acute issue are the absurdly high prices of
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fuel including diesel fuel and what they call petrol regular gasoline we call it in north
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america and the fact that the government has jacked up taxes on these even as world oil prices
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go up it's become unbearable i spoke to one farmer earlier this morning who says it costs
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more than 600 euros that's about a thousand bucks to fill up his tractor every time it's astonishing
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the prices the government didn't run on a pledge to jack up taxes but that's just the
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environmental extremists in every western government their net zero their idea is raise
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the price of fuel and people will use less of it well it doesn't work that way if you're a farmer
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you need gasoline, you need diesel if you're going to take off your crops. And these farmers
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who are the backbone of any culture, I mean, if you want to have a prosperous society,
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you need cheap, plentiful fuel and cheap, plentiful food. And the farmers are getting hit every way.
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What's incredible and very reminiscent of Ottawa is how spontaneous these protests are.
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there are some men and women who have been thrust to the front and i guess you could call them
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protest leaders but like the trucker convoy in canada it's almost a last resort by the last
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people in ireland who have any common sense just to do something that's exactly how it felt back
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in canada back in canada the covid crisis was the reason for the protest as you may know canada had
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some of the strictest lockdowns in the western world and the last straw was when the government
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said truckers had to get jabbed to do their long hauls and of course truckers are among the most
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solitary people other than being a lighthouse keeper i can't think of a job that's more isolated
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and the truckers that was just enough that was the final straw for them and so thousands of truckers
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converged on auto. It was a 100-kilometer-long convoy. Just astonishing. And I think there's
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that same feeling here. In Ireland, just like in Canada four years ago, there was a consensus
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of how things were. Lockdowns, mandatory jabs, fear-mongering. And all the political parties
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were united over there, but the people were over there. I think it's similar here in Ireland.
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The political class is so unanimous on the key issues from fuel taxes to mass immigration to high housing prices and inflation.
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It's almost like there's no political method that ordinary Irish people can express themselves.
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Thank God the truckers and the farmers were there because they are the last preserve of common sense.
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You know, George Orwell, in his book 1984, wrote,
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if there's any salvation, it lies with the proles.
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That was his nickname for the proletariat, the working people.
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And I think that the entire sophisticated political class and their media class here,
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remember, they have a massive state broadcaster called RTE
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that is just a propaganda voice for the government.
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And so to see this grassroots protest is sort of thrilling.
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We're in the heart of Dublin, but this has been replicated all across Ireland and even at Ireland's refinery, which is actually a Canadian company, if I'm not mistaken, Irving.
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We landed early this morning and we went to a muster point where we chatted with a farmer there.
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But we decided to come to the heart of the city.
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And I just want to point out one thing. We're literally right in the thick of the city.
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I don't know if you can see down there. It's something they call the GPO or the, I think that stands for General Post Office.
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It's really a symbolic place of the Irish Rebellion and it's a very historic place.
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The River Liffey is just up there. We really couldn't be more in the heart of Dublin.
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and the the roads are blocked but this road that we're on here but typically
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and we'll go down a little bit further let's walk and talk they've left one
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lane free and there's a reason for that so emergency vehicles can go by and that
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is exactly what the truckers did in Ottawa Canada they they had their trucks
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in the city but they let emergency vehicles go go by because these are responsible people
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they're frustrated what the government has done to them they're not looking to harm their fellow
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irishmen they're looking to wake the country up i want to tell you one more thing and i'm not going
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to say his name i don't want him to get in trouble when we landed this morning we talked to the
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customs officer who said oh what who are you guys i said we're journalists from candy said oh what
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are you here to cover and i said the fuel prices i didn't want to get too deep into it because i
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didn't want him to keep us out and he was excited and he said look at the video i took this morning
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and so he took out his cell phone and showed us the video of the m50 which is a major highway in
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ireland he said it took him an hour to get to work instead of the usual 15 and i said well how do you
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feel about that i thought he was he would be irritated well i guess he was a little bit
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irritated about spending 45 minutes more in his car but he said i hope they win i was thrilled
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It was so exciting. Then we had the same conversation with the car rental place.
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They feel like the political class just isn't listening to them.
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And whether it's mass immigration, too expensive housing, or fuel taxes, they want to change.
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You know, fuel is taxed. I've talked to a number of people. I want to get the official number.
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but I've heard 52% I've heard 60% to have these massive taxes on top of
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already high oil prices shows a government that's just out of touch
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especially with the farmers hey we're gonna continue walking and talking and
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doing our journalism we're gonna interview these truckers we just got
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into the heart of the city I want to point out one more thing which is how
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calm and low energy the police are and that's a very good sign because over the
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last couple of days the political class has absolutely panicked and they've
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literally deployed the Irish military as it is I've seen it in fact that's what
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made us decide to come out here is the video footage of armored personnel
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carriers and threats well as you can see the police here they're not wearing any
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swat uniforms are dressed in their ball caps in very friendly mode they're not
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here in massive numbers and here's what I meant about the lanes you can see
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these lanes are blocked but you see this free lane here so if there was an
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emergency vehicle if there was a fire truck or an ambulance or a police car it
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could get by no problem so there's a kind of coexistence at least for now and
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I want to tell you one more thing from Canada that's how it was at first until
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The politicians, in that case Justin Trudeau, just decided they had had enough and they were being embarrassed on the world stage.
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And they actually ordered martial law in Canada.
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They swept people off the streets, jailed the protest leaders, and they seized the bank accounts of more than 200 protesters without legal process.
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I have to say the government of Michael Martin and Simon Harris are exactly the kind of weasels who would do that.
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And I'm a little bit worried that this is the calm before the storm.
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Let's close by reading that homemade billboard.
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All us Irish have had enough government out now.
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And we'll be talking to truckers and farmers and ordinary Irish people all day.
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I hopped on a plane last night with my videographer Efron because I started to see what was going on in Ireland.
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we love it. We've covered the immigration protest and I knew we had to be here for this Canadian
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style trucker farmer protest. Unfortunately, coming at last minute meant our flights were
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expensive, more than a thousand dollars Canadian each. If you can help me cover the cost of this
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trip, please go to thetruthaboutireland.com. Unlike the state broadcaster RTE, we get zero
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taxpayer dollars and that's precisely why we're able to tell you the other side of the story.
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I'm Ezra Levant from Rebel News. What's your name?
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No, I'm from a town about an hour from here, Kells County Mead, doing some tillage farming.
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So I'm here to kind of give me support to fellow members.
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And it's a bit of a food bank here for people who are overnight. Are you involved with this?
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This is all donated by the local people here in Dublin
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Everyone the generosity and we've got from everyone here has mind-blowing. There's 100%
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support behind because we're all in this because if the government don't give a
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reduction in the fuel the country's got the country's on a standstill
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I should tell you when we oh, there's some support. There's a trucker honking his support. Yeah
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all day this is all closed off the last couple of days we opened this up last night to give a bit
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more relief because once we decided we're going to have a meeting we uh we said look at seeing
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if we're getting a bit of a bit somewhere we'd open some up you know it's also a good idea to
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let ambulances and fire trucks through that has to happen you have to keep emergency services flowing
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because look at everyone needs if you're if you're in need to be looked after you have to get your
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treatment. Now, I read an interesting comment online today. You know, what's that group called?
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That something existence? What's that group called again? That environmental extremist group?
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Like post-petroleum existence? What's that called again? Shoot. There was an extinction. Sorry about
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that. Yeah. You know, I forgot that. So extinction rebellion is this left wing group that sort of
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Greta Thunberg kind of thing they hate oil they block roads like they sit in
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front of the roads I understand that a couple years ago they had a sit-down
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meeting with the Irish transportation minister so they were blocking roads but
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because they're left-wing wackadoodles they had a sit-down with the transport
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minister how are you guys being treated by the government by comparison they're
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completely ignoring us like they were on about bringing out the army to remove us
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Now, what happened? Did they withdraw? I mean, is that still going on?
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There's only 8,000 jail cells in all of Ireland, so you better start building more jails.
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Well, is there any leadership, or was this sort of spontaneous?
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This is kind of spontaneous. It kind of went out, and everyone kind of put the support behind it,
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because if you have anyone with any leadership,
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It seems to me that there's the political class
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to try and get motherhood out of the constitution.
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I think of keeping Maria Steen off the presidential ballot.
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Like, it feels like it's always a stitch-up, and it's a club that protects it.
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Is there any political movement that you have hopes for or that you trust?
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It's just like we're here as individuals, as farmers, bus companies, truckers, trying to survive.
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everyone's against you but the people we've rte news we won't talk to them here i was going to say
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because they're they they're hostile they are if we talk to them they're put the different spinning
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things they're editing things and just making us look bad but your public is coming up here we
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we've people local women and and coming up with food like we're inundated yeah you know in canada
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when we had our trucker convoy four years ago they had bouncy castles they had hot tubs it was
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a real festival kind of feeling last night here there's music over in this truck over here i was
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like it was like a party atmosphere we'd local local women from this local area who couldn't
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normally stand here at night okay for safety reasons safety reasons and they felt safe we
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also have the local drug addicts whatever they stayed away you know because it's a rough
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neighborhood the boardwalk is i've been on the boardwalk it's a lot of that's a horn now that's
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a horn this this city has changed in the last 20 years um irish nearly don't come here it's you know
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i walked i walked down the boardwalk last year and i introduced myself to every single person
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and said where are you from every single one of them was not irish yeah yeah basically 10 minutes
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walk from where we're standing here it's like coming to a different country well listen i wish
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you good luck i'm from canada and we love our truckers and farmers and when i saw what was
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going on i thought i gotta get over there because canadians are going to be interested
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have you heard about that canadian trucker convoy a few years back did that did that make the news
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out here at all i don't i know i don't think so it was very similar by the way and it's very
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exciting to see it and i love i love the irish tricolor too that i see flying on various vehicles
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oh yeah look at that everyone you see you can't stop the farmer the builder
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um they can stop everyone else we have the equipment to block everywhere up
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you're the main in boiler suits and dirty cement covered boots built this country
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but we've men in suits trying to break it down that's a very interesting observation i mean
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mean every country has to eat yeah every person he has to eat three times a day
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us farmers do it the truckers haul it to the supermarkets and uh we have the backbone of the
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country yep yeah too many people are too far removed from the land where the food comes from
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they think it comes out of a supermarket yeah they don't realize there's people out there growing the
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food, to put it in there. It doesn't come out in air. They'll learn.
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Well, I wish you good luck. Nice talking with you.
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Cheers. You're a senior organizer, is that right?
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Yeah, James Gagan from Westmead, agricultural contractor.
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Beef and machinery hire. Plant hire diggers and tractors like these.
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I actually had to come and meet the police and set it up.
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Well, tell me a bit about that, because we're from Canada,
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And some members of the police wanted to work with the truckers
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to keep it calm and smooth and keep a lane open for ambulances.
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Yeah, we kept a lane open on all the motorways for ambulances, 100%.
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and do you talk to the police on a regular basis every day yeah yeah keeping contact with them and
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all the groups we've got 40 protests going all over ireland and everyone's liaison with the
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gardens and working perfect yeah it's not interesting i saw the deputy commissioner
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of the guardie she's a canadian woman which really surprised me and her language she said
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we're moving to enforcement i'm sure you saw that video that really rubbed me the wrong way i was
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embarrassed it rubbed us as well the wrong way yeah i mean first of all she's like i was asked
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last night about what's my opinion of the army coming in as they were saying about enforcement
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and my reply back to them was and this was on national television last night on RT primetime
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my answer back was we have a bigger army. I saw that clip of you. My answer to the army coming
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in the streets is we have actually a bigger army so we're not afraid of the army. We're
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agri-contractors plant hire men. The army will not move this protest and if any vehicle is touched
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on that protest there'll be 10 more to replace it immediately. Yeah so we're not afraid of the
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army we have far more power than they have well and i bet a lot of members of the army and i bet
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a lot of police support you yeah they're not even the army not turning up for work how is the
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mainstream media in ireland treating the protest uh trying to discredit it at the start uh trying
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about fake news about it trying to exaggerate fake news pick out pick out the bad points but
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uh everybody can see through their fake bullshit now uh the police seem to be pretty calm about
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things. Yeah, we have two police here. There's a man from Canada. He's wondering how are the
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police on it. How are you feeling about the protest? Yeah, there's no hassle. Peaceful protest.
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How about the military? I saw some armored personnel carriers and I saw some... I don't
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mind where they were going. We have more armor than they have. How is this going to end? Because
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the politicians, they don't like to blink. No, but they have no choice. What do you think is going
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happen we've a list of man's going in they will be met this evening we go home when to meet them
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if they don't meet we don't go home are you expecting to meet them today i have to say
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can i ask who you're meeting with at half two in government buildings with government ministers
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before you go and i just got have you did you hear about the canadian trucker convoy a few
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years ago is that in any way an inspiration or a warning it would be yeah yeah yeah now in canada
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they brought in martial law to end it they seized bank accounts is that going to happen in ireland
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He really is meeting with the government to talk terms.
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He was on TV in Ireland last night saying similar things to what he said here.
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He said they're going to need a bigger army if they're going to send the army after us.
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That's tough talk, but that comes from confidence that he has the support not only of thousands of farmers and hauliers,
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which is what they call truckers here but also from the general public you know i'm i can't help
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but being a little bit optimistic i hope he's right and that's how strong the people on the
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ground are on this and it's unbelievable i can't believe what's your advice to protesters if the
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army tried to move them i can't see it possible because the machines that are parked up cannot
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physically be removed all right well we'll do our best we'll do our best with the microphone
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My name's Ezra. I'm from Rebel News in Canada. What's your name?
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And are you a trucker? Are you a farmer? Tell me about yourself.
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John Hawes, they're from Lara in County Calvin, Stradone.
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Now, how long have you been parked in the heart of Dublin?
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And tell me what motivates you. Why are you doing that?
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So the price of diesel there at the minute, like it's only getting worse and you have to do something about it because it's only going up, you know.
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A lot of people joining all over the country, truckers, farmers, bus drivers, it feels spontaneous.
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Well, I suppose it's just like we're coming up to silences and stuff like that and like the common harvests and stuff like that,
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burning a lot of diesel and tractors and mowers and stuff like that.
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so it wouldn't be long going through a couple of tanks of diesel and the price of green diesel now
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like you wouldn't find the bill green diesel that's for farmers right yeah tractors and stuff
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like that yeah so how much is it to fill up a tractor you drive a tractor ever how much is it
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to fill up a gas tank or a diesel i was talking to one lad today he says it's uh five six hundred
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euros yeah i wouldn't be far off it now well let me ask you because normally uh you park a vehicle
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for three days on this street you're getting all sorts of tickets and fines how the cops been
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has the guard e being oh yeah look they're flexible enough now they're happy enough like
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they're all in the same boat as well like they're they have to put diesel into their own cars and
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stuff like that like ever sorry yeah the guards park is here yeah yeah yeah they place the lorries
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in position oh so so you're saying the police actually told you where to park yeah they're all
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on their side like even there you'd have to crack with them there and all that so you so do you have
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like a leader who's talking to them or something uh christopher duffy there is doing a good job
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he'll talk away so they're they're sort of working with you to keep a lane open here and there and
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and the cops are fine eh yeah they're walking away grand anyway it's not too bad now i saw on the
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internet some military vehicles have you seen any of those no i haven't seen them anyway i don't know
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what the story is in them but that'd be the last thing you'd want to see i come in there i've been
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important updating that one i met a retired army sergeant this morning cycling through the city
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on his bike and i said to him you can stop there and stop the traffic and play a part he says he's
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going to the gym with his two sons i says well listen if the army come in later on would you
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come back in because you know yourself an army general has never retired especially in a situation
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of a right in emergency yeah they pull him back in he said no need they're already stood down
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oh wow okay well everyone's feeling the flexible place how do you think this is all going to end
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do you think the government's going to blink politicians don't like to lose face if you know
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what i mean they don't like to to lose a battle of wills yeah that's it but you're fairly screwing
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us there at the minute like it's they have to cut it back at this stage like we're in too far
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now to pull out at this stage well i wish you good luck and uh uh maybe we'll talk to you again we're
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going to be here for a while just going up and down talking to folks so thanks for spending some
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time with us no bother at all thanks very much right on cheers all right what what's the name
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of this highway we're on right here the n7 and this it's a pretty big highway and uh are you
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driving one of these trucks no i'm only 15. my father owns them it's a family-run business
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don't haulage so there's a lane or two open over there but this side's completely closed eh
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yeah so hopefully now the guards will block the lane because there's more tractors coming down now
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and machinery to stop most lanes so so you and your dad are doing this together yeah that's
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some father-son bonding he said to come down we all blocked it ourselves this morning my father got
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all the lorries down but a few of us joined in as well and stuck with us on the way down so and have
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the police come by and they've only come up this way but they want they want to come up this way
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and stop to talk to us but haven't come down this way yet when they stop to talk to you what do they
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say it's fair play to us keep it up really they said keep it up yeah is that a fact ah yeah well
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so what are your plans are you gonna how long do you think you can stay here i mean these are pretty
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big rigs it would be tough to tow one of these things stay here and out as long as you can get
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the fuel down so so your family's in the in the haulage business yeah and uh i mean i suppose your
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dad would have the statistics but what's it like to fill up a petrol tank in one of these rigs it's
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not easy you know mostly if you're doing long runs it nearly takes 250 or 300 liters so it's quite
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expensive so and and what's the price uh that would be diesel in these things so how much would it be
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to fill up a tank could be maybe a couple hundred quid nearly a thousand euro maybe so i wouldn't
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know off the top of my head now in all fairness well that's very interesting father son uh you
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know doing a little bit of uh civic participation how do you think it's going to end because you
00:25:23.500
know politicians they're stubborn ah i don't know now to be fair see how the meeting goes later on
00:25:28.540
in dublin so if we don't get our own way we're just going to stick out and protest and try to
00:25:33.100
get it down as much as we can all right well it's nice talking with you thanks very much
00:25:45.460
He says, when the cops came by, they said, keep at it.
00:25:50.460
If we needed that and said they'd bring it to us, yeah, no, can't complain, yeah.
00:25:57.460
Because I was seeing a tweet by Simon Harris, who was just full of rage.
00:26:01.460
and I saw the Deputy Commissioner of the GardaÃ, who's a Canadian by the way, who said they're moving to enforcement.
00:26:10.460
And on March, Squad Car came down here earlier and she said fair play to you, you're doing well, Anthony is one.
00:26:15.460
Wow, wow. So how many trucks are active like this across the country?
00:26:19.460
There's another protest coming down behind us here, as we speak, tractors, but every road in the country is blocked, everyone is looking for change.
00:26:28.980
Even from people who are inconvenienced, they seem to be supportive.
00:26:44.800
I mean, you just can't do any farming with prices this high.
00:26:48.620
No, and for every two kilometers we do, we burn one liter of diesel.
00:27:02.380
I'm standing on the middle of a highway, the N7.
00:27:13.620
We just talked to a father-son trucking team who said when the police came by, they said,
00:27:22.100
Sorry, pardon me, some farmers and some truckers behind them.
00:27:28.940
Ezra Levant from Rebel News, my colleague Efron.
00:27:39.800
Our police down there, I think I see some lights.
00:27:55.180
diesel has doubled in price something has to be done now those guys were telling me that when the
00:28:01.180
police came by they said fair play keep at it that that's interesting to me have they talked to you
00:28:06.420
they haven't talked to me yet now personally now but they are in contact with the police talk to
00:28:11.520
you can i i'm as for levant from rebel news down in uh canada do you mind if i come up here and say
00:28:16.820
hi uh so that you say the police came by what did they say to you they're fully supportive of us
00:28:24.120
so we can't afford to move and isn't that interesting because this is a pretty dramatic
0.65
00:28:28.620
thing this shut down the n7 shut down the whole country never mind the n7 shut down the whole
0.70
00:28:32.580
country better off until we get what we want we're not moving we're here for the long haul
0.92
00:28:37.580
i i heard some honking horns when cars go by so supportive all the public is very supportive of
00:28:43.900
us very supportive because i guess i mean they don't use as much petrol and diesel as you do but
00:28:48.980
everyone still uses some yeah so we're not moving until we get what we want on you let me ask you
00:28:54.620
this uh why do you think the government keeps the taxes so high like what's motivating them
00:29:00.140
what's your theory greediness that's exactly what a number of greediness yeah i've heard i've heard
00:29:07.740
that exact same answer they have on the fuel yeah like that's crazy and what does that do to you as
00:29:14.480
man who's trying to work cripples us absolutely yeah it puts us down it's going to put us all
00:29:19.080
out of business we're only small contractors and it's going to put us all out of business
00:29:23.860
have you ever done anything like this in your life no never have you ever done anything political
00:29:29.420
no no never wow well it's like this i'll either be home by nine o'clock news or i'll be on the
00:29:47.300
And the whole country is going to shut down before the weekend's out
00:29:51.660
Do you think this idea might spread to other countries?
00:29:57.960
The North are going to have a protest the 14th.
00:30:06.020
we're we're a small journalistic outfit from canada but we find ireland very interesting
00:30:12.340
can you tell me in your judgment how has the irish media covered the protest have they done
00:30:18.820
so fairly have they been biased towards the government are they being supportive what's your
00:30:23.300
view they're being half half supportive they were saying that we were blocking the harsh
00:30:28.420
shoulders down that but we sent them in videos the same we weren't and the emergency services
00:30:32.820
we're getting by no problem there's no issue with the emergency services all right well listen nice
00:30:37.840
talking with you good luck and i hope it ends well same okay cheers thank you absolutely incredible
00:30:44.480
what's going on you know in canada we have a saying peace order and good government that's
00:30:50.580
the canadian way a little bit passive easy peasy in ireland when they don't like gas taxes
00:30:57.200
they shut down the highways. Absolutely incredible. I keep hearing from these truckers and farmers
00:31:04.220
that when the police come by, they say, fair play, have at her, keep it up. And I find that
00:31:10.400
fascinating given the political comments by people like Simon Harris, the former prime minister who's
00:31:15.280
now the foreign minister. Just absolutely incredible. As far as the eye can see, this road
00:31:20.880
is stopped on that road there is one lane that's allowed to pass these people are serious and you
00:31:28.060
know i saw on twitter someone mentioning that in all of ireland there's only 8 000 jail cells
00:31:35.540
i mean that's a funny way to put it but there's a truth to it i mean they say that in a free society
00:31:43.260
policing depends on the consent of the people you may have heard of Sir Robert Peel the creator of
00:31:51.400
the modern British police force he talked about policing with the consent of the people and in a
00:31:57.380
free society the laws have to be supported by the people or it just won't work there just aren't
00:32:02.800
enough police and prosecutors in jails so when you've got fuel taxes so outrageously high that
00:32:11.800
truckers can't truck and farmers can't farm you lose the consent of the people and it sounds like
00:32:19.940
the police themselves do not believe in upholding such an outrageous law when a country reaches that
00:32:26.560
state change has to come what are you going to do arrest every farmer and trucker in ireland
00:32:33.100
simply impossible this is an incredible moment and you know i've been coming back to ireland for i
00:32:39.540
guess it's about two years now we started coming over to cover the mass protests against mass
00:32:45.420
immigration and uh there's something about the irish i mean there's the phrase the fighting irish
00:32:51.780
the rebel spirit i mean we call ourselves rebel news but the irish are not a passive people they
00:32:58.340
they founded their country with a rebellion against the british empire that's not an easy
00:33:03.840
thing to do. So I suppose it's in their blood to protest against outrageous taxes. And I have to
00:33:11.300
tell you, it's a fascinating thing to watch. If you want to keep up with this story, please go to
00:33:18.400
our special website we've set up called the truthaboutireland.com. My colleague Efron and I
00:33:24.840
hopped on a plane and flew overnight. We've only had about an hour's sleep in the last day or so.
00:33:30.740
but this is fascinating stuff a little bit reminiscent of the trucker convoy back in
00:33:36.540
canada in 2022 but i tell you this is an amazing thing to be standing on a major highway in ireland
00:33:45.240
completely at a standstill and with police saying keep it up lads for rebel news i'm ezra
00:33:52.680
levin if you can help us out go to the truth about ireland.com as you can imagine we're not
00:33:58.420
like rte the state broadcaster here that gets hundreds of millions of euros from the government
00:34:04.020
we rely solely on the generosity of our viewers if you value our journalism please go to the
00:34:09.000
truthaboutireland.com and chip in a euro or two thank you well we were in dublin earlier today
00:34:13.940
and we've been trying to make our way down to cork which is in the southern part of ireland
00:34:18.720
that's where the only refinery on the whole island is located by the way it's irving oil which is a
00:34:25.360
Canadian company, and since we're talking about fuel and diesel and petrol, that's obviously
00:34:31.140
a key choke point. And we're making our way down, and we come across this livestock route
00:34:38.180
truck blocking our way. Tell me about what you've been doing here, why you're here, and
00:34:46.180
the reaction from drivers. Well, we're here. It's widely documented
00:34:51.780
why we're here to get a reduction in excise on fuel and we're finding very difficult to run our
00:34:56.580
businesses all of us here collectively i'm a ground worker this man's livestock haulier
00:35:02.420
we have a steel erector here farmers here agri-contractors here so we just find it very
00:35:07.700
hard to run our businesses with the price of fuel at the minute and we believe the government could
00:35:11.220
do more help us now when i think of protesters i think of people with pink hair nose rings and
00:35:21.780
and a little bit radical you you lot uh you're too busy working to protest i'm guessing this
00:35:28.640
may be the first protest you've ever done in your life you're absolutely right it would be yeah
00:35:32.360
yeah yeah um and uh so what would make you do that what would make you block a road and with
00:35:40.160
your friends and take a stand because i'm guessing you normally don't have time for shenanigans
00:35:44.840
no just we have to you just simply have to driven to us government hasn't listened yes
00:35:50.100
We feel we've been marginalised and we just haven't been listened to, that's it.
00:35:56.820
We've all been in some body, we've all joined some thing, a group of something,
00:36:03.140
at some stage and nobody, they've never really come to anything.
00:36:06.920
So we feel like that's it, we just have to be out and seen.
00:36:11.820
Now this feels like it's happening in hundreds of places across Ireland.
00:36:22.120
and they've sort of come to the same conclusion
00:36:44.080
Yeah, it just kind of all, it just kind of came on suddenly, really, didn't it?
00:36:48.320
It just kind of all emerged out of nowhere, the same to do it, and that's it.
00:36:52.560
Now, what kind of reaction are you getting from regular drivers?
00:36:57.440
Yeah, mostly very good, mostly. As you can see from all the food.
00:37:02.320
That's been dropped off. None of that is our own.
00:37:10.960
Now, let me ask you this. Have the Gardaà come by?
00:37:14.080
no they haven't come by at all they're very supportive they've come around and
00:37:18.560
chatted with us and all that but they've been very supportive all right uh no problems at
00:37:22.240
garty at all nothing no no problem no that's very interesting i i i saw some public statements by
00:37:29.360
some politicians i was reading simon harris said something on twitter and he sounded pretty tough
00:37:35.280
i mean i mean i don't know how tough he really is but he was using very vitriolic language
00:37:44.360
and I even saw the deputy commissioner of the Guardia,
00:38:08.620
the truth is the last thing to it the truth is last summer isn't it so I'd say
00:38:13.180
it's a bit of both really propaganda and are we in your way here okay um no I
00:38:20.500
don't I just that's none of that anyway maybe in the city an awful lot of
00:38:25.600
Gardaà are from the country as well do you know what I mean farmer sons and all
00:38:30.460
your sons and we're all you know what I mean the sons and daughters like it's
00:38:33.740
I don't get they're all part of everybody is suffering like including Gaurdie like I was
00:38:39.080
thinking about that I mean police they need the consent of the people because there just aren't
00:38:44.260
enough police to arrest thousands there's not enough jail cells there's not enough prosecutors
00:38:49.340
so it seems to me the government has lost the legitimacy of public support and and I think
00:38:55.340
police maybe know that before the politicians do like I just don't think the public supports this
00:39:01.480
fuel tax no i don't they definitely don't no i can't think of anyone who would like have you
00:39:06.540
ever met anyone who says yeah i like the fuel taxes where they are no no of course not we don't
00:39:11.860
see any benefit for where our money is going do you know what i mean we pay we pay our taxes but
00:39:15.880
we don't see any benefit to it the roads are still in deplorable state a lot of the time
00:39:20.520
we don't see infrastructure is slow to get built people planning permission is slow to get through
00:39:24.880
for houses that people want to build costs are going up on everything we don't see our value
00:39:28.860
for our money so that's a lot of it too you know what i mean how's this gonna end it'll end when
00:39:36.220
there's a deal done and everybody's satisfied i don't know it's looking very dodgy at the minute
00:39:40.360
but there will still be a deal done don't think there will don't think there will how long are
00:39:46.600
you prepared to be here i don't know sir we're comfortable here now to be honest
00:39:51.240
you got some camaraderie that's for sure yeah yeah we're very a little bit of banter
00:39:57.940
yes yeah we're pretty happy here yeah we rotate it a bit like Pete let's come and go and you know
00:40:03.360
we rotate around so yeah we could we could we could come here there could go on for a while
00:40:08.480
yeah could definitely last question for you I come from Canada where we had a trucker and farmer
1.00
00:40:13.240
protest a few years ago but I think that the Irish are a little bit more rebellious than the
0.69
00:40:18.280
Canadians if I do say so do you think that this kind of a protest that really shakes the political
0.97
00:40:25.220
class do you think it has a chance of spreading to other countries well sure it has always had
00:40:30.540
it has always spread to france hasn't it with the yellow vest protests and everything it was in
00:40:34.600
france all along um whether it will spread to any other countries i don't know it's hard to know at
00:40:39.400
the minute it depends on how what results we get i suppose if we do get any results you know
00:40:44.480
i couldn't answer that now to be honest fair deal well thanks for talking with us and we wish you
00:40:53.660
You can check it out on Rebel News, we'll have it up tonight.
00:40:59.660
Well, we're down in County Cork, which is way down in the south.
00:41:03.660
In fact, I was nearby here when I was doing my story on Baltimore, the village that was
00:41:09.660
completely kidnapped by Barbary pirates a few hundred years ago.
00:41:13.660
The reason we're here is you can see through the fog and the rain, Ireland's only oil refinery.
00:41:21.980
It's actually owned by Irving Oil, a Canadian company.
00:41:26.320
It's obviously a strategically important piece of infrastructure.
00:41:32.020
And with the protests across Ireland shutting down roads and ports and intersections,
00:41:38.120
you can imagine that this is a bottleneck, a choke point that would have real economic and political pressure on Ireland.
00:41:47.320
If you recall in Cuba, where our team of Efron and Alexa went a couple of months ago,
00:41:53.140
the lack of gasoline, the lack of diesel, this has brought the entire country to its knees.
00:42:01.120
Well, imagine the political power of this grassroots general strike, which is really what this protest is, shutting down that refinery.
00:42:11.680
Now, we came in. It was about a four-hour drive, a little more than that.
00:42:16.620
And it was more than that, ironically, because so many of the intersections and roads were blocked by this protest general strike against the gas.
00:42:26.500
I think that's what I'm going to call it, a general strike.
00:42:31.580
It's maybe politics of the left or some political movement.
00:42:34.200
Here, the general strike is against gouging fuel taxes.
00:42:44.840
It's 10 degrees Celsius, but it feels like about minus 5.
00:42:51.000
The police, or the Garda, the Gardee as they're called,
00:42:54.760
have told us we can go no further with a vehicle.
00:43:00.240
As we saw the blockades on the highways and the intersections,
00:43:04.200
I asked every single person, have the police talk with you?
00:43:10.520
Here, it's obviously very different with this refinery.
00:43:19.560
But obviously, they're treating this refinery as a very serious operation
00:43:24.720
that they do not want the protesters to tamper with and now let's walk and get a little bit closer
00:43:30.560
well i tell you that north atlantic it is cold they say it's 10 degrees but it feels i don't
00:43:36.320
know how you can get frostbite when it's 10 degrees but i feel like i'm on the path you can
00:43:41.280
see back there that's where the police told us to leave our vehicle and we sort of made our way
00:43:47.120
through the town and you can see these big trucks with their dump trucks extended.
00:43:55.280
This is part of the protest and like I say this oil refinery is a key piece of strategic
00:44:02.000
infrastructure. When we arrived we met I don't know I think there was probably about 30 men there
00:44:08.320
who were with the protests they were wearing their high-vis uniforms. In fact at first I thought they
00:44:13.680
might have been policed themselves. I had a few conversations and I was delighted to know
00:44:18.560
that a number of them were familiar with Rebel News. We've been to Ireland, I think this is our
00:44:24.320
ninth visit over the last few years when we added it all up. There's a lot of interesting things in
00:44:29.600
Ireland and I think the most interesting thing is that they had that Irish spirit of rebellion that
00:44:36.400
they're not going to take it and the issue that motivates the people today is the fuel tax but
00:44:43.760
one gentleman brought up mass immigration as well there's other issues in this country i i find it
00:44:51.200
fascinating to watch the irish take the initiative rather than be passive as happens in some other
00:44:58.240
countries the one mystery for me though is how you can have such a people with a grassroots
00:45:05.680
energy and organic demand and authentic demand for reform but no political party willing to
00:45:12.320
seize it where's the political entrepreneur in the united kingdom there's nigel farage
00:45:18.000
in france there's the le pen family in ireland you could say georgia maloney is of that breed
00:45:25.600
there's victor orban in hungary where is the irish answer and you don't have to be radical you just
00:45:32.880
have to say we're cutting taxes, we're defunding the NGOs, we're bringing an end to the mass
00:45:39.520
immigration madness, and you can say so in a sweet and reasonable way. I would think
1.00
00:45:44.240
such a party would instantly be a contender. Alas, it doesn't seem to be here, but we're
00:45:51.200
here as reporters, not advisors. Let's keep walking.
00:45:54.400
It's a little chilly out there. We stepped in under this tent just to get out of the cold.
00:45:58.080
there's dozens of you guys here in the cold what would make you stand in the
00:46:03.060
cold for days on end we've no choice we just have to stay with it no one just
00:46:07.500
try to prove our point and hope it works I suppose and there's a look there's a
00:46:11.580
brilliant there's so many here in fairness and everyone is staying
00:46:13.860
together which in this weather is testing so it's nice to see that I see
00:46:17.820
you got the vote Volvo logo on your jacket that tells me you're a trucker
00:46:21.180
are you yeah yeah we have a couple of it's a family business at home so we've
00:46:24.600
crane trucks and we do some general haulage and stuff so and myself my father are here now with
00:46:28.520
the last couple of days and this is my friend killian and he joined us as well a minute ago so
00:46:32.360
are you a trucker as well no i'm not a trucker i'm a mechanic i'm serving my time with a crowd
00:46:37.160
out there but it's related though i mean you're part of the you're part of the industry oh definitely
00:46:42.200
sure look like if there isn't vehicles on the road and not moving like you know it slows our work
00:46:47.480
down as well like you know we're not fixing we're not servicing like you know so it has an effect
00:46:52.040
on everyone not just mechanics and we'll say farmers and construction workers it it has an
00:46:57.960
effect the whole way down the line like you know so what was it that sparked this protest like it
00:47:03.640
seemed to just start up about three or four days ago in earnest was there a particular straw that
00:47:08.680
broke the camel's back just cost cost of everything it's just after rising too much and look it's
00:47:13.880
rising with a long time but no it's gone it's just gone too far people can't do it and not even that
00:47:18.200
but there's only time in it if it keeps going the way it's going it'll it'll draw the whole
00:47:22.600
country to a stop whether they want to believe it or not it will be the way it'll go like you
00:47:27.080
know i've seen a lot of protests in my day i i'm not exaggerating when i say i've been to a hundred
00:47:32.680
and i have never seen one as widespread as this it actually feels like a general strike why are so
00:47:39.480
many people who don't know each other who are not part of the same organization why are so many
00:47:46.680
people coming out at once sure I suppose it's just again it's hurting everyone
00:47:51.780
right from your truck drivers to farmers to to families you know it everyone is
00:47:56.880
feeling it and it's they don't again even just a price of everything it's
00:48:01.120
gone too far and no this is really the final straw for a lot of people don't
00:48:04.860
have everyone yet I've been asking people who have been blockading highways
00:48:10.680
I've said what have police said to you and every single one says the police
00:48:16.320
say keep it up which is a little surprising for me is it surprising for
00:48:22.800
you well no not really like because when you think about it like you know guards
00:48:28.080
have mothers they have fathers sisters like everybody is affected you know
00:48:34.260
everything everything is rolling on to the next fella so like I dare is
00:48:40.020
relatable to us as anybody else is like you know so no I wouldn't be surprised
00:48:44.580
because everyone is affected by it like you know so yeah there's a rebellious spirit in ireland i
00:48:51.860
think it's part of the ethnicity if i may but you've also got politicians who are very proud
00:48:57.540
and politicians don't like to be seen to lose face so on the one hand you got an irresistible force
00:49:04.660
but you got an immovable object how can this end when you've got stubborn men in charge
00:49:11.380
yeah look it'll be tough and um i don't honestly know sure no one knows that way it's gonna go or
00:49:16.500
who's gonna win or who isn't gonna win and look it's not about winning or losing for us anyway
00:49:20.340
it's not it's just genuinely about getting the price of diesel down to make it make sense it's
00:49:23.860
very very simple i'm gonna guess that this is the first time you guys have ever been to a protest
00:49:29.060
yeah to be fair yeah one day makes sense anyway yeah for sure well i think that says something i
00:49:33.860
mean there are what i would call professional protesters on the left that's all they do they
00:49:39.060
do it for a living i'm seeing severely normal people make a decision
00:49:47.940
what uh what'll happen if you don't make a change like what's the outcome if you can't get this
00:49:55.060
fixed i'd say no one knows it's not really i don't think failure isn't an option not in this scenario
00:50:01.460
i don't think so i think it's just going to be stick with it and as long as it takes it takes
00:50:05.380
and that's pretty much it that's everyone's attitude like just stay until it works are you
00:50:10.500
surprised or impressed by the support that you're getting oh sure it's unbelievable like
00:50:14.580
but sure it's nationwide like you know so yeah no like in fairness it is unbelievable
00:50:19.940
just the outcome of everybody like you know coming out showing numbers even like you see the
00:50:23.700
weather outside yourself like it's unreal most people would probably say they wouldn't bother
00:50:29.460
but like the fact that it is wet and windy outside and everybody has turned up like no
00:50:35.060
definitely you know anybody who came today should be proud of themselves and like you know it's it
00:50:40.340
is for a great cause like so yeah no definitely definitely well listen thanks for talking with
00:50:46.180
me i'm and thanks for giving me a little shelter it was a little not my kind of way i'm canada
00:50:52.020
gets cold but it's a different kind of cold yeah right on thanks lads good luck to you
00:50:56.340
Well it's almost 7 p.m. and we are in Cork near the refinery. This is about as close as we can
00:51:08.500
get. There's an enormous number of men here. I would say there's about a hundred milling around
00:51:15.380
and as you can see there's a large number of tractors, semi-trailers, dump trucks, campers
00:51:23.720
and people from the community showing their solidarity with the men.
00:51:30.880
The police, while in heavy numbers as well, I have to say they're completely friendly.
00:51:39.440
And I don't think it's an exaggeration or spin to say they actually support the men.
00:51:46.020
we probably encountered half a dozen blockades that i mean not to be critical are illegal you
00:51:54.280
can't just block the highway but they are and every case i asked the men what do the police say
00:52:01.340
and in every case the answer was keep it up i find that remarkable i find that to be the most
00:52:10.260
compelling sign of all that the government no longer has the democratic legitimacy and the
00:52:18.980
mandate of the people. If the police, and the root of the word police is that the policy of the
00:52:25.220
government is affected, if the police simply refuse because they know that the politicians
00:52:31.860
are empty suits don't have a mandate don't have the moral right to impose these taxes on people
00:52:41.040
how can the political class continue they're so shameless in ireland i'm sure they will
00:52:46.280
i'm reminded of the resilience of the irish people their stubbornness i suppose is a negative way
00:52:54.940
but it's that stubbornness that makes them refuse to accept improper taxes.
00:53:01.760
With oil prices being as high as they are because of global events,
00:53:06.340
how on earth could a government on top of that add 60% in tax?
00:53:11.600
Put aside the part of the price that the government can't control.
00:53:15.500
Why do they refuse to cut the part that they can?
00:53:18.600
I think most countries in the world would passively shrug and say,
00:53:24.940
But these rebellious people on this emerald isle have said no.
00:53:37.940
When I think back to the trucker convoy in Canada in 2022, it was widely supported.
00:53:46.180
Some people believed deeply in the vaccine mandates.
00:53:53.460
and they thought the protesters were reckless but here there's no other side there's no
00:53:59.440
constituency that says no no we actually do like paying more for fuel it it's so unanimous
00:54:07.160
except for in the political class there the opposite is true the politicians and the media
00:54:14.740
love their carbon taxes they do it for ideology they do it for Greta Thunberg and they do it
00:54:20.840
every single respondent to me today said I'd agreed isn't that interesting I
00:54:26.980
enjoy coming to Ireland so much and it's not just because I love the weather I
00:54:32.000
come here because I learn about the crises that we face in Canada and how
00:54:39.080
those might look if we let them fester but I also come for some inspiration and
00:54:44.180
hope the Irish people fighting back with that fighting spirit even though they're
00:54:50.240
led by donkeys they fight back with a compelling passion we're going home
00:54:56.900
tomorrow but I'm so glad we came today we're gonna put all our videos on one
00:55:03.020
website we've got so many interviews we probably have ten different videos that
00:55:07.520
we've done today and you can see them all at a website we put together called
00:55:12.740
the truth about Ireland calm we have a big journey back to Dublin now and we'll
00:55:18.560
some work tomorrow as well but then we have to leave but you'll be able to see all our videos
00:55:23.920
at the truthaboutireland.com and if you think that the work we've done is valuable please consider
00:55:29.760
chipping in a few dollars or a few euros to help defray the costs of our journey here we bought
00:55:35.920
our plane tickets last minute because we only heard about the protest yesterday and i'm glad we came
00:55:42.400
thanks very much for your kind hospitality i have to say and it's so surprising to me
00:55:46.720
rebel news is very welcome in different parts of the world my hometown of calgary our head office
00:55:52.320
in toronto but pound for pound i think the place we're most followed and frankly the most appreciated
00:55:59.440
is in ireland because they're looking for friends and allies to fight against the establishment
00:56:04.960
and you know it's in our name rebel news goodbye everybody and thanks for your support