Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ Ireland erupts in trucker protest over sky-high fuel taxes

00:00:00.640 Tonight, Ireland has a general strike over carbon taxes.

00:00:05.920 It's April 10th, and this is The Ezra Levant Show.

00:00:08.880 You're fighting for freedom!

00:00:12.080 Shame on you, you censorious bug!

00:00:23.680 Ezra Levant here for Rebel News.

00:00:25.280 I'm in the heart of Dublin, the capital of Ireland.

00:00:28.320 although it feels a little bit like Ottawa, the capital of Canada, four years ago because there

00:00:34.880 is a trucker and farmer convoy protesting the government. Well, that's exactly what happened

00:00:43.440 in Canada four years ago. You can see a lineup of tractors here, no fuel, no food. There's more

00:00:50.240 tractors over here, no farms, no food. They're protesting by the thousands across Ireland,

00:00:57.300 a number of things happening all at once and the most acute issue are the absurdly high prices of

00:01:04.740 fuel including diesel fuel and what they call petrol regular gasoline we call it in north

00:01:10.100 america and the fact that the government has jacked up taxes on these even as world oil prices

00:01:17.140 go up it's become unbearable i spoke to one farmer earlier this morning who says it costs

00:01:22.940 more than 600 euros that's about a thousand bucks to fill up his tractor every time it's astonishing

00:01:29.020 the prices the government didn't run on a pledge to jack up taxes but that's just the

00:01:35.820 environmental extremists in every western government their net zero their idea is raise

00:01:42.300 the price of fuel and people will use less of it well it doesn't work that way if you're a farmer

00:01:47.660 you need gasoline, you need diesel if you're going to take off your crops. And these farmers

00:01:55.100 who are the backbone of any culture, I mean, if you want to have a prosperous society,

00:02:00.540 you need cheap, plentiful fuel and cheap, plentiful food. And the farmers are getting hit every way.

00:02:08.620 What's incredible and very reminiscent of Ottawa is how spontaneous these protests are.

00:02:15.500 there are some men and women who have been thrust to the front and i guess you could call them

00:02:20.540 protest leaders but like the trucker convoy in canada it's almost a last resort by the last

00:02:28.220 people in ireland who have any common sense just to do something that's exactly how it felt back

00:02:34.380 in canada back in canada the covid crisis was the reason for the protest as you may know canada had

00:02:42.540 some of the strictest lockdowns in the western world and the last straw was when the government

00:02:49.740 said truckers had to get jabbed to do their long hauls and of course truckers are among the most

00:02:55.740 solitary people other than being a lighthouse keeper i can't think of a job that's more isolated

00:03:01.340 and the truckers that was just enough that was the final straw for them and so thousands of truckers

00:03:07.500 converged on auto. It was a 100-kilometer-long convoy. Just astonishing. And I think there's

00:03:15.480 that same feeling here. In Ireland, just like in Canada four years ago, there was a consensus

00:03:23.460 of how things were. Lockdowns, mandatory jabs, fear-mongering. And all the political parties

00:03:31.580 were united over there, but the people were over there. I think it's similar here in Ireland.

00:03:36.900 The political class is so unanimous on the key issues from fuel taxes to mass immigration to high housing prices and inflation.

00:03:48.900 It's almost like there's no political method that ordinary Irish people can express themselves. 0.89

00:03:55.540 Thank God the truckers and the farmers were there because they are the last preserve of common sense. 0.99

00:04:00.400 You know, George Orwell, in his book 1984, wrote,

00:04:04.480 if there's any salvation, it lies with the proles.

00:04:07.960 That was his nickname for the proletariat, the working people.

00:04:11.760 And I think that the entire sophisticated political class and their media class here,

00:04:17.700 remember, they have a massive state broadcaster called RTE

00:04:21.460 that is just a propaganda voice for the government.

00:04:25.660 They've all failed.

00:04:26.760 And so to see this grassroots protest is sort of thrilling.

00:04:31.760 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.

00:04:44.640 We drove early this morning.

00:04:46.440 We flew all night.

00:04:47.720 We landed early this morning and we went to a muster point where we chatted with a farmer there.

00:04:53.300 But we decided to come to the heart of the city.

00:04:55.040 And I just want to point out one thing. We're literally right in the thick of the city.

00:04:59.500 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.

00:05:06.480 It's really a symbolic place of the Irish Rebellion and it's a very historic place.

00:05:14.620 The River Liffey is just up there. We really couldn't be more in the heart of Dublin.

00:05:18.880 and the the roads are blocked but this road that we're on here but typically

00:05:24.500 and we'll go down a little bit further let's walk and talk they've left one

00:05:29.560 lane free and there's a reason for that so emergency vehicles can go by and that

00:05:37.880 is exactly what the truckers did in Ottawa Canada they they had their trucks

00:05:44.080 in the city but they let emergency vehicles go go by because these are responsible people

00:05:50.560 they're frustrated what the government has done to them they're not looking to harm their fellow

00:05:54.720 irishmen they're looking to wake the country up i want to tell you one more thing and i'm not going

00:06:00.400 to say his name i don't want him to get in trouble when we landed this morning we talked to the

00:06:05.440 customs officer who said oh what who are you guys i said we're journalists from candy said oh what

00:06:09.920 are you here to cover and i said the fuel prices i didn't want to get too deep into it because i

00:06:13.840 didn't want him to keep us out and he was excited and he said look at the video i took this morning

00:06:19.680 and so he took out his cell phone and showed us the video of the m50 which is a major highway in

00:06:26.480 ireland he said it took him an hour to get to work instead of the usual 15 and i said well how do you

00:06:31.680 feel about that i thought he was he would be irritated well i guess he was a little bit

00:06:34.960 irritated about spending 45 minutes more in his car but he said i hope they win i was thrilled

00:06:42.000 It was so exciting. Then we had the same conversation with the car rental place.

00:06:47.520 Ordinary Irish people are sick of things.

00:06:51.220 They feel like the political class just isn't listening to them.

00:06:54.520 And whether it's mass immigration, too expensive housing, or fuel taxes, they want to change.

00:07:00.160 You know, fuel is taxed. I've talked to a number of people. I want to get the official number.

00:07:05.000 but I've heard 52% I've heard 60% to have these massive taxes on top of

00:07:11.680 already high oil prices shows a government that's just out of touch

00:07:15.280 especially with the farmers hey we're gonna continue walking and talking and

00:07:20.380 doing our journalism we're gonna interview these truckers we just got

00:07:24.000 into the heart of the city I want to point out one more thing which is how

00:07:27.820 calm and low energy the police are and that's a very good sign because over the

00:07:35.580 last couple of days the political class has absolutely panicked and they've

00:07:40.960 literally deployed the Irish military as it is I've seen it in fact that's what

00:07:47.200 made us decide to come out here is the video footage of armored personnel

00:07:51.920 carriers and threats well as you can see the police here they're not wearing any

00:07:56.220 swat uniforms are dressed in their ball caps in very friendly mode they're not

00:08:00.540 here in massive numbers and here's what I meant about the lanes you can see

00:08:04.620 these lanes are blocked but you see this free lane here so if there was an

00:08:09.120 emergency vehicle if there was a fire truck or an ambulance or a police car it

00:08:13.380 could get by no problem so there's a kind of coexistence at least for now and

00:08:19.080 I want to tell you one more thing from Canada that's how it was at first until

00:08:24.600 The politicians, in that case Justin Trudeau, just decided they had had enough and they were being embarrassed on the world stage.

00:08:31.120 And they actually ordered martial law in Canada.

00:08:35.260 It's called the Emergencies Act.

00:08:36.560 They swept people off the streets, jailed the protest leaders, and they seized the bank accounts of more than 200 protesters without legal process.

00:08:47.620 I have to say the government of Michael Martin and Simon Harris are exactly the kind of weasels who would do that.

00:08:54.600 And I'm a little bit worried that this is the calm before the storm.

00:08:58.140 Let's close by reading that homemade billboard.

00:09:00.920 Charity starts at home.

00:09:02.800 All us Irish have had enough government out now.

00:09:07.140 That's exactly the spirit of this protest.

00:09:10.120 And we'll be talking to truckers and farmers and ordinary Irish people all day.

00:09:15.960 I hopped on a plane last night with my videographer Efron because I started to see what was going on in Ireland.

00:09:22.640 We have a soft spot for Ireland.

00:09:24.200 we love it. We've covered the immigration protest and I knew we had to be here for this Canadian

00:09:29.080 style trucker farmer protest. Unfortunately, coming at last minute meant our flights were

00:09:34.300 expensive, more than a thousand dollars Canadian each. If you can help me cover the cost of this

00:09:39.220 trip, please go to thetruthaboutireland.com. Unlike the state broadcaster RTE, we get zero

00:09:46.040 taxpayer dollars and that's precisely why we're able to tell you the other side of the story.

00:09:51.900 That's thetruthaboutireland.com.

00:09:54.660 I'm Ezra Levant from Rebel News. What's your name?

00:09:56.820 My name is Shane Dunn.

00:09:57.960 Hi, Shane. Are you from Dublin?

00:09:59.240 No, I'm from a town about an hour from here, Kells County Mead, doing some tillage farming.

00:10:06.360 I also work now in a hardware store as well.

00:10:08.980 Oh, yeah.

00:10:09.680 So I'm here to kind of give me support to fellow members.

00:10:13.880 And it's a bit of a food bank here for people who are overnight. Are you involved with this?

00:10:18.520 This is all donated by the local people here in Dublin

00:10:23.200 Everyone the generosity and we've got from everyone here has mind-blowing. There's 100%

00:10:30.340 support behind because we're all in this because if the government don't give a

00:10:36.380 reduction in the fuel the country's got the country's on a standstill

00:10:42.400 I should tell you when we oh, there's some support. There's a trucker honking his support. Yeah

00:10:48.520 all day this is all closed off the last couple of days we opened this up last night to give a bit

00:10:53.320 more relief because once we decided we're going to have a meeting we uh we said look at seeing

00:10:59.640 if we're getting a bit of a bit somewhere we'd open some up you know it's also a good idea to

00:11:04.280 let ambulances and fire trucks through that has to happen you have to keep emergency services flowing

00:11:09.400 because look at everyone needs if you're if you're in need to be looked after you have to get your

00:11:16.120 treatment. Now, I read an interesting comment online today. You know, what's that group called?

00:11:24.760 That something existence? What's that group called again? That environmental extremist group?

00:11:31.080 Like post-petroleum existence? What's that called again? Shoot. There was an extinction. Sorry about

00:11:38.120 that. Yeah. You know, I forgot that. So extinction rebellion is this left wing group that sort of

00:11:44.440 Greta Thunberg kind of thing they hate oil they block roads like they sit in

00:11:48.940 front of the roads I understand that a couple years ago they had a sit-down

00:11:52.260 meeting with the Irish transportation minister so they were blocking roads but

00:11:58.540 because they're left-wing wackadoodles they had a sit-down with the transport

00:12:02.740 minister how are you guys being treated by the government by comparison they're

00:12:08.740 completely ignoring us like they were on about bringing out the army to remove us

00:12:13.120 Now, what happened? Did they withdraw? I mean, is that still going on?

00:12:17.020 I don't know. We were a bigger army.

00:12:21.460 There's only 8,000 jail cells in all of Ireland, so you better start building more jails.

00:12:25.880 And they're all full.

00:12:27.020 That's right.

00:12:27.780 Yeah.

00:12:28.600 Well, is there any leadership, or was this sort of spontaneous?

00:12:35.620 This is kind of spontaneous. It kind of went out, and everyone kind of put the support behind it,

00:12:39.940 because if you have anyone with any leadership,

00:12:42.260 the government are basically gagging them.

00:12:45.260 So they can't gag the Joe public.

00:12:49.700 Now, I'm still learning about Ireland.

00:12:52.620 I'm sort of a beginner.

00:12:54.440 I've been here a few times, I love it.

00:12:56.560 It seems to me that there's the political class

00:12:58.960 that's disconnected from the people.

00:13:00.780 I think of the constitutional amendments

00:13:02.820 to try and get motherhood out of the constitution.

00:13:05.520 I think of keeping Maria Steen off the presidential ballot. 0.99

00:13:09.520 Like, it feels like it's always a stitch-up, and it's a club that protects it.

00:13:13.740 Them and us. Yeah, it's all about them and us.

00:13:16.560 Is there any political movement that you have hopes for or that you trust?

00:13:21.880 I'm not really into politics myself.

00:13:23.700 Fair deal. Fair enough.

00:13:25.800 It's just like we're here as individuals, as farmers, bus companies, truckers, trying to survive.

00:13:33.860 Is anyone on your side?

00:13:37.120 Everyone here.

00:13:37.620 everyone's against you but the people we've rte news we won't talk to them here i was going to say

00:13:45.700 because they're they they're hostile they are if we talk to them they're put the different spinning

00:13:50.740 things they're editing things and just making us look bad but your public is coming up here we

00:13:57.140 we've people local women and and coming up with food like we're inundated yeah you know in canada

00:14:04.580 when we had our trucker convoy four years ago they had bouncy castles they had hot tubs it was

00:14:11.380 a real festival kind of feeling last night here there's music over in this truck over here i was

00:14:17.140 like it was like a party atmosphere we'd local local women from this local area who couldn't

00:14:22.980 normally stand here at night okay for safety reasons safety reasons and they felt safe we 0.53

00:14:29.220 also have the local drug addicts whatever they stayed away you know because it's a rough

00:14:34.180 neighborhood the boardwalk is i've been on the boardwalk it's a lot of that's a horn now that's

00:14:41.220 a horn this this city has changed in the last 20 years um irish nearly don't come here it's you know

00:14:49.940 i walked i walked down the boardwalk last year and i introduced myself to every single person

00:14:55.220 and said where are you from every single one of them was not irish yeah yeah basically 10 minutes

00:15:01.860 walk from where we're standing here it's like coming to a different country well listen i wish

00:15:07.140 you good luck i'm from canada and we love our truckers and farmers and when i saw what was

00:15:12.180 going on i thought i gotta get over there because canadians are going to be interested

00:15:15.860 have you heard about that canadian trucker convoy a few years back did that did that make the news

00:15:19.860 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

00:15:24.500 exciting to see it and i love i love the irish tricolor too that i see flying on various vehicles

00:15:30.420 oh yeah look at that everyone you see you can't stop the farmer the builder

00:15:36.420 um they can stop everyone else we have the equipment to block everywhere up

00:15:42.500 you're the main in boiler suits and dirty cement covered boots built this country

00:15:49.300 but we've men in suits trying to break it down that's a very interesting observation i mean

00:15:55.300 mean every country has to eat yeah every person he has to eat three times a day

00:16:02.560 us farmers do it the truckers haul it to the supermarkets and uh we have the backbone of the

00:16:08.940 country yep yeah too many people are too far removed from the land where the food comes from

00:16:15.660 they think it comes out of a supermarket yeah they don't realize there's people out there growing the

00:16:20.660 food, to put it in there. It doesn't come out in air. They'll learn.

00:16:27.860 Well, I wish you good luck. Nice talking with you.

00:16:29.600 No problem with all.

00:16:30.060 Cheers. You're a senior organizer, is that right?

00:16:32.900 Yeah, James Gagan from Westmead, agricultural contractor.

00:16:35.360 How far away is that from Dublin?

00:16:36.820 About 100 kilometers.

00:16:38.580 And are you a farmer yourself?

00:16:41.200 Farmer and agri-contractor, yeah.

00:16:42.800 What kind of stuff do you farm?

00:16:45.020 Beef and machinery hire. Plant hire diggers and tractors like these.

00:16:50.280 Do you have a vehicle in the protest here?

00:16:51.960 I do, yeah.

00:16:52.880 And when did you arrive?

00:16:54.360 I was here first morning.

00:16:55.980 I was the organizer.

00:16:57.180 I actually had to come and meet the police and set it up.

00:16:59.300 Well, tell me a bit about that, because we're from Canada,

00:17:01.360 and we had a big trucker conduit.

00:17:03.140 Yeah, yeah.

00:17:03.760 And some members of the police wanted to work with the truckers

00:17:08.680 to keep it calm and smooth and keep a lane open for ambulances.

00:17:12.700 We did the same here, yeah.

00:17:14.600 Yeah, we kept a lane open on all the motorways for ambulances, 100%.

00:17:17.720 and do you talk to the police on a regular basis every day yeah yeah keeping contact with them and

00:17:23.060 all the groups we've got 40 protests going all over ireland and everyone's liaison with the

00:17:27.420 gardens and working perfect yeah it's not interesting i saw the deputy commissioner

00:17:31.940 of the guardie she's a canadian woman which really surprised me and her language she said

00:17:38.160 we're moving to enforcement i'm sure you saw that video that really rubbed me the wrong way i was

00:17:42.800 embarrassed it rubbed us as well the wrong way yeah i mean first of all she's like i was asked

00:17:46.500 last night about what's my opinion of the army coming in as they were saying about enforcement

00:17:50.420 and my reply back to them was and this was on national television last night on RT primetime

00:17:54.280 my answer back was we have a bigger army. I saw that clip of you. My answer to the army coming

00:17:58.940 in the streets is we have actually a bigger army so we're not afraid of the army. We're

00:18:03.320 agri-contractors plant hire men. The army will not move this protest and if any vehicle is touched

00:18:09.500 on that protest there'll be 10 more to replace it immediately. Yeah so we're not afraid of the

00:18:15.380 army we have far more power than they have well and i bet a lot of members of the army and i bet

00:18:20.820 a lot of police support you yeah they're not even the army not turning up for work how is the

00:18:25.900 mainstream media in ireland treating the protest uh trying to discredit it at the start uh trying

00:18:32.540 about fake news about it trying to exaggerate fake news pick out pick out the bad points but 0.96

00:18:36.920 uh everybody can see through their fake bullshit now uh the police seem to be pretty calm about 0.98

00:18:44.080 things. Yeah, we have two police here. There's a man from Canada. He's wondering how are the 0.99

00:18:48.740 police on it. How are you feeling about the protest? Yeah, there's no hassle. Peaceful protest.

00:18:58.320 How about the military? I saw some armored personnel carriers and I saw some... I don't

00:19:03.540 mind where they were going. We have more armor than they have. How is this going to end? Because

00:19:08.540 the politicians, they don't like to blink. No, but they have no choice. What do you think is going

00:19:12.840 happen we've a list of man's going in they will be met this evening we go home when to meet them

00:19:16.880 if they don't meet we don't go home are you expecting to meet them today i have to say

00:19:20.680 can i ask who you're meeting with at half two in government buildings with government ministers

00:19:25.100 before you go and i just got have you did you hear about the canadian trucker convoy a few

00:19:30.860 years ago is that in any way an inspiration or a warning it would be yeah yeah yeah now in canada

00:19:36.680 they brought in martial law to end it they seized bank accounts is that going to happen in ireland

00:19:41.200 It wouldn't happen here.

00:19:42.840 I wish you good luck.

00:19:44.100 Good luck.

00:19:44.520 Cheers.

00:19:44.640 Thanks very much.

00:19:45.700 There he is.

00:19:47.960 Very interesting.

00:19:48.860 I didn't realize that was the big boss.

00:19:50.920 He really is meeting with the government to talk terms.

00:19:54.880 He was on TV in Ireland last night saying similar things to what he said here.

00:19:59.160 He said they're going to need a bigger army if they're going to send the army after us.

00:20:01.940 That's tough talk, but that comes from confidence that he has the support not only of thousands of farmers and hauliers,

00:20:08.960 which is what they call truckers here but also from the general public you know i'm i can't help

00:20:14.800 but being a little bit optimistic i hope he's right and that's how strong the people on the

00:20:19.360 ground are on this and it's unbelievable i can't believe what's your advice to protesters if the

00:20:24.800 army tried to move them i can't see it possible because the machines that are parked up cannot

00:20:30.800 physically be removed all right well we'll do our best we'll do our best with the microphone

00:20:37.520 My name's Ezra. I'm from Rebel News in Canada. What's your name?

00:20:40.920 Cian Dunahoe.

00:20:42.060 Where are you from?

00:20:43.060 Calvin.

00:20:44.280 And are you a trucker? Are you a farmer? Tell me about yourself.

00:20:47.680 A bit of Everton, yeah.

00:20:49.500 So is this your rig or your family rig?

00:20:51.860 Yeah, close enough, yeah.

00:20:53.400 John Hawes, they're from Lara in County Calvin, Stradone.

00:20:56.560 Now, how long have you been parked in the heart of Dublin?

00:20:59.980 I'm parked there since Tuesday afternoon.

00:21:04.020 And tell me what motivates you. Why are you doing that?

00:21:06.160 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.

00:21:15.380 A lot of people joining all over the country, truckers, farmers, bus drivers, it feels spontaneous.

00:21:24.020 What's changed in the last few days?

00:21:26.500 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,

00:21:32.260 burning a lot of diesel and tractors and mowers and stuff like that.

00:21:35.020 so it wouldn't be long going through a couple of tanks of diesel and the price of green diesel now

00:21:40.400 like you wouldn't find the bill green diesel that's for farmers right yeah tractors and stuff

00:21:44.380 like that yeah so how much is it to fill up a tractor you drive a tractor ever how much is it

00:21:49.200 to fill up a gas tank or a diesel i was talking to one lad today he says it's uh five six hundred

00:21:54.460 euros yeah i wouldn't be far off it now well let me ask you because normally uh you park a vehicle

00:22:00.460 for three days on this street you're getting all sorts of tickets and fines how the cops been

00:22:05.900 has the guard e being oh yeah look they're flexible enough now they're happy enough like

00:22:10.460 they're all in the same boat as well like they're they have to put diesel into their own cars and

00:22:14.220 stuff like that like ever sorry yeah the guards park is here yeah yeah yeah they place the lorries

00:22:21.180 in position oh so so you're saying the police actually told you where to park yeah they're all

00:22:25.900 on their side like even there you'd have to crack with them there and all that so you so do you have

00:22:29.580 like a leader who's talking to them or something uh christopher duffy there is doing a good job

00:22:34.140 he'll talk away so they're they're sort of working with you to keep a lane open here and there and

00:22:39.020 and the cops are fine eh yeah they're walking away grand anyway it's not too bad now i saw on the

00:22:43.820 internet some military vehicles have you seen any of those no i haven't seen them anyway i don't know

00:22:49.580 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

00:22:54.460 important updating that one i met a retired army sergeant this morning cycling through the city

00:22:58.940 on his bike and i said to him you can stop there and stop the traffic and play a part he says he's

00:23:03.580 going to the gym with his two sons i says well listen if the army come in later on would you

00:23:07.820 come back in because you know yourself an army general has never retired especially in a situation

00:23:12.540 of a right in emergency yeah they pull him back in he said no need they're already stood down

00:23:17.180 oh wow okay well everyone's feeling the flexible place how do you think this is all going to end

00:23:21.900 do you think the government's going to blink politicians don't like to lose face if you know 0.92

00:23:25.500 what i mean they don't like to to lose a battle of wills yeah that's it but you're fairly screwing

00:23:31.020 us there at the minute like it's they have to cut it back at this stage like we're in too far

00:23:35.980 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

00:23:42.940 going to be here for a while just going up and down talking to folks so thanks for spending some

00:23:46.300 time with us no bother at all thanks very much right on cheers all right what what's the name

00:23:50.540 of this highway we're on right here the n7 and this it's a pretty big highway and uh are you

00:23:55.420 driving one of these trucks no i'm only 15. my father owns them it's a family-run business

00:23:59.020 don't haulage so there's a lane or two open over there but this side's completely closed eh

00:24:04.380 yeah so hopefully now the guards will block the lane because there's more tractors coming down now

00:24:08.620 and machinery to stop most lanes so so you and your dad are doing this together yeah that's

00:24:13.260 some father-son bonding he said to come down we all blocked it ourselves this morning my father got

00:24:17.900 all the lorries down but a few of us joined in as well and stuck with us on the way down so and have

00:24:21.820 the police come by and they've only come up this way but they want they want to come up this way

00:24:26.380 and stop to talk to us but haven't come down this way yet when they stop to talk to you what do they

00:24:29.980 say it's fair play to us keep it up really they said keep it up yeah is that a fact ah yeah well

00:24:36.700 so what are your plans are you gonna how long do you think you can stay here i mean these are pretty

00:24:40.700 big rigs it would be tough to tow one of these things stay here and out as long as you can get

00:24:44.780 the fuel down so so your family's in the in the haulage business yeah and uh i mean i suppose your

00:24:51.660 dad would have the statistics but what's it like to fill up a petrol tank in one of these rigs it's

00:24:57.420 not easy you know mostly if you're doing long runs it nearly takes 250 or 300 liters so it's quite

00:25:02.060 expensive so and and what's the price uh that would be diesel in these things so how much would it be

00:25:07.500 to fill up a tank could be maybe a couple hundred quid nearly a thousand euro maybe so i wouldn't

00:25:12.620 know off the top of my head now in all fairness well that's very interesting father son uh you

00:25:18.220 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

00:25:36.460 Nice talking to you too.

00:25:37.460 Cheers.

00:25:38.460 Damien, my name's Ezra Levan.

00:25:39.460 I'm with Rebel News in Canada.

00:25:41.460 That's my colleague Efron.

00:25:42.460 How are you?

00:25:43.460 Great.

00:25:44.460 Well, I was just talking to your son.

00:25:45.460 He says, when the cops came by, they said, keep at it.

00:25:48.460 Yeah, keep at it.

00:25:49.460 They're very helpful, yeah.

00:25:50.460 If we needed that and said they'd bring it to us, yeah, no, can't complain, yeah.

00:25:53.460 Really?

00:25:54.460 Give the thumbs up, yeah.

00:25:55.460 Well, how do you explain that?

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 Gardaí, who's a Canadian by the way, who said they're moving to enforcement.

00:26:07.460 Who's making the decisions?

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.

00:26:26.460 Lots of solidarity in the honking.

00:26:28.980 Even from people who are inconvenienced, they seem to be supportive.

00:26:32.440 Yeah, yeah.

00:26:33.620 What do you think that means?

00:26:35.180 We all need better fuel prices.

00:26:36.980 It'll break small businesses, big businesses.

00:26:40.180 Something has to be done.

00:26:41.380 Now, you guys are truckers.

00:26:42.760 I was talking to some farmers earlier.

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.

00:26:52.760 So something has to change.

00:26:55.100 Very interesting.

00:26:55.840 Well, listen, thank you for talking with us.

00:26:57.660 And it's very interesting father-son activism.

00:27:00.040 Thank you.

00:27:00.780 Thank you.

00:27:01.480 Ezra Levant here.

00:27:02.380 I'm standing on the middle of a highway, the N7.

00:27:05.180 This is one, two, three, four lanes each way.

00:27:08.280 On this side, absolutely stop dead.

00:27:10.740 On that side, they're letting one lane go.

00:27:13.620 We just talked to a father-son trucking team who said when the police came by, they said,

00:27:18.520 fair play, keep at her.

00:27:20.240 Here we see some truckers. 0.69

00:27:22.100 Sorry, pardon me, some farmers and some truckers behind them.

00:27:25.180 Let's see if they say a word to us.

00:27:27.200 Hey, fellas.

00:27:28.580 Good.

00:27:28.940 Ezra Levant from Rebel News, my colleague Efron.

00:27:31.320 Can we say a word with you?

00:27:32.720 Can we have a word?

00:27:35.380 It's incredible.

00:27:36.620 Now, this side of the N7 completely blocked.

00:27:39.800 Our police down there, I think I see some lights.

00:27:45.620 So are you guys farmers or truckers?

00:27:48.420 Contractors and farmers.

00:27:49.380 Yeah.

00:27:49.820 And tell me what brings you out today.

00:27:51.520 What would make you do such a dramatic thing?

00:27:53.400 I'm sure we can't afford to keep going.

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

00:29:36.540 Well, listen, pleasure talking with you.

00:29:42.660 I sure hope it works.

00:29:44.220 This is a very dramatic time for Ireland.

00:29:46.160 Yeah, very dramatic.

00:29:47.300 And the whole country is going to shut down before the weekend's out

00:29:49.840 if they don't give us what we want.

00:29:51.660 Do you think this idea might spread to other countries?

00:29:55.780 It is spreading to other countries, yeah.

00:29:57.960 The North are going to have a protest the 14th.

00:30:01.180 So we'll see how it fares out.

00:30:03.000 We'll see if we get what we want.

00:30:04.420 I got one last question for you.

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.

00:35:54.460 Our representatives have let us down as well.

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.

00:36:15.360 it feels spontaneous

00:36:17.520 is there a leader of the movement

00:36:20.500 or is it just everyone's fed up

00:36:22.120 and they've sort of come to the same conclusion

00:36:23.780 in their own way

00:36:24.740 we're all united

00:36:26.920 we have a couple of representatives in Dublin

00:36:29.940 Christopher Duffy and James Gagin

00:36:32.660 we saw James Gagin today

00:36:34.260 we had a chat with him

00:36:35.160 they would be kind of our main

00:36:37.660 representatives

00:36:39.040 they kind of rallied us a bit

00:36:41.480 do you know what I mean

00:36:42.440 Facebook videos and things like that

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.

00:37:01.040 Oh, that's been dropped off, has it?

00:37:02.320 That's been dropped off. None of that is our own.

00:37:05.920 Well, that's a good sign.

00:37:06.880 That's only today.

00:37:10.960 Now, let me ask you this. Have the Gardaí 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

00:37:40.500 How do you square that?

00:37:41.780 You've got some politicians who are, you know,

00:37:44.360 and I even saw the deputy commissioner of the Guardia,

00:37:46.780 a Canadian woman, which I found was strange,

00:37:48.840 talking about enforcement,

00:37:50.500 but you're saying the police are supportive,

00:37:52.380 which I've heard everywhere.

00:37:54.320 I've heard that and I've seen it.

00:37:57.660 What's with the disconnect?

00:37:59.900 You've got the cops saying one thing

00:38:01.600 and the politicians saying another.

00:38:04.540 It's all just rhetoric, isn't it?

00:38:06.180 And as we know, in any war,

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 Gardaí 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

00:40:50.660 Good luck.

00:40:51.660 Thanks.

00:40:52.660 Thanks a million.

00:40:53.660 You can check it out on Rebel News, we'll have it up tonight.

00:40:56.660 Thanks, lads.

00:40:57.660 Are you going to Cork?

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.

00:42:29.840 Normally, you hear 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.

00:42:40.060 Anyways, it took us a while to get here.

00:42:42.160 As you can see, it's just spitting rain.

00:42:44.840 It's 10 degrees Celsius, but it feels like about minus 5.

00:42:49.380 I'm a little chilly.

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.

00:42:57.380 So right there, you can see the difference.

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?

00:43:07.480 And they say, yeah.

00:43:08.400 And the police give them the thumbs up.

00:43:10.520 Here, it's obviously very different with this refinery.

00:43:13.800 Police are restricting vehicles.

00:43:16.360 They said we can walk closer, and we will.

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,

00:53:22.200 oh, well, we're destined to pay that tax.

00:53:24.940 But these rebellious people on this emerald isle have said no.

00:53:30.260 It feels like a general strike.

00:53:33.660 What's interesting is how unanimous it is.

00:53:37.240 And think about it.

00:53:37.940 When I think back to the trucker convoy in Canada in 2022, it was widely supported.

00:53:44.720 But there was a cleavage.

00:53:46.180 Some people believed deeply in the vaccine mandates.

00:53:49.900 Some people were terrified of the COVID virus.

00:53:52.760 They really were.

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

00:56:16.720 We'll be right back.

Rebel News Podcast - April 11, 2026

EZRA LEVANT ｜ Ireland erupts in trucker protest over sky-high fuel taxes

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