Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ Is Biden's Afghanistan disaster Trudeau's Afghanistan disaster, too？

00:00:00.000 Well, my friends, the Afghan scandal, the fiasco of leaving in such haste, has properly been around 1.00

00:00:06.200 Joe Biden's neck. But according to the Globe and Mail today, there are 1,250 Canadians still in

00:00:13.140 that country, including women and children. That country is run by terrorists, now the best armed 1.00

00:00:19.880 terrorists in the world. And what does Trudeau have to say about any of it? I'll take you through

00:00:24.820 the news and Trudeau's role next. But first, let me invite you to become a subscriber to

00:00:29.500 Rebel News Plus. That's the video version of this podcast. A lot of people like it. It helps us

00:00:34.580 because it's $8 a month and we don't take any money from Trudeau. You know what, though? During

00:00:39.460 the election, we're giving it away for free if you use the coupon code ELECTION. So just go to

00:00:44.620 rebelnewsplus.com, coupon code ELECTION, and you're watching that quality content for free. The idea

00:00:51.740 is hopefully you'll be so hooked on it, you'll actually pay for it after the election. All right,

00:00:56.040 here is today's podcast. Tonight is Joe Biden's Afghanistan disaster, Trudeau's Afghanistan

00:01:17.280 and disaster, too. It's August 31st, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.

00:01:23.560 Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?

00:01:27.240 There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.

00:01:31.320 The only thing I have to say to the government, the wire publisher, is because it's my bloody

00:01:36.220 right to do so.

00:01:37.180 The Globe and Mail is part of the media party, no doubt about it. They're the official newspaper

00:01:47.180 owned by Canada's wealthiest family. It's a newspaper, the establishment. They're not really

00:01:51.600 on the side of populism or grassroots Canadians, but I have to give them credit. On a few issues,

00:01:57.020 they do a great job. On China reporting, they are the best in the country other than the Epoch Times.

00:02:02.580 And when it comes to the scandals in Afghanistan and the loss of Canadian life and Canadian military

00:02:09.840 matters, I think the Globe and Mail does itself a credit. Let me read to you the story in the

00:02:15.280 Globe and Mail today. Ottawa says 1,250 Canadians and family members still stranded in Afghanistan.

00:02:25.360 I'll read a little bit from the story for you now. Foreign Affairs Minister Mark Rineau says about

00:02:30.220 1,250 Canadian nationals, permanent residents and family members are stranded in Afghanistan as Canada

00:02:37.100 and its allies continue to put pressure on the Taliban to allow them safe passage out of the

00:02:43.820 country. What does that mean, put pressure on them? They're a terrorist group. The only pressure that

00:02:48.800 works on them is military might. But every Canadian troop was pulled out in 2014. Those Canadians,

00:02:55.620 the embassy that was guarded, they're long gone. And the Americans are gone too. What pressure could

00:03:01.160 there possibly be? Sanctions of the United Nations? A sternly worded tweet? I'll read some more.

00:03:08.200 Mr. Garneau and Immigration Minister Marco Mendicino held a news conference in Ottawa Tuesday to announce

00:03:14.300 that Canada was accepting 5,000 Afghan refugees that are now in overcrowded U.S. bases in the Middle East

00:03:21.660 and Europe. Hang on. So the headline here is that there's 1,250 Canadians, Canadian citizens in

00:03:29.740 Afghanistan. And the best we got is, oh, we're going to put pressure on the Taliban to get them out. 0.87

00:03:35.920 But in the same breath, they're going to take Afghans that foreign countries withdrew and take 0.89

00:03:42.220 them to Canada? I'm open to examining Afghans who helped the West after they're vetted to make sure they

00:03:49.860 are indeed not terrorists themselves, not double agents, not just opportunists. I'm open to Canada

00:03:57.680 accepting some genuine refugees from the Taliban. But aren't there 1,250 Canadians who are trying to

00:04:04.500 find refuge from the Taliban? And we're not talking about that and only that and not moving on from

00:04:10.980 that until it's done? I'll read some more. Mr. Garneau said if Canadians wish to try to get out of the

00:04:17.140 country through bordering nations, he said Ottawa has alerted its embassies and consulates to help

00:04:22.700 process them so they can come to Canada. So if you're a Canadian and you're most likely in the 0.57

00:04:28.680 capital of Kabul, which is swarming with Taliban and the airport is completely taken over by the

00:04:34.240 Taliban, the Canadian government is saying we're not going to help you. We can't help you. But if you 1.00

00:04:39.400 manage to get out of the country on your own by foot or by car and make it to our embassy,

00:04:45.900 we'll be there waiting for you and give you a hot cup of coffee and we'll help you from there.

00:04:50.640 Yeah, I think if someone has the ability and the nerves and the courage and the resources

00:04:55.640 to make their way out of Afghanistan by foot or by car, they got it from here, mate. They're not 0.91

00:05:01.580 really waiting on some diplomats in, I don't know, Pakistan somewhere to help them out. It's incredible.

00:05:07.940 This is a disaster. We're mainly seeing the disaster through American eyes because America was there

00:05:13.880 until moments ago, whereas Canada was withdrawn in 2014. And I think it was a good idea that Canada

00:05:20.700 was withdrawn. But obviously, 1,250 Canadians are still there, including families, including wives

00:05:27.600 and children. Let me look at, I think, the most stunning day here. The day Kabul fell was the day

00:05:35.760 that Justin Trudeau, who surely was being briefed on this, chose to end his briefing, put on his campaign

00:05:43.160 gear, walked down to Rideau Hall and asked the governor general to call the election. The day

00:05:49.980 Kabul fell was the day he said, I'm not going to pay attention to that. I'm going to enter the busiest 0.95

00:05:56.320 month of my life campaigning for my personal gain. The day Kabul fell, he could have delayed. He could

00:06:04.140 have said, I'm going to delay even by a week to work on this important national matter. But he did not

00:06:09.220 because he doesn't care. You know, it's interesting when Joe Biden, who is asleep literally at the

00:06:16.260 switch, here's video. I don't know if you saw this. Here is him sleeping. He was meeting with the Israeli

00:06:21.420 prime minister and then he just dozes off. And the Israeli prime minister just kept talking to Biden,

00:06:28.820 but he knew the cameras were there, so he didn't dare say, wake up. Anyways, Joe Biden was literally

00:06:34.320 snoozing through this crisis. And Justin Trudeau couldn't get in touch with anyone in the White

00:06:42.540 House. He didn't talk with Joe Biden. In fact, Joe Biden didn't talk to any world leaders.

00:06:47.560 So Justin Trudeau contacted Hillary Clinton. Remember that?

00:06:51.460 I also spoke last night with former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,

00:06:55.080 who shares our concern for Afghan women and girls. She welcomed our efforts and urged Canada to

00:07:01.740 continue our work. Governments, international organizations and civil society must continue

00:07:08.520 to work together to support women and girls in Afghanistan. Hillary Clinton is not part of the

00:07:14.020 administration. She was the former Secretary of State, but that ended in 2016, in 2017, January.

00:07:21.980 Why would he call Hillary Clinton? The only thing Hillary Clinton is good at 1.00

00:07:26.700 is figuring out how to survive after a scandal of abandoning people overseas. That's what Hillary 1.00

00:07:32.080 is famous for, Benghazi, when she left Americans to die in that city in Libya. Justin Trudeau has left

00:07:38.380 1,250 Canadians, God forbid, to die in Kabul. What's he doing? Is he asking her for advice on that?

00:07:45.540 Well, I want to show you the most terrifying image out of Afghanistan today. This, this is an American 1.00

00:07:53.560 helicopter, and it appears that they're hanging someone, that they've conducted a hanging by

00:08:01.560 helicopter using one of the dozens of helicopters left behind in haste by Joe Biden. The Taliban 0.95

00:08:08.260 terrorists now have an air force. Here's a video. At first, you'll think these are Americans,

00:08:15.520 Americans, because one fellow's talking in English, and the others look like Americans, but

00:08:20.040 these are not Americans. This is the Taliban wearing American military uniforms, including 0.85

00:08:27.580 high-tech night vision goggles, walking through an American arms depot in Afghanistan that was

00:08:34.960 abandoned so hastily, it's where some of the $85 billion worth of equipment is that America

00:08:41.740 gifted to the Taliban. Take a look at this.

00:08:43.640 All right. We're here right now with the Taliban as they enter into the, what was only minutes 0.96

00:09:00.560 ago? It was an American-controlled portion of the military airport. Now they're taking over.

00:09:11.460 You really could be mistaken for thinking that those are Americans in a high-tech American

00:09:16.960 base, because he was speaking English, and if you didn't hear what he was saying, you'd say,

00:09:20.860 yeah, of course, those are Americans in Afghanistan. Pretty mighty operation. Yeah, the Taliban's the

00:09:25.400 pretty mighty operation. Now, here's a chart from the Times of London, one of the world's leading

00:09:29.820 newspapers showing the weapons that were left behind. Afghanistan, the Taliban, that is, now

00:09:38.900 has more military helicopters than any country in the world other than the United States, Russia,

00:09:45.500 and China. It is the fourth largest military power, if you're measuring simply by military

00:09:51.720 helicopters. Obviously, that's not the sole measure, but they have a lot of other equipment

00:09:55.600 too. They also, most incredibly, were given intelligence by the CIA director. It's hard

00:10:02.580 to believe, but here's the headline to show it. The head of the CIA flew to Kabul to meet

00:10:07.200 with the Taliban and stunningly gave information on Americans they were worried about to the

00:10:15.080 Taliban, naively thinking the Taliban would help get them out. No, that just gave the Taliban 0.88

00:10:20.740 a kill list. And I don't know if you saw this. Joe Biden launched a missile strike, obviously,

00:10:28.540 with information given to it by the Taliban, wound up striking and killing a family, including

00:10:34.160 an interpreter that had helped the U.S. Look at this. You know, there's an image that I saw

00:10:41.460 on the internet last night of a burnt out American helicopter with a bunch of dog kennels in front of it.

00:10:47.820 And reporters say that those are the service animals that helped the U.S. military during the 20 years

00:10:56.340 in Afghanistan, that were sniffer dogs, that were guard dogs, that were attack dogs, just helper dogs,

00:11:02.880 the canine unit, that they were abandoned and left behind in Afghanistan when America hastily exited.

00:11:10.960 Now, obviously, a dog's life, even a wonderful, loyal dog, is not of equal value to a human life.

00:11:18.180 I accept that and acknowledge that. But the casualness of abandoning those dogs, I think,

00:11:23.980 is symbolic of the casualness of abandoning one of the greatest military trenches of weapons in history

00:11:32.640 to a terrorist force and the casualness of leaving behind 1,250 Canadians and, as far as we know,

00:11:38.900 at least hundreds of Americans to the mercies of the Taliban. I do not believe that America or Canada

00:11:45.900 should be the world's police. I think Justin Trudeau uses the military for photo ops, including

00:11:51.800 to get some brownie points at places like the U.N. Our mission in Mali made no sense militarily,

00:11:58.020 strategically, economically, diplomatically. It just simply was something Trudeau did to try and

00:12:03.480 win some seat on the U.N. Security Council. I don't believe we should be a global cop. I think

00:12:08.160 some parts of the world cannot be reformed into liberal democracies. And if we're going to nation

00:12:12.720 build, well, why don't we start nation building here at home? I know 50 boil water advisories that

00:12:17.680 Justin Trudeau has promised he'd deal with for six years now. But that said, the manner in which the

00:12:24.820 United States and Justin Trudeau abandoned not only the works of the West, not only the legacy,

00:12:31.680 I get that, but the actual people of the West is a great disgrace. And the fact that we have left

00:12:38.060 behind 1,250 Canadians, including women and children, but are willing to take unvetted thousands

00:12:45.280 of Afghan refugees that are waiting in Europe shows the backward priorities of this country. I think 1.00

00:12:51.700 we're in dark times, my friends. Stay with us. More I have you.

00:13:06.160 Welcome back. Well, it's been an exciting campaign so far, I have to say. The Conservative Party is

00:13:10.920 polling better in the polls than I thought they would. The Liberals are having a rougher ride than

00:13:15.560 I thought they would. And an interesting part of the story is that the People's Party of Canada,

00:13:21.600 Maxime Bernier's party, is doing much better than the polls would have suggested. And of course,

00:13:27.000 then there's the Maverick Party out West. It's a very interesting race. Rebel News is doing our best

00:13:32.420 to cover it from around the country, flying around, running around. Sometimes we have great conversations

00:13:38.440 with candidates. Here's a quick clip of David Menzies talking to Kostas Menegakis, a Conservative

00:13:45.560 candidate, once an MP who hopes to be again. Just a quick snip of that. When we see somebody is trying

00:13:50.960 to sort of manipulate the system for their own personal electoral advantage, people see through

00:13:58.300 that. And I believe that's what happened in Nova Scotia. There was no need to call that election,

00:14:02.880 and there's no need to call this federal election now either. To call it an election just so you can

00:14:08.000 secure your spot for the next four years because you think you're going to get a majority is unfair

00:14:13.180 to Canadians. It's an expensive process. It's at the wrong time. People are coming out of the pandemic

00:14:18.680 now. You know, we want to bring back optimism and ensure that people get back to work and back to

00:14:25.660 a semblance of normal life. Instead, we're embroiled in the middle of an election that nobody wants.

00:14:31.240 Yeah. And like you said earlier, that might just cost Justin Trudeau. I think even if he gets the

00:14:38.380 status quo, a liberal minority government, that is, in a sense, a failure, is it not?

00:14:43.260 Oh, absolutely. Kostas is a good guy, and that's David's turf. Sometimes, though, 0.99

00:14:48.900 Conservative MPs start to talk to us, but when they realize our reporters are rebels, they run away.

00:14:55.640 Here's a Quebec lieutenant for Erin O'Toole panicking when he realizes he's talking to Alexa LaVoie,

00:15:02.500 our Quebec-based rebel.

00:15:04.080 Well, the Conservatives have a love and joy.

00:15:10.940 I know, but at the same time, it's any media that should be accepted. You shouldn't choose the media

00:15:28.720 who take questions, Mr. Well, the Conservatives have a love and hate affair with us. I suppose

00:15:35.640 it's mutual. But one quality guy, one of our favorite guests on the program, who has had great

00:15:43.040 access to the Conservative campaign and just spent a week on their campaign buses and planes,

00:15:47.580 and, in fact, had some chances to put questions to Erin O'Toole himself, is our friend Andrew

00:15:52.740 Lawton, who joins us now via Skype from his home in London, Ontario. Well, you've been jutting around

00:15:57.740 with Erin O'Toole. How's it been? Has it been fun? Has it been exciting?

00:16:02.660 Yeah, it's certainly been busy. I mean, I should be grateful. I know in the 2019 pre-COVID

00:16:08.000 era of media coverage of campaigns, what had happened was they were sometimes doing five,

00:16:14.860 six events a day. So, thankfully, it wasn't that busy, but we were moving a bit around over the

00:16:19.040 weekend. We were in Atlantic Canada, Quebec, Ontario. So, we did a fair bit and a combination

00:16:24.780 of these very sort of controlled, small announcements and press conferences and a couple of, they call

00:16:31.520 them supporter events. They're sort of the modern version of what one would say is a rally, but with

00:16:36.460 a much smaller crowd. But, yeah, there was a good combination of them over the last few days.

00:16:40.580 Yeah, it's very sad when you think about it. I mean, sometimes big rallies were not just a chance

00:16:45.980 to speak to hundreds or even thousands of people, but they were a real spirit-building event. I mean,

00:16:50.500 if you're at an event with thousands of like-minded people all enthused together, you really, it really

00:16:55.620 gets seared into your memory. I think of Donald Trump's 10, 20, 30, 40,000 person rallies in his

00:17:02.520 campaign. There's a real electrifying effect on the community. It's sort of pitiful when you have

00:17:06.960 little events. But, frankly, the events that have been the most newsworthy out there, this is coming

00:17:14.940 as an interesting revelation to me, Andrew. Justin Trudeau can't go anywhere without being booed and

00:17:20.960 heckled. That feels new or different. I mean, it's not the first time politicians have been heckled, but

00:17:26.140 Trudeau's used to a loving crowd, isn't he?

00:17:28.100 Yeah, I remember trying to cover the 2019 election. And as you may remember, it was a bit difficult

00:17:33.840 because I had been banned by the Liberals from doing it in any official capacity. But still,

00:17:38.840 I'd go on the road and try to cover it. And Justin Trudeau had a very electrifying quality about him.

00:17:44.600 And a lot of people on the right may not agree with this or want to agree with it. There was no denying

00:17:49.000 it on the ground that he had that celebrity complex where even, especially with young people in

00:17:54.460 Hamilton, Burnaby, Montreal, they would really just flock and fawn and get their selfies and get

00:18:00.200 their picture beside the Trudeau bus and the Prime Minister, the Liberal leader himself.

00:18:05.080 And this time, that just isn't there. And, you know, there have been a couple of events where

00:18:09.220 he's been able to have a rally-like crowd packed into a restaurant or whatever. But you're right.

00:18:15.000 I mean, very much this, there's a large crowd, but a lot of them are there to boo and heckle and

00:18:19.120 protest. And that is very different. And, you know, I couldn't remember. Now, granted,

00:18:23.840 I haven't been following the Liberals full time because I have been embedded with the

00:18:27.840 Conservatives for the last week. But the clips that I was seeing of Justin Trudeau's press

00:18:31.540 conferences, in every one of them, you can hear that chanting in the background.

00:18:36.320 Yeah. I mean, some of them include swearing. And I don't think that's the most polite way to be.

00:18:40.640 But I think the ability to heckle politicians and, frankly, to swear at them. I mean, I'm not

00:18:46.900 prescribing it, but neither would I ban it. That comes as a shock to the media who have never heard the

00:18:53.580 precious one referred to that way. I think it's 18 months of pent-up political talkback that no one

00:19:00.520 had a chance to speak back to power. Parliament wasn't really sitting. The media were more as

00:19:05.520 stenographers than anything. The opposition parties weren't really opposing. I think this is people

00:19:10.760 having 18 months worth of frustration and anger and dissent. And if they want to swear, you know

00:19:16.940 what? I'm not going to get too panicked about it. Whereas the media is all clutching their pearls.

00:19:21.260 Some of them are implying it's violence to heckle the prime minister. No, it's not. In fact,

00:19:26.860 it's enshrined in our constitution, section 2b, isn't it?

00:19:31.460 This is a big problem that I have with a lot of the discourse around this. There are two types of

00:19:36.600 displays. There are, by and large, the protest, the people that are out there as they have a right to,

00:19:42.280 and then a very, very, very small subset that I would say has crossed the line. You know,

00:19:46.680 people who have very violent rhetoric or violent imagery on a sign. And you know what? Those

00:19:51.640 people, I think, are not doing themselves any favours if they think that is a way to protest

00:19:56.420 and make a point. But there is this problem here of the peaceful protesters who make of the majority

00:20:02.300 being lumped in with those who are in the minority. And I think it's very,

00:20:07.560 very much in poor form to do that. And in fact, the political left has been saying that

00:20:11.540 whenever anyone tries to point out radicalism, rioting and looting in Black Lives Matter rallies,

00:20:17.040 they say, oh, no, no, no, you can't let them speak for the majority. But I mean,

00:20:20.380 that same courtesy doesn't seem to be extended the other way. Listen, I mean, I've always been

00:20:25.140 an opponent of no platforming, of deplatforming. My view is that you shouldn't use your right to

00:20:30.140 free speech to shut down someone else. So if the idea is to drown someone else so they can't speak,

00:20:35.960 I'm not a fan of that. But if people are trying to say, we're here,

00:20:38.940 we have all of these issues, and these are not being heard, these are not being addressed,

00:20:43.300 that is absolutely a protected form of free speech. And for Justin Trudeau to launch this

00:20:48.400 campaign saying this is about Canadians being heard. Well, this is Canadians being heard.

00:20:54.660 Yeah, he only likes to hear what he wants to hear. You know, I just want to make one quick comment.

00:20:58.340 You said some of the imagery is beyond the pale. I saw this picture in Ontario. It's a big poster

00:21:04.580 of Trudeau and a noose and an accused of treason or traitor or whatever. And I would have said,

00:21:11.720 well, that's sort of startling. But then I saw the logo on the bottom right-hand corner of that

00:21:17.200 propaganda image. And I don't know if you recognize that, but that is a logo for a fake

00:21:21.920 front group called The Line. And I identified that group about a year ago. It's run by

00:21:28.340 a guy named Lamont Daigle, who suddenly appeared on the scene with all sorts of slick ads and

00:21:34.480 financing. And he said, I'm the leader of the anti-lockdown movement. And everyone said,

00:21:37.960 who are you? And I started seeing him say crazy things, saying like, we should talk about violence

00:21:44.980 or revolution. Or even one day he said, sometimes I feel like driving my truck through the CBC office.

00:21:50.340 And we said, whoa, who is this guy who is so obviously a narc, a fed, an undercover officer,

00:21:59.800 an agent provocateur? And we had David Menzies ask him those questions. And he didn't resile from

00:22:05.740 them. Here's a quick clip of that. When we look at this one quote here, trust me when I tell you it

00:22:10.940 is a daily battle to not take someone's car and drive it through the middle of the CBC. I don't know

00:22:18.160 how that falls into the bailiwick of self-defense in any regard. I mean, I'm no fan. I don't think

00:22:22.820 anyone at the Rebel is a fan of the CBC, but I would never advocate a violent act against the CBC

00:22:28.840 or an employee of the CBC. I completely agree with you. And as a matter of fact, it's not just

00:22:33.360 about the CBC, about CTV, City TV, any of these mainstream media that have been lying about the

00:22:38.840 numbers that have been here. Because quite frankly, we've seen up to 10,000 people here. And they're

00:22:43.060 always reporting about 100 people, 200 people, 300 people. So they're lying to the people.

00:22:48.160 They've been lying to us for seven months. And personally, not the line Canada, but personally,

00:22:54.040 I'm fed up with them. And I can have ideas in my mind about how I feel about driving a car through

00:22:59.980 the CBC. It's a fantasy in my mind that would never play out in actuality. Ever, ever, ever. So

00:23:06.540 sometimes you say things when you're fed up. That's all. It's just emotion.

00:23:10.060 Well, I am happy to hear that. I mean, I'm pretty much a free speech absolutist, but the line in the sand

00:23:14.480 is advocating harm, violence, death against a person, an identifiable group of people. So

00:23:20.580 when people see that. Change the word violence to enraged.

00:23:24.360 And I didn't mean to go on that detour, Andrew, but my point is the guy who was seeking to enter

00:23:30.920 into the anti-lockdown movement to discredit it with his violent BS talk. And we outed him a year ago.

00:23:36.940 So that's him again. I would bet a thousand to one. He's an undercover RCMP asset who isn't actually

00:23:45.500 a genuine anti-Trudeau protester. Like his fake talk of violence at the anti-lockdown movements,

00:23:52.660 I think he's there to give Trudeau the talking point. Oh, look at that call for incitement. Anyhow,

00:23:58.740 I just think that's, don't think that undercover feds are only an American phenomenon. We have them

00:24:04.460 here too. Grant Bristow of the Heritage Fund was a CSIS agent. All right, back to what you've been

00:24:09.260 doing. Sorry for that tangent. Andrew, you had a chance to put some questions to Aaron O'Toole.

00:24:15.040 Here's one you put to him about global warming, carbon taxes, and does every single MP have to

00:24:22.660 adhere to Aaron O'Toole's line? Here, let's take a look at that. Andrew Lawton, True North. During your

00:24:29.700 leadership race last year, you committed often to allowing free votes in caucus. You spoke numerous

00:24:35.420 occasions about the importance of having a Big Ten party. Yet in your statement yesterday, you said

00:24:40.440 if MPs and candidates don't get on board with the climate plan and every single aspect of your

00:24:45.820 platform, they'll be booted from caucus. So specifically, sir, on which issues will you allow

00:24:50.560 free votes and on which issues will you demand a vote in favour of a particular proposal?

00:24:56.020 Andrew Lawton, True North. We are running on a plan. Canada's recovery plan, which the country needs to

00:25:02.140 get back on its feet. On the first full day of the campaign, we launched our plan. All of our

00:25:09.600 candidates are committed to the plan. It's exactly what the country needs. Jobs, accountability,

00:25:17.120 mental health leadership, preparing ourselves for the next pandemic, and a commitment to getting

00:25:23.420 the budget balanced over the next decade. Everyone will be focused on that plan and a positive

00:25:28.640 campaign. You know, I don't think he quite answered what you said. I mean, I get it. If you're running

00:25:33.760 on a team, you have to be part of a team. But part of a political team is having the ability to have a

00:25:39.740 range of opinions, not just to walk in lockstep with one man. If you're just a repeater of the leader,

00:25:46.160 it's not much of a team, not much of a party. And I think if you're going to win, you need a big

00:25:50.640 enough tent that you have some degrees of opinion. I know for a fact, Andrew, that there are members

00:25:56.340 of parliament and the Conservative Party in Alberta who absolutely do not agree with Aaron O'Toole on

00:26:02.120 the carbon tax. They told me that. They told me that as recently as last month. So if they're

00:26:06.860 nodding along just so they don't cause a scandal in this election, that problem will arise later,

00:26:11.860 because most conservatives do not agree with Aaron O'Toole on the carbon tax. They said so at the

00:26:16.420 last policy convention. Yeah. And just to give a bit of context on that question, on Sunday,

00:26:22.580 I think it was, Aaron O'Toole had put out a statement saying if conservative candidates are

00:26:27.460 not prepared to get on board with the climate plan, or if, sorry, if they object to the climate plan or

00:26:32.700 quote, any other part, unquote, of the conservative platform, they will not be allowed to sit in caucus.

00:26:39.760 Now, this is a 160 page platform. There are things in here that have to do with taxes to animal

00:26:46.380 welfare to moving the embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. All of these things are in

00:26:52.580 the platform. And it was that, quote, any other part, unquote, that jumped out at me there, because

00:26:56.960 this was a guy who in the leadership race, his great appeal as a pro-choicer to social conservatives

00:27:02.480 was, yeah, I'm not one of you, but I support free votes. I think you have a place in this party.

00:27:07.040 So I was trying to get a sense of, OK, which issues are the ones that you think require free

00:27:12.400 votes and which issues are the ones that you think need to be whipped? If it's just about the climate

00:27:17.220 plan and the budget and some big picture items, that's kind of normal. You may object to it, but

00:27:22.360 that's pretty much the standard process in whipping votes. If you're talking about every single part

00:27:27.680 of your platform, I mean, just to talk about the embassy, because that was a question I asked him

00:27:31.720 yesterday. What if an MP were, for whatever reason, to not support moving the embassy? Does that mean

00:27:36.680 they could no longer sit as a conservative? I was trying to get a sense of just how much

00:27:41.160 that those three little words, any other part, were really going to extend. And as of this point,

00:27:45.860 I still don't actually know.

00:27:48.020 You know, I'm a little bit nervous because on a number of issues, Aaron O'Toole has changed course,

00:27:53.300 whether it's defunding the CBC or cancel culture. I mean, he gave the heave-ho to Jim Carahalios

00:28:00.680 and then to Derek Sloan, both of them on trumped up charges, I would say. Even his dealings with

00:28:06.160 Rebel News. I think he's too easily panicked by what the mean girls of the CBC have to say.

00:28:11.140 I mean, obviously, Aaron O'Toole would be an improvement over Trudeau in that he would just

00:28:15.080 clean out the stables. But I have to tell you, Andrew, I'm sometimes worried that you're just

00:28:19.300 swapping red team for blue team. And then on the key issues, there's nothing different. Open borders

00:28:24.640 immigration, he's identical to Trudeau. Carbon tax, he calls his a carbon levy. I haven't heard

00:28:31.560 him be a passionate opponent of lockdowns or vaccine passports. He says, oh, that's for the 1.00

00:28:36.320 provinces to do. I really haven't seen him. In fact, there hasn't been an official statement by him

00:28:42.840 about the Facebook and social media censorship. I'm not talking about Bill C-10 or C-36. I'm talking

00:28:50.660 about the other stuff that was released by the Liberals after Parliament broke. On all these

00:28:55.880 key issues that I care about, he has literally said nothing substantial to differentiate himself

00:29:02.160 from the Liberals. Am I too critical? I'm suspicious of the guy. Am I being too critical? What do you

00:29:07.900 think? Well, I mean, one of the big issues that he has to face is that his platform in the leadership

00:29:13.300 race came out just a year ago. So that's not a lot of time for people to forget and move on from

00:29:18.480 things. And that was a leadership campaign in which he was positioning himself as the true blue

00:29:22.860 conservative. Had a fair amount of red meat issues in there, like defunding CBC. So that was one that

00:29:28.160 early on we saw had been walked back significantly. One area that I was actually quite pleased to see in

00:29:33.460 the platform, he had been silent after the Liberals introduced Bill C-36, which was their attempt, as you

00:29:39.460 and I have talked about, to bring back Section 13 of the Canadian Human Rights Act. The platform is

00:29:44.240 unequivocal on that. He's not going to touch the Human Rights Code. He's not going to introduce

00:29:48.780 Bill C-10. So there are a lot of things that I think are very good in the platform. There are also

00:29:53.460 a lot of things that I'm wondering, OK, why is this happening when that's not what was promised

00:29:58.220 previously? But what's interesting is that when he's campaigning, he's playing it very safe. And if

00:30:04.040 you watch enough of these press conferences, listen closely, because a lot of the time you'll hear,

00:30:08.580 and there are a couple of reporters in particular, but you'll hear yes or no answer the question

00:30:12.840 shouted at him when he hasn't, in their view, answered a question. And in a lot of cases,

00:30:16.940 he only wants to talk about things that are in the platform. That's the only thing he wants to do.

00:30:21.960 So he's very good on message discipline, which if you're a political staffer wanting to get out the

00:30:26.440 message of the day is a good thing. But if you're a journalist or if you're a Canadian voter wanting

00:30:30.760 to know where he stands on these things, well, not every answer is in the Bible, the Bible of the

00:30:35.800 campaign, if you will. Yeah. Well, Andrew, I'm really grateful that you went on the bus and the

00:30:41.740 plane and crisscrossed at least part of the country with him. I'm glad you put those questions that you

00:30:47.160 did. I love following you on Twitter and on TNC.news. Of course, you got the Andrew Lawton show. I really

00:30:55.580 think that True North has done a great job of this campaign. I think Rebel News has too, of course,

00:31:00.640 but I really think that you guys are punching above your weight. You're really giving her and

00:31:06.900 I'm just so glad you're out there doing what you're doing. AndrewLawtonShow.com, that's the main

00:31:12.140 website, right? For my show, yes. Yeah. And then TNC.news. I think most of our viewers are already

00:31:18.060 your viewers too, and I'm glad they are. And I chipped in a little bit to your election campaign

00:31:24.080 fundraiser and monthly because I'd like to see what, and I know that like us, you don't take a dime from

00:31:29.700 Trudeau. So that's why I can trust you. Well, it's very much appreciated. And I should just say,

00:31:34.520 I had a gentleman yesterday come up and say, Andrew, I loved your interview with Costas

00:31:38.480 Menegakis. I said, wait, what? And then I realized he was talking about David Menzies' interview. So

00:31:43.220 sometimes people are, they're watching both of us. They know who both of us are. They might get us

00:31:47.600 mixed up, but they are watching. Well, you and David both have, you have both a friendly style to you.

00:31:53.440 You're respectful of people. You're not snobby. You don't look down on anyone. So I think you and

00:31:59.080 David have a hail fellow, well-met personality in common. Like, I think you look quite different,

00:32:03.940 but I'm not surprised people confuse the two of you because you're both really affable,

00:32:09.600 friendly reporters who ask good conservative questions. So I think that's a compliment to

00:32:13.580 both of you that you were confused with David, by the way. There we go. We'll take it.

00:32:19.000 Great to see you. Thanks for taking the time. Keep it up. We'll keep following you on Twitter

00:32:22.260 and all your other platforms. See you later. Thanks a lot. All right. There you have it.

00:32:25.580 Andrew Lawton, one of the good guys with TNC.new. Stay with us.

00:32:40.340 Hello, my friends. Normally we run letters from you to me, letters from viewers. Most of them are

00:32:46.080 positive, but occasionally I run the critical letters. I like those. It makes me think.

00:32:48.900 Today I received an apology letter. I don't often get those. I know how hard it is to make an

00:32:55.920 apology. I have a joke. I apologize to someone once a year, whether I need to or not. The joke

00:33:01.340 being, of course, we all need to apologize much more often than once a year, don't we? Well,

00:33:05.800 I received an apology letter and I thought it was important enough to make a little video about.

00:33:10.120 So instead of reading my fan mail or hate mail, I'll read this apology mail. I made a video. I'll leave

00:33:15.540 it with you. And I'll say goodbye now until tomorrow. On behalf of all of us here at Rebel

00:33:20.100 World Headquarters to you at home, good night and keep fighting for freedom. Here's that letter.

00:33:24.360 The largest newspaper company in Canada just apologized to Rebel News. Here, let me read it to

00:33:30.940 you. Dear Ezra, on behalf of Post Media, I write to apologize to you, Rebel News and Kian Bexty for

00:33:39.580 inappropriately using your photo and video without properly crediting the source of the photo video

00:33:46.160 or payment and for removing your logo from the video and replacing it with our logo. That was

00:33:52.880 wrong and we are sorry. I have spoken with the senior editorial team to reiterate it is completely

00:33:58.600 unacceptable to reproduce content from other media without proper acknowledgement. Sincerely,

00:34:04.500 Yucinda Chodin, Senior Vice President Editorial. Well, Post Media owns most of the daily newspapers in

00:34:14.660 Canada was stealing our Rebel News photos and videos. They just took our work without permission,

00:34:20.220 without payment. Then they took unethical steps to hide it. They actually stripped off our Rebel News

00:34:25.480 marks, took our logo off and put their own company logo on the work to pass it off as if it was their

00:34:31.280 work. We caught them. We demanded they stop. They wouldn't. So we sued them. But that's like a canoe

00:34:39.280 suing a battleship. They're the richest newspaper company in Canada and they're not even Canadian.

00:34:45.020 I don't know if you know this, but Post Media is owned by a giant New Jersey hedge fund called

00:34:50.220 Chatham Asset Management. It's a vulture fund worth billions of dollars. They could afford to pay their

00:34:56.200 own reporters to do their own work. They don't need to steal ours and put their logo on it. But the

00:35:01.380 idea of a vulture fund is just what it sounds like. Pay as little as possible. Ring out as much as

00:35:07.260 possible. Get away with whatever you can. Never apologize. Never explain. That's their mindset.

00:35:13.380 Post Media wasn't always this way. You know, I used to work there myself. They were once the closest

00:35:18.060 thing Canada had to a conservative-leaning news company. But that was then. This is now. Today,

00:35:23.700 they're the number one recipient of Trudeau's bailout money. Did you know that? They take $140,000 a week

00:35:30.280 from Trudeau, and it shows. And like Trudeau, they're just as arrogant as they are rich. For two 0.97

00:35:37.720 years, Post Media refused to pay us for what they stole. They refused to even acknowledge that they

00:35:43.820 stole it. They actually claimed that they had the right to use our work the way they did. But this

00:35:49.540 morning, two years after the fact, they finally admitted everything. What made them change their

00:35:56.240 mind? Well, we finally got to court this morning. We had a special court mediation in front of Deputy

00:36:02.060 Judge Carla Bocci. Post Media brought out all their big guns. A senior in-house lawyer, a senior hired

00:36:09.260 lawyer, their senior VP editorial. Three big guns to fight against little old us. But they blinked.

00:36:17.740 It doesn't happen often, but it happens. Even the billionaire bullies sometimes admit they're

00:36:24.040 wrong. Read their apology for yourself. They were inappropriate. They were wrong. What they did was

00:36:28.680 completely unacceptable. So why did they apologize? Only they know for sure. And I can't tell you

00:36:34.300 some of the things that happened at the mediation, they're confidential. But I think I know what it was

00:36:39.720 in my heart. I think it was that someone finally stood up to them. I think that's what it was.

00:36:44.760 Look, we're just a small news company run by citizen journalists. Normally, people like us get run over

00:36:51.060 by billionaires like Trudeau's Post Media. They certainly did everything they could to delay today's

00:36:56.100 court date. They stretched it out for two years. But when I made it clear to them that we weren't going

00:37:02.180 to back down, they did. There's a lesson here to all the Davids out there, keep fighting. Goliath looks

00:37:12.280 mean, but if you show courage, you can sometimes win and even get Goliath to apologize to you.

00:37:21.640 You know, it's funny. Post Media mocks our journalism all the time. They hate rebel news,

00:37:27.040 but they were secretly stealing it. Makes you think.

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Rebel News Podcast - September 01, 2021

EZRA LEVANT ｜ Is Biden's Afghanistan disaster Trudeau's Afghanistan disaster, too？

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