Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ It has been 933 days since China kidnapped two Canadian citizens, and Justin Trudeau is more pro-China than ever

00:00:00.000 Hello my Rebels, I've got a crazy story for you today, but I'm going to start with a question

00:00:04.840 and it's, I'm not going to call it a trivia question because it's not a trivial thing.

00:00:08.960 Can you name the leader of Canada's majority in the Senate, our version of Chuck Schumer?

00:00:15.280 You probably know who Chuck Schumer is, do you know who Trudeau's leader in the Senate

00:00:19.740 is?

00:00:20.220 Do you know?

00:00:21.380 And if you don't know, why not?

00:00:22.620 It isn't that odd.

00:00:24.020 I'll tell you who he is and I'll tell you what he's saying and it's not good.

00:00:26.840 But before I get to that, let me invite you to become a subscriber to Rebel News Plus.

00:00:31.040 Just go to rebelnews.com, click subscribe.

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00:00:37.920 year as you can see, that gives you two months for free.

00:00:41.680 And you get the video version of this podcast, you get the video stuff, you get access to

00:00:45.580 other paywalled shows from Sheila Gunn, Reed, David Menzies, Andrew Chapitos and that 80

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00:00:56.500 it helps us, it sure helps us, so please consider it.

00:01:00.280 All right, here's today's podcast.

00:01:06.320 Tonight, it has been 933 days since China kidnapped two Canadian citizens and Justin Trudeau

00:01:24.480 is more pro-China than ever.

00:01:26.940 It's June 30th and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.

00:01:31.760 Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?

00:01:35.300 There's 8,500 customers here and you won't give them an answer.

00:01:39.360 The only thing I have to say to the government, the wire publisher, is because it's my bloody

00:01:44.260 right to do so.

00:01:45.220 Do you know who the leader of the Canadian Senate is?

00:01:53.460 That's a weird question to ask Canadians.

00:01:56.300 I think it would be like asking Canadians to name judges on the Supreme Court as in, these

00:02:01.840 people have real power over us, the courts especially.

00:02:05.300 And yet I'm quite sure we know more about the U.S. counterparts than our own Canadian institutions.

00:02:11.280 You probably know that Nancy Pelosi is the Speaker of the House in Congress. 0.99

00:02:16.940 Can you name the Speaker of the House of Commons in Canada?

00:02:21.000 You've probably heard of Chuck Schumer, the majority leader of the Senate.

00:02:25.520 I bet you've heard of Clarence Thomas, the U.S. Supreme Court judge.

00:02:29.880 Can you name their Canadian counterparts?

00:02:33.220 Why not?

00:02:34.360 Are they not more important to your own life?

00:02:37.180 Now, I don't blame you.

00:02:38.020 I have to Google it too.

00:02:39.100 I think the answer is we don't have the same political accountability that they do in the

00:02:43.580 U.S.

00:02:44.200 Every Supreme Court judge down there is subjected to tremendous scrutiny before they're confirmed.

00:02:50.220 And by the way, they're not all confirmed, which is incredible that the president can

00:02:54.900 have his choice said no to.

00:02:57.620 In Canada, it's a fait accompli.

00:02:59.640 It's a phone call by the prime minister and whoever makes the decisions, probably not Trudeau,

00:03:04.900 probably someone besides Trudeau, we'll never know.

00:03:07.040 It's just a phone call.

00:03:07.740 It's done.

00:03:09.100 And the Senate, same thing. 0.74

00:03:11.880 They're appointed for life in Canada at age 75.

00:03:15.460 They don't have as much power as an MP in Canada, but they do have some power.

00:03:19.040 They can amend bills, introduce bills, slow bills down, really gum things up.

00:03:23.740 And this is something I discovered.

00:03:26.520 Canadian senators are actually treated like a big deal in other countries that don't know

00:03:30.780 how much of a joke our own Senate can be, especially the United States.

00:03:34.860 If you're a U.S. senator, there are only 100 of you in a country of about a third of a billion

00:03:40.300 people, only two per state, right?

00:03:43.180 It's a very powerful office.

00:03:44.660 There's huge Senate staff, huge power.

00:03:47.600 A senator speaks.

00:03:49.100 People listen.

00:03:50.240 Joe Biden came from the Senate.

00:03:52.000 Kamala Harris came from the Senate.

00:03:53.380 Bernie Sanders.

00:03:54.000 I'd have to check, but I don't think a Canadian prime minister ever came from our Senate.

00:03:59.560 It's a joke by comparison, isn't it?

00:04:02.800 But Americans don't know that.

00:04:04.380 So some political boob from Canada shows up in the States with a business card that says 0.64

00:04:08.700 senator on it, and it's real.

00:04:10.620 And they get treated like a somebody.

00:04:13.840 I'm trying to remember which Canadian senator told me about that, but he really chuckled

00:04:17.440 about the red carpet treatment he got more in the U.S. than Canada itself, where we know

00:04:22.860 who our senators are.

00:04:24.980 But I blame the media mainly for not properly scrutinizing our Supreme Court and our Senate.

00:04:31.620 They don't criticize the Senate for the same reason they don't criticize anything in the

00:04:35.840 government.

00:04:36.080 Most journalists are bought by Trudeau through the CBC or rented through the newspaper bailout.

00:04:42.160 So they can't really criticize the government.

00:04:45.980 And of course, prime ministers have a habit of making occasional Senate appointments from

00:04:50.720 the media.

00:04:52.300 All you have to do is appoint one journalist every few years, and that's enough to keep

00:04:56.480 another hundred journalists well-trained, aiming to please you, looking for that lifelong

00:05:01.500 patronage gig for themselves.

00:05:03.260 It's not a thankless task.

00:05:04.980 It's a taskless thanks.

00:05:08.440 And on the Supreme Court side, because judges are appointed without scrutiny, we miss an

00:05:13.040 opportunity to look into them, to get to know them.

00:05:15.280 And because Canadian judges are so uniformly leftist and radically activist, why would journalists

00:05:21.080 want to scrutinize them anyways?

00:05:23.060 They simply do through court rulings that which elected politicians are too squeamish to do

00:05:27.720 or loathe to do for political reasons.

00:05:30.200 The worst decisions in Canada are made by the courts, precisely because the elected politicians

00:05:37.120 hand those problems over to judges.

00:05:41.120 Remember, it was a judge, Beverly McLaughlin, who first denounced Canada as a genocidal nation.

00:05:49.240 Just one of a string of atrocious things from Beverly McLaughlin.

00:05:53.540 I should point out that she retired from our Supreme Court, but she's taken a job, if you 0.89

00:05:59.440 can believe it, on Hong Kong's high court.

00:06:03.840 And she remains on it to this day, despite China turning Hong Kong into a little outpost

00:06:09.140 of its dictatorship, arresting Democratic opposition leaders, arresting newspaper editors, shutting

00:06:14.500 down media outlets.

00:06:15.900 Beverly McLaughlin condemned Canada as genocidal.

00:06:21.420 But she hasn't said as much about China itself.

00:06:25.000 Either what they did in Xinjiang to the Muslim Uyghur minority, or what they're doing in real

00:06:29.380 time in Hong Kong.

00:06:31.640 Is she really that compromised?

00:06:33.180 Or is she just like her friend Justin Trudeau?

00:06:35.980 Is communist China just a place she really admires?

00:06:39.720 There's a level of admiration I actually have for China.

00:06:44.240 So gross.

00:06:45.240 But my point is, McLaughlin said it, and then Trudeau said it.

00:06:49.420 He says we're actually still committing a genocide, present tense.

00:06:52.960 And the thing is, once your own country's leaders, the top judge, the prime minister, denounce

00:06:59.420 your own country as a genocidal regime, how can you really object when other countries throw 0.85

00:07:05.720 that back in your face?

00:07:08.040 Like this.

00:07:10.320 Canada has been shifting the blame since the remains of 215 indigenous children were found

00:07:16.620 at the site of a former residential school.

00:07:18.980 When will investigation begin?

00:07:20.920 When will compensation be paid?

00:07:23.100 When will systemic measures against racism be adopted?

00:07:26.760 That's China. 0.88

00:07:27.900 Here, listen to their official message from Beijing.

00:07:30.620 Not long ago, the remains of 215 indigenous Canadian children were discovered at the site

00:07:40.980 of a former residential school.

00:07:43.440 We noted that despite calling the discovery heartbreaking and shameful, the Canadian government tried

00:07:50.920 to shirk its responsibility, citing that relevant investigations are rejected by the Catholic

00:07:57.900 Church, and said it hopes the Church will assume the responsibility.

00:08:03.140 Such crocodile tears exposed the hypocrisy of the Canadian government and lack of sincerity

00:08:09.940 and courage in the face of its own notorious human rights record.

00:08:14.120 Now, we'd like to ask the Canadian side, when will it start an investigation?

00:08:19.120 When will it make compensations?

00:08:21.360 When will it rule out systemic measures to end racial discrimination?

00:08:27.420 If Justin Trudeau regularly says Canada is racist, Canadians are racist, Sir John A.

00:08:33.880 Macdonald was racist, that Canada committed a racist genocide.

00:08:38.100 He says all these things are ongoing too, by the way.

00:08:40.720 In fact, they're so bad, we need to censor our internet, because Canadians are so racist, 1.00

00:08:46.240 they can't be trusted.

00:08:48.020 Can you really blame a foreign dictator for throwing that back in our face? 0.96

00:08:52.280 But back to my point, do you know who the leader of our Senate is?

00:08:56.940 Our version of Chuck Schumer, the leader of the majority in the Canadian Senate.

00:09:03.400 Well, it's this guy, Senator Yuen Pa Wu, appointed by Justin Trudeau to the Senate.

00:09:09.540 So, of course, he's a Trudeau man through and through.

00:09:11.540 But you know what Trudeau did in the Senate, right?

00:09:13.900 He renamed his senators the Independent Senators Group, so they don't call themselves liberals.

00:09:19.560 But they are not independent.

00:09:21.280 They are liberal.

00:09:21.920 They vote Trudeau's party line.

00:09:23.720 They were appointed by Trudeau.

00:09:25.200 The fact that Canada's media report them as independent shows how weak the media is,

00:09:30.060 how untrustworthy.

00:09:31.340 But did you know that Senator Yuen Pa Wu is the head of the biggest party in the Senate,

00:09:38.080 the liberals?

00:09:39.980 They call themselves the Independent Senate Group, but it's the liberals.

00:09:42.940 Did you know he's the head of it?

00:09:43.920 He's our Chuck Schumer.

00:09:45.800 I don't think one in a thousand Canadians know that.

00:09:48.620 They don't even know who he is, let alone that he's a boss.

00:09:51.200 But they should, because he's quite something.

00:09:57.020 And he's on a real tear lately.

00:09:59.520 You know, I checked, and it's been 933 days as of today that China kidnapped two Canadians,

00:10:05.540 Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor.

00:10:07.880 933 days.

00:10:10.020 China's a dictatorship.

00:10:11.160 It's a rogue country.

00:10:12.220 I think we can stop pretending that the Wuhan virus was naturally occurring now.

00:10:17.120 I mean, now that Trump is gone, even Hollywood liberals are stating the obvious.

00:10:21.740 Like, there's a chance that this was created in a lab.

00:10:24.800 There's an investigation.

00:10:25.700 A chance?

00:10:26.820 Well, if there's evidence, I'd love to hear it.

00:10:29.760 I just don't know.

00:10:30.260 There's a novel respiratory coronavirus overtaking Wuhan, China.

00:10:35.960 What do we do?

00:10:36.620 Oh, you know who we could ask?

00:10:38.240 The Wuhan novel respiratory coronavirus lab. 0.94

00:10:42.800 The disease is the same name as the lab.

00:10:47.480 Yeah, it's a tough question.

00:10:49.320 Is China worse than how it treats its own people, or is it worse than how it treats the rest of the world? 0.88

00:10:54.200 That's a tough question.

00:10:55.260 No matter what your measure is, China is atrocious. 0.98

00:10:58.560 Corruption, military threats, environmental pollution, civil liberties being crushed, racism, whatever.

00:11:03.140 It's tough to say what the worst part of it is.

00:11:08.240 When Pao Wu said in the Senate very recently, he is our majority leader in our Senate.

00:11:15.360 Here is Trudeau's man in the Senate.

00:11:18.280 Listen to him.

00:11:19.860 Well, as political theorists will remind us, there are two kinds of state legitimacy.

00:11:25.240 There's input legitimacy and there's output legitimacy.

00:11:28.680 In the West, we tend to place much more emphasis on input legitimacy, which is essentially about how we select our representatives.

00:11:38.700 Hence, our focus, rightly so, on free and fair elections.

00:11:44.140 But in practice, citizens also confer legitimacy to the governments based on the results that are produced by that government.

00:11:51.460 That is to say, on outputs.

00:11:54.760 Now, like most of you, I was brought up in the orthodoxy that input democracy through free and fair elections will in the long run outperform

00:12:03.240 because citizens can always vote out a government that has not performed and in that way seek to improve outputs by changing the inputs.

00:12:14.840 But we are learning the hard way that democratic elections and changes in government over decades have not consistently produced better outcomes for citizens in many industrialized economies.

00:12:29.080 Sure, there has been economic growth, but income and wealth inequality have increased, with stagnating median incomes and growing societal tension.

00:12:38.580 That is the reason for what is now widely observed to be the problem of a democratic deficit in some Western industrialized economies

00:12:47.800 and the rise of populist leaders who have illiberal instincts, but nevertheless command much support through democratic elections.

00:12:58.520 Let me be clear.

00:13:00.700 I much prefer the vagaries of democratic choice to the certainty of authoritarian rule.

00:13:07.100 But we cannot be smug about our preference for input legitimacy as the only way to validate state power.

00:13:15.420 And we cannot deny that the Chinese state has its own claim to a kind of legitimacy, even if we don't like it.

00:13:25.140 And that was just a short excerpt.

00:13:29.140 Was that speech actually written in Beijing?

00:13:32.700 I mean, that's exactly what Beijing itself says.

00:13:36.480 It's just weird hearing it in stereo from this year, from Beijing, and this year from the Canadian Senate.

00:13:44.400 That's Trudeau's majority leader in Canada's Senate.

00:13:48.160 He has some interesting views.

00:13:51.160 I mean, look at this in the Globe and Mail.

00:13:52.660 Senator warns China might not free Spavor and Kovrig in Meng deal if Canada does not, if Canada not part of effort.

00:14:00.500 So, he's warning us, we have to do what China says, we have to pay the political ransom.

00:14:06.880 I mean, look at this.

00:14:08.960 Mr. Wu has previously played a role in back-channel diplomacy between Canada and China,

00:14:14.320 and says he wants to do what he can to help bring about the release of Mr. Kovrig and Mr. Spavor.

00:14:19.040 I am plugged into the discussions around these issues.

00:14:23.640 He said there is a risk a future U.S. deal to free Ms. Meng could be misinterpreted on the Chinese side

00:14:29.640 as a problem that was resolved purely by D.C. and Beijing without Canada.

00:14:34.320 The resolution of the Meng-Wanzhou issue may not, I am really sad to say,

00:14:38.380 may not facilitate a resolution of the Spavor-Kovrig issue, Mr. Wu told a Carleton University webinar last week.

00:14:44.680 So, hang on, he's not an ambassador, he's not with the foreign ministry, he's not a diplomat.

00:14:53.760 He gives Beijing speeches almost verbatim in the Canadian Senate,

00:14:58.060 and he's doing back-channel diplomacy with China about the hostages, back-channel diplomacy.

00:15:04.800 Can I ask whose side he's representing?

00:15:08.360 I'm not joking, you just heard whose side.

00:15:10.540 He's telling us what China's going to do to us if we don't capitulate.

00:15:14.680 This is an editorial cartoon published by Xinhua.

00:15:19.000 Xinhua is in China, it's a propaganda agency, their focus is on Chinese things.

00:15:24.720 They publish in Chinese.

00:15:27.860 Who told them that it would be politically useful for them to do a cartoon in English

00:15:31.920 targeting Trudeau on the Indian residential school issue right now?

00:15:37.300 I guess I'm wondering which came first, Senator Wu or Xinhua?

00:15:41.160 Who was following whom?

00:15:42.740 Hmm, how can this man be in the Canadian Senate at all?

00:15:45.920 That's baffling to me.

00:15:47.120 But how is it that he is Trudeau's majority leader in the Senate?

00:15:50.380 Trudeau's main man.

00:15:52.100 And the man all the other liberal senators follow.

00:15:54.980 How?

00:15:55.220 Well, even the CBC state broadcaster thinks maybe he's just a bit over the top.

00:16:01.040 Oh, just a teeny bit.

00:16:01.900 In a provocative speech in the Upper House on Monday, Independent Senators Group leader,

00:16:07.640 Senator Yuan, Pao Wu, said Canada should avoid criticizing China for its human rights abuses

00:16:14.480 against Uyghur Muslims because our country has mistreated indigenous peoples.

00:16:18.920 Echoing an argument made by Chinese officials of the UN last week, Wu said China's policy

00:16:26.400 toward the Muslim minority in Xinjiang province is similar to the colonialism directed at indigenous

00:16:32.500 peoples in this country and that condemning the Asian country in harsh terms would be gratuitous

00:16:38.220 and simply an exercise in labeling.

00:16:40.300 Yeah, guys, when the CBC says you're a bit too into Beijing, it's time to rethink things

00:16:48.620 a bit.

00:16:48.960 Pull back a little.

00:16:50.840 Real question, why do we even have diplomatic relations with China?

00:16:55.780 Are we succeeding diplomatically in any way?

00:16:58.320 Not with Kovrig and Spay War, but with anything? 0.78

00:17:03.760 Here's a story from Hong Kong.

00:17:05.060 China blocks Canadian move to set up World Trade Organization probe into serious negative

00:17:10.660 canola seed restrictions.

00:17:13.080 China suspended imports of canola seeds from two firms in March 2019, while also making

00:17:17.940 shipments from other Canadian firms subject to enhanced inspections.

00:17:21.640 But at Monday's meeting, the World Trade Organization dispute settlement body, China blocked

00:17:25.640 Canada's first request to establish a panel to investigate the restrictions.

00:17:29.460 Oh, OK.

00:17:30.540 So total diplomatic failure there.

00:17:33.240 Hong Kong is shutting down the last vestiges of freedom for media and politicians.

00:17:38.840 So total failure on the human rights front.

00:17:42.840 Oh, and not just Hong Kong, elsewhere too.

00:17:45.080 Chinese censorship founded Australian University Rights Group.

00:17:49.600 High numbers of Chinese students at Australian universities have created an environment of

00:17:54.220 self-censorship with lecturers avoiding criticism of Beijing and Chinese students staying silent

00:18:00.800 in fear of harassment, Human Rights Watch said.

00:18:04.160 We know that happens in Canada too.

00:18:05.780 We've spoken to some of the victims.

00:18:07.500 And look at this from Canada.

00:18:09.260 It was published in the Epoch Times.

00:18:11.600 Chinese Communist Party agents had access to private information of New Brunswick students

00:18:15.980 through Confucius Institutes.

00:18:19.520 Confucius Institutes, if you don't know, are Chinese propaganda ministries on campuses

00:18:24.800 around the world answering to Beijing.

00:18:28.300 They're in Canadian universities to recruit kids, propagandize students.

00:18:34.020 Why haven't they all been kicked out?

00:18:36.760 I mean, those two Michaels have been kept hostage for 933 days.

00:18:40.520 Why weren't these Confucius Institutes kicked out 932 days ago?

00:18:44.560 All these ambassadors and diplomats and military attachés and spies, why weren't they kicked

00:18:50.820 out like 931 days ago?

00:18:53.880 Why Chinese nationals in our institutions like that virus lab in Winnipeg? 0.90

00:18:58.120 Why are the liberals covering up the facts about that?

00:19:01.540 Why?

00:19:03.220 Are you kidding?

00:19:04.260 Why?

00:19:04.960 There's a level of admiration I actually have for China.

00:19:09.400 Why?

00:19:09.760 That's why.

00:19:11.640 Stay with us for more.

00:19:14.560 Well, I tell you, sometimes avalanches come quite quickly from a single flake of snow.

00:19:31.080 I remember it wasn't long ago when the city of Victoria had a sneaky decision to remove

00:19:38.980 the statue of Sir John A. MacDonald from their town.

00:19:42.480 The decision was done in a sneaky way, and the attempt to remove it without anyone seeing

00:19:48.160 was done in a sneaky way.

00:19:50.100 But our friend Aaron Gunn found out about it, and he brought this shocking video coverage

00:19:56.040 to the world when it happened.

00:19:58.120 Today is a sad day for Victoria.

00:20:01.300 It's a sad day for British Columbia.

00:20:03.220 And it's a sad day for Canada.

00:20:06.860 Right behind me, a statue of our first Prime Minister, Sir John A. MacDonald, is being torn down.

00:20:14.840 This follows the order given by Mayor Lisa Helps and her cronies on City Council to tear 0.61

00:20:20.080 down this piece of our history without public consultation and without public debate.

00:20:25.080 And they're doing it early in the morning, purposely denying supporters of Canada's founding father

00:20:31.440 the opportunity to gather in his defense later today.

00:20:35.640 Is this the kind of society we want to live in?

00:20:38.800 One that tears down our past instead of building our future?

00:20:43.640 One that uses our history to divide us rather than bring us together?

00:20:47.720 And where does it end?

00:20:51.140 Does the city of Victoria, named after Britain's Imperial Queen, have to be renamed?

00:20:56.600 How about the province of British Columbia?

00:21:00.100 Must we judge all our historical figures based solely on their faults and not their accomplishments,

00:21:05.660 viewing their actions and beliefs through the lens of our century and not their own?

00:21:11.260 The architect of confederation and visionary behind Canada's National Railway,

00:21:16.160 Sir John A. certainly was not a perfect Prime Minister, but he was probably our most important

00:21:21.620 and is ranked consistently by historians as one of Canada's greatest leaders.

00:21:27.580 His statue is a tribute not only to him, but to the nation of which he helped give birth.

00:21:33.760 A nation that would serve the world for the next 150 years, however imperfectly,

00:21:38.980 as a force for good, as a force for tolerance and a force for freedom.

00:21:44.080 But this is not the end of our fight.

00:21:47.760 It is just the beginning.

00:21:50.060 This October, there are municipal elections here in Victoria.

00:21:53.380 It's time to elect a new mayor and council that respects Victoria's past,

00:21:58.360 Canada's history, and our nation's tomorrow.

00:22:01.940 That was shocking back then, but now a week doesn't go by when some statue is taken down,

00:22:08.840 some Canadian icon is smashed.

00:22:11.420 I don't quite know yet what will replace it, but Canada is being cancelled.

00:22:16.620 And the man who recorded that first incident of a Sir John A. statue being taken down, Aaron Gunn,

00:22:22.900 joins us now via Skype.

00:22:24.920 Aaron, you're an independent journalist, and I commend you for ringing the alarm bell early.

00:22:30.860 I don't think enough people took it seriously.

00:22:33.620 Now, entire schools are being named.

00:22:36.580 They're talking about renaming streets in Toronto.

00:22:39.940 You know, they've already purged Sir John A. Macdonald from the $10 bill.

00:22:44.460 I'm worried they're literally cancelling Canada, our history, and frankly, a lot of our people.

00:22:50.520 Yeah, thank you for having me, Ezra.

00:22:54.000 I think you hit the nail on the head.

00:22:55.620 I think the floodgates have been opened.

00:22:57.600 You saw it, or at least I saw it coming a couple years ago.

00:23:01.400 And it's the kind of thing where something that would have been satire five years ago

00:23:06.620 is now our new reality that we're forced to live in.

00:23:10.080 We have a prime minister who slanders and degrades his own country.

00:23:14.880 We have a premier here in B.C. that does the same thing.

00:23:18.620 And I think Canadians need to wake up to the fact that this is happening and that it's dangerous,

00:23:25.080 because if we start tearing down our shared history and our shared culture,

00:23:29.300 that's what really holds us together as a country.

00:23:32.160 Well, and you can't judge the past through the morality of the present.

00:23:38.540 Otherwise, every culture in society will fail, even Jesus, even Moses.

00:23:44.880 I mean, we are built on the past, and that's not to say we can't get better.

00:23:50.540 And by the way, imagine a generation from now what they'll say about certain things that we do now.

00:23:55.500 It's just not a way to live.

00:23:57.300 Let me show you a short-term consequence of this.

00:24:00.080 I mean, it went very quick from Chief Justice Beverly McLaughlin saying that Canada was a genocide state

00:24:06.980 to Trudeau saying that to guess what?

00:24:10.040 Now the Chinese government is saying that about us.

00:24:13.180 When we raise concerns about the real concentration camps and labor camps and internment camps

00:24:19.320 in the Xinjiang region of China, they're clapping back at us saying,

00:24:24.000 hey, you yourself say you've committed genocide.

00:24:27.880 Fix your own problems first.

00:24:29.300 It's being thrown back in our face.

00:24:31.720 It's removed our moral authority.

00:24:34.060 I think, frankly, Trudeau put that on himself and he put it on the rest of us.

00:24:38.820 He's undermined Canada's moral authority.

00:24:42.380 Yeah, I don't think it'd be hard-pressed to find another case in world history

00:24:47.960 where a country has so viciously attacked itself with these repeated rounds of self-flagellation

00:24:55.600 than what's been happening here in Canada.

00:24:57.660 You're right.

00:24:58.520 It's undermined our moral authority abroad.

00:25:00.660 China's laughing at us.

00:25:02.280 We continue to draw bizarrely false equivalencies with some of the mistakes we made in our past

00:25:09.780 with the truly horrific things that have happened in world history.

00:25:13.760 You know, talk about the cultural revolution in China, the Holocaust, all these other real genocides that have happened. 0.66

00:25:22.120 So I think you're exactly right.

00:25:25.140 And look, here in British Columbia and again in Edmonton today, they're lighting churches on fire.

00:25:31.080 They've burned down five churches to the ground, and there's been barely a word from our politicians.

00:25:37.180 You think it's maybe time that we acknowledge and point out the obvious,

00:25:40.600 that we have a serious problem with the radical left in this country?

00:25:44.720 Yeah.

00:25:45.160 Well, that's a great point.

00:25:46.320 You know, the irony there, we were talking about it on the show the other day,

00:25:49.560 Trudeau has introduced an anti-hate speech bill that's really targeting social media.

00:25:54.140 Like it says right in there, it's focused on the Internet.

00:25:56.720 And we've heard from Stephen Gilboa, he's going to focus on Facebook and YouTube.

00:26:01.940 But we have real hate crimes, real arson against real property.

00:26:06.640 And these are the center of a lot of these communities.

00:26:09.520 The church is not just a religious place, it's a community center, it's for life cycle events.

00:26:14.260 You've got this crime wave across the country of real crime, not a peep from the federal government,

00:26:20.940 but they're going after mean tweets on Facebook.

00:26:23.380 It's shocking to me.

00:26:24.420 You know, the good news, Aaron, there is a little bit of good news,

00:26:28.120 is that severely normal Canadians aren't buying it.

00:26:31.120 I've seen a poll, most Canadians don't want to cancel Canada Day.

00:26:36.560 We talk to people all the time, what we call them streeters, we just do man on the street interviews.

00:26:41.800 I find that new immigrants to Canada, they love Canada, that's why they came here.

00:26:46.480 They just came here from somewhere presumably not as good.

00:26:50.440 So they're not into this disparaged Canada thing.

00:26:53.100 So I think the hope, as Orwell would say, is with the proles.

00:26:56.660 The hope is with ordinary people.

00:26:58.640 It's the luxury class that has the time and money to sit around and engage in these, you know, abstract debates about a perfect utopia.

00:27:08.740 And of course, we don't match up.

00:27:09.920 I think they're the ones who hate Canada the most.

00:27:12.540 I think severely normal people realize we're in one of the best countries.

00:27:16.240 I don't think you could ask any of these critics, so where would you rather live?

00:27:20.140 I don't think any of them actually know of a place they'd rather go.

00:27:23.960 Utopia means impossible place.

00:27:26.280 There is no perfect place.

00:27:27.700 Yeah, I don't know if there's another place they would rather go in the world or at another point in history.

00:27:35.600 We really do it pretty well in Canada.

00:27:38.900 This is a country that we can all be proud of, that we should all be flying the flag proudly on Canada Day.

00:27:43.980 But I think it is important to note that there are some of these people that you mentioned, Ezra, that have all this time on their hands that are completely deluded with reality and jumping on this bandwagon.

00:27:55.180 But I think there is another group of people, an even smaller group of people, that know exactly what they're doing, that are purposely undermining the history and institutions and the stories we tell ourselves in this country, because they want to almost soften the ground before they make their push to really radically transform and tear down our institutions.

00:28:15.900 And I think that is a political motivation.

00:28:18.300 And I think they know what they're doing.

00:28:19.520 They know they're spreading misinformation.

00:28:20.880 They know they're taking things out of context, but they're doing so with a political purpose.

00:28:25.680 And I think that makes them all the more dangerous.

00:28:28.720 I think you're very, very right on that.

00:28:30.560 Let me ask you one more thing.

00:28:32.580 I remember when I was a younger man, how the Liberal Party co-opted the symbols of patriotism.

00:28:39.140 I mean, you can go back two generations to when the flag, the country's flag, they called it the Pearson pennant because it so resembled the liberal colors.

00:28:48.160 And under the Chrétien administration, the flag was sort of proof of liberal largesse.

00:28:55.040 The sponsorship scandal in Quebec was basically the federal government flooding money into the province to buy the hearts and minds of Quebecers so they didn't vote to separate.

00:29:04.500 It was sort of a panic move.

00:29:06.300 And where you saw a Canadian flag, you saw money vote liberal.

00:29:10.560 You know, as a right winger growing up in Alberta, I resented the fact they were co-opting the symbols of patriotism.

00:29:18.800 But it was, you got to admit, it's pretty smart.

00:29:21.300 Here we are, not too many years later, and Justin Trudeau is commanding that the federal, you know, the flag on the peace tower of parliament fly at half mast.

00:29:34.280 He's ripping Johnny McDonald off the $10 bill.

00:29:36.480 Well, the Liberal Party itself sounds like it's rejecting at least the symbols of Canada, if not Canada itself.

00:29:44.820 I just find it remarkable because when I was growing up, it irked me as a conservative.

00:29:49.000 Hey, why do the liberals always get the symbols of the country?

00:29:52.740 I'm a patriot too.

00:29:54.020 I'm conservative though.

00:29:55.700 Now the liberals are just saying, no, no, you can have that stupid maple leaf flag.

00:30:00.040 You can have your Canada.

00:30:01.920 We don't like it.

00:30:02.440 I find that incredible.

00:30:03.580 I wonder what Pierre Trudeau himself would say about it.

00:30:07.200 Yeah, they're trying, they're seemingly content with branding themselves as the un-Canadian party.

00:30:15.180 I think this is a big opening for someone else or the conservative party to step up and offer an alternative, which they really need to do.

00:30:22.620 But yeah, I think there's, look, there's a group of people within the Liberal Party, a large group of people, and in the political left more generally, that basically want the country's history to start in 1970 or whenever Pierre Trudeau was first elected.

00:30:37.480 And I think everything else before that has to be recanted and apologized for.

00:30:42.340 And I think that's outrageous because, I mean, this country, this is a country that was formed in the battlefields of Vimy Ridge on the beaches of Juneau that came together in confederation through process of negotiation and compromise, unlike probably any other country in the world.

00:30:56.640 That has always been at the forefront of the pack.

00:30:59.860 Did it act in the 1800s like a country in the 1800s?

00:31:03.660 Of course.

00:31:04.600 But I think this attempt, as you said, to continue to undermine this country and its symbols is dangerous.

00:31:14.580 And there should be political consequences and backlash to it.

00:31:18.360 But if no one else is stepping up at the plate and offering an alternative, there won't be, unfortunately.

00:31:23.940 Yeah, good point.

00:31:24.780 Hey, it's great to catch up with you.

00:31:26.600 And I love following you on Twitter, for example.

00:31:28.840 You're really fighting the fight, for example, on this crime wave of churches being burned.

00:31:33.380 Let me ask you, you know, don't give anything away confidential.

00:31:36.360 I know you're a man with your own timing and things like that.

00:31:38.680 But what projects are you working on?

00:31:40.620 What are you up to next?

00:31:41.540 I just love seeing you do your independent journalism.

00:31:44.860 It was you who caught that Sir John A. statue coming down.

00:31:48.100 What should we be looking for from Aaron Gunn in the rest of the year?

00:31:52.460 Yeah, we got, we're just wrapping up filming on season two of Politics Explained, which is the online show that I produce.

00:31:59.180 So that'll be released over the course of the summer.

00:32:02.060 And of course, there are still people encouraging me to jump into politics here provincially for the leadership of the confusingly named B.C. Liberal Party.

00:32:11.860 It's the right leading party here in British Columbia.

00:32:14.740 And that is the decision.

00:32:16.480 We're going to have a little announcement on it on Canada Day.

00:32:19.760 But we're going to make a final decision over the course of the summer on that front as well.

00:32:25.400 Well, that's very exciting.

00:32:26.380 I can hardly wait to see what you do next.

00:32:27.980 Whatever it is, I'm sure we'll want to cover it.

00:32:29.700 And you have a rare courage and independent streak, which, my God, we need that in Canada more than ever.

00:32:36.500 Take care, my friend, and please stay in touch.

00:32:38.900 Thanks, Ezra. You too.

00:32:39.960 All right. There you have it.

00:32:40.940 Aaron Gunn, independent journalist.

00:32:42.460 And he says he's got an announcement coming up as soon as tomorrow.

00:32:44.980 We'll be careful to watch for that.

00:32:46.640 Stay with us. More ahead.

00:32:47.540 Hey, welcome back on my show last night.

00:33:00.860 Dave writes, Ben, another up-and-coming liberal light.

00:33:06.180 I don't know.

00:33:07.100 I mean, I think he's probably just in a bunker mentality.

00:33:11.160 Obviously, the Conservative Party, the UCP of Alberta, is behind in the polls.

00:33:18.840 How is that even possible?

00:33:19.760 It's behind Rachel Notley, the socialist destroyer.

00:33:22.780 How is that even possible?

00:33:24.100 They can't believe it.

00:33:26.340 They were so good on the lockdown for, like, the first half, and now they're terrible.

00:33:30.700 So they've lost both the left and the right.

00:33:32.520 They don't know what's going on.

00:33:33.960 Nothing's working for them.

00:33:35.140 So they've just, I think they've gone into a bunker mentality.

00:33:39.320 They were in denial.

00:33:41.380 But I think once those American Republicans, the senator and the former governor weighed in,

00:33:48.400 I think they're sort of panicking.

00:33:51.220 They have a year or two before the next election.

00:33:54.260 If an election were held now, they would lose.

00:33:56.620 And that's pretty incredible.

00:33:57.820 So I think they're sort of in panic mode.

00:34:00.540 Jeff writes, Ben Harper, young man, you've just shown the rest of us low-class Canadians

00:34:04.660 what you're made of.

00:34:05.860 You know, I think that's what bugged me about him.

00:34:08.440 I knew Stephen Harper when I was a kid.

00:34:10.900 Like, literally, I was a teenager when I met him.

00:34:13.660 And his wife, too, Lorene Harper.

00:34:15.280 In fact, I still call her Lorene Teske sometimes, her maiden name.

00:34:19.040 I knew both Stephen Harper and Lorene before they were married.

00:34:24.380 Individually, I knew them both.

00:34:26.000 And they were sort of this young couple in the reform party.

00:34:29.160 And I'm a few years younger than them both, but not too much younger.

00:34:32.360 And I remember what was said about them.

00:34:35.720 They called Stephen Harper an extremist.

00:34:37.380 Obviously, always have, always, always will.

00:34:40.360 The mean left, the attacky left. 0.97

00:34:43.760 And they called his mom.

00:34:45.700 We didn't talk about her too much.

00:34:47.340 But they called her plain and a yokel.

00:34:51.820 And I don't know if they used the word low-class, but that's what they meant.

00:34:54.820 But she was a country girl, and she shot a gun, and she rode a motorcycle. 1.00

00:34:59.760 And she was a little bit of a tomboy, even, I'd say. 0.83

00:35:02.620 And I say that in a good way.

00:35:04.940 But she wasn't like a fancy-pants, you know, urban, lefty progressive. 0.99

00:35:12.920 So to have Ben Harper use the language that was used against his own parents, extremist, low-class, who the hell are you?

00:35:27.200 You think you're going to get some pass from the fancy people if you denounce me?

00:35:32.900 You think suddenly they're going to call you classy?

00:35:35.400 You think suddenly they're going to let you get a cool kids' club pass?

00:35:39.620 That's what bugged me about it.

00:35:41.020 I mean, I don't care that he disagrees with me.

00:35:42.880 I disagree with him.

00:35:43.640 Well, we disagree all the time.

00:35:45.260 But it was his choice of epithets that were super gross.

00:35:49.840 Richard writes, right on answer, I really enjoyed this show.

00:35:52.580 Good stuff.

00:35:53.380 Yeah, well, listen, I just, it irked me because I have a family tie there.

00:35:57.100 I mean, not my family.

00:35:59.000 I knew, I haven't talked to Stephen Harper in a while.

00:36:04.380 And once in a while, I chat with Lorene on Twitter.

00:36:09.720 But, I don't know, just sort of, there was something there that didn't feel disloyal to me

00:36:16.260 and felt disloyal to his own family, if you get my meaning.

00:36:19.880 That's the show for today.

00:36:21.260 Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, good night.

00:36:24.800 Keep fighting for freedom.

00:36:25.640 work in a burned future.

00:36:26.920 Stop saying that.

00:36:28.920 ali'd be what I need to take for freedom to your shoulders.

00:36:30.300 Thank you.

00:36:30.800 Keep fighting for protection.

00:36:32.580 Thank you.

00:36:32.880 Sit down.

00:36:33.760 filter

00:36:34.620 All rights, addedник, hip-hoping, hip-hoping, hip-hoping, hip-hoping, hip-hoping, hip-hoping, hip-hoping, hip-hoping, hip-hoping, hip-hoping, chip-hoping, hip-hoping.

00:36:36.520 I don't know.

00:36:38.120 We're not able to teach this good thing.

00:36:38.620 Get ready.

00:36:40.840 We're ready.

00:36:41.560 I'm done.

00:36:42.660 Okay.

00:36:42.740 I'm done.

00:36:44.460 We're ready.

00:36:44.660 What we're up to the show.

00:36:45.960 Me now, everything.

00:36:47.280 We're up to be here.

00:36:48.960 Se for you.

00:36:49.300 I'm done.

00:36:49.820 Ask yourself.

Rebel News Podcast - July 01, 2021

EZRA LEVANT ｜ It has been 933 days since China kidnapped two Canadian citizens, and Justin Trudeau is more pro-China than ever

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