EZRA LEVANT ｜ JD Vance calls out enemies of free speech in Europe
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Summary
Did you hear J.D. Vance's speech in Europe? He was at the Munich Security Conference, which is a big military, political NGO gathering. Oh boy, did he have it. I'm going to take you through the speech, clip by clip, because it's a momentous matter. Then, we'll talk to Tom Marazzo about the 3rd anniversary of Trudeau's invocation of the Emergencies Act. That's ahead.
Transcript
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Hello, my friends. Did you hear J.D. Vance's speech in Europe? He was at the Munich Security
00:00:05.660
Conference, which is a big military political NGO gathering. Oh boy, he let him have it. I'm
00:00:11.980
going to take you through the speech clip by clip because it's a momentous matter. Then later,
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we'll talk to Tom Marazzo. Today is the third anniversary of Trudeau's invocation of the
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Emergencies Act. That's ahead. But first, let me invite you to become a subscriber to what we call
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Tonight, U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance goes into the heart of Europe and speaks truth to power.
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Oh, and they didn't like it. It's February 14th and this is the Ezra LeVance Show.
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You're fighting for freedom. Shame on you, you censorious bug.
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Every year around this time is the Munich Security Conference. It's a huge meeting. It's sort of like
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NATO plus. A little bit like the World Economic Forum. You don't have to be a general or a politician to go
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there, but there are lots of generals and arms dealers and the like, but it does have a bit of a
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European WEF feeling to it too. And it's a Soros favorite. Both George Soros and his son Alex Soros
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love to hang out there, which gives me the creeps. In fact, two years ago, George Soros spoke there.
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Well, it's on again this year and there's a new sheriff in town. Donald Trump did not attend,
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but J.D. Vance, his vice president, attended and gave the keynote speech. Now, J.D. Vance and
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Pete Hegseth, the new Department of the Secretary of Defense, they sort of telegraphed in advance
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what they were going to say. J.D. Vance in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. And here's
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Pete Hegseth talking a little bit about Ukraine and the peace deal Trump was after.
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We want, like you, a sovereign and prosperous Ukraine. But we must start by recognizing that
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returning to Ukraine's pre-2014 borders is an unrealistic objective. The United States does
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not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement.
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Instead, any security guarantee must be backed by capable European and non-European troops.
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So Europe, I think, knew that there was a change afoot. And J.D. Vance came and spoke to them right
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in the heart of their conference. And I'd like to share about half his speech with you.
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I won't play at all, even though it was all very good. First of all, J.D. Vance said that the enemy,
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and remember, he's talking to soldiers here, he said the enemy was within. And he talked about
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Romania and how its democratic vote was sort of blocked by righteous people and Germany's attempt
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to block a right-of-center party called the AFD, Alternative for Deutschland. Take a look.
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We gather at this conference, of course, to discuss security. And normally, we mean threats to our
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external security. I see many great military leaders gathered here today. But while the Trump
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administration is very concerned with European security and believes that we can come to a
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reasonable settlement between Russia and Ukraine, and we also believe that it's important in the
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coming years for Europe to step up in a big way to provide for its own defense, the threat that I
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worry the most about vis-a-vis Europe is not Russia, it's not China, it's not any other external actor.
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And what I worry about is the threat from within, the retreat of Europe from some of its most
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fundamental values, values shared with the United States of America. Now, I was struck that a former
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European commissioner went on television recently and sounded delighted that the Romanian government had
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just annulled an entire election. He warned that if things don't go to plan, the very same thing
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could happen in Germany, too. He talked about digital censorship and democratic values, and he
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wove in Ukraine there. He didn't quite say it, but I think he's concerned about the fact that Ukraine has
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suspended some civil liberties, including independent newspapers, independent political parties, and even
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some churches. Now, these cavalier statements are shocking to American ears. For years, we've been
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told that everything we fund and support is in the name of our shared democratic values. Everything from our
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Ukraine policy to digital censorship is billed as a defense of democracy. But when we see European
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courts canceling elections and senior officials threatening to cancel others, we ought to ask
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whether we're holding ourselves to an appropriately high standard. And I say ourselves because I
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fundamentally believe that we are on the same team. We must do more than talk about democratic values. We
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must live them. You know, a lot of Europeans love free speech. I think everyone loves free speech for
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themselves. But half of Europe's politicians want to get Elon Musk because the free speech he uses
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and allows others to use criticizes the European Union. Here, take a listen.
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I look to Brussels, where EU commissars warn citizens that they intend to shut down social media during times
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of civil unrest the moment they spot what they've judged to be, quote, hateful content. Or to this very
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country where police have carried out raids against citizens suspected of posting anti-feminist comments
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online as part of, quote, combating misogyny on the internet, a day of action.
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Then J.D. Vance got very specific. He talked about particular cases. He talked about the case of the
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Swede who was murdered recently for burning the Koran. Now, it's not a good idea to burn the Koran, but
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it is lawful in a free country. And then his friend got arrested for complaining about it. Take a listen.
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I look to Sweden, where two weeks ago the government convicted a Christian activist
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for participating in Koran burnings that resulted in his friend's murder. And as the judge in his case
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chillingly noted, Sweden's laws to supposedly protect free expression do not, in fact, grant,
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and I'm quoting, a free pass to do or say anything without risking offending the group that holds that
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belief. And then Vance talked about the United Kingdom. Remember just the other day, we interviewed
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a woman who was arrested, I think several times now, for quietly praying in her own mind. Well,
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J.D. Vance didn't talk about her case, but another one about quiet prayer. J.D. Vance didn't talk about
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Tommy Robinson, but I felt like he was coming close to the subject. Here, take a look.
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And perhaps most concerningly, I look to our very dear friends, the United Kingdom,
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where the backslide away from conscience rights has placed the basic liberties of religious Britons,
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in particular, in the crosshairs. A little over two years ago, the British government charged Adam
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Smith Connor, a 51-year-old physiotherapist and an army veteran with the heinous crime of standing
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50 meters from an abortion clinic and silently praying for three minutes. Not obstructing anyone,
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not interacting with anyone, just silently praying on his own. Oh, he had a big list. He next talked about
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Scotland and how they were arresting people for private prayer also. This last October,
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just a few months ago, the Scottish government began distributing letters to citizens whose houses
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lay within so-called safe access zones, warning them that even private prayer within their own homes
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may amount to breaking the law. Naturally, the government urged readers to report any fellow
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citizens suspected guilty of thought crime. In Britain and across Europe, free speech, I fear,
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is in retreat. Now, J.D. Vance did say America has its share of the blame. He confessed to Joe Biden-era
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censorship, for example, over COVID disinformation. I will admit that sometimes the loudest voices for
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censorship have come not from within Europe, but from within my own country, where the prior administration
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threatened and bullied social media companies to censor so-called misinformation. Misinformation like,
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for example, the idea that coronavirus had likely leaked from a laboratory in China. Our own government
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encouraged private companies to silence people who dared to utter what turned out to be an obvious truth.
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Vance talked about Romania again, and I get it. Imagine a country voting to have a conservative
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populist party and the poobahs just say, yeah, no, we're not going to recognize that election because
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it went the wrong way. And under Donald Trump's leadership, we may disagree with your views,
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but we will fight to defend your right to offer it in the public square, agree or disagree.
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Now we're at the point, of course, that the situation has gotten so bad that this December,
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Romania straight up canceled the results of a presidential election based on the flimsy suspicions
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of an intelligence agency and enormous pressure from its continental neighbors. And then I think the most
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terrifying part of the conversation was when J.D. Vance talked about mass immigration to Europe.
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And of all the pressings, challenges that the nations represented here face,
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I believe there is nothing more urgent than mass migration.
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Today, almost one in five people living in this country moved here from abroad. That is,
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of course, an all-time high. It's a similar number, by the way, in the United States,
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also an all-time high. The number of immigrants who entered the EU from non-EU countries doubled
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between 2021 and 2022 alone. And of course, it's gotten much higher since.
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By the way, right before the Munich Security Conference started,
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an Islamic terrorist rammed his car into people on the streets. J.D. Vance talked about it. I don't
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think he said the word Islamic, although the terrorists did apparently holler Allah Akbar.
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An asylum seeker, often a young man in his mid-twenties, already known to police, rams a car
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into a crowd and shatters a community. How many times must we suffer these appalling setbacks
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before we change course and take our shared civilization in a new direction?
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No voter on this continent went to the ballot box to open the floodgates to millions of unvetted
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immigrants. But you know what they did vote for? In England, they voted for Brexit. And agree or
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disagree, they voted for it. And more and more all over Europe, they're voting for political leaders
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who promised to put an end to out-of-control migration.
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There's a lighthearted moment. J.D. Vance was making a joke. I don't know if the joke
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didn't translate well or if everyone there was so sour because of what Vance had been saying.
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He talked about Greta Thunberg and Elon Musk and how having points of view, even if you find them
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irritating, that's not interference. It's just free speech. Take a look.
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I believe that dismissing people, dismissing their concerns, or worse yet, shutting down media,
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shutting down elections, or shutting people out of the political process protects nothing.
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In fact, it is the most surefire way to destroy democracy. And speaking up and expressing opinions
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isn't election interference. Even when people express views outside your own country,
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and even when those people are very influential. And trust me, I say this with all humor,
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if American democracy can survive 10 years of Greta Thunberg's scolding,
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you guys can survive a few months of Elon Musk.
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But what German democracy, what no democracy, American, German, or European will survive,
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is telling millions of voters that their thoughts and concerns, their aspirations,
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their pleas for relief are invalid or unworthy of even being considered.
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Anyways, it was quite a speech. I've shown you probably about a third of it.
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Oh, the reaction was immediate and exactly what you would expect. That loser who had,
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I think he used to be the president of the European Union or something, some big poobah,
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he was sacked because a few months ago, he threatened Elon Musk. He said, you're going to
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interview Donald Trump on Twitter. You have to do this and this. And then if you're going to interview
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AFD, like he, like this European bureaucrat was barking orders at Elon Musk about how he was allowed
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to talk to Donald Trump or the AFD, only if he followed certain rules, it was a lot of chutzpah.
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And it actually cost that bureaucrat his job, but not his Twitter account. So here's how this bureaucrat,
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I think his name was Thierry Breton. So he hates Twitter, but he can't get enough of Twitter. He said,
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Welcome to Europe, VP J.D. Vance. With all due respect, in Europe, freedom of speech is a core value
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of our democracy. It is non-negotiable. Never was and never will be proof. Even fake news are allowed,
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sadly, sometimes echoed by top U.S. officials. He goes on and on and on. It is absurd to say that
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free speech is non-negotiable in Europe. Free speech is constantly under attack in Europe. People are terrified
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by it. Even in the United Kingdom, there are thousands of arrests every year for Facebook
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posts. Anyways, if you think that was something, the German defense minister is some left-wing kook.
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His response to J.D. Vance saying that free speech is under attack is to say,
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This is why I cannot just ignore what we heard before. I cannot not comment on the speech we
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heard by the U.S. Vice President. We fight for your right to be against us. That is the motto,
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one of the mottos of the Bundeswehr, and it stands for our democracy. This democracy that was just
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called into question by the U.S. Vice President, not just the German democracy, but Europe as a whole.
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He spoke of the annulment of democracy, and if I understood him correctly, he compares the condition
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of Europe with the condition that prevails in some authoritarian regimes. Ladies and gentlemen,
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this is not acceptable. I think you're sort of proving the point by saying it's unacceptable to
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say certain things. You have just sort of proved that free speech is under attack. And remember,
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the German chancellor himself said that the American point of view on Ukraine is a national emergency.
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You know what? I think that Donald Trump was sending a message to Europe, and I think most people
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got it, not these two, and Lobos and a few others. But let me give you a few facts. Did you know that
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there are still 50,000 U.S. troops in Germany? Still 40 U.S. bases in Germany. They never left in 1945.
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They never left Korea in 1953. They never left Japan. There are hundreds of bases around the world, but
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the German presence of the U.S. military is, I think it's the largest in the world, actually.
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It's a huge boost to the German economy, of course, having 50,000 people and all their
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material and equipment. But more to the point, it subsidizes their security while they
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beak off in America. And here's America, the one that pays the bill, saying, we'd like you to respect
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democracy a little more. We'd like you to respect free speech a little more. After all, we are the ones
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not guaranteeing it. And the freak out by the left is quite something to see. I think Europe,
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I mean, I love it, of course, historically, culturally, linguistically. I think it's changing.
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Italy is losing its Italy-ness. Ireland is losing its Irishness. France is losing its Frenchness. This
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is all true. But it's also losing its energy. It's economically stagnating. It's de-industrializing
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itself in the name of Greta Thunberg's green theories. I think that J.D. Vance came to Europe
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to say, we're done with that, or at least anything that touches us. If you expect our support financially
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or militarily, you better stop, you know, crushing democracy or free speech. And you better not lay a
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hand on American companies, including social media companies. I think it was the opposite message
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that Joe Biden has given for the last four years. I think you could call it America first. It'll be
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interesting to see if Europe embraces Europe first. Stay with us more ahead.
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So much has happened in the United States and Canada in the last six months politically
00:20:47.100
that thinking back to the pandemic and the lockdowns and the trucker convoy almost feels like a different
00:20:54.220
age, a different era. And indeed, I think it was. It's my view that the invocation of the Emergencies
00:21:02.140
Act marks the beginning of the downfall of Justin Trudeau in two ways. First of all, I think it revealed
00:21:08.620
his tyrannical side. And second of all, those same events caused the defenestration
00:21:14.220
of Erin O'Toole as the Conservative Party leader, replacing him with a much more vigorous
00:21:20.140
Pierre Polyev. If you can believe it, it was three years ago today that Justin Trudeau panicked.
00:21:28.620
Panicked not for security reasons, but for political reasons. Panicked because the world was watching
00:21:34.540
how ordinary truckers, grassroots people of all backgrounds, genuinely authentic and organic,
00:21:40.060
caused the government of Canada to blink. It was an amazing and terrifying time,
00:21:47.820
a terrible decision that was later found to be illegal and unconstitutional by the Federal
00:21:53.180
Court of Canada. But as you'll recall, living through it, it was unknown how deep Canada would go
00:21:59.900
down the road to a police state. And indeed, it was for several days a police state,
00:22:06.060
seizing hundreds of people's bank accounts, arresting people willy-nilly. It was a return
00:22:12.140
to the bad old days. At least, Pierre Trudeau, when he invoked the War Measures Act, he could point to
00:22:18.780
a bona fide terrorist group, the FLQ, which was blowing up mailboxes with bombs, kidnapping people,
00:22:25.900
and in fact, murdered one. Justin Trudeau, he was just embarrassed on Twitter. Joining us now to talk
00:22:32.620
about that fateful time, the Trucker Convoy, the Emergencies Act, and the resilience of the Canadian
00:22:38.940
people who helped throw off the government that it is in its final days, I'm joined now by Tom
00:22:44.220
Marazzo, whose latest project is the president of the Ontario Party. Tom, how are you doing? Nice to
00:22:50.620
see you again. We talked more back in the day during the lockdowns, during the convoy. It's nice to see you
00:22:55.660
again. Yeah, thanks for having me on the show, especially on the third anniversary of the EA.
00:23:01.260
Yeah, it's amazing how time flies. That matter is still working its way through the courts. Of
00:23:06.780
course, the federal government lost the constitutional challenge, and they're appealing that. And as you
00:23:12.860
know, there are some people, including Tamara Leach, who you know well, who are still working through
00:23:19.420
the courts, being prosecuted for pandemic lockdowns three-plus years later. Are you under any
00:23:26.780
prosecution or any legal or political intervention based on what happened three years ago?
00:23:35.340
Yeah, I was never charged criminally. There was no warrants or anything like that. But I am one of
00:23:40.860
the 40 or so that are named on, I don't know what it's at by now, a $300 million lawsuit
00:23:47.100
that was filed with the attorney in Ottawa, Paul Champ, Zexy Lee, and the Happy Goat something coffee
00:23:56.620
company. So that's the only legal action against me. I have filed in court, I am suing the federal
00:24:04.380
government for freezing my bank accounts without any form of due process whatsoever. And I'm
00:24:10.860
represented by Brennan Miller, Eva Chipiuk, and Keith Wilson on that lawsuit. But in terms of
00:24:18.300
my own personal charges, I've never had a warrant for my arrest. I was never charged, I was never
00:24:23.340
convicted of anything. And it's a mystery to anybody why I even ended up on Tamara Leach's
00:24:29.340
no contact list. But that's the liberal control over the court system right now in Ottawa.
00:24:37.020
Well, we learned through the Public Order Inquiry Commission, it was a largely stage-managed
00:24:43.980
affair with a hand-picked judge with a handwritten mandate from Trudeau. But I think we did learn
00:24:49.420
a lot from it nonetheless, including how disorganized the police were. It was a comedy of errors.
00:24:56.220
I mean, it really felt like a Benny Hill sketch or Keystone Cops. And that was part of it. It was
00:25:04.140
so capricious, so whimsical. And you had sort of blowhard police chiefs who were just sort of making
00:25:10.860
it up as they went along. I'm frankly surprised they didn't make a move on Rebel News. Because
00:25:15.580
although we didn't give money to truckers directly, we were journalists on the ground supporting the
00:25:21.980
truckers. And we crowdfunded lawyers for the truckers. I was really worried that with one
00:25:27.580
phone call, someone from Chrystia Freeland's office would shut down our bank account, which would have
00:25:33.260
put us out of business immediately. Our staff can't work without paying. Tell me what your
00:25:38.220
memories were. Were you on the ground in Ottawa when the Emergencies Act came in?
00:25:42.620
Yeah, I was actually, for the first time, I had a chance to meet Brian Peckford. And I was sitting
00:25:49.020
with Brian having a coffee. Tamara was there. I think Chris Barber was there. Brian's wife,
00:25:55.180
I think Eva Chipiuk was in the room. We were having a coffee about the sort of best way to get the
00:26:02.220
negotiation going with the city to try to get more trucks on to Wellington out of the downtown core,
00:26:07.660
which is what we had been working towards the entire time. And that's when Keith Wilson walked
00:26:13.580
into the room and said that Justin Trudeau had invoked the Emergencies Act. And so that was pretty
00:26:23.740
very surreal to be in there in the room with the last living member of the government that signed the
00:26:31.260
Charter of Rights and Freedoms as they're actually being stripped away from both of you together.
00:26:34.940
Wow. That's incredible. Now, were you shocked by this? Did you understand what it meant when Keith
00:26:41.820
Wilson said the Emergencies Act? Because I'll be candid, I didn't even really know the word. I knew
00:26:48.140
the War Measures Act because I knew historically, Pierre Trudeau had used it. I honestly, and I think
00:26:53.740
most Canadians didn't know about it because it had never been used before. So I think a lot of people
00:26:59.660
were quickly Googling it. Did you know it might have been coming down? Was there a buzz that this
00:27:07.820
might be coming or were you caught completely by surprise? Yeah. So there was sort of this buzz about
00:27:14.780
it potentially happening to us, but I viewed it as a little bit of, and I know this sounds terrible,
00:27:21.420
but of little consequence and I'll explain why. The city of Ottawa had already declared a state of
00:27:27.020
emergency for the city. Yet they had all the police powers at their disposal to deal with the protest
00:27:38.140
Then the provincial government under Doug Ford, he had also declared a state of emergency for the
00:27:43.820
province of Ontario. And again, had full weight, you know, force and effect of the criminal code
00:27:50.140
system in Canada to deal with the protest had it been deemed illegal. But we knew on two occasions,
00:27:57.580
Justice McLean, I think on the sixth, sorry, the seventh and the 16th had ruled twice that we had a
00:28:03.660
legal right to be there to do that protest. We weren't breaking the law. All we had to do was not
00:28:08.700
honk horns. Right. We stopped honking the horns on the seventh. Right.
00:28:11.980
So we weren't even in breach of a court order to stop the horns. So it's important for people to
00:28:17.420
understand that not a single Canadian right across the country was arrested under extraordinary powers
00:28:26.540
of the Emergencies Act. It was symbolic, but it gave the perception to those sitting at home that, you know,
00:28:34.700
this is an unruly bunch that the police are going to be justified to go in there and beat, you know,
00:28:40.940
citizens, seniors, veterans with impunity because Justin Trudeau invoked the Emergencies Act.
00:28:48.780
So I viewed the Emergencies Act really as a big smokescreen for the things that he already had the
00:28:54.300
power to do. He just wanted to make it look like it was more serious and required the Emergencies Act,
00:29:00.220
when in fact it didn't. Right. And even the smaller boycott in Coutts, Alberta, where truckers and farmers
00:29:07.900
blocked the road, if I recall, that was resolved before the Emergencies Act was brought in. So what
00:29:13.660
you're saying is, and I'm glad for this clarification, maybe I knew this, but I guess I forgot,
00:29:18.220
is that the Emergencies Act did not actually cause arrests? Is that what you're saying? It was,
00:29:25.420
it's what gave the green light for the money seizures, but anyone who was arrested was just
00:29:29.660
arrested by a regular cop under a regular criminal code infraction. I mean, I remain furious to this day
00:29:38.780
that Tamara Leach was charged with inciting mischief, but that's a regular law that's been in the
00:29:46.140
criminal code and I think common law for centuries. So they didn't need the Emergencies Act to pick her
00:29:51.100
up. So it was really a shock and awe muscle flexing move, wasn't it? Basically, yeah. I mean, everybody
00:29:57.340
is, you know, they became masters after a couple of years of raising the public's anxiety level through
00:30:04.140
the media. Right. You know, you'd know more than I, like, I was there on the day that Candace Sorrow
00:30:10.540
was run over by the horse. Right. You know, and I was, I remember talking to Lincoln Jay and I remember
00:30:16.780
talking to Alexa Lavoie moments before she was run over by the horse. Right. And, you know, so, you know,
00:30:25.340
your worry, I think, was very justified, given that you guys were the only real recognizable media.
00:30:31.980
There was a lot of independent media, like individuals, but Rebel News was probably the
00:30:37.740
most well-recognized broadcaster that was there during the actual confrontation with the police.
00:30:43.580
And as you know, Alexa got shot in the, the leg by a projectile.
00:30:52.540
Watch out, watch out. Watch out. Watch out. What are you doing? What're you doing? What are you doing?
00:30:59.340
What are you doing? Hold it. Stop it. Stop. Stop. Keep him. Keep him.
00:31:36.580
And so you're right to be concerned about having your bank accounts frozen as an organization.
00:31:47.580
And I'm almost surprised because they did it to Druthers.
00:31:56.580
I don't know if you know this, but I was so worried about it and I thought two things would
00:32:04.580
First of all, some vendors, like certain things that operate on a monthly payment from a credit
00:32:10.580
card, that would go down and that might put us out of operation, like our web hosting.
00:32:15.580
And then the second thing that I worried about was our staff because I don't, I think there's
00:32:20.580
a huge, huge number of people who could not skip a paycheck.
00:32:27.580
So we prepaid and we paid down all of our accounts payable.
00:32:36.580
And I think in some cases we may have prepaid a month.
00:32:52.580
I, that was how worried I was because we were trucker adjacent.
00:32:59.580
I'm glad you remember Lincoln Jay and Alexa Lavoie.
00:33:01.580
I think they worked 23 days straight without taking a break because they knew they were
00:33:16.580
And that goes to the hodgepodge disorganized nature of it, I think.
00:33:20.580
I mean, I'm glad they didn't come for us, but I really thought they would.
00:33:24.580
So here we are three years later and you're, you have filed the action against the government.
00:33:31.580
And that's based on the ruling that the Emergencies Act was illegal.
00:33:36.580
That's basically the, the starter pistol for that, isn't it?
00:33:40.580
And you know, the ruling I believe came out a year ago in January, the Mosley decision.
00:33:48.580
And that's to, thanks to Eddie Cornell and Vince Scorsese who filed the judicial review.
00:33:55.580
It was actually the appeal had come up and they were arguing that the appeal, the federal
00:34:00.580
government has since then said there, even if, if they lose the appeal, they're going to
00:34:08.580
Given the fact that Richard Wagner, the chief justice is going to have to recuse himself
00:34:12.580
from any case whatsoever related to the freedom convoy.
00:34:18.580
Because as you know, he's a judge and he spoke publicly and said a lot of disparaging things
00:34:23.580
about the freedom convoy as the convoy was going on.
00:34:27.580
So I don't know how you can think that going to the Supreme Court of Canada is going to help you
00:34:32.580
when you're down a major member, which is the chief justice.
00:34:35.580
Because I think a first year law student, I hope would know, have enough sense to say,
00:34:46.580
But I mean, we've seen a lot of crazy things in courts in the last few years.
00:34:59.580
I think there were several hundred people that had their bank accounts frozen.
00:35:08.580
Yeah, I know of a handful of other clients that are, that belong to Keith, Brendan and Eva.
00:35:16.580
We are all being treated as individual clients by that, that legal team.
00:35:22.580
And then there's another group altogether, which is Bashiba and Ector
00:35:29.580
that are representing the group with Vince Gerses and Eddie Cornell.
00:35:35.580
But as far as the other, I think there's at least, I could be wrong on this number,
00:35:42.580
but at least 270 people had their accounts frozen.
00:35:48.580
I mean, everything from $50 donation prior to the convoy.
00:35:52.580
And here's the thing that nobody really talks about.
00:35:56.580
You're a lawyer, so you're familiar with the fruit of the poisonous tree.
00:36:01.580
You know, a lot of people were punished when their accounts with GoFundMe or Give, Send, Go were doxxed.
00:36:13.580
And if you look at the police officer in Windsor, Ontario, he anonymously donated $50 to the convoy.
00:36:22.580
And by the way, he was at home on unpaid leave for COVID mandates.
00:36:29.580
Absolutely outrageous what's going on in that case.
00:36:37.580
We've sent reporters to farmer rebellions in the Netherlands and even just last week in the United Kingdom.
00:36:47.580
And all over the world, people talk about the Canadian truckers.
00:36:52.580
I think it was I think most of the time the world sort of forgets about Canada.
00:36:56.580
And I mean, but this was the whole world was riveted, I think, partly because it looks so authentic and organic.
00:37:04.580
It was sort of a leaderless movement, which is what made it powerful and hard to stop.
00:37:12.580
And I think people thought, boy, those Canadians must be upset because they never get upset.
00:37:20.580
And I'd say in Australia, in the United States, in Israel, in the Netherlands, in the UK.
00:37:27.580
I mean, that's almost half a dozen countries right there.
00:37:29.580
I have heard people praise the Canadian truckers.
00:37:33.580
And I think that's it was one of the greatest civil rights movements in Canadian history, is how I'd call it.
00:37:42.580
I was at a book signing with Trish Wood and Ray McGinnis a week and a half ago.
00:37:52.580
She's back and forth between Canada and the UK quite often.
00:37:55.580
And she said from the UK, she was just glued to her TV, watching everything that she could about the convoy.
00:38:01.580
And so we knew during the convoy itself that we were actually sort of, for lack of a better term, setting the standard on what you could do to push back against your government.
00:38:14.580
I mean, trucks make wonderful obstacles when you're in a great place to sleep in minus 35.
00:38:28.580
And, you know, we felt that it was a historic moment at Rebel News.
00:38:33.580
And I'm glad you still remember the work done by two of our citizen journalists.
00:38:37.580
So in that month of February 2022, and I've told our viewers this before, we had 400 million views and impressions of Rebel News.
00:38:47.580
By contrast, the CBC state broadcaster, according to their own information, gets on average 360 million views and impressions in a month.
00:38:57.580
So for that one month, now, obviously, we're not at that level now, but it was the crisis.
00:39:03.580
And in the crisis, people did not trust the state broadcaster.
00:39:06.580
They trusted a handful of citizen journalists just pointing their cell phones and talking to ordinary people.
00:39:19.580
And I think if Trudeau had his way, he would have had the January 6th insurrection narrative.
00:39:27.580
He was so clearly trying to build that case, but he couldn't do it because the truckers didn't even really go anywhere.
00:39:36.580
As you point out, this was not an illegal gathering.
00:39:48.580
You look back, would you do anything differently?
00:39:51.580
Or was it, as I look back at it, a historic moment where people rose to the occasion?
00:39:58.580
I think the only thing that I would do again, and I wrote extensively about this book in my book, and a lot of people had mentioned…
00:40:12.580
And so a lot of people looked at it like it was too harsh of a criticism.
00:40:18.580
It was just meant to be sort of a performance review, let's say.
00:40:22.580
One thing that I would have done differently, and it's probably the only thing I can really put my finger on it, is I would have written down on a piece of paper like what Keith Wilson drafted the final copy of The Roadmap to Freedom.
00:40:37.580
And it outlined all the conditions that we would like to see happen and what would make us go home by certain dates.
00:40:44.580
So basically, I don't want to use the word list of demands because that sounds ugly, but what we're about and have that in writing before we showed up and give it to the media, give it to the police, give it to all the people and say, look, this is why we're here.
00:41:00.580
This is our declaration of independence, as you will.
00:41:07.580
If these things happen, we'll be more than happy to go home.
00:41:10.580
And I think that would have defended us against all the, not entirely, but against all the smearing of the government-sponsored propaganda and the lies being told by the liberals, which they still tell the same lies over and over today.
00:41:26.580
Well, some good faith people would have been moved by such a document, but the bad guys would have lied about you no matter what.
00:41:36.580
I think it was the greatest peaceful uprising in Canadian history, which was the appropriate remedy for the worst civil liberties bonfire in Canadian history.
00:41:45.580
And Tom Marazzo, it's great to reminisce a little bit and I've learned a few things and you've refreshed my memory on a few things.
00:41:51.580
And I wish you good luck in your lawsuit against the government.
00:41:59.580
There he is, Tom Marazzo, who was there on the ground three years ago in Ottawa, and today he's the president of the Ontario Party.
00:42:17.580
So if you want to support us, why not do it in a win-win fashion by shopping for yourself?
00:42:23.580
One of my favorite things to do, head to rebelnewsstore.com to pick the patriotic gear that pleases your heart.
00:42:31.580
And while you're there, use coupon code DREA10 to save while you do.
00:42:45.580
John says, we need these young guys in Canada to audit Trudeau and liberal corrupt government.
00:42:51.580
You're talking about the people that Trump calls the young geniuses.
00:42:55.580
Those are the DOGE, Department of Government and Efficiency kids, some as young as 19, who are sniffing out the fraud and corruption.
00:43:05.580
Some of that is actually public access, open source information.
00:43:09.580
You can go online and do the research yourself.
00:43:12.580
Alexa Lavois of our company has started doing that.
00:43:16.580
I forget what website we have, but we've set up one.
00:43:19.580
Daniele3228 says, was USAID covering all those organizations in Canada also?
00:43:30.580
Now, I don't have a full list of organizations in Canada, but it is insane how U.S. spending, including on censorship, affected free countries like Canada and the United States.
00:43:43.580
Not just targeting, let's say, Islamic or Soviet countries.
00:43:51.580
A company called NewsGuard got a three-quarter of a million dollar check from the U.S. Air Force, and they audited Rebel News for disinformation and tried to smear us.
00:44:02.580
So we were one of the victims of this wasteful and abusive spending by the U.S. government.
00:44:09.580
AP says, I do not understand why Sam Cooper is not on the national news discussing these points.
00:44:15.580
It seems nuts that he is the only one continually sounding the alarm.
00:44:22.580
And from time to time, you've got to give credit to Steve Chase and Bob Fyfe of the Globe and Mail.
00:44:29.580
I think that the CBC especially is about as pro-Chinese Communist Party as it gets.
00:44:38.580
Until next time, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters to you at home, good night, and keep fighting for freedom.
00:44:46.580
Done here at Rebel forward and keep fighting for freedom.