Rebel News Podcast - August 18, 2021


EZRA LEVANT ｜ Last election we needed a court order to attend debates — here's how Trudeau is blocking us now


Episode Stats


Length

42 minutes

Words per minute

154.7793

Word count

6,571

Sentence count

437

Harmful content

Misogyny

12

sentences flagged

Hate speech

6

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Justin Trudeau's handpicked Election Debates Commission is a group of Liberal Party of Canada strategists who have no idea what they re doing. They ve been in charge of the debates for years, and now they re trying to block us from reporting on them.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Hello, my friends. Today, I go through Justin Trudeau's hand-picked Election Debates Commission.
00:00:06.880 Those are the folks who tried to keep Rebel News and True North out last time. We ran to
00:00:12.040 federal court and got an emergency injunction to get back in. So this time, they've rewritten the
00:00:17.660 rules so bizarrely, so specifically designed to keep Rebel News out. It's almost a joke,
00:00:25.280 the way they describe the one news organization they won't allow without using our name. It's
00:00:30.680 really funny. It's sort of like Voldemort. They just can't say Rebel News, so they talk about
00:00:35.980 an organization that also crowdfunds civil liberties defense for people. What?
00:00:41.120 Anyhow, I'll take you through it. It's quite something. That's ahead.
00:00:44.440 Can I invite you to become a subscriber to Rebel News Plus? That's the video version of the show,
00:00:48.560 and I know we're making it available during the election campaign for free,
00:00:51.220 but I hope you like it enough that you subscribe on a permanent basis. It's only eight bucks a month.
00:00:57.740 You get my daily show, weekly shows from Sheila, Andrew, and David, and you get the satisfaction
00:01:02.840 in supporting one of the few media outlets in Canada that doesn't take Trudeau's payoff money.
00:01:08.660 All right, here's today's podcast.
00:01:15.160 You're listening to our podcast.
00:01:21.220 Tonight, last election, we had to get a court order to let us report on the election debates.
00:01:29.220 This year, Trudeau's trying even harder to block us. It's August 17th, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.
00:01:36.680 Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?
00:01:40.360 There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.
00:01:44.000 The only thing I have to say to the government about why I publish it is because it's my bloody right to do so.
00:01:55.600 For decades, the way national leaders' debates were run during elections was decided freely.
00:02:01.540 Anyone could host a debate.
00:02:03.420 It was a matter of negotiation amongst different media companies and the candidates themselves, typically.
00:02:08.660 I mean, there were usually several debates, but most importantly, the government itself had no role in running them.
00:02:15.620 The government didn't choose the journalists who could ask the questions.
00:02:18.880 The government didn't choose the subject matter of the debates.
00:02:22.680 The government didn't decide who could or couldn't participate.
00:02:25.780 Why would the government be involved in any of that?
00:02:28.900 Well, Trudeau usually doesn't do well in unscripted situations like that.
00:02:33.000 He can't handle questions that he hasn't seen in advance, that he hasn't rehearsed the answer to in advance.
00:02:38.280 He crumbles quite often, even if he doesn't know it.
00:02:43.380 I'll give you three examples of just disasters.
00:02:46.920 One was when he was asked a surprise question about which country he most admires.
00:02:52.560 So he answered honestly by mistake.
00:02:55.400 There's a level of admiration I actually have for China.
00:02:59.680 Because their basic dictatorship is allowing them to actually turn their economy around on a dime.
00:03:09.440 Here's another example, when he was surprised by a question at a liberal fundraiser about the Grassy Narrows Indian Band
00:03:16.700 and his broken promise to help him get drinkable water.
00:03:21.500 People in Grassy Narrows are suffering from mercury poisoning.
00:03:25.340 Thank you.
00:03:26.460 Thank you for being here.
00:03:29.120 Thank you very much for your donation tonight.
00:03:31.480 I really appreciate the donation to the Liberal Party of Canada.
00:03:35.180 And here's a third example, of course, when a Canadian veteran asked why Trudeau was abandoning vets and finding them in court.
00:03:43.340 Trudeau, who just gave $10.5 million to a terrorist named Omar Khadar, he gave this astonishing answer.
00:03:49.180 I was prepared to be killed in action.
00:03:52.440 What I wasn't prepared for, Mr. Prime Minister, is Canada turning its back on me.
00:04:01.100 Why are we still fighting against certain veterans groups in court?
00:04:06.660 Because they're asking for more than we are able to give right now.
00:04:11.540 Yet Trudeau likes to control things.
00:04:13.600 That's why he's put the national media on a leash with his massive media bailout.
00:04:17.880 And his recent $61 million payment to journalists on the eve of the election.
00:04:24.180 And that's why he nationalized the debates.
00:04:26.420 So his hand-picked people could decide everything about them, leave nothing to chance.
00:04:31.460 Incredibly, they just released the names of the moderator of the debates in this election year.
00:04:37.760 And Rosemary Barton of the CBC is one of them.
00:04:41.080 But this Rosemary Barton, who was so enamored with Justin Trudeau, she literally took a fangirl selfie with him.
00:04:49.720 I bet a lot of CBC journalists do that.
00:04:52.220 It's good for job security.
00:04:53.560 But Rosemary Barton is unusual in that she thought it was a good look for her to publicly tweet about her submissive affection towards Trudeau.
00:05:02.720 And sure, it showed she was unprofessional and biased. 0.95
00:05:05.980 But then again, like I say, it's probably good for job security when you work for Trudeau's CBC State Broadcaster.
00:05:11.440 It's very North Korean of her to love Dear Leader.
00:05:14.300 But what really makes my head spin is that Barton was a plaintiff in a lawsuit filed in the middle of the last election suing the Conservative Party of Canada.
00:05:23.500 While she was a neutral reporter, while she was interviewing Conservatives and Liberals on her show, unbeknownst to viewers, she was literally meeting with lawyers in secret, drafting a lawsuit against the Conservatives.
00:05:37.080 I say again, while she was publicly interviewing Conservatives on her show, she was privately building a plan to sue those same Conservatives and beat them in court.
00:05:46.680 And then she sprung the trap.
00:05:48.460 She filed the lawsuit literally during the campaign as a campaign stunt, really. 0.99
00:05:54.520 I mean, it's one thing to sue the Conservatives, but to splash it in the middle of the election to embarrass the Conservatives.
00:06:01.300 And even then, the CBC didn't take her off the election file.
00:06:04.380 Take her off the election file.
00:06:06.080 They were working with her on the project.
00:06:07.880 I've never heard of anything so partisan in my life.
00:06:10.880 And she's on the debate panel? 0.63
00:06:13.400 I wonder what kind of tough questions we can expect her to grill Trudeau with this time.
00:06:17.920 Oh, right.
00:06:18.960 Questions like these.
00:06:20.120 If you could do any other job and you have to answer, what would it be?
00:06:23.560 I'd be a schoolteacher.
00:06:24.540 I knew you were going to say that.
00:06:25.380 No, no.
00:06:25.700 No, no.
00:06:25.980 Like, aspirational.
00:06:26.580 But it's what I am.
00:06:27.780 Last book you've read or the book you're reading?
00:06:31.680 The just finished The Patch.
00:06:37.400 What kind of music are you listening to?
00:06:40.140 If you have time.
00:06:40.980 Or podcasts.
00:06:41.900 Podcasts?
00:06:42.340 Yeah, can you see why Trudeau likes to appoint his own hand-picked journalist to his own debates?
00:06:46.700 Last election, his hand-picked debates commission knew their job.
00:06:52.380 Keep out independent journalists who might ask real questions.
00:06:55.600 So they did.
00:06:56.720 They banned two of our rebel reporters, Kian Bexte and David Menzies.
00:07:00.060 And they banned a reporter from True North, Andrew Lawton.
00:07:02.720 And they said the reason was that we were too opinionated.
00:07:05.980 We were tantamount to advocates.
00:07:08.160 Can you imagine a debate commission that chooses someone who literally sued the conservatives
00:07:14.200 out of spite?
00:07:15.720 Someone who poses for selfies with Trudeau.
00:07:18.280 Someone whose media union funds a pro-Trudeau super PAC.
00:07:21.980 Can you imagine them keeping anyone else for being too opinionated?
00:07:25.660 It was a laugh, but it wasn't funny.
00:07:28.420 So we went to court on an emergency basis.
00:07:30.460 And incredibly, we won.
00:07:33.480 The Federal Court of Canada said Trudeau's debates commission was unfair and acted illegally
00:07:38.200 towards us.
00:07:38.960 They issued a court order compelling Trudeau's debates commission to let us in.
00:07:43.180 And it was great.
00:07:44.100 Here, watch our questions.
00:07:45.560 Hi, Mr. Trudeau.
00:07:46.500 Since your multiple use of blackface became an international scandal, Canada's international
00:07:51.800 reputation has been irreparably harmed.
00:07:54.980 Have you reached out to any African leaders or any leaders from the Middle East to apologize
00:07:59.820 for your conduct?
00:08:01.160 Have you, your campaign, or any other agents secured non-disclosure agreements from anyone
00:08:05.200 about inappropriate sexual personal conduct?
00:08:08.900 No.
00:08:09.780 Follow up.
00:08:10.500 The 2001 yearbook from West Point Grey Academy says that you and convicted sex offender Christopher
00:08:15.940 Ingvildson made a young student's, quote, life at WPGA a lot more interesting slash amusing,
00:08:22.260 end quote.
00:08:22.840 How did you two keep her amused? 1.00
00:08:24.980 We were teachers.
00:08:27.420 David Menzies, Rebel News.
00:08:29.540 Mr. Prime Minister, you left West Point Grey Academy in the middle of a term, which is
00:08:34.560 highly unusual.
00:08:35.920 It was a law firm that made this announcement, which is also highly unusual.
00:08:42.000 Sir, can you tell us the real reason why you left so abruptly?
00:08:46.240 And did it involve any kind of sexual misconduct at the school?
00:08:50.880 I wrote three pages on that in my autobiography, and it involved absolutely nothing of the sort
00:08:58.300 of the rumors that you're trying to spread.
00:08:59.780 Even so, Mr. Prime Minister, a follow-up question.
00:09:02.600 Why did so many teenage girls write so passionately about you in the yearbook?
00:09:09.640 Was there any connection to having a relationship with these girls or their mothers?
00:09:14.400 I was a good teacher.
00:09:16.280 Well, that's exactly what was supposed to be stopped by nationalizing the debates. 0.99
00:09:20.660 It was too embarrassing.
00:09:21.820 Trudeau was furious.
00:09:23.560 So he ordered the debates commission to change their rules to make it impossible for us ever
00:09:28.700 to come in again.
00:09:29.400 See, one of the reasons why the court let us in last time was that the rules were so vague
00:09:33.860 and the decision was so obviously arbitrary.
00:09:37.220 Well, they'll show us.
00:09:38.320 They'll make the rules so clear.
00:09:40.060 There's no way anyone could think we could be allowed again.
00:09:42.940 They'll just say, rebel news is not allowed.
00:09:45.960 Now, I'm kidding.
00:09:47.220 If they actually wrote that, it would be too ridiculous even for them to do it with a straight 0.93
00:09:50.660 face.
00:09:51.500 But they did the next closest thing.
00:09:53.040 They actually said they will ban any media that uses crowdfunding to fund civil liberties
00:09:59.600 work for strangers.
00:10:01.560 What?
00:10:02.720 Of course, there's only one company in Canada that does that.
00:10:07.260 Us.
00:10:07.760 There's only one media company in Canada that relies on crowdfunding.
00:10:11.440 That's us.
00:10:13.180 I suppose True North does too, to a degree.
00:10:15.740 And Western Standard Online, I mean, what does crowdfunding really mean other than taking
00:10:19.760 donations from the public?
00:10:20.700 But really, in Canada, we're the ones who do it the most prominently and in such a sustained
00:10:25.460 way.
00:10:26.800 And I don't know of any other group in Canada that crowdfunds civil liberties lawyers for
00:10:31.260 low-income Canadians.
00:10:32.420 They only mean us.
00:10:34.440 That's the rebel news section of their rules.
00:10:37.940 I'm going to read it to you because I bet you think I'm joking or exaggerating.
00:10:41.760 I'm not.
00:10:42.420 This is from the government release.
00:10:45.380 You know, they have a long list of rules.
00:10:47.920 They talk about conflicts of interest.
00:10:49.300 They don't exclude members of unions that donate to anti-conservative attack ads.
00:10:55.280 Most Canadian journalists are members of Unifor or the Canada Media Guild.
00:10:59.100 Unifor just rolled out this attack ad in recent weeks.
00:11:01.660 So they're not banned.
00:11:03.820 Government journalists like Rosemary Barton, that's not considered a conflict of interest.
00:11:08.220 Government journalists from foreign countries like Putin's Russia, Ukraine, Vietnam, all of
00:11:14.460 them are specifically approved by Trudeau's Debates Commission.
00:11:17.080 Seriously, it's our task.
00:11:18.860 Huge Russian news agency owned by Vladimir Putin.
00:11:22.420 They're accredited.
00:11:24.660 But not Canadian grassroots media who rely on crowdfunding and help people with lawyers.
00:11:29.640 What?
00:11:30.500 Here's what they say about us.
00:11:31.440 It was literally written to keep us and only us out.
00:11:35.320 They use the word CAJ, and I'll come back in a minute to tell you what that means because
00:11:39.120 it's interesting.
00:11:40.360 But here's what they say.
00:11:41.300 This is from Trudeau's hand-picked Debates Commission, and I quote,
00:11:44.780 According to the CAJ, there is a conflict of interest when an organization becomes an actor
00:11:52.800 in the story it tells, including providing and applying financial and legal assistance
00:11:56.780 to some of its sources to work toward a desired outcome or offering free legal services, crowd
00:12:03.760 funds to help some individuals in stories hire lawyers, purchases political advertising
00:12:08.940 and launches petitions, or when a reporter writes opinion pieces about subjects they also
00:12:14.500 cover as journalists, endorses political candidates or causes, takes part in demonstrations, signs
00:12:20.440 petitions, does public relations work, fundraisers, and makes financial contributions.
00:12:25.720 Okay, right off the bat, this would obviously disqualify Rosemary Barton and the CBC, who used 0.98
00:12:30.980 CBC resources to sue the Conservative Party in her feud with them last election.
00:12:36.080 And that's working towards a desired outcome, that's legal stuff, obviously those foreign 1.00
00:12:40.400 government media break this rule too, but it's a weird rule, that legal thing, that crowd
00:12:45.760 funding thing, what does crowd funding civil liberties lawyers have to do with covering
00:12:49.720 a federal election?
00:12:51.720 We've crowd funded civil liberties lawyers for over 2,200 Canadians now, I think you know,
00:12:56.780 and we do not discriminate between Conservatives or Liberals or NDPers, we don't even ask,
00:13:01.140 we don't even care, we don't ask people their race or their religion or anything, working
00:13:05.460 with a registered charity, we crowd fund civil liberties lawyers for people.
00:13:09.820 How on earth is that even relevant as a reason for keeping our reporters out of a room where
00:13:14.700 the media gather to watch a political debate?
00:13:16.580 What's that got to do with that?
00:13:18.420 And what about this part?
00:13:19.860 Writes opinion pieces about subjects they also cover as journalists, endorse political candidates
00:13:24.120 or causes.
00:13:25.000 That's every single opinion journalist in Canada.
00:13:27.760 That's Rosemary Barton, obviously. 1.00
00:13:29.100 That's every newspaper, that's, I mean, every newspaper in Canada makes editorial endorsements.
00:13:35.440 The other journalists on the debate panel, Evan Solomon, Mercedes Stevenson, they express
00:13:39.820 opinions on the news all the time.
00:13:41.540 I happen to like those two reporters actually.
00:13:43.860 Mercedes has strong opinions about the military and veterans.
00:13:47.240 I like her opinions by the way, but it's a laugh to think that they would actually keep
00:13:52.180 our journalists out because of our opinions, but they got around that in a sneaky way.
00:13:58.740 How do they let their journalists in with opinions?
00:14:00.960 Well, any journalist who is already part of Trudeau's Parliamentary Press Gallery is
00:14:05.740 exempt for that reason alone.
00:14:07.280 Let me quote.
00:14:08.740 Any media representative who is a member of the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery would
00:14:13.300 automatically be eligible for accreditation.
00:14:17.340 Upon review of the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery's membership requirements, the commission
00:14:21.280 has determined that it will accredit members of the Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery.
00:14:25.580 This is because they cover Canadian politics as a regular part of their activity, and the
00:14:29.160 Canadian Parliamentary Press Gallery has published a white paper which recognizes the principles
00:14:33.300 of responsible and ethical journalism, including the absence of conflict of interest as defined
00:14:37.640 by the CAJ and other journalism and professional media organizations.
00:14:41.660 Okay, but we at Rebel News cover news and politics regularly, and the weird test I just
00:14:47.560 read to you about not having political opinions, that's clearly not the rule of the Parliamentary
00:14:52.240 Press Gallery.
00:14:53.740 I mean, if you scroll through these names of the Parliamentary Press Gallery, you can see
00:14:57.160 plenty of opinion journalists in there.
00:14:58.860 David Akin, Joan Bryden, Susan Delacarte, John Ibbotson, John Ibbotson, John Ibbotson.
00:15:05.060 Ibbotson actually has a whole opinion book about Trudeau.
00:15:08.040 He wrote a pro-Trudeau book in the last election.
00:15:10.180 But since he has the right opinions, he wasn't prosecuted for it by Elections Canada, and he's
00:15:16.440 not banned from the debates.
00:15:18.020 Carl Narenberg, he writes for a hard left-wing union propaganda rag called Rabble.ca.
00:15:23.940 Althea Raj, she wrote a loving book about Trudeau.
00:15:27.020 She's his official biographer.
00:15:28.400 So they're brought in by this weird rule that you can't have any opinions, you can't endorse
00:15:36.440 candidates unless you're a member of Trudeau's Parliamentary Press Gallery.
00:15:40.280 Now, I'm not sure why opinion journalists should be excluded from the elections at all.
00:15:44.020 Anyway, why would that make sense?
00:15:46.360 Opinion journalism is obviously a form of journalism.
00:15:49.160 It's just weird.
00:15:50.080 But it would obviously keep out half the journalists on Parliament Hill, so they just exempt them
00:15:54.640 all by saying if you're already in Trudeau's Press Gallery, you're fine.
00:15:57.960 Even foreign state broadcasters, but if you're not already on Trudeau's Friends list, you're
00:16:03.340 not allowed to have editorial opinions.
00:16:04.820 And just in case that doesn't stop us, you're not allowed to be involved with someone who
00:16:08.540 uses crowdfunding to help poor people afford civil liberties lawyers because reasons.
00:16:15.880 Now, there's only one reason here.
00:16:17.980 They're afraid of being asked real questions, and so they've tried to draft this in a way
00:16:22.120 to ban Rebel News and Rebel News only.
00:16:24.380 Normally, this wouldn't just be appalling to us.
00:16:29.280 It would be an affront to all journalists.
00:16:31.940 Since when does the government get to decide who is a journalist and who isn't?
00:16:34.900 Since when does the government get to decide who can even report on a campaign debate?
00:16:38.420 By the way, the CAJ, I mentioned that since for Canadian Association of Journalists.
00:16:43.440 See, the government is trying to pawn this ban Rebel News decision off on them.
00:16:48.420 But if you click on the link to the CAJ statement that was selectively quoted by Trudeau's
00:16:53.900 handpicked commission, it says this, and I'm going to quote at length.
00:16:56.720 The CAJ also supported Rebel News' access to the federal leadership debates in 2019 because
00:17:04.840 the Leaders' Debate Commission was not transparent in its accreditation process and waited until
00:17:09.460 the last business day to issue its decision and had no appeal process.
00:17:14.220 Further, we objected to a government body using the Canadian Association of Journalist Ethics
00:17:18.720 guidelines to try to define who is a journalist.
00:17:21.300 Indeed, journalism in Canada is not a licensed profession.
00:17:26.340 There is no industry-accrediting body, such as a College of Physicians or a Law Society,
00:17:31.180 as is the case for lawyers.
00:17:33.200 Nevertheless, in Canada, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms provides a constitutional guarantee
00:17:37.700 for the freedom of expression, which ensures the ability to express ideas freely.
00:17:41.980 So they are literally saying their own rules do not decide who is a journalist and who isn't.
00:17:48.020 They specifically say there is no rule for who is a journalist and who isn't.
00:17:53.640 And they specifically said they wanted us in last time, and they object to the government
00:17:58.140 saying that these are rules for who's a journalist and who's not.
00:18:02.420 I wonder what the Canadian Association of Journalists has to say about the government using them as
00:18:06.320 an excuse to keep us up.
00:18:08.600 I wonder what they think about every other Trudeau journalist who has opinions, who is an advocate,
00:18:14.620 being exempted from the do-you-have-opinions test.
00:18:17.480 I wonder what they think about the really weird rule that you can't come to a debate
00:18:22.300 if, in a different place, on a different subject, you crowdfund civil liberties lawyers for people
00:18:27.660 in unrelated matters.
00:18:28.640 That's just made up.
00:18:29.800 That's the Rebel News poison pill that Trudeau put in there.
00:18:32.920 I wonder what they'd say about all this, but I'm going to guess they'll say nothing.
00:18:37.820 Because if you look through the CAJ board of directors, you'll see that almost every one of them works for a company
00:18:46.400 that takes Trudeau's media bailout money and likely took the $61 million top-up just last month.
00:18:54.240 But hey, look at the bright side.
00:18:58.260 If Trudeau really, really, really wants to stop Rebel News from reporting on them,
00:19:03.260 it sounds like we're doing something right.
00:19:06.160 I'll keep you posted on this, by the way.
00:19:08.680 I promise you we won't let it slide.
00:19:10.460 But in the meantime, if you want more of the journalism that Trudeau hates,
00:19:16.400 visit realreporters.ca to learn about what we're doing and to help us out.
00:19:22.900 Thanks.
00:19:23.340 Thanks.
00:19:46.400 Those were shocking scenes from the Kabul airport, the capital of Afghanistan.
00:20:04.520 Both Western nationals, Americans, Brits, Canadians, etc., scrambling to get out of the capital city,
00:20:11.380 but also thousands, maybe tens of thousands of local Afghans who have worked closely with the Western allies these 20 years.
00:20:21.240 As I mentioned yesterday, the median age of an Afghan is a teenager, 18 and a half years old.
00:20:29.400 So most Afghans have grown up their entire life under a sort of Western protectorate that collapsed so quickly.
00:20:38.060 What will happen to the people on the ground?
00:20:40.800 And what should Justin Trudeau do?
00:20:44.180 Joining us now to talk about this is someone who's been to Afghanistan as a veteran, as a soldier.
00:20:50.060 I'm talking about our friend T. Lee Humphrey, the boss of James International Security Consulting.
00:20:55.280 Lee, great to see you again.
00:20:56.900 Welcome.
00:20:57.620 I wonder if you could start by sharing with us some personal reflections, if you felt like sharing them,
00:21:03.040 on places that you know and places that you fought to free, now returning to the hands of the Taliban.
00:21:09.060 Yeah, so, you know, I spent well over a year as the head of the private security force that protected the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.
00:21:20.200 And then while working for an engineering firm that was doing infrastructure projects throughout the country,
00:21:27.020 I was blessed to visit the south, the north, Kandahar, Kabul, or Kandahar, Helmand, Mazia Sharif, you name it.
00:21:37.540 I got around the country and then, again, working for that same country in the past years, places like the Salang Tunnel,
00:21:46.920 going back into Kandahar to an old Canadian forward operating base called Frontenac,
00:21:52.620 and working on a dam project that the Canadians began and U.S. Corps of Army Engineers finished.
00:22:01.220 So I've been blessed by not only working in the big cities, but also getting out into the rural districts
00:22:08.620 and seeing the differences and meeting vastly different types of Afghans from all parts of that country.
00:22:16.900 And it's incredibly sad.
00:22:20.180 I've been snowed under with phone calls, texts, emails over the last two weeks seeking help
00:22:26.480 and reminding me of some of the conversations I had.
00:22:30.460 I think the saddest I can share with Canadians was I got particularly close to a gentleman 1.00
00:22:36.940 who was a driver fixer for me for many, many years.
00:22:40.440 And I went to his wedding, and when his first child was born, he allowed me as the first Westerner
00:22:47.080 to hold that young daughter because he knew I had two daughters.
00:22:51.600 And we had talked about my daughters and fatherhood and the responsibilities of that many times.
00:22:59.720 And he reminded me that I told him at the time that his daughter could now have the same opportunities as mine.
00:23:08.180 And she's 12 now, and he reminded me again that there's no hope for her to have those opportunities
00:23:15.880 and how disappointed he is.
00:23:18.180 And I'm gutted, literally gutted.
00:23:22.020 Wow.
00:23:22.540 Well, I appreciate you sharing that story, and thank you for correcting me about you went there as a contractor.
00:23:27.580 But that's probably how a lot of people are there now because, if I'm not mistaken,
00:23:31.620 the official Canadian Armed Forces mission there ended in 2014, if I'm not mistaken.
00:23:38.860 Obviously, there's a lot of security work going on.
00:23:41.640 That would be people like yourself, NGOs, private companies, private aid agencies.
00:23:48.160 So even though the official military mission ended seven years ago,
00:23:51.500 there's probably a lot of Canadians still on the ground.
00:23:53.480 Is that right?
00:23:53.940 Yeah, there was working in the private security sector, working for NGOs, working in mentorship programs.
00:24:02.620 There was a Canadian that had been hired to institute and run the Afghan tax system,
00:24:08.960 which was literally based on our GST system.
00:24:13.380 There was a large Canadian expatriate community in Afghanistan over the years.
00:24:19.740 There was mostly idealistic Canadians that truly believed in women's rights, human rights,
00:24:28.880 and the effort that was being put forward by the international community
00:24:34.900 to bring Afghanistan into the 21st century in every way possible.
00:24:39.720 Now, the U.S. Embassy in Kabul was very large and very fortified because, of course, the U.S. was the dominant Western force there.
00:24:50.620 How big would the Canadian Embassy and its affiliated buildings and offices be?
00:24:58.340 Would it be large or would it be, like, was it an independent structure?
00:25:02.540 Or was it near the U.S. Embassy?
00:25:04.740 How many Canadians would have been there as recently as a week ago, let's say?
00:25:11.180 So it's a fairly large compound with several structures inside the compound.
00:25:16.960 And then the compound walls were about 12 feet high and topped with razor wire,
00:25:23.020 like most compounds in Kabul occupied by Westerners.
00:25:27.660 The mission itself had anywhere between 100 and 125 people.
00:25:34.180 It may have drawn down over the last month as things were getting a little bit dicey in the southern provinces.
00:25:42.860 It had a 100-man Gurkha guard force.
00:25:45.040 These are ex-British Army Gurkhas that come from Nepal.
00:25:48.960 I also had, when I was in charge of the U.S. Embassy, I had about 350 of them.
00:25:57.460 I was happy to see them getting off planes today in Nepal safely.
00:26:02.780 Unfortunately, the Canadian Embassy left their guard force behind.
00:26:07.660 Why, I don't know, but they're now struggling to get out.
00:26:12.060 So, you know, the Canadian Embassy could have drawn down from its peak of about 125 people.
00:26:18.880 But my guess is there's probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 40 to 60 Canadian citizens still left in Kabul,
00:26:29.240 unable to get to the airport at this point.
00:26:31.840 Wow.
00:26:32.200 Now, the Gurkhas, of course, they have a very long tradition of this kind of loyal service to,
00:26:37.380 I mean, the United Kingdom, of course, and it's, I didn't know that they were guarding the Canadian Embassy.
00:26:43.660 Those are very special people who throughout the decades, even centuries, I think,
00:26:48.480 have been amongst the toughest and the best fighters for the West.
00:26:53.080 I'm startled to hear that we've left them behind.
00:26:56.200 They're not, I mean, what do you think is happening to them?
00:27:00.600 They would surely have been, they would be identifiable ethnically if they're Nepalese.
00:27:05.540 They'd probably look and they're probably scoped out and ID'd by local informants.
00:27:11.820 Like, where would they physically be?
00:27:13.860 I didn't know that they would be left behind.
00:27:17.640 What do you think is happening to them right now, even?
00:27:20.080 Well, they had a compound of their own where they lived when they weren't on shift at the embassy
00:27:28.860 that was run by the private security company that they work for.
00:27:34.180 And so, you know, I can only surmise that once the embassy was abandoned,
00:27:40.040 that they simply moved back to their own compound and left to their own devices.
00:27:46.380 Their private security company would have been trying to get an evacuation plane
00:27:50.900 into Hamid Karzai International Airport, soon to be renamed, I would imagine.
00:27:57.780 But those planes were shut down on Saturday.
00:28:02.760 And then the few commercial flights that were still already in Kabul were let go.
00:28:08.820 And the U.S. military on Sunday took over control of the airspace.
00:28:12.720 So they would, I would assume, the Nepalese government will be reaching out to the Americans
00:28:18.620 or, more importantly, probably to the British, because of their distinct connection,
00:28:24.760 their historical connection to the British government, and asking for support to get them out.
00:28:30.840 Now, they're well armed, but they would have to negotiate with the Taliban.
00:28:34.500 And so far, it's my understanding that the Taliban is allowing expatriates
00:28:41.680 and third country nationals who are working for expatriates
00:28:45.760 through their checkpoints into the airport.
00:28:48.660 So there's a chance, and I think a fairly good chance, that they can get out
00:28:54.400 if they can get the British or the Americans to fly them to Frankfurt.
00:29:00.780 Yeah. Now, you mentioned expats or third country nationals.
00:29:05.380 So that would be like Brits, Canadians, Americans, and Nepalese, other folks.
00:29:10.260 But that would, your choice of language suggests that would obviously not cover
00:29:14.920 Afghan nationals, Afghan citizens, who, like your driver-fixer-interpreter, 1.00
00:29:21.900 you know, spent years helping you and helping the West.
00:29:24.720 So such a person would not likely be allowed to get from their house to the airport to get out.
00:29:32.400 Am I right in that assumption?
00:29:34.720 That's correct. Right now, the Taliban are, anybody that's at the airport already, likely evacuated.
00:29:44.680 Those that are stuck in Kabul, whether they're in safe houses, whatever,
00:29:50.360 the chance of them getting through the checkpoints that have been set up by the Taliban at the airport
00:29:58.060 are pretty slim, and getting slimmer by the day.
00:30:01.900 And the Americans, at this point, not carried out any incursions into Kabul to pick up their citizens.
00:30:10.160 They are negotiating with the Taliban in an effort to arrange convoys to pick up American citizens,
00:30:15.640 Americans, but not local nationals.
00:30:19.360 Very interesting.
00:30:20.680 Let me talk to you about Justin Trudeau, because this Afghan mission,
00:30:27.080 obviously I'm nowhere near as familiar with it as you are,
00:30:29.880 but it seems to me that it was the largest Canadian mission really in a generation.
00:30:35.180 The grand total number of Canadians who went to Afghanistan over the years,
00:30:42.620 I understand it's about 40,000.
00:30:45.120 At any one time, there was over 2,000 at its height.
00:30:48.260 Very, very major.
00:30:50.080 Canada lost over 150 men and women there,
00:30:53.700 so we paid a large price in proportion to our population.
00:30:57.300 The money, the effort, the goodwill, the hopes.
00:31:03.160 And on the day Kabul was falling,
00:31:07.400 instead of huddling with his defense minister and transport minister and others
00:31:12.900 to at least try and extract our friends and allies and our nationals, 1.00
00:31:17.580 Trudeau walked down to the governor general and said,
00:31:20.440 hey, I got nothing better to do right now.
00:31:22.560 Let's call an election.
00:31:23.660 Like, the day it fell, he was not interested in briefings or decisions.
00:31:29.740 He was going to get his election called.
00:31:32.180 I find that stunning.
00:31:34.660 I mean, listen, Joe Biden's the big dog.
00:31:36.660 America's the big country.
00:31:37.880 But we were, we punched above our weight and we left 158 people.
00:31:44.740 We lost 158 people in the mission.
00:31:47.000 And Trudeau, it's like it never happened.
00:31:48.780 What do you make of all that?
00:31:52.220 It's incredible.
00:31:53.020 I don't know how to describe the indifference that Mr. Trudeau shows
00:31:58.120 towards those still there, those we made promises to,
00:32:04.360 and to the veterans community and those still serving,
00:32:08.580 who have to bear the brunt of these choices.
00:32:12.760 And I mean, British Prime Minister Johnson called a COBRA meeting,
00:32:18.620 which is his emergency crisis committee.
00:32:20.580 U.S. President Biden was receiving hourly briefings at Camp David
00:32:25.740 that outlined what was happening minute by minute on the ground.
00:32:31.000 Prime Minister Trudeau sought to call an unnecessary election
00:32:35.880 to, you know, to fulfill his egotistical requirements
00:32:40.680 for a return to a majority when he thinks that it's, you know,
00:32:45.420 an opportunity to do so.
00:32:46.880 He seriously could have waited a day and held emergency meetings and made announcements
00:32:56.560 about what Canada was doing to support those still there
00:33:01.120 and to evacuate our former colleagues that put their lives on the line so many times,
00:33:06.880 both for our military and for our embassy and for our private sector,
00:33:11.940 to both protect them, support them, and their families as well.
00:33:20.820 And I don't know, it's, sometimes, rarely, as if you ever talk to my wife, do words fail me,
00:33:29.500 but I just have nothing to describe what he's done and how indifferent he's acting,
00:33:36.980 even during the election, to the ongoing, ongoing crisis in Afghanistan,
00:33:42.500 as well as the fires in B.C.
00:33:45.300 And, I mean, there's so much in this country that needs the attention of our Prime Minister
00:33:51.300 and his cabinet and our security officials, and he's out talking about daycare.
00:33:58.360 Well, the fact that he's not in these meetings, not having any meetings, is stunning to me.
00:34:02.580 Now, you told me just before we went live that in the 2019 election,
00:34:07.640 and I don't know if I knew this, but you reminded me, you said that there was another incredibly,
00:34:16.200 I don't know if malicious is the right word, but inappropriate.
00:34:20.380 Insensitive.
00:34:21.080 Tell me when Trudeau called the election last time, because I don't think I knew this.
00:34:27.100 9-11-2019.
00:34:29.420 So, instead of going to commemorative events, which Andrew Scheer did,
00:34:34.600 Trudeau walked to the General, Governor General's office with his wife and beautiful family
00:34:40.580 and asked, you know, for the election to be called.
00:34:44.840 Once again, he could have waited a day, he could have waited towards the end of the day
00:34:49.580 after the ceremonies, but he did it at 11 o'clock, 10 o'clock, I think, in the morning,
00:34:57.600 which is when the commemorative ceremonies were being held for the Twin Towers moment.
00:35:02.680 Yeah, that's incredible.
00:35:03.440 You know, earlier in the show, I played a clip of Trudeau telling that veteran in Edmonton
00:35:09.320 that veterans were asking more than we can give.
00:35:11.840 This is from the guy who gave $10.5 million in a public apology to Omar Khadr, the al-Qaeda terrorist.
00:35:18.800 I want to play for you a strange clip from today.
00:35:21.480 And, Leah, by the way, I appreciate you staying so long with us here.
00:35:24.640 I won't keep you much longer.
00:35:25.960 But Trudeau did mention that he took a phone call on the Afghan subject, and I thought that
00:35:33.320 was interesting because it was fairly clear that Joe Biden has not been in touch with Justin Trudeau.
00:35:40.600 I suppose, why would he?
00:35:41.400 But the person who Trudeau spoke with, I thought, was very unusual because she is not part of the administration.
00:35:49.220 I don't know if she has security clearance anymore.
00:35:51.720 I don't know what her intel is, but Trudeau was pretty excited about it.
00:35:56.480 Here's a quick clip of Trudeau today boasting, I think, about a phone call with Hillary Clinton.
00:36:03.120 I also spoke last night with former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who shares our concern
00:36:10.380 for Afghan women and girls.
00:36:12.640 She welcomed our efforts and urged Canada to continue our work.
00:36:17.720 Governments, international organizations, and civil society must continue to work together
00:36:23.220 to support women and girls in Afghanistan.
00:36:26.780 The Afghan people need the world to stand with them.
00:36:29.940 And that is what Canada will continue to do.
00:36:34.260 I don't even know what that means, Lee.
00:36:36.920 I mean, first of all, Hillary Clinton has not been the Secretary of State for five years.
00:36:41.460 She's not involved in the Biden administration.
00:36:43.280 She obviously wasn't involved in the Trump administration.
00:36:45.700 So, I don't know, maybe she's the only one who would answer his call.
00:36:48.920 But what is he even saying with, we're going to stand with Afghan women and girls,
00:36:53.300 and we're going to be there, and that's what we're going to do?
00:36:55.400 Do what?
00:36:57.040 How?
00:36:58.360 With the Taliban?
00:37:00.760 I can't even believe what I was listening to there.
00:37:02.980 What do you make of that?
00:37:04.640 Yeah, the first thing that went through my mind when he mentioned that he called Secretary,
00:37:11.700 former Secretary Clinton, and I could tell you a story about her visit to the embassy
00:37:17.160 that's a totally separate thing, but something else.
00:37:22.180 And the only thing I could think of, and the first thing that ran through my mind was he was calling to say,
00:37:28.260 you so badly shot Benghazi and got a bunch of people killed and managed to survive politically.
00:37:33.660 What do I do?
00:37:34.440 Huh.
00:37:35.860 Yeah, you're right.
00:37:37.060 You know, the Benghazi attack and the warnings in advance and the pleas for help,
00:37:42.620 there's a real analogy that she ignored the intel, she didn't really care about them,
00:37:48.720 and there were brave people on the ground until the very end.
00:37:52.240 And you're right, she did survive that.
00:37:54.400 You know what?
00:37:54.840 That's probably why he called her.
00:37:57.380 She doesn't know how to protect the U.S. military. 1.00
00:38:01.060 She doesn't know how to protect U.S. interests. 1.00
00:38:03.180 She doesn't know how to nation build, only nation wreck. 1.00
00:38:06.280 But the one thing she does know is how to skate through a scandal that she caused. 1.00
00:38:10.480 Incredible.
00:38:11.800 Well, listen, I really appreciate it.
00:38:13.340 Go ahead.
00:38:13.740 Sorry.
00:38:15.200 No, I just said there it is.
00:38:16.320 That's it exactly.
00:38:17.120 She knows how to spin her way out of crisis after crisis. 0.96
00:38:22.380 Well, you know what?
00:38:23.340 I find this deeply troubling.
00:38:24.760 It's as if the great expenditure of blood and treasure that Canada made to secure goals,
00:38:31.960 whatever those goals were, whether it was to stamp out a terrorist threat,
00:38:36.840 whether it was to get bin Laden, whether it was to improve the life of women and girls,
00:38:41.700 whatever those goals are, it feels extinguished and so brutally
00:38:46.820 and in a way that sets back the moral authority of the West.
00:38:50.420 I'm not saying we should have had a forever war there,
00:38:52.440 but the way in which the Allies were driven out,
00:38:56.620 it truly is reminiscent of what happened in Saigon almost 50 years ago.
00:39:01.620 I feel sad that that is how it ends.
00:39:05.340 I don't know.
00:39:05.900 Do you have any – what do you think the reverberations of this will be?
00:39:09.740 I mean, a lot of people are surely watching.
00:39:11.460 China, Russia, Iran, North Korea.
00:39:14.160 I think they're trying to get a measure of the West.
00:39:15.840 I think it's a terrible message they're receiving right now.
00:39:19.960 You've nailed it.
00:39:21.140 And in fact, Pakistan has been heavily involved in supporting the Taliban,
00:39:27.260 both with training, equipment, money, intelligence, services, transportation.
00:39:32.560 And a great deal of that is funded by China,
00:39:36.300 who very, very much and have been trying for a decade to get into Afghanistan
00:39:41.140 to obtain mineral rights and raw material, raw resources from another source.
00:39:46.760 And so when you talk about geopolitical reverberations right now, North Korea is one.
00:39:55.020 But I would say the people of Taiwan are probably the most in shock right now
00:39:59.160 and the most in fear about what Biden would actually do to protect their interests
00:40:05.280 and their freedom and democracy should China decide in the next year or two
00:40:10.060 to physically take those islands back or to embargo those islands
00:40:15.400 or somehow close their airspace, naval space, things like that.
00:40:20.680 Because the U.S. just demonstrated, at least under a Biden administration,
00:40:25.140 they will not stand with our friends.
00:40:27.560 The people in Ukraine are probably wondering what level of support they can expect
00:40:31.960 in the near future if Russia amasses troops on their border as they did earlier this spring.
00:40:37.740 And so we'll have to wait and see.
00:40:41.420 But my expectation is that our enemies have been emboldened,
00:40:45.880 our friends are terrified, and the Afghans are going to die horribly. 1.00
00:40:52.800 Well, it's bad news all around.
00:40:54.180 I'm sorry to hear it, but I appreciate you spending so much time with us
00:40:56.600 and sharing your personal experiences.
00:40:58.360 Thanks so much, Lee.
00:40:59.840 Thank you, Ezra.
00:41:00.980 All right, there you have it, T. Lee Humphrey.
00:41:02.440 Very interesting personal remembrances from his time in Afghanistan
00:41:06.980 and some wise lessons to learn as well.
00:41:09.860 Stay with us.
00:41:10.500 More ahead.
00:41:23.580 Hey, welcome back.
00:41:24.740 On my show last night, Paul writes,
00:41:26.420 Well, I'm not going to compare Democrats with murderous terrorists.
00:41:37.100 I know that the liberals do that.
00:41:39.220 They often compare Trump supporters or pro-life Christians to the Taliban
00:41:44.840 because they're trying to smear them.
00:41:46.620 I generally don't get into that because there's not an equivalent.
00:41:50.520 The Taliban are murderers.
00:41:52.180 They don't just have a religious view.
00:41:55.040 They're murderous.
00:41:56.240 They have a view on violence.
00:41:58.560 So I understand the joke you're going for there,
00:42:01.420 but I'm going to disagree with you.
00:42:03.120 Well, my friends, that's the show for today.
00:42:05.300 And as you know, for the duration of the campaign,
00:42:07.780 we're making our monologues and interviews available to the public at large.
00:42:11.320 We want to spread our news and views as far as possible.
00:42:15.400 If you want to learn more about our election plans and support us,
00:42:18.020 please go to realreporters.ca.
00:42:20.740 That's the show for today.
00:42:21.640 Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us, to you at home,
00:42:24.840 good night and keep fighting for freedom.