Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ Liberal MP calls for kidnapping a conservative rival — and Mark Carney is fine with it

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00:01:08.700 Tonight, a liberal MP calls for the kidnapping of a conservative rival and Mark Carney's fine with

00:01:16.260 it. It's March 31st, and this is the Ezra Levant Show.

00:01:22.680 Shame on you, you censorious bug.

00:01:35.380 Ezra Levant here. I'm in Georgetown in the Halton Hills area. Where is that? About an hour away

00:01:40.460 from our office in Toronto. We came here on very short notice. I didn't wear an appropriate winter

00:01:46.960 gear, and it's pretty chilly out, but we're here because we were told that Mark Carney, the installed,

00:01:54.100 selected prime minister, was having an event at the St. George pub, and indeed it was. We came here,

00:02:01.280 and there's a lineup outside. I asked some people questions. Why are you here? Obviously,

00:02:06.260 they're Liberal Party stalwarts on the list, who would have been given last-minute notice, just like

00:02:13.640 we received. Many of them were severely normal people, very friendly. I asked some of them what

00:02:20.560 they liked about Mark Carney. The answers were pretty vague. One or two people said it was his

00:02:26.760 command of economics. That's a fair answer. Others said his values, but when I pressed them,

00:02:33.060 they couldn't really list any. Some people said voting Liberal was a family tradition.

00:02:38.760 Here's some of those friendlier responses to my questions in the lineup outside in the Colts.

00:02:44.300 And what's the number one issue? So you're Liberals because that's your tribe and that's

00:02:48.120 your tradition, but is there something in particular you like about him? Yeah, economics. I've looked for

00:02:52.540 somebody that was competent all along. I like Trudeau because I thought he would listen to experts.

00:02:57.660 I like Mark because he is an expert. And how about yourself? And again, it was only a compliment,

00:03:01.800 but you did look young enough that maybe you've never voted. Is there a particular issue or is it

00:03:06.880 just sort of the family way? I think there are a lot of issues. I think this will probably be the

00:03:11.200 most important election. Why is that? I mean, I agree, but maybe we have different reasons. Why do

00:03:16.160 you think it's important? I think that with the way the states is going, there's a lack of compassion

00:03:23.560 for other people. And I don't think that at this time the leader of the Conservatives feels that

00:03:28.720 compassion. I don't think he relates to many Canadians. And so I don't think he feels that

00:03:32.580 way. And that's important to me. Last question. And you've been very generous with your time.

00:03:37.920 Who do you prefer? Justin Trudeau or Mark Carney?

00:03:43.240 Carney.

00:03:45.200 Well, I like Mark, I think. For his expertise. I have no problem with Trudeau.

00:03:50.000 All right. Well, thanks for talking with me, you guys. Hi. What brings you up today?

00:03:53.340 Oh, I came to see Mark Carney. Oh, yeah. Well, fair enough. And

00:03:57.360 right here. Are you from town here? No, Campbellville. Oh, yeah. So how long a drive is that?

00:04:02.580 Half hour. Okay. And are you a liberal by nature? I have been since the Trudeau years. I was brought

00:04:09.680 up as a conservative. Oh, really? So when did you switch? Harper. Oh, so you switched away from

00:04:16.400 the Conservatives on Harper? Yeah. So you were a Justin Trudeau gal? I was a Justin Trudeau.

00:04:20.560 Yeah. Yeah. Looks like you're almost in, so I don't want to take up too much of your time. But

00:04:24.600 if there was one reason other than sort of tradition and habit, one reason you like Mark

00:04:30.100 Carney, what would it be? It's to stand up to Trump. That's my big, biggest issue, standing up to

00:04:36.340 Trump. Now, Trump tweeted something unusual the other day. He tweeted that he sort of prefers Carney

00:04:41.560 being the PM. And I didn't understand that. I didn't believe that. So you think that was like

00:04:44.840 disinformation? I had an argument with my neighbor who thinks that that's true. And I don't. I think

00:04:50.140 that's just Trump. Trump just throwing it out there to mess up things. But no. So a little

00:04:55.100 bit of chaos. Yeah. I don't think that he really wants to deal with Carney. And I think he knows

00:05:00.540 that he's got Poliev. He's under his thumb. Yeah. I think Poliev would, I think he'd sell our country off.

00:05:13.140 In what way? What's your fear? Thinking he can deal with Trump and make trades on things. I think

00:05:22.360 he'd sell off our resources, our water, things like that. My boy here is excited to meet the

00:05:28.200 prime minister. Yes, I'm really excited. And why are you excited to meet him? Because I've never had an

00:05:34.040 opportunity like this before. And I'm just really excited to meet him. And what will you say to him

00:05:39.380 if you meet him? Just welcome to Georgetown. Are you from around here? Yeah. And what are you hoping

00:05:46.400 that he does as a prime minister? Just everything that we were asking for. Are you a student in

00:05:53.320 school? What grade are you in? I'm in grade six. Oh, yeah. Well, good for you for coming to a political

00:05:57.420 event. Is that your dad or your grandpa? Okay. Well, good luck. Thanks for talking with me. Cheers.

00:06:01.700 Are you a liberal already? Or are you just checking out the merchandise? I'm a liberal.

00:06:05.420 And are you excited about Mark Carney? Yeah. Yeah. What do you like about him?

00:06:12.260 He's a banker. He's sensible. You like bankers. That's a first. I never heard that.

00:06:19.180 I like his policies, what he's outlined so far. I am here to support him. The liberals are doing

00:06:29.940 very good since a long time. They are good for the Canadians. They are good for the people of Canada.

00:06:36.280 They take care for them. Even internationally, they take care for everybody. Can I ask what you like

00:06:42.420 about Mark Carney? Well, Mark Carney seems to be a pretty nice guy. Like, you know, having a cool head

00:06:48.540 and something like, you know, that can benefit Canada from his experience of whatever the education

00:06:58.240 he has, whatever the experience he has, like, you know, working with top banks in the world,

00:07:04.600 top economists, like, you know. But are you worried about the fact that he's not really connected to

00:07:09.860 Canada? I mean, he only came back a few weeks ago. He's been in Europe for 10 years. Do you think

00:07:15.160 he really understands the plight of ordinary Canadians? Yeah, but he was always connected with

00:07:19.280 the liberal government. Like, you know, he was always there. Like, so it's not like that he's just

00:07:24.900 a fresh guy coming into the politics here. Like, you know. So I think so that he will be good for

00:07:32.680 Canada. Like, you know. So tell me, are you a liberal by tradition? Or are you just here to check out

00:07:39.120 the liberals for the first time? Are you part of the party? No, by tradition. What do you like most

00:07:45.140 about Mark Carney? I like his values. Give me one value that you like. I'm not trying to put you on

00:07:55.000 the spot. I'm just trying to learn what you like about him. I don't want to impress you if I'm making

00:07:59.180 you nervous. He's a good speaker. He's a good speaker. Okay. Well, I had some prickly questions,

00:08:03.640 too. And before I get into it, let me tell you the background. There's a liberal member of parliament

00:08:08.380 from Markham, which is part of the greater Toronto area. He was actually, he's a Chinese Canadian,

00:08:15.300 but he was born in Pakistan. So I guess that makes him a Pakistani Chinese Canadian. I don't know,

00:08:22.140 but it won't surprise you to learn that such a man was given a prominent role in the DEI policing

00:08:28.180 efforts in the greater Toronto area. He speaks many languages. And of course, he's friendly with

00:08:34.260 Pakistani people and Chinese people and hopefully Canadian people. And apparently he served for

00:08:40.700 about a quarter century as a cop. And then he ran to be a liberal PM. So far, so normal. But a couple

00:08:48.600 of days ago, he said the most astonishing thing in Chinese to a Chinese language news conference in

00:08:55.920 the GTA. And he said that he called upon people to kidnap a conservative Chinese Canadian candidate

00:09:07.220 who's active in the Hong Kong freedom movement to kidnap this conservative, take him to the Chinese 0.80

00:09:15.500 consulate where there was a 1 million Hong Kong dollar bounty for him. He didn't say this as a joke.

00:09:22.480 He didn't say this lightly. He said this in a deadly serious way in the Chinese language to the

00:09:30.360 Chinese language media. Just absolutely shocking. And that's not a fiction or a fantasy. There really 1.00

00:09:38.280 is a million Hong Kong dollar bounty for that man. And China has been credibly accused of kidnapping

00:09:47.780 other Canadians who have a track record of standing up against communist China and in some sort of a

00:09:55.560 rendition, taking them back to China. And then there's, of course, the kidnapping of two ethnic

00:10:01.920 Canadian people overseas, the two Michaels, Michael Spavor and the other Michael who were kidnapped and held

00:10:11.700 for years in China. So for a liberal MP to say, go out there and kidnap my opponent and bring him to the

00:10:20.440 Chinese consulate for a million dollars, not a joke, not a spoof, not a riff, a message, a message that does

00:10:27.820 two things. First of all, it might actually cause the man to be kidnapped. Second of all, it terrorizes and

00:10:35.700 terrifies any Chinese Canadians in Canada who resist and oppose the Chinese Communist Party. And third of

00:10:44.180 all, it signals that Mark Carney and the Liberal Party of Canada are in league with the Communist Party

00:10:50.960 of China, which we already know because there are 11 MPs in Parliament who were compromised by Chinese

00:10:58.000 influence in the last election, according to CSIS. And although Mark Carney has refused to disclose his

00:11:03.940 finances, we know from public records that he recently negotiated a $250 million loan from the

00:11:12.300 Chinese government that he recently met with Xi Jinping. Mark Carney has said that China is the

00:11:19.040 future. China is ambitious. China is responsible. One of the many strengths of China is their perspective,

00:11:27.560 the medium-long-term perspective. This is an ambitious G20. It's an ambitious Chinese leadership.

00:11:35.240 What we don't know is what holdings Mark Carney still has that make him exposed to Chinese influencer

00:11:43.020 power, other than, I suppose, a quarter-billion-dollar loan. Now, incredibly, after ignoring the issue for

00:11:50.720 days, the media finally reported on it, the mainstream media, that is. And today, Mark Carney had a press

00:11:58.140 availability, but only for raging media. But to their credit, they asked about this atrocious statement

00:12:04.960 by Mr. Chang. And let me just remind you, if you need reminding, kidnapping is a crime in Canada,

00:12:12.560 one of the most serious crimes. And committing a crime in concert with a foreign power is another 1.00

00:12:20.740 criminal offense as well. I forget the exact name of it. It was actually a fairly recent law

00:12:26.960 passed in the last year or two. So what Mr. Chang did was actually a crime. Here, listen to Mark Carney

00:12:35.880 talk about it as if it was some verbal gaffe, as if it was stumbling over a word or getting something

00:12:43.300 a little bit wrong, a little bit of a whoopsie. Take a listen. In fact, I'm going to play for you

00:12:47.700 about six minutes of Mark Carney making excuses. Here, take a look.

00:12:51.760 The comments were deeply offensive. This is a terrible lapse of judgment by Mr. Chang. He has

00:13:01.560 apologized for those comments. He has apologized directly now to the person that he mentioned.

00:13:11.640 I apologized directly to him yesterday. I've spoken to Mr. Chang as well over the course of the weekend.

00:13:19.140 I understand his position. He is a veteran policeman. Mr. Chang is a veteran policeman with more than a

00:13:28.860 quarter century of service to his community. 28 years of defending rights in this community.

00:13:39.480 And he will continue with his candidacy going forward, having made those apologies very clearly

00:13:47.400 to the individual, to the community, and moving forward to CERF.

00:13:51.940 I should say the conservative candidate has come out and said apologies is not sufficient. And then

00:13:55.780 previous to this, he was speaking with the RCMP about his safety. So I'm just wondering why

00:13:59.800 you feel comfortable continuing with a candidate that was parroting conservative, sorry, I should

00:14:04.320 say Chinese Communist Party talking points to try and attack a political candidate.

00:14:09.560 Look, this is a person of integrity who served this community, his community, as a police, as a senior

00:14:18.340 police officer for, as I said, more than a quarter century. He's made a terrible lapse in judgment.

00:14:24.060 He's made an apology for that. It's also an individual who has family in Hong Kong. He's under no

00:14:31.820 illusions about the situation there, the situation in broader China. He's made those apologies. He's

00:14:38.600 made them directly to the individual concerned. He's made them directly to me. He has my confidence.

00:14:44.000 It's not just opposition parties calling for Mr. Chang's resignation. It's also at least 13 civil society

00:14:50.100 groups. What message are you sending to Canadians who are worried about pressure from China when you

00:14:55.540 allow him to stay on? And how can you critically criticize Pierre Palais for his lack of security

00:15:01.260 clearance when Mr. Chang is considered a worthy candidate? Well, the first thing I can very

00:15:05.560 credibly criticize the leader of the opposition for being at 930 days running and not having his

00:15:11.940 security clearance. I will say as well, in the course of my responsibilities, current responsibility,

00:15:18.700 I didn't do that. That wasn't me. I did manage to cut the piece of wood second time running.

00:15:27.800 Although I was under expert supervision. No, getting back to the serious, these are serious matters.

00:15:33.420 So I appreciate the question. But in the course of my responsibilities, Prime Minister, just yesterday,

00:15:41.220 I received an additional briefing on foreign interference and potential matters related to that.

00:15:48.060 Of course, I can't share any details of that. But it just underscored once again, A, I take my responsibility

00:15:55.080 seriously, but the extent to which a leader of the opposition does not and hasn't for more than three years.

00:16:00.420 In terms of, but to go back to the specifics of your question, this situation.

00:16:07.600 Look, I am deeply offended by those comments. As I said, they're a terrible lapse of judgment.

00:16:15.220 I view this as a teachable moment. It underscores the respect with which we treat human rights in this

00:16:22.320 country, the differences between Canadian society and other countries. This after all, though, I will go back

00:16:30.160 to the character of the individual who made a lapse of judgment. This is someone who has served our

00:16:35.020 community, has been on the front line of policing for almost three decades, and has been standing up

00:16:41.740 for those rights and has that track record for it. He's made his apology. He made it to the public.

00:16:46.600 He made it to the individual concerned, made it directly to me. And he's going to continue with

00:16:52.020 his candidacy. Thank you.

00:16:52.860 I notice multiple GTA area candidates behind you. If you're still standing behind Mr. Chang,

00:17:00.780 why isn't he standing behind you today?

00:17:03.720 He has other responsibilities in his writing. We don't have every, we have multiple, but not every

00:17:12.020 candidate. Mr. Carney, I'd like to press you a little bit more on Paul Chang. He lives in a writing

00:17:20.360 that is 70% diverse, people of color. Half of that are people from Chinese ethnic origin. And of that

00:17:29.620 population, about 20% are from mainland China. The question that people from Hong Kong have asked me to

00:17:39.160 ask is whether or not you are putting appeal to those voters, those voters who may support the

00:17:47.160 policies of China, ahead of the democratic rights and safety of dissidents who have called Canada home,

00:17:55.720 and mainly Hong Kong democracy activists who now live in Mr. Chang's writing.

00:18:02.760 Absolutely not. Absolutely not. Stand Foursquare for rights, Foursquare for

00:18:09.160 our position, our very strong position vis-a-vis China, respect for Canadians and all rights of Canadian

00:18:17.160 citizens, irrespective of whether they hold dual citizenship or not, to be absolutely clear. And Mr. Chang

00:18:25.160 has long history of service to that community, history of protecting those rights. Mr. Chang is well aware of

00:18:33.160 these issues, including having family in Hong Kong. How can he be an effective representative

00:18:41.160 for them when they no longer trust him after he said this? The question, as you know, Mr. Carney,

00:18:47.000 you know that Canada has executed four Canadians this year. China. You know that there are human rights

00:18:53.160 activists in China in detention right now. How can Mr. Chang, how can your party keep him as a candidate,

00:19:01.160 knowing this context? Mr. Chang has apologized for his comments. He's a lapse of judgment.

00:19:07.160 He's apologized for his comments. He's apologized directly to me. He's apologized directly to the individual.

00:19:13.160 He has a long record of service. He's going to continue his candidates.

00:19:17.160 Yeah, no, it's not a teachable moment because you're the student who's supposed to learn the

00:19:23.160 lesson or maybe you're the teacher in this metaphor. I don't know. But when someone calls for a crime to

00:19:28.920 be committed, it's not a teachable moment. It's an arrestable moment. Let me ask you a question.

00:19:34.600 If it had been not Paul Chang, liberal MP and candidate, if it had been a trucker in the convoy in 2022,

00:19:43.800 who had looked in the camera and said, I want you to kidnap

00:19:49.720 and a mayor of Ottawa, or I want you to kidnap an RCMP officer and bring him to me.

00:19:57.160 And if they said it seriously to the camera like that, and if they were talking about it in a way

00:20:01.560 that suggested it was possible. And remember, Mr. Chang is a former police officer. That's what's so

00:20:07.000 astonishing here. He knew what he was saying was illegal. And he said it with the brazen confidence of a

00:20:13.400 man who I suspect has said it many more times than that. For him just to casually say, oh,

00:20:19.800 can you kidnap this guy? To say it in Chinese with utter confidence. Do you really think that's the 0.95

00:20:25.320 first time that Paul Chang has called for the enemies of communist China to be violently treated in

00:20:32.440 this country? I simply don't think so. It makes me wonder what he did in his 25 years as a cop.

00:20:38.040 It makes me wonder how many times and how recently he's been on the phone or visited in person the

00:20:44.440 Chinese consulate. To know that this particular conservative candidate in Toronto that he called

00:20:50.680 to be kidnapped, to know that there was a bounty against him is such an obscure piece of knowledge.

00:20:56.840 Was he briefed on that by the Chinese consulate? Was he working with them? But instead, Mark Carney just

00:21:05.640 says, oh, I was disappointed in him and he apologized and we're moving on from this teachable moment.

00:21:11.160 Well, first of all, Mr. Tay, who was the victim of this proposed kidnapping, has not accepted the apology.

00:21:21.720 And since when do you get to call for a high capital crime and then just say, whoops, I'm sorry.

00:21:29.480 He didn't even say he misspoke. The trouble with what Paul Chang did was that it revealed who he is.

00:21:40.120 It's not actually the words that are the worst part of it. The words are likely a crime.

00:21:44.680 But the words reveal who he has been and who he is. He's someone who does China's bidding in Canada, 0.98

00:21:53.400 not Canada's bidding. He's someone who puts obedience to the Chinese Communist Party ahead of his loyalties 0.73

00:22:00.600 to Canada. Mr. Tay, who was the target, it's not about ethnicity. Both men are ethnic Chinese.

00:22:09.560 One of them is a Canadian. One of them is an instrument for a foreign country.

00:22:13.880 Anyways, I asked a few questions about Mr. Chang. Not surprisingly, the crowd was hostile and didn't

00:22:20.760 have much to say. Here's a taste of that. Do you agree with Mark Carney's decision to

00:22:25.720 allow Paul Chang to stay as a candidate? What do you guys think? Anyone have an opinion on Paul Chang?

00:22:33.720 It's a very serious matter. What do you guys think of Paul Chang staying as a candidate

00:22:40.600 for the Liberals, even though he called for a Conservative to be kidnapped?

00:22:45.640 Do you think that's befitting the Liberal Party that you know and love? Are you worried that

00:22:51.960 maybe he's one of the 11 MPs that were compromised by China?

00:22:54.920 Is it something to laugh about? You're something to laugh about.

00:23:00.200 Well, I mean, Mark Carney wasn't laughing today. He said it was deplorable. Do you agree?

00:23:08.600 Like, why would you laugh about something like that? He called for a rival to be kidnapped and

00:23:13.800 hand over to China. Do you think he was joking? 0.97

00:23:16.040 You don't care, do you?

00:23:22.840 All right, you just keep laughing about it. What do you think about Paul Chang getting the green

00:23:27.400 light to be a candidate, even after asking for people to kidnap someone? Don't you think that's

00:23:31.880 a little... I have no comment on that.

00:23:34.280 How come? Like, how could you not have a comment on the most shocking...

00:23:37.320 Okay, I have no comment that I'm going to share with you.

00:23:39.400 Okay, and why is that? Who will you share it with?

00:23:43.560 Maybe my friends, maybe my family, not with Rebel News.

00:23:46.840 But you're coming here to show your support for the party that has endorsed Paul Chang. Don't

00:23:51.640 you think that's weird?

00:23:52.360 No, I don't think it's weird. A lot of other people are here too. I find it strange that you guys are

00:23:57.400 here, but whatever.

00:23:58.360 Well, I'm here to hear all points of view. That's not weird. It's weird to support someone who believes

00:24:05.480 in kidnapping. Don't you think? Is Mr. Polyev going to get a security clearance? Or where

00:24:10.680 we stand on that? That's a great question. Is that sort of a set off here? If Pierre Polyev gets

00:24:16.040 his security clearance, will you condemn this Chinese agent? Would you do a deal like that? 0.55

00:24:23.080 Because if I said that, he would agree, right? I don't know. I don't know why you raised it.

00:24:27.560 So maybe it's like a set off. Because you're asking me silly questions,

00:24:30.360 so I thought I'd ask you one. You really think it's a silly question? That you have someone 0.98

00:24:34.040 who's calling for the kid? Could you move on? There's a lot

00:24:36.120 of other people online. Sure. I'm trying to understand

00:24:39.000 the liberal thinking here. And so far, it's very hard.

00:24:43.640 All right. Anybody have some thoughts on Paul Chang? What do you think about Paul

00:24:48.120 Chang and that whole situation? I don't know the situation at all. I'm not familiar with it at all.

00:24:52.040 Well, your leader had... I don't know if you're a liberal, but Mark Carney had a press conference

00:24:56.440 today, and he said it was deplorable, but he's keeping Chang as the candidate, even though he said

00:25:01.240 he wanted people to kidnap his conservative opponent. What do you think of that?

00:25:05.960 I don't know. I'm not... I'm not up on what's going on that way. All I know is Mark Carney is

00:25:14.920 the man for the hour. I voted conservative all of my life, and I'm voting liberal for the first time.

00:25:19.080 What made you flip? Because he's the man of the hour. He knows how to handle money.

00:25:25.160 And also, I'm not very high on Pierre Polyev. To me, he's a barking dog. That's it.

00:25:34.040 And what's the number one issue for you? You said managing money, but would you say Donald Trump

00:25:39.480 or the economy? What's the number one thing for you? Both. The economy and Donald Trump.

00:25:45.880 But you did vote for conservatives in the past? All my life. Really? So when did you switch?

00:25:51.000 Uh, when Carney ran. Wow. You like the guy? Uh, he's the best man for the job, hands down.

00:25:57.640 Well, can I ask you an international question? Because there's a candidate in Markham named Paul

00:26:02.360 Chang for the Liberals, who asked for people to kidnap his conservative opponent and hand him over

00:26:08.360 to the Chinese consulate. And I found that shocking. Did you hear about that?

00:26:12.200 Yeah, sometimes some incidents are happening. They should be dealt properly.

00:26:17.960 And do you think that guy should still continue on as a candidate for the Liberals?

00:26:23.240 Uh, it is up to him. He has to decide it by himself.

00:26:27.000 It feels like, you know, that that would be serving China's interest to kidnap someone. 0.87

00:26:32.200 That's not a really Canadian move, is it?

00:26:33.960 They should dealt a party with the law and the information that I have been denied.

00:26:38.920 Do you feel comfortable? What do you think about the Paul Chang situation? Have you been following that at all?

00:26:42.840 No, I'm here with my grandfather and...

00:26:47.080 Oh, good for you. It's family outing.

00:26:48.680 Yes, yes. So, I'm still in the learning phase.

00:26:51.560 Yeah.

00:26:52.120 So, I'm continuing with the articles and the news.

00:26:54.760 Yeah.

00:26:55.240 So, I better not push.

00:26:56.840 Fair enough. Well, thanks for talking with me anyways.

00:26:58.680 That's the right attitude to take.

00:27:00.280 How about you, boss? Do you have any thoughts on Paul Chang?

00:27:02.360 I don't have any. Thanks, Ezra.

00:27:04.520 Okay.

00:27:05.080 Have a great day.

00:27:05.800 Well, thanks very much. You too.

00:27:07.000 Do you guys have any opinions on Paul Chang running as a candidate?

00:27:13.400 Do you know who I'm talking about?

00:27:15.480 Yeah, I know that statement that he gave about, it was a little unfortunate.

00:27:20.040 Maybe he was not in his senses at that time.

00:27:22.680 Do you think it was that minor an incident, just like a hiccup or like a verbal typo?

00:27:28.600 Exactly. Like, you know, you would say a nice, nice word, like, you know, a verbal typo.

00:27:33.880 But that was pretty much it, I think. So, like, not serious to be taken it like that.

00:27:38.120 Yeah.

00:27:38.520 Now, he didn't say it was just a joke. He didn't deny it. I'm worried it represents

00:27:43.880 something deeper. I'm worried he was one of the 11 MPs who were in league with communist China. 0.83

00:27:48.920 Are you not worried about that?

00:27:50.680 No, I'm not really. Like, you know, I think so. It was a light moment that probably...

00:27:55.000 Come on. A kidnapping? How's that light? He wasn't joking. He wasn't laughing when he said it.

00:27:59.800 I think so. He was in a, like, it was in a light mood. That's... I should take it like that,

00:28:05.240 like, you know?

00:28:06.040 I mean, but no one else is taking it like that. The guy who, who he wanted to be kidnapped,

00:28:11.240 he's not laughing. He's, uh, he didn't accept the apology.

00:28:14.840 I, like, you know, I can understand that it's, uh, it's a situation, like,

00:28:19.800 the elections are close by and people are trying to take advantage of anything, like, you know,

00:28:25.720 that comes out of the mouth. But still, like, you know, I would take it light-hearted, like,

00:28:30.280 now. Do you guys have any thoughts about the Paul Chang matter? That's the, the candidate?

00:28:35.400 Not for Rebel News, man. I'm sorry.

00:28:36.600 Not for Rebel News? Why is that? What, what don't you like about Rebel News? I can take it.

00:28:39.880 Not a fan.

00:28:40.680 Why? What? Give, tell me two things we could improve.

00:28:44.280 I'm not, I'm good. You can keep going down the line. I'm good.

00:28:46.920 Come on. You gotta help. You can't say that and then decline my invitation to fix us.

00:28:51.320 I totally can, actually. Yeah.

00:28:52.840 Yeah, obviously they're not going to talk about that. They either claim they didn't hear about it

00:28:56.440 or don't have an opinion. Look, what can you say? I mean, what can you say when your party

00:29:01.480 is now known as the Chinese Collusion Party? Not that these liberals care.

00:29:06.360 Anyways, uh, Mark Carney showed up and, uh, he walked by. I thought I would holler out a question. I knew

00:29:12.040 that he either wouldn't hear me or if he heard me, he wouldn't be distracted by it. I wanted to know,

00:29:16.680 did Paul Chang commit a crime by calling for the kidnapping of a Canadian citizen

00:29:25.240 to suit the interests of a foreign nation? Is that a crime? I hollered it a couple times. Here's me 0.77

00:29:31.960 projecting. Did Paul Chang commit a crime? Mr. Carney, did Mr. Chang commit a crime? Did Paul

00:29:42.680 Chang commit a crime? Mr. Carney, did Paul Chang commit a crime?

00:29:51.400 I'm just vocalizing. I'm, I'm, I'm projecting. No surprise. I had no answer, but at least I put the

00:29:58.920 question to the air and the, the wall of police who were standing in front of me. Let me give you

00:30:05.080 some final thoughts from the location of the St. George pub. Um, it's a good turnout for an hour's

00:30:14.040 notice. It's not a bad turnout. Mark Carney is learning a little bit to have, to at least fake the

00:30:22.360 common touch. There was a group of people outside here in the cold and he walked through them and he

00:30:28.120 shook their hands and he said, you're the real VIPs. And he spent about five minutes going through the

00:30:33.240 crowd of the people who couldn't make it in. Um, that's a good move for a politician to do.

00:30:39.000 He's still stiff as a board. It's not natural for him to talk to the unwashed masses, but he did it.

00:30:45.400 He's learning. I think Mark Carney is a formidable candidate, not particularly for anything he's done,

00:30:53.880 but because of the way the ground has changed. Donald Trump, Donald Trump has scrambled this

00:31:01.160 election three months ago. It was going to be a shoe in for Pierre Polyev. Now it's all tied up.

00:31:07.960 In fact, many of the polls show that the liberals have an advantage. There's still a month left to

00:31:13.080 turn this around, but for conservatives, they should know they're in a tough battle, not so much against

00:31:19.320 Mark Carney, but against a new landscape that's tilted against the conservatives. At least that's how

00:31:26.040 it fell today. You know what? I'm on the road right now. I got to make my way back to our head office.

00:31:31.720 So I'll sign off from the field. And I had an interview with my friend, Kian Bextie,

00:31:38.440 in Calgary. Let me throw to that.

00:31:52.600 Well, very exciting news out of Calgary the other day. The election has just begun

00:31:57.080 and its first casualty has happened. I'm talking about the former liberal candidate

00:32:03.000 in Calgary Confederation. His name is Thomas Keeper and he was an MP. It all started to fall apart

00:32:11.000 when our Rebel News alumnus, who's now the boss of Counter Signal and part of Juneau News,

00:32:17.560 he was waiting outside the liberal campaign office for Mr. Thomas Keeper. Take a look at how that went.

00:32:25.320 Mr. Keeper, Thomas. Hi, Thomas. I just have some questions to ask you.

00:32:30.680 We just, we just have some questions to ask you. Hi, Mr. Keeper. Okay, great. Thank you.

00:32:36.520 No, no, no. Sorry.

00:32:41.480 We just have some questions to ask you.

00:32:43.800 Well, joining us now live from Calgary is the star of that video, Kian Bextie himself.

00:32:49.640 Kian, very exciting. Tell me what was in the envelope and tell our viewers what happened

00:32:55.400 in the hours and days after that. I'm not even going to call it an encounter. It was a near

00:33:00.520 miss encountered. Tell us a little bit more. Yeah. So as you know, when it comes to reporting

00:33:07.160 and getting both sides of the story, we have an obligation as journalists to pose our most prickly

00:33:13.640 points to the subject of the story. You taught me that when I worked for Rebel News, that it's

00:33:19.720 important that we share with them what we're about to publish so that they can't come back and say,

00:33:23.720 oh no, this was wrong. This was wrong. And we're going to sue you for defamation. So we listed

00:33:27.400 everything that we had. Uh, and it was a long list of accusations about Thomas Keeper. Usually,

00:33:33.160 you know, we, we get tips here and there of something, some candidate might've done in the

00:33:37.400 past, but in Thomas Keeper's case, dozens of people came forward and eight people went on the record with

00:33:43.560 me to discuss allegations of sexual abuse, physical abuse and verbal abuse against men and women. Uh,

00:33:51.880 and we had to put these questions to him, uh, and ask him if he had any defense at all, uh, about what

00:33:58.920 we were about to publish. And, you know, we have, we have a lot more to publish that we're now not,

00:34:03.480 I think going to publish because I don't think it's necessarily in the public interest to go after

00:34:08.680 some random real estate agent in Calgary, but this man wanted to be a member of parliament.

00:34:13.800 He wanted to sit in Ottawa right behind Mark Carney and make laws, uh, controlling our lives,

00:34:19.960 controlling the military, controlling tax policy, and people like that need to be held accountable.

00:34:24.280 Yeah. You know, you're so right about putting the prickliest comments to the subject,

00:34:29.320 especially if you're dealing with something like a sexual abuse allegation, that's so

00:34:32.920 extreme, so devastating. First of all, you don't want to get it wrong.

00:34:37.800 And for your own sake, and you don't want to get it wrong for his sake too. If it's not true,

00:34:42.200 you want to know it. Now I'm going to guess based on that footage that you had sent him

00:34:47.800 some sort of warning shot, like an email or something, because he looked like he knew what

00:34:52.840 you were up to when you came there. Like he, he knew who you were. Obviously he ran inside,

00:34:59.240 they closed the door. Um, I, I take it that you had sort of reached out in a, uh, less direct way

00:35:06.680 before. Is that true? Yeah. We, we had emailed him, we text him, we called him and without even

00:35:12.600 looking over his shoulder, he knew exactly who was standing behind him. Yeah. Wow. Um,

00:35:17.880 now there's one more wrinkle. And I remember talking to you on the day,

00:35:21.880 it was crystal. You, you filmed everything. And that I think is rule number one,

00:35:25.080 when you're doing the kind of close contact journalism, because this guy is, you know, like

00:35:30.600 a rat in a corner, I'm not calling him a rat, but it's like that panic he's in, he's boxed in,

00:35:34.920 he's painted into a corner. Um, and he's looking for some way out. Cause he knows his house of cards

00:35:40.360 is about to come tumbling down. Uh, I understand. So you filmed everything. We saw the altercation.

00:35:46.200 There was no altercation. You didn't touch him. You didn't enter his building. You didn't make any

00:35:51.560 threatening words. You basically just said what you just said to us here, which is you wanted to

00:35:56.520 deliver some prickly questions to him. Now, before he knew that your video showing the incident

00:36:02.600 happened, I think he called the cops. Tell me a little bit about that. Yeah. So we, we were filming

00:36:09.800 this on a hidden camera because you never know what would happen. It's to protect him and me.

00:36:15.720 Um, you know, in that exact same writing, uh, Calgary Confederations, the writing is the same writing,

00:36:21.560 um, provincially where Anne McGrath called the cops on me. I remember that.

00:36:26.280 I remember that was one of your finest videos with us. Here, let me actually launched my career

00:36:32.120 of, of on the ground journalism was Anne McGrath there. I'm not talking to the rebel.

00:36:38.680 Has any other media organization asked? I'm going to call the police.

00:36:41.720 Okay. We're in public. So I'm allowed to ask you these questions. I'm not allowed to ask you

00:36:45.480 questions. Not on, not on a public, not on a sidewalk when I've told you, I'm not talking to you.

00:36:49.640 This is harassment. It's not harassment. You're a public figure and a communist who wants to represent 0.87

00:36:54.920 Albertans. This is harassment. It's not harassment. It's reasonable questions. I just want to know why

00:37:00.360 you're a communist. No, I'm just going to call the police. You're calling the police because I'm

00:37:05.160 asking you why you're a communist. Because you're harassing me on the sidewalk. So I knew, you know,

00:37:09.240 if the cops show up, you want to have video evidence of everything that you've done. So you

00:37:13.240 can say, look, this guy, you know, and luckily that's exactly the case. You were alluding to it.

00:37:17.880 He apparently told the police that I got physical with him, that I came in guns a blazing and got

00:37:23.480 physical with him. And that was the basis for a restraining order that he was going to file against

00:37:28.120 me, which would be outrageous behavior for, to stop a journalist from speaking. Imagine getting

00:37:32.520 a restraining order against Rosemary Barton, not that Trudeau would ever, or Mark Carney would ever

00:37:36.200 need one against Rosemary Barton, but it's the same thing. It would be outrageous. And he said to those

00:37:40.840 police officers that I got physical with him and we have the footage to back it up that I didn't.

00:37:44.920 You know, and when you, when you lie to a police officer, when you make a false report,

00:37:50.520 it's bad enough. But to do that, to save your political skin is crazy. I think we have a clip

00:37:55.160 that you published of an interaction with the cops. Let's play just a little bit of that,

00:37:59.320 just to show folks, let's take a look.

00:38:01.240 At any time, was there any physical contact or anything with that?

00:38:04.040 No. Any threats?

00:38:05.480 No, not to me, no. Or to him, obviously.

00:38:08.840 Yeah, just the, uh, nature of the interaction is just you asking him some questions.

00:38:12.520 Yeah.

00:38:13.080 They may cede to a restraining order. If a restraining order gets granted,

00:38:17.160 there may be a clause in there with no communication. Just be careful.

00:38:20.520 Okay.

00:38:21.160 It gets served a copy of it before it is.

00:38:23.720 Okay.

00:38:24.280 So I heard your side of the story. I heard his side of the story. I guess he's claiming

00:38:27.240 you went in and came in kind of hot and made physical contact with him.

00:38:30.680 What?

00:38:30.920 Yeah. I mean, I think that, I mean, you could put yourself in the place of a beat cop,

00:38:37.480 especially in, in an urban, large urban city. They're dealing all day with people high on drugs,

00:38:44.200 with people who are mentally ill and in the streets. They're dealing with tough customers.

00:38:49.160 And sometimes they're social workers as much as they're cops. Occasionally, they're dealing with

00:38:53.240 violence. And then they get a call from some fancy pants, liberal candidate who's upset that a

00:38:59.560 journalist, and I'm going to call it journalists, fancy pants too, because this is a very white 1.00

00:39:04.760 collar interaction by two people who are a million miles away from requiring police assistance.

00:39:11.640 On the one hand, they're probably thinking, what a bunch of BS. On the other hand,

00:39:16.200 it's probably, maybe it's a break from, from the regular police work, which I wouldn't envy.

00:39:22.680 I think they pretty quickly figured out that they were being fibbed to as a political tactic.

00:39:27.720 Is that how it worked in the end? Well, yeah, I mean, that video goes on to a

00:39:31.800 second interaction with the police. I crossed the street to give some breathing room to Thomas,

00:39:36.440 who was obviously scared. And I, you know, the police came out and they said, look, this guy wants

00:39:41.960 a restraining order against you. And I said, you guys, I mean, that's outrageous. We have it on camera.

00:39:47.960 I'm going to head out. You guys probably have better work to do. And, you know, if it comes to me

00:39:53.240 having to defend this in front of a judge, I'm, I'm down, I'm down to tango. We have all the evidence

00:39:58.280 we need. Yeah. A very small part of me feels sorry for the guy. He must have put all his high hopes

00:40:06.120 into running and he registered. And obviously the liberal green light committee, I think that's what

00:40:11.400 they call their candidate vetting committee. I mean, I wonder if he misled them or if they said,

00:40:17.720 oh, this is so long ago and so minor, like, do you have any hunch about that? Because I mean,

00:40:23.720 I don't know what this year's liberal campaign asks, but I've seen political party vetting

00:40:31.400 forms before, and they can be dozens of pages long. I've got to think that criminal proceedings is

00:40:38.120 one of the very first things every party asks about. How do you think this guy sneaked through?

00:40:43.560 Yeah. I mean, that's a great question. I have the exact same experience, uh, with you. My father

00:40:48.760 just got vetted by the conservative party of Canada to become a candidate and you need to provide, um,

00:40:55.000 detailed exam, uh, so much, so many details about your life, including a criminal record check,

00:41:00.840 something that says, yeah, the police don't come to my door, you know, to be for domestic violence,

00:41:05.240 assaults and, and on and on and on and on. And in this case, I don't, I don't know what happened.

00:41:11.240 These, these committees are, are black boxes. They, you know, I don't even know the extent of

00:41:15.880 my father's vetting. Um, and Thomas keeper, definitely not. So my only guess is that either

00:41:23.000 Thomas lied or the liberal party vetting process is not as rigorous as, uh, Mark Carney seems to

00:41:29.080 think it is. Yeah. You know, um, we're in a very strange campaign three months ago. It looks like a

00:41:35.880 slam dunk for the conservatives. Now it's very much up in the air. I mean, frankly, if the election were

00:41:40.440 held today, I don't know if the conservatives would even win, let alone a majority. And the media,

00:41:45.240 I think feel like they've been shot at and, and missed as in they have a reprieve. They,

00:41:51.720 they were certain that Pierre Polyev was going to win and defund the CBC and, and probably upend all

00:41:58.280 the media subsidies. So I think you have a regime media that is more motivated than ever before.

00:42:03.720 Mm hmm. You say that eight different people came to you with the goods on Thomas keeper. Um,

00:42:14.200 you know, maybe they went to you because they know you're skeptical of liberals. Maybe they went to you

00:42:18.920 because like me, you have a certain political ideology, or maybe they went to you because no one

00:42:25.560 else would inquire. Maybe they went to the CBC or the Calgary Herald or QR 77. If that's still the

00:42:33.880 radio station there, maybe they went to everyone else first and they said, no, no, not interested.

00:42:40.040 Even though it's extremely interesting if a candidate has, you know, such accusations against them.

00:42:45.640 Do you have any indication that the people who came to you first, I mean, no disrespect,

00:42:50.040 but you are not the leading media outlet in Calgary. The Calgary Herald would probably be that.

00:42:55.480 And I know for a fact that multiple of my sources went to other media outlets in the city and they

00:43:00.600 did not cover the story. They had everything that I had. They could have covered this story. And it's

00:43:07.000 not like there's a ton of political scandal or intrigue right now in Calgary, you know, any, you know,

00:43:12.840 it's the dream of any local reporter who always has to cover Jody Gondek to be able to cover something

00:43:18.120 of national intrigue. And they still decided not to, despite having similar sources to me. I mean,

00:43:24.120 I didn't know these people until they reached out to me. Yeah. Very interesting. I think that

00:43:29.320 this election is, is already very distorted compared to other elections. And I think

00:43:37.000 this really is the do or die election. This is the final battle for the regime media. If they can

00:43:43.000 pull Carney across the finish line, they will save their jobs. If they cannot,

00:43:48.760 hundreds, perhaps thousands of them will be out of work and put aside ideology just from sheer survival.

00:43:56.760 Stories like yours will be muffled. Now, let me just close on this note. I see

00:44:01.560 that after you did the due diligence and by the way, going and hand delivering questions to someone,

00:44:07.160 that is the height of, you know, what, what lawyers call responsible journalism.

00:44:12.760 Like you are trying so hard to get the answers. You were going to his place like that. I mean,

00:44:18.600 any judge, like, and I remember you, you mentioned at Rebel News, we would talk about this.

00:44:23.240 You do it. So your journalism is accurate, but you also do it just in case you're ever sued for

00:44:27.560 defamation. You can say, judge, I tried literally everything. I even went there. So, I mean,

00:44:31.800 you did the height of responsible communication. It really is amazing. And you claimed the first

00:44:38.760 scalp of the campaign. And I see the CBC is writing the story, but they didn't mention you

00:44:47.240 in it at all. They just wrote the stories of it just happened. Have they edited their story to make

00:44:52.680 reference to you or did they just steal your scoop and write it without reference? Like when I looked

00:44:56.840 at the first version, they didn't mention you at all. Did that change?

00:44:59.960 It hasn't changed to my knowledge. We're submitting a complaint,

00:45:02.920 a formal complaint to the CBC ombudsman. And we've had good results in the past, actually,

00:45:09.880 with them correcting their journalism. Of course, it doesn't matter. Nobody's going to read it,

00:45:14.040 the story in a month, but it's still a matter of public record that we did the job that the CBC

00:45:20.760 is tasked with. And the whole purpose of them existing is to do stuff like this,

00:45:26.440 not to host the Junos, right? So we are going to hold them accountable. We're going to make sure

00:45:31.880 that they fix their story and we'll keep you posted if they do.

00:45:34.600 Yeah. It's a real difference between how the CBC covers, let's say, Premier Daniel Smith

00:45:39.800 and how they cover this rogue candidate. Well, listen, Kean, congratulations. It's fun to see

00:45:45.160 you again. We remember your work at Rebel News with fondness. And give us 30 seconds to talk to us

00:45:51.560 about Counter Signal and Juno News. I've already talked to your colleague, Candace Malcolm, about it,

00:45:56.600 and she explained it a little bit. Give me 30 seconds. What does it mean? Are both entities

00:46:01.560 still proceeding?

00:46:02.520 Yeah. So the Counter Signal is still existing, still publishing all of the work that we're

00:46:07.720 used to publishing. We tend to be more Alberta-focused, but anything that's about the,

00:46:12.760 you know, it's, I mean, it's in the name. It's the Counter Signal. We're covering

00:46:16.760 all of the stuff from a different angle that the mainstream media likes to ignore,

00:46:20.600 or we're fact-checking the CBC constantly. But we are working with Juno News hand in hand

00:46:26.520 hand in hand to make sure that Canada has a wide variety of news options. We're also

00:46:32.360 launching some satire sites as well. Oh my God, that's hard. You'll see that soon.

00:46:37.560 There's nothing harder than to be funny, by the way.

00:46:40.120 Yeah, it's not me, thank God, because I'm the least funny person I know. But we are going to be

00:46:46.680 trying to sort of take a page out of the Babylon Bees book. You know, the Beaverton does satire in

00:46:51.960 Canada all the time, and they have kind of a monopoly on it. Right. So we need some conservative

00:46:56.360 satire in this country, and we're going to try and get that done. Yeah, with Babylon Bees, very

00:47:00.760 successful in the States. This hour is 22 minutes. Once in a while, I'll grant them like one, maybe

00:47:06.360 one in 10 times, they're fun. But the other time, nine times, I feel like I'm watching a liberal campaign

00:47:13.960 ad with a laugh track. Exactly. And I think the real sin of this hour is 22 minutes isn't that it's

00:47:20.120 left-wing. It said, it's unfunny. It's just not funny. And I think it's because their boss,

00:47:25.160 Mark Critch, is a liberal diehard. His wife is a liberal activist. And again, they know that

00:47:30.920 they'll probably be put out to pasture if Pauliev wins. Well, I look forward to that comedy,

00:47:35.320 that satire. That's an ambitious goal, I hope. I mean, it's hard to be funny. And I look forward to

00:47:42.520 being impressed. And boy, do we ever need it in Canada. And great to catch up with you. Thanks for

00:47:45.960 taking the time. Thanks, Ezra. There you have it, Kian Bextie, Rebel News alumnus.

00:47:51.000 He's the boss of the Counter Signal and part of Juno News. Stay with us, Moorhead. 1.00

00:48:04.040 What brings you down here today? Actually, there's nothing worth seeing here, right?

00:48:08.040 Well, good for you. I see you got your Pierre Pauliev hat on. You live just in the neighborhood?

00:48:12.200 I was just driving by and I saw the cops. I guess he needs that kind of security, right?

00:48:17.240 And then I saw you, actually. Well, nice to see you. Thanks very much. You know,

00:48:22.280 my friend David Manzies, he's in New Brunswick today. So we're out here

00:48:25.880 covering the home turf in Ontario. David normally

00:48:28.120 likes to cover things in the GTA. Great, man.

00:48:30.280 Yeah, right on. Well, I'll pass on your regards. Cheers.

Rebel News Podcast - March 31, 2025

EZRA LEVANT ｜ Liberal MP calls for kidnapping a conservative rival — and Mark Carney is fine with it

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