EZRA LEVANT ｜ Liberals lose another stronghold, call on subsidized media to attack Conservatives
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Summary
Justin Trudeau loses two by-elections badly, so now he thinks maybe censoring the media will save him? It s September 17th, and this is The Ezra LeVance Show, where Ezra talks about it all.
Transcript
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Hello, my friends. Oh boy, two wonderful by-elections. The Liberal Party of Canada
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just getting pummeled. Incredibly in Montreal, in one of the safest ridings in liberal history,
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La Salimare Verdun. That's where David Lamedi was. That's where Paul Martin himself was.
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Imagine losing that. That's how much Trudeau has hated. I'll also take you through a new poll
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that shows just how unforgiving former liberal voters are. It's actually amazing.
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Hey, but first, can I invite you to get a subscription to what we call Rebel News Plus?
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That's the video version of this podcast. It's eight bucks a month, which might not sound like a lot to you,
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but boy, it sure adds up for us. That's how we pay our bills around here.
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Just go to rebelnewsplus.com, click subscribe, and Bob's your uncle.
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It's the news event of the year. Canada's most controversial premier sits down with Canada's
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most controversial journalist, and everything is on the table. Come watch Ezra Levant one-on-one
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with Alberta premier Danielle Smith in front of a live studio audience in Calgary. Nothing's off-limits.
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Nothing's held back. Questions that would make Justin Trudeau invoke martial law.
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Answers that will make Stephen Gilbeau pee his pants. You're not going to want to miss this one,
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but you have to be there in person at the Rebel News Live mega conference in Calgary on October the 5th.
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Tickets are limited, so drop everything and go to rebelnewslive.com right now.
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Special discounted prices for Patriots and special extra high prices if you're with the CBC.
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Tonight, Justin Trudeau loses two by-elections badly, so now he thinks maybe censoring the
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media will save him. It's September 17th, and this is The Ezra LeVance Show.
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Hey, how are you? I'm feeling pretty good today. I saw two by-elections last night, one in Manitoba,
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one in Quebec. In Manitoba, the Liberal Party, which is in government, Justin Trudeau,
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got around 5% of the vote. Single digits. That's like fringe party status. Just incredible.
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I mean, it was always an NDP stronghold. The Liberals were never particularly strong there,
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but my God, that's got to scare any Liberal MP in the West. And Montreal was in its own way more
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astonishing. See, that seat in Manitoba, it had been an NDP seat for decades, actually,
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but the one in Montreal was about as heartland for the Liberals as it comes. It would be like
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Calgary in the Reform Party or the Conservative Party history. Montreal, that is where the Liberals
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are. The riding was called Le Salomar Verdun. In the past, it was called Le Salomar. That was Paul
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Martin's riding when he was finance minister and the prime minister. Then it was David Lamedi's
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riding. He's the disgraced former justice minister. These are the kings, the titans of the Liberal
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Party, and this was the safest seat possible. Incredibly, the Liberals were run out of the
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district. I say run out of the district because I was thinking of what the Liberal candidate herself
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did last night. She gave a speech and then she ran out of the room, never to return. I mean,
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she hadn't formally lost yet, but it was going so poorly. She said a few things and then she ran out.
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Here's the CBC trying to come to terms with that. We're all trying to figure out why Laura
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Palestini gave that speech when she gave that speech. You got any insight? What's the vibe and the reaction
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at the headquarters after that? Well, David, I could tell you one thing. As much as she was
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energetic in her speech, she was also energetic in leaving the party. She immediately left as soon
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as she gave that speech. She did a few steps saying thank you to the volunteers, turned around, went out
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the door, and of course, we followed her. Thought maybe she was just getting some fresh air. No, she
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got in and drove away. Now, early in the night, the NDP were doing very well. In fact, it was sort of a
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three-way race. The Bloc Hebecois who finally won, the Liberals, and the NDP. They did well as the
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explicitly pro-Hamas party. They had a pamphlet. Their candidate had a pamphlet talking about Gaza
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and the only flag on it was not the Canadian flag, not the Quebec fleur-de-lis, but rather the
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Palestinian flag. And he did very well. And you might recall that some Muslims in the Liberal Party
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had a boycott on the Liberal campaign saying they weren't going to help Justin Trudeau because he
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wasn't pro-Hamas enough. This is shades of what we saw in the United Kingdom in July. They had their
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parliamentary elections on July 4th, you might recall. And whereas five Reform Party MPs, including
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Nigel Farage, were elected on the right, well, five pro-Hamas MPs were elected on the hard left. Four of
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them were Muslim themselves, and the fifth was Jeremy Corbyn and hard-line anti-Israel pro-terrorist. I'd call
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them pro-terrorist, really. And they ran on a Gaza platform. Remember some of the victory speeches
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by those guys in the UK? Terrifying. Go home. Find every brand and every product that has been
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supporting Israel and Zionism from the beginning of time and throw it away. Throw it away. Put the list
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on your fridge. Tell your children when you go to the shop to buy sweets, do not buy this and do not buy
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that. That is the least we can do. We have been complicit indirectly for too long by electing
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these Zionists, these unjust leaders. Well, we were only a couple thousand votes away from that
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happening in Canada, and don't think that won't happen one day. So a disastrous night for the
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liberals. And I say again, I mean, nine years or more into a party's mandate, by-elections are going
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to be a way for people to express their dislike with the incumbent. But it's not that surprising
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that in the dying days of a regime, people use by-elections to punish them. But the depth of
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the hatred for the Liberal Party is something we haven't seen before. Justin Trudeau lives in his
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own world, though. I really believe that he follows his father's mantra. I don't know if you remember,
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but Pierre Elliott Trudeau, his dad once said, MPs are nobody 100 yards off Parliament Hill. They're
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nobodies. And I hate to say that's right. There's 338 MPs. How many of them would you recognize if you
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bumped into them? The answer is pretty few because Parliament itself has fewer and fewer powers as
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it's all absorbed by the PMO. There's a couple of cabinet ministers who are good for show and tell,
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but the number of people who actually make decisions is very small. And most of them are not MPs. So
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you're a regular MP. You're going to be terrified by what you saw last night. And if you remember
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when Justin Trudeau was accosted on the beach by our alumnus, Kian Bexte, Bexte said, are you
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avoiding your MPs? And I think Trudeau very much is terrified of his MPs. I mean, imagine what they
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had to say to him when he saw them yesterday, but that was before the election results today.
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Here's Trudeau walking in an apartment yesterday. He had someone film him like he was very confident
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and strong. But look at the stress on his face. Look at that forced grin. Even a trained thespian
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and dramatic actor, a high school drama teacher, substitute drama teacher like him,
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even he couldn't quite hide the stress and anxiety. Even though he doesn't care about his MPs,
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they do control his future. They could if they wanted to band together and boot him out. Look at him
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make his entrance with his personal videographer yesterday. Look at his face. Take a look.
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Yeah, it's not going well there. They really are down to the palace guard. Trudeau sounds like,
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I don't know if you remember, during the Iraq war when, you know, the head of PR was talking
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about the mother of all battles. And we're, you know, I don't know if you remember, but
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Saddam Hussein's spokesman, even as the tanks were closing in on Baghdad, was talking about how they
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were going to beat the great Satan and the little Satan. That's what the liberals sound like now.
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Just, oh, we're confident, and oh, Canadians are truly with us. I think that they're lashing out,
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the liberals, and they've been doing so for a fair bit. Here's a story I should have mentioned
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when it happened a week or two ago. Tlaib Nur-Mohamed is a member of parliament of no account. He's one of
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these nobodies that you wouldn't recognize other than he was famous for buying a house and flipping
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it, buying a house and flipping it, buying it and flipping, buying it and flipping, which of course
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distorts the market, makes it hard for people who want to buy a house to live in. He's a speculator.
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He's a profiteer. He was who the Liberal Party chose to run in Vancouver. And I think that's a slap in
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the face to people trying to find affordable housing in one of the most expensive cities. But he's
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someone of no account. He is sort of the deputy to the heritage minister. So he has some say
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over a program that's very important to the liberals, which is subsidies to journalists.
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In fact, they just recently increased the subsidies that the Trudeau government will pay
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to journalists. Now I think it's about $30,000. It works out to $30,000 per journalist in the program,
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which is pretty much half their pay. And Tlaib Nur-Muhammad was getting very frustrated
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that the media weren't as loving as they should be. He responded to a criticism online by a journalist.
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And this journalist is with Post Media. The journalist didn't really say anything
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that interesting. Just, you know, was criticizing Mark Miller on something. Like, it didn't even
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mention Tlaib Nur-Muhammad. But here's what Tlaib Nur-Muhammad, the Liberal, said in return.
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Your paper wouldn't be in business were it not for the subsidies that the government
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that you hate put in place. The same subsidies your Trump-adjacent foreign hedge fund owners
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gladly take to pay your salary. Holy cow! Does he have some anger issues? Trump-adjacent foreign.
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He's so furious. And of course, he doesn't like money. He's very much against rich people
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owning newspaper companies. He's all for using, you know, flipping houses to make a quick buck. But
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he's very mad. And he's basically telling a journalist, I'm your boss, know your place,
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and you'd be nothing if it weren't for my largesse. That's really what he's saying. There really isn't
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any other way to interpret his message. Absolutely atrocious. A threat. I mean, why don't you just
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add on and be careful we don't audit you at the CRA. I mean, why not do that? Since you're throwing
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your weight around. What was the most incredible thing was not that this was an attack on a journalist
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with a threat. That's sort of known. That's sort of what the whole subsidy program is about.
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I like to say that the CBC is owned by the government, but the newspaper journalists are
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just rented by them. And it's worse to be rented because, of course, you have to keep proving that
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you're worth the subsidy. At the CBC, someone like that post-media journalist would just be fired,
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though. Anyways, the worst part of it was that the rest of the media was completely silent about it.
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They were fine with it. The Canadian Association of Journalists didn't say a word about this
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outrageous threat. The Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, Pen Canada, none of them had a
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word to say because, yeah, they absolutely agree when you, you know, whoever pays the piper calls the
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tomb. So that's Tlaib Nur-Mohammed. But yesterday, as Parliament resumed, Karina Gould, who's really
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one of the palace guards, she had a scrum and she thought she would continue to leave Nur-Mohammed
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with his little campaign and lecture the journalists, tell them how to cover Pierre
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Poliev. And it's just an amazing lack of self-awareness here. Listen to her little speech
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here where she calls Pierre Poliev a bully. He's a bully. And then she tries to bully him by calling
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What I want to talk about today is the fact that what I heard yesterday from Mr. Poliev was so over
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the top, so irresponsible, so immature, and something that only a fraudster would do. When he is focused
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on having an election on the carbon price, what he's trying to do is distract Canadians from his
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real agenda. When he talks about the fact that, you know, he cares about how Canadians are feeling in
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difficult economic times, what plan does he put forward? When it comes to our seniors, the only thing
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that we've heard is that he wants to raise the age of retirement, cut pensions, and remove their access
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to dental care. When it comes to families who are struggling, what are his plans? Get rid of affordable
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childcare and scrap the school food program? When it comes to making sure that Canadians have access to
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good quality information in a time of incredible disinformation, what does he propose to do? Defund the
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CBC. And all of you as journalists can experience, have experienced firsthand how he treats people
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who try to ask him tough questions, who try to have him face the scrutiny of what he puts to forward.
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And how does he react? As a bully, as someone who will not stand to scrutiny, who will not respond
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respectfully, not just to you as journalists, but on the questions you're asking on behalf of Canadians,
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Canadians. Because your job is to get that information to Canadians. And there's a reason
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why he doesn't want Canadians to know what his true agenda is. And it's because he knows that they
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won't like it if they find out. And so what we are here today, as liberals in this house going to do,
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and what we're going to be doing moving forward, is to make sure that we stand up every single day for
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Canadians. That we push back on his bullying tactics. That we push back on his irresponsible and
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immature antics in this place. He's a fraud. You don't realize how hysterical you sound. He's got
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a hidden agenda. He's been in politics for, I don't know, what, 20 years? If there's a hidden agenda that
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he's still hiding, he's a pretty good hider because he actually served in government where he could do
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what was in his heart. And I think if there's anyone who you sort of know what he stands for,
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he's been saying the same things for decades. But it wasn't just the lashing out and the stress
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and the anxiety in Karina Gould, calling him a fraud and a bully, which is sort of projection
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on both counts. It was the instruction to the media. Hey, you have to cover how he treats people
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who try to ask him tough questions. Really, you're going there. I happen to be with Rebel News,
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and two times we have applied to be accredited for the leaders debates, which is bizarrely run by
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Trudeau's office. He appointed handpicked people, David Johnson, one of the people who have really
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nothing to do with running TV debates, one of the Kielbergers, and put them in charge of it,
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and they banned Rebel News. So twice we had to go to court to get in. And even once we were in,
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and the judge said, yeah, there's no legal basis to keep out journalists that Trudeau doesn't like,
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Trudeau still wouldn't answer the questions. So you just saw Karina Gould saying, answer questions.
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And take a look at what Trudeau said when we finally got into court, no, sorry, into the debate
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commission. And Trudeau was so furious at us, he refused to answer. Remember this?
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The reality is organizations, organizations like yours that continue to spread misinformation and
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disinformation on the science around vaccines, around how we're going to actually get through
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this pandemic and be there for each other and keep our kids safe, is part of why we're seeing such
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unfortunate anger and lack of understanding of basic science. And quite frankly, your,
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I won't call it a media organization, your group of individuals need to take accountability for
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some of the polarization that we're seeing in this country. And I think Canadians are cluing into the
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fact that there is a really important decision we take about the kind of country we want to see.
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And I salute all extraordinary, hardworking journalists that put science and facts at the
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heart of what they do and ask me tough questions every day, but make sure that they are educating
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and informing Canadians from a broad range of perspectives, which is the last thing that you guys do.
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Yeah, it just doesn't compute. I mean, and that was Trudeau being polite. How many times has he
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arrested us? How many times have they arrested David Mentez alone? Remember when our friend David
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asked Chrystia Freeland a simple question? Trudeau's RCMP bodyguard swarmed David, smashed him against the
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wall, handcuffed him, charged him with assault. And remember her smirk as she walked by? Take a look,
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Freeland, how come the IRDC is not a terrorist group?
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Why is your government supporting Islam on that?
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What? You've been mischievous. What are you doing?
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You're under arrest for assault. Why are you pushing me?
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Yeah, they, they're out of control. They're, they're losing control of their emotions.
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And I don't know if you know the name Katie Telford. She's the chief of staff to Trudeau. And really,
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I think the only senior staffer who's been with him the whole time, she's been there for the long
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ride. And she doesn't tweet a lot. Why would she? She has an army of press attaches, not just in the
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prime minister's office, but in every cabinet minister's office. There have got to be, well,
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I mean, 40 chiefs of staff for each minister that report to Katie Telford, each of which has a
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communications team. This woman is like a orchestra conductor. So it's very odd and unusual when she
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herself tweets. Why would she tweet to a small number of people other than showing sort of her
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insider circle what the emphasis is? Hey guys, here's the message. It's really important you
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hear it straight from me. So let me just show you a few of the tweets that she has retweeted or posted
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just to show you what she's thinking. Here's a retweet of Mark Miller. And she's so excited that he's
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saying, cut the crap. Shut your yap. That's just so weird when someone as weird and gangly and effete
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as Mark Miller tries to be Hulk Hogan-ish. It doesn't really work. I'm a professional wrestler. Shut your
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yap. It just doesn't work. You have to look like Alex Jones to pull that off. But that's where, so
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your chief of staff for the whole government, that's the most articulate you can be. Shut your yap.
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Who's, who is she talking to? Well, he's talking to any critic. They're just, they want critics and
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opposition to shut your yap. Here's another one. Here she is retweeting another chief of staff that
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reports to her who says, there's a convention around parliamentarians that we're not supposed
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to call each other liars. He said, adding, Pierre Polyev is a liar. So a liar and, and a fraudster and,
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and a bully, like they've just, I don't know if you remember, but when Trudeau ran 10 years ago or
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whenever it was that he first sought the leadership and then he ran in the election, he talked about
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sunny ways, sunny ways, my friend, not like that dour Stephen Harper. Stephen Harper is so grouchy and so
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grumpy, but not me. I'm happy. And it's a new, uh, new day. Yeah. Those days are long gone. Now,
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the question is how long will the liberal party accept a leader who is just flying that plane into
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the ground as fast as possible? I mean, if you are losing La Salomar Verdun, which is the liberal
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heartland, not a single liberal is safe. I saw the latest projection, um, you know, the polls come out
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all the time and then people break them down and do projections of the seat count. It's not an accurate
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science, but if you're using the same process every time, you can track it over time. I saw that the
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liberals were on track to be the third or fourth party, to be absolutely destroyed, not
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quite a Kim Campbell, only two MPs left standing, uh, rebuke, but, but pretty bad. I mean, there would,
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there would be a handful of MPs in Toronto, a handful in, in Montreal, and that's pretty much it,
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a sprinkle here and there. But for example, my own atrocious MP, Yara Sachs, would be flattened.
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And all the MPs that we despise, I mean, really, it would be a massacre, um, by the people peacefully
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and democratically, uh, taking Trudeau to the trash bin of history. And so if you are a liberal MP,
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you can be a good boy or a big girl, good girl, and stay quiet and go along with this.
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Or you can say, well, is there any better way? Because with Justin Trudeau at the helm,
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we are going to all lose our jobs. Now, maybe you don't care. Maybe you were thinking of retiring
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anyways. And so, you know, or maybe you're in one of the ultra safe ridings. But frankly,
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how much fun is it to be in opposition in the third or fourth party after having being in government?
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Like, is there anyone in the liberal caucus who's feeling good right now? And at what point do you
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say, we're going to do what the Democrats in the US did when they saw that Joe Biden was going to blow
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everything up? Just have a coup and replace him. And it's a lot easier in our parliamentary system
00:23:47.340
than in the presidential system, by the way. Uh, I think the answer in part is, is anyone standing
00:23:53.340
in the wings ready to go? Do they have the courage to step up? Because I think the liberal MPs are
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desperate right now. It would be fascinating to see that happen. But in the meantime, the little inner
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circle, Mark Miller, Justin Trudeau, the liberal Hamas caucus, I put them in the center of things,
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at least for foreign policy, Melanie Jolie, and Katie Telford, in the meantime, they're going to loot the
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joint. They're going to ring everything they can out for the next few months. I mean, they don't know how
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long they have. They want to have the election next fall. So that's a full year more. But they don't know,
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maybe they'll be thrown out the window by the liberal caucus next week. So they are using every
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day like it's their last. And they're implementing extreme policies while they can. They're absolutely
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raiding the financial coffers. I mean, look at the $2 billion plus they gave away to a knockoff of
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Elon Musk's Starlink the other day. Immigration. They're flooring it. Immigration is actually higher
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now than last year, if you can believe it. They're going full blast with the censorship. Oh,
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absolutely. That remains their number one policy. And I think they're taking notes from Hillary
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Clinton, who made just an astonishing statement about how people should be arrested for misinformation.
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Arrested. Here's that clip. Just as Mueller indicted a lot of Russians who were engaged in
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direct election interference and boosting Trump back in 2016. But I also think there are Americans who are
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engaged in this kind of propaganda and whether they should be civilly or even in some cases criminally
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charged is something that would be a better deterrence. Oh, they love Hillary Clinton. So many times
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Canadian liberals look to the Democrats in the states for their talking points. And on censorship,
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they walk, walk together in sync. Here's some clips from Sheila Gunn-Reed. Sheila's done a great job recently
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of sort of a corruption watch. There's an inquiry in corruption. Let me just show you some of these
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insane clips of how the woman appointed to be in charge of Trudeau's green slush fund was slushing
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herself. Take a look. How many Canadian tax dollars were given out in conflicts of interest by liberal
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appointed board members at Sustainable Development Technologies Canada? How much money? Just the number
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would be helpful. The total amount of money? Yeah, the Auditor General pegged the number of 330 million
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dollars given out in conflicts of interest. Do you dispute that number? The Auditor General
00:26:36.700
stated that number. It's obvious that that is accurate. So you agree?
00:26:40.700
I agree. So ma'am, are you proud of your time at Justin Trudeau's green slush fund? It's a yes or no question.
00:26:54.540
The investments that STTC made into the cleantech industry has had an enormous impact on Canada.
00:27:07.340
I'm very proud of the work that STTC has done. Are you proud of the 300 million dollars given out in
00:27:14.380
conflicts of interest? Are you proud of the 24 instances of your own conflicts of interest?
00:27:22.540
Are you proud that you used your position to help enrich yourself and your friends?
00:27:27.580
Again, I accept the Commissioner's findings. I recognize that there were two things that I
00:27:46.140
could have been approved on in terms of that designation of recusing versus abstaining.
00:27:55.820
I know what it means to be in a position like you. You're a smart woman, Ms. Varsher. How is it?
00:28:01.820
How is it possible that it didn't cross your mind? You didn't realize I've been on a number of boards,
00:28:06.940
including the port of Quebec City, where I was also a provider prior to that, or a supplier rather.
00:28:12.860
And I completely stepped aside when I sat on the board because I knew I no longer was entitled to
00:28:21.900
those contracts. So how is it? I can't fathom how you didn't realize that you had no business being there.
00:28:31.420
Mr. Chair, when I got on the board of STDC, I clearly
00:28:48.460
disclosed to the minister, to the ICED people, to management, that I had a declaration that happened
00:28:58.460
18 months prior to me getting on that board. That is the only real conflict that I've had over the
00:29:08.060
Yeah, just like I say, there, you know, some governments when they're at the end of their
00:29:12.780
natural life, they're tired and fatigued and aimless. Not the liberals. They're just stuffing
00:29:19.820
things into their pockets. They're like it's at a buffet that's told them to get out. So they're just
00:29:25.020
putting bread rolls in their pockets and some chicken here. They're doing whatever they can
00:29:29.420
to grab as much as they can and run out before it's over. Hey, let me show you an amazing poll.
00:29:35.180
You know, I love to talk to you about David Coletto and Abacus. And you know the reason why,
00:29:39.100
because that firm tilts towards the Liberal Party. So if they say things positive about the conservatives
00:29:45.020
or Pierre Polyev, they're not trying to fool themselves. And I, it's like if the New York Times
00:29:50.060
would ever say something nice about Donald Trump, you, it would be so shocking that they would do so.
00:29:55.500
You know it would be true because it would be against their every instinct. So I love following
00:30:00.060
David Coletto, because he's a pretty good guy and I think he's pretty fair. But second of all,
00:30:03.980
I know I'm not kidding myself when I cite an Abacus poll. I'm being conservative, so to speak, as in
00:30:10.540
uh, hopefully the truth is even better than what they say. Look at this. He asked people who say they're
00:30:15.660
going to vote conservative. How likely are you to change your vote? Like between now and election day,
00:30:22.860
could you be moved? You say you're going to vote conservative. Will that change? Well, look at the
00:30:28.460
answers. Unbelievable answers. 62% say I will never change. I am. These are the people who say they're
00:30:35.980
going to vote conservative. Another 32% say it's unlikely. And that's 94% of Polyev voters say,
00:30:44.460
nah, nah, nah. I ain't changing. But look at this. You see what it says? LPC 2021. Those are people who
00:30:51.340
voted liberal in 2021 and have since flipped to support Polyev. So those are people who fell out of
00:30:59.660
love. 40% of them say never, never switch. And you can, you can understand that because if you actually
00:31:09.260
fall out of love with someone and feel cheated or tricked or misled, you have a hard heart. It's not
00:31:16.300
that you just, if you voted for Trudeau in 2021 and now you've got this mess, you ain't going back.
00:31:23.820
The most astonishing thing in this abacus poll though is the number for women. Now, I always thought
00:31:30.860
that women were more liberal. That women either for ideological reasons or because they thought Justin
00:31:36.860
Trudeau was cute who would vote for him. But according to David Coletto of abacus, who is not
00:31:42.780
a conservative booster, 67% of women who support Polyev will never change their mind. I find that
00:31:53.660
incredible. I think Trudeau's days are numbered. I suppose you can say that about all of us. I suppose
00:31:59.980
the question is how many numbers do you think he'll last the whole year? I don't stay with us more ahead.
00:32:20.780
Well, I can't believe it was just a week ago that we visited Sao Paulo for the largest free speech
00:32:28.220
rally I've ever been to in my life. Scratch that. The largest rally I've ever been to in my life.
00:32:33.340
I would estimate there were around 200,000 people there. And I was told by folks there that there
00:32:38.140
had been earlier rallies by the same side of the freedom versus tyranny debate, the Bolsonaro side,
00:32:44.700
that reached one million people. They do it big in South America. It was such a blur. We flew down
00:32:50.780
10 hours on a night flight. We did journalism all day and then we came home the very next day.
00:32:55.740
So it almost feels like a dream. But I think it was very important we went there because I saw no other
00:33:02.700
English language journalists covering what I think is a very portentous battle. Will Brazil lurch back
00:33:10.860
to become a kind of dictatorship as it was just 40 years ago? Or will it go down the path of freedom?
00:33:16.940
There's other freedom activists in Latin America, whether it's Nayib Bukele in El Salvador,
00:33:22.620
or Javier Mille in Argentina? Which road will Brazil choose? And we're joined now by someone who
00:33:30.140
follows Brazilian politics full-time. In fact, he's a victim of Brazilian politics. His name is Rodrigo
00:33:37.100
Constantino. And he's actually a kind of refugee in Florida, if I understand correctly. He joins us now
00:33:43.340
via Skype. Rodrigo, great to meet you in person. My pleasure. I appreciate.
00:33:47.820
Well, thanks for joining us. I had a crash course in Brazil. I mean, really, you can't sum up a country,
00:33:55.260
especially a country that large, in 36 hours. But I feel like I got a good taste for the battle.
00:34:01.020
Free speech is part of it. Elon Musk may be part of the solution. It looks like a democracy from the
00:34:08.380
outside with Lula, the president, and a judge, Alexandre de Moraes. But that's just the trappings
00:34:15.340
of democracy. Underneath it is a bit of a tyrant. That's what I took away from it. But look, I don't
00:34:21.100
want to say I managed to understand Brazil in just two days. Help me out. What's really going on? And
00:34:27.340
tell us a little bit of your story, because I know that you were directly involved.
00:34:31.660
Yes. Well, I think you get totally right what's going on in Brazil. We are not a democracy anymore.
00:34:38.300
And I'm pretty comfortable saying that because I'm a victim, as you mentioned. Almost two years ago,
00:34:46.060
I had my passport canceled. Not even traffic dealers or drug dealers or homicides have this kind of
00:34:55.020
punishment. As a journalist, I had my passport taken away from me. My social media is under censorship.
00:35:05.580
And with 1.6 million followers on Twitter, for example, they are not able to see my content. And
00:35:13.580
now nobody is able to see any content anymore because the Twitter, the X platform was banned from Brazil.
00:35:20.940
And also I had my banking accounts frozen. So why? Because of opinion crime. Because I've been
00:35:30.300
criticizing what Alexandre de Moraes and the Supreme Court, what they have been doing in the last three,
00:35:37.900
four years. So you're not supposed to criticize the electoral process anymore. If you criticize Alexandre de
00:35:45.260
Moraes, you are attacking the system and the institutions, the democracy itself. So to tell you
00:35:53.020
the truth, I think Brazil is under the radar of many people right now. And you're doing a great job
00:35:59.260
showing that because we are kind of laboratory to what's going on in the West as a whole. Like the left
00:36:08.780
found out that they don't need the people and the Congress anymore. If only they can have like six
00:36:16.700
judges in the Supreme Court, they can rule, they can do anything they want. And Brazil is like a
00:36:22.620
laboratory now for this kind of, uh, Juristocracy. You know, it was fascinating. There, there were more
00:36:30.220
placards and posters and signs criticizing that activist judge Alexandre de Moraes than there were
00:36:37.020
even mentioning the president Lula. Even, even though he's so famous, he goes by one name like
00:36:43.340
Madonna or Cher. Everyone knows who Lula is. But the one that they were most worried about at this
00:36:48.620
rally that I saw the most signs about, there was even a impersonator with a shaved head and
00:36:54.380
wearing a cape. Like Alexandre de Moraes, he dresses up like a cartoonish villain. He really has been
00:37:01.980
having secret trials with secret orders. Is that how you had your passport seized and your account
00:37:08.220
shut down? Was it this same judge or was it another judge? Is this white? The same judge, uh, with, uh,
00:37:15.100
his own decision. He was not even through the, the Supreme Court. Like he takes his decision by himself
00:37:23.340
and persecutes and censor and go after. And we, we had, uh, even, uh, political, uh, arrests in the
00:37:30.620
country. And, and one guy died in prison because of Alexandre de Moraes. So to explain why Alexandre de
00:37:37.580
Moraes was so popular in this protest and not Lula, it's because Lula is there again in the, uh, in the
00:37:47.260
presidency because of Alexandre de Moraes. So, uh, pretty much Lula is now kind of a puppet, the real
00:37:54.780
tyrant, the one in charge and with the whole power to, to, to do whatever he pleases actually is, uh,
00:38:02.380
Alexandre de Moraes. He included Elon Musk, one or probably did the richest guy in the world. He
00:38:10.140
included, uh, Elon Musk in one of his inquiries investigations and he could be arrested for
00:38:17.260
example, if he, if he goes to Brazil. Uh, also he froze money from Starlink, almost 20 million
00:38:25.260
reais, which is $5 million. He, uh, froze the accounts of Starlink because of what happened in the
00:38:33.900
platform X. Yeah. So, uh, in terms of, uh, uh, rule of law in the country, there's no rule of law
00:38:42.060
anymore. If somebody invests his money in Brazil right now, I think the person is crazy. They don't
00:38:49.580
see what's going on. Wow. You said a lot of things. Let me ask you a couple of follow-up questions.
00:38:54.140
Um, when you say that de Moraes sometimes just acts by himself, I guess you mean there's not a hearing
00:39:00.300
that's brought to him. Normally in courts, you have one side and the other, and a judge is in the
00:39:04.460
middle, but you're saying that the judge himself came up with the case and made the decision without
00:39:09.740
anyone arguing before him. So, so the people he goes after might not even be there. Is that what you
00:39:15.740
said when you said acts by himself, that he just sort of, his word becomes law. There's no even
00:39:20.780
hearings. Is that what you mean? It's that and much more. Yes. Uh, there's one trial, for example,
00:39:25.900
that, uh, there, there was the defense lawyer there and it's a famous guy now in Brazil. He was
00:39:32.540
in the protest that you watch. Sebastião Coelho is his name. He was the defendant of one of the
00:39:39.340
political prisoners in the system, Felipe Martins, accused of, uh, kind of preparing a coup. Uh,
00:39:47.100
and because he was in the airplane with Jair Bolsonaro, the ex, the former president, uh, coming to
00:39:53.420
Miami, but he was not in the plane and he proved that, but Alexander de Moraes didn't care. And
00:39:59.020
Sebastião Coelho said some harsh truths in front of Alexander de Moraes. He didn't like it. And now
00:40:06.780
he closed. Nobody can support the client anymore in front of the judge. So that's one part of it.
00:40:15.020
The other part of it is that he was supposed to take the cases to the, uh, whole group in the Supreme
00:40:22.780
Court. And he doesn't do that. He makes decisions by himself. And sometimes, sometimes he, he, he takes
00:40:30.780
the case for, uh, half of the Supreme Court. We call, uh, uh, the first turma and the second turma. It's like a
00:40:38.220
class. There is one class and second class. And he doesn't, uh, bother taking it to the whole group
00:40:45.660
because he knows that former president Bolsonaro appointed two justice and, and they would go
00:40:51.740
against his decision. So he, he wants to make it sound like, uh, the whole group support him.
00:41:02.220
You know what? The, the weaponization of the judiciary, it's, it sounds like it's a whole
00:41:07.420
other level in Brazil. I want to talk about, um, and I knew this because Elon Musk owns the Twitter,
00:41:14.140
uh, company to punish Elon Musk. Uh, they've gone after a different company called Starlink,
00:41:21.820
which is the internet, this, the space-based internet that serves remote areas. So in Brazil,
00:41:28.060
that's particularly important. It's an enormous country, much of it in the forest,
00:41:32.140
um, remote areas. Um, so de Moraes, as you mentioned, has seized assets belonging to Starlink,
00:41:42.620
even though that's not the same company as X or Twitter. Elon Musk has a big chunk of Starlink,
00:41:49.660
but it's, it's an American company with many other shareholders. And that's just sort of
00:41:56.780
seizing something because you don't like the guy involved. I mean, there's no way the two can be
00:42:01.420
legally connected. So let me ask you this. My observation with the U S trade representative
00:42:08.380
is that, uh, has got to be the most terrifying cabinet minister in the United States. It's
00:42:15.660
basically the person who goes out in the world and fights any country that is unfair to American
00:42:22.380
companies. He's he or she is the person that enforces trade treaties to launches international
00:42:29.500
lawsuits, uh, imposes tariffs. Like the U S trade representative strikes fear into the heart of
00:42:36.060
other countries more. I would say than even the minister of defense, the secretary of defense,
00:42:41.020
uh, it's the trade representative that goes to battle against our country of Canada over softwood
00:42:47.020
lumber or things like that. And yeah, that preamble is to say, has the U S trade representative or has
00:42:54.220
the United States government spoken out over the seizure of assets of an American company called
00:43:01.340
Starlink that's got legally nothing to do with X has America put its foot down or have they rolled over
00:43:08.940
to Demarese? Unfortunately, it's a Biden Harris administration, uh, and they've been pretty negligent
00:43:17.420
with, uh, the national interest is actually of United States citizen. So no, they haven't through the
00:43:24.220
ambassador ambassador in Brazil. Uh, they made clear that it's a dangerous path, but imagine what could
00:43:33.100
happen if Donald Trump would be back to the white house. So I think, uh, Elon Musk close to, uh, Trump
00:43:39.980
as he is now, he's planning on that. And, and he kind of made, uh, a threat to Lula. He said, I hope you
00:43:48.700
like, I hope you enjoy flying commercial airplanes because, uh, remember that could happen. Uh, the, the
00:43:58.220
former president of Argentina before Javier Millet that it's closed now to Elon Musk or to Trump. It
00:44:05.100
was, uh, Christina Kirchner, uh, when she came to the UN in New York, uh, she used a commercial
00:44:13.980
flight because she was afraid United States government would seize her airplane. So that could
00:44:20.460
happen to Brazil. Now we, we kind of become the axis of evil. We are close to Venezuela, to Russia, to
00:44:27.100
China, and we are making threats to, uh, us citizens and seizing their assets. And as you
00:44:34.460
mentioned, Starlink is not a sole or a whole, uh, own company by Elon Musk. He has partners,
00:44:42.220
important ones. It's important for national defense here in us. So, uh, I think they're
00:44:47.900
messing with big guys now and there's going to be consequences. Yeah. I mean, we know, uh,
00:44:53.020
Elon Musk because he's always giving interviews and he's always tweeting outrageous things and
00:44:58.060
funny things and smart things, but we forget that he's actually an industrialist. He puts more
00:45:03.340
satellites into space than anyone else in the world combined, more than the entire countries
00:45:09.340
of China, Russia combined times 10. SpaceX is so important for the U.S. government that, uh, he's an
00:45:17.580
interesting character because he torments the likes of Joe Biden, but America wouldn't,
00:45:22.140
couldn't really operate without his technology. Um, you mentioned early on Venezuela, that perhaps
00:45:29.740
Brazil has, um, is using Venezuelan style, uh, tactics. And that's interesting because of course
00:45:37.660
the whole world followed Venezuela first under Hugo Chavez and then under Nicolas Maduro, uh, as it went
00:45:43.980
from a country with so many riches, especially oil riches, and it became poor and people actually
00:45:49.500
started to starve and they brought in brutal Cuban military to help control the people. Uh,
00:45:57.420
well, I don't think we've seen too much from Nicolas Maduro. There was a question of the last election,
00:46:01.820
uh, of being outright stolen. Is Brazil, um, becoming the bad boy of South America? What's the
00:46:10.780
relationship with Venezuela and Brazil? Do, do Lula and Maduro get along? Do they, do they have
00:46:17.900
agreements, military or intelligence agreements? Like what, what's really the shape of things?
00:46:22.540
Because I see two bright lights in Bukele and Javier Millet, uh, uh, are, but those are smaller countries
00:46:30.460
than Venezuela and Brazil. Yeah, but Lula is pretty close to Maduro. There is a thing called
00:46:36.780
Foro de Sao Paulo is where all those communists get together to decide the strategy to take power
00:46:45.980
in the whole continent. And Lula is pretty close to Maduro. He always supported Maduro and Maduro
00:46:51.500
didn't become a dictator now. This election was a fraud as many others, but the difference is that
00:46:58.300
Lula is trying to play the good guy, the Democrat here, and he's complaining about, uh, what Maduro did.
00:47:06.700
And asking, uh, proof of the, uh, election process. Uh, he's doing that as a theater to the West,
00:47:14.620
because, uh, in the end of the day, he's, uh, close to Maduro. He sent guys there, the, the movement
00:47:21.660
that invades, uh, private property, rural, uh, in the, in the agro industry, uh, called MST. They are
00:47:30.300
Marxists, they are communists, and, and Maduro celebrated his victory with those guys that are
00:47:36.220
pretty close to Lula as well. So it's a, it's a, a shame, a theater, and everybody knows that.
00:47:42.380
So in the end of the day, yes, Maduro and, and Lula are close. Uh, Maduro is all, always, uh, one step
00:47:52.540
ahead of Lula, but this time, this time he used, uh, some sentences that could be Alexander de Moraes or
00:48:01.020
Lula speaking. Like, uh, who are you to judge what happened in our country? He's a threat to our
00:48:09.500
sovereignty. It's exactly what Lula said about, uh, other governments in the West, uh, complaining about,
00:48:16.860
uh, uh, many things he's been doing. So it's the same, the same strategy theater. And in the end of
00:48:24.220
the day, we are, uh, close to China and Russia. Those are the two system in control in Latin America
00:48:31.900
right now. Well, how does it end? Because I feel some of the same things that you're describing,
00:48:37.740
I think I see them in America, the lawfare, the censorship, um, even God forbid, the two
00:48:44.300
assassination attempts on Donald Trump reminds me when Yair Bolsonaro was stabbed and lost half of
00:48:50.300
the blood in his body just days before the election, uh, uh, last time or two times ago. Um, but I,
00:48:58.140
I feel like everyone in North America knows that it's all coming to a point in less than two months.
00:49:05.660
On November 5th, so much will be decided for America and the world. I'm talking about the
00:49:10.140
presidential election. What's, what's everything aiming to when is the crisis? What's the decision
00:49:17.660
point in Brazil? I saw Bolsonaro lead this huge rally in Sao Paulo. We were right at the front,
00:49:25.660
him and his son and his entourage. Will he be allowed on the ballot? When is that next election?
00:49:32.700
Will the government continue to strangle free speech in the meantime? Like I know everything's
00:49:37.660
pointed to a resolution in America on November 5th. When is decision day in Brazil?
00:49:45.020
Yeah. I don't think Bolsonaro will be able to run again. There are some, uh, followers that are
00:49:51.580
optimistic about it. I'm not, uh, I think the system is, uh, made it very clear that yeah, we, we won't
00:49:59.580
accept it. Maybe, uh, a guy that looks like a right wing guy, a conservative, but in the end of the day
00:50:07.100
is one of us, uh, it's accepted by the system. That's our best, uh, call, I guess. And, uh, we can look
00:50:16.300
at what's going on because it's 2026, the next presidential election, but right now we're in the
00:50:23.100
middle of a mayor election and Sao Paulo is the richest and most important capital of, of our country.
00:50:31.180
Uh, and, uh, Marcel, Pablo Marcel is his name. He's, uh, kind of a new Bolsonaro, the guy, the outsider
00:50:40.380
against the system. Uh, he calls, uh, every, uh, other candidate as a bunch of communists. And, uh,
00:50:48.060
the other day, the other night, uh, one of them took a chair, a chair and, and put in, in his head.
00:50:56.380
I think we got a video of that here. Let's take a look at that. I heard it. Crazy, crazy stuff.
00:51:37.380
Do you think that did that help him or hurt him in the polls?
00:52:05.600
Do people like him more or do they like him less after that chair-smashing incident?
00:52:11.060
I think it helps because people are tired of the system, of the legacy media, corrupt press,
00:52:19.640
and all those communists disguised as Democrats, as liberals.
00:52:26.360
So, yes, I think it makes the point that Pablo Marçal is the outsider candidate there.
00:52:47.140
And people like it, as Bolsonaro was helped in 2018 because of that.
00:52:57.640
We'll follow along on Twitter, even if people in Brazil can't, unless they use maybe a VPN.
00:53:03.320
Rodrigo Constantino, good luck, stay safe, and keep fighting.
00:53:27.720
Trumpington Fanhurst, what a lovely name, says,
00:53:31.820
How would fairly providing Internet to rural people at a low cost provide profit and kickback to Trudeau?
00:53:39.440
I mean, Starlink, and I told you my little anecdote, and I'm sure if you've used Starlink, you're saying, Ezra, yeah, we know.
00:53:45.080
But a lot of people don't know because Starlink is wonderful if you're far flung.
00:53:49.600
That's why it's perfect for the Canadian North.
00:53:51.600
That's why it's so important for Brazil, you know, in the rainforest or whatever.
00:53:55.500
You can get a great solution from Starlink for a few hundred bucks and then pay, I don't know, what is it?
00:54:00.600
I think it's less than a hundred bucks a month.
00:54:10.180
But where's the, if it's not padded, where's the money for the lobbyist?
00:54:23.860
So, but the craziest part is Starlink is working now.
00:54:31.940
You can order your Starlink and get it shipped to your house right now.
00:54:40.900
Is it really going to be as good as Elon Musk's?
00:54:44.960
And they even have to hitch a ride with Elon Musk's satellites.
00:54:50.660
The whole point of government procurement is to spend as much as possible to share the wealth.
00:54:56.740
It's like I mentioned, that multi-billion dollar rail project, high-speed rail project in California.
00:55:01.180
They built like one mile, but they spent billions on it.
00:55:07.080
Dee Flaherty says, isn't Mark Carney the CEO of Telesat?
00:55:12.960
The CEO is a different guy, but Carney is involved with them somehow.
00:55:26.700
Mark Carney has so many fingers and so many pies.
00:55:29.120
And if he were to be hired as a bureaucrat in the civil service or in the PMO,
00:55:33.980
he'd have to go through a bunch of ethics screens,
00:55:36.700
and he'd probably have to divest certain things or recuse himself from certain things.
00:55:40.620
He's been hired as a special advisor, so he can still have all sorts of conflicts of interest
00:55:49.080
I think that Carney is going to be the one they choose to succeed Justin Trudeau.
00:55:53.200
I think Christopher Freeland is the most unlikable person in Ottawa politics,
00:56:01.820
But I think Christopher Freeland would be a disaster for the liberals.
00:56:04.760
Frankly, I think she would do even worse than Justin Trudeau.
00:56:11.200
Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters,