Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ Manny Montenegrino on Conservative leadership, Freedom Convoy, Charter rights

00:00:00.620 Hello, my Rebels. Today, a feature interview with my friend Manny Montenegrino, a leader,

00:00:05.900 an advisor, a lawyer, a political counselor to Preston Manning, Stockwell Day, Stephen

00:00:11.740 Harper. He's been around the Conservative Party. We'll talk to him about the conservative

00:00:15.760 race and the state of freedom. That's ahead. But before I get to the podcast, let me invite

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00:00:24.220 Just go to rebelnewsplus.com. Click subscribe. It's eight bucks a month. But you get this

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00:00:41.800 rebelnewsplus.com. Thanks. Here's today's podcast.

00:00:54.220 Tonight, a feature interview with our friend Manny Montenegrino about the conservative

00:01:04.560 leadership race. It's May 23rd, and this is The Answer of the Vance Show.

00:01:10.400 Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?

00:01:14.120 There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer. The only thing I have to say to the

00:01:19.680 government, but why I publish it is because it's my bloody right to do so.

00:01:29.260 Well, as you know, Rebel News, we always have the Ezra Levant Show, even on stat holidays. We like to

00:01:35.080 take the opportunity, if we can, to have a feature-length interview with someone we'd really

00:01:41.120 like to chew over the news of the day with. So not just our regular guests, but a special guest.

00:01:46.560 And one of our favorites is someone we haven't had on for too long, our friend Manny Montenegrino,

00:01:52.420 who was a senior advisor, lawyer, and counselor to several leaders of the Conservative Party, in fact,

00:01:59.120 predating the merged Conservative Party of Canada, going back all the way to Preston Manning times.

00:02:05.020 That's when I first met him. Our friend Manny Montenegrino is now the boss of ThinkSharp,

00:02:10.720 and he joins us via Skype from Ottawa. Manny, great to see you. It's been too long. I don't even think

00:02:16.600 we've spoken in 2022. Great to have you back on the show.

00:02:19.780 Well, thank you for having me. You're now Grizzly Adams. I get to see Ezra in the macho man look now.

00:02:30.980 You know what? Everyone makes fun of it. I should abandon the attempt. I don't know. I just thought

00:02:37.180 I would grow a beard. It's not really working for me. Manny, you're looking sharp as always. You

00:02:40.800 always are looking very impressive on the show. But what we love talking to you about is you really

00:02:47.380 have the overlapping experience, politics, law, strategy. You've really been in all those

00:02:55.360 different places. And for a variety of Conservative leaders, Preston Manning, Stockwell Day, Stephen

00:03:00.300 Harper. And we are at a very interesting time for the Conservative Party of Canada right now.

00:03:06.220 Give me a download. Give me the Manny brain dump. What do you think of the state of the Conservative

00:03:11.720 Party of Canada today? Well, it's probably as most hopeful as it's been in a long time.

00:03:19.040 And that really makes me feel great. Ezra, I don't know if you know, but I know many young people,

00:03:28.100 young Canadians that are leaving Canada. It's great despair. And the greatest despair, it

00:03:36.680 doesn't come from the economy, jobs and those issues that normally touch us day to day. But

00:03:43.960 it goes to the very DNA of Canada. And that is our freedom. Are we truly a free country? And

00:03:51.400 we have seen, Ezra, we have seen the greatest attack on charter rights since the charter in 1983.

00:04:02.780 And it is, what it does, freedom and the charter does two things. If properly used, it beckons

00:04:12.020 immigrants around the world, come to Canada. It is a free country. You are leaving the oppression

00:04:19.720 of the country that you're at. Come join us to build a great nation. So it's a beacon light. But it's also

00:04:26.740 when not guarded carefully, it repels Canadians to other beacons. And we have seen a what I will call

00:04:35.560 a historic, unprecedented attempts to leave Canada, particularly to Florida. I saw, Ezra, I don't know

00:04:43.940 if you saw, I saw the governor mention that Florida is getting a bunch of new citizens to Florida and

00:04:53.000 many from Canada. Yeah. Let's play a quick clip of that. I just, it's incredible. Normally Canadians 1.00

00:04:59.000 love it when an American notices us, but this wasn't the fondest of mentions. Here's that clip

00:05:04.400 from Governor Ron DeSantis. And there's a reason why people are pouring in to the state of Florida.

00:05:10.060 There's a reason why we've led the country in net in migration. I'm not even asking anybody to come. 1.00

00:05:15.860 You know, some governors beg people to come. I love the people we have here. I'm fine. But people are,

00:05:21.120 they're fleeing a lot of these bad, and not just fleeing other states, they're fleeing from Canada.

00:05:26.860 They're fleeing from other places to be able to come to the state of Florida. And so I realize there may

00:05:32.460 be some people in the state of Florida, not in my party, but some others, politicians who have a soft spot.

00:05:40.060 For dictatorships, like in Cuba, they have a soft spot for people like Maduro and Ortega. And I just

00:05:46.500 want people to know that I have contempt for those views, because those views do not represent the

00:05:52.980 values of the state of Florida, but particularly the values of the people of South Florida.

00:05:57.180 It's exactly right. So I didn't mean to interrupt you. I just wanted to show people that video. Keep

00:06:02.320 going. So yeah, Canadians love Florida at the best of times, but these are not the best of times.

00:06:06.720 Yeah. And so you look at the charter, and what's amazing about the charter, it basically says that

00:06:16.020 the individual has certain guaranteed rights and freedoms. And that's very important to a lot of

00:06:22.480 people. A nation's built on that. Canada has been built on its freedom. Especially if you go back to

00:06:30.880 Canada. And you look at, you know, where I was born in Italy. Well, it's very easy. And Italian is Italian nation. Germans can be easily defined. But Canada was hard to be defined, because we were drawing from all around the world. And he had a

00:06:32.880 a brilliant statement.

00:06:34.880 Sir Ruffin Laurier. And he was asked, and it was a tough question. And he was asked, and it was a tough question. Because, you know, what kind of nation is Canada? And Sir Ruffin Laurier answered, and you look at, you know, where I was born in Italy. Well, it's very easy. And Italian is Italian nation. Germans can be easily defined. But Canada was hard to be defined. Because we were drawing from all around the world. And he had a brilliant statement.

00:07:01.880 He said, freedom is our nationality. And if you look at, and I actually posted this on Instagram, but if you look at your passport, page 16 of your passport, everyone's passport, there is that quote from Sir Wilfrid Laurier, freedom is our nationality. So we're not a nation of a certain race. We're not a nation of a certain skin color, or a certain ethnicity.

00:07:31.880 Or a certain religion. We're a nation that's all bound together by the concept of freedom. And that's what draws us as one. And we've lost that. We've actually not only lost that, but we have destroyed it. And Ezra, I sit, and I'm telling you, and I speak with all seriousness, I sit every day, I wake up, and I'm just sick to my stomach, that there are millions of Canadians upwards to

00:08:01.860 7 million Canadians that have their charter rights trampled every day. And that is Section 2, Freedom of Consciousness, Section 6, Freedom of Mobility. We're the only country in the world where you can't get on a plane and go visit a relative if you have a certain status or if you don't have a certain status.

00:08:24.480 And this is the worst country because we're the largest country. I mean, if it was, you know, if it was, you know, a small little country like Geneva, yeah, you could drive in a couple hours and see your relatives.

00:08:36.440 But you literally cannot see your family member. And if you go in a car, it will take four or five days to do so. So that charter right of mobility, Section 6, it was, you know, and people don't understand this charter was created in 1983. We understood the nation at the time.

00:08:57.040 So when you talk about mobility rights, you're talking about air travel, you're talking about train travel. And then there's obviously the Section 7 of the charter is violated by this, you know, de facto imposition of a mandatory vaccine, you know, your health, your body, your autonomy.

00:09:16.040 So here we have, I mean, at a point in time where, you know, it's great despair to a lot of people saying, is this truly our country? And so people want to leave to somewhere that's free. I mean, my family left Italy for somewhere that was free. It was Canada.

00:09:33.980 We got here in 1959, the greatest nation in the world, the freest nation of the world. It was it was. And from that, we could build a family, we could build a business, we could build, you could build everything from the concept of freedom.

00:09:49.660 And so, so as much and as dark as it was, and it has and continues to be, there's some hope. And the hope is there are a few members of the Conservative candidates that are talking about this issue. It's become a real issue. So with great despair, and I tell you, Ezra, I have been referred to by a Prime Minister of Canada as an unwavering patriot.

00:10:19.080 I mean, I carry, I, that's what he called me. And that's what I believe I am. And I'm telling you, I have been waving. I have been waving. I'm no, because I believe that this country is in deep despair.

00:10:32.700 Wow. Well, you said a lot there. You know, one thing that a friend pointed out to me is a lot of families, you have different choices within that family. There might be a mom who works in healthcare and on pain of losing her job, she had to get the jab.

00:10:48.580 There might be a kid. So you might have a family with different statuses. But if that family wants to go on a vacation, if there's one person who's not vaxxed, they can't go, really. So it's not just the 7 million or whatever.

00:11:00.820 Absolutely.

00:11:01.060 It actually impacts a larger number. And remember, amongst those who did get the jab, some did so willingly, happily, with good, and they're pleased with the result.

00:11:13.340 But of course, many others did so under some sort of duress. So I think that the problem's actually larger than the media party lets on, larger than Trudeau and Omar Al-Gabra let on.

00:11:25.460 But in the last week or so, it's really hit a critical point, hasn't it? And I'm pleased that the Conservatives are raising it all the time in Parliament.

00:11:32.140 Here's a quick clip of Melissa Lansman, the transport critic for the Conservatives, raising it just this week in Parliament, or last week in Parliament. Take a look.

00:11:40.600 The decision to cling to restrictions and mandates, why is it such a secret? Will the Minister tell this House, finally, what specific advice he's getting to keep them?

00:11:54.420 When he got it last, when he's going to get it next, will he table that advice in the House for all Canadians, or will he continue to hide it from Canadians while they're stuck in line at Pearson?

00:12:10.600 Thank you, Madam Speaker. The evidence is not secret, Madam Speaker. Everyone knows that vaccines save lives. In the United States, 165,000 lives would have been saved just during the Omicron crisis if they had had a better vaccination uptake.

00:12:31.040 165,000 lives, Madam Speaker, in the Omicron crisis? That's 50% more people than in any one of our writing in this House.

00:12:40.600 I'm pleased that the Conservatives are digging into it now, Manny. I wish they would have been a harder line on this before, but I don't think their former leader let them.

00:12:49.560 Well, exactly. And that's a very good point, and I'm glad you raised it, because people are questioning certain candidates. Why didn't you raise it earlier?

00:12:57.700 Well, that's the answer. But boy, are they raising it now.

00:13:01.040 Now, Ezra, I'm going to tie something in, because you love when I tie things in, but I'll give you that legal analysis of Omar Qadar and his violation of charter rights.

00:13:12.560 Omar Qadar or Omar al-Jabra?

00:13:14.100 Oh, sorry. No, no, no. No, no, no, no, no. I do mean Omar Qadar. No, no, wait a minute. Leave me there. This is a jihadist that was found guilty of murder.

00:13:24.420 OK, good. For one second. You know what? OK, I'm sorry. It was my mistake.

00:13:30.500 Yeah. My mistake. We're talking about the guy who was at Guantanamo Bay. Right. Right.

00:13:34.420 He brought back to Canada. Oh, I know. Sorry. I interrupted you, Manny. Keep going. You're talking about Omar Qadar. Go ahead.

00:13:39.920 Right. Now, remember that time. And the prime minister, you know, the most disingenuous person that I've ever heard, Justin Trudeau stood up and preached about Omar Qadar's charter rights.

00:13:56.320 And what what happened with Omar Qadar? Very simply, he was a jihadist. He was a he pled guilty to murder.

00:14:05.580 You couldn't get a more debased Canadian who sat and fought against the troops. 0.88

00:14:13.020 But he was brought to Guantanamo Bay, which is basically American territory.

00:14:18.460 What Canada did not do in 2003 when they sent someone to interview him was read him as charter rights.

00:14:27.320 And now, Ezra, I'm going to be a little bit long on this, but I'll try to be as quick as possible.

00:14:32.880 In 2003, the status of the law in Canada, when Omar Qadar was caught, was he did not enjoy charter rights outside the boundaries of Canada.

00:14:42.700 And so he did not he could not bring the claim. But they brought a claim to the Supreme Court saying in certain circumstances, charter rights should apply, even if you're not on Canadian soil.

00:14:56.540 And in 2010, the Supreme Court of Canada said, yes, his charter rights do apply in Guantanamo Bay.

00:15:03.680 So then it was retroactively put back to 2003 when he was brought in. Now, that was a charter right violation.

00:15:12.260 What what did the Canadian government do? Did they beat him? Did they intern him? They did nothing.

00:15:18.140 They asked questions without giving him his charter rights. Pretty, pretty minor.

00:15:25.080 If you look at the egregious things that you can do with charter rights, Trudeau stood up and said his charter rights have been violated and he deserves something.

00:15:39.120 In my opinion, if I argued it, he would not have got a penny because simply there were no additional damages that Canada caused Omar Qadar.

00:15:49.540 All the damages were done by America. All the damages were done by America. Canada could not have taken him out.

00:15:54.360 But in any event, he got 10 million dollars. And I listened to Prime Minister Trudeau when he gave a lecture to Canadians how important charter rights, even in this smallest of small cases.

00:16:08.560 The charter prevailed and Omar Qadar got his charter right remedy. 0.98

00:16:15.180 Well, right now, six to seven million Canadians are actually being affected.

00:16:22.760 They can't get on a plane. They can't go to work. They lost their jobs.

00:16:27.820 Their bodies are being taken over by the state.

00:16:31.760 These is this is much more substantial charter violation than Omar Qadar even saw from Canada.

00:16:39.660 So so so when you put the two together, what I mean, these Canadians did not murder anybody.

00:16:46.080 They did not join Al Qaeda. They did not come and try to kill other Canadian troops.

00:16:51.480 All they wanted to do was go work in their home alone for the government.

00:16:57.440 Yeah. Yeah. And so so so when you look at that, that's a huge, you know, body blow to what Canada is.

00:17:06.780 And it has to be restored. And if it doesn't get restored, Canada is no longer the country that I know or that, you know,

00:17:15.380 and we need a new leader from the Conservative Party who understands that to the core of his DNA.

00:17:22.740 You know, that's a it's a great contrast of charter rights.

00:17:26.280 But here's the thing, Manny, we are now 26 months into this state of emergency.

00:17:33.620 I believe we're the only country in the world that does not let unvaccinated people fly or take the train. 1.00

00:17:38.440 And it doesn't even make sense because you could be someone who has naturally recovered as natural immunity.

00:17:44.980 You're not allowed on the train or plane because you're not that right versus someone who is double or triple vaxxed and actually catches COVID again.

00:17:54.140 And it's not it's not screened out. It's so upside down.

00:17:57.380 But here we are 26 months into this and the and the Supreme Court of Canada and even lower courts,

00:18:04.640 there has not been a single substantial case that I can think of where the courts have rolled back some of these civil liberties violations.

00:18:16.440 I know there is a lawsuit afoot. Brian Peckford is one of the plaintiffs on the airfare side.

00:18:21.560 Right. That's not even scheduled to go to trial.

00:18:26.160 September. September. Yeah.

00:18:28.200 September. So so, Manny, where is this sainted document, the Charter of Rights?

00:18:35.320 And where are our courts, those guardians of our rights?

00:18:38.420 We're in into our third year of these lockdowns and the courts have not been there for us.

00:18:44.940 Neither is the Charter.

00:18:46.340 No, I agree. Ezra, the only thing I can say is the breed of lawyers today

00:18:50.800 are different than the Charter baby lawyers when I got called to the bar.

00:18:55.180 But even the judges. But even. Yeah.

00:18:57.020 But OK, the lawyers. But most judges are more senior.

00:19:00.360 They're in their 50s, 60s. Some are even in the 70s.

00:19:03.880 So these are people who would have had those older civil liberties sensibilities.

00:19:10.960 Like the federal court of a federal court.

00:19:13.300 I know because we were involved in this lawsuit.

00:19:16.120 This was on the airport quarantines.

00:19:18.820 One of our reporters at the time, Kian Bextie, flew into Canada.

00:19:22.500 He was required to quarantine in an airport instead of to go home.

00:19:26.080 By the way, he counted he had 14 personal interactions.

00:19:29.680 Yeah. At this quarantine facility instead of just getting into his own car going home.

00:19:34.100 Now, the judge in that case, federal court of Canada, I think it was the chief judge,

00:19:39.720 said not only was there no charter violation, there was no detention at all.

00:19:44.040 So that chief judge said, no, no, nothing to see here.

00:19:47.400 No, I understand.

00:19:49.280 So where do you go for help if not for our charter, for our judge?

00:19:53.280 You know, Ezra, you're bringing me back to my despair of a few months ago.

00:19:58.920 Let me continue with my hope of maybe this will change.

00:20:03.620 Please. I need it too. I need the hope.

00:20:06.060 Well, I mean, Ezra, I mean, I tell you, first of all, you've got to talk about it.

00:20:11.160 And we're seeing it.

00:20:12.900 Pierre Polivar is an absolute leader.

00:20:16.240 And he gets it.

00:20:17.420 And he gets it to his core.

00:20:20.220 And he's been messaging it.

00:20:22.560 As soon as other people message it, and as soon as people like Ezra, back in 1980, when I was called to the bar, every politician was talking about charter rights.

00:20:35.460 Every media was talking about charter rights.

00:20:38.560 Everybody understood every article.

00:20:41.080 It was it was it was like living in heaven.

00:20:44.460 People were talking about how to protect the individual.

00:20:47.700 And Ezra, you know, let me tell you, the greatest thing that you can do to unite Canadians, it isn't about skin color, sexual orientation, gender.

00:20:59.820 It is about values that we believe in.

00:21:02.420 Ezra, I'll tell you something extremely funny.

00:21:06.500 When I was working for Preston Manning.

00:21:10.780 And here's this Italian immigrant that that comes from a different nation.

00:21:15.820 And he is in sync with Preston Manning, because what bound us was not a race, not our culture.

00:21:22.580 What bound us was this concept of freedom, unity and the charter and what those Canadians values are.

00:21:30.380 You know, I will never be a black person.

00:21:33.580 I will never be a female. 0.98

00:21:35.680 I will never be a transgender, but I will be with these people in unison about a Canadian value of freedom.

00:21:45.120 We could sit side by side.

00:21:46.760 And that's what we've got to be building.

00:21:48.900 We can't we are dividing people all the time on matters that are divisible.

00:21:54.500 We are not uniting people.

00:21:56.460 We are.

00:21:56.760 And the unification is under values such as freedom, such as, you know, everyone enumerated in the charter rights.

00:22:05.400 I mean, you look at Roman Baber.

00:22:08.780 I mean, he comes from a different country than I do, a different immigrant.

00:22:12.500 But boy, does he sound like me.

00:22:14.700 Yeah, I really like hearing him.

00:22:16.380 You know, I admire what he's saying.

00:22:18.580 And he paid a price for it.

00:22:19.880 He was thrown out of Ford's caucus.

00:22:22.780 Absolutely.

00:22:23.400 But there's a guy that gets it because it's still new to him.

00:22:28.040 It's new to me because because I immigrated.

00:22:31.720 He immigrated.

00:22:32.540 He still has the scars.

00:22:34.200 Unfortunately, Canadians have been here a long time. 1.00

00:22:37.640 Don't understand the scars of not having your freedoms.

00:22:41.580 And they think they take it.

00:22:43.340 I think it was John F. Kennedy that said freedom is one generation away from being lost.

00:22:50.740 And that's and people don't get it.

00:22:53.300 Roman Baber gets it.

00:22:56.140 Pierre Polivar gets it.

00:22:58.300 And they're the two that are really talking about this.

00:23:01.800 And and I think it is what's going to say, Canada, Ezra, we had something that I thought I'd never see in my lifetime.

00:23:11.140 The Canadian chartered banks working in hand with the state seizing money, seizing money, seizing money without a judicial process.

00:23:19.360 Absolutely terrifying.

00:23:20.740 I think that spooked millions of people.

00:23:23.360 I have heard so many anecdotes and we've got in an access information request trying to see if the government measured.

00:23:30.360 But it would not surprise me if literally millions of people moved billions of dollars out of Canada.

00:23:37.800 Just think, well, I don't I've seen this movie in totalitarian and authoritarian regimes.

00:23:43.500 And I know this is the time to get my cash out.

00:23:46.340 Wouldn't surprise me if billions fled the country.

00:23:48.540 Well, that that to me was one of the canaries in the coal mine of the end of freedom in Canada.

00:23:55.420 We all have already seen our great institutions being co-opted.

00:24:01.440 I mean, I don't want to get into a a long thesis of the RCMB being co-opted by the government,

00:24:07.940 but I can almost prove it beyond a reasonable doubt that that institution is no longer as independent.

00:24:15.580 I believe the Bank of Canada is not as independent as it once was.

00:24:20.600 They should have pulled this trigger on on increasing rates years ago.

00:24:25.060 And now it's almost a bit too late.

00:24:27.860 So most of our institutions that are controlled, the governor general, Ezra, Ezra, how the hell did we have an election?

00:24:37.940 Last year, when we had all four, three parties saying they have confidence in the government.

00:24:45.840 Right. Yeah, it is.

00:24:47.200 It is. It is impossible to have had an election.

00:24:50.500 Ezra, the governor general has one job, one job alone.

00:24:54.580 And that is to say to the prime minister, do you have confidence?

00:24:58.180 We are not throwing the people into into an election.

00:25:00.920 And if you don't have confidence in government, I have no choice.

00:25:03.940 But the people deserve a government that's functioning.

00:25:06.480 They was a functional government.

00:25:09.580 All three leaders, the NDP, the conservative, wrote a letter saying, no, there's confidence there.

00:25:15.460 There was no constitutional ability to call an election.

00:25:20.680 And there was a law on the books, as you know, under the Elections Act, that the election had to partake in four years.

00:25:27.360 So you have a law and you have constitutional precedent and you still had an election.

00:25:32.260 So that institution, in my in my view, is marked.

00:25:35.780 But but it crept outside with the banks.

00:25:38.880 Banks are not part of government.

00:25:40.680 And and when the banks I if I were advising the bank at that time or any bank, I'd be saying, I don't care what the emergency act is tested in court.

00:25:52.200 Go and fight it and fight it, because what you are saying is once the banks creep into as as an arm of the government, then we've lost everything.

00:26:02.660 Yeah. Oh, absolutely terrifying.

00:26:04.760 And I note that none of them did object.

00:26:07.260 I understand.

00:26:08.200 I read those Emergencies Act orders carefully.

00:26:10.460 And one of them applied to U.S. banks doing business in Canada and U.S. insurance companies doing business in Canada.

00:26:18.940 And that's a lot of banks.

00:26:20.200 I understand that none of the American banks complied.

00:26:23.840 At least I haven't heard reports that they did, which tells me that the Canadian banks didn't need to apply also.

00:26:30.280 But they they it sounds like they were certainly quite willing to do so and and and didn't put up a fight.

00:26:35.900 Yeah. And to me, that is the greatest fight that should have had, because basically the banks should be saying that the moment that we are seeing as an arm of prosecution for the government, then we are no longer there in the trust of the of the Canadian citizens.

00:26:56.100 So, I mean, you look at all the institutions as there's a there's a there's a there's a great line by Justice Clarence Thomas talking about in America about how the institutions are are are are are slowly being co-opted by government.

00:27:14.140 And where does where does America stand after these great institutions are being co-opted?

00:27:19.200 And Clarence Thomas made that statement. And you look at the FBI in the states and you look at other great institutions that are seem to be political arms of a certain party.

00:27:31.140 Well, when you lose your institutions and in Canada, it's much worse.

00:27:34.920 I don't know what the confidence is of the RCMP when there is.

00:27:39.600 I looked at the law on obstruction of justice with the SNC-Lavalin.

00:27:43.260 And Ezra, it made every point of that section 139.1 of the criminal code.

00:27:50.440 Justin Trudeau breached every one of those and it didn't even get a review.

00:27:56.140 So when you have the RCMP, you have the Governor General, you have the Bank of Canada and maybe the banks for the first time and all our institutions can be gathered at the political will.

00:28:08.920 And then you have the Charter of Rights, you know, basically, you know, shotgunned with three sections being hold.

00:28:19.760 I mean, Charter, the Section 2, the Charter Right of Freedom of Conscience.

00:28:26.200 Ezra, right now, you know this. You know this.

00:28:30.000 There are people that are going before the federal government and being interviewed about the religious status.

00:28:36.940 Not in conference, but who are you? What do you believe in? Are you a Jew? Are you not a Jew? 0.91

00:28:46.120 You know, this sounds like it's just terrible.

00:28:49.620 I mean, and questions and livelihoods are affected by this inquisition.

00:28:55.060 I never had thought in my life that I would be seeing people questioned in those ways.

00:29:01.880 And so when you put it all together, I really do think we're at the darkest moment in Canadian history.

00:29:09.540 But it also could be the brightest moment in the sense, you know, and I think of how Pierre Polivare is doing a great job.

00:29:17.160 But if he can rally all Canadians and put, you know, and I see it happening. 0.90

00:29:22.660 I see a bunch of PPCs running to Pierre. I see liberals.

00:29:27.080 I know if we could all collate under what was once the Canadian value, which was freedom,

00:29:33.580 and we get back to creating a great country instead of picking it apart like a carcass, like a vulture picks a carcass.

00:29:41.320 You know, like, you know, Canada is now a carcass lying down,

00:29:45.720 and everyone's picking it apart for its sins of the past, and no one's talking about, you know, letting this bird fly again.

00:29:53.500 And so we are at the greatest despair, in my opinion.

00:29:58.600 But boy, oh boy, it could be a great moment of rebuilding.

00:30:04.200 Well, I heard Pierre Polivare give a speech just last couple of nights ago,

00:30:08.160 and it was very interesting to hear him talk because it was the language that a generation ago you might expect from the NDP.

00:30:17.860 It was the language of workers and grassroots people and young people trying to scrape together money to buy a home for themselves

00:30:24.280 and how if you don't have a home already, if you have a home, maybe there's skyrocketing property values, you're loving it,

00:30:32.440 but if you don't have one, you'll never get in there.

00:30:34.620 It was very much a worker's speech.

00:30:36.840 Well, yep, and it was a speech.

00:30:39.980 I mean, he speaks to the immigrant in me.

00:30:43.040 I mean, he speaks to a guy that came to this great country and just loved it so much

00:30:49.060 that he gave a lot of volunteer hours to make this country a better country.

00:30:55.060 And he's speaking to us.

00:30:57.480 And you know what? 0.90

00:30:58.360 I could be black.

00:30:59.660 I could be from a different – we all speak that language. 0.97

00:31:03.380 I mean, you have to have understood when you have left your homeland because they thought you were trash or they could do whatever they want to,

00:31:14.920 and you come to this great land and they embrace you.

00:31:17.940 I mean, you know, Pierre Poliver is married to a Venezuelan refugee.

00:31:24.340 I mean, you know, you can't get it closer to home than understanding what built this great country.

00:31:32.060 And so when he gets it – and I hope his wife kind of chirps him every day how important it is because I certainly chirp my kids every day.

00:31:43.280 My kids were born in this country, but boy, oh boy, they haven't lost the lesson of this great country,

00:31:49.380 what it is to be free and what it is to fight for freedom and what it is – you know, Canada by far was the greatest country in the world

00:32:00.860 because it put people under the flag of freedom.

00:32:07.080 We've lost that, and America is being – was constitutionally a greater country of freedom because it had its constitutional rights in 1776.

00:32:19.720 But by God, when we put them up in 1983, we were as good if not better than America.

00:32:25.420 And you know what?

00:32:26.800 Boy, oh boy, did they do some great damage to that great document.

00:32:30.720 Well, let's talk – I appreciate the – covering the underlying freedom issues.

00:32:38.140 Yeah.

00:32:38.760 I'm glad we talked about the lockdown and the charter.

00:32:42.780 But I want to focus on the party.

00:32:45.160 We've talked about Pierre Polyevin, and he uses the word freedom.

00:32:48.600 He says he wants to make Canada the freest country in the world, and I'm really refreshed to hear that.

00:32:54.100 Why don't we – and you mentioned Roman Baper as well.

00:32:56.640 Yeah.

00:32:56.840 So I would like your take quickly on Jean Charest, on Patrick Brown, and on Leslyn Lewis.

00:33:06.700 And I know there's a couple other candidates too.

00:33:08.740 Yeah.

00:33:09.040 But let me ask you for short snappers.

00:33:11.620 I heard your comments about Roman Baper.

00:33:13.220 I like the guy too, and he came – for those who don't know him well, he's an Ontario provincial MPP,

00:33:18.960 came from the former Soviet Union, and that's one of his themes of freedom.

00:33:22.880 So I like what he has to say.

00:33:24.080 We talked about Pierre.

00:33:26.700 What do you have to say about, for example, Jean Charest?

00:33:32.680 Probably he ranks as my least favorite in the bunch.

00:33:36.940 Really?

00:33:37.300 Why is that?

00:33:38.120 Well, because, Ezra, Charest – I'd ask him one question.

00:33:44.760 Will you run in a riding in the event that you lose?

00:33:49.280 And the answer, of course he's not going to.

00:33:52.000 Right.

00:33:52.620 And, you know, so, I mean, no one's put that question to him, but I would put the question to him.

00:33:58.740 He decided to run not when – not the first time when Stephen Harper left the party.

00:34:09.800 Not the second time, but now the third time, and that tells me a lot.

00:34:17.500 But what is it substantively?

00:34:18.860 I mean, you're asking the question – I mean, you're asking – the questions you just poured, like, would you run if you lose?

00:34:24.060 Okay.

00:34:24.520 Right.

00:34:24.720 But that doesn't – tell me – what is it – tell me the ideas, the idea or the substance or the track record.

00:34:32.300 What has he done that makes you rank him last?

00:34:35.080 You know, I'm not going to get into the fact that he was a liberal and he has the taxes.

00:34:39.820 And, you know, Pierre Polver has done a good job of that.

00:34:42.140 I'm going to talk to you from a Canadian point of view.

00:34:44.360 And that is, for the love of God, he's sitting there and siding with the illegal criminalization of people that saw freedom with a convoy.

00:34:58.340 What are you – this is a time in Canada that we need to bring back freedom and bring back Canada to where it was, the freest country in the world.

00:35:07.800 For him to sit there and say that this was criminal activity.

00:35:11.660 I live in Ottawa.

00:35:12.840 I mean, they may – I mean, they honked the horns and they were told to stop and they did.

00:35:19.020 They didn't occupy – you know, I would love to see an analogy between Portland in America versus Ottawa.

00:35:28.540 There was no occupation.

00:35:30.280 They used the language of occupation.

00:35:33.640 But, I mean, it was – I mean, you took somebody's freedoms away.

00:35:37.980 You took – you were vindictive.

00:35:39.900 You took the freedoms at the end of the pandemic of people that sit alone in their cab, that were heroes for two and a half years, that sit alone and bring us our food.

00:35:50.000 And you wanted to vindictively punish them.

00:35:53.040 Yeah.

00:35:53.460 And they came.

00:35:54.520 So, when I think of Charest, basically setting that aside as if that's nothing, that goes to the core of everything in Canada.

00:36:03.020 If it's not the trucker today, it's rebel news tomorrow.

00:36:07.080 It's Manny Monteregrino will not be allowed to do an interview again.

00:36:11.600 And his bank account is going to be seized.

00:36:14.700 That's what I see of the progression.

00:36:17.280 And Charest is not fighting for that.

00:36:19.020 So, I have no interest.

00:36:20.360 And there's a whole bunch of – I can get into the technical stuff about his taxation, being a liberal, and being from Quebec, and all what he's done in the past.

00:36:29.120 But, really, that one's to the core of me. 0.97

00:36:31.500 If he's not – and, you know, damn it, he's a lawyer. 0.75

00:36:34.180 I think he's my age, if not. 0.75

00:36:36.360 But he's – we call ourselves charter babies, the guys that graduated from law around the time of the charter.

00:36:43.540 That is – if he doesn't – if it doesn't burn him to the core, then he should be serving Canadians.

00:36:50.860 And, you know, you look at Patford.

00:36:52.820 God bless him.

00:36:53.980 I mean, I don't know how old he is now, but he – but it burns him to the core that he's taking the case to the federal court, Brian Patford.

00:37:00.440 That's the kind of guy that understands what Canada is.

00:37:05.200 Charest, oh, well, you know, said to many people, you know, their rights were violated.

00:37:10.300 You know, who cares? 0.98

00:37:11.460 They're all criminals. 0.96

00:37:12.680 And, you know, I'm not into that game. 0.99

00:37:14.700 Yeah.

00:37:15.060 And, by the way, when everyone says illegal occupation, I note that no one has been convicted of anything yet.

00:37:22.120 There were no weapons offenses or charges for violence.

00:37:24.960 And I went down there, and there were roads that were being blocked by the police.

00:37:29.380 Every one of those other roads had a passable lane kept open for emergency vehicles.

00:37:34.540 But let's move on.

00:37:35.140 You talk about Charest.

00:37:36.680 Now, what about Patrick Brown?

00:37:38.860 Former MP, former mayor, former provincial BC leader, now mayor again.

00:37:44.900 What do you make of him?

00:37:46.160 I mean, I know Patrick personally.

00:37:48.620 And I'm not on his game.

00:37:52.980 I'm not on his plan.

00:37:56.620 And simply what he – I think the big mistake he made is that he said he would enforce a no-fly zone in the Ukraine.

00:38:06.380 And that really is very dangerous.

00:38:10.160 I mean, Canadians don't want – I think we were dragged into the wrong war in Afghanistan.

00:38:14.120 A lot of young men died and women, Canadian men and women.

00:38:19.300 I think that is a huge fundamental mistake.

00:38:22.280 And it speaks more to his not understanding the position of being prime minister.

00:38:28.100 And that really knocked me out.

00:38:30.960 That knocked him out.

00:38:31.860 I mean, Patrick's a good man.

00:38:33.500 He does good work.

00:38:34.640 But that says, no, you don't get it, bud.

00:38:39.260 You can't put – you can't start a nuclear war because, you know, you might get a few more votes.

00:38:45.060 Yeah.

00:38:45.800 How about Leslie Lewis?

00:38:47.300 I think she's interesting.

00:38:48.620 I feel like she's come a long way since she ran in the last election to be an MP.

00:38:53.320 What's your take on her?

00:38:54.780 You know, very impressive.

00:38:55.960 And unfortunately, the media has done a great job in painting her as this one-issue person, you know, a social conservative.

00:39:07.020 And therefore, thus, you must, you know, ignore her.

00:39:09.720 And I think the media has done a job on that.

00:39:12.980 I think she needs to – I mean, even, you know, you look at Pierre, and I've known him for a long time.

00:39:18.960 He wasn't ready the last time.

00:39:21.060 He wasn't ready the time before.

00:39:23.300 And I as much told him that.

00:39:25.240 And he is certainly ready now.

00:39:29.000 He's honed some great skills.

00:39:31.360 I think, you know, Roman and Leslie need to hone some skills.

00:39:36.380 They are going to be great leaders in time.

00:39:39.580 But now is not the time.

00:39:41.640 And, you know, Ezra, you know, here's how – I'm going to say this to every conservative that's listening to your show.

00:39:50.060 If you're confused about which person to vote for or which person would be the best candidate and you don't want to do all the homework as to what does he stand for, what does she stand for?

00:40:05.760 Just simply look at the legacy media, the fake news media.

00:40:10.980 Who are they attacking the most?

00:40:13.480 Who are they?

00:40:14.560 And I look – so every time I question, am I supporting the right guy?

00:40:19.080 Oh, my God.

00:40:20.000 There's another Pierre Polivar hit piece.

00:40:21.900 I'm saying I must be on the right guy.

00:40:24.420 You know, that's a good rule of thumb.

00:40:26.540 Well, listen, Manny, I feel the same way you do.

00:40:29.420 I feel like the truckers, by helping to depose Aaron O'Toole, have given the conservative party a fresh chance.

00:40:37.680 Yeah.

00:40:37.840 And I think that perhaps Pierre Polivar, maybe he wasn't ready.

00:40:41.620 Maybe he made a mistake by not running last time.

00:40:43.800 I saw him in action the other day, and I think he's hitting his stride.

00:40:49.120 Huge crowds.

00:40:50.700 The polls seem to be ticking up for the conservatives.

00:40:53.920 Yeah.

00:40:54.400 And I agree with you.

00:40:55.640 I think it's about time someone took on the establishment.

00:40:58.940 I think he's doing a good job.

00:41:00.460 Ezra, I'll give you a little kind of kid bit note.

00:41:02.640 I have a family, a relative, a loose connection family relative, who's a Hollywood liberal producer.

00:41:14.560 And they came down, he and his family came down to Ottawa, a Canadian, of course, through the truckers march.

00:41:25.280 The trucker moved, the trucker's movement moved a Hollywood liberal.

00:41:33.000 And what he and I have not agreed on many things in politics, but what we do agree on is individual freedom.

00:41:40.800 So when Manny and a Hollywood liberal are shoulder to shoulder fighting on an issue, that's a great nation.

00:41:48.400 And I think that's what's before us.

00:41:50.920 Well, my friend, it's great to catch up with you.

00:41:52.860 I can sense your excitement about things changing.

00:41:55.900 I feel it, too.

00:41:56.880 I was.

00:41:57.220 Yeah, I was.

00:41:58.360 You know, Ezra, I'll tell you another.

00:42:00.560 I mean, you know, I'll tell you something.

00:42:02.060 When the truckers came to Ottawa, I'm a senior citizen.

00:42:07.280 I've had a lot of battles in my life.

00:42:09.680 I literally cried when they came.

00:42:12.740 I cried, Ezra, because there's no greater taste, no greater emotional taste than freedom.

00:42:22.860 And people who have fought for freedoms in many, many ways, whether it be the gay community, whether it be the Jews, whether it be immigrants.

00:42:31.620 When we fought for freedom, there's nothing greater that unites us to all when the fight for freedom.

00:42:36.960 And those truckers, everybody let me down.

00:42:39.780 But those truckers were the ones.

00:42:42.780 And it was a multiracial, multi-ethnic group.

00:42:45.840 And, you know, to see Trudeau and Jagmeet Singh and the media try and denounce them as racist.

00:42:50.540 I went down there and there were, you know, there were a tremendous diversity of people.

00:42:54.620 By the way, a lot of truckers in this country happen to be Sikh or other Indo-Canadians.

00:42:59.300 So the majority of truckers in Canada, I think upwards of 60 percent, are Sikhs.

00:43:05.780 Sikhs and they get it too. 1.00

00:43:07.900 Yeah, to call them racist is nuts. 0.94

00:43:10.000 Yeah, yeah.

00:43:10.640 But when you see, this is the beauty of it.

00:43:12.820 And this is the beauty of Canada.

00:43:14.540 We are not a great nation because we're a bunch of silos. 1.00

00:43:18.740 You know, all different things banging into each other.

00:43:21.320 We're a great nation because we have fundamental values.

00:43:25.440 You know, almost like the earth's crust.

00:43:27.300 You know, you have the water at one level.

00:43:30.480 You have the growing.

00:43:31.880 You know, you have all the various levels in that.

00:43:34.540 You grow a great nation.

00:43:36.500 And freedom, liberties, respect, trust.

00:43:40.940 You know, you're talking about civility.

00:43:43.560 When the prime minister of Canada, and Ezra, there's a clip that you've seen with the American talk show host.

00:43:52.860 And, you know, refers to Trudeau as Hitler by referring to these unvaxxed, misogynist.

00:44:00.480 I mean, this is, you know, if you want to build a great nation, you build it from its foundation.

00:44:07.220 And you need a foundation that unites us all.

00:44:09.800 Yeah.

00:44:10.480 And values do that.

00:44:11.940 I want to throw a quick clip because that clip you mentioned, I want to make sure people see it here.

00:44:15.300 Take a look at this.

00:44:17.660 Justin Trudeau.

00:44:19.500 What?

00:44:19.940 You're laughing, but Justin Trudeau, I mean, I thought he was kind of a cool guy.

00:44:25.540 And I started to read what he said.

00:44:28.160 This is a couple of weeks ago.

00:44:29.560 He was, or maybe this is September, but he was talking about people who are not vaccinated.

00:44:35.220 He said they don't believe in science.

00:44:37.080 They're often misogynistic, often racist.

00:44:39.400 No, they're not. 0.53

00:44:40.200 That was not smart of him at all.

00:44:41.860 Right.

00:44:42.240 He said, but they take up space.

00:44:44.400 And with that, we have to make a choice in terms of a leader as a country.

00:44:49.320 Do we tolerate these people?

00:44:51.280 It's like, tolerate these?

00:44:52.440 Now you do sound like Hitler.

00:44:53.840 No, that's, that, that was.

00:44:54.720 And recently, he talked about them holding, holding unacceptable views.

00:44:59.760 Wow.

00:45:00.060 This, yeah.

00:45:01.000 I'm surprised to hear that Trudeau said those things.

00:45:04.400 You didn't see the black face?

00:45:05.440 I mean, he's, he's, no, I'm kidding about that.

00:45:09.620 I'm not, I mean, that was not a good look for him.

00:45:13.500 But, I mean, come on.

00:45:16.360 All right, Manny, that's a great note to end on.

00:45:19.160 Good to see you, my friend.

00:45:20.300 Good to see you.

00:45:20.900 Let's not let so much time pass before the next time.

00:45:23.620 And, and I tell you, when this conservative leadership race starts to close up, I hope

00:45:28.920 we can come back to you to help.

00:45:30.400 Yeah, sure.

00:45:31.180 Yeah.

00:45:31.400 I'll do that.

00:45:32.340 But, Ezra, two things I want to know.

00:45:33.520 Is Pierre being good to you, good to Rebel? 0.56

00:45:36.500 Well, you know what?

00:45:38.480 We talk to him when we send people to his events.

00:45:41.320 To be candid, he hasn't had a lot of media availabilities.

00:45:45.820 So, we've only caught him coming and going in, you know, like in a parking lot or coming

00:45:52.200 and going from the event.

00:45:53.480 But we have not had to sit down with him yet.

00:45:55.360 I hope we do get one.

00:45:56.460 Yeah, well, I will push that from my side because it's, you know, enough's enough.

00:46:02.020 But, you know, the other thing I like about him is he gets it like you get it and like

00:46:05.980 I get it.

00:46:06.560 He gets it.

00:46:07.500 He gets the media. 1.00

00:46:08.800 And if he gets the media, he better not do something stupid like the other guys did 1.00

00:46:12.860 on Rebel. 0.99

00:46:13.740 And if he does, I'll be disappointed.

00:46:15.820 But, you know, but I will speak to him on that.

00:46:18.440 Yeah.

00:46:19.160 Right on.

00:46:19.700 Well, great to catch up with you, my friend.

00:46:21.400 Okay.

00:46:21.540 Take care.

00:46:22.260 Take care.

00:46:22.640 You too.

00:46:22.940 Well, that's a nice note to end on.

00:46:35.980 Today, we were talking with our friend Manny Montenegreno, CEO of ThinkSharp via Skype from

00:46:40.400 Ottawa.

00:46:41.340 It's good to talk with him.

00:46:42.480 He cares about freedom so very much, doesn't he?

00:46:44.580 And he truly believes that Canada's nature is to be free.

00:46:47.700 I hope he's right on that.

00:46:48.860 And we'll catch up with him again as the months go by on this leadership race.

00:46:53.560 That's it for today.

00:46:54.680 I hope you enjoyed that conversation.

00:46:56.300 We'll be back tomorrow.

00:46:57.340 Until then, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, see you at home.

00:47:01.120 Good night.

00:47:02.060 And keep fighting for freedom.

00:47:03.120 Thank you.

Rebel News Podcast - May 24, 2022

EZRA LEVANT ｜ Manny Montenegrino on Conservative leadership, Freedom Convoy, Charter rights

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