Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT： Manny Montenegrino Performs An Ethical Audit of Justin Trudeau

00:00:00.000 Hello, my Rebels. Today, one of our fan favorites, people love Manny Montenegrino.

00:00:05.540 And I know why. First of all, he's a character, great sense of humor,

00:00:09.060 but he's got so much wisdom and experience. I mean, the guy has been around politics, law,

00:00:14.500 journalism, and he makes connections. One of the signs of intelligence is finding patterns or

00:00:19.600 relating things to each other. And Manny comes up with ideas and linkages that I just don't think

00:00:25.300 of until he mentions them and then they're clear as day. I really like him. He's got a great sense

00:00:29.120 of humor and he's just so smart. So we're going to have a talk with him today. An idea that I've

00:00:35.780 never heard of before, an ethical audit of Justin Trudeau. Well, you know how that's going to go.

00:00:41.200 But first, let me invite you to get the video version of this podcast. Go to rebelnewsplus.com,

00:00:46.820 rebelnewsplus.com. Click subscribe. It's eight bucks a month. I can't believe it's that cheap,

00:00:51.740 frankly. I think we're the cheapest podcast around, but we do need that dough because it adds up. That's

00:00:56.660 how we pay our bills here. We don't take any money from the government, which is why we can be so

00:01:00.640 free. So do it because it's great video content, but also do it to keep us strong. Please go to

00:01:06.120 rebelnewsplus.com and click subscribe. All right, thanks. Here's my friend Manny.

00:01:10.480 Tonight, an ethical audit of Trudeau's liberal government. It's April 7th, and this is the

00:01:32.020 Ezra LeVant Show. You know, I don't follow everything that Warren Buffett says, but I heard

00:01:51.800 once how he hires people, and it stuck with me. He said he hires for honesty, for intelligence,

00:02:00.760 and for work ethic in that order. He says, honesty has to be the most important thing because you

00:02:08.600 don't want a dishonest person, and you certainly don't want a clever, hardworking, dishonest person

00:02:14.860 in your company. Honesty and character, he said, was the most important. And that's an interesting

00:02:21.180 thing to hear from one of the world's richest men. You would think cleverness and work ethic,

00:02:25.880 but no, at a certain point in time, the professional conduct, the trustworthiness is the most important

00:02:33.700 asset that a worker would have, and certainly a CEO. Because of course, the example from the top,

00:02:41.140 everyone looks to see how the boss does. It's like children. As I said the other day, they don't listen

00:02:46.260 to what you say, they watch what you do. And so I ask you, is Justin Trudeau's leadership,

00:02:52.400 does it pass the ethical test? If we were to subject his government, especially in recent months,

00:02:59.160 to an ethical audit, would he pass? Would he be hired from Warren Buffett? I don't know if he has

00:03:07.400 the intelligence needed. I certainly don't think he has the work ethic. I think he is the least hard

00:03:13.260 working prime minister in decades. But I think on the first category, ethics, he is sorely lacking.

00:03:19.440 Joining me now via Skype from Ottawa is the CEO of ThinkSharp, also former lawyer to Prime Minister

00:03:26.820 Stephen Harper and partner at a major national law firm. I'm talking about our friend, Manny Montenegrino.

00:03:33.280 Great to see you again, Manny. Welcome back. It's nice to have you on the program.

00:03:38.040 Great to be with you, Ezra.

00:03:39.240 You know, Manny, people make a lot of lawyer jokes. But in fact, being ethical and honest is a core

00:03:49.340 requirement to be a lawyer. And you can understand why. Lawyers handle a lot of money. Lawyers handle

00:03:56.020 secrets. Lawyers have to stand up for clients, even when clients don't know the law. You are really

00:04:03.400 putting yourself in the hands of a lawyer when you hire them, especially for certain sensitive

00:04:09.060 matters. And so although the public likes to joke about lawyers, they actually have a code of ethical

00:04:14.760 conduct that is enforced, that is enforced constantly. Lawyers are constantly being reviewed

00:04:21.980 and audited and even prosecuted by their own law societies. And so I think the higher you get up the

00:04:29.100 legal ladder, the more ethics counts. And Justin Trudeau is not a lawyer, but everything he touches

00:04:37.680 affects the law, affects these kind of ethical matters I talked about, financial matters, privacy

00:04:43.360 matters. I think all the things I've just said apply to a prime minister and then some. From your

00:04:50.500 vantage point, how would you rate Justin Trudeau's ethical conduct in recent months?

00:04:56.400 Yeah, well, Ezra, I would say that our whole parliamentary system depends on ministerial

00:05:05.160 responsibility. And we can go back through the history of Canada, the Tuna Gate, the orange juice,

00:05:13.140 $16 orange juice, the unethical purchase of an orange juice got that cabinet minister removed. So our

00:05:21.220 parliamentary system, I would argue, only can only survive on ministerial ethical responsibility. If that's

00:05:30.080 lacking, our parliamentary system completely fails. So I would say the standard is much higher because it really

00:05:39.140 depends on ethical procedures. Now, if I look at Justin Trudeau, there, you could start from the day that he

00:05:48.920 decided to charge charities. While he's a member of parliament paid to speak to children. He was a

00:05:58.320 member of parliament paid to speak to charities and paid to speak to schools, young, young high school

00:06:05.220 kids. He charged the fee. I mean, that's unethical. He did return some of the money at that time.

00:06:10.780 So his unethical roots go right to the beginning. But the major five elements, the SNC-Lavalin,

00:06:20.880 we've never seen in history, the attorney general, which is there to protect Canada from wrongdoings from

00:06:32.240 members of parliament, even the prime minister, that attorney general was removed. Never in history.

00:06:38.100 In America, the removing of an attorney general will get you impeached. Trudeau removed the attorney

00:06:45.700 general because he wanted to cover up his obstruction of justice. There's number one, an unethical

00:06:52.460 conflict. Number two, we all know that he was found guilty not once, but twice for unethical practice

00:07:00.780 under the conflict of interest. Now there he he personally gained in one instance, he got a

00:07:08.500 beautiful private island. And some say the cost of that island, if it were to be, you know, bought,

00:07:15.000 it'd be about $200,000 for his family. And the deal was give something to the owner of that island.

00:07:21.660 And they got a grant. And that was unethical and found guilty. So there's three examples. And then

00:07:29.140 we get and Trudeau gets away with it. And when you get away with unethical behavior, you're emboldened

00:07:34.880 and you do more. I found that the emergency act was clearly was not called for. And Trudeau to make

00:07:44.320 sure that he stacked the odds in his favor appoints Judge Rouleau. Judge Rouleau has been involved in

00:07:52.160 the Liberal Party since the 1970s, was part of John Turner's transition team, was appointed and was a

00:08:00.420 major donator to the Liberal Party his whole life. He should never have taken that appointment.

00:08:07.840 And Trudeau should never have appointed him. But Trudeau knows that by appointing friends and family,

00:08:13.320 he can get away with more unethical conduct. In that, I mean, as you and I know, as lawyers,

00:08:22.600 there has to be no bias, but also no apprehension of bias. That is anyone that watches and say,

00:08:32.400 and sure, the person might be great, but I have a suspicion that he might be biased. If there's even

00:08:37.980 a hint of suspicion of bias or any apprehension of bias, the person cannot sit. I mean, in my law career,

00:08:47.260 a good friend of mine was a judge. And she came from a very good law firm. She wouldn't hear a case

00:08:55.800 from one of her ex-partners. And it was a big law firm because she felt that people might think that

00:09:03.060 she was biased hearing her old partner's case. That's the level of... There was no bias. There was

00:09:10.020 no evidence of bias. But she didn't want to see anyone say, oh, but your decision, we feel there's

00:09:16.740 an apprehension of bias. Out it goes. I mean, Judge Trudeau, I watched his behavior. Justin Trudeau

00:09:24.400 committed perjury in that hearing. He was asked directly, why did you disparage the unvaccinated?

00:09:31.840 He said, I never did. And we know there's a video where he called them racist bigots and don't belong

00:09:38.040 in our society. It was pure perjury, nothing picked up by the judge. And so whether you believe he was

00:09:45.760 biased or not, you can absolutely be convinced there was an apprehension of bias. And so whatever

00:09:52.660 that decision, and I've read it, whatever that decision says, it reeks with bias because of the

00:09:59.820 apprehension. Then he's emboldened. I mean, he gets away with that. I mean, the madness of it,

00:10:06.900 CBC and all the legacy media were arguing, well, he's a wonderful judge. And that's not the point.

00:10:13.200 The point is, does the public feel that there's a bias? And if the public feels a bias, the question

00:10:20.720 ends, he should be removed. And that was, you don't argue whether, and that also happened with

00:10:27.880 the appointment of, this is amazing, appointing the CEO of the Trudeau Foundation to look into the

00:10:36.060 China influencing of elections, who received hundreds, if not millions of dollars from China.

00:10:42.260 I mean, but he appointed the head of the Trudeau, the CEO of the Trudeau Foundation,

00:10:46.500 to provide an opinion. Yeah, I mean, he had a Trudeau Foundation insider, Morris Rosenberg,

00:10:54.160 I think was his name, write a report exonerating him. And now he's appointed David Johnson,

00:10:59.300 his lifetime, lifelong family friend, who is so pro-China, he sent all his kids to school

00:11:06.600 in China. Even after he was no longer governor general, he would still call the Chinese embassy

00:11:13.800 to talk about who knows what. Was it friends? Was he working for them? Was he working for someone

00:11:19.620 to lobby them to choose? I mean, it's just incredible. I, you know, there, there's a lot

00:11:25.620 of sayings in law, a lot of legal maxims. Sometimes they're even in Latin. They're so ancient. You know,

00:11:33.220 one of them in English is justice must be done, but it also must be seen to be seen to be done.

00:11:38.900 Because that's how you get confidence in the justice system. And there's language that is in

00:11:45.240 so many laws and codes of conduct about bringing the administration of justice into disrepute.

00:11:53.540 That's the phrase, bringing the administration, because it's, it's not just important that each

00:11:59.280 case is handled fairly, but you must have public trust in the system. The only way the system works

00:12:05.920 is if people believe in it. Another analogy would be the only way people believe that a game or a

00:12:11.380 sport is fair. It's not just that the referees were fair in that one case. It's the entire sport

00:12:17.660 is sporting and that's sports, but this is the government. Manny, I think that public trust in

00:12:25.100 our institutions has got to be at an all time low. I saw a story just recently in Black Locks

00:12:30.460 suggesting that trust in institutions, whether it's police or judges or the media or even schools

00:12:36.640 is at an all time low. And I think it's because people like Justin Trudeau are leveling down.

00:12:43.400 They're not increasing public standards, they're decreasing them. And we're sort of in a race to

00:12:48.600 the bottom. Well, that's true, but I wouldn't even call it leveling down, Ezra. I call it exploiting

00:12:55.300 for your own benefit. And the media sits silent, silent while Trudeau has a history. And the fifth

00:13:02.580 one I was going to mention was appointing the interim ethics commissioner who happens to be the

00:13:08.140 sister-in-law of a cabinet minister who was found guilty of an ethics violation. I mean,

00:13:13.780 that's how brazen it is now. That's how, like you were caught five, six times. You would think that you

00:13:20.360 would say, okay, look, I can't bring the disrepute of parliament any further lower. And he does. I

00:13:28.460 mean, to answer your question, Ezra, with respect to our institutions, the RCMP, I don't want to get

00:13:34.720 into it, but you know how much it's failed because to the common folk, the RCMP, at least that last

00:13:42.940 commissioner, was there to protect Trudeau in every instance. We found that in Nova Scotia. We found

00:13:48.420 that with the SNC-Lavalin, there was pure obstruction of justice and there was no case

00:13:53.840 commenced. The attorney general left. The attorney general hinted there was even a decision,

00:14:02.240 a 70-page decision from the ethics commissioner saying that there was obstruction of justice and

00:14:08.700 that wasn't even looked at the RCMP. But one institution that really concerns me, and you look

00:14:14.720 at it, and most institutions have been co-opted to by Trudeau, is Elections Canada. I mean, I was there

00:14:23.960 when Elections Canada was very vigorously against the Conservatives on the In-N-Out scandal. That was a

00:14:31.960 six-year trial. On the robocall where there was not even one vote lost. No evidence of someone losing

00:14:40.840 a vote, but there were trials and the elections kind of proceeded against a volunteer who did a robocall,

00:14:48.000 but amounted to nothing. We had Dean DiMastro go to jail for five months because he put $20,000 in his own

00:14:57.120 election campaign. And now we have China putting in millions, affecting many ridings. The CISA saying

00:15:07.460 effectively winning ridings on the China direction. And Elections Canada hasn't even issued a statement

00:15:15.920 saying we are going... There are enough laws, Ezra, enough laws in the Criminal Code and the Elections

00:15:24.140 Canada Act to proceed against China or any Liberal Party member who influenced an election improperly.

00:15:32.400 There's enough laws on the books. We don't need to have an inquiry. Elections Canada needs to stand up

00:15:38.600 and say, under these laws, under the Criminal Code, we are prosecuting for the millions of dollars that

00:15:45.040 went in for what they have done in this election. And they haven't. They haven't said a word. I mean,

00:15:52.620 if you ask me, do I feel confident that the elections in Canada are at the highest standard?

00:16:00.260 I haven't heard from Elections Canada during this major thesis outbreak that there was an influence

00:16:08.560 in many ridings, money given to people, money given to top-up expenses, money given to the Trudeau

00:16:17.320 Foundation. I mean, and Elections Canada sat there, doesn't issue a tweet, or at least I haven't seen it,

00:16:23.860 or it certainly has been in use. They're the ones... I don't want Trudeau protecting my elections.

00:16:28.920 I don't want him setting up another sham committee to look into his elections. I want Elections Canada

00:16:34.980 standing up. I want RCMP standing up. I want the people that are entrusted to protect Canadians

00:16:42.840 to stand up, not there to protect the Prime Minister.

00:16:47.060 That's incredible. You know what? I never thought of it that way. You're so right. Dean Del Mastro,

00:16:51.200 a Conservative MP, literally was sent to prison for what's not much more than an accounting error.

00:16:57.260 I mean, obviously, it was more than that, but I don't know if you know this, Manny, but Elections

00:17:03.060 Canada right now is prosecuting me for publishing my book, The Libranos, and not registering it with

00:17:08.380 the government. I was one of 24 authors to write a book about Justin Trudeau in the 2019 election.

00:17:15.700 I was the only one to be investigated, prosecuted, convicted, and fined. We're appealing that. We're

00:17:20.260 still fighting in court. Elections Canada is very, very busy going after my book, but too busy,

00:17:27.520 apparently, to do a thing about this Handong Chinese influence. It's been front page of the

00:17:32.600 papers for weeks, and you're right. They've been quiet as mice. I tell you, if it was a Conservative

00:17:37.960 who was accused of taking payments from Russia or the Russian embassy, it would be all the Elections

00:17:44.400 Canada would be talking about. They have been silent, and I don't think it's a coincidence.

00:17:50.700 Ezra, on the In-N-Out scandal, I was peripherally involved in that. It was a six-year or five-to-six-year

00:17:58.620 trial. It went to the federal court. It went to the federal court of appeal. Four conservatives were

00:18:06.760 criminally charged. It was all about monies from the federal party down to the local ridings.

00:18:13.020 It was approved at the federal court. It was denied at the federal court of appeal. It was simply,

00:18:19.660 at the end, Ezra, it ended with a $52,000 fine. Elections Canada spent $5 million and five years

00:18:28.100 prosecuted the Conservative Party for a $52,000 fine. That's what it was. So, I mean, when you ask me,

00:18:36.240 I mean, like, what institution is not working in favour of Justin Trudeau? They get paid. I mean,

00:18:44.740 you have, like, the RCMP, I mean, it's embarrassing that the commissioner, during the mass murder in

00:18:52.640 Nova Scotia, was only concerned about making Trudeau look good on the gun laws, not about the people that

00:18:58.680 were slain and how the RCMP failed completely, the people of Nova Scotia. The only thing that the

00:19:05.140 commissioner was worried about is, hey, we got an opportunity to make Trudeau look good. I mean,

00:19:09.740 you know, it's so, when I look at the institutions, they're all working for Trudeau. How do you have

00:19:19.000 any confidence? And therefore, Trudeau can lower his bar of ethics to a point, I mean, the laughable

00:19:25.680 point. The poor outgoing commissioner, ethics commissioner, said, we need to have a training

00:19:35.700 exercise for the Liberal Party, because too many of them are breaching the ethics commission of the

00:19:41.280 code. I mean, if you can't get any lower than that, the man that's running the ethics commission

00:19:48.320 saying, it's so bad. Not all members of parliament, not the conservatives, not the NDP, but the Liberal

00:19:55.860 Party should all take a refresher what it is to be a normal human being.

00:20:02.120 You know what, and I know there was that cabinet minister, Ing is her name, if I'm pronouncing it

00:20:07.960 right, and she kept giving contracts to her personal friends, and she said, oh, no one told me it was

00:20:14.120 wrong. No one told me it was wrong. She knew it was wrong. She just knew that that's how it rolls

00:20:21.880 with Trudeau, and if Trudeau can do it, obviously she could do it, and if Trudeau can get away with

00:20:26.300 it, obviously she can get away with it. Ezra Bev Oda, cabinet minister, a wonderful woman who I know,

00:20:35.260 lost her cabinet spot for drinking a $16 orange juice. What she should have done is she should

00:20:41.660 have had the $80 breakfast buffet and it would have been all right, but she had the $16. She just

00:20:47.340 didn't want to eat that morning. So for $16, the ethics and the accountability was so important to

00:20:54.140 the media and so important to Trudeau. He tweeted on that, said, we must get rid of her because she's, 0.96

00:21:00.640 you know, this is how high and moral they are, but when it comes to them in power, they all circle.

00:21:07.500 The media circles the wagon to protect Trudeau. Like, how do you appoint a long time? I gave an

00:21:15.640 analogy. I did a lot of work for the Conservative Party, and if it had been Stephen Harper appointing

00:21:23.620 a judge to do the Emergency Act, first of all, he would never appoint me. Stephen Harper has so much

00:21:30.180 ethics. He would not appoint a friend or a long-term serving Conservative lawyer to the position. And

00:21:38.260 certainly, if he did try to appoint, I would not take it. As a lawyer, I'd say, come on, I have to

00:21:44.260 recuse myself. Everybody knows that I've worked for the Conservative Party. We don't want to bring 0.94

00:21:49.220 everything down to disrepute. So there was two tests, and they wouldn't have not happened. Under Trudeau,

00:21:55.740 the two tests never happened. And then the media circles, it says, what a wonderful man. What a

00:22:01.420 wonderful judge he is. Yeah. Well, and you know what? David Johnston, who has had a successful and

00:22:07.360 prominent career, shame on him for taking the gig. I mean, everyone praises him for a life of public

00:22:13.220 service. OK, well, in his final hour, he made the wrong judgment call. He cannot properly review Trudeau

00:22:20.460 and China, given his connections to Trudeau and China. And he should know better.

00:22:25.540 Ezra, there was an interview, and I think you posted it, and I saw it from the rebel. And it was

00:22:30.960 where Trudeau was lavishing in his public speech. And David Johnson was behind him saying how wonderful

00:22:38.980 of a friendship their family was. And he was gloating. And he's saying, you know, we skied together,

00:22:44.500 our kids together, 30-year relationship. And he's behind gloating. I would be puking if I was behind

00:22:50.860 hearing that from the prime minister, say, oh, my God, everybody knows how close we are,

00:22:55.520 and I'm still taking the job. You know, it's not just David Johnson, but someone who really is

00:23:02.180 a soulless sociopathic operator, if I may say so, is Gerald Butts. And I say that based on his track

00:23:09.540 record of the SNC-Lavalin matter, he is the one who basically had Jody Wilson-Raybould fired

00:23:16.080 because she would not drop the criminal prosecution of his friends at SNC-Lavalin,

00:23:21.840 a corruption trial. And Gerald Butts was thrown out of the PMO over his disgrace. He basically left

00:23:30.380 for New York where he got a job with a lobby group called the Eurasia Group. But Gerald Butts is

00:23:36.960 being rehabilitated in the media party. I see him on pundits panels all the time.

00:23:42.900 Sure.

00:23:43.460 And he was recently at the state dinner for Trudeau and Biden in Ottawa.

00:23:48.340 How did the man who knifed in the back the first indigenous justice minister in Canadian history,

00:23:54.120 how did the man who orchestrated the SNC-Lavalin matter, how did he become redeemed and rebuilt

00:24:02.580 other than, I mean, you can't just blame Trudeau for that. Where the hell is the media party,

00:24:08.640 as I call it? How can Gerald Butts be polite company anymore?

00:24:11.960 Because at the end of it all, the media wants what Trudeau is doing. And I forgot, you now

00:24:20.300 reminded me of now the sixth or seventh institutions that the Canadians depend on. We know the RCMP,

00:24:27.080 how it behaved under the commissioner, the past commissioner, Brenda Leckie, in favour of Trudeau.

00:24:35.280 We've talked about Elections Canada being solid on an elections issue. Can you imagine that?

00:24:40.120 For the first time, there was a poll, I think about 37 Canadians, 37% of Canadians do not have

00:24:46.600 faith in our elections. We haven't heard from Elections Canada say we're going to shore it up. So

00:24:50.400 there's another institution. But the public service, we forgot Kevin Lynch for the first time in

00:24:55.840 history, as the clerk of the Privy Council had to leave because of a bias or an apprehension of bias

00:25:04.040 in favour of Trudeau. The public service is supposed to be independent. And so if I poke everywhere,

00:25:13.520 if I, Ezra, we could do a two-hour show on this, but every institution that's important,

00:25:19.280 we already know the universities are in, but every, if I took the five top institutions that are there

00:25:27.480 to protect Canadians from all politicians, all five are beholding to Justin Trudeau. How could you,

00:25:36.440 how could you, and we see it when he's so brazen that he appoints the last three appointments. And the

00:25:43.280 last appointment, the ethics commissioner is the sister-in-law of a, how is she going to do her job 1.00

00:25:51.680 if, if Trudeau or her brother-in-law gets in trouble again?

00:25:55.820 Yeah. And by the way, Dominic LeBlanc and Seamus O'Regan, these are all old, and Gerald Butts,

00:26:00.900 these are all old cronies of Trudeau. They were part of his wedding party.

00:26:03.500 Like, he, he has put his hand-picked lifelong friends in, in place around him. Some of them

00:26:14.000 have some competence. Some of them clearly don't. Their only value is their loyalty to him. And you

00:26:18.560 know, I was, I was thinking about it. There are some places in the world where shame is still part

00:26:24.880 of public life. I mean, let me give you an example from 40 years ago, but it was still incredible when

00:26:30.380 it happened. Remember when the, when the Argentine government seized the Falkland Islands? Those

00:26:38.020 were British islands way at the southern tip of South America. And, you know, very small population,

00:26:45.260 very close to Argentina. And then the Brits sent this armada and aircraft carrier all the way down

00:26:51.580 and retook it. It was quite a dramatic thing. Happened about 40 years ago. If I remember the

00:26:57.120 British defense minister resigned, he said, it's on me. I didn't see a company. I should have known.

00:27:05.560 The only thing for me to do now is to resign. And that happens from time to time in healthy

00:27:11.940 democracies, but it requires a certain amount of character on the politician in question.

00:27:17.760 Well, yeah. Japanese MPs, I mean, you're now going, go ahead. Sorry. You're now going to the

00:27:23.160 beginning of our discussion. And that is our Canadian system, parliamentary system depends

00:27:30.520 on ministerial responsibility. So that minister did something wrong and he resigned. I am old enough

00:27:38.060 to see many ministers resign for very small, inappropriate behaviors, usually ethical in

00:27:44.960 nature or conflict in nature or failure in nature. So without ministerial responsibility or conflict

00:27:53.700 of interest and all that, our system is no better than Russia or Xi. I ask you, replace Justin Trudeau

00:28:04.340 with Putin and Xi. And then if I told you Putin had his six cronies from his wedding as part of all

00:28:11.660 these institutions doing something wrong and directing the government, you'd say, yeah, well,

00:28:16.200 of course, that's Russia. I mean, he's got his buddies, his closest friends protecting him and

00:28:21.300 the media doesn't do anything in Russia because it's owned by the Russian government. Yeah, of course,

00:28:25.260 you'd expect that. Of course, you'd expect to see that with Xi in China. Xi's got his best friends,

00:28:30.380 his brother-in-law and his wedding party all running in the country. Well, of course, that's China. 0.98

00:28:35.580 This is Canada. We don't have that. We have accountability. Well, no, we don't.

00:28:40.020 We are no better than Russia, no better than China. And we see the evidence. I mean, the blood is 0.95

00:28:46.680 dripping from everyone's hands when the ethics commissioner is related to one of the cabinet

00:28:51.700 ministers, when the China influence. I mean, we've never seen this in Canada. You know,

00:28:57.880 Trump went through two-year Russian investigation influencing trial where there is no evidence and it

00:29:05.600 was impeachable. Even if there was no evidence, he was impeached. In Canada, we have actual evidence

00:29:11.240 of China interfering and everyone saying, well, yeah, well, that's okay. They were interfering for

00:29:16.260 the liberals. Had they interfered for the conservatives, people would be in jail.

00:29:20.560 Yeah. You know, I was thinking about this. I was talking to some Americans about

00:29:24.800 Justin Trudeau and his dad, Pierre Trudeau. And I added it up. Justin Trudeau has been in

00:29:31.360 office for about eight years. And his dad was in office for about, I don't know,

00:29:38.920 if he was first elected in 68. And then there was a bit of a Joe Clark moment, but then he went all

00:29:45.140 the way to 1984. So between the two of them, the Trudeaus have been the prime minister of this country 0.70

00:29:52.060 for about a quarter of a century. Canada is officially 156 years old. So 25 years of that

00:29:59.780 has been under the Trudeaus. And I think it changes a country. Obviously, there's more to Canada

00:30:07.140 besides politicians. There's more to Canada besides the prime minister. There's a lot of other forces

00:30:12.340 in our life. But I think in terms of the public life of this country, the arrogant authoritarianism

00:30:18.700 of that Trudeau family has made a mark on this country. I think it's made us less free.

00:30:24.560 I think it's made us less democratic. I think it's tilted us away from our natural allies in the world

00:30:33.780 towards our natural rivals or even our enemies, whether it's communist China, communist Cuba.

00:30:40.280 I really think that you can't have a quarter of century of authoritarian style, authoritarian ideology

00:30:47.440 leadership without it corroding the system. Like you've talked about elections, Canada. You've talked

00:30:52.300 about the others commissioner. You've talked about the RCMP commissioner. You talked about just how

00:30:57.260 cabinet ministers operate. A fish rots from the head down. And we have had a rotten fish leading this

00:31:03.140 country for 25 years.

00:31:05.380 Yeah. No, and it's so true. I mean, you know, as there was, I forget what it is, a security group,

00:31:11.700 which includes United States, UK and Australia. They went on without Canada.

00:31:18.920 Yeah. I guess, you know, so when's the first time that Canada has been part of this joint committee

00:31:25.380 with the rest of the top common law countries? So, commonwealth countries. So, yeah, we're moving

00:31:31.460 that way. The recent article is United States is very concerned about our close connection with China

00:31:37.740 and they want. So, yeah, that's what's happened. And Canadians will let it happen. Listen, I mean,

00:31:44.040 I came to this country when it was, uh, when all those wonderful values, uh, that were fought in two

00:31:51.080 wars and, you know, the concept of freedom, freedom of speech, the charter, the bill of rights, it now

00:31:56.740 became the charter of rights. And these were things that drew us closer to a country that, that, that

00:32:03.540 repelled authoritative. This is a country that said, no one politician should be above Canadians.

00:32:10.960 Well, we saw this guy use the emergency act. There wasn't, I live in Ottawa. There was noise.

00:32:17.880 The noise lasted for a week. Then the noise ended. There wasn't one broken window. You look at what

00:32:23.220 happens in the United States, uh, with, with the, look what's happening in France. There are fires,

00:32:29.320 millions around the street, uh, arson fires, property damage, human damage. There's no emergency

00:32:37.000 act placed on these citizens. In Canada, there wasn't one assault charge. There wasn't one arson

00:32:43.960 charge. And the commissioner found that it was okay. That actually, if you read the, uh, it's amazing.

00:32:50.340 If you read the decision from a lawyer's point of view, Judge Rulo basically said, yeah, there's a lot of,

00:32:57.840 uh, reasonable doubt that they shouldn't have used it, but I'm saying it's okay. Can you imagine,

00:33:04.900 imagine hearing any, and this is the standard for the emergency act has to be the highest beyond

00:33:11.620 reasonable doubt. I mean, the standard for a criminal conviction is reasonable doubt.

00:33:15.780 So if you found it's beyond any reasonable doubt, boom, he's convicted to use, to strip away

00:33:21.520 Canadians' individual rights protected under the charter. The standard has to be higher. He says,

00:33:27.840 oh, there's no way that, you know, it should have happened, but I think it's okay. Well,

00:33:33.500 you can imagine a judge saying, I find there's a lot of reasonable doubt in this case. I find that,

00:33:40.020 uh, but however, he's guilty of murder. I mean, that would never happen in the real world,

00:33:44.740 but it happens when you will, when I see the apprehension of bias, I say, oh, I can see why

00:33:50.220 that happened. He agrees with me in law that there should be an emergency act, but his political side

00:33:55.700 said, I got to protect Trudeau. That's how I read the decision. He agreed with me in law,

00:34:00.580 but I'm a politician. I'm a political favor guy. That's my apprehension of bias. That's what I,

00:34:06.720 that's the only way I can square that decision. Because if you read the decision, he's basically

00:34:11.320 saying it could not have happened, but it happened and it's okay.

00:34:14.980 Yeah. Well, in, in the UK, they'd call that a stitch up, a stitch up, an inside job. Well,

00:34:22.180 um, let me ask you, because at a certain point, too many institutions are broken.

00:34:29.540 The media being an important one. I mean, he's colonized the media with his subsidies and grants.

00:34:36.240 And I really think it's taken the fire out of them because they're not just taking money. They're

00:34:41.220 constantly lobbying for more money. The Canadian Association of Journalists, which used to care

00:34:46.540 about journalism almost exclusively, besides talking about woke things that have nothing to do with

00:34:52.860 journalism, almost exclusively talks about getting more subsidies from Trudeau. They've been completely

00:34:58.500 defanged. They've been tamed and trained. And you can't turn every journalist in this country

00:35:07.420 into a beggar from Trudeau without having some subconscious effect on the journalists that

00:35:13.500 they're going to pull their punches and they're not going to, they can't beg on Monday, but then

00:35:17.680 criticize Trudeau on Tuesday. I'm worried, Manny, that between the courts and the media and the

00:35:23.680 other institutions in civil society, that, that Justin Trudeau actually might squeak through another

00:35:31.860 victory. I like Pierre Polyev. I think he's a clear thinker, a clear talker. He's younger than

00:35:37.300 Trudeau. He's smarter than Trudeau. He's, he's tougher than past conservative leaders. But I am

00:35:43.880 worried that if you corrode the entire system for long enough, you can slouch to another win. I mean,

00:35:53.120 I think it would be wrong to bet against Trudeau. I'm hopeful for Pierre Polyev, but I'm not counting

00:35:59.180 out Trudeau. He's just simply corrupted the system too much. Yeah, I think I agree. But in addition to

00:36:05.060 the financial, you know, I mean, Ezra, the most important, you know, I'm a lawyer. I would say

00:36:12.800 the justice system is the most important system in a country, but I really do believe it's a media.

00:36:20.820 I do believe with a, a robust independent media, you have a great country. And we've had that for a

00:36:29.660 long time, but in the last 10 years, and I'm going to add another flavor. It's not just that Trudeau was

00:36:35.260 smart enough to buy the media. I mean, CBC, I don't know what those hundreds of thousands of people

00:36:40.620 were, how many people did CBC do, but they certainly do a lot to protect Trudeau. But the,

00:36:47.300 but the media, it's, it's something different. It's not only the money, Ezra. Social media has,

00:36:54.900 the first time I was on Twitter, I was shocked to see the, the editor of the Ottawa citizen make

00:37:04.660 certain posts. And it was to me, very biased in favor of the liberals. And I was shocked because

00:37:12.320 what I saw was, was, was the, the unveiling of, of the bias that they normally held behind that we

00:37:21.060 didn't know. Social media. So here's what's really happened, Ezra. Yes, they bought, Trudeau bought

00:37:26.620 the media. That's easy. That's easy to say. But more importantly, social media did two things.

00:37:31.900 It exposes the bias of people. You saw journalists, you know, and I remember once I wrote them when I

00:37:39.140 was on Twitter, I said, Hey, that's pretty biased on one side. And you got to see the bias. So social

00:37:45.440 media allowed the bias to come out. And number two, it solidified it and made it open and apparent.

00:37:53.180 And it's one team versus the other. So what's happened now is not only are the media bought,

00:38:00.060 but they're on a team and it's team liberal and they know they're on the team and they want their

00:38:05.360 team to win. Even if it means unethical practices, conflicted, do conflict of interest charges. Yeah.

00:38:12.200 Yeah. But it doesn't matter. Our team has to win. And so they'll work for their team. So

00:38:17.500 the bad thing about social media is allowed the, what I would call the, the, the hidden latent bias

00:38:28.260 of the media to surface and to solidify and to be part of a organized team to win.

00:38:35.200 Hmm. Well, Manny, it's always great to catch up with you. You're the, you are the place where law,

00:38:43.160 politics, and journalism combine. And so you have such interesting insights on things. Great to catch

00:38:48.660 up with you. Look forward to doing it again soon. Thank you very much, Ezra. Take care.

00:38:53.400 Our pleasure. There you have it. Manny Montenegrino, the CEO of ThinkSharp. He joined us today

00:38:58.520 via Skype from Ottawa. That's our show for today. Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at

00:39:04.960 Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home, good night and keep fighting for freedom.

00:39:09.000 Thank you.

Rebel News Podcast - April 08, 2023

EZRA LEVANT： Manny Montenegrino Performs An Ethical Audit of Justin Trudeau

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript