Rebel News Podcast - April 09, 2026


EZRA LEVANT ｜ Mark Carney announces he’s going to take another shot at passing Trudeau’s censorship laws


Episode Stats


Length

39 minutes

Words per minute

161.97913

Word count

6,362

Sentence count

406

Harmful content

Misogyny

10

sentences flagged

Toxicity

4

sentences flagged

Hate speech

14

sentences flagged


Summary

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

In writing, the Mark Carney government is bringing back the censorship bills that were introduced but not passed by Justin Trudeau. I think this is really bad news and the people who are going to be crafting it are the worst people in the country. I ll take you through their list of names.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.040 Hello, my friends. We have it in black and white. In writing, the Mark Carney government is going
00:00:05.260 to bring back the censorship bills that were introduced but not passed by Justin Trudeau.
00:00:10.220 I think this is really bad news. And the people who are going to be crafting it are the worst
00:00:14.260 people in the country. I'll take you through their list of names. But first, let me invite you to
00:00:19.080 become a subscriber to Rebel News Plus. It's the video version of this podcast. Just go to
00:00:22.700 rebelnewsplus.com, click subscribe. And it's eight bucks a month, which may not sound like a lot to
00:00:28.220 you but boy we need that here because we don't take any money from the government and it shows
00:00:32.420 hey one more thing being a rebel today is simply being normal so why not support normal news and
00:00:40.440 look cool while doing it by buying yourself some rebel merch and more at rebelnewsstore.com
00:00:46.540 and you can save by using coupon code DREA10 when you do
00:00:58.220 tonight mark carney announces he's going to take another shot at passing trudeau's censorship laws
00:01:13.060 it's april 9th and this is the ezra levant show
00:01:15.480 shame on you you censorious bug
00:01:28.220 you know i've been thinking a lot about alberta and canada to me the symbol of the whole thing is 0.94
00:01:36.080 the ten dollar bill trudeau took sir john a mcdonald off of the ten dollar bill
00:01:41.500 he didn't campaign on that he didn't ask anyone for the views he didn't put it to a vote or even
00:01:47.820 a debate in parliament he just he just did it i mean he was a marxist like his father before him
00:01:54.120 who hates anything Anglo, and Sir John A. MacDonald was born in Scotland. You'll remember
00:02:00.680 Pierre Trudeau doing a mocking pirouette when he met the Queen during the repatriation of
00:02:06.760 our constitution. But it's not just Trudeau. It's everything. It's all the parties, more
00:02:12.180 or less. I mean, Doug Ford, the allegedly conservative Premier of Ontario, he was the
00:02:17.300 one who abided the statue of Sir John A. MacDonald at Queen's Park, the provincial legislature,
00:02:22.480 being put in a wooden coffin for years.
00:02:26.860 Didn't quite have the courage to take it down,
00:02:28.780 but he certainly didn't want people to see it,
00:02:30.600 so they built like a sarcophagus around it.
00:02:33.860 Queen Victoria's statue was torn down on Canada Day
00:02:37.900 at the Manitoba legislature.
00:02:41.400 And again, it was a nominally conservative government
00:02:44.320 at the time that abided it.
00:02:46.720 Now, I mention this because I've been thinking
00:02:48.220 that the emotional, nostalgic argument for Alberta
00:02:51.260 to remain in Confederation is what we used to all love about Canada.
00:02:56.040 But I'm not sure if that's the appropriate comparison
00:02:59.080 because the Canada of 100 or 50 or even 15 years ago
00:03:04.760 is not the Canada of today.
00:03:06.520 I mean, which do you think better represents Canada today
00:03:10.140 and the Canada of the future?
00:03:13.100 Terry Fox and Juneau Beach or this?
00:03:18.580 When the budget was released,
00:03:19.960 I was shocked to find out that Prime Minister Carney is cutting $7 billion
00:03:25.160 between Indigenous Services Canada and Crown Indigenous Relations.
00:03:30.540 They provided $0 to deal with the ongoing genocide of MMIWG2SLGBTQQIA+.
00:03:39.100 This is abhorrent. This is callous.
00:03:42.540 This is callous because the very Liberal government
00:03:45.080 that has stripped organizations of life-sustaining funding
00:03:49.440 has now promised, committed $13 billion, $13 billion on military spending.
00:04:00.060 Who is paying for it? 0.56
00:04:02.840 Indigenous women across this country, 1.00
00:04:05.420 Indigenous women, girls, 2SLGBTQQIA+, are not safe.
00:04:11.000 In fact, rates of violence are increasing.
00:04:14.060 And what is the Prime Minister doing?
00:04:16.140 He is turning a blind eye on this violence.
00:04:18.420 You know, the Prime Minister talks a lot about projects of national interest.
00:04:23.300 What is in the national interest? 0.98
00:04:25.340 Are the lives, safety, security, and dignity not in the national interest of Indigenous women and girls 2SLGBTQQIA plus? 0.99
00:04:35.040 Is the Prime Minister okay having Indigenous women 2SLGBTQQIA plus family members and organization coming to Parliament, 0.97
00:04:46.440 begging time and time again to see our humanity? 1.00
00:04:51.020 Is he okay with that?
00:04:52.180 Well, clearly, with his behavior the other day,
00:04:55.500 laughing at a woman from grassy narrows
00:04:58.060 who is suffering from mercury poisoning, 0.53
00:05:01.680 having her even having to beg for an apology
00:05:04.560 is an example of how this Prime Minister
00:05:08.240 has turned his back on Indigenous peoples,
00:05:11.400 particularly Indigenous women and girls to us LGBTQIA+.
00:05:16.740 And what does that look like?
00:05:18.540 It looks like rates of violence increasing.
00:05:21.960 Yeah, that's a member of Parliament named Leah Gazan.
00:05:27.060 I think that she is a closer summary, microcosm,
00:05:32.500 example of Canada today and tomorrow
00:05:35.500 than peace order and good government
00:05:37.760 or the troops of Juneau Beach.
00:05:40.580 I mean, land acknowledgements rule the day, not prayers when the school starts.
00:05:45.920 Do they even say prayers anymore?
00:05:48.040 So if you're saying, how dare you want to be independent of Canada?
00:05:51.720 I'd say, can you tell me which Canada you mean?
00:05:53.940 The Canada of your childhood, which I love, or the Canada of your children's childhood
00:05:59.480 and their grandchildren's childhood?
00:06:02.140 Look at this news story today from Black Locks Reporter, one of the few non-governmental
00:06:06.360 funded media companies in Canada.
00:06:08.080 And that in itself is a statement about which Canada we're in, isn't it?
00:06:12.280 So Black Locks had this story.
00:06:14.920 Third try at web regulation.
00:06:18.180 Cabinet for a third time in five years is reviewing federal regulations of legal internet content,
00:06:23.600 the Department of Industry said yesterday.
00:06:25.660 Quote, details will be made public at the appropriate time, it said.
00:06:29.480 The government of Canada is examining options for a future online safety regime
00:06:34.340 that would focus on reducing the risk of harm on large platforms.
00:06:37.820 said a department report to the Senate Social Affairs Committee.
00:06:41.860 Unnamed experts will draft regulations, it wrote.
00:06:45.240 I love how they say safety is if you like might cut yourself on something.
00:06:49.420 I mean, by harm, of course, what they really mean is opinions they don't like.
00:06:55.400 They mean censorship.
00:06:57.680 Let me read a little bit more.
00:06:59.760 Such regulatory approaches typically rely on expert regulators to set standards,
00:07:05.240 monitor compliance, and use enforcement tools where necessary, said the report reply and follow
00:07:11.640 up. Is there an expert on what I can and can't say other than me? Who are these experts in what
00:07:18.580 you can say? Is there a degree you can get in that? Don't laugh. There probably will be soon.
00:07:22.740 So here's a copy of the report that Black Locks wrote about. And let me read a little bit more
00:07:29.500 of an extended passage from them. They say, the government of Canada is examining options for a
00:07:35.080 future online safety regime that would focus on reducing the risk of harm on large platforms,
00:07:40.380 particularly for children and other vulnerable users. Such regulatory approaches typically rely
00:07:45.220 on expert regulators to set standards, monitor compliance, and use enforcement tools where
00:07:50.500 necessary. To advise on this proposal, the government has recently reconvened the Expert
00:07:55.840 Advisory Group on Online Safety, whose members previously contributed to the development
00:08:01.140 of previous online harms legislation
00:08:03.740 to engage on new and emerging issues
00:08:06.280 related to online harms.
00:08:08.880 Any future legislative proposal
00:08:10.580 would be subject to parliamentary scrutiny
00:08:12.680 and details would be made public
00:08:14.400 at the appropriate time.
00:08:15.540 You know, they always mention children
00:08:17.660 because they know we all love children.
00:08:20.360 And they do this because they always conflate
00:08:23.180 political censorship of grownups,
00:08:26.480 which is their real purpose,
00:08:28.080 with protecting the children
00:08:29.260 because who wouldn't want to be for protecting the children?
00:08:31.700 But of course, children are already protected online in a variety of ways.
00:08:36.200 And by the way, all the platforms they propose to regulate,
00:08:39.720 Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, they have an age restriction already.
00:08:45.320 You're not supposed to be on those platforms if you're a child.
00:08:48.260 They are not truly interested in children.
00:08:53.980 They're just using that as a Trojan horse.
00:08:56.640 By the way, I'm always supportive of more ways to protect children.
00:09:00.180 Just let me hear them.
00:09:01.420 But that is not what this Online Harms Committee does.
00:09:04.660 It's not what the Online Harms Acts that were already introduced and failed for reasons,
00:09:10.000 including that Parliament was prorogued.
00:09:12.100 It's not just here in Canada.
00:09:13.380 It's in Ireland, in New Zealand, in the United Kingdom.
00:09:16.980 I've read the versions of the law in these different jurisdictions.
00:09:20.500 They're all about the same thing, cracking down on ideas, especially, by the way,
00:09:25.080 on mass immigration.
00:09:26.500 That seems to be one of the main focuses
00:09:27.740 of this censorship.
00:09:29.200 And the giveaway, if you still need convincing,
00:09:31.640 is this group of censorship experts.
00:09:33.740 They have convened to do the dirty work.
00:09:35.600 Here is a government press release about it.
00:09:38.060 I'm not going to read the whole thing.
00:09:39.620 It says the government of Canada reconvenes
00:09:41.420 the expert advisory group on online safety.
00:09:43.980 There's not a single free speech activist in this group.
00:09:46.640 Let me look at, I'm not going to read through all the names,
00:09:48.840 but Amarnath Amarasingam,
00:09:50.300 you probably see him on CBC all the time.
00:09:52.960 He is a major proponent of censorship.
00:09:54.780 He believes that right-wing hate groups are the problem in Canada, not, oh, say, the group shooting up synagogues.
00:10:02.520 Bernie Farber is the worst of the list, founding chair of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network.
00:10:08.000 If you're wondering what that is, that is the liberal-funded pro-Antifa group that calls itself anti-hate, but that's false advertising.
00:10:16.260 They explicitly refuse to look at hatred from the left, from Antifa, from Islamist extremists.
00:10:22.060 They are 100% focused on conservatives.
00:10:25.520 Of course, it's nothing about children.
00:10:28.600 And of course, it's not about censoring the real source of hate in Canada these days.
00:10:33.480 Shanae Parsons, community activist and youth engagement specialist.
00:10:37.460 So I hadn't heard of her and I Googled her and I quickly discovered her specialty has got nothing to do with kids. 0.94
00:10:44.620 It's equity audits, where she charges enormous fees to help you work through your hidden racism issues.
00:10:50.680 You see where I'm going?
00:10:52.060 that this is all about censorship.
00:10:55.000 David Moran, professor and UNESCO.
00:10:57.240 So he's sponsored by the UN
00:10:59.460 on the prevention of violent radicalization and extremism.
00:11:03.400 Of course, they are overwhelmingly focused
00:11:05.300 on Canadian groups,
00:11:07.000 not Islamic terrorist groups or Antifa.
00:11:10.840 This is international censorship.
00:11:13.420 Emily Laidlaw, Canada Research Chair in Cybersecurity. 1.00
00:11:16.660 Same sort of thing, Jada Hassan.
00:11:18.440 I'm not going to go through it.
00:11:19.500 They're all basically in the anti-hate experts.
00:11:22.720 There's no such thing as being an anti-hate expert.
00:11:25.060 Hate is a human emotion and people can feel different emotions when they talk all the time.
00:11:29.480 It's not necessarily a bad thing for people to be motivated by that human emotion as long as when they act, they don't act in a way that's violent or discriminatory.
00:11:39.860 I mean, you can't tell someone to stop having feelings on the anniversary of 9-11 or when you see a horrific crime happen.
00:11:46.320 You're going to naturally have a human reaction.
00:11:48.320 and probably hate is part of it.
00:11:50.520 And it's actually healthy to express that
00:11:52.900 rather than bottle things up.
00:11:54.100 That's one of the purposes and outcomes of free speech
00:11:56.900 is people can vent with words rather than their fists.
00:11:59.580 There is a direct correlation of countries in the world
00:12:02.100 where you're not allowed to vent verbally,
00:12:04.320 so they vent physically through terrorism.
00:12:06.940 There's an absolute correlation between free speech and peace
00:12:11.140 as opposed to censorship and violence.
00:12:14.640 I'm not going to go through the whole list.
00:12:15.860 All of them are committed to censorship.
00:12:17.120 all of them within the liberal party's orbit i see only one name that could plausibly care about
00:12:22.740 children leanna mcdonald the executive director of the canadian center for child protection yeah
00:12:27.340 so pretty sure she alone is uh not the center of this group the main purpose is censoring grown-ups
00:12:34.020 not children so what does this all mean well it means that mark carney is back with trudeau's
00:12:40.640 censorship plans for a third time you might remember it was called bill c36 and then bill
00:12:45.560 C63. And there's so many numbers to keep track of. It hasn't been introduced yet, but you have
00:12:50.160 seen it in writing. Now it will be introduced again. Mark Carney has revived Trudeau's
00:12:55.240 censorship committee. The same people, pretty sure they're going to have the same recommendations.
00:12:59.880 It's going to be just as brutal or worse. Remember Mark Carney himself wrote an op-ed in the Globe
00:13:05.840 and Mail during the trucker convoy, calling for the truckers to be charged with sedition. He was
00:13:10.940 the one who suggested seizing the bank accounts. He's the former bank governor who knows about how
00:13:15.880 those things work. He already controls all the mainstream media through carrots, not sticks,
00:13:20.940 through the media bailout. But he doesn't control us at Rebel News and maybe one or two other
00:13:25.780 independent platforms. And that enrages him because if you don't control all the media,
00:13:31.600 you don't control the media because people will find those alternative views. Rebel News
00:13:35.480 has had record viewership. As you know, we had over 430 million views and impressions last year.
00:13:43.260 And I can feel it when I travel around the country. I can't go anywhere without people
00:13:47.320 saying hello to me as a rebel. And I've never met them before. And this is everywhere,
00:13:51.180 every province. And you'd be surprised the demographics of the people that say hi.
00:13:55.860 Don't think they don't know all about that. I showed you a couple months ago, the Reuters
00:14:00.020 Foundation and Oxford University studies showing that after CBC and CTV, Rebel News is the most
00:14:06.700 well-known TV company ahead of Global News, which has been around for 50 years. I think that enrages
00:14:13.360 the liberals. So yeah, censorship's coming back. Absolutely. So that is Canada today, my friends.
00:14:20.200 That is Canada of 2026, not the land of Courier-Dubois and the Canadian Pacific Railroad.
00:14:27.000 Stay with me. More ahead.
00:14:30.020 Well, you know, I'm so proud of Alexa Lavoie.
00:14:40.360 She joined our team during the COVID times when Quebec was the most brutal of the lockdown jurisdictions.
00:14:46.480 Do you remember that they had a curfew where you could not leave your house from 10 p.m. till 5 a.m.?
00:14:52.880 Even if you were healthy, even if you were jabbed, like you got jabbed, you did what you're supposed to.
00:14:57.120 you were not allowed even to walk your dog, which is sort of gross when you think about it. I mean,
00:15:01.820 if this is a health order, you can't go outside for your dog to do his business. Just crazy,
00:15:07.300 crazy stuff. That's where we met Alexa LaVon. She's turned into a real star and her work has 0.54
00:15:12.440 not gone unnoticed. And so surprising to me, the leader of the Parti Quebecois, which of course is
00:15:18.800 the independence oriented party there that is now ahead or tied for lead in the polls. It could
00:15:24.500 very well be the next government in Quebec. They asked or agreed to have a sit down interview
00:15:31.300 with Alexa for an hour, the leader. And it was amazing. I think that's a real feather
00:15:36.420 in our cap. I mean, we do talk to Premier Daniel Smith from time to time. And, you know, I had the
00:15:43.800 ambassador of the United States sit down with me a couple of weeks ago. But for us to have this
00:15:49.120 kind of progress in Quebec, to me, is really amazing, especially since the Parti Quebec was
00:15:53.880 typically a party of the left and we are more of the right. So I salute Alexa for her results.
00:16:00.960 I want to show you an extended portion of that. Instead of putting on English subtitles, we used
00:16:08.380 a dubbing, an automatic dubbing. So you'll hear it in English, even so it's been like a movie
00:16:14.640 that's been dubbed. I'm very proud of Alexa. I thought she asked really good questions. She
00:16:18.660 give us a real credit. And I was watching online the total meltdown by the regime media who were
00:16:27.000 appalled, not just with Alexa, but that the leader of the Parti Québécois would sit down with her
00:16:31.800 and they were raging that he dared to talk to them. And that's the kind of reaction you're
00:16:38.640 going to see from the regime media when Carney brings in his next censorship bills. It's going
00:16:43.780 to be all about silencing the few voices they don't control. So without further to do, here's
00:16:48.680 Alex Lavoie with the leader of the Parti Québécois. Alex Lavoie for Rebel News. And today I bring you
00:16:57.080 an exclusive interview with Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, who could become Quebec's next
00:17:02.600 premier. We cover a wide range of topics, including the economy, Quebec City's tramway
00:17:10.180 project public-private collaboration alberta's proposed referendums immigrations street prayers
00:17:18.900 secularism the firearms buyback program and medical assistant in dying these are issues
00:17:27.380 rarely discussed in mainstream media yet they matter deeply to many of you
00:17:33.780 There were a lot of questions to fit into just one hour,
00:17:38.780 so I want to thank the leader of the Parti Québécois
00:17:43.780 for his openness.
00:17:45.780 And remember, we do not receive government funding,
00:17:49.780 and our work comes with real risk.
00:17:54.780 If you are able to, please consider supporting us
00:17:58.780 at StandWithAlexa.com.
00:18:00.780 This video was conducted in French, so we dubbed the whole interview in English for you.
00:18:08.880 Thank you, and now enjoy the interview.
00:18:11.980 Hello, Mr. Paul St-Pierre Plamondon.
00:18:14.340 Hi.
00:18:15.280 First of all, thank you for agreeing to this interview.
00:18:19.280 Since several politicians have refused to have a conversation with us,
00:18:24.260 we are not entirely sure why, but it's important to have a discussion.
00:18:29.900 and also to understand your vision of Quebec's future.
00:18:36.400 To be very honest, whether a media outlet is on the right or the left,
00:18:40.640 if I see intellectual honesty, meaning that what was said is reported faithfully,
00:18:45.380 and that questions come from either the right or the left, that's healthy for democracy.
00:18:53.360 And to be very honest, last summer I wanted to comment.
00:18:56.880 I was truly stunned by the street prayers.
00:18:59.900 in front of the Notre Dame Basilica.
00:19:03.160 And as a politician, I'm not a journalist.
00:19:06.420 So I was telling myself that there would soon be articles
00:19:09.860 coming out documenting a phenomenon
00:19:12.460 that would have been unthinkable just 10 years ago.
00:19:15.800 And that is of public interest
00:19:17.720 because it involves public space, religion, and so on.
00:19:21.480 And that moment really stayed with me.
00:19:23.900 To be honest, I didn't really know you at the time,
00:19:26.180 but that was when I thought,
00:19:27.440 Okay, so there's only one journalist covering a question that is unquestionably of public interest,
00:19:34.140 especially if we look at what's happening across the rest of the Western world.
00:19:37.960 And it's also in that sense that all questions, as long as there is intellectual honesty in the approach,
00:19:44.140 have value in a democracy.
00:19:45.800 There are angles from the right, which I think is your case,
00:19:48.700 and there are angles from the left, which I also submit to.
00:19:51.640 And my only criterion is that I simply don't want what I said to be distorted.
00:19:55.720 And I don't think that's the case with you at all, obviously.
00:19:58.680 So I accept, and it's my pleasure.
00:20:00.600 You have been leader of the Parti Québécois since 2020, and you are the M&A for Camille Lorrain.
00:20:06.740 You also have an impressive background, a certificate in international law from Lund University in Sweden,
00:20:14.460 a law degree in common law from McGill University, and an MBA from Oxford.
00:20:20.740 Oxford, yes.
00:20:21.940 You speak five languages.
00:20:23.800 less and less because i don't practice them anymore but there was a time when in danish i
00:20:29.800 was formidable i even gave an interview on danish national television a year and a half ago
00:20:35.200 and my host family because i was hosted for a year by a family of a lutheran pastor who had
00:20:41.500 chickens anyway they were blown away when they saw me on national television and it was a segment
00:20:46.520 about the party quebecois and i explain everything in danish but over time you lose it i will start
00:20:52.580 with a simple question that many people are asking. Where do you see yourself personally
00:20:59.420 on the political spectrum? You're talking about left and right, I assume. Because, you know,
00:21:05.200 on independence, I think everyone understands. You know, it's because I'm at the head of a
00:21:09.820 historically coalition-based party. Overall, it's more center-left than center-right if you look
00:21:15.240 across different periods. Lucien Bouchard is associated more with the center-right. But the
00:21:20.100 Levesque, Landry, Perizot years.
00:21:22.540 That's center-left.
00:21:23.600 Even Levesque ended his career being pushed around
00:21:26.280 by unions who held a grudge against him
00:21:28.320 because he tried to set things straight
00:21:29.920 after certain excesses,
00:21:31.660 I think at the time, in the public sector.
00:21:34.120 So there have been all kinds of episodes.
00:21:36.580 Personally, I believe in basic public services.
00:21:39.560 For me, a child who needs care should be treated,
00:21:42.440 and they have the right to go to school.
00:21:44.460 There are things on which you never compromise in a society.
00:21:47.040 And as a wealthy society, we have the means.
00:21:51.200 So I believe in public services, which places me more in the center-left in principle.
00:21:57.240 But we are in a period where the bureaucracy is growing three times faster than the population,
00:22:02.660 while services are no longer meeting people's needs.
00:22:06.240 So, to go back to your earlier point, if we are not operating ideologically and are strictly committed to the truth,
00:22:12.980 At some point, you are forced to say that there will have to be significant cuts to the bureaucracy if we want basic services to survive an aging population, and also the influx we've seen, with 600,000 temporary residents suddenly arriving in Quebec all at once.
00:22:30.180 We can see that the systems are no longer keeping up.
00:22:36.960 It's a question of, I don't know if at this point it's a matter of left or right anymore.
00:22:42.240 it's about accurately naming where we are as a society. Some might say that it's not a big deal
00:22:49.360 if not all seniors are cared for or if not all children have access to school. I firmly believe
00:22:55.200 that there are things we must deliver for everyone in society. But if we're not managing to do that
00:23:00.000 right now, it's because there are problems elsewhere and we need to be able to name them.
00:23:04.720 And if naming those problems leads some people to label me as being on the right,
00:23:08.720 that doesn't matter to me at all.
00:23:10.340 The latest poll placed you neck and neck with the Liberal Party of Quebec
00:23:15.880 and everything suggests you could become the next Premier of Quebec.
00:23:20.800 You will inherit a significant debt, around $260 billion,
00:23:26.700 with a projected deficit of $8.6 billion.
00:23:31.080 We also have an inverted demographic pyramid,
00:23:34.680 meaning fewer workers to support an aging population, which increases intergenerational inequality.
00:23:43.380 In your view, have we reached the limits of the welfare states?
00:23:48.400 What financial adjustments or reforms will you propose?
00:23:53.240 And do you think the private sector should play a greater role alongside the public system?
00:23:59.100 Okay, let's go.
00:24:00.820 Quebec's debt-to-GDP ratio is relatively stable.
00:24:04.640 And while I've been critical of Minister Girard regarding the nature of the deficits,
00:24:08.720 meaning why $10 billion, in terms of the debt-to-GDP ratio compared to other provinces or to Europe,
00:24:16.180 Quebec is not in a problematic position.
00:24:18.480 It compares relatively well.
00:24:20.300 It's simply that the reason for the $10 billion is, and we'll talk about adjustments or changes,
00:24:27.300 it's like Pierre Fitzgibbon's checkbook being used in all directions. Funding companies we
00:24:33.060 know very little about in some cases. Many are multinationals instead of supporting our own
00:24:38.760 Quebec SMEs. There are scandals like SAAQ clique. So clearly management issues. And in general,
00:24:46.880 the size of the state, meaning bureaucracy, and I'm talking about office jobs, not people
00:24:51.600 delivering services to the population. Those jobs are growing much faster than the population,
00:24:56.000 the budgets and the revenues. I don't think that's viable in the current system. For the
00:25:02.200 following reason, if at least we had 100% of our budget of our tax revenues, and we said we need
00:25:09.060 to make certain adjustments, if we want to ensure that people who have paid taxes all their lives
00:25:14.360 have the right to receive care in retirement, then in my view, that would be entirely feasible.
00:25:20.640 But if half of your taxes go to Ottawa, and this is often overlooked, we tend to focus on the Quebec government, which, compared to other Canadian provinces, is not out of control in terms of debt.
00:25:34.300 And we overlook the fact that the other half of taxes goes to a government that is engaged in ideological drift in all directions, duplicates what we already do, and provides very few services for that half of the taxes.
00:25:48.540 So one half goes to health care, education, social services, and just about all the challenges in our society.
00:25:55.380 And then you have the other side, the government of Canada, which says, I might send you transfers eventually.
00:26:02.420 But generally, I prefer to duplicate what you already do in order to exercise power over you through taxation.
00:26:08.480 As for your question, I don't think that if we remain within Canada and accept duplication and that level of waste in Ottawa, it leads to what's called fiscal asphyxiation.
00:26:21.320 You no longer have the revenues needed for your responsibilities.
00:26:25.320 And it's actually very surprising for your listeners, those who follow you and who are conservatives from the PCQ.
00:26:30.480 It's astonishing to see that when I say Quebec independence would mean we cannot rehire all federal public servants and that we would have to cut that bureaucracy.
00:26:41.340 If we want not only to deliver services, but probably also reduce the tax burden on people who are struggling, it's incredible to see the Quebec Conservative Party oppose what I'm saying and defend that federal bureaucracy because that's where the most waste is.
00:26:57.180 So logically, someone who believes there is too much overlap, too much paperwork management and not enough services for the taxes paid should support eliminating one level of government so that decisions are made in one place instead of three different ones where no one agrees, procedures multiply and layers of control keep increasing.
00:27:17.480 Because it does cost money. If Quebec were to become independent, there would be costs to create departments that don't currently exist.
00:27:26.940 Those are transition costs.
00:27:28.380 The military.
00:27:29.280 No, because what we do when we draft the budget of an independent Quebec
00:27:32.940 is that we take the share of what we already pay for the military.
00:27:36.400 And we say, with that money, so $20 billion for the Canadian military,
00:27:40.680 our share would be about 20% of that, so $4 billion.
00:27:45.080 What can we do with $4 billion?
00:27:46.680 We already have infrastructure on our territory, we have trained personnel,
00:27:50.180 and we can look to countries like Denmark,
00:27:52.120 which have recently stood up to the United States,
00:27:54.200 and operate with roughly that kind of budget.
00:27:56.600 Though, of course, they don't have the military capacity of the U.S.
00:28:00.380 Exactly, because the U.S. military, countries rely on it for protection.
00:28:06.200 If we didn't have the United States as a neighbor, our own military...
00:28:10.740 Geopolitically, indeed. 0.64
00:28:11.860 It would be almost impossible.
00:28:13.600 Exactly.
00:28:14.280 But the point is, Quebec has the means to have a contributing military.
00:28:18.460 It will never be the size of the United States.
00:28:20.740 But at the same time, when I hear politicians suggest that Canada protects us from Trump, that's not serious.
00:28:28.000 If the United States makes decisions, which, by the way, is unlikely to happen,
00:28:32.540 the idea that the Canadian military is a defensive shield for Quebecers has been completely overstated.
00:28:38.780 I'm confident that, like any European country of our size, we would do the same.
00:28:43.380 We would develop our own areas of expertise.
00:28:45.600 Don't you think that public-private collaboration, like in healthcare or infrastructure, for example, roads, could be a solution?
00:28:54.180 I don't know if you have had the chance to drive in Montreal, but it's very clear that our infrastructure, our assets are deteriorating.
00:29:03.600 Yes, so let's come back to healthcare, because the question was, does it work?
00:29:07.940 It doesn't work if you have one level of government too many.
00:29:11.120 And at the level of the Quebec government, there is a real discussion to be had.
00:29:16.240 If you have too much bureaucracy, you inevitably have fewer resources to deliver services.
00:29:22.180 Now, a second issue, which is different, infrastructure.
00:29:25.300 Because in the Quebec government's budget, there are operating expenses,
00:29:29.380 health care, education, etc., and then there are infrastructure expenditures.
00:29:33.740 And if we don't acknowledge that building in Quebec costs two or three times more than anywhere else,
00:29:39.380 And let's bring back the Charbonneau Commission, because all of this is connected.
00:29:44.300 If we don't fix that, nothing will change, whether it's public or private.
00:29:48.340 In fact, when projects go through the private sector via the quête du dépôt, they cost less.
00:29:54.040 And then we started asking questions.
00:29:56.120 How is it that when you handle the same project, it costs less?
00:30:00.080 They told us we're more predictable.
00:30:02.420 We don't change direction 20 times.
00:30:04.200 We're more organized, and therefore, there is more trust.
00:30:07.220 There are also competition issues.
00:30:08.780 if there aren't enough players competing,
00:30:11.100 and if, as in the time of the Charbonneau Commission,
00:30:12.980 there was collusion and price-fixing through political dealings.
00:30:17.180 I'm not saying that's still the case, because I don't have proof.
00:30:20.400 But back then, there was proof.
00:30:22.340 All these factors mean that right now,
00:30:25.220 Quebec might pay $175 million for a school
00:30:29.320 that would cost $75 million in Ontario.
00:30:32.540 And if we want to maintain our basic infrastructure,
00:30:35.200 your stop sign or traffic light shouldn't cost a million dollars.
00:30:38.240 That was, I believe, what was revealed in Longueuil.
00:30:42.220 If we fix that corruption…
00:30:44.620 Yes, but historically, that has often been the role of the Parti Québécois.
00:30:48.780 When René Lavec's PQ came to power, they made announcements that swept things clean.
00:30:53.800 They went after the Liberal Party's briefcases full of cash.
00:30:57.080 That's easier said than done.
00:30:59.020 No, but they have had.
00:31:00.280 The state will never be perfect, and private companies won't be either, by the way.
00:31:04.640 You also have to understand that often when we turn to the private sector, but with public funds, private companies are not more Catholic than the Pope.
00:31:13.680 They are just as capable of overbilling.
00:31:16.000 I'll give you an example in health care, since that was your topic.
00:31:19.520 We turn to the private sector for nurses, private staffing agencies. 0.98
00:31:23.500 Essentially, what they did was recruit nurses who were already working five days a week, sometimes with overtime. 0.59
00:31:30.280 They offered them positions of three days a week at locations chosen by the agency.
00:31:35.180 But the agency overcharged and kept a large profit margin, which was passed on to the state.
00:31:41.700 And suddenly, we ended up paying $2 billion more for nurses because of these private agencies,
00:31:47.820 for less work and with terrible working conditions, where people left and only a few remained, constantly working overtime.
00:31:56.340 The private sector, you have to define which one and whether it makes sense or not.
00:32:01.220 Sometimes it does, and sometimes it doesn't.
00:32:04.820 So we are not closing the door on it?
00:32:06.900 No, it depends. I'm very committed to public accessibility in the healthcare system.
00:32:12.100 I don't want to live in a society like some others, our neighbors to the south,
00:32:16.580 where 8% are uninsured, and if you don't have the money, you're stuck with your health problem.
00:32:22.100 I think we have the wealth to offer that, but there are conditions.
00:32:26.400 And the first is that resources should be allocated to those delivering services, not to bureaucracy.
00:32:33.560 In fact, Sainte-Québec, that's going to be quite a debate.
00:32:37.100 Because if you create, if your ministry is still there and you create another structure alongside it,
00:32:42.640 like you have Mobilité Infra and the Ministry of Transport.
00:32:46.280 You were skeptical about that.
00:32:48.240 Well, I still am.
00:32:49.060 You know, I'm very much in favor of measuring each region of Quebec, so there's some what we call benchmarking, sorry for the Anglicism, but evaluation metrics.
00:33:01.040 And there are things Sante Quebec does, but someone will have to explain to me in what parallel universe we're going to have both a Ministry of Health and a Sante Quebec trying to coordinate,
00:33:10.540 and a minister who, depending on what's advantageous, sides with one or the other,
00:33:15.800 or sometimes, as we've seen, washes their hands of it by saying,
00:33:19.680 that's not me, that's Sante Quebec.
00:33:22.380 So the level of bureaucracy is an issue.
00:33:25.180 But I reiterate that the worst place for bureaucracy and duplication is the federal public service,
00:33:30.960 which, under Justin Trudeau, has grown by 43% over eight years,
00:33:36.180 while the few federal services provided to the population have declined in quality, according to the parliamentary budget officer.
00:33:43.660 That's where it's worst.
00:33:44.820 And I find that in the Quebec conversation, it's as if we treat it like it's not our country.
00:33:49.280 So it doesn't concern us.
00:33:51.120 But I remind people that nearly half of their taxes go not to Quebec, but to Ottawa.
00:33:56.400 We should sometimes scrutinize what's happening there just as much as what's happening here.
00:34:01.260 I'll give you one last example, sorry to insist. 1.00
00:34:03.660 With SAAQ Click, we made a huge scandal out of it, and rightly so.
00:34:08.560 It was terrible. 0.91
00:34:09.780 Over a billion dollars in a political and managerial fiasco.
00:34:13.360 The federal government had its equivalent $6 billion not long ago.
00:34:17.460 It lasted barely 24 hours in the media.
00:34:20.120 After that, no one talked about it anymore, as if it never happened.
00:34:23.700 But it's still our taxes.
00:34:25.160 It's like when we talk about federal debt, we talk about it as if it's not our debt.
00:34:29.180 It is our debt.
00:34:30.360 And they are indebting us far more than the deficit you're talking about in Quebec.
00:34:34.940 It's $9 billion.
00:34:36.520 But what the federal government adds to Quebec's share is about $16 billion per year.
00:34:43.020 And what do we get from the federal government?
00:34:45.220 At least Quebec provides services.
00:34:47.660 They are at the core of people's daily lives.
00:34:52.180 What do you think of that?
00:34:53.520 I tell you, I am bursting with pride at Alexa's work.
00:34:56.680 I really think she's doing a great job.
00:34:58.920 in a very difficult setting. I mean, in some ways, Quebec has some conservative instincts,
00:35:04.240 but in other ways, it's quite radical. There's Antifa ruling the streets in Montreal. I really
00:35:09.520 think it's terrible. And the police have been scared into standing back. They were sued.
00:35:14.460 And I don't know if you know this, the mayor of Quebec settled and sort of said, we are going to
00:35:20.460 confess. We're going to pay millions of dollars to the protesters. So if you're a cop and you want
00:35:25.800 to stand up for the rule of law, but your mayor says, no, we're guilty. And we're going to pay
00:35:30.120 the bad guys. You're not going to put your neck on the line to uphold the law. The mayor's ordered
00:35:33.900 you not to do so. She's in league with Antifa. And we've seen that before. Anyways, I really 0.99
00:35:38.800 respect Alexa and Guillaume Roy, our videographer, just for the physical courage of going out and
00:35:45.180 about in Quebec. Hey, before I go, let me read some letters from you to me on the floor crosser,
00:35:51.540 Marilyn Gladue, just outrageous. 1.00
00:35:54.120 Lynn O'Neill says, totally disgusting, no scruples whatsoever, no conscience, not ethical, 0.98
00:35:58.520 not even embarrassed. 1.00
00:36:00.560 You know, she was quite a right-wing MP.
00:36:04.680 She was pro-life, she was pro-civil liberties, pro-free speech, and she just torched Mark 1.00
00:36:10.920 Carney, including just a few weeks ago, torching some of the floor crossers. 1.00
00:36:15.360 And you know, I don't know if you remember this, but a few years ago, Justin Trudeau 1.00
00:36:18.260 said, if you're not a pro-choice person, you're not allowed to run.
00:36:21.140 Now, he obviously exempts Muslim MPs, but no Catholics were allowed to have a pro-life position.
00:36:27.260 And here's Marilyn Gladue. 0.56
00:36:28.360 I wonder if, I mean, and she also was a friend of the truckers.
00:36:31.760 Now, does this mean that the liberals are a big tent for ideas?
00:36:36.020 Of course not.
00:36:37.260 They're only about power.
00:36:38.280 And what really bugs me about this is that an outright majority of people in her riding vote a conservative, which is, you know, it's quite a high level in our multi-party system to get.
00:36:50.400 I think she got 53% more than all of the other parties combined.
00:36:55.020 But to frustrate the will, to ignore the will,
00:36:57.220 to overrule the will of the majority and say,
00:37:00.300 no, no, we have a secret backroom deal
00:37:01.960 by which we can void the results of a legitimate election.
00:37:06.800 How is that not a form of democratic corruption?
00:37:09.900 I say again, there are occasional reasons
00:37:12.560 why someone would cross the floor on principle
00:37:15.960 if there's some crisis, but that's not the case here.
00:37:18.600 You have sheer opportunism on both sides, and I thought it was really gross.
00:37:23.260 ACNH Celeste says, I wish I could sign the independence petition and vote every day in support for Alberta separation.
00:37:29.180 Since immigrating here 12 years ago, so much has changed under the Liberal Party rule.
00:37:32.900 And Alberta's most recent imported voters from Ontario is the final straw.
00:37:36.740 If separating doesn't happen, sadly, there's an exit plan in place.
00:37:41.140 You know, Canada has been added to.
00:37:44.100 I mean, provinces have joined.
00:37:46.460 Newfoundland, the most recent.
00:37:48.600 I mean, land is traded, sold, swapped.
00:37:52.600 It does happen.
00:37:53.860 That doesn't mean you're no longer friends.
00:37:55.580 I mean, Czechoslovakia, the Czechs and the Slovaks are still friends.
00:38:00.240 They just have their different legislatures.
00:38:02.620 They're still neighbors.
00:38:03.460 They didn't physically move.
00:38:05.320 My vision, if there was an independence Alberta, it would still be physically where it is.
00:38:10.780 Obviously, the Trans-Canada Highway would still go and the railway, the CP Rail would still go.
00:38:16.620 I mean, we would all be friends and family and grownups about it.
00:38:20.560 We would just have federal decisions being made in Alberta rather than in Ottawa.
00:38:25.420 Frankly, who wouldn't want that?
00:38:27.960 Anyway, let me know what you think about that.
00:38:29.380 I've had some people strongly disagree with me.
00:38:31.560 I'd like to hear from you.
00:38:32.420 Feel free to send me a letter to Ezra at rebelnews.com.
00:38:37.040 Until tomorrow, when I have a special surprise for you, good night and keep fighting for freedom.
00:38:46.620 Thank you.