Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ More government-funded disinformation, smearing the truckers

00:00:00.000 Hello, my friends. A new study is out saying that Russia was definitely involved with the

00:00:05.480 trucker convoy. And the proof? Well, they certainly talked about it a lot on social media.

00:00:11.760 Therefore, of course, they organized it. I wish I were making this up, but that's how stupid 1.00

00:00:16.540 academia has become. I'll take you through the study and who's promoting it. But first, 0.99

00:00:21.160 let me invite you to become a subscriber to Rebel News Plus. Go to rebelnewsplus.com,

00:00:25.300 click subscribe. It's only eight bucks a month and you get the video version of this podcast.

00:00:30.000 All right. Here's today's show.

00:00:39.080 Tonight, more government funded disinformation smearing the truckers. It's February 1st,

00:00:53.280 and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.

00:00:54.700 Shame on you, you censorious bug.

00:01:09.640 Well, it'd be more than a week since I had my walking scrum with Avi Yamini, where we peppered

00:01:15.500 Albert Bourla, the CEO of Pfizer, with questions on the streets of Davos at the World Economic Forum.

00:01:20.660 And I think we asked some good ones. But the number one question I wish I thought of at the

00:01:27.080 time, and it was a very intense few minutes there. So, you know, I don't want to beat myself

00:01:31.120 up too badly for not thinking of it, was this news that has not been reported in the CBC. But

00:01:37.900 of course, the foreign press is often more balanced than our domestic press. Look at this story in the

00:01:43.440 Daily Mail. Pfizer board member Scott Gottlieb leaned on Twitter to censor tweets, which argued

00:01:51.560 against vaccine passports and claimed natural immunity was stronger than the shot. Latest Twitter

00:01:56.900 files dump reveals. I checked the search engine on the CBC. Not a word about that. It's actually worse

00:02:03.800 than that. Scott Gottlieb is on the board of Pfizer, but he was actually the former Food and Drug

00:02:08.960 Administration commissioner. He was engaging in a cover-up of alternative points of view, which were

00:02:16.240 true. He was censoring or pressuring Twitter to censor medical voices that said natural immunity is

00:02:25.460 strong. That's actual disinformation, actual harmful lies. How many people unnecessarily took the jab then?

00:02:35.220 How many people were panicked because of what Pfizer said and did? That's disinformation.

00:02:43.260 We saw that during the Trucker Commission too, government disinformation. Remember,

00:02:48.340 it came out during the Trucker Commission of Inquiry that the police were lying about seizing children

00:02:54.900 and pets from protesters. They made a public announcement that Child and Family Services was going

00:03:00.520 to seize children and that the SPCA was going to seize pets. Neither organization said that. It was

00:03:07.160 just the police engaging in psychological warfare against its own citizens. You could call that

00:03:13.660 misinformation. And of course, the chief of police in Ottawa terrorizing any donor, any grandma or grandpa

00:03:22.380 across the country who chipped in 10 or 20 bucks. The police chief barking at them that he would hunt

00:03:27.040 them down. Now, of course, it was partly true. Under the Emergencies Act, 200 people had their bank

00:03:33.400 account seized, but not the thousands that donated. So there is disinformation in the world. But most of

00:03:42.020 it, by my judgment, comes from the government. Most of the time, it's what the government calls

00:03:46.900 disinformation. It's just skepticism or dissent having a different opinion. That's not disinformation.

00:03:53.960 It's just another point of view. And in fact, so many conspiracy theories have later come true. I

00:04:01.040 mean, this is just the craziest clip here. This is the same Albert Bourla at the World Economic Forum a

00:04:06.260 few years ago talking about something that if you saw it on Alex Jones and Infowars, you'd say,

00:04:11.600 oh, that's a crazy conspiracy theory. No, they really did say this. Take a look.

00:04:16.160 It is basically a biological chip that it is in the tablet. And once you take the tablet and dissolves

00:04:24.800 into your stomach, it sends a signal that you took the tablet. So imagine the applications of that

00:04:30.460 compliance. The insurance companies to know that the medicines that patients should take, they do

00:04:36.100 take them. It is fascinating what happens in this field.

00:04:41.620 So many of the things that are being spoken about by conventional wisdom today were considered

00:04:47.660 radical and illegal misinformation just years or even months ago. Here's Bill Gates talking about

00:04:55.040 the vaccines and basically the fact that they don't work.

00:04:58.780 The current vaccines are not infection blocking. They're not broad. So when new variants come up,

00:05:05.120 you lose protection. And they have very short duration, particularly in the people who matter,

00:05:10.180 which are old people. And every one of those things is fixable. In fact, doing that work 1.00

00:05:17.460 is going to help vaccinology very, very broadly.

00:05:21.680 The current vaccines are not infection blocking. They're not broad. They have very short duration.

00:05:31.340 Oh, I didn't know you were allowed to say that. But I guess if you're Bill Gates, you can say

00:05:35.300 whatever you want and that becomes the new normal. Remember my question

00:05:38.280 to Albert Bourla about the changing efficacy and transmissibility. First, 100 percent, then 90 percent.

00:05:45.600 Remember this question I asked him? You said it was 100 percent effective, then 90 percent,

00:05:51.620 then 80 percent, then 70 percent. But we now know that the vaccines do not stop transmission.

00:05:57.360 Why did you keep that secret?

00:05:59.360 Have a nice day.

00:06:00.040 I won't have a nice day until I know the answer. Why did you keep it a secret that your vaccine

00:06:06.320 did not stop transmission?

00:06:09.020 Those questions were inspired by this online video montage.

00:06:14.240 I don't know who made it, but this was on my mind when I asked Bourla those questions.

00:06:17.460 We'll be right back.

00:06:19.260 We'll be right back.

00:06:36.440 Thank you.

00:07:06.440 So, again, is that misinformation from the head of Pfizer and the many people he paid?

00:07:16.600 Well, of course it was misinformation, or as it used to be called, advertising.

00:07:23.560 Of course, there are some rules about false advertising, as the Department of Justice

00:07:27.440 called it, deceptive marketing.

00:07:30.540 When they convicted Pfizer, made them pay the largest fine to that point in history,

00:07:34.600 $2.3 billion.

00:07:36.840 Now, the establishment loves vaccines, and they'll tell misinformation and disinformation

00:07:42.660 to get you to buy vaccines and take vaccines.

00:07:45.420 And the establishment hates the truckers, in part because the truckers were against forced

00:07:50.600 vaccines.

00:07:52.380 And the new official message track, of course, for the past year, is that the Ukraine war

00:07:57.560 and Vladimir Putin are central to our lives.

00:08:01.280 So the perfect storm was gathering, connecting all three of these things, vaccines, truckers,

00:08:07.560 and Vladimir Putin.

00:08:09.220 So obviously, the CBC put it all together in this perfect comment.

00:08:13.440 I do ask that because, you know, given Canada's support of Ukraine in this current crisis with

00:08:20.360 Russia, I don't know if it's far-fetched to ask, but there is concern that Russian actors

00:08:27.020 could be continuing to fuel things as this protest grows, but perhaps even instigating

00:08:33.160 it from the outset.

00:08:34.920 Well, that was an embarrassing joke.

00:08:36.660 Even more embarrassing was the CBC, whose own ombudsman admitted it was sloppy, even for

00:08:42.920 them, their own internal review, wrote a long justification of it, but said in the

00:08:48.840 end, quote, I did, though, come away from my review with some broader concerns.

00:08:54.440 I am disappointed that it took others to point out to CBC that the question was off.

00:08:59.840 It should have been caught before broadcast.

00:09:01.500 I am also disappointed that programmers were not more sensitive in advance to the perils

00:09:06.840 of speculating on subjects such as the convoy or Russian interference in Canadian affairs.

00:09:12.740 Yeah, no, the CBC lied.

00:09:14.360 It took them the better part of a year to half own up to it.

00:09:19.120 And of course, they promoted that liar.

00:09:21.520 So yeah, misinformation, disinformation, which brings us to the news today.

00:09:25.660 The Pfizer lies are enormous.

00:09:27.880 $100 billion turned on it, so of course they're going to lie.

00:09:30.900 The CBC lies are just huge.

00:09:33.800 Smear the truckers, Trudeau's real enemy.

00:09:36.660 The first real opposition to Trudeau in nearly a decade.

00:09:39.120 Smear them.

00:09:40.500 But what is the biggest lying machine in Canada?

00:09:44.200 What machine has lied to an entire generation?

00:09:48.160 Our universities, of course, are woke professors.

00:09:51.100 Partly because they're naturally leftists, but partly because they are, in many cases,

00:09:55.120 funded by Trudeau and his grants.

00:09:56.940 Trudeau has colonized academia, just like he has colonized the news media.

00:10:02.760 Here's a longtime regime journalist, Stephen Marr, who said,

00:10:06.820 It is reasonable to infer that RT, Russia Today's extensive coverage of the convoy,

00:10:13.060 may be just the most visible sign of a broader influence campaign encompassing other actors

00:10:19.220 and activities, including proxy sources, cyber operations, social media accounts.

00:10:26.220 RT is Putin's state broadcaster, like the CBC is to Trudeau.

00:10:30.680 And he was linking to this.

00:10:34.220 I published a 7,000 word analysis in the Journal of Intelligence, Conflict and Warfare today,

00:10:39.620 documenting evidence of Russian influence activities targeting the 2022 Canadian Freedom Convoy

00:10:44.920 by a state funded media, proxy sources and telegram groups.

00:10:50.520 Now, I did my best to read this 7,000 word essay, but really, it didn't need to be 7,000 words long.

00:10:56.520 I don't know, unless she was getting paid by the word or something, which could be,

00:11:01.100 or she was trying to make it look like there was more substance there,

00:11:04.360 like there was more there than there really was.

00:11:07.780 Let me read to you the abstract, which is an academic way of saying a summary of an article.

00:11:15.160 Russia's role in the far right truck convoy sort of gives away where she's coming from right there, doesn't it?

00:11:20.600 An analysis of Russian state media activity related to the 2022 Freedom Convoy by Caroline Orr Bueno,

00:11:29.860 University of Maryland, United States.

00:11:31.980 Because who knows more about the Canadian truckers than someone riding in Maryland?

00:11:37.340 But please let me read to you the abstract in full because it is just so perfect.

00:11:42.060 This is, I remind you, fighting against misinformation.

00:11:47.060 It's a kind of a fact check.

00:11:48.240 It's scolding you.

00:11:50.500 It's telling you why you are not just wrong, but why you are morally wrong. 0.94

00:11:53.720 You are bad.

00:11:54.700 She's good. 1.00

00:11:55.700 You're a racist. 1.00

00:11:56.800 Trudeau is a hero. 0.99

00:11:58.460 Let me read to you the proof that the Russians were, in fact, orchestrating the trucker convoy. 0.73

00:12:03.540 You're going to laugh.

00:12:05.460 Nearly a year after the start of Canada's 2022 Freedom Convoy,

00:12:08.720 a series of protests and blockades that brought together a wide variety of far-right activists and extremists,

00:12:15.140 as well as ordinary Canadians who found common ground with the aggrieved message of the organizers.

00:12:20.980 The question of whether and to what degree foreign actors were involved remains largely unanswered.

00:12:27.000 Yeah, no, sister, it's been pretty exclusively and exhaustively answered.

00:12:30.920 This paper attempts to answer some of those questions by providing a brief but targeted analysis of Russia's involvement in the Freedom Convoy via media and social media.

00:12:42.180 The analysis examines Russian involvement in the convoy through the lenses of overt state media coverage,

00:12:47.360 state-affiliated proxy websites, and overlap between Russian propaganda and convoy content on social media.

00:12:53.260 The findings reveal that the Russian state media outlet, RT, covered the Freedom Convoy far more than any other international media outlet,

00:13:01.040 suggesting strong interest in the far-right Canadian protest movement on the part of the Russian state.

00:13:07.700 State-affiliated proxy websites and content on the messaging platform Telegram provide further evidence of Russia's strategic interest in the Freedom Convoy.

00:13:16.420 Based on these findings, it is reasonable to infer that there was Russian involvement in the 2022 truck convoy,

00:13:25.180 though the scope and impact remain to be determined.

00:13:28.340 So because Putin's TV channel covered the truckers, it is reasonable to infer that the Russians were organizing it, 0.70

00:13:38.540 they were involved with it, they orchestrated it.

00:13:40.340 So there's actually no evidence of that.

00:13:45.540 Just, of course, just infer it.

00:13:49.020 Just fill in the blanks with your own made-up facts.

00:13:52.820 That's a conspiracy theory.

00:13:57.180 That's disinformation.

00:13:59.900 This is a scholar, published in a scholarly paper, proving things.

00:14:04.200 This is science.

00:14:05.200 Russian state media arm RT, formerly Russia Today, covered the convoy more than any other international media outlet,

00:14:13.320 particularly during the crucial early weeks of the protest,

00:14:16.420 which may have given RT an opportunity to influence the tone and framing of coverage for the duration of the convoy.

00:14:23.000 Do you watch RT?

00:14:25.400 I bet you don't, because you can't actually find it on TV in Canada anymore.

00:14:29.580 It was banned by Trudeau.

00:14:31.380 You can try and find it online, but you'll find that tough, too, since it was banned by YouTube as well.

00:14:38.840 But this expert says that because RT covered the protests, that influenced other media, influenced the protesters themselves.

00:14:48.180 Do you think the truckers or those covering them were going to RT to see how RT was covering them?

00:14:53.500 Do you think that happened?

00:14:56.120 And if they were, do you think that is evidence that Russia was running things?

00:14:59.320 I do ask that because, you know, given Canada's support of Ukraine in this current crisis with Russia,

00:15:06.920 I don't know if it's far-fetched to ask, but there is concern that Russian actors could be continuing to fuel things as this protest grows,

00:15:17.960 but perhaps even instigating it from the outset.

00:15:20.720 Listen to this scholar some more.

00:15:23.540 Underneath all of these seemingly distinct movements is a rising tide of right-wing populism infused with a toxic blend of conspiracy theories,

00:15:32.260 disinformation, grievances, and scapegoating that is now dominating political narratives

00:15:36.940 and leading to increasingly inflammatory rhetoric that, at times, has spilled over into violence.

00:15:42.940 Violence?

00:15:44.220 The truckers?

00:15:46.060 I guess so.

00:15:46.880 Well, I guess so.

00:15:47.500 That's when Trudeau's police and their horses stomped on peaceful protesters,

00:15:53.000 when Trudeau's police shot our reporter, Alexa Levois,

00:15:56.220 I guess they did have some violence and grievances and scapegoating.

00:16:00.280 I guess that's true, like when Trudeau scapegoated the unvaxxed. 0.93

00:16:04.540 Yes, we're going to get out of this pandemic for the vaccination.

00:16:08.620 And we know all of those people who are trying to hesitate a little bit.

00:16:13.020 We're going to try to convince them.

00:16:14.860 But there are also people who are far away from the vaccination.

00:16:18.440 Who are extremists.

00:16:19.440 Who don't believe in science, who are often misogynes, often racistes.

00:16:23.820 It's a small group, but who takes place.

00:16:27.820 But this is scholarship, people.

00:16:38.500 This is a self-described disinformation expert.

00:16:42.200 So because Russia today covered the truckers, they were involved with the truckers.

00:16:47.080 Got it.

00:16:47.800 Okay.

00:16:49.280 Imagine treating this study as legit.

00:16:51.960 I promise you'll see it everywhere in tomorrow's newspapers.

00:16:54.840 Of course you will.

00:16:55.680 Now, I opened up the report on my computer and I did a word search.

00:17:01.520 The phrase far right appeared 30 times.

00:17:06.220 Propaganda appeared 35.

00:17:07.700 Disinformation 42 times.

00:17:09.380 It's so boring, so dreary.

00:17:11.640 It's the kind of thing that was probably written by that chat GPT artificial intelligence website.

00:17:17.580 Have you ever used that website?

00:17:18.680 It's just a kaleidoscope of buzzwords.

00:17:20.920 Write a piece scaremongering about the truckers and disinformation and Russia.

00:17:26.620 You would get this report.

00:17:29.180 One of the things that bothers the author is criticism of Trudeau and that he was heavy-handed.

00:17:37.000 Six times in her study, she complains about how Trudeau was characterized.

00:17:41.940 Here's an example.

00:17:42.520 It was claimed that protesters were being demonized and abused by the media and the government and accused the Trudeau government of ordering the use of violence against demonstrators.

00:17:53.420 Yeah, that can't possibly have been a legitimate criticism to Trudeau invoking martial law and asking if we should even tolerate the unvaccinated. 0.99

00:18:03.800 Must be Russian propaganda then.

00:18:05.720 Just like that Calgary disinformation professor, Jean-Christophe Boucher, who accused Rebel News of being Russian agents because we undermined support for Trudeau and the liberals.

00:18:17.500 That was proof, he said, that we were Russian propagandists.

00:18:20.980 I mean, who other than Putin could possibly be against Trudeau?

00:18:26.940 Disinformation, fact checks, censorship, it's all an attempt to control you, to gaslight you, to lie to you, to propagandize you, to sell you.

00:18:35.720 You might even say it's a bit of a Soviet kind of thing to do.

00:18:42.220 Stay with us for more about misinformation.

00:18:55.660 Well, it's 2023.

00:18:57.780 It's been almost three years.

00:18:59.320 And yet the Supreme Court of Canada has yet to weigh in on any of the civil liberties infringements emanating from the pandemic.

00:19:06.920 I guess they're busy with more important things.

00:19:09.960 Or maybe they already did weigh in on the matter.

00:19:12.680 As you know, the chief justice of the Supreme Court early on announced he was imposing a vaccine mandate on Supreme Court staff themselves.

00:19:21.720 So, really, he telegraphed to the world before a trial, before a hearing, that his view was vaccine mandates were obviously okay since he was imposing one himself.

00:19:32.140 That is the quality of our justice in Canada.

00:19:35.020 And, indeed, the message was heard by all lower courts.

00:19:37.860 To this day, there has yet to be a single substantive civil liberties law or regulation that was struck down, even though our vaunted Charter of Rights was said to be second only to the Bible in terms of defining what Canadians were.

00:19:54.980 It is therefore with great jealousy that I cast my gaze down to the United States where their courts, even in blue Democrat states, are not shy about striking down overreaching legislation that uses COVID-19 as an excuse.

00:20:12.860 And what I find very gratifying is that when there is a battle in an American court for freedom against a lockdown overreach, odds are you will find our next guest there.

00:20:26.280 I'm talking about our friend Janine Younis, a lawyer with the new Civil Liberties Alliance.

00:20:30.460 And what a delight to have her on the show today. 0.75

00:20:32.160 Janine, great to see you, fresh on the heels of a victory in California.

00:20:36.860 Congratulations.

00:20:37.680 Tell our viewers all about it.

00:20:39.800 Oh, thank you so much, Ezra.

00:20:41.040 Thanks for having me in again.

00:20:42.100 So, yeah, this was a law that prohibited doctors from giving misinformation to patients, disseminating misinformation to patients.

00:20:52.400 And misinformation is defined as false information, contradictory to the scientific consensus and contrary to the standard of care.

00:21:00.260 Sorry, contrary to the standard of care.

00:21:01.760 There's no and in there, which was one of the sticking points.

00:21:04.460 So it's this phrase that doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

00:21:07.840 It's mishmash the whole, you know, standards together, standard of care, scientific consensus.

00:21:14.420 And when you take into account, of course, that this whole issue has been politicized and the bill's legislative history, which is clearly designed to shows it's clearly designed to silence doctors who disagree on COVID related matters, especially masks and vaccines.

00:21:27.980 The judge was right to halt it.

00:21:30.340 So this is a preliminary emergency motion.

00:21:32.560 So there's still more work to be done, but it's a really good sign.

00:21:35.780 Well, I feel great about it.

00:21:37.900 When you throw in words like COVID-19 and misinformation, you're touching all the buzzwords used for censorship in other parts of society.

00:21:47.620 That's what YouTube says in their, quote, community guidelines.

00:21:51.720 That's what they use to shut down discussion on social media. 0.98

00:21:55.280 So when the legislature of California thought, well, let's just combine those two things, talk about COVID, talk about misinformation, it's a slam dunk.

00:22:03.280 And indeed it was in the legislature.

00:22:04.780 But the judge called the definition of misinformation, if I'm quoting correctly, he called it nonsense, as in he couldn't make heads or tails of it.

00:22:13.300 I can see that because really one man's misinformation is another man's truth.

00:22:18.680 And, you know, it's and by the way, we don't quite yet know what all the truths are because let truth and falsehood grapple that all progress depends on revealing new truths that we don't yet know.

00:22:32.960 So the idea that you can define what idea is good and what idea is bad in advance by a legislature is so it's the opposite of science, Janine.

00:22:44.780 And yet this was being imposed on doctors.

00:22:47.700 Exactly.

00:22:48.180 And so the state's argument was basically that, well, doctors have to abide by a standard of care anyway, right, to prevent medical malpractice lawsuits.

00:22:56.280 That's a term they're familiar with.

00:22:58.500 And there are other parts of the California disciplinary code that prohibit, you know, fraud.

00:23:03.980 So if you tell a patient that, I don't know, COVID is caused by laser beams.

00:23:08.180 I just heard that in a podcast I'm stealing from, you know, that would be deception or fraud.

00:23:12.400 The law doesn't protect that. 0.89

00:23:13.620 But our argument was, first of all, yes, standard of care is a term in medical malpractice lawsuits, but you're putting it together with the term scientific consensus in a way that, you know, that term is not one that doctors are really familiar with in operating their practices.

00:23:27.380 So it doesn't make a lot of sense. And if the two terms are the same, then why do you have both of them?

00:23:31.640 It seemed to me obvious that what it's trying to do is to make doctors afraid so that they don't say, you know, they don't tell patients, you know, I'm not sure that masks work, which many doctors are asked about.

00:23:42.440 Or maybe you don't need the vaccine because you're 15 and you just had COVID.

00:23:46.900 And that's, in fact, what I'm representing five doctors in the case.

00:23:50.640 And they said they're, you know, those are things that they've said to patients in the past.

00:23:53.500 They intend to say in the future, but they're afraid to say them now because they think they could be disciplined under the law.

00:23:59.180 And the state attorney actually acknowledged the judge directly asked her, well, could these plaintiffs be disciplined for the things they're saying?

00:24:04.560 And she said, I don't know.

00:24:05.720 And he said, well, that's the problem here.

00:24:07.120 If you don't know, then that shows the law is unconstitutionally vague, which was the argument that we won on at the hearing.

00:24:15.480 Well, I find it so encouraging that a judge would ask just normal judge-y questions like that.

00:24:20.920 We haven't seen that in Canada yet.

00:24:23.200 I want to ask, did this law, which is now being temporarily frozen, did it apply only to COVID-19?

00:24:31.260 That's my understanding, which, again, shows the weirdness to it.

00:24:34.120 I mean, there are many ailments and diseases that there's sort of a traditional or mainstream viewpoint.

00:24:40.400 And then there's always second opinions or alternative treatments or unusual or even desperate treatments.

00:24:46.320 We've all heard of cases where people have tried the tried and true, and they're so desperate they're going to very unusual treatments.

00:24:54.320 And we know about that.

00:24:55.200 And we typically feel bad for someone driven to such ends.

00:24:57.940 And I'm sure those doctors who have unorthodox methods are scrutinized, but only COVID-19 was caught by this, if I'm not mistaken.

00:25:07.640 Is that correct?

00:25:09.020 That's right.

00:25:09.560 And that was one of our arguments.

00:25:10.840 So we had two separate arguments.

00:25:12.460 One was the vagueness argument, which was what we won on.

00:25:15.340 The other was First Amendment.

00:25:16.500 So the First Amendment prohibits, among other things, the government from censoring people for expressing certain views, disfavored views.

00:25:22.800 And so we were arguing that this was effectively viewpoint discrimination.

00:25:26.820 The judge actually decided, for reasons I can only speculate about, not to address that.

00:25:31.340 So he said, I find it vague, so I'm not even going to go to the First Amendment question.

00:25:34.820 But in terms of our First Amendment argument, we said our argument was one of the reasons you know that this is designed to silence doctors who disagree with the state is it's just about COVID.

00:25:45.060 If you're so concerned about misinformation causing death, why aren't you concerned about misinformation with cancer?

00:25:50.800 You know, there are lots of doctors who say maybe you don't need chemo or, you know, who embrace alternative treatments for cancer or heart disease.

00:25:59.660 I mean, you have doctors now telling people it's perfectly healthy to donuts are just as good as fruits and vegetables, which I would call misinformation for other political reasons.

00:26:09.480 But the fact that they're targeting COVID shows that this is a viewpoint based law.

00:26:14.840 So I think that's a good argument.

00:26:16.600 And I imagine it'll be addressed on appeal.

00:26:19.380 Yeah, I understand that the California Medical Association actually supported this law, which, if true, is deeply disappointing.

00:26:27.140 I mean, they're supposed to be advocates and champions of doctors.

00:26:30.620 It's sort of like a doctor's union if it's the same as the Canadian Medical Association.

00:26:35.640 And yet they look like they've been colonized.

00:26:38.560 They're the enforcers, just like in Canada, the College of Physicians and Surgeons, which is actually the regulatory body, has been, in fact, in their own way, Janine, implementing this California law.

00:26:51.580 They have been suspending or prosecuting or at least investigating any doctor who issued an exemption or spoke out against it or called for alternative treatments like, let's say, ivermectin.

00:27:04.580 But the CMA, why would they support it?

00:27:08.280 Are they just a political creature posing as doctor's advocates?

00:27:12.960 Yeah, I mean, I think at this point that would be my take.

00:27:15.560 All of these organizations, you know, CDC, the California Medical Association, any doctor's association in a blue state has really just become sort of political actors who, you know, any, they're just design.

00:27:28.520 Or at this point, their main goal is just to further a certain viewpoint, which is, you know, COVID restrictions.

00:27:33.860 So I think that's the explanation there.

00:27:35.500 And one of the interesting things about the proponents of this bill was a number of them have threatened my clients on social media saying, you know, we can't wait to get your licenses taken away using AB 2098.

00:27:46.980 So that was another argument we used to say, this is clearly designed to silence doctors who have different views from the state.

00:27:53.480 This isn't some kind of benign or reasonable law preventing doctors from saying that vaccines have a microchip or, you know, will turn you into an alien or something, which I don't think any doctors have ever said anyway.

00:28:06.880 And other, you know, other parts of the state's business and professions code prevent them from saying those things.

00:28:13.400 Yeah, it's very crazy.

00:28:14.860 Well, let me ask you this.

00:28:16.160 The CMA was on the other side.

00:28:18.660 You were on the side of the angels.

00:28:20.180 I understand you had five doctors who were your clients.

00:28:23.060 Were there other interveners?

00:28:25.020 Were there other people in the court or who submitted briefings to the court one way or the other?

00:28:30.900 Sometimes that's a good barometer of where other civil liberties groups are, where other interest groups are.

00:28:37.240 Was there any other intervention other than the new civil liberties alliance?

00:28:41.260 Yes.

00:28:41.480 So we had amicus briefs.

00:28:42.780 I don't know if you have the same concept or term in Canada, but it's, you know, they're not parties to the lawsuit, but they have an interest based on what their organization's mission is.

00:28:51.580 So, uh, actually the ACLU submitted an amicus brief, which is, um, somewhat unusual because the ACS is, sorry, the ACLU has been a bit, um, absent during the COVID pandemic, one might say.

00:29:03.360 So I should check on which side they, um, on whose side they intervene.

00:29:07.200 I should double check because I don't know the answer.

00:29:09.080 Yeah, that's true.

00:29:09.880 You're right.

00:29:10.480 They haven't just been absent.

00:29:11.720 They've actually embraced vaccine mandates.

00:29:13.320 So they've actually been on the, uh, the wrong side of this, but they actually, uh, filed an amicus brief in support of us, um, and made a lot of excellent points actually.

00:29:21.200 So we were pleased to have their support.

00:29:23.300 Another organization, um, a voice for choice submitted an amicus brief.

00:29:27.480 It's sort of a physician's group that, um, you know, it actually, I think it's a patient's group that advocates for informed consent.

00:29:34.380 So we had some support.

00:29:35.580 I don't think any, uh, no amicus briefs were submitted in support of the state.

00:29:39.180 So it was nice to have that, um, support there.

00:29:42.380 Yeah.

00:29:42.880 Well, that's a surprise right there.

00:29:44.580 Well, listen, I, I just, I knew you'd be involved with this case because you in particular have been fighting the good fight on so many COVID related and lockdown related battles, including, I remember professors who were commanded to take a jab, even though they had natural immunity and things of that sort.

00:30:02.040 I think you're really fighting the good fight.

00:30:03.360 Let me ask you one last question before I let you go.

00:30:05.060 So in Canada, most of the mandates are gone, not all, but most.

00:30:11.680 And I think a lot of the tickets and cases are, you know, not being prosecuted.

00:30:18.560 They're sort of aging out and they'll just sort of wither on the vine.

00:30:21.500 I think a lot of the more spectacular charges were just to scare people into compliance.

00:30:27.360 They wanted it to look so brutal out there, be so, to make people afraid to go out.

00:30:32.720 I mean, I mean, uh, some of the enforcement I think was literally designed to, to create shock in the community, to scare people, to stay home, to scare people, to not travel.

00:30:44.840 So the abusiveness of it was actually the point of it.

00:30:48.740 And now that prosecutors have to take these tickets and charges to court, I think a lot of them are saying, yeah, in the cold morning after the wild party last night, I don't know if I want to go to a judge with this.

00:31:01.600 I guess what I'm saying is in Canada, I sense a lot of cases are just going to be stayed or dropped.

00:31:07.940 At least I hope that's the case.

00:31:10.140 What's it like in America?

00:31:11.320 Are there lots of cases out there or are there lots of, is this a current issue in, for example, in some of the blue states?

00:31:18.240 Are they still banning people who are not vaxxed from working in hospitals or, or government or the military?

00:31:25.140 Yeah, there's some of that.

00:31:26.260 Most of the government mandates aren't in effect so much.

00:31:28.860 There are definitely still some employee mandates, some college booster mandates.

00:31:33.340 That's one thing I hear a lot about.

00:31:35.900 There are even some mask mandates, especially for kids in some of the blue states.

00:31:41.140 And a lot of private organizations.

00:31:44.040 I was just reading, I think that Broadway somewhere is still requiring masks.

00:31:48.460 So there's still some of this.

00:31:50.780 The lawsuits are actually getting a little bit more successful.

00:31:54.000 Like there have been some recent vaccine mandate successes that I think wouldn't have been successful a year or two ago.

00:31:58.860 Because I think courts are starting to see, okay, this is ridiculous.

00:32:02.400 And even though the law is the same, it's honestly, you know, the facts that the landscape has changed, especially now we know that the vaccine doesn't stop transmission.

00:32:11.460 Yeah.

00:32:11.680 And I think some of the judges have sobered up a little bit.

00:32:13.940 I think some of the judges were honestly terrified.

00:32:16.240 I mean, judges generally are older people who may have been more.

00:32:19.880 They're absolutely trusters of authority.

00:32:22.600 They love authority.

00:32:23.200 They live in authority.

00:32:24.540 So I think of all the people to adjudicate these matters, scared judges, part of the establishment who, like other experts such as themselves, were probably the most lockdown friendly people in society.

00:32:39.640 And I think that they have sobered up a little bit over the years.

00:32:42.260 Janine, great to see you again, folks.

00:32:44.080 She's fighting for freedom with the new Civil Liberties Alliance. 0.99

00:32:47.560 Look forward to your next battle, my friend.

00:32:49.800 Thank you so much.

00:32:53.200 Thank you so much.

00:33:23.200 Even if your fears turn out to be true, as so often happened during the lockdown in California, they tried to actually pass a law banning misinformation.

00:33:32.120 But the judge found the definition to be nonsense.

00:33:35.100 How can you tell if something is true or not in a piece of legislation?

00:33:38.940 It's like when Justin Trudeau banned Rebel News from the leaders' debates, he couldn't come up with any criteria that would allow them to ban Rebel News but let in the CBC or the Toronto Star or some left-wing publications like, say, the Narwhal or the Taiyi.

00:33:56.940 Because they literally could not describe Rebel News because they literally could not describe Rebel News and what they hate about us in a way that doesn't touch half the rest of the media.

00:34:05.860 Same thing with misinformation.

00:34:08.360 What Justin Trudeau calls misinformation can only be explained based on him, what he doesn't like, what he says you shouldn't believe.

00:34:17.660 There is no way to define it in an objective sense.

00:34:21.960 Anyone who uses the word misinformation or disinformation with you, or even fact check, which every journalist should be, anyone who uses that lingo with you, well, they're the misinformationists.

00:34:34.940 That's our show for today.

00:34:37.880 Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home, good night, and keep fighting for freedom.

Rebel News Podcast - February 02, 2023

EZRA LEVANT ｜ More government-funded disinformation, smearing the truckers

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