Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ My thoughts on the Conservative Party of Canada's leadership race

00:00:00.440 Hello, my Rebels. The Conservative Party leadership race is in full swing. I'll give you my thoughts on the candidates so far and what Rebel News' role will be in the whole thing.

00:00:09.820 By the way, I really want you to get Rebel News Plus. That's the video version of this podcast because I want to show you clips today and you really have to see them.

00:00:19.420 I'm going to show you Rebel News reporters in the Conservative Party leadership candidates events.

00:00:24.560 And I want you to see it. I don't want you to just hear it. Go to rebelnewsplus.com. Click subscribe. It's eight bucks a month.

00:00:31.600 In addition to my daily podcast in video form, you get shows every week from David Menzies, Sheila Gunn-Reed, Andrew Javichos, and the new show called Misunderstood with Nat and Kat.

00:00:43.240 So there's a lot there. Just go to rebelnewsplus.com. All right, here's today's show.

00:00:54.560 Tonight, I'll give you my thoughts on the Conservative Party of Canada's leadership contest.

00:01:08.360 It's the Ides of March, and you're watching the Ezra LeVant Show.

00:01:11.600 I've started following the Conservative Party of Canada's leadership race.

00:01:36.520 I have to tell you, for the last two years, I have not looked to politicians, to elected officials, to political parties for any help during the greatest crisis, I suppose, in this country since the Second World War.

00:01:49.840 I have found no help from any governing party or opposition party that sat in a parliament.

00:01:57.380 There were some independent or rogue politicians, we'll mention a few of them later, who were helpful, but no actual partisan entity came to the aid of citizens.

00:02:09.080 They were all co-opted, along with big pharma, big government, and big tech.

00:02:13.340 It was terrible.

00:02:15.280 You know, the Bible says, put not your trust in princes.

00:02:18.320 I think that's the sort of thing they mean.

00:02:20.720 If you bet on politicians, you'll always be let down.

00:02:24.820 If I can defend politicians, though, for a minute, a politician has no chance of winning if the culture, if the dominant media environment is hostile.

00:02:35.760 We love to daydream about what would it look like if Margaret Thatcher or Ronald Reagan, who are the Thatchers or the Reagans of our time? 0.79

00:02:44.020 You know, I think if either of them was here, they would have a tough time because they had some cultural allies.

00:02:50.820 Allies, they had some media allies.

00:02:53.540 The battlefield had been shaped a bit.

00:02:56.880 I don't know if they could win in this environment.

00:03:00.600 When Stephen Harper was replaced in the 2017 Conservative Party election race, I think there was a brief moment where there were high hopes that after Harper and Trudeau going from third party to first party,

00:03:14.620 there was a chance for the Conservative Party to renovate, to rejuvenate itself.

00:03:19.040 It was such a close race, you recall.

00:03:22.300 And in the sort of wacky point system, I'm not quite sure if we know who truly won.

00:03:29.120 But under the rules of the system in place, Andrew Scheer in 2017 beat Maxime Bernier by less than one percent.

00:03:39.080 And it was such a momentous decision, those few decimals of a percent.

00:03:45.340 It wasn't that long before Scheer essentially pushed Bernier out, or maybe you could say Bernier jumped.

00:03:52.160 But that led to a fissure and the creation of the People's Party of Canada, which even though it has not been successful in electing MPs, has been successful in taking some votes and energy away from the Conservative Party.

00:04:08.440 And I'm glad that they're out there saying the things they are.

00:04:11.240 But it is a kind of split in the right.

00:04:14.740 And I think that having someone like Maxime Bernier within the bosom of the Conservative Party would have helped it find its confidence, helped it find its ideological conservativeness.

00:04:23.880 Instead, we had Blandrew Scheer, who really sold out, I think, his conservative birthright, all the key platforms of the Harper Conservative Party, especially the carbon tax.

00:04:36.060 Scheer commanded that his own people support him, for example, in approving of the United Nations climate policy.

00:04:44.280 There were so many moments when Andrew Scheer had to choose between his own party and the media party, and he chose the media party.

00:04:52.660 Well, Andrew Scheer lost the election.

00:04:55.060 If Andrew Scheer could not beat Justin Trudeau with the facts that we knew, with the blackface scandal, with the other scandals, there was no chance he would beat him in better times for Trudeau.

00:05:06.860 He was replaced.

00:05:07.940 But the 2020 leadership campaign for the Conservative Party of Canada was in many ways even more lackluster.

00:05:14.780 The two leading candidates, Aaron O'Toole and Peter McKay, in many ways indistinguishable from each other.

00:05:20.120 They're again eschewing the conservative wing of the party, both of them agreeing to a platform that would basically undo the conservative part of it in the hopes that that would woo liberals in eastern Canada.

00:05:31.840 It simply did not work.

00:05:33.560 Aaron O'Toole did throw conservatives on the bus.

00:05:35.640 And while that reduced party support in the west, it did not include gains in the east.

00:05:42.280 I am so glad that they're all gone.

00:05:44.980 And I think that under Andrew Scheer and Aaron O'Toole especially, the Conservative Party simply stopped being conservative.

00:05:52.960 It started to support cancel culture within itself.

00:05:56.640 Think of all the people who were thrown out of the Conservative Party of Canada because they had a conservative opinion that wasn't just perfectly in line with the leaders.

00:06:05.320 Derek Sloan being an example of that.

00:06:08.460 Jim Carahelios, an example of someone who was thrown out of the party.

00:06:12.220 The carbon tax, I've already mentioned it.

00:06:13.800 And in fact, the lack of courage to challenge the lockdowns, even if you didn't want to challenge it on medical grounds, on economic grounds, on freedom grounds, not a peep from the so-called Conservative Party for two years.

00:06:27.100 And I think the worst part of conservatism in the last few years in Canada has been the acceptance of cancel culture in the form of censorship.

00:06:38.140 That's the broadest kind of canceling, isn't it?

00:06:40.520 You can cancel an individual person, but imagine canceling entire schools of thought, censoring entire media platforms.

00:06:48.560 That sounds like Justin Trudeau because that is what he does.

00:06:51.400 But I want to remind you of this terrible heritage critic under Aaron O'Toole.

00:06:55.980 His name is Alain Reyes, and he's no longer in that position.

00:07:00.120 But look at what he said on behalf of Conservative Party members, on behalf of Aaron O'Toole, in debates in Parliament about the government's role of censorship.

00:07:09.620 I've shown this to you before.

00:07:10.840 In short, he wants more censorship faster.

00:07:15.220 He said this many times.

00:07:16.900 It wasn't a flub or a gaff or a fluke.

00:07:19.080 But we don't see it in the bill.

00:07:20.320 There's nothing in this bill that allows for the regulation of social media or platforms like YouTube.

00:07:27.960 And it's clear we would have liked to have seen this in the bill.

00:07:31.240 The minister even says we have to find a way of preventing hate speech, conspiracy theories, and fake news that's shared.

00:07:41.120 But right now in the bill, unfortunately, we won't even be able to amend it in that aspect because it's simply absent from the bill.

00:07:51.300 Do you see what I mean about not investing my hopes in a political party?

00:07:55.500 Who would support that kind of party?

00:07:57.680 Who would support a party that really did very little for ordinary Canadians over the last two years other than take their pay raises every April?

00:08:05.900 In fact, I don't know if you recall, but MPs are getting another pay raise in two weeks.

00:08:11.600 And although some of them claim they don't take it, I don't believe them, do you?

00:08:15.040 But I feel like the ouster of Aaron O'Toole, which came on the heels of the trucker convoy, Aaron O'Toole, ironically, the first casualty politically of the trucker convoy.

00:08:25.480 So, again, the truckers accomplishing what no one else had done until that point.

00:08:31.420 And I think we have a miraculous and unexpected opportunity to refurbish the conservative party.

00:08:38.320 And I have to tell you, I'm feeling pretty good about it.

00:08:40.400 And I would not have said those words short weeks ago.

00:08:43.460 I'm going to tell you the candidates who have expressed their interest in running.

00:08:46.520 There may be others.

00:08:47.300 In alphabetical order, Roman Babber, who is a Ontario MPP, so he's a provincial level politician, very careful, very thoughtful, not wild in any way, put forward principled and fact-based objections to Doug Ford's extreme lockdowns.

00:09:08.280 And by principle and fact-based, for example, he would publish this letter to the premier where he showed how ICU capacity was actually not in a crisis at all and that really proving with the government's own statistics that there was no need for a lockdown.

00:09:22.480 Well, he was obviously kicked out of thin-skinned Doug Ford's caucus, as were several others.

00:09:28.360 I think Roman Babber, even though he was made into an independent MPP, was one of the very, very few governing politicians who actually stood by his principles.

00:09:40.900 And I'm lucky to say that he happens to be my elected official in my neighborhood.

00:09:46.580 And I think he was a tremendous credit to the anti-lockdown pro-freedom case.

00:09:52.280 And I'll be forever grateful to him for that.

00:09:55.100 I mean, seriously, what's your local politician's excuse for not having done it?

00:10:00.640 I'm not sure if he has a big chance at all, in fact, because I don't think he's well-known outside Ontario.

00:10:07.040 I don't think he has a national team.

00:10:09.220 But I'm glad he's running to bring that anti-lockdown pro-freedom voice.

00:10:13.560 And I certainly hope that he then converts that into a run for the federal parliament under whoever does succeed.

00:10:19.920 So I'm really delighted that Roman Babber is running.

00:10:21.880 I think that's excellent.

00:10:22.620 The second candidate, alphabetically, is Patrick Brown.

00:10:26.520 You probably know Patrick Brown because let's call a spade a spade.

00:10:29.900 He is a disgraced conservative activist who, through just sheer organizational ability, managed to win the leadership of the Ontario PC Party

00:10:38.860 until he was defenestrated for his sexual antics involving young women that he would bring home from bars. 0.94

00:10:47.420 He was a notorious womanizer, and his party heard more and more and more stories, and they finally threw him out. 0.70

00:10:54.240 Well, he was born again as the mayor of Brampton, Ontario, which is quite a trick,

00:10:58.640 considering he did not live there until he chose to run for their mayor, which, again, speaks to his ability to organize.

00:11:04.380 So although Patrick Brown is ideologically untrustworthy, has tremendous problems with moral character, the guy knows how to hustle, and he shouldn't be counted out.

00:11:17.080 I watched his speech that he announced his intentions to run over the weekend, and he certainly has some good advisors.

00:11:25.560 I mean, in it, he basically apologized for the manner in which he promoted the carbon tax in the past,

00:11:32.280 and incredibly, given his role in canceling others in the party who are not like him, claimed that he is against cancel culture himself.

00:11:40.280 I want to show you a couple of clips from his speech, the only problem of which is it's not true, but boy, it was nice to hear him tell those lies.

00:11:46.760 Here's a little bit of Patrick Brown.

00:11:48.140 When the media tried to make me cancel culture's latest victim by smearing me with false allegations, I fought back and won.

00:12:03.000 And even when this battle was still raging, the people of Brampton stood behind me and lifted me up and chose me to fight for them as mayor.

00:12:09.900 I have always fought for a justice system that works for victims, not just the criminals.

00:12:19.320 When a serial pedophile, Madeline Harkes, moved into Brampton, a monster who had over 60 victims, over 200 offenses,

00:12:27.920 I led the charge that resulted in the police putting this perpetrator back behind bars

00:12:32.460 and started a national conversation on protecting the rights of a community over the rights of a repeat dangerous offender.

00:12:39.900 When my constituent, Darlene Henry, was attacked in a local park and was re-traumatized by her assaulter being granted bail,

00:12:52.520 I worked with her to build a national campaign for bail reform.

00:12:57.480 I have fought criminals and gangs who bring illegally imported guns into the GTA.

00:13:01.340 When everyone else was silent against legislation that bans religious symbols, I fought to protect religious freedom.

00:13:11.680 You might wonder why I have a bean in my bottom about Patrick Brown.

00:13:14.960 The real answer is that he's not truly conservative and he's been this lifelong political grifter.

00:13:21.300 But it was his encounter with David Menzies when we heard that locked down Patrick Brown, who had enforced one of the strictest lockdowns in North America,

00:13:34.380 was secretly playing hockey with his pals at a public arena that was closed to children.

00:13:40.720 Our David Menzies went to that arena and caught Patrick Brown red-handed.

00:13:44.900 The way he lied about it in the moment and the way he lied about it afterwards and had Davis charged with trespass

00:13:51.500 is a disgrace that no one should ever forget.

00:13:54.180 I just want to play you that classic moment when Patrick Brown was caught sneaking into a public arena as mayor

00:14:01.460 to play hockey with his friends when he had banned hockey for the children of Brampton.

00:14:08.480 Take a look at this.

00:14:09.140 Holy mackerel, I think I see Patrick Brown himself.

00:14:12.920 Oh, hey, how you doing?

00:14:14.280 Good.

00:14:15.440 Mr. Brown, right?

00:14:16.720 Yeah.

00:14:17.600 David Menzies with Rebel News.

00:14:19.680 You're in a city facility?

00:14:21.120 What's that?

00:14:21.600 You're in a city facility?

00:14:22.620 Yeah, so are you.

00:14:23.780 Yeah.

00:14:24.560 So, are you playing hockey here?

00:14:26.940 No, I'm just coming to check in on our facility.

00:14:29.200 So, I'm going to check you.

00:14:31.000 You're not supposed to be here, actually.

00:14:32.380 Okay, guys.

00:14:32.960 We were told that you play pickup here.

00:14:34.980 Mr. Brown, how come the kids in Brampton can only practice sports, but your buddies can play hockey?

00:14:44.200 Yeah.

00:14:44.620 So, I don't know why you are harassing people in the city of Brampton, but you shouldn't be.

00:14:52.000 Oh, who's harassing who?

00:14:54.140 Your guys handed out 122 bylaw violations in one week.

00:15:01.040 Mr. Brown, why is there a hockey game going on in this arena?

00:15:08.360 I thought you're only allowed to practice sports, not play them.

00:15:13.400 And who is paying the $1,000 a day, Mr. Brown, for this rink?

00:15:20.780 Mr. Brown, are these taxpayer dollars being used for your buddies to play hockey on this rink?

00:15:27.140 Or are you paying it?

00:15:32.260 Or perhaps we'll lead Solomon?

00:15:36.000 So, Mr. Brown, why is there one law for me and one law for thee in this city?

00:15:45.720 Mr. Brown?

00:15:46.420 That was absolutely great journalism by David Menzies.

00:15:51.240 Just wonderful.

00:15:52.340 And I should tell you that although David Menzies was arrested by police, put in the back of a police car, and charged with trespass, those charges were thrown out because it was just a political—

00:16:02.340 And the fact that the mayor had five police cars swarm David Menzies and issued that charge shows how corrupt Patrick Brown really is.

00:16:10.620 Other than that, great guy.

00:16:11.540 Other than that, he's just fine.

00:16:13.460 Another candidate who I would put on the left-hand side of the spectrum, the progressive side of the party, as they would say, is a liberal named John Charest.

00:16:22.420 John Charest, he was one of the two remaining conservatives after Kim Campbell was wiped out in 1993.

00:16:29.240 That's how long John Charest has been around.

00:16:31.660 He was one of the youngest MPs back then, and suddenly it was just him and one MP from Atlantic Canada, the Reform Party and the Bloc Hivicois, having devoured the rest of that conservative party.

00:16:43.560 It wasn't until Stephen Harper came to cobble the pieces back together.

00:16:48.660 John Charest was recruited to run as the provincial liberal in Quebec.

00:16:54.540 And, of course, when he joined the provincial liberals, people said, oh, no, he's a Tory.

00:16:57.980 Well, after being the liberal premier of Quebec, he wants to come back and run the Conservative Party of Canada.

00:17:04.120 And so the same accusations fly.

00:17:06.280 Now, John Charest had a softer launch than Roman Baber or Patrick Brown.

00:17:13.560 He sort of had a Zoom, like a low-fidelity, low-quality Zoom launch.

00:17:18.380 But put aside that technical aspect, his platform is simple.

00:17:22.080 He says, whatever else you think about him, he can win.

00:17:26.960 And isn't that the most important thing as opposed to an endless future of Justin Trudeau?

00:17:31.460 Here's an excerpt from his video launch.

00:17:34.000 Again, put aside the low production values.

00:17:36.100 It is sort of a chuckle.

00:17:37.280 But listen to the man himself.

00:17:38.840 I'm running as a conservative, period.

00:17:42.400 Not a hyphenated conservative.

00:17:45.240 And I'm running based on the values that I've lived by all my life when I was in government.

00:17:51.040 And that means fiscal conservatism, market-based economy, policies that generate economic growth so that we can have choices,

00:17:59.380 support for families, a practice of federalism that respects the jurisdiction of the provinces,

00:18:06.480 the respect of the rule of law and institutions.

00:18:09.240 Those are the things that I believe in as a conservative, period, not a hyphenated conservative.

00:18:16.240 I tell you, that is similar to the promise that Aaron O'Toole made, which is I'm going to be a little bit more liberal people.

00:18:22.880 I'm going to support the carbon tax.

00:18:24.560 I'm going to stay away from those populist right-wingers.

00:18:27.560 I'm going to ban rebel news.

00:18:29.680 But you have to understand that's just the price we pay for power.

00:18:33.280 So, yeah, I'm not going to put the conservative ideology into office, but put a little water in your wine.

00:18:41.120 It's better to have a sort of good conservative winning than a super good conservative losing.

00:18:47.280 That was the promise that Aaron O'Toole made.

00:18:49.580 Aaron O'Toole couldn't keep that promise.

00:18:52.000 I think that's essentially what Jean Charest is saying.

00:18:54.620 I'm built to win.

00:18:56.180 I am a winner.

00:18:57.180 And he can point to winning.

00:18:59.420 And he was the premier of Quebec.

00:19:02.120 Now, that may dazzle Anglophones and Westerners and Ontarians like me.

00:19:06.560 But interesting enough, I saw these polls from the province of Quebec that show Jean Charest is not popular in Quebec just because a guy is from somewhere.

00:19:17.160 It doesn't mean they like him.

00:19:18.520 They got rid of him because they were sort of sick of him.

00:19:21.540 According to these polls, and you can see they're en français,

00:19:24.220 Pierre Polyev does better than Jean Charest.

00:19:29.680 Jean Charest is not setting things on fire.

00:19:31.540 Now it's early days.

00:19:32.700 But that's an interesting rebuttal.

00:19:34.620 Now, the fourth candidate going in alphabetical order by last name is our friend Leslie Lewis.

00:19:38.560 And I was delighted to have her on the show the other day.

00:19:41.360 I like her.

00:19:42.020 And by the way, it's a delight to have her on our show so early.

00:19:46.320 And she kicked off her campaign in 2020 on our show, too. 0.97

00:19:50.540 So I regard her as a true conservative and an ally.

00:19:53.980 I'm not sure if she is yet of a national stature that could win.

00:20:01.040 But she's stronger.

00:20:02.560 I mean, one of my criticisms, if I was candid, of her when she was running the first time was she wasn't yet seasoned.

00:20:08.940 She was an accomplished lawyer and a business person and had an excellent story to tell. 0.98

00:20:15.040 But she hadn't yet served time in parliament.

00:20:18.040 Well, now she has for a few years.

00:20:19.760 And I think she's getting a little more savvy and a little bit more seasoned.

00:20:23.100 So I think it's wonderful to see her running again.

00:20:25.780 And I'm very glad she is.

00:20:27.540 Now, the last candidate going by alphabetical order is Pierre Polyev, someone I have known for more than 20 years.

00:20:33.880 In fact, I don't know if you know this, but when I was a young man, just of 29 years, I ran for parliament briefly myself.

00:20:40.400 When Preston Manning stepped down, I sought the nomination in Calgary Southwest for what was then called the Canadian Alliance.

00:20:46.820 And I won that nomination.

00:20:48.740 And I started a campaign.

00:20:49.920 I don't know if you know this, but I was actually putting up campaign lawn signs around Calgary Southwest.

00:20:55.200 It was my home riding.

00:20:56.720 I lived there.

00:20:57.480 My parents lived there.

00:20:58.300 My grandparents lived there.

00:20:59.780 It was home.

00:21:00.960 But then five weeks before the by-election, again, Calgary Southwest, one of the safest ridings in all of Canada for a conservative is going to be a shoe-in.

00:21:10.240 Well, five weeks before the vote, Stockwell Day, who was the leader of the Canadian Alliance, was replaced by Stephen Harper.

00:21:17.100 And Stephen Harper did not have a seat in parliament.

00:21:18.940 And he needed speedy and safe access to parliament.

00:21:22.920 Well, listen, Calgary Southwest, five weeks away.

00:21:26.180 And so I grudgingly stepped aside.

00:21:28.200 I did not want to at the time.

00:21:29.460 I think it was probably a blessing in disguise, although it was very well disguised back then.

00:21:34.420 So back then, Pierre Polyev was, if you can believe it, as a young man, was the communications director on my campaign.

00:21:42.260 Well, he's certainly gone a long way since then.

00:21:44.860 And he's the member of parliament for the greater Ottawa area riding.

00:21:49.140 And I think he's become one of the most eloquent conservative spokesmen on very important issues that are somewhat complex.

00:21:56.180 His grasp of finance matters, of monetary policy, are very impressive.

00:22:00.800 I don't think that – I mean, I think he outmatches and his caliber of analysis is much stronger than the finance minister, for example.

00:22:13.600 And I think he can go toe-to-toe with officials.

00:22:15.900 I think he's actually a very bright guy who has a strong command of financial issues.

00:22:20.760 And has – what impresses me more is he's not shy to push back against the media party.

00:22:26.740 He does it vigorously, not with a meanness or a cruelty that makes it personal, like maybe Trump might do or maybe I might do.

00:22:34.620 But he lets it be known that he is not going to bend the knee to the media party, which is frankly, I think, the central characteristic of Andrew Scheer and Aaron O'Toole.

00:22:45.780 They were scared.

00:22:48.100 They were shell-shocked.

00:22:50.480 They had lost their mojo.

00:22:52.100 They had lost their courage and confidence.

00:22:53.900 And so all it would take would be a CBC reporter to say, boo, and they would panic and do whatever they were told.

00:23:01.620 Andrew Scheer and Aaron O'Toole would sell out their own party for the temporary approval of a CBC or Toronto Soil journalist every time.

00:23:11.800 I don't think Pierre Polyev is that way.

00:23:13.620 It's interesting.

00:23:16.020 I told you the polls showing that Pierre, frankly, has a chance against Justin Trudeau.

00:23:21.480 The polls don't yet show the Conservatives winning, but it's early days.

00:23:24.760 It's fascinating to me to watch the Globe and Mail and the Toronto Star, two newspapers that despise Conservatives,

00:23:31.680 come out almost every day with advice on which Conservatives to choose.

00:23:36.240 It makes me chuckle a bit.

00:23:37.380 So would you take advice on who to lead your party from someone who wants to destroy your party?

00:23:45.160 I don't know, but, you know, full marks for audacity to the Globe and the Star and the CBC for giving advice to Conservative Party members.

00:23:52.260 One of the reasons that I'm enjoying the race so far, besides the fact that I feel like finally we've got some real Conservatives in the race,

00:23:59.660 Roman Baber, quality guy, Lesley Lewis, my favorite, Pierre Polyev, perhaps the strongest winner of them all.

00:24:05.900 And there may yet be a couple more entrants, is I feel like we're having a real choice here.

00:24:13.620 I mean, I think we did have a choice between Andrew Scheer and Maxime Bernier, but you really have it starkly put.

00:24:19.720 If you loved the last two years of lockdown enforcement, well, vote for Patrick Brown.

00:24:26.020 He was one of the most brutal enforcers out there.

00:24:27.740 If you hated the last two years of lockdown enforcement, well, maybe you would support Roman Baber, the candidate of all of them who actually stood up and lost his seat with the government because of it.

00:24:38.620 Maybe you'd be waiting for Pierre to make his move, to take his chance.

00:24:43.960 I feel like there's some real candidates that someone could get behind here, keeping in mind the biblical warning against putting trust in princes.

00:24:52.260 So I'm excited about the fact that we have this contest because Aaron O'Toole wasn't ready to let go until the truckers kicked him out.

00:25:00.460 I'm excited about the fact that there are some quality candidates there with some real differences of opinion.

00:25:05.740 And I'm also excited that Rebel is involved because even since 2020, the last leadership race, Rebel News has grown tremendously.

00:25:17.260 I think I told you that in the month of February alone, and the number is so staggering, it's even hard to believe, that amongst all our media platforms, including social media, Twitter, YouTube, Rumble, Instagram, email openings, things like that.

00:25:32.340 In the month of February, we had 400 million views and impressions, 400 million in one month.

00:25:44.100 That's about the same traffic we used to get in a year.

00:25:49.060 Rebel News has been so large during the lockdown crisis, during the pandemics, and then especially during the convoy reports,

00:25:55.200 we really have introduced ourselves to Canadians who maybe didn't even know us before.

00:26:01.160 And to the world, too, by the way, you might know that I myself and many of our staff were on foreign news, including the biggest channels in the United States, on Tucker Carlson's show, for example, and, you know, Alexa Lavoie on other channels, including in Germany.

00:26:16.300 So Rebel News is so much larger, and we were really, for the last two years, we've been one of the few media outlets people can trust to do anything but read the official narrative line on the pandemic.

00:26:30.140 The Rebel News is in a different place in 22 than we were in 2020.

00:26:35.640 And the Conservative Party, having lost two elections in a row, is in a different place.

00:26:42.620 And I think just as there's a very decisive question to be put to Conservative Party members, Rebel News is not just a medium.

00:26:50.740 It's not just a way to see the world.

00:26:53.420 It's an issue in itself.

00:26:54.980 Like I said, Andrew Scheer and Erin O'Toole both tried to cancel Rebel News.

00:27:01.560 They were so afraid that the mean girls in the media party would say, don't talk to Rebel News. 0.99

00:27:06.040 Why are you talking to Rebel News?

00:27:07.640 That they didn't dare.

00:27:08.560 And in so doing, not only did they ignore millions of truly Conservative Canadians, including voters in their own party, which demoralized the base, but they signaled that with the merest puff of resistance, you could deter them.

00:27:25.220 They weren't confident or courageous that they would surrender the first zephyr or breeze of resistance.

00:27:32.200 In other words, watching how easily Andrew Scheer and Erin O'Toole were scared off of simply talking to Rebel News, I mean, sure, it denied them the access to our Rebel News viewers, but it signaled how weak they were and how easily manipulated they were.

00:27:53.840 And we know it's true.

00:27:56.000 Erin O'Toole never resisted in any substantive way the lockdowns. 0.82

00:27:59.600 If you can't even resist some mean girls in the press gallery saying, don't talk to Rebel, how are you going to resist the combined might of big tech, big pharma, big government?

00:28:08.760 You can't.

00:28:10.600 And we see this already.

00:28:13.760 Rebel News has attended every political event that we could find.

00:28:20.640 For example, you saw that Leslie Lewis was on my show the other day.

00:28:24.860 But our reporter was a welcome guest at Roman Baber's launch and put some questions to the man.

00:28:30.040 Here's a little reminder of that.

00:28:31.320 You were speaking about fighting cancel culture and deplatforming and bringing a good civil political discourse back to Canada.

00:28:38.580 What concrete steps do you plan to take to actually do that in our political landscape?

00:28:43.180 We have to be welcoming of folks that feel that they did not have a home in the Conservative Party of Canada.

00:28:50.380 And that goes in particular for folks that are disillusioned with the party for not standing up for them in connection with lockdowns and passports.

00:28:57.440 So I think we need to start to have a healthy conversation.

00:29:00.780 We need to reach out to young people.

00:29:02.820 We need to reach out to new immigrants, new Canadians, communities that we typically don't do too well with. 0.99

00:29:09.180 And I believe that I'm in a good position to do that.

00:29:11.560 I did not hesitate to be the only mainstream politician in Canada, elected politician, to speak against the lockdowns when it was very unpopular to do so about 15 months ago.

00:29:20.800 I decided that I wasn't going to be able to continue and watch some of the difficulties that families and children were experiencing against the background of a public health exercise that probably should have been conducted slightly better.

00:29:34.640 COVID is a serious infection, but we should have focused protection.

00:29:38.820 We should have protected long-term care homes where most of the risk is and build hospital capacity.

00:29:43.760 So speaking out when others refuse to do so is something that I bring to the table.

00:29:48.520 Canadians will always know where I stand.

00:29:50.760 What a delight to be there alongside all the other media treated normally.

00:29:54.340 That is how it should be.

00:29:55.640 We were even at Patrick Brown's launch.

00:29:59.640 It was a bit crowded, but we were there the whole time.

00:30:02.540 We went right in and reported on it.

00:30:04.380 Here's a short clip of Lincoln Jay there.

00:30:06.760 So I want to ask the people of Brampton here today why they should trust Patrick Brown as the leader of the Conservative Party.

00:30:13.200 Let's check it out.

00:30:13.660 All right, first of all, what brings you out here today?

00:30:31.200 Why are you here potentially supporting, not supporting Patrick Brown?

00:30:33.920 What brings you here today?

00:30:34.680 Part of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama'a and we're supporting Patrick Brown.

00:30:38.540 They told us to support him.

00:30:41.500 I'm not really supporting him personally, but just because of our mosque is supporting him.

00:30:44.640 So I'm just kind of joining in with them.

00:30:46.580 I'm a resident of Brampton, living here since the last four years and haven't seen Mayor Patrick Brown doing a good job.

00:30:53.800 And as a Canadian, I would like to see him going forward as a leader of the Conservative Party and running for the race of next Prime Minister.

00:31:02.820 I am here to support Patrick Brown because I've been in the city of Brampton for over 40 years.

00:31:07.800 And essentially, Brampton was not on track.

00:31:11.640 And when Patrick Brown came in, Patrick Brown put Brampton back on track.

00:31:15.760 And if Patrick Brown could bring Brampton back on track, I do believe that he could bring Canada back on track.

00:31:21.760 Jean Charest was in Calgary the other day.

00:31:24.660 He only had a very brief media scrum, but we were right in the thick of it.

00:31:28.540 Now, he had to rush away, but we were right at the front.

00:31:31.760 What we did in Huawei, I'm very proud of what we did in helping to sort out the situation of Ms. Meng Wanzhou.

00:31:39.980 And I worked with the family of Michael Kovrig so that we could free the two Michaels.

00:31:45.900 And we worked with them very, very closely throughout the whole process.

00:31:50.040 And I never did anything and would have never done anything that would have been contrary to the interests of my country.

00:31:56.460 So, in fact, we were very, very active in helping resolve that matter and to bring the two Michaels home.

00:32:02.600 So, on that, on the long gun registry, the police forces in Quebec are the ones who said,

00:32:07.580 If you're going to do away with the registry, why don't you just transfer over to us the information that's there?

00:32:13.160 That's the long and the short of it on that.

00:32:16.480 It was very simple to do.

00:32:18.540 You can see by our media flag there, I think that other one there is the Western Standard Online.

00:32:23.160 Again, Jean Charest knows that if you're going to Calgary and if you turn up your nose at Rebel News,

00:32:28.440 well, why did you go to Calgary at all?

00:32:29.900 Rebel News is the largest media outlet in Alberta.

00:32:32.580 It would be very weird to go there but turn up your nose to Rebel News.

00:32:35.460 I don't know if we've been to a Pierre Polyav event but I look forward to it.

00:32:39.800 My point is that Rebel is in the mix and so far I'm delighted to report that none of the candidates,

00:32:46.640 including Patrick Brown who once had five police cars come to tackle little old David Menzies,

00:32:53.460 none of them have fallen into the CBC media party trap of renouncing and denouncing the populist streak in the party.

00:33:00.900 So, I'm delighted to see that.

00:33:01.920 I see our role in this is not particularly endorsing anyone over anyone else.

00:33:07.320 I mean, I think you can sort of divine my views on the subject, who I'm sympathetic to and who I'm not.

00:33:12.840 But, you know, our role is to be the keeper of the plane for conservative ideas,

00:33:17.340 to tell the other side of the story, follow the facts wherever they lead,

00:33:20.700 and to stand up for what I think is part of the new coalition for conservative parties.

00:33:25.740 And here's what I mean by that.

00:33:26.940 Over the last two years, I've discovered that there are people who used to vote for the Green Party who now don't have a political home.

00:33:35.300 They were skeptical of big pharma and can't believe their party sold them out.

00:33:40.120 There are working class people.

00:33:41.420 You probably have met a number of them.

00:33:43.060 Amazon delivery drivers, people who brought you your DoorDash when you were afraid to go out of the house or whatever.

00:33:49.380 Working class people who were treated roughly and poorly and unfairly by the lockdowns,

00:33:56.240 who couldn't just work from the cottage via Zoom.

00:33:59.740 I think there are working class people who were sold out by their own union bosses,

00:34:03.240 who refused to stand up to forced vaccinations, suddenly being imposed in collective agreements.

00:34:09.120 How did the corporations get away with that?

00:34:11.180 As the saying goes, if both the company and the union are saying the same thing, one of them is not necessary.

00:34:16.220 So those people used to vote NDP, but Jagmeet Singh denounced them and denounced the truckers as racist.

00:34:23.360 Do those people have a home?

00:34:25.560 I think that the conservative party can be a home for this new coalition.

00:34:30.360 And I think that's something that Rebel News believes in.

00:34:34.220 I think that how the leaders treat Rebel News is a proxy for things.

00:34:41.000 This is not just solipsism or narcissism on my part.

00:34:45.040 Of course, I like it when they talk to Rebel News.

00:34:47.560 I want to be asking questions on our I want our reporters to engage.

00:34:51.900 I want our reporters to show you what's going on.

00:34:54.340 But Rebel News is actually a kind of political IQ test, not so much for intelligence, but for courage.

00:35:02.020 If you want to lead the Canadian Conservative Party in 2022, are you more obedient to and afraid of journalists at the CBC, the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail who never would vote for you and who hate you no matter what, who wish you ill, who don't respect you and don't understand you?

00:35:22.920 Are you more obedient to their aesthetic tastes and their rejection of Rebel News or are you more interested in who watches Rebel News, the 400 million impressions in the month of February, people who simply want the other side of the story and want a fair shake, people who are skeptical of the way we were all treated the last two years and are looking for someone to actually fix things?

00:35:44.660 I think in the end of the day, it comes down to the fact that we are uncontrolled by them.

00:35:52.440 There are some other media outlets in the country that I deeply respect.

00:35:56.120 They're independent media.

00:35:57.340 But I think the number one thing about Rebel News that you know is that we will champion freedom and conservative ideas no matter what.

00:36:06.660 And if that means putting ourselves offside with the Conservative Party, as we often have been for the last few years, well, so be it.

00:36:13.880 We are not partisan shills.

00:36:16.800 We are not controlled by the Conservative Party.

00:36:20.200 The Toronto Star and the CBC may be controlled by the Liberal Party, but we are controlled by no one.

00:36:24.740 And we owe our allegiance to no one but you.

00:36:28.280 That's my monologue and my thoughts on the Canadian Conservative Party.

00:36:32.560 I look forward to following the race.

00:36:33.960 I'd like to hear from you, who you think should be the winner, who you think has the stuff to not only win the Conservative Party conference, but beat Justin Trudeau.

00:36:42.780 Because Jean Charest is right.

00:36:44.600 That's what we have to do.

00:36:45.660 My point is, if you win and beat Justin Trudeau, but you're nothing but an echo of him, well, what was the point?

00:36:52.820 Stay with us.

00:36:53.520 More ahead.

00:36:54.740 Well, as I said earlier, the whole reason the Conservative Party of Canada is having a leadership contest is because the trucker rebellion forced the issue within the Conservative Party caucus.

00:37:15.120 You had the fraidy cats like Aaron O'Toole, who didn't want to be seen with such grubby populace.

00:37:21.360 And then you had the bulk of the party who said, nah, we've had enough of you, mate.

00:37:25.460 And so it is that we're in our leadership race.

00:37:27.280 Well, how about in the United States?

00:37:29.140 I think one issue is that the lockdowns are slowly easing.

00:37:34.480 Even in blue states, mask rules are falling.

00:37:38.920 I think that they never had some of the atrocious rules we had in Canada, like the curfew in Quebec.

00:37:45.380 They didn't have a no-fly law.

00:37:47.640 But there still are vestiges of the lockdown, including cross-border trucker mandates.

00:37:55.020 And that brings us to our next guest, our friend Jeremy Lafredo, who has been freelancing with us, embedded within the U.S. trucking convoy.

00:38:02.980 As you saw, he interviewed Senator Ted Cruz on the subject last week.

00:38:07.080 He joins us again now via Skype from the cab of a truck in which he is embedded.

00:38:12.060 Jeremy, great to see you again.

00:38:13.000 Thanks for joining us.

00:38:14.520 Nice to see you, too.

00:38:15.120 So you're actually in a truck right now, am I right?

00:38:18.620 And are you driving or are you parked?

00:38:21.280 The truck is driving, and I'm in a truck right now.

00:38:24.700 Well, that's great.

00:38:25.700 Tell us a little bit, where are you exactly geographically, and how many trucks are with you, and what are you guys doing?

00:38:34.180 Because, of course, in Ottawa, they just sort of had an encampment.

00:38:38.300 But I understand that things are a little bit different where you are.

00:38:41.300 Why don't you give our viewers a bit of an update?

00:38:43.660 Sure.

00:38:44.060 So right now, I'm on my way back from Washington, D.C. to where the truckers are stationed in Hagerstown, Maryland, about 60 miles outside of the Capitol.

00:38:52.960 And what happened today was the truckers went in.

00:38:58.420 They wanted to peacefully stroll through Constitution Avenue and make their voices heard, honk their horns, show their grievances with the government's policies.

00:39:07.600 And one by one, we saw Capitol Police, they were jumping from exit to exit in front of the truckers and closing down streets as the truckers passed them, closing down exits off the highway into the Capitol.

00:39:23.780 And this caused disruptions and traffic that we have not seen in Washington since the beginning of the truckers' protest.

00:39:32.680 And it was all caused by the authorities' response to the truckers, not the truckers themselves.

00:39:36.760 And so this is a giant escalation on behalf of the authorities here in Washington, D.C.

00:39:41.700 It's fascinating.

00:39:43.760 That's exactly what they did in Ottawa.

00:39:46.000 And then they later imported that tactic to Toronto, where they would shut down the entire downtown prophylactically in advance.

00:39:54.920 There was I mean, by the way, all the truckers were always peaceful, but they wouldn't even let them drive through.

00:40:00.700 I think they did this for two reasons.

00:40:02.360 One is to make it more dramatic.

00:40:04.240 Oh, my God, it's an insurrection.

00:40:06.240 Lock it down.

00:40:07.220 But the second is to cause real inconvenience to local citizens and businesses and blame that on the truckers.

00:40:15.720 They would never say we're doing this at the direction of a police chief or a mayor.

00:40:20.540 They would say, oh, it's those bloody truckers making us do it.

00:40:23.900 I've seen this tactic up here, Jeremy.

00:40:27.060 Yes, that's exactly what we're seeing.

00:40:28.860 We got you know, we got waves and thumbs up from many people as we drove today.

00:40:32.820 But when the police would cause traffic, we would see people in their cars giving the trucks middle fingers.

00:40:39.260 And, you know, totally under the assumption that it was the truckers causing these traffic jams, not the authorities themselves.

00:40:47.320 So a part of this this operation, in my opinion, is to turn public opinion against the truckers, even though they're not doing they're not doing what the public believes they're doing.

00:40:56.440 Yeah, well, I mean, the fact that you're parked an hour away from D.C. in a giant area that is of inconvenience to nobody, that's very interesting.

00:41:05.220 Because, of course, the move on Ottawa, and I can tell you because we had someone embedded in that first convoy.

00:41:10.680 And then I went there in those first few days.

00:41:12.440 It was very organic.

00:41:14.220 There were some people who called themselves organizers.

00:41:17.580 But I really don't honestly think they were organizing much.

00:41:21.020 They were just more like mascots, even.

00:41:23.380 And so a lot of truckers said, well, I'm just going to Ottawa and I'm just going to wait as long as it takes.

00:41:28.120 And so I think there were just lots of individual, independent minded guys and gals.

00:41:33.540 So it wasn't as structured as what you're describing, having a place where everyone goes back to.

00:41:39.240 In Ottawa, it was more like every truck for itself.

00:41:43.360 I think I hear some honking.

00:41:46.520 On the one hand, I guess the fact that you guys are organized.

00:41:50.720 It means there's less chance of a legal fracas like there was in Canada.

00:41:57.200 But maybe it was the surprise encampments outside Parliament.

00:42:03.220 Maybe it was the sort of street festival feeling that inspired the country.

00:42:08.600 I don't know.

00:42:09.140 What's your take on how it went in Ottawa versus how it's going in Washington, D.C.?

00:42:13.720 Yeah, well, here in Washington, they're unlike Ottawa.

00:42:18.140 There are organizers and there is a somewhat of a divide between I've noticed talking to truckers between what the truckers want and what the organizers are organizing.

00:42:29.500 So the truckers, you know, want to go to Washington and make their grievances known.

00:42:34.000 And then you have the organizers who, you know, they want to keep meeting with politicians before they do anything.

00:42:38.380 They want to keep doing loops on the beltway.

00:42:40.140 But these truckers, they have families.

00:42:42.860 They have bills to pay.

00:42:43.780 They can only stay here so long.

00:42:45.380 And they just drove across the country and they do want to go to the Capitol.

00:42:48.300 So there is a little divide between the strategic and philosophical tactics between the truckers and the organizers.

00:42:56.440 But one thing that's different between now and last month is, of course, the war in Ukraine.

00:43:02.060 And I think that's taken up a lot of the attention of the political class, the media class, the chattering class, as it's sometimes called.

00:43:10.520 I mean, it is dramatic and grave.

00:43:13.800 And there's even talk of World War Three.

00:43:16.400 So you can imagine that the attention is there as opposed to the truckers, who I think actually in Canada, they just filled a massive void in the news.

00:43:25.120 Like that was the thing for everyone to talk about for almost a month.

00:43:28.500 But it's it's almost like a light switch was flipped.

00:43:31.280 And now all people are talking about is Ukraine.

00:43:34.860 I saw your interview with Ted Cruz and there was another senator in the meeting.

00:43:39.780 Are the truckers getting through to any legislators?

00:43:43.080 Are they getting like other than the cross-border mandate?

00:43:48.640 Is there something they're focusing on?

00:43:50.640 I just feel like the air, some of the air has gone out of the balloon because a few foundational things have changed.

00:44:00.000 Correct me if I'm wrong on that.

00:44:01.540 No, that's a great point.

00:44:05.460 And you hear a lot of talk about that around here.

00:44:07.820 The fact that Ukraine is is taking up a lot of the media's attention, both on the liberal media and the conservative media, it's pretty universal.

00:44:15.660 And so the truckers are under the assumption the only way that they will pay attention to us if we go into, you know, the hawk's nest, Washington, D.C., where all the media is, where all the politicians are, where they will have no choice but to look at us and point their cameras at us on the Capitol lawn or on Constitution Avenue.

00:44:32.220 But if they don't do that, if they stay here in Maryland, they're under the assumption that, you know, there's no incentive for the media to come an hour away and see what's going on.

00:44:42.000 Yeah, I mean, that's the thing.

00:44:44.160 They were literally in Canada.

00:44:45.800 They were parked right outside the Parliament buildings, which, by the way, is right where a lot of the media had their offices and even some of their homes.

00:44:53.360 I mean, an hour away from Washington, D.C., you might as well be a million miles away.

00:44:58.540 I mean, I don't I can't imagine some of the national Capitol Hill media getting in a vehicle and driving an hour out to the base can.

00:45:07.880 I mean, I'm not criticizing the truckers.

00:45:10.600 I'm just saying logistically, being far away, it's sort of out of sight, out of mind.

00:45:16.500 Look, I got one more question for you, and I've been thinking about this a lot because of in Canada, the emergency order that Justin Trudeau brought in in the face of the truckers actually allowed him to, believe it or not, seize and freeze bank accounts of truckers and their supporters.

00:45:33.000 So is there a GoFundMe or a Give, Send, Go or a crowdfunding campaign for the American truckers?

00:45:41.400 And if so, how is it going?

00:45:43.300 And are they worried that it'll either be shut down like GoFundMe shut down the Canadian truckers or it'll be frozen like Trudeau did to Give, Send, Go?

00:45:52.880 So is there that financial crowdfunding aspect of this?

00:45:57.960 Sure.

00:45:58.480 So that's definitely a fear.

00:46:00.540 It's mentioned by everyone.

00:46:02.300 You know, you keep hearing one way or another, you saw what happened in Canada, you saw what happened in Canada.

00:46:06.460 And so, no, there's not a Give, Send, Go.

00:46:10.540 There's not a GoFundMe.

00:46:11.820 The organizers actually were smart enough to open up a 501c3, and they're doing everything without any crowdfunding big tech site.

00:46:20.540 And they've, you know, they've raised maybe a million dollars, but not the 10 million that you saw in Canada.

00:46:29.400 Just for our viewers of 501s, oh, sorry, go ahead, Jeremy.

00:46:33.160 Of course.

00:46:33.480 I apologize.

00:46:35.180 I interrupted you for a second.

00:46:38.040 Just FYI, for our Canadian viewers, a 501c3 is what the IRS calls a registered charity or a nonprofit.

00:46:46.140 So just for Canadians. 0.99

00:46:48.140 Well, listen, Jeremy, I'm glad you're in there.

00:46:49.980 And it's interesting.

00:46:51.680 It's very different.

00:46:52.800 The vibe is very different from where you are, from what it was in Canada.

00:46:56.560 I'm still quite interested, and I'm glad you're there.

00:46:59.220 Thanks for doing this assignment for Rebel News.

00:47:01.400 I feel like we really do have eyes on it, and literally you're coming to us from inside a truck on the highway right now.

00:47:07.580 I appreciate that.

00:47:08.600 Please do stay in touch, and thanks for this update.

00:47:12.080 All right.

00:47:12.520 Thank you, Ezra.

00:47:13.160 All right.

00:47:13.500 There you have it.

00:47:13.920 Jeremy Lafredo on assignment for Rebel News between Washington, D.C. and Hagerstown, Maryland.

00:47:19.880 Stay with us.

00:47:20.400 More ahead.

00:47:20.740 Hey, welcome back.

00:47:34.380 You're a viewer mail.

00:47:35.420 Jack Masterman says, Kenny wants people to just forget about COVID.

00:47:40.260 I don't think so.

00:47:41.440 There should be a public inquiry into the policies of the government and the health ministers.

00:47:46.220 I don't care that they gave themselves immunity.

00:47:48.840 The public deserves answers.

00:47:50.520 Immunity should be rescinded, and they should face incarceration. 1.00

00:47:54.960 You know, I've heard lots of calls for inquiries, but of course, who would do the inquiry?

00:48:01.240 The judiciary, as in a judge?

00:48:04.040 Are you talking about the same judges who approved every single lockdown matter so far?

00:48:08.820 Who would do the inquiry?

00:48:09.760 Are you someone with a journalistic background, someone from the media that has been cheerleaders

00:48:15.300 and stenographers rather than curious skeptics?

00:48:18.240 Who would lead this inquiry?

00:48:20.160 And do you really think that such an inquiry would be started by the government that wasn't

00:48:25.600 controlled by the government?

00:48:28.000 I mean, we're living in a country where every governing party and opposition party unanimously

00:48:33.820 supported this.

00:48:34.720 I literally cannot name for you a single judge or ex-judge I would trust to lead such an inquiry

00:48:44.380 in any means other than a whitewash.

00:48:46.500 I'm sorry, I can't.

00:48:48.100 It's just, it's so, like we're expecting some higher power, some cosmic power that's above

00:48:55.760 the fray to come in and tell us the truth when every single person in the fray was on the

00:49:01.440 wrong side of history.

00:49:02.400 I don't know.

00:49:03.440 Um, Larissa Herzog writes and says, looks like Kenny had a little Freudian slip there.

00:49:11.460 Guilty until proven innocence.

00:49:13.160 Yeah, I noticed that in his, in his comment.

00:49:17.940 Um, listen, I generally, generally agree that what the police do and what the courts do should

00:49:23.280 not be something that politicians weigh in on, at least when they're in progress.

00:49:28.660 When a trial is over, when a sentence is issued and the appeals are exhausted, weigh in, especially

00:49:33.320 if there's a strong public interest.

00:49:35.500 But to say, as Jason Kenney did, that the treatment of Arthur Pavlovsky was just normal

00:49:42.220 rule of law stuff.

00:49:44.320 It's, it's so ridiculously absurd as if that El Chapo style SWAT team style raid on a peaceful,

00:49:53.680 remember nothing he is being charged with is in the criminal code.

00:49:58.900 Nothing he's been charged with is a violent offense of any sort.

00:50:02.680 So they're rolling out the riot squad, the SWAT teams to go after a Christian pastor.

00:50:10.140 I'm sorry.

00:50:10.680 That is not normal.

00:50:12.240 And maybe it helps Jason Kenney sleep at night to think it's just normal rule of law stuff.

00:50:16.720 But I don't buy it and I hope you don't get gaslit either.

00:50:21.020 Lorraine Dubé says, Ezra, could you investigate the Senate Bill S-233, which is a bill for the

00:50:27.480 basic income?

00:50:28.580 I am told that it will set up the ability for the government to take pensions from anyone

00:50:34.780 who does not have vaccinations.

00:50:37.440 That would leave many of us without any income.

00:50:41.640 You know, I've started to look into this because I've heard the same thing you've just

00:50:44.600 described. And I don't want to give you my report right now off the cuff.

00:50:51.320 I have I've started to look at them and look at that bill and I want to understand it better.

00:50:56.580 Most bills are not introduced in the Senate.

00:50:58.520 They're from the House of Commons and they're from the government.

00:51:02.000 But sometimes private members bills become law.

00:51:05.540 And instead of going any further with my answer, I'll just promise you that, yes, I will look

00:51:10.500 into that. And I guess I'll do a show on it.

00:51:12.960 So thank you for the suggestion.

00:51:15.260 That's our show for today.

00:51:17.180 Until next time, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home,

00:51:20.820 good night.

00:51:21.720 Keep fighting for freedom.

00:51:22.700 And let me leave you with our video of the day from our friend Drea Humphrey out west,

00:51:26.720 where she talks to MP Mark Dalton, speaking out against British Columbia's health care workers

00:51:33.120 vaccine mandate.

00:51:35.060 Here's Drea. 1.00

00:51:36.020 Bye-bye.

00:51:36.320 Drea Humphrey here with Rebel News, where we bring you the other side of the story and

00:51:41.220 have been doing so with COVID-19 since early January 2020.

00:51:45.900 And while mandates are dropping, including Alberta's one for health care workers, it's not the case

00:51:51.800 in B.C.

00:51:52.480 Yes, the mask mandate has dropped and a projected date of April 8th for the vaccine passport is

00:51:58.900 there.

00:51:59.140 But what seems very illogical and negligent to me is the fact that thousands of frontline

00:52:05.120 health care workers are still stuck at home, struggling to provide food for their family

00:52:11.800 and pay mortgages.

00:52:13.920 Well, meanwhile, we're seeing story after story about our hospitals being overwhelmed.

00:52:18.940 And this, mind you, is while the dominant strain of Omicron has been proven to be significantly

00:52:25.480 less deadly, hospitalizations are going down.

00:52:28.960 So why on earth do we have an unelected public health lord who's allowing this to continue?

00:52:34.580 You can find my full report on her recent flip-floppy mandates when it comes to the regulation 0.88

00:52:41.800 related health care professionals who are still able to care for now for patients.

00:52:46.980 But in this interview, I sit down with one of the first federal politicians to say anything

00:52:52.460 against the politically correct narrative when it comes to COVID-19.

00:52:57.280 His name is Mark Dalton.

00:52:59.080 He used to be a teacher, then he was an elected MLA politician, and now he is a twice-elected

00:53:07.240 federal MP.

00:53:08.360 Back in 2020, Mark Dalton did a daring tweet.

00:53:13.160 You might not know this, but Dalton was one of the first politicians to speak out against

00:53:17.700 the politically correct narrative when it comes to COVID-19.

00:53:21.520 After we had learned more of the virus in 2020, Dalton dared to suggest that perhaps, since

00:53:27.740 we are learning that those who are predominantly at risk from COVID are those who are elderly

00:53:32.740 and in long-term care home, we open up the economy.

00:53:37.040 Well, of course, you say something logical like that, and you're going to have the Twitter

00:53:42.080 trolls and the state paid media coming after you hard.

00:53:47.220 And after that, whether it was related or not, Dalton did apologize for the statement.

00:53:51.720 And more recently, we've seen him speak out in Parliament about whom I refer to the most

00:53:57.600 stigmatized people in our country, and that is those who have suffered an injury after

00:54:02.440 taking the COVID-19 vaccines.

00:54:04.960 I'm doubly vaccinated, but guess what?

00:54:09.520 I had COVID.

00:54:11.720 I wasn't here the past couple of weeks.

00:54:13.040 I had COVID, my wife and I.

00:54:14.600 You know, being doubly vaccinated and having COVID.

00:54:16.520 The person that is vaccinated can carry just as much as the person that doesn't.

00:54:20.100 I'd like to read this one little letter here before closing.

00:54:23.880 This is from a lawyer, a female lawyer, 35 years old, says this.

00:54:27.960 I'm an ultra marathon runner, spent eight, nine hours, possibly 10 hours a day running.

00:54:33.920 Before that, I was a varsity athlete at a university here in Ontario.

00:54:38.160 She lives in my riding, though, and has always been fit would be an understatement.

00:54:45.240 I have no pre-existing conditions.

00:54:47.800 When I got the vaccine and started having chest pains and operating at a max threshold,

00:54:51.960 even on walks, doubling, tripling her heart rate.

00:54:54.720 She says, as it stands, I'm a 30-year-old with chronic heart pains.

00:55:01.360 And she's feeling it constantly.

00:55:03.540 Even on a slow walk, she goes out of breath.

00:55:09.420 She says, I'm not a conspiracy theorist.

00:55:12.380 I actually make a lot of money defending the largest pharmaceutical companies.

00:55:16.620 But with that comes the knowledge that sometimes mistakes are made.

00:55:19.680 But you might be asking why on earth is a federal politician

00:55:23.080 troubling himself with provincial laws that are resulting in thousands of frontline healthcare workers

00:55:29.160 not working?

00:55:31.060 Or maybe you wouldn't ask that question.

00:55:33.260 Well, I asked Dalton that question in this interview and more

00:55:37.100 about why he wrote a letter to Premier John Horgan asking him

00:55:41.860 to reconsider Dr. Bonnie Henry's recent threat to regulated healthcare workers

00:55:47.500 that said that come the 24th of March, if they had not received two vaccines for COVID-19,

00:55:54.920 they would not be able to care for their patients.

00:55:57.520 You're not going to want to miss a second of this report.

00:55:59.960 But before we jump to that, if you share these concerns,

00:56:03.260 please open up another screen on your device and head to letthemcare.com.

00:56:08.920 There you can find a petition that you can sign and share in seconds

00:56:13.020 that is going to be delivered to the provincial government

00:56:15.900 and also all of the licensing colleges over some of these medical health professionals

00:56:21.940 asking for them to let our frontline healthcare workers care for us.

00:56:27.440 I sent a letter to the Premier.

00:56:30.400 And when I wrote the letter, I thought, you know, I'm a politician.

00:56:35.840 Do you want to take a shot or do you want to just really try to influence?

00:56:39.460 And that really was the issue is I try to just appeal to the government

00:56:48.800 on behalf of the many healthcare workers that I'm hearing from,

00:56:54.360 those that are registered in the medical field that were losing their jobs.

00:57:01.100 And it's imminent. It was March the 24th.

00:57:06.080 And so I know that this is a provincial domain.

00:57:10.440 I'm a federal politician.

00:57:11.700 But at the same time, these are still my constituents.

00:57:15.320 And not just those that are the healthcare providers,

00:57:17.880 but they're also the patients that are calling out to me.

00:57:20.020 And I thought, you know what, I need to use my voice and to appeal to the government.

00:57:25.460 And so I'm quite pleased that within hours of me sending the letter to the Premier,

00:57:36.760 actually that evening, they made that change whereby they've made some other provisions

00:57:47.720 so that people are not going to be losing their jobs right away.

00:57:50.200 So that's great. I mean, I'm happy about that.

00:57:53.020 Now, there are certainly some questions going forward.

00:57:55.980 What exactly does this mean?

00:57:57.700 But they're not going to be getting the pink slips.

00:57:59.620 And honestly, a big concern for me is the healthcare of British Columbians.

00:58:07.580 This impacts all of us.

00:58:10.420 There is already a shortage of medical workers and providers.

00:58:14.700 So I felt that I needed to do that.

00:58:17.720 Also, for those that had received layoff notices, healthcare workers,

00:58:24.080 there was a number that received layoff notices,

00:58:26.840 that they were going to be terminated.

00:58:28.600 At the end of this month also.

00:58:31.080 Now, I'm not exactly sure where that is.

00:58:33.140 I know that in places like Alberta, they're asking people to come back to work.

00:58:39.300 I'm quite sad that there are so many that have been fired.

00:58:46.960 They were, you know, as far as many nurses,

00:58:50.380 many other people have lost their ability to earn income.

00:58:54.180 And to provide the critical care services that we need in this province.

00:58:59.280 And that is a shame.

00:59:01.720 There's a letter from the Coastal Health Authority talking about how whether you are vaccinated or you're not vaccinated

00:59:11.640 doesn't make any difference as far as you getting COVID.

00:59:15.680 It might impact the severity or whether you transmit it.

00:59:19.320 So whether you have it or don't have it, that's your choice.

00:59:22.960 And you're not, you know, people are fearful of whether a person is going to be vaccinated or not vaccinated.

00:59:26.960 Well, it doesn't really matter because they will, they can equally get it from either.

00:59:31.460 So that's something that I feel is sometimes lost in the conversation.

00:59:36.540 And I think it's important.

00:59:38.540 And finally, I'll say this, that for the longest time,

00:59:43.100 we celebrated these health care workers in our hospitals for what they were doing.

00:59:49.360 I remember for the first number of months, you know, banging at seven o'clock,

00:59:53.160 banging the drums and just celebrating.

00:59:55.040 They weren't vaccinated, many of them.

00:59:57.100 And so it is, so they've gone through all this and what's happened has been, is concerning.

01:00:04.720 And we need these, we need these workers.

01:00:06.020 We need these health care workers. 1.00

01:00:07.180 And the, so many other provinces, the rest of the world is opening up.

01:00:11.980 And we're going to be not only losing these people, but many of them may move to other jurisdictions.

01:00:18.100 And that puts an extra stress on, on health care in our province.

01:00:23.040 Now, absolutely, you hit so much on the nail there.

01:00:26.980 We could probably end right there.

01:00:29.080 But I guess my question is, since BC did lay off or mandate the laying off without pay of thousands of health care workers last year,

01:00:38.200 more than any other province due to COVID-19 mandates, why speak out now?

01:00:43.180 Why is it an important issue this year for you to speak out?

01:00:47.300 Well, I've been speaking, again, I'm a federal employee and I have, I'm an employee of the people, right?

01:00:53.400 As a member of parliament.

01:00:55.120 So my focus has been primarily on the federal side of things, the federal restrictions.

01:01:02.460 And so it is, that's, that has been the first, my first responsibility.

01:01:07.320 And I've, and also these letters I'm getting has been more recent.

01:01:12.060 So that's, I, people sometimes wonder, does emailing, does calling, contacting, does advocating make a difference?

01:01:20.200 It does make a difference.

01:01:21.160 I, for me, I, when I hear people, I act upon that.

01:01:25.260 And it gives me actually the, the authority to, to speak on the behalf.

01:01:31.240 Because like, I know, yeah, maybe this is a, you know, maybe I'm a federal politician speaking provincially, but you know, I'm representing my people and I will use my voice to speak up on their behalf.

01:01:42.620 But I needed that information.

01:01:44.640 And so as I've been getting more information just recently, I've been able to speak forward on this.

01:01:49.940 And so this is something that's been on my heart for some time to, to, to go forward and to speak on this.

01:01:55.380 So I'm glad to see that the opposition has also, the provincial opposition has now also brought it forward and that the provincial government is making these changes today.

01:02:04.980 The mask mandates have been lifted.

01:02:07.340 So, so there's some good things happening.

01:02:08.920 You know, people are thinking, wow, that's great.

01:02:12.520 So, I mean, there's some caveats there.

01:02:14.380 I just don't want to go, let's go that direction again.

01:02:16.320 Yes, well, the Dr. Bonnie Henry did mention in her update on March 10th, that although at the moment they're focused on giving informed consent, which is going to require these regulated healthcare workers to tell their vaccination status to patients.

01:02:34.420 What do you have to say?

01:02:36.380 Are you concerned at all about the government mandating so much private information?

01:02:41.920 For example, in this order that just came out, she's not just mandating that the unvaccinated people give the government private medical health information.

01:02:51.240 It's also the people who are fully vaccinated, every single regulated, regulated healthcare worker.

01:02:57.700 So that's a good question.

01:02:59.820 And I, when I was a provincial MLA, I was an MLA for eight years and I was on the FOIPA, the Freedom of Information and Privacy Act of the committee.

01:03:08.620 So I think that needs to go there.

01:03:10.200 I think that there is the Freedom of Information, but there's also your privacy.

01:03:14.200 So I really hope that my provincial colleagues will take that question and really go to bat on that one.

01:03:21.540 Absolutely.

01:03:22.620 And can you give us one sort of story maybe that's really resonated with you about this issue that one of your constituents sent to you?

01:03:33.040 Oh, my goodness.

01:03:34.260 There's, there's, you know, just the pain that I'm hearing, even from the providers, and even those that are, that have, that are clients are losing their doctors.

01:03:45.660 They were losing their doctors and others that were closing their, going to close their practices.

01:03:49.360 So, I mean, it's just a cumulative pain that I'm hearing.

01:03:53.360 And then I talked about, you know, one story here of, of a, a gentleman came up to me and said, you know, we're, we're losing our house.

01:04:01.380 My wife is a, and it was a nurse and was, has lost her position.

01:04:05.620 And so that's sad, that's sad when we need them.

01:04:08.920 People that are so experienced, if anybody knows about health, they know about health.

01:04:13.620 And so, you know, stories like that are very painful, not only for, on their stories, which is bad, but also the impact, again, it's having just across the province.

01:04:25.640 Well, at Rebel News, we promise to the public to give you the other side of the story.

01:04:31.920 And for the last two years, we've been doing that with COVID-19, including giving a voice to people who have been affected by mandates or people who have been injured after taking the vaccine.

01:04:42.500 I commend you for speaking out.

01:04:44.080 You're right.

01:04:44.540 You have influenced it, and it makes a difference.

01:04:47.580 Is there anything else you wanted to add?

01:04:49.460 Well, I'm, I'm just hoping that we've seen the, the, the backside of this and need to move forward because there's honestly, there's been so many other repercussions, negative repercussions that you have to consider.

01:05:01.560 I've, I've talked to so many people, professionals, you know, psychologists, psychiatrists, the mental health piece of it, and the loneliness, the, the, the, the isolation, the, and I'm getting these emails.

01:05:14.980 People are actually, they're, they're actually on the breaking point or they're phoning, they're at the breaking point.

01:05:18.780 And there's so many.

01:05:19.740 And so this has been a very tough time.

01:05:22.440 And so I think that we really have to, to look at things holistically in the sense that we need to, yes, there's the COVID, there's the virus.

01:05:33.080 And I've had COVID twice.

01:05:34.500 Okay.

01:05:34.740 I've had it twice.

01:05:36.520 So it's like, but what are the other impacts upon our youth, upon society, upon everything, upon the division?

01:05:45.060 And I just think it's so sad.

01:05:46.840 And I, and I, I just feel we have to, we're going to have to move on, recognizing this is endemic and, and, you know, moving forward as a society.

01:05:55.460 Well, thank you very much.

01:05:56.840 Mark Dalton, federal MP for Pitt Metals in Maple Ridge, and Drea Humphrey for Rebel News.

Rebel News Podcast - March 16, 2022

EZRA LEVANT ｜ My thoughts on the Conservative Party of Canada's leadership race

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