Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ Our mission is clear — and we refuse to stay silent against unchecked power

00:00:00.000 Hello, my friends. We launched a new campaign today. I'm going to tell you all about it.

00:00:03.760 We're taking on Chrystia Freeland, even though I think she's already fled with all the money.

00:00:08.840 We're taking her to the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner,

00:00:13.220 and we've got a heck of a letter to back it up. I'll show you that today.

00:00:16.860 But first, let me invite you to become a subscriber to Rebel News Plus. It's the

00:00:20.140 video version of this podcast. Please go to rebelnewsplus.com. Eight bucks a month,

00:00:24.860 which might not sound like a lot to you, but boy, it adds up for us.

00:00:30.000 Tonight, Rebel News goes into battle with Chrystia Freeland and Mark Carney. We'll give

00:00:48.760 you all the details. It's January 14th, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.

00:00:55.780 Shame on you, you censorious bug.

00:01:00.000 Well, hi, everybody. Just today, we had a manager's meeting here at Rebel News for about

00:01:12.280 90 minutes, trying to figure out our next strategic plan. And by that, I mean, every day we do our

00:01:17.860 journalistic plan, our editorial plan. We're going to cover this story. We're going to fly over there

00:01:22.200 to cover that story. Maybe we should hire a reporter here or there. Recently, we've been very busy.

00:01:27.400 We've onboarded two new great journalists, Scarlett, who is hard at work in the greater Toronto area,

00:01:35.140 covering the Iranian-Canadian protests, covering street protests involving Hamas activists.

00:01:41.820 Scarlett's doing a great job. And Tamara, Tamara Leach, of course, who's based in Mendocin Hap,

00:01:46.920 but by working carefully with her probation officer, we're able to move her around the country as a journalist.

00:01:52.860 And I'm excited she was visiting us earlier this week. So that's part of our editorial strategy, right?

00:01:58.640 What are we going to cover? We're off to Davos this weekend. That's part of our strategy.

00:02:04.360 What about our bigger business plan? What need do we fill? How do we give people what they want?

00:02:09.800 How are we different, for example, from other independent journalists? There's more of us now.

00:02:14.520 Back when Rebel News started 10 years ago, it was just us. Now there's other groups like Juno and

00:02:20.340 Western Standard and Epoch Times. So where does Rebel News fit? In some ways, we're the older brother.

00:02:26.540 We've been around for more than 10 years. In some ways, we're the biggest. I don't know the exact

00:02:30.760 statistics of our competitors, but I showed you just before Christmas that according to the app

00:02:35.520 Hootsuite, we have more than 400 million views and impressions every year. So I think

00:02:40.620 we're the biggest. But that, again, doesn't tell me what is our purpose. What is our mission? What's

00:02:45.540 our strategy? What is our promise to people other than just telling the other side of the story?

00:02:50.320 I think it's more of a tactic than a strategy, isn't it? And one of the things that I came back to

00:02:56.200 at our meeting today was every now and then, when we cover a story that moves us in a good way or a bad

00:03:03.500 way, we stop and we do something about it. You know what I mean? The pandemic was the biggest

00:03:09.500 example of that. We saw people getting arrested for ridiculous reasons. So we created something

00:03:14.520 called Fight the Fines that later grew into an enormous project defending, in the end, 3,000

00:03:20.080 people, including many pastors, churches, truckers, and Tamera Leach herself. And I think it's that

00:03:26.240 activism part that every once in a while, I mean, we don't do it all the time. We don't have an action

00:03:30.700 every single day, but we have 10 or 15 news stories a day, right? So news is our bread and butter.

00:03:36.700 But every once in a while, and I feel this especially, I look around and I say,

00:03:40.480 so no one's going to do something about this? We've got a crazy story. No one's going to do

00:03:44.220 anything? Not even the opposition? That's how I felt the other day when Garnet Genuist,

00:03:53.040 the conservative MP from Northern Alberta, was banned from York University. I thought, well,

00:03:58.200 no one's going to do something about it. We're going to do something about it. So we got our free

00:04:01.860 speech truck. We went on campus and we showed that there was no problem asserting our freedom.

00:04:07.600 That's what I mean by activism. When something just ticks me off and we got to do something.

00:04:13.980 We're in another incidence of that right now. And I want to show you what I've spent the morning

00:04:19.780 working on. It's a video that we just released and I'm going to play it in full now. It's about

00:04:26.000 12 minutes or so. And then I'm going to come back on the other. I just,

00:04:29.560 I don't want you to miss this video. And I also want to talk a little bit more about the video,

00:04:35.540 sort of a meta conversation, because I want to tell you why I think it's so important that Rebel

00:04:40.320 News not just report the news. We tell you the news, we give you our opinions. I think that's

00:04:47.300 probably our main thing we do. But like I say, every once in a while, we look around and say,

00:04:52.880 so no one's, no one's going to stop this. No one's going to try. No one's going to fill the void.

00:04:58.040 All right, fine. We will. Here's an example of that. Take a look at the video I released earlier

00:05:03.160 today. And don't go away. I'll be on the other side. So stick around and wait for me.

00:05:06.680 It looks like Chrystia Freeland is getting away with it. While she was a Canadian MP,

00:05:14.020 while she was Mark Carney's special advisor on Ukraine, she secretly took another job at the

00:05:19.120 same time with the president of Ukraine himself, Vladimir Zelensky. She was working both sides.

00:05:25.880 She was hired by Ukraine on December 22nd. She told Mark Carney, the prime minister,

00:05:30.580 about it on December 24th. But they agreed to keep it a secret. On December 27th, the Saturday

00:05:37.440 during the Christmas break, the Canadian government quickly sent $2.5 billion to Ukraine. And Freeland

00:05:45.280 was working both sides of the deal. You cannot do that. That's illegal. I'll show you the law in a

00:05:51.880 moment. That's called a conflict of interest. And this whole arrangement would have stayed a secret

00:05:56.960 had Zelensky himself not tweeted about it more than a week later on January 5th. Now that tweet

00:06:02.880 clearly surprised Carney and Freeland, who hadn't planned to make it public. Freeland broke the law

00:06:09.700 and Carney probably did too. And so Freeland's first response after being outed was to say, well,

00:06:16.280 she wasn't being paid by Ukraine. And anyway, she was going to quit as a Canadian member of parliament

00:06:21.500 in a few weeks. But after public uproar grew, she quit immediately and hid from the media. I don't

00:06:28.540 even know what country she's in now, but I could probably guess. And everybody seems to have dropped

00:06:33.420 the matter. Well, everybody except us. What Chrystia Freeland did was illegal. That's not just my 0.89

00:06:38.920 opinion. It's the law. Let me show you this letter written by our lawyer, Chad Williamson. It is a

00:06:44.900 detailed three-page complaint to the conflict of interest and ethics commissioner, Conrad von Finkenstein.

00:06:51.000 I really want you to read this letter for yourself. You can find it at our special website,

00:06:56.180 auditfreeland.com. We need a whole forensic audit of what happened, how and why Freeland's Ukraine job

00:07:03.380 was kept a secret, what her involvement was in the $2.5 billion blowout, how that money is being

00:07:09.480 accounted for, who got it, and what penalties Freeland will face for doing all of this. I'm going to read

00:07:15.400 you parts of the letter now, but please read it for yourself. It's only three pages long, and I promise

00:07:20.340 you, you'll learn more about what Chrystia Freeland did wrong in those three pages than in all the 0.85

00:07:25.300 mainstream media reporting on this subject combined. And that's the thing. Once Freeland quit as an MP,

00:07:31.020 the regime media basically said, oh, well, she's gone now. Nothing to see here. Let's talk about

00:07:35.980 something else. And the opposition parties dropped it too. We have a better idea. Now, you might remember

00:07:42.980 we hired Chad Williamson as our lawyer to sue Trudeau's crooked Justice Minister David Lamedi

00:07:48.180 when Lamedi illegally deleted his government Twitter account to hide his tracks after the

00:07:54.340 federal court ruled the Emergencies Act was illegally applied by him. Now, we won that battle. Lamedi had

00:08:01.360 to stop deleting his records. We caught the Justice Minister breaking the law, and we stopped him.

00:08:06.740 Just huge. Chad was also our lawyer the last time we sued the Liberal Debates Commission

00:08:12.580 for trying to keep Rebel News reporters out. He is our winningest lawyer, actually.

00:08:18.320 So let me show you his letter to the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner. I'm going to read

00:08:22.440 it. Dear sir, we act for Rebel News Network Limited and Mr. Ezra Levant. On their behalf,

00:08:28.900 we formally request that your office initiate an examination under Section 45 of the Conflict of

00:08:35.320 Interest Act into the conduct of the Honorable Chrystia Freeland. The matter concerns her receipt

00:08:41.180 of a personal, professional opportunity from the administration of Ukraine while concurrently

00:08:46.480 participating in the allocation of multi-billion dollar financial aid packages to that same state

00:08:53.040 as a member of the Canadian government and as a member of parliament. The proximity of these events

00:08:58.640 warrants rigorous scrutiny to ensure the integrity of the executive of this country. And then he's

00:09:05.280 got another chapter called Factual Matrix. The chronology of these events is not merely

00:09:10.280 suggestive. It is extremely concerning. I won't read the whole thing there. Chad outlines the dates I

00:09:16.500 just mentioned to you. Then he digs into the law and quickly dispatches Freeland's attempted excuse

00:09:22.560 of not being paid. Inquiry Foundations and the Unpaid Fallacy. Sections 4 and 5. The minister's

00:09:30.680 suggestion that the unpaid nature of the role mitigated to conflict is legally insufficient.

00:09:37.460 Under Section 2, a private interest is defined by exclusion. It does not require pecuniary gain.

00:09:44.320 Prestige and international standing clearly constitute a private interest. Accordingly, there are reasonable

00:09:50.140 grounds for inquiry regarding what? Section 4, conflict of interest. Whether the minister exercised

00:09:57.120 official power in a manner that provided an opportunity to further her private interest 0.96

00:10:02.260 in a prestigious post-parliamentary career. Two, Section 5, general duty. Whether the minister

00:10:09.240 met her mandatory duty to arrange her private affairs in a manner that will prevent the public

00:10:14.680 office holder from being in a conflict of interest. Now, here's the heart of the letter. This part is

00:10:19.180 just devastating to Freeland, who clearly broke the law. I'm not surprised to you. I mean, this is a woman who

00:10:24.740 illegally seized bank accounts of hundreds of her political enemies during the trucker convoy.

00:10:30.880 So, why would she follow the law when it comes to shoveling $2.5 billion from Canadian taxpayers to her 1.00

00:10:38.560 new boss? Let me read these points. Substantive statutory considerations. We request that your office

00:10:46.340 immediately determine if the minister's conduct is consistent with the following prohibitions.

00:10:51.360 Section 6.1, decision-making. Participating in a decision where the official knows or reasonably

00:10:58.180 should know they are in a conflict of interest. Section 7, preferential treatment. Whether the

00:11:03.960 $2.5 billion allocation constitutes preferential treatment based on the identity of the organization

00:11:09.860 that offered the minister employment. Section 8, insider information. Whether non-public information

00:11:17.360 was used to further the minister's private interest in securing the advisory role. Section 9, influence.

00:11:24.680 Whether the minister's position was used to influence a decision of the prime minister or cabinet

00:11:29.500 to further her own career trajectory. Section 10, offers of employment. Whether the exercise of official

00:11:37.900 power was influenced by plans for or offers of outside employment. Section 11, gifts and advantages.

00:11:46.020 Whether the professional offer or any other benefit or advantage conferred constitutes an advantage that

00:11:52.980 might reasonably be seen to have been given to influence official duties. Just absolutely damning.

00:11:59.500 Please, please read the whole letter for yourself at auditfreeland.com. I really wish the conservative

00:12:05.700 opposition party had made this demand of the conflict of interest and ethics commission. They have access to

00:12:11.420 unlimited legal support as opposition MPs. Obviously, we take no government money. If you want to help me

00:12:17.360 cover the cost of this upcoming legal battle that we're getting into thick, you can do that right now

00:12:23.600 at auditfreeland.com. Thanks. Okay, back to the letter. This part is really interesting. Ready?

00:12:29.940 Pursuant to Section 24-1, a reporting public office holder must disclose an offer of outside employment

00:12:37.020 to the commissioner within seven days. Having received the offer on December 22nd, the statutory deadline was

00:12:44.120 December 29th. We require confirmation of the exact date your office received this disclosure.

00:12:50.360 Hey, isn't that a great point? I bet you she did not disclose it to the commissioner in time or at all

00:12:58.140 until it became public. This was when Freeland and Carney were still keeping it quiet.

00:13:03.040 And remember I mentioned that Chad sued and beat Justice Minister David Lamedi for illegally

00:13:09.100 destroying government records? Well, we've included a part about that too. Let me read it.

00:13:13.820 Our clients remain concerned with the preservation of digital records during ministerial transitions.

00:13:20.280 In Rebel News Network versus Lamedi, we litigated the unacceptable risk of record scrubbing following a

00:13:26.580 minister's departure. We demand that your office issue an immediate directive to the minister's office

00:13:31.620 and the Privy Council office to preserve all communications, including encrypted messaging

00:13:36.840 between Ms. Freeland and Prime Minister Carney from December 20th, 2025 to present.

00:13:42.540 All internal departmental briefing notes regarding the $2.5 billion gift.

00:13:48.340 Seriously, don't you think that's in the public interest? And really,

00:13:51.480 if Rebel News doesn't demand that these records be kept, who will?

00:13:55.160 So the letter ends with our lawyer demanding that the conflict of interest commissioner answer six

00:14:02.300 questions for us within the next 15 days. And they are such good questions. I wish they had been

00:14:09.120 asked in question period in Parliament, but let me read them to you now. Question one, procedural

00:14:15.340 compliance. On what exact date did your office receive a formal written disclosure from Minister Freeland

00:14:22.140 regarding the December 22nd offer as mandated by the seven-day deadline in Section 24-1? That's a great

00:14:30.260 one. Question two, the recusal record. Did the minister provide a written notice of recusal regarding

00:14:37.140 the December 27th $2.5 billion funding decision pursuant to Section 21? And was this recusal

00:14:44.340 subsequently entered into the public registry under Section 25? That is a great question. Did she step

00:14:52.000 away from the decision? Of course we know she didn't. Question three, contemporaneous advice. Did the

00:14:59.480 minister seek or receive written advice from your office between December 22nd and December 27th

00:15:06.000 regarding the ethical compatibility of her participation in aid-related cabinet decisions

00:15:11.960 while entertaining a personal professional offer from the recipient state? Great question.

00:15:18.140 Question four, classification of interest. Does your office maintain that a high-level advisory

00:15:24.500 appointment to a foreign sovereign state, regardless of remuneration, is an exempt interest under Section

00:15:30.840 2? Or does it constitute a gift or other advantage under Section 11? Yeah, there's no way that simply

00:15:38.660 saying, oh, I'm not getting cash means this is legitimate work. It's crazy. Question five, evidence

00:15:45.140 preservation. What specific enforceable directives has your office issued to the minister's staff and the

00:15:51.220 Privy Council office to prevent the scrubbing or deletion of digital records, specifically encrypted

00:15:57.300 messages, logs involving Mark Carney prior to the minister's resignation? And finally, preferential

00:16:04.860 treatment inquiry. Will your office's examination specifically investigate whether the $2.5 billion

00:16:11.420 allocation constitutes preferential treatment to an organization under Section 7 based on the minister's

00:16:17.500 pending transition to that organization? We expect a prompt acknowledgement of this request, a fulsome response

00:16:25.180 to our queries, and a timeline for your office's preliminary assessment on or before the deadline captioned above.

00:16:32.140 This is a matter of grave public interest, I think, don't you? It's not just the money

00:16:38.220 being hoovered out of the country on a Saturday right after Christmas. It's that every single check

00:16:44.060 and balance was broken to get the money. They didn't register it. They didn't disclose it. They didn't

00:16:50.380 recuse. This is all dirty. Chrystia Freeland secretly broke the law and Mark Carney himself helped keep it a secret.

00:16:59.420 Everyone's in on it. We have sent the letter to the commissioner. His name is Mr. Von Frankenstein.

00:17:07.260 It's a great letter. He has the power to answer these questions, but he also has the power to bury these questions.

00:17:14.380 I promise you, I'll let you know what he says. Go to auditfreeland.com. Read the letter. If you agree with me

00:17:22.700 that our lawyer's letter is great, please help me crowdfund his legal bill. You can do that right

00:17:28.060 there at the same website, auditfreeland.com. Thanks very much, my friends. You know,

00:17:32.860 no one should be above the law, especially not someone as unethical as Chrystia Freeland. Go to 1.00

00:17:38.860 auditfreeland.com. Read the complaint for yourself and help us with our legal war chest because this

00:17:45.340 battle is just starting. Thanks for your support. You know, I always get nervous and excited when

00:17:53.580 we launch a legal battle like that, uh, nervous because I don't want to lose. It's embarrassing

00:17:58.780 to lose. I also know it's likely that we're going to lose because we fight these uphill battles,

00:18:04.220 David versus Goliath. The other guys have all the advantages, all the money, all the endless legal

00:18:09.660 budgets and we're the little guy. Um, I'm excited though, because I know it is possible to win. As

00:18:15.500 I mentioned in that video, Chad Williamson is our winningest lawyer. He beat the, um, debates

00:18:21.180 commission in 2021. In 2025, they just surrendered to him. Um, he beat David Lamedi. So I think he's got

00:18:28.940 a good chance. And if you read the letter, you'll, I think it's an excellent letter. Um, but I am also

00:18:34.780 aware that these battles cost a lot of money. And that's one thing when I think of our competitors,

00:18:39.100 I, I somehow, I sometimes daydream. What would it be like if we didn't have legal bills? What

00:18:45.180 would it be like if our people were never arrested? So we didn't have to defend them in court or sue

00:18:49.100 the police? What would be, it be like if we didn't sign up for these legal battle? I remember when we

00:18:54.380 sued, uh, here's another legal battle that Chad Williamson won for us. I didn't mention this in

00:18:58.140 the video. Um, when we sued Stephen Gilboa, if you recall, for blocking us on Twitter, and you might

00:19:04.780 think that's a petty thing, but it set the precedent that governments cannot

00:19:08.940 cut you off from information just because they don't like you. So we spent, it was about 90

00:19:14.380 or a hundred thousand dollars fighting that. And you might say, Oh my God, that's such a waste of

00:19:18.940 money. And sometimes I feel that way because you could hire, I mean, imagine how many journalists

00:19:25.500 you could hire if you weren't spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on lawsuits. But

00:19:31.420 you know, journalists are important and opinion commentary is important, but who's going to stand

00:19:37.020 up and stop them? We stopped Stephen Gilboa from banning people on Twitter. And we actually

00:19:42.940 replicated that same lawsuit so many times. We basically set the standard. We set the precedent

00:19:47.900 and we've stopped that misconduct. Um, we beat David Lametti, the justice minister who tried to

00:19:53.740 destroy his public records. And if we can put a dent in Chrystia Freeland here, I think that is a very

00:20:01.500 valuable thing we're giving to the country. And I think it's in some ways because of my own unusual

00:20:06.860 background, I was a lawyer, but I didn't really practice a lot. I was in politics as a staffer.

00:20:14.300 I briefly ran, as you may know, but I stepped aside for Stephen Harper. So I've got this mix inside me.

00:20:19.260 I'm not just journalistic. I'm also political. I'm also a former lawyer and I myself have been the target

00:20:24.700 of bad guys trying to get me with lawfare lawsuits. So I sometimes think of lawsuits as an instrument

00:20:32.540 to challenge some sort of power. So at least I hope you think that way.

00:20:38.780 And I really think that Chrystia Freeland is getting away scot-free here. I think she's getting away

00:20:43.340 in an outrageous manner. And if we look at the timeline, she was hired by Ukraine. She did disclose 0.76

00:20:50.220 it quickly to the prime minister, but he kept it a secret. I think one of the most exciting questions

00:20:54.700 in Chad Williamson's lawyer's letter is when did she, as is required, let the Conflict of Ethics

00:21:01.900 Commissioner know she got the job? I bet she didn't do it. Anyways, I just wanted to give you some of

00:21:07.020 those thoughts on our big campaign today because it's the part of Rebel News I love the best. And I'd

00:21:13.180 love to hear your thoughts on that too. Do you like our news better? Do you like our commentary? One of my

00:21:17.980 favorite things, let's be honest, is when we send journalists places. I really loved seeing Alexa

00:21:22.540 down there with the Venezolanos and Cubanos in Miami cheering the removal of Maduro. What did you think

00:21:27.820 of that? But I think when Rebel News gets into the fight, that's to me, that's just chef's kiss.

00:21:34.060 That's the favorite thing. Anyways, those are my thoughts. Stay with us. After the break,

00:21:38.300 we'll talk to Sam Cooper about Mark Carney's trip to Communist China. Stay with us.

00:21:47.980 Well, Mark Carney, our Prime Minister, has started a global dictatorship tour, if I may. He just touched

00:21:59.500 down in Communist China. His tweet announcing his arrival, of course, makes no mention of human rights,

00:22:05.900 industrial sabotage, or democratic infiltration, what we saw in various elections, especially in

00:22:13.980 greater Toronto area. After he's done in China, he'll visit two other spots. One is Qatar,

00:22:19.980 the tiny Gulf nation that is the chief sponsor of Hamas, now that Iran is running out of cash.

00:22:27.180 And then he'll end the whole thing, well, where we're going to be, at Davos, at the World Economic

00:22:33.660 Forum Summit. That's Mark Carney's kind of place. As you know, he was a director of the World Economic

00:22:39.740 Forum for years, a very China-centric place. It's been a while since Canada has had a Prime

00:22:45.820 Minister go to China, but Mark Carney is quite familiar with them. He's met with Xi Jinping

00:22:51.500 himself in his capacity as chairman of Brookfield Asset Management. And remember that Mark Carney has

00:22:58.940 not divested himself of his stock. So he's going with two hats on. One, the Prime Minister of Canada,

00:23:04.700 one of the other, a major stockholder in Brookfield Asset Management. But let's get back to the first

00:23:09.340 point. How do we deal with China? It is a fact that they import a variety of Canadian exports,

00:23:16.540 including, for example, canola, which they put under an enormous tariff. I understand that

00:23:22.060 Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe has accompanied Mark Carney clearly with one thing on his agenda,

00:23:27.260 get that import tax removed. The Chinese, of course, will want something in return, 1.00

00:23:32.860 perhaps softening or removing the tariff on Chinese electric vehicles, a tariff brought in

00:23:38.940 to protect Ontario's auto industry. But what about their meddling in our democracy? What about the

00:23:45.020 Chinese consulate putting an actual bounty on a democratic opposition, an opponent, Chinese-Canadian,

00:23:54.460 in the last federal election? Will any of that come up? Well, there's one man who I would trust on

00:23:58.620 this stuff more than anyone else. He's an independent journalist who has really made a name for

00:24:02.700 himself on the foreign interference issue. You can probably guess who I'm talking about. His name

00:24:08.220 is Sam Cooper. He's the boss of The Bureau. You can find it at thebureau.news. And he joins me now. Sam,

00:24:15.180 thanks very much for coming back on the show. You're so busy. I'm grateful to have a few moments of your

00:24:19.580 time. Put aside Qatar and the World Economic Forum. Tell me what we should be watching with Mark Carney's

00:24:26.540 trip to China. Well, I think Michael Kovrig, who your viewers know very well, was kidnapped in the

00:24:35.420 Man Wanzhou pressure case. He's been very vocal, Ezra, in the past week, airing out his well-founded and

00:24:43.580 hard-earned knowledge of what Carney could be up to in China. And Mr. Kovrig laid it out. He said,

00:24:51.660 Jacques Ressian was there a week before Carney in Beijing. Jacques Ressian has deep business ties

00:24:59.420 and has had for decades with Beijing. He's there, according to Mr. Kovrig, the expert, apparently to

00:25:06.860 pave the way for what may be possible in business dealings. And so, as you said in your intro,

00:25:13.580 it's no secret now to Canadians that China is up to no good in our country. But I think the real story 1.00

00:25:19.660 is here that not only is Mark Carney through Brookfield deeply exposed in his own business

00:25:25.500 dealings to China. I think, Ezra, we've talked about how Mr. Carney scored a $250 emergency loan

00:25:33.980 on a Brookfield real estate investment in China in 2024. That's shortly before he replaced Justin Trudeau.

00:25:41.740 So I testified about that in Parliament as being a potential conflict. But beyond that,

00:25:47.020 as Mr. Kovrig and I and others have noted, powerful business industrialists connected to

00:25:53.740 Jean Chrétien in Montreal have essentially been writing Canada's China policy for decades. And Mr. Kovrig,

00:26:00.940 I and other experts think they're the ones that are driving, that will be driving sort of the agenda

00:26:07.100 for Mark Carney in his visit to Beijing. And that worries me and a lot of experts on China.

00:26:12.300 You know, I remember when Jean Chrétien announced he was going to go work in China,

00:26:17.180 if my recollection is accurate, he announced that publicly just six weeks after he finished his term

00:26:23.980 as PM. I think there was no way he didn't know in advance that was his plans. I don't think he was

00:26:30.620 silent, incommunicado, and then suddenly when he was done being PM, he negotiated. I think he was warming to

00:26:37.340 China the whole time. But in any event, for 20 years, he's been deeply involved in China with the

00:26:43.500 Demare family that his own child married into. So he's full on in China. But you've got to say,

00:26:49.580 okay, he's a businessman now. He's a lobbyist now. He's sort of a grand figure in the Liberal Party,

00:26:55.420 but he really hasn't been, I don't think, an advisor to the government in Canada. But

00:27:00.940 him meeting with the Chinese in advance of Mark Carney, that really feels like he was there

00:27:07.500 to soften the ground, to shape the battlefield, so to speak. And so I think my question is,

00:27:15.980 will this serve liberal interests, personal interests, corporate interests, Demare interests,

00:27:20.940 Chrétien interests, or will it serve the Canadian interests? Because I think they're different.

00:27:25.820 I have no problem with Canada trading with China. It's impossible for us not to.

00:27:30.540 But what I'm worried about is that this, everything will be skewed to favor the in-group,

00:27:36.300 the Chrétien crowd, the insiders. And remember that Carney himself is still an insider with those

00:27:41.580 shares. I'm just worried that instead of a political deal, we're getting a business deal

00:27:47.020 done by the state, but for the benefit of the few. That's my worry. And you know,

00:27:52.700 five to 10 years ago, a lot of people could still claim this sounds like a conspiracy theory,

00:27:57.740 but it's not anymore. Ezra, you mentioned canola. I reported on a CSIS document for the Bureau.News

00:28:06.060 in the wake of my revelations at Global News on election interference. This was really not noticed,

00:28:11.980 but it said, CSIS assessed that during the Mun Wanzhou crisis, China's Ministry of State Security was

00:28:20.300 putting maximum pressure on Canadian industrialists because they believed that the industrialists had

00:28:27.580 maximum leverage with senior Canadian politicians, re Justin Trudeau. This CSIS document, and people can

00:28:34.140 go to the Bureau.News, assessed that China was calibrating its election interference in 2019

00:28:40.140 to secure the release of Mun Wanzhou. And they were calibrating their support across all three major

00:28:50.220 political parties while still supporting Justin Trudeau. Let me underline that. The document says

00:28:56.060 Justin Trudeau was favored by China, but to show that China was a little displeased with Mun's

00:29:02.620 detention, they started to scatter their election interference goodies around to different parties.

00:29:08.540 And again, let me underline, Richardson's in Saskatchewan, a big grain trader, was mentioned in that

00:29:15.100 document. And as you say, and I think I agree, the Quebec industrialists would be even at the higher

00:29:21.740 level of the pyramid of influence with China and influence on Mark Carney, Jacques Chrétien,

00:29:28.140 even some conservatives such as Brian Mulroney probably had that similar influence.

00:29:33.100 You know, I understand Mark Carney's argument. He's saying we have to diversify

00:29:38.540 our export markets because the United States tariff position is confusing and scary. And Trump just

00:29:44.700 this week was saying he doesn't know if he wants to renegotiate the US MCA trade deal. I can understand

00:29:51.100 why, whether you're left wing or right wing, that means diversify. That said, 80% of our exports go to

00:29:58.620 the States, only 5% to China. And by the way, what China really wants from Canada is our raw materials.

00:30:05.340 They want our coal, our potash, our oil. And we haven't really built the proper infrastructure. Like,

00:30:13.660 we haven't built an oil pipeline. It's certainly not one that looks like it'll be speedy.

00:30:19.420 I, I'm also, but my point is by, by wooing China, by bending the knee to China morally, 0.91

00:30:28.540 I'm worried that the United States might have a bad reaction to that if they think we're getting too

00:30:33.100 chummy. If they think we're abandoning the US orbit, this, instead of diversifying our exports,

00:30:39.260 this might actually lead to some backlash. And listen, Canada is an independent country. I don't

00:30:44.220 want it to be a puppet of the US. But do you think there's a risk that if Mark Carney is too friendly

00:30:50.860 with Xi Jinping, that might get a reaction from Marco Rubio?

00:30:56.220 Ezra, I absolutely believe that's the case. And let me point to a great story that you and your

00:31:02.300 network broke. That was the Chinese PLA training in Canada's Arctic. That's the exact type of episode 0.78

00:31:09.340 that my sources, who are at a senior level in the US government, also good people in Canada's

00:31:14.700 government say. Canada has not only been in bed with China, with Jean Chrétien and his business

00:31:20.940 friends in Montreal for decades. Remember, this started with Pierre Trudeau, who recognized the CCP

00:31:27.580 over Taiwan. And as a new book reveals, that set a bad model for the rest of the world. 0.90

00:31:34.300 This is the concern of the American government, who I believe is up

00:31:37.740 every hour of the night these days, planning for a potential, the shock scenario of a war with Beijing

00:31:44.940 that over their plans to attack Taiwan within the next year or two. And so Canada, by Mark Carney,

00:31:51.980 of course, we need to be sovereign, we need to get the best deal. President Donald Trump is being

00:31:57.500 very bellicose, harsher than any recent American president, but they are protecting their interests.

00:32:04.540 And I'll circle back to that great story you broke about the PLA training in the Arctic.

00:32:09.980 Look, as we both know, when we're talking about Trump wanting to buy Greenland, China and Russia

00:32:17.740 are already involved in Canada's Arctic. This is a major concern. And Mark Carney scoring deeper trade

00:32:23.180 deals, that's sending us on the road to destruction very quickly, I believe, I'm afraid.

00:32:29.740 Yeah. You know, I mean, Trump has an audacious style. I really recommend to people to read his

00:32:36.620 old book called The Art of the Deal, which was pre politics. I mean, he was always political,

00:32:40.620 but it was about how he likes to negotiate. And he talked about making outrageous demands,

00:32:46.060 then backing down. So his strong demands appeared very, very modest by comparison.

00:32:50.780 He talks about putting the other guy off balance by saying, you know, throwing out curveballs.

00:32:55.820 If you read how he did business in New York City, which is a very cutthroat real estate environment,

00:33:01.900 you can see some of those traits at work now. And I don't think he denies them. I don't think anyone

00:33:06.300 actually thinks the United States is going to have a military war with Denmark. I just don't think

00:33:10.860 anyone believes. But by making that a huffing and puffing threat, everything else seems modern.

00:33:17.580 And I noticed, by the way, there were Danish and Greenlandish diplomats in the White House today.

00:33:24.060 So we'll see what happens there. And Trump talks about China's presence. And I don't know,

00:33:29.500 I think that Canada could actually do more things, interesting things. Let me throw something at

00:33:34.220 you. And maybe it's outside your wheelhouse. So maybe you don't have an opinion on it. But look,

00:33:40.620 there is a US military base in the UK, in Italy, in Germany, in Turkey, in about 100 countries in the

00:33:47.340 world. And you could say, oh, that violates their sovereignty. Well, those countries would say,

00:33:51.900 no, it gives us actually the benefit. Canada doesn't have a US base here, even though Americans

00:33:57.500 do train in some of our military bases. If we had a joint Canada-US base in the Arctic,

00:34:04.380 let's say near Inovic, or even further north, where Americans and Canadians could train and work

00:34:10.300 together in the Arctic, it would be allies, buddies. I'm not saying 51st state. I'm just saying,

00:34:16.940 let's have what Germany has. They have 40 US bases. Let's have an Arctic base co-located with

00:34:22.860 the Americans, where we train with each other, not with PLA, Chinese communists. I think Trump

00:34:28.780 would value that so much. It would be like an asymmetrical thing. Maybe he'd go easy on our

00:34:33.740 auto industry. Maybe he'd go easy on other things. I don't know. But I think that that,

00:34:37.820 I don't know if Mark Carney can do that, because he's taking a bit of an anti-American tone. Just

00:34:41.900 something that we could tip our hat to the Americans and say, yeah, listen, let us sell

00:34:45.900 our oil or our wheat or our potash, our canola, and we'll help you on the Arctic sovereignty,

00:34:51.180 which we agree with. Anyhow, it's an idea. I just wanted to float that idea and hear what

00:34:54.540 you thought of it. I love the idea. I've had similar ideas. And I would add to that, we should be

00:35:02.540 not signing exclusive deals, but signing heavily weighted deals where we are providing our critical

00:35:09.500 minerals to the United States for them to... Ezra, let me tell you what I think the Western

00:35:17.260 hemisphere and the world is all about now. The US government bought into globalism over the past 30,

00:35:23.420 40 years. China snuck in and secured all the critical minerals needed. They've captured the 0.93

00:35:28.700 supply chain. So if that war happens, the US government will run out of munitions very soon.

00:35:35.420 They're in a race to secure critical minerals and to secure Western hemisphere military

00:35:43.180 security dominance, really, because they're preparing for war with China. So 100 percent,

00:35:48.380 let's do those bases together with the Americans. These are our natural allies. As people, we're very

00:35:56.300 close. We're not identical, but I have the opinion that we can never really be separate from the United

00:36:02.140 States in terms of an ally, saying that we're going to be European or China adjacent. It'll never work.

00:36:10.060 So yes, stronger military cooperation and interoperability, stronger sharing on resources.

00:36:16.700 This is what the people in Canada deep down, I think most of them really want. And it makes sense

00:36:21.420 at a high strategic level. Let me ask you one last question. And it's actually totally a different

00:36:27.180 part of the world. It's in Markham, Ontario, part of the greater Toronto area. There are different

00:36:33.580 camps of Chinese communities. Some are, you know, absolutely freedom oriented, dissident, you might 1.00

00:36:41.820 even say democracy activists. But then there are those who favor the Chinese Communist Party. And there

00:36:47.820 are not going to say street battles, but it's certainly a tug of war. And you saw that where Michael Ma

00:36:54.540 Ma was elected as a conservative, but was wooed somehow by Mark Carney. And one of his opponents,

00:37:02.700 Joe Tay, is real. It's this really interesting battle playing itself out. It's a peaceful battle

00:37:07.900 so far, thank God, between who sort of is the boss on the ground. And Michael Ma was flipped from the

00:37:15.260 conservatives to the liberals. And now he is on that plane in China. His immediate reward was to get an

00:37:22.140 audience with the dictator. And I think that's in poor taste, by the way. I think it's an insult

00:37:27.340 to the people of Markham who voted for a more freedom oriented candidate. And then they're

00:37:32.220 given to someone who's being wooed by the Chinese Communist. What is what signal does it send

00:37:38.540 that as a reward for turning tables, Michael Ma is now visiting with a top dictator?

00:37:44.700 It's a horrible signal. And that's a deep story. I believe, Ezra, that first of all, Mark Carney,

00:37:53.340 I've documented at the Bureau through photographic evidence and open sources that Mark Carney was

00:37:59.500 meeting with people that should be on the foreign agent registry because they are senior Beijing

00:38:05.500 United Front Work Department political operatives that appeared to give Mark Carney support in his

00:38:11.420 nomination. I similarly documented that Michael Ma, without alleging that he's involved in any

00:38:18.380 under the table dealings, he's been meeting more than once with very senior people that should be on

00:38:26.780 Canada's foreign agent registry when it in fact, if it's ever implemented. These are people,

00:38:32.540 Ezra, that I'll assert to you, are extremely key to the Don Valley North election interference story.

00:38:39.740 And the election interference across Canada, Michael Ma, you know, toasting wine glasses with them,

00:38:46.460 wearing a red scarf in front of, you know, images of Beijing's military in Markham, which you point to.

00:38:53.500 I think it's a hugely concerning issue. Again, not alleging Michael Ma is involved in foreign interference,

00:38:59.340 but I have the concern his floor crossing could be connected to Beijing's interference.

00:39:04.940 Yeah, it sure looks that way. Well, Sam, I really value your journalism. And folks,

00:39:09.180 as you know, Rebel News is an independent citizen journalist outfit, but we love to pay attention

00:39:15.900 to other citizen journalists and to host them on the show sometimes. Can I recommend that you bookmark

00:39:21.900 Sam's website, especially if you care about foreign interference, Chinese-Canadian relations, and other

00:39:27.980 things too. The website's really easy to remember. It's thebureau.news, thebureau.news. And Sam's got an

00:39:36.060 interesting style. He's got a ton of sources on the ground and in institutions who trust him to get

00:39:43.100 the news out when maybe sometimes the regime media are reluctant to tell what's really going on. So I

00:39:48.460 really look up to Sam, and we're always grateful he can take a few minutes. I know he's so busy. I see

00:39:52.620 him, you know, on so many different programs. He's in demand, so we're always happy when he clears his

00:39:59.340 schedule for us. Sam, great to see you. Keep up the great work, and we look forward to our next update with you.

00:40:03.580 Always good talking, Ezra. Thanks. Right on. There he is. Sam Cooper, thebureau.news. Stay with us. Your

00:40:09.180 letters to me next.

00:40:19.580 Hey, welcome back. Your letters to me. Chris E. Dye says, Islamic regime, not Iranian regime. This is an 0.92

00:40:25.820 occupation, not government. Very important to know the difference. Ah, interesting. Well, you know,

00:40:31.260 it's called the Islamic Republic of Iran. It really is a theology, a theocracy. Excuse me,

00:40:37.260 and I should remind you that Margaret Atwood's book, The Handmaid's Tale, which was turned into a hit TV

00:40:44.700 show, and the Democrats use, oh, Trump is bringing in The Handmaid's Tale. It's a theocracy. It's a

00:40:50.940 misogynist theocracy. No, Trump didn't, and no American has. That was actually, if you look it up,

00:40:58.620 Margaret Atwood was inspired in this dystopian way by the Iranian Revolution. But I just don't 0.97

00:41:05.340 think she had the courage to do the show about Islam. She made it about Christianity. But that's 0.99

00:41:12.220 not what Christianity is like. Christianity is liberating. It's not condemning. It doesn't

00:41:19.500 subjugate women like radical Islam does. So anyhow, it's incredible that the left has been so supportive 0.73

00:41:27.980 of the true misogynist dystopian regime. Like, this is what they claim they hated, but they seem to like

00:41:36.620 it. Kenneth Egerdeen says, I'm so sick of them bringing their wars to Canada. Then expect Canadian 1.00

00:41:45.820 government to fix your countries. Meanwhile, Canada is suffering because of our own government,

00:41:49.500 and the government is supporting the immigrants more than the Canadian people.

00:41:53.180 Now, I don't think that Canada, well, Canada gives an enormous amount of foreign aid. And I feel

00:41:59.100 like so much of it is siphoned off and embezzled and corrupted. And we'll find out a little bit more

00:42:03.660 if there's been any tracking done on this money that Chrystia Freeland has been shoveling out the

00:42:07.820 door, working both ends of the deal. The United States does a lot of military exercises around

00:42:14.940 the world. They have the world's largest military, they have about 100 bases all over the world.

00:42:18.620 And the US does go in these wars in a big way. Donald Trump is trying to change how he does it.

00:42:24.780 So like he had a very light touch in Venezuela, and now he's sort of running Venezuela through

00:42:29.980 orders. I'm not going to say through threats, but there's probably threats there too.

00:42:34.700 It's a very interesting thing as we talked to Dr. Pipes yesterday about, can you bring in regime

00:42:41.980 change by knocking off the top guy and then just sort of using the rest as like a ventriloquist doll?

00:42:50.380 If you cut off the hand of the ventriloquist doll and you make it speak in your voice, can you change

00:42:55.900 a country without putting boots on the ground? Trump's trying to do that in Venezuela. And I

00:42:59.500 gotta say so far, it looks like it's working. Be interesting to see what happens in Iran.

00:43:03.820 Bill Smith says, I am seeing the light. Canada blames China, ceases, blames China. And yes,

00:43:09.340 China is a problem is they want to economically take over any country they can. We should not trust 1.00

00:43:13.900 China. However, the worst corrupt influence in Canada is from radical Islam, Iran, Qatar and other 1.00

00:43:19.500 dictatorships. I agree with you. And the thing about the Islamic extremists funded by Qatar and Iran 0.98

00:43:28.940 is they're violent. They're abusive. They're law breaking. They're terrifying. They stomp around

00:43:34.860 in Jewish communities, threatening people. They change our curriculum in schools. I mean, as we heard 1.00

00:43:42.220 the other day with Melanie Bennett, the Chinese influence is not as abusive. It's more economic, 0.94

00:43:48.300 I think. And like, it is an interference for sure. It feels less abusive. We have to be on guard.

00:43:57.580 I mean, certainly Sam Cooper's comments today were very wise. I am, and when I look to Europe,

00:44:03.660 which I always say is 5, 10, 20 years down the road than we are, you can see that the real threat

00:44:08.300 there I think is radical Islam and the overwhelming transformation of those countries through mass

00:44:13.980 mass immigration. Those are my views. That's our show for today. Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us 0.90

00:44:19.740 here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home, good night and keep fighting for freedom.

00:44:23.260 And keep fighting for freedom.

Rebel News Podcast - January 14, 2026

EZRA LEVANT ｜ Our mission is clear — and we refuse to stay silent against unchecked power

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