Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ Poll shows Canadians believe the country's best attributes are in decline

00:00:00.000 Tonight, what an interesting poll question.

00:00:03.260 What do you like best about living in Canada?

00:00:05.900 It's August 21st, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.

00:00:08.860 You're fighting for freedom!

00:00:11.720 Shame on you, you censorious bug!

00:00:23.320 You know me, I like referring to abacus data precisely because

00:00:27.080 as a pollster, they are not conservative.

00:00:30.120 Their affiliations are with the Liberal Party,

00:00:32.740 so when they tell me something that I like to hear,

00:00:36.060 I know it's not self-serving, I know it's not wishful thinking,

00:00:39.440 it's sort of contrary to their own point of view, so I trust it. 0.97

00:00:43.220 Now, usually I take you through their horse race political questions,

00:00:46.680 which party would you vote for if the election were held today,

00:00:49.320 and usually that's broken down by province and sometimes by age

00:00:52.440 and by the sex of the respondents.

00:00:54.620 I find that interesting, and I'll just tell you,

00:00:56.500 FYI, their latest polls are what we've seen for years now.

00:01:01.920 Pierre Poliev's Tories are at 42%,

00:01:04.380 the Liberals are at 25%,

00:01:07.160 and you can see the NDP is at 18%.

00:01:09.600 You can see the numbers historically here,

00:01:12.120 and that looks very encouraging to conservatives.

00:01:14.120 I'm encouraged by them.

00:01:15.480 But remember, Trudeau was initially elected in 2015

00:01:18.700 because about a week or two before Election Day,

00:01:22.480 there was this revelation and then this huge push,

00:01:24.720 not just by the Liberals, but by the entire media and third-party campaign groups,

00:01:29.560 environmental groups, to go ABC, anybody but conservatives.

00:01:33.540 So a large chunk of the NDP vote switched in the last moment to the Liberals,

00:01:39.160 especially in key ridings where there was a left-wing vote split.

00:01:42.580 I believe Poliev will win the next election,

00:01:46.180 but when the Liberals roll out their campaign and start spending money,

00:01:50.060 and their dark money, too, Chinese influence operations, whatever,

00:01:54.480 I mean, that's not a myth.

00:01:56.240 Those have already been proven by CESAs.

00:01:58.260 And when the CBC and other regime media go into survival mode,

00:02:03.120 don't think this race won't tighten.

00:02:05.560 Anyways, that said, I just want to show you this.

00:02:10.300 What a pleasure it is to see conservatives leading in literally every single province

00:02:15.940 except Quebec, where it's sort of a three-way tie behind the block,

00:02:19.180 although they would get the most CES.

00:02:21.360 I mean, it's probably within the margin of error,

00:02:22.820 but it's astonishing to me to see that the conservative party

00:02:26.000 are further ahead in the Atlantic than they are even in Ontario.

00:02:31.060 Isn't that sort of amazing to you?

00:02:33.540 It's amazing to me in terms of their actual raw vote number.

00:02:37.840 Anyways, that's not what I want to talk about today.

00:02:40.240 I want to talk about a more interesting poll question asked by Abacus.

00:02:45.180 And that question is, what do you like best about living in Canada,

00:02:48.720 and is it getting better or worse?

00:02:53.020 It's a good one.

00:02:54.580 What would you say?

00:02:56.240 My first answer would be more sort of psychological and emotional than physical.

00:03:00.540 I would say I like the feeling of being home.

00:03:03.720 This is where I'm from.

00:03:04.940 This is where I'm connected to the place and the people.

00:03:08.240 But I'd say that's getting very much worse

00:03:10.200 as we are being flooded with people who have no connection to us

00:03:13.240 and don't come here to be connected to us

00:03:15.200 when you bring in two million new people a year.

00:03:17.940 Many of them don't speak English.

00:03:19.360 They aren't culturally a fit.

00:03:21.460 They're not going to become Canadians in a deep way. 0.98

00:03:23.860 They're going to set up segregated ghettos. 0.99

00:03:26.460 There will be no integration, 0.57

00:03:28.820 let alone assimilation.

00:03:31.180 You'll feel like a stranger in your own home.

00:03:34.880 So my favorite thing about Canada is that it's home,

00:03:36.980 and it feels like home, and I'm really worried about that.

00:03:39.460 So here's what Canadians said when they were asked.

00:03:43.260 David Colleto says, it's a really interesting question.

00:03:45.920 So we asked unprompted what the best thing about living in Canada is

00:03:49.020 and followed up with whether that is getting better,

00:03:51.780 not changing or getting worse.

00:03:52.980 Interestingly and not surprisingly, vote intention was linked to that as well.

00:03:59.400 That's David Colleto talking about the reason he did the poll.

00:04:02.360 But let's take a look.

00:04:04.260 Look at that chart there.

00:04:08.000 The fact that these are unprompted.

00:04:10.420 So normally on a political poll they say liberal, Tory, green, NDP.

00:04:15.980 Here it was unprompted.

00:04:17.060 They let people come up with the words themselves.

00:04:18.800 32% said freedom, unprompted.

00:04:22.860 I think that's amazing, don't you?

00:04:26.060 I would have thought it had been drummed out of us by the state

00:04:29.720 and by regime media and by our communist teachers unions,

00:04:33.780 but 32% of Canadians, unprompted, still say freedom.

00:04:38.660 19% say natural beauty in the environment.

00:04:41.660 They're not talking about kooky environmental schemes like carbon dioxide

00:04:46.340 or paper straws or banning plastic bags and bringing in carbon taxes.

00:04:51.260 They're talking about what the word environment used to mean 35 years ago.

00:04:56.180 Beautiful places to go hiking and camping and picnicking and sightseeing,

00:04:59.800 going out to nature, going to the mountains or a national park.

00:05:04.340 That's what people say they love about Canada, the second most thing.

00:05:07.340 The third is opportunities and standard of living.

00:05:10.500 10% of people list that.

00:05:12.840 Safety is next.

00:05:14.040 Isn't that interesting?

00:05:14.760 Do you feel safe in Canada?

00:05:17.800 It's a high-trust society.

00:05:19.700 We are safe, but it's eroding.

00:05:22.920 I think it's getting worse.

00:05:24.020 If you're in a small town, it's still pretty safe,

00:05:25.800 but I doubt there's a soul in any big city in this country

00:05:28.700 that feels safer than we did 5, 10 years ago,

00:05:31.420 especially when you have massive crime waves,

00:05:34.000 often driven by foreign criminal gangs.

00:05:37.240 Here's how Canada's largest urban police force

00:05:39.460 recommended dealing with home invasion robberies,

00:05:42.740 coming to steal SUVs right off your driveway.

00:05:46.180 Remember this from Toronto's police.

00:05:48.300 There's also updated advice for all vehicle owners.

00:05:51.620 A message echoed by Toronto police speaking at an Etobicoke safety meeting last month.

00:05:56.160 Constable Marco Ricciardi had a new message for vehicle owners

00:05:59.320 who keep their fobs in Faraday pouches.

00:06:02.120 To prevent the possibility of being attacked in your home,

00:06:06.580 leave your fobs at your front door.

00:06:08.000 Because they're breaking into your home to steal your car.

00:06:10.720 They don't want anything else.

00:06:11.960 A lot of them that they're arresting have guns on them,

00:06:14.640 and they're not toy guns.

00:06:15.620 They're real guns.

00:06:16.620 They're loaded.

00:06:17.760 That's why Galinsky says they will be installing the doorstops

00:06:20.960 and taking YPR's advice seriously.

00:06:23.780 But she'd like more action from police as well.

00:06:26.880 Yeah, and that's just the regular crime wave.

00:06:30.280 Then you have massive pro-terrorist marches through the streets,

00:06:36.340 in the middle of the street, around Jewish synagogues,

00:06:40.220 vandalizing Jewish-owned shops week after week,

00:06:43.140 arson, even gunfire, masked thugs chanting threats and racism,

00:06:48.780 and the police don't do a damn thing. 0.85

00:06:50.880 In fact, some institutions give in to them, support them,

00:06:54.580 like those encampments at universities.

00:06:56.220 So police who declared martial law on peaceful truckers stand by

00:07:00.960 while actual violence and threats of violence terrified people

00:07:04.040 with a racial edge to it absolutely were less safe now

00:07:07.960 than we were five years ago.

00:07:10.580 You'll note that health care is down to just 7% of Canadians.

00:07:14.100 Unprompted, only one in, what's that, one in 15 Canadians,

00:07:17.900 one in 14 Canadians says, oh, health care is the best.

00:07:20.820 I remember when I was young, when you asked anyone official

00:07:24.560 what the Canadian identity meant, most of the time the answer was Medicare.

00:07:30.220 That's our Canadian identity.

00:07:31.860 Medicare and the Charter of Rights, people would say.

00:07:34.660 Can you even believe that?

00:07:35.860 No one thinks that Medicare is great.

00:07:38.420 No one loves publicly funded, government-run health care.

00:07:41.600 They've been burned.

00:07:43.100 I don't think people have said that unprompted in 10 or 20 years.

00:07:49.560 I like the answer on this poll.

00:07:52.440 People say, what do you like about Canada the best when people say the people.

00:07:56.760 Isn't that a great answer?

00:07:58.620 People being the best part of Canada.

00:07:59.980 Obviously that's true.

00:08:02.160 Diversity or culture. 0.99

00:08:04.620 5% of people said that, but those aren't the same thing, by the way.

00:08:08.380 Diversity means differences, different races, different ethnicities is typically what they mean.

00:08:14.300 But culture could mean something totally different.

00:08:17.340 It could mean arts and museums and history and architecture.

00:08:20.900 That's sort of one definition of culture, language.

00:08:25.340 But think of French culture, Italian culture, Turkish culture.

00:08:29.820 Those things actually mean the opposite of diversity, don't they?

00:08:32.660 Tell me the essence of being French.

00:08:34.900 What's the essence of being, I don't know, Algerian?

00:08:37.380 Algerian, I'm just picking countries.

00:08:39.620 It means the opposite of diversity.

00:08:41.340 So I don't think that question made a lot of sense.

00:08:43.520 But generally, an interesting list.

00:08:47.100 By question, these were unprompted, but to categorize, culture and diversity is the same thing.

00:08:52.160 They're not.

00:08:53.680 But even more interesting than those unprompted answers, I love the fact that freedom is number one,

00:08:58.120 is how all of those wonderful things about Canada are trending.

00:09:02.540 Remember, that was the second part of the question that Coletto asked.

00:09:05.460 See, abacus didn't just ask what your favorite thing about Canada is.

00:09:10.220 The pollster asked if that thing is getting better or worse.

00:09:13.940 And guys, the answers are bad on everything.

00:09:18.400 That's the chart on the right there.

00:09:21.300 That gray zone in the middle is people who say there's no real change.

00:09:25.240 Bright green is when people say something's getting even better.

00:09:29.100 Bright red is when something's getting even worse.

00:09:31.240 So compare the green and the red.

00:09:32.580 Ignore the gray for all purposes.

00:09:34.580 The first thing is every single thing is getting worse.

00:09:38.580 Everything.

00:09:39.000 No matter what you like about Canada, you tell the pollsters things are getting worse.

00:09:42.560 The only thing that is even close to being balanced is that answer on diversity or culture.

00:09:48.180 27% say it's getting better.

00:09:50.760 32% say it's getting worse.

00:09:52.380 But like I say, I'm not even sure people agree on they're not using the words for the same meaning.

00:09:57.120 Culture and diversity are not the same thing.

00:09:59.660 Some people might say diversity is getting more.

00:10:03.060 And I think that's true.

00:10:04.060 But that's not necessarily a good thing if it's getting more diverse.

00:10:08.280 It's sort of a weird one.

00:10:09.380 But put that aside.

00:10:10.320 Look at freedom, which is such a wonderful answer, the number one answer.

00:10:14.340 10% of Canadians, only one in 10, say freedom is getting better.

00:10:18.160 43% say it's getting worse.

00:10:20.240 That's such a big number.

00:10:22.460 That's not just right-wingers.

00:10:24.160 That's everybody senses it, isn't it?

00:10:27.600 That's freedom of speech, political freedom, even economic freedom, too.

00:10:32.040 That's what we all saw during the COVID lockdowns.

00:10:34.040 That's what we all see now with internet censorship.

00:10:37.040 People are worried about freedom.

00:10:38.000 I think it's wonderful that they're saying so.

00:10:40.800 Nature and beauty.

00:10:41.980 In some ways, it's hard to imagine.

00:10:43.740 How can it get worse?

00:10:44.960 Aren't the Rocky Mountains still?

00:10:46.380 The Rocky Mountains aren't national parks still in national parks?

00:10:49.000 Well, about that, here's a clip from our story about a fun beach in Ontario where thousands of newcomers from other countries.

00:10:57.980 Well, let me put it this way.

00:10:59.360 They have a different way of using beaches than we do.

00:11:02.480 Take a look.

00:11:02.900 And I told my kids, if we're going to go on the beach, watch out so you don't step in any human poop. 0.88

00:11:09.860 I've heard people are using tents and they're just, like, doing it in the sand so no one can see.

00:11:13.860 I think it's really gross.

00:11:15.060 They're digging holes and they're pooping and putting tents up because they don't want to go to the washrooms.

00:11:19.280 And I'm here to fact check that because that's not a lie, so.

00:11:22.480 It makes me not want to swim and not want to be on the beach.

00:11:25.780 To be a responsible parent, you should be showing your kids that you can actually throw out their diaper in the washroom, not bury it at a beach.

00:11:32.280 Something that's just common sense, like, why would you do that?

00:11:35.140 And they dig a hole and they use it for their bathroom.

00:11:39.580 I truly think that's on people's minds when they're asked about natural beauty.

00:11:43.240 Trudeau has brought in 2 million new people to Canada in the past year, mainly on student visas, about a million, and work visas, that's about 750,000.

00:11:53.460 They're often staying 10 people to an apartment in Toronto or Vancouver.

00:11:58.200 It's so crowded where they live, so, of course, they're going to get out of the house and go to parks and national parks.

00:12:05.280 And so now they're crowded and they're alienating.

00:12:08.740 And that's just a fact.

00:12:10.380 I mean, don't ask me.

00:12:11.580 Ask the people.

00:12:13.560 Look at the answer to opportunities.

00:12:16.980 Only 11% say that there are more opportunities.

00:12:20.160 44% say things are getting worse.

00:12:22.620 One of the highest numbers on the entire chart.

00:12:25.400 Of course not.

00:12:26.480 No one can afford to buy a house in Canada, especially if you're competing against 2 million people a year needing housing that Trudeau is bringing in this year and next year and the following year.

00:12:35.480 No one can live on minimum wage, especially since you're now being undercut by foreign workers earning even less than minimum wage in some cases. 1.00

00:12:43.820 There are 450,000 unemployed young Canadians.

00:12:47.540 There are 750,000 temporary foreign workers in Canada.

00:12:50.720 Do the math.

00:12:52.560 I already talked about the decline of health care in Canada, the biggest decline on the chart, by the way.

00:12:58.440 The people, that's a great answer.

00:13:00.840 It's plummeting, too.

00:13:02.000 It makes me very sad.

00:13:03.560 But I don't think that Canadians are changing for the worse.

00:13:06.820 I think it's other people who are coming here who are behaving badly.

00:13:11.260 Those people are not from here.

00:13:13.360 You can hear their foreign accent.

00:13:15.540 Listen to this guy shout and scream and threaten.

00:13:19.640 And how can you disagree that the people in Canada, well, it's not what it used to be.

00:13:23.900 Take a look.

00:13:24.260 Whose streets?

00:13:25.360 Our streets!

00:13:26.360 Whose streets?

00:13:27.420 Our streets!

00:13:28.400 Whose streets?

00:13:29.460 Our streets!

00:13:30.400 Whose streets?

00:13:31.480 Our streets!

00:13:32.420 Whose streets?

00:13:33.420 Our streets!

00:13:34.380 Whose streets?

00:13:35.420 Our streets!

00:13:36.600 Yeah, they're not your streets, mate.

00:13:39.600 Or at least they shouldn't be.

00:13:40.940 But that's who Trudeau thinks Canadians should be.

00:13:44.080 He has given away our streets.

00:13:45.440 So I guess I understand why people say that they're not happy with their neighbors anymore.

00:13:51.520 They're not neighbors.

00:13:52.100 They're just worried about the people.

00:13:54.260 One last one, democracy.

00:13:56.820 Similar numbers to the freedom answer.

00:13:58.800 Only 8% say democracy is getting better.

00:14:01.100 39% say it's getting worse.

00:14:02.840 And remember, we haven't yet even been told who the dozen Chinese spies in parliament are.

00:14:08.980 Remember that revelation that CSIS, our spy agency, says there's a dozen compromised

00:14:14.700 members of parliament and senators sitting right now in our parliament, and they're there.

00:14:20.360 They haven't even been named, let alone kicked out.

00:14:22.720 So yeah, great poll.

00:14:24.260 Some hopeful answers.

00:14:25.760 I love how many people care about freedom, don't you?

00:14:28.800 But just some terrifying stuff, too.

00:14:31.120 It is depressing seeing that Canadians think our country is going down the drain, isn't it?

00:14:37.960 Stay with us for more.

00:14:39.800 Stay with us for more.

00:14:48.520 Hey, welcome back.

00:14:49.680 Well, half of my travels these days are to cover trials of people who were charged with criminal offenses in February 2022 during the trucker convoy, even though the Emergencies Act was already ruled by the federal court to be illegal and unconstitutional.

00:15:06.640 Well, that hasn't stopped literally hundreds of cases from proceeding to court, including big, spectacular cases like our friend Tamara Leach on trial in Ottawa still, or the various cases in Coutts, Alberta, where there was an echo blockade between the Alberta and Montana borders.

00:15:23.780 Well, here's an interesting case about a man who was charged, arrested on February 19th, 2022, so right at the apex of the Freedom Convoy in Ottawa.

00:15:35.300 But he was roughed up, illegally searched, and basically a case of police misconduct the whole way down.

00:15:42.500 Trouble is, who has the funds to fight back?

00:15:45.820 As you know, the Democracy Fund has crowdfunded for many people, including the aforementioned Tamara Leach and the Coutts defendants, the Coutts III, and actually 55 other truckers.

00:15:56.380 But the granddaddy of civil liberties law firms in Canada are our dear friends at the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms.

00:16:05.760 And they've been at this game for more than 10 years defending people, including during the trucker convoy.

00:16:12.120 And I am delighted to welcome on the show Monique Grenier, the lawyer for Ben Spicer, who joins us now via Skype from Ottawa.

00:16:19.900 Monique, nice to meet you.

00:16:22.080 You too. Nice to meet you.

00:16:23.940 Tell me a little bit more about Ben Spicer.

00:16:26.280 It sounds like he went there, as did thousands of other Canadians, to sort of experience the moment.

00:16:34.120 There were some people there protesting, but there were many others who just wanted to be there, sort of like Woodstock for freedom.

00:16:41.120 Tell me more about Ben Spicer.

00:16:42.380 Was he more an activist or an observer?

00:16:45.960 Well, you raised some very good points there.

00:16:48.860 In fact, there was a YouTube video from February 19th, 2022, from the location of Mr. Spicer's arrest, that was actually put into evidence by the defence as an exhibit, because it showed the atmosphere.

00:17:05.200 The atmosphere was, I would say, very jovial.

00:17:09.880 There were a lot of people milling about, some protesters, some observers, dogs, children, police.

00:17:17.680 So Mr. Spicer was in attendance and was arrested that day.

00:17:26.240 It was 7.20 p.m. on the Saturday night, the last Saturday of the protest after the police came in.

00:17:32.160 His arrest was one thing.

00:17:33.820 But then they spied on him.

00:17:35.920 They sort of eavesdropped on him.

00:17:37.460 And the thing is, when you're arrested, you've got to be quiet.

00:17:40.140 I mean, people want to talk.

00:17:41.880 They're stressed out.

00:17:42.800 They want to maybe talk their way out of a pickle.

00:17:45.380 But tell me a little bit about, well, I mean, first tell me a little bit about the search of his person.

00:17:51.200 They didn't have a search warrant.

00:17:52.400 Yeah, go ahead.

00:17:52.860 Tell me about the search.

00:17:53.580 Tell me about their secret spying on him, because this is bad behaviour by the government.

00:17:58.560 So I can tell you from the evidence at trial that Mr. Spicer was arrested unlawfully because it was found there was no grounds for arrest.

00:18:08.400 After the arrest, his person was searched, incidental to arrest, because he was found to have been unlawfully arrested, that there were no grounds for arrest.

00:18:18.120 The search was also unlawful.

00:18:19.780 But most interesting, and the point you raised, was the paddy wagon audio and video that the Crown sought to rely upon to try to ask the court to infer criminal intent or criminal activity.

00:18:33.160 So why it was found to be a breach of a Section 8 Charter right was because there was no signage that he was being audio or video recorded.

00:18:43.880 There was no explanation, no warning given to him.

00:18:49.320 So due to that, he did have an expectation of privacy.

00:18:52.520 It was found to be a reasonable expectation of privacy.

00:18:55.340 The Crown argued that while in police custody, you don't have a right to privacy, that you're in custody, right?

00:19:04.280 Now, the court found, based on several cases we were able to present, that you do, in fact, maintain a reasonable expectation of privacy in custody, even in a police vehicle, a paddy wagon, such as in this case.

00:19:16.960 But it does depend on the facts.

00:19:19.100 So if there had been a sign, for example, or if it had been clear that Mr. Spicer was aware that he was being audio and video recorded, that would have changed the facts.

00:19:28.600 But he was unaware and he was having a conversation with a protester, provided some personal information, information about his opinion about the convoy, for example.

00:19:38.160 So he had an interest in the subject matter.

00:19:41.200 And based on the circumstances, the judge agreed with the defense that this was a breach of his Section 8 right.

00:19:49.560 They could not have had that recording without a warrant unless there was some exigent circumstances, which there were not.

00:19:57.920 So the judge actually agreed with all of our charter breaches that we advance, Section 8, 9, and 10B, right to instruct and retain counsel.

00:20:09.260 Well, I'm really glad.

00:20:10.560 And, you know, that's an argument that a person would likely not be able to make on their own.

00:20:16.340 That's a fairly sophisticated argument.

00:20:17.980 You have to understand the Charter of Rights.

00:20:20.380 I don't know if you have to give notice that you're challenging things.

00:20:23.240 I don't know how the criminal procedure went where you are, but I guess what I'm saying is the fact that I don't know, I imagine a lay person certainly doesn't know.

00:20:34.440 Absolutely.

00:20:35.380 And if they didn't have the help of the Justice Center, this guy would have been devoured by the wolves.

00:20:40.280 I absolutely agree with you.

00:20:41.800 I couldn't agree with you more.

00:20:42.880 I really am so appreciative.

00:20:45.760 And it was such a privilege to be able to have this opportunity to defend Mr. Spicer through the Justice Center's funding.

00:20:53.680 I was actually in the beginning able to, I had 22 clients was my count, that the Justice Center was willing to defend and fund.

00:21:06.260 So they've done a really good job doing that.

00:21:08.480 No, you couldn't, in my opinion, make this argument on your own as a lay person.

00:21:12.780 You may be eaten by the wolves, if that's the right terminology.

00:21:16.580 You may advance arguments that are completely irrelevant.

00:21:19.360 Even, for example, you said in the beginning that even though the Emergencies Act was declared improperly invoked, it really doesn't matter.

00:21:27.820 Because these are criminal charges, and criminal charges are based on, you know, the grounds for arrest.

00:21:32.880 Did the person commit mischief, for example?

00:21:35.500 It makes no difference whether there is an Emergencies Act invoked or not.

00:21:39.360 I guess that was the reason for going in.

00:21:41.320 However, I would also note that the Emergencies Act did have an exception for lawful, peaceful protests.

00:21:48.180 Right. And you said something a moment ago I want to come back to.

00:21:51.260 You said that when he was in the paddy wagon with another protester, he, quote, expressed an opinion.

00:21:56.700 And that that was what the Crown wanted to rely on to say that he was doing something mischievous.

00:22:03.100 And I hate the fact that we're in a country where having an opinion can be a crime.

00:22:10.060 Well, I can't speak for the Crown in that was it really the opinion or was it something else that the Crown would have pointed to to say, oh, here, you can infer criminal activity.

00:22:19.960 So I'm not prepared to say it was due to an opinion that the Crown would have argued that he might have done something meriting some conviction.

00:22:31.840 Well, I'm glad you won. And you say you've taken 22 cases with the Justice Center.

00:22:35.640 How many of them have been through trial? Because I imagine they're getting a little long in the tooth.

00:22:40.000 It's been two and a half years. And of course, there's a time there's a sort of a time limit on how long the prosecution can drag their feet.

00:22:47.840 What's the status of the other 21 cases?

00:22:50.140 Actually, Mr. Spicer was my last case. So I am very pleased. I'm just counting in my head.

00:22:55.780 So some of the charges were withdrawn by the Crown early on.

00:23:00.360 I think my count is I did four trials, if I'm not mistaken, all successful.

00:23:07.840 I have not had a client convicted after trial.

00:23:11.560 There was one where the Crown withdrew the charges on the eve of trial.

00:23:17.060 And there were some resolutions, which means that, you know, each person has to make their own decisions.

00:23:23.500 They may not have wanted to proceed. And in some cases, maybe made the right decision.

00:23:28.000 But none of my clients obtained a criminal record.

00:23:32.360 I'm so glad to hear that. 22 out of 22.

00:23:35.580 You know, I should tell you, the Democracy Fund, with whom we support a lot of their work,

00:23:40.560 they have similar results, especially on Arrive Can app charges.

00:23:46.420 And, you know, you can tell that a lot of the prosecutors and even a lot of the judges, here we are two and a half years later,

00:23:54.580 and you have hundreds of these BS COVID charges clogging up the courts, taking up prosecutors' time, judges' time, courts' time.

00:24:02.400 And I think the more sensible prosecutors say, what am I doing?

00:24:09.860 I'm focused on this BS political matter instead of an assault case or a robbery or something.

00:24:17.500 I think that there was a bit of a mania by the authorities.

00:24:21.820 I think, frankly, the imposition of the Emergencies Act sort of shocked people and maybe shocked people out of their trance because things were getting worse.

00:24:31.560 In that moment, I think it was the shock of the trucker convoy.

00:24:35.040 Trudeau made an unforced error by bringing the martial law, and things started to unravel for him then.

00:24:40.740 You can track the polls, by the way.

00:24:42.780 That's when he started to really go down.

00:24:44.180 It's interesting that you say that, because, like, my office is just a few blocks from Wellington Street, right?

00:24:51.260 So I was here throughout the entire protest and drawn to it, in fact, because of my love for photography.

00:24:57.880 But I do remember, in particular, the speech made by the prime minister.

00:25:04.440 I think it was the Monday or the Tuesday after the beginning of the protest.

00:25:07.740 And I was here at my office, which is on Metcalfe, and it was a very quiet day.

00:25:12.560 But then he made the speech, and he made some comments that I thought did not de-escalate, but rather they escalated because of the terminology that was used about the protesters.

00:25:22.660 And I was amazed to see within 15 minutes on Metcalfe, there was a line of 18 wheelers driving up Metcalfe, I believe, in response to that speech.

00:25:34.340 Well, I think Trudeau wanted a conflagration.

00:25:36.880 He wanted to replicate the January 6th narrative in the U.S. where you had protesters at the Capitol and they were insurrectionists and terrorists.

00:25:46.900 I think Trudeau thought he could have a do-over of that up here, but I think it blew up in his face.

00:25:52.560 He was the one shown to have tyrannical instincts.

00:25:55.820 There was no rioting.

00:25:56.760 There was no smashing or arson.

00:25:58.480 There was no violence on the part of the truckers.

00:26:00.100 In fact, the only violence was done to the truckers, including by riot horses.

00:26:05.860 Monique Grenier, what a pleasure to meet you.

00:26:07.680 And I have to say I'm just delighted to hear that you took 22 cases of truckers, and 22 of them were saved by your smarts and the generosity of the Justice Center.

00:26:18.560 Not all 22 stayed with me.

00:26:19.940 Some left, so I can't take all the credit.

00:26:22.540 All right, well, you know what, though, you're being very accurate, which you like in a lawyer, but it sounds like you've had some great victories.

00:26:32.100 And Ben Spicer was saved from a conviction, and I'm glad to hear it because I think the pendulum swung too far against our civil liberties.

00:26:42.280 So I like the fact you were fighting back.

00:26:43.960 Great to meet you.

00:26:45.260 You too.

00:26:46.020 All right, there you have it.

00:26:46.880 Monique Grenier, a lawyer from Ottawa, who was fighting for freedom.

00:26:50.480 Stay with us.

00:26:52.320 More ahead.

00:27:04.880 Hey there, your letters to me about the Tamara Leach trial.

00:27:08.180 Oldie says, the prosecutors are holding the line with the longest mischief trials in Canada's history.

00:27:14.680 Yeah, you know what?

00:27:15.500 It was astonishing to me when I was there how little evidence they had about Tamara Leach.

00:27:22.720 And I have to think that if those prosecutors were honest, they would not have proceeded with the case.

00:27:27.360 There were five super short videos just collected on Twitter and the Internet showing nothing.

00:27:33.040 In fact, I was confused.

00:27:34.280 I didn't properly understand why they were showing these short videos because Tamara Leach was sort of like in the background, and it was just banter.

00:27:41.300 And like I said, what's the point of this video?

00:27:44.740 The point was the prosecutor was showing the five little super short nothing videos.

00:27:50.220 That is the only evidence of what Tamara Leach was doing in Ottawa.

00:27:54.020 That's it.

00:27:55.060 A 43-day trial, and they had nothing.

00:27:57.980 It was only the punisher.

00:27:59.440 Outrageous.

00:28:00.280 That's when the outrageouses hit me.

00:28:02.080 On Charles Adler, RDM Motorcycle says, he used to talk about how his parents fled communism in Hungary.

00:28:10.020 Now he's helping usher it in.

00:28:11.400 His parents would be ashamed.

00:28:12.980 You know what?

00:28:13.320 I used to be friends with Charles Adler.

00:28:14.900 We worked together at the Sun News Network.

00:28:17.020 He would occasionally have me on his radio shows.

00:28:19.040 I thought he was great back then.

00:28:21.280 He learned the lessons of freedom.

00:28:24.020 He fought against political correctness.

00:28:27.120 He had a big audience, and he was conservative.

00:28:29.640 But then something changed.

00:28:30.760 I think the first thing that changed was talk radio went liberal.

00:28:35.040 So he adapted.

00:28:37.200 And then he decided he wanted to be a senator, so he would do whatever Trudeau wanted by applying.

00:28:41.940 He actually applied to be senator.

00:28:44.220 And I think that showed a lack of ethics, because while he was secretly writing to Trudeau and saying,

00:28:49.780 please let me in, please let me in, he was publishing things that were sympathetic to Trudeau,

00:28:53.840 but he wasn't disclosing to his audience that he was trolling Trudeau for a job.

00:28:58.140 Well, he got the job, but he got a disgrace out of a tomb.

00:29:01.180 Well, that's our show for today.

00:29:02.980 Until next time, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters,

00:29:06.080 to you at home, good night, and keep fighting for freedom.

00:29:08.820 We'll see you next time.

00:29:13.940 注an was there?

00:29:16.140 We'll see you next time.

00:29:20.700 We'll see you next time.

00:29:21.960 you

Rebel News Podcast - August 22, 2024

EZRA LEVANT ｜ Poll shows Canadians believe the country's best attributes are in decline

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