Rebel News Podcast - Ezra Levant Show June 07 2018

00:00:00.000 Tonight, Donald Trump comes to Canada for the G7, and Trudeau is doing his best to make his guest uncomfortable.

00:00:06.520 It's June 7th, and you're watching The Ezra LeVant Show.

00:00:14.560 Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?

00:00:18.320 There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.

00:00:22.060 You come here once a year with a sign, and you feel morally superior.

00:00:25.040 The only thing I have to say to the government about why I publish it is because it's my bloody right to do so.

00:00:35.740 It's pretty shocking when you think about it.

00:00:37.480 Donald Trump has been president for more than 500 days, and he hasn't come to Canada yet.

00:00:42.460 Now, he's coming for the G7 meeting, but that's really the only reason why.

00:00:46.380 The same for Emmanuel Macron, the president of France.

00:00:49.140 Why had he not been to Canada before now?

00:00:51.580 And the same goes for Theresa May, the prime minister of the United Kingdom, and Angela Merkel, the chancellor of Germany, etc.

00:00:57.820 Under Justin Trudeau's tenure, world leaders just don't think it's important to come here.

00:01:03.280 It's like that video clip I played for you the other day from the G20 meeting,

00:01:07.220 where Justin Trudeau was walking through a meeting of literally the world's most important political leaders,

00:01:14.140 and not one of them called him over.

00:01:17.820 Trudeau looked lonely, actually.

00:01:21.640 Very busy packing and unpacking his briefcase there, just trying to make it look like he wasn't friendless.

00:01:31.120 Now, you'll see he catches Donald Trump's eye.

00:01:34.420 He looks at Donald Trump.

00:01:35.900 He's going to look at him again, sort of hanging out by Donald Trump.

00:01:39.780 Come on, look at me, look at me, look at me, look at me, look at him, look at him.

00:01:43.120 Yeah, eye contact, and then he points to him.

00:01:46.140 Donald Trump briefly chats with him, and then watch this.

00:01:49.460 Watch how quick, he turns his back on him, and he hands him off.

00:01:53.940 Okay, so he talks to him for a few minutes, and Justin Trudeau says something extremely deep and engaging,

00:01:59.520 and Trump gives him, I don't know, count the seconds, we're about 10 seconds, 11 seconds, 12 seconds, 13 seconds,

00:02:06.840 and Trump passes him off to some other guy, and it's done.

00:02:15.700 Actually, I guess that passing off happened earlier.

00:02:18.060 Trump moved on.

00:02:19.840 You can imagine Trump has done that move a million times before,

00:02:23.600 walk away from someone who wants to talk to him more than he wants to talk with them.

00:02:27.480 And it's not that funny when it's the Prime Minister of Canada that nobody wants to talk to.

00:02:33.180 We're supposed to be the closest friend and ally and trading partner in the United States.

00:02:37.260 But it's not just the U.S., is my point.

00:02:40.680 No one of note comes to Canada under Trudeau.

00:02:44.080 The bizarre three-way handshake schmazzle with, oh, look at this.

00:02:48.040 Remember this?

00:02:48.820 How do we shake hands three ways?

00:02:51.080 Yeah, yeah.

00:02:51.880 They were only up here when Canada was chosen to host a summit.

00:02:59.340 There's his myth that Trudeau is a smooth and suave operator.

00:03:02.180 It's the view of his psych offense at the CBC, that's for sure,

00:03:04.300 but it's not actually shared by world leaders.

00:03:08.100 I mean, Trudeau was a disaster in India, just for the most obvious example.

00:03:12.940 But Trump is finally coming to Canada, even though Trump is obviously focused on bigger things.

00:03:18.080 I've seen reports that Trump does not want to spend any more than a few hours in Canada,

00:03:21.980 if he can help it, because he's more focused on his upcoming meeting in Singapore

00:03:25.000 with Kim Jong-un, the North Korean dictator,

00:03:27.600 in an attempt to fulfill his audacious scheme of denuclearizing that country.

00:03:32.540 He can meet with the G7 leaders any time.

00:03:34.200 He can phone them any time.

00:03:35.060 But fixing the Korean War, it's still technically in a state of war, you know.

00:03:38.180 It's a ceasefire, a truce, for more than 60 years.

00:03:40.740 That's what he cares about.

00:03:42.720 His staff can handle the regular stuff with the G7.

00:03:45.900 And Trump isn't much for a G7 kind of thing anyways.

00:03:48.160 He likes bilateral deals, as in the U.S. and one other country doing a deal.

00:03:52.360 A bunch of those bilateral deals, rather than a big mess of a multilateral deal

00:03:57.580 where everyone gets together.

00:03:59.020 That's why Trump hates the U.N. and has for so long.

00:04:02.940 Something Trump has pitched to Trudeau in the case, the course of the NAFTA negotiations,

00:04:08.900 Trump wants a better deal for America, for sure.

00:04:13.320 That's his job description.

00:04:14.520 That's his campaign platform.

00:04:15.880 Trump says he thinks that can be done in a bilateral Canada-U.S. deal

00:04:20.080 and a Mexico-U.S. deal can be separate

00:04:22.200 because Canada and Mexico are so different.

00:04:24.740 I mean, I have to say that that sounds commonsensical.

00:04:27.320 And even if it's not,

00:04:29.520 Trump clearly has a bean as bonded about Mexico

00:04:31.560 and has for years and talks about a wall with Mexico

00:04:34.140 and talks about MS-13 gang members coming up from Mexico.

00:04:37.360 So even if Trump is wrong,

00:04:40.360 isn't it in our Canadian interest to get out of the same deal with Mexico 0.69

00:04:43.420 and get into our own deal

00:04:44.820 so we're not collateral damage if Trump and Mexico have a big fight,

00:04:48.320 which they surely will.

00:04:49.240 I mean, I like Mexico just fine,

00:04:51.100 but I think Canada's PM should look out for us Canadians,

00:04:54.240 not try to be a white knight for other countries.

00:04:57.420 Anyways, things have been falling apart between Trump and Trudeau.

00:05:00.260 Don't mind me, but I called this a while back.

00:05:01.980 My book, Trumping Trudeau,

00:05:03.780 predicted a fight between the two leaders.

00:05:05.700 I actually didn't think it would take this long.

00:05:08.160 We're lucky in that Trump just doesn't care that much about Canada.

00:05:11.340 At least he doesn't think it's a priority,

00:05:13.200 which I think is the best case scenario for us, don't you think?

00:05:15.860 I mean, let sleeping dogs lie, as they say.

00:05:17.660 But Trudeau, he can't help himself.

00:05:19.440 He never could.

00:05:20.980 So Trudeau and Trump were talking on the telephone the other day about NAFTA

00:05:24.020 because Trump has put steel sanctions on Canada,

00:05:26.680 saying it's about national security.

00:05:28.520 As in, the U.S. needs its own steel industry domestically for strategic reasons

00:05:32.800 in case there's a war.

00:05:34.020 They want to be able to use their own steel, make their own steel,

00:05:36.880 so they're not dependent on, oh, I don't know, foreign leaders,

00:05:39.660 including maybe a prime minister in Canada

00:05:41.500 who gave $10.5 million to an al-Qaeda terrorist like Omar Khadar.

00:05:45.460 Trump wants his own steel factories.

00:05:47.840 That's why he brings in the tariff to protect them.

00:05:50.460 Now, Trudeau made a big fuss about that the other day,

00:05:52.740 pretending that Trudeau deeply cared about our military alliance

00:05:55.880 with the United States, and it was so mean for Trump

00:05:58.420 to talk about national security.

00:06:00.880 I mean, this is the same Trudeau who withdrew our CFT-18 jets

00:06:03.920 from the war against ISIS as the first act after he was elected prime minister.

00:06:08.020 But he doesn't mind pretending he's pro-military

00:06:10.560 if he can use that to jab Trump.

00:06:12.340 Remember this?

00:06:13.640 Canada is a secure supplier of aluminum and steel

00:06:17.160 to the U.S. defense industry,

00:06:18.860 putting aluminum in American planes

00:06:21.620 and steel in American tanks.

00:06:25.860 Well, the two leaders got on the phone,

00:06:27.500 and Trudeau made the point in the call

00:06:29.560 that Canada was a reliable ally.

00:06:32.080 And apparently Trump made a joke about Canada

00:06:33.840 torching the White House in 1812.

00:06:36.760 You know the War of 1812?

00:06:38.500 Really, it was an aftershock of the U.S. Revolutionary War.

00:06:40.760 Lots of British loyalists came up to Canada

00:06:43.020 who didn't want to be part of an independent America.

00:06:45.440 The fighting continued sporadically.

00:06:47.060 The Canadians raided the U.S. and gave them a bloody nose. 1.00

00:06:50.120 Now, they were Canadians, sure, but that was 55 years before Canada was even a country of its own.

00:06:55.860 It was really the British Empire.

00:06:57.060 Anyways, isn't it sort of clear that that was a joke, just hyperbole?

00:07:00.920 I mean, Trump is not still mad about the War of 1812 some 200 years later.

00:07:06.920 You know that's a joke, right?

00:07:09.000 I mean, it's actually a pretty funny joke.

00:07:10.780 It's a Trumpy style.

00:07:12.660 But Trudeau, who, if you think about it,

00:07:14.920 have you ever seen Trudeau tell a joke?

00:07:16.900 Or laugh naturally?

00:07:18.260 I don't think he has the lightheartedness or the subtly or the self-critical nature

00:07:21.960 to even tell jokes.

00:07:23.800 He either didn't get that it was a joke, or he did,

00:07:26.060 but he deliberately mischaracterized it,

00:07:28.020 and he leaked that part of the private conversation to CNN,

00:07:32.360 to the most Trump-hating journalist at all of CNN.

00:07:36.460 His name is Jim Acosta, just to tweak Trump's nose.

00:07:39.980 Say, do you think Donald Trump liked that?

00:07:41.840 Will it help convince Donald Trump to lift the steel tears?

00:07:44.620 Do you think it will convince Trump to have more or fewer phone calls with Trudeau,

00:07:48.560 or fewer meetings if confidential things they talk about are leaked in an embarrassing manner to CNN?

00:07:53.780 I mean, CNN loved the scoop.

00:07:56.500 Trudeau and his cast of Trump-haters loved it,

00:07:58.540 and I bet it did well with the Liberal Party base, by which I mean the CBC.

00:08:01.860 But did it actually help our diplomacy at all?

00:08:05.000 Here's a CTV reporter who says,

00:08:07.580 three different very high-level sources in the American government

00:08:12.140 tell him the comment was meant as a joke and taken as a joke by Trudeau.

00:08:17.600 Trudeau is not only violating a conference, but lying about it.

00:08:20.820 I hear that goes over well in foreign capitals.

00:08:22.560 And three senior sources talking to CTV means

00:08:26.280 the Trump administration noticed that and doesn't like it.

00:08:30.300 Chrystia Freeland, the foreign minister who bizarrely is leading Canada's NAFTA file directly.

00:08:34.860 I mean, look at that crack team there. 0.73

00:08:37.000 That's Chrystia Freeland, a former journalist who has never negotiated anything

00:08:40.140 tougher than buying a house, and her millennial hipster squad. 0.92

00:08:43.980 That looks like a really cheap Netflix movie, doesn't it?

00:08:48.140 Look at that.

00:08:48.560 That motley crew there is up against lifelong trade lawyers and negotiators on Trump's side.

00:08:56.560 I'm not making fun of their personal appearance.

00:08:58.900 I'm making fun of that crew of millennial hipsters is about to be crushed 1.00

00:09:04.540 by the top lawyers and bureaucrats and negotiators in the world.

00:09:09.320 But Chrystia Freeland herself chimed in, choosing to mock and deliberately misunderstand the national

00:09:15.960 security part of Trump's objections, too.

00:09:18.780 Trump isn't worried about Canada invading and torching the White House.

00:09:22.660 He is worried about having strategic depth to his steel industry.

00:09:27.100 And the liberals who are starving our own military wrapped themselves on the flag.

00:09:31.240 Give me a break.

00:09:31.760 Give me a break.

00:09:32.880 But it's that sniping, you see.

00:09:34.620 Trudeau just can't help himself.

00:09:36.420 These personal attacks on Trump are going to backfire on the whole country.

00:09:40.080 I want to give you a little insight into how the party, the Liberal Party, truly feels about Trump.

00:09:44.860 One of the ways to know how they talk is to watch Scott Gilmore.

00:09:47.880 He's the house husband of Trudeau cabinet minister Catherine McKenna, the global warming minister.

00:09:54.120 Scott Gilmore writes for McLean's magazine, which gets $1.5 million a year from Trudeau.

00:09:58.540 So he's an unofficial liberal spokesman in that he can say what they honestly think.

00:10:03.740 But since he's only married to a cabinet minister, it's unofficial.

00:10:06.820 And he keeps claiming he's a Tory.

00:10:08.880 So he just gives her.

00:10:10.280 Let's take a look at this.

00:10:11.640 Here's a tweet.

00:10:12.580 Scott Gilmore says, America's allies have used all their diplomatic tools.

00:10:16.640 Trump still keeps punching them in the nose as he dismantles the international order we've spent a century building.

00:10:22.980 It's time to try new tools.

00:10:24.680 Instead of asking, what does the U.S. want?

00:10:26.780 We need to ask, how do we hurt him?

00:10:30.080 This one.

00:10:30.960 Look at this.

00:10:31.600 This is from Catherine McKenna's husband.

00:10:33.840 Trump has adopted a Russian style of governance, rhetoric, and foreign policy.

00:10:38.040 With Russia, the only way to push back is to target the oligarchs at the center of power.

00:10:42.340 In the case of America, there is only one oligarch. 0.78

00:10:44.720 Trump himself.

00:10:46.640 Trump.

00:10:47.440 I just, but, okay, you're thinking that's his crazy Twitter feed.

00:10:50.640 McLean's actually prints that kind of stuff.

00:10:52.420 Take a look at this.

00:10:53.000 This is from McLean's.

00:10:54.720 Trade sanctions against America won't work.

00:10:57.600 Sanctioning Trump himself might.

00:11:00.640 And then I'll read the sub-headline there.

00:11:02.440 Scott Gilmore.

00:11:02.980 Instead of taxing American goods, Canada and the Western allies should collectively pressure the only pain point that matters to this president, his family and their assets.

00:11:11.800 Yeah, you're trying out that medicinal marijuana a little bit.

00:11:18.980 Just a teeny, teeny, teeny, tiny bit too much.

00:11:22.460 That's McLean's for you.

00:11:23.580 That's what $1.5 million a year from Trudeau buys you.

00:11:25.960 Do you doubt that Scott Gilmore and his cabinet minister wife talk like that at home?

00:11:32.220 The liberal cabinet ministers talk like that, even worse, amongst themselves in private.

00:11:37.180 Here's some of what Trudeau's cabinet ministers say in public.

00:11:40.620 Just a few samples that haven't yet been scrubbed off the Internet.

00:11:44.560 Now, some of these are from 2016 or before Trump was president.

00:11:49.320 But so what?

00:11:49.720 That doesn't go to anything other than it shows how they truly, truly feel.

00:11:52.880 Let me quote it.

00:11:53.360 Here's just some plain old physical mockery from Scott Bryson, Trudeau's Treasury Board boss, who says,

00:12:01.060 Gosh, when Trump finds out, there'll be hell to pay.

00:12:05.820 That's pretty funny.

00:12:07.380 That's funny.

00:12:08.540 I don't know if Trump thinks it's funny, but, hey, it's worth getting a few cheap laughs,

00:12:14.960 even if you scupper a NAFTA deal, right?

00:12:18.020 Here's Carolyn Bennett, another Trudeau cabinet minister.

00:12:20.540 She writes,

00:12:21.560 Michelle Obama denounces Trump for bragging about sexually assaulting women.

00:12:27.120 So why is the Canadian cabinet minister sharing that?

00:12:30.060 Here's Carolyn Bennett again. 1.00

00:12:32.400 Jimmy Fallon delivers epic Donald Trump RNC speech.

00:12:36.760 You're a cabinet minister.

00:12:37.840 What are you doing?

00:12:38.540 What are you doing?

00:12:39.200 You're a cabinet minister.

00:12:40.800 Here's another one.

00:12:42.960 Concerning.

00:12:43.860 More than 450,000 voted before anyone had seen Trump's tape.

00:12:48.000 So here she is on the eve of the U.S. election, just pounding Trump.

00:12:52.960 What are you doing?

00:12:53.580 You're a cabinet minister.

00:12:54.860 You can't, you just can't keep your thoughts to yourself.

00:12:57.400 And you're not smart enough to have deleted this and you, you think that, listen, I have no doubt at all that Carolyn Bennett feels that way.

00:13:06.860 But why is she doing that from her ministerial Twitter account when we're trying to negotiate a NAFTA deal?

00:13:14.080 Why don't you have common sense and delete that?

00:13:16.160 Here's Gerald Butts.

00:13:17.020 Right after David Duke, the KKK leader, was in the news, he says,

00:13:21.060 I wonder how many people are searching the world's databases for a picture of Trump and Duke right now.

00:13:26.440 That's the KKK leader.

00:13:27.520 That tweet is still up in public.

00:13:29.400 That's the prime minister's right-hand man comparing Donald Trump to the Klansman.

00:13:34.120 Look, it's how they all think and talk.

00:13:37.580 I don't know if you remember this, but look, look at this one.

00:13:39.840 Literally weeks before Trump's election, the Liberal Party of Canada put out a massive email to all of their members

00:13:45.860 denouncing Trump as divisive and negative and pinning neighbor against neighbor and going on and on.

00:13:51.420 Sort of, you know, ascribing to Trump the abusiveness of their own liberal email.

00:13:58.040 Weeks before.

00:13:58.760 Imagine attacking one of the two leading presidential candidates.

00:14:02.060 Just weeks before the election in a close race.

00:14:05.740 Not even waiting a couple weeks to make sure you weren't mocking the new incoming president.

00:14:09.900 Look, you don't have to like Trump.

00:14:11.600 I like him, but I'm pretty sure Stephen Harper didn't like Barack Obama and vice versa,

00:14:15.840 but they still work together, more or less, for the benefit of their respective countries.

00:14:20.440 They didn't squabble.

00:14:21.680 They didn't engage in insults.

00:14:23.460 It's true that Donald Trump has started to ratchet things up in his Trumpy way.

00:14:28.540 I mean, he called Canada spoiled.

00:14:32.060 We'll get along with Mexico. 1.00

00:14:33.380 We'll get along with Canada.

00:14:34.680 But I will tell you, they have been very difficult to deal with.

00:14:38.480 They're very spoiled because nobody's done this.

00:14:43.460 That's tough talk.

00:14:44.520 But I've never actually seen Donald Trump take aim at Justin Trudeau himself,

00:14:50.980 who Trump repeatedly praises and calls a friend, my friend Justin.

00:14:55.380 I like Justin Trudeau.

00:14:56.700 He says that.

00:14:58.400 But the liberals are 100% personal in their attacks on Trump.

00:15:03.220 Trudeau the most.

00:15:04.660 I've been very, very clear in my approach as a feminist, as someone who has stood clearly

00:15:17.160 and strongly all my life around issues of sexual harassment, standing against violence

00:15:25.040 against women, that I don't need to make any further comment at this time. 0.75

00:15:29.440 Yeah, I think it's better if Trump ignores Canada.

00:15:35.000 I'm sort of glad he hasn't been here in 500 days.

00:15:37.240 If Trump separates Canada from Mexico before he pummels Mexico, I think that's a good thing. 1.00

00:15:42.660 I think it's been our good luck that Trump has not visited us.

00:15:45.520 And I think it's good news that he's only going to the G7 in and out.

00:15:49.640 And he's really focused on North Korea and Iran and China instead of us, don't you think?

00:15:55.560 But one day, and I fear that day is imminent, Donald Trump will pay attention to all the

00:15:59.980 insults hurled at him all the time.

00:16:01.860 And he will punch back hard.

00:16:03.900 And it won't just hit Trudeau, which would make me chuckle.

00:16:08.160 It will hit all of us.

00:16:10.540 And you know what?

00:16:11.680 I actually think Justin Trudeau wants that to happen.

00:16:14.320 Because while it will devastate our economy, it'll make Trudeau the world's anti-Trump martyr.

00:16:18.680 And no one will love him harder than the government journalists at the CBC state broadcaster.

00:16:24.100 I think a trade war, a personal war of words with the U.S. president will hurt Canada badly.

00:16:29.440 But if it gives Justin Trudeau an easier enemy to campaign against in the next federal election

00:16:34.100 than the Conservative Party, and if it'll make Trudeau the toast of the town of the United Nations,

00:16:39.080 well, it almost sounds like it was Gerald Butz's plan all along, doesn't it?

00:16:43.200 Stay with us.

00:16:44.060 We'll talk more about this with Joel Pollack of Breitbart.com.

00:16:48.680 Welcome back.

00:17:05.500 Well, we just marked the 500th day that Donald Trump has been president of the United States.

00:17:11.140 And I don't know if you remember, but right before his inauguration, I published this quick book called

00:17:15.920 Trumping Trudeau, how Donald Trump will change Canada, even if Justin Trudeau doesn't know it yet.

00:17:21.160 And can I read the back cover to you?

00:17:23.740 It's just two sentences.

00:17:25.300 And you tell me if I had this called 501 days ago.

00:17:29.320 The Justin Trudeau era came crashing to an end on November 8th, 2016, when Donald Trump was elected president of the United States.

00:17:38.680 On everything from carbon taxes to Cuba, Canadian policy is suddenly obsolete.

00:17:44.420 Will Trudeau and his advisors realign themselves with our largest trading partner and ally?

00:17:49.840 Or will Trudeau do what his father did, play the role of anti-American gadfly to the delight of the third world, but the detriment of Canadians? 0.88

00:18:01.400 Well, I think we know the answer to that.

00:18:03.560 And joining us now via Skype from Los Angeles is our friend Joel Pollack, the senior editor-at-large of Breitbart.com,

00:18:10.640 who's been following Trump and the Canadian negotiations.

00:18:13.460 Great to see you again, Joel.

00:18:14.420 Great to see you.

00:18:16.400 Maybe you can set the record straight about something.

00:18:19.780 Do Canadians joke about burning down the White House?

00:18:23.820 You know, once in a blue moon, Canadians, it's sort of a, well, the last time we fought, we beat you, ha-ha, 1.00

00:18:31.840 because we know we're one-tenth the size of Canada, and our military is a fraction,

00:18:37.640 and we're the junior, in the Batman and Robin, you know, analogy, we're the Robin.

00:18:43.940 So it's not a joke, it's not, we don't say, ha-ha, we got you, it's, thank God we have been at peace with America for 200 years,

00:18:54.360 and then we sort of, because we know it's such an imbalance of power, that it's sort of, I wouldn't say it's a joke, Joel,

00:19:01.760 but I'd say that it's something we tell ourselves to remind us, well, it's an antidote to the fact that we are not as powerful as America.

00:19:12.060 America, that's all it is.

00:19:13.400 You don't have to apologize for telling the joke.

00:19:15.560 I have heard the joke.

00:19:17.720 No, I don't think we tell the, it's not a joke, and I'm not apologizing, I'm just saying, I don't think Canadians say,

00:19:22.140 ha-ha, in your face, America, we burned down the White House. 0.62

00:19:25.520 No, it's just sort of a joke about, well, our military is pretty weak, and thank God we're not at war,

00:19:30.280 but if you really want to exhum the past 206 years ago, we did sock it to you.

00:19:35.220 Like, that's all it is.

00:19:36.460 But Canadians don't lead with that. 0.52

00:19:38.260 Most Canadians don't even know what the War of 1812 is.

00:19:41.640 All right.

00:19:43.940 Thank you.

00:19:45.460 Now, I know you're mentioning that, I mentioned it in my monologue today,

00:19:48.260 because Donald Trump clearly meant it as a joke on the phone call.

00:19:53.940 Donald Trump is a jokester all the time,

00:19:56.020 and he's a provocateur, and he's an empresario, and he, I mean, we saw his campaign rallies.

00:20:04.320 I noticed that CTV's Washington correspondent said that three different senior U.S. sources told him

00:20:11.180 that that comment about, that Trump made to Trudeau on the phone call about the War of 1812

00:20:20.240 was said as a joke, and it was taken as a joke by Trudeau.

00:20:25.460 So Trudeau later trotting that out and saying, oh, what an idiot, he thinks we're going to invade,

00:20:29.840 is not only a breach of the confidentiality of the call,

00:20:33.880 but it's a lie because both men knew it was a joke.

00:20:38.420 And I think it's sort of a funny joke.

00:20:40.200 And the fact that three senior officials reached out to the CTV bureau chief

00:20:45.260 tells me that Donald Trump is not amused by this.

00:20:47.640 That's my take.

00:20:48.260 What do you think?

00:20:48.820 I think it was probably leaked by the Canadians because Trudeau is trying to show that he can

00:20:56.280 stand up for Canada against Trump, and the way he chose to do so was to embarrass the president.

00:21:03.560 And you know what?

00:21:04.780 Fair is fair.

00:21:05.620 I mean, I think good for him.

00:21:07.460 He's using the power of the bully pulpit in a slightly devious way, but we're doing the same.

00:21:13.480 And I don't think that any Canadian leader has to apologize for anything they do to defend

00:21:18.680 Canada's interest the same way that we wouldn't.

00:21:22.040 And I think it's healthy for both countries to be advocating for their citizens,

00:21:27.980 even if sometimes it does test the bonds that have been cultivated over centuries,

00:21:34.480 as you mentioned earlier.

00:21:35.320 But I don't think this is a serious dispute.

00:21:38.140 To answer your question from earlier about Trudeau setting himself up as the anti-American,

00:21:43.800 I think he is and he isn't.

00:21:45.720 I think he is in a cultural sense.

00:21:47.560 You know, he came to the United States not too long ago and delivered a commencement address

00:21:51.760 where he talked about the importance of tolerance and diversity, which normally would be fighting

00:21:57.680 words on an American campus, right?

00:21:59.340 Because our campuses are so overrun by the left, which hates diversity of opinion and thought.

00:22:06.660 But I think it was also a dig at the Trump administration and he was trying to preen and

00:22:13.300 grandstand for the left, which, of course, outside the university campus pretends that

00:22:18.300 it is the font of all diversity and tolerance and that the retrograde conservatives who currently

00:22:24.260 occupy the White House and Congress are the enemies of all that's good and wonderful

00:22:29.080 and fair and bright in the world.

00:22:30.960 So I think he is posturing in a cultural sense as the opposite of Trump and America.

00:22:37.100 I think in a military and geopolitical sense, that's probably not true.

00:22:40.940 I think the past 20 years have taken the United States and Canada inexorably into the same

00:22:46.800 corner, like it or not, I think, on the Canadians' part, because I know there's a left-right

00:22:51.360 divide in Canada over how and when and where to stand with the United States.

00:22:55.920 Certainly the policy on Israel has gone back and forth between administrations.

00:23:01.300 You know, the Trump administration is very pro-Israel, the Trudeau administration far less

00:23:04.740 so, at least far less than its predecessor.

00:23:07.120 But I think this trade issue is interesting and obviously not the first trade issue that

00:23:11.860 the U.S. has had with Canada.

00:23:12.860 Even when NAFTA was in full swing and people were very positive about it, there were disputes

00:23:18.700 over salmon fishing and disputes over all kinds of things.

00:23:22.140 This one just happens to have happened as Trump is trying to confront Mexico and trying

00:23:28.340 to confront China.

00:23:29.940 And there's a sense among the China skeptics in the United States that China is using Canada

00:23:36.240 to ship cheap goods to the United States.

00:23:38.860 Now, whether that's true or not, you'd have to ask an economist.

00:23:41.220 I don't actually know, because the claims and counterclaims and all these trade arguments

00:23:45.160 are very hard to figure out for a non-expert.

00:23:48.120 But I think what's interesting is that the one area where there really is a strong disagreement,

00:23:54.740 where Trudeau is playing the role you described, is cultural.

00:23:58.720 And on the trade issues, maybe it was silly of him to leak that conversation.

00:24:03.840 But at the same time, I think that Canada's got to do what's in Canada's interest.

00:24:08.140 And there may be a method to that particular kind of madness.

00:24:11.500 Trump plays dirty on social media, and he knows how to leak to the New York Times just

00:24:15.080 as much as anybody, even though he calls it the failing New York Times.

00:24:18.060 So we'll see how this plays out.

00:24:20.400 I'm not too perturbed by it.

00:24:22.240 What's amusing to me is how the media tried to take that joke, our media anyway, tried to

00:24:26.900 take that joke and turned it into a major faux pas by President Trump, when clearly everybody

00:24:33.140 in the room or on the phone would have understood it was a joke.

00:24:35.740 And I've heard that joke before.

00:24:37.820 And I, you know, if you've been to enough hockey matches, you've heard worse.

00:24:43.840 So.

00:24:45.440 Well, I mean, my point is, that's banter.

00:24:48.700 And I take your point about Canada has to do what's in Canada's interest.

00:24:53.860 But I fear, and this is, I mean, this is, Joel, you cover the United States, and you

00:24:58.280 cover other countries, true, but you're from an American perspective.

00:25:01.940 I have been following Trudeau very closely, obviously.

00:25:06.600 He's our own prime minister.

00:25:07.540 And I had been following him for years, even before he became an MP.

00:25:12.900 And I want to give you an example that literally the day after Donald Trump announced his executive

00:25:21.320 order, right when he became president, restricting migration to the United States from several

00:25:29.040 Muslim-majority countries that had a terrorist problem.

00:25:31.960 It was a controversial executive order.

00:25:34.080 And it was shocking proof, I think, to the liberals in the world that Trump actually meant

00:25:39.200 what he said about immigration.

00:25:41.000 Joe, I don't know if you know this, but Justin Trudeau literally tweeted, in reaction to

00:25:50.060 that, that Canada's borders were open to all.

00:25:54.460 So it was a hastily, personally drafted tweet that was one of the most retweeted things Trudeau

00:26:00.620 ever said.

00:26:01.140 It was basically, oh yeah?

00:26:02.820 Oh yeah?

00:26:03.640 Well, if Donald Trump is closing the borders, we're opening the borders.

00:26:06.740 Everyone who's thrown away from America is welcome here.

00:26:09.020 So I'm putting it to you, Joel, and this is my theory, and I think my viewers know this,

00:26:14.160 and I'm bouncing it off you as an American, you're a casual Trudeau watcher, we're serious

00:26:21.560 Trudeau watchers.

00:26:23.600 Sometimes Trudeau does things that are in Canada's interest, and if he's taken on Donald Trump

00:26:27.900 in Canada's interest, I'm a Canadian patriot, I'm going to back that, even though I like

00:26:31.340 Trump and I don't like Trudeau.

00:26:32.320 But so many of the things Trudeau does are not in Canada's interest.

00:26:37.040 It's, if Trudeau says black, I say white. 0.82

00:26:40.220 If Trudeau says on, I say off.

00:26:42.500 Trudeau's saying, if Trump says black, I say right. 1.00

00:26:45.460 Trudeau's saying, if Trump says closed borders, I say open borders.

00:26:49.460 It's almost as if Justin Trudeau has said, I'm going to do the opposite of Trump.

00:26:54.600 And that is not in Canada's interest.

00:26:57.540 That's a personal thing.

00:26:58.580 It's an ideological thing.

00:27:00.540 That's my thesis.

00:27:01.740 And I think he wants to suck up to the United Nations to get on the Security Council.

00:27:06.300 Justin Trudeau would rather be loved at the United Nations than loved in the White House.

00:27:13.340 That is probably true.

00:27:15.820 Also true of Barack Obama, who wanted to be loved by the United Nations more than he wanted

00:27:20.460 to be loved by the American people.

00:27:21.840 I think the Iran deal is a classic example, right? 0.99

00:27:25.240 He took that to the UN before he took it to Congress.

00:27:27.620 And he was required by the Constitution to take it to the Senate, which he never did.

00:27:31.480 So that they have in common.

00:27:33.640 And I think that is a posture that Trudeau shares with Obama.

00:27:38.720 And to the extent that Trump is the anti-Obama, I would put it this way.

00:27:42.260 Trump is a modern president.

00:27:44.020 We don't have many of those, but he's a throwback to a modern, almost Roosevelt-era president.

00:27:49.920 And Obama was a postmodern president.

00:27:53.320 Trudeau is also a postmodern president, where the posture you take, the attitude you have

00:27:59.920 is what you want people to judge you on, rather than the results you achieve.

00:28:05.240 And so I take your point.

00:28:06.200 I mean, if Trudeau is posturing in this way, he may be overlooking the real damage that

00:28:11.840 a deteriorating media relationship with President Trump could have on Canada.

00:28:17.800 I somehow think that Canada is going to be OK through all of this.

00:28:21.020 And the real challenge is getting everybody on board in dealing with China.

00:28:25.160 And I'm not sure that Trudeau has thought that through, because obviously Canada is a country

00:28:32.420 that's important for China as a destination for exports and also as a source of raw materials.

00:28:38.060 And the problem is that having Canada with such open trade with the United States gives

00:28:44.900 China a backdoor, according to critics at least, gives China a backdoor through which

00:28:49.540 it can dump cheap goods in our markets and hurt our workers. 0.86

00:28:52.140 So the only answer is to have a united front.

00:28:55.780 And there's a lot that Trudeau could do in Canada's interest if he found a way to work

00:29:00.940 with Trump.

00:29:02.000 Maybe he's missing out on that opportunity because he sees that posturing, that almost

00:29:06.600 cultural disdain for the Trump administration and for the people who elected him.

00:29:10.520 Maybe he sees that as more important.

00:29:12.200 And if that's what's happening, then I think you're right.

00:29:14.500 This is a case of Trudeau doing what's in his own ideological or cultural interest and

00:29:20.040 hurting Canada.

00:29:20.700 Well, it's funny you say that.

00:29:22.720 A clip we play many times on this show is a clip when Trudeau was running for, he was

00:29:28.540 just early in his political career, and he was asked a question he wasn't really ready

00:29:32.640 for.

00:29:32.960 He said, he was asked, what is your favorite country other than Canada?

00:29:38.420 And he, without, and that's a great question, isn't it?

00:29:41.440 Like, yeah, I thought it was a great question.

00:29:44.360 And he answered very candidly, and here, we'll just play the clip.

00:29:49.900 There's a level of admiration I actually have for China because their basic dictatorship

00:29:59.560 is allowing them to actually turn their economy around on a dime.

00:30:04.020 So, Joel, there's Justin Trudeau saying he loves China, and he didn't say the language,

00:30:10.860 the food, the culture, the history, the people.

00:30:13.360 He said that the basic dictatorship, that was what he liked about him.

00:30:17.400 He's such a suck-up to China.

00:30:20.860 He refuses to talk about human rights.

00:30:22.840 I think that, and Justin Trudeau has talked about changing the polarity of the world.

00:30:30.340 His people talk about replacing America with China.

00:30:34.840 They talk, let me give you an example.

00:30:36.360 And I know, I feel like I'm trying to persuade you or educate you about Trudeau instead of

00:30:40.460 asking you about the Trump-Trudeau relationship.

00:30:42.360 But let me throw this at you.

00:30:44.160 Trump withdrew America from the Paris global warming scheme.

00:30:47.680 Not that America was following it even under Barack Obama.

00:30:50.340 But Trudeau, instead of saying, oh, we must now realign our economy with America,

00:30:56.880 especially our energy economy, they're, damn, the torpedoes go ahead,

00:31:00.420 and they're actually talking about, well, maybe we need to be closer with China

00:31:03.620 as if China is environmentally superior.

00:31:06.280 I think Trudeau genuinely would rather have a China-centric world than a Trump-centric world.

00:31:14.900 I just don't think Americans know this yet, and maybe we shouldn't tell them 0.68

00:31:18.560 because they'll punish us.

00:31:20.340 Well, it's very useful information.

00:31:24.100 And look, I think that, I happen to be a free trader, so I actually think that the United States

00:31:30.700 would do well to have a closer economic relationship with China.

00:31:33.800 The difficulty is that it's a one-sided relationship.

00:31:37.020 And China flouts the rules to which it subscribed at the WTO.

00:31:41.900 It's breaking a lot of those rules.

00:31:43.840 You almost don't need new tariffs to punish China.

00:31:46.920 All you need to do is enforce the rules that are already breaking in order to force them

00:31:52.340 to play by the same rules that everyone else has to.

00:31:58.580 That would be almost more punishment.

00:32:00.280 It would impose economic costs on China, which they should have been paying already. 0.62

00:32:03.100 So I think we've got to take it very carefully.

00:32:06.640 I do think that the NAFTA negotiations, if Canada didn't understand it before, it certainly

00:32:13.260 understands now, Trump doesn't really care about NAFTA and would be just as happy to

00:32:17.000 see it disappear.

00:32:18.600 So the NAFTA negotiations have hit a snag.

00:32:20.720 And I think that's partly because Mexico and Canada didn't take Trump seriously.

00:32:23.540 I think they ought to, and they ought to realize that Trump is very much about keeping his

00:32:30.500 promises.

00:32:31.720 He hasn't done so in some areas, but those are the areas that Congress controls.

00:32:36.300 Where he's been able to control anything in particular under his presidential powers,

00:32:41.680 he's followed through.

00:32:43.100 And one of those things is foreign relations.

00:32:44.840 And the president also has a certain amount of power to set trade policy.

00:32:48.600 So I think that Trudeau ought to be careful.

00:32:51.980 If he's taking that posture into this relationship, then it could really become volatile.

00:32:57.800 But I don't see that happening.

00:32:59.380 Somehow I think this is all going to pan out, but we'll have to see.

00:33:02.560 Joel, I'm going to get emails from our viewers who say, I've been talking way too much in this

00:33:06.980 interview and I've been trying to persuade you.

00:33:09.660 I know, I love it.

00:33:10.880 But I do have one last question I'd like you to take on.

00:33:13.040 First of all, your last remark there is very, very telling.

00:33:16.920 I am absolutely sure.

00:33:18.600 That Canada has underestimated Trump's resolve on this.

00:33:23.580 Trump is extremely effective on Twitter because he says in 180 characters or whatever, 140 characters,

00:33:29.700 what other presidents have said only through veiled statements or diplomatic speeches that don't get noticed.

00:33:37.420 I mean, Trump immediately changed the North Korean dialogue,

00:33:40.580 immediately changed the dialogue with the Palestinians in a couple of tweets.

00:33:44.060 And I feel like things are degenerating a little bit between Trump and Trudeau on a personal level.

00:33:49.940 And I wonder if we're going to see the kind of nicknaming, name-calling, Twitter sparring between Trump and Trudeau that Trump's so natural at because he's a brawler from Manhattan.

00:34:06.180 So far, Trump has actually been quite praising of Trudeau personally.

00:34:11.820 I like Trudeau, my friend Justin.

00:34:14.600 I wonder if we're going to try his patience by leaking and being, like Trump is a real tit-for-tat guy, massive retaliation guy.

00:34:21.840 Do you think this meeting in Charlevoix, Quebec, for the G7 is going to make things smoother or make Trump just say,

00:34:29.320 tell you what, I'm going to tweet at you and knock the Canadian dollar down 10%?

00:34:35.800 Well, to be honest, I don't think Trump cares about the meeting in Canada.

00:34:40.260 And that has less to do with Canada and more to do with North Korea.

00:34:43.620 He's got a single-minded focus on the meeting in North Korea that follows.

00:34:47.840 He doesn't particularly care for the G7.

00:34:50.480 He doesn't want to be photographed alongside all the other leaders.

00:34:52.740 He wants to be leading.

00:34:54.900 And leading is what he hopes to do in Singapore.

00:34:57.720 So I think he's almost stopping over in Canada as a formality.

00:35:01.300 He'll do his best to get along with everyone and then move on.

00:35:04.720 I will say this.

00:35:05.800 If Trump does get into a kind of Twitter contest with Trudeau, Trudeau is toast.

00:35:10.180 Not only because Trump is by far the best insult president in history,

00:35:15.000 but the other thing is Trudeau is almost self-mocking.

00:35:18.980 I mean, when Trudeau went to India, the photographs he took of himself

00:35:22.600 and the videos of the Bollywood dancing and all that stuff,

00:35:26.440 it went viral even in the United States.

00:35:28.380 People thought it just looked completely ridiculous.

00:35:30.660 And I think that it would not take much to push Trudeau's image

00:35:35.180 into a place from which he could never recover.

00:35:37.760 And I'm not saying that just because Trump is so good at this.

00:35:39.940 I think it's just not a contest Trudeau wants to enter, to be honest.

00:35:45.940 He's got these boyish good looks and so on and so forth.

00:35:49.540 But that can also be a burden and not necessarily a good thing.

00:35:54.420 His youth is going to work against him.

00:35:56.880 I think that you don't want to get in that ring with Donald Trump

00:36:00.140 and you probably don't want to get into that ring with the rest of the United States

00:36:03.060 because he's just sort of self-mocking.

00:36:08.880 We've kind of been nice to him because it looks like members of the Trump administration like him,

00:36:15.020 including the president, but also Ivanka Trump seems to be quite warm toward him.

00:36:19.280 There have been some jokes about that.

00:36:20.660 But I think that people like him and also the Trump administration,

00:36:24.780 in a more strategic sense, hopes to use some kind of a deal with Canada,

00:36:29.340 I think, to pressure Mexico. 0.93

00:36:31.680 So I think there may be a reason for the warmth that Trump has shown Trudeau.

00:36:36.100 But if Trudeau keeps pushing this, I think that he's basically done.

00:36:41.300 You know, some of Trump's nicknames, you forget about them, but some of them stay forever.

00:36:45.520 And Trudeau does not want a forever nickname from Donald Trump.

00:36:48.600 Yeah, it's not true.

00:36:49.600 Well, Joel, you've been very generous with your time.

00:36:51.440 Thank you.

00:36:52.940 I agree with you.

00:36:53.920 I hope that Trudeau just bites his tongue as Stephen Harper did so many times with Barack Obama.

00:36:59.140 Bite your tongue.

00:37:00.280 Do things in the Canadian interest.

00:37:01.840 Stand up for Canada where you need to, but don't pick unnecessary fights.

00:37:04.940 I hope Trudeau will do that.

00:37:06.180 I'm just worried there's no grown-ups in the Trudeau administration.

00:37:09.000 We'll find out pretty soon, won't we?

00:37:11.380 Great to see you, Joel.

00:37:12.220 Thanks for your time.

00:37:13.260 All right.

00:37:13.700 All right.

00:37:13.940 Take care.

00:37:14.480 Thanks.

00:37:14.800 Bye-bye.

00:37:15.080 That's our friend Joel Pollack.

00:37:16.080 He's the senior editor-at-large at Breitbart.com.

00:37:18.420 We were talking about the G7 meeting in Charleville, Quebec.

00:37:21.860 Stay with us.

00:37:22.920 More Ahead on the Rebel.

00:37:23.920 Because they're asking for more than we are able to give right now.

00:37:40.760 Wow.

00:37:41.300 They're asking for more than we're able to give right now.

00:37:43.460 And he uses his sexy voice because if he can distract from how outrageous what he's saying

00:37:50.720 is, by going full drama teacher, maybe you'll forget that he just told a veteran who was

00:37:56.440 wounded, by the way, that was a wounded vet, well, you're just asking for more than we can

00:38:00.760 give.

00:38:01.240 So Omar Khadr, to whom Trudeau gave $10.5 million in an apology, that wasn't asking for more

00:38:08.300 than Trudeau could give.

00:38:09.320 And the reason I played for you that old clip is because there's an outrageous story, a new one.

00:38:14.300 I saw this on the online bulletin board called Reddit the other day, but I had not seen it

00:38:19.440 confirmed until, to their credit, CTV News followed up the story.

00:38:24.420 And Daniel Otis of CTV inquired, and it is true, the Canadian Armed Forces are asking soldiers

00:38:32.760 to return rucksacks and sleeping bag kits.

00:38:38.280 And they say there's a shortfall of equipment, but they claim it's, oh, we're just doing so

00:38:43.420 well.

00:38:43.680 We have so many new recruits.

00:38:45.000 That's all it's for.

00:38:46.000 I am so skeptical of this story, the official explanation of it.

00:38:49.820 And joining us now to hopefully shed some light on it is our friend Lee Humphrey.

00:38:54.820 He's the founder of Veterans for the Conservative Party of Canada.

00:38:57.740 He's the president of James International Security Consultants.

00:39:01.100 And he joins us now via Skype.

00:39:02.760 Lee, whenever the government says to soldiers, we're cutting your pay or give something back,

00:39:10.080 it irritates me in general, because it shows to me the liberals don't care about our armed

00:39:15.440 forces.

00:39:15.880 That's my fear.

00:39:16.940 But this is so specific.

00:39:19.040 Give us back your rucksacks and your sleeping bags.

00:39:23.200 I just think that I smell a rat here.

00:39:26.340 What's going on?

00:39:27.340 Well, I guess first, it's always easy to tell who the government of the day is.

00:39:33.400 They make it dead simple to understand it's the liberals when they do things like this,

00:39:38.180 when they penny pinch the armed forces, when they challenge veterans in court and they tell

00:39:45.580 us that they just don't have enough money.

00:39:47.800 On this specific topic, we went through this in the 90s.

00:39:52.360 We had to redistribute and share equipment.

00:39:56.480 But you have to remember, in the early 90s, we had three battle groups deployed, almost 3,000,

00:40:03.300 4,000 people deployed, and another three training to replace those troops that were deployed.

00:40:09.780 It was a huge lift for the Army of the day.

00:40:14.560 Today, we barely have 1,000 people deployed with an additional couple of hundred training to go.

00:40:21.380 And the missions that are deployed, only one of them is going to be replaced.

00:40:26.800 One is being carried out by special forces who aren't affected by this.

00:40:30.400 So, whether there's an ulterior motive, as you suggest, or simply, over the last two years,

00:40:37.580 they haven't done what is normally done in a procurement system, which is purchasing additional

00:40:44.080 pieces of equipment as equipment wears out as it gets too old.

00:40:49.160 You know, one of those two things is happening.

00:40:51.380 But either way, the idea that the Army does not have enough sleeping bags when we have the

00:40:57.060 fewest number of deployed troops that we've had in almost a decade, if not two, and we

00:41:03.880 have fewer recruits coming in today than we've had in the last 20 years.

00:41:08.860 So, it's perplexing, at the very least, if not strange.

00:41:14.620 Yeah, I find this troubling.

00:41:16.680 And here's why my spider senses are tingling.

00:41:19.540 In December, we saw a military base, the official publication of the base, I think it was

00:41:25.880 that C.F. Borden, C.F. Borden, asked soldiers to chip into the base's food bank because there

00:41:35.280 were some families having trouble making ends meet.

00:41:37.320 When we raised some dough, they turned it away in a political flourish.

00:41:40.500 So, I'm thinking they're really cheaping out and making ordinary soldiers bear the brunt

00:41:47.540 of it.

00:41:47.960 But here's what's on my mind.

00:41:49.560 And I'm not engaging in conspiracy theories.

00:41:53.120 I'm trying to find an explanation.

00:41:54.640 I accept that it's possible the explanation is just, Justin Trudeau will not buy sleeping

00:42:00.760 bags for our soldiers.

00:42:02.160 But you point out that we don't have a big influx of soldiers.

00:42:05.220 So, let me put to you a thesis, a hypothesis, speculation.

00:42:10.200 We know that two years ago when Justin Trudeau brought in 40,000 or 50,000 Syrian migrants

00:42:16.760 without planning what was going to happen, without social services planning, we know that the

00:42:21.880 Canadian military was ordered to be ready to house thousands of these Syrian migrants

00:42:27.900 at bases in Ontario and Quebec.

00:42:30.480 We did an access to information search and we found that there were detailed plans being

00:42:35.820 developed by the military to house migrants on bases, including to build Muslim mosques

00:42:41.380 with Canadian taxpayers' dollars on these Canadian military bases.

00:42:46.900 There was halal food operations that were being planned for.

00:42:51.700 Now, in the end, these Muslim migrants from Syria were not put on Canadian forces' bases

00:42:57.600 and they've sort of flooded and saturated the rest of the social services.

00:43:01.540 Here's my speculation.

00:43:04.340 We've had tens of thousands of migrants, not come from Syria, but rather walk up from the 1.00

00:43:09.600 United States.

00:43:11.400 Quebec says it has no more room for them, so they're being bused to Ontario.

00:43:16.540 John Tory, the mayor of Toronto, says there's no more room for them.

00:43:20.580 I have a theory, it's based on nothing other than a hunch, that these rucksacks and sleeping

00:43:27.260 bags are being commandeered to house these migrants in our community centres. 1.00

00:43:34.100 Is that me just indulging in paranoia or is that something that might happen?

00:43:40.660 It entirely might happen in the sense that what the military does and does better than

00:43:46.100 just about any identifiable group in Canada is prepare and plan.

00:43:51.300 So if they were given a warning order to prepare potentially to temporarily house an additional

00:44:00.100 surge group of migrants that might show up at the border this summer in temporary accommodations,

00:44:07.680 then they might, as part of that planning process, identify the number of, say, sleeping

00:44:15.180 bags and the number of rucksacks which are used to carry them about, that might be needed

00:44:21.320 to support such an operation should it occur.

00:44:25.860 Therefore, they would have to draw them in now, get them cleaned, dry cleaned and washed

00:44:32.000 and serviceable, make sure they knew their numbers and that they were prepared.

00:44:36.860 So it's entirely possible this is a contingency operation that's being prepared in case there's

00:44:44.100 a large surge or possibly, and again, I'm only speculating, maybe, just maybe, they intend

00:44:51.320 to keep these illegal immigrants that are crossing the border in a migrant camp closer to the border 0.99

00:45:00.060 for longer periods of time.

00:45:02.320 And with the potential of spring and summer weather, they need sleeping bags, they need

00:45:06.900 rucksacks, they need cots, that sort of thing.

00:45:09.400 And the only reason I'm brooding this is because they were put on notice before.

00:45:16.240 So I absolutely accept your explanation that the Liberal government is penny-pinching when

00:45:26.200 it comes to our soldiers.

00:45:27.200 We know that.

00:45:27.760 We know that they've reduced danger pay for some soldiers.

00:45:31.100 We know they've reduced pension benefits.

00:45:33.960 We know they've reduced a number of payments.

00:45:40.260 So this could just be the Trudeau Liberals being cheap.

00:45:43.860 But because they were put on notice before, that's why I'm thinking maybe we're going through

00:45:48.780 that again.

00:45:49.220 I think we're going to put in an access to information request to see what we can smoke

00:45:53.300 out.

00:45:53.520 And I've got to tell you, Lee, the government delays their access to information requests

00:45:57.280 by up to a year these days.

00:45:59.080 So we probably won't learn the truth about this until 2019.

00:46:03.520 Let me just ask you from a morale point of view.

00:46:07.060 I've got to think if someone's joining the Canadian Forces, they might be doing it for

00:46:12.740 the adventure and for the spirit.

00:46:14.920 They might be doing it because they need a job.

00:46:16.540 They might be doing it for reasons of family tradition.

00:46:19.440 There's a lot of reasons.

00:46:20.940 But I don't think anyone's doing it for the money.

00:46:23.580 I mean, I just don't think they're doing it for the money.

00:46:25.660 So these intangible benefits, pride, patriotism, loyalty, family tradition, adventure, excitement,

00:46:33.740 see the world.

00:46:35.120 I can imagine that's important.

00:46:36.620 I don't know.

00:46:37.600 I've never been in the military.

00:46:40.300 And so symbolic gestures like a visit to Afghanistan by Stephen Harper.

00:46:46.980 I know that was his first visit, his first foreign trip as prime minister in 2000, and

00:46:52.280 I think it was six, was to Afghanistan, not to America.

00:46:56.160 He went to Afghanistan.

00:46:57.080 It was a symbol.

00:46:57.620 I can imagine if I was a soldier.

00:46:59.440 I'd say, wow, you know what?

00:47:00.720 We're not making a lot of dough here.

00:47:02.320 But it's sort of neat that this guy can't.

00:47:04.540 And Trump really tries to, like the other day Trump stood, I think it was the Naval Academy,

00:47:10.500 in the heat.

00:47:11.600 Trump stood for 90 minutes and shook every single hand of every single grad.

00:47:20.400 I think he shook a thousand hands.

00:47:22.980 I think that makes a difference for a military man.

00:47:25.540 I don't know.

00:47:26.420 I'm guessing.

00:47:27.200 I think these morale things really count, and being asked to give up a sleeping bag is

00:47:32.220 probably something that a soldier thinks about quite a bit.

00:47:36.020 You tell me, though.

00:47:36.820 You've lived the life.

00:47:37.820 I'm just speculating.

00:47:40.320 It does count a great deal.

00:47:42.300 You know, there's two types of visits that occur when you're deployed.

00:47:46.060 There's the type of visit that you very much look forward to.

00:47:48.980 You want to talk to these people.

00:47:50.760 You want to engage with these people because you believe that they're there truly to support

00:47:55.780 you.

00:47:56.060 Prime Minister Harper was beloved by most in the military.

00:48:01.660 There's the other type of visit when you have to deal with, in my case, visits by Prime

00:48:07.680 Minister Kretchen, as an example, where you realize this was a superficial visit done for

00:48:13.840 a photo op, and you were a prop, and you had to do extra work to make it happen, and you

00:48:20.000 didn't appreciate it at all.

00:48:21.840 But the troops, I'll tell you, Ezra, they may join for a variety of reasons, and they

00:48:27.960 do.

00:48:29.480 The reason they stay is a camaraderie, a loyalty, a tradition that builds amongst them.

00:48:36.880 And they see very clearly through these political choices that are made, and they know well which

00:48:45.960 party supports them generally, although every party makes mistakes, and they know which party

00:48:52.440 rarely supports them, and rarely does it because it's a mistake, but does it because it's purposeful.

00:49:01.320 And the liberals fall into the latter category.

00:49:03.520 And as long as I've served, which goes back to Trudeau Sr., it was very clear who was in

00:49:11.340 government, depending on the amount of training you were doing, depending on the equipment you

00:49:16.700 were getting, and the level of support you were getting from home.

00:49:19.660 And young Mr. Trudeau is no different than his father.

00:49:24.600 He uses the military as a prop when absolutely necessary.

00:49:28.500 Other than that, they're to be ignored and not cost it.

00:49:32.560 Yeah.

00:49:32.880 What a shame.

00:49:33.760 You know, there's so many thoughts going through my mind.

00:49:35.800 You mentioned Trudeau.

00:49:36.700 I know his father, Pierre Trudeau, did not serve in the Second World War, and that's fine.

00:49:40.880 Some Quebecers did not for various reasons.

00:49:42.940 But Pierre Trudeau tooled around Montreal on a motorcycle wearing a German-style helmet,

00:49:50.040 you know, that very recognizable Wehrmacht helmet.

00:49:55.260 And I think that Trudeau has his father's disdain for the military.

00:49:59.740 I was thinking the $10.5 million he gave to Qatar, I can't imagine that every single sleeping

00:50:06.980 bag in the armed forces combined would, I mean, let's say you have a super fancy sleeping

00:50:12.540 bag and rucksack and a whole thing.

00:50:14.400 Let's say it's 500 bucks all in.

00:50:16.960 I don't know.

00:50:17.680 Maybe it's 1,000.

00:50:18.780 I can't imagine it being that expensive.

00:50:21.460 Well, $10.5 million to Omar Khadr would buy 10,500 of them if it's as expensive as 1,000

00:50:27.840 bucks.

00:50:28.420 I can't imagine.

00:50:29.040 So just one payment to Omar Khadr would cover every sleeping bag here.

00:50:34.500 I don't know.

00:50:34.840 I'm frustrated and I'm angry hearing about this and I want to learn more about it because

00:50:39.600 I don't think it's as simple as penny pinching.

00:50:42.000 It could be.

00:50:42.880 I think there's something else going on here and I think they're being deceptive.

00:50:46.100 I'm sorry.

00:50:47.260 We need to get more facts.

00:50:48.580 My hypothesis is not enough as it is.

00:50:51.020 Let me leave the last word to you, Lee.

00:50:53.240 Give us your thoughts on this in the larger pattern of Trudeau's treatment in the military.

00:50:58.500 Well, I think in the larger pattern, there's also a story out today in the National Post

00:51:02.640 that showed that the radars that are used to guide our planes, our F-18 Hornets, are completely

00:51:10.240 worn out and that the government was warned the day they arrived that the previous contract

00:51:16.580 that had been let in 2011 had failed and a new contract had to go out to a new provider

00:51:22.300 in the United States immediately.

00:51:24.780 And that was not done.

00:51:27.060 So, you know, whether it's sleeping bags, whether it's F-18s or whether it's ships, the Canadian

00:51:37.080 military is being bled yet again.

00:51:39.540 We are moving quickly into another decade of darkness and unless there's a change of

00:51:45.460 government in 2019 and unless somehow we get past this nonsense of conservatives buy this

00:51:51.860 so liberals buy that or they cancel it and they start again and we move into a bipartisan

00:51:57.400 error when it comes to military procurement, we're going to see this cycle live itself out

00:52:02.820 over and over and over again.

00:52:05.340 And the young men and women that sign up today are at risk.

00:52:09.020 Our nation is at risk when we don't have the appropriate equipment, training, resources

00:52:14.940 and we're about to see that in Mali where we're sending young men and women into a terrible 0.97

00:52:20.020 country as we've talked about before without the proper equipment and without the proper

00:52:25.300 force package put together.

00:52:28.300 Well, Lee, thank you so much for being such a strong voice and such an expert voice in

00:52:32.760 these things.

00:52:33.280 Every Remembrance Day I do the same thing.

00:52:35.560 I've been doing it since the Sun News days.

00:52:37.280 I read the poem by Kipling called Tommy Atkins about how soldiers are only appreciated when

00:52:43.860 we desperately need them and when we're in times of trouble and the rest of the time we

00:52:47.800 treat them poorly, we disparage them.

00:52:50.380 And I can never quite make it through that poem without tearing up just a little bit.

00:52:55.000 And I always say that we have to care about not just veterans but serving soldiers on the

00:53:01.780 other 364 days a year.

00:53:04.220 And I think we try to do that in a tiny way here at The Rebel, journalistically, and we've

00:53:09.480 tried crowdfunding.

00:53:11.160 And I think it's an important thing for our nation but also just out of personal moral gratitude

00:53:17.160 for people who risk themselves for us.

00:53:20.340 Surely, surely, surely, we can owe it to them to buy them a bloody sleeping bag.

00:53:26.360 And I find this an upsetting subject, Lee, and I'm glad you're such a strong voice of

00:53:32.940 reason and I look forward to keeping in touch with you in the months ahead.

00:53:36.000 Look forward to it, Ezra.

00:53:38.340 All right, thank you very much.

00:53:39.340 That's Lee Humphrey, who's been our in-house expert on many issues, including our interesting

00:53:44.940 conversation about the proposed Mali peacekeeping expedition.

00:53:49.640 I find this a troubling story and I do not believe this sleeping bag story is what it seems.

00:53:54.940 And we will make more inquiries and hopefully find the truth beneath it.

00:53:58.460 Stay with us.

00:53:59.680 More ahead on The Rebel.

00:54:06.000 Welcome back.

00:54:13.480 Well, tonight is the election in Ontario.

00:54:16.380 As I say this, polls are about to close.

00:54:20.540 I think the Conservatives are going to win.

00:54:22.320 I think that's good.

00:54:23.180 I think Ontario was on a downward path, reminiscent of Michigan, which was the industrial heartland

00:54:28.540 of America.

00:54:29.260 I mean, Motor City was the highest industrial wage in all of America until the Democrats took

00:54:34.100 it and turned it into a have-not state.

00:54:36.640 They don't use that phrase down there, but we use it up here.

00:54:40.060 Deindustrialized it, socialized it.

00:54:43.240 I really think that's the path Ontario has been on for a decade.

00:54:45.980 Record debt, record taxes, record spending, record regulation, and social justice warriors

00:54:51.640 and scolding replacing entrepreneurialism and a hands-off government.

00:54:56.080 I think Doug Ford has his flaws.

00:54:57.600 They're different flaws than his brother Rob had.

00:54:59.180 But no one can be as bad as the Liberals.

00:55:02.800 I correct myself.

00:55:04.220 The NDP would be worse.

00:55:05.980 I hope Doug Ford wins.

00:55:07.460 We'll talk a lot more about it tomorrow.

00:55:09.320 Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, good night and keep

00:55:14.340 fighting for freedom.

00:55:15.140 Thank you.

Rebel News Podcast - June 07, 2018

Ezra Levant Show June 07 2018

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