Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ The recycling ritual exposed： A meaningless act of environmental piety

00:00:00.840 Hello, my friends. Today, I'm going to take a break from huge world events to talk about a very local event.

00:00:06.780 In fact, it's probably in your street. And I'm talking about recycling bins in Montreal.

00:00:13.260 Turns out that half the recycling bins don't actually recycle glass. They just put it in the landfill.

00:00:19.820 Are you surprised? I'll take you through the news.

00:00:22.540 But first, let me invite you to become a subscriber to Rebel News Plus. It's the video version of this podcast.

00:00:27.400 It's eight bucks a month, which might not sound like a lot of money to you, but it really adds up for us.

00:00:31.880 And that's how we pay the bills here, because we don't and we'll never take money from Justin Trudeau.

00:00:36.600 To become a subscriber and get great video content, go to rebelnewsplus.com.

00:00:41.300 And here's today's podcast.

00:00:44.180 Tonight, you spend all that time sorting your garbage into different bins, and then the government just dumps it all in the same landfill.

00:00:51.340 It's July 10th, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.

00:00:53.700 We fight for freedom.

00:00:55.240 Shame on you, you censorious bug. 0.99

00:01:08.860 You know, one of the most immediate differences between the modern wealthy world and the developing world is garbage in the streets. 1.00

00:01:15.900 It's my own experience, at least.

00:01:17.000 I remember once I went on a Caribbean cruise, and we stopped into Port-au-Prince, Haiti for a day.

00:01:23.460 I had never been to Haiti.

00:01:25.300 One of the poorest countries in the hemisphere, normally cruise ships and the area around where they dock, is a little bubble of tourist unreality.

00:01:32.720 Everything's a bit Disney-fied to make the wealthy American tourists and Canadians at ease, to sell souvenirs and knickknacks and westernized versions of local cuisines.

00:01:42.580 You know, less spicy, less exotic, but not Haiti. 0.70

00:01:45.460 You landed, and you walked just a few blocks in, and you saw the country for what it is, poor, underdeveloped, and garbage everywhere in the streets.

00:01:55.300 That's actually my chief memory of Port-au-Prince a decade later.

00:01:59.460 But the thing is, I think the garbage in the streets really bears little relation to wealth or poverty.

00:02:05.860 Not little relation.

00:02:06.680 There's some.

00:02:07.200 But if there's no garbage pickup, I guess if there's no regular service to take the garbage away, I suppose it does take some wealth to remove it.

00:02:14.560 But I think it's a cultural decision, too.

00:02:17.600 I mean, littering was much more socially acceptable in Canada and the United States, too, until about 50 years ago.

00:02:24.660 In 1985, about 40 years ago, one of the most effective anti-littering campaigns of all time was created.

00:02:32.460 A slogan, don't mess with Texas.

00:02:36.040 Seriously, did you know that that was an anti-littering campaign?

00:02:40.000 But it so perfectly captured the spirit of Texas, especially young Texan men who were amongst the biggest litterers just throwing cans on the highway or whatever.

00:02:52.280 That slogan, shared on bumper stickers, is credited with reducing littering on Texas highways by 72% in just three years.

00:03:00.340 I believe it, by the way.

00:03:02.520 So some of it is social and some of it is cultural.

00:03:05.320 There's an economic aspect to it, too.

00:03:07.240 Of course there is.

00:03:08.000 It's a fact that many free market environmentalists make, like Bjorn Lomborg.

00:03:12.460 When people are extremely poor, they're just focused on surviving the day with basics, food, shelter, clothing.

00:03:19.260 It's only when a country gets wealthy enough that they can start to care about aesthetic things or about a long-term future.

00:03:25.980 And then they start to spend some money on cleaning up pollution.

00:03:29.560 You can see that now in China, by the way.

00:03:31.200 It's reached a level of wealth where clean air, clean water, clean soil actually motivates certain segments of the population now that there are no more famines and even ordinary Chinese people can live in modern apartments. 0.96

00:03:42.840 It's funny because Canada used to ship a lot of our garbage to China.

00:03:47.980 I know that sounds nuts.

00:03:50.140 I mean, you would think it would be absurdly wasteful and unenvironmental to take Canadian garbage from the streets of our city by garbage truck and then pack it into one of those big containers, put it on a truck, then put it on a train, and then put that container on a ship and send that across the Pacific to China and then offload it for them to handle.

00:04:10.640 How on earth does that make sense economically or environmentally?

00:04:14.080 Well, that's what we did for years.

00:04:16.480 Remember when we sent a lot of garbage to the Philippines and they actually didn't want it and they sent it back?

00:04:21.980 Rebel News covered that story.

00:04:23.140 Remember we even sent a reporter to Manila to cover it?

00:04:25.660 Here's a bit of a flashback to that.

00:04:27.180 I have made it to the Philippines.

00:04:29.420 I'm out in Manila, which is the capital city of the Philippines, and I'm just taking a walk up and down the Manila, the beautiful Manila Bay Walk. 0.91

00:04:38.600 And as I said before, I am a very proud Canadian, but this entire mess of a garbage ship has got to be one of the most ridiculous stories in recent news. 0.98

00:04:49.600 We have been hearing a lot about this, and we all know how Canada's Environment Minister Catherine McKenna is extremely excited to be reunited with our disgusting six-year-old garbage. 0.97

00:05:02.980 But what I want to know most is how the people of the Philippines feel about this entire mess. 1.00

00:05:08.000 After all, they were the unlucky ones to have received our garbage and had to open up these containers and actually discover leaking garbage juice.

00:05:19.800 So let's go have a chat with some people out here today.

00:05:22.840 How do you feel about Canada sending over their garbage to the Philippines? 0.99

00:05:26.080 Yeah, I've been awful that Canada send their garbage here. 0.99

00:05:34.420 So I feel bad about that because our government is trying hard to clean up our garbage. 0.99

00:05:41.200 So some country, like Canada, Singapore, I mean Hong Kong, is sending garbage here in the Philippines. 0.88

00:05:50.500 So it is not good for us that our country is, maybe they're thinking that our country is like garbage dump. 0.97

00:06:03.100 How do you feel about Canada sending the garbage? 0.97

00:06:04.940 How do you feel about Canada sending the garbage? 0.99

00:06:05.080 I feel so degraded. 0.94

00:06:07.520 As a Filipino, we are not at a dumping site. 0.98

00:06:11.940 So it's not easy for us to out-send that a Canadian government sends us garbage. 0.75

00:06:21.020 Because as far as I know, you are a developed country, so why don't you just recycle your own garbage and dump it in a proper place? 1.00

00:06:30.580 Why bring it to the Philippines, right?

00:06:32.620 I think it's embarrassing, you know.

00:06:36.160 Embarrassing for Canada or for the Philippines? 1.00

00:06:38.480 For the Philippines because they like to accept those garbage from Canada, which is only garbage. 1.00

00:06:47.200 You cannot use this for nothing. 1.00

00:06:51.300 That was such a strange thing. 0.81

00:06:53.260 But a few years ago, China announced they didn't want the West garbage anymore. 0.95

00:06:58.420 They just didn't want it. 0.91

00:07:00.100 Here's a story from five years ago.

00:07:01.800 China is no longer the world's dumping ground, but cleaning up its own backyard is proving to be a challenge. 1.00

00:07:08.160 China has banned 24 kinds of waste from abroad in effort to tackle growing environmental disaster.

00:07:12.980 Now, don't get me wrong.

00:07:15.600 China is still by far the world's largest polluter of every sort, from the air to junk in water to adulterated food and medicine. 0.61

00:07:24.640 When I visited China about 15 years ago, the big news was China was making toothpaste and sweetening it with antifreeze.

00:07:32.820 I kid you not.

00:07:34.120 They have a long way to go before things are healthy and safe there.

00:07:37.340 But apparently, they've grown up beyond being our garbage collectors. 0.71

00:07:43.120 And so the question became, where would Canada's recycled garbage go, if not to China? 0.78

00:07:48.660 Here's another story from the CBC state broadcaster.

00:07:52.400 Canadian municipalities struggling to find place for recyclables after China restricts foreign waste.

00:07:57.640 Now, I don't think we ever got a good answer to the question.

00:07:59.700 I mean, a lot of garbage that was going to be recycled was really just being stacked up in warehouses.

00:08:03.700 And don't think that the Chinese actually recycled it. 0.87

00:08:06.200 They probably burned it.

00:08:08.540 And the reason is pretty obvious.

00:08:09.860 It is uneconomic to recycle most things.

00:08:13.260 Paper, plastic, glass, etc.

00:08:15.920 Only some metal really has enough intrinsic value that it makes sense to recycle it.

00:08:20.980 Most of the things are a net cost to recycle.

00:08:23.940 As in, it's actually environmentally unsound to try and recycle old versions.

00:08:29.460 It takes more energy than just to make a new version of the thing.

00:08:32.740 That's not environmental and that's not economic at all.

00:08:36.340 The bad news I just showed you is five years old.

00:08:39.000 Check this out.

00:08:39.940 Five hours old.

00:08:42.020 It's another story in the state broadcaster.

00:08:44.580 Glass meant to be recycled in eight Montreal boroughs going to landfill.

00:08:49.760 Most glass recycled in Quebec is ground into powder instead of being re-blown.

00:08:54.780 Oh, you don't say.

00:08:56.520 Here, I'm going to read a few paragraphs.

00:08:58.200 Bear with me.

00:08:58.720 Nearly half of Montreal's 19 boroughs aren't recycling glass.

00:09:03.880 Despite telling residents on the city website they can put it in their blue bin or bag.

00:09:09.680 Recycling in eight boroughs is taken to the sorting center in the city's Saint-Michel neighborhood,

00:09:14.120 which is managed by the company Ricova.

00:09:16.000 The 11 other boroughs for recycling goes to the new $47 million facility in Lachine,

00:09:21.220 operated by another company contracted by the city, Société Via.

00:09:25.180 Both sorting centers have had trouble separating glass from other recyclables, as well as cleaning it.

00:09:32.800 But the Saint-Michel Center is the latest to have come under scrutiny for not even trying.

00:09:37.820 I love that.

00:09:39.080 I love that.

00:09:39.920 The 20,000 tons of glass Ricova collects in Montreal ends up in landfills or is ground into powder and used as landfill cover as a replacement for sand.

00:09:50.540 Landfill cover is spread over garbage at the end of each day to minimize odors, flyaways, and prevent animals from getting into it.

00:09:57.300 It's basically glorified landfill, said recycling advocate Carol Maynard of using glass powder as landfill cover.

00:10:03.580 Maynard said the Quebec government has allowed the practice as a stopgap until it can implement better glass recycling measures.

00:10:10.640 The government never limited the thickness of that cover, meaning it may often be higher than needed, he explained.

00:10:16.760 So they're not recycling it.

00:10:19.100 But not because they're evil.

00:10:21.280 I mean, sure, they're scamming the city and they're scamming taxpayers and the city's in on the scam.

00:10:26.380 But they're doing it because it's too expensive.

00:10:28.320 It's too hard.

00:10:29.820 It's too labor intensive.

00:10:30.960 It's too energy intensive.

00:10:32.520 Imagine washing your garbage.

00:10:35.600 It makes no sense.

00:10:37.340 And by the way, glass is harmless.

00:10:39.300 It's inert.

00:10:40.060 It's just glass.

00:10:42.140 Why not grind it up and do something useful with it?

00:10:46.860 But of course, they didn't tell anybody that.

00:10:48.900 They claimed it's being recycled.

00:10:51.160 You don't think every single person in the garbage chain of operations knows the scam?

00:10:57.740 From the garbage man to the recycling experts, to the people working in these million-dollar facilities, to the city.

00:11:03.620 Do you think this was a secret?

00:11:06.240 Well, it's certainly not a secret now, is it?

00:11:09.880 But do you doubt that they'll keep insisting that you sort your garbage into three, four, five different bins?

00:11:16.800 Even though they're going to the same place?

00:11:20.460 Why?

00:11:22.360 Because it's a belief system.

00:11:24.000 It's a religious ritual.

00:11:26.180 We used to have real religious rituals, you know, but that's gone.

00:11:31.500 So the pagan superstitions of the green cult have taken up the space that our real religions used to fill in our lives. 0.96

00:11:38.720 The ceremony, the pageantry, it's a belief system.

00:11:42.140 It's how to feel righteous and holy, maybe not closer to God, but closer to Greta.

00:11:48.100 We have a lot of things like this, airport security theater.

00:11:53.520 It's a belief system.

00:11:54.980 I don't think they've ever caught a terrorist in 22 years.

00:11:59.260 COVID masks.

00:12:01.140 First, they were for them, then they were against them, and now they admit that they didn't work.

00:12:05.840 But it's just for show.

00:12:07.400 It's theater.

00:12:08.060 And, of course, recycling is the same way.

00:12:12.980 Even the language is that of the task, not the result.

00:12:16.940 The work is the point.

00:12:18.120 Climate action.

00:12:19.860 Combating climate change.

00:12:21.320 Not actually changing the climate.

00:12:23.700 You can't do that.

00:12:24.620 I don't even think the crazies on the left would say, if you pay this carbon tax, you will change the weather.

00:12:29.100 That's not the point.

00:12:29.980 The point is that you commit yourself to the cult, and you do the work combating climate action.

00:12:35.620 Not that you actually achieve the result, but do the work.

00:12:39.280 Back to Haiti, the most garbage-filled place that I have ever set foot. 1.00

00:12:44.280 Look, as we got wealthier, as we decided to value cleanliness and orderliness in life,

00:12:50.960 we touched garbage less because we were wealthier.

00:12:55.180 We didn't have to live like in Port-au-Prince.

00:12:59.980 But the green cult wants us to go backwards, to live poorer, to live like we're in Haiti,

00:13:09.460 to touch our garbage more, to spend time sorting and composting.

00:13:16.380 Some of them even talk about not flushing your toilet, if it's a number one.

00:13:22.140 They say that's about saving water.

00:13:25.640 And not unrelated, they want us to eat bugs.

00:13:29.980 This new cult wants us to wallow in the mire, in our garbage, to spend time with garbage instead of higher things. 0.98

00:13:40.100 The new religion seeks to replace our old religions. 1.00

00:13:43.980 But while the old religions asked you to look up at the heavens, the Sistine Chapel painted on the roof of the church, 0.65

00:13:51.780 and to listen to the most beautiful music ever written, and to gaze upon the most beautiful architecture ever built,

00:13:58.000 and delight in the most beautiful sculptures and paintings ever made,

00:14:02.660 the new pagan religion asks you to spend an hour a day handling your garbage, 1.00

00:14:08.340 not flushing your toilet, eating bugs, turning off your air conditioning in the summer, turning down your heat in the winter.

00:14:17.080 That's the new religion. 0.99

00:14:19.400 This news today in the CBC that recycling is a scam won't change any of that, will it?

00:14:24.080 In fact, I think it'll make it more meaningful to the cultists,

00:14:28.160 because the meaning is in the suffering and the denial.

00:14:30.520 Continuing to recycle and to punish people who don't recycle will be even more of a proof of your holiness,

00:14:37.320 now that we all know it's a fake scam.

00:14:42.100 Stay with us for more.

00:14:43.180 I see in the news today that the Bank of Canada is considering raising interest rates again.

00:14:57.700 In fact, as I record this, they may well have done so already.

00:15:01.500 This means owning a home is even harder for young people to reach.

00:15:07.200 Well, people of any age, really.

00:15:09.020 Add to that a million new migrants a year.

00:15:11.260 I don't know how a young person can own a home in Vancouver or Toronto or, for that matter, other cities either.

00:15:21.020 It's very hard to make a go of it.

00:15:22.880 I think by some measurements you could say Canada is in a recession.

00:15:27.640 Bringing in 3% of the country in new people every year obscures that fact.

00:15:34.320 If you increase the population by 3% and you have 2% economic growth,

00:15:39.480 well, that means that on a steady state basis, the economy is actually shrinking.

00:15:44.480 A definition of a recession, I think it is difficult out there.

00:15:48.560 And I'm worried about our near future inflation and interest rates and housing crisis.

00:15:54.820 I don't know how it's going to end.

00:15:58.240 But that's only for people who live in the real world.

00:16:02.160 People who live in the private sector who have to work for a living.

00:16:07.280 But what if you are one of the lucky few to work for the government of Canada?

00:16:13.920 Then you are in a perfect simulacrum of reality where what happens in the real world doesn't really affect you.

00:16:22.680 Sure, housing prices are a problem, but it is boom times in Trudeau's Ottawa.

00:16:29.800 I have a new press release in front of me from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation headline,

00:16:34.680 Turn Off the Hiring Machine.

00:16:37.020 Trudeau adds 98,000 bureaucrats to payroll.

00:16:44.420 And joining us now via Skype from the nation's capital is our friend, Franco Teresano from the Taxpayers Federation.

00:16:51.740 Franco, great to see you again.

00:16:54.140 Thanks for having me on.

00:16:56.020 You know, it's not just the 98,000 new bureaucrats.

00:16:59.700 It's the percentage of growth since Trudeau took office.

00:17:05.040 I mean, really, he came into power really in 2016.

00:17:08.160 He was elected in 2015.

00:17:09.280 And there were just over a quarter million bureaucrats then.

00:17:13.780 That's a lot.

00:17:15.120 But to go from 259,000 to 357,000 is such a staggering proportionate increase.

00:17:25.560 I think that's 40%.

00:17:26.780 What do you make of that?

00:17:29.240 Yeah, that's right.

00:17:29.980 I mean, look, was there a bureaucrat shortage in Ottawa before Trudeau came to power?

00:17:34.240 Of course not, right?

00:17:36.360 And let's just look at the last year, right?

00:17:38.520 We talk about the more than 98,000 bureaucrats added to the federal payroll since Trudeau took

00:17:44.080 office.

00:17:44.360 But just look at last year, about 21,000 bureaucrats were added last year.

00:17:49.520 Now, if you go down Main Street in any large or medium or even small town and you ask people

00:17:57.100 what they need, they're going to say, well, hey, I'd like some relief so I could actually

00:18:00.680 afford to gas up my truck.

00:18:02.880 You know, I'd like some relief so I could actually afford to put ground beef in my grocery

00:18:06.340 cart.

00:18:06.660 You know, I'm worried about my mortgage payments.

00:18:08.860 I could definitely use some relief there.

00:18:10.880 You know what you're not going to hear from Canadians outside of Ottawa?

00:18:14.000 I really wish I had an extra 21,000 bureaucrat mouths to feed. 1.00

00:18:17.700 Yeah.

00:18:19.480 I don't understand what they're doing.

00:18:22.120 Help me out because we're, you know, you don't, we're not doing 40% more things in government,

00:18:27.820 or maybe we are.

00:18:28.660 I don't think we're getting 40% more value.

00:18:30.520 I'm talking about since 2016.

00:18:32.420 I know the population in this country, while it's growing quickly, is not 40% larger.

00:18:39.220 I think of the ways that the government affects our lives, getting us passports on time, airports,

00:18:45.260 and managing those.

00:18:46.420 You know, they're not directly involved in health care, but they do a lot of funding.

00:18:52.180 Our military, for the first time in memory, Canada was unable to send a single soldier to NATO exercises.

00:18:59.760 The things Ottawa should be doing, it's failing at.

00:19:03.220 What are these 98,000 bureaucrats actually doing every day? 1.00

00:19:07.060 Well, we're not getting more value out of it, Ezra.

00:19:11.680 You, me, and the rest of the taxpaying public in the private sector, that's for sure.

00:19:16.200 But the government sure is taxing more.

00:19:18.180 The government sure is regulating more.

00:19:20.660 The government sure is handing out more corporate welfare, right?

00:19:24.740 Billions and billions of dollars to multinational corporations.

00:19:28.960 So us in the private sector, yeah, we get more taxes.

00:19:32.040 Yeah, we have to deal with more red tape.

00:19:33.740 But, I mean, certainly the government is increasing taxes, increasing regulations,

00:19:38.720 increasing the buckets of cash that it's giving to big businesses.

00:19:42.100 Now, what's so crazy about all of this is, as you mentioned,

00:19:45.740 98,000 more bureaucrats added since the Trudeau government took power.

00:19:49.900 All these bureaucrats in Ottawa, and they still can't meet half of their own performance targets.

00:19:55.620 And then, Ezra, on top of this, right,

00:19:57.420 they've also handed out 800,000 pay raises over the last couple of years, 2020 through 2022.

00:20:02.560 And they've also added $1.5 billion in bonuses since 2015.

00:20:07.440 So get this, folks.

00:20:08.860 You're paying for hundreds of thousands of pay raises, hundreds of millions in bonuses,

00:20:14.160 and for tens of thousands of extra bureaucrats,

00:20:16.740 and they still can't meet half of their own performance targets.

00:20:20.120 Do we have any indication of where these bureaucrats are? 0.98

00:20:23.800 Do we know a breakdown by department or by region?

00:20:27.840 Like, literally, what are they doing every day?

00:20:32.280 Well, Ezra, unfortunately, the numbers that we got from the Treasury Board,

00:20:36.120 they're just the top-line figures.

00:20:37.800 I haven't seen the department-by-department breakdown.

00:20:41.360 So, unfortunately, all that we know is the top-line figure,

00:20:44.140 which is the 80, or sorry, 98,000-plus bureaucrats added since 2015,

00:20:48.720 and about 21,000 extra bureaucrats added over the last year. 0.71

00:20:52.780 And, folks, also, the cost of the bureaucracy, right,

00:20:55.700 because you're adding more bureaucrats, you're giving them bigger pay,

00:20:58.660 has ballooned by about 31% over two years.

00:21:03.140 You know, you could make the case, and I wouldn't agree with it,

00:21:08.360 but one could make the case that the government ought to have expanded to handle COVID-19.

00:21:14.540 I don't think so.

00:21:15.400 I think COVID-19 was overblown.

00:21:16.860 I think it was a severe case of the flu and not much more.

00:21:20.540 That's my political opinion.

00:21:22.260 There was a lot of government spending to stimulate the economy

00:21:25.380 and basically to pay people not to work.

00:21:27.320 I get it.

00:21:27.820 I disagree with it, but I understand that.

00:21:31.260 Okay, so that was 2021 and part of 2022.

00:21:36.340 We're in 2023, and the government has not shrunk.

00:21:40.620 So you had this huge crisis where the government deployed,

00:21:43.960 in a way never before seen,

00:21:45.480 but that is over.

00:21:48.040 There's no more CERB payments.

00:21:50.340 There's no more special payments of any sort.

00:21:52.800 There's no more purchasing of vaccines at the height of the market.

00:21:57.820 All that's over now, Franco,

00:22:00.680 and yet everyone hired during 2020, 2021, 2022,

00:22:05.880 and I'm just looking at the math here,

00:22:08.460 that's about 50,000 people hired in those three years.

00:22:12.980 You could possibly say that's to handle COVID.

00:22:18.120 They're all still there.

00:22:19.880 And then some.

00:22:23.700 They're all still there,

00:22:24.740 and then add an extra 21,000 on top of it.

00:22:27.260 Now, Ezra, let me just poke some holes in some of the claims.

00:22:29.600 I know you're playing devil's advocate,

00:22:31.340 and you're trying to be as lenient as possible,

00:22:33.880 but let me just poke some holes.

00:22:35.380 Okay, so first, folks, let's remember,

00:22:36.880 this is the federal government.

00:22:38.140 We're not talking about all these extra nurses or doctors, right?

00:22:43.440 Because that's provincial, by and large, right?

00:22:45.760 That's provincial.

00:22:46.760 So we're not talking about that.

00:22:48.380 And then, okay, let's say you add a bunch of CRA bureaucrats

00:22:51.820 to get these COVID-19 subsidies out the door.

00:22:55.840 Well, they won't even fully investigate those pandemic subsidies now.

00:23:00.060 And then also, too, right, in the real world,

00:23:02.480 if you have a problem,

00:23:03.620 let's say you have a legitimate problem, right?

00:23:05.300 You got to fix your leaky roof.

00:23:06.680 Then you fix the leaky roof.

00:23:08.240 You don't take a credit card out

00:23:09.600 and blow a bunch of money you don't have

00:23:11.140 on a couple of BMWs and a flat screen TV, right?

00:23:14.140 So the problem is,

00:23:14.840 is that this government has never prioritized.

00:23:17.060 It's just borrow more money,

00:23:18.780 spend more money on everything forever.

00:23:21.100 And what happens?

00:23:22.180 Well, you rack up all this debt,

00:23:23.960 and you just have these bureaucrats 0.73

00:23:25.680 that are hanging around, hanging around,

00:23:27.880 and providing no extra value, really, to taxpayers,

00:23:30.880 at least at what I can see.

00:23:32.140 But Ezra, let me just make one extra point.

00:23:34.060 Maybe, maybe somebody makes the case

00:23:37.600 for adding more bureaucrats.

00:23:39.240 But how can you make the case

00:23:40.860 that you are going to take more money

00:23:42.940 from people in the private sector

00:23:44.400 who may have lost their job, right?

00:23:46.580 Who may have taken pay cuts,

00:23:48.080 who may have had to take out an extra line of credit

00:23:50.460 just to keep their businesses' lights open or lights on

00:23:53.660 to give bureaucrats pay raises

00:23:55.840 and bonuses during the pandemic.

00:23:58.540 I don't think you can make a case at all

00:24:00.680 for those, that type of spending.

00:24:02.440 You know, I was just looking at your article

00:24:05.480 that I mentioned,

00:24:06.320 and there's one line that sticks out for me.

00:24:08.080 This really simplifies it.

00:24:10.720 The average annual compensation

00:24:13.500 for a full-time federal bureaucrat

00:24:15.520 is $125,300

00:24:19.380 when paid pension and other perks are accounted for.

00:24:21.880 The average.

00:24:24.440 You know, that's almost doctor's salary

00:24:26.700 for being a bureaucrat.

00:24:28.760 I find that stunning,

00:24:31.840 and I find that out of sync

00:24:34.580 with the state of the economy.

00:24:36.160 Is anyone ringing the alarm about this?

00:24:39.020 How about the NDP

00:24:39.920 that claims to be for the working man?

00:24:42.520 How about...

00:24:44.080 Are the Conservatives even raising the alarm?

00:24:47.180 Who's questioning this in Ottawa,

00:24:48.920 other than you guys at the Taxpayers Federation?

00:24:50.700 Well, that's what's really so unique

00:24:53.680 about the Canadian Taxpayers Federation,

00:24:55.380 at least here in Ottawa,

00:24:56.540 is that we're really the only ones

00:24:58.040 who are ringing the bell about all this.

00:25:00.480 And look, the bureaucracy makes up

00:25:03.060 such a huge amount

00:25:04.460 of just government spending, right?

00:25:06.600 It's about half of all operating spending

00:25:08.700 is going to bureaucrats.

00:25:10.060 So how can you be a champion

00:25:11.740 of fiscal responsibility

00:25:13.160 and not talk about some of this egregious stuff

00:25:15.660 that's going on in the bureaucracy, right?

00:25:17.380 Remember the Peace Act strike

00:25:18.800 that happened not so long ago?

00:25:20.380 Now, we don't know what the full details are

00:25:22.340 of the actual agreement,

00:25:23.500 but we do know that those union bosses

00:25:25.440 were pushing for more money

00:25:27.120 to work past 4 p.m.

00:25:28.600 They wanted $17,000

00:25:30.500 and an education fund

00:25:32.080 for laid-off employees,

00:25:33.520 overtime, a double time,

00:25:34.960 two weeks of paid time off.

00:25:36.640 Well, maybe I missed something.

00:25:38.300 And they didn't want to come back to the office either.

00:25:38.880 They were enjoying their staycations too much.

00:25:42.540 And Ezra, maybe I missed something,

00:25:44.480 but I don't remember hearing a peep

00:25:46.220 from any of the opposition about this, right?

00:25:49.780 Maybe the conservatives have said something about it,

00:25:52.020 but I don't recall hearing a peep

00:25:53.500 from them when the Peace Act was striking

00:25:56.040 or even now.

00:25:58.040 You know, and you make a good point.

00:25:59.860 This is just salaries.

00:26:01.260 And by the way,

00:26:02.040 not salaries for nurses, doctors, or teachers,

00:26:04.340 which is at the provincial level.

00:26:05.920 Franco, I'm so glad you guys

00:26:07.040 at the Tax Affairs Federation

00:26:08.160 are fighting like heck every day on this.

00:26:12.180 Thanks, Ezra.

00:26:12.820 Hey, before we go,

00:26:15.060 tell us how people can learn more

00:26:16.120 about the Tax Affairs Federation

00:26:17.420 and maybe even get involved.

00:26:18.980 What's the website?

00:26:21.240 Well, head over to taxpayer.com,

00:26:22.980 check our newsroom,

00:26:23.700 check out some petitions.

00:26:24.900 I'm sure you'll like some of the stuff

00:26:26.360 that you see over there.

00:26:27.420 Oh, I'm sure of it too.

00:26:28.380 You are one of the only independent voices

00:26:30.420 because you don't take money

00:26:32.880 from the government.

00:26:33.900 And I would encourage Rebel News viewers

00:26:35.860 who have not yet supported

00:26:37.400 the Tax Affairs Federation to do so.

00:26:39.920 We need Franco and his team

00:26:41.960 because they're the only guys you can trust

00:26:43.620 because they're not taking dough from Ottawa.

00:26:47.300 Talk to you soon, Franco.

00:26:59.920 Hey, welcome back.

00:27:00.900 Your letters to me on Lincoln's court case.

00:27:03.520 DeJong says,

00:27:04.160 glad to see that all is not lost.

00:27:05.920 Unfortunately, like Ezra said,

00:27:07.520 thousands of dollars were likely wasted

00:27:09.100 trying to politically persecute Lincoln.

00:27:10.680 It may sound boring to some,

00:27:12.300 but I'd sincerely like to see

00:27:13.500 the transcript of that trial.

00:27:14.860 Even better, I'd like to hear

00:27:16.020 from the flies on the wall

00:27:17.280 of that police station

00:27:18.200 and prosecutor's office.

00:27:19.660 Even better would be than that

00:27:21.440 would be hearing from the one

00:27:22.860 in Justin Castro's office.

00:27:24.580 Well, we have requested

00:27:25.580 whatever form of transcript there is.

00:27:28.340 It might actually just be

00:27:29.460 an audio recording.

00:27:30.660 We have requested it.

00:27:31.780 When we get it,

00:27:32.480 I promise I'll share it with you

00:27:33.680 because not only was it a win

00:27:35.400 in terms of getting Lincoln

00:27:36.900 off the hook for that $1,500 fine,

00:27:39.020 but if the judge made a statement

00:27:41.260 about the importance

00:27:42.060 of freedom of speech

00:27:42.820 and the rebel in particular,

00:27:44.140 I want to hear it.

00:27:46.340 Someone nicknamed Salty Duke said,

00:27:48.760 I support Premier Smith,

00:27:50.040 but so far I'm not impressed.

00:27:51.400 The way she laid down

00:27:52.520 on the CBC judicial interference story

00:27:54.260 without demanding a full retraction

00:27:55.800 sent a message of weakness

00:27:56.980 as well as her recent language

00:27:58.760 using net zero terminology

00:28:00.020 when we all know that isn't possible

00:28:01.480 without completely new energy technology,

00:28:03.640 which currently doesn't exist,

00:28:05.200 expecting more from her.

00:28:06.240 You know, I would like her

00:28:09.620 to have been tougher

00:28:10.540 on the CBC as well.

00:28:12.060 She had threatened them

00:28:13.180 a defamation suit.

00:28:14.180 I don't know if she actually filed it.

00:28:16.560 A defamation suit could result

00:28:19.560 in a victory at the end of the day.

00:28:21.060 Sounds like they lied

00:28:21.940 and made things up,

00:28:22.780 so Danielle Smith

00:28:23.540 probably would have won.

00:28:25.300 But more important

00:28:26.240 than the vindication,

00:28:27.240 I think,

00:28:28.480 would be seeing the internal chatter

00:28:30.340 at the CBC

00:28:31.080 about getting Danielle Smith. 0.60

00:28:33.460 I would bet my life

00:28:34.780 that if that trial

00:28:37.140 would have preceded,

00:28:37.920 the defamation trial

00:28:38.640 against the CBC,

00:28:39.660 you would have seen

00:28:40.560 all sorts of outrageous

00:28:42.920 comments and conduct

00:28:45.580 by the CBC reporters

00:28:47.800 who were doing that hit job.

00:28:50.580 On the Rebel News poll,

00:28:52.040 Life Surge says,

00:28:53.280 I would suggest one of the reasons

00:28:54.540 that the ethnic community

00:28:55.440 follows Rebel News

00:28:56.180 is because many have fled

00:28:57.260 from oppressive countries

00:28:58.540 and they can see

00:28:59.200 that our governments

00:28:59.860 and their paid media propaganda

00:29:01.420 are beginning to behave

00:29:02.560 in a similar fashion

00:29:04.100 to those of which they fled.

00:29:05.980 They can see

00:29:06.520 that only Rebel News

00:29:07.460 provides all the news

00:29:08.500 and holds governments

00:29:09.180 more accountable

00:29:09.900 than the mainstream media.

00:29:11.520 Hey, that is a really good point

00:29:13.000 and I'm glad you brought

00:29:13.680 that to my attention.

00:29:14.940 And I do hear that.

00:29:16.200 I also noticed

00:29:17.360 when I went to protests

00:29:19.760 against vaccine mandates

00:29:21.180 and lockdowns

00:29:21.920 that there were a lot of people

00:29:23.180 who came from countries

00:29:25.140 that used to be authoritarian.

00:29:27.580 As in, for example,

00:29:29.020 there were a lot of people

00:29:30.100 from Eastern Europe.

00:29:31.660 And of course,

00:29:32.400 remember that the Berlin Wall

00:29:33.880 only fell, I guess,

00:29:35.900 34 years ago,

00:29:37.200 if my math is right.

00:29:38.500 So for many people,

00:29:39.800 that is very much in their minds

00:29:41.260 and also from authoritarian regimes

00:29:43.320 in Asia and Africa

00:29:45.900 and other places.

00:29:47.160 So I think you're right.

00:29:48.260 I think you're right.

00:29:50.300 You know, every time

00:29:51.140 you ask a question with Leger,

00:29:52.480 it's another thousand bucks.

00:29:53.540 So we spent $6,000 on that poll.

00:29:56.120 If I had more of a budget,

00:29:58.280 I would have asked more questions.

00:29:59.540 I would have asked

00:30:00.300 more comparative questions

00:30:01.440 between us and the CBC,

00:30:03.120 for example.

00:30:03.780 But I thought it was

00:30:04.700 a very illuminating poll.

00:30:06.140 If you don't know

00:30:06.680 what I'm talking about,

00:30:07.300 it was my monologue the other day.

00:30:08.540 And you can see the poll

00:30:09.720 in question at rebelpoll.com.

00:30:13.900 That's our show for today.

00:30:15.000 Thanks very much for watching.

00:30:16.180 Until tomorrow,

00:30:17.120 on behalf of all of us

00:30:18.160 here at Rebel World Headquarters

00:30:19.540 to you at home,

00:30:20.140 good night

00:30:20.480 and keep fighting for freedom.

00:30:22.200 we'll be right back home.

00:30:25.060 We'll see you next time.

00:30:26.300 Bye瓃.

00:30:27.020 Bye瓄.

00:30:27.420 Bye-bye.

00:30:27.580 Bye-bye.

00:30:27.940 Bye-bye.

00:30:30.460 Bye-bye.

00:30:31.020 Bye-bye.

00:30:33.880 Bye-bye.

00:30:34.980 Bye-bye.

00:30:37.140 Bye-bye.

00:30:38.220 Bye-bye.

00:30:38.960 Bye-bye.

00:30:39.240 Bye-bye.

00:30:40.460 Bye-bye.

00:30:43.700 Bye-bye.

00:30:44.200 Bye-bye.

00:30:45.360 Bye-bye.

00:30:46.080 Bye-bye.

00:30:48.060 Bye-bye.

00:30:49.080 Bye-bye.

00:30:49.660 Bye-bye.

00:30:50.060 Bye-bye.

00:30:50.520 Bye-bye.

Rebel News Podcast - July 11, 2023

EZRA LEVANT ｜ The recycling ritual exposed： A meaningless act of environmental piety

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