Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ The world's biggest freedom forum： checking in from the ARC Conference in London

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00:00:52.720 here's today's podcast.

00:00:57.480 Tonight, the world's biggest freedom fighting conference gets underway in London, England.

00:01:09.180 It's February 18th, and this is the Ezra LeVance Show.

00:01:12.140 You fighting for freedom! Shame on you, you censorious bug!

00:01:18.580 Oh, hi everybody. Ezra LeVance here for Rebel News. Rebel News, of course, is a citizen journalism 0.75

00:01:32.480 and activism organization based in Canada, but we are viewed around the world. In fact,

00:01:38.920 here in the United Kingdom where I'm standing today, we have a team. Sammy Woodhouse and her

00:01:44.340 videographer Schillitz have joined our team to cover interesting things in the UK. One of the

00:01:50.100 interesting things is this conference that I'm at. It's called ARC, which I think stands for the

00:01:55.460 Alliance of Responsible Citizens. Jordan Peterson is one of the key proponents of it,

00:02:01.240 and it's a thinker's conference. It's a doer's conference. I think one of its ambitions is to become

00:02:07.960 a freedom-oriented counterweight to the World Economic Forum. I'm in the middle of an exhibition

00:02:15.160 room, sort of a trade fair attached to the conference where there's over a dozen freedom-oriented

00:02:22.740 NGOs, GB News and The Spectator, two freedom-oriented media companies. There's universities here.

00:02:31.560 There's Toby Young's Free Speech Union. It's, I'd say, the largest freedom gathering in the UK.

00:02:39.280 In fact, the very first speaker was the leader of the opposition here in the UK,

00:02:43.440 Kemi Bednock. Here's a quick slice of her speech. 0.93

00:02:47.440 In order to fix things, we need to know what went wrong. I believe that loopholes in liberalism

00:02:54.660 have been found and easily exploited. We have been hacked. Rule of law is what built so much of the

00:03:03.000 West. It is in the corruption of the rule of law itself that we see where the problems begin.

00:03:11.620 The most extraordinary example is how the European Convention on Human Rights, designed to stop the

00:03:18.340 persecution of individuals by the state, is now weaponized by those who wish to erode our national

00:03:25.120 identity and border security.

00:03:33.580 The current system is being exploited. The public are enraged at the perception that the UK has become a haven for

00:03:41.800 foreign criminals. One case involved a man who was allowed to stay. It was claimed that his son

00:03:49.180 disliked foreign chicken nuggets. In another, a drug dealer reportedly avoids deportation because of his

00:03:58.220 daughter's gender identity issues. While we were members of this convention for half a century without

00:04:04.700 this madness. What's changed? It's not the values. It's the people. They are afraid of creating any kind

00:04:13.100 of conflict. They use the most novel and expansive interpretations of human rights law to avoid it.

00:04:20.220 And we see that lack of confidence now in everything from law and order to national defense.

00:04:26.420 A fear of sticking up for young girls being abused by rape gangs over so many decades so as not to upset

00:04:33.640 community relations.

00:04:39.580 Well, Kemi was in government for 14 years, so some conservative critics would say,

00:04:44.560 why didn't you implement those freedom ideas when you were on the inside? Someone who would say that

00:04:49.880 is Nigel Farage. He's the leader of the Reform Party UK. Even though they only have a half a dozen or

00:04:56.360 less MPs, believe it or not, they're leading in all recent opinion polls. Here's a slice of

00:05:03.420 Nigel.

00:05:04.360 Most effective way of enriching the absolutely poor and likely of serving long-term environmental

00:05:12.500 needs is to make people wealthy so they can afford to care about the future, especially in the

00:05:19.300 developing world. And so I'm kind of wondering, you have an opportunity now, because the right is

00:05:24.400 split in the UK, to really hash things out on the conservative side. This sort of thing happened a bit

00:05:29.600 in Canada. And that means that it's possible now for conservatives to push the envelope. And I'm

00:05:36.360 really curious about your view on, it isn't exactly even on net zero, which I think is an appalling

00:05:42.600 policy, to get that right out on the table. But more than that, it's like, how appalling is it?

00:05:48.040 Good morning, everybody.

00:05:58.600 Old-fashioned upbringing, couldn't help it.

00:06:02.940 First things first, the right is not split in this country. The Conservative Party is not on the right

00:06:09.800 in any measurable way. 14 years that brought us the highest tax burden since 1947. 14 years that saw mass

00:06:21.820 immigration, legal mass immigration, on a scale hitherto never even dreamt of. 14 years that saw

00:06:28.980 illegal immigration, small boats crossing the Channel, and the government completely incapable of dealing

00:06:34.820 with it because they couldn't face up to what membership of the European Convention on Human

00:06:39.140 Rights was all about. And 14 years that saw net zero enshrined into law by a Conservative government,

00:06:49.700 and Boris Johnson, Theresa May, as evangelical about net zero as the current Ed Miliband.

00:06:59.780 We take the view that if we're going to be using gas, if we're going to be using oil in this country

00:07:09.220 until 2050, and even the most zealous net zero types except we'll be using these commodities for

00:07:15.700 years to come, our view is if we're going to be using them, we may as well produce them ourselves in

00:07:22.180 our own country and genuinely become energy independent. And our platform, our platform is

00:07:30.420 to re-industrialize Britain. We've closed down our steel industry. You know, we think closing down

00:07:36.660 a steel industry is good because it means our national CO2 output is down. And all that happens is,

00:07:43.140 the plant closes in Redcar, the plant closes in South Wales, it reopens in India under lower

00:07:50.020 environmental standards, and then the steel is shipped back to us. So let's produce all the

00:07:55.460 stuff we need in this country. Let's become not just energy independent, we could actually become

00:08:00.980 an energy exporter. Right now, every day, we import 10 to 15 percent of our electricity,

00:08:08.820 and our industrial energy prices are between four and six times higher than America. Not only that,

00:08:19.300 but everybody out there, and of course this hurts the poor more than anybody, we've had 20 percent

00:08:24.100 subsidies on domestic electricity bills going on now for the best part of two decades. And it's

00:08:29.620 a truth that no one dares tell. So look, net zero is a complete and utter disaster. If you want to have

00:08:38.180 energy production that is very, very low in carbon output, there is only one way ahead. That is small,

00:08:45.620 modular, nuclear reactors, dozens of them all over the country. The only way forward.

00:08:50.900 Okay, okay, well... It's the only way forward. And, you know, if you look at the way the Far East

00:08:58.340 produces nuclear energy, we can do it a damn sight cheaper than we've ever done it before.

00:09:02.500 Okay, okay. Well, that warms a Canadian's heart. Well, those are partisan politicians, but there are people

00:09:08.580 here who are outside partisan politics. They're more philosophers, thinkers, scholars, academics.

00:09:16.740 And there's about 4,000 people gathered here at this massive East London Conference Center. I'm

00:09:23.460 told about a third of them are American, about the same number of Brits. My own guess is that there's

00:09:30.340 about 150 Canadians. And then there's people from Australia, pretty serious contingent. And then there's

00:09:36.580 folks from the continent. I've met people from Germany, France, Switzerland. I really think this

00:09:43.300 is destined to become an annual, conservative, freedom-oriented conference. I say conservative,

00:09:49.940 but I would expand it beyond that. There are some people here who are interested in religion. There's

00:09:55.380 people who would call themselves probably more libertarian. I don't know. I find it interesting

00:10:01.620 because it's still very nascent. The first gathering was only a year and a half ago.

00:10:06.420 So they're still sort of figuring out themselves. I think the state of freedom in the UK, it's a little

00:10:14.340 bit complex. In some ways, things are much worse than they are in Canada. Our Online Harms Act was

00:10:21.540 vaporized when Justin Trudeau dissolved parliament. But here, they have been, they have a de facto

00:10:27.620 online harms act. Every year in the United Kingdom, thousands of people are arrested for what they

00:10:35.380 call non-crime hate incidents for posts they make on Facebook. I'll just pick a random example.

00:10:42.900 Take a look at these cops going to someone's home over social media posts.

00:10:47.460 What did it need to come to? Tell us why you escalated it to this level. Because I don't understand.

00:11:02.260 I posted something that he posted. You come to arrest me. You don't arrest him. Why has it come to this?

00:11:06.980 Why am I in cuffs? Because there's something he shared, then I shared. Because someone has been

00:11:11.860 caused, obviously, anxiety based upon your social media posts. That's why you've been arrested.

00:11:19.220 And it's not even for what people say out loud. One of the most bizarre things about the United

00:11:24.340 Kingdom is how often people are arrested for praying silently in their own head. I don't know

00:11:31.620 if you remember, but just a week or so ago, I talked to one lady who's been arrested several times.

00:11:37.220 Take a look at this. It is causing people harassing harm and distress. And although I know you're not

00:11:42.340 saying anything, it is causing people these issues because they know who you are. Do you understand?

00:11:46.020 So because somebody knows who I am, then that's causing them harassment?

00:11:50.500 Because you're the leader of an anti-abortion organisation, it is causing people issues.

00:11:55.220 I'm not going to go into the internet because you know that. You know you shouldn't be here.

00:11:58.420 No, I don't. I don't. I think I'm perfectly entitled to be here.

00:12:00.900 I'm going to ask you to move. Would you do that for me, please? Would you leave 150 metres above the zone?

00:12:04.740 I really don't see that I need to. I'm literally just standing here silently saying some prayers.

00:12:08.420 Is there anything I can reasonably say or do to make you leave at this moment in time?

00:12:11.700 I don't think that is a reasonable thing to ask me to do, simply because of my beliefs that I'm being asked to move.

00:12:18.740 Yeah, so this happened about a week ago in Birmingham, and it becomes even more ludicrous

00:12:22.820 when you realise the backstory to this, that already I was arrested previously for my silent prayers

00:12:29.540 on exactly the same spot. I went to court. I was acquitted. I was rearrested two weeks later

00:12:35.940 by six police officers who took me away in a police van telling me my prayers were an offence.

00:12:41.460 And even after that, I had police officers coming out trying to give me tickets telling me I'd be fined.

00:12:46.820 And in the end, I had to resort to making a claim against the police for unlawful arrest,

00:12:51.460 for false imprisonment and for assault. And I received a settlement for that.

00:12:56.020 And now since then, this has happened. So, you know, before I was being told that my prayers

00:13:02.500 were an offence. Now, effectively, it's me that's the offence. It's all very well given me compensation.

00:13:07.380 But if that doesn't translate into changes, what's it worth? It was never about me being out of pocket.

00:13:13.300 It was about officers across the force behaving very unprofessionally or grossly misunderstanding

00:13:19.460 the law, which still seems to be happening.

00:13:21.300 There's other dystopian things here in the United Kingdom. We talk about 15-minute cities. That

00:13:27.060 sounds sort of cool. It sounds like a cool neighborhood. Now, the reality of 15-minute

00:13:30.900 cities is when the state says you must live in your little hutch and you're not allowed to go beyond

00:13:36.740 it. Here in the UK, they have a phrase called ULEZ, which stands for ultra low emissions zone,

00:13:44.660 which means they're trying to stop cars from going in and out. And if you dare to drive in a ULEZ,

00:13:49.940 an ultra low emissions zone when you're not allowed to, a spy camera, a surveillance camera,

00:13:57.540 captures your license or I don't know what other sensors they have with facial recognition,

00:14:03.380 and you'll be issued a fine. They have these so-called ULEZ cameras all over the place. I think

00:14:09.540 second only to communist China, the UK has got to be the most surveilled country in the world.

00:14:16.260 But I said it's a complex situation. I'm telling you all the bad things that happened. For example,

00:14:23.140 last summer, when there was a murder by an Islamic terrorist stabbing little girls, there were riots 0.56

00:14:29.620 in response. And hundreds of people were charged for social media posts. So things are very dark in

00:14:36.980 the UK. But at the same time, there's a spirit of freedom, resilient, that, I don't know, that

00:14:45.140 Churchill response. And I also want to show you sort of a naughty response. It reminds me of George

00:14:52.740 Orwell's book, 1984, when he said, if there's any hope, it lies with the pearls. And I mentioned this

00:14:58.900 to you before, those ULEZ cameras, there's rogue bandits that call themselves blade runners.

00:15:07.060 And they operate quickly, they go out with a little steel cutting saw, which is not, no one,

00:15:12.340 it's not a common thing. But you can get a little saw that cuts through a steel pole.

00:15:17.220 And in under 30 seconds, these blade runners, when they spot one of these ULEZ cameras,

00:15:22.740 they go there and they cut it down, in and out, in one minute. Take a look.

00:15:39.060 That's the dichotomy. You've got sort of the rule of law, traditional Brits,

00:15:52.740 who might say, well, we don't approve of such vigilante action. But at least there's a spirit

00:15:57.780 of freedom underneath it. And I see the same thing. For example, here in the UK,

00:16:03.060 they have a freedom-oriented TV station called GB News. I'm a big fan of it.

00:16:08.980 And I'd say it's by far, obviously, more freedom-oriented than anything in Canada.

00:16:13.780 And I'd put it on par with Fox News in the United States. However, it labors under a heavy regulation.

00:16:21.060 There's an office of media called Ofcom that you can complain about any TV show,

00:16:28.340 and the government will investigate you at great lengths. But even the press here, even like the

00:16:34.260 printing press, the newspapers, I think they are less cancel culture-ish than in Canada. I mean,

00:16:41.940 the idea that Nigel Farage or others like him would be on TV talk shows or have columns in these

00:16:49.380 newspapers, again, would be unthinkable in Canada. I think, would Maxime Bernier, the leader of the

00:16:54.420 People's Party be allowed to have an op-ed in the Globe and Mail? Probably not. Would he be interviewed

00:17:00.020 on CBC or CTV? Probably not. And Nigel Farage is in the UK. So it's sort of a checkerboard. You've got

00:17:07.620 some deep problems. For example, they are so further down the road than we are in Canada

00:17:12.420 when it comes to mass immigration. They have terrible problems like that, and they have a lot 0.99

00:17:16.660 of terrorist incidents. I mentioned the recent stabbing. So it's very interesting to be a conservative in

00:17:22.660 the UK. And I love coming here. You know what I say. It's like a dystopian time machine. I can look

00:17:27.940 five years into our own future. Now, I was attempting to do one more thing. As you know, we try and help

00:17:35.620 Tommy Robinson in a number of ways. And I visited him in prison about two months ago. I had scheduled

00:17:43.460 another visit at HMP, His Majesty's Prison, Woodhill, on Sunday. I flew in. I was going to go straight to the

00:17:52.180 prison. But I received an email from the prison governor banning me from the prison. And the

00:17:58.740 accusation against me was that I might talk about the visit afterwards. Now, of course, that's no

00:18:04.260 reason to deny someone a prison visit. I'm a free person. I can talk about the visit. In fact, I think

00:18:10.180 I have a duty to talk about how Tommy Robinson is doing in prison. And I think he has the right to talk

00:18:15.540 to me. We both have the right. He has the right to tell me things. I have the right to hear it

00:18:20.500 and to say it. But I was so committed to visiting him just to see how he's doing in solitary confinement

00:18:27.540 that I wrote back to the prison governor. And I said to her,

00:18:32.820 I don't need to go in as a journalist. I can go in on a private capacity as Tommy's friend, as someone

00:18:39.300 who's trying to help him, help his family financially. As you know, we're raising money for

00:18:44.260 the kids. And I said that I'm a former barrister and solicitor. I would take it very seriously to

00:18:50.660 give my solemn promise not to chat about things if that really was the reason she was banning me.

00:18:58.660 No answer back. So I didn't see Tommy Robinson. And the reason why that's troubling is because I have

00:19:05.380 things to tell him and I have things to hear from him. But he also needs the visits. He's in solitary

00:19:11.060 confinement all day long. He's allowed out to have a quick shower. And he's allowed out to exercise for

00:19:16.260 about an hour a day. And that's it. And the thing is, no human being is designed to live nine months in

00:19:23.300 solitary confinement. He's not even in as a criminal prisoner. So it's very concerning what's going on.

00:19:29.300 And by canceling my visit, they're not just denying me the substance of the visit, but the

00:19:33.860 visit itself. And they're canceling a raft of Tommy's visitors, which means he's simply not

00:19:39.700 getting the human contact. I think it's a strategy not just to cut Tommy off from his political and

00:19:45.540 journalistic friends, but to drive the man mad. You cannot put someone in a cage for nine months.

00:19:52.020 You know this from the zoo. In a zoo, the elephants have challenges. They have things they can play with and

00:20:01.060 scratch against and play. Otherwise, the tigers and the elephants and the other creatures will go mad in

00:20:09.620 a zoo. I don't know if you know that, but they have to stimulate the mind of these more intelligent

00:20:15.060 animals or they'll go mad. If that's the case for dumb beasts like an elephant, surely it's that way, 0.98

00:20:22.180 much more so for a human being. And I'm terrified of what they're trying to do to Tommy Robinson. 0.98

00:20:27.780 So that was one of my purposes to come to the UK as well. Anyways, I want to just show you,

00:20:33.140 we'll show you while I'm talking, some of these booths here at the exhibition here, sort of a trade

00:20:40.420 show. And we'll show you some clips from some of the more interesting speakers. My favorites,

00:20:46.260 of course, are the ones who talk about the deep civilization divides like Douglas Murray and Ayan 0.99

00:20:52.500 Hirsi Ali, both of whom spoke here. Let me give you a taste of their comments.

00:20:57.780 So good to see all of you here and thank you to the organizers of ARC for inviting me.

00:21:02.660 Perhaps I could just start by saying that I think that the challenge that Philippa and

00:21:06.980 the organizers of this conference have laid out is much bigger even than we speakers have been told.

00:21:13.780 It's a sort of challenge upon a challenge to be invited to be optimistic about the future from the

00:21:23.380 wastelands of East London.

00:21:29.300 And I'd like to tell all foreign visitors to this conference that if you go just a few miles

00:21:36.420 from this conference center, you'll find a most charming and historical city with many landmarks worth seeing.

00:21:53.700 One of the questions I think that all ages ask themselves is what do they call the age that they are in?

00:21:59.300 One, almost every age has had this question. Most recently, the age of modernism asked what comes

00:22:07.620 after modernism and the rather unoriginal idea was post-modernism. Post-modernism, of course,

00:22:16.340 included its offspring of deconstructionism and nothing came from that. But I would like to suggest a name

00:22:26.100 for the age that we should be in and the age that this conference can help bring in, the age of

00:22:34.020 reconstruction. We should be the reconstructionists.

00:22:43.540 The deconstructionists knew something about how to take things apart, but like children with bicycles

00:22:49.140 had no idea how to put them back together. So it will be the job of people like those in this room

00:22:54.580 to try to put that civilization back together. And I'm delighted that that's one of the things

00:23:00.900 that we're gathered here to do. The belief that all humans are created in God's image, Genesis 127,

00:23:09.380 underpins ideas of equal worth, human rights and dignity for all individuals, including the poor and the neglected.

00:23:16.980 The biblical teachings such as love your neighbor as yourself, Leviticus 19, 18 emphasizes care for

00:23:31.380 others and fairness in governance. The Bible's distinction between God's sovereignty and earthly

00:23:38.420 authority, Matthew 22, 21, influenced the Western principle that the state should not overreach into

00:23:45.940 matters of faith and conscience. Biblical ethics stress that rulers and citizens are accountable to a higher

00:23:56.100 moral law, ensuring that government acts justly and protects the vulnerable. Romans 13, 3-4.

00:24:04.740 These principles collectively shaped Western values like democracy, human rights,

00:24:11.220 and unconstitutional government. That is why my message to you today and the message of Courage.media

00:24:20.100 is to stress that responsible citizenship in the West is inseparable from Christian morality.

00:24:31.780 Hey, one more reason I came over here. I mean, Jordan Peterson, by the way, is a real leader of this

00:24:37.380 event. He gave a speech. He's on panels. And I think that's wonderful. I think he's truly Canada's

00:24:43.940 leading public intellectual. And that just drives all the failed left-wing professors kooky. It drives them

00:24:51.220 mad that a conservative opinion leader like Jordan Peterson is as successful as he is, while they toil away

00:24:59.540 as some second-rate Canadian university pumping their woke Marxism into young minds.

00:25:08.420 It's good to be here with the 150 Canadians. It's good to see the speeches and to see some sort of

00:25:16.100 collective, I guess as collective as conservatives can be. But there's one more reason I came. And that is

00:25:22.980 to welcome our new team in the UK. As you know, Tommy Robinson used to be a journalist with us years ago.

00:25:29.860 Now he's on his own with something called Urban Scoop. But we hired Sammy Woodhouse, as you may recall.

00:25:37.140 She was a victim and whistleblower in the case of the Rotherham rape gangs. And she's been an activist

00:25:43.620 fighting against that phenomenon for a dozen years. Anyhow, she's joined us as a journalist.

00:25:48.260 So I'll close today's show with some of the interviews that Sammy did here. And I think she's

00:25:55.060 coming along great. I think she's going to be a great citizen journalist. So let me close with videos

00:26:00.100 of my colleague, Sammy Woodhouse, and our videographer, Schillitz. Take a look.

00:26:05.300 Sir, tell me what brings you to the ARC event today.

00:26:08.580 So I'm here with Hope for Justice. We're an anti-trafficking organization. And we're here to

00:26:14.180 talk to all the people here about the work that we do and to bring the issue of trafficking to a

00:26:19.940 wider audience. I think it's one of the fastest growing sectors in the world. It's worth about

00:26:28.340 260 billion. Trafficking humans is a growing issue and a challenge globally. And we're here to tell

00:26:36.340 people what we're doing to try to end slavery. And we're trying to do that through the work that

00:26:44.660 we do with companies and through our Slave Free Alliance organization. And also through the work

00:26:50.340 we do directly through our INGOs, working with partners, governments, and other organizations.

00:26:57.700 So yeah. Is there anything that you would like to say to the females of the UK? 0.77

00:27:03.940 Yes. Thank you for letting us speak. And I would like to say to English girl, if they want to create 0.99

00:27:09.460 something like collective nemesis in England, we'll be really happy to do it. I think England needs to

00:27:16.180 have a collective nemesis who denounce all the violence against women. So no doubt if you want to be

00:27:23.540 engaged. You can follow us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube and collective nemesis. And

00:27:34.740 let's work together. Ada, you are here today at the ARC event. What brings you here? So I'm here

00:27:42.020 because I'm, you know, concerned about the direction of travel in terms of a lot of conversations that

00:27:48.580 are happening in the public sphere and, you know, things in relation to social cohesion, the economic,

00:27:57.060 you know, situation of the country as well. And I'm just here to meet like-minded people and discuss,

00:28:02.820 you know, certain things in terms of how, you know, our country can progress and how we can rebuild,

00:28:09.220 you know, certain traditional things like the family, community, and things like that.

00:28:14.500 It's amazing to see so many people from so many walks of life and countries. What a reunion here,

00:28:19.300 working on all kinds of issues, education, family, culture, politics,

00:28:23.060 and this whole vision toward telling a better story. A posture of confidence is palpable. This

00:28:29.540 is what has changed. Now, no longer in a position of insecurity and depidity, people are starting to

00:28:35.060 find their courage and act with boldness. That's what I noticed here. Wow.

00:28:39.460 Yeah, it's exciting. The last we spoke, you're working on fighting against MAID,

00:28:45.220 medical assistance in dying, which is the latest euphemism for mercy killing or, but they have so

00:28:52.660 many phrases and once it gets too toxic, they discard it for a new one. Medical assistance in dying,

00:28:59.620 it sounds so medical, but it's really just Dr. Dr. Jack Kevorkian stuff.

00:29:07.300 Now we're in the UK and the word here is assisted dying. This is an issue right now being discussed

00:29:13.860 by many people in England who are concerned that there's a risk of following suit. Canada is, on

00:29:19.700 the one hand, a cautionary tale of what not to do and has, in many respects, led to countries staving

00:29:25.700 off the euthanasia experiment in their own places. But the UK is on the brink and it's passing through

00:29:32.820 Parliament. So there's a lot of discussion here about euthanasia. I'm finding many people

00:29:37.060 working on this, concerned about it, and Canada is the warning. So I'm grateful that we can stand

00:29:43.220 as a sign of what not to do, but it also tells us how much work we have to do given that one in 20

00:29:49.780 deaths is a euthanasia death in Canada. And so this is touching so many people to the extent that I

00:29:58.740 recently met a man for coffee, just a few years older than me, and he told me that three out of four

00:30:03.700 of his grandparents were killed. Two of his grandmothers within eight months. This is shattering.

00:30:10.660 And I'm grateful that this is a gathering where we're learning that we belong to one another,

00:30:15.700 that there's a social fabric, that there are things we actually seek to conserve as conservatives,

00:30:21.140 that life has dignity, that hope needs to be reawakened. So it's a great forum for delving with,

00:30:27.380 into all of these themes. Wow. I mean, that's crazy. If one out of 20 deaths is doctor-assisted dying,

00:30:36.340 that's got to be more than many forms of cancer or other disease. That's crazy.

00:30:42.980 Last question. JD Vance came to Munich last week at a security conference. He talked about freedom,

00:30:51.300 freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and democracy. He didn't actually talk that much about

00:30:56.900 security. I think the US is reclaiming sort of its global mantle of moral leadership. I don't think

00:31:08.180 you're going to see a globo cop. I don't think you're going to see American empire with tanks and

00:31:14.500 invasions. Trump's not that way. But in the form of Marco Rubio and JD Vance and even Elon Musk,

00:31:21.860 I think you're seeing ideas being exported. At least that's how it feels to me.

00:31:27.780 What's your observation about that? Certainly, countries are taking note and wondering,

00:31:32.260 are our countries also worthy of protection? Do we have a national identity that we want to safeguard?

00:31:38.180 Is there a vision around which we can coalesce as a basis for integrating such that people kind of

00:31:44.580 fall away by their own decision if they don't opt into some set of shared values? And I have been

00:31:51.140 grateful as well to see the emphasis on combating antisemitism in all the respective contexts in which

00:31:56.740 this has become a massive global crisis. And regimes will begin to differentiate themselves for a kind of

00:32:03.300 moral sanity in the face of this new antisemitism, which is old but always mutating into new forms.

00:32:10.900 And I'm just so grateful to see that this has been on a lot of people's radar here and has been a

00:32:16.340 basis for some of the concerns and discussion around security.

00:32:19.940 I mean, I've been working around trafficking for over 12 years. I was trafficked myself. I was exploited.

00:32:27.140 So you probably are aware that there are thousands of children being groomed, abused, raped, trafficked,

00:32:33.300 tortured, criminalised, impregnated. Do you find that a lot of women and children as well was made

00:32:40.260 pregnant through their exploitation? 1.00

00:32:42.180 So I'm in our global programmes. So we hear cases of that. But it's something our frontline staff

00:32:54.500 deal with. It's not something that I deal with on a day-to-day basis. But I know it is a challenge

00:33:02.500 to deal with.

00:33:03.780 Add a child to my exploitation as well. And what I found in the UK, because I'm trying to change

00:33:07.940 laws around that, is that there are no support services, no laws, no protection for children

00:33:14.020 that are born from rape. Do you think that support services and, you know, this help should be in

00:33:19.700 place for children born from this?

00:33:22.900 Well, of course. But I'm not, I would have to refer to, like, I'm not a UK expert on this. So I think,

00:33:30.100 like, you know, I mean, it just sounds like, yeah, support services should be in place for

00:33:34.660 children, like, in any of those circumstances. But I wouldn't know, like, the details. And I'm

00:33:41.060 really sorry to hear about your experience. That is awful. And I'm glad that you're an advocate for

00:33:46.020 survivors now. Like, that's really, really. And yeah, and I hope the UK does more in this space.

00:33:52.260 So, pitting groups against each other. So, for example, ethnic minorities, sort of trying to, 0.74

00:34:00.660 there's these toxic narratives that makes it seem that, you know, they can't achieve or move forward,

00:34:07.460 you know, without some kind of, you know, white, to be very, you know, specific,

00:34:13.220 without white saviours coming to their rescue. And then it's taken away that sense of agency, 0.72

00:34:19.620 right, that individual accountability and responsibility that harms us ethnic minorities

00:34:25.860 by making them feel like victims or making them feel like they are able to, you know,

00:34:31.460 take charge of their own circumstances and their own lives.

00:34:35.140 What were you doing in prison?

00:34:37.140 I went to visit one of the federal prisons in Canada, in Saskatchewan. And there, I actually

00:34:42.100 had the occasion to meet two men serving life sentences. These are Indigenous men in a prison that 0.90

00:34:47.700 is a predominantly Indigenous population there. And I was able to discuss euthanasia with them 1.00

00:34:53.940 and to ask if they had heard about our so-called medical assistance in dying, which they had.

00:34:59.140 How? There's very tight security and there's no media, they're not on the internet.

00:35:03.460 They had heard about Canada's euthanasia program from the CBC. Imagine prisoners serving life sentences,

00:35:11.140 and where does the idea become planted that they could have not capital punishment, which has become

00:35:17.620 illegal in Canada, but a kind of voluntary capital punishment of euthanasia. They learned about it

00:35:24.100 on TV in prison catching wind about Canada's euthanasia program from the CBC. That is terrifying

00:35:31.620 and that is deeply saddening. Now, when I spoke with them, I asked them,

00:35:36.260 do you see a value to your own life? One of the men said, well, I wake up each day,

00:35:40.660 I'm breathing, I hope so. How can these Indigenous men who are serving life sentences 1.00

00:35:46.900 see more clearly the value of life than those who are trying to propagate our euthanasia society? This

00:35:54.980 visit moved me very deeply and I realized that for many prisoners, if a prisoner is actively

00:36:00.980 showing signs of suicidality, they will actually put that person in an isolation room with a camera

00:36:08.340 to kind of monitor that they don't harm themselves. It's not necessarily the best remedy. And yet,

00:36:14.020 if someone asks for euthanasia, there's a doctor who will come, they'll be made comfortable. It's almost

00:36:19.620 like assisted suicide is the more accompanied form of dying. And so we're really abandoning

00:36:28.660 the most vulnerable, including prisoners. And it's been a couple years since we've seen data

00:36:34.100 on how many prisoners have opted for euthanasia in Canadian prisons. This demands more investigation.

00:36:40.580 I bet they're pushing it. How could they not? I mean, from a budget point of view, from a hassle

00:36:48.020 point of view, it's in the government's interest to get these people to kill themselves. 0.97

00:36:53.140 It is so sad. And yet when I visited these men, I gleaned so much from them because again,

00:36:59.620 they're capable of seeing a certain value to their life, even though they're in prison. Let me tell you,

00:37:03.860 I asked one of the men, what do you miss most about your freedom? And this man said,

00:37:11.940 I miss being able to take out the garbage when I want to do it.

00:37:16.740 Who who is asking for euthanasia today relishes getting to take out the garbage on their own terms?

00:37:24.100 And so we have so much to learn from those who are at greatest risk of being discarded,

00:37:28.500 dismissed and discounted in our society. And what might we lose if we eschew that?

00:37:34.340 Wow. Thanks for telling that story.

00:37:36.340 You bet. Thanks.

00:37:37.380 Well, whenever you're done what you're doing, you got to come and work for Rebel News.

00:37:41.540 Thanks, Ezra. Take care.

00:37:43.300 Amanda Ackman, what's the best way to to follow your work?

00:37:47.220 DyingToMeetYou.com

00:37:48.340 There you have it, Amanda Ackman. I hope she comes work for Rebel News. I make her that job offer 1.00

00:37:53.220 every year or two. And she always, she never says no, but she never says yes. One day, maybe.

00:37:59.060 All right. Take care.

00:38:00.340 See you.

00:38:01.380 Well, that's our show for today from East London, from this huge exhibition hall.

00:38:06.420 Until next time, on behalf of all of us at Rebel News, to you at home,

00:38:10.900 good night and keep fighting for freedom.

00:38:23.220 Deep Throne, you are done with all of regret.

00:38:24.900 See you.

00:38:29.860 第二, you got to realize we're united there.

00:38:34.580 Thank you.

00:38:35.380 Hey, sorry, are you not?

00:38:37.220 Bye.

00:38:38.140 I know.

00:38:42.340 Bye.

00:38:44.340 Bye.

00:38:46.540 Bye.

00:38:46.660 Bye.

00:38:48.820 Bye.

00:38:50.860 Bye.

Rebel News Podcast - February 19, 2025

EZRA LEVANT ｜ The world's biggest freedom forum： checking in from the ARC Conference in London

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