Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ Trudeau hands out billions abroad while Canadians struggle to pay the bills

00:00:00.000 Hello, my friends. I don't know if you saw the headline the other day, but more than half of Canadians are $200 away from not being able to pay their bills this month.

00:00:10.500 That is terrifying. And that number is sure to go up given that they just jacked up mortgage rates again.

00:00:17.520 This is terrible. No wonder Justin Trudeau takes every opportunity to fly to a foreign land.

00:00:23.460 That's my show today. And to get the video version of it, let me invite you to go to rebelnewsplus.com.

00:00:28.820 Just click subscribe. You get the video version. Every weeknight, I do my show.

00:00:32.940 Sheila Gunn-Reed does the show weekly. And eight bucks a month might not sound like a lot of dough to you, but it is to us.

00:00:38.920 It all adds up, and that's how we pay our bills around here. Please go to rebelnewsplus.com.

00:00:44.260 All right. Here's the show.

00:00:58.820 Tonight, while Trudeau hands out billions of dollars to foreign countries and rich corporations, Canadians are getting poor.

00:01:06.620 It's July 13th, and this is The Ezra LeVant Show.

00:01:09.480 You're fighting for freedom!

00:01:12.360 Shame on you, you censorious bug!

00:01:15.500 I saw this story. I'm going to read the headline and a few sentences from it.

00:01:28.720 It was in the news on different channels.

00:01:30.780 More than half of Canadians, $200 away or less from not being able to pay all of their bills.

00:01:38.980 Just stop to think about that for a second.

00:01:40.640 I hope you're not one of those people, but maybe you are.

00:01:44.800 Imagine the stress of it for anyone, but especially if you have kids.

00:01:49.460 How can this be happening in a country like ours?

00:01:52.560 Let me read a bit.

00:01:53.200 More than half of Canadians say they are $200 away or less from not being able to pay all of their bills at the end of the month.

00:02:02.200 A report by insolvency firm MNP Limited said,

00:02:06.320 as higher interest rates and the rising cost of living have stretched budgets.

00:02:10.640 At 52 percent, that's up 6 percentage points from the proportion of Canadians who said the same in April.

00:02:18.460 The report noted that 35 percent of respondents say they already don't make enough to cover the bills and debt payments.

00:02:25.780 Up from 30 percent in April and a record high for the survey.

00:02:30.880 That is terrifying. That is sad.

00:02:34.180 No wonder the coward Justin Trudeau is booed and heckled wherever he goes.

00:02:38.500 No wonder he prefers to take his private jet at our expense to foreign countries where he can primp and preen and pretend that he's a star.

00:02:46.780 Except that that doesn't even really work for him anymore.

00:02:49.440 People are on to him now.

00:02:50.660 I mean, the regime media in Canada are still covering for him, but that's just because he pays them.

00:02:56.500 They actually publish things like this with a straight face.

00:02:58.740 I showed this to you the other day.

00:02:59.900 Trudeau to play a key role at NATO.

00:03:03.540 Really?

00:03:04.980 Here's how the Wall Street Journal that doesn't take money from Trudeau put it.

00:03:09.520 Canada is a military free rider in NATO.

00:03:12.720 Ottawa still spends only a pathetic 1.38 percent of GDP on defense.

00:03:17.860 I mean, he didn't even show up on time for the panel discussion he was supposed to chair.

00:03:21.380 Remember this?

00:03:21.900 The extraordinary panelists that we have assembled, if I can briefly introduce Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, will be coming here momentarily.

00:03:31.020 He's going to slot.

00:03:31.780 Yes.

00:03:32.040 Thank you, Prime Minister.

00:03:32.840 That's the empty chair.

00:03:35.580 We have, of course, Latvian Prime Minister Christianis Kaurans.

00:03:39.220 But he just loves to get away from Canada.

00:03:41.420 And I think it's fair to say he loves to get away from his house where he is with his estranged wife.

00:03:48.100 He's just phoning it in now, isn't he?

00:03:50.180 He'll do anything to buy friends.

00:03:53.140 I mean, this story here.

00:03:54.160 Here, the Liberals throwing $450 million to the United Nations for climate in third world countries.

00:04:00.180 I can't think of a worse waste.

00:04:02.440 How much do you think will wind up in the Swiss bank accounts of dictators and other corrupt officials?

00:04:07.500 50 percent of that?

00:04:08.340 90 percent of that?

00:04:11.200 All of it?

00:04:11.700 And how would you even know?

00:04:13.640 I mean, at least if we were building, say, a dam or a well in a country, a hospital, you could check to see if it was built.

00:04:20.920 But how do you check to see if a country really did combat climate change?

00:04:25.060 It's all pixie dust.

00:04:26.540 It's all Enron-style accounting.

00:04:28.140 You literally wouldn't be able to tell if they pocketed it or spent it.

00:04:32.740 And really, what's the difference?

00:04:34.520 And I showed you the $100 million given to police in Haiti.

00:04:38.880 Not to police in Canada, where we have a crime wave.

00:04:41.420 Haiti.

00:04:42.140 Just because Trudeau wants the Haitian vote in Montreal.

00:04:46.480 So we're poor at home.

00:04:48.880 But Trudeau is partying overseas and throwing around our money.

00:04:52.460 But the world still mocks him.

00:04:54.180 They'll take his money, but they mock him.

00:04:55.880 But it's bad.

00:04:57.960 I mean, we love to talk about dramatic things like the war in Ukraine or global warming.

00:05:01.280 But how about what ordinary people are talking about, like not being able to pay their bills?

00:05:05.740 And how about all the young people that took out mortgages?

00:05:08.820 Because Trudeau said that mortgage rates were low and were staying low.

00:05:13.760 And they took out variable rate mortgages.

00:05:16.080 And young people stretched and got the biggest mortgage they could.

00:05:19.440 And now their mortgage payments have doubled.

00:05:22.820 Interest rates went up again this week.

00:05:24.460 The highest in two decades.

00:05:28.040 Here's a video that Pierre Paulyev tweeted.

00:05:30.140 I think it's pretty good.

00:05:31.800 You know, if you used your credit card for the first time.

00:05:35.000 You're using your credit card to invest in a huge flat screen TV home theater system for your basement.

00:05:42.600 Okay.

00:05:43.240 You know, that's going to be something you're going to be paying off for a while.

00:05:46.240 But if you use your credit card to go back to school, or if you use your credit card,

00:05:51.220 you go into debt to build an expansion on your house, that you're then going to be able to sell your house for more.

00:05:57.980 If you're making investments that are going to return, that is how you grow a strong economy.

00:06:02.960 Because quite frankly, confident economies invest in themselves.

00:06:07.440 You'll forgive me if I don't think about monetary policy.

00:06:11.460 You'll forgive me if I don't think about monetary policy.

00:06:14.120 Future governments are going to have to carry that debt.

00:06:16.560 The servicing costs on that are going to be very high.

00:06:20.020 Sorry?

00:06:20.420 The servicing costs on the debt that you're going to have to carry, that you're adding to now, right?

00:06:25.540 Interest rates are at historic lows, Glenn.

00:06:27.840 Interest rates are at historic lows, Glenn.

00:06:30.160 Trudeau doesn't think about monetary policy.

00:06:32.540 He doesn't think about fiscal policy.

00:06:33.940 He doesn't really think about any policy.

00:06:36.120 He's not a thinker.

00:06:37.760 And he's never even lived this life.

00:06:40.580 His whole life he's lived off his father's trust fund set up for him.

00:06:44.060 And the problems of his life were taken care of by daddy's lawyers and daddy's accountants.

00:06:48.200 He's never had to pay a bill himself.

00:06:50.520 He's never had to worry about making a payment his entire life.

00:06:54.040 The thing about interest rate hikes is they're actually designed to slow down an economy,

00:07:00.700 designed to stop people from borrowing and spending and growing.

00:07:04.060 That's the purpose of it.

00:07:05.140 It's used to cool things off, which is code for making people hurt a bit, businesses hurt,

00:07:11.640 industries hurt, to kill demand, to make people not able to buy things or hire people.

00:07:16.760 It is explicitly designed to cause pain, which, by the way, is the express purpose of carbon

00:07:21.780 taxes, too, to punish people who pollute as if carbon dioxide is pollution.

00:07:27.620 And you combine higher prices with carbon taxes, with higher prices from inflation, with higher

00:07:33.500 prices in your mortgage because of interest rates, and you've got a disaster for ordinary

00:07:38.480 people.

00:07:39.320 Trudeau doesn't know any ordinary people.

00:07:41.120 And what exactly are we cooling down with these interest rates?

00:07:46.740 The economy is already in a recession if you were to take out the artificial growth that

00:07:51.060 comes from bringing in a million new migrants a year.

00:07:53.980 Take that out, and we're shrinking.

00:07:55.280 On a per capita basis, we are shrinking.

00:07:58.020 We're in recession.

00:07:58.820 We're getting poorer.

00:07:59.660 On purpose, which is what kills me.

00:08:02.980 Carbon taxes, proposed farming taxes, interest rates, they are all tools to deliberately make

00:08:10.320 us poorer.

00:08:13.320 Trudeau's Bank of Canada is atrocious.

00:08:15.180 They've gotten everything wrong.

00:08:17.580 How do you get things so wrong?

00:08:18.800 They said they were surprised by inflation.

00:08:20.940 That's pretty much their only job, is to not be surprised by inflation.

00:08:25.120 Oh, well, too bad.

00:08:25.960 So sad.

00:08:26.400 They're the pain machine for you.

00:08:29.600 But boy, they're doing well for themselves.

00:08:31.240 They're so proud of themselves.

00:08:32.620 They gave themselves $27 million in bonuses.

00:08:36.340 And why not?

00:08:37.900 They're part of Trudeau's Club, and you're not.

00:08:40.100 Know your place.

00:08:41.720 I'll say this about the Bank of Canada, though.

00:08:43.340 Those fat cats giving themselves millions of dollars in bonuses while they make you poor. 0.94

00:08:47.440 At least they're talking about one of the causes of price hikes, mass immigration. 1.00

00:08:52.380 I'm sorry, you cannot bring a million people a year into a country of $40 million and expect

00:08:58.420 to not drive up housing costs, food costs, hospital waiting lists, schools, traffic, policing,

00:09:04.920 and to drive down wages at the same time. 0.93

00:09:07.020 You can't do it.

00:09:08.920 Here's the bank being more honest than any political party in Parliament.

00:09:12.220 High prices are likely to persist and boost inflation.

00:09:15.140 Two things on that.

00:09:16.080 How, you know, why do you think house prices are going to continue to rise?

00:09:19.740 And secondly, how much do increased house prices weigh in your decision-making on increasing

00:09:24.520 rates or potentially keeping them at a higher level for longer?

00:09:29.380 Well, house, I mean, the short answer to why house prices keep going up is supply.

00:09:34.320 We've said that for a long time.

00:09:35.540 There's lots of things that go into house prices.

00:09:37.240 Certainly, housing is very sensitive to interest rates.

00:09:40.160 So when interest rates move, it affects house prices.

00:09:42.100 But one of the fundamental things that's holding up house pricing in Canada is there's just

00:09:47.320 more demand than there is supply.

00:09:50.340 One of the things that's contributing to the demand for housing now is an increase in

00:09:53.900 population.

00:09:54.820 We've seen a return to immigration levels that we had pre-pandemic and quite a high surge in 0.81

00:10:02.860 immigration more recently.

00:10:04.860 So those things are contributing to keep housing prices high.

00:10:10.420 Housing is a component of overall inflation, but we target inflation.

00:10:16.960 We don't target house prices and we don't target any one sector or one item within the

00:10:22.060 CPI basket.

00:10:23.700 So it's all a mess.

00:10:24.660 Ordinary people are in trouble. 0.99

00:10:26.140 Look at that first headline I showed you again.

00:10:28.940 I just, that's, does that not hurt you?

00:10:32.100 The headline, more than half of Canadians $200 away or less from not being able to pay all

00:10:38.040 of their bills.

00:10:38.520 Are you scared you should be, even if you're not poor yourself?

00:10:42.180 This is bad for all of us.

00:10:43.800 And surely we must care about the less fortunate.

00:10:46.420 Trudeau has the gall to say he cares about them.

00:10:49.340 The NDP, which used to care about the poor, the working class, is now completely captured

00:10:54.820 by woke, radical causes.

00:10:57.120 I mean, seriously.

00:10:58.940 Remember this?

00:11:00.800 Jagmeet Singh is a multi-millionaire fashion horse who literally posed for elite magazines

00:11:06.880 to show off his lifestyle.

00:11:08.920 He doesn't know what poor means.

00:11:11.860 And then there's our finance minister, Chrystia Freeland.

00:11:15.260 Hey, she's got some advice for you.

00:11:17.440 Yeah, all of you poor, stop being poor.

00:11:20.500 Just stop subscribing to Disney+.

00:11:23.480 That's all you need to do.

00:11:24.500 We need your money for Haiti and Ukraine and the Climate Corruption Fund.

00:11:30.840 Even her own staff know that she's full of it.

00:11:34.700 I don't know if you saw this.

00:11:36.540 Documents show Finance Canada says Christy Freeland's budget forecast should not be viewed

00:11:41.600 as a prediction of the future, but rather considered with a high degree of uncertainty.

00:11:46.560 Did anyone think otherwise?

00:11:49.620 Hey, just look at that Wall Street Journal headline again, just for a moment.

00:11:54.640 Do you notice that these days, other than a handful of independent media like Rebel News,

00:12:01.980 that you pretty much only get the truth about Trudeau from foreign media?

00:12:06.500 The ones who aren't on Trudeau's payroll?

00:12:10.200 Stay with us for more.

00:12:19.620 You know, it's very dangerous to equate ethnically Chinese Canadians with the Chinese Communist Party.

00:12:31.300 And it would be a grave mistake to do so because many, I would even say most,

00:12:36.540 I would even say the great majority of Chinese Canadians love Canada because it's Canada.

00:12:42.280 And although they may have legacy attachments to China, cultural, historical, family reasons,

00:12:49.800 they have embraced our democracy.

00:12:52.260 And to equate Chinese Canadians with the Communist Party and the dictatorship would be wrong.

00:12:58.460 And not only would it be morally wrong to prejudge Chinese Canadians in that way,

00:13:02.480 but it would give a tremendous gift to the Chinese Communist Party who could say,

00:13:07.000 look, it's just racism.

00:13:09.900 It is just a prejudice against us.

00:13:13.080 Any criticism of Communist China is tantamount to criticism of being ethnically Chinese.

00:13:19.560 My point is, the simple fact that Olivia Chow, a Chinese-Canadian,

00:13:25.780 has won, in recent weeks, the mayor's position in Toronto,

00:13:30.480 is not in itself evidence of anything other than

00:13:33.820 she has more support in Toronto than any of the other candidates.

00:13:38.740 But, there is a big but.

00:13:42.660 And it's that although Chinese Canadians may not want to participate 0.96

00:13:48.160 with the overseas ambitions of the Communist Party,

00:13:51.520 the Communist Party is here.

00:13:54.240 It is organizing.

00:13:55.420 Rebel News was amongst the first news sources

00:13:58.500 that reported on these Chinese police stations operating here in Canada.

00:14:06.380 Let me say that again.

00:14:07.600 They were Chinese police here in Canada.

00:14:10.780 Now, they weren't laying tickets and prosecuting in our courts,

00:14:14.000 but they were kind of a soft power muscle to intimidate,

00:14:19.100 to organize, to make sure that Chinese Canadians did

00:14:22.680 what Communist China wanted.

00:14:24.500 And that includes, as we learned in various months' revelations,

00:14:30.380 helping Justin Trudeau in the last two elections.

00:14:35.280 Now, here's the thing.

00:14:37.220 News now comes that these same Chinese organizations

00:14:41.900 that have been revealed as fronts for the Communist Party,

00:14:45.640 they, in fact, were helping Olivia Chow.

00:14:49.640 She denied she had any involvement, but today we'll show you proof otherwise.

00:14:55.040 I want to bring your attention to an article recently published by Rebel News.

00:14:58.620 The headline is,

00:14:59.720 Olivia Chow claims she was unaware

00:15:01.540 that pro-Beijing groups rallied behind her mayoral claim.

00:15:06.860 But we've got a video to the contrary.

00:15:08.880 Joining me now via Skype to talk about this is the author of this investigative piece,

00:15:13.720 our good friend, Andy Lee.

00:15:15.620 Andy, great to see you again.

00:15:16.660 Thanks for coming on the show.

00:15:17.620 Hi. Thanks for having me.

00:15:20.000 You know, I had that lengthy preamble because I do not want to question the loyalty

00:15:25.160 of any Canadian citizen, whether they're Italian Canadian, whether they're Jewish,

00:15:29.800 whether they're Chinese.

00:15:31.080 I deeply believe that you can be a 100% Canadian patriot,

00:15:36.360 no matter your race or ethnicity.

00:15:37.920 And I believe that because I feel that I am one.

00:15:40.520 Even though I have an affection for Israel, Canada is my number one. 0.95

00:15:43.880 I'm only a Canadian citizen and I only care about Canadian interests.

00:15:48.860 And so I don't want to cast this person at Olivia Chow.

00:15:52.620 But you dug up a video that shows she was actively participating with these communist Chinese fronts.

00:16:01.600 It's not an accusation.

00:16:03.220 It's a proof.

00:16:04.180 You've got the video, don't you?

00:16:05.740 Yeah, so the video was found by somebody that I work with who runs a sub stack called Found in Translation.

00:16:14.020 They go through these kind of documents, go through WeChat groups.

00:16:17.120 So these posts were first discovered earlier on in June and were reported on that she was meeting with the Fuching Business Association,

00:16:24.980 which is an organization whose address has been linked to the overseas Chinese police stations.

00:16:33.320 I'm not going to say the entire thing is a front for the Chinese Communist Party,

00:16:37.360 but we do know that the members who run and who are chairman of this association have gone overseas,

00:16:43.740 met with state council at Xi Jinping's request.

00:16:48.420 They've been invited overseas and have actually personally met with Xi Jinping.

00:16:52.140 So, you know, not necessarily standard Canadian business when you're going overseas and meeting with, you know, the Supreme Leader of China.

00:17:01.480 So these are the people who sort of run this association.

00:17:04.520 There's more of them.

00:17:06.360 And so this is one of the resources that Olivia Chow, you know, apparently tapped, if you look at the video,

00:17:14.380 and was aware that to some degree that she was working with this group.

00:17:19.500 And again, it is an important decision to make.

00:17:21.480 Like, this doesn't make Olivia Chow a Chinese asset.

00:17:24.000 She's not a Chinese asset.

00:17:25.780 You know, I don't believe that that's the case at all.

00:17:28.580 And she has rallied, you know, behind Hong Kongers and Tiananmen Square massacre,

00:17:35.920 commemoration ceremonies and things like that.

00:17:38.420 But it does show a troubling pattern where politicians are increasingly using these community associations,

00:17:46.420 and a lot of them genuinely do very good work in the community.

00:17:50.440 But maybe some of the characters also have, you know, an underlying motivation and maybe to influence our politicians on behalf of the foreign government or the Chinese Communist Party,

00:18:03.820 where politicians are seeking out these community groups to get their assistance to help win elections.

00:18:09.440 And it's not necessarily illegal.

00:18:13.900 It's not illegal to support the Chinese Communist Party, as a lot of these groups do.

00:18:18.720 So that's an important distinction to make as well.

00:18:20.780 You're free to support whoever you like, even if we feel that it may be, you know, the wrong position to take politically.

00:18:27.980 But they are free to do that.

00:18:29.860 It's not illegal to do that.

00:18:31.320 So, you know, it's sort of a little snapshot of a bigger problem that we have.

00:18:35.280 And Olivia Chow is by no means the first politician who's used this network.

00:18:39.680 It's a well-established network.

00:18:42.400 I'm going to say not always, but often liberal politicians have used it.

00:18:47.080 You know, Michael Chan is, you know, one of the big figureheads.

00:18:49.980 Wayne Gwoning is another person who's been investigated, who, you know, runs this and actually went and met Xi Jinping earlier on this year.

00:18:58.820 So, yeah, so a video surfaced of Olivia Chow meeting with, you know, the directors, the executive of the Fuxing Business Association.

00:19:09.140 And there was a slideshow given with campaign materials, positions that were needed, volunteers, drivers, people to help with voting registration.

00:19:18.540 And, of course, that was confirmed in a letter.

00:19:26.860 So, you know, a letter was sent by the Fuxing Business Association to Olivia Chow saying that they were going to, the National Post got it a little bit wrong.

00:19:37.080 They wrote an article on this as well.

00:19:39.240 But, you know, they said that they went all out.

00:19:42.300 The letter actually said that they pledged their full support.

00:19:46.700 And that's what they did.

00:19:48.020 So, there's every indication that Chow, if not Chow, that part of her team was aware that this organization was throwing their weight behind her and pushing for her to get elected.

00:20:03.060 And, again, you know, this isn't, it's not unusual.

00:20:05.280 It's happened before.

00:20:06.120 It's going to happen again.

00:20:07.300 So, but, again, part of a troubling pattern and increasingly part of an influence op where we might see people with, again, you know, underlying motivators who are pushing to get certain politicians elected, not always liberal politicians or left-leaning politicians, conservative politicians as well.

00:20:29.440 But, in general, people who have a less hawkish view on the Chinese Communist Party in general.

00:20:36.520 All right.

00:20:36.820 Well, let's watch the video.

00:20:39.120 I haven't seen this before.

00:20:40.460 Let's watch it together.

00:20:41.700 And maybe you can give us some commentary afterwards.

00:20:44.620 Let's take a look.

00:20:45.120 Let's watch it together.

00:21:15.120 There's actually no narration.

00:21:25.980 It's just happy scenes of Olivia Chow at a campaign organization meeting.

00:21:33.120 Much of the slideshow, the PowerPoint there, is in the Chinese language.

00:21:37.460 But I guess what makes this interesting and newsworthy and controversial is who those folks were.

00:21:45.180 This was not some local Chinese language church.

00:21:48.720 This was not the Chinese Student Society.

00:21:51.220 This was the Fuching Chamber of Commerce, if I'm not mistaken.

00:21:56.820 You correct me if I'm wrong.

00:21:58.220 Which, again, is that front group that housed the police.

00:22:03.640 I think our friend David Menzies went to the Fuching Chamber of Commerce.

00:22:07.400 He made a lot of jokes mispronouncing the word Fuching.

00:22:10.780 But these were the folks associated with the Chinese police stations.

00:22:15.360 Here's a quick blast from the past of David trying to track them down.

00:22:19.220 Take a look.

00:22:19.660 David Menzies for Rebel News here in Toronto.

00:22:22.580 Now, folks, we are still on the hunt to get answers as to why there are three Chinese police stations

00:22:31.220 essentially operating out of the greater Toronto area.

00:22:34.580 One in the Scarborough region of Toronto and two in Markham.

00:22:38.280 Now, last week, we found the address for one of the Markham-based police detachments, if you can call it that.

00:22:47.180 It was at a Chinese business association.

00:22:51.120 You may recall we went out there to visit.

00:22:53.520 Not sure if they wouldn't open the door or if nobody was home, but here's how that went.

00:22:58.580 The door was locked and either nobody was answering the door or the business is closed.

00:23:06.540 Why don't we just go and make another house call and see if anyone's home?

00:23:16.700 As you can see, the door is locked.

00:23:20.840 I see a monitor on, but so far nothing.

00:23:27.200 So we still haven't heard anything from that business association.

00:23:31.900 I've left the voicemail, but nothing to report on yet.

00:23:35.860 Now, the reason why I'm here is this is a detachment for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

00:23:44.200 And York Regional Police suggested I reach out to them for answers for this situation.

00:23:51.500 And the Toronto Police suggested we reach out to Interpol Canada.

00:23:55.720 Now, I can tell you in both cases I did.

00:23:57.760 I sent a query to the Media Relations Department of the RCMP and of Interpol Canada.

00:24:04.640 Haven't heard back.

00:24:05.640 So we thought we would just make a house call because we want to know how it is that another nation's police force,

00:24:13.720 and of all the nations in the world, China, is operating here in Canada.

00:24:19.720 Now, the ostensible policy reason is that they're supposedly helping the Canadian government crack down on fraudsters.

00:24:26.860 But we know from a group called Safeguard Defenders, they're a human rights group.

00:24:31.920 They have very serious concerns about these police officers operating on Canadian soil and in other nations.

00:24:40.180 Here's what they had to say in a report, quote,

00:24:42.560 These operations eschew official bilateral police and judicial cooperation and violate the international rule of law

00:24:51.960 and may violate the territorial integrity in third countries involved in setting up a parallel policing mechanism using illegal methods, end quote.

00:25:04.000 Well, that's pretty disturbing that they're not following the rules.

00:25:07.420 In fact, they might be operating here illegally.

00:25:10.240 Why are we tolerating this?

00:25:12.140 So that's who these folks were.

00:25:13.900 Am I right, Andy?

00:25:16.320 Yeah, that's correct.

00:25:17.680 She was definitely with the, again, directors and executive members of that association.

00:25:23.520 And like I said, I mean, I hate to paint an entire association with one broad brush.

00:25:27.880 You know, is this a community association that's, you know, full of spies?

00:25:32.320 No, that's not it.

00:25:33.280 And that's where we struggle, I think, on how to deal with this sort of thing.

00:25:38.160 A lot of these, you know, these influence operations and things like that are often blended into very legitimate

00:25:45.280 and often good and beneficial community associations that actually do good work.

00:25:52.600 And they're done that way on purpose.

00:25:54.660 It's a very, very intelligent way of infiltrating.

00:25:56.960 And like I said, you know, it's not a bad thing.

00:26:02.840 And it's not illegal for them to endorse her.

00:26:06.660 And, you know, when we lack, you know, something like a Foreign Asian Registration Act, a FAR Act, which the United States has had since 1938.

00:26:15.260 And a FAR is just what it sounds like.

00:26:17.700 If you may be acting on behalf of a foreign government, you disclose those activities and disbursements and things like that.

00:26:23.760 And if you fail to do so, you can be persecuted.

00:26:26.100 And so, you know, if we don't have a FAR and these people aren't registered, then it's very, very hard to say who exactly they're acting on behalf of.

00:26:35.900 But this is one of the associations where a FAR might apply.

00:26:40.740 And some members and directors might have to, especially if they're going in personally meeting with Xi Jinping, might have to register or disclose their activities.

00:26:49.740 Now, of course, this same association, a lot of the key players in it helped rally that protest on June 24th against a FAR, a Foreign Asian Registry, and, you know, said that it would be a racist piece of legislation.

00:27:03.380 And so, I mean, and this is how it's a very, very clever way of operating, you know, and again, often maybe some clandestine or foreign influence activities are blended in with, you know, associations that do very, very good work.

00:27:20.480 And I do believe when, you know, CSIS talks about saying that there's a sophisticated network that's running these operations and influencing our politicians, I do believe that this is likely part of, you know, that network or a slice of it.

00:27:34.940 And like, there's many, many more that they're talking about.

00:27:38.980 But again, very, very difficult.

00:27:40.380 Well, so the United States was recently successful.

00:27:43.560 They prosecuted a member or somebody who is running their overseas Chinese police stations in the United States, and they did it using FARA.

00:27:54.600 Yeah.

00:27:54.920 So we have that tool in our toolkit.

00:27:57.540 And the people who might have to register are rallying pretty hard behind it, which makes you wonder.

00:28:03.040 Yeah.

00:28:03.360 You know, I once hired someone in Washington, D.C. to do something on behalf of Rebel News, believe it or not.

00:28:10.280 There's a regulatory matter.

00:28:12.020 And we had to register with that foreign agent registry.

00:28:17.200 I forget the exact term.

00:28:18.700 We had to do that just to hire someone in Washington to help us with the problem.

00:28:23.900 And, you know, I'm not shy about what we were doing.

00:28:28.040 I'm proud of what we were doing.

00:28:29.140 But it does shine a light of scrutiny on what's going on.

00:28:33.880 It doesn't ban anything.

00:28:35.380 It doesn't ban foreign agents.

00:28:37.780 It just says we've got to know what you're up to.

00:28:40.620 And how is sunlight a bad thing?

00:28:43.320 Like you say, it wouldn't make anything here illegal.

00:28:45.720 I'm not sure if there was anything illegal.

00:28:48.120 But we need to know who was behind it.

00:28:50.040 We need to know what direction, what money was coming in from communist China.

00:28:54.620 And it's not just China.

00:28:55.960 I happen to know that every year the Al-Quds rally in Toronto, a massive anti-Semitic just horror show on the streets of the city, is absolutely financed and organized by the Islamic Republic of Iran. 0.87

00:29:12.560 So it's China. 0.91

00:29:13.760 It's Iran. 0.91

00:29:14.440 I'm sure people would want Ukraine and Russia to be registered to know who's doing what, because this is our country.

00:29:22.160 I am so convinced, Andy, that we need a foreign agents registry in this country, too.

00:29:29.200 And let Olivia Chow defend herself. 1.00

00:29:34.260 Let her explain why she was happy to take this help.

00:29:37.900 I think she's sort of denying it.

00:29:39.560 But a foreign agent registry would make it impossible to deny.

00:29:42.480 Last word to you.

00:29:44.440 Do you think that Olivia Chow is pro-Beijing?

00:29:48.080 You mentioned that in the past she has stood for Hong Kong and Tiananmen Square activists, which suggests she might have actually been a critic of Beijing.

00:29:57.540 Do we know where she stands on these issues today? 0.80

00:30:01.020 Not that it really has anything to do with running a city.

00:30:03.700 That's potholes and police and garbage pickup and parks.

00:30:06.760 But do we know if Olivia Chow has an opinion on communist China in 2023?

00:30:13.560 Yeah, I can't say.

00:30:15.120 It might be good for her to come forward and clarify this, especially in light of the fact that, again, after the story came out, her staff came out and said that they had not tapped this network.

00:30:28.700 Obviously, video shows otherwise, they did tapped this network.

00:30:32.780 So, I mean, it's very, very difficult to deny that.

00:30:35.000 It's very, very difficult for her to say that she was unaware.

00:30:38.140 So, I don't know what her, again, you know, I wouldn't say that she's necessarily pro-Beijing having done this.

00:30:43.460 And I think, again, it's just a resource and maybe a little bit of an undesirable resource.

00:30:49.400 And she knows that for having to not met with them.

00:30:52.900 So, she's aware.

00:30:53.600 And it's great to see you.

00:30:56.460 I'm so proud of your work, not only on Twitter, but I'm so grateful that you are doing the China Affairs beat for Rebel News.

00:31:06.180 And, of course, I referred to your story called Olivia Chow claimed she was unaware that probation groups rallied behind her mayoral claim. 0.99

00:31:13.740 And you can see that at Rebel News.

00:31:15.080 Keep up the good work, Andy.

00:31:17.560 Thank you.

00:31:18.400 All right.

00:31:18.880 Talk to you soon.

00:31:19.500 There she is.

00:31:20.880 And she calls herself the Rebel Special Rapporteur on Twitter.

00:31:24.580 And I get a kick out of that every time.

00:31:26.600 Stay with us.

00:31:27.100 More ahead.

00:31:39.040 Hey, welcome back.

00:31:40.100 Your letters to me.

00:31:40.900 W. Hogan 68 says, funny how they canceled the Russian culture from the event.

00:31:46.540 Why not the Chinese culture as well?

00:31:48.300 The so-called diversity inclusion speak is dumb because it doesn't work for the propaganda.

00:31:52.380 I think it's crazy.

00:31:53.160 I think that statement by the Ukrainian ambassador that I read out yesterday literally meets the test of a hate crime under the criminal code.

00:32:02.760 I'm not a believer in speech crimes, hate crimes, thought crimes.

00:32:05.960 But the government is.

00:32:07.320 What that Ukrainian ambassador said about the Russian ethnicity, that they're born, the culture is a born raping, pillaging culture.

00:32:15.360 That's hate speech.

00:32:16.660 Hey, I don't make the rules.

00:32:19.120 Political foolishness.

00:32:20.100 7491 says, when politicians negotiate bad deals, I believe 99.9% of the time there are kickbacks to their foundations, friends and family members.

00:32:28.600 Oh, I don't disagree.

00:32:32.140 That's that whole Hunter Biden thing, isn't it?

00:32:35.720 Heather Jones, 97 to 73, says, not only are they running out of money and weapons, but people are not signing up to fight for the countries either.

00:32:43.420 I'm wondering when both countries will announce conscription.

00:32:46.680 Well, both countries have a kind of conscription.

00:32:49.260 Both Russia and Ukraine do. 0.82

00:32:51.880 But Russia has a much larger population.

00:32:55.180 A great number of Ukrainians have fled the country as refugees.

00:32:59.320 I think it's a terrible war that's going on.

00:33:01.680 All wars are terrible.

00:33:03.820 But what's particularly terrible about this one is that it's a proxy war.

00:33:07.460 If you listen to the NATO spokesman, they desire this war to grind down Vladimir Putin's military.

00:33:15.580 And some of them come outright and say they want regime change.

00:33:19.260 But they're not putting in Western troops.

00:33:21.800 They're fighting to the last Ukrainian. 0.76

00:33:23.420 There are some foreign mercenaries there.

00:33:26.020 But this death toll in Ukraine is not being borne by NATO.

00:33:30.240 It's being borne by Ukraine. 0.96

00:33:32.700 And if you truly cared about Ukraine, that would factor into your decisions too.

00:33:38.400 That's our show for today.

00:33:40.040 Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home, good night.

00:33:44.660 And keep fighting for freedom.

00:33:49.260 Amen.

00:33:49.840 Amen.

00:33:50.140 Amen.

00:33:50.500 Amen.

00:33:51.800 Amen.

00:33:54.220 Amen.

00:33:54.260 Amen.

00:34:01.800 Amen.

00:34:02.300 Amen.

00:34:04.320 Amen.

00:34:05.200 Amen.

00:34:06.560 Amen.

00:34:07.140 Amen.

00:34:07.620 Amen.

00:34:08.800 Amen.

00:34:09.640 Amen.

00:34:10.400 Amen.

00:34:11.820 Amen.

00:34:12.220 Amen.

00:34:12.580 Amen.

00:34:14.400 Amen.

00:34:14.440 Amen.

00:34:14.920 Amen.

00:34:15.040 Amen.

00:34:15.200 Amen.

00:34:16.220 Amen.

00:34:16.360 Amen.

00:34:16.980 Amen.

00:34:17.260 Amen.

00:34:17.520 Amen.

Rebel News Podcast - July 13, 2023

EZRA LEVANT ｜ Trudeau hands out billions abroad while Canadians struggle to pay the bills

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