Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ Woke culture crippling Canadian Armed Forces, veteran warns

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00:00:36.060 Tonight, what a contrast between how the U.S. is reviving its military and how Canada is wrecking ours.

00:00:57.700 It's June 11th, and this is the Ezra Levant Show. 0.86

00:00:59.920 Shame on you, you censorious bug.

00:01:14.860 Well, hi, everybody. As you can see, I am out in the wilds of Ontario. 0.58

00:01:19.000 I'm not very far away in Ireland or some faraway place like that.

00:01:23.100 I'm in the heartland of Canada's biggest province because I am talking with the Amish.

00:01:27.860 Again, the Amish, as you know, are an old-fashioned Christian community.

00:01:32.100 They do not use electricity or electronics or even cars, and so that makes them vulnerable when the government comes to attack them, as they did during COVID.

00:01:41.120 I'm on location filming an update on the Amish battle, which is why I'm not in the studio today.

00:01:46.720 But yesterday, before I left town to come here to the Amish, I recorded an extended interview with someone I'd never met before.

00:01:54.860 He's a former combat officer in the Canadian Armed Forces.

00:01:58.780 He's a lawyer, and I think he's a great commentator.

00:02:02.160 He's with a sense of humor.

00:02:03.540 So without further ado, let me present to you our feature interview,

00:02:07.780 and I'll be back in the studio tomorrow with my report from Amish country.

00:02:11.560 We will measure our success,

00:02:40.900 not only by the battles we win, but also by the wars we end,

00:02:45.600 and perhaps most importantly, the wars we never get into.

00:02:49.320 It's called peace through strength.

00:02:52.440 You look into the eyes of these young Americans who are giving up the best years of their life in a uniform

00:02:57.020 to serve their nation.

00:02:58.860 They are incredible.

00:02:59.980 Through our power and might, we will leave the world to peace.

00:03:06.720 Our friends will respect us.

00:03:08.600 Our enemies will fear us.

00:03:10.480 And the whole world will admire the unrivaled greatness of the United States military.

00:03:15.400 We will replenish the pride of our armed forces, end the recruitment crisis.

00:03:30.820 We don't fight because we hate what's in front of us.

00:03:35.880 We fight because we love what's behind us.

00:03:38.360 God bless you.

00:03:42.500 God bless our armed forces.

00:03:44.240 God bless our men and women serving overseas.

00:03:47.280 And God bless the United States of America.

00:03:51.120 Well, I suppose most military ads are somewhat inspirational,

00:03:54.240 but you can see this was getting away from those collateral missions of gender equity and pronouns

00:04:00.300 and getting back to the basic business of lethality.

00:04:03.720 Compare that new tone.

00:04:05.100 And by the way, I hear that recruitment in the U.S. military is dramatically up.

00:04:09.780 Well, let me show you a video I stumbled across.

00:04:12.440 The algorithm sent it my way.

00:04:14.140 I saw this on TikTok.

00:04:15.720 Here is a former combat officer in the Canadian Armed Forces who is a lawyer as well.

00:04:22.220 And he talks about something I didn't know was going on in the Canadian Armed Forces called flip-flop Fridays.

00:04:29.100 Here, take a look.

00:04:29.940 We'll watch for a minute.

00:04:31.080 Here's a way to know your military is in a crisis.

00:04:33.840 It's when they have something called flip-flop Fridays.

00:04:36.040 So the general of the Canadian Armed Forces determined that it was somewhat triggering to have to wear combat uniforms five days a week.

00:04:41.580 So they started casual Fridays.

00:04:44.040 Not of the civilians, but of the serving apparent war fighters now have casual Fridays,

00:04:50.580 but what is now being called in Ottawa flip-flop Fridays.

00:04:53.120 So what I want to suggest is some other days for the military to reduce the triggering element that warriors can get

00:04:59.160 by having to wear combat uniforms.

00:05:00.760 I think we should have misgender me Mondays, which means you should have four name tags on your combat uniform. 0.99

00:05:05.860 And if somebody misgenders you, you should immediately lose your shit and start yelling at people. 0.99

00:05:10.240 And then maybe trigger Tuesdays. 0.99

00:05:12.080 Maybe Tuesdays you should just go through the military and just look for a reason to be triggered.

00:05:16.120 And then write that and tell your boss about it.

00:05:18.120 There's obviously Woke Wednesdays.

00:05:19.840 Maybe on Woke Wednesdays, everybody should dye their hair or get a couple extra piercings. 0.94

00:05:23.660 What I'm saying is when the Canadian Armed Forces doesn't allow the use of warrior and has flip-flop Fridays

00:05:29.000 and is wondering why we can't recruit new people to the military,

00:05:33.220 they might want to take a look south of the border.

00:05:34.980 Because whether or not you want to feel morally superior to Trump or the U.S.,

00:05:38.100 the reality is that their military's recruiting has gone through the roof.

00:05:41.900 Their retention has improved dramatically.

00:05:44.040 Why? Because they're focusing on lethality and a warrior culture. 0.98

00:05:47.840 That's what attracts people to your military.

00:05:49.960 They know their target audience.

00:05:51.700 The Canadian Armed Forces has become a social policy tool to try to influence how people see the world

00:05:56.960 rather than focusing on defending this nation to protect our citizens from enemies of the state.

00:06:01.920 Well, there he is, Philip Miller.

00:06:04.140 I thought some of the things he was talking about there were jokes, but they are not jokes.

00:06:09.220 And we know that they wouldn't be jokes because this is the Canadian Armed Forces that installed tampon dispensers

00:06:15.640 in men's washrooms across military bases in this country.

00:06:19.680 Joining us now via Skype is that rogue lawyer, as he calls himself, Philip Miller.

00:06:25.920 Philip, thanks very much for taking the time to be with us.

00:06:29.220 How are you, Ezra?

00:06:29.880 I thought that was great.

00:06:31.800 I thought it was very funny.

00:06:33.540 And at first, I thought you were kidding.

00:06:35.340 I didn't know your background.

00:06:37.880 And so I think, well, who's this guy talking about, you know, casual Fridays in the military?

00:06:43.040 And not for the, you know, the civilian staff, for the actual soldiers.

00:06:48.120 Tell me more about that.

00:06:49.540 Let me just confirm.

00:06:50.700 Is that a real thing?

00:06:52.120 Do our military, like actual combat troops, have casual Fridays in the Canadian Armed Forces?

00:06:58.340 I don't want to disclose my sources, but I was called by somebody who went up to Ottawa Senior.

00:07:04.920 And he was a combat guy. 0.98

00:07:07.200 And he was losing his crap because people were walking around in shorts. 0.99

00:07:10.120 And he was asking about it. 0.99

00:07:11.520 And they said that they instituted a policy for soldiers, sailors, and air staff to have a casual Friday.

00:07:19.280 And, you know, he saw somebody with flip-flops.

00:07:21.420 He called me and goes, I can't talk about it.

00:07:23.140 Can you do a video?

00:07:24.320 So I did a video on it.

00:07:25.440 I also did a video about going up to my old base in Petalala and seeing what used to be a hardcore base of trigger pullers look like something out of the Star Wars cantana.

00:07:35.700 So I've kind of taken it quite personally that, you know, social policy is trumping lethality right now.

00:07:42.640 The trigger Tuesdays, the misgender me Mondays, that's all me just doing a little license there.

00:07:48.120 But I thought it's certainly caught with a bunch of people.

00:07:51.520 Now, who is behind this?

00:07:53.100 Is this from within the military?

00:07:55.540 Is this a direction from the government?

00:07:58.720 Because I've got to think that, I mean, I suppose it's like the police forces.

00:08:04.040 The brass know that to get ahead, you've got to be woke.

00:08:07.040 But at the end of the day, it's a killing business.

00:08:10.880 Or as Trump alluded to in his ad, hopefully you're strong enough to deter violence.

00:08:19.300 Who's behind this?

00:08:22.060 You know, it's the cadre from the liberal government.

00:08:24.920 And, you know, I've never been that political, but I've just seen what it's done to the military.

00:08:28.960 There is a liberal government that came from Trudeau to push social policy onto the department they considered the most toxic masculine department.

00:08:39.880 And so it's a beautiful target for them to show how powerful they are by essentially attacking toxic masculinity and all of the things that are, you know, characteristic of a fighting force that can get the job done.

00:08:54.680 And it's not to say there's not room for diversity in the military, but I almost get the sense they're laughing at how ridiculous they're making the military in terms of just nonstop virtue signaling, rainbow flags, tampons everywhere, and nonsensical things that just make warfighters want to run away from this organization.

00:09:16.680 And then they can't figure out why recruiting isn't up.

00:09:19.040 It's because Starbucks baristas don't want to go live in a trench or go into a jungle or jump out of a plane. 0.87

00:09:24.840 Like there's a cognitive dissonance that is affecting Canada to the detriment of our national security.

00:09:30.660 I think you're onto something there.

00:09:32.760 I think of other masculine institutions where masculine traits were deliberately attacked.

00:09:39.860 I think of the NFL.

00:09:41.100 I think of NASCAR.

00:09:42.580 How they were, I think of Bud Light, how they were.

00:09:45.420 Hockey.

00:09:45.680 Yeah, colonized and emasculated from within, which was very disoriented to guys who just like to watch some football or like to watch some hockey.

00:09:59.040 And I mean, I don't know how those are working out commercially for those sports franchises.

00:10:04.020 In a way, I don't care what they do.

00:10:06.640 But the military is something that, you know, we actually need it.

00:10:11.360 We rely on it.

00:10:12.180 And those traits that are considered too masculine, that's precisely what we need in our military because the other guys' military are testosterone-driven.

00:10:23.560 It's based on strength and strategy, not, you know, feelings and, you know, consensus building.

00:10:36.200 Tell me about the new boss of the military.

00:10:40.460 What's her name?

00:10:41.620 General Jenny Kerrigan.

00:10:43.880 French-Canadian lady.

00:10:45.140 But the interesting thing is she ran a department, moved through the ranks very quickly, but ran a department called the Office of Protocol and Professional Standards, which seems somewhat Stalinistic.

00:10:57.400 And it was created under Trudeau to kind of police, I think, thought and behavior in the military because they became very concerned with not wanting scandals.

00:11:07.680 What's factually true is when they kind of destroyed the careers of four or five of our top generals based on allegations alone, she was well below them.

00:11:19.160 But she was also in this department that was in charge of reporting on people, almost like a Politburo.

00:11:25.700 And as each of them got canceled and moved away, she moved up the ranks and became the chief of defense staff.

00:11:33.680 And, you know, interestingly enough, something that I'm sensitive to is it costs about 30 million bucks in three decades to make a general.

00:11:43.260 And if you wanted to destabilize Canada and you were one of our adversaries, all you had to do was have somebody make an allegation against a general.

00:11:51.680 And they were fired and removed from the Canadian Armed Forces structure permanently.

00:11:56.480 And what we've seen is five generals, absolute careers destroyed.

00:12:00.640 And I represented one of them on allegations alone.

00:12:03.460 None of them actually turned out to be supportable in court.

00:12:07.780 And we just saw a complete transformation of the leadership of the Canadian Armed Forces.

00:12:11.420 And everybody who is in there now has gotten the message to play ball or your career is over.

00:12:17.080 And they're literally, it's sad to say, a bunch of terrified senior officers there that privately lament for how bad the military is, but publicly can't say anything and have to look obedient.

00:12:30.080 You know, one thing I used to look at was, I think it's called Operation Maple Flag, if I'm remembering.

00:12:35.960 It was the sort of the top gun exercises in Cold Lake, Alberta, where Canada invited air forces from across NATO to compete.

00:12:45.800 And then suddenly a few years ago, they said, oh, we're putting it on hold for, they came up with some weird word, like logistical reasons or something.

00:12:55.360 But they never started it up again.

00:12:58.200 And my theory was that we just simply didn't have the hardware, didn't have enough working planes that could go shoulder to shoulder with the F-22s and F-35s and whatever else our allies were flying.

00:13:15.520 That it was a combination of lack of money, lack of equipment, and maybe even lack of people.

00:13:20.000 But they certainly have time for these Me Too exercises or these diversity exercises.

00:13:27.500 Do you know anything about Maple Flag and the cancellation of it?

00:13:34.040 I don't know anything about Maple Flag being, you know, a grunt infantry airborne officer.

00:13:40.320 But what I do know is that the military is the one place where merit means more than anything.

00:13:46.240 And they've actually kind of gone on a campaign against meritocracy.

00:13:51.260 And that's actually what's kind of, I think, characterizing our society right now, especially from the liberal government, is to attack merit-based selection so that we can promote, you know, communities that look the way they want them to look.

00:14:04.940 But when it comes to going into battle, you know, what I always found about the military, even when I got out into law, is it had some issues.

00:14:11.660 But generally it was fairly fair because what I cared about is could you cover my six, not who you were sleeping with, not where you were from.

00:14:20.480 It's just we wanted to survive and we wanted to do the mission.

00:14:23.380 And I thought it was a very positive place.

00:14:25.740 It had room for improvement, but it has just been infected by that woke mind virus.

00:14:30.420 And everybody will tell you that privately unless they're trying to get a promotion echoing what the government wants them to say.

00:14:37.420 It is an organization that is in a spiral and cannot do anything.

00:14:42.680 And it doesn't matter how many elbows up T-shirts you sell.

00:14:46.140 I don't know if any blue-haired baristas are going to protect Canada when push comes to shove. 1.00

00:14:50.660 Well, and that's the thing is when you reduce the standards of do you have, you know, how do you dress?

00:14:59.720 How do you groom yourself?

00:15:00.880 There are standards for being in the military and hiring some they-them baristas, maybe check some boxes. 1.00

00:15:08.960 But how many of those folks want to be in the military?

00:15:12.560 If you are obsessed with social justice, progressive sexuality, let's say, are you even oriented towards being in the military?

00:15:23.000 I don't know.

00:15:23.740 I mean, maybe there are a lot of trans people who say, I want to drive a tank and I want to fly a jet. 0.71

00:15:29.020 But I just don't see it as part of the same worldview.

00:15:32.880 There's going to be some, and people should be welcomed in based on performance.

00:15:36.460 But, you know, the problem is recruiting is at a critical low level.

00:15:43.880 Nobody is talking about the actual numbers, you know, and nobody is allowed to say what's true.

00:15:48.620 Like, we're in this alternate universe where people are pretending everything is okay, and nobody will tell the emperor they have no clothes because you just get fired.

00:15:57.620 Let me ask you about the new announcement by Mark Carney of beefing up the armed forces.

00:16:04.620 I mean, I've heard the Liberal Party say everything and anything on this, and historically they have been a laggard based on the amount of our GDP spent on the military.

00:16:18.940 What do you make of Mark Carney's latest statement that he's actually going to fast forward the spending and catch up?

00:16:24.540 Do you believe it?

00:16:25.160 I think I have an interesting angle here because I've taken some flack because I've suggested that Trump's a good negotiator and told some delicate flowers not to freak out at what he says.

00:16:36.900 Carney has an internal audience in Canada and an external audience.

00:16:40.760 Trump essentially said NATO has to spend 2% members or else you're going to have problems.

00:16:46.800 Carney was going to do it by 2030.

00:16:49.300 Now all of a sudden he's doing it this year.

00:16:50.920 He wants Canadians to think it's because he's trying to protect us from Trump.

00:16:54.980 Really what he's doing, he's doing what he's been told by Trump.

00:16:58.080 Trump said do 2% spending or else.

00:17:00.600 He said I do it by 2030 and all of a sudden we're doing it now.

00:17:03.460 But now he has to tell it to the Canadians by pretending that France is going to come and save us if we get into a sovereignty battle in our Arctic.

00:17:12.980 It's pure cognitive dissonance.

00:17:14.900 I mean the U.S. military is so far ahead of all the others and I think even watching the Ukraine-Russia war, the success of Ukraine has had of being with American weapons.

00:17:26.120 And the Russians, although I certainly don't want to shortchange their power just in terms of sheer mass and artillery and I think they may be – they certainly made advances in drone warfare.

00:17:39.460 I think the U.S. military is so far ahead qualitatively, quantitatively training.

00:17:45.800 Who else could be there in the Arctic?

00:17:48.380 I thought it was sort of embarrassing that we couldn't shoot down that Chinese hot air balloon. 1.00

00:17:53.040 It waited until it went over U.S. airspace.

00:17:57.120 I mean that was sort of embarrassing.

00:17:59.040 I don't know who spotted it first, a Canadian and an American, but it wasn't – it flew over Canada too.

00:18:06.220 Didn't get shot down until it went over the States.

00:18:09.460 Like I've been in training in a lot of NATO exercises and Canadian soldiers, sailors, and aviators are some of the best in the world when they're trained the way we know how to be trained.

00:18:20.580 And during Afghanistan, universally respected and loved.

00:18:24.200 But at present moment, when a military loses the ability to produce vigorous, dynamic, brave leaders, like you can't operate in a war zone.

00:18:36.220 And right now our leaders are just terrified of doing anything that looks like it's aggression, which runs counter to everything about the military.

00:18:46.220 We have to promote people who are ready to close with and destroy the enemy, take a bullet for their brothers and sisters, and get the job done.

00:18:54.140 And what we have now is a completely dysfunctional force that's just – like people – in some of the lawsuits I've been doing,

00:19:00.960 I've seen how close the liberal government is through the assistant deputy ministers in affecting the operational decisions of the Canadian Armed Forces.

00:19:10.900 People have no idea how much the political people are pulling the levers of power of the CAF.

00:19:18.040 It's supposed to be separate, but when it comes to training and political agendas, they're absolutely hamstrung by the liberal government.

00:19:24.300 And we need somebody to come in and reinvigorate the military, much like what is happening in the States, but they're not learning from that.

00:19:31.060 Are there Canadians, young men in Canada, who are choosing to go to the States to join the American army, which I understand is you can do,

00:19:42.900 because they're excited by the new focus in the U.S.

00:19:46.900 They know they're going to get the best training, the best equipment, and possibly more dough.

00:19:51.980 Have you heard of that?

00:19:52.900 Have you seen that?

00:19:54.440 Just like sometimes police leave a – defund the police jurisdiction and go somewhere where they're better paid and better loved.

00:20:01.640 Is that happening with soldiers?

00:20:03.920 Interesting. 1.00

00:20:04.420 That would be an interesting move by the U.S. administration to get some – because Canadians are tough, tough bastards. 1.00

00:20:12.240 Like, you know, they are really great soldiers, you know, especially the rural ones who grow up, you know what I mean, 0.97

00:20:17.400 in rural Canada, learning how to work outdoors, learning how to deal with environmental toughness.

00:20:23.000 So that would be – I know First Nations people can go and join the Marines. 0.99

00:20:26.260 A lot of them do.

00:20:26.760 I haven't heard many from the Canadian military, but I imagine, you know, some of the people –

00:20:32.240 some of the amazing soldiers that were kicked out because of the vaccine mandate, you know, may be exploring that.

00:20:37.160 And I was really disappointed.

00:20:38.340 I love that the U.S. administration brought people back in who were kicked out.

00:20:42.200 But we lost some of our best trained and most experienced warriors to that vaccine mandate because guys and girls who had COVID

00:20:50.420 and didn't want to get the vaccine were kicked out illegally, it turns out, and nobody seems to care.

00:20:55.920 Right.

00:20:56.420 You know, when you're talking about Indigenous, I understand a lot of Mohawks from Ontario and Quebec.

00:21:02.060 There's a real tradition, almost one generation to the next, of going to join the Marine Corps.

00:21:07.180 And that's exactly what I was thinking of.

00:21:08.940 In that case, it's sort of a family tradition, almost.

00:21:13.300 And I was wondering if that was spreading.

00:21:16.060 A few years ago, I read in a sort of on-base newsletter that they had a food hamper program for soldiers,

00:21:26.720 a food bank for actual soldiers, not for homeless people.

00:21:31.680 But apparently soldiers were not paid enough to make ends meet, so they raised food.

00:21:37.140 So we crowdfunded a bunch of dough, and we went to the military, and they refused to accept it, and they rejected it,

00:21:43.440 and we didn't access to information, and they were – it was anything to save face.

00:21:47.780 I was shocked that they weren't even paying soldiers enough to eat properly.

00:21:52.740 That's the takeaway there.

00:21:54.880 Is that a problem still?

00:21:57.000 Are soldiers actually that poorly paid in 2025?

00:22:00.380 I don't know what they're actually paid in 2025.

00:22:05.360 I know that, you know, when I took my son up to Petawawa, I showed him the house I bought when I was 26,

00:22:11.160 and he's 23, and he goes,

00:22:12.840 Dad, nobody I know in their 20s think they could ever buy a house again.

00:22:16.500 Yeah.

00:22:16.680 So I don't know – you know, I think the Canadian military is one of the better paid militaries.

00:22:22.540 Obviously, it's not perfect.

00:22:24.020 But when I see it in comparison to other armies, I don't think it's the benefits that's the issue.

00:22:28.660 I think it's the culture that makes people want to stay and join and serve their country.

00:22:34.380 Yeah.

00:22:35.920 Well, and I think you're right.

00:22:37.380 I think in the States, it's always been – like, it's permeated society.

00:22:43.180 You go to an amusement park.

00:22:44.940 You go on an airplane, and they always recognize people serving.

00:22:49.200 If you're in uniform, you get to line up first.

00:22:51.540 Like, it's really trickled into all parts of society.

00:22:55.200 There's a standard phrase, thank you for your service.

00:22:58.200 It's sort of the whole set of manners and social encouragement for people who serve.

00:23:04.000 It almost – it's like a secular – I'm not going to say religion, but it's a universal belief that if you've put on a uniform and served, you are a morally upstanding person that everyone else owes a debt to.

00:23:19.260 That's not here in Canada.

00:23:20.960 I've never seen a business say people in uniform get 5% off or people in uniform line up first for anything.

00:23:30.160 And I don't know how you turn that switch on.

00:23:33.260 I think that's something that's built up over generations.

00:23:36.440 I don't know if Canada ever had that.

00:23:38.120 We probably did coming out of the Second World War.

00:23:41.420 What I loved about Canada in a way is the guys and girls who are like the real deal war fighters, they don't want to be recognized at hockey games.

00:23:50.500 They don't want to be accoutrements for kind of people to casually recognize.

00:23:54.940 They just want to serve their country with that kind of quiet professionalism Canada is known for.

00:23:59.220 But they're not going to serve if they're going into an organization that's a corporate woke organization.

00:24:05.380 Like they want to be put through challenge.

00:24:07.480 They want to feel proud.

00:24:09.260 Like we – in the beauty of Canada, we get way less medals than Americans.

00:24:12.880 Like if you look at American, they have a chest full of medals.

00:24:14.780 They get a medal for going to the bathroom on Sunday.

00:24:17.140 Right?

00:24:17.280 Like they really have hyper – you know, they've done a lot on that.

00:24:20.040 In Canada, you really earn your medal.

00:24:22.260 And I think we've always had a proud tradition of stepping up when called.

00:24:25.980 But I've never seen more destruction for the military than the last 10 years under the liberal government.

00:24:30.540 I don't say that politically.

00:24:31.700 I just say objectively, they have destroyed warfighting capability for social desirability.

00:24:38.860 I want to ask you one last question.

00:24:40.440 You've been very generous with your time.

00:24:41.840 Thank you for that.

00:24:42.420 And just for our viewers, we're catching you right after court because you are a practicing lawyer as well as a former combat officer.

00:24:51.220 One thing I've heard, and we've followed this, is that Canadian veterans, some of whom have PTSD, especially those who served in Afghanistan, they have on multiple occasions been told by Veterans Affairs that they could have assisted suicide as their remedy.

00:25:08.040 And I know this was disputed and denied, but it's just been reported so many times.

00:25:12.960 And with proof of it, it's a very troubling trend.

00:25:17.440 Now, I haven't seen reports of that lately.

00:25:19.480 Do you know if that is still happening on the veteran side of things?

00:25:25.020 I find that so, you know, shocking and demoralizing. 0.77

00:25:33.120 And I can only imagine being a veteran who reaches out for help and being told to kill yourself.

00:25:38.220 Is that going on anymore?

00:25:40.560 You know, I don't know if this is popular with all audiences.

00:25:43.760 I haven't seen it that much.

00:25:44.980 I've heard it being talked about, and I think it's out there.

00:25:47.360 You know, the issue we deal with in society is that I've found Veterans Affairs to be generally good, but, you know, you can never say no to a veteran without being attacked on one level, right? 0.90

00:26:01.100 And then there's levels of veterans, right?

00:26:02.760 I mean, a lot of the people who were blown up or had done stuff, they don't want to complain.

00:26:07.700 But then you can get a thousand veteran claims for running over a goat somewhere.

00:26:12.540 Or the newest big drain is to say I was sexually assaulted 15 years ago when you get a six-figure check.

00:26:18.240 So there's tons of people that are always be angry at it.

00:26:21.060 I think case by case, you have to look at it.

00:26:22.980 But I've definitely heard that that MAID program has been offered, but I don't know the context, and I've never been hired by somebody in that regard.

00:26:30.920 It's disturbing at any level to encourage a vet to do that.

00:26:34.500 But I know there are a lot of vets out there struggling just because what they went through was horrific.

00:26:40.100 Well, I'm really grateful to you for jamming us in your schedule, especially in between court hearings.

00:26:44.940 I really liked your TikTok channel, which I just stumbled across.

00:26:48.740 I guess the algorithm sent you my way.

00:26:50.980 I'd like to encourage my viewers to follow you.

00:26:53.920 Not a lot of my folks are on TikTok, but if you are, follow Philip at Rogue Lawyer.

00:27:00.080 That's also the name of his YouTube channel, The Rogue Lawyer.

00:27:04.240 And on Twitter, or X as it's now called, Philip Miller, P-H-I-L-L-I-P-M-I-L-L-A-R.

00:27:13.140 It's really nice to meet you, and I appreciated your sense of humor on that TikTok vid, but obviously you're a guy with a lot of serious thoughts, too.

00:27:20.380 I hope we can keep in touch, and if there's any issues or court cases or battles that you see, don't be shy to bring them to our attention.

00:27:28.520 I don't have as many military contacts as I'd like to, and if you represent grassroots guys trying to make the Army stronger, we're all ears for that.

00:27:36.060 We're at your service.

00:27:37.740 Ezra, I love your channel.

00:27:39.100 I've represented William, um, Warrant Officer Topp, the guy who walked across Canada, and I think who got the mandates gone.

00:27:46.020 And I'm currently representing the third highest general, taking on a liberal government for what they did to him.

00:27:51.100 So I'll reach out anytime I got some news for him, my friend.

00:27:53.980 Yeah, well, I'm really glad to hear that, and thank you.

00:27:56.120 I didn't know you worked on those two cases, but it's good to hear.

00:27:59.140 Well, it's great to spend some time with you, and keep up the fight.

00:28:02.460 Cheers, Bill.

00:28:02.900 Right on.

00:28:03.620 There he is, Philip Miller, who is on Twitter at Philip Miller, double L's, and that's an A-R at the end.

00:28:21.620 It's crony contracting, zero oversight, fake competition, and the cherry on top, the chef's kiss.

00:28:28.260 The CBC reported on it like it was someone else's scandal.

00:28:33.120 Spoiler alert, it was a CBC scandal, too.

00:28:36.640 Mr. Firth said today that he was completely unaware of connections between Vaughn Brennan and senior liberal staffer Jeremy Broadhurst.

00:28:42.300 Completely unaware of connections to senior liberals.

00:28:44.700 But Mr. Firth received a text on February 1st, 2021, that was subsequently reported in the Globe and Mail

00:28:49.080 that specifically described the involvement of the Deputy Prime Minister's office where Broadhurst was Chief of Staff.

00:28:53.620 Does Mr. Firth want to correct his earlier response?

00:28:56.040 Mr. Firth?

00:28:58.820 Mr. Speaker, I have no knowledge.

00:29:00.960 I cannot remember sending that text message.

00:29:02.800 Let's talk about GC Strategies, owned by Christian Firth and Darren Anthony,

00:29:07.160 a firm you've probably heard of if you've been following the Arrive Can fiasco.

00:29:12.100 That's the infamous pandemic surveillance app that wrongfully sent 10,000 people to quarantine under threats of $5,000 in fines.

00:29:21.060 The report identifies that there were 10,000 Canadians falsely, inappropriately sent into quarantine by one out of the 177 versions of the app.

00:29:30.380 What is the total number of people who were sent into quarantine by this app who shouldn't have been?

00:29:34.840 Thank you.

00:29:35.060 The one that cost taxpayers over $60 million for something that was replicated for a fraction of that over a weekend by tech bros to prove a point.

00:29:57.240 Yeah, GC Strategies helped rake in that cash.

00:30:01.100 But as it turns out, Arrive Can was just the beginning of the GC Strategies scandal.

00:30:06.720 The procurement watchdog found numerous examples where GC Strategies, quote, had simply copied and pasted, end quote, information to prove the people GC Strategies found to do work on Arrive Can actually did it.

00:30:19.080 Question.

00:30:19.900 Has the government asked GC Strategies to repay the money paid to GC Strategies for Arrive Can?

00:30:25.800 Mr. Firth.

00:30:28.420 Mr. Speaker.

00:30:29.360 According to the Auditor General's new report, this two-man IT firm, yes, literally two guys, no office, no staff, no infrastructure,

00:30:51.840 secured 106 federal contracts worth up to $92.7 million from 2015 to 2024.

00:31:02.960 How much of your money has already been handed over to these two?

00:31:06.500 $64.5 million.

00:31:09.360 Let me break it down.

00:31:10.980 The AG looked at 31 federal organizations and here's what she found.

00:31:16.220 In 82% of sole-sourced or single-bid contracts, departments didn't even check to see if the prices were remotely fair.

00:31:25.880 They just paid whatever GC Strategies was asking.

00:31:29.900 In 21% of those contracts, there was no evidence that subcontractors had the required security clearances despite working on sensitive government systems.

00:31:40.560 Remember this one when we get to the defense contracts.

00:31:43.600 And the government pulled a classic bureaucratic trick. 0.93

00:31:48.780 It split the contracts for the same project into low-value chunks under $25,000 to dodge procurement rules.

00:31:58.700 That happened at least 87 times.

00:32:03.340 This wasn't some back-office clerical error.

00:32:06.200 However, it was a systemic failure of the rules, either ignored or deliberately bypassed.

00:32:13.760 Let's look at some of the worst offenders.

00:32:16.960 Canada Border Services Agency paid GC Strategies $49.9 million.

00:32:23.280 The Treasury Board Secretariat paid them $10 million.

00:32:26.840 Innovation, Science, and Economic Development also nearly $10 million.

00:32:31.520 And here's the one I told you to remember.

00:32:34.820 National Defense paid this two-man firm $3.6 million.

00:32:41.140 And remember, their subcontractors frequently didn't have the proper security clearance to be working on the files that they were working on.

00:32:48.380 And here's the one that I found most interesting when I looked at the coverage from the other news media on the AG's report.

00:32:58.060 Even the CBC got in on it, cutting a check for $12,000 to GC Strategies.

00:33:06.240 The CBC spent months reporting on the GC Strategies and ArriveCAN scandals.

00:33:11.540 They wrote headlines.

00:33:12.840 They covered parliamentary hearings.

00:33:15.420 They wagged their taxpayer-funded finger at government mismanagement.

00:33:19.740 And they never disclosed, not once, that they themselves were a client of GC Strategies.

00:33:27.740 That $12,000 contract?

00:33:29.720 Never mentioned.

00:33:30.700 It only came out now thanks to the Auditor General's report.

00:33:34.600 That's not journalism.

00:33:35.880 That's hiding a conflict of interest.

00:33:38.500 Imagine Rebel News doing a report on a company that we hired, but never telling you about it.

00:33:43.300 We'd be tarred and feathered, but the CBC, they get a pass and about $1.5 billion a year to keep pretending like they're impartial.

00:33:52.400 And honestly, the CBC's biggest conflict of interest is the most obvious one.

00:33:57.220 You can't take government money and then report on the government.

00:34:01.120 Let's sum it up.

00:34:02.240 A tiny firm got $93 million in contracts.

00:34:05.820 Federal departments ignored rules more than eight times out of ten.

00:34:10.660 Security standards were just thrown out the window.

00:34:12.720 There were no fraud detection systems, no digital procurement platform, even after billions in spending.

00:34:19.120 And the state broadcaster was part of the mess and stayed silent on it.

00:34:22.820 Mr. Speaker, Mr. Firth just admitted that the RCMP raided his house relative to Butler AI.

00:34:28.660 When Mr. Firth introduced Butler AI to his consultant colleague, Mr. Von Brennan,

00:34:33.520 he had them email Mr. Jeremy Broadhurst, the former Chief of Staff for the Minister of Finance and the current Liberal Campaign Chair.

00:34:39.960 Did Mr. Brennan regularly set up Mr. Firth's contacts with elected officials, ministers and their chiefs of staff?

00:34:47.260 Mr. Firth.

00:34:48.320 Mr. Speaker, that's news to me.

00:34:52.400 I've never engaged Von Brennan to get any meetings with senior government officials.

00:34:57.560 This is what government accountability looks like under Prime Minister Mark Carney.

00:35:02.220 Unchecked spending, zero transparency and media protection from the state-run press.

00:35:07.520 And those involved still sitting in his cabinet or working in his bureaucracy.

00:35:11.680 For Rebel News, I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed.

Rebel News Podcast - June 12, 2025

EZRA LEVANT ｜ Woke culture crippling Canadian Armed Forces, veteran warns

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