EZRA LEVANT | Your toughest end-of-the-year questions for Ezra!
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Summary
In this episode of The Ezra LeVant Show, I read your letters to Santa, or to me, and answer your questions about politics, business, and personal life. I hope you like them, and I'm looking forward to reading more of them in the future.
Transcript
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Hello, my friends, my favorite show of the year in many ways. 100% your letters to me. So it's
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just a letter section. Ask me anything about our business, about politics, about my personal life
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even. We'll get some of those. Before I get to that, I want to invite you to get the video version
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of this podcast because I want you to see me dressed up as Santa or at least wearing the
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Santa hat, which I am doing in today's episode. Please go to rebelnewsplus.com and click subscribe.
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Tonight, Merry Christmas, everybody. It's me, Hanukkah Harry. I'm going to read your letters
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to Santa, or to me. It's December 25th, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.
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Well, it's that time of year again, that cozy digital fire. And, you know, I like to read letters
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from fans and even from foes at the end of every show. But today, we're going to make
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that the entire show. We put out a call by email and on the website to ask people to send
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in a question literally and ask me anything. I can't think of any question that I would
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reject. Now, there might be some things that are private that I wouldn't answer, but really
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no holds barred. A chance for you to put your toughest or bestest questions to me, even
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of a personal nature. So, without further ado, let me read your letters to me. And I have
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not seen these before. These have not been vetted in any way. Our team has just literally
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printed them out, put them in this big Santa's bag, and I'm just going to read them and then
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chuck the ones I'm done with on the floor. So, here we go. The first is by Pauline Gauthier.
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Bonjour, Ezra. People are so entrenched in their magical thinking, and many are so unable to admit
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what they see with their own eyes, listen to both sides, and think critically. Considering
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this, do you ever feel like just throwing your hands up and calling it a day? If not,
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how do you keep going in a country where our destructive PM is doing absolutely everything
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he can to block and discredit you? Thanks for all you do to bring us the truth. Blessings.
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Well, Pauline, first of all, thanks for your very friendly words. I appreciate your compliments
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in there. Yeah, it's frustrating. And sometimes it even feels lonely. And sometimes we know
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we're going to lose a battle. Like, we're always battling Trudeau in court. I haven't counted
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recently, but last I checked, we had seven lawsuits against them. And I got to tell you,
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that's an uphill battle. We'll probably lose five out of those seven. But I feel like we have
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to do it anyways. And I know that just because the odds are long doesn't mean you can't win.
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I feel like there were really dark days, for example, during the Emergencies Act, when the
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government cracked down on the convoy, when they were seizing bank accounts. We didn't know if it
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would get worse. But I think you have to keep doing what's right. And I think you can find hope and
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inspiration in certain places. I mean, for me, when Donald Trump won, I mean, put aside his flaws and
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things like that. To me, I was really worried that the rules would be rigged, that there would be
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cheating, and that that would cause a great strife in America. When he survived his assassination
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attempt, my heart was pounding how close America came to a civil war. And now I'm sort of relieved
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of what didn't happen, and I'm elated at what could happen. And I want to keep that positive hope going.
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In my own case, I consider myself extremely lucky that I get to do this for a living
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and get to work with like-minded people. I know a lot of people, including people I went to school
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with, who were interested in politics, but they got a, quote, real job. And they liked the job for
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sure, but I regard it as a privilege and almost a luxury that I get to deal with ideas and political
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battles every day for a living. That's pretty fun. I mean, it almost feels like I'm not working when I
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get to do these things. And of course, I'm only one person. There's only 24 hours in a day.
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So to be able to work with 30 colleagues, there's 30 of us. That's pretty cool, too. So I don't know
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if that answers your question, but those are some of my thoughts. Thanks for your kind wishes. Okay,
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let's keep going. We got a whole bunch in here, and maybe I might have to be a little more succinct
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in some of my answers. This is from Caitlin Pigeon. Merry Christmas, Ezra. Straight to the point.
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I was wondering if you had any advice for anyone who would like to start journalism.
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What is a good way to start? I've had so much hope since I first heard about and watched
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Rebel News. The way you report on what's real and true in Canada and all that you do are beyond an
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inspiration. Thanks very much, especially during the convoy. Thank you. Thank you for your heroic
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actions towards making a better future for not just Canada, but also Australia and thus the world.
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Wishing your team all the best in the new year. Sincerely, Kate. Well, that's so nice of you.
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Thank you. And I'm glad you gave a shout out implicitly to our Australian team,
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Avi Yamini, and he's got two colleagues he works with down there. They do a great job.
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You might not expect my answer about how to start journalism, but maybe you do. These days,
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you're a journalist if you have a smartphone and a Twitter account. And I know that sounds like I'm
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not answering, but actually, I really am answering. I don't know if you remember,
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but when you mentioned the convoying here, I went down to the convoy for a couple of days in Ottawa.
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I spent most of it here in Toronto sort of quarterbacking things, but I did go to see with
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my own eyes Ottawa. And I was invited to give a couple of brief remarks by the folks who were
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running the PA system there. They recognized me and they invited me up. And my message to people
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there was, you are the media, be the media. If you've got a cell phone, these days, every cell
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phone has a camera in it, right? Guess what? You're a videographer. If you have a Twitter account and
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they're free, guess what? You can write a story. And these days you can write quite long. So I would
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suggest starting in that way as a citizen journalist using the tools of citizen journalism. And you might
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say, well, I want to be a bigger big shot than that. I want to have a studio. I want to do something
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fancier. Walk before you run. Can you do something interesting to say? Can you build it up from scratch
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without hurting yourself financially? Because, I mean, you didn't explicitly say you want to make
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a living in journalism because it's hard to make a living in journalism. I mean, most people are
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failing at that, right? The only reason CBC continues on is because of the subsidies.
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I think starting journalism and doing journalism for a living are two different things. So my advice
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to you would be start small. Tweet about things in your own neighborhood. Photo or video things in your
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own realm. If you're a student, there's lots of crazy things going on on campuses. If you're not a
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student, you know, these days in Canada, I'll just give you an example. There's lots of homeless
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encampments. That's a very sad thing. We're all used to them in big cities, big city slums, but
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they're even in small towns now. So with the tools you have, a cell phone, a Twitter account, wherever you
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are, there is news where you are. And if you can film it and tweet it and write a little story,
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that's journalism. And I would start doing it as sort of a hobby before trying to make it a full-time
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enterprise. See if you like it. See if you get a reaction. See if you get a response. All right. I better
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speed up if I'm going to get through these letters. I'll keep going. And thank you for that. This is from
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Rick. Hi, I just bought your new book on the crime sinister. Oh, that's funny. Can't wait to read it. I have to
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get your first one as well. Another year of total corruption. They went after David Menzies with false
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arrests and now they came after you. It conclusively shows how corrupt the entire system here is in
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Canada. They all should hang from a rope. Well, I mean, hang from a rope I know is a colorful metaphor.
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And sometimes people talk about, you know, prosecuting the prime minister. And I always just tap the brakes
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a little bit on that talk because of two reasons. First of all, I know you're speaking metaphorically and
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poetically and hang from a rope as a metaphor. But they really want to label our side violence,
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right? Violent. That's what they wanted to do with the truckers. They wanted to graft the U.S.
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narrative of the January 6th insurrection onto the peaceful Canadian truckers. That was what Trudeau
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explicitly wanted to do. And he was foiled because of the bouncy castles and, you know, the hot tubs and
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the positive spirit that was published by citizen journalists. So the first thing is don't let them
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hand you a script that you are violent. We're not. In fact, it's the other side that is. Look at Antifa
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or a lot of these pro-Hamas rallies. And the second thing about criminalization, I agree that a lot of
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crimes are being committed by the government, mainly in the form of fraud. Fraud, corruption. Trudeau himself
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has been convicted multiple times under the Conflict of Interest Act. And I think that there
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are a lot of crimes that have happened that have been covered up. I think the RCMP is being politicized.
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I think that Elections Canada looked the other way with massive foreign interference. So there are crimes
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and those crimes absolutely should be prosecuted. But again, just if you would accept my counterpoint,
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it would be don't label mere disagreement a crime. You know why? Because you'll be the one
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they prosecute. If having the wrong opinions or the wrong politics becomes a crime, you know that
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they will wield that law against people like you and me. So absolutely prosecute the real crimes.
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And I bet you this is the most corrupt government in history, all combined. But don't criminalize
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political difference. Do you understand the differentiation there? All right, let's keep
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going. From Scott Blumenthal, Ezra, I love everything that you do. I'm an American married
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to a Yemenite Israeli. So I have three Avianinis of my own. Well, that's terrifying. One is quite
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enough for the world. I'm kidding. I read Libranos when it came out. We read Avi's book when it came
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out. I donate what I can to Rebel News. I want a copy of Trudeau's secret plan, but I refuse to give
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even one cent of my money to the communists at Amazon.com. How can I get a copy of this book
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without Amazon? I'm willing to pay double. Wow. Okay. Well, Scott, first of all, thank you for all
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the interesting things you've said there. We do have some copies right here at the office. So if you
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send an email to info at rebelnews.com and just refer to this, we'll take care of you. And I understand
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your skepticism of amazon.com. There's a lot of things about them I do not like. That said,
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they are the number one way to sell books, which is our goal here. So info at rebelnews.com and just
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sort of describe things and mention that I said this and then we'll take care of you that way.
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Thank you. All right, let's keep going here. We've got a lot more letters. Ivan Hamlin says,
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Hi, Ezra. I just wanted to know if you or any of your journalists are going to be at Trump's
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inauguration. Keep up the great work. Well, the answer to that is yes. I think David Menzies is
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going down with Ephraim Monsanto, if I'm not mistaken. And I have been invited to the Rumble
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Truth Social Inaugural Ball. And we publish on Rumble. As you know, that's a competitor to YouTube.
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It's a free speech competitor to YouTube. And the president of Rumble has invited me and I've
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accepted the invitation. I've never been to an inauguration before. I don't have, I don't know
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what to wear to an inaugural ball. I just put on a proper suit, I guess. I should tell you,
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as soon as that ball is over, I'm getting on a plane and going, how ironic is this, to the
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World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland? Because that starts on the 20th of January.
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So the inaugural ball, inauguration days of January 20th. It's also when the World Economic Forum
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meeting in Davos starts. So I thought, well, you know, it's a real tradition of Rebel News to go
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to Davos and cover it. And I don't want to miss that. It's very important to our viewers. However,
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Avi Yemini and Sheila Gunn-Reed will both be at Davos from the very first minute. In fact,
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I think they're arriving the day earlier. So I will miss a day and a half in Davos. But I'll be
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there, like literally the next flight I can take. I will. And I just feel like to be invited to an
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inaugural ball by True Social and Rumble, given our relationship with Rumble, I feel I should accept
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that invitation, mainly because Sheila and Avi are going to cover off the World Economic Forum. I believe
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that our annual trip to the World Economic Forum meeting in Davos is the most important journalism
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we do. You might recall that's when I scrummed Albert Bourla, the CEO of Pfizer with Avi Yemini.
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And you never know who you're going to get there. I mean, last year, I bumped into the president of
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the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. I don't know if you saw that one. A couple of years ago,
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it was Greta Thunberg. So I think that's a very important place for our citizen journalism.
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I'm going to take a detour through the inaugural. I've never been to one before. I'm sort of excited
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about it. And, you know, what's happening? There's a lot happening in the world at the same time,
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isn't there? All right, next letter. Ronald Redland. Hi, Ezra. My question is regarding the House
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question period regulations. I've been hearing lots about the online harms bill. That's C-63.
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And the liberal talking points regarding children and their safety, I also know about the devastating
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portions of the bill which destroys free speech. I've been waiting patiently to hear from the
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opposition party some quotes from the bill which will show the viewers what's being as a Trojan horse.
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Have I missed something or are members not permitted to quote sections of the bill?
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Why is anti-freedom of speech Trojan horse not all over the news? Thanks for considering my
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question. All the best to you. The bill is moving through Parliament, but you might recall that
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about two weeks ago, the Justice Minister, Arif Arani, announced he was going to split the bill
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into two parts, which I don't know how that works. I think that I'm just guessing he has to reintroduce it.
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So there really are two distinct parts to the law, to the bill, which is a proposed law. The first is
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dealing with child pornography, revenge porn, sexual predators, human trafficking, stuff like that.
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First of all, everyone agrees with cracking down on that stuff. Second of all, a lot of that stuff
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already is in law. I think it was Stephen Harper who 10 years ago banned so-called revenge porn with a
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very serious prison term. So to put those in the bill, again, in my view, was a distraction,
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misdirection, a misdirection from what, like you said, Trojan horse, the actual internet censorship
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provisions. No one could disagree with banning child porn. But then they put in this political
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censorship stuff. So if you dared speak out against the bill, they would falsely say you were against
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cracking down on child porn. Looks like the bill is going to be split in two. If that's the case,
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I think, to my relief, it is unlikely that that will pass before the next election.
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As far as quoting a bill, absolutely you can quote from a bill when you're debating it in the House.
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Hey Ezra, my wife always asks me, how does his wife put up with the crazy life he leads?
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Referring to you, she must be a superwoman. So yeah, is your wife polar opposite to you?
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How does she cope with all that you and Rebel go through?
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Well, that's a very friendly question. And yeah, I mean, can you imagine how tolerant she must be?
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And she doesn't even roll her eyes, which I'm glad. I remember asking her once,
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I said, so how come you're not watching my shows? And she said, Ezra, I get it. 24 hours a day,
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I could recite your monologues for you. I don't need, you know, after listening to you all day to sit
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down, to relax by listening to you some more. She didn't quite use that language, but it was sort
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of funny. When I asked her why she doesn't watch it, she says, I hear it all day. No, she's,
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I do try, I try and get home. I travel a lot, as you may detect, but I always try and get home
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as fast as I can, which sometimes truncates the trips. For example, sometimes I go, when I go to
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cover a place like Amsterdam, where I went when there was riots about a month ago, or Ireland,
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sometimes I'm only on the ground for 24 hours. And, and I think, well, boy, I could sure use an extra
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day here. But I do try and get home because I like to see the wife and kids. And they're not very
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political people, which I think is excellent. I mean, being political is a certain path in life
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and, and not every, and, and we're not just political, we're, we're sort of conflict oriented
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rebel in a way that we rush to the controversy and we try and fight it. And not everyone is built that
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way. I am. And so I'm lucky I've a home life situation that can abide what I do. And, and they're
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great. They're great. They really are. I couldn't do it without their support and patience.
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Keeley Park says, what about Tommy Robinson? I make a monthly subscription for his legal fees.
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Why is he still in solitary confinement? Keeley, thank you very much for this letter. I think
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about Tommy, uh, all the time and I am in fairly constant touch with a members of his family and
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be members of his little team. As you know, he still has a news outlet called urban scoop. Um,
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I'm about to send an email out that gives an update on his legal case. Um, I'm recording this a
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little bit before Christmas day. So by the time you see this, you'll have an email from me, uh,
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giving you an, a very specific update on the two legal files I have been working on for Tommy. What
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do I mean by that? Um, I have been working with, uh, two law firms in the UK, one of which is fighting
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against the bogus terrorism act charge against him. Remember under the terrorism act, they can seize you
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without a warrant question you. You have no right to remain silent and demand to get into your cell
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phone. You have to give the password. Tommy's not a terrorist. They just use that law to get into his
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phone. He refused to give his phone password. So they're prosecuting him for that. It's crazy,
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but you got to defend it. So I I'm working with the law firm in that case, it's called Carson K and, um,
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um, it sounds ridiculous, but we have to hire not only that law firm, but, uh, a barrister in the UK.
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Those are separate lawyers. They have the solicitor and the barrister, two different people, which sort
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of doubles the cost, but we have an excellent team going to fight on the terrorism act. And your
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question is about the second part of what I'm helping him with, which is his prison situation.
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As you know, I visited him, uh, in Woodhill prison and I suppose he's doing okay in that he's in no
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danger other than the danger of mental psychological decay of being by yourself. He's getting all the
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food he needs. He's getting lots of visitors. The prison itself is not too far away from his kids,
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so they can visit him. He's allowed to wear his civilian clothes because he's a civil prisoner.
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The main problem though, is he is in a segregation unit meant for hard criminals. And we have a law
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firm and, um, by this time, by the time you're watching this video, you should receive a letter
00:21:03.760
from me outlining the steps we're going to take. Um, this prison law firm has written to the prison,
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the prison has written back, and I'm going to show that letter, um, in an email to Tommy supporters.
00:21:16.080
So anyway, so I'm sorry for the very lengthy argument, I'm sorry, answer, but just to tell you,
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I am very much, uh, focused on that. I'd say I work on that two or three days a week, not for the whole
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day, but I'm dealing with things two or three times a week. Um, because Tommy's not very law oriented.
00:21:36.160
Obviously the lawyers are consulting him. He's the client, but I've agreed to help work with the lawyers to help
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plan budget. What's the strategy just to oversee things a little bit, including on the pricing side.
00:21:49.920
Um, cause I'm a former lawyer myself and I'm a little more familiar. I think Tommy doesn't really
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like dealing with lawyers and it shows. Um, and that's a long answer, but, uh, by the time you see
00:21:59.440
this video, you should have a more detailed update from me. Noreen Proctor says, hi Ezra. I ran up to
00:22:06.000
hug you at Tamara Leach's book signing in Calgary. Ezra, you never give up no matter what. I have
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watched non mainstream news and rebel news for the last almost five years. And you're my number one
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all time Canadian hero. God bless you. And every single rebel reporter, you are all Canadian heroes.
00:22:20.800
Well, thank you. And thank you for the hug. And I am a big fan of Tamara Leach as well. And working
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with her has been a great privilege. Um, not only doing stories about her, but publishing her book.
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And as you know, we're crowdfunding her legal fees. And I just recently learned that she was paying for
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her own physical security and she didn't tell anyone. Whenever I would see her out in Ottawa,
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she would have this bodyguard who was a great bodyguard, by the way, I mean, really professional.
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And I don't know why, but I assumed someone else was paying for that. I just never asked until
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recently. And she said she paid tens of thousands of dollars for her own protection. And I, I'll be
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honest with you. My first reaction was I was mad, mad that she'd kept that a secret. I mean, it just goes
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to show you how humble she is and she didn't ask for help. Yeah, we're going to help her with that,
00:23:14.400
as you know. Bobby Meyer says, New Zealand, because of its anti-Semitic government, it's experiencing
00:23:21.280
high levels of anti-Semitism. Will Rebel News be employing a reporter to cover the issue's
00:23:26.400
actions there? I've been to New Zealand, uh, with Avi and, um, I didn't know that it had an
00:23:35.120
anti-Semitic government in New Zealand. Um, I know that Jacinda Ardern, the socialist leader
00:23:41.200
is gone and that the party that succeeded her was more conservative or freedom oriented.
00:23:47.840
I have not heard that it's anti-Semitic and, and I just, maybe I haven't been following it.
00:23:52.240
I know there are some countries like Ireland, the government is really pro-Hamas, so much so
00:23:58.080
that Israel withdrew its embassy. I just haven't heard this about New Zealand. And I, I pretty much
00:24:03.920
rely on Avi Yamini for news about New Zealand. I mean, it's further away than you would guess. In my,
00:24:10.720
when I was a kid, I thought New Zealand and Australia were right close to each other. It's
00:24:14.480
like hours away by plane, just looks close because there's nothing else down there on the map. But
00:24:20.880
if something's happening in New Zealand, I'm going to rely on, on Avi to tell me because I,
00:24:24.960
I just wouldn't have the contacts. Crystal Dowie says,
00:24:29.360
you appear to be a very private person and I want to respect that, but I am curious about
00:24:33.200
your family. Do you have children? What can you tell me about your wife and kids? Do your wife and
00:24:37.520
children agree with you politically? I am sort of private, not because I'm not proud of my, uh,
00:24:44.160
personal life, but because they would face some, um, retaliation and danger for being associated with me.
00:24:52.480
Um, I myself, uh, you know, I'm, I'm up for the cut and thrust of it. I can dish it out so I can take
00:25:00.400
it most of the time. Um, and I'm not under someone else's power. Like I remember when I was a student
00:25:08.880
activist, I was always cognizant of the fact that the professors had the ultimate power over you.
00:25:13.680
They could give you a failing grade, for example. Um, it wouldn't give you a recommendation letter or
00:25:19.360
something. And even when I worked for other companies, I used to work for the national post.
00:25:24.720
I used to work for the sun and sun news network, things like that. Whenever you have a boss,
00:25:29.360
you are at some risk, but I've, I've been independent for almost 10 years, but my wife and kids, um,
00:25:36.720
first of all, they're not activists like me. So they have, they're not public people. And, um,
00:25:43.040
the problem with being more open about them would be the people who want to get to me might choose to
00:25:50.640
get at me through them. And, and they haven't signed up for that. I mean, uh, obviously they,
00:25:59.280
they respect my, my politics. I mean, when, when I met my wife, I was already fairly well known for
00:26:05.920
having certain strong opinions. And, uh, I don't think she would have spent any time with me had she
00:26:11.280
been opposed to them because it's not like I sneaked up on her with these opinions. She knew,
00:26:16.560
um, she knew about, about me before, before we met on a personal level. Um,
00:26:22.800
and the kids are, are, are young enough that they're not really politically active. Um,
00:26:29.680
you know, what's sort of fun though, is the, the older kids, their peers at high school, um,
00:26:36.240
um, follow Rebel News, not all of them, but it sort of went from, oh, you know,
00:26:42.240
I don't know if you have kids, but your kids love you and, uh, idolize you, uh, until a certain age.
00:26:48.880
And then, you know, they say, oh, dad's not cool. Oh, dad, come on. You're embarrassing. Oh,
00:26:54.880
that's dad's music. Oh, that's dad's slang. I don't know if you know, I mean, kids go from absolutely,
00:27:00.480
uh, holding you up on a pedestal, sort of laughing at how ghost you are, but I've had sort of a
00:27:06.160
renaissance in my own family because, uh, other kids in high school think Rebel News is cool.
00:27:12.000
Anyways. Um, so thank you for that letter, Crystal. Susan Burns. Hi, Ezra. I would like to know more
00:27:18.640
about Theresa Tam. I haven't ever seen anything about her background and current involvement with the WHO.
00:27:23.520
Well, Susan, um, I haven't done a story about Theresa Tam recently, but we did a lot of reports about
00:27:31.920
her, uh, during the pandemic and right in the very early days, we were one of the first to dig up, uh,
00:27:39.280
a footage of her in some national film board documentary about quarantines and like prisons
00:27:50.080
and arresting people who didn't lock themselves up. Um, so, so we were very, very early skeptics
00:27:57.760
of Theresa Tam. We also, I think it was Rebel News that broke the exclusive that she was
00:28:05.120
an employee, not employee. She was, well, yeah, an employee of the World Health Organization
00:28:10.480
and had a non-disclosure agreement with them and sort of a loyalty pledge to them.
00:28:14.640
And, and she was one of the directors that made some vote about whether or not to, you know,
00:28:21.280
to criticize China or so. I forget the details right now, but we did a ton of journalism about
00:28:27.760
Theresa Tam. I think we had a very large petition too. And again, I'm going from memory here. I think
00:28:32.640
we called it Fire Tam, F-I-R-E-T-A-M.com. Um, I haven't done a story about her recently. Maybe someone else on
00:28:40.960
our team has. I know that, um, Tamara Ugolini and, um, Drea Humphrey continue to do that beat.
00:28:48.720
But if you want to see our stuff on Theresa Tam, just type in FireTam.com. And I think that'll show
00:28:56.320
a lot of our stories. There is a question people ask, which is, is she transgender?
00:29:00.480
And, uh, I've seen pictures and allegations. I haven't done any investigation in that regard.
00:29:07.680
And frankly, that's not my beef with her. My beef with Theresa Tam is she's an authoritarian bully,
00:29:15.200
junk science, obeys the World Health Organization, um, has dual loyalties. On the one hand, she's loyal
00:29:21.120
to the World Health Organization. On the other hand, she's loyal to Canada. Which pick a lane? Which one is
00:29:25.520
it? Um, none of that has to do with her own sexuality. I don't know about her sexuality.
00:29:31.760
And it's the reason I find her atrocious is because of what she does, not because of
00:29:39.120
her sexuality one way or the other. Wayne Curry, is it possible or feasible for Trump to exempt
00:29:44.560
certain provinces from tariffs while imposing them on non-compliant provinces? Also, you've said that the
00:29:50.000
average donation to Rebel News is $58. Is that per month, per year? Merry Christmas. Wayne,
00:29:54.880
the average gift. The average, to answer your question, we don't get any money from the government.
00:30:00.720
We, we don't get money from YouTube. We were demonetized. So we rely overwhelmingly on crowd
00:30:06.000
funding. And the average gift is $58. So that's the average time when someone gives. Sometimes people
00:30:13.040
give once and never again. Sometimes people give every month. Uh, if, if people are giving every month,
00:30:19.840
typically it's less than $58. The reason I mentioned the $58 average donation is to make the point that
00:30:28.400
we have a ton of little supporters. It's not like we have one big oligarch cutting us a check for a
00:30:34.400
million bucks a year. I've daydreamed about that. Sometimes life would be easier if you just had one
00:30:39.920
giant benefactor, but it would be terrifying because you would have to do exactly what they said. Or with
00:30:44.320
one flick of the tail, you'd be out of business. Um, luckily I've never been tested with such an
00:30:49.920
offer. Um, as to your question about tariffs, I don't see why not. I mean, Trump can do whatever
00:30:56.400
he wants. He could write a tariff in whatever way he wants. In terms of practical terms, he might exempt
00:31:02.720
oil and gas and minerals, but tariff the auto industry that would effectively have a geographic
00:31:08.480
difference too, wouldn't it? Darlene Brown says, I appreciate all the honest reporting your team
00:31:12.960
does for us Canadians when we can't trust any legacy media. I'm not at all happy with the flack you all
00:31:18.400
get, but that is a burden we must bear with telling the truth these days. However, it seems that there
00:31:23.200
are only two provinces in Canada that got most of the coverage and they are Alberta and Ontario.
00:31:27.920
Is it possible there might be something worth reporting in let's say Saskatchewan or Manitoba?
00:31:32.160
Mea culpa, you are correct. And it's a function of where our people are geographically. Drea is in
00:31:41.840
the greater Vancouver area. Sheila is in Alberta. Alexa is in Montreal. I'm here in Toronto with David.
00:31:49.200
Avi Amini's in Melbourne. We used to have a fella in Ottawa. We actually briefly had a young lady,
00:31:54.800
Kelly Lamb, in Saskatchewan. And when we had her, she was doing stories there. It's a little bit harder,
00:32:01.200
although, you know, we do, we do travel around. I acknowledge that we are not doing enough
00:32:06.240
coverage in Saskatchewan or Manitoba and we do very little in the Atlantic. And I think it's
00:32:12.320
because we're small and you don't just need the journalists. You need the cameraman and the editor
00:32:18.320
and things like that. And we, listen, if, if we had the budget, I would love to have someone in the
00:32:24.720
Atlantic and I would love to have someone in the prairies. We just, we just don't. Brian Krause, my question is,
00:32:30.640
can you select a subscriber once a month to shadow you and or one of your reporters for a day in
00:32:35.600
whatever office or region that makes sense that's closest to where they live or work? I'd be
00:32:39.360
fascinated to see how the sausage is made. And I bet many other subscribers feel the same way.
00:32:44.160
I volunteer for the first month you start this program, as long as it's not in April,
00:32:48.160
as I'm a tax accountant. Thank you for considering it. Well, Brian, that sounds like a lot of fun.
00:32:52.880
Um, half the sausage is made. Yeah, well, it is sort of fun behind the scenes. I mean, every
00:32:59.600
morning at 10 a.m. Eastern, which is 8 a.m. in Alberta and 7 a.m. in BC. And I say that because
00:33:05.600
we have teammates in different time zones. We have a Zoom or Skype call where we all sort of talk about
00:33:10.640
stories of the day and who's doing what. And then I'll just take in the example of David Menzies. We have
00:33:16.560
it. But typically he goes somewhere and the cameraman goes with him and there's some interaction. God
00:33:21.520
forbid, sometimes he's even arrested and then to bring that back. And then the cameraman is typically
00:33:26.560
also the video editor. And maybe there's some comments said in the studio. Yeah, it's an interesting
00:33:33.920
process. And then when it's done, it's reviewed by an editor and then it's uploaded to the internet
00:33:38.960
and tweets are written for every story. There's probably six pairs of hands that touch it, maybe even
00:33:45.040
more. And then sometimes if it's interesting, someone writes an email to send that out to the
00:33:49.680
list. So it is how the sausage is made. It's a great phrase in terms of the logistics.
00:33:57.920
You know, why don't you why don't you send an email? I mean, I'm not sure where you're located.
00:34:02.960
It would be a different experience if you're out in the field, like in Vancouver,
00:34:07.040
just to watch Drea report something. Whereas here in Toronto, you would probably see more of the
00:34:11.600
different stages in the, you know, the assembly line. You know, we wouldn't want you to get
00:34:17.920
underfoot trampled or anything, but it could be fun. It could be fun sort of reality TV style,
00:34:22.160
almost like TMZ brings a camera into the newsroom.
00:34:25.840
All right. Last question. Leanne says, what surprised you most this year, good or bad?
00:34:33.520
I was surprised that Trump won as convincingly as he did.
00:34:37.440
I wasn't surprised that, that he got the votes. I was surprised that there weren't more shenanigans.
00:34:45.120
I was convinced of it. I was, you know, the kids use the phrase red pill and blue pill.
00:34:51.200
And then there's a phrase white pill or black pill. These are, you know, different moods. Red pill is
00:34:56.720
you wake up to reality. Blue pill is you like to still labor in unreality. Black pill is you feel like
00:35:05.120
everything's doomed. White pill is you feel delighted and optimistic. I was blackpilled
00:35:10.880
about the election. I thought they're going to do everything and anything. Trillions of dollars,
00:35:15.920
entire wars will turn on this election. I thought the deep state, whatever, anything, nothing,
00:35:22.960
they will not let Trump win. And look, they tried twice to assassinate him. They came within an inch
00:35:27.360
once. So when he won and won every swing state and won the majority of the popular vote, I was shocked.
00:35:38.160
Not shocked that he had the support, but shocked that he overcame the shenanigans. And I'm still
00:35:46.640
reeling from that. And that gives me hope here in Canada too. Pope John Paul II always used to say,
00:35:54.000
where there's life, there's hope. And isn't that the truth? So never give up. Never give up. Never,
00:36:01.760
never, never. My friends, thanks for your great questions. And Merry Christmas to you all from
00:36:08.560
Hanukkah Harry over here on behalf of all of us at Rebel World Headquarters to you at home.