Rebel News Podcast - Ford's free market cannabis plan gives public sector unions “reefer madness”

00:00:00.000 Tonight, reports are suggesting that Premier Ford wants private retailers to be able to sell

00:00:05.680 marijuana and the progressives, well, they're acting paranoid. Did they start smoking before

00:00:12.140 it's legal? I wonder. It's August 1st. I'm David Menzies and this is the Ezra Levin Show.

00:00:23.320 Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?

00:00:26.900 There's 8,500 customers here and you won't give them an answer.

00:00:30.940 You come here once a year with a sign and you feel morally superior.

00:00:34.340 The only thing I have to say to the government about why I publish it is because it's my bloody right to do so.

00:00:44.320 We are only a few months away from the legalization of cannabis in Canada.

00:00:49.260 And whether or not you imbibe, there was some good news recently for those who are fans of the

00:00:54.680 free market economy. Namely, Ontario Premier Doug Ford is hinting that pot might be sold in private

00:01:01.660 retail stores. Hey, that's far out, man. Although not everybody is happy, of course.

00:01:07.040 Now, full disclosure, I have never smoked marijuana. Hey, forget wacky tobacco. I've never even had a

00:01:13.780 cigarette. You're looking at a real square here, folks. But this rant isn't about the various forms

00:01:19.920 of combustibles. It's about which channel should sell those products. Now, in Ontario, under the

00:01:26.620 previous Kathleen Wynne Liberal government, the plan for cannabis was that it would be sold the

00:01:32.280 same way liquor is retailed in the province. Namely, it would be made available only via a

00:01:37.720 government-run retail monopoly. But recently, newly elected Premier Doug Ford suggested that pot

00:01:44.240 might also be retailed at private sector shops too. Hallelujah. Indeed, the marijuana file is a

00:01:52.400 snapshot that fully illustrates the difference between the Wynne Liberal way of doing things

00:01:57.960 versus the Ford PC way of taking care of business. In fact, remember last May during the election

00:02:04.840 campaign how former Premier Wynne tried to channel fear-mongering regarding pot sales at private

00:02:10.840 shops. It was like a 2018 rendition of reefer madness. So it was that in vilifying the private

00:02:18.660 sector, Wynne ridiculously said Ontarians don't want, quote, cannabis sold next to candy bars,

00:02:26.620 end quote. Really? Based on what survey, Ms. Wynne? Or was this based on a gut feeling in your old

00:02:33.460 role as the province's top nanny statist? Wynne is yesterday's news, of course, but the

00:02:40.500 Ontario Public Service Employees Union, well, they're likely here forever, unfortunately. And

00:02:45.960 check out their little tidbit of reefer madness by way of a press release they sent out yesterday.

00:02:52.440 Here's the opening line, quote, as the outcry grows against Doug Ford's leaked plan to privatize

00:02:59.380 the sale of cannabis, OPSU President Warren Smokey Thomas is calling on the rookie Premier to give it

00:03:07.000 some sober second thought, end quote. Yeah, gee, what is Smokey smoking these days? Right off the bat,

00:03:14.660 old Smokey spreads a heap and helpin' of fake news with his pronouncement about there being a

00:03:21.120 growing outcry against privatization of pot sales. A growing outcry by whom, Smokey? The rank and file of

00:03:30.260 OPSU? But check this out, folks. In the second paragraph of the release, Smokey goes full-on fear factor.

00:03:38.680 Quote, the haze is clearing on this half-baked scheme and people are realizing that it's going to cause a lot

00:03:45.480 more problems than it solves. Who's going to pay for all the extra policing we'll need? Who's going to pay for

00:03:52.100 all the extra inspectors? And except for profiteers and organized criminals, who else would actually

00:03:59.700 benefit? Nobody, end quote. Whoa, profiteers and criminals running wild on the streets of Toronto,

00:04:07.500 all because of little mom-pa shop selling marijuana? Oh, give me a break. Alas, what Smokey is peddling

00:04:15.040 is so much hallucinatory crapola. And I'm sick and tired of the private sector being maligned by the

00:04:22.980 government and public sector unions that are entitled to their entitlements. That's because

00:04:29.320 the numbers prove that when it comes to social responsibility tied into age-restricted products,

00:04:36.320 it is the private sector that actually does a far better job than the nattering nabobs of negativity

00:04:42.040 running the nanny state. Just check out a mystery shopping study conducted by Statopex Field Marketing

00:04:49.520 five years ago. It was revealed that when tested with underage secret shoppers, it was convenience

00:04:55.700 stores that scored the highest challenge and refusal rate. Convenience stores scored an 87.3%

00:05:02.560 pass rate. The beer store chain came in second at 80.7% and lo and behold, the Liquor Control Board of

00:05:09.980 Ontario, which is fully owned and operated by the provincial government and staffed by OPSU members,

00:05:16.260 came in dead last with a 74.6% pass rate. That means one in four miners successfully purchased

00:05:23.660 age-restricted products from the LCBO, as opposed to one in five from the beer store and one in eight

00:05:29.940 for convenience stores. Also, far from a growing outcry against privatized pot sales, I would suggest

00:05:38.340 if there is an outcry, the outcry is for privatized pot sales. Again, consider the numbers in a 2012

00:05:46.700 Ontario Convenience Stores Association petition, which was delivered to Queen's Park, calling on the

00:05:53.080 Ontario legislature to allow for more competition in beer and wine sales through convenience stores.

00:05:59.500 That petition boasted more than 112,000 names from more than 200 communities across the province.

00:06:08.140 It was the single largest petition ever collected in the history of Ontario. Clearly, Ontarians want

00:06:15.820 those age-restricted products sold by the C-Store channel. Why would it be any different when it comes

00:06:22.920 to pot once pot is legalized? So, hey Smokey, why don't you put that data in your pipe and smoke it?

00:06:31.000 And you want to know why the private sector is so much better at selling age-restricted products

00:06:36.860 than government stores, folks? It's because privatized retailers have the most to lose.

00:06:43.280 The government routinely runs sting operations to catch convenience stores selling tobacco to

00:06:48.760 underage customers. If these operators are caught doing so, they face big fines, they might even be

00:06:54.600 stripped of their license to sell tobacco, which is effectively a retail death sentence for them.

00:07:01.080 Yet, what happens when the LCBO sells booze to a minor? Well, the answer is nothing. Case in point,

00:07:09.640 six years ago when I was with the Sun News Network, I organized a little experiment in which a 14-year-old

00:07:15.120 boy, wearing a disguise, visited three LCBO stores to purchase hard liquor. Not only did all the

00:07:22.220 stores sell him bottles of Sambuca, in each case, he wasn't even asked to display identification.

00:07:29.820 And what, pray tell, happened in the aftermath? Did these stores have their business licenses

00:07:35.760 temporarily revoked? Were any of the employees reprimanded? Nope. Rather, here's what LCBO spokesman

00:07:44.000 Chris Layton told the Toronto Sun in a follow-up story, quote, maybe we need to remind our staff

00:07:50.440 of their obligations under the Liquor License Act, end quote. Yeah, no harm, no foul. We just forgot to

00:07:58.480 follow the rules, that's all. We'll try harder next time. Pinky swear. As for the liberal brainstorm of

00:08:05.560 servicing the entire province of Ontario with just 38 government-run Ontario cannabis stores,

00:08:13.180 just talk about a major fail waiting to happen. 38 stores cannot possibly meet the anticipated

00:08:21.440 demand in a province the size of Ontario, all of which will guarantee that the black market will 0.97

00:08:27.780 continue to thrive in this province. Indeed, even the logo for the Ontario cannabis stores monopoly

00:08:34.980 was a fiasco of titanic size proportions. Just check it out, folks. A simplistic OCS in black

00:08:44.120 letters on a white background corralled in a circle. The sort of thing a 10-year-old might produce

00:08:50.240 on an etch-a-sketch, except that the previous liberal government paid an ad agency some $650,000

00:08:59.120 to come up with this tripe. Yes, $650,000. Hey, pass the duchy on the left-hand side. I think I need to

00:09:08.260 get Hyde to help reduce the pain I'm feeling thanks to government stupidity. Bottom line, let's hope 1.00

00:09:15.480 Doug Ford and provincial governments right across Canada, for that matter, allow cannabis to be sold

00:09:22.220 at private stores. And please, let's hope they also dismantle the various provincial liquor and gambling

00:09:28.980 monopolies, too. Government's only role when it comes to any product, even age-restricted products,

00:09:36.100 is to regulate those products and tax the stuff, not retail it. Especially when any state government

00:09:43.780 monopolies tend to do such a profoundly awful job doing so.

00:09:52.220 Ontario Premier Doug Ford dropped a bombshell last Thursday night when he announced that

00:10:10.060 he was cutting the number of Toronto City councillors from 47 to 25 ahead of the October 22nd municipal

00:10:17.340 election. And I think the career politicians at Toronto City Hall are still screaming hysterically

00:10:23.520 about this austerity plan because, hey, after all, government, in their viewpoint, is supposed to

00:10:28.960 get bigger and bigger, not go on a diet. Joining me now to talk about Premier Ford's bold move

00:10:35.040 is Christine Van Gein, Ontario Director at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. Hey, Christine,

00:10:41.160 welcome to the Ezra Levin Show.

00:10:43.440 Thanks for having me on.

00:10:44.360 Always a pleasure. So tell me, Christine, is this City Hall slimmed down good governance on

00:10:50.200 behalf of the Ford PCs, or is this an attack on democracy, as the progressives would lead

00:10:57.180 us to believe?

00:10:58.940 Yeah, so I think three things about this move. First, I think it's a good move for taxpayers.

00:11:03.260 It's going to save at a minimum $30 million. That's the estimate from the Toronto Star. The government

00:11:08.780 said $25 and a half. But based on last year's public disclosures of spending by council on

00:11:14.880 salaries and staff is closer to $30 million. It's probably even more than that, because if you don't

00:11:21.320 have, if you have 22 fewer city council members, you have 22 fewer pet projects for them to spend

00:11:27.400 money on. The other thing is that this is going to be good for the governance of the City of Toronto.

00:11:33.600 Right now, their council meetings are completely bananas. Last week, they had a council meeting

00:11:39.420 that went on for five days. The meetings go late into the night. Councilors will vote on things at

00:11:45.940 11 p.m., sometimes worth millions of dollars. They'll spend as much time debating something like

00:11:50.900 a traffic light as they will a multi-million dollar contract. So having fewer city councillors,

00:11:57.440 fewer voices wanting to be heard with their own special interests, this is going to streamline

00:12:02.440 democracy. And the third thing that's good about it, from my point of view, just to conclude,

00:12:09.180 is it's actually good for democracy, because the current plan to move to 47 wards creates a big

00:12:15.160 disparity between the wards. You'll have some wards that are really small and some that are quite large,

00:12:21.380 like more than double the size of the smallest ward. So it gives a bigger voice to some people and a

00:12:26.600 smaller voice to others. With 25 wards, they're all closer in population and giving better voter parity,

00:12:32.260 which is a good thing for democracy. No, I tend to agree. And to address your second point,

00:12:36.780 Christine, I've seen it myself at City Hall, paralysis by analysis going on for hours, even days

00:12:42.920 about really trite issues. It springs to mind the, you know, the adage of too many chefs spoiling the

00:12:49.760 broth. But, you know, tell me, what fascinates me is the hypocrisy. Mayor John Tory is all of a sudden 0.76

00:12:57.440 saying, well, we need a referendum on this. We need to hear from the people. Well, why wasn't

00:13:03.240 there a referendum when they decided to increase the size of city council from 44 to 47? Oh, then the

00:13:11.660 great unwashed masses, I guess their opinion doesn't count for much. But when some of these

00:13:15.700 cats are losing their jobs, suddenly the people are very important, eh?

00:13:19.380 Yeah, so from my point of view, I'm never against bringing a question to the people. And I wish that

00:13:26.520 our system of governance actually had more referendum on issues, because I think the people

00:13:31.340 usually know better than their elected politicians who get into these positions of power and then use

00:13:37.220 it to promote their own self-interest. So I'm always in favor of a referendum. I don't think in this

00:13:41.980 case it's going to actually happen in time. The referendum wouldn't be possible before the October

00:13:48.500 election. It's October municipal election. So we're in a position where we're forced to say,

00:13:55.040 are we going to increase to 47 wards? Are we going to have a referendum? And I think that the move to

00:14:03.140 47 wards is a bad move, and it's going to be bad for the city, and we stuck with it for four years.

00:14:08.260 But I am generally in favor of putting questions like this to the people, and I wish that we did that

00:14:15.060 more often than just when politicians hide or at rest. Oh, no, it's a different set of rules when

00:14:22.640 it's slimming down as opposed to larding up. But, you know, the other thing, Christine, is that this

00:14:28.960 allegation that, you know, this came from out of the blue that, you know, we can't believe you're doing

00:14:35.140 this. I mean, did any of these people listen to what Doug Ford was saying on the campaign trail when

00:14:41.600 he was saying things like the party on the taxpayer dime is over and, you know, less government and

00:14:47.400 respect for taxpayer dollars? He campaigned on less government, more efficient government.

00:14:53.480 Why are they having us believe that this is a complete shock to them, that he would do something

00:14:58.600 like this? It's true that Mr. Ford campaigned on the promise to make government smaller, and it looks

00:15:05.380 like he's starting by making Toronto City Council smaller. I don't know what making government

00:15:11.020 smaller could mean other than something like this. But it is true that he didn't explicitly say that

00:15:17.140 he was going to make this move. However, I think that if you are shocked by this, you're really not

00:15:23.260 paying attention, and you don't know who Ontario elected. Mr. Ford, Premier Ford, has been involved in

00:15:30.440 Ontario politics and Toronto politics for a really, really long time. He's very passionate about the

00:15:37.640 city. He said repeatedly throughout his career how dysfunctional Toronto City Council is. And his own

00:15:44.000 brother, when his brother was mayor, his brother supported a motion to reduce City Council to 25

00:15:48.860 members. So it's really not coming out of the blue. People kind of are lighting their hair on fire and

00:15:54.320 saying it's a big shock. Mr. Tory's exact words were that Premier Ford had raised this with him,

00:16:00.780 but he didn't think he was furious. At the press conference, when confronted with this fact,

00:16:06.060 Premier Ford laughed. And he said, I don't know why he thinks I raised it if I wasn't serious.

00:16:11.680 So I don't think people should be shocked. Yeah, and I know there's also been allegations that this

00:16:16.500 is really being driven by a vendetta against Tory, who, of course, four years ago, Doug Ford lost to in

00:16:23.420 the race for mayor. I don't think those are valid. But the thing is, Christine, City Council isn't

00:16:29.760 going quietly into the night. They're contemplating a legal challenge. I think that's a fool's errand.

00:16:36.780 I think that's just more wasting of taxpayer dollars, because at the end of the day, I think 0.96

00:16:42.840 the province is constitutionally sound to do this. Municipalities in Ontario exist by, you know,

00:16:49.340 the will of the province. So do they have any basis for a lawsuit to try to reverse this decision?

00:16:56.820 It's hard for me to comment on the basis of a lawsuit. There are, it's clearly within the powers

00:17:02.380 of the Premier to do this, but there are also principles of democracy. So it would be

00:17:07.760 something that if the city wants to bring a lawsuit and challenge us, they would say that there's an

00:17:13.440 unwritten principle of democracy, and that this principle is being undermined by the move

00:17:17.660 of the Premier doing this so close to the election. The challenge would be related to the timing of

00:17:25.580 the move rather than the substance of the move. And I think that that's, at least for voters,

00:17:31.440 it's not particularly persuasive to say this is the right thing to do, but it's the wrong time.

00:17:37.200 So it's hard to say when the right time is to move ahead with a move like this, especially when

00:17:43.720 you know that no matter what, when you do it, council is going to be opposed to it.

00:17:47.800 And, you know, you raised something there too, Christine, the voters. Do you think the people,

00:17:52.840 I'm not talking about the political insiders, you know, people such as yourself that are,

00:17:57.220 you know, watching the political game, but I'm just talking about Joe and Jane Public getting by.

00:18:02.180 Do you think that they really care about city council being cut almost in half,

00:18:09.240 or are they just collectively shrugging about this and life goes on?

00:18:14.760 I mean, in the debate, some city councilors said that they had received a total of, I think,

00:18:19.520 four emails from one councillor.

00:18:21.960 Four emails on this issue, two against and two for. So the reality is, unfortunately,

00:18:28.320 I think a lot of people don't even know who their city council is, councillor, not alone which ward

00:18:33.000 they live in, or before this debate popped up, how many wards there are in the city of Toronto.

00:18:39.460 And I do wish that people were more engaged in their local democracy, because it's important

00:18:43.740 that we are so that we can hold our politicians to account. But to say that this is the number one

00:18:48.540 issue in Toronto right now, in Ontario right now, it just shows that there are vested interests at

00:18:55.240 stake. It shows that there are people with something to lose. And those are the politicians. And those are

00:19:00.340 the people who are laying their hair on fire. This is not an issue that, you know, regular people

00:19:05.420 are really consumed with. I think where people line up passionately on this, if they're not

00:19:11.080 somehow involved, is if they liked Premier Ford to begin with, or if they didn't like him to begin

00:19:18.800 with. And their position on it is largely falling along those lines.

00:19:22.940 Yeah, I agree. If there's any vendetta, it's the anti-Ford people that are playing their cards in

00:19:28.260 regard to this announcement. And, you know, Christine, we're almost at an end here for

00:19:33.400 this segment. But how about we leave it on this? When you look at the numbers, right? I look at the

00:19:39.060 city of Los Angeles, their population, almost 4 million people. They have 15 councils, sorry, 15

00:19:47.400 people on council. Toronto, the population is 2.8 million. It's going to go down to 25 members of

00:19:55.020 council. So I guess what I'm saying to you, Christine, if a city of 4 million people like

00:19:59.400 Los Angeles can get it done with 15, surely a city of 2.8 million like Toronto can get it done

00:20:06.260 with 25, no? Yeah, I mean, there's no magic number for what the right size for council is. And Los

00:20:13.100 Angeles does have only 15 councillors, but they have smaller sub-councils that are also playing a role

00:20:19.720 there. But other cities like Brisbane has a council of 26 councillors and they're closer in size to

00:20:29.200 Toronto. Calgary has a smaller city council. There isn't a magic number, but what we do know is that

00:20:35.600 right now Toronto City Council is highly, highly dysfunctional. So any move that might improve the

00:20:41.840 functioning of that body should be welcomed by people instead of hailed as some kind of end of

00:20:48.880 the world. I agree. As the farmers say out West, time to call the herd, if you will. Christine, a

00:20:56.280 pleasure speaking with you on this latest decision by the Doug Ford PCs. Yeah, thanks for having me on.

00:21:02.660 You got it. And folks, keep it here. More of the Ezra Levent Show to come right after this.

00:21:18.880 Holy headache. When old Twitter comments made by Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn surfaced

00:21:25.180 last week, his employer Disney was not amused. Gunn had made jokes about rape, pedophilia, 9-11 and even

00:21:33.980 the Holocaust, many found to be very unfunny, very vulgar and totally inappropriate. Disney decided to

00:21:42.160 fire gun from directing the next Guardians sequel. But faster than you can yell Avengers assemble, the cast

00:21:48.820 members of Guardians of the Galaxy issued a joint statement imploring Disney to reinstate the disgraced

00:21:56.180 director. And with more on this story is our Hollywood conservative Amanda Head. Welcome to the Ezra Levent Show,

00:22:02.960 Amanda. Thank you. Thanks for having me. I think this is my first time on Ezra's show. Oh, you always remember your

00:22:09.240 first time, they say. Right. And I better watch what I'm saying, given what happened to Mr. Gunn.

00:22:13.860 But I guess, Amanda, the most relevant question in this story is simply this. Will the Guardians of

00:22:21.440 the Galaxy cast get their way when it comes to getting Gunn back on board or will Disney stick to its

00:22:27.800 rocket raccoon guns? I sincerely hope that they stick to their guns because that's going to set a precedent

00:22:37.060 in Hollywood. And I frankly think that the cast was wrong to come out and defend this guy. You know,

00:22:44.720 if you remember two years ago, when the hot mic moment came out about Donald Trump, obviously,

00:22:51.260 when that emerged, the conversation between him and the E! News guy had happened, you know, 10 years

00:23:00.600 prior to that. And liberals in Hollywood were like, it still matters. It still matters. And yet these cast

00:23:07.120 members are coming out and saying, oh, but he said it so long ago, not that long ago. And the things

00:23:13.140 that he said were, I mean, he joked about raping children and, you know, pedophilia. And one or two 0.98

00:23:20.640 jokes here or there can come across as just making, you know, having poor judgment and making egregious

00:23:27.780 jokes. But the sheer volume of content that's out there of things that he said along these lines,

00:23:33.920 I'm not trying to pathologize his situation, but it kind of makes you wonder if there's a deeper

00:23:40.840 issue. And Disney is a company who makes children's movies and content. And so I think that Disney,

00:23:48.480 you know, of course, it begs the question, is this freedom of speech? Well, yes, of course,

00:23:52.100 it's freedom of speech. But same with the NFL, private company, private ownership. You have the right

00:23:57.580 to hire and fire at will. And I think that they made the right decision because

00:24:02.020 I think that the franchise would have suffered if they had not fired him. And I think that there

00:24:09.380 is a very strong likelihood that the third installment of the franchise still will suffer

00:24:14.500 because these cast members came out and defended him.

00:24:17.720 But, you know, Amanda, I'm really struggling with this one. And I'll tell you why. We seem to have,

00:24:23.720 I think we're going into a period of outrage fatigue where, you know, finding something,

00:24:29.480 anything that somebody said as being a source of outrage. And always, always, always, it seems,

00:24:35.380 given the social media mob mindset that's out there. The only solution, of course, is to fire that

00:24:43.220 person, economically blacklist them. We saw it happen with Roseanne Barr last month, a Winnipeg 1.00

00:24:50.740 morning man. Dave Wheeler lost his gig because of a joke he made about a transgender person that,

00:24:58.020 you know, his higher ups didn't like. What I'm getting at, Amanda, is that are we in a time frame

00:25:06.800 right now where just by saying or doing something offensive, it automatically means the death penalty

00:25:14.120 in terms of your career, as opposed to the old days where there used to be like suspensions,

00:25:18.200 fines, that sort of thing. You know, what are your thoughts on that?

00:25:23.120 I don't think it'll be the death penalty for his career. I think that there are places who cater to

00:25:27.900 that type of humor. You know, Adult Swim on late night cartoon network or, you know, any network that

00:25:36.480 carries that type of salacious and offensive humor. So I definitely don't think that his career is over.

00:25:41.480 But, you know, this the left has been doing this to people on the right for a very, very long time.

00:25:48.960 And people on the right have suffered professionally and emotionally and within their community.

00:25:53.980 And it's finally being done back to them. And, you know, they're not happy about it. But I love

00:26:00.580 the comparison with Roseanne because, you know, she she put out this tweet and people said,

00:26:06.640 oh, her tweet means that she's racist, which is why she should be fired. But yet when this guy tweets

00:26:12.420 about raping little boys and little boys touching him in his silly place, that's not an indication of 0.99

00:26:18.100 any type of psychological issue regarding pedophilia. Yeah, no, I agree. The the jokes were vulgar and 0.99

00:26:27.120 they were crude and probably the worst sin of all. They were unfunny, which is the nature of a joke.

00:26:32.720 But the other issue I have with what we're going through, and you are right, the left began this

00:26:39.640 witch hunt. And, you know, I have problems with the double standard there as well. But what another

00:26:48.720 thing I'm getting at, Amanda, is that how far back do we go in somebody's life in terms of an electronic

00:26:56.320 or printed footprint and finding out something that was salacious or vulgar? I mean, right right now,

00:27:04.420 I'm kind of concerned maybe did I write something in my yearbook from high school that's going to hit

00:27:10.200 me over the head? It seems that we're all kind of living with the sort of Damocles over our heads

00:27:16.520 right now. Well, David, I think that if you had written in some if you were a senior in high school

00:27:24.180 at 18 years old and you wrote in a first grader, first graded females yearbook, I would like for 0.95

00:27:31.480 you to touch me in my silly place. And you worked for Disney. I'm sorry, but I think you ought to be 0.93

00:27:36.700 fired. Yeah, I know. I know what you're saying. But again, it's it's the timeline. It's it's it's the

00:27:45.680 fact that I guess the other thing I'm getting at to Amanda, these were jokes. I totally agree with

00:27:50.920 you. Distasteful, vulgar, unfunny. But I contrast that with Roman Polanski, who actually did rape 0.81

00:27:59.440 a underage girl many decades ago. And you'll see once in a while, maybe it's different now post me

00:28:07.060 to moment a movement, but you'll see every once in a while the some speech given at the Golden Globes

00:28:14.140 or the Oscars where there's where the person is imploring to have Roman Polanski come back.

00:28:19.780 And there's like a quasi standing ovation. Now, that guy is a scumbag for what he did. 1.00

00:28:25.720 A hundred percent because he actually did this. I'm guessing what I'm getting at. There's a difference 1.00

00:28:30.500 between doing something and making some jokes that really missed the mark.

00:28:35.400 Yeah. And I agree with you there. But again, we go back to the corporate interest of

00:28:43.620 a corporation like Disney who makes children's content. If this had been, you know, the NFL and

00:28:52.020 someone making jokes about football players, then it might be the same type of situation. But when you

00:28:57.560 have a corporation whose number one purpose is is putting out children's content, you can't have 0.98

00:29:05.000 someone on staff who is making jokes about raping children. And Disney is a private company. They 0.91

00:29:09.400 have the right to hire and fire whoever they want. And by the way, without cause. But this is 100%

00:29:13.880 cause. And the issue with Roman Polanski, I mean, that begs a larger question of the culture within

00:29:19.600 Hollywood and the normalizing of really disgusting, abhorrent criminal behavior.

00:29:24.580 No, you are quite right. And Amanda, one last question, because we have to wrap here soon.

00:29:29.800 Moving forward, I'm just wondering why the cast is showing this solidarity. I mean,

00:29:37.140 you know, given these terrible jokes aside, is this a really good director, a really good guy?

00:29:43.120 And secondly, when it comes to the new director coming in, if Disney is indeed going to stick to

00:29:50.260 its guns and keep this guy on the bench, do you think there's going to be kind of a toxic environment

00:29:56.200 created on the set? To your first question, I gave up trying to get in the minds of celebrities years

00:30:03.000 ago. I can't, I can't really imagine why they would. Maybe because their experience with him

00:30:12.280 was 100% pleasant. But as we know, I mean, I'm in the middle of watching a documentary about a guy who

00:30:18.540 allegedly and possibly murdered two women. But, you know, on the surface, he seemed, you know,

00:30:24.340 genteel and normal and all of that. I mean, you never know the other side of things.

00:30:29.120 And to, what was your second question?

00:30:30.820 Oh, the idea that since they're going to bat for this guy, whoever comes in and takes over the

00:30:36.480 directorial reins, is that going to cause a lot of friction on the set and maybe the product suffers

00:30:43.160 for it?

00:30:44.080 I hope not. I hope that they can remain professional and understand the situation that James Gunn put

00:30:50.980 Disney in. This is not a situation that Disney created. This is a situation that James Gunn caused

00:30:56.400 himself. So I hope that these actors and actresses can remain professional. But then again, these are

00:31:01.280 the types of people who cheer on, you know, holding the president's beheaded head and, you know,

00:31:06.360 bashing Donald Trump's star. And they cheer on, you know, brutalizing conservatives. So who knows?

00:31:11.980 All right. Well, Amanda, we're going to have to leave it at that. Thank you so much for weighing

00:31:17.040 in on this latest Hollywood drama from behind the cameras. Really appreciate it.

00:31:22.160 Thank you.

00:31:23.340 And that was Amanda Head, everybody. And please keep it here. More of the Ezra Levent show to come

00:31:28.020 right after this on my interview with Mark Morano from climate depot dot com about the plastic straw

00:31:44.700 ban. Deborah writes, just wait until the plastic freaks go after medical supplies. It shouldn't be 1.00

00:31:51.500 long now. Well, that's the thing, isn't it, Deborah? Today it is plastic straws. And if they win

00:31:57.940 that battle tomorrow, they will campaign for the eradication of another plastic product,

00:32:03.660 all the while using a multitude of plastic products themselves, of course, because they don't want

00:32:09.060 to negatively impact their standard of life. And on my monologue yesterday about Doug Ford

00:32:15.280 cutting Toronto City Council in half and working at the speed of business as opposed to the speed

00:32:22.080 of bureaucracy, Paul writes, the career politicians in Toronto are scrambling.

00:32:27.940 According to the Liberal Party sponsored news, an injunction is or has been filed in an attempt 0.99

00:32:33.860 to save their useless asses. Well, actually, Paul, the last I heard is that council has requested 0.99

00:32:41.000 city lawyers to explore options and get back to them on August 20th. Yeah, August 20th.

00:32:48.540 Just think about that for a second. Their asses are indeed on the line here and they are up against 0.95

00:32:54.400 the clock. And these guys still need three weeks to explore options. Wow. Even when many of these 0.84

00:33:02.560 councillors are facing unemployment, they still move at the speed of government. And Keith writes,

00:33:10.240 I had a dream last night. Doug Ford, Prime Minister of Canada. Well, you know, Keith, your dream is a

00:33:17.400 progressive's worst nightmare. But hey, people scoffed at the very idea of Rob Ford becoming mayor of

00:33:23.600 Toronto and the usual suspects laughed aloud about Doug Ford becoming PC party leader and then premier of

00:33:30.700 Ontario. So who's really to say that your dream sometime in the future won't indeed come true? Well, that's it

00:33:39.100 for tonight's show, folks. I'll be back in filling for Ezra again tomorrow. In the meantime, never forget

00:33:44.260 without risk, there can be no glory. Good night.

Rebel News Podcast - August 02, 2018

Ford's free market cannabis plan gives public sector unions “reefer madness”

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript