Rebel News Podcast - Lifelong academic allegedly quits cushy McGill tenure after failed anti-fossil fuel campaign

00:00:00.000 Hello, my rebels. It is cold out there if you're in Canada and even parts of the States.

00:00:05.900 You know, I was in Houston a month ago and it was so cold, they brought out the de-icing machine

00:00:12.280 in Houston. I don't know if they ever did that before. I don't know. I'm going to talk about

00:00:18.760 the weather, but I'm going to talk about a professor in McGill who resigned because they're

00:00:23.840 not divesting from fossil fuels. I guess he's not putting the weather together with his ideology.

00:00:29.360 Anyways, I'll go through it and it's a little bit funny, I think, a little bit odd.

00:00:34.660 Before I do, let me invite you to become a premium subscriber. That gives you the video version of

00:00:40.560 this. There's this one scene where I show you a band. I'd like you to see that on video and I show

00:00:45.820 a few other things from his resume on video. I know you're probably watching and listening to this in

00:00:51.380 a subway or a bus or in a car so you can't watch a video. But I would encourage you to become a

00:01:00.420 premium subscriber so that you can watch it by video. And just go to premium.rebelnews.com.

00:01:08.260 It's eight bucks a month. You get the video version of this podcast. All right, here it is.

00:01:13.360 Tonight, it's freezing across Canada, but a McGill professor wants everyone to stop using fossil fuels.

00:01:34.940 The weird thing is, he claims he's quit over it. It's January 16th and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.

00:01:40.840 Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?

00:01:46.680 There's 8,500 customers here and you won't give them an answer.

00:01:50.740 The only thing I have to say to the government, the wire publisher, is because it's my bloody right to do so.

00:02:01.760 Oh my God, it is cold out. Minus 30, minus 40 in the prairies. And if you count windchill,

00:02:08.320 there are places it is colder than minus 50, if that's even possible. I was studying the temperature

00:02:15.160 on the planet Mars. You know, what am I going to do? I'm just surfing around. Of course, Mars is

00:02:21.500 much farther away from the sun than our planet Earth is. And so it's colder there. There are

00:02:26.380 different temperatures on different parts of Mars, just like on Earth. But we are absolutely colder in

00:02:31.540 Canada now than the warmer parts of Mars. That's a fact. And that's crazy.

00:02:38.760 They can't even handle zero degree weather in BC. Looks pretty fun out there. Snow day.

00:02:47.180 Here are two videos I like. Look at this video taken yesterday of Vancouver's police horses just

00:02:54.480 frolicking a bit in the snow. Doesn't that look nice out there? That's lovely. Now this next video,

00:03:01.200 I have no idea where it's from. I don't think it's from Canada, but that is pretty cool. I thought that

00:03:06.440 was a jet engine at first. Someone told me it's like some hydraulic blower. I don't even know what

00:03:11.420 that means. Let's just call it a super blower. And look at that clear the snow off those cars. That's

00:03:15.760 pretty cool. Yeah. Fossil fuels. I mean, I guess you could ride a horse, but pretty much anything

00:03:21.920 that's moving these days is moving because of fossil fuels. You wouldn't want to take a horse

00:03:26.340 out in minus 40. You don't see a lot of Teslas out there when it's minus 40. If you've ever been

00:03:32.780 outside with even a cell phone in minus 20, minus 30, you know what that cold does to the batteries.

00:03:39.420 They last minutes, not hours. No one is driving a Tesla in minus 40 weather. In fact, to state the

00:03:46.760 obvious, no one is living in Canada at all without the benefit of fossil fuels. Solar panels, they

00:03:56.220 don't work when they're covered with snow. Good luck to this guy. I hope he doesn't slip.

00:04:02.960 And even if someone does clear them off, you can see it's not very bright out there. In the wintertime

00:04:07.700 in the northern climes, the sun is only out for a few hours a day, especially the further you go to

00:04:12.680 the north. Wind turbines are irregular, intermittent, unreliable in the best of times, and depends on

00:04:20.820 the location. But sometimes cold weather comes with lack of wind. So they're useless too. It's good old

00:04:29.160 coal or natural gas or nuclear or in some places, hydroelectric dams. That's what does it for

00:04:36.860 electricity in your homes? Natural gas for furnaces. Some homes still take heating oil. All the fossil

00:04:42.940 fuels, unless you're getting nuclear. And vehicles, well, gasoline and diesel, that's it. That's all you

00:04:49.540 can really rely on. And when it's minus 40, you need something to rely on. Would you want an electric

00:04:57.160 car-style ambulance in minus 40? Or ever, really? Or a fire truck that goes on electric batteries only?

00:05:07.240 Yeah, no, me neither. Now, Montreal doesn't get as bitter cold as some of these other cities I

00:05:14.180 mentioned. You know, I always like to check the weather in Tuktuk. I follow it on my phone, believe

00:05:19.440 it or not, because it always makes me feel better about weather in Toronto or Calgary or wherever I

00:05:26.340 am. I've been up to Tuktuk, and it's very pleasant in June. But it is not June up there now. It's only

00:05:35.320 about minus one in Montreal as I'm speaking. But it looks like it's going down to minus 18 tonight,

00:05:42.880 even colder tomorrow. Minus 26 is what it feels like. Wind chills. So to sum up, if you haven't got

00:05:50.960 the point yet, we would all be freezing in the dark were it not for fossil fuels. But check out this

00:05:56.960 weirdness. Of course, in the CBC State Broadcast or where else, tenured McGill prof resigns over

00:06:05.020 university's refusal to divest from fossil fuels. Let me read some more. The sub-headline there,

00:06:12.040 university says it will become carbon neutral by 2040. But protesters say that's too little too

00:06:17.200 late. Now, I'm calling BS here. I just find it hard to believe. A tenured professor? The reason

00:06:23.640 the CBC put that in the headline, as you may know, getting tenure, which comes from the Latin word to

00:06:30.240 hold, that's what every professor dreams of. It's a level of seniority where basically you have a

00:06:36.540 guaranteed job for the rest of your life. Until that point, as a professor, you've got to be very

00:06:41.060 careful. You've got to play politics with the other professors and deans. You have to work very

00:06:45.600 hard. Publish research, maybe. Keep your nose clean. But once you get tenure, you're set.

00:06:53.560 It's a kind of union seniority. Then you can pretty much do whatever. I don't know. Goof off.

00:07:00.400 Sleep with your students. Get extremely political. All of it, any of it, not worry about being fired.

00:07:08.740 You're in for life. So the CBC said this professor had tenure. That was their way of saying, wow,

00:07:16.400 who would quit a guaranteed job for life? Really, it's like being appointed to the Senate. You're in

00:07:22.320 there. Actually, the Senate, it's over at age 75. If this professor quit a tenured job on a point of

00:07:31.180 principle, he must mean it. I think that's why they put it in the headline, which I've got to tell you is

00:07:35.780 exactly why. I just don't believe it. I believe there has to be some parallel reason, a collateral

00:07:40.060 reason why he left. Maybe he has a better offer somewhere. Maybe he was going to quit or retire

00:07:45.200 anyways or for other reasons. Maybe he's a red professor who actually got into deep trouble and 0.98

00:07:51.480 was going to be sacked despite his tenure. Maybe he's just tired. I don't know. But it makes no sense

00:07:57.280 to me to give up a six-figure salary for a one-day media pop about what a saint you are. Why not stay in

00:08:02.340 that position and continue to propagandize generations of McGill students getting a big

00:08:07.340 salary for, I don't know, just a few hours of work a day? And of course, universities only teach,

00:08:12.160 what, eight months a year? It's a pretty sweet gig. It doesn't make sense. But the CBC lacks the

00:08:17.100 curiosity to dig deeper. I sent an email to the professor today asking him precisely these things.

00:08:23.800 Very friendly. You can see my email here. Does he drive a car? Does he use plastic? How does he heat

00:08:31.820 his home? Were you going to leave for other reasons? I don't know. I'll let you know if

00:08:37.480 he replies. So far, he hasn't. But let's take it at face value, okay? This saintly professor

00:08:45.460 quit a great gig at McGill for the sole reason that he's really mad that they won't divest their

00:08:54.040 university endowment of over a billion dollars from fossil fuel companies. About eight and a half

00:09:00.260 percent of their money is invested in oil and gas companies. Now, they're not divesting this year,

00:09:05.620 just like they didn't divest last year or the year before. Every year he's been there. I think he's

00:09:09.940 been there for almost 20 years. Oh, and they won't shut down their use of fossil fuels either.

00:09:15.320 And they won't shut down their parking lots and turn them into, I don't know, hippie garden plots or

00:09:20.700 something, composting. Yeah. All of a sudden, he was moved by principle. Let's accept that at face value.

00:09:27.020 I'll read some more. Frustrated by McGill University's refusal to divest itself of investments in fossil

00:09:34.300 fuels, Gregory Mickelson felt it would be immoral to stay on. What it boiled down to for me was a

00:09:41.560 matter of conscience, said Mickelson, who taught at McGill for 18 years. Maybe we have a saint here,

00:09:48.560 my friends. Mickelson, who taught the philosophy of biology and environmental ethics, brought forward

00:09:55.460 a motion last September requesting that McGill fully divest from fossil fuels. Because of the

00:10:00.500 subject matter I research and teach, it became clear that this kind of action is imperative,

00:10:04.520 Mickelson told CBC. The motion was approved in a majority vote, but all decisions made at Senate

00:10:10.100 must then go through the school's board of governors. After the board's social responsibility committee,

00:10:16.360 charged with determining whether divesting from fossil fuels would be a socially responsible

00:10:19.560 decision, reached its decision opposing divestment December 5th. Mickelson felt he had no option.

00:10:27.800 He handed in his letter of resignation seven days later.

00:10:32.580 Let's say the school divested from oil and gas stocks that they had invested in for financial reasons,

00:10:38.620 and then they took that money and invested in other stocks for political reasons,

00:10:44.520 which obviously means they would get a lower rate of return. That's what political investing means.

00:10:50.320 You're choosing other values ahead of profit. Okay, but then you would make less money on your

00:10:56.940 investment or lose more on your investment. But the thing is, it's not your money, right?

00:11:02.400 It's money that donors have donated for the benefit of the school, for the benefit of the students. So

00:11:08.440 the school, if it had less money because of lower returns, it couldn't do certain things. It

00:11:15.040 couldn't hire certain teachers. It couldn't pay for certain expenses. Maybe students would have to

00:11:19.780 pay higher tuition. So you'd be imposing your own political taste on other people at their cost.

00:11:28.520 I wonder what makes this a man, I think what makes this a man bites dog story, you know what I mean?

00:11:37.060 Dog bites man, not news. Man bites dog story. I think what makes it a man bites dog story is that

00:11:42.100 the professional actually quit his own high paying job, which is so rare and unusual. That's why I'm

00:11:47.380 skeptical. I mean, you don't see David Suzuki, Al Gore, Sapporo Berman, not flying, not driving. They

00:11:52.700 want other people to pay the price. It's weird that this guy's quitting.

00:11:55.260 Maybe he thinks McGill will back down. At the University of British Columbia, they did. Let

00:12:01.760 me read this. Earlier this month, the University of British Columbia also promised to fully divest

00:12:06.060 its $1.7 billion endowment fund of fossil fuel investments, clarifying its position on the issue

00:12:10.780 after students went on a 100-hour hunger strike. I have a friend. He's a pro-oral activist. Maybe

00:12:19.060 you know him. He's this guy here. He ran in a provincial election in Alberta. I feel like I helped

00:12:24.380 discover him in a way when I was doing a video on the street in Vancouver in support of ethical

00:12:28.380 oil. His name is Bernard Hancock, or as he's also known, Bernard the Roughneck. He's spoken

00:12:33.560 at a couple of our anti-carbon tax rallies for the rebel. Anyways, he's working in this cold. Look

00:12:38.980 at that. He just posted this to Twitter the other day. Look at how cold he is. It's minus 40

00:12:44.940 where he is. That's just from the moisture of his breath. Oh my God, I'm cold just looking

00:12:50.580 at that. That's ice. That's ice on his face. That's ice. He's outside. He's working, drilling for oil

00:12:58.520 and gas to keep the rest of us warm. That is real life. I like to joke so many people, especially young

00:13:06.060 people, don't know how things are made or they come from. I mean, I barely do. Power, duh, comes from

00:13:11.920 the plug in the wall, you know. Food comes from the grocery store. Actually, these days, I think

00:13:17.160 Zoomers might say food. Well, it comes from Uber Eats. It comes from Skip the Dishes, an app

00:13:23.240 that delivers my avocado toast to me in my condo for $25. So I think that too many people forget

00:13:32.980 that stuff is actually made probably outdoors, probably using fossil fuels, with great industrial

00:13:40.800 and human effort like Bernard was doing there. The most opposite world possible from that of

00:13:45.420 the McGill professor storming out in a huff because his school's governors won't do what

00:13:49.220 he tells them to do, even though it's against the school's fiduciary duty. Imagine the luxury

00:13:54.060 where you can quit your job over that. I bet a lot of people would like to have that kind

00:13:57.900 of job. Now, I found the professor's biographical website. It wasn't hard. This is who he says

00:14:04.980 he is. I went through some of it. Impressive credentials. He's got a PhD, of course, and no, that doesn't

00:14:11.260 mean pilot higher and deeper. He's a professor. He's studied and worked in different cities.

00:14:16.840 He's always cared. Look at this. He was acting director of the recycling office of the University

00:14:23.280 of Chicago in 1990. Seriously, folks, 30 years ago, he was in charge of recycling, and he's

00:14:30.040 got that on his resume. Look at this. McGill Association of University Teachers. So that's the labor

00:14:38.340 union for professors. He's a union man. I'm not sure what he does could be called labor.

00:14:46.220 I think Bernard Hancock does labor. Being the acting director of the recycling office, not

00:14:52.080 even the permanent director. I'm just the acting director. I don't think that's quite what Karl

00:14:56.400 Marx had in mind when he said, workers of the world unite. You have nothing to lose but your

00:15:01.340 chains. Here we go. Staff remuneration committee. I know he was on the committee for salaries and

00:15:10.800 whatnot. Got to get paid. Got to get paid. Absolutely. He was on the collegiality committee.

00:15:18.280 In fact, he chaired it, and he was a member of it five years. He was on the collegiality committee.

00:15:24.260 I don't know what that means. I wonder if the collegiality committee is indeed collegial. I wouldn't

00:15:30.100 know. This just jumped out at me. Apparently, he was in a band. I think that's what that means.

00:15:37.720 Megalith, lead singer, 2008, 2009. That's pretty impressive. Now, I couldn't find any videos of

00:15:48.200 Professor Mickelson singing, but this video purports to be a band called Megalith. I searched

00:15:55.520 on YouTube. This band is called Megalith. I don't know. Maybe there's more than one.

00:15:59.940 And I should note that this appears to be a year after our professor left the band. But

00:16:06.360 let me give you a flavor of Megalith. Take a look.

00:16:10.260 Yeah, no thanks. I can only wonder what the Catskill Poetry Workshop participant 2004 was like.

00:16:36.500 Maybe it was a little bit sweeter. Now, maybe I'm getting old, but making fun of lifelong academics

00:16:42.860 doesn't even feel challenging or amusing to me anymore, because it's not weird or odd anymore.

00:16:50.840 There are thousands, there are tens of thousands of academics just like this one. There are whole

00:16:57.780 new departments in universities. Peace studies, vegetarian studies, transgender studies.

00:17:05.480 Thousands of academics who probably make this guy, Professor Mickelson, look very conservative.

00:17:11.920 I mean, after all, he has committed the sin of being a middle-aged white male, so there's that. 0.50

00:17:17.000 But if the power goes out in Montreal, God forbid, when it's minus 20 tonight, God forbid,

00:17:24.740 I know that it'll be men like Bernard Hancock that gets those houses warm again and those lights

00:17:31.520 burning brightly again and the cars and the buses moving again. While an army of vegan conflict 0.97

00:17:39.260 studies students for life on the recycling committee publicly rage against industry, well, they'll secretly

00:17:49.160 can't wait to get the fossil fuel heat turned back on. Stay with us for more.

00:17:55.580 For decades, American workers, farmers, ranchers, manufacturers and innovators have been hurt by

00:18:13.640 the unfair trade with China. Politicians ran for office promising action to remedy these practices

00:18:20.040 only to do nothing but allow them to continue. Unlike those who came before me, I kept my promise.

00:18:28.340 In June of 2016, in the great state of Pennsylvania, I promised that I would use every lawful presidential

00:18:34.880 power to protect Americans from unfair trade and unfair trade practices. With this signing,

00:18:41.720 we mark more than just an agreement. We mark a sea change in international trade. The agreement

00:18:47.960 tears down major market barriers for U.S. food and agricultural export. Millions of workers and

00:18:54.580 farmers and innovators have waited decades for this day. At long last, Americans have a government

00:19:00.760 that puts them first. Well, that's the official short video announcement from the White House Twitter

00:19:09.060 feed. Donald Trump declaring victory in his phase one trade deal with China. It was tough talk

00:19:17.240 with the Chinese delegate right next to him. It looked pretty strong, especially in contrast

00:19:24.000 to the other presidents who were featured in that short video. But was it as strong as Trump has

00:19:30.760 suggested, as strong as he had promised in his really three-year trade war against China? Well,

00:19:37.360 there's only one man I trust on this subject. And I am delighted that he joins us now via Skype. I'm

00:19:42.620 talking about our friend Gordon Chang, who writes for the Daily Beast. And I follow him closely

00:19:47.760 on Twitter at Gordon G. Chang. And if you want to know anything about China, you should too. Gordon,

00:19:53.560 great to see you again. Thanks for fitting us into your schedule.

00:19:56.900 Oh, well, thank you so much, Ezra. And I'm delighted.

00:19:59.800 Well, it's nice you to say. I love it when you say that, because we love following the story of China.

00:20:05.920 China. And I like the fact that Trump has been tougher on China than any president in recent

00:20:11.400 history. I want to know from you, because I know you'll give us the straight goods,

00:20:16.780 did he compromise too much? Are there positives and negatives in this deal? Take us through it.

00:20:24.580 Yeah, well, there are positives and negatives. And I think Trump could have gotten a better deal.

00:20:29.680 Yeah, I think if we step back for a moment, the president is right that his predecessors just sort

00:20:36.580 of let this whole problem slide. They took actions that sometimes really helped China much more than

00:20:43.360 the United States. So this is a welcome departure. The primary feature of this deal, Ezra, is essentially

00:20:50.740 China agreeing to buy $200 billion more of U.S. goods and services over a 2017 baseline.

00:20:58.660 This is no longer free trade. This is managed trade. And a lot of free traders are upset at this.

00:21:06.440 But we've got to remember that Xi Jinping, the Chinese ruler, is increasingly determining economic

00:21:12.820 outcomes in China. He's moving away from a system and more towards a command economy. So I think the

00:21:23.380 only way you can have really satisfactory trade relations with China is managed trade. So I applaud 1.00

00:21:30.400 the president for making that important switch. Now, if I understand the news reports correctly,

00:21:37.440 China will buy U.S. agricultural products, as well as U.S. natural gas, which will be sent there through

00:21:47.280 those LNG tankers, the liquefied natural gas. Those are some pretty big exports. And that's competing in

00:21:54.800 the case of LNG, actually against Russia, which signed a big deal with China a while back.

00:22:01.640 So I guess that's good news for those two industries. Are there industries that maybe are feeling that they

00:22:09.120 didn't get the deal they were hoping for? Well, you know, you look at this deal line by line and there

00:22:17.240 are going to be some industries that didn't do as well as they had lobbied for. And, you know,

00:22:23.540 the point here, Ezra, is that we're moving to a very different world, which is one which is not as good

00:22:29.560 as the one that we're coming from. And countries like Canada, for instance, can raise a legitimate

00:22:35.240 question. Look, if you've got managed trade with China, you know, why can't we do it? And we got

00:22:41.200 to remember that under the World Trade Organization's non-discrimination rule, China can't offer a side

00:22:47.100 deal of this sort to the United States. It has to offer it to the other 161 WTO members, including,

00:22:54.740 of course, Canada. So this is going to be a very contentious period going forward because other

00:23:00.880 countries are going to say, what about me? Yeah. Very interesting. Now, the last time we spoke,

00:23:07.560 you and I went through some of the new data and intellectual property regimes that Beijing has put

00:23:15.240 into place. There was a new law, I think, that came into effect on January 1st that basically gave

00:23:20.100 China direct access to any data going through that country. I know I'm oversimplifying it, but I'm a bit

00:23:28.100 of a techno-peasant when it comes to the details. I know that's been a big concern for Trump and for

00:23:34.980 a lot of the high-tech industries and even Hollywood and movies and things like that. Does this deal

00:23:41.720 address Chinese intellectual property theft, industrial espionage, or just plain counterfeiting?

00:23:49.120 Well, it does address IP theft. But your description was absolutely correct. China has 0.72

00:23:57.780 two new cybersecurity rules. They're the Multi-Level Protection Scheme 2.0, which was implemented

00:24:04.260 on December 1. And that's according to the 2016 cybersecurity law. Also, on the first day of this

00:24:11.000 year, the Chinese encryption law or cryptology law went into effect. And those two rules, when taken

00:24:19.600 together, mean that China will have complete visibility into the China networks of foreign

00:24:25.660 companies. So that means they'll be able to read all data and have access to all communications

00:24:30.500 because they can no longer encrypt so that the Chinese government and the Communist Party can't read it.

00:24:36.480 That means everything, Ezra. And once China is into the China networks of foreign companies,

00:24:43.860 they'll then have access and better access to get to the non-China portions of those networks.

00:24:51.380 And, you know, Canadians know this better than anybody else because their Nortel networks was

00:24:56.680 bankrupted by Chinese spying and hacking. As they say, it was hacked to pieces. And that was something 0.99

00:25:04.020 that it's, you know, we Americans and everybody else should remember as well.

00:25:09.220 I think that one of the most amazing things I saw in the last year was Apple computers opening up a

00:25:17.100 manufacturing facility in the United States. I think it was in Texas. And Trump was so excited

00:25:22.560 about this, too, that he went for a tour of it with Tim Cook, the head of Apple. And the idea that

00:25:28.760 computer manufacturing would come home to America from Asia is something that I don't think people

00:25:35.900 would have thought would happen a few years ago. But let me ask you this. Now that Trump has relieved

00:25:42.460 some of the pressure on China, will some of those high-tech companies that were looking to move either

00:25:48.560 back to America or to a less hostile regime than China, will they say, oh, well, no need to leave

00:25:55.340 China anymore. We might have a token factory in America, but let's keep the heart of our work

00:26:00.540 here in China. You put your finger on something which is critical. And that is, before this phase

00:26:08.800 one deal was announced, a lot of companies were decreasing their vulnerability to China by moving

00:26:14.740 their factories offshore. So you had Google, Nintendo, GoPro, Fitbit, RH, which is restoration hardware.

00:26:23.800 These companies were moving factories out of China. That whole process has slowed down recently as it's

00:26:32.480 become clear that there would be some sort of trade agreement between China and the United States.

00:26:38.180 Now, phase one is only a truce. But nonetheless, China has reaped a lot of benefits from this.

00:26:45.360 And the other thing which is similar is that the Chinese economy is in really fragile shape.

00:26:51.040 It's decelerating quickly. And this has instilled a lot of confidence in China. So, for instance,

00:26:59.100 some of the December numbers for China look a lot better because producers there felt that there was

00:27:05.780 going to be a trade deal. I have one more question for you, and it goes to Trump's diplomacy. Now, I think

00:27:12.160 Twitter is very limited in China, if it's available at all, as are other Western social media. But

00:27:21.120 I think the same is true for Iran. There's a lot of crackdowns on social media. But nonetheless,

00:27:28.660 Donald Trump, with his trademark tweets, I mean, it's his blunt style of communicating that seems to

00:27:34.180 cut through all the bluster. He issued at least three tweets in the Persian language, Farsi,

00:27:42.140 that were speaking directly to Persians. And those were very widely circulated, both amongst

00:27:49.020 Iranian expats around the world. And I'm sure people in Iran saw them too.

00:27:53.820 Now that Trump has sort of kissed and made up a little bit with China, what do you think the

00:28:01.700 likelihood is that he'll keep pressing for democracy in Hong Kong and speaking? I mean,

00:28:07.320 I just have this dream, Gordon, and forgive me for indulging in a fantasy for a second,

00:28:12.120 that Donald Trump would tweet in the Chinese language something about freedom and democracy

00:28:17.360 for Hong Kong. But of course, it would echo around China itself. I just, there was this beautiful

00:28:24.540 moment when America was really focused on Hong Kong democracy. And I wonder if that moment has passed.

00:28:30.760 Yeah, we don't know. You know, phase one is just both sides stepping back. And remember that it's the

00:28:38.020 most difficult issues that are in phase two, which are, for instance, these cybersecurity rules we just

00:28:43.680 talked about, because they're not covered in phase one. And also the really tough issues of state

00:28:49.900 subsidies, state industrial policies in China. So, you know, we're going to get to a point where

00:28:55.940 there's going to be a lot of trade friction. But remember, it's not just trade problems we have with

00:29:01.220 China. We've got problems with China across the board. So I think that, you know, we're not going to 0.97

00:29:07.500 see Chinese language tweets from President Trump maybe in the next several weeks. But that's not

00:29:13.160 impossible. And by the way, Twitter is not available in China. Now, people have been able to

00:29:20.520 jump the great firewalls, they call it, with virtual private networks. So Donald Trump happens to be

00:29:27.480 extremely popular among Chinese netizens and people in China, because he is direct. He is, he cuts through 1.00

00:29:35.780 it, and their leaders don't. But this is going to be an important thing for us to watch,

00:29:40.740 and for us to remind the President of the United States that he needs to speak out for people in

00:29:46.960 Hong Kong and for the Chinese people. I just have one more question I want to jam in. Taiwan

00:29:53.140 has a, I'd say it's one step further outside the orbit of China. China wants to annex it. Taiwan 0.95

00:30:02.780 wants to be free. Both have some ambiguity in how they approach the other. But in the recent election

00:30:08.680 there, if I'm not mistaken, the President campaigned on a very strong democracy platform,

00:30:16.080 really to push China away. And there was even some pro-Hong Kong messaging that I understand

00:30:22.020 came in the campaign. I know that some Republicans are very strong for Taiwan, and even some,

00:30:31.080 I think Joe Biden even indicated his support for Taiwan, which made me feel good that it's a 1.00

00:30:35.500 bipartisan matter. Jim, any thoughts on the lessons of the Taiwan election? I just thought I'd ask your

00:30:42.480 thoughts on that. Yeah. Tsai Ing-wen won a resounding victory on the 11th of this month. Her margin was

00:30:50.240 more than 18% over the Kuomintang, the opposition party. And Tsai Ing-wen wasn't even going to get the

00:30:58.400 nomination of her Democratic Progressive Party were it not for the protests in Hong Kong. Because

00:31:04.840 China wants, as you say, it wants to annex Taiwan under its one country, two systems formula. That is

00:31:12.000 the formula that Beijing has used for Hong Kong, because it's obviously failed in Hong Kong. The

00:31:17.520 people in Taiwan looked at those protests in Hong Kong and said, OK, we've got to protect ourselves.

00:31:23.880 So Tsai was the beneficiary of that. This is a really good story of what happened on the 11th.

00:31:30.040 And as we go forward, we are going to see what you talked about. And that is Taiwan carving out its 0.97

00:31:36.440 own separate identity and independence. This is going to be important for us because a free Taiwan

00:31:43.760 is also an anchor for the free world. Yeah, well, it's very, that's the one part of the world where I'm

00:31:50.120 encouraged by people taking their democracy and their civil rights very seriously. And I remain inspired

00:31:55.960 by the people of Hong Kong. And I know you do too, Gordon. I'll end it there. I could talk with you for

00:32:00.840 hours about this. It's one of my favorite subjects. And we've sent reporters to Hong Kong twice in the last

00:32:06.040 six months. And I know we'll do so again. I look forward to the next time we talk, Gordon. It's great to see

00:32:11.000 you again. Thank you so much, Ezra. All right. There you have it, Gordon G. Chang. I encourage you to follow

00:32:16.680 Gordon on Twitter. I know they can't do that inside the Great Firewall of China, but we can do so. 0.62

00:32:23.240 Gordon G. Chang. Stay with us. More ahead on The Rebel.

00:32:35.240 Hey, welcome back on my interview yesterday with our friend Kean Bextie. Chris writes,

00:32:39.880 ignoring orders from a judge seems like another step towards anarchy, arrest them.

00:32:44.600 Well, that's what I just don't understand.

00:32:50.520 Rule of law means no one's above the law, but no one's below the law, right?

00:32:58.600 We saw just a week ago our friend David Menzies try an interview on a public street in a polite but

00:33:05.640 assertive way, Ron McLean, the TV commentator, hockey commentator. So David Menzies said,

00:33:13.080 do you have a question? Asked a question about Don Cherry. And 10 cops literally pushed David down

00:33:21.160 for doing nothing wrong, for asking a journalistic question on a public sidewalk.

00:33:25.240 And then here you have 10 lawbreakers defying a court order, and the police don't touch him. In fact,

00:33:36.120 the police sort of keep journalists away from him. That's not the rule of law. The rule of law means

00:33:42.760 David's allowed to ask questions, and no one is allowed to evade a court order.

00:33:47.320 I find it greatly demoralizing. Glenn writes, the failure of the authorities to arrest and prosecute

00:33:55.480 these thugs only encourages other domestic terrorists to think they can act without consequences.

00:34:01.480 You're right, and at first I was reluctant or hesitant to use the word eco-terrorist or environmental

00:34:07.800 terrorist, because I don't want to throw that word terrorist around lightly. But when you were making

00:34:13.160 things called widow makers and tire bombs, when you're cutting trees so that they could fall down

00:34:19.800 on people and you're planting little, you know, it's like war on the woods, war in the woods type

00:34:25.640 eco-terrorism, I think it meets the test. But look, those are Justin Trudeau's people. He's not going to

00:34:31.880 touch them. Peter writes, roadside bombs like that are considered IEDs. Your government isn't

00:34:38.520 doing anything? Well, that's the thing. I'm worried about the RCMP. They are a federal institution.

00:34:45.000 Justin Trudeau handpicked their commissioner and has had inappropriate conduct towards her,

00:34:52.200 in my view, hugging her at public events. Like, I think he's corrupt. Why would he not corrupt the RCMP

00:35:00.920 as much as we know he tried to corrupt the Justice Department? The only reason we know about it in the

00:35:06.120 Justice Department is there was an extremely ethical woman in charge named Jody Wilson-Raybould. 1.00

00:35:12.520 I don't know if Trudeau made the mistake of appointing an extremely ethical woman to run 0.85

00:35:17.800 the RCMP. I think the opposite. I think he learned to hire a lackey. And so I think the RCMP,

00:35:25.080 what Kean led me to believe was the RCMP officers on the ground probably want to enforce the law.

00:35:31.080 That's probably why they joined the RCMP in the first place. But the brass are saying,

00:35:34.840 no, no, no, no. Frustrating times. But I'm glad we were there, weren't you?

00:35:40.520 All right, folks, that's our report for today. Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at

00:35:45.080 Rebel World Headquarters, good night, and keep fighting for freedom.

00:35:56.360 We'll be right back.

00:36:04.040 Thank you.

00:36:08.280 golfer Ronan

00:36:10.600 So

00:36:16.520 thank you

Rebel News Podcast - January 17, 2020

Lifelong academic allegedly quits cushy McGill tenure after failed anti-fossil fuel campaign

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