Rebel News Podcast - Manitoba takes baby steps to rein in its out-of-control Human Rights Commission

00:00:00.000 Hello, my Rebels. Today I take you through a very modest proposed law in Manitoba that reforms the

00:00:07.240 Human Rights Commission out there. It's baby steps, but these days we'll take what we can get. I'll

00:00:12.380 show you the good, the bad, and the ugly of it. But before I do, let me invite you to become a

00:00:16.620 subscriber to Rebel News Plus. Just go to rebelnews.com. It's eight bucks a month,

00:00:20.920 and you get the video version of this podcast. Okay, here's the show.

00:00:30.000 Tonight, Manitoba takes some baby steps to rein in its out-of-control Human Rights Commission.

00:00:47.840 Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?

00:00:51.400 There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.

00:00:55.300 The only thing I have to say to the government about why I publish it is because it's my

00:01:00.320 bloody right to do so.

00:01:07.100 Manitoba has introduced some amendments to its human rights law. I'll show them to you in a

00:01:11.420 moment. It's a small step towards good news, but that's the problem with it. You have to

00:01:16.260 pull a weed out by the roots. You don't want to just trim its leaves. Look, Canada's Human Rights

00:01:21.860 Commissions are not real courts. We already have real courts, lots of them. Criminal courts,

00:01:27.440 civil courts, provincial courts, federal courts, tax courts, divorce courts, and of course,

00:01:31.720 all of those courts I've just mentioned deal with rights, human rights, the Charter of Rights

00:01:36.480 and Freedoms that limits all the laws in Canada. So why would we need a special non-court to also

00:01:43.600 deal with human rights, especially non-courts that are staffed by non-judges? What a mess. 0.77

00:01:49.540 Now, I know the answer, at least the answer that was used at the time back in the day.

00:01:55.240 These human rights commissions were deliberately loosey-goosey to catch anyone who fell through

00:01:59.340 the cracks. These things really got started in the 1960s and 70s, these human rights commissions. So

00:02:05.020 they'd be, it was said, I don't know, for an Aboriginal person who was denied a ride on a Greyhound

00:02:12.420 bus or a black person or a gay person who was kicked out of an apartment because they were black or 0.86

00:02:18.460 gay. They said it would be used as a shield, not a sword, to protect the underdog. But you're 1.00

00:02:26.420 probably thinking, is that necessary in 2020? I mean, if you fire someone for being black, let's say, 0.97

00:02:33.300 that's covered by employment law. That's wrongful dismissal. If you fire someone for being black, 0.88

00:02:38.580 get ready to be sued for a lot of money as ordered by a real court. Employment law is a real thing 0.90

00:02:44.920 already. Or if you're in a labor union, labor law. There are labor boards, labor tribunals that are

00:02:50.600 a kind of specialized court for that. You don't need a human rights commission also.

00:02:55.200 Same thing with apartments. An example I used before, most places have a specialized landlord

00:03:00.360 and tenant board, like a mini court with a specialty in that field. And I should say,

00:03:06.040 both the labor board and the landlord and tenant board, in every place I've studied it, and I've

00:03:11.000 actually, years ago, been a lawyer in some of these commissions. They're very underdog friendly.

00:03:18.860 I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy the lopsided law of being a landlord in a landlord and tenant

00:03:24.400 dispute. Same with being an employer in a unionized shop. So why do we need human rights commissions

00:03:31.620 again? Why exactly? You can't fire people for being the wrong color or the wrong religion or wrong

00:03:36.280 sex or sexual orientation. You can't. You can't kick someone out of an apartment for that reason 0.94

00:03:41.220 either. You'll be sued in both cases, in real courts. And demographically speaking anyways,

00:03:47.100 Canada's biggest cities these days are already majority minority. Toronto, Vancouver. Imagine 0.99

00:03:52.100 being a landlord and not renting to someone who's a visible minority in Toronto or Montreal.

00:03:58.200 It's really not a real life problem. Actually, the opposite is now true. As we showed you a while

00:04:03.420 back on Rebel News, there is now Muslim-only tax-subsidized housing in Toronto. Defended

00:04:10.700 by the city is perfectly proper discrimination. So much so they kicked a white guy in a wheelchair 0.68

00:04:15.140 off the waiting list. So yeah, where's the Human Rights Commission? Anyways, my point is,

00:04:21.680 there's no real purpose for these Human Rights Commissions that can't be better handled by the

00:04:26.200 real courts or by expert tribunals or commissions on a particular subject matter. There's just no reason

00:04:32.520 anymore. But keeping with the weed analogy, they're not simply going to go away now that we've discovered

00:04:38.060 the uselessness. So they engage in what's called mission creep. There really isn't a lot of racism or

00:04:44.640 sexism or even homophobia in public life in Canada anymore. There just isn't. I mean, a stat I like to point

00:04:51.280 to is how women now overwhelmingly dominate university campuses. There are far more women enrolled in 1.00

00:04:59.520 universities now than men, including in professional fields like medicine and law.

00:05:05.960 So what does the Human Rights Commission have to do? Well, they've got to look for trouble now. They've

00:05:10.520 got to look for problems, maybe stir up problems, because otherwise they won't be able to justify

00:05:15.320 their work. They'll have to get a new job, which is exactly why Jonathan Yaniv has been able to hijack the

00:05:22.240 B.C. Human Rights Tribunal for years to terrorize and shake down minority immigrant women, as you know, 1.00

00:05:29.720 by demanding that they wax his private parts, saying he's got those transgender rights. Tell a human 1.00

00:05:35.380 rights advocate 50 years ago that their human rights tribunal would be used by some fat white guy 1.00

00:05:42.220 to force immigrant women to wax his private parts, and they'd call you crazy. They'd say, 0.99

00:05:47.200 no, we are trying to protect immigrant women. But it happened. Like I say, mission creep. And in this

00:05:53.420 case, Yaniv is the creep. Shut him down. Just shut him down. Hurt feelings is not a thing. There is no

00:06:00.180 human right not to be offended. That's a fake way of saying the power to censor. That's not a real human

00:06:05.400 right. I've long advocated the absolute shutdown of these legal menaces. Fake courts run by fake judges

00:06:12.200 enforcing fake rights for fake victims going after real money, though. The process is the punishment.

00:06:18.320 See, complainers don't have to pay for lawyers. They don't have to pay the costs of the matter if 0.58

00:06:23.860 they lose, unlike in the real court. They just make a complaint, and then they'll walk away with 10 grand,

00:06:28.640 no matter what. But I'm happy to say that some news comes from Manitoba that they're at least pruning

00:06:38.200 their weed. Not weeding it out by the root, but pruning it. Here's the story. Manitoba Human Rights

00:06:44.200 Commission awards for damage to be capped. Bill. Let me read it. The Manitoba government has

00:06:50.480 introduced legislation that would cap the amount of money the Promises Human Rights Commission can

00:06:54.540 award. Justice Minister Cliff Cullen said the proposed change would speed up the process to

00:06:59.160 get decisions. Right now, we have a three-and-a-half to four-year wait for hearings, he said Tuesday.

00:07:03.720 So when someone submits a claim, it takes up to four years to get it done. This legislation allows

00:07:08.500 to expedite the process. Like I say, the process is the punishment. Imagine three-and-a-half years

00:07:15.060 in a kangaroo court to have your hurt feelings adjudicated. I suppose that's good for the

00:07:20.700 complainer, and it's good for the lawyers and the bureaucrats at the Human Rights Commission, but it's not

00:07:25.840 good for anyone else. Let me read some more. The bill calls for a $25,000 limit on damages for

00:07:31.940 injury to dignity. Feelings are self-respect, stemming from a human rights complaint. Currently,

00:07:37.220 there is no limit. It would also allow the Commission's Executive Director to dismiss complaints

00:07:42.040 that are being addressed in another forum, introduce time limits, and give authority to

00:07:46.180 adjudicators to mediate complaints. Imagine that. That's shocking to me. The people right now can

00:07:52.620 sue in a real court, but then sue for the exact thing and go for a top-up at this kangaroo court,

00:07:59.280 just for kicks. That's called double jeopardy in most normal places. I should state the obvious.

00:08:05.000 Both the Liberals and NDP in Manitoba oppose these minor changes. In fact, it's a bit of a miracle

00:08:11.000 that the conservative government there even dared to introduce this bill. I won't be surprised if

00:08:15.360 they lose their nerve after a few squawking editorials by the hard left-wing Winnipeg Free

00:08:20.460 Press, which is now getting huge bailout money from Justin Trudeau, who just loves these human rights

00:08:25.940 commissions. The bill isn't too long. It's 15 pages, most of which is just technical changes.

00:08:32.000 There's only a few real changes. Let me read some of them to you. Here's one.

00:08:37.140 The law now requires the chief bureaucrat of the Human Rights Commission to investigate a complaint

00:08:42.420 and to do so reasonably quickly. Can you believe it? That's new. And look at this. The complaint can

00:08:49.960 be thrown out now if it's crazy. That's new. It had to be preceded with before. Let me read.

00:08:56.340 Dismissal of complaint without investigation. The executive director may dismiss a complaint

00:09:01.620 or part of a complaint without causing it to be investigated if the executive director is of the

00:09:06.880 opinion that it is frivolous or vexatious. The acts or omissions described in it do not contravene

00:09:13.420 this code. It is not within the jurisdiction provided by this code. Its subject matter is being

00:09:19.320 or has been dealt with appropriately according to a procedure provided for under another act

00:09:24.400 or additional proceedings in respect of it would not benefit the person against whom this code is

00:09:30.060 alleged to have been contravened. So I call this the Yaniv Amendment. That last point is interesting.

00:09:36.960 It means you can't go in to these human rights commissions as some sort of busybody claiming you're

00:09:41.600 a white knight championing some other person who is discriminated against. You have to, you know,

00:09:47.100 have a claim yourself or get out. So the commission can throw out junk complaints even before investigating

00:09:52.920 them if they're ridiculous on the face of it. But here's another innovation. After they investigate 0.93

00:09:58.380 them, and if they are found to be junk, they must throw them out. That word must is in there.

00:10:05.860 Dismissal of complaint after investigation. 29.1. Following the completion of the investigation into a

00:10:11.460 complaint. The executive director must dismiss the complaint or a part of the complaint if the

00:10:16.660 executive director is satisfied that A, it is frivolous or fixations. B, the acts or omissions

00:10:21.660 described in it do not contravene this code. And the rest of the list is the same before.

00:10:26.240 Can you believe this wasn't in there before? So the Human Rights Commission may throw out junk

00:10:30.360 complaints without even investigating them if it's so obvious. And if they investigate them and confirm

00:10:36.740 that they are junk, they must throw them out. I can't even believe that's new. I told you how 0.98

00:10:41.560 these things dragged on for years. So there's some new timing rules. Here's one. Time period for

00:10:46.780 commencing hearing. The hearing must be commenced within 120 days after the day the adjudicator is

00:10:52.580 appointed, unless the adjudicator extends the time period at the request of a party. So it's still

00:10:57.880 fairly loosey-goosey, but some hint at a limit. Here's another one. Time limit for making decision,

00:11:04.080 41.1. Subject to section 2, the adjudicator must make a final decision respecting the complaint

00:11:09.960 within 60 days after the day the hearing is completed. Yeah, get off your duffs, you lazy

00:11:15.660 bureaucrats. They're not real judges. They're often not even real lawyers. They're pretend judges in a 0.98

00:11:21.360 pretend court, and they like to take their time because they need to justify their budgets.

00:11:26.340 But here's the most important part. Maximum damages for injury, 43.2.1. The amount of damages

00:11:33.020 for injury to dignity, feelings, or self-respect ordered by an adjudicator under Clause 2c must not

00:11:38.400 exceed $25,000 and must be proportionate to the seriousness of the contravention and its effects on

00:11:44.280 the party. $25,000 for hurt feelings? That is still an extreme amount of money for hurt feelings.

00:11:52.780 Our reporters here at Rebel often get physically punched, and so we sue them in a real court,

00:11:58.440 like we sued Dion Buse, the thug who hit Sheila Gunn-Reed in the face. We went all the way to

00:12:04.880 trial using our own money. We spent over $30,000, and Sheila in the end was awarded, I think it was

00:12:10.500 $3,500, $3,500 for being punched in the face. So Manitoba will still allow hurt feelings to be paid

00:12:21.700 $25,000. That's a shockingly high amount of money for a fake feelings crime. But right now,

00:12:30.660 before these changes are implemented, it's literally unlimited. Just the other day,

00:12:34.860 someone in Manitoba was awarded $75,000 for hurt feelings. What a bonanza. No wonder these human

00:12:42.700 rights commissions are popular with malingerers and liars and losers and fakers. No real court would 0.99

00:12:49.620 ever give you that. No real human rights advocate would regard hurt feelings as a human right. You

00:12:55.660 don't have the right to feel good, and you don't have the right to make others feel a certain way

00:12:59.740 either. The law in Manitoba still permits a shakedown. Even after this bill is passed,

00:13:05.440 it's just a slightly smaller shakedown. This is a baby step forward. Like I say, I'll believe it's

00:13:11.260 the law when it's actually passed. The Manitoba PCs have a habit of caving in. I hope they actually go

00:13:16.660 through with this modest bill, but even if they do pass it, why are you just pruning a weed

00:13:22.820 instead of pulling it out by the roots? Stay with us for more.

00:13:39.500 Well, the last time I saw our next guest, we were together in Halifax, Nova Scotia,

00:13:44.560 where a convicted confessed terrorist named Omar Cotter was being celebrated by Dalhousie

00:13:50.680 University as a guest of honor, an honored speaker. It was grotesque. So many people at that event were

00:13:57.180 cheering him, literally a standing ovation. It was good to see one fellow conservative reporter,

00:14:04.640 I wouldn't even call objecting to Omar Cotter a conservative point of view, just a citizen,

00:14:10.440 patriotic point of view. And I'm talking, of course, about my friend Andrew Lawton from

00:14:15.140 truenorth.news, or tnc.news, who joins us now via Skype. Andrew, I'm sorry, I got, it's tnc.news,

00:14:23.260 truenorth. And before we get into the news of the day, remind our viewers how they can watch

00:14:29.320 your show. And then we've got a lot to talk about.

00:14:31.820 Thank you. Well, if you go to andrewlawtonshow.com, it'll bring you to the page where all of the

00:14:36.740 episodes of my show are posted. We're twice a week, and you can watch it on YouTube, or you can

00:14:41.100 listen in whatever podcast form you like, whether it's Apple Podcasts, Google Play, or anything else

00:14:46.100 like that.

00:14:47.100 Good. Absolutely. And folks, if you're watching this, that means you're a supporter of Rebel News,

00:14:52.320 and I thank you for that. But we've got to support like-minded folks like Andrew and his team,

00:14:57.540 Candace Malcolm, Anthony Fury, good folks over there. There are too few independent groups. And

00:15:03.620 by the way, as you know, True North is fighting the Debates Commission alongside Rebel News. So

00:15:08.820 they're- Yeah, and like you, we're still waiting for our checks, so we need the support.

00:15:12.220 Yeah. You know what? Of course, you're referring to the check that Justin Trudeau was ordered

00:15:16.540 to pay us for losing in court. That was in October, what's that, five months ago. But

00:15:23.560 he doesn't pay us as quickly as he pays Omar Khadr. Anyhow, there's so much to talk about. I want to

00:15:28.760 talk about a story on TNC.news. You're breaking down the expenditure of Trudeau's billion dollars

00:15:36.920 for the Wuhan flu. And I call it the Wuhan flu because we say Spanish flu, or German measles,

00:15:43.780 or Legionnaire's disease, or Ebola. All of these are named after the place where the disease was from.

00:15:49.840 And this flu, this virus, was from Wuhan, China. I know, though, that Chinese communist propaganda 0.73

00:15:58.960 says anyone who blames China, or names China, or calls it the Chinese flu, the Wuhan flu,

00:16:06.680 is a racist. And the Chinese government itself is propagating this. What do you make of that?

00:16:11.560 Should we stop saying- But it's not even just Chinese propagandists. Even American liberals

00:16:15.620 are saying it's racist to call it the Wuhan flu. And by the way, the technical name in the early

00:16:20.900 days was Wuhan novel coronavirus, because this is how you categorize things. The taxonomy is very

00:16:27.180 important in epidemiology and virology. But of course, the GOP House majority leader had made a

00:16:33.960 comment, or House minority leader, rather, had made a comment about the Chinese coronavirus. And then

00:16:39.300 Ilhan Omar jumps down his throat saying unequivocally that it's racist. So now identifying the factual

00:16:46.540 point of origin for a disease that's claiming thousands of lives is seen as offensive. And

00:16:51.900 it's interesting. I mean, the World Health Organization, if you look at their updates,

00:16:55.000 they have a whole page devoted to the Chinese numbers, because everyone knows this is a disease 1.00

00:17:00.140 that originated in China, the disease caused by coronavirus. So I find it interesting that the

00:17:06.000 propaganda from a state dictatorship has actually been embraced by the Western left.

00:17:11.900 Yeah, well, the World Health Organization is dominated by China. In fact, they sort of shut

00:17:16.480 out Taiwan, which they regard as a rival, which is a terrible idea, because you need Taiwan to fight

00:17:22.540 this. They're so close physically. Well, just on that note, they actually list Taipei as a province in

00:17:31.880 China when they list all of the other actual areas of China in this report. So they don't even recognize

00:17:37.260 Taiwan as a country, even when it comes to saving lives. And Taiwan has a very different way of

00:17:43.400 dealing with this. Taiwan has actually had a level of success in dealing with coronavirus that the

00:17:48.040 Chinese government hasn't. But to the globalist World Health Organization, it's just a little line

00:17:54.300 under the Chinese jurisdictions. Yeah, it's crazy. There's another reason I say Wuhan. 1.00

00:18:02.140 It's because China's central biological warfare lab is in Wuhan. And maybe that's a coincidence. And maybe 0.58

00:18:14.620 it's a coincidence that Justin Trudeau approved sending Ebola samples to this Wuhan lab. And maybe it's a

00:18:23.500 coincidence that there have been Chinese spies frog marched out of Canadian virology labs for spying for

00:18:32.140 China. Maybe that's all a coincidence. And it just happened that this thing started in Wuhan. Maybe.

00:18:37.340 Well, I don't know if we'll ever know. It's like the Chernobyl explosion under the Soviet Union. We had to 0.92

00:18:43.180 wait till the communist dictatorship fell before we got the full truth about it. But I say Wuhan flew on 0.93

00:18:50.300 purpose. I also say coronavirus because I don't want to let China off the hook. They have a biological 1.00

00:18:56.780 warfare program. And by God, it happens to be headquartered in Wuhan. I don't know if that caused

00:19:01.420 the flu. I don't think any of us can say for sure because we don't know what's true or not coming out of

00:19:05.900 China. Well, what we can say is that China and in particular Iran, which is the one I've been 0.95

00:19:12.700 following a fair bit the last week, have done the world no favors by focusing more on containing

00:19:19.020 information than they are on containing the virus. And you always can tell when one of these

00:19:24.380 dictatorship or regimes is more focused on censorship and blocking access to information than it is on

00:19:31.260 dealing with the problem. And in the case of China and Iran, I think that we can all say safely that 0.97

00:19:36.700 their numbers cannot be trusted. And in China's case, I think very markedly we could see that in 0.99

00:19:42.860 the early days they were trying to pretend there was no problem. And we've all seen the same reports,

00:19:47.340 people that have been arrested for sharing information, people that have said, you know

00:19:51.580 what, these crematoriums are running around the clock and the death rate that is being reported from

00:19:56.300 the ground that is not in alignment with the official numbers that are being reported. So asking these

00:20:01.740 questions is not only not racist, but I think it's irresponsible to not ask these questions.

00:20:08.060 Yeah. You know, it's funny. I'm reading the story on your website.

00:20:12.460 Trudeau announced about a billion dollars and some of it's going to

00:20:16.060 bring home Canadians stranded around the world. I think that's a good idea. 1.00

00:20:19.980 Some of it is going for personal protective equipment. I think that's a good idea.

00:20:23.500 But I noticed in your in your report that two point six million dollars of taxpayers money is going to

00:20:31.180 quote research on how to combat discrimination, racism and social media misinformation.

00:20:38.860 I would expect that from the Chinese dictatorship. But Trudeau is literally spending two point six

00:20:45.500 million dollars not fighting the virus, but fighting people like you and me who might say Wuhan,

00:20:50.940 because apparently that's racist. But calling the German measles German measles ain't.

00:20:55.740 I just think it shows that even in the midst of this crisis, Trudeau will put political correctness

00:21:01.580 first. Well, yeah, that's actually I think the only thing they're interested in screening people

00:21:06.380 for is whether or not they've tweeted anything unpleasant that uses the word Wuhan. So famously,

00:21:11.580 the health minister, Patty Hajdu, had said a virus knows no borders. So the government was not going

00:21:16.940 to do any border screening. But certainly if you try to enter Canada with a t-shirt,

00:21:20.620 that says Wuhan flu, you'll be detained, not for having the Wuhan flu if you do,

00:21:25.100 but for wearing a t-shirt that uses that term. Yeah, it's always the things that the government

00:21:30.620 chooses to focus on the most minuscule and arguably ridiculous issues in comparison to the bigger

00:21:37.420 picture. And look, like you mentioned, Ezra, a lot of those things that are being spent on

00:21:43.260 are not unreasonable things. However, if you want to take a serious approach to containment,

00:21:48.220 you have to stop for Canada being geographically removed from the point of origin of the virus.

00:21:54.620 The one thing we could have done right from the get go was travel restriction,

00:21:59.500 was travel screening, in some cases, shutting down points of entry altogether. I wouldn't have gone to

00:22:05.820 shutting down land border between Canada and the US, but flights from China. I mean,

00:22:10.300 why was everyone not subjected to quarantine coming from a hot zone? So the reality is the

00:22:16.540 liberals didn't want to do what was ultimately settled on by a number of countries, even liberal

00:22:22.700 countries, because they said it was racist. And even now, they're not acknowledging that the

00:22:27.820 importation problem is going to be the number one way that this virus is spread within Canada.

00:22:33.500 Yeah. Yeah, it's very interesting. And I think it's wrong. Viruses can be stopped at the border

00:22:41.180 because it's not inevitable that we allow people to come in here. I suppose it's like when you have

00:22:48.460 a border wall around your country, maybe you don't need to have high fences around individual homes.

00:22:54.220 I don't know. I'll explore that analogy another time. I want to talk about one more thing in

00:22:58.300 Canadian politics. I want to talk about the opposition party, the conservatives. Of course,

00:23:03.180 there is a leadership race to succeed Andrew Scheer. It's a very high entry. I'm just covering a few

00:23:10.940 bases that I know you've been following over at tnc.news. It's a very high barrier to become a

00:23:18.460 conservative party leadership candidate. Maybe it's a reaction to having a, what was it, 14 candidates.

00:23:24.220 The last time around, you need to raise $300,000. You need 3000 signatures in a variety of

00:23:31.820 electoral districts. So far, only two candidates have met all those qualifications. Aaron O'Toole

00:23:39.100 and Peter McKay. Give me an update on how are the other candidates doing and will they actually

00:23:45.340 raise the 300 grand or is this going to be a two man race? Well, it's worth noting, Ezra,

00:23:50.220 that 300,000 is just the part that goes to the party. You've still got to raise money on top of

00:23:55.100 that to actually run a campaign. And if you want to so much as hop on a flight to go to a meet and

00:24:01.260 greet or go to one of these debates, you've got to get there. So there's a cost that goes beyond

00:24:05.740 that. That's just the part that the party takes. And some of that is refundable, assuming you don't

00:24:10.540 break the rules. So look, they put these into place because they didn't want it to be an absolute

00:24:14.780 clown show. You've got eight candidates that are at this point in the running, two that have met all

00:24:20.700 of those criteria. Just yesterday, Derek Sloan, who's a social conservative and a first-term

00:24:26.380 member of parliament, he submitted the second of three batches. So he's put in 2000 signatures

00:24:32.380 and I think $150,000. So he still needs to raise the other half of the 300 and get 1000 more signatures.

00:24:40.140 Of the other five candidates, none of them have so far advanced past that initial $25,000 buy-in

00:24:48.460 and 1000 signatures. So we don't know how many of them are going to be on the ballot when all is said

00:24:54.060 and done. They have until March 25th to do it. Listen, I think the one point that I raised,

00:25:00.780 and this is especially true with the disqualification of Richard de Carie, is that it's one thing if you

00:25:07.020 have a coronation, which in many respects people have said we're headed towards with Peter McKay.

00:25:12.060 And I don't think it is as locked down as a lot of people might like to say. But the worst thing

00:25:17.660 for the party were there debates and a campaign that did not reflect what is ultimately a party

00:25:25.340 that has diversity among its members. So if there was a debate stage that had the Aaron O'Toole camp,

00:25:31.660 the Peter McKay camp, and no social conservative voices, no libertarian voices, no one that's taking

00:25:37.900 a bold fiscal stance, no one that's talking about immigration, the party and the country would be

00:25:43.260 very underserved. And the reasons for that are twofold. Number one, I think these are issues that

00:25:48.700 I personally care about in many respects. But the other part is that they prove if they have a race that 0.96

00:25:55.580 doesn't have anyone talking about these things, that those things are no longer relevant to the

00:25:59.660 conservatives and to the country. And that's very dangerous moving forward. If the only

00:26:04.940 ideas that are talked about are ones that represent a small sliver of the conservative movement.

00:26:10.620 Yeah, you're so right. I mean, there's not a lot of ideological diversity between

00:26:15.180 Peter McKay and Aaron O'Toole. I know Aaron O'Toole would claim

00:26:18.380 he's on the right. Peter McKay is not even claiming that. That doesn't reflect all the interests

00:26:24.460 of the party. I don't think it's a good idea. And you're so right. If there was a fella whose

00:26:30.860 social conservative views were odious to the party, let party members make that decision by not voting

00:26:36.780 for him. I have no idea who made the decision to keep up Mr. Dukeri. I don't know. I find it a little

00:26:45.660 bit depressing. And especially when we've watched in the United States, the rambunctious

00:26:50.140 presidential primaries that the Democrats had where there were a lot of candidates.

00:26:55.260 And I have to say, I was riveted by it because there were so many colorful characters.

00:26:59.340 And it's sorting itself out. It's winnowing it down. I just feel frustrated that the conservative

00:27:04.700 party of Canada is pre-whittling it down. And I really don't see a lot of excitement from

00:27:12.140 either Aaron O'Toole or Peter McKay. I do want to disagree with you on one thing. I agree with you

00:27:15.980 that Peter McKay looks like the front runner. He's got a lot of endorsements. He's

00:27:21.260 probably the more famous name. But I see that Aaron O'Toole got the endorsement from Jason

00:27:27.020 Kenny, who I think is the leading Canadian conservative right now.

00:27:29.980 Yeah, next to Stephen Harper. I mean, that is probably the most relevant endorsement to conservatives.

00:27:35.980 Yeah, I think you're right. And also, Aaron O'Toole's campaign chairman is Waleed Solomon,

00:27:43.180 who's a Muslim activist. He's a lawyer for Norton Rose, very large law firm, represents Saudi Arabia.

00:27:50.060 I know, because they threatened to sue me years ago, the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

00:27:54.380 Waleed Solomon is a great organizer in Ontario PCs. He was Patrick Brown's right-hand man. And don't

00:28:03.820 forget, Patrick Brown had a sort of upset victory when he was running for party leader. I guess what I'm

00:28:11.900 saying is if Waleed Solomon brings his organizational prowess to Aaron O'Toole, and if Jason

00:28:18.780 Kenny gives his ideological blessing to Aaron O'Toole, those two things together might beat

00:28:26.460 Peter McKay, the red Tory downtown lawyer. I don't think McKay has run away with it.

00:28:32.860 Well, and Jason Kenny, remember, is also in his own right a very good organizer. And I'm not sure

00:28:37.340 there's going to be a lot of Alberta love for Peter McKay. So those two factors, as well as some

00:28:42.540 others. And listen, the one thing that Aaron O'Toole has going for him that Peter McKay doesn't

00:28:47.420 is that Aaron O'Toole is free of baggage. No one dislikes Aaron O'Toole. In fact, he was in 2017,

00:28:53.660 the caucus favorite. He had more endorsements than Andrew Scheer, more than Maxime Bernier.

00:28:58.300 Whereas Peter McKay right now has more caucus endorsements. But there are a lot of people from

00:29:03.260 the old Alliance PC days that I don't think look favorably upon Peter McKay, or in general,

00:29:09.020 someone who is an old school PCer. And obviously, those people are getting older in their years,

00:29:14.460 the people that were around then and would have a strong enough emotional reaction to someone. But

00:29:19.420 no, I would agree that it's not locked down. And there are a lot of other moving pieces to this.

00:29:25.100 The one point that I would stress here is that, you know, Aaron O'Toole is at this point saying that

00:29:30.940 he is a lot more open to having those different factions of the so-called big blue tent represented

00:29:37.180 in his party. And I think that's going to go a long way, because we saw this with Maxime Bernier

00:29:41.420 in 2017. A lot of social conservatives did get behind Bernier, even knowing that he wasn't one,

00:29:47.980 because they trusted that he was going to allow social conservatives to be social conservatives.

00:29:53.820 And I think that's a very important distinction, where there was criticism that Andrew Scheer,

00:29:57.820 who is personally a social conservative, wasn't as amenable to those voices speaking up. And I

00:30:03.260 think we saw that during the election. So I do think there's a big opening for Aaron O'Toole

00:30:08.220 along that vein. Yeah. Well, I'm going to make a prediction right now that Aaron O'Toole

00:30:13.420 will be the surprise victor. I have no hard data on that. I don't think such a prediction can be

00:30:19.580 backed up by anything other than gut feel. I just don't think the raw information is available

00:30:24.940 to pundits like us. Let me ask you the question that depresses me. Would either Peter McKay or

00:30:33.020 Aaron O'Toole be able to defeat Justin Trudeau if an election were held, let's say, next year,

00:30:38.460 as could be under this minority government? I don't like... So much can happen in politics. I mean,

00:30:45.740 we saw Justin Trudeau win re-election after having been found to have spent much of his adult life in

00:30:51.340 blackface. I mean, that's not something that I would have predicted if he would put that scenario

00:30:55.420 to me even three months earlier. I'd say, oh my god, no. For a guy like him, the king of the woke,

00:30:59.660 that's done. So I do think there's a path to victory for both. However, the one thing that I

00:31:05.340 would caution people on is that you get a lot of this from the left. Oh, if all conservatives were

00:31:11.420 like X, I would vote for them. And we hear this with Peter McKay now. Oh, well, if I mean,

00:31:16.780 Peter McKay was the leader, I would vote for him. But the second a conservative is the leader,

00:31:21.900 they become the new Hitler. And this is the problem, is that the middle of the media,

00:31:27.740 the independents, the people who are soft left, they only love the conservative who's not actually

00:31:33.100 in a position to do anything about it. I mean, we saw how many people in Ontario were saying,

00:31:38.220 oh, if Christine Elliott were the leader and not Doug Ford, I would vote PC. But if she were there,

00:31:42.860 she would have been the evil. Peter McKay is the same. If he somehow becomes the conservative

00:31:49.660 leader, it's going to be, oh, well, he's this, he was a Harper minister, and the name calling begins,

00:31:53.420 and they'll find someone else. Well, if only they were the leader, then I would vote conservative.

00:31:57.260 So I'm a firm believer, and don't capitulate to that, because when you cede that ground,

00:32:02.540 you move to this circumstance where the acceptable parameters of debate get smaller

00:32:09.580 and smaller on the right and larger and larger on the left. And it gets to the point where there's

00:32:13.980 no room for a true blue candidate, because the furthest right that we've allowed is someone who

00:32:19.900 10 years ago would have been considered a centrist. Yeah. Well, let me ask you one last question.

00:32:24.060 I guess it's sort of a personal question. We've interviewed three of the candidates.

00:32:28.700 We've extended an invitation to Aaron O'Toole and Peter McKay. I don't know if they're going to accept it.

00:32:33.500 Part of me thinks they don't want to accept an interview with Rebel because we'll ask some

00:32:37.500 prickly questions about truly conservative things. We'll ask about open borders migration. We'll ask

00:32:41.980 about political correctness. And, you know, they think we're probably a little bit wild and populist.

00:32:47.820 My thoughts on that is if you can't handle Rebel News, how are you going to handle the CBC that's out

00:32:53.980 to get you? How are you going to handle the tough liberal campaign? You personally have interviewed

00:33:01.420 a great range of political leaders in your time, especially on radio. You interviewed Justin

00:33:07.740 Trudeau himself. Do you expect to be able to interview these candidates or are they afraid

00:33:14.460 of you? Do they think you're too conservative? Give me your plans. I mean, don't give away any

00:33:20.540 secrets or anything, but do you think they're being too scaredy cat, these leaders?

00:33:25.820 What I will say is it's early days. I mean, the race is going till June. My plan is,

00:33:31.260 and I've extended invitations to all of the candidates. I haven't done any of the interviews

00:33:35.180 yet. I have a number scheduled, a number that I'm working on scheduling, and I have a couple

00:33:39.820 that I haven't really heard anything back from. So I won't get into the names of who's in which

00:33:44.860 category. What I will say is that if a conservative leadership candidate doesn't want to speak to

00:33:51.340 conservative media, there's a big problem because all the leadership candidates are doing interviews

00:33:56.220 on CTV, CBC, Global, etc., which is fine. But it's the conservative base that's going to get them

00:34:02.380 elected. The average CBC viewer is not going to buy a Conservative Party of Canada membership.

00:34:07.340 So if you're not prepared to speak to people who have audiences with conservatives, I think there's

00:34:12.860 a problem with the campaign strategy. Yeah, I think you're right. I think we do have that

00:34:17.260 problem. I think Andrew Scheer was partly infected by that problem. And I dare say it may have been

00:34:23.500 one of the reasons he didn't have the most enthusiastic support he had. We'll have to see.

00:34:27.660 Well, and Andrew Scheer, I will say, during the leadership, I think I had done three interviews

00:34:31.980 with him on my show. Shortly after he became the Conservative leader, I spoke to him at least two or

00:34:37.180 three times. During the election, I could not get an interview with him. And I think that's where we get

00:34:42.220 into the big problem here, is that if you want to be the voice for all Canadians, speak to Conservative

00:34:47.100 media, speak to Liberal media, speak to everyone. Just don't be afraid to articulate what your position

00:34:52.540 is. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, listen, I enjoy the banter with people who disagree with me. In fact,

00:34:59.500 that could be a very powerful moment for a Conservative to come on The Rebel and say,

00:35:04.380 well, here's where I disagree with you, Ezra. That could be a powerful moment. I'd be interested in

00:35:08.940 that. I mean, listen, we'll do our job no matter what. We, too, interviewed Andrew Scheer when he

00:35:12.860 was in his leadership race. But, boy, he didn't like our company afterwards. And I think it's

00:35:21.260 because we were pressing him to be Conservative. And he was more afraid of what the CBC would say

00:35:27.260 and do to him. He thought he could appease them. I don't think he could. Well, listen, if you land,

00:35:34.380 Peter McKay or Aaron O'Toole will be watching. And if you put it on YouTube, we'll embed that on our

00:35:40.700 website, too. I think it's sort of pitiful for these guys to avoid you or us or other Conservative

00:35:47.340 leaning sites. Because I think we do talk to the Conservative Party grass tops and the grassroots,

00:35:55.260 too. I want to be more optimistic. I want to be more positive. Right now, I don't quite

00:36:01.660 have the reason for that. But we'll we'll keep an eye on things. It's great to catch up with you.

00:36:05.420 Give us one more time a website where people can sign up for for your show. It's the it's

00:36:10.540 Andrew Lawton show dot com. Yep. Andrew Lawton show dot com or just head to TNC dot news and you can find

00:36:16.460 it that way. Great. Well, keep it up, my friend. Keep up the great work. And thanks for fighting

00:36:22.140 side by side with us in court against Trudeau censorship, too. We'll be back there soon. All right.

00:36:29.100 There you have it. Our friend Andrew Lawton from TNC dot news. Lots of websites

00:36:33.260 to follow. Thank goodness we're not alone at Rebel News anymore.

Rebel News Podcast - March 14, 2020

Manitoba takes baby steps to rein in its out-of-control Human Rights Commission

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