Rebel News Podcast - December 06, 2018


McKenna is jetting to the global warming conference in Poland — with “126 of her closest friends”


Episode Stats


Length

37 minutes

Words per minute

173.15329

Word count

6,497

Sentence count

511

Harmful content

Misogyny

27

sentences flagged

Hate speech

6

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Environment Minister Catherine McKenna is taking a jet to a conference against global warming, but why is she bringing a delegation of 126 people with her? It s December 5th and you re watching The Ezra Levant Show. Why should others go to jail when you re the biggest carbon consumer?

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Tonight, Catherine McKenna is taking a jet to a conference against global warming.
00:00:05.120 But why is she bringing a delegation of 126 people with her? 0.99
00:00:09.400 It's December 5th and you're watching The Ezra Levant Show.
00:00:17.300 Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?
00:00:21.120 There's 8,500 customers here and you won't give them an answer.
00:00:24.820 You come here once a year with a sign and you feel morally superior.
00:00:27.800 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.
00:00:38.500 Catherine McKenna is our environment minister and she has a lot of great advice for people like you and me.
00:00:45.440 Now I try to avoid Wendy Mesley's weekly conspiracy theory show on the CBC.
00:00:50.940 It's kooky.
00:00:52.620 But Catherine McKenna was on there over the weekend and I just have to show you this exchange.
00:00:57.800 Take a look.
00:00:58.820 The biggest challenge as a farmer for me is going to be the carbon pricing because agriculture is pretty much the only industry where we don't get to pass on that additional cost to our operation.
00:01:10.400 So carbon pricing is going to be an extremely challenging bill for a lot of farmers to be able to deal with.
00:01:15.920 She can't raise the price of her grain or she'll be forced out of the market. 0.99
00:01:19.420 So like maybe this explains why you've got all the prairie premiers basically saying or most of them saying we don't want a carbon price.
00:01:27.400 How do you win over farmers like her? 1.00
00:01:30.480 Look, if anyone understands the impacts of climate change, it's farmers.
00:01:34.520 Our system will give more money back to residents of that province than they will pay and will create the incentives for innovation.
00:01:41.260 And I've seen amazing innovations in farming, for example, zero till agriculture, using less water, using smart technologies, artificial intelligence to, you know, figure out how you can use less fertilizer, how you can, you know, do a better job tilling, how you can get better results.
00:01:59.900 We can all do this, but if we don't, the impact will be dire on farms.
00:02:06.660 So that was a real farmer with a real question.
00:02:10.920 And Catherine McKenna says if she was such a smart farmer, she'd, you know, use less water or use AI, artificial intelligence, so she would know how to be a better farmer and do better things like tilling. 0.51
00:02:26.820 And maybe she'd stop using so much fertilizer because it was all said with a Kardashian affectation.
00:02:33.680 Actually, it's not really up talking.
00:02:35.620 It's more a vocal fry.
00:02:38.500 Climate action makes business sense.
00:02:40.580 Business sense.
00:02:41.540 Business sense.
00:02:42.580 Business sense.
00:02:45.640 Ah, that Kardashian.
00:02:47.480 That's not an accent.
00:02:48.540 That's not a speech impediment.
00:02:49.800 That's someone choosing to talk that way.
00:02:51.760 Holy moly, putting aside the accent, though, is that ever a tone deaf answer?
00:02:57.640 I think even that left-wing conspiracy theorist, Wendy Masley, was shocked by just how tone deaf Catherine McKenna is. 1.00
00:03:05.160 A farmer is asking, how am I going to pay this new carbon tax?
00:03:10.560 And McKenna just tells her to be smarter. 0.99
00:03:13.100 Duh.
00:03:14.000 Just be smarter.
00:03:15.600 All the smart farmers are doing it.
00:03:17.380 I'll just use some AI.
00:03:20.440 Vocal fry.
00:03:21.180 I tell you, just put that little exchange they had there on TV in the prairies.
00:03:26.860 Call it your Conservative Party campaign ad, and you're done with the campaign.
00:03:31.140 Oh, and by the way, if the globe is warming, and there's been a 20-year hiatus in warming, by the way,
00:03:36.360 that would be good news for Canadian farmers.
00:03:38.940 We have short growing seasons because of the cold.
00:03:41.080 The entire northern half of our country is agriculturally dead.
00:03:45.440 It's covered in permanent frost, permafrost.
00:03:48.120 Nothing at all can grow.
00:03:49.360 So, yeah, I think her TED Talk, talking points about AI farming that worked so well at our last jet set convention,
00:03:57.580 they don't really help answer practical questions from real-life people.
00:04:02.460 They've been rioting in France, by the way, for weeks over their carbon tax.
00:04:06.540 That's what real-life people are doing.
00:04:08.020 And they're not using AI apps on how to drive better.
00:04:12.760 I hope we don't see riots in Canada.
00:04:14.740 And if we do, I hope we don't see the police brutality in response like in Paris.
00:04:19.720 But I put nothing past McKenna and Abbas Justin Trudeau.
00:04:23.180 I mean, Trudeau specifically said the thing he likes best about China's basic dictatorship is that it can impose environmental laws.
00:04:31.140 There's a level of admiration I actually have for China.
00:04:35.420 Because their basic dictatorship is allowing them to actually turn their economy around on a dime and say,
00:04:45.580 we need to go green as fast as we need to start, you know, investing in solar.
00:04:50.020 So anyways, that's Catherine McKenna.
00:04:52.720 Lots of advice for farmers to use less energy and pay more taxes.
00:04:58.140 And the taxes, by the way, will help that farmer make smarter choices, which is an insulting way of saying no one will be able to afford normal choices.
00:05:08.280 Here's a Calgary Herald story the other day about how the school board there has spent $3.3 million on Rachel Notley's carbon tax.
00:05:16.660 So they had to cancel school buses for about 400 kids.
00:05:21.900 So the carbon tax is helping those kids to make smarter choices.
00:05:25.760 I'm serious.
00:05:26.300 That is the logic here.
00:05:27.480 The whole point of carbon taxes is to punish pollution.
00:05:30.940 Funny, I thought kids going to school and school buses was a pretty good thing.
00:05:34.700 The school part, the kids part, the buses part.
00:05:38.240 But that's a bad choice, apparently.
00:05:40.900 Hey, I'm not the crazy one saying these things.
00:05:43.600 They're saying the things.
00:05:45.040 I'm just trying to drop the Kardashian accent when I say it.
00:05:48.060 It sounds even dumber.
00:05:49.260 So who is making smart energy choices this week?
00:05:53.100 Well, it's Catherine McKenna herself.
00:05:54.680 Look at this new headline.
00:05:57.480 Analysis.
00:05:58.340 Which countries have sent the most delegates to COP24?
00:06:01.300 COP24.
00:06:02.040 COP24 is a fancy way of saying the 24th annual UN Global Warming Conference.
00:06:07.420 COP stands for Conference of the Parties.
00:06:09.740 The parties in this case mean the countries.
00:06:12.040 Parties to the Global Warming Treaty.
00:06:13.240 But of course, it really is a big, lavish party.
00:06:16.520 A movable feast.
00:06:17.480 A movable feast that actually moves from city to city each year.
00:06:20.660 It goes to some of the best tourist spots in the world.
00:06:23.140 Paris a few years back.
00:06:24.440 Bali.
00:06:25.420 Cancun.
00:06:25.820 I'm surprised they're having it this year in Poland, which is a pretty chilly place to
00:06:30.980 have a UN conference in December.
00:06:33.480 They normally go to tourist hot spots.
00:06:35.760 Who knows?
00:06:36.140 Maybe they thought global warming would have kicked in and warmed up Poland by now. 0.89
00:06:38.820 Even if it is cold in Poland, that is not going to stop the jet setters who are jet setting 1.00
00:06:45.020 against jet fuel because you can blow millions of dollars, billions of dollars in any weather.
00:06:51.940 Remember, Catherine McKenna hired a Paris fashion photographer to capture just how glamorous
00:06:57.340 she was at the Global Warming Conference a couple of years ago.
00:07:01.260 And then naturally, she blamed some civil servant for the decision when she was called
00:07:05.060 out on it.
00:07:05.900 And of course, the CBC did damage control for her, as you saw in that article.
00:07:09.080 So this is a vanity case.
00:07:11.260 Catherine McKenna, who has 24 people working on her Twitter tweets.
00:07:14.520 Seriously.
00:07:15.760 So she's back at it now, jetting around the world, campaigning against jets.
00:07:20.160 And like I say, she's bringing 126 of her closest friends with her.
00:07:24.780 And here's the list just published by the United Nations.
00:07:27.840 Of all the registrations so far for this little get together, if you can see there at the
00:07:32.600 bottom right, 22,771 people, oh my God, are jetting to Poland to talk about using less energy.
00:07:40.480 And as you can see a little bit further up there, 13,898 of these people are from the countries
00:07:46.620 themselves.
00:07:48.480 And then work with me down that right hand column a bit.
00:07:51.200 But 6,046 of these people are from NGOs and lobby groups.
00:07:56.360 And then almost at the bottom there, it says 1,541 media.
00:08:01.500 Now, I'm not going to call them journalists because real journalists are not allowed in.
00:08:05.640 Only those who comply with the U.N. agenda are.
00:08:07.920 I know this because our own Sheila Gunn-Reed is going to Poland to cover this. 1.00
00:08:11.960 But the U.N. refuses to accredit her.
00:08:14.720 And they specifically said when rejecting her accreditation application, it's because McKenna's
00:08:19.960 delegation blackballed her.
00:08:22.180 I mean, quote, declined due to complaints received above the organization from government
00:08:25.520 delegates at COP22.
00:08:26.940 They just come out and say it.
00:08:28.700 But Catherine McKenna complains. 0.99
00:08:31.040 So she's banned. 1.00
00:08:32.520 That's how it works with the U.N.
00:08:34.540 They know Sheila Gunn-Reed is a critic.
00:08:36.260 So they keep her out.
00:08:37.840 Of course, that's what China would do. 0.57
00:08:39.260 Imagine what that says about the media who are allowed in.
00:08:42.640 They must be so compliant.
00:08:43.880 So 22,771 people are meeting in person in luxury hotels, five-star living, limousines,
00:08:51.140 the whole deal.
00:08:52.080 I'm sure they'll have lots of advice for farmers on how to reduce their carbon footprint, though.
00:08:56.620 But let's look through the list of delegates there.
00:08:59.580 I showed you the whole list.
00:09:01.060 Now, Canada has 126 people.
00:09:03.380 Now, there's Catherine Ann Stewart, the chief negotiator.
00:09:08.380 Do you see that?
00:09:09.620 I'm not sure what we're negotiating.
00:09:11.380 Do you?
00:09:11.740 Do you know what we're negotiating?
00:09:13.460 Apparently, we're ready to negotiate something.
00:09:15.520 We're told that these U.N. treaties are non-binding.
00:09:17.860 So why are we going there?
00:09:20.240 What are we doing?
00:09:20.680 What are we negotiating about?
00:09:21.760 What are we going to get in return for what are we going to give up?
00:09:25.980 Are these real negotiators, like the kind Donald Trump used in the NAFTA renegotiations
00:09:31.400 or in Donald Trump's negotiations with China?
00:09:34.260 That would be pretty amazing if we even had negotiators like that.
00:09:37.180 Or are they more Trudeau-style negotiators, like the ones Trudeau used in his negotiations
00:09:42.960 with Bombardier?
00:09:44.620 I have a guess of what kind they are.
00:09:47.360 Did you even know we were going to Poland to negotiate something?
00:09:52.420 I honestly didn't know that.
00:09:53.960 I didn't know there was a negotiation.
00:09:55.480 But I guess we are.
00:09:57.320 And look at this.
00:09:58.300 I mentioned you had Catherine Stewart, the chief negotiator.
00:10:01.320 And then just look through the list of delegates here.
00:10:03.860 There's Miss Christina Luisa Paradiso, the deputy chief negotiator.
00:10:08.860 And then there's Mr. Elias Aberisk, who's with negotiation.
00:10:13.740 He's a negotiations manager.
00:10:16.880 How big a negotiation team is this?
00:10:19.940 What's going on here?
00:10:21.040 Well, we'll take a look.
00:10:21.800 Mr. Gregoire Albert Baribo, negotiator, mitigation policy analyst.
00:10:30.220 Oh.
00:10:30.860 And then there's Mr. Jeffrey Brower, negotiator, response measures.
00:10:34.440 And then there's Miss Elizabeth Bush, negotiator, climate science.
00:10:37.780 And then there's Miss Lydia Cavison, negotiator, climate finance.
00:10:41.540 And then there's Miss Kimberly Chrétien, negotiator, adaptation.
00:10:45.940 And then there's Miss Sherry Hain, negotiator, greenhouse gas inventories. 0.90
00:10:51.620 And then there's Mr. Richard Lawrence Hegan, negotiator, indigenous engagement.
00:10:57.440 If you're counting, we're at 10 negotiators so far.
00:11:01.500 Oh, I am not done.
00:11:02.920 Okay, let me read quickly.
00:11:04.000 I'm not going to read you all 126 names.
00:11:05.600 I just want to show you what luxury living, six-figure salaries, international travel,
00:11:09.780 all for a makeup, fake cause, junk science looks like.
00:11:12.440 In other words, this is what your carbon tax is going to pay for.
00:11:14.700 All these extremely important people, they're going to talk about ways to wring more money
00:11:19.480 out of your wallet to talk more about wringing more ways to wring money out of your wallet.
00:11:22.840 Here's Martin Lajoie.
00:11:25.140 He's a negotiator, markets.
00:11:26.760 I don't even know what that means.
00:11:27.980 Here's Mr. Adam Preban, negotiator, climate finance, economic advisor.
00:11:32.560 I don't know what that means either.
00:11:33.800 I wonder if he does.
00:11:35.320 There's Miss Erin Beth Marshington, assistant manager, climate finance policy and negotiations.
00:11:41.340 Miss Karen Simonson, negotiator, senior advisor, climate change, Canadian Forest Service.
00:11:47.620 I'm not done yet, people.
00:11:49.200 Mr. Patrick Spicer, negotiator, global stock take, Talanoa dialogue.
00:11:54.320 I know you don't know what that means.
00:11:56.180 Mr. Stefan Wesch, negotiator, markets.
00:11:58.720 That is 16 negotiators.
00:12:02.160 That is more than we had negotiating NAFTA, which really is a thing.
00:12:07.960 We've got 16 people flying to this UN conference to negotiate.
00:12:11.860 Now, I've been in some negotiations in my life.
00:12:13.980 Nothing as big as a foreign treaty.
00:12:16.660 But I don't know how you even have 16 people negotiating anything.
00:12:21.080 How do you even have 16 people involved?
00:12:23.340 And that doesn't include this woman, Miss Patricia Fuller, ambassador for climate change.
00:12:30.620 And, of course, she has an assistant, Miss Joanna Defoe, advisor to the ambassador for climate change.
00:12:39.340 That's just the negotiations unit of just the federal government.
00:12:43.540 I'll get into a little bit more of who they sent later.
00:12:46.460 But remember, provinces send people to these junkets, too.
00:12:50.040 There are more than a dozen very, very important people from the government of Quebec going.
00:12:55.540 And I'm not even including Bloc Québécois MPs from the federal parliament that are going.
00:12:59.680 Now, the Bloc really isn't even a thing anymore.
00:13:01.960 They don't like Canada anyways.
00:13:03.660 But, sure, they'll take a free trip to Europe with the Canadian delegation.
00:13:07.300 Maybe stop off in Paris along the way.
00:13:09.540 It's not just the provinces, too.
00:13:11.240 Indian bands.
00:13:12.060 Now, what gets me is that Canada's Indian bands have real problems.
00:13:17.720 Unemployment, a huge one.
00:13:19.040 Lack of jobs.
00:13:20.560 Social dysfunction.
00:13:21.740 A huge one.
00:13:22.960 Crime.
00:13:23.940 Substance abuse.
00:13:25.500 And they actually have real environmental problems, too.
00:13:28.180 Especially drinking water.
00:13:29.780 Clean drinking water.
00:13:32.040 But so many Indian bands and fancy chiefs love jet-setting to these conferences, too.
00:13:36.480 I mean, really, is the 24th annual meeting of the Global Warming Mafia really the best way to spend five grand in airfare and five grand in hotels for any one chief to get over to Poland for a party?
00:13:47.000 Because don't think for a second most of these people aren't flying first class.
00:13:50.360 Here, I'll just read a few.
00:13:52.640 Miss Kluane Adamick, regional chief, Assembly of First Nations.
00:13:57.500 Mr. Robert Bertrand, national chief, Congress of Aboriginal Peoples.
00:14:01.660 Is this really the most important thing for their bands?
00:14:04.720 But this isn't just about chiefs.
00:14:08.320 Oh, they need a lot of technical experts.
00:14:10.520 I mean, what's the number one issue affecting Aboriginal women these days? 1.00
00:14:14.020 Well, I'm told endlessly that it's the missing and murdered women's file.
00:14:19.280 Maybe that's true.
00:14:20.740 Yeah, but not when there's a free trip to Europe involved.
00:14:24.320 Here's Mr. Adam Jordan Tyler Bond.
00:14:27.040 He's a technical expert at the Native Women's Association of Canada.
00:14:31.080 And look at this.
00:14:31.660 Here's Miss Francine Donjoe. 1.00
00:14:33.840 She's the president of the Native Women's Association of Canada.
00:14:36.980 And here's Mr. Graham Reid, senior advisor, Assembly of First Nations.
00:14:41.400 And here's Miss Melissa Cernigoy, senior policy advisor, Congress of Aboriginal Peoples.
00:14:46.420 By the way, are there ever any junior policy advisors?
00:14:50.300 Does everybody get to call themselves a senior?
00:14:52.860 Actually, I bet there are junior policy advisors and assistant junior policy advisors.
00:14:57.220 I bet there are thousands of these people.
00:15:00.740 Look at this one.
00:15:01.500 Mr. William Neal Gooden, minister of housing and property management, Manitoba MĂ©tis Federation, MĂ©tis National Council.
00:15:11.760 Really.
00:15:12.420 So you're in charge of housing for Aboriginal people.
00:15:16.600 That is a very real issue.
00:15:19.360 That is a very important job.
00:15:21.960 It's a crisis in some cities.
00:15:23.700 It really is.
00:15:24.600 And on reserves especially.
00:15:25.700 But this guy puts everything less important aside to get on a jet, to go to Poland for the big global warming party.
00:15:36.160 How will anything he does in Poland help housing for a single MĂ©tis person in Manitoba?
00:15:45.320 That is a mystery, people.
00:15:46.840 But hey, if everyone else is picking out in Poland, why should the MĂ©tis be left out?
00:15:51.620 Now, I mentioned how vain Catherine McKenna is. 1.00
00:15:54.340 I mentioned how she hired that Paris fashion photographer to show how glamorous she is. 1.00
00:15:59.940 So gross.
00:16:01.160 Well, instead of hiring out fashion photographers and that, they just put them on payroll.
00:16:05.720 Here's Mr. Christian Malboeuf Connolly, manager, social media, environment and climate change Canada.
00:16:13.980 He's the manager of social media for MĂ©tis.
00:16:17.320 She's like Kardashian, really.
00:16:19.180 Except I don't think Kim Kardashian has a whole team of 24 people working her Twitter account.
00:16:25.340 I think Kim Kardashian is a more responsible businesswoman than that. 1.00
00:16:28.900 But hey, she's using her own money. 1.00
00:16:31.580 Catherine McKenna is using your money. 1.00
00:16:34.680 Oh, by the way, the union propagandists, they're out in force too.
00:16:37.000 The anti-oil unions like Unifor, Miss Sari Hanela Saarinen, national health, safety and environment director for Unifor.
00:16:46.400 And the teachers unions, Mr. Earl Burt, treasurer, Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation.
00:16:53.300 Not sure why union dues are being spent to send a treasurer of a teachers union on a junket.
00:16:58.560 But hey, it's a party and they're part of the government.
00:17:00.400 And why shouldn't they be pigging out soon?
00:17:03.040 I didn't even mention it, but Cup W, the postal workers union, is going.
00:17:08.220 They've got a big strike in Canada, but don't let that get in the way of a party, man.
00:17:11.320 Just go party.
00:17:12.440 Cup W's on strike.
00:17:13.280 Go party.
00:17:14.180 I mean, really, when you think global warming, you think, what do the postal workers have to say, don't you?
00:17:19.460 There's so many hangers on.
00:17:21.500 There are little youth delegates.
00:17:23.760 Maybe they'll help with the negotiation.
00:17:25.260 I mean, they really couldn't be worse than Trudeau's government negotiating.
00:17:27.980 I mean, look at how we got taken for a ride by Donald Trump.
00:17:30.460 But really, they're just junior propagandists who will pump global warming message tracks into their schools and universities back home.
00:17:36.420 I'm sure they will be shocked by the profligacy of the U.N. convention, the luxury, the wealth, the overconsumption.
00:17:43.120 But I think they'll quickly make a decision.
00:17:46.160 Either stand by their true principles, their ideals, reduce, reuse, recycle, smaller carbon footprint, live modestly.
00:17:53.440 Or they'll go full Suzuki.
00:17:55.120 They'll learn to say all of those things, reduce, reuse, recycle, save our planet.
00:18:01.320 But they'll make a mental reservation, it's called.
00:18:03.660 They'll make a psychological, emotional exception for themselves because they're part of the anointed elite. 0.85
00:18:09.960 I mean, I think that zombie Catherine McKenna with her talking points, 1.00
00:18:13.300 I think she really does believe that farm girl from the prairie should reduce her carbon footprint by one puff and should use less water. 1.00
00:18:23.920 And then she just flips a mental switch and goes on a luxury trip with 126 friends.
00:18:29.880 And she never compares her words and her deeds.
00:18:32.140 And if she ever did, she'd have a morally important excuse, which is,
00:18:35.460 well, I'm just so important and I have to do this.
00:18:40.020 And stop with your racist questions.
00:18:42.920 There are others on this list of 126 piggies. 0.97
00:18:46.380 There are lobbyists, there are environmental activists, they're often the same person.
00:18:49.920 They always manage to feather their own nest, don't they?
00:18:52.120 The whole thing is gross.
00:18:53.240 But the grossest is this.
00:18:56.080 Every single one of these people, every single one is working to destroy Alberta's oil and gas industry.
00:19:02.740 And yes, don't kid yourself, Ontario's auto industry too.
00:19:07.660 126 destroyers on your dime.
00:19:11.260 So the next time you hear Catherine McKenna or Justin Trudeau making some remarks about the middle class and jobs,
00:19:17.400 why not ask them why 126 Canadian jet setters went to Poland to campaign against Canada's heartland industries?
00:19:28.020 And be ready for a lot of vocal fry in response. 0.92
00:19:32.560 Stay with us for more.
00:19:47.400 Welcome back.
00:19:50.220 Well, what if I told you that the local political columnist in your daily newspaper
00:19:54.520 also happened to be a paid lobbyist for, I don't know, some corporate interest group?
00:20:00.380 I don't know, the petroleum producers or General Motors, let's say.
00:20:04.460 And that they would write articles that they believed in,
00:20:07.960 but maybe it just also happened to be what they were paid to promote
00:20:11.520 on behalf of the lobby group that employed them.
00:20:14.160 You'd probably say, well, I would want a disclosure
00:20:16.740 that this pro-GM editorial was written by a staffer of GM
00:20:22.240 or this person calling for, I don't know, war in the Middle East, works for an arms dealer.
00:20:28.320 Those may sound like dramatic hypothetical scenarios,
00:20:31.400 but I think it's an analogy to what's happening in the city of St. John's, Newfoundland,
00:20:38.440 with one of their columnists.
00:20:40.080 Well, here to explain the conflict of interest
00:20:42.100 and how it goes straight to the heart of media independence
00:20:44.780 is our friend Andrew Lawton, a fellow at the True North Initiative
00:20:48.000 and the boss of andrewlawton.ca.
00:20:50.820 Great to see you again, Andrew.
00:20:51.760 Nice to have you back on the show.
00:20:53.920 Thank you, Ezra.
00:20:54.520 Always a pleasure.
00:20:55.600 I tried out an analogy a moment ago, and I don't know if it worked.
00:20:59.780 But my point is, if someone tells you something, that's one thing.
00:21:03.720 But if they're selling you something,
00:21:05.440 there's got to be a disclaimer that they're sort of on the make here.
00:21:08.540 Tell us a little bit about a journalist in St. John's named Lana Payne.
00:21:13.260 And tell our viewers why, even if they're not from St. John's, Newfoundland, they should care.
00:21:18.600 Yeah, well, actually, what got me started on the story that I ultimately uncovered here
00:21:23.040 was investigating Unifor, which, as I'm sure your viewers know,
00:21:27.420 declared war against Andrew Scheer a few weeks ago.
00:21:30.240 A bunch of their political action team members called themselves
00:21:33.460 the resistance to Andrew Scheer and vowed at all costs to defeat
00:21:37.280 Andrew Scheer and the Conservatives in next year's election.
00:21:40.840 And that, in and of itself, I think, is a Labour Union's prerogative,
00:21:43.960 like any other organization, to have a perspective and to want to act on it.
00:21:48.460 Why it was so concerning for me with Unifor is that Unifor is the largest union in Canada.
00:21:54.480 It's also the largest union for journalists and representatives of the media in Canada.
00:22:00.460 And this announcement that Unifor was the resistance to Andrew Scheer
00:22:04.560 came just one week before journalists in Canada were the beneficiaries of that $600 million media bailout.
00:22:11.880 So I was already seeing some stories that were creating this idea that perhaps
00:22:16.580 some journalists, not all, are going to be in a position where they could be beholden
00:22:21.800 to forces other than their own integrity and ethics.
00:22:25.440 And you fast forward to a couple of days ago,
00:22:28.060 and I uncovered that one of the members of the core Unifor political action team,
00:22:33.020 so not just a low-ranking Unifor member,
00:22:35.880 but one of the seven or eight people that are actually driving their efforts to defeat the Conservatives,
00:22:40.780 is a regular columnist with the St. John's Telegram, a large newspaper,
00:22:45.000 I think the largest newspaper in Newfoundland and one of the largest in the Maritimes.
00:22:49.400 And to be fair, I don't have any issues with, you know,
00:22:53.180 a columnist taking a pro-Justin Trudeau stance or an anti-Conservative stance.
00:22:58.440 I think that's to be expected.
00:23:00.360 What I do have an issue with is her doing so while she's also collecting a paycheck, 1.00
00:23:05.560 presumably from Unifor, which has a very specific goal,
00:23:09.840 and that is to defeat the Conservatives.
00:23:12.240 And this would be, I think your analogies were very spot on.
00:23:14.780 It would also be the same, in my view, of someone being a political candidate
00:23:19.260 and at the same time as running for office,
00:23:22.080 writing columns to give people their analysis on politics.
00:23:25.460 Yeah, yeah, you're right.
00:23:26.400 You know, you make me think way back, I don't know, about 20 years ago or so almost,
00:23:30.860 when I ran briefly for Parliament in Calgary Southwest for the old party of the Canadian Alliance.
00:23:36.060 I was writing for local newspapers, but once I threw my hat in the ring,
00:23:39.760 they said, all right, you're a candidate now,
00:23:41.360 and we can't really let you pretend to be a neutral, objective voice
00:23:45.540 because you have a very specific political interest.
00:23:47.520 We showed that tweet you mentioned where Unifor declared itself to be the resistance.
00:23:53.100 Put that back up just for one second.
00:23:54.580 I wanted to, that lady, second from the right, that is the columnist in question. 1.00
00:23:59.480 So she's not just some shop steward, you know, low-down middle manager in the union. 0.95
00:24:04.100 She is someone who self-identified as the, quote, resistance, Andrew Scheer's worst nightmare.
00:24:11.500 We have one more image I'd like to show with you, also showing the same.
00:24:15.160 Here she is, another Unifor tweet, it just says,
00:24:18.280 it's never too soon to start planning for the 2019 federal election.
00:24:23.280 Unifor's election planning team is hard at work to develop our strategy.
00:24:26.680 And then if we zoom in there, you can see her, and that's her on the left. 0.99
00:24:31.420 And again, free country, be as partisan as you want.
00:24:34.760 I think that this probably doesn't reflect all Unifor dues-paying members.
00:24:40.080 But how can someone who is a partisan campaign activist have a normal byline in a newspaper
00:24:46.220 pretending to be, oh, it's just me.
00:24:48.080 Yeah, I'm just the girl next door, just calling it like I see it.
00:24:52.860 No, you are a senior captain of Unifor's anti-conservative strategy.
00:24:58.640 It's really, you broke this news.
00:25:01.440 You did a very good job of it, Andrew.
00:25:03.200 Have you heard anything back from the editor or publisher of the St. John's Telegram?
00:25:08.420 Has any media ethics boss said, oh, maybe he's got a point?
00:25:12.260 Has anyone in the industry said, maybe we have a problem here?
00:25:17.380 No, nothing from that perspective.
00:25:19.580 But I will say I've had a number of Unifor members that have reached out
00:25:22.800 that are, as you suggested, actually quite frustrated that this is what their union is doing.
00:25:27.280 They're interested in securing their jobs and having an economic climate to keep working.
00:25:32.740 They don't want to get into this political fistfight that Jerry Dias and his team,
00:25:37.180 including Ms. Payne, have started.
00:25:39.380 You know, I will say something here, Ezra, that I think is important.
00:25:42.400 This is not an issue with her being opinionated.
00:25:44.860 You know, I ran as a progressive conservative candidate in the election.
00:25:48.360 So understandably, people may read a column I'm writing and wonder, you know, is he writing this
00:25:54.020 from the perspective of Andrew Lawton, the small C conservative, or Andrew Lawton, the partisan?
00:25:59.040 And I've always been very clear that I will criticize my own party, if you can even say that is the case.
00:26:05.420 And I wouldn't say that I represent any party right now.
00:26:08.420 But I've criticized the federal conservative party.
00:26:10.980 I've criticized the provincial conservative party.
00:26:13.000 And I've criticized the People's Party of Canada.
00:26:16.380 And Lana Payne may well be in that same boat, where she's prepared to, you know, give credit where it's due 1.00
00:26:22.060 and take aim at her own side. 1.00
00:26:23.860 But I don't think that is the case when she is part of this core strategic team that Unifor has assembled.
00:26:29.940 And she is supposedly going to be offering her analysis on politics.
00:26:33.760 And you have to wonder if this fits into the strategy, not just for her, but also for the other 12,000 members of Unifor that are in the media industry,
00:26:42.700 more than any other contingent from that industry in Canada, that are now on one hand supposed to be reporting the truth about what's happening in the elections,
00:26:51.200 but on the other hand are being told by their union, this is what we're saying, this is what we're doing, this is our strategy, this is our goal.
00:26:57.580 And let me tell you, Ezra, when I was knocking on doors in my campaign, I heard from a number of people when I was at their doorstep saying,
00:27:04.980 oh, yeah, I got an email from my union telling me to do this.
00:27:07.660 So we know this is how unions behave in elections.
00:27:10.920 The problem is that that information is not just going to frontline workers.
00:27:14.600 It's going to the people that are supposedly communicating the impartial and unbiased truth of what's happening in politics to the masses.
00:27:22.680 Yeah, I mean, Unifor is a very big union.
00:27:24.460 It ranges, you mentioned, it covers the media.
00:27:28.280 I've also personally seen the Unifor office in Fort McMurray.
00:27:31.940 So obviously oil and gas workers, obviously more on the conservative side of things and certainly on the pro-oil and gas side.
00:27:37.700 And of course, GM Oshawa, Oshawa votes conservative federally year after year.
00:27:43.440 So I have no doubt that some Unifor members are anti-conservative.
00:27:48.300 But I think that not only does this not represent all Unifor members, I think it actually erodes confidence in all journalists.
00:27:59.560 Let me give you a quick example.
00:28:01.080 I mean, we both are friends with David Akin.
00:28:03.260 He's a pretty good guy.
00:28:05.100 We worked with him in Sun News.
00:28:06.700 He does, I think he's with Global now.
00:28:09.800 He protested against Unifor's statement, the tweets.
00:28:13.980 And I thought it was very good of him to do.
00:28:16.840 I sent him a copy of his Unifor local shop, his union local bylaws, which say if a quarter of the local members sign a request for a meeting, the union local has to have that meeting within 60 days.
00:28:36.260 And David said, I'm very angry about this politicization.
00:28:40.600 I'm pretty sure no such meeting has been called or will be called.
00:28:43.680 And here's what worries me, Andrew.
00:28:46.500 Journalists say, oh, I don't like this.
00:28:48.600 But they're all going to go quiet and take the $595 million bailout from Justin Trudeau.
00:28:54.680 And they all are going to either be part of this demonize the conservatives plan that Unifor has laid out for them, or at the very least, they won't resist it.
00:29:03.180 And that momentary, I don't like this, by our friend David Akin and others, will be just that, a momentary, oh, please don't twist my rubber arm.
00:29:14.080 And then they're all going to be complicit.
00:29:16.300 And trust in the media is going to fall even lower.
00:29:18.920 That's my theory.
00:29:19.600 What do you think of that scenario?
00:29:21.500 Well, I think you're very right there.
00:29:23.340 And remember that unions are overwhelmingly decided and swayed by the people that have the time and interest in getting involved.
00:29:31.800 And the average person who is working in a newsroom, in a car plant, whatever, doesn't want to rise up the ranks to be the deputy vice admiral, chief associate assistant, vice president of communicating communications for their union.
00:29:45.700 They just want to work and do their job.
00:29:48.080 And I think that the journalists that are against this will probably just send off a tweet or two, maybe roll the rise.
00:29:54.320 But they're not actually going to infiltrate the union to change anything because, let's face it, that's not why they're working in the newsrooms.
00:30:01.060 The truly ethical journalists are focusing on journalism.
00:30:04.540 So I don't think the actual structure of this will change in any way.
00:30:08.440 And ultimately, people like Jerry Dias will be the ones that set the narrative and Lana Payne.
00:30:14.180 And, you know, the one thing that really started this for me is I said that most Canadians reading a newspaper or watching a TV news broadcast have no idea which newsrooms are unionized and in which unions.
00:30:26.460 And the push that I made for this was to disclose.
00:30:30.020 You know, as simple as that, when you write a political story, now that Unifor has made a political agenda known, you have to say with your byline, Unifor member.
00:30:40.180 And if you're a steward, if you're a president, whatever.
00:30:42.920 And that is the only way that readers of news and consumers will be able to maybe start questioning, where is this coming from?
00:30:50.760 Is this the journalistic truth talking or is this your loyalty to your union and its stated aims talking?
00:30:57.100 Yeah.
00:30:57.640 Yeah, you're so right.
00:30:58.420 I mean, and that's what I said right at the beginning.
00:31:00.160 If someone has a collateral interest, just disclose it and let the viewer decide if that's important.
00:31:06.500 And by the way, even if you are a paid lobbyist for someone, you can still have a good point.
00:31:12.040 You can still make that point.
00:31:13.360 But if you have some collateral hidden interest, you've got to disclose it.
00:31:18.180 And that, I think, I mean, part of the crisis in journalism is technological and the nature of the economics of the new industry.
00:31:26.020 But I think a lot of it is trust.
00:31:28.200 And I think this whole Unifor endorsement thing is just really another blow to the credibility of the industry it doesn't need right now.
00:31:37.300 And it's great to see you.
00:31:38.380 I enjoyed spending a day or two with you in London when we both covered the Tommy Robinson trial together.
00:31:43.600 And it's nice to see you back on the show as a panelist.
00:31:46.520 Thanks very much, Ezra.
00:31:47.280 Always a pleasure.
00:31:47.980 All right.
00:31:48.300 There you have it.
00:31:48.740 Our friend Andrew Lawton joining us via Skype from London, Ontario.
00:31:52.600 He, of course, joined me in London, England for Tommy Robinson's trial.
00:31:55.760 He is a fellow with the True North Initiative.
00:31:58.880 Stay with us.
00:31:59.440 More ahead on The Rebel.
00:32:00.100 Hey, welcome back to my monologue yesterday about Apple CEO Tim Cook wanting to ban divisive ideas.
00:32:15.840 Ron writes, has Apple now become a theocratic corporation with Tim Cook as the high priest and the Apple iPhone PDF as the new Bible?
00:32:23.240 Well, look, I mean, I know it's crazy, but it's happening that the company that just makes your phone or your stereo or your watch now has an opinion about what you say and do when you're listening to the phone or the stereo or wearing the watch.
00:32:41.740 That is not normal.
00:32:43.560 That is not normal.
00:32:44.400 When you sell someone a chair, they can do whatever they want with the chair.
00:32:47.920 They can chop up the chair and burn it.
00:32:49.520 They can stand on it dangerously.
00:32:50.820 Maybe you have a warning that says don't stand on the wheels, the chair with the wheels on it.
00:32:54.780 But to stay involved with that chair and use that chair to make you a better you, that is not what we do when we buy a chair.
00:33:02.840 And I'm sorry, it doesn't apply when you buy a phone or a stereo or whatever the tech industry is selling us.
00:33:08.380 It just is not.
00:33:09.780 That is not.
00:33:11.060 And where's the media, by the way?
00:33:14.860 I think because they think tech is cool and they see the money.
00:33:18.660 I think they shut up and they go along with it.
00:33:22.240 I find it strange.
00:33:24.700 Peter writes,
00:33:25.980 On the surface, if you don't think about it too much, Tim Cook's speech about being against hate seems okay.
00:33:31.320 Who wouldn't want to be against hate?
00:33:33.480 But who decides what is hate and what is not?
00:33:35.820 So many social justice warriors call anything they disagree with hate.
00:33:41.260 You know, you're exactly right.
00:33:42.680 But it reminds me of, remember we showed that guy at some award show, punch some people in the face.
00:33:50.560 We got to punch hate in the face.
00:33:52.460 Like he just was oblivious to how he looked and sounded in the contradictions there.
00:33:57.440 That whole punch a Nazi thing that really got rolling in 2017.
00:34:00.960 It turned from, if you spot a Nazi, punch him in the face.
00:34:07.060 To, if you punch someone in the face, call them a Nazi to justify it.
00:34:13.940 So anti-hate laws or hate speech, what does that mean?
00:34:18.200 I think it just means any speech that a liberal hates.
00:34:23.340 Not hateful speech.
00:34:24.800 You know, is Louis Farrakhan hateful?
00:34:29.380 Some people actually thought that Martin Luther King Jr. was hateful.
00:34:33.320 And I'm sure he hated the structures and the status quo there was.
00:34:37.620 He expressed it in a non-violent, peaceful, affirmative, constructive way.
00:34:41.440 I'm sure he was motivated by love, but I'm sure he was also motivated by hate.
00:34:45.360 We can't get in the business of controlling human emotions.
00:34:48.600 That's what they tried in Orwell's 19th century.
00:34:50.640 You've got to read that book again.
00:34:52.020 From the telescreens to the two minutes of hate, to the ministry of truth, to the ministry
00:34:57.260 of peace, you've got to read the book again.
00:34:59.680 You know what?
00:35:00.200 I'm going to take my own medicine.
00:35:01.100 I'm going to read that book again.
00:35:01.920 I've read that book four times.
00:35:04.280 It's been too long since I've read it last.
00:35:06.820 If you want to know what 1984 is about, it's actually about language.
00:35:10.900 It is about new speak more than anything else.
00:35:15.700 Read it again.
00:35:16.400 Let's talk about it.
00:35:16.860 You know what?
00:35:17.080 I'll read it, and I'll come back.
00:35:17.980 I'll do a show on it.
00:35:19.900 On my interview with Jack Buckby, Keith writes,
00:35:22.800 I viewed both BBC and Sky News coverage of the Paris riots, and Jack's coverage beat
00:35:26.420 them both.
00:35:27.400 They were using long lenses and zooming in from a distance while Jack was right there
00:35:31.180 on the front line.
00:35:33.000 Yeah, isn't that the truth?
00:35:34.260 I saw lots of shots from far away and up high.
00:35:39.280 I really didn't see any other footage like Jack's right in the thick of it.
00:35:43.740 He was right there at the Arc de Triomphe, which is a very imposing place.
00:35:48.080 And it's a huge traffic circle.
00:35:50.740 When things are normal in Paris, I don't have a map in my mind, but there's got to be at
00:35:55.380 least six.
00:35:56.940 It's like a radius, a sundial.
00:36:00.540 You've got the Arc de Triomphe.
00:36:02.100 You've got a circular road around it.
00:36:03.980 And you have, I think, six roads emanating out of it like sunbeams.
00:36:07.820 It is a major hub.
00:36:10.980 And it's an enormous edifice.
00:36:12.600 Did you know that a daredevil once took an airplane and flew it through the Arc de Triomphe?
00:36:19.760 That's a fact.
00:36:21.040 That's a fact.
00:36:22.400 It's enormous.
00:36:24.140 And the whole place was shut down.
00:36:25.600 And Jack was right in it with Martina filming everything.
00:36:28.480 That was some of the most exciting journalism we've ever had, in my view.
00:36:31.680 I'm glad you liked it.
00:36:35.300 We have, we have, some people say, hey, too much foreign affairs.
00:36:38.500 Too much foreign affairs.
00:36:39.260 Well, you know what?
00:36:40.120 I know that people get their foreign affairs through the CBC, through CNN, whatever.
00:36:44.340 And I know people were hearing about these protests.
00:36:46.260 I know people were hearing about the migrant caravan in Mexico.
00:36:49.340 We, so I got to tell you, if you're against the foreign travel, you're not going to like
00:36:52.340 what I'm about to say because we were sending Sheila Gunn-Reed to the Global Warming Conference 0.73
00:36:56.320 in Poland, we're sending David Menzies to the UN Migration Compact Conference in Morocco,
00:37:03.860 unless they literally physically kick him out.
00:37:07.200 And I think I might go back to London for Tommy's Brexit rally.
00:37:10.580 So we're going to do some of that because you know what?
00:37:12.260 These are important things that Canadians follow.
00:37:14.620 And yeah, we're covering the Canadian beat, too.
00:37:16.400 We've got a lot of Canadian news going on all the time.
00:37:19.160 So that's what's coming up in the days and weeks ahead.
00:37:21.220 I'm glad you liked Jack's coverage.
00:37:24.380 Folks, that's it for the show today.
00:37:25.720 Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters,
00:37:28.900 to you at home, good night.
00:37:30.460 Keep fighting for freedom.