Rebel News Podcast - Rebel Roundup： Guest Ezra Levant, Keean Bexte

00:00:00.440 You're listening to a Rebel Media Podcast.

00:00:03.700 Welcome to Rebel Roundup, ladies and gentlemen, and the rest of you,

00:00:07.340 in which we look back at some of the very best commentaries of the week by your favorite Rebels.

00:00:12.080 I'm your host, David Menzies.

00:00:14.340 Well, move over, SNC-Lavalin.

00:00:18.140 There's another Liberal scandal gaining traction these days,

00:00:21.700 namely the Vice Admiral Mark Norman affair.

00:00:25.440 Rebel Commander Ezra Levent was in Ottawa to cover this story

00:00:29.320 and just wait till you hear what Ezra has to say.

00:00:33.960 Bashing Israel on campus seems to be a national pastime sometimes,

00:00:38.640 but thankfully, the pathetic attempt to vilify Israel at Stanford University earlier this week

00:00:45.620 turned out to be a complete bust.

00:00:48.920 Kian Bexte went down to California to witness the fiasco, and he'll share his thoughts.

00:00:55.160 And finally, letters. We get your letters.

00:00:57.240 We get your letters every minute of every day, and I'll share some of your responses

00:01:01.180 regarding how the Trudeau Liberals were very big on lauding World Press Freedom Day last week.

00:01:08.780 But do they practice what they preach when it comes to freedom of the press?

00:01:13.160 What do you think?

00:01:14.980 Those are the rebels. Now let's round them up.

00:01:17.240 Vice Admiral Mark Norman and his lawyer Marie Hennane will have a press conference

00:01:30.240 discussing their great legal victory this morning

00:01:33.460 over the prosecution against Mark Norman for one count of breach of trust.

00:01:38.740 You may know that Mark Norman was charged with this

00:01:42.260 after he blew the whistle on Justin Trudeau's liberal plan

00:01:48.680 to move a shipbuilding contract from a Quebec firm

00:01:52.040 to a liberal-connected firm, the Irving Shipyards in the Atlantic,

00:01:56.680 that would cost Canadian taxpayers $89 million

00:02:00.040 to break the contract with the Quebec firm.

00:02:02.600 And of course, it did not meet the original bid.

00:02:05.320 So this was pure political machinations on the part of the liberals.

00:02:09.840 Vice Admiral Mark Norman mentioned this to the Quebec shipyard

00:02:14.720 and perhaps others and was prosecuted for a crime,

00:02:18.280 a crime generally reserved for those who engage in some sort of personal corruption

00:02:23.460 or even treason.

00:02:25.300 In fact, he was an honest, good-faith whistleblower.

00:02:28.620 It was the liberals who were corrupting the process.

00:02:31.800 Interestingly, a few days ago, Andrew Leslie,

00:02:36.100 the retired general in the Canadian Armed Forces

00:02:38.780 who sits as a Liberal MP, made it be known

00:02:40.600 that he would actually testify on behalf of Vice Admiral Norman

00:02:45.300 and that this trial would happen shortly before the 2019 election.

00:02:49.360 Well, wouldn't you know it?

00:02:50.360 Today, the prosecution dropped the case against Mark Norman,

00:02:54.600 saying new evidence had come to light.

00:02:57.040 Well, folks, if you thought the SNC-Lavalin scandal was bad,

00:03:00.520 just check out the nitty-gritty details pertaining to the Vice Admiral Mark Norman case.

00:03:05.940 Indeed, can the optics possibly get any worse?

00:03:09.580 Once again, the Trudeau liberals were meddling with a business arrangement

00:03:12.680 for purely political reasons.

00:03:14.900 Once again, the Trudeau liberals turn a good person into a scapegoat.

00:03:19.640 And once again, the Trudeau liberals carry out a vendetta

00:03:22.280 against an individual for doing the right thing.

00:03:25.860 Poor Vice Admiral Norman.

00:03:27.880 I guess he didn't get the memo going by the book.

00:03:30.800 When it comes to this federal government,

00:03:32.500 potentially means incurring the wrath of the Prime Minister.

00:03:35.840 Gee, maybe what Norman should have done

00:03:37.620 is kill an Allied soldier with a hand grenade.

00:03:40.260 After all, that sort of thing doesn't get you fired and defamed.

00:03:43.920 Rather, it scores you a multi-million dollar payday.

00:03:47.500 And with more on the Norman file

00:03:48.900 is our very own rebel commander, Ezra Levant,

00:03:51.140 who personally traveled to Ottawa earlier this week

00:03:53.600 to cover this sort of affair.

00:03:55.320 Welcome to Rebel Roundup, Ezra.

00:03:57.280 Well, thanks very much.

00:03:57.980 I was glad to get to Ottawa.

00:03:59.720 I thought the trial would be ongoing.

00:04:02.020 And I thought, oh, it's just getting interesting now.

00:04:04.300 And the eve of the hearing on, I think it was Wednesday,

00:04:08.780 the prosecution announces they have an important news to say.

00:04:13.800 And quickly, it was deduced that they were going to drop the case

00:04:17.560 after two years.

00:04:18.360 Now, the thing is, the nature of criminal prosecutions

00:04:23.360 is you have the enormous resources of the state.

00:04:26.580 You have the police.

00:04:27.640 You have the Justice Department.

00:04:29.360 And this is the federal government, so it's the biggest of them all.

00:04:31.680 They have the RCMP.

00:04:32.760 They had the clerk of the Privy Council.

00:04:35.960 That's the head of the entire civil service

00:04:37.540 is the one who referred this to prosecution.

00:04:40.320 Justin Trudeau, on at least two occasions,

00:04:42.800 before charges were laid, intimated that charges would be laid.

00:04:46.180 Yeah, which sounds pretty inappropriate to me.

00:04:50.240 We live in a country where the prime minister doesn't say

00:04:52.920 he's going to be prosecuted.

00:04:54.040 He isn't.

00:04:55.040 But we now know from the Jody Wilson-Raybould-SNC-Lavalin matter

00:04:58.800 that Justin Trudeau does very much meddle.

00:05:02.280 And so, but my point is, for two years,

00:05:05.520 you've had the combined resources of many government departments

00:05:09.020 bearing down on one man, Vice Admiral Mark Norman.

00:05:14.040 Why?

00:05:14.560 Because he tried to blow the whistle and stop the liberals

00:05:18.420 from scuppering a sound procurement plan that actually worked,

00:05:23.820 got a ship built on time and on schedule.

00:05:26.120 Scott Bryson wanted to give it to the liberal-connected Irving shipbuilding.

00:05:30.780 Not only did they lose the bidding procurement process,

00:05:35.020 but it would cost an $89 million penalty to the Quebec firm.

00:05:38.040 So it was a disastrous idea with a huge penalty,

00:05:42.120 and it was all just corrupt liberals feathering their bed.

00:05:45.260 Mark Norman blew the whistle on it,

00:05:47.300 and Trudeau basically said,

00:05:48.840 Get him!

00:05:49.540 And Michael Wernick, the corrupt former chief clerk of the Privy Council,

00:05:55.220 who resigned in disgrace a few weeks ago,

00:05:57.300 and Scott Bryson, who resigned in disgrace a few months ago,

00:06:00.520 and Gerald Butts, who resigned in disgrace a few months ago,

00:06:04.180 they were all in on this.

00:06:05.660 And here's my point.

00:06:11.240 Prosecution has a duty to disclose to the accused

00:06:14.280 any evidence that would exonerate him.

00:06:16.720 Yes.

00:06:17.300 That's the requirement of the Crown.

00:06:19.260 You have to show the case that they have to meet,

00:06:22.000 but you also have to give them exculpatory evidence.

00:06:23.920 And in this case, the government deliberately withheld exculpatory evidence

00:06:30.000 because they wanted to frame him.

00:06:32.740 When the government breaks its own laws to get you for a political crime,

00:06:39.180 well, let me phrase it another way.

00:06:41.140 Justin Trudeau wanted an honest sailor to go to prison for a crime he did not commit.

00:06:48.940 And worse than that, he took steps illegally to withhold key evidence from the court.

00:06:57.200 And it was only by the wits and the resourcefulness of the defense lawyer,

00:07:03.280 Marie Hainan, that that evidence was found,

00:07:06.620 shown to the prosecutor who finally said,

00:07:09.240 you know what, I can't, my own ethics and professional reputation,

00:07:14.960 I cannot continue with this sham.

00:07:17.220 This is a frame-up.

00:07:19.100 I'm pulling the plug.

00:07:20.440 I don't care what Trudeau says.

00:07:22.040 This is, I don't want to be part of this anymore.

00:07:24.380 So it's a disgrace that this went on for two years.

00:07:27.400 It's good that it ended.

00:07:29.240 But you can't simply do this, as Trudeau did,

00:07:32.680 and then say, ah, sorry, I shot at you.

00:07:35.000 You can't simply walk away as if everything's normal.

00:07:37.900 Indeed.

00:07:38.400 And I think for all the reasons you just said,

00:07:40.440 I think, Ezra, even though it didn't get nearly the publicity

00:07:43.380 that SNC-Lavalin got, this is by several factors worse than SNC-Lavalin.

00:07:49.340 And also when it comes to accountability, plenty of blame to go around here.

00:07:53.620 I want to know from you, Ezra, who needs to take the fall?

00:07:56.600 Is it the general that fired Norman?

00:07:59.820 Is it the defense minister?

00:08:02.220 Is it the RCMP people who botched this investigation from everything I can tell?

00:08:08.360 Is it the prime minister himself, or is it all of them?

00:08:11.640 Well, I don't know all the facts.

00:08:14.520 But I think that Jody Wilson-Raybould probably knows a lot of them.

00:08:19.380 She was the attorney general for a portion of this,

00:08:23.560 and she has specifically not been freed from her cabinet confidentiality to talk about it.

00:08:28.620 Justin Trudeau specifically refused to release her from obligations.

00:08:32.960 She would know.

00:08:34.180 I think the prosecution service, this is twice now they've been meddled with.

00:08:38.380 The funny thing is, Justin Trudeau interfered to let a confessed criminal off the hook.

00:08:44.120 SNC-Lavalin has admitted their crimes.

00:08:46.900 So he's interfered with prosecutors to let a guilty company go,

00:08:51.060 and he's interfered with prosecutors to convict an innocent man.

00:08:55.260 Justin Trudeau, Michael Wernick, Gerald Butt, Scott Bryson.

00:09:01.120 I don't know the RCMP's role.

00:09:02.320 I don't know General Vance, the head of the chief of defense staff.

00:09:06.720 I think if you were serious about justice and the rule of law, you would clean them all out.

00:09:14.960 Now, the trouble with Canada is, unlike the United States,

00:09:18.080 where you have this two-year special in counsel led by Robert Mueller,

00:09:24.720 dozens of lawyers and FBI agents, hundreds of subpoenas, hundreds of...

00:09:30.260 They left no stone unturned to check into the ludicrous claim of Russian collusion.

00:09:36.520 And in the end, they found none.

00:09:38.440 It was a ridiculous $50 million exercise.

00:09:41.620 In Canada, we have concrete evidence of SNC-Lavalin corruption.

00:09:47.920 I mean, the attorney general herself says so.

00:09:49.780 We have evidence here of lawbreaking by the PMO to frame an innocent man.

00:09:57.120 Concrete evidence.

00:09:58.100 And yet our police, our lapdogs, not watchdogs, and we have no...

00:10:02.020 And the Senate covers it up, and the parliamentary committees cover it up.

00:10:05.880 We don't have the same checks and balances and scrutiny and accountability that they have in America.

00:10:11.300 And for all the excesses there, and for all their sound and fury, you know what?

00:10:15.180 They have a better, cleaner system.

00:10:16.840 And they clean out their gutters.

00:10:18.280 We don't clean out our gutters.

00:10:21.100 And Ezra, tell me, from a political perspective here,

00:10:24.820 do you think by, you know, the prosecution deciding to wave the white flag of surrender,

00:10:30.700 this is sort of a consolation prize, given that had this gone to trial,

00:10:36.340 and we had seen, you know, daily dispatches of how egregious people acted against this gentleman,

00:10:43.820 and it would be on the front page every day in an election year,

00:10:47.440 well, election half year as it is right now.

00:10:50.260 That would have been far more damaging to the Trudeau brand than simply doing what they did on Wednesday.

00:10:55.360 Yeah, I mean, ironically, by doing the right thing for Vice Admiral Norman,

00:11:00.600 the prosecutor has actually saved Trudeau from a thermonuclear existential level threat of this trial,

00:11:09.240 because the corruption that would have come out here is actually, it is worse to convict a guilty man than it is to set a guilty company free.

00:11:18.600 What they did in SNC-Lavalin was atrocious.

00:11:21.140 But at the end of the day, letting a criminal go free, SNC-Lavalin has admitted to a number of crimes,

00:11:27.540 is morally and ethically not as evil as convicting an honest man, which they deliberately tried to do.

00:11:36.960 And I wonder where our RCMP is.

00:11:39.500 As I know in the SNC-Lavalin matter, no fewer than five former attorneys general of provinces and the federal government

00:11:45.800 wrote to the RCMP and said, you need to investigate this.

00:11:48.820 And the RCMP has been quiet as a mouse.

00:11:50.900 And the same thing in the Mark Norman case.

00:11:52.320 Now, the good news is, at his press conference on Wednesday,

00:11:56.320 Mark Norman himself said there's a lot more to be told about this story, and he intends to tell it.

00:12:00.900 And there's no privileged commentary situation, much like Jody Wilson-Raybould in this case.

00:12:09.040 I don't know what his obligations are as a military officer.

00:12:12.320 I don't know that.

00:12:14.060 But he has the best of legal advice, and I'm sure he'll do things in a compliant way.

00:12:19.060 I think, you know, I was in that press conference at the Naval Officers Club in Ottawa.

00:12:24.800 Oh, and that was a beauty.

00:12:26.060 Well, there's about 20 or 30 reporters there.

00:12:28.760 And these are people who, six months ago, would have been absolute drink-the-Kool-Aid Trudeau cult members,

00:12:35.220 personally in love with him, personally, you know, team Trudeau, taking selfies with him.

00:12:41.680 That room was so disillusioned.

00:12:46.020 They were enraptured by Marie Hayden and Mark Norman, and they were, I think, disgusted and angry.

00:12:53.600 And they were showing it to different degrees.

00:12:55.480 But what I, I mean, obviously, I learned a lot from Mark Norman and Marie Hayden, the lawyer.

00:13:00.460 But watching the absolute, you know, it was like someone who's fallen out of love,

00:13:08.260 and now they see the flaws, and they say, how could I ever have loved Trudeau when he's such an imposter

00:13:15.440 and such a faker, and all his talk about doing government differently, he's actually worse than anyone. 0.74

00:13:19.880 And, you know, Ezra, I find this a fascinating sidebar story to the main event,

00:13:23.860 because to me what that suggests is that despite many of these media types in that room with you the other day,

00:13:31.940 accepting the filthy lucre from this Trudeau liberal government,

00:13:37.020 this story stinks so badly.

00:13:39.900 What they did to a man, what they did to his reputation, what they did to his career,

00:13:43.820 that even by being paid off, they could not ignore the facts of the matter.

00:13:48.540 And by the way, look at the support for this man.

00:13:50.620 He has a GoFundMe page, Ezra.

00:13:52.760 It's right now at over $430,000, which, by the way, from what I've heard, doesn't cover the full legal costs.

00:14:00.040 And now, I guess we've got to talk about damages.

00:14:03.500 What is the federal government going to do?

00:14:04.900 Well, that's the thing.

00:14:05.700 You put a man through two years of a false prosecution.

00:14:11.460 Paying his legal bills doesn't mean, okay, we're even, Z's.

00:14:15.040 Hey, no harm done.

00:14:16.600 I dragged you through the month for two years.

00:14:18.780 I put you and your family through untold stress.

00:14:21.380 I destroyed your career, at least for two years.

00:14:24.920 And, ha, ha, I let you go.

00:14:27.320 And actually, the government has since indicated that they will likely pay his legal fees.

00:14:31.580 But, I'm sorry, you can't punch someone in the face for two years and say, all right, my bad.

00:14:36.980 Ah, let's pretend that didn't happen.

00:14:38.360 He has a civil suit against them for abuse of office.

00:14:41.840 Yes.

00:14:42.340 Abuse of process.

00:14:44.000 False prosecution.

00:14:45.500 There is probably other technical offenses of tampering with evidence.

00:14:50.820 Defying, there's probably a good lawyer, which, of course, he has, could probably find at least four or five species of law that Justin Trudeau and his corrupt cronies broke.

00:15:00.720 And I think that they know it.

00:15:04.680 I think there's a reason Gerald Butts resigned, Michael Wernick resigned, because every damn thing's coming out now.

00:15:10.200 And takeaway question, Ezra, I mean, we could talk about this all day.

00:15:13.740 It's so fascinating.

00:15:15.060 But I want to get an idea from you.

00:15:17.620 In terms of people who are not vested in this, who are not engaged in the news, what does this mean in terms of political fallout come October?

00:15:26.840 Is this enough to resonate with average Canadian voters that, you know, this is another stink bomb and another reason why I can't vote for this crew?

00:15:37.620 Well, I think it stops the cheerleaders. 0.94

00:15:40.600 I mean, other than the palace guard at the CBC who will, you know, do whatever they have to for Justin Trudeau because he literally pays them.

00:15:49.780 I mean, they really are paid propaganda.

00:15:52.280 It's just like a state broadcaster in Turkey or Russia or Qatar.

00:15:57.020 So other than the palace guard at the CBC, I think there's still people who the media is still biased liberal.

00:16:03.440 It's just they're not going to engage in this in the saccharine suite cheerleading anymore.

00:16:08.520 And the message tracks out there, and, you know, it's funny because we, you do them and we have some student journalists, including Adam, the pathetic millennial, who goes out and does streeters in downtown Toronto in sort of a Canada's version of Times Square, the Young and Dundas Square.

00:16:24.260 And those are, that's Generation Trudeau down there.

00:16:27.200 They're young, multicultural students, hip, new Canadians.

00:16:31.940 And as I know from watching your series, Generation Trudeau, those people are generally very pro-Trudeau.

00:16:40.380 But in recent weeks, I mean, we just did a, Adam did some streeters there asking people, who would you rather vote for, Trudeau or a potato?

00:16:49.060 And maybe it was a silly question and it was fun to say a potato.

00:16:51.960 But everyone except for one said, I'd vote for the potato.

00:16:54.860 And he said, why?

00:16:55.740 So if the people at Young and Dundas, young hipsters, who don't obsess about politics like you and me, if their reflex is, yeah, I don't like Trudeau anymore, that tells me that the zeitgeist, the conventional wisdom has turned.

00:17:11.240 And you don't have the cheerleaders anymore. 0.80

00:17:14.560 Severely normal people who don't think a lot about politics are saying, yeah, it's not really what he was promised.

00:17:19.080 If you ask them for specifics why, they'll come up with an answer if pressed.

00:17:23.260 The polls don't lie.

00:17:24.360 Andrew Scheer's ahead of Trudeau by a dozen points or so.

00:17:29.780 And of course, we have a real test.

00:17:31.560 Last week in the Nanaimo by-election where Trudeau came in fourth with 11%.

00:17:36.840 And the Green Party obviously took those left of center votes.

00:17:40.840 I think Justin Trudeau is a disaster.

00:17:44.480 And I wouldn't have imagined that possible six months ago.

00:17:47.760 Incredible.

00:17:48.140 Well, you know, when you lose to a vegetable in a street poll by young people, all I can say is maybe there's a new party on the horizon, the Potato Party of Canada. 0.75

00:17:58.240 PPC.

00:17:58.700 I think that might be taken.

00:18:00.840 Folks, Ezra, excellent report.

00:18:03.540 Thank you so much for joining me.

00:18:04.500 And folks, if you haven't seen Ezra's, not Streeter, but an interview with the federal prosecution lawyer, it is get some popcorn ready and watch this.

00:18:18.480 It's what's become a typical rebel interview, whether it's Ezra with her or me with Marianne Monsef or Ahmad Hussain, where we're chasing the back of somebody's head, asking questions.

00:18:29.960 And the answers are nonsensical and bizarre.

00:18:33.960 And I think ultimately what it means is that if you're going to be a rebel staffer, you've got to work on your cardio.

00:18:38.960 They're not stationary targets.

00:18:42.320 Keep it here.

00:18:42.840 More of Rebel Roundup to come right after this.

00:18:52.100 Keenan Bextie here for the rebel.media on Stanford campus in California.

00:18:56.280 We came down here today because we were going to cover the Palestinian Awareness Week demonstrations that have been popping up throughout Californian campuses.

00:19:03.680 We got a tip that this one in particular was going to be very high energy.

00:19:07.440 There was going to be some good interviews to be had, some good conversations to have.

00:19:11.460 It turns out that wasn't really the case.

00:19:13.360 The couple people that showed up, showed up half an hour late to put up this apartheid wall behind me.

00:19:18.780 And they weren't too keen on doing interviews.

00:19:20.920 I don't know why.

00:19:22.460 They just didn't want to share their message.

00:19:24.600 They haven't really been engaging with students either.

00:19:26.220 So here's my quick conversation that I had with the demonstrators.

00:19:29.520 I just would like to do a story on what's going on here.

00:19:32.380 Is there anyone that would like to chat about it?

00:19:34.900 No, I'm sorry.

00:19:36.960 No?

00:19:37.640 You could message our Facebook page and someone could get back to you maybe.

00:19:41.300 Well, you're hosting a public demonstration.

00:19:44.480 Why don't you want to talk about what's going on?

00:19:47.000 I'd just rather not.

00:19:48.340 You can message us on Facebook if you like.

00:19:51.920 Okay.

00:19:52.620 Yeah.

00:19:52.960 Yeah, that seems a little bit weird.

00:19:54.960 You can message us on Facebook if you like.

00:19:56.640 Since they weren't too interested in talking with the one media outlet that bothered to come cover their event, I figured I would chat with students to figure out if they agree with the message of these pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

00:20:08.920 Here's what the students of Stanford had to say.

00:20:11.420 How does it make you feel that they're saying that Israel...

00:20:14.260 I don't think I know enough about this protest.

00:20:16.640 I'm generally in support of Palestinian rights.

00:20:19.260 Oh, really?

00:20:20.180 Yeah.

00:20:20.340 Do you think that Israel is an apartheid state?

00:20:22.640 Yeah, for sure.

00:20:23.920 Yeah.

00:20:24.200 What about it makes it an apartheid state?

00:20:25.500 Well, I mean, it separates, like, I didn't go there, but it separates, like, Israelis and Muslims, like the Gaza, and... 0.93

00:20:36.500 Well, it separates Gaza from Israel, but that's not really what I'm talking about.

00:20:41.760 I'm talking about the state of Israel on its own.

00:20:44.560 You know, Muslims can sit in the Knesset, they can represent themselves in government.

00:20:48.800 Does that make it an apartheid state?

00:20:50.660 They cannot.

00:20:51.660 They can.

00:20:52.380 They can.

00:20:52.740 Well, I'm not 100% into it, but as far as I know, there is, like, I recently watched the Conan show where he went to Israel,

00:21:04.160 and where, I don't know if Arabic or Muslim people can't go onto the Israeli side of things.

00:21:11.260 They definitely can.

00:21:12.480 I don't know what he meant.

00:21:14.740 Wow, so much for a high-energy demonstration, so much for having an informed opinion,

00:21:19.940 because when it comes to the facts of the matter regarding Israel,

00:21:23.360 the scholars at Stanford University appear to subscribe to the philosophy of ignorance is bliss.

00:21:31.120 And joining me now with a story about more Israel bashing on campus

00:21:36.020 is our very own roving reporter, Kian Bexty.

00:21:39.760 Welcome to Rebel Roundup, Kian. 0.99

00:21:41.060 Thanks for having me.

00:21:45.180 You got it.

00:21:46.040 Well, it seemed it was impossible for you to get answers from those gatekeepers of the wall,

00:21:52.740 or whatever they were called.

00:21:54.080 But tell me, Kian, who is behind this farce in the first place? 1.00

00:22:00.360 Well, I certainly don't think that it's legitimate students.

00:22:04.380 As you said, it's Stanford University that I went to,

00:22:08.140 and all across North America, actually,

00:22:10.740 Palestinian Awareness Weeks are being held in conjunction with Israel's Independence Day

00:22:16.000 that they celebrate, I believe it's today, or Thursday.

00:22:20.560 So they're hosting these events, Palestinian Awareness Weeks.

00:22:24.020 They're called a bunch of different things,

00:22:25.540 ranging from that to Israeli Apartheid Week.

00:22:28.120 It's some pretty crazy stuff.

00:22:29.520 But I think at the base of it, it's not really the students that are organizing it,

00:22:34.020 because especially at Stanford, they're right in the thick of exams right now,

00:22:38.520 and any self-respecting Stanford student certainly isn't sitting out on the quad

00:22:43.060 throwing around a Frisbee this time of year.

00:22:45.600 They have their nose in books.

00:22:48.200 They're in the library, or they're writing exams.

00:22:50.960 So to take the time to do this, I'm, for one, not convinced that they were actually students.

00:22:56.820 But who's behind it? I don't know.

00:23:00.320 You know, that's interesting.

00:23:01.920 So that contributes to the complete total fail narrative of this protest, I think.

00:23:08.800 First of all, the students, the real students at Stanford,

00:23:12.000 are hard working on their exams.

00:23:15.500 No media except for yourself shows up.

00:23:18.640 And then the one guy, you, Kian, who's asking questions,

00:23:22.500 those two guys seemed more concerned about getting back to their ham sandwiches

00:23:27.960 and telling you just to go to Facebook.

00:23:30.620 I mean, you have to wonder, what was the point in the first place?

00:23:35.840 Well, I don't know.

00:23:37.060 The Facebook is probably being operated by some Hamas operatives or something.

00:23:42.120 I don't know.

00:23:42.460 They obviously weren't qualified to be answering questions about what they were demonstrating.

00:23:46.740 They were putting up this wall that said, you know, dump Trump and control, alt, delete Israel.

00:23:54.500 And a whole bunch of just weird sayings that look like children's writing on walls.

00:24:01.340 They're obviously being manipulated by someone.

00:24:03.900 I don't think that they have the capacity to do it themselves, what they were doing.

00:24:07.720 And like I said earlier, when I walked up to them to ask them some very simple questions

00:24:12.700 about what is this wall about, I wasn't being aggressive in any way, shape, or form.

00:24:17.100 I simply just said, what's your story?

00:24:18.740 Why are you here?

00:24:19.820 And they couldn't even answer that.

00:24:21.440 They just said, go to Facebook to talk to our overlords.

00:24:24.980 Yeah, it's astonishing.

00:24:27.220 And by the way, since they can't articulate their points,

00:24:31.200 I did freeze frame your video to read those messages on that so-called wall.

00:24:36.180 You know, let's be honest, pieces of big cardboard, really.

00:24:40.300 And there were, you know, let's analyze some of them.

00:24:43.100 There was one word, one big word of graffiti was coexist.

00:24:47.100 Well, I can tell you, Kian, I've been to Israel several times.

00:24:50.080 There's nothing more that the Israelis want than to coexist in peace.

00:24:54.540 I think they have to send that message past Israel's borders 0.99

00:24:57.960 to those nations that engage in formal wars and terrorism against Israel on a constant basis.

00:25:06.560 As you mentioned, dumb Trump was there.

00:25:08.880 I don't know why that's there.

00:25:09.840 Maybe because Trump decided to move the embassy to Jerusalem a while back.

00:25:16.060 And what I found to be the most perverse message,

00:25:19.740 and we've seen this in Toronto during the gay pride parade,

00:25:24.020 queers against apartheid.

00:25:26.280 Now, Kian, I'll tell you one thing. 1.00

00:25:29.340 If I were a gay man or a lesbian and I had to live in a Middle Eastern nation,

00:25:35.420 I am picking Israel in a heartbeat because you can live there freely

00:25:40.180 without intimidation and violence and even death.

00:25:43.620 Whereas if you try that in some of the neighboring countries in that neighborhood,

00:25:46.860 well, I hope you bought life insurance.

00:25:52.700 That's funny that you say that because you're absolutely right.

00:25:56.540 And I'll ask the producer to put up a shot of the Tel Aviv City Hall,

00:26:02.680 and you can see the pride flag being broadcast on it during Pride Week or whatever it was.

00:26:06.640 It's a pretty famous photo.

00:26:08.600 I imagine if you tried to do that,

00:26:10.580 the Palestinian Authority would have your head faster than you can say Hamas. 0.71

00:26:14.180 Yeah, it's incredible.

00:26:17.080 And yet here, this is a movement of the left,

00:26:20.840 and the left is supposedly all about gay rights as well as freedom of speech,

00:26:26.760 of expression, women's rights.

00:26:28.860 And yet the people they're standing up for in that pretty bad neighborhood of the world,

00:26:33.220 the Middle East, those things go out the window.

00:26:35.920 But, Kian, one thing I want to drill down here, 1.00

00:26:38.520 because it's the constant chestnut that's thrown out there

00:26:42.860 when you talk about those people criticizing Israel.

00:26:48.400 And they fall back on the argument,

00:26:51.520 well, I'm not anti-Semitic.

00:26:54.420 You can be a critic of Israel without being an anti-Semite.

00:26:58.480 And I buy that 100%.

00:27:00.180 I think you should be able to criticize any nation in the world,

00:27:03.100 including the one we live in.

00:27:05.740 But when you frame the argument as Israel Apartheid Week,

00:27:12.060 there is no apartheid in Israel.

00:27:14.280 So if the premise of your protest is based on a lie,

00:27:18.460 then what is the real ostensible policy reason behind it?

00:27:22.240 I would argue, Kian, it's nothing more than good old-fashioned anti-Semitism. 0.52

00:27:29.840 Well, I think you're exactly right.

00:27:31.660 And Ezra likened it to this when he was chatting with me about my coverage.

00:27:37.640 There comes a point where you can say,

00:27:39.120 yeah, sure, there's problems with the Israeli government.

00:27:41.420 You disagree with what Bibi is doing in his leadership.

00:27:45.640 They're fine, whatever.

00:27:46.800 But you can't say,

00:27:47.960 I don't think that a certain group of people should be allowed to live in Israel. 0.97

00:27:53.000 It's like saying you don't like Italians.

00:27:55.480 You don't want, you know, you really don't like pizza.

00:27:58.060 You don't like pasta.

00:27:59.420 You hate the Italian government.

00:28:01.780 And you really don't want Italian immigrants near you. 1.00

00:28:05.300 You know, at some point you start thinking,

00:28:07.120 well, maybe you're a racist. 0.64

00:28:10.220 You know, maybe you don't like Italians because you're a racist.

00:28:12.560 And the same thing applies to Israel,

00:28:14.380 where the indigenous population are Jewish people.

00:28:19.220 So how can these people who at the same time

00:28:21.780 are going to be doing all these treaty recognitions

00:28:24.020 for aboriginal North Americans,

00:28:26.580 they, you know, stand up for those indigenous rights.

00:28:30.400 But when it comes to the indigenous rights of the Jewish people in Israel,

00:28:33.440 no, that's a no bueno for them.

00:28:35.320 It doesn't make sense.

00:28:36.500 There's some cognitive dissonance there.

00:28:38.620 And, Kian, you know what's really sad 1.00

00:28:41.220 and what's really perversely ironic?

00:28:43.000 The narrative in the Middle East, of course,

00:28:45.960 is that Israel is the cause of all the problems there. 0.97

00:28:50.160 And the solution, of course, is to bomb it into oblivion,

00:28:54.480 drive all the Israelis into the sea. 1.00

00:28:57.720 And the fact of the matter is, Kian,

00:28:59.660 if that horrible reality ever came true,

00:29:03.340 all of the problems you have in the Middle East today

00:29:06.620 are still there with or without Israel.

00:29:12.500 How do you feel about that?

00:29:14.000 Yeah, I mean, that's...

00:29:14.800 I mean, that's a pretty easy statement to agree with.

00:29:21.020 I mean, when Israel's the one democracy in the Middle East, 0.65

00:29:23.980 I mean, how can you say that democracy is the problem?

00:29:27.360 I don't get that.

00:29:29.520 What's the alternative?

00:29:30.480 Having more Palestinian authorities running around, 1.00

00:29:32.980 having more Jordans and Irans and Iraqs and Saudi Arabia,

00:29:37.900 these despotic regimes, sure, maybe you like that kind of thing,

00:29:42.360 but I don't think that's the world that I want to live in.

00:29:45.500 And I'm certain if that was how the United States was being operated,

00:29:49.960 like Iraq or Saudi Arabia or Yemen,

00:29:54.580 they wouldn't be so happy about it.

00:29:56.920 No, I agree.

00:29:57.720 And maybe the solution for these protesters that perpetuate this lie of Israeli apartheid

00:30:03.000 is maybe to take a sabbatical, go to Israel for a year,

00:30:05.880 then go to a country like Syria, like in Iran right now, for a year,

00:30:11.600 and see what the life experience is truly like.

00:30:15.780 Kian, wonderful report, as always,

00:30:18.840 and thank you for weighing in with me here.

00:30:22.960 Thanks for having me.

00:30:23.920 You got it.

00:30:25.060 And that was Kian Bexte down in California.

00:30:28.340 Keep it here, folks.

00:30:29.380 More of Rubble Roundup to come right after this.

00:30:31.660 So last Friday was World Press Freedom Day.

00:30:41.940 As we reported, the Trudeau Liberals marked the occasion

00:30:45.820 by giving away $11.7 million of your tax dollars

00:30:51.940 to enhance press freedom in such regimes

00:30:55.300 as the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Middle East, and Kenya.

00:31:00.820 Maryam Monsef, the Minister of International Development

00:31:03.800 and the Minister for Women and Gender Equality.

00:31:07.020 And by the way, a woman and gender equality minister?

00:31:09.360 What the hell is that?

00:31:11.160 Anyways, at a Toronto news conference,

00:31:13.680 she said that a free press matters because, well, the truth matters.

00:31:20.120 Really?

00:31:21.500 Then why did the Trudeau Liberals tell the UN to ban me

00:31:26.060 and my colleague, Sheila Gunn-Reed, from UN conferences?

00:31:30.220 And naturally, the UN complied.

00:31:33.240 I asked the minister this question as she ran for her safe space last week.

00:31:38.720 I don't think I got an answer.

00:31:40.520 Here, you be the judge.

00:31:41.840 Minister Monsef, David Benzies with Rebel Media.

00:31:44.760 Just a quick question.

00:31:46.240 The United Nations told our reporters

00:31:50.920 they were banned from covering their conferences

00:31:53.420 due to a directive from the Canadian government.

00:31:57.760 Do you support that?

00:31:59.300 I hope you support what we're doing here today,

00:32:01.740 which is ensuring freedom of expression

00:32:03.660 and an independent free press for your colleagues around the world.

00:32:07.360 But that's precisely the point.

00:32:08.840 We travelled to Morocco.

00:32:10.540 We travelled to Poland and we were shut out of UN conferences

00:32:14.920 because of an edict from your government.

00:32:17.140 Does that sound like world press freedom to you, Minister?

00:32:20.280 What we're doing today is supporting an independent and free press

00:32:24.160 in some of the most troubled regions of the world.

00:32:26.940 And I have no doubt that you rejoice in this investment and this initiative.

00:32:31.220 Well, you know, but how do you square the fact that you won't even let Canadian journalists

00:32:36.900 that might have a dissenting opinion about things like immigration and climate change

00:32:42.160 to attend UN conferences?

00:32:44.600 And here you are advocating for World Press Freedom Day.

00:32:48.140 Thank you.

00:32:48.840 Thanks very much.

00:32:49.340 This doesn't look like a lot of freedom, ladies. 1.00

00:32:52.540 Can it possibly get any more perversely ironic than that?

00:32:56.640 A federal Liberal cabinet minister lauds World Press Freedom Day

00:33:00.300 while her own government bans Canadian reporters from attending UN conferences

00:33:05.720 due to, well, what exactly?

00:33:09.460 Having contrarian opinions for asking some tough questions?

00:33:14.440 But that's the real face of the Liberals.

00:33:16.820 It's not someone or some people who believe in freedom of the press,

00:33:20.940 but rather they're a bunch of control freaks

00:33:23.760 when it comes to maintaining the Justin Trudeau narrative.

00:33:28.360 How pathetic.

00:33:29.100 Anyway, here's what some of you had to say.

00:33:33.360 XX Darkslayer Lord writes,

00:33:36.580 Dictator Trudeau doesn't like it when anyone criticizes or questions him.

00:33:42.980 We must throw off the yoke of monarchy

00:33:45.180 and make our country safe for hypocrisy.

00:33:51.520 Mark Grant writes,

00:33:54.140 OMG, the condescending answers to her own agenda 1.00

00:33:57.900 with that smarmy smile is just creepy.

00:34:02.540 It looks like a scene from a horror movie.

00:34:07.160 Design and Direction writes,

00:34:09.740 Canadian biased corporation,

00:34:11.680 very much like the biased broadcasting corporation of the UK.

00:34:17.120 Oh yes, and here's another thing.

00:34:19.520 Some governments do make pesky journalists disappear,

00:34:24.140 as in forever,

00:34:24.980 if they dare to ask the wrong questions.

00:34:27.900 But other governments,

00:34:29.360 well, they use the carrot rather than the stick approach

00:34:32.580 by paying off the media via subsidies and bailouts.

00:34:37.160 Probably works just as well, too.

00:34:40.320 I'd buy that for a dollar.

00:34:42.420 E. Ridge Pistra writes,

00:34:45.640 It sounded like a garburator.

00:34:51.680 You might be onto something, sir,

00:34:53.220 but let's be fair to the garburator here.

00:34:56.360 It is supposed to sound and function in such a fashion.

00:34:59.320 I would like to think that most Canadians expect more from their MPs

00:35:04.700 than simply an automated garbage-in, garbage-out process.

00:35:10.700 Darren P. writes,

00:35:12.860 You got an answer.

00:35:14.040 It was,

00:35:14.960 Leave me alone.

00:35:16.180 My liberal mind can't handle truth.

00:35:18.760 Yeah, if only Jack Nicholson could have tagged along to utter that iconic line.

00:35:23.060 You can't handle the truth.

00:35:25.540 You know, I just wonder if Monsef will be able to handle the truth

00:35:28.980 that shall reveal itself come October 21st.

00:35:33.620 Well, that wraps up another edition of Rebel Roundup.

00:35:36.240 Thanks so much for watching,

00:35:37.520 and remember, folks,

00:35:39.140 without risk, there can be no glory.

00:35:41.680 Good night.

00:35:42.180 We'll be right back.

Rebel News Podcast - April 27, 2019

Rebel Roundup： Guest Ezra Levant, Keean Bexte

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