Rebel News Podcast - SHEILA GUNN REID ｜ The arrest of David Menzies highlights the failure of state-funded media

00:00:00.000 David Menzies gets falsely arrested and accused of assaulting a police officer while trying to do his job.

00:00:08.400 And the parliamentary press gallery in this country, the one subsidized by Justin Trudeau, is notably silent.

00:00:16.520 I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed, and you're watching The Gunn Show.

00:00:30.000 The Gunn Show.

00:01:00.000 He was trying to do his job to ask the Deputy Prime Minister, Chrystia Freeland, a former journalist herself, some questions on the street.

00:01:10.580 Freeland, who has been an outspoken advocate for free speech and freedom of the press, didn't do anything.

00:01:22.400 As the opportunity to defend freedom of the press was literally 18 inches away from her.

00:01:28.220 As David Menzies was being tackled and handcuffed and stuffed in a police cruiser.

00:01:34.080 We know it's all fake. Freeland, in the past, tried to block me from attending a press conference at a media freedom conference that she was hosting.

00:01:47.220 She's just another liar, another liberal liar, especially on this issue.

00:01:54.620 And joining me today to discuss what happened to David Menzies, why we should not be funding the media, and then why the media has all but ignored the lavish parties.

00:02:09.260 As federal bureaucrats have been throwing themselves, is Chris Sims of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and a former journalist herself.

00:02:20.100 Take a listen to the interview we recorded yesterday afternoon.

00:02:24.120 So joining me now is my friend, good friend of the show, Chris Sims from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

00:02:36.960 And we have Canadian Taxpayers Federation issues that we need to talk about.

00:02:41.640 But I want to talk to Chris, first of all, because Chris was a journalist.

00:02:47.360 And she, in her role at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, is vehemently against government bailing out and or controlling, because I think they're probably the same issue.

00:02:59.860 The Canadian news media, it's created a landscape where the mainstream media is effectively a monopoly that controls access to politicians.

00:03:09.900 And they never get the market correction they so rightly deserve, because they continue to produce content Canadians don't want.

00:03:17.980 But the government continues to shoehorn it in front of the eyeballs of Canadians and fund the failures.

00:03:23.920 And this is particularly top of mind right now, because as we're filming this on Tuesday, my friend David Menzies was arrested on the street for doing absolutely nothing wrong,

00:03:35.460 except trying to ask the Deputy Prime Minister a question.

00:03:40.860 Chris, thanks so much for coming on the show.

00:03:42.840 And thanks so much for your advocacy for taxpayer responsibility, but also for keeping the media independent in this country.

00:03:54.080 However, sadly, that ship has really sailed for the vast majority of it.

00:03:57.740 This is really key, Sheila, because we have three pillars that we stick to for our mandate at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

00:04:06.160 It's lower taxes, less waste and accountable government.

00:04:10.380 And there's no way that we can hold government accountable unless we can speak truth to power.

00:04:16.560 Unless journalists are free to question authority figures, we don't care if they're right-wing or left-wing journalists or they always vote, you know, whatever, you know, fill in the blank for the party.

00:04:30.040 That doesn't matter.

00:04:31.480 What matters is a free press.

00:04:33.500 And for people who don't yet know, the term free press means free from the state, free from government interference and government funding.

00:04:47.380 Because, again, there's no way that you're going to be able to hold any government to account if you, on the one hand of the vice, are putting more and more journalists on government payroll.

00:04:58.240 And then on the other side of the vice, you are crushing independent journalism through over-regulation and gag orders.

00:05:07.100 Okay?

00:05:07.540 That is exactly what is happening in Canada right now.

00:05:12.000 So we've got the big behemoth that we're all familiar with, the CBC, which takes more than a billion dollars from taxpayers every single year.

00:05:20.840 That's been the case for a long time, and we want the CBC fully defunded.

00:05:25.020 What's new under this current administration is that other media, what people usually refer to as legacy media or mainstream media, are increasingly now on government payroll.

00:05:39.500 And for those who are on government payroll as journalists, the amount they get from the Trudeau government has now doubled.

00:05:47.500 So it used to be roughly $14,000-ish per year.

00:05:53.260 Our friends over at Black Locks Reporter, that don't take government money, figured out this amount.

00:05:58.200 And so did the folks over at Canada Land, who don't take government money.

00:06:01.760 They figured out the math.

00:06:03.560 Now the Trudeau government has said, hey, that worked out great.

00:06:06.840 We love having more journalists on government payroll.

00:06:10.720 Let's double it. 0.94

00:06:11.900 So now it's around $28,000-$29,000 per year, per journalist, that is on this so-called bailout.

00:06:21.180 Like, folks, you cannot hold government to account if you're counting on the government for your paycheck.

00:06:27.820 Period.

00:06:29.020 Andrew Coyne, who's been part of, you know, the mainstream media now for many years, and he's on the ad issue panel at the CBC.

00:06:36.740 He's as mainstream as it gets.

00:06:38.940 Usually I disagree with him about most things.

00:06:40.940 He's right about this.

00:06:42.780 He doesn't think that journalists should be taking a nickel from the government for exactly the reason I just outlined.

00:06:48.220 And when we see stuff like what happened yesterday, this only makes it that much more important that we focus on this.

00:06:55.900 That we urge every single politician to walk away and cancel media funding by the government.

00:07:02.780 It has to be a free press.

00:07:04.020 And you can see exactly who is funded by the media or by the politicians based on their silence.

00:07:13.800 For example, what happened to David Menzies on Monday afternoon is the biggest story in the world.

00:07:19.980 David is spending almost all of today, this is Tuesday, doing outside appearances with some of the world's largest networks, including Fox News.

00:07:30.340 It is trending on Twitter. Conservative politicians are weighing in, and I'll get to that in a second.

00:07:36.120 You know who's not weighing in? The mainstream media.

00:07:39.000 Pierre Polyev, to his credit, on Monday night he tweeted that it was crazy what he was seeing happening on the street to David Menzies.

00:07:46.760 Now, just before we started recording this, he released this tweet.

00:07:52.260 He said,

00:07:52.680 A journalist was arrested for questioning a Liberal minister.

00:07:56.500 And the Parliamentary Press Gallery, that's the funded media, doesn't say a word.

00:08:02.060 Trudeau has divided media into two groups.

00:08:04.880 Those he's bought off with bailouts, and those he censors and has arrested.

00:08:10.280 He's right.

00:08:13.120 Where is the Parliamentary Press Gallery coming out on behalf of David Menzies?

00:08:17.700 Where's Penn Canada?

00:08:19.040 Where's the Canadian Association of Journalists?

00:08:22.340 Where's Canadian journalists for, I think it's free...

00:08:27.280 Expression?

00:08:28.740 Free expression, yeah.

00:08:30.000 The ones who wanted to block Trump from coming into Canada.

00:08:33.560 What a colonized bunch of weirdos that is.

00:08:36.100 I didn't know that, actually.

00:08:36.200 Years ago, they had a petition, like, they didn't want...

00:08:39.940 I mean, just...

00:08:41.020 These groups are so colonized by government media, and their silence tells me everything I need to know about them.

00:08:48.420 And I can't stress enough what a change this is from the not-too-distant past.

00:08:54.440 Yeah.

00:08:54.660 I mean, I'm not, you know, a green newbie, but I also wasn't reporting in, you know, the 18th century or something.

00:09:01.340 It was only, I would say, 10, 15 years ago that, to your point exactly, and I can give examples, the media, if they were being silenced or pushed out or pushed around, I don't even recall, actually, ever seeing a journalist pushed or pushed around or arrested in this manner.

00:09:22.000 And I've been in, like, riots, so that was pretty surprising to see.

00:09:28.140 But whenever there was kind of this attempt by the government to stifle the access of media, media would team up together, like, regardless of whether or not, you know, you voted differently or you think your editorial board would write a slightly different op-ed than the other.

00:09:43.740 I'll give you examples.

00:09:45.300 So, when I was at CTV, I was over in Charlottetown, and the Conservative Party, the caucus, who were in government, were having their annual general meeting.

00:09:54.740 Now, they were having it, this is Charlottetown, so it's a small town, basically.

00:09:58.360 They were having this meeting in this, you know, kind of big complex of a hotel.

00:10:03.860 And they said, oh, no, no, you can't come in here because it's a private event and you're not allowed in.

00:10:07.800 It's like, all right, that's fine.

00:10:09.420 But did you know that the CTV Bureau is actually located in this building?

00:10:13.020 So, I have this magnetic card and I can go where I want.

00:10:17.100 The Globe and Mail and a whole bunch of other reporters teamed up with me and refused to ask any questions until I was allowed into my studio.

00:10:25.240 Like, again, I didn't work for them.

00:10:27.580 We were all being paid by different employers.

00:10:29.840 I think even the CBC stuck up for us there.

00:10:32.780 And so, this happens repeatedly, okay?

00:10:35.780 This happened when I was totally non-political, when I was covering court.

00:10:40.060 Same sort of thing happened.

00:10:41.180 It's like, oh, we're not taking questions right now.

00:10:42.840 It's like, the hell you're not.

00:10:44.580 You know, this is a democracy and we're a part of the free press and this is how this works.

00:10:49.240 We get to ask you questions.

00:10:51.340 Sometimes they can be uncomfortable for you.

00:10:53.840 That's the whole point of holding truth to power.

00:10:56.540 So, just because a politician doesn't like a question doesn't mean that they can just shut down and wall out all media.

00:11:04.100 And to your point, this is a change.

00:11:06.340 Like, I always saw journalists teaming up together.

00:11:10.440 Even if you didn't like the other reporter.

00:11:13.000 Yeah.

00:11:13.440 You just did it out of a sense of duty.

00:11:16.160 And I don't see that happening anymore.

00:11:18.020 You know, it's sort of ironic that this is Chrystia Freeland's security detail pushing around David Menzies because, I think it was two, three, three years ago, maybe even four, pandemic makes things blur together.

00:11:31.120 Sorry, the pandemic overreaction by the government.

00:11:33.380 But she hosted, in conjunction with the UK Foreign Office, the Media Freedom Conference.

00:11:40.400 And at that Media Freedom Conference, Freeland herself, a former journalist, I should point out.

00:11:47.600 Yes, I was going to say, let's point that out.

00:11:49.620 We should point that out.

00:11:50.760 She's a former journalist who claims to be an advocate for the free press.

00:11:54.880 She had an opportunity to defend the free press about a foot and a half away from her as the police were arresting David Menzies and she didn't do a damn thing.

00:12:02.620 But she also tried to block myself and Andrew Lawton from True North from attending a press conference at the Media Freedom Conference in the UK.

00:12:10.840 And you know who stood up for us?

00:12:12.500 Global News.

00:12:13.120 The foreign media, right?

00:12:13.820 The foreign media.

00:12:15.700 Global News, their UK bureau, and Al Jazeera, of all outlets, stood up for us and said, we're not going to a press conference unless you let these two in.

00:12:30.800 And they had to let us in.

00:12:33.780 And at Rebel News, probably a couple of years ago, Jason Kenney's government blocked Duncan Kinney, a far left wing activist journalist.

00:12:45.140 I forget which union funded racket he was working for at the time.

00:12:48.700 Doesn't even matter.

00:12:50.300 No.

00:12:50.480 They blocked him.

00:12:51.340 And you know what we did at no cost?

00:12:54.320 Rebel News, whom he has been absolutely critical of before that and after, said all kinds of mean things.

00:13:00.640 We provided him our legal research for free, said, here, you deserve media freedom.

00:13:07.840 We don't care where you're from. 0.80

00:13:09.080 And we had a bunch of legal research from the time that Rachel Notley had blocked me from attending press conferences at the legislature and had to have a basically a royal commission to determine that she had done something wrong.

00:13:22.060 But we had a bunch of legal research that we had paid for, and we gave it to this far left wing agitator journalist for free because his human rights don't depend on his politics.

00:13:33.640 That's right.

00:13:34.060 Interestingly enough, in a few short years, the script is totally flipped, and journalists only defend journalists that they like these days.

00:13:42.980 And that's a major problem because now this isn't just the fact that freedom of expression, which is our version of freedom of speech up here in Canada, it isn't just that our freedom of expression is being strangled by overregulation from the government.

00:13:58.480 It's that it's that it is now seeping down into the culture of the newsrooms and the culture of journalists.

00:14:07.140 And unfortunately, I'm seeing more and more.

00:14:11.000 This is an overgeneralization.

00:14:12.800 I know there are young people who are joining independent media and asking tough questions.

00:14:17.080 But generally speaking, I'm seeing this sense of permission seeking all the time in young journalists.

00:14:25.380 It's like, you know, please, mother, may I please, daddy, might I that is not towards the state towards government.

00:14:32.960 And that is not the instinct of a journalist.

00:14:36.340 You have to stay within the law, of course, don't commit crimes and assault people don't be a nut job, we get all of that decent people understand that and how to stay within the law.

00:14:46.460 But it's not supposed to be an easy job.

00:14:49.560 It's not supposed to be comfortable, right?

00:14:52.680 Even making fun of politicians, you know, you don't think that gets awkward sometimes.

00:14:56.600 And it's like they're a human being and you're making fun of them for wasting money.

00:14:59.640 It's like, yeah, we understand.

00:15:01.240 But it is our job as journalists and in some cases advocacy organizations to comfort the afflicted and to afflict the comfortable.

00:15:09.760 And it's that last part that's important, because it's so easy to get intimidated, to want to go along with the cool kids, to not rock the boat, and to ask to not ask those tougher questions, right?

00:15:23.860 Of like, how do you figure this?

00:15:25.620 Why are you wasting money on this?

00:15:27.100 Why are you gagging the media?

00:15:28.540 You know, whatever, you know, Mr. Menzi was trying to ask the other day.

00:15:31.700 Um, it's really easy to do that and to get in this sense of complacency.

00:15:35.800 But now it's worse because it's not just culture and psychology that you're fighting against now.

00:15:40.520 It's money, right?

00:15:42.140 It's money.

00:15:43.080 A lot of these journalists are now on payroll from the government and they have to know deep down that this is not going to end well, that this is not true journalism, that they have to disavow government funding no matter what happens.

00:15:57.640 That could mean that their newspaper goes down.

00:16:00.220 That could mean that their company has to be restructured.

00:16:03.020 Like, I've been part of a media group that is no longer with us.

00:16:06.700 It's really, really hard.

00:16:08.920 But for the sake of being able to hold government to account, regardless of who's in power, and regardless of the politics of journalists, we have to get there.

00:16:17.560 And I wanted to flag something really quick.

00:16:19.460 Do we have time, Sheila, to flag what's coming?

00:16:21.540 All the time you want.

00:16:22.360 Okay, so like we've touched on before many times on your wonderful show, we've got Bill C-11, okay, which is often referred to as the Online Censorship Act, I forget what the government calls it, which is now being applied to online media.

00:16:37.620 We don't yet know exactly what that looks like, but the CRTC has already warned people that providers of platforms, of podcasts, are going to be subject to it.

00:16:50.360 So that means Apple Podcasts, that means YouTube, that means probably Rumble, depends on how you listen to your podcast.

00:16:59.380 So that's a problem.

00:17:01.200 We know that.

00:17:02.320 Then there's the C-18, okay?

00:17:04.360 That's the online link tax, we call it at the CTF, because that's why you can't see news on Facebook, okay?

00:17:10.760 Google just caved and they signed a deal with the government.

00:17:13.060 Again, that is money going directly from these big tech giants to the government and then to the media companies, in some cases the CBC, so direct government graft there.

00:17:25.880 What's coming next, probably, we don't know yet for sure, is this spring we're likely going to see a reintroduction of this so-called Online Harms Bill.

00:17:38.340 Now, that sounds okay, because who wants to harm people on the internet?

00:17:42.160 Of course, nobody does.

00:17:43.200 But the catch here is the government could very, very likely put terms like misinformation and disinformation in there.

00:17:55.340 And some of the reasons why the government wants to do this, according to the folks who are writing columns for the Toronto Star and who are part of the advisory group,

00:18:04.420 are because people are getting radicalized online due to misinformation.

00:18:09.360 So, are they talking about Al-Qaeda?

00:18:14.440 Or are they talking about wrong think?

00:18:17.560 Yeah.

00:18:17.720 Are they talking about government criticism?

00:18:19.960 Because those are two very different and big things.

00:18:23.700 Now, there's been this trend to give the CRTC just this infinite amount of power.

00:18:32.720 You and I were talking about this before we started recording.

00:18:35.040 The CRTC in C-18, that's the Online News Act, the link tax law, they have been granted the power to create a code of conduct for newsrooms.

00:18:49.960 So, this government agency can create a code of conduct for newsrooms.

00:18:54.900 Now, here's the rub.

00:18:57.300 They've already lost revenue because of C-18 from Facebook or Meta, Instagram and Facebook.

00:19:05.760 So, not only have they lost ad revenue, but they've also lost traffic, these news companies have.

00:19:13.560 So, they are seeing a substantial drop in their revenue.

00:19:17.420 You mentioned it.

00:19:18.380 Google just signed a deal with the government, which means there's a remaining pot of money there.

00:19:24.760 And these news agencies are desperate because Justin Trudeau tried to fix a system that wasn't broken and cut off a big chunk of their money.

00:19:33.220 So, now they need this money from Google to save jobs, to keep their companies alive.

00:19:38.640 If you want that money from Google, you have to comport with the code of conduct.

00:19:43.520 And guess when the code of conduct will come out?

00:19:45.620 Just in advance of the next election.

00:19:47.760 I wonder what's going to be in there.

00:19:50.600 Exactly.

00:19:51.520 See, there might be a big, juicy chunk of meat there as bait. 0.89

00:19:57.060 There's always a hook.

00:19:59.240 Whenever there's the government involved with the uses, you know, elements of free expression, there's always a hook.

00:20:05.860 And so, now, who gets to write the code of conduct?

00:20:09.940 The government or hand-picked journalists selected by the government who, like, again, now we're going to have people's own ideological positions, their biases, and their own personal politics inflicted upon newsrooms, no matter which newsroom it is.

00:20:28.960 Again, folks, this is why this is really critical for free expression to have a free press.

00:20:34.420 I'll give you another example.

00:20:36.280 I think I might have mentioned on your show before.

00:20:38.580 Back many years ago, in the early 2000s, leading up to the invasion of Iraq, the liberal government was in power.

00:20:46.120 Jean Chrétien was prime minister.

00:20:47.960 It was largely left-wing groups.

00:20:51.320 And I read news from everywhere.

00:20:53.380 Like, every single group.

00:20:55.660 I read everything, as much as I possibly can.

00:20:58.160 And I listen to their podcasts.

00:20:59.380 So, I was keeping an eye on this one.

00:21:02.280 It was like a message board.

00:21:03.860 It was largely left-wing groups that were organizing physical, everybody-show-up-with-your-placards-and-your-little-noisemakers protests against the invasion of Iraq because they opposed it.

00:21:16.120 Fair enough.

00:21:16.860 They largely organized online using these forums, these open message boards, because this is before social media, really.

00:21:25.300 There wasn't Facebook or Twitter at the time.

00:21:27.880 So, what?

00:21:28.900 And then, so they had this massive protest on Parliament Hill, massive protest in Montreal and Toronto, all on the same day.

00:21:34.540 I remember it.

00:21:35.200 It was like minus everything.

00:21:36.540 I think it was in January.

00:21:37.520 And so, and I was working on the Hill at the time.

00:21:41.360 A few days later, Jean Chrétien stood up in the House of Commons and said, we're not going.

00:21:47.020 We're sitting this one out.

00:21:48.160 Thanks, but no thanks.

00:21:49.260 That was a pivotal moment in Canadian history, choosing to not go into this.

00:21:55.140 Your opinion on it, regardless.

00:21:57.360 Right.

00:21:57.680 That mattered.

00:21:58.840 And people spoke up.

00:22:01.160 What if the government had had the ability to shut that down online?

00:22:07.080 Yeah.

00:22:07.240 What if people were not able, in their little, you know, commune and hippie left-wing groups, able to organize and express themselves freely?

00:22:16.220 They wouldn't have been able to organize that actual physical protest.

00:22:20.020 Maybe it would have changed what the government did.

00:22:23.040 This is why you have to, folks who are listening who think this is fine, imagine that your guy or gal is not the leader.

00:22:32.300 Imagine you've got somebody in there who's prime minister with whom you vehemently disagree.

00:22:36.700 But they get to call the shots on what you can see online and what you can say.

00:22:41.780 This is why this free speech is critically important.

00:22:44.940 Well, yeah.

00:22:46.080 I mean, imagine Justin Trudeau could have shut down the convoy online before it physically got rolling.

00:22:51.280 And nobody could talk about it.

00:22:52.820 And that is the present-day overlay of what you're talking about.

00:22:56.260 Now, going back to the Code of Conduct, as I was talking about it and then you were talking about it, I was like, you know, this reminds me of something very distinct.

00:23:02.560 It was called the Accurate News and Information Act.

00:23:05.820 Here in Alberta in the 1930s, the Aberhart government passed a law that forced the newspapers to print the government's op-eds in response to journalism that was critical of the government.

00:23:21.060 Now, the Edmonton Journal took it all the way to the Supreme Court, I believe, overturned the law and won a Pulitzer Prize for it.

00:23:30.340 But that is exactly what it looks to be.

00:23:35.960 That is something that will be in this new CRTC Code of Conduct.

00:23:41.080 Blacklocks is reporting that, and it's the same old liberal consultations, just like when they consult on gun laws and it's like every activist and feminist group but never gun owners.

00:23:54.000 It's the same thing here.

00:23:55.240 They're consulting with activists like the National Council of Canadian Muslims who are saying that there is not enough ability to have retractions, to force retractions in a newspaper.

00:24:13.420 And so this has to be written into the CRTC Code of Conduct going forward.

00:24:19.380 And I would like to know how Paula Simons, a liberal senator, a former journalist at the Edmonton Journal, how is she going to vote on this sort of stuff?

00:24:32.580 That's a great question because we have a lot of former journalists who are in—

00:24:37.780 Pamela Wallen.

00:24:38.960 Yeah, exactly.

00:24:39.920 I think she'd be opposed to this.

00:24:41.660 She is.

00:24:42.080 She's been pretty vehement against all of this media stuff coming from the government.

00:24:46.760 So, but again, this shouldn't matter which political team you usually play for or how you vote.

00:24:53.700 And so this is it.

00:24:54.880 And like your reference to, often referred to as Bible Bill Eberhardt, that was overturned.

00:25:00.600 And if that was overturned, like, almost 100 years ago, folks, what are we doing?

00:25:06.560 Why are we doing this now, all of a sudden, all over again, but in a much more far-reaching manner?

00:25:12.100 Because this is going to affect all of your shows on the internet.

00:25:16.920 So all of the podcasts, all of these quote-unquote alternative journalists that you rely on right now, left and right-wing, are now going to come under probably this Code of Conduct and or C-11 and or whatever is coming down the pipe for these so-called online harms.

00:25:34.340 Now, this could get tricky in the spring.

00:25:38.940 Not so sure, but I'm reading some academics who are warning about this.

00:25:43.660 So I'm not part of the consultation, but I'm reading academic papers on it, or at least the executive summaries of them.

00:25:49.420 They're warning that the government could make it a form of omnibus bill and that they might group together things like disinformation or what the government calls misinformation with laws that concern, how do I put this, images of child abuse.

00:26:10.380 I don't like using the other term.

00:26:12.380 Right.

00:26:12.460 So absolutely no decent person could possibly speak out against toughening those laws, of course.

00:26:19.640 But the risk here is that the government might tack on things like, oh, things we call disinformation, things we've decided are misinformation.

00:26:30.360 They'll make it a place in jail. 0.98

00:26:32.240 This is it.

00:26:33.420 This is it.

00:26:34.240 So no government should have that power to be able to call journalists misinformation and then gag them.

00:26:41.340 Like, that's not cool.

00:26:42.800 If you disagree with them or you want to dispute facts, go for it.

00:26:46.940 Like, just yell it from the rooftop.

00:26:48.660 Have your megaphone.

00:26:49.520 Do it.

00:26:50.420 But argue the facts.

00:26:52.660 But labeling somebody misinformation and then criminalizing that expression, like, we're in really dark territory.

00:26:59.220 And again, if folks want to see tougher laws about the other nasty stuff I did mention, that can be done in its own bill through the justice minister.

00:27:09.720 Yeah.

00:27:10.220 Like, you could start working on that tomorrow if you wanted to.

00:27:13.620 So I just wanted to flag that for people.

00:27:15.380 It might not happen that way.

00:27:17.020 Let's hope it doesn't.

00:27:18.000 But a couple of academics that I've been reading are saying that this might be the case in the spring.

00:27:24.260 It's horrifying.

00:27:25.160 It's horrifying.

00:27:25.860 It is.

00:27:26.040 Because it makes it nearly politically impossible to oppose an omnibus bill.

00:27:32.100 How could you?

00:27:33.040 You couldn't.

00:27:33.360 In that way.

00:27:33.820 You put that stuff in the title?

00:27:36.920 Nobody would be able to argue against it because it's linked together.

00:27:40.660 So let's hope that doesn't happen.

00:27:42.440 But I just did want to flag that as a risk.

00:27:44.400 Yeah.

00:27:44.920 Here's hoping the liberals just aren't that clever.

00:27:48.200 Hope I didn't give them ideas.

00:27:49.660 Yeah.

00:27:49.860 Don't do that.

00:27:50.860 Now, switching lanes to, you know, the thing that you and I care about, me as a journalist, you as a taxpayer advocate, holding the government to account.

00:28:00.720 You and I had a very interesting text conversation yesterday about something I called expensive duck salami.

00:28:07.100 Tell us what the CTF has uncovered, please, Chris.

00:28:12.280 Expensive duck salami.

00:28:13.380 Okay, so to my point about the beauty of independent and investigative journalists, my friend and colleague, Ryan Thorpe, he is the Taxpayers Federation's investigative journalist, a real one.

00:28:26.160 We pay him and he lives in Ottawa now.

00:28:28.320 They were an endangered species, as you know.

00:28:31.000 And so we went out in the wild and we just, you know, gently captured Ryan and we put him in this little terrarium and he lives near Franco, near Parliament Hill, and he writes amazing things.

00:28:41.400 And so he found all of these ATIP documents, access to information.

00:28:46.180 And it turns out that, you know how bureaucrats are accused of, you know, scratching their behinds while watering houseplants and not really doing a whole lot for their middle management jobs.

00:28:55.980 Well, it gets better than that.

00:28:58.860 They've actually spent around $400,000, so almost half a million bucks, over the last decade on, what is it, public service excellence awards.

00:29:09.700 And these are not just shoutouts on email or a pizza party at the last Friday of the month or something like that and, like, you know, a funny prize.

00:29:18.540 No, no, no.

00:29:19.600 These are galas with literal red carpets, hired photographers, gold and antiqued gold statues onto cut black glass.

00:29:29.860 I'm not joking.

00:29:30.660 You should see my Rebbe award.

00:29:33.280 It is, like, a fake Oscar plastic.

00:29:36.160 I had to, like, pack it in my clothes to get it home from Toronto when we had our Christmas party because it is so cheap.

00:29:45.060 It's so fragile.

00:29:47.720 It's just, like, it could be from, I don't want to bash it because I'm very proud of my Rebbe awards.

00:29:54.120 Yes, of course.

00:29:54.900 I think it probably was, like, $6 or $7.

00:29:57.980 It probably cost more to engrave it than to buy the statue itself.

00:30:02.400 That's what we do at Rebel News.

00:30:04.240 Yeah, like, so the Teddy Waste Awards, the ones we give out every year, I forget which director.

00:30:10.660 I think it was an Ontario director, like, 20 years ago, found these pig statues at a garden center on, like, you know, liquidation, and we spray-painted them gold.

00:30:21.840 Like, I have them here, like, I have to keep them now for some reason.

00:30:25.200 I'm the keeper of the pigs.

00:30:26.200 But, like, I have them here, like, they're back there.

00:30:29.600 Oh, that's so funny.

00:30:30.700 Right?

00:30:30.880 On top of the radio.

00:30:31.660 It's like me and the Ezra bobbleheads.

00:30:33.040 I have more than you even want to know.

00:30:36.420 And he bought them, like, for, I guess you got a discount if you bought $10,000.

00:30:41.540 So here they are 10 years later.

00:30:43.400 He probably has a house full of them.

00:30:44.880 And then the one I used to give out in British Columbia.

00:30:46.880 Okay, you'll appreciate this and maybe some of your listeners.

00:30:50.060 The one I gave out in British Columbia for my own version of the BC Teddies, I literally got, you know, Babe, that movie with the pig?

00:30:58.880 So they made piggy banks of Babe from, like, the 90s.

00:31:02.360 So I found one at Value Village.

00:31:04.340 And then I spray-bombed him gold.

00:31:06.520 And then I went to the pet store and I stuck a little dog tag, like, I super glued it.

00:31:10.920 Oh, nice.

00:31:11.660 Teddy onto the front of it.

00:31:13.560 That's, like, I think I spent $4.

00:31:15.100 So this is what I'm saying is that you, we are not saying you shouldn't have fun at work.

00:31:20.920 We're not saying you shouldn't award excellence if you truly are doing an excellent job.

00:31:24.780 Like, give her.

00:31:26.540 But do you need to eat duck prosciutto?

00:31:30.640 Like, I had to look that up.

00:31:32.680 One, how to spell it.

00:31:34.440 Two, I thought prosciutto was shaved ham.

00:31:37.660 Me too.

00:31:38.160 That was, like, extra salty.

00:31:39.880 Right.

00:31:40.880 Dry cured.

00:31:41.420 But they, you can make it out of duck, apparently.

00:31:44.060 And we all paid for it.

00:31:45.800 So more than $400,000 over the last decade, including during the Harper administration, I will point out, has been blown on these public service awards galas.

00:31:56.740 And again, these are ceremonies with gowns and red carpets and hired photographers.

00:32:01.960 And, like, there's this other pork something.

00:32:04.200 I couldn't pronounce it.

00:32:05.160 Andrew Lawton was able to pronounce it and he, like, found a picture of it.

00:32:07.900 Some really fancy food that everybody's paying for.

00:32:11.160 Again, taxpayers are paying the bill for all this nonsense.

00:32:14.960 This is absolute government waste.

00:32:16.920 Like, this ceremony shouldn't exist.

00:32:19.200 If they want to have a get-together at one of their local groups down in Ottawa once or twice a year and hand out their little plastic stuff, that's fine.

00:32:26.980 But this is just ridiculous.

00:32:28.300 Well, and what really struck me in that article was that these are awards for excellence, yet almost none of these departments are hitting their performance targets.

00:32:39.400 Like, almost none.

00:32:40.640 I know.

00:32:40.660 I'm like, what are you celebrating?

00:32:42.260 Please.

00:32:42.840 What is the excellence in your department if you're not meeting your performance targets?

00:32:48.560 Their participation trophies.

00:32:50.460 Yes.

00:32:50.920 These are, here we are, the day has happened, we are paying for expensive fancy gold participation trophies.

00:33:00.740 Give them a ribbon then.

00:33:02.360 Just, like, give them a ribbon, one of those participation ribbons and a piece of pizza then.

00:33:08.220 Not antiqued gold.

00:33:10.460 Yeah, it's one of those really crazy things.

00:33:13.020 And again, people are going to say, oh, well, you know, you're cherry picking.

00:33:15.660 No, no, no, no.

00:33:16.680 This speaks to the culture of government.

00:33:18.760 Right.

00:33:19.020 If you as a manager or a deputy minister or whatever who's in charge of this nonsense, if you're willing to blow taxpayers' money on this nonsense, year in, year out, it's like the broken windows theory, then you are willing and able and capable of blowing big-time taxpayers' money.

00:33:37.320 Right.

00:33:37.460 So it's because of the silly little things like this and the entitlement like this that leads us to blowing billions of dollars.

00:33:45.740 Right.

00:33:45.980 And some of these people are the people who are supposed to say no to the politicians when the politicians are like, actually, this, please, you know, like, this is the expense I need to spend.

00:33:57.260 Please approve it.

00:33:58.380 And how do you say no after you've just had an excellence gala for failing all year?

00:34:05.480 Yeah.

00:34:06.020 Yeah, exactly.

00:34:07.000 How do you talk your minister down from their harebrained idea of some bullet train?

00:34:11.020 Like, when, you know, your department just finished throwing this massive gala.

00:34:15.620 Again, this leads to the culture of irresponsibility with taxpayers' money, and it's one of the reasons why this government has almost doubled the debt.

00:34:23.860 So we're more than a trillion dollars in debt now.

00:34:28.420 If you started counting to a trillion right now, it would take you 30,000 years.

00:34:34.820 That's how long it's going to take us to pay it off.

00:34:36.560 This is it.

00:34:38.800 This is it.

00:34:39.560 If you started stacking loonies, it would take you 30,000 years to count up to a trillion of them.

00:34:44.840 So, again, this is critically important.

00:34:47.320 We are now, I think the last time I checked, I think we're now paying more on our interest charges on our debt than we do, I think, for health care.

00:34:56.520 However, I know as a line item, technically, in the Department of National Defense, I'm sure there's other expenditures elsewhere in the budget, but as a line item, we're already paying more.

00:35:06.280 Oh, gross.

00:35:07.220 In interest.

00:35:08.100 Oh, gross.

00:35:09.540 Think of all the hospitals we could build.

00:35:12.620 We might even get a running submarine.

00:35:14.760 Who knew?

00:35:15.380 This is it.

00:35:16.200 And if you're trying to think of a billion, okay, because governments will try to snow you with numbers, okay?

00:35:21.360 The next time somebody says a billion dollars, picture a hospital, because that's roughly how much it costs to build a small but good new hospital, or picture a thousand new police officers paid for the next 10 years, or a thousand new nurses, or a thousand new paramedics, because it's about $100,000 a year for that salary.

00:35:45.320 Picture that, on the street, a thousand of them, for the next decade, the next time somebody says a billion dollars was wasted.

00:35:55.720 I'm sorry, Sheila.

00:35:56.780 No, that's, I was like, let's leave on a fun note, and then you take her back to somber.

00:36:02.700 Sorry, duck salami.

00:36:04.640 Duck salami.

00:36:05.500 Chris, tell us how people can, first of all, find out about the work that you do at the CTF, but also get involved, because the CTF is all about their citizen army.

00:36:16.940 Yes, and we've got a big one, but we want it to be bigger, because this is how we push politicians into making the right decisions.

00:36:24.000 Because politicians absolutely must hear from us all the time, because otherwise they get, what did you call it? Captured?

00:36:31.340 They get captured.

00:36:32.700 Colonized.

00:36:33.660 That's a good term.

00:36:34.940 They get captured by the bureaucracy in Ottawa, who don't know what the real world is like, so they have no idea.

00:36:40.760 They get participation trophies for showing up, right?

00:36:43.080 So, we, as people, need to tell these people, the members of parliament, what to do all the time.

00:36:49.140 So, go to our website, taxpayer.com.

00:36:52.840 The best way to start interacting with us is to sign the petitions you care about.

00:36:57.620 Like, there's everything there.

00:36:59.200 Like, defund the CBC, take sales taxes off of thrift shop items, hello.

00:37:04.240 There's all sorts of stuff there.

00:37:06.180 Sign the stuff you care about, cancel the carbon tax, and then you'll start getting correspondence from us.

00:37:10.840 And then the next time it's time to all gang up on a minister, or urge an entire committee to vote one way, or threaten to doorknock against them in the next election as a group of friends, then you'll get our updates.

00:37:23.940 So, yeah, head on over to our website.

00:37:25.660 You can buy t-shirts at cost.

00:37:27.460 We don't make money off of them to, you know, give to your friends and family.

00:37:31.560 But, yeah, that's the best way.

00:37:33.020 And that way, we can make things happen.

00:37:35.600 Okay?

00:37:35.800 We do gain wins, and this is the best way to push back.

00:37:38.600 And it provides fellowship.

00:37:40.660 It feels like you're not alone anymore in this fight.

00:37:43.540 And also, you get access to stories that the CTF does that the mainstream media just won't touch.

00:37:50.360 So, incredible research, great journalism that you might not find anywhere else.

00:37:55.880 And so, you know, part of my job here at Rebel News is trying to find out what the politicians are doing behind closed doors with your money, and you guys do such a great job of that over at the CTF.

00:38:07.500 Thank you.

00:38:08.800 They did a great job on this, our Ottawa team, just blew the doors down.

00:38:12.940 They definitely did.

00:38:14.120 Chris, thanks so much for coming on the show.

00:38:16.000 This is always the quickest hour of work that I do every month when I get to talk to you.

00:38:23.260 And we'll have you back on again very soon.

00:38:25.740 You bet.

00:38:26.180 Thank you.

00:38:26.500 I say it every week, and I realize it's probably getting super duper redundant and repetitive to regular viewers of the show.

00:38:41.000 But the good news is we're getting new viewers all the time, and so they need to know the rules.

00:38:45.480 I give out my email at the end of every show.

00:38:48.780 It's Sheila at RebelNews.com because I invite your viewer feedback.

00:38:53.680 We don't turn off the comments.

00:38:55.500 We generally don't delete comments either unless they're spam because without you, there is no Rebel News.

00:39:05.360 So we need to know what you think about the work that we do here and the stories that we cover and about the things that happen to us.

00:39:12.760 And that's why I give out my email address.

00:39:17.020 Like I said, put gun show letters in the subject line so I can find it easily.

00:39:21.020 But if you're watching us on the free version of the show on YouTube or Rumble, thank you for sitting through those ads, by the way.

00:39:28.460 Every little bit helps.

00:39:30.020 But leave a comment in the comment section.

00:39:32.460 Sometimes I go poking around over there for your comments.

00:39:35.780 And today's comment comes from a new place.

00:39:39.420 Now, not new in that I've never had a Twitter account before.

00:39:44.180 I've had one for far too long, and I spend probably far too much time on it.

00:39:48.200 It's a bit of a time burglar.

00:39:49.500 But I follow some really smart people over there, and one of them is Marco Navarro Geni.

00:39:58.220 He is with the Haltain Institute.

00:40:04.000 Very smart guy.

00:40:07.080 And he responded to a tweet from Ujol Dosange.

00:40:12.940 He is a former Liberal MP, NDP cabinet minister.

00:40:18.340 I think he was a justice minister in B.C., if I recall correctly.

00:40:22.800 Now, Ujol Dosange did the performative hand-washing thing that you see these people doing.

00:40:28.060 Before they talk about David Menzies, they denounce David Menzies before they denounce his treatment.

00:40:37.980 They have to wash their hands of the cooties of Rebel News so that the fancy people continue to like them. 0.61

00:40:43.360 And that's exactly what Ujol Dosange did.

00:40:45.860 This is what he said.

00:40:46.740 Now, this is what Marco Navarro Geni wrote, and it is so smart.

00:41:04.680 And he does what I do, and that's renounce the performative theatrical denunciation of David Menzies' style

00:41:19.180 before people defend his right to have that style and ask questions of politicians.

00:41:23.020 By the way, I should note, the reason David Menzies has to ask questions on the street

00:41:27.100 is because our parliamentary press gallery colleagues in media continue to have these witch trials 0.93

00:41:34.820 wherein they block us from joining parliamentary press galleries and legislature press galleries.

00:41:40.480 Isn't that a funny thing?

00:41:42.800 Your competitors, who are all funded, by and large, by the government, get to get together and vote

00:41:52.400 to see if you can join their little monopoly on access to the very government which funds them.

00:42:03.320 Anyway, that's why we ask questions on the street.

00:42:06.960 Also, if you're like me, I'd rather be with the people.

00:42:10.480 Than with the horrible, monopolized, mainstream media journalists who vote to keep out their competition

00:42:19.060 because they have no interest in being better.

00:42:21.340 Like, I'm one of those people who believes that competition makes people better.

00:42:24.820 They definitely don't.

00:42:26.420 They don't.

00:42:27.400 Because why would you keep your competition out?

00:42:30.960 You know, like, iron sharpens iron, as they say.

00:42:36.660 Except only one of us is iron.

00:42:39.100 Right?

00:42:39.280 Anyways, Marco Navarrogini.

00:42:42.080 Very smart guy.

00:42:42.940 I recommend that you follow him on Twitter if you're over there.

00:42:45.780 Or X, whatever they're calling it now.

00:42:47.700 If you're over there, follow Marco.

00:42:49.680 Very smart guy.

00:42:51.240 Anyways, he writes,

00:42:52.300 A few random thoughts on the RCMP assaulting David Menzies.

00:42:56.600 This is not a partisan issue, as Dos Ange's tweet indicates.

00:43:00.760 Whether one likes rebel news or David Menzies is irrelevant in a liberal democracy.

00:43:06.400 Preach, Marco.

00:43:07.620 People should stand against the obstruction and malicious prosecution of members of the press at the hands of any authority, regardless of their personal views.

00:43:16.840 Whether you recognize Menzies as a journalist or not is inconsequential.

00:43:21.300 Inconsequential.

00:43:22.440 I see this as one of the big, like, criticisms or the defenses of the government's actions in the arrest of David Menzies.

00:43:31.680 He says, well, he's not a real journalist.

00:43:33.340 Journalism is a thing you do, not a guild you join or a diploma you get.

00:43:40.140 If you do journalism, guess what?

00:43:42.200 You're a journalist.

00:43:42.800 And that's how it works in a free and liberal democracy.

00:43:46.240 Your critics don't get to decide if you are indeed a journalist.

00:43:49.420 And the government sure as hell doesn't either.

00:43:51.280 And Justin Trudeau has been told that in court at least twice at the hands of rebel news lawyers and the courts that sided with them.

00:44:00.580 Anyways, let's keep going.

00:44:02.140 Again, doing the disrespectful government bidding, CBC labels him as a rebel news personality.

00:44:09.960 But does that mean we should refer to CBC news employees as CBC personalities?

00:44:15.620 They might actually have to have a personality to be labeled as one.

00:44:20.220 But anyways, that's just that's a me being petty criticism.

00:44:22.880 Anyways, let's keep going.

00:44:24.400 Importantly, all citizens are entitled to question elected officials and ministers of the crown,

00:44:29.260 especially since they often don't answer much on the floor of the house.

00:44:33.980 The argument that Menzies is not a journalist is a red herring.

00:44:37.880 He makes a living as a journalist and identifies as one.

00:44:42.020 Cute argument.

00:44:42.720 In an age where personal identity is acknowledged, his self-identification should be enough.

00:44:48.420 The federal government accepts a man's claim of being a woman and provides free tampons for him in the men's washrooms of all federal buildings, CBC included.

00:44:58.180 Similarly, misgendering is considered a human rights offense.

00:45:01.960 Therefore, pretending that assaulting a journalist is acceptable because the government and the state news agency don't recognize a news organization is appalling.

00:45:12.080 The prime minister has made no effort to hide his thoughts about Menzies' employer and has publicly voiced his displeasure.

00:45:19.200 However, it is not up to him to choose who is a journalist in Canada.

00:45:22.780 His vocal contempt for Rebel News and other independent media may have influenced the animosity and lack of neutrality in the federal officer who unleashed on Menzies.

00:45:34.620 As a matter of fact, it is precisely because the state media and government officials dislike Menzies and his employer that Menzies and his colleagues, that's me, deserve as much or perhaps even more protection from an independent police force.

00:45:50.820 Thank you, Marco.

00:45:51.680 I could not have said that better, you know, especially from the CBC news organization that cannot bring itself to call Hamas terrorists, actual terrorists, even though it's a registered terroristic entity here in Canada.

00:46:10.740 And they can't tell you that David Menzies has been a working journalist in this country for 39 years.

00:46:22.640 And my friend David Menzies does more journalism in a day than most members of the subsidized mainstream media will do in a week.

00:46:30.640 He outperforms them even at his age.

00:46:33.680 I tease, I tease.

00:46:34.840 Anyway, that's the show for tonight.

00:46:36.900 Thank you so much for tuning in, everybody.

00:46:38.520 I'll see everybody back here in the same time, in the same place next week.

00:46:41.460 And as always, don't let the government tell you that you've had too much to think.

00:47:04.840 Thank you.

Rebel News Podcast - January 11, 2024

SHEILA GUNN REID ｜ The arrest of David Menzies highlights the failure of state-funded media

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