Rebel News Podcast - SHEILA GUNN REID ｜ What really happened in Maui？ You can't trust the mainstream media and politicians to tell the truth

00:00:00.000 The Truth About Maui with Rebel News journalist Alexa Lavoie.

00:00:03.340 I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed, and you're watching The Gunn Show.

00:00:30.000 Alexa Lavoie here on the island of Maui.

00:00:53.200 Behind me, we can witness one of the terrifying scenes of devastation caused

00:00:59.640 by the fires.

00:01:01.400 The historic and multi-generational town of La Reina has been reduced to ashes 1.00

00:01:09.240 within a matter of hours.

00:01:11.240 On the morning of the 8th of August, La Reina resident woke up without electricity

00:01:18.040 due to powerful wind resulting from the end of the hurricane Dora.

00:01:23.320 School was cancelled, leaving children at home.

00:01:27.000 A fire broke out early in the morning around 6.30, only to be declared fully controlled

00:01:35.160 about two hours later.

00:01:36.600 Community members were not alarmed as brush fire occurred frequently.

00:01:42.760 However, the 13,000 residents did not anticipate their town to be obliterated on the same day,

00:01:51.640 leaving nothing but ashes behind.

00:01:54.360 That clip you just saw there is of Rebel News journalist Alexa Lavoie when she went to Lahaina in Hawaii to

00:02:03.960 weed through the misinformation, the government half-truths, and hyperbole,

00:02:10.120 hyperbole, but also horror to get the truth about the wildfire that raised the town.

00:02:17.160 And I think she did incredible work in spite of the conditions she was working in.

00:02:23.320 Devastation, lack of infrastructure, lack of resources, no internet.

00:02:27.800 But she was committed to the mission of bringing the truth to people who needed it.

00:02:34.280 Because, as you know, you just can't trust the mainstream media and you definitely can't trust

00:02:38.440 the government.

00:02:38.920 So joining me tonight to discuss her trip to Lahaina, but also her mission to tell the other side of the

00:02:47.960 story with regard to transgender people taking over women's only spaces.

00:02:54.040 And the Trans March in Montreal where she was victim blamed by the police for the aggression

00:03:02.120 of the protesters is my friend and colleague, Alexa Lavoie.

00:03:06.440 Take a listen.

00:03:14.600 Joining me now is my friend and my colleague, Alexa Lavoie.

00:03:18.440 And we're going to talk about some of her most recent work, including her trip to Maui

00:03:22.520 to investigate the Lahaina fire.

00:03:25.480 But Alexa has never been on the gun show before. 0.94

00:03:27.800 We co-host other stuff together all the time.

00:03:31.000 Just now, we just jumped off the Rebel News daily live stream together so that we could film this.

00:03:36.760 And I can't believe it's taken so long to have you on the show.

00:03:39.400 But thanks for agreeing to this interview.

00:03:41.000 Thank you for having me.

00:03:42.600 And it's always an honor because I know that your show is so like, people like it so much.

00:03:48.280 And always good to be like on the show that is appreciated by Rebel viewer.

00:03:56.120 Well, and I try to keep the show to more of like a casual conversation instead of an informal

00:04:01.880 or instead of a formal interview.

00:04:03.560 That's why I never do my intros and outros until I film the video because I never know where it's going

00:04:09.320 to go.

00:04:09.720 But I wanted to talk to you about heading to Lahaina.

00:04:13.400 You were one of the few skeptical journalists on the ground there.

00:04:18.280 And when you went there, you know, you had to wade through not just the chaos of a wildfire sweeping

00:04:25.800 through this community, but what the government was saying versus what the people were saying

00:04:31.960 versus what the clickbait conspiracy theorists were saying.

00:04:35.400 You had, it was just absolute chaos and you had to find the truth.

00:04:40.680 What was it like when you first landed there, like seeing the devastation?

00:04:45.480 But first of all, when we land, we were not like, we didn't know if we would be able to

00:04:51.480 reach the town.

00:04:52.680 And especially we were kind of afraid because we had a place to stay a really small Airbnb

00:04:58.520 that was in the area.

00:05:00.440 So we were, okay, let's check if like the road is open now, because we know that the

00:05:06.920 road was blocked for about a week.

00:05:10.920 And by the way, blocking that road by the authorities block also the supply chain for the people.

00:05:17.640 So people were like venting FEMA and Red Cross.

00:05:22.360 I'm so sorry, but the community did all the bigger work because some people are not aware,

00:05:29.320 but on Maui Island to reach Lahaina, it's really difficult.

00:05:35.080 So you have the main road that is actually really easy, but that road was blocked.

00:05:42.200 Or you have another road that had like a lot of dead accident that happened on that road,

00:05:47.960 because it's a single one way road where they have a hill and it's really dangerous because

00:05:57.000 the car go on both sides when the car is facing each other.

00:06:02.440 So you need to go backwards with your car when it's like ravine hill and rock that are falling.

00:06:11.000 So the community took that road to take the supplies that was coming from FEMA and everything,

00:06:18.040 because they left all this in Kaului, it's like where is the airport.

00:06:28.520 They just let it there and the community needed to drive all these dangerous roads,

00:06:34.360 pick up all the supply and bring it back.

00:06:36.760 When they have also like boats full of supplies from other islands or other places in the island

00:06:43.560 coming to bring to them.

00:06:45.960 So it's it's when we look at the conspiracy theory,

00:06:50.680 I can understand that some people were believing on direct energy since Maui and I think in Mexico,

00:06:57.480 there is two stations, two places where they actually work on direct energy.

00:07:02.840 So, you know, when you have like a part of the information and you know that the mainstream

00:07:08.040 sometimes have misinformation and disinformation towards the viewer and the public,

00:07:13.400 you are always skeptical to know, is it really true what they are saying?

00:07:17.560 And why this old town that used to have brush fire?

00:07:22.040 Why this time this old town have passed to finish in ashes?

00:07:27.880 So, first of all, we find out that the first brush fire that was ignited by one of the power lines

00:07:37.560 that collapsed on into the ground was supposed to be 100 percent contained.

00:07:43.320 But the thing is, instead of monitoring the fire, firefighters had another brush fire to fight.

00:07:50.840 So they just are all left to fight the other fire because they had a lack of employee and firefighters,

00:07:59.800 as we experience everywhere, like in Canada and a little bit everywhere around the world,

00:08:06.200 we have a lack of employee.

00:08:07.400 But the thing is, with the hurricane that was passing by, with the big wind, this fire sparked up and they actually burned down the old town.

00:08:24.520 And by the way, some people were saying like, oh, some houses of rich people are still there standing up.

00:08:31.640 But it's not only their house. A lot of houses was intact. Churches, some churches was completely intact.

00:08:39.240 It was kind of strange, but a firefighter was explaining to us that with the wind that was going back and forth,

00:08:47.240 the fire had burned in zigzag. And so letting some houses perfectly intact, same if they are made with wood,

00:08:55.240 perfectly intact and untouched. So you can see the pattern of the fire burning like back and forth places.

00:09:04.840 And it's so like disgusting to think that in the morning, since they had no power and no electricity,

00:09:13.080 and the wind was so powerful. So it was supposed to be the first day of classes for students.

00:09:20.920 But all the students did remain at home, taking care of their sister and brother.

00:09:27.400 And so all of them were not worn. So a lot of children passed away that day.

00:09:35.480 And the horrible story of this mother who did a celebration for the anniversary of his 15-year-old adopted son,

00:09:48.680 who they found him back burned cuddling the dog inside of their house.

00:09:55.880 Oh my gosh.

00:09:57.880 So it's terrible. It's inaptitude. It is negligence.

00:10:04.600 And we know that Hawaiian Electric was pushed to change their sources of energy to a green energy.

00:10:13.480 We know that Hawaiian Electric spent all their money to change and to have green energy, like solar and wind energy.

00:10:23.640 Because when we land, we see a whole land of solar panel.

00:10:29.160 With that, they spent so much money there that they didn't invest in the infrastructure of their power line.

00:10:35.880 They knew there is a high risk of ignited fire.

00:10:42.280 They did nothing.

00:10:44.040 And this is new, like, since many years.

00:10:48.280 And now they are being sued by the county and by, I think, class action of people.

00:10:55.080 And they actually believe that Hawaiian Electric will probably do bankruptcy because now they are being sued for too much money.

00:11:04.920 And when we think that the biggest owner, because there is a lot of owners that own Hawaiian Electric,

00:11:10.920 is BlackRock and the Vanguard Group, who own this company, who have so much money on their hand,

00:11:20.160 who were able to rectify and solve the situation with the power line and did nothing knowing that it was dangerous for the resident there.

00:11:30.520 And I saw, I think it was Matt Walsh from The Daily Wire was talking about this on his podcast.

00:11:36.740 He said the people who survived this fire were the ones who defied the government because that road was closed.

00:11:43.500 And they were not letting people through the road.

00:11:45.960 And the people, people died in their cars on that road because they couldn't get through.

00:11:52.040 Because government officials were telling them, no, the road's closed.

00:11:54.420 You can't get through.

00:11:55.360 There are reports of people who are just burning around that roadblock to get out of there.

00:12:00.520 And those are the people who survived the wildfire.

00:12:03.200 That's really been the moral of the last three years is those who defied the government are the ones who are faring far better than the ones who just complied mindlessly.

00:12:13.820 According to resident, they were explaining that since the wind have collapsed, a lot of power line, they actually collapsed in the middle of the road.

00:12:21.760 So police officer were blocking the road.

00:12:24.520 And when people were trying to evacuate the town, the police officer were telling them to go back.

00:12:32.000 But that was towards the fire.

00:12:33.760 And people were like, what are you talking about?

00:12:35.900 Because you are actually sending us into the fire when we try to evacuate the town.

00:12:42.040 So people have choose to take like some land, just avoiding the like the electric cable that was on the ground.

00:12:51.060 So I just don't understand why the police officer just tell them, you know, escape by the land, escape by the field or escape by the property of a house just right there.

00:13:05.080 So you will like avoid the power line and you will save your life.

00:13:10.460 Instead of that, they were just blocking the road and sending them back into the fire.

00:13:15.400 And it's why a lot of people die into their car.

00:13:18.760 And I heard like a woman that was telling me a full family was into their car waiting to evacuate.

00:13:25.380 And the tree in fire fall into their, on the top of their car and the whole family burned inside.

00:13:32.660 It's just, it's terrible.

00:13:37.680 And I, I really feel for you having to wade through the devastation and the aftermath just so you could try to bring Canadians.

00:13:45.580 And I know your reporting was relied on by people around the world so that you could show people firsthand the truth.

00:13:52.680 And so I'm just, I'm grateful for that, but I'm also grateful to all the people who donated to send you there because they knew they couldn't trust the mainstream media or the government to get the story straight.

00:14:04.420 And, and, and the, the biggest thing on this is like a lot of people are really afraid that now investor it's going and take over their land.

00:14:12.100 When we know that Josh Green have now the emergency power on his end to rebuild faster.

00:14:18.340 And, and same, if you look at the emergency power, um, you can see that the historic side of La Haina, it's not a priority.

00:14:28.240 So he can actually step over it, rebuild as he wants.

00:14:32.700 It can, uh, and we know that he wants a sustainable housing.

00:14:36.900 Um, he wants to build mostly like apartment because they have a lack of housing in Maui and, and especially in La Haina.

00:14:46.500 So a lot of people are skeptical because Josh Green wants to purchase a lot, a part of the land.

00:14:53.060 And he say that is for protecting from investor.

00:14:56.640 But a lot of people are like, we are actually don't know about the motivation of Josh Green to really take our land because some of the people were mostly renter.

00:15:07.100 So, uh, they were renting apartment or house.

00:15:10.940 So right now they are really scared because it, there was not their land for that for some of them.

00:15:16.720 That was rental places.

00:15:19.580 So who owned those land?

00:15:21.860 And do they, we let the land go to investor because right now it would cost a lot to rebuild La Haina.

00:15:29.680 So it's, it's a question that we probably need to have a check on La Haina maybe in a couple of years to come.

00:15:37.360 Yeah.

00:15:38.180 You know, a lot of people are, uh, what do they call them?

00:15:41.600 Disaster capitalists.

00:15:43.080 Um, and, uh, I mean, they're really just economic vultures and everything is an opportunity for them, including other people's tragedies.

00:15:51.380 Uh, now I want to move ahead to something that, uh, you've covered and I think it's very fascinating.

00:15:58.680 Italy seems to be female led Italy, by the way, uh, really seems to be leading the charge on being pro-family.

00:16:08.140 Um, and protecting women's spaces, even at beauty pageants. 0.97

00:16:14.320 Like I remember, I'm old enough to remember when the left was against beauty pageants because they said it sexualized and idealized women. 0.97

00:16:22.180 And we're so much more than that.

00:16:24.260 But then all of a sudden men pretending to be women got involved in beauty pageants.

00:16:28.260 And the left was pro-beauty pageant again, for some reason. 0.69

00:16:31.080 Um, they used to say it was enforcing negative, uh, gender stereotypes about women until like guys show up with boob jobs and win the pageant.

00:16:41.900 And they're like, look at that diversity.

00:16:43.420 This is a beautiful thing.

00:16:45.140 Tell us about what's happening in Italy.

00:16:47.160 So, um, recently Italy have announced that transgender women will not take part of the pageant.

00:16:54.640 Not only because the pageant was already on this way, so classification and everything, but the fact that since the creation of Miss Italy that was born in 1940 something, I don't remember the date exactly, but it's been 84 years.

00:17:14.120 And the rules are, you need to be born as a woman. 1.00

00:17:18.300 But so the rules are clear.

00:17:21.720 The rules stand since the creation of Miss Italy.

00:17:25.200 And unfortunately, when she announced that, and she, she was really clear from the beginning that she had nothing against transgender.

00:17:34.340 This is not against them.

00:17:36.420 This is because the rule is in place.

00:17:38.460 And anyway, what she was saying is like, since the, the whole story of like Miss Italy, she had true, two trans people who apply, who try to get into the pageant.

00:17:51.060 Only two.

00:17:51.960 And now, since someone tried to do and was refused, all the activists came and tried to, to challenge the fact that, first of all, you cannot have any surgery.

00:18:04.940 If you go there, they have a ban on aesthetic surgery.

00:18:09.520 So most of people.

00:18:11.120 Oh, I like that.

00:18:12.920 I like that.

00:18:14.060 Cause you watch Miss America, Miss Universe, and you're like, well, anybody can look, anybody can do this if you have enough money.

00:18:21.280 Yeah.

00:18:21.580 Right.

00:18:21.740 Like if you have enough money and enough time to do all sorts of things to your face and body.

00:18:26.720 Uh, so it becomes a pageant about wealth and the quality of your cosmetic surgeon, as opposed to your genetic features.

00:18:37.900 Yeah.

00:18:38.020 I think that's great.

00:18:38.840 I'm, I, I'm glad to hear this.

00:18:40.540 So not only like the, the trans activists wanted to challenge that ban of aesthetic surgery, but he wanted also to challenge the fact that trans woman was not allowed to take part of that pageant.

00:18:54.560 So she received that threat.

00:18:57.720 She received so many backlash.

00:19:00.160 She received, and she said, I don't deserve to receive this when I'm actually really open mind.

00:19:06.380 I'm open to discussion.

00:19:08.280 I'm really open same to change the rule if I really need to, but in a matter that is not exploit in a bad way and to take over for not the great reason behind it.

00:19:24.100 So she said that I'm not, I'm, I don't understand why I received that much debt threat to explain my own opinion freely as a woman.

00:19:35.880 And she said that nobody should deserve that.

00:19:38.260 And if the trans woman are really a woman, they should be more like into discussion and find a way to communicate to each other.

00:19:46.820 Since you're supposed to be a woman, you're supposed to communicate with other woman. 1.00

00:19:53.260 Well, and this is something I asked Faye Johnstone, the biological male who was hired by the YWCA, the women's YMCA, to give the keynote speaker at the Nutrien Women of Distinction Awards.

00:20:09.860 And that was one of my questions to him when I found him on the street, thanks to the help of my friend, Lise.

00:20:22.140 I said, you know, like you care about safety, like you're all about safety.

00:20:26.840 What do you say about the death threats being leveled at biological women who are getting threatened and doxxed for speaking out against you?

00:20:35.860 Wouldn't say anything then because safety is just a baloney word that they use to shut you up.

00:20:43.020 You can't talk.

00:20:43.740 It's dangerous to me.

00:20:44.980 But if people are actually getting real life death threats, you can't you don't even have the ability to renounce them.

00:20:51.260 Like, I think everybody getting a death threat is a bad idea.

00:20:55.600 But they couldn't even say that because it's it's not really about safety.

00:20:58.900 It's about using the the threat of safety to shut people up.

00:21:02.620 But my only concern is like, do those death threats will go and make change in the idea of Patrizia Merigliani, that she is the director of the pageant that she took from her father. 0.97

00:21:19.160 But do that will coerce her to change because she has a family and she has a really big background of like issue in her own personality. 1.00

00:21:32.620 life that I don't think she she deserves to receive like these kind of backlash and death threats. 0.95

00:21:37.500 So, of course, like at one point she will be and she will not probably say it like that, but it will be a way of coercion from the trans activists. 0.56

00:21:47.740 And by the way, where are the feminists who supposedly protect those women who receive those threats from activists? 1.00

00:21:58.280 Yeah, they don't care because those women, they they have the wrong politics. 1.00

00:22:03.500 So it doesn't matter.

00:22:04.760 They don't care.

00:22:05.820 But, yeah, it is.

00:22:06.440 It's bullying and coercion and bullies people into silence or it's bullies people into political change.

00:22:12.860 And that sounds a lot like terrorism.

00:22:15.200 It is, you know, like threats of violence to make political change is the definition of political terrorism.

00:22:24.380 Now, before I let you go, I want to ask you about the trans march from Montreal.

00:22:32.280 That was where you were victim blamed.

00:22:34.680 You had the wrong opinions in a public place and the police treated you like you were the bad guy.

00:22:41.220 I get a lot of emails about what happened to you that day.

00:22:45.100 Have you heard anything from the police?

00:22:47.220 Have they followed up with you because you were being, you know, bullied out of the public square, but there was some physical intimidation leveled at you and Guillaume behind the camera.

00:23:00.120 Have the police done anything about that or they just, you know, like you don't count because you you might have had some sort of uncomfortable opinions in a public place.

00:23:09.220 And that's just not allowed in Canada anymore.

00:23:11.980 Yeah.

00:23:12.240 And so when I arrived there, I was not at the beginning because at the beginning there was I didn't see any like really activists.

00:23:21.900 Like they were just normal people who were there for the trans march and they were happy to talk to me.

00:23:27.840 They were happy, happy to answer my question.

00:23:30.960 And it's just like at one point when I had like these weird people like asking me for which media outlet I work.

00:23:39.040 I say, well, what is the matter?

00:23:40.800 Why do you need to know which outlet I'm working for?

00:23:44.200 And because I just told them I'm an independent media, because if I was telling them I was with Ribbon News because, by the way, on their website, they ban Ribbon News to take part of the trans march, same before the event.

00:24:00.860 Those questions that I ask are public interest.

00:24:04.480 If I was saying for who I was working, I would not have reached my goal as a journalist to get and gather information from them.

00:24:15.320 So when I had these people bullying me and harassing me, I say, well, OK, there are only two.

00:24:22.640 Before everything escalates, I'm going to tell the police that I'm being bullied and harassed and to try to engage conversation with them to stop them to stop me to do my work.

00:24:34.480 I went to talk with them.

00:24:36.560 I told them with who I was working and I told them I'm not I don't want to challenge nobody.

00:24:42.620 It's why I'm keeping my outlet on their confidentiality.

00:24:47.780 The only thing that they need to know is I am an independent news online only.

00:24:55.240 What else they need to do?

00:24:56.900 If they want to retrieve the work, they can just check all the independent media that are out there.

00:25:05.860 Anyhow, the police say that they will have a look at them, making sure everything is OK.

00:25:12.460 But when everything is carried out because they never stop.

00:25:15.480 I was the bad person.

00:25:19.440 I was the one not at my place.

00:25:21.500 I was the one harassing them.

00:25:23.100 I was the one who had like a different ideology.

00:25:26.400 I was the one who were perturbing the peace.

00:25:30.200 When I was like, OK, but I'm I'm not even asking them a question.

00:25:35.200 I'm not even asking them to obligate them to do anything.

00:25:39.580 I'm just doing my job.

00:25:41.720 And all the people who actually talked to me were open minded and they wanted to answer to me.

00:25:47.520 And I never forced anybody to answer to me.

00:25:50.480 So.

00:25:51.900 This is really outrageous to hurt the police.

00:25:57.020 Now, instead of protecting normal citizens or journalists to do their job, because we are in a free country,

00:26:03.360 we have freedom of press here and every kind of media should be allowed to cover whatever it's happening in Canada.

00:26:12.080 But instead of that, not only I was told to not come back there, but to live because I was the bad person there.

00:26:23.080 Yeah, but that's that's why we only see reporting on these events one way.

00:26:32.080 And it's always favorable.

00:26:33.860 Nothing critical.

00:26:35.380 These people are just benevolent and they don't mean anybody any harm and they're just wonderful and they want acceptance.

00:26:41.180 And the only reason you see that is because those are the only journalists allowed to cover these events because skeptical journalists are run off by the cops.

00:26:53.080 Or at least if you go, you know, you're not going to be protected from violence by the cops who are standing four feet away.

00:26:59.720 But this call being in a socialism, communism country.

00:27:05.700 And by the way, those people in their pamphlet that they are distributing to people, they tell people to not talk to any media.

00:27:13.980 If media wants to engage conversation to refer to the person in charge of the trans march, in which society people wants to have a censorship and a cancellation of your own voice over the person in charge of an event.

00:27:31.200 In a free country, we should be free to express ourselves and not being always like suppressed by the people in charge.

00:27:40.760 And so that really represents the kind of activists from the left that took over and really wants to enter in a tyrannical like country.

00:27:51.620 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We just want to be able to do our jobs.

00:27:57.480 If you don't like us, that's OK. I don't need anybody to like me. Just leave me alone to do my job.

00:28:02.520 And if you don't want to talk to me, then don't. Then just don't.

00:28:08.100 Alexa, I know that you have other things to do and you've been very generous with your time today.

00:28:13.320 What are you working on next? Can you give people sort of a hint of some of the things that are on the horizon for you?

00:28:20.100 Yes. So I don't know if you remember, I was covering this young teenager who did face criminal charge, still facing criminal charge over taking down LGBTQ plus from a school. 1.00

00:28:35.740 Now is facing to be transferred to another school for some action he did as giving just an interview and just like speaking out what is going on with like his situation.

00:28:50.760 Because it's totally unfair because it's totally unfair because not only it was treated by LGBTQ community members because it was religious and he was wearing a cross in his neck. 0.82

00:29:01.560 And now those people are not facing anything but him facing to lose all his friends, all his own community and being transferred and separate and from and isolate from where he used to go as a student.

00:29:18.900 So this is really important because that show our school are intolerant over the people who go against their narrative and who go in the side of Christianism.

00:29:38.260 Because it's really important because it's people who are really, really religious who go to that school.

00:29:45.020 But you need to suppress your religion and let LGBTQ plus thing like going all over. 1.00

00:29:53.180 But this is OK.

00:29:53.960 Yeah, it's a personal expression for the left is only valid in one way.

00:30:03.020 So you need if your personal expression conflicts with the feelings of other people, then you have to suppress yourself while allowing the other side to express themselves in the most hedonistic and public ways sometimes.

00:30:17.780 So, again, back to what you said earlier, double standard.

00:30:22.720 Oh, yeah.

00:30:22.900 Alexa, I'm so I'm so proud of the work that you do here at Rebel News.

00:30:26.460 You go places and talk to people that nobody else will.

00:30:31.500 You're incredibly hardworking.

00:30:32.960 And like I'm pretty sure you and Lincoln didn't sleep all that much when you guys were in Lahaina.

00:30:38.340 And it's a very long flight from Quebec to Hawaii.

00:30:42.400 Not so far for me, but far for you and multiple time zones.

00:30:46.540 But you hit the ground running when you were there.

00:30:48.340 You were dealing with infrastructure challenges and no Internet.

00:30:51.680 Trying to stay in contact with us, trying to let us know that you guys were working and it's not easy to do.

00:30:57.520 And I think you did great work and you did our journalistic mission here at Rebel News.

00:31:01.860 You found the other side of the story.

00:31:03.080 So on behalf of myself as the head of journalism and everybody else who just cheers for you to continue to do the work that you do, just thank you so much for your for your dedication to the truth.

00:31:15.640 Thank you. And by the way, don't forget the truth about Maui.com if you want to see more about what happened there.

00:31:22.580 Yes. And if people want to support the work that you did on the ground there, because we we did incur quite a few expenses, a last minute flight to Maui from Montreal.

00:31:34.440 It's a little bit. It's a little bit of something.

00:31:37.260 But Alexa, thank you so much. And I'll talk to you later, probably later this afternoon.

00:31:43.660 Well, we've come to the portion of the show wherein I read your viewer feedback, your letters, your hate mail, even sometimes.

00:32:00.600 That's why I give out my email address right now.

00:32:03.360 It's Sheila at Rebel News dot com.

00:32:05.520 If you are going to send me a letter that you'd like me to read on air, put gun show letters in the subject line so it's easier for me to find.

00:32:12.820 I do get sometimes, depending on what I've done that day, for better or for worse, sometimes hundreds of emails a day.

00:32:21.460 So gun show letters in the subject line make it real easy for me to find.

00:32:24.980 But don't hesitate to leave a question, comment, story idea wherever you're watching us.

00:32:30.080 For example, if you're watching the free version of the show, thank you for sitting through the ads on YouTube or Rumble.

00:32:35.520 Leave a comment there.

00:32:36.800 And I go poking around there sometimes for comments as well.

00:32:40.320 And actually, that's where the comments come from today.

00:32:43.260 They're on YouTube on the free version of the show from last week that I did with my friend Chris Sims from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

00:32:54.580 We both have an affinity for mid-century modern architecture and Pyrex dishes and cryptids, Bigfoot or, as she says, Sasquatch.

00:33:05.520 Specifically, but any and all cryptids, actually.

00:33:08.760 Anyway, our show was on how the carbon tax is hurting Canadian families and how in Alberta we have pushed pause on the provincial portion of the gas tax.

00:33:20.080 I hope we do it forever.

00:33:22.240 And that is to help Albertans who are struggling with affordability in the times of out-of-control inflation.

00:33:32.060 And we were talking about how we're cheering for Saskatchewan to do the same.

00:33:36.360 Because why not?

00:33:38.880 Two conservative premiers doing conservative things, fighting back against Justin Trudeau's inflationary policies.

00:33:44.400 Seems like a win-win-win for me.

00:33:46.540 And if the province of Alberta can make it without the gas tax now, why ever bring it back?

00:33:52.940 Just don't do it.

00:33:54.460 But the same reason you don't have it now is the same reason you should never bring it back.

00:34:00.760 Anyway, lots of vigorous comments on that show on YouTube.

00:34:06.100 Janie Stokes, 1806 says, oh, and I should preface this by saying, we talked about how Albertans don't buy electric vehicles.

00:34:14.140 And that is true.

00:34:16.300 And the reason I know that is because in Alberta, you can just go online and Google vehicle registration by fuel type.

00:34:25.580 And you will know exactly how many diesel cars there are, how many hybrids, how many fully electric vehicles, and how many gas-powered vehicles are registered for the road.

00:34:33.500 So that doesn't include, you know, like quads that don't get license plates because you only ride them at home, or vehicles under 50 cc's, my golf cart, and farm trucks that are not registered for the road.

00:34:46.420 So anyway, we have all that data so we know exactly how many fully electric cars are in Alberta.

00:34:52.300 And I think it's around 3,500.

00:34:55.140 It's definitely under 5,000.

00:34:57.020 Anyway, Janie Stokes, 1806 writes, Albertans are not buying electric cars because our electricity costs are through the roof.

00:35:03.160 We don't have Niagara Falls to make it.

00:35:05.080 That is true.

00:35:05.820 Not a lot of hydro here.

00:35:07.320 We rely on natural gas because the NDP shut our coal industry down.

00:35:11.020 That is true.

00:35:11.560 We have 800 years of clean burning coal under our feet here in Alberta.

00:35:16.200 And I think if you're in the developing world, you would look at us like we are insane by leaving that in the ground.

00:35:22.320 And we are, obviously.

00:35:23.800 We definitely are.

00:35:24.880 And now we're paying through the roof.

00:35:26.460 That is true.

00:35:26.960 It was an NDP thing that they decided to phase out coal-fired electricity production, even though if – and you can do this for yourself.

00:35:36.640 You can actually – we have these air quality monitoring stations all around the province.

00:35:40.700 And I know here out by Refinery Row, our air quality is often better than it is in Edmonton, where the decision makers of these things are.

00:35:48.380 But by the coal-fired generating stations like Genesee, you can check the air quality there, and it is almost always – you can put money on it – cleaner than Edmonton.

00:35:59.660 Cleaner than any of the municipalities, and actually Fort Mac is often frequently cleaner than Edmonton, where all the hippies are and the decision makers. 0.75

00:36:10.580 I mean, I guess – I guess if they think it's – they must think that everywhere is as bad as it is there.

00:36:17.520 But maybe they should take off their Birkenstocks and get off their bike and get in a car and go see how the other half lives. 1.00

00:36:25.740 Anyway, Nicklin1961 writes,

00:36:31.160 Vancouver is the only city in the world who claimed to be concerned with the cost of living in the city, then added 10 cents a liter to gas, and 15 cent fees on all cups and bags sold in the city.

00:36:41.700 Yeah.

00:36:42.840 Like, you can't complain about affordability and then do things to make basic living more expensive.

00:36:49.280 Like, as Pierre Polyev says, these people actually need calculators.

00:36:56.900 Like, if you are adding 15 cents to every bag of groceries that you buy, you are going to have 15 fewer cents in your pocket at the end of the day.

00:37:09.380 Anyway, why can't they figure this stuff out?

00:37:13.920 User tt6sq1ft1m, if that's even your real name, writes to me and says,

00:37:25.160 Sheila, why don't you debate Max Bernier on Rebel?

00:37:27.780 He's against farm subsidies.

00:37:29.400 What's to debate?

00:37:30.320 So am I.

00:37:31.500 Like, really?

00:37:32.260 Why don't we just have a debate?

00:37:35.380 You just don't stand around and agree with each other when he says, you know, like, handouts are bad.

00:37:40.360 And I'm like, yeah.

00:37:41.900 And quotas are bad.

00:37:43.240 Me too.

00:37:44.220 I think that too.

00:37:45.340 Just because I'm a farmer doesn't mean I want handouts from the government.

00:37:47.940 I want the government out of my way so that I can do what I do best.

00:37:52.200 And I just, in the same way that I can't do journalism by taking handouts from the government,

00:37:57.100 I think you can't be a farmer, a self-reliant, capable farmer jangling around for money from the government.

00:38:05.400 Just yuck.

00:38:07.320 No, thank you.

00:38:09.180 No, thank you.

00:38:10.740 And then how not to 523 says, not being able to get to Edmonton with an electric vehicle is a selling point.

00:38:23.880 That's true.

00:38:24.520 I often joke about how horrible Edmonton is.

00:38:26.920 And I think as a city, the government is terrible.

00:38:30.820 But there are very many good people living in that city.

00:38:35.400 And we should just airlift them out.

00:38:37.980 Just save them from the city.

00:38:40.040 Although I understand there are many people who are like, I'm never leaving Edmonton to the progressives.

00:38:44.000 I'm going to stay here and fight for accountability forever.

00:38:46.880 And I love that attitude.

00:38:47.960 But Ralph Klein said it 30 years ago.

00:38:54.660 Late, great, visionary, former conservative Premier Ralph Klein.

00:39:00.340 He said that Edmonton, and I'm paraphrasing here.

00:39:03.300 Edmonton is a beautiful city with too many mosquitoes and socialists. 0.72

00:39:07.180 And you can do something about the mosquitoes.

00:39:09.040 It's evergreen.

00:39:12.780 It remains true to this day. 0.90

00:39:16.320 Well, everybody, that's the show for tonight.

00:39:17.840 Thank you so much for tuning in.

00:39:19.040 I'll see everybody back here in the same time, in the same place next week.

00:39:21.700 And as always, remember, don't let the government tell you that you've had too much to think.

00:39:25.760 We'll be right back.

00:39:55.760 We'll be right back.

Rebel News Podcast - August 30, 2023

SHEILA GUNN REID ｜ What really happened in Maui？ You can't trust the mainstream media and politicians to tell the truth

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