Rebel News Podcast - SNC-Lavalin UPDATE： Unanswered questions about corrupt Quebec firm

00:00:00.120 Hello, my rebels. You're listening to a free audio-only recording of my show, The Ezra Levant Show.

00:00:07.420 Today I talk about some unanswered questions about Jody Wilson-Raybould, the justice minister

00:00:13.200 fired by Justin Trudeau for, you know, upholding the law. And there's some crazy stuff about David

00:00:19.480 Lamedi, that's the new justice minister who just happens to be a Montreal liberal from the very

00:00:25.720 constituency where SNC-Lavalin is headquartered. And I'll give it away a little bit, but you should

00:00:31.640 listen to the whole thing. SNC-Lavalin personally lobbied him too. Did you know that? I'll let

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00:01:54.500 Tonight, lots of unanswered questions about the corrupt Quebec engineering firm for whom

00:01:59.320 Justin Trudeau tried to get criminal charges dropped. It's February 11th, and this is the

00:02:04.260 Ezra Levant Show.

00:02:05.140 It was a huge front-page story in the Globe and Mail last week. It would have been big news any day,

00:02:32.220 but given how submissive the media party has been towards the Trudeau government lately and how

00:02:36.940 much groveling they've done for a slice of Trudeau's $595 million media bailout, you've got to admit,

00:02:43.040 this was an impressive bombshell. In short, SNC-Lavalin, a huge engineering company

00:02:48.780 headquartered in downtown Montreal, well, they paid at least $48 million in bribes

00:02:55.360 to secure engineering contracts in Libya a few years ago. Yeah, I know. Like me, you're totally

00:03:00.760 shocked. An establishment corporation in Quebec that's involved with corruption. I won't hear of

00:03:06.820 it. Yeah, neither will anyone else, I guess. I don't know if you remember, but when McLean's magazine

00:03:11.980 dared to talk about Quebec's culture of corruption, do you remember the House of Commons unanimously

00:03:17.380 voted to condemn the magazine? As in, the Tories joined in on that condemnation too.

00:03:22.380 Anyways, the truth of that came out, and so the RCMP has charged SNC-Lavalin with defrauding

00:03:29.920 various Libyan organizations of $130 million. So this is pretty big time. This is international

00:03:37.920 class corruption. This wasn't just some rogue employee, you know, stealing from the company

00:03:42.780 Christmas party fund. This was a major operation, organized crime style. So they're being prosecuted

00:03:48.540 in Canada for being corrupt. That's what the law says. Just like Bombardier, another favorite

00:03:54.120 Quebec company, which has been successfully prosecuted around the world for their corruption,

00:03:59.040 by the way. I should point out that SNC-Lavalin's market capitalization, you know what that is,

00:04:03.940 right? That's the amount of value of all the company's shares together on the stock market.

00:04:09.620 Yep. So SNC-Lavalin's market capitalization is more than $6 billion. So they can handle paying a fine.

00:04:20.020 They just don't want to. And they think they can fast talk their way out of it. I mean,

00:04:25.420 why do you think they give so much money to the Liberal Party? Including, I know you'll be shocked

00:04:30.240 by this, illegal donations here in Canada, not in Libya. They obviously haven't quite wrapped their

00:04:37.780 head around the fact that they are in Canada and you can't just wriggle out of the law because you're

00:04:43.720 connected to powerful people. Just a quick point on that share price. Here's the company's stock

00:04:49.040 market valuation over the past five years. Now, I don't know if you can see it, but the company's

00:04:54.920 shares were worth about $42 the day of the last election in late 2015. It's pretty much right in

00:05:04.500 the middle of the graph there. And then bam, as soon as the Liberals took power, look at that.

00:05:10.160 Again, we're right in the middle of the graph there. You can see the bottom 2016, wham. Within half a

00:05:16.840 year, the stocks were trading at 55 bucks. Do you really think that the company was worth literally

00:05:22.380 30% more billions of dollars in just six months? Were the engineers 30% smarter? Did they suddenly get

00:05:31.980 30% more work done? Or do you think it's because everyone knew SNC-Lavalin is a Liberal crony and

00:05:39.440 everyone just naturally assumed after the Liberals won that they would have all their legal problems

00:05:45.320 magically swept away by their fellow Liberal Montrealer, Justin Trudeau and his Montreal

00:05:49.280 Principal Secretary, Gerald Butts. That's what was going on in that stock price. Here's the same stock

00:05:54.120 price chart, but instead of showing the past five years, this is the past six months. Do you see that

00:05:59.760 a huge drop in the stock price about a third of the way into the graph? That was back in October.

00:06:06.420 I don't know if you can see that in the graph. It's pretty small numbers.

00:06:10.240 That's when Canadian prosecutors announced that they were not going to cut a deal with SNC-Lavalin.

00:06:15.640 According to the Globe and Mail, that's when Trudeau decided he was going to fire

00:06:18.600 his Justice Minister, Jody Wilson-Raybould, who wouldn't bend the knee to him and his Quebec friends.

00:06:23.600 So that's on about a third of the way in there. And look at the right-hand side. You see that

00:06:28.700 absolute cliff in the last week? Well, you know what that's about. That's this whole scandal in

00:06:33.780 the newspaper. So there's a lot that goes on in a company, and I'm sure the stock price has to do

00:06:38.740 with a lot of things. But I think it's also fair to point out that like Bombardier, SNC-Lavalin is not

00:06:45.060 a normal company. It's a crony capitalist company. It reminds me a little bit of Gazprom in Russia.

00:06:52.920 Gazprom is owned 51% by Vladimir Putin's authoritarian regime. So sure, Gazprom is a

00:06:58.400 huge company, and it actually does valuable things. As you can tell by the name, it's into natural gas,

00:07:03.600 for example. But it's also a very political company. It does political favors for Vladimir Putin,

00:07:07.880 and he does them favors in return. Over there, the corruption is pretty much normalized. But I think

00:07:13.380 in some ways, they're more honest about it. Putin just owns 51% of the company, so he's not even

00:07:17.860 pretending it's independent, and vice versa. I think that's the problem for Bombardier and SNC-Lavalin.

00:07:23.940 They pretend to be normal, independent, private companies, but really they're just liberal

00:07:28.500 lobbying machines, and they live or die based on their government connections to the liberals.

00:07:33.360 Maybe they should stop pretending otherwise, like Gazprom. It's funny, this big Globe expose.

00:07:39.340 And congratulations again to the Globe reporters. There were three of them.

00:07:43.380 Who did a great job. Got to say it when it happens, because it's so rare. But I should

00:07:47.940 tell you that just a few months back, like December, the Globe was in full PR mode for

00:07:53.940 SNC-Lavalin, and was going to bat for them to get them off the hook. Did you know that?

00:07:59.220 The Globe and Mail was trying to get SNC-Lavalin out of prosecution. Here's a glowing cover story

00:08:05.380 on the Globe and Mail's prestigious report on Business Magazine.

00:08:09.940 Now that headline is, Bruce Almighty. That's Neil Bruce, SNC-Lavalin's CEO, the one who's been doing

00:08:16.440 so much lobbying. And let me read, I don't know if you can see the small print there.

00:08:20.580 SNC-Lavalin went from scandal-ridden to world-class. Hey guys, it's world-class.

00:08:25.820 Let me read a line from the story. DPA is the deal where they wouldn't be prosecuted. That's what DPA

00:08:35.660 stands for. Let me quote. The missing DPA enraged Bruce. He had been confident that an agreement

00:08:42.860 protecting the company from a criminal trial was in the bag, all the more so since the federal

00:08:47.580 government had introduced legislation to allow such agreements just a few months earlier.

00:08:51.260 So he was enraged that he didn't get the deal from the liberals. He was enraged. That's their word.

00:09:00.140 Now SNC-Lavalin was so pleased with this Globe and Mail propaganda, this cover story,

00:09:04.860 that they uploaded the entire Globe and Mail story to their own SNC-Lavalin website.

00:09:09.900 Just last month. Just December. The entire corporate establishment in Canada

00:09:15.820 was in on this, including the Globe and Mail. I'm frankly surprised that the Globe let

00:09:19.980 Bob Fyfe and Steve Chase and the other reporter take a run at their customer. It's amazing.

00:09:26.300 So where are we now? Well, Jody Wilson-Raybould, the justice minister, shuffled out of her position

00:09:33.180 in a recent cabinet shuffle. She is now hidden away in Veterans Affairs, a portfolio that is clearly a

00:09:38.380 demotion and to which she has no connection at all. She doesn't have any connection to veterans.

00:09:42.300 But at least she can't stop Trudeau and Butz from helping their Montreal friends anymore, can they?

00:09:48.620 And this guy, this amazing guy, David Lamedi, is the new justice minister. And like you, I am just shocked.

00:09:57.660 I am shocked that he's from Quebec. He's from Montreal. In fact, he is literally from the constituency,

00:10:05.180 La Salle Amar, where SNC-Lavalin is headquartered. Who would have thunk it? What are the odds?

00:10:13.180 One in 338, if you're asking. Well, Lamedi went on CTV over the weekend and it was just gorgeous.

00:10:20.380 Take a listen to this. How can you say with any degree of certainty that there was no pressure

00:10:25.900 put on her if you don't know? Who told you there was no pressure? The prime minister has said publicly,

00:10:30.060 and I'm basing, the prime minister said that the allegations contained in the Globe and Mail article

00:10:36.780 were false. The prime minister has said that he did not direct my predecessor. So I'm basing it on what

00:10:43.500 he has said publicly. You're a justice minister. Is that what he said he didn't direct? Is he skating

00:10:50.300 using legal language around the idea that there's pressure, that there's room? He may have pressured

00:10:55.260 her in other ways, the prime minister's office. Are you 100% confident that there was no pressure

00:11:01.980 in any way, shape, or form? I can't. Look, I can't speak to a relationship that I wasn't privy to.

00:11:07.900 That's clear. But what I can repeat to you and to Canadians is what the prime minister has said.

00:11:14.300 Oh, so he can't speak to you. He actually hasn't spoken with Jody Wilson-Raybould, his predecessor.

00:11:19.900 He hasn't spoken with the prime minister, it sounds like. Like you and me, he just watched

00:11:25.660 Trudeau's evasive answer on TV the other day, and that's good enough investigating for him. He's not

00:11:30.220 that curious. Best not to be curious. I want you to watch that evasion of Trudeau again. This is what

00:11:36.220 he said the day after the Globe broke. I want you to see the kind of watchdog we have on the file as

00:11:43.180 our justice minister, Canada's top legal officer. Some watchdog, more like an SNC-Lavalin lapdog.

00:11:49.500 Watch this. The allegations in the Globe story this morning are false. Neither the current nor the

00:11:57.340 previous attorney general was ever directed by me or by anyone in my office to take a decision

00:12:05.740 in this matter. The allegations reported in the story are false. At no time did I or my office direct

00:12:15.740 the current or previous attorney general to make any particular decision in this matter?

00:12:21.500 But not necessarily direct, prime minister. Was there any sort of influence whatsoever?

00:12:27.180 As I've said, at no time did we direct the attorney general, current or previous,

00:12:34.140 to take any decision whatsoever in this matter?

00:12:38.780 So when David Linetti says that Trudeau denies the Globe mail story, well he didn't, did he?

00:12:45.740 Because Trudeau said he just didn't direct Jody Wilson-Raybould to take a particular decision.

00:12:52.540 That's a very Clintonian answer, parsing the words just so. Remember what Clinton said?

00:12:57.740 It depends what your meaning of the word is, is. What the Globe said in their lengthy front page story,

00:13:04.060 citing sources both from the Justice Department and SNC-Lavalin itself, was that Jody Wilson-Raybould was

00:13:09.660 pressured. Which we knew just by skimming the list of endless lobbying meetings that Neil Bruce and SNC-Lavalin

00:13:19.020 had with every senior, senior official in the government, including more than a dozen meetings

00:13:24.300 with Trudeau's own office. But this sleeping lifeguard of a justice minister says, yeah, no,

00:13:29.900 there's nothing here even worth investigating. I mean, I saw the boss on TV and he says everything's fine

00:13:34.940 and I wouldn't want to enrage the head of SNC-Lavalin. And look at this, he's not investigating,

00:13:41.980 he's not apologizing, he couldn't even be bothered to pick up the phone to talk to anyone involved.

00:13:46.860 He watched the news just like you and me, good enough for him. Look at this, look at this.

00:13:52.940 Attorney General Lamedi says SNC-Lavalin settlement still possible.

00:13:58.620 Well, let me read a little bit. New Federal Attorney General David Lamedi says it is still possible.

00:14:04.380 He could issue a directive to the prosecution service to settle corruption charges against SNC-Lavalin

00:14:09.500 group out of court. There is a specific set of rules that would allow the Attorney General to direct

00:14:15.900 a public process in a transparent process through the Canada Gazette, he told CTV's question period

00:14:21.100 on Sunday. That remains a possibility. But I'm not going to comment on the possibility of that now,

00:14:24.620 because the case is before the courts.

00:14:29.820 So he's saying he might still do it. Yeah, how do you think he got the job?

00:14:34.780 The liberals are just going to brazen this one out.

00:14:36.620 Now, the opposition forces, the parties joined forces, and they demanded a probe, not a huge

00:14:43.500 independent multimillion dollar inquiry like, say, Robert Mueller has been doing against Donald Trump

00:14:48.060 for the past two years about Russia collusion. With tens of millions of dollars in budgets,

00:14:53.180 the power to subpoena and prosecute anyone who gets in his way. No, the opposition in Canada just

00:14:56.940 wants a teeny tiny baby inquiry. It's in like half an hour. Maybe, hey, Jody Wilson-Raybould,

00:15:01.100 maybe you can come by parliament for half an hour to answer some questions, not even under oath.

00:15:06.380 Maybe ask some of the other people who were lobbied. No powers to prosecute.

00:15:11.180 Just maybe, you know, extend a question period, not even extended. Well, David Lemaitre shut that

00:15:16.620 down in a hurry. Or Justin Trudeau or Gerald Buttsman, no big difference. What? Did you think the chief

00:15:21.260 legal officer of the land was going to enforce the law or something? This wound is, I think it's pretty

00:15:27.820 much cauterized already. I mean, Jody Wilson-Raybould, because she's a lawyer, has to follow some rules 1.00

00:15:33.660 of confidentiality. They call it solicitor-client privilege. It's like what you tell a priest or a

00:15:38.380 doctor. It's a secret. Justin Trudeau could waive that confidentiality, but why would he?

00:15:44.540 Why would he? Because the Globe and Mail wants him to? Stuff it. Listen, that's the price you pay to be

00:15:50.060 a cabinet minister in Justin Trudeau's cabinet. You have to do what the Montreal Mafia says. And by mafia,

00:15:55.260 I don't mean the actual Cosa Nostra. I mean, Trudeau and Butts. Jody Wilson-Raybould is an

00:16:02.220 aboriginal woman from BC. She's not a made man. She's not part of that elite McGill world.

00:16:08.860 David Lemaitre absolutely is. He's fine. He's a professor there. He's a professor at McGill.

00:16:13.660 He's fine making a compromise with Trudeau and Butts. I mean, he's a former law professor.

00:16:19.900 Being justice minister is the most important thing in the world to him,

00:16:22.700 even more than becoming a judge because he gets to appoint all the judges. Imagine how popular he

00:16:29.580 suddenly is with his friends. All of his lawyer friends, all of his professor friends, all sucking 0.98

00:16:35.660 up to him now to get appointed as judges or promoted as judges. He's a big shot now. He's a powerful

00:16:41.900 Montrealer now. And all he has to do is turn a blind eye to this one little mess. And after all,

00:16:47.820 Trudeau denied it on TV. And who amongst us would ever challenge Justin Trudeau's word?

00:16:54.220 Well, to my surprise, this guy, Wayne Long, New Brunswick liberal MP, he put out this statement

00:17:01.180 today. Let me quote a little bit of it. As politicians, we make the laws, but we do not

00:17:05.180 directly apply them to the citizenry. How the law treats individuals or corporations in our society is

00:17:09.900 not and should never be incumbent upon the political pressure they can exert upon politicians.

00:17:14.380 I believe that a full and transparent investigation is necessary to ensure that my constituents and

00:17:19.580 all Canadians can be confident in veracity of those answers. That's why I support the opposition's

00:17:24.380 motion to launch an investigation in the allegations of the Standing Committee on Justice and Human Rights.

00:17:33.100 By the way, I went to Wayne Long's website today and it's offline. I wonder who pushed that button.

00:17:40.620 I wonder how long. I mean, as I say this, he's still a liberal MP. Maybe by the time this gets

00:17:46.140 to air in an hour or so, he'll be sacked. Who knows? But look, he's a dead ender.

00:17:53.580 He'll never be put in cabinet. He's already criticized Trudeau at least two times. He stood up for the

00:17:58.140 Energy East pipeline. Give him credit for that. And he spoke out against Bill Morneau's tax favoritism.

00:18:02.940 So I think this fellow knows he has no future in the Liberal Party. He might not even be allowed

00:18:08.300 to run again. Maybe they've already told him that. And look at this. Here's another, a little bit more

00:18:12.620 timid. This is from a parliamentary secretary to Trudeau, that kooky MP, Selena Cesar Chavannes.

00:18:19.580 She tweeted as someone on the inside. Oh, sure. You're on the inside. Who knows Pugless. That's 0.61

00:18:26.380 the Twitter handle for Jody Wilson-Raybould. I can tell you that she is fierce, smart, and unapologetic. 0.94

00:18:31.740 When women speak up and out, they are always going to be labeled. Go ahead. Label away. We are not going 1.00

00:18:36.940 anywhere. I am with her. Stand up. I see you. Okay. All right. That's, that's weird.

00:18:44.540 Because she's not actually doing anything. I mean, she's already been demoted though. 0.67

00:18:47.180 Did you know she used to be Trudeau's own personal parliamentary secretary?

00:18:51.820 She was shuffled out. She has a minor, obscure position. I guess she knows her hopes are dashed

00:18:56.460 too. I mean, she lacks the courage to actually do anything or say anything clearly or call for a 0.98

00:19:00.940 solution like Wayne Long. Really, she's only good for a tweet now and then. I think she wants to still

00:19:08.380 stay on as parliamentary secretary. She likes the extra salary and the extra perks and the extra travel 0.64

00:19:14.300 and the extra staff that come with that gig. Who knows? Who knows if Justin Trudeau will abide

00:19:19.180 that such insubordination? I wonder. I think they're going to sack Wayne Long because he's a,

00:19:23.820 you know, white guy from New Brunswick. Cesar Chavanis is a two-four in the, as in she's a visible

00:19:29.580 minority and a woman. And we know that Justin Trudeau appoints based on quotas. It'll be tougher for her,

00:19:34.380 him to sack a woman of color, but he just did it to the justice minister. 1.00

00:19:37.660 Look, I think Trudeau is going to wait this one out. Here's an article in the Toronto Star,

00:19:44.780 left-wing paper, that's just starting to blame Jody Wilson-Raybould. The Toronto Star's Chantali

00:19:54.220 Baer wrote this and says that Jody Wilson-Raybould is, quote, being passive aggressive. And one could

00:20:03.500 not but ask why she has not resigned on principle from Trudeau's cabinet rather than accept a lesser

00:20:08.780 role. I'm sure it's just a coincidence though that Chantali Baer from Montreal has been a paid

00:20:18.060 scholar with the, wait for it, the Trudeau Foundation. Did you know there's journalists

00:20:24.220 writing every day on the take from the Trudeau Foundation? Now, I've got a few questions though.

00:20:29.020 I've got a few questions for other people besides Jody Wilson-Raybould. Since Trudeau is

00:20:34.300 stammering his lawyerly non-denial and David Lamedi has gone into full Schultz mode. Remember Hogan's

00:20:40.940 Heroes? Remember this? What is he doing in the uniform, General Hogan? Please. Oh, you went too far.

00:20:47.740 I must report this. It would be worth my life if I do not report this. It's only until tomorrow and he's

00:20:53.900 going to take it off again. After he steals the tank from the Panzer Division and brings it here into 0.71

00:21:01.100 the battle. Oh, I see nothing. I was not here. I did not even get up this morning.

00:21:09.340 That's David Lamedi, I think. Well, here's a small suggestion. If Trudeau and his Sergeant Schultz,

00:21:16.700 David Lamedi, are silent and they're keeping Jody Wilson-Raybould gagged,

00:21:21.020 I don't know, maybe we could get on the record a comment from one of the dozens of other senior

00:21:27.820 liberals who were lobbied by the enraged head of SNC-Lavalin over the past year or so.

00:21:33.740 I showed you some of the names before from the lobbyist registry. Weird names. I think it's

00:21:37.580 really weird. For example, the Canadian ambassador to the United States, David McNaughton,

00:21:43.020 was repeatedly lobbied. As you can see here just, for example, twice in a period of just three weeks.

00:21:47.980 Um, boy, who knows he, who knew he had the time? I thought he was busy with NAFTA.

00:21:53.500 No, he made time. But why, why, why, why? What did SNC-Lavalin say to him? And the fact that there was

00:22:00.460 a follow-up meeting, I mean, you have meetings and then the follow-up meeting, that surely implies that

00:22:06.620 McNaughton had promised to make some inquiry or pass on some pressure and was reporting back to his

00:22:13.580 boss? That's my guess. Maybe he should tell us? I mean, the ambassador? What did SNC-Lavalin say to

00:22:24.620 Bill Morneau? Do you see that there on September 18th? Morneau himself was in the meeting with his

00:22:32.540 chief of staff. That's pretty sure. So what did Morneau say in reply? Because Ben Chin had several

00:22:36.780 meetings, if I recall. That's his chief of staff. So what did, did Morneau talk to Wilson-Raybould,

00:22:42.860 one cabinet minister to another? Lots of cabinet ministers were lobbied. For example,

00:22:46.620 Jim Carr, the former energy minister, the international trade minister. He had his whole

00:22:53.660 team there. Whole team, looks like. Same with Francois-Philippe Champagne, the fellow Quebecer who

00:23:02.040 is now the infrastructure minister. Plenty of parliamentary secretaries had meetings too. The execrable

00:23:08.580 Omar al-Gabra, for example. And I'm not even going to get into the chiefs of staff or

00:23:12.700 chiefs of policy for minister, who probably did the real heavy lifting here for their elected

00:23:16.740 bosses. And I came across this one from 18 months ago. Well, would you look at this? SNC-Lavalin

00:23:25.580 had a private lobbying meeting with David Lamedi himself, the new justice minister. They met with

00:23:35.220 him in private to lobby him. And now he's saying he won't investigate them? Are they? Now he's saying

00:23:44.260 he'll take Trudeau's TV word for it. Everything's fine. He won't recuse himself. He won't bring an

00:23:50.640 outside counsel. Everything's fine, people. Yeah. The Libranos are back.

00:23:58.340 I miss Stephen Harper. Stay with us for more.

00:24:05.340 For me, the hijab is not something that women should be wearing. Because it does have at some point some 1.00

00:24:25.340 significance about the oppression of the women and the fact that they have to cover themselves. 0.76

00:24:32.340 And for me, it's not in my values.

00:24:37.340 Well, that is Isabel Charest, Quebec's minister for the status of women, standing next to Francois Legault,

00:24:44.340 the premier of Quebec. They're with the Coalition Avenir Quebec, a new party that wasn't even around a decade ago,

00:24:51.340 that whooped the liberals. And as part of their campaign platform, not only did they call for a

00:24:56.340 reduction in immigration to Quebec, a modest reduction of 20 percent, but a reduction at all.

00:25:02.340 And look at that. The minister for women's rights is actually talking about women's rights.

00:25:08.340 Well, joining us now via Skype to talk about this is a woman who's usually right. And she's from Quebec. 0.97

00:25:14.340 From Quebec, our friend, Barbara Kaye. Hey, Barbara, how you doing?

00:25:17.340 I'm fine, Ezra. How are you?

00:25:19.340 I am fine. And I should tell you, I watched that little clip there and I read the newspaper coverage in the Quebec media.

00:25:26.340 And I know she walked it back very slightly. She just, if I'm not mistaken, she said, well, maybe her phrasing wasn't perfect.

00:25:33.340 But the idea that a woman would say the hijab, and she was specifically talking about the hijab, not the full face obscuring the cam,

00:25:42.340 offends her belief in freedom. And she wasn't immediately devoured by all the mean girls on Twitter and in the CBC and social media, 0.92

00:25:51.340 tells me that Quebec is a little bit more grown up above these conversations than the rest of the country.

00:25:57.340 Well, it certainly tells you that Quebec is much less politically correct than, you know, the rest of Canada knows what you're allowed to say

00:26:06.340 and what you're not allowed to say. But Quebec women didn't get the message. 1.00

00:26:09.340 They don't, they have very, Quebec is an extremely feminist province. I don't know if anybody noticed, 0.99

00:26:16.340 but they had lots of women politicians long before it was very common in the rest of Canada. 1.00

00:26:22.340 They teach feminism. I mean, they've always had a very strong, and that's because of the reaction against the Catholic Church so many years ago

00:26:33.340 in the Quiet Revolution. The Catholic Church was not seen as very friendly to women.

00:26:38.340 And the response when the, when Quebec became far more secular or very secular was to renounce a lot of the attitudes that came with a very strong clergy, clerical domination of society.

00:26:56.340 So they were, they were really ahead of the curve on feminism and, and not shy at all about speaking their minds regarding symbols that they see as oppressive,

00:27:07.340 which many, many Canadians, many people in the West also see it as oppressive to women, but they don't dare open their mouth about it. 1.00

00:27:15.340 I agree with most of what you said there, but I would point out in contrast that Ontario, which certainly regards itself as just as woke.

00:27:25.340 I mean, Quebec had Pauline Marois, the female premier. 0.96

00:27:30.340 Well, Ontario had Kathleen Wynne, who wasn't just feminist. She was a lesbian activist. 1.00

00:27:35.340 And, you know, you could say she went just as far.

00:27:39.340 She certainly despises the Catholic Church just as much as anyone in Quebec.

00:27:43.340 But look at this picture of her sitting at the back of a mosque wearing a hijab. 0.53

00:27:48.340 She was going in some sort of solidarity event.

00:27:51.340 And, and this proud feminist was sitting at the back of a mosque because she was unclean. 1.00

00:27:59.340 She was Haram. 0.96

00:28:00.340 So she would allow herself to be humiliated.

00:28:03.340 And so I guess what I'm saying is that feminism you're talking about, the anti-Catholicism you're talking about.

00:28:09.340 I believe that's just as strong in other parts of the country, but that feminism immediately collapses into Islamophilia in other parts. 1.00

00:28:19.340 How come it hasn't done so in Quebec?

00:28:22.340 I don't think that Quebecers got the, they haven't got the total message because they're, they're kind of segregated from a lot of the media and a lot of the, even the intellectual traditions of the universities in the rest of the world or the rest of the West.

00:28:41.340 They kind of go their own way. They're, they're never big on multiculturalism. This intersectionality thing, just, I don't hear about it at all here. It's just not a thing.

00:28:52.340 Um, so they have their own style of thinking. And don't forget too, that Quebec intellectuals are much more influenced by, uh, intellectuals in France than they are, uh, intellectuals from Berkeley, say.

00:29:06.340 So, uh, there, there are different traditions here and, uh, multiculturalism was never a big deal here or never something to be sought after. Uh, so that accounts for some of it.

00:29:19.340 Let me throw another theory at you. And then I want to go to an opinion poll, Barbara, I have in front of me, uh, a very important Angus Reid poll from just two months ago about Quebec.

00:29:28.340 So I'll get to that in a moment, but can I put a counter theory to you? I, again, I don't disagree with what you've said, but I put it to you that Quebec, depending on your definitions, can argue, can arguably be called the first ethnic nationalist.

00:29:46.340 I won't say alt-right, but an ethno-nationalism. The Quebecois, the Sovereignty Association, the Pure Land Quebecers, we must keep our culture, our language amongst a sea of, uh, others.

00:30:01.340 I put it to you that for centuries, and certainly since the Parti Quebecois and the Bloc Quebecois came along, Quebecers have been told it's okay to celebrate your nationalism.

00:30:16.340 It's okay to celebrate your history, your culture, your language, and even if they don't practice it, your religion.

00:30:24.340 And so when hundreds of thousands of Muslim migrants come in, um, they don't immediately say, well, we, we're just an empty slate, we're just an empty hotel room and a zip code, and we'll, we'll immediately roll with whatever, you know, multi-culti holiday of the week it is. 1.00

00:30:42.440 They're saying, no, we actually are proud Quebecers. I think there's an ethnic pride in Quebec that is much stronger than anywhere else in the country, and it is accepted by the media class as somehow being not racist, whereas anyone else who would show any ethnic pride is immediately deemed racist.

00:31:00.440 So that's my theory. What do you make of that?

00:31:04.440 Well, I know there's no question about it. They, they are, uh, quite comfortable with their, uh, own heritage, their own, their own, uh, ethnic identity. They don't have white guilt. They don't, uh, uh, they don't, they don't hate America, and they don't hate themselves. They, they, uh, as I say, they're, they're walking to a beat of a different drum.

00:31:24.440 And, and don't forget that outside of Montreal, um, outside of Montreal, Quebecers are the only, uh, probably jurisdiction in the, in the, all of North America where you have an ethnically homogeneous group of people, like six million people, who are still not multicultural at all.

00:31:48.440 Montreal is very much multicultural, but, uh, the rest of Quebec is not. And they don't have that whole set. They, they're not, they're not in the flow of progressivism or, or what it means, or intersectionality or any of that stuff. It means that's, that doesn't mean anything to them.

00:32:06.440 I, I, I, I find that very interesting. And I think the most interesting part of it is watching how Justin Trudeau, who himself is technically from Montreal, although I, I don't think he, in his bones as a Quebecer, I think he's sort of a global citizen, um, and he probably is more at home in Ontario, frankly.

00:32:27.620 Or at least he's, he's, he's in the, in the cosmopolitan parts of Montreal. It's funny to me how he can abide, um, these things in his home province, but when he's in Ottawa, he speaks with a great fury on behalf of hijabs and Islam and, and all these things. I find it interesting. Let's go to the poll.

00:32:47.440 I mentioned a poll from Angus Reid, and this, this is very telling. Angus Reid did a survey on the Coalition Avenue near Quebec's, a proposal to ban religious symbols from public sector workers. So this is not a ban of hijabs or niqabs on the street. As for example, France has, they banned the full face obscuring niqab anywhere. So this is just for people, uh, you know, a nurse in a hospital or someone at the motor vehicles.

00:33:16.100 And according to this survey, and we'll put it up here on the screen, depending on the particular religious, religious object, let me just read the exact question. Please indicate whether you think public employees be, um, should be allowed to wear each of these religious symbols while on the job. Uh, so this is all respondents, um, including Quebec residents.

00:33:37.940 So this is nationwide here. And I'll get to the Quebec numbers a bit later. 77% of Canadians want the burka band. 75% want the niqab band. And I put it to you that there's really little difference.

00:33:53.800 So this is extremely popular, not just in Quebec, but across the country. And there's one more chart. I'll, I'll ask you, I'll show you. And this is just of Quebecers now. And then I'll, I'll bring you right back in, Barbara.

00:34:07.280 The new government of Quebec has promised to ban public employees in positions of authority from wearing religious symbols at work. Do you support or oppose this ban?

00:34:16.880 Now this Barbara is just asked of Quebecers. 43% strongly support the ban. Another 23% support it somewhat. So that's a total of 66% as opposed to just, um, 16% who oppose it and 12% who oppose it strongly. So it's two to one support. Uh, and it's a very strong support in Quebec.

00:34:42.380 Sorry, it's a lot of numbers I was throwing at you. But I guess the takeaway here is not only is this extremely popular in Quebec, but this would be popular in every single province in the country.

00:34:52.440 Well, I, I, I know that. I mean, I, I know that, uh, for example, the niqab face cover has always been strongly opposed throughout Canada. Uh, but you know, the media, uh, disregard that. They, they, uh, they, they are strongly for it or not for it, but they're strongly for the right, uh, to wear it. 0.98

00:35:11.400 But I, as far as I know, I'm one of the very few journalists that has come out always for years strongly against the niqab in public service. 1.00

00:35:20.180 I think it's appalling, uh, that people should be allowed to cover their faces in, in the public service, uh, since you don't have any choice with whom you deal in the public service.

00:35:29.700 So, um, I think that's very bad. I, I am sympathetic to women who wear the hijab that want to be able to wear it in their daily life.

00:35:39.680 I get that. I have no problem with it, seeing it or interacting with women wearing it. It, it, it's meaningless to me, but I do understand that in, in places of authority, um, judges say, uh, doctors, I don't know. 0.96

00:35:55.600 I don't know who they considered. There's a case to be made. I, I, I don't say I'm totally on the side of, of those who think it shouldn't ever be in the public service.

00:36:05.140 I don't think wearing a little kippah, really, uh, somebody who, who is, um, a school teacher or, uh, um, a doctor. I don't see how that's harmful.

00:36:16.680 I can see how judges, uh, that would be something in law courts. I can see where that could be intimidating, uh, to somebody who's from another, you know, they might believe, even though the judge might be totally impartial, but they, they might have feelings about that and they shouldn't have to worry about such feelings.

00:36:34.540 So, you know, a bit of a mixed bag there. Yeah. Uh, well, here's, what's interesting to me. I, it is so clear to me that the 2019 federal election, obviously we're less than a year away from that. Um, open borders immigration is going to be a major campaign issue. I don't think Trudeau and Amin Hassan wanted it to be, but I think it is becoming that way partly because of the open border between Quebec and New York, partly because of the homeless crisis this has caused in Ontario.

00:37:04.540 Um, the success of the Quebec party that we talked about, I think is part of this. And I think that the liberals are going full speed ahead. They really are replicating what Angela Merkel did. Um, they're calling for 340,000 migrants next year, 40% of whom will not be economic class immigrants. So I think it's going to be an issue.

00:37:26.360 I know from another Angus Reid poll that only about 5% of Canadians support increasing immigration that high, only 5%, Barbara. So I think you're having this extreme immigration agenda that is disproportionately Muslim. It's just a fact. And at the same time, you're demonizing critics as Islamophobic, bigoted, racist. They're even demonizing Doug Ford's provincial cabinet ministers as un-Canadian for not going along with this.

00:37:55.460 I think we're in for a heck of a fight. And, uh, I just don't know if Quebec is going to have a, a, a different narrative than the rest of us. Maybe Trudeau is not going to criticize anyone in all fronts say, but in English, he's going to call us all bigots. How do you think that's going to go down?

00:38:12.300 I, you know, I'm not, I try not to make too many predictions cause I have, I hate having to eat my words. I think, I think immigration is a big issue for a lot of people. Uh, the problem for the conservative party is that the liberals are always going to paint any criticism of immigration as you're a racist. Like, I mean, it's just, it's, it's, it's very hard to avoid that, um, accusation.

00:38:38.300 And it's very frustrating to anybody. I know myself when I write, uh, about immigration, I have to be so careful, uh, because for me, it's, it's about the numbers. We just don't have the infrastructure and we don't have the capacity.

00:38:51.660 I don't even think we have the, I don't think we know what our job needs are even. And of course, a lot of those immigrants coming, uh, are the ones that are working, but a whole lot of others are not. They're the, the, you know, the grandparents and the sisters and the brothers and the children. 1.00

00:39:07.660 So it's, it's a tremendous, uh, it's a tremendous burden on the system. And, um, uh, and there's no time for the generations to catch up and, and relieve the burden because, uh, when the next generation comes and they're all integrated, then there's another wave of, of immigration. 0.98

00:39:25.060 So, uh, you have to keep expanding services, but they can never keep up with the rate. Uh, you know, the hospitals are overcrowded, but you can't keep building hospitals at that pace.

00:39:34.340 So it is a problem and the conservatives are going to have a serious problem countering this narrative about Islamophobia, racism. Uh, it's, it's, it's, it's just a mantra. I don't know how it's going to, uh, I think, I think they have to take the bull by the horns.

00:39:50.580 I think they have to sort of punch back and say, stop calling us racist. That's wrong, you know, and just, uh, take the offensive on that.

00:39:57.880 Well, I mean, the success of Francois Legault and the, the CAC party in Quebec shows it's possible, uh, to win on, and, and they're not saying stop immigration.

00:40:06.700 They're not saying ban Muslims. They're saying folks slow down a bit here. Let's reduce it by 20% and let's keep this, uh, religious symbol out of the public sector. 0.99

00:40:15.260 I think that's an eminent, really reasonable point of view. And at one, I, yeah, I, I agree with you, Ezra.

00:40:20.040 And the one thing that might happen is that, uh, Maxine Bernier's party, although it's very tiny and very just, uh, nascent, if, if he starts getting a lot of support from people and if the conservatives see that really, uh, there's a significant number of votes that are going to him because he's honest about immigration.

00:40:40.840 Uh, it may encourage them to, uh, take back that, you know, to, to, to appropriate his message a little more in order to keep those votes on side.

00:40:51.100 And I'd be perfectly happy for that to happen because I'd like to see the, you know, the conservatives, uh, gain traction.

00:40:56.700 Uh, but yeah, they, they really have to go on offense here.

00:41:00.860 I think these issues are linked. I think, yeah, I think mass migration without, uh, vetting for cultural fit and without absorption and the hijab. 0.72

00:41:10.540 I really think they're linked. You know, Barbara, let me end with a little anecdote. You know, the last conversation I had with Andrew Scheer, he doesn't talk to the rebel anymore.

00:41:18.220 You know, the last conversation we ever had was he was on this very show and I asked him about immigration and he did not like my questions.

00:41:27.300 I put the same question to him five times and he evaded it five times. And because he wasn't on Skype, he couldn't just push the off button.

00:41:37.540 He was literally sitting next to me here. And I said, uh, and I, and I asked him, do you have any, you know, putting aside security concerns, which is something very acute.

00:41:48.520 Do you have any proposal for a cultural fit? He wouldn't answer it. Andrew Scheer will not answer two questions about immigration.

00:41:57.420 The absolute number of immigrants. He, note, he has never criticized Trudeau or Hassan for their huge numbers. He has never said he's opposed to increasing numbers and he won't talk about the quantity.

00:42:09.080 He won't talk about the quality either. He will not talk about cultural fit. The, the most I've seen him say is we need to have better processing and an orderly flow.

00:42:18.620 So I think that he has yet to cross that Rubicon you talk about. He recently had an epiphany on global warming and he no longer says he wants to follow the UN.

00:42:28.540 He's still being a me too mini me of Trudeau on immigration. And I think you're right. I think Maxime Bernier might eat his lunch on that. Last word to you, Barbara.

00:42:37.820 Well, I, I'm just, uh, looking forward to the campaign coming up because I think it is going to be very interesting. And I do think migration, uh, and this, by the way, this global pact on migration, which I think is very insidious. Uh, you know, I, I hope these things do come up for debate because, uh, we might see something energetic happen, uh, if we can get some movement on the part of the conservatives to, uh, to own that issue a little bit more.

00:43:01.780 I'd love to see that happen. Uh, and I do think Quebec may be showing us the way, uh, you know, Quebec's not always right, but when they are right, they're often very, to me, they seem very courageous because they'll, they'll buck trends.

00:43:13.340 They don't even know how courageous they are, uh, because they, they kind of, uh, don't realize how, how politically correct the rest of us are. So.

00:43:21.900 Very interesting. Well, listen, I'm always grateful for your time. Time flies with you. I want to share one. Give me 30 seconds to share one more thing. You know, we had Yasmin Mohamed on the show the other day.

00:43:30.540 Oh, she's great. Yeah, she's great. She's a former Muslim who was forced to wear, uh, face obscuring veils. 0.99

00:43:36.820 Actually, she was married to an Al Qaeda activist, if you can believe it. She said to me, she's not for banning, she's not for telling women to take off the hijab because she's worried that doing so could sentence them to death.

00:43:51.500 So she says she's, she supports any woman who would take the hijab off, but she would never pressure a woman to take it off because she doesn't know what violence that woman would face.

00:44:03.360 I thought that was a terrifying thing to, to hear her say. And obviously it comes from someone who has lived inside that world and would be terrified that if I were free, I would be perhaps murdered by a father or a brother.

00:44:19.980 So I just want to leave that anecdote with you. It changed my thinking on that. That's why we need the government to ban it because a woman herself might not be in a position to stand up to the tyrants in her small, in her small world.

00:44:30.000 Yeah. It's a possibility.

00:44:33.040 All right. Well, Barbara, thanks for talking with these very controversial subjects with me. You're one of my favorite people to talk with them because you're not afraid. And I wish more people were like you.

00:44:41.700 Thanks, Ezra.

00:44:42.420 All right. There you have it. Barbara Kaye, one of our favorite people, National Post columnist. Stay with us. More ahead on The Rebel.

00:44:47.380 Hey, welcome back on my monologue Friday about Jagmeet Singh asking the election's watchdog to investigate slanderous ads targeting him.

00:45:06.400 Robert writes,

00:45:06.980 Yeah, you know, I think that the media looked at Jagmeet Singh and thought, he's so handsome, he's such a sharp dresser, and he's got that beautiful, colorful turban.

00:45:25.100 And that's all our checkboxes of what a progressive man looks like. And of course, he had strong ties to the Sikh community who came out en masse. And that's just not enough. That's a good add-on to other stuff. But that's not enough in itself.

00:45:40.280 And my observations of Jagmeet Singh are that he is, you know, he's not in the thick of the debate. I think it's probably because he's not an MP yet. When I see him on interviews, he doesn't sound well briefed on things. And, you know, I know he's Sikh and everything, and I think that's fine.

00:45:59.460 But I think he's obsessed with Sikh separatism. Like, he goes to rallies and stuff for it around the world, even. And that's a project, but that's not the project of someone who wants to be the Prime Minister of Canada. I think it's a distraction for him. I don't know. What do you think about that? I just, I don't think he's going to do well at all. I think for sure he's going to lose this by-election in Burnaby. I might need my words on that, but I think he's going to come in maybe third.

00:46:25.940 And I think the NDP have a real question. Do they want to go into an election with him? Because it was only, it was only the collapse of that NDP vote that gave Trudeau his majority. Yeah, I share your worries on that.

00:46:40.140 Betty writes, the similarities between Trudeau and Singh are striking. Neither one of them will answer legitimate questions that they're asked.

00:46:47.340 Yes, there are some similarities. Both are clothed as horses. Both are masters of the selfie. Both are in love with the mirror.

00:46:55.940 But there's an extremely important difference. Trudeau is a household name. And there's a resonance there because his father was Prime Minister. And so a lot of boomers have fond, sentimental memories.

00:47:09.880 They're probably not thinking of Pierre Trudeau himself as a Prime Minister. They're probably thinking of their own youth when Trudeau was Prime Minister.

00:47:18.280 So if you're, if you're 65 years old now, and you think of Pierre Trudeau, well, maybe you were 25 years old. And so your fond memories of, oh, when I was a kid, when I was 25 and carefree.

00:47:32.240 So they have that sentimentality, that nostalgia of their own youth. And the name Trudeau is a household name.

00:47:39.240 Jagmeet Singh is none of those things. So I think he's going to get his clock cleaned by Trudeau. And that's not good for those of us on the right.

00:47:46.380 On my interview with Andrew Lawton about Trudeau's SNC-Lavalin scandal, Paul writes,

00:47:52.820 One liberal actually does their job and they get fired. Let that sink in. The media party will pretend to do their job for a while and let it go.

00:47:59.720 Yeah, it's interesting. I mean, I showed you earlier today that the Globe and Mail have this full-on propaganda piece for SNC-Lavalin.

00:48:06.820 That was in December. So I am a little surprised and a little impressed that they let Bob Fyfe go on this.

00:48:14.700 He seems to be still like a tiger on the issue.

00:48:18.620 Evan Solomon was pretty good, too.

00:48:20.920 You can see other media starting to play defense for the PMO, CBC, obviously.

00:48:26.680 Toronto Star 2, Global TV 2.

00:48:29.280 I think they're going to brazen it out. I think they're going to tough it out.

00:48:35.940 I just think that the only way you shame someone from office is if they feel shame.

00:48:42.840 And I don't know if Trudeau feels shame. And if he does, I don't think he shows it.

00:48:46.520 Yeah, I think they're going to ride it out.

00:48:49.340 Well, that's it for today's show.

00:48:51.080 It'll be interesting if Wayne Long survives, though. I'll tell you that.

00:48:55.280 I don't think Trudeau, he's so thin-skinned, I don't think Trudeau will keep Wayne Long in the caucus

00:49:02.180 after he says he wants an investigation. I just don't think so.

00:49:05.560 We'll see. That's going to come to a head pretty quick.

00:49:08.720 Until tomorrow, folks, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, you at home,

00:49:12.740 good night. Keep fighting for freedom.

00:49:21.080 We'll see you next time.

Rebel News Podcast - February 12, 2019

SNC-Lavalin UPDATE： Unanswered questions about corrupt Quebec firm

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