Rebel News Podcast - SPECIAL! Jack Buckby looks back on his reports from London, Paris and Warsaw

00:00:00.000 Tonight, the heart of the rebel is here in Canada, but our hands and arms are around the world.

00:00:05.940 Tonight, we sit down with our reporter in London.

00:00:09.720 It's December 27th, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.

00:00:17.960 Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?

00:00:21.740 There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.

00:00:25.460 You come here once a year with a sign, and you feel morally superior.

00:00:28.440 The only thing I have to say to the government about why I publish it is because it's my bloody right to do so.

00:00:39.420 Welcome back.

00:00:40.260 Well, as you know, our world headquarters are here in Toronto, and I say that almost every day.

00:00:44.940 And I say it with a bit of a chuckle because it's a grandiose thing for a little company to say, but it just happens to be true.

00:00:51.420 Not only do we send our reporters on adventures, whether it was to, for example, the Marrakesh United Nations Conference on Global Migration,

00:01:02.740 or sending David Menzies down to Mexico to track the migrant caravan.

00:01:08.020 Well, we have permanent staff around the world, too.

00:01:11.340 We've got a whole bunch in Los Angeles.

00:01:13.900 We've got Kurt Schlichter, Amanda Head, Ben Davies.

00:01:17.320 We've got Rob Shimshock in Washington, D.C.

00:01:19.560 And we have a very lively presence in the United Kingdom, too.

00:01:24.860 And I'm delighted to spend the course of the next half hour with you with Jack Buckby, our reporter on the scene in London, England.

00:01:32.980 Nice to see you again, Jack.

00:01:34.880 Cheers, Ezra, for having me.

00:01:35.980 Well, thank you.

00:01:37.060 And our goal today is to go over what you think were the three most exciting stories that you covered in 2018.

00:01:44.420 And then to look ahead for 2019, talk about what you think the big stories are.

00:01:49.740 And I think I'm just going to go ahead and make a prediction that Brexit is going to be your answer.

00:01:54.300 But we'll save that discussion for a few minutes from now.

00:01:58.560 I want to talk about some of your journalism.

00:02:03.200 Being in London, it's an exciting city.

00:02:05.600 It's a world capital.

00:02:07.160 It's a great city of the world.

00:02:09.640 There's a lot going on there.

00:02:10.920 It's also a quick hop, skip, and a jump to things on the continent.

00:02:14.260 So you've really covered some interesting things.

00:02:16.360 I want to start with Anjum Chowdhury.

00:02:22.000 And he's a name that's very famous in the United Kingdom.

00:02:24.460 He's not quite as well known here in North America.

00:02:27.040 But I think people over here recognize him because he's such an irritating guy who was so ubiquitous in the media.

00:02:33.060 Why don't you tell us a little bit about Anjum Chowdhury?

00:02:35.880 Refresh our memory about who he is.

00:02:38.220 I interviewed him once, believe it or not.

00:02:40.300 And then tell us about your campaign to keep him in jail.

00:02:44.900 Sorry, go ahead.

00:02:45.420 I interrupted you.

00:02:46.780 No, I was just amazed that you've interviewed him.

00:02:48.600 I didn't know that.

00:02:49.880 It's quite impressive.

00:02:50.600 Well, I should tell you, give me just a second on that.

00:02:53.640 And he was via Skype.

00:02:54.920 I wasn't in person with him.

00:02:56.460 And, you know, sometimes you do a sound check, one, two, three, testing, one, two, three.

00:03:00.000 That's what you do on a microphone.

00:03:01.700 He's got this move.

00:03:02.780 And he did it on me where he, instead of saying testing, one, two, three, he said, nine, nine, one, one, seven, seven.

00:03:10.640 That's the British equivalent of 9-11.

00:03:13.100 So even in his sound check, he's an ISIS sympathizer.

00:03:17.720 It was sort of shocking.

00:03:19.260 I had to handle myself carefully because I didn't want to just attack him in the interview.

00:03:22.620 I wanted to pull out statements about him, about what he would do to Queen Elizabeth.

00:03:27.720 He'd put her in a hijab or, you know, sorry, I don't mean to distract, but I did have an interaction with him.

00:03:34.440 Enough from me, Jack.

00:03:35.580 Tell me about what Anjum Chowdhury is being up to lately and then your campaign, and then we'll show a clip from that campaign.

00:03:44.060 Yeah, I mean, as you just say, he's a really, really terrible man.

00:03:47.520 I mean, so he was arrested for incitement to encouraging people to join and support ISIS, basically.

00:03:56.120 So, you know, you could say he's a convicted terrorist.

00:03:58.660 He could be more safe and say he's a supporter of terrorists. 0.77

00:04:02.840 Dangerous man.

00:04:04.060 And he's been involved in this kind of activity for many years.

00:04:06.880 Now, many people like to use the excuse for this freedom of speech.

00:04:10.700 They say, well, you're right wing, Jack.

00:04:12.220 You're conservative, Jack.

00:04:13.280 You're in favor of freedom of speech, but not for Anjum Chowdhury.

00:04:16.720 Well, hang on a minute.

00:04:18.620 I mean, this guy's done more than just said a few mean things.

00:04:21.660 His own followers have gone on to murder people on the streets of London.

00:04:26.300 Lee Rigby being one of the victims of that.

00:04:28.540 This guy's encouraging other people to go out and do the dirty work for him.

00:04:32.180 That's what he does.

00:04:32.960 And it's what he's been very good at for many years.

00:04:35.100 It finally caught up with him.

00:04:36.600 He was sent to prison, but he was released after serving only half his sentence.

00:04:40.640 So that's why we started the jail Anjum campaign. 0.85

00:04:42.760 And we went out on the streets with the big billboard.

00:04:45.860 We had the Great Petition.

00:04:47.500 I even went to 10 Downing Street with it.

00:04:49.000 And the response was great, but that was expected.

00:04:51.880 People are terrified of this man.

00:04:53.360 And honestly, we should be.

00:04:55.100 This guy's back on our streets.

00:04:56.280 He's living taxpayer funded in a place in London, which probably most people couldn't afford to even live in.

00:05:03.780 It's in Camden, which is a fairly sort of costly and trendy place to live.

00:05:07.960 Yeah, and of course he has around-the-clock police protection.

00:05:12.460 The idea that he gets police protection is so absurd that the public needs to be protected from him.

00:05:17.640 My interactions with him were in his role as a propagandist because he's eloquent in English.

00:05:23.820 He's a lawyer by profession.

00:05:26.780 He used to be very secular.

00:05:31.460 He used to womanize and drink.

00:05:33.860 And then he found the jihad.

00:05:36.020 But he has kept all of his modern, secular, Western skills.

00:05:40.580 He really is silver-tongued.

00:05:42.620 So he woos the English language media. 0.92

00:05:45.540 But when he's talking to his own community, he uses those same persuasion skills to actually weaponize ordinary British Muslims and turn them into terrorists. 0.94

00:05:54.840 He actually is incredibly effective as an evil man. 0.89

00:06:00.280 I think he's terrifying, although charming.

00:06:04.300 Yeah, absolutely.

00:06:05.100 And as I say, the man behind the people that go out and kill people is just as terrifying as the people standing there with bloodied hands and knives, you know.

00:06:13.600 And the guy is extremely dangerous.

00:06:16.680 And the fact that, you know, people say, well, the government, you know, they can't step in.

00:06:21.120 He served his time because technically in the UK, you only serve half your time when you're sentenced to prison.

00:06:26.820 And my response to that is, well, maybe this is the sign that the government needs to realize that the system doesn't work.

00:06:34.460 Maybe this is what they should, you know, they should be learning from this and thinking, well, how can we change this so that when people are sentenced to prison, they serve that full sentence.

00:06:42.800 And, hey, maybe we should also be considering the sentencing.

00:06:46.060 Because if this guy was sentenced to only five years and he's going to be back out on our streets encouraging more people to go out and kill us.

00:06:51.860 I mean, maybe five years.

00:06:53.100 Well, definitely five years ain't enough.

00:06:54.940 Yeah.

00:06:55.240 All right.

00:06:55.620 Well, here's a clip from some of your work on Jail Anjum.

00:06:58.120 It wasn't just one video.

00:06:59.600 It was a whole series of videos as part of the campaign.

00:07:01.920 Let's take a look at those now.

00:07:02.780 Islamist hate preacher, extremist and convicted terrorist supporter Anjum Chowdhury is due to be released from prison imminently.

00:07:10.280 He was sentenced to five years, but he's been released after serving only two and a half.

00:07:14.640 You thought that was wrong.

00:07:15.920 I thought that was wrong.

00:07:16.880 And that's why 11,000 of you, more than 11,000 of you, signed this petition to Jail Anjum.

00:07:22.280 That's why we started the JailAnjum.com campaign.

00:07:25.060 And I'm here at Downing Street today to tell the government that we think he's dangerous and should be put back behind bars.

00:07:31.400 You might remember we also commissioned a public opinion poll from reputable opinion polling company, OnePoll, who worked with Sky and ITV.

00:07:39.180 I have those results with me here today.

00:07:40.960 I'm handing it into the government to tell them that we think he's dangerous.

00:07:44.140 We want our streets to be safe and we think he should serve his full sentence at least.

00:07:49.080 Let's go.

00:07:50.600 So we went through the gates, the security checks of 10 Downing Street.

00:07:54.280 We walked up and knocked on that historic front door.

00:07:57.240 The front door of a home that's seen some of the greatest historic British Prime Ministers.

00:08:01.960 And in recent years, some not so great British Prime Ministers.

00:08:05.020 And I handed them a petition that more than 11,000 of you signed saying that you want Anjum Chowdhury to serve his full prison sentence at least.

00:08:13.240 We did this because of you.

00:08:15.160 Jack, I have to tell you, seeing you approach that historic residence, that office, 10 Downing Street, so well known, that's the equivalent of 24 Sussex Drive in Canada or the White House in Washington.

00:08:31.560 That's really the equivalent of the White House, isn't it?

00:08:34.280 Yeah, absolutely.

00:08:35.220 And to be honest, I never realized you could just go up to the door like that.

00:08:38.460 But if you have a petition, it's your right.

00:08:40.600 I mean, it's like the White House is the people's house. 0.83

00:08:42.420 I mean, she's there to serve us, so they let us in.

00:08:46.500 I kind of suspected, actually, that maybe once they learned it was us, Rebel Media, we can't let these people in.

00:08:52.160 But no, they let us in.

00:08:53.500 We got the petition in.

00:08:54.380 We handed it in.

00:08:55.560 And it was an amazing thing to do, really amazing thing to do.

00:08:58.620 Well, it looks very exciting.

00:09:00.580 And it's confirmation.

00:09:01.780 I mean, we do a lot of petitions.

00:09:03.500 And sometimes people say, why am I signing this?

00:09:05.780 It's just some email thing.

00:09:07.460 And obviously, when people give us their email address, we talk to them by email.

00:09:12.120 But to actually see 11,000 names delivered to 10 Downing Street, I got to say, that's a proud feeling.

00:09:18.980 I felt great about it watching you.

00:09:20.740 You must have been excited.

00:09:22.000 Have you ever been to 10 Downing Street before?

00:09:24.780 No, never.

00:09:25.840 Someone like me definitely never let a conservative in Downing Street anytime soon.

00:09:32.320 No, it was an amazing, amazing experience.

00:09:34.380 It really was.

00:09:35.020 And just the very fact that I was doing it on behalf of the people that put their faith in us was what was so great about it.

00:09:41.020 Yeah, that's for sure.

00:09:42.200 You weren't just going there on your own behalf.

00:09:43.720 You had a lot of names in your hand.

00:09:46.300 Now, you mentioned the poll.

00:09:48.200 If I recall, the name of the company is OnePoll.

00:09:50.360 And, you know, there's a lot of people who claim to be pollsters, and I'm sure there are good ones.

00:09:55.040 But this is a pollster who does work for tier one legacy media journalists.

00:10:00.840 So, and the reason I mention that is because, you know, this is a real, legit, reputable pollster.

00:10:10.180 What were the stats?

00:10:11.440 Do you remember offhand what the numbers were?

00:10:14.080 I think we got it on the screen here.

00:10:16.460 Yeah, I can't remember, but it was a significant majority.

00:10:19.220 We got it here on the screen.

00:10:21.300 How much do you agree or disagree with the decision to release Annam Chowdhury from prison early?

00:10:27.040 And strongly agree was 4.65%.

00:10:30.420 Somewhat agree is 7.75%.

00:10:34.620 So the people who agree, if you total those up, that's about 12%, 12.5%.

00:10:41.240 And those who say disagree, somewhat disagree, 17%, and strongly disagree, 50.9%.

00:10:51.440 So I'm just going to add up the somewhat disagrees and the strongly disagrees.

00:10:55.700 And you're looking at 67%.

00:10:59.280 I wish it was a little higher, but 67% of Brits saying they disagree with releasing him.

00:11:06.080 I think that's a good sign that Britain still cares.

00:11:09.260 Yeah, I think so.

00:11:10.120 And what we've also got to remember is actually a lot of people tune out of the news,

00:11:13.860 because why would they want to listen to the news, especially these days with politicians constantly arguing and talking in language they don't understand?

00:11:20.640 And honestly, a lot of people actually haven't heard of him.

00:11:23.180 So, you know, I mean, I think we see that in this poll.

00:11:25.460 If everybody knew exactly who this man was, pretty much everyone would be against it.

00:11:29.960 But you've also got to remember there's a contingent of far-left activists, far-left extremists,

00:11:34.900 Islamist extremists here in the UK that, of course, are not going to want Annam Chowdhury back in prison.

00:11:41.420 And again, that's represented there in the poll.

00:11:43.000 Well, let me ask you one more question about that, because here in Canada, we have a case.

00:11:48.640 It's not quite the same, but there's an al-Qaeda terrorist named Omar Khadr, who actually committed a murder himself.

00:11:57.000 He murdered a U.S. Army medic with a grenade.

00:11:59.920 He blinded another U.S. Special Forces soldier in one eye.

00:12:04.360 He planted IEDs that may have killed others.

00:12:08.500 His name is Omar Khadr.

00:12:09.740 And the entire establishment in Canada, politicians, the press, the prosecutors, the courts, everyone is completely pro-Khadr. 0.93

00:12:23.780 Like, you would think he is a saint.

00:12:25.880 He is portrayed as the victim.

00:12:27.500 They never talk about the man he murdered.

00:12:29.560 And if you can believe it, and I know you'll find this shocking, you probably don't know this, Jack,

00:12:34.100 but in Canada, Justin Trudeau gave a public apology to Omar Khadr and a $10.5 million check.

00:12:41.620 I know that's, you're probably thinking, am I hearing it wrong?

00:12:44.580 No, that's true.

00:12:45.500 But there's a huge chasm between grassroots Canadians who hate that terrorist murderer,

00:12:53.320 hate the fact that he got $10.5 million, hate the fact he's on the streets,

00:12:56.880 hate the fact he got a public apology, but the entire media, political, industrial complex thinks he's a victim, hero, saint.

00:13:05.100 Is there the same establishment love for Anjum Chowdhury as there is for Omar Khadr?

00:13:12.540 I said the word charming before, and I don't mean that in a substantive way.

00:13:16.680 I mean just his, his slippery.

00:13:18.600 You wouldn't take him home for dinner with your family.

00:13:20.520 Yeah, and I don't want people to misunderstand what I mean.

00:13:23.420 I meant he's slick, he's glib, he's quick with a word, he's, he has a sense of humor,

00:13:28.720 he understands the British mind.

00:13:31.380 So he's not like a Pakistani mindset when he's talking to Brits.

00:13:36.980 He's like, he knows how to push the buttons.

00:13:39.800 Has he been successful in turning, let's say, the Guardian or the BBC in his favor?

00:13:46.740 No, but that doesn't mean there isn't a problem still.

00:13:51.180 Everybody pretty much universally hates the man.

00:13:54.380 Well, that's good to hear.

00:13:56.520 Go ahead, Jack.

00:13:58.980 But what they say is that he, of course, doesn't represent Islam.

00:14:02.160 Yeah.

00:14:02.540 That's the lie.

00:14:03.220 So he's used it as an example of, actually they use him as an example to show that, well, you know,

00:14:09.500 there's this far right threat in the UK and there's this far, far, you know, extremist Islamist threat in the UK

00:14:17.620 and they try and conflate Anjum Chowdhury with people like me and it's a mess.

00:14:22.200 Well, I'm really pleased that we did that.

00:14:25.620 And I know you've said it was a moment of pride for you.

00:14:29.680 It was a moment of pride for us, too, to have you there on the steps of 10 Downing Street.

00:14:34.360 It just looked so good, by the way.

00:14:37.620 I don't know.

00:14:38.040 I mean, it's just wonderful and I'm glad we showed that clip.

00:14:41.100 All right.

00:14:41.940 I want to talk about two other things you've done.

00:14:45.720 The first was a few months ago.

00:14:49.040 Poland.

00:14:49.440 I mean, we just had our friend Sheila Gunn-Reed go to the Global Warming Conference in Katowice, Poland.

00:14:57.480 But Poland was the secondary part of that.

00:14:59.880 She goes to the UN conferences wherever they are.

00:15:03.240 Last year it was in Germany.

00:15:05.200 The year before it was in Morocco.

00:15:07.580 But while she was in Poland, she did some other things.

00:15:10.780 Poland's a very interesting country that is pro-Western, pro-Trump, pro-conservative, pro-nationalism.

00:15:17.580 And it's like a natural ally, but it's smeared by the mainstream media, I think, because of all those things, right?

00:15:26.180 Yeah.

00:15:26.640 All I see about Poland are these relentless smears about this historically neo-Nazi and racist and extremist country.

00:15:34.540 And I've been there a few times before we decided to do this Rebel Poland series.

00:15:38.260 And everything the media said about them was just so wrong.

00:15:42.400 You know, I know the media lies all the time, but it was really an extreme difference to what the media says.

00:15:47.860 It's this beautiful, safe, homogenous country that they know who they are, they're proud of who they are, and they're not afraid to say that we want to remain who we are.

00:15:55.600 And what's so bad about that?

00:15:57.040 I have a theory, and I'm not the only one who believes this, that these newer democracies, the ones that were under Soviet domination until 30 years ago,

00:16:09.020 because they have not yet grown complacent or bored with their freedom, and because many people there actually lived under Soviet domination,

00:16:18.220 they value the right to be Polish, the right to be free, the right to be sovereign, the right to be Catholic, in their case.

00:16:27.060 And so they're less likely than complacent democracies in Western Europe, France, Holland, I'd even put the UK in there, sort of,

00:16:35.860 who, yes, oh yeah, the EU, fine, you can make decisions.

00:16:38.960 Or, oh yeah, open borders, there's no such thing that makes a Frenchman French, we're all the same, it's just an address.

00:16:44.220 So I think that Hungary, which is also, I think, in the same mold, and to a degree the Czech Republic,

00:16:52.220 and I think a lot of those Eastern European countries, in some ways are better with freedom,

00:16:56.900 because they haven't grown bored with it, as we have in the Far West.

00:17:02.200 I think that's a really apt analysis, and also, you know, the fact that communism is still fresh in the memory of so many people.

00:17:09.300 And what was so amazing, as well, is it's not just fresh in the minds of the people that experienced communism,

00:17:15.600 it's also there in the minds of the people that never experienced it themselves, but their parents did.

00:17:20.340 Young people, I mean, one of the videos I did was, I got this opportunity to interview a 10-year-old boy,

00:17:26.760 a really young lad outside of the church during a Sunday service, and he really knew his stuff.

00:17:33.520 He knew way more about Polish history than the average 10-year-old British lad.

00:17:37.280 And it's just that knowledge, that connection to his past, is what means this country's, Poland, is going to survive.

00:17:45.740 Young people, though, really, really value what they have, because they've heard the horror stories.

00:17:50.100 Yeah, well, and Poland has been invaded and attacked from all sides for so long.

00:17:54.500 We'll throw to your clip in a few seconds, but, I mean, I've never been to Poland,

00:17:57.800 and watching your reports from there and others makes me want to visit.

00:18:01.380 But I do know that the Polish pope, John Paul II, was so instrumental in bringing down the Soviet empire, 0.69

00:18:11.000 by going to Poland, having that massive outdoor mass, telling people, be not afraid,

00:18:17.240 and giving them something else to believe in besides communism.

00:18:20.260 I truly believe that he, along with Thatcher and Reagan, were critically, he was critically important to breaking down the Cold War.

00:18:30.920 I think he really did.

00:18:32.180 And like 350 years before him, another Pole named Jan Sobieski helped save Europe from the Turkish invader.

00:18:40.700 Let's take a look at one of your Polish vids now.

00:18:43.660 I've just landed in Warsaw, in Poland, because I think there's a story here that we need to tell.

00:18:49.060 It's not the story that the mainstream media wants to tell you.

00:18:51.760 They've been lying about Poland for years, about three years ago,

00:18:54.180 when the Law and Justice Party took control of the Polish government.

00:18:58.080 The media began a smear campaign, saying that the Polish people and the Polish country was racist and nationalistic.

00:19:04.140 Even the EU got involved and called Poland racist for not wanting to take in millions of Syrian refugees,

00:19:10.020 so-called Syrian refugees.

00:19:11.940 The story here isn't that Poland is racist.

00:19:15.440 The story is that the people are waking up.

00:19:18.200 After years of communism, they're waking up and realizing that the way forward is being proud in one's own nation-state.

00:19:25.260 And specifically, it's the Polish youth.

00:19:28.060 The Polish youth are voting in bigger numbers than ever.

00:19:31.180 They're voting for conservative and right-wing parties.

00:19:33.840 And actually, political polls are showing time and time again that the Polish youth want to vote for right or centre-right parties.

00:19:41.240 And I want to find out why.

00:19:42.660 I want to show you the real story, not the story that the mainstream media is paddling.

00:19:47.180 And that was sort of your introduction to the series, which is sort of a repetition of what you said a moment ago.

00:19:53.480 But I do encourage our viewers to go to rebelpoland.com because you did have such a variety of interviews.

00:20:01.680 Some people will think, well, all you do is cover the world.

00:20:06.600 Well, the great thing about London is there's so many cheap flights from London to the continent.

00:20:11.460 I mean, there's so many airports.

00:20:13.020 I mean, the famous ones that people over here would know about are Heathrow and Gatwick.

00:20:17.820 But you've got lots of little airports, including one at Luton.

00:20:20.220 There's some really, really cheap flights from Luton Airport to the continent, right?

00:20:24.360 Yeah, and I guess that is the price you pay for going to Luton Airport is the worst in the country.

00:20:31.600 But yeah, there's loads of places we can go quite easily.

00:20:34.580 And, you know, Poland, a few hours away, we head over there and, you know, we do it as modestly as we can.

00:20:41.300 And as you say, the variety of videos I was really happy with.

00:20:44.560 We did one about Polish-Jewish solidarity to try and dispel the myth about neo-Nazism.

00:20:48.360 We did, you know, we spoke to young people about conservatism.

00:20:53.660 We found out about the faith of the nation.

00:20:55.400 I mean, there's so much we could have done.

00:20:57.000 And there's still so much more that we can do.

00:20:58.860 You know what, I want to show a quick clip from that Polish-Jewish one because, of course, Poland is where Auschwitz is. 0.70

00:21:06.640 And the Polish-Jewish community, which was quite large, was almost completely decimated at the hands of the Nazis.

00:21:12.940 And although there were certainly some Poles who were complicit in that, to project onto the Polish people the crime of Nazism, I think, is a double sin. 0.53

00:21:23.780 It falsely imputes many innocent people and it falsely exculpates many guilty.

00:21:30.120 So here's a quick clip from that video you did.

00:21:34.800 Let's take a look.

00:21:35.560 And I'm here for a reason.

00:21:37.280 I'm here to dispel the myths and the lies that are peddled by the mainstream press that Poland is a racist, anti-Semitic country.

00:21:43.720 It's simply not true.

00:21:45.360 Now, the discussion started among the press about Poland being anti-Semitic when a piece of draft legislation was being pushed that criminalized the use of the term Polish death camps.

00:21:56.200 Now, it's worth mentioning that that's changed since.

00:21:59.260 And I'll go into that in a minute.

00:22:00.340 But it's also worth mentioning why it's important, because Poland wasn't a willing participant in the Holocaust.

00:22:06.940 It was tragic for all people in Poland.

00:22:10.160 There was a Polish government operating in exile in London that controlled underground states still in Poland.

00:22:15.720 And within these underground states, it was punishable by death for people to essentially snitch on Jews.

00:22:20.880 For anyone who revealed the location or the hiding places of Jews in Poland, it was punishable by death in those states.

00:22:27.920 On the other hand, in Nazi-occupied Poland, those who took in a Jew during this period, they were punished with death too.

00:22:37.200 So people were living in fear.

00:22:38.800 People had to, if they got a knock on the door from a Jewish family, please take us in, help us.

00:22:43.360 They had to instantly decide whether they could help these people, whether they could risk their own families being killed.

00:22:49.080 The Polish didn't want this to happen here.

00:22:51.460 And it's worth mentioning that there were Eastern European states that willingly took part in the Holocaust.

00:22:56.040 Poland didn't. 0.92

00:22:56.820 Well, Jack, thank you so much for doing that.

00:22:58.740 Now, just before Christmas, there was a phenomenon that just took off like a rocket in France.

00:23:08.300 And it was called the gilets jaunes.

00:23:11.100 We speak a little bit of French here in Canada.

00:23:13.780 We have to take it in grade school at least.

00:23:15.920 And I knew that meant yellow jackets or yellow vests.

00:23:18.480 Can you explain to us why these protesters were wearing yellow vests?

00:23:24.160 And then we'll show some of the most gripping footage I've seen anywhere of these protests.

00:23:29.800 You were right in the heart of it.

00:23:32.620 But first, before we throw the video, tell us what the yellow jacket's all about.

00:23:35.760 So the yellow vest was this movement that just seemed to appear out of nowhere.

00:23:40.880 And one thing most people missed, because all they saw is, boom, suddenly it's on the news.

00:23:45.340 There's people out there wearing these high-vis jackets, we call them the yellow vests, out there on the street protesting against Macron.

00:23:51.520 And people think, well, where the hell did this come from?

00:23:53.360 Well, it started actually from lorry drivers and people who have to use their car all the time protesting the carbon tax.

00:24:00.480 And the reason they wore the high-vis yellow vests is because they're required to have them by law in their car.

00:24:05.840 So they put them to good use for once.

00:24:08.560 And so it escalated from there.

00:24:10.300 It went from being about the carbon tax and the price of fuel to suddenly hundreds of thousands of people all over France, not just Paris, where we went, all over France protesting on the streets.

00:24:20.060 For many people, a very peaceful protest, but for some people, a more angry, violent one, protesting against Macron's high taxes.

00:24:28.740 They can't do it anymore.

00:24:29.940 People aren't being paid enough, and they're being taxed too much.

00:24:33.560 Let's take a look at some of that now.

00:24:35.400 I have to say this was some of the most exciting footage we have ever done.

00:24:39.900 It was so dramatic.

00:24:41.840 Here, let's take a look.

00:24:50.060 Things have gotten pretty intense pretty quick.

00:25:00.440 I think it's safe to say that Macron's carbon taxes and all the other taxes really aren't popular.

00:25:05.500 There's a few things I've learned from today.

00:25:06.960 One is that apparently last week two people died, allegedly as a result of the police.

00:25:12.120 There's quite a lot of aggression here.

00:25:14.000 Really, it doesn't seem to be what the media is painting it to be.

00:25:17.200 This isn't right-wing, this isn't left-wing, this isn't racism.

00:25:20.260 This is a huge group of French people who are concerned about their future.

00:25:27.300 More tear gas.

00:25:32.200 Can you blame the French people for being upset?

00:25:35.420 Can you blame them?

00:25:36.520 People are living on less than a thousand.

00:25:40.940 Some people are living on less than a thousand euros a month.

00:25:44.580 They can't get by.

00:25:45.740 And every time they introduce new taxes and more taxes and more taxes, people are struggling.

00:25:49.860 And to top it off, the straw that broke the camel's back is the carbon tax from Macron, all in the name of global warming.

00:25:56.160 People can't afford to run their cars.

00:25:57.780 The price of diesel is going up, even though they've been told for years they should get diesel cars.

00:26:01.820 It's atrocious.

00:26:02.740 The people are angry.

00:26:03.780 And I can't blame them.

00:26:04.800 You were literally right there.

00:26:06.580 Did you actually go under the Arc de Triomphe or were police sort of blocking that?

00:26:11.700 No, the police were blocking that.

00:26:13.080 The funny thing is we turned up at the Arc de Triomphe just to do some sort of quiet filming that morning.

00:26:18.580 We didn't expect it to kick off that soon.

00:26:20.480 And to be honest, we were still waiting for some calls for some local people to tell us where it was going to be.

00:26:25.360 And so we turned up at the Arc de Triomphe ready to film peacefully.

00:26:27.980 And suddenly we got this stinging feeling in our eyes.

00:26:30.300 And we're like, what's going on?

00:26:31.660 And we looked.

00:26:32.300 And suddenly, boom, this protest just appeared out of nowhere.

00:26:36.540 And, yeah, it was really dramatic and kind of exciting until the tear gas really hit us.

00:26:42.000 And then our friends got hit with rubber bullets.

00:26:44.220 It got pretty intense.

00:26:45.820 The police really, really went out strong with it.

00:26:48.820 Wow.

00:26:50.540 Now, I have, you alluded to this, and I've watched your videos.

00:26:55.040 Very interesting.

00:26:55.700 Most of the yellow vest protesters are angry and rambunctious.

00:27:02.200 But I wouldn't say that they were the rioters.

00:27:05.420 Would you agree with me that the rioters were more opportunists?

00:27:10.340 Yeah, on the most part.

00:27:11.260 Go ahead.

00:27:12.360 Yeah, absolutely, on the most part.

00:27:13.900 I mean, we can't say that no regular gilets jaunes went out and did.

00:27:16.740 I mean, I'm sure some did.

00:27:17.980 But the vast majority, from the evidence that we saw in which we presented on the Rebel Friends series,

00:27:23.520 the evidence we presented showed that it was the anarchists, typically far left anarchists,

00:27:30.260 and Antifa that were out there destroying things and setting things on fire.

00:27:34.060 And we know that simply because they tag it with their own graffiti.

00:27:37.940 And also the regular gilets jaunes protesters, the people who are nonpolitical,

00:27:41.960 came up on camera and spoke to us and said, this isn't us.

00:27:44.860 This isn't what we're doing.

00:27:45.940 All we have are yellow vests.

00:27:47.160 We don't have guns.

00:27:47.920 We don't have violence.

00:27:48.660 So we know who was doing it.

00:27:51.120 And it was, as you say, the opportunists.

00:27:53.280 And we know that the people who did the looting after the shops were destroyed by the anarchists,

00:27:57.560 the people doing the looting were very, very poor people and indeed migrants as well.

00:28:02.040 Yeah.

00:28:02.920 Now, I saw one of the most incredible images I saw.

00:28:07.380 I can't remember where I saw it.

00:28:08.900 It wasn't in your footage.

00:28:11.040 It might have even been from some freelancer working for RT.

00:28:14.660 I saw what looked like tanks.

00:28:18.920 They were armored vehicles, at least.

00:28:20.620 They didn't have tracks on them.

00:28:21.900 They had wheels.

00:28:22.840 They were armored vehicles sent in.

00:28:25.040 And they had the European Union, the EU flag on them.

00:28:30.420 And these were paramilitary.

00:28:32.600 Like, you could use these in a war, these armored vehicles.

00:28:37.300 And I thought, my God, that's over the top.

00:28:40.580 And I thought, and I want to ask you this, because I saw videos of police just beating people.

00:28:47.100 I saw videos of police fighting with a guy in a wheelchair.

00:28:51.760 I saw some incredibly shocking acts of police violence.

00:28:56.040 And I want to ask you, are those anecdotal?

00:28:59.200 Like, you know, if you've got a thousand police interactions, maybe ten of them are going to look really bad.

00:29:04.180 Was that accidental, or do you think Macron instructed the police, make this so unpleasant for the protesters, tear gas them for no reason just to hurt their eyes, shoot rubber bullets at them just to give them pain, even if they're not violent, even if they're just being noisy protesters, punish them physically.

00:29:25.700 That's a dark thesis.

00:29:27.920 Would you say that thesis is valid, or that's just speculation?

00:29:31.540 From being on the ground and talking to people, I think you're right.

00:29:36.140 That's not to say that most of the police officers are sort of mean-spirited or, you know, doing this.

00:29:41.080 I mean, they're doing what they're told, effectively.

00:29:43.440 It's not always an excuse, but that's what's happening.

00:29:46.080 What was interesting is that the Arc de Triomphe is a traffic circle.

00:29:49.660 So we're within this traffic circle, and every exit is blocked off.

00:29:53.140 We're stuck inside this circle.

00:29:54.720 And what kept happening is the police would throw gas canisters from this side, gas canisters from that side, essentially just pushing people around this circle.

00:30:02.320 We're bouncing around.

00:30:03.900 There was no purpose for it other than punishment, and that's what everybody there was saying.

00:30:09.580 They're punishing us.

00:30:10.440 They're punishing us.

00:30:11.240 And it got to the point where there was that much gas.

00:30:13.780 They did it from every side.

00:30:14.620 There was no way you could escape.

00:30:16.120 I mean, we were lucky.

00:30:16.920 They let us through because we were pressed, and we were so desperate.

00:30:19.420 But these people couldn't escape.

00:30:20.780 It was pure punishment.

00:30:22.220 I think so.

00:30:24.760 I've been to the Arc de Triomphe, and it's a huge structure, by the way.

00:30:28.900 In fact, I don't know if you know, here's a little trivia for you, is that a Frenchman flew a biplane through it.

00:30:38.000 He took the biplane, tipped it sideways, and went through the Arc de Triomphe.

00:30:41.320 Like, it's huge, and it's such a symbol.

00:30:44.700 Other than the Eiffel Tower, I think it's most certainly the second most iconic structure in France.

00:30:51.460 And it is in this huge traffic circle with probably six or seven streets radiating out from it.

00:30:59.060 So if you've blocked everyone off, and if they're all in there, and we saw some of the footage there, people were sort of rambunctious and yippy and yappy.

00:31:06.500 But I didn't see them fighting amongst themselves.

00:31:08.800 I didn't see them taking sledgehammers to the Arc de Triomphe itself, for example.

00:31:13.000 So to kettle people in, and then to basically tear gas them and rubber bullet them, when they're just there, that seems...

00:31:23.080 I mean, if that were to be done in Turkey, or Iran, or Russia, you would have Reporters Without Borders, Amnesty International, all these groups saying,

00:31:34.600 police brutality, why did you do that?

00:31:36.820 I mean, I saw in your clip a bunch of noisy people, but they were not violent, but physical pain was being meted out to them.

00:31:46.760 Yeah, that was it.

00:31:47.800 I think the police actually, under orders from Macron, made things way worse than they needed to be, at least on that day.

00:31:54.320 Because what I saw from the very beginning, you might remember the first video of me, me doing a selfie from my phone, and there's water cannons.

00:32:01.920 That was right at the beginning, where a lot of the roads weren't even cornered off yet.

00:32:06.020 No violence had happened.

00:32:07.340 People had just turned up, and suddenly here's the water cannons blasting people. 0.67

00:32:11.360 It was completely unnecessary.

00:32:13.200 And there was a bit of violence, but I have to say that it only started after the environment became so extreme.

00:32:19.180 I think the police, if anything, kind of provoked it to get that bad.

00:32:24.900 Incredible.

00:32:25.820 Well, just like all your Polish videos were at rebelpoland.com, all your videos, and Martina was with you, and she did some videos on camera too.

00:32:34.340 Those were at rebelfrance.com.

00:32:38.260 So those are some interesting trips.

00:32:40.200 Of course, most of your work is not on trips.

00:32:42.980 Just tell our viewers, because here in Canada, we only have a couple of airlines in the country.

00:32:47.860 It's so uncompetitive, anti-competitive.

00:32:50.520 Prices are so expensive.

00:32:51.820 It can cost $1,000 just to fly across Canada.

00:32:55.280 How cheap is it to fly from Luton to Warsaw or from Luton to Paris?

00:33:01.860 It really depends.

00:33:02.920 If you book well in advance, which is hard to do when you're covering the news, I'll be honest.

00:33:06.660 If you book well enough in advance, it's going to be £20.

00:33:08.580 But really, actually, if you're doing it last minute, like we always do, 100, 200, you know, a few hundred max.

00:33:14.980 Yeah, I mean, that's still just so incredible.

00:33:16.960 Well, the idea that you could board any airplane for 20 pounds, that's about 35 bucks Canadian, is shocking.

00:33:23.180 Like, that's an Uber ride.

00:33:25.800 I mean, the idea that you can get on a plane for $35 Canadian.

00:33:28.680 But even, as you say, when we do reportage, obviously we can't plan that far ahead.

00:33:33.940 I mean, it's really amazing.

00:33:36.620 And the fact that you're based there in London makes it so, I mean, for us to schlep from Toronto or to send Sheila for Edmonton or David, I mean, it's great having you there.

00:33:46.020 But I think one of the biggest stories, obviously, is right there in your backyard.

00:33:50.940 The Brexit vote in 2016 was a premonition of the Trump populist wave.

00:33:58.120 The tactics of Brexit's win, grassroots people on social media, were also foreshadowing how Trump would beat the Hillary machine.

00:34:06.460 And also, the resistance of the remain side, the side that lost, to accepting the validity of the result, was also a premonition of how Donald Trump's win would be delegitimized by the establishment.

00:34:22.960 Tell me what's going to happen.

00:34:25.700 I mean, things are still somewhat fluid.

00:34:27.880 But it is a fact that the United Kingdom will leave the European Union in the spring of 2019, one way or another.

00:34:35.740 Like, it is leaving.

00:34:36.900 It can't stay, right?

00:34:38.860 Well, yeah.

00:34:39.900 We're leaving at the end of March.

00:34:41.580 We're leaving the European Union.

00:34:43.180 And now the question is how it's going to be done.

00:34:45.780 Theresa May's had a really difficult time of it. 0.80

00:34:48.120 She's been trying to pass a withdrawal bill.

00:34:50.460 So the question is, will people accept the withdrawal agreement or not?

00:34:55.440 And if the bill isn't passed, then I guess we'll see whether this referendum happens or we'll see whether we leave on a no-deal basis.

00:35:03.820 Everything's up in the air.

00:35:04.740 It's changing every day.

00:35:06.260 There's a few options there.

00:35:07.500 And I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

00:35:09.720 It's going to be a big issue throughout the rest of the year, though, because regardless of what happens at the end of March,

00:35:15.000 we've still got to negotiate a future trading agreement and all sorts with the European Union.

00:35:21.420 So throughout the rest of 2019, we're still going to be talking about the EU a lot.

00:35:26.800 You know, I remember the Remain campaign came up with an idea called Project Fear.

00:35:32.540 I think that's actually what it was referred to internally.

00:35:34.880 And they were designed to scare people into how their lives in the UK just couldn't even continue if they weren't part of the EU.

00:35:42.900 The craziest thing I saw was the head of the British Sandwich Association.

00:35:49.900 And that's just what it sounds like.

00:35:51.060 These are sandwich makers.

00:35:52.980 There's a lot of great sandwiches in the UK, I must say, having visited there.

00:35:56.980 And he was saying that British sandwiches will suffer.

00:36:02.220 I'm not even kidding.

00:36:03.320 Here's a quick clip.

00:36:04.280 Just because I know viewers are saying, Ezra, you're talking about a Saturday Night Live skip.

00:36:08.860 No, just take a quick look.

00:36:10.520 Here's the British Sandwich Association boss saying, you know, take a bite of good sandwiches.

00:36:16.520 What does no deal mean for you for the sandwich industry?

00:36:20.760 I don't think it means absolutely no sandwiches because our industry is very creative and clever at coming out with new recipes.

00:36:27.080 But certainly there will be serious problems in terms of some of the fresh ingredients we bring in from the European Union and also from overseas, particularly if we have problems at ports and we can't get ingredients through because they're all fresh and don't have a very long shelf life.

00:36:44.340 And we've got no chance to stop piling fresh ingredients.

00:36:46.720 So I think the answer from the sandwich industry is going to be that it's going to limit the amount of choice that consumers have if we suddenly crash out of Brexit in the way that it's being talked about.

00:36:57.720 I don't think anyone believes that's true.

00:37:01.420 I think sandwiches are named after a Brit, the Earl of Sandwich.

00:37:05.240 I'd have to check my history on that.

00:37:07.700 But if they're willing to say your sandwiches, are you going to lose those delicious sandwiches?

00:37:13.900 I think they I think they've gone into parody mode.

00:37:18.120 And I don't think anyone should ever trust the establishment on Brexit ever again because they've been lying since the first day.

00:37:24.060 Absolutely. Absolutely. This is part of the con.

00:37:27.680 The people that want a second referendum just so happen to have power in Parliament as well.

00:37:32.800 So they spend all this time working with these different organisations saying, why don't you tell them that they're going to run out of sandwiches?

00:37:38.120 Right. Scare them for us.

00:37:39.860 And as soon as the people are scared, once they start proposing a second referendum, which may still happen, people are going to be terrified.

00:37:46.480 So, you know, but I think it's backfiring because they told us we'll run out of sandwiches.

00:37:49.840 They told us we'll run out of cheese.

00:37:51.580 They told us that cancer patients will die without the right drugs.

00:37:54.800 We're told that people with diabetes are not going to have access to insulin, despite the fact that I listed three insulin manufacturers here right in the UK.

00:38:03.980 All these lies have been seen through.

00:38:07.020 People realise that they're being lied to.

00:38:08.980 And, you know, they're very angry and I don't think they're ever going to trust them ever again, especially if they then betray them on that vote from 2016.

00:38:16.460 People will have no reason to vote ever again.

00:38:18.380 Yeah. Well, it would be like if somehow Donald Trump's election were negated and maybe technically, legally, they could have some sort of soft legal coup like that.

00:38:30.420 But it would do permanent and I mean century long damage to the democratic institution itself.

00:38:36.940 And I sense that it's similar in the UK on Brexit.

00:38:41.640 And I think that it's along the same fault lines, the insider elites versus the upstarts who aren't supposed to have an opinion, you know, aren't supposed to think so much.

00:38:53.420 Well, Jack, you're in an interesting city.

00:38:55.600 There's a lot going on.

00:38:56.800 I appreciate your work and Martina's, not just in London, but on the continent.

00:39:03.420 And I wish you good luck in 2019.

00:39:06.280 Thanks so much, Ezra.

00:39:07.560 Yeah, there's plenty of us, plenty more for us to do throughout the year.

00:39:10.580 Yeah, you bet.

00:39:11.660 All right.

00:39:12.080 Well, there you have it.

00:39:12.840 Thanks, Jack.

00:39:13.380 What do you think of that from Jael Angem to traveling to the continent and watching this wave of populist nationalism sweep out the Angela Merkel version of Europe and bring in something a little more Brexity, a little more Trumpy, if I may say so.

00:39:34.400 Well, that's our show for today.

00:39:36.300 Until next time, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters in Canada, good night and keep fighting for freedom.

00:39:43.380 We'll see you next time.

Rebel News Podcast - December 28, 2018

SPECIAL! Jack Buckby looks back on his reports from London, Paris and Warsaw

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