Rebel News Podcast - State of the Rebel Report

00:00:00.000 Hello, my rebels. You know, I've been away for a week writing a book, or at least trying to.

00:00:04.080 It's very hard not to procrastinate. Literally everything in the world is more exciting than

00:00:09.400 writing a book. Just going to check if the fridge looks the same on the inside as it did 10 minutes

00:00:14.880 ago. That is more exciting than writing a book. Alphabetizing things in your kitchen cabinet.

00:00:21.320 That is more exciting than writing a book. So it's very hard to write a book, at least for an

00:00:24.840 attention span, shorty like me. But I tried last week, but I'm back now. And today,

00:00:32.140 I got sort of a State of the Rebel address for you. I'm going to go over our activities and our plans.

00:00:37.160 Hopefully you'll find it interesting. Well, you'll see, because it's up next. But before I get that,

00:00:41.680 let me invite you to become a video subscriber. We call it Rebel News Plus. It's all this podcast

00:00:47.720 plus the visual elements. And today I've got a couple of videos from Manchester, UK, that you're

00:00:54.400 just going to want to see. You're just absolutely going to want to see these. It's going to make

00:00:57.840 you mad. Sorry, but you have to see it. Just go to Rebel News.com, click subscribe. It's eight

00:01:02.600 bucks a month. You can buy a whole year in advance for 80 bucks. That's a discount. It's pretty good

00:01:06.560 stuff, I think. You get Sheila Gunn-Reed also, David Menzies, and shows from Andrew Chapados now, too.

00:01:11.940 Okay, here's today's show.

00:01:17.620 You're listening to Rebel News Podcast.

00:01:24.400 Tonight, the State of the Rebel Report. It's February 8th, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.

00:01:36.340 Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?

00:01:40.020 There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.

00:01:44.120 The only thing I have to say to the government about why I publish it is because it's my bloody

00:01:48.980 right to do so.

00:01:49.960 Hi, everybody. It's great to be back. I'm sorry I wasn't here during the weekday, although

00:01:59.840 last week, as although you know, I jumped into shows every day just to say hi and talk about

00:02:05.480 the news of the day. I simply didn't have the time last week to do my full editorial work,

00:02:11.600 plus a special project I'm on. I'm trying to finish my new book, and if you've ever tried

00:02:16.940 to write a book, you know it's always the thing that you procrastinate on the first,

00:02:22.020 because it's always the easiest to say, well, I'll do that later. There's always something

00:02:28.220 more urgent to do than to write a book. So I tried to push everything aside last week

00:02:32.540 with mixed success. I did make some progress on the book, but things in the world kept dragging

00:02:38.300 me back. There was so much to do. I myself did two videos last week from what our journalist

00:02:44.540 down in Florida found. John Tory, the lockdown mayor of Toronto, apparently he's having big

00:02:50.940 house parties at his North Palm Beach mansion. He won't tell us who's down there. He claims

00:02:56.080 it's not him, but we just saw day after day cars coming and going to his $10 million waterfront

00:03:02.220 house. I have nothing against wealth. I have nothing against waterfront houses. Maybe one

00:03:06.200 day I'll have one myself. But you can't throw parties in Florida, the most un-locked down

00:03:13.180 State of the Union, while you're presiding over one of the toughest lockdowns in North America,

00:03:19.160 as John Tory did. He's a cheater. He's a lockdown cheater. I think that's the worst thing. 0.98

00:03:23.500 So that kept me a little bit busy. I was working on my book, and as you may know, we have expanded

00:03:30.260 our civil liberties project called fightthefines.com. We do a bit of that in Australia and the UK

00:03:35.080 too. Well, we expanded that into Quebec. And I don't think I shared with you my pitiful

00:03:40.800 attempt at speaking en français. My French is so bad, it will surely start another separatist

00:03:47.180 referendum. Here's just a quick clip of that. Don't worry, I won't play more than a minute.

00:03:51.420 Here's me rolling out our contesterlescontreventions.com campaign. What do you think of that?

00:03:56.680 Take a look. Bonjour, mon nom est Ezra Levant, et je suis directeur de Rebel News, une entreprise

00:04:04.940 de presse axée sur les libertés civiles, dont le siège social le situe à Toronto.

00:04:14.500 Si je tenais à vous parler directement, c'est parce que j'ai d'importantes nouvelles pour tous

00:04:22.220 les Québécois et je tenais à vous les partager moi-même. Aujourd'hui, j'annonce le lancement

00:04:30.760 de nouveau site Web contesterlescontreventions.com. Sur le site Web, toute personne ayant reçu

00:04:40.560 une contravention liée au couvre-feu en vertu des règles québécoises sur le confinement

00:04:48.700 pour remplir un formulaire pour nous raconter son histoire et nous faire parvenir une copie

00:04:58.420 de sa contravention.

00:04:59.780 So not only was I trying my French, it was terrible, but we actually did negotiate an

00:05:06.060 agreement with a Montreal law firm to serve Quebecers in English or French to take the

00:05:12.500 first thousand cases of their lockdown. Because as you know, I mentioned that John Tory has

00:05:19.600 a brutal lockdown in Ontario. Well, in Quebec, they actually have curfews. Like what parents

00:05:24.600 say to kids, you be home by 8 p.m. or you're in trouble, young lady. They really have an 8 p.m.

00:05:29.760 curfew as if adults are children, as if innocent people are criminals, as if healthy people are

00:05:36.240 sick. So we have signed up a law firm that has agreed to help defend a thousand tickets and we're

00:05:41.440 doing it through crowdfunding or as they say en français, financement participatif. What do you

00:05:47.360 think of that little français? We've also signed similar agreements in Ontario and Alberta

00:05:52.300 because we have so many cases and we were trying to handle them one at a time, trying to handle

00:05:58.220 them from here. We have hired actually a full-time in-house lawyer to work on fight the fines. But

00:06:03.120 when you have literally hundreds of cases, you've got to outsource them to law firms that are built

00:06:07.480 for that. I mean, we are not a law firm and we aren't built for taking hundreds of cases, but that's

00:06:13.480 what it's become. So we have a deal with Quebec to take a thousand cases. Another deal in Ontario

00:06:19.000 with a firm to take a thousand cases and we have a deal with a firm in Calgary to take at least a

00:06:24.460 hundred cases. That's all in addition to the 498 cases we had before. So if you add it up,

00:06:30.040 we're coming up on 3,000 civil liberties cases. I know those numbers are incredible, but if you

00:06:36.240 actually go to our YouTube playlist, you'll see we've almost done a hundred stories on them. And

00:06:43.200 obviously we're not going to do a story on every single fight the fines case that comes forward.

00:06:47.360 I've told our friends in Montreal, I'd like to do at least one story a week from someone there who

00:06:52.420 can speak English about their situation. I believe that civil liberties have never been in this grave

00:06:57.440 danger in my lifetime. And so I believe this is the time to fight, not later, not give it to someone

00:07:04.900 else to do because no one else is doing it other than the great work by the Justice Center for

00:07:08.700 Constitutional Freedoms. That's John Carpe's group. And there's a couple of individual lawyers

00:07:13.620 out there fighting, but the Canadian Civil Liberties Association, AWOL, absent without leave.

00:07:18.680 It's very sad to see. One of our most exciting cases this past week, and I was involved a little

00:07:25.060 bit with it, Sheila Gunn-Reed taking the lead, of course, was our case in the town of Mirror,

00:07:30.360 Alberta, where a great entrepreneur named Chris Scott has defied the lockdown with the support of

00:07:36.780 his town, the full support of his village, actually. They just came to the restaurant every day and

00:07:41.520 wouldn't blink, even after he was given an injunction and an order and a this and a that.

00:07:47.100 He wouldn't blink. He was ready to go down the path of Farmers for Justice. Here, here's a clip.

00:07:52.120 Chris, you're open again today, even though an emergency injunction came down yesterday,

00:07:57.000 ordering you to close. We did have one pretty brief visit from the RCMP, local RCMP collecting

00:08:04.960 evidence. But you are still soldiering on.

00:08:09.940 Yeah, we're still open and customers are still enjoying our food, sitting in a nice cozy cafe.

00:08:15.700 Now, you're on your way out. It's one of the first times I think you're getting off the grill in

00:08:20.100 all day, but in quite some time. You're headed out for a haircut. Is that so that you look great for

00:08:25.560 your mugshot?

00:08:26.180 What? Yeah, something like that. Yeah. Now, I know that you reached out to the health minister,

00:08:33.640 Tyler Shandro, the other day before your court hearing. He never got back to you.

00:08:40.080 No, he didn't. So I tried phoning his office and I assumed that I would get a, you know,

00:08:44.740 some sort of a office person or something, but it just was redirected right to email. So I sent an email

00:08:51.540 requesting a call back. And I also sent an email, or maybe I didn't, I should, I'm going to send an

00:08:58.120 email asking for a meeting. But so far, I haven't heard anything back yet.

00:09:02.620 And you're still willing to be a political prisoner, I guess, is what you really would be

00:09:07.000 if AHS takes their new evidence before judge and asks the judge to issue a bench warrant for your arrest.

00:09:17.080 What's the difference? We're all political prisoners right now. Every one of us,

00:09:20.560 every one of us is some, we're at the mercy of politicians right now. Every Albertan in one way

00:09:26.580 or another, whether they know it or not, they're being held against their will. Some aren't allowed

00:09:32.340 to go to certain places. Some aren't allowed to hang out with certain people. Others aren't allowed

00:09:37.060 to sing. Other people aren't allowed to earn a living. It's no matter what way you look at this,

00:09:42.840 we're all political prisoners at this point. I'm very proud of Sheila's work out there. And of

00:09:46.740 course, I'm tremendously proud of the citizenship and the courage shown by Chris. And as I told him

00:09:52.100 on the phone when I spoke to him, we'll give him all the legal backing he needs, because we don't

00:09:57.080 need him to bear the burden of this alone. I believe he's fighting for all of us. I love seeing the

00:10:03.180 courage of restaurant owners because they have been so unfairly punished. I should tell you that

00:10:07.880 according to Teresa Tam's own science, if you can call it that, there have been over, there have been

00:10:12.900 thousands of outbreaks of the pandemic in Canada. Obviously, 99.9% of them have not resulted in

00:10:22.220 fatalities. But of all those outbreaks, and there have been thousands, a grand total of three

00:10:28.340 can be attributed to restaurants in the entire country since the beginning. It simply doesn't

00:10:34.400 happen in restaurants. And when you think about it, it makes sense why. Those are amongst the only

00:10:37.800 people in Canada who have, say, food handling training, cleanliness training. I mean, of all

00:10:43.060 the industries out there, restaurants are worried about infection and food handling to begin with.

00:10:49.340 They're the folks who have the hairnets and the gloves and who tidy up and don't let mice gather

00:10:55.740 out or things like that. So it's not surprising that one of the safest, healthiest industries in

00:11:01.660 Canada is restaurants. And so these restaurants, and it's often a working class person who poured 0.99

00:11:07.400 their whole lives, savings and all their heart into their business, and to be shut down is so unfair.

00:11:14.620 It's across the West. And I want to show you two clips, and I'm stringing this all together, and I'm

00:11:20.420 going to get to my State of the Rebel report. I'm sort of doing that now. But here's a clip from

00:11:25.740 Manchester, UK, of a restaurateur. His restaurant is packed with customers, just like Chris Scott's

00:11:32.920 restaurant in the Whistle Stop Cafe in Mirror, Alberta, because no one is willing to be bullied

00:11:39.080 anymore. And take a look at this.

00:11:40.680 Thank you.

00:12:10.680 Thank you.

00:12:40.680 Thank you.

00:13:10.680 Thank you.

00:13:40.680 Stay there.

00:13:41.680 Stay there.

00:13:42.680 Go.

00:13:43.680 Stay there.

00:13:44.680 Stay there.

00:13:45.680 What's happening?

00:13:46.680 Stay there.

00:13:47.680 What's happening?

00:13:49.680 those customers absolutely stood by that restaurant term but the police said come

00:14:05.360 outside and that was his mistake he went outside because all of a sudden they were brave when there

00:14:12.160 was the two or three cops versus two or three cops versus 30 uh restaurant goers here's the

00:14:17.440 terrifying video you heard that last video ended in a scream take a look here's the video

00:14:23.200 picks up right outside look at what happened

00:14:48.080 what are you doing excuse me a police officer a police officer punched punched him

00:15:04.000 excuse me this one in the hive has punched him this this police officer punched him in the face

00:15:17.440 yeah the police once they weren't surrounded by i don't know 30 40

00:15:47.360 50 happy patrons were a little bit tougher weren't they they punched him now he punched back i would

00:15:52.080 never recommend punching a cop that only ends one way um i guess in the uk they don't have guns but

00:15:57.520 you don't want to punch a cop no matter what um but i think people are getting sick of police

00:16:03.120 enforcement of laws that make no sense that change all the time that no customers understand if you

00:16:09.200 police understand and that where's the health there where's the public health they're punching a guy

00:16:14.960 in the name of public health it simply doesn't make sense and i show you that clip not only to show

00:16:19.760 you what's on my mind but that we here in canada have taken steps just as we can we filed

00:16:27.280 a lawsuit on behalf of three of our journalists against the toronto police service for physical

00:16:34.720 brutality here's a little bit of the um imagery of toronto police attacking our people efron mocha and

00:16:43.520 lincoln not for protesting not for doing anything wrong not for breaking any laws but rather for

00:16:50.000 reporting on a lockdown protest take a look at this

00:17:02.480 oh

00:17:14.080 What really bothers me is that the police specifically said to our people,

00:17:41.580 journalism is not allowed. It's prohibited. And one cop said, well, journalism by the big guys,

00:17:48.220 like CP24, this big station here in Toronto is allowed, but not from you rebel types. Look at

00:17:52.920 this. The media is exempt, but it's like CP24 and stuff like that. What's the difference between me

00:18:00.420 and CP24? I'm not sure. You just got to keep moving, right? That's all you got to do. What's the difference

00:18:05.800 between me and CP24? I'm not sure what your company is. If you're not sure, then why are you making

00:18:10.440 assumptions? You just got to move. Everybody's got to move. That's it. Go ahead and go to

00:18:13.820 CP24. You just got to move, sir. We're cautioning you right now, right? We're cautioning you. We're

00:18:18.080 cautioning everybody. Yeah, that's just not a thing. That's not how it works. The police doesn't get to

00:18:22.600 the police don't get to decide who is or isn't a journalist. And the police don't get to say,

00:18:27.180 you can't film us beating the tar out of a lockdown protester in the public square in Toronto. So we,

00:18:33.480 we've been talking to the police verbally. We've been sending them letters, demanding that they

00:18:37.860 give us our freedom. In the end, we just, if they don't take it from us, if they don't believe us,

00:18:42.520 maybe they need to hear it from a judge. If you want to see the entire lawsuit, it's only 10 pages

00:18:47.800 long, about four pages of which is just sort of throat clearing formalities. You can see that entire

00:18:53.000 lawsuit at our website, journalistdefensefund.ca. That's not the only lawsuit we're doing. Of course,

00:19:02.600 you know, we're challenging the constitutionality of the lockdown in Saskatchewan. We're doing the

00:19:08.100 same thing in Australia, and we may do the same thing in Alberta. So I believe that over the last

00:19:14.520 10 months, Rebel News, I mean, we've done more news than ever. We've got more videos a day than ever.

00:19:20.920 In fact, we've set up a second YouTube channel just for little clips because we were overloading the

00:19:26.260 main channel. You can find that on our YouTube page. Here's a look at it here. But we,

00:19:30.580 we're doing more journalism than ever. As you know, over the last 10 months, we've hired new

00:19:34.760 reporters, Tamara Ugolini, Drea Humphrey, Andrew Chapadosis now. So we have more talent producing

00:19:40.560 more content than ever. Lincoln J did his first video. But I think that in terms of the measurement

00:19:47.900 of our efforts and our spending of our budget, we are actually a civil liberties group first.

00:19:55.280 In one terrifying month, we recently spent $189,000 on lawyers. When you're literally representing

00:20:03.180 a thousand or more people, that's what it's like. Constitutional challenges, fighting police who

00:20:11.580 are beating us up here in Canada, beating up our guy, Avi Amini in Australia. We have become the

00:20:17.540 civil liberties law firm that I always wish the Canadian Civil Liberties Association would be.

00:20:22.540 You know, I'm a dues-paying member of them. I don't even know why they haven't done a darn thing.

00:20:27.700 But we have, there's so much work to do and so many things. I think the Rebel, 1.00

00:20:31.680 paradoxically, or maybe it's not a paradox at all, we have had our most important year yet. That's not

00:20:38.380 a paradox. It's actually easy to understand. And so we're hiring. Can I draw your attention to this

00:20:43.340 page? I don't know if you've ever looked, but Rebel News has a careers page. Look at that.

00:20:48.200 We have some administrative positions. I need an assistant to help keep me organized. I'm a little

00:20:55.000 bit disorganized. There's so much going on to help book the travel and the company and help take care

00:20:59.880 of administrative things. But in addition to that administrative position, can you see we're hiring

00:21:05.780 video editors, web editors, and we're looking for three new journalistic positions. I think I've

00:21:12.540 told you that before, but I want to bring to your attention, rebelnews.com slash careers, where you

00:21:17.500 can see all the openings, including in terms of on-camera journalists. We're looking for someone

00:21:22.380 to cover parliament in Ottawa. Now, we've been looking for that for a couple months, but we haven't

00:21:26.100 filled it yet. We're looking for someone in Quebec who would know French and English. They would do

00:21:31.380 their reporting in English, but I would want them to know French so they can talk to the other half,

00:21:35.980 you know, read the French papers, etc. And you see there, we're looking for someone to be our

00:21:41.360 China affairs correspondents. So they don't have to be Chinese-Canadian, but it would probably help

00:21:46.340 if they know the Chinese community and can read Chinese. Because I want this position to follow 1.00

00:21:53.020 the Chinese language newspapers, follow what the Chinese embassy is doing in Canada, see what's

00:21:59.480 going on on campuses with, you know, the rich kids, sons and daughters of high Communist Party officials

00:22:05.140 send their kids to university in Canada. There's almost 100,000 children of

00:22:11.300 Communist Party bosses in China going to school in Canada. And they're not just learning in our

00:22:18.420 schools, they're having a political expression. They are being abusive in some cases towards

00:22:25.420 democracy protesters, Falun Gong, Uyghurs, Tibetans. So we're looking to hire a Chinese affair 1.00

00:22:31.260 correspondent. They're probably going to wind up being a Chinese-Canadian who's familiar with

00:22:36.000 that culture and language. It doesn't have to be, but you do have to know the Chinese language.

00:22:40.800 That's a very exciting position. I hope we film soon. And one of the reasons we're able to do this

00:22:46.940 is because so many of our viewers helped us out when we were in a pickle over Christmas. As I think

00:22:52.420 you remember, our banker called in a $380,000 loan, which we had hoped we would just roll over,

00:22:58.200 but he wanted his money out. And our rebel viewers paid down the bills. And so we're debt-free and we're

00:23:04.400 able to make a go of it and spend our money on expanding our journalistic work and our civil

00:23:11.880 liberties work. I'm very excited about it. And we're still sort of figuring out who we are.

00:23:18.000 It's going to be our sixth birthday next week. And I think the rebel has transformed itself

00:23:24.660 several times over the last six years. I think right now we're an important anti-censorship

00:23:29.860 civil liberties force as well as journalism. We're putting together an advisory board. I'm just giving

00:23:35.700 you a bunch of updates here from my notepad because I want to tell you what we've been doing

00:23:39.260 recently. As you know, Raheel Raza is the chairperson of our advisory board, but I'm pleased to announce

00:23:46.920 that Larry Solomon, the columnist, he writes for the Epoch Times, he used to write for the Globe and

00:23:51.760 Mail and the National Post. He's the head of a free market environmental charity called Probe

00:23:57.060 International. He's joining our advisory board. And I should have two more announcements for our

00:24:03.520 advisory board for you in the coming week. So we're putting together a bit of a oversight committee

00:24:09.620 to help make sure we're staying straight and steering straight. People who come from different 1.00

00:24:15.120 walks of life, different perspectives, people who love the rebel and want to see us succeed.

00:24:19.580 And, you know, I think that I know it's already February, but I feel like 2021 is going to be the

00:24:27.800 most important year for us yet. In addition to my own book that we're working on, we're about to

00:24:33.760 publish a book from a fairly well-known author. So we're branching out. This year, I think you're

00:24:39.220 going to see more journalism from us than ever, more civil liberties from us than ever, more reporting

00:24:45.860 in different places that we've ever been before. We've never had a footprint in Montreal. I think

00:24:51.880 we're going to continue to improve our website. I'm going to still focus on my daily show, The Ezra

00:24:57.200 Levant Show, because it's really my main expressive outlet. And it's also an important source of revenue

00:25:02.240 for us. So thanks for watching. And I just think that the real reason we have to fight so hard

00:25:07.820 in 2021 is because we have to. This is the year where they're going to go for it. This is the year

00:25:16.140 where Justin Trudeau and Stephen Gilboa are going to unveil their new censorship agency. This is the

00:25:21.580 year where we'll see Facebook, Twitter, YouTube crack down on free speech for us, like they did to

00:25:28.840 Donald Trump and many American Republicans. This is the year where lockdowns will become more and more

00:25:35.000 brutal as politicians try and gin up fear and tension to keep the emergency perpetuating.

00:25:41.460 This is the year that being a rebel counts more than ever. And I got to tell you, I can't be prouder

00:25:47.200 of our team that we've put together. And I can't be more grateful to you, our viewer, for helping us.

00:25:52.440 So forgive this rambling update. I should probably type it out and put it on our website. But I want to

00:25:58.300 tell you what we've done, what we're doing right now, and what we hope to do in the months ahead.

00:26:03.820 Thanks so much for your support. Now, I did do some actual journalism today. I've got an

00:26:08.560 interview for you next, actually, about the lockdowns won't surprise you. So stay with us for now.

00:26:24.700 Well, I saw some good news out of the corner of my eye the other day. For months, I've been asking,

00:26:29.900 where's the opposition to the lockdowns? You don't see it in any real political party. When I mean real

00:26:36.560 political party, I mean a party that's an official opposition or a party that claims to call itself

00:26:41.760 conservative. In fact, conservative parties are amongst the most brutal locker downers there are.

00:26:48.640 I point to Doug Ford's Ontario as an example. And where is the opposition to the lockdown coming from

00:26:54.280 the official opposition in the federal parliament, Aaron O'Toole? I haven't heard a word about lockdowns

00:27:01.000 or civil liberties, even from the more absurd ideas emanating from Justin Trudeau, like his $2,000

00:27:07.580 hotel quarantine detention project that's clearly unconstitutional. I kept on saying, where

00:27:14.160 is the opposition? And so I was delighted to see news that a new end the lockdown caucus is forming.

00:27:23.600 So far, it has about a dozen people. But recognizable names on the list include Ontario's MPP, Randy Hillier,

00:27:33.760 independent former Conservative MP, Derek Sloan, and our guest now, the leader of the People's Party of

00:27:41.840 Canada, Maxime Bernier, who joins us via Skype from Montreal. Maxime, great to see you again. Thanks for

00:27:47.960 joining us today. Thank you, Ezra. I'm very pleased to be with you. Well, I'm excited that there was a

00:27:54.960 gathering of independent people together, because I think part of being in opposition, part of being a

00:28:02.880 skeptic, you're not really a joiner. I mean, I think that there's something in the personality of

00:28:09.440 skeptics and dissidents, that they're sort of lone rangers sometime. So to see Randy Hillier and you

00:28:16.300 and Derek Sloan and some city councillors from Ontario pull together, I found that very encouraging,

00:28:22.580 because I think there's strength in numbers. Tell us what the End the Lockdown Caucus

00:28:27.380 is about. You had a meeting. Are there any plans to do anything more?

00:28:32.340 Yes. Thanks, Ezra. We had a meeting, actually, last week. And that was under the initiative of

00:28:40.180 Randy Hillier, as you know, a member of the provincial parliament in Ontario. And Randy was very vocal

00:28:47.000 against lockdowns, like myself. But also, when he called me to be part of that caucus, he said,

00:28:55.060 Maxime, just like you said, Ezra, there's no opposition, official opposition against lockdowns.

00:29:01.900 The conservatives are nowhere. They don't speak about that. They don't want to speak about that.

00:29:07.220 At the provincial levels, that's the same thing also. The opposition in Quebec, in Ontario and in

00:29:14.420 other provinces, there's nothing, there's nobody speaking against these authoritarian measures from

00:29:21.540 the provincials and federal government. So Randy had that idea to put together the elected representative

00:29:30.400 or former elected representative from different levels of government, municipal, provincial and

00:29:37.980 federal. And we had our meeting, Ezra, in Ontario last week, last Monday. We launched the End the

00:29:45.920 Lockdowns Caucus. And I'm very pleased that right now we have more than 14,000 people who signed a

00:29:55.340 petition supporting our initiative. And that's great. And also, we have about 20-person members of the

00:30:04.240 caucus. So I'm doing the fight here in Quebec. And this week, I will be in touch with a lot of

00:30:11.360 representative elected at the municipal levels in Quebec. So just to do the fight, the more people

00:30:19.520 will be, the better it will be. And we want people to know that, you know, there's people here in Canada

00:30:27.200 that are elected or were elected in the past who believe that we must change what happened right now.

00:30:34.880 And it's against our freedoms. And we must fight. Our goal, Ezra, is to try to convince the population

00:30:42.020 and changing the public opinion in this country. Because, as you know, usually politicians are doing

00:30:48.680 pollings and surveys. And there's an official high support for lockdowns. And we need to change that.

00:30:56.480 We need to explain to our citizens and to the population that there's other way to fight the virus. And that's

00:31:05.020 what we will do.

00:31:06.320 Well, I look forward to seeing the caucus grow. You mentioned other people have signed on. Are any of them at a

00:31:16.560 provincial level? Are they mainly local city councillors? Because there's a couple of absences. Roman Baber,

00:31:23.740 the other Ontario MP who specifically challenged Doug Ford, I don't see him there, or Belinda Karahalios.

00:31:30.700 I don't see Gila Martau. There are some who aren't joining. I think that may, I mean, look, it's politics.

00:31:41.300 Everyone wants to be the boss, maybe. Everyone wants to be the chief spokesman. I just feel that

00:31:47.120 getting more people, and maybe even from different parties, would be so useful.

00:31:52.120 Can you tell us other people who have joined? I was just looking at the press clippings. And other than

00:31:57.880 the first five people, I don't have any names. Is there anyone you can tell us that is ready to go

00:32:05.360 public with their support? Is anyone joining the team that would be interesting to our viewers?

00:32:09.520 Yeah, you just said Roman, as you know, is elected, was elected in Ontario at the provincial level and

00:32:19.360 Belinda also. I will be in touch with them. I will reach them this afternoon, actually. And I hope they

00:32:26.120 would be part of that caucus. And, you know, there's not a lot of representatives elected at the

00:32:32.060 provincial level that are ready to join the caucus. Because as you know, Ezra, they can, they can have

00:32:41.080 a lot of pressure from their peers and their colleagues not to be part of the, of the caucus.

00:32:48.820 So we, we think that they must fight for what they believe. And if they said something against

00:32:54.620 the lockdowns in the past, against these lockdowns in the past, they must be part of our caucus. And

00:33:01.080 we are just starting to reach them. We have a couple of names that we will reach. I'm going to

00:33:06.440 reach also some of them at the Legislative Assembly in Quebec. And we'll see. Our goal is to increase

00:33:12.360 that. But it will be easier, I think, to have more elected representatives at the municipal level,

00:33:20.000 because there's no, there's no party line there, so they can express their view easily. So that would be our

00:33:29.380 goal, to have more elected representatives at the municipal level.

00:33:34.600 That's a, that's, that makes a lot of sense, because I can imagine the peer pressure would be enormous.

00:33:39.740 Basically, to join this caucus, you would probably be immediately ejected from any party, because all the

00:33:46.920 parties are the same on this. Hey, let me ask you a question that's, that's a little bit off topic,

00:33:51.740 but I just can't help myself. Derek Sloan is someone we follow with great interest. Like you,

00:33:58.520 he ran for the leadership of the party. And like you, he was pushed aside. I like Derek. I think he's

00:34:06.300 thoughtful, and he thinks about policies. And I think it was atrocious the way he was treated.

00:34:10.800 When I saw that he was in the lockdown, and the lockdown caucus with you, I couldn't help but think,

00:34:17.140 well, I wonder if you guys talked at all about collaborating, because you're both, like I say,

00:34:22.300 have the similar experience with the Conservative Party of Canada. He is not a Conservative MP anymore,

00:34:30.020 but he's still a sitting member of the House of Commons. Did you have any conversation that you're

00:34:37.160 able to share with our viewers about possibly teaming up? Because, you know, strength in numbers,

00:34:43.380 again, he's an independent. Perhaps you two can make common cause.

00:34:49.440 Actually, yes. We had a lunch together when we met last week to create the end of lockdown's

00:34:56.480 national caucus. And so I know him. We had a couple of phone conversations in the past. Actually, he called me

00:35:04.860 when he was running for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada. And I gave them,

00:35:10.820 I gave him, sorry, some advice. And so about, you know, he decided to quit, but not him, but the party

00:35:20.960 decided to kick him out of the caucus. But the conversation that I had with him last week,

00:35:27.420 he is still a member. He still have his cart, a member of the Conservative Party of Canada.

00:35:33.480 And his goal, like he said to you after that happened, is to fight and is very focused on the

00:35:42.540 next virtual convention that the Conservative will have this spring. And for him, he wants to be sure

00:35:50.200 that what he believes in, the real Conservative values, will be a part of that discussion at that

00:35:57.280 convention. And so he's doing his fight. And I told him, you know, I respect what you're doing.

00:36:03.340 And I know that you want to go as far as you can with the Conservative Party of Canada.

00:36:09.340 And I told him, you know, I don't think you'll be successful at the next convention.

00:36:14.180 But that's my personal point of view. Maybe I'll be wrong. And I hope that they will be able and

00:36:20.260 your people, your delegates will be able to push some resolution in favor of more freedom,

00:36:26.180 in favor of ending the lockdowns, in favor of some social conservative values.

00:36:31.880 So that's his goal right now. And but we have a good line of communication. And so now we are

00:36:40.060 teaming together to fight against these illegal and unconstitutional lockdowns in this country.

00:36:47.440 So answering your question, Ezra, yes, I'm speaking with him. I respect his decision. And he will maybe

00:36:55.080 will have another decision after that convention. And we'll see what will happen. But I told him also

00:37:01.900 that our doors are open to everybody who share our values. And I know that Derek share a lot of our

00:37:08.140 values at the PPC.

00:37:09.440 Well, that's very interesting. We'll have to keep an eye peeled on how that convention goes. I do

00:37:14.100 recall him telling me that when he was ejected. Well, Maxime, and I hope you don't mind me calling

00:37:18.900 you Maxime. I should call you Mr. Bernier. But I feel like we've become quite friendly over the years.

00:37:23.360 And we're very interested in your views on things. And you told me just before we turned on the cameras

00:37:28.280 that you have a project. You're going out to Alberta to speak at a conference or a panel there.

00:37:34.520 Tell us that. And are there any other things you're working on that our viewers might be

00:37:39.100 interested in following?

00:37:41.280 Yes, I'll be in Alberta in the beginning of March, a conference over there. That would be people who

00:37:48.260 want to believe in this country and other people who don't believe in Canada with the true government

00:37:55.020 right now. You know, there's a lot of people in Alberta that want to separate. There's the new

00:37:59.860 Wild Rose political party at the provincial level. The Wild Rose is the independentist party

00:38:05.280 over there. And there's a conference. The leader of the Wild Rose will be there. I'll be there.

00:38:10.820 And, you know, our speech for the country, for the unity of our country. And my speech will be on

00:38:16.180 radical decentralization. We need a radical decentralization in this country. We need a

00:38:21.600 smarter government in Ottawa. And that would be good for Alberta. That would be good for Quebec.

00:38:26.600 So I'll speak about that. But I understand also the frustration in Alberta. And they understand

00:38:32.320 also that if they want to be independent, they need to do their fight at the provincial level.

00:38:37.480 And that's what they're doing right now with the creation of that new Wild Rose political party at

00:38:42.400 the provincial level in Alberta. But my message for them will be, you know, you won't be able to be

00:38:48.540 independent tomorrow. So you'll have to vote at the next federal election. And the PPC with our values,

00:38:54.480 that's the solution for you. We need to have a voice there. You need to have us in Ottawa.

00:39:01.700 Just we won't be the official opposition. But if we have one, two or three or five candidates that

00:39:08.200 will be elected at the next election, at least we'll be able to have a real debate about the future of

00:39:13.780 our country. So that would be part of my discussion with them in the beginning of March. And people who

00:39:19.480 want to know a little bit more, they can follow me on Twitter and I'll tweet about it when the time

00:39:26.940 will come, when we'll have more details. Because as you know, as Raoul, so there are some

00:39:31.780 authoritarian measures over there against a meeting like that, political meeting. And so, but I said to

00:39:40.920 them, you know, I'm ready to be there and I'm ready to take a chance if we have a police who's coming and

00:39:48.680 people will have, will receive tickets. You know, it's too important. We need to have these kind of

00:39:54.920 meetings across the country and I'll be there. I hope that the rules will change at the end. But if not, I

00:40:01.620 understand by these people who are doing, or doing the organization on that meeting, that the meeting will

00:40:07.100 take place. So we'll see. And that being said about the PPC, as you know, we are starting, we will start

00:40:15.120 next week, or we'll start to find our candidates for the next election. Our goal is to have a full

00:40:23.300 slate of candidates. That can be a little bit difficult if we have an election this spring. But if

00:40:30.000 we have an election, an election, federal election next fall, it would be easier. So we will start the

00:40:37.080 process of call for candidates next week. And at the same time, you know, we are doing a reorganization

00:40:44.340 with the party, an amalgamation of the riding associations, different riding associations to be

00:40:50.320 more efficient. And so I'm looking forward to be back on the road and to travel and to do some rally

00:40:56.440 and speaking about the real conservative values, freedom values and fighting for Canadians.

00:41:02.860 Great. Well, that's a lot on the go. It's nice to speak with you again. Keep us posted, especially

00:41:08.160 on the End the Lockdowns caucus. I think that's very important. That's the most important crisis in

00:41:13.720 Canada today. Maxime Bernier, thanks for being with us today.

00:41:17.580 Thanks, Ezra. Have a nice day.

00:41:19.120 All right, you too. Well, there you have it. Stay with us.

00:41:22.020 More ahead.

00:41:26.440 Well, what do you think? Can you believe it? When I said today that Rebel News is turning six years

00:41:39.260 old, I couldn't even believe it. I mean, that's that's much more than a toddler. When a kid is

00:41:43.860 six, he's not a baby anymore. He's off to grade one. He's going out the whole day to school. It's true.

00:41:50.220 Sun News Network shut down in February of the year 2015. And I miss it very much. And I miss my

00:41:56.800 friends from back there. And I miss the luxury of working in a big company that had big budgets.

00:42:03.500 I even remember the fact that we had a full-time makeup room and makeup artists. I mean, talk about

00:42:09.020 being pampered. Everything was so easy for us, at least. I mean, of course, Pierre Calpeleto,

00:42:16.800 who footed the bill. He poured a lot of dough into it. But for the staff, it was the best of times.

00:42:22.480 It's what it's still like at places like CBC, CTV, Global, and all the bailout newspapers. I mean,

00:42:28.520 Trudeau just hoses them down with money. So the last six years here being a lot more grassroots and

00:42:34.260 a lot more pull ourselves up by the bootstraps. But you know what? I think, I mean, with no disrespect

00:42:40.760 to the great work that was done by our friends at Sun News, I was part of that team, I think Rebel

00:42:46.800 News is larger and in many ways more effective because we're not bound by the handcuffs in the

00:42:53.080 CRTC and even worse, the cable companies. Because we can go directly to the people through the

00:42:58.760 internet, we haven't been shut down completely yet. And because we've really become participative,

00:43:04.360 just like our own journalistic style is citizen journalism. We've invited thousands of our viewers

00:43:09.660 to participate in the news by crowdfunding civil liberties work and other projects.

00:43:15.080 So I look back on the last six years with pride and gratitude to our supporters and also with

00:43:20.480 hope that if we can rise under the ashes of Sun News and build something that I think is quite

00:43:24.980 important, after six years, we'll imagine what the next six years will be like. Well, that's it from

00:43:30.260 here. Tomorrow, I'll get right back to the news. I just wanted to give you a sort of an update what I

00:43:34.540 was up to. Until then, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home, good night.

00:43:39.660 Keep fighting for freedom.

00:43:40.660 Keep fighting for freedom.

00:43:41.660 Keep fighting for freedom.

00:43:46.660 Keep fighting for freedom.

00:43:47.660 Unit of Israel 0.64

00:43:49.660 You ooh you boo you

00:43:54.660 You ooh you

00:43:56.920 You

00:43:59.900 You

00:44:00.900 You

00:44:05.660 You

00:44:07.660 You

00:44:11.660 You

Rebel News Podcast - February 09, 2021

State of the Rebel Report

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