Rebel News Podcast - Trudeau Liberals silent as Trump bans Canadian goods and services from U.S. infrastructure projects

00:00:00.000 Hello, my rebels. So I'm calling you today. You're listening to a free audio only recording of my

00:00:06.340 show, the Ezra Levant Show. I have a crazy story for you today. And I'm going to spend a lot of

00:00:14.660 time giving you the facts before I give you my commentary and analysis. Normally, I just briefly

00:00:20.500 mention the facts because we all know them, because we've all seen them reported somewhere.

00:00:23.960 And then I give you my thoughts. But in this case, I think we're talking about really something that's

00:00:29.140 a secret that you have not seen reported anywhere. I really searched high and low to find news of it.

00:00:36.320 And the news is that on Thursday at 12 noon Eastern time in the Oval Office in front of a crowd of

00:00:41.320 journalists, Donald Trump signed an executive order declaring a trade war on us, not us in particular,

00:00:48.060 but on everyone. He signed an executive order enforcing by American. And now the U.S. government

00:00:56.580 will prefer American companies over Canadian companies as a matter of law. Here, listen to

00:01:03.660 the podcast and hear for yourself. We'll quote Trump and I'll read from the executive order.

00:01:09.480 If you like listening to this podcast, then you would love watching it. But in order to watch,

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00:01:55.080 are a great way to support The Rebel without spending a dime. Thanks. Oh, and now enjoy this free audio

00:02:00.580 only version of my show. Tonight, Donald Trump just banned Canadian goods and services from U.S.

00:02:06.460 infrastructure projects. So where's Justin Trudeau or Chrystia Freeland or the media party?

00:02:12.000 It's February 4th and this is The Ezra LeVance Show.

00:02:16.580 Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?

00:02:20.320 There's 8,500 customers here and you won't give them an answer.

00:02:24.400 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.

00:02:30.240 What I'm about to tell you is a secret in Canada. At least I cannot find a single media outlet that

00:02:41.480 reported it. That's almost a secret, right? Even though it was news announced at a noisy press

00:02:47.080 conference by the noisiest president in a century. At precisely 12 noon on Thursday, January 31st,

00:02:54.760 Donald Trump signed an executive order banning Canadian goods and services from potentially

00:03:01.260 hundreds of billions of dollars worth of U.S. contracts in which the U.S. government is involved

00:03:07.160 as a contractor or a funder. It's pure trade protectionism. It's kind of a trade war.

00:03:14.400 It's aimed at the whole world. It doesn't specifically mention Canada by name, but of course Canada is by far

00:03:21.280 the country that will be the most impacted given the size of our trading relationship with the

00:03:26.160 United States and the integration of our economies and the nature of the products and services being

00:03:31.940 banned under this executive order. I know you haven't heard about this. You probably don't even

00:03:37.920 believe me when I say there's a trade war that was just launched because it's such shocking news

00:03:43.020 and it's such a disaster. But all you've heard from the media party instead is how amazing

00:03:49.840 Christia Freeland, our foreign minister is, and how she totally wrestled that Donald Trump to the 1.00

00:03:54.360 ground over NAFTA renegotiations and how she totally slam dunked him and wore that weird t-shirt 1.00

00:04:01.200 about him and even went to an anti-Trump rally in Toronto. Remember that? Right in the middle of

00:04:08.620 negotiations calling Trump a tyrant. So you know it's all good. You know everything's great because

00:04:13.560 the CBC says so and McLean says so and the rest of the bailout media say so. You must think what I've

00:04:20.540 just told you, that Donald Trump has launched a trade war against us, you must think that's fake

00:04:25.400 news. I mean I'll be candid. I was skeptical when someone first told me about this a couple days ago.

00:04:32.520 It's that weird. I had to learn about a trade war against Canada from someone personally telling me

00:04:39.840 about it verbally like we're in some old-timey world in the age of the Telegraph or something.

00:04:46.980 But Donald Trump did not do this quietly. Has he ever done anything quietly? He had a full-blown

00:04:52.460 press conference about it in the Oval Office in the White House. The entire media was invited

00:04:57.240 including presumably CBC, CTV, Global TV, Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, Post Media. They all have

00:05:03.600 Washington journalists on the ground there. And for those who couldn't attend in person or who don't

00:05:10.240 have any reporters in Washington, no problem. The White House was kind enough to put the entire 38

00:05:15.900 minute presentation on YouTube. That's what you can see behind me now. And if you don't like watching

00:05:22.680 videos, well no problem. The White House was kind enough to provide a word perfect transcript.

00:05:27.860 Everything Trump said and everyone else said, they just put the whole transcript up. It's on the

00:05:34.280 website. It's called Remarks by President Trump at Signing of Executive Order Strengthening by

00:05:40.300 American Preferences for Infrastructure Projects. And you can see it's dated January 31st. And you can

00:05:45.960 see it's on the White House website at whitehouse.gov. You can find it yourself. Like I say, it was a

00:05:52.400 massive announcement with various government and industry officials there. I'm going to just play

00:05:58.860 a little bit of it for you on video because I know that no one has told you this. No one has told you

00:06:07.160 that we are in a trade war with America now. So I need to take extra time to prove it to you or you're

00:06:14.460 going to think I'm nuts. Here, listen for yourself. This happened at 12 noon on Thursday. So this wasn't

00:06:21.100 hidden. This wasn't done like at midnight. This wasn't done just minutes ago and the media are

00:06:26.440 catching up. This was Thursday at noon. There's absolutely no excuse whatsoever for this news to

00:06:31.800 be hidden. Except that it is deeply, deeply embarrassing to Justin Trudeau and Christian

00:06:37.120 Freeland and their desperate desire to pretend that they are competent in the world of foreign

00:06:42.000 affairs and trade. And therefore it's deeply embarrassing to the CBC state broadcaster and all

00:06:46.820 the rest of the private broadcasters who are signing up for some of that $595 million bailout

00:06:52.880 fund. They want to be little state broadcasters under Trudeau's media bailout plan. So here,

00:06:58.400 let me do a bit of reporting for you. Sorry, you have to hear about this from me rather than on the

00:07:04.160 state broadcaster that costs you $1.5 billion tax dollars a year. Take a listen to Donald Trump

00:07:08.960 on Thursday at 12 noon.

00:07:11.120 Today, I'm taking action to build on this tremendous success by strengthening the Buy American

00:07:16.600 principle for federal infrastructure and federal spending. We want American roads, bridges and

00:07:24.500 railways and everything else to be built with American iron, American steel, American concrete

00:07:30.760 and American hands. And if you look at what's happened with the steel industry, it's actually

00:07:36.000 amazing. The steel industry is thriving now. And it was dead. When I came to office, it was dead. It

00:07:42.060 was a dead industry. They were dumping steel all over the place. The jobs were going. And if any of

00:07:47.580 you are in the steel industry, I think you can probably tell, you know, an aluminum tube.

00:07:52.980 It's true. And importantly, and I'll come back to this later, it's mainly China that was the problem 0.99

00:07:58.580 here. China was flooding the U.S. with deeply subsidized, artificially subsidizing low-cost

00:08:05.420 steel below what it costs them to make it. And they were doing this not to make a profit,

00:08:09.360 of course, but rather to stimulate employment and industrial expansion back in China and to push

00:08:14.640 American steel companies out of business by dumping that cheap steel and perhaps even put the U.S. in a

00:08:20.080 strategic problem of having no more heavy industries anymore. So it's really China. And of course, 0.53

00:08:26.060 China was trying to hide its tracks by shipping some of that subsidized steel into America via Canada.

00:08:32.980 But again, it's a China problem. In this 38-minute press conference, Trump said the word China

00:08:39.720 28 times. He didn't say the word Canada once. I checked. But we're the ones who are going to be

00:08:49.280 disproportionately punished here. And I'll get back to that in a moment. But here's more from Trump's

00:08:53.460 Thursday announcement. Now, you know how Trump's speeches go. There are the little tangents and

00:08:58.160 little vignettes and little anecdotes and little jokes. And there's banter. And he talks about

00:09:03.400 plenty of other things not really related to the announcement itself. Fine. You can watch the

00:09:06.760 whole 38-minute video. But instead, let me show you just a few clips that I think sum it up. Okay.

00:09:11.420 So here's Alexander Acosta. That's Trump cabinet minister in charge of labor, the labor secretary.

00:09:17.440 Listen to him. Mr. President, you know, in the past, we encouraged individuals out there to buy

00:09:23.840 American. But what you're doing is so important because you're leading by example. You're saying

00:09:28.900 the federal government will buy America. And we've seen the impact last year with, you know, a 10-year

00:09:35.780 record low in foreign purchases. And this is going to take it to the next step. And it will translate

00:09:40.760 into more jobs for individuals just like those here today. It's having an incredible effect. I mean,

00:09:46.320 people don't realize it yet. But they're seeing it more and more. We are mandating even pipelines

00:09:51.780 and things that were made elsewhere. They're starting to be made here because we have a steel

00:09:56.700 industry again. But it's having a tremendous impact. Please. Thank you, Mr. President. I've been

00:10:02.500 co-sponsoring Bill for years with Dan Lipinski. Couldn't get it to go anywhere. I'm honored that

00:10:07.100 you're doing it today to force it into action because, as you said, these are American jobs. It's American

00:10:12.340 concrete. It's American steel. It's American asphalt. Thank you for doing so. Thank you very much.

00:10:16.320 Appreciate it.

00:10:18.000 So there's banter with administration officials. There's congressmen there. There's

00:10:22.560 businessmen. You can see there's some industrial workers. There's some lobbyists. Here's just a

00:10:26.880 little bit more just because I know you haven't seen this anywhere. Mr. President, I'd like to thank

00:10:30.920 you for this buy American push that you've got. With federal funding for the infrastructure that's

00:10:38.760 buy American. It's jobs for us. And it puts us in a position where we can compete. Otherwise,

00:10:46.680 we tend to walk away from jobs where foreign competition is going to take our business.

00:10:52.600 We're changing that fast. Thank you. Big difference. Big difference.

00:10:56.920 Big difference. And then they do what they do. They sign the executive order.

00:11:03.800 Okay. Let's go. Does anybody want this panel? Sure. Thank you very much. Thank you all for being

00:11:13.320 here. Appreciate it. Okay. Here you go.

00:11:25.400 That's a declaration of war, a trade war. It's on. Let me read a little bit of that executive order to

00:11:40.720 you. So it's sort of the opposite of the banter and blarney of the Trump press conference. It's just

00:11:47.300 the executive order, which is not particularly a law. It's not a statute. But in some ways, it's more

00:11:52.180 powerful than a law because it doesn't get watered down or delayed by the legislative process, by

00:11:56.960 congressmen. It's more limited than a law under the U.S. Constitution. But the president can do what

00:12:02.740 he wants to a large extent in the executive branch of the government. That means the cabinet positions

00:12:07.320 here. Let me quote. And again, this is the opposite of secret. It's right there on the White House

00:12:13.180 website. They're advertising. And here's what it looks like on the website. Executive order on

00:12:17.800 strengthening by American preferences for infrastructure projects. So I'm going to give

00:12:23.220 you a little bit of legalese. I know I'm spending way more time than normal on just giving you the

00:12:28.720 facts before I then give you my commentary and analysis. But that is because the entire Canadian

00:12:34.440 political media establishment has not reported this. Not a peep anywhere that I've seen.

00:12:42.160 Neither from the government nor the opposition. Neither from the state broadcaster nor any private

00:12:47.400 broadcaster. So I want you to be very well briefed on the facts because you will be the first person

00:12:52.360 in your circle to know this. And I want you to really know it. So I'm going to read this executive

00:12:57.220 order. Let me get into the text of it. By the authority vested in me as president by the constitution

00:13:03.420 and the laws of the United States of America and to strengthen by American principles in federal

00:13:08.840 financial assistance programs, it is hereby ordered as follows. Section one policy as expressed in

00:13:15.800 executive order 13788 of April 18th, 2017 by American and higher American. It is the policy

00:13:23.160 of the executive branch to maximize consistent with law, the use of goods, products and materials

00:13:29.720 produced in the United States in federal procurements and through the terms and conditions of federal

00:13:35.960 financial assistance awards. Okay. Like I say, it's not a law, but it has the force and effect of a law

00:13:42.200 over those matters that the U.S. president can control through his executive authority. And he's

00:13:46.640 saying anything the federal government buys, anything that the federal government spends its

00:13:51.900 money on finances, it's got to be American made. I'm not going to read the entire order, although it's

00:13:57.740 fairly brief, but look at the definitions of what's covered. This is really important. I think this is

00:14:02.040 the heart of the heart of it. Section two definitions as used in this order, a produced in the United

00:14:08.640 States means for iron and steel products that all manufacturing processes from the initial melting

00:14:15.680 stage through the application of coatings occurred in the United States. So there goes any Canadian steel.

00:14:22.880 Sorry, guys. Here's some more.

00:14:27.500 C. Manufactured products means items and construction materials composed in whole or in part of

00:14:34.380 non-ferrous metals such as aluminum, plastics and polymer-based products such as polyvinyl chloride

00:14:40.900 pipe, aggregates such as concrete, glass, including optical fiber, and lumber. So it's not just steel.

00:14:50.440 It's plastic and concrete and wood and glass. Everything made it a factory pretty much.

00:14:57.420 That's why they love Trump in the Rust Belt, in those working class states. And that's why Trump

00:15:02.840 won in Ohio and Indiana and Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and Michigan and places that Republicans

00:15:07.620 haven't won in a generation. Because Trump didn't tell those people like the snooty liberals did for

00:15:13.040 so long to just suck it up and yeah, you're out of the job of the factory, just learn how to code or 0.62

00:15:17.780 whatever millennials do when they're not ordering $15 avocado toasts. Trump doesn't hate working

00:15:24.680 people. I think he loves them. Take a look.

00:15:28.260 Well, you know, Kevin, when I took over, the Rust Belt was really in trouble. Many people were saying

00:15:34.600 it's dying, it's dead, people were leaving. And I love the Rust Belt. And the Rust Belt is no longer

00:15:39.880 the Rust Belt, as far as I'm concerned. It's vibrant. It's doing so well. You look at all of those red marks,

00:15:45.880 those red marks are where it's flourishing. Tremendous numbers. And that's fantastic. We're very proud.

00:15:53.960 Compare that to Justin Trudeau talking about pipelines or the oil sands or industrial scale mines.

00:16:02.360 I've said time and time again, and you're all tired of hearing me say it, you can't make a choice between

00:16:07.960 what's good for the environment and what's good for the economy. We can't shut down the oil sands tomorrow.

00:16:14.600 We need to phase them out. We need to manage the transition off of our dependence on fossil fuels.

00:16:21.400 We need to phase them out. Who is fighting for their workers? Justin Trudeau is not. Donald Trump is.

00:16:27.160 Okay, just a bit more from the executive order. It's not actually that long.

00:16:30.360 It's just a little bit of legalese, but it's actually fairly plain, isn't it?

00:16:33.240 But here's a scary part of it. Listen to all the projects that Canadian firms will now be shut out from.

00:16:41.960 Section D, infrastructure project, means a project to develop public or private physical assets

00:16:49.000 that are designed to provide or support services to the general public in the following sectors.

00:16:53.960 Surface transportation, including roadways, bridges, railroads, and transit. Aviation.

00:16:59.240 Ports, including navigational channels. Water resources. Projects. Energy production.

00:17:07.240 Generation and storage, including from fossil fuels, renewable, nuclear, and hydroelectric sources.

00:17:13.560 Electricity transmission. Gas, oil, and propane storage and transmission. Electric oil, natural gas,

00:17:19.240 and propane distribution systems. Broadband internet, pipelines, stormwater, and sewer infrastructure.

00:17:25.640 Drinking water infrastructure. Drinking water infrastructure. Cyber security. And any other

00:17:29.560 sector designated through a notice published in the Federal Register by the Federal Permitting

00:17:35.160 Improvement Steering Council. So yeah, I'm not sure if there's anything really left out of that.

00:17:41.640 He even talks about oil and gas. He even talks about renewables. Now, I'm not a trade lawyer,

00:17:46.840 but I think that means Canada won't even be able to make the Keystone XL pipeline that Trudeau approved.

00:17:55.160 Even though it's a Canadian company that owns it. I think Americans have to build it. 0.92

00:17:58.760 I mean, now, Trudeau doesn't care. He doesn't want Canadians to build pipelines in Canada. He can't

00:18:02.920 very well demand that Canadians be allowed to build pipelines in America. I'm not talking about the

00:18:07.160 workers. I'm talking about the steel. Can't even sell the steel for it. So what do we have here?

00:18:12.920 Well, we have Donald Trump keeping a promise. A promise to the people who vote for him.

00:18:19.080 I know that they hate Donald Trump in the fancy circles in Canada. I still can't believe that

00:18:23.720 Chrystia Freeland was the keynote speaker at an explicitly anti-Trump rally in Toronto during the

00:18:28.600 NAFTA renegotiations. The Liberals hate Donald Trump. Freeland and Trudeau hate Trump. The Canadian

00:18:34.520 media hates Trump. The CBC is obsessed with Trump. And that all makes them feel really good. But Trump

00:18:40.120 literally couldn't care less. Because Ontario and Quebec and British Columbia and the CBC head office,

00:18:47.480 they don't have votes in the US electoral college in 2020. Michigan does. Ohio does. And he's taking

00:18:55.400 jobs from Canada and giving it to them. The latest US jobs report was stunning, by the way. I don't know if

00:19:05.240 you saw this. 304,000 new jobs in January alone. Almost double predictions. That's in America. 300,000 new

00:19:18.680 jobs. I'm sorry, that's amazing. Canada's jobs report for January doesn't come out for a couple more days.

00:19:27.640 But for the previous month, December 2018, Canada created a grand total of 9,600 jobs. And it's

00:19:37.320 actually worse than that. Because Canada actually lost 18,900 full-time jobs in December. But there

00:19:44.680 were 28,300 new part-time jobs. So that's the only reason the number is positive at all.

00:19:49.400 So Canada created net 9,300 jobs in the last month for which we have data. America created 304,000.

00:19:58.920 That is 32 times more than we created. And they only have nine times our population, but 32 times as much

00:20:05.160 jobs growth. Hey, what do you think this new buy American, hire American executive order signed on

00:20:11.720 Thursday at noon? What do you think that's going to do to these job numbers? That executive order is now

00:20:17.960 in effect. He signed it. You saw him. So it starts now. I predict we will see outright job losses in

00:20:25.880 Canada, not in the January numbers that are going to come out this week. But of course,

00:20:30.760 going forward, the February numbers that we'll see in a month.

00:20:35.160 Do you not think this ought to be news in Canada? This is a trade war. I know he was all jokey and

00:20:42.520 banter, high fives. And now those were the Americans who were going to get the jobs. 0.96

00:20:48.440 This is a trade war just, just right after we were supposed to have signed up

00:20:54.200 for the renewed NAFTA. But as I write this, as I say this, not a single Canadian media outlet,

00:21:02.200 at least according to Google's news search, has written about the story.

00:21:08.120 You could see a buy American executive order sorted by date. It's not there. There's nothing.

00:21:14.200 Here's the CBC's internal search engine. If you go to the CBC and type in buy American,

00:21:19.880 you'll see a story from November. You'll see a story from 2017. There are a few hits from the past,

00:21:25.400 including during the NAFTA renegotiations, but nothing about this huge news from Thursday.

00:21:31.400 Hey, come on. Every journalist is silent. It's Trump. He's so noisy. I thought, I thought the

00:21:40.280 Toronto Star had that guy, Daniel Dale, who's got this list of 7,000 fibs that Donald Trump told. So,

00:21:45.640 so Daniel Dale is listening to every word Trump says, and he just sort of missed this.

00:21:52.280 Well, because these reporters aren't really in the reporting business. They're in the PR business,

00:21:56.680 or at least whatever it takes to get their share of Trudeau's $595 million bailout. You tell me a

00:22:02.360 more persuasive explanation. I put it to you that they can't have missed it. How could they have

00:22:07.640 missed it? I put it to you that they don't want to report this because this puts Trudeau and Freeland

00:22:12.760 in a bad position. Now to be honest, it's hard to be mad at Trump for doing this. I mean, it's going

00:22:21.960 to hurt Canada. But he's doing this for his people. This is how national leaders are supposed to act,

00:22:31.160 I think, in their own national interests. It's hard for smaller countries with smaller economies

00:22:36.840 like Canada to act that way. America remains the world's essential economic engine, despite what the

00:22:41.880 China obsessed pundits say. And in fact, Trump's hard line with China is really his main point here.

00:22:48.200 That's why he's doing this. He doesn't mean to come for us. I told you, he said China 28 times.

00:22:53.000 He didn't say Canada one time, but that's the thing. I really believe Trump was trying to shoot at China,

00:22:58.520 but we are the collateral damage. But because we have such a weak prime minister and a weak foreign

00:23:04.360 minister, Christian Freeland, who's never negotiated anything of any size in life, but she thought that

00:23:10.440 her hip millennial Twitter squad shown here were the best people in our entire country to personally 0.96

00:23:16.760 lead the NAFTA trade negotiations. Well, look, we have no clue. We have no relationship left with

00:23:22.920 Trump down there. We have no one on our side down there. I wonder if Christian Freeland herself even

00:23:27.480 knows about this news. She's probably on some TV pundits panel or something, you know, posing for another 0.99

00:23:33.240 magazine cover. I scrolled through her Twitter feed and that of foreign affairs department.

00:23:39.320 And there's nothing about this. Nothing. She's got a tweet about a visit she made to a daycare

00:23:45.560 the other day. It's got, it's got nothing to do with the federal government.

00:23:49.080 Daycares are not the federal government's department. It's got nothing to do with foreign affairs.

00:23:53.720 But that's how she's spending her time. I wonder if she even knows

00:23:57.560 about this executive order. Let me read her daycare tweet. It was great to stop by one of the many

00:24:04.040 daycares in Uni-Rose. That's University of Rosedale. That's the name of her writing.

00:24:09.080 Thank you to all the hardworking caregivers who do this essential work. And thank you to the

00:24:13.080 brilliant students who helped me practice my French.

00:24:18.120 Yeah. Okay. That, that goes in your diary, sister. That, that's, um, can we get a little bit

00:24:23.880 more foreign ministry stuff? Like the trade war just declared against us. Yeah. I am not sure if

00:24:31.720 we have anyone who is looking out for our national interest. Do you? So you can't blame Trump really

00:24:37.320 for doing what he said he would do in a thousand campaign stops. It's all he talked about. Buy American,

00:24:43.000 hire American. He talked about reshoring factories. That's the office opposite of offshoring factories.

00:24:49.160 He talked about bringing industrial jobs back to America. He said it so many times and,

00:24:55.160 and I guess he meant it because he's doing it. And I think it might even be working for him.

00:25:00.200 I wish we had his job reports. Don't you? I wish we had a leader who, who actually loved industry,

00:25:09.160 who actually loved working men and women. Look at this. Justin Trudeau would never stand next to a

00:25:14.280 sign saying that he loves coal or loves oil, Woody. Trump does. And you know what? He bloody well means

00:25:20.920 it. So I don't think you've been told the news. Our political class is clueless or despondent or

00:25:29.240 something. Who knows? Our media class is incurious and uninterested. Or maybe they are actively in spin

00:25:36.280 mode for Trudeau as in hide mode. I have no idea. I'm sorry. They just declared a trade war against

00:25:43.720 Canada and no one's talking about him. So what should Trudeau do? What should we do?

00:25:50.840 Well, I think we should look at what Stephen Harper did exactly 10 years ago when Barack Obama did the

00:25:54.840 same thing to us. Protectionism is a bipartisan thing in the States. The first thing Stephen Harper did

00:26:01.640 when Barack Obama brought in Buy America, I think he called it the Reinvest in America Act in 2009,

00:26:07.240 the first thing Harper did was to make a fuss, not rudely, not by going to rallies calling Obama a

00:26:14.360 tyrant, but by relentlessly phoning and meeting and bugging Obama to carve out an exemption for Canada.

00:26:22.040 Harper just wouldn't stop. It was his top priority. He wasn't rude about it. He wasn't embarrassing.

00:26:28.040 But here, let's quote Obama. Here's Obama basically saying, all right, all right, stop pestering me,

00:26:35.480 Steve. We'll exempt Canada. Take a listen to Obama himself. The Buy American provisions that were there,

00:26:43.080 as I noted at the time, we made sure that they were WTO compliant. That doesn't mean that they're not a

00:26:51.160 source of irritation between the United States and Canada. Prime Minister Harper, I want to emphasize,

00:26:57.560 has brought this up with me every single time we've met, so he's been on the job on this issue,

00:27:03.240 and our teams have been working together. It appears that there may be ways to deal with this

00:27:08.600 bilaterally, but also potentially multilaterally. Believe me, I could show you a dozen more video

00:27:14.760 clips like that. Harper made it his top priority. Did you know he had every Canadian cabinet minister

00:27:19.320 fly down to Washington to meet with their American counterparts, with Obama's cabinet secretaries?

00:27:24.200 Importantly, Harper appointed a former New Democrat premier, Gary Dewar,

00:27:30.760 as our ambassador to Washington. Why would Harper do that? Why would he choose a New Democrat?

00:27:36.680 Harper's so right-wing. Why did he choose a socialist? Well, because the point of an ambassador is to

00:27:43.000 assess the political landscape in the other country, and to do your best to persuade other countries of

00:27:48.120 your Canadian interests. So send a friendly socialist down as an ambassador to Obama.

00:27:53.960 The friendly socialist. Gary Dewar did a great job, by the way, regardless of his partisan stripe.

00:28:01.400 And by the way, I don't even think it's socialist to defend Canada's interest to Obama. It's just so he

00:28:06.680 he would click with Obama. They would get along. The point is, Harper knew that Obama and Obama's people

00:28:12.120 would viscerally like Dewar more than if Harper had sent some right-winger down there. And not once

00:28:21.320 in his term as prime minister did Stephen Harper himself ever badmouth Obama or his people in public.

00:28:27.400 Not once. He bit his tongue, even when Obama slighted us. Trudeau does not have that personal

00:28:34.520 discipline. Trudeau has done the opposite. Trudeau has sent the most irritating liberals to interact

00:28:39.960 with Trump. There was no reason to send quirky, eccentric, irritating, narcissistic, know-nothing 0.99

00:28:48.440 Chrystia Freeland to have been the lead negotiator on the NAFTA renegotiation. That is a legal,

00:28:54.120 technical job. I mean, put aside the fact that we got fleeced in those renegotiations. That this

00:28:59.480 Buy American executive order on Thursday proves that she failed to make a dent in them. Why would you 1.00

00:29:05.800 send someone who was not a trade lawyer to lawyer a trade deal? Is she going to try surgery next? 1.00

00:29:15.000 Other than vanity and photo ops, instead of building friendships with Trump and biting his tongue

00:29:21.400 the way Harper did with Obama, Justin Trudeau has gone to the United States again and again. He's gone

00:29:26.840 there about a dozen times. But he very rarely meets Republicans. He prefers to meet with his Democrat

00:29:33.320 buddies of the most extreme variety. Here he is meeting with Barack Obama's first campaign 0.99

00:29:39.400 chairman, David Axelrod. Axelrod has no power anymore. I think he's with some college or some

00:29:43.640 think tank. Why are you meeting with Obama insiders now? Obama's gone. Obama's not in office anymore.

00:29:51.160 Why aren't you meeting with Trump insiders? Watch this clip. I've shown this clip before as evidence

00:29:58.840 that Trudeau is obviously drunk or stoned on those flights. As you know, he goes through

00:30:03.800 thousands of dollars worth of liquor. And of course, marijuana is legal now. You can see in this video,

00:30:09.640 just standing up and sitting down, Trudeau wobbles three times. He's clearly inebriated.

00:30:16.040 That's the fun of this video. But the point is, why isn't he meeting with Republicans?

00:30:22.920 Republicans, Kellyanne Conway, Mike Pence, Jared Kushner. If he hates Trump so much,

00:30:27.640 fine. Meet with Trump's people. Here, take a look. Thank you so much.

00:30:43.640 There were four wobbles there. Stephen Harper didn't just meet with cabinet ministers and congressmen.

00:30:52.120 He also met with United States-based companies that were lobbying for Buy American. But get this,

00:30:59.320 one of the companies that was present at Trump's Buy American press conference on Thursday

00:31:05.000 is called McWane. That's just the name of the company. I never heard of it before.

00:31:10.440 They make things like iron pipes, fire hydrants, that sort of thing. Heavy industry, right?

00:31:16.040 They love these Buy America rules. They were part of the Obama Buy American lobby group too. Like I say,

00:31:22.840 this is bipartisan. Now back under Obama, Gary Dewar, our ambassador, summoned McWane to the Canadian

00:31:31.640 embassy and said, hmm, you guys sell a lot of stuff into Canada. Be a shame if anything happened

00:31:40.040 to your sales into Canada. Hey, why don't we all focus on the real bad guys here? China dumping cheap 0.80

00:31:49.240 steel. And why don't you guys sign a letter? McWane, the American company, why don't you sign a letter

00:31:57.000 calling for an exemption for Canada? Keep us out of it. Because you wouldn't want anything to happen

00:32:04.200 to your exports to Canada now, would you? So a little bit of hardball. Canada basically said,

00:32:13.160 if you don't ask Obama to exempt us, you just might find yourself having some problems in our markets,

00:32:18.440 especially given some of the legal and ethical problems that McWane was having at the time.

00:32:22.280 That's a little bit of Trump style negotiating, isn't it? 10 years ago by Harper and Dewar.

00:32:28.440 And would you look at that? McWane, the folks who were literally standing next to Trump on Thursday,

00:32:36.680 back a decade ago, they wrote a letter to the, well, in this case, they wrote it to a

00:32:46.280 congressman, but he was the protectionist congressman. Basically, they wrote a letter to

00:32:50.920 Obama saying, hey guys, we really like this bi-American stuff, but we don't mind if Canada 0.72

00:32:58.040 is allowed to sell into the US also. Can you believe that? That's what Harper and his diplomats

00:33:05.080 did. Harper and his team met with all sorts of American companies that had operations on both

00:33:10.280 sides of the border. And they made the case to these Americans that the problem is not Canada.

00:33:15.480 You know, we have balanced trade with America. We buy as much from them as they buy from us.

00:33:19.080 That's fair dealing. The problem is obviously China and their tariffs and their dumping. 0.99

00:33:25.320 So it was so persuasive. Harper got the exemptions Canada needed by making it his top priority,

00:33:32.440 by not being rude, by sending an ambassador that clicked with Obama, by being a little bit tough

00:33:37.480 with companies, but just making the case. Stephen Harper spent his political capital

00:33:43.240 serving our national interest. He didn't spend his political capital as Trudeau and Freeland did

00:33:49.480 over the past year demanding bizarre things like feminist or environmentalist clauses in the NAFTA

00:33:57.560 deal. What is that about? Climate change in the NAFTA deal? Gender in the NAFTA deal?

00:34:03.240 Stephen Harper spent his political capital defending Canadian jobs. Justin Trudeau. Well, to be frank,

00:34:11.800 he doesn't really like industrial jobs. He thinks they should be phased out. You heard him.

00:34:18.040 He's canceling them anyways. And he really does prefer Democrats. Even if they don't control the White

00:34:23.960 House, Trudeau just can't stomach playing nice with Trump. Even if it's what diplomacy calls for,

00:34:31.480 even if it's literally what diplomacy means. We are in a trade war as bad as anything we faced

00:34:37.640 in a decade. That's dangerous. But just as dangerous and more inexplicable is a media party

00:34:46.520 and a political establishment, including Andrew Scheer's conservatives, I might add,

00:34:51.800 who haven't said a word about this. How bizarre.

00:35:01.480 I took responsibility for content that appeared on my page in the Eastern Virginia Medical School

00:35:15.720 Yearbook. That was clearly racist and offensive. I am not and will not excuse the content of the photo.

00:35:24.760 It was offensive, racist and despicable. When my staff showed me the photo in question yesterday,

00:35:34.840 I was seeing it for the first time. I did not purchase the EVMS yearbook and I was unaware of what

00:35:42.200 was on my page. When I was confronted with the images yesterday, I was appalled that they appeared on

00:35:49.960 my page. But I believe then and now that I am not either of the people in that photo.

00:35:59.400 So he never saw his own yearbook. It was on his page. He's apologizing for it, but he's also saying

00:36:06.440 it wasn't him. Sounds legit. That's the Democratic governor for Virginia. For now, joining us now via

00:36:14.840 Skype is our friend Pardes Saleh, a reporter with Mediaite. It was what was a spectacular

00:36:20.840 press conference. Pardes, nice to see you again. Welcome back. Hi. Good to see you too. Thanks.

00:36:27.400 It was quite a spectacle. I mean, what can you do? Let's put the image up here right now to show people

00:36:32.040 what all the fuss was about. This is a Democrat and this wasn't a high school yearbook. So this is

00:36:37.400 not a teenager. He was in medical school and that image on the right there. Yeah. Oh, that's old timey

00:36:46.840 Virginia. What do you think of that Pardes? Yeah, I think it's the thing that comes to mind is actually 0.99

00:36:53.160 how much Brett Kavanaugh was thrilled over his high school nickname. He had some, some little nickname

00:36:59.800 that wasn't even significant, something to do with his beer stuff and his affection for beer and

00:37:09.240 how much the Democrats thrilled him over that. And now a literal photo on Ralph Northam's page with

00:37:18.440 KKK robe and black face shows up and it's not getting the same outrage.

00:37:26.920 Well, I mean, it is getting a lot of Democrats distancing him, uh, themselves from him, but

00:37:32.840 he's still there. He doesn't seem like he wants to resign. He's claiming it wasn't him. Um,

00:37:40.040 although I don't believe that first of all, his, his yearbook says his nickname. I don't even want to

00:37:45.160 say this word, but it's, it's his nickname that was on the yearbook. So this is not how I talk. I've

00:37:50.360 never said this word before, but his official nickname was coon man. And that is a rooted in 1.00

00:37:57.720 a derogatory term for black people. I'm just saying it cause that's, I don't believe for a

00:38:03.560 second, this guy's excuse that he never saw it before. Uh, I, I just don't buy that. What,

00:38:08.520 what do you think? Is he credible? Does anyone believe him? First of all, Pardes probably has to

00:38:13.400 say that it wasn't him because, uh, this is, she has to stay in office. Like Democrats need him to

00:38:20.040 stay in office. And I think a lot of people on his, uh, political side are very upset about the photo

00:38:25.880 and they're probably very, very, very angry at him. But at the same time, they need to keep him in

00:38:30.760 office. So if he says that it wasn't him, they're going to say, okay, it wasn't him. He said it.

00:38:36.920 Well, I want to show you some other excerpts from his press conference. I'm not sure if they want

00:38:41.960 him in office. Cause I think, I don't know the U S constitutional system, but I think that the

00:38:45.320 Lieutenant governor, who's also a Democrat, I think would, would take over. Um, I don't know.

00:38:51.400 I think he just has nothing to lose by staying in his career is over. Why not stick around? I don't

00:38:57.400 know. It'll be interesting, but let me show you a few more tidbits from that press conference.

00:39:02.520 Cause it was quite something. He says, no, no, no, that's not me in blackface.

00:39:06.600 But he, he says he's done that sort of thing before. Um, because you know,

00:39:12.200 he's a big fan of Michael Jackson. Here, take a look.

00:39:14.760 That same year. I did participate in a dance contest in San Antonio,

00:39:20.440 in which I darkened my face as part of a Michael Jackson costume. I look back now and regret that

00:39:28.600 I did not understand the harmful legacy of an action like that. It is because my memory of that

00:39:35.320 episode is so vivid that I truly did not believe I am in the picture in my yearbook.

00:39:40.840 That's just a, that's just a weird excuse. And I don't know why he won't say blackface dark in my 0.97

00:39:48.360 face. He's just, it's weird that he's rolling that out. I wonder what else he's scared of that.

00:39:54.040 He's just trying to get it all out in this one moment. What do you think of that Michael Jackson

00:39:58.760 impersonator thing? He looks more like an Elvis impersonator to me.

00:40:02.120 I wish he did the moonwalk. That would have been so epic. That would have made my day if he just

00:40:09.080 moonwalked. It's funny you say that because he was, it was specifically asked that. That's our next clip.

00:40:13.640 Um, a reporter there had the presence of mind to say, really, Michael Jackson, uh, and take a look at this exchange.

00:40:20.600 You said that the competition in San Antonio was a dance competition? Yes.

00:40:25.960 And it was that you danced the moonwalk? That's right. Are you still able to moonwalk?

00:40:30.520 Oh. Inappropriate circumstances. My wife says inappropriate circumstances.

00:40:38.920 Pardes, I think he really was going to prove that he could moonwalk until his wife said,

00:40:45.960 yeah, don't do that, Ralph. I think he, in his mind would think if I can show that I can moonwalk,

00:40:53.800 that will show, so show my love for Michael Jackson, people will forgive me for dressing up either in

00:41:01.560 blackface or as the Klansman. Cause look, I like you people. I even can breakdance like Michael Jackson,

00:41:09.560 and you can call me my racist nickname because I meant it affectionately. I think I've never seen

00:41:15.240 anyone so stunned in my life. Was he serious? Was he seriously going to moonwalk there?

00:41:22.200 Probably. I mean, the whole thing sounds like, uh, he sounds a little bit oblivious in the moment,

00:41:29.320 so maybe. Look, it's too much fun. It's too much fun because, um, all of this feels like payback for

00:41:37.720 the way the Democrats treated, uh, Brett Kavanaugh, the, uh, uh, Donald Trump's nominee for

00:41:45.000 the Justice Department. I'm sorry, for, for the Supreme Court. Um, but it's actually, uh,

00:41:51.640 I think obscures a far more egregious, um, statement that the same governor, Ralph Northam,

00:41:59.480 made a couple of days earlier. And look, we're having a lot of fun. We're laughing about the

00:42:03.720 fact that he says he can do a Michael Jackson impression. We're laughing about his goofy 0.51

00:42:07.400 excuse. I didn't dress in blackface then. I did then. So it's okay then and not then.

00:42:12.520 But let me play for you his comments about live birth abortion. I know that's such a crazy phrase.

00:42:19.160 People are saying, what are you talking about? A bill going through Virginia that would allow a baby to

00:42:25.320 actually be born and then aborted when it is actually alive and outside of the mom. That's

00:42:32.040 it's not a fetus anymore. That's a fully born baby here. Don't take it from me. Listen to this

00:42:37.240 Michael Jackson impersonator, um, talk about how it would go down. Take a look.

00:42:41.800 There are no exception. There was a very contentious committee hearing yesterday when Fairfax County

00:42:46.680 delegate Kathy Tran made her case for lifting restrictions on third trimester abortions,

00:42:51.800 as well as other restrictions now in place. And she was pressed by a Republican delegate about

00:42:56.360 whether her bill would permit an abortion, even as a woman is essentially dilating, ready to give birth.

00:43:02.440 And she answered that it would permit an abortion at that stage of labor. Do you support her measure 0.82

00:43:10.040 and explain her answer? Yeah. And I'm, you know, I wasn't there, uh, Julie, and I certainly can't

00:43:16.600 speak for, uh, delegate Tran, but, um, I will tell you one, uh, first thing I would say, this is why

00:43:23.480 decisions such as this should be made by providers, uh, physicians, uh, and, uh, the, uh, mothers and

00:43:31.480 fathers that, that are involved. Um, there are, you know, when we talk about third trimester abortions,

00:43:37.800 these are done, uh, with the consent of obviously the, the mother with the consent, uh, of the physicians,

00:43:44.600 more than one physician, by the way. Um, and it's done in cases where there may be severe deformities.

00:43:50.600 There may be a, a fetus that's non viable. So in this particular example, uh, if a mother is in

00:43:56.840 labor, I can tell you exactly, uh, what would happen. Um, the infant would be delivered. Uh, the infant would

00:44:03.000 be kept comfortable. Uh, the infant would be resuscitated if, if that's what the, uh, mother and the

00:44:08.600 family desired. And then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mothers. 0.80

00:44:13.800 But as I got to tell you, I was having a good laugh at this idiot talking about breakdancing 0.99

00:44:18.600 and offering to do a moonwalk and how he wasn't in blackface here, but he was there. That's all just, 0.99

00:44:25.400 that's just all entertainment. But what he's talking about for a governor of a serious state

00:44:32.040 and a serious party to, to be totally calm about, I'm sorry, that's killing a baby.

00:44:39.720 That's not, that's not pro-choice anymore. That's, that's not an, that's not even an abortion

00:44:43.480 anymore. To me, that is far more shocking than his goofy college yearbook photo.

00:44:50.840 Well, you want to know what I heard on Twitter? Because Twitter is where everything happened.

00:44:54.680 Uh, someone said, and this is going to sound crazy, but someone, someone wrote that it could

00:45:02.600 be that Northam's own people put, uh, had that photo sent out in order to distract from his

00:45:11.160 infanticide comment, uh, from his statement. I mean, it's called, it's being noted as infanticide,

00:45:17.720 his statement, uh, basically endorsing partial birth, uh, partial birth abortion, which is like

00:45:25.800 killing a baby as it's, as the baby's already coming out.

00:45:31.480 I saw that same speculation on Twitter and you know what? I do give it credit and here's why.

00:45:37.720 Because if the Republicans were the ones who had that blackface Klan yearbook photo, 0.96

00:45:44.280 why didn't they use it during the campaign? That would have been a kill shot. 0.95

00:45:47.800 So obviously the Republicans didn't have it. Someone had it. And those comments were so

00:45:53.800 egregious, uh, about infanticide and they were getting such wide coverage. I think it,

00:45:59.640 I think they decided to abort his political candidates, his political career to distract,

00:46:06.360 not only to cover up the news of his disastrous infanticide comments, but to take him out so he's no

00:46:13.800 longer a legitimate face of the Democrats. I have to say that is actually the most logical explanation

00:46:20.840 because of the Republicans had it, they would have used it before. What do you think of that?

00:46:25.640 They would have definitely Ed Gillespie, his, his former, uh, challenger would have his,

00:46:31.720 his people would have, his research team would have used it for sure. Um, and people are saying that,

00:46:37.640 wow, it's crazy that this infanticide endorsement, it didn't end his career and the blackface did or 1.00

00:46:43.720 whatever, but it could be that that did end his career. And this is just a distraction in the end.

00:46:50.200 Yeah. It's the mop up team. Of course, um, there weren't a lot of journalists who were appalled by the

00:46:56.520 infanticide comment. I think it was more Republicans, conservative commentators. I think that is actually

00:47:02.200 fairly close to the norm in the media. I mean, in Canada, what's shocking in the States, we have no

00:47:09.560 abortion law in Canada whatsoever. It's, it's literally until the moment of birth, abortion is,

00:47:15.560 is lawful in Canada and in fact paid for by taxpayers. So I think that is considered the

00:47:20.120 political norm amongst the media class. Um, but some more thoughtful Democrat probably said,

00:47:26.840 we got to switch the channel. What do you think is going to happen? You, you say the Democrats don't

00:47:31.160 want him out. I actually think they do. I mean, I don't know the Virginia system, but I would imagine

00:47:36.520 that they would replace him with, I think the Lieutenant Governor is a Democrat also. Um, but

00:47:42.200 why would he step down other than the abuse? Like he's got no political future anymore. I don't think

00:47:47.000 everyone's jumping on him from across the party. Uh, do you think he's going to try and weather it out

00:47:53.160 or will he just be too impotent because no one will want to deal with him? Well, last night, uh,

00:47:59.160 I keep going back and forth too, by the way. Uh, but last night he put out a, I think it,

00:48:05.080 I don't know if it was him who put out a statement. Uh, someone, someone put out a statement saying

00:48:09.960 that he was considering resigning. I don't know if it means that he will, but it means that it could

00:48:16.120 be a very big chance of happening. Well, we'll see it anyways. I certainly enjoyed going through the

00:48:22.600 crazy press conference with you. And although that was fun and crazy, his infanticide comments,

00:48:27.240 I think are by four more serious. Pardes, great to see you. We look forward to talking to you next

00:48:30.360 week. You too. Thank you. All right. There you have it. Pardes Salah, a reporter with mediaite.com.

00:48:37.000 She joins us via Skype from Washington, DC. Stay with us. More ahead on The Rebel.

00:48:40.840 Hey, welcome back on my monologue Friday about the CBC trying to get a refugee advocate fired over a

00:48:57.480 two-year-old Facebook post. Henry writes, social workers are heroes. They're underpaid and do a lot

00:49:03.140 of hard work that doesn't get a lot of recognition. It's sad that people are attacking social workers

00:49:06.820 for political reasons. Well, we all work hard. I'm not sure if social workers work harder than

00:49:12.260 any of us. You know, I'm not going to fight you over that, but I don't think that's the center of

00:49:17.780 the issue here. I think the center of the issue is the fact that he's a social worker, shows that he is

00:49:22.740 your soft-hearted friend to all, who surely works overwhelmingly with minorities, Muslims, foreigners,

00:49:33.060 obviously. And to say that he's a bigot because he wants these people to integrate into Canadian

00:49:38.180 values, that's appalling. And that the CBC whips up a campaign to have him essentially fired.

00:49:48.660 To me, the key line in that report was that the CBC, when they called up the government to tattle on

00:49:54.500 him, that's the first government heard of it. No one thought this was an issue until the CBC became a

00:50:00.260 tattletale. I guess the lesson here is if they can do this to him, they can do it to you.

00:50:08.340 Susanna writes, we have entered the era where you can't trust your co-workers, neighbors, and even

00:50:12.740 family members to not report you to the authorities. That's exactly what this government and the minions

00:50:16.980 want, for people to be afraid to speak up. You're so right. And that snitch culture, that informant

00:50:22.980 culture is really the lifeblood of an authoritarian regime. We've talked about it before. We'll continue to

00:50:29.620 talk about it as the time is right. Pavlik Morozov, the young boy from Ukraine, who reported his

00:50:37.060 parents, Kulak farmers, to Stalin's KGB secret police, because he overheard his parents talking

00:50:45.220 over dinner, how they disagreed with Stalin's forced collectivization. His parents were sent off to the

00:50:50.900 gulag. And Pavlik Morozov was given a national honor. He was given the title informant number one

00:50:59.060 as a good thing. Like, I mean, in popular culture, oh, you're a rat, you're an informant. It's a 0.97

00:51:05.300 disparaging term. In the Soviet Union, this little boy, Pavlik Morozov, who put Stalin ahead of his own

00:51:12.100 parents, who sent his parents to prison because they said something bad about Stalin in the privacy of

00:51:17.220 their home. He was made a national hero. He was called informant number one. And every boy scout

00:51:22.820 in the Soviet Union, who's called the young pioneers, had to wear a little pin with Pavlik Morozov's

00:51:27.780 picture on it as a symbol that they too would put the state ahead of their own parents. That is the

00:51:34.580 lifeblood of an authoritarian, totalitarian regime. And I don't think we're there yet, of course,

00:51:41.300 but there are drops of it, aren't there? And this Twitter mob culture is certainly of a piece with it.

00:51:46.900 On my interview with Yasmeen Mohamed, Paul writes,

00:51:50.980 Virtue signaling takes cowardice, putting yourself in potential danger to save others' heroism. Yasmeen

00:51:56.580 Mohamed is a hero to many. Yeah, I really like talking with her. And you know, she said she was

00:52:02.500 finally getting some attention from the mainstream media. And sure enough, I did see her in other

00:52:08.580 media. And that is great. I mean, we love to discover these people, these thoughtful thinkers who

00:52:14.180 are marginalized by the mainstream. So we feel some sort of connection to them. We try and boost their

00:52:21.700 signal. To see them break into the mainstream is a thrilling feeling because it's a sign that maybe,

00:52:27.700 maybe we're having a little temporary victory in a small battle in the larger war. Well, folks,

00:52:34.340 that's the show for today. Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters,

00:52:38.100 goodnight, and keep fighting for freedom.

00:52:50.420 day a little while at Kenyon, because all of us will be loved.

00:52:51.300 We'll be back.

Rebel News Podcast - February 05, 2019

Trudeau Liberals silent as Trump bans Canadian goods and services from U.S. infrastructure projects

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