Rebel News Podcast - Vancouver’s city council declares “climate emergency”： Here's what this plan is REALLY all about

00:00:00.000 Tonight, Vancouver's City Council declares a climate emergency.

00:00:04.220 I guess it's easier than fixing their homelessness, housing costs, or drug gains.

00:00:08.980 It's January 17th, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.

00:00:13.760 Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?

00:00:17.560 There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.

00:00:21.640 The only thing I have to say to the government, the wire publisher, is because it's my bloody right to do so.

00:00:30.000 When you think of the great political institutions of the world, I mean, there's the U.S. Congress.

00:00:38.780 There's the Palace of Westminster, with the British House of Commons and the House of Lords.

00:00:43.540 Maybe you might throw in France's Parliament.

00:00:47.260 Well, whatever you do, don't ignore Vancouver's City Council.

00:00:50.700 In terms of sheer effectiveness, in terms of changing the world, healing the world, don't laugh.

00:00:58.080 In 1983, Vancouver declared itself to be a nuclear weapons-free zone.

00:01:04.420 Do you see that sign there? Scroll down a bit.

00:01:07.000 It says, Welcome to Vancouver, a nuclear weapons-free zone.

00:01:10.540 It's actually on a street sign.

00:01:14.500 So it's pretty official, people.

00:01:16.880 It was voted on and passed into law.

00:01:19.360 Well, fine, all the law really did was issue a press release and make Vancouver taxpayers have to pay for virtue signaling street signs around the city.

00:01:28.200 It's about as effective as those gun-free zone signs are in deterring criminals.

00:01:32.980 Oh, shoot, it's a gun-free zone. I won't take my gun.

00:01:35.580 But I'm here today to tell you that obviously it worked.

00:01:38.560 In the 30 years since Vancouver declared itself a nuclear weapons-free zone, there has never been a nuclear weapon in the city.

00:01:47.200 Am I right?

00:01:48.800 Well, actually, here's an image of the USS Ranger, an American aircraft carrier, sailing into Vancouver's harbor.

00:01:57.640 This is a couple years ago.

00:01:58.920 It just managed to squeeze under the bridges.

00:02:01.700 It's such a tall ship.

00:02:03.120 Now, the U.S. Navy's policy is to not announce whether there are nuclear weapons on any given vessel.

00:02:09.920 But sometimes they publish photos of nuclear weapons on a given vessel.

00:02:14.000 Pretty sure there were nuclear weapons on the boat when it sailed into Vancouver.

00:02:18.600 But let's not be nitpickers.

00:02:20.700 The Vancouver City Council banned nuclear weapons from the city, not from the water next to the city.

00:02:26.160 And anyways, none of the nuclear weapons were ever used in Vancouver.

00:02:29.420 And isn't that the important point?

00:02:30.580 And so I come back to you and say, do not underestimate the power or the vision or, if you're a bit more skeptical, the plain old craziness of Vancouver City Council.

00:02:41.660 And so let me announce to the world the next target of the city of Vancouver's aldermen.

00:02:46.680 I mean, these are the people who helped end the Cold War without a shop being fired.

00:02:50.340 So they like thinking big.

00:02:51.780 And I'm delighted to announce that the city of Vancouver's councillors have decided to solve the global warming crisis.

00:02:58.400 Vancouver City Council votes to declare a climate emergency.

00:03:03.980 Let me read a bit.

00:03:05.640 Vancouver City Council voted unanimously Wednesday night to declare a climate emergency.

00:03:10.740 Climate emergency.

00:03:12.820 The motion was introduced by one city councillor, Christine Boyle.

00:03:16.480 Now that the motion has passed, city staff will come up with new ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and set new climate change targets.

00:03:23.800 Boyle says her motion, passing unanimously, proves how important it is to be a greener city.

00:03:28.320 I think what she really means to say is this proves how important she is.

00:03:32.140 One more line from the story.

00:03:33.440 A rally was held earlier Wednesday outside City Hall with high school students demanding for climate change solutions.

00:03:40.160 Yeah, do you think that high school kids really decided to do that on their own?

00:03:46.620 Or do you think it was orchestrated by the hard left-wing teachers unions and other environmental activists in Vancouver

00:03:51.740 who have been given full access to Canadian schools and the children within them?

00:03:56.280 You know, I see calls from time to time to lower the voting age to teenagers.

00:04:00.200 Well, actually, teenagers can already vote 18 and 19.

00:04:02.640 I don't know any high school kids who have the capacity to be thoughtful voters.

00:04:07.140 I know some high schoolers, like myself at that age, were politically precocious

00:04:13.600 and could repeat political talking points like a party trick.

00:04:18.920 But when you still live at home with your parents and you have no responsibilities in life

00:04:22.500 and you're still being formed in every way, when you are still legally a child, 16, 17,

00:04:27.340 you are not your own moral agent ready to shape the world.

00:04:31.400 The only reason the left wants children to vote is because they can then go to the classrooms

00:04:35.380 during school time, during school hours, and put an entire class of kids on a bus

00:04:39.900 and then take them to the polling station and tell them to vote Liberal or NDP or Green.

00:04:44.560 I mean, the other week in Ontario, we saw teachers unions bus hundreds of children to Queen's Park

00:04:48.920 to protest against Doug Ford's decision to review the extreme child sex curriculum in this province.

00:04:54.580 Do you really think that the teenagers chose to do that?

00:04:58.580 Do you think they really understand the issues?

00:05:00.220 Do you think they know anything here?

00:05:01.920 Do you think their parents consented or even knew about that trip?

00:05:05.040 Of course not.

00:05:06.000 But children are the greatest prize, aren't they?

00:05:08.140 And that's not lost on political leftists.

00:05:09.980 Okay, back to Vancouver.

00:05:12.300 The city council.

00:05:14.380 The people who single-handedly ended the Cold War by banning nuclear weapons.

00:05:18.180 Now they want to end the hot war or whatever they think is going on with the weather,

00:05:22.100 which is weird because Vancouver's weather is pretty mild compared to the rest of the country.

00:05:26.020 And if you can stand the rain, it's great.

00:05:29.000 I mean, it's not a cold winter there.

00:05:30.240 They rarely have snow.

00:05:31.800 Do they not like it?

00:05:34.280 Nice and warm?

00:05:36.300 I mean, don't British Columbians know that the rest of Canada envies them?

00:05:41.240 Their weather?

00:05:42.920 This is the motion that was passed.

00:05:44.240 I'm going to read some of it to you.

00:05:45.080 This is how it was presented to city council.

00:05:47.600 It's called Ramping Up Vancouver's Climate Action in Response to the Climate Emergency, Emergency.

00:05:54.380 And it was submitted by that councillor Boyle.

00:05:56.120 Let me read it to you.

00:05:57.860 Let me just intro it a little bit.

00:05:59.420 I mean, climate emergency.

00:06:00.420 You know, I don't feel like it's an emergency to you because no one in the world is acting like it's an emergency.

00:06:07.740 And by that, I mean the people who claim it's an emergency.

00:06:10.580 They still jet around.

00:06:12.260 They still drive around.

00:06:13.440 In fact, the UN's global warming conferences are always in exotic locales around the world with tens of thousands of very important people coming to them by jet plane.

00:06:22.260 As opposed to, I don't know, even talking online over Skype or something.

00:06:26.280 Vancouver's a great airport.

00:06:28.140 It's one of the busiest airports in Canada.

00:06:29.700 I love that airport.

00:06:31.220 Many long-range routes to the Pacific Rim.

00:06:33.460 It's never been busier.

00:06:36.260 The biggest coal port on the west coast of North America is right there off Vancouver.

00:06:41.780 A lot of American coal comes up there by train, and then it's put onto ships to places like China.

00:06:49.640 So no one in Vancouver seems to be acting like it's a climate emergency.

00:06:54.420 None of the city councillors are, other than virtue signaling.

00:06:59.440 So it's an emergency for virtue signaling.

00:07:00.920 But here's what they say.

00:07:01.920 Let me read the motion.

00:07:02.620 Ready?

00:07:04.320 Whereas the British Columbia government declared a provincial state of emergency in 2018 over record-setting wildfires.

00:07:10.300 Okay, so that's the whereas.

00:07:11.920 That's the rationale.

00:07:12.860 Let's stop there for a second.

00:07:14.600 Wildfires are an emergency.

00:07:15.780 You could burn your house.

00:07:16.440 You could lose your house.

00:07:18.300 But that's a firefighting emergency.

00:07:21.340 And in the case of British Columbia, it's a crime emergency.

00:07:23.540 Here's a new story.

00:07:25.000 29 huge fires in B.C. in the past four years were caused by criminal arsonists.

00:07:29.440 Do you see that?

00:07:30.180 29 wildfires set by crooks.

00:07:33.980 So you can't just say that an arson is global warming.

00:07:39.060 Well, I mean, I guess the people who think they ended the nuclear arms race with a street sign might, but that's not a global warming thing.

00:07:47.340 I'll keep going.

00:07:49.500 Their next whereas is the legislature of British Columbia and the House of Commons of Canada acknowledged the growing crisis of climate breakdown by holding emergency debates following the release of the October 2018 IPCC report.

00:08:02.940 Well, if a political debate, if politicians talking about something isn't proof that something is a real emergency, I don't know what is.

00:08:12.320 Here's their third proof point.

00:08:15.100 Local governments around the world are taking new actions to avoid the worst impacts of climate breakdown.

00:08:19.600 That's a new phrase, isn't it?

00:08:20.520 And calling on senior levels of government for a more urgent emergency response.

00:08:24.600 So, so far, their rationale for declaring an emergency is a bunch of arson-caused fires, very important politicians debating in other legislatures, and very important politicians calling for an emergency.

00:08:38.480 So, I guess it's settled.

00:08:39.780 It's pretty circular, isn't it?

00:08:41.180 Politicians call for an emergency, therefore other politicians call for an emergency.

00:08:44.940 I mean, this is the science-driven, evidence-based politics of the future, I guess.

00:08:49.020 Now, this next part of the motion is a mouthful, and I think it's designed to shock and awe with baffle, gab, and jargon.

00:08:57.640 So, I'm going to read this really slowly, okay?

00:09:00.400 Okay.

00:09:00.460 Okay.

00:09:30.460 So, let's say I'm an eighth of a time.

00:10:00.440 A ton.

00:10:00.920 A rounding.

00:10:02.960 I could lose 10% of my weight, 25 pounds.

00:10:05.900 That's a good idea.

00:10:07.500 I could lose 50% of my weight.

00:10:09.240 That's not a good idea.

00:10:10.100 I'd be down 125 pounds.

00:10:12.740 But you can't take more than 250 pounds away from a 250-pound guy.

00:10:17.000 How do you reduce something more than 100%?

00:10:19.760 Well, the same way you just make the nuclear war go away by passing resolution.

00:10:24.540 I just want to explain a few things here.

00:10:25.720 The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, that's the United Nations, of course, politicians.

00:10:31.140 And look at that weird wording there.

00:10:32.560 Did you see that part?

00:10:33.600 Would imply global warming, net carbon dioxide emissions dropping 50%.

00:10:38.080 That's not even sound grammar.

00:10:39.680 It doesn't even mean it.

00:10:40.320 It's a word salad.

00:10:42.200 Because they're trying to say that if you reduce your man-made carbon dioxide by 50%, that implies you'll stop the world from warming.

00:10:54.160 That didn't even make sense.

00:10:56.100 But the UN doesn't actually say that ever, anywhere, not even in their craziest moments.

00:11:00.540 And I've been following this closely for 20 years.

00:11:02.740 No United Nations study or even their political emanations have ever said that reducing the human emissions of carbon dioxide will stop global warming.

00:11:13.660 They don't say that because even they know man-made emissions, even if they do contribute to global warming, are a tiny fraction compared to natural warming, natural emissions.

00:11:23.040 And the greatest greenhouse gas of all water vapor, you could delete every human from the planet and it would still warm.

00:11:29.660 I'm not trying to get science-y on you.

00:11:31.760 I'm just saying there's a reason they wrote that paragraph in such a word pretzel.

00:11:39.040 Because not even the crazy United Nations would ever say that if you ban cars, you'll change the weather.

00:11:43.880 No one, not even Justin Trudeau or Rachel Notley or Catherine McKenna says that a carbon tax, for example, will change any weather.

00:11:51.060 Their language, if they're ever pressed, which is rare that they're pressed, their language is that it's a moral symbol.

00:11:55.840 That it sets an example for the world.

00:11:57.940 But an example of what? 0.65

00:12:00.320 But since it's useless, an example of having more money than brains, an example of the kind of suckers we would be while China, India, Brazil, all the OPEC countries emit as much of whatever emissions they like while we waste our time and money on this stuff. 0.77

00:12:12.820 They never quite explain it, do they? 0.73

00:12:14.560 And Rachel Notley's explanation that putting a carbon tax on Alberta will appease Vancouverites into allowing a pipeline through social license.

00:12:22.600 Well, obviously that didn't work.

00:12:23.900 They just demanded more.

00:12:25.200 So I'm not going to go through the whole rationale.

00:12:27.040 Now, the motion is three pages long and a lot of it's baffled gab, but let me just read the action plan.

00:12:34.080 Therefore, be it resolved, the council recognize the breakdown of the stable climate and sea level under which human civilization developed constitutes an emergency for the city of Vancouver.

00:12:46.480 Hey, guys, we are about to be swallowed up by the sea.

00:12:50.980 And I don't think Vancouverites actually believe that, though.

00:12:54.520 I just don't think they really believe that.

00:12:57.620 Because if they did, those expensive houses right on the waterfront, including David Suzuki's, one of his four properties, his favorite property,

00:13:07.320 they would not be the most expensive parts of the city.

00:13:09.540 Suzuki literally lives right on the water.

00:13:14.500 That's his house on the left there.

00:13:17.440 And so does the former mayor, Gregor Robertson, lives on the same street.

00:13:20.900 Gregor Robertson was also on the Tides Foundation Canada board.

00:13:23.580 They live on the same street, right on the sea.

00:13:26.320 They'd be the first to go if the sea were to rise up, an angry sea.

00:13:33.420 So I don't think they believe it.

00:13:37.480 If I thought my $20 million house and Suzuki's houses were, I don't know, I haven't checked the property assessment.

00:13:44.400 Last I did, it was over $10 million.

00:13:45.620 If I thought my $10 million house was going to be swamped by the sea, and if I thought that it was really emergency, I'd sell it and head inland.

00:13:55.340 And David Suzuki is not.

00:13:58.360 Is that what you do in an emergency?

00:14:01.040 Here's a photo.

00:14:01.920 I love this photo.

00:14:03.200 Here's a comparison of sea levels in Sydney Harbor more than 120 years ago.

00:14:09.680 Sydney, Australia, by the way.

00:14:11.220 Sorry.

00:14:11.740 There's this little outpost called Fort Denison.

00:14:13.780 Do you see it there?

00:14:15.260 That's a photo from 130 years ago.

00:14:18.600 Do you see the water level?

00:14:19.500 Look very carefully.

00:14:20.140 Do you see the water level there?

00:14:22.540 Now here's the water level.

00:14:24.260 Same fort.

00:14:26.260 Now.

00:14:28.140 And the sea level's unchanged.

00:14:29.620 Sorry.

00:14:30.440 That's not quite true.

00:14:32.200 Scientists say the sea level's changing at about one millimeter a year.

00:14:36.880 That's the thickness of a dime.

00:14:38.460 I don't know how you'd even know.

00:14:41.500 Because that's like a drop of water.

00:14:43.360 So, if that continues, it will take 300 years for water to rise a foot.

00:14:52.300 300 years.

00:14:53.100 Yeah.

00:14:53.580 So, no.

00:14:54.460 It's fake.

00:14:55.180 It's not an emergency.

00:14:56.960 Sydney, by the way, has even more expensive housing than Vancouver.

00:15:00.440 And all the expensive stuff is right on the water, too, obviously.

00:15:03.920 Okay.

00:15:04.300 Back to the resolution.

00:15:06.400 Further.

00:15:07.220 You've got big plans here.

00:15:08.120 Further.

00:15:08.860 That council direct staff to report back within 90 days on opportunities to increase ambition

00:15:14.000 and or accelerate timelines for existing actions under the Renewable City Action Plan and Climate Adaptation Strategy.

00:15:23.040 Add new actions to help the city achieve its targets.

00:15:26.500 Add new actions that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions beyond the scope of the city's current climate targets.

00:15:31.300 Oh, so they don't really have a plan.

00:15:37.580 They want the bureaucrats just to come up with some plan in 90 days. 0.92

00:15:41.520 Yeah, I don't know if that's going to happen.

00:15:42.980 I mean, maybe they could cure cancer in 90 days, too.

00:15:46.060 But at least curing cancer is scientifically possible.

00:15:48.360 I suppose people changing the world's weather.

00:15:51.180 The U.N. itself says that will not happen.

00:15:54.820 But maybe the very last sentence of this motion is what this is really about.

00:16:00.700 That council direct staff to establish a climate and equity working group to provide guidance and support to the city's efforts to transition off fossil fuels in ways the priorities.

00:16:14.580 Again, weird wording there that those most vulnerable to climate impacts and most in need of support in transitioning to renewable energy.

00:16:22.160 So it's not really about controlling the weather.

00:16:25.180 It's about controlling people or climate equity, which really means changing how we live, changing the law, changing spending, using the climate emergency as the excuse for spending for more government.

00:16:36.080 That's what this is about.

00:16:39.460 Do you think they should work on their drug problem on East Hastings Street?

00:16:42.180 Do you think they should work on their housing pricing problem?

00:16:44.880 Do you think they should work on their gang problem?

00:16:47.460 Come on, that's boring!

00:16:50.900 They want to talk about the global warming because they want to control people.

00:16:53.720 But you see the threat of a millimeter a year sea level rise or the threat of arson fires as an excuse.

00:16:59.820 At least the last, at least the last threat, nuclear war, was a real threat.

00:17:04.900 Hey, here's a helpful suggestion.

00:17:06.840 It's from Trudeau's state broadcaster, the CBC, two weeks ago.

00:17:10.660 Look at this story.

00:17:12.660 Vancouver Homes' $2,000 cat door built as part of a package to fight climate change.

00:17:20.380 And then underneath it says, West Vancouver residents showcases technology that will soon be part of Canada's building code.

00:17:27.220 Hey guys, spend millions of dollars on an eco-friendly home.

00:17:29.860 Spend $2,000 on a global warming friendly cat door because it's an emergency, guys.

00:17:36.660 Yeah, whatever it takes to make you feel, what was that politician's phrase?

00:17:41.260 Important.

00:17:41.780 Yeah, that's it.

00:17:42.460 I mean, once you save the world from the nuclear threat of the Soviet Union, 0.98

00:17:47.180 or was it saving the world from America?

00:17:49.700 They were never really clear who the enemy was.

00:17:52.220 Saving the world from the wrath of the sun.

00:17:54.940 Well, that's just the obvious next step of crazy.

00:18:01.080 Stay with us for more.

00:18:17.560 Welcome back.

00:18:18.320 Well, we've been talking about the joke of Vancouver City Council, but actual professional

00:18:22.960 jokesters, comedians that is, well, they're having a really tough time because you can't

00:18:27.340 really say anything offensive.

00:18:28.840 And what joke isn't?

00:18:30.880 Other than, I suppose, why did the chicken cross the road?

00:18:33.400 And I'm sure that the animal rights activists would have something to say about that.

00:18:37.120 I bring two cases for you today.

00:18:39.660 The first is the case of Zach Poitras, who's a white man who wears his hair in the black

00:18:47.080 tradition of dreadlocks, those very, very tight braids.

00:18:52.540 I think white people with dreadlocks is actually a fashion faux pas, but I would never ban them. 0.99

00:18:57.800 But Zach Poitras, as you can see in the story here, has been banned from performing at the

00:19:02.780 well-named Snowflake Comedy Club and the Soiree de Humoring Audrey because of cultural appropriation.

00:19:11.020 And also from Quebec, and I'm about to introduce our guest to help me talk about this in a second.

00:19:16.320 Mike Ward, a bilingual comedian, and that's tough, is at the Court of Appeal in Quebec because

00:19:22.780 he told a joke a few years ago.

00:19:24.960 And let's call it a mean joke.

00:19:26.620 He made fun of a kid who has a disability, and he was punished by the Human Rights Commission

00:19:33.800 with more than $40,000 in fines just for making a joke.

00:19:39.200 And joining us now in studio is a man with a great sense of humor, my friend David Bennington.

00:19:42.780 David, great to see you.

00:19:43.880 Great answer.

00:19:44.760 Not anymore.

00:19:45.420 I'm a little gun-shy in case I say something off-color that triggers an Ontario Human Rights

00:19:51.140 Tribunal investigation into my thought crimes.

00:19:53.860 Yeah, I mean, this isn't the first time that comedians have been fined in Canada by the

00:19:56.960 Human Rights Commission.

00:19:58.000 I remember the case in Vancouver of someone who made jokes about two lesbians who were

00:20:02.840 right in the front row and necking.

00:20:04.400 And if you're going to do that at a comedy club straight or again, if you start necking,

00:20:07.360 kissing, making out right in front of the comedian, don't be surprised if he makes a joke about it.

00:20:11.880 I mean, that's just, if you don't want that, don't go to a comedy club, don't sit in the front,

00:20:15.640 and don't make a scene.

00:20:16.300 Oh, and that's the infamous Guy Earle case that you're referring to, Ezra.

00:20:20.820 Not only necking, but heckling.

00:20:22.960 Oh, yeah.

00:20:23.380 You know, I mean, imagine somebody coming into your workplace and standing over your shoulder

00:20:27.040 and starting to yell at, you know, you typing a monologue, right?

00:20:30.800 When you walk into a comedy club, I think, you surrender your rights to dignity, to your

00:20:39.620 self-expression, your honor, everything else, your fair game.

00:20:43.440 The tragic thing about the Guy Earle case is that the two lesbians started it after the show. 1.00

00:20:50.800 One of them threw two drinks in Guy Earle's face.

00:20:55.280 So that's not a thought crime anymore, Ezra.

00:20:57.960 That's a crime crime.

00:20:59.120 That's assault.

00:21:00.120 Nevertheless, the B.C. Human Rights Tribunal awarded the lesbian complainant $22,500 in damages.

00:21:09.000 And I'll tell you, for a stand-up comedian in this country, that's like a death sentence.

00:21:12.440 Yeah, so that was in B.C.

00:21:14.380 That's got to be 10 years ago now.

00:21:16.360 Mike Ward's case is before the courts in Quebec.

00:21:18.760 I think he's a better litigant and he has better lawyers than Guy Earle had.

00:21:23.980 But let's just talk for a second about that first case of Jacques Poitras.

00:21:27.380 I mean, I find dreadlocks on a white guy to be unaesthetic and frankly repulsive.

00:21:32.420 But that's my own taste.

00:21:33.860 And to ban someone saying it's appropriation.

00:21:37.580 I mean, one of the great forms of comedy is impressions.

00:21:42.380 And one of the things you do in an impression, you don't just mimic someone's voice.

00:21:45.620 You often mimic their accent.

00:21:47.700 I think of Robin Williams, who was a master of accents.

00:21:50.920 I think of, I mean, there's people who all they do are impressions.

00:21:57.100 A Chinese accent, an Indian accent, a French accent, a German accent.

00:22:02.020 Like any form of acting, you're being someone else other than who you are.

00:22:07.440 That's the difference between fiction and nonfiction.

00:22:09.900 People who would say a comedian can't be someone who he's not, they would probably rule out most jokes that people would make too.

00:22:18.200 Because most jokes that a comedian tells are not actually their true life experiences or true opinions.

00:22:24.160 They're an exaggeration, an appropriation, a thought experiment.

00:22:29.160 Why even bother to have comedy if you're not allowed to be someone who you're not?

00:22:33.920 You know what, Ezra, you've nailed it.

00:22:35.640 Here's the saddest thing about all of these stories, about comedians being hauled in front of a kangaroo court and fined tens of thousands of dollars.

00:22:43.660 You know that because of the way of the days have shaped right now, the political world, the world of academia, basically the business world, every facet of life, everything has to be buttoned down.

00:22:59.420 You have to be politically correct.

00:23:00.680 You have to watch every single word you say.

00:23:03.300 Comedy was this realm that was, you know, to use the words of the snowflake generation, the safe space.

00:23:10.860 This is where everything went.

00:23:12.540 You could mock, you could use profanity, you could be vulgar, you could be distasteful.

00:23:18.080 Yeah, no one's saying that what these guys are saying is, you know, is 100% kosher.

00:23:25.000 But the point of view, my point of view, Ezra, is that you can choose to laugh or not laugh or boo if you want.

00:23:31.140 And that's the way that realm used to be.

00:23:33.680 Now these politically correct mavens are getting their talons into this world and they're ripping it apart.

00:23:40.360 And I mean, you know, it's funny you mentioned at the University of Quebec the name of the comedy club, the Snowflake Comedy Club.

00:23:49.680 At first I thought, oh, that's brilliant.

00:23:51.700 That's obviously people that get the joke that what they're going to do, we're going to call it the Snowflake Comedy Club and, you know, book guys like Andrew Dice Clay.

00:24:00.180 Oh, no, it's truth in advertising.

00:24:04.000 They don't want you to say anything upsetting and they don't want you to wear your hairstyle in a so-called cultural inappropriate fashion.

00:24:13.240 Yeah, you know, anyone with kids knows that you try and find jokes that are funny but kid-friendly and there's a lot of them online.

00:24:21.000 I mean, I'll tell you a joke for a five-year-old.

00:24:24.340 Why were the strawberries crying?

00:24:27.560 Because its parents were in a jam.

00:24:31.780 That's about the level of comedy if you don't want to be offensive.

00:24:35.600 But even there, well, parents, you're implying that, you know, I mean, you could do some gender thing.

00:24:41.000 There should be caregivers, obviously.

00:24:42.220 That's right.

00:24:43.080 I mean, if you aren't allowed to ruffle a feather, there is almost no joke.

00:24:49.740 There's almost no joke that could possibly be allowed.

00:24:52.700 Well, Ezra, it's been said by many that the, you know, definition of comedy is tragedy multiplied by time, right?

00:25:02.480 That the line between comedy and tragedy is razor thin.

00:25:07.380 And also, some of the best stand-up comedy speaks to truth, I think.

00:25:13.160 You know, uncomfortable truth, unsettling truth.

00:25:16.020 And I think that is indeed the case of the other comedian, Mr. Ward, who is being vilified and prosecuted and fined multiple thousands of dollars for going after somebody who is disabled.

00:25:29.260 And, I mean, his jokes were, you know, and it gets back to the, you know, speaking to the truth of the matter, that because this individual is young and has what was thought to be a terminal disease, therefore, he's getting all these singing gigs with famous celebrities, whereas if he was just a normal kid of that age, he wouldn't be.

00:25:51.660 Now, you may laugh at that or you may not.

00:25:54.180 But the fact of the matter is, there's a hell of a lot of truth in that, Ezra, you know.

00:25:59.140 Well, I mean, this young kid, he's got some deformities, and he was sort of given a nickname, Little Jeremy.

00:26:07.460 Everyone was sort of treating him as a, like a perpetual, you know, make-a-wish foundation.

00:26:14.780 Right.

00:26:15.060 And I think one of the jokes was, okay, well, you're still around.

00:26:18.200 You know, you're not dead yet.

00:26:19.360 And that's a terrible thing to say.

00:26:21.400 But let's just, well, you know what?

00:26:22.860 I don't think it is.

00:26:23.600 But let me say, okay, let me, but you can make the case that it wasn't terrible for you, see.

00:26:28.000 But let's say that from his point of view, it was terrible.

00:26:30.860 Because he's saying, you hurt my feelings, you hurt my mom's feelings.

00:26:33.100 Let's say that's true.

00:26:34.260 Yeah.

00:26:34.960 I don't doubt it hurt his feelings.

00:26:36.440 I don't doubt that.

00:26:37.520 I don't doubt it hurt his mom's feelings.

00:26:39.820 But since when did we invent a counterfeit human right not to be offended?

00:26:42.620 That's my point.

00:26:43.680 I think Mike Ward is actually fairly funny.

00:26:46.240 I don't know a lot of his stuff.

00:26:47.320 But let's say this joke was funny but mean.

00:26:52.000 You can be funny and mean.

00:26:53.540 Yeah.

00:26:53.980 You can be both.

00:26:54.960 Oh, yeah.

00:26:56.300 So what?

00:26:57.340 I agree.

00:26:57.780 And that's the fact that you have three judges of the Quebec Court of Appeal weighing to a nicety.

00:27:04.560 Well, this joke was funny but not mean.

00:27:06.380 That joke is not mean but not funny.

00:27:08.620 We prefer not funny, not mean jokes or funny, not mean jokes.

00:27:11.900 But you can't be funny and mean.

00:27:13.460 You definitely can't be unfunny and not mean.

00:27:14.900 So it's like we need a chart of what's funny or not or a 1-800 number we can call to get advice from the joke tester general if something.

00:27:22.840 I mean, it just doesn't work.

00:27:24.840 And I can imagine that if I was a family member or a friend or just of this Jeremy Gabriel, I would be upset by the jokes about why aren't you dead yet.

00:27:33.500 But I'd either laugh it off or I'd ignore it or I'd be really mad about it.

00:27:37.840 But the idea of running to the state to have someone punished, that is un-Canadian and I hope it's un-Quebecish also. 0.85

00:27:44.720 I hope you're right too, Ezra.

00:27:46.380 But, you know, the judge in the original ruling against Ward, he said that Ward had violated Jeremy Gabriel's right to, quote, dignity, honor, and reputation.

00:27:57.920 And, again, I go back to what I referenced earlier.

00:27:59.980 I think when you're in a comedy show, you waive those rights.

00:28:03.620 I mean, it's open season.

00:28:05.080 And tell me this too, Ezra.

00:28:06.180 Now, he wasn't in the comedy show.

00:28:09.220 Yeah, he was in the audience.

00:28:10.620 Was he?

00:28:11.020 But that's what I understand.

00:28:13.280 I don't think he was.

00:28:14.480 Oh, okay.

00:28:15.040 But it doesn't matter anyway.

00:28:16.300 It's like it's even worse if he's just not there.

00:28:18.640 Yeah.

00:28:19.660 Like so you can't make really making fun or ridiculing.

00:28:24.260 Yeah, it hurts the feelings.

00:28:25.520 But, I mean, if you're defaming someone, I get it.

00:28:27.920 If you're saying Jeremy Gabriel is a thief.

00:28:30.140 But if you're making fun of him, how on earth can we have the government of Canada stop people from mocking people?

00:28:36.020 I mean, can we mock judges?

00:28:38.980 Can we mock judges that are stopping us from mocking people?

00:28:43.440 Or you're not allowed to mock the judges?

00:28:44.660 Or you're only allowed to mock the judges? 1.00

00:28:46.160 What a bunch of stupid rules we're making. 0.99

00:28:48.080 And could you imagine, Ezra, the screening process for the bureaucrat in Ottawa who's going to be in charge of the Canadian Ministry of Comedy Appropriation Approval? 1.00

00:28:59.020 I mean, can you, I mean, the very antithesis of comedy, of stand-up, is a government bureaucrat.

00:29:07.080 And having someone judging what is not funny, it's like the Latin phrase that translated in English, who watches the watchers.

00:29:16.100 You know, it is, we have lost our minds on this.

00:29:19.460 Like I said, Mr. Ward is not a politician.

00:29:24.420 He's not a head of state that made these remarks.

00:29:28.380 He is a comedian.

00:29:30.460 This is the bailiwick of what comedians do.

00:29:33.660 They mock, they make fun of people.

00:29:36.200 And you know what?

00:29:37.120 Not every joke rings 100%, Ezra.

00:29:40.700 I think of the government comedians in Canada, of course, the CBC has a whole comedy channel, comedy network.

00:29:47.880 It's not a channel, it's comedy shows, it's our 22 minutes, they have a comedy department.

00:29:54.420 Generally unfunny, because they're afraid of hurting some political sensibility.

00:29:58.960 But when they have an approved government enemy, used to be Stephen Harper, now it's Jason Kenney, and especially Donald Trump, they're vicious.

00:30:08.080 They're not funny, they're vicious with a laugh track, which is a different thing.

00:30:13.480 So there will always be mockery in the state.

00:30:16.540 The question is, can you mock the state itself? 0.98

00:30:19.720 And I think that's what's really, I mean, this guy, this white guy with dreadlocks being banned, it's an embarrassment, it's foolish, but it's not the government. 0.96

00:30:32.780 What the government does to Mike Ward, I think, is much more telling. 0.55

00:30:36.700 You know, going back to the Quebec part, Ezra, I would always have liked to think that things are a little different in Quebec in terms of comedy.

00:30:45.700 I mean, Montreal is host of the Just for Laughs Festival.

00:30:48.280 The TV show Just for Laughs Gags is a worldwide phenomenon.

00:30:52.660 You can watch it in airplanes.

00:30:53.760 There, you know, there's this joy of life, there's this idea of taking, you know, the piss out of things.

00:31:01.460 Radio Canada was in the news, of course, earlier this month, their bye-bye show.

00:31:05.000 They did a brilliant mocking sketch on Justin Trudeau's trip to India, that disaster.

00:31:11.400 And, of course, English media raked them over the coals for how insensitive and culturally inappropriate.

00:31:17.000 So it really saddens me that I thought that this last bastion of political incorrectness, of comedy at its true roots, is now, even there in the province of Quebec, under attack.

00:31:30.900 It's just a shame.

00:31:32.340 Well, that's 2019 for you.

00:31:34.080 Although, who knows, the Quebec Court of Appeal might surprise us, but that would be a surprise.

00:31:39.000 David, great to see you again.

00:31:39.800 Thank you, Ezra.

00:31:40.280 All right, stay with us, folks.

00:31:41.460 My final remarks, well, your letters, really, are next on The Rebel.

00:31:56.100 Hey, welcome back to my monologue yesterday.

00:31:58.000 Liza writes,

00:31:59.620 We don't need the ads for any products we buy, moralizing and preaching to us.

00:32:03.560 It doesn't make us want to purchase those products.

00:32:05.480 Try entertaining us instead and showing us what a good product it is and why.

00:32:10.280 I think that's generally true.

00:32:13.500 But some products people buy for the feeling.

00:32:16.240 And what I mean by that is, what does the product say about you, to you, and to the world?

00:32:20.500 I think a lot of buying a car is about expressing your personality to the world, who you think you are.

00:32:26.940 I think that's what a lot of fashion is about.

00:32:29.460 We don't choose our clothing just for function.

00:32:32.440 In fact, we assume it's got the function covered.

00:32:35.780 We buy it for what we think it says about us.

00:32:37.720 In fact, a lot of fashion is impractical, but we like what it makes us look like.

00:32:44.260 I guess what I'm saying is the feeling.

00:32:46.460 I mean, what's the difference between Coke and Pepsi?

00:32:48.640 It might be the flavor and the taste, but it's really who you think you are.

00:32:52.280 I think that Gillette could have talked about romantic themes of manliness.

00:33:00.780 Could have talked about what great men are like.

00:33:03.440 It could have shown us great men through history.

00:33:05.720 And that's feelings-based and aesthetic and psychological and unrelated to a piece of metal to scrape your face.

00:33:15.820 And it would have reinforced the good feelings men have about being a man, I guess. 0.97

00:33:22.740 Instead, they chose a kooky, kooky feminist. 1.00

00:33:27.320 And it's one thing to be feminist, but to hate men, as I think she does, as evidenced by her other videos. 0.98

00:33:33.040 That is Gillette deciding that it hates itself.

00:33:37.100 It hates who it's always been.

00:33:38.680 And maybe it hates the men who buy stuff from them.

00:33:42.300 That's what I don't get.

00:33:43.260 Betty writes, if I were a man, I guess I wouldn't like that commercial either.

00:33:49.380 And I wouldn't buy the product anymore.

00:33:50.780 I'd look for other brands or maybe a straight edge or electric razor.

00:33:53.980 The left has definitely gone too far.

00:33:55.680 What I don't get is what the payoff is.

00:33:57.900 What's the payoff?

00:33:58.900 As I asked Michael Knowles, is it because maybe some women buy razors for their husbands or boyfriends when they're at a drugstore or something?

00:34:10.280 Maybe.

00:34:10.620 I think it's just a disconnect between the corporate head office, which has its own social culture, and the grassroots.

00:34:17.260 I see this all the time in companies that are really woke PR side of the industry, doesn't understand what made them great and strong to begin with.

00:34:25.940 Look at Silicon Valley.

00:34:26.860 An industry built on freedom and technology and math is now all about censorship and control and social justice warriors.

00:34:38.200 Judy writes, I agree with Michael Knowles that we need to see how serious this attack is on our culture.

00:34:45.240 It is everywhere now from marketing and advertising to script writing for TV and films to educating of children.

00:34:51.120 This is more than just an irritation.

00:34:52.860 When Gillette wants to re-engineer what it means to be a man, we are in trouble.

00:34:57.260 We need to push back.

00:35:00.700 I think you're right.

00:35:01.660 And I really do see this in the schools.

00:35:03.500 And that's the scariest part because the schools, I mean, I mentioned this in the monologue today.

00:35:12.500 To me, the scariest, I mean, listen, I was joking around about Vancouver City Council.

00:35:17.000 It's a joke.

00:35:17.860 They declare a climate emergency and really that's just a press release saying we're going to spend more money and regulate.

00:35:23.520 It's not a climate emergency.

00:35:24.860 What bugged me the most about that story was a little item that there was a high school protest in the middle of the day outside City Council.

00:35:31.260 That's actually the scariest thing about the story.

00:35:33.280 And that is completely normal now.

00:35:35.780 If your kids are at school six, seven hours a day, and let's say maybe half of that is learning stuff,

00:35:42.740 the other half is just being accultured.

00:35:45.400 And I would put it to you, the craziest people in all of academia are those teachers' colleges. 0.92

00:35:51.520 That's where Ben Levin, the pedophile, was. 0.89

00:35:53.760 It's just a fact. 0.94

00:35:55.320 The craziest theories, the transgenderism, they called SOGI, sexual orientation and gender identity. 0.98

00:36:02.740 The craziest political correctness comes from the schools, but of course it does.

00:36:07.700 When they have your kids for six, seven hours a day, they've got 18 years to work on them

00:36:12.560 that you're not there to observe and to counteract.

00:36:16.200 It's a war on parents, really.

00:36:19.300 That's our show for today.

00:36:20.900 I've got some news for you tomorrow.

00:36:22.580 You'll want to tune in for that.

00:36:24.120 Until then, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, you at home,

00:36:27.680 good night, and keep fighting for freedom.

00:36:29.740 And once again, we'll be here.

Rebel News Podcast - January 18, 2019

Vancouver’s city council declares “climate emergency”： Here's what this plan is REALLY all about

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