Rebel News Podcast - Why are Canada's political and media elites so keen on bringing in cheap foreign labour？

00:00:00.000 Hello my Rebels, today I'm going to tell you about a curious case of New Brunswick

00:00:03.840 whose unemployment just shot up to 13.2% and is not done climbing and yet the Toronto Globe

00:00:11.480 and Mail thinks this is the time to call for more cheap migrant laborers to be flown in from Mexico 0.98

00:00:18.880 to pick apples there. It's so weird. I'll take you through the story. Hey before I do let me

00:00:25.540 invite you to become a subscriber to Rebel News Plus. It's eight bucks a month or 80 bucks a

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00:00:45.360 You're listening to a Rebel News Podcast.

00:00:47.780 Tonight, why are political and media elites so dedicated to bringing in cheap foreign labor

00:01:01.160 to replace Canadian workers? It's May 20th and this is the Ezra Levant Show.

00:01:05.740 Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?

00:01:11.500 There's 8,500 customers here and you won't give them an answer.

00:01:15.580 The only thing I have to say to the government about why I publish it is because it's my bloody

00:01:20.460 right to do so.

00:01:26.720 Simple question, as all the best questions are,

00:01:29.320 why are political and media elites so dedicated to bringing in cheap foreign labor to replace

00:01:35.420 Canadian workers here? Not all Canadian workers. I mean, heaven forbid we bring in cheap foreign 1.00

00:01:41.420 labor to replace their jobs as journalists or politicians or lawyers. I don't know if you ever

00:01:46.900 saw this campaign ad by Ted Cruz imagining if lawyers were hopping the border from Mexico.

00:01:52.620 That would get the Democrats upset, but no, no, no. I'm talking about bringing in cheap labor to

00:01:58.320 undercut our blue-collar workers. Like this story in the Globe and Mail this week.

00:02:05.120 Ban on temporary foreign workers in New Brunswick pressures food producers. Well, 1.00

00:02:09.960 I certainly feel bad for food producers if they're feeling pressure. And I'm about as

00:02:14.700 sympathetic to Mexican workers as you'd expect me to be, which is no more and no less sympathetic 0.82

00:02:20.060 than I would be towards Bangladeshi workers or workers in Madagascar, which is I mean them no harm

00:02:26.660 and I wish them well. As much as I'd wish any of the world's 7 billion people well, but they are not

00:02:33.960 my problem. We have our own problems in Canada. And let me show you some of these problems. Here's the

00:02:38.580 official labor statistics out of New Brunswick. Take a look there at a chart. A year ago, unemployment in

00:02:47.340 New Brunswick was 8%. Two months ago, in March, it was 8.8%. Not great. You can see that Canada was

00:02:57.180 slowly sliding into a recession, especially in New Brunswick, where Trudeau killed a $15.7 billion

00:03:02.340 construction project for the Energy East pipeline. That one pipeline would have literally given a job

00:03:08.300 to every single unemployed man and woman in the entire province if they wanted it. Trudeau preferred

00:03:13.340 OPEC well, though. So unemployment was 8.8% in March. And then April, the last month for which

00:03:19.800 we have statistics, it jumped by half. Literally up 4.4 percentage points to 13.2% unemployment. That

00:03:28.740 is shocking. And that's April. We're 20 days into May now. Things are surely worse. Do you doubt that

00:03:34.220 when we have May's full numbers, they're going to be, what, 15, 16% unemployment? It's 16% unemployment

00:03:40.620 right now in Newfoundland. Do you doubt they're going to hit 20% unemployment next month? When you

00:03:45.040 have 20% unemployment, that is Great Depression, dirty 30s numbers. And Newfoundland was already an

00:03:51.100 economic disaster. They literally wrote a letter to Justin Trudeau this spring saying they're

00:03:55.520 bankrupt. Imagine them now. Okay, back to New Brunswick, because that's the big Globe and Mail

00:04:00.060 story. 47,200 unemployed people in New Brunswick now. And remember the definition of that. That's

00:04:07.980 someone who's actually looking for a job. That doesn't include people who've just given

00:04:13.200 up and stopped looking for a job. They're no longer counted as part of the labor force.

00:04:18.040 And look at that too. The labor force participation rate has fallen by 5% in the past year. Do you

00:04:23.460 see that? So it's 13.2% unemployment amongst those who are still looking. But add in the 5% who

00:04:30.320 has just given up. They've quit looking. You're almost at 20% right now if you include them.

00:04:35.600 So back to that headline in the Globe and Mail, before we even read the story,

00:04:40.420 ban on temporary foreign workers in New Brunswick pressures food producers. Let me read a bit.

00:04:48.120 George Dukesher is a third generation farmer who grows 24 varieties of apples,

00:04:53.100 along with pears and plums, in his orchard alongside the St. John River in western New Brunswick.

00:04:58.620 In half a century of farming, he's seen huge ups and downs. Now he's not sure how he'll weather the

00:05:03.300 coming season, unquote. You see what they're doing? Third generation farmer,

00:05:08.760 apples and pears and plums, half a century on the land. We have to stand with this great,

00:05:13.240 patriotic, hardworking Canadian salt of the earth. Except for the following thousand words,

00:05:20.320 they do the opposite. They use this one man's Canadian-ness to make the case for bringing in

00:05:26.480 cheap foreign laborers to undercut Canadian workers. I'm serious. Let me read some more. 0.98

00:05:32.840 Late last month, Premier Blaine Higgs abruptly announced that temporary foreign workers are

00:05:38.240 banned from entry. The only province in Canada to place such a restriction, which occurred just as

00:05:43.020 spring planting season, was about to start. In an instant, a critical part of Mr. Dukesher's

00:05:48.060 workforce evaporated. While in Mexico, his long-term employees lost their livelihoods.

00:05:53.020 He typically employs eight workers who return each year. One of them has been coming for 19 years,

00:05:58.040 another for 12. They're experienced and work without supervision, thinning the trees, pruning,

00:06:03.620 making cider, and harvesting. Got it. So Canada's national newspaper, whose very logo is a maple leaf,

00:06:12.060 is going to root for Mexican workers who live in Mexico and jet in to work for a bit before jetting 0.98

00:06:19.240 back home to their home in Mexico. Not a word about New Brunswick's unemployed, but, and there's such a 0.98

00:06:26.040 weird implication here, what New Brunswicker could possibly master the intricacies of, you know,

00:06:32.940 pruning apple trees and, you know, picking apples without supervision. Quote,

00:06:38.580 they know where every tree is on the farm, said Mr. Dukesher, whose Archer and Shade Farms is near

00:06:45.240 Woodstock, New Brunswick. They're crucial, essential workers. They're part of the family,

00:06:51.220 and you can't replace them with people off the street. We depend on them, and they depend on us.

00:06:57.360 Yeah, but that's the thing. They're not actually part of your family, are they, Mr. Dukesher? 0.72

00:07:02.100 However, if they were, they would be living in New Brunswick as citizens, and they'd probably have

00:07:07.420 the protection of Canadian labor laws, including minimum wage, if appropriate. Or if there was a

00:07:12.840 problem with minimum wages for farm work, maybe they'd be exempt from minimum wage, as some farms

00:07:17.200 are, at least until the NDP runs the province. So yeah, that's the point, isn't it? They're not

00:07:23.300 family. You treat family well. Family are living in your country. That's a metaphor he's using.

00:07:30.800 They're not actually family. I'm not sure if it's accurate, and I don't think it's even honest.

00:07:37.740 Hey, if picking apples is essential, and I'm not going to say it isn't, Mr. Dukesher, why don't 0.99

00:07:43.020 you ask the 13.2% of your fellow New Brunswickers, if maybe they'd like to pick some apples for you.

00:07:49.040 Apple picking is hard work, but it's also something that people like doing so much that across Canada,

00:07:54.540 people actually pay to come to orchards for the pleasure of picking their own. It's not just that

00:07:59.000 the fruit is a bit cheaper that way. It's good, honest, outdoors work. It's a bit of physical

00:08:02.840 exercise, like this young lad said he wanted to do before he was laughed at by Trudeau's CBC

00:08:08.300 state broadcaster. You would see yourself doing in terms of volunteer work or one of the jobs that

00:08:13.960 the prime minister was talking about? Honestly, farming sounds quite interesting. I do have a background

00:08:21.780 in athletics. Yeah. I'll read some more. He canceled a $10,000 apple tree order from nurseries in Ontario

00:08:30.780 because of a lack of labor, a decision that will affect yields in the years to come. He said production

00:08:36.080 could be reduced to about 25% of capacity this year as a result of the ban. He's not alone. Fruit and

00:08:43.140 vegetable farmers, along with lobster processors who use temporary foreign workers, say New Brunswick's

00:08:47.340 decision is catastrophic, people. And the move was made without consultation. Some farmers say this

00:08:54.860 will result in lower production, less variety and higher prices of local food. Catastrophic, guys.

00:09:02.380 Hey guys, if they don't get to fly in Mexican laborers, no one will be able to pick the apples. We just 1.00

00:09:07.240 don't know how to pick apples. And lobster processing. I mean, who knows better how to harvest lobsters in New

00:09:15.480 Brunswick than Mexicans. I mean, certainly not New Brunswickers who have been working in fisheries for 1.00

00:09:23.320 literally centuries, an industry built by their ancestors. What do they know? Yeah, we need to bring in world

00:09:30.240 famous Mexican lobster experts. They have secret skills that are just irreplaceable. It's a catastrophe. 1.00

00:09:37.440 Look at this. In April, 11,000 such workers arrived, about 2,000 short of last year's numbers, and the Canadian

00:09:45.160 Agricultural Human Resource Council says the sector is still facing challenges in getting enough workers,

00:09:49.980 including foreign workers. Did you know they were still flying in cheap foreign laborers, 0.72

00:09:56.500 even in the middle of this pandemic crisis? You bet they are. And did you know that many of them are

00:10:00.920 actually bringing the virus with them? Take a look at this. Four temporary foreign workers in British

00:10:06.760 Columbia test positive for COVID-19. Let me read a bit. British Columbia's top doctor says the province

00:10:12.920 has detected four cases of COVID-19 among temporary foreign workers who entered the country in recent

00:10:18.100 weeks. All four had arrived in BC on different flights, said Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie

00:10:23.380 Henry. The federal government has exempted TFWs from cross-border travel restrictions, setting their

00:10:28.800 critical role in sectors of the economy, such as agriculture. Migrant workers must still isolate for 14 1.00

00:10:35.020 days upon arrival in Canada. So they're obviously being treated by Canada's health care system.

00:10:40.000 They're here now. Four different flights. That's a lot of spreading in the virus, isn't it?

00:10:45.600 I thought we were clamping down on flying. I'm just kidding. You and I have to stay in our homes,

00:10:51.840 but foreign apple pickers, front of the line, guys, come right on in. You're essential.

00:10:57.820 You're not, but they are. So at least four more cases of the virus flown in. How much longer did those

00:11:04.120 four cases make the rest of the province live under lock and key? One day, one week, one month?

00:11:09.940 To save some corporate farm a few bucks a day in labor costs? And remember, Justin Trudeau announced

00:11:15.640 a $50 million bonanza for temporary foreign workers. Trudeau, and by that I mean you, the taxpayer,

00:11:21.680 will pay $50 million to put up these foreign workers in a hotel for a couple weeks when they 0.99

00:11:27.020 first arrive as a sort of quarantine. So you see, we're doing this to save money.

00:11:31.640 Yeah. So we're halfway through this Globe and Mail story before we hear the countervailing opinion,

00:11:37.240 not in the form of a quote or any sort of balance, but in a single sentence.

00:11:43.740 New Brunswick's Mr. Higgs announced on April 28th that foreign workers are restricted from

00:11:48.300 entering the province. He cited the risk of outbreaks of COVID-19 as a reason and urged employers to fill

00:11:53.960 the vacant positions with students and unemployed local people. Yeah. How outrageous. What a bigot.

00:11:59.860 Hiring unemployed students. Who are they compared to some Mexican citizen who's been coming up here 1.00

00:12:08.300 for years to work for peanuts because we can't have Mr. Dukesher pay in prevailing wages.

00:12:14.220 I even love the photo and the caption they use. Emilio Ramirez Agudo, seen here in Oaxaca in February

00:12:22.480 2020, works on Strawberry Hill Farm in New Brunswick each year. Okay. So he's in Oaxaca. That's

00:12:28.000 that's in Mexico. Of course, that's his home. Don't you feel sorry for him? I mean, to hell with New

00:12:33.720 Brunswickers, those bigots. But how about this guy? Farmers and processors say they've tried that,

00:12:41.260 that even this year there have been few takers. Even if they do manage to hire, productivity rates

00:12:46.120 tend to be lower and attrition higher among local, less experienced workers. On farms, reliable labor is

00:12:52.060 particularly crucial during the key harvest months, just as students may be returning to school or

00:12:56.740 workers called back to their former jobs. Yeah. Do you think those excuses hold water now in the

00:13:03.360 pandemic? School's not on. The former jobs are gone. How lazy a journalist do you have to be to be a

00:13:10.420 stenographer for those excuses and not press the corporate farm to ask them, are any of those excuses

00:13:17.160 afoot today, if they were even legitimate excuses in the past? Well, we can't hire local people. They 0.95

00:13:23.260 don't want to work. They want to go back to their other jobs. Really? Don't lie. Don't lie. There's no

00:13:30.580 school on right now. Let me skip ahead. New Brunswick has had zero new cases of COVID-19 in nearly two

00:13:38.600 weeks, and everyone who had the coronavirus because of the disease has now recovered. That's incredible, isn't it?

00:13:44.380 The Global Mail publishes that fact to imply that the province can handle it. It's not in crisis.

00:13:49.580 No, no, no. That's the whole point. It's not in crisis precisely because it has closed itself off.

00:13:55.860 That's what Ontario and Quebec and BC would have been like had Trudeau and Theresa Tam closed those 0.75

00:14:02.160 provinces off from flights too, from foreign flights, especially from China. There are no direct flights

00:14:07.360 from China to New Brunswick, as there still are every day from China to Vancouver and China and Toronto.

00:14:12.400 No, that's why New Brunswick is safe. Same with Prince Edward Island. The Globe goes on a bit about

00:14:18.260 how hard it is to train people to pick apples, and then they get a real personal, a really personal

00:14:24.980 case to humanize it. Not with any of the tens of thousands of poor New Brunswickers. 1.00

00:14:31.080 Wondering how they're going to pay their rent now or make groceries. Globe doesn't really care

00:14:35.900 about New Brunswickers. They're too busy caring for people across the world. Let me read. 1.00

00:14:41.480 The impact stretches 5,000 kilometers away to Portrillo in central Mexico, where Victor

00:14:46.720 Manuel Maguinpeña, a father of three who comes each year with his uncle, was counting on working

00:14:52.720 at Mr. Livingston's Strawberry Hill Farm. The income helps to get ahead and to feed my family

00:14:57.600 and provide supports for his children to study, he said. In Mexico, it is very difficult to survive.

00:15:03.240 Now, I do feel bad for Mexico and Mexicans. I do. And I feel bad for people in Namibia and Tonga 1.00

00:15:14.000 and Peru. But I am not from those places, and I don't want our laws made to cater to them. 1.00

00:15:22.380 New Brunswick's job is to be a home for New Brunswickers, and its laws and policies should

00:15:26.780 care for its own people. It was bizarre in the first place to bring in foreign cheap laborers 1.00

00:15:31.420 to undermine their own people. But to do so now, when there is a health danger and 13.2%

00:15:37.460 unemployment, that's downright immoral. Well, maybe they could find someone in Toronto

00:15:42.920 and the globe who supports Mexico over New Brunswick. Surprise! Health concerns can be

00:15:50.200 addressed by proper checks and balances, said Erica de Ruggiero, director of the Center for Global

00:15:55.400 Health at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health in Toronto. If federal and provincial guidelines

00:16:00.400 are implemented and monitored and physical distancing and other protocols followed, if all those things

00:16:05.280 are working in tandem, then I think the risks are being mitigated, she said. I think it's really

00:16:09.920 unfortunate that workers who were expecting to come and the farmers who were expecting to have them

00:16:14.320 come were left out. I think she's so right. But what about New Brunswickers who are being left out?

00:16:23.580 I mean, if that's the business we're in, making people feel good about themselves, not making them

00:16:27.940 feel left out of their own country, how about that? Look at this pure propaganda here. Mr. Dukesher,

00:16:35.100 the apple grower, said the decision to shut out laborers has made an already stressful situation

00:16:39.820 even worse. These people are labeled wrong, he says. They're not migrant workers. They're not foreign

00:16:45.500 workers. They're professional harvest workers and they're professional farmers. We just can't do it

00:16:50.080 without them. But they are, Mr. Dukesher, in law and in fact, they are foreign workers. The program is

00:16:59.800 actually called Temporary Foreign Workers. They are migrant workers. They migrate to Canada from Mexico.

00:17:06.020 The closed picture of the farmer was taken in Oaxaca, Mexico. Look, I know you like to save a few

00:17:12.800 bucks, Mr. Dukesher, and I know you put foreigners ahead of your neighbors. I get it. And I know you 1.00

00:17:18.340 don't want to train your neighbors about the intricacies of breaking apples. I don't know, you think

00:17:22.700 they're too stupid or too lazy or too unreliable or something. Or maybe you just have come to like

00:17:28.060 your Mexican laborers. You don't like them enough to help them to become citizens because, of course, 1.00

00:17:33.140 that would mean you couldn't pay them cut rates, that you can only pay foreigners. But you still 1.00

00:17:40.020 love them. I mean, that's what you say. No, no, no. Loving someone because you can take economic

00:17:46.000 advantage of them is not true love. It's you loving yourself, Mr. Dukesher. I'm sorry, these farmers are

00:17:53.660 a disgrace. And so is the Globe and Mail for defending them. Me? I have no will towards Mexico or Moldova 1.00

00:18:01.600 or Montenegro, and I hope they have no ill will towards me. And neither would I expect

00:18:07.980 those countries to put me or any other Canadian first in their national plans to recover from

00:18:13.900 this pandemic and the economy that's being flattened. Stay with us for more.

00:18:19.180 Hey, welcome back. You know, when I was a kid, I thought I could stomp on a wasp's nest and run

00:18:38.140 away quicker than the wasps could fly. Alas, I was stung seven times and I learned a lesson.

00:18:44.380 Don't stomp on a wasp nest, a lesson that has kept me in good stead more than 40 years.

00:18:51.860 I would put another thing in that same category. If you're a Conservative Party, don't sue Jim

00:18:58.560 Karahalios. Just don't. You're gonna lose. And in fact, today, Jim Karahalios indeed won when he was

00:19:08.000 thrown out unceremoniously by the Conservative Party of Canada in their leadership contest. Well,

00:19:13.760 Jim sued and he won. And a court in Ontario ordered the party not to enforce its illegal

00:19:21.500 disqualification of them. Here's what the court ruling looked like. Quite a lengthy ruling, more

00:19:27.960 than 50 pages. Let me read from Justice Perel in Reasons for Decision. Before getting into the

00:19:34.040 civil law, the judge quotes from the Bible. And I just got to read it because this is classic. 0.97

00:19:41.100 But if you will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall come to 1.00

00:19:47.680 pass that those who wish you let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes and thorns in your

00:19:54.320 side and shall vex you in the land wherein you dwell. That's from the Bible. A prick in your eye and a

00:20:03.260 thorn in your side. Well, I think both friends and foes of Jim Karahalios know that he can be a

00:20:12.060 prickle bush, which is the reason he's so effective. And he won today. And Jim Karahalios joins us now

00:20:18.800 via Skype. Jim, I'm not sure if that was a compliment or a criticism, but I think the judge

00:20:23.520 is right. You do prickle. And if someone prickles you, you prickle them back and you won today.

00:20:28.720 Well, it was a victory. And I think it's more than a prickle. It's unfortunate in our legal system.

00:20:37.820 We've got to go to court because there's no laws governing whether or not a political party

00:20:43.980 follows its own rules. And they disqualified me. And I've said from the beginning of this leadership,

00:20:49.660 shouldn't be up to a small group of people to remove candidates from the race. And then they did 0.93

00:20:54.880 it to me. And they didn't follow their own rules. They didn't want to talk to me about it.

00:20:59.940 We wrote to them, national counsel. They ignored it. They wanted to hold on to the fees, the campaign

00:21:05.900 contributions, leaving me out of pocket. And we had to go to court. And that's a decision they got.

00:21:13.160 I think it's more than a prick or a thorn in their side. And, you know, a 2-0 in court here with

00:21:19.640 political parties. And we've got challenges ahead. But our team is reviewing the lengthy decision right

00:21:25.580 now and taking it all in and looking at our options. Yeah, I skimmed it. It's over 50 pages

00:21:31.460 long. It seems to me that the judge was focused on the unfairness of this tiny little committee

00:21:38.100 of secret insiders. And I mean, I don't want to unpack the ruling because I haven't considered it

00:21:45.220 very carefully. But it seems to me that the judge basically said, we're not weighing in

00:21:49.260 on whether or not Mr. Karajalios is a good candidate or not, or whether or not he can even

00:21:55.180 be thrown out of the race. But the way it was done clearly broke the party's own rules. And as you said,

00:22:01.800 when we last had you on the show, it was a kind of contract. When you sign on to a leadership contest,

00:22:07.700 there's rules and it's the rules everyone has to play with. It's odd that the people who complained

00:22:13.100 about you and the people who vetted you and threw you out, they're pretty much all lawyers. And yet

00:22:19.060 this judge says they broke the law. That's got to sting them. And you know what? It looks good on them

00:22:23.820 to be put back in their place, because I thought this whole thing was very undemocratic.

00:22:29.400 It's a victory for the rule of law, Ezra. And the bottom line is the unfortunate thing is

00:22:35.000 a small handful of people make a decision not following their own rules. And it puts me in a

00:22:41.580 position to access the contributions and have my name cleared as I've been marginalized from the top

00:22:47.260 to go to court. And it looks like I'm suing my PC party, my Conservative Party of Canada,

00:22:54.160 because of a handful of people not following their own rules, the party's rules.

00:22:59.820 And there are limitations when you go to court, Ezra. We had to sue on a breach of contract.

00:23:05.260 They didn't follow their contract. But the upshot of it is that there's no access to go to court,

00:23:11.340 to review a political party's decision, analyze the decision. So what's left standing is this

00:23:18.840 CRO's, Derek Bandstone's ruling, where he sanctioned me $100,000 for campaign communication.

00:23:26.140 And that still sits as a valid sanction or as a live sanction, even though I disagree with it,

00:23:34.320 even though he didn't follow our party policy book. He had no justifiable grounds to sanction me.

00:23:40.820 He hasn't sanctioned any other candidate in this race for communications that were criticizing the

00:23:45.820 media, just my own. And that means I got to raise $100,000 in the next 14 days to get back on the

00:23:53.260 ballot. And it puts me on an unfair playing field with the other four candidates in the race who have

00:23:59.200 a $300,000 buy-in, who've had the party membership list for two months. I've never gotten the party list

00:24:06.020 of over 300,000 members to raise money off of. And I've got to raise $100,000 for a $400,000 buy-in

00:24:12.840 in 14 days because there's no access to go to the court and say, judicially review this CRO's

00:24:20.700 flawed decision to sanction me and fine me. So that's still a live issue right now. The other thing

00:24:28.060 that's still live is, you know, the party hasn't emailed or called to hook up the donation link

00:24:36.300 so people can contribute through the party into my campaign. I've been collecting campaigns directly

00:24:42.480 into my campaign account. So I don't know what the pause is. They've had all day to try to,

00:24:48.440 you know, give me a fair shake. We're now down to 13 days left. So there's still hurdles

00:24:54.540 at the forefront to consider here, but it was a victory for the rule of law. And the one thing

00:24:59.740 that you've covered in the last few years is my wife and I have always fought for democratic

00:25:07.160 principles and following the rules in a political party. And it just seems to me that there's always

00:25:12.040 a handful of individuals who think they can just make up the rules as they go along.

00:25:16.160 And I hope this sends a message to all political parties in Canada that they're not above the rule of

00:25:21.080 law. Yeah. I mean, as you've made clear, you still are at a disadvantage. You don't have the party

00:25:27.040 membership list. That's stunning to me. You still have to pay this capricious $100,000 fine for writing

00:25:33.140 a mean email about your opponent, which is sort of everything in the campaign is being a little bit

00:25:39.080 mean to your opponent. So it's still not even sure if the party is submitting and accepting the fact

00:25:46.200 that they lost here. I can imagine they're furious with it. My own two cents is that you should

00:25:52.360 absolutely try to raise that $100,000, even if it's an unacceptable fine. You should absolutely try

00:25:59.280 to get on the ballot, even if it's an uphill fight, just because I think it would be wrong to send the

00:26:05.620 message to this party or any other party that you can break the law, disqualify a candidate improperly,

00:26:11.260 and get away with it. And I don't, I have my doubts that you could win against the machine

00:26:17.900 politics of Peter McKay or Aaron O'Toole. I'll be very candid with you. I don't think you're going

00:26:23.400 to win. I'm sorry. I don't mean to be mean. I like you. I like you a lot. I like your style.

00:26:27.520 Well, don't bet against me, Ezra. Don't bet against me.

00:26:29.740 I'm not. Oh, I'm not going to kick any more hornet's nests. And don't bet against Jim Carahalios.

00:26:35.420 And I'm not putting you down. Please. I'm saying you've got to run because you've got to let the

00:26:43.700 people vet you, not some party cabal. I want you on that ballot as a rebuke to their censorship

00:26:52.780 and deplatforming. And if you win, good for you. Well, look, the cream always rises to the top

00:27:00.320 in these situations. And we're reviewing the decision, looking at our options. But I got to

00:27:06.480 have some way to get them the $100,000 when I raise it. There's about $30,000, $20,000 stuck at

00:27:14.260 a postal outlet in Ottawa. They've never picked up the checks for two months.

00:27:20.760 They've got to hook up the link so people can donate to my campaign to the party.

00:27:26.320 Um, and so we're waiting to see what they're going to do in response to this decision to

00:27:32.840 give me a fair shot to raise the $100,000. And, um, you know, it is a heavy thing to think

00:27:39.160 that there's a CRO who's applying the rules differently on my candidacy than the other

00:27:44.980 candidates and what that means for the rest of the race. Uh, I like to campaign on what

00:27:50.640 I believe. And I don't like, uh, people telling me, um, uh, that are managing a race, what's

00:27:56.980 acceptable, uh, uh, policy positions to take and what's not, especially when I'm in line

00:28:02.120 with our policy declaration and the CRO right now in this race, because of the rules is more

00:28:08.040 powerful than Andrew Scheer. So when other candidates were criticized in the media, Andrew

00:28:14.180 Scheer explicitly said, it's up to the members to decide. Well, this CRO believes that he has

00:28:20.300 the right to levy sanctions, uh, when he doesn't like your campaign communications, even if

00:28:26.240 he can't cite a rule, uh, that you've broken. And that's a concern for the rest of the race.

00:28:30.840 And if it's going to be a fair race, the rest of the way.

00:28:33.640 Well, I think there's already a stain on this race and whoever wins it, if it's you, it'll

00:28:37.960 be a miraculous comeback story. If it's McKay, that's one thing. And if it's O'Toole who wins

00:28:44.460 this, he having been the tattletale that ran to mummy to get you disqualified, it's a huge

00:28:51.020 asterisk next to his win. And it would suggest forever that there will be questions. Could

00:28:56.640 he have won if he didn't disqualify you? He put you through this mess. He put you through

00:29:00.500 this paces that he, he hobbled you. No doubt about that. But I think the worst part of it

00:29:07.560 is it shows the character of someone who instead of fighting you and knocking you out, if he's

00:29:12.960 such a heavyweight, winds to the ref and, and, and sort of does one of those European soccer

00:29:19.120 style fake complaints. I don't know. I'm, I'm excited about this. Go ahead. Sorry.

00:29:25.180 It, you know, we like to pretend that Peter McKay and Erno O'Toole are heavyweights in this

00:29:30.380 race and they haven't really showed heavyweight status. Erno O'Toole's way of campaigning against

00:29:36.420 me was to request my disqualification. Peter McKay said nothing when I was removed from the

00:29:41.560 ballot, said nothing. He's supposed to be the great unifier of this party. He thinks that's

00:29:46.000 acceptable conduct. Derek Sloan and Leslie Lewis eventually spoke up and said, I should be on the

00:29:51.380 ballot. So thank you to them. But these are not heavyweight candidates. I was in third place when

00:29:56.180 I was removed. My average donations were higher than Erno O'Toole's without the party lists. And I was on

00:30:02.500 track to catch up to him in party donations. If I had those 300,000 emails that the other candidates

00:30:08.200 have had, it was a miracle that we made it to $300,000 without the, uh, the same level playing

00:30:14.060 field. So I think I was a threat and my supporters and donors think we're on the right track. And we're

00:30:21.020 going to have to see here in the next 13 days now left, uh, what the party's going to do, if they're

00:30:26.360 going to give me a fair shot to get to the a hundred thousand. Uh, and my team's going to, you know,

00:30:30.920 we're still deliberating. We just got the decision this morning. It was two months in court, uh, when

00:30:35.240 the other candidates have been campaigning and, uh, you know, not surprisingly, we didn't get much

00:30:40.500 media coverage on it, but I'm thankful, Ezra, that you covered this really important thing for

00:30:45.060 the rule of law and democracy in our country. Well, I think you're right on that. And look,

00:30:48.720 I'm not saying you can't win. In fact, this whole thing's been sort of a come from behind

00:30:52.740 underdog story. And you had a huge David and Goliath moment today. So if I'm coming across as a

00:30:58.260 pessimist, I don't mean to be, and I think you absolutely should run. I'm not a member

00:31:03.220 of the conservative party candidate. I will not be voting, but I think you, I mean, you've got a

00:31:08.740 public spirit to you. You've got a public service, uh, gene in you, obviously. I think you should let

00:31:15.020 the conservative members have a right to weigh in on this by putting your name on the ballot.

00:31:19.820 And if you do pull off the upset of the decade, well, what a lesson that'll be to everyone who thought

00:31:24.880 that disqualifying you was the way to stop you. I think you can do it. I think you can raise a

00:31:29.840 hundred grand in a week. I mean, you've, you've raised a staggering amount without the party list.

00:31:34.840 I think democracy owes it to you being on the ballot. And I think it's the right thing to do

00:31:40.320 to the whiners who tried to get you disqualified. That's my own view. I'm not a party member.

00:31:44.500 And frankly, I found this whole race dispiriting, but I think you got to run, Jim. 1.00

00:31:47.920 We just got to see if the party is going to play ball and start accepting my contributions

00:31:53.120 and, uh, accept the court's decision. So it's a, it's a two-way thing. You can't run

00:31:59.200 the guys running the race, the guys and girls running in the race in the back

00:32:02.840 are not playing ball, are not collecting the contributions, depositing them, uh, giving you

00:32:08.480 the list. You can't run. Uh, so I hope they accept the decision today and, uh, we're reviewing and,

00:32:14.920 um, and we'll take it from there, uh, Ezra, but I appreciate the coverage and I appreciate the

00:32:19.600 support of the donors and the people across Canada who sent their prayers and their thoughts

00:32:24.820 and stuck by our campaign for the last two months. And I do believe the best is yet to come for

00:32:30.140 conservatism in Canada, for the rule of law and for democracy and the right for people to vote.

00:32:35.380 Well, you know, I almost forgot about one thing until right now. I received an email

00:32:39.380 from someone who was on the LIOC. What does that stand for? Leadership, uh, what does that stand

00:32:46.100 for again? The leadership executive organizing committee. Yeah. It's such a jargon. So I

00:32:52.240 actually have a friend on there of the secret cabal. And last time I had you wrote me an angry

00:32:56.900 letter. Now I'm not going to say his name because you know, he, uh, it didn't seem like he expected

00:33:03.040 me to public. Could I read a little bit of this to you and you give me your thoughts? I watched your

00:33:08.540 interview with Mr. Karahalios today and need to tell you how disappointed I was to see someone

00:33:12.820 like yourself who I quite frankly have always had a lot of regards for. I've always considered to be

00:33:17.200 a journalist who would attempt to find both sides of a story too. And lastly, if you are the

00:33:21.040 conservative that you profess to be, why are you bent on helping the liberals? So there's a criticism of

00:33:25.700 me. I also have always considered you to be someone who was instrumental in our conservative

00:33:30.360 movement. So there's a lot of friendly praise, I think, backhanded compliments maybe from this

00:33:35.760 Leoc board member. And then he says this,

00:33:40.040 Jim Karahalios is constantly accusing the red Tories of taking over the party. I am part of 1.00

00:33:44.440 Leoc as well as part of the appeal committee. And you know that I am the furthest thing from a red

00:33:48.400 Tory. In closing, let me say that the very first time you and I spoke all those years ago, blah,

00:33:54.240 blah, blah. You did not have all the facts. Well, here again, you don't, but have decided to run

00:33:58.920 with one side. So I wrote back to this fellow and I'm not going to say his name. I said,

00:34:03.800 it's nice to hear from you. I appreciate the fact that you feel comfortable communicating with me

00:34:07.780 directly. I don't recall our conversation years ago. Feel free to remind me. But I'm interested

00:34:13.360 in hearing the other side of the story here. This is what I wrote back to this fellow who was

00:34:17.620 apparently one of the guys who banned you. I said, I'm happy to talk with you via Skype or even read

00:34:22.620 out a reply on the air if you prefer. But it is a TV medium, so I recommend that. I have seen the

00:34:28.340 lengthy complaint against Karahalios and it strikes me as a political disagreement. I just can't

00:34:33.120 understand banning someone. That's my view as a matter of principle. As a matter of pragmatics,

00:34:37.040 I think you're going to lose the court case, lose money, and serve up this internal bickering

00:34:41.240 as a feast to the mainstream media. I wrote back. I said, if I'm wrong, I'm eager to have you or

00:34:46.060 anyone else from your committee on to correct the record. How does 1.30 p.m. Eastern on Monday sound

00:34:51.160 via Skype? I promise to give you 50% of the talk time and to give you the last word. Let me know,

00:34:57.840 Ezra Levant. And I sent that to this critic of yours and of mine, and I didn't hear back.

00:35:04.260 So it's a shame we don't have the other side of the story, but I wanted you to know and the world

00:35:09.080 to know that I invited your critic and a defender of the party's decisions on the show. Never heard

00:35:16.060 back. Do you have any reaction to what I just read to you? So he had a cup of coffee on his

00:35:22.180 horse for two months, whoever that was. But let me point out two things. Number one,

00:35:27.260 if that individual was so confident in their decision and the CRO sanction, why didn't they

00:35:32.940 come to court, put in an affidavit, offer themselves up as a witness, get cross-examined?

00:35:38.520 Because the CRO and the members of the DRAC didn't avail themselves to the court so they could be

00:35:44.720 cross-examined and put forward their decisions. The LEOC didn't bring forward to the court evidence

00:35:50.800 when we requested it of their internal deliberation. So they're hiding something.

00:35:55.880 And we didn't have enough time in two months on a quick trial to compel them to bring everything

00:36:01.360 forward. And I'm pretty confident if we got the full story as to why they removed me from the

00:36:06.480 ballot, it would shine a lot of light. Number two, they're talking about helping the Liberals.

00:36:11.780 We're watching our Conservative Party drive voters away to the PPC, to the Wexit movement,

00:36:17.620 to people that say, I don't want to vote anymore. I've had it with voting in Canada.

00:36:22.740 And I'm here running trying to unify Conservatives from the West and bring back disenfranchised 1.00

00:36:30.280 Conservatives who think that the party, some say corrupt, some say it's just not run by the rule

00:36:36.020 of law and in line with our democratic processes. And I'm trying to unite that and stand up for the

00:36:40.920 rule of law. And if it's anyone who's driving votes to the Liberals and helping the opposition

00:36:46.020 parties and helping Max Bernier and the PPC, it's this small cabal that likes to stay quiet behind the

00:36:52.440 scenes and not let the members decide. If Andrew Scheer understands that it's up to the members to

00:36:57.760 decide, why can't they figure it out? It's beyond me. So we'll see, Ezra. They got 13 days left.

00:37:04.500 Are they going to open the donor portal? Are they going to go pick up the mail at the post office?

00:37:08.740 Are they going to give me the party lists? Or are they going to continue to obstruct? I don't know.

00:37:13.040 We'll see.

00:37:13.920 Yeah. You know, what's so frustrating and what I tried to communicate to this gentleman in my reply

00:37:18.300 was, look, you and I have just spent 20 minutes talking about these internal shenanigans and you're

00:37:23.160 throwing more jargon at me. I've already forgotten what Leoc stands for. And he used another word that

00:37:27.260 sounds like druck. It's like cities in Games of Thrones or something. I don't even know. They're

00:37:32.800 not even real words. And instead of talking about Justin Trudeau and his pandemic response,

00:37:39.060 Justin Trudeau and his approach to Taiwan versus China, Justin Trudeau flattening the economy,

00:37:44.940 instead of talking about real substantive matters and holding liberals account, we're in this internal

00:37:50.600 laundry washing. And it's just so frustrating. And it was so predictable, just like me kicking that

00:37:57.900 hornet's nest some 40 years ago. Jim, it's great to see. I hope you are on that ballot. And do come

00:38:02.800 back and let us know how it all goes. We'll be watching.

00:38:06.100 Thanks, Ezra.

00:38:07.780 What's your website?

00:38:08.640 Jim Carahalios.ca. It's a long last name. But if you just Google Jim Carahalios, J-I-M-K-A-R-A-H-A-L-I-O-S,

00:38:20.020 or Jim and Axe the Carbon Tax, my website will pop up.

00:38:23.680 All right.

00:38:23.900 They're kind of linked together.

00:38:25.560 People can check it out. All right. Nice to see you. Good luck. Keep fighting.

00:38:29.400 Thanks, Ezra.

00:38:30.200 There you have it. Jim Carahalios, victorious in court today. His disqualification from the

00:38:36.440 Conservative Party leadership contest, thrown out by a judge who started with a biblical reference

00:38:42.320 that just made me smile. I don't know if Jim's going to get back in. You heard there are still

00:38:47.880 some technical difficulties. For the reasons I said earlier, I hope he does go back in.

00:38:53.660 Let the people decide, as Preston would say. Let the people speak. Stay with us. Your letters to me next.

00:39:06.440 Hey, welcome back on my monologue yesterday about sanctuary cities. Ron writes,

00:39:13.360 left-wing sanctuary cities are sanctimonious, lawless cities. Yeah, sanctimonious. That's a good

00:39:18.500 use of that word. I'll tell you one thing, and I just can't get that little clip of that

00:39:24.660 Philadelphia mayor dancing out of my head. Here, let me play that here to remind you.

00:39:29.100 A sanctuary city. Yeah. Look at that. I found that so cringeworthy. I wonder if he would be 0.99

00:39:37.320 dancing that way if it was someone from his life, his world, that was murdered, like Kate

00:39:42.460 Steinle was murdered in California. He probably lives in some gated community, probably has private

00:39:48.520 armed security paid for by the state. So, yeah, he's just doing it as a sop for votes. I find it

00:39:54.140 very immoral sanctuary cities, and I hate the use of the word, too. Chris writes,

00:40:00.880 the over-controlling governments are overplaying this Wuhan virus. Nothing, Berger. They will

00:40:04.980 encounter the boy-who-cried-wolf scenario when the next viral or any other threat arises.

00:40:10.120 Well, that's the thing. Some people will be very skeptical the next crisis arises. They'll say,

00:40:15.740 yeah, you got all your models wrong the first time around. But I think too many Canadians have been 1.00

00:40:20.960 stunned and reformed and conditioned to accepting abuse of orders from the state. Just like after

00:40:27.600 9-11, we all said, okay, so we have to take off our shoes and take off our belts and be groped to go

00:40:33.060 on airlines, and that's been 20 years, and it's the new normal. I think we've been conditioned to

00:40:38.260 accept the government saying, stay at home, shut your business, don't go outside without a mask,

00:40:43.960 don't meet your friends and family, don't go to church or synagogue, don't, you know,

00:40:47.760 we've been conditioned. And I think too many Canadians have said, okay, so that's how it works

00:40:52.380 now. On my interview with Gordon Chang, Jim writes, Trudeau won't stand with Hong Kong.

00:40:58.920 He pledged his allegiance to the CCP. You're right, but I find it very interesting that so much of the

00:41:04.560 world is standing with Taiwan, which is an independent country. And in fact, just very,

00:41:11.760 very early this morning, or yesterday, Taiwan time, I forget the time zones, the president had her

00:41:18.200 second inauguration. And she's at record popularity in her own country. And I think Taiwan has really

00:41:24.820 risen to the occasion of this pandemic being thoughtful and smart in its own defenses and

00:41:32.700 helpful to other countries, including to Canada. The only face masks I would trust that are not made

00:41:39.280 for sure in North America are from Taiwan. Well, folks, that's our show for today. Until tomorrow,

00:41:46.220 on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, you at home, good night, and keep fighting for free.

Rebel News Podcast - May 21, 2020

Why are Canada's political and media elites so keen on bringing in cheap foreign labour？

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