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Rebel News Podcast
EZRA LEVANT | Are Canadians even a little ungrateful to the United States?
00:46:39
As global tensions continue to escalate, Canada’s unwillingness to answer the call raises uncomfortable questions. Listen to audio-only versions of RebelNews+ exclusive shows like the daily Ezra Levant Show, the Gunn Show, and audio versions of our DAILY livestreams along with other Rebel News long-form videos and interviews.
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- [00:00]
A
Hello, my friends. We like to push back at Donald Trump because he's pesky on Twitter and he hurts our feelings. But do you think, ever, once in a while, do you ever let the thought creep into your mind that maybe we're not as grateful to America as maybe we should be? I'll make the case for just a tiny bit more gratitude. I don't know. You can tell me what you think. But first, let me invite you to become a subscriber to Rebel News Plus. It's the video version of this podcast, and I really think today's a good day to get the video version because I'm going to show you a bunch of videos by Marco Rubio, and I think they're very persuasive. I'll let you tell me what you think. So go to rebel news plus.com and click subscribe. It's eight bucks a month. You get great video content and the satisfaction of keeping Rebel News strong because we take no government money, unlike 99% of the media. So we really rely on that eight bucks a month. Oh, yeah, one more thing.
- [00:53]
B
Hey, everyone, it's Tamara Leach here coming at you from my backyard because I am under house arrest, so where else would I be? However, tomorrow I am headed to the University of Calgary to do my very first campus presentation, and I hope to see you there. Tickets are only five bucks and we're going to have some surprise guests. Ezra Levent is flying in and Sheila Gun Reid will also be joining us. It's going to be a fantastic evening. Tickets are only $5 and you can pick them up at the tameraproject.com See you tomorrow.
- [01:23]
A
Tonight. Is it possible that Canadians are a bit ungrateful to the United States? Even a teeny tiny bit? It's April 6th, and this is the Ezra Levant show. You fighting for freedom. Shame on you, you censorious thug. You know, I don't like taking the side of any foreign country against. Not that many countries are against Canada, by the way, to be candid. These days, very few countries even think about Canada. I mean, Ukraine gives us a lot of attention, but I think that's mainly because we have sent billions of dollars to them since Russia invaded. And we seem to make an announcement to that effect every month. The terrorist groups pressing for a state of Palestine, well, they like us. They put out three different thank you notes to us. The latest was for recognizing that Palestine was a state state when Mark Carney said they're sovereign rewarding the Hamas terrorist group despite their refusal to renounce Terrorism. But, you know, we're just not in the thick of it. We're not consulted by Americans or other allies on really anything of importance. We're not tipped off, even though we're in the Five Eyes security alliance with the U.S. they just ignore us a lot. You know, we didn't participate in a recent major NATO exercise. You think we would have, but our equipment just isn't interoperable, as they say. We can't keep up. We're. We're a generation outdated. We have old CF18s that are not up to snuff. And, you know, the leading armies In NATO use F35s and the like. I saw a rather pitiful announcement by Anita Anand the other day, if you've forgotten, and I don't blame you if you have. She's nominally our foreign minister, not that it matters who our foreign minister is. I mean, really. And she was saying that she was participating in a very important meeting with other countries and she wanted you to know that, and those countries included the United Kingdom to talk about the Strait of Hormuz. And if you recall, that's this narrow seaway between the Persian Gulf and the ocean. It's a choke point. It's a bottleneck. Sort of like the Strait of Gibraltar, where Iran has been threatening oil tankers. So the US Has a large naval presence in the Persian Gulf, but for some reason, it's isn't really able to keep those ships going through the Strait of Hormuz. I'm not really sure why. I'm not an expert in that. But Donald Trump asked publicly, and I presume privately, for other countries to come and help patrol that sea lane. He asked NATO allies, other allies, and he even said that the customers of all that Persian Gulf oil should come and help, too. Even China. I mean, it's sort of weird, Donald Trump inviting a rival, some would say enemy of America, to help patrol, because after all, they're a big buyer of that Persian Gulf oil.
- [04:22]
C
Urge other nations whose economies depend on the Strait far more than ours. You know, we get less than 1% of our oil from this rate. And some countries get much more. Japan gets 95%. China gets 90%. Many of the Europeans get quite a. Quite a bit. South Korea gets 35%. So we want them to come and help us with the Strait. We have it in very good shape, the countries. I said we've already taken care of Iran. But now, because of the fact that literally a single terrorist can put something in the water or shoot something or shoot a missile, a Small missile, and it's fairly close range because it is a tight area, and which is one of the reasons they've always used that as a weapon. Iran has always used that as an economic weapon.
- [05:16]
A
Now, I don't think any country is really in a position to make a significant difference in the security scenario there. I mean, maybe Israel would be, but they're going full tilt on bombing Iranian targets in Iran itself. But no other navy besides the US Is helping to do the work. There are no other navy ships in that area now. The US has more aircraft carriers than the rest of the world combined. The UK has two, but they're both under repair right now. Russia's navy has been partially sunk because of the Ukraine war, and it's a net oil exporter anyways. They don't rely on the Persian Gulf. China hasn't taken up President Trump on his invitation, nor has India, even though they are huge Persian Gulf oil importers. And actually both of them have aircraft carriers.
- [06:02]
C
Don't need it. And we say to Europe and all these countries that do, you know, China gets 90% of its oil from the Strait of Hormuz, and they should be policing their own strait. We shouldn't be policing it for them. We have been for years. And we're, you know, we're getting ready to get out of there. But they should. You know, all the damage is we have done such a job that they're. They're really a very weak country. They've gone from the bully of the Middle east to essentially a weak country. And I say, you guys, why should we? The problem with the thing the Strait is they can have one terrorist there with a machine gun someplace, and they'll say, oh, it's not totally clean, you know, so let them do it. Let France do it. They get a lot of oil from the Strait. Let the European countries do it. Let South Korea, who was not helpful to us, by the way, let South Korea, you know, we only have 45,000 soldiers in harm's way over there, right next to a nuclear force. Let South Korea do it.
- [07:03]
A
But honestly, I don't think Trump was actually looking for a significant and substantial force militarily. I think he's just there in the Strait of Hormuz and all these tankers are supplying other countries. And he's asking, why is America being the globo cop again? Why is no one else sharing the burden? Why, given that China, India, others are buying Persian Gulf oil, why aren't they protecting the Persian Gulf? I think that's what he's doing. Here's our brave NATO allies in France. France will never take part in operations to unblock Hormuz Strait amid hostilities, says Macron. Oh, okay. Here's how Al Jazeera reported it slightly differently. They said France preparing to escort ships in Strait of Hormuz when war calms Macron. So that's exactly what Trump accused them of. Trump says that the French will only help when their help is no longer needed. And that's sort of what the Brits said, too. Here's Keir Starmer, the UK Prime Minister. Now the UK Navy, which of course the Royal Navy was once, you know, the British Empire had, they actually had a law. Can you believe this? I just learned this the other day. Until recently past century, I mean, there was a law that the UK Navy, the Royal Navy had to be as large as the next two navies in the world combined. That was actually their standard. They were so mighty, the British Empire ruled the seas around the entire world. Now it really can't do anything. Like I say, it has only a handful of ships. Many of them are not operational. So here's Keir Starmer trying to make a necessity into a virtue while also appealing to his massive Muslim voter base and saying, I'm not going into Trump's war. Take a listen. Let me say once again, this is not our war. We will not be drawn into the conflict that is not in our national interest. And the most effective way we can support the cost of living in Britain is to push for de escalation in the Middle East. Yeah, he's not joining the war because he has nothing to join it. We with, they have one little frigate that's trying to defend Cyprus. It can't be both in Cyprus and the Persian Gulf. So it's not just that no one will help, it's that they won't even allow the US to help itself from decades old US military bases. There's military basically wherever America goes to fight some war, they never leave. They have military bases all over the world, over a hundred. And they even have them in the UK. Is that interesting? There's about 40 US bases in Germany, for example, in Japan, Korea, even, believe it or not, in Cuba, Guantanamo Bay. But even the Brits denied Trump the right to use US aircraft from US bases in the uk, saying it was international law. Now he later relented. I don't think international law is really a thing, certainly not that Iran or Russia follow. But more to the point, why does America have bases around the world if those countries. Well, I mean, those bases, 99% of the time, they're actually de facto defending the countries they're in. So those countries, in a way, are lucky to have American bases because they get the free defense of having the bases there. And it's an economic boon. But what's the point of that if the US can't use those bases when they need to? And what does NATO mean if it's actually NATO armies like the UK and Spain blocking America from operating? Now, Canada is the same. Mark Carney is adamant that Canada won't send naval vessels, but as I showed you the other day, we couldn't. Our navy ships literally do not have the weapon systems to stop the kind of drones and missiles that Iran is using these days. Sending a Canadian Navy ship to the Strait of Hormuz would be a burden, not a help, because we need someone else's navy to defend our ship. Remember this clip I showed you the other day?
- [11:10]
B
Canada is not participating in the offensive operations of Israel in the United States and will not ever.
- [11:19]
A
But like I say, Anita and Ann, it was at a very important meeting of a bunch of very important countries to talk about the very important strain of Hormuz. And they'll do everything necessary short of helping. I mean, none of them were actually doing anything, but they sure were having an important meeting. I should have been invited because I personally am not doing any less than the Canadian Navy or the UK's Royal Navy. Why was I left out, by the way? Don't believe for a minute that suddenly Canada is spending the requisite 2% of our GDP on the military, as opposed to the 1.3% that was in our budget just a couple years ago, 2024. Do you really think that we have nearly doubled our defense spending in the last year? Have you detected it? Do you really think that happened? Here's a secret that's not really a secret. It's sort of obvious. They simply changed their accounting. So now they're including items like pensions and infrastructure and other non military costs that they call military. So they can pretend that suddenly we've doubled our military spending. And the media has been absolutely stenographic in their unquestioning reporting of that stat. All of which brings me to my point. Is Donald Trump or Marco Rubio the Secretary of State, are they right to feel like they've been taken advantage of? I mean, the US spends probably $100 billion every year on foreign bases and on expeditionary forces. I mentioned Japan, Korea, Germany, the UK. Throw in Turkey, 100 other places the US often acts as a tripwire, as in the very first soldiers that would be hit. A deterrent to those countries enemies. For example, American troops are on the front line between the North Koreans and the South Koreans. Americans, in a way, are human shields. America was in Germany throughout the Cold War. They were there to block Russia. They would have taken the brunt of it. There are still 40,000Americans in Germany. Just think of the economic boon, let alone the security. And none of them, none of those countries will help America when it asks for even symbolic help in the Strait of Hormuz. Why would they? Did you know that Europe spent more money over the last four years buying Russian oil and gas than they have given to Ukraine in military aid? I say again, Europe, mainly NATO countries, are doing business with Russia. Every day that they claim to be on Ukraine's side. They are paying more to Russia than they are to Ukraine in aid. And Canada is in some ways the worst. We don't have US bases in our country because we have US bases next to our our country, near our border, up in Alaska, way up north. Whenever there's a problem, it is US jets that are the first to scramble much more often than Canadian jets are scrambled. It's a joint North American Air Defense Command. It's called norad. We're talking tough about maybe we're going to buy some Swedish jets, not American F35s because Carney is mad at Trump. But the joke is American jets will protect Canada anyways because we will never be able to defend ourselves properly, not in a real way that matters. We'll include pensions and environmental spending and feminist spending to fake our stats. That's how Canada does it. And the Americans are our friends nonetheless. Yeah, you have to put up with the odd barb from President Trump, but how does that change the massive benefit we get from being their friends and neighbors? Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, I think he had something to say about this and I want to show you some of the videos. What do you think of this one?
- [15:03]
D
The United States is constantly being asked to help in a war. And we have more than any other country in the world on a war that's happening in another continent, in Ukraine. But when the US Had a need, he didn't get positive responses. So right now he's just making the observation that I think there was a couple leaders in Europe who said that they this was not Europe's war. Well, Ukraine is not America's war. And yet we've contributed more to that fight than any other country in the world. So it'll be something to examine and the President will have to take into account down the road.
- [15:34]
A
How is that wrong? I mean, Europe and Canada have refused to help Trump, which means they've refused to help America. Don't they see that even if they don't like Trump as the messenger, they say it's Trump's war or America's war. At least it's not their war. Okay, but they've demanded in the most insistent way that America pay the bulk of the cost and provide most of the high tech weapons for Ukraine. How is that not a fit comparison? Here's another video where Rubio talks about bases in particular.
- [16:05]
D
And I've been a big supporter of NATO, and one of the reasons why I've been a supporter of NATO is because I believe that these basing rights give us leverage and give us flexibility and operational capability all over the world. But if NATO is just about us defending Europe if they're attacked, but them denying us basing rights when we need them, that's not a very good arrangement. That's a hard one to stay engaged in and say this is good for the United States. So all of them are going to have to be reexamined. All of it's going to have to be reexamined.
- [16:33]
A
That's insane about the bases. Here's another version.
- [16:37]
D
The NATO is simply about us having troops in Europe to defend Europe. But when we need their help, not their help, we're not asking them to conduct airstrikes. When we need them to allow us to use their military bases, their answer is no. Then why are we in NATO? You have to ask that question. Why do we have billions and billions of dollars, hundreds of billions of dollars over the years, trillions of dollars. And all these American forces stationed in the region, if we can only use in our time of need, we're not going to be allowed to use those bases. So I think there's no doubt, unfortunately, after this conflict is concluded, we are going to have to reexamine that relationship.
- [17:13]
A
Oh, boy, are we ever lucky that we have so far in Canada avoided scrutiny like that. You know, we've got free trade with the U.S. trump has put some tariffs on here and there, as he has with most of the world, but he has reduced them with most of the world because most of the world prioritized getting a new trade deal with Trump over the political payoff of fighting with Trump to the delight of foreign voters, but not Canada. Fighting with Trump was precisely how Mark Carney won the last election. And it's going to be how he gets a majority government if he calls a snap election this spring. It's why Doug Ford spent tens of millions of dollars antagonizing Trump with TV ads.
- [17:55]
E
When someone says, let's impose tariffs on foreign imports, it looks like they're doing
- [17:59]
D
the patriotic thing by protecting American products and jobs. And sometimes for a short while, it
- [18:07]
E
works, but only for a short time.
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D
But over the long run, such trade
- [18:12]
E
barriers hurt every American worker and consumer.
- [18:17]
D
America's jobs and growth are at stake.
- [18:23]
A
That's why Manitobia Premier Wab Kanu called Trump a pedophile. Yeah, great diplomacy, brother. I hope this war in Iran ends. These gas prices are too high and kids are being killed for no reason. Even the Trump administration cannot explain why they're at war in Iran right now. And, I mean, like, the Epstein file seems to be as good of a reason as anyone else can figure out. So stop the war. I'm just not sure how you talk to your most important defense protector, by far your most important customer. I don't know how you talk to him like that and then claim to be shocked when he pokes back in a tweet or two. Canada has brought in by Canadian procurement strategies, as in, US Companies are not allowed to bid. That one was noticed by the US Side in my interview in particular. Take a look.
- [19:14]
E
You're reliable. You know, there's people talking about harmonizing standards and all of these types of things. And it's like, that's a really, really compelling case as to why we should be doing business. Americans should be doing business with Canada. And what we hear from Canada is, you know, we're at war with the United States. Okay. We don't, you know, we're banning your alcohol.
- [19:42]
A
Yeah.
- [19:42]
E
Okay. We're banning you from procurement. Okay. For provincial product or projects you can't bid. I heard that in British. British Columbian. I hear that in Ottawa, and it's in a lot of provinces around the country. And, you know. So you say, okay, well, that's an approach to negotiating with the US Is
- [20:06]
A
it smart to antagonize America over trifles like that? What if they did the same to us? You saw the US Ambassador. He says Canada really isn't the same class of irritant as Mexico or China. We were talking about cars, and he told me that we shouldn't be that worried. It's other countries that are worse. Here's the clip of that. You need the heavy industry.
- [20:26]
E
Yeah. And, you know, so they, you know, they're making Cars one day, and the next day they've taken a line, or I'm sure it's not a line, but they've taken a lot of their engineering capability and all that and said, okay, instead of building a, you know, an escape, tomorrow, you're building a ventilator. And, you know, they figured it out. That's why you need and why the President is so insistent on having that capability. But to maintain that capability, our biggest threats are from Korea, Japan, Mexico. So we've got to work on. Those are the places where you really can move some numbers and getting car production here back into the US and then we've got to figure out what we're going to do with China because that's, that's the biggest threat.
- [21:13]
A
But, boy, are we ever working on making ourselves a problem. You know, I see new regime. Media polls showing that Canadians would like to join the European Union. Okay, great. So we're opposed to being the 51st state of America, but we're going to be gung ho about the 28th country in the European Union. Yeah, that's smart. You know, by the way, we're not in Europe. We have easy travel to the U.S. we have easy trade with the U.S. we're protected by them. The reason we can afford bloated healthcare spending is because they subsidize our military. And when Donald Trump asked for some help, just symbolic help, and he's told no, you know, Argentina's Javier Milei said he would help. Here's a news story about it. Argentina estar z unidos paren viara pollo militara. Go for persico. I should never try to speak Spanish. I apologize. That means Argentina offers itself to the United States to send military support to the Persian Gulf. If they requested it, yes. Any help they consider will be given, said the spokesman for Javier Milei's government. I'm sorry, I tried Spanish on you. Look, why not just say what Javier Milie said? Why don't you say, hey, if we're asked, we'll do it. Love to do it. Because, you know, he's not going to ask. Why not just give a little bit of love to the guy who's going after the ayatollahs, who, by the way, Iran shot down a commercial airliner, killing nearly 200 people a few years ago, including 55 Canadian citizens and dozens more Canadian permanent residents. The IRGC terrorist group fired the missiles, so they murdered almost 100 Canadians. And yet Canada has not deported the 700 IRGC terrorists from Canada. And we haven't done anything about it, actually, but America is. If they get the regime change in Iran, the whole world will be safer and freer. The US Is saving the world from Venezuela to Iran, and it's coming to Cuba. And you know, you can dislike Trump and his style, sure, fill your boots, but he's having a Berlin Wall moment every month or so. And if you don't realize how successful he is and how terrified he's got the West's mortal enemies, from China to Russia to the Islamists, you're too easily distracted by Trump's personal style, and you probably misunderstand it, and maybe you're misunderstanding it on purpose. You know, yesterday, Trump made a tweet that had the F word in it. I think that's probably got to be the first time he's done that. I was surprised by. Let me read it to you. I'm going to swear here. Trump said Tuesday will be power plant day and bridge day. He's talking about what he's going to attack all wrapped up in one in Iran. There will be nothing like it. Open the fucking straight, you crazy bastards, or you'll be living in hell. Just watch. Praise be to Allah. President Donald J. Trump. That is a wild tweet. Now, do you think that was an accident? Do you think Donald Trump was drunk? You know, he never drinks at all. He never takes drugs. So can you come up with another theory? Do you not see that part of Trump's tactics are to confuse and misdirect opponents and that he uses hyperbole for that? Do you not remember when he did the same thing to the little rocket man, Kim Jong Un in North Korea with tweets? Also remember he talked about, I got a bigger button and a bigger missile of mine actually works? Remember he said that? Are you so mad at how Trump talks and how he negotiates that you're willing to disregard every benefit we have by being next to America? Don't you remember Art of the Deal where Trump talked about how he uses hyperbole to knock his opponents off balance? You know, Marco Rubio was talking about 60 years of a one way street. America rebuilt Europe after the Second World War with billions of dollars in the Marshall Plan. Then it protected Europe throughout the Cold War with billions of dollars in soldiers and bases. America subsidizes the whole world. It protects the whole world. And the one time it asked for help, it's mocked and denied their own military basis. You know, the Europeans had better pray that Marco Rubio was just airing his grievances and won't actually act on them. And, you know, we here in Canada, we had better pray that Marco Rubio and Donald Trump don't turn their attention to us, perhaps proportionately the biggest ingrates in the world, towards the benefits of a trade and military friendship with America. Am I ever glad that Trump seems to admire King Charles because that's about all we have going for us diplomacy wise right now. Stay with us for more with an interesting interview with Alexa Lavoie. Hey, welcome back. You know, I really found my trip to the United Arab Emirates fascinating. You might recall that a few years ago Rebel News put on one of our seminar tours. Normally we do it on a cruise ship, but we did what we called the Abraham Accords Mission. We went to Israel first and then we went to the uae. We went to Abu Dhabi and Dubai. And the purpose was to see if that peace treaty was real, if it was a warm peace, a respectful, mutual peace. And to my delight, it was. And I have to say I was a little bit skeptical. And it was such a delight to land in Dubai, flying on El Al, coming over Saudi Arabia and having an Emirati say welcome to the uae. And I thought, oh my God, just a few years ago that none of that would have been possible. So I was filled with so much hope for peace. Ironically, just a couple of months later, the October 7th terrorist attack happened. And it has been widely acknowledged that that was Iran's move to derail the peace process that I observed. Anyways, one of the fascinating things about visiting the uae, if you don't mind me giving you a bit of a reflection, was how it felt to see mosques. For the first time in my life, I could look at these mosques, these Muslim places of prayer, as architecturally beautiful, culturally interesting and without any sense of danger because Jews and Christians and others in the United Arab Emirates are safe. They really are. And I was skeptical about that before I went there. And here's what I've learned about the UAE at that trip. And since then, as I've studied it, they are in some ways more moderate than even Western countries. For example, they ban Muslim extremist groups that are not banned in Canada or the UK referring in particular, for example, the Muslim Brotherhood. Here's another thing, and this was a story in the Times of England a few months ago, is that the United Arab Emirates, which pays for young Emiratis to go to prestigious schools in the west, they now no longer pay for their young men to go to schools in the UK that they deem to be too Islamically radical. Just stop and think about that for a second. You're a young man in the UAE and your senior government says you're not going to school in London or Birmingham or Manchester because it'll turn you into a terrorist supporter. The UK will. And finally, which brings us to our topic of the day. Mass prayer in the public square is not permitted in those modernizing Gulf countries. There are countless mosques in the United Arab Emirates that if you want to pray as a Muslim, you go to those mosques and pray. You don't block the streets of Dubai. You don't have a mass prayer in front of a hotel or the government offices. But that is a tool, a tactic I've seen all across the West, a mass dominating public prayer. Even in cities like Toronto that have 100 mosques deliberately designed to block off streets to disrupt and to say, whose streets? Our streets. Well, as you may know, our friend Alexei Lavoie has been covering the most abusive use of these street blocking, show off prayers in Montreal where incredibly, they have been done right outside the majority church, the Basilica, as it's called. There is no need for that. There are dozens of mosques in Montreal. But to have a street blocking, sidewalk blocking, domination, prayer. And by the way, this wasn't, oh, let's go practice our prayers. This was a flourish on a pro Hamas, pro Iran protest. So it was obvious the malign purpose any Alexa's been covering that so much and very few other media have, that there was actually a law passed in Quebec to ban those street prayers. Well, guess what? Alexa was out on the street proving that those bans on street blocking prayers are not being enforced by police. Raise up your hands and feel how proud you are. We will have, we will get a pledge for our people, our wherever they are, we will get a promise that we will continue and being the voice of them wherever we are and wherever we are, as much as we can. Do you do travel. And joining us now via Skype is our friend Alexa. Love Alexa, great to see you again.
- [32:44]
B
Great to see you too.
- [32:46]
A
It is a fact that massive dominating, blocking public prayers like that are not allowed in moderate Muslim countries because that's such an obvious political act, not a religious act, but that is a tool and a tactic used in Quebec every week, isn't is.
- [33:05]
B
And as you say, it's not an act of faith, it's an act of showing domination, conquest. And it's a political act. And we are seeing it. And I saw them almost every week doing this after they finished their protests. It's every Sunday and Sometime is in front of the Notre Dame Basilica, but sometimes they are blocking streets and sometimes it's even in front of really important monument as the Cenotaph.
- [33:41]
A
Isn't that interesting? Now, we typically send you with bodyguards for you and your cameraman. And unfortunately that's because we cannot trust the Montreal police to protect you. I think they regard you as a nuisance and they hate the fact that you're shining a light of scrutiny on it. Let me ask you, and we'll just play in the background some of the footage you've taken when you're there. Are there other mainstream media there? For example, the large English newspaper called the Montreal Gazette or La Presse or l' Ou Devoir or Journal de Montreal, those are some of the larger French newspapers. Have they covered this? And if not, do you have a theory of why not?
- [34:20]
B
I would have expect that after this new bill have passed that they will actually show up just to see if the spbm, the Montreal police will enforce that new bill. And I knew it was important for me to be on the ground and I had some information that they might have go to the Notre Dame Basilica once again. But I think it's because a group of Quebecers have organized to counter protest at the basilica that they decided to change where they will finish their protest. Because nothing is, you know, set when they start marching. They just decide to go wherever they go. And the fact that it's a group of Iranian mixed with Quebecers who usually show up in large numbers to counter them, they probably say, let's go somewhere else then. But no mainstream media showed up. I was with Natasha, another independent that was there for covering what was happening. And I was really surprised of what was happening. And I'm not very surprised in a way because since two years and a half there were only few papers on the street prayers and they were always favorable, they were always nice with the street prayers. And same like sometimes I'm watching Razo Canada in all big shows. They are trying to legitimize those street prayers, saying, oh, you know, they are praying for the martyr. But I'm sorry, but this is literally a political act. They are doing this for showing their dominance. And I was there on the ground, but the mainstream media refused to do and refused to cover them. Why? Probably because they don't want to be labeled as racist. Or also because we know that some of news, mainstream news, they are advocating for multiculturalism so it would go against what they are trying to push on the society. So obviously they are being told to not cover it. And you know what? I'm not really surprised that they decided to not go and cover it.
- [36:55]
A
You know, I remember when you started covering those mass Muslim street prayers outside the basilica, Some of your videos were getting hundreds of thousands of views. And I think it's because you were the only person actually showing what was happening. You know, there's a joke. The mainstream media covered the story, covered the story with a pillow till it stopped breathing. I mean, as in they actually were anti reporting. In fact, they sort of mocked you and made fun of you, which is interesting because I'm not an expert in Quebec cultural history, but Quebec came from a very Catholic past that's hardwired in our constitution. For anyone who actually reads the Constitution act of 1867, there's an enormous number of references to the Catholic nature of Quebec, Catholic schooling, Catholic religion. So it was such an important part of the. Of Quebec's past over the course of decades. Secularism, or laicite, if I'm saying right, has become more important in Quebec as they remove some of the religious nature of the public square. But to replace that with Islam is stunning. Like, either you're Catholic, which is your history, or your secular, which is your modernity, but to throw out both Catholicism and secularism and to welcome into the void Islamism is so I can't imagine any actual Quebecers would be pleased with
- [38:24]
B
this, and they are not pleased with this. First of all, why Quebecers have decided to remove religion in our life is because, not me, obviously, but my grandparents had to deal with the church and the Christianity. When you think that the priest was actually knocking at the door because you didn't have enough children. You know, a lot of people suffered in Quebec because of Christianity. But this is the thing. When you remove all religions together, they will always have one that will impose itself. And we need to protect, we need to reaffirm that Quebec is Christian, is built on Christianity, or if you are not doing this, you will have another religion who will take the void, they will take the place. There is like a place to be taken and they will take it. And it's something that I've been discussing, discussed with some leader of different political party in Quebec. And they all agree with this. They all agree that this is our heritage. We are Christian, we are being built on Christianity, and we need to protect that. We need to reaffirm who we are, and we need to make sure that there is not another religion that take over and imposed itself.
- [40:02]
A
You know, Sir Isaac Newton, the famous scientist, said nature abhors a vacuum, which means if you remove, if you create a void, something's going to fill it. Now he meant that in terms of physics, but it applies to other things. If you remove Christianity from the public square, well, something's going to fill it. Maybe environmentalism. For many young people, that is their kind of cult. Maybe it is full of other third world isms like in some parts of the world. I can't lie. When I, when I go to Ireland, I see a lot of young people. Their new religion is Gaza. In a way. If you don't give something people something positive to believe in, they will find something else. And Islam is confident and it's demographically growing and it is militant by contrast to meek Christianity, which I see not just in Quebec, but in English Canada too. Now, tell me if you're at liberty to give anything away. I know that a few days ago you had a significant interview and I don't want to. We'll release it in public when we're allowed to. Are you allowed to say who you sat down with in an interview? Or is that part of it confidential as well?
- [41:15]
B
I think I can release it. First of all, why I kept it confidential is because this person have a family and he wanted to have Easter weekend without any controversy. So I was pleased to receive an email inviting me inside of the National. National assembly in Quebec to have an interview one on one with the leader of the Parci Quebecois, the separatist party. And people need to understand that Paul St Pierre Mondon, who is the leader, might be our next premier. Everything indicates in the poll that he might be the chosen leader. So we are waiting obviously, like it's in six months away, but so far la CAC is going down the drain, but the Liberal Party of Quebec is actually rising. This is actually concerning when we know a little bit of the past. I just hope that the new leader would be better in the position of the Liberal Party, because in the past we had like a lot of controversies with this party, but so far it's the Separatist Party, it's the Parti Quebecois who seems to be the next premier of Quebec.
- [42:44]
A
Yeah. So just in case anyone missed the name of the politician, that's the leader of the Parti Quebecois that is currently leading or tied in the polls could be the next premier. And I found it very interesting and actually very encouraging that they reached out to you and you were invited to go to what they call the National Assembly. That's what we would call in another province, the provincial Legislature. So I think it was a real feather in your cap as the leading rebel journalist in Quebec to receive that invitation. And of course, you're on excellent terms with Eric Duhem, the leader of the Conservative Party of Quebec, which is rising too.
- [43:23]
B
Yeah, pretty. Pretty good.
- [43:26]
A
Your journalism is respected by both of those two political parties because you're on the street telling the truth. And so we're going to wait, I think, a day or two before we publish that interview. And we'll have it obviously in French, but we'll have a version of in English, too. I think it's going to be very exciting, and I think it's a real feather in our cap. I mean, we interview the premier of Alberta, Sheila Gun Reed is. Is setting up another interview with the premier, Saskatchewan, for you to interview the man who is quite likely to be the next premier of Quebec. I think it shows that rebel news. And of course, last week I sat down with the ambassador of America. So I think that just because some of our rival journalists don't like us, people realize that we have a viewership and we have a point of view that ought to be heard. So congratulations to you. And I know part of that is your coverage of these territory dominating mass public prayers. We'll let you go there, Alexa, but we look forward to the debut of your major interview. So congratulations for that.
- [44:26]
B
Thank you so much.
- [44:27]
A
All right, there she is. Alexa Lavoie, our chief reporter en Quebec. Stay with us. Your letters to me next. Thanks. Hey, welcome back. Your letters to me about Sam Cooper. I really like Sam. Here's what you said, Annette. Mort said, what in hell was this guy doing in the Conservative caucus talking about Michael Ma? Are candidates not vetted in any way? All of this information was apparently known. He shouldn't have gotten anywhere near a Canadian political party, let alone have a seat in Commons. I've not seen this aspect addressed at all by anyone. Yeah, I mean, in the interview, I had to stop him and say, hey, can you just say that again? Are you saying that the Chinese Communist Party set up a particular group designed to infiltrate the Conservatives? Because that's what I thought he said and he confirmed it. That was news to me. James Henry says, just enjoy the interview with Sam Cooper. With respect to Carney and Liberal lying, has anyone followed up on Carney's passports? Did he give up his UK and Ireland passports as promised? This would be the kind of reporting I expect from rebel. Well, that's one of my favorite questions. You know, I've raised that issue many times. But when are we allowed to come into contact with Mark Carney? We are barred from Parliament, barred from press conferences. If we try and attend, the police arrest us. Even. You know, I did more interviews with Canadian cabinet ministers in 24 hours at Davos than I've done in 10 years at rebel News. Because in Canada, if you ask prickly questions, the police arrest you. If you don't believe me, ask my friend David Menzies. Paul McCullough says China seems to own the House of Commons. It is very true. And Mark Carney won't do anything about it because he is the beneficiary of all that. In fact, he flaunts it. Well, that's our show for the day. Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home, good night and keep fighting for freedom.