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EZRA LEVANT | Canada’s worst finance minister is now working for Ukraine — what could go wrong?
00:42:55
Ezra Levant discusses Liberal MP and former finance minister Chrystia Freeland's controversial new role as an economic advisor for Ukrainian President Zelensky. GUEST: Rebel reporter Alexa Lavoie details her trip to Miami, Florida, where she heard what Venezuelan exiles thought about the US intervention and capture of Nicolas Maduro.
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- [00:00]
Ezra Levant
Hello, my friends. I think I can prove that Kristia Freeland was trying to keep it a secret that she was hired by Ukraine while sitting as a Canadian mp. I'll show you the timeline. I just can't get it out of my head. But first, let me invite you to become a subscriber to Rebel News Plus. That's the video version of this podcast. I want you to see not only that monologue that I do, but my interview with Alexa Lavois where we talk about what she saw on the streets of Miami, in little Caracas, in Little Havana. Just go to rebelnewsplus.com that's the video version of this podcast. It's eight bucks a month, which may not sound like a lot to you, but it sure adds up for us. Please help us out. You're listening to Real News podcast. Tonight, Canada's worst finance minister is now working for Ukraine. What could go wrong? It's January 6th, and this is the Ezra Levant Show. Shame on you, you censorious bug. It's January 6th today for the Democratic Party of the United States. That's their Pearl harbor, or as my friend Gavin McInnes calls it, the Great Meandering. As a number of pro Republican protesters walked through the halls of Congress, but abiding by the velvet ropes. It was quite a thing. I don't know if I would call it a riot. The only person killed that day was Ashley Babbitt, a protester. But an enormous number of people were arrested and kept in solitary confinement for years. It was a significant proportion of the FBI was dedicated to punishing those political trespassers. I'm not for breaking windows and I'm not for trespassing. Let me make that clear. But that was called by half of the Democratic establishment the worst day in American history since. I don't know, some of them said since Pearl harbor. Anyways, that's January 6th for you. And I remember when the truckers started to muster in Ottawa four years ago, Justin Trudeau said, these are our January Sixers. This is our insurrection. Didn't turn out that way, did it? In fact, it was the beginning of the end for him. Well, that just happens to be the date. And I thought I'd say a few things about that. But today I want to talk about a Canadian scandal. I want to give you a timeline of a scandal, and I think it's actually quite a serious one. Christia Freeland, the former finance minister. Former? She had various portfolios under Justin Trudeau. She was offered a job by the country of Ukraine on December 22. Volodymyr Zelensky, and I assume they're somewhat friends at least, offered her a job as a senior economic advisor December 22nd. She told Mark Carney about it on December 24th, which I suppose is quick enough, but they decided to keep it a secret and I think I know why she was hired on December 22. She told Mark Carney on December 24. And they kept it a secret because three days later, on December 27, Mark Carney and Christia Freeland gave another $2.5 billion to Ukraine without revealing her secret job. They didn't tell anybody on purpose. It was Vladimir Zelensky himself who broke the news yesterday. And I think it was accidental. That is, I don't think that Carney or Freeland knew that his office was going to tweet about it. They didn't realize what was going on in Canada, that it was hush hush, it had been a secret and I think it caught a lot of people off guard. Here's what Zelenskyy said. He said, today I appointed Kristia Freeland as an advisor on economic development. Translation getting money from other countries in the world. Kristia is highly skilled in these matters and has extensive experience in attracting investment and implementing economic transformations. Does she really? Is she an expert in attracting investment? Can you think of any investment she's ever attracted to? Canada? Economic transformations? I suppose if that means setting us up for a record deficit and not even bringing in a budget. By the way, I think she was Canada's worst finance minister. Economic transformation, That's a very neutral way of saying she wrecked the economy. Let me keep reading the tweet. Right now Ukraine needs to strengthen its internal resilience, both for the sake of Ukraine's recovery, if diplomacy delivers results as swiftly as possible, and to reinforce our defense. If because of delays by our partners, it takes longer to bring this war to an end. I don't know what that means by delays by our partners. I am grateful to everyone who is ready to support our state and our engagement with partners. Glory to Ukraine. I can't think of any investment that Christia Freeland brought to Canada. I know she used a lot of tax dollars to fire hose the money at a lot of automakers, most of whom have pared down their operations in Canada anyways. They spent tens of billions of dollars on electric vehicle battery plants and those have just turned into disasters. I think maybe that's what she means by an economic transformation. I think what she's most remembered for, besides the massive deficit and Besides refusing or failing to bring in a budget in her last year is is when she froze and seized bank accounts of her personal enemies without any legal process. And when it was later challenged before the federal court, it was found to be unconstitutional and illegal. Christia Freeland is a bit of a thug who had her enemies debanked until a court overturned it. I think she's useful to Ukraine for one reason only, to bring in more cash from Canada. And maybe a secondary reason would be how to deal with people who oppose the regime. Now, this issue blew up, and I think Freeland thought that she needed to tamp it down because she wrote this obviously hastily drafted tweet. She said, ukraine is at the forefront of today's global fight for democracy, and I welcome this chance to contribute on an unpaid basis as an economic advisor to President Zelensky. In accepting this voluntary position, she's certainly emphasizing that, isn't she? I will be stepping aside from my role as the Prime Minister's special representative for the reconstruction of Ukraine. So she hasn't stepped away yet. When she made the $2.5 billion gift, she hadn't stepped away. She's using future sense. I will be stepping aside in the coming weeks. I will also leave my seat in Parliament. Wait, why not now? Why not back on December 24th or December 22nd? I want to thank my constituents for their years of confidence in me. I'm so grateful to have been your representative. She really wants to emphasize it's an unpaid volunteer position. That's not relevant. What's relevant is that she has two masters at once. She's riding two horses at once. Whose side is she on in a negotiation, Canada's or Ukraine's? You have to pick a lane, sister. I understand she actually has left Canada and moved to the UK because she has a third iron in the fire. She apparently is in charge of the Rhodes Scholarship Trust. Cecil Rhodes, the great industrialist of Africa, set up this enormous scholarship fund for Oxford, and I think he would be appalled to know that Christia Freeland, a Marxist globalist, is in charge of him. Anyways, I don't think that she really lowered the temperature by saying that she was unpaid. In fact, I think she sort of looked really defensive about that. It's not if she's being paid, it's what she's doing and whose side she's on. You have to pick a country, and especially if those two countries are negotiating or working together, you can't be for both countries. And they both might be noble countries doing a noble thing. But you can't negotiate with yourself. So here's Mark Carney's attempt to mop the whole thing up. He said, thank you, Christia, for your important work as special representative for the reconstruction of Ukraine. By the way, there has been no reconstruction of Ukraine. There's still a war going on. All that's happened is Christia Freeland has helped liberate another $2.5 billion from Canadian taxpayers last week. You are uniquely qualified for this important new role. It is a further credit to Canada's steadfast support for Ukraine that a Canadian is taking on this role at this crucial moment for Ukraine's future. Canada will continue to stand with Ukraine to ensure a just and lasting peace. It's true. Canada has shoveled billions of dollars over there. I'm a little bit worried about that, though. Here's a story from the Carnegie Endowment. It's about Ukraine corruption scandals. Unfortunately, Ukraine is one of the most corrupt countries in the world. So is Russia, by the way. But especially when you put a hundred billion dollars worth of donations in just three years. That's so much money. That's such a staggering amount of money sloshing around. And liberal newspapers like the New York Times, it's so bad that even they feel like they have to write about it. Corruption surrounding Zelensky himself. If the New York Times is saying that, given how advocates, how strong they are in advocating for Ukraine, you know, it must be pretty bad. Here's the point. You cannot have two masters. But Chrystia Freeland always has. She's always had other loyalties, including she's serving for years on the board of, of the World Economic Forum. You'll recall that before she was elected to Parliament, she was George Soros authorized biographer. And she became Soros man on the inside of the Canadian government. You might recall that she set up the first meeting between Justin Trudeau and George soros at the 2016 Davos World Economic Forum meeting. She's always been working for the World Economic Forum and George Soros. It's no surprise to me that she's abandoning Canada. Freeland was always too close to this Ukraine issue, I think. I mean, I understand she's ethnically Ukrainian, and frankly, I don't know if you know this about me, but I'm originally from Ukraine four generations ago in my family, too. I'm not hostile to Ukraine at all. But her advocacy felt personal, not national or public. She bought a condo in Kiev a few years ago. It just felt like this was a personal project and she probably lost her Bearings a bit. Let's be honest. She's not an economist. She has no training as an economist. She's not a banker. She is actually terrible at managing her own finances. When she moved back to Canada, she had to borrow money from her parents to buy a house. She was in her 40s. I'm not making fun of people who can't afford a house. I'm just saying to call this woman a master investor, economist, banker is not true. She has one skill to get money from Canadian taxpayers to Ukraine. Volodymyr Zelenskyy has identified that it's a very valuable skill from Zelensky's point of view. But it's illegal for a former cabinet minister to lobby her government, especially if her job in Canada was the Ukraine file, which it has been under Mark Carney to now lobby Canada for funds. That's actually against the law. There's a cooling off period before lobbying. She didn't even wait until she was done work for Canada. I mean, that cooling off period starts when you leave. The Canadian government didn't even contemplate someone being a foreign lobbyist while working for Canada at the same time. And then there's that minor matter that her own constituents have no MP and they were kept in the dark. Don't you think it's gross? She disclosed to Mark Carney that she had this new job in December, but they kept it a secret from her own writing. You know, Carney likes that because he's trying to reverse engineer a majority government. So she doesn't want Christia Freeland to leave. I think that they would have kept the secret a lot longer if they could have gotten away with it. This whole thing is so gross and it's so Canadian as a scandal. It's so liberal party corrupt, isn't it? You know, we're doing something about Rebel News. We got a petition and last I checked we had 8,600, 600 people who signed saying that Christia Freeland must be fired. And we're deploying our billboard truck with in. I don't know if you know this, but her riding, which is called University Rosedale, is not too far away from our office. We're going to have the truck going around her riding, pointing out that she actually is an absentee mp. Doesn't even work for Canada anymore. She works for a foreign nation. If you want to sign our petition, go to firefreeland.com it's just a disgrace though. I wonder how long she'll be able to stick around in Parliament. If I had to guess. With the CBC's help, she'll stick around as long as she likes. Stay with us. More ahead. Well, Saturday morning I woke up early to the news that Donald Trump had ordered the US Military to do a daring raid to go straight into the heart of Caracas, the capital city of Venezuela, right into the heavily fortified presidential palace, go right in and scoop up, raid, snatch. Trump's enemies would say abduct or even kidnap the tyrant dictator of Venezuela, a man named Nicolas Maduro and his wife, and to bring them back to America to face criminal charges for drug trafficking. Understand that they went in not to conquer or to defeat or to invade, but to grab the guy who called himself president. Now that was a point of contention right there because of course, the United States, both under Republicans and Democrats, Canada, the European Union and most countries around the world had concluded that no, Nicolas Maduro was not in fact the president. He was a usurper. He was a false president who lost the election but simply refused to leave the palace. The country remains under the governance of Maduro's cadres. His deputy was sworn in as his successor, and Maduro's own son was there to mark it. The the Iranian, Chinese and Russian diplomats were among the first to congratulate his successor. It was not a regime change yet that might happen. It's very complex, it's very difficult. And there's so many things happening behind the scenes we simply don't know about. It's also a situation that we can't send reporters in. There's no way that we would risk sending reporters into Caracas. By the way, it's one of the most dangerous cities in the world from a simply crime point of view, let alone political crimes. And one of the things we learned after the snatch raid of Maduro was that his security was completely made up of Cubans, which is very odd. Venezuela has men who can have firearms. But of course, there's two reasons to have Cuban bodyguards if you're a Venezuelan president. The first one is you might not be able to trust Venezuelans because they might think we've got to get rid of this tyrant. And a Venezuelan might have a greater emotional connection to Venezuela rather than to a usurper dictator. The second reason is a Cuban reason because while you're protecting Maduro, you're also have him on a leash. You are also telling him what to do. He's your puppet. And for decades, Cuba has provided the muscle in Venezuela. Armed militias called colectivos would go around and do the dirty work of the regime Cuba has deep interests in Venezuela, especially oil. Very, very interesting times. I think a moment will come when Venezuela will be free and we will send rebel reporters to Caracas to talk to the people. That time is not yet. But what we did do, as you saw, is immediately send down Alexa Lavoie, our reporter based in Montreal, and Efrain Osvaldo Flores Monsanto, sometimes known as Efron, who is our head of video. And those two went straight down to Miami and both of them know Spanish and they were able to talk to the Venezuelan community, the exile community in Miami. We've been running reports well since Saturday on the subject. I'm delighted to be joined now by Alexa Lavoie, who is now safely returned to the snows of Montreal. Alexa, great to see you again. Thank you for going down to Miami. Of course it looked like a nice break from winter, but you were there to work.
- [17:39]
Alexa Lavoie
Yeah, it was short and sweet. And what we did, we went straight in the heart of the Venezuelan community. Exile in the roll. So I didn't even see the sea, I didn't see the water, nothing.
- [17:54]
Ezra Levant
I'm just joking around because of course I was in Toronto freezing my tush. But there were so many heartwarming and heartbreaking interviews. You did tell us your impressions. You interviewed probably a dozen people. More than that. You were just surrounded by hundreds of people. Who were they? What was their mood? Were they hopeful? I mean, Venezuela is not yet free, the tyrant is in handcuffs. But a new tyrant has sprung up, sort of like a many headed hydra where you cut off one head and two heads reappear. So they're not quite free yet. But tell me how they felt. Were they excited? Were they hopeful, Were they exultant? Were they worried? What was the feeling?
- [18:44]
Alexa Lavoie
During two days we saw celebration. What I heard so far is that early morning on Saturday, as soon as they heard the news, they took the street to celebrate. They celebrated all day long. And that celebration continued on Sunday. And everybody are unanimous. They are so happy. They are happy to see what is going on. And what they say is like they voted for this, they wanted this to happen. Because mainly we see leftists and democrats saying that, oh, it was a violation of federal and international law. And also we see the leftists saying, oh, this is a selfish act, it just wants, wanted to have the oil. But everybody on the ground, what they say, we never touched our oil anyway. It was either China or Russia or other foreign country who wanted our oil and we never touched any penny from that. So if we receive freedom in exchange, we will take it. And we would be more than happy to give our oil to the US. This is untrue. When people are saying, oh, you know, like it's a selfish act, because it's not only for oil, it's also for foreign influence. As you mentioned, the land of China, Russia, Hamas, Hezbollah, who is touching the ground in America. But the thing is, people have still some family over there. They are worried about them. Some of them flee their country under Chavez or Maduro, and most of them is because they were critic of the regime. And there were some people who actually refused to collaborate with Chavez when he wanted to spy on either employee or on the population. So because of that, they had to flee. Because if they didn't flee, they will be in jail at the moment. What I've been told so far, more than 800 political prisoners are still in Venezuela.
- [21:36]
Venezuelan Exile Interviewee
Actually, we were living pretty good in Venezuela many years ago. We have been here, what, 20 years, and we were doing good until Chavez came. And then the army, particularly. I worked for the oil industry and they came after me. So I had to leave the country. And after a couple of years, I had to bring all my family. That's the reason. Otherwise, I didn't have any other reason.
- [22:05]
Alexa Lavoie
What was the main reason why they came after me?
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Venezuelan Exile Interviewee
I was a manager in one of the oil industry companies. I was the IT manager, and they wanted me to allow them to listen to all of the fun conversation. And I said, no, you're not going to do that. While I'm the manager, I'm not going to allow you to do that. And that brought a lot of problem to me. And after a couple of years, I had to leave. They came after me because I didn't allow them. You know, that's communists, they don't care. I told them, you're not going to listen to the conversations. The people that I know, I know the people here, I know how honest they are. I'm not going to allow you to listen to private conversations, but to find out nothing here, that's not going to happen. You have to come to some other way, but not through me. And that's why, I mean, they went after everybody. That's what they've been doing for the last 26 years.
- [23:06]
Alexa Lavoie
So what is the option? You're in the street. You don't critique the regime and you starve and you might be killed by the armed force. So everybody's pleased and thanks Donald Trump for what he did. And when the mainstream media is saying otherwise, it's actually untrue. It's just lie.
- [23:30]
Ezra Levant
You know, the French language version of the cbc, called Radio Canada, had an atrocious tweet en Francais. It said that Maduro was a man of the people. And it reminds me of the super gross, you know, obituaries that we had from the CBC and from Justin Trudeau when Fidel Castro died. And that man of the people, you put that, and you put other comments like that. Zoran Mandami had criticized Trump's move, calling it illegal. You put these things to the Venezuelans. They must have been furious that liberals in Montreal who had never set foot in Venezuela called this tyrant a man of the people when he had 800 political prisoners. How did they react to that? I mean, I guess it's not just Canadians and this New York mayor, a lot of leftists, they sort of loved Venezuela because it was anti American.
- [24:32]
Alexa Lavoie
The people reacted as, did those people live under dictatorship? Did those people actually live in Venezuela, Cuba or other dictatorship country? So they cannot say anything if they didn't actually experience what it is to search for food, to sometimes have no electricity, to. To have no freedom of speech or no freedom of opinion. So those people who are on the street, are they pay, Are they friend of the regime, or are they just ignorant? Because, you know, sometimes virtue signaling is something that the leftists like to do. But in the same time, what we are seeing right now, they side with the oppressor instead of siding with the oppressed.
- [25:25]
Representative for Venezuelan Political Prisoners
So the reason we're here, it's representing all political prisoners in our country, Venezuela, who have been tortured. And right now they're, as you can see, there are more than 300 political prisoners, which we don't. We don't have communication with them.
- [25:39]
Ezra Levant
Now, you interviewed a lot of people and, and I haven't seen all of your interviews yet. Some of them I really like. There was this beautiful young girl, almost looked like a model, and she was talking passionately about freedom. And I couldn't help but think, and I know it's not about looks, looks aren't everything. But it made me think of when I was at Columbia University in downtown New York and I went to their encampment, their pro Hamas encampment, and it was sort of crazy. The people with, you know, every transgender activist was there, people with every color hair and piercings and like, it was really radical and people were displaying themselves in radical ways, and it just felt like a real. And by the way, I'm not against people having freedom to style themselves in any way, but it was such a Contrast with this young, beautiful woman who was talking to you about freedom, as opposed to these antisocial people at Columbia who were anti America, anti freedom, and of course, anti Israel, anti Semitic. I just want to play that one clip, and I thought to myself, that's, you know, to have a beautiful young woman so inspired by freedom, that is appealing. I don't know. And I don't just think it's because I'm a man. I just think everyone of every background, of every race, of both sexes, of every nation, I think they want to be free, and I think they want their home to be a safe place. And this woman seemed to crystallize it. Here's that interview that I really liked.
- [27:10]
Young Venezuelan Woman Interviewee
The happiness all of our Venezuelan people have inside and have been wanting to celebrate for all these 24 years. Definitely. I think it's something we not only have to celebrate, but thank our President Trump, because if it wasn't for him, nothing would be possible. But, yeah, I'm super grateful and thankful we're all here celebrating and united.
- [27:34]
Ezra Levant
I thought she was great, but who was your favorite interview you talked to? The mayor. In fact, I heard you just bumped into the mayor by coincidence. Tell me a little bit about that. And she's a daughter of, I think, refugees from Cuba, if I'm not mistaken.
- [27:49]
Alexa Lavoie
Yeah. So we were marching into the crowd and we realized that the woman in question was wearing the mayor shirt. And so I asked nicely if she was a mayor, and she said yes. And I say, do you mind if I ask you a couple of questions? And really friendly. She said yes. Like there were no. Like, okay, I'm just going to check with my, you know, media relation or anything. She just agreed like it was just something. So you see that they are there for their people. They are there for showing their support. And it's what I really appreciate. And she's obviously, she's born in the US but her family is from Cuba and had to flee Cuba. And she kind of recounted a little bit her story and as well, she hoped the same thing happening in Cuba because Cuba has been in this situation longer, but it's really more complex than Venezuela. And also because Cuba has been the school for dictatorship, Chavez and other dictators. I've learned a lot from Cuba.
- [29:17]
Ezra Levant
Right. That's terrifying. Here, let's play just a moment of that interview again. I found this woman very appealing, very compelling. I just felt that she spoke from the heart. And it was sort of a family feeling. That's how it felt. It almost felt like people were there from an extended family. And some of them were family members, of course, with each other. Here's just an extract of your mayor, of your interview with the mayor of Doral, which is a suburb of Miami. Take a look.
- [29:44]
Alexa Lavoie
And what is the next for Cuba? Because there is so many Cubans that went out in the streets has hope. Do you think Cuba is next?
- [29:52]
Mayor of Doral
I do. I think that first we're living vicariously through the Venezuelan people because we wanted this for our country for so long. And it's been 70 years of oppression in Cuba. I was actually born here. I'm a first generation American from my family. But I've heard the stories that my grandparents have told for years. They left, you know, 65 years ago and have never been able to go back. You know, they, they lost family members they never got to say goodbye to. It's very sad to think about those things. I do believe Cuba could be next in a very different way. I don't think there's going to be military action or anything like that, but I think that the restructuring of Venezuela is going to dry up the economic resources that were being fed to Cuba by the Venezuelan government. And that is going to make that last leg fall. And I think it will allow pressures to be put for a real change and for a real democratic election so that the people of Venice, of Cuba can also have an opportunity to rebuild. This is the weakest the Cuban government has ever been. And it's because the Venezuelan resources have dried up to give to Venice, to Cuba. So we do have to take advantage of this moment. And Trump made it very clear that this was the opportunity to do that as well. And they weren't going to stay behind. I don't think much many dictators are going to be able to continue through the last three years of Trump, you know, in those situations. And again, I think that especially in the Western hemisphere that has been ignored for so long, the priority has been shifted because it does affect our national security. They've allowed new players to come into their, into this region that are not friends of the United States. And I think that the president and our association state secretary of state, who understands this issue very, very well, have their eyes on them.
- [31:43]
Ezra Levant
Well, listen, there's still so much to be done. I was reading in the New York Times that the winner of the last election, in fact one of whom won the Nobel Peace Prize last year, that the Trump administration is worried that they don't have the authority and, you know, leadership to simply just take over the government. And thus Trump is Still dealing with the tyrannical regime. I mean, it's a very complex thing. How do you affect regime change on a large country with a powerful executive? Like I say, they just took that one guy out. So all the henchmen, all the secret police, all the torture, all the, all the bad things are still in place. And Trump is trying to negotiate a regime change, which I don't know if it's ever been done. I suppose it has been done before, but to do it without a massive occupation on the ground. Like I was recently watching a show about the surrender of Japan and The great military general Douglas MacArthur, who became sort of the governor of Japan and worked with the emperor and rebuilt Japan. It was run by America, it was run by a general, but there were thousands of American soldiers on the ground. Trump doesn't want that. Trump doesn't want to put 100,000 soldiers in Venezuela. He wants to have a regime change to move towards a liberal democracy. Without that, I don't know if it's possible to do it, but I'm certainly rooting for him. And I guess a lot of people in Miami are too, because first of.
- [33:22]
Alexa Lavoie
All, there is still terrorists, there is still a lot of gangs as Tere de Aragua. There is still the Maduro regime in place. There is the sun. There is so many people that will need to comply to Trump's demand. I don't know how you do that with so many different group, so different gangs, but that remains to see. But everybody on the ground, it's unanimous. They all won. Marina, Marina Manchado as the next leader of Venezuela because, as they say, she won the last election, but she had to leave Venezuela and it's not safe for her to come back since the regime is still there.
- [34:16]
Ezra Levant
Right. Well, it's a diplomatic challenge, but Trump has been known to solve extremely difficult challenges. I point to the Abraham Accords, where Israel, in an agreement negotiated by Trump and his staff, there's five or six countries now, Arab, Muslim countries, with a peace treaty with Israel, which was thought to be unthinkable. So I think if anyone can do it, Trump can do it. And that was a theme also. Well, listen, thanks again for going down on such short notice. I remember calling you up on Saturday and said, get ready, go to the airport. And you did right away. Thank you for doing that. On behalf of rebel news viewers and folks, if you want to help chip in to cover the cost, I have to say it was a little bit more expensive than we thought it would be. Buying last minute tickets. I Have to tell you, everyone in Miami, that seems to be quite a vacation hotspot for Torontonians. So those flights were a little more expensive than we would have liked. If you can help us cover that, please go to venezuelaisfree.com and we're going to keep an eye on the story. Because how I end my show every day, I said, keep fighting for freedom. Well, here's Venezuelanos and Cubanos fighting for freedom with all their hearts. And I'm really glad that you were there. And through you, I really felt the emotional warmth of these people and their hope. And, boy, I hope the story ends well. Thanks again, Alexa. We'll keep an eye on this story.
- [35:35]
Alexa Lavoie
And I just want to mention quickly, my flight for going to Miami. I was sitting next to a family from Colombia, and they were so happy. They were so happy. And them, too. They hope that this will impact Colombia. So let's see what the future will hold. But thanks for sending me over there because I think it was something really revealing. Revealing?
- [36:09]
Ezra Levant
Well, you were a great ambassador for Rebel News, and you made so many friends, including a mayor, a city councilor. You talk to everybody, and those will be good contacts if we go back on the story in the future. Take care, my friend. Thank you very much.
- [36:22]
Alexa Lavoie
Thank you.
- [36:22]
Ezra Levant
All right, there you have it. Alexa Lavoie, who went down with Efrain Monsanto to cover the story. I'm glad we have people who had the ability to communicate. I mean, obviously a lot of these folks spoke English, but also in Spanish where required. Stay with us. Your letters to me next. Hey, welcome back. Your letters to me. The first one is from Brett, who says, what comes next? Invade Canada and make Canada great again. Invade Greenland, take a lunch break, save the world. Well, Donald Trump is certainly feeling his oats. I mean, he's stretching his arms and his legs. It was a pretty awesome military maneuver. And. And remember, the United States has had a foreign policy doctrine called the Monroe Doctrine for two centuries, which basically says no foreign powers allowed in the Western hemisphere. And he referred to the Western hemisphere as our hemisphere. And I'm sure other people didn't like that. I mean, we would be saying, hey, we're here, too. Yeah, but in terms of great powers, there's only one great power in the hemisphere, in America. Here's Bob Ray just squawking about this the other day. Bob Ray, who prefers the talk shop of the UN but when push comes to shove, talk and paper doesn't stop. You know, it's like the game Rock, paper, Scissors, Rock defeats Scissors. Scissors defeats paper. If you're in the real world, you can have Bob Ray yap, yap, yap yapping at the UN or you could have the Iwo Jima, the US naval vessel and 150 aircraft that got Nicolas Maduro. Only one of those things is real when push comes to shove.
- [38:06]
State Department Official
The State Department put this out on social media today saying this is our hemisphere. So you see that, I mean that is not just our country, our self interest, it is the whole geographic region of spanning multiple continents.
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David (Commentator)
Yeah, but with great respect to the State Department, David, this is our hemisphere. I could put out the same, I could put a little thing on the, on YouTube saying this is my hemisphere, this is our hemisphere. Like what the hell is this? You can't, you can't unilaterally declare that you have unique jurisdiction over an entire half of the world and all the people who live in that half of the world just have to put up or shut up. And that's not how the world works.
- [38:51]
Ezra Levant
Yeah, Bob Ray liked it when he could tie up the mighty American giant just with words. But that's not how the real world is. That's certainly not how Russia and China and Iran play. They're not waiting for the rules based international order. They're just doing things. And I think Trump is in the mood to do things too. You may not be joking when you talk about Greenland. Pablo Picasso says in terms of actual combat effectiveness and global strike capability, a conservative estimate is that the US Military is two to three times more powerful than Russia, China, India, South Korea and the United Kingdom combined. I'd be willing to bet 99% of the people in the world would be shocked by this fact. Well, I don't know if they'd be shocked by it. I mean, I think most countries have really demilitarized and they've relied on the United States to defend them. And I put it to you that Canada is a perfect example. I remember when the Chinese spy balloon came over from China. It went through Canada first and we didn't take it down. I don't know if we even had the ability to. I remember when there was a hostile plane detected in the Vancouver airport, or maybe it was Victoria. And the Air Force jet that was scrambled to intercept it was not from the Canadian forces base in Comox. It was an American jet coming up from, I think it was Washington State. So we are already under America's defensive aegis. We literally could not defend ourselves. Trump was on Air Force One the other day joking about Denmark protecting Greenland and he said they're increasing their support. They've added a dog sled. Here's Trump saying that.
- [40:26]
Donald Trump
I will say this about Greenland. We need Greenland from a national security situation. It's so strategic right now. Greenland is covered with Russian and Chinese ships all over the place. We need Greenland for the sanctuary point of national security. And Denmark is not going to be able to do it. I can tell you. You know what Denmark did recently to boost up security in Greenland? They added one more dog sled. It's true. They thought that was a great move.
- [40:59]
Ezra Levant
You know, it's actually true. There are more US Servicemen in Greenland now than there are Danes. Trump is serious about foreign policy. He really is focused on it. I wouldn't say to the detriment of domestic policy. Look at how hard he's going on immigration and other things. I think Trump is trying to do everything on his to do list, a 100 year to do list. He's trying to do it in four years. It's incredible to watch and it's making some people uncomfortable. Next letter from Andreas Vogeli who says, okay, so Maduro is actually lawfully elected and he is not hated by the people. Rebel News is dropping one lie bomb after another. It's so sick. Well, Andreas, I'm going to disagree with you on both of your points. He was not lawfully elected. And it's not just my opinion. That's the opinion of pretty much every international observer. It's the opinion of the United States, both the Republicans and the Democrats. It's the opinion of the European Union. I think really the only countries who like Nicolas Maduro are the one or the other dictatorships, China, Russia and Iran. I think he is hated by the people. I think millions of Venezuelans have fled the country, some out of terror and some just out of poverty and starvation. Frankly, I think the fact that they have to have abusive Cuban collectivos, these Cuban militias holding down the people is because Venezuelans would not participate. Like it's, it's. Venezuela is colonized by Cuba, Iran, China and Russia. Anyways, I disagree with you, but we'll find out soon enough. It's a very interesting situation and I'm glad we had people down in Miami. Well, that's our show for the day. Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel world headquarters. See you at home. Good night. And keep fighting for freedom.