EZRA LEVANT | CBC 'comedians' spend 15 minutes reviewing a conservative comedian they didn't even watch

Summary

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Podcast Summary: EZRA LEVANT | CBC 'Comedians' Spend 15 Minutes Reviewing a Conservative Comedian They Didn't Even Watch

Rebel News Podcast | Host: Ezra Levant
Date: February 20, 2026

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Episode Overview

Ezra Levant dissects a segment aired by CBC’s comedy panel, where three panelists (including two comedians) critique conservative comedian Ben Bankus. The highlight: none had actually watched Bankus’s set but spent 15 minutes passing judgment. Ezra uses this incident to illustrate what he sees as bias, hypocrisy, and the pitfalls of government-funded media critiquing independent, dissenting voices—especially when it comes to humor and political dissent. The episode debates comedy’s social function, freedom of speech, and the purported dangers of “reviewing” art without true engagement.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Ben Bankus: Who He Is and Why CBC Targeted Him

• Ezra recounts Ben Bankus’s trajectory:
  • Started as a local Toronto comedian; gained traction performing outdoors during lockdowns, circumventing restrictions (00:48).
  • Achieved commercial success, mainly by touring in the US.
  • “The idea of a government comedian is an oxymoron... How can you speak truth to power if you’re cashing a check every week from Mark Carney and you work for his state broadcaster?” (Ezra Levant, 02:18).

2. Critiquing Without Consuming: CBC’s Panel

• CBC comedy panel (a host and two comedians) reviews Bankus’ work—despite not attending his show or quoting any jokes.
  • One panelist explicitly refused to attend, citing discomfort with Bankus’s material (06:03).
  • Ezra draws a parallel: “That would be like doing a movie review... saying, I refuse to see the movie, but I’m gonna condemn it.” (Ezra Levant, 09:34).

3. Anecdotal Evidence and Double Hearsay

• Panel shares second-hand stories (a “soccer mom” leaves Bankus’s show after a dark joke), but provide no direct quotes, relying on hearsay (07:17).
  • Ezra doubts the story's authenticity, calling it “double hearsay, just awful.” (Ezra Levant, 08:23).

4. Comedy and Power: “Punching Down” Accusations

• Panel accuses Bankus of “punching down” at marginalized groups (11:34).
  • Yet, Ezra points out, Bankus’s targets (e.g., high-profile rapper Bad Bunny or public health officials) are not necessarily powerless: “How is it punching down for Ben Bankus to make fun of a millionaire privileged rapper?” (Ezra Levant, 11:55).
• Raises question: Is it still “punching down” if you satirize state power or celebrities?

5. The Renee Goode Joke & Selective Outrage

• Bankus was criticized for a joke referencing Renee Goode, an activist killed in a confrontation with police (21:19).
  • CBC panel airs only the setup—“Now for a moment of silence for Renee Goode”—but omits the punchline, reacting with offense regardless (21:30).
  • Ezra’s take: “That sounded like it was going to be a funny joke and they just didn’t show it.” (Ezra Levant, 21:33).

6. The Essence of Comedy and Cancel Culture

• Discussion on whether attempts to cancel comedians like Bankus amplify their platform (18:25).
  • Panelists agree that cancel attempts foment attention for Bankus, fueling his audience base.
  • Ezra: “Don’t you realize that is precisely why people are going to the show—that they don’t have to bend the knee to the government?” (Ezra Levant, 23:36).

7. Freedom of Speech vs. Hate Speech

• Host raises that “hate speech is a crime” in Canada and asserts the CBC panel labels Bankus without evidence or observation (17:34).
  • Panelists question whether Bankus’s jokes cross into hate speech but admit to not seeing much of his actual material.

8. Audience Dynamics and Psychoanalysis

• The panel psychoanalyzes Bankus’s motivations (e.g., his need to rile crowds, his supposed hubris about running for office).
  • Ezra critiques this as baseless speculation, indicative of reviewing performance art without engagement (25:04).

9. Wrap-Up: The “Love Over Hate” Moral Claim

• Panelists conclude their review by asserting the need for more “love than hate” in comedy and society (29:16, 31:42).
  • Ezra notes the irony: “The only hate I’ve seen for the last 15 minutes is from their show.” (Ezra Levant, 32:05).

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Ezra Levant, on CBC Panel’s Jealousy:
  “There’s a sort of a sullen jealousy. The losers at CBC Comedy, when they see someone like Ben make a success, especially given that Ben is conservative.” (02:18)

• Ezra Levant, on Reviewing Without Watching:
  “That would be like doing a movie review, but saying, I refuse to see the movie, but I’m gonna condemn it. It’s really weird.” (09:34)

• Ali Hassan (CBC panelist), on Walking Out:
  “That still bothers me to now... hearing this story is in mourning. Good, decent Canadians across this country are in mourning. And that’s the type of joke you make.” (09:14)

• Am McMaster (CBC panelist), on Ben’s Crowd Work:
  “It was pretty wild to see this thing, this technique that he has where he will drop the most racist, misogynistic line and then wait. And once the audience laughs, he’s like, see? Then he jumps in.” (13:06)

• Ezra Levant, on the CBC’s Approach:
  “They haven’t given us any examples. You haven’t told us exactly what he’s done wrong, other than the one case of not bending the knee to your new saint from Minnesota.” (29:57)

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Important Segment Timestamps

• 00:48–04:28: Introduction; Ben Bankus’s background; complaint about government-funded comedians—Ezra’s overall framing.
• 07:17–09:14: “Soccer mom” anecdote; relies on second-hand outrage instead of Bankus’s content.
• 10:22–11:55: “Punching Down” commentary; definitions of “punching down” and what’s considered fair game.
• 14:28–15:52: CBC quotes Bankus’s response about artistic truth; panel claims legacy of Carlin/Hicks, asserts Bankus is “racist.”
• 21:19–22:44: CBC plays Ben’s “moment of silence” clip—but omits punchline; panel reacts with outrage.
• 23:34–25:04: Discussion of crowd dynamics and Bankus’s approach to audience interaction.
• 27:02–27:54: Ali Hassan on developing a show about dark comedy and the “feedback loop” between performer and audience.
• 29:16–29:57: Panel wraps up with a call for “love over hate”—Ezra’s critique on the weakness of their arguments.

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Language and Tone

• Ezra Levant’s tone is incredulous, sarcastic, and combative, frequently calling CBC “losers” and “government comedians,” and peppering critiques with analogies to demonstrate absurdity.
• The CBC panel (as quoted and paraphrased) is cautious, moralistic, and emphasizes feelings of discomfort, the need for “love,” and concern about societal effects.

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Additional Sections

CBC Panel’s Broader Claims and Critiques

• On Cancel Culture: Panel and host discuss whether attempted cancellations only make Bankus more prominent. They express discomfort but acknowledge that audience polarization is part of his appeal (18:25).
• On Comedian Legacy: Multiple times, panelists juxtapose Bankus against revered comics (George Carlin, Bill Hicks) to argue his material is mean-spirited rather than subversive.

Ezra’s Broader Reflections

• On State Censorship: Ezra ties the episode to the broader concern about government overreach: “How is it acceptable that the government says who can and can’t use a public building based on if their jokes are funny or not?” (13:43).
• On Freedom of Expression: Asserts that reviewing and condemning art without interacting with the actual material is a threat to artistic and speech freedoms.

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Conclusion

Ezra Levant’s episode offers a pointed critique of the CBC comedy panel’s condemnation of Ben Bankus—a comedian none had watched. He exposes what he sees as the emptiness of discussing “offensive” art in the abstract, calling out both the moral posturing and the lack of evidence. Ultimately, the episode becomes a broader defense of vigorous, confrontational comedy and a warning against state-funded gatekeeping in the arts.

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For listeners interested in debates about cancel culture, free speech, comedy, and the culture wars, this episode provides an impassioned right-of-center viewpoint and extensive critique of mainstream media analysis.

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Transcript

[Ezra Levant]

Hello, my friends. The CBC dispatched some government comedians to critique a conservative comedian named Ben Bankus. Trouble is, they refused to watch Ben Bankus's show before critiquing it. But they still went at it for 15 minutes. I'll take you through the 15 minutes. It was quite something. But first, let me invite you to become a subscriber to Rebel News Plus. That's the video version of this podcast. Just go to rebelnewsplus.com click subscribe. It's eight bucks a month or we need the dough because that's how we pay our bills. And, you know, it keeps us independent because we don't take any money from the government.

[Host/Interviewer]

You're listening to Real News podcast.

[Ezra Levant]

Tonight, CBC comedians spend 15 minutes reviewing a conservative comedian whose show they didn't even watch. Is February 19th, and this is the Ezra Levan show. Shame on you, you censorious bug. You know, I've known Ben Bankus, the Toronto based comedian, for a long time. I remember during the lockdowns, he tried to do outdoor comedy to get people laughing. And he would set up with a PA system in a park to get around the rules against closed buildings. He was a bit of a dissenter back then and he showed some entrepreneurial spirit. And Ben, over the course of time, has gone over to big things. He's sold out tours, not just in Canada, but actually mainly in the United States. He's a hit, he's a popular success. And I can only presume by, by the size of the crowds and the number of gigs he has that he's a commercial success too. That's how it is in comedy. Most people just simply don't hit that level of success. So you gotta tip your hat to Ben, and it's no surprise that he's really made it big in the States. Most Canadian comedians, when they make it big, they go to the States. That's half the people at Saturday Night Live in New York City, including the boss of that place. Well, naturally, the government funded comedians at the CBC state broadcaster hate success stories like Ben. They can't or won't even try to make it out on their own. The idea of a government comedian is an oxymoron. It's a contradiction in terms. How can you be punk rock? How can you speak truth to power if you're cashing a check every week from Mark Carney and you work for his state broadcaster? It's just a contradiction. And so I think there's a sort of a sullen jealousy. The losers at CBC Comedy, when they see someone like Ben make a success, especially given that Ben is conservative. Ben is controversial, no doubt about it, but he's been on a tear and sure, maybe it's worth talking about, if you prefer talking about jokes rather than hearing the jokes. And that's, I think, my criticism of the show I'm about to go through with you. What I'm about to show you is a CBC panel of three people, two of whom purport to be comedians, talking about Ben Bankus, but never actually showing his jokes or telling you what the jokes are. But Nonetheless, they spend 15 minutes condemning those jokes. There's the host of the show, and he has two comedians, one of whom refused to see the show but accepted the gig to come on the CBC to talk about it for 15 minutes. How on earth do you even do that? Well, I'll show you. I want to play for you the entire 15 minute conversation. This really is the blind leading the blind. How can you have a host of a show interview a guest of a show about a comedy routine neither of them has watched? Well, it's the cbc and all they need to know is they don't like conservatives and they certainly don't like Jews like Ben Bankus. Two of the three people in this conversation are Muslim and they complain a lot about Islamophobia. Ben Bankus does the opposite. He mocks Islamist terrorists. I think that's the real reason he's hated. But without further ado, let me take you through 15 minutes of CBC talking about comedy they never even saw here. Let's play the tape.

[Host/Interviewer]

You already know that comedians are supposed to push the envelope. That's the thing that we go to comedy for. That's what we want our comedians to do to make us think about the world differently.

[Ezra Levant]

Now, let me stop you right there, because I think we may have a difference of opinion on what comedy is about. I don't go to see comedy that often, but when I do, I go to laugh, not to be challenged on how I think. I don't regard most comedians as deep public intellectuals. Some of them, like Tim Dillon, do riff on current events, but I think that's when people start to applaud them. As opposed to laughter, I prefer my comedians to make me laugh. Don't you?

[Host/Interviewer]

He's originally from Toronto and has kind of become known for material that's a little bit racist and sexist and transphobic. And he, he began to sell out a lot of dates after he made this joke on stage about Renee Goode. Renee Goode, of course, the woman who was shot and killed by an ICE agent in Minneapolis. And the thing about the idea that the outrage is the thing that's bringing people to the door, that's something that's interesting to me. Like, what is the draw to see someone like a Ben Bankus? Well, Ali Hassan is here and am McMaster is here. Am actually went to see one of his shows in Toronto in order to report back on what that audience was like and what Ben Bankus work is like. I got so much out of this conversation. I hope that you do too. Hello, both of you.

[Ali Hassan]

Good morning.

[Host/Interviewer]

Good morning. Nice to have you here. Thank you so much. I gotta tell you, we asked both of you to go see the show and you were like, sure. And then, Ali, you were like, no, I'm not doing it. I'm gonna start with you briefly. Who is Ben Bankus? And then, why did you say, no, I'm not going to this yet.

[Ezra Levant]

I'm not going to go see it? All right, that's your right to be a little bit pouty. It's a little bit thin skinned for someone who calls himself a comedian. But how do you take a gig? I don't know. Maybe they paid him 500 bucks to come on this podcast. It wouldn't surprise me. Now, that Lapu Lapu thing is just for those who don't know. There was a terrible crime. Someone drove a vehicle and into a group of people in British Columbia. And it was actually a horrific mass killing. And both the victims and the perpetrators were Asian. And it was deemed not to be a terrorist incident. There was a mental health element truly involved. And so Ben Bankus apparently said he should have done another Lapu. Lapu. Another Lap. I don't know. I didn't see the joke. I only heard people partially retell it. But. But yeah, a lot of comedy is black comedy. And part of comedy is laughing at dark things. I mean, gallows humor, funereal humor, that's the best they got here. I'll just give it away here. Spoiler alert. They don't actually come up with anything else. They don't actually quote Ben or any of his jokes. It's really weird. Listen to this story, though.

[Ali Hassan]

Let me just tell you in a story. Last summer, we have a party in my backyard with my son's baseball team. One of the mothers shows up, says, I heard. I heard you're a comedian. We went to see a comedian recently. Do you know Ben Bankus? And I do know. I've worked with Ben over the years and But I keep quiet, withhold judgment. I go, yeah, I know, Ben. And she says, we actually had to leave. Now I'm interested. Tell me what happened. Why did you leave? And she says, well, the best way I can describe it was it was just like a mob mentality. So I said, tell me the moment when you left. She said, well, he told this joke. He was. She says, do you know about the Lapu Lapu Festival in Vancouver? You know what had happened there? Somebody had sort of mowed down. Exactly. And so he tells a joke about, yeah, so this happened at the Lapu Lapu festival. And now I'm paraphrasing because I wasn't there, but he makes a joke about he should have taken a few more Lapu. Lapus. Around the block. CROWD cheers. In their row, this baseball mall. In her row, somebody yells, kill them all.

[Ezra Levant]

Yeah, I just don't believe that happened. I don't believe that a soccer mom came to his barbecue. That was oddly specific. It sounded like Jussie Smollett saying, oh, I was walking in Chicago at 3am and some guys came out with a noose and said, you're in MAGA country. Yeah. No, I don't believe that that barbecue story with the soccer mom happened. And I don't believe. She said. The crowd said, kill them all. And I don't believe it happened at all. I simply don't believe it. But that's how you fight against conservatives. If you're with the cbc, you make up something and attack that straw man. They don't invite you to watch Ben Bankus's comments. They just make up an incident. But not even about Ben Bankus himself, but someone who was in the crowd in a double hearsay. Just awful.

[Ali Hassan]

That's why I didn't go see Ben Bankus. In summary, that still bothers me to now, you know, hearing this story is in mourning. Good, decent Canadians across this country are in mourning. And that's the type of joke you make. So that's just not my. That's not my cup of tea to. To make a gross understatement.

[Ezra Levant]

All right, so. So it was a bad joke. Maybe. I don't know. Why is he even on this panel? I don't understand that part. Shouldn't you know something about or see a show before criticizing it? That would be like doing a movie review, but saying, I refuse to review. Refuse to see the movie, but I'm gonna condemn it. It's really weird.

[Host/Interviewer]

So here's the thing that you and I have in common is, like, this when we hear like the first time that I heard about Bankus was this sort of Renee Goode story. And we'll get to that bit in just a moment. Bit quote unquote. But I. That was my first time going, I don't think I want anything to do with this. I'm not sure the kind of audience that this person would draw. And thank you for going to the show on all of our behalf because we did want to talk to someone who was actually like physically there. Talk to me about your experience at the show. What was his performance as a comedian like? What was the crowd like?

[Ali Hassan]

Tell me.

[Ezra Levant]

So the host refused to go too. I get it. If some loser comedian didn't go, he's making a stand. Why he's invited as a panelist, I don't know. But you're the host of this panel and. And you refuse to go to. What is wrong with you CBC people?

[Am McMaster]

I mean, first of all, maybe next time you could send me to something sort of more fun like the dentist. It's okay. I'm working on my self loathing.

[Ezra Levant]

Self loathing, eh? Yeah, I believe that it was interesting.

[Am McMaster]

And I admit there was a bit of like car crash curiosity for me to go see this show. What I observed right off the top was he's a person of size, but he's got a really small stage presence. He takes up very little space on the stage, kind of hangs out towards the back, very little eye contact, always looking over to the side. And then he's got this big pop that he just dives into. It's almost like his security blanket. I won't comment on what he said, but I can speak to the structure of what he said.

[Host/Interviewer]

Cause I was gonna say it'd be hard to be like, tell us some of the jokes I don't want you to do.

[Am McMaster]

I don't want to.

[Host/Interviewer]

I already like, I'm not interested.

[Ezra Levant]

Yeah, of course you won't comment on what he said. I don't understand.

[Am McMaster]

What's interesting to me was that there was no self deprecation in his jokes. Like a lot of comics will warm themselves up to the crowd by making shots at themselves. And he didn't do any of that. All of the jokes were what we call punching down. So targeting people with less power. Women, immigrants, indigenous, the Bad Bunny show.

[Ezra Levant]

So Ben Bankus punches down and of course, great comedians on the left always punch up. And mostly what they talk about is Donald Trump. Trouble is, it's just, it's clapping comedy, not laughing comedy. But I don't know if you heard that there they mentioned Bad Bunny. I don't think anyone in the world knew who Bad Bunny was other than people who like Spanish language rapid until about a week ago when he was the halftime performer at the Super Bowl. Here's a quick clip of Bad Bunny just in case you don't know. So Bad Bunny is an incredibly successful rapper. He surely got paid a million dollars plus to be in the Super Bowl. How is it punching down for Ben Bankus to make fun of a millionaire privileged rapper? I don't know. You gotta have new talking points if you're on the left or maybe talk about what Ben Bankus actually said.

[Am McMaster]

It was pretty wild to see this thing, this technique that he has where he will drop the most racist, misogynistic line and then wait. And once the audience laughs, he's like, see? Then he jumps in. So it was very interesting to watch how he worked the crowd.

[Host/Interviewer]

That sounds like maybe barely working the crowd and hoping for a response from the crowd. But I suppose that's sometimes what that job is. I may gotta tell you, Ali, like, he's got sold out show in Kitchener next week. He's been moved from next month. Sorry. Has been moved from a studio run performance arts center to a private venue because a lot of residents had protested.

[Ezra Levant]

Now I found this disturbing. The fact that it was in a government facility that canceled Ben Bankus and he moved to private facility. It shouldn't be that way. If you're in a government facility, you should be protected by the charter of rights, which applies to all government, that they can't pick and choose based on your political opinion. They can't cancel you because they think you're unfunny. If you're in a private facility and you, your contract allows them to kick you out, I suppose that's fine. Private property. How is it acceptable that the government says who can and can't use a public building based on if their jokes are funny or not? I think that's actually really dangerous. The panel here didn't see any danger. They'll never be kicked out of anywhere, that's for sure.

[Host/Interviewer]

When CBC reached out a comment for him, I just want to read you this quote. This is a quote. This is a statement that we got the CBC got from him. Ben Bankus is proving that following your dreams and speaking your own truth resonates with millions of people, even if that truth is seen as harsh or abrasive. As a comedian, what do you make of that?

[Ali Hassan]

You know, I think Ben, people of his ilk. And there are, there are many other comedians like him. They believe they're speaking truth to power and they believe at some level that they are some type of, you know, George Carlin, Bill Hicks type of, you know, reincarnation. And this has been said by many people many times, dude, George Carlin would hate you. George Carlin would absolutely despise you and everything. Those were men who actually spoke truth to power. Power felt ashamed hearing the jokes that, that, that George Carlin made about them. He exposed people in power and talked about how they were corrupt and how they were going back on what end, saying, this is all punching down. This is easy, easy pickings. It's low hanging fruit. I don't consider it good comedy. There's no actual joke writing going into the bulk of it. And yeah, I mean, I look, Ben's roots are racist from the beginning.

[Ezra Levant]

So he just went on a minute long attack there calling him racist. But he didn't actually watch the show. How do you do that?

[Ali Hassan]

What he discovered during the pandemic was this impersonation of Theresa Tam that he did a really, really struck a nerve with a lot of people who were like, I'm feeling, you know, I don't want to get vaccinated, I don't want to not go be able to go to my job. I don't want to have to do this. And so he struck a nerve and he's really sort of capitalized to come

[Host/Interviewer]

after Public health official. Yeah, that was seen by people every day on the tv. On tv because she was explaining what's happened with COVID That's one avenue that

[Ezra Levant]

you can go again. Punching down public health officers like Theresa Tamil. That's not. Punching down public health officers were not only extremely well paid to Teresa Tam, by my memory made over $400,000 a year. Just a staggering amount of money. But put aside the money, the amount of power they had just with a flick of their wrist to lock down entire school boards, to lock down all sorts of businesses in some places like Quebec to bring in curfews. You literally couldn't leave your house between 10pm and 5am to think that these are powerless people. They were the most powerful authoritarian people in our society and Ben Bankus can't make fun of them. And the people who like Ben can't laugh at them. That's really incredible. They had power. And didn't they say at the beginning that that's what comedy is about, speaking truth to power.

[Host/Interviewer]

Let me, can I push you on this a little Bit the counterargument that I could sort of hear people making, and I'm not arguing that I'm making, is this idea that a comedian's job is to say the thing that's unsayable. That's a sort of avenue that some of his ilk would maybe represent.

[Ezra Levant]

Hate speech is a crime, by the way. And under the liberal government, it'll be a crime subject to life imprisonment. This panel here has decided that Ben Bankus engages in hate speech and racist garbage without even watching the show.

[Ali Hassan]

Been doing this for 20 years. I, I follow all kinds of comedy. Comedy that people would be like, oh, I can't believe you like that comedian. Yeah, I do.

[Host/Interviewer]

Yeah.

[Ali Hassan]

But I'm not sure where this doesn't descend into hate speech. There is a comedian who can be like, imagine if I said something like this. And it's couched in that. Yeah, and there's the. I'm kidding, I'm kidding. I'm obviously kidding. There's none of that. There's none of that. It is direct. It is head on racism and pulling out the worst of the audience. And the audience expecting, quote, unquote, you know. Well, they're not expecting the worst. They're expecting the best of him. But, you know, from my perspective, it's, it's, it's garbage.

[Host/Interviewer]

And in your, in that statement that Ben gave, he said attempts to cancel his shows only amplify his voice. You certainly saw that after his shows in Minnesota were canceled, after that Renee Goode joke. After that, he made that joke. And then after that, all of these other shows and other locations start to sort of sell out. Are attempts to cancel him kind of exactly what Ben wants at this point?

[Am McMaster]

Yes, in a word, absolutely. What I saw during the show is the man thrives on divisiveness. He loves to rile up the audience. He loves that people adore him or hate him. That's his currency. Everything I saw was about getting either the right or the left all worked up. And look, in my opinion, I agree with you, Ali. It's not great comedy. I mean, doing stereotypes. I'm sorry, my dad was doing that in the 70s. Like, this is not, this is not, it's not craft. This is not cutting edge. But I will say this. He is good at what he's doing because he's quite manipulative. He knows exactly what he's doing. And I think if you're at a Ben Bankus show and you're laughing or you're seething, you're doing exactly what Ben Bankus wants. He's getting a lot of attention through manipulating you.

[Ezra Levant]

You know, this guy Amin says he's a 20 year comedian and he knows the business. I've never heard of this guy before. I've never seen him. I think the only gigs he gets are government gigs. I think he's sort of a DEI comedian. And again, that's the worst. DEI comedians are the ones who say things that say, oh, you're so right. Go Kamala. She's wonderful. Whereas real comedians make you laugh. Here's an example of this DEI comedian saying that all Canadians, or a vast number of Canadians are racist. He's happy to take the money from Canadian taxpayers for his CBC gigs and then call them racist. Take a look.

[Ali Hassan]

I think, you know, we try in Canada. We want to believe that we're somehow morally superior to the us but it's just. I mean, I've traveled around the country. I'm telling you, it's just. You can cover your ears if you like, but it's. We're just equally racist. We really are. We just know how to hide. It's like a line from Scarface. They just know how to hide.

[Ezra Levant]

This gal actually went to this show, but she hasn't given a single example of a joke. She's done a lot of mind reading, though, of what's in Ben Bankus's mind and what's in the crowd's mind. Why not just tell us what some of the jokes were? If they were so outrageous, why not say them? If there was a swear word, you can omit it. What kind of garbage is this CBC show?

[Host/Interviewer]

I want to recognize that, like, we've avoided playing a clip until now. And as much as, like, I don't want to give Ben Bankus a larger platform, but I think he's like, maybe useful to understand what he sounds like and the work that he does. So I'm going to play a brief clip. So here's Ben Bankus in Pocopsie, New York, three days after Renee Goode was killed in Minneapolis.

[Ezra Levant]

Now for a moment of silence for Renee Goode.

[Host/Interviewer]

So he asked for that moment of silence. That's how the audience responds.

[Ezra Levant]

They didn't let him say the punchline there. A moment for Renee Good. Okay, that, that sounded like it was going to be a funny joke and they just didn't show it. In fact, all they showed was the crowd's reaction. I don't know if you know who Renee Good. She's this woman who tried to run over a policeman. Pro tip don't try and run over a policeman. And Renee Goode had been part of this anti ice sort of mob, this antifa mob that was tracking police, would go to police, would seek interactions with police, confrontations with police. And in her case, she panicked, she drove, she hit a cop and another cop shot her dead. Now, I think that's terrible, but I also think that's what happens when you try and run over cops. And I think this trio of government comedians here wanted to turn her into some sort of saint. You might even say it's in bad taste to make a joke about her, although all I heard was him saying, let's have a moment of silence for her. You can take that seriously or as a joke, but it's not particularly vicious or particularly dark. But they're appalled by this because he's attacked one of their saints and they don't like that.

[Host/Interviewer]

Don't you know, Ali, what occurs to you when you listen to that?

[Ali Hassan]

His audience knows that he would never ask for a genuine moment of silence. He knows that they know that he knows. Right, right. That they're all in the. The thing together. That's the manipulation that I think Anne's talking about. He knows how to get a reaction from them. He would never ask for a moment of silence. He, like, he's relishing in. In stuff like that. So, yeah, it's, it's going exactly to plan now.

[Ezra Levant]

I think he's just mocking the fact that they've turned her into a secular saint and they worship her and he refuses to go along with that. And they can't stand it. They're sort of puritans that way.

[Host/Interviewer]

I guess, like the larger story is the soul that shows. Right. Like the idea of, like, seeing those kinds of moments and then people going, like, I want to go see that in person. And what was, what was the crowd like at that Toronto show that you went to?

[Am McMaster]

Well, I mean, let's just say.

[Ezra Levant]

SHARP INHALE OF breath Don't they see why people are going to see Ben Bankus? I mean, there's reasons some people might find them funny just straight up. But when you have people banning Ben Bankus and when you have losers reviewing his comedy for 15 minutes like this without even seeing it, don't you realize that there's a free spirit in people, at least the kind of people who go to comedy clubs who are typically liberty loving, typically ready to have some offensive things said in their general vicinity, because some dour, unfunny losers in a Toronto studio say, don't Go. Don't you realize that is precisely why people are going to show that they don't have to bend the knee to the government?

[Am McMaster]

I fit right in a lot of my people. It was. It was convenient, I think, for me to see everyone in Toronto. I would never date in one place. Like, that was like, thank you, Ben.

[Amanda Ackman]

I appreciate that.

[Host/Interviewer]

They're all here.

[Am McMaster]

They're all here. How handy. There was a really interesting moment during the show when Ben told the audience he wished they were more riled up.

[Ali Hassan]

Hmm.

[Am McMaster]

And I found that to be, like, one of the more, like, honest moments of the show.

[Ezra Levant]

The telling thing.

[Am McMaster]

Yeah. Like, I mean, he's so performative. And for. In that moment when he said, come on, like, you know, you guys are too quiet, it's like, wow. Again, that's what he needs, is he needs that heckler.

[Host/Interviewer]

Right.

[Am McMaster]

He needs that person to, like, just

[Ezra Levant]

feed off of the thing.

[Am McMaster]

To feed off. Yeah. Cause he genuinely thinks he's the smartest person in the room.

[Ezra Levant]

It sound. It sounds like she's never been to a comedy club. I mean, every comedian likes to get the crowd going, like to get the crowd revved up. I. I just think this is really weird attempts at psychoanalysis. I just wish they would have talked about the show a little more. Keep watching.

[Am McMaster]

There was a really interesting moment when someone heckled, I guess. Is it a heckle when someone gives you a compliment? What is that?

[Ali Hassan]

I don't know. Cheered, I guess.

[Host/Interviewer]

Cheer.

[Ali Hassan]

A cheer.

[Am McMaster]

They said, ben for Prime Minister. And that was one of the rare times his eyes went to the audience and he said, yeah, I just might have to do that to make everything right.

[Host/Interviewer]

He ran for mayor of Toronto a couple years ago.

[Ezra Levant]

Yeah. Yeah.

[Am McMaster]

There's a bit of hubris there.

[Host/Interviewer]

Yeah, just a bit.

[Ezra Levant]

They think he's serious about running for prime minister or mayor. Have you seen Ben Bankus running for mayor? It's a joke. You might not think it's a funny joke. You might think it's in bad taste, as many of Ben Bankus jokes might be. But you have to realize it's a joke. Take a look.

[Ali Hassan]

My name is Ben Bankus and I'm running for mayor of Toronto because I am the first and only candidate that is not only transgender, transracial, gender fluid, but I also believe that I am Olivia Chow. I believe that I am her. I identify as Olivia Chow as well as Ben Banka. So I'm racial and personality fluid. On top of that, I'm also species fluid. So I'm a trans species monkey hybrid. I do believe I was a Chinese half human, half monkey hybrid made in the laboratory in Wuhan, China, as a part of the Lab League.

[Ezra Levant]

They think he's serious. Keep watching.

[Host/Interviewer]

Ali, I know you can't get into it too much, but you are working on a project about comedians with views like Ben Bankus. Why? Why? Why is that something that you were like? You know what? I think we got to spend a bit of time talking about this a little bit more in depth.

[Ali Hassan]

Yeah, it's a show that's. That's in development, and, you know, we'll hear news in the next. In the coming weeks, but that character. And I'm less interested in dunking on Ben Bankus as a human being and more interested in this idea of a comedian having darker material. It resonating with audiences, and then the audience sort of taking you to a darker place. Right. As you start to veer out of that place, your audience is like, no, no, no, no, no. Go back and do that back in that Asian accent year. Let's do that. Let's go back there. I'm interested in that because comedy is instant gratification. It's feedback. What happens when that feedback is coming from people who, like, create a world for you that you hadn't anticipated really being part of? I think that phenomenon is very interesting, and it's. It's quite prevalent, and it's not just in comedy, it's in culture. So I thought that was really worth exploring and very interesting for the show.

[Ezra Levant]

Oh, here it comes. He's working on a project. Do you doubt that? It's a government project funded maybe by some anti Islamophobia fund? So boring and so unfunny. How about just tell us some jokes if you're Jewish, if you're Muslim, if you're Christian, can you just make me laugh, please?

[Host/Interviewer]

There's something sort of like, about the, you know, the algorithm online, but also just, like, in person, people saying, whatever you did there, do more of that. You're like, do I want to do more of that? And then before you know it, it's kind of like maybe run away a

[Ezra Levant]

little bit from you 100%.

[Host/Interviewer]

And in a way, I'm kind of cognizant of the fact that we are doing exactly what Ben Bankus wants, which is having this conversation. And then despite that, I think it's an important conversation to have. I think it's kind of important for us to kind of sit around and go like, oh, we should explore what this says about us. Why do you think it's important for us to sort of sit here and sort of talk about this Ben Bankus phenomenon and act and the fact that he. And in fact, is selling on shows.

[Ezra Levant]

Oh, brother. We're having an important conversation. You know, I looked at the number of people who viewed this on YouTube. You know, this is the mighty CBC. Just over 1,500 people have seen this entire episode on YouTube. Nobody thinks it's an important conversation. And if they want an important conversation, they'll probably talk to important people, not comedians. You go to comedians for a laugh other than these losers.

[Am McMaster]

Yeah, I think that's a really great question. I mean, I. I went because it. It was important for me to get out of my echo chamber, but I. I was alarmed, I think, by what I saw. And it was, for me, I think, a reminder, like, love is stronger than hate. Right? We have a responsibility to show up, you know, and to seek out the people who are humanist, who are curious, who are empathetic. And, um, it was a. It was a reminder to me of how important that is. Now. Um. And look, Ben. He might call me a snowflake, and that's fine. I'm Canadian. I know the power of snowflakes.

[Host/Interviewer]

Yeah, that's real. That's really real.

[Ezra Levant]

Love is stronger than hate, people. Okay, Maybe. Why are you saying that? Are you implying that you are full of love and he's full of hate? That's. That's all you got? That's you. You're on this panel and you don't. You can't muster any arguments other than you're a morally better person. You haven't given us any examples. You haven't told us exactly what he's done wrong, other than the one case of not bending the knee to your new saint from Minnesota.

[Host/Interviewer]

Very weak last word to you, pal. Why is it important for us to keep having this conversation even though Ben is like. He probably kind of wants this.

[Ezra Levant]

Honestly, I don't think Ben Bankus is thinking about you at all today.

[Ali Hassan]

Yesterday, I guess, as we record this, a representative Republican, Randy Fine, in a sitting, you know, senator in Florida said, if the choice is between dogs and Muslims, it's an easy choice. Right? Paraphrasing his tweet. That's the reality I live in. Right? That's what my kids have to grow in, where we've normalized that type of talk. I won't speak for you, El Amin, but that's. That's where. Where we're at. That's what I see. And that's what's normalized and nobody's coming at him. He's still got a job. So I feel like it's my responsibility to work towards what I want to see, which is a world with less hate, not more.

[Ezra Levant]

You know, I don't think I would say that phrase myself, but he was talking about a Muslim led proposed ban on dogs because some Muslim people find dogs unclean or they don't want to deal with dogs. And so what the congressman was saying is if I have to choose, I'll choose dogs. He's not saying that he's equating Muslims with dogs. Again, I wouldn't use that phrase. I wouldn't say it. But if you're trying to make a point, it's stronger if you don't have to twist it, don't you think?

[Ali Hassan]

I think, you know, the people of Kitchener who protested and forced him out of that venue. I think that's a good part of the story. I think he should, should be difficult for him to say what he's saying and, and for it to get out there and yeah, if we can counter it with, as Anne said, more and more love than hate. And I know as cheesy as that sounds, I think that's important. I think that's what helps us get through life.

[Host/Interviewer]

I love you both. I appreciate your time.

[Ezra Levant]

You know, they sure say that Ben hates a lot and I don't know, maybe he does. It's human emotion. But the only hate I've seen for the last 15 minutes is from their show. Now, I looked at the handful of comments on the site and they really are so very few. But every single comment, except for one, just is mocking these CBC losers, saying that Ben talking about freedom or that Ben is funny. I don't know, I just think this is the weakest hit job, weakest assassination, character assassination that I've ever seen. But that's the state of the cbc. But hey, everyone got paid, even the unfunny comedians. Stay with us. Morehead. Around the world, Christianity is in retreat. Being prosecuted by Islamic terrorists in places like Nigeria or being cracked down on by state atheists such as in China. So I'm delighted to say that my favorite Canadian charity, the Democracy Fund, has opened up a new project, a Religious Freedom Fellowship that is emphasizing pro Christian activity, by which I mean fighting against anti Christian discrimination and also fighting against antisemitism or anti Jewish discrimination. And I'm delighted now to introduce you to an old friend who has a new role as the director of the Democracy Fund's religious Freedom Fellowship. That's Amanda Ackman and she joins us now from Ottawa. Amanda, great to see you again and congratulations on your new position. I have been thinking about anti Christian discrimination for a long time. Some people refuse to say it even exists. They don't believe it. They think Christians are too powerful to be persecuted. But I think everything from affirmative action and the reverse discrimination within it to the fact that Christians are subtly mocked in all media, I think there is a dearth of people even calling out anti Christian discrimination. That's my view. What do you think?

[Amanda Ackman]

You mentioned some of the religious persecution around the world in places like Nigeria and China. And this matters because we in the more free and prosperous part of the world have a responsibility to set the standard for freedom for pluralism. And so while the kinds of persecution might look different, the crisis is the same. Are people free to live, work and worship wherever they are? And so I think we actually honor those who are suffering as victims of more egregious forms of religious persecution by raising the bar and by saying we will not abide the anti Christian bigotry that you pointed out exists in Canada. And that can take the form of violations of conscience, protections for faith based institutions or the desecration of religious sites of worship or of cemeteries or of religious statues. We always see incremental chipping away at respect and reverence for religious traditions that bodes badly or for the freedom and peace of the societies that, that endure this. So we have to be vigilant. We can't take for granted the society that we have is a gift that has been bequeathed to us by the religious traditions that are most under threat now today.

[Ezra Levant]

Yeah, I think that sometimes Christians are purged from the public square. I think of when Trinity Western University sought to have a law school, is a university in the lower mainland, wanted a law school. There's plenty of law schools in Canada. They were banned not because the law school was accused in any way of being illegitimate or not being good enough, but because the university itself had a policy against premarital sex because it was a Christian school. On that basis alone. Various law societies in Canada said we refuse to accredit lawyers because they will be coming from a bigoted tradition. And we see that in other professions too. People cannot have their religious conscience, can't act on it or they'll be purged from the profession. And even in politics, very famously, Justin Trudeau purged any professing Catholics. Anyone who was pro life was simply not allowed in the Liberal government. And so I think Sometimes it's subtle, sometimes it's foreign. But when you deny a law school from being accredited because it's Christian, it's pretty clear we've got some serious discrimination going on. And that was over a decade ago. That was about 15 years ago now.

[Amanda Ackman]

Yeah, absolutely. We belong. Christians belong in the public square. Jews belong in the public square. We need to have a pluralistic public square in order to have a free society. As soon as there starts being an ideological values test, as we saw for example, with the Canada summer jobs requirement that people check a box attesting that they believe in essentially abortion in order to apply for government grants and hire summer students, this, this is completely undermining the public square and the free society that we all have a responsibility to uphold and to fight for.

[Ezra Levant]

Yeah, and I can tell you, maid medical assistance in dying, as it's sometimes called, another way of saying euthanasia. I just know that it's, it is or will be weaponized against Christian traditions of caring for a palliative care. People who are in pain, people who are in hospital. The Christian tradition would be to save the life. The new pagan made tradition would be to euthanize them. I really think that's a threat. We're talking a lot about anti Christian discrimination, but anti Jewish discrimination, of course. Off the charts. In the last two years, especially in my own city of Toronto, a Jewish girls school has been three times shot with gunfire. There's a synagogue on Bayview Avenue in Toronto. Ten times it's been vandalized. So it's shocking. And then there's the, the hate marches through the residential communities screaming obscenities at just ordinary Jewish moms, dads and kids. It's so, so gross. So tell me what you're planning to do about it. As the new director of the Religious Freedom Fellowship at the Democracy Fund, we

[Amanda Ackman]

know that a lot of the existing strategies are not working to address and to tackle this. First, it's not being taken seriously enough. Second, there have been a lot of things tried and not working over the past decades. And so I think it's time for some fresh ideas, for some young ideas. And so that's why we've created the Religious Freedom Fellowship program to recruit a cohort of Canadians ages 18 to 35 who are going to present their own project proposals. Maybe they'll be writing, maybe they'll be organizing events in their community. Maybe they'll be protecting places of worship in creative ways. Really, those are just a few ideas. Really, the ideas are going to come from the Cohort. So we're looking for people who have an interest in challenging and confronting this anti Christian bigotry and anti Semitism in Canada. Whatever their angle, whatever their approach, we're looking for fresh ideas. And during the year, participants in this cohort will get training, they'll get mentorship, or it is a remote based program so they can stay in their cities and continue doing their ordinary work and studies while connecting with a group of eager young people like them who are going to promote religious freedom in Canada and then take up these action projects. So it's basically to say, let's crowdsource, let's identify the ideas that we don't know about yet so that we can hopefully have a more promising future in this regard.

[Ezra Levant]

So basically, young people across Canada are invited to apply to become Religious Freedom Fellows. And then once there's a group of them or a cohort, they'll have regular updates. They'll be part of a WhatsApp group. They'll, they get a modest stipend and they'll sort of be this team that's active. Give me some examples of what these, I'm calling them kids. When you're 54, everyone's a kid. But give me an example of something these young people might do on any given day.

[Amanda Ackman]

Right. Students and young professionals across Canada will be maybe responding to an incident that happens in their community. So often we see incidents that are met with silence. And so where, where do we oppose those incidents? It's got to be in the public square, through op eds, through articles, through shows of solidarity. And then after the attack in Australia, Jews killed in Australia on the beach. And now Canadians are feeling that, that threat. We don't wait until something like this happens here. We say what are we going to do to create the conditions so that it won't happen here? And so I'm looking for those creative ideas to preempt any sort of incident that would actually threaten lives here. We don't want to be the next country in this story of extremely devastating violent attacks. So it may seem modest, it may seem very small, but we know that small acts of resistance against this kind of threat can be a turning point in the, the and can shift a culture. And so looking for those ideas, looking for people who are disquieted by the, the rise of anti Semitism on social media, who are ready to push back and to meet this challenge with whatever they have on their conscience as a, an honorable form of resistance.

[Ezra Levant]

Hey, if someone's watching right now, wants to learn more about this. What's the best way they can do that?

[Amanda Ackman]

You can go to religiousfreedomfellowship, ca, check out the description of the program and apply there.

[Ezra Levant]

Great. By the way, I know you do some other things as well. Why don't you give us a quick update on some of the other projects you're working on, Amanda?

[Amanda Ackman]

Sure. So I'm also working to prevent euthanasia and encourage hope across Canada. And as you mentioned earlier, this is also an area under which faith based institutions are under threat because for example, hospices and hospitals that don't want to offer death to people directly on site, they want to offer care are being met with this ideological test in order to continue operating within Canadian healthcare. This is unacceptable. People always deserve better than death. There is always more that we can do in terms of love. And the request for euthanasia is not usually the expression of a desire to die so much as it is an expression of some disappointment. And so we need to meet that disappointment with something better, something more attractive again, something more. More hopeful than this despairing, dejected capitulation to what is really a cry for help. That. So I promote life and I promote religious freedom and I promote the ingenuity that helps us to meet the malaise that we sense in this country of Canada so that we can have a brighter and more flourishing country that we can all be deeply proud of.

[Ezra Levant]

Well, we got to get that religious freedom fellowship going one more time. What's the website? If someone's out there thinking I want to learn a little bit more about this. What's the website again?

[Amanda Ackman]

ReligiousFreedomFellowship. Cat.

[Ezra Levant]

All right, Amanda, great to see you. Congratulations on the new position and hopefully we'll get that thing all staffed up.

[Amanda Ackman]

Looking forward.

[Ezra Levant]

There she is. Amanda Ackman, the director of the religious freedom Fellowship. Stay with us. Your letters to me next. Hey, welcome back. Your letters to me about Mark Carney's proposal proposed anti Trump coalition. Malcolm Kendall says you notice the globalist like Carney stopped using the more honest great reset phrase that Justin let out of the bag. Yeah, the great reset. Of course, that's the name of a book by Klaus Schwab of the World Economic Forum. They also had build back better was one of their phrases. But Mark Carney sort of gone old school with his new world order. Right. Mongo says Carney is the greatest spokesman for Alberta independence. He will be the last prime minister of the united Canada. You know, that's something that Preston Manning wrote last year in the Globe and Mail. I was startled that Preston said it. I was surprised that the Globe and Mail ran it. And I thought, holy smokes, that's a dramatic thing to say. But my gosh, it's almost coming true. Kyle Hampton says, I don't think most Canadians understand how bad they are viewed in America now, especially at the government level. From a government to government relationship. There isn't too many more anti American governments anywhere in the world. And Americans understand that now. Kyle, I'm going to politely disagree with you. I really don't think Americans are focused on this issue. There may be some pockets of Americans that are, and perhaps a small segment of the political class that is. But I mean, just right now, you've got some Americans, for example, Hispanics and many people in Florida in general are focused on Cuba. You've got the military ramping up for a possible and likely attack on Iran. You've got the Russia, Ukraine war that continues to grind on. You've got trade with China and trade. You've got like, there's just so many things that are more interesting, more important, more relevant to the ordinary American. I mean, forget about foreign policy, the price of groceries, price of inflation, the price of gas which has fallen under Trump, the increasing in factories, the increasing steel production, the unemployment numbers, the per capita gdp. There's so many things that I think a normal person in America would think about other than Mark Carney is whipping up anti American nations into a coalition. Like, I just think one of the mistakes we make in Canada is thinking that everyone thinks about us as much as we think about them, especially in America. Donald Trump, I mean, I can only imagine how busy he is. I think they're going to attack Iran in the most massive war since the first Gulf War. There's never been a larger naval and air force presence since the first Gulf War. This is so huge and I think it's going to happen. I don't think Trump is thinking, well, what does Mark Carney have to say about me this week? I just don't think he is. 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.