Furious Canada Strikes Back at Trump Over War Crimes

Summary

Podcast Summary: The MeidasTouch Podcast

Episode: Furious Canada Strikes Back at Trump Over War Crimes
Date: December 7, 2025
Hosts: Ben Meiselas, Brett Meiselas, Jordy Meiselas
Notable Guest: Charlie Angus (Midas Canada)

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Main Theme & Purpose

This episode centers on the growing outrage in Canada towards Donald Trump and his administration, specifically in response to alleged war crimes committed off the coast of Venezuela. The Meiselas brothers contextualize these events within the broader issue of international law, shifting global alliances, and the alarming normalization of cruelty and extrajudicial violence. The episode features a deep, emotional segment from Charlie Angus of Midas Canada, who draws historical parallels and issues a passionate call for accountability.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Canadian Fury and Severed Ties

• Canada’s Changing View of the US:
  Canada, traditionally a close ally of the United States, is now publicly distancing itself, no longer considering America as a partner due to ongoing war crimes and the Trump administration’s actions.

  • Quote:
    “Canada has now moved on. They don't view the United States as an ally or a partner or a friend anymore, and for good reason.”
    (Political Commentator, [02:25])

• Comparison to World War II:
  Charlie Angus frames the current situation alongside the historical alliance during the World Wars, expressing shock that Canada now views the US as a “Nazi fascist regime.”

  • Quote:
    “…the perspective of Canada seeing the United States as this essentially Nazi fascist regime is something… Canadians never could fathom. But that's the reality right now and the dynamic that exists, unfortunately.”
    (Political Commentator, [02:54])

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2. War Crimes: From Venezuela to Gaza

• Extrajudicial Killings by the US:
  The episode focuses on alleged extrajudicial murders by US forces, with Canadian outrage magnified by online bragging and dehumanizing social media content, notably a cartoon by Pete Hegseth.

  • Quote:
    “These extrajudicial killings are very serious. These are war crimes. They're crimes against even the United States military code…”
    (Charlie Angus, [03:31])

• Dehumanization and Social Media:
  A recurring theme is the normalization and even celebration of violence through memes and social posts, including the perversion of the Canadian children’s character “Franklin” into a symbol of violence.

  • Quote:
    “…Hegseth turns Franklin into this happy, murderous killer, killing people who are defenseless.”
    (Charlie Angus, [03:47])
  • Quote (referencing Adam Serwer):
    “Once malice is embraced as virtue, it is impossible to contain.”
    (Charlie Angus quoting Serwer, [04:08])

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3. Historical Echoes: Atrocities Old and New

• From Nazi Holocaust to Modern War Crimes:
  Charlie Angus draws direct lines from atrocities committed during WWII (referencing the Auschwitz guards’ disconnect from their crimes) to contemporary events—whether in Gaza, Ukraine, or Venezuela.

  • He disputes Daniel Goldhagen’s thesis about “innate character” as a driver for atrocity, arguing instead that dehumanization and mob mentality transcend national identity.
  • Quote:
    “I think Goldhagen's thesis is just wrong. And we see it's wrong because it's been proven wrong by subsequent atrocities… nowhere has it been proven more than in Israel.”
    (Charlie Angus, [05:25])

• Specific Case: Gaza and the Death of Hind Rab Joub
  A harrowing account is given of six-year-old Hind Rab Joub’s murder, emphasizing international investigation and the inhumanity of targeting rescuers.

  • Quote:
    “She was on the phone begging people to come and help her. And every time someone from the Red Crescent tried to come and help her, Israeli sharpshooters killed him… The Euro Mediterranean Peace Monitor investigated and ruled it a planned execution.”
    (Charlie Angus, [06:26])

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4. Calls for Accountability – The Role of the International Criminal Court (ICC)

• Persistence of Justice:
  The hosts and guest underline that, regardless of how long it takes, international mechanisms to pursue war crimes must not be abandoned.

  • Quote:
    “Sometimes it takes years, sometimes it takes decades, many decades. But the work of the International Criminal Court must go on… and that brings us to Pete Hegseth and the killing of these civilians.”
    (Charlie Angus, [07:40])

• Chain of Command Under Investigation:
  Media outlets like The Intercept are zeroing in on Hegseth, possibly implicating the entire command structure in murder investigations.

  • Quote:
    “The Intercept says that Hegseth’s actions could result in the entire chain of command being investigated for war crimes or outright murder.”
    (Charlie Angus, [10:25])

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5. The Canadian Perspective and Moral Standpoint

• Historical Context: The Sinking of Llandovery Castle:
  The atrocity of a Canadian hospital ship sunk by a German U-boat in 1918, and the massacre of survivors, is recounted as a foundational moment driving Canada’s commitment to international law.

  • Quote:
    “And I think the killings of the people on the Llandovery Castle set Canada on a path that it has never turned away from, which is that those with the guns don't get to shoot those without guns on the high seas, those who are helpless…”
    (Charlie Angus, [11:47])

• Rebuke of Canada’s Foreign Minister:
  Angus takes direct aim at Anita Anand for deferring judgment on US war crimes to the US itself, calling it an “outrageously dumb thing to say.”

  • Quote:
    “In what world would you say the perpetrator of the crimes gets to decide whether those crimes are crimes? That's not how it works.”
    (Charlie Angus, [11:16])

• Warning Against Numbness:
  The dangers of letting public conscience erode are vividly stated, urging continued vigilance and compassion.

  • Quote:
    “We cannot let our humanity break down like this. We cannot let these gangster criminals like Hegseth and Trump and Putin and Netanyahu… There has to be accountability otherwise we go into a very, very, very dark place.”
    (Charlie Angus, [13:43])

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On public complicity and danger:
  "It's not just about the war crime, but it's about trying to desensitize us, to make us go along to think it's okay. And it's not okay."
  (Charlie Angus, [13:11])

• On the moral imperative:
  “We have to stay focused on these… we got to keep kicking at the darkness and we got to keep calling it out and we got to keep insisting that people have to do better in the age of these gangster monsters.”
  (Charlie Angus, [13:50])

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Important Timestamps

• [02:25] – Introduction of Canada’s outrage over US war crimes
• [03:31] – Charlie Angus begins historical and ethical analysis
• [06:26] – The story of Hind Rab Joub in Gaza
• [07:40] – Role of the International Criminal Court
• [10:25] – The Intercept’s investigation into the chain of command
• [11:16] – Canada’s Foreign Minister’s controversial statement
• [11:47] – The legacy of the Llandovery Castle sinking
• [13:11] – The fight against numbness and normalization
• [13:43] – Final warnings and call to action

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Tone & Style

The tone throughout the episode is urgent, morally charged, and direct, blending historical reflection with present-day outrage. Charlie Angus’s portion is especially vivid, blending personal anecdote, historical reference, and righteous anger with a steadfast call for justice and accountability. The brotherly banter is subdued in this serious edition, yielding the spotlight to relentless advocacy for international law and human rights.

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This episode is a must-listen for anyone interested in how Canada is re-examining its place in the world amidst American decline, and for those seeking a passionate, principled stand against atrocities—past and present.

Transcript

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Spotify Canada is absolutely furious at Donald Trump and his gangster regime. Of course, Canada's now moved on. They don't view the United States as an ally or a partner or a friend anymore, and for good reason. And Canada is responding now to Donald Trump's and his regime's war crimes. Off the coast of Venezuela. We hear from individuals like Charlie Angus of Midas, Canada, the way Canadians are discussing, discussing these despicable war crimes taking place. Charlie Angus, again, who leads Midas Canada, contextualizes it in the history of other war crimes during World War II. He talks about how Canada and the United States, of course, have been allies in World War II and World War I and throughout history. And now the perspective of Canada seeing the United States as this essentially Nazi fascist regime is something that Charlie Angus and Canadians never could fathom. But that's the reality right now and the dynamic that exists, unfortunately. Charlie Angus from Midas, Canada, take it away, sir.

[Liberty Mutual Narrator / War Crimes Commentator]

These extrajudicial killings are very serious. These are war crimes. They're crimes against even the United States military code. But what was really concerning was how Hegseth, when he was challenged on this, he put out this.

Imitation cartoon of the Franklin cartoon. Now, Franklin is a Canadian cartoon character that children love, and Franklin is teaches kids how to be nice and how to be good neighbors. And instead, Hegseth turns Franklin into this happy, murderous killer, killing people who are defenseless. You know, Adam Sewer wrote the book about Trump that cruelty is the point. And he writes that once malice is embraced as virtue, it is impossible to contain. What we're seeing.

In this age of gangsters is that the crimes that have been committed by military in the past are now being bragged about and celebrated on social media. And it's about dehumanizing our enemy, and it's about embracing the cruelty and the viciousness and also laughing at the fact that. That these are breaches of international law. You know, there was a photograph I saw when I went to the Museum of Terror in Berlin that really struck me. That shocked me. And I thought about it for a long time, and it's about German soldiers, male and female, at Auschwitz in 1942, singing and laughing. And you're seeing this photograph of people who are completely disconnected from the fact that they're running the world's most notorious murder camp. And I thought about that photograph a long time, and the dehumanizing nature of the violence that allows people, on one hand, to hang out and have a good time, and on the other hand, go in and pull people off the trains and murder them. Daniel Goldhagen, in his book on Hitler's willing executioners, his claim was that the reason this was possible was because the Germans had some Innate, murderous anti Semitism was something in the German character. And he wrote about the German police battalions at did the horrific mass shootings in Ukraine and Eastern Europe and took photographs and didn't seem to think it was a big issue. I think Goldhagen's thesis is just wrong. And we see it's wrong because it's been proven wrong by subsequent atrocities. And nowhere has it been proven more than in Israel, where we see soldiers of the IDF who come from all manner of ordinary backgrounds in Gaza doing selfies, involved in mass killings, killings of civilians, killings of children. I think one of the most frightening things that really shook me up and it literally made me rethink everything I thought about the world was the murder of that six year old girl, Hindra Job, who was in a car with her family trying to escape the bombing. Her family were murdered in the car. She was left alone. She was on the phone begging people to come and help her. And every time someone from the Red Crescent tried to come and help her, Israeli sharpshooters killed him. The Euro Mediterranean Peace Monitor investigated and ruled it a planned execution. The murder of a family and the murder of a child. This kind of dehumanizing violence is becoming the face of the era of gangster threat. We see it with Putin in Ukraine, we see it with Netanyahu in Gaza, and now we're seeing it with the United States under Donald Trump. Lt. Col. Benny Aharon, his name has been brought forward to the International Criminal Court for.

The allegations that he ordered the killing of this young girl and her family. And this is a thing that Hegseth and the rest of them need to understand. The work of the Criminal Court goes on. Donald Trump is trying, in his deal with Putin, the capitulation agreement he's trying to foster on the world is to claim that after this illegal invasion and after all these killings and the stealing of children, that the world will somehow agree to let Putin and the war crimes go unanswered, just like he thinks that that's going to happen in Gaza. No, sometimes it takes years, sometimes it takes decades, many decades. But the work of the International Criminal Court must go on. And it must go on in Russia, it must go on in Gaza. And that brings us to Pete Hegseth and the killing of.

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[Liberty Mutual Narrator / War Crimes Commentator]

I d a S the Pentagon.

Law of War manual is clear on this Attacking defenseless people. They say persons who have been rendered unconscious or otherwise incapacitated by wound, sickness or shipwreck, such as they are no longer capable of fighting or the combat meaning they're out of fighting. Persons who've been incapacitated by wounds, sickness or shipwreck are in a helpless state and it would be dishonorable and inhumane to make them the object of attack. The Intercept has done a study on Hegseth, who's now trying to blame an admiral for ordering the killings after he was bragging and posting pictures of the cartoon with Franklin. And the Intercept says that Higgs actions could result in the entire chain of command being investigated for war crimes or outright murder. But I want to go back now to Canada because when our Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand was asked in the early stages of these.

Extrajudicial murders off the coast of Venezuela, if they were a breach of international law. Ms. Anand said that it was really up to the United States to decide if it was a breach of international law. I mean, this is an outrageously dumb thing to say. In what world would you say the perpetrator of the crimes gets to decide whether those crimes are crimes? That's not how it works. And Canada has a long standing tradition of our work on dealing with international war crimes, crimes against civilians, crimes against humanity. And that work must continue. But I want to take you back historically on why Canada has played such a role in this. On June 27, 1918, there was a hospital ship, the Landovery Castle, heading from Halifax to Liverpool as part of the medical convoys that the Canadian army had for the wounded and the sick. And while they were just off the coast of Ireland, they were sunk by U Boat 86 as part of the U boat campaign against the. Against the UK and against Canada. And on that ship, there were many doctors, nurses, military personnel, sailors. And what happened next shocked the world because the U boat saw the survivors in the water, they rammed the lifeboats, and then they machine gunned the survivors, killing nurses, killing 234 people. And Canadians were outraged. Canadians demanded international law step up, which hadn't really stepped up on something like this before, on the murder of helpless people at sea. And I think the killings of the people on the Landovery Castle set Canada on a path that it has never turned away from, which is that those with the guns don't get to shoot. Those without guns on the high seas, those who are helpless, those who don't have power, those who. Those who are like little Hindrab, who's left in a car as bait while the Israeli soldiers killed those who came to save them. These are war crimes. These are the act of monsters. And we are in an age of monsters. And we're in an age of monsters. When people like Pete Heg says, one of the dumbest, most incompetent losers who's ever been appointed to anything in the United States can put out cartoons bragging about murdering defenseless people on the high seas. It's not just. It's about the war crime, but it's about trying to desensitize us, to make us go along to think it's okay. And it's not okay. So now we see Trump's backtracking, we see Hegseth trying to throw the admirals under the bus. We have to stay focused on these. We cannot let our humanity break down like this. We cannot let these gangster criminals like Hegseth and Trump and Putin and Netanyahu and Benny Aharon whose now name has been put forward at the International Criminal Court. There has to be accountability otherwise we go into a very, very very dark place. So my friends, we got to keep kicking at the darkness and we got to keep calling it out and we got to keep insisting that people have to do better in the age of these gangster monsters. So Charlie Angus from ITIS Canada, thanks so much. Hit hit hit subscribe help us to get to 250,000. We want to keep telling these stories. Thank you Merci and Megwich.

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