Ezra Levant critiques Starbucks’ $4.5B Trans Mountain Pipeline purchase, mocking its "third place" messaging and racial sensitivity training while questioning government motives—$1B overpaid for an existing asset, ignoring the $7.4B expansion cost. He debates comedy’s boundaries with Glenn Foster, contrasting historical suppression (Stalin, Khomeini) to modern "punching up" trends, arguing humor thrives on subjectivity. The episode suggests corporate virtue-signaling and political posturing overlook real-world challenges, while comedians face shrinking creative freedom in increasingly censored spaces. [Automatically generated summary]
Tonight, Starbucks shut down their whole chain of coffee shops to have a day-long sensitivity workshop.
We've got video footage from the inside.
It's May 30th, and you're watching The Ezra Levant Show.
Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?
There's 8,500 customers here and you won't give them an answer.
You come here once a year with a sign and you feel morally superior.
The only thing I have to say to the government about why I publish it is because it's my bloody right to do so.
A couple of months ago, two men sat down in a Starbucks in Philadelphia.
They didn't order anything to drink.
In fact, they brought in their own bottled water from outside the store.
A Starbucks employee came over and asked them if they wanted to buy anything and they said no.
They were there for a business meeting about a real estate deal and someone else was going to come and join them.
They were just enjoying the place.
But they weren't paying customers.
They weren't customers at all.
So Starbucks called 911.
And I think calling 911 is a bit much, don't you think?
They weren't ruffians.
They weren't making a scene.
I mean, I understand the idea.
It's like people who go to a bookstore or a magazine stand that used to be a thing, magazine stands, and they just stood there and read the magazine or newspaper without buying it.
It's not a library.
It's a magazine shop.
You have to pay for things.
It's a business.
Starbucks isn't really a clubhouse.
I mean, they make money selling coffee and other stuff.
But Starbucks is really weird.
It's a bit culty sometimes.
They have this idea called the third place.
What?
Yeah.
Here's Starbucks kooky chairman, Howard Schultz.
We do everything we can to build that third place in your store.
The third place, it sounds like some Scientology thing.
And it actually means to Starbucks people, there's your home, and then there's your work, and there's Starbucks.
That's the third place in your life.
Not a church, not a school, not a community center.
They are your third place.
It's a bit culty, but don't you think that two guys sitting down in the Starbucks waiting for a third guy to join them and not buying a drink right away, maybe they would later.
That's sort of third place-ish.
Maybe we need a high priest to interpret the third way of this third place.
Now that we're in the third millennium, where are my crystals?
The men who were arrested were black, and it was caught on tape.
Take a look.
They didn't do anything.
I saw the entire thing.
And the woman says, for my customers, they're like, I'm going to go.
Did you really need to handcuff someone to tell them to leave a coffee shop for not buying a cup of coffee?
They were just sitting there quietly?
I don't think so.
But add the layer of race to it.
And the thing went viral, of course.
The two men did the media circuit with a lawyer, and politicians got in on it soon, and they soon came to a confidential settlement with Starbucks.
You know that real estate deal they were meeting about?
I think it just got financing.
I say again, I'm sympathetic to any store owner who wants people in his shop to buy, not just to browse.
But I also understand the browsing is part of shopping.
When it comes to clothes, for example, at least for women, I think men, if they need some shoes, drive to the mall park, walk to the shoe store and buy the shoes, walk back to the car and go home for women.
It's more about the journey, isn't it?
That's the shtick Starbucks is selling with its third place business.
They want you to hang out there, sounds like to me, for hours.
You literally could not be drinking coffee the whole time.
You'd float away.
So I think they're inviting people to lounge around, aren't they?
And these guys weren't even in there for 10 minutes.
I'm sympathetic to them.
But holy cow, has Starbucks bent over the other way now?
If you thought they were politically correct to begin with, And that kooky cult leader of theirs, Howard Schultz, he's constantly being touted as a candidate to run for president, by the way.
So he's always thinking politically.
Well, they just got kookier.
Like I say, the chain shut down for some re-education over this.
And you know what?
They probably do need some clarification where kooky cult talk by a millionaire CEO and real life situations by a minimum wage coffee worker where they connect.
I mean, how long do you wait for someone to order coffee?
What if they're all day and they're there all day and they never do?
If they're there for a business meeting, is that different than if they're just there goofing around?
If it's two people just hanging out, is that different than if there's, I don't know, 20 people just hanging out?
What if a whole group of people, like a whole sports team or maybe a whole gang, I don't know, I'm just brainstorming.
What if they sat in the Starbucks and took up all the seats, let's say for the whole lunch hour?
I don't know.
What about if they were there for the whole day?
Their new third place, a free clubhouse that they don't have to pay for.
I'm just asking questions because, you know, with 27,000 Starbucks locations around the world, I bet you're going to get a lot of situations that need clarity.
Well, I obviously wasn't invited to one of these re-education sessions, but Starbucks put out an official video of it.
Here's a clip from it.
More than 8,000 stores will close next month so that employees can receive racial sensitivity training.
This after the arrest of two black men at one of its Philadelphia stores sparked an outcry and a call for a boycott.
All right.
We desire to treat everyone equally.
So let's start off with a little quizzic.
Let's say a black man walks up to order coffee.
What do you do, Todd?
Take his order.
Take his order?
Rule number one, never assume someone's gender.
Never.
But you said he was a black man.
Yeah, I know he's a guy because I already asked him his pronoun before I called him a him.
You gotta be one step ahead.
That's what this takes, Todd.
That's what this takes.
You asked the fictional character in your head if he was a man.
Yeah, that's exactly what I did, Todd, because I need that.
Because we gotta go one step higher with our sensitivity training, everybody.
Take it one step up.
Now, I'm just kidding.
That was a satirical video, as I think you could tell, but just barely.
Here's a clip from the real video actually released by Starbucks.
Without a doubt, the events in Philadelphia prompted us to bring 8,000 stores and 175,000 partners together on 529.
Because that is not who we aspire to be.
529 is an opportunity to renew our commitment to the third place.
Because we understand that racial and systemic bias have many causes, sources, and ways of showing up within each of us and in our communities.
So to get things going, Kevin will welcome teens.
We are here to make Starbucks a place where everyone, everyone feels welcome.
In common, one of our guides will help folks start exploring their own identities.
Helping people see each other fully, completely, respectfully.
Once partners have gotten warmed up, they will start to explore the third place and its relation to our mission.
Hang on, that guy's name is common?
Yeah, you bet it is.
And how dare you assume he's a guy without asking him for his gender forever?
Did you see the use of the word folks in there too?
That's not a southernism.
How y'all folks doing?
No, no, no.
It is a fancy way of saying men are women that is not so sexist.
It's Starbucks' version of Trudeau's word people-kind.
We like to say people-kind, not necessarily man-kind.
Yeah.
And boy, are they ever into that third-place thing, aren't they?
That huge storybook thing.
It's really weird, I think.
It's a whole cult.
I'm surprised it's in a giant novelty-sized book.
You'd think it would be tiny, pocket-sized, maybe red, maybe printed in China.
I don't know, sort of like Mao's little red book.
It can have deep, deep thoughts in there.
But that one part by the CEO of Starbucks, take a look.
We are here to make Starbucks a place where everyone, everyone feels welcome.
All right, is it true that everyone, absolutely everyone, he said everyone, everyone, is everyone, everyone really welcome at a Starbucks?
That can't be true.
Everyone?
Regardless of how they're dressed, regardless of their state of inebriation, regardless of their health, regardless of their conduct, regardless how they treat Starbucks customers or Starbucks staff?
That can't be true.
It just can't be true.
Do you think that that everyone, everyone's allowed applies to the corporate head office of Starbucks in Seattle?
That anyone, anyone can just come into their place of work and hang out and be welcome no matter what?
Now, don't be silly.
Starbucks head office is for the important people.
You got to have security badges and all that.
The frontline Starbucks workers, they must now put up with everyone, everyone, because to not do so might embarrass the virtue signalers at head office.
I say again, I don't think that Philly Starbucks should have called 911 and I don't think the cops should have used handcuffs based on what I saw in that cell phone video.
But the answer is clearer standards, clearer rules, not no rules.
Okay, more from the corporate video.
Same question, Lisa.
A black man walks in to order a coffee.
What do you say?
I say, hi, welcome to Starbucks.
What can I get for you?
Well, what's with the tone, Lisa?
What tone?
What tone?
Okay, listen, I don't know how many times I have to say this, but we have to treat everyone equally.
Try it again with a better tone, Lisa.
Okay.
Hi, welcome to Starbucks.
What can I get for you?
Okay, you might as well just call a protest yourself, Lisa.
What can I get for you?
I'm sorry, is he that much of an inconvenience?
Like, this is the kind of stuff that's going to get us in trouble.
I bet if he was a white man, you would have just said, how can I help you?
No, I think...
No, that's the problem!
Lisa, you don't think.
You need to care.
I feel like you're being a little bit insensitive to Lisa.
Well, you know what?
We can't afford to be sensitive in a sensitivity training.
It's 2018, people.
Y'all need to get woke.
All right, sorry, that was from the satirical video.
Again, here's a clip from the real video, but it's hard to tell the difference.
So I think we would say the structural work is something that has to be done for far longer than the four-hour day.
And that's policy?
That's the work the company has to do to support the partners in the individual work because one of the things we don't want to see is for each person to have to bear this burden alone.
After a bit of learning and inspiration, partners will explore a bias personally and how it shows up in each of their lives.
When I first started working there, I had to deal with difficult homeless customers all the time.
I found someone in the breast realm shooting up.
Immediately, I shut down, I froze.
Did you understand a word of that corporate gobbledygook they were saying at the beginning of that clip there around the head office boardroom?
I didn't either.
But I sure understand those last two real workers there, both of whom looked like they were visible minorities, by the way.
But I don't want to assume they're race.
I won't make you watch the entire video, but I can assure you, they never actually answer the questions, what do you do with homeless people and what do you do with people shooting drugs in the bathroom?
Hey man, that's the third place.
Stop being so racist.
Here's some more.
Dale, help me out here.
What do you say?
Before I take your order, I would like to apologize on behalf of my white ancestors.
I don't see anything wrong with that.
That was good.
All right, let's move on to the second question.
Okay, he wants a plain coffee.
What do you say, Todd?
How would you like your black coffee, sir?
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
No!
No!
Do not assume that just because he's a black man, that he wants black coffee.
But all of our plain coffee is black.
Oh, so now black coffee is plain?
Now if you have anything black, it's just plain and boring.
Is that it?
You know what, Todd?
If you stop eating mayonnaise all day and watching Gilmore Girls in Dawson's Creek, I bet you'd finally be able to open up your eyes and see that the world is full of exciting different colors, Todd.
Okay, Lisa, go.
Ask if he wants room for cream and sugar.
All right, if I were a woman, I would throw punch you, Lisa, and wake you up from your entitlement.
All right?
You don't need something white to make something good.
You understand that?
All right, I won't show you any more from that funny video.
Okay, maybe just a few more seconds because there was a nice Canadian plot twist here.
Do we have to start off every order apologizing for what happened in America?
All right, I expected to have to mansplain to Lisa over here, but not to you, Todd.
Not to you.
All right?
Sometimes you have to treat some people special to treat everybody equal.
And that's what we're doing.
We're treating everybody equal.
Right.
Back to the real video now.
Take a look.
Get your notebook out and turn to what makes me me.
And you, you.
Together, partners will explore inspiration, partner stories, and problem solve using new tools to reiterate our commitment to the green apron.
What we look like in action when we are truly at our best.
Oh, so there's a green apron thing now, as well as a third place thing?
This really is like Scientology, isn't it?
I swear.
When the postmodern left abandoned religion and heritage, they thought they were freeing themselves, didn't they, from all those old rules and old symbols and old rituals and dead white guy stuff, fussy stuff.
The Green Apron Cult00:04:54
How dumb are those rules, right?
Well, I think people crave rules and codes and symbols for life.
And look what the leftist Marxists have done.
They've replaced any real traditions with the third place, the green apron.
Old conduct, old codes of conduct, I don't know, Hen Commandments or even customs built up over centuries like the golden rule, do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Aren't those traditional conservative values not only saner, but maybe actually more helpful and practical?
I mean, some Seattle millionaire is saying every single thing is permissible.
Everyone, everyone is welcome.
That's not possible.
And it's not actually moral either.
And living with no rules is not real.
Their plan will fail.
Can you imagine telling those minimum wage coffee porers from a moment ago, the ones talking about homeless customers and drug shooting customers?
I say customers as if they're paying.
Yeah, we don't have time to answer those specific real life questions because we have to spend some time now with the big coloring book learning about what makes me me and what makes you you.
That was not the satirical video, by the way.
I mean, if I worked for Starbucks, I might enjoy being paid to not work for a day and instead to sit around and do this silliness.
I mean, few things are sillier than, you know, corporate team building exercises like this example on the screen right now.
So being paid to sit around and listen to your cult leaders expiate their own racial guilt.
Well, I mean, if you pay me, I guess, and I guess it's a welcome break from having to deal with hobos or drug addicts, I guess.
Last clip from the real video.
Oh, by the way, just like a religion, Starbucks has named yesterday's date as some sort of holy day.
They call it 529.
We say 9-11 to sanctify that horrific day of the attack and memorialize it.
Tradition names important days like Christmas and Easter and Remembrance Day or Memorial Day.
The Starbucks cult has their new holy day, 529.
But listen to this.
529 will just be a start.
In the coming weeks, months, and years, we will address many other facets of what makes us truly human.
The work will grow to reflect the realities of our abilities, ethnicities, gender identities and expressions, sexual identities, class, language, citizenship, political views, religious affiliations, and more.
You heard her.
They're going to do this for years, she warned.
But hang on, did you catch that?
They listed political views.
Do you believe for one second that Starbucks and this kooky cult would tolerate conservative political views in their buildings, amongst their staff?
Do you really believe that?
Yeah, no, no.
Hey, I'm not telling you not to go to Starbucks, but you know what?
If they're going to turn their stores into homeless lounges and they're going to turn their bathrooms into drug shooting dens, or who knows, places for sexual hookups, I don't know.
Everyone, everyone.
It wouldn't be a bad thing if thousands or even millions of Starbucks customers said, yeah, your logo always looked a little bit like a cult thing, don't you think?
And you've become this really weird place now where guilty white millionaires pay race hucksters huge cash to come up with non-solutions to non-problems and non-solutions to real problems and make giant coloring books.
So we're just going to go to normal stores to get our coffee run by normal people.
Wouldn't it be great if Starbucks collapses upon itself and it drove its customers back into the arms of independent local coffee shops, coffee shops, who have a real sense of community, not corporate manufactured third place robot community.
real people who you would respect and they would respect you back.
And if Starbucks became by accident, by wonderful accident, the world's largest private corporation that decided to turn itself into a homeless shelter, providing free facilities for the marginalized people in society, whether they're drug users, prostitutes, homeowners, whatever, I think that would be wonderful.
Aaron's Concerns About Pipeline Deal00:10:09
If Howard Schultz, the social justice warrior, wants to save the world with his own money and his own company, great.
Let him use his money and that of his foolish shareholders who stick around to do that.
Hell, have needle exchanges right in there.
Have safe injection shooting galleries right in there.
Put your red light districts right in there.
Let him welcome all of society's marginalized peoples, everyone, everyone, and let him care for them deeply.
Give them all a green apron.
He's the new atheist culting Mother Teresa.
And I think it looks great on him.
Stay with us for more.
The federal government has reached an agreement with Kinder Morgan to purchase the existing Trans Mountain Pipeline and the infrastructure related to the Trans Mountain Expansion Project.
That happened yesterday.
Apparently, the purchase price is $4.5 billion.
Question, why did we need to purchase an existing pipeline that's already in the ground and happily pumping away?
Isn't the challenge the proposed $7.4 billion expansion?
And who's going to pay for that?
And if the answer is us, how does that move it forward, Annie?
It was already fully funded to begin with.
The problem was not money, but rather constitutional problems.
I don't quite understand, but I've never understood government bailouts of companies or government nationalizations.
Here via Skype to join us now to maybe shed some light on things is our friend Aaron Woodrick, the federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
Aaron, I don't even understand the full scale of what's going on.
I mean, I think that if you add in the $4.5 billion and the $7.4 to build it and indemnities for delays in politics, you're looking at, well, you're getting close to $15 billion, probably.
Yeah, that's the bare minimum.
That's assuming that the government can actually keep to the timelines and do everything as efficiently as the private sector company could, as Kinder Morgan could.
I think it's fair to say the odds of that are pretty low given government's track record of operating things.
But look, you're right.
This is a situation that the Trudeau liberals have put themselves in.
They made a series of bad decisions that have put us into this mess, and now they have tried to buy their way out of it, and they're using taxpayer money to do it.
Well, and that's the thing is money was never the problem for Kinder Morgan, or for that matter, Enbridge's Northern Gateway pipeline or TransCanada's Energy East pipeline.
Those guys are professionals at raising money and building pipelines is not the actual construction.
That's what they do.
So those guys had no problem.
They know how to build pipelines.
I don't think the federal government even knows basic things like how to do their own payroll.
We've just solved a problem that wasn't there, but we didn't solve the real problem that is there, which is the constitutional or political impasse with BC.
Is that, do you think that's ever going to come?
Or do you think this whole thing is just a holding pattern to get Trudeau and Notley through their next elections by saying, oh, we did something.
We bought a pipeline, don't you know?
Yeah, it's hard not to start drawing that conclusion because you're right when you say that this is a political problem.
This is not an economic problem.
These pipelines are viable economically.
The reason for the problem was you have the government of British Columbia and some of their allies in the Indigenous and environmental communities who seem to be willing to do anything, including breaking the law to try and stop this pipeline.
That is the reason that Kinder Morgan got cold feet.
And that was the thing that Kinder Morgan wanted addressed, addressed by the federal government.
And they did not do that.
They did not even attempt to address it.
So I don't really know what has changed as or other than the fact that the risk is no longer in Kinder Morgan's back.
It's all on the backs of Canadian taxpayers.
But otherwise, people who are opposed to the pipeline are not just still opposed.
They're probably more opposed to it now because now they're actually paying to build it.
Yeah.
Well, I want to say a couple of things.
First of all, I read in the Globe and Mail that the Royal Bank estimates that Canada overpaid by $1 billion for the existing pipeline.
And that does not surprise me at all, given how poorly Justin Trudeau negotiates with, say, Bombardier.
But the second thing, and let me just throw this in.
I know it's a small point, but I've got a, I'm not going to call him a close friend, but I'm pretty friendly with him.
His name is Ernie Cray, and he's an Aboriginal chief from BC.
And I really like the way he thinks about things.
I haven't interviewed him in a while, but I should again.
And he's just tweeting up a storm and talking to anyone who'll talk with him about how there's a lot of Aboriginal bands who totally support Kinder Morgan.
And often they're the ones along the routes.
Often the ones who don't support the pipeline are far away.
They're just melting off for the cameras.
But the ones who support it are maybe quieter.
So I just want to point out that while there are some noisy Aboriginal opponents, I think many of them are professional activists.
And local chiefs, look, they've been living with this pipeline since the 50s.
They know it's no problem.
It's buried underground.
And they just get money from it.
I think blocking this pipeline actually harms Aboriginal people.
I think the Northern Gateway, 10% of that pipeline was owned by the Aboriginal community.
10% of the jobs were set aside.
Anyways, I'm worried that this thing is being stopped for bogus reasons, but Trudeau's not lifting a finger.
What do you say?
Yeah, Mill, you're absolutely right to make that point about the Aboriginal community.
There are some who oppose it, but there are many who support it as well.
And that's something we don't hear about often enough.
Going back to your first point, talking about the strategic masterstroke of Justin Trudeau and Bill Morneau here.
I mean, not only have they bought this pipeline that they didn't need to buy, the way they went about it, I mean, I'd love to play poker with these guys.
They show you their cards before the game even begins.
The first, when Kinder Morgan came out and said, oh, we have concerns, what was the first thing that Rachel Notley and Justin Trudeau did?
They came out and said, we will do anything to save this pipeline.
So is it any surprise that Kinder Morgan took them to the cleaners when it came to the sale price?
And now that they own it, Bill Morneau has said, well, we don't want to own it for long.
We want to get rid of it.
I mean, try selling your house by advertising the fact you're desperate to get rid of it and see what kind of offers you get.
You know, there's one more thing that's related to that.
Both Rachel Notley in Alberta and Bill Morneau federally, by the way, Justin Trudeau is hid from this issue, have said this is proof that Canada is open for business and this is going to strengthen the investor confidence.
I don't know how anyone would possibly come to that conclusion.
This is proof of the opposite, that even a mighty, well-funded, regulatorily approved company like Kinder Morgan cannot proceed.
And the best they can hope for is to be bought out by the government.
I can't imagine any boardroom of any industrial company in the world saying, let's spend, I think they're in almost five years in regulatory processes, a billion dollars sunk into regulatory.
And what's the outcome?
They got to sell it now to the government.
Even if they're making a billion dollars out of it, who would say, let's invest in Canada knowing it can't get through unless the government decides to nationalize us.
And by the way, maybe they won't decide to do that.
Energy East and Northern Gateway, we're both left to die on the vine.
I don't know how this goes anywhere near building investor confidence.
I think it does exactly the opposite.
It says Trudeau has no clue how to get things done if it's a private sector investor.
Yeah, I don't know how you can conclude that because the government has step in and buy it off Kinder Morgan, that that in any way demonstrates that Canada is a country where you can come and invest and build a project if you're a private company.
It says the opposite.
And if anything, it might actually start inducing people to say, hey, you know what?
Why don't we take a look at Canada?
Because if we go in there, even if we have no intention of building something, but we just say we are, we can make a little bit of noise and hold the government hostage.
And hopefully they'll come use taxpayer money to take it off our hands.
I mean, that is the last thing that we want.
Yeah.
Well, I think most companies will say, we just don't need the drama.
We're in the mining business, the forestry business, the pipeline business, the marine terminal business, not the political games business.
Even, I think Kinder Morgan will do just fine here.
I think they already profited a billion dollars, courtesy of you and me.
So I think they're going to get out okay.
But I think any other prospective investor is saying, yeah, I don't need the five years of drama in my life.
I'll just go to somewhere less stressful like, you know, Kazakhstan or something.
But I think it's very sad.
Listen, Aaron, I'm glad you're fighting hard on this one.
I just, I'm worried that the $4.5 billion is just the appetizer and the main course is still to come.
I think so.
It's a big mistake that's entirely caused by the choices this government made.
And taxpayers are going to have to pay the price for it, it looks like.
Yeah, too bad, but that's the way it is.
We've been talking with Aaron Woodward.
Great to see you, Aaron.
Thanks for being here.
Aaron's director for the federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
Stay with us.
More ahead on The Rebel.
I know there has been a bit of a generational clash going on between generations and I just want to say it is an honor and a white privilege.
Jokes and Offense00:09:24
I'm sorry did I trigger somebody there?
I'm hoping that I didn't woke anybody up with that because that would not be good.
That's pretty funny.
I am surprised that has not yet been made illegal to tell jokes like that in Canada.
That's Glenn Foster.
His website is that CanadianGuy.com, and he joins me on studio.
Great to meet you.
Thanks for being here.
I pleased.
I've hadn't met before, but it's nice to see you more officially.
At the old place.
That's right.
The old Sun News.
That's right.
Well, nice to see you here at the Rebel.
It's tough being in comedy.
It's a really tough go.
But these days, anything that you would laugh at, well, you're not allowed to laugh at anything anymore.
You have great comedians, Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, saying they don't even want to do shows on campus anymore because of political correctness.
How do you survive in Canada?
Well, I don't know if it's political.
It's a pre-censorship is what it is, right?
I mean, if you tell a joke and somebody goes, oh, I'm offended by that, fine, right?
But the way it is now is like, you know, you get hired for a gig and they'll say, well, we don't want any jokes about this and we don't want it.
Usually corporate situations, right?
Because they have a reputation to, and I love that too, because you'd be working for like a steel company and they'll say, no, you know, we have a certain reputation here.
And you know, 10 minutes earlier, they're in the boardroom going, right?
But, oh, because we have a reputation.
So we don't want anything sexist and we don't want anything racist and we don't want anything.
And not that I'm going to do anything like that.
But if you touch on those subjects, it's a danger zone too, right?
Because usually it's like, we don't want this and we don't want that and we don't want it.
And I'll be like, well, then you don't want me.
And the thing is, I mean, the most racist jokes are often told by, I mean, if you took the N-word out of Chris Rock, his routines, he wouldn't have anything.
He couldn't tell any of his jokes.
Well, that's not entirely true.
I'm a big rock star.
Okay, let me take that.
That's an exaggeration.
But certainly if you took profanity out, and half of the jokes people make mind profanity.
It's not profanity.
That's the thing.
It's not profanity they have an issue with.
And I never get censored on profanity.
I'm pretty clean comic, right?
But I run into trouble on subject matter.
Right.
You know, religion, politics these days to some degree.
In the States, there are clubs that say, we don't want any Trump jokes.
Yeah, well, fair enough.
I mean, and it's overdone, by the way.
It is overdone, but it's also the fact that it's so polarizing.
Yeah, people are personally.
Right, exactly.
You know, I mean, if you took Jewish jokes out of the mouths of Jewish comedians, like all of Seinfeld is a form of a Jewish joke and curb your enthusiasm.
Okay, you follow the curb isn't the curb, yes.
I could see that.
I mean, or let's say Woody Allen, if he wasn't allowed to poke fun at ethnic stereotypes, he did a whole movie called Zelig that I think was a metaphor for Jews trying to fit in or something.
He's really, and is it, is a bad joke good if someone laughs?
Or is a joke not racist if it laughs or if it's told by the person of that race?
The rules are so complicated.
Well, this is the whole thing.
I say people now, we draw these lines, right?
And we go, well, that's not funny.
That's offensive.
No.
Can you be funny?
It's funny and offensive.
Of course.
It can be two different things, right?
You know what?
It's like the Cosby situation.
Yes, he's a rapist, but does that make him any less funny?
You have to separate those two.
People won't, of course, right?
And you know, you can have two people sitting next to each other watching a comedy evening, and one will laugh and the other is saying, I don't like that.
And then the other will laugh and the other says, that's not funny.
The taste is so personal.
But that's another thing about it.
You know what I mean?
It is so personal, right?
And there's these people right now, they're like, oh, what should we laugh at?
What should you laugh at?
That's not how comedy works.
Comedy is not.
Comedy isn't even, it caught you.
It's a reflex.
And it is.
It's a gut reaction, right?
So to me, and the other one I love is, oh, I shouldn't have laughed.
You shouldn't have laughed.
Yeah, you shouldn't have sneezed.
You shouldn't have farted.
Right?
But you did.
And to me, that's, if you laugh, it's funny.
But it's like you say, it's subjective.
If you laugh, it's funny to you.
It might not be funny to anyone else.
I think it was, was it Orwell or was it Solzhenitsyn who said every joke, every laughter, every comedy is a little revolution.
Was that Orwell or is that Solzhenitsyn?
And on the other hand, Ayatollah Khomeini said there is no humor in Islam.
And Stalin, he sent Solzhenitsyn to the gulag for writing a joke about Stalin's mustache.
And it wasn't even a funny joke.
He just called Stalin the whiskered one.
He wrote a letter saying, da-da-da-da-da the whiskered one.
That's not even funny, but you're not allowed to poke fun.
He was sent to Seven Years because he told a whisker joke about Stalin.
And if you can mock, when you laugh at someone powerful, all of a sudden you've taken a little power away from them.
Right.
That's the obsession these days, too, is truth to power.
But they're not funny about it.
Punching up.
Yeah.
But it often comes off as very preachy now.
Well, and that's the thing.
Half of late night comedy doesn't feel like comedy anymore.
It feels like political talking points with a laugh track.
I can't watch Saturday Night Live anymore.
I don't think it's funny anymore.
Maybe that's just because I'm Trumpy.
I haven't watched it in quite a while, actually.
Well, let me tell our viewers why you're here.
I'm excited to announce that you will.
I mean, I think we've announced it on our website, but I don't know if I mentioned it on the show that you are coming to the Rebel Live this Saturday to do a politically incorrect comedy.
Which would be interesting, because if I'm doing politically incorrect comedy for people who are against political correctness, will it have the same punch?
You know what?
I want to make a prediction is that people are going to be so refreshed by having someone tell jokes.
I mean, let me tell you a pet peeve of mine.
This hour has 22 minutes, and I know, I casually know a couple of the people.
Boy, they love making fun of Donald Trump, but he's not the president of Canada.
That's true.
And so they're very bold about mocking the powerful in another country.
I've never seen them take a really good hard run at Justin Trudeau, and I think it's because they work for the state broadcast.
Well, this is the thing, and I work for the state broadcaster on occasion as well, and I have noticed everything I've ever done for the CBC, when I listen back to it, for some reason, only the left speaker is working.
You know, can I ask you, can I throw something at you?
Sure.
I'm not a scholar on this subject, but I'm interested in it.
I want to learn more about it.
My understanding is that historically, the role of the court jester or the fool was not just for entertainment, but he had a special immunity that he could say things to the king that no one else was allowed to do because it was just joking.
And so he had an incredibly important role in that he could basically be the one saying the emperor has no clothes.
Like if everyone was afraid to tell the king something, the fool could say it in a ta-da, goofy, ridiculous joke, and the king would say, oh, all right.
And I'm not going to kill you because you have this special role.
Yes, that apparently is the original role of the jester and that it was speaking truth to power.
And he was the only one who could get away with it because he was the jester, but not on Game of Thrones, if you recall.
That's right.
Would you rather you lose your tongue or your hand?
That's right.
I mean, I want to study that a little bit more.
But that's an incredibly important thing.
And we need that.
We're losing that.
I think we are.
We are losing that.
Because of all the pre-censorship.
The issue that Chris Rock, Jerry Seinfeld, all they have with these colleges is that they're so left-dominated that you can't go into a comedy show without them saying, no, you may be triggered by this.
You know, you might be offended.
I might be, but I might not be.
Yeah, and if you don't want to be, then maybe don't go to Comedy Night.
But why?
Maybe go to play.
Maybe get one of those adult coloring books that are on there.
Yes.
All those things frustrate me.
Well, listen, I can hardly wait to see you.
Now, by the way, besides doing The Rebel Live, this Session.
I'm at Absolute Comedy all this week.
AbsoluteCom.
Where's that located in the middle?
That's at Young and Eglinton.
And I don't know if this is going to go out in time, but if you want to see the Thursday night show, call and make a reservation.
Use the code CanadianOne and arrive Thursday, half an hour before showtime.
You get your tickets for half price.
This will be on time.
Thursday only.
Okay, that's good to know because this airs Wednesday.
At 8 o'clock.
Oh, okay, yeah.
Well, that is great.
And we'll see you on Saturday for folks who haven't signed up.
It's at therebellive.com.
And do you have other gigs going on?
It's all on my website at thatcanadianguy.com.
That's great.
Well, I'm really looking forward to seeing you at the event.
Pipeline Jurisdiction Debate00:04:38
And it'll be a change of pace because we've got some heavy-duty political talks.
I know.
And just to lighten it up, to keep it fun, I've watched your stuff on, I mean, I remember the Sundays, and I watched your stuff online.
I think people are going to feel great about it.
And you know what?
I hope you get some gigs out of it, too.
Hope so too.
Right on.
Well, nice to see you.
Thanks for coming.
Nice to see you.
There you have it.
Glenn Foster.
He's thatCanadianGuy.com and he'll be the entertainment at the Rebel Live this Saturday.
Stay with us.
more head on the rebel hey welcome back on my monologue yesterday about the worst business deal in canadian history the purchase of the kinder morgan pipeline Event rights, nothing has been solved.
Before the purchase, we heard over and over again how the government had jurisdiction over the provinces and the pipeline would be built today.
Mourneau said they had to purchase the pipeline to have jurisdiction to build it.
So which is it?
Either they lied to us or they didn't know.
Well, the government has always had the jurisdiction.
That happened in 1867 under Section 91 of our Constitution Act.
That applies to both publicly owned or privately owned enterprises that have a national or international characteristic.
I use the example of the CP Rail and the CN Rail.
Both used to have a public ownership.
Now they're private ownership.
They're both under federal jurisdiction.
Paying $4.5 billion for an existing pipeline is weird to begin with.
The Royal Bank says they overpaid by at least $1 billion on its real market value.
That does nothing to actually build the expansion pipeline.
That's another $7.4 billion if it was done by the private sector.
Double that for the government to run it.
And what on earth does that have to do with any jurisdictional issue?
I mean, I think the number one response by environmentalists I've seen is this changes nothing.
And it's true, other than it changes who's on the hook for it now.
Taxpayers.
Greg writes, just like Petra Canada and the gun registry, the taxpayers are going to take a huge hit.
Oh, enormously so.
Enormously so.
The Royal Bank estimates that the government of Canada paid more than $1 billion too much for the existing pipeline.
The next pipeline, how is that even going to be built?
And will it even be constructed?
There is no will, political will, legal will, policing will on behalf of Ottawa to get this done.
So what has happened other than a few billion dollars have enriched a Texas pipeline company so that Justin Trudeau and Rachel Notley have a few months of talking points?
I still hold by my predictions this pipeline will not be built.
Billy writes, Justin will also slow walk construction or stall it, blaming Horgan's court challenge so he can cancel the whole project after he wins another majority.
See, that's the thing.
It's all about timing.
We are, what, maybe 12 months away from both a federal and Alberta election.
They were both in the same year in 2015.
They'll both happen in 2019.
This is just kicking the can down the road so they have a talking point to get both Notley and Trudeau through their elections.
I think Notley's finished no matter what.
I think Trudeau will stall this and say, well, we're doing it.
We invested $4.5 billion.
What more do you want?
We've given so much to the province of Alberta that you didn't give it to the province of Alberta.
You gave it to some shareholders in Texas and you overpaid by a billion dollars.
This pipeline, I predict it, will not be built until the government has changed.
I mean, never say never, of course.
The Keystone Extel was killed by Barack Obama, but Donald Trump revived it.
But yeah, this pipeline ain't being built as long as Gerald Butts is running the PMO.
Well, that's the show for today.
What do you think about that Starbucks video?
There was a point there I bet you couldn't tell when I was switching between the satirical one and the real one where that guy says, we're going to spend some time talking about what makes me me and what makes you you.
What does that mean?
And how does that help those two minimum wage coffee slingers who are saying, so what do I do if a hobo comes in again?
So what if I do if a guy starts shooting drugs into his toes in the bathroom again?
Well, you got to figure out what makes you you and then ask what makes him him.
Okay, so what do I do with the hobo again?
Well, you got to just talk to him about the green apron in the third place.