Shoka Subadar’s Halloween headdress controversy at the University of Manitoba sparked debates over cultural appropriation, with UMSU apologizing while Subadar—Pakistani-born but Indigenous-identified—clarified his intent. Critics like Alana McKay reject costume use of sacred symbols, yet Ezra Levant questions if institutions like UMSU stifle broader progress. Meanwhile, a 5,000-strong migrant caravan in Mexico, allegedly "organic" but coordinated via WhatsApp and crowdfunding (e.g., $440 for missed flights), may energize U.S. Republicans ahead of midterms, given 73% prioritize illegal immigration. Reports hint at ISIS and MS-13 infiltration, disrupting smuggling networks, while Canada’s policies—like favoring Somali over persecuted Christian migrants—highlight globalist priorities over practical solutions, importing instability instead of solving it abroad. [Automatically generated summary]
Tonight, a fight over a Halloween costume pits a Pakistani man, an African man, and an Aboriginal woman against each other in a political correctness Olympics.
Who should win?
It's November 2nd 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.
You know the thing about Halloween costumes?
Well, there's two things actually.
The first is it's for kids.
Sure, I accept that sometimes adults dress up for a lark.
I'm not against a costume party for adults.
I mean, it could be fun.
For a charity fundraiser, it could be fun.
Or if you're in showbiz, it could be fun.
But I think we can agree that Halloween is pretty much for children and childish politicians.
But the second thing is, by definition, wearing a costume means you're pretending to be something you aren't.
Otherwise, it's not a costume, right?
I mean, not to harp on Trudeau, but you must agree that it's weird and childish and perhaps speaks to his desire to be someone else other than who is or other than he is, or just to get away from who he is.
That he has posed for pictures in literally dozens of costumes.
It's really endless.
And not just at Halloween parties with kids.
I can understand that maybe.
But he dresses up in costumes at work too.
In parliament.
There's no kids in Parliament.
He just does it because that's his intellectual level.
But deeper, I think, his emotional level, he wants to be free like Peter Pan.
He was free for the first 35 years of his life when he just bummed around on his trust fund.
So point one, Halloween costumes are for kids and for Justin Trudeau, the man-child.
But point two is Halloween is, by definition, pretending to be someone you're not.
That's why Trudeau loves it.
He's not really built to be a leader or to be a policy wonk or a diplomat negotiating trade deals.
He's a playboy, a fantasy boy, a ladiesman, whatever.
He wants escapism.
Look at that one.
That's a good one, eh?
It's weird for an adult, I think.
But it's fun for kids.
But just to emphasize my point, if you are a cowboy for real, if your job is cowboy in the prairies, you don't dress up as a cowboy for Halloween because you are a cowboy already.
Maybe you dress up as an astronaut because it's about pretending you're someone you're not just for one night.
Otherwise, it's just your normal clothes, not a costume, right?
A cowboy doesn't dress up as a cowboy for Halloween.
My point being, of course, a costume is cultural appropriation.
If you dress up as a cowboy or as an Indian, if you dress up as anything you're not, you're appropriating something else, but that's actually part of life, isn't it?
We each learn from each other, we borrow from each other, we exchange ideas, we change each other through our interactions.
That's the history of all civilization.
It's not cultural appropriation for me, a Jew whose family 100 years ago came from Eastern Europe, to speak English and to enjoy Italian pizza and Chinese food and listen to, I don't know, black hip-hop music or to listen to Mozart, either way.
This is life.
It's not cultural appropriation.
We all mark our calendars from the year Jesus was born.
Even non-Christians do.
It's 2018.
We all use Arabic numerals.
Even non-Arabs do.
That is not cultural appropriation, people.
It's life.
Which is all an introduction to this funny little story out of Manitoba.
Oh, I got this story for you today.
This is a student newspaper out at U of M, University of Manitoba.
And the headline is, UMSU apologizes after student wears indigenous garb to hub event.
Now, UMSU, of course, means the University of Manitoba Students' Union.
So those are little baby politicians in training.
They're the worst, by the way.
I remember the Students' Union when I was in college.
I was on the Students' Union for a year.
It's the worst.
It's a training ground for bullies and Marxists and social justice warriors and mooches.
It's all bad.
The hub that they refer to, it's a student hangout.
Here's the sub-headline.
Indigenous student wore headdress as part of village people costume.
So what's the problem with that?
Why the apology?
I mean, like I said before, if you're a cowboy, dressing up as a cowboy isn't a costume.
If you're Aboriginal, dressing up in a native headdress isn't really a costume.
I mean, it's not something Aboriginal people wear all the time on the street, but it's not really make-believe, is it?
It's not a costume, is it?
But the story gets better and it gets weirder.
Can I read, I'm going to read most of it to you.
Are you ready?
UMSU issued an apology today after a student was allowed into the hub Halloween haunt, October 26th, wearing a costume that has been criticized as culturally appropriative.
The statement said UMSU has, quote, a safe environment policy that prohibits racism in any form and in any of our spaces, including the hub.
And we recognize that cultural appropriation is a form of racism, people.
Boy, I don't know what U of M is known for these days.
I think my dad got his medical degree there half a century ago.
I think it was known as a good med school back then.
But I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that U of M's expertise these days is grievance studies, wouldn't you say?
I mean, that language, culturally appropriate, you're being culturally appropriate, and I find that problematic.
I don't even think appropriative is a word, but I bet you can get a degree in cultural appropriation studies.
By the way, when I was a kid, safe environment meant, you know, no smog or no poison in the water, I think.
Today it means adults, young adults, but they're adults nonetheless, being able to go to a costume party in a bar without seeing a costume that triggers me.
I'm triggered.
I mean, all that bothers these kids or these young adults is someone pretending to be someone they're not.
But that's all costumes.
Why would you even go to a Halloween party if you don't like people dressing up as someone they're not?
Why not just call it going out for beers?
Which I think is cultural appropriation of, I don't know, what, Irish or German traditions?
Are you even allowed to have fun anymore, or is that appropriating some culture?
Anyway, let me read some more from the story because this is where it starts to get good.
The costume in question, a headdress, feathered headgear typically given to Indigenous leaders as gifts and used for ceremonial occasions by Indigenous groups, sparked debate over social media after U of M Indigenous Students Association co-president Alana McKay posted a screenshot of an Instagram photo of the Halloween haunt tagging it, my culture is not a costume.
So here's that Instagram picture by Alana McKay, who is Aboriginal, but I think she's appropriating a Scottish or an Irish name.
I'm going to take that up with her.
Anyway, she writes, when a University of Manitoba Students Union, UMSU Business, the hub social club, is allowing people to appropriate Indigenous culture at their events, as well as and UMSU executive liking these photos.
A lot of exclamation points in there.
Like, how many times do we have to F-C-K-I-N-G say, our culture is not a costume?
My culture is not a costume.
She's pretty mad.
She used a lot of exclamation points.
Someone is allowed to wear an unapproved costume to a costume party.
And someone else liked the photo.
This is the worst, people.
Now, you can wear a costume in a mocking way, I think.
But I think wearing an Aboriginal headdress like that picture there, I think you could wear it in a positive way, a cool way, a complimentary way.
I would feel that way at least if I was wearing that.
Strength and pride.
Canadian history.
I mean, you could say that Aboriginal history is an essential part of Canadian history.
Can we not embody it on a day we're invited to dress up in costume?
Like sports teams named after Indians, the Atlanta Braves, the Cleveland Indians.
It's a compliment.
No one names their sports team after something weak and embarrassing.
But to be super politically incorrect, look at the elbows on that person wearing that headdress there.
Put it back up on the screen for a second.
Look at the picture of the person.
Do you see the elbows, sir?
Don't mean to be politically incorrect, but that's pretty dark skin.
And I know that's not culturally appropriate to say so.
I'm going to get back to that dark skin in a second.
But that person is, sorry to say, they're brown.
Can I say that?
I'm going to come back to that in a moment.
So this Alana McKay, who's freaking out, she's an Aboriginal activist.
Here's her Facebook page, which is a form of cultural appropriation.
I just have to figure out how.
And here's what she said the day before Halloween.
She said, since taking on these positions in student politics, I've come to realize that toxic masculinity and patriarchy is something that needs to be addressed.
Some days I'll find myself shrinking so I won't have to deal with it.
Then I remember I was raised by a matriarch who sacrificed so much for me to be where I am, and that shrinking myself in these rooms won't help change that.
So until then, I'm okay with men feeling threatened by my very presence.
All right, so she's looking for a fight, and she's laying out some insults to men, calling men toxic.
So that's okay, but don't you dare wear an Aboriginal headdress to a costume party.
So let me read some more from this unintentionally great story in the student's paper.
The photo was liked by UMSU Vice President of Finance and Operations Mbuli Machi, who has publicly apologized.
This apology is great, ready.
I was going through a couple of Hub Halloween social posts and I was liking through them, he said.
I was liking through them because they were posted at the hub and I wanted to be supportive.
I wasn't by any marks trying to be malicious or be culturally insensitive, he said.
I should have been more aware with my actions.
So you can see that guy, just so you know who we're talking about here, scroll down to Mbuli Machi.
Yeah, there he is.
Looks like a really friendly guy.
Look at that big smile.
Total racist, people.
He is obviously culturally insensitive.
What a toxic white male, or maybe he's not white.
I have to ask him.
I don't want to assume his gender, and I don't want to assume his race.
But the important thing is he's deeply, deeply sorry that he liked a picture at a Halloween costume party, and he'll probably have to purge that bigotry by going to some re-education training.
He's obviously a racist.
I mean, I think he might even be a white supremacist.
He's probably a Trump supporter, just by looking at him.
But I have not got to the top of the mountain in this story here yet.
It gets more incredible.
It gets better.
Take a look at this.
Let me read a few paragraphs.
Ready?
The individual wearing the costume, U of A student, Shoka Subadar, said he is indigenous.
And the costume was meant to refer to the village people, a disco group best known for its use of costumes.
I won't defend the actions of wearing the outfit that is in question.
However, I will explain the situation accurately, he said.
As the photo was taken from the back, it is impossible to tell that I was wearing sunglasses and in fact was portraying Angel Morales of the band of village people.
Being that I am of Indigenous background, the intent of the outfit was not to mock nor ridicule Indigenous culture.
Subedar also apologized to anyone who was hurt by these actions.
However, my intent was never to inflict pain.
According to Sanderson, the only white guy in this story, Multiple employees at the hub had approached Subedar, but allowed him to stay when he explained he himself was Indigenous.
Hub manager Brandon White called the response a gigantic assumption.
It was a young man who was ignorant of his own teachings and learnings and thought that he was celebrating his culture because he was Indigenous himself, he said.
White, who is Métis, said he reached out to Subedar personally.
We certainly don't condone racism in any way, shape, or form, or cultural appropriation, but in this case it's clearly by definition his own culture, so it's not being appropriated, he said.
I just feel bad for him that he thought he was celebrating his culture, but he was ignorant to the fact that it was obviously quite disrespectful.
Now, did you miss the key moment here?
The guy wearing the costume who said he was Aboriginal, you see those brown arms there.
His name is Shoka Subedar.
That is a Pakistani name, Subedar.
It's an ancient name from India and Pakistan.
It goes back centuries.
No one else in the world is named Subedar.
It's like the Jewish name Shapiro or the Irish name O'Reilly.
Subedar is Pakistani.
You might recall us talking about another Subedar.
This Muslim extremist in Ontario named Omar Subedar.
Teaches Muslim men how to beat their wives.
I don't know if you remember we talked about him before.
He's super gross.
My point is Subedar is a Pakistani name.
Here's Ashoka Subedar's photo on his LinkedIn page.
This is the kid from Manitoba.
He's brown.
It's a Pakistani name, maybe Indian.
As in India, not Aboriginal.
He should have just said, I'm Indian.
Degrees and Demographics00:05:49
And it would be true, I suppose.
When he says he's Aboriginal, maybe he means he's Indigenous to India or something.
But imagine all those people coming up to him in the bar and complaining and him just looking them straight in the eyes and saying, ha, I'm Aboriginal.
Stop racisting me or I'll blow my hate crime whistle at you.
And they blink.
They buy it.
They back down.
I mean, if a white girl named Rachel Dolezal can get a job with the black lobby group called the NAACP, why can't a Pakistani man call himself Indian?
I mean, Bruce Jenner calls himself Caitlin Jenner now.
Who are you to say otherwise, you bigot?
And they bought it, I think.
Now, I have a question for you.
If we shut down the University of Manitobia, everything except, say, their useful departments, like the School of Agriculture, do you think anyone would even notice?
If we shut down all the grievance studies, all the student politicians, all the human rights commissions, all the bitching and moaning, do you think society as a whole would progress or regress?
And don't say kids these days, because these are the baby politicians and the baby journalists and the baby social justice warriors who in a few years will be infecting the grown-up parliament and the grown-up courts and human rights commissions and newspapers.
They're in training.
They're going to be a disaster.
Stay with us for more.
Well, I think I've told you before, but our friend David Menzies is in Mexico.
He has caught up with the migrant caravan that is inexorably making its way to the U.S. border, and he joins us now live via Skype.
David, can you hear me?
I can, Ezra.
It's a pretty bad internet connection where we are, so I hope we don't lose each other.
But if we do, don't take it personally.
Okay.
Well, I saw your first video that you're on the scene.
I understand you had to drive a while to catch up with the caravan.
We'll see all your reports at caravanreports.com.
But tell me a little bit about what it's like.
I mean, is it really 5,000 plus people?
Is it men, women, children, mainly men?
How does it even work moving that big of a flock down a highway?
Well, Ezra, in regard to the demographics, I would say it's easily 85% young men under 35, 30.
There are indeed some women.
There are some children and there are some infants and diapers as well here.
And, you know, it is a really arduous journey.
There's no doubt about it.
It must be in the mid-30s where we are right now.
We just had a torrential downpour.
And as for numbers, we were talking to some Mexican human rights people off camera last night.
They said it peaked at around 7,000.
They suspect it's about 5,000 right now.
It's really impossible to get an accurate number on such a moving target, but it is definitely in the thousands, Ezra.
When you say mid-30s, that's degrees Celsius.
So it's almost 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
How do people, like, are people in trucks or buses?
Where do they sleep at night?
I mean, you're going through towns and villages.
How do they eat?
How do they sleep?
How do they go to the bathroom?
I'm curious about the logistics because I have trouble believing this is a natural organic movement.
My suspicion is that it's being professionally organized.
Can you speak to any of these logistical issues?
Can you see any organizers?
Well, Ezra, on the question of, since you raise going to the bathroom, there is definitely an organization at play here in terms of we came across the municipal city in the town we were staying last night, and there were dozens and dozens and dozens of port-a-potties.
In fact, on the highway towards there, we saw some flatbed trucks with those porta potties in it.
It never clicked in.
Oh, of course.
That's not for a concert that's happening.
That's for the migrants in the migrant caravan.
When it comes to trying to find anybody on the ground, in terms of are you an organizer?
Where's the money coming from?
Are you getting paid?
And I'm talking even the people with bullhorns barking orders, Ezra.
You just get absolutely the Sergeant Schultz routine.
I know nothing.
I saw nothing.
And it's, but clearly, there is some money and there is some organization behind this.
As for sleeping arrangements, it's a mixture, Ezra.
There's people that carry their own tents with them.
As we saw last night, there were people looking at closed stores, auto mechanic shops, finding anything with an awning, which was a good idea because it was a torrential downpour.
And they just sleep there.
And what I equate it to, it's like imagine being in your city or your town, anywhere you live in Canada, and overnight more than 5,000 homeless people descend and just camp out.
And you can imagine the kind of mess you're going to run into.
Climate Change's Human Cost00:05:56
And even to that effect, the danger.
We wanted to embed ourselves last night with the crowd.
But under the cover of the darkness, the authorities we spoke to said that would not be a very good idea at all.
Oh, now you said that the vast majority of these migrants are young men under the age of 35 or even under the age of 30.
Do they seem to come from a particular background?
I saw some other footage.
They had backpacks.
They looked almost like they had some sort of training.
I don't know if it was antifa style training or paramilitary or they're just young guys looking for an economic opportunity.
Can you describe it all?
I know your cameraman speaks Spanish and you've been able to obviously talk to those who know any English.
What have you been able to find out about these young men themselves?
Well, they all sing from the same song sheet in that regard, Ezra, that they are in such a terrible economic plight.
Primarily, the migrants are from Honduras, but from Guatemala and El Salvador, too.
And they're merely trying to better their lives, which is understandable by going to the United States.
However, when you ask them, what about applying to immigrate legally?
It is always the same answer.
It takes too long and it costs too much.
And Ezra, I think that's a big problem here because if this 5,000-plus flotilla of migrants and this caravan is allowed into the U.S., what does it say to all those thousands and thousands of immigrants trying to immigrate legally into the U.S., spending years in some cases, spending thousands of dollars on immigration lawyer fees?
What does it say to them if the reality on the ground is, hey, hop a fence, come in illegally?
So it would be a terrible precedent.
And you can see why President Donald Trump is mobilizing the military on the border and not allowing this to happen.
Yeah.
So you mentioned they're all seeking economic opportunity.
I think that's pretty obvious.
But just to be clear on that point, none of them are claiming that they're actual refugees fleeing from danger.
They're just looking to get rich, I suppose.
But no one here is claiming that they're being persecuted because of their race or religion or anything that's traditionally countries give asylum to refugees for.
Indeed, Ezra, and I think one of the appalling narratives I've seen in some media outlets is comparing this migrant caravan to the plight of the St. Louis, the ship that was full of Jews fleeing Nazi Germany in 1939 that sought refuge in Canada when there was a liberal prime minister in Canada at the time and in the U.S. when there was a Democrat in power as the president.
And they were told, no, they had to sail back.
And hundreds of those Jews, of course, ended up dead once they got back to Germany.
This is not the same issue.
Those Jews were not seeing greener economic pastures.
They were literally fleeing for their lives.
And that was proven by the fact that so many had to pay with their lives when they were sent back.
These people, and don't get me wrong, I mean, when you see the poverty in Central America, it's heartbreaking.
I mean, it's very hard to better yourself here, but it is all about economic enrichment.
And apparently, it's, you know, the mindset, Ezra, is that it takes too long, it's too expensive, and it's not a sure thing if we apply legally.
Let's hop the fence, roll the dice, and find out what happens once we're in the U.S. illegally.
Can I ask you, do you see any other journalists there?
I suspect you're the only Canadian journalist there.
Do you see American journalists?
Do you see European journalists?
Is it just too big a group for you to detect the other journalists?
Are there any other English speakers?
Tell me who else is there.
Yes, we've encountered some journalists.
There was a camera crew from San Diego.
They were here.
There was a freelancer, I assume, for Der Spiegel in Germany.
We bumped into him a couple of hours.
There was a woman from Japan who lives here.
She was covering it for the Japanese media.
And I have not seen any Canadian media here.
That is for sure.
And, you know, speaking of media, Ezra, it's very funny to see how this is being spun in some circles.
I filed a quick hit about, you might have seen it a few days ago.
The Guardian came out and reported that one of the real drivers behind this exodus is climate change.
And they base this on a couple of farmers who, because of bad weather for the last couple of seasons, have lost their crops.
Well, you know, since the inception of farming, farmers have had to endure with bad weather bringing about crop failure.
So I just found it, you know, perversely humorous that the Guardian was saying, not this might be a factor, but this is a big reason.
This is maybe the reason why these migrants are moving north climate change.
And then again, Ezra, if you even buy into that narrative, well, aren't we being told by the climate huntsters that climate change affects the entire planet, you know, from the South Pole to the North Pole?
So how is running off to Texas or Arizona or Utah or wherever going to escape the nemesis that plagues the planet known as climate change?
Loaded Word Debate00:10:11
Yeah, it's a pretty ridiculous explanation.
Now, I remember when this caravan got going, and I think you're with the first caravan.
There's a second caravan, and today I see news of a third caravan forming.
I remember Donald Trump tweeted that he expects the Mexican government and other Latin American governments, Central American governments, to stop this caravan or he will punish them by removing foreign aid.
I thought it was very dramatic language, but obviously it hasn't done the job.
I know there was some Mexican military at a border, but they gave way.
Can you tell me if you see any evidence of Mexican military or Mexican police or any authorities trying to stop this or are they actually assisting it?
Well, you know, that's a good point, Ezra.
Just an hour ago, as a matter of fact, we were passing by a truck, a transport truck, loaded to the brim with the migrants, and they passed a checkpoint of the federal police, the Mexican federal police, and they waved at the police and the police waved back.
And it looks like Mexico is pursuing deterring the caravan with the carrot rather than the stick.
And by that, I say they've made offers to the migrants.
If you end this now, we will give you a job.
We will give you health care.
We will give you shelter.
And about an estimated 2,000 have taken advantage of it.
That's why the numbers have dropped.
But there are reports that this is a ruse, that the Mexicans are or will be deporting these people back to their home countries.
And certainly with the Mexicans we've spoken to in certain communities, they're upset by this because there is unemployment here.
And they're saying, look, I'm a law-abiding Mexican trying to get ahead, trying to get a good job.
How is it that we have jobs all of a sudden for people from Honduras?
And then again, Ezra, about two hours ago, we saw something really remarkable.
We were passing through the town of Aguilera, and it was almost surreal.
It was like the Mardi Gras parade in reverse.
The people from the town of Aguilera came out and they lined the highway.
And as the trucks came by, loaded with migrants, they were throwing food, bottles of water, items of clothing.
Like I say Mardi Gras in reverse because usually when you see the Mardi Gras floats, the people on the floats are throwing trinkets and trash to the people lining the parade route.
But this was the opposite.
And they were cheering them on.
It was very much a carnival-like atmosphere.
And this was a pretty poor town by the looks of things.
I think, you know, from the people I spoke to there, Ezra, this is kind of the Mexicans giving the middle finger to Trump that, you know, you've said some things about us.
You want to build the wall.
Well, guess what?
Look at this guest list of 5,000 we're sending your way.
Good luck with it.
Isn't that interesting?
So rather than regarding these transient migrants as a nuisance or as even an invader, they think, go, you keep going, you stick it to Trump, and you're representing us.
That sounds like what you described in that town of Aguilera.
Yes, that's certainly what happened.
Whereas the town we were in last night, we noticed that there were cab companies that were giving the migrants a free ride out of town.
And at first I thought, wow, you know, again, a pretty, you know, downtrodden, impoverished place.
Why such altruism?
And then I was quickly corrected, Ezra.
It's not really charity here.
It's let's get this problem out of our town, you know, hunt it down the field, so to speak, so somebody else has to deal with it, because clearly we don't have the resources and the infrastructure to deal with this mini invasion of 5,000 people.
And by the way, when I say invasion, Ezra, that again, especially the people on the left, is a loaded word.
But the way I look at it is that if you have five at 1.7,000 uninvited guests breaking the law, coming to your country to go over the border illegally, is that not the textbook definition of invasion, even though these people aren't packing weapons?
Yeah.
Well, let me ask you about that because Donald Trump said that at least in the second wave, maybe he was referring to the first one, there were some bad hombres.
There were some criminals.
We saw a statement by a Latin American political leader that there were some ISIS terrorists detained.
I don't know much about that report.
Have you seen anyone who looks like a gang member, the characteristic MS-13 face tattoos?
Have you seen anyone wearing a bandana, anyone holding a weapon, even if it's just a knife or a Molotov cocktail?
I saw one clip on Twitter.
Have you seen anyone who looks aggressive or even like a gang?
I have to admit, Ezra, I have not seen that.
I've certainly not seen anybody that is Middle Eastern in nature because there were those kind of reports of ISIS people being embedded.
I haven't seen any weapons.
I haven't seen any of their paraphernalia associated with MS-13.
But I have to tell you, when I speak to the locals here, they tell me that the organized crime syndicates in Mexico, especially the ones that run illicit border trade of illegal drugs and prostitution and whatnot, they're not happy because when you think about it, Ezra, this is kind of bad for their business in two regards.
One is the impending border clampdown.
It's going to be so much harder to smuggle the bad stuff into the U.S. when the U.S. military is active.
And secondly, a coyote operation.
These are the guys that transport illegals.
You're looking at $5,000 to $7,000.
That's a fortune for somebody from Honduras, probably at least two years' salary.
And these are the guys that, you know, jerry rig a truck, a truck to get you across the border.
So in that respect, too, they don't like what's happening.
So kind of an interesting sidebar in terms of the bad guy element.
Well, you've been, I'm glad your cell phone connection is held up here.
I just have one more question that goes back to something you said right at the beginning.
You said there's guys with bullhorns directing things.
You saw the trucks pulling all those portable toilets.
So there's obviously someone doing logistical planning, planning the route, shepherding people.
It's obvious.
I mean, you just don't have 5,000 people moving just for food, water, medicine, accommodations alone.
It just doesn't happen.
Have you been able to detect at all how these 5,000 people were chosen, where they come from?
If there's anything that binds them or unites them, are they communicating?
I heard that there was a lot of communications on an app that's popular in, not so popular in North America, but WhatsApp is the name of the app.
It's owned by Facebook, that is popular in Latin America.
That's how people are organized through WhatsApp groups.
And most of the planning is done sort of under the radar that the media can't see.
Have you heard anything about how these people were picked?
How they coordinated?
How they're paid?
I assume some of these people are making money on the trip alone, even just to pay for their incidentals.
Have you ever been able to detect any of these things, David?
Not yet, Ezra.
It's, of course, a key question to everyone I speak to.
Where's the money coming from?
Who's organizing this?
Who's managing this?
They all say they don't know.
They all infer or imply that it's very much an organic thing.
I can tell you that, you know, from the research I did before leaving Canada, it seems that there was an individual, Bartolo Fuentes, a Honduran ex-lawmaker, who was helping a group to do this caravan.
And local Honduran media reported erroneously, at least according to Mr. Fuentes, that join this group and you're going to be getting benefits.
And something that was expected to be about two.
Again, is that true?
I don't know.
It's something that is being, but connecting the dots in terms of the money behind it and who's behind it.
And also, Ezra, the theory of, when you look at the timing, it's just before the U.S. mid-elections for Tuesday.
And in that regard, if this was meant to be a political embarrassment for Donald Trump, I might argue the opposite's happening here, Ezra.
There was a Pew research poll, and it showed that 73% of Republicans, Rather, of people who identify as Republican vote Republican, 73% consider immigration, illegal immigration, a hot top issue.
Whereas the figure for those who vote Democrat, it's only 19%.
And I think images of these thousands of people heading towards the U.S. border saying, you know, we don't care what Mexico's offering.
We don't care if you're putting the military there.
We're coming, like it or not.
I think for Tuesday, this is something that'll mobilize the vote for the Republican Party.
So if this was meant to cause embarrassment, you know, to be a political albatross for Donald Trump, I think it has the potential to do the precise opposite, Ezra.
Bullhorns and Bucks00:03:52
I don't want to flog it, Ed Horston.
You've been generous with your time.
I just have one last question.
You mentioned people with bullhorns.
I don't have a bullhorn.
I don't know anyone in real life who has a bullhorn.
That's a specific tool that an organizer would have.
And frankly, if you're in Honduras or El Salvador, you're not going to spend 30 bucks on a bullhorn.
So that's someone who was organized and had some money.
That's not a normal thing to have.
Those people are obviously of a higher level, an organizer.
They wouldn't be someone who's just swept up or said, well, I heard a promise.
Have you been able to communicate at all with those obvious ringleaders, those obvious, someone with a bullhorn, someone giving instructions?
Are any of them transparent at all?
Do any of them talk to you in any way?
Well, as a matter of fact, Ezra, last night at a hotel where we stayed at, there was a dining room, and we were told off camera by an official, a Mexican official, that the table of three people eating dinner, you might want to talk to them because she identified them as organizers.
We knew they wouldn't come on camera with us.
So we went over with the hidden camera, which we will upload later.
And I got to speaking with them on a casual basis.
But again, they stuck to their script that the only one at the table that spoke English was the lady who is an indigenous Mexican.
And she said, this is just an organic thing that I'm paraphrasing right now.
And also she said, I found this really fascinating, Ezra, because I said, you know, these people are committing a crime figuratively and literally by walking over Mexican sovereignty as they make this march to the U.S.
And she said something I thought that was preposterous, which was it's not really a crime to come into Mexico, you know, without papers, right?
And I thought, well, wait a minute.
I've been to Mexico.
This is my fourth time.
I'm not getting into the country without a passport.
And as a matter of fact, Ezra, just flying down here, we were held over.
I was personally held up for extra security screening in Mexico City for the connecting flight, so much so that I missed my connecting flight, and I had to pay $440 U.S. to get on the next flight out.
So it's a really interesting dynamic that, according to her, oh yeah, Mexico, it's a happy place.
You don't need any kind of thing like a passport or ID.
You can walk in all the way to the U.S. if you want.
And meanwhile, somebody legally flying from Canada, I get scrutinized to the nth degree.
Bizarre.
Well, obviously, we'll cover that $440 expense for you.
We're crowdfunding this whole trip, David.
We're great to have you going down there.
We've got you.
We've got your cameraman, Efron, who speaks Spanish and is doing a great job, the two of you.
You have a driver there, which is important because you want to make sure you don't go down the wrong place.
So we do have expenses, several thousand dollars, and now the extra $440, that's fine.
If folks want to chip in and see your other reports, it's a little bit better camera.
You're talking to us via cell phone now, so it's a little blurry, but your other reports are in high def.
People can see all your reports at caravanreportsplural.com.
And if people feel compelled or moved to chip in, whether it's 50 bucks or 100 bucks or even five bucks to help cover your costs, I'd be grateful, and I know you would too.
I guess my last word to you would be: stay safe, my friend, and film as much as you can.
And we look forward to your return.
And I think you're doing important news.
I know you're telling the other side of the story and asking questions that the mainstream media won't.
Syrians Can Return00:04:01
Last word to you.
Looks like maybe we lost the cell phone connection there.
I was just inviting David to say a last word.
I'm glad we had the amount of time on the cell phone that we did.
David will have a chance to say many last words at his filed reports at caravanreports.com.
So I'm sure I'll pick up that conversation with him later.
Stay with us.
your letters to me next after the break.
Hey, welcome back.
Some letters on my monologue yesterday about Trudeau raising immigration to historic high levels.
Paul writes, the Trudeau liberals are not interested in what Canadians want or don't want.
They're interested in what their globalist pals want.
Yeah, that's not just speculation on your part.
As you may recall, in 2006, Trudeau signed a contract with George Soros' New York-based Open Societies Foundation for them to draft Canadian immigration policy.
That's not a speculation or conspiracy theory.
It's just what Trudeau did.
And there is no globalist more intense or hard-lined than George Soros.
Billy writes, why Somalia?
There are Christians being murdered en masse in Nigeria, Egypt, etc.
Well, I should remind you that under Stephen Harper, there was a special refugee category for communities in danger in the Middle East, namely Christians in Iraq, in Syria, and Egypt.
And they were the truly vulnerable people, and Jason Kenney and Stephen Harper had a special track for them.
Trudeau ended that when he became prime minister, and he also ended the private refugee sponsorship because those were largely Christian churches.
He prefers Muslim migrants.
And by the way, there is no Muslim genocide.
There's no one who says, I'm going to kill all the Muslims.
It just doesn't happen.
There are plenty of people who said we're going to kill all the Christians, kill all the Jews.
There aren't really any Jews left in places like Iraq, Syria, Egypt anymore.
But there are Christians, and Trudeau has closed the door to them.
Susanna writes, as an employer in highly specialized retail industry, I can tell you that I couldn't and wouldn't employ any of the so-called migrants from Somalia.
It would take far too long to train them, and I don't have the resources to undertake such a humanitarian project.
With razor-thin margins, I need experienced staff who speak English fluently.
Well, that's a great point.
I mean, Trudeau's Syrians, 90% of them, haven't found work in three years.
Most of them don't speak English or French.
So they're not going to find work in the foreseeable future.
And they seem to be doing fine with that because of the extremely generous welfare programs.
They've gained the system.
They're getting about 50 grand per family a year from the feds.
And then there's all the other layers too.
So I don't think it's going to work.
But the good news is the civil war in Syria is over.
Syrians can return to that country.
And I think it would be better for Canadians if they returned.
And it would be better for the Syrian migrants if they returned.
And if we want to give them a $10,000 going away present, that's a bargain compared to the funds we're spending on them now.
I don't think we're going to heal the entire world by bringing a fraction of the world's problems to Canada and hoping they'll just dissipate.
I think if we want to heal the world, we can focus on, I don't know, fixing the problems over there, not bringing the problems over here.
And by the way, some problems are just not fixable.
Somalia is a failed. state.
I really don't know what we could do to fix it.
But bringing thousands of folks who have no job skills, language skills, or cultural skills to Canada, that ain't it.
Folks, that's our show for today on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters.