Sheila Gunn Reid, Ezra Levant, and Ben Davies expose Justin Trudeau’s $595M slush fund for "trusted" journalists—like Post Media’s Paul Godfrey—while cutting border hours for rural commuters, costing them extra time. Levant warns this undermines media independence, while Reid highlights Liberal neglect of prairie workers amid lavish benefits for irregular crossers. Ben Davies mocks progressive backlash against The Crimes of Grindelwald and Star Wars, suggesting franchises prioritize woke narratives over storytelling, risking long-term audience alienation. [Automatically generated summary]
Welcome to Rebel Roundup, ladies and gentlemen, and the rest of you, in which we look back at some of the very best commentaries of the week by your favorite rebels.
I'm your host, David Menzies.
Hey, guess which party has the biggest war chest for next year's federal election?
Well, it's the media party, of course, thanks to more than half a billion dollars in liberal welfare.
Ezra Event will serve up all the gruesome details.
And when it comes to crossing the Canadian-U.S. border, there's apparently an unofficial new rule in 2018.
The makers are inconvenienced, but the takers, i.e. the irregulars, receive 24-7 concierge service.
Sheila Gunreed shall explain all.
And the latest Fantastic Beast movie is a progressive panacea.
So why are the progressives panning this flick?
Well, it's not progressive enough.
Ben Davies weighs in on this latest unintentional comedy.
And finally, we get your letters every minute of every day.
And I'll share some of the letters we received regarding my report on the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty that was protesting something last weekend.
Those are your rebels.
let's round them up.
Hey guys, I really need your help because Justin Trudeau is doing something terrible to the news media in Canada and I want you to hear about it from me because most of the rest of the news media themselves are compromised.
Here's the basic facts.
With less than a year to go until the next federal election, Trudeau has set up a massive $595 million slush fund for private sector journalists.
He already controls most news reporters in the country because they work for the CBC government broadcaster.
But that's not enough for Trudeau.
Now he wants to compromise the rest of them.
And get this.
Trudeau will only give the money to what he calls trusted news organizations.
But he doesn't mean journalists that the public trusts.
He means journalists that he trusts.
Well, that's not a real journalist at all.
A politician should live in some degree of fear about journalists.
Fear that they'll ask him a tough question or find out about a scandal.
It's unnatural for journalists to agree to be tamed like this, but it's already happening.
A couple of weeks ago, the big left-wing journalist union declared their support for Trudeau and announced a campaign paid for by those journalists' own union dues to fight for Trudeau in the next election.
That's a terrible conflict of interest for reporters to be spending their own money campaigning for or against the politicians they cover.
But it was a quid pro quo.
In return, Trudeau will give them $595 million.
So they sold out their journalistic ethics.
But it's not just left-wing journalists.
Look at how the National Post is cheering this news.
They used to be conservative critics of Trudeau.
Now read what they have to say.
Here's their CEO.
I tip my hat to the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister.
They deserve a lot of credit, said Godfrey.
Everyone in journalism should be doing a victory lap around their building right now.
Yeah, so much for the National Post.
And as they say in Vegas, folks, the fix is in.
From a leftist state broadcaster that annually receives about $1.5 billion to a union representing journalists that plans to serve as a cheerleading squad for the Liberals to a nearly $600 million bailout for approved media outlets, it's official.
The most well-funded political party going into next year's federal election is the Media Party.
And joining me now with more on this story is Rebel Commander Ezra Levant.
Welcome to Rebel Roundup, Ezra.
Well, it's a pleasure.
It's amazing.
You know, all the kerfuffle in the United States about meddling in the election was over a couple hundred thousand dollars worth of Facebook ads that if you look at them were confusing, they were pointless.
To think that $100,000 would have swayed the mighty United States election where $2 billion were spent, it's a laugh.
And here we have Justin Trudeau, less than a year before the reelection, giving $595 million in a country one-tenth the size.
And what's clear is he said he will only give that money to media he can trust.
That was the word, trust.
What does that mean?
A journalist should never be able to trust the media.
Journalists should always be a little bit afraid of the media.
If you are trustworthy media in the eyes of a politician, that means you're never going to ask him tough questions.
You're never going to embarrass him.
You're never going to do investigations into him.
You'll give him the benefit of the doubt every time.
You'll carry his water on issues from open borders, mass immigration, to the carbon tax, to whatever.
You'll ignore his sexual assault of Rose Knight in Creston, B.C. You'll paper over his gaffes like Peoplekind or his dancing in costumes in India.
When he says he will give $595 million to media, but only those that he can trust, he's basically saying, I expect every journalist in this country to be on my team.
The laugh is, most of them were anyway.
And here's the deal.
When it comes to the approved publications and the approved journalists, the liberals don't have to go out and have like a checklist saying, here's what you can and cannot cover.
The implication, it will already be there.
And by that, I mean, if I'm a journalist in the print media industry, that's a sunset industry.
It is withering away.
Less subscribers, less advertisers.
I'm a journalist.
I got to provide for my family.
I come across a tip, something juicy about the liberal government or Trudeau.
This is a real good investigative story.
But wait a minute.
Do I bite the hand that feeds?
So I'm going to probably bury that.
Yeah.
You know, I've been watching a couple of my friends in the mainstream media react.
And let me just name two of them.
Paul Godfrey, who's the CEO of Post Media.
And I got to confess, I like Paul because he's so candid.
He's not a liar.
He says he's in the business to get a return for shareholders, or actually with Postmedia, it's the debt holders.
He's not in this, like Conrad Black was an ideological warrior.
Paul Godfrey has never said that's him.
So when this announcement came out a couple days ago, Paul Godfrey said, massive credit to Trudeau and Morneau.
This is saving the industry.
Every journalist should take a victory lap around the building.
So in case any one of Postmedia's journalists was wondering what the official opinion to hold was, they just heard it.
Oh, and Asher, could I interject?
Because you are talking about the National Post.
Here's another conflicting part of this bailout.
When you look at, say, the Financial Post section of the National Post, which has long tried, and I've been a day one subscriber of the National Post until recently, since October 98 when it started publishing.
When you see the likes of the columnists and the op-ed page and the financial post decrying bailouts to Bombardier, Chrysler, General Motors, I'm sorry, guys, your street credit is gone.
Well, and that's the thing.
It's not just the quid pro quo.
I'll give you $595 million, you go easy on me.
That's sort of the bargain.
That's a trade.
That's very clearly what Jerry Diaz of the Unifor Media Union has done.
But just as bad or worse in some ways is there are some honorable, idealistic, conservative or right-of-center journalists in this country.
It's not that I'm worried that the Financial Post, which has some of the good ones, the Toronto Sun has a lot of good ones.
It's not that I'm worried that all of a sudden they're going to say, well, Justin Trudeau phoned me up and said, cancel this story.
It's that when you take money that you have railed against for decades, when you take a handout, how can you in good conscience criticize a bombardier, criticize overspending, criticize corporate welfare?
It's not even that you made a deal with Justin Trudeau quid pro quo.
It's that you are yourself in on it.
And so how can you, and this is a tactic that in the former Soviet Union and the Soviet bloc, how do you deal with a dissident?
And I know this is a dramatic difference because of course I'm not comparing Justin Trudeau to the Soviets and I'm not comparing a conservative journalist to a refusenik in the Soviet Union.
But the principle is the same and it's this.
How do you take out a dissident?
In the Soviet Union you could kill them, but that's messy and it might create a martyr.
But if you can corrupt them, if you can make them, and in the case of the Stasi and the KGB, can you make them turn in one of their own to get themselves off the hook, to buy themselves a nice house, to get a family member out of trouble?
If you can make a dissident destroy his own morals, violate his own code, you haven't killed him.
You haven't done anything objectionable in the public eye.
You've caused that dissident to destroy the little flame inside him.
You've snuffed it out.
So once a dissident would turn in a friend or a family member or a colleague or an ally to the KGB or the Stasi, it was like you snuffed out their own dissident nature because they could know.
Because the great strength that the dissident had in the Soviet Union was their moral purity.
They had nothing else, but they had that left.
And you can't take that away from a guy, but if you make a guy throw it away for a few moments of comfort, you've snuffed out the flame.
And that's the thing.
When post-media takes the money, when the sun takes the money, they can never again have that righteous indignation that we need.
And you know, I can already hear from the usual suspects criticism.
Oh, listen to Ezra, listen to this speculation.
It's not speculation.
Ezra, there is proof in the pudding.
Look what's happened to McLean's magazine that gets almost $2 million a year in government bailout.
I don't know how.
It's owned by Rogers, one of the huge multi-billion corporations.
But you've got journalists that are basically writing public relations for Mrs. Jerome.
You've got Scott Gilmore, one of the editors at large, the house husband for Ms. McKenna, and even writing columns that Canada is not a real country, but we will take that government of Canada check that comes in.
This McLean's magazine is not the McLean's magazine when Barbara Meal was the editor, certainly.
We have seen the corruption process play out.
Yeah.
I mean, McLean's magazine has been a liberal PR magazine for three years, really.
So this $595 million is just the, I mean, it won't even make the, they can't be anymore pro-Trudeau.
But for, I mean, Andrew Coyne, Paul Wells, Chantali Bear, David Aiken, Matt Gurney, Chris Selly, these are the names of some of the journalists who work, who have publicly in the last week claimed to object to this money.
But every single one of them will take the money.
Every single one of them will.
And so they can either say, oh, I'm against this, I'm against this.
And maybe that's useful to Trudeau so he could say, look, look how independent these journalists are.
They're really mad at me.
But it's a controlled opposition.
But really, I don't think that shtick works.
I mean, David Aiken, who's an old colleague of ours from the Sun News Network, oh, I'm really, really, really mad about this.
Well, I tweeted to him.
I said, well, David, you're a member of the Uniform Union M1 and Media One.
And here's your bylaws.
And if one quarter of your members request a meeting on this, the union has to have a meeting within 60 days and you can pass a motion against this.
Have you made the request?
Oh, Ezra, these things take time.
You know that.
Well, yeah, it takes 60 days.
I've read the bylaws.
Have you taken steps?
No answer from him.
And my point is, I mean, I like David, and I like some of the other names I've mentioned, some more than others.
They have all made the choice that that Soviet dissident would make.
Do I go to the gulag or do I name someone else and he goes and I have some comfort and I've given up my more.
I mean, Andrew Coyne and Paul Wells in particular, I'm not picking on them.
I'm just saying that they're journalists who have squawked against this.
You should never believe them in the first place because they were happy to take those fat, fat checks from the CBC.
They've both been CBC pundits forever.
I think Coyne makes either 500 or 1,000 bucks an appearance.
It's an enormous amount of money.
So don't tell me that you're against government money while you're pocketing government money.
You have to live it.
And they're hypocrites.
And the Sun News Network tried to be conservative.
It was shut down by the CRTC.
National Post tried to be conservative.
Border Delays Impact Piney00:10:18
It's taking the bribe.
I really think, David, that the Rebel is really the last independent media outfit in the whole country.
We set up a little webpage called youcantbuyus.com, where we're inviting people to chip in voluntarily because the $595 million, that's being taken out of the pockets of every Canadian, whether they like it or not.
So what I'm saying to Canadians is you were forced to subsidize your enemies, maybe voluntarily help your friends.
Ezra, we have to wrap it here.
There's so many angles.
And folks, if you do want to support the cause, please go to youcan'tbuyus.com and chip in a few bucks for really the last independent non-Trudeau liberal media outlet.
And for all you newspapers that are going to take this kind of prostitution money from the Trudeau liberals, I've got your headline written for your next edition.
When it comes to credibility, going, going, gone.
Keep it here, more Rebel Roundup to come right after this.
While they live in Canada every day, many of them cross the border to go to work in the United States at Polaris Industries or Marvin Windows or any number of the other local businesses in Rosso, Minnesota.
Piney is a perfect example of how closely linked us Canadians are to our friends along the other side of the longest undefended border in the world.
But it's also a perfect example of how the Liberals favor people who cross that very same border illegally over people like those in Piney who have been doing it legally for generations.
You see, on November 26th, the Canadian Border Services Agency is reducing the hours at the points of entry at South Junction, Piney, and Tolstoy, Manitoba.
The Piney border crossing, which right now operates from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m., will be reduced by five hours.
So the new hours of service will be between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.
What this means is that people who live in Piney only have an eight-hour window to get to work in the United States, and that doesn't include their commute time.
Likewise, with medical appointments and medical emergencies, still just an eight-hour window.
And kids who played sports on teams across the border, well, they can pretty well forget about playing sports this year.
According to local Conservative MP Ted Falk, this will result in huge detours to other border crossings for people just to get home from work.
The next closest border crossing is a half an hour east, resulting in a full hour added on to everyday commutes.
Well, welcome to the new normal when it comes to crossing the border, thanks to the Trudeau Liberals.
If you're an irregular member of PeopleKind, well, the Royal Canadian Bellhop Police will gladly carry your luggage to the nearest processing center to ensure those benefits start rolling in.
But if you're a law-abiding, hard-working Canadian taxpayer, well, sorry, loser, the Trudeau Liberals are suddenly fiscal conservatives as they embrace cost-cutting measures that will make life a whole lot more inconvenient for you.
Yes, ironically, those very people who are paying taxes to ensure that the irregulars get full benefits, well, they are the ones that are now being inconvenienced.
Lovely.
And with more on this egregious story, I'm joined now by Sheila Gunread, host of The Gun Show.
Welcome to Rebel Roundup, my friend.
Hey, David, thanks for having me back on.
It's always a pleasure.
Now, Sheila, I don't have any skin in this game, given that I'm not a resident of Piney, Manitoba.
But wow, my blood is boiling over this nevertheless.
For starters, what is the ostensible policy reason for the cutback on operating hours at the Manitoba-Minnesota border crossing in the first place?
Oh, it's cost-cutting measures.
All of a sudden, the liberals are fiscal conservatives when it comes to law-abiding rural folks just trying to get across the border to see their families for their kids to play hockey, to have their babies, go to the doctor, have life-saving medical interventions, or go to work.
These people are literally just trying to go to work so that they can pay taxes to fund infrastructure like border facilities.
Yeah, indeed.
I mean, this isn't about inconveniencing Canadians who want to cross the border to take advantage of Black Friday sales once in a blue moon.
This is about people in Piney, as you said, they work at Polaris Industries, Marvin Windows on the Minnesota side.
They're trying to earn a living, and those hours are really going to be a huge inconvenience for them.
Yeah, they're only keeping the border open for eight hours.
So, how do you work your eight, 10, or 12-hour shift at the window plant when the border is only open for eight hours?
This is going to add, I did the math, I, you know, I plugged it all into Google Maps.
It's going to add at least an hour of commute every single day for these people to get to work, at least an hour.
In some instances, it could be even as high as two hours.
And that's if the border isn't busy.
But when you're closing one border crossing and limiting those hours, of course, it causes, you know, a backup at other border crossings.
And there's something also, you know, a little more troubling at play.
These people, many of them, are dual citizens because they were born in Minnesota because that's this community's closest hospital is over in Roseau, Manitoba.
So, or Roseau, Minnesota, excuse me.
So, I mean, this isn't something that's new.
This isn't a new problem.
This is a way of life in Piney.
They rely on Minnesota just to survive.
And Trudeau's cutting them off while at the same time building permanent infrastructure at illegal border crossings to make it more comfortable for people to cross from upstate New York into Quebec.
Yeah, absolutely amazing.
And Sheila, I'm going to take this argument in a different direction.
Where is climate Barbie on this file?
Because all this extra commuting, all this waiting in line as you idle, and idling emissions are the worst kind of emissions that come out of a tailpipe.
Isn't this increasing the carbon footprint of the people of Piney, Manitoba?
Isn't this hastening the death of mother planet Earth?
Of course it is.
But you know what?
There's all those people who are walking across the border.
So that's saving on carbon emissions.
It's like carbon offsets, David.
You just have to learn how to do the math.
But tell me, I've never been to this border crossing, Sheila.
Can you paint a picture of what it's like?
Like, if it's closed, is there a way to cross it anyways if there's no staff there?
Or I mean, you know, I'm thinking, what's the worst that could happen to somebody crossing irregularly, getting free dental benefits, perhaps?
Getting $50,000 from the government for the year?
Is that what you mean?
No.
No, these people are, they're law-abiding folks.
They are absolutely going to go out of their way and inconvenience themselves and cost themselves more in fuel to do things the right way.
But on the flip side, we're rewarding people who break the laws of the country to get into the country with free hotel accommodations in Toronto.
That's a story that just came out today.
In the National Post, they're reporting that just in Toronto alone, from August to October, so three months, it cost $2.3 million to house illegal border crossers in hotels.
If we roll that out for the year, it's anywhere from $9 to $10 million.
So we're not exactly concerned about cost-cutting measures when it comes to cross-border issues, except when it affects the law-abiding rural folks of Piney, Manitoba.
Well, I'm sorry, Sheila, but quoting the National Post these days, now that it's about to become an unofficial government organ thanks to taxpayer subsidies, I don't think they have any street cred to go after any kind of fiscal handouts anymore.
But, you know, to me, Sheila, this is disturbing, and it's part of the bigger narrative that we've seen with the Trudeau Liberals in the last three years.
And it's this.
If you're a maker, if you're a law-abiding Canadian taxpayer, you're at the bottom of the totem pole, if I can use that metaphor these days.
But if you're a taker, David.
Oh, yeah, I know.
But if you're a taker, you are at the front of the line.
We want you.
We will accommodate you.
We'll have RCMP constables carry your bloody Gucci luggage even.
I mean, to me, as a law-abiding Canadian as well, as you are, as I'm assuming most of our audience is, this is blood-boiling, Sheila.
Well, and, you know, there's also something that maybe you don't feel in Ontario quite as much as we do out here on the prairies, but it's this disdain for people who live on the prairies, these hardworking salt of the earth folks.
I think it's sort of the same thing that they have in the United States where they talk about flyover country being ignored by the elites.
In Canada, in the West, and on the prairies, we're the flyover people.
We have these elitist people in sort of Toronto to Montreal making the rules for the rest of us and how we have to live with no consideration for our lifestyle and our, you know, I would suggest probably a distinct culture we have here on the prairies.
And this is just another instance of that, whether it's, you know, Trudeau's attacks on law-abiding gun owners or cross-border working folks on the prairies.
It's just a symptom of that sort of Laurentian elite mentality.
Character-Driven Stories00:10:11
Unbelievable.
Well, Sheila, we're going to have to wrap it here.
Hopefully you'll button up your sweater there because I think you're wearing one of your pro-life t-shirts.
I don't want one of the soy boys out there to give you a roundhouse kick to the shoulder, right?
So, although I think you could take those guys, don't get me wrong.
But Sheila, thank you so much again for weighing in on this issue.
Thanks for having me on, David.
You got it.
And that was Sheila Gunn Reed in Alberta, folks.
Keep it here.
More of Rebel Roundup to come right after this.
More money than a Middle Eastern chic.
More praise than a president.
And millions of loyal fans.
But what's more important than all those trivial things, J.K. Rowling wore her progressive badge proudly.
Starting Twitter wars with Trump supporters, slamming Brexit organizers as racist and bigots, being an open LGBT AIQ activist, and generally just mocking Trump on the reg.
I mean, what could go wrong?
Well, when you legitimize the beliefs and values of the unappeasable, they come for you.
Well, the newest movie in the series, The Crimes of Grindelwald, opened with the lowest opening in the history of the franchise.
Many point to the critical complaints levied at the film as the problem.
Not by conservative critics, but left-wing critics.
So let's just go through a few, shall we?
One, Johnny Depp, the man who had already been eaten by the left, was cast as one of the leads.
And the internet went wild that a man who had sexual assault allegations from his estranged ex-wife that have not been substantiated was allowed to be on screen again.
And let me emphasize, we still don't know what happened, but him being allowed on screen threatened the very safety of leftists.
The Twitter world saying thanks to J.K. Rowling like, quote, remember that letter you wrote me when I was 15 explicitly saying that the Harry Potter world would always be a safe haven from abuse, would always be there to protect and comfort me?
Well, shove it, JK.
Another complaint that derailed this film was that the movie wasn't gay enough.
J.K. Rowling talked openly about one of the main characters, Dumbledore, being gay.
But since this children's movie only hinted at the fact that he was homosexual, Vanity Fair put it, quote, the worst part is that this film tries to have its cake and eat it too.
It throws a few bones alluding to Dumbledore and Grindelwald's relationship, unquote.
Because, you know, kids don't want to see magic on screen.
They want to see two dudes playing tongue twister.
Holy Abra Cadabra, looks like the latest installment in the Fantastic Beast franchise is not so fantastic after all.
Well, at least not when it comes to the perpetually offended progressives.
Apparently, there's just not enough social justice warriorism on screen.
From the casting of Johnny Depp to the fact that the movie was too much sorcery and not enough brokeback mountain yikes.
And with more on this feel-good flop is our Tinsel Town Rebel, Ben Davies.
Welcome to Rebel Roundup, Ben.
Oh, just thank you so much for having me.
This is just Christmas came early to talk about this movie.
Well, you know, the funny thing is, Ben, it looks like J.K. Raleigh is learning the hard way.
And that is when it comes to appeasing the loony left, their appetite is insatiable.
And if you don't coddle them enough, then you're not an ally anymore.
You're an aggressor.
Does one laugh or weep, Ben?
I have to laugh.
I think this is absolutely insane.
When you try to appease people that live off that rage, getting frustrated, getting offended at stuff, there is no limit to what they will get offended by.
And you give them a foot, and they'll still complain about the other foot they didn't get.
And that's just exactly what happened with this movie.
And JK is learning this the hard way while completely sacrificing her stories and narrative to try to appease that.
And Ben, let's take this movie apart in terms of the problems with it, according to the progressive left, which it's not appeased.
For example, you alluded to it's not gay enough.
I mean, what were these people looking for, especially in a movie that I would imagine skews to a younger demographic?
Yeah, I mean, that's exactly what it was.
It just wasn't quite gay enough, which is always what you think when you go into a movie.
It's like, it was a good movie, but if it could be a little more gay, that's what I want.
And that's what happened with this movie, that J.K. Rowland came out and said Dumbledore, who, you know, is the guiding force of the movie.
There's always that character that mentors the younger people in any hero journey story.
And Dumbledore was that character.
And she came out saying that, yes, he is homosexual.
And in this movie, you explore his younger years.
And this is alluded through throughout the movie about his special friend, this incredible bond he had with this guy with Grinwald.
And it's explicitly shown out, especially explicitly told, but it's never shown to come to fruition on camera.
So it was Variety Magazine.
Variety Magazine even came out and said these people were just trying to have their cake and eat it.
They wanted to elude at homosexuality, but not offend people that didn't want to bring their kids to a movie to see two dudes playing tongue twister.
Like that was their whole problem.
It was just insane.
They tried, but they couldn't appease, obviously.
Well, you know, Ben, maybe in the Director's Cut DVD, they can have a scene where Dumbledore and his special friend are driving in a convertible sob or something.
But the other thing now is Snake Girl is played by Claudia Kim, who is a Korean actress, of course.
And this is offensive because this is a bad character.
And I guess we can only have white males play bad guys or something.
Educate me here, Ben.
Dave, this is 2018.
They're obviously trying to perpetuate women of color being submissive and dominated by white men.
I don't know how you didn't see this when she was cast.
Yeah, that's literally what they're saying.
And I feel so bad for Claudia Kim.
As any actress that works to try to book one of these major roles, to have people on the left try to say that you are a part of perpetuating this harmful stereotype by you taking this role, that annoys me to literally no end.
And then it also just shows the insanity of the left begging for diversity, but only in the roles that they deem are worthy for these people to take.
It's just absolutely ridiculous.
And it's just the same just horrible disease that's popping up in all these movies.
And it's damaging people on all sides.
It's terrible.
And Ben, let's take this argument to the extreme.
As you said, it's 2018.
So the new rules are if there was a movie that required a Latino character, it has to be a Latino actor and nobody else playing that character.
So in this movie, I see a whole bunch of witches out there.
Are these people members of the Wiccan faith?
Because if not, I think that's a major fail.
It's Wiccan appropriation.
It's just, it's gross what's happening in 2018.
I can't believe we're not woke enough to see this.
It's just so stupid when this happens.
And they're even trying to bring more diversity to the original script and story because it's taking place, you know, back in the day in a different period in London.
But they wanted to include an Asian character and they get in trouble because it was the wrong character to make Asian.
It's just, oh, damn, I just can't handle it.
Like, it's just so stupid.
But I love that it's happening to someone that is so fighting for progressive, you know, progressive roles and making movies that are more progressive and then her being absolutely eaten in the process.
JK's taking a lot of heat for these choices.
Well, you know what?
Progressive Hollywood and the actors that populate it, I think Ben should be careful what they wish for.
And by that, I mean, you know, you can duplicate anything, including actors, by CGI.
I mean, so I'm wondering if in the future, because the creators of these films don't want this kind of social media hate on, maybe they'll just go the Polar Express route and everybody will be like an animated form of an actual human being.
And it's not a real person.
It's just a character played by computer bits and bites.
And we're home free.
Is that a possibility, Ben?
Well, I think that's very dehumanizing of you to even suggest.
It's offensive to people who, you know, are proud of who they are in their organic skin and not the digital form.
So I don't know how you would possibly get that through one of the studios.
No, I mean, you still would have people that would have to play those roles, but I hope it doesn't get to that point.
Hopefully we go back to people just not being crazy and the left just learns that this is an absolutely stupid thing.
What you're seeing, it's starting to eat itself a little bit.
I covered this in the Bill Maher story, where now people are like, wait, this has actually gone too far.
We're allowing people and reinforcing the idea that when you're offended, we will change the world to fit however you feel instead of being like, get up, grow up, and get over it.
Like that, we're going to start to get back to that once the left continues to eat itself like we're seeing.
And Ben, on that note, last question.
As you mentioned in your commentary, this had the lowest opening in terms of Weekend Box Office and the whole Harry Potter Universe franchise.
I'm wondering, and so I interpret that as, you know, people out there aren't buying what they're selling.
So when there's the next Fantastic Beast movie, what I'm wondering is, do the producers double down on the whole progressive social justice narrative and become even more uber politically correct?
Or do they just say, you know what the hell with this?
Let's just make a good story-driven, character-driven movie and not get into all this political rubbish because we can't win.
You cannot appease these people.
I think if I was going to bet on if the progressive types would come back to reality, I would say no, and that they're going to completely double down.
I think other stories are going to pop up that are great.
They're going to get a chance to get into limelight.
I think this has already sold its soul to the devil here.
And I think so has the Star Wars franchise because now they signed Kathleen Kennedy on for three more movies.
They didn't learn from the massive outrage the last two movies, basically.
So I don't see that happening.
I see other franchises popping up.
I am worried when they are going to reboot Lord of the Rings at some point.
That's going to be like, you know what, this was a very white cast.
This is not a very diverse, sexually cast.
We're going to change all these classic characters because I'm in who they are and how they behave, who they sleep with, and the color of their skin.
I think they might try to do that with movies they're rebooting, but I think these are going to continue to tank.
And then new movies that are great stories will get an opportunities to come up and be made.
Wow, what a tragedy.
Rebooting Lord of the Rings00:06:21
Anyways, Ben, listen, I appreciate your insight.
I don't know how you survive day-to-day living in Hollywood, the ground zero for progressive thinking, but thank you once again for your insight.
Oh, no problem, man.
Thanks for having me.
You got it.
And that was Ben Davies in Hollywood, folks.
Keep it here.
More of Rebel Roundup to come right after this.
Well, I'm standing in front of Deco Labels.
This is Doug Ford's business, and it's going to be the site of a protest by the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty.
They're upset about things such as the minimum wage not increasing by a dollar and the reduction of sick days.
And of course, this is being interpreted as a war on the poor.
They don't mention the tax cuts that the Ford government gave to low-income individuals recently.
But a couple of things strike me about this protest.
First of all, as you can see, folks, it's a Saturday.
The business is closed.
There's no one here for the protesters to interact with.
And secondly, the primary target of their protest, Doug Ford, he's just about three kilometers away at the Toronto Congress Center as part of the Ontario PC Convention.
So I'm not sure these guys have their coordinates quite where they should be.
What is your point, though?
You want an alternative to oil?
Yes.
Okay.
Well, what is that?
Dilithium crystals?
Go talk to Nazis.
Who's the Nazi?
Yeah, you guys.
I know all about you guys.
Oh, yeah.
You've kicked out Faith Carly.
Goodbye.
Okay.
Well.
Hi, ma'am.
What does your sign mean, Canadian pussy power?
What's it mean?
Well, it initially was my personal response to the inauguration of Donald Trump as President of the United States.
Like you're recycling your sign, I guess, or?
No, I think Mr. Ford is just taking all his steps from Mr. Trump.
Okay, then some would say that might be a good thing, though.
Definitely not.
Try to figure out what Canadian pussy power has to do with minimum wage.
They don't see it.
You're asking me that?
Why are you asking me that?
Don't I pronounce it with who I am here?
Do you need to read my buttons?
Well, the rank and file of OCAP and other assorted nuts were protesting something.
As you saw, they had a very hard time articulating exactly why they had gathered outside Premier Ford's Deco Labels building.
In any event, here's what some of you had to say about all this sound and fury signifying nothing.
Snarly writes, they forgot that when wages go up, so does everything else.
I'm now in the position of closing my store due to the higher costs.
Thanks a lot.
Sorry to hear about your situation, Snarley, but this is indeed why the marketplace, not the government, should determine what the so-called minimum wage should be.
And even those that remain in business will cope by reducing staff and hours and even switching to automation such as self-checkout kiosks.
Doesn't sound like a win for the rank and file to me.
Paul Evans writes, and yet they didn't protest against the last government that basically bankrupted the province.
You know, that's a good point, Paul.
But then again, speaking of liberals, maybe they all thought the budget was going to balance itself.
Hope for the planet writes, I wonder why some of these alt-left Marxist hashtag blue lunatics can't simply be polite.
Just because you disagree with a person's political views, you don't have to treat them as though they are the enemy.
Indeed, but I regret to inform you, Hope, that civility is on its deathbed these days.
And the mindset at these protests seems to be: if you have nothing of substance to say, then shout it.
And Mickey O writes, I think David Menzies has accidentally encountered the cast from The Walking Dead.
They don't have to pretend to be mindless zombies because they already are.
You know, that's a good point, too, Mickey O. If the producers of that AMC franchise want to do a Canuck version set in Toronto, well, we've already completed the casting call for them.
And Gav1 writes, I never see journalism like this on CBC.
Oh, of course not, Gav1.
For the mothercorp, this is the sort of wacky Marxism that isn't to be mocked, but championed.
I wouldn't be surprised if it turned out that some of these protesters were actually retired CBC staffers.
And that's no joke.
I've actually come across such individuals at other protests over the years.
And Viv M writes, wow, glad I worked so hard to have half my wage taken to help pay for these people who hate me for working so hard to make what I make in order to pay them.
Well, you know, Viv M, welcome to the new left, which hates the makers and embraces the takers.
But not everybody was a fan of my report.
Heather Chenol writes, plenty of socialist countries, but the ignorant right clings to Fox News's Venezuela propaganda.
This channel is a step away from the proud boys.
Well, Heather, you're right.
There are indeed plenty of other socialist countries out there, like Cuba and North Korea.
Yet if you are indeed such a fan of Venezuela and you think Fox News is a propaganda mill, why don't you fly down to Caracas and check it out for yourself?
Well, that wraps up another edition of Rebel Roundup.
Thanks so much for joining us.
See you next week.
And hey, folks, never forget, without risk, there can be no glory.