Angelo Isidoro, UBC Free Speech Club president, battles student union censorship to host conservative speakers like Ben Shapiro (Nov) and Owen Benjamin, despite baseless "violent threat" claims from the AMS. His club operates independently to avoid funding restrictions, with diverse attendees disproving "alt-right" accusations. Supporting PPC candidate Laura Lynn Tyler-Thompson in Burnaby South, Isidoro highlights shared opposition to government interference among libertarian and social conservatives, including strong immigrant backing. Upcoming March 16 event features Stéphane Molyneux and Lauren Southern; September plans with Shapiro follow. This defiance signals a potential Generation Z shift toward anti-authoritarian conservatism, prioritizing free speech over progressive restrictions. [Automatically generated summary]
I'm Sheila Gunread, and you're listening to a free audio-only recording of my show, The Gun Show.
Now, tonight I'm talking to one of the young people fighting for the future of conservatism.
His name is Angelo Isidoro, and he's the president of the University of British Columbia Free Speech Club.
He is driving the campus SJWs absolutely wild by bringing in a diverse slate of conservative commentators to speak at his school.
He refuses to be bullied.
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Is free speech dead on campus and are radical leftists holding the bloody knife in their hands?
Not as long as we have young people like my guest tonight fighting for freedom.
I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed, and you're watching The Gunn Show.
Are you starting to think that all the young people out there in the world, especially those on the West Coast, are, you know, certifiably crazy?
It's pretty easy to think that way when that's the only time young people manage to get into the news when they are celebrated by the mainstream media for being radical totalitarian leftists, for trying to shut down free speech, for protesting democratic election results, or demanding quote-unquote free stuff like abortions, housing, tampons, etc.
It can really seem like campus is becoming a hotbed for authoritarian censorship and groupthink bullying.
And I think it largely is, but there are some kids out there, and I get to say kids because I am old enough to be their mom, who are fighting and agitating on university campuses for the ability to simply hear from someone who has different ideas.
Now, the last time I talked to my guest tonight, he was trying to bring conservative commentator, author, businessman, and successful podcaster Ben Shapiro to speak at the University of British Columbia.
Now, at the time, he was facing a lot of pushback from campus SJWs and administration, but he assured me that the show would indeed go on.
And it did to much success.
So much success that he thought he would do it again with someone, I guess, even more controversial.
So, joining me tonight is University of British Columbia student and free speech activist, and as it turns out, aspiring political hired gun, Angelo Isidoro, in an interview we recorded earlier in the week.
So joining me now from Vancouver is Angelo Isidoro.
He.
He is involved in the free speech club at the University of British Columbia, and he's doing some interesting things out there.
Last time I checked in on Angelo, he was bringing Ben Shapiro to town, and he was facing a lot of opposition, both from the Wackadoodles who are on campus as students and the ones that also exist in administration.
Hey, Angelo, how's it going?
I'm doing well.
How are you?
I'm great.
Now tell me, how did everything go with Ben Shapiro?
Nightmare Sermon Cancel Culture00:03:39
Well, there was drama.
You know there was drama.
There was a group of students that were trying to shut it down.
Eventually they realized that it was backfiring on them and it was only giving us more publicity.
So they kind of gave up.
But then what happened was the AMS, which is the Alma Matter student union, they essentially came out against the event.
They brought us into a meeting and they said that, you know, they would prefer the event to be canceled.
And they couldn't cancel it because we're not part of the student union.
Thank God.
So what they did say, though, is that they will essentially be having the sexual assault center open night of.
They're going to have all the safe spaces open night of.
So, you know, it was just completely ridiculous.
And they came out formally against the event because they said that it's essentially a threat to the community, a violent threat.
So I even saw some people night of posting on Twitter that they felt like they were in Charlottesville, which I felt just completely, completely ridiculous, right?
Yeah, like I want to laugh, but it's also so appalling that they would compare Ben Shapiro having ideas, like this little Jewish fellow that could fit inside a teacup, having these ideas near them to a place where somebody died, where, you know, the tiki torches and the alt-right and all that disgusting stuff, plus somebody died.
That's what they decided they were experiencing.
It's just ridiculous.
It's insane.
And Ben himself actually had the letter from the AMS and he went on stage.
The video is online.
And he essentially read out each thing where he's saying that, you know, do they think I'm going to sexually assault someone here?
What are they exactly thinking is going to happen?
So he completely came out against the AMS and trashed them on stage, which was fun.
The whole crowd loved that.
And it was a good event.
So the AMS did come out against it.
There were a few tomatoes thrown.
It wasn't, we didn't have a huge protest.
And the show went on.
At the end of the day, like normal everyday people came out.
It wasn't Charlottesville.
It wasn't, you know, all white males.
It was families.
It was people from the Jewish community.
It was a great event.
And it all went off perfectly.
You know, I did see a lot of people from the Jewish community attend that event, which is pretty interesting for someone they like to paint as alt-right.
And, you know, Ben Shapiro, he's known for his aggressive sexuality.
Exactly.
No, it was really ridiculous because even after the event, we went to this kosher restaurant and there were all the rabbis were there.
And upstairs, they kind of did like a sermon or whatever you call that in Judaism.
I think they call it a minion.
And it was just incredible to me to stand there with all the rabbis from Vancouver and they're doing this sermon and I was included in it.
And they, you know, to sit there and think, wow, people think that, you know, this person is a Nazi, even though, you know, it's just really, really, really mind-boggling.
But it went off well.
And now we are in talks to do a tour with Ben.
It's still not official.
But if you're living in Calgary and you're living in Toronto, I would keep my eyes open because we might have some announcements coming soon.
Oh, I hope so.
You're doing the Lord's work.
Young People Questioning Authority00:11:21
Now, you were wise to not have your free speech club part of the students' union.
Like, yes, it's probably nice that you would qualify for some funding, but you're also not beholden to those Yahoos and those social justice crazy people.
What's the student involvement like in your group?
Is it pretty active?
Yeah, it's extremely active.
And look, we definitely get questions like that where other people in other schools are asking, well, you know, I want to be part of the student union because I get funding and access to rooms.
But it's essentially a scam as far as I can tell.
Like, there's really no point to have a student union.
I mean, if it was in the right hands, it would be run as a good collective way where we can share and so on and so forth.
But it's essentially a bunch of 18-year-old megalomaniacs who just want to control everything.
So if you have your own student group or you want to start your own student group, just do it privately, do it independently.
I mean, yeah, with Ben, we have to spend a lot, a lot of money just in terms of security and everything.
But at the end of the day, there are people out there who will support you.
It's way, way better to be independent.
The AMS literally told us that if we were part of the student union, the event wouldn't even be in the process of happening.
They would have ended it.
So it's the best thing we ever did, essentially.
You know, it's for people like me who often say, hey, you know, those universities, they are just social justice factories just cranking out whiners.
It's really interesting to see the alumni come out and reaffirm that for me.
Like, yeah, you know, yeah, you are, you were cranked out by that social justice factory.
You are a whiner.
Like, what business really is it of the alumni society to tell you who you can talk to and who you can bring there?
I don't understand how it's their business.
Well, it's not.
I think from their perspective, they felt as though they got complaints of people saying that they feel unsafe, sexually unsafe, physically unsafe by having been on campus.
And they thought that I essentially am the ringleader of what will be, you know, anarchy on campus and widespread violence and evil.
So in their mind, they really saw themselves as heroes.
They were convinced that they are fighting against our oppression of bringing this monster to campus, which is ironic because they control like the nest, which is the main hub of the school.
Like they have ultimate power when it comes to the school.
And it's really weird because like a lot of professors agree with us.
A lot of the faculties agree with us and support free speech.
It's really just this 18-year-old megalomaniac bureaucracy that is really against us.
And it's really, really quite something.
There's even a men's rights group that is trying to get AMS approval now.
And the guy running that did, you know, he had like a little booth outside of the main building.
And essentially the AMS, I don't know how they pulled it off, but they banned this student from the nest, which again is the building that has all the coffee shops and the offices and all that sort of thing.
He is like literally banned from the grounds, even though he's a student and he pays to fund the nest.
He is not allowed to step foot on the nest.
So.
Yeah, I mean, this, I'm a mom of a 20-year-old.
And when I go away with his sisters for the weekend for basketball or whatever, I'm always just grateful that the dog is still alive and the house is standing.
And so I wouldn't put him in charge of who shows up to talk, although I believe his choices would probably be pretty good being my kid and sort of being a well-adjusted young man.
But to put him in charge of who hears what ideas, I think that's crazy.
But on the other hand, there's young people like you who are just completely open-minded.
And you know what?
That brings me to the next speaker that you brought to campus, because I feel like he's a totally different kind of conservative than Ben Shapiro.
You brought, I guess, some would say, controversial comedian Owen Benjamin to campus, and he's been deplatformed by just about everywhere except for YouTube.
But you brought him there, and how did that go?
Well, the interesting thing about Owen is that we couldn't host it on campus because no venue would approve it.
And we couldn't really almost, we couldn't host it almost anywhere in the city.
We went through so many theaters, including one very popular theater, which did book it.
And then as soon as they found out who he was, they sent me a long email talking about how he's a racist and how he cyberbullies the Parkland kids and they're canceling it.
So at some point, I was really torn on what to do because no venue would host it.
And then the weirdest thing happened.
My church essentially had a space where we can host it.
So the Greek Orthodox Church in 2019 seems to be the least prudish organization that was totally okay to us hosting it.
So we hosted the Owen Benjamin comedy show in the Greek Orthodox Church here in Vancouver.
Oh, that is, that's so fascinating that the social justice left who believe like in all manner of sexual, strange things are perfectly okay and behave however you like and everything is fine and everything goes.
They really are the new Quakers when it comes to ideas.
And the Christian church is the one that says, yeah, show up, save it, do your thing, talk about whatever you want.
It's so weird how the switch has flipped.
Yeah, yeah, it definitely, it's happened.
I mean, I remember growing up, I remember the days when like Fox News was kind of the prudish organization where all they're going against video games or, you know, anything that was kind of edgy.
And then I think at some point, it must have been in like 2012, 2013, 2014, there was some kind of gradual switch where I think essentially the left has had power for so long that they kind of determined the zeitgeist or the Overton window to such a degree where now you have this new generation of kids coming up, the Generation Zed, that is like projected to be the most conservative generation since World War II.
So that's kind of interesting to me that that there has been a switch.
There's been a cultural switch where the people in control are now leftists.
And ironically, you know, the place where we're hosting really, really, really raunchy comedy shows are Christian churches.
And that's just where we are in 2019.
So.
You know, I was, again, I was talking about this with my son when I wasn't scolding him for whatever 20-year-olds need to be scolded for when they still live under your roof.
I was talking about how I generally don't disagree with a lot of the mindset set of the 17-year-old boy.
You know, yeah, the people in power generally suck.
Your teachers quite often are stupid or at least they're trying to brainwash you.
And at some point, kids sort of figure that out.
And yeah, I don't like being told what to do either.
And, you know, I suppose my best advice for young people that Generation Zed that's probably going to change the world is just be patient because one day you're going to be the idiots in charge.
And, you know, I really feel like they have that Generation Z, it's more they don't like being told what to do.
And they're embracing that style of conservatism that, and I, as society, we need for them to hang on to that because that's the only way these onerous regulations on speech and behavior are ever going to be repealed is if we have a generation of people who are going to rise up and say, yeah, you're not telling me what to do anymore.
Yeah.
Yeah.
No, 100%.
I mean, I think the funny part is that the groups of people who are doing the most for conservatism in a way is the radical left because Generation Zed is growing up watching these videos on YouTube of protests where you'll have someone who's conservative and very reasonable, and then you'll have someone who's just screeching with purple hair.
And they grow up watching that and it is low-hanging fruit.
And so in a way, these crazy protesters and these activists, they're doing, they're doing us a great service by being completely insane.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, I think we need to remember, especially me as an older person.
Anyways, I think we need to remember that those people look just as crazy to young people as they do to people my age.
Their behavior is wild.
It's crazy.
It's irresponsible.
And they really are the radical fringe, but they are embraced by the modern left.
And I think they're driving people to conservatism or at least classical liberalism.
And that's fine by me.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, they're driving people to question, to question everything.
And that at the very least is something.
I think the issue right now is that with young people, as far as I can tell, is that they're not allowed to question anything.
And the worst thing you can say, you'll know this.
The worst thing you can say to a teenager is don't say anything about this or don't ask about this or don't do this, because that makes them immediately want to ask and do that.
So it doesn't work, especially when they're, you know, it's finger wagging and they're not really explaining themselves or articulating themselves.
I mean, when you protest an event and say that it reminded you of Charlottesville and you were shaking, that's, you're just living in a whole other reality.
And I think, you know, it's just, it's still so insane to me to the point where you watch the video of the event and it's just a normal event and there's nothing, you know, insane going on.
And yet you have groups of people who correlate it to like something really, really wrong.
So it's a serious problem we have in the culture right now where we have two different tribes of people essentially who are interpreting reality differently.
And I think when it comes to young people, they're definitely going to the conservative tribe because the conservative tribe is the only tribe that seems to be in reality.
They seem to be the only ones that actually know what's actually happening.
They're not in la-la land.
So.
Yeah.
And I mean, we, while young people might necessarily not always agree with us, at least we're letting them have their ideas.
We're not enforcing groupthink.
We're willing to have the discussion.
We're willing to try to engage with the other side, whereas the other side just wants us to shut up.
And young people aren't into shutting up, as you know, and I well know.
Conservative Tribe Engagement00:09:55
Now, I wanted to ask you about something else that you're doing.
You are involved in politics with somebody that I've said online that I wouldn't even imagine the two of you in the same room together.
And I don't mean that as an insult.
I just don't know how the two of you even traveled in the same circles.
You are the campaign manager.
Is that right?
For my friend, former Christian broadcaster, social conservative, libertarian type, Laura Lynn Tyler-Thompson in her attempt to become a People's Party of Canada MP in British Columbia.
How did that happen?
So that's a long story.
It would have to go all the way back to when the party formed.
I got involved really early on in September.
I jumped on board.
The CPC just wasn't doing it for me.
I felt as though I don't have confidence in Sheer to represent what I want to be represented.
And I knew that I knew Max is a true libertarian.
I knew Max does care about free speech.
So I felt the need to jump on board.
And I got involved initially as a regional organizer.
So what we had to do in the party was essentially set up 338 electoral district associations.
And I did what I could.
I set up every single one in Vancouver with my manager, Shannon Cuey.
And we got all of them done.
So once those were done, they said, look, we're going to have by-elections in Burnaby South and out east and then in Nanaimo as well.
Although Nanaimo looks like it might not happen.
And, you know, Laura Lynn was our first choice.
She's very popular in the riding.
She has a great reach.
She has a great voice.
And she was treated very badly by the conservatives.
She was essentially courted by them.
She was going to be the candidate as far as they were concerned.
And then the higher ups kind of stifled her and gave her the boot.
So it's interesting how you kind of have a ragtag team of people who have all been rejected by the CPC, like Max, like, you know, Jennifer Clark, who's our candidate on the island, like Laura Lynn, who essentially said, fine, you know, if you think that we're too out there, if we're not politically correct enough, we'll do our own movement.
And so she's our girl for Burner B. South.
And it's an interesting mix.
You're right, because I come from a more free speech libertarian side.
And she's definitely more on the social conservative side.
And I met her at, I think I met her.
Well, I spoke to her more so at a rally we did for Maxime when he was in town.
We had something like 700 people standing in a super small room.
It was a packed house.
And I really bonded with her.
And I could really see what she was trying to do.
I didn't know much about her before that.
I knew that she ran on the SOGI campaign, but I didn't know much.
And, you know, I spent time with her and I came to realize that she's a really, really strong speaker.
And she has certain beliefs that she wants to bring to parliament.
And a lot of people want to see those beliefs in parliament.
So I jumped on board.
I really wanted to help out.
And the party thought I can do a good job as campaign manager.
So we're in the thick of it right now.
We have debates coming up on the 7th, the 11th, and the 12th of February.
So that's going to be interesting.
And of course, for those of you who don't know, we're up against Jagmeet Singh.
Best of luck to that guy.
Up against Laurel Lynn.
Good luck.
Yeah.
Yeah.
He's not having a great time.
I mean, he's a parachute candidate.
Like he doesn't, he's never been to Burnaby South.
And this is really kind of do or die for him.
He wouldn't admit that, but essentially, if he loses, he will probably step down as leader just because he's not popular.
The fundraising for the NDP is really, really not doing well.
Whereas for us, we just hit a million dollars in donations.
So we're really happy about that.
And yeah, so it's going to be, it's going to be an interesting road ahead.
February 25th is the election day.
Wow, that is sneaking right up on us.
You know, it's funny.
Again, this goes back to the point you were making before.
The radical left is drawing these different tribes of conservatives together, whereas Laurelin is a social conservative.
I think that's all pretty clear to everybody.
But most importantly, Laura Lynn wants social conservatives and parents to be left alone.
And I think that's where there's this meeting of the minds by libertarians and social conservatives where we're like, yeah, we just all want the same thing.
And that's for everybody to get out of our faces.
Quit taking our money and giving it to bizarre programs.
Quit telling us how to talk.
Quit telling us how to raise our kids.
Get out of our way.
Get out of our businesses.
Get out of our pockets.
Get out of our families and leave us alone.
And the more the left imposes themselves on our lives, the more united the tribes of conservatism come.
So on some level, I welcome their crazy.
I do.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, it's unifying, right?
It's an external force, and you're 100% right.
There are a lot of different types of conservatism.
I'm more libertarian conservative.
She's more on the social conservative side.
But what unites us is the need to be left alone.
We just want to be left alone to live our lives.
For me, it's more so economic.
For her, it's more so social.
But nonetheless, we want to be left alone.
And our society is divided by people who want to be left alone and people who won't leave us alone.
So the people who won't leave us alone are really, really authoritarian at the moment.
And that's incredibly unifying for us and our movement.
So it is.
It's an interesting alliance.
And we're seeing all kinds of people.
That's been the most interesting thing for me is just meeting different people from the Chinese community because Bernabe South is really prominently Chinese who, you know, they feel the same.
I have no idea that the Chinese are this conservative, but they are.
They really, really are.
And they know where they're coming from.
You know, a lot of them who are immigrants, they know what it's like in China.
And they don't want to see that happen to Canada.
That's why they're, in many ways, the Chinese are the ultimate libertarians, the ultimate conservatives, because they know, you know, our fear is their reality.
They know what it was like.
So it's interesting meeting people on the campaign trail where there's just so many amazing stories about what they've been through and why they're on board now with Laurelin and the PPC.
Yeah, and I think also it's sort of been my experience with the Chinese community that so many of them went through the proper immigration channels and they really do resent people jumping the queue ahead of people like them who waited in line.
So, you know, the Chinese community, like myself, I'm not against immigration at all.
I'm very pro-legal immigration.
And I think it's really damaging to our immigrant communities when we allow people to jump the queue ahead of them.
Now, I wanted to give you a chance to plug your free speech club.
You can even plug Laurel in if you want.
And let us know what's up next for you.
Who are you looking to bring to town next?
What's next for Angelo?
So in Free Speechland, March 16th, we have Stéphane Molyneux and Lauren Southern together at the Chance Center.
I think that's at 7 p.m.
Tickets for that.
You can go to free speechclub.com slash upcoming events.
That's going to be a really, really exciting event.
I really hope it pisses off the AMS.
I think it will.
Yeah.
Yeah, we're going to be causing a lot of trouble on campus for that one.
So that's what we're doing there.
Like I said before, we're going to be having some announcements coming up regarding September and regarding Ben Shapiro.
So if you're in Calgary or Toronto, stay tuned for that.
And then in terms of PPC, look, we really, really want to make a movement here.
We really, really want this by-election to be a teaser for what's going to come in the general election.
So, and I think a lot of people are going to be surprised.
So, if you're in Burnaby South, I implore you to consider voting for Laurel and consider voting for the People's Party of Canada.
Go to our website, peoplespartyofcanada.ca, look at our platform.
And I think most normal people agree with it.
So, well, Angelo, I want to thank you for taking the time to come on the show.
But more importantly, I want to thank you for being a freedom fighter and not being afraid to speak to people with different ideas.
And you're not afraid to ruffle feathers.
And I think that makes you a bit of a rebel.
So I like that.
And I think you're a testament to the fact that I think the kids are going to be all right.
So thanks for coming on the show.
Thank you so much for having me, Shield.
Thanks, Angelo.
You know, in the time since I filmed my interview with Angelo earlier this week and the time I'm filming this now, Angelo announced that he would be bringing Lauren Southern and Stefan Molyneux to his campus to give a speech.
And as soon as the campus SJWs found out, they started acting as crazy as I think they are.
And the Free Speech Club caught it all on film.
Campus Rebel Performance00:01:08
Just take a look at this performance here.
Look at the speakers that come out of campus.
Look at who they are.
Sir, we brought two Indigenous rights speakers to speak last year.
Lauren Southern, people who express what's in person, got to support what's going on.
That's me to bring them on to campus.
Ben Shapiro in November.
How old are you?
She's older.
Great.
Sorry, Jewish.
Excuse me.
Excuse me.
My support freedom of speech.
Imagine wandering around this street screaming into the air because somebody has a different opinion than you and they will be expressing it in the vicinity, for better or for worse.
That young fellow thinks that he's changing the world by acting like a nut job.
And all I can think about is how much of his poor parents' money he's wasting on a degree in the humanities, fashioning himself into an unemployable, heavily indebted cry baby.
Well, everybody, that's the show for tonight.
Thanks so much for tuning in.
I'll see everybody back here in the same time in the same place next week.