Ezra Levant brands Justin Trudeau’s Liberals a "mafia," arguing the SNC Lavalin scandal—$148M in bribes and theft—won’t lead to charges due to media bias and RCMP’s gender-quota commissioner. Meanwhile, Keenan Bexte tracks Alberta’s Yellow Vest convoy (70–80 trucks) targeting Ottawa, demanding pipeline approval over Trudeau’s Bill C69/C48 blocks, though success hinges on his removal. Sheila Gunn Reid exposes SGI’s rejection of "Assman" for a vanity plate, contrasting it with allowed politically charged ones like "Cafe," while Hollywood cancels its Oscars host over perceived political incorrectness—ironically mirroring Trudeau’s era of fear-driven censorship. Comedy’s future now risks suffocation by both bureaucratic and woke overreach. [Automatically generated summary]
Hello Rebels, you're listening to a free audio-only recording of my show, Rebel Roundup.
Today we have Ezra Levant weighing in on the ongoing dumpster fire that is the SNC Lavin scandal.
Kian Beckstay will have the latest on the yellow vest protest movement heading towards Ottawa.
And Sheila Gunread will chronicle the plight of Mr. Osman who wants a vanity plate displaying his surname, but the Saskatchewan bureaucrats just won't allow it.
And wait till you hear the nitty-gritty regarding this one.
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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.
While the SNC Lavalin scandal continues to take myriad twists and turns, in the meantime, the Justin Trudeau Liberals are clearly in panic mode.
Ezra Levant will have the latest.
The Yellow Vest Convoy is rolling east and it'll be hitting Ottawa come Tuesday.
Keenan Beckstey is embedded in that convoy and he'll have the latest on this massive protest.
Liberals In Panic Mode00:12:13
And pity Mr. Osman, whose name is spelt ASSMAN.
He wants a vanity plate displaying his surname, but the bureaucrats in Saskatchewan are saying nine because apparently this would prove too offensive to other motorists.
Sheila Gunreed has all the comical details.
And finally, we get your letters.
We get your letters every minute of every day.
And I'll share some of the letters we received regarding my report on how the Academy Awards has thrown in the towel regarding having a host this year.
Yes, apparently there is a dearth of celebrities who can combine comedy with sensitivity.
End result, get ready for a snooze fest.
Assuming you're still watching this thing, that is.
Those are your rebels, folks.
Now let's round them up.
Well, that was Justin Trudeau yesterday saying, well, look, the fact that Jody Wilson-Raybould, who I allegedly fired, according to the Globe and Mail, the fact that she's still a loyal cabinet minister, that tells you everything you need to know.
She's totally behind me.
Well, today, Jodi Wilson-Raybold quit cabinet, sending shockwaves through the entire political system, I would say.
Let me quote two lines from it.
Dear Prime Minister, with a heavy heart, I am writing to tender my resignation as the Minister of Veterans Affairs and Associate Minister of National Defense.
And let me skip down about two-thirds of the way down.
He says, I am aware that many Canadians wish for me to speak on matters that have been in the media over the last week.
I'm in the process of obtaining advice on the topics that I am legally permitted to discuss in this matter, and as such, have retained the Honorable Thomas Albert Cromwell, CC, as counsel.
And just one last point.
She signs it Puglis, that is her aboriginal name, above her English name, Jodi Wilson-Raybel.
That is a fighting document.
The fact that she's retained a former Supreme Court judge to give her advice, to tell her what to do and how to talk about this, is very interesting to me.
There are real questions about whether or not she actually has solicitor-client privilege on this matter that she has to submit to.
Justin Trudeau, of course, could waive any such privilege and say, oh, you're free to talk.
I release you from that.
But he won't.
The government's in a panic.
Oh, the federal government is in panic mode, all right, because the SNC Lavalin scandal is not going away anytime soon.
And oh, to be a fly on the wall of the liberal inner circle to hear the best laid plans of mice and persons being bandied about by Justin Trudeau and co-prime minister Gerald Butts.
But one thing is certain.
In the past, Justin has proven to have a Teflon-like exterior when it comes to avoiding debilitating scandals sticking to him.
But no amount of political tap dancing is going to make Trudeau immune from this raging dumpster fire.
And with more on this scandal that only intensifies with every passing day is our very own rebel commander, Ezra Levett.
Welcome to Rebel Roundup, Ezra.
Well, thanks very much.
You know, I don't often disagree with you, David, but I think I'm going to disagree with you here.
I think that Justin Trudeau absolutely will skate through this.
I see evidence that he already is.
I see reporters already saying, well, for example, the Globe and Mail itself was saying, well, you know, there's a lot of good reasons that we should have a deferred prosecution deal with SNC Lavan.
I noticed that the bulk of the Quebec-based media is taking the stance, why are you picking on a Quebec company?
I see that most liberals are rallying around their leader, including a number of liberals who have taken to disparaging Jodie Wilson-Raybel, saying that she wasn't up to the job, she was incompetent, or as Anthony House father, the bizarre liberal from Montreal, said yesterday, she was fired because she didn't speak French, which apparently they only found out last few months ago.
Wasn't that preposterous?
Well, you know what?
The fact that he still sits in caucus and has the positions he has, this absolutely will blow over because Trudeau has perfected brazening it out.
And he just reads his lines literally.
There was a moment the other day where he said, what's the line again?
I saw that.
And you've got a few reporters who are hungry for this.
The three reporters of the Globe who broke the story, Bob Fife, Steve Chase, and Sean Fine, I think they're invested in it.
And I think the editor-in-chief of the Globe and Mail is running with it too.
But you can see the counterforces, Chantalibert, the Toronto Star, the CBC.
Listen, if he could skate through groping Rose Knight, who he sexually assaulted in 2000 in Creston, B.C., he'll skate through this.
And most people aren't following this news.
They don't understand.
SNC Lavaland.
What does that word even mean?
What's a deferred prosecution agreement even mean?
Trudeau says he didn't do anything wrong.
I think this is technical, vague, and complex.
And I don't think most people are following the news.
I don't think most people care.
I think most people are following fun news instead that Trudeau excels at, like that girl in Toronto who threw a patio chair off of a tall condo.
The only way that I think this is going to make a dent is if the RCMP file some sort of corruption charges in Canada, whether against Trudeau, SNC Lavalan, some Trudeau staff.
I just think this notion that there's any integrity in the Quebec-based Liberal Party is wrong.
Nigel Wright, Stephen Harper's chief of staff, had so much integrity.
Not only did he not take a salary to be chief of staff or bill any expenses at all.
When he saw there was a possible ethical question about Mike Duffy's expenses, Nigel Wright reached into his own pocket to pay the government 90 grand just to make the problem go away.
Obviously, he didn't make the problem go away because they said, oh, you're bribing someone.
That turned into a huge court trial.
Duffy was acquitted.
But the only reason that went anywhere was because Stephen Harper, Nigel Wright, and everyone involved had a sense of shame or honor.
Justin Trudeau is the kind of person who lies about taking a secret $200,000 vacation on Billionaires Island, lies to the ethics commissioner.
She said he lied.
She convicted him four times.
His chief of staff, Gerald Butts, billed taxpayers six figures just to move down the road from Toronto to Ottawa, hid that from the public.
This is a culture of corruption.
This is the guy, Justin Trudeau, who put two nannies on the public payroll instead of paying for his own nannies like everyone else does.
This is a guy who feels entitled to everything and has never in his life, he's 46 years old, 47, he has never in his life had any accountability.
And until the RCMP knock on his door, he will skate.
Is that going to happen, Ezra, by the way?
I doubt it.
He's handpicked the new RCMP commissioner, who is another gender quota appointee.
Now, there may be some cop who says, I'm going to take a run at this, but you don't take a run at the prime minister without having that approved by the commissioner of the RCMP.
In the United States, there were rumors and fake dossiers circulating claiming that Donald Trump is a Russian spy.
The most capitalist pro-American guy in the world is apparently a Russian spy.
The guy who's put more sanctions on Russia than anyone else in history is a Russian spy, as opposed to Barack Obama, who let Putin devour Ukraine and Hillary Clinton, who let Putin buy up American uranium.
But even those were flimsy accusations.
You have had a two-year $20, $30 million independent special counsel named Mueller who is investigating, subpoenaing, searching, even doing armed raids on houses of political operatives.
And in the United States, you have independent Senate and congressional committees with the power of subpoena.
You have none of that here in Canada.
So you see yesterday, for example, the Liberals voting down any form of a parliamentary committee.
And that would be a toothless committee to begin with.
So I believe that Justin Trudeau absolutely will skate.
I believe that other than a few righteous journalists, most will fall into line, especially when the $595 million slush fund kicks in.
And mainly this will work because Canadians are deferential and polite and say, oh, after you, after you, after you, sorry, sorry.
Except for Trudeau's inner circle who have no Canadian compunction, have no sense of shame or honor.
So they really are a form of the mafia.
We use that phrase, the Libranos, to describe the Quebec-based liberals a decade ago.
The Libranos are back, baby.
You know, Ezra, you have an outstanding batting average when it comes to being accurate.
I hope you're wrong on this, however.
I hope that, because I just see the optics of this being so horrible.
And I also see the way Miss Ribald is being treated in terms of a smear and fear campaign.
If I can just read a quote, this appeared in the Toronto Star the other day.
An anonymous liberal MP, and I was stunned reading this.
If she thinks because of her status indigenous, that somehow this exempts her from being there at the pleasure of the prime minister, then she has a profound misunderstanding of the system, end quote.
That is staggering.
I think it borders on races, actually.
Yeah, it's funny because, of course, Justin Trudeau never stopped talking about the fact that she was a woman, a woman of color, an Aboriginal woman.
Justin Trudeau, one of the very first things he said about his cabinet was, I've made this gender quota because it's 2015, he said.
So on the one hand, it's not that surprising.
It's like when his candidate in Burnaby said, look, I'm the Chinese candidate.
Vote for me.
You get a Chinese candidate.
If all the Chinese people vote for me, I'll win, as opposed to Jagmeet Singh, who's South Asian.
And she was just speaking honestly.
Well, that's how the liberals operate.
So it is sort of gross when you look at it, but it really is not that much more gross than, hey, guys, hey, look, I've collected Noah's Ark here of Two of Every Animal.
Aren't they cute?
May I now introduce you to our Sikh cabinet minister?
May I now introduce you to our Muslim cabinet minister?
We have so, I'm such a, you know, it's like Rudyard Kipling's poem, The White Man's Burden.
Justin Trudeau was so generous to the minorities.
So Trudeau can't really have it both ways.
His, I mean, I don't think Jodi Wilson Raybold was a great justice minister, mainly because I disagree with her ideology.
I'm not saying she was incompetent.
I'm just saying she was wrong.
That's a different thing.
But Justin Trudeau appointed her, not because she was likely the best justice minister of his caucus, but because she was an Aboriginal woman.
So she appointed him for that reason.
So it's really not surprising that they would, after firing her, say, oh, just because you're a woman of color, don't think you can get away with things.
Why Business Means Bribery00:03:48
That's the other side of the coin.
When you hire someone for racial reasons and then you fire them, don't be shocked if there's a racial tinge to it too.
I mean, that's gross, but it's unsurprising to me coming from this liberal government.
You know, Ezra, what about there's a contrarian viewpoint, and I was kind of stunned hearing it, but I want to bounce it off you.
Given that there are thousands of plum jobs at stake, SNC Lavalin is a gem crown corporation in Quebec.
There's this attitude that maybe we should have allowed the law to be broken or turn a blind eye to the law and, you know, so that this company is preserved and these jobs are maintained.
What is your response to that?
Because the theory is we were dealing with Libya and in that part of the world, bribery is the way you do business and if you don't do it that way, you don't get the contracts.
Yeah, well, that's not how business is done in the West.
The United States has anti-corruption laws that are extremely vigorous.
I think it's called the FISA law foreign, you know, I'm sorry, I can't remember what it stands for, but any company anywhere around the world that has a foot in America that also does business overseas, they are governed by anti-corruption laws that are extremely tough.
If you engage in bribery or corruption and are caught, and I'm sorry, I can't remember that, sorry, it's not FISA, it's a different, it's Foreign Corrupt Practices Act or something like that, FCPA.
I'm sorry, I don't know the American law off the top of my head.
If you are caught as an American company or a Canadian or a German company with a foot in America, so if you're regulated all by Americans and you engage in bribery anywhere in the world, you will be punished with hundreds of millions of dollars in fines with possible prison terms, and you will be banned from doing any business with various American institutions, including the World Bank, for example,
which has banned SNC Lavaland from touching any of its projects around the world.
So it is not the way it's done.
That's how it's done in corrupt, failed states, which the Trudeau liberals seem to really admire.
But getting away from the law and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, I think that's what it's called.
If there's engineering work to do, engineers will do it.
Maybe it won't be called SNC Lavaland.
Maybe it'll be called New Co., or Ethical Co., or something.
Like the work will be done, the money will be spent, bridges will be built, hospitals will be built.
I mentioned hospitals.
Of course, SNC Lavaland was involved with a corrupt super hospital in Montreal.
This is a very corrupt company to begin with.
They admitted to paying $48 million in bribes in Libya.
They admitted helping to steal more than $100 million from the Libyan people.
It wasn't an excuse for Enron.
It wasn't an excuse for Brix.
Oh, guys, sure, we ripped you all off, but you don't want to put me out of work, do you?
Because, you know, my kids need a new pair of shoes.
So that's an excuse that any criminal could say.
Oh, sure, I robbed the bank, Your Honor.
But you don't want to put me in jail.
First of all, I really need the money.
And second of all, this could really put a dent in my lifestyle, Your Honor.
Oil Pipelines and Protest00:08:35
But that's what I say when I mentioned the brazening it out.
When you're willing to look people in the eye and say, you wouldn't really, actually expect this company to be prosecuted.
They're not a crown corporation, but they're sort of the pride of Quebec.
They're not owned by the government.
They're a private company.
Prosecute them.
Bankrupt them for all I care.
I mean, I don't want the company to go bankrupt because, you know, but I think they should be punished to the full extent of the law.
And if that means a bunch of corrupt people go to jail, so be it.
If shareholders pay the price, so be it.
And if good engineers are let go, I'm sure good engineers will recombine and get ethical work out of it.
I'm sorry, not prosecuting someone because it could hurt their feelings is not a reason not to prosecute someone.
Well, Ezra, we have to wrap it here.
And, well, what can I tell you, folks?
The boss is saying that Trudeau is actually going to escape from this dumpster fire.
If that is the case, I think it just proves that there's a huge percentage of the Canadian electorate that is just completely disengaged from what's happening in Ottawa.
And secondly, that Justin Trudeau has more lives than the proverbial cat.
We'll see.
Time will tell.
Keep it here.
more of Rebel Roundup to come after this.
It's a late night here in Regina, Saskatchewan where the protest convoy has made its first stop for the night.
It's been a high-energy convoy all the way since Red Deer at a pit stop.
We were actually able to hand out some of our limited edition Rebel Convoy bumper stickers.
If you see me along the way, all the way to Ottawa, we have lots.
Be sure to ask me for one.
We also had the chance to chat with some real Albertans about what they hope to gain from this movement.
I have grandsons and my brother-in-law and different people that work in the oil field, and none of them are working.
It needs to be changed.
We need a pipeline, and that's why we're here.
You know what?
We're just standing up for Canada and for what's right.
And, you know, we want to show our support.
We can't go all the way, but we're doing what we can.
What's your mission?
What do you want?
What's a win for you guys?
Get Trudeau out of the government.
At the outset of this convoy, the RCMP counted 160 trucks headed to Calgary from Red Deer.
The convoy lost a few in Alberta, especially at the border, but they also gained a few in Saskatchewan, and it's leveled out at about 70 trucks.
What I found unbelievable on the first leg of this trip is the amount of support that this convoy has from everyday Albertans and Saskatchewaners lining up and down the number one highway, wishing this convoy well.
It truly is a grassroots movement, one that Canada hasn't seen the likes of in nearly a generation.
Actually, now that I think about it, not since the last Trudeau was in power has Western Canada been so ready for revolt.
Well, the Yellow Vesters are heading their way east, all the way to Ottawa, to knock on the Prime Minister's door.
And of course, Kian Beckstay is embedded in that group.
And he joins me now.
Kien, how are things on the road?
Things are going great.
The fog just cleared, so I'm in the media bus here with a few other reporters who are covering the convoy.
It's pretty cold, but it looks like we have a few more people joining the convoy here.
We just pulled over at a truck stop, but that might put us up at about the 80 truck range.
So it looks like a success so far, but there's about 2,500 kilometers to go yet.
So we'll still have to see.
Fantastic.
And of course, you're scheduled to arrive on Tuesday, I understand.
Is that correct?
Yes, there's one day that's reserved in case we are behind schedule.
But Tuesday is the day that there will be a rally on Parliament Hill.
Fantastic.
Now, Kin, as you said, you are on the media bus.
And I was going to ask you, what is your take so far on the media coverage?
And I asked that because there was a recent CBC report, and I was quite staggered by it.
I mean, you know, the thrust of the Yellow Vest protests is they want, you know, the construction equipment in the ground.
They want pipelines being developed.
They want to get the oil to market.
That's what this is all about.
And the CBC twist was that this is, you know, a lot of this is about xenophobia and anti-Muslim sentiment.
And it just had me really shaking my head because the people I've seen on this convoy, that's not what they're about, surely.
Yeah, this convoy is about getting shovels in the ground, getting pipelines laid so that Alberta can get back to work.
That's what they want.
They don't want bailouts.
They don't want preferential treatment from the government like we're seeing Trudeau give SNC Lavalin.
All they want is to be treated fairly.
And that just means getting Bill C69 out of the way, getting Bill C48 out of the way.
I think this convoy is united in a lot of things.
It's united in terms of pipelines and oil and gas, of course.
But when it comes to the Global Compact of Migration, I don't think anyone's a fan.
But that certainly isn't the main point or the focal point of this convoy.
The main point is to make sure that we can get Alberta back to work and back on its feet so that we can continue so that Alberta can continue to support the rest of Canada.
And, you know, I'm glad you mentioned SNC Lavalin, Kian, because it seems that the federal liberals are doing quite a bit of tab dancing to secure a deal that may or may not be illegal.
We'll have to see as this saga proceeds.
But in the grand scheme of things, the billions of dollars in wasted development in Alberta puts SNC Lavalin to shame in terms of magnitude.
This is truly, I would think, where the federal government should be diverting its attention, and yet they're not.
Yeah, this convoy and Albertans in general don't want the federal government's money.
They don't want bailouts.
They don't want anything.
They just want the government to get out of the way.
It seems like it should be an easy thing to do.
They just have to get them to do nothing.
But, you know, when it comes to Justin Trudeau, nothing's going to stop him trying to get in the way of hardworking Albertans.
And tell me, Kian, I understand there's rumors that our good friends Antifa might be showing up in Ottawa on Tuesday.
I'm wondering what angle they're taking.
They're against developing the economy.
They're against pipelines now, too.
What's your take on this?
I don't know.
You know what, Antifa, you never know what they're going to do, but it certainly is a concern for this convoy.
Just as I was leaving the hotel this morning, there were two convoy members outside the door having a smoke talking about what they had heard about Antifa.
They said that they were going to be parking their trucks away from the convoy every night when they stopped to sleep for the night because Antifa was rumored to be coming around getting ready to slash tires.
So there's certainly people that are concerned and they're expecting it to get bad in Ontario.
Antifa doesn't have much of a presence in Saskatchewan or Manitoba.
Antifa is just not really in Western Canada as much as they are in Toronto area.
But once we get to Arn Pryor, there might be some might get a little bit Western, as Sheila Gunread says.
Well, you know, slashing tires, what an incredible way to make a political point, eh?
One last question, Kian.
You, of course, will be there on Tuesday covering this protest, and we'll have to see how it unfolds.
But I guess I'm asking you a speculative question here.
There'll be a huge protest, the likes of which Ottawa has never seen.
I'm wondering, at the end of the day, when all the noise and hooting and hollering is over, will this amount to anything in terms of a tangible way in which the government is moving forward on the whole pipeline question?
I don't think anything tangible is going to happen to the oil and gas industry until Trudeau is no longer the Prime Minister of Canada.
Double Standards and Offense Sensitivity00:10:29
You know, sorry, that's one thing.
New passenger just joined the bus.
I'm sorry, there's a new problem.
You know, like, yeah, like I said, I don't think much is going to change until Trudeau is no longer prime minister.
He's stuck in his ways.
He hates Alberta.
He hates the oil and gas industry.
And even a major protest like this isn't going to change his mind.
His arrogance is unmatched and unparalleled anywhere in Canada.
I'm not holding out hope, but this convoy certainly wants to see that change.
Gotcha.
Well, who knows?
You might get your wish in about nine months' time.
So we'll have to see how that goes.
I never know with the scandals.
With the scandals we're seeing right now with Judy Raybold Wilson, you never know how long Trudeau is going to last.
Well, the timing is perfect.
I got to say that.
Kian, thank you so much and stay safe on Tuesday as you cover this for us.
Thank you again.
For sure.
Take care.
Got it.
And more of Rabo Roundup to come, folks, right after this.
Dale Osman of Melville, Saskatchewan, likes his last name.
And do you know what?
I totally understand this because my last name, it's pretty cool too.
Now, Osman likes his last name so much that he really wants to put it on a vanity license plate.
But SGI, Saskatchewan Government Insurance, says it's a no-go.
Why?
Because Osman is spelled Assman.
Thanks.
Assman.
Oh, no, these don't belong to me.
I'm not the ass man.
I think there's been a mistake.
What's your name again?
Cosmo Kramer.
Cosmo Kramer.
You are the ass man.
No, I'm not the assman.
As far as the state of New York is concerned, you are.
Yes, Osman is really the ass man.
Osman told CBC, it's my last name.
I've always had it.
I'm not ashamed of it.
There's nothing bad about it.
But echoing the Manitoba government's banning of the Star Trek-inspired Assimilate license plate, SGI said the spelling of Osman's name could be misread and cause offense to other drivers.
Well, there you have it, folks.
According to the tall forehead bureaucrats running the Saskatchewan car insurance racket, the mere sight of a plate stating ass man might lead to carnage on the highways and byways of Saskatoon and Regina.
I said Regina, by the way.
But is this much ado over nothing, especially given that this is the actual spelling of the surname for the man applying for the plate?
And with more on this story of censorship run amok is the host of the gun show, Sheila Gunread.
Welcome to Rebel Roundup, my friend.
Hey, David, thanks for having me on.
Always a pleasure.
So Sheila, I get it that there is a line in the sand when it comes to state-sanctioned vanity plates.
You know, I get it that it would be vulgar to have a plate displaying the F-bomb or the N-word, but Assman, I mean, come on, as you showed in your commentary, this was the plot line for a primetime network sitcom that ran way back in the 90s.
Yeah, a really tame primetime network sitcom, by the way.
But like David Osman, he's the hero we need right now because he is really just this severely normal Saskatchewan guy, like I think Saskatchewan men tend to be.
And he's just sort of had it.
He said that whether or not he's going to get his license plate, his vehicle is going to say Assman whether the government likes it or not.
And apparently now it does.
Like he said, even if it wasn't his last name, who is really going to be hurt by having that on his vehicle?
So now he's painted the tailgate of his truck to match, to basically look exactly like a big, huge Saskatchewan license plate.
And it says Assman across the back.
And I love this guy's style.
That's great.
And you know, I mean, and this isn't the first, I mean, you alluded to in Manitoba that ludicrous story of a, I think about two years ago, the fellow who had assimilate, he's a Star Trek fan, and this was a Borg catchphrase, and somehow some bureaucrat thought this was about, you know, the white man assimilating the natives.
And then you had out in the East Coast a guy who had the last name Grabber, and his surname was denied because, you know, in this Me Too era, that was suggesting people go out and grab a female.
Now, I would say, Sheila, that if you look at a license plate with the word grabber on it and you go out and molest somebody, it's not the plate's problem.
You have a problem.
Well, yeah, I mean, especially in the Manitoba case, Indigenous activists, busy bodies, not regular Indigenous people, of course, they weren't even offended until the guy started fighting with the government about it.
They didn't know, they didn't care.
It wasn't on anybody's radar until it became an issue of, I suppose, free speech.
But like with Saskatchewan, what's most offensive to me here is not that this guy wants Assman on his license plate.
I think that's sort of a conversation starter in the Canadian tire parking lot.
It's the fact that in Saskatchewan, the government licensing agency, so the Crown Corporation in Saskatchewan, is paying people to make probably $100,000 a year.
These are government workers, so full benefits to decide what's offensive or potentially offensive to people on the road.
And I've never in my entire life looked at a license plate.
Or, you know what, this is Alberta.
We get some pretty crude things on our bumper stickers, especially these days with regard to Rachel Notley and Justin Trudeau.
But I never think, holy smokes, that's so offensive.
I better put my car in the ditch.
I just, I don't know what sort of world these people are living in.
Either do I, Sheila.
And I find it perverse that there are government bureaucrats that are in the Department of Funny.
I mean, that is so not what a government bureaucrat is about.
And that they have something more unfunny.
Oh, yeah.
And you know, Sheila, you showed a list of words that have been banned as vanity plates.
And I did a screen capture of it because I wanted to read through them.
Now, some of them were pretty vulgar terms.
I get that.
But I was looking at other things like meat.
I mean, Saskatchewan is a province where there's a big beef cattle industry.
I mean, meat is somehow offensive.
Sinbin, Sinbin is just another name for the penalty box.
You know, that's what we used to call it in hockey.
And number three, roadkill.
I mean, for goodness sakes, roadkill is a fact of life.
Sometimes, unfortunately, we're the authors of roadkill when a critter runs in front of our vehicles.
Who's offended by roadkill, sinbin and meat, Sheila?
Well, the same government rubber stamper who's also offended by the word utter.
Like, what if that's a dairy farmer who wants to put the word utter on their plate?
No buns.
I don't know who that's offensive to.
Gluten intolerant people.
I don't understand who they're being offended on behalf of.
I mean, there's even like one obviously Chinese last name, W-H-A-N-G, who got banned too because it wouldn't understand that that was a Chinese last name.
I look, I'm a practicing Catholic, but I'm not a prude.
I, you know, like I'm a I'm a deeply flawed person.
I'm not a prude.
I try not to take the Lord's name in vain.
I'm starting to see Satan at work in a lot of things these days.
But even I think this is utterly ridiculous, utterly.
Oh, good play on word, Sheila.
And you know, thank you.
Again, it ties into what we've discussed on this show before, that you do not have the right not to be offended.
And in that vein, Sheila, I thought you did a very brilliant thing in your commentary, which was you looked at certain Saskatchewan place names, including Climax and Big Beaver, which I bet you, if you asked to put on a plate in Saskatchewan, those would be rejected.
So A, we have a double standard and B, when or when is the government of Saskatchewan going to rename Climax and Big Beaver so that people, these snowflakes out there that get offended over everything, won't get offended by these towns.
Well, yeah, and there's a whole other double standard because I discovered that one guy who got Trump's late night typo Cafe put on his flight and he very clearly admitted that despite the regulations in Saskatchewan against it, he was making a political statement about the state of affairs in the United States.
But he got to put it on there.
So I think there is a little bit of a double standard happening all over the place.
But moreover, I actually don't think the government bureaucrats working in a cubicle in Regina have actually spent a lot of time talking to normal Saskatchewan people because they really don't care about this kind of stuff.
And I think they don't take themselves all that seriously anyway.
So I think that there are a whole host of overpaid government bureaucrats who probably should be laid off or at least they need to get over themselves.
Well, Sheila, I hope Mr. Ossman has success in his fight against the government.
I stand in solidarity with him.
And I say that because, as you know, there are, you know, three types of men.
There's, you know, leg men, boob men, and ass men.
I think I'm an ass man because, you know, Sheila, everywhere I go, people are saying to me, hey, Menzoid, you're an ass man.
Oscars Without a Host00:05:24
That was a joke.
Was it?
Completely unfunny in Saskatchewan and probably Alberta.
Anyways, I better wrap it here before I really get into trouble with the powers that be here.
Sheila, thanks again for another brilliant commentary and for making me laugh yet again.
Yeah, I would say don't quit your day job, but this is your day job.
Have a great weekend, Menzoid.
You do then, Sheila.
And that was Sheila Gunread in Alberta.
Keep it here, folks.
There's more of Rebel Roundup to come right after this.
Oh, it's just so beautifully ironic, isn't it?
Hollywood, which loves to position itself as equal parts courageous and rebellious, has thrown in the towel when it comes to selecting a host for this year's Oscars telecast.
Yeah, it just looks like there was simply nobody available in Tinseltown who could crack jokes while at the same time being sensitive and politically correct.
Or maybe the number of worthy candidates looked at the Oscars hosting gig and thought, hmm, do I really need this aggro?
If I make one little slip up, if I make one quip deemed to be transphobic or Islamophobic or phobic phobic, well, the social media universe will go supernova and there will be calls for boycotts and apologies.
So, eh, no thanks.
Thus, the Oscars will actually be host-free this year.
Now, the most recent Oscars fiasco started a few months ago when comedian Kevin Hart was offered the hosting gig.
Yeah, but then some thought police sleuths, well, they discovered a routine Hart performed a decade ago that was allegedly homophobic.
And even though Hart doesn't do that routine anymore and has apologized and says he's a changed man, well, sorry, Kevin.
Well, we might give murderers and terrorists second chances.
If you commit the crime of political incorrectness, you are, what was the name of that 1992 Oscar-winning Western again?
Oh yeah, unforgiven.
Gee, for an industry that has long self-congratulated itself for its alleged bravery and fearlessness, the Oscars has really chickened out when it comes to the hosting gig this year.
After all, in this day and age in which the usual suspects are offended by imaginary things, who needs the hassle of doing damage control and stating endless mea culpas in the aftermath of outrage over nothing.
And so it is that the Oscars will actually be host-free this year.
As they say in Tinseltown, that's entertainment, not.
In any event, here's what some of you had to say about the Academy Awards waving the white flag of surrender when it comes to having a host.
Jinx Mim writes, political correctness and Trump derangement syndrome has taken a terrible toll on Hollywood altogether.
All of the late night shows hosts suck now that they can do nothing but rant about how they hate Trump.
Celebrities still have no idea how out of touch they are with everyday people in regard to Trump and their insane PC standards.
Well, you are right, Jinx.
The endless pandering to special interest groups, the endless attacks on the president, it's all amounted to so much white noise.
Can I still use that term, by the way?
And people are tuning out en masse.
So much of what one sees on TV now is leftists making programming for other leftists.
And in the meantime, the ratings are taking a nosedive.
Cliff Ryden writes, don't care, haven't watched them for a decade.
Oh, and you're not the only one, Cliff.
And just check out those plunging ratings.
I remember back in the day tuning into the Oscars, it was all about entertainment.
Today, it's all about hearing one-sided political lectures like yourself.
I have much better things to do with my time on a Sunday night.
JG32 writes, we need Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
Oh, could you imagine?
I think most of the assembled guests that the Oscars would end up going into a coma if those two got their way on the podium.
What an inspired choice, JG32.
But the Hollywood elite such as Barbara Streisand, well, they would never allow it.
And Bass Cannon Jake 2 writes, politically correct and sensitive or funny.
You know, you're right, Jake.
I don't think comedy is compatible with political correctness.
I think the very best comedy by definition is politically incorrect.
But we now must kowtow to the uber-sensitive snowflakes out there.
And yes, everything that was once entertaining is now being ruined in the process.
Yep, that's entertainment indeed.
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.