Ezra Levant’s Help Rebel News campaign seeks $70,000 in 90 days to keep his team of 16—five on-air, ten behind the scenes—employed amid Canada’s pandemic-driven economic collapse, including 1M job losses and 10% unemployment. Rejecting government bailouts as threats to independence, Levant contrasts Rebel News’s public-funded model with CBC’s submissive reporting, citing Trudeau’s mask shipment to China, border screening failures, and emergency tax powers. James Dellingpole warns of lockdowns’ mental health toll, advocates antibody testing and chloroquine prophylaxis, and slams Canada’s China-first policies while criticizing the Conservatives for purging dissenters like Jim Karahalios via secret hearings. Both argue independent journalism and targeted pandemic strategies are vital to prevent long-term societal erosion. [Automatically generated summary]
Today I interview my old friend James Dellingpole from the United Kingdom talking about how they're dealing with the coronavirus.
I show a very interesting video of how someone on the street of London is putting up that police do not cross style tape on the door of a chicken shop while the store is still open.
He's trying to shut them down.
It raises some interesting questions.
Who's right in that situation?
I talked to James about that.
And I also tell you about a campaign we have called Help Rebel News.
And look, we're just trying to get through this economy like everyone else.
I think our tiny team of 16 people, we've got about five on-air talent and 16, about 10 people behind the scenes.
We've got to get through this economic slowdown because we've got to hold Trudeau to account.
And I've got a bit of a plan and it involves your help.
So without further ado, here's today's podcast.
Tonight, hundreds of journalists are being laid off across Canada and Trudeau promises to pay off the rest.
So what are we going to do here at The Rebel?
It's March 25th and this is the Ezra Levant Show.
Why should others go to jail when you're the biggest carbon consumer I know?
There's 8,500 customers here and you won't give them an answer.
The only thing I have to say to the government about why I publish it is because it's my bloody right to do so.
Welcome back.
It's very interesting news in this country, very sad news, very scary news.
Nearly 1 million people have been laid off in the last week.
That's a number that's so staggeringly large.
It's larger even than the 1920 stock market crash.
Nothing like this before.
The unemployment rate in this country literally doubled in a week and we're nowhere near done yet.
I see WestJet laying off most of its staff here.
Canada will do the same.
That's just two companies.
Imagine everyone else in the travel industry, hotels, bars, restaurants, and then the snowball effect.
Those people will have trouble making their rents or mortgages and that will put landlords in trouble and the banks and everything will spiral.
One of the reasons why those newspapers laid off 250 people in the Atlantic alone is because no one's buying ads.
Just think of how big and bad this will get.
Justin Trudeau made a very strange announcement.
He said his top priority, the first industry he's going to bail out, not the oil industry, not the airlines, the first industry, he said the media.
Take a listen.
Right now, it's more important than ever that Canadians have access to the latest news and information.
To ensure that journalists can continue to do this vital work, our government is announcing new measures to support them.
Now, why would he do that?
Well, he needs to shore up the media.
He's doing a very poor job of fighting this coronavirus.
As I showed you earlier, he actually sent our entire stockpile of masks and gloves, 16 tons of it.
He just sent it to China for free as foreign aid just last month.
Instead of ordering more for Canada, he gave it away.
He refused to seal off the borders until the last minute.
He's still accepting flights from foreign countries.
He's doing a very poor job.
And as you can see in this CBC article, he's musing about using your own cell phone to track your movements, using the GPS in your phone to track where you are.
the greatest surveillance state since, well, China does it.
No wonder Justin Trudeau wants another media bailout, because if your boss takes $5, $10, $20 million from Justin Trudeau to run your newsroom, there's no way you're going to criticize him.
So where does that leave us here at Rebel News?
Well, we face the same economy as everyone else, but we would never take a dime from Justin Trudeau.
So how are we going to make it through this crisis?
So far, everyone on our team is healthy and we're doing okay.
We managed to cut some expenses, but we've decided to have a small campaign to keep us strong because we believe that coverage over the next few months could be the most important journalism we do.
Without further ado, let me show you a video I released earlier today that lays out our plan to deal with the coronavirus here in the office.
There's been no cases of it yet, but our measures in advance.
And how we're going to make it through without laying off our journalists.
We've set up a new website at helprebelnews.com.
Take a look at the video I released earlier today.
How are you doing during the coronavirus crisis?
And can I share with you my own personal thoughts as a dad and as the boss of Rebel News?
But first, how are you?
I'm guessing you're healthy.
Believe it or not, as I record this, the number of people in the whole of Canada who are sick is about 2,000.
I know that's growing quickly, but that's still only about 1 in 15,000 people with the sickness, and 25 people have died.
Each of those deaths is a tragedy, but at this point, at least, that number is fewer than one in a million Canadians.
I'm not downplaying it.
I'm just saying so far, the bulk of the crisis hasn't been measured in lost lives.
It's been measured in how the rest of us, how the rest of our lives have been changed.
Last week alone, 929,000 Canadians lost their jobs.
Entire industries are teetering on bankruptcy.
Think of airlines and hotels as an obvious example.
Any place where people gather together, theaters, bars and restaurants.
And now most Canadian school children are at home, but they really can't go on play dates.
They can't go to daycare, so families have to stay home to take care of them.
I'm guessing the chief feeling you have is stress.
Are we going to die is one stress, but more and more, are we going to be okay to live, to pay the rent or mortgage?
How can we find a job if the whole country is falling into recession?
How are we going to get through this?
Are we going to go crazy, cooped up in our houses, unable to meet friends and family and live normally?
This is really a form of house arrest, isn't it?
I feel the same way personally for myself and for my family.
I can only imagine the nightmares and stresses that little kids will have now that they've learned about some invisible killer virus.
It's so weird to hear young children talk and use words like pandemics or coronavirus.
I bet it's as stressful as the thought of nuclear war was to baby boomers growing up.
Unemployment, plus the stress and loneliness of quarantines, plus the fear of the virus, and try getting tested, by the way, unless you're a celebrity or a politician, you can't.
They'll turn you away.
Talk about stress.
I'm sorry to be so dark, but I believe we are going to see a spike in depression and worse, I'm sorry to say it.
Can I share my thoughts as the president of Rebel News?
My first thought was the safety of our staff.
We have a dozen loyal workers who come in each day to our head office here.
I've invited any of them who prefer to work from home.
And about half our team in Toronto has chosen to do so, which is easy enough to do since almost all of us work from laptop computers.
The rest of the staff here at the office can social distance in separate offices here if they like.
In terms of guests, we now do that by Skype only, guest interviews.
And we're no longer sending our reporter to exotic locations.
We've put our trips to the U.S. and the U.K. on hold, and we've cut back on travel within Canada too.
To stay in touch with each other as a team, both to make sure we're working well together and just to say hi, we now have two daily group calls on Skype with everybody.
One at 10 a.m. to get the day really going and one at 5 p.m. to see how things went.
We chime in about anything and I limit myself to one dumb joke per meeting.
So I think we're okay health-wise here.
Other than David Menzies, I'm by far the oldest guy in the office.
So everyone here is pretty much healthy young folks who are at low risk anyways.
But how are we going to do financially?
929,000 Canadians lost their jobs last week.
It's almost a million.
That's almost one in ten families in this whole country.
Maybe you're one of them.
Unemployment just doubled from 5% to 10% in one week.
I hate to say it, but I think much more is to come.
I think we're going to have a recession, and I think unemployment is going to hit 20% for sure, maybe 30%.
That's great depression levels.
I don't want that to happen, but I think we were heading into a recession already, especially with all the railroad blockades and Trudeau canceling all the oil sands projects and pipelines.
And now this.
I can't even believe it.
Incredibly, just last week, Justin Trudeau made it easier for low-wage foreign workers to come to Canada.
He made it easier for foreign workers to come and compete for jobs.
Why would he do that?
I don't understand.
So I'm worried about the world, and I'm worried about our country, and I'm worried about you because I'm human, and because unlike the CBC State broadcaster, we depend on our viewers to keep us strong.
So if our viewers are hurting, that will affect us directly.
Parliament is giving itself a raise next week.
Did you know that?
What, your local Conservative MP didn't tell you?
So they'll be fine in Parliament, and the CBC will be fine.
And frankly, supporting rebel news, although I think it's important to the country, it's obviously not as important as paying your rent and groceries and gas money.
So I'm afraid there will be many families who make the choice to cut discretionary spending like us.
Makes sense, family first.
But I also know that what we're doing, providing independent journalism, telling the other side of the story, as our motto says, is more important now than ever.
And that's what we do.
Even in the past week, groundbreaking stuff.
We've gone to the airports and asked people flying into Canada from China and other countries what sort of screening they're getting.
And we reported the truth that they're not being screened at all.
And in fact, many people from other countries landing in Canada are shocked at how little screening is being done.
Still, Trudeau's government was lying when they said there was enhanced screening.
There still isn't.
We proved it, our journalism.
And we went back to Wroxham Road again and again and again to prove the same thing that illegal migrants were being allowed to walk right in with no health screening.
Where are you from?
The Congo?
In fact, it was only after Kian Bexte recorded this exclusive footage that the RCMP finally closed the border.
But what about now?
I think it's more important than ever.
What civil liberties is Trudeau going to try to crush in the months ahead?
Will he try and short-circuit parliament and take more powers to himself?
He's hinting at it, and so is his cabinet.
Why would your government think it's a good idea to propose a bill to broadly tax and spend without parliamentary approval until December 2021?
Many opposition members say they can't support this overreach.
Why would you bring politics into a pandemic?
We recognize that this pandemic is moving extremely quickly, and it is an exceptional situation that requires extreme flexibility and rapidity of response by governments to be able to help Canadians and react to a situation that we've seen is moving quickly every single day.
Government journalists from the CBC state broadcaster are practically begging him to put the country under some sort of martial law.
Christian Noel, Radio Canada.
Is there a use of the telecom company data to do surveillance of those who should be isolated?
Are you doing this?
And would it be worth violating people's privacy rights in this type of situation?
Answer.
We realize that we are in a situation where the behaviors and the choices that we need to make as a government will be different than what we would do in a normal situation, normal times.
If we here at Rebel News are not reporting the other side of the story, who will?
Or just reviewing day-to-day decisions of Trudeau, like his bizarre decision to send Canada's stockpile of emergency face masks, 16 tons of protective gear.
He sent it to China just last month for free.
Trudeau just sent all our protective equipment to China, so now our own nurses don't have protective gear.
It makes me want to fight to tell the other side of the story.
Trudeau has banned us from sending journalists to cover his daily briefings on the virus.
That's outrageous.
A federal court has already told him that's illegal.
But he's obviously irritated that he can't control us like he controls the CBC.
We won't ask softball questions.
But look, we don't need to attend government press conferences to cover the news.
We go to where the news is, and we're often the only ones doing so.
David Menzies told me there wasn't a single other reporter at Wroxham Road that day he was there.
The rest of the media love open borders.
So my point is I want to keep Rebel News strong.
I don't want to have to lay off any staff.
I want our whole team in the battlefield covering stories, doing reports on the scene where possible, and from our studios.
I want to do what the rest of the media won't.
I want to tell the other side of the story, but I'm worried that our viewer base, like all of Canada, is going to be decimated by the coronavirus recession that Trudeau is already making worse.
Don't Lay Off Staff00:04:05
We've started to cut costs.
We were going to hire a U.S. correspondent to help cover the election down there.
We've put that on hold.
We've managed to reduce some of our existing monthly costs by about $7,000 a month.
But there really wasn't a lot of fat to cut in the first place.
Trouble is, we've also lost important revenue streams.
For example, our fundraising cruise that was scheduled for this summer, that was canceled, obviously.
It's too dangerous to go on a cruise.
We used to have events across the country that helped make money for us.
Last year we had 14 events.
Those are all on hold for this year.
So as a boss, I need to make up that gap.
I need to raise at least $70,000 to make sure we can keep our staff going full tilt.
That's how much I think we're going to lose in terms of revenues from viewers in the next 90 days.
If your family is in trouble, obviously take care of them first.
If you have someone you need to support, support them.
But if you're lucky enough to be in good shape, please consider helping us.
We've set up a crowdfunding website at helprebelnews.com.
If you can chip in five bucks or 500 bucks, I'd sure appreciate it.
You know, just this afternoon, the biggest media company in Atlantic Canada, it's called Saltwire, announced that it's shutting down all of its weekly newspapers, laying off 40% of its staff.
They're only going to publish four daily newspapers for the whole region.
They say their advertising has all dried up.
Of course it has.
That's true.
What's so gross is that they've received literally millions of dollars from Trudeau's media bailout, but not us, never.
I don't want to lay off 40% of our people like Saltwire just did.
I don't want to lay off anybody.
We're too small.
We have to keep at it.
Everyone on the team, me and our other reporters, all our video editors, our website editors, please help me keep our little army of 16 people, 12 here in the office, four around the country.
Help me keep it together.
Most of our people do behind the scenes work that's important.
Research, access to information requests, editing videos, publishing the website.
Look, the CBC doesn't have to ask for help.
They just take your money, even though they shut down all their local TV broadcasts this past week.
They just take your money anyway.
Trudeau gives it to them.
All the newspapers are on Trudeau's bailout plan now, too.
That's why they're so submissive to him.
We don't need any more submissive journalists right now.
We need fighting journalists who care about freedom.
I hate the fact that Trudeau has banned Kian Becksy and David Menzies from his press conferences, but I also know it's because they're the only two journalists he knows he can't control.
So please help me out if you can.
I promise I'll use the money to keep David and Kian and Sheila and our whole behind-the-scenes team going full tilt.
If you give us the tools, we'll finish the job.
Thank you, my friends.
You know, stay safe.
Johnson said this.
So when Boris Johnson says something, he means it.
Boris Johnson said this.
Boris Johnson said this.
You're not allowed.
You can't be selling food anymore.
Quarantine.
Finish.
Close.
Close now.
Quarantine.
Quarant fucking teen.
Not teen porn.
Quarantine.
Finish.
Well, there you have it, a scene from the United Kingdom.
Food Essential Services00:02:48
I can sympathize with both sides of that.
On the one hand, the government said lock everything down, quarantine.
And the man outside was clearly afraid and he wanted to be a good law-abiding citizen in this panicky time.
On the other hand, inside are people making food.
Everybody's got to eat.
And we don't always eat at home.
Some people can't eat at home, don't have food at home.
Surely food is an essential service.
And even if it isn't, surely the people in that restaurant working there need to earn a living.
Well, who's right in that quarrel?
Well, let me read to you from an outstanding column in Breitbart.com from their UK division.
I'm just going to read a couple paragraphs.
I recommend you read the whole thing.
We'll put it up on the screen.
You can find it.
Let me read three paragraphs.
Just like in war, the great coronavirus plague is bringing out the best in people and the worst in people.
So far, the petty tyrants, the telltales, the ignoramuses, the rule takers, and the finger pointers are having a field day.
The more original, clear-eyed thinkers, meanwhile, are having to take care about what they say for fear of being judged and found wanting by the self-righteous mob.
Already, the battle lines are starting to make themselves clear.
There are, roughly speaking, two opposing camps.
And here's my favorite part of this essay.
I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords.
This contains the control freaks, the authoritarians, the snitches, the panickers, the killjoys, the trust the experts, the curtain twitchers, the leftists, and the catastrophists.
The awkward squad.
This contains the liberty lovers, the libertines, the grand strategists, the rebels, the skeptics, the mavericks, the contrarians, the misfits, the deplorables.
And it goes on from there.
It's a delightful read.
And the author is our friend James Dellingpoyle, who joins us now via Skype from North Hamptonshire.
James, it's great to see you again.
It's been a little while.
It was at one of Tommy Robinson's trials that I saw you last.
You work with Breitbart UK.
Great to have you on the show.
Ezra, it's great to speak to you again.
Isn't it weird how much the world has changed since we last saw each other?
I mean, it feels unreal, this world we used to live in, where you could actually congregate in large numbers and wander around the streets without the police watching you and monitoring your moves in case you were breaking the new regulations.
Yeah, and in Canada, and I'm sure it's the case in the UK because you're further down the road to the surveillance state than we are, Justin Trudeau is now talking about using cell phones to track people's movements, using the GPS on your phones to track you.
I'm absolutely sure they do that in the UK.
Cure Worse Than Disease00:15:10
But I'm also sure that the UK has not only people who willfully choose to defy the government, but masses of ungovernable people, particularly in London.
Yes.
I worry about this greatly.
I worry very much that the cure for this problem is going to be far worse than the disease.
I think that at the end of this, we're going to find that we stopped coronavirus, but in the process, we killed the patient.
And I'm so glad that President Trump gets this.
I mean, imagine if we had a leader of the free world.
Imagine if we had a Hillary or a Bernie or somebody like some crazed globalist who believes in bigger government anyway.
At least Trump has got the right instincts that he wants to get back to business, to normal life as quickly as possible.
I think for too many people, and I suspect that your President Bieber is very much one of them, this will be the perfect opportunity to advance bigger government.
Yeah, you're right.
You know what, though?
The things that we rely on big government for, maintain the borders, keep out foreign forces, including foreign viruses, protect law and order, these are the things big government has failed us on.
And I just saw news from New York City that nearly 3,000 New York City police have called in sick from the virus.
Now, some of them might not actually have it, but whether or not they have it, they're calling in sick.
At what point does the government itself cease to be enforcing its own orders?
I mean, And what point do they cease to protect us from looters or actual real danger?
I don't know.
I saw that news about the NYPD and it made me scared.
Yeah, I think we have good reason to be worried about this.
I mean, look, I don't think any government anywhere in the world is in an enviable position right now because you've given a very good example of what's going on.
I had the coronavirus last month.
And it was, you know, unpleasant.
It was like not as bad as flu.
It didn't leave me bedbound.
But on the other hand, it made me feel quite rotten and irritable for a fortnight.
I got the fever.
I got the cough, which is still with me.
You know, it definitely reduces your functionality.
I think in most cases, if you're healthy, it's not going to do much worse than that.
But we've got government guidelines that if you show, well, I mean, before the complete lockdown, if you had symptoms, then you were urged to self-isolate, which seems sensible on the one hand, because it stops people going out spreading the disease.
At the same time, if people are self-isolating, and say you've got two cops, three cops living in the same household, or a bunch of medics sharing digs together, which is highly likely, then what you have is if one person has got the illness, everyone else in the house gets shut out of work.
And so you're right.
You have a recipe for a kind of civil emergency over and above what's happening in the case of the actual illness itself.
You know what?
I don't know what to do.
Part of me thinks that we're overdoing it.
I look at the news out of Italy, which I think is more reliable than the news out of China or Iran.
And they have lost lives.
But I see a glimmer of hope that young people are almost completely spared.
And I see there a possibility to maybe have a twofold strategy.
Take a very risk-averse, extreme approach to protect and help senior citizens who are in danger, but let young people in some other manner go about their days.
I note that in Taiwan, they have not cancelled school.
The kids go to school every day.
Every single one of them wears a mask.
I just have to think that the total shutdown of society that we saw in that little clip of a man saying you've got to shut down this chicken shop, Boris Johnson said, and the guys inside saying, what?
I can see both sides of that, but you can't shut down everything for a while.
It's like holding your breath.
It only works for a short period of time.
Yeah, well, already we're starting to see the signs of really dire economic consequences from this.
One of my Twitter friends, an old university friend, actually, who was at Balliol College, Oxford with Boris Johnson, our Prime Minister, he lives in Kenya.
And he pointed out that in Kenya, the people who grow the flowers for the Dutch flower markets are being seriously affected.
The flower trade is closed down.
So there's a knock-on effect across the world.
I understand that the supply chain is being disrupted for all the foods that are grown under glass, under plastic in the Netherlands and Spain, which feed Britain.
it's really getting worrying.
I mean, I don't understand the kind of, it's all very well contracting out these decisions to the so-called medical experts.
And I don't think there is such a thing as a single medical expert who has access to all the information and all the knowledge.
I mean, there are differing views even among the experts.
So which ones do we pick?
But I also think it's dangerous and irresponsible to give carte blanche to scientists to decide how we deal with this pandemic when there are other issues at stake.
If people are going to die in civil unrest, if people are going to starve, which I think is likely particularly in the developing world, then these are deaths and risks we ought to consider alongside the issue of how dangerous this disease is and how many people it's going to kill.
At the moment, it seems to me that we are destroying the world in order to save the lives of a few people who are probably going to die quite soon anyway because they've got various comorbidities.
You know, it's not just coronavirus itself that kills you.
It's also the combination of coronavirus and your underlying health conditions and or your age.
Yeah, that's what seems to be coming out of Italy.
One of the reasons their numbers are so much higher is they report when it's coronavirus and something else as opposed to just coronavirus on its own.
On the other hand, part of me worries.
I see news out of China.
I mean, China, we've seen their premier, Li Kaxing, Li Kaxiang, sorry, basically say we've got to stop lying about no new cases.
Earlier today in my daytime show, I showed video of a hospital in Wuhan refusing to admit a coronavirus patient so they didn't have to break their record of no new coronavirus patients.
So they were literally turning away a man so they could claim with a straight face they don't have any coronavirus patients.
So the Premier of China is saying we've got to stop lying about this.
I've seen reports that the number of cell phone subscribers in China has plunged by millions.
Now maybe there's another explanation, but people who die don't use cell phones anymore and that's in the millions.
That scares me, but the idea of another Great Depression scares me too.
I'm having trouble figuring this one out and I have instincts on both sides of this.
I don't want foolish people like we see videos, like here's a video right here of some idiot licking a bunch of products in a Walmart.
He was arrested.
Here's another video of someone licking with his tongue, licking a pole in a subway.
That's crazy.
So I want to, like those guys are a clear danger, a typhoid Mary, let's say.
But on the other hand, I don't want to give Justin Trudeau complete control over my life, including knowing every one of my steps.
I want to figure this out, and I know a lot of our viewers do too.
And frankly, sometimes they look to me for some ideas on this, and I'm still looking for the right balance myself.
Well, Ezra, I think actually, and this is why I'm voting for you as my new president, you actually came up with a very good suggestion.
I think that it's I think a sensible solution is to keep vulnerable groups isolated, even though this is very annoying for them.
I mean, you know, my mum, for example, she's in an at-risk category.
She can't go out and play golf anymore, and golf is her life.
You know, she's cooked up in her house, and that's miserable for her.
And at the same time, I think that we cannot let the global economy collapse as it is collapsing, and it's going to get much, much worse.
I mean, we're already reaping a whole whirlwind here.
I can't imagine how much worse it's going to get.
We need to get people back on the streets.
And I think one of the ways we can do this is by, okay, on the one hand, protecting the vulnerable categories.
But number two, by enabling people who've already had the disease, people like me, who've built up antibodies, to get back out there.
So what we need is an antibody test.
And we need governments to move swiftly to say, if you have got the antibodies, if you've got a degree of immunity, I know people say, oh, well, you can get reinfected.
Well, maybe, but if we take that one too seriously, then it is the end of the world.
I mean, if you get no immunity from having had the disease, then we are in a whole new realm of horribleness.
But I think we have to assume that people who've had the coronavirus probably have a degree of immunity.
Those people should not be at home.
They should be back on the street.
So I think government's priority should be to get people tested and get them out.
Another thing, I've got, I do believe that chloroquine is proving effective.
I know somebody who's been desperate to try and get his treatment out.
It involves zinc, which is a very powerful prophylactic, and it disrupts the cytokine storm, which is what kills you when the virus tricks your body's immune system into attacking healthy tissue and causing you to drown in your own lungs effectively.
If we can avoid that, if we can protect workers with treatments like this as a prophylactic and stop people dying, then we are in a completely different situation.
I think governments ought to be more alive to this rather than focusing on the vaccine and focusing on the death toll in hospitals.
It's bigger than that.
Yeah.
You know, I went through the other day statistics again from Italy.
And the reason I focus on that is because I don't trust Iran, I don't trust China, and we don't yet have enough data from the UK, Canada, the US.
In Italy, which has been ravaged, there were zero deaths for people under 30.
Zero.
Zero.
Yeah.
Taiwan.
By the way.
Go ahead.
People.
I've had sort of angry lunatics on Twitter today say, say, you know, if we don't stamp on this, it will be like the Spanish flu.
This is nothing like the Spanish flu of 1918.
For one thing, the Spanish flu of 1918 killed predominantly people in their 20s and 30s.
It generally spared the old people.
This is a completely different, different kettle of fish.
It kills older people.
It's not the same.
I think it would be far worse if it were killing young, productive people.
It is not.
Sorry, you carry on with your point now.
Yeah, well, I mean, my point to that is that that allows us, I mean, I think the problem is we've smothered everything.
I mean, in that little dramatic video I showed at the beginning, there was a guy around 40 hectoring guys around 20.
And in reality, probably none of them are in jeopardy, but one of them is clearly in a panic mode.
And the guys inside are thinking, am I doing something wrong?
Am I breaking the law?
I thought I was doing the right thing by working for a living, and surely my customers need to eat.
So if we could if we could sort things and break this problem down smaller, I say again, Taiwan, everyone wears a mask.
They ration the masks from the local pharmacies.
They keep track of how many.
It seems absurd, but that way everyone has a mask.
There's no hoarding.
Mass testing is important.
If you've had it and you're immune, why shouldn't you be able to go out and about?
And if we have mass testing, again, sorting, shrinking the problem and focusing on seniors.
I know what you meant about it would be more devastating if people who are working are incapacitated or killed.
We still obviously love our parents and grandparents very much.
Let us focus on our intelligence and our wealth and our activities on protecting the vulnerable.
Let the rest of people work and guard against power grabs by the Justin Trudeau's and others in this world who either want to take money in this panicky time, take power, take away our civil liberties.
Maybe that's part of the answer.
It's interesting that the solution seems to come from Taiwan, which knows the dire threat of communist China just a few dozen miles away.
Yes, I entirely agree with that analysis, Ezra.
I mean, look, we on the on the skept, those of us who are skeptical of overweening authority, we still love our parents and our elderly relatives as much as anyone on the other side of the argument.
The difference is that we are not letting that love for our parents blind us to the bigger reality, which is that we are destroying Western civilization for the sake of saving a few people who are probably going to die anyway.
I mean, this is a pandemic.
People die in pandemics.
It doesn't mean one doesn't regret their deaths.
It doesn't mean one doesn't get upset by health authorities being temporarily overwhelmed.
But this pandemic will pass.
And at the end of it, we want an economy left for us to enjoy and to save more lives.
I mean, people will die as a result of the money being, of the resources being misdirected at the moment.
Consequences Of Panic00:05:30
Cancer patients currently can't get treatment in hospitals because all the beds are being taken up by coronavirus victims.
I just know that from a mental health point of view, you coop up millions of people in tiny urban apartments and condos with no physical exercise, no fresh air, no socialization.
You're going to have a whole other series of problems emanating in short order, especially when you add the terror of not being able to pay bills, which is just weeks away.
James, it's great to talk with you again.
It's really nice to connect with you.
I didn't know you had the coronavirus.
The fact that you seem to be healthy and recovered is encouraging to me.
Tell our viewers where they could get more of your content.
I know you do a podcast.
Tell us where people find that.
I do.
In all modesty, Ezra, I think I probably do just about the best podcast in the world.
It's called the Dellingpod.
That's D-E-L-I-N-G-P-O-D.
And you can find it on the usual places on iTunes and on Podbeans.
I have a site called DellingpoleWorld.com where all my old podcasts are advertised.
You can read me at Breitbart and The Spectator.
And I mean, these are interesting times to be a journalist.
I think you'll agree.
It's a target-rich environment.
And I'm trying to do my bit to inject a degree of sense into this crazy debate.
Well, I'm really glad you joined us and shared your views.
And just looking out your back window there in North Hampton, sure, it looks just delightful.
Hopefully, international travel will resume, and I'll be able to pay you a visit in your lovely land again.
Thanks for taking the time, my friend.
Thanks, Ezra.
Thanks a lot.
And good luck, Canada.
Thank you.
We need it.
There you have it.
Our friend James Dellingpole, host of the Dellingpod podcast.
And I have to say, I have actually appeared on the podcast one time and I enjoyed the conversation very much.
Feel free to check out James there.
Stay with us.
More ahead on The Rebel.
Hey, welcome back on my monologue yesterday comparing how Trudeau and Trump have handled the Chinese coronavirus crisis.
Cody writes, our frontline staff, as well as other Canadians, will go without medical gear because Trudeau prioritizes China over Canada.
Anyone who cannot see that is blind.
Well, it's already happening.
It's just unbelievable.
And to send it to China, that's like someone voluntarily giving their lunch money to a bully.
You're supposed to give it only reluctantly to the bully or refuse to give it to the bully.
You don't run to the bully and say, here's my lunch money, especially not when you're starving.
China has been bullying Canada, and that's even too light a word for it.
Not only have they infected Canada with the virus, but they still hold our two hostages.
And Trudeau gives them our stockpile.
Bruce writes, you're so right about Trudeau not knowing how to deal with the virus as well as other government duties.
He's Canada's Peter Penn.
He's never done anything.
He's never had to change the world in a meaningful way.
He just gives speeches and selfies and things happen or they don't happen, no consequences.
This is real life.
The virus doesn't respond to his sexy voice or his beard or his selfies.
It responds to action.
He just doesn't know what to do.
On my interview with Jim Karahalios, Kevin writes, excellent, excellent interview with Jim Karahalios.
Thank you.
I just don't understand why the Conservative Party of Canada would do this at all.
Even if they disagree with Jim Karahelios' point of view, and I read the letter in question, I didn't think it was particularly rambunctious.
Why not just let the party members vote for or against him?
I like Jim Kara-Helios, but I don't think he's going to win.
I just don't think he has the horsepower on the team.
Peter McKay, well-known household name, Aaron O'Toole came in third in the last leadership race.
Pretty sure one of those two guys is going to win.
I'm not thrilled about either case.
But why would you break the rules, kick out a guy in a secret hearing?
It's just so very strange.
It's almost like they didn't even bother to Google who Jim Karahelios was, a guy who fought and beat that same shenanigans from the provincial party of Ontario.
Worse than that, though, I think it demoralizes Conservative Party members who say, oh, so there's certain points of view you won't allow.
They kicked out a pro-life traditional family candidate named DeCary.
Now they're kicking out an anti-carbon tax, anti-Sharia candidate named Karajalios.
So the party is deciding that it doesn't want a big coalition, a big tent for the next election.
Good luck winning with that.
Good luck inspiring the base with that.
It's very, very strange.
It doesn't even make sense.
And now, of course, they're going to buy themselves a lawsuit and all the bad publicity.
Just dumb and very depressing because we actually need an opposition party right now.
And I don't think we're seeing it from the Conservatives.
What a shame.
Oh, well, we'll keep doing our job.
We'll do the best we can.
We'll play it straight.
We'll report it as both the shenanigans of the Conservatives and the Liberals.
And, you know, the media party, which is being bought off yet again.