Ontario Premier Doug Ford’s June 1 exemption letting 550 vaccinated health workers—including CEO Barb Collins ($600K/year)—attend an NHL game exposes selective enforcement, as unvaccinated doctors and nurses face no such privileges while athletes like John Cena and LeBron James evade scrutiny over China ties. U.S. intelligence’s lab-leak investigation, spiked under Pompeo but revived by Biden’s May 26 order, clashes with Beijing’s alleged cover-up of 174 early COVID cases. Tech censorship and corporate complicity—Nike’s Qingdao labor controversies, Time’s undisclosed Chinese funding—undermine transparency, while Taiwan’s security hinges on Biden’s shifting stance despite recent U.S. naval signals and diplomatic gestures. The episode reveals how power and profit distort pandemic policies, prioritizing elites over public health and truth. [Automatically generated summary]
Today I take you through the logic of allowing lockdown extremists to break the lockdown to go watch an NHL hockey game.
How did that happen?
I thought it was only frontline health workers who were allowed.
How did it turn out that CEOs of hospitals and members of the Premier's health roundtable made their way in?
I'll show you some of the quirky things that's ahead.
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All right, here's today's show.
Tonight, the lockdown class is giving itself an exemption from its own rules.
Do you care?
It's June 1st, 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 is government of a wild house is because it's my bloody right to do so.
There was an NHL game in Toronto last night.
I didn't check, but obviously Toronto lost.
There was a twist, though.
The Premier, Doug Ford, in an act of beneficence, he announced that several hundred frontline health workers will be allowed to watch the game in person.
We have such a benevolent leader.
He's so kind to us.
Well, not to us.
And well, maybe it wasn't actually him that gave the gift.
Here's the announcement about it.
Have you ever seen so many weird weasel words?
Look at this.
He said, following discussions with the chief medical officer of health, Toronto Public Health and Hospital Partners, I'm happy to announce that they have signed off on allowing 550 fully vaccinated frontline health workers, including hospital and long-term care staff, to be invited to attend Game 7 of the series.
Okay, so who made the decision?
Again?
It's not quite clear, is it?
Then again, I don't think many politicians in Canada have been making the decisions in a year.
I mean, take it from Doug Ford himself.
I'm going to be very frank.
There's no politician in this country who's going to disagree with their chief medical officer.
They just aren't going to do it.
They might as well throw a rope around their neck and jump off a bridge.
They're done.
I'm telling you the facts.
It's very simple.
Yeah, Doug Ford knows his place, but I suppose this is the first deployment of the vaccine passport in Ontario, isn't it?
We know that depending on the hospital or health unit, up to half of doctors and nurses are refusing to take the vaccine.
I wonder what they know that we don't.
And it's not just here in Canada.
I mean, half of Anthony Fauci, St. Fauci's own staff, refused to take the vaccine too.
What percentage of the employees in your institute, your center of your employees has been vaccinated?
You know, I'm not 100% sure, Senator, but I think it's probably a little bit more than half, probably around 60%.
Huh.
But now you have a vaccine passport exclusive sports event in Toronto.
But was it really frontline health workers?
That was the phrase, frontline.
That means someone who actually handles patients, workers.
So grassroots, not managers, sort of the proletariat, not fancy pants working from a fancy office far away from the actual daily grind.
Maybe working from some Caribbean island like Doug Ford's cabinet does.
But because look at this, what's this?
What's this?
What's this?
Here's a political doctor on the provincial government's health roundtable.
He's constantly banging the drum for stricter lockdowns.
Here's just a taste.
And, you know, whether you're on the trading floor right now in a non-essential job, something that doesn't, for which the capital markets do not rely upon, or if you're vying for managing director and you think your boss needs to see you in the office, this is not the time for that because you can't get this at work.
The variant is a completely different disease, and it's taking down people in their 20s, 30s, and 40s.
That's what I'm seeing on the front lines.
So we need to redefine what is truly essential.
And those with the power to do so should allow their employees to work from home.
Got it.
So, hey, everybody, especially you young people, you hardworking people, you must stay at home.
Companies must have you stay at home, except for him when it's party time.
Check this out.
Thankful to MGH Toronto, Maple Leafs, for this opportunity.
The worst is well behind us.
The future is promising.
And all it took was from free tickets.
Hang on, doctor, doctor lockdown, doctor shutdown, doctor Stay at home order.
So you went there?
You went there.
A political doctor who's been the chief lockdownist.
But I thought it was just for frontline workers.
But the boss is now too.
I am shocked.
Oh, and here's Barb Collins.
Thank you to Ontario Health and to Doug Ford for supporting our health care workers as they have supported each patient that has come through hospital doors with care and compassion during this pandemic.
In this together.
But hang on, That's Barb Collins.
She's not a frontline worker.
She's the CEO of a hospital.
And here's her place on the official sunshine list.
You know what that is?
That's government workers who make more than $100,000 a year.
She literally makes more than $600,000 a year to run a government hospital.
She's the CEO.
She's not a frontline worker.
What's she doing there?
Well, this is the millionaire lockdown class giving themselves a very special night out.
Here's more from Doug Ford's announcement.
This small token of appreciation doesn't measure up to the sacrifices they've made during COVID-19, but it is an opportunity for us to recognize their heroic efforts.
Has Barb Collins made a sacrifice?
Because I haven't seen that.
Has she put in a heroic effort?
Because she got a $65,000 raise over the pandemic.
Did you get a $65,000 pandemic boost this past year?
Is she a frontline worker?
Because that's who I heard was going.
I love this part of Ford's announcement at the end, as if Ford even read it, let alone wrote it.
There's nothing Team Ontario can't do when we are all working together.
Sure, we are.
Yeah, we're all together on this.
As in the public health bosses, the lockdownists, the millionaires, they're all going out for a party, a great night out.
And our place, well, we're in it together.
We get to stay at home and watch it on TV.
Hang on, hang on, hang on, hang on.
That's not six feet apart.
That's more like a foot and a half apart.
That's illegal for you and me to do.
Our head of video here, Rebel News, Efrain Oswaldo Flores Monsanto, literally got a ticket for shaking someone's hand with a mask on, by the way.
Look at this.
I had the ticket made up inside when I saw you out here.
So what was I doing exactly when I was talking to one of the protesters here?
Walking around, getting within three meters.
Oh, that's how it is.
So if I just talk to someone, that's within two meters.
I also watch you shaking their hand.
Oh, that's, oh, I guess I'm breaking a law there.
Okay, you got me there.
Yeah, you don't really think the rules apply to the fancy people the same way they apply to the regular people, do you?
These are the folks that lock you down and then go fly to the Caribbean or go to an NHL game, but it's okay.
Science says it's okay.
These are the folks who ban your kids hockey, but let NHL millionaires play for the delight and profit of NHL billionaire owners.
Oh, and look at this.
Look at this story.
Ottawa set to approve NHL travel exemption that requires strict testing and hotel bubbles.
I love that wording.
When it's something embarrassing, the media always says Ottawa did it or the feds did it or the government did it.
But if it's something great, it's always Trudeau who did it.
Ottawa is a city, actually.
It's not approving anything.
But hey, guys, it's really strict testing and there's bubbles.
So don't go thinking this is some special favor for millionaires.
No, it's really strict, guys.
No, seriously.
There's some real gems in this story reported with an absolutely straight face by the CBC state broadcaster.
NHL personnel were granted a special dispensation before this year's trade deadline in April to serve only a seven-day quarantine.
The federal government also issued an exemption to that mandatory 14-day quarantine period for NHL players and team staff to return to Canada for training camp under national interest grounds in December.
Got it.
This is like a military decision or something.
It's, you know, national security folks, we've got to get these hockey players back.
They've got to be allowed to skip the 14-day quarantine.
Your health is less important than their convenience.
So they have to skip the quarantine.
I'm sure you'll understand.
Now, I thought this was supposed to be very dangerous to them, to us, whatever.
How are these precious people?
How dare Trudeau expose them to the risks of COVID?
Or is it us?
I don't know.
Who exactly is being put at risk?
If they're skipping quarantine, isn't it you and me that's being put at risk?
Because Trudeau wants to see some hockey players.
We sent our David Menzies to the Toronto hockey game last night.
Here's some of the excuses made by the fans.
Why the double standard?
It's the most powerful thing in the world.
Money, I guess.
Money.
Because it ain't love, so it's money.
But, sir, you have to educate me here.
I've been told since day one, it's all about the science.
Hey, I'm with you guys.
We know the game.
We know what's happening around here.
I'm standing with you guys.
You know, I respect the other people's opinions.
I'll let them do what they want to do, staying what they want to stand for.
It's understandable.
You know, we've got to fight what we want to fight for in the most respectful way possible.
And, you know, at the end of the day, the higher ups are making their money.
And that's why they're going to let these major leagues continue doing what they're doing versus the smaller.
You know, I grew up my whole life playing AA and up and up and up through my hometown and church leagues and house leagues and that kind of stuff.
And no one's playing that back home right now in smaller cities, obviously because of Corona, right?
But the millionaires can play it.
It's a matter of status.
We live in a world that has to do it greed, right?
But why can't our kids play hockey right now at the same time?
I mean, the professionals have been playing all winter long in the regular season, right?
Because it adds to the economy.
Oh, okay.
So it's about money then.
It's always about money.
So it's not about the science then.
No.
Although we pay a whole lot for our kids to play hockey.
Okay, then.
Yeah, I don't know.
It's about science at the end of the day, right?
The only reason I'm here today is because of science.
It's because all the vaccines I went through into this kind of because millionaires, they pay a lot.
Oh, so one rule for them, one rule for us.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yes, it was ever thus, eh?
Yeah, it's ridiculous.
This should make it even for everybody.
We're told because of the science, we can't have organized team sports, including hockey yet.
That's right.
During the pandemic.
Yeah.
Well, that is a little farther, eh?
Yeah.
I guess the big guys got money to pay for all the security and everything.
Make sure you're within six feet.
Okay, then.
Although I saw the Montreal.
Listen, I think they should be able to go to a game.
I don't think it's dangerous for them, really.
I think the whole thing's overblown.
These players are healthy young people, probably the top 0.01% in terms of healthiness.
They focus their whole life on fitness.
The game is in a huge building.
And the fans, I mean, sure, some amount of shape, but there's not a lot of 80-year-olds with multiple serious underlying health conditions.
That's who gets sick from the virus, that's who dies from it.
That's just not who's going to watch hockey at 10 grand a ticket.
I just think your kids should be allowed to play hockey too.
And you should be able to watch too.
And you should be able to go to work.
Unlike that doctor who says workers have to stay home, but I'm going to party.
Look, I don't think just the privileged lockdown class should have these privileges, which even in this case is rigging the rules so they personally benefit.
The frontline workers, I didn't see any, did you?
But who's kidding whom?
The millionaires are what's important, so they can meet up.
You see this?
It's a story in the Toronto Star.
They say that the Premier, Doug Ford, he won't even let schools open.
I guess, unlike the NHL, they don't have the right lobbyists, do they?
Biden And Beijing's Belligerence00:12:44
stay with us for more in the past 10 plus years we have visited every corner of Hubei province We explored dozens of undeveloped caves.
Lucilia Serracata.
Lucilia Sericata.
Lucilia.
I'm guessing Lucilla is from the Latin for light.
I'm guessing that the firefly.
Sericata.
Let's see.
Common green bottlefly.
Okay, I should stop pretending that I know Latin.
Keep going.
other types of virus vectors but I do hope these virus preserve for oh go back go back go back I was looking at the I was looking at the names instead of reading the words.
But I do hope these virus samples will only be preserved for scientific research.
Keep going and will never be used in real life.
Well, you know what?
That's what we call foreshadowing people.
That's what we call foreshadowing.
That's a dramatic moment.
I hope these viruses will never be used in real life.
keep going because humans need not only the vaccines but also the protection from the nature Pause.
Nearly 2,000 types of viruses have been discovered by Chinese CDC authorities over the last 12 years.
Only 2,284 types of viruses had been discovered worldwide over the 200 years prior to China's discovery.
They're very proud.
They're a virus superpower.
That's an incredible clip from a government-produced propaganda video in China boasting about how Wuhan researchers had discovered more viruses than the rest of the world combined.
And there you saw one of their intrepid bat catchers going into caves, trapping bats and the ticks on them, and bringing that back to the lab to work on those viruses.
Is it possible that what we call COVID-19 came from such a lab?
That's one thesis, the alternative being it leapt from animals to people naturally.
Well, our friend Gordon G. Chang has a major essay on this subject in Newsweek magazine.
The article is called Stop China from Getting a Civilization Killing Pathogen.
You can follow Gordon at Gordon G. Chang on Twitter, and he joins us via Skype.
Now, Gordon, great to see you again.
Congratulations on your piece in Newsweek.
I'm actually a little surprised that such a large reputation, legacy media company like Newsweek would publish a pretty edgy piece.
I'm impressed that they allowed you to put a controversial thesis because very recently, this would be something that would get you banned or deplatformed for even talking about.
Yes, the national conversation has changed so much in the last couple of weeks.
And, you know, it's really hard to say why, but I think that just the weight of evidence now points to a lab leak.
And part of it is, you know, the World Health Organization mission to Wuhan in January and February, it was evident that Beijing did its best to prevent the WHO from learning anything, especially those 174 patient cases that the WHO investigators thought could actually lead to the origin of the disease.
Well, Beijing just stiffed them.
And so, you know, you do this long enough and eventually people start to figure it out that, yeah, Beijing has something to hide and it must be the lab.
This felt fairly partisan.
I mean, I think one of the problems during the Trump administration is that Trump would say something and whether it was reasonable or not, a whole counterweight, Democrats, but also other institutions and the media would take the opposite view just to be contrarian to him.
And I know when he said the phrase China virus and when he blamed China, I felt like that itself caused a reaction because no one wanted to agree with Trump.
And I note that under Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, there was sort of an intelligence project to look into this.
Joe Biden nicks that, but I understand from reading in your article that Joe Biden has actually issued his own order to the U.S. intelligence community to get info on the roots of this virus within 90 days.
So it's almost like Biden himself is reviving Trump's thesis.
Is that an accurate statement?
Yes.
May 26 was an extraordinary day because we started the day with that CNN reporting that the State Department spiked its own investigation into the origins of the coronavirus, as you just said.
Then there was this uproar.
And then later on, Biden had to issue his order to the intelligence community to come back in 90 days to talk about what they knew about the origins.
I think that when Biden woke up on Wednesday, he had no idea that he was going to do this.
You know, because one of the things is he really has not been interested in the origins of this disease.
In February, he spent two hours, two hours on the phone with Xi Jinping.
And by Biden's own admission, he didn't raise the issue of COVID-19.
So, you know, Biden has been dragged into this, and the American public isn't going to let him go.
Wow.
Well, you know, I mentioned earlier that I was impressed that Newsweek ran this piece.
I suppose it's becoming normalized.
If Joe Biden himself wants answers, I guess that gives permission to a lot of folks to talk about it.
But it's been difficult until now.
I mean, Facebook, which throttles a lot of reporting, they regarded it as a conspiracy theory.
And we live a lot on YouTube.
YouTube has page after page of rules of what you cannot say about the pandemic, including disputing certain aspects of its origin.
Same thing with Amazon.
I think that's just as scary.
It's one thing for officials not to be interested, but when people express interest, for the tech giants to come in and censor it.
Why do you think that is?
Why is Facebook, which is banned in China, why is Facebook so concerned about this theory of the origins of the virus that until like two weeks ago, they were banning anyone from speculating on it?
Ezra, you stumped me.
I don't know the answer to that.
I fear the worst, that really this was a partisan posture that they took.
They wanted to protect the Democratic Party.
I don't know.
But whatever it was, it's not good because as you point out, you know, they censored information.
They censored views, which now very well could very well be right.
And I think are right.
So this is a very serious situation.
And why they did it, we're just going to have to ask Mark Zuckerberg and other people.
You know, you did some excellent writing in Newsweek.
Another grand title with a very long reputation in American journalism is Time magazine.
And I see news today that Time took close to a million dollars from China, didn't disclose it, but ran a long series of very pro-China articles.
And the full truth of the matter has only come out now.
Now, I know that China Daily often does this.
They buy inserts.
They're fairly usually marked as being infomercials.
They still have an impact, of course, because they're well written and they're written with the Western mind.
And they are propaganda, that's for sure.
But in Time's case, I think they concealed some of it.
Is that really what it's about?
Is that why, you know, John Cena, the Hollywood actor, had a blubbering apology?
Is that why the NBA will criticize America by is it just money or is there ideology underneath it too?
Yeah, there could very well be ideology, but certainly it's money.
You know, John Cena, that was a horrible episode.
But, you know, one thing, Ezra, is that the universe works out as it should.
There is karma.
There is a God in heaven because F9, the movie that Cena was promoting, actually is done very poorly in China.
So, you know, the gods have made sure that everything worked out well in the end.
Yeah, it's very tough for studios to deal with China.
I know that Mulan, when Disney tried very hard to appease China, they even had a shout out to the Xinjiang security forces.
That film, for whatever reason, fell afoul of the bosses in China.
But I guess it's still lucrative enough that Hollywood executives, sports executives, they think they're clever enough to be able to negotiate their way to financial success in China.
I mean, it's such a big prize.
I can see why they're motivated to do it.
But so easily they can step on the wrong political landmine like John Cena does.
It's a risky business trying to make a buck in China while being politically in tune with the dictatorship.
Yes, and some of these actions are reprehensible.
So you mentioned the credits in the Mulan, and they actually thanked the Security Bureau in that locality, which also runs a concentration camp.
So this was disgraceful.
And as well, the NBA, you have stars who endorsed Nike, and Nike was having a choose made in a facility in Qingdao through a contractor.
But nonetheless, Nike knew what was going on, which was basically slave labor.
And it was not just slave labor.
It was the slaves of a racial minority.
So here you have LeBron James, for instance, lecturing us about all sorts of things where he is endorsing a company that is engaged in slave labor.
And indeed, LeBron James himself criticized the general manager of the Houston Rockets for that tweet about supporting the protesters in Hong Kong.
So LeBron James standing for a regime committing genocide and crimes against humanity needs to be called out.
Let me ask you one last question.
I think a fair bit about Taiwan because it knew what was going on with the COVID-19 virus before most because it had a bad experience trusting the World Health Organization, trusting Chinese reporting about the SARS virus.
So I think Taiwan got through COVID with some of the lowest death rates in the world, frankly.
I'm worried about Taiwan because Beijing is so belligerent these days, and I fear that Biden is showing some weakness.
Is there any evidence that Biden is standing by Taiwan?
Is there anything in terms of sailing the U.S. Navy nearby or providing military sales to Taiwan?
Can you give me any hope that the Biden administration is standing with Taiwan in these troubling times?
Well, the U.S. Navy has stepped up its operations around Taiwan, in the South China Sea, which is a good thing.
And Biden actually invited Taiwan's representative in Washington to the inauguration, something that hadn't been done in four decades.
Avi's Stand with Taiwan00:03:02
So that's good.
What question is, what will Biden do if China threatens military action?
We just do not know.
And we heard from Kurt Campbell, his Indo-Pacific czar, say that he wasn't going to change the policy of strategic ambiguity, which I think is no longer appropriate because it's obviously not deterring China.
Yeah.
Well, I'm glad to have your wisdom, and I want to recommend to everyone, if you haven't read it yet, go to newsweek.com and read the essay by Gordon.
It's called Stop China from Getting a Civilization-Killing Pathogen.
And of course, you've got to follow Gordon on Twitter at Gordon G. Chang.
I really rely on you, Gordon, for your wisdom and experience.
And thanks for taking the time to come on our show.
Good luck out there.
Oh, well, thank you so much, Ezra.
I really appreciate the opportunity.
Well, it's our pleasure.
There you have it, Gordon G. Chang.
Stay with us.
Welcome back on Avi's confrontation with police in Australia.
Rob writes, Avi, you are my hero.
Rebel shows us how to keep fighting for freedom.
That was my favorite video.
Maybe our favorite video ever.
He was so good, wasn't he?
Incredible.
He made the police turn around, but that top cop would not apologize.
He's so stubborn.
Lisa writes, I'm so proud of Avi.
He's down there without the nearby support of the other rebels, but it's so heartening to see the Aussie people stand with him.
Fantastic job, friend.
I feel the distance acutely.
It's very hard to stay in touch with someone in Australia because the time zones are almost exactly opposite.
But I should tell you that every single day we have a video call with the staff with Avi, really just built around him.
Now, I mean, we talk about other things too.
But we have a regular staff meeting at 10 a.m. every day.
Avi's sleeping at that hour, so we don't wake him up.
But then at 5 p.m., we have a 15 or 20 minute meeting, the main purpose of which is to say hi to Avi, see how he's doing, have him hear what we're up to, share a few laughs.
It's on a video called on Skype.
And it, I think, is a key for him to feel like he really is part of the team.
He has a couple of allies down there.
He's got a guy with a cameraman.
He's a guy with security.
But we do help him with other things.
He's very self-sufficient, very self-directed, takes a lot of initiative.
He edits his own work.
He does a lot of his own writing.
So he really is independent in terms of his skill set.
But we do try and support him from up here.
I'm glad it's worked out so well.
And it's no surprise to me that he won our Viewers' Choice Award for Best Rebel last year.
Well, that's our report for today.
Until tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, so you at home.