Ezra Levant reads heartfelt letters from listeners like Daria (thanking him for pandemic reporting and spotlighting allcreaturesrescue.ca’s 300+ rescues) and Verna Moorcroft (highlighting his support for Adam Skelly, raided by 100 police, and Chris Scott, jailed for unvaccinated dining). Phil VT’s story of vaccine-related medical denial reveals systemic hypocrisy, while Nebula USA questions Canada’s identity, contrasting its anti-slavery history with critical race theory’s limited influence. Ezra praises Fight the Fines’ evolution into thedemocracyfund.ca, aiding 2,100 people, and warns of creeping authoritarianism—echoing Milgram’s and Ash’s conformity experiments—before urging resistance with Ruth Bard’s defiant Christmas carol twist. [Automatically generated summary]
Normally this is where I invite you to subscribe to the video version of the show called Rebel News Plus.
But today I'm going to beg you not to do that because you don't want to see what I look like today.
Normally I stand with a suit, but today I'm wearing a Santa's hat and I'm sitting in a sort of a very fat Santa kind of way.
So it's best that you don't go to RebelNewsPlus.com and click subscribe.
Just enjoy the audio podcast.
It'll stop your eyes from burning.
Today I sit in the Santa chair and read your letters.
So that's going to be the entire show.
Without further ado, here's today's podcast.
Tonight, letters to Sansa, or in this case, letters to Ezra.
You're watching the Ezra Levant show.
Why should others go to jail when you're a 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'm publishing it is because it's my bloody right to do so.
Well, hello, my friends.
You know what?
I'm Jewish, of course, so we have Hanukkah Harry.
We don't have Santa Claus.
I'm kidding.
There's really no such thing as Hanukkah Harry.
But it's my pleasure to pretend to be Santa for one night.
I'm physiologically, I'm a good fit for the part.
As you know, for a few days, actually a few weeks, we were calling for people to write letters to Ezra, just ask me anything kind of stuff.
And we're styling it as sort of a Christmas Eve chit chat.
So I don't know, we're going to try something new.
It's great to be here.
And I got my elf hat on.
This big Santa's bag really is stuffed with letters.
Like these are real letters in here.
I have not seen any of them in advance.
Our producers look through them, but I have no clue what's in them.
I'm just going to go through these letters and read as many as I can.
And hopefully the letters are interesting and I'll try and make my replies interesting.
So anyways, let's give it a shot.
Dearest Ezra, well, that's a little familiar.
I have two questions.
One, your reports and information have gotten me through the pandemic and made me feel less alone.
I helped to run a rescue for abused animals, allcreaturesrescue.ca.
And the pandemic has been a bigger challenge to us than the previous years.
We have rescued over 300 animals and have been stretched to the brink.
I was wondering if you could do a shout out to our Toronto-based rescue, allcreaturesrescue.ca.
My second question, how did you and David Mentis start working together?
Thank you, and the happiest of holidays to you all.
Daria, Ontario.
Well, that's a friendly letter.
You know what?
It's funny because my family got a dog for the pandemic just for company and for something to focus on.
And now we've got two little dogies.
And I'm absolutely happy to give a shout out to allcreaturesrescue.ca and good for you.
On your second question, David Menzies, I met him.
I mean, I sort of heard him on the radio because he would always do the menzoid on the radio.
And I got to know him when we were at Sun News Network.
And he was doing great reports back then.
So when we started Rebel News, I thought it was just a matter of time before we were united.
And now he's just doing a great job.
And in fact, in our Rebbe Awards, our Viewers Choice Award, I don't know if you know this, but David won the bronze medal.
He came in third, second was Sheila, and number one was Avi Yamini.
So thanks for your letter.
I'm going to keep going through these.
This is fun.
There's a lot of letters here.
could be here for a while.
I got my Red Bull and of course my slim fast chocolates because you can just see right now I'm going slim slow.
I got to speed that up.
Anyhow, back to the letters.
Hello Ezra.
I want to thank you for the presence you've been during this pandemic.
It's amazing that you thought of crowdfunding for fines.
It seemed a bit like the young boy's response as he threw jellyfish back in the sea.
It matters to this one, but it has been crucial and your support for people like Adam Kelly, Chris Scott, various store owners, and all the pastors both in funding and exposure has been tremendous.
People were encouraged to keep going because they realized that as far as the Rebel and your followers are concerned, they were not alone.
Long may you and your wonderful team of reporters, camera crews, and tech guys keep going.
I'm so privileged to know you, Verna Moorcroft, Ontario.
Well, thank you.
And we have a lot of friends named Moorcroft.
I'm sure they're related.
Adam Skelly, we interviewed him and we certainly covered the police raid on his restaurant.
There were 100 cops, horses.
It was just insane.
It was a shock and awe, abusive police.
And I think that that's been one of the narratives of this pandemic is how police have allowed themselves to be political intimidators.
So do stormtroopers.
And I say this as someone who, for the first 47 years of my life, was a super fan of police, like unquestionably, irrationally pro-police.
That's been broken in me, I regret to say.
And Chris Scott, well, he certainly has fun.
In fact, he spent time in jail just for keeping his whistle-stop diner open in the town of Mirror, Alberta.
I mean, my point is, if you don't want to go to the, like, it's the only gas station in town.
It's the only general store in town.
It's the only restaurant in town.
If you don't want to go there, fine.
If you want to schlep to the next town.
But seriously, to arrest him and jail him in the province of Alberta, whose motto is strong and free, just crazy.
Now, by the way, I note that these aren't really questions.
I said ask me anything.
These are more love letters.
All I want for Christmas is a new family doctor.
About a month ago, I blew out my back at work and needed a referral from my family doctor to get x-rays.
He refused to see me in person because I don't have a COVID vaccine yet.
Long story short, I called the College of Physicians and Surgeons, explained the situation to them, and now they are investigating my doctor.
It turns out he's outside college mandates on this specific issue.
He's actually required to see unvaccinated people in person.
Now my family and I have de-rostered with him and are looking for a new family doctor.
Merry Christmas to everyone, Rebel.
You're the best.
Phil VT in Ontario.
Again, I thought I was answering questions, but I do appreciate your story.
I'm skeptical that the College of Physicians and Surgeons is going to do anything.
I think they've been a tremendous failure during the pandemic.
They have actually investigated doctors for giving medical advice that is appropriate to the patient.
The difference between public health and actually a doctor that meets with a patient is a doctor and a patient learns about the patient, listens to the patient, gives advice particular to the patient, and the patient can take it or leave it.
There's a relationship between the two.
Whereas a public health doctor may have an MD after their name, but they're not really a doctor.
They're a bureaucrat or a politician with a degree.
And they don't look at people as individuals to be cared about.
They look at them as ants in an ant colony.
There couldn't be anything more different between an MD who actually practices medicine and a public health tyrant.
All right, maybe there's a question here.
Ezra, it has been a pleasure to listen to your shows, and I'm very glad that you started Rebel News.
Honest reporting is what is needed, and I'm thankful for yours and all that work at Rebel News for your hard work.
I sincerely wish you God's blessings in your work.
A blessed Christmas and a happy and blessed year to you, your family, and all.
Tim Vanden End.
Well, that's great, Tim.
I appreciate that.
You know, we had an illegal Christmas party a few days ago.
I'm not going to tell you the secret location where we had it, and we engaged in a little bit of human trafficking to bring in some unvexed people from afar.
The good news is that Rebel is strong.
The bad news is we're strong because the world is burning, and sort of we're firemen.
So I would rather be a fireman who just sits and plays chess all day in the firehouse rather than a fireman who's called into the fire every day.
I want to be like the Maytag repairman, just sort of lonely.
Unfortunately, the world is going the wrong direction, and our motto is telling the other side of the story.
There's more demand for that than ever.
I wish the world were boring.
Here's one from the US of A. Hello, Ezra.
I thoroughly enjoy your live streams on Rebel News.
It's always exciting to hear your point of view.
I actually have two questions for you.
Since I'm American, I'm actually curious as to what Canadian actually is.
So how would you describe Canada's values, core beliefs, and identity?
And on another note, I heard critical race theory is also in Canada.
Is there a big movement against it like in America?
Why am I not?
Also, have a blessed holiday season and keep up the amazing journalism signed Nebula USA.
Well, thank you for this.
On the first point, you know, Canada was a few things.
It was French explorers and settlers in New France, which is now called Quebec.
And it was British North America, part of British North America.
And after the American Revolution, those who were loyal to the king came north.
There was a phrase, United Empire loyalists.
So those are the folks.
So they brought with them some political sensibility.
Now, I'm not saying that 200 plus years later that still defines the country.
Other things do too.
Socialism has crept in to our country through two trudeaux now.
I think that we're a little bit more European in some of our sensibilities, and we don't have the robust American Constitution to strengthen our freedoms.
But we are closer to America than we are to anyone else.
We're seamless almost.
And so that's what I think where Canadian is.
It's between Europe and America on a bunch of different spectrums.
On your question about critical race theory, it is in Canada, but not as deeply rooted as in the United States.
It's one of those knockoffs.
Like we like Occupy Wall Street.
I understand Occupy Wall Street because there was a big bank bailout in the States.
But there were no banks bailed out in the 2008 financial crisis in Canada.
So having an Occupy Toronto movement was just a copycat.
It was just a colonization by Americans.
But it just didn't fit here.
I think a lot of that is the same with critical race theory and Black Lives Matter.
You may know that Canada, as part of the British Empire, abolished slavery very more than two centuries ago, abolished the trade of slaves, and then sooner than most other places in the world abolished the owning of slaves.
The Royal Navy and their West Africa squadron hunted for slave trading ships for 50 years and freed literally hundreds of thousands of slaves en route from Africa to America.
So that's part of the Canadian tradition, not only being part of the British fight against slavery, the abolition of slavery, but being the destination at the end of the Underground Railways.
Fighting for Freedom00:04:07
So that's a little bit of that for you.
Well, here's a friendly one from a buddy of mine.
Thank you for the invitations to partake in sane conversation, something that has been in short supply the last two years.
A Merry Christmas and blessed Kwanza to all.
That's from our friend Andrew Lawton at True North, the True North Initiative, our good friends.
That's at TNC.net.
That's so friendly.
That's our buddy Andrew.
You know, we have him on the show all the time, and occasionally he has me on his show too.
All right, I'm going to keep reading that.
I'm having some fun.
I'm warming up to this.
There's not a lot of questions.
There was no question there.
All right.
I wish you were seated next to me on a long plane ride.
We'd have so much fun talking about conservative issues.
The time would fly by.
Bruce Atchison, Alberta.
Well, Bruce, you think you'd like that.
You think you'd like that.
Would you really?
I sort of spill over.
Like, this is a nice wide chair, really nice and comfy.
If we were next to each other, I would be like this, and I would, I'm, you know, not because I'm an aggressive territorial conqueror, but I sort of spill out over the armrest because there's a lot of me, Bruce.
And I think it would be a good conversation, but I think you would sort of, especially if I was in the middle seat, I think you would like that for about 15 minutes.
But it's nice of you to suggest, hey, I appreciate this.
I got to keep going.
I'm just going to see how many.
I got a whole bag of these.
Can you believe it?
Oh, here's a short one.
Merry Christmas.
Happy New Year.
Hang tough.
And keep fighting for freedom from Paul McCullough.
Well, Paul, it's nice to hear from you again.
Thanks very much.
I see some familiar names here.
We will keep fighting for freedom.
In answer to the point earlier about the Fight the Fines project, I think that was actually, if I had to list the number one accomplishment that we've had this year, it would be the spin-off of our non-profit work.
Like Fight the Fines was always sort of charitable in nature, right?
Like crowdfunding money to hire lawyers to help other people.
That's not really like a business.
That was always sort of non-profit in its feeling.
So to spin that project off to a registered charity, thedemocracyfund.ca, and just to be able to have that charity issue charity tax receipts and to do all that stuff that's not really business, it's more charity.
And that enabled us to help so many more people.
So there's about 2,100 people that the Democracy Fund is helping fight the fines.
And then the Democracy Fund has taken on a bunch of vaccine cases.
Those are a lot harder to fight.
And we haven't yet found our groove yet on that, but we're working on it.
Here's a friendly one.
Dear Ezra, E is for excellence, which Ezra exudes.
Z is for zealot, the zeal of this dude.
R is for rebel, the news that is real.
A, the admiration all rebelers feel.
Heartfelt respect, gratitude, and admiration always to Ezra and the Rebel News team.
All the very best for the Christmas season and the year ahead.
Louise Barnett, Alberta.
Louise, that is so nice.
And that's a great poem.
You got the rhyme and the rhythm.
And we do have zeal.
You know, I've heard people describe us.
I mentioned earlier that I'm Jewish.
I'm not Christian, even though I'm dressed sort of like a hobo Santa.
But I've had people describe Rebel News in different ways.
Some people use the word, it's a mission, and that's true.
Some people have used the phrase a calling.
That's sort of heavy.
One friend of mine, Leo, said it's a ministry, which is a very Christian word, isn't it?
Like to minister, like a minister in a congregation.
But you know, it's true.
We are a ministry of ideas and of works.
I believe that everyone in our company feels that way.
A Ministry of Ideas00:15:17
I mean, you don't get to meet everyone because I think there's a grand total of 17 people in our company who occasionally appear on camera.
But there are 33 other people in the company who are never on camera.
They're video editors, they're an accountant, there's a chief operating officer, there's lawyers.
So there's a lot of people you don't see.
For every person who's on TV, we actually, now that I think of the math, have two people behind the scenes.
But I believe that even the people who aren't directly implicated in the ideological editorial work, I feel like they have a sense of mission and ministry.
Here's a short one.
What do you think the implications for free speech are with the recent revelation of Julian Assange's extradition for prosecution in the U.S.?
Signed Jason Farrell, Ireland.
I'll start with an anecdote and then I'll answer your question.
When I visited Tommy Robinson at HMP Belmarsh, Her Majesty's prison Belmarsh in the UK, when he was serving time there for contempt of court, he was in a special handling unit called the Sweets that was designed for extreme cases.
There were a lot of terrorists in this prison, by the way.
It's really the UK's version of Guantanamo Bay.
That is where their terrorists go, their worst murderers.
There were three prisoners in the special handling unit where Tommy was.
Tommy was one of them.
He was some murderer, and you could hear his hollering through the stone walls.
And the third prisoner was Julian Assange.
Can you believe that?
It was really like a political prison wing.
About Julian Assange, I looked into his case more than a decade ago, probably right at the time when he made news the first time when he was arrested.
And the information that I got at the time was that he had released secret information about the U.S. military that gave away the identities and secrets that caused terrorists to be able to kill American agents or tipsters,
that he really breached the national security of America and, for example, how to defeat some American technology that would set off IEDs.
So I guess what I'm saying is when I first learned about Julian Assange, it's clear to me in retrospect that what I learned was the information of the national security point of view.
You could call it the deep state.
There were certain things that I observed, like WikiLeaks started with the goal of challenging dictatorships like China and Venezuela.
And then I saw that this one fella, Julian Assange, focused on America, and it set me against him.
And I wrote that he was a spy.
And I wrote that, I don't know, 10 or 15 years ago, and frankly, I didn't revisit the subject for 10 or 15 years.
But it's only in the last couple of years that I have reconsidered the matter, and I don't think I'm ready to declare myself an Assange fan.
I'm just honestly not.
I haven't spent enough time to familiarize myself with the subject.
But rather, what has happened is that my credulous approach to the narrative of the national security military-industrial complex has been shattered.
Just like I said for the first 47 years of my life, really police could do no wrong in my mind.
I mean, I would support police in 99.9999% of the cases.
That's gone.
And so is my credulous approach to the narratives of the CIA and the FBI because I see how politicized and weaponized they are.
I don't know enough about Julian Assange to give you a deeper answer to that other than to say if I could turn back the hands of time to when I wrote my original work about him a decade ago, I don't think I would have written that because I don't think I continue to trust the CIA, the NSA, the Pentagon in general when it comes to Julian Assange.
I just, I've seen too much about what they do.
So that's sort of a way of saying I don't know.
Holy moly, this is a four-page letter.
This is a four-page letter.
I'm not going to read the whole thing, but I'll read a bit.
Dear Mr. Levant, my name is Serena Johnson.
I'm a blind student at King's University in Edmonton, Alberta.
The university began implementing strict COVID restrictions that have harmed my way of life.
Before my classes began on September 8th, 2021, every student at King's was asked to fill out a survey about their vaccination status.
Whether or not people had obtained vaccinations for any illnesses had not mattered to the university until this point.
The fact that they requested people's vaccination status regarding COVID deeply troubled me.
I believe that whether people choose to obtain the shot or not should be considered private medical information.
I stated that directly on the survey.
The university also announced that a clinic would be open at the school on September 16 for those who wished to get the shot.
On September 8, my first day back at school, I noticed a negative shift in the school's atmosphere.
My educational assistant began pressuring me aggressively to get the shot.
It's all up to you, the people who need to be vaccinated, if we get back to normal or not, she said.
Isn't that the truth?
They're really saying it's a blame thing, aren't they?
This was unusual behavior that I had not seen from her before.
It honestly disturbed me that someone who I respected would harass me for having different beliefs.
On September 16th and 17th, the school was closed due to the restriction exemption program.
That's Kenny's vaccine passport scheme.
Enforcing tighter controls on Alberta's businesses.
These measures would come into effect starting September 27.
Now, this is a very interesting letter, and I will read it, but I'm not going to read the whole thing now just because in the interest of time.
I am six credits away from a three-year Bachelor of Arts.
My GPA is high.
Being forced to walk away like this saddens me because I love to learn.
School was my life.
Without that to turn to, my purpose and freedom have been removed.
That's a very sad but commonplace story.
All I want is to be treated like a human being rather than a third-class creature.
I will continue to fight for my freedom.
Now that I am no longer in university, I have ample time to pursue this goal.
I hope that my story inspires others to fight for their rights as well.
Sincerely, Serena Johnson.
Well, this is a very sad story, Serena, and I have to tell you that my email box is like a waterfall of tears.
I get dozens of stories like this from people who are forced to leave their jobs, forced to leave their schooling, or people who cannot make that choice, forced to undergo an injection contrary to their wishes.
For those who say it's consent, I invite them to look at the criminal code definition of extortion.
It is not free and informed consent to say, for example, here's a false choice.
Your money or your life.
Like, that's the cliché of a mugger jumping out of an alley with a gun.
Your money or your life.
I'm giving you the choice, man.
I'm not forcing you to do anything.
You have the choice, your money or your life.
Hey, your choice, I'm fine.
Or it would be like three people voting, the two of us voting to take your money.
Hey, it was a Democratic vote.
No.
It violates basic civil liberties that are immune to majority rules.
And it's not a real choice when you take away someone's job or their livelihood or their access to the public square.
And in Serena's case, demonizing her.
It's terrible.
Ezra, greetings from a long-time Rebel supporter.
I can't emphasize enough how important Rebel is to the Canadian media landscape.
Rebel is the only right-wing media organization of significance in the country dominated by middle and left-wing news outlets.
The past two years have been a shocking revelation to me.
I've come to realize the ugly truth that a healthy, stable democracy can quickly descend into oppressive authoritarianism.
The central principles of democracy, free speech, freedom of assembly, and the right to protest have been trampled underfoot.
The police have been turned from protecting the public to bullies who become violent oppressors or those who just want to protest peacefully.
Equally shocking is that most of the public seem to be fine with what's happening.
It is sad how few have the courage to stand up and say that this is wrong.
In such an atmosphere, your work and that of Rebel has become amplified in importance.
I wish you and everyone of the Rebel the very best for the coming year.
Paul Williamson, Alberta.
Paul, this was supposed to be Ask Me Anything.
I'm joking around.
Thank you for the very friendly words.
And unfortunately, it's true, as I said at the very beginning, or near the beginning, we've had our most successful year ever in terms of viewership and the growth of the company.
We're twice as large now than we were a year ago.
When we have staff meetings, we sort of joke about how many, who's the old hand, someone who we hired six months ago is now like the dean of the company because we, in fact, we had someone start new just this very morning.
So we're growing.
We have more views.
We're twice the views of a year ago.
But this is all because we're in a crisis.
And there are a handful of other, I'm not even going to use the word right-wing because being against big pharma, being for bodily autonomy and your choice, you know, my body, my choice, supporting labor union workers against unions that sell them out to the corporations for a vax mandate.
Is that right-wing?
Is it right-wing to say, like a young woman to say, I don't want to take a forced injection because I'm worried about my ability to have kids and this isn't tested yet in the long term.
Or, I don't want to, I'm really into natural health.
I'm extremely fit.
I watch what goes into my body.
I don't feel like I'm at risk from the vaccine.
I don't want to be forced into it.
Is that right wing?
Does I support that person?
Traditionally, that's what the left-wingers would say.
Look at our candidate, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Look at Naomi Wolf.
Those are not right-wingers.
I can't even believe it.
There's this communist named Max Blumenthal, who I used to, frankly, despise when he would talk about economic systems.
But for some reason, he's a commie who cares about individual liberty.
I didn't know there was such a thing.
I can't stop retweeting what he says.
My point is, left and right don't quite make sense anymore when you have Doug Ford and Jason Kenney to right-wingers using authoritarian, Jason Kenney, arresting pastors and jailing them.
I don't even know what right-wing and left-wing is anymore, but I know I'm on the side of freedom and personal choice and individuals, and that's put me in league with people who I would never even talk to a couple years ago.
Now, there are other friends, like TrueNorth News, TNC.news.
We had a fun letter from Andrew Lawton.
Western Standard Online, a magazine name I had something to do with 20 years ago.
You know, it's not a lot.
I'm running out of names.
There's individuals like Spencer Fernando.
There's a few, but really, you're right to say when we're the largest, and that makes me very sad.
All right, here's the letter.
Again, I don't see a question in it.
Hello, Ezra.
I would like to tell you a true story of the Grinch who stole my son's Christmas.
My son, Oliver, practices water polo five times a week for at least two hours.
Water polo is everything to him, and he hopes one day he will pay off of the scholarship.
I'm going to skip ahead.
Without ever, we have already, okay, I won't skip ahead.
He has a medical condition which makes the COVID shot very risky for his heart.
His doctor has granted him a medical exemption after a great deal of tests and scrutiny.
His medical exemption is accepted by all parties except Water Polo Canada.
They contracted a doctor who graduated in 2019 to deny his medical exemption days before the first National Champion League tournament earlier this month.
We've already paid for him to attend the National Sports Academy, airfares for the season, and sign him up for a year-round Water Polo Club.
Without ever talking to or assessing my son, this inexperienced doctor felt entitled to dye him from playing in any competitive capacity.
My Christmas wishes for you to look into the doctor's accreditation as I don't even believe he holds a medical position, judging by the fact he used his university email and Gmail account for rejecting my son from playing.
I believe the Water Polar Canada board is taking vaccine politics to a whole new level with this decision that's hurting my son greatly.
Thank you and have a Merry Christmas.
Best regards.
Mike Peltzner.
That's an atrocious story.
The fact that your son's doctor, and I said this before, you know, an MD focuses on a patient, gets to know them over the course of time, years, maybe even decades, knows them, examines them, talks to them, understands them, and you say, after a great deal of scrutiny, and some newly minted MD, if that is even his status, hired specifically to be a counter-doctor, an anti-doctor, is a disgrace.
It's a disgrace to medicine, by the way, and shame on the College of Physicians and Surgeons.
All right, I'm going to look for something that actually has a question in it.
There's no question here, but I'm going to read it anyways.
Merry Christmas, Ezra.
I hope you also had a happy Hanukkah.
I recall the story of Hanukkah that preceded the miracle of the Eight Nights of Lights.
That story where Judas Maccabees and some good Jewish men deposed Antiochus Epiphanes, took back the Second Temple, and physically and ceremonially cleansed and prepared and repaired it.
These days, the story takes on an even greater meaning with Justin Trudeau as both Antiochus Epiphanes and his own pagan statue Jupiter Olympus, thus defiling our country like Epiphanes did with the Temple.
Keep up the good and most necessary work you and the Rebel do.
Yours truly, Don Edward Cook from Ontario.
I tell you, you got your history, you got your Old Testament in there.
Appreciate the Chanuka shout out.
Thank you very much.
And I think you're right.
I think Justin Trudeau sort of worships himself.
I'm glancing at this letter.
I do not see a question, Mark.
I do not see.
This was supposed to be Ask Ezra.
Ask.
Ask implies a question, not tell Ezra.
Dear Ezra, okay, well thank you.
I cannot tell you just how much your show, Presidents, and Revolution has meant to me over this past year.
What a year it has been.
Two years really.
Hearing your voice brings me calm and sanity in a time when no one can feel very alone.
I should say a lot of people when they hear my voice say the opposite.
So thank you.
I've often wondered throughout the day week, am I the only one that thinks this is nuts?
Conformity's Cost00:06:22
And then I listen to Rebel News, you on your broadcast, and I'm reminded, no.
I'm the same one here.
I have people.
I'm not alone.
I'm thankful.
My husband and I are like-minded and feel for those who are divided in households.
You know, that is such an important point.
There are sometimes, and that's the worst part of this pandemic, is people pitted against each other.
The government is atrocious, of course.
But when you have shopkeepers pitted against customers and families divided, that is the worst thing.
I remember I used to read stories in the New York Times.
I'm divorcing my husband because I'm anti-Trump and he's pro-Trump.
And I thought, that is an awful way to live.
You're breaking up your marriage over Trump?
How about just don't?
But, I mean, I had a Zoom call today with a fella.
He's divorced.
They've got joint custody of the kid.
And guess what?
One parent wants the kid to be jabbed and one doesn't.
Imagine the gravity of that debate.
This is absolutely atrocious what's been done.
I am thankful for Rebel News and the truth that is broadcast.
I'm thankful for the laughs.
I'm thankful that just by tuning in, I can know that I'm not alone.
Thank you for your tireless efforts put forth for the people of Canada.
Little do they know what you have done for all of them.
And rest assured, when Judgment Day comes, and it will, you can stand and say you did all you could do.
You spoke and reported truth.
You were true to who you are, to what you saw.
You did not sell your soul.
May you and your team continue to prosper all the best to all who work for Rebel News and their families.
Let us continue to march forward into 2022, knowing we did all we could and we spoke truth into the darkness.
Lori Brower B.C. Laurie, thank you for that.
It is extremely important to know you're not alone.
In fact, there's, you can find it pretty quick on YouTube.
There's two studies that were done in the 60s.
I don't know if you saw, I did a show on this a few months back.
One of the studies was an atrocious study called the Milgram Experiments, M-I-L-G-R-A-M.
And it was a test that was like a tricky test.
The test was someone was called in and said, there's someone in the other room.
We're going to ask them questions, simple questions, and if they get it wrong, you turn the knob here and they'll get a mild shock.
And there was someone wearing a white lab coat giving the instruction.
But it wasn't really the person on the other side of the wall who was being tested.
That was just an actor.
The test was actually the person being told to give the jolt.
So the person would get something wrong, and the guy in the white lab coat would say, give him a jolt.
And you'd hear, ow!
And the person giving the jolt would say, is this right?
And the person in the white lab coat would say, yeah, it's okay.
I'm in authority.
It's okay.
And then there would be another question for the actor behind the wall.
He'd get it wrong and the voltage would go up.
And they would be, ah, like, it wouldn't just be ouch.
It would be real pain.
And then they would do it again.
And every time the voltage would go up, and then after a while, the actor went silent as if he was knocked unconscious.
And the Milgram test obviously was not to test, you know, the actor was just faking it.
He wasn't being tested.
The test is, would you meet out pain, painful violence, if someone in authority told you it was okay?
And a terrifying number of people, when they saw someone in authority saying, do it, it's okay, do it, it's okay, would do it.
That's called the Milgram experiment.
There was another experiment called the Ash Conformity Test.
And that was a little bit different, but just as terrifying.
A group of people were sat next to each other, and they were told to compare the length of lines on a piece of paper, like a child's test.
Like, like, seriously, a three-year-old could do it.
They had a piece of paper with a line this big, and another line this big, and another line this big.
And then they would show you a line and say, which size is it?
Like, seriously, a three-year-old could do that.
And there were five people in a row.
Four of them were actors.
And one of them was the real subject of this.
And so occasionally, the actors would all say the wrong thing.
So they would say, this short line is actually this medium line.
And it was evident it wasn't true.
But every one of them said that.
And the ash conformity test was, when everyone else in the room is saying that out loud, will you dare to say the opposite?
A shocking number of people would deny the facts of their own eyes just to fit in.
Now, there was a part two of the ash conformity test.
If one other person said the truth, then the ability of the test subject to stand with his instincts was greatly enhanced because he thought, oh, I'm not alone.
I'm not crazy.
Like it would be if someone showed you blue and said it was green and everyone said, that's green, that's green, that's green.
You say, well, maybe I'm wrong.
Like you would doubt your own eyes unless there was another person saying that they're crazy, right?
And that's the value of standing up.
Because you let a million other people in silence know there are others out there.
There are others out there.
And that's the power of Rebel News.
And I think of Dr. Julie Panessi of the Democracy Fund.
To let other people know, not only that there are others out there, but that there's a moral case.
So there's a very long answer to your question, but it speaks to the conformity.
When you feel you're alone, it's hard.
But when you know there's just one other person out there, it's less hard.
Stand Up and Be Counted00:12:29
Hello, Ezra.
Just a short note to thank you for the supernatural effort that you and your team put every day.
There's no questions.
This is not a query.
There's no question mark.
I marvel at the quality, accuracy, and integrity you have in journalism.
And as a person, God has given you a value of voice, integrity, and ability to seek out and report the truth.
I hope that you were able to enjoy some time with your family and friends this Christmas.
God's continued blessings on you, my friend, Paul Conrad, Manitoba.
Thank you very much, Paul.
Listen, I'm just joking.
I wanted to answer questions.
I literally called it Ask Me Anything.
I thought there was going to be some tough questions.
I thought there was going to be personal questions.
I thought there was going to be questions that were so embarrassing, I didn't even want to read them.
I have not seen any of these.
No question mark.
Merry Christmas, Ezra.
Before the summer, I'm afraid to say I didn't know who you were.
That's okay.
Call that the Eden time.
The Garden of Eden.
I'm sorry that we're no longer in the before times.
I'm 67, 11 retirement.
You should try it sometime.
Anyways, how I got to know of you was because my wife was watching one of your shows on the iPad in our holiday trailer at a Campground in Alberta.
She was interested in the non-mainstream news about this COVID scam.
She cranked up the volume on the iPad for your show, and I listened while making coffee.
My first thought of you and your voice was that she was listening to some stand-up comedian.
I did think you were funny and informative.
I'm not even sure what broadcast you were doing.
Anyways, now you are like a bad drug for us, and we can't kick the habit.
Keep up the good work and the quest for our freedoms.
Once again, have a Merry Christmas.
Rick and Marie Narenberg.
Well, that's pretty friendly.
Thank you very much.
You know what?
I have to tell you that most of the time when people laugh, I don't think I'm telling a joke.
They laugh, and when I try and tell a joke, there's no laughing.
So I say things and people laugh, and I sort of say, yeah, that was a good one.
But normally the laughs don't come when I think they should, and they come when I think they shouldn't.
Okay, finally a question.
What is your favorite sports team?
Mine is the Toronto Maple Leaf, signed Pujit in Ontario.
And here's where the embarrassment comes in.
Because I am not very sportsy.
I am not very sportsy.
You know, there was a show in the 90s when I was growing up, and there was this immigrant to America called Balki Bartakamus.
And I don't even know what country he was supposed to have come from, but it was all about him and the malapropisms.
So he was staying with this other guy, and he would say, oh, get out of the city, instead of get out of town.
They built an entire show on him getting idioms wrong as a newcomer.
It was actually a very cute show.
And he was asked a sports question once, which team would be what?
And he would say, oh, the Giants.
Well, the Giants are obviously going to beat the Bulls or whatever.
He would ascribe, you know, he would decide which team is going to win by thinking, well, who's, you know, the Flames would beat the Oilers because the Flames would catch the oil on fire.
That's a maple leaf that's going to burn by the flame.
That's the kind of analysis he would bring to sports.
That's about the level I'm at.
I'm sorry.
See, that's the kind of embarrassing questions I thought there would be a lot more of.
Hello, Azure person.
Just want to wish you and the entire Rebel team a great Merry Christmas.
I also want to ask how a person may submit information and perhaps apply for a job at Rebel.
Or where a person may find job options for positions your company requires.
I would love the opportunity to help speak the truth and report the other side of the news in any capacity.
Before Twitter kicked me off, we were following each other, Chris, Minister of Smart Arsery.
And you and Sheila retweeted me numerous times.
I was pretty effective hammering the media and politicians in a factual and humorous way.
I did that with an iPad.
With better resources, I know I could just destroy those people.
Anyway, a very Merry Christmas to you and all.
And please tell Sheila Chris in Bonneville says hello.
Have a wonderful weekend, sir.
Chris Coyle.
Well, Chris, that's a great question.
We have a careers page on the Rebel News website.
I think it's rebelnews.com slash careers.
And we have some specific positions we're looking for.
For example, I'm really looking for someone to cover the Chinese political beat.
And I don't, and what I mean by that is China's influence in Canada.
Now, I think that that position, you have to be able to speak Chinese.
So it's going to probably be a Chinese-Canadian person because I want them to follow the Chinese media in Canada because I believe we need to cover that beat because I believe the government of China is operating within Canada politically.
So that's an example of a technical requirement for a job.
We have some other technical requirements.
Right now we're looking for a director of development.
That's a fancy way of saying someone to help us grow our revenue for donations.
So without checking, I don't know what the positions are that are available, but here's the advice I give to anyone who wants to work for us as a journalist.
The advice is, show me, don't tell me.
I should tell you that in our entire company, as far as I know, there's only one person who graduated from journalism school.
And that's David Menzies.
I certainly didn't.
I don't think Abiyamini did.
I know that Sheila Gunri didn't.
We are true citizen journalists.
So I don't need to see some degree from a J school.
In fact, frankly, if you have that, I'm worried that we've got to unteach you some bad ideas.
You can do this simply by sending me a dem.
We're a video-based medium.
I'm guessing you've got a smartphone with a camera on it.
So that's really the only tool you need.
You know, use a selfie stick if you want, use a webcam if you want.
A lot of people say, Ezra, I know I could be a great journalist.
Well, you know that in your heart, but show me, make a video 60 seconds long, minimum.
I wouldn't go longer than three minutes.
Do a video between one and three minutes long.
Don't worry about editing it.
Don't worry about production values.
I just want to see, here's what I'll see.
I'll see what you look like and sound like.
I'll see what topic you choose.
I'll see how you make the case.
I'll see your energy level.
I'll see if you're an independent thinker.
If you tell the other side of the story.
If you send me a two-minute video from your cell phone, that'll tell me more than any job interview or any application will.
So that's what I tell people.
And I've got to tell you, 95% of the time I never hear back from people.
Now, I'm not saying that's going to be your case, but I'm just saying.
Dear Santa Ezra, it may come as a surprise, but all I want for Christmas is neither my two front teeth or things to go back to the old pre-corona normal.
What I want for Christmas is a renewal of old values.
If this scandemic has revealed anything, it's the corruption and wrought in all the systems and institutions we once held dear.
I want to return to classical liberal values like freedom of expression, sovereignty of the individual, equal opportunity, not outcome, integrity, not outcome, integrity, honesty.
I already had been thinking along these lines when I learned of Derek Sloan becoming the new leader of the Ontario Party.
I'm still waiting to hear back from some context, but I can only imagine what they will say, especially the Alberta Separatists he had cozy up to.
Just one honest leader who has the integrity and fortitude to stick to what is right and have a real vision for Canada.
That's what I want more than anything else.
Please bring that down my chimney.
And I think all of Canada would be thrilled.
Jillian Davis, Ontario.
Again, I do not see a question in there.
It's called Ask Me Anything, but I'll, no problem.
I like Derek Sloan, but it is true.
He ran here, then he ran there, then he ran here.
And I think he's got to start building something and make a commitment to someplace.
I like the guy.
I have to say I've never disagreed with him on policy.
My fret is that Ontario already has a lot of splitism, right?
You've got Randy Healier.
You've got Belinda Karahalios.
You've got Roman Baber.
You've got, I'm just, I'm not remembering all of them.
There's like about five different alternatives running off in all directions.
So I'm worried this is more splitism.
All right, how are we doing for time?
Merry Christmas, Ezra, and thank you for all the quality content.
Now I usually listen to the podcast while working.
But my question for you, do you think Canada will ever be the same post-pandemic and God willing post-Trudeau?
Because it's hard to see a future when both the liberals and conservatives look the same in policy and action.
And as a young person, I always try to stay optimistic, but it's definitely no easy task in the year 2021.
Signed, Lucas Wisbrod.
Look, no battle is truly ever lost because no battle is truly ever won.
And, you know, as Pope John Paul II said, where there's life, there's hope.
The Jews say Lechaim to life because where there's life, there's hope.
I think that's a very Old Testament idea, too.
And sometimes you don't know that you're on the verge of a breakthrough.
You don't know.
Are we on a blip or a trend?
Or is the pendulum about to swing back?
I was very despondent about U.S. politics after November 2020.
And really for the next year.
But then I saw what happened in Virginia.
And Glenn Youngkin just creamed a Democrat Party household name in a state that went plus 10 for Biden a year ago.
And it's for all the right reasons that the Republican ran.
And I look at Ron DeSantis and how he's doing.
And I look at how close the Republicans came to winning in New Jersey.
That was a plus 16 Biden state.
And I think, you know what?
Maybe the pendulum is going to swing back.
And just a year from now.
And so there's hope there.
Now, that's an American system with Americans who love freedom, I think, more than many Canadians do.
But do you see my point about, like, it looked pretty bleak a year ago, and now it's just looking, frankly, polls suggest it's going to be the biggest wipeout for the Democrats in 40 years.
Here in Canada, I think we're missing courage.
Every single government party is the same on the lockdown, but so is every single opposition official opposition, whether you're a conservative, liberal, NDP.
I think the problem is that no one has shown the courage to be different.
And those few people in Aaron O'Toole's caucus who dare to be different, I think in Marilyn Gladoux who talked about a freedom caucus.
She was threatened by Aaron O'Toole and sort of forced to recant.
I think that Canada is more to the left than America, obviously.
But we don't even have a chance.
Our conservative leaders are completely identical to the liberals they claim to want to replace.
So I know that I'm not giving you any particular reasons for hope, but I think sometimes the way America goes, Canada goes too.
Or we're affected by trends there.
And maybe if the Republicans sweep the midterm elections in 2022, and right now I think the mask mandate states, I think all but like 12 American states have gotten rid of their mask mandates and American courts are throwing out Biden's vax mandates.
Maybe if they get freer, maybe we'll get an echo of that.
I don't know.
Hopeful.
All right, it's going to be my last letter, I think.
Ezra, the world is a less depressing place because of you.
Again, there's no question here.
It's called, ask me everything.
It's hugely helpful to know that plenty of other people are just as horrified as I am by the direction the formerly free world is taking.
And Rebel News is the flagship of that fleet.
Since I excel at mutilating other people's poetry, for an updated version of an old carol, I heard the bells on Christmas Day, a new oppressive carol play.
If you're unjabbed, then stay away.
No peace and no goodwill to men.
And in despair I bowed my head.
I cannot take your shot, I said.
Too many end up sick or dead.
Nuremberg Laws Redux00:04:38
Believing goodwill to men, then peel the bells more deep and loud.
Conform, comply, get with the crowd, or stay at home until you're cowed.
So much for peace, goodwill to men.
For some real encouragement, read the original words written during the American Civil War.
Fight the good fight, everyone, and a defiant Merry Christmas to all.
Ruth Bard B.C. Thank you, Ruth.
I say again, there was no question in there, but I take it in the Christmas spirit it was meant.
Well, listen, I mean, there's more letters in there, but I'm going to cork it at that.
It's nice to read your letters.
I would have liked some more actual questions, but it gave me a chance to talk about other things I went on at some length about the Ash and Milgram experiments, but they're very interesting, very telling.
It reminds me of what Jordan Peterson said when he was asked what the lesson of the Holocaust was, what the lesson the Second World War was.
And he said, the lesson is the Nazis could have been you.
What would you really have done?
And he says, odds are, you would not have been the one dissident in the room.
Odds are, you would have gone along at least passively, and maybe some of you most actively, that you are the Nazi, he said.
And he didn't mean it in an accusatory way.
He meant it in a, be honest.
Are you really the freedom-loving dissenter that you think you are?
And we've seen the measure of people.
I mean, for the longest time, you know, for two generations, people said, well, I'll tell you what I would have done if I was in Nazi Germany in the 30s.
Well, you know, we now know what you would have done.
And I'm not equating the lockdowns with the death camps of Nazi Germany, but I am equating the incremental diminution, diminution, how do you say that word, of our freedoms with the way it was in Nazi Germany.
I said this the other day on the show.
Germany didn't go from Hitler taking power in 33 to the Holocaust overnight.
In fact, it actually took 10 years. to get into the full thick of it.
Took two years to get to the Nuremberg laws.
Kristallnacht, I think, was in 1938.
The invasion of Poland in 1939, September 39.
The Holocaust didn't really get started until 1940.
41.
I think 42, 43 was the depth of it.
44 in Hungary.
It took 10 years to get from a modern liberal democracy, a thoughtful place where Jews were, you know, Albert Einstein, that was his country.
I mean, all these leading minds.
Took 10 years.
And I'm not saying we're at the death camp stage.
I'm not going to say that.
That would be crazy.
But we're at the stage where parliament meets rarely, where the media is restricted and Trudeau promises to do more, where police are political errand boys now, where they're not shy about roughing people up, even women, even children, where people are being segregated and turned into second-class citizens for reasons that were unacceptable short months ago, where both the governing and opposing parties are agreed on almost all items of importance,
where the courts rubber stamp these fiats without disagreement, and where doctors are at the center of it.
Don't forget the key role that doctors played in Nazi Germany.
And if you've forgotten, Google the Nuremberg trials, the doctors' trials.
It was the doctors of Nazi Germany that conducted some of the most atrocious behavior and that led to our modern medical ethics.
And so I'm not saying we're in 1940s, but I'm saying we're certainly past 1933.
In a way, we have our 1935 Nuremberg laws in a way.
We're now starting to see ghettoization like they had.
And I'm not saying we're going to go all the way, but I'm saying they didn't go all the way in Nazi Germany overnight.
And it's important that we stand and fight while we can.
Anyways, a lot of thoughtful letters in there, and I appreciate your kind words.
I'm joking around when I say where are the questions, although I would have enjoyed it.
I'm going to wrap things up there.
It's Christmas Eve.
I want to say Merry Christmas to you and to my Jewish friends.
Happy Hanukkah, happy Kwanzaa, to those who participate, and of course Festivus being one of the most interesting rituals around.
I'm joking around.
It's great to have you with us.
I really appreciate your support through the year.
Until next time, on behalf of all of us here at Rubble World Headquarters to you at home, good night.