Ezra Levant critiques Quebec’s new $100/month tax on unvaccinated adults, calling it regressive and hypocritical amid healthcare inconsistencies like Pfizer’s March booster push. Former Conservative MP Kenny Chu, born in Hong Kong, details Bill C-282, a Foreign Influence Registry Act modeled after Australia’s, to expose under-the-table lobbying by PR China, Russia, and Iran—despite misinformation labeling him "anti-Chinese." CSIS and NCSCOP warned of interference, including non-Canadian voters in BC ridings like Richmond Centre and Markham Unionville, where Chu lost by narrow margins. His advocacy for election transparency and national security reforms underscores systemic threats to Canada’s democratic integrity, demanding accountability beyond partisan attacks. [Automatically generated summary]
Today, Quebec's premier has announced a new tax on people who are unvaccinated.
I don't think he's thought it through.
He doesn't have his details or his plans.
I really don't know how it would be implemented, but really, why should he roll out details or plans?
Most of the pandemic lockdown has been by press conference or by public statement, not even by orders, let alone laws debated and passed in a parliament.
That's so old-fashioned, that whole parliament thing.
Anyways, I'll take you through what it means, how it's the end of universal healthcare, and who knows?
It might even create vaccine refugees.
But before I get to the podcast, let me invite you to become a subscriber to Rebel News Plus.
That's the video version of this podcast.
There's a couple of video clips I'd really like you to see, including an incredible guest that CTV booked with a straight face.
You just got to see this guy.
And I'm not being mean.
I'm just saying you just got to see this guy.
Anyways, go to RebelNewsPlus.com, click subscribe.
It's eight bucks a month, half the price of Netflix.
And you get my show every day, weekly shows from three of my colleagues.
It's half the price of Netflix.
And it's one of the ways we stay strong at Rebel News because we just don't take that tax money from Trudeau, which is why we're independent.
All right, here's today's show.
Punishing the Unvaccinated00:15:25
Tonight, first they tried convincing people to take the vaccine.
Then they tried bribing people.
Now they're punishing them with new taxes.
It's January 11th, 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 don't give them an answer.
The only thing I have is in the government.
But why?
Just because it's my bloody right to do so.
It's getting worse, not better.
The politics, that is, actually, the virus itself has never been weaker.
That's the thing about the Omicron variant.
It's spreading like wildfire, but it's really no worse than a cold.
And it's causing strange things to happen.
Healthcare workers who have the virus, who are sick with it, they're being told to still go to work, to the hospital or wherever, because it's just like a little cold.
It's not debilitating.
But imagine that.
You've got coronavirus, COVID-19, and you're being asked to go to the hospital to work, while people who didn't take the vaccine were fired from work.
That's probably why you need to work so much.
Even though the people who were fired may already be immune to it.
And I mean, actually immune, not what Pfizer says when they mean immune, but really immune.
So healthy immune people are fired.
Sick, fake vaccinated people are being called in to cover shifts because the healthy people were fired.
Makes sense somehow.
Oh, here's the Pfizer boss saying that if you doubt me.
And we know that the two doses of the vaccine offer very limited protection, if any.
The three doses with a booster.
They offer reasonable protection against hospitalization and deaths.
Against deaths, I think, very good.
And less protection against infection.
Now, we are working on a new version of our vaccine, the 1.1, let me put it that way, that will cover Omitron as well.
And of course, we are waiting to have the final results.
The vaccine will be ready in March.
Got it.
So two doses of the vaccine offer very limited protection, if any.
That's exactly what he just said.
Well, thanks for that.
A year later, how can you literally have that video out in the morning and then in the afternoon have Quebec's Premier announce that it is going to punish anyone who doesn't take the vaccine by enforcing a new tax on them?
The vaccine is the key to fight the virus.
This is why we're looking for a health contribution for adults who refuse to be vaccinated for non-medical reasons.
Those who refuse to receive their first dose in the coming weeks will have to pay a new health contribution.
These people put a very important burden on our healthcare network.
And I think it's normal that the majority of the population is asking that there be a consequence.
How does that work?
Not 24 hours after the Pfizer CEO says the vaccine doesn't actually really work.
At least not the first two shots.
But trust him, the third shot is really great.
After that disastrous confession, Quebec goes more extreme than they ever have before, more punitive, more obsessed by vaccines that don't work, says the chief vaccine salesman himself.
How is this going to be implemented?
Well, that's precisely the thing.
The more their strategy fails, the more they need to distract.
I actually don't think it was the Pfizer announcement that LeGault was trying to bury.
I think it was this one, the announcement about, on the street, the headline, Quebec Premier Reveals replacement for top health official after sudden resignation.
So the last guy quit in disgrace.
But look at the new guy, Dr. Luc Boilot.
I don't know anything about him other than his daughter is a personal assistant to Legault's health minister, Christian Dubay.
A fact that for some reason, the CBC state broadcaster doesn't mention in this story.
So the daughter of the new health boss is literally part of the government's propaganda arm.
You can be sure that Dr. Boilot will do exactly what he's told, including this shockingly unethical view for a doctor that sick people ought not to get health care in Quebec unless they're vaccinated or pay an unvaccinated tax.
How is that part of the Hippocratic oath?
Do no harm.
Are there going to be vaccine refugees from Quebec who can't get treated there, who have to go to Ontario or to the States?
You're literally telling people they may not have treatment in your hospitals and from your doctors.
You will turn them away, presumably, we haven't seen the rules yet, if they don't pay a submission tax.
As in, you can't convince them.
You can't bribe them.
So you'll find them.
You'll get a contribution from them.
And presumably, if they don't pay that tax, they won't get access to the system.
That's the implication.
Though it's clear this hasn't been thought through any more than anything else in these lockdowns.
It's just a desperation move.
Now, you already know that the unvaccinated are disproportionately minorities, especially black people and immigrants.
And that's just a fact for whatever reason.
So you're either punishing them with this new sin tax, as if choosing not to take an experimental injection is a sin, or you're punishing them with no access to health care.
Again, we haven't seen the rules.
I don't know what they're actually going to do.
Legault said he wanted it to be a significant tax.
He says he thinks $100 isn't enough.
There are some people that spend $100 on a fancy lunch.
And then there are some people who spend $100 to feed their entire family for a week.
Rich or poor, who do you think this tax will hurt?
And again, hurting them is the point.
It's about humiliation and punishment now, not about convincing.
I think Legault was watching Francis Emmanuel Macron when he said he wanted to, quote, shit on the unvaccinated, Mer Day.
So Quebec announced this today.
Do you doubt that dumb Doug Ford will follow with something like this tomorrow?
I bet New Brunswick will go next.
So if we continually have outbreaks because of the 10% that refuse to be vaccinated, then we have to go to the next level.
So I would say accommodation is, you know, you look at flu shots, you look at a lot of things that we do as routine.
This needs to be routine, but we have to decide first and know that would that 10% be jeopardizing our health system.
And right today, I think because we haven't stabilized with this COVID virus, we don't know that.
But that is a key factor on how hard you need to go.
Yeah, he's a conservative.
It's so odd.
In some ways, I see things getting better, largely because Joe Biden, the Democrat, is in big trouble.
So the public health deep state and the media party, they're doing what they need to do to pivot, as they say.
Here's Jake Tapper on CNN Joe's furious to learn that public health statistics about COVID deaths have been inflated.
He's just discovered this now and he's mad.
But if 40% in some hospitals, 40% of the people who have COVID, don't necessarily have problematic COVID.
They're there because they got in a car accident.
They're there because they bumped their head and they're being included as in the hospital with COVID, that number seems kind of misleading.
Yeah.
Here's the head of the CDC.
I've been talking about that for this for nearly two years.
Take a listen.
The overwhelming number of deaths, over 75%, occurred in people who had at least four comorbidities.
So really, these are people who were unwell to begin with.
They all wanted the maximum number of sick and dying to dislodge Donald Trump.
Now they want the minimum number of sick and dying to prop up Biden.
They're all talking about living with COVID now.
Not all of them, but the politically nimble ones.
But here in Canada, it's the harshest it's ever been.
Curfews again in Quebec, for heaven's sakes.
And the civil liberties people hiding as usual.
Okay, how about the media speaking truth to power, skeptical of punishing the sick and the poor, worried about the idea of breaking the universality of health care?
Why, they couldn't be happier.
Here's CTV in Montreal literally laughing at the prospect of people being punished.
LOL, laugh out loud.
That's a respectable news reporter, people.
He's not one of those rebels.
He deleted that tweet after Marie Oakes retweeted it.
Why?
Is he in Paris Piet?
Is he trying to pretend he's neutral and fairy let the mask slip for a minute?
Here's a senior Trudeau liberal, Bruce Anderson.
It was only a matter of time.
It's rational to say you can't just ignore urgent health guidance and use up all the public health resources in the crisis.
It's rational to put in barriers and penalties for those who won't comply with rules to protect lives and livelihoods.
Yeah, but that's just not true, Bruce.
Most people with the virus are actually vaccinated.
Most people in the hospital are vaccinated.
Stop lying, please.
Here's a former New Democrat candidate cheering on a tax for the poor, cheering on the end of universal Medicare.
That's a bit weird.
Michael Byers says, a health tax for unvaccinated adults?
Yes, please.
Here's a left-wing bailout reporter named Max Fawcett.
He says, good.
Every other province should follow in Lego's footsteps here.
Here's the Toronto Star, which stands up for the little people.
That, and I don't mind as much.
Greece did this more or less.
Here's McLean's, another bailout media company.
Stephen Maher says, not sure how difficult it will be to implement if bureaucratic hurdles, legal challenges, and political blowback will make it impossible.
Best thing would be if it becomes irrelevant after Omicron ebbs.
So not a word against any of this from conservative political opponents, political leaders that I've seen so far.
Have you?
Have you seen Aaron O'Toole weigh in on this?
That's a joke.
It's punitive.
It's punishing the unvaccinated, even though the vaccines don't really work, even according to the vaccine maker.
Fired, unvaccinated people are being desperately called back to work in some hospitals.
We fired too many of them.
It's a total mess.
Total failure by every politician.
So of course, ratchet up the blame and the punishment.
That's why this will ramp up, even though the narrative is crumbling.
It's because the narrative is crumbling that they must ratchet it up so that their shouts and screams hide their own failures.
This is a health expert that CTV had on to harangue the unvaxed for not being healthy like him.
Now, that's a sense of humor.
But really, as the CDC boss said, 75% of the people who died actually died from four or more underlying problems, being super fat, the main ones.
So maybe that fat guy there should pay more himself.
Should people who smoke or smoke pot or drink or drive fast cars or go downhill skiing or whatever, whatever risk, maybe they should all be punished too.
I don't think the leftists would ever accept that.
That totally goes against universality of healthcare.
They actually are loving taxes on people they consider low class.
That's what it is.
It's not low economic class.
Their aesthetics, their tastes.
The sins of the ruling class are always high class.
They're against beer, but they love champagne.
They hate dirty little cigarettes, but cigars are fancy.
They'll mock people who go to McDonald's, but they love cheesecake.
Did you take my meaning?
The ruling class are hypocrites.
It's more than hypocrisy, it's hierarchy.
They don't have to follow the rules for themselves.
They just want a scapegoat to blame for anything.
Mark my words, this will spread across Canada.
Taxes and fines and what?
Maybe soon jail?
Stay with us for more.
The vaccine is the key to fight the virus.
This is why we're looking for an health contribution for adults who refuse to be vaccinated for non-medical reasons.
Those who refuse to receive their first dose in the coming weeks will have to pay a new health contribution.
I know the situation is tough, but the vaccine is the key to fight the virus.
This is why we're looking.
Well, there you have it.
Quebec Premier François Legaud is saying he will ask, not ask, compel people who, for whatever personal or medical reasons, he claims he'll accept medical exemptions, but we know they have dismissed most medical exemptions and suspended doctors who have given medical exemptions.
But they claim that with that one caveat, they will start to levy a contribution from people who are unvaccinated.
And in CTV's story on the subject, which is breaking just as we record this, the premier said $50 to $100 is not enough in his mind while joining us to talk about this new tax, I guess you would call it, is the person who knows a lot about taxes, our friend Franco Terrazano, the federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
Franco, great to see you.
He's calling it a contribution, but politicians always use words other than tax.
They use levy.
They sometimes use contribution.
It's really a tax on the unvaccinated, isn't it?
Yeah, that's correct.
We heard the premier say contribution, but make no mistake about it, this would be a tax.
And no, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation does not support a new tax on Canadians.
And Ezra, you know, there is a lot of uncertainty going around right now, but here's what we do know.
We're not going to tax our way out of a pandemic.
Yeah, isn't that the truth?
It's sort of funny because we've seen governments try everything.
We've seen them pay cash to people who will get the jab.
We've seen in some jurisdictions lotteries.
You can win huge prizes.
We've seen Krispy Krem give free donuts.
I'm not sure if that's a public health matter, but I guess they've moved from the carrot to the stick.
New Tax on Unvaccinated?00:07:47
I mean, I'm just trying to think how this works.
I mean, you get your tax form and you fill out questions.
I don't know how they would cross-reference that with your health records.
I mean, most people pay taxes, I think, once a year.
And when would you be forced to pay this and how?
And who's going to be the tax collector?
I mean, I remember when the GST was brought in.
That's how old I am, Franco.
I don't know if you were even born back then, but just the administrative hassle of how do you do it?
And how do you get every tax accountant to do it right?
And like it was such an enormous undertaking.
I don't even know how you would go about collecting and checking and how would this tax even work?
I don't know.
I don't think they have that figured out yet.
Well, there's a lot of questions, but I have a big question.
It's why whenever there's this problem that politicians are looking to solve, their answer is always to hit taxpayers with higher taxes or new taxes, right?
We've been in this pandemic for nearly two years now.
And is this really the best solution that they can come up with is to hit Canadians with a new tax?
Really?
Is that the best that they can do?
That's a great point.
You know, there's another point.
And, you know, for a long time, if you asked Canadians what makes Canada Canada, it's hard to believe now, but there was a point in time when a lot of people would have said Medicare.
That's what makes us different.
And there was this whole mythology around how we're so much better and so different than Americans.
And no matter what your circumstances are, you'll be covered in Canada.
We heard horror stories of Americans who were bankrupted because they didn't have health insurance.
And so the idea of universality was such a liberal, you know, core tenet of belief and that everyone's covered no matter what.
This seems to be yet another admission, and that's not really real.
If you're going to charge people extra taxes based on and say you're not going to have access to health care without him, I don't think you can actually call yourself a universal health care system.
And they're trying to control this behavior with taxes.
Well, what's to stop them from controlling other behaviors with taxes?
And maybe they should, but, you know, and that's the thing.
If you're going to tax a fit young person who has made the decision that the risk of the virus is actually lower than the risk of the vaccine, are you going to tax someone who's fat?
And I ask with some personal interest in that.
Are you going to tax someone who drinks?
Are you going to attack someone who rides without a bike helmet?
Are you going to attack someone who goes ice climbing or rock climbing?
I mean, if you are.
Fine, but don't pretend that you're some universal healthcare system anymore.
Well, I think that we definitely needed to have a very frank conversation about reforming the healthcare system even before the pandemic.
But of course, COVID-19 has really put the spotlight on some of the issues with our healthcare system.
I mean, for starters, taxpayers in Canada pay an arm and a leg for healthcare, but we don't get the best services for all the money that we're spending.
So certainly, I think the Canadian Taxpayers Federation is open to talking about new solutions in the healthcare system, right?
Letting businesses, letting entrepreneurs play a bigger role in delivering healthcare services to relieve some of the burdens on the government healthcare system.
But here's the thing.
I mean, the last thing that Canadians need are new taxes, right?
Many Canadians are struggling through the pandemic.
So many people lost their job, took a pay cut.
Many small businesses are seeing their revenue evaporate before their very eyes.
And the last thing that we need in Canada is a new tax.
And make no mistake about it, that's a new tax.
You're exactly right.
And listen, I wasn't suggesting that we necessarily should start taxing all these other behaviors.
I'm just pointing out that once upon a time, the left said, don't you worry, you're covered, rich or poor, black or white.
We're all in this together.
Now it's clear that we're not.
I want to make one last point.
And again, it's the left.
They use the phrase progressive taxes or regressive taxes.
And here's what I mean.
If you're a millionaire, what does 50 or 100 bucks mean to you?
Not a lot.
If you're a working class person, if you're unemployed, 50 or 100 bucks is a lot.
And by the way, we happen to know some demographics about the people who are unvaccinated.
And for whatever reason, people who are black or other minority groups have a much lower vaccination rate than white people do.
And I'm just telling you what the data says.
So if you're going to charge 50 or 100 bucks, that's one of the things Lego was banning about.
He said that's not significant enough.
And it's going to fall harder on young people, unemployed people, minorities, new immigrants.
That's something that the left would call a regressive tax, yet they're proudly imposing it on their own people.
Like I'm with you, no new taxes.
But of all the taxes to choose, to tax a minority, a poor person, a fixed sum, that's regressive.
Well, I think it would definitely hurt, right?
And the last thing we need right now is a new tax in Canada.
But Ezra, I mean, we were chatting a little bit about this offline, and I think it ties into what we're talking about right now.
Look, you have these politicians that they say that there's these problems, and their so-called solutions is always to put in a new tax or raise taxes, right?
Just look at home prices right now, right?
Yes, we do have a problem where there are sky-high home prices in Canada.
And now we learn that the federal government is using our tax dollars to dream up new ways to hammer Canadian homeowners.
We actually just saw a report funded by the CMHC and their solution, get this, their solution to rising home prices is to hammer Canadian homeowners with a new tax, right?
That is outrageous.
But Ezra, one of the big debates on GHG emissions, well, these politicians' so-called solution to the environment is the carbon tax.
But Ezra, we have seen for years, even in BC where they had the highest carbon tax in Canada, the carbon tax did work.
Emissions continue to go up and up and up.
You know what?
They're coming at us about five different ways.
Franco, you guys are one of the few advocates for taxpayers.
Your website's taxpayer.com.
It's a great website.
And the reason we love talking with you is you are one of the few groups in Canada that is not funded by the government.
So you can be independent.
You're non-partisan and you hold everyone to account.
We're grateful to be friends with you.
And I know this just broke minutes before we had you on the show, but I think your point is a solid one.
You're not going to tax your way out of a pandemic.
This is absolutely a tax.
And I think I hope that you guys at the Taxpayers Federation take this and run with it because someone's got to.
And I think it really is going to fall to you because I think the rest of the media party and the political media establishment is going to love it.
But I wish you good luck, my friend.
Well, Ezra, thanks so much for having me on today.
Well, it's our pleasure.
There you have it, Franco Terrazano from taxpayer.com.
Stay with us.
More ahead.
Hey, welcome back.
Your letters to me.
Carrie says, Avi is correct.
Australians are mad at the government, not Novak.
The disgusting discrimination and political posturing is something we are all over.
Well, it's funny.
I want to show you.
You know what?
Elections and Transparency Demands00:17:45
There's a rule in the TV biz, the radio biz: always assume the cameras are running.
Always assume the microphone's on.
I want to play for you a TV station in Australia.
There's going to be some foul language here.
Look how they're talking about Novak Djokovic.
You just got to watch.
This is incredible.
Take a look.
Whatever way you look at it, Novak Djokovic is a lying sneaky.
He's an a like, whatever way you look at it, it's unfortunate that everybody else stuffed up around him.
That's it.
I mean, like, to go out when you know you COVID positive.
Well, I don't think he was even COVID positive.
I think that form is in there, fell over his own eyes, which is what happens, right?
Yeah.
That's what's happened.
And then him now then ticking he didn't go to Spain.
Yeah.
It's just like.
Yeah.
But I think he's going to get away with it.
Well, he is going to get away with it.
Yeah.
But he's.
I think most fair-minded people would say, look, the bikes are not.
And ask.
Did they do the right thing by him?
I don't know.
No, I don't.
I don't.
I don't think so.
That's the problem, isn't it?
I don't think anything was gained by putting him in an immigration hotel.
No, I don't think so.
But the trouble is, how do you justify that person's on the same plane with him who also has he can't justify it?
But the fact is, life is never fair.
Some people fly first class, and some people.
Do you know what?
Like, it's never fair.
But that poor check girl that was sent home, hunted down and sent home.
Yeah, he's arrogant.
He's a troublemaker.
He followed the rules they told him to follow.
They approved him.
And by the way, he actually is immune.
He's not faking it.
He got sick and now he's better.
It's just incredible.
Sean DeLap says: those who preach tolerance are usually the most intolerant people on the planet.
Tolerance to them means agreeing with all their ideas, no matter how wacky.
Say anything different to them, and they will set out to ruin your life and getting you sacked from your job.
These people are seriously lacking in the self-awareness department that they don't realize everything they claim.
They're everything they claim to hate.
I think that is exactly true.
And I think this whole anti-bullying thing, and you know, all the people who remember once a year there's this Bell Let's Talk, you know, mental health moment where Bell Media just pretends to care about mental health for a couple of days.
And they get all these people to read.
Those same people are the locker downers who've caused more mental health and depression and drug addiction through this lockdown than anything else in history.
Hey, no bullying, though.
Hey, mental health, though, right?
I don't buy it.
Chuck Andrews says, New Brunswick got rid of that troublemaker Gabriel Girard, who dared to keep the death rates at zero with that Trumpish hydroxychloroquine.
Well, I don't know the story of Mr. Girard or Dr. Girard, I don't know who he is, but that's the thing is in Canada, if you get sick, they don't really treat you.
They just say stay home.
They don't prescribe you azithromyosin or hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin.
You just sort of be sick until you're so sick you have to go to the hospital and maybe they put you on a ventilator, God forbid.
So we're not actually treating the virus.
That's weird.
The only thing they're obsessed by is a vaccine that doesn't really work.
Why don't they talk about other solutions?
That's odd to me, isn't it?
Anyways, that's our show for the day.
I'm going to say goodbye to you now until next time, on behalf of all of us here at Rubble World Headquarters.
Good night and keep fighting for freedom.
And I want to end with a video of the day from Drea talking to former Conservative MP Kenny Chu, who's speaking about securing Canadian election integrity, especially from Communist China.
Take a look at this video.
We'll see you tomorrow.
Throughout the years, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service's CISAs and other national security apparatus have actually warned the government of Canada, Canadian, that Canada is subject to foreign interference, be that from People's Republic of China, but also Russia and Iran, etc., foreign powers.
And that is why this act, not specifying, not specifically aiming against certain country, it's, in my perspective, from my point of view, it's so much needed because we need that to bring it down from under the table to above the table.
As somebody infamous said, you know, sunlight is the best disinfectant of things.
Transparency will help media such as yourself to hold government to account, to hold people to account, officials to account.
That is why I want to introduce this, even though according to the House of Commons rules, there's very little chance that this will see the night of day in the House of Commons because of the ranking.
Just how vulnerable are Canada's federal elections to risks like foreign interference from powers like the Chinese Communist Party and voter fraud?
This report is one of more to come discussing just that.
Drea Humphrey here with Rebel News and the next election will occur no later than October of 2025.
But considering the federal liberals were so thirsty to try yet fail at gaining a majority government last year, they were willing to call our most expensive election during a proclaimed pandemic.
It would not surprise me one bit to see another snap election called much sooner than in three years.
But all speculation aside, one thing is for certain.
Whenever our next federal election ends up happening, we the people deserve to have valid results.
The democratic process that surrounds our elections is a staple for our democracy.
Without it being completely in check, how can we truly know if the public officials who get their seats are sitting there because they were democratically elected by Canadians?
Now, recently, I've looked into two concerns surrounding the integrity of our federal elections.
In one example, I interviewed a man in BC named Robert Paddock, who is one of at least a group of people who, despite not being Canadian citizens, received a voting card addressed to them during the last election.
Yeah, it actually says straight on here, you have to be a Canadian citizen.
But the problem is that there's a couple of problems with that, actually.
Now, for being a permanent, like it actually says you have to come in with a photo ID to actually vote, because you ought to be familiar with the fact that there are two lists.
One is a bunch of people were on some kind of list to receive these in the first place.
This is not actual registration for voting.
This is just to say, hey, you're in the sort of system that you can be aware of the fact that you can now go and register officially, but it's a stepping stone towards voting, and it's also a stepping stone to maybe potentially abusing that vote.
Now, I'll do a separate report going over how that can be a mistake sometimes.
But what you should know right now in this report is that when I try to get a specific answer to how prevalent a problem non-Canadian citizens actually voting in our last two federal elections turned out to be, I was told by the Office of Commissioner of Canada Elections that they are not at liberty to disclose such information.
But as always, this is rebel news.
We don't back down from investigative journalism.
So I'll be digging deeper into that because Canadians deserve to know the answer to that question.
But since we don't receive millions of dollars from the federal government's media bailout, I'm going to have to ask you guys to help me do so.
If you enjoy and appreciate our independent journalism, please help us with our investigative reports.
There's various costs that are attached to that.
So you can open up another tab on your device and head to rebelinvestigates.com to donate what you can there.
And of course, we appreciate and need your support.
Now, in today's report, you're going to hear about another concern surrounding our elections.
I sat down to interview a former Conservative MP of the Stevenson Richmond Eastriding in BC, Kenny Chu.
Chu lost his seat to the now Liberal MP Parm Baines by a margin of less than 10% in the last election.
And after that, he publicly raised concerns about what he believes to have been a targeted misinformation campaign against him, likely fueled by foreign influences in China.
Take a listen to the latest on that situation from Chu himself.
So I introduced a private member's bill.
It's called Bill C-282.
And Bill C-282 is termed Foreign Influence Registry Act.
And the whole point is to bring transparency to foreign influence in Canada.
And it's modeled after the Australians.
What basically is, we are demanding that a go-between between the foreign government and our government officials, be it senators or MPs, if they are lobbying on behalf of a foreign entity, that they register and make that public to Canadians through media such as yours so that Canadians can actually judge it with their own eyes.
It's just a transparency act.
It should have been called the Foreign Influence Transparency Act.
But, you know, It's been labeled as anti-Chinese and anti-China.
Right, I saw a statement of that.
I believe it was on WeChat, an article or something went up and it indicated that you yourself were anti-Chinese because of the bill.
Help me make some sense of that.
I believe you're from Hong Kong, aren't you?
Well, I'm from Hong Kong.
I was born in Hong Kong, but I came to Canada at the age of 17, 18.
But prior to that, I've been immersed in Chinese literature.
My education is in mother tongue, Cantonese, Chinese history, and all that.
So I know a thing or two about the country China, even though I was born in Hong Kong.
The bill itself, the irony is that to avoid political attack like that, we've deliberately avoid naming countries in the bill itself.
We want to leave it to the experts and the bureaucrats, such as those in CISIS or NC COP, for them to actually help us fill out which countries this registry act should pass would be applicable to.
And so the bill, if you look at it, it did not mention any country by name at all.
So for some people to be misled to think that it's targeting certain individuals, let alone anti-Chinese, it's too rich.
Well, I think when we talk about the dangers of foreign interference with elections, Beijing does come to mind as well as Russia.
So what would you say in particular about the people who did read this article or multiple articles?
What was it about them that maybe made them conclude that it was anti-Chinese?
Well, it's not us, it's not anybody who indicated the foreign influence.
In fact, throughout the years, the Canadian Security Intelligence Services CISAs and other national security apparatus have actually warned the government of Canada, Canadian, that Canada is subject to foreign interference, be that from People's Republic of China, but also Russia and Iran, etc., foreign powers.
And that is why this act, not specifying, not specifically aiming against certain country, it's, in my perspective, from my point of view, it's so much needed.
Because we need that to bring it down from under the table to above the table.
As somebody infamous said, you know, sunlight is the best disinfectant of things.
Transparency will help media such as yourself to hold government to account, to hold people to account, officials to account.
That is why I want to introduce this, even though according to the House of Commons rules, there's very little chance that this will see the night of day in the House of Commons because of the ranking.
I still want to do that because it is something that we need to bring up for discussion.
So when did things start to seem as though they were going awry in your campaign?
Did you notice before the actual results of the election that something was fishy?
Tell us about when the signs first started to arise.
Oh, I would argue it's even way before the elections.
At the beginning of my term as a member of parliament, I went to Hong Kong to participate in an independent elections observation mission in 2019, a few days after I was sworn in as the Member of Parliament.
Because throughout 2019, I believe we discussed that earlier before, Hong Kong has actually undergone severe struggles.
There's a lot of instability.
The way I see it is it's trying to, the Hong Kong government is trying to resolve a political problem using a brute force police solution, which is wrong.
And the district council election would present the Hong Kong people a political way of solving the political problem.
And surely they did.
And with 300,000 Canadian passport holders living in Hong Kong, it's important that Hong Kong gets back to the normal as soon as possible.
That's why I decided to jump in.
And that's when it actually first started.
I was being portrayed as an activist.
I was being portrayed as anti-China.
And then, of course, the pandemic came.
The Canadian government never listened to parliament's demand, for example.
We wanted to shut down border way back in late January, early February.
Flights from China, Wuhan, for example.
Back when it was considered racist to do so.
Exactly, exactly.
The irony is that we heard those complaints, guess what, from people from China.
They were calling our office, WeChatting our office, asking us, why are we not shutting down flights with Wuhan China?
These are Chinese nationals.
And so, you know, the Liberal government never did anything, and they were delayed until pretty much the WHO admitted that, yes, it's a pandemic.
By then, it's already spread around the world.
So 2020, it was a very tough year, but 2021, if people recall, in February, the Parliament of Canada had actually passed a motion.
Those who actually voted had all voted unanimously in support.
It's the Uyghur Muslim treatment in Xinjiang fulfilling the definition in the UN of genocide.
And that was actually passed, like I said, multiple parties, Liberals included, NDP and all that.
But for that, the committee that I was sitting on, International Human Rights Subcommittee, I was the vice chair, they got sanctioned together with the Conservative MP Michael Chong.
It's kind of weird because everywhere else, the US, whatever, they always sanctioned the government people, the people who are responsible, people with power.
Never, very seldom that you sanction an opposition MP and a subcommittee in the parliament for that matter.
But that provided the foundation of attack for many of my detractors.
They start accusing me of being sanctioned by China.
They start accusing me of anti-China, not just anti-Chinese.
All the subsequent anti-Asian racism, because I wasn't invited or provided the opportunity to show my support for my Asian Canadian constituents.
I was being labeled as supportive of the anti-Asian racism.
And even though I spoke very prominently in the English Richmond News called Richmond News, even that there were people accusing me on air, Chinese radio stations that I've seldomly heard, never showed up on Richmond News and all that.
So it's filled with disinformation and complete false accusation.
13 Ridings Under Scrutiny00:08:25
Bill C-282 added towards those campaigns and it culminated and climaxed during the election basically.
Do you think if those rumors had not taken place you would have been re-elected?
Well election winning and losing it's very complex and complicated matters.
There are definitely lessons that I've learned how I could possibly articulate my view and our party's platform better to Canadians, Chinese or not, in Seats and Richmond East.
How we could actually get our people out, our supporters out to vote.
There are many, many issues.
But in an election that is impacted by COVID pandemic, an election that suffered very low voter turnout rate in a highly polarized election such as this, having a few hundred votes weighed from one side to the other, it's actually sufficient in changing the result of that.
My colleague Alice Wong, for example, in Richmond Centre, lost thousands of votes comparing to 2019, and she lost by 300 votes, just like that.
And this is not unique to the Richmonds, but also throughout Canada.
Somebody did an analysis comparing, listing out the highest Chinese voter demographic writings, and then comparing with the regional and also provincial Conservative support,
and they realized that there is a correlation, actually a reverse correlation with the regional and the provincial trend, meaning that the Chinese Canadians are subject to some kind of special campaign.
Wow.
Now, you were one of the first to come forward with this shortly after the election with this concern, but now my understanding is that there's 13 different ridings that are in question.
What can you tell us about those locations and ridings?
I read that on Media Report as well.
I believe it was CISA's talking to Conservative colleagues.
I believe these are all mostly urban ridings.
The Greater Vancouver areas, also in Greater Toronto areas.
For example, the highest concentration of Chinese Canadian or Canadian of Chinese descent is, if I'm not mistaken, Markham Unionview in Toronto, Richmond Centre in BC, and CIFS and Richmond East.
And these three were held by Conservative members and now lost, all three of them.
In addition, there's also other ridings such as Coquitlam, then also in Calgary.
If I'm not mistaken, even a stronghold like Michelle Rample, she actually had lost significant number of votes as well.
Hers is also considered an urban Calgary riding.
So how do you relate?
How do you find out the reason?
That takes a lot of effort.
But the fact that all these ridings, like I said, if you line them up by the Canadian of Chinese descent ranking, then you will see a pattern in there.
Have you been kept in the loop about what's happening with the investigation from our national security?
And if so, what can you tell us about that?
Well, actually, they've contacted me even prior to the election was called.
We sat down and they explicitly asked me not to disclose what we've talked about.
But, you know, needless to say, national security foreign interference is a subject.
They're very concerned.
And in fact, so much so that after I start getting feedback on some of the screenshots that are circulated, reading some of the articles that are available on WeChat and hearing some of the commentators, their comments on air, this CRTC regulated radio station in Canada, I became so concerned that I've actually called them up.
and they came to my campaign office and we had another long chat about what happened and I provided them the information.
I asked them about follow-up, but they refused.
They are not going to disclose if or not.
They are investigating further.
But surely enough they are so concerned that they wanted to receive all these screenshots that I provided them.
The other thing is, remember we were talking about a year ago during the summer 2020 at a protest supporting the two MICOs and also the returning of them safely.
I was very clear in my speech and also my presence that I'm not an activist.
I've been a member of parliament and my role is to show the support.
I said in the meeting there, while Meng Wanzhou is wrapping dumplings a few kilometers away from where the protest was held, the two Michaels were incarcerated in places that we don't know where and their personal freedom was significantly hampered and one cannot even provide them with reading material or reading glasses for that matter.
For that, subsequent to the report and especially during the election, I was attacked.
I was attacked for taking a political stance, signing myself with the Hong Kong activist and that I'm anti-China.
So all these are basically half-truth and sometimes completely falsehood just to chop sui together to make a narrative work and that is I'm anti-China, I'm anti-Chinese.
Matter of fact is I'm pro-Canada.
Well we see that in lots of different examples.
It's such a polarization.
If you support something it automatically concludes that you're against something.
A lot of people had concerns about the organization Black Lives Matter and if they voiced that then they were against black people even if they were black.
It's a crazy world out there but there are special interest people making use of these polarizations in their own interest for sure.
Well thank you so much for sitting.
I think this is such an important conversation.
There were warnings of this before and now we're seeing this so hopefully something gets done and we'll be following this closely at Rebel News.
Thank you so much.
Thank you.
Thank you Driya and Merry Christmas to everybody.
I look forward to hearing more from media such as yourself in shading, in casting some more light into this because this is only the service under the ice.
We know that there is also intimidation by Iranians, by Russians and also of course the PR China and it's important that Chinese or any other foreign power be kept at bay.
And in the day and age I think the government of Canada needs to start not only protecting our electoral integrity but also Canadian safety especially.
We have for a long time not been doing that.
Absolutely agree.
Thank you.
Whether you're a loyal rebel yourself or just discovering rebel news for the first time in this report, if you appreciate that we are looking into our federal election and making sure everything is squeaky clean there, consider helping me dig a little deeper when it comes to non-Canadian citizens voting in our country.
Please do so by going to rebelinvestigates.com.
That will go towards the cost of that report and more of our other reports just like it.