Manny Montenegrino, a lawyer and former Harper advisor now leading Think Sharp, argues Canada’s Charter rights have been eroded since 1983, with up to seven million facing restrictions like vaccine mandates violating Section 7—a crisis he calls the darkest moment in history. He praises Pierre Polivier for championing freedom of conscience (Section 2) and mobility (Section 6), dismisses Jean Charest as unfit due to past Liberal ties, and warns against Patrick Brown’s no-fly zone proposal, citing nuclear risks. The Freedom Convoy protests, he claims, exposed institutional overreach, including the RCMP and Bank of Canada, while Trudeau’s divisive rhetoric mirrors historical abuses. Polivier’s rising popularity signals a chance to reclaim Canada’s identity—"freedom is our nationality"—but media missteps remain a cautionary tale. [Automatically generated summary]
Today, a feature interview with my friend Manny Montenegrino, a leader, an advisor, a lawyer, a political counselor to Preston Manning, Stockwell Day, Stephen Harper.
He's been around the Conservative Party.
We'll talk to him about the Conservative race and the state of freedom that's ahead.
But before I get to the podcast, let me invite you to become a subscriber to Rebel News Plus.
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Thanks.
here's today's podcast.
Tonight, a feature interview with our friend Manny Montenegrino about the conservative leadership race.
It's May 23rd, and this is the Ezra Levant Show.
Why should others go to jail when you're the biggest carbon consumer I know?
There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.
The only thing I have to say to the government about why I publish it is because it's my bloody right to do so.
Well, as you know, Rebel News, we always have the Ezra LeVant Show, even on stat holidays.
We like to take the opportunity, if we can, to have a feature-length interview with someone we'd really like to chew over the news of the day with.
So, not just our regular guest, but a special guest.
And one of our favorites is someone we haven't had on for too long, our friend Manny Montenegrino, who was a senior advisor, lawyer, and counselor to several leaders of the Conservative Party.
In fact, predating the merged Conservative Party of Canada, going back all the way to Preston Manning times.
That's when I first met him.
Our friend Manny Montenegrino is now the boss of Think Sharp, and he joins us via Skype from Ottawa.
Manny, great to see you.
It's been too long.
I don't even think we've spoken in 2022.
Great to have you back on the show.
Well, thank you for having me.
You're now Grizzly Adams.
I get to see Ezra in the Macho Man lookout.
You know what?
Everyone makes fun of it.
I should abandon the attempt.
I don't know.
I just thought I would grow a beard.
It's not really working for me.
Manny, you're looking sharp as always.
You always are looking very impressive on the show.
But what we love talking to you about is you really have the overlapping experience, politics, law, strategy.
You've really been in all those different places and for a variety of Conservative leaders.
Preston Manning, Stockwell Day, Stephen Harper.
And we are at a very interesting time for the Conservative Party of Canada right now.
Give me a download.
Give me the Manny brain dump.
What do you think of the state of the Conservative Party of Canada today?
Well, it's probably as most hopeful as it's been in a long time.
And that really makes me feel great.
Ezra, I don't know if you know, but I know many young people, young Canadians that are leaving Canada.
It's great despair.
And the greatest despair, it doesn't come from the economy, jobs, and those issues that normally touch us day to day, but it goes to the very DNA of Canada, and that is our freedom.
Are we truly a free country?
And we have seen, Ezra, we have seen the greatest attack on charter rights since the charter in 1983.
And it is, what it does, freedom and the charter does two things.
If properly used, it beckons immigrants around the world, come to Canada.
It is a free country.
You are leading the oppression of the country that you're at.
Come join us to build a great nation.
So it's a beacon light, but it's also, when not guarded carefully, it repels Canadians to other beacons.
And we have seen what I will call a historic, unprecedented attempts to leave Canada, particularly to Florida.
I saw, Ezra, I don't know if you saw, I saw the governor mention that Florida is getting a bunch of new citizens to Florida and many from Canada.
I'd say let's play a quick clip of that.
I just, it's incredible.
Normally Canadians love it when an American notices us, but this wasn't the fondness of mentions.
Here's that clip from Governor Ron DeSantis.
And there's a reason why people are pouring in to the state of Florida.
There's a reason why we've led the country in net immigration.
I'm not even asking anybody to come.
You know, some governors beg people to come.
I love the people we have here.
I'm fine.
But people are, they're fleeing a lot of these bad, and not just fleeing other states, they're fleeing from Canada.
They're fleeing from other places to be able to come to the state of Florida.
And so I realize there may be some people in the state of Florida, not in my party, but some others, politicians, who have a soft spot for dictatorships like in Cuba.
They have a soft spot for people like Maduro and Ortega.
And I just want people to know that I have contempt for those views because those views do not represent the values of the state of Florida, but particularly the values of the people of South Florida.
It's exactly right.
So I didn't mean to interrupt you.
I just wanted to show people that video.
Keep going.
So yeah, Canadians love Florida at the best of times, but these are not the best of times.
Yeah, and so you look at the charter.
And what's amazing about the charter, it basically says that the individual has certain guaranteed rights and freedoms.
And that's very important to a lot of people.
A nation's built on that.
Canada has been built on its freedom, especially if you go back to times of Sir Wilford Laurier.
He was asked, and it was a tough question because, you know, what kind of nation is Canada?
And Sir Wilford Laurier answered, and you look at, you know, where I was born in Italy.
Well, it's very easy.
And Italian is the Italian nation.
Germans could be easily divined.
But Canada was hard to be defined because we were drawing from all around the world.
And he had a brilliant statement.
He said, freedom is our nationality.
And if you look at, and I actually posted this on Instagram, but if you look at your passport, page 16 of your passport, everyone's passport, there is that quote from Sir Wilford Laurier, freedom is our nationality.
So we're not a nation of a certain race.
We're not a nation of a certain skin color or a certain ethnicity or a certain religion.
We're a nation that's all bound together by the concept of freedom.
And that's what draws us as one.
And we've lost that.
We've actually not only lost that, but we have destroyed it.
And Ezra, I sit and I'm telling you, and I speak with all seriousness, I sit every day.
I wake up and I'm just sick to my stomach that there are millions of Canadian, upwards to 7 million Canadian, that have their charter rights trampled every day.
And that is Section 2, freedom of conscience, Section 6, freedom of mobility.
We're the only country in the world where you can't get on a plane and go visit a relative if you have a certain status or if you don't have a certain status.
And this is a worse country because we're the largest country.
I mean, if it was, you know, if it was, you know, a small little country like Geneva, yeah, you could drive in a couple hours and see your relatives.
But you literally cannot see your family member.
And if you go in a car, it will take four or five days to do so.
So that charter right of mobility, Section 6, it was, you know, and people don't understand.
This charter was created in 1983.
We understood the nation at the time.
So when you talk about mobility rights, you're talking about air travel.
You're talking about train travel.
So, and then there's obviously the section seven of the charter is violated by this de facto imposition of a mandatory vaccine, your health, your body, your autonomy.
So here we have, I mean, at a point in time where, you know, it's great despair to a lot of people saying, is this truly our country?
And so people want to leave to somewhere that's free.
I mean, my family left Italy for somewhere that was free.
It was Canada.
We got here in 1959, the greatest nation in the world, the freest nation of the world.
And from that, we could build a family.
We could build a business.
We could build, you could build everything from the concept of freedom.
And so as much and as dark as it was, and it has and continues to be, there's some hope.
And the hope is there are a few members of the Conservative candidates that are talking about this issue.
It's become a real issue.
So with great despair, and I tell you, Ezra, I have been referred to by a prime minister of Canada as an unwavering patriot.
I mean, that's what he called me.
And that's what I believe I am.
And I'm telling you, I have been waving.
I have been waving because I believe that this country is in deep despair.
Wow.
Well, you said a lot there.
You know, one thing that a friend pointed out to me is a lot of families, you have different choices within that family.
Charter Right Violation00:14:49
There might be a mom who works in health care and on pain of losing her job, she had to get the jab.
There might be a kid.
So you might have a family with different statuses.
But if that family wants to go on a vacation, if there's one person who's not vaccinated, they can't go, really.
So it's not just the 7 million or whatever.
Absolutely.
It actually impacts a larger number.
And remember, amongst those who did get the jab, some did so willingly, happily, with good, you know, and they're pleased with the result.
But of course, many others did so under some sort of duress.
So I think that the problem is actually larger than the media party lets on, larger than Trudeau and Omar Al Gabra let on.
But in the last week or so, it's really hit a critical point, hasn't it?
And I'm pleased that the Conservatives are raising it all the time.
In part, here's a quick clip of Melissa Lanceman, the transport critic for the Conservatives, raising it just this week in Parliament, last week in Parliament.
Take a look.
The decision to cling to restrictions and mandates, why is it such a secret?
Will the minister tell this House finally what specific advice he's getting to keep them, when he got it last, when he's going to get it next?
Will he table that advice in the House for all Canadians, or will he continue to hide it from Canadians while they're stuck in line at Pearson?
Thank you, Madam Speaker.
The evidence is no secret, Madam Speaker.
Everyone knows that vaccines save lives.
In the United States, 165,000 lives would have been saved just during the Omicron crisis if they had had a better vaccination uptake.
165,000 lives, Madam Speaker, in the Omicron crisis, that's 50% more people than in any one of our writing in this House.
I'm pleased that the Conservatives are digging into it now, Manny.
I wish they would have been harder lined on this before, but I don't think their former leader let them.
Well, exactly.
And that's, yeah, and very good point.
And I'm glad you raised it because people are questioning certain candidates.
Why didn't you raise it earlier?
Well, that's the answer.
But boy, are they raising it now?
Ezra, I'm going to tie something in because you love when I tie things in, but I'll give you the legal analysis of Omar Kadar and his violation of charter rights.
Omar Kadar or Omar Al Jabra?
Oh, sorry.
No, I do mean Omar Kadar.
No, no, wait a minute.
Leave me there.
This is a jihadist that was found guilty of murder.
Okay, good.
For one second, you know what?
Okay, I'm sorry.
It was my mistake.
My mistake.
We're talking about the guy who was at Guantanamo Bay.
Right, right.
Brought back to Canada.
Oh, I know.
Sorry, I interrupted you, Manny.
Keep going.
You're talking about Omar Cotter.
Go ahead.
Right.
Now, remember that time.
And the Prime Minister, you know, the most disingenuous person that I've ever heard, Justin Trudeau, stood up and preached about Omar Kadar's charter rights.
And what happened with Omar Kadar?
Very simply, he was a jihadist.
He pled guilty to murder.
You couldn't get a more debased Canadian who sat and fought against the troops.
But he was brought to Guantamano Bay, which is basically American territory.
What Canada did not do in 2003 when they sent someone to interview him was read him his charter rights.
And now, Ezra, I'm going to be a little bit long on this, but I'll try to be as quick as possible.
In 2003, the status of the law in Canada when Omar Kadar was caught was he did not enjoy charter rights outside the boundaries of Canada.
And so he did not, he could not bring the claim.
But they brought a claim to the Supreme Court saying in certain circumstances, charter rights should apply, even if you're not on Canadian soil.
And in 2010, the Supreme Court of Canada said, yes, his charter rights do apply in Guatamo Bay.
So then it was retroactively put back to 2003 when he was brought in.
Now that was a charter right violation.
What did the Canadian government do?
Did they beat him?
Did they intern him?
They did nothing.
They asked questions without giving him his charter rights.
Pretty, pretty minor.
If you look at the egregious things that you can do with charter rights.
Trudeau stood up and said his charter rights have been violated and he deserves something.
In my opinion, if I argued it, he would not have got a penny because simply there were no additional damages that Canada caused Omar Qadar.
All the damages were done by America.
Canada could not have taken him out.
But in any event, he got $10 million.
And I listened to Prime Minister Trudeau when he gave a lecture to Canadians how important charter rights, even in this smallest of small cases, the charter prevailed and Omar Qadar got his charter right remedy.
Well, right now, six to seven million Canadians are actually being affected.
They can't get on a plane.
They can't go to work.
They lost their jobs.
Their bodies are being taken over by the state.
This is much more substantial charter violation than Omar Qadar even saw from Canada.
So when you put the two together, I mean, these Canadians did not murder anybody.
They did not join Al-Qaeda.
They did not come and try to kill other Canadian troops.
All they wanted to do was go work in their home alone for the government.
Yeah.
And so when you look at that, that's a huge body blow to what Canada is.
And it has to be restored.
And if it doesn't get restored, Canada is no longer the country that I know or that you know.
And we need a new leader from the Conservative Party who understands that to the core of his DNA.
You know, it's a great contrast of charter rights.
But here's the thing.
Manny, we are now 26 months into this state of emergency.
I believe we're the only country in the world that does not let unvaccinated people fly or take the train.
And it doesn't even make sense because you could be someone who has naturally recovered, has natural immunity.
You're not allowed on the train or plane because you're not vaccinated.
Right.
Versus someone who is double or triple vaxed and actually catches COVID again and is not screened out.
It's so upside down.
But here we are 26 months into this and the Supreme Court of Canada and even lower courts, there has not been a single substantial case that I can think of where the courts have rolled back some of these civil liberties violations.
I know there is a lawsuit afoot.
Brian Peckford is one of the plaintiffs.
On the airfare side, that's not even scheduled to go to trial September.
September, Ezra.
So, Manny, where is this sainted document, the Charter of Rights, and where are our courts, those guardians of our rights?
We're into our third year of these lockdowns, and the courts have not been there for us.
Neither is the charter.
No, I agree.
Ezra, the only thing I can say is the breed of lawyers today are different than the charter baby lawyers when I got called to the board.
But even the judges.
But okay, the lawyers, but most judges are more senior.
They're in their 50s, 60s, some are even in the 70s.
So these are people who would have had those older civil liberties sensibilities.
Like the federal court, I know because we were involved in this lawsuit.
This was on the airport quarantines.
One of our reporters at the time, Kian Bexti, flew into Canada.
He was required to quarantine at an airport instead of to go home.
By the way, he counted.
He had 14 personal interactions at this quarantine facility instead of just getting into his own car going home.
The judge in that case, federal court of Canada, I think it was the chief judge, said not only was there no charter violation, there was no detention at all.
So the chief judge said, No, no, nothing to see here.
No charter violation here.
So, where do you go for help if not for a charter for a judge?
You know, Ezra, you're bringing me back to my despair of a few months ago.
Let me continue with my hope of maybe this will change.
Please, I need it too.
I need the whole thing.
Well, I mean, Ezra, I mean, I tell you, first of all, you've got to talk about it.
And we're seeing it.
Pierre Polivera is an absolute leader, and he gets it.
And he gets it to his core.
And he's been messaging it.
As soon as other people message it, and as soon as people, like Ezra, back in 1980, when I was called to the bar, every politician was talking about charter rights.
Every media was talking about charter rights.
Everybody understood every article.
It was like living in heaven.
People were talking about how to protect the individual.
And Ezra, you know, let me tell you, the greatest thing that you can do to unite Canadians, it isn't about skin color, sexual orientation, gender.
It is about values that we believe in.
Ezra, I'll tell you something extremely funny.
When I was working for Preston Manning, and here's this Italian immigrant that comes from a different nation, and he is in sync with Preston Manning because what bound us was not our race, not our culture.
What bound us was this concept of freedom, unity, and the charter and what those Canadians' values are.
You know, I will never be a black person.
I will never be a female.
I will never be a transgender, but I will be with these people in unison about a Canadian value of freedom.
We could sit side by side.
And that's what we've got to be building.
We are dividing people all the time on matters that are divisible.
We are not uniting people.
And the unification is under values such as freedom, such as, you know, everyone enumerated in the charter rights.
I mean, you look at Roman Baber.
I mean, he comes from a different country than I do, a different immigrant.
But boy, does he sound like me.
Yeah, I really like hearing him.
You know, I admire what he's saying.
And he paid a price for it.
He was thrown out of Ford's caucus.
Absolutely.
But there's a guy that gets it because it's still new to him.
It's still new to me because I immigrated.
He immigrated.
He still has the scars.
Unfortunately, Canadians have been here a long time, don't understand the scars of not having your freedoms.
And they think they take it.
I think it was John S. Kennedy that said freedom is one generation away from being lost.
And people don't get it.
Roman Baber gets it.
Pierre Poliver gets it.
And they're the two that are really talking about this.
And I think it is what's going to say Canada.
Ezra, we had something that I thought I'd never see in my lifetime.
The Canadian chartered banks working in hand with the state.
Seizing money, seizing money without a judicial process.
Absolutely terrifying.
I think that spooked millions of people.
I have heard so many anecdotes.
And we've put in an access information request trying to see if the government measured.
But it would not surprise me if literally millions of people moved billions of dollars out of Canada just thinking.
Well, I've seen this movie in totalitarian and authoritarian regimes, and I know this is the time to get my cash out.
Wouldn't surprise me if billions fled the country.
Well, that to me was one of the canaries in the coal mine of the end of freedom in Canada.
We all have already seen our great institutions being co-opted.
I mean, I don't want to get into a long thesis of the RCMB being co-opted by the government, but I can almost prove it beyond a reasonable doubt that that institution is no longer as independent.
I believe the Bank of Canada is not as independent as it once was.
They should have pulled this trigger on increasing rates years ago, and now it's almost a bit too late.
So, most of our institutions that are controlled, the governor general, Ezra, Ezra, how the hell did we have an election last year when we had all four free parties saying they have confidence in the government?
Right.
It is impossible to have had an election.
Ezra, the governor general has one job, one job alone, and that is to say to the prime minister, do you have confidence?
We are not throwing the people into an election.
And if you don't have confidence in government, I have no choice, but the people deserve a government that's functioning.
They were a functional government.
All three leaders, the NDP, the Conservative, wrote a letter saying, no, there's conflict.
There was no constitutional ability to call an election.
And there was a law on the books, as you know, under the Elections Act, that the election had to pertake in four years.
So you have a law and you have constitutional precedent, and you still had an election.
The Governor General's Role00:06:54
So that institution, in my view, is Mark, but it crept outside with the banks.
Banks are not part of government.
And when the banks, if I were advising the bank at that time or any bank, I'd be saying, I don't care what the Emergency Act is, test it in court.
Go and fight it and fight it because what you are saying is once the banks creep into as an arm of the government, then we've lost everything.
Yeah.
Oh, absolutely terrifying.
And I note that none of them did object.
I understand, I read those Emergencies Act orders carefully, and one of them applied to U.S. banks doing business in Canada and U.S. insurance companies doing business in Canada.
And that's a lot of banks.
I understand that none of the American banks complied.
At least I haven't heard reports that they did, which tells me that the Canadian banks didn't need to apply also, but it sounds like they were certainly quite willing to do so and didn't put up a fight.
Yeah, and to me, that is the greatest fight that should have had because basically the banks should be saying that the moment that we are seen as an arm of prosecution for the government, then we are no longer there in the trust of the Canadian citizens.
So, I mean, you look at all the institutions.
Ezra, there's a great line by Justice Clarence Thomas talking about in America about how the institutions are slowly being co-opted by government.
And where does America stand after these great institutions are being co-opted?
And Clarence Thomas made that statement.
And you look at the FBI in the States and you look at other great institutions that seem to be political arms of a certain party.
Well, when you lose your institutions, and in Canada, it's much worse.
I don't know what the confidence is of the RCMP when there is, I looked at the law on obstruction of justice with the SNC Lavaland.
Ezra, it made every point of that section 139.1 of the criminal code.
Justin Trudeau breached every one of those and it didn't even get a review.
So when you have the RCMP, you have the Governor General, you have the Bank of Canada, and maybe the banks for the first time, and all our institutions can be gathered at the political will, and then you have the Charter of Rights, you know, basically, you know, shotgunned with three sections being hold.
I mean, Charter, Section 2, the Charter Right of Freedom of Conscience.
Ezra, right now, you know this.
You know this.
There are people that are going before the federal government and being interviewed about the religious status.
Right.
And not in conference, but who are you?
What do you believe in?
Are you a Jew?
Are you not a Jew?
You know, this sounds like it's just terrible.
I mean, and questions and livelihoods are affected by this inquisition.
I never had thought in my life that I would be seeing people questioned in those ways.
And so when you put it all together, I really do think we're at the darkest moment in Canadian history.
But it also could be the brightest moment in the sense, you know, and I think of how Pierre Poliver is doing a great job.
But if he could rally all Canadians and put, you know, and I see it happening.
I see a bunch of PPCs running to Pierre.
I see liberals.
I know if we could all collate under what was once the Canadian value, which was freedom, and we get back to creating a great country instead of picking it apart like a carcass, like a vulture picks a car.
Canada is now a carcass lying down and everyone's picking it apart for its sins of the past.
And no one's talking about letting this bird fly again.
And so we are at the greatest despair, in my opinion.
But boy, oh boy, it could be a great moment of rebuilding.
Well, I heard Pierre Polyev give a speech just last couple of nights ago.
And it was very interesting to hear him talk because it was the language that a generation ago you might expect from the NDP.
It was the language of workers and grassroots people and young people trying to scrape together money to buy a home for themselves and how if you don't have a home already, if you have a home, maybe the skyrocketing property values, you're loving it.
But if you don't have one, you'll never get in there.
It was very much a workers spot.
Yep.
And it was a speech.
I mean, he speaks to the immigrant in me.
I mean, he speaks to a guy that came to this great country and just loved it so much that he gave a lot of volunteer hours to make this country a better country.
And he's speaking to us.
And you know what?
I could be black.
I could be from a different, we all speak that language.
I mean, you have to have understood when you have left your homeland because they thought you were trash or they could do whatever they want to.
And you come to this great land and they embrace you.
I mean, you know, Pierre Poliver is married to a Venezuelan refugee.
I mean, you know, you can't get it closer to home than understanding what built this great country.
And so when he gets it, and I hope his wife kind of chirps him every day how important it is, because I certainly chirp my kids every day.
My kids were born in this country, but boy, oh boy, they haven't lost the lesson of this great country of what it is to be free and what it is to fight for freedom and what it is.
You know, Canada, Canada by far was the greatest country in the world because it put people under the flag of freedom.
We've lost that.
And America is being, was constitutionally a greater country of freedom because it had its constitutional rights in 1776.
But by God, when we put them up in 1983, we were as good, if not better, than America.
And you know what?
Canada's Freedom Legacy00:11:58
Boy, oh boy, did they do some great damage to that great document?
Well, let's talk.
I appreciate the covering the underlying freedom issues.
Yeah.
I'm glad we talked about the lockdown and the charter.
But I want to focus on the party.
We've talked about Pierre Polyevin, and he uses the word freedom.
He says he wants to make Canada the freest country in the world.
And I'm really refreshed to hear that.
Why don't we, and you mentioned Roman Baber as well.
Yeah.
I would like your take quickly on Jean Charais, on Patrick Brown, and on Lesland Lewis.
And I know there's a couple other candidates too.
Yeah.
But let me ask you for short snappers.
I heard your comments about Roman Baber.
I like the guy too.
And he came, for those who don't know him well, he's an Ontario provincial MPP, came from the former Soviet Union, and that's one of his themes of freedom.
So I like what he has to say.
We talked about Pierre.
What do you have to say about, for example, Jean Charais?
Probably he ranks as my least favorite in the bunch.
Really?
Why is that?
Well, because, Ezra, Sharay, I'd ask him one question: Will you run in a riding in the event that you lose?
And the answer, of course, he's not going to.
And, you know, so, I mean, no, I don't have, no one's put that question to him, but I would put the question to him.
He decided to run not when, not the first time when Stephen Harper left the party, not the second time, but now the third time.
And that tells me a lot.
But what is it substantively?
I mean, you're asking the question, I mean, you're asked, the questions you just poured, like, would you run if you lose?
Okay.
But that doesn't tell me.
I'll give it a tell me the ideas, the idea or the substance or the track record.
What has he done that makes you rank him last?
You know, I'm not going to get into the fact that he was a liberal, he has the taxes.
And, you know, Pierre Poliver has done a good job at that.
I'm going to talk to you from a Canadian point of view.
And that is, for the love of God, he's sitting there and siding with the illegal criminalization of people that saw freedom with a convoy.
What are you?
This is a time in Canada that we need to bring back freedom and bring back Canada to where it was, the freest country in the world.
For him to sit there and say that this was criminal activity, I live in Ottawa.
I mean, they may, I mean, they honked the horns and they were told to stop and they did.
They didn't occupy.
You know, I would love to see an analogy between Portland in America versus Ottawa.
There was no occupation.
They used the language of occupation, but I mean, it was, I mean, you took somebody's freedoms away.
You took, you were vindictive.
You took the freedoms at the end of the pandemic of people that sit alone in their cab, that were heroes for two and a half years, that sit alone and bring us our food, and you wanted to vindictively punish them.
And they came.
So when I think of Shere basically setting that aside as if that's nothing, that goes to the core of every Canadian.
If it's not the trucker today, it's rebel news tomorrow.
It's Manny Montenegrino will not be allowed to do an interview again, and his bank account is going to be seized.
That's what I see of the progression.
And Shere is not fighting for that.
So I have no interest.
And there's a whole bunch of, I can get into the technical stuff about his taxation, being a liberal and being from Quebec and all what he's done in the past.
But really, that one's to the core of me.
If he's not up, and you know, damn it, he's a lawyer.
I think he's my age, if not.
But he's, we call ourselves charter babies, the guys that graduated from law around the time of the charter.
That is, if he doesn't, if it doesn't burn him to the core, then he should be serving Canadians.
And, you know, you look at Pepford.
God bless him.
I mean, I don't know how old he is now, but it burns him to the core that he's taking the case to the federal court, Brian Pepford.
That's the kind of guy that understands what Canada is.
Shere, oh, well, you know, 7 million people, you know, their rights were violated.
You know, who cares?
They're all criminals.
And, you know, I'm not into that game.
Yeah.
And by the way, when everyone says illegal occupation, I note that no one has been convicted of anything yet.
There were no weapons offenses or charges for violence.
And I went down there and there were roads that were being blocked by the police.
Every one of those other roads had a passable lane kept open for emergency vehicles.
But let's move on.
You talked about Sheren.
Now, what about Patrick Brown, former MP, former mayor, former provincial BC leader, now mayor again?
What do you make of him?
I mean, I know Patrick personally, and I'm not on his game.
I'm not on his plan.
Simply what he, what he, I think the big mistake he made is that he said he would enforce a no-fly zone in the Ukraine.
And that really is very dangerous.
I mean, Canadians don't want, I think we were dragged into the wrong war in Afghanistan.
A lot of young men died and women, Canadian men and women.
I think that is a huge fundamental mistake.
And it speaks more to his not understanding the position of being prime minister.
And that really knocked me out.
That knocked him out.
I mean, Patrick's a good man.
He does good work.
But that says, no, you don't get it, Bud.
You can't start a nuclear war because you might get a few more votes.
Yeah.
How about Leslie Lewis?
I think she's interesting.
I feel like she's come a long way since she ran in the last election to be an MP.
What's your take on her?
You know, very impressive.
And unfortunately, the media has done a great job in painting her as this one issue person, you know, a social conservative.
And therefore, thus, you must, you know, ignore her.
And I think the media has done a job on that.
I think she needs to, I mean, even, you know, you look at Pierre, and I've known him for a long time.
He wasn't ready the last time.
He wasn't ready the time before.
And I as much told him that.
And he is certainly ready now.
He's honed some great skills.
I think, you know, Roman and Leslie need to hone some skills.
They are going to be great leaders in time, but now is not the time.
And, you know, Ezra, here's how I'm going to say this to every conservative that's listening to your show.
If you're confused about which person to vote for, or which person would be the best candidate, and you don't want to do all the homework as to what does he stand for, what does she stand for, just simply look at the legacy media, the fake news media.
Who are they attacking the most?
Who are they?
And I look so every time I question, am I supporting the right guy?
Oh my God, there's another Pierre Poliver hip piece.
I'm saying I must be on the right guy.
You know, that's a good rule of thumb.
Well, listen, Manny, I feel the same way you do.
I feel like the truckers, by helping to depose Aaron O'Toole, have given the Conservative Party a fresh chance.
And I think that perhaps Pierre Polyev, maybe he wasn't ready.
Maybe he made a mistake by not running last time.
I saw him in action the other day, and I think he's hitting his stride.
Huge crowds.
The polls seem to be ticking up for the Conservatives.
And I agree with you.
I think it's about time someone took on the establishment.
I think he's doing a good job.
Ezra, I'll give you a little kind of tidbit note.
I have a family, a relative, a loose connection family relative, who's a Hollywood liberal producer.
And they came down, he and his family came down to Ottawa, a Canadian, of course, through the Truckers March.
The trucker moved, the Truckers movement moved a Hollywood liberal.
And what he and I have not agreed on many things in politics, but what we do agree on is individual freedom.
So when Manny and a Hollywood liberal are shoulder to shoulder fighting on an issue, that's a great nation.
And I think that's what's before us.
Well, my friend, it's great to catch up with you.
I can sense your excitement about things changing.
I feel it too.
Yeah, I was, you know, Ezra, I'll tell you another, I mean, you know, I'll tell you something.
When the truckers came to Ottawa, I'm a senior citizen.
I've had a lot of battles in my life.
I literally cried when they came.
I cried, Ezra, because there's no greater taste, no greater emotional taste than freedom.
And people who have fought for freedoms in many, many ways, whether it be the gay community, whether it be Jews, whether it be immigrants, when we fought for freedom, there's nothing greater that unites us to all when the fight for freedom.
And those truckers, everybody let me down, but those truckers were the ones that.
And it was a multiracial, multi-ethnic.
Oh, absolutely.
And, you know, to see Trudeau and Jagmeet sing in the media trying to denounce them as racist.
I went down there and there were, you know, there were a tremendous diversity of people.
By the way, a lot of truckers in this country happen to be Sikh or other Indo-Canadians.
So to call them race.
The majority of truckers in Canada, I think upwards of 60%, are Sikhs.
And they get it to.
Yeah, to call them racists is nuts.
Yeah, yeah.
But when you see, this is the beauty of it.
I mean, this is the beauty of Canada.
We are not a great nation because we're a bunch of silos, you know, all different things banging into each other.
We're a great nation because we have fundamental values, you know, almost like the Earth's crust.
You know, you have the water at one level.
You have the growing, you know, you have all the various levels in that you grow a great nation.
And freedom, liberties, respect, trust.
You know, you're talking about civility.
When the Prime Minister of Canada, and Ezra, there's a clip that you've seen with the American talk show host that, you know, refers to Trudeau as Hitler by referring to these unvaxxed, misogynists.
I mean, this is, you know, if you want to build a great nation, you build it from its foundation, and you need a foundation that unites us all.
Yeah.
And values do that.
I want to throw a quick clip because that clip you mentioned, I want to make sure people see it here.
Take a look at this.
Justin Trudeau.
What?
You're laughing.
But Justin Trudeau, I mean, I thought he was kind of a cool guy.
Building Canada's Foundation00:02:36
And I started to read what he said.
This is a couple of weeks ago.
He was, or maybe this is September, but he was talking about people who are not vaccinated.
He said they don't believe in science.
They're often misogynistic, often racist.
No, they're not.
That was not smart of him at all.
Right.
He said, but they take up space.
And with that, we have to make a choice in terms of a leader as a country.
Do we tolerate these people?
It's like, tolerate these.
Now you do sound like Hitler.
And recently he talked about them holding unacceptable views.
Wow.
I'm surprised to hear that Trudeau said those things.
You didn't see the blackface?
I mean, he comes.
No, I'm kidding.
I'm not.
I mean, that was not a good look for him.
But I mean, come on.
All right, Manny.
That's a great note to end on.
Good to see you, my friend.
Let's not let so much time pass before the next time.
And I tell you, when this conservative leadership race starts to close up, I hope we can come back to you to help.
I'll do that.
But Ezra, two things I want to know.
Is Pierre being good to you, good to Rebel?
Well, you know what?
We talk to him when we send people to his events.
To be candid, he hasn't had a lot of media availabilities.
So we've only caught him coming and going in, you know, like in a parking lot or coming and going from the event.
But we have not had a sit down with him yet.
I hope we do get one.
Yeah, well, I will push that from my side because it's, you know, enough's enough.
But, you know, the other thing I like about him is he gets it like you get it and like I get it.
He gets it.
He gets the media.
And if he gets the media, he better not do something stupid like the other guys did on Rebel.
And if he does, I'll be disappointed.
But I will speak to him on that.
Yeah.
Right on.
Well, great to catch up with you, my friend.
Okay.
Take care.
Cheers.
Cheers.
Well, that's a nice note to end on.
Today we were talking with our friend Manny Montane Greeno, CEO of Think Sharp vice Skype from Ottawa.
It's good to talk with him.
He cares about freedom so very much, doesn't he?
And he truly believes that Canada's nature is to be free.
I hope he's right on that.
We'll catch up with him again as the months go by on this leadership race.
That's it for today.
I hope you enjoyed that conversation.
We'll be back tomorrow.
Until then, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, see you at home.