Ezra Levant’s October 7, 2022 episode slams taxpayer-funded media subsidies for CBC and Bell Media, citing a 13% trust drop since 2016 and Trudeau’s alleged censorship via Bill C-18. Menzies links this to Trudeau’s support for authoritarian regimes like Iran’s IRGC while Iranian women protest hijab laws, calling his inaction hypocritical. The show also exposes exploitative "green" experiments—UK-funded termite flour trials in Zimbabwe risking malnourished children with parasites—and crickets as a taxpayer-subsidized food source, questioning elite motives over African well-being. [Automatically generated summary]
Tonight, the lame stream media hates you, but they love your bailouts and they want more.
It's Friday, October 7th, 2022.
I'm David Menzies, and this is the Ezra Levant Show.
Shame on you, you censorious bug.
When it comes to the media and its now insatiable desire for more and more taxpayer dollars, the title of a James Bond flick comes to mind, namely, The World is Not Enough.
T'was ever thus that the CBC received more than a billion dollars annually.
And my God, where oh, where do they spend that money?
But in recent years, the non-CBC mainstream media has been receiving taxpayer bailouts too.
Oh, you weren't consultant?
Well, suck it up, Buttercup.
You see, the Justin Trudeau liberals know what's best for you.
Kind of like Rogers did back in 1994.
Remember negative option billing?
It was chutzpah on steroids, really.
Rogers decided to add a whole bunch of crappy channels to their subscribers' playlist, which would be kind of nice if it was a gift, but it wasn't.
You see, if you didn't want the channels, it was incumbent upon you to contact robbers, or I mean, Rogers, and cancel those channels.
Otherwise, you'd be billed for content you never asked for and never planned to view.
Thus, negative optioning.
By the way, that was yet another brilliant idea cooked up by Toronto Mayor John Torrey.
But the thing is, what is happening with the government-funded media properties is even worse.
You see, at least Old Man Rogers gave you the option of opting out of such negativity.
The Trudeau liberals are much like the nefarious Borg from Star Trek.
You know, resistance is futile.
Self-determination is irrelevant.
Sugar Daddy Trudeau will continue to fund media properties with your money, whether you like it or not.
You might make an argument that this is what government does, unfortunately.
It picks winners and losers in the marketplace and cuts checks, again, with your money, and bails out those companies it takes a liking to, General Motors, Chrysler, Bombardier, and the list goes on and on.
The thing is, the idea of government, aka taxpayers constantly propping up losers is completely opposite to how a free market economy should function.
The free market subscribes to an economic version of Darwinism, namely survival of the fittest, evolve or go extinct.
There should be no safety net, at least no safety net paid for by citizens who have absolutely no say in the matter.
But as bad as it is to bail out manufacturers of automobiles and aerospace equipment, it is immeasurably worse to bail out media companies.
That's because there are several ethical and moral issues at play when the watchdogs of society are paid off by the very entity that it should be holding to account.
It is a grotesque conflict of interest.
And it is incredible to see that it has become the new normal.
You know, the other day I dusted off my old copy of this, Morals and the Media, subtitled Ethics in Canadian Journalism.
Now, folks, this edition was published in 2006, not really that long ago.
And yet I was stunned that this book, through no fault of its author, has been rendered obsolete in 2022, given the current lay of the media land in our great dominion.
For example, consider the chapter The Media and Money.
There's a sidebar entitled Canadian Association of Journalists on Accepting Gifts.
And it reads like this, quote, we should not accept or solicit gifts, passes, or favors for personal use.
We must pay our own way to ensure independence.
If another organization pays our expenses to an event that we are writing about, we should say so so that the reader, viewer, or listener can take this into account.
We will promptly return unsolicited gifts of more than nominal value.
If it is impractical to return the gift, we will give it to an appropriate charity or institution, end quote.
Like I said, folks, this 16-year-old book is irreparably obsolete and broken given the way in which journalism is funded by the taxpayer today.
And yes, I do think that mainstream media outlets that are being funded to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars per year does indeed meet the benchmark of, quote, a gift of more than nominal value, end quote.
But the media minions, they're quite content to devolve from society's watchdogs to Justin Trudeau's lapdogs.
Golly, I'd love to know what Bell Media's Evan Solomon has to say about journalistic ethics being so brutally compromised these days.
Oopsie, I forgot this just in.
Yesterday was Solomon's last day at Bell Media.
You see, Solomon was recently named the new publisher of GZero Media, a global affairs news site and a subsidiary of New York City-based political risk analysis firm Eurasia Group.
Now that rings a bell.
This isn't the same Eurasia Group that has as its vice chairman Gerald Butts, aka Justin Trudeau's favorite boyfriend.
Oh, yes, it is.
So you see, this is what happens when journalists like Evan Solomon are so loyal to Prime Minister Blackface McGroper, they are put on the fast track for promotion.
For the past seven years at Bell Media, Solomon has proven to be a wonderful little train seal.
And his reward is not a fish, but a nice New York City gig and undoubtedly a salary in the high six figures.
Hey, there's hope for you, Rachel Crymore, but please keep your blouse on.
The liberals are looking to appoint more operatives in political risk analysis firms.
They're not so much interested in recruiting waitresses for Hooters or dancers for the Zanzibar.
By the way, speaking of ethics, I should point out that prior to his Bell Media gig, Solomon was a CBCer.
But he had to part ways with the public broadcaster in 2015.
You see, there was an internal review of his side business of brokering high-end art sales, and that included guests that had appeared on his programs.
Oh, man.
Gee, I guess Solomon never read Morals and the Media.
Certainly not that chapter pertaining to media and money.
That's okay.
He's out of the journalism racket now.
He'll be a good little useful idiot when it comes to advising Justin Trudeau on censoring the journalism business, you know, the industry from which he came.
Unbelievable.
But at least there are some scribes still around who are calling out the media party for its unethical and immoral behavior.
Consider the superb commentary last week in the Epoch Times, penned by Peter Menzies, No Relation, entitled, You Can't Build a Viable Media Culture on Bailouts and Political Favors.
Quote, according to advocates for Canada's Online News Act, Bill C-18, Rupert Murdoch, the Australian media baron's shakedown of online web giants Meta and Google, has already saved the newspaper industry down under.
And once this country passes its legislation, it's going to be jobs, jobs, jobs for journals.
Jason Kint, CEO of Digital Content Next, a U.S.-based trade organization/slash lobby group, flew into Ottawa from Washington, D.C. to appear before the House of Commons Heritage Committee on September 27th.
There he dismissed highly respected critics, such as Dr. Michael Geist, Canada Research Chair in Internet Law at the University of Ottawa, of spreading misinformation, declared the Aussie rules to be a sweeping victory for journalism, left me with the general impression that anyone who disagreed with him was paid for by global web monopolists and flew home.
In terms of lobbying, it was a masterful performance.
All Canada had to do, he assured those listening, was to follow Australia's Murdoch-inspired model.
And judging by the warm reception he received from Liberal MPs, that's what Canada intends to do.
Trouble is, while I can't find evidence it has helped Murdoch's market-dominating Australian news corp, he also owns the Wall Street Journal, New York Post, Dow Jones, HarperCollins, the UK Sun, The Times, The Sunday Times, etc.
I'm having trouble finding proof these latest subsidies are going to be enough.
After all, the first $119 million a year in tax credits that Canada's newspaper industry managed to squeeze out of taxpayers in 2019 hasn't created any more jobs.
Sure, the pandemic was an issue, but there was additional subsidies for that.
And if you don't want to believe me, take it from Jamie Irving, chair of News Media Canada, the trade group lobbying for online loot.
The financial pressures facing Canadian news outlets due to the current market failure are only becoming more dire, he wrote to the Commons Finance Committee earlier this year.
We are forecasting annual losses as an industry of about $500 million a year.
It would appear that even if the Canadian news industry lobby that now includes CBC, Bell Media, and other broadcasters is able to shake $500 million annually out of Mark Zuckerberg's and Google's pockets, the best they can do is break even.
So still, no jobs, end quote.
Well, there you have it, folks.
Millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions, and in the CBC's case, more than a billion dollars.
The gravy train just hurtles down the track, delivering content that less and less of us, you know, the consumers, want to consume.
And look at some of these parent companies, will you?
Bell Media is owned by Bell Canada Enterprises and BCE recorded an income of $2.89 billion last year, which was up from the income of $2.7 billion in 2020.
So maybe if Bell wants to be a media baron as well as, you know, a co-owner of a hockey and basketball team, it should dig into its own bank account to prop up its media properties.
And if those media properties, as opposed to professional sports teams, are not money makers, then I would suggest Bell has a decision to make.
Either run the media department as a charity case, or it could sell off Bell Media and stick to those businesses, you know, cell phones, internet service, et cetera, where it can actually make money.
But for a multi-billion dollar entity like BCE to come cap in hand to the government and demand taxpayer dollars so that it can continue to broadcast woke garbage that fewer and fewer of us want to watch or listen to, I'm sorry, that is sheer unmitigated gall on both sides.
Bell the recipient and the Trudeau liberals, the sugar daddies.
But here's the crux of the matter.
The credibility of mainstream media journalists has never been lower.
While the likes of Soyboy Solomon and Rachel Crymore gasp when they are confronted by members of the public chanting fake news, fake news right in their sour puss faces, they are oblivious to the fact that by hooing themselves out to the Justin Trudeau liberals, they have hoisted themselves upon their own petards.
And yes, I have the proverbial proof in the pudding.
Check out this story from June headlined, Canadians, Trust in the News Media Hits a New Low.
Quote, according to the Reuters Institute's 2022 digital news report, trust in the Canadian news media has sunk to its lowest point in seven years.
The study produced by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford has found that trust in the news has dropped 13% since 2016.
Only 42% of Canadian respondents trust most news most of the time, slight drop from last year's 45%.
It's possible that government support programs for news media, such as federal tax credits, are linked to the more negative perceptions about the media.
To be sure, these funding programs have allowed the Canadian news media much-needed breathing space to recover financially, in addition to a boost in advertising revenue during the pandemic.
But they have also generated criticism and fueled concerns regarding journalistic independence, end quote.
Concerns Over Media Independence00:02:13
Well, knock me down with a feather.
You mean to tell me that the majority of Canadians, one, don't trust the mainstream media, two, aren't willing to support the mainstream media by purchasing subscriptions, and three, doubt the validity of journalistic independence and integrity, given they are increasingly funded by the federal government?
You don't say.
And now that the government's grandiose plans to prop up friendly media outlets isn't working out all that well, well, the censorious thugs who comprise the Trudeau liberals are putting away the carrot and they're picking up the stick.
Which is to say, for those independent media outlets such as Rebel News, you know, the ones who refuse to play ball, well then, it's obviously time to regulate, i.e., censor, the internet.
As Peter Menzies notes in his column, quote, the Trudeau government is already well on its way to regulating the internet in order to enrich one class of approved creators at the expense of another.
And it's planning to crack down on speech of which it and certain classes of people disapprove at the expense of others.
Now, with the Online News Act, it appears ready to insert the state into the newsrooms of the nation, end quote.
Unbelievable.
Oh, sure, such bills need Senate approval.
And even if that is achieved, you can expect years and years of legal challenges ahead as our dominion becomes more like China and less like, well, Canada classic.
Our other source of hope is regime change.
I can tell you that when I covered several Pierre Polyev rallies when he was running for the CPC, the one pledge that always generated the loudest and most prolonged standing ovation was Mr. Polyev's statement that if elected prime minister, he will defund the CBC.
Cherishing Freedom00:14:59
This current liberal government is morally and ethically bankrupt, just like the state-sponsored members of the media party who serves this government.
For those who cherish freedom as opposed to the basic dictatorship of China that Prime Minister Blackface so admires, we need a new sheriff on Parliament Hill, one that will end the grotesque subsidies to failing media properties, and someone who thinks that contrary to popular belief in certain elitist circles, that censorship is not a good thing.
I think most people here, virtually everybody, would agree with that.
I guess there's a lot of people experiencing buyers' remorse from the 1979 revolution.
Yeah, I agree with that.
And that's why we're all here.
And we're supporting the people and our people and their voice in here.
And you know, it's such a shame what happened to Miss Amini.
She was arrested by the morality police, died for not allegedly wearing her hijab properly.
How can this force be called the morality police?
That seems to be the most immoral thing possible, killing someone for not wearing clothing properly.
That is just shameful and this is not right.
Well, folks, that was the scene in Richmond Hill last Saturday when more than 50,000 mostly Persian Canadians showed up to protest against the Iranian regime.
But these people realize they have no true ally in the Justin Shuda liberals.
The very MP for Richmond Hill, after all, Majid Johari, is pro-Iranian regime, if you can believe it.
And this government, for reasons that remain baffling, has yet to put the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps on the terrorism list.
Then again, when it comes to Prime Minister Blackface McGroper, he has admiration in his heart for the basic dictatorship that is China in terms of, you know, getting things done.
Maybe he also admires Iran for the same reasons.
Absolutely despicable.
And joining me now to try and make sense of it all is Nikki Ballou, the author of eight best-selling books and someone who left Iran for a better life in Canada many years ago.
Nikki, welcome to the Ezra Levant Show.
Before we get into Canada's response to Iran or what you'd like to see Canada's response to be, Nikki, here's the big picture, I think.
Here's the crux of the matter.
What we're seeing in Iran with all these protests, all these girls throwing their hijabs off, cutting their hair, chanting death to the mullahs.
Is this just a blip that's going to be violently extinguished?
Or are we indeed seeing the very beginning of a regime change and the end of the rule of these murderous mullahs?
Well, listen, it's difficult to really predict that with any level of certainty, David, but I certainly pray and hope fervently that this will be the case.
You know, these women are fighting not just for women.
They're fighting for men.
They're fighting not just for the people of Iran.
They're fighting for people everywhere.
Because if any one of us is unfree anywhere around the world, the rest of us are unfree.
These women have shown tremendous courage.
Mahsar Amini, you know, was murdered for the crime of not having all of her hair covered.
A wrestler in Iran by the name of Navid Afghari was killed because he stood up against the local regime official trying to get food for the people of his village.
This man was a world champion wrestler and they hung him for that.
It's unbelievable.
And, you know, what is incredible too, I find, Nikki, I mean, our friend Tarek Fatah had a very interesting column two days ago in the Toronto Sun, and which was entitled, Why Weren't Canada's Feminists and Leftists at the Big Iran Protests?
And I think one of the conclusions Tarek comes to is that the world is so perverse and so woke and so politically correct that maybe to take a stance against the Iranian regime might be interpreted as Islamophobic, which is nonsense in my book because the greatest victims of the Iranian regime are Iranians in Iran.
He's absolutely 100% right.
But the other thing that you need to understand is that the left actually is the racist entity in the world.
The Democrat Party in the United States has always been the party of racism.
They're the ones who held the slaves.
They got angry at the Republicans for, you know, freeing their slaves.
And then they realized that they couldn't be so open in their racism.
So they became crypto-racists.
And what they do is they point fingers at other people and they falsely accuse them of racism to cover up their own racism.
I mean, you spoke about our prime minister, Justin Trudeau, wearing blackface.
I mean, there are three separate occasions in which this man is on camera wearing blackface.
That tells you everything you need to know about the true racism that resides in the hearts of the left.
But as far as Iran is concerned, right now, there's been a lot of pressure by the Conservative Party.
Pierre Polyeva has been absolutely magnificent in getting up and speaking for the Iranian people, for freedom.
He was out in Ottawa speaking to the gathered protesters over there.
And the pressure that Polyev and the Conservatives have brought down on the Liberal government has forced them to announce a whole bunch of sanctions today.
So I think that they need to keep that pressure up.
And I think the people of Canada need to keep that pressure up.
I'd like to see another set of demonstrations, but I don't just want to see Iranian people out at those demonstrations.
I want to see Canadians in those demonstrations.
I mean, these folks are fighting for freedom for everybody.
They're fighting for freedom for Muslims, for Christians, for Baha'is, for Jews, for Hindus, for white people, for black people, for Asian people.
They are fighting for human freedom.
And we all need to stand up with them.
And I love what you folks at Rebel News are doing.
You're reporting on this and other issues is forcing the liberal government here in Canada to pay attention and take notice.
The Canadian people are seeing the horrible, horrific things that are being done to these brave men and women that are fighting, bleeding, and dying for the rest of us to enjoy freedom.
You're 100% right, Nick.
And you referenced Justin Trudeau announcing very recently more sanctions against Iran.
I think that's baby steps, quite frankly, Nick.
I think, why can't we have Justin Trudeau sanction those members of his caucus, first and foremost, the MP for Richmond Hill, where this incredible protest took place last Saturday, Majid Johari?
And, you know, I have a feeling there is something in the air about these uprisings, that there might be a positive outcome, that we might see regime change.
And I say that, Nikki, because if you look at Johari's recent tweets and what he's stating on social media, he's all down with the Iranian people all of a sudden.
Sorry, Majid, as the saying goes, a leopard cannot change its spots.
We know how you really feel.
But first and foremost, Nikki, that's what I would do.
I would purge the caucus of people like Johari who are friendly to the regime because I don't know what they're doing there.
I would also prevent members of the regime freely coming into Canada who have blood on their hands.
And they get into our country easy peasy, nothing to see here.
And then when it comes to the IGRC, I mean, Nikki, why isn't that on the terrorism list?
Iran is the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world.
But for Justin Trudeau, this is a nothing burger.
Well, like I said, the pressure that Rebel News and the Conservative Party are bringing on the Liberal government is magnificent.
You got to keep pushing for the IRGC to be put on the terror list.
And I agree.
I think the Liberal Party should be pressured to expel members of their caucus that have supported the Iranian regime and the IRGC.
And, you know, Mr. Johari, no question about it that he's done that.
He's got to be made to be held to account for his positions.
And Justin Trudeau would be giving a strong message to all Canadians, but especially Iranian Canadians and any Canadian that has come here escaping tyranny, come here for a better life to live in freedom for themselves and their family, should be clear that unless Justin Trudeau kicks out members of his caucus that are supporters of those tyrannies, he has lost all moral authority.
all moral authority to be able to claim that he represents freedom and the Canadian tradition.
And therefore, all these folks need to make sure that they do not vote for Trudeau and his liberals and they vote against him.
Even if you've never been a conservative before, this isn't about conservative versus liberal.
This is about freedom-loving versus tyranny.
This is about Canadian values versus the types of values that are abhorrent to Canadians.
And all Canadians need to stand up against this because the Liberal Party no longer represents Canada.
I believe that we need to push the Liberal Party to change its colors.
The colors of red and white, which are the same colors in Canada, the Liberal Party right now, based on how it's acting, does not deserve to have those colors represent their party.
They need to put some other colors in there, you know, maybe black and red, because it seems to be that they're representing fascist ideals more than they're representing Canadian ideals.
Those are my thoughts on the issue.
And I hope to God that rebel news will continue to pressure the liberals, will continue to bring this out to light and will continue to expose Majid Johari and people like him that are supporting the Iranian government.
And I hope that Pierre Pollier watches this.
And Pierre, please, please press the liberals to expel anyone in their caucus who has supported the Iranian regime.
I think that's the next step.
I think it's a powerful step.
I think it's an important step.
And if he takes that step, then everything, I believe, is going to start to build in Canada and that the global energy to help bring freedom to Iran is going to just take shape and it's going to help change the regime.
Because I'm telling you, these brave men and women, Mahso Amini, Nabi Dafghari, and the men and women that are being attacked and killed in the streets, they're not just fighting for their own freedom.
They're fighting for the freedom of every man, woman, and child, not just in Iran, but in every country that's being oppressed.
Not just in every country that's being oppressed, but even in our own home country of Canada and in the Free West.
They are with their bravery reminding us of what true moral courage looks like.
They're bleeding and dying for Baha'is not yet born.
They're bleeding and dying for Muslims in Iran that are not yet born.
They're bleeding and dying for Christians.
They're bleeding and dying for Hindus, for atheists.
They're bleeding and dying for every single human being who believes in freedom.
And I got to tell you, they make me so proud to be an Iranian, so, so proud because they represent the very best of us, my friend.
100%, Nikki.
And I mean, I think, you know, if we turn back the clock to 1979, certainly the Shah, he was no Boy Scout.
I grant you that.
But every Iranian I've ever met post-1979, they are suffering from buyers' remorse.
If they could reverse the calendar to 79, there would be no revolution.
But that's the thing.
Are we on the cusp potentially of another revolution?
I think usually when the tide turns for a dictatorship is when members of the police and the military stop following orders and turn their guns on the dictatorship as opposed to the people.
I'm wondering, Nikki, you left Iran many years ago, but I assume you reach out to members of the in Tehran that you know of, people who live there.
What are they saying about the situation on the ground about what could potentially happen in the days and weeks ahead?
Look, my friend, you know, folks aren't going to be speaking on a live phone call because phone calls outside the country are monitored.
Okay, so I'm just going to be straight with you about that.
So let's not put anyone in danger.
But what I will tell you this is that they're all hopeful.
They all have had enough of this government.
And honestly, they want people to have the right to just live life, live life, be able to go outside and not have to worry about having their hair uncovered, be able to go get the kind of job that they want for themselves, be able to travel freely outside of the country.
They want to have a government there that isn't so corrupt that it's stealing all of Iran's wealth for a privileged few.
And they want the bounty of Iran and its natural resources to be available to the people.
They're yearning to breathe free, my friend.
You know, what is it that wonderful kind of inscription at the Statue of Liberty in the U.S. that says, give me your poor, you're tired, you're huddled masses yearning to breathe free.
Those are the people of Iran.
And honestly, those are oppressed people everywhere.
Everywhere.
I'm surprised the antifatypes haven't toppled the statue of liberty yet, Nikki, but give them time.
Yearning To Breathe Free00:03:15
You know, the one noticeable absence at that protest, as you mentioned, Pierre Polyev was there and he addressed the crowd to rousing ovations.
But Prime Minister Trudeau, he wasn't there.
I know there was some urgent state business that day in Canada.
I can't remember if it was surfing in Tofino or going bungee jumping.
But I thought that showed an incredible measure of contempt for this regime.
And when you think of it, liberals should be all about the freedom of assembly, the freedom to protest women's rights, for goodness sake.
And this is such a misogynistic regime that you'd think it'd be a no-brainer for the prime minister to be there, but he was a no-show as usual.
We got to wrap it here, Nikki.
If there were, let's put it this way, if you had the ear of the prime minister, either the current one or the next one, presumably Pierre Polyev, and you were to advise him on what he could do tangibly to help the Iranian people right now in their moment of need, what would it be, my friend?
Well, you know, in the 80s, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, who was a conservative, led the Commonwealth and the world in putting up sanctions against the apartheid regime in South Africa, which was a bad regime, but compared to this regime, they're a bunch of boycotts, okay?
And Canada led the world against even their great ally in the United States and against their great ally in the UK.
And they led the world in taking a strong, resolute moral stand against an evil regime.
And I believe that Canada can do that again.
If Pierre Polyev becomes prime minister, he too can lead the world, can lead the Commonwealth in strong sanctions against this government and saying that Canada today will no longer tolerate this kind of behavior.
And if Iran wants to be recognized as a, you know, a full valued member of the global community, the government of Iran needs to change its policies toward its own people.
That's what Brian Mulroney did.
It was one of his most courageous and notable achievements as prime minister.
And I believe Pierre Polyev can do the same thing.
I don't hold out much hope for Justin Trudeau doing it, but if I had his ear, I'd tell him to do it.
And I believe that the next prime minister is going to be Pierre Polyev.
I believe that he will win the next election, and I believe it will be a landslide.
I don't believe there's going to be a whole lot of liberal or NDP seats left after that election.
And Mr. Polyev, please do that.
Please become the Brian Mulroney of the 2020s and help us bring the evil that is being brought about by the Iranian regime toward women to an end.
These women are the true feminists.
They are truly fighting for women's rights.
God bless them.
God bless Massa.
I mean, God bless the women of Iran.
And, Nikki, maybe that's what we should all hope for: not only regime change in Iran, but regime change in Canada.
Regime Change Aspirations00:04:18
Because, my friend, as you know, the clock is ticking.
For some reason, the Biden Democrats thought it was a good idea to rip up the nuclear sanction deal with Iran.
Iran is working as hard as it can to literally go nuclear.
That would totally destabilize the Middle East.
And maybe regime change in that neck of the woods can be brought around sooner rather than later.
Let's hope and let's pray.
Nikki, thank you so much for your time.
Greatly appreciated.
Thank you, David.
Thanks for having me on the show.
God bless you.
Keep up the good work.
Thank you.
Well, folks, lots of response regarding my monologue on yesterday's version of the Ezra LeBent show, namely that giant cricket producing farm in London, Ontario, the largest cricket factory, if you will, in the world.
Right now, they say the crickets are destined just for pet food.
I just wonder if it'll make business sense in the future to have those bugs go into human food.
If so, I'm sorry, count me out.
In any event, Kat BRBA writes, this story bugs me.
Well, I can see what you did there.
Yeah, you know, it's kind of funny.
The World Economic Forum, they're all about having us, you know, get rid of steak and potatoes and putting crickets and mealworms on our plates.
They're all about us giving up our cars.
This is what I say to Claude Schwab and the World Economic Forum.
How about a compromise?
Namely, I'll drive a Volkswagen Beetle.
Okay, so I'm still driving, and that's as far as I'm going in terms of being a consumer of bugs.
Warren Zoel writes, may Aspire go bankrupt.
You know, I got mixed thoughts about that because there's tens of millions of dollars of taxpayer money behind Aspire.
So we'd be getting, we'd be taking the haircut.
And that is the other major point I made.
Look, folks, if you want to eat bugs, if you want to be a vegan, a vegetarian, a carnivore, your body, your choice.
But if raising crickets for food is indeed a viable business proposition, why does Aspire need all this taxpayer money?
I'm sorry.
That's not how a free market economy should work.
Frogman 2 writes, I smell a rat.
I would like to know how much McGill University gets funded from Big Pharma and the WEF.
Just another woke graduate who has learned what to think, not how to think.
And why are millions of Canadian tax dollars going to this McGill grad?
Well, like I just said earlier, that is the crux of the matter, isn't it?
If this is a viable business, it should fly on its own accord.
Why do we, the taxpayers, have to prop it up?
And JD Power writes, maggot burger.
Meanwhile, someone goes friggin' bungee jumping.
How much did that cost?
Yeah, and by the way, I'd like to see these elites who keep talking about bugs as a protein source for us.
They talk about how 2 billion people around the world are eating bugs.
What they forget to mention, of course, folks, is that these people, unfortunately, are in third world nations and it's either eat bugs or eat nothing.
They failed to mention that.
And yeah, when Justin Trudeau and Claus Schwab give up their filet mignon steaks for a cricket sandwich, maybe then I'll give this a second thought.
Oh, what am I saying?
No, I'm never going to be a bug eater.
Anyways, folks, thank you so much for tuning in to this edition of the Ezra Event Show.
I believe we have a best of edition on Monday, Canadian Thanksgiving.
Ezra will be back here live on Tuesday.
In the meantime, I wish you and your friends and family have a wonderful and blessed Thanksgiving day on Monday.
And in the meantime, as always, stay sane.
Western Elites Exploit African Children00:04:46
I saw this article in LifeSight News and it absolutely turned my stomach, not just because of the content of the experiment, the article addressed, but the absolute inhumane way that Western elites treat children in the developing world.
It's a common theme with these people, though, especially with all of their green agenda ideas.
They use the developing world as guinea pigs for their experiments.
And it makes sense because the green agenda grows out of a mentality that there are just too many people on the face of the earth.
These elites, of course, don't mean that there are too many humans like themselves.
They mean, you know, those people over there with all the kids and their families and their traditional social structures and traditional diets.
There's too many of those people.
They're disposable.
Plus, they're way over there on the African continent, so we don't have to look at all their suffering we're imposing on them.
Anyway, here's the thing that I found in LifeSight that was so appalling.
Poor African kids are the subject of an experiment to determine whether regular bug consumption can improve their nutrition without consideration of potential inflammatory effects from insects.
The UK government is funding an experiment to assess the effects of eating insect-based porridge foods on the nutritional status of children in Zimbabwe, a practice being pushed by environmentalists as a sustainable diet choice.
The United Kingdom Research and Innovation Backed Project is feeding poor elementary school children mopane worms and soldier termite flour on a daily basis for a year.
The study will examine the effects of the insect supplementation on the children's height, weight, and micronutrient status, as well as their cognitive function as determined by their school performance.
The project summary notes that this is all fine and dandy because insect foods are culturally acceptable in the African region and they've been used by some Zimbabwean rural communities out of extreme necessity to avoid malnutrition during drought and poor harvest.
Now, all of this completely disregards the very real potential for problems from eating bugs.
I've previously reported on that here at Rebel News about a study published in 2019 that found parasites in 81% of insect farms that were examined.
And in 30% of those cases, the parasites were, quote, potentially pathogenic for humans.
That study called bug farms an underestimated reservoir of human and animal parasites.
So these mad scientists from the UK could be funding a study that evidence has previously shown could actually make these kids sick with a parasite.
And these kids are already potentially malnourished.
That's why they're in the study.
But why are we feeding these children bugs at all when we can give them chickens, which will eat the bugs?
It's the same reason that we eat beef because we can't. eat grass.
We eat animals who eat the things that we can't to get the nutrients that we need from them.
A study of malnourished children in Thailand from rural areas found that eating just three eggs per week can correct the problem of protein malnutrition among primary school aged students.
Another study done on children in Africa, in Uganda actually, found that just one to two eggs per day resulted in a significant increase in height and weight gain and muscle growth.
And those are just the physical attributes of eating an egg, besides the benefit of B12 on the developing brain.
But I'm not sure the world elites want the people in Africa to be strong, healthy, and thoughtful.
I think they want to use them as human meat sacks, impoverished, unthinking, weak robots and crash test dummies for their crazy theories.
For example, the elites expected Sri Lanka to go completely organic with their fertilizer use to meet climate change targets.
And you know what happened next?
Crop failures, food insecurity, and then government toppling riots.
But the people who came up with these crazy ideas, the rich global elites at the World Economic Forum and at the United Nations, you know, their troughs are always full and their snouts are always in those troughs, aren't they?
And don't get me started on the insufferable, disgusting working conditions.
If you can call slave labor a working condition, that children in the Congo have to survive to produce rare earth minerals so that Western elite fancy people can have electric cars.
Collateral Damage and Parasites00:00:49
African nations are constantly disincentivized from developing their own natural gas resources while 3.8 million people die prematurely each year on the African continent due to the effects of indoor air pollution because 2.6 billion people in poor countries still burn wood, coal, charcoal, or animal dung indoors for cooking.
These people get to cook their food over a turd while some well-kept Norwegian or Canadian or Brit pats themselves on the back while reaping the benefits of fossil fuels for themselves.
Africans, poor people, are just collateral damage in the first world's quest for a carbon neutral future.
And if a few kids die of cricket parasites along the way, well, that's just the price of going green.