Ezra Levant exposes the Halton District School Board’s handling of shop teacher Ezra Lemieux, whose drag-style attire and fake breasts sparked bomb threats and safety violations—like ignoring student vaping—while the board bans critics. Parents demand transparency after a $4,000 FOI fee blocks records, as tax hikes (CPP, EI, carbon) strain families amid government excess: $6K hotel rooms for Queen’s funeral, $8K for a sex toy show, and $51M CBC bonuses. Meanwhile, an Irish teacher jailed for refusing gender-neutral pronouns mirrors historical free-speech crackdowns, while U.S.-Mexico border footage reveals illegal crossings despite Title 42, calling for accountability in education, governance, and media. [Automatically generated summary]
Tonight, what's the latest regarding shop teacher Busty Lemieux?
Well, we've got the scoop and talk about the nightmare before Christmas.
It's Tuesday, December 20th, 2022.
I'm David Menzies, and this is the Ezra Levant Show.
Shame on you, you censorious fubug.
Although the woke joke Halton District School Board would prefer that the busty Lemieux saga would simply go away, alas and alack, this wail of a tale regarding that shop teacher with the enormous fake breasts is still garnering attention the world over.
Indeed, this sordid saga has been covered by international media ranging from Fox News in the U.S. to the Daily Mail in the UK.
And little wonder, because at the end of the day, the HDSB's commitment to wokeness has made this school board an international laughingstock.
And yet, even at this late date, the HDSB refuses to do the right thing.
Like for starters telling Mr. Lemieux that if he insists on dressing like, you know, a drag queen, could he kindly dress appropriately?
Like, can he find a blouse that doesn't get penetrated by those enormous fake nipples which are attached to those enormous fake Zed-cup breasts?
Is that too much of an ask?
Well, apparently, yeah, yes, it is, at least according to the HDSB.
As well, why won't the HDSB launch an investigation regarding whether Mr. Lemieux is a prankster or maybe even a pervert?
Everybody knows that this is not a genuine male-to-female transition.
Trans people want to blend in with those of the other sex, not put themselves on display as if they were gross caricatures of the other sex.
But to even ask questions regarding Lemieux's motive is what?
An act of transphobia, at least in the view of the HDSB?
Indeed, it appears as though the HDSB thinks the real solution to this sordid saga is to shoot the messenger.
Oh yeah, case in point, I was recently sent a letter by the HDSB.
It states that I have been banned for life from attending its headquarters, as well as any HDSB properties or schools in Halton region.
My crime?
Well, asking insensitive questions.
Now imagine that.
Suspended for life for wrong thought.
You know, I'm having a flashback to 1987 when WWF Commissioner Jack Tunney did precisely that to wrestling referee Danny Davis.
Davis is suspended for life!
Oh, my goodness!
How about that?
A standing ovation for that announcement!
Danny Davis has been suspended for life.
Yeah, really?
How can anyone do that?
But the only thing different here is that referee Danny Davis was a corrupt referee, whereas reporter David Menzies is just a journalist asking a few tough questions, questions that the HDSB educats don't want to hear.
And it's not just me that the HDSB is trying to muzzle and censor.
Students were recently warned not to take pictures or videos of Lemieux, and if they did so, they would face suspension.
Yeah.
Thankfully, this threat hasn't stopped some brave students from recording Busty Lemieux and his shenanigans.
And one video that was recently shot is most interesting indeed.
It appears to show a student vaping in class.
That's a no-no, right?
But look at this video.
The kid is vaping away right next to Busty Lemieux, and Lemieux is doing nothing to lay down the law.
Then again, we've heard his classes are disasters these days.
None of the students respect this wannabe drag queen.
The kids aren't learning anything, and they're all doing their own thing, as that vaping video clearly demonstrates.
And really, can you blame them?
By the way, when it comes to the rules, forget about the Ministry of Education.
Where in blue hell is the Ministry of Labor?
Busty Lemieux continues to violate every workshop etiquette rule in the book.
Long-sleeve shirts, jewelry, no hairnet, and so on and so forth.
But apparently it's no harm, no foul.
Why?
Oh, yeah, I almost forgot.
Lemieux is allegedly a trans individual, and we should all know by now, trans people don't have equal rights.
They have extra special rights.
Excuse me, ma'am.
No porn at the bar.
Oh, it's okay.
I'm transgender.
Oh, I had no idea.
Do whatever you want all the time.
As well, it should be noted that the HDSB is now reassigning Busty Lemieux to other schools in the district.
While he started the school year at Oakville Trafalgar High School back in September, he was recently dispatched to Dr. Frank J. Hayden Secondary School in Burlington.
Now, check out this little video that shows Busty Lemieux hobbling along a school hallway with the help of crutches while wearing a boot cast on his right foot.
Now, why is the HDSB playing whack-a-mole with the Busty One?
Is it to take the heat off Oakville Trafalgar High School?
You see, folks, in the last several weeks, this school has been the frequent target of numerous bomb threats, all of which were proven to be thankfully bogus.
Alas, I suspect it is only a matter of time before Dr. Frank J. Hayden Secondary School receives phoned-in bomb threats, too.
As well, one wonders how Lemieux presumably hurt his foot.
Could it have been from a skydiving mishap?
After all, in late October, Lemieux went parachuting with an individual named Voodoo.
Now, Voodoo is self-described as, quote, the conservative porn star skydiver, end quote.
No, we're not making this up, folks.
Trust us.
And check out these ludicrous pics.
But wait a minute, I thought there was a photo ban regarding this publicity prostitute.
So do you get the feeling, folks, that Busty Lemieux never even asked for such a photo ban, but this was self-generated by the HDSB?
You know, to make this story go away.
Another development in recent weeks was that the HDSB took delivery of a staff report which looked at the possibility of implementing a dress code for its teachers.
The answer, well, staff said it's impossible to do so due to potential liability.
But does that make any sense, folks?
There is a dress code for students.
There's even, if you can believe it, a Halloween costume dress code.
In fact, this recommendation against a dress code for staffers is absolute rubbish, according to respected labor lawyers Howard Levitt and Peter Kerry.
Writing in the Financial Post recently, Levitt and Kerry stated the following, quote, even in a unionized environment, an employer always has the right to ensure that employees are appropriately attired.
By appropriately, we mean in a fashion appropriate to the position and which does not alienate customers, other employees, and others with whom they deal.
Why then is the Halton District School Board allowing this garish, sexualized, hyperbolic, provocative, in short, completely inappropriate attire?
One has to conjure that they are a victim of wokeness because the teacher in question has self-identified as transgendered.
They are terrified to take appropriate action.
If any of us went to work in costume or barefoot and generally unkempt, we would reasonably expect to be sent home, if not fired.
If we argued that we did so as a presentation of a particular identity or even gender identity, it would be no different as that is not a defense, contrary to what Halton would have you believe.
Let's be clear.
The Halton District School Board has the legal ability to insist that their teachers wear appropriate attire to school.
They should do that in the present case.
Not to do so actually creates a precedent and legally opens the door for further abuses.
The Halton District School Board is failing its students and its teachers in not dealing with such outrageous conduct, end quote.
But apparently the HDSB Educrats know better than Canada's top labor lawyers.
Oh, they're so smart, those Halton Educrats.
And while wokeness is driving the agenda, it is only up until a certain point, oh, sure, the HDSB Educrats, they're all down with that radical transgender revolution, but only when students have to put up with such a freak show.
Because when it comes to the HDSB Educrats, when someone comes to their doorstep dressed in an identical fashion to Bussy Lemieux, well, that's a little too, you know, vulgar for them.
Hdsb Educrats And The Transphobic Freak Show00:14:30
And so it is that the HDSB trustees and staff literally, and I mean literally, run away, check it out.
Who is going to take this petition?
And who is going to answer this lady's questions?
Dr. Shuttleworth?
I don't know.
I think they're obviously transphobic.
They can't handle a birthing person like me asking them questions.
I'm getting so nervous my uterus is about to fall out.
Let me tell you.
Oh, shame!
I don't know!
Shame!
Shame!
What?
Shame!
Why is he shopping in other classes?
Why is he not restricted to only the shoproom while we deal with this situation?
Why is he seving a grade 10 math and gray 10 sites with 15 year olds?
They're 15!
They're 15!
Cowards!
The school has ignored the body!
Look at you running away!
Running away!
Why don't you answer?
You're the adults the children depend on!
Really?
This is a sad world we live in!
Yep.
See how they run.
Yeah, while the HDSB continues to come across as a laughingstock the world over, here's something that isn't so funny.
What if Lemieux is indeed a sexual pervert?
What if he suffers from autogenophilia, which is defined as a male's propensity to be sexually aroused by the thought of himself as a female?
While there is much speculation online that Lemieux is pranking the school board because he is allegedly anti-woke, I gotta be honest, folks, I'm not so sure about that anymore.
Check out this photo that dates back before the current school year when Lemieux started going to class as a drag queen.
This pic was snapped at a Burlington theater that was hosting a dance recital for little girls.
The event was private.
It was not open to the public.
Yet Lemieu allegedly snuck in during intermission and plopped himself in a front row seat.
Allegedly, he was in a state of arousal as he watched the little dancers.
And how disturbing is that?
Unsurprisingly, many parents began talking amongst themselves, asking, who is this parent?
And given Lemieux did not have a daughter at this recital, well, he was eventually asked to leave and he did so.
But how creepy, how gross is this?
That a mature single male dresses up as a caricature of a female and then sneaks into a private venue to watch little girls dance and is apparently getting turned on by this?
Are you kidding me?
So, no, I don't believe that pranking the board is Lemieux's unspoken strategy.
I think he's a pervert.
Yet we live in a woke climate where perversion is merely an expression of diversity and where one of the mantras espoused by the progressives is: if it's trans, it's good, and if it's good, it's trans.
And that means the HDSB, strangled by its own political correctness boa constrictor, is powerless to take a stand for common decency.
Shameful.
By the way, I did reach out to trustee Dr. Margot Shuttleworth.
She's the one who's always banging her gavel, telling me I'm out of order with my questions.
Well, at least during the days in which I was allowed to go to the HDSB meetings as opposed to being threatened for arrest for trespassing.
That's the current situation.
Here's how our conversation went.
Margot Shuttleworth speaking.
Yes, hi, Dr. Shuttleworth.
Just curious, why isn't the HDSB investigating Lemieux for sexual perversity?
That perhaps he suffers from autogenophilia.
Hi there.
Can I get your name, please?
Yes, it's David Menzie speaking, as you know.
Hi, David.
How are you?
Very good.
Oh, okay, then.
Yeah, so, I mean, we've been sent photos of him going to a dance recital involving little girls, closed to the public.
He snuck in at intermission, evidently, in his costume.
And this has got many people wondering why the HDSB hasn't even investigated if this is either perversity or perhaps he's pranking the school board.
Have these questions been addressed, Dr. Shuttleworth?
So, Mr. Menzies, I'm not sure as to what it is you're asking me.
There are certain things I can't disclose due to confidentiality issues around staffing.
However, there are investigations undergoing and we are always asking questions of the staff at the board.
No, no, but the question is, you are taking it, it would seem, on face value that this is a genuine male-to-female transition.
But if you look at people in the transgender community, they tend to blend in with the opposite sex.
They're not, you know, becoming a grotesque caricature of a female.
They're not wearing drag queen regalia.
And so the question arises, why won't you investigate if this is someone who is suffering from a sexual perversion and he's in front of minors?
So again, as I said, Mr. Menzie, and I know you're quite aware of privacy issues as far as around members of staff of our board.
I'm answering you as much as I can, but just know that all the information that we're getting, we are using to find ways forward.
Well, we have filed an FOI request, and your board wants $4,000 almost in order to hand over the information regarding the files on Lemieux.
I have no idea why the cost would be that much.
These are all digital files.
It's not like someone's going down into a library.
So again, Mr. Menzies, that sort of thing is out of my purview.
That's something that you're discussing with staff.
I don't know what's happened as far as that's concerned.
But again, I think with those sort of questions, you might want to get in touch with Heather Francie at the board.
She'll be the one who'll be able to give you more information regarding those issues.
Oh, she never, that's your director of communications who never communicates, I'm afraid.
It's impossible to get a hold of Miss Francie.
And as you know, for some reason, I guess asking impolite questions, I am banned from Halton District School Board property, your headquarters, your schools with the threat of a trespass charge.
Is this all about shutting down media that ask, oh, I don't know, impolite questions of this person?
So, no, I don't think that's the case at all.
I do know that there was concerns as to your intent.
So anything that we have done has been completely above board.
And again, as I said, I'm happy to continue using the information that I have to find ways forward.
That's all I can really tell you right now, Mr. Menzie.
I'm sorry.
So in other words, the Halton District School Board is all down with radical transgenderism as long as it's in front of the kids in class.
But when it's brought to your boardroom, you're not so down with radical transgenderism, are you?
You're now making inferences into what I am thinking, which is untrue and unfounded.
So, you know, I would really appreciate that if you're going to make statements that they're based on fact rather than your suppositions.
Well, what else can it be?
I mean, you seem to be offended by the idea of these giant Z cup fake breasts at your boardroom, but you have no problem with them at the school.
You have no problem with Lemieux violating every shop etiquette rule in the book, jewelry, long sleeves, long hair.
You have no problem, it would seem, with a student vaping in his class, of which we have photographic evidence.
Is it one standard for regular people and another standard for transgendered so-called people?
Again, sir, so you currently are making assumptions, so not knowing what is actually happening.
So as I said, if you want to research the fact that you're looking at, then maybe you can find the correct answers to them.
How is that an assumption if we have photographic evidence of a child in violation of the Smoke-Free Ontario Act?
Right, so but you're saying that there are no investigations and they're true there are.
So oh, there is.
Okay, so who's going to be prosecuted here?
Is it the child smoking or is it the teacher that allowed it to happen right beside him?
So you know what, sir?
Again, you're now getting into that personal information that I'm unable to disclose to you right now.
I can just tell you that there are investigations that are being looked into.
How is this person?
It's a matter of public record right now.
It's, I mean, this, this Oakville Trafalgar High School and this school board that you are a member of, you've become a laughingstock the world over.
You know, you know what, Mr. Mincy, I'm really, really sorry, but I'm actually in the middle of a meeting right now.
So if you want to connect at some later time, I might have more time for you, but right now I have to let you go.
Okay, I'm used to that treatment from your school board.
And I guess I'm banned for life.
Is that it?
In terms of attending board meetings?
Because I don't want to get arrested, you see.
Right, yeah.
So again, I would check that as far as documentation is concerned.
Have a great rest of your day.
As I said, if you want to organize a time to speak, we can set that up in the future.
Oh, yeah.
Oh, sorry.
I thought you had disconnected the call.
Yeah, no.
I don't do that, sir.
Okay, then.
No, I appreciate your time then.
Thank you very much.
All right.
Have a great rest of your day.
Bye-bye.
Yeah, folks, I know Dr. Shuttleworth thinks of herself as the Khaleesi of the HDSB, but it might come as a shock to her that she does not outrank the Minister of Education, Stephen Lecce.
And yesterday, Minister Lecce said that the HDSB has not upheld expected professionalism standards in dealing with Mr. Lemieux.
In an iPolitics story, Lecce states the following, quote, I do continue to believe that the Halton District School Board, which is the employer, has an obligation to ensure that these classrooms are safe and respectful places to work.
Teachers need to uphold, as I've noted, the highest professional standards when they're in front of children.
And so I do not believe the Board of Administration has done so to date.
Many families and communities have expressed concern with the management of this issue.
And so we reaffirm our expectation with the school boards as employers that they act in the interest of children and they listen to the voices of families of the kids themselves at various schools and parents who want their kids to go to school focused on learning and not have to deal with threats of violence, lockdowns, or incidents that are very distracting in any school environment.
End quote.
Are you listening, Dr. Shuttleworth?
Someone who I've been told allegedly identifies as being a horse-toothed jackass?
And how about you, HDSB Director of Education, Curtis Innis Hee, him?
Are you listening, Mr. He, him?
Again, to repeat the reminder issued via Minister Lecce yesterday, you are supposed to act in the interest of children and families.
Capisch?
By the way, when it comes to families, these are also people who identify as taxpayers.
In other words, the people who pay your salaries.
A publicly funded school board is not some private club dedicated to nonsensical wokeness.
And you entitled Educrats are not supposed to be the champion of a man who just might very well be a sexual pervert.
And you're doing all this entirely because of ideology that resembles, oh, I don't know, Marxism.
It's so far left.
In the days ahead, we will see if the HDSB even gives Minister Lecce the courtesy of a response.
Or, hey, maybe they'll call the cops on Lecce.
I mean, we all know how sensitive these school board geniuses are when it comes to criticism.
But as always, hope abounds.
For starters, we are crowdfunding the $4,000 fee the HDSB is demanding we pay in order to fulfill our freedom of information requests.
We want to see all the files pertaining to Lemieux.
We want to see what the HDSB is hiding from parents.
If you'd like to chip in to help us out, please go to protectthestudents.ca.
As well, in response to the circus sideshow that is the Busty Lemieux fiasco, a group of parents in Halton have formed an organization called Students First Ontario.
This group has a four-pronged mission statement.
Number one, students' interests must come first.
Two, parents' voices matter.
Three, teachers must act and dress professionally.
And four, a commitment to open inquiry, transparency, and accountability in education.
Tax Hikes and Government Spending00:15:25
Yeah, I know.
What a bunch of radicals, right?
Anyway, I did speak with the organizer, Selena Close, and she told me that there are now some 300 parents who are part of this group.
As well, the organization has retained a lawyer.
So if the HDSB wants to play hardball and they want to go all in when it comes to protecting someone who might very well be a sexual pervert, then so be it.
The HDSB in the months ahead can tell it to the judge.
It looks like finally Mama Bear has woken up.
And you want to know something?
She is mightily pissed off.
Folks, are you feeling a little overwhelmed and for that matter, a little overtaxed these days?
Well, it's for good reason.
After all, according to the Fraser Institute, did you know that when you add up income taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, and all the other taxes, the average Canadian family pays 43% of its budget to taxes.
43%.
And this probably won't shock you either.
There are more tax increases coming our way in 2023, such as payroll taxes, such as the mandatory Canada pension plan and employment insurance payments.
As well, there will be a carbon tax hike because you know we have to do our part to save the planet.
Oh, and if you're thinking about going into a drunken stupor to forget about all of this taxation, I hate to break it to you folks, but liquor taxes, they're heading up next year too.
Unbelievable.
Talk about death by a thousand cuts.
And joining me now with more on the fiscal misery that will be heading our way in the days ahead is Franco Terrazano, the federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, which has just released a report entitled 2023 New Year's Tax Changes.
Hey there, Franco.
Welcome to the Ezra Levant Show.
Thanks for having me on.
It's always a pleasure, my friend.
Okay, so we have all sorts of taxes going up in the new year, and it's a safe bet that inflation will continue in 2023.
And of course, we can expect more interest rates to occur.
Franco, given all of this dire economic news, shouldn't the federal government be cutting taxes as opposed to amping them up?
Well, you would think so, but you'd be wrong because in 2023, the Trudeau government is giving us the gift of five, five federal tax hikes, okay?
CPP tax, up.
EI tax, up.
The carbon tax, up.
Alcohol taxes, you guessed it, up.
And the government is also imposing a second carbon tax through fuel regulations in 2023.
So more pain coming to Canadians from our federal government.
And you know, Franco, given the economy that we're in, as I mentioned, inflation, every time I go to the grocery store, I pick up a basket of groceries.
I go, that's about 50 bucks and it's $119 when I check it out.
Given the interest rates, there's still more hikes to come.
I'm absolutely sure about that.
Even if these tax increases were for things of merit, couldn't the government back away saying, we believe in, say, a carbon tax, we believe in, you know, our war on pollution, as they call it, but now is not the right time because of all of this, you know, economic misery going around.
I mean, Franco, I met a person the other day, fully employed in Toronto.
He went to the food bank for the first time last week to help him make ends meet.
Why can't they lay off on the accelerator and give common Canadians a break?
Well, it should have been a no-brainer, a no-brainer.
And I can't believe we have to say this out loud with our mouth, but it should have been a no-brainer for the federal government at the very least when governments were locking down businesses, when people were losing their job, when people were taking pay cuts, when small businesses were worried that their savings wouldn't keep the lights on.
It should have been a no-brainer for the federal government to, at the very least, not raise taxes.
But we have seen taxes since the beginning of COVID-19 or tax hikes.
We have seen tax hikes as inflation has run rampant.
And this year, let's look at the payroll tax hikes that's going to be happening in 2023.
Let's talk about the war on work.
Okay, so in 2023, if you're making $67,000 or more, you're going to be paying an extra about $300 through the CPP and EI tax increases.
Okay, an extra $300, that means a lot to people.
Like that's going to be a lot of pain.
But even that increase downplays the actual pain from those two payroll taxes.
In 2023, if you're making $67,000 or more in total, you're going to be paying about $4,700 to the government through payroll taxes, while your employer will have to cough up an extra $5,100 to the government through those payroll taxes.
And David, we're not talking about fat cats here.
We're talking about people making $67,000 or more.
That's a ton of pain.
Oh, no, you're absolutely right about that, Franco.
And, you know, I hearken back to the late, great mayor of Toronto, Rob Ford.
I thought he had one of the best election slogans of all time, for that matter, namely respect for taxpayers.
And what he meant, Franco, is that it wasn't a revenue problem that governments have.
It's a spending problem.
In other words, they're spending our tax dollars on so many crazy things.
I mean, Justin Trudeau's been flying around the world recently, giving hundreds of millions of dollars to whatever cause he finds worthy.
Why?
Why is the federal government funding the mainstream media to the tune of more than $600 million a year?
And of course, Twas ever thus more than a billion a year for the CBC.
I mean, surely this is where the government can make cuts so that they are beholden to the stakeholders, i.e. you and I and all our viewers, the taxpayers of this nation.
Oh, let's talk about all the waste, okay?
Let's get even further.
I mean, this is just really the tip of the iceberg of the waste, but this will boil your blood.
Are you ready for it?
Okay, here we go.
So someone in the government, who was it?
The governor general says it wasn't her.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau won't say who it was.
Someone in the government billed taxpayers $6,000 a night for a single hotel room during the Queen's funeral, $6,000 per night.
Okay.
Now, let's talk about the Governor General.
Herner Entourage spent nearly six figures on fancy airplane food during a week-long trip to the Middle East.
Six figures, nearly six figures.
They enjoyed Beef Wellington.
They enjoyed beef carpaccio.
They enjoyed pork-stuffed tenderloin.
What value did taxpayers get?
The entire trip ended up costing more than a million dollars.
One week, more than $1 million.
The list goes on and on and on.
The federal government spent $8,000 on a sex toy show in Germany.
Yeah, you heard that right.
And David, you know, maybe I'm a little old-fashioned, but if the Germans want to have their own sex toy extravaganzas, let them pay for it themselves.
Okay.
And that's the little things.
But the government is also getting the big things wrong.
The federal government gave 300,000 federal government employees a pay raise during the pandemic while their neighbors in the private sector were losing their job while they were losing their business.
And then there's so many different examples of corporate welfare, right?
The hundreds and millions of dollars given to the Ford Motor Company or Bombardier, right?
That's not helping Canadians.
That's just corporate welfare.
So you're absolutely right.
The fact is that the government wastes so much money and Canadians are paying too much tax because the government wastes too much money.
You know, it's outrageous.
And, you know, and we should touch upon the double standard here, Franco.
In the beginning of your answer, you were talking about all the money that the government was spending on flights, on meals, on hotel rooms.
And believe me, they weren't staying at the Motel 6.
That's quite evident when you're paying those kind of rates.
And yet I think back to yesterday, poor Miss Bev Oda, she lost her political career over a $16 glass of orange juice.
That was front page news.
But all of these latest egregious spending sprees, this government seems to be made of Teflon.
They seem to get a pass.
Or maybe that's directly related, Franco, to the fact that they're propping up the mainstream media with our tax dollars.
So you kind of go easy when it comes to blowing the whistle on your sugar daddy, I guess.
Well, let's talk about the CBC for a second, right?
More than a billion dollars every single year from the taxpayer.
But you want to hear what really boils my blood in some recent findings.
The CBC handed out $51 million in bonuses and pay raises during the pandemic.
$51 million in bonuses and raises during the pandemic.
The fiscal update is giving the CBC an extra $42 million to cope with the pandemic.
What do you mean, cope with the pandemic?
They just had enough money lying around to hand out $51 million in bonuses and raises.
But the gravy train doesn't stop there when it comes to crown corporations in Ottawa.
Let's talk about the Bank of Canada.
They have one job, one job, keep inflation low, around 2%.
They completely failed to do their job.
So what did the Bank of Canada do during the pandemic?
They handed out $45 million in bonuses and raises.
Isn't that something?
Isn't that a way to hold your organization accountable that when you fail, when you increase prices of gasoline and ground beef on Canadians, you go out and you give $45 million worth of bonuses and raises.
So Franco, what you're saying when it comes to the federal government and federal institutions, you fail upwards here.
You get things wrong.
You make a mockery of the policy and you're still going to get a bonus.
This is incredible to me to begin with.
Why is there such a culture of entitlement, Franco?
It used to be you made a sacrifice.
I'm talking many decades ago, of course, when you went into public service, you were doing just that.
You were giving a service to the public.
You weren't going to get double-digit wage increases and a gold-plated pension.
You're making a sacrifice for your province or for your country.
It's not that anymore, is it?
Because it looks like from what you're saying, even when you're incompetent in the job, you're going to keep it.
And what's more, you're going to get a raise and a bonus.
Well, it certainly feels, at least, that public servants are really public servants in name only, right?
Doesn't it feel like it's really us working for them sometimes, especially what happened during pandemics and lockdowns, right?
The tale of two downturns during the pandemic, where people in the private sector absolutely took it on the chin, lost their job, took pay cuts, maybe even lost their business, while people behind the golden government gates benefited financially.
Politicians, three pay raises during the pandemic.
We talk about the bonuses, the pay raises for CBC, for the Bank of Canada.
There's other Crown corporations that were giving themselves bonuses and pay raises as well.
The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, tens of millions of dollars, bonuses, pay raises, when people couldn't afford to buy homes.
The Destination Canada, the Crown Corporation that's tasked with marketing Canada's tourism industry, were giving themselves bonuses and raises while people weren't allowed to come to Canada.
I mean, there's a reason people are frustrated.
People have every right to be frustrated.
And now 2023, the year of the tax hike, we're losing more money because of CPP tax, EI tax, carbon tax, second carbon tax.
And if all that drives you to drink, well, too bad, because the Trudeau government's taking more money from your pocket there as well.
Every time you go get that bottle of wine, that case of Keith's, or every time you just want to get some rum to enjoy with your Coke, the government is taking more money from you there as well.
It's absolutely incredible.
And what you say is so true.
I mean, what we've seen the last two years, Franco, I think that the phrase, we're all in this together, that has superseded the check is in the mail as the greatest lie uttered in the history of mankind.
Last question, I guess, Franco, I'm personally a fan of tax cuts, reduced taxation, because if I have a little more green in my jeans, so to speak, maybe what I'm going to do is buy that big appliance or, you know, go to the local tailors and buy that new suit that I've had my eye on.
One thing I won't be doing with that money is sending a check off to Berlin for some German sex toy show.
I can guarantee you that.
So I think it's win-win.
I'm going to do better.
The local merchants are going to do better.
What say you, my friend?
Cut taxes now.
Stop wasting so much money.
Start cutting taxes.
And the government could do it if it wasn't just spending money like crazy.
Let me give you an example, okay?
Back in April, Finance Minister Christia Freeland said she would spend $452 billion in this year's budget.
Fast forward to the mid-year budget update, seven months later.
And now Freeland says she's going to spend $472 billion.
Did you catch that?
In seven months, somehow Freeland is on track to spend $20 billion over budget, $20 billion over her big spending budget.
Now, let me put that into perspective for you.
If Freeland just kept to her own spending in her own budget, there'd be enough money left over to cut the sales tax from 5% to 3% and still lower the deficit.
But Franco, didn't you hear?
Freeland is keeping an eye on her own budget.
I think she canceled her Disney Plus subscription.
I guess that's part and parcel of how the budget will balance itself, I imagine.
Oh, well, Franco, regardless of the misery that awaits in the new year, I do want to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
You're doing great work there.
And thank you for being that watchdog in Ottawa that we so desperately need when it comes to out-of-control spending.
Thank you so much, Franco.
Thanks for having me on.
You got it.
And that was Franco Terrazano, the director of the Canadian Taxpayer Federation.
Compelled Speech Behind Bars00:03:07
Folks, keep it here.
More of the Ezra LeVant Show to come right after this.
Well, folks, tons of feedback about my monologue on Friday's Ezra LeVant Show.
I discussed the issue of that Irish teacher, a teacher who is behind bars right now.
How did his trouble start?
Well, it goes back to his school.
There was a student transitioning, and this teacher refused to refer to him as they instead of him.
And eventually, well, he's now behind bars.
Unbelievable.
Any event, lots of mail to get to on this.
Discus Miniscus writes, this isn't about respecting someone's hurt feelings.
It's about power.
You are absolutely right, my friend.
And you know, the funny thing about power, when strong men and strong women are empowered, they don't act as bullies.
You know who acts as the bullies, folks?
It's the weak men and women that are given power.
Those people are the problem.
Conscious conservatives writes, this is beyond chilling.
What Jordan Peterson predicted on the steps of U of T four years ago has become reality.
No, you're absolutely right.
And I think it was more than four years ago.
I think it was around 2016, if memory serves.
But Jordan Peterson was taking a stand against compelled speech.
And when you think of it, folks, I think compelled speech might even be worse than censorship.
I mean, censorship, you are prevented from reading or seeing a certain thing.
Compelled speech is you will say this or else.
And in some cases, the or else means going to prison.
Unbelievable.
James Cagney writes, Franz Jagislater was a brave man from Austria who simply needed to swear an oath to Hitler.
But he would not because loyalty to that regime would be to deny objective truth of the sacredness of humanity.
He was jailed and finally executed for this act.
He was an ordinary farmer.
This Irishman is another ordinary man who is standing up for objective truth.
Why not just say them for he or she so easy?
Or is it?
The Irish, however, do have a weapon, the hunger strike.
Nothing scares authorities in Ireland more than this.
It is unfortunate, but may be necessary.
Well, I don't know if Mr. Burke is going to go on a hunger strike.
What I would like to see is that the rest of us, and I am talking 99.9999% of the planet that don't really believe in this gender identity and pronoun nonsense.
Why don't we just stand up?
Border Gaps and Immigrants00:04:02
Why don't we just collectively say the emperor has no clothes?
Or is that too a thought crime in certain circles these days?
Absolutely unbelievable.
Well, folks, that wraps up the Ezra Levant show.
Thank you so much for joining me.
The big boss man will be back in this chair tomorrow.
In the meantime, as always, stay safe and stay sane.
Hey, you need to get back, man.
This is a fact.
Please.
Try it properly.
Hey, guys.
Katie Davis Court here for Robble News.
I'm in El Paso at the U.S. Southern Border Wall, and I'm going to show you guys how easy it is to illegally enter into the United States.
The borders, well, they are wide open.
But before I get started, head on over to rebelborderreports.com.
We rely on crowdfunding as it is the only way to deliver you guys the truth and keep our independent journalism going.
So rebelborderreports.com, where you can help offset our travel costs here in El Paso.
But here we are in El Paso at the U.S. southern border.
It's wide open.
And let's take a look.
We have the border wall behind us with the Rio Grande River in between and then a fencing that is wide open.
But let me show you something.
If you look over here at the border wall, there is a grate that has been removed and the legal immigrants are easily coming through that grate.
It's not secured, but they actually don't even have to go down and cross the Rio Grande River.
They can come along the wall right here and enter through this hole in this fence and boom, you are in the United States.
And that is what we saw earlier today when we drove along the freeway.
We saw a group of children standing alongside the highway who just illegally entered this way into the United States.
So take a look at that footage.
Hey, we need to get back, man.
We need to step back.
Private property.
We have been here for about two days traveling along the highway and we see illegal immigrants waiting,
waiting on the side of the border to illegally enter into the United States.
And earlier today, when we got here, we saw a group of illegal immigrant children on the highway who just entered through here.
So the borders, they are wide open.
Something needs to be done about this.
This is an invasion.
Even if Title 42 is halted, it's not going to make much of a difference because the invasion is happening, even with it being in place.
I'm Katie Davis Gart for Rebel News.
If you enjoyed our coverage, please go to rebelborderreports.com where you can help offset our travel costs here in El Paso.
This is the biggest story in America right now and it is not being reported on as it should be.
So we're here to deliver you guys the truth and you can help us at rebelborderreports.com.
Thank you guys.
Oh and look right here.
Look right here.
We got a group of illegal immigrants with their children.